longer than fifty years. The nearer, therefore, the Jubilee was, the less was the value of the purchase of an estate, ver. 15. "By this means," continues this judicious writer, "the rich were prevented from accumulating lands upon lands, and a kind of equality was preserved through all their families. Never was there any people so effectually secured of their liberty and property, as the Israelites were; God not only engaging so to protect those invaluable blessings by his providence, that they should not be taken away from them by others; but providing in a particular manner by this law, that they should not be thrown away through their own folly; since the property which every man or family had in their dividend of the land of Canaan, could not be sold, or any way alienated, for above half a century."

The Sabbatical Year, or seventh year's rest, was also greatly in favour of an equal division of property, as is evident from the following peculiar observances of this year:-1st, A total cessation from all manner of agriculture. 2d, Leaving all the spontaneous product of the ground to be used and enjoyed in common; so that no person was to claim any peculiar property. 3d, The remission of all debts from one Israelite to another. 4th, The public reading of the Law at the Feast of Tabernacles.

At the period of the coming of Christ, the Esseans, a Jewish sect, resided in villages apart from their countrymen, where they lived in harmony and peace, and where they had all things in common. "The Esseans," says Josephus, "despise riches, and are much to be admired for their liberality; nor can any be found amongst them who are more wealthy than the rest; for it is a law with them, that those who join their order should distribute their possessions among the members. Accordingly, not an individual of them all exhibits the meanness of poverty or the insolence of wealth."

The learned Dr. Jones, in his ingenious Ecclesiastical Researches, has clearly proved, I think, that the Esseans afterwards constituted the greater part of the Hebrew Christians. It is not to be supposed that the early Christian fathers, to whom the works of Philo were well known, and who gives a most correct and improving account of the Esseans, could be ignorant that they were the same, under a different name, with the Nazarene believers. Accordingly, Eusebius has not only asserted this fact, but

has taken some pains to prove its truth, and his opinion has been followed by Jerome and Epiphanius. Indeed, the following extracts from Philo's account of the Esseans, prove, beyond a doubt, that the Hebrew Christians and the Esseans must be the same persons, or the same believers in our holy religion.

"Some of these men," says Philo, "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 and gold, nor to inherit ample estates, in order to gratify prodigality and avarice; but are content with the mere necessaries of life,-deeming riches to consist, not in amplitude of possessions, but, as is really the case, in frugality and contentment. Amongst them, no one can be found who manufactures swords, cutlasses, shields, or any other weapon useful in war. Nor have they any slaves amongst them; 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, and impiously transgress the dictates of nature, which, like a common parent, has begotten and educated all men alike, and made them brethren, not in name only, but in sincerity and truth. Regarding the seventh day as holy, they abstain on it from all other works, and assemble in those places that are called synagogues, when one of them taking the Bible, reads a portion of it, the obscure parts of which, are explained by another more skilful person; for some of the Scriptures they interpret in that symbolical sense which they have zealously copied from the Patriarchs. And the subjects of instruction are, piety, holiness, righteousness, domestic and political economy, the knowledge of things really good, bad, and indifferent, which objects ought to be pursued, and which to be avoided. Of their love to God, they give innumerable proofs, by leading a life of continual purity, unstained by oaths and falsehoods-by regarding God as the giver of good, and the cause of no evil. They evince their attachment to virtue, by their freedom from avarice, from ambition, from sensual pleasure-by their temperance and patience, by their frugality, simplicity, and contentmentby their humility, their regard to the laws, and other similar virtues. Their love to man, is evinced by their benignity and their liberality. There is one treasure whence

all derive their subsistence; and not only their provisions, but their clothes, are common property. Thinking themselves dead to the world, they desire only a blessed immortal existence. The sick are not despised or neglected, because they are no longer capable of useful labour; but they live in ease and affluence, receiving from the treasure whatever their disorder or their exigencies require. The aged, too, amongst them, are loved, revered, and attended, as parents, by affectionate children, and a thousand hands and hearts prop their tottering years with comforts of every kind. Such are the champions of virtue, which philosophy, without the pride of Grecian oratory, produces; proposing as the end of their institutions, the performance of those laudable actions which destroy slavery, and render freedom invincible. This effect is evinced by the many powerful men who arose against the Esseans in their own country, in consequence of differing from them in principles and sentiments. Some of these persecutors being eager to surpass the furiousness of untamed beasts, omit no measure that may gratify their cruelty, and they cease not to sacrifice whole flocks of those within their power, or, like so many tormentors, to tear their limbs in pieces, until themselves are brought to that justice which superintends the affairs of men.'

Every person who reads the preceding account of the Esseans, and is at all acquainted with the early history and doctrines of Christianity, must perceive, that these excellent men and the primitive Christians closely resembled one another. "And the multitude of them that believed," says the companion and friend of Paul, “were of one heart and of one soul, neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. And with great power, gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessed of land or houses, sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them at the Apostles' feet; and distribution was made unto every man, according as he had need." We may therefore conclude, that a community of goods was sanctioned and acted upon by the first followers of Jesus; and that we have convincing proofs, that co-operative societies are both approved of by the Almighty, and can be carried into execution without confusion or mischief.

Let it not be said, then, that the friends of pure religion are indifferent to a question, which involves the peace and happiness of their fellow creatures; and, that while they are zealously engaged in reviving unadulterated Christianity, they neglect the best means of carrying into effect so praise-worthy an object. While they are attacking the outposts of false religion, they might take the citadel by storm, if they would but destroy the greatest enemies of their faith-selfishness and vain glory-by supporting co-operative societies, or by having all things in common. Then, and not till then, can they expect their cause to prevail. Christianity was in all its native loveliness, when the multitude that believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither said any of them, that aught of the things which he possessed was his own. She has since worn a false garb, and her power is feeble and without efficacy, because pride and avarice are the ruling passions of her present followers; and it is in vain to expect that she will ever resume her proper influence upon the human mind, until the believers in her doctrines, imitate the conduct of Barnabas, and other of the early disciples, by selling their goods, and distributing the prices "unto every man according as he has need." "And Joses, who by the Apostles was surnamed Barnabas (which being interpreted, the son of consolation), a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles' feet."

BARNABAS.

The Unitarian Christian Reformer.

[IT is with sincere pleasure and admiration, that we have perused the Sermon by the Rev. Robert Aspland of Hackney, occasioned by the death of Mr. Belsham, and entitled "Courage and Confidence in the Cause of Christian Truth." To say, that it is worthy of the talents of its author, and a most appropriate tribute to the memory of him who is departed, is its least praise. It contains a most powerful delineation of the difficulties, as also the encouragements of the advocate of the true doctrine of Christ. It glows with benevolence of feeling, and whilst it faithfully points out the wounds which pure and undefiled religion receives from the hands of professed friends,

it paints in vivid colours the ultimate triumphs of righteousness and truth. The stumbling-blocks which impede the path of the Christian Unitarian, both from the world's opposition-opposition least to be deprecated by a virtuous and truly Christian mind,--and more especially the obstacles thrown up by lukewarm and timid friends, who with minds occasionally directed to God, but with hearts devoted to mammon, prefer indifference to zeal, and the worldly honour of their children to man's improvement and their Maker's glory, are in this discourse depicted by the hand of a master. We trust this voice of warning will not be vainly uttered. There was need of the caution.Edit.]

"The open and undisguised advocate of Unitarianism cannot take a single step without starting some prejudice. He is called to defend himself whilst he is labouring for others; resembling in this respect the Jews who returned from Babylon to build the wall of Jerusalem, of whom the sacred historian remarks, that "every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. The law is no longer against him, but the spirit of defunct, intolerant statutes walks amongst his countrymen. Public opinion is not in his favour. Of the many that speak of him, some with pity, some with scorn, and some with anger, there is but here and there one that is willing to undergo the labour, or bold enough to encounter the obloquy, of examining his arguments. He is suspected of other designs than those that he avows. He speaks to ears that are closed, or pleads before a tribunal resolved to condemn. The imprudence of any one holding his opinions, is charged upon him. His own infirmities-if he has any, as who has not?—are turned against his cause. Let him fall into a mistake of memory, and he is branded as a wilful falsifier; and his failure in a single argument, is proclaimed to be a total discomfiture, and the report of it is received with shouts of triumph. He sets the Christian Scriptures in array against superstition, and he is declared to be destitute of religion. He prays with the understanding as well as the spirit, and he is denied the character of piety. He quits human creeds and formularies, where he thinks they depart from the gospel, and closely follows with his best powers the footsteps of Christ and his Apostles, and he is at once and entirely stripped of the Christian name. And because he