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, So the Great Mother look'd in Nature's Dawn, Swelis thofe malignant Spirits that dropt from Heaven : In her fair Soul? How Humble, Meek and Mild? All Full of her fragrant Pray'rs? How oft return'd The Rigid Moment haftes, when I must part, And spotlefs Love, fhall live, of after-days 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 |