the wife found no favour in the eyes of her husband,-in other words, if he saw any woman who pleased him better. The practice of the Jews seems to have gone with the school of Hillel. Thus, we read (in Ecclus. xxv. 26.) "If she go not as thou wouldest have her, cut her off from thy flesh; give her a bill of divorce and let her go:" and in conformity with this doctrine, Josephus, who was a Pharisee, relates that he repudiated his wife who had borne him three children, because he was not pleased with her manners or behaviour!

Further, they interpreted certain of the Mosaic laws most literally, and distorted their meaning so as to favour their own philosophical system. Thus, the law of loving their neighbour, they expounded solely of the love of their friends, that is, of the whole Jewish race; all other persons being considered by them as natural enemies (Matt. v. 43. compared with Luke x. 31-33.), whom they were in no respect bound to assist. Dr. Lightfoot has cited a striking illustration of this passage from Maimonides. An oath, in which the name of God was not distinctly specified, they taught was not binding (Matt. v. 33.), maintaining that a man might even swear with his lips, and at the same moment annul it in his heart! So rigorously did they understand the command of observing the sabbath day, that they accounted it unlawful to pluck ears of corn, and heal the sick, &c. (Matt. xii. 1. et seq. Luke vi. 6. et seq. xiv. 1. et seq.) Those natural laws which Moses did not sanction by any penalty, they accounted among the petty commandments, inferior to the ceremonial laws, which they preferred to the former as being the weightier matters of the law (Matt. v. 19. xv. 4. xxiii. 23.), to the total neglect of mercy and fidelity. Hence they accounted causeless anger and impure desires as trifles of no moment (Matt. v. 21, 22. 27-30.); they compassed sea and land to make proselytes3 to the Jewish religion from among the Gentiles, that they might rule over their consciences and wealth: and these proselytes, through the influence of their own scandalous examples and characters, they soon rendered more profligate and abandoned than ever they were before their conversion. (Matt. xxiii. 15.) Esteeming temporal happiness and riches as the highest good, they scrupled not to accumulate wealth by every means, legal or illegal (Matt. v. 1–12. xxiii. 4. Luke xvi. 14.

1 Life of himself, § 76. Grotius, Calmet, Drs. Lightfoot, Whitby, Doddridge, and A. Clarke, (on Matt. v. 30. et seq. and Matt. xix. 3. et. seq.) have all given ilJustrations of the Jewish doctrine of divorce from rabbinical writers. See also Selden's Uxor Hebraica, lib. iii. c. 22. (Op. tom. ii. col. 782-786.)

2 "A Jew sees a Gentile fall into the sea, let him by no means lift him out for it is written, Thou shalt not rise up against the blood of thy neighbour. But this is NOT thy neighbour." Works, vol. ii. p. 152.

3 Justin Martyr bears witness to the inveterate malignity of the proselytes of the Pharisees against the name of Christ, at the beginning of the second century. "Your proselytes," says he to Trypho the Jew (p. 350.), “not only do not believe in Christ, but blaspheme his name with twofold more virulence than yourselves. They are ready to show their malicious zeal against us; and, to obtain merit in your eyes, wish to us reproach, and torment, and death." See further Dr. Ireland's Paganism and Christianity compared, pp. 21–23.

James ii. 1-8.); vain and ambitious of popular applause, they offered up long prayers1 in public places, but not without a self-sufficiency of their own holiness (Matt. vi. 2-5. Luke xviii. 11.); under a sanctimonious appearance of respect for the memories of the prophets whom their ancestors had slain, they repaired and beautified their sepulchres (Matt. xxiii. 29.); and such was their idea of their own sanctity, that they thought themselves defiled if they but touched or conversed with sinners, that is, with publicans or tax-gatherers, and persons of loose and irregular lives. (Luke vii. 39. xv. 1. e seq.)

But, above all their other tenets, the Pharisees were conspicuous for their reverential observance of the traditions or decrees of the elders: these traditions, they pretended, had been handed down from Moses through every generation, but were not committed to writing; and they were not merely considered as of equal authority with the divine law, but even preferable to it. "The words of the Scribes," said they, "are lovely above the words of the law: for the words of the law are weighty and light, but the words of the scribes are ALL weighty." Among the traditions thus sanctimoniously observed by the Pharisees, we may briefly notice the following: 1. The washing of hands up to the wrist before and after meat (Matt. xv. 2. Mark vii. 3.), which they accounted not merely a religious duty, but considered its omission as a crime equal to fornication, and punishable by excommunication. 2. The purification of the cups, vessels, and couches used at their meals by ablutions or washings (Mark vii. 4.); for which purpose the six large water-pots mentioned by St. John (ii. 6.) were destined. But these ablutions are not to be confounded with those symbolical washings mentioned in Psal. xxvi. 6. and Matt. xxvii. 24. 3. Their fasting twice a week with great appearance of austerity (Luke xviii. 12. Matt. vi. 16.); thus converting that exercise into religion which is only a help towards the performance of its hallowed duties. The Jewish days of fasting were the second and fifth days of the week, corresponding with our Mondays and Thursdays: on one of these days they commemorated Moses going up to the mount to receive the law, which according to their traditions, was on the fifth day or Thursday; and on the other, his descent after he had received the two tables, which they supposed to have been on the second day or Monday. 4. Their punctilious payment of tithes (temple-offerings), even of the most trifling thing. (Luke xviii. 12. Matt. xxiii. 23.) 5. Their wearing broader phylacteries and larger

1 Bucher, after a very antient Hebrew manuscript ritual, has given a long and curious specimen of the "vain repetitions" used by the Pharisees. See his Antiquitates Biblica ex Novo Testamento selectæ, pp. 240-244. Vitemberge, 1729. 4to. 2 Jerusalem Berachoth, fol. 3. 2. as cited by Dr. Lightfoot on Matt. xv. (Works, ii. p. 199.) The whole of his Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations on that chapter is singularly instructive. The collection of these traditions, by which the Jews made the law of God of none effect, is termed the Talmud: of which, and of its use in illustrating the Holy Scriptures, an account has already been given. On the traditions of the modern Jews (which illustrate very many passages of the New Testament,) the reader may consult Mr. Allen's Modern Judaism, chap. viii. to xv. pp. 140-280.

fringes to their garments than the rest of the Jews. (Matt. xxiii. 5.) These phylacteries were pieces of parchment or the dressed skin of some clean animal, inscribed with four paragraphs of the law, taken from Exod. xiii. 1-10. and xiii. 11-16. Deut. vi. 4-9. and xi. 13-21. all inclusive; which the Pharisees interpreting literally, (as do the modern rabbins) Deut. vi. 8. and other similar passages, tied to the fronts of their caps and on their arms. The fringe was ordered by Moses, as we read in Numb. xv. 38, 39. He, therefore, who wore his phylactery and his fringe of the largest size, was reputed to be the most devout.1

With all their pretensions to piety, the Pharisees entertained the most sovereign contempt for the people; whom, being ignorant of the law, they pronounced to be accursed. (John vii. 49.) Yet such was the esteem and veneration in which they were held by the people, that they may almost be said to have given what direction they pleased to public affairs and hence the great men dreaded their power and authority. It is unquestionable, as Mosheim has well remarked, that the religion of the Pharisees was, for the most part, founded in consummate hypocrisy; and that, at the bottom, they were generally the slaves of every vicious appetite, proud, arrogant, and avaricious, consulting only the gratification of their lusts, even at the very moment when they professed themselves to be engaged in the service of their Maker. These odious features in the character of the Pharisees caused them to be reprehended by our Saviour with the utmost severity, even more than he rebuked the Sadducees; who, although they had departed widely from the genuine principles of religion, yet did not impose on mankind by a pretended sanctity, or devote themselves with insatiable greediness to the acquisition of honours and riches.2

III. The ESSENES, who were the third principal sect among the Jews, differed in many respects from the Pharisees and Sadducees, both in doctrines and in practice. They were divided into two classes: 1. The practical, who lived in society, and some of whom were married, though it appears with much circumspection. These dwelt in cities and their neighbourhoods, and applied themselves to husbandry and other innocent occupations. 2. The contemplative Essenes, who were also called Therapeuta or Physicians, from their application principally to the cure of the diseases of the soul, devoted themselves wholly to meditation, and avoided living in great towns as unfavourable to a contemplative life. But both classes were exceedingly absemious, exemplary in their moral deportment, averse from profane swearing, and most rigid in their observance of the sabbath. They held, among other tenets, the immortality of the soul (though they denied the resurrection of the body), the existence of angels, and a state of future rewards and punishments. They believed every thing to be ordered by an eternal fatality or chain of causes.

1 On the phylacteries and fringes of the modern Jews, Mr. Allen has collected much curious information. Modern Judaism, PP: 304-318.

2 Mosheim's Commentaries on the Affairs of Christians, vol. i. p. 83.

Although Jesus Christ censured all the other sects of the Jews for their vices, yet he never spoke of the Essenes; neither are they mentioned by name in any part of the New Testament. The silence of the evangelical historians concerning them, is by some accounted for by their eremitic life, which secluded them from places of public resort; so that they did not come in the way of our Saviour, as the Pharisees and Sadducees often did. Others, however, are of opinion, that the Essenes being very honest and sincere, without guile or hypocrisy, gave no room for the reproofs and censures which the other Jews deserved; and therefore no mention is made of them.

But though the Essenes are not expressly named in any of the sacred books, it has been conjectured that they are alluded to in two or three passages. Thus, those whom our Lord terms eunuchs, who have made themselves such for the kingdom of heaven's sake (Matt. xix. 12.), are supposed to be the contemplative Essenes, who abstained from all intercourse with women, in the hope of acquiring a greater degree of purity, and becoming the better fitted for the kingdom of God. St. Paul is generally understood to have referred to them, in Col. ii. 18. 23.; where "voluntary humility" and "neglecting the body," are peculiarly applicable to the Essenes; who, when they received any persons into their number, made them solemnly swear that they would keep and observe the books of the sect and the names of the angels with care. What is also said in the above-cited passage, of "intruding into things not seen," is likewise agreeable to the character of the Therapeutic Essenes; who, placing the excellence of their contemplative life in raising their minds to invisible objects, pretended to such a degree of elevation and abstraction, as to be able to penetrate into the nature of angels, and assign them proper names, or rightly interpret those already given them; and also to pry into futurity and predict future events. On these accounts it is highly probable that they were "vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind." Further, the tenets referred to by St. Paul, (Col. ii. 21. "touch not, taste not, handle not,") are such as the Essenes held, who would not taste any pleasant food, but lived on coarse bread and drank nothing but water, and some of whom would not taste any food at all till after sun-set: if touched by any that were not of their own sect, they would wash themselves, as after some great pollution. It has been conjectured that there might be a sodality of Essenes at Colosse, as there were in many other places out of Judæa; and that some of the Christians, being too much inclined to Judaism, migh also affect the peculiarities of this sect; which might be the reason of the apostle's so particularly cautioning the Colossians against them.2

1 Josephus, de Bell. Jud. lib. ii. c. 8. § 7.

2 Jennings's Jewish Antiquities, book i. c. 12. p. 243. (Edinb. 1818.) Michaelis thinks that Saint Paul alludes to the tenets and practices of the Essenes in his Epistle to the Ephesians, and in his first Epistle to Timothy. Introd. to the New Test. vol. iv. pp. 79-85. Dr. Prideaux has collected with great industry and fidelity all that Philo

IV. There is in the Gospels frequent mention of a set of men called SCRIBES and LAWYERS, who are often joined with the chief priests, elders, and Pharisees. They seem to have been men of learning, and on that account to have had great deference paid to them (Matt. ii. 4. vii. 29.); but strictly speaking, they did not form any distinct sect. The SCRIBES generally belonged to the sect of the Pharisees, in whose traditions and explanations of the law they were profoundly skilled; and on the sabbath days "they sat in Moses' seat" and instructed the people. Originally, they had their name rom their employment, which at first was transcribing the law: but in progress of time they exalted themselves into the public ministry and became teachers of it, authoritatively determining what doctrines were or were not contained in the Scriptures, and teaching the common people in what sense to understand the law and the prophets. In short, they were the oracles which were consulted in all difficult points of doctrine and duty.

LAWYERS (VOIXos, teachers of the law) and scribes appear to be synonymous terms, importing one and the same order of men; as St. Matt. (xxii. 35.) calls him a scribe whom St. Mark (xii. 28.) terms a lawyer. Dr. Macknight conjectures the scribes to have been the public expounders of the law, and that the lawyers studied it in private perhaps, as Dr. Lardner conjectures, they taught in the schools.1

V. The SAMARITANS, mentioned in the New Testament, are generally considered as a sect of the Jews; their origin and history have already been related, together with their antipathy to the Jews. Their principal residence is at Sichem or Shechem, now called Napolose, or Nablous, where they have one synagogue. In 1820, they were about forty in number. They celebrated divine service every Saturday. Formerly they went four times a year in solemn procession, to the old synagogue on Mount Gerizim: and on these occasions they ascended before sun-rise, and read the law till noon; but of late years they have not been allowed to do this. The Samaritans have one school in Napolose, where their language is taught. The head of this sect is stated to reside at Paris. Samaritans at Napolose are in possession of a very antient manuscript Pentateuch, which they assert to be 3500 years old; but they reject the vowel points, as a rabbinical invention. In order to complete our notice of this sect, we have subjoined their confession

The

Josephus, and Pliny have recorded concerning the Essenes. Connection, vol. ii. book v. sub anno 107. в. c. pp. 343-363. 8th edit.

1 Prideaux, vol. ii. p. 343. Lardner's Credibility, part i. book i. ch. iv. § 3. (Works, vol. i. p. 126.) Macknight's Harmony, sect. 87. vol. ii. p. 74. (2d edit. 4to.) The scribes noticed in the Old Testament, it may not be irrelevant to remark, were political officers of great weight and authority; it being their employment to assist the kings or magistrates, and to keep an account in writing of public acts or occurrences of the royal revenues, and the muster rolls of the army. (2 Sam. viii. 17. 1 Chron. xxiv. 6. 1 Kings iv. 2 Kings xix. 2. xxii. 8-10. 2 Chron. xxvi. 11.)

2 Visit of the Rev. James Connor, in 1819 and 1820, to Candia, Rhodes, Cyprus. and various parts of Syria and Palestine, annexed to the Rev. W. Jowett's Christian Researches in the Mediterranean, p. 425