thing into portable Wealth. Cash, Stocks, Remittances, Jewels, &c. are what, I believe, they have been chiefly known to deal in; and the Reafon of it is very evident, that as they live in a conftant Expectation of the Completion of the Prophecies, and of a fudden Summons from the Meffiah to return and take Poffeffion of the holy Land, a confcientious Jew will chufe to ftare in procinctu; he will not much care to embarrass himself with Poffeffions, which he can neither carry with him, nor probably be able, upon a sudden Call, to receive the Value of in a less cumbersome Species of Riches.

I COME with Reluctance to the fourth and laft Head of Objection, as it will oblige me to make a Comparison disagreeable, tho' I hope not useless. The great Danger of corrupting the Morals of our People by the Admiffion of the Jews, is fo much infifted on, that it becomes neceffary to examine, whether in that View the Invitation of farther Numbers of them be confiftent with good Confcience. For in Truth, if the Appre

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Apprehenfion be well founded, we ought to exclude them upon the fame Principle that we would shut our Ports against the Invafion of an Enemy; fince no Property or Poffeffion whatsoever of the private Members of a Community, can be of so much Importance to the Public, or fo well deferve its Care, as thofe of Piety and Virtue. And whatever ideal or rapturous Images may present themselves to fome warm Imaginations, of a Religion abstracted from Morality, I am not shy of declaring my Opinion, that the Latter is the Beginning and Conclufion, the true Foundation, Object, and End of the Former. And I am fure it must be absolutely neceffary that every Legislature, which is folicitous for the Interest and Prefervation of the Community over which it prefides, should confider it in that Light; in which too, the all-wife Lawgiver of the great Commonwealth of Mankind appears to have confidered it.

To come therefore to the Point in Queftion: It has been advanced by one of the Writers upon this Subject, that "the Jews

"hold

"hold Tenets that are repugnant to the "Laws of Morality;" but we are left in the Dark how the Affertion is to be underftood: viz. Whether they hold those Tenets profeffedly as Tenets; or whether their holding of them is to be inferred from their Practice only; as alfo what thofe Tenets are. One can therefore only guess at the Import of that Accufation, by which was probably meant the Ufury, Avarice, unfair Dealing, and Extortion in the Way of Trade, for which they are in Truth become Proverbial among other Nations; and indeed there can be no Doubt, but that very many of them have excelled in those infamous Arts, and there is no Reason, that I know, to think the present Generation honester than the preceding. But are we in a Condition, with respect to fuch foul Practices, to throw the firft Stone? are they all tainted with that Contagion, or are we all free from it? For what other Species of Immorality are the Jews notorious? For what Species are we not? If it be meant that they think it lawful to prey upon Chriftians, (the Truth of which Propofition I can neither affirm nor deny)

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deny) is it lefs criminal in us to prey one the other? Have we not fome particular Kinds of Cheating and Overreaching in Traffic, authorized by public Fashion? Is not the worst of Robberies, the Stripping of raw and unexperienced Youth, by the Mysteries of Gaming, practised in the Eyes of the World? Are not other Vices, which our Ancestors blushed to speak of, and which are by Scripture Doctrine inconsistent with Salvation, committed in a Manner upon the public Stage? Is not Murther itself become much more frequent, and one Sort of it rendered by Custom fashionable; whilst the Readiness to commit it upon every flight Occafion is reckoned an Accomplishment, nay, and a neceffary one too, and the Laws both of GOD and Man are facrificed to a Fantom falfly called Honour, being commonly nothing else but a Senfibility to deserved Reproach, and the Wincing of a galled Conscience? In general, the Inexecution of English Laws is become Proverbial abroad; and the Relaxation of all Discipline, Domeftic, Parochial, and National, is too feverely felt at Home, in many of its Confequences;

fequences; as for Inftance, in the Infecurity of our public Streets and Highways, beyond the Example of any other Country : In the infinite mif-fpending of that Time, for which we must be all accountable, in mere Amusements, defigned to unbend, and unworthy to become the Occupation of our Minds, the ftultus Labor Ineptiarum; and the Education of our Children in the fame unprofitable Courfe of Inapplication : In the long Difufe of all ferious Conversation, and in the foolish Talking and Jefting` upon improper Subjects, fubftituted in the Room of it, in many of thofe Affemblies, where the very Habit of converfing like reasonable Creatures, is not totally destroyed by Cards and Dice And lastly, In the very little Attention now generally paid to the Example we fet to others, whether our Children, Families, Dependents, or Inferiors of any kind; though that Example be a Thing of fo great Confequence, that a Person of Rank and Figure may poffibly, by an immoral, irreligious Conduct, render himself refponfible for the Sins of his Childrens Children, and unborn Generations.

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