either among the ancient or the modern "The chriftians and the Jews,"

Jews. he fays, separate at the second step in religion. For after having adored toge"ther one God, abfolutely perfect, they "find immediately after the abyss of the trinity, which entirely feparates them.. "The Jew confiders three perfons as three Gods, and this tritheifm fhocks him. "The christian who believes the unity of "one God, thinks that the Father, the Son, "and the Holy Spirit, fhould all be called

God, and have the fame worship. It is "impoffible to reconcile opinions fo contrary*."

"Les chretiens s'ecartent des Juifs des le fecond pas qu'ils font dans la religion. Car apres avoir adoré en"femble un dieu, fouverainement parfait, ils trouvent un "moment apres l'abime de la trinité, qui les fepare, et les "cloigne fouverainement. Le Juif regarde trois person"nes comme trois dieux, et ce tritheisme lui fait horreur. Le chretien, qui croit l'unité d'un Dieu, veut a meme "tems q'on donne ce titre au pere, au fils, au Saint Efprit, "et q'on les adore. Il eft impoffible de concilier des opi"nions fi contraires; cependant il y a des theologiens hardis, qui ont tenté de le faire." Hift. des Juifs, lib. 4. cap. 3. fect. 1.

This writer alfo fays, that "the Jews "confider them felves as bearing their tefti

mony to the unity of God among all the "nations of the world*." How far the Jews of late years are from admitting the divinity of the Meffiah, we may judge from what Orobio faid in his controverfy with Limborch, viz. that, admitting what is impoffible, that the Meffiah whom they expect should teach that doctrine, he ought to be stoned as a false prophet.

It has, however, been imagined by fome, that the Jews had a knowledge of the doctrine of the trinity, that it spread from them among the Gentiles, and that traces of it may be perceived in the myfteries of heathen religions. But if this be the case, it is obvious to afk, why are no traces of this doctrine to be found in the Jewish fcriptures, and the Jewish worship? Or, if the

"Les temoins de l'unité de dicu dans toutes les na❝tions du monde." Hift. des Juifs, lib. 7. cap. 33. fect.

15.

Dato impoffibili quod Meffias, quem expectamus, eam doctrinam [v. g. fe equalem effe deo] Ifraclem edoceret, jure foret, ut pfeudopropheta, lapidandus. Limberch's Amica Collatio, p. 111.

Jews

Jews had once been in poffeffion of this knowledge, but had loft it in the time of our Saviour, why did not he, who rectified other abuses, rectify this, the most important of them all.

If an expectation of a Meffiah had been prevalent among the Gentiles, we should certainly perceive fome traces of it in their writings. It might have been expected, both on account of the interesting nature, and the obscurity of the fubject, that there would have been different opinions about it, that it would have been a common topic in their philosophical schools, and that their historians would have given fome account of the origin of fuch an expectation.

The fixth eclogue of Virgil may be alledged as a proof of fuch an expectation. But I do not imagine that any perfon now thinks that Virgil himself ever expected fuch a perfonage as he describes. The use that a poet might make of a vague report of a prophecy (brought probably from the east, and ultimately from the Jewish fcriptures) but seriously believed by no perfon D 4

that

that we know of, merely to embellish a poem, is one thing; but the actual and univerfal expectation of fuch a perfon, is ano

ther

SECTION

IV.

Of the Jewish Angel METATRON, &c.

IN

N the third of Ben Mordecai's Letters, written by the late Rev. Mr. Taylor of Portsmouth, p. 72. I find the following extraordinary paragraph : Among the no"tions of the more modern Jews, we muft "alfo obferve, that the Cabbalifts believed "El Shaddai to be the fame perfon as the "angel Metatron, whom they fuppofed to "be the inftructor of Mofes, and the Mes“fiah, i. e. as Dr. Allix expreffes it, He "was, according to the chriftian phrase, "the logos before his incarnation, or, ac"cording to the jewish phrafe, the foul of "the Meffiah, whom they look upon as

something between God and the angels,

"whom

"whom nothing feparates from God." Allix, p. 456*.

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Bishop Pearson, in proving, by feveral arguments, that Chrift is called Jehovah, fays, the Jews themselves acknowledge "that Jehovah fhall be clearly known in the

days of the Meffiah, and not only fo,but "that it is the name which doth properly "belong to him, for the proof of which he quotes the book Sepher Ikkarim, ii. 8. "The fcripture calleth the name of the Meffias Jehovah our righteousness, and Midrash Tillim, on Pf. xxi. God calleth the Meias

66

* Here Mr. Taylor inferts the following note in French, but I fhall give it in English: Calmet, on the word Metatron, fays, “The Hebrews give this name to the first of "the angels, him who conducted them in the wilderness, "and of whom it is faid, in Mofes, I fhall fend my angel to go before you. He acted towards the Ifraelites the part of the officer whom the Romans called Metator. He "marked out the encampments, traced the form of them, "the dimenfions, extent, &c. He is thought to be the "archangel Michael, who was at the head of the people "in the wilderness, that it was he who wrestled with Ja"cob, who is called the face of God, in Exod. xxxiv. 14. " and who is the mediator between God and man; that "he writes down good actions, and keeps a register of " them."