Ridicule and Irony, &c. (continued 2)

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 Æsop, 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.

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.

F I N I S.

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] 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 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 Phœnix, 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 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.

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