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Jefus is, in innumerable paffages of our Scriptures, filed a man, repeatedly denominated the fon of Joseph'; and Jofeph expressly faid to be his father,' and Joseph and Mary his parents,' they, hoodwinked by a partiality to one or other of the three hypotheses before-mentioned, refine away the most unequivocal expreffions, and laboring to wreft them to a coincidence with their pre-conceived opinions in favor of Socianinism, Arianism, or Athanafianism, confidently reply, in contradiction to the only true conceptions of the propagation of the human race, ordained by the God of nature, that a being ungenerated by a man, and born from a woman alone, is a man ; and that Jefus is indeed called the fon of Jofeph, and Jofeph the father of Jefus, but that in truth, a parental and filial relation did not actually fubfift between them.

I cannot deny, that a paffage or two, occurs in our Gofpels, which, no doubt, gave rife to thefe choice fpecimens of sophiftical ingenuity; but, when I confider, that the account of the miraculous conception of Mary, contained therein, directly militates against the combined force of the whole

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whole of the remainder of the evangelic hiftory, in this point, I regard these paffages as the interpolated forgeries of the Christian Platonifts, of the Alexandrian school, who, in the very days of the apoftles, began to mix their vain philosophy' with Gospel truth and fimplicity. Throughout the rest of the Chriftian Scriptures, Jefus is uniformly reprefented as a man,' repeatedly described to be of the feed of David,' and a married man and woman, by name Joseph and Mary,' are expreffly ftiled his parents;' (See Luke's Gofpel) who moreover, are unequivocally said to be both of the house and lineage of David.' This latter circumftance harmonizes with your prophetic defcriptions of the Meffiah equally with the reft, for your law enjoins you to respectively marry into your own tribe and family. On these grounds, together with the conviction that Isaiah prophefies, as well of the antecedent fufferings, as of the confequent glory, of the Meffiah, (whofe ignominious crucifixion between two malefactors exactly tallies with the fame prophet's prediction, that the Meffiah, though a finless man, fhould be numbered with the tranfgref

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fors,") I am fully perfuaded, that the crucified Jefus, Ben-Jofeph, or son of Joseph, was your promised Meffiah, and accordingly glory in acknowledging him as fuch, trufting in the fure promises of God, that the belief of the paft advent, of this "Man of Sorrows," as he is prophetically stiled by the faid Isaiah, will, in God's due appointed time, be generally received by the whole house of Ifrael. Then, and not till then, will your difperfion through all nations cease, your joyful restoration to your own land take place, and nation be your subjected to the immediate, mild, and just government of that Prince of Peace, your long neglected Meffiah, the delegated judge of the world. Happy fhall I be, my Jewish friends, if, by the bleffing of Jehovah on my humble, well-meant endeavors, I should prove, in the leaft degree, inftrumental in accomplishing thofe most defirable prophetic events, your univerfal, your Meffiah thankful reception of ; your forrowful repentance for your long rejection of him; and your heart-felt lamentation for the cruel treatment of him, even unto death, which he experienced from your mistaken forefathers, who, in

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the language of one of his apoftles, through ignorance put to death the holy one, and the juft, as did alfo their rulers.' Those of you, who are of docile difpofitions, whose minds are open to conviction, and who are willing to renounce error, and embrace truth, will probably, on an attentive and impartial felf-enquiry into your own prophecies, be convinced, that the firft advent of the promised Meffiah is long fince past, and that your ancestors have actually ❝fulfilled these Scriptures in condemning him.' He was, in truth, fent by Jehovah, to become a fuffering and dying favior, who in reward of his obedient fufferings and death, raised him from the dead on the third day, not fuffering his holy one,' (as your Pfalmift prophecies) to 'fee corruption,' and will raise up alfo penitent and believing Jews and Gentiles, who tread in the fteps of the faith of your illuftrious forefather, Abraham, 'to a joyful refurrection by Jefus,' if they act as becomes true and fincere difciples of their righteous master, that perfect man, who, though'encompaffed with human infirmities and paffions, did no fin, neither was guile found in his mouth.'

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This Jefus was indeed the great predicted fon of David, who was to fit on his throne,' who was ordained by God to be a

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prince and favior,' the true 'man after God's own heart,'who 'fulfilled all his will,' the glorious branch from the ftem of Jeffe,' that righteous branch' which God promifed to raise up unto David,' and therefore by Zechariah emphatically filed "The Branch.' But what can be urged in extenuation of the grievous fin of your anceftors, in caufing this abfolutely good man to be crucified. I wot,' fays his apostle Peter, in Luke's narrative of the Acts of the Apoftles, that through ignorance ye did it; but, alas! this ignorance was not invincible; their unbelief,' through which they fell short of the exceeding riches of the grace,' or favor, of God,' exhibited in his merciful and univerfal Gofpel difpenfation, was owing to a culpable inattention to the exprefs prediction of their own prophets, concerning the fufferings of the Meffiah. Ifaiah, in particular, is fo clear in this grand momentous point, and fo circumftantial in refpect to the manner of Christ's fufferings and death, that he has effected the converfion of a Jew, by name Abraham

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