faid to him, Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth fhall bear theef a son, and thou shalt call his name John; and thou fhalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he fhall be great: before the Lord; and fhall drink no wine, nor ftrong drink; and he fhall be filled with the Holy Ghoft, even from his mother's womb; and he fhall convert many of the children of Ifrael to the Lord their God: and he fhall go before him in the fpirit and power of Elias, that he may turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the juft, to prepare for the Lord a perfect people." Ifaiah 11th chapter. "And there fhall come forth a rod out of the ftem of Jeffe, and a branch fhall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord fhall reft upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the fpirit of council and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord; and fhall make him of quick underftanding in the fear of the Lord: and he fhall not judge after the fight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteoufnefs fhall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he fhall fmite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips fhall he lay the wicked. And righteoufnels fhall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. (Before Chrift 606.) Jeremiah 31ft. chap. "How long wilt thou go about, O thou backfliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man. a man. And in the 33d chapter. Behold the days come faith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King fhail reign and profper, and fhall execute judgment and juftice in the earth. In thy days Judah fhall be faved, and Ifrael fhall dwell fafely : and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteoufnefs. Before Chrift 519. Zachariah 3d chapter. Hear now, O Joshua, the high-prieft, thou, and thy fellows that fit before thee, for they are men wondered at; for, behold, I will bring forth my fervant the Branch: for behold the ftone that I have laid before Joshua, upon one ftone fhall be feven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, faith the Lord of Hofts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. Your great law-giver, Mofes, in his book of Numbers, 24th chapter, relates Balaam's prophecy, in which the Meffiah is clearly referred to. I shall see him, but not now; I fhall behold him, but not nigh; there fhall come a ftar out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Ifrael. This prophecy, with the prophecy of Jeremiah, 21ft chapter. Thus faith the Lord, A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children, refused to be comforted. Alfo, Micah, 5th chapter. Now gather thyfelf in troops, O daughter of troops; he hath laid fiege against us, they fhall fmite the judge of Ifrael with a rod upon the cheek. But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thoutands thousands of Judah, yet out of thee fhall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Ifrael, whofe goings forth have been from of old, from everlafting. Thefe feveral prophecies are taken notice of in the 2d chapter of St. Matthew, accomplished in the perfon of our Lord Jefus Chrift. Now, when Jefus was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold there came wife men from the Eaft to Jerufalem, faying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have feen His Star in the Eaft, and are come to adore Him. And king Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerulalem with him; and affembling together all the chief priefts and the fcribes of the people, he enquired of them where Chrift fhould be born. But they faid to him; in Bethlehem of Judah. For fo it is written by the prophet; And thou, Bethlehem, the land of Judah, art not the leaft among the princes of Judah; for out of thee fhall come forth the ruler that fhall rule my people Ifrael. Then Herod calling the wife men, enquired of them diligently the time of the Star's appearing to them; and fending them into Bethlehem, faid, Go and fearch diligently after the Child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I alfo may come and adore him. And when they had heard the king, they went their way; and behold, the Star which they had feen in the Eaft, went before them, until it came and stood over where the Child was. And feeing the far, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And going into the house, they found the the Child, with Mary his Mother. and falling down they adored Him; and opening their treafures, they offered him gifts; gold, fran-kincenfe and myrrh. And having received an anfwer in fleep that they fhould not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country. And after they were departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in deep to Jofeph, faying, Arife, and take the Child and his mother, and fly into Egypt, and be there until I fhall tell thee; for it will come to pass that Herod will feek the child to deftroy him, and he arofe and took the child and his mother by night, and retired into Egypt, and he was there until the death of Herod, that the word might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, faying, Out of Epypt have I called my fon. Then Herod, perceiving that he was deluded by the wife men, was exceeding angry, and fending killed all the male children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time he had diligently enquired of the wife men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, faying, A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation, and great mournine; Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in fleep to Jofeph in Egypt, faying, Arife, and take the Child and his Mother, and go into the land of Ifrael, for they are dead Sthat fought the life of the Child. And he arose, and took the Child and his Mother, and came into the land of Ifrael. But hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea, in the room of He. rod, his Father, he was afraid to go thither, and being warned in fleep, he turned afide into the quarters of Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that what was faid by the prophets might be fulfilled, He fhall be called a Nazarene. The Ethiopians, in their liturgy, and the Greeks, in their calendar, count fourteen thousand children maffacred by Herod, in order to deprive the Meffiah of life, and infure to himself the kingdom. Mofes. The Almighty has been pleased to thew mercy to me by you. I am convinced that Jefus Chrift is Meffiah; we will, therefore, close this conference, and beg you will favour me, as foon as poffible, to investigate the two Covenants. Rabbi Mofes prays the favour of the Ancients and Rulers, his brethren, at his house tomorrow morning, at 10 o'clock, to investigate impartially the rights and privileges of the chriftian church, in relation to her pretenfions. and claim to the covenant of the Meffiah, or new law. He farther begs, that they will maturely confider, and with deliberation: weigh and digest a matter of the firft magnitude, that it may be difcuffed without retardment, with benignity and candor, by the unerring rule of fcripture and reafon. The motive that induces Rabbi Mofes to make this requeft, is, the conviction he feels of the harmony and perfect concordance of the two scriptures, the fulfilling and completion of the old law and prophecies, in |