moft ancient manufcripts; nor has the fubftitution of the one for the other been fuggefted by any of the earliest commentators; I am bound to confider this concurrent teftimony of the Scriptures in the verfion of the Seventy, and of the primitive Chriftian writers, not only as forming an infurmountable objection against the conjecture of your correfpondent, but also as affording an almost irrefragable proof, that the crown worn by our Redeemer was, indeed, a crown of thorns.

*

As to the kind of thorn which was used on this most memorable and melancholy occafion, though many ingenious conjectures have been advanced, and much has been written refpecting it, yet nothing can be affirmed with certainty. There is, however, a fingular paffage in the Pfalms which, as rendered in the Septuagint, may, probably, throw fome little light upon the fubject, inafmuch as it clearly points out to us the different acceptations of the words anava and pavos: It is the following paffage to which I allude. Про το συνιέναι τας ακανθας υμων την ραμνον. -Before that your thorns fhall enfold (or equal) the rhamnus." Here it is evident that by axavda we are to understand a more diminutive fhrub or plant than the rhamnus. Dr. Hammond, in his Annotations upon this Pfalm, has obferved that these are both noxious fhrubs of the fame kind, full of hooks and prickles; the former therefore, might probably, be a fpecies of the latter in its young and growing flate; and if the word xxxvx, as ufed by St. Matthew, be underflood in this fenfe, then, it may reasonably be concluded that the thorns of which the crown was compofed, were young and tender fhoots of the rhamnus, which, from their flexibility and tenderness, would easily be made to answer the purpofe of the foldiers.

Now of the Rhamnus, or Buckthorn, there are, it feems, twenty feven fpecies, one of which, the Paliurus, has long been called the thorn of Chrift. "This plant (fays Hanbury) is undoubtedly the fort of which the crown of thorns for our bleffed Saviour was compofed. The branches are very pliant, and the fpines of it are, at every point, ftrong and fharp. It grows naturally about Jerufalem, as well as in many parts of Judea." And from the ancient pictures of our Lord's crucifixion it appears, he adds, that "the thorns of the crown on his head exacly answer to those of this tree." In confirmation of the foregoing opinion it may

be

* Septuagint. Psalm. lvii. 9. Heb. and English Bible, lviii, 10. Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. xvi, 203, 204,

be further obferved, that Diofcorides, (who lived, it is fuppofed, in the age of Nero) as cited by Bochart, Vol. i. 752, has remarked, that the Africans or Carthaginians called the rhamnus or Chrift's thorn, Arad, which is the plural of the Hebrew Atad.* All these circumftances confidered, I think it highly probable, that our Lord's crown was compofed of thorns which were of the fpecies of the Atad or Rhamnus, but which were yet young and tender, and of imperfect growth; for thefe, from their flexibility, would be much lefs troublesome for the foldiers to handle, than if they had been in a state of maturity.

Feb. 20, 1808.

CEPHAS LINCOLNIENSIS.

* Parkhurst's Heb. Lexicon, p. 13.

ARCHBISHOP LAUD'S DEVOTIONS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

SIR,

IN

MAGAZINE.

N the conclufion of thofe extracts with which I have troubled you from the Daily Office of Archbishop Laud, I fhall finifh with the very important subject of

ANNIVERSARIES.

April 11, 1594. The death of my father, and Nov. 24. 1600, of my mother. O eternal God and merciful Father, with whom do reft the fouls of them that die in thy faith and favour, have mercy upon me, and grant that my life may be a preparation to die, and my death an entrance to life with thee. As upon this day it pleafed thee to take my dear father to thy mercy, when I was yet young; O Lord, he was thy fervant, thy meek, humble, faithful, fervant; I affure myself he is in reft, and light, and bleffedness. Lord, while I am here behind in my pilgrimage, fhower down thy grace upon me; thou hast been more than a father to me;

VOL. XIV.

Chm. Mag. Feb. 1898.

S

thou

thou haft not fuffered me to want a father; no, not when thou hadst taken him from me. O be pleased to be a father fill, and by thy grace to keep me within the bounds of a fon's obedience: thou haft given me temporal bleffings beyond defert or hope. O be graciously pleafed to heap fpiritual bleffings on me, that I may grow in faith, obedience, and thankfulness to thee; that I may make it my joy to perform duty to thee, and after my painful life ended, bring me I befeech thee to thy joys, to thy glory, to thyfelf; that I and my parents, with all thy faints and fervants departed this life, may meet in a bleffed glorious refurrection, ever to fing praifes and honour to thee, in and through Jefus Christ our Lord. Amen.

66

On Dec. 26, 1605, being Thursday, and the feast of St. Stephen,he feverely accufes himself, and entreats God's mercy for what he did, begging, “it may not divorce his foul from God's embraces," withing to have fuffered martyrdom with St. Stephen, for denying the importunity of his friends, who were "too unfaithful to him, or else too ungodly;" the flattery of fecrefy for fin is vain," and "it pleafes God to cover the face with confufion." The "remembrance of that day was grievous."-" I was stoned again," fays he, "not for my fin, but by it; raise me up, that I may live and rejoice in thee, through Jefus Chrift, our Saviour. Amen." So ready was the good archbishop to ac cufe and condemn himself, and thereby affording his enemies, both then and now, an example to go and do likewife.

Sept. 26, 1617. Friday. FIRE, and the peril thereof. In this he deprecates God's anger for his fin, and moft fubmiffively takes thame to himfeif, acknowledging "the judgments of God."- "A fire catches the roof under which I was; a fire was kindled in Jacob. My wickedness threatened this conflagration to the college and myself :—whilft I was bufy in putting out the fire, I was within very little of being deftroyed by it, when thy mercy, O Lord, refcued me, almoft by miracle; for whilft a friendly hand, with a fort of violence, thruft me away, at that inftant a smothered fire broke out at that place, and the flairs funk down, and if there I had perifhed, O my fins! O thy mercies! O repentance, fo neceffary! O thy grace, I fhould fo implore! O Lord, I come, my pace is flow and unfteady, but yet I come! I have finned, and am unworthy, wash away my fins, &c. and grant that as the terror then, and the remembrance now, of that fire, may burn up the relics of my fins, and a

better.

better fire of charity and devotion, may inflame me with the love of thee, and hatred of fin, through Jefus Chrift our Lord.

Feb. 5, 1628, I broke a vein; and again, March 6, Sunday, walking in my chamber in the Tower of London, 1641. Here he mentions, that while attending the king, according to his place; " by an unhappy leap in the road, he fell to the ground, miftaken ground, and broke a tendon; was helped into a coach and went to Hampton: the torment and anguifh being ufual to nerves, had caufed a violent. fever, but from the vast quantity of blood that flowed, it brought him low. He went lame for 2 years, and was then fenfible of weakness for it, but heartily thanks God for the ufe of his legs again, establishing his goings beyond all men's expectations, and begging him to direct them in his commands, not to halt between falfe worship and the world, and to confirm his fteps in the paths of righteousness, &c."*

May 11, 1640. My houfe at Lambeth befet with violent and bafe people. The archbishop here laments "the fury of an enraged multitude, fiercely to deftroy him and his houfe, and pillage it," lamenting his fin, and regarding this as "a call to repentance." But, fays he, what I have done to HURT or OFFEND them, I know not, make me, Lord, thankful for the deliverance; and "as for them, let them

* From this account it appears that the archbishop's accident was what surgeons call a rupture of the tendo achilles, or a forcible division of that tendon which passes from the muscles forming the calf of the leg, into the heel bone, where it is inserted. It is the largest tendon in the body, requiring great (and generally sudden) violence to break it, which is accompanied with the sensation of a stone thrown against the place. Lameness necessa rily follows, and a confinement of several weeks to facilitate the re-union of the part. When the patient is able to walk, a highheeled shoe is necessary to favour the contraction of the tendon, and consequent elevation of the heel. After which, Mr. Potts' mode of daily removing a thin slice of the heel (which is made of cork for this purpose) restores the natural action, by elongating the tendon gradually. The mode of treatment not being so well understood in the archbishop's time, accounts for his long lameness of two years, as it requires not only an attention to the last mentioned circumstance, but alfo proper management in the first instance, when too tight bandages have produced permanent lameness, by causing an adhesion of the tendon. What he says of nerves, fever, &c. savors of the old school.

not

not have their defire; yet forgive them, &c. preferve me to ferve THEE, and guard me through life for thy goodness fake, and the merits of my Saviour."

66

to

Dec. 18, 1640, I was accufed by the house of commons of high treafon. Regarding this as a time" of great and grievous affliction," he earneftly begs God's regard, make HIS innocency appear, and free him and HIS PROFESSION from fcandal, to give him comfort, content, and a readiness to die for God's honour, the King's happiness, and the CHURCH's prefervation:" adding, "My zeal to thefe is all the fin (frailty excepted) which is yet known to me, for which I thus fuffer."

mons to

October 24, 1643, I received additional articles, and sum66 trial. my O God and Father, after long impriJonment, I am called to anfwer, ftrengthen me through the trial, and preferve the patience hitherto granted; let not any provocation make me fpeak or do any thing unbecoming my perfon, age, calling, or prefent condition, and make me able to clear my heart's innocency to the world."

Nov. 1, 1644, I received a fummons to appear in the houfe of commons next morning. O Lord, I have a long and tedious trial; I give thee thanks for the ftrength received: continue thy mercies, for the storm gathers and grows black upon me. I am called to anfwer, not to evidence, but to one fingle man's report, and that WITHOUT OATH; furnish me with true Chriftian wifdom and courage, fend not thy storms alfo, but look comfortably upon me, and through Jefus Chrift, &c.

From P. 216 to 229, Daily Office.

in

The fubject of ANNIVERSARIES is of the greatest confequence, and the cuftom of obferving them is of very antient date in the church of Chrift. The opinion of the CHURCH of ENGLAND is fufficiently evinced by her practice, and that doctrine which fhe has advanced and ever maintained upon this important fubject, in order to imprefs and enforce it upon all her obedient fons. That exemplary one, MR. NELSON, has well expreffed both his fense of it, and his entire devotion to her, in his book on the Feasts and Fafis of the Church of England.

The wisdom and moderation of the Church of England, which always appears in all fhe does, fhines very confpicuoufly in that judicious arrangement and felection fhe has made, in her order for the obfervance of HOLY DAYS; not only by rejecting all those abfurd and unfounded names and

days,