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ESSAYS AND THOUGHTS

ON

VARIOUS SUBJECTS,

AND FROM

VARIOUS AUTHORS,

&c.

ESSAYS AND THOUGHTS,

ON

VARIOUS SUBJECTS.

ABBEY LANDS.

ADVERSITY.

The fiery trials of adversity have the same kindly effect on a Christian mind, which Virgil ascribes to burning land. They purge away the bad properties, and remove obstructions to the operations of heaven.

it, as geometry, or any other of the matheSIR Benjamin Rudyard in a speech (pre-matical sciences."-The observation may be served by Nelson, ii. 300.) mentions it as the extended to other modes of studying divinity. principal parliamentary motive for seizing the abbey lands by Henry VIII. that they would so enrich the crown, as that the people should never be put to pay subsidies again; and an army of 40,000 men for the defence of the kingdom should be maintained with the overplus. How did the matter turn out? Sir Benjamin tells us, "God's part, religion, by his blessing, has been tolerably well preserved; but it hath been saved as by fire; for the rest is consumed and vanished. The people have paid subsidies ever since, and we are now in no very good case to pay an army." [A more exact account of this design and its consequences may be found in Sir Henry Spelman's History of Sacrilege, chap. vii.]

ABELARD.

-Sive illis omne per ignem
Excoquitur vitium, atque exsudat inutilis humor;
Seu plures calor ille vias et cæca relaxat
Spiramenta, novas veniat qua succus in herbas.
GEORG. i. 87.

Or when the latent vice is cur'd by fire,
Redundant humours through the pores expire;
Or that the warmth distends the chinks, and makes
New breathings, whence new nourishment she takes;
Or that the heat the gaping ground constrains,
New knits the surface, and new strings the veins.
DRYDEN, 128.

ALCORAN.

The bad tendency of Mr. Pope's Eloisa to Abelard is remarked by Sir John Hawkins, Extravagant praises are bestowed by Sale in his History of Music, vol. ii. page 23, as and his disciples on the Koran, which equal depreciating matrimony, and justifying con- the enthusiasm of Mahomet and his followcubinage. This is founded on a false fact; ers; going every length but that of saying, Abelard was married. The original letters it was dictated by the Spirit of God-Wonare finer than even Pope's: they were pub- derful and horrible! This is not much nolished A. D. 1718, by Rawlinson, from a ticed; not mentioned, I think, in White's MS. in the Bodleian library. Sir John Haw- Lectures, as it should have been, and exkins, speaking of Abelard's skill in scholas- posed. [But if any reader wants satisfaction tical theology, and profligacy of manners, on the subject of Mahometanism, he will find makes the following sensible observation it in Dr. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet.} "To say the truth, the theology of the schools, as taught in Abelard's time, was merely scientific, and had as little tendency The ambitious man employs his time, his to regulate the manners of those who studied pains, and his abilities, to climb to a summit,

:

AMBITION.

VOL. I.

11

on which, at last, he stands with anxiety and | and breaches of the mountains. Ulloa, i. fear, and from which if he fall, it must be 248. [An English gentleman, resident in with infamy and ruin. A man of like turn in the time of Charles II. had, by like unwearied application, attained a like situation, on the top of Salisbury spire. Every sober thinking man will say in one case what the merry monarch said in the other: "Make the fellow out a patent, that no one may stand there but himself."

ANGELS.

Man, a minister of Christ in particular, should resemble them in reconciling duty with devotion. They minister to the heirs of salvation; yet, always behold the face of their Father in heaven.

AFRICAN ANTS.

These insects sometimes set forward in such multitudes, that the whole earth seems to be in motion, A corps of them attacked and covered an elephant quietly feeding in a pasture. In eight hours, nothing was to be seen on the spot, but the skeleton of that enormous animal, neatly and completely picked. The business was done, and the enemy marched on after fresh prey. Such power have the smallest creatures acting in

concert.

the East, kept one of the asses of the country for his use, who was so troublesome with his noise, that he ordered a slave to strike him on the nose with a cane when he began to vociferate; in consequence of which, the creature in a few days fell from his appetite, and would actually have pined away and died, for want of the liberty of making his own frightful noise.]

ATHANASIAN CREED.

The doctrines in the public service (as a noble author has supposed) are not the true cause why people of rank, &c. absent themselves; but downright ungodliness, amusements, racing, hunting, gambling, visiting and intriguing-setting out for Newmarket on a Sunday, &c. Would the gentlemen of the turf come the more to church if the Athanasian Creed were struck out, &c.?

It is not true that these doctrines "are acknowledged to be ill founded and unscriptural by every clergyman of learning and candor;" or that "no man of sense and learning can maintain them." There have been and are many instances both of laity and clergy that hold them to be scriptural, and maintain them as such. The abettors of heresy and infidelity are not the only men of sense in the nation, [in good manners they It is said, I think, of bishop Sanderson, certainly do not abound.] Dr. Middleton, that, by frequently conversing with his son, when he had apostatized, by men of sense and scattering short apophthegms, with little meant infidels. [This article was occasioned pleasant stories, and making useful applica- by a pamphlet styled Hints, &c. ascribed to tions of them, the youth was, in his infancy, the D. of G.] taught to abhor vanity and vice as monsters.

APOPHTHEGMS.

ASSES.

AVARICE.

1. A canine appetite inclines persons to There are wild asses in South America. take down their food in such quantities, that They have three properties which bear a they vomit it up again like dogs. So Job of moral application. 1. Though exceedingly the rapacious greedy oppressor: "He hath swift, fierce, and untractable, after carrying swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit the first load, their celerity leaves them, their them up again:" chap. xx. 15. What is dangerous ferocity is lost, and they soon con- avarice, but such an appetite of the mind? tract the stupid look and dulness of the asi- 2. He, who flatters himself that he renine species one of them becomes like ano-solves to employ his fortune well, though he ther ass. 2. If that more noble animal a should acquire it ill, ought to take this with horse happens to stray into the places where him, that such a compensation of evil by they feed, they all fall upon him; and, with- good may be allowed after the fact, but is deout giving him the liberty of flying from servedly condemned in that purpose. And them, they bite and kick him till they leave him dead upon the spot. 3. They are very troublesome neighbors, making a most horrid noise; for, whenever one or two of them begin to bray, they are answered in the same vociferous manner by all within reach of the sound, which is greatly increased and prolonged by the repercussions of the valleys

it may be observed, that a resolution of this kind, taken beforehand, is seldom carried into act afterwards. Nemo unquam imperium flagitiis quæsitum bonis artibus exercuit.Tacit. Hist. i.- -No one ever exercised with virtue power obtained by crimes.

3. The eagerness with which some men seek after gold would lead one to imagine t

had the power to remove all uneasiness, and make its possessors completely happy; as the Spaniards pretended to the Mexicans, that it cured them of a pain at the heart, to which they were subject.

4. Riches will make a man just as happy as the emperor of Siam's white elephant, who is ridden by nobody, lives at his ease, is served in plate, and treated like a monarch. 5. It is worthy of observation, that Perseus, who lost the Macedonian empire, was infamous for his avarice; and Paulus Emilius, his conqueror, so entirely the reverse, that he ordered all the gold and silver that was taken, into the public treasury, without seeing it; nor ever was one farthing the richer for his victories, though always generous of his own to others.

6. At a time when Persian bribes were very rife at Athens, a porter humourously proposed, that twelve of the poorest citizens should be annually sent ambassadors to the Persian court, to be enriched by the king's Persian court, to be enriched by the king's presents. Ibid.-Poor men should be made ministers of state in England, for the same purpose.

BEARS.

Their sagacity is very great. The Kamtschadales are obliged to them for what little advancement they have hitherto made, either in the sciences or the polite arts. From them they learned the value of simples for internal use and external application. They acknowledge the bears likewise for their dancing-masters: what they call the bear dance is an exact counterpart of every attitude and gesture peculiar to this animal, through its several functions: and this is the foundation and ground-work of all their other dances, and what they value themselves most upon. King, iii. 308, chap. v.

BLIND MAN.

"I never had the happiness," said the blind man in the Princess Palatine's dream, "to behold the light and the glories of the firmament, nor can I form to myself the least idea of the transcendent beauties I have often heard mentioned. Such is my sad condition; and from my situation all presumptuous beings may learn, that many very excellent and wonderful things exist, which escape human knowledge." What inestimable and divine truths are there not in nature, devoutly to be wished for, though we cannot imagine or comprehend them! See Bossuet's Fun. Orat. on this princess.

BLINDNESS OF INFIDELITY.

ruin of his unhappy countrymen, it was Josephus tells us, that in the last dreadful familiar with them "to make a jest of divine things, and to deride, as so many senseless tales and juggling impostures, the sacred oracles of their prophets;" though they were then fulfilling before their eyes, and even upon themselves. Hurd on the Prophecies, p. 434.

BLONDEL.

David Blondel's book is a magazine for the writers against episcopacy. It was drawn up at the earnest request of the Westminster Assembly, particularly the Scots. It closed with words to this purpose: "By all that we have said to assert the rights of presbytery, we do not intend to invalidate the ancient and apostolical constitution of episcopal pre-eminence: but we believe that, wheresoever it is established conformably to the ancient canons, it must be carefully preserved; and wheresoever, by some heat of contention or otherwise, it hath been put down, or violated, it ought to be reverently restored." This raised a great clamor, and Bentley is a model for polemical preach- the conclusion was suppressed. On the reing, on account of the conciseness, perspi-port getting about, John Blondel, then residcuity, and fairness with which objections are stated, and the clear, full, and regular manner in which they are answered.

BENTLEY.

BIGOTRY.

ing in London, wrote to his brother David, who acknowledged that it was true. See Du Moulin's Letter to Durel, at the end of Bennet on Joint Prayer.

BODY AND SOUL.

Arabes artium et literarum omnium adeo rudes erant, ut id imprimis curasse putentur, The reciprocal influence of these upon ne prophetam suum illiteratum (uti vulgo audiit Mahommedes) scientia superarent. each other is fully and clearly set forth in Spencer de Leg. Hebræ. lib. ii. cap. 1, sect. the second volume of a Philosophical Essay 3. The Arabians were so utterly unskilled on Man. Two inferences are to be drawn in arts and sciences of every kind, that they seem to have been anxious, above all things, not to surpass in knowledge their prophet Mahomed, generally allowed to be illiterate.

First, that we should stock the soul with such ideas, sentiments, and affections, as have a benign and salutary influence upon the body. Secondly, that we should keep the body, by temper

from this consideration.

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