Rhabdomancy, or consulting by staves, is mentioned in Hosea iv. 12; where it is said, "My people ask counsel at their stocks, or images; and their staff (p mekel) declareth unto them." Maimonides says, that in this kind of divination, they snatched a staff, leaned upon it thoughtfully, or struck the ground with it, till they imagined they had obtained the wished-for response. They also drew omens from the side on which the staff fell, as to the direction of their journey; or whether they ought to undertake it or not: and they usually made this trial" at the parting of the way, at the head of two ways," as Ezekiel mentions; where roads separated, or crossed each other.

Making bright the arrows was used by the king of Babylon, as a kind of divination. That was the preparatory step. They next marked upon them the names of the cities, intended to be attacked; put them promiscuously into a quiver; and drew them by lots, to determine the order in which they should attack the cities. This was certainly very unlike a regular campaign; but it marked the self confidence of the monarch, and the oscillation of eastern councils. The Afghauns practise this kind of divination at the present day.

b

Consulting by images is also mentioned by Ezekiel, as having been resorted to by the king of Babylon. The original word is terephim, and it probably resembled those in use among the Jews, which were a small kind of cherubim, used as penates or household gods.

a De Idololatriâ, cap. x. sect. 7. b Prideaux, Connex. A.A.C. 590. Elphinstone's Cabul, book ii. ch. 5. d Ezek. xxi. 21.

a

Looking into the liver was also practised by the king of Babylon, and was a very common mode of divination.b

We find soothsaying mentioned in Dan. ii. 27, and the ordinary meaning of the word, in the English language is to predict future events; but the original word gezerin, denotes those particularly who pretended to foretell future events, by cutting up and inspecting the entrails of animals. They corresponded, therefore, with the inspectors of the liver in the preceding particular.

Thus much concerning the very humiliating state in which the heathens were as to religion; and the criminality of the Jews, in leaving the worship of the true God, to follow the superstitious practices of their heathen neighbours.

SECT. IV.

Jewish Sects, and lesser Distinctions, in our Saviour's Days.

Enmity between Jews and Samaritans accounted for. Sadducees, their origin and tenets: Pharisees, their origin and tenets; this sect the most numerous and popular.-The Essenes, practical and contemplative. The Herodians.-Chief priests; Scribes, their office, and how our Lord's teaching differed from theirs.-The elders, lawyers, and publicans.

BEFORE the revolt of the ten tribes, the Jews had no other difference in religious matters, than what arose from the temporally and spiritually minded;

a Ezek. xxi. 21.

b Potter's Antiq. of Greece, book ii. ch. 14. Adam's Roman Antiq. art. Sacred Rites.

the one observing the letter of the law, and the other endeavouring to enter into its spirit. But after that time, the Jews and Samaritans publicly and perpetually differed from each other. Every one who reads the sacred history will perceive this, and the grounds of the enmity that subsisted between them were the following. In the first place, they were divided by national hatred, the one belonging to the kingdom of Judah, and the other to the kingdom of Israel; so that they were frequently at war with each other. 2dly, Religious prejudices widened the breach; for Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did all he could, to prevent his subjects from going to the festivals at Jerusalem, by erecting two idols at Bethel and Dan. 3dly, The mixed multitude which were sent from Babylon, Cutha, Ava, Hamah, and Sepharvaim, to people the kingdom of Israel, after it was led away captive, (A.M. 3295,) increased this hatred, by their blending their heathen worship with the religion of Moand appearing as the greatest enemies of the Jews, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, when they were engaged in rebuilding the city and temple of Jerusalem. 4thly, The temple on mount Gerizim which was built by Sanballat the Horonite, (A.M. 3595,) in opposition to the temple at Jerusalem, set altar against altar, and worship against worship. And 5thly, The enmity was rendered complete by the Samaritans rejecting the historical books, prophets and hagiographa; the oral law, and traditions; and retaining as their creed, the pentateuch alone. It was no wonder, then, that the woman of Samaria expressed her surprise to our Lord, when he asked her even for

ses;

a draught of water; since it really was, as she said, that the Jews had no friendly dealings with the Samaritans."

In the days of our Saviour, the Jews were divided into four sects; the Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and Herodians.

The Sadducees derived their origin from Tzadoc, or p Tseduk, the disciple of Antigonus, who lived 240 years before Christ. This Antigonus had said to his disciples, "Be not as slaves who obey their masters for reward; but obey, without hoping for any fruits of your labours. Let the fear of God be upon you." This certainly was a noble sentiment, but Tzadoc, the disciple of Antigonus, favouring the sentiments of Epicurus, perverted it to mean, that there were no rewards nor punishments at all." The Sadducees, when they first appeared, believed the whole of the written word, and like the Karaites, rejected the oral law and traditions; but in the days of our Saviour, they admitted only the five books of Moses as proper to be read in the synagogues; rejected the oral law, and traditions of the elders; denied fate; considered God as not interfering in human affairs; and asserted that having set good and evil before men, he left them at liberty to do as thev pleased. They also denied the immortality of the soul, and the existence of angels and spirits, and were thus the freethinkers or infidels among the Jews. The

e

d

a John iv. 9. See a further account of this people, and how they differed from the Jews, in Prideaux, Connex. A.A.C. 107, 409. b Mishna, Capita Patrum, cap. i. sect. 3.

c Prideaux, Connex. A.A.C. 310.

d Prideaux, Connex. part ii. book v. A.A.C. 107. Lightfoot, vol. ii. Serm. on Acts xvii. 31. e Acts xxiii. 8.

following is the account which Josephus gives of them. "As for the Sadducees, they say there is no such thing as fate, and that the consequences of human affairs are not at its disposal; but they suppose that all our actions are in our own power; so that we are ourselves the causes of what is good, and receive what is evil from our own folly." In another place he tells us, that "the doctrine of the Sadducees is, that the souls die with the bodies. Nor did they regard the observance of any thing, besides what the written law enjoined them-but this doctrine was received but by a few, yet by those still of the greatest dignity. But they were able to do almost nothing for themselves (as a sect); for when they became magistrates, as they were unwillingly and by force obliged to be, they conformed themselves to the notions of the Pharisees, because the multitude would not otherwise bear them." In a third place, Josephus gives a farther account of them, in the following words: "The Sadducees take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what is good, or what is evil, is at men's own choice and that the one or the other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards of Hades." A little after he adds, that "the behaviour of the Sadducees one to another is in some degree unnatural; and their conversation with those who are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them.”— c War, ii, 8,

Antiq. xiii. 5.

a

VOL. II.

b Antiq. xviii. 1.
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