Roman Emperor, with whom Prifcian was cotempo, rary: Q. Whither that Active Spark, the foul, retines, When in * (woon the falling man expires? : A. Still does it stand its ground, but can't di£play At Bethlehem, and in places by, The time of Herod’s cheelty? And you'll oblige your friend, J. Y. Or not to fcorn the vulgar Ypeech) your brains there's fuch a breach; For there cephalicks may amend you, And how t'addrefs Apollo, teach. bare genius prompts me to this deed; To venture famine, shipuracks and grim denih A. All who from fenfe and reason measures form, , Yes Yet yours may but a flourish be, or brave; - Q. Hail great Apollo ! let a suppliant greet, think that I A. If two at several times he thus caress’d, Tis from Newport market, Where Where two subscribers in one house do dwell; If you and your muse Will leave out the news, Pray what is the name Of that fish of great fame, That bad lik'd to devour Tobias? And if the heart and the liver Be fill and for ever For if they belo, I'd have you to know, For if the fume, as they say, Drives the devil away, And all who read these, More questions and answers Thereby to advance, Sirs, The fish's true name, (For sure 'tis the same, At least we have reason to think so) Was that which we bring In the name of old ling, But alas the desert Of the liver and heart, Altho’a male-devil it might ; The body and all, We fear is too small, Q. Pray how will you reconcile these two verses in Numbers xxii. viz. ver, 2othi And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, if the men come and call thee, rise up and go with them. And in ver. 22d. And God's anger was kindled, because he went. A. Some think that the leave, he seems to have obVOL. I. O tain'd themselves up to sensual entertainments. Our Saviour therefore, in these words addrest to one whom he here calls to be one of his disciples, does as good as say, the secular (tho' necessary) concern you men tain'd from God, was no more than a sarcastical per mission, and intended to reprehend him for his so eager desire of going, as to wait for a further an. swer, tho' his fuit had been rejected with a flat denial; but others well obferve, that such a farcasm is not altogether fo consistent with the context: but we may rationally fuppose that he went with a greedy avaritious mind; with a mind intent upon nothing more than the splendid promises made him by the king of Moab; and therefore God, whose prerogative it is to search the heart, might well be angry that he went; went with so selfish, fo covetous an intention. Besides, tho' God had permitted bim to go, under this reftriction, but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do, he might yet waver on the road, whether he should not act contrary to the will of God, rather than lose the offers that were made him. And as this seems somewhat confirm’d from the repetition of the same restriction, when the Angel met him in his journey; so it best comports with what we meet with in 2 Pet. ii. 15. following the way of Balaam, who loved the ways of unrighteoufress. Q. What is the meaning of those words of our Saviour in Mat. viii. 22. Follow me, and let the dead bury the dead? A. As sinners are said in Scripture to be dead in trespasses and fins, agreeable to what the father says of his returning prodigal, he was dead and is alive again; fo the antient philosophers call them dead who deserted the discipline they taught them, and gave be managed by worldly men, who are not bufied in niore important matters. Leave therefore the burial of thy dead to them, and defer not thy admission to that holy office to which I have vouchsaft tion may to call you. does ra Q. I am a young man, naturally of a serious and fober disposition, but of late my mind' is carried away very much with vain and idle thoughts, so that I am not able to fix my mind as I ought at church, or at my private devotions, tho' I strive with all my power, I desire your advice, and the most effectual method to repel the evil which I am not able to avoid. A. Many good and pious persons complain of the fame misfortune; and indeed none but the pious and the good make it matter of complaint. To the fincerity of your own endeavour you must add the fervency, the frequency of your prayers; for he alone who made our spirits is able to command them too. Tho' such unsteadiness of thought does very often proceed from infirmity of body; and therefore the physician should be consulted, and proper medicines applied to the disease. But divines lay this down as a cautionary rule, not to be over solicitous about our evil thoughts, fince a too intense solici ther inflame the malady: but yours seem rather to be rambling than wicked thoughts, nanieiy such as rather call off from your devotion than intermingle with it. If neither your own endeavours, nor the prescriptions of the physician, nor your applications to heaven will any thing avail, you must bear it, as you would any other misfortune, with a Christian patience, and comfort your self with this, that so unavoidable a calamity will never be imputed as a lin. Q. Gentlemen, pray reconcile the seeming difference of the texts, 1 Chron. v. 2. And the birth-right was Joseph's; and in Gen. xxx. 24. Joseph is named as the eleventh fon, and Gen. xlix. 22. Joseph is blessed in his place as the elevenih fon, without any thing of primogeniture appropriate to lim. A. Tho' Joseph was the eleventh son, and in that order were blessed by his father Jacob, yet by the tenor of the blefling he receiv'd the primogeniture with respect to what his posterity was to poffefs in the land of Canaan, as you may read in Gen. xlix 22, and following verses. But this is more remarkably dif play'd O 2 |