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In like manner many other Divines treat and laugh at Popery. Even the solemn and grave Dr. Whitby has written a Book against Transubstantiation, under the Title of "Irrisio Dei Panarii, The Derision of the Breaden God," in Imitation of the primitive Fathers, who have written Derisions and Mockeries of the Pagan Religion.
And he takes the Materials whereof this drolling Performance of his consists, from the holy Scriptures, the Apocryphal Books, and Writings of the holy Fathers, as he tells us in his Title-Page; three inexhaustible Sources of Wit and Irony against the Corrupters of true and genuine Religion. In like manner he turns upon the Popish Clergy the several Arguments urg'd by the Jewish Clergy in the New Testament, for the Authority of the Jewish Church; and answers, under that Irony, all that 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. Of these Reflections a Popish Author publish'd a Specimen, in a Book intitled[79], Good Advice to Pulpits, in order to shame the Church out of their Method of drolling and laughing [80] at Popery. But this Book 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 our Church of England Sermons, take these following for a Specimen of what are to be met with in those Sermons[81].
"Pilgrimages, going Bare-foot, Hair-shirts, and Whips, with other such Gospel-artillery, are their only Helps to Devotion.——It seems that with them 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 going bare-foot, does the Penance of a Goose, and only makes one Folly the Atonement 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 his keeping under his Body imports so much, they must first prove that the Body cannot be kept under by a virtuous Mind, and that the Mind cannot be made virtuous but by a Scourge; and consequently, that Thongs and Whipcord are Means of Grace, and Things necessary to Salvation. The truth is, if Mens Religion lies no deeper than their Skin, it is possible they may scourge themselves into very great Improvements.——But they will find that bodily Exercise touches not the Soul; and consequently that in this whole Course they are like Men out of the way: let them flash on never so fast, they are not at all nearer their Journey's-end: And howsoever they deceive themselves and others, they may as well expect to bring a Cart, as a Soul, to Heaven.
"What say you to the Popish Doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass.——According to this Doctrine, our blessed Saviour must still, to the end of the World, be laid hold on by Sinners, be ground with their Teeth, and sent down into their impure Paunches, as often as the Priest shall pronounce this Charm, hoc est corpus meum: and it seems that he was a false Prophet, when he said upon the Cross, It is finish'd, seeing there was such an infinite deal of loathsom Drudgery still to be undergone.
"For Purgatory, 'tis not material in it self, whether it be, or where it be, no more than the World in the Moon; but so long as that false Fire serves to maintain a true one, and his Holiness's Kitchen smokes with the Rents 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 Account of the State of the Roman Catholick Religion throughout the World, &c. In which 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, may vie with any other Mortal for a Right to serious Treatment; is expos'd by incomparable Drollery and Irony to the utmost Contempt, to the universal Satisfaction of Protestant Readers, who have been pleas'd to see a gross Impostor, however respected and ador'd by godly and serious Papists, so treated.
VI. In fine, it is suited to the common Practice of this Nation to ridicule 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 for Learning and strength of Arguing; yet, I believe, it may with more Propriety 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, had this fatal Jest put upon it by a reverend Divine, "Who pleasantly told his People, That tho he was obliged to read it, they were not obliged to hear it[84]; and stop'd till they all went out, and then he read it to the Walls." To which may be added, the famous Mr. Wallop's excellent Comparison of that Declaration upon the Instant of its Publication, to the scaffolding of St. Paul's Church; which, as soon as the Building was finish'd, would be pull'd down.
Bishop Burnet celebrates, with the greatest Justness, our Taste, and indeed 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 which passed and were received with universal Applause. He tells us[85], "The Court was now (that is, in 1686,) much set on making Converts, which fail'd in most Instances, and produc'd Repartees; that whether true or false, were much repeated, and were heard with great Satisfaction. The Earl 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 on as indifferent to all Religions, the Priests made an Attack upon him: He heard them gravely arguing for Transubstantiation. He told them he was willing to receive Instruction; he had taken much Pains to bring himself to believe in God, who made the World and all Men in it: But it must not be an ordinary Force of Argument that could make him believe that Man was quits with God, and made God again. The Earl of Middleton had marry'd into 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 him immediately: And began thus, You believe the Trinity. Middleton stop'd him, and said, who told you so? At which he seem'd amazed. So the Earl said, he expected he should convince him of his Belief, but not question him of his own: With this the Priest was so disorder'd, that he could proceed no farther. One Day the King gave the Duke of Norfolk the Sword of 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 gone farther. To which the Duke answer'd, Your Majesty's Father was the better Man, and he would not have gone so far. Kirk was also spoken to, to change his Religion, and he reply'd briskly, that he was already pre-engag'd, for he had promised the King of Morocco, that if ever he chang'd his Religion he would turn Mahometan." When K. James sent an Irish Priest to convert the D. of Bucks [Villers] the said Duke entertain'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 small Mortification of all Papists, who were therein exceedingly ridicul'd, and to the Triumph of all good Churchmen, who are never better pleas'd, than when they have the Laugh on their side.
At this time also were publish'd two merry Books, by a couple of our Divines, with express View to make Protestants laugh at Popery, as at a Farce; and they were, The School of the Eucharist, wherein is a Collection of ridiculous Miracles, pretended to be wrought to support the 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 of the Matters therein asserted, and of the several Arguments to maintain them, is, in other Respects, one of the most mean Compositions that ever the Press produc'd. Was it proper to pass over in silence such a Work, from whence probably the Popish Party expected great Matters, as knowing the Efficacy of Poetry, and being Witnesses of the Success the Author had had in his Absalom and Achitophel against the Whigs? Was it proper to write seriously and gravely against a Book, wherein the Author every where aims at Wit, Irony, and Burlesque, and does himself make so ridiculous a Figure, as to be a standing Jest throughout the whole? Was not 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 have profess'd any Opinions, as is the Mode and Practice of the World, to which Salary and Preferments are annexed? Some ingenious Persons of the Times took a better Method, and agreeably to the Temper and Disposition of our Countrymen, and to the nature of Dryden's Attack, and his interested Writing for Religion, made a Return in a Paper intituled, The Hind and Panther transvers'd to the Story of the Country-Mouse and City-Mouse: Out of which, for a Specimen of just Irony, and fine Raillery, I will give you 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 reverend Author of the Tale of a Tub, one of the greatest Droles that ever appear'd upon the Stage of the World, punish'd for that or any other of his drolling Works: For tho religious Matters, and all the various Forms of Christianity have therein a considerable Share of Ridicule; yet in regard of his Drollery upon the Whigs, Dissenters, and the War with France (things of as serious and weighty Consideration, and as much 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 on Christianity: And his Usefulness in Drollery and Ridicule was deem'd sufficient by the Pious Queen Anne, and her pious Ministry, to intitle him to a Church Preferment of several hundred Pounds per Ann. [87] which she bestow'd upon him, notwithstanding a fanatick High-Churchman, who weakly thought Seriousness in Religion of more use to High-Church than Drollery, and attempted to hinder his Promotion, by representing to her Majesty, "What a Scandal it would be both to Church and State to bestow Preferment upon a Clergyman, who was hardly suspected of being a Christian." Besides, High-Church receives daily most signal Services from his drolling Capacity, which has of late exerted itself on the Jacobite Stage of Mist's and Fogg's Journal, and in other little Papers publish'd in Ireland; in which he endeavours to expose the present Administration of publick Affairs to contempt, to inflame the Irish Nation against the English, and to make them throw off all Subjection to the English Government, to satirize Bishop Burnet and other Whig Bishops; and, in fine, to pave the way for a new or Popish Revolution, as far as choosing the most proper Topicks of Invective, and treating 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 distance from the common Pastimes of the World, Aversion to Rites and Ceremonies in the publick Worship, and to Pictures, Images, and Musick in Churches; mixing Religion in common Conversion, using long Graces, practising Family-Worship, part of which was praying ex tempore; setting up and hearing Lectures, and a strict Observation of the Lord's Day, which was call'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 his great and extraordinary Pretences to Religion: He was also a great Opposer of the Court-Measures in the Reign of King James and King Charles I. and most zealous for Law, Liberty, and Property, when those two Princes set up for raising Money by their own Authority, and in consequence thereof, fell into numerous other Acts of Violence and Injustice. It is also well known, that to quell these Puritans, and lessen their Credit, and baffle all their Pretences, Gaiety, Mirth, Pastimes or Sports, were incourag'd and requir'd on Sundays of the People, that Churches were render'd gay, theatrical, and pleasant by the Decorations, Paintings, Musick, and Ceremonies therein perform'd[88]; and that the utmost Ridicule was employ'd against some of them, as Enthusiasts, and against others of them as Hypocrites, and against them all as factious and seditious, by their Adversaries; who were under no Restraints, but incourag'd to write with Scorn, Contempt, Raillery and Satire against these suppos'd Enemies of Church and State. Nor did the great Success of the Puritans in the Field of Battle suppress that Vein and Humour of Ridicule begun against them; but the Laudean Party still carry'd on a Paper War with innumerable Pamphlets, which all tended more or less to make the World laugh at and ridicule the Puritans. And I am verily persuaded, that no History of any other Country in the World can produce a Parallel, wherein the Principle and Practice of Ridicule were ever so strongly encourag'd, and so constantly pursu'd, fix'd and rooted in the Minds of Men, as it was and is in Churchmen against Puritans and Dissenters. Even at this Day the Ridicule is so strong against the present Dissenters, so promoted by Clergy and Laity, especially in Villages and small Country Towns, that they are unable to withstand its Force, but daily come over in Numbers to the Church to avoid being laugh'd at. It seems to me a Mark of Distinction more likely to last in the Church than any other Matter that 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 Churchmen upon Sundays, who now can serve God (as many think they do by hearing or reading Sermons) and be as merry as at the Play-house. And Hudibras, which is a daily High-Church Entertainment, and a Pocket and Travelling High-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 has constantly 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 Court had settled at Oxford, one Birkenhead, who had liv'd in Laud's Family, and been made Fellow of All Souls College by Laud's Means, was appointed 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 recommended to be Reader of Moral Philosophy by his Majesty;" who, together with the religious Electors, it is justly to be presum'd, thought Waggery and Buffoonery, not only Political, but Religious and Moral, when employ'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 how Dissenters 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 to banter and ridicule every Body, and especially the Presbyterians, whose Discipline he had felt for his Lewdness and Irreligion in Scotland, had in 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 him in that way, who was so well fitted by Temper for it. The Duke of Buckingham was his constant Companion. And he had a [90] great Liveliness of Wit, and a peculiar Faculty of turning all things into ridicule. He was Author of the Rehearsal; which, as a most noble Author says, is [91] a justly admir'd Piece of comick Wit, and has furnish'd our 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 and entertaining Method of exposing Folly, Pedantry, false Reason, and ill Writing. 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 of the 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, who says[93], that he had a great Pleasantness of Conversation, perhaps too great.
And Hide, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, who attended the King in his Exile, seems also to have been a great Drole, by Bishop Burnet's representing him, as one, that had too much Levity in his Wit, and that did not observe the Decorum of his Post[94]. In a Speech to the Lords and 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 a continued Feast, there is no reason but Men may be very merry at it." And upon Mr. Baxter and other Presbyterian Ministers waiting on him in relation to the Savoy Conference, he said to Mr. Baxter on the first Salute[96], that if "he were but as fat as Dr. Manton, we should all do well."
No wonder therefore, that Ridicule, and Raillery, and Satire, should prevail at Court after the Restoration; and that King Charles the Second, who was a Wit himself, and early taught to laugh at his Father's Stiffness[97], should be so great a Master of them, and bring them into play among his Subjects; and that he who had the most sovereign Contempt for all Mankind, and in particular for the People and Church of England, should use his Talent against them; and that his People in return should give him like for like.
It is well known how he banter'd the Presbyterian Ministers, who out of Interest came over to him at Breda; where they were placed in a Room next to his Majesty, and order'd to attend till his Majesty had done his Devotions; who, it seems, pray'd so artfully, and poured out so many of their Phrases, which he had learned when he was in Scotland, where he was forced to be present at religious Exercises of six or seven Hours a-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 very Language of Canaan. This Ridicule he cover'd with Seriousness; having at that time Occasion for those Ministers, who were then his great Instruments in reconciling the Nation to his Restoration. When he had no farther 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 which attend 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 is wholly an Irony about the most sacred Persons and Things? Must not the fine Irony it self, and the Execution of it, with so much Learning, Sense, and Wit, raise in you the highest Esteem and Admiration of the Author, instead of a Disposition to punish him? Would you appear to the intelligent Part of the World such an Enemy to Knowledge, and such a Friend to the Kingdom of Darkness, as such Punishment would imply? In fine, can you see and direct us to a better way, to make us inquire after and understand Matters of Religion, to make us get and keep a good temper of Mind, and to plant and cultivate in us the Virtues necessary to good Order and Peace in Society, and to eradicate the Vices that every where give Society so much Disturbance, than what is prescrib'd or imply'd in that 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 of Understandings, Interests, and Designs of Men, who are all to be address'd to at the same Time) than his Method of Irony? And has not Success justify'd his Method? For the Book has had a free Vent in several Impressions; has been very generally read and applauded; has convinced Numbers, and has been no Occasion of trouble either to Bookseller or Author. 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 to have been another Socrates, one of the greatest Masters of true Wit and just Irony, as well as Learning, which the World ever produc'd; and shews he could have writ such a Book as the Difficulties, &c. But if you are capable of coming into any Measures for punishing the Author of the Difficulties, &c. for his Irony, I conceive, that you may possibly hesitate a little in relation to the same Author, about his New Defence of the Bishop of Bangor's Sermon of the Kingdom of Christ, consider'd as it is the Performance of a Man of Letters; which, tho far below The Difficulties, &c. is an ingenious Irony on that Sermon. You may probably, like many others of the Clergy, approve of Satire so well employ'd, as against that Bishop, who has succeeded Bishop Burnet in being the Subject of Clergy-Ridicule, as well as in his Bishoprick. The Bishop himself was very justly patient, under all Attacks by the Reverend Trapp, Earbery, Snape, Law, and Luke Milbourne, in his Tom of Bedlam's Answer to his Brother Ben Hoadley, St. Peter's Poor Parson near the Exchange of Principles; some of which were of a very abusive kind, and such as can hardly be parallel'd; and did not call upon the Magistrate to come to his Aid against that Author, or against any others of the Clergy who had attack'd him with as great Mockery, Ridicule, and Irony, 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 the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth, King James and King Charles the First; or as Lesley, Hickes, Hill, Atterbury, Binks, and other High-Church Clergy, did the late Bishop Burnet. Instead of that he took the true and proper Method, by publishing an Answer to the said Irony, compos'd in the same ironical Strain, intitled, The Dean of Worcester still the same: 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 of Probity. 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 Method it self, and going into that Method, in imitation of his Reverend Brethren of 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 the utmost 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 on the most serious Occasions. Go into the Privy-Councils of Princes, into Senates, into Courts of Judicature, and into the Assemblies of the Kirk or Church; and you will find that Wit, good Humour, Ridicule, and Drollery, mix themselves in all the Questions before those Bodies; and that the most solemn and sour Person there present, will ever be found endeavouring, at least, to crack his Jest, in order to raise a Character for Wit; which has so great an Applause attending it, and renders Men so universally acceptable for their Conversation, and places them above the greatest Proficients in the Sciences, that almost every one is intoxicated with the Passion 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 the most part with the Sound; but the Wit, the Irony, the Drollery, the Ridicule, the Satire, and Repartees, are thought worthy to be remember'd and repeated in Conversation, and make a Part of the History of the Proceedings of those Bodies, no less than their grave Transactions, as some such must necessarily be.
Whoever will look into Antiquity for an Account of the Lives, Actions, and Works of the old Philosophers, will find little remaining of them; but some of their witty, drolling, and bantering Sayings, which alone have been thought worthy to be preserv'd to Posterity. And if you will look into the Lives of the modern Statesmen, Philosophers, Divines, Lawyers, &c. you will find that their witty Sayings ever make a considerable Part: by reporting which great Honour is intended to be done to their Memory. The great and most religious Philosopher Dr. H. More, has a great many Pieces of Wit attributed to him in his Life by Mr. Ward, who represents him from his Companions, [101] as one of the merriest Greeks they were acquainted with, and tells us, that the Doctor said in his last Illness, to him[102], that the merry way was that which he saw mightily 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 controversial Divinity in behalf of Popery, show, and which are many of them written in Dialogue, the better to introduce the drolling Way of Writing, which he has us'd in such Perfection, that it is said [104] none can ever be weary of reading them, tho they be never so long. Nor could Death it self, in immediate view before his Eyes, suppress his merry Humour, and hinder him from cracking Jests on the Scaffold; tho he was a Man of great Piety and Devotion, whereof all the World was convinced by his Conduct both 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 not always observe the Decorum of his Post." Which implies not only his Approbation of Drollery in the most grave Business, but also his great Knowledge of Mankind, by applying to them in that Way; which he knew from Experience, and especially from the common drolling [106] Conversation in the Court of King Charles the Second, would recommend him to the World much more than an impartial Administration of Justice; which is less felt, less understood, and less taken notice of and applauded, than a Piece of Wit; which is generally suppos'd to imply in 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 write about Religion: He is for allowing Unbelievers, nay for having them "invited by Authority to produce all the real or original Evidence they think they have discover'd against any Parts of the Bible; against any Parts of the Jewish and Christian Religions, in order to their being fully weigh'd and consider'd by all learned Men; provided at the same time, that the whole be done gravely, and seriously, without all Levity, Banter, and Ridicule." And yet this Man, having a handle given him by Bishop Robinson's Letter to the Clergy of his Diocess about New Doxologies borrow'd from Old Hereticks, takes the advantage of the Bishop's (supposed) Ignorance, Dulness, Stupidity, and Contradiction to himself, and writes and prints, like a Tom Brown or Swift, a most bantering and drolling Letter, under the sneering Title of a Letter of Thanks to the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of London, for his late Letter, &c. whom, one would think, he should not only have spar'd, but have applauded for his profound Gravity, and carrying on the Cause of Religion in a very remarkable manner, with the most consummate Solemnity. But so strong was the Temptation, so naturally productive of Mirth was the Bishop's Cause, and his grave Management thereof, as that he could not help laughing at the Bishop, by himself; and so was led on mechanically to write in that Humour, and to publish what he wrote, and afterwards 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: They treat the Church and its Defenders as fanatical, and laugh at them as such, just as the Church does the Dissenters, and have their elaborate Works of Drollery against their Adversaries. They publish'd a Poem against the Reformation, just before the Death of Queen Anne, which was design'd to have given such a Stroke to the Protestant Religion among us, under the new projected Revolution, as Hudibras did to Puritanism after the Restoration. The Popish Editor, in the Preface to the said Poem, says, "that the Motive of the Author (Thomas Ward) for publishing the History of the Reformation in a Burlesque Style (tho a History full of melancholy Incidents, which have distracted the Nation, even beyond the hope of recovery, after so much Blood drawn from all its Veins, and from its Head) was that which he met with in Sir Roger L'Estrange's Preface to 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 have great Authorities for the taking up this Humour, in regard not only of the Subject, but of the Age we live in; which is so much upon the Drole, that hardly any thing else will down with it."
And the ingenious Protestant Editor of this Poem at London, which he allows to have some Wit in it, concludes the Remarks he makes upon it, by saying, "One thing more we can't forbear hinting at, that a Retaliation would be as happy a Thought as could enter into the Head of a Man of Genius 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 the Jesuits, have open'd the Way, and we heartily wish some equal Pen would write the whole Mystery of Iniquity at length."
XIII. All the old Puritan Preachers, who were originally Divines of the Church of England, sprinkled and season'd their Sermons with a great many drolling Sayings against Libertinism and Vice, and against Church Ceremonies; many of which Sayings are reported and handed down to us 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 the Instant of Delivery. Nor is that manner wholly laid aside, but has continued to be kept alive by some Hands at all times; who have been greatly follow'd for their Success in drolling upon Sinners, and treating of Religion in humoursom and fantastical Phrases, and fixing that way 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 in Prose and Verse, but especially in his Rehearsal Transprosed; which tho writ against Parker, who with great Eloquence, Learning, and a Torrent of Drollery and Satire, had defended the Court and Church's Cause, in asserting the Necessity of Penal Laws against the Nonconformists, "was read from the King down to the Tradesman with great pleasure, on account of that Burlesque Strain and lively Drollery that ran thro' it," as Bishop Burnet tells us[109]. Nor were the gravest Puritans and Dissenters 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 one would think should offend their Gravity, and pious Ears; and that they applaud their Ministers for such their Discourses, as much as the Church does Dr. South for the Ribaldry sprinkled thro'out his Sermons about the most high Points in Divinity. They have always had some eminent Divines among them who have been remarkable for such Passages and Reflections: And these have never lessen'd their number of Auditors, nor drawn upon themselves the Character of Irreligious; but have had the largest Auditories of contributing Hearers, as well as of Churchmen, who came to smile, and have been esteem'd very pious Men.
In fine, the Puritans and Dissenters have, like the Church, their Taste of Humour, Irony, and Ridicule, which they promote with great Zeal, as a Means to serve Religion: And I remember, that, among other things said in behalf of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, upon the reprinting it lately 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 had not made one Convert to Infidelity, whereas the Pilgrim's Progress had converted many Sinners to Christ."
XIV. The Quakers are certainly the most serious and solemn People among us in Matters of Religion, and out-go the Dissenters of all other Kinds 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 call their Sincerity more in question. And I much doubt whether there was ever a Book written against them by the Divines of any Sect with perfect Decency, and that had not its extravagant Flouts, Scorn, Banter, and Irony, 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, and buffeting 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'd him to the Cross, revil'd him with divers Taunts, in which the Chief Priests, Scribes, Elders, and even the Thieves, which were crucified with him, concurr'd. But yet for all this, these solemn Quakers themselves are not altogether averse to Irony and Ridicule, and use it when they can. Their Books abound in Stories to ridicule in their Turn the Priests, their great and bitter Adversaries: And they please themselves with throwing at the Priests the Centuries of Scandalous Ministers, and the Books of the Cobler of Glocester. They have also their Satirist and Banterer, Samuel Fisher; whose Works, tho all wrote in the drolling Style and Manner, they pride themselves in, and have collected into one great Volume in Folio; in which Quaker-Wit and Irony are set up against Church, Presbyterian, and Independent Wit and Irony, without the least Scruple of the lawfulness of such Arms. In a word, their Author acts the Part of a Jack-Pudding, Merry Andrew, or Buffoon, with all the seeming Right, Authority, and Privilege, of the Member of some Establish'd Church of abusing all the World but themselves. The Quakers have also encourag'd and publish'd a most arch Book of the famous Henry Stubbe, intitled, A Light shining out of Darkness, &c. Wherein all the other religious Parties among us are as handsomly and learnedly banter'd and ridicul'd, as the Quakers have been in any Book against them. And when they were attack'd by one Samuel Young, a whimsical Presbyterian-Buffoon-Divine, who call'd himself Trepidantium Malleus, and set up for an Imitator of Mr. Alsop, in several Pamphlets full of Stories, Repartees, and Ironies; in which Young, perhaps, thought himself as secure from a Return of the like kind, as a Ruffian or Thief may when he assaults Men: His Attacks were repell'd in a Book intitled "Trepidantium Malleus intrepidanter malleatus; or the West Country Wiseaker'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 a reverend Non-con, at present residing not far from Bedlam," said to be written by William Penn, who has therein made use of the carnal Weapons of Irony and Banter, and dress'd out the Presbyterian Priest in a Fool's Coat, for a Spectacle to the Mob. It is also to be observ'd, that there are several Tracts in the two Volumes of William Penn's Works lately publish'd, that for ingenious Banter and Irony, are much superior to the Priests his Adversaries; and that other Quaker Authors profess to write sometimes in a [111] drolling Style.
XV. The Jacobite Clergy have set up for great Droles upon all the true Friends of the Establishment. And I presume, the Body of our High Churchmen would not willingly deprive them of the Benefit of their Drollery.
The celebrated Mr. Collier [112] thus attacks Bishop Burnet, for his ESSAY on the Memory of Queen Mary. "This Doctor, you know, is a Man of mighty 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 whom Virtue and Vice, passive Obedience and Rebellion, Parricide and filial Duty, Treachery and Faithfulness, and all the Contradictions in Nature, are the best and worst things under the Sun, as they are for his Purpose, and according as the Wind sits: who equally and indifferently writes for and against all Men, the Gospel, and himself too, as the World goes: who can bestow a Panegyrick upon the seven deadly Sins, and (if there be occasion) can make an Invective against all the Commandments.——"
In relation to Dr. Payne's Sermon on the Death of that Queen, he says[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-penny Poetry." He adds, "Why, Sir, many Years ago I have heard some of it sung about the Streets in wretched and nauseous Doggrel. What think you of this? Page 6. I know not how to draw her Picture, 'tis so all over beauteous, without any Foil, any Shade, any Blemish; so perfect in every Feature, so accomplish'd in every Part, so adorn'd with every Perfection and 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 of withered and decay'd Poetry; for the Song out of which he hath transcrib'd his Sermon, is of very great age, and hath been sung at many a Whitsun-Ale, and many a Wedding (tho I believe never at a Funeral before) and therefore in all this time may well be decay'd and wither'd: In the mean time, if you were to draw the Picture of a great Princess, 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 it might 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 they least wish'd; and confess'd, that they labour'd all they could against it," saying, "good God! What Apprehensions, what Thought had those Men of their publick Prayers; bantering God Almighty, and mocking him to his Face, who heard their Words, and saw their Hearts? Is not Atheism a smaller Sin than this, since it is better to have no God, than so to set up one to laugh at him."
Again he says, (p. 123.) "It is a severe Jest, that the common People have got up against the Clergy, that there was but one thing formerly which the Parliament could not do, that is, to make a Man a Woman: But now there is another, that is, to make an Oath which the Clergy will not take."
The same Author attacks Bishop Burnet's Speech upon the Bill against Occasional Conformity, by a Pamphlet intitled, The Bishop of Salisbury's proper Defence from a Speech cry'd about the Streets in his Name, and said to have been spoken by him in the House of Lords upon the Bill against Occasional Conformity; which is one perpetual Irony on the Bishop, and gives the Author occasion to throw all manner of Satire and Abuse 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 or Quality 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 of Treatment: And now at last, some or other has presum'd to burlesque his Lordship in printing a Speech for him, which none that knows his Lordship can believe ever came from him.
"But because it may go down with others who are too apt to take Slander upon trust, and that his Lordship has already been pelted with several Answers to his Speech, I have presum'd to offer the following Considerations, to clear his Lordship from the Suspicion of having vented (in such an august Assembly) those crude and undigested Matters which are set forth in that Speech, and which so highly reflect on his Lordship's self."
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 this Title, "The Good Old Cause, or Lying in Truth; being a Second Defence of the Lord Bishop of Sarum from a Second Speech, and also the Dissection of a Sermon it is said his Lordship preach'd in the Cathedral Church of Salisbury." And this Pamphlet, which is also a continued Banter, begins thus.
"No Man has more deserv'd than this good Bishop, and no Man has been more persecuted by various Ways and Means than his Lordship, even to mobbing! But the ugliest and most malicious of all these Arts, is that of putting false Things upon him; to write scandalous, seditious, and senseless Papers, and to affix his Lordship's Name! I was forc'd some Years ago to vindicate his Lordship's Reputation from one of this sort: That Speech had a Bookseller's Name to it of good figure, and look'd something like; but this Speech (said likewise to be spoken in the House of Lords) has no body to own it, and has all the Marks of Grub. But the nasty Phiz is nothing to 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 no Answer will ever be made, is by his own Confession a Farce; when he says in his Preface, "If you ask why I treat this Subject by way of farce, and shew a little Merriment sometimes? it was because the Foundation you stand upon is not only false but ridiculous, and ought to be treated with the utmost Contempt."
Again, in his "Finishing Stroke, in defence of his Rehearsals, Best Answer, and Best of all," he gives us (p. 125.) what he calls, "A Battle-Royal between three Cocks of the Game, Higden, Hoadley, and a Hottentot;" which in the Contents he calls A Farce, and to which he joins both a Prologue and Epilogue, and divers other Particulars, all taken from the Play-house.
The Reverend Mr. Matthias Earbery sets up for a great Satirist and Drole upon the swearing and Low-Church Clergy, in numerous Pamphlets of late, more particularly in his "Serious Admonition to Dr. Kennet: To which is added, a short but complete Answer to Mr. Marshal's late Treatise called, A Defence of our Constitution in Church and State; and a Parallel is drawn between him and Dr. Kennet, for the Satisfaction of the 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 being condemn'd to the Pastry-Cooks and Grocers, an industrious Chronologist might make an Observation to prove him too young to write it."
The Parallel is in Pag. 126, which being very gross Raillery, I only refer you to it.
This Mr. Earbery also wrote a Letter to Bishop Fleetwood, under the Title 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 said Title, and endeavours to vindicate his Lordship from the Aspersion of writing such a mean Pamphlet, as the Charge.
Nor do these Jacobites confine their Drollery to their Adversaries without, but exercise it on one another, as may be seen in their late Dispute 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, and thereby running counter to all his former Books, is attack'd just in the same manner he attack'd Bishop Burnet, in a Book under this Title, "Mr. Lesley's Defence, from some erroneous and dangerous Principles, advanced in a Letter said to have been written concerning the New Separation." And it 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, being judged an excellent Method to support the latter, is cultivated among the Youth, and employ'd by the Members of that Society against all the supposed Adversaries of the Church, and encourag'd by the governing Ecclesiasticks there and elsewhere.
Among the many, who have receiv'd their Education there, and been form'd in Drollery, I will only instance in the Reverend Dr. Atterbury and Dr. South; who being as famous for Drollery as for Zeal for Religion, and applauded for their Wit no less than for their Orthodoxy; and particularly for imploying the former in behalf of the latter, seem of sufficient 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 him as writing so contumeliously [116] of the Clergy, that had he not inform'd us in his Title Page who he was, we should rather have guess'd him to have been of the Cabal against Priests and Priestcraft, than one of the Order; and as wholly govern'd by [117] Interest in the Debate, and as giving us a most [118] shallow empty Performance in relation to our Ecclesiastical Constitution, which he [119] has done his best to undermine, as knowing himself to be in the wrong; and as deserving any Name 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 be traduc'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 the Government, is hard to determine; and besides, it gives Applause to one of the most drolling and bantering Performances that this drolling Age has produc'd, I mean Dr. Bentley's Dissertations on the Epistles of Phalaris, and the Fables of AEsop, examin'd.
Bishop Burnet is a standing Subject of Ridicule with him; as are Bishop Nicholson, Bishop Kennet, Bishop Gibson, Bishop Trimnel [to whom he writes a most drolling [120] Letter] and Dr. West; and all the Topicks that can affect them as Scholars, as honest Men, and Clergymen, are imploy'd to render them ridiculous, and set the World a laughing at them, 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 that reason.
For a Specimen, take this Banter or Burlesque upon Bishop Kennet's Dedication 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 the Enemies of the Church, and in particular against the late Dr. Sherlock, whom he thought fit to single out. I shall select some Passages from his Writings against the said Doctor, which cannot but entertain the High-Church Orthodox Reader, and reconcile him to a Drollery so well employ'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 is Dr. Sherlock) has wrote upon Popery excepted, that he has wrote both for it and against it. Could any thing be more sharp and bitter against the Dissenters than what this Man wrote in his Answer to the Protestant Reconciler; and yet how frankly, or rather fulsomly does he open both his Arms 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 of that Constancy, as to own that they were of the same Principles in 88 that they were of in 85; but the Truth is, old Friendships cannot be so easily forgot: And it has been an Observation made by some, that hardly can any one be found, who was first tainted with a Conventicle, whom a Cathedral could ever after cure, but that still upon every cross turn of Affairs against 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 next sight of a Mouse quickly dissolv'd the Metamorphosis, cashier'd the Woman, and restor'd the Brute. And some Virtuosi (skill'd in the useful Philosophy of Alterations) have thought her much a Gainer by the latter Change, there being so many unlucky Turns in the World, in which it is not half so safe and advantageous to walk upright, as to be able to fall always upon one's Legs."
Again, Dr. South says[123], "When I consider how wonderfully pleas'd the Man is with these two new started Terms (Self-consciousness and mutual Consciousness) so high in Sound and so empty of Sense, instead of one substantial word (Omniscience) which gives us all that can be pretended useful in them, with vast Overplus and Advantage, and even swallows them up, as Moses's Rod did those pitiful Tools of the Magicians: This (I say) brings to my mind (whether I will or no) a certain Story of a grave Person, who riding in the Road with his Servant, and finding himself something uneasy in his Saddle, bespoke his Servant thus: John (says he) alight, and first take off the Saddle that is upon my Horse, and then take 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 Saddle that was upon your Horse, upon my Horse. Whereupon the Man, who had not studied the Philosophy of Saddles (whether Ambling or Trotting) so exactly as his Master, replies something short upon him; Lord, Master, what need all these words? Could you not as well have said, Let us change Saddles? 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 withal willing to make the Notion of changing Saddles more plain, easy and intelligible, and to give a clearer Explication of that word (which his 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 that more full and accurate Circumlocution."
He says[124], The Author, Dr. Sherlock, is no doubt a Grecian in his Heart! And the tenth Chapter of the Animadversions is one continued Banter upon the Dean for his Ignorance in Greek and Latin, and even his Inability to spell: All which he closes with saying, "That St. Paul's School is certainly an excellent School, and St. Paul's Church a most noble Church; and therefore he thinks that he directs his Course 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 has got over the Socinians, unless it be, that the Dean thinks his three Gods will be too hard for their one."
After citing several Scurrilities of the Dean[126], (who it must be confess'd, appears therein a great Banterer also of Dr. South and his Performance) the Dr. says, "These, with several more of the like Gravel-Lane Elegancies, are all of them such peculiar Strictures of the Dean's Genius, that he might very well spare his Name, where he had made himself so well known by his Mark; for all the foregoing Oyster-Wive-Kennel-Rhetorick seems so naturally to flow from him, who had been so long Rector of St. Botolph (with the well-spoken Billingsgate under his Care) that (as much a Teacher as he was) it may well be question'd, whether he has learn'd more from his Parish, than his Parish 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 laying about him in the Language of the Stairs."
To the Dean's Scoff, that this Argument, &c. was worth its weight in Gold, tho the Dean fears it will not much enrich the Buyer, the Doctor replies[127], "What is that to him? Let him mind his own Markets, who never writes to enrich the Buyer but the Seller; and that Seller is himself: and since he is so, well is it for his Books and his Bookseller too, 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 him withal, that had he liv'd in the former Times of the Church, his Gown would have been stript off his Back for his detestable Blasphemies and Heresies, and some other Place found out for him to perch in than the Top of St. Paul's, where at present he is placed like a true Church Weather-Cock, (as he is) notable for nothing so much, as standing high and turning round."
Again, he says[129], "And so I take my leave of the Dean's three distinct infinite Minds, Spirits, or Substances, that is to say, of his three Gods; and having done this, methinks I see him go whimpering away with his Finger in his Eye, and the Complaint of Micah in his Mouth, Ye have taken away my Gods which I made, and what have I more[130]? Tho he must confess, he cannot tell why he should be so fond of them, since he dares undertake that he will never be able to bring the Christian World either to believe in, or to worship a Trinity of Gods: Nor does he see what use they are likely to be of, even to himself, unless peradventure to swear by."
Again, the Doctor says[131], "The Dean's following Instruction to his Friend is certainly very diverting, in these words, where the Animadverter charges the Dean with Absurdities and Contradictions; turn to the Place and read it with its Context, and tell me what you cannot answer, and I will; to which he would have done well to have added, If I can. But the whole Passage is just as if he had said, Sir, if you find not Contradictions and Absurdities enough in my Book to satisfy your Curiosity that way, pray come to the Fountain-head, and consult me, and you shall be sure of a more plentiful Supply."
Again, upon the Dean's "Frequent reproaching the [132] Animadverter with the Character of a Wit, tho join'd with such ill-favour'd Epithets, as his witless Malice has thought fit to degrade it with, as that he is a spiteful Wit, a wrangling Wit, a satirical Wit, and the WITTY, subtle, good-natur'd Animadverter, &c. the Dr. says, that tho there be but 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 to return this Reproach upon the Defender; and withal, understands himself, and what becomes him, too well, either to assume to himself, or so 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, and really are so; which (one would think) should derive something of Credit upon this Qualification, even in the Esteem of this Author himself, or at least rebate the Edge of his Invectives against it, considering that it might 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, and would probably turn to the Disreputation and Disgrace of the Prosecutor.
Archbishop Laud has always been much censur'd for his malicious Prosecution of Williams in the Star-Chamber; among whose Crimes I find the following laid to his Charge: [133] That he said all Flesh in England had corrupted their Ways; that he call'd a Book intitled, A Coal from the Altar (written by Dr. Heylin, for placing the Communion-Table at the East-end of the Church, and railing it in) a Pamphlet; 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 in Ceremony ought to conform; that he wickedly jested on St. Martin's Hood; that he said the People ought not to be lash'd by every body's Whip; that he said, (citing a National Council for it) that the People are God's and the King's, and not the Priest's People; and that he doth 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 go on in the World, and take their Course, than that Courts of Judicature should 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 have it said, that they had corrupted their Ways; a Jest upon St. Martin's Hood, which, according to Ecclesiastical History, cur'd sore Eyes; and a Ridicule upon a High-Church Book of Heylin's, by calling it a Pamphlet, tho it was really a Pamphlet, as consisting of but seventy Pages 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 not allowing 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 of Weakness in the Punishment of [134] Archibald the King's Fool, by laying the Matter before the Privy-Council, and occasioning him to be expell'd the King's House for a poor Jest upon himself; who, as he was a Man at the Head of the State, should have despis'd such a thing in any Body, much more in a Fool, and who should never have been hurried on to be the Instrument of any Motion against him, but have left it to others; who upon 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 of Passages out of the Fathers of the Church, whose Writings are Magazines of Authority, and urg'd upon us upon all Occasions by Ecclesiasticks, and are particularly full of Burlesque and Ridicule on the Gods and Religion of the Pagans; in the use whereof they are much more unanimous, than in the Articles of their Creed. But that being a Subject too great and extensive for a Digression, I shall content my self with the few following Reflections; which will sufficiently evince, that the Taste of the Primitive Christians was like that of the rest of the World; that they could laugh and be as merry as the Greeks and other Pagans; and that they would take the Advantage of the Pagans weak Cause, to introduce Ridicule, which always bears hard upon Weakness and Folly, and must load them 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 Raillery of the antient Pagan Writers and Philosophers; who it is well known wrote a great deal to turn Paganism into Ridicule; most of which now exists no where but in the Works of the Fathers; all Books of that kind being lost, except Cicero's Books of the Nature of Gods, and of Divination, and the Dialogues of Lucian; both which Authors have been of 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 their Drolleries, the most remarkable, I think, are some Fragments of a Book of Oenomaus concerning the Pagan Oracles, cited and preserv'd by [135] Eusebius; who has given us occasion to [136] regret the loss of this Work, as one of the most valuable Books written by the Antients on the Subject of Oracles, tho those Books were very numerous. And it is to be observ'd, that this Book and a great many, perhaps a [137] thousand more, were publish'd in Greece, where the Imposture of Oracles greatly prevail'd, and great Wealth flow'd in, not only to the Priests of the Oracular Temples, but to all the Inhabitants of Greece, and especially to those who lived in the Neighbourhood of the several Oracular Temples; who made a great Profit from the rich Travellers, that came from all Parts of the World to know their Fortunes. This shews the great Integrity and Fairness of the old Pagans; who would suffer not only their supposed standing Revelation to be call'd in question, but a Revelation that brought in as much Money, as the Chapels, Churches, and Shrines dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, or to any of the Saints, do in the Roman Church, without calling any Man to Account for the Liberties they 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 were none of them ever prosecuted, and that Epicurus himself died quietly at 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, A sacred History: wherein he gave an historical Account of the Birth, Country, Lives, Deaths, and Burials of the Gods. This Work was translated into Latin by that arch Wag Ennius, who himself has most ingeniously ridicul'd several Impostors or very grave Persons, in a remarkable 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 to restrain Irony, &c. would prove abortive, and that the Attempt would be deem'd the Effect of a very partial Consideration of things, and of present 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 to draw 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 to prevent pointing out Persons of Men [140] from thence, and reviling them, as also reviling whole Bodies of Men: For whatever is immoral in Print, is, in my Opinion, immoral in the Pulpit. Besides, these things seem 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 reduce things to a tolerable Temper and Decency. If, in order to justify my Motion, it could be thought necessary or proper here to give a Detail of ridiculing and ironical Passages, taken from Sermons against particular Men, and Bodies of Men, and their Doctrines, you cannot but know how easy it would be to fill a Volume with them, without going to Authors, who have occasionally produc'd abundance of them. And I will only mention here a Passage 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'd him the Applauses of a great many High Men, and particularly Hickes, Dodwel, and Nelson, &c. and a Recommendation from the last to the Queen, who in the latter end of her Reign made him Chaplain in Ordinary, and obtain'd for him a considerable Preferment. This Gentleman, attacking Bishop Hoadley's Sermon of The Kingdom of Christ, says[141], "In these last Days we have been taught to be as indolent and unconcern'd as possible in the Service of God: A noted Novellist [Bp. Hoadley] among many other odd Engines, hath invented one, to pump out all Devotion from Prayer, and make it a Vacuum. Instead of the old fervent, affectionate way of Worshipping, he hath substituted a new Idol, a Vanity, a Nothing of his own, a calm and undisturb'd Address to God.——The Arrows and bitter Words Mr. Hales hath levell'd against Rome only, our Right Reverend hath pointed a-new, and shot them full against the Church he superintends, and with all the Force of inbred, fanatick Fury. And by this time 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 have address'd them to several others; who of late have thought fit to recognize the Right of Men, to examine into, and judge for themselves in all 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 owing to that glorious Liberty, and Freedom of Debate, that we enjoy under our most excellent Princes; and which extorts it even from them, who, to have some Credit in the World, are forced to own, what would discredit them to go 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 of more remarkable Moderation than ordinary in your Letter to Dr. Rogers: And one, who had, long before, in your Defence of the Constitution in Church and State; in answer to the Charge of the Nonjurors, accusing us of Heresy and Schism, Perjury and Treason, "valu'd [142] and commended the Integrity of the Nonjurors in declaring their Sentiments:" and who, tho you justly charge those of them you write against, "as attacking us with such uncommon Marks of Violence [143] as most plainly intimate, that no Measures are intended to be kept with us by them 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 the Charge of Heresy and Schism, Perjury and Treason, Crimes of no small figure either in the Law or in the Gospel," you only say, that "if you may have leave to borrow a Thought from [145] one of their own most celebrated Writers, you would tell them, that the Blood and Spirits were made to rise upon such Occasions: Nature design'd not, that we should be cold or indifferent in our manner of receiving, or returning, such foul Reproaches." This is great Moderation, and such as I heartily approve, being dispos'd to forgive the Punishment due by Law to any Fault, when the Non-execution of it will not overturn the Government. And I am willing to hope, that since you can think that such bitter Adversaries to you, as these licentious Jacobites are, should only be smartly replied to, and not 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 it is 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 other Faults in Writing; only I would not have Men punish'd, or any other way disturb'd about it, than by a Return of Ridicule and Irony. This I think fit to conclude with, more to prevent Misrepresentation from others, than from you; whom I look on to have too much Sense and Integrity to mistake or misrepresent me.
I am Yours, &c.
FINIS.
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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 The Eton 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 Difference Between 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 Moral Character 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 of Lectures 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 pot or a compleat key to the Dissertation on Dumpling (1727). Introduction by Samuel 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 in writing (1729). Introduction by Edward A. Bloom and Lillian D. Bloom.
143. A Letter from a clergyman to his friend, with an account of the travels of Captain Lemuel Gulliver (1726). Introduction by Martin Kallich.
144. The Art of Architecture, a poem. In imitation of Horace's Art of poetry (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 to members of the Society, $7.00 for the first copy (both volumes), and $8.50 for 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 Empress of Morocco [1673] with five plates; Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco [1674] by John Dryden, John Crowne and Thomas Snadwell; Notes and Observations on the Empress of Morocco Revised [1674] by Elkanah Settle; and The Empress of Morocco. A Farce [1674] by Thomas Duffett), with an Introduction by Maximillian E. Novak. 348 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 of Faith, 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. 5th 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] Archaeolog. 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 to expose the Dissenters to Contempt and Persecution, were deem'd to the Church at the time they were publish'd, may be judged of by Bp. Burnet, who says [in his Eighteen Papers, p. 90.] "Another Buffoon was hired to plague the Nation with three or four Papers a Week, which to the Reproach of the Age in which we live, had but too great and too general Effect, for poisoning the Spirits of the Clergy."
[64] In this Work the Dissenters and Low Churchmen are sufficiently rally'd and abus'd, and particularly the Free-Thinkers, whose Creed is therein represented as consisting of these two Negatives, No Queen and no God. Examiners, Vol. 3. p. 12.
Mr. Addison tells us [Freeholder No. 19.] "the Examiner was the favourite Work of the Party. It was usher'd into the World by a Letter from a Secretary of State, setting forth the great Genius of the Author, the Usefulness of his Design, and the mighty Consequences that were to be expected from it. It is said to be written by those among them whom they look'd upon as their most celebrated Wits and Politicians, and was dispers'd into all Quarters of the Nation with great Industry and Expence.——In this Paper all the great Men who had done eminent Services to 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 Sex exempted Persons.——Several of our Prelates were the standing Marks of publick 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 of Dr. Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation, and his Answer to the Protestant Reconciler.
[69] In his Translation of Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel into Latin Verse, whereby he was first flush'd; and in his Convocational Controversy, 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 an Account in Kennet's Compleat History of England, Vol. 3d. and of the former 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's Sufferings, &c. p. 178.
[89] See the Article Heylin, in Wood's Athenae 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 indicate both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as presented in the original text.
Long "s" has been modernized.
The inclusion of two footnotes numbered 53 in intentional to reflect the original 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 in spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained.
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