Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the English Stage | Page 6

plain Questions be proposed, without Offence,
to the Persons who frequent our _Play-Houses_; and especially to such
of them as appear at any times in our Churches, and at the Holy
Sacrament, and be submitted to the Judgment of all Mankind._
I. Can Persons who frequent the _Play-Houses_, and are not displeased
to hear Almighty God blasphemed, his Providence questioned and
denied, his Name prophaned, his Attributes ascribed to sinful Creatures,
and even to Heathen Gods, his Holy Word burlesqued, and treated as a
Fable, his Grace made a Jest of, his Ministers despised, Conscience
laught at, and Religion ridiculed; in short, the Christian Faith and
Doctrine exposed, and the sincere Practice of Religion represented as

the Effect of Vapours and Melancholy, Virtue discountenanced, and
Vice encouraged. Evil treated as Good, and Good as Evil, and all this
highly aggravated by being done in cool Blood, upon Choice and
Deliberation? Can those, I say, that frequent the _Play-Houses_, and
are not displeased with any of these things, be thought to have any due
Sense of Religion?
II. Can Persons who often spend their Time and Money to see Plays, be
suppos'd to be displeas'd with, and to have a due Indignation at, the
Hearing the Outrages beforementioned, which so often occur in them,
and of which there is a dismal Specimen laid before the World in this
Paper?
III. Can sincere Christians encourage and assist, by their Presence and
Purses, Men in committing such Practices, and in their living by a
Profession, which, as it is managed, is so inconsistent with
Christianity?
IV. Can any who have a true Concern for the Honour of Almighty God,
give Countenance and Support to such Entertainments whereby he is so
dishonour'd and affronted, though they could suppose themselves
above the Danger of being the worse for them, which they can never
be?
V. Can Persons who know 'tis generally allowed, that the Infidelity and
Looseness of the Age is very much owing to the Play-Houses; who
have observed, that the Zeal of particular Persons have decreased, and
their Strictness of Life abated, by their going to Plays; and do think that
the Gospel obliges them to discourage, by their Reproof and Example,
Sin in their Neighbours, to endeavour, according to their Advantages
and Opportunities, to further their spiritual Welfare, and to be Lights to
lead others in their Duty and Way to Heaven? Can such, tho' they could
think themselves wholly secure from taking Infection in going to the
Play-House, encourage others, even weak and feeble Christians, by
their Example, to run to the same dangerous Place likewise? Can this
be thought an Expression of their Charity to their Neighbour, or to be
acceptable to Almighty God? or rather, Should not Compassion to the
Souls of their Neighbours keep such as have a due Concern for them
from going to such Places?
VI. Can it be denied, but that the going of a few sober Persons, tho' but
once a Year, to see a Play, that they think less offensive and dangerous,

does encourage many others to go frequently to Plays, and to those that
are more abominably loose and prophane; who might never go at all to
them, if none frequented them but such as were entirely abandoned to
Shame as well as Vice?
VII. Can Persons who have good Dispositions to Religion, who go but
once or twice in a Year to the _Play-House_, say, upon their
Experience, that they think the seeing of Plays is proper to encrease the
Love of God in Men, to fit them for holy Exercises, and to promote
their spiritual Welfare? or rather, Must they not own, that by the seeing
of Plays they are more indisposed for Religious Performances; that the
Awe and Reverence which they had for God and Religion, and the
Horrour which they had at the Sins which they there see Men divert
themselves with, and make a Jest of, does thereby wear off; that their
sensual Desires are more heightned and enflamed; that they are more
alienated from God, and more enamoured with the World?
VIII. Can Persons who are sensible of, and do heartily lament their
want of the Love and Fear of God, their too great a Love of the World,
the frequent Distractions of their Mind in Prayer, and the Unruliness of
their Lusts and Passions, delight to frequent a Place where they are
surrounded with Temptations to the Love of the World; where what can
excite to unlawful Desires and Actions is promoted; and the Arts of an
easie Defilement are studied? Can they think this consistent with the
Rules of keeping from all Appearance of Evil, of avoiding the
Occasions and Temptations to Sin, and that Watchfulness over their
Thoughts, and that Diligence in making their Calling