Antiquitates apoitolicæ, or, The history of the lives, acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour and the two evangelists SS. Mark and Lvke to which is added an introductory discourse concerning the three great dispensations of the church, patriarchal, Mosiacal and evangelical : being a continuation of Antiquitates christianæ or the life and death of the holy Jesus / by William Cave ...

SECT II. Of the MOSAICAL Dispensation.

Moses the Minister of this Oeconomy. His miraculous preservation. His learn∣ed and noble education. The Divine temper of his mind. His conducting the Israelites out of Egypt. Their arrival at Mount Sinai. The Law given, and how. Moral Laws; the Decalogue whether a perfect Compendium of the Moral Law. The Ceremonial Laws, what. Reduced to their proper Heads. Such as concerned the matter of their Worship. Sacrifices, and the several kinds of them. Circumcision. The Passover, and its typical relation. The place of Publick Worship. The Tabernacle and Temple, and the several parts of them, and their typical aspects considered. Their stated times and feasts, weekly, monthly, annual. The Sabbatical Year. The Year of Jubilee. Laws con∣cerning the Persons ministring; Priests, Levites, the High-Priest, how a type of Christ. The Design of the Ceremonial Law, and its abolition. The Judi∣cial Laws, what. The Mosaick Law how divided by the Jews into affirmative and negative Precepts, and why. The several ways of Divine revelation. Urim and Thummim what, and the manner of its giving Answers. Bath-Col. Whe∣ther any such way of revelation among the Jews. Revelation by Dreams. By Visions. The Revelation of the Holy Spirit, what. Moses his way of Prophecy wherein exceeding the rest. The pacate way of the spirit of prophecy. This spirit when it ceased in the Jewish Church. The state of the Church under this Dispensation briefly noted. From the giving of the Law till Samuel. From Samuel till Solomon. Its condition under the succeeding Kings till the Captivity. From thence till the coming of Christ. The state of the Jewish Church in the time of Christ more particularly considered. The prophanations of the Temple. The Corruption of their Worship. The abuse of the Priesthood. The Depravation of the Law by false glosses. Their Oral and unwritten Law. Its original and succession according to the mind of the Jews. Their un∣reasonable and blasphemous preferring it above the written Law. Their religious observing the Traditions of the Elders. The Vow of Corban, what. The su∣perseding Moral Duties by it. The Sects in the Jewish Church. The Pharisees, their denomination, rise, temper and principles. Sadducees, their impious Principles, and evil lives. The Essenes, their original, opinions, and way of life. The Herodians, who. The Samaritans. Karraeans. The Sect of the Zealots. The Roman Tyranny over the Jews.

1. THE Church, which had hitherto lyen dispersed in private Fami∣lies, and had often been reduced to an inconsiderable number, being now multiplied into a great and a populous Nation, God was pleased to enter into Covenant, not any longer with particular Persons, but with the Body of the People, and to govern the Church by more certain and regular ways and methods, than it had hitherto been. This Dispen∣sation began with the delivery of the Law, and continued till the final peri∣od of the Jewish state, consisting only of meats and drinks, and divers wash∣ings, and carnal Ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. In

the survey whereof we shall chiefly consider what Laws were given for the Government of the Church, by what Methods of revelation God communi∣cated his mind and will to them, and what was the state of the Church, especially towards the conclusion of this Oeconomy.

2. THE great Minister of this Dispensation was Moses the Son of Am∣ram, of the House of Levi, a Person, whose signal preservation when but an Infant presaged him to be born for great and generous undertakings. Pha∣raoh King of Egypt desirous to suppress the growing numbers of the Jewish Nation had afflicted and kept them under with all the rigorous severities of tyranny and oppression. But this not taking its effect, he made a Law that all Hebrew Male-children should be drowned as soon as born, knowing well enough how to kill the root, if he could keep any more Branches from spring∣ing up. But the wisdom of Heaven defeated his crafty and barbarous designs. Among others that were born at that time was Moses a goodly Child, and whom his Mother was infinitely desirous to preserve: but having conceal∣ed him, till the saving of his might endanger the losing her own life, her affection suggested to her this little stratagem: she prepared an Ark made of Paper-reeds, and pitched within, and so putting him a-board this little Ves∣sel, threw him into the River Nilus, committing him to the mercy of the waves, and the conduct of the Divine Providence. God, who wisely or∣ders all events,* 1.1 had so disposed things, that Pharaohs daughter (whose name, say the Jews, was Bithia; Thermuth says Josephus, say the Arabians, Sihhoun) being troubled with a distemper that would not endure the hot Bathes, was come down at this time to wash in the Nile, where the cries of the tender Babe soon reached her ears. She commanded the Ark to be brought a-shore, which was no sooner opened, but the mournful oratory of the weeping Infant sensibly struck her with compassionate resentments: And the Jews add,* 1.2 that she no sooner touched the Babe, but she was immediately healed, and cried out that he was a holy Child, and that she would save his life; for which (say they) she obtained the favour to be brought under the wings of the Divine Majesty, and to be called the daughter of God. His Sister Miriam, who had all this while beheld the scene afar off, officiously proffer∣ed her service to the Princess to call an Hebrew Nurse, and accordingly went and brought his Mother. To her care he was committed with a charge to look tenderly to him, and the promise of a reward. But the hopes of that could add but little, where nature was so much concerned. Home goes the Mother joyful and proud of her own pledge, and the royal charge, carefully providing for his tender years. His infant-state being pass'd, he was restored to the Princess, who adopted him for her own son, bred him up at Court, where he was polished with all the arts of a noble and ingenu∣ous education, instructed in the modes of civility and behaviour, in the methods of policy and government, Learned in all the wisdom of the Egypti∣ans, whose renown for wisdom is not only once and again taken notice of in holy Writ, but their admirable skill in all liberal Sciences, Natural, Mo∣ral and Divine, beyond the rate and proportion of other Nations, is suffici∣ently celebrated by foreign Writers. To these accomplishments God was pleased to add a Divine temper of mind, a great zeal for God, not able to endure any thing that seemed to clash with the interests of the Divine honour and glory; a mighty courage and resolution in God's service, whose edge was not to be taken off either by threats or charms; He was not afraid of the Kings commandment,* 1.3 nor feared the wrath of the King, for he endured as seeing him that is invisible. His contempt of the World was great and ad∣mirable, sleighting the honours of Pharaoh's Court, and the fair probabi∣lities

of the Crown, the treasures and pleasures of that rich, soft and luxu∣rious Country, out of a firm belief of the invisible rewards of another World; He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,* 1.4 chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt;* 1.5 for he had respect unto the recompence of reward. Josephus relates, that when but a child he was presented by the Princes to her Father, as one whom she had adopted for her son, and designed for his successor in the Kingdom, the King taking him up into his arms, put his Crown upon his head, which the child immediately pull'd off again, and throwing it upon the ground, trampled it under his feet. An action which however looked upon by some Courtiers then present, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as portending a fa∣tal Omen to the Kingdom, did however evidently presage his generous con∣tempt of the grandeur and honours of the Court, and those plausible ad∣vantages of Soveraignty that were offered to him. His patience was in∣superable, not tired out with the abuses and disappointments of the King of Egypt, with the hardships and troubles of the Wilderness, and which was beyond all, with the cross and vexatious humours of a stubborn and unquiet generation. He was of a most calm and treatable disposition, his spirit not easily ruffled with passion; he who in the cause of God and Religion could be bold and fierce as a Lion, was in his own patient as a Lamb, God him∣self having given this character of him, That he was the meekest man upon the Earth.

3. THIS great personage thus excellently qualified, God made choice of him to be the Commander and conducter of the Jewish Nation, and his Embassador to the King of Egypt, to demand the enfranchisement of his people, and free liberty to go serve and worship the God of their Fathers. And that he might not seem a mere pretender to Divine revelation, but that he really had an immediate commission from Heaven, God was plea∣sed to furnish him with extraordinary Credentials, and to seal his Com∣mission with a power of working Miracles beyond all the Arts of Magick, and those tricks for which the Egyptian Sorcerers were so famous in the World. But Pharaoh unwilling to part with such useful Vassals, and ha∣ving oppressed them beyond possibility of reconcilement, would not hear∣ken to the proposal, but sometimes downright rejected it, otherwhiles sought by subtil and plausible pretences to evade and shift it off; till by ma∣ny astonishing Miracles, and severe Judgments God extorted at length a grant from him. Under the conduct of Moses they set forwards after at least two hundred years servitude under the Egyptian yoke; and though Pharaoh sensible of his error, with a great Army pursued them, either to cut them off, or bring them back, God made way for them through the midst of the Sea, the waters becoming like a wall of Brass on each side of them, till being all passed to the other shore, those invisible cords which had hitherto tied up that liquid Element, bursting in sunder, the waters returned and overwhelmed their enemies that pursued them. Thus God by the same stroke can protect his friends, and punish his enemies. Nor did the Divine Providence here take its leave of them, but became their con∣stant guard and defence in all their journeys, waiting upon them through their several stations in the wilderness; the most memorable whereof was that at Mount Sinai in Arabia: The place where God delivered them the pattern in the Mount, according to which the form both of their Church and State was to be framed and modelled. In order hereunto Moses is called up into the Mount, where by Fasting and Prayer he conversed with Hea∣ven,

and received the body of their Laws. Three days the people were by a pious and devout care to sanctifie and prepare themselves for the promul∣gation of the Law, they might not come near their Wives, were com∣manded to wash their clothes, as an embleme and representation of that cleansing of the heart, and that inward purity of mind, wherewith they were to entertain the Divine will. On the third day in the morning God descended from Heaven with great appearances of Majesty and terror, with thunders and lightnings, with black clouds and tempests, with shouts and the loud noise of a trumpet (which trumpet, say the Jews, was made of the horn of that Ram that was offered in the room of Isaac) with fire and smoke on the top of the Mount, ascending up like the smoke of a Furnace; the Mountain it self greatly quaking,* 1.6 the people trembling; nay, so terrible was the sight, that Moses (who had so frequently, so familiarly conversed with God) said, I exceedingly fear and quake. All which pompous trains of terror and magnificence God made use of at this time, to excite the more so∣lemn attention to his Laws, and to beget a greater reverence and veneration for them in the minds of the people, and to let them see how able he was to call them to account, and by the severest penalties to vindicate the violation of his Law.

4. THE Code and Digest of those Laws, which God now gave to the Jews as the terms of that National Covenant that he made with them, con∣sisted of three sorts of Precepts, Moral, Ecclesiastical and Political; which the Jews will have intimated by those three words, that so frequently occur in the writings of Moses, Laws, Statutes and Judgments. By 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Laws, they understand the Moral Law, the notices of good and evil na∣turally implanted in mens minds: By 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Statutes, Ceremonial Pre∣cepts, instituted by God with peculiar reference to his Church: By 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Judgments, Political Laws concerning Justice and Equity, the order of humane society, and the prudent and peaceable managery of the Commonwealth. The Moral Laws inserted into this Code are those contained in the Decalogue,* 1.7 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 as they are called, the ten words that were written upon two Tables of Stone. These were nothing else but a summary Comprehension of the great Laws of Nature, engraven at first upon the minds of all men in the World; the most material part whereof was now consigned to writing, and incorporated into the body of the Jewish Law. I know the Decalogue is generally taken to be a com∣plete System of all natural Laws: But whoever impartially considers the matter, will find that there are many instances of duty so far from being commanded in it, that they are not reducible to any part of it, unless hook'd in by subtilties of wit, and drawn thither by forc'd and unnatural inferen∣ces. What provision except in one case or two do any of those Com∣mandments make against neglects of duty? Where do they oblige us to do good to others, to love, assist, relieve our enemies? Gratitude and thank∣fulness to benefactors is one of the prime and essential Laws of Nature, and yet no where that I know of (unless we will have it implied in the Preface to the Law) commanded or intimated in the Decalogue: With many other cases, which 'tis naturally evident are our duty, whereof no footsteps are to be seen in this Compendium, unless hunted out by nice and sagacious reasonings, and made out by a long train of consequences, never originally intended in the Commandment, and which not one in a thousand are capable of deducing from it. It is probable therefore that God reduc'd only so many of the Laws of Nature into writing, as were proper to the present state and capacities of that people to whom they were given, super-adding

some, and explaining others by the Preaching and Ministery of the Prophets, who in their several Ages endeavoured to bring men out of the Shades and Thickets, into clear light and Noon-day, by clearing up mens obligations to those natural and essential duties, in the practice whereof hu∣mane nature was to be advanced unto its just accomplishment and perfecti∣on. Hence it was that our Lord, who came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil and perfect it, has explained the obligations of the natural Law more fully and clearly, more plainly and intelligibly, rendred our duty more fixed and certain, and extended many instances of obedience to higher mea∣sures, to a greater exactness and perfection, than ever they were understood to have before. Thus he commands a free and universal charity, not on∣ly that we love our friends and relations, but that we love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that despite∣fully use and persecute us: He hath forbidden malice and revenge with more plainness and smartness; obliged us not only to live according to the mea∣sures of sobriety, but extended it to self-denial, and taking up the Cross, and laying down our lives, whenever the honour of God, and the interest of Re∣ligion calls for it; he not only commands us to do no wrong, but when we have done it, to make restitution; not only to retrench our irregular ap∣petites, but to cut off our right hand, and pluck out our right eye, and cast them from us, that is, mortifie and offer violence to those vicious inclinations, which are as dear to us, as the most useful and necessary parts and members of our body. Besides all this, had God intended the Decalogue for a perfect summary of the Laws of Nature, we cannot suppose that he would have ta∣ken any but such into the collection, whereas the Fourth Commandment concerning the Seventh day is unquestionably Typical and Ceremonial, and has nothing more of a Natural and Eternal obligation in it, than that God should be served and honoured both with publick and private worship, which cannot be done without some portions of time set apart for it: but that this should be done just at such a time, and by such proportions, upon the Seventh rather than the Sixth or the Eighth day, is no part of natu∣ral Religion. And indeed the reasons and arguments that are annexed to it, to enforce the observance of it, clearly shew that it is of a later date, and of another nature than the rest of those Precepts in whose company we find it, though it seems at first sight to pass without any peculiar note of discri∣mination from the rest. As for the rest they are Laws of Eternal righteous∣ness, and did not derive their value and authority from the Divine sanction which God here gave them at Mount Sinai, but from their own moral and internal goodness and equity, being founded in the nature of things, and the essential and unchangeable differences of good and evil. By which means they always were, always will be obligatory and indispensable, be∣ing as Eternal and Immutable as the nature of God himself.

5. THE second sort of Laws were Ceremonial, Divine Constitutions concerning Ritual observances, and matters of Ecclesiastical cognizance and relation, and were instituted for a double end, partly for the more orderly government of the Church, and the more decent administration of the worship of God; partly that they might be types and figures of the Evan∣gelical state, shadows of good things to come, visible and symbolical represent∣ments of the Messiah, and those great blessings and priviledges which he was to introduce into the World; which doubtless was the reason why God was so infinitely punctual and particular in his directions about these matters, giving orders about the minutest circumstances of the Temple-mi∣nistration, because every part of it had a glance at a future and better state

of things. The number of them was great, and the observation burden∣som, the whole Nation groaning under the servility of that yoke. They were such as principally related to God's worship, and may be reduced either to such as concerned the worship it self, or the circumstances of time, place and persons that did attend it. Their worship consisted chiefly in three things, Prayers, Sacrifices and Sacraments. Prayers were daily put up together with their Offerings, and though we have very few Constitu∣tions concerning them, yet the constant practice of that Church, and the particular forms of Prayer yet extant in their writings, are a sufficient evi∣dence. Sacrifices were the constant and most solemn part of their publick worship;* 1.8 yea, they had their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 their continual burnt-offering, a Lamb offered Morning and Evening with a Measure of Flower, Oil and Wine, the charge whereof was defrayed out of the Treasury of the Temple. The rest of their Sacrifices may be considered either as they were Expiato∣ry, or Eucharistical. Expiatory were those that were offered as an atone∣ment for the sins of the people, to pacifie the Divine displeasure, and to procure his pardon, which they did by vertue of their Typical relation to that great Sacrifice which the Son of God was in the fulness of time to offer up for the sins of the World. They were either of a more general relation, for the expiation of sin in general, whole burnt-offerings, which were in∣tirely (the skin and the entrails only excepted) burnt to ashes; or of a more private and particular concernment, designed for the redemption of particular offences, whereof there were two sorts: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or the sin-offer∣ing, for involuntary offences committed through error or ignorance, which according to the condition and capacity of the Person were either for the Priest, or the Prince, or the whole Body of the People, or a private Per∣son. The other 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or the trespass-offering, for sins done wittingly, stu∣died and premeditated transgressions, and which the Man could not pre∣tend to be the effects of surprize or chance. Eucharistical Sacrifices were testimonies of gratitude to God for mercies received, whereof three sorts especially. 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or the meat-offering, made up of things without life, oil, fine flower, incense, &c. which the worshipper offered as a thankful re∣turn for the daily preservation and provisions of life, and therefore it consist∣ed only of the fruits of the ground. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or the peace-offering; this was done either out of a grateful sense of some blessing conferred, or as a voluntary offering to which the Person had obliged himself by vow in expe∣ctation of some safety or deliverance which he had prayed for. In this Sa∣crifice God had his part, the fat which was the only part of it burnt by fire, the Priest his, as the instrument of the ministration, the Offerer his, that he might have wherewith to rejoyce before the Lord. 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a thanksgi∣ving-offering, or a Sacrifice of praise, it was a mixt kind of Sacrifice, consisting of living Creatures, and the fruits of the Earth, which they might offer at their own will, but it must be eaten the same day, and none of it left until the morrow. What other provisions we meet with concerning ceremonial uncleannesses, first-fruits, the first-born, tenths, &c. are conveniently redu∣cible to some of these heads which we have already mentioned. The last part of their worship concerned their Sacraments, which were two, Circum∣cision, and the Paschal Supper. Circumcision was the federal Rite annexed by God as a Seal to the Covenant which he made with Abraham and his Posterity, and accordingly renewed and taken into the Body of the Mosaical constitutions. It was to be administred the eighth day, which the Jews understand not of so many days complete, but the current time, six full days, and part of the other. In the room of this, Baptism succeeds in the Christian

Church. The Passover, which was the eating of the Paschal Lamb, was in∣stituted as an Annual memorial of their signal and miraculous delive∣rance out of Egypt, and as a typical representation of our spiritual Re∣demption by Christ from the bondage of sin and that Hell that follows it. It was to be celebrated with a Male-lamb without blemish taken out of the Flock, to note the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World, who was taken from among men, a Lamb without blemish and without spot, holy, harmless, and separate from sinners. The Door-posts of the House were to be sprink∣led with the bloud of the Lamb, to signifie our security from the Divine ven∣geance by the bloud of sprinkling. The Lamb was to be roasted and eaten whole, typifying the great sufferings of our blessed Saviour, who was to pass through the fire of Divine wrath, and to be wholly embrac'd and enter∣tain'd by us in all his Offices, as King, Priest, and Prophet. None but those that were clean and circumcised might eat of it, to shew that only true be∣lievers, holy and good men can be partakers of Christ and the merits of his Death; It was to be eaten standing, with their Loins girt, and their staff in their hand, to put them in mind what haste they made out of the house of bondage, and to intimate to us what present diligence we should use to get from under the empire and tyranny of sin and Satan, under the conduct and assistance of the Captain of our Salvation. The eating of it was to be mixed with bitter herbs, partly as a memorial of that bitter servitude which they underwent in the Land of Egypt, partly as a type of that repentance and bearing of the cross (duties difficult and unpleasant) which all true Christians must undergo. Lastly, it was to be eaten with unleavened Bread, all manner of leaven being at that time to be banished out of their Houses with the most critical diligence and curiosity, to represent what infi∣nite care we should take to cleanse and purifie our hearts,* 1.9 to purge out the old leaven, that we may be a new lump: and that since Christ our Passover is sacri∣ficed for us, therefore we should keep the Feast (the Festival commemoration of his Death) not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wicked∣ness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

6. THE Places of their Publick Worship were either the Tabernacle made in the Wilderness, or the Temple built by Solomon, between which in the main there was no other difference, than that the Tabernacle was an ambulatory Temple, as the Temple was a standing Tabernacle, together with all the rich costly Furniture that was in them. The parts of it were three, the Holiest of all, whither none entred but the High-Priest, and that but once a Year, this was a type of Heaven; the holy place, whither the Priests entred every Day to perform their Sacred Ministrations; and the out∣ward Court, whither the People came to offer up their Prayers and Sacrifices. In the Sanctum Sanctorum, or Holiest of all there was the Golden Censer, ty∣pifying the Merits and Intercession of Christ; the Ark of the Covenant, as a representation of him who is the Mediator of the Covenant between God and man; the Golden Pot of Manna, a type of our Lord, the true Manna, the Bread that came down from Heaven; the Rod of Aaron that budded, signify∣ing the Branch of the Root of Jesse, that though our Saviour's Family should be reduced to a state of so much meanness and obscurity, as to appear but like the trunk or stump of a Tree,* 1.10* 1.11 yet there should come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch grow out of his roots, which should stand for an Ensign of the People, and in him should the Gentiles trust. And within the Ark were the two Tables of the Covenant, to denote him, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and who is the end and perfection of the Law: Over it were the Cherubims of glory shadowing the Mercy-seat, who

looking towards each other, and both to the Mercy-seat denoted the two Testaments, or Dispensations of the Church, which admirably agree, and both direct to Christ the Mediator of the Covenant. The Propitiatory, or Mercy-seat was the Golden covering to the Ark, where God veiling his Ma∣jesty was wont to manifest his Presence, to give Answers, and shew Himself reconciled to the People, herein eminently prefiguring our Blessed Savi∣our, who interposes between us, and the Divine Majesty, whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation, through faith in his bloud for the remission of sins; so that now we may come boldly to the Throne of Grace, and find mercy to help us. Within the Sanctuary, or the Holy Place was the Golden Candlestick with Se∣ven-Branches, representing Christ, who is the Light of the World, and who enlightens every one that comes into the World,* 1.12 and before whose Throne there are said to be seven Lamps of Fire, which are the seven spirits of God: The Table, compassed about with a Border and a Crown of Gold, denoting the Ministry, and the Shew-bread set upon it, shadowing out Christ, the Bread of Life, who by the Ministry of the Gospel is offered to the World: here also was the Golden Altar of Incense, whereon they burnt the sweet Perfumes Morning and Evening, to signifie to us that our Lord is the true Altar, by whom all our Prayers and Services are rendred the odour of a sweet smell ac∣ceptable unto God;* 1.13 to this the Psalmist refers, Let my Prayer be set forth before thee as Incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice. The third part of the Tabernacle, as also of the Temple, was the Court of Israel, wherein stood the Brazen Altar, upon which the Holy Fire was continually preserved, by which the Sacrifices were consumed, one of the Five great Prerogatives that were wanting in the second Temple. Here was the Bra∣zen Laver, with its Basis, made of the brazen Looking-glasses of the Women that assembled at the Door of the Tabernacle, wherein the Priests washed their Hands and their Feet, when going into the Sanctuary, and both they and the People, when about to offer Sacrifice; to teach us to purifie our hearts and to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, especially when we approach to offer up our services to Heaven; hereunto David al∣ludes, I will wash mine hands in innocency,* 1.14 so will I compass thine Altar, O Lord. Solomon in building the Temple made an addition of a fourth Court, the Court of the Gentiles, whereinto the unclean Jews and Gentiles might enter, and in this was the Corban or Treasury, and it is sometimes in the New Testament called the Temple. To these Laws concerning the Place of Worship we may reduce those that relate to the holy Vessels and Utensils of the Tabernacle and the Temple, Candlesticks, Snuffers, Dishes, &c. which also had their proper mysteries and significations.

7. THE stated times and seasons of their worship are next to be consider∣ed, and they were either Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly. Their Daily worship was at the time of the Morning, and the Evening Sacrifice; their Weekly solemnity was the Sabbath, which was to be kept with all imagi∣nable care and strictness, they being commanded to rest in it from all servile labours, and to attend the Duties and Offices of Religion, a type of that rest that remains for the People of God. Their monthly Festivals were the New-moons, wherein they were to blow the Trumpets over their Sacrifices and Oblations, and to observe them with great expressions of joy and tri∣umph, in a thankful resentment of the blessings which all that Month had been conferred upon them. Their Annual Solemnities were either ordinary or extraordinary; Ordinary were those that returned every Year, whereof the first was the Passover, to be celebrated upon the Fourteenth day of the first Month, as a Memorial of their great deliverance out of Egypt:

The second, Pentecost, called also the Feast of Weeks, because just seven Weeks, or fifty days after the Passover: Instituted it was partly in memory of the promulgation of the Law, published at Mount Sinai fifty days after their celebration of the Passover in Egypt, partly as a thanksgiving for the in-gathering of their Harvest, which usually was fully brought in about this time. The third was the Feast of Tabernacles, kept upon the Fifteenth day of the Seventh Month for the space of Seven days together; at which time they dwelt in Booths made of green Boughs, as a memento of that time when they sojourn'd in Tents and Tabernacles in the Wilderness, and a sensible demonstration of the transitory duration of the present life, that the Earthly house of our Tabernacle must be dissolved, and that therefore we should secure a building of God, an house not made with hands, Eternal in the Hea∣vens. These were the three great solemnities, wherein all the Males were obliged to appear at Jerusalem, and to present themselves and their offerings in testimony of their homage and devotion unto God: Besides which they had some of lesser moment, such as their Feast of Trumpets, and that of Expiation. The Annual Festivals extraordinary were those that recurr'd but once in the periodical return of several years; such was the Sabbatical year, wherein the Land was to lye fallow, and to rest from ploughing and sow∣ing, and all manner of cultivation; and this was to be every seventh year, typifying the Eternal Sabbatism in Heaven, where good men shall rest from their labours, and their works shall follow them. But the great Sabbatical year of all was that of Jubilee, which returned at the end of seven ordinary Sab∣batick years, that is, every fiftieth year, the approach whereof was pro∣claimed by the sound of Trumpets; in it servants were released, all debts discharged, and mortgaged Estates reverted to their proper heirs. And how evidently did this shadow out the state of the Gospel, and our Lord's being sent to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted,* 1.15 to preach liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, that they might lift up their heads, because their redemption drew nigh?

8. LASTLY, They had Laws concerning the persons by whom their publick worship was administred; and here there was appointed an High-Priest, who had his proper offices and rules of duty, his peculiar attire and consecration; ordinary Priests, whose business was to instruct the people, to Pray and offer sacrifice, to bless the Congregation, and judge in cases of Leprosie, and such like; at their Ordination, they were to be chosen before all the people, to be sprinkled with the water of Expiation, their Hair sha∣ved, and their Bodies washed, afterwards anointed, and sacrifices to be offered for them, and then they might enter upon their Priestly ministra∣tions. Next to these were the Levites, who were to assist the Priests in preparing the Sacrifices, to bear the Tabernacle (while it lasted) and lay up its Vessels and Utensils, to purifie and cleanse the Vessels and Instruments, to guard the Courts and Chambers of the Temple, to watch weekly in the Temple by their turns, to sing and celebrate the praises of God with Hymns and Musical Instruments, and to joyn with the Priests in judging and deter∣mining Ceremonial causes; they were not to be taken into the full discharge of their Function till the thirtieth, nor to be kept at it beyond the fiftieth year of their age; God mercifully thinking it fit to give them then a Writ of Ease, whose strength might be presumed sufficiently impaired by truck∣ling for so many years under such toilsom and laborious ministrations. Though the Levitical Priests were types of Christ, yet it was the High-Priest, who did eminently typifie him, and that in the unity and singulari∣ty

of his office; for though many Orders and Courses of inferior Priests and Ministers, yet was there but one High-Priest, There is one Mediator be∣tween God and man, the man Christ Jesus; in the qualifications necessary to his election, as to place, he was to be taken out of the Tribe of Levi; as to his person, which was to be every ways perfect and comely, and the manner of his Consecration; in his singular capacity, that he alone might enter into the holy of holies, which he did once every year upon the great day of Expiation, with a mighty pomp and train of Ceremonies, kil∣ling Sacrifices, burning Incense, sprinkling the bloud of the Sacrifice before and upon the Mercy-seat, going within the veil, and making an attone∣ment within the holy place. All which immediately referred to Christ, who by the sacrifice of himself, and through the veil of his own flesh entred, not into the holy place made with hands, but into Heaven it self, now to ap∣pear in the presence of God for us. All which might be represented more at large, but that I intend not a discourse about these matters.

9. BESIDES the Laws which we have hitherto enumerated, there were several other particular Commands, Ritual Constitutions about Meats and Drinks, and other parts of humane life. Such was the difference they were to make between the Creatures, some to be clean, and others un∣clean; such were several sorts of pollution and uncleanness, which were not in their own nature sins, but Ceremonial defilements; of this kind were several provisions about Apparel, Diet, and the ordering Family-affairs, all evidently of a Ceremonial aspect, but too long to be insisted on in this place. The main design of this Ceremonial Law was to point out to us the Evangelical state,* 1.16 The Law had only a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things themselves, the body was Christ, and there∣fore though the Law came by Moses,* 1.17 yet grace and truth (the truth of all those types and figures) came by Christ. It was time for Moses to resign the Chair, when once this great Prophet was come into the World. Ceremonies could no longer be of use, when once the substance was at hand: well may the Stars disappear at the rising of the Sun: the Messiah being cut off, should cause the Sacrifice and the Oblation to cease. At the time of Christ's death the veil of the Temple from top to bottom rent in sunder, to shew that his death had revealed the mysteries, and destroyed the foundations of the legal Oeconomy, and put a period to the whole Temple-ministration. Nay,* 1.18 the Jews themselves confess, that forty years before the destruction of the Temple (a date that corresponds exactly with the death of Christ) the Lot did no more go up into the right hand of the Priest (this is meant of his dismission of the Scape-goat) nor the scarlet Ribbon, usually laid upon the forehead of the Goat, any more grow white, (this was a sign that the Goat was accepted for the remission of their sins) nor the Evening Lamp burn any longer, and that the gates of the Temple opened of their own accord. By which as at once they confirm what the Gospel reports of the opening of the San∣ctum Sanctorum by the scissure of the veil; so they plainly confess, that at that very time their Sacrifices and Temple-services began to cease and fail: As indeed the reason of them then ceasing, the things themselves must needs vanish into nothing.

10. THE third sort of Laws given to the Jews were Judicial and Po∣litical, these were the Municipal Laws of the Nation, enacted for the good of the State, and were a kind of appendage to the second Table of the Decalogue, as the Ceremonial Laws were of the first. They might be re∣duced to four general heads; such as respected men in their private and dome∣stical capacities, concerning Husbands and Wives, Parents and Children,

Masters and Servants; such as concerned the Publick and the Common∣wealth, relating to Magistrates, and Courts of Justice, to Contracts and matters of right and wrong, to Estates and Inheritances, to Executions and Punishments, &c. such as belong'd to strangers, and matters of a fo∣reign nature, as Laws concerning Peace and War, Commerce and Dealing with persons of another Nation; or lastly, such as secured the honour and the interests of Religion, Laws against Apostates and Idolaters, Wizards, Conjurers and false Prophets, against Blasphemy, Sacriledge, and such like; all which not being so proper to my purpose, I omit a more particular enumeration of them. These Laws were peculiarly calculated for the Jewish State, and that while kept up in that Country wherein God had placed them, and therefore must needs determine and expire with it. Nor can they be made a pattern and standard for the Laws of other Nations; for, though proceeding from the wisest Law-giver, they cannot reasonably be imposed upon any State or Kingdom, unless where there is an equal concurrence of circumstances, as there were in that people, for whom God enacted them. They went off the Stage with the Jewish Polity, and if any parts of them do still remain obligatory, they bind not as Judicial Laws, but as branches of the Law of Nature, the reason of them being Immutable and Eternal. I know not whether it may here be useful to remark what the Jews so frequently tell us of, that the intire body of the Mosaick Law consists of DCXIII. Precepts, intimated (say they) in that place where 'tis said Moses commanded us a Law,* 1.19 where the Numeral Letters of the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Law make up the number of DCXI. and the two that are wanting to make up the complete number are the two first Precepts of the Decalogue, which were not given by Moses to the people,* 1.20 but immediately by God him∣self. Others say that there are just DCXIII. letters in the Decalogue, and that every letter answers to a Law: But some that have had the patience to tell them, assure us that there are two whole words consisting of seven let∣ters supernumerary, which in my mind quite spoils the computation. These DCXIII. Precepts they divide into CCXLVIII. Affirmative, according to the number of the parts of man's body (which they make account are just so many) to put him in mind to serve God with all his bodily powers,* 1.21 as if every member of his body should say to him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 make use of me to fulfil the command; and into CCCLXV. Negative, according to the number of the days of the year, that so every day may call upon a man, and say to him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 oh do not in me transgress the Command:* 1.22 Or as others will have it, they answer to the Veins or Nerves in the body of man; that as the complete frame and compages of man's body is made up of CCXLVIII. Members, and CCCLXV. Nerves, and the Law of so many affirmative, and so many negative Precepts, it denotes to us, that the whole perfection and accomplishment of man lies in an accurate and diligent observance of the Divine Law. Each of these divisions they reduce un∣der twelve houses, answerable to the twelve Tribes of Israel. In the Af∣firmative Precepts the first House is that of Divine Worship, consisting of twenty Precepts; the second, the House of the Sanctuary, containing XIX; the third, the House of Sacrifices, wherein are LVII; the fourth, that of Cleanness and Pollution, containing XVIII; the fifth, of Tithes and Alms, under which are XXXII; the sixth, of Meats and Drinks, contain∣ing VII; the seventh, of the Passeover, concerning Feasts, containing XX; the eighth, of Judgment, XIII; the ninth, of Doctrine, XXV; the tenth, of Marriage, and concerning Women, XII; the eleventh, of Judgments criminal, VIII; the twelfth, of Civil Judgments, XVII. In the Negative

Precepts, the first House is concerning the worship of the Planets, contain∣ing XLVII Commands; the second, of separation from the Heathens, XIII; the third, concerning the reverence due to holy things, XXIX; the fourth, of Sacrifice and Priesthood, LXXXII; the fifth, of Meats, XXXVIII; the sixth, of Fields and Harvest, XVIII; the seventh, of Doctrine, XLV; the eighth, of Justice, XLVII; the ninth, of Feasts, X; the tenth, of Purity and Chastity, XXIV; the eleventh, of Wedlock, VIII; the twelfth, concerning the Kingdom, IV. A method not contemptible, as which might minister to a distinct and useful explication of the whole Law of Moses.

11. THE next thing considerable under the Mosaical Oeconomy, was the methods of the Divine revelation, by what ways God communicated his mind to them, either concerning present emergencies or future events, and this was done, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as the Apostle tells us, at sundry times, or by sundry degrees and parcels, and in diverse manners, by various methods of revelation, whereof three most considerable, the Urim and Thummim, the audible voice, and the spirit of Prophecy, imparted in dreams, visions, &c. We shall make some brief remarks upon them, re∣ferring the Reader, who desires fuller satisfaction herein, to those who pur∣posely treat about these matters. The Urim and Thummim was a way of re∣velation peculiar to the High Priest:* 1.23 Thou shalt put on the breast-plate of Judg∣ment, the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the Lord, and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually. Thus Eleazar the Priest is commanded to ask counsel after the Judgment of Urim before the Lord.* 1.24 What this Urim and Thummim was, and what the manner of receiving an∣swers by it, is difficult, if not impossible to tell, there being scarce any one difficulty that I know of in the Bible that hath more exercised the thoughts either of Jewish or Christian Writers. Whether it was some addition to the High-Priests breast-plate made by the hand of some curious Artist, or whether only those two words engraven upon it, or the great name Jehovah carved and put within the foldings of the breast-plate, or whether the twelve stones resplendent with light, and completed to per∣fection with the Tribes names therein, or whether some other mysterious piece of artifice immediately framed by the hand of Heaven, and given to Moses, when he delivered him the two Tables of the Law, is vain and end∣less to enquire, because impossible to determine. Nor is the manner of its giving answers less uncertain: Whether at such times the fresh and ori∣ent lustre of the stones signified the answer in the Affirmative, while their dull and dead colour spake the Negative; or whether it was by some extra∣ordinary protuberancy and thrusting forth of the letters engraven upon the stones, from the conjunction whereof the Divine Oracle was gathered; or whether probably it might be, that when the High-Priest enquired of God, with this breast-plate upon him, God did either by a lively voice, or by immediate suggestions to his mind, give him a distinct and perspicu∣ous answer, illuminating his mind with the Urim, or the light of the know∣ledge of his will in those cases, and satisfying his doubts and scruples with the Thummim of a perfect and complete determination of those difficulties that were propounded to him, thereby enabling him to give a satisfactory and in∣fallible answer in all the particulars that lay before him. And this several of the Jews seem to intend, when they make this way of revelation one of the degrees of the Holy Ghost, and say that no sooner did the High-Priest put on the Pectoral, and had the case propounded to him, but that he was im∣mediately

clothed with the Holy Spirit. But it's to little purpose to hunt af∣ter that where fancy and conjecture must decide the case. Indeed among the various conjectures about this matter,* 1.25 none appears with greater proba∣bility than the opinion of those who conceive the Urim and Thummim to have been a couple of Teraphim, or little Images (probably formed in hu∣mane shape) put within the hollow foldings of the Pontifical breast-plate, from whence God by the ministery of an Angel vocally answered those in∣terrogatories which the High-Priest made: Nothing being more common even in the early Ages of the World, than such Teraphim in those Eastern Countries, usually placed in their Temples, and whence the Daemon was wont oracularly to determine the cases brought before him. And as God permitted the Jews the use of Sacrifices, which had been notoriously abused to Superstition and Idolatry in the Heathen World, so he might indulge them these Teraphim (though now converted to a sacred use) that so he might by degrees wean them from the Rites of the Gentile World, to which they had so fond an inclination. And this probably was the reason, why when Moses is so particular in describing the other parts of the Sacerdo∣tal Ornaments, nothing at all is said of this, because a thing of common use among the Nations, with whom they had conversed, and notoriously known among themselves. And such we may suppose the Prophet intended, when he threatned the Jews, that they should abide without a Sacrifice,* 1.26 without an Image or Altar, without an Ephod, and without a Teraphim. A notion very happily improved by an ingenious Pen, whose acute conjectures,* 1.27 and ela∣borate dissertations about this matter justly deserve commendation even from those who differ from it. It seems to have been a kind of political Oracle, and to be consulted only in great and weighty cases, as the Electi∣on of Supreme Magistrates, making War,* 1.28 &c. and only by Persons of the highest rank, none being permitted (say the Jews) to enquire of it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 unless in a case wherein the King, or the Sanhedrim, or the whole Congregation was concerned.

12. A SECOND way of Divine Revelation was by an audible voice, accompanied many times with Thunder, descending as it were from Heaven, and directing them in any emergency of affairs. This the Jewish Writers call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the daughter or Eccho of a Voice, which they confess to have been the lowest kind of revelation, and to have been in use only in the times of the second Temple, when all other ways of Prophecy were cea∣sed. But notwithstanding their common and confident assertions whether ever there was any such standing way of revelation as this, is justly questi∣onable (nay,* 1.29 it is peremptorily denied by one incomparably versed in the Talmudick Writings, who adds, that if there was any such thing at any time, it was done by Magick Arts, and diabolical delusions) partly because it is on∣ly delivered by Jewish Writers, whose faith and honesty is too well known to the World to be trusted in stories that make so much for the honour of their Nation, not to mention their extravagant propension to lies and fa∣bulous reports; partly, because by their own confession God had with∣drawn all his standing Oracles and ordinary ways of Revelation, their no∣torious impieties having caused Heaven to retire, and therefore much less would it correspond with them by such immediate converses; partly, be∣cause this seemed to be a way more accommodate to the Evangelical dispen∣sation at the appearance of the Son of God in the World. A voice from Heaven is the most immediate testimony, and therefore fittest to do honour to him who came down from Heaven, and was sure to meet with an obdu∣rate and incredulous Generation, and to give evidence to that Doctrine

that he published to the World. Thus by a Bath-Col or a Voice from Hea∣ven God bare witness to our Saviour at his Baptism, and a second time at his Transfiguration, and again at the Passover at Jerusalem, when there came a Voice from Heaven, which the People took for Thunder, or the Commu∣nication of an Angel, and most of S. John's intelligences from above record∣ed in his Book of Revelation are ushered in with an, I heard a Voice from Heaven.

13. BUT the most frequent and standing method of Divine communi∣cations was that whereby God was wont to transact with the Prophets, and in extraordinary cases with other Men, which was either by Dreams, Visi∣ons, or immediate Inspirations. The way by Dreams was when the Per∣son being overtaken with a deep sleep, and all the exteriour senses locked up, God presented the Species and Images of things to their understandings, and that in such a manner, that they might be able to apprehend the will of God, which they presently did upon their awaking out of sleep. These Divine Dreams the Jews distinguish into two sorts, Monitory, such as were sent on∣ly by way of instruction and admonition, to give Men notice of what they were to do, or warning of what they should avoid, such were the Dreams of Pharaoh, Abimelech, Laban, &c. or else they were Prophetical, when God by such a powerful energy acted upon the mind and imagination of the Prophet, as carried the strength and force of a Divine evidence along with it. This was sometimes done by a clear and distinct impression of the thing upon the mind without any dark or enigmatical representation of it, such as God made to Samuel, when he first revealed himself to him in the Temple: sometimes by apparition, yet so as the Man though a-sleep was able to discern an Angel conversing with him. By Visions, God usually com∣municated himself two ways, First, when something really appeared to the sight; thus Moses beheld the Bush burning, and stood there while God conversed with him; Manoah and his Wife saw the Angel, while he took his leave, and in a flaming Pyramid went up to Heaven; the three Angels ap∣peared to Abraham a little before the fatal ruine of Sodom; all which appari∣tions were unquestionably true and real, the Angel assuming an humane shape, that he might the freelier converse with, and deliver his message to those to whom he was sent. Secondly, by powerful impressions upon the imagination, usually done while the Prophet was awake, and had the free and uninterrupted exercise of his reason, though the Vision oft over-power∣ed, and cast him into a trance, that the Soul being more retired from sensible objects might the closer intend those Divine notices that were represented to it. Thus all the Prophets had the Idea's of those things that they were to deliver to the People, the more strongly impressed upon their fancies, and this commonly when they were in the greatest solitude and privacy, and their powers most called in, that the Prophetical influx might have the greater force upon them. In some such way S. Paul was caught up into the third Heaven, probably not so much by any real separation of his Soul from his Body, or local translation of his Spirit thither, as by a profound abstra∣ction of it from his corporeal Senses, God, during the time of the trance, entertaining it with an internal and admirable scene of the glory and happi∣ness of that state, as truly and effectually, as if his Soul had been really con∣veyed thither.

14. THIRDLY, God was wont to communicate his mind by imme∣diate Inspirations, whereby he immediately transacted with the understand∣ings of Men, without any relation to their fancy or their senses. It was the most pacate and serene way of Prophecy, God imparting his mind to the

Prophet not by Dreams or Visions, but while they were awake, their pow∣ers active, and their minds calm and undisturbed. This the Jews call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Holy Spirit, or that kind of Revelation that was directly con∣veyed into the mind by the most efficacious irradiation and inspiration of the Holy Spirit;* 1.30 God by these Divine illapses enabling the Prophet clearly and immediately to apprehend the things delivered to him. And in this way the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or holy Writings were dictated and conveyed to the World, in which respect the Apostle says, that all Scripture is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, given by di∣vine inspiration. The highest pitch of this Prophetical revelation was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the gradus Mosaicus, or that way of Prophecy that God used towards Moses, of whom it is particularly said,* 1.31 that the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a Man speaketh unto his friend: and elsewhere it is evidently distinguished from all inferiour ways of Prophecy, If there be a Prophet among you, I the Lord will make my self known unto him in a Vision, and will speak unto him in a Dream: my Servant Moses is not so,* 1.32 with him I will speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: Clearly implying a mighty preheminence in God's way of revelation to Moses above that of other Prophets, which the Jewish Writers make to have lyen in four things. First, that in all God's communications to Moses he immediately spake to his understanding, with∣out any impressions upon fancy, any visible appearances, any Dreams or Visions of the Night. Secondly, that Moses had prophecies conveyed to him without any fears or consternations, whereas the other Prophets were astonished and weakned at the sight of God. Thirdly, that Moses had no previous dispositions or preparations to make him capable of the Divine re∣velation, but could directly go to God and consult him, as a man speaketh with his friend, other Prophets being forced many times by some preparato∣ry arts to invite the Prophetick spirit to come upon them. Fourthly, that Moses had a freedom and liberty of spirit to prophesie at all times, and could when he pleased have recourse to the Sacred Oracle. But as to this the Scripture intimates no such thing, the spirit of Prophecy retiring from him at some times as well as from the rest of the Prophets. And indeed the Prophe∣tick spirit did not reside in the holy men by way of habit, but occasionally, as God saw fitting to pour it out upon them; it was not in them as light is in the Sun, but as light in the Air, and consequently depended upon the imme∣diate irradiations of the Spirit of God.

15. THESE Divine Communications were so conveyed to the minds of the Prophets and inspired persons, that they always knew them to be Di∣vine revelations; so mighty and perspicuous was the evidence that came along with them, that there could be no doubt, but they were the birth of Heaven. It's true, when the Prophetick spirit at any time seised upon wicked men, they understood not its effect upon them, nor were in the least improved and bettered by it; the revelation passed through them, as a sound through a Trunk, or water through a Leaden-pipe, without any particular and distinct apprehension of the thing, or useful impression made upon their minds, as is evident besides others in the case of Caiaphas and Balaam, of which last the Jews say expresly 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that he prophesied according to the will of God, but understood not what he prophe∣sied. But it was otherwise with the true Prophets, they always knew who 'twas that acted them, and what was the meaning of that intelligence that was communicated to them. In the Gentile world, when the Daemon en∣tred into the inspired person, he was usually carried out to the furious transports of rage and madness. But in the Prophets of God, although the

impulse might sometimes be very strong and violent, (whence the Prophet Jeremy complains, Mine heart within me is broken, all my bones shake, I am like a drunken man, like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the Lord, and because of the words of his holiness) so as a little to ruffle their imagi∣nation, yet never so as to discompose their reason, or hinder them from a clear perception of the notices conveyed upon their minds; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.33 says Epiphanius, the Prophet had his Oracles dictated by the Holy Spirit, which he delivered strenuously, and with the most firm and unshaken consistency of his rational powers; and af∣terwards, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that the Prophets were often in a bodily ecstasie, but never in an ecstasie of mind, their understandings never being rendred useless and unserviceable to them. Indeed it was absolutely necessary that the Prophet should have a full satis∣faction of mind concerning the truth and Divinity of his message; for how else should they perswade others, that the thing was from God, if they were not first sufficiently assured themselves; and therefore even in those methods that were most liable to doubts and questions, such as communica∣tions by dreams, we cannot think but that the same Spirit that moved and impressed the thing upon them, did also by some secret and inward opera∣tions settle their minds in the firmest belief and perswasion of what was re∣vealed and suggested to them. All these ways of immediate revelation ceased some hundreds of years before the final period of the Jewish Church. A thing confessed not only by Christians but by Jews themselves,* 1.34 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 There was no Prophet in the second Temple; indeed they universally acknowledge, that there were five things wanting in the second Temple, built after their return from the Babylonish Captivity, which had been in that of Solomon, viz. the Ark of the Covenant, the fire from Heaven that lay upon the Altar, the Schekinah or presence of the Divine Majesty, the Urim and Thummim, and the spirit of Prophecy, which ceased (as they tell us) about the second year of Darius, to be sure at the death of Malachy, the last of that order, after whom there arose no Prophet in Isra∣el, whom therefore the Jews call, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the seal of the Prophets. Indeed it is no wonder that Prophecy should cease at that time, if we consi∣der that one of the prime ends of it did then cease, which was to be a seal and an assurance of the Divine inspiration of the holy Volumes, now the Canon of the Old Testament being consigned and completed by Ezra with the assistance of Malachy, and some of the last Prophets, God did not think good any longer to continue this Divine and Miraculous gift among them: But especially if we consider the great degeneracy into which that Church was falling; their horrid and crying sins having made God resolve to re∣ject them, the departure of the Prophetick spirit shewed that God had writ∣ten them a bill of divorce, and would utterly cast them off; that by this means they might be awakened to a more lively expectation of that new state of things, which the Messiah was coming to establish in the World, wherein the Prophetick spirit should revive, and be again restored to the Church, which accordingly came to pass, as we shall elsewhere ob∣serve.

16. THE third thing propounded, was to consider the state of Religi∣on, and the Church under the successive periods of this Oeconomy. And here we shall only make some general remarks, a particular survey of those matters not consisting with the design of this discourse. Ecclesiastical Con∣stitutions being made in the Wilderness, and the place for publick worship

fram'd and erected, no sooner did they come into the promised Land, but the Tabernacle was set down at Gilgal, where, if the Jewish Chronolo∣gy say true, it continued fourteen years, till they had subdued and divi∣ded the Land: Then fixed at Shiloh, and the Priests and Levites had Ci∣ties and Territories assigned to them, where it is not to be doubted but there were Synagogues, or places equivalent for prayer and the ordinary so∣lemnities of Religion, and Courts for the decision of Ecclesiastical causes. Prosperity and a plentiful Country had greatly contributed to the deprava∣tion of mens manners, and the corruption of Religion till the times of Sa∣muel, the great Reformer of that Church, who erected Colledges, and institu∣ted Schools of the Prophets, reduced the Societies of the Levites to their Pri∣mitive order and purity, forced the Priests to do their duty, diligently to mi∣nister in the affairs of God's worship, and carefully to teach and instruct the people: A piece of reformation no more than necessary, For the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there was no open vision. CCCLXIX. years (say the Jews) the Tabernacle abode at Shiloh, from whence it was tran∣slated to Nob a City in the Tribe of Benjamin, probably about the time that the Ark was taken, thence after thirteen years to Gibeon, where it remained fifty years; and lastly, by Solomon to Jerusalem. The Ark being taken out to carry along with them for their more prosperous success in their War against the Philistines, was ever after exposed to an ambulatory and unset∣led course: For being taken captive by the Philistines, it was by them kept prisoner seven months, thence removed to Bethshemesh, and thence to Kiriath-jearim, where it remained in the house of Abinadab twenty years, thence solemnly fetched by David, and after three months rest by the way in the house of Obed-Edom, brought triumphantly to Jerusalem, and pla∣ced under the covert of a Tent which he had purposely erected for it. Da∣vid being setled in the Throne, like a pious Prince took especial care of the affairs of Religion, he fixed the High-Priest and his second, augmented the courses of the Priests from eight to four and twenty, appointed the Levites, and Singers, and their several turns and times of waiting, assigned them their proper duties and ministeries, setled the Nethinim or Porters, the posterity of the Gibeonites, made Treasurers of the revenues belonging to ho∣ly uses, and of the vast summs contributed towards the building of a Temple, as a more solemn and stately place for Divine worship, which he was fully resolved to have erected, but that God commanded it to be reser∣ved for the peaceable and prosperous Reign of Solomon, who succeeding in his Father's Throne, accomplished it, building so stately and magnificent a Temple, that it became one of the greatest wonders of the World. Un∣der his son Rehoboam hapned the fatal division of the Kingdom, when ten parts of twelve were rent off at once, and brought under the Empire of Je∣roboam, who knew no better way to secure his new-gotten Soveraignty, than to take off the people from hankering after the Temple and the worship at Jerusalem, and therefore out of a cursed policy erected two Golden Calves at Dan and Bethel, perswading the people there to pay their publick adora∣tions, appointing Chaplains like himself, Priests of the lowest of the people; and from this time Religion began visibly to ebbe and decline in that King∣dom, and Idolatry to get ground amongst them.

17. THE two Tribes of Judah and Benjamin were loyal both to God and their Prince, continuing obedient to their lawful Sovereign, and firm∣ly adhering to the worship of the Temple, though even here too impiety in some places maintained its ground, having taken root in the Reign of Solomon, who through his over-great partiality and fondness to his Wives

had been betrayed to give too much countenance to Idolatry. The ex∣tirpation hereof was the design and attempt of all the pious and good Princes of Judah: Jehosaphat set himself in good earnest to recover Religion and the state of the Church to its ancient purity and lustre, he abolished the Groves and high places, and appointed itinerant Priests and Levites to go from City to City to expound the Law, and instruct the people in the know∣ledge of their duty;* 1.35 nay, he himself held a royal Visitation, Going quite through the Land, and bringing back the people to the Lord God of their Fathers. But under the succeeding Kings Religion again lost its ground, and had been quite extinct during the tyranny and usurpation of Athaliah, but that good Jehoiada the High-Priest kept it alive by his admirable zeal and industry. While he lived, his Pupil Joas (who owed both his Crown and his life to him.) promoted the design, and purged the Temple, though af∣ter his Tutors death he apostatized to prophaneness and idolatry. Nor in∣deed was the reformation effectually advanced till the time of Hezekiah, who no sooner ascended the Throne, but he summoned the Priests and Levites, exhorted them to begin at home, and first to reform themselves, then to cleanse and repair the Temple; he resetled the Priests and Levites in their proper places and offices, and caused them to offer all sorts of Sacrifices, and the Passeover to be universally celebrated with great strictness and so∣lemnity; he destroyed the Monuments of Idolatry, took away the Altars in Jerusalem, and having given commission, the people did the like in all parts of the Kingdom, breaking the Images, cutting down the Groves, throwing down the Altars and high places, until they had utterly destroyed them all. But neither greatness nor piety can exempt any from the common Laws of mortality, Hezekiah dies, and his son Manasseh succeeds, a wicked Prince, under whose influence impiety like a land-floud broke in upon Religion, and laid all waste before it. But his Grandchild Josiah made some amends, he gave signal instances of an early piety; for in the eighth year of his Reign, while he was yet young,* 1.36 he began to seek after the God of David his Father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem; he defaced whatever had been abused and prostituted to Idolatry and Superstition throughout the whole Kingdom, repaired God's house, and ordered its wor∣ship according to the prescript of the Mosaick Law, a copy whereof they had found in the ruines of the Temple, solemnly engaged himself and his people to be true to Religion and the worship of God, and caused so great and so∣lemn a Passeover to be held, that there was no Passeover like to it kept in Israel from the days of Samuel. And more he had done, had not an immature death cut him off in the midst both of his days, and his pious designs and projects. Not many years after God being highly provoked by the pro∣digious impieties of that Nation, delivered it up to the Army of the King of Babylon, who demolished the City, harassed the Land, and carried the people captive unto Babylon. And no wonder the Divine patience could hold no longer,* 1.37 when all the chief of the Priests and the people transgressed very much, after all the abominations of the Heathen, and polluted the house of the Lord, which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. Seventy years they remained under this captivity, during which time the Prophet Daniel gave lively and particular accounts of the Messiah, that he should come into the World to in∣troduce a Law of everlasting righteousness, to die as a sacrifice and expiation for the sins of the people, and to put a period to the Levitical sacrifices and oblations. And whereas other prophecies had only in general defined the time of the Messiah's coming, he particularly determines the period, that all this should be at the end of LXX. weeks, that is, at the expiration of

CCCCXC. years; which exactly fell in with the time of our Saviour's ap∣pearing in the World. The seventy years captivity being run out, by the favour of the King of Babylon they were set free, and by him permitted and assisted to repair Jerusalem, and rebuild the Temple, which was according∣ly done under the government of Nehemiah, and the succeeding Rulers, and the Temple finished by Zorobabel, and things brought into some tolerable state of order and decency, and so continued till the Reign of Antiochus Epi∣phanes King of Syria, by whom the Temple was prophaned and violated, and the Jewish Church miserably afflicted and distressed; he thrust out Oni∣as the High-Priest, and put in his brother Jason, a man lost both to Religion and good manners, and who by a vast summ of money had purchased the Priest-hood of Antiochus: At this time Matthias a Priest, and the head of the Asmonaean Family, stood up for his Country; after whom came Judas Macchabaeus,* 1.38 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Josephus truly characters him, a man of a generous temper, and a valiant mind, ready to do or suffer any thing to assert the Liberties and Religion of his Country, followed both in his zeal and prosperous success by his two Brothers Jonathan and Simon, suc∣cessively High-Priests and Commanders after him. Next him came John surnamed Hyrcanus, then Aristobulus, Alexander, Hyrcanus, Aristobulus ju∣nior, Alexander, Antigonus; in whose time Herod the Great having by the favour of Antony obtained of the Roman Senate the Sovereignty over the Jew∣ish Nation,* 1.39 and being willing that the Priesthood should intirely depend up∣on his arbitrary disposure, abrogated the succession of the Asmonaean Fa∣mily, and put in one Ananel, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Josephus calls him, an obscure Priest, of the line of those who had been Priests in Babylon. To him succeeded Aristobulus, to him Jesus the son of Phabes, to him Simon, who being deposed, next came Matthias, deposed also by Herod, next him Joazar, who underwent the same fate from Archelaus, then Jesus the son of Sie, after whom Joazar was again restored to the Chair, and under his Pontificate (though before his first deposition) Christ was born, things every day growing worse among them, till about seventy years after the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost, and brought the Romans, who finally took away their place and Nation.

18. BEFORE we go off from this part of our discourse, it may not be amiss to take a more particular view of the state of the Jewish Church, as it stood at the time of our Saviour's appearing in the World, as what may reflect some considerable light upon the History of CHRIST and his Apo∣stles. And if we cast our eyes upon it at this time, How was the Gold become dim, and the most fine Gold changed! How miserably deformed was the face of the Church, how strangely degenerated from its Primitive Institution! whereof we shall observe some particular instances. Their Temple though lately repaired and rebuilt by Herod,* 1.40 and that with so much pomp and gran∣deur, that Josephus, who yet may justly be presumed partial to the honour of his own Nation, says of it, that it was the most admirable structure that was ever seen or heard of both for the preparation made for it, the great∣ness and magnificence of the thing it self, and the infinite expence and cost bestowed upon it, as well as for the glory of that Divine worship that was performed in it, yet was it infinitely short of that of Solomon; besides that it had been often exposed to rudeness and violence. Not to mention the hor∣rible prophanations of Antiochus, it had been of late invaded by Pompey, who boldly ventured into the Sanctum Sanctorum, and without any scruple curi∣ously contemplated the mysteries of that place, but suffered no injury to be

offered to it. After him came Crassus, who to the others boldness added Sacriledge, seizing what the others piety and modesty had spared, plunder∣ing the Temple of its vast wealth and treasure. Herod having procured the Kingdom, besieged and took the City and the Temple, and though to ingratiate himself with the People he endeavoured what in him lay to se∣cure it from rapine and impiety, and afterwards expended incredible Summs in its reparation, yet did he not stick to make it truckle under his wick∣ed policies and designs.* 1.41 The more to indear himself to his Patrons at Rome, he set up a Golden Eagle of a vast dimension (the Arms of the Roman Em∣pire) over the great Gate of the Temple: a thing so expresly contrary to the Law of Moses, which forbids all Images, and accounted so monstrous a prophanation of that holy place, that while Herod lay a dying the People in a great tumult and up-roar gathered together and pull'd it down. A great part of it was become an Exchange and a Market; the place where Men were to meet with God, and to trade with Heaven, was now turned into a Ware-house for Merchants, and a Shop for Usurers, and the House of Prayer into a Den of Thieves. The worship formerly wont to be performed there with pious and devout affections, was now shrunk into a meer shell and out-side, they drew near to God with their mouths, and honoured him with their lips, but their hearts were far from him; Rites of humane invention had justled out those of Divine Institution, and their very Prayers were made traps to catch the unwary People, and to devour the Widow and the Fa∣therless. Their Priesthood was so changed and altered, that it retain'd little but its ancient Name; the High-Priests who by their Original Charter were lineally to succeed, and to hold their place for life, were become almost annual, scarce a Year passing over, wherein one was not thrust out,* 1.42 and another put in, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Eusebius notes out of their own Historian. Nay, which was far worse, it was become not only annual, but venal, Herod exposing it to sale, and scarce admitting any to the Sacerdotal Office, who had not first sufficiently paid for his Pa∣tent; and which was the natural consequence of that, the place was fil∣led with the refuse of the People, Men of mean abilities, and debauched man∣ners, who had neither parts nor piety to recommend them, he being the best and the fittest man,* 1.43 that offered most. Nay into so strange a degeneracy were they fallen in this matter, that Josephus reports, that one Phannias was elect∣ed High-Priest, not only a rustick and illiterate fellow, not only not of the Sacerdotal Line, but so intolerably stupid and ignorant, that when they came to acquaint him, he knew not what the High-Priesthood meant. And not content to be imposed upon, and tyrannized over by a Foreign Pow∣er,* 1.44 they fell a quarrelling among themselves, and mutually prey'd upon one another; the High-Priests falling out with the inferiour Orders, and both Parties going with an armed retinue after them, ready to clash and fight where-ever they met, the High-Priest sending his Servants to fetch away the Tithes due to the inferiour Priests, insomuch that many of the poorest of them were famished for want of necessary food.

19. THEIR Law, which had been delivered with so much majesty and magnificence, and for which they themselves pretended so great a reve∣rence, they had miserably corrupted and depraved (the moral part of it espe∣cially) and that two ways. First, by gross and absurd interpretations, which the Teachers of those times had put upon it. The Scribes and Pharisees, who ruled the Chair in the Jewish Church, had by false and corrupt glosses de∣based the majesty and purity of the Law, and made it to serve the purposes of

an evil life: they had taught the People, that the Law required no more than external righteousness, that if there was but a visible conformity of the life, they needed not be solicitous about the government of their minds, or the regular conduct of their thoughts or passions; that so Men did but carry themselves fair to the eye of the World, it was no great matter how things went in the secret and unseen retirements of the Soul, nay, that a punctual observance of some external Precepts of the Law would compensate and quit scores with God for the neglect or violation of the rest. They told Men that when the Law forbad murder, so they did not actually kill another, and sheath their Sword in their Brother's bowels, it was well enough, Men were not restrained from furious and intemperate passions, they might be angry, yea, though by peevish and uncomely speeches they betray'd the rancor and ma∣lice of their minds. They confessed the Law made it adultery actually to embrace the bosom of a stranger, but would not have it extend to wanton thoughts and unchast desires, or that it was adultery for a man to lust after a Woman, and to commit folly with her in his heart: they told them that in all oaths and vows, if they did but perform what they had sworn to God, the Law took no further notice of it, when as every vain and unnecessary oath, all customary and trifling use of the name of God was forbidden by it. They made them believe that it was lawful for them to proceed by the rigorous Law of retaliation, to exact their own to the utmost, and to right and re∣venge themselves; when as the Law requires a tender, compassionate, and benevolent temper of mind, and is so far from owning the rigorous puncti∣lio's of revenge, that it obliges to meekness and patience, to forgiveness and charity, and which is the very height of charity, not only to pardon, but to love and befriend our greatest enemies, quite contrary to the doctrine which these men taught, that though they were to love their neighbours; that is, Jews, yet might they hate their enemies. In these and such like instances they had notoriously abused and evacuated the Law, and in a manner ren∣dred it of no effect. And therefore when our Lord, as the great Prophet sent from God, came into the World, the first thing he did after the en∣trance upon his publick Ministry, was to cleanse and purifie the Law, and to remove that rubbish which the Jewish Doctors had cast upon it. He re∣scued it out of the hands of their poisonous and pernicious expositions, resto∣red it to its just authority, and to its own primitive sence and meaning, he taught them that the Law did not only bind the external act, but prescribe to the most inward motions of the mind, and that whoever transgresses here, is no less obnoxious to the Divine Justice, and the penalties of the Law, than he that is guilty of the most gross and palpable violations of it: he shewed them how infinitely more pure and strict the command was, than these Impostors had represented it, and plainly told them that if ever they expected to be happy, they must look upon the Law with an other-guise eye, and follow it after another rate, than their blind and deceitful Guides did, For I say unto you, Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you can in no case enter into the Kingdom of God.

20. THE other way by which they corrupted and dishonoured the Law, and weakned the power and reputation of it, was by preferring before it their Oral and unwritten Law. For besides the Law consigned to Writing, they had their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 their Law delivered by word of mouth, whose pedigree they thus deduce. They tell us that when Moses waited upon God Forty Days in the Mount, he gave him a double Law, one in Writing, the other Traditionary, containing the sence and explication of the former: being come down into his Tent, he repeated it first to Aaron,

then to Ithamar and Eleazar his Sons, then to the Seventy Elders, and lastly to all the People, the same Persons being all this while present. Aaron who had now heard it four times recited, Moses being gone out, again re∣peated it before them: after his departure out of the Tent, his two Sons who by this had heard it as oft as their Father, made another repetition of it, by which means the Seventy Elders came to hear it four times, and then they also repeated it to the Congregation, who had now also heard it re∣peated four times together, once from Moses, then from Aaron, then from his Sons, and lastly, from the Seventy Elders, after which the Congrega∣tion broke up,* 1.45 and every one went home, and taught it his Neighbour. This Oral Law Moses upon his Death-bed repeated to Joshua, he delivered it to the Elders, they to the Prophets, the Prophets to the men of the great Syna∣gogue, the last of whom was Symeon the Just, who delivered it to Antigonus Sochaeus, and he to his Successors, the wise Men, whose business it was to re∣cite it, and so it was handed through several Generations, the names of the Persons who delivered it in the several Ages from its first rise under Moses till above an Hundred Years after Christ,* 1.46 being particularly enumerated by Maimonides. At last it came to R. Jehuda, commonly stiled by the Jews 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 our holy Master, the Son of Rabban Symeon (who flourished a little before the time of the Emperor Antoninus) who considering the un∣setled and tottering condition of his own Nation, and how apt these tradi∣tionary Precepts would be to be forgotten or mistaken, by the weakness of Mens memories, or the perversness of their wits, or the dispersion of the Jews in other Countries, collected all these Laws and Expositions, and committed them to Writing, stiling his Book Mishnaioth, or the Repetition. This was afterwards illustrated and explained by the Rabbines dwelling about Babylon, with infinite cases and controversies concerning their Law, whose resolutions were at last compiled into another Volume, which they called Gemara, or Doctrine, and both together constitute the intire Body of the Babylonish Talmud, the one being the Text, the other the Comment. The folly and vanity of this account, though it be sufficiently evident to need no confutation with any wise and discerning Man, yet have the Jews in all Ages made great advantage of it, magnifying and extolling it above the written Law with Titles and Elogies that hyperbolize into blasphemy. They tell us,* 1.47 that this is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the foundation of the Law, for whose sake it was that God entred into Covenant with the Israelites, that with∣out this the whole Law would lye in the dark, yea be mere obscurity and darkness it self, as being contrary and repugnant to it self, and defective in things necessary to be known: that it is joy to the heart, and health to the bones, that the words of it are more lovely and desirable than the words of the Law, and a greater sin to violate the one than the other; that it's little or no commendation for a Man to read the Bible, but to study the Mishna is that for which a Man shall receive the reward of the other World, and that no Man can have a peaceable and quiet conscience, who leaves the study of the Talmud to go to that of the Bible; that the Bible is like Water, the Mish∣na like Wine; the Talmud like spiced Wine; that all the words of the Rabbins are the very words of the living God, from which a Man might not depart, though they should tell him his right hand were his left, and his left his right; nay they blush not, nor tremble to assert, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that to study in the holy Bible is nothing else but to lose our time; I will mention but one bold and blasphemous sentence more, that we may see how far these desperate wretches are given over to a spirit of impiety and infatuation, they tell us, that he that dissents from his Rabbin or Teach∣er,

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 dissents from the Divine Majesty, but he that believes the words of the wise men, belie∣ves God himself.

21. STRANGE! that Men should so far offer violence to their reason, so far conquer and subdue their conscience, as to be able to talk at this wild and prodigious rate: and stranger it would seem, but that we know a Gene∣ration of Men, great Patrons of Tradition too, in another Church, who mainly endeavour to debase and suppress the Scriptures, and value their unwritten Traditions at little less rate than this. But I let them pass. This is no novel and up-start humour of the Jews, they were notoriously guilty of it in our Saviour's days, whom we find frequently charging them with their superstitious observances of many little rites and usages derived from the Traditions of the Elders, wherein they placed the main of Religion, and for which they had a far more sacred regard, than for the plain and positive commands of God.* 1.48 Such were their frequent washings of their Pots and Cups, their brazen Vessels and Tables, the purifying themselves after they came from Market (as if the touching of others had defiled them) the wash∣ing their hands before every Meal, and many other things which they had re∣ceived to hold. In all which they were infinitely nice and scrupulous, ma∣king the neglect of them of equal guilt with the greatest immorality,* 1.49 not sticking to affirm, that he who eats Bread with unwashen hands, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, is as if he lay with an Harlot. This it's plain they thought a sufficient charge against our Lord's Disciples, that they were not zealous observers of these things.* 1.50 When they saw some of his Di∣sciples eat Bread with defiled (that is to say, with unwashen) hands, they found fault; and asked him, Why walk not thy Disciples according to the Tradition of the Elders, but eat Bread with unwashen hands? To whom our Saviour smartly answered, that they were the Persons of whom the Prophet had spoken, who honoured God with their lips, but their hearts were far from him, that in vain did they worship him, while for Doctrines they taught the command∣ments of men, laying aside and rejecting the commandments of God, that they might hold the Tradition of men. For they were not content to make them of equal value and authority with the Word of God, but made them a means wholly to evacuate and supersede it. Whereof our Lord gives a no∣torious instance in the case of Parents. They could not say but that the Law obliged Children to honour and revere their Parents, and to admi∣nister to their necessities in all straits and exigencies, but then had found out a fine way to evade the force of the command, and that under a pious and plausible pretence. Moses said, Honour thy Father and thy Mother: and who so curseth Father or Mother let him die the death. But ye say, If a man shall say to his Father or Mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free: And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his Father, or Mother. By which is commonly understood, that when their Parents required relief and assistance from their Children, they put them off with this excuse, that they had consecrated their Estate to God, and might not divert it to any other use. Though this seems a specious and plau∣sible pretence, yet it is not reasonable to suppose, that either they had,* 1.51 or would pretend that they had intirely devoted whatever they had to God, and must therefore refer to some other custom. Now among the many kinds of oaths and vows that were among the Jews they had one, which they cal∣led 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the vow of interdict; whereby a man might restrain himself as to this or that particular person, and this or that particular thing; as, he might vow not to accept of such a courtesie from this friend or that neigh∣bour,

or that he would not part with this or that thing of his own to such a man, to lend him his Horse; or give him any thing towards his maintenance, &c. and then the thing became utterly unlawful, and might not be done upon any consideration whatsoever, lest the Man became guilty of the vio∣lation of his Vow. The form of this Vow frequently occurs in the Jewish Writings, and even in the very same words wherein our Lord expresses it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Be it Corban or a gift (that is, a thing sacred) whereby I may be any ways profitable to thee, that is, be that thing unlaw∣ful or prohibited to me, wherein I may be helpful and assistant to thee. And nothing more common than this way of vowing in the particular case of Parents, whereof there are abundant instances in the writings of the Jewish Masters, who thus explain the forementioned Vow, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Whatever I shall gain hereafter, shall be sacred, as to the maintenance of my Father; or as Maimonides expresses it, That what I provide, my Father shall eat nothing of it, that is, says he, he shall receive no profit by it; and then as they tells us, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 He that had thus vowed, might not transgress or make void his Vow. So that when indigent Parents craved relief and assistance from their Children, and pro∣bably wearied them with importunity, it was but vowing in a passionate resentment, that they should not be better for what they had, and then they were safe, and might no more dispose any part of their Estate to that use, than they might touch the Corban, that which was most solemnly con∣secrated to God. By which means they were taught to be unnatural under a pretence of Religion, and to suffer their Parents to starve, lest them∣selves should violate a senceless and unlawful Vow. So that though they were under the precedent obligations of a natural duty, a duty as clearly commanded by God as words could express it, yet a blind Tradition, a rash and impious Vow, made for the most part out of passion or covetousness, should cancel and supersede all these obligations, it being unlawful hence∣forth to give them one penny to relieve them: Ye suffer him no more (says our Lord) to do ought for his Father or his Mother, making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered.

22. THE last instance that I shall note of the corruption and degene∣racy of this Church, is the many Sects and divisions that were in it, a thing which the Jews themselves in their writings confess would happen in the days of the Messiah, whose Kingdom should be over-run with heretical opinions. That Church which heretofore like Jerusalem had been at unity within it self, was now miserably broken into Sects and Factions, whereof three most considerable, Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Essenes. The Pharisees derive their name from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which may admit of a double signi∣fication, and either not unsuitable to them: It may refer to them as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Explainers or Interpreters of the Law, which was a peculiar part of their work, and for which they were famous and venerable among the Jews; or more probably to their separation (the most proper and natural importance of the word) so called, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.52 as Epiphanius observed of old, because separated from all others in their extraordinary pretences of piety, the very Jews themselves thus de∣scribing a Pharisee,* 1.53 he is one 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that separates himself from all uncleanness, and from all unclean meats, and from the people of the Earth, (the common rout) who accurately observe not the difference of Meats. It is not certain when this Sect first thrust up its head into the World, probably not long after the times of the Macchabees, 'tis certain they were of considerable standing, and great account in the time of our

Saviour:* 1.54 To be sure strangely wide of the mark are those Jewish Chrono∣logists who say, that the Sect of the Pharisees arose in the times of Tiberius Caesar, and Ptolomy the Aegyptian, under whom the Septuagint translation was accomplished; as if Ptolomy Philadelphus and Tiberius Caesar had been Contemporaries, between whom there is the distance of no less than CCLX. years. But when ever it began, a bold and daring Sect it was, not fearing to affront Princes, and persons of the greatest quality, crafty and insinua∣tive, and who by a shew of great zeal, and infinite strictness in Religion, beyond the rate of other men, had procured themselves a mighty reverence from the people; so strict,* 1.55 that (as a Learned man observes) Pharisee is used in the Talmudick writings to denote a pious and holy man; and Ben∣jamin the Jew speaking of R. Ascher, says, he was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a truly de∣vout man, separate from the affairs of this world. And yet under all this seem∣ing severity they were but Religious villains, spiteful and malicious, gri∣ping and covetous, great oppressors, merciless dealers, heady and sediti∣ous, proud and scornful, indeed guilty of most kinds of immorality, of whose temper and manners I say the less in this place, having elsewhere given an account of them. They held that the Oral Law was of infinitely greater moment and value than the written Word; that the Traditions of their fore-Fathers were above all things to be embraced and followed,* 1.56 the strict observance whereof would entitle a man to Eternal Life; that the Souls of men are Immortal, and had their dooms awarded in the Subterraneous Regions; that there is a Metempsuchosis or Transmigration of pious Souls out of one Body into another; that things come to pass by fate, and an inevi∣table necessity, and yet that Man's will is free, that by this means men might be rewarded and punished according to their works. I add no more concern∣ing them, than that some great men of the Church of Rome say with some kind of boasting, that such as were the Pharisees among the Jews, such are the Religious (they mean the Monastical Orders of their Church) among Christians. Much good may it do them with the comparison, I confess my self so far of their mind, that there is too great a conformity between them.

23. NEXT the Pharisees come the Sadducees, as opposite to them in their temper, as their principles; so called (as Epiphanius and some others will have it) from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 justice, as pretending themselves to be very just and righteous men, but this agrees not with the account given of their lives. They are generally thought to have been denominated from Sadock the Scho∣lar of Antigonus Sochaeus, who flourished about the year of the World MMMDCCXX. CCLXXXIV. years before the Nativity of our Saviour. They pass under a very ill character even among the writers of their own Nation, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 impious men, and of very loose and de∣bauched manners: which is no more than what might be expected as the na∣tural consequence of their principles, this being one of their main dogmata or opinions, that the Soul is not Immortal, and that there is no future state af∣ter this life.* 1.57 The occasion of which desperate principle is said to have been a mistake of the doctrine of their Master Antigonus, who was wont to press his Scholars not to be like mercenary Servants, who serve their Masters merely for what they can get by them; but to serve God for himself, with∣out expectation of rewards. This, Sadock and Baithos, two of his dis∣ciples misunderstanding, thought their Master had peremptorily denied any state of future rewards; and having laid this dangerous foundation, these unhappy superstructures were built upon it; that there is no Resurrection, for if there be no reward, what need that the Body should rise again; that

the Soul is not Immortal, nor exists in the separate state, for if it did, it must be either rewarded or punished; and if not the Soul, then by the same proportion of reason no spiritual substance, neither Angel, nor Spirit; that there is no Divine Providence, but that God is perfectly placed as beyond the commission,* 1.58 so beyond the inspection and regard of what sins or evils are done or happen in the World, as indeed what great reason to believe a wise and righteous Providence, if there be no reward or punishment for vertue and vice in another life? These pernicious and Atheistical opinions justly exposed them to the reproach and hatred of the people, who were wont eminently to stile them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Hereticks, Infidels, Epicureans, no words being thought had enough to bestow upon them. They rejected the Traditions so vehemently asserted by the Pharisees, and taught that men were to keep to the Letter of the Law, and that nothing was to be imposed either upon their belief or practice, but what was expresly owned and con∣tained in it.* 1.59 Josephus observes, that they were the fewest of all the Sects, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, but usually men of the better rank and quality; as what wonder, if rich and great men, who tumble in the pleasures and advanta∣ges of a prosperous fortune, be willing to take sanctuary at those opinions, that afford the greatest patronage to looseness and debauchery, and care not to hear of being called to account in another World, for what they have done in this? For this reason the Sadducees ever appeared the greatest stick∣lers to preserve the peace, and were the most severe and implacable Justi∣cers against the Authors or fomenters of tumults and seditions, lest they should disturb and interrupt their soft and easie course of life, the only hap∣piness their principles allowed them to expect.

24. THE Essenes succeed, a Sect probably distinct from either of the for∣mer. Passing by the various conjectures concerning the derivation of their name, which when dressed up with all advantages are still but bare conje∣ctures, they began about the times of the Macchabees, when the violent persecutions of Antiochus forced the Jews for their own safety to retire to the Woods and Mountains. And though in time the storm blew over, yet many of them were too well pleased with these undisturbed solitudes to re∣turn, and therefore combined themselves into Religious societies, leading a solitary and contemplative course of life, and that in very great numbers, there being usually above four thousand of them,* 1.60 as both Philo and Josephus tell us. Pliny takes notice of them, and describes them to be a solitary ge∣neration, remarkable above all others in this, that they live without Wo∣men, without any embraces, without money, conversing with nothing but Woods and Palm-trees; that their number encreased every day as fast as any died, persons flocking to them from all quarters, to seek repose here, after they had been wearied with the inquietudes of an improsperous for∣tune.* 1.61 They paid a due reverence to the Temple, by sending gifts and pre∣sents thither, but yet worshipped God at home, and used their own Rites and Ceremonies. Every seventh day they publickly met in their Syna∣gogues, where the younger seating themselves at the feet of the elder, one reads some portions out of a Book, which another, eminently skilled in the principles of their Sect, expounds to the rest (their dogmata, like the Philosophy of the Ancients, being obscurely and enigmatically delivered to them) instructing them in the rules of piety and righteousness, and all the duties that concerned God, others, or themselves. They industriously tilled and cultivated the ground, and lived upon the fruits of their own labours; had all their revenues in common; there being neither rich, nor poor among them: Their manners were very harmless and innocent,

exact observers of the rules of Justice, somewhat beyond the practice of other men. As for that branch of them that lived in Egypt, whose excellent Manners and Institutions are so particularly described and commended by Philo, and whom Eusebius and others will needs have to have been Christi∣ans converted by S. Mark, we have taken notice of elsewhere in S. Mark's Life. We find no mention of them in the History of the Gospel, probably because living remote from Cities and all places of publick concourse, they never concerned themselves in the actions of Christ or his Apostles. What their principles were in matters of speculation is not much material to en∣quire, their Institutions mainly referring to practice. Out of a great regard to wisdom and vertue they neglected all care of the body, renounced all conjugal embraces, abstained very much from Meats and Drinks, some of them not eating or drinking for three, others for five or six days together, accounting it unbecoming men of such a Philosophical temper and genius, to spend any part of the day upon the necessities of the body: Their way they called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, worship, and their rules 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, doctrines of wisdom; their contemplations were sublime and speculative, and of things beyond the ordinary notions of other Sects; they traded in the names and mysteries of Angels, and in all their carriages bore a great shew of modesty and humility. And therefore these in all likelihood were the very persons, whom S. Paul primarily designed (though not excluding others who espoused the same principles) when he charges the Colossians to let no man beguile them of their reward in a voluntary humility, and worshipping of Angels,* 1.62 intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, that being dead to the rudiments of the World, they should no longer 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, be subject to these dogmata or ordinances, such as Touch not, taste not, handle not, (the main principles of the Essenian Institution) being the commandments and doctrines of men; which things have indeed a shew of wis∣dom in will worship and humility, and neglecting of the body, not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. Besides these three greater, there were several other lesser Sects in the Jewish Church, such as the Herodians, supposed to have been either part of Herod's guard, or a combination of men, who to ingratiate themselves with the Prince, maintained Herod to be the Messiah, and at their own charge celebrated his Coronation-days, as also the Sab∣bath, when they used to set lighted Candles crowned with Violets in their windows;* 1.63 an opinion which S. Hierom justly laughs at as trifling and ridi∣culous. Probably they were a party that had espoused Herod's interest, and endeavoured to support his new-gotten Soveraignty. For Herod being a stranger, and having by the Roman power usurped the Kingdom, was ge∣nerally hateful and burdensom to the people, and therefore beside the assist∣ance of a foreign power, needed some to stand by him at home. They were peculiarly active in pressing people to pay Tribute to Caesar,* 1.64 Herod being ob∣liged (as S. Hierom observes) by the Charter of his Soveraignty to look af∣ter the Tribute due to Caesar, and they could not do him a more acceptable service, by this means endearing him to his great Patrons at Rome. In matters of opinion they seem to have sided with the Sadducees;* 1.65 what S. Matthew calls the leaven of the Sadducees, S. Mark stiles the leaven of Herod. Probable it is, that they had drawn Herod to be of their principles, that as they asserted his right to the Kingdom, he might favour and main∣tain their impious opinions. And 'tis likely enough that a man of so de∣bauched manners might be easily tempted to take shelter under principles that so directly served the purposes of a bad life. Another Sect in that Church were the Samaritans, the posterity of those who succeeded in

the room of the ten captivated Tribes, a mixture of Jews and Gentiles; they held, that nothing but the Pentateuch was the Word of God, that Mount Gerizim was the true place of publick and solemn worship, that they were the descendents of Joseph, and heirs of the Aaronical Priesthood, and that no dealing or correspondence was to be maintained with strangers, nor any unclean thing to be touched. The Karraeans were a branch of the Sadducees, but rejected afterwards their abominable and unsound opinions, they are the true Textualists, adhering only to the writings of Moses and the Prophets, and expounding the Scripture by it self, peremptorily disowning the absurd glosses of the Talmud, and the idle Traditions of the Rabbins, insomuch that they admit not so much as the Hebrew points into their Bibles, accounting them part of the Oral and Traditionary Law; for which rea∣son they are greatly hated by the rest of the Jews. They are in great num∣bers about Constantinople, and in other places at this day. There was also the Sect of the Zealots, frequently mentioned by Josephus, a Generation of men insolent and ungovernable, fierce and savage, who under a pretence of extraordinary zeal for God and the honour of his Law, committed the most enormous outrages against God and Man; but of them we have given an account in the Life of S. Simon the Zealot. And yet as if all this had not been enough to render their Church miserable within it self, their sins and intestine divisions had brought in the Roman power upon them, who set Magistrates and Taskmasters over them, depressed their great Sanhedrim, put in and out Senators at pleasure, made the Temple pay tribute, and placed a Garrison at hand to command it, abrogated a great part of their Laws, and stript them so naked both of Civil and Ecclesiastical Order and Authority, that they had not power left so much as to put a man to death. All evident demonstrations that Shiloh was come, and the Scepter departed, that the Sacrifice and Oblation was to cease, the Messiah being cut off, who came to finish transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Antiq. Jud. l. 2. c. 5. p 56.
• * 1.2

  R. Eliez. c. 48. apud Hotting. Smeg. Orient. c. 8. p. 402.
• * 1.3

  Heb. 11.27.
• * 1.4

  Ver. 24, 25, 26.
• * 1.5

  Loc. supr. cit. p. 57.
• * 1.6

  Heb. 12.21.
• * 1.7

  Deut. 4.13.
• * 1.8

  Exod. 29.
• * 1.9

  1 Cor. 5.7, 8.
• * 1.10

  Isa. 11.1-10.
• * 1.11

  Rom. 15.12.
• * 1.12

  Rev. 4.5.
• * 1.13

  Psalm 141.2.
• * 1.14

  Psalm 26.6.
• * 1.15

  Isa. 61.1, 2. Luke 4.18.
• * 1.16

  Heb. 10.1.
• * 1.17

  John 1.17.
• * 1.18

  Jom. cap 4. fol. 39. ap. Buxtorf. Recens. Oper. Talm. p. 218.
• * 1.19

  Deut. 33.4.
• * 1.20

  Auth. Tzeror Hammor ap. Voys. de leg. Div. c. 23. p. 338.
• * 1.21

  R. Moyses Tract. de Num▪ praec. ap. Voys. ib.
• * 1.22

  Vid. Menass. Ben Israel de Resurr. lib. 2. c. 18.
• * 1.23

  Exod. 28.30.
• * 1.24

  Numb. 27.21.
• * 1.25

  Christoph. Castr. de Vati∣cin. lib. 3. cap. 3.
• * 1.26

  Hos. 3.4.
• * 1.27

  Joan. Spencer. Dissertat. de Vrim & Thum. Edit. Cantabr. 1670.8.
• * 1.28

  Cod. Jom. cap. 7. Sect. 5. pag. 167.
• * 1.29

  Dr. Lightf. H. Hebr. in Matth. 3.17.
• * 1.30

  Vid. Maimon. Mor. Nevoch. part. 2. cap. 45. p. 317.
• * 1.31

  Exod. 33.11.
• * 1.32

  Numb. 12.6, 7, 8.
• * 1.33

  Adv. Montan. Haere••. XLVIII. p. 176. Ibid. pag. 177.
• * 1.34

  Nizz. p. 159. citante Hot∣ting. Th. Phil. l. 2. c. 3. p. 564.
• * 1.35

  2 Chron. 19.4.
• * 1.36

  2 Chron. 34.3.
• * 1.37

  2 Chron. 36.14.
• * 1.38

  Antiquit Jud. lib. 12. c. 19. p. 425.
• * 1.39

  Lib. 15. cap. 2. p. 512.
• * 1.40

  De Bell Jud. lib. 7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. p. 958.
• * 1.41

  Joseph. Antiqu. Jud. l. 17. c. 8. p. 596. & de Bell. Jud. l. 1. c. 21. p. 772.
• * 1.42

  H. Eccl. l. 1. c. 10. p. 28.
• * 1.43

  De Bell. Jud. l. 4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. p. 872.
• * 1.44

  Joseph. Antiqu. l. 20. c. 8. pag. 698.
• * 1.45

  Pirk. Aboth. cap. 1. Sect. 1, 2, 3. p. 1.
• * 1.46

  Jad. Chazak ex quo loc. satis prolixum citat Jos. Voys. de leg. div. c. 9. & seqq. ubi varias Judaeorum de Legis hujus ori∣gine & successi∣one sententias videre est.
• * 1.47

  Vid. Buxtorf. de Abbrev. p. 222. & de Sy∣nag. Jud. cap. 3. Hotting. Thes. Phil. lib. 2. c. 3.
• * 1.48

  Mark 7.2, 3. & seqq.
• * 1.49

  Matth. 15.1. Talm. Tr. Sota cap. 1. vid. Iux∣torf. Syn. Jud. c. 11. p. 236.
• * 1.50

  Mark 7.2—5
• * 1.51

  Vid. Lud. Cap∣pell. diatrib. de Corban. Grot. Annot. in Math. 15.5. Coccei. in Excerpt. Ge∣mar. Sanbed. p. 273 Hotting. Th. Phi. l. 1. c. 1. Sect. 5. p. 31.
• * 1.52

  Haeres. xvi. p. 21.
• * 1.53

  Baal Aruch in voc. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.54

  R. Ged. Schal. Kabb. p. 104. citante Hotting. Th. Phil. l. 1. c. 1, p. 27.
• * 1.55

  L'Emper. not. in Benjam. Itiner. p. 147. Itiner. p. 6.
• * 1.56

  Vid. Joseph. Antiq. Jud. l. 18. c. 2. p. 617. & de Bell. Jud. l. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. p. 788.
• * 1.57

  Pirk. Aboth. cap. 1. Sect. 3. p.m. 1.
• * 1.58

  Joseph. de Bell. Jud. l. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. p. 788.
• * 1.59

  Antiquit. Jud. l. 18. c. 2. p. 617.
• * 1.60

  Hist. Nat. lib. 5. c. 17. p. 80.
• * 1.61

  Vid. Phil. lib. quod omnis probus liber. p. 876, 877. Joseph. Antiq. Jud. l. 18. c. 2. p. 617. praecipue de Bell. Jud. lib. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. p. 785, & seqq.
• * 1.62

  Col. 2.18—20, 21, 22, 23.
• * 1.63

  Comm. in Matth. 22. p. 66. Tom. 9.
• * 1.64

  Loc. citat.
• * 1.65

  Matth. 16.6. Mark 8.15.