remarkable, both in themfelves, and as they fo frequently occur in fcripture, were the Pharifees and Sadducees. The hypocritical character of the Pharifee is well known; his folemn deportment; his fhew of religion; his pride and contemptuous behaviour; his ftrictness intrifles; his licence in matters of importance. It was his grand tenet, that tradition was equal to the law; and was given by God to Mofes as a fupplement to the pentateuch. From this fund, of which he had the fole poffeffion, he imposed various obfervances on the people, which contributed more than any thing elfe to deftroy the genuine spirit of religion. After our Saviour's time, these traditionary ordinances were collected, and became the Mifna, the Gemara, and the Talmud. Thefe books, though very corrupt commentaries on the Jewish law, have, however, been of great ufe among Chriftians, as they throw various lights on the customs and proverbial phrafes of the Jews, and make the fcriptures better understood *. *Dr. Lightfoot, at the expence of great learning, hath publifhed a large collection of paffages from thefe writings, under the title of Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations; which throw a ftrong light on our Saviour's invectives against the Pharifees, whofe traditions were the ground-work and foundation of all these corruptions. From this work I fhall give an instance or two of the abfurd gloffes of the Talmudifts on the Hebrew fcriptures. In fpeaking of the paffage of the Ifraelites over the river Jordan, they tell us, the waters rofe, on that occafion, twelve miles in height.- With regard to Jacob's ladder, we are informed, that the breadth of each step was about thirty thousand miles; and that the bulk of each angel was eight thousand miles in compafs. In proof of the refurrection it is affirmed, that a bone called Luz, feated in the back, is the principle of future life; and that it had been demonftrated by Joshua ben Hananiah. That great rabbi took the bone Luz, and threw it into water, which did not diffolve it. He threw it into the fire which could not confume it. He brought it to the mill, which could not grind it. He laid it on an anvil, and ftruck it with a fledge. hammer: the anvil was cleft, and the hammer was broken; but Luz remained uninjured. The Sadducee was a Jewish freethinker. He denied afuture ftate, and believed neither angel nor Spirit. As he ac knowledged, however, the pentateuch, in which he found many narratives of angels, it is difficult to account for his disbelief of these heavenly beings. In oppofition to thefe latitudinarians, another Jewish fect ran into an oppofite extreme. These were the Effenes, who carried their religious feverities to a great height. As they lived, however, chiefly in the remote parts of Judea, they were little known: their name is not even mentioned in fcripture; though it is fuppofed they are alluded to in some paffages; particularly by St. Paul in his epistle to the Coloffians *. Some few, however, there were in the Jewish nation, who, with rational piety, ftill endeavoured to preserve. the purity of fcripture; allowing no arbitrary interpretation, and difavowing tradition. Among thefe, we may fuppofe, were Simeon, Nicodemus, Jofeph of Arimathea, and, indeed, all who read the prophetic writings without prejudice, and acknowledged Jefus to be the Meffiah. The great truth of an expected Meffiah, was what all fecta univerfally agreed in believing. But while it filled the true interpreter of scripture with holy joy and pious hope, it had a very different effect upon the body of the Jewish nation. Notwithstanding the gentle treatment they had received from the Romans, they bore the yoke with impatience. They were not actuated by a fpirit of civil liberty, as other nations commonly were; but by a kind of fpiritual pride. They were the defcendants of Abraham; and conceiving themselves to be a free people, they never loft the hope, from a full dependence on the predictions of their prophets, of recovering their liberty. It is true, their * See chap. ii. 23. prophetic prophetic deliverer was ftrongly marked with characters which could not poffibly accord with a temporal prince. He was held out, indeed, as their Redeemer from bondage; but it appeared plain to the attentive interpreter, that this bondage was of a fpiritual nature. The nation, however, in general, overlooking the humiliating circumftances of these descriptions, applied only the fplendid and triumphal parts to their expected deliverer; and rejected Christ, as he did not answer their ideas of a Meffiah. At the fame time, they were continually breaking out into rebellions, through the deceptions of falfe Chrifts and false prophets; and thus held out in their belief of prophecies, which never could be fulfilled but in Jefus Chrift, a strong proof that he was the real Meffiah. That a general expectation of a Meffiah fhould prevail in Judea, is not furprising, as the prophetic intimations of this great event were fo full and fo precife. But it is fomewhat fingular, that the fame idea fhould be found among heathen nations; as it certainly was about the time of our Saviour's appearance. Suetonius and Tacitus + both speak of a king, that was expected to arise out of Judea at that period. The Pollio of Virgil alfo is a poem of a very peculiar character. It abounds with evangelical traces, through whatever means the poet became poffeffed of them. But Plato presents us with paffages ftill more furprising. He tells us, a divine revelation is necessary, to explain the true worship of God—to add authority to moral precepts-to affift our best endeavours in a virtuous course to fix the future rewards and punishments of virtuous and vicious conduct—and to point out feme acceptable expiation for * Vit. Vefp. cap. iv. + Hift. lib. v. a 3 fin. fin. In fome paffages, he comes even yet clofer to Christianity. In one place, he introduces Socrates telling Alcibiades, that, in future time, a divine Perfon should ap pear, who, in pure love to mankind, should remove all darkness from his mind; and inftruct him how to offer his prayers and praises in the most acceptable way to the divine Being † There can be little doubt, I think, but that all these intimations from heathen writers must have originated from the Jewish scriptures; which, we have reafon to believe, were open to the learned inquiries of those days. The Jewish nation was certainly the great mean, which Providence made ufe of to prepare the world for the reception of Christianity. The grandeur of their temple the splendour of their religious rites-and the great renown of their lawgiver-all conspired to draw the attention of learned foreigners: while their travels; their wars, both fuccefsful and unfuccefsful; their commerce; and above all, their captivities; tended to diffeminate, through the means of their scriptures, thofe high expectations which their prophets had raised.If we do not fuppofe all this, we must at least believe these heathen authors faw those great defects in the nature of man, which the gospel was intended, to reform. In Plato, particularly, we must acknowledge a noble mind, ftruggling after the truth of religion; and presenting us with an irrefragable argument, that human reason alone is infufficient to discover it. But whatever hopes the heathen world might entertain on this head, the birth of Christ completely fulfilled the whole Jewish difpenfation. It threw a new fplendour on the law, and on the wifdom of the lawgiver. The Levitical See a fuller collection of fimilar paffages in Blackwall's Sac. Claffics, vol. ii. p. 88. + Alcib. ii. p. 150. ceremonies, ceremonies, in themselves fo fingular and unintelligible, affumed perfpicuity, propriety, and beauty, when it was found, that, as types, they figured out a more explicit revelation of God's will; and that the great scheme of the redemption of man might almost palpably be traced through every one of them. On the other hand, the gospel fhone with a much fuller blaze of evidence; when it appeared, that the life, the death, and the office of the Meffiah had not only been predicted by the prophets of the Old Testament; but had been pourtrayed, as it were, and visibly reprefented, by the rites of the oldest religion on the face of the earth, and the only religion which bore the stamp of a divine inftitution. According to the whole tenor of prophecy, Jefus Chrift was born in the lowest station, though of the family of David. Bethlehem was the place of his birth; but his chief abode was Nazareth, where he continued in obfcurity, till the thirtieth year of his age. About that time, John the baptist, who had been miraculously born, appeared in the office of forerunner to the Meffiah; calling men to repent, and prepare themselves for the gospel. When John's miniftry ceased, that of Jefus commenced. His first business was to choose difciples, to affist him to preach the gofpel; to propagate it after his death; and chiefly to be witneffes of his life and refurrection. He chofe them from the lowest ftations; and had no respect to the abilities of the mind, but to the fincerity of the dispofition. He particularly avoided perfons endowed with human learning, left the gofpel fhould be attributed to naturally caufes *.--Thus accompanied, he preached the |