Chapter 4

II. _Secondly_, If it be a Fault in those reverend Divines, mention'd in the foregoing Article, to use _Irony_, _Drollery_, _Ridicule_, and _Satire_, in any Case; or if the Fault lies in an exorbitant Use thereof, or in any particular Species of _Drollery_; as, for example, such _Drollery_ as is to be found in the polemical Writings and Sermons of Dr. _South_; it is fit some Remedy should be employ'd for the Cure of this Evil. And the Remedy I would propose, should not be to have the Authors punish'd by the Magistrate, any more than for any other Faults in writing; but either to neglect and despise it, as Rage and Scolding, which drop into Oblivion with the Sound, and would have a Life given it by Resentment: or to allow Men to _criticize_ and _ridicule_ one another for their _Ironies_ and _Drollery_, and to exercise their Wit and Parts against each other; that being the true Method to bring Things to a Standard, to fix the Decency and Propriety of Writing, to teach Men how to write to the Satisfaction of the ingenious, polite, and sensible Part of Mankind: for Decency and Propriety will stand the Test of Ridicule, and triumph over all the false Pretences to Wit; and Indecency and Impropriety will sink under the Trial of Ridicule, as being capable of being baffled by Reason, and justly ridicul'd. And if any kind or degree of _Ridicule_ be absurd or _ridiculous_, that will appear so upon Trial, no less than the low and gross _Ridicule_ prevalent among the unpolite Part of the World: But that will never appear. On the contrary, _Ridicule_ of certain kinds, and under reasonable Directions and Rules, and used in proper Time, Place, and Manner, (all which also are only to be found out and fix'd by Trial and Experience) is both a proper and necessary Method of Discourse in many Cases, and especially in the Case of _Gravity_, when that is attended with Hypocrisy or Imposture, or with Ignorance, or with soureness of Temper and Persecution; all which ought to draw after them the _Ridicule_ and _Contempt_ of the Society, which has no other effectual Remedy against such Methods of Imposition. And to determine in some measure the Nature and Extent of the _Irony_ I contend for, as _Just_, I profess to approve the noble _Sarcasm_ of _Elijah_[56]; wherein he thus mocks the _Priests_ of _Baal_, saying in effect to them, "_Cry aloud, for_ your _Baal_ is a fine God: _He is either talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a Journey; or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked_." And I concur with the _Psalmist_[57], who thought it no Indecency to say, that _he that sits in Heaven shall laugh them_ (that is, certain Kings, who were _David_'s Enemies) _to scorn; the Lord shall have them in Derision_: and must judge, that _laughing to scorn_, and _deriding_ the greatest Men upon Earth, even Kings and Princes, to be a laudable and divine Method of dealing with them, who are only to be taught or rebuk'd in some artful way. I also approve of the following _Sarcasm_ or _Irony_, which has a better Authority for it than _Elijah_ or the _Psalmist_. _Moses_ introduces God speaking thus after the Fall[58], _Behold the Man is become like one of us, to know Good and Evil!_ And I think this Passage shews, that the whole Affair of the _Fall_, of which we have so very brief an Account, was a very entertaining Scene; and would have appear'd so, if set forth at large; as indeed it does under the Hands of our Divines, who have supplied that short Narration by various Additions, founded on Conjectures, and particularly under the fine Hand of Dr. _Tho. Burnet_, who has made a most ingenious Dialogue of what he suppos'd pass'd between _Eve_ and the _Serpent_[59]. To say nothing of _Milton_'s famous _Paradise Lost_.

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

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

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

"If [61] Men are forbid to speak their Minds _seriously_ on certain Subjects, they will do it _ironically_. If they are forbid at all upon such Subjects, or if they find it dangerous to do so, they will then redouble their Disguise, involve themselves in mysteriousness, and talk so as hardly to be understood, or at least not plainly interpreted by those who are dispos'd to do them a Mischief. And thus _Raillery_ is brought more in fashion, and runs into an Extreme. 'Tis the persecuting Spirit has rais'd the _bantering_ one: And want of Liberty may account for want of a true Politeness, and for the Corruption or wrong Use of Pleasantry and Humour.

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

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

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

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

IV. Let me here add, that I am apt to think, that when you draw up your Law, you will find it so very difficult to settle the Point of _Decency_ in Writing, in respect to all the various kinds of _Irony_ and _Ridicule_, that you will be ready to lay aside your Project; and that you will be no more able to settle that _Point of Decency_, than you would be to settle by Law, that _Cleanliness_ in Clothes, and that Politeness in Dress, Behaviour, and Conversation, which become Men of Quality and Fortune in the World, and should be habitual to them: And that, if you are able to do that to your own Satisfaction, you will find it very difficult to engage the Lawmakers in your Project. For I am persuaded, that if our Lawmakers were, out of a rational Principle, disposed to give Liberty by Law to _serious_ Opposition to publickly receiv'd Notions, they would not think it of much Importance to make a _Law_ about a Method of _Irony_. They will naturally conclude, that if Men may and ought to be allow'd to write _seriously_ in Opposition to publickly receiv'd Doctrines, they should be allow'd to write in their own way; and will be unwilling to be depriv'd of ingenious and witty Discourses, or such as some of them will judge so, about a Subject wherein _serious free_ Discourse is allow'd. Besides, I am apt to think, that you, upon consideration of the Advantages which the Church has receiv'd from the _Berkenheads_, the _Heylins_, the _Ryves's_, the _Needhams_, the _Lestranges_, the _Nalsons_, the _Lesleys_, the _Oldesworths_, and others, in their _Mercurius Aulicus_'s, their _Mercurius Pragmaticus's_, their _Mercurius Rusticus's_, their _Observators_[63], their _Heraclitus Ridens_'s, _Rehearsals_, their _Examiners_[64], and the three Volumes against the _Rights of the Church_; from the _Butlers_ in their _Hudibras_'s, and other Burlesque Works upon the Religion and Religious Conduct of the Dissenters; or from the _Eachards_, the _Tom Browns_, and _Swifts_; or from the _Parkers_[65], _Patricks_[66], _Souths_[67], _Sherlocks_[68], _Atterburys_[69], and _Sacheverels_[70]; in their Discourses, and Tracts against the Nonconformists, Whigs, Low-Church-men, and Latitudinarians; and other such ironical, satirical, and polemical Divines; and from such _drolling_ Judges as _Howel_, _Recorder_ of London, and the Chief Justice _Jefferys_, who, in all Causes, where _Whigs_ or Dissenters were the Persons accus'd and try'd before them, carried on the Trial by a [71] Train of ridicule on them, their Witnesses and Counsel: I say, I am apt to think, that you would be unwilling to be depriv'd of what has been and may be again so serviceable.

I am dispos'd to think that Dr. _Snape_, who is notoriously known to have gone into the greatest Lengths of Calumny and Satire against Bishop _Hoadley_[72], to have fall'n upon the dissenting Clergy in a burlesque and bantering Address to the _Peirces_, the _Calamys_, and the _Bradburys_, and to have written a long _ironical Letter_ in the Name of the _Jesuits_ to Mr. _de la Pilloniere_[73], will be thought a very improper Object of Censure for such Employment of his Pen. On the contrary, such sort of Attacks upon such Persons are the most meritorious Parts of a Man's Life, recommend him as a Person of true and sincere Religion, much more than the strongest Reasoning, and the most regular Life; and pave the way to all the Riches, and Pleasures and Advantages or Life; not only among those, who, under the Colour of Religion, are carrying on a common _Corporation Cause_ of Wealth, Power, and Authority, but among many well-meaning People, who allow of all Practices, which they suppose help out the _Truth_! It seems to me a most prodigious Banter upon us, for Men to talk in general of the _Immorality_ of _Ridicule_ and _Irony_, and of _punishing_ Men for those Matters, when their own Practice is _universal Irony_ and _Ridicule_ of all those who go not with them, and _universal Applause_ and _Encouragement_ for such _Ridicule_ and _Irony_, and distinguishing by all the honourable ways imaginable such _drolling_ Authors for their Drollery; and when Punishment for _Drollery_ is never call'd for, but when _Drollery_ is used or employ'd against them!

I don't know whether you would be willing, if you consider of it, to limit the Stage it self, which has with great Applause and Success, from Queen _Elizabeth_'s Time downwards, ridicul'd the serious _Puritans_ and _Dissenters_, and that without any Complaints from _good Churchmen_, that _serious_ Persons and Things were _banter'd_ and _droll'd_ upon; and has triumph'd over its fanatical Adversaries in the Person of _Pryn_, who sufficiently suffer'd for his _Histrio-Mastix_, and has been approv'd of as an innocent Diversion by the religious Dr. _Patrick_ in his _Friendly Debate_, in the Reign of King _Charles_ II. when the Stage was in a very immoral State. I don't know whether you would be willing even to restrain _Bartholomew Fair_, where the Sect of the _New Prophets_ was the Subject of a _Droll_ or _Puppet-Show_, to the great Satisfaction of the Auditors, who, it may be presum'd, were all good Churchmen, _Puritans_ and _Dissenters_ usually declining such Entertainments out of _real_ or _pretended_ Seriousness. ("A certain Clergyman thought fit to remark, that King _William_ could be no good Churchman, because of his not frequenting the _Play-House_."[74])

V. It will probably be a Motive with you to be against abolishing _Drollery_, when you reflect that the Men of _Irony_, the _Droles_ and _Satirists_, have been and always will be very numerous on your side, where they have been and are so much incourag'd for acting that Part, and that they have always been and always will be very few on the side of _Heterodoxy_; a Cause wherein an Author by engaging, may hurt his Reputation and Fortune, and can propose nothing to himself but Poverty and Disgrace. I doubt whether you would be for punishing your Friend Dr. _Rogers_, from whom I just now quoted an _Irony_ on the Author of _The Scheme of Literal Prophecy consider'd_, or any one else, for _laughing_ at and making sport with him; or whether you would be for punishing the Reverend Mr. _Trapp_, who implies the _Justness_ and _Propriety of ridiculing Popery_; when he says[75], that _Popery is so foolish and absurd, that every body of common Sense must_ LAUGH _at it_; and when he refers to _Erasmus_ for having _abundantly_ RIDICUL'D their _Reliques_; and himself puts _Ridicule_ in Practice against them, by representing their Doctrines and Practices as _ridiculously foolish_, as _despicably childish_, and _Matter of mere Scorn_; as _monstrous_; as _Spells_, _juggling Tricks_, _gross Cheats_, _Impostures_[76], and _wretched Shifts_; and in fine, in representing by way of _Specimen_, all their _Miracles_ as _Legends_; of which he says, _These and a thousand more such like unreasonable Lies, which a Child of common Sense would laugh at, are impos'd upon and swallow'd by the ignorant People, and make a_ VERY GREAT _Part of the Popish Religion._

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

"Transubstantiation, says _Tillotson_[77], is not a Controversy of Scripture against Scripture, or of Reason against Reason, but of downright Impudence against the plain meaning of Scripture, and all the Sense and Reason of Mankind." And accordingly he scruples not to say, in a most _drolling_ manner, that "Transubstantiation is one of the chief of the _Roman_ Church's _legerdemain_ and _juggling Tricks_ of Falshood and Imposture; and that in all Probability those common juggling Words of _Hocus-pocus_, are nothing else but a Corruption of _hoc est corpus_, by way of ridiculous Imitation of the Church of _Rome_ in their _Trick_ of _Transubstantiation_." And as he _archly_ makes the Introduction of this monstrous Piece of _grave Nonsense_ to be owing to its being at first preach'd by its Promoters with _convenient Gravity and Solemnity_[78], which is the common Method of imposing Absurdities on the World; so I think that Doctrine taught with such _convenient Gravity and Solemnity_ should necessarily produce _Levity, Laughter and Ridicule_, in all intelligent People to whom it is propos'd, who must _smile_, if they can with safety, to see such Stuff vented with a grave Face.

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_.