debated among these famous sects. A main point of controversy was, whether the written law alone was of divine authority. The Pharisees added to this law another, which had been received by oral tradition. This the Sadducees and Essenes rejected as of no authority, and adhered to the written law as the only divine rule of obedience. They differed also in their opinions concerning the true sense of the law. For, while the Pharisees attributed to the sacred text a double sense, one of which was obvious, regarding only the words, and another mysterious, relating to the intimate nature of the things expressed; and while the Sadducees maintained that nothing farther was delivered by the law, than that which was contained in the signification of the words; the Essenes, at least the greatest part of that sect, entertained an opinion different from both of these. They asserted, in their jargon, that the words of the law were absolutely void of all power, and that the things expressed by them, were the images of holy and celestial objects. These litigious subtilties and unintelligible wranglings, about the nature and sense of the divine word, were succeeded by a controversy of the greatest ment, concerning the rewards and punish s of the law, particularly with respect to the.. tont. The Pharisees were of opinion, that these rewards and punishments extended both to the soul and body, and that their duration was prolonged beyond the limits of this transitory state. The Sadducees assigned to them the same period that concludes this mortal life. The Essenes differed from both, and maintained that future rewards and punishments extended to the soul alone, and not to the body, which they considered as a mass of malignant matter, and as the prison of the immortal spirit.

activity, which is required both 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 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 Egyptians, they endeavoured to arrive at still higher degrees of excellence in virtue. There prevailed, 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 the children of others. Some embraced the state of matrimony, which they considered as lawful; when contracted with the sole view 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, intent on the contemplation of divine things; and hence it is manifest 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.†

X. The Therapeuta, of whom Philo the Jew 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 Therapeuta, while the latter employed a part of their time in the performance of the duties of active life. Whether this division be accurate or not, is a point which I will not pretend to determine. But I see nothing in the laws or manners of the Therapeuta, 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 &mong 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 Therapeute were neither Christians nor Egyptians, as some have erroneously imagined. They were undoubtedly Jews: they gloried in that title, and styled themselves, with particular affectation,

VIII. These differences, in matters of such high importance, among the three famous sects above mentioned, produced none of those injurious and malignant effects which are too often seen to arise from religious controversies.—But 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 mutual fears were the latent cause of this apparent charity and reciprocal forbearance. The Sadducees enjoyed the favour and protection of the great: the Pharisees, on the other hand, were exceedingly 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 altercation and tumult. Libertinism has for * See the Annotations of Holstenius upon Porphyry's its objects ease and pleasure, and chooses Life of Pythagoras, p. 11. of Kuster's edition. rather to slumber in the arms of a fallacious ten by the learned Cudworth, concerning the true notion See Mosheim's observations on a small treatise, writsecurity, than to expose itself to the painfull of the Lord's Supper.

the true disciples of Moses, though their man- tament, and from the ancient history of the ner of life was equally repugnant to the insti- Christian church,* and it is also certain, that Lutions of that great lawgiver and to the dic-many of the Gnostic sects were founded by tates of right reason, and showed them to be a tribe of melancholy and wrong-headed enthusiasts.*

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 greater veneration the commandments and traditions of men, than the sacred precepts and laws of God. The Sadducees, by denying a future state of rewards and punishments, removed, at 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.

XII. While such darkness, such errors and dissensions, prevailed among those who as sumed the character and authority of persons 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, ablutions, and the other external ceremonies of the Mosiac law. Hence proceeded that laxity 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 of sight, yet pretended to show the way to others.f

Jews. Those among that degenerate people, who adopted this chimerical philosophy, must have widely differed from the rest in their opinions concerning the God of the Old Testament, the origin of the world, the charactsand doctrine of Moses, and the nature an ministry of the Messiah, since they maintaine that the creator of this world was a being di ferent 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.

XIV. If any part of the Jewish religion was less disfigured and corrupted than the rest, it was, certainly, the form of external worship, which was established by the law of Moses. And yet many learned men have observed, that a great variety of rites were introduced into the service of the temple, of which no traces are to be found in the sacred writings. These additional ceremonies manifestly proceeded from those changes and revolutions which rendered the Jews more conversant with the neighbouring nations, than they had formerly been; for, when they saw the sacred rites of the Greeks and Romans, they were pleased with several of the ceremonies that were used in the worship of the heathen deities, and did not hesitate to adopt them in the service of the true God, and add them as ornaments to the rites which they had received by divine appointment.†

XV. But whence arose such enormous degrees of corruption in that very nation which God had, in a peculiar manner, separated from an idolatrous world to be the depository of divine truth? Various causes may be assigned, in order to give a satisfactory account of this matter. In the first place, it is certain, that the ancestors of those Jews, who lived in the time of our Saviour, had brought, from Chaldea and the neighbouring countries, many extravagant and idle fancies, which were utterly unknown to the original founders of the nation. The conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great, was also an event from which we may date a new accession of errors to the Jewish system, since, in consequence of that revolution, the manners and opinions of the XIII. To all these corruptions, both in point Greeks began to spread themselves among the of doctrine and practice, which reigned among Persians, Syrians, Arabians, and likewise the Jews at the fine of Christ's coming, we among the Jews, who before that period, were may add the attachment which many of them entirely unacquainted with letters and philosodiscovered to the tenets of the oriental philosophy. We may, farther, rank among the phy concerning the origin of the world, and to the doctrine of the Cabbala, which was undoubtedly derived from that system. That considerable numbers of the Jews had imbibed the errors of this fantastic theory, evidently appears both from the books of the New Tes-vii. cap. i. sect. ix.

causes that contributed to corrupt the religion and manners of the Jews, their voyages into the adjacent countries, especially Egypt and

*See Joh. Chr. Wolf. Biblioth. Ebraica, vol. ii. lib.

† See the learned work of Spencer, De Legibus Hebræorum, in the fourth book of which he treats expressly of those Hebrew rites which were borrowed from the Gentile worship.

See Gale's observations on Jamblichus, de Mysteriis Fgyptiorum, p. 206. Josephus acknowledges the same thing in his Jewish Antiquities, book iii chap. vii. sect. 2

Phoenicia, in pursuit of wealth; for, with the treasures of those corrupt and superstitious nations, they brought home also their pernicious errors, and their idle fictions, which were imperceptibly blended with their religious system. Nor ought we to omit, in this enumeration, the pestilential influence of the wicked reigns of Herod and his sons, and the enormous instances of idolatry, error, and licentiousness, which this unhappy people had constantly before their eyes in the religion and manners of the Roman governors and soldiers, which, no doubt, contributed much to the progress of their national superstition and corruption of manners. We might add here many other facts and circumstances, to illustrate more fully the matter under consideration; but these will be readily suggested to such as have the least acquaintance with the Jewish history from the time of the Maccabees.

whole, it is certain that the Samaritans inixed the profane errors of the Gentiles with the sacred doctrines of the Jews, and were excessively corrupted by the idolatrous customs of the pagan nations.*

XVIII. The Jews multiplied so prodigiously, that the narrow bounds of Palestine were no longer sufficient to contain them. They poured, therefore, their increasing numbers into the neighbouring countries with such rapidity, that, at the time of Christ's birth, there was scarcely a province in the empire, where they were not found carrying on commerce and exercising other lucrative arts. They were maintained, in foreign countries, against injurious treatment and violence, by the special edicts and protection of the magistrates; and this, indeed, was absolutely necessary, since, in most places, the remarkable difference in their religion and manners, from those of the other nations, exposed them to the hatred and indignation of the ignorant and bigoted multitude. All this appears to have been most singularly and wisely directed by the adorable hand of an interposing Providence, to the end that this people, which was the sole depository of the true religion, and of the knowledge of one Supreme God, being spread abroad through the whole earth, might be every where, by the force of example, a reproach to superstition, might contribute in some measure to check it, and thus prepare the way for that yet fuller discovery of divine truth, which was to shine upon the world from the ministry and Gospel of the Son of God.

XVI. It is indeed worthy of cbservation, that, corrupted as the Jews were with the errors and superstitions of the neighbouring nations, they still preserved a zealous attachment to the law of Moses, and were exceedingly careful that it should not suffer any diminution of its credit, or lose the least degree of the veneration due to its divine authority. Hence synagogues were erected throughout the province of Judea, in which the people assembled for the purposes of divine worship, and to hear their doctors interpret and explain the holy scriptures. There were besides, in the more populous towns, public schools, in which learned men were appointed to instruct the youth in the knowledge of divine things, and also in other branches of science.* And it is beyond all doubt, that these institutions contributed to Concerning the Life and Actions of JESUS maintain the law in its primitive authority, and to stem the torrent of abounding iniquity.

XVII. The Samaritans, who celebrated divine worship in the temple that was built on mount Gerizim, lay under the burthen of the same evils that oppressed the Jews, with whom they lived in the bitterest enmity, and were also, like them, highly instrumental in increasing their own calamities. We learn from the most authentic histories of those times, that the Samaritans suffered as much as the Jews, from troubles and divisions fomented by the intrigues of factious spirits, though their religious sects were yet less numerous than those of the latter. Their religion, also, was much more corrupted than that of the Jews, as Christ himself declares in his conversation with the woman of Samaria, though it appears, at the same time, that their notions concerning the offices and ninistry of the Messiah, were much more just nd conformable to truth, than those which were entertained at Jerusalem.† Upon the *See Camp. Vitringa. de Synagoga vetere, lib. iii. cap. .. and lib. i. cap. v. vii.

Christ insinuates, on the contrary, in the strongest manner, the superiority of the Jewish worship to that of the Samaritans, John iv. 22. See also, on this head, 2 Kings xvii. 29. The passage to which Dr. Mosheim refers, as a proof that the Samaritans had juster notions of the Messiah than the Jews, is the 25th verse of the chapter of St. John already cited, where the woman of Samaria says to Jesus, "I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ; when he is come, he will tell us all things." But this passage seems much too vague to justafy the conclusion ofeur Verned historian. Besides the

CHAPTER III.

CHRIST.

I. THE errors and disorders that we have now been considering, required something far above human wisdom and power to dispel and remove them, and to deliver mankind from the miserable state to which they were reduced by them. Therefore, towards the conclusion of the reign of Herod the Great, the Son of God descended upon earth, and, assuming the human nature, appeared to men under the sublime characters of an infallible teacher, an all-suffi cient mediator, and a spiritual and immortal king. The place of his birth was Bethlehem, in Palestine. The year in which it happened, has not hitherto been ascertained, notwithstanding the deep and laborious researches of the learned. There is nothing surprising in this, when we consider that the first Christians laboured under the same difficulties, and were divided in their opinions concerning the time

confession of one person who may possibly have had some singular and extraordinary advantages, is not a proof that the nation in general entertained the same sentiments, es pecially since we know that the Samaritans bad corrupted the service of God by a profane mixture of the grossest idolatries.

*Those who desire an exact account of the principal authors who have written concerning the Sama tans, wil find it in the learned work of Jo. Gottlo's Carp ovius, entitled, Critica S. Vet. Testam. part i. c.p. i.

See the account published at Leyden, in 1712, by James Gronovius, of the Romar and Aie edicts in f vour of the Jews, allowing them. the fed secure ex ercise of their religion in all the cities of via Minor

any point, neglect to answer the demands of the Jewish law.

of Christ's birth.* That which appears most probable, is, that it happened about a year and six months before the death of Herod, in the IV. It is not necessary to enter here into a year of Rome 748 or 749. The uncertainty, detail of the life and actions of Jesus Christ. however, of this point, is of no great conse- All Christians must be perfectly acquainted quence. We know that the Sun of Righte- || with them. They must know, that, during the ousness has shined upon the world; and though space of three years, and amidst the deepest we cannot fix the precise period in which he trials of affliction and distress, he instructed the arose, this will not preclude us from enjoying Jewish nation in the will and counsels of the the direction and influence of his vital and sa- Most High, and omitted nothing in the course lutary beams. of his ministry, that could contribute either to II. Four inspired writers, who have trans- gain the multitude or to charm the wise. Every mitted to us an account of the life and actions one knows, that his life was a continued scene of Jesus Christ, mention particularly his birth,|| of perfect sanctity, of the purest and most aclineage, family, and parents; but they say very tive virtue; not only without spot, but also be little respecting his infancy and his early youth. yond the reach of suspicion; and it is also well Not long after his birth, he was conducted by known, that by miracles of the most stupenhis parents into Egypt, that he might be out of dous kind, and not more stupendous than saluthe reach of Herod's cruelty. At the age of tary and beneficent, he displayed to the unitwelve years, he disputed in the temple, with verse the truth of that religion which he the most learned of the Jewish doctors, con- brought with him from above, and demonstratcerning the sublime truths of religion; and the ed in the most illustrious manner the reality of rest of his life, until the thirtieth year of his || his divine commission. age, was spent in the obscurity of a private condition, and consecrated to the duties of filial obedience. This is all that the wisdom of God hath permitted us to know, with certainty, of Christ, before he entered upon his public ministry; nor is the story of his having followed the trade of his adoptive father Joseph built upon any sure foundation. There have been, indeed, several writers, who, either through the levity of a wanton imagination, or with a view of ex-a genuine account of his sublime doctrines, citing the admiration of the multitude, have invented a series of the most extravagant and ridiculous fables, in order to give an account of this obscure part of the Saviour's life.

||

V. As this system of religion was to be propagated to the extremities of the earth, it was necessary that Christ should choose a certain number of persons to accompany him constantly through the whose course of his ministry; that thus they might be faithful and respectable witnesses of the sanctity of his life, and the grandeur of his miracles, to the remotest nations; and also transmit to the latest posterity

and of the nature and end of the Gospel dispensation. Therefore Jesus chose, out of the multitude that attended his discourses, twelve persons whom he separated from the rest by III. Jesus began his public ministry in the the name of Apostles. These men were illitethirtieth year of his age; and, to render it more rate, poor, and of mean extraction; and such solemn and affecting to the Jews, a man, whose alone were truly proper to answer his views. name was John, the son of a Jewish priest, a He avoided making use of the ministry of perperson of great gravity also, and much respect- sons endowed with the advantages of fortune ed on account of the austere dignity of his life and birth, or enriched with the treasures of eloand manners, was commanded by God to pro-quence and learning, lest the fruits of this emclaim to the people the coming of the long promised Messiah, of whom this extraordinary man called himself the forerunner. Filled with a holy zeal and a divine fervour, he cried aloud to the Jews, exhorting them to depart from their transgressions, and to purify their hearts, that they might thus partake of the blessings which the Son of God was now come to offer to the world. The exhortations of this respectable messenger were not without effect; and those who, moved by his solemn admonitions, had formed the resolution of correcting their evil dispositions, and amending their lives, VI. The researches of the learned have been were initiated into the kingdom of the Re- employed to find out the reason of Christ's fixdeemer by the ceremony of immersion, or bap-ing the number of the apostles to twelve, and tism. Christ himself, before he began his ministry, desired to be solemnly baptized by John in the waters of Jordan, that he might not, in

Matt. iii. 6. John i. 22.

bassy, and the progress of the Gospel, should be attributed to human and natural causes.* These apostles were sent but once to preach to the Jews during the life of Christ. He chose to keep them about his own person, that they might be thoroughly instructed in the affairs of his kingdom. That the multitude, however, might not be destitute of teachers to enlighten them with the knowledge of the truth, Christ. appointed seventy disciples to preach the glad tidings of eternal life throughout the whole province of Judea.‡

that of the disciples to seventy; and various conjectures have been applied to the solution of this question. But since it is manifest from his own words, that he intended the number of the twelve apostles as an allusion to that ot the tribes of Israel, it can scarcely be doubted, that he was willing to insinuate by this appointment that he was the supreme lord and high-priest of the twelve tribes into which the

Jewish nation was divided; and, as the number of disciples answers evidently to that of the senators, of whom the council of the people (or the sanhedrim) was composed, there is a high degree of probability in the conjecture of those, who think that Christ, by the choice of e seventy, designed to admonish the Jews that the authority of their sanhedrim was now at an end, and that all power, with respect to religious matters, was vested in him alone.

VII. The ministry of Jesus was confined to the Jews; nor, while he remained upon earth did he permit his apostles or disciples to exend their labours beyond this distinguished nation.* At the same time, if we consider the illustrious acts of mercy and omnipotence that were performed by Christ, it will be natural to conclude that his fame must have been very soon spread abroad in other countries. We learn from writers of no small note, that Abgarus, king of Edessa, being seized with a severe and dangerous illness, wrote to our blessed Lord to implore his assistance; and that Jesus not only sent him a gracious answer, but also accompanied it with his picture, as a mark of his esteem for that pious prince. These letters, it is said, are still extant. But they are justly looked upon as fictitious by most writers, who also go yet farther, and treat the whole story of Abgarus as entirely fabulous, and unworthy of credit. I will not pretend to assert the genuineness of these letters; but I see no reason of sufficient weight to destroy the credibility of that story which is supposed to have given occasion to them.§

VIII. great number of the Jews, influanced by those illustrious marks of a divine authority and power, which shone forth in the ministry and actions of Christ, regarded him as the Son of God, the true Messiah. The rulers of the people, and more especially the chief priests and Pharisees, whose licentiousness and

* Matt. x. 5, 6; xv. 24.

† Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. i. xiii.—Jo. Albert Fabric. Codex Apocryphus N. T. tom. i. p. 317.

See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, vol. i. cap. xviii.— also Theoph. Sigef. Bayerus, Historia Edessena et Osrocna, lib. iii.—Jos. Simon Assemanus, Biblioth. Oriental.

Clement. Vatican. tom. i.

hypocrisy he censured with a noble and generous freedom, laboured with success, by the help of their passions, to extinguish in their breasts the conviction of his celestial mission, or at least, to suppress the effects it was adapted to produce upon their conduct. Fearing also that his ministry might tend to diminish their credit, and to deprive them of the advan tages they derived from the impious abuse c their authority in religious matters, they laid snares for his life, which, for a considerable time, were without effect. They succeeded, at length, by the infernal treason of an apostate disciple, by the treachery of Judas, who discovering the retreat which his divine master had chosen for the purposes of meditation and repose, delivered him into the merciless hands of a brutal soldiery.

IX. In consequence of this, Jesus was pro duced as a criminal before the Jewish highpriest and sanhedrim, being accused of having violated the law, and blasphemed the majesty of God. Dragged thence to the tribunal of Pilate the Roman prætor, he was charged with seditious enterprises, and with treason against Cæsar. Both these accusations were so evidently false, and destitute even of every appearance of truth, that they must have been rejected by any judge, who acted upon the prin ciples of common equity. But the clamours of an enraged populace, inflamed by the impi ous instigations of their priests and rulers, intimidated Pilate, and engaged him, though with the utmost reluctance, and in opposition to the dictates of his conscience, to pronounce a capital sentence against Christ. The Re deemer of mankind behaved with inexpressi ble dignity under this heavy trial. As the end of his mission was to make expiation for the sins of men, so when all things were ready, and when he had finished the work of his glorious ministry, he placidly submitted to the death of the cross, and, with a serene and voluntary resignation, committed his spirit into

the hands of the Father.

X. After Jesus had remained three days in the sepulchre, he resumed that life which he had voluntarily laid down; and, rising from the There is no author who has discussed this question dead, declared to the universe, by that trium(concerning the authenticity of the letters of Christ and phant act, that the divine justice was satisfied, Abgarus, and the truth of the whole story) with such and the paths of salvation and immortality learning and judgment, as the late Mr. Jones, in the second volume of his excellent work, entitled, A New and were rendered accessible to the human race. Full Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the He conversed with his disciples during forty New Testament. Notwithstanding the opinions of such days after his resurrection, and employed that celebrated names, as Parker, Cave, and Grabe, in favour time in instructing them more fully with regard of these letters, and the history to which they relate, Mr. Jones has offered reasons to prove the whole ficti- to the nature of his kingdom. Many wise and tious, which seem unanswerable, independent of the important reasons prevented his showing himauthorities of Rivet, Chemnitius, Walther, Simon, Du- self publicly at Jerusalem, to confound the maPin, Wake, Spanheim, Fabricius, and Le Clerc, which he opposes to the three above mentioned. It is remarka- lignity and unbelief of his enemies. He conble that the story is not mentioned by any writer before tented himself with manifesting the certainty Eusebius; that it is little noticed by succeeding authors; of his glorious resurrection to a sufficient numthat the whole affair was unknown to Christ's apostles, ber of faithful and credible witnesses, being and to the Christians, their contemporaries, as is manifest from the early disputes about the method of receiving aware that, if he should appear in public, those Gentile converts into the church, which this story, had malicious unbelievers, who had formerly attri it been true, must have entirely decided. As to the let-buted his miracles to the power of magic, would ters, no doubt can be made of their spuriousness, since, if Christ had written a letter to Abgarus, it would have represent his resurrection as a phantom, or vibeen a part of sacred Scripture, and would have been sion, produced by the influence of inferna placed at the head of all the books of the New Testa-powers. After having remained upon earth ment. See Lardner's Collection of Ancient Jewish and during the space of time above mentioned, anc given to his disciples a divine commission tc preach the glad tidings of salvation and im

Heathen Testimonies, vol. i. p. 297, &c. It must be observed in behalf of Eusebius, that he relates this story as

drawn from the archives of Edessa.