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parts , was qffered to the nations , and was received in all countries throughout the civilized world , in the manner here described by Joseph us . By the law of God ,
be ^ therefore , means the gospel of Christ- Of the gospel the fact here stated is mo ^ t true . Oi Judaism , used in the modern sense of that word , it is not true ; nor
did it in any degree approach the truth . After the spirit of the Jewish religion was separated from its letter , no converts among ibe Pagans were made to the latter ; nor did its advocates even
attempt to make converts to it ; nuich Jess were such multitudes in every nation converted to it as Josephus represents . The heathens who embraced the gospel rivalled the Jews in zeal and
attachment to it . They gloried in its happy influence , and in the powerful assurance it gives of a future state : and Josephus says , with truth , that , if the disciples of $ &o $ es did not glory in its superi . or excellence , they would be
sur-# asfctf : d by that multitude of Pagatt $ , who now embraced it in Gyety country under heaven , 11 * Philo and Josephus are Christian writers ; because they have given a long account and laboured defence of those Jews ivho believed in Christ . These
they describe not under the name of Christians , nor of Ebionites , nor Nazarenes , all which were terms of reproach ^ but of Essenes or Esseans ; the iast of which Philo interprets to mean hol y .
and is synonimous with saint , as applied to die converts in the New Testament . Mr . J . supposes that the Esseans \ yerc ; the same class of men cp . p . tiniie 4 through successive ages wiih the sons of
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5 & Hmi ? i »* r ~~ Jm e * * & Ecclesiastical Researches ,
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the prophets , mentioned in the book of Kings ; that John the Baptist was one of the Esseans and preached at the head of that people , when our Lord appeared
among men ; that they did not form a distinct class of Jews till some time after the death o ( Jesus , having comprehended during his ministry and upwards the school
of the prophets , and brought up young men of study and distine * . tion to fill the offices , and * to sustain the professions of priests , scribes , and pharisees . This is the reason why no mention is
made of the Esseans in the New Testament , an omission morally impossible , if they then formed a distinct sect , and as Ehilo and Josephus positively assert they abounded in every place . The
following are the arguments wjaich Mr . J . offers to prove that < the Esseans mean the Jewi&fek believers . , In the diiys of Josephus the Esseans were become a religious s ? ct , distinct from the . rest of the
Jews * If * therefore , fcbey were not the Jewish Christians , there must have been four sects wh ^ n Josephus wrote : but he is positive there ivere only three * And as he could not class the Christians with Pharisees and Sadducees , he must have classed them under
the Esseans , If lixere be any faith to be put in the Jewish historian , this argument is coijcki - sive ; and Philo and Josephus ^ in their peculiar situation , have described the Esseans in the niannefr
they would have described the Jewish Christians ; and their language throughout is calculated ; to meet and repel those charges which we know to ( have been urged against the advocates of
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1814, page 52, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2436/page/52/
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