and tyrannical. What could be expected from those who honoured such
deities? Some of the wiser heathens, such as Plato, [9:1] condemned
their mythology as immoral, for the conduct of one or other of the gods
might have been quoted in vindication of every species of transgression;
and had the Gentiles but followed the example of their own heavenly
hierarchy, they might have felt themselves warranted in pursuing a
course either of the most diabolical oppression, or of the most
abominable profligacy. [9:2]

At the time of the birth of our Lord even the Jews had sunk into a state
of the grossest degeneracy. They were now divided into sects, two of
which, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, are frequently mentioned in the
New Testament. The Pharisees were the leading denomination, being by far
the most numerous and powerful. By adding to the written law a mass of
absurd or frivolous traditions, which, as they foolishly alleged, were
handed down from Moses, they completely subverted the authority of the
sacred record, and changed the religion of the patriarchs and prophets
into a wearisome parade of superstitious observances. The Sadducees were
comparatively few, but as a large proportion of them were persons of
rank and wealth, they possessed a much greater amount of influence than
their mere numbers would have enabled them to command. It has been said
that they admitted the divine authority only of the Pentateuch, [10:1]
and though it may be doubted whether they openly ventured to deny the
claims of all the other books of the Old Testament, it is certain that
they discarded the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, [10:2] and
that they were disposed to self-indulgence and to scepticism. There was
another still smaller Jewish sect, that of the Essenes, of which there
is no direct mention in the New Testament. The members of this community
resided chiefly in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea, and as our Lord
seldom visited that quarter of the country, it would appear that, during