_proved to demonstration_ by a passage in the Edicts of Asoka,
grandson of the famous Chandragupta, the Sandracottus of the
Greeks. These edicts are engraven on a rock at Girnur, in
Guzerat."[422:5]

Eusebius, in quoting from Philo concerning the Essenes, seems to take it
for granted that _they and the Christians were one and the same_, and
from the manner in which he writes, it would appear that it was
generally understood so. He says that Philo called them "Worshipers,"
and concludes by saying:

"But whether he himself gave them this name, or whether at the
_beginning_ they were so called, _when as yet the name of
Christians was not everywhere published_, I think it not
needful curiosity to sift out."[422:6]

This celebrated ecclesiastical historian considered it very probable
that the writings of the Essenic Therapeuts in Egypt had been
incorporated into the gospels of the New Testament, and into some
Pauline epistles. His words are:

"It is very likely that the commentaries (Scriptures) which
were among them (the Essenes) were the Gospels, and the works
of the apostles, and certain expositions of the ancient
prophets, such as partly that epistle unto the Hebrews, and
also the other epistles of Paul do contain."[423:1]

The principal doctrines and rites of the Essenes can be connected with
the _East_, with Parsism, and especially with _Buddhism_. Among the
doctrines which Essenes and Buddhists had in common was that of the
_Angel-Messiah_.[423:2]

Godfrey Higgins says:

"The _Essenes_ were called physicians of the soul, or
_Therapeutae_; being resident both in Judea and Egypt, they
probably spoke or had their sacred books in Chaldee. They were
_Pythagoreans_, as is proved by all their forms, ceremonies,
and doctrines, and they called themselves sons of Jesse. If
the Pythagoreans or Conobitae, as they are called by Jamblicus,
were Buddhists, the Essenes were Buddhists. The Essenes lived
in Egypt, on the lake of Parembole or Maria, in _monasteries_.
These are the very places in which we formerly found the
_Gymnosophists_, or _Samaneans_, or _Buddhist_ priests to have
lived; which Gymnosophistae are placed also by Ptolemy in
north-eastern India."

"Their (the Essenes) parishes, churches, bishops, priests,
deacons, festivals are all identically the same (as the
Christians).