CEN T-rious and malignant effects, which are too often PART 1, seen to arise from religious controversies. But

I.

Essenes.

such as have any acquaintance with the history of these times, will not be so far deceived by this specious appearance of moderation, as to attribute it to noble or generous principles. They will look through the fair outside, and see that their mutual fears of each other were the latent reason of this apparent charity and mutual forbearance. The Sadducees enjoyed the favour and protection of the great. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were extremely high in the esteem of the multitude. And hence they were both secured against the attempts of each other, and lived in peace, notwithstanding the diversity of their religious sentiments. The government of the Romans contributed also to the maintenance of this mutual toleration and tranquillity, as they were ever ready to suppress and punish whatever had the appearance of tumult and sedition. We may add to all this, that the Sadducean principles rendered that sect naturally averse to all sorts of altercation and tumult. Libertinism has for its objects ease and pleasure, and chuses rather to slumber in the arms of a falacious security, than to expose itself to the painful activity, which is required both in the search and in the defence of truth.

IX. The Essenes had little occasion to quarrel with the other sects, as they dwelt generally in a rural solitude, far removed from the view and commerce of men. This singular sect, which was spread abroad through Syria, Egypt, and the neighbouring countries, maintained, that religion consisted wholly in contemplation and silence. By a rigorous abstinence also, and a variety of penitential exercises and mortifications, which they seem to have borrowed from the Egyp

tians,

1.

tians [n], they endeavoured to arrive at still higher C E N T. degrees of perfection in virtue. There prevailed, PART I however, among the members of this sect, a considerable difference both in point of opinion and discipline. Some passed their lives in a state of celibacy, and employed their time in educating and instructing the children of others. Others embraced the state of matrimony, which they considered as lawful, when entered into with the sole design of propagating the species, and not to satisfy the demands of lust. Those of the Essenes who dwelt in Syria, held the possibility of appeasing the deity by sacrifices, though in a manner quite different from that of the Jews; by which, however, it appears that they had not utterly rejected the literal sense of the Mosaic law. But those who wandered in the deserts of Egypt were of very different sentiments: they maintained, that no offering was acceptable to God but that of a serene and composed mind, addicted to the contemplation of divine things; and it is manifest from hence, that they looked upon the law of Moses as an allegorical system of spiritual and mysterious truths, and renounced in its explication all regard to the outward letter [o]. The TheX. The Therapeutæ, of whom PHILO the Jewrapeuta. makes particular mention in his treatise concerning Contemplative Life, are supposed to have been a branch of this sect. From this notion arose the division of the Essenes into theoretical and practical. The former of these were wholly devoted to contemplation, and are the same with the Therapeutæ; while the latter employed a part of their time in the performance of the du

ties

[n] See the annotations of Holstenius to Porphyry's Life of Pythagoras, p. 11. of the edition published by Kuster. [o] See MOSHEIM's observations on a small treatise of the learned CUDWORTH's, concerning the true notion of the Lord's supper, p. 4.

I.

CEN T. ties of active life. Whether this division be PART 1. accurate or not, is a matter which I will not take upon me to determine. But I see nothing in the laws or manners of the Therapeutæ, that should lead us to consider them as a branch of the Essenes; nor indeed has PHILO asserted any such thing. There may have been, surely, many other fanatical tribes among the Jews, besides that of the Essenes; nor should a resemblance of principles always induce us to make a coalition of sects. It is however, certain, that the Therapeuta were neither Christians nor Egyptians, as some have erroneously imagined. They were undoubtedly Jews; nay, they gloried in that title, and styled themselves, with particular affectation, the true disciples of MOSES, though their manner of life was equally repugnant to the institutions of that great lawgiver, and to the dictates of right reason, and shewed them to be a tribe of melancholy and wrong-headed Enthusiasts [p].

The moral doctrine of

XI. None of these sects, indeed, seemed to have the interests of real and true piety at heart; nor were their principles and discipline at all adapted to the advancement of pure and substantial virtue. The Pharisees courted popular applause by a vain ostentation of pretended sanctity, and an austere method of living, while, in reality, they were strangers to true holiness, and were inwardly defiled with the most criminal dispositions, with which our Saviour frequently reproaches them. They also treated with more veneration the commandments and traditions of men, than the sacred precepts and laws of God.

[p] The principal writers, who have given accounts of the Therapeutæ, are mentioned by Jo. ALBERT FABRICIUS in the ivth chapter of his Lux Salutaris Evangelii toto orbe exoriens,

I.

God [q]. The Sadducees, by denying a future CENT. state of rewards and punishments, removed, at PART I once, the most powerful incentives to virtue, and the most effectual restraints upon vice, and thus gave new vigour to every sinful passion, and a full encouragement to the indulgence of every irregular desire. As to the Essenes, they were a fanatical and superstitious tribe, who placed religion in a certain sort of seraphic indolence, and, looking upon piety to God as incompatible with any social attachment to men, dissolved, by this pernicious doctrine, all the great bonds of human society.

tude sunk in

XII. While then such darkness, such errors The multiand dissentions prevailed among those, who as- superstition, sumed the character and authority of persons and corrup distinguished by their superior sanctity and wisdom, it will not be difficult to imagine, how totally corrupt the religion and morals of the multitude must have been. They were, accordingly, sunk in the most deplorable ignorance of God, and of divine things; and had no notion of any other way of rendering themselves acceptable to the Supreme Being, than by sacrifices, washings, and the other external rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law. Hence proceeded that dissolution of manners, and that profligate wickedness, which prevailed among the Jews, during CHRIST's ministry upon earth. And hence the Divine Saviour compares that people to a flock of sheep, which wandered without a shepherd; and their doctors to men, who, though deprived themselves of sight, yet pretended to shew the way to others [r].

XIII. To all these corruptions, both in of doctrine and practice, which reigned

[9] Matt. xxiii. 13, 14, &c.

[r] Matt. x. 6. xv. 24, 25. John ix. 39.

point TheCABBAamong of many er

LA, a source

the rors among the Jews.

I.

CENT. the Jews at the time of CHRIST's coming, we PART 1. may add the attachment which many of them discovered to the tenets of the oriental philosophy concerning the origin of the world, and to the doctrine of the CABBALA, which was undoubtedly derived from thence. That considerable numbers of the Jews had imbibed the errors of this fantastic system, appears evidently, both from the books of the New Testament, and from the ancient history of the Christian Church [s] and it is also certain, that many of the Gnostic sects were founded by Jews. Those among that degenerate people, who adopted this chimerical philosophy, must have differed vastly from the rest in their opinions concerning the God of the Old Testament, the origin of the world, the character and doctrine of Moses, and the nature and mystery of the MESSIAH; since they maintained, that the Creator of this world was a being different from the Supreme God, and that his dominion over the human race was to be destroyed by the MESSIAH. Every one must see that this enormous system was fruitful of errors, destructive of the very foundations of Judaism.

nal worship

by vain rites

XIV. If any part of the Jewish religion was The exter- less disfigured and corrupted than the rest, it of God cor- was, certainly, the form of external worship, rupted also which was established by the law of MOSES. And and human yet many learned men have observed, that a inventions. great variety of rites were introduced into the service of the temple, of which no traces are to be found in the sacred writings. The institution of these additional ceremonies was manifestly owing to those changes and revolutions, which rendered the Jews more conversant with the na

tions

[] See Jon. CHR. WOLF. Biblioth. Ebraica. vol. ii. lib. vii. cap. i. sect. ix. p. 206.