thou finish it above, and the door of the ark thou fhalt place in the fide thereof with lower, fecond, and third ftories fhalt thou make it.

17.

O. And I, behold! I, will bring the flood of waters upon the earth to deftroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven, every thing which is in the earth fhall die.

P. J. And I, behold! I, bring a flood of waters upon the earth to confume all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven; every thing that is upon the earth fhall die.

18.

0. And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou fhalt enter into the ark, thou, and thy fons, and thy wife, and thy fon's wives with thee.

P. J. And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou fhalt enter into the ark, thou, and thy fons, and thy wife, and thy fon's wives with thee.

19.

0. And of every thing that liveth of all fleth two of every fort fhalt thou cause to enter into the ark to be preferved alive with thee; male and female fhall they be.

P. J. And of every thing that liveth of all flesh, two of every fort hall go into the ark to be preserved alive with thee; male and female fhall they be.

20.

0. Of fowl after their kind, and of cattle after its kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every fort shall go in unto thee to be kept alive.

P. J. Of fowl after its kind, and of cattle after its kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every fort fhall go in unto thee, through the agency of the angel who fhall lay hold upon them, and cause them to go in unto thee to be kept alive.

21.

0. And thou, take unto thyfelf of all food that is eaten, and thou fhall gather it unto thyfelf, and it fhall be for food for thee and for them. P. J. And thou, take unto thee of all food that is eaten, and it fhall be unto thee and unto them for food.

22.

O. And Noach did according to all that the Lord commanded: so did he.

P.J. And Noach did according unto all that the Lord had commanded him.

1.

R

פרקי אבות

PIRKE AVOTH;

OR THE CHAPTERS OF THE FATHERS.

CHAP. 2.

IBBI faid: Which is that right path which a man fhall chufe for himfelf? Every one which is honorable to him who walketh in

Hand.

it, and which bringeth honor to him of men. Be careful of a light precept as of a heavy one: for thou knoweft not the recompence of reward of the obfervance of the commandments: and balance the lofs arising from the violation of a commandment, with the recompence for obferving it, and the advantage of trangreffion with the harm refulting from it. Attend alfo unto three things, and thou shalt not fall into the hands of tranfgreffion. Confider what is above thee: an eye that feeth, and an ear that heareth, and that all thy deeds are written in the book.

2. Rabban Gamaliel the fon of R. Judah the Prince faid: The study of the law is beautiful when joined to an occupation; for the laboring in them both caufeth forgetfulness of fin. And all study of the law, which has not fome employment joined with it, is ultimately of no avail and draweth on fin.

And all who are engaged in public affairs fhould engage in them for the fake of God. For the merits of their fathers aflift them, and their righteousness endureth for ever. And as to you, faith God, I deem you worthy of a great reward, even as if ye had done it of yourselves.

3. Beware of thofe in power, for they draw not nigh unto a man but when their own neceflity compels them. They appear friendly at the time their intereft is advanced, but they do not stand by a man in the time of his diftrefs.

4. He was wont to fay, execute His will as thine own will; in order that He may execute thy will as his own will. Annul thine own defire on account of His will, in order that He may annul the defire of others on account of thy will. Hillel faid, Separate not thyfelf from the congrega-· tion. and confide not in thyfelf until the day of death. And país not judgment upon thy neighbour until thou art come into his fituation. Neither fpeak thou a word which cannot be heard (i. e. underflood) but one which may be heard. Neither fay thou, At my leifure I will learn; It may be thou wilt have no leisure.

5. He was wont to fay, A fool feareth not fin, neither is a man of no understanding pious. Neither doth the bathful learn, nor he that is given to anger teach: Neither doth he who frequently wandereth become wife. And in whatsoever place there are no men, do thou ftrive to play the man.

6. He also, when he faw a fkull floating on the furface of the water, faid to it: Because thou haft made others to fwim, thou now swimmeft; and the end of thofe who caused thee to fwim is, that they also thall swim. i. e. Because thou haft destroyed others thou thyself art now destroyed; and the end of thofe who defiroyed thee is, that they also shall perish.

7. He was wont to fay, He who multiplieth flesh, multiplieth worms: he who multiplieth riches, multiplieth cares: he who multiplicth wives, multiplieth forcereffes: he who multiplieth maid-servants, multiplieth wickednefs he who multiplieth man-fervants, multiplieth robbery: he who multiplieth his knowledge of the law, multiplieth life: he who multiplieth the fchool, multiplieth wifdom: he who multiplieth counfel, multiplieth prudence: he who multiplieth righteoufnefs, multiplieth peace. He who getteth a good name, getteth it unto himself. He who acquireth the words of the law, getteth unto himself the life of the world to come.

8. Rabban Jochanan the fon of Zaccai received the traditions from Hillel and Shammai. He was wont to fay; If thou haft learned the law abundantly, afcribe not merit unto thyfelf, for thereunto waft thou formed. R. Jochanan had five fcholars, and thefe were they; R. Eliezer the fon of Hircanus, and R. Jothua the fon of Chananiah, and R. Jofe the priest,

U u 2

and

and R. Simeon the fon of Nathanael, and R. Eliezer the fon of Arach. He thus pointed out their praifes. R. Eliezer the fon of Hircanus is a ciftern coated with plaifter, which loseth not a drop. R. Jofhua the fon of Chananiah, bleffed is the that bare him. Jofe the priest is devout. R. Simeon the fon of Nathanael dreadeth fin, and R. Eliezer the fon of Arach is a fountain increafing in ftrength. He was wont to fay, If all the wife men of Ifrael were in one fcale of the balance, and R. Eliezer the fon of Hircanus in the other fcale, he would outweigh them all. Abba Saul faid in his name, If all the wife men of Ifrael were in one fcale of the balance, and R. Eliezer the fon of Hircanus with them alfo, and R. Eliezer the fon of Arach in the other scale, he would outweigh them all.

9. He faid unto them: Go out, and fee which is that right way unto which a man fhouid cleave. R. Eliezer faid, A good eye, (i. e. contentment) R. Jofhua faid, A good companion. R. Jole faid, A good neighbor. R. Simlow, faid, He who forefeeth what is to come to pafs. R. Eliczer faid, A good heart. He faid to them, I prefer the words of Eliezer the fon of Arach before your words: becaufe his words are a fummary of your words. He faid unto them, Go out, and fee which is that evil way from which a man thould keep at a distance. R. Eliezer faid; An evil eye. R. Joshua faid, A wicked companion. R. Jofe faid, A bad neighbour. R. Simeon faid, He who borroweth and payeth not again. For he who borroweth from a man is as if he borrowed from God as it is written (Pf. 37. 21.) The wicked borroweth and payeth not again, but the righteous theweth mercy and giveth. R. Eliezer faid, An evil heart. He faid to them, I prefer the words of Eliezer the fon of Arach before your words, because his words are a fummary of your words.

10. These fame uttered three fentences. R. Eliezer faid, Let the glory of thy companion be dear to thee as thine own; and be not prone to wrath; and repent one day before thy death (i. e. As thou mayeft die to-morrow, repent to-day.) And warm thyfelf at the fire of the wifemen; but beware of their hot coals, left thou be burnt; for their bite is as the bite of a fox, and their fting as the fting of a fcorpion, and their hiffing as the hifling of a fiery ferpent, and all their words are as live coals of fire.

11. R. Joshua faid, An evil eye, (i. e. avarice) and wicked inclinations, and hatred towards mankind carry a man out of the world.

12. R. Jofe faid, Let the wealth of thy neighbour be dear to thee as thine own, and prepare thyfelf to learn the law fince it is not thine by inheritance. And let all thy works be done to the glory of God.

13. R. Simeon faid: Be careful in the reciting of the Shema and in prayer and at whatsoever time thou fhalt pray, make not thy prayer only a matter of courfe; but remember that there are mercies for which thou fhalt pray before the Lord: as it is written: (Joel. 2. 13.) For he is gracious and merciful, flow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil. And be not wicked in thine own eyes (i. e. Be not fo difpleafed and d'fheartered at thy wickedness, as to defpair of repentance.)

14. R. Eliezer faid, Be diligent in learning the law, that thou mayeft know what anfwer to make to the Epicurcans and confider before whose face thou workeft that thy tafk mafter is faithful, and that he will give thee a full reward for thy work.

15. R. Tarphon faid, The day is fhort, and the work is great, and the

workmen

workmen are lazy, and the reward is abundant and the mafter of the house is urgent.

1

16. He was wont to say, It is not incumbent upon thee to complete the work, neither art thou at liberty to cease from it. If thou haft learned the law abundantly, they will give unto thee an abundant reward. For faithful is thy tatk-mafter, who will give thee a full reward for thy work: and know, that the reward of the juft will be given in the world to come.

AN ESSAY UPON THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE EVIDENCE ARISING FROM EXPERIENCE.

MUCH the greateft part of the knowledge that men poffefs, is derived from experience; and by experience I understand the testimony of those perceptive powers with which our Creator has furnished the human frame: if the information conveyed through these powers to the mind cannot be relied on, the attainment of all knowledge is impoffible-Thefe powers are of two forts:

1. Thofe by which we receive fuch information as relates to the ftate of external objects (the various works of God) or to changes in this fiate.And,

2. Those by which we receive fuch information as relates to the internal ftate of our own minds, and the changes in this ftate, whether voluntary, or involuntary.

The firft of these powers, we diftinguish by the name of fenfation, the fecond by that of confciousness.

By the faculty of fenfation we become acquainted with the various works of creation, and the changes in their state.

By the faculty of confcioufnefs we become acquinted with the various operations of our mental powers, the ftate of our difpofitions, and the various acts of the will.

Now it must be observed that the knowledge attained by fenfation, can generally be communicated to other men with the fame degree of clearness, and certainty, as that with which it was originally attained: the receivers of fuch knowledge can enable other men to ascertain the REALITY of this knowledge which themselves have received, because they can fhew beyond all poffibility of doubt, that their experience is not the effect of mere imagination, by fubjecting the objects of their experience to the examination of the fenfes of other men. For unlefs general experience was regular and conftant, that is, unless the fame object uniformly excited the fame ideas, the world could not fubfift. Indeed we therefore call objects the fame because they excite the fame ideas.Accordingly,

When Dr. Stork, the celebrated phyfician at Vienna, fet forth his experience of the wonderful virtues of the hemlock, were the phyficians at London fatisfied with the mere allegations of his experience?-No such matter. Like men of fenfe they did not take his experience upon truft (as certain pious perfons would have us to take that of themselves, or their friends) but judiciously had recourse to their own. When the Doctor's experience was not confirmed by the efficacy of such hemlock as was to be gotten in England; they fent to the Doctor for fome of his own, with which he had done fuch wonders at Vienna. Equally difappointed in what was unquestionably genuine, they very properly deemed his alleged experience,

experience, to be no better than a groundless fancy: And why fo? Cer tainly, because it did not accord with their own.

When Sir Ifaac Newton made his famous experiment (the 8th of the 2d part of his first book of Opticks) to difcover the proportion of the fines of incidence to the fines of refraction in different refracting mediums, nobody doubted the refult of this experiment as related by that great mathematician and philofopher. But when Dollond tried the fame experiment in 1757, he found the refult very different, and in confequence of this difcovery, invented his famous Achromatic telescopes. But if (according to the maxim of these fame good perfons) he had entertained implicit faith in Sir Ifaac's experience, this valuable improvement had never been made. But upon certain occafions, implicit faith can be as ufeful to proteftants as to papifts.

Very different is the nature of that other fort of experience, which arifes from confcioufnefs. The knowledge received from this faculty, cannot like the former, be communicated to other men, with the fame degree of clearness, and certainty, as we ourfelves have received it. It is the knowledge of the invifible state of mind of each individual; and can no more become the knowledge of any other man, as the knowledge received by fenfation can, than the confcience, or character, or actions of any one man, can become the confcience, or character, or actions, of any other man. Such knowledge is wholly perfonal; and we can only rely upon the mere verbal affurances of those who affert, that they are in poffeffion of such internal experience: but this is not to have knowledge, it is only to have faith; i. e. it is not to have certainty, it is only to have probability, for the ground of our reliance; and of the degrees of this probability, or what is the fame thing, of the degrees of credit due to fuch affertions, every man muft judge from what he perceives in himself.

The prophets and apoftles were confcious of the knowledge communicated to their minds, by the incomprehenfible mode of infpiration; and they were confcious this knowledge fo communicated, was communicated to them by God Himfelf. Yet did Gideon require (Judges vi.) the evidence of fenfe, i. e. external, in confirmation of internal experience. But when it was requifite to afcertain to other men with perfect certainty, the reality of this internal experience, they who alleged the consciousness of fuch undiscoverable feelings, were enabled to work mirables, i. e. to call in the ad of external experience, in atteftation of their own internal experience, and thus to evince the reality of it, by an appeal to the fenfes of other men. -We may therefore fafely conclude that,

All appeals to private confcioufnefs, under the name of EXPERIENCES (which certain perfons are fo fond of relating are utterly futile: they admit of no proof whatfoever, and only tend to mislead and disturb weak, but well difpofed perfons; of this fort are all pretences to certain feelings, and to God's dealings with particular perfons in thefe days. What then must be the fenfe or modefty of those who expect a credit to be paid to pretences of internal experience, which even God Himself in the cafe of divine infpiration did not think proper to require; and who inflicted a fignal punitiment upon his own infpired meifenger for regarding fuch pretences, Kings, xiii. 18.

The Rev. David Simpfon of Macclesfield, gives an account in one of his publications, of an honeft calviniftical minifter who experienced a call to Convert the Pope. The confequence was as might be expected, according

to