I am dispos'd to think that Dr. _Snape_, who is notoriously known to have gone into the greatest Lengths of Calumny and Satire against Bishop _Hoadley_[72], to have fall'n upon the dissenting Clergy in a burlesque and bantering Address to the _Peirces_, the _Calamys_, and the _Bradburys_, and to have written a long _ironical Letter_ in the Name of the _Jesuits_ to Mr. _de la Pilloniere_[73], will be thought a very improper Object of Censure for such Employment of his Pen. On the contrary, such sort of Attacks upon such Persons are the most meritorious Parts of a Man's Life, recommend him as a Person of true and sincere Religion, much more than the strongest Reasoning, and the most regular Life; and pave the way to all the Riches, and Pleasures and Advantages or Life; not only among those, who, under the Colour of Religion, are carrying on a common _Corporation Cause_ of Wealth, Power, and Authority, but among many well-meaning People, who allow of all Practices, which they suppose help out the _Truth_! It seems to me a most prodigious Banter upon us, for Men to talk in general of the _Immorality_ of _Ridicule_ and _Irony_, and of _punishing_ Men for those Matters, when their own Practice is _universal Irony_ and _Ridicule_ of all those who go not with them, and _universal Applause_ and _Encouragement_ for such _Ridicule_ and _Irony_, and distinguishing by all the honourable ways imaginable such _drolling_ Authors for their Drollery; and when Punishment for _Drollery_ is never call'd for, but when _Drollery_ is used or employ'd against them! I don't know whether you would be willing, if you consider of it, to limit the Stage it self, which has with great Applause and Success, from Queen _Elizabeth_'s Time downwards, ridicul'd the serious _Puritans_ and _Dissenters_, and that without any Complaints from _good Churchmen_, that _serious_ Persons and Things were _banter'd_ and _droll'd_ upon; and has triumph'd over its fanatical Adversaries in the Person of _Pryn_, who sufficiently suffer'd for his _Histrio-Mastix_, and has been approv'd of as an innocent Diversion by the religious Dr. _Patrick_ in his _Friendly Debate_, in the Reign of King _Charles_ II. when the Stage was in a very immoral State. I don't know whether you would be willing even to restrain _Bartholomew Fair_, where the Sect of the _New Prophets_ was the Subject of a _Droll_ or _Puppet-Show_, to the great Satisfaction of the Auditors, who, it may be presum'd, were all good Churchmen, _Puritans_ and _Dissenters_ usually declining such Entertainments out of _real_ or _pretended_ Seriousness. ("A certain Clergyman thought fit to remark, that King _William_ could be no good Churchman, because of his not frequenting the _Play-House_."[74])