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world_n	day_n	lord_n	sabbath_n	6,348	5	9.8380	5	true

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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

He who preach'd up the Doctrine of the Cross could he have any liking to to that which is directly contrary to that Doctrine Would any Man that looks upon the Jolly assembly in a Play-house think that these are Disciples of the Crucified God do they not look liker Mahomets Votaries or Epicurus his Followers Would not one think that they are ●ather Disciples of some Heathen Iupiter or Venus or Flora or some such wanton Minion than of the Grave the Austere and the Serious Jesus for such he would have his Followers to be these he would have known by Actions and a Behaviour like his own and is a Play likely to plant this noble Temper in you As a Christian you are to shun the very Appearances of Evil and is this your Obedience to del●ght in that which is Evil to applaud it with your Smiles to commend it with your Tongue and to encourage it by your Presence As a Christian you are the salt of the Earth and consequently are to preserve your Neighbour from Corruption and is this the way to preserve him from Infection by your Presence in such Places and being as vain as he to incourage not only the Actors in their unlawful Professio● but the Spectators too in their Disobedience to the Gospel Wo to that Man by whom the Offence cometh it had been better for him that a Mill-stone were hanged about his Neck and he drowned in the midst of the Sea saith our great Master What is your going to a Play-house but giving Offence What is it but hardning other Men in their Sins Is not this tempting young People to those Extravagancies they should detest Is not this justifying the Players Profession and to make them think that you approve of t●eir Ludicrous Vocations Did Christ come down from Heaven and Die and Spill his Blood for you that you might securely Indulge your carnal Genius Did he sacrifice himself for you that you might please your self with such Fooleries To delight in such Vanities is a Disparagement to his Love a Blemish to his Charity a Disgrace to his Condescension and an Undervaluing of so great a Mercy Have you not observ'd it have you not taken notice how Men and Women who have had some Zeal for Religion and very Pious Inclinations how that Zeal hath decreased upon their frequenting those Houses how their Goodness hath decayed how flat they are grown in Devotion how weak in their Holy Performances May be they have kept up some outward Shews some external Formality some earnestness for the Fringes of Religion or for the ceremonial Part of Christianity But have you not seen how they are become Strangers to that Life which must adorn it With what face dare you approach the Table of your Lord who have been a Spectator of such Shews but a little before If you come to the Lords Table one day and run to a Play-house another do not you destroy all you built the day before In this Sacrament you profess to imitate your Lord in despising the World and is this Imitation to go one day into the House of the Lord and the next into a Den of Thieves for so the Stage may justly be called where Men are robb'd of their Relish of Spiritual Objects Whence hath come that Atheism that Loosness that Indifferency in things Divine that low Esteem of the Tremendous Mysteries of Christianity which of late like a Land-Flood hath overcome us Have they not deriv'd their boldness from these places have not the Vices represented there in jest been practis'd by the forward Youth at home in good earnest And can a Christian have a good Opinion of those Houses where so many have lost their Vertue Can any Man of reason think that after all this Mischief they may be safely hugg'd and applauded Those many Notorious Fornications and Adulteries we have heard and know of those barefac'd Cheats Mens boasting of their Sins and glorying in their Shame their Impudence their Courage to do Evil their daring to do things which sober Heathens have detested whence have they come in a great Measure but from those poisoned Fountains If Wanton Lustful and Obscene Jests are expressly forbid by the great Apostle Eph. 5. 4. Nay are not so much as to be nam'd among Christians how can a Man that makes Profession of that Religion hear them or be taken with them when God's Name is profan'd in such Houses when Religion is mock'd when Vertue is rendred Odious Do but take a View of the Writings of the Primit●ve Fathers and you 'll find them Unanimous in this Assertion that in our Baptism when we renounce the Devil and his Works and the Pomp and Glory of the World we do particularly renounce Stage-Plays and such Ludicrous Representations They that liv'd nearest to the Apostolical Times in all probability knew what was meant by this Renunciation and this they profess to be the sense of it this they assure us is meant by those Pomps and Glories And why should we presume to put a new sense upon that Vow They receiv'd this Interpretation from the Apostles and propagated it to Posterity and in this Sense we make the Abjurations Of the same Opinion is Dr. Bray in his Discourse on the Baptismal Covenant Printed in 1697. and Dedicated to his Highness the D. of Glocester where he Comments thus on the Pomps abjur'd in Baptism Thereby were antiently meant those Pompo●s Spectacles Plays and Scenical Representations exhibited in the Roman Theatres which because they were so Lewd Cruel and Impious the Primitive Churches strictly enjoyn'd all Christians at their Baptism not to frequent or so much as to be once present or ever-seen at them And answerable to those are our Modern Plays acted in the Play-houses which are no thing inferior to the Antient Ones in Impiety and Lewdness and having such a Malignant Influence upon Faith and Manners as is own'd by almost all Persons and is generally complained that they have they ought never to be frequented by Christians and it may very well be look'd upon as a breach of your Baptismal Vow and Covenant for any of you to be hereafter present at them Nor is it unworthy our Observation that those commendable Religions Societies of Youngmen and others of the Communion of the Church so much countenaced by the late Queen Mary of Blessed Memory and the best of the Bishops have laid it down as part of their Ninth Order that all of their Societies should wholly avoid Le●d Play-houses Sir Richard Blackmore against the STAGE ANother late Author I shall produce against them is Sir Richard Blackmore in his Preface to his Excellent Poem call'd Prince Arthur whose Testimony is so much the less to be excepted against because he seems to be for a Reformation and not for the Abolition of the Stage His Words are as followeth Ou● Poets saith he seem ingag'd in a geneneral Confederacy to Ruine the end of their own Art to expose

Language Action Stile and Subject Matter fitter for the Stage from whence they were borrowed than for the Pulpit He tells us further That one Atkinson a Minister in Bedford did the Christtide before Act a private Interlude in the Commissaries House there where he made a Prayer on the Stage chose the Words Acts 10. 14. I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean for his Text preached prophanely upon it and jested to the shame and grief of most that heard him In that same place he complains that in private as well as in popular Stage-plays they represented Ministers Preaching and Praying and brought the Sacred Bible and the Stories of it on the Stage contrary to the Statute of 3. Iac. Cap. 21. The same Author tells us likewise That one Giles Widdowes in a Sermon at Carfolkes in Oxford on Psalm 68. verse 25. did avowedly justifie the Lawfulness of mix'd Dancing at Church-ales and Maypoles upon the Lords Day and confirm'd his Doctrine by his own Practise And page 700. he informs us of three Doctors of Divinity viz. Dr. Gager Dr. Gentiles and Dr. Case who writ in Defence of Stage-plays And page 979. he insinuates that diverse of the Clergy had acted and danced on publick and private Stages The Theatre having thus made so large a Conquest as to get the Court and the Governing part of the Church on its side grew Rampant and as if it disdained to have any less Adversary than God himself did boldly usurp on the Sabbath Afternoons And thus in the Year 1637. Masks were set up at Court on Sundays by His Majesties Authority while at the same time Laud and his Faction forbad Preaching any oftner than once a day and that the common People who could not bear the Expence nor have the Opportunities of Stage-plays might not want one however to prophane the Sabbath the Book of Sports and Pastimes was enjoyned by the Bishops to be read in the Churches by their Inferior Clergy on pain of Deprivation CAP. II. The Stage Encouraged by King Charles I. Sundays MASKS THAT the World may see what a Noble Exchange we had for our Afternoon Sermons and Evening Lectures I shall here give an Account of the Mask that was presented by the Kings Majesty at Whitehall in 1637. on the Sunday after Twelfth-night Entituled BRITANNIA TRIUMPHANS by Inigo Iones Surveyer of His Majesties Works and William Davenant Her Majesties Servant We are told in the Introduction That for these three Years their Majecties had intermitted those Masques and Shews because the Room where they were formerly presented having the Seeling richly adorn'd since with Painting of great Value Figuring the Acts of K. Iames of blessed Memory they were afraid it might suffer by the Smoke of the Lights but His Majesty having now ordered a New Room to be made on purpose which was performed in two Months the Scenes for this Mask were prepared Now who can say but these were Reasons becoming a Martyr and that this was a frugal way of spending his Treasure when at the same time he extorted Money from his Subjects in a Tyrannical manner by Ship-money Loans c. We come now to the Subject of the Mask Britanocles the Glory of the Western World hath by his Wisdom Valour and Piety not only vindicated his own but far distant Seas infested with Pyrates and reduc'd the Land by his Example to a real knowledge of all good Arts and Sciences These Eminent Acts Bellerophon in a wise Pity willingly would preserve from devouring time and therefore to make them last to our Posterity gives a command to Fame who hath already spread them abroad that she should now at home if there can be any maliciously insensible awake them from theif pretended Sleep that even they with the large yet still increasing Number of the Good and Loyal may mutually admire and rejoyce in our happiness This makes it evident enough that the subject was K. Charles himself who had gained some advantage against the Pirates of Barbary the praise of which there was none would have envied him but this was a new way of singing Te Deum no great Argument of Religion and far less any Presage that he should become a Martyr for it to order a Masque for his own praise upon that day which by Divine Institution was set apart for the praise of our Redeemer The next thing we have an Account of is That the Queen being sat under the State and the Room fill'd with Spectators of Quality a Stage was raised at the lower end with an Oval Stair down into the Room The first thing which presented it self to the Eye was the Ornament that inclosed the Scene In the under part of which were two Pedestals of a solid Order whereon the Captives lay bound above sat two Figures in Neeches on the right hand a Woman in a Watchet Drapery heightened with Silver on her Head a Corona Rostrata with one Hand holding the Rudder of a Ship and in the other a little winged Figure with a branch of Palm and a Garland This Woman was to represent Naval Victory In the other Neech on the left sat the Figure of a Man bearing a Scepter with a Hand and an Eye in the Palm and in the other hand a Book on his Head a Garland of Amaranthus his Curace was of Gold with a Palludamentum of Blue and Antick Bases of Crimson his Foot treading on the Head of a Serpent This Figure was to represent Right Government Above these were Ornaments cut out like Cloath of Silver tied up in Knots with Scarsings all touch'd with Gold These Pillasters bore up a large Freese with a Sea-Triumph of naked Children riding on Sea-Horses and Fishes and young Trito●● with writhen Trumpets and other Maritime Fancies In the midst was placed a great Compartiment of Gold with branches of Palm coming out of the Scrols and within that a lesser of Silver with this Inscription Virtutis Opus proper to the Subject of this Mask and alluding to that of Virgil Sed famam Extendere fuctis from this came a Drapery of Crimson which being tied up with great Knots in the Corners hung down in Foulds on the sides of the Pillasters A Curtain flying up discovered the first Scene wherein were English Houses of the old and newer Forms intermixt with Trees and a far off a prospect of London and the River of Thames So much for the Pomp of this Sunday's Theatre And let any Man who has the least sense of Religion judge whether it does not smell strong of that Pomp and Vanity of the World which Christians abjure at Baptism and was by consequence the most unbecoming Exercise for a Sabbath that could be invented as having an unavoidable Tendency to take up the Thoughts of the Actors and Spectators throughout the whole day and to wear off the Impressions of any Sermons they might have heard in the former part of it But we come now to the

the Pits Galleries and Boxes but that the Poets and Actors have the principal Share of the Wickedness and I hope the Frequenters of the Play-house will take notice of this Gentlemans Ingratitude and avoid frequenting the Stage seeing the very Patrons of the Theatre charge the Wickedness of it upon them CAP. XVI The Fathers defended against the Defender of the Drama HE falls next upon Mr. Collier's Quotations from the Fathers the Defects of which I shall not now offer to supply having quoted the Fathers whose meaning the Advocates of the Stage would pervert at large already I shall only therefore take notice of the Reviewers Assertion That Tertullians Arguments are chiefly upon these two Heads viz That Pleasure was a bewitching thing and that the Magistrates discountenanced the Players and crampt their Freedoms The Falshood of this Assertion will be obvious to every one that reads what I have quoted from Tertullian under the Head of the Fathers against the Stage but as a further answer I shall give him Dr. Hornecks excellent Abridgment of Tertullians Arguments in his Book of Delight and Judgment as follows I know what is commonly objected That the Reasons why the Fathers are so much against the Christians seeing of a Play was because the Heathenish Idolatries were acted to the Life upon the Stage and that Proselites might not be in danger of being entic'd to Idolatry was a great Motive why they inveighed so much against Sights of that Nature But those that use this Plea must certainly not have read the Fathers or if they have read them have not considered all their Arguments for to go no farther than Tertullian after he had condemned those Sights for the Idolatries committed on the Stage he produces other Reasons for which they are utterly unlawful As I. Because the Spirit of the Gospel is a Spirit of Gentleness but the Actors are forc'd to put themselves into a Posture of Wrath and Anger and Fury and the Spectators themselves cannot behold them without being put into a Passion II. Because Vanity which is proper to the Stage is altogether Forreign to Christianity III. Because we are not to consent to Peoples Sins IV. Because Men are abus'd in these Places and neither Princes nor People spared and this bieng unlawful else where must be unlawful too upon the Stage V. Because all Immodesty and Scurrillity is forbid by the Law of the Gospel and not only acting it but seeing and hearing it acted VI. Because all Players are Hypocrites seem to be what they are not and all Hypocrisy is condemned by the Gospel VII Because the Actors very often belie their Sex and put on Womens Apparel which is forbid by the Law of God VIII Because these Plays dull and damp Devotion and Seriousness which is and ought to be the indelible Character of Christians IX Because it is a Disparagement to God to lift up those Hands to applaud a Player which we use to lift up to the Throne of Grace X. Because Experience shews how the Devil hath sometimes possessed Christians in a Play-house and being afterwards cast out confessed that he had reason to enter into them because he found them in his own Place XI Because no Man can serve two Masters God and the World as those Christians pretend to do that frequent both the Church and Stage XII Because though some Speeches in a Play are Witty and Ingenious yet there is poison at the Bottom and Vice is only coloured and gilded with fine Language and curious Emblems that it may go down more glib and ruine the Soul more artificially The Reviewer comes next to play all the Artillery of his Wit and Banter against ●ertullian's instance of the Devil 's having given it as a Reason of his possessing a Christian Woman that he found her on his own Ground viz. the Play-house Such a Discovery he thinks the Devil would be the last that would make But had he considered those several Passages of the Gospel where the Devil was forc'd to own our Saviour to be the Son of God tho' he came into the World to destroy his Kingdom and to Subvert his Tyrannical Empire over the Children of Men this Confession of Satan would have been no such matter of Wonder to him I hope our Author is not a Manichee to believe that the Devil has an infinite Power or derives his Existence from himself If Scripture Authority have any Weight with him there he may find it reveal'd That the Devil can neither do all the Mischief he would nor yet resist the Commission of the Almighty tho' Rebellion be the very Essence of the Diabolical Nature He could not so much as destroy one of Iob's Cows or Sheep without a Permission tho' he would willingly have ruined that Holy Person and all that belong'd to him Nor could he forbear to destroy Ahab by his Lies when the Almighty commanded it tho' it had been more his Interest to have had that Monster of Wickedness continued on the Throne and therefore I must take the liberty t● acquaint the Reviewer that his Banter is propnane and occa●ioned meerly by want of thought when he says That if the Sworn Enemy of Man have any such generous Principle in him Dives had no occasion to supplicate Abraham to send a Messenger to caution his Friends on Earth but might e'ne have beg'd the civil favour of that kind Errant from one of his own Tormentors The Almighty never Commissioned the Devil nor yet his Chaplains of the Stage to Preach Repentance unto the World that work he reserved for more hallowed Instruments I shall hasten to absolve this point when I have told our Author that it ill becomes any Man who calls himself a Christian to question Tertullian's Veracity in a Matter of Fact like this that the Enemies of our Holy Religion could 〈◊〉 have disprov'd had it been false and that the Credit of that Learned Father for the great Service he did to the Christian Cause has set him above the Snarls and Banter of the Play-house or its Advocates As for his Scost that this is the only instance of Seizure of that kind amongst all the Millions of Christians who since that day have frequented the Play-house It s of a piece with the rest I have prov'd that the Devil though he be the God of this World is far from being absolute his Reign is consm'd to the Children of Disobedience and those he leads Captive a● his own Will so that his Seizures of this kind consists of infinite numbers though his Seizures of the other sort be restrain'd to a few And by the concurring Testimonies of the Fathers Councils and best of Christians in all Ages as has been already made out He triumphs no where more visibly than upon the Stage This I have prov'd by the Confession of the two Penitent Play-Poets above mentioned but that in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses every