ridiclue, they value fo much, is a perfection very eafily acquired, and applied to all things whatsoever; neither is any thing at all the worse, because it is capable of being perverted to burlesque: Perhaps it may be the more perfect upon that score; fince we know, the most celebrated pieces have been thus treated with greatest succefs. It is in any man's power to fuppofe a fool's cap on the wifeft head, and then laugh at his own fuppofition. I think there are not many things cheaper than fuppofing and laughing; and if the uniting these two talents can bring a thing into contempt, it is hard to know where it may end.

To conclude. Thefe confiderations may, perhaps, have fome effect while men are awake; but what arguments shall we use to the fleeper? What methods fhall we take to hold open his eyes? Will he be moved by confiderations of common civility? We know it is reckoned a point of very bad manners to fleep in private company, when, perhaps, the tedious impertinence of many talkers would render it

at

at least as excufable as at the dulleft ferDo they think it a small thing to watch four hours at a play, where all virtue and religion are openly reviled; and can they not watch one half hour to hear them defended? Is this to deal like a judge, (I mean like a good judge) to listen on one fide of the cause, and fleep on the other? I fhall add but one word more: That this indecent floth is very much owing to that luxury and excess men ufually practice upon this day, by which half the fervice thereof is turned to fin; men dividing the time between God and their bellies, when, after a gluttonous meal, their fenfes dozed and ftupified, they retire to God's house to fleep out the afternoon. Surely, brethren, these things ought not fo to be.

He that bath ears to hear, let him hear. And God give us all grace to hear and receive his holy word to the falvation of our cwn fouls.

REMARKS

UPON A

BOOK,

INTITULED,

The Rights of the Chriftian Church, &c.

Written in the Year 1708, but left unfinished.

BE

EFORE I enter upon a particular examination of this treatise, it will be convenient to do two things:

First, To give fome account of the author, together with the motives, that might probably engage him in fuch a work. And,

Secondly, To difcover the nature and tendency in general, of the work itself.

The first of these, although it hath been objected againft, feems highly reafonable, especially in books that inftil pernicious principles. For, although a book is not intrinfically much better or worse,

I

according

according to the ftature or complexion of the author, yet when it happens to make a noife, we are apt, and curious, as in other noifes, to look about from whence it cometh. But however, there is fomething more in the matter.

If a theological fubject be well handled by the layman, it is better received than if it came from a divine; and that for reasons obvious enough, which, although of little weight in themfelves, will ever have a great deal with mankind.

But, when books are written with ill intentions, to advance dangerous opinions, or destroy foundations; it may be then of real ufe to know from what quarter they come, and go a good way towards their confutation. For inftance, if any man should write a book against the lawfulness of punishing felony with death; and, upon enquiry, the author fhould be found in Newgate under condemnation for robbing a houfe; his arguments would not very unjustly lofe much of their force, from the circumftances he lay under. So, when Milton writ his book of divorces, it was presently rejected as an occafional VOL. XIII. treatise;

G

treatife; because every body knew, he had a fhrew for his wife. Neither can there be any reafon imagined, why he might not, after he was blind, have writ another upon the danger and inconvenience of eyes. But, it is a piece of logic which will hardly pafs on the world; that because one man hath a fore nofe, therefore all the town fhould put plaifters upon theirs. So, if this treatife about the rights of the church fhould prove to be the work of a man fteady in his principles, of exact morals, and profound learning, a true lover of his country, and a hater of chriftianity, as what he really believes to be a cheat upon mankind, whom he would undeceive purely for their good; it might be apt to check unwary men, even of good difpofitions towards religion. But, if it be found the production of a man fowered with age and misfortunes, together with the confcioufnefs of past mifcarriages; of one, who, in hopes of preferment, was reconciled to the Popish religion; of one wholely proflitute in life and principles, and only an enemy to religion, because it condemns them: In this

case,