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LETTER

MR. BICHEN O,

OCCASIONED BY HIS

Friendly Address to the Jews,

AND

LETTER TO MR. DAVID LEVI,

CONTAINING

REMARKS ON MR. LEVI'S ANSWER

то

DR. PRIESTLEY'S FIRST LETTERS TO THE JEWS.

BY DAVID LEVI,

AUTHOR OF LINGUA SACRA, THE CEREMONIES OF THE JEWS, &..

אני ה" הוא שמי וכבודי לאחר לא אתן

ISAIAH, xlii. S..

LETTER TO MR. BICHENO,

REV. SIR,

Received your friendly Addrefs to the Jews, and alfo the letter containing Remarks on my Anfwer to Dr. Priestley's First Letters to the Jews, from your friend; for which I return you my most fincere thanks and I am happy to find in it, that true spirit of candour and liberality, so neceffary to an inquiry of this nature; but which I am forry to fay, I have not experienced from fome of my opponents*.

:

What you obferve, page 7, " Free and unbi"affed inquiry is the glory of human nature. "To be a heathen, a Jew, or a Christian, because «our fathers were fo, is unbecoming any reafon“able creature, arrived at years of understanding. "That man is of no religion, whofe profeffion is "not from conviction; and conviction; and there can be no con"viction but from inquiry. He who grounds his 6c faith on the authority of others, and then ftudies

only for confirmation, feeks not truth by the "light of truth, and is therefore ever liable to "embrace falfehood; and fhould he be fo very fortunate as to embrace truth, in him it is no

Anti-Socinus, alias Anfelm Bayly, and J. H. Swain.

"virtue."

129

LETTER TO MR. BICHENO. "virtue." Perfectly coincides with my principles, as you may perhaps have obferved in my Answer to Dr. Prieftley's First Letters, page 91-95. And, I cannot forbear observing, that whoever attempts to ftifle a free, and candid inquiry of this nature, is an enemy to truth, and true religion.

This inquiry, I purpose conducting on a moft extensive scale, and in a manner, (as appears to me, and those Chriftians to whom I have communicated my plan) the most just, fair, and equitable, as well as the leaft objectionable. I mean a Differtation on the Prophecies. It is to confift of two parts: Part I, to contain all fuch prophecies as both Jews and Chriftians apply to the Meffiah: -and Part II, all such, as Christians only apply to him. By this means, not a fingle prophecy will be omitted, but all will be brought under review. The IMPARTIAL PUBLIC will then be able to judge, on which fide truth lies; and to that tribunal we ought both of us chearfully to submit, as it feldom errs in its judgment, for you know, Sir, Vox populi, vox Dei.

This, Sir, is one reafon for my not entering into an examination of the parallel paffages, or pro phecies, produced by you, Mr. Swain, or AntiSocinus, alias Anfelm Bayly, in fupport of Chrift's divinity; because they will naturally fall under my review in that Differtation.

As to your Remarks on my Answer to Dr. Priestley's First Letters, you will find many of them anfwered in the preceding part of this pam-”

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phlet, in my Answer to his Second Letters; I fhall therefore forbear taking any farther notice of them at prefent, as it would only lead to a repetition of what I have there observed.

Your prophecy, from Ifaiah, vii. 14. mentioned page 25, you will find fully, and I hope fatisfactorily answered in my Letters to Dr. Cooper, which immediately precede your's. Of confequence, there is fcarcely any thing else in your pamphlet that I recollect worthy of notice at present.

there fay,

One thing, however, I cannot avoid taking notice of, because you mention it more than once, (page 37, 40, &c.) viz. the peace that was to take place at the coming of the Meffiah; but which feems to be flatly cantradicted by what you affert for page 7: you "It must be owned, to "the reproach of profeffing Christians, that through "the impiety of their lives, their corruptions of "the Chriftian doctrine, their intolerance towards "each other, and their perfecutions of your na"tion," &c. &c. Here you have at once given us a moft horrid picture of the peaceable kingdom of the Meffiah, if Christianity be it; for as to what you observe presently after, in order (as I apprehend) to meliorate its features, does not mend it in the leaft, as will appear from your own words, as follow. "Yet, feeing these are no teft "of the truth or falfehood of our Scriptures, any

more than the idolatry and other bad practices of your forefathers, were of the truth or falfe"hood of the laws of Mofes." But this argu

ment

ment is a mere fallacy, founded on erroneous principles. For though I freely grant, that perfecution, intolerance, &c. are no teft of the truth or falfehood of your Scriptures, any more than idolatry, &c. was the test of ours; yet, do I infift upon it, that perfecution, bloodshed, &c. is a test of the truth or falfehood of the Meffiah, whose characteristic was to be peace; as may be proved from a number of prophecies (which I can produce, if neceffary,) as well as those quoted by you, page 37,40, &c. Mr. Swain alfo, in page 40, calls the Meffiah, the prince of peace. Hence it is manifeft, that as one of the principal marks of the Meffiah,is the univerfal peace that is to prevail at his coming, it is evident, that its oppofite, viz. war, bloodshed, &c. muft be allowed to be a proper teft of the truth or falfehood of the perfon of the Meffiah. For if a kingdom, which we are informed by the prophecies, is to confift of UNIVERSAL PEACE, is found to contain little else but intolerance, perfecutions, bloodfbed, maffacres, &c. it is a fure and infallible fign, that it cannot be the kingdom fo foretold. Of this, you feem to be fo fenfible, that you endeavour to evade the force of it, by afking (page 72) "Have "the prophets any where faid that the doctrine "of the Meffiah's kingdom, would inftantaneously

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produce its great effects, in enlightening the "Gentiles, in taming the ferocity, and in fubdu "ing the wickedness of men: so that they shall no longer hurt or destroy?" You answer, "No." But I fay, YES, undoubtedly; and which

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