And disappointments, these fad thoughts have birth,.
The beatifick vifion of the blefs'd

Poffefs your thoughts, 'twill lull your foul to rek.
Q. An officer bold,

Laft night I was told

Secrets to conceal of great prices
Many things has receiv'd,
He's been often reliev'd,

Now the thing he's divulg'd in a trice.
Whether ought this great knave
To his friend, kind and brave,
Generous, good-natur'd and civil,
Returns quickly make

(He's a conceited rake)
Say Phoebus, or fent to the devil?
A. A breach in a truft
Is n't only unjust,

Altho' there's no gift to conceal it:
But 'tis alfo bafe,

And full of difgrace,

Or torments themselves to reveal it.

But he who'll confide

In a rake (as imply'd)

Who is void of both virtue and brains;

The matter's not rare,

If the fecret takes air,

He muft thank himself for his pains.
Q. A Spark, whofe years are not to twenty come,
Gives his tongue a liberty

Far beyond his property,

And rattles nonfenfe wi' a conceited tone:
He fwears with a grace,

And lies too apace,

Pray tell me, Apollo, what will be his doom?

A. From rattling or nonsense he'll ne'er be retriev'd, Nor can any doom

Be expected to come

On notions, where better could ne'er be conceiv'd:

But's fwearing and lying,

(Bafe vices implying)

3

His

His doom's, when he speaks truth, he'll not be be liev'd.

Q. Te fons of Apollo,

Whofe advice I would follow
In matters of greatest importance;
Pray open the truth
To a curious youth,

And his thanks he shall pay in abundance:
Whether men they can fly

Like birds in the sky,

Because one in town does pretend it

But a hundred to one,

That it cannot be done,

Is laid, let him ne'er so defend it.
A. Your wagers are loft,
Whatever they cost,

For the mortal, you bet on, hath flown:
Nay, 'thout any aid,

Of the gimcrack he made,

'As in Doublin is famously known. But to fet in true light

His wonderful flight,

You must know, there a custom it was

A

STURGEON to call

That fame animal,

Which here for cods-head does pafs.
Our Sturgeon, when there
Prepar'd with great care

And cunning his trinkets to fly,
A while only ftaid,

Till money was paid,

Which a fpark foon refolv'd to fupply:
Addreffing him thus,

Thou fam'd Dadalus,

Why ftill from thefe wonders debar'd?

* A STURGEON is a term they give one at Doublin, whom they think a fit fubject far banter. In this cafe the landlord of the house (being us'd to fuch frolicks) perfonated the Frenchman.

Quoth

Quoth he, I'll commence

When I've got in more pence,

For in troth I am now almost stary'd

Much lighter you'll fly,

The first did reply,
However appoint but a day;
With fuch great profufions
We'll raife contributions,
That famine shall breed no delay.
A day then was nam❜d,
(In our annals thence fam'd)
When many a wag did appear:
A Monfieur well dreft
Came after the rest,

And accofted thus our engineer:
You ribauld paltron,

Me'll hang you ver foon,

Me know you for won grand a teef,
You kill a befbide

(Vor witch you'll be try'd)

Won man, and vas murderer fheef.
Our fam'd Virtuofo

Found matters but fo, fo,

With knees trembling, and looks agaft,
From our window fled,

Took up almost dead,
Forgetting his engine in haste.

And now he's flown hither,
More money to gather,

Which when he has raised to ten pound,
You will find, he will fly,

Though not to the sky,

Yet where he'll ne'er after be found.

T

On the Thanksgiving-day.

HIS, happy Britains! is the joyful day,

When heav'n expects we should our off'rings pay

Of thanks and praifes, which we justly owe
To Providence above, and Anna's reign below;

All

All griefs and cares be banish'd from each breaft,
And joyful thoughts in tuneful minds expreft;
For heav'n delights to fhow'r on grateful minds
Such bleffings as th' ungrateful never finds.
Let ANNA's health go round in flowing bowls,
Whilft virtue all exorbitance controuls,

Left your acknowledgments fhould heav'n incenfe,
And gratitude ill manag'd prove offence.
But give a loose to innocent delight,

The Heav'ns, the Queen, th' Occafion, all invite;
Let loud huzza's mixt with the canons roar,
Frighten all pilfring pyrates from your shore;
This Lewis thunder-ftruck is forc'd to own,
Our cause the darling is of heav'n's imperial throne.

Q. Gentlemen, are you of the opinion of fome, whe affirm, that our days are told? This feems inconfiftent with that liberty which every one enjoys, either of killing himself, or letting it alone.

4. Many errors take their rife from this fingle caufe; they owe their origin to this fruitful parent, namely that we are too ready to fix too rigorous a fenfe upon Scripture-paffages: because we read of our days being numbred, of an appointed time, &c. we therefore draw a very prepofterous conclufion, namely that God has fo irrevocably determin'd the duration of our lives, that no cautionary arts, no prescriptions of the physician, no petitions to the throne of grace can wave off the fix'd, the predeftinated blow. But to give you the true ftate of fo mistaken a point: God, by a fingle, by an intuitive view, beholds all the confequences of things, all the various effects of fecond caufes, all the manifold intentions of free a-* gents, whence he cannot but forefee when all our lives will naturally, will of courfe expire. He also knows, whether himfelf fhall think fit to let the common course of things take place, or particularly interpofe to avert the confequence. And upon the account of fo fpecial a foreknowledge, and fo peculiar a determination refulting thence, he may very properly be faid to number our days; and yet fuch a

numera

numeration no ways includes fo rigid a fatality, as fome men plead for. To ufe the inftance specified in the queftion; when a man defigns to dispatch himself, God may be pleased to fuffer him to execute his defign, as a punishment due to fo wicked an inten tion. And as God from all eternity foreknew both the man's defign and his own fufferance, he may be well allow'd to have numbred his days. And yet this very numeration depends upon a voluntary act of a free agent; for fince God determin'd the period of the man's life upon the foreknowledge of his unwarrantable intention, it follows, that had the man been otherwife inclin'd, God alfo would have determin'd otherwise: and thus, when fick, if we neglect the means that Providence has bestow'd upon us, God, who forefaw our inexcufable negligence, might have thence refolv'd to suffer the diftemper to take its courfe, and put a period to our lives. But had we been more careful to preferve our health, God who would have foreseen that too, might have made a different refolve. Whence we may learn a very ufeful leffon; learn ingenuously to acknowledge that our lives are entirely at God's difpofal, and yet to be as careful, as provident concerning them, as tho' they were entirely at our own.

Q. Lot's wife being turn'd into a pillar of falt, which, as the Scripture fays, is to continue for a memorial to after ages; how can this be, falt being fubject to be melted by the next shower?

4. Salt is fo far from being capable of the most compact consistency, that no fort of earth is capable of any confiftency without it. There is an ifland on the coaft of Perfia, named Ormus, where the inhabitants build their walls with falt.

Q. Why religion should make people ill-natur'd, and perfecute one another, or whether it has not been the occafion of most of the barbarities in the world?

A. That religion has been the occafion of the most barbarous and inhuman practices, both the heathen and the christian world afford us undoubted teftimonies. VOL. II.

Y

That