now enjoy, to my conftant Morning Walks up Hedington-Hill in his chearful Company. If the Gentleman be ftill living, I hereby give him my humble Service. But as I was going to fay, I contracted in my early Youth an intimate Friendship with young Mr. Lizard of Northamptonshire. He was fent for, a little before he was of Bachelor's ftanding, to be married to Mrs. Jane Lizard, an Heirefs, whofe Father would have it fo for the fake of the Name. Mr. Ambrofe knew nothing of it till he came to Lizard-Hall on the Saturday Night, faw the Young Lady at Dinner the next Day, and was marry'd by Order of his Father Sir Ambrofe, between Eleven and Twelve the Tuesday following. Some Years after, when my Friend came to be Sir Ambrofe himself, and finding upon Proof of her, that he had lighted upon a good Wife, he gave the Curate who join'd their Hands the Parfonage of Welt, not far off Wellinborough. My Friend was married in the Year 62, and every Year following, for eighteen Years together, I left the College, (except that Year wherein I was chofen Fellow of Lincoln) and fojourned at Sir Ambrofe's for the Months of June, July, and Auguft. I remember very well, that it was on the 4th of July, in the Year 1674, that I was reading in an Arbour to my Friend, and ftopt of a fudden, obferving he did not attend. Lay by your Book, faid he, and let us take a Turn in the Grafs-walk, for I have fomething to fay to you. After a Silence for above forty Yards, walking both of us with our Eyes downward, one big to hear, t'other to fpeak a inatter of great Importance, Sir Ambrofe expreffed himself to this effect: My good Friend, faid he, you may have observed that from the firft Moment I was in your Company at Mr. Willis's Chambers at Univerfity College, I ever after fought and courted you: That Inclination towards you has improved from Similitude of Manners, if I may fo fay, when I tell you I have not obferved in any Man a greater Candour and Simplicity of Mind than in yourself. You are a Man that are not inclined to lanch into the World, but prefer Security_and Eafe in a collegiate or fingle Life, to going into the Cares which neceffarily attend a publick Character, or that of a Mafter of a Family. You fee within my Son Marmaduke, my only Child; I have a thousand Anxieties upon me concerning

him, the greater Part of which I would transfer to you, and when I do fo, I would make it in plain English worth your while. He would not let me speak, but proceeded to inform me, that he had laid the whole Scheme of his Affairs upon that Foundation. As foon as we went into the House, he gave me a Bill upon his Goldsmith in London, of Two Thousand Pounds, and told me with that he had purchased me, with all the Talents I was Mafster of, to be of his Family, to educate his Son, and to do all that fhould ever lie in my Power for the Service of him and his to my Life's End, according to fuch Powers, Trusts and Inftructions as I fhould hereafter receive.

THE Reader will here make many Speeches for me, and without doubt suppose I told my Friend he had retained me with a Fortune to do that which I fhould have thought my felf obliged to by Friendship: But, as he was a prudent Man, and acted upon Rules of Life, which were least liable to the Variation of Humour, Time or Season, I was contented to be obliged by him his own way; and believed I should never enter into any Alliance which should divert me from pursuing the Interests of his Family, of which I fhould hereafter understand myself a Member. Sir Ambrofe told me he should lay no Injunction upon me, which fhould be inconfiftent with any Inclination I might have hereafter to change my Condition. All he meant was in general to infure his Family from that Peft of great Eftates, the Mercenary Men of Business who act for them, and in a few Years become Creditors to their Masters in greater Sums than half the Income of their Lands amounts to, tho' it is visible all which gave rife to their Wealth was a flight Salary, for turning all the rest, both Eftate and Credit of that Estate, to the Use of their Principals. To this Purpose we had a very long Conference that Evening, the chief Point of which was, that his only Child Marmaduke was from that Hour under my Care, and I was engaged to turn all my Thoughts to the Service of the Child in particular, and all the Concerns of the Family in general. My most excellent Friend was fo well fatisfied with my Behaviour, that he made me his Executor, and Guardian to his Son. My own Conduct during that time, and my manner of Educating his Son Marmaduke to Manhood, and the Intereft I had

in

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in him to the time of his Death alfo, with my prefent Conduct towards the numerous Defcendents of my old Friend, will make, poffibly, a Series of History of Common Life, as useful as the Relations of the more pompous Paffages in the Lives of Princes and Statesmen. The Widow of Sir Ambrofe, and the no lefs worthy Relict of Sir Marmaduke, are both living at this time.

'I am to let the Reader know, that his chief Entertainment will arife from what paffes at the Tea-Table of my Lady Lizard. That Lady is now in the Forty fixth Year of her Age, was married in the Beginning of her fixteenth, is bleffed with a numerous Offspring of each Sex, no less than four Sons and five Daughters. She was the Mother of this large Family before the arriv'd at her thirtieth Year: About which time fhe loft her Husband Sir Marmaduke Lizard, a Gentleman of great Virtue and Generofity: He left behind him an improved Paternal Eftate of fix thousand Pounds a Year to his eldest Son, and one Year's Revenue in ready Money as a Portion to each younger Child. My Lady's Chriftian Name is Afpafia, and as it may give a certain Dignity to our Stile to mention her by that Name, we beg leave at Difcretion to fay Lady Lizard or Afpafia, according to the Matter we fhall treat of: When the fhall be confulting about her Cash, her Rents, her Houfhold Affairs, we will ufe the more familiar Name; and when she is employed in the forming the Minds and Sentiments of her Children, exerting herfelf in the Acts of Charity, or speaking of Matters of Religion or Piety, for the Elevation of Stile we will use the Word Afpafia. Afpafia is a Lady of a great Undeftanding and noble Spirit. She has paffed feveral Years in Widowhood with that Abftinent Enjoyment of Life, which has done Honour to her Deceased Hufband, and devolved Reputation upon her Children. As fhe has both Sons and Daughters marriageable, fhe is vifited by many on that Account, but by many more for her own Merit. As there is no Circumftance in human Life, which may not directly or indirectly concern a Woman thus related, there will be abundant Matter offer itself from Paffages in this Family, to fupply my Readers with diverting, and perhaps ufeful Notices for their Conduct in all the Incidents of human Life. Placing Money

Money on Mortgages, in the Funds, upon Bottomery, and almost all other ways of improving the Fortune of a Family, are practifed by my Lady Lizard with the best Skill and Advice.

THE Members of this Family, their Cares, Paffions, Interests and Diverfions fhall be represented from time to time, as News from the Tea-Table of fo accomplished a Woman as the intelligent and discreet Lady Lizard.

N° 3

Saturday, March 14.

Quicquid eft illud, quod fentit, quod sapit, quod vult, quod viget, cælefte & divinum eft, ob eamque rem æternum fit neceffe eft. Cicero. Whatever That be, which thinks, which underftands, which wills, which acts, it is fomething Celestial and Divine, and, upon that account, muft neceffarily be Eternal.

I

AM diverted from the Account I was giving the Town of my particular Concerns, by cafting my Eye upon a Treatife, which I could not overlook without an inexcufable Negligence, and want of Concern for all the Civil, as well as Religious Interefts of Mankind. This Piece has for its Title, A Difcourfe of Freethinking, occafioned by the Rife and Growth of a Sect called Free-thinkers. The Author very methodically enters upon his Argument, and fays, By Free-thinking I mean the Ufe of the Understanding in endeavouring to find out the Meaning of any Propofition whatsoever, in confidering the Nature of the Evidence for, or against, and in judging of it according to the feeming Force or Weakness of the Evidence. As foon as he has delivered this Definition, from which one would expect he did not defign to fhew a particular Inclination for or against any thing before he had confidered it, he gives up all Title to the Character of a Free-thinker, with the most apparent Prejudice against a Body of Men, whom of all other a good Man would be most careful not to violate, I mean Men in Holy Orders. Perfons

Perfons who have devoted themselves to the Service of God, are venerable to all who fear Him; and it is a certain Characteristick of a diffolute and ungovern'd Mind, to rail or speak difrefpectfully of them in general. It is certain, that in fo great a Crowd of Men fome will intrude, who are of Tempers very unbecoming their Function; but because Ambition and Avarice are fometimes lodged in that Bofom, which ought to be the Dwelling of Sanctity and Devotion, muft this unreafonable Author vilify the whole Order? He has not taken the leaft Care to difguife his being an Enemy to the Perfons against whom he writes, nor any where granted that the Institution of Religious Men to ferve at the Altar, and instruct fuch who are not as wife as himself, is at all neceffary or defirable; but proceeds without the leaft Apology, to undermine their Credit, and fruftrate their Labours: Whatever Clergymen in Difputes against each other, have unguardedly uttered, is here recorded in fuch a manner as to affect Religion itself, by wrefting Conceffions to its Disadvantage from its own Teachers. If this be true, as fure any Man that reads the Difcourfe must allow it is; and if Religion is the strongest Tye of Human Society; in what manner are we to treat this our common Enemy, who promotes the Growth of fuch a Sect as he calls Free-thinkers? He that should burn a Houfe, and juftify the Action by afferting he is a Free Agent, would be more excufable than this Author in uttering what he has from the Right of a Free-thinker : But there are a Set of Dry, Joylefs, Dull Fellows, who want Capacities and Talents to make a Figure amongst Mankind, upon benevolent and generous Principles, that think to furmount their own natural Meannefs, by laying Offences in the way of fuch as make it their Endeavour to excel upon the received Maxims and honeft Arts of Life. If it were poffible to laugh at fo melancholy an Affair as what hazards Salvation, it would be no unpleasant Inquiry to afk what Satisfactions they reap, what extraordinary Gratification of Senfe, or what delicious Libertinifm this Sect of Free-thinkers enjoy, after getting loofe of the Laws which confine the Paffions of other Men? Would it not be a matter of Mirth to find, after all, that the Heads of this growing Sect are fober

Wretches,