Jew was formerly at the disposal of his lord, together with all his property. And so violent were the prejudices of the Christian world against them, that when about the year one thousand, three hundred, and forty-eight, a fatal distemper raged throughout Europe, they were accused of having poisoned the wells, and upwards of a million of them were consigned to destruction! Other facts, of a similar complexion, under different reigns, in the English history, might be mentioned; but I forbear. It becomes us as Christians, to manifest a different spirit, and to pursue a different conduct. We are neither to view the Jews with sentiments of hostility, nor to indulge towards them rancorous emotions. Far otherwise is the disposition inculcated in the gospel of Jesus Christ: The Jews are our elder brethren; and the recollection > of this sentiment should inspire us with all the tenderness of humanity."

Basnage says, "It is impossible to fix the number of persons this nation is at present composed of. But yet we have reason to believe there are still near THREE MILLIONS who profess this religion, and as their phrase is, are witnesses of the Unity of God, in all the nations of the world."

A Jew's Hospital, entitled the Charity Workhouse, has lately been erected at Mile End, "for the reception and support of aged men and women, as well as the education and industrious employment of youth of both sexes." This Institution has been

liberally and nobly supported by the very respectable family of the Goldsmids.

And in May last an ASYLUM for converted Jews was begun at Bethnal-green. The truly respectable Duke of Kent laid the foundation stone, and it is under the patronage of the church of England.

It is a little remarkable with respect to the exhibition of the Jewish character on the stage, that Shakespeare's Jew is represented as cruel and rapacious, whilst Cumberland's Jew is, though characteristic in his manners, full of benevolence and humanity.

This article shall be closed in the words of a modern writer—“ The history of this people certainly forms a striking evidence of the truth of divine revelation. They are a living, and perpetual miracle, continuing to subsist as a distinct and peculiar race for upwards of three thousand years, and even in the midst of other nations, flowing forward in a full and continued stream, like the waters of the Rhone, without mixing with the waves of the expansive lake through which the passage lies to the ocean of eternity!"

CHRISTIANITY.

CHRISTIANITY (to which Judaism was introductory) is the last and most entire dispensation of revealed religion with which God hath favoured the

human race. It was instituted by JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God, who made his appearance in Judea near two thousand years ago. He was born at Bethlehem, brought up at Nazareth, and crucified at Jerusalem. His lineage, birth, life, death, and sufferings, were minutely predicted by a succession of the Jewish prophets, and his religion is now spread over a considerable portion of the globe. The evidences of the Christian religion are comprised under historical testimony, prophecies, miracles, the internal evidence of its doctrines and precepts, and the rapidity of its first propagation among the Jews and the Gentiles. Though thinking Christians have in every age differed widely respecting some of the doctrines of this religion, yet they are fully agreed in the divinity of its origin, and in the benevolence of its tendency.

The believers in this religion, who had been denominated by the Jews Nazarenes or Galileans, and by each other disciples, brethren, or saints, were-first called CHRISTIANS at Antioch A. D. 43. Witsius thinks it a circumstance of remarkable wisdom that this celebrated name should arise from ANTIOCH, a church consisting of a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, rather than from Jerusalem, dignified in so many other respects, and that it was a kind of victory gained over Satan, who from Antioch had some ages before raised so many cruel persecutors of the church of God. And Doddridge remarks" With pleasure let us reflect upon this honourable name, which the

disciples of Jesus wore at Antioch; and would to God that no other, no dividing name had ever prevailed among them! As for such distinguishing titles, though they were taken from Apollos or Cephas, or Paul, let us endeavour to exclude them out of the church as fast as we can, and while they continue in it let us take care that they do not make us forget our most ancient and most glorious title! Let us take heed that we do not so remember our difference from each other in smaller matters as to forget our mutual agreement in embracing the gospel of Christ."

As to the progress of Christianity, it suffered during the first three centuries some grievous persecutions, under which, however, it flourished after a wonderful manner, till the conversion of Constantine, 314 A. D. when it became the established religion of the Roman empire. The principal persecutions were those under Nero, A. D. 64; Domitian, 93; Trajan, 104; Hadrian, 125; M. Aurelius, 151; Severus, 197; Maximin, 235; Decius, 250; Valerian, 257; Aurelian, 272; Numerian, 283; Dioclesian, and Maximian, and Licinius, 303-313. It was relative to these persecutions that an ecclesiastical historian observes, that the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church! From the 6th to the 16th century was little else than one black record of ignorance, superstition, and tyranny. The Roman pontiff, by his monstrous and abominable usurpations over conscience, disposed of the property

and the lives of men. It cannot be expected that the reader should be furnished with a detail of ecclesiastical history, but a subsequent article on the reformation, to be found in this work, should be read with attention, because the reformed religion is indissolubly connected with the present happiness and eternal welfare of mankind.

Brief representations of THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, shall be transcribed both from the writings of Churchmen, and Dissenters, well deserving of attention.

BISHOP GIBSON, in his second Pastoral Letter, observes" It will appear that the several denominations of Christians agree both in the substance of religion and in the necessary enforcements of the practice of it that the world and all things in it were created by God, and are under the direction and government of his all-powerful hand and all-seeing eye; that there is an essential difference between good and evil, virtue and vice; that there will be a state of future rewards and punishments, according to our behaviour in this life; that Christ was a teacher sent from God, and that his apostles were divinely inspired; that all Christians are bound to declare and profess themselves to be his disciples; that not only the exercise of the several virtues, but also a belief in Christ is necessary in order to their obtaining the pardon of sin, the favour of God, and eternal life; that the worship of God is to be performed chiefly by the heart in prayers,