Liria.

Whom shall we choose

As the most apt and abled instrument
To minister it [poison] to him [Drusus]?

B. Jonson. Sejanus, Act iL. sc. 1. Cres. They say all louers sweare more performance than they are able, and yet reserue an ability that they neuer performe; vowing more than the perfection of ten, and discharging lesse then the tenth part of one.

Shakespeare. Troi. and Cres. Act iii. sc. 2.
Never liv'd gentleman of greater merit,
Hope or abiliment to steer a kingdom.

Ford. The Broken Heart, Act v. sc. 2. Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study.-Bacon. Of Studies, Ess. 50.

Dort, call the decree of God, whereby he hath appointed, in
and by Christ to save those that repent, believe and perse-
vere, Decretum annunciativum, &c.-Id. Via Media.

What strange ominous abodings and fears do many times
ABLU'TION, n. Fr. Ablution; It. Abluzione: on a sudden seize upon men, of certain approaching evils,
Sp. Ablucion; Lat. Ablutio: from abluere, (Ab-where-of at present there is no visible appearance.
luere,) to wash from.

A washing off or away from; cleansing, purifying.
Ablution is enumerated in B. Jonson's Alchemist
as one of the vexations of metals.

Bp. Bull. Works, ii. 489. Fr. Abolir; It. Abolire; Sp. Aboler; Lat. Abolere; Gr. Ολεω, ολλυμι, to hurt, to destroy. See Vossius,

There is a natural analogy between the ablution of the body and the purification of the soul.

Bp. Taylor. Worthy Communicant.

So because the common way of making a people holy, was to adopt them into the protection of a tutelary God; and of rendering particulars clear, was by ablutions and other cathartic rites; the Almighty was pleased to assume the titles of their [the Jews] national God, and regal Governor.-Warburton, Ser. 5.

Hearts may be found, that harbour at this hour
That love of Christ, and all its quick'ning pow'r;
And lips unstain'd by folly or by strife,
Whose wisdom, drawn from the deep well of life,
Tastes of its healthful origin, and flows
A Jordan for the ablution of our woes.

With us, the man of no complaint demands
The warm ablution, just enough to clear
The sluices of the skin, enough to keep
The body sacred from indecent soil.

A'BNEGATE, v.
ABNEGA'TION.

ABLEGATION, n. Lat. Ablegatio; from Able-ship.-Fielding. Voyage to Lisbon.

ABOARD, n.
ABO'RD, v.
or Bo'RD.
ABO'RD, n.
and, then, to address.

Cowper. Conversation.

Let the princes be of what religion they please, that is all
one to the most part of men; so that with abnegation of
God, of his honour, and religion, they may retain the friend-
ship of the court.
Knox. Letter to the Queen Regent of Scotland.
A serpentine generation wholly made of fraud, policies,
and practices; lovers of the world, and haters of truth and
godliness; fighters against the light, protectors of darkness,
persecutors of marriage, and patrons of brothels; abnega.
tors and dispensers against the laws of God.

Sir E. Sandys. State of Religion.
On board. See BOARD.
To Abord or bord, Fr. Aborder,
To come or go on board; to
approach, to accoast, or accost,

Ab-negare (quasi, ne agere, says Vossius), to A'BNEGATOR. deny. The verb is used by Dr. Johnson under the v. abjure, as synony- ryng of the authoritie of the lawe, that we muche more

He hath given it them moreouer to doe these thinges to his glory, throgh the agreement of faith that they haue in the vnitie of his godly truth, to the abolishment of all sects, false prophets, and coniurers of Egipt. Balc. Image of bothe Churches, pt. H. Rather so farre are we from thabolishement or thappay

mous with it.

maintaine and establishe it.-Udal. Rom. c. 3.

Armstrong. Art of Health, b. iii.

And afterwards, a great wynde and tepest arisyng in ye sea,
by meane wherof, thair shippes might no longar tary there,
for that, that it was a place wt out porte; one part of the
embarqued theself. And passing bifore a rokky place, called
Ithis, they came to aborde in the porte of Philie.
Nicolls. Thucydides, fol. 53.
And whe we had gotte a shippe yt wolde sayle vnto Phe-
nices, we went aborde in to it, and set forth.

Bible, Lond. 1539, Actes, c. 21.
Resolv'd he said: and rigg'd with speedy care,
A vessel strong, and well equipp'd for war,
The secret ship with chosen friends he stor❜d;
And bent to die or conquer, went aboard.
Dryden. Cymon and Iph.
We left this place about eleven in the morning, and were
again conveyed, with more sunshine than wind, aboard our

ABLUDE, . Ab-ludere, to play from. To play from, or out of tune; and, thus, to infer good or ill. differ; to be unlike.

ABO DE, v.
ABO'DANCE.

I would at the same time penetrate into their thoughts,
in order to know whether your first abord made that advan-
tageous impression upon their fancies, which a certain
address, air, and manners, never fail doing.

Chesterfield. Let. 186.
See to BODE, and to FORE-

BODE.

To see or discern; to shew or ABO'DEMENT.exhibit some external, superfi cial appearance, sign or token, from which we

name, which in Latine is called Felix, and in our English tongue, Happie.-Stow. Chronicle. East Angles.

Nay, such abodes ben nat worth an haw.

Chaucer. Troilus, b. iii. fol. 171.
The night-crow cryde aboding luckless time.
Shakespeare. 3 Part Hen. VI. Act v. sc. 6.
Edw. Tush, man, aboadments must not now affright vs.
By faire and foule meanes we must enter in,
For hither will our friends repaire to vs.

Id. Ib. Act iv. sc. 7.
For he [Bishop Felix] brought all the province unto the
faith, and workes of iustice, and in the end to rewarde of
perpetuall blessednesse, according to the abodement of his

ABO'LISH, v.
ABO LISHMENT.
ABOLITION.
ABOLITIONIST, n..
Perizonius, on Sanctius.

To destroy, to deprive of power; to annul, to abrogate; to annihilate.

Abolitionist is a modern word, lately of frequent

use.

The inhabitauntes of the north partes being by the meanes of certayne abbottes and ignorant priestes not a little stirred and prouoked for the suppression of certain monasteries, and for the extirpacion and abholishyng of the byshoppe of Rome, saiyng, see frendes nowe is taken from vs fower of the vii. sacramentes, and shortly ye shall lese the other thre also; and thus the fayth of holy churche shall vtterly be suppressed and abholished.-Hall. Hen. VIII. an. 28.

Thus, M. Hardinge, it is plaine by the judgment of your owne doctors, that were your auriculare confession quite abolish'd, yet might the people notwithstandinge haue ful remission of theire sinnes.

Jewel. Defence of the Apologie, p. 143.

Now to thentent that ye may yet farther percieue and se, that they by the distruccion of the clergy, meane the clere abolycion of Christes faith: it may like you to conferre, and compare together ii places of hys beggars bill. Sir T. More. Works, p. 311. But my saluation shal be for euer, and my righteousnes shall not be abolished.--Bible. Isaiah, li. 6.

But is nowe made manifest by the appearing of our Sauiour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortalitie vnto life through the gospel. Id. 2 Timotheus, i. 10.

With silly weake old woman thus to fight;--
Great glory and gay spoile sure hast thou got,
And stoutly prov'd thy puissaunce here in sight;
That shall Pyrrhocles well requite, I wot,
And with thy bloud abolish so reproachefull blot.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 6.

Mol. That vow perform'd, fasting shall be abolish'd:
None ever serv'd Heav'n well with a starv'd face
Preach abstinence no more; I tell thee, Mufty,
Good feasting is devout.

Dryden. Don Sebastian, Act i. sc. 1. Though he [the Church of England man] will not determine whether episcopacy be of divine right, he is sure it is most agreeable to primitive institution, fittest of all others for preserving order and purity, and under its present regulations best calculated for our civil state: he should therefore think the abolishment of that order among us, would prove a mighty scandal and corruption to our faith. Swift. Sentiments of a Church of England Man. The abolition of Spiritual Courts (as they are called) would shake the very foundation on which the establishment is erected.

Warburton. Alliance between Church and State,

Fr. Abominer; It. Abominare; Sp. Abominar; Lat. Abominari, (Ab-ominari, omen velut oremen, Festus,) to turn from, as a bad omen. Malum omen

ABO'MINATE, v.
ABOMINABLE.
ABO'MINABLENESS.
ABO'MINABLY.
ABOMINATION.
ABO'MINER.
deprecari.

Junius.
hate or detest, to accurse or execrate.
To turn from as ill omened. To loath or abhor,

Thei knowlochen that thei knowen god, but bi dedis thei denyen whanne thei ben abomynable and unbileefful and repreuable to al good werk.--Wiclif. Tyte, c. 1.

And he seide to hem, ye it ben that justifyen you bifore men; but God hath knowen youre hertis, for that that is high to men: is abhomynacioun bifore God.

Ib. Luke, c. 16.

Ai whom therfore by the whole thousande on an heape (for no fewer he nombreth them) dothe thys dyuelyshe dronken soule abominablye blaspheme, and calleth them lyars and falsefiers of scripture, and maketh them no better then draffe.--Sir T. More. Works, p. 679.

I'll sing the mighty riddle of mysterious love,
A. S. Abutan, abut
Which neither wretched men below, nor blessed spirits On buta. On boda. Boda, the first outward e

ABOUT, prep. and adv.

watimed serply of what is successively abraded from eir dreansion of waters.-Hale. Orig. of Mankind, p. 95. Tfth in white is Apheleia, a nymph as pure and ams as the soule, or as an abrase table, and is therefore Splitie.-B. Jonson. Cynthia's Revells, p. 226. Erth has its great gravity, loose connexion, and less an of its particles; its friability, and irregular figure, probably the ramenta or abrasions of the other ele-Corgae. An Essay on Regimen, Dis. i. §. 5. As the soul acts immediately on pure fire, so pure fire rates immediately on air; that is, the abrasions of all terrestrial things being rendered volatile and elastic by fire, at the same time lessening the volatility and expansive e of the fire, whose particles they attract and adhere to, there is produced a new fluid, more volatile than water or sart, and more fixed than fire.

And lightly started vp as one affray'd;
fe as if one him suddenly did call.
So, oftentimes he out of sleepe abrayd,
And then lay muzing long, on that him ill apay'd.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. 5.
ABREAST, adv. See BREAST. With breast
breasts in a straight or parallel line.
Tarry my cosen Suffolke,

My scale shall thene keepe company to heauen,
Tarry sweet soule) for mine, then fly a-brest.
Shakespeare. Hen. V. Act iv. sc. 6.
AB-RENOUNCE.) The preposition Ab is
AB-RENUNCIATION. prefixed perhaps for the
wake of giving emphasis to the word Renounce ;
itself a compound. See RENOUNCE.

In the which councell the archbishop againe proposeth dmatter, commanding all the clergie vnder paine of the *erse, there perpetuallie either to abrenounce their Wes or their huings.-For. Acts and Deeds, fol. 159. The author of the book of ecclesiastical hierarchy, attrired to 8. Denis the Areopagite, takes notice that certain Lly persons and enemies to the christian religion, think tands thing of infants, who as yet cannot underad the divine mysteries, should be partakers of the sacramer; and that professions and abrenunciations should be made by others for them and in their names.

Bp. Taylor. Great Exemplar, pt. i. sect. 28, fol. 202. Ha Sir Joh. Cheek] did make a public abrenuntiation of that religion which he had long professed, and still believed. Wood. Athene Oxon.

ABRIDGE, z. Used with the same appliABRIDGER. cation as Abbreviate, (qv.) ABRIDGMENT. and usually referred to the $272 origin. But the etymology of Menage and Wachter surely leads us immediately right. Abreser, from the Ger. Abbrechen, frangere, abrumjere, to break; A. S. Abræccan.

To break off (a part), to take away from the ole: to lessen, to curtail, to diminish; to bring less space: to contract; to compress. See the quotation from Locke.

Be crieth for israel, if the noumbre of the children of mel ahal be as grauel of the see, the relifs schulen be masaf for sothe a word makynze an ende and abregpre in equyte, for the lord schal make a word breggid on a tue erthe-Wielif. Romayns, c. 9.

And when this olde man wende to enforcen his tale by tesons, wel mie alle at ones begonne they to rise, for to wa his tale, and bidden him ful oft his wordes for to arge-Chancer. The Tale of Melibeus.

And here it that I wilne as now abredge
Difusion of sprache. I could almoste
A bocand cide stories thee aledge,

Of women loste, through false & fooles boste.
Id. Troilus, b. iii. fol. 168.

Jewel. Defence of the Apologie.
Fond women, and scarce speaking children mourn,
Bewail his [Hereford's] parting, wishing his return.
That I was forc'd to abridge his banish'd years,
When they bedew'd his footsteps with their tears.
Drayton. Richard II. to Queen Isabel.
The. Say, what abridgement haue you for this euening?
What maske? What musicke? How shall we beguile
The lazie time, if not with some delight?

Shakespeare. M. N. Dreame, Act v. sc. 1.
Beasts too were his command: what could he more?
Yes, man he could, the bond of all before;
In him he all things with strange order hurl'd;
In him, that full abridgment of the world.
Cowley. Davidies, b. i.
The inducement which moved me to think of abridging
it, was a consideration purely extrinsical to the work itself;
and in effect no other than this: that it would be better
suited to the ease and convenience of some sort of readers,
when reduced into this narrow compass.

Wynne. Abridgment of Locke's Essay. To Mr. Locke.
For he supposes it [the Apostles' Creed] an abridgement
of faith, by containing only a few of the necessary articles
of faith, and leaving out the far greater part of them; and
so takes a part of a thing for an abridgment of it; whereas
an abridgment or abstract of any thing, is the whole in
little; and if it be of a science or doctrine, the abridgment
consists in the essential or necessary parts of it contracted
into a narrower compass than where it lies diffused in the
ordinary way of delivery.
Locke. A Second Vindic. of the Reason. of Christianity, &c.
That man should thus encroach on fellow man,
Abridge him of his just and native rights,
And doom him for perhaps a heedless word
To barrenness, and solitude, and tears,
Moves indignation.-Cowper. Task, b. v.
Here lies David Garrick, describe him who can,
An Abridgment of all that was pleasant in man;
As an actor, confest without rival to shine;
As a wit, if not first, in the very first line!
Goldsmith. Retaliation.
ABROACH, v. Į A. S. Abracan. To break.
into it: to be abroach, or to set abroach, is to be
ABRO'ACH, adv. To broach a vessel is to break
or cause to be in that state in which the contents
of a vessel broached or broken into are: i. e. that
they may be drawn; caused to flow, or pour
forth, spread; set afloat.

And whan that I have told thee forth my tale
Of tribulation in mariage,

Of which I am expert in all min age,
(This is to sayn, myself hath ben the whippe)
Than maiest thou chesen wheder thou wolt sippe
Of thilke tonne, that I shal abroche.

Chaucer. The Wife of Bathes Prologue, v. 5759.
And for thei shuld vpon hym trist,
Right as who set a tonne a broche,

He perced the harde roche.-Gower. Conf. Am. b. v.
When he had obtaind the tresure, he returned to his flete,
& immediatly set his matters abroch.

Goldyng. Justine, b. vi. fol. 35.
Whose frightful vision, at the first approach,
With violent madness struck that desp'rate age,
So many sundry miseries abroach,
Giving full speed to their unbridled rage.

Therfore thei don alle her werkis, that thei be seen of men: for thei drawen abrood her falateries and magnylen hemmes.-Wiclif. Matthew, c. 23.

With thulke stroc he smot al of the scolle & ek the cronne,
That the brain orn (run) al abrod in the pauiment ther
doune.-R. Gloucester, p. 476.

Thine armes shalt thou sprede a brede,
As man in warre were forwerede,
Than shal the come a remembraunce
Of her shape and her semblaunce.

Chaucer. The R. of the Rose, fol. 127.
But it ne was so sprede on brede,
That men within might knowe the sede.

Id. Ib. fol. 132.

And I haue thrust my selfe into this maze,
Happily to wiue and thriue as best I may;
Crownes in my purse I haue, and goods at home,
And so am come abroad to see the world.
Shakespeare. Tam. of S. Act i. sc. 2.
Within their stony caves, but rush'd abroad
From the four hinges of the world, and fell
On the vex'd wilderness.-Milton. Par. Regained, b. iv.
Qu. M. Speak, then, for speech is morning to the mind,
It spreads the beauteous images abroad,
Dryden. Duke of Guise, Act ii. sc. 1.
None [of the bees] range abroad when winds and storms
are nigh,

Nor trust their bodies to a faithless sky,
But make small journeys, with a careful wing,
And fly to water at a neighbouring spring.
Addison. Virgil, Georg. 4.

Which fulfyllinge the lawe concluded oure religion within the lymitis of fayth and loue, all the ceremonies of the temple, both sacred and carnall abrogated.

Joy. Exposicion of Daniel, c. 10.
The crosier-staff in his imperious hand,
To be the scepter that controuls the land;
That home to England dispensations draws,
Which are of power to abrogate our laws.

Drayton. Duke Humphrey to Elenor Cobham. Not much unlike this severity was the ordinance of Zaleucus, the Locrian lawgiver, by which it was appointed, that whosoever proposed the enacting of a new law, or the abrogation of an old one, should come into the assembly with an halter about his neck, &c.

Potter. Antiq. of Greece, b. i. c. 26.
Nor is it well, nor can it come to good,
That, through profane and infidel contempt
Of holy writ, she [London] has presum'd t'annul
And abrogate, as roundly as she may,

The total ordinance and will of God.-Cowper. Task, b. i.

It appears to have been a usual practice in Athens, on the establishment of any law esteemed very useful or popular, to prohibit for ever its abrogation and repeal.

Hume. Essays, pt. ii. Ess. 10.

ABRUPT, adj.
ABRUPT, n.
ABRUPT, V.
ABRUPTION.

Fr. Abruption; Lat. Abruptio; from Abrump-ere. Ab: rumpere, ruptum. To break off, or away from.

ABRUPTLY.
ABRUPTNESS.

Broken off from. Generally used where the breach and separation is sudden or violent, or hasty, or unexpected.

Broken off, or away, disconnected, severed, disjoined; snapped asunder; consequentially, rugged; sudden, unceremonious.

Drayton. Barons Wars.
Hast thou no friend to set thy mind abroach?
Good sense will stagnate. Thoughts shut up want air,
And spoil, like bales unopen'd to the sun.
Young. Complaint, Night 2.

The doctrines taught of a metempsychosis, and a future
state of rewards and punishments, the Greek writers agree
to have been first set abroach by the Egyptians.

Did not I note your dark abrupted ends

Warburton. Div. Legation of Moses, b. ii. s. 4.
ABROAD. Abrod, R. Gloucester; O brode,
R. Brunne; Abrood, Wiclif; On brede, Chaucer.
Broad is from the A. S. Brædan, Abrædan-
To broaden, to enlarge, to extend, to dilate, to pitously abrupted, but gradually proceed to their cessations.
amplify.

Of words half spoke; your "wells, if all were known?"
Your short "I like not that?" your girds and buts?
Ford. Love's Sacrifice, Act iii. sc. 2.
The effects of whose [the sun's] activity are not preci-

Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. vi. c. 10.

Or [who shall] spread his aerie flight,
Upborn with indefatigable wings
Over the vast abrupt; ere he arrive
The happy Ile.-Milton. Par. Lost, b. il.

ABSENT, v.
A'BSENT, adj.
ABSENTATION.
ABSENCE.
ABSENTEE.
ABSENTE'ISM.
ABSENTER.
ABSENTMENT.

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.

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

into 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.

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 cōpanions saied these or like wordes to hym.-Hall. Introd. fol. 10.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 should either begin or end.

Smith.

Wealth of Nations, b. v. c. 2.

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

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

ABSOLUTION.

A'BSOLUTORY.

To loose or free from; to
free or clear-from difficulty;
from guilt; or the conse-
quences of guilt; to acquit, to pardon.
The adj. and nouns are applied to that which
is free from bound, restriction, uncertainty, imper-
fection: unbounded, unrestricted, unlimited, un-
conditional: clear, certain. See the quotation
from the English Preface to Knox.

been all hole absolute, and discendeth so down into t vttrest thynges, and into thynges empty and without fruit Chaucer. Boecius, b. iii. fol. 22

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 v the chapter, the aungel yet speking with Daniel.

Joy. Exposicion of Daniel, c. Furthermore, if I myghte be bold with Rastel, I wold aske him this question, whether God haue not an absolu iustice as wel as an absolute power? If God have also a absolute iustice, then can not his absolute power preuay vntyll his absolute iustice be fullie countrepyased.

A Boke made by Johan Fryth, printed 154

We are bounde to heare the Pope, and his Cardinalle and other like Scribes, and Phariseis, not absolutely, without exception, what so ever they liste to saie: but on so long, as they teache the lawe of God.

Jewel. Defence of the Apologie, p. 43

He [Wiclife] denyed ye Bishop to have authoritie to ex communicate any person; and that any priest might absol such a one as well as the pope.---Stow. Chronicle, an. 137

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. Act i. sc.
Duke. Be absolute for death: either death or life
Shall thereby be the sweeter.

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

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

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

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

Knox. History of the Reformation, Pr

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

Dryden. To the Lord Chancellor Hy
The proper object of love, is not so much that which
absolutely good in itself, as that which is relatively so to
Bp. Wilkins. Sermon on the Hope of Reward

As the priests of the law were to pronounce a blessi upon the offerers, so those of the gospel are to dispense t blessing of absolution unto the penitent.

Comber. Companion to the Temple, pt. i. s.

Though an absolutory sentence should be pronounced favour of the persons-yet if adultery shall afterwards truly proved, he may again be proceeded against as 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 res
there is indeed scarce any thing at that age, which giv
more pleasure than to be gently lifted up and down.
Burke. On the Sublime and Beautifi