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the prophecies; and I found that no where do they despair of being restored to Jerusalem; no where do they despair of beholding their Messiah. It is with great satisfaction, then, that on my return to England, I contemplate the establishment of your Society. It is, indeed, with much surprise I behold three hundred gentlemen assembled on the present occasion, under the patronage of noblemen of our country, to promote this noble design. The sudden elevation of your Institution, and the interest which it has almost instantaneously created in the public mind, are sure prognostics of its perpetuity.-It is one of those institutions which, like the Bible Society, need only to be proposed, to recommend itself to the minds of men, by its perfect reasonableness and propriety; and, I may add, by the divine obligation it involves. I entertain a confident hope that this Society, or some institution analagous to it, will be perpetual in the Church of Christ, and that it will endure, to use an oriental expression, as long as sun and moon endure; or at least, as long as there is a Jew in the world who is not a Christian.

There is a measure I would propose to the consideration of your Society, which I think will contribute to its celebrity and success. I would suggest to you to open a correspond. ence with the Jews in the East.

Perhaps it may not be known to some, that by the events of the late war in India, a colony of Jews have become subject to Great-Britain. This is the colony of the white and

black Jews of Cochin. The number is calculated to be about 16,000. Mr. Frey informs me that the number of Jews in the United Kingdom is not reputed to be greater than 14,000. So that our Jewish subjects in the East are yet more nume rous than those in the West; and they are equally entitled to the regard and attention of your Society.

I visited Cochin soon after the conquest of the province. The Jews received me hospitably, and permitted me to examine their Libraries and their Synagogues; and they presented to me many valuable manuscripts, which are now deposited in the library of the University of Cambridge. One of these is a Roll of the Pentateuch, on goat skins, dyed red; one of the most ancient, perhaps, which the East can produce. The white Jews live on the sea coast, and have commerce with foreign nations: the black Jews live chiefly in the interior of the country. The Hindoos call them Israeli they call themselves Beni-Israel, and not Jews: for their ancestors did not belong to Judah, but to the kingdom of Israel. They consider themselves to be descended from those Tribes who were carried away at the first captivity. VOL. IV.-No. VI.

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In some parts of the East, the Beni-Israel never heard of the second Temple. They never heard of the Christian account of the coming of the Messiah. Some of them possess only the Pentateuch, and Psalms, and Book of Job. Others have no portion of Scripture left. But their countenance, and their observance of the Sabbath, and of peculiar rites, demonstrate that they are Jews. The white Jews at Cochin despise the black Jews, as being of an inferior cast, and do not approve of intermarriages with them, because they do not belong to the Second Temple. Both among white and black Jews, I found that there was a general impression that there would soon be a rumour of wars, and a commotion among the people, on their account. The white Jews expect a second Cyrus from the West, who shall build their Temple the third and last time.

You may address the Jews of Cochin with great advantage on the subject of the Christian religion, for they have the evidence of the Syrian Christians before them. These ancient Christians live in the vicinity, and are your witnesses. At one place, in the interior of the country, which I visited, there is a Jewish Synagogue and a Christian Church in the same Hindoo village. They stand opposite to each other; as it were the Law and the Gospel; bearing testimony to the truth, in the presence of the heathen world.

I was informed, that many years ago one of the Jews translated the New Testament into Hebrew, for the purpose of confuting it, and of repelling the arguments of his neighbours, the Syrian Christians. This manuscript fell into my hands, and is now in the library of the University of Cambridge. It is in his own hand-writing, with the first interfineations and erasures; and will be of great use in preparing a version of the New Testament in the Hebrew lan guage. It appears to be a faithful translation, as far as it has been examined; but about the end, when he came to the Epistles of St. Paul, he seems to have lost his temper, being moved perhaps by the acute argument of the learned Benjamite, as he calls the Apostle, and he has written here and there a note of execration on his memory. But behold the providence of God! The translator became himself a convert to Christianity. His own works subdued his unbelief. In the lion he found sweetness; and he lived and died in the faith of Christ. And now it is a common superstition among the vulgar in that place, that if any Jew shall write the whole of the New Testament with his own hand, he will become a Christian, by the influence of the evil spirit.

This event occurred in the South of India; but a conver

sion no less remarkable took place, some time afterwards, in the North. Jacob Levi, a Jew from Smyrna, travelled over land to Calcutta, and heard the Gospel from one of the Lu theran Preachers belonging to the Society for promoting Christian knowledge, and became a convert to the truth. He delivered a testimony to the Jews, Hindoos, Mahometans, and Christians; for he was acquainted with various languages, and spoke eloquently, like Apollos. But his course was short. He was ordained like many witnesses of the Christian faith, to shine but for a moment. These solitary instances of the power of the Gospel seem to occur, in almost every nation, previous to the general illumination. This conversion of Jacob Levi is recorded in the Proceedings of the Society in Bartlett's Buildings, London,

But there is another body of Jews, not a colony, but a kingdom of Jews, to which this Society may also address itself; and that is, the ten Tribes. For the ten Tribes, so long lost, have at length been found. It has been sufficiently ascertained, by the investigations of the learned in India, that the Affghan and Pyran nations consist of the descendants of the Jewish Tribes of the first description.

When I was in the south of India, I asked the black Jews, where their brethren, the great body of the Ten Tribes, were to be found? They answered promptly, that they were to be found in the North, in the regions adjacent to Chaldea, the very country whither they were first carried into captivity, On my return to Calcutta, I prosecuted the inquiry, under the advantages which my superintendance of the College of Fort William afforded me. Sir William Jones had recorded it as his opinion, that the Affghans were Jews, and referred to various authorities. A further investigation confirmed the judgment of that illustrious scholar. There were Affghan Jews in Calcutta, at the time; one of my own servants was an Affghan. The Affghans are generally reputed by us to be Mahomedans. I asked my servant if he was a Mahome, dan? "No," said he, "I am a Mahomedan Jew." I plainly discerned in his countenance the features of the London Jew. The general account of the Affghans is this: that their ancestors were Jews-that their common histories record the names of David, Saul, and other kings of Israel—that the Mahomedans came upon them with an invading army, and said unto them, We are Jews as well as you; we observe circumcision, and keep the Sabbath; let us incorporate our nations, and be one people, and unite against the Infidels that they made a show of yielding to Mahomedanism, (as the Jews of Spain and Portugal pretended to yield to Christiani

ty;) but in process of time the ascendency of the new religion corrupted their ancient institutions; their sacred books began to diminish in number; and it came to pass at last, that in many places they could be only recognized to be Jews by their countenance, by tradition, by peculiar rites, and the observance of the Sabbath; which are the only marks which distinguish some of the Beni-Israel of the South of India. Let us, therefore, address the Ten Tribes, and receive them in the state in which, by the providence of God, they are to be found. Some of the Jews of London are as ignorant, and are as little entitled to the name, as the Affghans.

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But there is a third body of Jews to whom you ought to write: I mean the SAMARITAN JEWS. They are not far from the shores of the Mediterranean, and are easily accessible. They possess only the Pentateuch. They are few in number, and will receive with much deference any communication which you will be pleased to make to them, relating to their religion and to the present state of Jewish nations.

Let letters then be addressed to these three bodies of Israelites; not in the name of CHRISTIANS, but in the name of the converted Jews, who compose a part of this Society. Let Mr. Frey, the learned convert, write to them, not in the Rabbinical Hebrew, (for there are upwards of 20 dialects of Rabbinical or Commercial Hebrew in the world,) but in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, which all understand; let him inform them of the great events that have taken place in the West, namely, that Jews have become Christians; that the Christians are sending forth preachers to teach all nations; that the Messiah is surely come; and that the signs of the Times encourage the belief that Israel is about to be restored, in a spiritual sense. Let him further direct their attention to particular prophecies, and invite correspondence. And after Mr. Frey has exercised his ministry a year or two longer in this country, it may be expedient that he go forth as a Missionary to the Jews of Cochin, with some of his brethren, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established." After preaching among them half a year, he may return again, and report what he has heard and seen.

But when you write these letters, a PRESENT must accompany them, after the oriental manner. And let this present be the BIBLE. You need not, indeed, send the Old Testament to all for the Jews of the East possess that Book entire, with every jot and tittle that belongs to it. They are our libra rians; they are ordained by providence, as it were, the official guardians of the perpetual purity of the Sacred Volume. But

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you must send them the NEW TESTAMENT in the Hebrew tongue; in the language and character of the Old Testament, which all understand and revere. And let it have the MASSORA, that the Text may be settled by good authority, before it pass out of your hands. We Christians are, in regard to the New Testament, the Massorites; we are qualified to determine the sense. If the Version be sent forth without POINTS, the words of our Saviour may be expounded by the Eastern Jews in different ways.-The Arabic, Persian, Chaldaic, and Syriac languages, all have points. You may take them away, indeed, as has been done in the Old Testament Hebrew; but if you do so, you will not be able to understand what is written, unless you have got it previously by heart. All the children learn these languages and the Hebrew, in the East, with points; and they are constantly used A letter, by grown persons, when the sense is doubtful. without points, on a new and difficult subject, would be an enigma. It is commonly said in Europe," that the points are not of divine origin." But there is no meaning in this sentiment. If the consonants be of divine origin, the vowels are of divine origin. The consonants cannot be pronounced without the vowels. A consonant implies the presence of a vowel. The Hebrew consonants, which are said to be of divine origin, were changed in form by a heathen people. A child, in the time of Moses, would not have been able to learn the Book of Genesis without points. When he had got it by heart, indeed, the points would be of no use: and for this reason, and for no other, are they not used in the Synagogue. It is the labour of ten years for the Hebrew reader in the Synagogue to learn to read the Scriptures without points. Had not providence ordained the Massora of the Old Testament, it is impossible to say how great our difficulty might have been in translating that volume at this day but the same providence which has preserved the consonants, has preserved the vowels also.

It is with surprise I learn, that as yet you have not obtained a Version of the New Testament in the Hebrew language, for the use of the Jews. It is surely the very first duty of your Society to execute this translation. You are beginning to work without instruments. How can you find fault with a Jew, for not believing the New Testament, if he has never seen it? It is not to be expected that he will respect a version in English; but give him the New Testament in the language of the Old Testament, in the imposing form of the primeval Hebrew, the character which he is accustomed

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