of Chronicles, where the Kenites are said to have come of "Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab;" ver. 55. These Kenites, afterward styled Rechabites, were of the family of Jethro, otherwise called Hobab, whose daughter Moses married; for "the children of the Kenite, Moses's father-in-law," it is said, " went up out of the city of palmtrees with the children of Judah, and dwelt among the people," Judges i. 16; and we read of "Heber the Kenite, who was of the children of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, who had severed himself from the Kenites," or from the bulk of them who settled in the tribe of Judah, "and pitched his tent in the plain of Zaanaim;" chap. iv. 11. They appear to have sprung from Midian, the son of Abraham by Keturah, Gen. xxv. 2; for Jethro, from whom they are descended, is called a Midianite; Numb. x. 29. This Jethro was invited by Moses, his son-in-law, to leave his country, and settle with his family among the Israelites. At first he refused, ver. 30; but afterward, being importuned, ver. 31, 32, it seems he consented; since we find his posterity settled among the Israelites, with whom they continued till their latest ages. Balaam, therefore, celebrates their prudence and happiness, in putting themselves under the protection of God's favourite nation, though he foretells, that they should be fellow-sufferers in the captivity; Numb. xxiv. 21, 22. Of this family was Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, a man of eminent zeal for the pure worship of God against idolatry, who assisted king Jehu in destroying the house of Ahab, and the worshippers of Baal; 2 Kings x. 15, 16. 23, &c. It was he who gave that rule of life to his children and posterity, which we read of in the thirty-fifth chapter of Jeremiah, ver. 6, 7. It consisted of these three articles :

1st. That they should drink no wine.

2dly. That they should neither possess nor occupy any houses, fields, or vineyards.

3dly. That they should dwell in tents.

In these regulations he seems to have had no religious, but merely a prudential view, as is intimated in the reason assigned for them, ver, 7, " that you may live many days in the land where you are strangers." And this would be the natural consequence of observing these rules, inasmuch,

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.

CHAPTER 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.

The Hebrew word D D 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 DTDП 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 aoidaio be not used in the Maccabees, as DTDП 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 afterward 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 between the p tsadikim and the DTD 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, Susanov, would one die; yet peradventure for a good man, ayadov, 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 ayalos 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, Matt. xx. 15. In the Epistle to the Romans, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good," ayadw, with kind and generous actions; chap. xii. 21. In the Epistle to Philemon, To ayadov means "thy kindness," ver. 14; and in the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, ayados op≈adμoc signifies "the liberal eye;" chap. 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

το

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 Dp 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 xp 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 Dp karraim, textuales, or scriptuarii, while those who adhered to the traditions taught by the rabbies were called on rabbanim, rabbinista.

These party names were first given them about thirty years before Christ, when, upon the dissension between Hillel, the president of the Sanhedrim, and Shammai, the vice-president, by which their respective scholars were listed into two parties, between 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 Dp 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, every where, 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.