under the general name of Pharisees, in those superstitious traditions wherein they both agreed. 21 Q. Now we are speaking of the several sects of the Jews, let us know also what were the Herodians? A. This sect arose not till the time of Herod the great, king of Judea and it is plain they had peculiar evil tenets as well as the other sects, since our Saviour warned his disciples against the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. Indeed they opposed the Pharisees, and very justly, in one point; for the Pharisees scarce thought it lawful to pay taxes directly to heathens, though they acquired the sovereign power, and particularly to Cæsar, in that day: but their special error, which Christ calls their leaven, seems to be this; that it was lawful, when constrained by superiors, to comply with idolatry, and with a false religion, Herod seems to have framed this sect on purpose to justify himself in this practice; who being an Idumean by nation, was indeed half a Jew and half a heathen; and affected a conformity to the Gentiles in some things, to please the Romans, who made him king, while at the same time he professed Judaism. : Note. The Sadducees generally came into this complaisant opinion and the same persons which are called Herodians in Mark viii. 15, are called Sadducees in Matt. xvi. 6. But this sect died in a little time, for we hear no more of them after the days of our Saviour. 22 Q. Having done with the several sects of the Jews, let us return now and inquire who succeeded Hyrcanus at his death? A. Aristobulus, his eldest son, took the office of the high priest, and governor of the country; and he was the first, since the captivity of Babylon, who put a diadem upon his head, and assumed the title of king. 23 Q. What is recorded of him? A. He put his own mother to death, because she made some pretence to the government; he sent all his brothers, save one, to prison; then he attacked and subdued the Itureans, who lived on the north-east of the land of Galilee, and forced them to be circumcised and receive the Jewish religion. At last he was persuaded to put his favourite brother to death, upon an unjust suspicion; and then he died himself, vomiting blood, and in great horror, for his crimes. 24 Q. Who succeeded him? A. His next brother, Alexander, surnamed Jannæus, took the kingdom, who also put another of the brothers to death, because of some attempt to supplant him. 25 Q. What success had Alexander in his govern ment ? A. He having settled his affairs at home, attacked some of his neighbours, and dealt very deceitfully with Ptolemy Lathyrus, the heir to the crown of Egypt, who came to their assistance: whereupon there ensued a bloody battle between them, near the river Jordan in Galilee, wherein Alexander's army was utterly defeated, and he lost thirty thousand men. Note. There is a very cruel and barbarous action attributed to Lathyrus on this occasion, namely, that coming with his army, in the evening after the victory, to take up his quarters in the adjoining villages, and finding them full of women and children, he caused them to be all slaughtered, and their bodies to be cut in pieces, and put into cauldrons over the fire to be boiled, as if it were for supper; that so he might leave an opinion in that country, that his men fed upon human flesh, and thereby might create the greater dread and terror of his army through all those parts. After this, Lathyrus ranged at liberty all over the country, ravaging, plundering and destroying it in a very lamentable manner: for Alexander, after this battle, was in no condition to resist him. 26 Q. Did Alexander ever recover this defeat? A. Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, who, with her youngest son, withheld the kingdom from Lathyrus her eldest, did assist and support Alexander Jannæus, lest, if Lathyrus should have become master of Judea, he might also have recovered Egypt out of her hands; whereupon Alexander raised his head again, besieged other places, and took Gadara and Amathus toward Galilee, together with much treasure; but he was surprised by Theodorus, prince of Philadelphia, who had laid up that treasure. there, and was overthrown with the slaughter of ten thousand men. Yet, being a man of courage and dili gence, again he recruited his army, took the city of Gaza from the Philistines, and gave thorough license to his soldiers there to kill, plunder, and destroy as they pleased. He subdued their principal cities, and made them part of his dominions; whereupon several of the Philistinęs turned Jews: and indeed it was now grown a custom among the Asmonean princes, to impose their religion upon all their conquests, leaving them no other choice but to become proselytes, or to be banished. 27 Q. How did his own people, the Jews, carry it fowards him? A. The Pharisees continued their wrath against him, for rigorously maintaining the decrees of his father, who abolished their constitutions; and by their powerful influence, they stirred up the people against him so far, that while he was executing the high priest's office at the altar, they pelted him with citrons, and called him reproachful names. 28 Q. In what manner did Alexander resent it? A. He slew six thousand of them immediately, and he chose his own guards out of the heathen nations, never daring afterwards to trust himself with the Jews. At last there broke out a civil war between him and his people, which lasted six years, brought great calamity on both, and occasioned the death of above fifty thousand people. 29 Q. How was this war carried on ? : A. Though Alexander gained many victories over them, yet being wearied out, he desired peace, and offered to grant them whatsoever they could reasonably desire but upon his inquiry what terms would please them, they answered with one voice, that he should cut his own throat; so dreadful was their enmity against him; and upon this answer, the war was still pursued with fury on both sides. 30 Q. How was this war ended at last? A. Alexander Jannæus, the king, having lost one great battle, resumed his courage, and afterward gained another, which concluded the war; for having cut off the greatest part of his enemies, he drove the rest into the city of Bethome, and besieged them there: and having taken the place, he carried eight hundred of them to Jerusalem, and there caused them to be all crucified in one day; and their wives and children to be slain before their faces, while they hung dying on their crosses. In the mean time he treated his wives and concubines with this bloody spectacle at a feast. This terrified the Jews indeed so effectually, that they made no more insurrections against him; though he got a most infamous name by it, in that and the following ages. A dreadful in stance of the barbarity of a high priest with civil power! 31 Q. Did this cruel tyrant come to a natural death? A. The providence of God, which does not always punish sinners in this life, permitted him to die in the camp of a quartan ague, which had hung long upon him, while he was besieging a castle of the Gerasenes beyond Jordan. And though he left two sons behind him, yet he bequeathed the government to Alexandra his wife, during her life; and to be disposed of at her death to which of her sons she pleased. 32 Q. How did this woman reconcile herself to the Jews, so as to permit her to reign over them? A. By her husband's advice upon his death-bed, she concealed his death till the castle was taken; then leading back the army to Jerusalem in triumph, made her court to the Pharisees, resigned up his dead corpse to their pleasure, to be abused or buried, as they should think fit, and promised to follow their advice in all the affairs of government: for he had assured her, that they were the best of friends and the worst of enemies; and that if she would but be ruled by them, they would make her rule over others. 33 Q. What success had this conduct of Alexandra? A. All the success she desired: the people were influenced by the Pharisees to give the corpse of her husband an honourable funeral, she herself was settled in the government of the nation, and she made her eldest son Hyrcanus high priest. 34 Q. How did she administer the government under the direction of the Pharisees ? A. She immediately revoked the decree of John Hyrcanus, whereby he had abolished their traditional constitutions; by which means the Pharisees, and their traditions, grew into greater esteem and power than ever; and she permitted them to put to death many of those who advised the late king Alexander to deal so cruelly with the people; and some others of their own adversaries also were executed on this pretence, by her leave; for she dreaded a new civil war, and of two evils she thought to choose the least. 35 Q. To whom did she leave the kingdom at her death? A. To Hyrcanus her eldest son, who had been entirely bred up under the influence and tutorage of the Pharisees. 36 Q. Did this Hyrcanus the second continue to reign in peace? A. Aristobulus, the younger son, finding that the army and the people were weary of the oppressive administration of the Pharisees, raised an army against his brother Hyrcanus, put him to flight, forced him to resign the kingdom and the high priesthood, and to live a private life; which he consented to, after he had been king three months; for he naturally loved his own ease and quiet more than any thing else. 37 Q. Was Aristobulus disturbed in his government? A. There was one Antipater, an Idumean, (whose father was advanced to the government of Idumea by the late king Alexander) and he himself being bred up with Hyrcanus, in the court of Alexandra, prevailed upon Hyrcanus to accept of the assistance of Aretas, the Arabian king, to restore him to the kingdom; for he assured him that his life was in so great danger from his brother Aristobulus, that he could save it no other way but by dethroning him. 38 Q. What success had Hyrcanus in following this counsel of Antipater? A. By the help of Aretas he gained an absolute vic tory over Aristobulus, drove him into the mountain of the temple, and there besieged him; where the priests |