possession of it, and their dispossession for their sins, was a strong proof of the prophets inspiration by the Divine prescience; its accomplishment has exactly followed, all the twelve tribes were expatriated, ten were transported to some region of which no information to this moment has been received. Of the other two tribes, some wretched Jews have returned to Jerusalem, but have obtained no possession in it; they were to be oppressed and spoiled, it is the prophecy and was infallible; but the oppressor like Pharaoh is doomed to destruction. God often chuses the instruments of his vengeance, sinners who deserve the punishment they inflict.

I LAMENT that a nation that vaunts of its polity and justice, can be enemies to toleration. No nation can be moral that is bigoted, and none impartial that is not tolerant. The annals of England are registers of exactions, confiscations and oppression; the bloodstained biography of some of its ancient Monarchs

is

G

is a record of furious fanaticism, and of an age of ignorance and barbarism.

"AND thou shalt be an astonishment, a

proverb and a by-word, amongst all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee." Their character is proverbial, all nations have design ated them, they are reproached and vilified wherever they inhabit; the bard who has amazed and fascinated his readers, did not disdain to sully his pen in the general calumny; to increase the overwhelming odium, and gratify a popular prejudice, he transposed characters; and to please a fanatic rabble made his inhuman usurer a Jew; the original tale on which he founded his dramatic composition had made him a Christian thirsting for the Hebrews blood; but Shakespeare the flatterer and Parasite of Elizabeth, was again the Parasite to the people, he had idolized the Tudors, the ancestors of his Queen, and he embittered his keen pen in strengthened gall to swell the enmity against a depressed people; the flashes of his lightning mind, his irresistible censure and impetuous eloquence

eloquence corroborated an insuperable prediction; his exuberant genius knew no restraint, a spirit that had explored all the labyrinthian windings of human nature, had neglectd the cultivation of another knowledge, or he would have hesitated at assuming a malignant office that incurd so fatal a penalty.

THE religion of the Israelites was promulgated in an age of barbarism, when Paganism, Heathenism, and Politheism prevailed; no worship but preposterous idolatry predominated; all around them was impervious darkness and profound ignorance, yet in this uncivilized era Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, acknowledged a supreme Being; their posterity differing from all the universe, persisted in the faith of their Patriarchs, and deserved to be denominated God's peculiar people. Men who could sever themselves from all the world and pay their adoration where it was alone owing, were entitled to the special regard of providence; a code of Laws was given them that has stood the test of 4000 years: obedient to divine in

junction

junction they shun the vices of their neighbours, their sensual indulgences, their sumptuous feasts and splendid Temples; they submitted to the restrictions and prohibitions of the Mosaic Law. In an age of abominable habits and monstrous crimes they worshipped the Deity and obeyed his tenets, none but the Divine mind could have suggested such a body of laws; but if any effort of human intellect could have produced them, they must be admired for extraordinary wisdom and exemplary virtue, yet these are the people so slandered and detested; this the nation so contemned and injured; while on their religion the new fangled creed is pretended to be grounded, and on the stem of their faith the Christian faith is engrafted; they are termed a chosen people, and a people to be restored to their original destination; no one knows how near the moment is of their Redemption, when all nations are to cling to them and struggle to accompany them; so inconsistent are their adversaries, that they abhor and outrage the

people

people on whom they found their hopes of salvation.

GENESIS contains the history of the world, and commences with an account of its creation and the genealogy of the Patriarchs down to the death of Joseph, it comprehends a period of 2369 years. It was not difficult for Moses to ascertain what he wrote without inspiration, for it came to his time through a few individ uals; from Adam to Noah there was one man who lived so long as to know both, as Isaac did with Abraham and Joseph, from whom they could be easily conveyed to Moses by Amram, who lived long enough with Joseph. Moses might have been confuted by learned meu of other nations who sprang from the same root, if he had ventured to deviate from the truth. There were many sensible cotempory men in those times; and it is absurd to imagine, that they had not as well as the Israelites modes of writing, to convey the knowledge of foregoing times.

THE Jews exercise such professions as are compatible