Istorico," the author is designated as the most powerful opponent and refutant of the doctrines and dogmas of Christianity, that had ever appeared among the Jews. Indeed, an attentive perusal of the little volume cannot fail to convince us, that he was not only an able and a skilful controversialist, but an eminent biblical scholar, a man of deep and extensive research; and earnest in his investigation of truth. The grand design of his polemics, as he himself tells us, is to establish and make manifest the sublime truths of Israel's Faith, and expose and refute the erroneous views on which Christianity is founded. For this purpose his arguments are essentially based on Scripture authority, inasmuch as he derives his entire chain of proofs from apposite biblical texts, with which authorities every page of his work abounds. Arguments and opinions founded on sanctions so high and authoritative, demand our highest respect and most serious meditation. The sound and critical knowledge of the sacred language of our forefathers, for which our author was distinguished, and his perfect familiarity with Bible phraseology, obviously and emphatically enabled him to produce a more exact and accurate version of the original text, than it is possible to find in any authorised English version of the Bible. The result of this superior and decisive advantage was, that he was enabled to obtain

a clearer and more definite conception of the real meaning and purport of those obscure and difficult passages which we find dispersed throughout the Law and the Prophets, and which are so arrogantly and so constantly cited by Christian theologians in support of their creed and doctrine. Of those intricate texts, our Author has given most ample and lucid explanations, and by a train of the most logical, and conclusive reasoning, he ably and forcibly refutes the erroneous and fallacious interpretations put upon them by the opponents of Judaism. And, more forcibly to disprove the arguments of his adversaries, and demonstrate the false and untenable foundation upon which they stand, he has, in a cursory view of each book of the so-called New Testament, shown the glaring inconsistences apparent in them, and detected and exposed the manifold discrepancies subsisting among their several authors, and the endless and contradictory misquotations from the Hebrew Scriptures which appear in those writings. Thus has our Author presented his people with a wellselected compendium of religious instruction, containing those grand fundamental principles of Judaism,— namely, the belief in ONE INDIVISIBLE GOD, and THE ADVENT OF A FUTURE MESSIAH. To this mass of Scriptural knowledge let the biblical student resort, and therein he will find a most valuable aid, with an

immense economy of time and labour. To this storehouse of Scriptural information let the youth of our community also repair, and it cannot fail to afford them ample materials for their perfect conviction of the truth and purity of our holy faith, and weapons of defence against the obtrusive efforts of the overzealous proselyte-seeker, and the insidious attacks of the hireling missionary.

Such are the claims and merits, the purport and intent, of FAITH STRENGTHENED; but great and invaluable as those claims and merits are in the maintenance and elucidation of our Holy Faith, its worth and usefulness are but little known and imperfectly understood beyond the pale of the theological scholar, the work having been written in the Hebrew language. Actuated, therefore, with a wish to make its invaluable knowledge universally accessible to his Jewish brethren, the Translator has used his best endeavours to render it into the vernacular language of the country, in order that it may no longer be a sealed book, but may freely circulate among all grades and classes of the Jewish community, both in the mother country and in the colonies, and become, in the domestic circle and the private closet, a handbook, and a text authority of the principles and doctrines of our Holy Religion.

It may here be desirable to remark, that as the style of the Author was rather diffuse, and his language quaint and inharmonious, the Translator has adopted a more condensed and a more congenial phraseology. He has also omitted the superfluous repetition of the same arguments and quotations with which the original work was needlessly overlaid; as also certain epithets and harsh expressions, in which the Author, in despite of the moderation he professed, occasionally indulged; but which doubtless are referrible to the persecuting spirit of the times in which he lived. To those who are acquainted with the metaphorical style of the East, and the unadorned simplicity of European phraseology, it is unnecessary to state the difficulties attending the translation of a work like this, so as to adapt it to the taste of educated Englishmen. The difficulty of the task was further enhanced by the daily impediments to which the infirmities incident to old age cast in the way of an Octogenarian. That task, however, has been sweetened by the comfort and serenity of mind which accompany purely spiritual and religious undertakings, and has cheered on its aspirant, with the hope that his toilsome, but gratifying, undertaking, will not only tend to raise and excite a spirit of religious inquiry among all classes of the Jewish community, particularly the young and the

inexperienced, but will impart new vigour, and bring new honour on the name and profession of the Israelite.

That FAITH STRENGTHENED may realize the exalted aim of its author, must be the ardent wish of every sincere admirer of, and faithful adherent to, the sound and pure principles of that Revelation the Almighty vouchsafed to bestow on his chosen people.