Jews, but accompanied with a great deal of affectation, and abundance of vain obfervances. St. Paul, who had been of this fect, seems to allude to their affected holiness, when he said he was separated unto the gofpel of Chrift (e), because separated fignifies the same thing as fan&tified, or fet apart. It is no eafy matter to trace out the firft beginning and origin of this fect. As the Pharifees were great lovers of traditions, it is very probable that they began to appear when traditions came to have the preference above the law of God, that is, about a hundred years before the birth of CHRIST. Though Jofephus often fpeaks of them in his history, yet he no where mentions them before that time (ƒ). The holy fcripture teftifies, that they believed the refurrection, as alfo the existence of angels and spirits (g). From the account Jofephus gives of them (b), it seems probable that they had fetched their opinions concerning those matters not fo much out of the facred writings, as out of the philofophy of Pythagoras or Plato, fince they believed a tranfmigration of the fouls of good men in other bodies, which is a kind of refurrection (i). They afcribed moft events to fate, whereby they meant the will and pleasure of God; but they fuppofed withal, that every man was at liberty to do good or evil. As they thought works to be meritorious, they had invented a great number of fupererogatory ones, to which they affixed a greater merit, than to the obfervance of the law itfelf. St. Paul had undoubtedly an eye to them in fome parts of his Epiftle to the Romans, as we have obferved in our preface. Jofephus gives only a general account of their traditions and tenets. But according to the representation given of them by JESUS CHRIST (k), they may be reduced to these feveral heads. 1. Their frequent washings and fcrupulous abJutions. It is certainly very common and decent to wash ones hands before meals: But the Pharifees made a religious duty of this, and looked upon the omiffion of it as a capital crime. 2. They made long prayers in public places (), thereby to attract the esteem and veneration of the people. 3. They thought themselves defiled, if they touched or converfed with those whom they called finners (m), that is, the publicans, and perfons of loofe and irregular lives. Every pious man ought indeed to deteft and abhor vice and wickednefs, and every chriftian in particular fhould avoid as much as poffible all communication with finners. But what JESUS CHRIST reproved the Pharifees for, was their haughty and arrogant behaviour towards the common fort of people ("), whom they looked upon with a kind of horror; and the two high opinion they entertained of their own wifdom and holinefs. The prophet Ifaiah had beforehand given the true character of these men (o). 4. They were wont to faft often. It cannot be denied but that fafting is very helpful and fubfervient to the ends of religion, and acceptable to God, when it proceeds from a truly penitent heart. But the Pharifees loft the whole (e) Rom. i. 1. (f) Antiq. 1. xiii. c. 9. (g) Acts xxiii. 8. (m) Luke vii. 39. & xv. 1, &c. (0) If. lxv. 5.. () John vii. 49. See our note on this place. whole benefit of it by their vanity and oftentation, and altered the very nature of fasting, by taking for religion what is only a help towards the performance of it. Just as if a child should value himself upon his being forced to be carried about; or, an old man, that he cannot walk without a staff. 5. They were fcrupulously exact in paying tithe of the least things, and beyond what the law required. JESUS CHRIST does not blame them (p) for paying tithes in general, for the law required it; but for imagining that they could thereby atone for the omiffion and tranfgreffion of the most effential duties. 6. They were so strict obfervers of the Sabbath, as to think it unlawful for any one to rub ears of corn (q), or to heal a fick perfon. 7. They wore broader phylacteries, and larger fringes to their garments, than the rest of the Jews (r). These phylacteries (*) were long and narrow pieces of parchment, whereon were written thirty paffages out of Exodus and Deuteronomy, which they tied to their foreheads and left-arms in memory of the. law. Some authors infer from Exod. xiii. 9. and Deut. vi. 8. that they were of divine inftitution. But these paffages may be taken in a figurative fenfe, as they are by the Caraïtes, who wear no phylacteries at all. However, in JESUS CHRIST's time, they were worn by the generality of the Jews, as well by the Sadducees, who received only the law, as by the Pharifees; with this difference, that the latter had them larger than the reft, thereby to give the people a greater idea of their holiness and piety. Such a fpecious fhew of religion had gained them, to that degree, the esteem and veneration of the people, that they could do with them whatever they pleased, though they held them in the utmost contempt, as hath been already obferved. This vaft refpect which the common people entertained for the Pharifees, made the nobility keep fair with them (s). Thus beloved by the people, and dreaded by the grandees, they had a great power and authority; but it was generally attended wh pernicious confequences, becaufe their heart was very corrupted and vicious. We may judge of their character by the frequent anathemas which JESUS CHRIST denounced against them, and the defcriptions he hath given of their morals. He reprefents them as monsters of pride; as hypocrites, who under a fair outside of religion, had minds tainted with the blackest vices; as impious wretches, who rendered the word of God of none effect (p) Matt. xxiii. (r) Matth. xxiii. 5. (2) Matt. xii. 2. Luke vi. 7. by (*) Phylactery is a Greek word, that fignifies a memorial or prefervative. It was a kind of Amulet, or charm. The Hebrew name for phylatteries is tephillim, which fignifies Prayers, because the Jews wear them thiefly when they are at prayers. The phylacteries are parchment cafes, formed with great nicety into their proper flapes; they are covered with leather, and ftand erect upon fquare bottoms. That for the head has four cavities, into each of which is put one of the four following fections of the law, viz. Exod. xiii. 1—10. Exod. xiii. 11-16. Deut. vi. 4-9. Deut. xi. 12. 13. The other hath but one cavity, and into that four fections are alfo put. See Lamy's Introduct. to the Script. p. 238. (s) Jof. Antiq. 1. xiii. 23. by their traditions. It is however probable, that fuch heavy cenfures reached only the greateft part of them, and that all the Pharifees were not of fo odious a character. Bating the timoroufnefs of Nicodemus (t), we observe in his whole behaviour and conduct a great deal of goodness and honefty. We may pafs the fame judgment upon Gamaliel. If Saul perfecuted the church of Chrift, he did it out of a blind zeal; but without infifting upon the teftimony he bears of himself, it is manifeft from the extraordinary favour of God towards him, that he was not tainted with the other vices common to that fect. What he fays of it, that it was the fricteft of all, cannot admit of any other than a favourable conftruction. The third fet among the Jews, was that of the Effenes. Of the Eenes. These are no where mentioned in fcripture, because they lived in defarts, and feldom refided in cities (*). It is notwithstanding worth while to give fome account of them, because of the great conformity of fome of their maxims with those of the Chriftian religion. They have been confounded with the Rechabites; but very wrongly, fince thefe were of a much longer ftanding. Befides, they were not originally Jews: but the pofterity of Rechab, one of the defcendants of Jethro, the father-in-law of Mofes, and a Midianite. It was the name of a family, and not of a fect. It is true that the Rechabites led a very uncommon kind of life, prefcribed them by Jonadab their father, the son of Rechab, as we read in the prophet Jeremiah (u). They drunk no wine, they built no houfes, but lived in tents; they neither fowed feed, nor planted vineyards; but ftill they were no Sectarists. They may properly enough be compared with the Nazarites, (of whom we intend to give an account hereafter) but with this difference, that the vow of the Nazarites was of divine inflitution, whereas that of the Rechabites was a human appointment, but approved of by God. As for the Effenes, they all along made a fet among the Jews, as we are affured by two credible authors, viz. Philo (x) and Jofephus (y), who have given an exact and pretty uniform defcription of them. It is fuppofed, with a good deal of probability, that this fect began during the perfecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, when great numbers of Jews were driven into the wilderness, where they inured themfelves to a hard and laborious way of living. There were two forts of them; fome lived in fociety, and married, though with a great deal of warinefs and circumfpection. They dwelt in cities, and applied themselves to husbandry, and other innocent trades and occupations. Thefe were called practical. The others, which were a kind of Hermits or Monks, according to the primary and original fignification of that word (z), gave themfelves up wholly to meditation. These were the contemplative Effenes, otherwife called Therapeuta, (t) John iii. (*) Philo nevertheless fays that there were about four thousand in Judea. Phil. p. 678. (u) Jer. xxxv. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. (x) Philo ubi fupra. I See alfo Chron. ii. 55. (y) Jofeph, de Bell. Jud. I. ii, c. 7. (z) Monk, or poraxos, originally tignifies a perfon that lives a folitary and retired life. Therapeuta, that is phyficians, not fo much upon the account of their ftudying phyfic, as of applying themselves chiefly to the cure and health of the foul. It was to preferve it from the contagion of vice, that they avoided living in great towns, because the noife and hurry that reigns in fuch places, were inconfiftent with that fedatenefs which they were fo fond of, and that befides they were hereby lefs expofed to temptations. It doth not appear that they had any traditions, like the Pharifees, but as they were Allegorifts, they had feveral myftical books, which ferved them for a rule in explaining the facred writings, all which they acknowledged and received. Both thefe forts of Effenes followed the fame maxims. They drank no wine; and were eminent for their frugality and continence. All kinds of pleasure they were perfect ftrangers to. They used a plain fimplicity in their difcourfe, and left to philofophers the glory of difputing and talking eloquently. Commerce they did not meddle with, imagining that it is apt to make people covetous. There was no fuch thing as property among them, but they had all things in common; and whenever any one was admitted into their fociety, he was forced to give up his goods, for the use of the community. As they were charitable one towards another, and hofpitable to ftrangers, want and indigence were things they knew nothing of. All fuch arts as were deftructive of mankind, or hurtful to the public, were banished from among them. They reckoned war unlawful, accordingly they had no workmen that made any forts of arms. However, when they travelled, they carried about them a fword to secure themselves against the thieves and robbers, that were then very numerous in Judea. They never took any thing with them, because they were fure of finding all neceffaries wherever they came. There was among them neither masters nor flaves. All were free, and served one another. There was notwithstanding a great deal of order and fubordination between them. The elders efpecially were very much refpected, and the difciples had a great veneration for their masters. They never fwore, at least without mature deliberation, because they had an extreme aversion for a lye; and their word was more facred than the oath of any other. However, when they admitted any perfon into their number, they made him "bind himself by folemn execrations and profeffions, to love and worship God (a), to do justice toward men, to wrong no one, though commanded to do it ; to declare himself an enemy to all wicked men, to join with all the lovers of right and equity; to keep faith with all men, but with princes especially, as they are of God's appointment, and his minifters. He is likewife to "declare, that if ever he comes to be advanced above his companions, "he will never abuse that power to the injury of his inferiors, nor distinguish himself from those below him, by an ornament of drefs or "apparel: But that he will love and embrace the truth, and feverely reprove all lyars." "He binds himfelf likewife to keep his hands "clear from theft and fraudulent dealing, and his foul untainted with "the defire of unjust gain: That he will not conceal from his fellow"profeffors 66 ་་ (a) Jof. de Bell. Jud. 1. ii. c. 7, "profeffors any of the mysteries of religion; nor communicate any of "them to the prophane, though it fhould be to fave his life. And "then for the matter of his doctrine, that he shall deliver nothing but "what he hath received: That he will endeavour to preserve the doc"trine itself that, he profeffes; the books that are written of it; and the "names of those from whom he had it. These proteftations are used as a test for new comers, and a fecurity to keep them fast to their duty. Upon the taking of any man in a notorious wickedness, he "is excluded the congregation: And whoever incurs this fentence, comes probably to a miferable end. For he that is tied up by these "rites, is not allowed fo much as to receive a bit of bread from the "hand of a stranger, though his life itself were in hazard: So that men "are driven to graze like beafts, until they are confumed with hunger. "In this distress, the fociety hath fometimes had the charity and com"paffion to receive fome of them again." I have fet down this paffage all at length. 1. Because the oath which the Effenes exacted of thofe whom they admitted into their order, was nearly the fame as that, which, according to Pliny (*), the primitive Chriftians were used to bind themselves with. 2. It appears from thence, that the Effenes were not fo eager to gain profelytes as the Pharifees. This Philo testifies. Their morality was both pure and found; and they reduced it to these three particulars: 1. To love God; 2. Virtue; and 3. Mankind. Religion they made to confift, not in offering up facrifices, but according to St. Paul's advice (b), in presenting their bodies as a holy facrifice to God, by a due performance of all religious duties. It is notwithstanding fomewhat furprising, that Jews who profeffed to follow the law of Mofes, which punifhed with death all thofe that prefumed to speak ill of the legiflator, and who befides were ftricter obfervers of the fabbath than the relt, fhould omit fo effential a part of worship, as facrificing was. And therefore Jofephus fays, "that they fent their gifts to the temple, "without going thither themfelves; for they offered their facrifices apart, in a peculiar way of worship, and with more religious ceremo "nies (c)." Thofe two authors (d) have very much cried up the extreme firmnefs of mind, which the Efenes have thewed upon feveral occafions, as under diftreffes and perfecutions, fuffering death, and the moft grievous torments, even with joy and chearfulness, rather than fay or do any thing contrary to the law of God. Such being the difpofitions of the Effenes, they could not but be inclined to embrace Christianity; but they must not be confounded with the Chriftians, as they have been by Eufebius (e), fince it may eafly be made appear, that when Philo gave an account of them, there were hardly any Christians in the world. This fect was not unknown to the heathens. Pliny (f), and Solinus (g), fpeak of it, but in fo very fabulous and obfcure a manner, as plainly fhews (*) Plin. Epift. 1. x. Ep. 97.-Seque facramento non in fcelus aliquod obftringere, fed ne furta, ne latrocinia, ne adulteria committerent, ne fidem fallerent, ne depofitum appellati abnegarent. (b) Rom. xii. 1. (c) Jofeph. Antiq. 1. xviii. c. 2. |