none of them ever prosecuted_, and _that_ Epicurus _himself died quietly at_ Athens _in a very great old Age_. But the Book, which the Fathers made the most use of, was that arch, fly, and drolling Performance, now lost, of _Evemerus_, which he intitled, _A sacred History_: wherein he gave an _historical Account_ of the _Birth_, _Country_, _Lives_, _Deaths_, and _Burials_ of the _Gods_. This Work was translated into _Latin_ by that arch Wag _Ennius_, who himself has most ingeniously _ridicul'd_ several Impostors or very grave Persons, in a remarkable Piece of Poetry, which I shall give my Reader in _English_. "_I value not a Rush the_ Marsian _Augur,_ "_Nor Country-Fortune Tellers, nor Town-Star-Gazers,_ "_Nor jugling Gypsies, nor yet Dream-Interpreters:_ "_For, not by Skill or Art, are these Diviners;_ "_But superstitious Prophets, Guessers impudent,_ "_Or idle Rogues, or craz'd, or mere starving Beggars._ "_They know no way themselves, yet others would direct;_ "_And crave a Groat of those, to whom they promise Riches:_ "_Thence let them take the Groat, and give back all the rest._ XIX. Wherefore I cannot but presume, that an Attempt to make a _Law_ to restrain _Irony_, &c. would prove abortive, and that the Attempt would be deem'd the Effect of a very partial Consideration of things, and of present Anger at a poor Jest; which Men are not able to bear themselves, how much soever they abound in _Jests_, both of the _light_ and _cruel_ kind, on others: tho for my own part I concur heartily with you in _making_ such a _Law_, and in leaving it to a Person of your _Equity_ to draw it up, craving only the Liberty to propose an Amendment or Addition, _viz._ that you would be pleas'd to insert a Clause to prevent _Irony_, _Ridicule_, and _Banter_, from invading the Pulpit, and particularly to prevent pointing out _Persons of Men_ [140] from thence, and reviling them, as also reviling whole Bodies of Men: For whatever is immoral in Print, is, in my Opinion, immoral in the Pulpit. Besides, these things seem more improper in the Pulpit, than they can be in Print: because no _Reprisals_ can be made in the former, as in the latter Case; where they, or the Fear of them, may give some Check to the Disorder, and reduce things to a tolerable Temper and Decency. If, in order to justify my Motion, it could be thought necessary or proper here to give a Detail of ridiculing and ironical Passages, taken from Sermons against particular Men, and Bodies of Men, and their Doctrines, you cannot but know how easy it would be to fill a Volume with them, without going to Authors, who have occasionally produc'd abundance of them. And I will only mention here a Passage in a _Volume of Sermons_, just now publish'd, of a well known _High Divine_, the Reverend Mr. _William Reeves_, made famous by his _Translation_ of some _Apologies of the Primitive Fathers_, which gain'd him the Applauses of a great many _High Men_, and particularly _Hickes_,