THE LIFE OF JOHN BUNYAN, &c. with representations; but we must bear in mind, that in the hands of Bunyan himself these descriptions are but pictures-not the things themselves: he did not intend they should be taken for that; but when Art comes forward and presents us with a picture of what itself is but a picture, it need not surprise us that the image grows more and more faint, just in proportion to our distance from the thing itself that as we recede from the sun, the body which is designed only to reflect the light should shine with a continually diminishing splendour. But when we turn from the pen of the commentator, and the pencil of the artist, to the history of the author himself-not his outward, but his inward history-we find we have approached the true source of every good illustration of this singular book. A new light dawns upon its pages. We are admitted behind the scenes, not to have the enchantment dissolved, but increased tenfold. The stately palace, whose noble and graceful exterior we admired before, and which was all we were able to behold, we are now privileged to enter. We pass on, with the key in our hand, through the spacious edifice, lost in wonder at its numerous and sumptuous apartments; its rich furniture; its vessels of gold and silver; its walls so curiously emblazoned with the symbols of heavenly things; and its "chamber of peace," to use Bunyan's own image, with its windows that opened towards sun-rising. We soon become convinced that it is no scene of enchantment we are surveying-that it is no unreal and illusory fabric that stands before us, called from the earth by the enchanter's wand, and destined to pass away, with all its walls, and towers, and gorgeous splendours, without leaving a trace where it stood, the moment the genius that created it ceases to act upon our minds. We are made to feel that it is real, and substantial, and true, and that in a sense in which few things on earth can be said to be true. To how many thousands has the work of Bunyan been a piece of fiction, and nothing more! It was no fiction to the man who wrote it. As one who sails on a summer sea, and is delighted and enchanted by its lovely islands, its pearly bays, its shining shores, and the beauty of the skies which are mirrored on its placid surface, but never once thinks of the mighty deeps below him; so many have perused the immortal allegory, satisfied and pleased with the varied and enchanting beauty of its surface-its incidents, characters, and scenery-without making any attempt to sound the great depths of its meaning, or to realize a single one of the many mighty truths which its similitudes present. The truth which the "Pilgrim's Progress" embodies is truth of the highest order-truth of so substantial a kind, and of so solemn an import, that the literal truth would be but as a fable in comparison. Although all the descriptions of this book were actual verities though all its characters were real men, and all its incidents real events-though there was, in some remote region of the earth, a city of Destruction, and a Celestial city, with a narrow path running from the one to the other, with pilgrims going to and fro upon it, or crossing it by the lanes and by 17 paths that intersect it, and affording to those who travel that way, the sight of the villages, cities, and countries which Bunyan has placed in its neighbourhood; leading up at its commencement to the wicket gate, the "shining light" over which might be seen as far as from the city of Destruction, and from thence running straight onward in the direction of the Celestial city; never becoming circuitous to avoid this doubtful quagmire, or this dangerous steep, or this slippery descent, or this gloomy pass, or this enemy's castle, though passing within bow-shot of its walls; now leading by the door of the interpreter's house; now by the foot of the cross; now up the Hill Difficulty; now down into the low Valley of Humiliation; now through the thick gloom and darkness of the Valley of the Shadow of Death; now through the town of Vanity Fair, with its motley crowds and noisy buffonery; now by the lands of Giant Despair; now over the green slopes of the Delectable Mountains; now through the drowsy air, and the entangled soil of the enchanted ground; and last of all, and just before terminating on the brink of the river, through the Land of Beulah, whose orchards stood open to solace the pilgrims, and where there was the continual singing of birds, and where, being on the borders of the Celestial country, a never-setting light, like a beautiful celestial dawn, rested on its fields;-though all the scenery, moral and physical, of this wonderful tale, had actually existed-though all its personages had lived and journeyed, as Bunyan narrates, from the city of Destruction to the country beyond the river-how small a matter would that be, how insignificant the interest and importance of the tale, compared with the grandeur which it is seen really to possess, whenever we are enabled to look through its shadows to its mighty verities-whenever we are enabled to regard the city of Destruction as being the earth; the straight and narrow way from it, as the path that leads upwards through the skies; the shining light over it, as the Bible which God himself has kindled amidst the darkness that broods over our lower region, to tell men that there is a brighter world above, and to guide them into the way that leads to it; and the Celestial city, as the land of immortality, and of immortal men-the seat of boundless splendour, and of unfading blessedness. But though the great depths of the work begin now to be known, we find that we have made a mighty advance as regards our ability to sound these depths, so soon as we have made ourselves familiar with the soul-struggles of the man who wrote it. Great as we may have accounted it before, we now account it much greater. Of Bunyan it cannot be affirmed with the same truth that he invented, as that he described. His facts and illustrations were not so much produced by the fiat of his imagination, as drawn from the store-house of his experience. He had been all that he describes his pilgrim. He had gone every footstep of the way along which he leads Christian. He knew all its by-lanes and cross paths. There is not an enemy upon it whom he had not fought with, nor a danger belonging to it with which he was not familiar. All the toils, burdens, and perils incident to it he had borne. He had shared beyond most in its sorrows; and his, too, and that in no stinted measure, had been its ravishing delights-the joy known only to those who find the narrow way. The city of Destruction was to him no imaginary place. Many days and nights, full of dreadful apprehensions, had he passed within its walls. His eye had marked the black clouds, edged with red, which lower continually upon it; and his ear had caught the distant mutterings of that furious tempest which is destined one day to break above it. He could tell in truth that it is no easy matter to find the strait gate, but a blessed thing to be safe within it. He had stooped and groaned beneath his great burden; but when it rolled down from his back, he had leaped for very joy. He had tasted sweet sleep in the "chamber called peace,” and awaked to see the morning breaking in the east. He had wrestled not only against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities. He had walked in darkness, and had no light; and trusted in the name of the Lord. He had had trial of cruel mockings; nay, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments, in the town of Vanity Fair. Many, many days had he languished in the dungeons of Doubting Castle; but, plucking the key of promise from his bosom, he had seen the iron gates of that dismal place fly open, and taking heart, he had gone forth to solace and invigorate himself in the clear air, and by the pure springs of the Delectable Hills. Thus ever as he went on he began to enjoy more of that which he knew he should enjoy in full at the end of his journey. At last he left the Valley of the Shadow of Death and the towers of Doubting Castle far behind; and being now on the borders of the better country, his path began to shine more and more with the reflection of the splendours of that city to which he was drawing nigh, and his heart to be ravished by the melodies which came floating towards him-the distant echo of the songs of those with whom he knew he should dwell for ever. This, we are satisfied, is the true key to the "Pilgrim's Progress"-Bunyan's own life. No one need wonder why this work is so immeasurably superior to every other work of the kind; why it awakens in every bosom an interest so deep and enduring; why there is such life in its pictures, such power in its imagery, and so much of nature and truth in the actors it brings upon the stage; why the delineation of their characters is so faultlessly correct, and yet characterized by such perfect freedom, that the conception and execution of them appear to have cost the author not the smallest effort; why there is such an irresistible force in its least words; why the writer is so prodigal in every line of the treasures of his genius, and is apparently all the while perfectly unconscious of the riches he is scattering around him; why, among mortal books, this book occupies the first place, and is inferior only to the Bible in point of its combined simplicity and grandeur; and why, in fine, as we pass on, we come, at every short distance, to openings by which we are let see into another world-why it is all this, no one need, or can wonder, who considers what the author was. This we shall endeavour to make good in our next paper. EXTRACTS FROM FRANCIS QUARLES. THE STRICKEN IN HEART. The arrow-smitten hart, deep wounded, flies COMFORT. My soul, cheer up! what if the night be long? Heav'n finds an ear when sinners find a tongue; Thy tears are morning show'rs: Heav'n bids me say, When Peter's cock begins to crow, 'tis day. I AM NOT MY OWN. My heart!--but wherefore do I call thee so? EXPOSTULATION. Canst thou be sick, and such a doctor by? THE SINNER'S MIRTH. What ails the fool, to laugh? Does something please His vain conceit? Or is't a mere disease? THE SINNER'S CARE FOR HIS BODY. What need that house be daub'd with flesh and blood? Hang'd round with silks and gold? repair'd with food? Cost idly spent! That cost doth but prolong Thy thraldom. Fool, thou mak'st thy jail too strong. THE INQUISITION. SOME years ago Llorente published a History of the Inquisition in Spain. He enjoyed peculiar advantages for the composition of such a work. Sources of information were accessible to him from which the public have been generally excluded. He was secretary to the Inquisition at Madrid during the years 1789-90-91; and during the years 1509-10–11, when it was suppressed in Spain, all the archives and records were placed in his hand; and from these authentic materials he compiled his History. It has been supposed that the Inquisition was first introduced into Spain in 1477 or 1483. Llorente is of opinion that it existed there so early as the thirteenth century. Preparations were made for it, as against the Albigenses, as far back as 1203; and it was finally established by Gregory IX. in 1227, about two years before laymen were first prohibited, by the Council of Toulouse, from reading the Scriptures in their vernacular tongues. At the time of its intro for the purpose of eliciting confession. In the course of his trial a prisoner never saw his accusation, nor knew his accusers: the evidence against him was not made known, except a few extracts from the declaration of witnesses, which were sufficient to alarm him, but which left him in total ignorance of the real state of the suit against him. In these circumstances, it was safer for an innocent man to confess heresy and abjure it at once, than to run the hazard of a trial. If, after confession, he relapsed or was again sub-suspected, he was again subjected to torture, or given over to be executed or burnt. duction into Spain, that country was divided into Its professed object was to detect and suppress heresy; but, in practice, it was not confined to heresy openly avowed and capable of direct proof, but embraced the mere suspicion of heresy: and the symptoms or indications which it recognised as sufficient warrant for prosecution, were infinitely various, and often ludicrously absurd. Thus the absence of a right faith was inferred from blasphemy, sorcery, divination, demonology-from abuse of the sacraments, or neglect of them-from absolution not being asked by a man under censure for a year-from schism, or denial of the Pope's authority-from abetting or concealing heresy-hiding those chargeable with it, or not denouncing them to the Holy Officefrom any manifestation of repugnance to the Inquisition itself-from the refusal to expel heretics from their estates on the part of the nobles-from the refusal to repeal statutes that were offensive to the Pope on the part of princes-from professional advice rendered to heretics by lawyers-from permitting heretics or suspected persons to be buried in ecclesiastical ground from a refusal of evidence when any one was summoned before the Inquisition as a witness from any thing in the work of an author that seemed to encourage or palliate error. All these were held to be grounds of suspicion; and it is easy to see how many persons might in this way be involved in a charge of heresy, who were in all essential respects attached to the Popish Church. After burning Hebrew Bibles and other books, from 1490 to 1523, the Inquisition took measures for preventing the circulation of such works as were distasteful to them. In 1539 the University of Louvar was ordered to make up an index of prohibited books: in 1549 it was augmented by the inquisitorgeneral; in 1550 it was again published with additions, including translations of the Holy Bible! nay, in 1558, theologians were required to give up the Hebrew and Greek Bibles! and by a law of Philip II., those who should buy, keep, read, or sell books thus prohibited by the inquisitor, were subject to the penalty of death and confiscation. In this same year, Paul IV. addressed a brief to the inquisitor-general Valas, commanding him to prosecute all schismatics and heretics-" to deprive all such persons of their dignities and offices, whether bishops, archbishops, patriarchs, cardinals, or legates; barons, counts, marquises, dukes, princes, kings, or emperors!" The horrible results of this system of tyranny and persecution are thus stated by Llorente. From 1481 to 1809, under forty-four inquisitors-general, there were, in the Peninsula alone The Spanish Inquisition was suppressed by Napoleon in 1808, and by the Cortes in 1813. But it was restored by Ferdinand in 1814. Pius VII. expressed an intention to ameliorate it, by prohibiting torture, and by confronting the witnesses with the accused. The method of procedure was somewhat different in the old than in the more modern Inquisition; but the latter was most severe. On being appointed, an inquisitor demanded a mandate from the king or In 1820 the Inquisition was thrown open, by order magistrate, requiring the tribunals to arrest suspected of the Cortes of Madrid. Twenty-one prisoners were persons: if the magistrate refused, he was excom- found in it, not one of whom knew the name of the municated. When he went to a particular station, city in which he was, nor the precise crime of which the inquisitor preached in public, and then read an he was accused. "One of these prisoners had been edict requiring all heretics to confess, and all having condemned, and was to have been executed on the any knowledge of such persons, to come forward and following day. His punishment was to be death by accuse them, on pain of excommunication. If persons the pendulum. The method of thus destroying the came forward confessing their heresy within thirty victim is as follows: The condemned is fastened in a days, they received absolution in public, and were re- groove upon a table, on his back-suspended above conciled, but subjected to certain penances and penal-him is a pendulum, the edge of which is sharp, and ties such as being forbidden the use of gold, silver, it is so constructed as to become longer with every pearls, silk, and fine wool. If they confessed after the thirty days' grace, their goods were confiscated. If they did not confess, but were accused, and proved to be guilty, there was no alternative, but either to abjure the heresy, or to be punished: in the case of a semiproof being established, torture was had recourse to, movement. The wretch sees the instrument of destruction swinging to and fro above him, and every moment the keen edge approaching nearer-at length it cuts." This, let it be remembered, was a punishment of the Secret Tribunal in 1820 ! ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE EVIDENCES. THE MONUMENTS OF EGYPT. BY THE REV. JAMES TAYLOR, ST ANDREWS. Or late years a very remarkable and interesting class of contemporary records has been brought to light and deciphered, affording most valuable testimony to the authenticity of the Mosaic history-we refer to the monumental sculptures and inscriptions of Egypt. The walls of the temples, palaces, and sepulchres, which abound in such numbers in Egypt, are completely covered with sculptures, representing the battles, sieges, and victories of the successive monarchs who ruled over that country, and delineating, with every appearance of minute fidelity, the everyday life of the people-their pursuits and trades inscriptions; but the key to these mysteries, so long discoveries belongs to our learned countryman, Dr their amusements and labours-their feasts and funerals their public processions and their religious ceremonies. All these sculptures were accompanied by hieroglyphical inscriptions, supposed to be explanatory of the scenes depicted. But these sacred characters had long remained an inscrutable mystery. Their origin, object, and meaning, were all enveloped in the profoundest darkness. Conjectures there were, indeed, in abundance on the subject, but their contradictory character showed how little confidence could be placed in their accuracy; and the mysterious inscriptions remained a sealed book, which no man could open. While matters were in this position, the abetters of infidelity, like birds of evil omen, who love the darkness, were peculiarly active, and looked with eager expectation to the deciphering of these hieroOne portion of these interesting investigations is glyphic legends, as certain to afford conclusive proofs worthy of being related in detail, in order to show of the falsehood of the Mosaic history. "They called the manner in which the knowledge of this ancient upon those huge and half-buried colossal images, and mode of expressing ideas was obtained. In the island those now subterranean temples, to bear witness to of Philae an obelisk was found by Belzoni, and afterthe antiquity and early civilization of the nation which wards brought to England by Mr Bankes. It had erected them. They appealed to their astronomical originally been placed on a square pedestal, bearing remains, to attest the skill, matured by ages of obsera Greek inscription, which, on examination, proved to vation, of those who projected them. More than all, be a petition of the priests of Isis, residing at Philae, they saw in those hieroglyphic legends, the venerable addressed to King Ptolemy, to Cleopatra his sister, dates of sovereigns deified long before the modern and to Cleopatra his wife. There was good reason days of Moses or Abraham. They pointed in triumph to believe, therefore, that as the inscription on the to the mysterious characters which an unseen hand base expressly referred to these royal personages, the had traced on those primeval walls, and boasted that hieroglyphic inscription on the obelisk itself would only a Daniel was wanted to decipher them, to show bear their names also. On examination it was found that the evidences of Christianity had been weighed that in the midst of the inscription there were two and found wanting, and its kingdom divided between rings, enclosing certain hieroglyphic characters joined the infidel and the libertine! Vain boast! The together. One of these groups presented the same temples of Egypt have at length answered their apcharacters as were engraved on the Rosetta Stone, no peal, in language more intelligible than they could fewer than fourteen times, and had there been satispossibly have anticipated; for a Daniel has been found factorily shown by Dr Young to represent the name in judicious and persevering study. After the sucPtolemy. Supposing this to be correct, the other cession had been so long interrupted, Young and ring would, as a matter of course, contain the name Champollion have put on the linen robe of the hieroof Cleopatra. The comparison and analysis of these phant, and the monuments of the Nile, unlike the two names is in itself so curious, and in its results so fearful image of Sais, have allowed themselves to important, that we may give a brief extract from the be unveiled by their hands, without any but the letter of M. Champollion to M. Dacier, in which he most wholesome and consoling results having folfirst announced his discovery. lowed from their labours."* Various approaches were made by different philosophers towards the deciphering of the hieroglyphic Wiseman's Lectures, vol. ii., pp. 61-62. This custom of affixing inscriptions in various languages, intended only for one country, which might be frequented by strangers, illustrates and explains the reason of Pilate's commanding an inscription to be placed over our Saviour' cross, written in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew. MOSLEM RESIGNATION. "The first sign of the name of Cleopatra, which represents a kind of quadrant, and which ought to be the letter K (C), should not occur in the name of Ptolemy, and it is not there. The second, a crouching lion, which should represent the L, is identical with the fourth of Ptolemy, which is also an L. The third sign is a feather or leaf, which should represent the short vowel E. Two similar leaves may be observed at the end of the name of Ptolemy, which by their position must have the sound of E long. The fourth character represents a kind of flower or root, with its stalk bent downward, which should answer to the letter O, and is accordingly the third letter in the name of Ptolemy. The fifth is a sort of square, which should represent the letter P, as it is the first in the name of Ptolemy. The sixth is a hawk, which should be the letter A. That letter does not occur in the Greek name Ptolemy, neither does it occur in the hieroglyphic transcription. The seventh is an open hand, representing the T; but this character is not found in the name Ptolemy, where the second letter T is expressed by the segment of a sphere. The author thought that these two characters might be homophonic; that is, both expressing the same sound: and he was soon able to demonstrate that his opinion was well founded. The eighth sign or mark seen in front ought to be the letter R; and as that letter does not occur in Ptolemy, it is also absent from his hieroglyphic name. The ninth and last sign, which ought to be the vowel A, is a repetition of the hawk, which has that sound in the sixth." By these laborious researches the Egyptian alphabet was gradually enlarged, and has at length been completed: so that we are now in possession of the means of deciphering the hieroglyphic inscriptions by which the walls of the monuments are covered, and of perusing the records of the exploits of the successive kings who reigned over Egypt, from the days of Abraham down to the last of the Ptolemies, the successors of Alexander the Great. These interesting discoveries gave a powerful impulse to the investigation of the Egyptian antiquities; and in the year 1828 a commission was undertaken, under the joint auspices of the French and Tuscan Governments, for the purpose of examining and making drawings of the sculptures and inscriptions engraved on the monuments of Egypt and Nubia. The celebrated Champollion and Professor Rosellini of Pisa, were placed at the head of the commission, and with them were associated a complete staff of engineers, draftsmen, and architects. They remained in Egypt for upwards of two years; and, on their return to Europe, brought back with them not less than fifteen hundred drawings, together with a particular description of every monument in Egypt and Nubia. The precious materials thus accumulated were arranged by Professor Rosellini, and are now in course of publication at Pisa, at the expense of the Tuscan Government. The publication of this splendid work has excited intense interest, in consequence of the expectation that the invaluable mass of materials which it con The Antiquities of Egypt, &c., p. 78. 21 tains would cast great light on the history and manners of the ancient Egyptians, and especially on the Biblical narrative. From the earliest ages there had been a close connection between God's chosen people and the "land of marvels," as Egypt is termed by the "father of history." "So intimately connected," says Wilkinson, "are Egyptian history and manners with the scriptural accounts of the Israelites, and the events of succeeding ages relative to Judea, that the name of Egypt need only to be mentioned to recall the early impressions we have received from the study of the Bible." Abraham, the "father of the faithful," "went down into Egypt to sojourn there," because of the grievous famine that prevailed, and received from the reigning Pharaoh presents of "sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels." The splendid administration of Josepht-the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt during several centuries-the remarkable events which attended their departure from the house of bondage-the marriage of Solomon to the daughter of the Egyptian monarch-the invasion of Judea by Shishak during the reign of Rehoboamthe overthrow and death of Josiah in battle against Pharaoh-necho, at Megiddo-and the alliance between Zedekiah and Pharaoh-hophra, which led to the downfal of the Jewish monarchy, were all events of great importance to the welfare of both countries, and likely, therefore, to find a place in their national records. Nor have these expectations been disappointed. We find in this portrait gallery, if we may so speak, of the Egyptian monarchs, sculptured images of all the Pharaohs mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, from the Pharaoh who made Joseph ruler over all the land of Egypt, down to the perfidious Hophra whose treachery brought about the destruction of Jerusalem; together with a delineation of their wars and conquests, arts, sciences, and modes of life. An incidental, undesigned, but most valuable proof is thus drawn from witnesses, that cannot lie in favour of the trust-worthiness of those records. Paintings, numerous and beautiful beyond conception, as fresh and perfect as if finished only yesterday, exhibit before our eyes the truth of what the Hebrew lawgiver wrote almost five thousand years ago. The authenticity of the documents of our faith thus rests not on manuscripts and written records alone, but the hardest and most enduring substances in nature have added their unsuspecting testimony, and, by the memorials which they present of the manners, customs, and institutions of the ancient Egyptians, afford a decisive, because an unsuspicious, test of the historical veracity of the Old Testament, and have furnished confirmations of its minute accuracy, which must silence where they do not convince the most sceptical. The title Pharaoh has been proved to be identical with that of Phra or Phre, the Sun which is prefixed to the names of the kings upon the monuments. The name Zaphnath-paaneah, which Pharaoh gave to Joseph, has been explained by Rosellini from the Egyptian language to signify "Saviour of the world." Preface to Hengstenberg's Egypt, by R. D. C. Robbins, Andover, and Dr W. C. Taylor. |
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