ordinances of the Most High, which, in Scripture, are written in figures, types, and symbols. Now, the use of the Phylacteries is taken from Deut. xi. 18. "Therefore, shall ye lay up these my words in your heart, and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hands, that they may be as frontlets before your eyes." It is very evident to every one who knows anything of the word of God that this has a spiritual meaning, teaching us that we ought to have a perfect knowledge of the Law of God, and of the regard and obe"Let not mercy and truth

dience due to it.

forsake thee; bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart." Prov. iii. 3 and 21. "My son, let them not depart from thine eyes; keep sound wisdom and discretion:" and 22, "So shall they be life to thy soul, and grace to thy neck." The Lord looks to the heart; outward performances may please the creature, but they are nothing less than a mockery of the Supreme Being, unless they are the actions of one whose soul is devoted to God. "I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments." Ps. cxix. 7.

Whoever enters a Jewish house, will observe

on the door-post a small piece of glass enclosed in a frame of lead, beneath which is written on a scroll of vellum, (called Myzuza,) Deut. vi. 4-9.-"And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house, and upon thy gates." In connection we find in Hab. ii. 2. "And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." You will probably think I have been rather too prolix upon some of the Jewish ceremonies, &c. I hope my apology will be accepted, for this reason, I wish to call your attention to the state of ignorance and blindness of my Jewish brethren, in which they indeed are kept by the blind watchman, Isa. lvi. 10. &c. I am deeply anxious that all Christians should feel for the wretched state of the poor Jews. I would earnestly call for individual and united supplications to the God of Abraham, that he would "remember his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel, and that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God." Oh, where are those genuine lovers of the human race, who being filled with "wisdom from above," are ready to go forth as messengers of peace, as heralds of salvation to

C

the scattered tribes of Israel! Oh, my poor countrymen, when will you search the scriptures for the good of your souls, and attend to the divine admonition, for "thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."-Jer. vi. 10. O that Christians would be warned by the example of their Jewish brethren, who are depending upon their own righteousness, and are not submitting themselves to the righteousness of God, but that they would rejoice in Christ Jesus alone, and have "no confidence in the flesh."

Modern Judaism, like Popery, is the invention of man. It consists in perversions of the Holy Scriptures, by sundry commentators, condensed into a code of laws, superseding the law of Moses, and this is called the "oral law." The far greater part of these laws are so very arbitrary and absurd, that it is really surprising how a people who have had the law of God and the prophets in their hands, should for so many centuries have submitted to let their minds, nay their very souls, be enslaved by Talmudical tyranny. For a season they are given over to "strong delusion that they may

believe a lie." "Oh Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity, take with you words and turn to the Lord, say unto him, take away all iniquity and receive us graciouly." Hos. xiv.

There are some few Jews that reject the authority of the oral law, and only consider themselves amenable to the written law; and there is a class (too numerous 1 grieve to say) who are as regardless of the one as the other. I have frequently complained to some of the Rabbins and other wise men, that the word of God should be held subordinate to the word of man. The expression, however, of any opinion in opposition to their bigotry, was always met with sharp rebuke, and an assertion, that if I doubted the divine origin of the oral law, I was an apostate, and unfit to continue a member of the house of Israel. Their displeasure and their threatenings did not however alarm me, but rather tended to urge me on to further inquiries. The sophistry of men who would fain have persuaded me that I was not under the curse of the law, increased my anxiety about the state of my soul. The annual day of atonement is erroneously considered to absolve them (the Jews) from their iniquities and transgres

sions; but the day is long past for the atoning of sin by any other means than by the blood of the Lamb of God. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." "Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.-Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God."-Rom. iii. 24, 25.

Under the former dispensation there were sacrificial offerings, and ordinances of divine service performed by the High Priest, more especially on the day of atonement, which, though they could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, but merely sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, yet to the spiritual seed of Abraham, who by faith looked through the sign to the thing signified, "To Him who by one offering should perfect for ever them that are sanctified," no doubt a full pardon and remission of sins was graciously vouchsafed by that God who had appointed these gifts and sacrifices as "shadows of good things to come." But now they have no High Priest, and consequently no sacrifice; then where or how (I would ask