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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	teach_v	young_a	youth_n	48	3	7.5271	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57291	The stage condemn'd, and the encouragement given to the immoralities and profaneness of the theatre, by the English schools, universities and pulpits, censur'd King Charles I Sundays mask and declaration for sports and pastimes on the Sabbath, largely related and animadverted upon : the arguments of all the authors that have writ in defence of the stage against Mr. Collier, consider'd, and the sense of the fathers, councils, antient philosophers and poets, and of the Greek and Roman States, and of the first Christian Emperours concerning drama, faithfully deliver'd : together with the censure of the English state and of the several antient and modern divines of the Church of England upon the stage, and remarks on diverse late plays : as also on those presented by the two universities to King Charles I.	Ridpath, George, d. 1726.	1698 (1698)	Wing R1468; ESTC R17141	128,520	226

Stories or Poems There 's none of them let their Disposition be never so good but are in danger of being corrupted by this Method and I should look on it as next akin to a Miracle if there were any Virgin or Matron so Religiously Chast as not to have their Lusts inflamed almost to madness by Reading such kind of Books and Poems In this Case even the Heathen Lecher Ovid who is much more ingenuous than our pretended Christian Poets gives Judgment against his own Amorous POEMS and those of Tibullus c. Eloquar in vitus teneros ne tange Poetas Summon●o dot●s impias esse meas Callimachum ●ugito non est inimicus amori Et cum Callimacho tu quoque Coe Noces Carmina quis potuit tuto legisse Tibulli Vel tita cujus opus Cynthea sola suit Quis potuit lecto durus discedere Gallo Et mea nescio quid carmina tale sonant De Remedio amoris lib. 3. p. 230. It will appear plain from the very Nature and Design of Christian Schools That such things ought not to be taught in them The end of all such Schools is to teach Wisdom and Vertue that we may know God and our selves and how to Worship God aright whereas the quite contrary is taught by those Authors Homer Hesiod Pindar Aristophanes Virgil Horace and the rest of those Heathen Authors arriv'd to that height of Impiety and Madness that they feign'd such lewd things to be acted by their Gods as a modest Man cannot but be ashamed to reh●arse before Youth for they represent their Gods and Goddesses to be such as no honest or well-governed Common-wealth would have admitted them for Citizens so that Palingenius writes truly of them In c●elo est Meretrix in coelo est turpis adulter Lib. I. There 's no doubt but the Heathen Poets were influenced by Satan to feign such Monstrous and Horrid Things concerning their Deities that they might thereby promote and Authorize Whoredom and Uncleanness among Men and add Fewel to the Flames of Corrupt Nature Certainly those Fables in Ovid's Metamorphosis concerning the Amous nay Rapes of the Gods and others cannot leave any Chast Impressions upon the Minds of Youth What a fulsom Expression is that of Virgil Aneid 7. Mista Deo Mulier The danger of teaching such things to Youth was seen by the very Heathen Philosophers And therefore Plato says That those fabulous Stories of the Poets were not to be receiv'd into a City as if the Gods wag'd War and form'd Ambushes against one another c. whether they be taken in an Allegorical Sense or not For Children says he cannot distinguish betwixt what is spoke figuratively or otherwise and such Opinions as they drink in when they are young they can hardly ever lay aside To feign that God who is altogether Good is the Cause of Evil is an Error that ought to be refuted and therefore the Poets should be compelled to write and speak things that are honest Tha● same Author says in Theage I know not what any Man in his Right Wits ought to be more solicitous about than how to have his Son made as good as possible and therefore he advises that care be taken that Nurses don't entertain them with old Wives Fables lest they be corrupted with Madness and Folly from their very Infancy Seeing those poor Heathens who had nothin● but the Light of Nature to direct them coul● give such excellent Precepts what a shame 〈◊〉 it for Christian Schoolmasters to spend more tim● in teaching their Youth who Iupiter Vulca● Neptune and Saturn were than who Iesus Chris● is and to teach them those Lascivious Heathe● Po●ts in direct Opposition to the Seventh Co●●mand St. Augustine in his Book of Con●ession 〈◊〉 out Oh that when I was a young Man I ha●● been instructed in profitable Books Whilst I w●● a Youth at School I heard them talk of Iupit●● darting Thunder and committing Adultery at t●● same time The Jews were commanded to teach the La●● of God to their Children diligently to talk 〈◊〉 them when they sat in their Houses when th●● walked by the way when they lay down an● when they rose up to write them upon the Pos● of their Houses and on their Gates Deut. 6. 6 7 ● The Roy●l Prophet David taught them Th● young Men were to purifie their way by takin● heed thereunto according to the Word of Go● Psal. 119. 9. And the wise King Solomon co●●manded Children to be trained up in the Way t●● they should go and when they were old they wo●● not depart from it Prov. 22. 6. The Apostle 〈◊〉 joyns that our Children should be brought up 〈◊〉 the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord Eph. 6 And commands Timothy to avoid Profane and 〈◊〉 Wives Fables 1 Tim. 4. 7. The only Objection of any weight that can 〈◊〉 raised against this is That in those Heathen Poe● there are abundance of excellent Moral Sentenc● and that Youth learn the Purity of the Lati●● Tongue from them To which it may be answer● That put them all together they come infinite● short of those Moral Instructions that are to be found in the Proverbs of Solomon and the Ecclesiastes that its evident what Moral Sayings of worth any of those Heathen Authors have they borrow'd them from Moses and others of the divinely inspired Writers and we may with more safety and purity drink from the same Founta●ns than from their polluted Streams And as for the purity of the Latine Tongue it may as well be learnt from others as from the Poets The Roman Histories are excellent for that end and if their Poets were purg'd from their Obscenities c. and so put into the Hands of Youth there could be nothing to object against ' em Nor are there wanting excellent Latine Poems by Christian Authors which might be equally serviceable for instructing our Youth in the purity of the Latine Tongue and inspring them also with true Christian Sentiments such as the famous Antient Poems of Tertullian Arator Apollinaris Nazianzen Prudentius Prosper and other Christian Worthies and the later ones of Du Bartas Beza Scaliger Buchanan Heinsius c. That a Reform of the Schools in this Point hath been so long neglected reflects Shame upon the Church who ought to have chiefly concerned themselves in it and is one main Reason why so many Persons of good parts have applied themselves to write for the Stage and that too with more Wantonness and Latitude than most of the Hea●hen Poets ever dar'd to allow themselves and the Corruption hath spread so far as to in●ect our Universities who tho' formerly they condemned the Stage are now become its Admirers and to the Scandal of the Nation obscene Poems are writ at their Publick Acts. CAP. V. An Answer to M. Motteuxes Defence of the STAGE I Come next to consider what is offer'd in Defence of the Stage by a Divine of the Church of England from the Authority

Publication of this Our Command be made by Order of the Bishops through all the Parish-Churches of their several Diocesses respectively Here was a great difference betwixt the Exercise of the Episcopal Function in the Reigns of the Father and the Son or by this Declaration Ch. I. made the Bishops Trumpeters to the Stage and King Iames II said that in his Time they were Trumpeters of Rebellion because they petitioned against Reading the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience This Declaration for Sports was read by most of them and such of the Ministers as would not conform were turned out till the Controversies betwixt the King and Parliament and the Civil War that ensued put a stop to it Thus I have made it plain That the governing part of the Church patroniz'd the Stage in the Reign of Charles I. and by the Book call'd Centuries of scandalous Ministers we find that many of them were turned out for frequenting the Stage in the Parliament Times and the Theatre being then overturned there was so great a Reform of Manners that notwithstanding the Libertinism which usually accompanies War one might have walk'd through the City and Suburbs without hearing an Oath but when King Charles II. was restored the Play-houses were speedily re-opened and without any Publick Check or Control from the Church went on to that height of Immorality which Mr. C. complains of Nay they were thought very subservient to support the Church by jerking at the Whigs and Dissenters in their Prologues and Plays and to infuse ●rightful Ideas of them into the Heads of the Spectators whilst at the same time they run down the belief of the Popish Plot vindicated the Traitors that had been executed for it and dress'd the true Patriots of our Religion and Liberty in the Skins of Beasts of prey that they might be devoured with the better Appetite It were easie to cram a Volume with Instances of this sort but they are so well known that 't is needless There being no Body who ●requented the Play-house or read the Plays in the two last Reigns but know that the Stage was attempered to the Lascivious and Arbitrary ●umoe●s of those Princes and to blacken all those that opposed their Tyrannical Designs Having thus made it appear that the Church hath ●avoured the Stage by their not warning the People against it by seeming to hallow the Phrase of it in their Pulpits by approving or at least conniving at the practise of it on the Sabbath in King Charles I. by prosecuting those who writ against it Writing Plays themselves by some of them practising it in their own Persons and Writing in Defence of it by enjoining the Book of Sports by not opposing it in the Reigns of Charles II. and Iames II. and to which I shall add by their not opposing it in this Reign when they might have hopes of better success seeing both King and Parliament have declared themselves so highly against Immorality and Profaneness I come now in the next place to see how far the Schools are chargeable with the same Crime CAP. IV. The Stage Encouraged by the Schools THIS Subject hath not been so much ●reated on as the former and by Consequence is a sign that the danger of it hath not ●een so much perceived yet it hath not been altogether over-look'd for Authors both Antient and Modern have taken Notice of it Clemens Romanus Nazianzen Tertullian Ambrose Ierom Lactantius Augustine and others of the Antients The 4th Council of Carthage and divers other Councils Bishop Babington Bishop Hooper Perkins Do●nham Williams and all other Commentators on the 7th Commandment have Condemned and Forbid the Writing Printing Selling or Teaching any Amorous Wanton Play-books Histories or Heathen Authors especially Ovids wanton Epistles and Books of Love Catullus Tib●●lus Propertius Martial Plautus and Teren●● as may be seen in the Places quoted in the Ma●●gin The Reasons why they should not be read 〈◊〉 Youth are giv'n us by Osorius thus 〈◊〉 Poets are Obscene Petulant Effeminate and 〈◊〉 their Lascivious and impure Verses divert th● Mind from Shamfastness and Industry to Lust an● Sloth and so much the smoother they are 〈◊〉 much the more Noxious and like so man● Syrens ruine all those that give Ear to them The more ingeniously any of them write 〈◊〉 amorous Subjects they are so much the mo●● Criminal for we willingly Read and easil● Learn by Heart a Fine and Elegant Poem an● therefore the Poison of Lascivious Verse mak●● a quick and speedy Impression upon the Mind and by the Smoothness and Elegancy of th● Language kills before an Antidote can be a●●plied Therefore all such Poets ought not only 〈◊〉 be banished the C●urt but also the Country Nay Aeneas Silvius afterwards Pope Pius 〈◊〉 in his Treatise of Education dedicated to Ladisl●●● King of Hungary and Bohemia Discoursing wh●● Authors and Poets are to be read to Children r●solves it thus Ovid writes many times in a Melancholl● Strain and as often Sweetly but is in mo●● places too Lascivious Horace though an A●thor of admirable Eloquence yet has man● things I would neither have Read nor expou●●ded to you Martial is a Pernicious tho' Flori● and Ornat Poet but so full of Prickles that hi● Roses are not to be gathered without dange● Those who write Elegies are altogether to 〈◊〉 kept up from the Boys for they are too Sof● and Effeminate Tibullus Propertius Catulli●● and Sappho which we have now translated abound with amorous Subjects and are full of complaints of unfortunate Amours Your Preceptor ought to take special Care that whilst he reads the Comical and Tragical Poets to you he does not seem to instruct you in something that 's Vitious It is still more remarkeable that Ignatius Loyola the Founder of the Order of the Jesuites who are as little recommendable to the World for their Chastity as for their other Vertues forbad the Reading of Terence in Schools to Children and Youth before his Obscenities were expunged lest he should more corrupt their Manners by his Wantonness than help their Wits by his Latin The Jews a People noted enough for their Uncleanness yet did not permit their Children and Youth in Antient Times to read the Canticles till they arrived at 30 Years of Age for fear they should draw those Spiritual Passages of the Love betwixt Christ and his Church to a Carnal Sence and make them Instruments of inflaming their own Lusts And upon the same Account Origen advi●eth such as are of an amorous Temper to forbear Reading it How much more Reason is there to forbid the Reading of the Lascivious Heathen Poets and Plays seeing it is found to be true by Experience as Agrippa in his Discourse of Uncleanness hath excellently expressed it That there is no more powerful Engine to attaque and vanquish the Chastity of any Matron Girl or Widow or of any Male or Female whatever than the Reading of Lascivious

their Sense and Lust As one that hath the Green-Sickness may say Coals and Clay and Ashes do me more good than Meat because they are not so sit to judge as those that have a healthful State and Appetite And it seldom ple●sed the Conscience of a dying Man to remember the time he had spent at Stage-Plays IX Usually there is much cost bestowed on them which might be better employed and therefore is unlawful X. God hath appointed a stated means of instructing Souls by Parents Ministers c. which is much more fit and powerful Therefore that time were better spent and it is doubtful whether Play-houses be not a stated means of Man's Institution set up to the same pretended use as the Church and Ministry of Christ and so be not agains● the second Commandment For my part I cannot defend them if any shall say that the Devil hath apishly made these his Churches in Competition with the Churches of Christ. XI It seemeth to me a heinous Sin for Players to live upon this as a Trade and Function and to be educated for it and maintained in it that which might be used as a Recreation may not always be made a Trade of XII There is no mention that ever such Plays were used in Scripture-times by any godly Persons XIII The Primitive Christians and Churches were commonly against them Many Canons are yet to be seen by which they did condemn them Read but Dr. Io. Reinolds against Albericus Gentilis and you shall see unanswerable Testimonies from Councils Fathers Emperors Kings and all sober Antiquity against them XIV Thousands of Young People in our time have been undone by them some at the Gallows and many Servants who run out in their Accounts neglect their Masters Business and turn to Drunkenness and ●hordom and Debauchery do confess that Stage-plays were not the last or least of the Temptations which did over-throw them XV. The best that can be said of these Plays is that they are controverted and of doubtful Lawfulness but there are other means enough of undoubtful and uncontroverted Lawfulness for the same honest ends and therefore it is a sin to do that which is doubtful without need Upon all these Reasons I advise all that love their Time their Souls their God and Happiness ●o turn away from these Nurseries of Vice and to delight themselves in the Law and Ordinances of their Saviour Ps. 1. 2 3. As for Play-Books and Romances and Idle Tales I have already shewed in my Book of Self-denial how pernicious they are especially to Youth and to frothy empty idle Wits that know not what a Man is not what he hath to do in the World they are powerful Baits of the Devil to keep more necessary things out of their minds and better Books out of their hands and to poison the mind so much the more dangerously as they are read with more delight and pleasure and to fill the minds of sensual people with such idle fumes and intoxicating fancies as may divert them from the serious thoughts of their Salvation and which is no small loss to Rob them of abundance of that precious time which was given them for more important business and which they will wish and wish again at last that they had spent more wisely I know the Fantastick will say that these things are innocent and may teach men much good like him that must go to a Whore-house to learn to hate Uncleanness and him that would go out with Robbers to learn to hate Thievery But I shall now only ask them as in the presence of God 1. Whether they could spend that time no better 2. Whether better Books and Practices would not edisie them more 3. Whether the greatest Lovers of Romances and Plays he the greatest Lovers of the Book of God and of a holy Life 4. Whether they feel in themselves that the Love of these Vanities doth increase their Love to the Word of God and kill their sin and prepare them for the Life to come or clean contrary And I would desire men not to prate against their own Experience and Reason nor to dispute themselves into damnable impe●tinency nor to befool their Souls by a few silly words which any but a Sensualist may perceive to be meer dece●t and falshood If this will not serve they shall be shortly convinced and answered in another manner CAP. XVIII Reflections on some late PLAYS First on Beauty in Distress I Come next to make some Remarks on M. Motteux's Play call'd Beauty in Distress which it seems he and his Friend Mr. Dryden propose as a pattern of Reformation It were e●sie in the first place to observe from Mr. Dryden's Poetical Epistle to the Author that it contains an unmannerly and malicious Reflection upon the Clergy in general Rebellion worse than Witch●raft they pursu'd The Pulpit preach'd the Crime the People ru'd The Stage was silenc'd for the Saints would see In Fields perform'd their plotted Tragedy Mr. Dryden's Wit and Extraordinary Talent of Poetry are uncontrovertible but his turning Renegado from the Protestant Religion which abhors the Doctrine of Killing KINGS and running over to the Church of Rome which hath advanc'd that Practice to the Dignity of Merit render● him as unfit as any Man alive to charge his Neighbours with Rebellion and is no convincing Proof of his extraordinary Judgment either as to Divinity or Politicks If his Charge had been levell'd against Sibthorp and Manwaring and their Disciples on the one side or against Hugh Peters and the Tub●Preachers of those Times on the other side there 's few Men of Sense would have thought themselves concern'd in the Reflection but as it is levell'd against all the Clergy without distinction he must give me leave to tell him that it may easily be prov'd that Sibthorp and Manwaring and the rest of their passive Obedience-Doctors who taught That the King was above Law and might dispose of our Estates Lives and Liberties without Consent of Parliament were the chief Fire-brands of the Rebellion and set the two Constituent parts of our Government the King and Parliament together by the Ears And were by consequence chargeable with the Reveries of Hugh Peters and the rest of the Enthusiastical Tribe who carried things to the other Extream when the People were render'd Mad by Oppression But as for the Body of the English Clergy either Episcopal or Presbyterian the Charge is Malicious and Injurious The best of the Church of England Clergy opposed the Stage in those times as well as the Presbyterians yet it 's known that both of them oppos'd the carrying on of things to that height which they afterwards came to And I must beg leave to tell him that his Brethren of the Stage by usurping upon the Sabbath and ridiculing the Pretensions of the People to their Liberty and Property had no small share in bringing on the Calamities he speaks of Or if he be for a later Instance I can oblige him