to be sweaty is a good thing, as they do also to be clothed in white garments. They also have stewards appointed to take care of their common affairs, who, every one of them, have no separate business for any, but what is for the use of them all. "They have no one certain city, but many of them dwell in every city; and if any of their sect come from other places, what they have lies open for them, just as if it were their own, and they go into such as they never knew before, as if they had been ever so long acquainted with them. For which reason they carry nothing at all with them when they travel into remote parts, though still they take their weapons with them, for fear of thieves. Accordingly there is in every city where they live, one appointed particularly to take care of strangers, and to provide garments and other necessaries for them. But the habit and management of their bodies is such as children use who are in the fear of their masters. Nor do they allow of the change of garments or of shoes, till they first be entirely torn to pieces, or worn out by time. Nor do they either buy or sell anything to one another, but every one of them gives what he hath to him that wanteth it, and receives from him again in lieu of it what may be convenient for himself; and although there be no requital made, they are fully allowed to take what they want of whomsoever they please. "And as for their piety toward God, it is very extraordinary; for, before sun-rising, they speak not a word about profane matters, but put up certain prayers which they have received from their forefathers, as if they made a supplication for its rising. After this, every one of them is sent away by their curators to exercise some of those arts wherein they are skilled, in which they labor with great diligence till the fifth hour; after which they assemble themselves together again into one place, and when they have clothed themselves in white veils, they bathe their bodies in cold water. And after this purification is over, they every one meet together in an apartment of their own, into which it is not permitted to any of another sect to enter; while they go, after a pure manner, into the dining-room, as into a certain holy temple, and quietly set themselves down; upon which the baker lays them loaves in order; the cook also brings a single plate of one sort of food, and sets it before every one of them; but a priest says grace before meat, and it is unlawful for any one to taste of the food before grace be said. The same priest, when he hath dined, says grace again after meat, and when they begin and when they end, they praise God, as he that bestows their food upon them; after which they lay aside their [white] garments, and betake themselves to their labors again till the evening; then they return home to supper, after the same manner, and if there be any strangers there, they sit down with them. Nor is there ever any clamor or disturbance to pollute their house, but they give every one leave to speak in their turn; which silence thus kept in their house appears to foreigners like some tremendous mystery; the cause of which is that perpetual sobriety they exercise, and the same settled measure of meat and drink that is allotted them, and that such as is abundantly sufficient for them. "And truly, as for other things, they do nothing but according to the injunctions of their curators; only these two things are done among them at every one's own free will, which are, to assist those that want it, and to show mercy; for they are permitted of their own accord to afford succor to such as deserve it, when they stand in need of it, and to bestow food on those that are in distress; but they cannot give anything to their kindred without the curators. They dispense their anger after a just manner, and restrain their passion. They are eminent for fidelity, and are the ministers of peace; whatsoever they say also is firmer than an oath; but swearing is avoided by them, and they esteem it worse than perjury;* for they say that he who * This practice of the Essenes, in refusing to swear, and esteeming swearing on ordinary occasions worse than perjury, is delivered here in general words, as are the parallel injunctions of our Saviour, Matt. v. 35; xxiii. 16; and of St. James, v. 12; but all admit of particular exceptions for solemn causes, and on great and necessary occasions. Thus these very Essenes, who here do so zealously avoid swearing, are related, in the very next section, to admit none till they take tremendous oaths to perform their several duties to Gd and to their neighbor, without supposing they thereby break cannot be believed without [swearing by] God is already condemned. They also take great pains in studying the writings of the ancients, and choose out of them what is most for the advantage of their soul and body, and they inquire after such roots and medicinal stones as may cure their distempers. 66 But now, if any one hath a mind to come over to their sect, he is not immediately admitted, but he is prescribed the same method of living which they use for a year, while he continues excluded, and they give him also a small hatchet and the forementioned girdle, and the white garment. And when he hath given evidence during that time that he can observe their continence, he approaches nearer to their way of living, and is made a partaker of the waters of purification; yet is he not even now admitted to live with them; for after this demonstration of his fortitude, his temper is tried two more years, and if he appear to be worthy, they then admit him into their society. And before he is allowed to touch their common food, he is obliged to take tremendous oaths, that in the first place he will exercise piety toward God, and then that he will this rule not to swear at all. The case is the same in Christianity, as we learn from the Apostolical Constitutions, which, although they agree with Christ and St. James in forbidding to swear in general-ch. v. 12; ch. vi. 23— yet they do explain it elsewhere, by avoiding to swear falsely, and to swear often and in vain, chap. ii. 36; and again, by not swearing at all, but withal adding, that if that cannot be avoided, to swear truly, ch. vii. 3, which abundantly explain to us the nature of the measures of this general injunction. observe justice toward men, and that he will do no harm to any one, either of his own accord or by the command of others; that he will always hate the wicked, and be assistant to the righteous; that he will ever show fidelity to all men, and especially to those in authority; because no one obtains the government without God's assistance; and that, if he be in authority, he will at no time whatever abuse his authority, nor endeavor to outshine his subjects, either in his garments or any other finery; that he will be perpetually a lover of truth, and propose to himself to reprove those that tell lies; that he will keep his hands clear from theft, and his soul from unlawful gains; and that he will neither conceal anything from those of his own sect, nor discover any of their doctrines to others; no, not though any one should compel him so to do at the hazard of his life. Moreover, he swears to communicate their doctrines to no one any otherwise than as he received them himself; that he will abstain from robbery, and will equally preserve the books belonging to their sect, and the names of the angels* [or messengers]. These are the oaths by which they secure their proselytes to themselves. * This mention of the names of angels, so particularly preserved by the Essenes (if it means more than those messengers which were employed to bring them the peculiar books of their sect), looks like a prelude to that worshiping of angels blamed by St. Paul as superstitious, and unlawful in some such sort of people as these Essenes were, Col. ii. 8; as is the prayer to or toward the sun for his rising every morning, mentioned before, sect. 5, very like those not much later observances made mention of in the preaching of Peter, Authent. Rec., part ii. p. 669; and regarding a kind of worship of |