CONVERSION OF THE JEWS. [Concluded from our last.] [From Chap, 6th. · The Books printed hitherto upon this Occasion.} THE books he mentions are such as these:` - 1. One, entitled The Light in the Evening,' shewing mens' need of such a Saviour as Christ is 2. A Letter to the Whole Jewish Nation in Europe,' which removes insensibly (the author seems to mean, in the manner least irritating) their false notions of the way of escaping the guilt of sin; 3. A Friendly Exhortation to the Jews to read the New Testament; which contains such gracious promises to them. This piece contains an earnest dissuasive from all evil treatment of the Jews; - 4. Several pieces of the New Tes fament'; — 5. Calver's Catechism for the Benefit of the Jews ;'-6. The Due Preparation for the Administration of Baptism,' conferred upon a Jew; together with a Confutation of the Jewish Prejudice of being God's Darlings, because they are Abraham's Children; - 7. The Augsburg Con fession; to [the dispersing of] which, among other things, the great stir among the Jews, caused by the emigration of so many thousands of Saltzburgers, has given occasion to ;--8. The Confutation of the Jewish Objections against the Christian Religion,' which Hugo Grotius has added to his work De Veritate Religionis Christianæ. Concerning the tracts published for the Jews, he says, in general, that the number of copies amounts to 21,500. 6 [From Chap. 7th. Of the good Effects of this Undertaking, particularly in Regard of the Press.] Concerning the printing-press, I observe, in general, that the treatises published have, for the most part, been so well received, that of 21,000 copies, but very few are left. Neither can I omit mentioning, That of all the Jews, but a small number has been found who were exasperated by, and set against the reading of them. The particular success these little tracts have met with, cons'sts in this: That the Jews are not only willing, but greedy to receive them; nay, in great crowds they have struggled to get at them: they have not only des red to have them for themselves, but for their relations too. Grown people and children have sought for them; and parents have begged them for their children. Some Jews buy them; and allow their children to do the same: they have sent for them, to see whether they were worth reading; and paid for them afterwards. Some Jews have purchased a number of those little tracfs, and sold them among their own brethren. They read those books, er promise to read them, on their Sabbath ; and give them to their wives and chudren to read. A servant was forbid by his master to read The Light in the Evening;' yet he hid himself, and read it privately. Another zealous Jew, who shewed a great dislike against the aforesaid treatise at first, was, four weeks after, found reading the same on the Sabbath; and had nothing to say for himself when he was Deproved for the bitter invectives he had made against it. Some are ex, cited to read the Old Testament with more care than they did before. They do not throw them away when they have read them; but take great care in keeping of them. Many are surprized, when they read these tracts, and do not know what to make of them; others, when they are asked what they think of them, - say nothing, but express themselves in a sigh. They acknowledge the author of them to be a learned and wise man. A Jewish woman, who was much dissuaded from reading the first epistle of St. John, as containing several things represented to her as wicked and wrong, was very 6 much astonished when she found the contrary by reading the same. There are not a few who commend these little books as useful and instructive.A certain Jew, to whom a minister had given The Letter of obtaining the Remission of Sins,' said, That he valued that present more than gold and silver. Another, who had bought The Light in the Evening' very cheap, would not repent of his bargain, though he had given ten times the money for it; and another, who had bought the saine at a higher price, said, he should not have scrupled it, if they had asked ever so much for it. Another valued his copy worth a Louis d'or. Some, who had read the above said treatise, declared their opinion about it to be this: That it contained nothing but what was proved from holy writ; acknowledging, at the same time, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and other passages of Scripture, to treat of the Messiah. 'Such as had got some of these little pieces, have recommended them to others; and brought customers to such as sold them; nay, they have given money to poor Jews to purchase them. They have even offered their service for the distribution of them. They have lamented that the Christians had not translated the New Testament into the Jewish dialect long ago; and expressed a great desire to see more of the like books printed. Their request is, To have the books of the New Testament as exactly and plainly translated for their use as is possible. Some have solicited very much to have all the books sent them that should be printed for the future; which they promised to pay for. 'The distribution of these little tracts has given the Christians an oppor tunity of a familiar and edifying converse with the Jews; by which many doubts and scruples of theirs have been discovered and answered. [From Chap. 8th. Of some good Effects of this Undertaking, in Relation to the Catechumens and Proselytes, and to the Two Travelling Students. Concerning the care taken about the proselytes and catechumens. The number of the first, who enjoy the benefit thereof, is about one hundred, that are come to my knowledge; but it extends more and more, according to the accounts I receive from the two travelling students, and other correspondents. By this we get a further insight into the state and condition of these people, which may be communicated another time; and although I have heard of such accounts of some of them as have troubled me very much, yet I have had accounts of others which have given me an occasion of joy and comfort. Some good motions and dispositions have been found among those that are instructed here. Several, especially those that have turned Papisis, have privately discovered their remaining doubts and scruples, and gratefully acknowledged the resolu-, tion of the same. Some vagaboad proselytes have readily accepted the offered method of leading a regular life. Many Christians have been excited to take a greater care to provide for those miserable people than they ever did before. Such as were cast down, by seeing themselves abandoned, have had their spirits very much raised, when they perceived a more than ordinary care was taken of them. desire As to the progress of the two travelling students among the Jews, The Jews not only admit them into their houses, but visit the students in the inn, where they lodge, to discourse with them about spiritual subjects. The Jews generally pay a great attention to what the students say, - look out the passages quoted in the Old Testament, and set them down, them to repeat and explain that over again which they cannot comprehead; and are not at all discouraged though their Rabbi rejects the doc-· trine. They ask abundance of questions; and are desirous to have their doubts and prejudices resolved and answered. One happened to have so great a desire to hear more, that he slaid with them all night, and went to prayers with them. The Jevs charge them to visit them again i their retura. A certain Jew, who heard a prophetical passage applied to our Redeemer, would not believe, for a great while, that the same was to be found in the Old Testament; but only supposed the students to have read it in the New Testament. Sometimes they have been brought to that conviction, that at last they were forced to break out into these expressions, saying, "What then is to be done now, if we would escape the Lord's judgments ?" 6 After their discourse with them, they eagerly accept their little books; ay, they ask them, and pay for them. Those who have got any, invite the students to come and explain what they do not understand. [From Chap. 9th. Of the Obstructions and Difficulties "And here I will mention, but in few words, the first great hindrance, viz. that one seldom meets with a Jew, who is but tolerably acquainted with the letter of the Old Testament, a few passages excepted, which seem [as they misinterpret them] to run counter to Christianity, and have been inculcated into them by their teachers. The most learned of them are often the least experienced in holy writ, the generality of them study nothing but the Talmud; and those who read the Scripture now and then, do it without auy hearty prayer to God to enlighten and purify their hearts, and make them understand what they read. • The hindrances given among Christians to this good work are these :— 1. Their dissention; 2. The forcing of conscience among the Papists, together with their idolatrous ceremonies; 3. The wicked lives of Papists and Protestants; which they, though falsely, impute to the doctrine of the gospel; 4. The destitute condition of the proselytes, and their candalous behaviour; 5. The small hope Christians have of their real onversion *. - [From Chap. 10th. → Some Means by which this Undertaking may be more and more promoted. No labour should be spared to remove the overgrown ignorance of the Jews, in regard of the Old Testament; which ignorance is the great bulwark of the blind zealot Rabbies, and obstructs exceedingly the knowledge of the gospel. We shall make it our chief business to rescue them by verbal and printed, charitable and serious, demonstrations, from the prejudices of their human traditions; and lead them to a sound knowledge of the word of God, contained in Moses and the prophets, as their and our fundamental rule. * Concerning the prejudices, ignorance, and obstinacy of the Jews, more may be seen in Hosmann's Essay, intitled The Jewish Heart hardly to be convinced. and converted.' Evangelicana. The Difference between the Sufferings of Christ and those of Martyrs. To the Editor. Dear Sir, Few authors have been more deservedly admired than the excellent and learned Francis Turretine: his works amply repay the Christian Scholar for all the labour and time which he devotes to the study of Biblical critic sin and sound divinity, in which they abound. The following Extract, from his invaluable treatise, The Satisfaction of Christ,' is on a subject confessedly interesting and important: it claims no merit, but that of being a literal (perhaps too literal) translation of the original. As the work itself has never yet appeared in an English dress (though few deserve one more) the quotation may be deemed not altogether unworthy a place in your Magazine; and, if approved, may perhaps be followed by others, from CASSEL. yours, Ir it should not appear from any other evidence, that Christ ectually suffered in his soul, yet it may most clearly be demonstrated from this one thing, that it was not bodily torture alone, or the dread of death, which caused his sorrow; since Christ seems far more timid and fearful than numbers who have sustained the most cruel tortures, and death itself, not only with patience, but even joyfully : - for, not to mention the insensibility and madness of profane heathens, who, with undaunted courage, have met the approach of death, and even undergone it of their own accord, do we not know, that many thousands of the martyrs, that cloud of faithful witnesses, when exposed to the most horrid tertures, and the most cruel deaths, have endured them, not only with fortitude, but even with the greatest pleasure? They manifested no sign of fear and sorrow ; but, on the coutrary, evidenced the greatest joy and exuitation, even in the midst of the flames. The fires already lighted, the drawn swords, the heated gridirons, the cross, the beasts, the iron hooks, the needles, add other ancient instruments of cruelty, which were used for torturing them, excited no terror,- none of them seemed to mourn, no one wished the cup to be removed from him; but, with the utmost alacrity, they hastened to the torture as to a triumph they offered themselves willingly to unknown tortures, giving God thanks, with the apostles, that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. What can be the cause of so great a difference? Weak and miserable mortals manifest the greatest constancy and joy in the midst of their tortures. Pater is cruci fied, Paul is beheaded, Bartholomew is flayed, Lawrence is roasted, Ignatius is torn by wild beasts, and others are tormented in different ways, with qut any sign of grief and sorrow; but Christ, the eternal Son of God, even at the first thought of death, is afraid, pours out cries and tears, falls upon his face, and emits a sweat of blood! One of these two must have been the cause: either Christ was more cowardly and fearful than other men; or, in those tortures which he endured, there was something extraordinary, and more severe than that death of the body which burts the senses: but the first is false and blasphemous, and what Christians cannot endure; therefore, the latter must necessarily be true. We say then, That the cause, ths true and genuine cause of his grief was not death simply, but the accursed death which was before his eyes, the dreadful and terrific sentence of an angry God! He, a frail and feeble mau, must bear as our Surety, not some of the sins of one man, but all the sins of the elect. He saw the formidable tribunal of God, before which he must appear to restore that which he took not away *, - the Judge himself, armed with inconceivable vengeance, the Law, brandishing its curses and execrations as lightning, the Devil and the power of darkness, with all the gates of Hell menacing him, and Justice, inexorable and rigid Justice, whom he must satisfy, even to the uttermost farthing! There are the things which (and not without cause) struck Christ with fear and trembling these drew from him sighs, groans, and tears. We do not deny that he feared death in the same way as by natural instinct we all fear it, to show, as Chrysostom says, that he was a man; but no sufficient reason can be assigned why so great, so unexampled a consternation came upon his soul, unless we ascend to the bar of God, whom he undertook to ..satisfy on our account. It was not the bands and chain sof the Jews which weighed him down; but the fetters and shackles of our sins, with which be was loaded: it was not the Roman cohorts which led him away captive that filled him with terror, for, had he pleased, he could have laid then - * Psalm 1xix. 4. -- them prostrate, or put them to flight by a single glance of his eye, as he sufficiently proved; but the principalities and powers, the Prince of Death, and all his infernal troops, with whom he had to contend he was not grieved on account of the unjust sentence of Pilate (for he knew he had no power but what was given him from Heaven) but for the most severe and just sentence of his heavenly Father, who demanded from him the punishments which were due from us: he did not fear the hands of men, though severe and cruel; but he dreaded the hand of God, into which he was about to fall: he did not lament over the separation of soul and body; but on account of the desertion of his Father, which he was shortly to endure. This might be proved by many arguments taken from the prophecies, concerning the passion and death of Christ, or the account of their fulfilment, recorded in the Evangelists. Let one suffice; even the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. Is it not far more severe than any bodily or common torture, that Christ was wounded on account of our transgressions and iniquities, was bruised and smitten of God †, that the punishment of our iniquities (and thus God himself punishing him as his enemy) was laid upon him, and borne by him as our Surety,- that he was taken from prison, from anxiety of mind, excited by a sense of divine wrath, and from condemnation, which believers deprecate, and into which they shall never come, because Christ came into it for them? Can there be any death, however cruel and violent, like that of which the Son of God, in the person of David, complains? He was deserted of God, he poured out cries and roaring, yet was not heard: he was plunged into deep mire, overflown by the floods, the waters came into his soul, and he was compelled to restore what he had not taken away : but the apostle Paul leaves the matter most unquestionable, when he says, That he was made a curse for us; for since the curse is opposed to the blessing of Abraham, i. e. to justification and eternal life promised to Abraham, it cannot be restricted to corporal death merely; but must likewise embrace eternal, or what is equivalent to eternal death. 2. The Hence we clearly see the difference which subsisted between the death of Christ and the death of martyrs, and the cause why he was so much alarmed at its presence, while they rather rejoiced and gloried in it. 1. Though the martyrs were sinners, they knew that they were reconciled so God, through Christ; and that there was therefore no condemnation to them. If they must suffer what was laid upon them, they knew that it was not on account of their sins, to satisfy for them; but for the glory of God, that they might seal the truth of the gospel with their blood: but Christ, though holy and innocent in himself, was numbered among transgressors; and was reckoned as guilty before the tribunal of God, that he might bear the punishment of the sins of others laid upon him. martyrs suffered from men; but they always found God kind and propitious; he was present at their conflicts, and supplied them with strength to endure the cross: but Christ was smitten not so much by men as of God, whose hand of vengeance he felt. Hence he is said to be smitten of God §, and deserted by God. 3. The martyrs were tortured externally in their bodies; but within they were refreshed by the consolations of the Holy Spirit, who poured out the dew of grace and joy in the midst of the furnace ; and they being filled with it, were strengthened, that they might not grow weary under their burden: bat Christ suffered both in body and soul, - he had no external comfort, no mitigation of his grief; but, as was formerly shadowed forth in the Paschal Lamb, he wa truly roasted at the fire of divine wrath; so that without one drop of consolation and refreshment, he supported himself in the midst of the buraings of divine condemnation by the moisture (if we may be allowed the expression) of John xviii. 6. § Isa. liii. 12. + Isa. liii. 4, 5. ↑ Ps. Ixix. 3-4. |