one, when the eclipse was central ;-the total darkness ended at twelve minutes after two, and the eclipse ended at nine minutes after three, or three hours and thirty-four minutes after its commence

ment.

At the middle of the eclipse the moon was eclipsed twenty-two digits and the third of a digit, being immersed in the earth's shadow not only twelve digits just covering her, but ten digits and a third more. Nor is it unlikely that, in this notable eclipse, the moon was "turned into blood," as she was, when totally eclipsed, at the time we were gazing at her just before midnight on the 13th of October, 1837.

year of the reign of Tiberius, according to the Greek translated by Epiphanius,* and as all Latin manuscripts of that translation, at the British Museum and elsewhere, distinctly state; then Herod's death was thirty-four years and five months after he had procured Antigonus's death, and thirty-six years, six months, and a half, before the death of the said Philip. Moreover, Josephus, speaking laconically, (that is, using the whole number nearest the time in detail,) gives thirty-four years for Herod's reign, and thirty-seven years for the reign of Philip spoken of in Luke iii. 1.

Under the Mosaic dispensation three feasts were singled out from the manifold observances prescribed to Israel. Thus in Deut. xvi. 16, we read, “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles."

Moreover, among the principles regulating these three feasts, one seems to have been that on which our Lord spoke in parables; namely, to meet the case of parties "to whom," as stated in Matt. xiii. 11, "it is not given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." Satan, so ready with scripture when he tempted the Saviour, doubtless knew that it was written in Deut. xvi. 1, 2, "In the month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Thou shalt, therefore, sacrifice the passover unto the Lord thy God." Nor could Satan overlook the connexion between the giving of the law from Mount Sinai and the day of pente

The eclipse recorded by Josephus, like every other lunar eclipse, happened at the full moon. And inasmuch as Josephus also records the passover at the full moon three months afterwards, and gives an account of a sedition against Archelaus raised after his father Herod's death and before that passover, we see, on comparing all the facts recorded, that Herod must have died about the beginning of February, A.c. 1. Moreover, on calculating the total eclipse of the moon recorded by Tacitus as visible in Pannonia, that eclipse is found to have happened on Thursday morning, Sept. the 27th, A.D. 14; and the result not only determines the years of the reign of Tiberius, but, compared with the dates given by Suetonius and Josephus conjointly, shows that Pompey took Jerusalem in June, A.c. 63. And Josephus himself says, that just twenty-seven years afterwards, Sosius and Herod took that metropolis and Antigonus, who reigned there, thus giving June, A.c. 36, for Antigonus's being carried away captive previous to his being beheaded at Anti-signifying 20th; a blot, a worm, or decay, or overoch two or three months afterwards. If, therefore, Antigonus was slain at the beginning of September, a.c. 36; and if Herod's son Philip died in the middle of August, A.D. 36, in the twenty-second

Since the days of Epiphanius in the fifth century KB, the Greek hieroglyphic for 22nd, has become к,

looking in transcribing, having made B. disappear just as the same letter is lost in I tolemy's catalogue

of stars, where the latitude of Alpha Hydro, now given, is twenty and a half degrees south, while

both ancient and modern astronomy concur in showing that Ptolemy himself wrote twenty-two degrees, and a half.

cost. And, the great enemy must also have known that it was written in Lev. xxiii. 42, 43, "Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; and all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt."

Thus, while the three feasts had shadows of good things to come, there was, in each of them, such a reference to time past as tended to blind both bad men and bad angels. The cloud that is light and life to the Israel of God has been darkness and death to the Egyp-1 tians. When, on Friday April the 3rd, A.D. 33, Satan and his agents beheld the Saviour expire on the day, and at the hour, for slaying the paschal lamb, they were ill prepared to say with the apostle, “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us," 1 Cor. v. 7. Nor did the enemies of the great Redeemer see how the type was connected with the antitype on Sunday, May the 24th, A.D. 33, (the memorable day of pentecost,) when a portion of the first fruit spoken of in Rom. xi. 16, was presented to the Lord of Hosts, and when three thousand anthems were sung in God's holy temple above by a countless multitude rejoicing over repenting sinners.

That the feast of tabernacles also had "a shadow of good things to come," there can be no doubt. And, inasmuch as the tabernacle of the ox and the ass, made the Saviour's humble shelter from the day of his birth to the day of his circumcision, is connected with a series corresponding with the observance of the eight days of the feast of tabernacles, while no other corresponding series can be found, we infer that the Saviour was born on the 15th day of Tisri, or first day of the said feast celebrated in September or October.

Calvisius, who wrote in 1605, adopted the right lunar eclipse; and had he been

VOL. VII.-FOURTH SERIES.

as happy in the use of that eclipse as he was in its selection, there would have been no scope for this paper appearing in 1844, as the first publication of a NEW DISCOVERY. Calvisius, however, from two misleading causes, makes the time of Christ's birth a year and a fortnight too early, stating that Jesus was born about the beginning of October, a.c. 3. On this supposition our Lord was thirty years of age at the beginning of October, A.D. 28, and "was beginning to be about thirty" four or five months earlier in the fourteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, contrary to what we learn from Luke iii.

and Luke iii. 23 conjointly. We should go to the scriptures first, and then to Josephus and astronomy; and not begin with Josephus and astronomy, and fail to give effect to some "jot or tittle" in the sacred volume.

Thus, on the one hand, we learn that the feast of tabernacles in A.c. 3 happened at least a year too early for the Saviour's birth; while, on the other hand, we perceive that, if Jesus had

been born at the feast of tabernacles in A.c. 1, he would have been born after the death of Herod who sought his life.

We ascertain, therefore, that the year of Christ's birth is a.c. 2, or TWO BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA, in which year, as calculation shows, the feast of tabernacles began in the middle of October,* at which time the Saviour was born when the shepherds were watching over their flock by night. Further particulars, however, as to the precise day in our calendar may, if desirable, be given in another paper on the correspondence (as type and antitype,) between the eight days of the feast of tabernacles and the first eight days of the Saviour's abode on this atom of his vast dominions. Suffice it to say, in conclusion, that

which style October, A.c. 2, began two days earlier, Till A D. 1752, the Julian style is here used, in by the sun, than our present October does.

7.

the feast of tabernacles was signal- | behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour who is Christ the Lord."

ized by Jehovah as a period of peculiar joy. And such was the time of the Saviour's birth. "Fear not," said the angel of the Lord to the shepherds, "for,

THE SUFFERINGS OF THE ENGLISH BAPTISTS

3

PART II.

These were heroes indeed! for very few men in those days had courage and fidelity enough to tell the bishops of their abominations, and to remind them of a judgment to come. All honour to these noble-minded men-would that we knew their names! In the midst of their deep and prolonged sufferings, the baptists found time to publish a book called "Persecution Judged and Condemned," in which they endeavour to prove by an appeal to the word of God, to the law of the land, and to the declared opinions of the king, that no man ought to be persecuted for his religion so long as it does not affect his allegiance to the supreme magistrate in things civil; that the spiritual power in England is the image of the spiritual

James I. now ascended the throne of England, amid the bright anticipations of some, and the dark forebodings of others; but his character and principles admonished the baptists to set their houses in order, and to prepare for renewed wrongs and woes. Like their illustrious predecessors under former reigns, many of them were now cast into prison on account of their separation from the established religion, which they looked upon as popery in all its essential principles and ceremonies. In the year 1615 they presented to the king a petition setting forth the sufferings they had endured "for many years, in filthy prisons, in hunger, cold, idleness, divided from wife, family, calling, left in continual miseries and temptations, so that death would be to many less perse-power at Rome; that it is a fearful cution.... And of the lord bishops we desire that they would leave off persecuting those who cannot believe as they, till they have proved that God is pleased therewith, and the souls of such as submit are in safety from condemnation; and therefore if there be a spark of grace in them, let them set themselves to give satisfaction by word, or writings, or both. But if they will continue their cruel courses as they have done, let them remember they must come to judgment, and have their abominations set in order before them, and be torn in pieces when none shall deliver them."

thing to be under the authority of men "who tyrannize over the conscience;" and the unlawfulness of flying because of the trouble men see or fear is coming upon them. Notwithstanding the patience and meekness they displayed in the midst of their continued wrongs, and their eloquent exposition and defence of Christian liberty in the book already mentioned, no deliverance arose to them from any quarter, no abatement of their sufferings, no liberty to the captives, nor opening of their prison doors, therefore in the year 1620 they made a second appeal to the iron heart

of James, in a petition written with considerable talent and divided into ten chapters. In that age of darkness and despotism, it is refreshing to find the despised and injured baptists writing against persecution on the ground "that it is against the doctrine of Jesus Christ -against the profession and practice of famous princes-condemned by ancient and later writers, while freedom of religion would tend to the prosperity rather than to the prejudice of the commonwealth or to any loss of the legitimate power of monarchs." Within five years from the date of this publication, this vain and arbitrary monarch was removed by death to a tribunal where persecution will indeed be "judged and condemned."

want of conformity to the state church, and preaching to a separate congregation. While in prison his wife implored the archbishop to have pity upon her and eight children by releasing her husband from confinement, but the priest was unmoved, and ordered his servants "to take away that troublesome woman.' "Hear what the unjust judge saith."

When the civil wars and the overthrow of Charles had placed the reins of government in the hands of the presbyterians, they were almost as eager to persecute all who refused the convenant, as the bishops had been to imprison the enemies of prelacy; so that after drawing the sword in defence of their own liberties, they were inconsistent and wicked enough to use it against the dissenters who refused to worship the idol of presbyterian uniformity. Even the best and ablest men in their community, such as Calamy, Bates, and Baxter, wrote against the toleration of the sects, and especially against the baptists. "This indulgence," they said, "made the church of Christ resemble Noah's ark, and renders it a receptacle for all unclean beasts. They maintained the eternal obligation imposed upon them by the covenant to extirpate heresy and schism, and they menaced all their opponents with the same persecution under which they had groaned when held in subjection by the hierarchy." Edwards wished the parliament to forbid dipping and to punish the baptists in imitation of the senators at Zurich, who tied some of the sect back to back and cast them into the sea, burnt others at the stake, and starved the rest in prison. In consonance with this impious wish, the parliament of 1648 passed a law which rendered it

Charles the first, who succeeded his father, had all the narrow-mindedness, the bigotry, and the lust of power, which render the very names and memories of the Stuarts odious to a large majority of Englishmen. Soon after his elevation to the throne, Laud became his prime minister and spiritual guide. Absolutism in the state, and not the least deviation from the prescribed modes of religion, were the principles of his government. Persecution was the consequence; blood was shed, ears were cut off, noses were slit, the best of men were dragged into spiritual courts, prisons were full of good citizens, the altars of liberty were thrown down, judges were corrupt, juries were packed, popery made rapid strides in the land, multitudes left the country, the seas were covered with patriots, and the land was full of lamentation, mourning, and woe. In the perils and sorrows of those dark days, the baptists had a full share. Mr. Brewer, a baptist minister, suffered fourteen years imprisonment. Samuel Howe, dying under excommunication, was refused imprisonment for any one to maintain Christian burial. Thomas Lamb was dragged in chains from Colchester to London for no other reason than his

or to publish that infant baptism is unlawful or void, or should presume to immerse believers who had been sprinkled

(To be continued.)

ARE YOU A BELIEVER?

IN an excellent little volume by Mr. | plied, "but what I mean to say is this, Innes of Edinburgh, just published under the title of "Responsibility; or, Improve your Privileges," we find an anecdote which may suggest to the reader an important inquiry :