Moses and Aaron. Goodwin Thomas Aiken

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СКАЧАТЬ They said there was no reward for good works, nor punishment for ill, in the world to come. Hence Saint Paul perceiving that in the Councel the one part were Sadduces, the other Pharisees, he cried out, Of the hope of the reward expected, and of the resurrection of the dead, I am called in question, Act. 23. 6.

      4. They denied the resurrection of the body, Act. 22. 8. Matth. 22. 23. Luke 20. 27.

      5. They said the souls of men are annihilated140 at their death.

      6. They denied Angels and spirits, Act. 23. 8.

      7. They wholly denied141 Fate or Destiny, and ascribed all to mans Free-will.

      The Samaritanes and the Sadduces are of near affinity: but yet they differ. First142 The Samaritanes sacrificed at the Temple built upon Mount Gerizim, but the Sadduces sacrificed at Jerusalem. Secondly, The Samaritanes allowed no commerce with the Jews, John 4. 9. yea, the mutual hatred between the Samaritans and the Jews was so great, that it was not lawful for the Jews to eat or drink with the Samaritans. How is it that thou being a Jew, askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria, Joh. 4. 9. Nay, whereas liberty was granted unto all Nations of the earth to become Proselites to the Jewes, so did the Jews hate the Samaritanes, that they would not suffer a Samaritan to be a Prosylite. This appeareth by that solemn Excommunication,143 termed Excommunicatio in secreto nominis tetragrammati: the form thereof: as it was applyed (say they) by Ezra and Nehemiah unto the Samaritanes, was thus, They assembled the whole Congregation into the Temple of the Lord, and they brought 300 Priests, and 300 Trumpets, and 300 books of the Law, and as many boys, and they sounded their Trumpets and the Levites singing cursed the Samaritanes by all the sorts of Excommunication, in the mystery of the name Jehovah, and in the Decalogue, & with the curse of the superiour house of judgement, and likewise with the curse of the inferiour house of judgement, that no Israelite should eat the bread of a Samaritane, (whence they say, he which eateth of a Samaritans bread is as he who eateth swines flesh) and let no Samaritane be a Prosylite in Israel, and that they should have no part in the resurrection of the dead. R. Gersom144 forbade the breaking open of the Letters, under the penalty of this Excommunication. This proveth what formerly was said; namely, that between the Jews and the Samaritanes there was no commerce; but the Sadduces familiarly conversed with the other Jews, even with the Pharisees themselves; yea, both sat together in the same Council, Acts 23. 6. Now the Samaritanes and Sadduces agree. 1. In the rejection of all the others traditions. 2. In the rejection of all other Scriptures, save only the five Books of Moses. 3. In the denial of the Resurrection, and the consequences, as future punishments, and rewards according to mens works. But the Samaritanes held that there were Angels, which the Sadduces denied. For the proof of these agreements and disagreements between them, read Epiphanius, hæres. 9. & 14.

      Touching the Samaritanes, there are three degrees of alteration in their Religion observable. First, the strange Nations, transplanted by Salmanesar into Samaria, when Israel was carried away captive into Assyria, worshipped every one the God of their own Countries, 2 King. 17. Secondly, when they saw they were devoured by Lyons, because they feared not the Lord, the King of Assyria sent one of the Priests which was taken captive, to instruct them in the true worship of God: which manner of worship though they received, yet they would not lay aside their former Idolatry, but made a mixture of Religions, worshipping the living God, and their own dumb Idols. Thirdly, Manasses, brother to Jaddus the High priest, in Jerusalem, being married to Sanballat, the Horonite’s Daughter, by reason of Nehemiah’s charge of putting away their strange Wives, being driven to that exigent, that he must either put away his Wife, or forgo the hope of the Priest-hood; by Sanballat’s means he obtained leave from Alexander the Great, to build a Temple145 upon Mount Gariazim, one of the highest Mountains in Samaria, whither many other Apostated Jews fled, together with Manasses being made their High-Priest; and now the Sect of the Samaritanes (between whom and the Jews there was such hatred) began, now all those fore-mentioned errors were maintained: And of this Hill it is, that the woman of Samaria speaketh John 4. 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain, &c.

      By comparing the Dogmata of the Pharisees, with these of the Sadduces, we may perceive a manifest opposition between them; yet both these joyned against Christ, Mark 12.

      This heresie, though it were the greatest amongst the Jews, yet was it imbraced and maintained by some of the High Priests themselves:146 Joannes Hyrcanus was a Sadducee, so were his sons, Aristobulus and Alexander,147 and likewise Ananus the younger; so that Moses Chair was not amongst them exempted from error; no nor heresie.

      CHAP. XII.

      Of the Essenes

      The Etymologies of the names Essæi, or Esseni, i.e. Essenes, are divers, that which I prefer is from the Syriake ‎‏אסא‏‎ Asa, signifying θεραπεύειν to heal, or cure Diseases. Hence148 are the men so often termed, θεραπευταὶ and the women amongst them, θεραπευτρίδες, that is, Physicians. For though they gave themselves chiefly to the study of the Bible yet withal they studied Physick.

      Of these Essenes there were two sorts, some Theoricks, giving themselves wholly to speculation; others Practicks, laborious and painful in the daily exercise of those handy-crafts, in which they were most skilful. Of the latter, Philo treateth in his book entituled, Quod omnis vir probus: Of the former, in the book following, entituled, De vita contemplativa.

      Their Dogmata, their Ordinance, or Constitutions, did symbolize in many things with Pythagoras his, where they do agree. Therefore my purpose is, first to name Pythagoras his; and then to proceed on with the Essenes. They follow thus.

      The149 Pythagoreans professed a communion of goods: So the Essenes.150 they had one common purse or stock, none richer, none poorer than other; out of this common treasury, every one supplyed his own wants without leave, and administred to the necessities of others: only they might not relieve any of their kindred without leave from their Overseers. They did not buy or sell among themselves, but each supplyed the others want, by a kind of commutative bartring: yea, liberty was granted to take one from another what they wanted, without exchange. They performed Offices of service mutually one to another; for mastership and service cannot stand with communion of goods: and servants are commonly injurious to the state of their Masters, according to that saying of R. Gamaliel,151 He that multiplyeth servants, multiplieth thieves. When they travelled, besides weapons for defence, they took nothing with them, for in whatsoever City or Village they came, they repaired to the Fraternity of the Essenes, and were there entertained as members of the same. And if we do attentively read Josephus, we may observe that the Essenes of every СКАЧАТЬ