''Tis not lawful (says he)[475] for us to be present at the _Prizes_ or your _Gladiators_, least by this means we should be _Accessaries_ to the Murthers there committed. Neither dare we presume upon the Liberty of your other _Shews_,[476] least our Senses should be tinctur'd, and disoblig'd, with Indecency, and Profaness. The Tragical Distractions of _Tereus_ and _Thyestes_, are Nonsense to us. We are for seeing no Representations of Lewdness. The Stage-Adulteries of the _Gods_, and _Hero's_, are unwarrantable Entertainments: And so much the worse, because the Mercenary _Players_ set them off with all the Charms and Advantages of Speaking. God forbid that _Christians_ who are remarkable for Modesty, and Reserv'dness; who are obliged to Discipline, and train'd up in Virtue, God forbid I say, that we should dishonour our Thoughts, much less our Practise, with such Wickedness as This!' _Tertullian_ who liv'd at the latter end of this Century is copious upon this subject; I shall translate but some Part of it. In his Apologetick, He thus addresses the Heathens.[477] 'We keep off from your publick _Shews_, because we can't understand the Warrant of their Original. There's Superstition and Idolatry in the Case: And we dislike the Entertainment because we dislike the reason of its Institution. Besides, We have nothing to do with the Frensies of the _Race-Ground_, the Lewdness of the _Play-House_, or the Barbarities of the _Bear-Garden_. The _Epicureans_ had the Liberty to state the Notion, and determine the Object of Pleasure. Why can't we have the same Privilege? What Offence is it then if we differ from you in the Idea of Satisfaction? If we won't understand to brighten our Humour, and live pleasantly, where's the harm? If any body has the worst on't, 'tis only our selves.' His Book _de Spectaculis_ was wrote on purpose to diswade the Christians, from the publick Diversions of the _Heathens_, of which the _Play-House_ was one. In his first Chapter He gives them to understand, 'That the Tenour of their Faith, the Reason of Principle, and the Order of Discipline, had bar'd them the Entertainments of the _Town_. And therefore He exhorts them to refresh their Memories, to run up to their Baptism, and recollect their first Engagements. For without care, Pleasure is a strange bewitching Thing. When it gets the Ascendant, 'twill keep on Ignorance for an Excuse of Liberty, make a man's Conscience wink, and suborn his Reason against himself.