Primitive Christianity 4PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

So rapid has been the sale of this little book, that many of the original subscribers have not been supplied out of the first edition; hence the haste with which the second has been issued.

Let all those who revere the character, sentiments, and memory of William Penn be encouraged by this circumstance: for, "although dead, he yet speaketh;" yea, his name carries with it its own peculiar influence .

By a little effort he can be introduced to tens of thousands who have as yet but heard his name; and to many more in other lands, who have never heard it.

Who can contemplate the wonderful result of science in discovering methods to dispel diurnal darkness by the aid of gas, without feeling and expressing admiration of the superior intelligence, industry, and perseverance of those whose inventive genius effected an achievement so wonderful? But William Penn calls our especial attention to a light of far transcendent magnitude and importance,--even that light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and which alone emanates from God, and to which all will do well to take heed.

I have been particularly requested to explain certain dates found on pages 30, 31, 32, 33, &c., which I do with pleasure.

Formerly there were various kind of years in use; but, for the object now in view, it is unnecessary to allude to more than three of them.

The civil year is the legal account of time which every government establishes to be used within its own dominions; and, until 1752, in all Protestant countries the different kinds of years began at different periods. One commenced

6 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

on the first day of January, --the Circumcision ; and another began on the first day of March; a third on the twenty-fifth day of March,--the Annunciation , or Lady-day .

The General Assembly of Pennsylvania, on the seventh day of December, 1682, enacted a law making the year to begin on the first day of March , and the months to be numbered accordingly: hence, March was "1st mo.,'' August was "6th mo.," and February was "12th mo.," and so on. *

We often meet with 7ber for September, and 8ber for October, and 9ber for November, and 10ber for December. While on this subject, a few more lines will serve to explain an interesting feature connected with the foregoing.

The time intervening between the first day of January and the twenty-fifth day of March was the commencement or opening of one kind of year, while it was the closing or termination of others; hence, we frequently meet with dates given thus: "22d 11mo. 1685-6;" "12th mo. 15th, 1668-9;" and "February 23d, 1693-4;" and "January 28th, 1641/2;" and, "At a session of the General Court in Hartford on the 24th of March, 165/6/7/8;" because those days were in more than one kind of year.

This led to great confusion, and, by an Act of Parliament passed in 1751, the necessity for double dating ceased on the last day of December of that year. For by said act the next day -- viz. : January the first -- should be reckoned, taken, deemed, and accounted to be the first day of the year of our Lord 1752, and so on, from time to time, the first day of January in every year, which should happen in time to come, should be reckoned, taken, deemed, and accounted to be the first day of the year. **

Hence, since the last day of December , 1751, "1st month" means January; and " 2nd mo." means February; and "3rd mo." is March.