If then you can hit,
On no brighter wit,

We fhall ne'er be put to't by your own.
Q. Thou great God of phyfick,

Oblige one that is fick,

Once a buxom brisk lafs, though no W

Who doth languishing lie,

Expecting to die,

And not come at your shrine any more.
A dire winding fheet,

Our nurse fwears fhe fee't,
The candle produc'd; nay moreover,
Death watches perplex,

With repeated knick-knacks,
I'm told 'tis a fign life's near over.
'Twould vex one to the heart,
A maid to depart,

And if nurse judges right 'twill be fo;
Then i'th next paper teach us,
Of their sheets and death-watches,
Whether any thing's in them or ne ?
A. What the nurfe can repeat,
Of this terrible sheet,

Or of death-watches fabulous motions,
Doth refult from wild ftrains,

re;

Bred in old womens brains,
Therefore ceafe to give ear to fuch notions.
But because you're afraid,

Of departing a maid,
To this method we kindly advise ye;
Make good ufe of your time,

And provide in your prime,

Left your fparks find you old and defpife ye.
Q. Your answer I like to the task that I set ye,
Viz. Whether or no I'm belov'd by Betty:

For which I give thanks, and to please you the better,
Have taken the pains to turn't into metre.

And to tell you the truth, have ta'en
your advice,
And made my remarks on the turns of her eyes,

To try if by them I could plainly discover,
She had an affection for her fucking young lover.
And a fpy I employ'd, who to me did impart,

What her tongue did betray of the thoughts of her heart,
Which was, (alas! for my wretched hard fate).
I'm he who of all men she'll mortally hate.

Now, if of my hard cafe you have any clear notion,
And can tell how to cure it without rope or potion;
If you'll foon let me know your advice how to follow,
Tunc tu eris mihi magnus Apollo ?

A. Since all our advices you've fully employ'd,
And fince there's no way your hard fate to avoid ¿
(For fhe has a choice and a privilege too,
To fix on an object as fully as you :)

There only remains now to teach you a cure
For all the misfortunes attend your amour.
Obferve all the Ladies in play-house and park,.
And the circle, if you're fo prefuming a spark ;
Your mistress you'll find out amongst them again,
At least fo much of her will ease all your pain:
In one you've her lip, in another her nofe,
In a third her complexion, and bloom of her rofe;
In a fourth you've her eyes, in a fifth her bright hair,
In a fixth all the gayety flows in her air;
Your paffion diffus'd thus, lefs raging will burn,
And foon to its primitive nothing return.

Q. Ye fons of Apollo, who answer our fongs,
I'm now coming at you with hammer and tongs.
Though I'm no fcholar, nor never learn'd grammar,
Nor can handle my pen half fo well as my hammer ;
Admit me a room in the fcribling throngs,
And refolve me this doubt of the hammer and tongs.
You unerring judges, void of all wrongs,

Pray which was made firft the hammer or tongs?
If you answer the query, I'll take't as an honour,
If not, excufe the rough mufick of tongs and of hammer.
Your's Vulcan.
4. To the hammer the primitive honour belongs,
Since it forged long after its daughter the tongs,

Tho

Tho' Venus before might have found out the manner
-Of forging of horns, what is that to the hammer?
'Twas certain long after, the devil his wrongs
Endur'd in his nose by St. Dunstan's hot tongs;
The hammer first also fet mufick to fongs,
But the devil of musick are keys and the tongs;
Then fmite home brave Vulcan, and no longer flam
her,

And Venus will facrifice Mars to the hammer.
Q. Was the Virgin Mary a perpetual Virgin?

A. The argument drawn from that expreffion, Thy mother and thy brethren ftand without, &c. To difprove her a perpetual Virgin carries no manner of conviction with it, fince it was cuftomary with the Jews to reprefent near relations under the endearing ftile of brethren. And yet, had there been no such cuftom, they might have been Jofeph's children by a former wife. If to this it be replied, that as Jofeph was the elder line, fo his children were nearer to the crown than Mary's, and confequently her fon could have no title to be king of the Jews; we anfwer, that God indeed made a fure oath unto David, that his feed Should fit upon his feat for ever, but never promis'd the fucceffion to the elder line. And this reply is the more confirm'd, in that the son of David was to be a spiritual, not a temporal king; in that the prophecy, he shall have dominion alfo from fea to fea, was to be fulfill'd in a myftical intendment, agreeable to the profeffion of that very fon of David, my kingdom is not of this world. And as this is a confutation also to that fimilar objection, which may be started in defence of the other fide, namely, that Jofeph never knew his wife, because his children by her must have been prefer'd to the bleffed Jefus; as, what has been already faid, is equally a confutation to this objection alfo, fo we may confider too, that Jofeph might have known his wite without any neceffity of having children by her; that, if Mary would have naturally born him children, yet fince children are a gift that cometh of the Lord, that God, to whom, as the Jews

ex

exprefs it, the key of the womb belongs, might have purpofely reftrained her natural fertility, and, as it were, have faid to the bleffed Virgin, thus far (namely to the birth of the holy Jefus) thus far fhalt thou go, and no further.

Some alledge that thofe expreffions, Jofeph knew her not, till she had brought forth her first-born fon, plainly intimate that he knew her afterwards. To which others (among whom is the excellent bifhop Pearson) make (as they think) a very clear reply, namely, that from parallel expreffions in the Seriptures it appears, that there is no neceffity for fuch an intimation. But we beg leave to obferve, that in the various inftances they produce, there is not one parallel to the cafe before us. For if in them no fuch intimation prefents it felf, it is, because there is an obvious, an apparent reafon for it. To give you a fpecimen, In i Sam. xv. 35. we read, And Samuel came no more to fee Saul until the day of his death. fince the paffage fignifies, that Samuel came no more to fee Saul as long as he liv'd, there is a palpable reafon, why it cannot be intimated, that he came to fee him afterwards; namely, because it was impoffible he fhould; whereas no impoffibility can be alledged in Jofeph's cafe.

Now

Our Lord, fay fome, is called the first-born fon of Mary; and the mention of a firft (fay they) implies a fecond; but this objection is readily confuted by the Scripture ufage of the phrafe, as may appear from Exod. xiii. 2. Sanctify to me all the first-born. For they, who had but one child, were from that command oblig'd to fanctify him to God.

A learned man concludes it at least improbable, that Jofeph fhould fo long cohabit with his wife without the knowledge of her, fince we no where read, that God had enjoyned him so severe an abftinence. But to this we anfwer, that we no where read, that Joseph was commanded to abstain, till fhe had brought forth her first-born fon. And therefore the argument proves too much, fince it proves withal,

that he did not abstain, till she had brought forth her firft-born fon. And yet this is contrary to the text.

We need not wonder, that the antients were of opinion, that Mary was a perpetual Virgin, fince they exalted virginity to fo high a pitch. Nor that Origen was fo ftrenuous a defender of that opinion, fince he fo grofly mifapplied a fentence of our Lord's concerning virginity. Nor that the Romanifts are of the fame mind with the antients, fince they look upon a marriage-state as not fufficiently pure for holy orders.

As we may be ready to conclude, that fhe remain'd a virgin, while we confider her high prerogative as mother of our Lord, as having been overfhadow'd by the Holy Ghoft; fo this confideration is wonderfully enfeebled by these fuggeftions; namely, that what he was afterwards reflects nothing upon what she was before: That marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled; that that holy ftate is dignified with being an emblem of Chrift's union with the church.

And thus we have thought it proper to examine the arguments on both fides, and propofe the objections they are liable to, rather than determine the matter in debate, as thinking it beft to follow the great St. Bafil's advice, and leave fo controverted a point adhuc fub judice, since it is of small concern to the mystery of our redemption.

Q. Why does a drunken man fee double ?·

A. The fumes of the liquor he is intoxicated with may be fuppos'd fo to diforder his eyes, as that the representation of the object cannot fall upon the correfpondent fibres of the optick nerves. Whence it becomes impoffible, that the two-fold image exhibited by the two eyes fhould ever fo unite, as to produce but one refemblance in the brain.

Q. I defire you to oblige me fo far as to give me a reafon, why I, that am so very ticklish, can't tickle my felf?

A. As harmony arifes from difcordant notes, fo the complacency we call tickling (tho' yet it be a

fort