the people, and particularly his own disciples, against their corruptions in the strongest terms. The Sadducees were more ancient than the Pharisees; and derived their name either from Sedec, which signifies Justice, or from a certain Jewish teacher called Sadoc. They were distinguished by holding the Pentateuch, or the writings of Moses, in preference to all the other Scriptures; and because in those books there are but very obscure intimations of a future state, and the appearance of angels is always described as being under a human form, therefore they rejected the doctrine of the resurrection, and denied the existence of spirits. Whatever might be the character of the first Sadducees, it is certain that those in our SAVIOUR's time were Epicureans in principle, and licentious in practice. Though these two sects bore the most malignant hatred against each other, they united in persecuting JESUS CHRIST as their common enemy. His doctrine was totally opposite to the wretched dogmas of the Pharisees, which placed all righteousness in frivolous rites and ceremonies; and to the skeptical principles of the Sadducees, which by tending to destroy all hope or fear of a future state, encouraged immorality and atheism.

In opposition to the Pharisees, our LORD preached the necessity of repentance, and an inward conformity to the law of GOD, but not to the neglect of those outward observances which were of perpetual obligation. He asserted that to become heirs of the kingdom of GOD, men must become as "little children," that is, they must renounce all their preconceived notions of moral worth, and submit their wills and understandings to be guided by the Spirit of truth. It was his constant theme that the broken and the contrite heart alone was acceptable in the sight of GOD, and that those who trusted in their own righteousness, or in a fancied notion that they were able to perform such an exact course of obedience as the divine law required, were far," or at the most remote distance from the kingdom of GOD. He taught this great truth, that all men were sinners, and consequently that none could be justified or exalted to the divine favor, but those who were humbled or abased in their own estimation. Persons who felt their lost condition, and were heavy laden, or oppressed with a sense of their sins, he encouraged and invited to come to him with a promise of pardon, peace, and eternal life. It happened that many of those who were pricked to the heart by his discourses, and came to him as the only physician that could pour balm into their souls, were peculiarly odious to the proud and assuming Pharisees. Most of these were publicans, or tax-gatherers, and harlots. On these outcasts his preaching was abundantly successful; nor did he ever reproach any of them when they came to him -though on the precise and superstitious Pharisees he denounced the heaviest judgments. For this conduct he was greatly vilified, and it was taken as an occasion to prejudice the people against him, that "he did eat with publicans and sinners." Matt. ix. 11. But this was his glory. Herein did he exactly fulfil the most essential part of his great errand into our world, which was "to seek and to save those who were lost." Luke xix. 10. His own life, however, was unspotted; and though he never refused any invitation when it was made to him, yet in his deportment he was always correct, so that the prying and designing eyes of the Pharisees never could frame any other accusation against him, than "that he was a friend to publicans and sinners," (Luke vii. 34,) and that "he performed works of mercy on the Sabbath-day." John v. 6.

The Pharisees were rigid enough in observing ceremonies, in keeping at a distance from their fellow-sinners, whom they did not think worthy of exhortation, and in paying an outward respect to the Sabbath. But charity made no part of their creed, and therefore no liberality could be expected in their practice. Our LORD taught that works of righteousness are more than burnt-sacrifices, and that the exercise of benevolence is infinitely more acceptable in the sight of GOD, than ceremonies by which no man is profited. This rendered him and his doctrine odious to these bigoted and proud sectaries. But there was another particular in his preaching which gave them great offence, and increased their resentment against him.

The ancient prophets in their descriptions of the MESSIAH had expressly declared, that he" should gather all nations;" (Isaiah lxvi. 18;) that "he should have the heathen for his inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession;" (Psalm ii. 8;) that "the Gentiles should come to his light, and kings to the brightness of his rising;"

BETHESDA, (the house of mercy,a pool with a public bath, north of the temple at Jerusalem, and celebrated for miraculous healing at the time of our SAVIOUR. John v. 2. Our engraving rep resents the remains of the pool of Bethesda.

BIBLE BIOGRAPHY.

demned as the extreme point of madness. Nor were the miracles which he wrought such as men of worldly wisdom would have recommended as the best calculated to answer the purposes of ambition. He restored sight to the blind, he healed numerous diseases, expelled demons from the possessed, fed many thousands at once by a miraculous multiplication of a few loaves and fishes, stilled at a word the most violent tempest, and raised the dead to life, even after they had been deposited in the tomb; yet in all these miracles he sought no glory. They were not wrought for the benefit of the great and affluent men of the world, but mostly for the poor and obscure. He usually commanded those whom he healed to be silent in his praise; and when he had performed a variety of these beneficent actions, it was his custom to retire privately from the applauding multitude to some secret place, where he might indulge himself in meditation and prayer. What others eagerly court as the highest pitch of human happiness, popular esteem, he shunned with the most sedulous care and solicitude. This was evident in his conduct when the people who had been miraculously fed by his bounty were determined to make him a king by force, and to take up arms in his favor as the MESSIAH. JESUS no sooner perceived their design than he instantly sent off his disciples by sea, that they might not be led away by the same spirit; and when they were gone, he dismissed the multitudes with authority, after which he "went up into the mountain to pray." One who had a wish to establish a kingdom in this world would have gladly seized so favorable an opportunity, and there can be little doubt, from what we read of the refractory temper of the Jewish nation, that they would readily have flocked to his standard, if he had chosen to avow himself a temporal prince. But his whole course of life, all that he taught, and all that he performed, manifested a superiority to the world, and an opposition to those things in which misguided men place their happiness. His aim was to raise the minds of his

followers above this sinful and perishable state, to inspire them with a noble contempt of corruptible riches, and an earnest desire after those heavenly graces which will endure for ever.

The manner in which our blessed SAVIOUR inculcated his doctrine was by parables; and nothing can be more beautiful or instructive, more pregnant with important truths, or more applicable to the common ideas and concerns of mankind, than these figurative representations. This method of instruction is of very great antiquity, and there can be no doubt of its being admirably adapted to excite attention, and to produce conviction. It tends to engage attention by its pleasantness, and to produce conviction by bringing truth home to the hearer in a familiar description of some natural circumstance, the moral inference of which is discerned instantly without the pains of labored induction. It is a method not only well adapted to please the mind, by conveying instruction clearly and easily, but also of administering correction without giving offence. Many of our LORD's parables were designed to reprove the blindness and obstinacy of the Jewish nation, and the hypocrisy and superstition of the Pharisees. A plain and direct discourse might only have irritated them the more against him, and therefore he couched their guilt and his reproof under some parabolical representation. This was the case with respect to the parable of the fig-tree, in which the unfruitful and ungrateful state of the Jews was most forcibly described, as well as the judgment which would fall upon them. In the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, how strikingly does our LORD vindicate the calling of the Gentiles, and the unreasonableness of the Jews in objecting to so gracious a dispensation! That of the marriage supper is a plain representation of the dereliction of the Jews through their own impenitence and unbelief, and the display of God's love to the Gentiles.

Other parables have a more general tendency, and may be applied to persons of every age and country; as that of the Pharisee and Publican, the Wheat and the Tares, the

THE TEN VIRGINS.

Ten Virgins, the Prodigal Son, and (if that be a parable) the awful story of Dives and Lazarus.

It would not only be pleasing but profitable to consider these beautiful narratives in order, and to inquire into the doctrines which they convey, as well as the practical lessons which may be learned from them. But our limits forbid us this pleasure, nor indeed can we enter so minutely into the detail of our blessed REDEEMER's life as the subject requires. For though his public course did not much exceed three years, yet that period was filled with circumstances of the greatest magnitude, so as to render the history of them infinitely more momentous than that of the world, and of all the em