"Is

thy brethren fhalt thou fet over thee; thou mayeft not set a ftranger over thee who is not thy brother (a)." Now paying tribute to the roman emperor they looked upon to be a virtual acknowledgment of his fovereignty. This therefore was a heavy grievance, and created an averfion to the collectors, as the inftruments of illegal oppreffion, apart from all confideration of their rapacious practices. Accordingly, in the New Testament, we find them joined with harlots and heathens, and perfons of the most profligate and infamous characters; and it was intended for a fevere reproach of our Lord Jefus Chrift, when he was faid to be "a friend of Publicans and Sinners (b)." Hence that enfnaring queftion was put to him, with a defign" to entangle him in his talk (c)," " Is it lawful to give tribute to Cæfar?" If he had denied it, it would have been judged an offence against the state; and if he had affirmed it, it would probably have expofed him to the rageand refentment of the people. It was on pretence of freeing them from this tributary yoke, that Judas of Galilee, (or as Jofephus calls him,) Judas Gaulanites, excited an "Infurrection in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him (d)." Of this Jofephus gives a particular account*, and faith, that when the cenfus was first extended to Judea by Cyrenius, after Archelaus had been depofed by Auguftus, the Jews were greatly chagrined at it, but at the perfwafion of Joazar, the highprieft, they generally fubmitted. Yet, it feems, much against their wills; for when this Judas VOL. I.

excited

H

(a) Deut. xvii. 15.

(b) Luke vii. 34

(c) Matt.

xxii. 15, 17.

Antiq. lib. xviii, cap. 1. §. 1. edit. Haverc.

(d) A&s v. 37.

B. I. excited the people to rebellion, and to affert their liberty, they heard him, (faith the histo rian,) "with incredible pleasure," and made an infurrection on that account, under him as their leader.

Tertullian imagined, that the Publicans, among the Jews, were all Heathens. Which, not understanding Hebrew, he grounded on a fpurious text in the feptuagint t. This opinion is confuted by the inftances of Matthew and Zaccheus ; who both appear to be Jews, by their names, and their hiftory. The latter is exprefsly faid to be a fon of Abraham; and as for Matthew, we may be affured, that our Lord, who, at prefent, was fent to none but the loft fheep of the house of Ifrael, would not have made an apostle of a Gentile. However, the Jews, who accepted the office of Publicans, were on that account hated of their own nation equally with Heathens, with whom they are fometimes ranked (a); and according to the rabbies, it was a maxim, "A religious man, who becomes a Publican, is to be driven out of the fociety of religion ‡.

وو

*De pudicitiâ, §. ix. p. 561. C. edit. Rigalt.

+ Deut. xxiii. 18. in the Greek. The words are, xx εται τελεσφορο από θυγατέρων Ισραήλ, και εν εται τελισκος μEYC año viwv Iogan. They were probably at first a gloss in the margin, or inferted in the text of the feventy from fome other verfion; and are ftrangely mifunderflood by Tertullian, who fuppofes Topog to fignify in this place, a Publican or tax gatherer, which it most commonly does; but here it means a proftitute for hire, fuch as in the pagan myfteries raised contributions by their lewdnefs. See Grotius and Le Clerc in loc.

(a) Matt. xviii. 17.

See Lightfoot, Hora Heb. on Matt. xviii. 17.

CHAP.

CHA P. III.

ISRAELITES and PROSELYTES.

ODWIN diftinguishes the people of Ifrael into two forts, Hebrews and Profelytes. We may properly advance a step higher, and divide the whole world, after the commonwealth of Ifrael had been formed, into Jews and Gentiles.

The Jews, or Ifraelites, were thofe members of the hebrew republic who worshiped the one true God according to the mosaic ritual; all others they called goim, Gentiles, and ummim, the people, meaning, of the world (a). In the New Teftament they are stilled Exnves Greeks (b). When Greeks are opposed to barbarians, the term fignifies, the learned, as diftinguished from the illiterate, part of mankind; the Greeks in thofe days being looked H 2 upon

(a) Pfal. ii. 1.

Βαρβαρα,

(b) Rom. i. 16., and chap. ii. 9, 10. As by St. Paul, Rom. i. 14. and by heathen authors: αντικείται γαρ τω Ελληνι ο "The barbarian is opposed to the Greek." Thucyd. lib. 1. §. 3. Schol. 5. p. 3. edit. Hudf. Oxon. 1696. Sixa diargerras awaY TO TWY ανθρωπων πληθω. εἰς τε Έλληνας και βαρβαρος, " dividing the whole world into Greeks and barbarians." Strab. lib. z. P. 45. edit. Cafaub. Paris 1620.

66

upon as people of the moft erudition, or at leaft their language being efteemed the moft improved and polite. But when Greeks are oppofed to Jews, they include the whole heathen world, of which the Greeks were the moft confiderable. Some have imagined, that the triple distinction which St. Paul makes (a), "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond or free, there is neither male nor female;" refers to a form of thanksgiving, which the Jews are faid to have repeated in their daily prayers; wherein they gave thanks to God for these three things, that he had made them Jews, and not Gentiles:that he had made them free, and not bond-men, or flaves: - that he had made them men, and not women. Instead of the third article, the women thanked God, that he had made them as it pleafed him. If this form was indeed as ancient as the time of the apostle, it may naturally be fuppofed that he referred to it in this paffage, where he is fhow*ing that the peculiar prerogatives and privileges, which the Jews enjoyed under the Old Teftament, were by the gofpel equally extended to the Gentiles; and that all who believe in Chrift, without regard to their nation, worldly condition or fex, are admitted into his church, and made partakers of his falvation.

We now come to confider the diftinction of the members of the commonwealth of Ifrael, into Hebrews and Profelites.

ift, As to the Hebrews:

The learned

are divided concerning the derivation and meaning of this word, which fo often occurs both

in

(a) Gal. iii. 28,

in the Old and New Teftament.

We find it

firft applied to Abraham (a); and in a multitude of places to his pofterity, to distinguish them from all other people; particularly, from the Egyptians (b), and the Philistines (c).

The more common opinion concerning its meaning, maintained by the jewish rabbies, and efpoufed by Buxtorff the fon*, is,

ift, That it is Appellatio patronymica, a family name, from Eber, who was the great grandfon of Shem, and Abraham's great, great, great, great grandfather; that is, he was a lineal defcendant from Eber in the feventh generation. Two queries will naturally be ftarted upon this opinion:

ift, Why Abraham and his pofterity should take their name from fo remote a progenitor, as Eber? or if from a remote one, why not from Shem, the fift father and founder of the family after Noah?

2dly, Why this appellation fhould be given to Abraham and his family, rather than to any other of Eber's posterity?

In anfwer to the first query, the rabbies tell us, that Eber was a man of fingular piety, that the primitive religion and language were preferved by him and his family; and that Abraham and his pofterity are called Hebrews, because they spoke the fame language, and profeffed and practifed the fame religion that Eber did.

(a) Gen. xiv. 13.

(c) Sam. iv. 9.

See his differt. de linguæ hebraicæ confervatione, apud differtationes philolog. theolog. p. 147. Bafil. 1662. + See the genealogy of Abraham's family, Gen. xi. 10,

&c.