nutus effet, quafi pulvis,-Filed it with a File, till it was made as Small as Duft. The Targum of Onkelos follows the Hebrew, and the Arabick the Syriack. If in the whole we confider the Senfe in which that proverbial Speech, Beating to Duft, or Powder, is taken, there will be no manner of Difficulty in the Place. Q. Whence comes it that there's fo great a Difference between the Holy Scriptures and Profane Hiftory, in the Names of the Kings of Egypt, Babel, and other Countries; which feems the Stranger, becaufe fome of thefe Names are the fame in both Hiftories, as Darius, Cyrus and Artaxerxes? A. For the Sacred Hiftories, we are fure they are True, and confequently, if there fhould be any irreconcilable Difference be tween them and others, the lat ter must be mistaken. But confidering the great Distance of Time, the Difference of Pronunciation between the Hebrew and other Languages, the Uncertainty of Profane Hiftorians, who difagree as much between themfelves as with the Scriptures, and are, at beft, but Fragments, we rather ought to wonder there fhould be fo many Names alike, than perhaps more which difagree. Inftance of the Difference of Names we have in Volume I. Page 260. about Abafuerus. There being one Thing more which increases the Confufion, which is, the fame Names being given to a whole Succeffion: As Pharaoh to the Egyptians, and Artaxerxes to the Perfians, as Diodorus Siculus informs us. Gentlemen, If the following E LEGT (written in Imitation of Milton's Verfe, upon a very virtuous and deferving Gentlewoman) may find a Place in your Athenian Oracle, you will thereby not only oblige the Publick, but An ELEGY on Mrs. H Your Humble Servant. When bleft Climene fled to augment the Bleft, I : Front From Orb to Orb mov'd tow'rd the Seat of Blifs, To whom fair Amiel thus Brightest of Thrones! So the Great Mother look'd in Nature's Dawn, In her fair Soul? How humble, meek and mild? Al All knew it but her felf; nor cou'd fhe hide The rigid Moment haftes, when I must part, But our true Friendship let no Hour Divide, Nor that fair Place where Adam's Off Spring reigns, Q. How comes it to pass that Cain's Damnation is fo avouched by fome Men? A. We confefs, there are few Judgments of that Nature which we do not think rafhly made, fuch fecret Things belonging to GOD.But yet if ever one might venture to pafs a Sentence, it might be, one would think, in the Cafe of Cain and Judas; both of whom, fome think it uncharitable for us abfolutely to pronounce among the Damned: But whatever their Judgments may be in these Cafes, particularly that of Cain, we think it at least, among things most highly probable, that he is of that Number; both because he Q. What Credit is to be given A. Ou A. Our Opinion is, if the Fact be true, that 'twas only the Echo of fome Voices finging in the Hollows of the Mountains, where the poor Protestants might be got together at their Devotions, which by the particular Situation of the Place, and perhaps the Af fiftance of the Wind, might he heard at fo great a Dif tance, we hope none will take this Opinion of ours in ill Part, fince it becomes fuch as would fearch out Truth, not to be too credulous in the Belief of fuch Things as feem vifibly to furpass the ordinary Power of Nature. Q. The Querift dreamt he faw a Comet, and was extreamly frighted at it; about a Month after which the great Comet appeared, the last that was feen in England: He defires to know whether there were any thing extraordinary in that Dream? A. There's no Reason to be lieve there was, his Dream ap. pearing purely accidental, and form'd from the Idea of fuch Comets as he had before seen, or heard described. There's another Person who comes in with his Dream too; That he faw a great Man lying dead upon his Back in a River, with marvellous large Teeth in his Head. To which all the Answer we think he deferves, is, That 'tis great Pity the Roguy-Dreamer fhould not be whipt till he confefs'd he dreamt all this waking. Another, of a Gentleman who dreamt he himself was hang'd, and looking over the Seffions-Paper, found one of the fame, both Christian and Sirname, though both unufual, really executed; feems to be of the fame Nature with the first, which we have already judg'd only accidental. Q. Whether a Person who has been guilty of grievous Sins, but has not been only truly forrowful for them, but abstained from them, ask'd Pardon of GOD Almighty, and hopes he has obtain'd it: Whether he ought not publickly to confefs bis Wickedness, and deliver himself up to the Magiftrate, to be punish'd according to the Law; And whether his Repentance may be judg'd true and fincere, without he does fo? A. Some of thofe Crimes in which the Querift instances, are not punishable by the Laws of England. As for the reft, That Nemo tenetur accufare feipfum, No Man is obliged to accufe himself, has been ever thought an unquestionable Truth in the Law of Nature; where any confiderable Damage will certainly, or in the highest Probability befall him for the fame. Where the Crime is not Capital, as in fome Sorts of Theft, the Cafe is fomewhat altered: The Party injur'd may be founded by a Third Perfon, as has fometimes been done; and if it may be without Hazard, Acknowledgment of the Injury, as well as Reftitution, where 'tis poffible to be made him. Q. Whether fuch a Perfon may be judg'd a rightly prepar'd Communicant, unless he openly confefs thofe Crimes, even to his Fellow-Christians? A. This A. This feems a nicer Point than the former. However, we are mistaken, if the Refolution thereof does not chiefly depend on the Sincerity of the Repentance. Now we are fure, the fame, and greater Sins than thefe, have by God's Grace been pardoned. Thus in the Cafe of Manaffeh, who was an open Conjurer and Murderer, and even in theirs who crucified our Saviour, who yet obtained Mercy. Nor can we fee any Reafon, why those who have a Right to the Pardon of the Gospel, fhould not have it as well to the Privileges thereof, and to the Seal of that Pardon in the Bleffed Sacrament; and this independent on any, but GOD who gives it. Nor feems there any Reafon to ftrain a Precept, Confefs your Faults one to another, to fuch a Height, às thereby to expofe a Penitent to thofe ill Confequences, which might thence very probably happen. Q Suppofe a Perfon who hates me, endeavours to kill me, with the Hazard of his Life; another that loves me interpoles to fave me, to the Danger of his: In this Cafe which is the stronger, the Hatred or Love? A. They feem to be equal, fince their Effects are fo, and the Hazard just as much in one as the other. Unless from a Theological Reafon we fhould fuppofe the Hatred to be the ftronger, because it makes the Enemy hazard his Soul as well as his Body in killing me; whereas the Friend only ventures his Body, nay, does a ge nerous and good Action to fave my Life. Q. Were there any fuch Creatures as the Amazons, or are we to think all that Story no better than a Fable? A. We are ready to grant many fabulous Things may be reported of thefe Amazons, as there have alfo been of the Wars of Troy, where they are faid to have been prefent; but 'twou'd be as hard to con clude from hence that there was never any fuch People as the Amazons, as that there was never any fuch- Place as Troy, or (with us) never fuch a Perfon as King Arthur. But for pofitive Arguments for their real Being, fince 'tis only a Matter of Fact, we'll refer the Reader to fuch Authorities as we have on this Subject. Plutarch has an ingenious Difcourfe thereon, but the Mifchief is, he only fums up the Evidence, not very strong on either Side, and leaves the Reader to be Judge, without himfelf paffing any Sentence. The Hiftory of Alexander mentions Thalestris the Amazonian Queen who defired to be acquainted with that vigorous Toung Conqueror; but Alexander's own Letter to Antipater, of all that befel him in those Parts, have not one Word on't, which may feem to be as strong as a Negative Argument can be imagin'd, unlefs fome fhould fay for him, That he was Man of Honour, and had too much Gallantry to boast of such Favours: Solinus and Pomponius Mela are pofitive for them, (but for the Credibility of a |