i Y1 302 The NEW and COMPLETE T F F E cf our BLESSED. LORD an office which he difcharged fo greatly to the fatisfaftion of the public, that they ereaed flatues to him. Thefe officers be- ing fent into the provinces to gather the tributes, generally employed the natives under them, as perlons belt (killed in the affairs and cuftoms of their own country. On two accounts, thisoffice was odious to theJews. Firfi, becaufe the perlons who ma- naged it were gerierally covetous, and great exafors ; for having themfelves farmed the euftoms of the Romans, they ufed every method of oppreffion, in order to pay their rents to the Romans, and procure an ad- vantage to themfelves. Of this Zaccheus, the chief of thefe farmers, was very fenfible after his converfion, when he offered to make a fourfold reffitution to all from whom he had taken any thing by fraud and extortion. And upon this account they became infamous, even amongft the Gen- tiles themfelves, who commonly mention them as public robbers, and though mem- bers of thecommunity, were more voracious anddeffiruétive in a city than wild beafts in a foreft. The other particular which ren- dered them fo hateful to the Jews, was the tribute they demanded, which they confi- dered not only as a burden, but alto as an affront to their nation; for they looked upon themfelves as a free people, having received that privilege immediately from God himfelf; and therefore they confider- ed this tribute as a daily and !landing inftance off their flavery, which they de- tefted above every thing; and it was this that betrayed them into fo many rebellions againft the Romans. We may add, that thefe publicans were obliged by their trade to have frequent dealings and converfation with the Gentiles, which the Jews confider- ed as an abomination ; and though they were themfelves Jews, they rigoroufly ex- aêted the taxes of their brethren, and thereby feemed to confpire with the Ro- mans to entail perpetual flavery on their ewn countrymen. The publicans, by there pra&ices, became univerfally abhorred by the Jewifh nation, 2 fo that it was reckoned unlawful to aflili them in the common offices of humanity; nay, they aflèrtcd it was no crime to cheat and over-reach a publican, though they broke the folemnityofan oath: they might not eat or drink, converfe or travel with them ; they were confidered as common thievesand robbers, and the money received . of them was not, permitted to be depoíted with others, confidering it ás gained by rapine and violence; they were not ad- mitted to give teflimony in any court of juftice ; they were looked upon in fo infa- mous a light, that they were not only ba- nifhed from all communion in matters of di-vine worfhip, but fhunned in all affairs of civil fociety and commerce, as the pelts of their country, as perlons whole converfation was infeftious, and not at all better than the Heathens themfelves. And hence they had a common proverb amongft them, " Take not a wife opt of that family in which there is a publican, for they are all publicans :" that is, they are all thieves, robbers, and wicked finners. And to this proverbial cuflom our bleffed Sa- viour alludes, when fpeaking of a hardened firmer, on whom neither private reproofs, nor the public cenfures and admonitions of the church, can prevail, 4.et-him- be to thee as an heathers man and a fiublican; or, in other words, an incorrigible (inner. St. Matthew the evangelift was of this profeffìon, and he feems to have been more particularly employed in collefting the cufloms on commodities that came by fea into Galilee, and the tribute which.paffen- gers were to pay who went by water: and ffir this purpofe the office or cuflom-houfe flood by the fea-fide, that the officers might be always at hand ; and here it was, as St. Mark intimates, that Matthew fat at the receipt of cuflom, where the tribute- money was colleted. After having cured a,perfon longafllifl.ed with the palfy, our bleffed Lord retired out of Capernaum, to walk by the fea-fide, where he taught the people that flocked after him. Here-he lawMatthew fining in bis
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