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Which the sense of

your

Muse is,
A fond thing refuses,
The joy which his soul does delight in.

That the Lady should be

As willing as he
And have charms both to hold and to win him,

Yet he to say nay,

Is as much as to say
The spleen, or the devil is in him.

Q. Behold a suppliant that in humble sirain
Has long invok'd thy oracle in vain!
Thou all things from thy chariot doft survey,
Prolifick father, and the world's bright eye,
Then fure by thee my pireous case was fees,
For thou a lover, and in vain haft been :
Say thou in whom the spring of wisdom lies,
Can man at once a lover be, and wise ?
oh! why should I with such impetuous bent
Pursue the love which I my felf repent,
Thó gilded with the name of pure and innocent.
Next tell the means by which my soul may reign,
And all the passions with due force restrain ; .
That subject and subordinate they may
The rule of reason, nor of sense obey?

A. Yes you may love, and fill retain your sense,
When love from reason takes its eminence;
When fixt on principles, which are divine,
Your wisdom in your love will brightly shine :
But you, alas! to beauty seem a Nave,
We'll teach you how its fervile charms to wave,
And then restore you to that state of fenfe you crave.

The true intrinsick worth of beauty weigh,
To accidents, how subject, and decay;
Deceitful too, since ev'n fruition is
A momentary and tumultuous bliss ;
The purest joy in expectation lies,
Enjoy'd it fickens, and with habit dies:
Maké virtue then the object of your soul,
Your sensual appetite The'll soon controul;

Restore

}

Restore your peace, and fix you on a rock,
which forms of loose desires shall ne'er have power

to fhock.

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Q. What is the fin against the Holy Ghost ; it being menu tioned, but not told what it is ?

A. We cannot say, that we are not acquainted with the nature of this unpardonable sin, since the context gives us so clear a light into it. The Pharisees had maliciously and obstinately ascrib'd that wonderful power of God's holy Spirit, whereby our Lord was enabled to cast out devils, to an impure, to an infernal agency: as therefore he reproves their inexcusable wickedness, so also he denounces an irreversible purithment. Does it not therefore plainly and naturally follow from the common modes of speech, that so terrible a denunciation has a particular regard to that fin, that virulent fin of the Pharisees, which gave occasion to it; but since after this our blessed Lord vouchfafed to promise the fame delinquents that important fign of his resurrection from the dead; lince upon the cross he condescended to implore their pardon at his father's hands; since we read that the holy Ghost was not yet given, that is, the publick dispensation of that blessed Spirit, which was not then commenc'd; since St. Peter in some measure excus'd their condemning the Lord of life; therefore some learned and judicious divines have not irrationally concluded, that the une pardonableness of thus blafpheming the holy Spirit was not to take place till the day of pentecoft, till that signal time, when God set, as it were, his last seal to the doctrine of his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased.

Q. Gentlemen, I have entertain'd my self of late preta ty much with reading your ingenious papers, as this latter part of my life grows dull to me; not that I am an old woman, nor a young girl, but I have married an old Gentlema man who is very fond of me; I desire your affistance a little by way of advice : I have for some few years corresponded with a young Gentleman, and lov'd him to an excess; it was not suitable to our circumstances or convenie

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ence to marry, 'tis true I never ask'd him the question, be cause I was always fearful of doing any thing which might disoblige him ; and as I believ'd my love to him was much more vielent and firm than his was to me. Alebough I had thus given my heart away, yet lift'ning to a proposal for my intereft, and another subftantial reason, which i defire to be excused the not mentioning, I married; yet fill I-amh fo unfortunate to continue to love the other above all things in the world, nay even beyond my self. I must confefs my lover is very grateful to me, and feerns to return is much more rom than before, so that I am divided be tween love and honour, and know not what measures to fake. I desire your gracious advice, or I am loft..

A. Madam, we think your case fo plain, that there is little need of advice, if you would but give your self the trouble to consider that you run the risque of lofing your peace of mind for an empty unsatisfying amusement. Are virtue and honour, and the duty to a husband, things to be trified with? for shame, Madam, think better on't; Apollo blushes for you. You acknowledge it was your interest to marry, and we don't hear that your husband uses you ill, therefore we think you inexcusable to abuse a person to whom it is not only your duty, but your interest to be juf.

Q. It is my opinion that Melchisedecb, king of Salem, who met Abraham and blessed him, was Shem the fon of Noah; for I find by the Scripture account, that Shem lived till near the time of Abraham's death. Now he being born before the flood, and living to so great an age, I am ready to think that there were scarce any could give an account of his defcent; which I take to be the reason shat the author of the epistle to the Hebrews fays his defcent is not counted. Gentlemen, your opinion is humbly defir'd, and in so doing you will very much oblige J. ).

4. Tho' it must be granted, that Shem lived witbin 25 years of the death of Abraham, yet we cannot allow Melchifedech and Shens to be the same perfon. His great age could no ways obscure so memorable a descent: for can we think that one of the three great reforers of mankind could live so recluse a life, as that

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his co-temporaries should not know he was the son of Noah ? and yet he was not an hermit, but a king; not a cloyster'd monk, but priest of the High GOD. Besides, we are affur’d of two, namely Salah and Eber (and many more we may suppose) who were alive at this famous meeting between Melchifedech and Abraham, and yet were born before the death of Noab. Is it at all credible that shem fhould be a King, where his Nephew Canaan was in full poffeffion? and therefore Josephus very prudently diffents from his conceited countrymen, who would fain claim ancestry from so great a personage. The author to the He brews tells us, that Levi paid tythes to Melchifedech in the loins of Abraham ; but were your opinion true; he had likewise received tythes of Abraham in the loins of Melchisedech, fioce Shem was also one of his progenitors. When you thus quote the foremention'd

. author, his defcent is not counted, you: omit such a part of the sentence as determines it to quite another fenfe than you expound it in; for in the text it is, his descent is not counted from them, and this relates either to the Hebrews in general, or the Levites in particular. If it refer to the former (as some learned men conclude) it is a further argument against you, since then Melchifedech was not a-kin to Abraham, who yet lineally came from Sbem; but since we rather think that it refers to the latter, we insist not on the argument, but would observe that what you. suppose to fignify that Melchifedech's descent was not known imports no more than that he was not of the tribe of Levi: but yet the same author in the fame chapter expresses what you fancy to be included here, without father, without mother, without descent. And indeed since the Scripture genealogies take no notice of Melchifedech, who fo well deserv'd to have had his pe-digree delincated, it may be rationally suppos’d to have been purposely omitted, that he might seem, as it were, invested with an eternal priesthood, seem typically representative of the Son of God, who is priest for ever after the order of Melchifedech. We conclude

there;

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therefore with the fore-cited Josephus, that the king of Salem was some great prince among the Canaanites.

Q. Whence is the word Coffin derived ?

À It is derived from the Greek word xéon, cophmus, which fignifies a basket, panier, kettle or coffin, and that derived from xópa, cavus, which fignifies hollow, cavernous, or the like.

Q. It is observed that in many pastures are rings of 10 or 1.2 foot diameter, very different in colour from the other grass, and by the vulgar generally called fairy rings. Pray give us your opinion why they are so discoloured and cirsular?

A. These rings are occafion'd by lightning, striking the part in that form, which leaving fulphureous particles behind tinges the grafs with that

deep colour. Q. Why Charon and Cerberus let Sibil and Æneas pas sooner for having a golden bough, than they would one who had it not, and what virtue that bad more thao any other bough?

A. The reason hereof may not be improperly a ferib'd to the irresistible power of gold, which is hereby demonstrated to be so vastly extensive, as to rule the dominions even of hell it self.

Q. Monsieur Apollo, je vous prie de me dire, pour query les tirans font ordinairement les mieux servis, comme par example le tgran de la France ?

A. A cause que les tyrans ont le pouvoir absolu, & parce que la crainte touché les hommes plus sensiblement q'aucune autre passion.

Q. Dear Mr. Phoebus, since you have to learnedly told us how to make choice of our husbands, pray inform us alfa what qualifications our lovers ought to have? And you will oblige à Lady that is neitber a hater of wit, nor of men.

A. Witty Mrs. Manlove, Apollo recommends a galJant to you, that neither wants riches or generoficy, believing that a Lady of your penetration, when she has money enough, will take care to help her self to every thing else that she likes.

o. Whence is derived the custom of setting up May-poles, and dreling them up with garlands? and what is the res

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