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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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One error into which some of the early Christians fell , was the supposing that , in order to comply with the renunciation of riches , which their religion required , it was necessary to renounce the enjoyments and conveniences of social life , which it was no doubt the design of the apostolic ordinance not to withhold , but to diffuse
among all . Instead of " being together and having ail things common , " these ascetics lived alone and had nothing . * The prevalence of persecuhave concurred
tion may , however , with this misapprehension in causing the adoption of the eremitical life . But it is in the history of conventual or ccpnobttxc life that we must
seek for the rehcs of the Christian system with regard to possessions . The author of the Histoire des Ordres Monastiqnes , informs us , that many of the fathers and popes , two of the
councils and a great number of writers have agreed in referring monastic institutions f to the apostles 1 and to the above-mentioned primitive practice of the Church of Jerusalem .
The history of the Essenes may throw considerable light upon our subject . In the learned work just mentioned we find some account of an interesting controversy which took place at the beginning of the last century relative to this sect , in which the illustrious Benedictine Dom Bernard de
Montfaucon , in some observations appended to his translation of Philo De Vitci Contemplative ^ maintained , in accordance with Eusebius and Jerome and the greater number of Catholic writers , that the Essene 3 were Christians , but
dissented from the opinion that to them the origin of monastic institutions was to be attributed , as they had wives , and did not observe the rules of any order . His anonymous opponent denied that they were Christians , as
* Jesus Christ was no ascetic , and was reproached on that account by the Pharisees . + Cassien a'iant pr £ tendu que les Coenobites sont plus ancien que les Anachor £ tes , qu'ils ont commence avantSt . Paul Krmite et St . Antoine ; et mesme qu'ils ont tofijours est 4 dans V Eglise depuis les Apostresy M , de Tillemont veut qu'il justine cette prevention . "*—Tom , I . Diss . Prllim . p . 19 .
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being highly commended by Philo , whom he considers as a Jew , and as all that could be learnt respecting them savoured of Judaism , and was opposed to Christianity ( meaning , no doubt , Catholic or orthodox Christianity ) ; but at the same time mamtained , that if they were Christians ,
they must be allowed to have been monks , living according to a rule of their own , much more ancient than any now known . The truth , however , probably escaped both these disputants , who , in the unadulterated doctrine and practice of these early believers , could not recognize either primitive Ccenobitism or genuine Christianity .
A question much connected with this inquiry , viz . whether Philo was not himself a Christian , has lately , upon other grounds , occupied the learned pen of Dr . John Jones , who quotes from the works of that writer the following accounts of the Essenes :
" These are called Esseans , a name ( though not in my opinion formed by strict analogy ) corresponding in Greek to the term holy . For they have attained the highest holiness in the worship of God ; and that not by sacrificing animals , but by cultivating purity of heart : they
live principally in villages , and avoid the towns ; being sensible that as disease is generated by corruption , so an indelible impression is produced in the soul by the contagion of society . Some of these men cultivate the ground ; others pursue the arts of peace , and such employments as are beneficial to themselves without
injury to their neighbours : they seek neither to hoard silver nor gold , nor to inherit ample estates in order to gratify prodigality and avarice , but are content with the mere necessaries of life : they are the only people who , though destitute of money and possessions , —and that more from choice than the untowardness
of fortune , —felicitate themselves as rich ; deeming riches to consist not in amplitude of possession , but , as is really the case , in frugality and contentment . Among them no one can be found who manufactures darts , arrows , swords , corselets , shields , or any other weapon used in war ; nor even such instrument *
as are easily perverted to evil purposes in times of peace . They decline trade , commerce , and navigation altogether , as incentives to covetousness and usury ; nor have they any slaves among them , but all are free , and all In their turn administer to others . They condemn the owners of slaves as tyrants , who violate the principles of justice and equality ,
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92 The Nonconformist . No . XX ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1821, page 92, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2497/page/28/
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