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
Its active vigour with its usual fway.
Q. Tell me, Apollo, if you con,

At Bethlehem, and in places by,
Homo many infants there were flain

The time of Herod’s cheelty?
Or pray now send me word again,

And you'll oblige your friend, J. Y.
A. To Bethlehem way your friends attend you,

Or not to fcorn the vulgar Ypeech)
To frantick Bedlam may they fond you,
Since in

your

brains there's fuch a breach; For there cephalicks may amend you,

And how t'addrefs Apollo, teach.
Q. I'm deftin'd by my fate, alas ! or else
'Tis
my

bare genius prompts me to this deed;
My mind's impatient till I view the feas,
Triumphantly to ride upon her maves,
Pusbid on by honour; and I know not what,
Contempt of land, and weariness of life ;
To visit the remoteft parts of earth,

To venture famine, shipuracks and grim denih
Tell me, Apollo, give your judgment here,
What honour, or what glory is obtain'd
In dying tamely, and at home; but then
On ih other side, bomo Orave it is to be
Split on the rocks, and buried in the waves?

A. All who from fenfe and reason measures form,
Propose an end in all they undertake;
To leave firm land for the tempestuous main,
Or home security for foreign risques,
To run to death or dangers about la call

,
Shews an unbalanc'd judgment, and a ftate,
Uneafie in its self, whilft vainly fuch
Seek from themselves to fly, nor know that fill
The hated guest they carry where they go.

Yes

Yet yours may but a flourish be, or brave; -
For many will fpit fire in ev'ry line,
Yet wond'rous cool, when action comes in view.
But if your country's cause your courage fires,
Dangers approach in all its horrid forms,
Through storms, o'er mounting billows boldly ride;
March bravely on thro' Aames and cannons roar :
For say, your grofler elements you lose,
Your nobler part Ahall mount and strike the stars,
Whilft here your name and time shall have one fate.

Q. Hail great Apollo ! let a suppliant greet,
And humbly lay a question at your feet ;
From whom you should not half this trouble find,
But that to others you have been so kind
As to encourage me,

think that I
Among the rest may gain a free reply.
Ii's posible for one that has addreft,
Paid devoirs, and at several times carest
Two mistresses, t'a third can be true ?
The wife solution I expect from you.
May be without suspicion be receiv'd?
And ought her since fo falfe, to be believ'd?
May I accept him with security,
who fwears he now reclaims, and vows sincerity ?

A. If two at several times he thus caress’d,
And with returns by neither has been bless’d,
Still he may love, be true, nay love you more,
( Finding more potent cbarms) than those before.
By something, lovely love is still inspir’d,
And various charms with like success have fir'd.
If Sylvia's smile and soft engaging art
Had gain'd th'ascendaot, and subdu'd his heart;
Yet deaf to's vows; why should not Stella's eyes
Make equally the am'rous swain her prize?
But if he'as vow'd, obtain'd, and falfe appeard,
His constancy to you is justly fear'd.
Q. Apollo, now hark it,

Tis from Newport market,

Where

Where two subscribers in one house do dwell;

If you and your muse

Will leave out the news,
We approve of the thing very well.

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
Good for the same thing as they then was?

For if they belo,

I'd have you to know,
I'll have them with hazard of life ;

For if the fume, as they say,

Drives the devil away,
'Twill rid me, I hope, of my wife?
A. Newport-market to please,

And all who read these,
The news we design in small letter ;

More questions and answers

Thereby to advance, Sirs,
Which all fides must satisfy better.

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,
No others could certainly stink so.

But alas the desert

Of the liver and heart, Altho’a male-devil it might ;

The body and all,

We fear is too small,
A furious the-devil to fright.

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

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

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

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