Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

as fmall as Duft. The Tar- confidering the gr gum of Onkelos follows the He- of Time, the Differ brew, and the Arabick the Sy-nunciation between riack. If in the whole we and other Lauguas confider the Senfe in which certainty of Profane that proverbial Speech,- Beat- who disagree as mu ing to Duft, or Powder, is taken, themselves, as with there will be no manner of dif- tures, and are, at ficulty in the Place. Fragments, we ra Q. Whence comes it that to wonder there fhou there's fo great a Difference be- ny Names alike, th tween the Holy Scriptures and more which difagree Profane Hiftory, in the Names of the difference of of the Kings of Egypt, Babel, have in Vol. I. Page and other Countries; which Abafuerus. There feems the ftranger, becaufe fome Thing more which of thofe Names are the fame in the Confufion, whi both Hiftories, as Darius, fame Names being Cyrus and Artaxerxes? whole Succeffion: A to the Egyptians, an xes to the Perfians, rus Siculus informs u

A. For the Sacred Hiftories, we are fure they are True, and confequently, if there thou'd be any irreconcileable Difference

Gentlemen, If the following ELEGY (written in of Milton's Verfe, upon a very vertuous and deferving man) may find a Place in your Athenian Oracle, you n by not only oblige the Publick, But

Your Humble

An ELEGY on Mrs. H

When Bleft Climene fled to augment the Bleft, And mounting fpurn'd this worthless Globe away; Uriel, who rules that glorious Orb of Light, Whofe flaming Gold unceffant Splendor Sheds, And gilds with Waves of Day our darkfome World; Her Rifing faw, thro' his divided Rays, Which fled at her Approach, as Scouts heat in To their main Body, or as mortal Fires At his Cæleftial Blaze: Still more Intent, He faw a Form coming Shooting by the Moon, Which caft no Shadow, but exceflive Beams, And fill'd her Creicent with prodigious Light: Native of Heaven it feem'd, but wanted Wings, Jet free and vigorous, thro' the wide Expanfe,

From Orb to Orb mov'd toward the Seat of Blifs,
By Force congenial drawn; nor wanted round
Cherubic Cuards, tho' more for Pomp than Need,
Since none fpred under their affiftant Wings,
As wont they, when from Earth for Blifs-return'd
Convoy to vulgar Saints: Amid the Train,
He Amiel faw, than whom in all the Quire,
Shines not a Friendlier Spirit to Humane Race.
Then thus O greatly lov'd of Earth and Heaven!
Lover of both, fay, what new wondrous Guest
Your Squadron waits; for fince great Mary's Star
Shot upward, never fuch exuberant Light
Flow'd from Earth's, dusky Globe; fuch Symphony
And Angels loud Acclaim I never heard:
To whom fair Amiel thus Brightest of Thrones!
Commiffion'd by th' All-high with teddy Hand,
To Rule yon Orb, most like the Mount of GOD!
The Charge we now attend with dutious Care,
Well merits all our Pomp and Harmony;
Nor now first known, for as to Sarai old,
Mother of Kings, whofe Hofpitable Tent
Receiv'd us, Angels ber familiar Guests.
Tho' not of Princely Race, (nor only they
Our waiting Share,) yet not ignobly born:
The generous Ancient Blood which fwell'd her Veins
Flow'd pure, tho' diftant from the Fountain-Head.
Ermins, and Coronets, and glittering Stones,
Nor worn, nor mifs'd; Metals and Stars difdain'd,
Emblazonry of Vertues made her fhine.

So the Great Mother look'd in Nature's Dawn,
Beneath the fragrant Shades of Paradice ;
So look'd, fofpake: For, Uriel! I was there,
When on a pointed Sun-beam you came down,
To warn Great Gabriel of the Latent Foe;
Commanded oft abroad to beat the Groves,
And walk the Rounds about the Bow'r of Blifs,
In Station oft, near the firft finlefs Pair,
Obferving unobferv'd, and there discern'd
Such Faith, fuch Care, fo ready Will to please,
Such Concord, Shadow of Cœleftial Blifs;
How kind, how decent? Nought delights us more,
Nor ought with keener Spite, or blacker Rage,

Swelis thofe malignant Spirits that dropt from Heaven :
Nor wonder thus fhe liv'd, and mock'd their Hate,
Where fhou'd they fix, when neither Proud nor Vain,
Their most induftrious Malice cou'd difcern

In her fair Soul? How Humble, Meek and Mild?
Her Worth fhin'd outward, Uriel! as thy Rays ;

All

Full of her fragrant Pray'rs? How oft return'd
Loaden with Grace and Bleffings from the Throne ?
And as fhe liv'd, fhe dy'd: for ftill he pray'd,
And ftill fhe lov'd. And when Life's ebbing Sand
But a few Grains had left, thick crowding on,
She thus, to the fad Part'ner of her Soul.

The Rigid Moment haftes, when I must part,
(So Life's great Ruler wills) from Life's Tweet Air
And more, from thee. My best of Friends, Fare
But our true Friendship let no Hour divide,
Not even this laft; our ftedfait Amity

And spotlefs Love, fhall live, of after-days
The Wonder and Example: Heaven it self,
Where all our Power's enlarg'd and perfected,
Will let me still love on, till that bleft Day
Which joyns us once again to part no more.
Thus fhe, thus Amiel: Uriel thus rejoyns:
Then has not Faith or Vertue left the World,
While fuch as thefe are there; or Recent, leave
Such bright Examples ; ftill my Orb shall roll,
Still fhall the Planetary Dance renew ;
Nor that fair Place where Adam's Off-fpring reigns,
Hung by a Golden Chain to Heaven's high low'rs,
Break from its Stay, and fink in endless Night.

Q. How comes it to pass that Cain's Damnation is fo avouch'd by fome Men?

But yet

that Number; both be went out from the Pre the Lord, the Con of his Church, in his Family, whither, that of, he never return' and because of what is thofe Reprobates, S

who h

in the Gainfa

4. We confefs, there are few Judgments of that Nature which we do not think rafhly made, fuch fecret Things belonging to GOD. if ever one might venture to mentions, pafs a Sentence, it might be, in the Way of Cain, one wou'd think, in the Cafe rish'd of Cain and Judas; both of Core. whom, fame think it uncha- Q. What Credit is to ritable for us abfolutely to pro-to the Account of Singin nounce among the Damned in the Air at Cevennes But whatever their Judgments ther Places in France, may be in thefe Cafes, particu-the Heat of the Perfecutio larly that of Cain, we think as related by Monfieur Ju it, at leaft, among things moft his Paftoral Letters? highly probable, that he is of!

both Chriftian and Sirname, tho' both unusual, really execu

A. Our Opinion is, if the Fact be true, that 'twas only the Eccho of fome Voicested; feems to be of the fame

Nature with the firit, which we have already judg'd only accidental.

Singing in the Hollows of the Mountains, where the poor Proteftants might be got together at their Devotions, which by the particular Situation of the Place, and perhaps the Affiftance of the Wind, might be heard at fo great a Distance, we hope none will take this Opinion of ours in ill Part, fince it becomes fuch as wou'd fearch out Truth, not to be too credulous in the Belief of fuch things as feem vifibly to furpafs the or-pentance may be judg'd true and dinary Power of Nature.

Q. The Querift dreamt he faw a Comet, and was extreamly frighted at it; about a Month after which the great Comet appeared, the last that was feen in England: He defires to know whether there were any thing extraordinary in that Dream?

4. There's no Reason to believe there was, his Dream appearing purely accidental, and form'd from the Idea of fuch Comets as he had before feen, or heard defcribed. There's another Perion, who comes in with his Dream too; That he faw a great Man lying dead upon his Back in a River, with marvellous large Teeth in his Head. To which, all the Anfwer we think he deferves, is, That 'tis great Pity the Roguy-Dreamer fhou'd not be whipt till he confefs'd he dreamt all this waking. Another, of a "Gentleman who

Q. Whether a Perfon who has been guilty of grievous Sins, but has not been only truly forrowful for 'em, but abftained from 'em, ask'd Pardon of GOD Almighty, and hopes he has obtain'd it: Whether he ought not publickly to confefs his Wickedness, and deliver himself up to the Magi ftrate, to be punish'd according to the Law? And whether his Re

fincere, without he does fo?

A. Some of thofe Crimes in which the Querit inftances, are not punishable by the Laws of England. As for the reit, That, Nemo tenetur accufare feipfum, No Man is oblig'd to accufe himfelf, has been ever thought an unquestionable Truth in the Law of Nature; where any confiderable Damage will certainly, or in the higheft probability befall him for the fame. Where the Crime is not Capital, as in fome forts of Theft, the Cafe is fomewhat alter'd: The Party injur'd may be founded by a Third Perfon, as has fometimes been done; and if it may be without hazard, Acknowledgment of the Injury, as well as Reftitution, where 'tis poffible to be made him.

Q. Whether fuch a Perfon may be judg'd a rightly prepared Communicant, unless he openly

generous and good Action to fave my Life.

Q. Were there any fuch Creatures as the Amazons, or are we to think all that Story no better than a Fable?

A. We are ready to grant many fabulous Things may be reported of these Amazons, as there have also bin of the

A. This feems a Nicer Point than the former. However, we are mistaken, if the Refolution thereof does not chiefly depend on the Sincerity of the Repentance. Now we are fure, the fame, and greater Sins than thefe, have by God's Grace been pardoned. Thus in the Cafe of Manaffeh, who was an open Conjurer and Murder-Wars of Troy, where they are er, and even in theirs who faid to have been prefent; Crucified our Saviour, who yet but 'twou'd be as hard to conobtain'd Mercy. Nor can we clude from hence that there fee any Reafon, why thofe was never any fuch People as who have a Right to the Par-the Amazons, as that there don of the Gospel, fhou'd not was never any fuch Place as have it as well to the Privi- Troy, or (with us) never fuch ledges thereof, and to the Seal a Perfon as King Arthur. But of that Pardon in the Bleffed for pofitive Arguments for Sacrament; and this indepen- their real Being, fince tis only dent on any, but G OD who a Matter of Fact, we'll refer gives it. Nor feems there any the Reader to fuch AuthoriReafon to ftrain a Precept,- ties as we have on this Subject. Confefs your Faults one to an- Plutarch has an ingenious Difother, to fuch a Heighth, as course thereon, but the Mifthereby to expose a Penitent to chief is, he only Summs up thofe ill Confequences, which the Evidence, not very strong might thence very probably on either Side, and leaves the happen. Reader to be Judge, without himself paffing any Sentence. The Hiftory of Alexander mentions Thaleftris the Amazonian Queen, who defired to be acquainted with that vigorous Young Conquerour; but Alexander's own Letter to Antipater of all that befel him in those Parts, have not one Word on't, which may feem to be as ftrong as a Negative Argument can be imagin'd, unless fome fhou'd fay for him, That he was a Man of Honour, and had too much Gallantry to boait of fuch Favours: "Solimus and Pomponius Mela are pofitive for 'em, (but for the Credibility

Q. Suppofe a Perfon who hates me, endeavours to kill me, with the Hazard of his Life; another that loves me interpofes to fave me, to the Danger of his: In this Cafe which is the Stronger, the Hatred or Love?

A. They feem to be equal, fince their Effects are fo, and the Hazard just as much in one as the other: Unless from a Theological Reafon we fhould fuppofe the Hatred to be the Stronger, because it makes the Enemy hazard his Soul as well as his Body in killing me; whereas the Friend only ventures his Body, nay, does a

« ПредишнаНапред »