relates in order, the creation) the diftinction of perfons.

Mofes. St. John 1ft chapter. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The fame was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men: and the light fhineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. In this infinite mystery, on which the two covenants are grounded, and folely depend; the two legiflators, Mofes, and Chrift, are perfectly confonant, and the two fcriptures throughout one uninterrupted unifon.

Mordecai, Abfalom. We cannot comprehend in what, fpeech can be competently termed effence, as we live in the age of wisdom, when things are proved by effects. Let us make the experiment, by which we will decide the matter in question, let us fhut the windows, you are, are you not, without light? if fo, you cannot deny, but that you are blinded with darkness. Now, my dear firs, do not deceive yourselves, neither be decived by others. Note well, and improve yourselves in the fcience of wisdom and knowledge, that your understanding may be enlightened, and experimental truths may dawn and ripen as fummer fruits, enlarging your interior man. You are all prepared, are you not? our words Thall be like the found of a trumpet thundering in each one's ear; hark with direful expectation the last trump. Let there be light; hush, five

minutes,

minutes, equal to five years, are elapfed, as you all are witnesses to this great truth, that no light is created; but we are ftill in as great darkness, as if we had been filent. We are happy, as we purposed, to obtain the victory, dear Rabbi Mofes, and convict you of folly, in bewitching yourself, with the art magic of the chriftian feduction. And you, dear brethren, Joshua and Nehemiah, who feem to fuck in the delufion of feigned miracles from the dead body of your poor christian beggar.

Jofkua, Nehemiah. Thefe men blafpheme, feating themselves in the throne of the Living God.

Aaron, Eleazar. Mordecai and Abfalom do not blafpheme, we will grant them guilty of an error in judgment, which we muft impute to the inherent quality of the erroneous fect they adhere to, who are ftiled Sadducees, and difclaim fpiritual fubftances; a refinement latterly of this fect has fhewn itself among the Gentiles, who form the polite circles, and have afpired to the title of the New Philofophers. They would wish to live in their prefent ftate, having neither hope nor religion but what is grateful to the prefent or mortal state. This is the fubftance of what Mordecai or Abfalom fpoke, teftifying their defire for the Meffiah,' that their paffions might be feafted, and through the virtue of the Tree of Life, they may fpin out a perpetual fenfuality. But the fpiritual Ifraelites or Pharifaical Jews believe both states, corporal and fpiritual; yet, we firmly adhere to the firft and great commandment. Hear, O Ifrael, the

Lord

Lord your God is one God, and cenfure novelty.

Boy. What, pray, are we to understand by Novelty?

Mordecai, Abfalom. In religion, that is, the topic we are upon, Innovation; which is the novelty Aaron and Eleazar would deem in us, is founded erroneously; it being truly nothing more than this one fimple act commanded our great progenitor, father Abraham, which has come down to us by the title of the covenant of our fathers, and confifts in a clip, or circumcifing the forefkin. These are the words of the covenant betwixt God and our father Abraham. Genefis 17th chapter." He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, muft needs be circumcifed; and my covenant shall be in your flefh for an everlaiting covenant; and the uncircumcifed man child, whofe flesh of his forefkin is not circumcifed, that foul fhall be cut off from his people, he hath broken my covenant." The covenant was given to our founder fix hundred years before Mofes was born, and fhall a pale-face fet of conceited novellifts affociate, if we may fo fay, with Mofes, and bring in a multiplicity of ceremonies and commandments, making a fool's cap of Abraham?

Aaron, Eleazar. Your tenets, from the creation of your fect, are from beneath, earthly, rude, and bafe-born. To convince you that circumcifing the flesh, with the law, is a dead act. Core, Dathen, and Abiram, with their whole company, were all circumcifed; yer,

when

when they, as you do, disputed the authority of the law-giver, the earth opened and swallowed them. We will go beyond your boasted antiquity, and judge you by that very father you claim your priority and loose doctrine from. He will declare, before he had in contemplation either circumcifion or that his name fhould be Abraham, when as yet he was uncircumcifed, and bore the name Abram, even fifteen years prior to amputation. Genefis 12th chapter. Now the Lord had faid unto Abram, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I fhall fhew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a bleffing; and I will blefs them that blefs thee, and will curse them that curfe thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be bleffed." So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken to him. He was feventy-five years old when he quitted Haron. And Abram paffed through the land unto the place of Sechem unto the plain of Morch, and the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, "Unto thy feed will I give this land." And there he built an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. He removed to a mountain on the eaft of Bethel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord.

15th chapter. After thefe things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, "Fear not, Abram, I am thy fhield, and thy exceeding great reward." And Abram said,

Lord

Lord God, what wilt thou give me, feeing I go childless, and the fteward of my house is this Eleazar of Damafcus? And Abram said, Behold to me thou haft given no feed; and lo, one born in my houfe is my heir. And the word of the Lord came to him, faying, "This fhall not be thy heir; but he that fhall come forth out of thy own bowels, fhall be thy heir." And he brought him forth abroad, and faid, Look now toward heaven, and tell the ftars, if you be able to number them. And he faid, fo fhall thy feed be. And Abram believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for justice.

Mordecai, Abfalom. Your ungodly malice to us, has wreaked deftruction, wrefting the Palm from Ifrael and, truckling, proffer it to the chriftians; in vain we proceed farther. The cause of Ifrael you have fuperannuated by your malicious and forward fpeech. Abram was an uncircumcised friend, favourite and Elect of God, when he received the promise, and whereas he believed it was accounted to him for juftice, fo circumcifing was enjoined him several years afterwards, and which was to remain in his pofterity as an earneft or pledge, that what God had promised in its full and ftated time fhould have its effect and accomplishment, which falling, as marked by the fcriptures, at or about the nativity or birth of Jefus, who, ever fince that period, now 1785 years, bears the name of Chrift the Meffiah, for whofe fake the law and prophecies were given, that the truth might be proved by a family defcent; to be brief, Ifrael, we mean the covenant impofed C c

on