his sanctifying the use of wine on such occasions, at once separated and set him apart from that sect with which he was most likely to be confounded." 1 This is perfectly true, but so far from supporting the inference deduced from them, the facts are quite consistent with Jesus having in reality been an Essen, not necessarily during his whole life, but at least up to the time of the commencement of his public ministry. The fact is overlooked that, supposing the incident of the marriage feast not to be apocryphal,2 its occurrence may have been made the occasion by Jesus for breaking with the sect to which he had hitherto belonged. Those who say that he was originally an Essen, do not thereby affirm that he always continued to be such, and Dean Milman himself supplies a very good reason why Jesus should thus act. He says that the religion of the Essen was altogether unfitted for aggression, and he adds that, "however apparently it might coincide with Christianity in some material points, in fact its vital system was repugnant to that of the new faith." 3 It was, no doubt, this want of vitality or aggressive power which, in great measure, led Jesus, while retaining the material points in which his teaching agreed with that of the Essenes, to break away from them. This step was, moreover, necessitated by his wider and more active sympathies, to the operation of which, rather than to the nature of his doctrinal opinions, the success of the ministry of Jesus was due, although it may have been hastened by his perception that the austerities of John the Baptist were not acceptable to the people.*

If the early Christians could be identified with the Therapeutæ, their connection with the Essenes would be 1 "History of Christianity," vol. i. pp. 142, 161.

2 If apocryphal, it may have been introduced for the purpose of showing that Jesus dissociated himself from the Essenes as a sect. 3 loc. cit., p. 297. 4 See St Matthew xi. 18.

more than probable, since the two latter sects evidently had some special relation, although its nature is somewhat doubtful. Some authors completely identify them, whilst others separate them, and consider the Essenes perfectly independent of the Therapeutæ. Uhlhorn thinks the middle course the best, and he points out that, in order to properly determine the relation between them, it is necessary to keep in view the practical direction taken by the asceticism of the former sect. This writer supposes that the same spiritual tendency and wants which gave rise in Egypt to the Jewish-Alexandrian religious philosophy, and its practical realisation among the Therapeutæ, created in Palestine the sect of the Essenes, which however distinguished itself by their practical tendency. Uhlhorn adds, that whether the impulse came direct from Egypt, and they thus emanated from a common base, or that the principles of the sect became realised in two branches of asceticism (as Dähne thinks), cannot be determined with any certainty, although it seems very probable.1. It would seem to be more probable, however, that Palestine was the original home of the sect, in which case the Therapeute would, according to the above view, be Essenes modified in Egypt, instead of the reverse.2 Although the Egyptian deserts appear to have been the favourite abode of ascetics, it does not follow that asceticism originated there, whatever modification the genius of the locality may have induced in it. Fuller information

would probably show that the doctrines which the Essenes and Therapeutæ had in common were derived from an Eastern source, that to which Christianity was,

1 Herzog, op. cit., vol. iv., art. Essenes."

2 Jahn says, that the principal ground of difference was that the Essenes were Jews speaking Armenian, and the Therapeutæ, Greek Jews," Biblical Archaeology," Upham's trans., p. 411.

directly or indirectly, indebted for so many of its ideas. It was, doubtless, owing to a perception of a certain community of opinions having such an origin, which led Eusebius 1 to use language which seems to identify the Christians with the Therapeutæ.2

Whatever may have been the relation between Christianity and the Essenes, there can be no question that the former was indebted, directly or indirectly, for many of its doctrines to the ancient Persian religion. When, indeed, the faith founded or reformed by Zarathustra is considered, it is surprising how many points of contact with Christianity are revealed. The Holy Trinity is prefigured by the divine Triad of Zerwan, Ormuzd, and Mithra, the first person of which is the Eternal Spirit, the second the Divine Father, and the third the word. Mithra, moreover, like Christ the incarnate son of God, is not only the Creator and Sustainer (subordinate however to Ormuzd) of the world, but he is the Mediator, the Saviour of fallen man, the pattern for his guidance, and his friend in need and distress. But, further, Mithra does not merely intercede for man, he offers the atoning sacrifice, the bull, which in one aspect is typical of himself, as, in the teachings of Christ's disciples, the lamb is symbolical of the founder of Christianity. Even the mysteries of the Persian 1 Book II. ch. xvi.

5

4

2 On this point see Taylor's "Diegesis" (1832), p. 64.

3 This sect appears, during the Jewish wars, to have been driven to the East, where it coalesced with the Christian churches. Herzog, loc. cit.

4 As to the connection of this idea with the Oriental Doctrine of Incarnation, and also as to the Eastern origin of the Doctrine of Incarnation through the medium of a pure virgin, see Milman's History of Christianity," vol. i. pp. 72 seq., 97 seq.

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5 Probably the bull was considered as in some sense an Incarnation of Mithra, as Apis was an avatar of Osiris, and the Mendesian Goat probably of Khem. If the latter deity were a form of Osiris, the fact would explain Plutarch's statement that the Goat of Mendes was called Apis.-Wilkinson, op. cit., vol. v., p. 190.

cult were not unparalleled in the Christian Church. Probably the initiatory rites of the latter more nearly resembled those used by the Essenes than the stricter ones practised in the old religions. Among the Christians, however, they were no doubt connected with the holy feast in which was really represented the death and resurrection of their divine leader-such a feast as the Essenes would seem to have held daily, with doors closed to every one but the members of their own community.1 However this may be, after admission to the church, the convert was henceforth called the soldier of Christ, receiving his mark in baptism, and the spiritual weapons of warfare, with which he was to contend with the powers of darkness, the world, the flesh, and the devil. There is a remarkable analogy between the figures used by St Paul, in describing the warfare of the Christian soldier, and the symbols by which it was represented, and the language and rites used in the initiation of the neophyte into the mysteries of Mithra.2 In this similarity of ideas, we have the true explanation of the joy which the Christians exhibited at the downfall of the Mithraic cult, in the fourth century. As already mentioned, the destruction of the temple of Mithra on the Capitoline Mount was hailed as the removal of the last and most powerful impediment to the final triumph of Christianity. We may almost be tempted to see in the rivalry between these two religions, a struggle between the secret Mithraism of the mysteries and the open teaching of the same faith, modified by contact with Jewish, or what is still more

3

1 Josephus likens the dining-hall of the Essenes to "a certain holy temple," and he says that they met there, dressed in white garments, after purifying themselves ("Wars of the Jews," Bk. II. chap. viii. $ 5.) 2 See supra, p. 320.

3 Dean Milman points out that Jesus refers to the ferouërs of children being in heaven, Matt. xviii. 10.

likely, with Buddhist thought. This contact gave to Mithraism an expansion it had not hitherto had, and made it fitted to be the universal religion which it became at the hands of the founder of Christianity and his immediate disciples. In this view alone can it be said that "life and immortality were brought to light by the gospel."

The agreement in many other points between Mithraism and Christianity is curiously precise. This is so no less in moral ideas than in theological dogmas. The Avesta insists on the necessity of a threefold moral purity, that of thought, word, and deed, and the whole of the Zarathustran teaching, with the rites and ceremonial observances of the Mithraic mysteries, were directed towards the perfect attainment of that purity. An examination of Christian teaching shows that its aim was exactly the same. Absolute purity in thought, word, and deed, was declared to be necessary to the perfection of the Christian life. The whole nature-body, soul, and spirit was required to be dedicated to God, whose absolute holiness was the standard to which man was taught to aspire. The principle which governed this doctrine was the same in both Christianity and Mitbraism. The latter, founded on the philosophical ideas common to the religions of the East, treated the soul as the noblest part of man's being, and taught that the evils which it suffered, and the corruption which it exhibited were due to its connection with the body. This was the case also with Christianity, which, therefore, like other Eastern religions, supposed that the soul could regain its natural condition only by freeing itself from the influence of the material organism. The conflict which St Paul describes as going on within himself, is between "the body of this death," and "the inward man," which delights in the law of God. "With the