idolaters, it is their bounden duty to say so. But then we
ask in reply, if Christianity be idolatry, how is it that its
doctrine is more pure, more merciful, more charitable, and
more rational than that of the oral law? Christianity has
no ceremonial laws to be observed by those who feast together
with harlots—Christianity nowhere sentences the poor
to flogging, because they partake of what God allows—Christianity
nowhere represents God as an unjust and
impartial judge, who looks not at moral good and evil, but
at a man's nation. Christianity teaches that true religion is
that of the heart—that at the day of judgment mercilessness
will obtain no mercy, and that God is the God of the
spirits of all flesh. Let then the lovers of the oral law
account for this fact, that Christianity, which they call
idolatry, teaches a doctrine that glorifies God and benefits
all men; whilst Judaism, which they say is the truth,
teaches a doctrine dishonouring to God, oppressive to the
Jews, and degrading to all other nations. Some Jews will
reply, that Christians are not idolaters; then we ask such
persons how they can pretend to profess Judaism, which has
asserted the contrary for so many centuries, and also acted
upon this principle, prohibiting all intercourse, as much as
Moses did in the land of Canaan? Either Christianity is
idolatry, or Judaism is false; there is no alternative. Every
Jew, therefore, who asserts that Christians are not idolaters,
pronounces of Judaism that it is false. Let all such persons
then deal honestly, let them renounce what they do not
believe; and let them denounce to their brethren what
they think it necessary to disavow before Christians. They
are bound to do this, not only to renounce the injustice with
which the oral law treats Christians, but to take away the
cruel and oppressive yoke which bows down their brethren
the Jews. If Christianity be not idolatry, then all the laws
concerning (Hebrew characters), "wine of libation," are utterly out of
place in this country. Then poor Jews may accept of
Christian bounty, and the offices of kindliness and charity
may be practised between Jew and Christian. Those Jews
therefore who profess to believe that Christians are not
idolaters, are bound, by their obligations both to Jews and
Christians, to protest against the oral law, and publicly to
disavow all belief in it. So long as they do not make such
a public disavowal, their professions of love and charity
and respect for the religion of Christians must be looked
upon as hollow and insincere. So long as they make
such professions, contrary to the oral law, and yet frequent
the worship of the synagogue, which asserts the divinity of
the oral law, they must be regarded either as persons who
have motives for professing what they do not feel, or who
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