attention to outward ceremonies than to the duties of moral virtue.

The Sadducees denied the resurrection of the dead, and the immortality
of the soul; therefore, confining all their hopes to this present world,
they devoted themselves to its pleasures, and only punished the crimes
which disturbed the public tranquillity.

The Nazarites, of whom we read in the Old and New Testament, were
persons either devoted to God by their parents, or who devoted
themselves for life, or for a limited time. The only three instances of
Nazarites devoted to God by their parents before their birth, are
Sampson, Samuel, and John the Baptist.

The Herodians were partizans of Herod the Great.

The Galileans, so called from their leader Judas of Galilee, were a very
turbulent and seditious sect, and by degrees united to themselves almost
all the other sects.

The Publicans were not of any sect, civil or religious, but merely
tax-gatherers, and collectors of customs due to the Romans. The
Publicans were generally Jews, and by their employment were rendered
odious to their brethren.

Proselytes were those persons, who being Gentiles by birth, came over to
the Jewish religion, but retained that name, till they were admitted
into the congregation of the Lord, as adopted children.

The land of Canaan, so named from Canaan the son of Ham, whose
posterity possessed this land, as well as Egypt or Mizraim, lies in the
western part of Asia. Its boundaries were to the north, Coelo Syria;
to the west, the Mediterranean Sea; to the east, Arabia Deserta; and to
the south and south west, Arabia Petrea and Egypt. Its extent was about
200 miles from north to south, and its breadth 100.--It was divided into
two parts, by the river Jordan; the capital was Jerusalem, (supposed to
have been the Salem of Melchisedek.) The whole country was also called
Palestine from the Philistines, who inhabiting the western coast, were
first known to the Romans, and being by them corruptly called
Palestines, gave that name to the country; but it was more commonly
called Judea, as the land of the Jews. Since our Saviour's advent it has
been called the Holy land, but in modern writers, all distinction is
frequently lost in the name of Syria, which is given to the whole
country east of the Mediterranean, between the sea and the desert.

* * * * *

The government of the Jews partook of the patriarchal form, as much as
was consis