6. But your death, as also the death of this good old man, is not death, but life everlasting to eternity.

7. Moreover, even I myself, shall have to die in this body which I received from you.

8. But arise, O my venerable mother, go and enter into (the room) to Joseph, that blessed old man, that you may see what shall happen while his (soul) ascends.

CHAPTER XIX.

1. Therefore my pure mother arose, and went into the place where Joseph was, and I sat at his feet, looking upon him, for the signs of death already appeared in his countenance.

2. But that blessed old man, lifting his head with fixed eyes, looked steadfastly in my face.

3. He had no power however to speak to me, on account of the pain of death which was upon him, but the place ever and anon resounded with his exceeding heavy groans.

4. And I held his hand for the space of one whole hour, and by turning his face towards me, he signified his wish that I should not leave him, (and)

5. Thereupon laying my hand on his breast, I caught hold of his soul, just as it was in his throat, making ready to depart out of its receptacle."

CHAPTER XX.

1. And when my Virgin mother saw me touching his body, she also touched his feet, and finding them already dead and cold, she said to me,

2. O my beloved son, truly his feet begin to get cold, as cold as ice.

3. Wherefore, calling his sons and daughters, she said to them,

4. Come ye, as many as there are of ye, and approach to your father, for now assuredly it is all over with him, (and)

5. Assia his daughter answered saying, woe to me, O my brothers, for this surely is the same disease that my dear mother died of.

6. And they screamed and cried, and at the same time when all the other children of Joseph were wailing,

7. I also, and Mary my mother, wept with them.

CHAPTER XXI.

1. But as I turned and looked out towards the southern part of the welkin, I saw a mountain coming towards us, and all Hell with it, supported by its army and officers.

It must be observed that Jesus held the soul in hand till the angels came for it.

2. And their garments, their looks, and their mouths, threw out fire.

3. When my father saw these coming right down upon him, his eyes were dissolved in tears, and at the same time he groaned wonderfully.

4. Whereupon, observing the vehemence of his sighs, I drove death away, and the whole band of his servants who attended him, and I invoked my good father, saying,

CHAPTER XXII.-THE PRAYER OF JESUS CHRIST.

1. O father of all mercy, thou eye that seest, and thou ear that hearest. Hear my supplication and prayers for the old man Joseph, and send Michael, the prince of thy angels, and Gabriel, the preacher of light, and the light of all thy angels, and let their whole array march with the soul of my father Joseph, till they shall have brought it to thee. This is the hour my father has need of thy mercy.

2. For I say unto you, that all the saints, yea all men born into the world, whether they be just or perverse, must necessarily taste of death.

CHAPTER XXIII.

1. So Michael and Gabriel came for the soul of my father Joseph.

2. And having received it, they wrapt it up in a bright veil. 3. Thus he committed his soul into the hands of my good father, and he gave it peace.

4. For not yet was any of his children aware that he was dead. 5. But the angels preserved his soul from the dæmons of darkness, who were in the way.

6. And they praised God till they brought it to the habitation of the pious.

CHAPTER XXIV.

1. But his body lay stiff and pale. Wherefore, putting my hand to his eyes, I settled them, and shut his mouth, and said to the Virgin Mary,

2. O my mother, where now is his art which he professed all the while he was in this world.

3. Behold now it hath perished as if it had never existed, (and)

4. When his children heard me thus speaking to my mother, the pure Virgin, they knew that he had now expired, and mingling their tears, they screamed.

This narrow escape of the righteous is evidently quoted in the Epistle

of Peter.

On this authority the Catholics founded their doctrine of the Limbus Patrum, in Limbo.

5. But I said unto them, surely the death of my father is not death, but eternal life,

6. For he is delivered from the calamities of this world, and hath passed into perpetual rest, which shall last for ever.

7. And when they heard these things, they rent their garments and wept.

CHAPTER XXV.

1. And indeed the inhabitants of Nazareth and of all Galilee, hearing of their grief came together.

2. And they wept from the third hour even until the ninth.

3. And at the ninth hour they all went away together to the bed, and after they had imbued his body with sublime ointment, they took it up.

4. And I prayed to my father in the language of the inhabitants of Heaven.

5. That same prayer is it which I wrote with my own hand, before I was carried in the womb of the Virgin Mary, my mother. 6. And as soon as I had finished it, and said amen, a vast multitude of angels.

there came

7. And I commanded two of them, that they should spread a bright garment, and should roll up in it the body of Joseph, that blessed old man.

CHAPTER XXVI.

1. And I spake unto Joseph and said, the odour of death, or his stink, shall not have dominion over thee, neither shall there a worm come out of thy body for ever.

2. Not one member of it shall be broken, nor shall a hair of thy head be changed, neither shall any part of thy body perish, O my father Joseph, but it shall remain entire and uncorrupt until the banquet of a thousand years.

3. And whosoever shall take care of the oblation on the day of thy remembrance, I will bless him and reward him in the congregation of the Virgins.

4. And whosoever shall give food to the miserable, to the poor, to widows, and to orphans, in the day when thy memory shall be celebrated, in my name, he shall never know want all the days of his life.

5. For whosoever shall give a cup of water or of wine to drink to the widow or the orphan, in thy name, I will give him unto thee, to enter with him into the banquet of the thousand years.

6. And every man who shall provide for the oblation in the day of thy commemoration, him will I bless, and reward in the church of Virgins.

7. I will repay to him, thirty, sixty, and a hundred for one.

See the received Gospels, how commonly angels attended on Christ.

8. And whosoever shall write the history of thy life, of thy labour and of thy migration out of this world, and this, my discourse, uttered from my mouth, him will I commit to thy guardianship, as long as he shall continue in this life.

9. And when his soul shall leave his body, and this world must be quitted, I will burn the book in which his faults are written, nor will I torment him with any punishment in the day of judg

ment.

10. But he shall embark on the fiery sea, and shall pass over it without trouble or pain.

11. This is the duty which hangs over every poor man who is not able to do any of the things which I have mentioned-To wit: If a son be born to him, he shall call his name Joseph, so neither want, nor any sudden death shall happen in that house for ever.

CHAPTER XXVII.

1. Then came the elders of the town unto the place where the body of that blessed old man, Joseph, was laid.

2. And bringing with them funeral palls, they wished to roll it up according to the custom in which the Jews are used to bury." 3. But they found him hold his fine linen, for it stuck so close to his body, that when they wished to pull it off, it was found as immoveable and indissoluble as iron.

4. Neither could they find any extremities in that fine linen, which matter caused them the greatest wonder.

5. At length they carried him out to a place where there was a cave, and they opened the door to bury him among the bodies of his fathers.

6. Then I remembered the day when he walked with me into Egypt, and the great trouble which he bore on my account, wherefore I wept for a long while for his death, and leaning over 'his body I said.

" 19 John 40, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

(To be continued.)

SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR THE REV. ROBERT TAYLOR.

(Omitted last week.)

Reading Room of the Sir Isaac Newton's Head, Nottingham..

Aberdonian...

Printed and Published by RICHARD CARLILE, 62, Fleet-street, where all Communications, post-paid, or free of expense, are requested to be left.

The Lion.

No. 13. VOL. 2.] LONDON, Friday, Sept. 26, 1828. [PRICE 6d.

MISS OR MADAM,

It is very strange that, in the English language, we have no proper cognomen or style of address by letter, for a young lady or for the youth of either sex. Sir and Madam very properly belong to mature age and to married people, as each, to some degree expresses parentage. The French address a young lady as Mademoiselle; but our English translation of Miss seems to me to be very imperfect. It does not apply well to a lady after she be twenty years of age, and less so after she be thirty. I am about to address you and another lady of Nottingham, who have had the misfortune to turn thirty before marriage, and I am quite at a loss to know how I ought to begin my letter. My politeness will not allow me to style you OLD MAIDS, though such be the social jeer on ladies so unfortunately situated; and you, I am informed, will not much longer bear the taunt, a resolution for which I very much commend you, and wish you all possible joy in the change.

Our male youth are addressed as Masters, which is certainly etymologically inappropriate; and our male adults are styled Misters, which is a genuine barbarism in our language. Miss or Misses seems to be a corruption of Mistress, and Mistress a corruption of I know not what. So that there appears to be a radical defect in all our social names, or in our style of social address.

In speaking of the master and the servant, we are accustomed to describe them as the master and the man, as if the master were not a man. And the virtue of the female is sometimes unintentionally impugned, in the same way, by saying, the Mistress,

Printed and Published by R. CARLILE, 62, Fleet Street.
3 с

No. 13-VOL. 2.