one. 3 The foul, retir'd, does then refign Teaching to write verse just like thine. But since our follies you insist on, Or ne'er of fools you'd' ask a question. Q. Must not the begetter be pre-existent to the begott ten ? And, if so, how is the son of God from all eternity? · A. The fecming abfurdity arises from estimating the eternal generation of the son of God by an hu'man, But the neareft idea we can form of that uufathomable mystery may be taken (as the ancient fathers, as well as modern divines observe ) from the fun, and its coæval emanations, where the sun is prior in order of conception, tho' not of time. Q. According to the history of our English Bible, Adam and Eve were the first man and woman ; and they had.. two fons, Cain and Abel, whereof the former flew the latter, and fled into the land of Nod, ( a country remote from his father's babitation ) where he is said to take to, him a wife, by whom he had a son nam'd Enoch, after whose name be called the city, which he built. Now you wou'd oblige me and many others, if you would solve me these questions : Whose daughter Cain's wife was; and. what people sbey were, who built the city, which. Cain, caba led after the name of his fon ? A. Your questions proceed upon several mistakes: You suppose Adam to have had no other children. than Cain and Abel, when the former Dew the latter whereas, by comparing the 25th verse of the 4 chap. with the 3“ verse of the sole chapter of Genesis , it seems highly probable, that the world had been then created near 130 years. And, if so, a numerous offspring might by that time have proceeded from Adam, however, Moses might think. fit, to pass the mention, of them by, as not pertinent to his design. You also, intimate, that the land of Nod was inhabited before Cain came to, it, and seem to gather it, not only, 16 from from the building of the city, but also because the expression of Cain's Aying to the land of Nod, you may think implies, that it had that name before he came thither ; whereas the land of Nod fignifies in Hebrew the land of wandring, so callid from Cain's wandring there. And therefore Mofes express'd himself by way of prolepsis, or anticipation of the time, and meant no more, than that Cain fled to that country, which was afterwards called the land of Nod. You again fuppose, that Cain built the city, as soon as arriv'd at the land of Nod, whereas the very name of the place, as expounded above, fupposes him to have wandred there for some time, before he had so fettled an abode as a city must be allowed to be. He then might have built the city in his old age, when his own descendents might have multiplied exceedingly, whom therefore he might have employed in the building of it. You assert withal, that Cain' is said to have taken a wife in the land of Nod, whereas it is only said, that he knew his wife. bable at least, that he had taken her before the murder of his brother, since we can scarce believe, that any one would have been willing to be join'd to such a cruel and blood-thirsty man; and tho’ by reason of fcripture-filence concerning the time wherein Cain married this wife, we can no ways know whether She was his fifter or niece, or a more remote relation, yet we must necessarily allow, that one, or more must at first have married their own fifters; nor is this a reason of its being lawful to do so now, since (as Grotius well observes) the same things may be lawful in some circumstances, which are unlawful in others. The first married couple had absolute neceflity to plead in their behalf. Q. * what refpect is Noah called the eighth preacher of righteoufaefs, 2 Pet. ii. 5. seeing in the genealogy of the patriarchs, Gen. v. he is reckon'd the eleventh (inclusively ?) A. As Noah is not the eleventh, but the tenth, in the genealogy you mention, so the ordinal eighth in 3 St. Peter And it is pro a St. Peter is join'd to perfon, not to preacher of righteousness ; and relates to the number of those, who were saved in the ark from perishing in the deluge, as the text evidently Thews. But because the styling of Noah the eighth person of those that were rescued from the flood, may seem to denote him the last of the eight, whereas he was the first; we must know, that the phrase may also Gignifie one in eight, or that Noah, with seven more was saved from that common calamity; a propriety of speech to be found also in. prophane authors. 0. Why did David give half Mephibosheth's land to Ziba, who bad falsly accused his master ? A. It was, no doubt, a failing in David, who, in this was partial to Ziba, whom we may suppose to have been a favourite. Q. In 1 Kings vii. 23. we thus read of Solomon, And he made a molten-fea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other : It was round all about, and its height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about. You are defor'd to demonstrate, how such a line could compass it? A. The ten cubits give us the diameter of the molten-sea, and the thirty the circumference. Now the proportion of a diameter to the circumference is as 1. to 3, abating a fraction, too inconsiderable for the historian's notice. Q. Why a feed taken from a single flower, and town, produces a double flower? A. When it happens so, it must be because the feed is sown in fome earth, which affords a greater quan: tity of the juice, fit for the generation of that flower, than did the other where it grew but single. Q. Why are persons, when wounded in the lungs, affected with a smiling Countenance ? A. We presume it may proceed from the communication between the nerves of those parts, and the nerves of the mouth and face, since they arise from the same trunk, a Q. Why a Q. Why does a feed taken from a flower of one colour produce a flower of various colours ? A. The diversity of colours proceeding only from the different, either figure or position of those particles, which constitute the surface of a body, by making a different reflection and refraction of the rays of light falling upon them; to produce a variety of colours in a Rower, nothing more is requisite, tban that some alteration be inade in the situation of those parts, out of which its fuperficies is compos'd, which may be easily effected, by some small difference in its nutritious juice, or by the ambient air, Q. What is the reason that laymen are suffered to read in Cathedrals, and not in Churches ? A. It is a custom of great antiquity, and doubtless instituted by the fathers of the primitive Churches : Nor does an ordination seem any more necessary for laymens reading the second leffon, than for our clerk's reading the pfalms. Q. Gentlemen, Having lately had some too familiar conversation with strange company, my body finds the effeats of the itch, viz. fcratching and anointing ; I have an itch in my mind to know the cause of this disease, and of its being catch'd by touch ? Prag scratch my mind in folving this for your bumble servant, &c. A. We question not your familiarity of converfation, since you have given us such lively tokens thereof, and fince your mind, as well as your body, is infected, we'll endeavour to palliate the passion of the former, and advise you to seek better conversation for the cure of the latter. The cause then is a dege. neration of the lympha contain'd in the miliary glands of the skin, which by its volatility propagates such a fudden contagion. Q. Gentlemen, We have sent you four letters, and you have let 'em all lie fast asleep, we thought you would have oblig'd us in one or other of 'em in your fupernumerary paper, but to our great mortification we find they still lie dormant. We have now another learned.one to propose, and that is, which are our four questions that we proposid, aod. and you M. E.. T. G. F. H. Q. An arch of 72 degrees being drawn by any ra.. dius, I desire a strait line- equal to the curve line, or arche Now if you answer this, r'll say you are ingenious Gentlemen. A. What! Will nothing less than the quadrature of the circle satisfie you ? And muft not we be reputed. ingenious Gentlemen if we don't find it ?- Indeed 'tis a little bard upon us ; had you been contented with an approximation, we might easily have given it, and have told you, That the radius being 7, the circumference would be 44 nearly, and consequently the arch-of 72 degrees about 85, but this truth is almost as ancient as Apollo, and therefore we had not deferved the character of ingenious barely for that anfwer : But let's fee, suppose we should tell you that we are able to aflign the proportion of the radius to the circumference, with such an exactness, that the error shall be less than any affignable quantity, and that a perfect proportion can't be given in numbers, not from the imperfection of human understanding, but because 'tis demonstrable, that there be no numbers in nature that can express it, would this do ? If not, pray Sir send another subject to try our ingenuity. Q. What is the reason that oranges never grow in England ? A. Because these northern climates are too cold to cherish them to maturity, without artificial heat, which, in some measure, fupplies the defect of the natural. Q. Supposing a cubit foot of silver to be drawn out in wire of Å of an inch circumference, I desire to know to.. what length it may be drawn out ? Miles |