THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

 ANTHONY COLLINS

 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING Ridicule and Irony IN WRITING

 (1729)

 _Introduction by_ EDWARD A. BLOOM AND LILLIAN D. BLOOM

 PUBLICATION NUMBER 142 WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

 1970

 GENERAL EDITORS

 William E. Conway, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_ George Robert Guffey, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Maximillian E. Novak, _University of California, Los Angeles_

 ASSOCIATE EDITOR

 David S. Rodes, _University of California, Los Angeles_

 ADVISORY EDITORS

 Richard C. Boys, _University of Michigan_ James L. Clifford, _Columbia University_ Ralph Cohen, _University of Virginia_ Vinton A. Dearing, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Arthur Friedman, _University of Chicago_ Louis A. Landa, _Princeton University_ Earl Miner, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Samuel H. Monk, _University of Minnesota_ Everett T. Moore, _University of California, Los Angeles_ Lawrence Clark Powell, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_ James Sutherland, _University College, London_ H. T. Swedenberg, Jr. , _University of California, Los Angeles_ Robert Vosper, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_

 CORRESPONDING SECRETARY

 Edna C. Davis, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_

 EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

 Roberta Medford, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_

INTRODUCTION

Between 1710 and 1729 Anthony Collins was lampooned, satirized, andgravely denounced from pulpit and press as England's most insidiousdefiler of church and state. Yet within a year of his death he became themodel of a proper country gentleman, . .. He had an opulent Fortune, descended to him from his Ancestors, which he left behind him unimpair'd: He lived on his own Estate in the Country, where his Tenants paid him moderate Rents, which he never enhanced on their making any Improvements; he always oblig'd his Family to a constant attendance on Publick Worship; as he was himself a Man of the strictest Morality, for he never suffer'd any Body about him who was deficient in that Point; he exercised a universal Charity to all Sorts of People, without any Regard either to Sect or Party; being in the Commission of the Peace, he administered Justice with such Impartiality and Incorruptness, that the most distant Part of the County flock'd to his Decisions; but the chief Use he made of his Authority was in accommodating Differences;. .. [1]

In a comparison which likens him to Sir Roger de Coverley, there is lesstruth than fiction. What they did share was a love of the countryside anda "universal Charity" towards its inhabitants. For the most part, however, we can approximate Collins's personality by reversing many of Sir Roger'straits. Often at war with his world, as the spectatorial character wasnot, he managed to maintain an intellectual rapport with it and even withthose who sought his humiliation. He never--as an instance--disguised hisphilosophical distrust of Samuel Clarke; yet during any debate he planned"most certainly [to] outdo him in civility and good manners. "[2] Thisdecorum in no way compromised his pursuit of what he considered objectivetruth or his denunciation of all "methods" or impositions of spiritualtyranny. Thus, during the virulent, uneven battle which followed upon thepublication of the _Discourse of Free-Thinking_, he ignored his own woundsin order to applaud a critic's

 _suspicions that there is a sophism_ in what he calls my _hypothesis_. That is a temper that ought to go thro' all our Inquirys, and especially before we have an opportunity of examining things to the bottom. It is safest at all times, and we are least likely to be mistaken, if we constantly suspect our selves to be under mistakes. .. . I have no system to defend or that I would seem to defend, and am unconcerned for the consequence that may be drawn from my opinion; and therefore stand clear of all difficultys wch others either by their opinion or caution are involved in. [3]

This is the statement of a man whose intellectual and religious commitmentmakes him see that his own fallibility is symptomatic of a human tendencyto error. For himself, hence, he tries to avoid all manner of hard-voicedenthusiasm. Paradoxically, however, Collins searched with a zealot'savidity for any controversy which would either assert his faith or testhis disbelief. When once he found his engagement, he revelled in it, whether as the aggressor or the harassed defendant. For example, in the"Preface" to the _Scheme of Literal Prophecy Considered_ he boastfullyenumerated all the works--some twenty-nine--which had repudiated hisearlier _Discourse on the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion_. And in malicious fact he held up the publication of the _Scheme_ foralmost a year that he might add a "Postscript to the Preface" in which heidentified six more pieces hostile to the _Grounds and Reasons_. [4]

By May of 1727 and with no visible sign of fatigue he took on a newcontender; this time it was John Rogers, canon in ordinary to the Princeof Wales. At the height of their debate, in late summer, Collins madepractical enquiries about methods to prolong and intensify itsgive-and-take. Thus, in a note to his friend Pierre Des Maizeaux, he said:"But I would be particularly informed of the success and sale of theLetter to Dr Rogers; because, if it could be, I would add to a newedition thereof two or three as sheets; which also might be soldseparately to those who have already that Letter. " For all his militantpolemic, he asked only that his "Adversaries" observe with him a singlerule of fair play; namely, that they refrain from name-calling and pettysniping. "Personal matters, " he asserted, "tho they may some times afforduseful remarks, are little regarded by Readers, who are very seldommistaken in judging that the most impertinent subject a man can talk of ishimself, " particularly when he inveighs against another. [5]

If Collins had been made to look back over the years 1676-1729, heprobably would have summarized the last twenty with a paraphrase of thePopean line, "This long controversy, my life. " For several years and insuch works as _Priestcraft in Perfection_ (1710) and _A Discourse ofFree-Thinking_ (1713), he was a flailing polemicist against the entireAnglican hierarchy. Not until 1724 did he become a polished debater, whenhe initiated a controversy which for the next five years made a "verygreat noise" and which ended only with his death. The loudest shot in thepersistent barrage was sounded by the _Grounds and Reasons_, and its lastfusillade by the _Discourse concerning Ridicule and Irony in Writing_. [6]

During those five years Collins concentrated upon a single opponent ineach work and made it a rhetorical practice to change his "Adversary" insuccessive essays. He created in this way a composite victim whosestrength was lessened by deindividualization; in this way too he ran norisk of being labelled a hobbyhorse rider or, more seriously, apersecutor. Throughout the _Grounds and Reasons_ he laughed at, reasonedagainst, and satirized William Whiston's assumption that messianicprophecies in the Old Testament were literally fulfilled in the figure andmission of Jesus. Within two years and in a new work, he substitutedEdward Chandler, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, for the mathematician. It need not have been the Bishop; any one of thirty-four others could havequalified for the role of opponent, among them people like Clarke, andSykes, and Sherwood, and even the ubiquitous Whiston. Collins rejectedthem, however, to debate in the _Scheme_ with Bishop Chandler, the authorof _A Defence of Christianity from the Prophecies of the old Testament_, with one who was, in short, the least controversial and yet the mostorthodox of his many assailants. 

Early in 1727 the Anglican establishment came to the abrupt realizationthat the subject of the continuing debate--the reliability of the argumentfrom prophecy--was inconclusive, that it could lead only to pedanticwrangling and hair-splitting with each side vainly clutching victory. Certainly the devotion of many clergymen to biblical criticism wassecondary to their interest in orthodoxy as a functional adjunct ofgovernment, both civil and canonical. It was against this interest, as itwas enunciated in Rogers's _Eight Sermons concerning the Necessity ofRevelation_ (1727) and particularly in its vindictive preface, thatCollins chose to fight. [7] The debate had now taken a happy turn for him. As he saw it, the central issue devolved upon man's natural right toreligious liberty. At least he made this the theme of his _Letter to Dr. Rogers_. In writing to Des Maizeaux about the success of this work, heobviously enjoyed his own profane irony:

 I have had particular compliments made me by the BP of Salisbury, and by Dr Clark, who among other things sayd, that the Archbp of Canterbury might have writ all that related to Toleration in it: to say nothing of what I hear from others. Dr Rogers himself has acknowledg[ed] to his Bookseller who sent it to him into the Country, that he has receivd it; but says that he is so engaged in other affairs, that he has no thought at present of answering it; tho he may perhaps in time do so. [8]

In time Rogers did. He counterattacked on 2 February 1728 with a_Vindication of the Civil Establishment of Religion_. [9] For Collins thiswork was a dogged repetition of what had gone before, and so it could beignored except for one of its appendices, _A Letter from the Rev. Dr. Marshall jun. To the Rev. Dr. Rogers, upon Occasion of his Preface to hisEight Sermons_. Its inclusion seemed an afterthought; yet it altered thedimensions of the debate by narrowing and particularizing the areas ofgrievance which separated the debaters. Collins, therefore, rebutted itsome fourteen months later in _A Discourse concerning Ridicule and Ironyin Writing_. He had great hopes for this pamphlet, preparing carefully forits reception. He encouraged the republication of his three precedingworks, which find their inevitable conclusion, even their exoneration, inthis last performance, and he probably persuaded his bookseller toundertake an elaborate promotional campaign. For the new editions wereadvertised on seven different days between 10 January and 27 February 1729in the _Daily Post_. He wanted no one to miss the relationship between the_Discourse concerning Ridicule and Irony_ and these earlier pieces or tooverlook its presence when it finally appeared in the pamphlet shops on 17March. 

Collins was animated by his many debates. Indeed, "he sought the storms. "Otherwise he would not, could not, have participated in these many verbalcontests. Throughout them all, his basic strategy--that ofprovocation--was determined by the very real fact that he had many moreenemies than allies, among them, for instance, such formidable antagonistsas Swift and Richard Bentley. [10] To survive he had to acquire a toughresilience, a skill in fending off attacks or turning them to his ownadvantage. Nevertheless, he remained a ready target all his life. Understandably so: his radicalism was stubborn and his opinionspredictable. Such firmness may of course indicate his aversion totrimming. Or it may reveal a lack of intellectual growth; what he believedas a young man, he perpetuated as a mature adult. Whether our answer isdrawn from either possibility or, more realistically, from both, the factremains that he never camouflaged the two principles by which he lived andfought:

 1. That universal liberty be established in respect to opinions and practises not prejudicial to the peace and welfare of society: by which establishment, truth must needs have the advantages over _error_ and _falsehood_, the _law_ of _God_ over the _will_ of _man_, and _true Christianity tolerated_; private _judgment_ would be really exercised; and men would be allowed to have suffered to follow their consciences, over which God only is supreme:. .. 

 2. Secondly, that nothing but the _law of nature_, (the observance whereof is absolutely necessary to society) and what can be built thereon, should be enforced by the civil sanctions of the magistrate:. .. [11]

II

There is very little in this statement to offend modern readers. Yet theorthodox in Collins's own time had reason to be angry with him: hisarguments were inflammatory and his rhetoric was devious, cheeky, andeffective. Those contesting him underscored his negativism, imaging him asa destroyer of Christianity eager "to proselyte men, from the Christian tono religion at all. "[12] Certainly it is true that he aimed to disprove aChristian revelation which he judged fraudulent and conspiratorial. Inplace of ecclesiastical authority he offered the rule of conscience. Fororthodoxy he substituted "a Religion antecedent to Revelation, which isnecessary to be known in order to _ascertain Revelation_; and by thatReligion [he meant] _Natural Religion_, which is presupposed toRevelation, and is a Test by which Reveal'd Religion is to be tried, is aBottom on which it must stand, and is a Rule to understand it by. "[13]Categorical in tone, the statement frustrated the Anglican clergy by itsvery slipperiness; its generalities left little opportunity for decisiverebuttal. It provided no definition of natural religion beyond thepredication of a body of unnamed moral law which is rational and original, the archetype of what is valid in the world's religions. 

His dismissal of revelation and his reduction of Christianity to what hecalled its "natural" and hence incontrovertible basis carried with it acorollary, that of man's absolute right to religious enquiry andprofession. Here he became specific, borrowing from Lockean empiricism hisconditions of intellectual assent. "Evidence, " he said, "ought to be thesole ground of Assent, and Examination is the way to arrive at Evidence;and therefore rather than I wou'd have Examination, Arguing and Objectinglaid aside, I wou'd chuse to say, That no Opinions whatever can bedangerous to a Man that impartially examines into the Truth ofThings. "[14] The church leadership saw in this statement and others likeit not an epistemological premise but a deliberate subterfuge, aninsidious blind to vindicate his attacks upon an organized priesthood. Wecan recognize now that his opponents oversimplified his intention, thatthey blackened it to make his villainy at once definitive and vulnerable. At the same time we must admit that he often equated the ideas ofrepression and clerical authority, even as he coupled those of freedom andthe guide of private conscience. 

The Anglican church was infuriated by these correlations, angered as muchby their manner of expression as by their substance. For the faithful werefrequently thrown off balance by a strategy of ironical indirection. Sometimes this took the form of omission or the presentation of anargument in so fragmentary or slanted a fashion that Collins's "Enemies"could debate neither his implications nor his conclusions. At other timeshe used this artful circumlocution to create his favorite mask, that ofthe pious Christian devoted to scripture or of the moralist perplexed bythe divisions among the orthodox clergy. Finally, his rhetoric was shapedby deistic predecessors who used sarcasm and satire to mock the gravity ofchurch authority. So much was their wit a trademark that as early as 1702one commentator had noted, "when you expect an argument, they make ajest. "[15] Collins himself resorted to this practice with both instinctiveskill and deliberate contrivance. 

All these methods, though underhanded, he silently justified on theassumption that he was dealing with a conspiracy of priests: hence, heprofessed that he had to fight fraud and deception with their like, andthat such craftiness, suitable "to his particular genius and temper, " was"serviceable to his cause. " For these reasons even William Warburton, whohad vainly struggled to be judicious, described him as "a Writer, whosedexterity in the arts of Controversy was so remarkably contrasted by hisabilities in reasoning and literature, as to be ever putting one in mindof what travellers tell us of the genius of the proper Indians, who, although the veriest bunglers in all the fine arts of manual operation, yet excel everybody in slight of hand and the delusive feats ofactivity. "[16] Whatever may be said of Collins and his achievement, onefact remains constant. He was a brilliant and persistent trickster whosecunning in the techniques of polemic often silenced an opponent with everysubstantive right to win the debate. 

He seized any opportunity to expose the diversity of ethical andtheological opinion which set one Anglican divine against another, "toobserve"--as Jenkin put it--"how the gladiators in dispute murder thecause between them, while they so fiercely cut and wound one another. " ForCollins such observation was more than oratorical artifice; it was one ofthe dogmas of his near-nihilism. He commented once to Des Maizeaux uponthe flurry of critics who replied to his statement of necessitarianism inthe _Philosophical Inquiry concerning Human Liberty_:

 I was extreamly pleasd with BP Hoadley, . .. As it was upon the true and only point worth disputing with ye Preists, viz whether we the laity are the Calves and Sheep of the Preist. And I am not less pleasd to see them manage this controversy with ye same vile arts against one another, as they always use towards the laity. It must open the eyes of a few and convince them, that the Preists mean nothing but wealth and power, and have not the least . .. Of those qualitys for wch the superstitious world admires them. [17]

He applied this principle of divisive attack in _A Discourse ofFree-Thinking_. There in fifty-three pages he transparently ridiculedcontradictions which hedged three areas of fundamental religious belief:_"The Nature and Attributes of the Eternal Being or God, . .. The Authorityof Scriptures, and . .. The Sense of Scripture. "_ In accordance with one ofhis favorite tricks--the massing of eminent authority--his expositionrings with hallowed Anglican names: South, Bull, Taylor, Wallis, Carlton, Davenant, Edwards, More, Tillotson, Fowler, Sherlock, Stillingfleet, Sacheverell, Beveridge, Grabe, Hickes, Lesley. [18] What united these men, he insinuated, was not a Christian commitment but a talent to disagreewith one another and even to repudiate themselves--as in the case ofStillingfleet. In effect, the entire _Discourse_ bubbles with a carelesslysuppressed snicker. 

The clergy could not readily reply to this kind of incriminating exposureor deny its reality. They therefore overreacted to other judgments thatCollins made, particularly to his attacks upon Christian revelation. Thesethey denigrated as misleading, guileful, sinister, contrived, deceitful, insidious, shuffling, covert, subversive. What they objected to was, first, the way in which he reduced the demonstration of Christianrevelation to only the "puzzling and perplexing" argument from prophecy, the casual ease with which he ignored or dismissed those other "clear"proofs derived from the miracles of Jesus and the resurrection itself. [19]But even more the orthodox resented the masked point of view from whichCollins presented his disbelief. 

For example, the _Grounds and Reasons_ is the deist's first extendedattack upon revelation. Ostensibly it is, as we have seen, an answer toWhiston's _Essay Towards Restoring the True Text of the Old Testament; andfor Vindicating the Citations Made Thence in the New Testament_ (1722). Init the mathematician argued that the Hebraic prophecies relating to themessiah had been literally fulfilled in Jesus. But this truth, headmitted, had been obscured "in the latter Ages, " only because of those"Difficulties" which "have [almost wholly] arisen from the Corruptions, the unbelieving _Jews_ introduc'd into the Hebrew and Greek copies of theOld Testament, [soon after] the Beginning of the Second Century. " Theseconspiratorial corruptions he single-handedly planned to remove, returningthe Old Testament to a state of textual purity with emendations drawn fromsources as varied as the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Greek Psalms, theAntiquities of Josephus, the Chaldee Paraphrases, the books of Philo. Hispragmatic purpose was to nullify the biblical criticism of historicalminded scholars as reputable as Grotius, to render useless the allegoricalinterpretation of messianic prophecies. That is, he saw in the latter a"pernicious" absence of fact, a "weak and enthusiastical" whimsy, unchristian adjustments to the exigencies of the moment. [20]

Collins fought not to destroy Whiston's position, which was all too easilydestructible, but to undermine the structure, the very "grounds andreasons" with which orthodoxy supported the mysteries of its faith. To doso, he spun a gigantic web of irony controlled by a persona whose complexpurpose was concealed by a mien of hyper-righteousness. Here then was onemotivated by a fair-mindedness which allowed him to defend his opponent'sright of scriptural exegesis even while disagreeing with its approach andits conclusions. Here too was a conservative Christian different fromWhiston "and many other great divines; who seem to pay little deference tothe books of the New Testament, the text whereof they are perpetuallymending in their sermons, commentaries, and writings, to serve purposes;who pretend _we should have more of the true text by being less tenaciousof the printed one_, and in consequence thereof, presume to correct bycritical _emendations_, serve _capital places_ in the _sacred writers_;and who . .. Do virtually set aside the authority of the scripture, andplace those compositions in its stead. " Finally, here was one who, obedient to the spirit of God's revealed word, rejected the fallacy thatmessianic prophecy had been fulfilled in Christ in any "literal, obviousand primary sense. "[21]

But though the persona could not accept Whiston's program, he was not amere negativist. With growing excitement he argued for allegoricalinterpretation. At this point the reader discerns that he has been duped, that nowhere has there been a denial of Whiston's charge that the readingof messianic prophecy in a typical or allegorical or secondary sense is"weak and enthusiastical. " On the contrary, the reader finds only thedamning innuendo that the two methods--the allegorical and theliteral--differ from one another not in kind but in degree of absurdity. After being protected for a long time by all the twists and turns of hiscreator's irony, the persona finally reveals himself for what he is, a mantotally insolent and totally without remorse. Never for one moment did hewish to defend the scheme of allegorical prophecy but to attack it. Hisargument, stripped of its convolutions and pseudo-piety, moves inexorablyto a single, negative conclusion. "Christianity pretends to derive itselffrom Judaism. JESUS appeals to the religious books of the Jews asprophesying of his Mission. None of these Prophecies can be understood ofhim but in a _typical allegoric_ sense. Now that sense is absurd, andcontrary to all scholastic rules of interpretation. Christianity, therefore, not being really predicted in the Jewish Writings, isconsequently false. "[22]

Collins continued his attack upon Christian revelation in the _Scheme_. Inthe two years which separated this work from the earlier _Grounds andReasons_, there occurred no change in the author's argument. What doesoccur, however, is a perceptive if snide elaboration upon the mask. Thisis in many ways the same persona who barely suppressed his guffaws in theearlier work. Now he is given an added dimension; he is made moredecisively rational than his predecessor and therefore more insightful inhis knowledge of rhetorical method. As a disciple of certain Protestantpolemicists and particularly of Grotius, whose "integrity, " "honor, " andbiblical criticism he supports, he is the empirical-minded Christian whoknows exactly why the literalists have failed to persuade thefree-thinkers or even to have damaged their arguments. "For if you beginwith Infidels by denying to them, what is evident and agreeable to commonsense, I think there can be no reasonable hopes of converting orconvincing them. "[23] The irony is abrasive simply because it unanswerablysingles out the great rhetorical failure of orthodoxy, its inability toargue from a set of principles as acceptable to the deists as tothemselves. 

Many of the clergy chafed against Collins's manipulation of thistongue-in-cheek persona. They resented his irreverent wit which projected, for example, the image of an Anglican God who "talks to all mankind fromcorners" and who shows his back parts to Moses. They were irritated by hisjesting parables, as in "The Case of Free-Seeing, " and by the impertinenceof labelling Archbishop Tillotson as the man "whom all _EnglishFree-Thinkers_ own as their Head. "[24]

But most of all they gagged upon Collins's use of satire in religiouscontroversy. As we have already seen, there were complex reasons for hischoice of technique. He was a naturally witty man who, sometimes out offear and sometimes out of malice, expressed himself best throughcircuitous irony. In 1724, when he himself considered his oratoricalpractice, he argued that his matter determined his style, that the targetsof his belittling wit were the "saint-errants. " We can only imagine theexasperation of Collins's Anglican enemies when they found their orthodoxythus slyly lumped with the eccentricities of Samuel Butler's "true blew"Presbyterians. It would be hard to live down the associations of thosefacetious lines which made the Augustan divines, like their unwelcomeforebear Hudibras, members

 Of that stubborn Crew Of Errant Saints, whom all men grant To be the true Church Militant. 

Those dignified Anglican exteriors were further punctured by Collins'sirreverent attack upon their cry of religious uniformity, a cry which was"ridiculous, romantick, and impossible to succeed. " He saw himself, inshort, as an emancipated Butler or even Cervantes; and like his famouspredecessors he too would laugh quite out of countenance the fool and thehypocrite, the pretender and the enthusiast, the knave and the persecuter, all those who would create a god in their own sour and puny image. 

III

By 1727 several of the orthodox felt that they could take no more ofCollins's laughter, his sneering invectives against the clergy, or hisdesigns to make religion "a Matter purely personal; and the Knowledge ofit to be obtain'd by personal Consideration, _independently of any Guides, Teachers, or Authority_. " In the forefront of this group was John Rogers, whose hostility to the deist was articulate and compulsive. At least itdrove him into a position seemingly at odds with the spirit if not the lawof English toleration. He urged, for example, that those like Collins beprosecuted in a civil court for a persuasion "which is manifestlysubversive of all Order and Polity, and can no more consist with civil, than with religious, Society. "[25]

Thereupon followed charge and countercharge. New gladiators, as differentfrom each other as the nonconformist divine Samuel Chandler and the deistThomas Chubb, entered the arena on behalf of Collins. For all the dogmaticvolubility of Rogers, orthodoxy appeared beleaguered. The moderate clergy, who witnessed this exchange, became alarmed; they feared that in the meleethe very heart of English toleration would be threatened by thecontenders, all of whom spoke as its champion. Representative of suchmoderation was Nathanael Marshall, who wished if not to end the debate, then at least to contain its ardor. As canon of Windsor, he supported thecondition of a state religion protected by the magistrate but he worriedover the extent of the latter's prerogative and power. Certainly he wasmore liberal than Rogers in his willingness to entertain professions ofreligious diversity. Yet he straitjacketed his liberalism when he deniedresponsible men the right to attack laws, both civil and canonical, with"ludicrous Insult" or "with Buffoonery and Banter, Ridicule or SarcastickIrony. "[26]

Once again Collins met the challenge. In _A Discourse concerning Ridiculeand Irony_ he devoted himself to undermining the moral, the intellectual, and practical foundations of that one restraint which Marshall wouldimpose upon the conduct of any religious quarrel. He had little difficultyin achieving his objective. His adversary's stand was visibly vulnerableand for several reasons. It was too conscious of the tug-of-war betweenthe deist and Rogers, too arbitrary in its choice of prohibition. It was, in truth, strained by a choice between offending the establishment and yetrejecting clerical extremism. [27] Moreover, Collins had this time aninvisible partner, a superior thinker against whom he could test his ownideas and from whom he could borrow others. For the _Discourse concerningRidicule and Irony_ is largely a particularization, a crude but powerfulreworking of Shaftesbury's _Sensus Communis: An Essay on the Freedom ofWit and Humour_. 

Supported by Shaftesbury's urbane generalization, Collins laughed openlyat the egocentricity and blindness of Marshall's timid zealotry. Indeed, he wryly found his orthodox opponent guilty of the very crime with whichhe, as a subversive, was charged. It seemed to him, he said, a most prodigious Banter upon [mankind], for Men to talk in general of the _Immorality_ of _Ridicule_ and _Irony_, and of _punishing_ Men for those Matters, when their own Practice is _universal Irony_ and _Ridicule_ of all those who go not with them, and _universal Applause_ and _Encouragement_ for such _Ridicule_ and _Irony_, and distinguishing by all the honourable ways imaginable such _drolling_ Authors for their Drollery; and when Punishment for _Drollery_ is never call'd for, but when _Drollery_ is used or employ'd against them!

 (p. 29)

Collins's technique continued its ironic ambiguity, reversal, andobliquity. Under a tone of seeming innocence and good will, he creditedhis adversaries with an enviable capacity for satiric argument. Incomradely fashion, he found precedent for his own rhetorical practicethrough a variety of historical and biblical analogies. But even moreimportant for a contemporary audience, he again resorted to the device ofinvoking the authority provided by some of the most respected names in theAnglican Establishment. The use of satire in religious topics, hence, wasmanifest in "the Writings of our most eminent Divines, " especially thoseof Stillingfleet, "our greatest controversial Writer" (pp. 4-5). 

With all the outrageous assurance of a self-invited guest, the deist hadseated himself at the table of his vainly protesting Christian hosts (whomhe insisted on identifying as brethren). "In a word, " he said so as toobviate debate, "the Opinions and Practices of Men in all Matters, andespecially in Matters of Religion, are generally so absurd and ridiculousthat it is impossible for them not to be the Subjects of Ridicule" (p. 19). Thus adopting Juvenal's concept of satiric necessity ("difficile estsaturam non scribere"), Collins here set forth the thesis and rationale ofhis enemy. There was a kind of impudent virtuosity in his "proofs, " in hismanner of drawing a large, impressive cluster of names into his ironic netand making all of them appear to be credible witnesses in his defense. Even Swift, amusingly compromised as "one of the greatest _Droles_ thatever appear'd upon the Stage of the World" (p. 39), was brought to thewitness box as evidence of the privileged status to which satiric writingwas entitled. Collins enforced erudition with cool intelligence so thatcontemptuous amusement is present on every page of his _Discourse_. 

Beneath his jeers and his laughter there was a serious denunciation of anykind of intellectual restraint, however mild-seeming; beneath his verbalpin-pricking there was conversely an exoneration of man's right toinquire, to profess, and to persuade. Beneath his jests and sarcasms therewas further a firm philosophical commitment that informed the rhetoric ofall his earlier work. Ridicule, he asserted in 1729, "is both a proper andnecessary Method of Discourse in many Cases, and especially in the Case of_Gravity_, when that is attended with Hypocrisy or Imposture, or withIgnorance, or with soureness of Temper and Persecution: all which ought todraw after them the _Ridicule_ and _Contempt_ of the Society, which has noother effectual Remedy against such Methods of Imposition" (p. 22). 

For the modern reader the _Discourse concerning Ridicule and Irony_ is themost satisfactory of Collins's many pamphlets and books. It lacks thepretentiousness of the _Scheme_, the snide convolutions of the _Groundsand Reasons_, the argument by half-truths of the _Discourse ofFree-Thinking_. His last work is free of the curious ambivalence whichmarked so many of his earlier pieces, a visible uncertainty which made himfear repression and yet court it. On the contrary, his last work is infact a justification of his rhetorical mode and religious beliefs; it isan _apologia pro vita sua_ written with all the intensity and decisivenessthat such a justification demands. To be sure, it takes passing shots atold enemies like Swift, but never with rancor. And while its language isfrequently ironical, its thinking makes an earnest defense of wit as aweapon of truth. The essay sets forth its author as an _animal ridens_, acreature that through laughter and affable cynicism worships a universalGod and respects a rational mankind. 

Brown University

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

[1] _Universal Spectator, and Weekly Journal_, No. 98 (22 August 1730). 

[2] To Des Maizeaux (5 May 1717): B. M. Sloane MSS. 4282, ff. 129-130. 

[3] To Des Maizeaux (9 February 1716): B. M. Sloane MSS. 4282, f. 123. 

[4] The title page of the _Scheme_ is dated 1726. It was not advertised inthe newspapers or journals of that year--a strange silence for any ofCollins's work. Its first notice appeared in the _Monthly Catalogue: Beinga General Register of Books, Sermons, Plays, Poetry, Pamphlets, &c. Printed and Publish'd in London, or the Universities, during the Month ofMay, 1727_ (see No. 49). Yet we know that the _Scheme_ had been remarkedupon as early as March when on the 10th of that month Samuel Chandlerpublished his _Reflections on the Conduct of the Modern Deists in theirlate Writings against Christianity_. (For the dating of Chandler's work, see the _Daily Courant_ [10 March 1727]. ) We know also that the _Scheme_went to a second edition late in 1727 and was frequently advertised in the_Daily Post_ between 2 January and 20 January 1728. 

[5] For the statement about the _Letter to Dr. Rogers_, see B. M. SloaneMSS. 4282, f. 220 (15 August 1727). For that on the use of "personalmatters" in controversy, see B. M. Sloane MSS. 4282, f. 170 (27 December1719); cf. _The Scheme of Literal Prophecy Considered_ (London, 1726), pp. 422-438. 

[6] _The Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion_ was published inLondon within the first four days of January 1724; see the advertisementin the _Daily Post_ (4 January 1724). _A Discourse concerning Ridicule andIrony in Writing_ was published on or close to 17 March 1729; see theadvertisement in the _Daily Journal_ for that date. 

[7] We can generally fix the date of Rogers's _Eight Sermons_ within thefirst two months of 1727 because it was answered early by SamuelChandler's _Reflections on the Conduct of the Modern Deists_. (See note4. ) For the dating of Collins's rebuttal, see the _Monthly Catalogue_, No. 49 (May 1727). 

[8] To Des Maizeaux (24 June 1727): B. M. Sloane MSS. 4282, ff. 218-219. 

[9] For the dating of this work, see the _Daily Post_ (31 January 1728). 

[10] For Swift's satire, see _Mr. C---ns's Discourse of Free-Thinking, Putinto plain English, by way of Abstract, for the Use of the Poor_. ForBentley's devastating probe of Collins's scholarly inadequacies, see his_Remarks on the Discourse of Free-Thinking. By Phileleutherus Lipsiensis_. Both works appeared in 1713. 

[11] _Scheme_, pp. 432-433. 

[12] Edward Chandler, _A Defence of Christianity from the Prophecies ofthe Old Testament_ (London, 1725), p. Ii. 

[13] _A Letter to Dr. Rogers_, p. 89. 

[14] _A Vindication of the Divine Attributes_ (London, 1710), p. 24. 

[15] Robert Jenkin, _A Brief Confutation of the Pretences against Naturaland Revealed Religion_ (London, 1702), p. 40. 

[16] For Collins on his own rhetorical skills, see _Scheme_, p. 402;William Warburton, _Divine Legation of Moses, Demonstrated_ (London, 1846), III, 199. 

[17] Jenkin, _Brief Confutation_, p. 51; for the letter (1 July 1717), seeB. M. Sloane MSS. 4282, f. 137. 

[18] Pp. 46-99. 

[19] See, for example, the statement of John Conybeare, Bishop of Bristol, in Joseph Spence, _Observations, Anecdotes, and Characters of Books andMen_, ed. James M. Osborn (Oxford, 1966), I, sect. 992. 

[20] _Essay_, pp. 329-333 (for Whiston's statement of sources); pp. 334-335 (for his defense of literal interpretation). The bracketedmaterial indicates Whiston's manuscript emendations of his own printedtext; see the British Museum's copy of the _Essay_ (873. 1. 10) whichoriginally belonged to the mathematician. See Collins, _Grounds andReasons_, pp. 98-99, for the summary of Whiston's attack upon allegoricalinterpretation. 

[21] _Grounds and Reasons_, pp. 20, 48-50. 

[22] This terse summary of the persona's argument was correctly made byWarburton, III, 232. 

[23] _Scheme_, p. 391. 

[24] _Discourse of Free-Thinking_, pp. 15-17, 38, 171. 

[25] _Eight Sermons_, pp. 1, lxi. 

[26] Marshall, pp. 301, 337. For Samuel Chandler's contribution, see his_Reflections on the Conduct of the Modern Deists_ (London, 1727); forChubb's contribution see _Some Short Reflections on the Grounds and Extentof Authority and Liberty, With respect to the Civil Government_ (London, 1728). 

[27] Marshall's reluctance to support Rogers's extremism is seen in thefuneral sermon he preached at the latter's death (_A Sermon Delivered inthe Parish Church of St. Giles Cripplegate, May 18, 1729. Upon Occasion ofthe Much Lamented Death of the Revd. John Rogers_ [London, 1729]). Hemade only the most casual and indifferent reference to Rogers's work. Soobvious was this slight that it called for a rebuttal; see Philalethes (A. A. Sykes [?]), _Some Remarks Upon the Reverend Dr. Marshall's Sermon onOccasion of the Death of the Revd Dr Rogers_ (London, 1729). 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

This facsimile of _A Discourse concerning Ridicule and Irony in Writing_(1729) is reproduced from a copy in the William Andrews Clark MemorialLibrary. 

 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING Ridicule and Irony IN WRITING, IN A LETTER To the Reverend Dr. NATHANAEL MARSHALL. 

 -------- _Ridiculum acri Fortius & melius magnas plerumq; secat res. _

 -------- _Ridentem dicere verum Quid vetat?_

 _LONDON:_

 Printed for J. BROTHERTON in _Cornhill_ and sold by T. WARNER in _Pater-noster-Row_, and A. DODD without _Temple-Bar_. 1729. 

 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING _Ridicule_ and _Irony_, &c. 

REVEREND SIR, In your _Letter_ to Dr. _Rogers_, which he has publish'd at the End of his_Vindication of the Civil Establishment of Religion_, I find a Notionadvanc'd by you: which as it is a common and plausible Topick forPersecution, and a Topick by which you, and many others, urge theMagistrate to punish [or, as you phrase it, _to pinch_] [28] Men forcontroversial Writings, is particularly proper at this time to be fullyconsider'd; and I hope to treat it in such manner as to make you yourself, and every fair Reader, sensible of the Weakness thereof. 

You profess to "vindicate [29] a sober, serious, and modest Inquiry intothe Reasons of any Establishment. "

And you add, that you "have not ordinarily found it judg'd inconsistentwith the Duty of a _private Subject_, to propose his Doubts or his Reasonsto the Publick in a _modest_ way, concerning the _Repeal_ of any Law whichhe may think of ill Consequence by its Continuance. If he be a Man ofAbility, and well vers'd in the Argument, he will deserve some Attention;but if he mistakes his Talent, and will be busy with what he very littleunderstands, Contempt and Odium will be his unavoidable and justAllotment. " And you say, that "Religion is more a personal Affair, inwhich every Man has a peculiar Right and Interest, and a Concern that hebe not mistaken, than in any other Case or Instance which can fall underthe Cognizance of the Magistrate; and that greater Allowances seem due toeach private Person for Examination and Inquiry in this, than in any otherExample. "

And herein I must do you the Justice to acknowledge, that you speak like aChristian, like a Protestant, like an _Englishman_, and a reasonable Man;like a Man concerned for Truth, like a Man of Conscience; like a Manconcern'd for the Consciences of others; like a Man concern'd to have someSense, Learning, and Virtue in the World; and, in a word, like a Man whois not for abandoning all the valuable Things in Life to the Tyranny, Ambition, and Covetousness of Magistrates and Ecclesiasticks. 

But you observe, that "municipal Laws[30], how trivial soever in theirintrinsick Value, are never to be _insulted_; never to be treated with_Buffoonery_ and _Banter_, _Ridicule_ and _Sarcastick Irony_. So that Dr. _Rogers_'s grand Adversary will have from you no measure of Encouragementto his manner of Writing. " Again, you "never [31] desire to see theMagistrate fencing in the publick Religion with so thick a Hedge as shallexclude all Light, and shall tear out the Eyes of all such as endeavour tosee thro' it. _Sober arguing_ you never fear: _Mockery_ and _bitterRailing_, if you could help it, you would never bear, either _for theTruth or against it_. "

Upon which I offer these following Considerations. 

I. _First_, If what you call _Insult_, _Buffoonery_, _Banter_, _Ridicule_and _Irony_, _Mockery_ and _bitter Railing_, be Crimes in Disputation, youwill find none more deeply involv'd in it than our most famous Writers, intheir controversial Treatises about _serious_ Matters; as all Notions andPractices in Religion, whether reasonable or absurd, may be equally andjustly deem'd: the Notions and Practices of Papists, Presbyterians, Quakers, and all other Sects, being no less _serious_ to their respectiveSects than ridiculous to one another. Let any Man read the Writings of ourmost eminent Divines against the _Papists_, _Puritans_, _Dissenters_, and_Hereticks_, and against one another, and particularly the Writings of_Alexander Cook_, _Hales_, _Chillingworth_, _Patrick_, _Tillotson_, _Stillingfleet_, _Burnet_, _South_, _Hickes_, _Sherlock_ and _Edwards_, and he will find them to abound with _Banter_, _Ridicule_, and _Irony_. _Stillingfleet_ in particular, our greatest controversial Writer, whopasses for _grave_ and _solemn_, is so conscious of his use thereof, thathe confesses that Charge of the Papists against him, saying[32], "But Iforget my Adversary's grave admonition, that I _would treat these Mattersseriously, and lay aside Drollery_. " And again, after a _Banter_ of near aPage, he says[33], "But I forget I am so near my Adversary's Conclusion, wherein he so _gravely_ advises me, that I _would be pleas'd for once towrite Controversy, and not Play-Books_. " Nor did I ever hear the Divinesof the Church condemn the Doctor for his sarcastical Method of writingControversy. On the contrary, I remember at the University, that he usedto be applauded no less for his Wit than for his Learning. And to exalthis Character as a Wit, his _Conferences between a_ Romish _Priest, aFanatick Chaplain, and a Divine of the Church of_ England, _&c. _ werespoken of as an excellent _Comedy_, and especially for that Part which the_Fanatick Chaplain_ acts therein, who makes as comical and as ridiculous aFigure as he does in any of the _Plays_ acted on the Stage. And in his_Controversy_ with _Dryden_ about the _Royal Papers_, and those of the_Duchess_ of _York_, he was deem'd to have out-done that famous _Satirist_in tart Repartees and Reflections; and to have attack'd the Character ofthe _Poet_ with more severity, than that _Poet_, who was so remarkable forhis satirical Reflections on the holy Order, did the Character of the_Divine_: As for example, he says to _Dryden_[34], "Could nothing be saidby you of Bishop _Morley_, but that _Prelate of rich Memory_? Or had you amind to tell us he was no _Poet_? Or that he was out of the Temptation ofchanging his Religion for Bread?" And many Citations us'd to be produc'dout of his Writings, as Specimens of his ironical Talent; among which Iparticularly remember his _Ridicule_ of his Adversary Mr. _Alsop_, afamous Presbyterian Wit and Divine; whose Book, which was full of lowRaillery and Ridicule, he resembles [35] to _the Bird of_ Athens, as _madeup of Face and Feathers_. And the Doctor himself adds, in Justification ofthe polite Method of Raillery in Controversy, that _there is apleasantness of Wit, which serves to entertain the Reader in the roughand deep way of Controversy_. Nor did Mr. _Alsop_ want Approvers of hisRaillery in his own Party. Mr. _Gilbert Rule_[36], a great _Scotch_Presbyterian Divine, who defended him against _Stillingfleet_, contends inbehalf of his Raillery, "That the Facetiousness of Mr. _Alsop_'s Strainneeded to have bred no Disgust, being as a Condiment to prevent _Tædium_and Nauseousness. " And he adds, "That he knows none that blame theexcellent Writings of Mr. _Fuller_, which have a Pleasantness not unlikethat of Mr. _Alsop_. "

And this manner of writing is seldom complain'd of, as unfit to beallow'd, by any but those who feel themselves hurt by it. For the solemnand grave can bear a solemn and grave Attack: That gives them a sort ofCredit in the World, and makes them appear considerable to themselves, asworthy of a serious Regard. But _Contempt_ is what they, who commonly arethe most contemptible and worthless of Men, cannot bear nor withstand, assetting them in their true Light, and being the most effectual Method todrive Imposture, the sole Foundation of their Credit, out of the World. Hence _Stillingfleet_'s Popish Adversaries, more conscious perhaps of theRidiculousness of Popery than the common People among Protestantsthemselves, fall upon him very furiously. One says[37], "That by thePhrases, which are the chief Ornaments that set off the Doctor's Works, wemay easily guess in what Books he has spent his Time; and that he is wellvers'd in _Don Quixot_, the _Seven Champions_, and other _RomantickStories_. Sure the Doctor err'd in his Vocation: Had he quitted allserious Matters, and dedicated himself wholly to Drollery and Romance, with two or three Years under _Hudibras_, he might have been a Master inthat Faculty; the Stage might have been a Gainer by it, and the Church of_England_ would have been no Loser. "

Another of his Adversaries says, "[38]Peruse the Doctor Page after Page, you will find the Man all along in peevish Humour, when you see his Bookbrimfull of tart biting Ironies, Drolleries, comical Expressions, impertinent Demands, and idle Stories, _&c. _ as if the discharging alittle Gall were enough to disparage _the clearest Miracles_ God everwrought. "

But what are these _clearest Miracles God ever wrought_? Why, the mostextravagant, whimsical, absurd, and ridiculous Legends and Storiesimaginable; such as that of _St. Dominick_[39], who when the Devil came tohim in the Shape of a _Monkey_, made him hold a Candle to him while hewrote, and keep it so long between his Toes, till it burnt them; and hiskeeping the Devil, who sometimes came to him in the Shape of a _Flea_, andby skipping on the Leaves of his Book disturb'd his Reading, in thatShape, and using him for a Mark to know where he left off reading: Such asSt. _Patrick_'s heating an Oven with Snow, and turning a Pound of Honeyinto a Pound of Butter: Such as _Christ_'s marrying Nuns, and playing atCards with them; and Nuns living on the Milk of the blessed Virgin _Mary_;and that of divers Orders, and especially the _Benedictine_, being so dearto the blessed Virgin, that in Heaven she lodges them under herPetticoats: Such as making broken Eggs whole; and of People, who hadtheir Heads cut off, walking with their Heads in their Hands, which weresometimes set on again: Such as Failing for a hundred Years; and raisingCows, Calves, and Birds from the Dead, after they had been chopt to Piecesand eaten, and putting on their Heads after they had been pull'd or cutoff; and turning a Pound of Butter into a Bell; and making a Bull giveMilk; and raising a King's Daughter from the Dead, and turning her into aSon; and the several Translations thro' the Air of the Virgin _Mary_'sHouse from _Palestine_ to _Loretto_, and the Miracles wrote there; andmore of the like Kind. 

Are these, or such as these the _clearest Miracles God ever wrought_? Dosuch Miracles deserve a serious Regard? And shall the _Gravity_ with whichMankind is thus banter'd out of their common Sense, excuse these Mattersfrom _Ridicule_?

It will be difficult to find any Writers who have exceeded the Doctors, _South_ and [40] _Edwards_, in _Banter_, _Irony_, _Satire_ and _Sarcasms_:The last of whom has written a Discourse in _Defence of sharp Reflectionson Authors and their Opinions_; wherein he enumerates, as Examples for hisPurpose, almost all the eminent Divines of the Church of _England_. AndMr. [41] _Collier_, speaking of a Letter of the Venerable _Bede_ to_Egbert_ Bishop of _York_, says, "The Satire and Declamation in this_Epistle_ shews the _pious Zeal_ and _Integrity_ of the Author;" whichseems to imply, that _Satire_ and _Declamation_ is the orthodox and mostpious Method of writing in behalf of _Orthodoxy_. 

Dr. _Rogers_, to whom you write, falls into the Method of Buffoonery, Banter, Satire, Drollery, Ridicule, and Irony, even in the Treatise towhich your Letter is subjoined, and against that _Person_ whom you wouldhave punish'd for that Method: When he says to him, [42] "Religion then, it seems, must be left to the Scholars and Gentlefolks, and to them 'tisto be of no other use, but as a Subject of Disputation to improve theirParts and Learning; but methinks the Vulgar might be indulged a little ofit now and then, upon Sundays and Holidays, instead of Bull-baiting andFoot-ball. " And this insipid Piece of Drollery and false Wit [which isdesign'd to ridicule his Adversary for asserting, that _What Menunderstand nothing of, they have no Concern about_; which is a Propositionthat will stand the Test of _Ridicule_, which will be found wholly to lieagainst the Doctor, for asserting the Reasonableness of imposing Things onthe People which they do not understand] is the more remarkable, as itproceeds from one, who is at the same time for using the Sword of theMagistrate against his Adversary. One would think the [43] _Inquisitor_should banish the _Droll_, and the _Droll_ the _Inquisitor_. 

One of the greatest and best Authorities for the _pleasant_ and _ironical_manner of treating _serious_ Matters, is that eminent Divine at the Timeof the Reformation, the great _Erasmus_, who has written two Books in thisway with great Applause of Protestants, and without subjecting himself toany Persecution of Papists: which makes it highly proper to propose themto the Consideration of the Reader, that he may regulate his Notions, bywhat, it may be presum'd, he approves of in that Author. These two Booksof _Erasmus_ are his _Colloquies_, and his _Praise of Folly_. 

His _Colloquies_ were wrote in imitation of _Lucian_'s _Dialogues_; and Ithink with equal, if not superior, Success. 

Both these Authors had an Aversion to sullen, austere, designing Knaves;and both of them being Men of Wit and Satire, employ'd their Talentsagainst _Superstition_ and _Hypocrisy_. _Lucian_ liv'd in an Age when_Fiction_ and _Fable_ had usurp'd the Name of _Religion_, and _Morality_was corrupted by _Men_ of _Beard_ and _Grimace_, but scandalously _Leud_and _Ignorant_; who yet had the Impudence to preach up _Virtue_, and stylethemselves _Philosophers_, perpetually clashing with one another about thePrecedence of their several Founders, the Merits of their different Sects, and if 'tis possible, about Trifles of less Importance: yet all agreeingin a different way to dupe and amuse the poor People, by the _fantastick_Singularity of their Habits, the unintelligible Jargon of their Schools, and their Pretensions to a severe and mortify'd Life. 

These Jugglers and Impostors _Lucian_ in great measure help'd to chase outof the World, by exposing them in their proper Colours, and byrepresenting them as ridiculous as they were. But in a few Generationsafter him, a new Race of Men sprung up in the World, well known by theName of _Monks_ and _Fryars_, different indeed from the former inReligion, Garb, and a few other Circumstances; but in the main, the samesort of Impostors, the same ever-lasting Cobweb-Spinners, as to theirnonsensical Controversies, the same abandon'd _Wretches_, as to theirMorals; but as to the mysterious Arts of heaping up Wealth, and pickingthe People's Pockets, infinitely superior to the _Pagan Philosophers_ and_Priests_. These were the sanctify'd Cheats, whose Folly and Vices_Erasmus_ has so effectually lash'd, that some Countries have entirelyturn'd these Drones out of their Cells; and in other Places, where theyare still kept up, they are in some measure become contemptible, andobliged to be always on their Guard. 

The Papists say, that these "[44]_Colloquies_, by turning into _Ridicule_the Devotion to the holy Virgin and Saints, the Worship of Relicks andImages, religious Vows and Pilgrimages, have made more Hereticks than theWorks of _Luther_ and _Calvin_. " And I find the reverend Mr. _Trapp_[after calling [45] _Reliques_, FOOLISH] celebrates _Erasmus_ for _havingabundantly_ RIDICUL'D _them_. 

His _Praise of Folly_ treats of _serious_ Matters, in such a gay, familiar, ingenious and pleasant manner, as makes it a Work proper to beread by intelligent People, to remove out of their Minds all Bigotrycontracted by Ignorance and an evil Education, all Peevishness, Hatred, and Ill-nature towards one another, on account of different Sentiments inReligion; and to form in them the natural Principles of Moderation, Humanity, Affection and Friendship. Our learned and ingenious Bishop_Kennet_ could not do a more signal Piece of Service to our Country, thanby translating into _English_ this Book, which the Ladies have now anOpportunity of understanding no less than the Men; and from whence theymay see the pleasant, amiable, and just Disposition of Mind of one of themost learned and ingenious Men that ever liv'd, as well as Author of agreat Number of religious and devotional Books; nor could the Bishop wellgive a heartier Stroke at Popery, than by approving of _Erasmus_'s [46]_laughing_ at it, and applauding his numberless _Taunts on its Impostures, Cheats, and Delusions_. 

Our Clergy have ever treated Mr. _Hobbes_ with the greatest Mockery, Ridicule and Raillery: As for example, _Ward_ Bishop of _Sarum_, _Brambal_Bishop of _Derry_, _Parker_ Bishop of _Oxford_, Dr. _Wallis_ in hisseveral bantering Treatises against him, _Lucy_ Bishop of _St. Davids, Shafto_, and particularly the Reverend _Droll_, Dr. _Eachard_, in two_Dialogues_, which, it is well known, have been universally well receiv'dby the Clergy, and that for their Treatment of Mr. _Hobbes_ in theridiculing Way; for which the Author himself makes the following justApology, in his _Dedication_ of his _Second Dialogue_ to Archbishop_Sheldon_, "That of all Triflers, 'tis the _Set_, the _Grave_, the_Philosophical_, and the _Mathematical Trifler_, to which he has thegreatest Aversion; whom when he meets, very gravely making out all Men tobe rational Beasts both in Nature and Conversation, and every Man, hepleases, a rational Rebel; and upon any Fright or Pinch a rational Atheistand Anti-Christian; and all this perform'd with all DEMURENESS, SOLEMNITY, QUOTATION of SCRIPTURE, APPEALS to CONSCIENCE and CHURCH-HISTORY; he musthumbly beg his _Grace's_ Pardon, if then he has endeavour'd to SMILE alittle, and to get as much out of his Road and way of Writing aspossible. " These _Dialogues_ used to be much recommended to the Youth tomake them laugh at Mr _Hobbes_, who was constantly represented asprovok'd and put out of all Temper by them, and was said to have ventedthis strange and impious Expression, upon its being told him, that _theClergy said_ Eachard _had crucify'd_ Hobbes; "Why then don't they falldown and worship me?"

Mr. _Selden_ has been the constant Subject of Clergy-banter, for his_History of Tythes_; in the _Preface_ to which, "He reproaches the Clergywith Ignorance and Laziness, and upbraids them with having nothing to keepup their Credit but _Beard_, _Title_, and _Habit_; and their Studiesreach'd no farther than the _Breviary_, the _Postils_, and _Polyanthea_. "For this Work he was attack'd more particularly by three Divines, _Tillesly_, _Mountagu_, and _Nettles_. And their Success was thusoriginally represented[47], "That he was so gall'd by _Tillesly_, sogagg'd by _Mountagu_, and so stung by _Nettles_, that he never came off inany of his Undertakings with more loss of Credit. " And this Jest haspass'd much upon the World, and been continued down in many Books, whereMr. _Selden_ is mention'd, to his Discredit with ignorant Readers, but notwith the Knowing and Learned; who, as Dr. _Wotton_ tells us[48], _have, now Party-heats are over, acquiesced in what Mr. _ Selden advanc'd; _whofirst_, OF ALL CHRISTIANS, _set the Affair_ of Tythes _in a clear Light_. 

It is usually said the Comedy called _Ignoramus_, which is a Clergy-banterupon the _Law_, was a design'd Return for Mr. _Selden_'s _History ofTythes_. 

The Reverend Dr. _Beaumont_, late Master of St. _Peter_'s _College_ andKing's Professor of Divinity, has given us a Book, entitled, "SomeObservations upon the Apology of Dr. _Henry More_ for his _Mystery ofGodliness_;" which endeavours to render the said Doctor _ridiculous_, andset People a _laughing_ at him, (_p. _ 9. _&c. _ 64. ) and used to beapplauded as a complete Performance in the way of Raillery and Irony, andwas well receiv'd for being directed against a Person esteem'd Heterodox. 

Many Clergymen have written Books to banter the Works of Mr. _Locke_, among whom Dr. _Edwards_ must have the first Place; whose _BriefVindication of the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith_, which hasthe _Imprimatur_ before it of _James_, _Beaumont_, _Covel_, and_Balderston_, four _Cambridge_ Heads, was never exceeded by the mostlicentious _Droll_. 

When _Sorbier_'s _Voyage_ to _England_, which was a pert and insolentAbuse and Satire on the Nation, and written in the _French_ manner ofcontemptuously treating all Countries and Men but _France_ and_Frenchmen_, was publish'd, it was deem'd proper that a drolling andsatirical Answer should be given to it, and that the Reverend Dr. _Sprat_should be the _Droll_ employ'd; who perform'd his Part according to theExpectation of the Drolling Court of King _Charles_ II. And as theingenious Mr. _Addison_ tells us, [49] _Vindicated the Honour of hisCountry, in a Book full of Satire and Ingenuity_. 

Bishop _Beveridge_ ever pass'd for a serious and profound Divine; and hisWritings have fix'd that Character upon him among the Religious of theHigh Church, who have receiv'd his _Private Thoughts_ and his Volumes of_Sermons_, like _Manna_ from Heaven. And yet possibly never Man had twomore severe Attacks made upon him than he had; one by Bishop_Stillingfleet_, who in _A Vindication of their Majesties Authority tofill the Sees of the depriv'd Bishops_, &c. Occasion'd by Dr. _Beveridge_'s Refusal of the Bishoprick of _Bath_ and _Wells_, satirizesboth his _Prudence_ and his _Sincerity_; and another, by an ingeniousBishop also, who in _A short View of Dr. _ Beveridge_'s Writings_, has in amost refin'd _drolling manner_ represented those Writings as abounding inmost absurd and ridiculous Divinity. 

But one of the justest and finest Pieces of _Irony_, and the most timelyand seasonably vented, and that deserves perpetual Remembrance, is, _Andrews_ the grave Bishop of _Winchester_'s Irony, on _Neal_ the graveBishop of _Durham_; of which we have the following Relation in the Poet_Waller_'s _Life_, prefix'd before his Works: "On the Day of theDissolution of the last Parliament of King _James_ the First, Mr. _Waller_, out of Curiosity or Respect, went to see the King at Dinner;with whom were Dr. _Andrews_ the Bishop of _Winchester_, and Dr. _Neal_Bishop of _Durham_, standing behind his Majesty's Chair. There happen'dsomething very extraordinary in the Conversation those Prelates had withthe King, on which Mr. _Waller_ did often reflect. His Majesty ask'd theBishops, _My Lords, cannot I take my Subjects Money when I want it, without all this Formality in Parliament?_ The Bishop of _Durham_ readilyanswer'd, _God forbid, Sir, but you should; you are the Breath of ourNostrils_. Whereupon the King turn'd and said to the Bishop of_Winchester_, _Well, my Lord, what say you? Sir_, replied the Bishop, _Ihave no Skill to judge of Parliamentary Cases_. The King answer'd, _NoPut-offs, my Lord; answer me presently. Then, Sir_, said he, _I think itis lawful for you to take my Brother_ Neal_'s_ _Money, for he offers it_. Mr. _Waller_ said the Company was pleas'd with this Answer, and the Witof it seem'd to affect the King. " Which shews the exceeding Aptness andUsefulness of a good _Irony_; that can convey an Instruction to a vicious, evil, and tyrannical Prince, highly reflecting on his Conduct, withoutdrawing on his Resentment. 

To these famous Divines I might add the most eminent and renownedPhilosophers of Antiquity, who, either out of a Contempt of Mankind, or togratify their peculiar Tempers, or to correct the Vices and Follies ofMen, and to instil virtuous Maxims in those who would only receive them insome pleasant way, set up for good Humour, Mirth, and Drollery, as theirstanding Method of Life, and of Conversation with the World; and have leftbehind them some of their occasional Sayings upon record, which do moreHonour to their Memories than the most elaborate Treatises would havedone, and more Good to Men; upon whom a Jest, or witty Saying, is morefitted to operate and make Impression than long Deductions and Reasonings, and particularly on Princes and great Men, who will receive no Instructionbut in some very artful and short Way: whereof even the rude _Diogenes_, the _Cynick_, has given us a most incomparable Example, in his occasionalConference with _Alexander the Great_, who was put into such Temper by themere Freedom and Raillery of the Philosopher, as to take every thing ingood part he said to him, and consequently be dispos'd to reflect upon it, and to act with Discretion. At the Head of these Philosophers I placeSOCRATES, who has very generally in all Ages pass'd for the _wisest_ of_Men_, and was declared so by an _Oracle_; which, at least, was thereindirected and influenc'd by some considerable human Authority, or by thecommon Sentiments of Men at that time. His Character I shall give you inthe words of the most ingenious _Addison_, who was himself a Master of_Humour_ and _Drollery_, and practis'd them in Perfection, and with greatSuccess in almost all his Prose-writings. "_Socrates_, says he[50], whowas the greatest Propagator of Morality in the Heathen World, and a Martyrfor the Unity of the Godhead, was so famous for the exercise of the Talent[of Raillery and Humour] among the politest People of Antiquity, that hegain'd the Name of THE DROLE. [51]" A Character that intitled him to thegreatest Merit, as it most of all enabled him to promote Virtue. 

I might also offer to your Confederation the Affair of _Comedies_; whichall polite Governments have permitted, or establish'd, in their severalpopulous and wealthy Cities, as the necessary and proper means toencounter Vice and recommend Virtue, and to employ innocently and usefullythe vacant Hours of many, who know not how to employ their Time, or wouldemploy it amiss, by entering into [52] Factions and Cabals to disturb theState; or by Gaming, or by backbiting Conversations about theirNeighbours. And as _Comedies_, which were originally very gross, grew byUse more polite and refin'd in _Satire_ and _Raillery_: so the mostcelebrated Wits and Statesmen, and Persons of the greatest Quality, haveengag'd and join'd with others in them, and performed with the greatestSuccess and Reputation to themselves; and have been valu'd, not only fortheir Talents of _Irony_ and _Drollery_, which were essential to theCredit of such Performances; but applauded, as acting the virtuous Part of_Droles_. 

In fine, Books of Satire, Wit, Humour, Ridicule, Drollery, and Irony, arethe most read and applauded of all Books, in all Ages, Languages, andCountries. And as those which are exquisite in their kinds, are thestanding Entertainment of the Ingenious and Learned; so others, of a lowerkind, are to be found among the lower Readers, who sleep under all Workswhich do not make them merry. 

In a word, the Opinions and Practices of Men in all Matters, andespecially in Matters of Religion, are generally so absurd and ridiculousthat it is impossible for them not to be the Subjects of Ridicule. 

For what else can be expected from Men who generally take up theirOpinions without any Inquiry into their Reasonableness or Truth, and uponthe most incompetent Grounds? I cannot be supposed to injure Mankind, if Iconsider them under the Character which the very ingenious Sir _RichardSteele_ gives of himself; who _acknowledges_ [53] that (even while he tookupon himself the Title of the _Censor_ of _Great Britain_, and in so manyfine Papers corrects his Countrymen, and particularly _the Freethinkers_, whom he directs the Magistrate to punish with Death) _it had been withhim, as it is with too many others, that a [53] sort of an_ implicitReligion _seem'd the most easy and most comfortable; and that a blindVeneration for_ he knew not what, _and he_ knew not whom, _stood for everything important_. And he _confesses_ he _was not enough aware, that thisImplicitness of Conduct is the great Engine of Popery, fram'd for theDestruction of_ good Nature, _as well as_ good Sense. If so great a Mancould take up with such a Method, and act the Part of a _Censor_ andDirector of others, in a Matter which he had not at all consider'd, whatcan be expected else from others, but absurd and ridiculous Opinions andPractices?

And if some Men will fall into absurd and ridiculous Opinions, Habits, Forms, Figures and Grimaces; there will be those who will _laugh_, nay, cannot help _laughing_ at them. Hence most Parties laugh at one another, without the least Scruple, and with great Applause of their own Parties;and the Leaders of the same Party laugh with one another, when theyconsider the absurd and ridiculous Opinions they profess, and how theycheat and govern their Followers; agreeably to what _Cicero_ reports of_Cato_[54], "_Vetus autem illud_ Catonis _admodum scitum est, qui_ mirarise _aiebat, quod non rideret haruspex cum haruspicem vidisset_. "

I think it may be justly suppos'd, that Pope _Alexander_ and _ThomasBecket_ could not but laugh together at the Simplicity and Weakness oftheir Followers, the Papists, who receiv'd for truth the following Story. It was told as a Fact[55], "that when _Thomas Becket_, who never drank anything but Water, sat at Table with _Pope Alexander_, and that his Holinesswould needs taste of his Cup; lest his abstemiousness should be known, Godturn'd the Water into Wine: so that the _Pope_ found nothing but Wine inthe Cup. But when _Becket_ pledg'd him, it was turn'd into Water again. "

_Laughing_ therefore, and _Ridicule_ in _serious Matters_, go round theWorld with no inconsiderable Applause, and seem highly proper for thisWorld of Nonsense and Folly. To hinder _laughing_ upon such just Occasionsas are given, is almost all one as to hinder _breathing_. A very witty, drolling, Dramatick Poet, and of the first Rank for Quality, says in a_Prologue_ to his Auditors. 

 "_Suppose now, at this Instant, one of you_ "_Were tickled by a Fool, what would you do?_ "_'Tis ten to one you'd_ laugh: _here's just the Case. _ "_For there are Fools that tickle with their Face. _ "_Your gay Fool tickles with his Dress and Motions;_ "_But your_ grave Fool _of_ Fools _with_ silly Notions. "_Is it not then unjust that Fops should still_ "_Force one to_ laugh, _and then take laughing ill?_

II. _Secondly_, If it be a Fault in those reverend Divines, mention'd inthe foregoing Article, to use _Irony_, _Drollery_, _Ridicule_, and_Satire_, in any Case; or if the Fault lies in an exorbitant Use thereof, or in any particular Species of _Drollery_; as, for example, such_Drollery_ as is to be found in the polemical Writings and Sermons of Dr. _South_; it is fit some Remedy should be employ'd for the Cure of thisEvil. And the Remedy I would propose, should not be to have the Authorspunish'd by the Magistrate, any more than for any other Faults in writing;but either to neglect and despise it, as Rage and Scolding, which dropinto Oblivion with the Sound, and would have a Life given it byResentment: or to allow Men to _criticize_ and _ridicule_ one another fortheir _Ironies_ and _Drollery_, and to exercise their Wit and Partsagainst each other; that being the true Method to bring Things to aStandard, to fix the Decency and Propriety of Writing, to teach Men how towrite to the Satisfaction of the ingenious, polite, and sensible Part ofMankind: for Decency and Propriety will stand the Test of Ridicule, andtriumph over all the false Pretences to Wit; and Indecency andImpropriety will sink under the Trial of Ridicule, as being capable ofbeing baffled by Reason, and justly ridicul'd. And if any kind or degreeof _Ridicule_ be absurd or _ridiculous_, that will appear so upon Trial, no less than the low and gross _Ridicule_ prevalent among the unpolitePart of the World: But that will never appear. On the contrary, _Ridicule_of certain kinds, and under reasonable Directions and Rules, and used inproper Time, Place, and Manner, (all which also are only to be found outand fix'd by Trial and Experience) is both a proper and necessary Methodof Discourse in many Cases, and especially in the Case of _Gravity_, whenthat is attended with Hypocrisy or Imposture, or with Ignorance, or withsoureness of Temper and Persecution; all which ought to draw after themthe _Ridicule_ and _Contempt_ of the Society, which has no other effectualRemedy against such Methods of Imposition. And to determine in somemeasure the Nature and Extent of the _Irony_ I contend for, as _Just_, Iprofess to approve the noble _Sarcasm_ of _Elijah_[56]; wherein he thusmocks the _Priests_ of _Baal_, saying in effect to them, "_Cry aloud, for_your _Baal_ is a fine God: _He is either talking, or he is pursuing, or heis in a Journey; or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked_. " And Iconcur with the _Psalmist_[57], who thought it no Indecency to say, that_he that sits in Heaven shall laugh them_ (that is, certain Kings, whowere _David_'s Enemies) _to scorn; the Lord shall have them in Derision_:and must judge, that _laughing to scorn_, and _deriding_ the greatest Menupon Earth, even Kings and Princes, to be a laudable and divine Method ofdealing with them, who are only to be taught or rebuk'd in some artfulway. I also approve of the following _Sarcasm_ or _Irony_, which has abetter Authority for it than _Elijah_ or the _Psalmist_. _Moses_introduces God speaking thus after the Fall[58], _Behold the Man is becomelike one of us, to know Good and Evil!_ And I think this Passage shews, that the whole Affair of the _Fall_, of which we have so very brief anAccount, was a very entertaining Scene; and would have appear'd so, if setforth at large; as indeed it does under the Hands of our Divines, who havesupplied that short Narration by various Additions, founded onConjectures, and particularly under the fine Hand of Dr. _Tho. Burnet_, who has made a most ingenious Dialogue of what he suppos'd pass'd between_Eve_ and the _Serpent_[59]. To say nothing of _Milton_'s famous _ParadiseLost_. 

In fine, ever since I could read the _Bible_, I was particularly pleas'dwith the _History_ of _Jonas_, where such a Representation is made of that_Prophet_'s Ignorance, Folly, and Peevishness, as exposes him to theutmost Contempt and Scorn, and fixes a perpetual _Ridicule_ on hisCharacter. And let me here observe, that this _History_ has had ampleJustice done it, in an Explication thereof by _two_ [60] very ingeniousAuthors, who, by most penetrating and happy Criticisms and Reflections, have drawn the Character of _Jonas_ in a more open manner. 

III. But, _Thirdly_, I wave my _Remedy_, and am ready to come into any Lawthat shall be made to rectify this suppos'd Fault of _Irony_, by punishingthose who are guilty of it. 

The great Concern is and ought to be, that _the Liberty of examining intothe Truth of Things should be kept up_, that Men may have some Sense andKnowledge, and not be the _Dupes_ of _Cheats_ and _Impostors_, or of thosewho would keep them in the dark, and let them receive nothing but thro'their Hands. If that be secur'd to us by Authority, I, for my part, amvery ready to sacrifice the Privilege of _Irony_, tho so much in fashionamong all Men; being persuaded, that a great Part of the _Irony_complain'd of, has its rise from the _want of Liberty to examine into theTruth of Things_; and that if that _Liberty_ was prevalent, it would, without a Law, prevent all that _Irony_ which Men are driven into for wantof Liberty to speak plainly, and to protect themselves from the Attacks ofthose who would take the Advantage to ruin them for direct Assertions; andthat such Authors as _Rabelais_, _Saint Aldegonde_, _Blount_, _Marvel_, _Thekeringil_, and many others, would never have run into that Excess of_Burlesque_, for which they are all so famous, had not the Restraint fromwriting _seriously_ been so great. 

"If [61] Men are forbid to speak their Minds _seriously_ on certainSubjects, they will do it _ironically_. If they are forbid at all uponsuch Subjects, or if they find it dangerous to do so, they will thenredouble their Disguise, involve themselves in mysteriousness, and talk soas hardly to be understood, or at least not plainly interpreted by thosewho are dispos'd to do them a Mischief. And thus _Raillery_ is broughtmore in fashion, and runs into an Extreme. 'Tis the persecuting Spirit hasrais'd the _bantering_ one: And want of Liberty may account for want of atrue Politeness, and for the Corruption or wrong Use of Pleasantry andHumour. 

"If in this respect we strain the just Measure of what we call _Urbanity_, and are apt sometimes to take a buffooning rustick Air, we may thank theridiculous Solemnity and sour Humour of our _Pedagogues_: or rather theymay thank themselves, if they in particular meet with the heaviest of thiskind of Treatment. For it will naturally fall heaviest, where theConstraint has been the severest. The greater the Weight is, the bittererwill be the Satire. The higher the Slavery, the more exquisite theBuffoonery. 

"That this is really so, may appear by looking on those Countries wherethe spiritual Tyranny is highest. For the greatest of _Buffoons_ are the_Italians_: and in their Writings, in their freer sort of Conversations, on their Theatres, and in their _Streets_, _Buffoonery_ and _Burlesque_are in the highest Vogue. 'Tis the only manner in which the poor cramp'dWretches can discharge a free Thought. We must yield to 'em theSuperiority in this sort of Wit. For what wonder is it if we, who havemore Liberty, have less Dexterity in that egregious way of _Raillery_ and_Ridicule_?"

Liberty of _grave_ Examination being fix'd by Law, I am, I say, ready tosacrifice the Privilege of _Irony_, and yield to have a Law enacted toprevent it. I am, moreover, willing to leave the drawing up such a Law toyour self; who honestly and impartially say[62], that all who _droll_, letthem be of any Party, let them _droll for the Truth or against it_, shouldbe equally punish'd. 

Thus this grand Affair of _Irony_, _Banter_, and _Ridicule_; this lastpersecuting Pretence, upon which you would set the Humours and Passions ofPeople, who are all at quiet, on float, and make a Fermentation, andraise a Persecution against particular People, seems perfectly settled, byyielding to your own Terms. 

IV. Let me here add, that I am apt to think, that when you draw up yourLaw, you will find it so very difficult to settle the Point of _Decency_in Writing, in respect to all the various kinds of _Irony_ and _Ridicule_, that you will be ready to lay aside your Project; and that you will be nomore able to settle that _Point of Decency_, than you would be to settleby Law, that _Cleanliness_ in Clothes, and that Politeness in Dress, Behaviour, and Conversation, which become Men of Quality and Fortune inthe World, and should be habitual to them: And that, if you are able to dothat to your own Satisfaction, you will find it very difficult to engagethe Lawmakers in your Project. For I am persuaded, that if our Lawmakerswere, out of a rational Principle, disposed to give Liberty by Law to_serious_ Opposition to publickly receiv'd Notions, they would not thinkit of much Importance to make a _Law_ about a Method of _Irony_. They willnaturally conclude, that if Men may and ought to be allow'd to write_seriously_ in Opposition to publickly receiv'd Doctrines, they should beallow'd to write in their own way; and will be unwilling to be depriv'd ofingenious and witty Discourses, or such as some of them will judge so, about a Subject wherein _serious free_ Discourse is allow'd. Besides, I amapt to think, that you, upon consideration of the Advantages which theChurch has receiv'd from the _Berkenheads_, the _Heylins_, the _Ryves's_, the _Needhams_, the _Lestranges_, the _Nalsons_, the _Lesleys_, the_Oldesworths_, and others, in their _Mercurius Aulicus_'s, their_Mercurius Pragmaticus's_, their _Mercurius Rusticus's_, their_Observators_[63], their _Heraclitus Ridens_'s, _Rehearsals_, their_Examiners_[64], and the three Volumes against the _Rights of the Church_;from the _Butlers_ in their _Hudibras_'s, and other Burlesque Works uponthe Religion and Religious Conduct of the Dissenters; or from the_Eachards_, the _Tom Browns_, and _Swifts_; or from the _Parkers_[65], _Patricks_[66], _Souths_[67], _Sherlocks_[68], _Atterburys_[69], and_Sacheverels_[70]; in their Discourses, and Tracts against theNonconformists, Whigs, Low-Church-men, and Latitudinarians; and other suchironical, satirical, and polemical Divines; and from such _drolling_Judges as _Howel_, _Recorder_ of London, and the Chief Justice _Jefferys_, who, in all Causes, where _Whigs_ or Dissenters were the Persons accus'dand try'd before them, carried on the Trial by a [71] Train of ridicule onthem, their Witnesses and Counsel: I say, I am apt to think, that youwould be unwilling to be depriv'd of what has been and may be again soserviceable. 

I am dispos'd to think that Dr. _Snape_, who is notoriously known to havegone into the greatest Lengths of Calumny and Satire against Bishop_Hoadley_[72], to have fall'n upon the dissenting Clergy in a burlesqueand bantering Address to the _Peirces_, the _Calamys_, and the_Bradburys_, and to have written a long _ironical Letter_ in the Name ofthe _Jesuits_ to Mr. _de la Pilloniere_[73], will be thought a veryimproper Object of Censure for such Employment of his Pen. On thecontrary, such sort of Attacks upon such Persons are the most meritoriousParts of a Man's Life, recommend him as a Person of true and sincereReligion, much more than the strongest Reasoning, and the most regularLife; and pave the way to all the Riches, and Pleasures and Advantages orLife; not only among those, who, under the Colour of Religion, arecarrying on a common _Corporation Cause_ of Wealth, Power, and Authority, but among many well-meaning People, who allow of all Practices, which theysuppose help out the _Truth_! It seems to me a most prodigious Banter uponus, for Men to talk in general of the _Immorality_ of _Ridicule_ and_Irony_, and of _punishing_ Men for those Matters, when their own Practiceis _universal Irony_ and _Ridicule_ of all those who go not with them, and_universal Applause_ and _Encouragement_ for such _Ridicule_ and _Irony_, and distinguishing by all the honourable ways imaginable such _drolling_Authors for their Drollery; and when Punishment for _Drollery_ is nevercall'd for, but when _Drollery_ is used or employ'd against them!

I don't know whether you would be willing, if you consider of it, to limitthe Stage it self, which has with great Applause and Success, from Queen_Elizabeth_'s Time downwards, ridicul'd the serious _Puritans_ and_Dissenters_, and that without any Complaints from _good Churchmen_, that_serious_ Persons and Things were _banter'd_ and _droll'd_ upon; and hastriumph'd over its fanatical Adversaries in the Person of _Pryn_, whosufficiently suffer'd for his _Histrio-Mastix_, and has been approv'd ofas an innocent Diversion by the religious Dr. _Patrick_ in his _FriendlyDebate_, in the Reign of King _Charles_ II. When the Stage was in a veryimmoral State. I don't know whether you would be willing even to restrain_Bartholomew Fair_, where the Sect of the _New Prophets_ was the Subjectof a _Droll_ or _Puppet-Show_, to the great Satisfaction of the Auditors, who, it may be presum'd, were all good Churchmen, _Puritans_ and_Dissenters_ usually declining such Entertainments out of _real_ or_pretended_ Seriousness. ("A certain Clergyman thought fit to remark, thatKing _William_ could be no good Churchman, because of his not frequentingthe _Play-House_. "[74])

V. It will probably be a Motive with you to be against abolishing_Drollery_, when you reflect that the Men of _Irony_, the _Droles_ and_Satirists_, have been and always will be very numerous on your side, where they have been and are so much incourag'd for acting that Part, andthat they have always been and always will be very few on the side of_Heterodoxy_; a Cause wherein an Author by engaging, may hurt hisReputation and Fortune, and can propose nothing to himself but Poverty andDisgrace. I doubt whether you would be for punishing your Friend Dr. _Rogers_, from whom I just now quoted an _Irony_ on the Author of _TheScheme of Literal Prophecy consider'd_, or any one else, for _laughing_ atand making sport with him; or whether you would be for punishing theReverend Mr. _Trapp_, who implies the _Justness_ and _Propriety ofridiculing Popery_; when he says[75], that _Popery is so foolish andabsurd, that every body of common Sense must_ LAUGH _at it_; and when herefers to _Erasmus_ for having _abundantly_ RIDICUL'D their _Reliques_;and himself puts _Ridicule_ in Practice against them, by representingtheir Doctrines and Practices as _ridiculously foolish_, as _despicablychildish_, and _Matter of mere Scorn_; as _monstrous_; as _Spells_, _juggling Tricks_, _gross Cheats_, _Impostures_[76], and _wretchedShifts_; and in fine, in representing by way of _Specimen_, all their_Miracles_ as _Legends_; of which he says, _These and a thousand more suchlike unreasonable Lies, which a Child of common Sense would laugh at, areimpos'd upon and swallow'd by the ignorant People, and make a_ VERY GREAT_Part of the Popish Religion. _

And this, in concurrence with Mr. _Trapp_, I also take to be the Case ofPopery, that it must make Men _laugh_; and that it is much easier to begravely disposed in reading a _Stage-Comedy_ or _Farce_, than inconsidering and reflecting on the _Comedy_ and _Farce_ of _Popery_; thanwhich, Wit and Folly, and Madness in conjunction, cannot invent or make athing more ridiculous, according to that Light in which I see theirDoctrines, Ceremonies and Worship, the Histories and Legends of theirSaints, and the pretended Miracles wrought in their Church; which hashardly any thing _serious_ in it but its Persecutions, its Murders, itsMassacres; all employ'd against the most innocent and virtuous, and themost sensible and learned Men, because they will not be _Tools_ to supportVillany and Ignorance. 

"Transubstantiation, says _Tillotson_[77], is not a Controversy ofScripture against Scripture, or of Reason against Reason, but of downrightImpudence against the plain meaning of Scripture, and all the Sense andReason of Mankind. " And accordingly he scruples not to say, in a most_drolling_ manner, that "Transubstantiation is one of the chief of the_Roman_ Church's _legerdemain_ and _juggling Tricks_ of Falshood andImposture; and that in all Probability those common juggling Words of_Hocus-pocus_, are nothing else but a Corruption of _hoc est corpus_, byway of ridiculous Imitation of the Church of _Rome_ in their _Trick_ of_Transubstantiation_. " And as he _archly_ makes the Introduction of thismonstrous Piece of _grave Nonsense_ to be owing to its being at firstpreach'd by its Promoters with _convenient Gravity and Solemnity_[78], which is the common Method of imposing Absurdities on the World; so Ithink that Doctrine taught with such _convenient Gravity and Solemnity_should necessarily produce _Levity, Laughter and Ridicule_, in allintelligent People to whom it is propos'd, who must _smile_, if they canwith safety, to see such Stuff vented with a grave Face. 

In like manner many other Divines treat and laugh at _Popery_. Even thesolemn and grave Dr. _Whitby_ has written a Book against_Transubstantiation_, under the Title of "Irrisio Dei Panarii, _TheDerision of the Breaden God_, " in Imitation of the primitive Fathers, whohave written _Derisions_ and _Mockeries_ of the _Pagan_ Religion. 

And he takes the Materials whereof this drolling Performance of hisconsists, from the _holy Scriptures_, the _Apocryphal Books_, and_Writings_ of the _holy Fathers_, as he tells us in his Title-Page; threeinexhaustible Sources of Wit and Irony against the Corrupters of true andgenuine Religion. In like manner he turns upon the Popish Clergy theseveral Arguments urg'd by the _Jewish_ Clergy in the _New Testament_, forthe Authority of the _Jewish_ Church; and answers, under that _Irony_, allthat the Popish Clergy offer in behalf of the _Authority_ of their_Church_, in a _Sermon_ at the End of his _Annotations_ on St. _John_'s_Gospel_. 

Nor do our Divines confine their _Derisions_, _Ridicule_ and _Irony_against _Popery_ to their Treatises and Discourses, but fill their_Sermons_, and especially their _Sermons_ on the _Fifth_ of _November_, and other political _Days_, with infinite Reflections of that Kind. Ofthese _Reflections_ a Popish Author publish'd a _Specimen_, in a Bookintitled[79], _Good Advice to Pulpits_, in order to shame the Church outof their Method of _drolling_ and _laughing_ [80] at _Popery_. But thisBook had no other effect, than to produce a _Defence_ of those _Sermons_under the Title of _Pulpit Popery true Popery_, vindicating the several_Droll_ Representations made of _Popery_ in those _Sermons_. 

Of these _drolling_ Reflections cited by the Popish Author out of ourChurch of _England Sermons_, take these following for a Specimen of whatare to be met with in those _Sermons_[81]. 

"Pilgrimages, going Bare-foot, Hair-shirts, and Whips, with other suchGospel-artillery, are their only Helps to Devotion. ----It seems that withthem a Man sometimes cannot be a Penitent, unless he also turns Vagabond, and foots it to _Jerusalem_. ----He that thinks to expiate a Sin by goingbare-foot, does the Penance of a Goose, and only makes one Folly theAtonement of another. _Paul_ indeed was scourg'd and beaten by the _Jews_;but we never read that he beat or scourg'd himself; and if they think hiskeeping under his Body imports so much, they must first prove that theBody cannot be kept under by a virtuous Mind, and that the Mind cannot bemade virtuous but by a Scourge; and consequently, that Thongs and Whipcordare Means of Grace, and Things necessary to Salvation. The truth is, ifMens Religion lies no deeper than their Skin, it is possible they mayscourge themselves into very great Improvements. ----But they will findthat bodily Exercise touches not the Soul; and consequently that in thiswhole Course they are like Men out of the way: let them flash on never sofast, they are not at all nearer their Journey's-end: And howsoever theydeceive themselves and others, they may as well expect to bring a Cart, asa Soul, to Heaven. 

"What say you to the Popish Doctrine of the _Sacrifice of theMass_. ----According to this Doctrine, our blessed Saviour must still, tothe end of the World, be laid hold on by Sinners, be ground with theirTeeth, and sent down into their impure Paunches, as often as the Priestshall pronounce this Charm, _hoc est corpus meum_: and it seems that hewas a false Prophet, when he said upon the Cross, _It is finish'd_, seeingthere was such an infinite deal of _loathsom Drudgery_ still to beundergone. 

"For _Purgatory_, 'tis not material in it self, whether it be, or where itbe, no more than the World in the Moon; but so long as that false Fireserves to maintain a true one, and his Holiness's Kitchen smokes with theRents he receives for releasing Souls from thence, which never came there, it concerns him and his to see to it, that it be not suffer'd to go out. "

An ingenious Author, Sir _Richard Steel_, has of late made a _Dedication_to his _Holiness_ the _Pope_ himself, before a Book entitled, _An Accountof the State of the Roman Catholick Religion throughout the World_, &c. Inwhich _Dedication_, that most exalted Clergyman the _Pope_, that[suppos'd] infallible Dictator in Religion, and most grave Person; who, if_serious_ Matters and Persons were always to be treated _seriously_, mayvie with any other Mortal for a Right to _serious_ Treatment; is expos'dby incomparable _Drollery_ and _Irony_ to the utmost Contempt, to theuniversal Satisfaction of Protestant Readers, who have been pleas'd to seea gross Impostor, however respected and ador'd by godly and seriousPapists, so treated. 

VI. In fine, it is suited to the common Practice of this Nation toridicule _Popery_ as well as _Nonconformity_; and tho several _grave_Books, written among us against Popery, in the Reign of King _James_ II. (of which yet the _Romish_ Priests complain'd, as treating the King's [82]_Religion_ with Contempt) were then very well receiv'd and applauded forLearning and strength of Arguing; yet, I believe, it may with morePropriety be said, that King _James_ II. And _Popery_ were [83] _laugh'd_or _Lilli-bullero'd_, than that they were _argu'd_ out of the Kingdom. 

The reading the _King's Declaration of Indulgence_ in Churches 1688, hadthis fatal _Jest_ put upon it by a reverend Divine, "Who pleasantly toldhis People, _That tho he was obliged to read it, they were not obliged tohear it_[84]; and stop'd till they all went out, and then he read it tothe Walls. " To which may be added, the famous Mr. _Wallop_'s excellentComparison of that _Declaration_ upon the Instant of its Publication, to_the scaffolding of St. _ Paul_'s Church; which, as soon as the Buildingwas finish'd, would be pull'd down_. 

Bishop _Burnet_ celebrates, with the greatest Justness, our Taste, andindeed the Taste of the World in this Respect, when he relates how_Popery_ was then used among us; and he recites some of the _Jests_ whichpassed and were received with universal Applause. He tells us[85], "TheCourt was now (that is, in 1686, ) much set on making Converts, whichfail'd in most Instances, and produc'd _Repartees_; that whether true orfalse, were much repeated, and were heard with great Satisfaction. TheEarl of _Mulgrave_ (since Duke of _Buckinghamshire_) was Lord Chamberlain;he was apt to comply in every thing that he thought might be acceptable, for he went with the King to Mass, and kneeled at it; and being look'd onas indifferent to all Religions, the Priests made an Attack upon him: Heheard them _gravely_ arguing for _Transubstantiation_. He told them he waswilling to receive Instruction; he had taken much Pains to bring himselfto believe in God, who made the World and all Men in it: But it must notbe an ordinary Force of Argument that could make him believe that Man wasquits with God, and made God again. The Earl of _Middleton_ had marry'dinto a Popish Family, and was a Man of great Parts and a generous Temper, but of loose Principles in Religion; so a Priest was sent to instruct him. He began with _Transubstantiation_, of which he said he would convince himimmediately: And began thus, You believe the _Trinity_. _Middleton_ stop'dhim, and said, who told you so? At which he seem'd amazed. So the Earlsaid, he expected he should convince him of his Belief, but not questionhim of his own: With this the Priest was so disorder'd, that he couldproceed no farther. One Day the King gave the Duke of _Norfolk_ the Swordof State to carry before him to the Chappel, and he stood at the Door. Upon which the King said to him, My Lord, your Father would have gonefarther. To which the Duke answer'd, Your Majesty's Father was the betterMan, and he would not have gone so far. _Kirk_ was also spoken to, tochange his Religion, and he reply'd briskly, that he was alreadypre-engag'd, for _he had promised the King of_ Morocco, _that if ever hechang'd his Religion he would turn_ Mahometan. " When K. _James_ sent an_Irish_ Priest to convert the D. Of _Bucks_ [_Villers_] the said Dukeentertain'd the Priest with a Bottle, and engag'd him in a _Dialogue_, which the Duke afterwards caus'd to be printed, to the no smallMortification of all Papists, who were therein exceedingly ridicul'd, andto the Triumph of all good Churchmen, who are never better pleas'd, thanwhen they have the _Laugh_ on their side. 

At this time also were publish'd two merry Books, by a couple of ourDivines, with express View to make Protestants laugh at _Popery_, as at a_Farce_; and they were, _The School of the Eucharist_, wherein is aCollection of ridiculous _Miracles_, pretended to be wrought to supportthe Truth of _Transubstantiation_, and _Purgatory prov'd by Miracles_. 

I must not omit another incomparable Piece of Wit and Raillery against_Popery_, publish'd at that time. It seems the famous Poet, _Dryden_, thought fit to declare himself a _Roman Catholick_; and had, as 'tis said, a _Penance_ injoyn'd him by his Confessor, for having formerly written_The Spanish Fryar_, of composing some _Treatise_ in a _poetical way_ for_Popery_, and against the _Reformation_. This he executed in a _Poem_, intituled, _The Hind and Panther_; which, setting aside the Absurdity ofthe Matters therein asserted, and of the several Arguments to maintainthem, is, in other Respects, one of the most mean Compositions that everthe Press produc'd. Was it proper to pass over in silence such a Work, from whence probably the Popish Party expected great Matters, as knowingthe Efficacy of Poetry, and being Witnesses of the Success the Author hadhad in his _Absalom_ and _Achitophel_ against the _Whigs_? Was it properto write _seriously_ and _gravely_ against a Book, wherein the Authorevery where aims at Wit, Irony, and Burlesque, and does himself make soridiculous a Figure, as to be a standing Jest throughout the whole? Wasnot the Convert himself, as such, a _Jest_, or as professing any Religion, a _Jest_; who argu'd for Pay, and spoke as he was brib'd, and would haveprofess'd any Opinions, as is the Mode and Practice of the World, to whichSalary and Preferments are annexed? Some ingenious Persons of the Timestook a better Method, and agreeably to the Temper and Disposition of ourCountrymen, and to the nature of _Dryden_'s Attack, and his interestedWriting for Religion, made a Return in a Paper intituled, _The Hind andPanther transvers'd to the Story of the Country-Mouse and City-Mouse_: Outof which, for a Specimen of _just Irony_, and _fine Raillery_, I will giveyou the following Passage. 

 "_Sirrah, says_ Brindle, _thou hast brought us_ Wine, "_Sour to my Taste, and to my Eyes unfine. _ "_Says_ Will, _All Gentlemen like it. Ah! says_ White, "_What is approved by them must needs be right. _ "_'Tis true, I thought it bad, but if the_ House "_Commend it, I submit, a_ private Mouse. "_Nor to their Catholick Consent oppose_ "_My erring Judgment and reforming Nose. _ "[86]_Why, what a Devil, shan't I trust my Eyes, _ "_Must I drink Stum, because the Rascal lies, _ "_And palms upon us_ Catholick _Consent, _ "_To give_ sophisticated Brewings _Vent?_ "_Says_ White, _what antient Evidence can sway, _ "_If you must argue thus and not obey?_ "Drawers _must be trusted, thro' whose hands convey'd_ "_You take the Liquor, or you spoil the Trade. _ "_For sure those honest_ Fellows _have no Knack_ "_Of putting off stum'd Claret for_ Pontack. "_How long alas! would the poor Vintner last, _ } "_If all that drink must_ judge, _and every Guest_ } "_Be allow'd to have an understanding_ Taste? }

VII. I question whether High-Church would be willing to have the reverendAuthor of the _Tale of a Tub_, one of the greatest _Droles_ that everappear'd upon the Stage of the World, punish'd for that or any other ofhis _drolling_ Works: For tho religious Matters, and all the various Formsof Christianity have therein a considerable Share of _Ridicule_; yet inregard of his _Drollery_ upon the _Whigs_, _Dissenters_, and the _War_with _France_ (things of as _serious_ and weighty Consideration, and asmuch affecting the Peace of Society, as _Justification_ by _Faith only_, _Predestination_, _Transubstantiation_, or _Constansubstantiation_, or_Questions_ about _religious Ceremonies_, or any such interested Matters)the _Convocation_ in their famous _Representation_ of the _Profaneness_and _Blasphemy_ of the Nation, took no notice of his _drolling_ onChristianity: And his Usefulness in _Drollery_ and _Ridicule_ was deem'dsufficient by the _Pious_ Queen _Anne_, and her _pious Ministry_, tointitle him to a Church Preferment of several hundred Pounds _per Ann. _[87] which she bestow'd upon him, notwithstanding a _fanatickHigh-Churchman_, who weakly thought _Seriousness_ in Religion of more useto High-Church than _Drollery_, and attempted to hinder his Promotion, byrepresenting to her Majesty, "What a Scandal it would be both to Churchand State to bestow Preferment upon a Clergyman, who was hardly suspectedof being a Christian. " Besides, High-Church receives daily most signalServices from his drolling Capacity, which has of late exerted itself onthe Jacobite Stage of _Mist_'s and _Fogg_'s Journal, and in other littlePapers publish'd in _Ireland_; in which he endeavours to expose thepresent Administration of publick Affairs to contempt, to inflame the_Irish_ Nation against the _English_, and to make them throw off allSubjection to the _English_ Government, to satirize Bishop _Burnet_ andother _Whig_ Bishops; and, in fine, to pave the way for a new or PopishRevolution, as far as choosing the most proper Topicks of Invective, andtreating of them in the way of _Drollery_, can do. 

VIII. It is well known, that Gravity, Preciseness, Solemnity, Sourness, formal Dress and Behaviour, Sobriety of Manners, keeping at a distancefrom the common Pastimes of the World, Aversion to Rites and Ceremonies inthe publick Worship, and to Pictures, Images, and Musick in Churches;mixing Religion in common Conversion, using long Graces, practisingFamily-Worship, part of which was praying _ex tempore_; setting up andhearing Lectures, and a strict Observation of the Lord's Day, which wascall'd the _Sabbath_, were the Parts of the Character of a _Puritan_; who, it is to be observ'd, usually had the Imputation of Hypocrisy for hisgreat and extraordinary Pretences to Religion: He was also a great Opposerof the Court-Measures in the Reign of King _James_ and King _Charles_ I. And most zealous for Law, Liberty, and Property, when those two Princesset up for raising Money by their own Authority, and in consequencethereof, fell into numerous other Acts of Violence and Injustice. It isalso well known, that to quell these Puritans, and lessen their Credit, and baffle all their Pretences, Gaiety, Mirth, Pastimes or Sports, wereincourag'd and requir'd on _Sundays_ of the People, that Churches wererender'd gay, theatrical, and pleasant by the Decorations, Paintings, Musick, and Ceremonies therein perform'd[88]; and that the utmost Ridiculewas employ'd against some of them, as _Enthusiasts_, and against others ofthem as _Hypocrites_, and against them all as factious and seditious, bytheir Adversaries; who were under no Restraints, but incourag'd to writewith Scorn, Contempt, Raillery and Satire against these suppos'd Enemiesof Church and State. Nor did the great Success of the _Puritans_ in theField of Battle suppress that _Vein_ and _Humour_ of _Ridicule_ begunagainst them; but the _Laudean_ Party still carry'd on a Paper War withinnumerable Pamphlets, which all tended more or less to make the World_laugh_ at and _ridicule_ the _Puritans_. And I am verily persuaded, thatno History of any other Country in the World can produce a Parallel, wherein the Principle and Practice of _Ridicule_ were ever so stronglyencourag'd, and so constantly pursu'd, fix'd and rooted in the Minds ofMen, as it was and is in Churchmen against Puritans and Dissenters. Evenat this Day the _Ridicule_ is so strong against the present Dissenters, sopromoted by Clergy and Laity, especially in Villages and small CountryTowns, that they are unable to withstand its Force, but daily come over inNumbers to the Church to avoid being _laugh'd_ at. It seems to me a Markof Distinction more likely to last in the Church than any other Matterthat I can observe. Passive Obedience, the divine Right of Kings, _&c. _rise and fall according to particular Occasions; but _Laughter_ at_Dissenters_ seems fixt for ever, if they should chance to last so long. 

_South_'s Sermons, which now amount to _six Volumes_, make Reading _Jests_and _Banter_ upon _Dissenters_, the religious Exercise of good Churchmenupon _Sundays_, who now can serve God (as many think they do by hearing orreading Sermons) and be as merry as at the Play-house. And _Hudibras_, which is a daily High-Church Entertainment, and a Pocket and TravellingHigh-Church Companion, must necessarily have a very considerable Effect, and cannot fail forming in Men that Humour and Vein of _Ridicule_ upon_Dissenters_ which runs thro' that Work. In a word, High-Church hasconstantly been an Enemy to, and a Ridiculer of the _Seriousness_ of_Puritans_ and _Dissenters_, whom they have ever charg'd with _Hypocrisy_for their _Seriousness_. 

"After [89] the Civil War had broke out in 1641, and the King and Courthad settled at _Oxford_, one _Birkenhead_, who had liv'd in _Laud_'sFamily, and been made Fellow of _All Souls College_ by _Laud_'s Means, wasappointed to write a Weekly Paper under the Title of _Mercurius Aulicus_;the first whereof was publish'd in 1642. In the Absence of the Author, _Birkenhead_, from _Oxford_, it was continued by _Heylin_. _Birkenhead_pleas'd the Generality of Readers with his _Waggeries_ and _Buffooneries_;and the Royal Party were so taken with it, that the Author was recommendedto be Reader of _Moral Philosophy_ by his Majesty;" who, together with thereligious Electors, it is justly to be presum'd, thought _Waggery_ and_Buffoonery_, not only Political, but _Religious_ and _Moral_, whenemploy'd against _Puritans_ and _Dissenters_. 

IX. King _Charles_ the Second's Restoration brought along with it glorious_High-Church_ Times; which were distinguish'd as much by _laughing_ at_Dissenters_, as by persecuting them; which pass for a Pattern howDissenters are to be treated; and which will never be given up, by_High-Church-men_, as faulty, for ridiculing Dissenters. 

The King himself, who had very good natural Parts, and a Disposition tobanter and ridicule every Body, and especially the _Presbyterians_, whoseDiscipline he had felt for his Lewdness and Irreligion in _Scotland_, hadin his _Exile_ an Education, and liv'd, among some of the greatest_Droles_ and _Wits_ that any Age ever produc'd; who could not but form himin that way, who was so well fitted by Temper for it. The Duke of_Buckingham_ was his constant Companion. And he had a [90] _greatLiveliness of Wit, and a peculiar Faculty of turning all things intoridicule_. He was Author of the _Rehearsal_; which, as a most noble Authorsays, is [91] _a justly admir'd Piece of comick Wit_, and _has furnish'dour best Wits in all their Controversies, even in Religion and Politicks, as well as in the Affairs of Wit and Learning, with the most effectual andentertaining Method of exposing Folly, Pedantry, false Reason, and illWriting_. The Duke of _Buckingham_ [92] brought _Hobbes_ to him to be his_Tutor_, who was a _Philosophical Drole_, and had a great deal of _Wit_ ofthe _drolling_ kind. _Sheldon_, who was afterwards Archbishop of_Canterbury_, and attended the King constantly in his Exile as his_Chaplain_, was an eminent _Drole_, as appears from Bishop _Burnet_, whosays[93], that _he had a great Pleasantness of Conversation, perhaps toogreat_. 

And _Hide_, afterwards Earl of _Clarendon_, who attended the King in hisExile, seems also to have been a great Drole, by Bishop _Burnet_'srepresenting him, as one, that _had too much Levity in his Wit, and thatdid not observe the Decorum of his Post_[94]. In a _Speech_ to the Lordsand Commons, _Hide_ attack'd the Gravity of the Puritans, saying[95], "Very merry Men have been very godly Men; and if a good Conscience be acontinued Feast, there is no reason but Men may be very merry at it. " Andupon Mr. _Baxter_ and other Presbyterian Ministers waiting on him inrelation to the _Savoy Conference_, he said to Mr. _Baxter_ on the firstSalute[96], that if "he were but as fat as Dr. _Manton_, we should all dowell. "

No wonder therefore, that _Ridicule_, and _Raillery_, and _Satire_, shouldprevail at Court after the _Restoration_; and that King _Charles_ theSecond, who was a Wit himself, and early taught to laugh at his _Father'sStiffness_[97], should be so great a Master of them, and bring them intoplay among his Subjects; and that he who had the most sovereign Contemptfor all Mankind, and in particular for the People and Church of _England_, should use his Talent against them; and that his People in return shouldgive him like for like. 

It is well known how he banter'd the Presbyterian Ministers, who out ofInterest came over to him at _Breda_; where they were placed in a Roomnext to his Majesty, and order'd to attend till his Majesty had done hisDevotions; who, it seems, pray'd so artfully, and poured out so many oftheir Phrases, which he had learned when he was in _Scotland_, where hewas forced to be present at religious Exercises of six or seven Hoursa-day; and had practis'd among the _Huguenot_ Ministers in _France_[98], who reported him to have a _sanctify'd Heart_, and to _speak the veryLanguage of_ Canaan. This _Ridicule_ he _cover'd_ with _Seriousness_;having at that time Occasion for those Ministers, who were then his greatInstruments in reconciling the Nation to his _Restoration_. When he had nofarther Occasion for them, he was open in his _Ridicule_, and would say, that [99] _Presbyterianism was not a Religion for a Gentleman_. 

X. Would you, who are a Man of Sense and Learning, and of some Moderation, be for punishing the Author of _The Difficulties and Discouragements whichattend the Study of the Scriptures in the way of private Judgment_, &c. Who is suppos'd to be a Prelate of the Church, for that Book, which iswholly an _Irony_ about the most sacred Persons and Things? Must not thefine _Irony_ it self, and the Execution of it, with so much Learning, Sense, and Wit, raise in you the highest Esteem and Admiration of theAuthor, instead of a Disposition to punish him? Would you appear to theintelligent Part of the World such an Enemy to Knowledge, and such aFriend to the Kingdom of Darkness, as such Punishment would imply? Infine, can you see and direct us to a better way, to make us inquire afterand understand Matters of Religion, to make us get and keep a good temperof Mind, and to plant and cultivate in us the Virtues necessary to goodOrder and Peace in Society, and to eradicate the Vices that every wheregive Society so much Disturbance, than what is prescrib'd or imply'd inthat Book? And can you think of a better _Form_ of _Conveyance_, or_Vehicle_ for Matters of such universal Concern to all intelligent People(if you consider the State of the World, and the infinite Variety ofUnderstandings, Interests, and Designs of Men, who are all to be address'dto at the same Time) than his Method of _Irony_? And has not Successjustify'd his Method? For the Book has had a free Vent in severalImpressions; has been very generally read and applauded; has convincedNumbers, and has been no Occasion of trouble either to Bookseller orAuthor. It has also had the Advantage to have a most ingenious _Letter_ of_John Hales_ of _Eton_ join'd to some Editions of it; who by this_Letter_, as well as by several others of his Pieces, shews himself tohave been another _Socrates_, one of the greatest Masters of _true Wit_and _just Irony_, as well as Learning, which the World ever produc'd; andshews he could have writ such a Book as the _Difficulties_, &c. But if youare capable of coming into any Measures for punishing the Author of the_Difficulties_, &c. For his _Irony_, I conceive, that you may possiblyhesitate a little in relation to the same Author, about his _New Defenceof the Bishop of_ Bangor_'s Sermon of the Kingdom of Christ, consider'd asit is the Performance of a Man of Letters_; which, tho far below _TheDifficulties_, &c. Is an ingenious _Irony_ on that _Sermon_. You mayprobably, like many others of the Clergy, approve of Satire so wellemploy'd, as against that Bishop, who has succeeded Bishop _Burnet_ inbeing the Subject of _Clergy-Ridicule_, as well as in his Bishoprick. TheBishop himself was very justly patient, under all Attacks by the Reverend_Trapp_, _Earbery_, _Snape_, _Law_, and _Luke Milbourne_, in his _Tom ofBedlam's Answer to his Brother_ Ben Hoadley, _St. _ Peter_'s_ Poor _Parsonnear the Exchange of Principles_; some of which were of a very abusivekind, and such as can hardly be parallel'd; and did not call upon theMagistrate to come to his Aid against that Author, or against any othersof the Clergy who had attack'd him with as great Mockery, Ridicule, andIrony, as ever Bishop had been by the profess'd Adversaries of the Order;or as ever the Bishops had been by the _Puritans_ and _Libellers_ in theReigns of Queen _Elizabeth_, King _James_ and King _Charles_ the First; oras _Lesley_, _Hickes_, _Hill_, _Atterbury_, _Binks_, and other High-ChurchClergy, did the late Bishop _Burnet_. Instead of that he took the true andproper Method, by publishing an _Answer_ to the said _Irony_, compos'd inthe same _ironical Strain_, intitled, _The Dean of_ Worcester _still thesame: Or his new Defence of the Bishop of_ Bangor_'s Sermon, consider'd, as it is the Performance of a great Critick, a Man of Sense, and a Man ofProbity_. Which Answer does, in my Opinion, as much Honour to the Bishop, by its Excellency in the _ironical Way_, as it does by allowing the Methodit self, and going into that Method, in imitation of his Reverend Brethrenof the Clergy, who appear to be under no Restraints from the _Immorality_or _Indecency_ of treating the Bishop in the way of Ridicule and with theutmost Contempt; but, on the contrary, to be spurr'd on by the_Excellency_ and _Propriety_ thereof to use it against him, even in the[100] _Pulpit_, as Part of the religious Exercise on the _Lord's-day_. 

XI. There is an universal Love and Practice of _Drollery_ and _Ridicule_in all, even the most _serious_ Men, in the most _serious Places_, and onthe most _serious Occasions_. Go into the Privy-Councils of Princes, intoSenates, into Courts of Judicature, and into the Assemblies of the Kirk orChurch; and you will find that Wit, good Humour, Ridicule, and Drollery, mix themselves in all the Questions before those Bodies; and that the mostsolemn and sour Person there present, will ever be found endeavouring, atleast, to crack his Jest, in order to raise a Character for Wit; which hasso great an Applause attending it, and renders Men so universallyacceptable for their Conversation, and places them above the greatestProficients in the Sciences, that almost every one is intoxicated with thePassion of aiming at it. 

In the Reports made to us of the Debates in the Houses of Lords, Commons, and Convocation, the serious Parts of the Speeches there made die for themost part with the Sound; but the Wit, the Irony, the Drollery, theRidicule, the Satire, and Repartees, are thought worthy to be remember'dand repeated in Conversation, and make a Part of the History of theProceedings of those Bodies, no less than their grave Transactions, assome such must necessarily be. 

Whoever will look into Antiquity for an Account of the Lives, Actions, andWorks of the old Philosophers, will find little remaining of them; butsome of their witty, drolling, and bantering Sayings, which alone havebeen thought worthy to be preserv'd to Posterity. And if you will lookinto the Lives of the modern Statesmen, Philosophers, Divines, Lawyers, _&c. _ you will find that their witty Sayings ever make a considerablePart: by reporting which great Honour is intended to be done to theirMemory. The great and most religious Philosopher Dr. _H. More_, has agreat many Pieces of Wit attributed to him in his _Life_ by Mr. _Ward_, who represents him from his Companions, [101] _as one of the merriestGreeks they were acquainted with_, and tells us, that the Doctor said inhis _last Illness_, to him[102], _that the merry way was that which he sawmightily to take; and so he used it the more_. 

The great and famous Sir _Thomas More_, Lord Chancellor of _England_ in_Henry_ the Eighth's time, was an inexhaustible Source of _Drollery_[103], as his voluminous Works, which consist for the most part of controversialDivinity in behalf of Popery, show, and which are many of them written inDialogue, the better to introduce the _drolling_ Way of Writing, which hehas us'd in such Perfection, that it is said [104] _none can ever be wearyof reading them, tho they be never so long_. Nor could Death it self, inimmediate view before his Eyes, suppress his _merry_ Humour, and hinderhim from cracking _Jests_ on the _Scaffold_; tho he was a Man of great_Piety_ and _Devotion_, whereof all the World was convinced by his Conductboth in his Life and at his Death. 

It is said (as I have before observ'd) of my Lord Chancellor _Clarendon_, that "he had too much _Levity_ in his _Wit_[105], and that he did notalways observe the _Decorum_ of his Post. " Which implies not only hisApprobation of _Drollery_ in the most _grave_ Business, but also his greatKnowledge of Mankind, by applying to them in that _Way_; which he knewfrom Experience, and especially from the common _drolling_ [106]Conversation in the Court of King _Charles_ the Second, would recommendhim to the World much more than an _impartial Administration of Justice_;which is less felt, less understood, and less taken notice of andapplauded, than a _Piece_ of _Wit_; which is generally suppos'd to implyin it a great deal of Knowledge, and a Capacity fit for any thing. 

Mr. _Whiston_[107], a famous Person among us, sets up for great _Gravity_, and proposes a Scheme of _Gravity_ for the Direction of those who writeabout Religion: He is for allowing _Unbelievers_, nay for having them"invited by Authority to produce all the real or original Evidence theythink they have discover'd against any Parts of the _Bible_; against anyParts of the _Jewish_ and Christian Religions, in order to their beingfully weigh'd and consider'd by all learned Men; provided at the sametime, that the whole be done _gravely_, and _seriously_, without all_Levity_, _Banter_, and _Ridicule_. " And yet this Man, having a handlegiven him by Bishop _Robinson_'s Letter to the _Clergy_ of his _Diocess_about _New Doxologies borrow'd from Old Hereticks_, takes the advantage ofthe Bishop's (supposed) Ignorance, Dulness, Stupidity, and Contradictionto himself, and writes and prints, like a _Tom Brown_ or _Swift_, a most_bantering_ and _drolling_ Letter, under the sneering Title of a _Letterof Thanks to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of_ London, _for his lateLetter_, &c. Whom, one would think, he should not only have spar'd, buthave applauded for his _profound Gravity_, and carrying on the Cause ofReligion in a very remarkable manner, with the most _consummateSolemnity_. But so strong was the Temptation, so naturally productive ofMirth was the Bishop's _Cause_, and his grave Management thereof, as thathe could not help laughing at the Bishop, by himself; and so was led onmechanically to write in that Humour, and to publish what he wrote, andafterwards to defend his drole _Manner_ [108] of attacking the Bishop, against those who took _offence_ at that _Manner_ of writing. 

XII. The burning Papists themselves are not always _serious_ with us: Theytreat the Church and its Defenders as _fanatical_, and _laugh_ at them as_such_, just as the Church does the Dissenters, and have their elaborateWorks of _Drollery_ against their Adversaries. They publish'd a Poemagainst the _Reformation_, just before the Death of Queen _Anne_, whichwas design'd to have given such a Stroke to the Protestant Religion amongus, under the new projected Revolution, as _Hudibras_ did to _Puritanism_after the _Restoration_. The Popish Editor, in the Preface to the saidPoem, says, "that the Motive of the Author (_Thomas Ward_) for publishingthe _History of the Reformation in a Burlesque Style_ (tho a History fullof melancholy Incidents, which have distracted the Nation, even beyond thehope of recovery, after so much Blood drawn from all its Veins, and fromits Head) was that which he met with in Sir _Roger L'Estrange_'s Prefaceto the second Part of his _Cit_ and _Bumkin_, express'd in these Words;_Tho this way of fooling is not my Talent, nor Inclination; yet I havegreat Authorities for the taking up this Humour, in regard not only of theSubject, but of the Age we live in; which is so much upon the Drole, thathardly any thing else will down with it. _"

And the ingenious Protestant Editor of this Poem at _London_, which heallows to have some Wit in it, concludes the Remarks he makes upon it, bysaying, "One thing more we can't forbear hinting at, that a Retaliationwould be as happy a Thought as could enter into the Head of a Man ofGenius and Spirit. What a fruitful Harvest would the Legends, Tricks, spiritual Jugglings, Convents, and Nunneries, yield to a good Poet?_Buchanan_ in his _Franciscani_, and _Oldham_ in his _Satires_ on theJesuits, have open'd the Way, and we heartily wish some equal Pen wouldwrite the whole Mystery of Iniquity at length. "

XIII. All the old Puritan Preachers, who were originally Divines of theChurch of _England_, sprinkled and season'd their Sermons with a greatmany _drolling_ Sayings against _Libertinism_ and _Vice_, and againstChurch Ceremonies; many of which Sayings are reported and handed down tous in Books and Conversation, as are also the Effects of those Sayings, which we are told converted many to _Christ_ on the Spot, or in theInstant of Delivery. Nor is that manner wholly laid aside, but hascontinued to be kept alive by some Hands at all times; who have beengreatly follow'd for their Success in drolling upon _Sinners_, andtreating of Religion in humoursom and fantastical Phrases, and fixing thatway of Religion in some Mens Minds. 

I do not remember to have met with a more complete Drole in the Church of_England_, or in any other of the _laughing_ or _ridiculing_ Sects, than_Andrew Marvel_ of the grave _Puritan_ Sect, in many Works of his both inProse and Verse, but especially in his _Rehearsal Transprosed_; which thowrit against _Parker_, who with great Eloquence, Learning, and a Torrentof Drollery and Satire, had defended the Court and Church's Cause, inasserting the Necessity of Penal Laws against the Nonconformists, "wasread from the _King_ down to the Tradesman with great pleasure, on accountof that Burlesque Strain and lively Drollery that ran thro' it, " asBishop _Burnet_ tells us[109]. Nor were the gravest _Puritans_ andDissenters among us less taken and pleas'd with his Writings for their_Drollery_, than our _drole King_; tho there are some Passages in them, which should give just Offence to chaste Ears. 

I find also, that the _Puritans_ and _Dissenters_ have always born with, and allow'd of, a great Mixture of _Drollery_ in their Sermons, that onewould think should offend their Gravity, and pious Ears; and that theyapplaud their Ministers for such their Discourses, as much as the Churchdoes Dr. _South_ for the Ribaldry sprinkled thro'out his Sermons about themost high Points in Divinity. They have always had some eminent Divinesamong them who have been remarkable for such Passages and Reflections: Andthese have never lessen'd their number of Auditors, nor drawn uponthemselves the Character of _Irreligious_; but have had the largestAuditories of contributing Hearers, as well as of Churchmen, who came tosmile, and have been esteem'd very _pious_ Men. 

In fine, the _Puritans_ and _Dissenters_ have, like the Church, theirTaste of Humour, Irony, and Ridicule, which they promote with great Zeal, as a Means to serve Religion: And I remember, that, among other thingssaid in behalf of _Bunyan_'s _Pilgrim's Progress_, upon the reprinting itlately by Subscription, it was affirm'd, and that, in my Opinion, truly, "that it had infinitely out-done _The Tale of a Tub_; which perhaps hadnot made one Convert to Infidelity, whereas the _Pilgrim's Progress_ hadconverted many Sinners to _Christ_. "

XIV. The _Quakers_ are certainly the most _serious_ and solemn Peopleamong us in Matters of Religion, and out-go the Dissenters of all otherKinds therein: But yet the Church has no regard to them on that Account, but takes Advantage from thence to _ridicule_ them the more, and to calltheir Sincerity more in question. And I much doubt whether there was evera Book written against them by the Divines of any Sect with perfectDecency, and that had not its extravagant Flouts, Scorn, Banter, andIrony, and that not only of the _laughing_, but of the _cruel_ kind:Wherein they copy'd after the _Jews_ of old, who while they prosecuted_Christ_ to Death, and carried on their High-Church Tragedy against him, acted against him the _comick Scenes_ [110] "of spitting in his Face, andbuffeting him with the Palms of their Hands, saying, _Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that smote thee_;" and who, when they had nail'dhim to the Cross, _revil'd_ him with divers _Taunts_, in which the _ChiefPriests_, _Scribes_, _Elders_, and even the _Thieves, which were crucifiedwith him_, concurr'd. But yet for all this, these solemn Quakersthemselves are not altogether averse to _Irony_ and _Ridicule_, and use itwhen they can. Their Books abound in Stories to ridicule in their Turn thePriests, their great and bitter Adversaries: And they please themselveswith throwing at the Priests the _Centuries of Scandalous Ministers_, andthe Books of the _Cobler of_ Glocester. They have also their Satirist andBanterer, _Samuel Fisher_; whose Works, tho all wrote in the _drolling_Style and Manner, they pride themselves in, and have collected into onegreat Volume in _Folio_; in which Quaker-Wit and Irony are set up againstChurch, Presbyterian, and Independent Wit and Irony, without the leastScruple of the lawfulness of such Arms. In a word, their Author acts thePart of a _Jack-Pudding_, _Merry Andrew_, or _Buffoon_, with all theseeming Right, Authority, and Privilege, of the Member of some Establish'dChurch of abusing all the World but themselves. The _Quakers_ have alsoencourag'd and publish'd a most arch Book of the famous _Henry Stubbe_, intitled, _A Light shining out of Darkness_, &c. Wherein all the otherreligious Parties among us are as handsomly and learnedly banter'd andridicul'd, as the _Quakers_ have been in any Book against them. And whenthey were attack'd by one _Samuel Young_, a whimsicalPresbyterian-Buffoon-Divine, who call'd himself _Trepidantium Malleus_, and set up for an Imitator of Mr. _Alsop_, in several Pamphlets full ofStories, Repartees, and Ironies; in which _Young_, perhaps, thoughthimself as secure from a Return of the like kind, as a Ruffian or Thiefmay when he assaults Men: His Attacks were repell'd in a Book intitled"_Trepidantium Malleus intrepidanter malleatus_; or the West CountryWiseaker's crack-brain'd _Reprimand_ hammer'd about his own Numbscul. Being a _Joco-satirical_ Return to a late Tale of a Tub, emitted by areverend _Non-con_, at present residing not far from _Bedlam_, " said to bewritten by _William Penn_, who has therein made use of the carnal Weaponsof Irony and Banter, and dress'd out the Presbyterian Priest in a Fool'sCoat, for a Spectacle to the Mob. It is also to be observ'd, that thereare several Tracts in the two Volumes of _William Penn_'s Works latelypublish'd, that for ingenious Banter and Irony, are much superior to thePriests his Adversaries; and that other Quaker Authors profess to writesometimes in a [111] _drolling Style_. 

XV. The Jacobite Clergy have set up for great _Droles_ upon all the trueFriends of the _Establishment_. And I presume, the Body of our HighChurchmen would not willingly deprive them of the Benefit of their_Drollery_. 

The celebrated Mr. _Collier_ [112] thus attacks Bishop _Burnet_, for hisESSAY _on the Memory of Queen_ Mary. "This Doctor, you know, is a Man ofmighty _Latitude_, and can say any thing to serve a Turn; whose_Reverence_ resolves Cases of Conscience backwards and forwards, disputes_pro_ and _con_, praises and dispraises by secular Measures; with whomVirtue and Vice, passive Obedience and Rebellion, Parricide and filialDuty, Treachery and Faithfulness, and all the Contradictions in Nature, are the _best_ and _worst_ things under the Sun, as they are for hisPurpose, and according as the Wind sits: who equally and indifferentlywrites for and against all Men, the Gospel, and himself too, as the Worldgoes: who can bestow a Panegyrick upon the seven deadly Sins, and (ifthere be occasion) can make an Invective against all theCommandments. ----"

In relation to Dr. _Payne_'s _Sermon_ on the Death of that _Queen_, hesays[113], "that to go thro' it is too great a Discipline for any Man, whose Palate hath ever relish'd any thing above _three half-pennyPoetry_. " He adds, "Why, Sir, many Years ago I have heard some of it sungabout the Streets in wretched and nauseous _Doggrel_. What think you ofthis? _Page_ 6. _I know not how to draw her Picture, 'tis so all overbeauteous, without any Foil, any Shade, any Blemish; so perfect in everyFeature, so accomplish'd in every Part, so adorn'd with every Perfectionand every Grace. _ O rare, Sir! here's _Phillis_ and _Chloris_, and_Gillian a Croydon_. 

 "_Sh' hath_ every Feature, every Grace, "_So charming_ every part, _&c_. 

"Tis no wonder he tells us, (_p. _ 8. ) of _strewing her with the Flowers ofwithered and decay'd Poetry_; for the _Song_ out of which he hathtranscrib'd his _Sermon_, is of very _great age_, and hath been sung atmany a _Whitsun-Ale_, and many a _Wedding_ (tho I believe never at aFuneral before) and therefore in all this time may well be _decay'd andwither'd_: In the mean time, if you were to draw the Picture of a _greatPrincess_, I fansy you would not make choice of _Mopsa_ to sit to it. Alas! Sir, there was _Cassandra_ and _Cleopatra_, and many a famed_Romance_ more, which might have furnish'd him with handsome Characters, and yet he must needs be _preaching and instructing_ his People out of_Hey down derry_, and the _fair Maid of_ Kent. If he had intitled it, _The_ White-Chapel _Ballad_, and got some body to set it to the Tune of_Amaryllis_, compos'd by _W. P. Songster_, the Character of the _Author_, the _Title_, and the _Matter_, would have very well agreed, and perhaps itmight have passed at the Corners of the Streets; but to call it a_Sermon_, and by _W. P. _ Doctor in _Divinity_, 'tis one of the _lewdest_things in the World. ----"

Mr. _Lesley_ attacks the Clergy, who pray'd "that God would give King_James_ Victory over all his Enemies[114], when that was the thing theyleast wish'd; and confess'd, that they labour'd all they could againstit, " saying, "good God! What Apprehensions, what Thought had those Men oftheir publick Prayers; bantering God Almighty, and mocking him to hisFace, who heard their Words, and saw their Hearts? Is not _Atheism_ asmaller Sin than this, since it is better to have no God, than so to setup one _to laugh at him_. "

Again he says, (_p. _ 123. ) "It is a severe Jest, that the common Peoplehave got up against the Clergy, that there was but one thing formerlywhich the Parliament could not do, that is, to make a Man a Woman: But nowthere is another, that is, to make an Oath which the Clergy will nottake. "

The same Author attacks Bishop _Burnet_'s _Speech upon the Bill againstOccasional Conformity_, by a Pamphlet intitled, _The Bishop of_Salisbury_'s proper Defence from a Speech cry'd about the Streets in hisName, and said to have been spoken by him in the House of Lords upon theBill against Occasional Conformity_; which is one perpetual _Irony_ on theBishop, and gives the Author occasion to throw all manner of Satire andAbuse on the Bishop. The beginning of this Pamphlet, which is as follows, will let the Reader into the full Knowledge of the Design of the Irony, and the manner of Execution. 

"The License of this Age and of the Press is so great, that no Rank orQuality of Men is free from the Insults of loose and extravagant Wits. 

"The good Bishop of _Salisbury_ has had a plentiful Share in this sort ofTreatment: And now at last, some or other has presum'd to burlesque hisLordship in printing a Speech for him, which none that knows his Lordshipcan believe ever came from him. 

"But because it may go down with others who are too apt to take Slanderupon trust, and that his Lordship has already been pelted with severalAnswers to his Speech, I have presum'd to offer the followingConsiderations, to clear his Lordship from the Suspicion of having vented(in such an august Assembly) those crude and undigested Matters which areset forth in that Speech, and which so highly reflect on his Lordship'sself. "

He has taken the same Method of Irony to attack the said Bishop for his_Speech_ on the _Trial_ of _Sacheverel_, and for a _Sermon_, under thisTitle, "The Good Old Cause, _or_ Lying in Truth; being a Second Defence ofthe Lord Bishop of _Sarum_ from a Second Speech, and also the Dissectionof a Sermon it is said his Lordship preach'd in the Cathedral Church of_Salisbury_. " And this Pamphlet, which is also a continued Banter, beginsthus. 

"No Man has more deserv'd than this good Bishop, and no Man has been morepersecuted by various Ways and Means than his Lordship, even to mobbing!But the ugliest and most malicious of all these Arts, is that of puttingfalse Things upon him; to write scandalous, seditious, and senselessPapers, and to affix his Lordship's Name! I was forc'd some Years ago tovindicate his Lordship's Reputation from one of this sort: That Speech hada Bookseller's Name to it of good figure, and look'd something like; butthis Speech (said likewise to be spoken in the House of Lords) has no bodyto own it, and has all the Marks of _Grub_. But the nasty Phiz is nothingto the inside. That discovers the Man; the Heart is false. "

This same Author has thought fit to attack Mr. _Hoadley_ (since a Bishop)in the way of Banter: His _Best Answer ever was made, and to which noAnswer will ever be made_, is by his own Confession a _Farce_; when hesays in his _Preface_, "If you ask why I treat this Subject by way of_farce_, and shew a little Merriment sometimes? it was because theFoundation you stand upon is not only _false_ but _ridiculous_, and oughtto be treated with the _utmost Contempt_. "

Again, in his "_Finishing Stroke, in defence of_ his _Rehearsals, BestAnswer, and Best of all_, " he gives us (_p. _ 125. ) what he calls, "ABattle-Royal between three Cocks of the Game, _Higden_, _Hoadley_, and a_Hottentot_;" which in the _Contents_ he calls _A Farce_, and to which hejoins both a _Prologue_ and _Epilogue_, and divers other Particulars, alltaken from the _Play-house_. 

The Reverend Mr. _Matthias Earbery_ sets up for a great Satirist and Droleupon the swearing and Low-Church Clergy, in numerous Pamphlets of late, more particularly in his "_Serious Admonition to Dr. _ Kennet: To which isadded, a short but complete Answer to Mr. _Marshal_'s late Treatisecalled, _A Defence of our Constitution in Church and State_; and aParallel is drawn between him and Dr. _Kennet_, for the Satisfaction ofthe unprejudic'd Reader. "

He has a bantering Argument [115] to shew, that, "If in future Ages Mr. _Marshal_'s Book should escape the just Judgment it deserves, of beingcondemn'd to the _Pastry-Cooks_ and _Grocers_, an industrious Chronologistmight make an Observation to prove him too young to write it. "

The _Parallel_ is in _Pag. _ 126, which being very gross _Raillery_, I onlyrefer you to it. 

This Mr. _Earbery_ also wrote a _Letter to Bishop_ Fleetwood, under theTitle of "A Letter to the Bishop of _Ely_, upon the Occasion of his_suppos'd_ late _Charge_, said to be deliver'd at _Cambridge August_ 7, 1716, _&c. _" in which he pursues the Ironical Scheme laid down in the saidTitle, and endeavours to _vindicate_ his _Lordship from the Aspersion ofwriting such a mean Pamphlet_, as the _Charge_. 

Nor do these _Jacobites_ confine their Drollery to their Adversarieswithout, but exercise it on one another, as may be seen in their lateDispute about King _Edward the Sixth_'s Liturgy. And Mr. _Lesley_ himself, happening to engage on the side opposite to the Traditions of the Fathers, and attacking those Traditions by Low-Church Notions and Arguments, andthereby running counter to all his former Books, is attack'd just in thesame manner he attack'd Bishop _Burnet_, in a Book under this Title, "Mr. _Lesley_'s Defence, from some erroneous and dangerous Principles, advancedin a Letter said to have been written concerning the New Separation. " Andit has several Paragraphs at the beginning in the very words of one of Mr. _Lesley_'s Books against the said Bishop, as may be seen on Comparison. 

XVI. _Christ-Church_ in _Oxford_ is no less famous for the _Drolling_, than for the _Orthodox_ Spirit reigning there; and the former, beingjudged an excellent Method to support the latter, is cultivated among theYouth, and employ'd by the Members of that Society against all thesupposed Adversaries of the Church, and encourag'd by the governingEcclesiasticks there and elsewhere. 

Among the many, who have receiv'd their Education there, and been form'din Drollery, I will only instance in the Reverend Dr. _Atterbury_ and Dr. _South_; who being as famous for _Drollery_ as for Zeal for Religion, andapplauded for their _Wit_ no less than for their _Orthodoxy_; andparticularly for imploying the former in behalf of the latter, seem ofsufficient Weight to bear down all Attempts to stifle their Productions. What Considerations can make us amends for the Loss of such excellent_drolling Writings_, which promote Religion as well as Mirth?

With what incomparable Mockery, Ridicule and Sarcasm does Dr. _Atterbury_treat all the Low-Church Clergy that come in his way, together with the_Whig_ Ministry and Administration in his several _Convocational Tracts_?Dr. _Wake_, our present Archbishop of _Canterbury_, is represented by himas writing so _contumeliously_ [116] of the Clergy, _that had he notinform'd us in his Title Page who he was, we should rather have guess'dhim to have been of the Cabal against Priests and Priestcraft, than one ofthe Order_; and as wholly govern'd by [117] _Interest_ in the _Debate_, and as giving us a most [118] _shallow empty Performance_ in relation toour Ecclesiastical Constitution, which he [119] _has done his best toundermine_, as knowing himself to be in the wrong; and as _deserving_ anyName or Censure, none being _too bad to be bestow'd_ on him; and in fine, as _the least of the little officious Pens by which he expects to betraduc'd_. 

Dr. _Bentley_ is represented as _wrote out of Reputation into Preferment_;which, whether it be a more severe Sarcasm on the Doctor, than on theGovernment, is hard to determine; and besides, it gives Applause to one ofthe most drolling and bantering Performances that this drolling Age hasproduc'd, I mean _Dr. _ Bentley_'s Dissertations on the Epistles of_Phalaris, _and the Fables of_ Æsop, _examin'd_. 

Bishop _Burnet_ is a standing Subject of Ridicule with him; as are Bishop_Nicholson_, Bishop _Kennet_, Bishop _Gibson_, Bishop _Trimnel_ [to whomhe writes a most drolling [120] Letter] and Dr. _West_; and all theTopicks that can affect them as Scholars, as honest Men, and Clergymen, are imploy'd to render them ridiculous, and set the World a laughing atthem, who are not in the least spar'd for their being of the Holy Order;but on the contrary seem more loaded and baited with Sarcasms for thatreason. 

For a _Specimen_, take this Banter or Burlesque upon Bishop _Kennet_'sDedication of his _Ecclesiastical Synods and Parliamentary Convocations_, &c. To the Archbishop of _Canterbury_; which Banter runs thus[121]. 

 "_May it please your Grace_, "Mr. _Atterbury_ has lately forc'd a Dedication upon you, which favours too much of Presumption or Design; he has presum'd to surprize you with an unexpected Address, and appears very indecently before your Grace, because he has taken no care to express upon this Subject a due Respect and Reverence to the Governors in Church and State, such as is suitable to the Christian Religion, and his particular Function: The Reports and Authorities in his Book are Fruits of other Mens Collections, not the immediate Effects of his own Searches into _Registers_ and _Records_; he imperiously summons your Grace and my Lords the Bishops to an immediate Compliance upon pain of being pronounc'd Betrayers of the Church----This, my Lord, is the Character of the Person _I set up_ against; but as for me, I am quite another sort of Man, I am very well bred, a great Antiquary, beholden to no body, _some Wits and merry Folks call me a Tool and a Play-thing_ (_Pref. P. _ 8. ) But I assure your Grace, that what Freedom soever I may have taken in taxing the Vices of the inferior _Clergy_, (_p. _ 77. 188. ) and in reflecting _upon the ambitious Designs of dignify'd Presbyters_ (_p. _ 196. ); yet _I am however tender and dutiful in treating the Governors of our Church_ (p. 78. ); especially _those of them who are of the Ecclesiastical Commission for Preferments_, (p. 311). I have a very great Respect and Reverence for every body that will give me any thing; and how resolute soever Mr. _Atterbury_ may be, your Grace may do what you please with

 _Your Grace's most humble_

 _and obedient Servant_, WHITE KENNET. 

But for _Drollery_, the Reverend Dr. _South_ outdoes even _Christ-Church_, and fills all his Performances with it, and throws it out against theEnemies of the Church, and in particular against the late Dr. _Sherlock_, whom he thought fit to single out. I shall select some Passages from hisWritings against the said Doctor, which cannot but entertain theHigh-Church Orthodox Reader, and reconcile him to a _Drollery_ so wellemploy'd. 

He stiles him _a great good Man, as a certain poor Wretch_, meaning_Prior, calls him_. 

Again, he says[122], "There is hardly any one Subject which he (that isDr. _Sherlock_) has wrote upon Popery excepted, that he has wrote bothfor it and against it. Could any thing be more sharp and bitter againstthe Dissenters than what this Man wrote in his _Answer_ to the _ProtestantReconciler_; and yet how frankly, or rather fulsomly does he open both hisArms to embrace them in his Sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor on_November_ 4, 1688. Tho I dare say, that the Dissenters themselves are ofthat Constancy, as to own that they were of the same Principles in 88 thatthey were of in 85; but the Truth is, old Friendships cannot be so easilyforgot: And it has been an Observation made by some, that hardly can anyone be found, who was first tainted with a Conventicle, whom a Cathedralcould ever after cure, but that still upon every cross turn of Affairsagainst the _Church_, the irresistible _Magnetism_ of the _Good Old Cause_(as some still think it) would quickly draw him out of the _Good Old Way_. The Fable tells us of a _Cat_ once turn'd into a _Woman_, but the nextsight of a _Mouse_ quickly dissolv'd the _Metamorphosis_, cashier'd theWoman, and restor'd the Brute. And some _Virtuosi_ (skill'd in the _usefulPhilosophy_ of _Alterations_) have thought her much a Gainer by the latterChange, there being so many unlucky Turns in the World, in which it is nothalf so safe and advantageous to _walk upright_, as to be _able to fallalways upon one's Legs_. "

Again, Dr. _South_ says[123], "When I consider how wonderfully pleas'd theMan is with these two new started Terms (_Self-consciousness_ and _mutualConsciousness_) so high in Sound and so empty of Sense, instead of onesubstantial word (_Omniscience_) which gives us all that can be pretendeduseful in them, with vast Overplus and Advantage, and even swallows themup, as _Moses_'s Rod did those pitiful Tools of the _Magicians_: This (Isay) brings to my mind (whether I will or no) a certain Story of a gravePerson, who riding in the Road with his Servant, and finding himselfsomething uneasy in his Saddle, bespoke his Servant thus: _John_ (says he)_alight, and first take off the Saddle that is upon my Horse, and thentake off the Saddle that is upon your Horse; and when you have done this, put the Saddle that was upon my Horse, upon your Horse; and put the Saddlethat was upon your Horse, upon my Horse_. Whereupon the Man, who had notstudied the Philosophy of Saddles (whether _Ambling_ or _Trotting_) soexactly as his Master, replies something short upon him; _Lord, Master, what need all these words? Could you not as well have said, Let us changeSaddles?_ Now I must confess, I think the Servant was much in the right;tho the Master having a _rational Head of his own_, and being withalwilling to make the _Notion_ of _changing_ Saddles more _plain_, _easy_and _intelligible_, and to give a clearer Explication of that word (whichhis Forefathers, how good _Horsemen_ soever they might have been, yet were_not equally happy in explaining of_) was pleas'd to set it forth by thatmore full and accurate Circumlocution. "

He says[124], _The Author_, Dr. _Sherlock, is no doubt a_ Grecian _in hisHeart_! And the tenth Chapter of the _Animadversions_ is one continuedBanter upon the _Dean_ for his Ignorance in _Greek_ and _Latin_, and evenhis Inability to spell: All which he _closes_ with saying, "That St. _Paul_'s _School_ is certainly an excellent School, and St. _Paul_'sChurch a most noble Church; and therefore he thinks that he directs hisCourse very prudently, and happily too, who in his Passage to such a_Cathedral_, takes a School in his way. "

Again, he says[125], "He cannot see any new Advantage that the Dean hasgot over the _Socinians_, unless it be, that the Dean thinks his _threeGods_ will be too hard for their _one_. "

After citing several Scurrilities of the Dean[126], (who it must beconfess'd, appears therein a great Banterer also of Dr. _South_ and hisPerformance) the Dr. Says, "These, with several more of the like_Gravel-Lane_ Elegancies, are all of them such peculiar Strictures of theDean's _Genius_, that he might very well spare his Name, where he had madehimself so well known by his Mark; for all the foregoing_Oyster-Wive-Kennel-Rhetorick_ seems so naturally to flow from him, whohad been so long Rector of St. _Botolph_ (with the well-spoken_Billingsgate_ under his Care) that (as much a Teacher as he was) it maywell be question'd, whether he has learn'd more from his Parish, than hisParish from him. --All favours of the Porter, the Carman, and the Waterman;and a pleasant Scene it must be to see the _Master of the Temple_ layingabout him in the Language of the Stairs. "

To the Dean's Scoff, that _this Argument_, &c. _was worth its weight inGold, tho the_ Dean _fears it will not much enrich the Buyer_, the Doctorreplies[127], "What is that to him? Let him mind his own Markets, whonever writes to _enrich the Buyer_ but the Seller; and that _Seller_ ishimself: and since he is so, well is it for his Books and his Booksellertoo, that Men generally _buy_ before they _read_. "

In requital of the scurrilous Character of an _ingenious Blunderer_, Dr. _South_ says[128], "He must here return upon him the just Charge of an_impious Blasphemer_, and that upon more Accounts than one; telling himwithal, that had he liv'd in the former Times of the Church, his Gownwould have been stript off his Back for his detestable Blasphemies andHeresies, and some other Place found out for him to perch in than the Topof St. _Paul's_, where at present he is placed like a true ChurchWeather-Cock, (as he is) notable for nothing so much, as _standing highand turning round_. "

Again, he says[129], "And so I take my leave of the Dean's _three distinctinfinite Minds, Spirits_, or _Substances_, that is to say, of his _threeGods_; and having done this, methinks I see him go whimpering away withhis Finger in his Eye, and the Complaint of _Micah_ in his Mouth, _Ye havetaken away my Gods which I made, and what have I more_[130]? Tho he mustconfess, he cannot tell why he should be so fond of them, since he daresundertake that he will never be able to bring the Christian World eitherto believe in, or to worship a _Trinity of Gods_: Nor does he see what usethey are likely to be of, even to himself, unless peradventure to _swearby_. "

Again, the Doctor says[131], "The Dean's following Instruction to hisFriend is certainly very diverting, in these words, where the Animadvertercharges the Dean with Absurdities and Contradictions; turn to the Placeand read it with its Context, and tell me what you cannot answer, and Iwill; to which he would have done well to have added, _If I can_. But thewhole Passage is just as if he had said, Sir, if you find notContradictions and Absurdities enough in my Book to satisfy your Curiositythat way, pray come to the Fountain-head, and consult me, and you shall besure of a more plentiful Supply. "

Again, upon the Dean's "Frequent reproaching the [132] Animadverter withthe Character of a _Wit_, tho join'd with such ill-favour'd Epithets, ashis witless Malice has thought fit to degrade it with, as that he is _aspiteful Wit_, a _wrangling Wit_, a _satirical Wit_, and the WITTY, _subtle_, _good-natur'd Animadverter, &c. _ the Dr. Says, that tho there bebut little _Wit_ shewn in making such Charges; yet if _Wit_ be a_Reproach_ (be it of what sort it will) the Animadverter is too _just_ toreturn this _Reproach_ upon the _Defender_; and withal, understandshimself, and what becomes him, too well, either to _assume_ to himself, orso much as to _admit_ the Character of a _Wit_, as at all due to him;especially since he knows that _common Sense_ (a thing much short of Wit)is enough to enable him to deal with such an Adversary. Nevertheless, there are many in the World, who are both call'd and accounted _Wits_, andreally are so; which (one would think) should derive something of Creditupon this Qualification, even in the Esteem of this Author himself, or atleast rebate the Edge of his Invectives against it, considering that itmight have pleas'd God to have made him a _Wit_ too. "

XVII. As things now stand, it may easily be seen, that Prosecutions for_Raillery_ and _Irony_ would not be relish'd well by the Publick, andwould probably turn to the Disreputation and Disgrace of the Prosecutor. 

Archbishop _Laud_ has always been much censur'd for his maliciousProsecution of _Williams_ in the _Star-Chamber_; among whose Crimes I findthe following laid to his Charge: [133] _That he said all Flesh in_England _had corrupted their Ways_; that _he call'd a Book intitled_, ACoal from the Altar (written by Dr. _Heylin_, for placing theCommunion-Table at the East-end of the Church, and railing it in) _aPamphlet_; that he _scoffingly said, that he had heard of a Mother Church, but not of a Mother Chapel, meaning the King's, to which all Churches inCeremony ought to conform_; that _he wickedly jested on St. _ Martin_'sHood_; that _he said the People ought not to be lash'd by every body'sWhip_; that _he said_, (citing _a National Council for it_) _that thePeople are God's and the King's, and not the Priest's People; and that hedoth not allow Priests to jeer and make Invectives against the People_. And I humbly conceive, that such Matters had much better be suffer'd to goon in the World, and take their Course, than that Courts of Judicatureshould be employ'd about them. A Sentence that imply'd some _Clergymen_corrupt, as well as some _Laymen_, of whom _Laud_ would only allow to haveit said, that they had _corrupted their Ways_; a _Jest_ upon St. _Martin_'s _Hood_, which, according to Ecclesiastical History, _cur'd soreEyes_; and a _Ridicule_ upon a High-Church Book of _Heylin_'s, by callingit a Pamphlet, tho it was really a Pamphlet, as consisting of but seventyPages in Quarto; seem less _wicked_ and hurtful than disturbing, fining, and undoing Men about them. And the having some Concern for the People, that they should not be used as the Priest pleas'd; that the _People_belong to _God_ and the _King_, and _not to the Priest_; and the _notallowing_ the _Priests_ to _jeer and make Invectives against the People_;seem all Errors fit to be born with. 

Archbishop _Laud_ was also thought guilty of an excessive Piece ofWeakness in the Punishment of [134] _Archibald_ the King's Fool, by layingthe Matter before the Privy-Council, and occasioning him to be expell'dthe King's House for a poor _Jest_ upon himself; who, as he was a Man atthe Head of the State, should have despis'd such a thing in any Body, muchmore in a _Fool_, and who should never have been hurried on to be theInstrument of any _Motion_ against him, but have left it to others; whoupon the least Intimation would have been glad to make their court to_Laud_, by sacrificing a _Fool_ only to his Resentment. 

XVIII. I could have entertain'd the Reader with a great Variety ofPassages out of the Fathers of the Church, whose Writings are Magazines ofAuthority, and urg'd upon us upon all Occasions by Ecclesiasticks, and areparticularly full of _Burlesque_ and _Ridicule_ on the _Gods and Religion_of the _Pagans_; in the use whereof they are much more unanimous, than inthe Articles of their _Creed_. But that being a Subject too great andextensive for a Digression, I shall content my self with the few followingReflections; which will sufficiently evince, that the _Taste_ of thePrimitive Christians was like that of the rest of the World; that theycould laugh and be as merry as the _Greeks_ and other _Pagans_; and thatthey would take the Advantage of the _Pagans_ weak Cause, to introduce_Ridicule_, which always bears hard upon Weakness and Folly, and must loadthem so as to prevent a Possibility of their being remov'd by another_Ridicule_. 

These Fathers have transfused into their Writings all the Wit and Railleryof the antient _Pagan_ Writers and Philosophers; who it is well knownwrote a great deal to turn _Paganism_ into Ridicule; most of which nowexists no where but in the Works of the Fathers; all Books of that kindbeing lost, except _Cicero_'s Books of _the Nature of Gods_, and of_Divination_, and the Dialogues of _Lucian_; both which Authors have beenof great use to the _Fathers_ to set them up for _Wits_, _Droles_, and_Satirists_. For a Specimen how well these antient _Pagans_ could _drole_, and how much beholden we are to the Fathers for recording theirDrolleries, the most remarkable, I think, are some _Fragments_ of a Bookof _Oenomaus_ concerning the _Pagan Oracles_, cited and preserv'd by [135]_Eusebius_; who has given us occasion to [136] _regret_ the loss of thisWork, as one of the most valuable Books written by the Antients on theSubject of _Oracles_, tho those Books were _very numerous_. And it is tobe observ'd, that this Book and a great many, perhaps a [137] thousandmore, were publish'd in _Greece_, where the Imposture of _Oracles_ greatlyprevail'd, and great Wealth flow'd in, not only to the Priests of the_Oracular Temples_, but to all the Inhabitants of _Greece_, and especiallyto those who lived in the Neighbourhood of the several _OracularTemples_; who made a great Profit from the rich Travellers, that came fromall Parts of the World to know their Fortunes. This shews the greatIntegrity and Fairness of the old _Pagans_; who would suffer not onlytheir supposed standing Revelation to be call'd in question, but aRevelation that brought in as much Money, as the Chapels, Churches, andShrines dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, or to any of the Saints, do inthe _Roman_ Church, without calling any Man to Account for the Libertiesthey took; who, as far as appears, were not expos'd [138] _to any Danger_thereby. It is also to be observ'd, that the merry [139] _Epicureans werenone of them ever prosecuted_, and _that_ Epicurus _himself died quietlyat_ Athens _in a very great old Age_. 

But the Book, which the Fathers made the most use of, was that arch, fly, and drolling Performance, now lost, of _Evemerus_, which he intitled, _Asacred History_: wherein he gave an _historical Account_ of the _Birth_, _Country_, _Lives_, _Deaths_, and _Burials_ of the _Gods_. This Work wastranslated into _Latin_ by that arch Wag _Ennius_, who himself has mostingeniously _ridicul'd_ several Impostors or very grave Persons, in aremarkable Piece of Poetry, which I shall give my Reader in _English_. 

 "_I value not a Rush the_ Marsian _Augur, _ "_Nor Country-Fortune Tellers, nor Town-Star-Gazers, _ "_Nor jugling Gypsies, nor yet Dream-Interpreters:_ "_For, not by Skill or Art, are these Diviners;_ "_But superstitious Prophets, Guessers impudent, _ "_Or idle Rogues, or craz'd, or mere starving Beggars. _ "_They know no way themselves, yet others would direct;_ "_And crave a Groat of those, to whom they promise Riches:_ "_Thence let them take the Groat, and give back all the rest. _

XIX. Wherefore I cannot but presume, that an Attempt to make a _Law_ torestrain _Irony_, &c. Would prove abortive, and that the Attempt would bedeem'd the Effect of a very partial Consideration of things, and ofpresent Anger at a poor Jest; which Men are not able to bear themselves, how much soever they abound in _Jests_, both of the _light_ and _cruel_kind, on others: tho for my own part I concur heartily with you in_making_ such a _Law_, and in leaving it to a Person of your _Equity_ todraw it up, craving only the Liberty to propose an Amendment or Addition, _viz. _ that you would be pleas'd to insert a Clause to prevent _Irony_, _Ridicule_, and _Banter_, from invading the Pulpit, and particularly toprevent pointing out _Persons of Men_ [140] from thence, and revilingthem, as also reviling whole Bodies of Men: For whatever is immoral inPrint, is, in my Opinion, immoral in the Pulpit. Besides, these thingsseem more improper in the Pulpit, than they can be in Print: because no_Reprisals_ can be made in the former, as in the latter Case; where they, or the Fear of them, may give some Check to the Disorder, and reducethings to a tolerable Temper and Decency. If, in order to justify myMotion, it could be thought necessary or proper here to give a Detail ofridiculing and ironical Passages, taken from Sermons against particularMen, and Bodies of Men, and their Doctrines, you cannot but know how easyit would be to fill a Volume with them, without going to Authors, who haveoccasionally produc'd abundance of them. And I will only mention here aPassage in a _Volume of Sermons_, just now publish'd, of a well known_High Divine_, the Reverend Mr. _William Reeves_, made famous by his_Translation_ of some _Apologies of the Primitive Fathers_, which gain'dhim the Applauses of a great many _High Men_, and particularly _Hickes_, _Dodwel_, and _Nelson_, &c. And a Recommendation from the last to theQueen, who in the latter end of her Reign made him _Chaplain in Ordinary_, and obtain'd for him a considerable Preferment. This Gentleman, attackingBishop _Hoadley_'s _Sermon_ of _The Kingdom of Christ_, says[141], "Inthese last Days we have been taught to be as indolent and unconcern'd aspossible in the Service of God: A noted _Novellist_ [Bp. _Hoadley_] amongmany other odd _Engines_, hath invented one, to pump out all Devotion fromPrayer, and make it a _Vacuum_. Instead of the old fervent, affectionateway of Worshipping, he hath substituted a new Idol, a Vanity, a Nothing ofhis own, _a calm and undisturb'd Address to God_. ----The _Arrows_ and_bitter Words_ Mr. _Hales_ hath levell'd against _Rome_ only, our RightReverend hath _pointed a-new_, and shot them full against the Church hesuperintends, and with all the Force of inbred, fanatick Fury. And by thistime surely it is well known, that he is a very _warm Man_ in every thing, but his _Prayers_. "

XX. Instead of addressing the foregoing Papers to you, I could haveaddress'd them to several others; who of late have thought fit torecognize the Right of Men, to examine into, and judge for themselves inall Matters of speculation, and especially in Matters of mere Religion, and to publish their Reasons against any Opinions they judge erroneous, tho publickly receiv'd in the Country where they live, provided they do it_seriously_ and _gravely_: which is a noble Progress in Truth, and owingto that glorious Liberty, and Freedom of Debate, that we enjoy under ourmost excellent Princes; and which extorts it even from them, who, to havesome Credit in the World, are forced to own, what would discredit them togo on to deny, among all who have any degree of _Virtue_, _Sense_, and_Learning_. But I was determin'd to address my self to you, as a Person ofmore remarkable _Moderation_ than ordinary in your _Letter_ to Dr. _Rogers_: And one, who had, long before, in your _Defence of theConstitution in Church and State; in answer to the Charge of theNonjurors, accusing us of Heresy and Schism, Perjury and Treason_, "valu'd[142] and commended the Integrity of the Nonjurors in declaring theirSentiments:" and who, tho you justly charge those of them you writeagainst, "as attacking us with such uncommon Marks of Violence [143] asmost plainly intimate, that no Measures are intended to be kept with us bythem in the Day of their Prosperity, who in the Day of their Adversity, even when they are most at Mercy, cannot refrain from such _raging_Provocations; but when reduced to the Necessity of _taking_ Quarter, profess most plainly they will never give it:" Yet as to these Enemies, who would destroy our Church and State, and [144] "revive upon us theCharge of _Heresy_ and _Schism_, _Perjury_ and _Treason_, Crimes of nosmall figure either in the Law or in the Gospel, " you only say, that "ifyou may have leave to borrow a Thought from [145] one of their own mostcelebrated Writers, you would tell them, that _the Blood and Spirits weremade to rise upon such Occasions_: Nature design'd not, that we should becold or indifferent in our manner of receiving, or returning, such foulReproaches. " This is great Moderation, and such as I heartily approve, being dispos'd to forgive the Punishment due by Law to any Fault, when theNon-execution of it will not overturn the Government. And I am willing tohope, that since you can think that such bitter Adversaries to you, asthese licentious _Jacobites_ are, should only be smartly replied to, andnot be prosecuted by the Government, you will, upon Reflection, think, that a merry, good humour'd Adversary should be treated as well. 

Tho I have endeavour'd to defend the Use of _Ridicule_ and _Irony_, yet itis such _Irony_ and _Ridicule_ only as is fit for polite Persons to use. As to the gross _Irony_ and _Ridicule_, I disapprove of it, as I do otherFaults in Writing; only I would not have Men punish'd, or any other waydisturb'd about it, than by a Return of _Ridicule_ and _Irony_. This Ithink fit to conclude with, more to prevent Misrepresentation from others, than from you; whom I look on to have too much Sense and Integrity tomistake or misrepresent me. 

_I am Yours, &c. _

_FINIS. _

WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY

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THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

PUBLICATIONS IN PRINT THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY

PUBLICATIONS IN PRINT

1948-1949

16. Henry Nevil Payne, _The Fatal Jealousie_ (1673). 

18. Anonymous, "Of Genius, " in _The Occasional Paper_, Vol. III, No. 1(1719), and Aaron Hill, Preface to _The Creation_ (1720). 

1949-1950

19. Susanna Centlivre, _The Busie Body_ (1709). 

20. Lewis Theobald, _Preface to the Works of Shakespeare_ (1734). 

22. Samuel Johnson, _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ (1749), and two _Rambler_papers (1750). 

23. John Dryden, _His Majesties Declaration Defended_ (1681). 

1950-1951

26. Charles Macklin, _The Man of the World_ (1792). 

1951-1952

31. Thomas Gray, _An Elegy Wrote in a Country Churchyard_ (1751), and _TheEton College Manuscript_. 

1952-1953

41. Bernard Mandeville, _A Letter to Dion_ (1732). 

1963-1964

104. Thomas D'Urfey, _Wonders in the Sun; or, The Kingdom of the Birds_(1706). 

1964-1965

110. John Tutchin, _Selected Poems_ (1685-1700). 

111. Anonymous, _Political Justice_ (1736). 

112. Robert Dodsley, _An Essay on Fable_ (1764). 

113. T. R. , _An Essay Concerning Critical and Curious Learning_ (1698). 

114. _Two Poems Against Pope:_ Leonard Welsted, _One Epistle to Mr. A. Pope_ (1730), and Anonymous, _The Blatant Beast_ (1742). 

1965-1966

115. Daniel Defoe and others, _Accounts of the Apparition of Mrs. Veal_. 

116. Charles Macklin, _The Covent Garden Theatre_ (1752). 

117. Sir George L'Estrange, _Citt and Bumpkin_ (1680). 

118. Henry More, _Enthusiasmus Triumphatus_ (1662). 

119. Thomas Traherne, _Meditations on the Six Days of the Creation_(1717). 

120. Bernard Mandeville, _Aesop Dress'd or a Collection of Fables_ (1704). 

1966-1967

123. Edmond Malone, _Cursory Observations on the Poems Attributed to Mr. Thomas Rowley_ (1782). 

124. Anonymous, _The Female Wits_ (1704). 

125. Anonymous, _The Scribleriad_ (1742). Lord Hervey, _The DifferenceBetween Verbal and Practical Virtue_ (1742). 

1967-1968

129. Lawrence Echard, Prefaces to _Terence's Comedies_ (1694) and_Plautus's Comedies_ (1694). 

130. Henry More, _Democritus Platonissans_ (1646). 

132. Walter Harte, _An Essay on Satire, Particularly on the Dunciad_(1730). 

1968-1969

133. John Courtenay, _A Poetical Review of the Literary and MoralCharacter of the Late Samuel Johnson_ (1786). 

134. John Downes, _Roscius Anglicanus_ (1708). 

135. Sir John Hill, _Hypochondriasis, a Practical Treatise_ (1766). 

136. Thomas Sheridan, _Discourse . .. Being Introductory to His Course ofLectures on Elocution and the English Language_ (1759). 

137. Arthur Murphy, _The Englishman From Paris_ (1736). 

138. [Catherine Trotter], _Olinda's Adventures_ (1718). 

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139. John Ogilvie, _An Essay on the lyric poetry of the ancients_ (1762). Introduction by Wallace Jackson. 

140. _A Learned Dissertation on Dumpling_ (1726) and _Pudding burnt to potor a compleat key to the Dissertation on Dumpling_ (1727). Introduction bySamuel L. Macey. 

141. Selections from Sir Roger L'Estrange's _Observator_ (1681-1687). Introduction by Violet Jordain. 

142. Anthony Collins, _A Discourse concerning Ridicule and Irony inwriting_ (1729). Introduction by Edward A. Bloom and Lillian D. Bloom. 

143. _A Letter from a clergyman to his friend, with an account of thetravels of Captain Lemuel Gulliver_ (1726). Introduction by MartinKallich. 

144. _The Art of Architecture, a poem. In imitation of Horace's Art ofpoetry_ (1742). Introduction by William A. Gibson. 

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Gerard Langbaine, _An Account of the English Dramatick Poets_ (1691), Introduction by John Loftis. 2 Volumes. Approximately 600 pages. Price tomembers of the Society, $7. 00 for the first copy (both volumes), and $8. 50for additional copies. Price to non-members, $10. 00. 

Already published in this series:

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3. _The Empress of Morocco and Its Critics_ (Elkanah Settle, _The Empressof Morocco_ [1673] with five plates; _Notes and Observations on theEmpress of Morocco_ [1674] by John Dryden, John Crowne and ThomasSnadwell; _Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco Revised_[1674] by Elkanah Settle; and _The Empress of Morocco. A Farce_ [1674] byThomas Duffett), with an Introduction by Maximillian E. Novak. 348 pages. 

4. _After THE TEMPEST_ (the Dryden-Davenant version of _The Tempest_[1670]; the "operatic" _Tempest_ [1674]; Thomas Duffett's _Mock-Tempest_[1675]; and the "Garrick" _Tempest_ [1756]), with an Introduction byGeorge Robert Guffey. 332 pages. 

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Footnotes:

[28] _Page_ 337. 

[29] _Pag. _ 302. 

[30] _Page_ 301. 

[31] _Pag. _ 307. 

[32] Stillingfleet's _Answer to several late Treatises_, &c. _Page_ 14. 

[33] _Pag. _ 71. 

[34] Vindication of the Answer to the Royal Papers. _p. _ 105. 

[35] _Preface to_ Unreasonableness of Separation. _p. _ 62. 

[36] Rule's _Rational Defence_ of Nonconf. _p. _ 29. 

[37] _Preface to_ Stillingfleet _still against_ Stillingfleet. 

[38] _Preface to a Discourse of_ Miracles wrote in the _Roman_ Church, _&c. _

[39] See _Stillingfleet_'s Second Vind. Of the Protestant Grounds ofFaith, _c. _ 3. 

[40] _Edwards's_ New Discov. _p. _ 184-215. 

[41] _Ecclesiast. Hist. _ cent. 8. _p. _ 196. 

[42] Vind. _p. _ 199. 

[43] _See_ Shaftesbury's _Characteristicks_, Vol. I. P. 61. 

[44] Memoirs de Trevoux, _An. _ 1707. _p. _ 396. _An. _ 1717. _p. _ 1200. 

[45] _Trapp_'s Popery truly stated, _p. _ 123. 

[46] _Preface. _

[47] _Heylin_'s History of the Presbyterians, _p. _ 391. 

[48] _Wotton_ on the _Misna_, p. 118. 

[49] _Freeholder_, Nº 30. 

[50] _Freeholder_, Numb. Xlv. 

[51] _See_ Cicero de Officiis, _l. _ 1. _c. _ 30. 

[52] _See_ Patrick_'s Friendly Debate_, Part 1, _p. _ 139-141. 5_th Edit. _

[53] _Preface to_ The State of the Roman Catholick Religion, _p. _ 11. 

[54] De Divin. L. 2. C. 25. 

[55] _Rog. Hoveden_, Pars ii. P. 520. 

[56] 1 _Kings_ xviii. 

[57] _Psalm_ ii. 4. 

[58] _Gen. _ iii. 22. 

[59] Archæolog. Philos. _l. _ 2. _c. _ 7. 

[60] Shaftesbury _in Charact. _ Vol. 3. _and_ Whitchcot_'s Sermons_: Vol. I. 

[61] Shaftesbury's _Characteristicks_, Vol. I. P. 71. 

[62] _Page_ 307. 

[63] _How useful_ Lestrange_'s_ Observators, _which were design'd toexpose the Dissenters to Contempt and Persecution, were deem'd to theChurch at the time they were publish'd, may be judged of by Bp. _ Burnet, _who says_ [_in his_ Eighteen Papers, _p. _ 90. ] "_Another Buffoon washired to plague the Nation with three or four Papers a Week, which to theReproach of the Age in which we live, had but too great and too generalEffect, for poisoning the Spirits of the Clergy. _"

[64] _In this Work the Dissenters and Low Churchmen are sufficientlyrally'd and abus'd, and particularly the_ Free-Thinkers, _whose_ Creed _istherein represented as consisting of these two Negatives_, No Queen and noGod. _Examiners_, Vol. 3. P. 12. 

_Mr. _ Addison _tells us_ [Freeholder Nº. 19. ] "_the_ Examiner _was thefavourite Work of the Party. It was usher'd into the World by a Letterfrom a Secretary of State, setting forth the great Genius of the Author, the Usefulness of his Design, and the mighty Consequences that were to beexpected from it. It is said to be written by those among them whom theylook'd upon as their most celebrated Wits and Politicians, and wasdispers'd into all Quarters of the Nation with great Industry andExpence. ----In this Paper all the great Men who had done eminent Servicesto their Country, but a few Years before, were draughted out one by one, and baited in their Turns. No Sanctity of Character, or Privilege of Sexexempted Persons. ----Several of our Prelates were the standing Marks ofpublick Raillery. _----"

[65] _In his_ Ecclesiastical Policy, _his_ Defence and Continuation_thereof, and his_ Reproof to _Marvel_'s Rehearsal transpos'd. 

[66] _In his_ Friendly Debates. 

[67] _In his six Volumes of_ Sermons, _and in his_ Books _of the_ Trinity. 

[68] _In his_ Discourse of the Knowledge of Christ, _&c. His_ Defences ofDr. _Stillingfleet_'s Unreasonableness of Separation, _and his_ Answer _tothe_ Protestant Reconciler. 

[69] _In his Translation of_ Dryden_'s_ Absalom _and_ Achitophel _into_Latin _Verse, whereby he was first flush'd; and in his_ ConvocationalControversy, _and in his numerous State Libels_. 

[70] _In his_ Sermons, Rights of the Church, _and especially his_Character of a Low-Church-man, _drawn to abuse Bishop_ Floyd. 

[71] _Of this, the Trials of_ Penn _and_ Mead _before_ Howel, _and of_Baxter _before_ Jefferys, _are Master Pieces; of which last you have anAccount in_ Kennet_'s_ Compleat History of _England, Vol. 3d. And of theformer in_ the Phoenix, _Vol. _ I. 

[72] Snape_'s_ Vindication against _Pilloniere_. P. 50. 

[73] _Id. _ p. 63. 

[74] _The Stage condemn'd_, p. 2. 

[75] Popery truly stated, _p. _ 127, 128. 

[76] _Pag. _ 75, 76, 77, 79, 81, 112, 113, 120, 122, 124, 125. 

[77] _Sermons_, Vol. III. P. 299. 

[78] Rule of Faith, _p. _ 347, 348. 

[79] See _p. _ 57. 

[80] _Pag. _ 59. 

[81] _Pag. _ 57. 

[82] Burnet_'s_ History of his own Times, _p. _ 674. 

[83] Ib. _p. _ 792. 

[84] Ibid. _p. _ 740. 

[85] Ibid. _p. _ 683. 

[86] _The Protestant Mouse speaks. _

[87] _Boyer_'s Life of Queen _Anne_, in the Annual List of the Deaths, _p. _ 65. 

[88] _A_ Clergyman _preach'd thus to his_ Auditory: _"You have_ Moses_and_ Aaron _before you, and the Organs behind you, so are a happy People;for what greater Comfort would mortal Men have?"_ See _Walker_'sSufferings, _&c. P. _ 178. 

[89] _See the Article_ Heylin, in _Wood_'s Athenæ Oxon. 

[90] Burnet_'s Hist. _ p. 100. 

[91] _Characteristicks_, Vol. I. P. 259. 

[92] Burnet. _ibid. _

[93] Page 177. 

[94] Burnet _p. _ 95. 

[95] Kennet_'s Register_, p. 258. 

[96] _Ibid. _ p. 516. 

[97] Burnet_'s Hist. _

[98] Kennet_'s Register_, p. 111. 

[99] Burnet_'s History_, p. 107. 

[100] _See the Bp. Of_ Bangor_'s Preface to the_ Answer _to the_Representation _of the Lower House of Convocation_. 

[101] Ward_'s Life of Dr. _ Henry More, _p. _ 120. 

[102] Ibid. _p. _ 122. 

[103] _See the several Lives of him. _

[104] _Life lately printed_, 1726. P. 99. 

[105] Burnet_'s Hist. _ p. 95. 

[106] Temple_'s Works_, Vol. II. P. 40. 

[107] _Collection of authentick Records_, Vol. II. P. 1099. 

[108] _Second Letter to the Bishop of_ London, _p. _ 3, 4. 

[109] _History_, p. 260. 

[110] _Mat. _ xxvi. 67, 68. 

[111] Elwood_'s History of his own Life_, &c. _p. _ 318. 

[112] _Remarks on some late Sermons_, &c. _p. _ 34. 

[113] _Pag. _ 52. 

[114] _Answer to_ State of the Protestants in _Ireland_, &c. _p. _ 108. 

[115] _Pag. _ 120, 121. 

[116] _Preface_, p. 14. 

[117] _Pag. _ 11, 24. 

[118] _Pag. _ 1. 

[119] _Pag. _ 4, 11, 12, 13, 19. 

[120] Appendix to Parliamentary Original, &c. _p. _ 14. 

[121] Some Remarks on the Temper of some late Writers, &c. _p. _ 33. 

[122] Preface to Animad. _p. _ 12, 13. 

[123] Animad. _p. _ 114. 

[124] Ibid. _p. _ 332. 

[125] Ibid. _p. _ 348. 

[126] Tritheism charged, _p. _ 2, 3. 

[127] Ib. _p. _ 108. 

[128] Ibid. _p. _ 170. 

[129] Ibid. _p. _ 281. 

[130] Judg. 18. 24. 

[131] Ib. _p. _ 285. 

[132] Ibid. _p. _ 299. 

[133] _Fuller_'s Church History, Cent. 17. B. 11. Sect. 89, Parag. 10. 

[134] _Rushworth_, Part II. Vol. I. _p. _ 471. 

[135] _Prap. Evang. _ l. 4. P. 209-234. 

[136] Fontenelle, Historie des Oracles. I. Dissert. C. Vii. 

[137] Euseb. Id. L. 4. 

[138] _Baltus_, Suite de la Reponse a l'His. Des Oracles, _p. _ 283. 

[139] _Ibid. _

[140] _Bp. _ Hoadley_'s Answer to_ the Representation, _&c. Pref. _ p. 12. 

[141] _Page_ 91. 

[142] _Page_ 2. 

[143] _Page_ 1. 

[144] _Page_ 4, 5. 

[145] _Mr. _ Collier. 

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. 

Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicateboth the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph aspresented in the original text. 

Long "s" has been modernized. 

The inclusion of two footnotes numbered 53 in intentional to reflect theoriginal text. 

Footnote placement in this text reflects the placement in the original, either inside punctuation or spaced between words. 

The following misprints have been corrected: "administred" corrected to "administered" (page i) "othodoxy" corrected to "orthodoxy" (page vi) "Trap's" corrected to "Trapp's" (page 12) "Rididicule" corrected to "Ridicule" (page 19) "ridiulons" corrected to "ridiculous" (page 63) "qustion" corrected to "question" (page 73)

Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies inspelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained.