the Jewish doctors who profess the study of the cabbala.

In the opinion of these men, there is not a word, letter, or accent in the law, without some mystery in it. The Jews are divided into two general sects; the Karaites, who refuse to receive either tradition or the talmud, or any thing 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 mystical senses, which they suppose God to have couched therein, make use of the cabbala, and the mystical methods above mentioned.