the law of Moses, took upon him the sign of the covenant by being circumcised, and also baptized before two witnesses: then he submitted to the whole law, and so became a Jew, living and worshipping God as the Jews did, and differed nothing from a Jew, only he was not born so, but made a Jew, being esteemed by them as a new-born child*. While their temple stood, such a proselyte was received by the offering of a sacrifice, as well as by circumcision and baptism.

A proselyte of the gate was a Gentile who inhabited within the gates of Israel, or among the Jews; and having renounced idolatry, worshipped the true God of Israel, yet was not circumcised, nor obliged to observe the ceremonial law, but only to keep the seven precepts of Noah, viz. (as the Jews reckoned them,) to cast off idols; to worship the one true God; to commit no murder; not to be defiled with fornication; to avoid rapine, theft, and robbery; to be careful in administering justice; and, lastly, to abstain from eating blood, (which have been spoken of before, concerning the state of mankind after the flood.) Such a one was called a devout or worshipping man or woman". This last kind were still esteemed Gentiles, and so called because of their uncircumcision, and were according to the law unclean, and such as no Jew might converse withal, nor were they properly members of the Jewish church; but they were admitted into the Jewish temple and synagogues, and to the hopes of the life to come, because they worshipped the true God only ; yet, while the temple stood, they were not suffered to come into the courts of Israel, but into the outward court, called the court of the Gentiles.

x Compare John iii. 5, 10. y Casaub. &c. ut supra. x. 2. and xvi. 14. a See the last mentioned authors.

z Acts

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Tetrarchs, as Herod's sons were called, who governed after him, as hath been already shewn.

Centurions, or officers over an hundred soldiers. Publicans, who were the collectors, and sometimes farmers or renters of the impositions or taxes which the Romans exacted of the Jews: they were often grievous oppressors, and therefore very odious to the Jews, especially if those officers were Jews themselves, as sometimes they were; as Matthew, before his being called by Christ to be an apostle, and Zaccheus. Besides, the Jews, of all people, were for liberty, and abhorred all subjection to any of another nation; and since they took the payment of taxes for a sign of slavery, no wonder they should so detest the collectors of them.

Scribes, whose office was to copy out of the book of the law of Moses, and being well versed therein, to explain the meaning thereof; as also to interpret the Jewish traditions: they are therefore sometimes called lawyers.

Rabbies, doctors, or teachers.

Pharisees, the strictest sect among the Jews, who appeared to be the most nice observers of the law of Moses, and of the traditions of their elders or doctors; accordingly, their name was given them from Pharas, a word which signifies to divide or separate from others: from the opinion of their own goodness, they despised all others besides their own party, and therefore upbraided our Saviour, that he accompanied with publicans and sinners. By their shew of religion, they procured a great esteem of themselves, and had a mighty influence on the government, and the people in general; insomuch that one of the Maccabees, by opposing them, put himself and his sons quite out of credit

b Grot. et Lightf. Hor. in Matt. v. 46. Hottinger's The saurus, 1. i. c. ii. p. 74. Lightf. Hor. in Matt, ii. 4.

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with the common people. But how religious soever they might be in their way, they were not sincere, but were great hypocrites; their aim being to be seen of men. And they were very covetous, grossing the profits of the government," proud and censorious. Scribes and Pharisees are often joined together in the Gospel; but the Scribes were of an office, the Pharisees of a sect; and both condemned by Christ for making their traditions to be of equal authority with the written law, and for their hypocrisy and covetousness; and for making broad their phylacteries, that is, strips of parchment, which they wore on their foreheads, on which were、 written some sentences of the law, (the word phylacteries signifying keepers or preservers,) and this they did by mistaking the spiritual sense of Exod. xiii. 16, that the law should be for frontlets between thine eyes, and understanding them literally, as serving to keep the law in continual memory. Now these phylacteries, for the greater ostentation and shew, they made very broad, that they should be the more observed by the people; and to the same end also, enlarged their borders, or fringes, of their garments, which were appointed to make people mindful of God's commands.

i

Sadducees, who denied any interposition of God in men's actions, whether they did good or evil, but that they were left to themselves. They also denied a future state, or reward after this lifek; which errors it is believed they fell into from one Sadoc, who, mistaking the words of his master Antigonus, viz. that" men should serve God, not as mercenaries, for

d Matt. xxiii. 5. e Joseph. Antiq. book xviii. chap. 2. and book xiii. chap. 18. and Wars, book i. chap. 4. Pocock's Not. Miscell. ad Portam Mosis, p. 351, &c. Lightf. in loc. h Num. xv. 38, 39. Pelagius, See Joseph. Grot. in Matt. xxii. 23.

f Matt. xxiii. 5. i Somewhat like Wars, book ii. chap. 7. and compare k Joseph. Antiq. book xviii. chap. 2,

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what they got by him, but for himself, without expectation of reward," came to espouse those errors'. And as a consequence thereof, they believed not the immortality of the soul, nor the resurrection from the dead, or that there were angels or spirits". Josephus observes, that there were not many of them, but that they were persons of the higher rank; however, that they were obliged to renounce their principles, when they bore any public office, and to comply with the contrary sentiments of the Pharisees; otherwise the people would not endure them.

Their principles had bad effects on them, for they were observed to be men of "rough ill manners, even one towards another." Josephus further remarks, that the "Pharisees had many traditions handed down from the fathers, which are not to be found among the laws of Moses, and which are rejected by the Sadducees, upon a persuasion that only the written laws are authoritative and binding:" he also adds, that "the Sadducees were supported by men of quality and substance, the Pharisees only by the favour of the multitudeP."

Herodians, whom Tertullian and others of the ancients affirm to be so called, because they believed Herod to be the Messiah; but others rather esteem them to be a party of the Sadducees, who adhered to Herod and his family, and espoused their interest and grandeur. Hence the leaven of the Sadducees, in Matt. xvi. 6. is called in Mark viii. 15. the leaven of Herod. Their particular tenet is not expressed; it might be a compliance with the civil government, by breaking through the commands of God; as Josephus accuses Herod himself of doing many things

1 Hottinger. Thesaur. 1. i. cap. 1. §. 5. p. 34. Lightfoot Hor. in Matt. iii. 7. m Acts xxiii. 8. n Joseph. ibid. • Joseph.. de Bell. Gr. 1. ii. cap. 8. P Joseph. Antiq. b. xiii. chap. 18. Ham. and Lightf. Hor. in Matt. xxii. 16. Prideaux's Connect. part ii. book v. sub Ann. 107.

contrary to the law and religion, to ingratiate himself with the heathen emperor'.

Zealots, Of these see what is said in the former part, concerning the siege of Jerusalem by Titus.

Essenes, who began about the time of the Maccabees, when the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes, mentioned before, forced many Jews to retire to woods and deserts. They lived in a very abstemious manner, and were very strict in some duties of religion; and, in many particulars, according to the doctrines of Christianity; but they could not be Christians, as some have fancied; for, living in retirement for the most part, we never read they had any conversation with Christ or his disciples; and amidst the accounts given of this sects, we find nothing of the redemption of the world by Christ, nor of the Christian sacraments; nor the resurrection of the body, which they denied, though they owned a future state, either happy or miserable, and many of their peculiar doctrines are condemned in the New Testamentt.

Samaritans, the posterity of those Assyrians, who were sent to Samaria by Salmanezer, when the kingdom of Israel was destroyed, as hath been said. These had, a long time before Christ's appearance in the world, renounced all their Pagan idolatries, (as it is believed, about 120 years after the settlement of the Jews, upon their return from the Babylonian captivity, by Nehemiah,) and embraced the Jewish religion"; but they owned only the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, to be the holy Scriptures; and worshipped at mount Gerizim, in Samaria, as the Jews did at Jerusalem; so that for three chief causes,

3

Antiq. book xv. chap. 12. at the end. Joseph. Wars, book ii. chap. 7. Antiq. book xviii. chap. 2. Hotting. Thesaur, 1. i. c. 1. §. 5. p. 38, 39. * Prideaux's Connect. part ii. book v. See the former Part, chap. xx.