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since I commenced speaking it, I have been actively and constantly engaged in the work of the Lord, which has not left me as much time as I could have wished to attend more strictly to the rules of rhetoric, and therefore humbly request the reader to attend more to the matter than to the style and composition of the following letters.

One object which I have constantly kept in view is, to show that the fundamental doctrines of our holy religion are neither “cunningly devised fables," nor "the inventions of modern priestcraft," but that they have been revealed in the Old Testament, and believed by the ancient people of God, and have been taught by Christ and his apostles in the New Testament, only in a fuller and clearer manner.

I have addressed these letters to Benjamin, my own brother, merely as a representative of all my Jewish brethren, concerning whom I can adopt the language of the great apostle of the Gentiles, if not as feelingly, yet I trust as sincerely, in declaring, "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, (for I did wish that myself were accursed from Christ,*) for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the

* Perhaps few passages have been considered more difficult to be understood than this. But the mind of the apostle may be easily known; 1. if the second and third verses are read without the clause "for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ;" 2dly. let the original word Euchomén, the imperfect middle voice, be translated I did wish, instead of I" could," i. e. before my conversion; 3dly. let this sentence be read in a parenthesis, as a reason why Paul felt and expressed greater sympathy for his brethren than any other of the apostles did. As if he had said, "they never hated Christ as I did; for before my conversion I was as bad as my unbelieving brethren are. For like them I did wish myself accursed from

flesh: who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen." Rom. 9: 1-5. Neither are these letters written for the Jews only, but also for Christians of every denomination. The variety of truth contained in them is made so plain, and is in itself so interesting and important, that I hope the work will prove exceedingly useful as a companion in Bible classes, a text book to candidates for the Gospel ministry, and a complete system of divinity for pious families.

Firmly believing that " Paul may plant and Apollos water, but God alone can give the increase," and that "it is not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord," I earnestly pray that the Lord in infinite mercy may make the truths contained in the following letters "the wisdom and the power of God unto salvation to every" reader, "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

Christ; i. e. I abhorred the idea of believing in him, or as being considered one of his disciples; and therefore, by sad experience, I can sympathize with them more than others." He who has just been rescued from a dangerous fit of sickness feels more for a sick person than he who never knew what sickness means. Hence even the Son of God himself needed to be tempted and tried, that he might be able to succor them that are tempted.

Brooklyn, New-York, March, 1835.

THE AUTHOR.

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God alone immutable. Man left to his own free will. Adam un-
der obligations to obey. Human nature changed. The cause
unknown by reason. But is revealed. This change properly
called a Fall. The Tempter. Moved by envy and hatred.
His subtlety and art in the temptation. Attacked the woman
rather than the man. The instrument he used. The grada.
tion of the temptation. The immediate effects on our first pa-
rents. The curse of the law. Loss of the image of God. Filled
with guilt and shame. Driven out of Paradise. Hard labor.
Pain and danger in child-bearing. Aggravation of their sin.
Complication of sins.

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A pleasure to bring good news. A scriptural account of the Me-
diator's appointment. The reality proved from passages of

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