Rabbi Mercado. You are seeking the truth, but do you think that you have already found it?

I. I have found one great truth, and it is this, That Jesus is the Christ; that he is the Son of God. That that Jesus was to come to his brethren, and will come again; and the Jews will come again to Jerusalem.

Rabbi Mercado. The Old Testament contains the seed sown-it is a figure of some other thing.

1. The New Testament is contained, and hidden, or rather revealed in it.

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Rabbi Mercado. I will appoint a day when I myself and the other rabbies will meet together and talk on this subject.

Signor Caviglia, from Geneva, a captain of a ship of war, who labours now in the pyramids, called on me, in company with Signor Nissoli, Chancellor of the Austrian Consul. Both these gentlemen are attached to the philosophy of Pythagoras, and the writings of St. Martin and Bohme. They advised me not to converse with common Jews, but only with the learned and wise. They told me, as soon as Socrates began to teach the common people, he was put to death; and we must know that Christ himself conversed with some in parables, but with others, not.

I replied, that I must entirely reject the advice, not to go among common Jews, for that philosophy and the knowledge of God must never become the monopoly of any certain class of people. Jacob Bohme, a common shoemaker, had more knowledge of Scripture than Kant and Leibnitz. Christ manifested himself to publicans and sinners, and to "babes." I love Pestalozzi and Fellenberg, and Lancaster on this very account, that they imitate Christ in this point, by instructing the lower class of people.

The Jews are now very stormy; more than fifty Jews at once entered the Consul's house to-day, with the firm design of taking New Testaments in despite of their rabbies. The door-keeper of the Consul was afraid to let

them come to me, until I told him he might suffer them to come. I told them that their rabbi told me he would give a letter for me to every one whom he thought able to understand Hebrew. They replied, that I myself should examine them. I did this, and said to those who understood Hebrew, that they should go to their rabbi, and tell him, that I had examined them, and wished him to give them permission to take New Testaments from me. They entreated me for more than an hour, but I refused it to them with heart-breaking grief, on account of the promise I had given to the rabbi. I told them, that they should come to me again on the Wednesday, and if the rabbi did not give them letters for me, I should perceive that he did not intend to do it, and should give them New Testaments and Bibles without hesitation.

Oct. 23. Tuesday.-Girolamo Maspurgo, the Jewish banker at Cairo, recommended to me a Jew from Livorno, who wishes to read the books I carry about. I told him, he should bring me a letter from the rabbi; he replied, that he was not under the jurisdiction of the rabbi at Cairo, but under the protection of the Austrian Consul. I gave him, therefore, a Bible, New Testament, and tracts, without hesitation. A number of Germans attended my sermons on Sunday.

John Carne, Esq., and — Clarke, Esq., nephew of the learned Dr. Clarke, came back from Upper Egypt. I shall proceed on my journey, if the Lord please, in company with Mr. Carne, but Mr. Clarke goes back to England. I cannot express the joy and happiness I felt, when I saw these two English gentlemen.

I said to Mahomed Effendi (Mr. English), It is impossible you can conscientiously defend the life of Jesus according to the account given by Mahomed in the Koran. Let us hear the Koran after your own quotation: The Jews devised a stratagem against him; but God devised a stratagem against them; and God is the best deviser of stratagem; for that they have not believed on Jesus, and

have spoken against Mary a grievous calumny, and have said, Verily we have slain Christ Jesus the Son of Mary, the apostle of God; yet they slew him not, neither crucified him, but he was represented by one in his likeness, &c. &c. According to Mahomed, Jesus was not crucified, and you have often told me, that the words of Daniel, "the Messiah shall be cut off," is a decisive passage.

Mahomed Effendi. It may mean, that he was suddenly taken from the earth.

I. It signifies absolutely, a violent cutting off out of the land of the living, by a violent death inflicted upon somebody. Gen. xvii. 14. "The uncircumcised child shall be cut off," (5). Exodus xii. 15, "That soul shall be cut off," (1). Numbers xv. 30, 31, xix. 13, &c. and Isaiah liii. 8, "He was cut off out of the land of the living." These passages decide the point in question; therefore one must be false, either the Old Testament, the authority of which is admitted by you, or the Koran. He, the Messiah, exclaimed on the cross," My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He, the Messiah, it is, who saith, "They have pierced my hands and my feet." "They shall look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn." If they had hanged a likeness of him, (Judas Iscariot, as the Mahomedans suppose,) why should Israel look to Judas? You try to get over the difficulty, by observing, that many Christians have believed thus; but it is not the question, whether many Christians believed it, but whether the account of the Koran is true, and agrees with the Old Testament, which we observe is not the case.

Mahomed Effendi. It is not to be denied that I find a difficulty in reconciling it with the Old Testament. And after all, I never could be a Christian according to the school of Paul, who asserts, that the Gentiles are not obliged to keep the law.

I. That the Gentile may be accepted by God, without the law of Moses, is a doctrine taught by Solomon. 1 Kings viii. 41, "Moreover, concerning a stranger that

is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name's sake; for they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm; when he shall come and pray toward this house; hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name to fear thee, as do thy people Israel." Moreover we do not find in the Old Testament that we are justified by the law, and, therefore, how may we be justified?

Mahomed Effendi. By repentance.

1. How can you repent, with a heart deceitful and desperately wicked; how can you bow down before the Most High God? We are by nature children of sin, conceived in sin by the mother, forth brought in the image of a rebellious Adam, " Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." (Genesis v. 3.) The seed of the woman was, of consequence, necessary for us, which "bruised the serpent's head:" and to him we must look, who was typified by that "lamb without blemish."

Dear Mahomed Effendi, I know that you are not happy in your opinion; renounce Mahomed! go with me to England; I would leave the Jews behind, in order to be, by the grace of the Lord, an instrument in saving your soul. I will show you a letter of one of my Christian friends in England, and tell me whether ever a zealous Mahomedan could speak in this manner. I took out the letter that was written to me before I left happy England, and read to him the whole of it; when we arrived at the following passage of the letter, But you have a God and Father to whom you may carry all your griefs, all your wants; and to him I commit you, with truly brotherly affection, remaining ever, your most faithful friend.' I say when I read this passage of the letter, we both, Mahomed Effendi and myself, shed abundance of tears.

Mahomed Effendi. Yes, a good Christian is better than a good Mussulman. Pray for me, and if I ever can per

suade myself that Mahomed was a mere enthusiast, I will renounce his religion at the risk of my life.

I have introduced Mr. Carne, to some of the most respectable Jews, and to Don Raphael, who has written to Henry Drummond, Esq. John Bayford, Esq. Professor Lee, and the Rev. Charles Simeon. Received a kind letter from Professor Lee,

Oct. 25. Thursday. Rabbi Solomon Wilna, residing at Jerusalem, called on me, and wished to take leave as he was going to Alexandria. I met with the son of the famous Rabbi Joseph Ashkenas, who resides at Jerusalem; and for whom I have got letters of introduction. He told me, that I should be delighted to converse with his old father, when at Jerusalem, for I should find him a great phi·losopher, and learned in the law.

Oct. 26. Friday. Mr. Clarke, who intended to proceed on his journey from Cairo to Alexandria, and from thence to England, has determined to accompany Mr. Carne and myself to mount Sinai. We have already got our firmans and letters of introduction from the Greek patriarch, for the convent upon mount Sinai.

This evening I drank tea with Mr. Carne and Mr. Clarke, and read to them the xxviiith, xxixth, xxxist, and xxxiiid chapters of Deut. Deut. xxix. 9, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed, belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law."

Oct. 27. Saturday.-Mahomed Effendi called on me, and told me, that he would now read the New Testament again, and he hopes he may read it with a better spirit than before: he said I had not solved all the difficulties, but had spoken to his heart, and that he perceived by this, that Christianity speaks to the heart, which is not the case with the Mahomedan religion. The Mahomedan trembles and fears.

I. Friend, pray; and you will perceive and experience