presented me with this volume, and who is himself a
Hebrew: he is a Church; there is the Latin Church, which was founded
by a Hebrew; there is the Armenian Church, which belongs to an Eastern
nation who, like the Hebrews, have lost their country and are scattered
in every clime; there is the Abyssinian Church, who hold us in great
honour, and practise many of our rites and ceremonies; and there are the
Greek, the Maronite, and the Coptic Churches, who do not favour us,
but who do not treat us as grossly as they treat each other. In this
perplexity it may be wise to remain within the pale of a church older
than all of them, the church in which Jesus was born and which he never
quitted, for he was born a Jew, lived a Jew, and died a Jew; as became
a Prince of the House of David, which you do and must acknowledge him to
have been. Your sacred genealogies prove the fact; and if you could not
establish it, the whole fabric of your faith falls to the ground.'

'If I had no confidence in any Church,' said Tancred, with agitation, 'I
would fall down before God and beseech him to enlighten me; and, in this
land,' he added, in a tone of excitement, 'I cannot believe that the
appeal to the Mercy-seat would be made in vain.'

'But human wit ought to be exhausted before we presume to invoke divine
interposition,' said the lady. 'I observe that Jesus was as fond of
asking questions as of performing miracles; an inquiring spirit will
solve mysteries. Let me ask you: you think that the present state of my
race is penal and miraculous?'

Tancred gently bowed assent.

'Why do you?' asked the lady.

'It is the punishment ordained for their rejection and crucifixion of
the Messiah.'

'Where is it ordained?'

'Upon our heads and upon our children be his blood.'

'The criminals said that, not the judge. Is it a principle of your
jurisprudence to permit the guilty to assign their own punishment?
They might deserve a severer one. Why should they transfer any of the
infliction to their posterity? What evidence have you that Omnipotence
accepted the offer? It is not so announced in your histories. Your
evidence is the reverse. He, whom you acknowledge as omnipotent, prayed
to Jehovah to forgive them on account of their ignorance. But, admit
that the offer was accepted, which in my opinion is blasphemy, is the
cry of a rabble at a public execution to bind a nation? There was
a great party in the country not disinclined to Jesus at the t