better. All those that were of the greatest power and riches among the Jews being cut off in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, this whole sect seems then to have perished with them. For we find no mention made of them as a sect in being for many ages after, till their name was revived again in the Karraites, which is the next sect of the Jews, that we shall give an account of.

III. These Karraites, though in the way of reproach they are called Sadducees by the other Jews, yet agree with them in nothing else, but in rejecting all traditions, and adhering only to the written word. Here indeed the Sadducees first began, but afterwards went further into those impious doctrines above described, which the Karraites have not. For in all other matters they agree with the other Jews, neither do they absolutely reject all traditions, but only refuse to allow them the same authority, as they do to the written word. They are content to admit them as the opinions of the former doctors, as human helps for the interpreting and the better understanding of the written word, as far as they shall find them conducive thereto, but not to equal them to the written word itself, which all the other Jews do. For as to these other Jews I have shewn in the former part of this history, how they hold, that besides the written law, there was also given to Moses from mount Sinai an oral law of the same authority with the former; under this latter they comprehend all their traditions, and therefore think themselves under the same obligation to observe them, as the written word itself, or rather a greater. For they observe not the written word any otherwise than as interpreted by their traditions. And therefore having in process of time gathered all these traditions into that voluminous book called their Talmud, they required the same deference and veneration to be paid that book, as to the Holy Scriptures themselves, founding all their articles of faith upon its dictates, and regulating their practice in all things according to the directions and precepts that are therein. This book was published about the beginning of the sixth century after Christ. But when it came to be scanned and examined by such as were men of sense and judgment among them,

they not being able to conceive how such trash, nonsense, and incredible fables, as they found heaped up therein, could come from God, were so shocked hereby, that they could not give up their faith to it; but reserving that wholly for the written word of God (that is the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa) receive the other only as a work of human composure to be used as an help for the interpreting and explaining the written word in such passages of it, where it should be found conducive thereto; and for some time their dissent on this point, went on without making any breach or schism among them, till about the year of our Lord seven hundred and fifty. But then Anan, a Jew of Babylonia, of the stock of David, and Saul his son, both learned men in their way, having openly declared for the written word only, and publickly disclaimed and condemned all manner of traditions, excepting such alone as agreed therewith, this soon produced a rent and a schism among them, so that they became divided into two parties, the one standing up for the Talmud and its traditions, and the other rejecting and disowning both, as containing in their opinion the inventions of men, and not the doctrines and commands of God.

IV. But the greatest sect of the Jews was that of the Pharisees; for they had not only the Scribes, and all the learned men in the law of their party; but they also drew after them all the bulk of the common people. They differed from the Samaritans in that besides the law they received the prophets, the Hagiographa, and the traditions of the elders, and from the Sadducees, differed not only in these particulars, but also in their doctrines about a future state and the resurrection of the dead, and upon predestination and freewill. Yet, it is hard to say, what their doctrine was as to this matter; for according to Josephus they held absolute predestination with the Essenes, and free will with the Sadducees jumbled together. For they ascribed to God and fate all that is done, and yet left to man the freedom of his will. But the main distinguishing character of this sect was their zeal for the traditions of the Elders, which they derived from the same fountain with the written word itself, pretending both to have been delivered to Moses from mount Sinai, and

therefore they ascribed equally to both the same authority. These men, by reason of their pretences to a more nice and rigorous observance of the law according to their traditions, which they had superadded to it, looked on themselves as more holy than other men, and therefore separated themselves from those, whom they thought sinners, or profane, so as not to eat or drink with them; and hence from the Hebrew word Pharaz, which signifieth to separate, they had the name of Pharisees, which is as much as to say Separatists.

In conjunction with the Pharisees, the Scribes are often mentioned in the scriptures of the New Testament. But they were not a sect, but a profession of men following literature. They were of divers sorts. For generally all that were any way learned among the Jews were in the time of our Saviour and his apostles called Scribes, but especially those, who by reason of their skill in the law and divinity of the Jews, were advanced to sit in Moses's seat, and were either judges in their Sanhedrims, or teachers in their schools or synagogues. They were mostly of the sect of the Pharisees. The learning of the Jews in those times lying in their pharisaical traditions, and their way of interpreting (or we may rather say wresting) the scriptures by them. And they being the men, that dictated the law both of church and state, hence lawyers and Scribes are convertible terms in the gospels, and both of them do there signify the same sort of men. For the same person, who in Matthew xvii. 35, is called a lawyer, is in Mark xii. 28, said to be one of the Scribes.

V. But how rigorous soever the Pharisees pretended to be in their observances, the Essenes out-went them herein. For being originally of the same sect with them they reformed upon them, in the same manner as among the Romanists, the Carthusians and the Cistertians have upon the Benedictines, and set up for a much more severe, and perchance for a much more unblameable rule of living, than the other did.

Although our Saviour very often censured all the other sects then among the Jews, yet he never spake of the Essenes, neither is there any mention of them through the

whole scriptures of the New Testament. This proceeded, some think, from their retired way of living. For their abode being mostly in the country they seldom came into cities, nor were they in our Saviour's time ever seen at the the temple, or in any public assembly, and therefore not falling in the way of our Saviour's observation, for this reason, say they, he took no notice of them. But it is much more likely, that being a very honest and sincere sort of people without guile or hypocrisy, they gave no reason for that reproof and censure, which the others very justly deserved. Their way of living was very peculiar and remarkable.

They had riches in great contempt; and community of goods was maintained among them in a very admirable manner; for not any one was to be found among them possessing more than another, it being a fixed rule of their sect, that every one, who enters into it must give up all his goods into the public stock of the society, so that among the whole number none could be found lower than another by reason of his poverty, nor any on the other side elevated above the rest by his riches; for every man's goods being cast into the common stock, they were all enjoyed as one possession among brethren in the same family for each

man's use.

They were in what pertained to God in an especial manner religious. For before the sun was risen they spoke of no common worldly matter; but till then offered up unto God their prayers in ancient forms received from their predecessors, supplicating particularly in them, that he would make the Sun to rise upon them.

There was another sect among the Jews called the Herodians, having its rise from Herod, king of Judea, called Herod the Great, mentioned often in the gospels. Some say it was, because they held Herod to be the Messiah; so Tertullian, Epiphanius, St. Jerom, St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and several others of the ancients held. But it is very improbable, that any Jews should in the time of our Saviour's ministry, above thirty years after the death of Herod hold him to have been the Messiah, when they had found no one of those particulars, which they expect. ed from the Messiah, performed by him, but rather every

thing quite the contrary. By what is mentioned of these Herodians in the gospels, they seem plainly to have been a sect among the Jews differing from the rest in some points of their law and religion. For they are there named with the Pharisees, and in contradistinction from them, and therefore must have been a sect in the same manner as the Pharisees were. And they are also said to have a peculiar leaven, as the Pharisees had, that is, some false and evil tenets, which soured and corrupted the whole lump, with which it was mingled; and therefore Christ equally warned his disciples against both. And since he calleth it the leaven of Herod, this argues, that Herod was the author of it, that is of those evil tenets, which constituted this sect, and distinguished it from the other sects of the Jews, and that his followers imbibing those tenets from him were for this reason called Herodians. And these being chiefly of his courtiers, and the officers and servants of his palace, and those that were descended from them, hence the Syriac version, wherever the word Herodians occurs in the original, renders it the domestics of Herod. It being said, Deut. xvii. ver. 15, "One from among thy "brethren shalt thou set king over thee, thou mayest not "set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother;" hence an opinion arose, which was generally embraced by the Pharisees, that it was not lawful to submit to the Roman emperor, or pay taxes unto him; but Herod and his followers understanding the text to exclude only a voluntary choice, and not a necessary submission, where force hath over-powered choice, were of a contrary opinion, and held it lawful in this case both to submit to the Roman emperor, and also to pay taxes to him. And therefore the Pharisees and the Herodians being of opinion in this matter quite contrary to each other, those that laid snares for Christ, and sought an occasion against him, sent the disciples of both these sects at the same time together to propose this captious question to him, Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not? thinking which way soever he should answer to bring him into danger. For should he answer in the negative, the Herodians were there ready to accuse him of being an enemy to Cæsar; and should he answer in the affirmative, the Pharisees were