ation in Spain is great and unsuspected. I believe him, for Orobio
and Acosta, both Jews of the Peninsula, affirm that Jews
disguised as Christians, were to be found not only among the
populace of the Peninsula, but among the nobles and bishops. In
those countries (Spain and Portugal,) where the Inquisition
obliged every body to be educated as Christians, the fathers who
were secretly Jews, were accustomed, when their children came
to the years of discretion, to inform them of their descent, and to
engage them secretly to conform to the religion of their fathers. If
they found their conversion impracticable, these wretched parents
were accustomed to poison such children, to prevent their
communicating the dangerous secret to the Inquisition, which
would occasion the whole family to be burned alive. See the
Biography of Orobio and Acosta for some interesting information
upon this subject.]

[fn80 for "exonerated" read "consecrated"]

[fn81 "David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the
house of Israel, neither shall the priests the Levites want a man
before me," i. e. the house of David and the tribe of Levi shall
never be extinct, when called upon to fulfil the prophecies of the
kingdom of the Messiah, and the re-establishment of the ritual of
the temple, David will not want a man to sit upon the throne of the
house of Israel, neither will the priests the Levites want a man to
do sacrifice. And how was this to be secured, because says God,
"as the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of
the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David my servant,
and the Levites the priests that minister unto me." That this is the
sense of the phrase "shall not want a. man," is evident from the
employment of the same expression by Jeremiah in xxxv. of his
Prophecies: "Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel:
Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before
me for ever, ch. xxxv. 19. i. e. not that a particular descendant of
Jonadab the son of Rechab should always be standing in the
presence of the Lord for ever: but that he should never want a
representative, his posterity should never be cut off. It is a singular
fact that the descendants of Jonadab the son of Rechab still exist
in Arabia, preserving' the customs of their fathers; they are called
"Beni al Khaib," i. e. descendants of Heber. See Jud. ch. iv. 11.

To these considerations it may be added, that Jeremiah himself