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 contemplation either circumcifion or that his name fhould be Abraham, when as yet he was uncircumcifed, and bore the name Abram, even fifteen years prior to amputation. Genefis 12th chapter. Now the Lord had faid unto Abram, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a 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 I will blefs them that bless thee, and will curfe them that curfe thee; and in thee fhall all families of the earth be bleffed." So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken 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 Lord.

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

Lord

Lord God, what wilt thou give me, feeing I go childless, and the fteward 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 shall come forth out of thy own bowels, fhall be thy heir." And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to number them. And he said, fo fhall thy feed be. And Abram believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for juftice.

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 uncircumcised friend, favourite and Elect of God, when he received the promise, 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 his pofterity as an earneft or pledge, that what God had promised in its full and ftated time fhould have its effect and accomplishment, which falling, as marked by the fcriptures, 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 whose 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 impofed C c

on

on our fathers was inftituted the fcarf-fkin to preserve the promife or covenant of the Meffiah, fince which, what has been her state or lot? why, no other than that of the scape goat in the wilderness accurfed, hated by all men, as a fcare-crow, or dried, ftuffed image by birds. But, fay you, none but your defcription, deferters from the law, and the fpirit, 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 Abraham's circumcifion. infufficient. To this we answer: 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, faying, "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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pofterity. In all things the fcripture holds up uncircumcifed Abram to be poffeffed of fupernatural gifts, an unblemished character, father of the Meffiah, and his Elect, friend and darling of his God. So that faithful uncircumcifed Abram ftood in the fame degree of perfection and pre-eminence in the eyes of his God equally with the circumcifed Abraham, But yet, he was neither the origin of facrificing, nor the first, nor only favorite facrifice we must fuppofe took place from the fall of our first rents, it being proper, though infufficient, that a public act or offering fhould be immolated. Firft, to acknowledge our fole dependence and reliance with every act and virtue of religion, as wholely due and centered in our God. Secondly, to deplore and lament the fall of man, precarious ftate, with numberlefs fins that daily impede man's falvation. Thirdly, as types or figures of the oblation, or great facrifice of Redemption, the ranfom or purchase of God's favour, by the death of Chrift. At the arrival of the Principal or Real, all types, figures or fhadows naturally ceafed, having obtained the completion for which they were inftituted. As the fcripture has affirmed, 4th Pfalm, "Sacrifice and oblation thou didst not defire; burntofferings and fin-offerings haft thou not required." Then, faid I, behold, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my God. Your will is within my heart. Daniel 9th chapter. The prophet Daniel, after marking this epoch, which was the grand æra or date of the chriftian

covenant, confirms the ceafing of the types and figures. And he (the Meffiah) fhall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midft of the week, he fhall caufe the facrifice and the oblation to ceafe; and for the overfpreading of abominations he fhall make it defolate, even until the confummation, and that determined, shall be poured upon the defolate, to enumerate the paffages of fcripture that confirms the ceafing, and abolishing the old law, with its types and figures, at the arrival of the Meffiah, who was to establish a new covenant, with the reprobation of the Jews, and defolation of the country and nation, would be endlefs.

To return to the earlier times of facrifice and offerings. The two fons of Adam we find converfant with this duty. Genefis 4th chapter. As your law-giver, Mofes, has placed in the firft book of his Pentateuch. 1 hefe are his words. "And in procefs of time, Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord; and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat." We must suppose, that Cain and Abel, the two firft defcendants from Adam, were taught this duty by their father, which, no doubt, was enjoined and prefcribed to the pofterity of our first parent, a perpetual law in their generations. And, as the promise was removed from the Jewish hierarchy, fo we find recorded by this law-giver the types tranfported by Noah from the Antediluvians to thofe fince the flood, the most faithful comments are his own words.

Genefis