CABBALISTS, or KABBALISTS, the Jewish doctors who profess the study of the cabbala. In the opinion of these men, there is not a word, letter, nor accent in the law, without some mystery in it. The Jews are divided into two general sects; the Karaïtes, who refuse to receive either tradition or the Talmud, or anything but the pure texts of Scripture; and the Rabbinites, or Talmudists, who besides this receive the traditions of the ancients, and follow the Talmud. The latter are again divided into two other sects; pure rabbinites, who explain the Scripture in its natural sense, by grammar, history, and tradition; and cabbalists, who, to discover hidden and mystical senses, which they suppose to have been couched therein by God, make use of the cabbala and the mystical methods above mentioned.
CABBALISTS, or KABBALISTS
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