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organs of speech and interior sense? Why should those games which excite our wits and fancies be less reasonable than those whereby our grosser parts and faculties are exercised? Yea, why are not those more reasonable, since they are performed in a manly way, and have in them a smack of reason; seeing also they may be so managed, as not only to divert and please, but to improve and profit the mind, rousing and quickening it, yea, sometimes enlightening and instructing it, by good sense conveyed in jocular expression?

It would surely be hard, that we should be tied ever to knit the brow and squeeze the brain (to be always sadly dumpish, or seriously pensive), that all divertisement of mirth and pleasantness should be shut out of conversation: and how can we better relieve our minds, or relax our thoughts, how can we be more ingenuously cheerful, in what more kindly way can we exhilarate ourselves and others, than by thus sacrificing to the graces, as the ancients called it? Are not some persons always, and all persons sometimes, uncapable otherwise to divert themselves, than by such discourse? Shall we, I say, have no recreation? or must our recreations be ever clownish or childish, consisting merely in rustical efforts, or in petty sleights of bodily strength and activity? Were we, in fine, obliged ever to talk like philosophers, assigning dry reasons for every thing, and dropping grave sentences upon all occasions, would it not much deaden human life, and make ordinary conversation exceedingly to languish? Facetiousness, therefore, in such cases, and to such purposes, may be allowable.

2. Facetiousness is allowable, when it is the most proper instrument of exposing things apparently base and vile to due contempt. It is many times expedient that things really ridiculous should appear such, that they may be sufficiently loathed and shunned; and to render them such, is the part of a facetious wit, and usually can only be compassed

thereby. When to impugn them with downright reason, or to check them by serious discourse, would signify nothing; then representing them in a shape strangely ugly to the fancy, and thereby raising derision at them, may effectually discountenance them. Thus did the prophet Elias expose the wicked superstition of those who worshipped Baal; "Elias (saith the text) mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or be is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked." By which one pregnant instance it appeareth, that reasoning pleasantlyabusive in some cases may be useful. The Holy Scripture doth not indeed use it frequently (it not suiting the Divine simplicity and stately gravity thereof to do so); yet its condescension thereto at any time sufficiently doth authorise a cautious use thereof. When sarcastical twitches are needful to pierce the thick skins of men, to correct their lethargic stupidity, to rouse them out of their drowsy negligence; then may they well be applied when plain declarations will not enlighten people to discern the truth and weight of things, and blunt arguments will not penetrate, to convince or persuade them to their duty; then doth reason freely resign its place to wit, allowing it to undertake its work of instruction and reproof.

3. Facetious discourse particularly may be commodious for reproving some vices and reclaiming some persons. It commonly procureth a more easy access to the ears of men, and worketh a stronger impression on their hearts, than other discourse could do. Many who will not stand a direct reproof, and cannot abide to be plainly admonished of their fault, will yet endure to be pleasantly rubbed, and will patiently bear a jocund wipe; though they abominate all language purely bitter or sour, yet they can relish discourse having in it a pleasant tartness you must not chide them as their master, but you may gibe with them as their companion; if you do that, they

USEFUL PLEASANTRY.

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will take you for pragmatical and haughty; this, they may interpret friendship and freedom. Most men are of that temper; and particularly the genius of divers persons, whose opinions and practices we should strive to correct, doth require not a grave and severe, but a free and merry way of treating them. They scorn to be formally advised or taught; but they may perhaps be slily laughed and lured into a better mind. If by such complaisance we can inveigle those dotterels to hearken to us, we may induce them to consider further, and give reason some competent scope, some fair play with them. Good reason may be apparelled in the garb of wit, and therein will securely pass whither in its native homeliness it could never arrive and being come thither, it with especial advantage may impress good advice; making an offender more clearly to see, and more deeply to feel his miscarriage; being represented to his fancy in a strain somewhat rare and remarkable, yet not so fierce and frightful. The severity of reproof is tempered, and the reprover's anger disguised thereby. The guilty person cannot but observe, that he who thus reprehends him is not disturbed or out of humour, and that he rather pitieth than hateth him; which breedeth a veneration to him, and imparteth no small efficacy to his wholesome suggestions. Such a reprehension, while it forceth a smile without, doth work remorse within; while it seemeth to tickle the ear, doth sting the heart. In fine, many whose foreheads are brazed and hearts steeled against all blame, are yet not of proof against derision; divers, who never will be reasoned, may be rallied into better order; in which cases raillery, as an instrument of so important good, as a servant of the best charity, may be allowed.

BISHOP PEARSON.

JOHN PEARSON, son of the Rector of Snoring, in Norfolk, was born there, February 12, 1612. Educated first at Eton School, and afterwards at King's College, Cambridge, during the civil war, he held various chaplaincies, private and military, and, in 1650, was chosen minister of St Clement's, Eastcheap, London. Immediately after the Restoration, preferment rushed upon him rapidly, and, in the course of a few months, he found himself Rector of St Christopher's, London, Prebendary of Ely, Archdeacon of Surrey, Master of Jesus College, and Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. In 1662, he was admitted to the Mastership of Trinity College, which he quitted for the Bishopric of Chester, in 1673; and, as we have seen, was succeeded by Dr Isaac Barrow. For personal enjoyment and public service, his latter years were entirely lost, owing to a total failure of his memory. He died at Chester, July 16, 1686.

Almost the only work which Bishop Pearson published in the English language is his well-known "Exposition of the Creed." The substance of it was originally addressed in discourses to his Eastcheap parishioners, and it first appeared in 1659. Plain, solid, and scriptural, remarkably free from idle speculations and irrelevant discussions, and reserving for marginal notes textual difficulties and patristical quotations, it is, in many respects, a model of systematic divinity, and each masterly but unassuming page bears the stamp of an author more intent on expounding his subject than on displaying himself. No wonder, then, that it has held its ground for two centuries, in both the college and the closet, as one of the very best of our theological manuals.

THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT.

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E believe in the Holy Ghost.

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Sanctification being opposed to our impurity and corruption, and answering fully to the latitude of it, whatsoever is wanting in our nature of that holiness and perfection must be supplied by the Spirit of God: wherefore, being by nature, we are totally void of all saving truth, and under an impossibility of knowing the will of God; being as no man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him, even so none knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God;" this Spirit "searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God," and revealeth them unto the sons of men; so that thereby the darkness of their understanding is expelled, and they are enlightened with the knowledge of their God. This work of the Spirit is double, either external and general, or internal and particular. The external and general work of the Spirit, as to the whole Church of God, is the revelation of the will of God, by which so much in all ages hath been propounded as was sufficient to instruct men unto eternal life. For there have been holy prophets ever since the world began, and prophecy came not at any time "by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." When it pleased God, in the last days, to speak unto us by His Son, even that Son sent His Spirit into the apostles -the Spirit of truth-that He might guide them into all truth, teaching them all things, and bringing all things to their remembrance, whatsoever Christ had said unto them. By this means, it came to pass that all Scripture was given by the inspiration of God, that is, by the motion and operation of the Spirit of God; and so, whatsoever is necessary for us to know and believe, was delivered by revelation. Again, the same Spirit which revealeth the object of faith generally to the universal Church of God, which object is propounded externally by the Church to every particular believer, doth also

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