Q. I'm a fool I must own, Tet don't tell all the town, Tho' of late, Sir, Pilgarlick is marry'd : When th'intention like mine has mifcarry'd. But I'm fure her curs'd tongue, Like Xantippe's, doth clack a rare bargain :- And a damnable fcold, Hard fate for poor innocent organ She's as grey as a cat, Teeth as black as your bat, Her legs crooked are like a billet : That, tho' I've oft try'd, A three penny loaf will fearce fill it. In air and in shape's fo like granny, Take fome comfort as well as compassion :: From this crofs may enfue, By promoting your mortification. Q Gentlemen, it is well known to you, that at the crucifixion of our bleffed Lord and Saviour, there was at the fame time two malefactors, who receiv'd the like pu-nishment. Whereas the one revil'd him, faying, Luke xxiii. 29. If thou be the Chrift, fave thy felf, and us; the other contrary-wife rebuk'd his fellow fufferer, faying, in the 40th verfe, Doeft not thou fear God, feeing thou art in the fame condemnation? and likewife faid to Jefus in the 42d verfe, Lord, remember me when thou comeft into thy kingdom. Which, for his faith, he return'd him this answer, ver. 43. Verily I fay unto thee, to day fhalt thou be with me in paradife. Whereas we are very evidently taught by the holy Scripture, that he was bury'd two days before his refurrection: As it appears Luke xiv. 7. A. As we have elsewhere obferv'd, that those words of our bleffed Lord may prehaps be intended of his Divinity, fo we have obferv'd withal, that his foul, immediate to its feparation from the body, might take its flight to heaven (if heaven be defign'd by Paradife) and return the third day from those blefsful manfions, in order to be re-united to its forsaken intimate. Q. Pray inform me, if it's poffible for a foul once im paradis'd in heaven, to return again to its body, and dwell again on this earth? A. We must allow it poffible, because it implies not a contradiction. But we cannot think it probable, that a gracious, a munificent Creator, who had: admitted any of his creatures to the beatifick vifion, to the blessful enjoyment of himself, to the raptures that muft neceffarily accrue to those who fee God and live, fhould find it in his heart (unless for fome extraordinary purposes infcrutable to man) to banish him fo perfect a fruition, to remove him from fo ravishing a prefence, to remand him back to a valley of tears, and oblige him to cry out in his melancholy complaint, Woe is me, that I am forc'd to dwell with Mefech, and have my habitation among the tents of Kedar. Q. I was lately reading in the 8th chapter of St. Mark,' where at the 10th, 11th, and 12th verfes, I read the Pharifees demanded a sign of Christ, which was denied them. The query therefore is, what was the reason of their request and his denial? 4. In answer to the question, it is proper to obferve, that the demand of the prefumptuous Pharifees was not fimply a fign, but a fign from heaven. And this fign from heaven was more perhaps than, probably, the fign of the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven, reprefented in Daniel's prophefy, chap. vii. ver. 139 ver. 13, 14. for that the ancient Jews gather'd fome particulars concerning the Meffiah from that great Prophet (however the modern Jews, out of prejudice to Chriftianity, place him in no higher a clafs than that of their ay, their holy, not infpired writers) is evident from a double inftance; namely in that from him they borrow'd the very word Meffiah, (a name fo customary with them at the time of our Lord's appearance in the flesh) and in that one of their countrymen (Nehemiah by name) 50 years before our Saviour's incarnation, ventur'd to affirm from Daniel's weeks, that the advent of the Meffiah cou'd not be defer'd beyond 50 years. And that this was the fign demanded, may be further concluded, in that our bleffed Lord, a little before his death, promis'd the very fign requir'd, promis'd to come in the clouds of heaven, but in fuch a terrible, fuch an affrighting manner, as they fhould tremble to behold him in. And this promife he punctually perform'd, before that generation was paft away, when he commiffion'd the deftroying Angel to level Jerufalem, (that city of the great King) to level her with the ground, and lay her honour in the duft: When he ufher'd in the fad catastrophe with fuch aftonishing appearances, and fent forth fuch alarming prefages of impending ruin, prefages particularly enumerated by Jofephus, their own hiftorian. But as Daniel's prophecy was the ground of the Pharifees request, fo their unworthiness to be comply'd with, was one of the reasons of our Lord's refufal. For they had, feen many of his miracles, had been witneffes to his mighty works, had been authentically inform'd of fuch ftupendious figns, as ftartled the gazing world, and yet believed not. Nay, infidelity, tacit infidelity, was the fmalleft of their crimes: They blacken'd fpotlefs innocence; they traduc'd even him who did no fin, and blafphemously accus'd him of diabolical delufion. And did they deferve the grant of a particular fign, who had fo ill reported of his marvellous works? Did they deferve to view him coming in the clouds of heaven, who had accus'd him as confederate with bell? Did they deferve any favour from the Son of God, who came on purpofe to mock him, to infult him? For the text affures us, that they began to question with him, seeking of him a fign from heaven, tempting him. Signs and wonders are fit to be indulg'd to none, but fuch modeft, fuch humble men, who are willing to believe, where reafon will warrant their belief, who are open to conviction; who are ready to give up their affent to a well attefted truth: And therefore it is, that we read of a certain people, that he could do no mighty work among them, because of their unbelief. Q. Why the beating of a drum in an alehouse should turn their drink fomre ? A. By railing a great commotion in the air, which being communicated to the liquor, caufeth in it a new fermentation, and by that an exaltation of its tartarous parts, and a depreffion or diffipation of the fpirituous. 1 Q. Why do painters paint death like a skeleton ? 3 A. Since death can be no otherwife than bierogly phically decypher'd, how can an invifible caufe be more properly reprefented, than by a vifible effect? And fince it is the prerogative of death to change the beautiful, the comely body, into the grim deformity of an affrighting skeleton, what more fignificant to imprefs upon our minds a fentible idea of the King of terrors, to restrain the wantonnefs of our defires with a feeling apprehenfion of our mortality; to wean our affections; to take off our fondness from fo frail, fo perishing an enjoyment; to center our provident concern in the induftrious culture of our immortal part, in the daily, in the conftant improvement of our fouls? Q. It is often feen that men receive great wounds, contufions, &C. and yet live; when on the other hand, a fcratch of a pin, prick of a thorn, or fuch like trifle, many times proves mortal. Pray, give your opinion, how fach little inconfiderable accidents are fo dangerous in the confequence. 4. Such 4. Such confequences are moftly owing to an ill habit of body, wherein the blood and humours are fo extreamly vitiated, that instead of being balfamick, they prove corrofive, whence a trivial malady often degenerates into a fatal evil Q. Why do the ashes of Scotch coal burn whiter than thofe of our coal? 4. Becaufe the Scotch coal is endued with more fulphur, and lefs carthy and watery particles than your other coal. Q. I defire to know the reafon, why the urine is falt? 4. Urine receives its faline quality from the faline particles of food eaten, which, thro' the natural heat, and concoction of the bowels, are exalted eyen to a volatility. Q. It was always my opinion, that the greatest hap piness human life was capable of, was where two vertuous perfons contracted fuch a friendship as that they might truly be accounted two bodies actuated by one foul. To enlarge upon the character or conveniencies of fuch a friendShip, is both needless to you, and foreign to my purposes. but I defire your judgments, whether it be poffible for the diftinctions of fuperiority, &c. command or obey, to be compatible with fuch a friendship; or whether it can be maintain'd with more than one perfon at a time? A. The chief purport of your queftion (by those terms command and obey) appears to be, whether a real friendship can be maintain'd in a marriage-ftate; to which we anfwer, with the learned Dr. Taylor, that marriage is the queen of friendships, and the measure of all others, there being a communication of all which can be communicated by friendship. It is made facred by vows and love, by bodies and fouls, by religion, by laws, by common counfels and common fortunes. As for the terms of command and abey, they being fuitable to the nature and difpofitionsof the two fexes, they are fo far from derogating from friendship, that they rather give many opportu nities to exprefs love and tenderness to each other. In the man, by a relaxation of his authority; and in the |