Saviour of men. His miraculous birth, divine character under various heads, his forbearance, humility, sufferings, and death, are minutely described by him.

Daniel, with other prophets, expresses his views concerning the promised Messiah; that he was to die for the sins of mankind, in order to introduce universal righteousness.

But, as if these remarkable unfoldings were not sufficient to prove the authenticity and truth of these declarations, as we draw still nearer to the event, the very place of his birth is described by the prophet Micah, chap. v. 2: "But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."

Zechariah, ch. ix. 9, singularly describes the manner of his approach to the temple: "Rejoice greatly, O daughters of Zion; shout, O daughters of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass." See also Matt. xxi. 5. John xii. 15.

"The ten commandments (which are equally unworthy of credit, if Moses is not considered

as a divine legislator,) were first given as containing the primary principles of all law, and were doubtless introduced with such majesty and solemnity that they might retain an everlasting authority; they were uttered by the voice of God before the whole multitude of Israel; were-written twice by God's own finger; and are obviously distinguished from the other laws which were given to Moses only, which were written by him, and which were moulded in conformity to the peculiar condition and circumstances of the Israelites. These laws, then, given for the advantage of all mankind, were founded on principles of invariable and universal propriety, and stamped with the two great characters of Christian excellence,-gratitude to God, and love to man."-Gray's Key.

In a publication entitled Letters from certain Jews to Voltaire, are some observations which appear much to the present purpose. "Where could you find," says the writer, "in all antiquity religious institutions more pure, and moral precepts more conformable to the feelings of nature, and the sacred rules of decency and virtue? Recall to your mind the laws of the most celebrated ancient nations: what false and whimsical ideas of the divinity; what objects of worship; what extravagant, impure, and cruel

rites; what impious opinions, scandalous excesses, and barbarous customs are authorized or tolerated by these boasted legislators! From the heavenly bodies which give us light, down to the onions which grow in our gardens; from the man celebrated for his talents or his crimes, down to the venomous reptile which creeps under the grass, every thing had its worshippers. Here behold a sacrifice of female modesty; there human blood flows upon the altars, and the dearest victims expire in those flames which superstition has lighted up. A little further, violence is offered to nature by brutal love, and humanity debased by unworthy and barbarous treatment. Every where the people live in shocking ignorance, and the philosophers in error and uncertainty. Let us draw a veil over this mortifying picture of human blindness, which many others before us have traced out..

"But whilst we are turning our eyes from thesedismal objects, permit us to ask you, Why so many mistakes among nations so wise, and so much wisdom among the ignorant barbarous Hebrews? does it not proceed from this, that all other nations had only the weak and glimmering light of human reason for a guide, and that among the Hebrews a superior reason had enlightened its darkness, and fixed its uncer

tainties? We shall insist no longer on our religious and moral laws; they are too well known, and their superiority over all ancient legislators is too remarkable, to require any further discussion. To conclude: every part of the Jewish legislature displays the high and divine wisdom of the legislator. Its doctrines are rational and sublime; its religious and moral precepts holy and pure; its political, military, and civil laws are wise, equitable, and mild; even its ritual laws are founded in reason ; all of them, in short, are admirably suited to the designs and views of the legislator; to the circumstances of time, place, and climate; to the inclinations of the Hebrews, and to the manners of the neighbouring nations, &c. There is nothing in this legislature that contradicts the laws of nature or of virtue; every thing here breathes justice, piety, honesty, benevolence. Its object, its antiquity, its origin, duration, the talents and virtues of the legislator, the respect of so many. nations,-all these things conspire to prove the excellence of it. Your greatest men have admired it, and looked upon it as the primary source of divine and human law; and you, sir, can see nothing in it but absurdity and barbarism. When you spoke of it in such opprobrious terms, did impartiality guide your criti

cism?....We have thought fit to say thus much in defence of our laws.

"This, indeed, is but a poor sketch of an apology, if compared with those of so many learned Christians and well-instructed Jews; Abravemel, Jarchi, Maimonides; and before them Josephus and the eloquent Philo :-read their writings; do still a better thing, read the text of our laws, and your prejudices will soon vanish, &c.

"As for our parts, when we consider the just censures that have been passed on ancient and modern governments; when we reflect on the baneful systems set up in ages past, and in this one too, by philosophers; when we see the providence of God, his justice, even his existence contested, fatality introduced, liberty destroyed; the land-marks of right and wrong daringly torn up, or placed with uncertainty, by these pretenders to wisdom; man degraded; all the bonds of society dissolved; vain imaginations and racking doubts substituted in the place of the most comfortable and salutary truths, &c. ;— when we see these things, our spirit is stirred up at all these errors, and we cannot help thinking ourselves happy in having been preserved from them by such reasonable and holy laws. O Israel, happy are we; for the things that are