"heart, and with ALL thy foul." Deut. xxx. 9, 10. Whoever contradicts this, the plain word of God, and endeavours to weaken the attachment of the Jews to their laws, does wound them in the tenderest part; he does that very act which tends to KEEP THEM from that inheritance which God has promifed to reftore unto them. It is impoffible to conceive an act fo hoftile to the profperity of the Jewish nation as this. If it was in the power of the enemies of Ifrael to immure them in dungeons, with fetters upon their limbs, it would not be an act to be compared to feducing them from the obfervance of the law of JEHOVAH their God. But it is not only the act of an enemy to Ifrael, it is an act of the most dreadful hoftility against the God of Ifrael, who gave them the law. He who endeavours to perfuade a Jew to difregard the law, really and truly acts a part as hoftile towards the Great Creator of heaven and earth, JEHOVAH, God of Ifrael, as that which brought down his judgments upon Antiochus! The act is the fame, The violence that Antiochus had power to refort to, only tended to fhorten the contest in his more speedy deftruction in the awful manner already related. Did Antiochus ftrive to throw down the diftinction between Jew and Gentile, which it hath pleased the Great Creator of heaven and earth, the God of Ifrael, to make between them? 1 Mac. i. So have the Miffionary and London Societies! Did Antiochus endeavour to draw the Jews from the obfervance of their law? 1 Mac, i. 42. He did, although he did not proceed fo far as to speak hor

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tible words against the law, by representing it to be a HARD LAW, IMPOSSIBLE TO BE OBEYED. Antiochus, we have good reason to believe, knew nothing of the law of JEHOVAH; ignorance therefore may well be confidered as fome extenuation of his crime, and yet his end was an awful end. Had he known that the God of Ifrael was he who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth, and all the hofts of them. Had he known that the laws which the Jewish nation were under were given to them by the voice of the Great Creator of heaven and earth, founding from the midft of a confuming fire, attended by thunderings, and lightnings, and great terrors. Had he known that the ten commandments, the fummary of their laws, were recorded the finger of God, and that the whole of them were recorded by Mofes his fervant, at his command; would he have in that cafe prefumed to contend with his maker! We cannot fay that he would. Did Antiochus ftrive to compel the Jews to renounce circumcifion? He did fo, 1 Mac. i. 48, 61, 62. but we have no evidence that induces us to believe that he ever read the 17th chapter of Genefis. He doubtlefs confidered circumcifion as an human and not as á divine ordinance; and as it tended to keep the Jewish nation as a diftinct people, therefore he endeavoured to remove this bar to his object, which was to make all his fubjects ONE PEOPLE; but though Antiochus might never have read the 17th chapter of Genefis, yet what member of the Miffionary or London Societies have not read it, or heard it read, many

times? The Miffionary and London Societies would therefore do well to confider thefe things, and to inquire whether they have not difregarded what they acknowledge to be the revealed will of the Great Creator of heaven and earth, the God of Ifrael: "God faid "unto Abraham, Thou fhalt keep my COVENANT

therefore, thou, and thy feed after thee in their "generations. THIS is my convenant, which ye "fhall keep, between me and you and thy feed "after thee; Every man child among YOU shall be "CIRCUMCISED. And ye fhall circumcife the "flesh of your forefkin; and it shall be A TOKEN "OF THE COVENANT between me and you."

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My covenant fhall be in your flesh for AN "EVERLASTING COVENANT." Gen. xvii. 9-11, 13. The Miffionary and London Societies not only poffefs this information, that circumcifion is an everlasting covenant TO THE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM, but they poffefs evidence, even the fure word of prophecy, that it is a covenant that fhall endure for ever, not only in refpect to the lineal defcendants from Abraham, but to OTHERS ALSO, as is fpecified in the original covenant: "He "that is eight days old fhall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the houfe, or bought with money of 66 any ftranger, which is not of thy feed. 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 EVER"LASTING COVENANT." Gen. xvii. 12, 13.

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And again, "JEHOVAH faid unto Mofes and unto "Aaron, This is the ordinance of the paffover : "There fhall no ftranger eat thereof: but every "man's fervant that is bought for money, when thou "haft circumcifed him, then fhall he eat thereof. A "foreigner and an hired fervant fhall not eat thereof."

"And when a ftranger will fojourn with thee, and "will keep the paffover to JEHOVAH, let all his "males be circumcifed, and then let him come near "and keep it; and he fhall be as one that is born in "the land for no uncircumcifed perfon fhall eat "thereof. One law fhall be to him that is home"born, and unto the ftranger that fojourneth among

you.” Exod. xii. 43-45, 48, 49. Now, in the latter part of the Book of Ezekiel, the prophet, we have an account of the union that there will be in due time between the houfe of Ifrael and the house of Judah; we have an account of a new divifion of the holy land among them, and the ftranger who is in heart attached to the Jewish nation, and lives among them, will not then be forgotten: for "it fhall come to "pass that ye fhall divide it by lot for an inheritance ❝unto you, and to the STRANGERS that fojourn 66 among you, which fhall beget children among you and they fhall be unto you as born in the "country among the children of Ifrael, they fhall "have inheritance with you among the tribes of "Ifrael. And it fhall come to pafs, that in what "tribe the firanger fojourneth, there fhall ye give him "his inheritance, faith the Lord JEHOVAH." Ezek. xlvii. 22, 23. But thus alfo," faith the Lord JE

:

66 HOVAH

HOVAH, No ftranger, uncircumcifed in heart, nor "UNCIRCUMCISED IN FLESH, fhall enter "into my SANCTUARY, of any ftranger that is "among the children of Ifrael," Ezek. xliv. 9.

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Did Antiochus endeavour to make the Jews profane the holy fabbath and festival days? He did, 1 Mac. i. 45. but we have no reafon to believe that Antiochus ever read the Book of Exodus; but what member of the Missionary and London Societies have not read these words in the 31ft chapter of Exodus: "And JEHOVAH fpake unto Mofes, faying, Speak "thou alfo unto the children of Ifrael, faying, Verily my fabbaths fhall YE keep for it is a SIGN between ME and YOU, throughout your generations; that YE may know that I am JEHOVAH that doth fanctify YOU. YE fhall keep the fab"bath therefore, for it is holy unto YOU: every "one that defileth it fhall furely be put to death."— "The children of Ifrael fhall keep the fabbath; to. "obferve the fabbath throughout their generations, "for a PERPETUAL COVENANT: it is a "SIGN between ME and the children of ISRAEL "FOR EVER." Exod. xxxi. 12-14, 16, 17..

Now herein is a MARVELLOUS THING, John ix. 30. that the OBJECT of thofe who have a great degree of love and friendship to the Jewish nation, fhould be the fame as that of Antiochus, the greatest enemy that the Jewish nation ever had. Profeffions of love and friendship are easily made, and in this respect even Antiochus was not deficient, for he wrote a letter to them, in which are thefe.

words,