Page images
PDF
EPUB

noble She,

That durft for such a prize contend with me.

But yet the women may perhaps outstrip the men in quickness of apprehenfion, in lefs profound concerns, in nimble turns of thought in common converfation. And therefore our Creator has graciously befriended us, in that he has afforded us fuch excellent companions to divert our vacant hours, to relieve our wearied minds, to fupply our wafted vigor, to recruit our exhaufted thoughts, and prepare us for our future labours, our fucceeding ftudies.

Thus they in learning, tho' they yield the bell,
Yet are the cause, that men fo far excell.

Q. I am grown pretty fat, and in a fair way,..
To add to my plenty more ev'ry day:
So therefore to you for advice I do feek,

As thinking than doctors you're fomething more cheap
I moderate exercife conftantly use,

As fencing, and dancing; I invoke to my mufe:
I read various authors, tho' difficult too;
I pen fet to paper, yet this will not do :
Some advise me to marry, as a very good way;
Some tell me 1 must at tennis go play;

And a thousand odd things still added to thefe,
Yet nothing without your wife counsel will please:
For I mightily truft to Apollo's found mind,
As expecting from thence my remedium to find.
4. Since the courfes prefcrib'd have not alter'd
your ftate,

And no moderate methods will leffen your fat,
Go try a camp-life, let the ground-be your bed,
Nor let fleep for a fortnight once fettle your head:
For a month or a quarter be ty'd to a dearth,
And deny all relief from the fruits of the earth;
Or repair out of hand to the gallies in France,
Which emaciates much more than a push, or a dance:
But if all these fhall fail, and your labour's but waste,
You must hang your felf up for a Bacchus at laft.

Q. I've heartily laugh'd at the questions are fent ye,
Tho' thofe are in metre, there's scarce one in twenty,

Ee 2

Is

Is fit to be laid at Apollo's bright shrine,

Yet the mortals, no doubt, think their brats are divine ;
But I'll fwear they're infectious, for I've got an itching,
To be fcratch'd by a mufe, but the jades are a bitching,
Not one of the nine will come at my call,

Yet Apollo's brisk fons have lain with 'em all;
You're fav'rites, and know all their frolicks and meetings,
And therefore to you, Sirs, I humbly fend greetings;
May't pleafe ye to give me your kind information,
Where I may find ONE to fupply this occafion;
And back'd, if ye please, with a recommendation,
And when I can get her to come at a whistle,
Depend on my thanks in another epistle.

}

4. Were the mufes fuch drabs, as your verses define,

Without doubt by this time you'd lain with all nine; But those we converfe with more modefty own, Deaf to invocations from rakes of the town;

Shou'd we recommend you, it were but in vain, Till your virtues and morals more influence gain; When purg'd from the drofs, with an innocent mind You approach, we'll engage, that their favours you'll find.

Till then, pray beware you provoke not their ire, For they punish with fcorn, whom they will not infpire. Q. Soon as I had fight on

My beautiful Titan,

Such pleasure my foul did poffefs,

No more I look'd coy,

But ravish'd with joy,

Did the charming returner caress.

Now my anger I own,

Too warmly was shown,

But fince from true love it took being,

Let Apollo excufe

The zeal of my muse,

And there'll be no more difagreeing.

Tho' I to your court,

Made early refort,

And

And began with the first to fubfcribe,
Till the wifer were heard,
I never appear'd,

In the rank of the questioning tribe.
At laft I addreft,
With a civil request,

To which having had no reply,
I fcribbled again,

But where it has lain,

Mr. Mayo knows better than I.

.

However he fail'd,

So far you've prevail'd,

That my mufe by you is pregnant grown,
Then quickly difclofe,

How you mean to difpofe

of the brat; for 'tis furely your own ?
A. If the brat be our own,

It will quickly be known,
By its glittering amorous eye,
Nor can fuch a spark

Remain in the dark,
Except in the center it lie.
Nor Mayo ne'er fear,

Wou'd keep it long there,

He has not fo warm a defire;
Left the urchin fhou'd chance,
His heat to advance,
And fet all his paper on fire.
As yet we ne'er faw
The wandering boy,

Nor know on what coaft he is loft;
But if you fhall find him,

Pray whip him and bind him,
And fend him to us by the poft.
Q. You criticks of this dull and beary age,
Who drive old Saturn from the British stage,
I would of you enquire what trade is beft,
And fo I'll answer him that made this quest ?

4. Not that which most of pains and care will coft, Or wealth, but that which fuits the genius moft.

Ec 3

Q. In

Q. In the liturgy it is required, that children when arrived to a competent age, &c. fhould be brought to the bishop to be confirm'd, before they receive the Lord's fupper; but thro' neglect of my godfathers and my felf, I never was confirm'd, but have frequently receiv'd the holy Communion. Now this having raised a fcruple in my mind, I defire your folution to this cafe of confcience, whether the ceremony of confirmation be still necessary, after communicating feveral years without it ?

A. Since the folution of your question depends upon the neceffity, as well as reasonableness of confirmation, and that too, not only as an order of our Church, but as an apostolical institution, we beg leave to lay the foundation, before we proceed to the fuperstructure.

Impofition of hands,. (as confirmation is fcholaftically call'd) may fo clearly be deduc'd from Acts viii. 14, 15, 16, 17. Ch. xix. 5, 6. that he who runs may read. In Heb. vi. 2. we meet with this memorable paffage of the doctrine of baptifms, and of laying on of hands, and of the refurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And here we have a double argument for confirmation, fince as the laying on of hands is mention'd feparately from the doctrine of baptifms, fo the text is a gradual advance, according to the chronological series of the particulars included. And this receives an additional enforcement, if you compare it with our first quotation.

But fince the opinion of the fathers, who liv'd in the nearest ages to the Apoftles, is no small confirmation of our faith. Tertullian, St. Cyprian, and St. Auftin, acquaint us, that this was the practice of the ancient Church; remarkable that paffage in St. Ferom, where he introduces an heretick fpeaking thus ; Are you ignorant, that 'tis the custom, that hands fhould be laid on thofe that have been before baptiz'd? Doft thou demand where it is written? In the A&s of the Apoftles. But tho' there were no authority of Scripture to fupport it, the confent of the whole world would fupply the deficiency of a precept. To which he makes his

ortho

orthodox Chriftian reply; I deny not this to be the cu ftom of the Church, that the bishop should take his progrefs, to lay his hands for the invocation of the Holy Spirit, on them who were before baptiz'd by the priests and deacons, in the fmaller cities, at a remoter diftance.

And becaufe Calvin's authority may have greater weight with fome, we beg leave to reprefent his fenfe of it: This one place, (meaning Heb. vi. 2.) abundantly teftifies, that this ceremony took its rife from the Apostles.

The most eminent presbyterian minifters have fufficiently commended this primitive inftitution. And Mr. Caryl fays, That confirmation would be perfective of the much defir'd and long'd for restoration of the Churches to their primitive purity.

They that would know the full sense of the Church of England in fo important an affair, may confult the end of the publick Baptifm of infants; the first rubrick at the end of the office for Baptifm of those of riper years; the title of the Church-Catechism; the third rubrick after the Catechifm; the rubrick fucceeding to it; the rubrick at the end of the office for confirmation; and Canons 60th, and 61ft.

And now, fince your question is difinct from what we have been infifting on, tho' founded upon it; and fince it may not be improper to fay with the orator Tertullius, that we be not further tedious, to wit, at prefent we beg leave to refer the folution, you defire, to the next paper.

Q. Why do bugs bite fome, and not others ?

A. As contemptible and vile a creature as a bug may seem to us; yet this fhews, that there is fomething in it, as well as in all others, which deferves our admiration: For if they bite one, and do not bite another, 'tis by reafon of the exquifite contexture of their organs of fmell, which makes them apt to be differently affected by the different corpufcles, continually perfpiring from different human bodies, and thereby to be determin'd either to stick to them, or pafs over them untouched, according as their blood

E c 4

« PreviousContinue »