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accounts of the birth of the Meffiah in the latter, which do not coincide in every particular with the pre-descriptions given of him in the former. "The Scriptures which went before concerning him," are to be confidered as one grand external evidence of his past advent, and confequently as the ftandard and measure of the faith that the man Jefus, who was born in the days of the Roman Emperor Auguftus Cæfar, and crucified in the reign of his fucceffor Tiberius, was the Chrift, or the true Meffiah, foretold by the prophets. Many indeed think with that Chriftian convert from Deifm, the celebrated author of 'AView of the internal Evidence of the truth of the Chriftian Religion,' that the credibility of theGofpel difpenfation depends on its incomprehenfibility. His words are very remarkable,

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If it," the Chriftian Religion, " had been lefs incomprehenfible, it would have been

more incredible," whereas, in fact, the rationality and intelligibility of its points of faith are a strong prefumptive argument of its truth and certainty. A divine revelation, of the theology whereof, it is contended,

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tended, the meaning lies fo deep, that it cannot be fathomed by the line of human reason, is a contradiction in terms, a revelation unrevealed. However, the worthy author of this little treatife has given, on the whole, a juft and amiable defcription of the fuperlative excellence of Christ's system of morality. By this its internal evidence he profeffes to have been convinced of the divine authority of this religion, and has ingenuously announced to the world, by that most effectual vehicle of intelligence, the prefs, the grounds of his converfion; a species of conduct, which fecures to him the applaufe of his own conscience, intitles him to the approbation of his fellow Chriftians, and encourages him to hope, as a fincere difciple of his new mafter, Chrift, for the future enjoyment of that inestimable Gospel bleffing an happy immortality. But, as he has now acknowledged the truth of the Chriftian religion from a clear conviction, that the tranfcendent purity of its moral precepts is an irrefragable argument of its divine authority, I hope he will not rest here, but proceed to

renew

renew his ftudy of the Chriftian Scriptures, for the purpose of examining, with attention and impartiality, whether the belief of the incomprehenfible doctrine of a Trinity in Unity, of three divine beings jumbled together into one fupreme Deity, that metaphysical abfurdity in the abstract, be really inculcated in these writings or not. At the fame time I advise him to reflect, that the internal evidence of the divinity of the Chrif tian religion, arifing from the perfect purity of its morality, is at beft but a strong prefumptive proof of its divine authority; for the pofitive teftimony thereof must rest on the united external evidence of miracles, and the accomplishment of prophecies. With refpect to the latter I hope, that the time is not far diftant, when the whole houfe of Ifrael will, by observing the strict harmony between the events recorded of Jefus in the New, and the prophecies concerning the Meffiah in the Old, Teftament, be induced to take the veil from their hearts, and acknowledge him for their long-neglected

Meffiah.

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Some

Some of you, my friends, like the real Abraham Jacobs, and the fictitious Benjamin Ben Mordecai, may, without fufficiently attending to the manifeft progreffive abfurdity of the Socinian, Arian or Apollinarian, and Athanafian hypotheses, embrace Christianity merely from a conviction that the crucified Jefus was the Meffiah, foretold by the prophets. But though their converfion may be the refult of this conviction, yet, I truft, their own common fenfe will fuggeft to them the reflexion, that the parts of the canon of Chriftian Scriptures cannot be genuine, which speak of Christ as the offspring of a woman alone, and that woman a virgin. Those only deserve to be regarded as authentic, which, representing Jefus as a man, in the true and fole sense of that appellation, viz. as the fon as well of a man as of a woman, as well of Joseph,as of Mary, and these his parents as an husband and wife, of the tribe of Judah,and of the family of David, exactly tally with the Jewish Scriptures in general, concerning the Meffiah, and with that prophecy of the Pfalms in particular, where Jehovah is faid to have " (worn

"sworn in truth unto David, Of the fruit

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of thy body, or loins, will I fet upon thy "throne;" a prophecy, which Luke in Acts ii. 30. juftly applies to Christ, as receiving its completion in him.

I am not altogether without hopes, that this Call to the Jews, which vindicates the parental relation, as well of Joseph, as of Mary, to Jesus, may, with all its imperfections and faults, be happily inftrumental in converting many worthy individuals, of the difperfed of Judah, to the Christian faith. If you will but condescend to give it a candid perufal, you cannot fail to remark that I have infifted throughout, that Jefus was a very man, the joint offspring of an human father, and an human mother, both lineally defcended from David; that authentic Christian Scripture defcribes Jefus as thus harmonizing with theMeffiah of Jewish prophecy ; and that, in particular,Luke's Jesus Chrift, who'cometh of the feed of David, 'is a fpecies of phrafeology of exactly fimilar import with that of Zechariah's man whofe name is The Branch. Zech. vi. 12. and

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