Manufcript lately fallen into my Hands, and which pretends to great Antiquity, tho' by reason of fome inodern Phrases and other Particulars in it, I can by no means allow it to be genuine, but rather the Production of a modern Sophiit.

IT is well known by the Learned, that there was a Temple upon Mount Etna dedicated to Fulcan, which was guarded by Dogs of fo exquinte a Smell, tay the Hiftorians) that they could difcern whether the Perfons who came thither were Chalte or otherwife. They ufed to meet and fawn upon fuch as were Chaite, caretfing them as the Friends of their Maiter Vulcan; but flew at those who were polluted, and never ceated barking at them till they had driven them from the Temple.

MY Manufcript gives the following Account of these Dogs, and was probably defigned as a Comment upon this Story.

THESE Dogs were given to Vulcan by his Sifter Diana, the Goddels of Hunting and of Chaftity, having bred them out of fome of her Hounds, in which the had observed this natural Initinet and Sagacity. It was thought he did it in fpite to Venus, who, upon her Return home, always found her Husband in Ia good or bad Humour, according to the Reception which the met with from his Dogs. They lived in the Temple feveral Years, but were fuch fnappish Curs that they frighted away moft of the Votaries. The Women of Sicily made a folemn Deputation ta the Priett, by which they acquainted him, that they would not come up to the Temple with their annual Offerings unless he muzzled his Maftiffs; and at last compromifed the Matter with him, that the Offering fhould always be brought by a Chorus of young Girls, who were none of them above feven Years old. It was wonderful (fays the Author) to fee how different the Treatment was which the Dogs gave to these little Mities, from that which they had shown to their ⚫ Mothers. It is faid that the Prince of Syracufe, having married a young Lady, and being naturally of a jealous Temper, made fuch an Interest with the • Pricts

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procured a Whelp The young Puppy Lady at firit, info

Priefts of this Temple, that he < from them of this famous Breed. was very troublesome to the fair much that fhe follicited her Husband to fend him away, but the good Man cut her fhort with the old Sicilian Proverb, Love me, love my Dog. From which Time the liv'd very peaceably with both of them. The Ladies of Syracufe were very much annoyed • with him, and feveral of very good Reputation refufed to come to Court till he was difcarded. There were indeed fome of them that defied his Sagacity, but it was obferved, though he did not actually bite. them, he would growl at them most confoundedly. To return to the Dogs of the Temple: After they had lived here in great Repute for feveral Years, it fo happened, that as one of the Priefts who had been making a Charitable Vifit to a Widow who lived on the Promontory of Lilybeum, return'd home pretty late in the Evening, the Dogs flew at him with fo much Fury, that they would have worried him if his "Brethren had not come in to his Affiftance: Upon which, fays my Author, the Dogs were all of them hanged, as having loft their original Inftin&t.

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I cannot conclude this Paper without wifhing, that we had fome of this Breed of Dogs in Great Britain, which would certainly do Justice, I fhould fay Honour, to the Ladies of our Country, and fhew the World the difference between Pagan Women and those who are inftructed in founder Principles of Virtue and Religion.

Friday,

Si verbo audacia detur,

Non metuam magni dixiffe palatia Cali. Ovid. Met.

SIR,

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Confidered in my two laft Letters that awful and tremendous Subject, the Ubiquity or Omniprefence of the Divine Being. I have fhewn that he is equally prefent in all Places throughout the whole Extent of infinite Space. This Doctrine is fo agreeable to Reafon, that we meet with it in the Writings of the enlightened Heathens, as I might fhow at large, were it not already done by other lands. But tho the Deity be thus effentially prefent through all the Immenfity of Space, there is one Part of it in which he difcovers himself in a moft tranfcendent and 'vifible Glory. This is that Place which is marked out in Scripture under the different Appellations of Paradife, the third Heaven, the Throne of God, and the Habitation of his Glory. It is here where the glorified Body of our Saviour refides, and where all the 'celeftial Hierarchies, and the innumerable Hofts of Angels, are reprefented as perpetually furrounding the Seat of God with Hallelujabs and Hymns of Praife. This is that Prefence of God which fome of the Divines call his Glorious, and others his Majeftatick Prefence. He is indeed as effentially prefent in all other Places as in this, but it is here where he refides in a fenfible Magnificence, and in the midst of all thofe Splendors which can affect the Imagination of created Beings.

IT is very remarkable that this Opinion of God Almighty's Prefence in Heaven, whether difcovered by the Light of Nature, or by a general Tradition from our first Parents, prevails among all the Nations of the World, whatfoever different Notions they entertain

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⚫ of the Godhead. If you look into Homer, that is, the • most ancient of the Greek Writers, you fee the fupreme Powers feated in the Heavens, and encompaffed with inferior Deities, among whom the Mufes are reprefented as finging inceffantly about his Throne. Who • does not here fee the main Strokes and Outlines of this great Truth we are speaking of? The fame Doctrine is fhadowed out in many other Heathen Authors, tho' at the fame time, like feveral other revealed Truths, dafhed and adulterated with a Mixture of Fables and human Inventions. But to pass over the Notions of the Greeks and Romans, thofe more enlightened Parts of the Pagan World, we find there is fcarce a People among the late difcovered Nations who are not trained up in an Opinion, that Heaven ⚫ is the Habitation of the Divinity whom they worship. 'AS in Solomon's Temple there was the Sanctum San&torum, in which a vifible Glory appeared among the Figures of the Cherubims, and into which none but the High-Prieft himself was permitted to enter, after ⚫ having made an Atonement for the Sins of the People; fo if we confider the whole Creation as one great Temple, there is in it this Holy of Holies, into which the High-Prieft of our Salvation entered, and took his Place among Angels and Archangels, after having made a Propitiation for the Sins of Mankind.

WITH how much Skill muft the Throne of God be erected? With what glorious Designs is that Habitation beautified, which is contrived and built by him who inspired Hiram with Wifdom? How great must be the Majefty of that Place, where the whole Art of Creation has been employed, and where God has chofen to show himself in the moft magnificent • manner? What must be the Architecture of Infinite Power under the Direction of Infinite Wifdom? A Spirit cannot but be tranfported after an ineffable manner, with the Sight of thofe Objects, which were made to affect him by that Being who knows the inward Frame of a Soul, and how to please and ravifh it in all its moft fecret Powers and Faculties. It is to this Majestic Prefence of God, we may ap

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ply thofe beautiful Expreffions in holy Writ: Behold even to the Moon, and it fhineth not; yea the Stars are not pure in his Sight. The Light of the Sun, and all the Glories of the World in which we live, are but as weak and fickly Glimmerings, or rather Darkness itself, in comparison of thofe Splendors which encompass the Throne of God.

AS the Glory of this Place is tranfcendent beyond Imagination, fo probably is the Extent of it. There is Light behind Light, and Glory within Glory. How far that Space may reach, in which God thus appears in perfect Majefty, we cannot poffibly conceive. Tho' it is not infinite, it may be indefinite; and tho' not immeafurable in it felf, it may be fo with regard to any created Eye or Imagination. If he has made thefe lower Regions of Matter fo inconceivably wide and magnificent for the Habitation of mortal and perifhable Beings, how great may we fuppose the Courts of his Houle to be, where he makes his Refidence in a more efpecial Manner, and displays himself in the Fulnefs of his Glory, among an innumerable Company of Angels, and Spirits of just Men made perfect?

THIS is certain, that our Imaginations cannot be ← raised too high, when we think on a Place where Omnipotence and Omnifcience have fo fignally exerted. themselves, because that they are able to produce a Scene infinitely more great and glorious than what we are able to imagine. It is not impoffible but at the Confummation of all Things, thefe outward Apartments of Nature, which are now fuited to those Beings who inhabit them, may be taken in and added to that glorious Place of which I am here fpeaking; and by that means made a proper Habitation for Beings who are exempt from Mortality, and cleared of their Imperfections: For fo the Scripture feems to intimate when it fpeaks of new Heavens and of a new Earth, wherein dwelleth Righteoufnefs.

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I have only confidered this glorious Place with regard to the Sight and Imagination, though it is highly probable that our other Senfes may here likewife

• enjoy