Penington, Isaac, a distinguished and zealous preacher of the Society of Friends, was born in 1G17. He was the son of Sir Isaac Penington, lord mayor of London : was married in 1G48 to Mary Springett, widow of Sir William Springett, and mother of the wife of William Penn. Except when travelling in the dis- charge of his religious engagements,he resided on his es- tate, the Grange, at Chalfont, Buckinghamshire. From IGGl to 1G70 he suffered imprisonment for conscience' sake no less than six times. As this victim of persecu- tion was a man of a remarkably meek and quiet spirit, though courageous in matters of religious principle, it is not unlikely that his republican parentage had some share in stimulating the unsleeping vigilance of the civil authorities. It is an interesting series of facts that Thomas Ellwood was domestic Latin tutor to Isaac Penington's children ; that it was through the good of- fices of Penington and Dr. Paget that the amiable tutor obtained the honorable post of reader to John Milton ; and that it was to Ellvvood's suggestion that the world owes the inception of Jhtradise Regained. Penington died in 1G7!) at (ioodncstone Court, Kent, and was bur- ied at Jordans, in the county of Bucks, where his re- mains repose by those of William Penn. Of his nu- merous writings, which amount to more than eighty (principally expositions of his theological dogmas), a collection was published : The Works of the Long Mournful and Sondy Distressed Isaac Penington, etc. (1G81, fol.). Among his productions are, Light or Dark- ness, Displaying or IJidiiig Itself (Loud. 1G50, 4to) : — A Word for the Common We(d (1G50, 4to): — The Fun- damental Right, Safety, and Liberty of the People, briefly Asserted (1G51, 4to) : — Dirine L'ssays (1G54, 4to) : — The Root nf Popery Struck at (16G0,4to) :— 7'/«- Holy Truth and People Defended (1G72, 4to) : — IJis Testimony Con- cerning Church Government and Liberty of Conscience (lG81,4to). See Allibone, Did. of Brit, and A mer.Auth. ii, 1549 ; Thomas, Biog. Diet. s. v. ; Webb, The Penns and Peningtons of the I'th Century (Lond. 18G7).
Penington, John, eldest son of Isaac Penington, was born in Bucks County, England, in 1()55. He died at (loodnestone Comt, Kent, in 171t». He deserves con- sideration here as the defender of his father's theolog- ical views, in whose behalf he published two tracts. Com- plaint (1G81) : — Exceptions against W. Rogers's Strict-
PENINI
890
PENITENTIAL PSALMS
ures on Isaac Peninf/to7i's Writings (1695) : — Certificates on Bekufj'of S. Jerminijs (lGi)5), and five tracts (1695-97) in defence of the Quakers, in answer to the publications of Georj^e Keith ((j. v.). — Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. Auth. ii, 1550.
Peniiii, Ji'Jdaja, bkn-Abraiiam BEnitAsiii, a He- brew poet of much celebrity, and a writer of j^reat orig- inality and research, was born at Barcelona, in Sfiain, in l"i80. and died about 1340. He is the author of a few poctii'al compositions, which are more esteemed for the ingenuity and studied labor of which they bear the marks than for any intrinsic poetical merit. For in- stance, in one of these poems everj' word begins with the letter M. He has a better right to the title of "Orator" given him by his brethren, while Christian writers have compared him to Seneca, Lactantius, and Cicero. He owes this honor to his celebrated work en- titled nSi:? '^3'^r'' {Bechinath Olani), '•Examination of the World," a discourse or letter concerning the vanitv of all earthly things, and the seeking of the kingdom of God. The learned Philip Aquinas, an Israelite convert- ed to Christianitj' in the 17th century, wrote a French translation of it, L'Examen du Monde (Paris, 1629). Great praise has been bestowed on the work itself, and the way in wliich it is treated by its French translator, as well as by Buxtorf, who speaks of it as of " liber in- signis tani quoad res, quam quoad verba, ut cloquentis- simus habeatur, quisquis stylum ejus imitatur." It was also translated into German by different translators, and into English in 1806, and lately in the Hebrew Renew, edited by 31. I. Kaphall (Lond. 1835), i, 135 sq. Being a great advocate of philosopliical studies, Penini vehe- mently opposed the sentence of excommunication pro- nounced by Ibn-Adereth, which forbade the studv of philosophical works (excepting medicine) before the age of twentv-five years, and addressed a letter to him, nibs^rrtn ars, "Defence of the Study of Philos- ophy." He also wrote, SriTri '\'':db, "the Wedge of Gold," annotations on the Talmudic exposition of the Psalms (Midrash Tehillim) : — An elucidation of Ibn- Ezra's "Exposition on the Pentateuch:" — The above- mentioned poem, a prayer in verse, every line commenc- ing with the letter ^, entitled "pw53!l r.",rp3, trans- lated into Latin by H. Prache (Leips. 166-2). and into Ger- man by D. Ottenrosser (q. v.), Fiirth (1808), and B. W. Prerau (Vienna, 1803) : — A commentary on the Psalms : — Compendium of the canons of Avicenna : — Annota- tions on the Talmudic treatises Midrash Kabboth, Tan- chura, and Siphre : — Treatise on the intellect and im- agination :— " The Selection of Pearls," a collection of didactic sayings from the Greek and Arabic sages, since translated from the Arabic by rabbi Judah Ibn-Tibbon (q. v.). He is also said to have composed a work of some ex-tent on the game of chess, under the title of "n"^"? T::"^^ "the Royal Delight." See Fiirst, Bill. Juiluica, iii, 71 sq. ; De liossi, Dizionario storico der/li atitori Khrei (Ger. transl. by Hamburger), p. 257 sq.; Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. iii, 291 ; Grfitz, aescli. derJuden (Leips. 1873), vii, 260 sq. ; Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. u. s. Sekten, iii, 29; Zunz, Zur Geschichte u. Literatiir (Berlin, 1815), p. 467 sq. ; id. Literaturr/esc/iic/ite der s;pi<t(jo(;ulen Poesie (ibid. 1865), p. 498 ; Lindo, Ili,^tcry ofthe'.fevs in Spain and Portiir/al, p. 112 sq.; Finn, Sephardim, p. 302 sq.; Da Costa, Israel and the (Jentiles, p. 302 sq. ; Ethcridge, Introduction to Hebrew fAleratnre, p. 26(( ; (iinsbuV"' Commentarif on Kcclesiastes, p. 6], where a few pieces of the Beckinnth Olam are translated (Lond. 1861); Delitzsch, Zur Gescb. der jiidischen Poesie (Leips. 1836) p. 318 ; Ca-sel, Leitfad/'n J'lir jiid. Geschichte und lAte- ratur (Berlin, 1872), p. 70. (B. P.)