BENTLEY.

BENTLEY is a model for polemical preaching, on account of the conciseness, perspicuity and fairness with which objections are stated, and the clear, full, and regular manner in which they are answered.

BIGOTRY.

Arabes artium et literarum omnium adeo rudes erant, ut id imprimis curasse putentur, ne Prophetam suum illiteratum (uti vulgo audiit Mahommedes) scientiâ superarent. Spencer de Leg. Hebræ. lib. ii. cap. 1, sec. 3.-The Arabians were so utterly unskilled 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.

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 trans"cendent beauties I have often heard mentioned. "Such is my sad condition; and from my situa"tion 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.

JOSEPHUS tells us, that in the last dreadful ruin of his unhappy countrymen, it was familiar with them" to make a jest of divine things, and to de"ride, as so many senseless tales, and juggling im"postures, 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 in"validate the ancient and apostolical constitution "of Episcopal pre-eminence: but we believe that, "wheresoever it is established conformably to the "antient 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 clamour, and the conclusion was suppressed. On the report getting about, John Blondel, then residing 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.

THE reciprocal influence of these upon each other is fully and clearly set forth in the second volume of a Philosophical Essay on Man. Two inferences are to be drawn from this consideration. 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 temperance, ex

ercise, &c. in that state which has a like benign and salutary influence on the soul. The common practice is exactly the reverse. Men indulge passions in the soul, which destroy the health of the body, and introduce distempers into it, which impair the powers of the soul. Man being a compound creature, his happiness is not complete till both parts of the composition partake of it. This has been well stated by Saurin, diss. xxiii. p. 200, where mention is made of a treatise of Capellus on the state of the soul after death.

BOOKS.

1. It is with books as with animals: those live longest with which their parents go longest before they produce them.

2. When we study the writings of men, it is well if after much pains and labour we find some few particles of truth amongst a great deal of error. When we read the Scriptures, all we meet with is truth. In the former case, we are like the Africans on the Dust Coast, of whom it is said, that they dig pits nigh the water-falls of mountains abounding with gold, and then, with incredible pains and industry, wash off the sand, till they espy at the

bottom two or three shining grains of the metal, that pays them only as labourers. In the latter case, we work in a mine sufficient to enrich ourselves and all about us.

3. Of the Spanish books, says Montesquieu, the only one good for any thing is that which was written to shew that all the rest were good for nothing.

4. Sir Peter Lely made it a rule, never to look at a bad picture, having found by experience, that, whenever he did so, his pencil took a tint from it. -Apply this to bad books and bad company.

5. I have said, and I abide by it, cries Voltaire, that the fault of most books is their being too long.-A writer who has reason on his side will always be concise.

6. The books which composed the Alexandrian library were employed to heat the baths in that city, then 4000 in number; yet were they six months in consuming. The reasoning of the Caliph at that time was: Either these books are agreeable to the book of God, or they are not. If they are, the Koran is sufficient without them; if they are not, they ought to be destroyed.

7. The greatest and wisest men have not been proof against the errors and superstitious conceits