The first series from the pen of Levi stimulated Cumberland in the “Observer,” a periodical, comprising essays, in imitation of Addison and Steele’s “Spectator,” to participate in the controversy. (“Observer,”’ Nos. 61—66,) Cumberland seeks to learn how much truth lies in the statement of the “deistical writers,” the proponents of English Deism, that right reason prevailed in the world before the coming of Jesus. He pays a tribute to the Jews, “a peculiar people’” who had preserved the worship of the true and only God: “whilst all the known world were idolaters by establishment, the Jews alone were Unitarians upon system.” He speaks of Jewish history in commendable terms, saying it is “most wonderful,” “a very interesting object for our contemplation,” “a most surprising change of incidents to which the annals of no other people upon earth, can be said to bear resemblance,” statements which reflect his later opinions of “Exodiad.”
But Cumberland is quick to combat the arguments of David Levi, from whose letters to Dr. Priestly he often
