[Footnote 1: Dr. Eachard, in his work on _The Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion inquired into_, London, 1712, after ably showing up the pedantry of some preachers, next attacks the "indiscreet and horrid Metaphor Mongers." "Another thing that brings great disrespect and mischief upon the clergy ... is their packing their sermons so full of similitudes" (p. 41.). Eachard has a museum of curiosities in this line. _The Puritan Pulpit_, however, far outstrips even the incredible nonsense and irreverence which he adduces. Let any one curious in such matters dip into a collection of Scotch Sermons of the seventeenth century. Sir W. Scott, in some of his works, has endeavoured to give a faint idea of the extraordinary way in which passages of Holy Scripture were applied in the same century. I have a very curious _book of soliloquies_, which unfortunately wants the title-page. From internal evidence, however, it appeals to have been written in Ireland in the seventeenth century: the writer signs himself "P. P." The editor of this little 12mo., in "An Epistle to the Reader," after reprehending "the wits of our times" for "quibbling and drolling upon the Bible," says immediately after:--"This author's _innocent abuse of Scripture_ is so far from countenancing, that it rather shames and condemns that licentious and abominable practice. Nor can we admit of the most useful allusions without that harmless (nay helpful and advantageous) [Greek: katachresis], or abuse here practised: wherein the words are indeed used to another, but yet to a Holy end and purpose, besides that for which they were at first instituted and intended." The most reverend of our readers must need smile, were I to give a specimen of this "innocent abuse." While noticing the false wit which passed current in that century, we must not forget that the same age produced a South and a Butler: and that in beauty of simile, few, if any, surpass Bishop Jeremy Taylor.]