And this manner of writing is seldom complain’d of, as unfit to be allow’d, by any but those who feel themselves hurt by it. For the solemn and grave can bear a solemn and grave Attack: That gives them a sort of Credit in the World, and makes them appear considerable to themselves, as worthy of a serious Regard. But Contempt is what they, who commonly are the most contemptible and worthless of Men, cannot bear nor withstand, as setting them in their true Light, and being the most effectual Method to drive Imposture, the sole Foundation of their Credit, out of the World. Hence Stillingfleet’s Popish Adversaries, more conscious perhaps of the Ridiculousness of Popery than the common People among Protestants themselves, fall upon him very furiously. One says[37], “That by the Phrases, which are the chief Ornaments that set off the Doctor’s Works, we may easily guess in what Books he has spent his Time; and that he is well vers’d in Don Quixot, the Seven Champions, and other Romantick Stories. Sure the Doctor err’d in his Vocation: Had he quitted all serious Matters, and dedicated himself wholly to Drollery and Romance, with two or three Years under Hudibras, he might have been a Master in that Faculty; the Stage might have been a Gainer by it, and the Church of England would have been no Loser.”
Another of his Adversaries says, “[38]Peruse the Doctor Page after Page, you will find the Man all along in peevish Humour, when you see his Book brimfull of tart biting Ironies, Drolleries, comical Expressions, impertinent Demands, and idle Stories, &c. as if the discharging a little Gall were enough to disparage the clearest Miracles God ever wrought.”
But what are these clearest Miracles God ever wrought? Why, the most extravagant, whimsical, absurd, and ridiculous Legends and Stories imaginable; such as that of St. Dominick[39], who when the Devil came to him in the Shape of a Monkey, made him hold a Candle to him while he wrote, and keep it so long between his Toes, till it burnt them; and his keeping the Devil, who sometimes came to him in the Shape of a Flea, and by skipping on the Leaves of his Book disturb’d his Reading, in that Shape, and using him for a Mark to know where he left off reading: Such as St. Patrick’s heating an Oven with Snow, and turning a Pound of Honey into a Pound of Butter: Such as Christ’s marrying Nuns, and playing at Cards with them; and Nuns living on the Milk of the blessed Virgin Mary; and that of divers Orders, and especially the Benedictine, being so dear to the blessed Virgin, that in Heaven she lodges them under her Petticoats: Such as making broken Eggs whole; and of People, who had their Heads cut off, walking with their Heads in their Hands, which were sometimes set on again: Such as Failing for a hundred Years; and raising Cows, Calves, and Birds from the Dead, after they had been chopt to Pieces and eaten, and putting on their Heads after they had been pull’d or cut off; and turning a Pound of Butter into a Bell; and making a Bull give Milk; and raising a King’s Daughter from the Dead, and turning her into a Son; and the several Translations thro’ the Air of the Virgin Mary’s House from Palestine to Loretto, and the Miracles wrote there; and more of the like Kind.
Are these, or such as these the clearest Miracles God ever wrought? Do such Miracles deserve a serious Regard? And shall the Gravity with which Mankind is thus banter’d out of their common Sense, excuse these Matters from Ridicule?
It will be difficult to find any Writers who have exceeded the Doctors, South and [40] Edwards, in Banter, Irony, Satire and Sarcasms: The last of whom has written a Discourse in Defence of sharp Reflections on Authors and their Opinions; wherein he enumerates, as Examples for his Purpose, almost all the eminent Divines of the Church of England. And Mr. [41] Collier, speaking of a Letter of the Venerable Bede to Egbert Bishop of York, says, “The Satire and Declamation in this Epistle shews the pious Zeal and Integrity of the Author;” which seems to imply, that Satire and Declamation is the orthodox and most pious Method of writing in behalf of Orthodoxy.
Dr. Rogers, to whom you write, falls into the Method of Buffoonery, Banter, Satire, Drollery, Ridicule, and Irony, even in the Treatise to which your Letter is subjoined, and against that Person whom you would have punish’d for that Method: When he says to him, [42] “Religion then, it seems, must be left to the Scholars and Gentlefolks, and to them ’tis to be of no other use, but as a Subject of Disputation to improve their Parts and Learning; but methinks the Vulgar might be indulged a little of it now and then, upon Sundays and Holidays, instead of Bull-baiting and Foot-ball.” And this insipid Piece of Drollery and false Wit [which is design’d to ridicule his Adversary for asserting, that What Men understand nothing of, they have no Concern about; which is a Proposition that will stand the Test of Ridicule, which will be found wholly to lie against the Doctor, for asserting the Reasonableness of imposing Things on the People which they do not understand] is the more remarkable, as it proceeds from one, who is at the same time for using the Sword of the Magistrate against his Adversary. One would think the [43] Inquisitor should banish the Droll, and the Droll the Inquisitor.
One of the greatest and best Authorities for the pleasant and ironical manner of treating serious Matters, is that eminent Divine at the Time of the Reformation, the great Erasmus, who has written two Books in this way with great Applause of Protestants, and without subjecting himself to any Persecution of Papists: which makes it highly proper to propose them to the Consideration of the Reader, that he may regulate his Notions, by what, it may be presum’d, he approves of in that Author. These two Books of Erasmus are his Colloquies, and his Praise of Folly.
His Colloquies were wrote in imitation of Lucian’s Dialogues; and I think with equal, if not superior, Success.
Both these Authors had an Aversion to sullen, austere, designing Knaves; and both of them being Men of Wit and Satire, employ’d their Talents against Superstition and Hypocrisy. Lucian liv’d in an Age when Fiction and Fable had usurp’d the Name of Religion, and Morality was corrupted by Men of Beard and Grimace, but scandalously Leud and Ignorant; who yet had the Impudence to preach up Virtue, and style themselves Philosophers, perpetually clashing with one another about the Precedence of their several Founders, the Merits of their different Sects, and if ’tis possible, about Trifles of less Importance: yet all agreeing in a different way to dupe and amuse the poor People, by the fantastick Singularity of their Habits, the unintelligible Jargon of their Schools, and their Pretensions to a severe and mortify’d Life.
These Jugglers and Impostors Lucian in great measure help’d to chase out of the World, by exposing them in their proper Colours, and by representing them as ridiculous as they were. But in a few Generations after him, a new Race of Men sprung up in the World, well known by the Name of Monks and Fryars, different indeed from the former in Religion, Garb, and a few other Circumstances; but in the main, the same sort of Impostors, the same ever-lasting Cobweb-Spinners, as to their nonsensical Controversies, the same abandon’d Wretches, as to their Morals; but as to the mysterious Arts of heaping up Wealth, and picking the People’s Pockets, infinitely superior to the Pagan Philosophers and Priests. These were the sanctify’d Cheats, whose Folly and Vices Erasmus has so effectually lash’d, that some Countries have entirely turn’d these Drones out of their Cells; and in other Places, where they are still kept up, they are in some measure become contemptible, and obliged to be always on their Guard.