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minutes, equal to five years, are elapfed, you all are witneffes to this great truth,

as

light is created; but we are truth, that no

ftill in

ase

darkness, as if we had been filent. We happy, as we purpofed, to

dear Rabbi Mofes, and obtain the victory,

convict you of folly, in bewitching yourself, with the art magic of the chriftian feduction. And you, dear bréthren, Joshua and Nehemiah, who feern to fuck in the delufion of feigned miracles from the dead body of your poor chriftian beggar.

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

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Aaron, Eleazar. Mordecai and Abfalom do not blafpheme, we will grant them guilty of an error in judgment, which we mult 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 itfelf 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 present 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 ftates, corporal and spiritual; yet, we firmly adhere to the firit and great commandment. Hear, O Ifrael, the

Lord

Lord your God is one God, and cenfure novelty.

A JAU Ja919 alin of.29501 916 11⁄2 boy

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

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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 and confifts in a clip, or cirour fa cumcifing the forefkin. These are the words of the covenant betwixt God and our father Abraham. Genefis 17th chapter. "He that is born in thy houfe, and he that is bought with thy money, muft needs be circumcifed; and my covenant fhall be in your flesh for an everlafting 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 f fo fay, with Mofes, and bring in a multiplicity of ceremonies and commandments, making a fool's cap of Abraham?

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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 circume fed, yet, brod

when

when they, as you do, difputed the authority of the law-giver, the earth opened and fwallowed them. We will go beyond your boasted antiquity, and judge you by that very father you claim your priority and loofe doctrine from. He will declare, before he had in contempla tion either circumcifion or that his name should be Abraham, when as yet he was uncircum cifed, and bore the name Abram, even fifteen years prior to amputation. Genefis 12th chap ter. Now the Lord had faid unto Abram, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto à 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 will blefs them that bless thee, and will curse them that curfe thee; and in thee fhall all families of the earth be bleffed." So Abram departed, as the Lord had fpoken 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 east of Bethel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord, and called on the name of the Lod.

15th chapter. After thefe things the word of the Lord came unto Abram inca vifion, faying, "Fear not, Abram, I am thy fhield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram-faid,

Lord

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Lord God, what wilt thou give me, feeing govchiktlefs, and the steward of my houfe 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 thall 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 caufe of Ifrael you have fuperannuated by your malicious and forward fpeech. Abram was an uncircumcifed friend, favourite and Elect of God, when he received the promife, 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 that what

his pofterity as an earnest or pledo remain in

God had promised in its full and ftated time fhould have its effect and accomplishment, which falling, as marked by the scriptures, 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 imposed C c

on

on our fathers was inftituted the fcarf-fkin to preserve the promise or covenant of the Meffiah, fince which, what has been her ftate or lot? why, no other than that of the fcape goat in the wildernefs accurfed, hated by all men, as a fcare-crow, or dried, stuffed image by birds. But, fay you, none but your defcription, deferters from the law, and the spirit, fall under this curfe. My fon, hear the inftruction of your father, and be obedient to the law and words of your mother; for Mofes, our father, gave us commands and ceremonies, and our mother the fynagogue is our disciplinarian. Mofes offered facrifice for atonement for fin repeatedly, which proves Abra! am's circumcifion infufficient. To this we anfwer: That in facrificing, as alfo in circumcifing, Mofes is a copier of our great origin Abram, even before he was circumcifed, offered facrifice, by the fpecial command of God. See the said chapter. "And he faid unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a fhe-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them, and laid each piece one against another; but the birds he divided not; and behold a furnace and burning lamp paffed between the pieces.

Boy. In the fame day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "Unto thy feed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates." At that time God endowed him with the prophetic fpirit communicating the great events that attend his

pofterity.

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