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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57291	The stage condemn'd, and the encouragement given to the immoralities and profaneness of the theatre, by the English schools, universities and pulpits, censur'd King Charles I Sundays mask and declaration for sports and pastimes on the Sabbath, largely related and animadverted upon : the arguments of all the authors that have writ in defence of the stage against Mr. Collier, consider'd, and the sense of the fathers, councils, antient philosophers and poets, and of the Greek and Roman States, and of the first Christian Emperours concerning drama, faithfully deliver'd : together with the censure of the English state and of the several antient and modern divines of the Church of England upon the stage, and remarks on diverse late plays : as also on those presented by the two universities to King Charles I.	Ridpath, George, d. 1726.	1698 (1698)	Wing R1468; ESTC R17141	128,520	226

of a Divine of the Church of Rome viz. by Father Ca●●aro Divinity Professor at Paris as I find it annex'd to Mr. Motteuxes Play call'd Beauty in Distress Before I come directly to the Point it may not be improper to observe that considering the palpable Influence which the Stage hath had upon the Corruption of Manners so much complained of It seems no very suitable Imployment for one Divine of the Church of England to espouse the Defence of the Stage against another Nor is it very much for the Defendants Honour to make use of Arrows from a Popish Quiver for we have no Reason to think that a Popish Divine will be a Cordial Enemy to the Stage when the Worship of their Church does so much resemble the Pomp of the Theatre The Doctors first Argument is That the Scripture has no express and particular Precept against PLAYS Page 10. Which admitted to be True is an Argument of no Weight for Consequences naturally deduc'd from Scripture have the same Authority with the Text otherwise it could never be a Rule of Faith and Manners there being many thousands of things for which it serves as a Rule that it doth not particularly express So that the Doctors Argument would be equally servic●able to the Great Turk There 's no Express nor particular Precept against receiving Mohome● as a Prophet ergo But it is Naturally and Plainly infer'd from the Scriptures that because we are not to receive any other Doctrine than is there taught us therefore we are not to receive Mahomet as a Prophet By Consequences of like force and every whit as plain we shall find Stage-Plays condemned in Scripture I mean not only those that are guilty of Immorality Profaneness Blasphemy c. which the greatest Patrons of the Stage will not offer to defend but even Stage-Plays in general whose Business they will have it to be to recommend Vertue and discountenance Vice which I think will be very plain by the following Argument That which God hath appointed sufficient Means to Accomplish It is Unlawful for Men to appoint other Means to Accomplish But Go● hath appointed sufficient Means for Recommending Vertue and Discountenancing Vice without the STAGE Ergo It is Unlawful for Men to appoint the Stage for Recommending Vertue and Discountenancing Vice All t●e Controversie will lie about the first Proposition but I think there 's no Man who has a serious Impression of the infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness of God upon his Mind that will call it in Question seeing he must necessarily by so doing cast a Reflection upon all those Attributes and prefer the Wisdom Power and Goodness of Man to the Wisdom Power and Goodness of GOD. The second Proposition is clear from express Texts of Scripture The Apostle tells us That Magistracy is the Ordinance of God That Rulers are ordained by him to be a Terror to evil Works and to Praise those that do good And that they are the Ministers of God continually attending upon this very thing Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4 5. Whence it is evident That the Original End and Design of Magistracy is to Encourage Vertue and to Punish Vice And hence it is equally clear That seeing Commending is a Species of Reward and Lashing and Exposing a sort of Punishment the pretended Service of the Stage for those Ends is wholly needless God having sufficiently provided for that by appointing Magistrates This being so the Patrons of the Stage have no other Pretences left them but such as Mr. Collier enumerates briefly in his Introduction viz. That the Stage is useful to shew the uncertainty of Humane Greatness The sudden turns of Fate and the unhappy Conclusions of Violence and Injustice To expose the Singularities of Pride and Fancy To make Folly and Falshhood Contemptible And to bring every thing that is Ill under Infamy and Neglect But we are infinitely better provided for those Ends by the Word of GOD and the Ordinance of the Ministry We are taught That the former is able to make us wise unto Salvation I● given us by Inspiration of God for Doctrine Reproof Correction and Instruction in Righteousness that we may be perfect and throughly furnished unto all good Works 2 Timoth. 2. So that we have no need of the Instruction of the Stage for any of the Ends above● mentioned Are any of our Authors for the Theatre able to give such a Description of the Uncertainty of Humane Greatness and the Vanity of all Sublunary Things as Solomon hath given in his Ecclesiastes Can any of them give us more surprizing Instances of the sudden Turns of Fate and Revolutions of Providence than the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah of Pharaoh and his Host Sennacherib and his Army and many others related in the Scriptures with reference not only to the Publick but to particular Persons Nay are we not i●finitely better accommodated with real Instance● of that Nature ev'n from profane History than we possibly can be from their forged ones on the Stage Can our Poets shew us more unhappy Conclusions of Violence and Injustice than those that attended Pharaoh and the other Tyrants that persecuted the People of God Are they able to give us Instances of the Singularity of Pride and Tyranny equal to those of that same Pharaoh who said Who is the Lord that I should obey Him Of Nebuchad●nezzer who ●or his Pride was turn'd a grazing with the Beasts of the Field Or of Herod who for his Fantastical Apparel and Pride was eat up of Worms Are they able to expose Folly and Falshhood to more Contempt than the Sacred Scripture does which tells us That a Poor and a Wise Child is better than an Old and a Foolish King Eccl. 4. 13. And that tho' the Bread of Deceit and Falshood be sweet to a Man yet afterward his Mouth shall be fill'd with Gravel Prov. 20. 17. Hath not God appointed the Ministry To teach all Nations to observe whatsoever he hath command●d Matth. 28. 19. To distinguish betwixt the Precious and the Vile Jer. 15. 19. To use sharpness according to the Power that God hath given them 2 Corinth 13. 8 9 10. To be instant in Season and out of Season To Reprove Reb●ke Exhort To Teach us to deny Ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present Evil World Tit. 2. 12. Thus the second Proposition is plainly proved That God hath provided sufficient Means for Recommending Vertue and Discountenancing Vice without the STAGE Ergo it is Unlawful to Appoint the Stage for Recommending Vertue and Discountenancing Vice It may perhaps be objected That by this Argument the Exhortations and Reproofs of Parents Masters and Neighbours are also prov'd to be needless To which the Answer is ready That those Duties are enjoyn'd by the Scriptures on Parents Masters and Neighbours therefore 't is the Ministers Duty to urge them and the Magistrates Duty to see them perform'd but no such thing can be said of

if they please That the Council of Lateran held by the Authority of Pope Innocent the third in the year 1215. consisting of two Patriarchs seventy Arch-Bishops four hundred twelve Bishops and eight hundred Abbots and Priors did forbid Clergymen to be present at Stage-Plays or to encourage Tumblers or Jesters So that if neither the Authority of Councils alone nor that of ● Pope and Council together be sufficient to 〈◊〉 the Paris Doctor of the Unlawfulness of Clergymens frequenting the Stage then I mus● make bold to tell him That he has made a Sacrifice of the Infallibility of the Church of Rome to the Chapel of the Devil the Playhouse as Mr. Mot●●ux ●as Sacrificed the Authority of the Protestant Church of France to the Pleasure and Profit he reaps from the Theatre and Drama What a horrid shame is it that Iuli●n the Apostate should have had more Regard to the Honour of his Pagan Priests than our present Patrons of the Stage have either to the Credit of Popish or Protestant Divines when as Zozamen tell us he ordered the Priests to be exhorted not to be seen in the Theatre on Pain of Disgrace AN ANSWER TO THE DEFENCE OF Dramatick Poetry CAP. VIII Church of England Divines against the STAGE I Come next to consider the Arguments of that Book call'd A Defence of Dramatick Poetry Or Review of Mr. Collier and must in the Threshold declare my Agreement with the Ingenious Author in his PREFACE That if the Sufferance of the Theatre be so fatally destructive to Morality Vertue and Religion as Mr. Collier has endeavoured to render it he has more Satyriz'd the Pulpit than the Stage and that this Universal Silence of the whole Clergy must conclude their neglect of their Christian Duty But I 〈◊〉 beg leave to inform him that he is mistaken 〈◊〉 he says Mr. Collier is the first Pulpit or 〈◊〉 Sermon upon that Text For tho' it be true 〈◊〉 the Church of England Clergy in general 〈◊〉 been guilty of a Culpable Silence as to 〈◊〉 Head since the Restoration of King Charl●● yet others have not Nor is Mr. Collier the 〈◊〉 Church of England Divine who since that 〈◊〉 hath attack'd the Stage from the Pulpit 〈◊〉 Wesley in a Reformation-Sermon preached in 〈◊〉 Iames's Church Westminster Feb. 13. and 〈◊〉 wards at St. Brides must be allowed to have 〈◊〉 the start of him Wherein he expresses himsel●● page 20 c. thus Our Infamous Cheatres seem to have do● more Mischief than Hobbs himself or our 〈◊〉 Atheistical Clubs to the Faith and Morals 〈◊〉 the Nation Moral Representations are own●● to be in their own Nature not only Innocent but ev'n useful as well as pleasant but what 〈◊〉 this to those which have no Morals or Morali●● at all in them and which are the most Immora● Things in the World which the more any good Man is acquainted with them the less he mus● still like them and at which Modest Heathen● would blush to be present If we ever hope for an entire Reformation of Manners even our Iails and our Theatres must have their shares With as much Reason may we exclaim against our Modern Plays and Interludes as did the ol● Zealous Fathers against the Pagan Spectacles and as justly rank these as they did the others among those Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World which our Baptism obliges us to ●●nounce and to abhor What Communion hath the Temple of God with Idols with those Abominable Mysteries of Iniquity which out do the old Fescennina of the Heathens the lewd 〈◊〉 of Baccus and the impious Feasts of 〈◊〉 and Priapus I know not how any Persons can profitably or indeed decently present themselves here before God's Holy Oracle who are ●●equently present at those Schools of Vice and Nurseries of Profaneness and Lewdness to unlearn there what they are here taught out of God's Holy Word Would you suffer your Friend or your Child to resort every day to a Pesthous or a place infected with any Contagious or Deadly Disease whence you had seen many Persons carried out dead before you If 〈◊〉 would do this who pretended to be in his Right Senses What excuse can be made for those who do worse and are themselves frequently present as well as suffer others to be so at that place which is so nearly allied to Hers which Solomon describes Whose House is the Way to Hell and her Gates lead down to the Chambers of Death How can such Persons pray every day Lead us not into Temptation when they themselves wilfully rush into the very Mouth of it 'T is true the Stage pretends to Reform Manners but let them tell us how many Converts they can Name by their means to Vertue and Religion during these last thirty or forty Years and we can give Numerous and sad Instances to the contrary even of a Brave and Virtuous Nation too generally deprav'd and corrupted to which there cannot perhaps be any one thing assigned which has more highly contributed than these unsufferable and abominable Representations the Authors of which though the publick should continue to take notice of them would either be forc'd so far to alter them that they would hardly be known or else they would fall of themselves If Men would but withdraw their Company from the●● as their presence there does actually encoura●● and support them To close the Head whereo●●am sorry there 's so much cause of insisting 〈◊〉 there are too many of whom we may witho●● breach of Charity believe that they 'd rath●● forsake the Church than the Theatre by 〈◊〉 being so much more frequently and delightfull● present at the latter than they are at the fo● mer. If Oaths if Blasphemy if perpetual Profa● tion of the Glorious Name of God and our Blesed Redeemer if making a Scoff and a Laught●● at his Holy Word and Institutions and I know not why I should not add his Ministers too which is the very Salt and almost Imprimatur to most of the Comedies of the present Age. If Filthiness and foolish Talking and profan● or immodest Iesting and insulting over the Miseries and excusing and representing and reco●mending the Vices of Mankind either by not p●nishing them at all or slightly punishing them or even making them prosperous and happy and teaching others first how to be wicked and then to defend or hide their Wickedness or at least to think Vertue ridiculous and unfashionable and Religion and Piety sit for none but old People Fools and Lunaticks If contempt of Superiors if false Notions of Honour if height of Lewdness and Pride and Revenge and even Murder be those Lessons which are daily taught at these publick Playhouses to the disgrace of our Age corruption of our M●rals and scandal and Odium of our Nation for the Truth of which we may appeal to all the Unprejudic'd and Virtuous part of Mankind Then we may further ask Whether these are ●it place for the Education of Youth

thing may be establish'd I shall add that of an Actor who dying at the Bath about 1630. sent for his Son whom he had bred up to that same way of Living and abjured him with his last Breath and floods of Tears that as he tendred the eternal Happiness of his Soul he should abjure and for sake 〈◊〉 ungodly Profession which would enthral him to the Devils Vassalage for the present and plunge hi● for ever into Hell at last If our Author consider it he will soon be convinced that the Seizure of the Soul is incomparably more dreadful than that of the Body and of this I shall put him in Mind of one Instance that was frightful enough as it is recorded by Mr. Braithwait who was present and saw it An English Gentlewoman of good Note who daily spent the best of her time upon the Stage falling into a dangerous Sickness her Friends sent for a Minister to prepare her for her End but whilst he exhorted her to Repent and to call upon God for Mercy instead of listning to his wholsome Instructions she redoubled her Cries to let her see Hieronimo acted and as she had liv'd so she died Now I would refer it to our Authors own Conscience whether he would be willing to make such an Exit And if this was not a more dreadful Possession than those mentioned in the Gospel when the Devil threw the Bodies of those he had made a Scizure of into the Fire or Water But to conclude this point I must crave leave to inform him that the Devil hath renewed his claim to the Stage oftner than once since the days of Tertullian and particularly in Queen Elizabeths Reign when he visibly appeared on it in the Bell-Savage Play-house as they were prophanely acting the Story of Faustus to the Terror and Amazement of all the Spectators and the seizing of some of them with a Distraction The Reviewer's Argument That 't was the general Opinion of Christians that Plays were a lawful Diversion because St. Cyprian Tertullian St. Augustine c. made it their business to refute that Opinion is just as consequential as if he should say that 't is the general Opinion of the People of England that Immorality and Profanness is lawful because their Preachers Labour to prove the contrary as to every individual Species of it in all their Sermons and Books on that Subject and no less false is his Assertion That the Appearance of that general Innocence in those Entertainments gave them that Reception among Christians that they could not believe them Criminal without some express Divine Precept against them for nothing could be more odious than those Practices and Postures c. which the Fathers every where Charge upon the Stage as I have already prov'd and herein also the Reviewer contradicts M. Motteux and his Parisian and Church of England Divine who tell us the Father were against the Stage because of the Idolatry Blasphemy and other Infamous Practices there which were very far from Innocence Thus these Champions of a bad Cause like Troops in disorder fall foul upon one another CAP. XVII The Scripture not silent against the STAGE I Come next to the mighty Counter-B●●● which the Reviewer has rais'd for the Defence of the Stage and that is his more ●●rious Speculations as he calls them upon the Scriptural Silence in that Case than any that the Fathers have been pleased to make First then says he as our blessed Sav●our was born in the Days of Augustus 't is known by all Historians that the shutting up of Ia●● Temple doors in his Reign universally opened those of the Play-houses and so they continued throughout the Empire many Reigns after him If any Man should say that when our Saviour was born the Devil and the World kept Holy Day for Joy he would be foully mistaken and yet according to this Author it would seem they did so For at our Saviours Birth says he Play-houses were open'd throughout the whole Empire But what if I should tell him that the Devil finding himself disarm'd by our Saviours Birth and bereft of the Sword which he had influenced Men to sheath in one anothers Bowels for a long time betook himself to another Weapon and that was the Lusts of the Flesh to make War upon their Souls This Speculation may not perhaps be so curlous as that of our Author but I am of Opinion it may be every whit as solid seeing not only the Antient Fathers but even the Heathen Roman Historians charge the Play-houses with all Manner of Lewdness and Augustus himself as I have already said banished the Stage-Players out of Rome because of the Mischiefs they occasioned The Reviewor must not pretend that the opening of the Theatre was an Effect of our Saviour's Birth or a suitable way of Rojoycing for it his Foretur●ner Iohn the Baptist taught a contrary Doctrine and prepared the Jews to receive him by Repentance and Mortification When our Saviour came himself at the fulness of time the way of his Entrance into the World was the severest Reproof that ever was giv'n to the P●mps and Vanities of it His Childhood and Youth were wholly estrang'd from all those ●●othy Diversions and when he entred on the Ministry he taught a subli●e and refined Purity that was absolutely inconsistent with the Practice of the Stage He instructed his Followers in the full Extent of the Law that it did not so much as allow a Wanton Glance or a Lewd Thought than which there cannot be a more effectual Condemnation of the Theatre which by the Testimony of all Historians and Ages has ever been a Nursery of Impurity and chiefly supported by Persons of a dissolute Life But to return to our Author Now it may raise a little Wonder says he why the Apostles that went forth by a Special Command of the Almighty to Convertall Nations Preaching Repentance and the Kingdom of Heaven they that so exactly performed that great Commission as to arraign and censure Vice and Impiety from the highest to the lowest in all its several Branches not only pronounced their louder Anathema's against the more crying Sins but read Divinity Lectures ev'n upon the Wardrobe and Dressing Box correcting the very Indecencies of the Hair the Apparel and each uncomly Gesture that these Missioners of Salvation should travel through so many Heathen Nations the Gentiles they were sent to call and meet at every turn the Theatre and the Stage Players staring them in the very Face and not make one Reprimand against them is a Ma●● of very serious Reflection Had the Play-house been as St. Cyprian calls it The Seat of Infection or as Clemens Alexandrinus much to the same Sense calls it The chair of Pestilence and to join the Authority of the Unclean Spirit along with them The Devil 's own Ground I am of Opinion in this case that those Divine Monitors the Apostles that set Bars to the Eye

Stories or Poems There 's none of them let their Disposition be never so good but are in danger of being corrupted by this Method and I should look on it as next akin to a Miracle if there were any Virgin or Matron so Religiously Chast as not to have their Lusts inflamed almost to madness by Reading such kind of Books and Poems In this Case even the Heathen Lecher Ovid who is much more ingenuous than our pretended Christian Poets gives Judgment against his own Amorous POEMS and those of Tibullus c. Eloquar in vitus teneros ne tange Poetas Summon●o dot●s impias esse meas Callimachum ●ugito non est inimicus amori Et cum Callimacho tu quoque Coe Noces Carmina quis potuit tuto legisse Tibulli Vel tita cujus opus Cynthea sola suit Quis potuit lecto durus discedere Gallo Et mea nescio quid carmina tale sonant De Remedio amoris lib. 3. p. 230. It will appear plain from the very Nature and Design of Christian Schools That such things ought not to be taught in them The end of all such Schools is to teach Wisdom and Vertue that we may know God and our selves and how to Worship God aright whereas the quite contrary is taught by those Authors Homer Hesiod Pindar Aristophanes Virgil Horace and the rest of those Heathen Authors arriv'd to that height of Impiety and Madness that they feign'd such lewd things to be acted by their Gods as a modest Man cannot but be ashamed to reh●arse before Youth for they represent their Gods and Goddesses to be such as no honest or well-governed Common-wealth would have admitted them for Citizens so that Palingenius writes truly of them In c●elo est Meretrix in coelo est turpis adulter Lib. I. There 's no doubt but the Heathen Poets were influenced by Satan to feign such Monstrous and Horrid Things concerning their Deities that they might thereby promote and Authorize Whoredom and Uncleanness among Men and add Fewel to the Flames of Corrupt Nature Certainly those Fables in Ovid's Metamorphosis concerning the Amous nay Rapes of the Gods and others cannot leave any Chast Impressions upon the Minds of Youth What a fulsom Expression is that of Virgil Aneid 7. Mista Deo Mulier The danger of teaching such things to Youth was seen by the very Heathen Philosophers And therefore Plato says That those fabulous Stories of the Poets were not to be receiv'd into a City as if the Gods wag'd War and form'd Ambushes against one another c. whether they be taken in an Allegorical Sense or not For Children says he cannot distinguish betwixt what is spoke figuratively or otherwise and such Opinions as they drink in when they are young they can hardly ever lay aside To feign that God who is altogether Good is the Cause of Evil is an Error that ought to be refuted and therefore the Poets should be compelled to write and speak things that are honest Tha● same Author says in Theage I know not what any Man in his Right Wits ought to be more solicitous about than how to have his Son made as good as possible and therefore he advises that care be taken that Nurses don't entertain them with old Wives Fables lest they be corrupted with Madness and Folly from their very Infancy Seeing those poor Heathens who had nothin● but the Light of Nature to direct them coul● give such excellent Precepts what a shame 〈◊〉 it for Christian Schoolmasters to spend more tim● in teaching their Youth who Iupiter Vulca● Neptune and Saturn were than who Iesus Chris● is and to teach them those Lascivious Heathe● Po●ts in direct Opposition to the Seventh Co●●mand St. Augustine in his Book of Con●ession 〈◊〉 out Oh that when I was a young Man I ha●● been instructed in profitable Books Whilst I w●● a Youth at School I heard them talk of Iupit●● darting Thunder and committing Adultery at t●● same time The Jews were commanded to teach the La●● of God to their Children diligently to talk 〈◊〉 them when they sat in their Houses when th●● walked by the way when they lay down an● when they rose up to write them upon the Pos● of their Houses and on their Gates Deut. 6. 6 7 ● The Roy●l Prophet David taught them Th● young Men were to purifie their way by takin● heed thereunto according to the Word of Go● Psal. 119. 9. And the wise King Solomon co●●manded Children to be trained up in the Way t●● they should go and when they were old they wo●● not depart from it Prov. 22. 6. The Apostle 〈◊〉 joyns that our Children should be brought up 〈◊〉 the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord Eph. 6 And commands Timothy to avoid Profane and 〈◊〉 Wives Fables 1 Tim. 4. 7. The only Objection of any weight that can 〈◊〉 raised against this is That in those Heathen Poe● there are abundance of excellent Moral Sentenc● and that Youth learn the Purity of the Lati●● Tongue from them To which it may be answer● That put them all together they come infinite● short of those Moral Instructions that are to be found in the Proverbs of Solomon and the Ecclesiastes that its evident what Moral Sayings of worth any of those Heathen Authors have they borrow'd them from Moses and others of the divinely inspired Writers and we may with more safety and purity drink from the same Founta●ns than from their polluted Streams And as for the purity of the Latine Tongue it may as well be learnt from others as from the Poets The Roman Histories are excellent for that end and if their Poets were purg'd from their Obscenities c. and so put into the Hands of Youth there could be nothing to object against ' em Nor are there wanting excellent Latine Poems by Christian Authors which might be equally serviceable for instructing our Youth in the purity of the Latine Tongue and inspring them also with true Christian Sentiments such as the famous Antient Poems of Tertullian Arator Apollinaris Nazianzen Prudentius Prosper and other Christian Worthies and the later ones of Du Bartas Beza Scaliger Buchanan Heinsius c. That a Reform of the Schools in this Point hath been so long neglected reflects Shame upon the Church who ought to have chiefly concerned themselves in it and is one main Reason why so many Persons of good parts have applied themselves to write for the Stage and that too with more Wantonness and Latitude than most of the Hea●hen Poets ever dar'd to allow themselves and the Corruption hath spread so far as to in●ect our Universities who tho' formerly they condemned the Stage are now become its Admirers and to the Scandal of the Nation obscene Poems are writ at their Publick Acts. CAP. V. An Answer to M. Motteuxes Defence of the STAGE I Come next to consider what is offer'd in Defence of the Stage by a Divine of the Church of England from the Authority