shall I blaspheme my king and my Saviour" The other still urging him Polycarp replied, "I am a christian." The pro-consul finding it in vain to use persuasion, observed, I have wild beasts to whom I will expose you, unless you recant."-" Call them," answered Polycarp, we are not to be changed from better to worse, for we hold it only good to turn from vice to virtue." Since you make light of the wild beasts," says the pro-consul, “I will tame you with fire, if you repent not."-" You threaten me," replied the martyr, "with a fire which burns only for a moment, but art ignorant of the eternal fire reserved for the wicked. But why do you delay? Bring forth what you please." This and much more he spoke with a cheerful confidence, undaunted by menaces, while grace shone in his countenance; so that even the pro-consul himself was astonished at it. The herald then proclaimed that Polycarp had professed himself a christian; on which the multitude, both of Jews and Gentiles, shouted out, "This is the great doctor of Asia, and the father of the Christians. This is the destroyer of our gods, who teacheth men not to sacrifice or adore."

They now desired Philip, the Asiarch, to let loose a lion upon him; but he refused, the shews of the wild beasts having been finished. They then demanded that he should be burnt alive; which was done with all possible speed, many of the people, but especially the Jews, being active in procuring fuel. The fire being prepared, Polycarp undressed himself, an office to which he had been unaccustomed, as those around him had, from affection and reverence, always been assiduous in performing it for him. When the executioners, according to custom, were going to nail him to the stake, he begged to remain as he was, for he who gave him strength to endure the fire would enable him to remain unmoved in it: on which they only bound him. He, now standing as a sheep ready for the slaughter, and clasping his hands which were bound behind him, poured out a prayer, in which he gave thanks to God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for having counted him worthy to receive a portion with the holy martyrs who had gone before, and to drink of Christ's cup;

praying also to be received as an acceptable sacrifice, prepared by God himself, "Wherefore," he adds, "I praise thee for all thy mercies; I bless thee, I glorify thee, through the eternal high priest Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son; with whom to thyself and the Holy Ghost be glory both now and for ever. Amen."

When he had finished praying, the executioners lighted the fire, and a great flame burst out, "But behold a wonder," says the Church of Smyrna, "seen by many of us! The flames assuming the form of an arch, like the sails of a ship swelled by the breeze, encircled the body of Polycarp, who was in the midst, not as burning flesh but as gold or silver purified in the furnace, while his body sent forth a delightful fragrancy as of costly spices." The surrounding crowd, however, instead of being convinced were exasperated by the miracle, and commanded a spearman to plunge a sword into his body: on which so much blood flowed from the wound as to extinguish the fire, to the astonishment of the spectators.

But the malice of Satan did not end here; for by means of the Jews, he prompted Nicetus to advise the pro-consul not to grant his body to the christians, who were desirous of giv ing it an honourable burial, lest leav ing their crucified master they should begin to worship Polycarp. They little knew," observes the church of Smyrna, "how impossible it is that we should forsake Christ who died for the salvation of the whole world, or ever worship any other. We adore him as the Son of God; but we love the martyrs on account of their distinguished affection towards their Lord and master. May we be numbered with them!"

The centurion perceiving the malevolence of the Jews, caused the body to be burnt in the usual manner. The christians gathered up the bones as a valuable treasure, and interred them, resolving to meet annually at his burying-place to commemorate his martyrdom, and to encourage others to bear a similar testimony to the faith: a circumstance that gave rise to those solemn anniversary commemo rations of the martyrs which were generally kept in the first ages, and which were eventually productive of much superstitious abuse.

Thus died Polycarp about the

hundredth year of his age; eleven brethren from Philadelphia suffering with him. "But he alone," says the letter already alluded to, "is particularly celebrated by all. He was in truth not only an illustrious teacher, but also an eminent martyr, whose martyrdom all desire to imitate, because it was regulated exactly by evangelical principles. For by patience he conquered the unjust magistrate, and thus received the crown of immortality; and now exulting with apostles and all the righteous, he glorifies God, even the Father, and blesses our Lord, even the ruler of our bodies, and the shepherd of his church dispersed through the world." "I cannot but observe," says the learned Dr. Cave, in his account of this eminent saint, "how heavy the divine displeasure, not long after St. Polycarp's death, fell, as upon other places, so more particularly upon this city, by plague, fire, and earthquakes," by which means their city, before one of the glories and ornaments of Asia, was turned into rubbish and dust, their stately houses overturned, their temples ruined;"-" their traffic spoiled, their marts and ports laid waste, besides the great number of people that lost their lives." The account of the holy Polycarp cannot be better closed than by transcribing a passage from Mr. Milner's excellent history, of which free use has been made on the present occasion.

"

of a

"A comparative view," says that pious and judicious writer, christian suffering as we have seen Polycarp, with a Roman stoic, or untutored Indian undergoing afflictions, where we have an opportunity to survey all the circumstances, might shew, in a practica! light, the peculiar genius and spirit of christianity, and its divine superiority. At the same time, those who now content themselves with a cold rationality in religion may ask themselves, how it would have fitted them to endure what Polycarp did, and whether something of what is falsely called enthusiasm, and which the foregoing account breathes so profusely, be not really and solidly divine."

Q.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

On looking over the Review of G. Sharp's Remarks on the Hebrew Syn

tax, p. 417, it occurred to me, that the Septuagint might be applied, with some prospect of success, to determine the pronunciation of the Hebrew vowels. Take the following specimen from the first four chapters of Genesis. It consists of proper names, in which the Hebrew letters, we may reasonably suppose, are attempted to be converted into equivalent Greek ones.

Nis represented by in the name Adam, chap. ii. 16.; by ax in Methusael, iv. 18.; by in Enos, 26.

E

is represented by a in Havilah, ii. 11.; by a in Eve, iv. 1.; by a in Abel, 2.; by a in Adah, 19.; by a in Zillah, 19.; by a in Naamah, 22.: therefore, without one exception, by

is represented by w in Phison, ii. 11.; by in Havilah, 11.; by win Gihon, 13.; by u in Eve, iv. 1.; by a in Nod, 16.; by w in Enoch, 17.; by & in Methusael, 18.; by u in Jubal, 21.; by o in Tubal, 22.; by w in Enos, 26.

เ

is represented by in Phison, ii. 11.; by in Havilah, 11.; by in Gihon, 13.; by as in Cain, iv. I.; by in Irad, 18.; by in Jabal, 20.; by in Jubal, 21.

is represented by in Eden, ii. 10.; by a in Irad, iv. 18.; by a in Adah, 19.; by os in Naamah, 22.

The vowels which the Greek trans

lators have supplied where there are none in the Hebrew, in the portion of scripture here examined, and in the above proper names, are

After 2,, iv. 2.; n, 20.; a, 21.;

22.

After 7, , ii. 10.; a, 16.; (7 oг1) a, iv. 18.

After a, a, iv. 18.
After ", ε, iv. 19.

After w, n, iv. 25. None of these letters are broad, although two are long. If such an enquiry was carried on to any extent something might possibly be determined by the preponderating instances.

J. M.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I THINK the extract from Bishop Kidder's Demonstration of the Messiah, with which G. S. has favoured your readers, (Christian Observer, Vol. III. pp. 330, &c.) fully establishes the point, that actions in the scrip

tures are frequently attributed to God, when there is no intention to ascribe them to him as the immediate author, and nothing more seems necessarily to be designed than that they take place. Many difficulties are solved by this view of scriptural phraseology. But no sooner do we establish any doctrine, than it is necessary to guard against its abuse. It is well known, that this mode of interpreting the language of the sacred oracles has suffered considerable abuse, and that, by an unqualified application of it, critics of a certain description have contrived to get rid of all the peculiar and fundamental doctrines of christianity.

I apprehend that the phraseology in question was not without a cause, and that the prevailing custom of attributing all actions, events, &c. to the Divine Being, originated from contemplating him as the great Creator and Disposer of all things; so that not only good, but even, in a certain sense, evil is ultimately to be ascribed to him-to be ascribed to him at least as permitting it. The object was unquestionably to give the entire government of creation to Jehovah, and to exclude, from any share in that government, the fictitious deities of heathenism, fate, chance, &c.; agreeably to Is. xlv. 7. "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.'

But to inter from the above-mentioned canon of interpretation, that the conversion of the human soul, so frequently and emphatically ascribed to divine agency in scripture, is nothing more than a natural and ordinary process, is a conclusion as little justifiable, as it would be to infer, from the same cause, that the creation, so particularly described as the work of God in the beginning of his word, is only a bold oriental figure, to express the self-production of the universe out of nothing.

Your's, &c.

P. R.

For the Christian Observer.

THE superstitions of ancient idolaters, which lie buried in the remoteness of antiquity, may well be left there, unless their recovery tends to throw

light on some passage of the word of truth: thus Dr. Cudworth, by a quo tation from an ancient Karaite MS.*, has shown the meaning of that prohi bition, Exod. xxiii. 19—“ Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk." And I am inclined to think the three prohibitions, Deut. xxii. 9, 10, 11, bad also their origin in some idolatrous practices of the Canaanites or neighbouring nations. I mean, however, at present to confine my obser vations to the third injunction-“Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, of woollen and linen together,” which Maimonides expressly says he takes "to have been intended as a preservative against idolatry, the heathen priests of those times wearing such mixed garments of the product of plants and animals," (More Nevoch. p. iii, can. 37), and this interpretation is favoured by the prohibition being immediately followed by a command to the Israelites to wear fringes on their garments; the reason for which ordinance is declared in Num. xv. 39, &c. "That ye may be holy unto your God which brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God.”

The text forbids the mixture of linen and woollen only in a garment, and the Hebrew canons say, "It is lawful to dwell in a tent made of linsie-woolsie, and to sit upon carpets, beds, &c. made thereof." It is further to be considered, that since the holy garments of Aaron were woven of divers threads mixed with gold, it does not appear that the prohibition respected mixtures as such, but only this particular one of linen and woollen, which therefore seems to have originated in a particular cause.

The word which we translate, mingled of linen and woollen, is

w, and is, probably, not pure Hebrew. Mr. Ainsworth, in his notes on the Pentateuch, gives a quotation from R. Menachem on Lev. xix. 19., from whence it appears that the doctors of the Cabbala understood

*"It was a custom of the ancient heathens, when they had gathered in all their fruits, to take a kid, and boil it in the dam's milk, and then in a magical way to go about and besprinkle with it all their trees and fields, and gardens and orchards, thinking, by this means, they would bring forth fruit more abundantly the following year."

שפך עך letter it is

this prohibition as having reference to some idol worship, expounding it after their own manner thus-" The word means Sathan one of the high rulers, clad with Suthnez, and able to do hurt; by the transposition of one being a root denoting strength, vigour, fierceness, the name may therefore signify a potent adversary, and if not to his worshippers a powerful defender, at least sufficiently formidable as an enemy to be deprecated. It seems, probable, that the priests, (and perhaps, on some occasions, the worshippers,) of this idol, wore a linsie-woolsie garment, whereby Bishop Patrick supposes "they might hope to bring a blessing upon their sheep and their flax," or, as I rather think, to avert a curse, if fear was the principle of this superstition. A magical ring of divers metals was also worn as Maimonides says. These and similar practices would have been highly criminal in the Israelites, who held their land, and the whole of its increase, as the bestowment of Jehovah, on the condition of their obedience and loyalty to him, which, if maintained, insured to them the blessings of plenty. (See the whole of the 26th chapter of Leviticus). We may from this, and some other particular prohibitions of the divine law, be led to consider the great evil of many superstitious customs which even well disposed persons sometimes fall into: it may justly be suspected that they involve a latent fear of some unknown powers, not only distinct from, but supposed to act independant of, the living and true God: and though no such belief be explicit in the mind, it becomes us to be very jealous of whatever may weaken our dependance on Him, of whom, and for whom, and to whom, are all things.

I would further take occasion to remark the propriety of ascertaining the genuine import of a text, before we attempt to use it as an illustration of some point which is evidently foreign to its literal meaning; lest we lose the real instruction it was meant to convey, and build the costly fabric of a true doctrine (not to say the wood and stubble of our own fancies) on a foundation which, being incapable of supporting it, may be likened unto the sand. Matt. vii. 26.

C. L.

EVENING PRAYER FOR A FAMILY.

ALMIGHTY and most merciful Father, in whom we live and move, and have our being: to thy tender compassion are we indebted for all the comforts of the present life, and for the hopes of that which is to come. We bless thy great goodness for the measure of health which we have this day enjoyed; for our food and raiment; for our peace and safety; for our domestic and social enjoyments; for the use of our reason; and for the opportunities of religious improvement with which we have been favoured. But above all, we acknowledge, with thankful adoration, thine inestimable love in sending thy Son Jesus Christ into the world, to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification. To this love we owe thy forbearance with us, thine unwearied patience towards us, the gracious invitations of thy word, thy promises of pardon, reconciliation, and eternal life, and the gift of thy holy spirit to renew our fallen natures, and to enable us to perform thy righteous will.

Here, O Lord, in thy presence would we bewail our carelessness and inconsideration in time past, and the innumerable sins whereby we have provoked thee to withdraw thy tender mercies from us, and to abandon us to the natural blindness and hardness of our hearts. Our lives, even during the day which is now drawing to a close, have little corresponded with those obligations which our christian profession lays upon us, and which, by our baptismal engagement, we have solemnly promised to fulfil. We have loved the world more than God; and we have been pursuing its vain and worthless objects, far more eagerly than the glory and the treasures of thy kingdom. How little, O Lord, have we felt the force of gratitude to thee and to Christ, as the animating spring of our obedience! How little have we been restrained by thy fear and by the recollection of thy presence from transgressing thy commandments! How little has it even been in our thoughts or intentions to please thee and to do thy will!

O Lord lay not our sins to our charge. Be merciful, we beseech thee, to our unrighteousness, through the blood of the Lamb of God which was shed for the sins of the world.

Remember not against us, O Lord, the vanity of our thoughts, the errors of our judgment, the pride of our spirit, the inordinateness of our desires, the violence of our passions, the inconstancy of our resolutions, the selfishness of our motives, or the unworthiness of our ends. Let not the time we have wasted, the talents we have misapplied, or the grace we have abused; let not our unkindness to others, nor our ingratitude to thee rise up in judgment against us. But grant unto us thy gracious pardon for the past; and bestow on us the grace of thy holy spirit to renew us in body, soul, and spirit, and to enable us to amend our lives according to thy holy word. Inspire us, O Lord, with such an affecting sense of thy love to us, as may powerfully excite our love to thee, and produce in us a greater earnestness, zcal, and diligence, in all our duty. May thy favour be the great object of our desire and pursuit, and by thy grace may we be restored to such a lively image of thyself in all righteousness, purity, goodness, and truth, that we may have an abiding testimony of thy love. May the holy dispositions of Jesus Christ be formed within us, that we may walk in all humility, meekness, patience, contentedness, and self-denial, and make an entire surrender of our souls and bodies to thy holy will and pleasure. May Christ reign in our hearts, that we may no longer live to ourselves but to him; and that the life we lead in the flesh may be by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself

for us.

And the same mercies which weimplore for ourselves, we desire also for the rest of mankind, especially for all who are called by the name of Christ. Put an end, O Lord, to the wars which desolate the earth, and cause the gospel of peace to extend its influence from the rising to the setting sun. Avert from this nation the evils which we feel or fear. May our king reign in the hearts of his subjects, may they be dutiful and obedient, and may both live to thy glory. May the ministers of Christ guide their flock with true wisdom and fidelity; and may the people follow their godly counsels. May the rich have compassion on the poor, and learn to trust, not in uncertain riches, but in the living God.

May the poor of this world be rich in faith and a contented spirit, and heirs of thy kingdom. Give thy grace to husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, that in their several relations they may so behave themselves as to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. May all who are endeared to us by whatever ties be dear to thee, and have their final portion with the saints in thy glorious kingdom.

And now that we are about to lay ourselves down to rest, receive us, Ŏ Lord, into thy gracious protection. Refresh us with comfortable sleep: and when we awake in the morning may our first thoughts be directed to thee, our merciful Preserver. Defend us from the powers of darkness, and from all evil accidents: and may our minds enjoy such delightful views of thee and of thy glory, and be so weaned from this world, that we may be willing, at thy call, to depart hence, and to be with Christ.

Hear, O Lord, these our imperfect prayers which we present unto thee in the name and through the mediation of Jesus Christ. Our Father, &c.

For the Christian Observer.

ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE GRACE OF GOD AND A HOLY LIFE.

THERE is in many a strange desire of separating what God hath joined together-the grace of God and the righteousness of man. One set of persons exalt the grace of God, and speak in the loftiest terms of the gospel of Jesus Christ; but say little of the duties of mau and the obedience which is required of him: as if the bare knowledge of the gospel scheme were to be substituted in the place of true holiness; or as if it were wholly unnecessary to enter into the detail of that obedience which man ought to perform. Others, equally unreasonable, insist exclusively upon the importance of moral practice, and view with jealousy every attempt to give prominence to the doctrines of grace; as if a blow were thereby aimed at morality, and as if the obligation to a righteous life were thereby undermined. Both are equally in error. The grace of God supplies a most