8 
their religion. A punttilious obfervance 
of the ceremonial law in the paternal 
houfehold had eftranged them to the cir- 
tle of common life, had attached them, 
indeed, to their brethren, but had render- 
ed them, in the prefence of thofe whofe 
relicions were more diftantly akin to their 
own, thy, confufed, and unealy. 
They proceed to difcufs the probable 
effeéts of thefe circumftances on moral and 
intelleftual culture ; te indicate the mul- 
titudinous inconveniences of a too nice 
attention to the ceremonial law ; and to 
obferve how very many of the unpopular 
or unfavourable features of Jewifh cha- 
racter are to be afcribed to the hitherto 
oppreffive and unjuft behaviour of the peo- 
pie or the fovereign, to focial and politi- 
cal intolerance. 
They announce fanguine hopes of a 
rapid and general. improvement of the 
Jews.“ ie frate like Pruffia, all is 
prepared for it. Many and loud tones har- 
monioufly concur ‘ora wake them from 
their long flumber the mind. The 
mild conftitution of government, the pu- 
rified notions of the age, the tafhionable- 
nefs of a lovely humanity, the penal 
fcattered by bodks and fchools, alike con: 
{pire to invite the excommunicated fepa- 
ratift into a fympathifing, hofpitable, con- 
ivi l circle. Noble men geaeroufly ex- 
tend a beckoning hand, and point to fur- 
ther attentions yet more di(tingutfhing, 
and to an intercourfe yet more intimate. 
is the Jew ungrateful to their li- 
berality ?™Their infiructions, we fee, are 
not loft. That which has hither'o been 
held facred, is ftripped of its bufk and 
fhell,- and diffegted to the very core. 
Happy the youth, who with the hufk 
and fhell throws not away the kernel; and 
who, in loofing the awe with which, dur- 
ing childncod, he was infpired for the 
whole of his religion, lets go only the 
conventional and the accidental, but binds 
clofer about him the valuable and the ef- 
fential !”’ 
The writers then proceed to make a 
confeflion of faith, which includes a be- 
lief, 1, in the only God; 2, in the im- 
materiality and natural immortality of the 
foul; 3 and 4, in the perpetual tendency 
(«vr rather intendednefs) of each and all 
toward (for) progreffive improvement, 
and in a retributive fuffering which fol 
lows every backfliding; 5, in the even- 
tual felicity of all. We acknowledge, 
however, {ays the authors, that thefe opi- 
pions may require turther epuration. We 
are willing to liften to the infiractions of 
Tolevation of the Jews in Pruffiai 
{Auguft l, 
any; and fhall be thankful to the fage 
who teaches us better to interpret the 
voice of ages and the oracles of reafon. 
They then draw an hiftorical fketch of the 
fortunes of the Jewifh nation, and of the 
Mofaical inftitutions; and pals on to a 
definite furvey of their aétual civil condi- 
tion. 
At length comes the fpecific object of 
the letter, which is to inquire, what form 
of religious or civil teft muft they fub- 
{crioe, in order to be admitted to all the 
privileges. of Chriftians, of proteftants and 
of citizens? They infinuate a willingnefs 
to throw off the ceremonial law, and to 
venerate the prophet of the Chriitians as 
their redeemer from this bondage, and as 
a preacher of the natural and true reli- 
gion. They hint at the conformity of their 
opinion with that of a numerous, avowed, 
and enlightened portion of profeffing 
Chriftians; and then afk the venerable 
provoft: ‘* Had you been born among us, 
and thought yourtelf in confcience obliged 
toa public ftep hke ours, what terms 
would you have thought it becoming to 
fuggelt, and expedient for the govern- 
ment to grant?” 
This letter was printed by Provoft 
Teller, with an advertifement, purporting 
that a reply would, after due deliberation, 
be publithed. 
The anfwer is not in fo good a tafte as 
the jetter. It is, indeed, hinted that, to 
throw off the ceremonial law, and to af- 
fume Chriftianity, are not things fo very 
different as the Houfe-fathers apprehended. 
On this topic much theological fubtlety 
and reference to Paul's Epiftle for the 
Ephefians is {quandered. The remarks 
are given in a perfonal rather than in an 
official charaéter, and breathe a fpirit of 
individual tolerance and charity; but they 
carefully feparate from the feelings of the 
man the duty of the magiftrate. Some ob- 
jeCtions are intimated, which the ftate may 
yet feel to concede an entire political equa- 
lity ; but a wifh occurs at the conclufion, 
that wife and good men may “in fome 
moment of favourable political weather,” 
bring to bear the defirable reconcilia~ 
tion. 
M. Deluc, and many others, have 
printed comments on thefe letters. While 
their own books were untouched, the Jews 
were paffive {pectators of the Chriftian con- 
troverfies ; the Antinomians feem to have 
alarmed them into Socinianifm. Specula- 
tion is always a itep before practice: go- 
vernments will not become tolerant un- 
til it is too late to fave religion. 
DES- 
