the rich and opulent*, and were particularly ufed in times of public rejoicing. They have indeed generally been confidered, in all ages, as intended for entertainment. A modern author of high rank and reputation †, who would not willingly hurt the cause, confiders them in this light, and this alone, and represents their improvement, not as lying in their having a greater moral tendency, but in the perfection of the poet's art, and the refinement of the taste of the audience. It is only of late that men have begun to dignify them with a higher title. Formerly they were ever confidered as an indulgence of pleasure, and an article of luxury, but now they are exalted into fchools of virtue, and reprefented as bulwarks against vice. It is probable, most readers will be apt to fmile when they hear them fo called, and to say to their defenders, This is but overdoing, preferve them to us as innocent amusements, and we shall not much contend for their usefulness. It is indeed but an evidence of the distress of the caufe, for their advocates only take up this plea when they are unable to answer the arguments against them upon any other footing. It may alfo appear that they are de

*Plut. de Glor. Athens & Sympof. lib. 7. queft. 8. "As for the new comedy, it is fo neceffary an ingredient of all public entertainments, that fo to fpeak, one may as well make a feaft without wine, as without Menander."

Shaftsbury,

figned

figned for amufement, if we confider who have been the persons in all ages who have attended them, viz. the rich, the young, and the gay,. those who live in pleafure, and the very bufiness of whofe lives is amusement.

But not to infift on these circumstances, I think it is plain from the nature of the thing, that the immediate intention of plays is to please, whatever effects may be pretended to flow afterwards, or by accident, from this pleasure. They confift in an exact imitation of nature, and the conformity of the perfonated to real characters. This is the great aim, and the great perfection, both of the poet and of the actors. Now this imitation, of itself, gives great pleasure to the spectator, whether the actions reprefented are good or bad. And, in itself confidered, it gives only pleasure; for the beauty of the imitation, as such, hath no moral influence, nor any connection with morality, but what it may derive in a diftant way from the nature of the actions which the poet or actors choose to reprefent, or the fpectators are willing to fee. Every perfon who thinks. impartially, may be from this convinced, that to please, or attempt to do fo, is effential to the ftage, and its firft, or rather its main defign; how far it pollutes or purifies is accidental, and muft depend upon the fkill and honefty of its regulators and managers. '

Having thus prepared the way, the following arguments are humbly offered to the confideration of every serious perfon, to fhew, that a public theatre is inconfiftent with the purity of the Christian profeffion: which if they do not to all appear to be each of them fingly conclufive, will, I hope, when taken together, fufficiently evince the truth of the propofition.

In the first place, If it be confidered as an amufement, it is improper, and not fuch as any Christian may lawfully use. Here we must begin by laying it down as a fundamental principle, that all men are bound fupremely to love, and habitually to serve God; that is to say, to take his law as the rule, and his glory as the end, not of one, but of all their actions. No man, at any time or place is, or can be, abfolved from this obligation. Every real Chriftian lives under an habitual sense of it. I know this expreffion, aiming at the glory of God, is called a cant phrase, and is despised and derided by worldly men. It were eafy however, to vindicate it from reason; but it will fuffice, to all thofe for whose use this discourse is intended, to fay, It is a truth taught and repeated in the facred oracles, that all things were made for, that all things fhall finally tend to, and therefore, that all intelligent creatures fhould fupremely and uniformly aim at the glory of God.

Now

Now we glorify God by cultivating holy dif pofitions, and doing pious and ufeful actions. Recreation is an intermiffion of duty, and is only neceffary becaufe of our weakness; it must be fome action indifferent in its nature, which be. comes lawful and useful from its tendency to refresh the mind, and invigorate it for duties of more importance. The ufe of recreation is precifely the fame as the use of fleep; though they differ in this, that there is but one way in which fleep becomes finful, viz. by excess, whereas there are ten thousand ways in which recreations become finful. It is needlefs to produce paffages of Scripture to verify the above affertion concerning our obligation to glorify God. It is the language of the whole, and is particularly applied to indifferent actions by the apostle Paul, “Whe"ther therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God *."

If there were on the minds of men in general, a juft fenfe of this their obligation, ftage-plays, nay, and a thousand other amufements now in ufe, would never have been heard of. The truth is, the need of amusement is much less than people commonly apprehend, and, where it is not neceffary, it must be finful. Those who stand in need of recreation may be divided into two forts, fuch as are employed in bodily labour, and

VOL. II.

*

I Cor. x. 13.

C

fuch

fuch as have their spirits often exhausted by ftudy and application of mind. As to the first of these, a mere ceffation from labour is fufficient for refreshment, and indeed of itself gives great pleafure, unless when the appetites are inflamed and irritated by frequent fenfual gratifications; and then they are importunately craved, and become neceffary to fill the intervals of work. Of this fort very few are able to afford fo expenfive a recreation as the ftage. And even as to the other, viz. thofe whofe fpirits are exhaufted by application of mind, only a very small number of them will chufe the diverfion of the stage, for this very good reafon, that focial converfe and bodily exercife, will answer the purpose much better. Indeed, if we confider the just and legitimate end of recreations, and compare it with the perfons who moft frequently engage in them, we fhall find, that ninety-nine of every hundred are fuch as do not need recreation at all. haps their time lies heavy upon their hands, and they feel an uneafinefs and impatience under their present ftate, but this is not from work, but from idleness, and from the emptiness and unfatisfying nature of the enjoyments, which they chase with so much eagerness, one after another, vainly feeking from them that good which they do not contain, and that fatisfaction which they cannot impart.

Per

From