1st, As their temperate way of living would very much contribute to preserve their health and as,

2dly, They would hereby avoid giving umbrage to, and exciting the envy of the Jews, who might have been provoked by their engaging and succeeding in the principal business in which they themselves were employed, namely, tillage and vine-dressing, to expel them their country; by which they would have been deprived of the religious advantages they then enjoyed. That they might, therefore, be under no temptation to plant and cultivate vineyards, he forbade them the use of wine.

Should it be inquired how they maintained themselves, it may be answered, they are, in the first book of Chronicles, called scribes, chap. ii, 55, which intimates, that they were engaged in some sort of literary employments.

I suppose the reason of Godwin's treating of the Nazarites and Rechabites in the same chapter is, that neither of them drank wine; for in no other respect were they alike, the former being a religious, and the latter merely a prudential and civil institution*.

* Vid. Witsii Dissert. de Rechabitis, prefixed to his Latin translation of Godwin's Moses and Aaron, inserted into Hottinger's edition, and printed likewise in Witsii Miscellan. tom. ii.

CHAP. IX.

OF THE ASSIDEANS.

AFTER the spirit of prophecy ceased, and there were no inspired persons to whom the Jews could apply to decide their religious doubts and disputes, different opinions soon sprang up among them, and divided them into various sects and parties; the chief of which were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes, all supposed to arise from the Assideans, who are entitled, therefore, to our first attention.

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The Hebrew word on chasidim, is used in several places of scripture appellatively, for good and pious men, Psalm cxlix, 1; cxlv, 10; Isa. lvii, 1; Mic. vii, 2; but never, I apprehend, for a religious sect. In the apocryphal book of the Maccabees, indeed, we often meet with the aridaio, a word plainly derived from the Hebrew DTD chasidim; as in the following passage: There came to Mattathias a company of Assideans, who were mighty men of Israel, even all such as were voluntarily devoted unto the law," 1 Macc. ii, 42; see also chap. vii, 13, and 2 Macc. xiv, 16. These Assideans, spoken of in the Maccabees, have generally been supposed to be some sect subsisting at that time. Yet as Josephus wrote of the same times and of the same affairs, without mentioning any such sect, some have doubted, and not without reason, whether there ever was any such, and whether the word arida be not used in the Maccabees, as Don chasidim is in the Hebrew bible, for pious persons in general, even such as "were voluntarily devoted unto the law." And it is no improbable conjecture, that as they were persons generally of that character, who, in defence of their law and religion, first adhered to Mattathias, and afterwards to his son Judas Maccabæus, the name aσidaio, or saints, was by their enemies converted into a term of reproach and scorn, as the word puritans was in the last century, and saints very often is now.

And as I see no sufficient evidence of the aridato, in the time of the Maccabees, being a distinct sect from other pious Jews, I lay no stress upon Godwin's distinction betwixt the 'py tsadikim and the on chasidim, which, he saith, took place after the captivity, and consisted in the following particulars : the tsadikim gave themselves to the study of the scripture; the chasidim studied how to add to the scripture; the former would conform to whatever the law required; the latter would be holy above the law; thus to the repairing of the temple, the maintaining of sacrifices, the relief of the poor, &c., they would voluntarily add over and above, to that which the law required.

Neither do I think it probable, as Godwin supposes, that this apostle refers to any such distinction when he saith, Scarcely for a righteous man, dixas, would one die, yet peradventure for a good man, ayads, some would even dare to die," Rom. v, 7, 8. By the ayados, or good man, the apostle rather meant a kind, benevolent, charitable man, than such as were for adding to the divine law, and performing works of supererogation. In this sense the word ayatos is continually used in the New Testament. For instance, in the Gospel of St. Matthew we meet with this expression, "Is thine eye evil because I am good?" or beneficent, ayados, Matth. xx, 15. In the epistle to the Romans, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good," aɣadw, with kind and generous actions, Rom. xii, 21. In the epistle to Philemon To ayadov means "thy kindness," Philem. ver. 14; το αγαθον and in the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus ayados opdaλuos signifies "the liberal eye," Ecclus. xxxv, 8. The meaning and design of the apostle, therefore, in the passage before us, may be thus represented: So engaging are the charms of generosity and benevolence above mere righteousness and justice, that though scarcely any man will hazard his life for one who has nothing but the latter to recommend him, several might be found, who would run this important risk to prevent the death or destruction of a disinterested and generous friend. But the love of Christ (for it is to illustrate that love the apostle makes this observation) appears to be far more free, generous, and exalted, than any instance of human friendship, in that when we were yet sinners, and

possessed, therefore, of none of these good or amiable qualities to recommend us, he laid down his life for us*.

The 'py tsadikim, Godwin imagines, were the same with the Dp karraim, or Karraites. It is certain the Karraites were anciently a considerable sect, which is still in being in Poland and Russia, but chiefly in Turkey and Egypt. They have their name from the Chaldee word kara, scriptura sacra, because they adhered to the scriptures as the whole and only rule of their faith and practice; which occasioned their being called □sp karraim, textuales, or scriptuarii, while those who adhered to the traditions taught by the rabbies were called " rabbanim, rabbinista.

These party names were first given them about thirty years before Christ, when, upon the dissension betwixt Hillel, the president of the sanhedrim, and Shammai, the vice-president, by which their respective scholars were listed into two parties, betwixt whom there were perpetual contests, those that were of the opinion of the Karraites sided with the school of Shammai, and those who were zealous for traditions with the school of Hillel. Nevertheless, though the name D karraim be thus modern, the sect boasts of their high antiquity; for they say they are the followers of Moses and the prophets, as they undoubtedly are on account of their adhering to the scriptures, in opposition to human traditions. Yet Dr. Prideaux says they did not reject all traditions absolutely, only refused them the same authority as they allowed to the written word. As human helps conducive to their better understanding the scriptures they were content to admit them, but not to put them on a foot with the written oracles of God, as all the other Jews did+.

The Karraites differ also from the rest of the Jews in this, that they read the scriptures, as well as their liturgies, everywhere, both in public and private, in the language of the

Concerning the Assideans, consult Drusius de Hasidæis, and de Tribus Sectis Judæorum, lib. iv, cap. x-xiii; and also his Quæst. Hebr. lib. i, quæst. xlvii; Scaliger's Elenchos Trihæreseôs Judæorum, cap. xxii; Fuller's Miscell. Sacra, lib. i, cap. viii, and Prideaux's Connect. part ii, book v, sub anno 107, vol. iii, p. 256, 257, 10th edit.

+ Prideaux's Connect. part ii, book v, sub anno 107, vol. iii, p. 476.

country in which they dwell; at Constantinople in modern Greek, in Caffa in Turkish, &c.*

As the school of Hillel prevailed against that of Shammai, the Rabbinists became the popular sect, and the Karraites were looked upon as schismatics and heretics, being loaded with much reproach by the other Jews; though in reality, of all their sects, they were the purest and most pious. They are frequently branded with the name Sadducees by the Jewish rabbies, by whom, I suppose, Godwin was led into the mistake which he commits, when he represents them as rejecting, not only traditions, but all scripture, except the five books of Moses. The truth is, all the Sadducees agreed with the Karraites in rejecting traditions, but the Karraites by no means agreed with the Sadducees in rejecting the greater part of the scriptures.

As the Rabbinists interpret the scriptures by the traditions, which the Karraites reject, it is no wonder they differ in the sense of many texts, and practise the rites of worship in a different manner. Reland reckons up six articles of difference betwixt the Karraites and other Jews:

1st, The Rabbinists reckon the feast of the new moon, and the beginning of the month, by astronomical calculations; the Karraites begin the month with the first appearance of the moon after the change.

2dly, The Rabbinists killed the paschal lamb in the afternoon, when the sun was declining; the Karraites not till after the sun was set.

3dly, The Rabbinists admitted the whole family to eat the passover; the Karraites, none but the males, and of them only such as were of age.

4thly, The Rabbinists held, that what remained of the passover was to be burnt on the sixteenth day of the month, or, if that proved the Sabbath, on the seventeenth; the Karraites, that it was always to be burnt on the fifteenth; see Exod. xii, 10.

5thly, They differed about the meaning of the law concerning the offering of the sheaf of the first fruits, Lev. xxiii, 10, 11. The Rabbinists offered it the day after the passover; the

Hottingeri Thesaur. Philolog. inter Addenda, p. 583, edit. Tigur. 1649.