The Jews, in countries where Christianity is not established, lie ont of the way of receiving instruction, if they were willing to hearken to it. Who should teach them? The Christians who dwell in those parts are poor, ignorant, superstitions, slavish men, and · sometimes dishonest men also, and not qualified for preachers of the gospel : So that the conversion of the Jews cannot in all appearance begin in those regions.

The Jews dispersed in Christian countries dwell either in popish or in protestant nations. There is not the least probability that the papists should ever convert them. The violence which a man must offer to his own senses and reason, and the slavish deference that he must pay to human authority, before he can enter into that communion; the divine honours given to the Virgin Mary; the worship of angels, saints, crosses, wafers, coffins, bones, rags, old iron, reliques, pictures, and images, supported by ridiculous miracles and traditionary lies; the tyrranny of the church, and the cruelty of the inquisition; these are insuperable obstructions to the conversion of the Jews, and excite in them prejudices against Christianity that are too strong and too plausible to be easily removed. The Jews abhor idolatry, and every thing that borders upon it, and in popish countries they have no notion of any other Christianity than what is there professed, and what they see before their eyes.

The Jews who dwell in protestant countries have not the same causes to dislike Christianity, which appears with more simplicity, which offers itself fairly to examination, which is purged from superstitious practices, and which forces itself upon no one with imperious insolence. But even in the reformed nations too many obstacles remain to prevent and dis

courage

courage the conversion of that people; such as arise from the little influence which the gospel is observed to have upon the lives and manners of many of its professors; from the disunion of Christians, and their division and subdivision into various sects, which usually entertain no favourable opinion of each other.

If I should embrace Christianity, a Jew might say, I have just begun the laborious inquiry: it remains to consider to whom I should join myself, and here I am quite perplexed with your divisions.

If I should go over to the church of Rome, the protestants will condemn my judgment, and say that I have made a miserable choice; if I become a protestant, the papists will tell me I might as well have remained a Jew; schismatics and heretics are in their opinion in as bad a situation, and as much excluded from salvation, as Jews, Mohammedans, deists, sceptics, and atheists: If I am a protestant of this or that denomination, other sects of protestants will blame me, and think me still in a dangerous condition, and perhaps call me a schismatic.

Thus some Jews have reasoned: and that we may not be thought to have furnished them with objections: which we cannot answer let us offer a short reply. It might then be said to the Jew; Search the Scriptures, and examine our arguments, and if they convince you, receive the Gospel, and believe in Christ. You are then his subject and his servant; for it is not your belonging to this or that church, that makes you a Christian, but your belief that Jesus is the Son of God, and the Messias. The rest you may do at your leisure, and it is not so laborious a task as you suspect. Only consider what the Protestant churches require of you, and judge which is the most reason

able

able, and the most conformable to the New Testament. The church of England, in her form of Baptism of those of riper years, requires of you only an assent to the Christian religion in general, and to the a postles creed in particular.

Another impediment to the conversion of the Jews is, that in the Christian world there is much indiffer ence and coldness towards religion, much dissoluteness of manners and dishonesty; that amongst us many sceptics, deists, and infidels are also to be found, who have deserted the faith in which they were educated. We may suppose, without any breach of charity, that in these respects the Jews are not better than the Christians, nor free from the same faults: that they have their doubters, and their unbelievers, besides those who mind nothing except the cares and concerns and vanities and diversions of this world, that they and we go, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise, whilst the prophets are little regarded by the Jew, and the apostles by the Christian.

Another great and well known difficulty in the conversion of the Jews (as also of the Mohammedans) is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which they have always been taught to look upon as not reconcileable with the unity of God. All that I shall say to this, is, that no one should attempt to remove this prejudice, and to satisfy them upon this subject, till he has brought them to believe the divine mission of Jesus Christ, and his character as Prophet, Messias, Teacher of truth, and Worker of miracles. If they will not admit the things relating to his offices and ministry, it would be a vain and useless undertaking to debate with them about the dignity of his nature. And when it is necessary to proceed to that part of Christianity,

Christianity, this doctrine should be represented even as it is delivered in the New Testament, and no otherwise; and then many things may be observed concerning the Ayes, the angel of God's presence, and the angel of the Covenant, from the Old Testament, and from Philo, and from some ancient Jewish writers. It will also be well worth the while to consider how the oldest Christian apologist now extant hath reasoned with the Jews upon the subject, as also how Limborch managed that part of the controversy with Orobius. What right hath a modern controvertist to require more from a Jew, than Justin Martyr required from Trypho? I might say, than the apostles and first preachers required from those whom they converted, when they admitted them to baptism? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest [be baptized.] And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.-And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

Hic autem ita me gessi, ut nullius peculiaris inter Christianos controversi dogmatis, sed solius Evangeli patrocinium susceperim secutus judicium viri summi et Religionis Christianæ patroni ac vindicis omnium calculo prudentissimi, ac strenuissimi, Hugonis Grotü, qui in aureo suo et nunquam satis laydato De veritate Religionis Christiance tractatu, non tantum eandem disputandi rationem observavit ; sed et in epistola quadam ad Gerardum Joannem Vossium hanc instituti sui rationem reddit: Triados probationem in eo libro directe aggressus non sum, memor ejus quod a viro magno socero tuo audiveram, peccasse Plessæum et alios, quod rationibus a natura petitis, et Platonicis, sæpe non appositis, testimoniis, adstruere voluissent rem non po

nendam

nendam in illa cum Atheis, Paganis, Judæis, Mahumethistis disputatione, qui omnes ad sacras Literas ducendi sunt, ut inde talia hauriant, quæ nisi Deo semet patefaciente cognosci nequeunt. Hinc quotiescunque Judæus ad dogmata quibusdam Christianis pecuhiaria, qualia plura in ipsius scripto occurrunt, me pertrahere conatus est, ego studiose id declinavi; ratus, contra hominem Novi Testamenti auctoritatem negantem frustra disputari de dogmatibus alibi aut non, aut saltem non clare revelatis, quorum proinde fides divinam Novi Testamenti autoritatem præsupponit: ac proinde sufficere, ut contra Judæum sola Evangelii divinitas adstruatur, de qua siquis argumentorum pondere convictus sit, eadem opera omnium que Evangelium tradit dogmatum veritas ac divinitus ipsi comprobata erit: quá semel comprobata, ipse porro attenta adhibita Novi Testamenti lectione, omnibusque in timore Domini legitime examinatis, dijudicare poterit, quid de dogmatibus inter Christianos controversis consentanee veritati in Novo Testamento traditæ stutuendum sit. Limborch. Prefat.

Tandem concludit vir Doctus, quod Propheta, qui in seipsum ut verum Deum Israelis fidem exegerit, qui Dei omnipotentiam sibi arrogaverit, qui verba sua ut a se præcepta, populo indixerit, admitti non debet; et dato impossibili, quod Messias, Judæi expec quem tant, eam doctrinam Israelem edoceret, jure foret ut pseudopropheta lapidandus. Sed ego jam isti illationi occurri, quod Jesus Christus semper se Patris legatum et filium prædicet, et in se, ut talem, fidem exigat. Neque ulterius quicquam, ut necessario credendum, Evange lium exigit. Si qui plura ad salutem creditu necessaria decrevere, eorum decretis non tencor, qui solam Scripturam sacram unicam fidei meæ regulam agnosco. Ex illa itaque vir doctissimus, ut aliquoties monui, contra me ar gumentari