24

Pharifees.

[CENT, I these corrupt and vicious principles were added feveral fuperftitious notions concerning the divine • nature, magic, invifible powers, &c. which were either derived from the example of neighbouring nations, or imbibed in the Babylonish captivity. The inhabitants of Palestine, divided into Jewish and Samaritan, were rent by inteftine commotions, and each regarded the oppofite fect with averfion and abhorrence. Even the directors in religious concerns, whofe fuperior knowledge fhould have. exalted them above the ignorant multitude, con, tributed to their errors, by dividing into a great variety of fects; which, though generally agreed in the ceremonial part of the Jewish religion, were involved in continual disputes.

D

The principal fects which arofe among the Jews, between the time of their return from Babylon, and the Advent of Chrift, were the Pharifees, the Sadducees, and the Effenes. Of these the most confiderable in number, learning, and influence was that of the Pharifees *. They afferted the im, mortality of the body and foul, and a ftate of future retribution; opinions which, however compounded with prejudice and error, muft tend in no inconfiderable degree to regulate their conduct and purify their minds. Yet were they far from having

"Ac

*St. Paul bears them this honourable teftimony: cording to the ftraiteft (the exacteft) fect of our religion," fays he, "I lived a Pharifee."

attained

CENT. 1.]

Sadducees.

25

attained to pure and fubftantial virtue: they were oftentatious, not devout; they were auftere, not virtuous; and concealed their inward pollution under the garb of aufterity and devotion. To the written law they added another, which had been received by oral tradition; a compound of falfehood, fuperftition, and abfurdity, which they regarded as giving efficacy to the general precept, by pointing out its precife application and ex

tent.

The Sadducees were of opinion, that the rewards and punishments denounced by God, were merely temporal; and that they neither wanted nor received any divine affiftance for the performance of their duty. They denied the existence of angels and fpirits, and afferted that there was no refurrection, no future ftate, and that the whole man perished at death.-Opinions which were fo little calculated to difcourage vice, and promote virtue, were the certain and natural affociates of immorality and corruption.-Opinions fo favourable to temporal indulgencies were likely" to be adopted by moft of thofe who were endued with the means and opportunities of gratifying their licentious propenfities; and accordingly we find that the Sadducees enjoyed the favour and protection of the great, while the followers of the Pharifees, though more numerous, were generally in a fubordinate rank. The Sadducees were the most violent perfecutors and oppreffors of the

Apostles,

.

26

Elenes.

[CENT. I. Apostles, who in their preaching conftantly infifted upon the doctrines of the resurrection, a day of judgment, and a state of retribution; whilft the Pharisees were more inclined to protect and fupport them, and a confiderable portion of the firft Jewish converts to Christanity, appears to have confifted of the latter fect *.

Profeffedly devoted to contemplation and filence, the Effenes affected the utmost privacy and folitude, obferved the most abfurd aufterities, and practifed the most fantastical and fuperftitious obfervances. In oppofition to the Pharifees, who maintained that the rewards and punishments of the law extended both to the foul and body, and that their duration was prolonged in a future state; and to the Sadducees, who affigned to them the fame period that concludes this tranfitory existence; the Effenes afferted, that future rewards extended alone to the foul, and that the body was a mafs of

Jortin's Remarks, vol. i. p. 176. 2d edition. Many weighty reasons have been affigned why our Lord should more frequently cenfure the Pharifees than the other fectaries, From their numbers and influence, it was expedient that a reform fhould begin amongst them. It was also proper that the people fhould be cautioned against repofing too great a confidence in them. A further reason was, that many of the errors of this fect infinuated themselves immediately into the Chriftian religion, and remain in it to this day. On the other hand, the feet of Sadducees foon declined. After the destruction of ferufalem, moft of them who efcaped that calamity, became Apoftates and Pagans, a change for which they were well prepared.

3

malignant

Jewish Seminaries.

27

CENT. I.] malignant matter, and the prifon of the immortal fpirit. In process of time they fubdivided into fects, each of which was remarkable for the abfurdity and folly of its refpective tenets; and while by abstinence, mortification, and fanaticism, they affected to raife the foul to God, they regarded piety as incompatible with focial affection, and diffolved, by this pernicious doctrine, thofe bonds which compofe the ftrength and happiness of human life.

Amidft this general corruption, however, both in doctrines and manners, the Jews were in general zealously attached to the law of Mofes, and ' anxious to preserve that respect and veneration which were due to its divine authority. A number of additional ceremonies had, indeed, by degrees, been introduced into their religious worthip; but ftill they refpected their original infti

tutions.

Public feminaries for the inftruction of youth, both in religion and science, were erected in the most populous fituations, over which men of profeffed abilities and learning prefided. Equally miferable with their neighbours the Samaritans, equally the victims of difcord and faction, they were still not fo totally funk in corruption as the worshippers upon Mount Gerizim, who had in

* Spencer De Legibus Hebræorum, vol. ii. book 4th, p. 1089 edit. Cambridge.

terwoven

28

Herod.

[CENT. I. terwoven the errors and idolatry of the Pagans with the facred doctrines of Judaifm.

Civil caufes concurred with the errors and abufes of religion, to complete the miferies of this infatuated people, to convince them of the neceffity of ⚫a Deliverer, and (had they not unhappily mistaken the nature of the Meffiah's kingdom) to prepare them for the reception of the gofpel difpenfation. Subject to a governor, who was himself a tributary to the Romans, and whofe luxury and love of magnificence exhausted their treasures, while his morals and example diffused a general spirit of vice and licentioufnefs, Judea, at the time of our Lord's appearance, groaned under an accumulated load of mifery. Nor were their forrows alleviated after the death of Herod. His fons were the heirs of their father's vices no less than of his power. The two youngest, Antipas and Philip, had the jurifdiction of one half of Judea, while the other portion was allotted to their elder brother Archelaus, a profligate and corrupt prince, who haraffed the Jews with the most rigorous exactions, and at length impelled them, by his vices and mal-adminiftration, to represent their grievances to Auguftus, who punished the oppreffor by banishing him from his kingdom. This part of Judea was then reduced to the form of a province, and added to the jurifdiction of the governor of Syria; but its unhappy inhabitants, far from deriving any advantages from this arrangement, found they had ex

changed