bors." Unable to reach this elevation of virtue, and unwilling to desert his master, Sadoc adopted his principles, but inferred from them, that there was no future state. Sadoc, it is said, lived about 260 years before our Lord. That the Sadducees disbelieved the existence of angels and of spirits, appears from the account which is given of them in the New Testament. They likewise denied all divine decrees; and asserted, that "man was absolutely master of his own actions, with a full freedom to do either good or evil, as he thought proper; that God did not influence him in doing either; and that his prosperity and adversity, being placed within his own power, are respectively the effect of his own wisdom or folly. "They certainly received the five books of Moses; but how they explained the passages, in which is related the apparition of angels, is not known. At this time there are some, who are so very ingenious, that they can explain every expression and sentence of the New Testament, in perfect consistency with the doctrine, that there is no punishment for the wicked after this life; and one of these ingenious persons has assured me, that after reading the gospels and epistles with great frequency and attention, he has not been able to find in them the doctrine of a future judgment. I can easily conceive therefore, that there should have been some among the Jews, who received the books of Moses, and yet denied the existence of an very gels; difficult as it may be to fix upon any interpretation, with which I can believe that any serious inquirers could be satisfied. We are less surprised at their disbelief of the immortality of the soul. It was but intimated in their scriptures. But dark as may appear to us to have been these intimations, all the rest of the Jews, on the ground of their scriptures, received the doctrine. The light of a candle, with which we see clearly in the night, as far as its rays extend, is lost in that brightness which the sun extends over the earth; and we, who live under the gospel, perhaps can hardly judge of the importance of the light of the Old Testament to the Jews, nor of the degree of clearness with which they were enabled by it to see objects, which to us are discovered perfectly by the gospel. It is said, that they rejected the prophets, but there is great reason to doubt it. They assisted in the temple, and at all religious assemblies, where the books of the prophets were read more than any others. They also expected the Messiah, as well as the rest of the Jews, or they would not have gone out to receive the baptism of John; and must therefore, we should think, have received the books which foretold his coming. Their great distinction from the Pharisees in this respect was, that they utterly rejected all traditions; and maintained that there was no law, but that which was written. Nor is it credible that they should have been advanced to the highest offices in the state, and even to the high-priesthood, cees were exact observers of the if they had rejected the greatest part of the Jewish scriptures. The Sadducees were few in number, compared with the Pharisees; but the admission of men to the highest office in the church, who denied the doctrines of the providence of God, and of the immortality of the soul, shows the general and deep corruption of the nation. Caiaphas, the high-priest, by whom our Lord was condemned, was of this sect. We do not find in the gospels, that one Sadducee believed in Christ. The people, very generally, received the tenets, and observ. ed the traditions of the Pharisees; but they were rather an appendage, than a part of the sect; and are always called very plainly, the people, or the multitude. The title of pharisee seems to have been almost exclusively appropriated to men of leisure and of fortune. Sometimes we find them united with the Sadducees in the same design against Christ. At other times they attacked him separately, and endeavoured to ensnare him with questions, which grew out of their peculiar and distinguishing sentiments. But there was a remarkable difference in the conduct of our Lord towards these two great parties. Of the Sadducees he said only, that they erred, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God; but the Pharisees he treated with the utmost severity, heaping upon them the most dreadful denunciations for their hypocrisy. In accounting for this different treatment of our Saviour, it is remarked, 1, that the Saddu law; whereas the Pharisees adulterated it by their traditions, adding to it the most impious sentiments, which they concealed under a specious pretence of religion. 2. That there is this difference between error and vice; the first is only in the understanding, and often involuntary; whereas the last is in the will, and proceeds from a corrupt state of the heart. 3. Of all vices, none are of a more pernicious consequence, nor with more difficulty eradicated, than were those of the pharisees, spiritual pride, and hypocrisy. What a lesson, what a warning does this peculiarity in the conduct of our Lord, preach to all who call themselves his disciples! Let him who would denounce his brother, because he sees in his the mote of error, first ascertain, whether the beam of spiritual pride be not in his own; and as he would escape the woes which are pronounced upon hypocrites, remember always, that, as God cannot be deceived, so he will not be mocked. eye avail ourselves of the opportunity he has given, to correct a very common mistake; especial ly so, if the correction shall exhibit the character of our Saviour in a more amiable light, and remove from his example all pretext for the too common practice of "denunciation." In the last paragraph of the preceding article it is said of our Lord "He treated the Pharisees with the utmost severity, heaping up on them the most dreadful de nunciations for their hypocrisy." However perfectly this observation may express the commonly received opinion, it is seriously doubted whether it gives a correct view of our Saviour's feelings, or of his conduct towards the hypocritical pharisees. Dr. Campbell has a most interesting note on Luke vi. 24, 25, 26, in which he explains the phrase, translated "woe unto you," &c. The note is too long to be now inserted; we shall however quote a few sentences. The Dr. says, "Our Lord is not here acting in the character of a judge, pronouncing sentence on the guilty, or dooming them to punishment." "Woe is unto you, not woe be unto you," he contends is the meaning of the phrase. He remarks on the text, "Woe to the women with child and to them that give suck in those days," and then says, "If we recur to the Old Testament, we have the clearest proofs that the word in Hebrew," answering to woe, "is commonly employed to express not wrath and execration, but the deepest concern and lamentation.” Of our Lord, the Doctor says, "he came not to curse but to bless us, by turning away every one from his iniquities. The words which proceeded from his mouth were in every sense justly denominated full of grace and truth. His example was perfectly conformable to his instructions; and I will venture to affirm, that the more narrowly we examine his discourses, the more we shall be convinced that nothing he ever uttered against any living being, if candidly interpreted, will be found to have the least affinity to an imprecation." We may add; it is one thing affectionately and solemnly to warn, and quite another thing to imprecate, anathematize, or denounce. For the first of these, ministers have the example of Christ, which they may safely follow; for the other it is believed they have not his example, and if they had, it would be unsafe to imitate it, unless like him they were divinely commissioned and inspired. The language of Christ, as explained by Dr. Campbell, denotes "pity and grief" in view of awful guilt and danger, "not anger and resentment." This perfect. ly harmonizes with the heavenly tenderness for which our Saviour was so remarkable; in the exercise of which he laid down his life for sinners, and prayed for those who insulted him in his distress, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." If any thing be important, it is important that ministers of the gospel should display the compassionate temper of the Saviour of the world, and give up all apprehension that they may be justified by his example, in "heap, ing the most dreadful, denuncia tions" on those who oppose them. Instead of this carnal and antichristian warfare, let them in meekness instruct, and in compassion warn, those who may oppose themselves, if God peradventure shall give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth. In this way they may "overcome evil with good." MODERN MONUMENTS AT JERUSALEM. THE following accounts are abridged from Chateaubriand's "Travels in Greece, Palestine, Egypt, and Barbary, during the years 1806 and 1807." We see no occasion to question the learning or the veracity of this writer. In some instances, how ever, the discerning protestant will find occasion to make some allowance for the credulity of an author attached to the catholic faith. In ancient times, Mount Calvary was without the city; it was the place where criminals, sentenced to suffer death, were executed; and that all the people might attend on these occasions, there was a large vacant space between the eminence and the wall of the city. The rest of the hill was surrounded with gardens, one of which belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, who was, in secret, a disciple of Jesus Christ; here he had constructed a sepulchre for himself, and in this the body of our Lord was deposited. The church of the Holy Sepulchre is very irregular, owing to the nature and situation of the places which it was designed to comprehend. It is nearly in the form of a cross, being 120 paces in length, exclusive of the descent to the discovery of the Holy Cross, and seventy in breadth. It has three domes, of which that covering the Holy Sepulchre, serves for the nave of the church. This church had formerly three entrances, but now there is but one door, the keys of which are cautiously kept by the Turks, lest the pilgrims should gain admittance without paying the nine sequens, demanded for this indulgence. This door is always shut; and there is only a small window crossed with an iron bar, through which the people without, hand provisions to those within, who are of eight different nations. The first is that of the Latins or Romans, which is represented by the Franciscan friars. They are the keepers of the Holy Sepulchre, the place on Mount Calvary, where our Lord was nailed to the cross, the spot where the sacred cross was discovered, the stone of unction, and the chapel where our Lord appeared to the blessed virgin after his resurrection. The second is that of the Greeks, who have the chair of the church where they officiate. The third is the nation of the Abyssinians. The fourth is that of the Copts, who are Egyptian christians. The fifth is the Armenian. The sixth is that of the Nestorians, or Jocobites, who are natives of Chaldea and of Syria. The seventh is the nation of the Georgians, who inhabit the coun try between the Euxine and the Caspian sea. The eighth is that of the Maronites, who inhabit Mount Lebanon. On entering the church, you come to the stone of unction, on which the body of our Lord was anointed with myrrh and aloes, before it was laid in the sepulchre. The holy sepulchre is thirty paces from this stone: it resembles a small closet, hewn out of the solid rock. The entrance, which faces the east, is only four feet high, and two feet and a quarter broad, so that you are obliged to stoop very much to go in. The interior of the sepulchre is nearly square. There is a solid block of the same stone, which was left in excavating the other part. On this table the body of our Lord was laid, with his head towards the west. Forty four lamps are constantly burning in this sacred place. At the entrance of the sepulchre, there is a stone about a foot and a half square, and a foot thick, which is of the same rock, and served to support the large stone which closed the access to the sepulchre. Upon this stone was seated the angel when he spoke to the two Maries; and as well on account of this mystery as to prevent the sepulchre from being entered, the first christians erected before it a little chapel, which is called the Angel's Chapel. Twelve paces from the holy sepulchre, turning towards the north, you come to a large block of marble, about four feet in diameter, placed there to mark the spot where our Lord appeared to Mary Magdalen in the form of a gardener. Farther on is the chapel of the apparition, where, as tradition asserts, our Lord first appeared to the Virgin Mary, af ter his resurrection. Continuing your progress round the church, you find a small vaulted chapel, otherwise denominated the prison of our Lord, because he was here confined, while the hole was made for erecting the cross. Very near this is another chapel, standing on the very spot where our Lord was stripped by the soldiers before he was nailed to the cross, and where they cast lots for his apparel, and divided it among them. Leaving this chapel, you find on the left a great staircase, which pierces the wall of the church, and descends into a kind of cellar dug out of the rock. Having gone down thirty steps, you come to a chapel on the left hand, which is commonly called the Chapel of St. Helena, because she prayed there while she caused search to be made for the sacred cross. You descend eleven more steps to the place where it was discovered, together with the nails, the crown of thorns, and the head of the spear, after lying buried in this place upwards of 300 years. Near the top of this staircase, turning towards Mount Calvary is a chapel, under the altar of which is a pillar of gray marble spotted with black. It is called the pillar of Impropere, because our Lord was there forced to sit down in order to be crowned with thorns. (To be continued.) |