excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God." "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." "Which things also we

speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Cor. ii. 1, 4, 13).

(21.) ESSENES. "They labour 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 then 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."

CHRISTIANS.—“ Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John iii. 5). "He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit" (John xiii. 10). But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified" (1 Cor. vi, 11). "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. vii. 1). "Even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word" (Eph. v. 25, 26). According to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Tit. iii. 5). "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water" (Heb. x. 22).

(22.) ESSENES. They "think" it "a good thing" "to be clothed in white garments." "They come together (to their meals) clothed in white garments."

CHRISTIANS." And was transfigured before them and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light" (Matt. xvii. 2). "The angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow" (Matt. xxviii. 2, 3). "And entering

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into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment” (Mark xvi. 5). “And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel" (Acts i. 10). They shall walk with me in white for they are worthy (Rev. iii. 4). "I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear" (Rev. iii. 18). "And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment" (Rev. iv. 4). "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Rev. vii. 9, 14). "And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen" (Rev. xv. 6). And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints" (Rev. xix. 8).

(23.) ESSENES." When they send what they have dedicated to God into the temple, they do not offer sacrifices, because they have more pure lustrations of their own; on which account they are excluded from the common court of the temple, but offer their sacrifices themselves; yet is their course of life better than that of other men.” 'They are above all men devoted to the service of God, not sacrificing living animals, but studying rather to preserve their own minds in a state of holiness and purity."

CHRISTIANS." But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice" (Matt. ix. 13). "And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices" (Mark xii. 33). "I beseech you

therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service" (Rom. xii. 1). "For the law having a

shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect" (Heb. x. 1). "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me), to do thy will, O God" (Heb. x. 6, 7). "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people" (1 Pet. ii. 5, 9). "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God" (Rev. i. 5, 6).

(24.) ESSENES." Being citizens of heaven and of the world."

CHRISTIANS." And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. ii. 6). "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil. iii. 20). "( If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Col. iii. 1). "For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly" (Heb. xi. 14-16). "But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. xii. 22, 23). "For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come" (Heb. xiii. 14).

"And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee." "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (John xvii. 11, 15, 16). “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the

covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world" (1 Cor. v. 9, 10).

(25.) ESSENES. "Their doctrine is this: That bodies are corruptible, and that the matter they are made of is not permanent; but that the souls are immortal, and continue for ever; and that they come out of the most subtile air, and are united to their bodies as in prisons, into which they are drawn by a certain natural enticement; but that when they are set free from the bonds of the flesh, they then, as released from a long bondage, rejoice and mount upward."

CHRISTIANS.- "Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body (Rom. viii. 23). "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Cor. xv. 53). "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven" (2 Cor. v. 1, 2).

(26.) ESSENES." They contemn the miseries of life, and are above pain, by the generosity of their mind. And as for death, if it will be for their glory, they esteem it better than living always; and indeed our war with the Romans gave abundant evidence what great souls they had in their trials, wherein, although they were tortured and distorted, burnt and torn to pieces, and went through all kinds of instruments of torment, that they might be forced either to blaspheme their legislator, or to eat what was forbidden them, yet could they not be made to do either of them, no, nor once to flatter their tormentors, or to shed a tear; but they smiled in their very pains, and laughed those to scorn who inflicted the torments upon them, and resigned up their souls with great alacrity, as expecting to receive them again.” "At different times a great number of chiefs of every variety of disposition and character have occupied their country, some of whom have endeavoured to surpass even ferocious wild beasts in cruelty, leaving no sort of inhumanity unpractised, and have never ceased to murder their subjects in whole troops, and have even torn them to pieces while living, like cooks cutting them limb from limb, till they themselves, being overtaken by the vengeance of

divine justice, have at last experienced the same miseries in their turn others again having converted their barbarous frenzy into another kind of wickedness, practising an ineffable degree of savageness, talking with the people quietly, but through the hypocrisy of a more gentle voice, betraying the ferocity of their real disposition, fawning upon their victims like treacherous dogs, and becoming the causes of irremediable miseries to them, have left in all their cities monuments of their impiety, and hatred of all mankind, in the never-to-beforgotten miseries endured by those whom they oppressed; and yet no one, not even of these immoderately cruel tyrants, nor of the more treacherous and hypocritical oppressors, was ever able to bring any real accusation against the multitude of those called Essenes or Holy."

CHRISTIANS.- What shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of (those) who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment; they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy" (Heb. xi. 32-38). "Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf" (1 Pet. iv. 16).

In the above comparative view of the Jewish and Christian sectaries, there are features which certainly have belonged to the devout portion of mankind at all times, such as the restraining the passions, cultivating peace with others, observing moderation and temperance, repressing the desire for riches, and exercising submission to elders and those in authority. But there are others in common to them of so distinctive a nature as to mark those possessing such characteristics as assuredly cognate sects.

One of these distinguishing circumstances is the having all