structive, our limits in the Christian's Penny Magazine, will not allow us to enter fully into the subject of the last-mentioned period. For the sake of our less learned readers, we give some passages from DR. GILL'S EXPOSITION OF GEN. XV. 13. AND "Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years." This term, 400 years, is not to be joined either with the word afflict or serve; for their hard servitude and severe affliction did not last long, but a few years at most; but with the phrase, a stranger in a land not theirs; and the rest is to be included in a parenthesis thus, and thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not theirs (and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them) four hundred years; so long they should be strayers and sojourners, as they were partly in the land of Canaan, and partly in the land of Egypt, neither of which were in their own land, however not in possession; within which space of time they would be in a state of subjection and servitude, and be greatly afflicted and oppressed, as they were particularly by the Egyptians before their deliverance from them, (see Exod. i. 11-22, and v. 6—14.) These 400 years, as before observed, are to be reckoned from the birth of Isaac to the Israelites going out of Egypt, and are counted thus by Garchi: Isaac was sixty years of age when Jacob was born, and Jacob when he went down into Egypt was 130, which make 190; and the Israelites were in Egypt 210 years, which complete the sum of 400: according to Eusebius, there were 405 years from the birth of Isaac to the Exodus of Israel; but the round number only is given, as is very usual; and though the sojourning of the Israelites is said to be 430 years (Exod. xii, 40) this takes in the sojourning of Abram in that land, who entered into it twenty-five years before the birth of Isaac, which added to 405, the sum total is 430; for Abram was seventy-five years of age when he left Haran and went to Čanaan, and Isaac was born when he was 100 years old (see Gen. xii. 4; xxi. 5). MR. GREENFIELD'S EXPOSITION OF Exod. xii. 40. Mr. Greenfield, in his admirable notes in the "Comprehensive Bible," says, "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, and of their fathers in the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt, was 430 years. The Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint has the same reading; and the same statement is made by the apostle Paul in Gal. iii. 17, who reckons from the promise made to Abraham to the giving of the land. That these three witnesses have the truth, the chronology itself proves; for it is evident that the descendants of Israel did not dwell 430 years in Egypt; while it is equally evident that the period from Abraham's entry into the promised land to the birth of Isaac was twenty five years; Isaac was sixty at the birth of Jacob; Jacob was 130 at his going into Egypt; where he and his children continued 215 years more; making in the whole 430 years." See Kennicott's Dissertation on the Hebrew Text. The Little Scholar learning to Talk. A Picture Book for Rollo. By his Father. Pp, 188, 18mo. roan. London: J. S. Hodson, Fleet Street. No one but a father or a mother at least could have written this little book. It is an American production, and the work of one of the ingenious and pious Abbott's, whose "Young Christian," "Mother at Home," &c. &c. have gained them much respect in England. We think this an admirable book for the nursery, and as such we give it a cordial recommendation to parents. MARY AT THE CRUCIFIXION. WEEPING Mary, bath'd in sorrow, Linger'd near the scene of horror, Where the dying Saviour hung; From whose bursting heart arising, Groans of anguish agonizing, Floated o'er his fever'd tongue! O what sorrow, deep, unbounded, That maternal bosom wounded, Once the Saviour's couch of rest! How she wept to see him languish, How she trembled, for the anguish Labouring in his guiltless breast! Who could witness without weeping, Gushing streams of sorrow sweeping Down the mother's pallid cheek? Who with bosom unrelenting, Could behold her thus lamenting, Looking what no tongue could speak? While such pangs as fiends invented, Still her suffering son tormented, Scorn and bruises, stripes and death'; She beheld him thus expiring, Human friends in fear retiring, Whilst in groans he spent his breath! Matchless mercy! love amazing! Far beyond our feeble praising, Far above our humble lays; Deeply on my soul imprest! OUR CORRESPONDENT “J. S. B.” SEVERAL of our readers, it appears, have been led to suppose that our "Friend J. S. B." whose correspondence is referred to in the article headed "Quaker's Controversy," in No. 197, is the same person as our highly respected author of the interesting series of papers intitled "My Scrap-Book." This we beg to assure them is not the case, though the coincidence of signatures is remarkable. The correspondent alluded to we believe to be a truly respectable member of the " Society of Friends," who seems to entertain some incorrect, not to say heteredox notions respecting the Holy Scriptures, as the exclusive— Protestant- Christian rule of faith--but from which we hope and pray his mind may be emancipated. Our constant contributor is a most respectable gentleman, whose various papers demonstrate his superior intelligence and extensive reading; and whose religious sentiments are soundly Protestant and truly Christian.-EDITOR. London: Printed by JAMES S. HODSON, at his residence, No. 15, Cross Street, Hatton Garden, and Published by him at 112, Fleet Street; where all communications for the Editor (post paid) are to be addressed sold also by Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., and by all other Booksellers, Newsvenders, &c. in the KingThe trade may be supplied in London, by STEILI, Paternoster Row; BERGER, Holywell Street, Strand; in Manchester, by Ellerby : Innocent; Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Finlay and Charlton. dom. A View of St. Martin's Canterbury, the oldest Church in England. ST. MARTIN'S, CANTERBURY, THE OLDEST CHURCH IN ENGLAND. CANTERBURY has been celebrated during the last twelve hundred years, as the seat of the principal archbishop. Augustin, who introduced popery into England, being sent on a mission by pope Gregory, A.D. 597, with forty monks, to convert the Saxons in Kent, was the first who assumed that title and dignity, by the authority of his holiness of Rome. Including Augustin and the present prelate, there have been successively ninety-two archbishops of Canterbury. Christianity in England, therefore, if not in its purest form, must, in profession, be identified with this celebrated city; and some notices of the introduction of Christianity into Britain, and its early history, as well as of several of its distinguished prelates, have already been given in the Christian's Penny Magazine, (see especially Vol. II. pp. 18, 46, 60, 67, 126.) Our present remarks must be limited chiefly to the venerable, though unostentatious, edifice represented in our engraving,-St. Martin's Church, supposed to be the OLDEST CHURCH IN ENG LAND. Canterbury, with a population of 14,463, contains fifteen parishes, which by unions are reduced to VOL. V. nine; dral. and twelve parish churches besides the cathe ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH stands without the walls, east of the city, on the side of a hill north of the high road leading to Deal and Sandwich, and within the city's liberty. This church is of remote antiquity, being built, the chancel in particular, for the most part of Roman and British bricks, the invariable proofs of old age. The church now consists of a nave and chancel, with a square tower, wherein hang three bells; the chancel seems to have originally constituted the whole church, or oratory, and in all probability was erected about A.D. 200, or more than sixteen hundred years ago, about midway of the period when the Christians, as well Britons as Romans, lived free from persecution. The walls of this portion of the edifice are constructed of the bricks before mentioned, laid in a regular state, as in other buildings raised by the Romans in this island, of which those in Dovor afford an instance, In the midst of the nave is a circular stone font decorated with sculpture, all the ornaments being small and highly enriched, which, from its great age, has been much appreciated by antiquaries. St. Martin's church is believed by many to have been the resort of St. Augustin and his monks on their first arrival, and by licence of king Ethelbert, R granted to them, in favour of his queen Bertha, who, according to Bede, had this church built long previously, when it was dedicated to St. Martin, and allotted as the place of her public devotions. Be this, however, as it may, this church was an oratory in the early times of Christianity, and used as such by the converted Romans, when it was repaired by Luidhard, bishop of Soissons, who accompanied queen Bertha from France, when she married Ethelbert, about A.D. 576, and was dedicated by him to St. Martin. To whom it had been previously dedicated is not known, but probably to the Virgin Mary. St. Martin's is a rectory, and exempt from the jurisdiction of the archdeacon; it formed part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and the patronage of the same remained solely in the archbishop, till the church, in 1681, was united to that of St. Paul, by consent of the archbishop and dean, &c., who were patrons of the latter; and from that period it has continued in their alternate presentations. It has been stated that St. Martin's, from the days of archbishop Theodore to Lanfrane, a space of 349 years, was a bishop's see, which appears almost incredible, no such statement appearing in history, till near the time of the conquest, when only two stand recorded: Eadsin and Goodwin, both styled bishops of St. Martin's; the former from 1032 to 1038, the latter from 1052 to 1061, according to the Saxon chronicle. ON MAHOMETANISM. No. II. RISE AND PROGRESS OF MAHOMETANISM. IN a former essay, I endeavoured to give an epitome of the life and character of Mahomet. The subject which I then assigned as the object of my next was, THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE MAHOMETAN RELIGION: the principal events of which, I shall now proceed to particularize. At the period of Mahomet's flight from Mecca to Medina, which he dated as the commencement of his future triumphant career, a new impulse was given to his ambition. To the inhabitants of the city of Medina, which was then distracted by hereditary contentions, exasperated by the mutual persecutions of Jews and Gentiles, his religion appears to have presented a point of union or compromise to the divided opinions. Under these circumstances, it met with a favourable reception by the harassed inhabitants, who seeing, in the admission of the prophet's authority, a tranquillity from those engagements which experience had taught them to condemn, concluded a treaty with him, who thereupon made his public entry, and was received as the sovereign of Medina. Having realized his views of empire, he speedily changed his language and his conduct; and subordinated his persuasive arts to the powers of force and persecution. He now pretends to further inspiration, assuring his followers in a description graphically minute of the scenery of the seven heavens through which, as he asserted, he had passed, that he had ascended to the very throne of the Almighty, under the guidance of the angel Gabriel, that he had received the salutations of the patriarchs, prophets, and angels, that he had been honoured with an unveiled vision of the Deity, that he was by direct communication constituted the plenipotentiary of God, and commissioned to attack the infidels, destroy idolatry, and set up the true faith by the sword. Hereupon he began to muster an army, determining that his army should conquer, and with his conquests his religion proceed. In a discourse delivered at Medina, he thus proclaimed his principles:-"The sword is the key of heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of Goda night spent under arms-is of more avail than two months of fasting and prayer. Whosoever falls in battle receives the forgiveness of his sins; at the day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of his limbs shall be replaced by wings of angels and cherubim." Such a romantic tale of paradise was received by the wandering Arabs, who speedily rallied round this standard of victory and freedom, of rapine and religion; and when occasion offered, alike insensible of security or danger, but with an enthusiastic calculation on the rewards of eternity, they rushed upon their foes regardless of their numbers, with the war-shout of " Victory or Paradise." Mahomet's personal character speedily became established in a victory over a very superior force, and battles or assassinations successively following each other, gained the renown of his arms. In the seventh year of the Hegira, Mahomet, once the exile of Mecca, by the force of natural conquest, united in his own person the sovereignty of its laws, its armies, and its religion. After this conquest of his native peninsula, his continued successful invasion of neighbouring colonies was facilitated by the weakness of the Roman provinces on the north and west, and the distracted condition of the Persian empire on the east. His cupidity was therefore attracted to the rich and fertile region of Syria; and in his views of conquest, he was not retarded by the weariness of his army, but through pestilential winds and withering heats he aroused their fears when he could not excite their hopes, by the assurance that "hell was hotter than the desert." Still, whether in his engagements, in eight of which he commanded his army in person, or in his military enterprises, fifty of which were headed by himself and his lieutenants, his conquests carried the progress of his religion with them. Success in war was computed evidence of the truth of his religion; and the veracity of his pretensions was proved by the prosperity of his enterprises. We are not, however, surprised at these facts. Mahomet's victories, were not only operated by the effect of natural conquest, but were represented to all as the result of divine declarations. The conditions which he proposed to the vanquished was death or conversion. "Ye Christian dogs, you know your option; the Koran, the tribute, or the sword," was his conditional alternative to the Jewish and Christian sects; but concerning the idolators, the austerity of his commands are unparalleled. "Strike off their heads! strike off the ends of all their fingers! kill the idolaters wheresoever ye shall find them." Nor are we surprised at the willing acquiescence of his army on the faith of his principles. His voluptuous paradise, his robes of silk, his palaces of marble, his sensual pleasures, and above all his seventy-two virgins of refulgent beauty and never-failing youth assigned to each of the faithful, seized the imaginations and nerved the passions of his converts. His highest rewards were reserved for those who employed themselves in his service: "Verily," said he, God hath purchased of the true believers their souls and their substance, promising them the enjoyment of Paradise, on condition that they fight for the cause of God whether they slay or be slain, the promise for the same is assuredly due by the law, and the Gospel, and the Koran." But, on the contrary, his master 66 piece in description was his hell. The balance suspended between both worlds; the bridge of AlSirat, finer than a hair, and sharper than a sword; the shoes of fire; the cauldrons of flame; the alternations of shivering and burning; and the seven receptacles of the lost-were all presented to the imaginations of his followers as awful warnings of the consequences of refusing credence to the Koran and subjection to the prophet. With such a system, calculated to act both upon the hopes and fears of minds uncultivated and unenlightened, it is not surprising that, at the point of the sword, and with the only alternative of subjection or death, there was extorted from multitudes the reluctant exclamation, "There is one God, and Mahomet is his prophet!" By the power of these principles, Mahomet extended his dominions to the very borders of the Greek and Persian empires; and, with the impetus of preceding conquests, the Arabians were induced to invade and enabled to subdue a great portion of the globe. The conquests of Syria, Persia, Egypt, and Palestine, succeeded each other. Thence, eastward, to the frontiers of India and China, westward to the Pillars of Hercules and the shores of the Atlantic; and on the north, to the banks of the Oxus, and the borders of the Caspian sea, the storm spread, and soon annexed Spain and Sicily to the empire of the Caliphs. In fact, from the period of the rising crescent in the barren wilds of Arabia, to the zenith of its altitude, when it threatened to seat itself in the heart of Europe, comprehending about a century, the Mahometan religion extended over the greater part of Asia and Africa; and the Saracenic empire, which succeeded the prophet's, extended its dominion in eighty years, over more kingdoms and countries than the Roman had in 800. In my next I hope to be enabled to trace some of the probable causes of the success which accompanied this extraordinary religion. RALPH. DISPUTES ABOUT REGENERATION. A FABLE. Two philosophers fell into a discussion about motion. One laid down Aristotle's famous definition, The act of being in power, so far forth as in power. The other preferred his own definition, equally learned and unintelligible. The difference rose into an angry dispute. It grew wider and wider, till all hope of agreement seemed lost, and the parties were in danger of becoming personal enemies. Pausing to take breath, one waved his cane in the air, and said, "That is motion; do you assent?" "Yes," So they shook hands, and the breach was healed. THE PARALLEL.. Two Christians fell into a difference about regeneration, its nature, means, and the office of the several agents concerned. They had several encounters on the subject; each widened the difference, and cooled the mutual charity between them, more than the last. After an interval, they both met in a religious meeting, to which many had been drawn by the inquiry, "What shall I do to be saved?" M. addressed them on the importance of now bringing this inquiry to a successful determination; warned them against supposing, like Naaman, that the thing to be done was any thing mysterious or unintelligible; insisted that repentance was the simplest and plainest thing in the world, and urged them, by all the arguments naturally suggested to a man in earnest, to submit their case to God, with a full, unreserved confession of their guilt. He concluded with a prayer for God's blessing on his efforts, and seemed ready to sink under a sense of the inefficiency of his own exhortations without the Spirit's aid. After the meeting N. addressed him as follows:-" Pray when did you come to your present views respecting regeneration?" Long ago; ever since I had any "But did you definite conceptions on the subject." "Exactly." really mean so in our last discussion ?" 'Exactly-so did I." So they shook hands, and the difference was forgotten. 66 REMARKS. The more simple and plain is any thing, the more interminable is the dispute which may arise about it. Hence the difficulty which some have affected to find about defining or understanding unity, personal identity, &c. &c.; and hence, long and endless disputes about such subjects. Among those who have experienced what it is to be regenerated, to believe, to be converted, disputes about what the thing is are like disputing what it is to wash and be clean. Men often miss truth by diving for it fathoms deep, when it is floating on the surface; and they are so possessed with the contrary belief, that you cannot persuade them to look on the surface and see. The awakened sinner will not be beaten off from the persuasion that his great difficulty is in his inability to understand correctly what is meant by faith in Christ, change of heart, and other expressions signifying the same thing, under different aspects; whereas his only difficulty is, to HUMBLE HIMSELF RIGHT DOWN BEFORE GOD AND MAN.-Abbott's Religious Magazine. SERIOUS PIETY OF LINNÆUS. THIS great botanist was born in Sweden, in 1707, and died in 1778. One of the most distinguished attributes of his mind, was the warmth of his religious sentiments and profound adoration of the Deity. He resembled in this respect Newton, Haller, Locke, and others, whose respect for religion rendered their knowledge still more estimable. The deeper he penetrated into the secrets of nature, the more he admired the wisdom of her Creator. He praised this wisdom in his works, recommended it by his speeches, and honoured it by his actions. Through all his writings there breathes forth a lively admiration of the greatness and wisdom of God, and a tender gratitude for his benefits. Whenever he found an opportunity of expatiating on the greatness, the providence, and omnipotence of God, which frequently happened in his lectures and botanical excursions, his heart glowed with a celestial fire, and his mouth poured forth torrents of admirable eloquence. This made him one of the best inculcators of morality; he instilled by so doing a similar spirit of religion into the breasts of his pupils. Over the door of the hall in which he gave his lectures, was this inscription, God observes you." "Live virtuous; He could never think on the wonderful paths by which the Almighty had guided him, without being much. affected, and thanking Providence for all the instances of his grace and mercy. DURATION OF VEGETABLE LIFE.-Mr. Rae Wilson adduces, as a proof of the length of time during which the vital principle of vegetation may be preserved, the fact that a bulbous root, found in the hand of an Egyptian mummy, where it had been 2,000 years, germinated, and when put into the ground grew vigorously. PLAGUES OF FORMER TIMES. DIVINE Providence has favoured our happy times by the surprising advancement of science, and the spirit of free inquiry; to which, under the dispensation of God, we are so eminently indebted, is sanctioned, and, in a great degree, sanctified by Christianity. The following will be read with much gratification by pious minds, that we live in times so advanced, 66 Every country in Europe, and Italy perhaps more than any other, was visited during the middle ages by frightful plagues, which followed each other in quick succession, that they gave the exhausted people scarcely any time for recovery. The oriental bubo-plague ravaged Italy sixteen times between the years 1119 and 1240. Small-pox and measles were still more destructive than in modern times, and recurred as frequently. St. Anthony's fire was the dread of the town and country; and that disgusting disease, the leprosy, which, in consequence of the crusades, spread its insinuating poison in all directions, snatched from the paternal hearth innumerable victims, who, banished from human society, pined away in lonely huts, whither they were accompanied only by the pity of the benevolent and their own despair. All these calamities, of which the moderns have scarcely retained any recollection, were heightened to an incredible degree by the black death, which spread boundless devastation and misery over Italy. Men's minds were every where morbidly sensitive; and as it happens with individuals whose senses, when they are suffering under anxiety, become more irritable, so that trifles are magnified into objects of great alarm, and slight shocks, which scarcely affect the spirits when in health, give rise in them to severe diseases, so it was with this whole nation, at all times so alive to emotions, and at this period so sorely pressed with the horrors of death." -Dr. Babington's translation from the German of Dr. Hecker. DR. CHALMER'S ON REPENTANCE. THE work of repentance is a work which must be done ere we die, for unless we repent we shall all likewise perish. Now, the easier this is in our estimation, we will think it the less necessary to enter upon it immediately. We will look upon it as a work that may be done at any time, and let us therefore, put it off a little longer, and a little longer. We will perhaps, look forward to that retirement from the world and its temptations which we figure old age to bring along with it, and falling in with the too common idea, that the evening of life is the appropriate season of preparation for another world, we will think that the author is bearing too closely, and too urgently upon us, when in the language of the Bible, he speaks of “to-day," while it is called to-day, and will let us off with no other repentance than " now,"-seeing that now only is the accepted time, and only the day of salvation, which he has a warrant to proclaim to us. This dilatory way of it is very much favoured by the mistaken and very defective view of repentance which we have attempted to expose. We have somehow or other got into the delusion that repentance is sorrow, and little else; and were we called to fix upon the scene where this sorrow is likely to be felt in the degree that is deepest and most overwhelming, we should point to the chamber of the dying man. It is awful to think that, generally speaking, this repentance of mere sorrow is the only repentance of a death bed. Yes! we will meet with sensibility deep enough and painful enough there-with regret in all its bitterness with terror mustering up its images of despair, and dwelling upon them in all the gloom of an affrighted imagination; and this is mistaken not merely for the repentance, but for the very substance of it. We look forward and we count upon this-that the sins of a life are to be expunged by the sighing and sorrowing of the last days of it. We should give up this wretchedly superficial notion of repentance and cease from this moment, to be led astray by it. The mind may sorrow over its corruptions at the very time it is under the power of them. To grieve because we are under the captivity of sin is one thing -to be released from that captivity is another. A man may weep most bitterly over the perversities of his moral constitution, but to change that constitution is a different affair. Now, this is the mighty work of repentance. He who has undergone it is no longer the servant of sin. He dies unto sin, he lives unto God. A sense of the authority of God, is ever present with him, to wield the ascendancy of a great master principle over all his movements-to call forth every purpose, and to carry it forward, through all the opposition of sin and of Satan, unto accomplishment. This is the grand revolution in the state of the mind which repentance brings along with it. To grieve because this work is not done, is a very different thing from the doing of it. A death bed is the very best scene for acting the first, but it is the very worst for acting the second. The repentance of Judas has often been acted there. We ought to think of the work in all its magnitude, and not to be put off to that awful period when the soul is crowded with other things, and has to maintain its weary struggle with the pains and the distresses, and the breathless agonies of the death bed.-Chalmer's Introductory Essay to Baxter's Call. "ABRAHAM'S BOSOM." ILLUSTRATION OF LUKE XVI. 22. "And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." How offensive to good taste, and to the figure of the text, is the notion of some painters, who represent Lazarus in heaven as reposing in the bosom of the patriarch. Such attempts have a tendency to lessen that veneration and awe which we owe to subjects of so sacred a nature. This world is the legitimate field for the painter, but let him not presume to desecrate with his pencil the scenes beyond. A beloved son, although at a distance, is still said to be in the bosom of his parents. "The king is indeed very fond of that man, he keeps him in his bosom." master, he has a place in his bosom." "Why, "Yes, the servant is a great favourite with his Mutfoo, do you never intend to allow your son to go out of your bosom?" The ideas implied by the term bosom are intense affection, security, and comfort. But objects of endearment are sometimes spoken of as being in the head. "He not fond of his wife he keeps her in his head." “My husband, you are ever in my head." "Yes, beloved, you are in my eye; my eye is your resting-place."Roberts's Oriental Illustrations. NUMBER OF BIBLES EXTANT.-It has been estimated that only 25,000,000 of Bibles were published, from the discovery of the art of printing to the year 1806; that since that time not 10,000,000 have been issued; and at the present rate of issue, it must be 500 years before all the families of the earth can possess a copy. |