f the Christ recorded in the Old Testament, his teaching and
enlightening the Gentiles with the knowledge of God, and true religion,
as applicable to Jesus, and sufficient to prove him the Messiah. Yet
supposing that this characteristic would apply to Jesus, it would not,
I think, be sufficient to prove him to be the Messiah or Christ: since
this characteristic is merely one among twenty other marks given, and
required to be found.

2. It would, it appears to me, prove Mahomet the Messiah sooner than
Jesus; since Mahomet in person converted more Gentiles to the knowledge
and worship of one God during his life time, than Christianity did in
one hundred years.

3. But what is still more to the purpose, it cannot, I conceive, apply
to Jesus at all, since he did not fulfill even this solitary
characteristic; for he did not preach to the Gentiles, but confined his
mission and teaching to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." It
was Paul who established Christianity among the Gentiles.

In p. 18, you appear to admit that all the characteristic marks of the
Messiah were not manifested in Jesus, but will be manifested at some
future period. To which a Jew might answer, by politely asking you,
whether then you do not require too much of him for the present, in
demanding faith upon credit?

But that when Jesus of Nazareth in this future time shall fulfill the
prophecies; will it not be time enough to believe him to be the Messiah?

You ask, p. 19, "was ever character more pacific than that of Jesus?
Can any religion breathe a milder temper than his? Into how many
ferocious breasts has it already infused the kindest and gentlest
spirit? And after all these considerations is Jesus to be rejected
because some prophecies which relate to his future triumphs are not yet
accomplished?" This argument I can easily conceive must have had great
weight with such a man as Mr. Channing, whose heart accords with every
thing that is mild and amiable. But after all my dear sir, what are
"all these considerations" to the purpose? Show that Jesus was as
amiable and as good as the most vivid imagination can paint; nay, prove
him to have been an angel from heaven, and it will not, it seems to me,
at all tend towards demonstrating him to be the Messiah of the Old
Testament, and if his religion was as mild as doves, and as beneficent
as the blessed sun of heaven, still I might respectfully insist, that
unless he answers to the description of