Who willing pris'ners makes the beauteous nine,
Whilst others arms they scornfully decline.
To fet in clearest light the doubt, 'tis he,
Whofe province it has been, to treat with me.

A. So foft, fo fweet, your charming numbers flow,
So bright a foul, their tuneful author shew;
Whilft Theodora by thefe powerful arts,
Affaults, o'ercomes and captivates our hearts;
Enough to fhake our undivided ftate,
Were not our amity confirm'd by fate.
The glorious prize each claiming to belong,
To fecret merits of his happy fong;
Whilft we alternately our force rejoin,
Ambitious in your favours ALL to shine.
Since, each then to that province hath afpir'd,
And each with hopes of fair fuccefs is fir'd;
Which is the happy fwain, we all submit,
To the unerring umpire of your wit.

Q. In the xxth chapter of St. John and the 17th verfe, Jefus faith unto her, viz. Mary Magdalen, touch me not; for I am not yet afcended to my Father, &c. And yet in the 28th of St. Matthew and 9th verfe, it's faid, And they came and held him by the feet and worfhipped him; and in the 24th chapter of St. Luke it's to the fame purpose, viz. And the fame day, at evening, Jefus food in the midst of them, and fays, Behold my hands and my feet, for it is I my felf; handle me and fee, &c. Now I defire your opinion whether Chrift did afcend, or no, before he made his publick afcenfion?

4. That Chrift did not after his refurrection afcend into heaven before his publick afcenfion, is what all expofitors are agreed in; and therefore the difficulty lies in the expofition of those memorable words, Touch me not, for I am not yet afcended to my Father. And as this paffage has tortur'd expofitors, and therefore put them upon variety of interpretations, fo we beg leave to propofe, what feems to us to bid the faireft for the genuine fenfe. But we would firft obferve, that what we tranflate, touch, fignifies also to detain or hold fast. And therefore our Saviour does

not

not forbid her to touch him for the proof of his real humanity, but as fhe may be fuppos'd out of her ardent love (for our Lord himself affures us, that he loved much) to have detained him longer than he thought convenient, fo he alfo may be naturally fuppofed to have reftrain'd her unfeasonable love in the forementioned words, which we would thus paraphraftically expound. "Detain me not, Mary, from the business which my Father fent me to do. For I am not yet afcended to my Father, I have not yet discharged my "mediatorial office, an office neceffarily confequent "to that expiatory facrifice I offer'd upon the cross. "Since therefore I have fo great, fo important an

employment upon my hands, interrupt me not with your now impertinent embraces, but fuffer me to "make needful preparations for fo vaft, fo momentous an affair. Suffer me to confirm my melancholy difciples, my defponding brethren in the grand "article of my refurrection from the dead. Suffer me "to fhew my self alive unto them, by many infallible proofs to be feen of them forty days, to speak of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Suffer me "to difcharge this weighty bufinefs upon earth, that "I may be ready to afcend up on high, to lead captivity captive, to fit down on the right hand of God, to "make interceffion for the fins of the people, to receive gifts for men, that the Lord God may dwell among "them. And when I have performed all this, when "I am afcended to my Father, then I fhall be ready to "receive you at your diffolution: you and every o"ther departing faint, into my everlafting embraces, my eternal arms. Then I fhall no longer fay, De

.

"tain me not.

Q. Is there any charm, incantation, or medicine in nature fo powerful, as to be able to force the appearance of any Spirit, damon, or apparition of a deceased perfon ?

A. We cannot think it, for two reasons.

1. We cannot conceive, that matter without 'the mediation of a vital union, can operate upon an immaterial fubftance, unlefs by the intervention of an almighty agency.

2. If matter, while within moderate degrees of vicinity, could influence a spiritual fubftance, yet the unknown diftance of feparate fouls would naturally prevent the application.

Q. In the fens near Thorney in Northamptonshire, I have feen oak trees of a black colour, that have been taken out of the ground about two foot deep, and twelve or fourteen foot in length. I defire your opinion, whether they were there buried, or of natural growth, by reafon all the winter the ground is covered with water, nor are there any trees growing within three miles of the place. I have heard alfo of the like in Cheshire.

4. It is thought by fome, that those trees which are found laid down fo deep in the earth, have been there ever fince the flood, and that having at that time been rooted up and carried to and fro, by the violence of the water they were left in feveral places where no trees grow, and remained covered by the loofe earth or mud, which by degrees fettled from the waters, as they did either evaporate or retire into their channels. That is the most probable account that can be given of those who lie pretty deep, and are of a confiderable bignefs: but as for thofe you mention, perhaps it may not be neceffary to have recourfe to that general inundation of the earth, but only to fome particular one.

Q. How do you prove that there are antipodes?

A. On fuppofition that the earth is globular, if a ftrait line be drawn from any part of the fuperficies, and extended quite thro' the globe, fo as to penеtrate the centre, they, who inhabit the two extremities of the forefaid line, are call'd Antipodes: and therefore the folution of the queftion depends upon the proof. that the earth is globular, and this is prov'd by the following arguments.

1. The fun rifes fooner to the eastern, than to the western inhabitants of the earth. And pilots, who fail fouthward, view fuch ftars above their horizon, as were before below it, and obferve the fame ftars to ap→ proach nearer to the zenith, in proportion to the different degrees of latitude they advance to. But neither of these two phænomena's, deducible from the longitude and latitude of places, could be admitted as matter of fact, unless the figure of the earth were Spherical.

2. When the earth comes between the fun and any part of the moon, it cafts upon the moon a conic Thadow: and opticks affure us, that if any folid body caft a conic fhadow upon a spherical body, that folid body is alfo fpherical.

3. Our Europeans have feveral times fet fail from Europe, aud gone directly weft fouth to the Magellanic fea, and thence weft-north, tlll they have returned into Europe from the Eaft, and have obferv'd all the fame phænomena, which naturally refult from the property of a sphere.

4. When we travel a diftance from a mountain, where our profpect is no ways bounded, first the lower, and then gradually the upper parts of the mountain vanish from our fight. And when we approach the mountain again, we may observe a reverted fcene. And this appearance or difappearance of the feveral parts of the mountain holds an accurate proportion to the spherical tumour of the earth.

And indeed there are a great number of appearan ces obferv'd by both geographers and aftronomers, that cannot be otherwife accounted for, than by the fpherical figure of the earth.

Q. When in a dumpish humour, as I fat,
The time unto my fancy adequate;

My mind, my thoughtful mind was wholly bent
On you, and on the question I have fent,
To folve the which, I timʼrous crave
Yet to implore fo much I am afraid,

Kk6

your

aid,

Zet

Left you provokt, display your dreadful ire,
By fending forth your rod, and not your lyre:
Be therefore pleas'd to know, I'll wait with pleasure,
For your folution at your greatest leifure.
For what I very fain wou'd understand
1s, when by the divine, almighty hand
Were angels made?.

A. D' you ask, when angels into being rofe? 'Tis what an angel can alone disclose.

Thofe elder brothers made a tuneful choir,
E'er Adam was inform'd with heav'nly fire.
But whether they were in their infant state,
When the Creator did the world create;
Or whether crown'd with a maturer age,
When devils vented their infernal rage;
The facred penmen no difclofures make :
And if they're filent, who fhall dare to speak?

Q. Is it a fin, to swear by the name of God in a true thing, for methinks the commandment only forbids to swear

in vain ?

The

A. God's name is taken in vain by a twofold perfon; by the falfe, and by the common fwearer. one blafphemes his Maker's honour, the other Sports with it. And therefore both unhappily forget that holy and reverend is his name.

But what, tho' the commandment had not forbid customary fwearing? Is it not fufficient, that your Saviour has forbid it, forbid it in a full, in an expreffive manner? Swear not at all; but let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay: For whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Q. Why we can from Greenwich at high water, plainly difcern the cattle feeding in the 1fle of dogs, and not at low water, altho' we and they are in the fame place?

A. Because at that time the water is high enough to receive the light, reflected from the cattle in fuch a manner, as that the fame light entring a groffer medium, and therefore deflecting farther from a perpendicular, may by fuch a deflection elevate the ob

jects