supposed to be diverse from one another, in respect to sex, and rank, and power. They, moreover, indulged the most lawless passions, and were guilty of the most polluting vices.
Yet to these gods a deep and universal homage was paid. They were courted and appeased by costly gifts, and honored by rites and ceremonies too indecent even to be named. Temples, the most magnificent, were erected to their honor, and a most expensive priesthood maintained to serve at their unhallowed worship.
Such is an outline of the religious state of the heathen world, when Christ made his appearance on earth. The knowledge of the pure and exalted character of Jeho vah was lost. Human accountability was unknown, and holiness of life was unnamed and unconceived of.
4. In respect to the Jewish nation, which inhabited Judea, where Christ was born, more correct notions of religion were entertained, since they possessed the Scriptures of the Old Testament, from which these notions were derived.
5. But even among the Jews, the state of religion was exceedingly low. They, indeed, still maintained the ancient forms of worship; but the life and spirituality, the original beauty and excellency of that worship, had departed.
6. At this period, also, the Jews were divided into several religious sects, all of which acknowledged the authority of Moses, and united in the same forms of worship; but they were so far separated by their peculiarities, as to be continually involved in the most bitter hostilities.
7. The most popular, and by far the most numerous of these sects, was that of the Pharisees, who derived their name from a Hebrew word, which signifies to separate; because they pretended, though very hypocritically, to uncommon separation from the world, and devotedness to God.
The origin of this sect is involved in uncertainty. From small beginnings, however, they had risen to great power; and, in the time of the Savior, they held the principal civil and religious offices in the nation.
In respect to some of the doctrines of the Scriptures, they seem to have been correct. They believed in the existence of angels, both good and bad; in the immortality of the soul; the resurrection of the body; and a state of future rewards and punishments. But they also held to the traditions of their elders, which they considered of equal authority with the Scriptures. Nay, in many instances, they explained the oracles of God by these traditions, and in such a manner as wholly to destroy their meaning.
In their religious practice, the Pharisees pretended to uncommon strictness. They abounded in washings, and fastings, and long prayers. They assumed great gravity in dress and demeanor, and exhibited no small zeal in all the forms of religion. But, with all their pretensions, they were noted for their hypocrisy; and by our Savior were compared to whited sepulchres, fair and wholesome externally, but full of deformity and death within.
8. Next to the Pharisees, the Sadducees were the most powerful sect. They derived their name from Sadoc, who flourished about 260, B. C. This sect were infidels. They denied the existence of a future state, and the immortality of the soul, and worshipped God only to secure his favor in the present world.
The Sadducees, in point of numbers, fell much short of the Pharisees; but they embraced most of the men of rank and wealth. The system which they adopted was eminently suited to the licentious life which they universally followed. They adopted the