Representation of the Impiety and Immorality of the English Stage | Page 7

and Election sure,
as the Gospel requires? Do they in any wise herein adorn their
Profession, resemble the Christians who lived in the first Ages of
Christianity; or those who in any Age since have been celebrated for
their Virtue?
IX. Can Persons in good earnest pray, as they are directed in the
Lord's-Prayer, Not to be led into Temptation, and yet frequent the
Play-House, where they are assaulted with more and greater
Temptations than incounter them perhaps in any other Place?
X. Can such Persons as go to the _Play-Houses_ on Week-days, and
appear in our Churches on the Lord's-day, and even at the Holy
Sacrament, where they declare, that they _present themselves, their
Souls and Bodies, as a reasonable, holy and lively Sacrifice to God_, be

suppos'd to attend upon these Holy Ordinances with a suitable Frame of
Mind; since the Language and Design of Sermons, and of our Liturgy,
and of Plays, are so different and even directly contrary to each other?
XI. Can Ladies really dislike Lewd Discourse in Conversation, and yet
like to see Lewdness represented in all the Dresses that can vitiate the
Imagination, and fasten upon the Memory?
XII. Can Parents, or any other Persons who have the Conduct of Youth,
and have any serious Concern for the Souls of their Children, or of
those that are committed to their Care, satisfie their Consciences,
without Restraining them from going to a place of such Impiety and
Infection; where they would be in the way to unlearn the best
Instructions of their Parents and Governours; where Pride and Falshood,
Malice and Revenge, Injustice and Immodesty, Contempt of Marriage,
and false Notions of Honour, are recommended; where Men are taught
to call in question the first Principles of their Religion, and are led to a
contempt of Sacred things?
XIII. Can sincere and judicious Christians think that the Players
exposing (as they pretend to do) Formality, Humour, and Pedantry, is
an Equivalent for their insulting sacred things, and their promoting to
so high a degree the Prophaneness and Debauchery of the Nation?
XIV. Can modest and prudent Christians think, that the Opinion of the
General Councils, Primitive Fathers, and so many wise and good Men
in the several Ages of the Church, who have condemned the going to
Plays as unlawful, and as a renouncing the Baptismal Engagements,
doth not deserve great regard?
XV. Can sincerely religious Persons hear of the most horrid, licentious
Treatment of sacred things as is in our Plays, and this not among
Mahometans and Infidels, not at Rome and Venice, but in a Protestant
Countrey, without a Fear that the Judgments of God will fall upon us?
XVI. Can less be expected from good Christians, who are sensible of
the intolerable Disorders of the Play-Houses, and the Mischiefs that are
brought upon Mankind by them, than that they would use all proper
Methods for the Discouraging and Restraining their Relations and
Friends from going to them, as they have any Concern for the Honour
of God, the Good of Mankind, and the Welfare of their own Immortal
Souls; that so by Persons, who have any virtuous Principles, keeping
from a Place which they will never be able to frequent with Safety to

themselves, under any partial Regulation; the Players, the unhappy, the
miserable Players, may be necessitated to quit their Profession, and
take upon them some honest and useful Employment (wherein good
Men ought to encourage and assist them) and thereby the execrable
Impieties of the _Play-Houses_, and the ruinous consequences of them,
be prevented?
XVII. Lastly, Can Persons frequent the Play-Houses, after the
outragious Impieties of them, and the fatal Effects of their going to
them, are in so full and advantageous a manner laid open to the World,
without a greater Aggravation of their Guilt?
FINIS.

Some THOUGHTS Concerning the STAGE IN A LETTER TO A
LADY
London, Printed Anno Dom. 1704

Madam,
It is with no little Pleasure I behold you treading in the Paths of Virtue,
and practising the Duties of a Holy and Religious life. This, as it has
deservedly gain'd you the Love and Admiration of all that know you: so,
I doubt not, but you will always find it a Fund of solid Peace and
Satisfaction to your own Mind. I heartily wish there were many more
such bright Examples in the World, that the Ladies might be at last
convinc'd, _That there is something worthy their Imitation beyond the
Modes of Dress and Equipage; something which will render them much
more agreeable to the best and wisest of their Admirers, and, in time,
no less pleasing to themselves_. I make no doubt but the Age (as
corrupt as it is) can furnish us with many Instances of those of your Sex,
who