The Galileans were a few inhabitants of Galilee, who were instigated by one Judas to resist the Roman tax. By this resistance they began the war with the Romans, which terminated in the destruction of the nation. They held the religious sentiments of the Pharisees. Some of them, while worshipping at Jerusalem, were barbarously murdered by Pilate, in the court of the Temple, and their blood was mingled with their sacrifices. Our Saviour was accused as a Galilean, who went about stirring up the nation to revolt, and refusing to give tribute to Cæsar.

The Karaites were the protestants of the Jewish nation. The name denotes a scripturist, and was given them about twenty years before the birth of Christ. They boldly protested against all the traditions of the elders, as having no divine authority, and strictly adhered to the written law. They have been, from that day to this, the most pious and orthodox of all the sects.

Besides these religious sects, there were three orders of men which claim particular notice-the Scribes, Rabbis, and Nazarites.

men.

The Scribes were originally men who registered the affairs of the king. At a subsequent period they transcribed the books of scripture, and thus became more conversant with it than other In our Saviour's time, they were an important order of men, who expounded the law and tradition of the elders; taught them in the schools and synagogues, and reasoned concerning them before the Sanhedrim. They are variously called scribes, lawyers, doctors of the law, elders, counsellors and rulers, and those who sat in Moses' seat. They were a most wicked class, who abominably perverted the scriptures.

The title, Rabbi, was given to men of rank in the state, but especially to Jewish doctors, who were eminent for learning. It was given to John by his disciples; to Christ, by Nicodemus, and the wondering populace. Those who received it among the doctors, claimed an absolute dominion over the faith of the people. But it was a title wholly disapproved of by our Saviour. He said to his disciples, "Be not ye called Rabbi ;"-i. e. covet no such distinctions in the Church of God; aspire to no honour but that of faithfully serving your Lord and Master.

The Nazarites were a class of men separated from the world for some limited period, or for life, by a vow. During their vow, they were never to cut their hair, or drink any wine or strong drink. They were to attend no funeral nor enter a house defiled by the dead. When the days of their offering were fulfilled, all their hair was shaved off at the door of the tabernacle, and

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burnt under the altar. Every seventh day they were called to offer peculiar offerings. Those who, like Sampson, Samuel, and John Baptist, were dedicated for life, had no occasion for these offerings. Such as lived far from Jerusalem, cut their hair in the places where their vow was finished, but deferred their of ferings, until they came to the Temple. Paul once, on some special occasion, became a Nazarite at Corinth, shaved his head at Cenchrea, and made his offering at Jerusalem.

Christ was styled a Nazarite or Nazarene, from the circumstance of his spending much of his life at Nazareth. No par. ticular prophecy which is preserved to us was thus fulfilled, but the general spirit of the prophetic writings respecting him clearly was; for these indicated that he should be a true Nazarite, a person uncommonly separated from his birth to the service of God. Well therefore might the evangelist say, "it was fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Naza

rene."

Amid the clashing of various sects, the formality and hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the monkish austerity of the Essenes, and the freethinking of the Sadducees, vital piety had almost expired with the nation. The Jews indeed adhered to the wor, ship of the one true God, and venerated the Mosaic law, but they fully believed that they could atone for the vilest transgressions.

They looked for the Messiah, but they expected him only as a temporal prince, who would deliver them from Roman bondage, by a zealous performance of external rites; they so gave themselves up to the grossest wickedness, that Josephus, their eminent historian, remarks, "Had the Romans delayed calling these abandoned wretches to account, their city would either have been deluged by water, or swallowed by an earthquake, or destroyed like Sodom, by thunder and lightning."

As was remarked in the history of idolatry, the rest of the world was now sunk in the most deplorable state of heathen superstition. All nations imagined the upper world to be filled with superior beings whom they called gods, one or more of which they supposed to preside over every province, people, family, element, production and passion. These deities were diverse from each other in nature, sex, rank, and power, and were all appeased and honoured by peculiar gifts, rites and ceremonies. Over all a supreme divinity was generally supposed to preside, who, though more excellent than the rest, was controlled by the fates.

Through a national ambition, the Greeks and Romans gave the names of their own deities to those of other nations whom they subdued; but religious wars were unknown, for every nation suffered their neighbours to enjoy their own gods, rites and ceremonies, considering them as their peculiar province. Some of these gods were furnished from the natural world, as the sun, moon, and stars; but the most of them were deified heroes. Statues and other representations of them were placed in their temples. These temples were exceedingly magnificent. An amazing priesthood was richly supported; but their prayers and ceremonies were of the most foolish and debasing character. There were certain institutions called mysteries, to which only a few were initiated, and which were very imposing upon the common people.

But in the whole system of Paganism there was no tendency to virtue. Indeed morality seems never to have had a place in the religion of a Pagan. In the high mysteries, things were transacted which outraged common decency. Almost every god was a patron of some vice. The gods themselves were supposed to be guilty often of the basest crimes. The Greeks and Romans, therefore, the most refined nations of antiquity, were sunk in the lowest sensualities. Their own best writers, such as Horace, Tacitus, Juvenal, confirm the account given of the low moral character of the people, in the second chapter of the epistle to the Romans. Philosophy had done all that it ever can do, un. assisted by revelation, in the discovery of truth, and reformation of mankind; and it finally debased the human mind by the most perplexing subtleties, and spread abroad the most demoralizing sentiments. The most popular sect was that of Epicurus, who maintained that pleasure was the chief end of man's existence, and that it was no matter in what way it was obtained, though it was through the lowest sensual indulgence. These powerful nations had no knowledge of the true God, of human accountableness, and the future state of the soul. Satan every where reigned triumphant, and no ray of hope appeared to the eye of reason, of any release from his iron bondage.

At the same time, the state of the world was admirably adapted to the rapid diffusion of the Gospel of Christ. The Roman empire was in its greatest glory. All the nations of the known world were subjected to it; dominion and peace were every where established. Vast nations therefore, were united in friendly intercourse; many and barbarous tribes were reduced to civilized life. Literature had risen to a height never before attained. The Grecian tongue was almost every where read

CHAP. 8.

REFLECTIONS.

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or spoken. Free access was had to all nations, and the Gospel could easily be preached to every creature under the whole heaven.

In concluding the second great period of the history of the Church, let us pause and reflect on the wonderful providence of God. He had now protected and preserved her during a period of 4000 years, while nation after nation had risen and sunk like the waves of the ocean. All the prophecies respecting her and the nations of the earth, which were due, had hitherto been strictly fulfilled. The four great empires had risen in succession, and had been the rod of God's anger, or instruments to her good. All the sacrifices and offerings of the law, had fully shadowed forth the one great sacrifice, which was now to make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness. "Her walls had been continually before him." The past, was a pledge for the fulfilment of promises of future good. He who raised up the four vast monarchies of the earth, would now set up a kingdom which should never be destroyed, and which should break in pieces and consume all kingdoms. Well might all people exclaim with an heathen prince, "How great are his signs, and how mighty are his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation."