to hear the Word of God Burlesqu’d?  In what a ridiculous Dress did Religion appear?  When to spin out the time in old Proverbs, and wretched Puns, a Fellow wou’d run it up to Six and thirtiethly, before he came to his Use and Applications.  In short, the Drunkenness, Whoring, Insolence, and Dulness that has appear’d under a Black Coat on the Stage, have made the Men of the same Colour of it keep within Bounds:  And that a Man might not teize them with the Representation, they have endeavour’d to appear in as differing a Form as possible.

If what Mr. Collier says was true, That when a Clergyman is brought on the Stage, it is with a design to ridicule the Function, it wou’d be abominable, and as bad as the Town is, wou’d be hiss’d off the Stage.  I dare say, whatever the Intention of the Poet is, ’tis not receiv’d so by the Audience.  For at this rate, every foolish Peer who Is brought on the Stage, must be suppos’d to intend a Reflection on all the Men of Condition; and an Alderman, who is a Cuckold, must be look’d on as the Representative of his Brethren.  ’Tis absurd to make no distinction; as if a particular Vice in a particular Man, cou’d not be expos’d without a design’d Reflection on all who belong to him.  It ought to touch no body but whom it concerns; and it has its end, if it reclaims where it was design’d, and prevents others, by shewing the Danger:  And this is the Design of Comedy.  But the Question is, Whether our Poets have managed it as they ought?  Whether they have not pick’d out a particular Person, and expos’d the Character in general, under the Notion of one Man?  I answer to this, That whatever the Design of the Poet has been, it has not had the effect with the People:  For who disbelieves the Authority of their Function, or thinks the worse of Good, Learned, and Ingenious Men among them?  Are not the Religious very much reverenc’d?  Has any Body thought the worse of Stillingfleet, Tillotson, and Burnet, upon this Account?  Who can believe, that when Mr. Vanbroug disguises a Parson, that he thought of these Men, or any who lives soberly, and makes Religion their Business, and at the same time, don’t make it inconsistent with good Manners?  The Good among them know the People love them, and that nothing but their own mis-behaviour draws them into Contempt.  Any Minister, tho’ he was but of mean Understanding, yet if he had other good Qualities, if he liv’d soberly, and did his Duty religiously, that ever such a Man was pickt out to be the Scandal of his Neighbours, or a Ridicule of the Stage.  Whence is it then, that the Clergy are so angry?  If you hook but one of them, all the rest are upon your Back, and you can’t expose his Vices without being an Enemy to the Church:  And in this, Priests of all Religions are the same.