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though hypocrites and enthusiasts should continue to abuse the language of scripture, yet must the truly pious still make the scriptures the source of their ideas, and the rule of their language and their actions:

Tho' all things foul would wear the brows of grace,
Yet grace must still look so:*

and it will not require many words to make it
appear, that, if we take our food and drink,
as the gifts of an all-gracious and all-bountiful
God, with a view to keep our bodies and minds
in that state of health and vigour, which shall
best enable us to discharge our respective duties
in this world, returning hearty thanks for his
favours, and begging his blessing upon them to
that end, the "glory of God" is effectually
promoted.

Thus, likewise, in the article of dress, if it be used for the purposes of decent covering, of defence from the cold and from the heat,-if we do not, in superfluous ornaments, waste that, which might have been spared for those who 3 have no garment to cover them,-and if we do not suffer it to administer to vanity, we may s discharge this seemingly trifling act in such a manner as to promote "the glory of God.”

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*Macbeth, Act iv. scene 3.

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Again, in the amusements of life, if there be nothing in them derogatory to the honour of God, nothing contrary to the duties we owe to mankind, and to the duties we owe to the animals placed under our care for our use, if they be not of too expensive a nature, nor occupy too much of our time, but be merely taken as a relaxation from labour, to enable both the body and the mind to return to their duties with renewed vigour,—and, lastly, if they can be made subservient to assist us in moral and religious improvement, then may they be said to administer "to the glory of God."

1

There is one amusement, which hath been very prevalent in the world, particularly in civilized countries, for many hundred years, and which hath been the cause of much difference of opinion as to its uses and lawfulness. While that, and the place wherein it is performed, have been called by some,-" A School of Virtue,"—"A warm incentive to virtue, and powerful preservative against vice," and "a perpetual source of the most noble and useful entertainment;"-by others it hath been branded as" the School of Impiety,' "the porch of hell," the house of the devil,"--and " the sink of corruption and debauchery."* My hearers

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Prologue to the Tragedy of King Charles the 1st.-Biographia
Dramatica, vol. 1. p. vii. Styles on the Stage, p. 19, quotation.-
Spectator, No. 93. Witherspoon on the Stage, p. 105.-Law on
do. p. 383, 384,
See Note A at the end,

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have, no doubt, anticipated my declaring, that it is the amusement of THE STAGE to which I allude.

Indiscriminate praise or indiscriminate censure are alike injurious to any cause, and equally indispose the friends or the enemies of it to an inquiry into its true merits; and, when we find such very opposite opinions prevail upon any subject, the probability is, that truth lies somewhere between these extreme points.*

Plays have been permitted to be performed in this place or at least within the reach of its inhabitants-at this season, for many years past; a new theatre hath been lately erected, in a situation still nearer to us than before, and some circumstances have lately occurred to make the subject of their propriety be somewhat agitated amongst us. I trust, therefore, that the offering of some considerations upon the matter will not be deemed irrelevant or unnecessary.

The influence of the Stage upon the manners and passions of mankind is universally acknowledged; and, when we consider the size and

*Note B.

The subject of the Middle Bachelors' Prizes, recited in the Senate House, at the Commencement, this year, was, "Quanquam Histrionis Artem miremur, quærendum tamen utrum Mores Hominum emendet magis, an corrumpat Scena?"

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attractions of the theatres of the metropolis, (under which term I would include all places where any entertainment of a dramatic cast is performed) when we reflect, that there are regular theatres for a considerable part of the year in most large towns, and that there is scarcely a town of a few hundred inhabitants throughout the kingdom, (and some villages,) in which plays are not performed for a few weeks in the year, or every other year, or once in a few years, that there are companies of players travelling about to our principal fairs, and that these are visited by the inhabitants of the smallest villages, and when we consider the farther influence of plays, from their being published and read in the closet,-it must be acknowledged as a matter of no trifling concern, whether their general and particular tendency be to promote vice or virtue. All reasonable advocates for the stage, indeed, allow, that it is greatly corrupted, and that plays are not what they ought to be, and what they might be made; while others, arguing from the constant abuse of the stage, and because it never hath been altogether reformed, (at least as far as human imperfection would allow,) are for giving it up, as the safer part. One writer against the stage goes so far as to affirm, "on the most mature deliberation, that the reason why there never was a well-regulated stage, is because it cannot be, the nature of the

thing not admitting it; and that theatrical representations are, in their general nature, or in their best possible state, unlawful, contrary to the purity of our religion: and that writing, acting, or attending them, is inconsistent with the character of a christian.”*

Here, then, the matter is fairly at issue; if the stage, so far from being able to afford an amusement, of which we can partake in such a manner as to" do it to the glory of God," be in itself wrong, and inconsistent with the character of a christian, then, however fascinating it may be, the christian must give it up without reluctance and without a murmur. But, if the evil attached to it be no part of its inherent quality, but arising merely from the abuse of it, and which it is in the power of its frequenters, and properly constituted authorities, to correct; and, if this powerful engine can be farther made to promote the cause of virtue, and, with that, indirectly, if not directly, the cause of religion, then does it become our duty to separate the evil from the good, and to make it such as a christian may frequent.

It may, however, be said, since the Stage is

*Witherspoon, p. 42, also p. 47.

Note C.

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