If the sins be not utterly detested and abomined, this is a contradiction to this first branch of our vow of baptism.

Hammond. Works, (Pract. Catechism,) vol. í. p. 118. The primitive Christians were branded and abomined by them for three special faults, which they were little likely to be guilty of.-Id. Ib. vol. iv. fol. 643. Ser. 12.

Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds,
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, inutterable, and worse

Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons, and hydras, and chimeras dire.

Milton. Paradise Lost, b. ii.

That very action for which the swine is abominated, and looked upon as an unclean and impure creature, namely, wallowing in the mire, is designed by nature for a very good end and use; not only to cool his body, but also to suffocate and destroy noisome and importunate insects. Ray. Wisdom of God. Such honour [lip-honour] is indeed no honour at all, but impudent abuse, and profane mockery: for what can be more abominably vain, than for a man to court and cajoul him who knows his whole heart, who sees that he either minds not, or means not what he says? Barrow. Ser. vol. i. s. 4. If envy is thus confessedly bad, and it be only emulation that is endeavoured to be awakened in children, surely there ought to be great care taken, that children may know the one from the other. That they may abominate the one as a great crime, whilst they give the other admission into their minds.-Law. Serious Call.

For it [Parliament] is aborted before it was born; and nullified after it had being.---Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, p. 431.

And Julia [the daughter of Julius Cæsar, and the wife of Pompey], a little before dying of an abort in childbed, together with the infant she bare; it lay thenceforth open and clear in every man's eye, that ⚫ there would ensue but a dry and sandy friendship between them.Ib. p. 241.

The latter casuists ⚫ justly hold, that to give any such expelling or destructive medicine, with a direct intention to work an aborsement, whether before or after animation, is utterly unlawful and highly sinful. Bp. Hall. Cases of Conscience. The like may be said of the other law of Aristotle concerning abortion or the destruction of a childe in the mother's wombe, being a thing punished severely by all good lawes, as injurious not onely to nature, but also to the common-wealth, which thereby is deprived of a designed citizen. Hakewill. Apologie, p. 317.

Thou eluish mark'd abortive rooting hogge,
Thou that was seal'd in thy natiuitie
The slaue of nature, and the sonne of hell.

Shakespeare. Richard III. Act i. sc. 3.

But power, your grace, can above nature give, It can give power to make abortives live.-Cowley. Poems. The purpose of this discourse is to represent in what state of things our pardon stands here; and that it is not only conditional, but of itself a mutable effect, a dispositiou towards the great pardon, and therefore if it be not nurs'd and maintain'd by the proper instruments of its progression, it dies like an abortive conception, and shall not have that immortality whither it was designed.

Bp. Taylor. Of Repentance, c. 9. sec. 6.

Round him [Bays] much embryo, much abortion lay,
Much future ode, and abdicated play:
Nonsense precipitate, like running lead,
That slipp'd through crags and zig-zags of the head.
Pope. Dunciad, b. i.

Any enterprize undertaken without resolution, managed without care, prosecuted without vigour, will easily be dashed and prove abortive, ending in disappointment, damage, disgrace, and dissatisfaction. Barrow. Ser. vol. iii. s. 18.

Or, if abortively poor man must die,
Nor reach, what reach he might, why die in dread?
Young. The Complaint, Night 7.

ABOVE, prep. A. S. Bufan-Be-ufan. Bove, top or head. R. Brunne, and the elder English authors write it, Abouen-Abowen. In R. Gloucester and R. Brunne, it is applied as uppermost or superior in rank and power, &c.; and beneath, (qv.) is opposed to it. See OVER, UP.

It is usual to consider above as a preposition and an adverb: but the meaning remains the same.

Nye ger he was thus in thys lond in bataile & in wo,
An ofte sythe aboue was, and bynethe oftan mo.
R. Gloucester, p. 264.
& God sent him tokenyng on nyght als he slepe,
Dat he suld fynd a palmere orly at morn,
At the south gate, alone as he was born,
& if he wild praie him, for Jhesu Criste's loue,
He wild do the bataile, & thei suld be aboue.

R. Brunne, p. 32. Wherfore, Melibeus, this is oure sentence; we conseille you, aboven alle thing, that right anon thou do thy diligence in keping of thy propre persone, in swiche a wise that thou ne want non espie ne watche, thy body for to save. Chaucer. Tale of Melibeus.

On Lord, on faith, on God withouten mo,
On Cristendom, and fadir of all also
Aboven all, and over all every wher:
Thise wordes all with gold ywriten were.

Id. The second Nonnes Tale, v. 15678.

And thus thou might wel vnderstonde
My sonne, if thou art suche in loue,
Thou might not come at thyn aboue

Of that thou woldest wel acheue.-Gower. Con. A. b. iv.
I'll sing the mighty riddle of mysterious love,

She [Fortune] eyther giues a stomack, and no foode
(Such are the poore in health), or else a feast,
And takes away the stomack, (such are the rich,
That haue aboundance and enjoy it not.)

Shakespeare. 2 Part Henry IV. Act iv. sc.

He goes lightly, that wants a load. If there be more pleasure in abundance, there is more security in a mean estate.-Bp. Hall. Cont. Herod and the Infants.

The elements due order here maintain,

And pay their tribute in of warmth and rain:
Cool shades and streams, rich fertile lands abound,
And Nature's bounty flows the seasons round.

Otway. Windsor Castle. The Romans abounded with little honorary rewards, that without conferring wealth or riches gave only place and distinction to the person who received them. Guardian. No. 96.

ABOUT, prep. and adv.

A. S. Abutan, abuta.

Which neither wretched men below, nor blessed spirits On buta. On boda. Boda, the first outward ex

above,
With all their comments can explain;
How all the whole world's life to die did not disdain!
Cowley. Christ's Passion.
They that speak ingenuously of bishops and presbyters,
say, that a bishop is a great presbyter, and during the time
of his being bishop, above a presbyter: as your president of
the college of physicians is above the rest, yet he himself is
no more than a doctor of physic.-Selden. Table Talk.

And sure if aught below the seats divine
Can teach immortals, 'tis a soul like thine;
A soul supreme, in each hard instance try'd;
Above all pain, all passion, and all pride.

Pope. Ep. to Earl Mortimer.

The religion of the gospel is spiritual: the religion of the Jews, as they made it, was carnal. The gospel places morality above rites and ceremonies: the Jews preferred, in their practice at least, the ritual law to the moral. Jortin. Discourses, Dis. 1.

And god is myghti to make al grace abounden in ghou, that ghe in all thingis euermore han al sufficience and abounde into al good werk as it is writun, he delide abrood, he ghaf to pore men: his rightwysnesse dwellith withouten ende.-Wielif. 2 Corynth. c. 9.

And he seide to hem, se ye and be ye war of alle couertise, for the lyf of a man is not in the abundaunce of the thingis, which he weeldith.-Id. Luk. c. 12.

And britheren, we preien ghou, that ghe knowe hem that traueilen among ghou, and ben souereyns to ghou in the lord, and techen ghou that ghe have hem aboundauntli in charite, and for the werk of hem haue ghe pees with hem. Id. 1 Tessal, c. 5.

Ther as a wedded man in his estat,
Liveth a lif blisful and ordinat
Under the yoke of mariage ybound:
Wel may his herte in joye and blisse abound,
For who can be so buxom as a wif?

Chaucer. The Marchantes Tale, v. 9163. Euery wight in soche yearthly weale habundaunt is holde noble, precious, benigne, and wise, to doe what he shall, in any degree that men him set, all be it that the sothe be in the contrary of all tho thinges; but he that can ne neuer so well him behaue, and hath vertue haboundant, in manifolde manners, and be not wealthed with soch yearthly goodes is holde for a foole, and saide his witte is but sotted.

Id. Test. of Love, b. i. The bodily marchandize, that is leful and honest, is this, that ther as God hath ordeined, that a regne or a contree is suffisant to himself, than it is honest and leful, that of the haboundaunce of this contree men helpe another contree that is nedy; and therfore ther must be marchants to bring fro on contree to another hir marchandise. Id. The Persones Tale. Sewerly the scripture aboundeth with examples, teching vs, all present and longe felicite to be grettly suspect. Joye. The Exposicion of Daniel, c. 2.

There did I see our conquer'd fathers fall
Before the English, on that fatal ground,
When as to ours their number was but small,
And with brave spirits France ne'er did more abound.
Drayton. Battle of Agincourt.

tremity or boundary of any thing. It is variously written Abouten, Aboute, About. See Abut,

About is applied to:-the edge or border approached, or first come to; the circuit, the circumference; time approaching, any act or event approaching or upon the point of being done or coming to pass; to nearness, proximity. It is classed by Wilkins among those local prepositions which respect space in general, and which relate both to motion and rest, with respect to the intermediate space betwixt those terms, either direct or indirect.

Engelond ys a wel god land, ich wene of eche lond best
Yset in the ende of the world, as al in the West.
De see goth hym al aboute, he stont as an yle.
R. Gloucester, p. 1.
Goggomagog was a geand swithe grete and strong.
A boute four and twenti fet me seith he was long.

And knytte it [a bell] on a coler,
And honge [it] aboute the cattys halse.

Id. p. 22

Piers Ploukman, p. 9

For, brother min, take of me this motif,
I have now ben a court-man all my lif
And God it wot, though I unworthy be,
I have stonden in ful gret degree,
Abouten lordes of ful high estat:
Yet had I never with non of hem debat,
I never hem contraried trewely.

Chaucer. The Marchantes Tale, v. 9370. Thou blinded God (quod I) forgeue me this offence, Unwillingly I went about, to malice thy pretence.

Surrey. Complaint of a Louer, &e
Who? What an asse am I? I sure, this is most braue,
That I, the Sonne of the Deere murthered,
Prompted to my reuenge by heaven, and hell,
Must (like a whore) vnpacke my heart with words,
And fall a cursing like a very drab,

A scullion? Fye vpon't, foh.-About my braine.
Shakespeare. Hamlet, Act ii. sc. 2.
Fac. I; if I can strike a fine hooke into him now;
The Temple church; there I have cast mine angle.
Well, pray for me. I'll about it.

Jonson. Alchemist, Act ii. sc. 2.
And as I wake, sweet music breathe
Above, about, or underneath,
Sent by some spirit to mortal good,

Or the unseen genius of the wood.-Milton. Il Penseroso. Meditate and inquire with great diligence and exactness into the nature, properties, circumstances, and relations of the particular subject about which you judge or agree. You should survey a question round about, and on all sides, and extend your views as far as possible, to every thing that has a connexion with it.-Watts. Logick, pt. iii. c. 4. First, for your bees a proper station find, That's fenc'd about and shelter'd from the wind; For winds divert them in their flight, and drive The swarms, when loaden homeward, from their hive. Addison. Virgil, Georg. 4.

N

Trol. O Cressida, how often haue I wisht me thus ? Cres. Wisht my lord? The gods grant! O my lord. Troi. What should they grant? What makes this pretty abruption; what too curious dreg espies my sweet lady in the fountaine of our loue?-Shakes. Tr. & Cr. Act iii. sc. 2.

Or if thou hast not broke from companie
Abruptly, as my passion now makes me,

Thou hast not lou'd.-Id. As You Like It, Act ii. sc. 4.
Pardon, if my abruptnesse breed disease;
"He merits not t' offend, that hastes to please."

Jonson. Part of the King's Entertainment.

It is a rudeness in manners to depart from the house of our friend as soon as the tables are removed, and an act of irreligion to rise from our common meals without prayer and thanksgiving. How much more absurd and impious, shen, were it for us to depart abruptly from the Lord's table! Comber. Companion to the Temple, pt. iii. s. 19. Abrupt, with eagle-speed she cut the sky; Instant invisible to mortal eye.

Pope. Homer. Odyssey, b. i.

At last the rous'd up river pours along :
Resistless, roaring, dreadful, down it comes
From the rude mountain, and the mossy wild,
Tumbling through rocks abrupt, and sounding far.

Thomson. Winter.

Abrupt and horrid as the tempest roars,
Thunder and flash upon the steadfast shores,
Till he, that rides the whirlwind, checks the rain,
Then all the world of waters sleeps again.

Cowper. Retirement. A'BSCESS. Fr. Abscez; It. Absesso; Sp. Abscesso; Lat. Abscessus: from Abscedere, to go away, depart; (abs and cedere.)

A separation or segregation of humours into

one mass.

The signs may be taken from their causes; and the manner of the abscess may demonstrate its malign nature, and evil quality.-Wiseman. Chirurgical Treatises, b. i. c. 5.

ABSCIND, v. Fr. Abscis; Lat. Abscendere, ABSCI'SSION. away from.

}(Ab-scindere;) to cut ondere,

Gr. σχιξ-ειν.

To cut off, to shear off, to sever. Abscission is a favourite word with J. Taylor.

We are perishing people, or, if not, yet at the least not to be cured without the abscission of a member, without the cutting off a hand or leg, or the putting out of an eye. Bp. Taylor. Serm. vol. ii. s. 13.

To this commandment fastings, and severe abstinencies, are apt to be reduced, as being the proper abscission of the instruments and temptations of lust, to which Christ invites by the mixed proposition of threatening and reward.

Id. Great Exemplar, pt. ii. §. 36.

The servant of the Lord must not strive; I mean in those

cases where meekness of instruction is the remedy: or if the case be irremediable, abscission, by censures, is the penalty.-Id. Liberty of Prophesying, sec. 13.

When a single syllable is cut off from the rest, it must either be united to the line with which the sense connects it, or be sounded alone • • • When two syllables likewise are abscinded from the rest, they evidently want some associate sounds to make them harmonious. Rambler. No. 90. The abscission of a vowel is undoubtedly vicious when it is strongly sounded, and makes, with its associate consonant, a full and audible syllable.-Id. No. 88.

ABSCOND, v. Fr. Absconser; It. Ascon

dere;

ABSENT, v. ABSENT, adj. ABSENTATION. A'BSENCE. ABSENTEE. ABSENTE'ISM. ABSE'NTER. ABSENTMENT.

To be or go, or send away from; to retreat, to withdraw. Absentee and Absenteism are now common words.

Oonli lyue ghe worthili to the gospel of Crist, that whethir whanne I come and se ghou; either absent I heere of ghou that ghe stonde in oo spyryt of oo wille, traueilinge togidre to the feith of the gospel.-Wiclif. Filipensis, c. 1.

Lo badde is nothing els, but absence or negatiue of good, as darkness is absence or negatiue of light.

Chaucer. Test. of Love, b. iii. fol. 309.

The archebisshop desiryng the duke [Henry of Lancaster] to absent all other persons then suche as wer his copanions saied these or like wordes to hym.-Hall. Introd. fol. 10.

At this rehersall was the duke of Aniowe absent; the kyng douted hym, bycause he was so couytous; but thoughe the kynge dyde absent hym at the houre of his dethe, and putte hym farre of fro the busynesses of the realme of Fraunce, yet the duke of Aniowe thought to medyll neuer the lesse for all his absence.-Berners. Froissart. Cron. c. 366.

With burial brandes I absent shall thee trace:
And when cold death from life these limes deuides,
My gost eche where shall still on thee awaite.
Surrey. Virgile, b. iv.
Duke. Not see him since? Sir, sir, that cannot be :
But were I not the better part made mercie,

I should not seeke an absent argument
Of my reuenge, thou present.

Shakespeare. As You Like It, Act iii. sc. 2.

-Night with her will bring Silence; and sleep, listening to thee, will watch, Or we can bid his absence, till thy song End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine. Milton. Paradise Lost, b. vii. Polin. But when against his custom, they perceiv'd The King absented, streight the rebels met, And roar'd, they were undone.

Dryden. Duke of Guise, Act iii. sc. 1.

It is observed, that in the sun's total eclipses, when there is no part of his body discernible, yet there does not always follow so great a darkness as might be expected from his total absence.---Wilkins. Discovery of a New World.

Whether if there was no silver or gold in the kingdom, our trade might not nevertheless supply bills of exchange, sufficient to answer the demand of absentees in England, or elsewhere?---Bp. Berkeley. Querist.

Other phrases and circumlocutions by which humane death is expressed are either expressly applyed or by consequence applicable to the death of our Saviour; such for instance as these: a going or abode abroad, a peregrination, or absentment from the body.

Barrow. Sermons, vol. ii. s. 27. What is commonly called an absent man, is commonly either a very weak, or a very affected man. Chesterfield. Let. 12. Your absentation from the House is a measure which always had my most entire concurrence.

Wakefield. Letter to C. J. Fox, March 13, 1800.

It might perhaps be a little difficult to ascertain either what sort or what degree of absence, would subject a man to be taxed as an absentee, or at what precise time the tax Smith. Wealth of Nations, b. v. c. 2.

Prior. Turtle and Sparrow.

When there are no more insects in the air, as in winter

time, those birds [swallows] do either abscond, or betake themselves into hot countries.-Ray. Wisdom of God.

Nothing discoverable in the lunar surface is ever covered and absconded from us by the interposition of any clouds or mists, but such as rise from our own globe. Bentley. Serm. viii. He [Thos. Fitzherbert] would now and then hear a sermon, which he was permitted to do by an old Roman priest that then lived abscondedly in Oxon. Wood. Athena Oxon. If he absconds, and it is thought proper to pursue him to an outlawry, then a greater exactness is necessary. Blackstone. Com. b. iv. c. 24.

ABSOLVE, v. ABSOLVER. A'BSOLUTE, A'BSOLUTELY.

A'BSOLUTENESS.

ABSOLUTION.

Fr. Absouldre, Absoudre; It. Assolvere; Sp. Absolver; Lat. Absolvere, (Ab-solvere, solutus,) to loose or free from.

To loose or free from; to free or clear-from difficulty; from guilt; or the consequences of guilt; to acquit, to pardon.

A'BSOLUTORY.

The adj. and nouns are applied to that which is free from bound, restriction, uncertainty, imperfection: unbounded, unrestricted, unlimited, unconditional: clear, certain. See the quotation from the English Preface to Knox.

At ther wille salle thou be, Sir, we se it wele, Calle ageyn thin oth, drede thou no manace, Nouther of lefe ne loth, thi lordschip to purchace Thou may fulle lightly haf absolutioun, For it was a gilery, thou knew not ther tresoun. R. Brunne, p. 215. For the nature ne tooke not her begynning, of thynges amenused and imparfite, but it proceedeth of thynges that

But father nowe ye haue all herde,

In this maner howe I haue ferde

Of cheste, and of dissencion,

Yeue me your absolucion.---Gower. Con. A. b. iii. But let the sonne of perdicion perisshe, and absolue we the chapter, the aungel yet speking with Daniel.

Joy. Exposicion of Daniel, c. 8.

Furthermore, if I myghte be bold with Rastel, I wolde aske him this question, whether God haue not an absolute iustice as wel as an absolute power? If God have also an absolute iustice, then can not his absolute power preuayle vntyll his absolute iustice be fullie countrepyased. A Boke made by Johan Fruth, printed 1548. We are bounde to heare the Pope, and his Cardinalles, and other like Scribes, and Phariseis, not absolutely, o without exception, what so ever they liste to sale: but only so long, as they teache the lawe of God.

Jewel. Defence of the Apologie, p. 430. He [Wiclife] denyed ye Bishop to have authoritie to excommunicate any person; and that any priest might absolve such a one as well as the pope.-Stow. Chronicle, an. 1376. Pray speake in English; heere are some will thanke you, If you speake truth, for their poore Mistris sake; Beleeue me, she has had much wrong. Lord Cardinall, The willing'st sinne I euer yet committed, May be absolu'd in English.

Shakespeare. Henry VIII. Aet i. sc. 1. Duke. Be absolute for death: either death or life Shall thereby be the sweeter.

Ib. Meas. for Meas. Act iii. se. 1 Now if to salve this anomaly, we say the heat of the sun is more powerful in the Southern Tropick, because in the sign of Capricorn falls out the perigeum, or lowest place of the sun in his eccentrick, whereby he becomes nearer unto them than unto the other in Cancer, we shall not absolve the doubt.--Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. vi. c. 10.

They that take upon them to be the only absolvers of sin, are themselves held fast in the snares of eternal death. More. Against Idolatry, Pref.

We must know what is to be meant by absolute, or absoluteness; whereof I finde two main significations. First, absolute signifieth perfect, and absolutenesse, perfection: hence we have in Latin this expression, Perfectum est omnibus numeris absolutum. And in our vulgar language we say, a thing is absolutely good, when it is perfectly good. Next, absolute signifieth free from tye or bond.

Knox. History of the Reformation, Pref.

It is fatal goodness left to fitter times,
Not to increase, but to absolve, our crimes.

Dryden. To the Lord Chancellor Hyde. The proper object of love, is not so much that which is absolutely good in itself, as that which is relatively so to us.

Bp. Wilkins. Sermon on the Hope of Rewarde. As the priests of the law were to pronounce a blessing upon the offerers, so those of the gospel are to dispense the blessing of absolution unto the penitent.

Comber. Companion to the Temple, pt. i. s. 4. Though an absolutory sentence should be pronounced in favour of the persons-yet if adultery shall afterwards b truly proved, he may again be proceeded against as an adulterer.-Ayliffe. Parergon.

Reason pursued is faith; and unpursued Where proof invites, 'tis reason, then, no more: And such our proof, That, or our faith is right, Or Reason lies, and Heaven designed it wrong: Absolve we this?--Young. Complaint, Night 4. Rocking sets children to sleep better than absolute rest; there is indeed scarce any thing at that age, which gives more pleasure than to be gently lifted up and down. Burke. On the Sublime and Beautiful. A/BSONANT. Į Lat. Absonus, (Ab-sono,) sounding A'BSONOUS.

Discordant; disagreeing. See CONSONANT. For Stoicism to rejoice at funerals, and lament at births of men, is more absonant to nature than reason.

Quarles. Judgment and Mercy. The Mourner. To suppose an uniter of a middle constitution, that should partake of some of the qualities of both, is unwarranted by any of our faculties; yea. most absonous to our reason. Glanville. Scep. Scientifica, c. 4. ABSORB, v. Fr. Absorber; It. Assorbere ; ABSORBENT. Sp. Absorver; Lat. Absorbere, ABSORPTION. (Ab-sorbere,) to sup or suck up. To swallow, imbibe.

To be wholly occupied by, or engaged in, devoted to, immersed, plunged, or lost in the contemplation of.

For no thyng as Luther sayeth can damne a Christen man, saue onely lacke of beliefe. For all other synnes (if

Beholde, a bryght cloude ouershadowed thapostles, lest they should be absorpte and ouercummed with the highnesse of the sigthte.-Udal. Matthew, c. 17.

The evils that come of exercise, are: first, that it maketh the spirits more hot and predatory; secondly, that it doth absorbe likewise, and attenuate too much the moisture of the body.-Bacon. Naturall History, § 299.

Where to place that concurrence of water [the river Jordan] or place of its absorbition, there is no authentick decision. Sir T. Brown. Tracts, p. 165.

The aversion of God's face is confusion; the least bending of his brow is perdition; but his "totus æstus," his whole fury is the utter absorption of the creature. Bp. Hall. Remains, p. 24. This abolition of their name happened about the end of the first century after Christ; for after that we hear no more mentioned of the name of the Edomites or Idumeans, it being by that time wholly absorbed in the name of Jews. Prideaux. Connection, pt. ii. b. v. an. 129.

Circe in vain invites the feast to share;
Absent I ponder, and absorpt in care:
While scenes of woe rose anxious in my breast,
The queen beheld me and these words addrest.

Pope. Homer. Odyssey, b. x. Coagulators of the humours [are] those things which expel the most fluid parts, as in the case of incrassating, or thickening; and those things which suck up some of the fluid parts, as absorbents.-Arbuthnot. On Diet, § 10.

Those twinkling tiny lustres of the land,

Drop one by one from Fame's neglecting hand;
Lethean gulphs receive them as they fall,
And dark oblivion soon absorbs them all.

Cowper. On some Names in Biogr. Britannica.

To what has been enumerated, as officiating in the single act of a man's raising his hand to his head, must be added likewise, all that is necessary, and all that contributes, to the growth, nourishment, and sustentation of the limb, the repair of its waste, the preservation of its health: such as the circulation of the blood through every part of it; its lymphatics, exhalants, absorbents; its excretions and integuments.-Paley. Natural Theology, c, 10.

This necessarily engages us in the history of the rise, progress, and decay of the ancient Greek philosophy: in which is shewn its original, like that of legislation, from Egypt: the several revolutions it underwent in its character, constantly attendant and conformable to the several revolutions of civil power; its gradual decay and total absorption in the schools. Warburton. Alliance, Church and State, (1st ed.) p. 165. Fr. Abstenir; It. Astenere; Sp. Abstenerse; Lat. Abstinere, ·(Ab-tenere,) to hold or keep from.

ABSTAIN, v. ABSTENTION.

A'BSTINENCE.

A'BSTINENT. A'BSTINENTLY.

refrain.

To withhold, to forbear, to

But the spirit seith openli, that in the laste tymes summen schulen departe fro the feith ghyuynge tent to spiritis of errour and to techingis of deuelis that speken leesyng in ipocrisie, and haue her conscience corrupt forbedynge to be weddyd, to absteyne fro metis whiche God made to take with doyng of thankyngis to feithful men and hem that han knowe the treuthe.-Wiclif. 1 Tymo. c. 4.

Moost dere I biseche you as comelingis and pilgryms to absteine you fro fleischli desires that figten agens the soule. Id. 1 Peter, c. 2. Darly beloued, I beseche you as straungers and pylgremes, abstayne from fleshly lustes, whiche fyght against the soule. Bible. Lond. 1539. And brynge ye in al bisynesse, and mynystre ye in youre feith vertue, and in vertue kunnyng, and in kunnyng abstynence, in abstynence pacience, in pacience pitee, in pitee loue of britherhood, and in loue of britherhood charite. Wiclif. 2 Peter, c. 1.

Ayenst glotonie the remedie is abstinence, as sayth Galien: but that I holde not meritorie, if he do it only for the hele of his body. Seint Augustine wol that abstinence be don for vertue, and with patience. Abstinence (sayth he) is litel worth, but if a man have good will therto, and but it be enforced by patience and charitee, and that men don it for Goddes sake, and in hope to have the blisse in heven. Chaucer. The Personnes Tale. Abstinence is wherby a man refraineth from any thyng, which he may lawfully take. Elyot. Governour, b. iii. c. 16.

After this dangerous businesse finished, and for a time ended, by meane of frendes, and desire of princies, a truce or abstinence of warre for a certaine tyme, was moued betwene the kyng [Henry the Sixth] of Englande, and the duke of Burgoyne. -Hall. Hen. VI. an. 15.

He that can apprehend and consider vice, with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet disVOL. I.

Milton. Liberty of Unlicensed Printing.

A Christian playing at dice or tables is not to be admitted to the holy communion, but after a year's penance and abstention, and his total amendment. Bp. Taylor. Rule of Conse. b. iv. c. 1.

Pac. Be abstinent, shew not the corruption of thy generation; he that feeds shall die, therefore he that feeds not shall live. Beaumont and Fletcher. Love's Cure, Act. ii. sc. 1. If thou hadst ever re-admitted Adam into Paradise, how abstinently would he have walked by that tree! Donne. Devotions, p. 623.

I haue deliuerd to Lord Angelo,
(A man of stricture and firme abstinence),
My absolute power, and place here in Vienna.
Shakespeare. Meas. for Meas. Act i. sc. 2.
Can you fast? your stomacks are too young,
And abstinence ingenders maladies.

Id. Love's L. Lost, Act iv. sc. 3. After some time of separation from the other pure Christians in worship, and an abstention from the sacrament, they [the penitents] were admitted again to their share of all the privileges that were given in common to Christians. Burnet. Hist. Ref.

Every one for himself must in particular, with the prudence and sobriety of a Christian, determine the measures and degrees of that abstinence, which the law of God has not determined, and the laws or customs of men have in reason no power to determine.-Clarke, vol. ii. Ser. 173.

As for fasting and abstinence, which is many times very helpful and subservient to the ends of religion, there is no such extraordinary trouble in it, if it be discreetly managed, as is worth the speaking of.-Tillotson, vol. i. Ser. 12. Call'd to the temple of impure delight, He that abstains, and he alone, does right. If a wish wander that way, call it home; He cannot long be safe whose wishes roam.

Cowper. Truth.

The temperance which adorned the severe manners of the soldier and the philosopher, was connected with some strict and frivolous rules of religious abstinence; and it was in honour of Pan or Mercury, of Hecate or Iris, that Julian, on particular days, denied himself the use of some particular food.-Gibbon. Roman Empire, c. 23.

ABSTE/MIOUS, a. ABSTE'MIOUSLY. ABSTE'MIOUSNESS.

It. Astemio; Lat. Abstemius, (Ab- temetum, quasi, To μeov, Vossius,) from wine. An abstemious man refrains from wine; ab abstinentia temeti dictus. But the word is now applied generally to that which is Temperate, moderate, restrained or withheld from excess.

A man so much divine,
That only thrice a week on homely cates he fed,
And three times in the week himself he silenced,
That in remembrance of this most abstemious man,
Upon his blessed death the Englishman began
To name their babes.-Drayton. Poly Olbion, s. 24.

I was his nursling once, and choice delight,
His destin'd from the womb,

Promis'd by heavenly message twice descending.
Under his special eye

Abstemious I grew up and thriv'd amain.

Milton. Samson Agonistes, v. 634. The Bannyans, though healthy through their abstemiousness, are but of weak bodies and small courage. Sir T. Herbert. Travels, p. 115.

If yet Achilles have a friend whose care Is bent to please him, this request forbear: Till yonder sun descend, oh let me pay To grief and anguish one abstemious day. Pope. Homer. Iliad, b. xx. The tone of his stomach never recovered its natural temper, even when he lived very abstemiously afterwards. Whiston. Memoirs, p. 273. Fr. Abstersif; It. Abstergere; Sp. Abstersivo; Lat. Abstergere, (Ab-tergo,) to scour from.

ABSTERGE, v. ABSTERGENT. ABSTE'RSE. ABSTERSION. ABSTERSIVE.

ABSTERSIVENESS.

To wipe off; to cleanse by wiping or scouring.

Gillius reckons up 155 publicke baths in Constantinople, of faire building; they are still frequented in that citie by the Turkes of all sorts, men and women, and all over Greece and those hot countries; to absterge, belike, that fulsomeness of sweat to which they are then subject.

Burton. Anat. Melancholy, p. 238. Abstersion is plainly a scouring off, or incision of the more viscous humours, and making the humours more fluide; and cutting between them and the part. Bacon. Naturall History, §. 42.

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Abatersive and mundifying clysters also are good to conclude with, to draw away the reliques of the humours, that may have descended to the lower region of the body. Bacon. Naturall History, §. 65

This I admire how possibly it should inhabit thus long in the sense of so many disputing theologians, unless it be the lowest lees of a canonical infection liver-grown to their sides; which perhaps will never uncling, without the strong abstersive of some heroic magistrate, whose mind, equal to his high office, dares lead him both to know and do without their frivolous case-putting.-Milton. Tetrachordon.

Nor will we affirm that iron indigested, receiveth in the stomach of the Oestridge no alteration at all; but if any such there be, we suspect this effect rather from some way •; but rather of corrosion, than any of digestion • • some attrition from an acide and vitriolous humidity in the stomach, which may absterse and shave the scorious parts thereof.-Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 22.

And contemplating the calicular shafts, and uncous disposure of their extremities, so accommodable unto the office of abstersion, not condemn as wholly improbable the conceit of those who accept it, for the herb Borith. Id. The Gurden of Cyrus, c. 3

A tablet stood of that abstersive tree,
Where Ethiop's swarthy bird did build her nest,
Inlaid it was with Lybian ivory,

Drawn from the jaws of Afric's prudent beast.
Denham. On Chess.

Indeed simple wounds have been soundly and suddenly cured therewith, which is imputed to the abstersiveness of this water [Epsom], keeping a wound clean, till the balsome of nature doth recover it.—Fuller. Worthies. Surrey.

The seats with purple clothe in order due;
And let th' abstersive sponge the board renew:
Let some refresh the vase's sullied mould,
Some bid the goblets boast their native gold.

Pope. Homer. Odyssey, b. xx.

Yet many simples have other qualities, which seem chiefly to reside, though not in an elementary salt or sulphur: such as sourness, saltness, a caustick or a healing faculty, abstersiveness, and the like.-Boyle. Works, vol. ii. p. 117.

ABSTRACT, v. A'BSTRACT, adj. A'BSTRACT, n. ABSTRACTED. ABSTRACTEDLY. ABSTRACTEDNESS. ABSTRACTER. ABSTRACTION. ABSTRACTLY.

Fr. Abstraire, abstraict, It. Astrarre, astratto; Sp. Abstraher, abstracto; Lat. Abstrahere,abstractum, (Abtrahere,) to draw away from.

To draw away, or separate some part from other; and thus, to refine, to purify. And then

ABSTRACTNESS. That which is general in language or reasoning, withdrawn from, not confined to, particular qualities or circumstances

Looke heere vpon thy brother Geffreyes face,
These eyes, these browes, were moulded out of his;
This little abstract doth containe that large,
Which died in Geffreye; and the hand of time,
Shall draw this breefe into as huge a volume.

Pal.

Shakespeare. John, Act ii. sc. 1.

-But man, the abstract
Of all perfection, which the workmanship
Of Heaven hath modell'd, in himself contains
Passions of several qualities.

Ford. Lover's Melancholy, Act iv. sc. 3.

If it were not in a sacred subject it were excellent sport to observe how the same place in Scripture serves several turns upon occasion, and they at that time believe the words sound nothing else, whereas in the liberty of their judgment, and abstracting from that occasion, these commentaries understand them wholly in a different sense.

Taylor. Liberty of Prophesying, s. 3.

If we consider a spiritual life abstractedly, and in itselfe, piety produces our life, not by a natural efficiency, but by divine benediction.-Id. Great Exemplar, pt. iii. s. 17.

In this science or mystery of words, a very judicious abstracter would find it a hard task to be any thing copious, without falling upon an infinite collection, &c.

Mannyngham. Disc.

[Christ annexes rewards to] the bare practice of those things, which are at the very present, though they were not commanded, and if they should not be rewarded in another life (I mean abstractively from these enhaunsments of them), infinitely esteemable and preferrable before the contraries, which must farther cost us so extreamly dear, if we will choose and pitch our design upon them, and resolve to go through with that unthrifty purpose. Hammond. Works, vol. i. p. 465.

The mind makes the particular ideas, received from particular objects, to become general; which is done by considering them as they are in the mind, such appearances, separate from all other existencies, and the circumstances of real existence, as time, place, or any other concomitant ideas. This is called abstraction, whereby ideas, taken from particular beings, become general representatives of all of C

the same kind; and their names general names, applicable to whatever exists conformable to such abstract ideas.

Locke. Essay on the H. Underst. b. ii. c. 11, § 9.

But

I own myself able to abstract, in one sense, as when I consider some particular parts or qualities separated from others, with which, though they are united in some object, yet it is possible they may really exist without them. I deny that I can abstract one from another, or conceive separately, those qualities which it is impossible should exist so separated; or that I can frame a general notion by abstracting from particulars in the manner aforesaid: which two last are the proper acceptations of abstraction.

Berkeley. Principles of Hum. Knowledge, Introd. § 10. Or whether more abstractedly we look, Or on the writers or the written book, Whence, but from Heaven, could men unskill'd in arts, In several ages born, in several parts,

Weave such agreeing truths?-Dryden. Religio Laici. As the abstractedness of these speculations [concerning human nature] is no recommendation, we have attempted to throw some light upon subjects, from which uncertainty has hitherto deterred the wise, and obscurity the ignorant. Hume. On Human Understanding, s. 1.

Here then is another source of what has been called abstract terms; or, rather, as you say, another method of shortening communication by artificial substantives: for in this case, one single word stands for a whole sentence. Tooke. Div. Purley, vol. ii. Fr. Abstrus; It. Astruso; Sp. Abstruso; Lat. Abstrusus; part. past of abstrudere, (Ab-trudere,) to thrust from. Applied to that, which is

ABSTRU'SE, adj. ABSTRU'SELY. ABSTRU'SENESS

Thrust, or moved away, so as to require keenness of mind to discover it:-to that which is concealed, obscure, difficult of apprehension, or detection.

Let the Scriptures be hard; are they more hard, more abbed, more abstruse than the Fathers? Milton. Reformation in England. Meanwhile the Eternal eye, whose sight discerns Abstrusest thoughts, from forth his holy mount, And from within the golden lamps that burn Nightly before him, saw, without their light, Rebellion rising.-Milton. Paradise Lost, b. v. Who [Aristotle] in matters of difficulty, and such which were not without abstrusities, conceived it sufficient to Jeliver conjecturalities.

Sir T. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. vii. c. 13.

And therefore old abstrusities have caused new inventions; and some from the hypothesis of Copernicus, or the diurnal and annual motion of the earth, endeavour to salve the flowes and motions of these seas, illustrating the same by water in a boal.-Id. Ib.

Then, from whate'er we can to sense produce,
Common and plain, or wondrous and abstruse,
From nature's constant or eccentric laws,
The thoughtful soul this general inference draws,
That an effect must pre-suppose a cause.

Prior. Solomon, b. i. As to some other passages, that are so [obscure] indeed, since it is the abstruseness of what is taught in them that makes them almost inevitably so; it is little less saucy, upon such a score, to find fault with the style of the Scripture, than to do so with the author for making us but men. Boyle. Works, vol. ii. p. 267.

Yet it must be still confessed that there are some mysteries In religion, both natural and revealed, as well as some abstruse points in philosophy, wherein the wise as well as the unwise must be content with obscure ideas.

Watts. Logic, pt. iii. c. 4. ABSUME, v. Lat. Absumere (see infra, ABSUMPTION. ASSUME, CONSUME). To take away wholly, to devour, to destroy.

That there is a motion or agitation of the parts of the egg by the external heat whereby it is hatched, is evident of itself, and not (as far as I know) denied by any; and also the white substance is absumed, and contexed or contrived into the body of the chick and its several parts, is manifest to sense. Boyle. Works, vol. iii. p. 69.

Christians abhorred this way of obsequies, and though they stick not to give their bodies to be burnt in their lives, detested that mode after death; affecting rather a depositure than absumption, and properly submitted unto the sentence of God, to return not unto ashes but unto dust again. Sir T. Brown. Urne Burial, c. 1.

ABSURD, adj. ABSURDITY.

ABSURDLY.

ABSURDNESS.

Shaw.

Johnson. London.

Fr. Abuser; It. Abusare; Sp. Abusar; Lat. Ab-usus; past part. of Abuti, (Ab-uti,) to use from, away from, viz. all beneficial purposes.

To ill use, by deception, guile, imposition, reproach, violence: and, consequently, to deceive, to impose upon, to vilify, to reproach, to violate, defile. Abusion, though now obsolete, is not uncommon in the elder writers.

ABU'SEFUL.

And certes that were an abusion

That God shuld haue no perfite clere weting More than we men, yt haue doutous wening But soch an errour vpon God to gesse Were false and foule, and wicked cursednesse. Chaucer. Troilus, b. iv. He shall not be innocet whoso abuseth my name, for I will viset the wykednes of soche fathers in theyr chyldren into the thyrde & fourth generacion.

Joy. Exposicion of Daniel, c. 3.

Who though he lye in a continuall await upo euery preacher to catche hym in to pride if he can: yet his hyest enterprise and proudest triumph standeth in the bringing of a man to the most abuse of that thing, yt is of his own nature And therfore great labour maketh he & gret bost, the best. if he bring it about that a good wit maye abuse his labour, bestowed upon the study of holy Scripture. Sir T. More. Works, p. 151.

Ye nobles & commos also of this realm, & specially of ye north partes, not willing any bastard blood to haue ye rule of the land, nor ye abusions before in ye same vsed any loger to continue, haue codisceded & fullye determined to make huble peticio vnto ye most puisāt prince, ye lord protector. Sir T. More. Works, p. 63.

God of his infinite mercie, has sent vs a newe Josias, by whose rightuous administracion and godly policie, the lighte of God's word that so many yeares before was here extinct began to shine againe: to the vtter extirpatio of false doctrine, the roote and chiefe cause of all abusions. Udal. Pref. to St. Mark.

Legh said, that there was honest devotion in those parts, and not used with abusion. Pole asked, what he called abusion. Legh answered, all that which was demanded in God's pretence, and afterwards to man's folly. Strype. Memorials, b. i. c. 40.

Lear. Where haue I bin?
Where am I? Faire daylight!

I am mightily abus'd; I should eu'n dye with pitty
To see another thus.-Shakespeare. Lear, Act iv. sc. 7.

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Cor. O you kind gods!

Cure this great breach in his abused nature,
Th' vntun'd and iarring senses, O winde vp,
Of this childe-changed father.-Id. Ib.

And now (forsooth) takes on him to reforme
Some certaine edicts, and some strait decrees,
That lay too heauie on the common-wealth;
Cryes out vpon abuses, seemes to weepe
Ouer his countries wrongs: and by this face,
This seeming brow of justice, did he winne
The hearts of all that hee did angle for.

Id. 1 Part Hen. IV. Act iv. sc. 3

I should tell ye what I learnt of chastity and love, I mean that which is truly so, whose charming cup is only virtue, which she bears in her hand to those who are worthy; the rest are cheated with a thick intoxicating potion which a certain sorceress, the abuser of love's name, carries about. Milton. Apol. for Smectymnuus.

For by those ugly formes weren portray'd,
Foolish delights, and fond abusions,
Which doe that sense besiege with light illusions.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 11.

In describing these battels, I am, for distinction sake, necessitated to use the word Parliament improperly, accord. ing to the abusive acception thereof for these latter years. Fuller. Worthies of England, vol. i. c. 18.

Words being carelessly and abusively admitted, and as inconstantly retained: it must needs come to pass, that they will be diversly apprehended by contenders, and so made the subject of controversies. Glanville. The Vanity of Dogmatizing, c. 17.

He falls now to rave in his barbarous abusiveness, and why? A reason befitting such an artificer, because, he saith, the book is contrary to all human learning. Milton. Colasterion.

The gravest and wisest person in the world may be abused by being put into a fool's coat; and the most noble and excellent poem may be debaɛed and made vile by being turned into burlesque.-Tillotson, vol. i. Ser. 1.

Alith. Insomuch, that I can no longer suffer his scurrilous abusiveness to you, no more than his love to me.

Wycherly. Country Wife, Act iii. sc. 1. Wretch! that from slander's filth art ever gleaning, Spite without spite, malice without meaning: The same abusive, base, abandon'd thing, When pilloried, or pension'd by a king.

ABU'T, v. ABU'TMENT.

ABUTTAL.

Mason. Epistle to Dr. Shebbeare

Fr. Abouter, Abutter; Low Lat. Abuttare. (See Spelman, and the quotation from him.) Tooke derives from the A. S. Boda; the first outward extremity or boundary of any thing.

To be upon the outward extremity: to border upon the surface of: to touch upon the edge, o: confine..

Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confin'd two mightie monarchies
Whose high, up-reared and abutting fronts,
The perrilous narrow ocean part asunder;
Peece out our imperfections with your thoughts.

Shakespeare. Prol. to Hen. 7.

The name and place of the thing granted were ordinarily expressed, as well before as after the conquest; but the particular manner of abuttalling, with the term itself, arose from the Normans, as appeareth in the Customary of Normandy, cap. 556, where it is said, that the declaration must be made par bouts & costes destites terres saisies, of the abuttals and sides of the said lands seised. Bout signifieth the end of a thing, abbouter to thrust forth the end.

Spelman. Antient Deeds and Charters, c. 5. The abutments of the floodgates are still existing between the hills through which it passed, i. e. a canal to the Red Sea from the upper point of Delta.

Bryant. Anal. of Anc. Myth. vol. iii. p. 524. A'BYSM, n. I Fr. Abime; It. Abisso; Sp. Abysmo; Lat. Abyssus; Gr. aßvoros, (negative, a, and Burgos,) without bot

ABY'SS.