the poor of the flock that waited upon me, knew that it was the work of the Lord.

the Bible has it, "cut asunder.” It means the entire destruction of the government of Israel and their ceasing from being a people, which took place in the days of Hoshea, the son of Elah, as recorded ii. Kings, ch. xviii. The prophecy tells us, This was done, that I might break my covenant which I made with all nations." The covenant, was indeed, only made with Israel, and on the part of all the na tions God covenanted: that they should not harm Israel, the same as I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field; in either case, the beasts or the nations, are in truth, no parties: God covenants for them, with the nations, as with the beasts of the field. This covenant being broke, the poor of the flock, the pious and virtuous Israelîtes, knew that it was the word which the Lord had fully warned the nation he would perform.

12. And I said unto them, If you think fit, pay me my wages, and if not! forbear, and they stinted the weight of my wages to thirty worthies. And the Lord said unto me, cast it to the potter, the precious worth, wherewith I may make worthy their rebellion.

Israel being now broke from being a people, God called on them, the remainder of the nation, that is the Jews, he called on them to pay him his wages, for being their shepherd, the wages that God requires of mankind, is that they should be virtuous, and pious; and he here required the proper return

for his care and attention to them and their affairs; but the generation was so wicked, that only thirty precious worthy men, such as Ezekiel, Daniel, and his companions, could be found, in consequence, the Lord said unto me, to the prophet Zechariah, for he was speaking of the time the prophet lived in. Therefore, the Lord said unto the prophet himself, cast it to the potter: the language is now changed from the past, of which he was hitherto treating, to the present, of which he now speaks; cast it to the potter, now there was no potter in the house of the Lord! Scott, who feels all difficulties as he goes along, coneludes the prophet brought the potter into the temple for the purpose of throwing the money at him, which he had received as the wages of his prophetic office. For even Scott will have his doubts of Matthew's explanation, the real meaning of the passages is, apply it, to elucidate the parable of the potter, with which Zechariah was well acquainted. It is on record in Jeremiah, his contemporary, chap. xviii. 6-7 &c. where God says, "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as the potfer? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are

ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build, and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then will I repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them." Let the worth of these worthies be applied to elucidate this parable, that I may forgive their tresspasses for the sake of the worth of these thirty righteous, vituous, and pious men.

The prophet who was ordered to make the application, applies it to the house of the Lord, that the second temple should be built, whereby forgiveness might come to the nation.

14. And I cut down my other staff, even Bands, in order, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

This done, I cut down, destroy. ed the kingdom of the house of David, in order that Israel should not join them and become one people. I gave them up to the

Chaldeans who taking the Jews captives to Babylon, rendered nugatory all plans of Israel's return to Judah.

15-16-17. And the Lord said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still; but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces. Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

The word translated foolish is

its meaning is of folly, a shepherd of follies, of nonsense; in the verse 17, he is called, " shepherd of the strange, or idol God. The Bible translation hath it, "Idol shepherd;" he conse quently, must be the head of an idolatrous religion; his government must also be highly deleter ours and persecuting to all the sheep, whether Jews or Gentiles. Protestant divines, need not be told what hierarchy is here intended by the prophet, they have also severely felt his right arm, and have been instrumental in paralhis arm will be entirely dried up,

izing it, and well know, that finally and his right eye utterly darkened. I shall consequently, leave to them the application of these two verses, confident it will loose none of its force in their hands.

BEING A DEFENCE OF JUDAISM AGAINST ALL ADVERSA RIES, AND PARTICULARLY AGAINST THE INSIDIOUS

ATTACKS OF

ISRAEL'S ADVOCATE.

VOL. II. 10th month, TYVATH, DECEMBER, 5585. NO. 9

"Be not thou envious of the men of DETERIORATION, neither desire to be with them: For their hearts meditate destruction, and their lips talk perversion. Prov.xxiv

EXAMINATION OF ST. MATTHEW.

Continued from page 413.

CHAP. XXVII. Verse 35-And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.

The translators of the Bible appear to have been, ashamed of Matthew. In many of his perversions, they were willing to countenance him, and to partake; and often where he said nothing, have they been as forward as he is, in other places, to pervert the words of the living God! of the Lord of hosts our God! But here they will not go all lengths with him. He, appears to apply this psalm to Jesus of Nazareth only: I mean the xxii. psalm, and consequently puts these words, "My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" into his mouth, as applying the psalm to himself. At the same time, I must notice, he appears again to have been a wonderful Jew! for he is not acquainted with his own mother tongue, he translates the original Hebrew, correctly into Greek, "My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" Which shows plainly, he was a Grecian, or a good Greek scholar; but in his own mother tongue, he misquoted the Hebrew; the translation is correct, but the original is wrong, and means no such thing, as he has translated. There is scarcely a word correct! He writes Eli, Eli, David writes Ilee, Ilee; he writes Lama, David writes Lomma; he writes Sabachthani, David writes Ngazavtani; which shews plainly, that he took the Hebrew from some

עזבתני,brew

one else; it is not his own, or he would have made it to answer to the Greek, or have made the Greek to answer to the Hebrew. The translation is correct, for the words of the psalm, but not for the words of Matthew and which never could have happened, if he had been a Jew

:

From this mo

of those days, whose vernacular tongue was Hebrew. ment, I set him down as a Greek, and no Jew at all. He was not acquainted with his own mother tongue! he was not acquainted with the manners and customs of Jews, as he would have been, if a Jew. He throughout, writes like a Gentile, a Grecian, and not like a Jew! He has here, himself, been imposed upon for his Hebrew words do not mean what his Greek words do! In Greek, he makes Jesus call upon God, and in Hebrew, upon Eli, a man! certainly not God! In Greek, he has it, "forsaken me;" in Hebrew, he has it Sabachthani !

sacrificed me! as to the the Lama, can not mean any thing but Lomma; wherefore, and here even, I have tried to bring it near to something like what he wants, but spell the word in Hebrew, Shabachthani, and which only differs in a dot over a letter, thus: or as he writes n the meaning then is, Praised me, so that he makes Jesus say: Eli, Eli, why hast thou praised me!

Again, he tells us, verse 45, "Now there was darkness over all the land, from the sixth hour until the ninth hour." And this I really, and firmly believe was the case. He has, through a mistake, told the certain, the undeniable truth; for this I have myself seen, it was so last night, and has been the case every night from the sixth hour, that is about 12 o'clock, or midnight, to about three o'clock in the morning. But I rather think, although it was as dark as night, for it was night; yet, let it be remembered, that it was full moon, so that it was not pitch dark, even if it was cloudy. But Matthew means it was dark from about mid-day to three in the afternoon. Is it not therefore evident, that he was a Greek? He begins to count the hours from morning; if he had been a Jew, he would have begun at sun-set. He was certainly a Greek, an arrant Grecian; and pretending to be a Jew makes him more than I care to say.

Again, he says, verse 62, "Now the next day that FOLLOWED the day of the preparation." Would a Jew write so? He would not: neither did the writer rightly understand the subject he was treating of; the day that followed the day of the preparation, was the first day of the feast; because the day of preparation is the day before the feast. But he, poor uninformed Grecian, saw it was a busy day with the Jews, and therefore, thought it was the feast; and the day of the feast was a quiet day, he therefore thought it was of no note: and calls it the

day that followed the day of the preparation! * Yet, what appears strangest of all, according to Matthew's account, he partook of the pass over with his disciples, and was crucified on the day after! which must have been the first day of the feast, which began the evening before, and the day after he was crucified, was Saturday; for ......ians hold he was crucified on Friday: so that this day of sealing the grave, must have been two days after the day of the preparation! as such, the story is not reconcileable to itself! †

Again, I did not know that the Pharisees were such wicked people! as to break the Sabbath so egregiously. But it is Matthew's story, not theirs; indeed, the day of crucifixion is also a Sabbath,! and an holy convocation, on which Jews do no work! But he will have the service of the Temple was neglected by the priests that day! No wonder then that the holy convocation was also forgotten by the whole city! No wonder that he tells us, without blushing, that the Pharisees went to Pilate on the Sabbath! and sealed the grave also, on the Sabbathday! He that will believe Matthew to have been a Jew, will belive the rest: will believe any thing.

And what a

Since I have Matthew before me, let us consider the 57th verse: "Now when even was come." What wickedness! did not the burial take place before sundown? What wicked Pharisees! according to law, he ought to have been taken down before sunset. wicked Jew this Joseph of Arimathea must have been! to bury him on the Sabbath; for when even was come, the Sabbath had begun, I mean, the Jews' Sabbath, not the Grecian Sabbath, begin that when you please, thank God, we know nothing of it. I wonder there was no disturbance among the people, for it all took place on the feast day! He was, according to Matthew's account, taken on the feast day,

*This shows the Gentilism, or rather Paganism of the writer of the tract, which goes by the name of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. The Pagan festivals were kept in noise, confusion, merry-making, riot, and debauch: all was bustle on their festivals: the day previous to the Jews festivals is all hurry and apparent hilary, marketing, and preparing for the festival, which itself, is observed and kept in a quiet, sober, and religious manner, as a Sabbath, without the least noise. Protestants have very properly, introduced the keeping of their Sunday, after the manner of the Jews Sabbath; while in Catholic conntries, the Sunday is still observed after the manner of a Pagan festival.

† And here I must ask ......ians, to explain to us, how it is possible, that the first day of the feast of passover, can be on friday? and although, from the Evangelists' it so appears, I am bold to say, it is an impossibility! The first day of the feast of Passover cannot come on either, Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. This objection alone is sufficient, to give a distrust, of the whole account. The Calendar, was settled long before Herods' time, and never needs amendment.