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Author was then young, his Invention at the
Height, and his Reading fresh in his Head.
By the Affiftance of fome Thinking, and much
Converfation,he had endeavour'd to Strip him-
felf of as many real Prejudices as he could;
I Say real ones, because under the Notion of
Prejudices, he knew to what dangerous Heights
fome Men have proceeded. Thus prepared, he
thought the numerous and grofs Corruptions
in Religion and Learning might furnish
Matter for a Satyr, that would be useful
and diverting: He refolved to proceed in a
manner, that should be altogether new, the
World having been already too long nauseated
with endless Repetitions upon every Subject.
The Abufes in Religion he propofed to fet
forth in the Allegory of the Coats, and the
three Brothers, which was to make up the
Body of the Difcourfe. Thofe in Learning be
chofe to introduce by way of Digreffions. He
was then a young Gentleman much in the
World, and wrote to the Taft of those who
were like himself; therefore in order to allure
them, he gave a Liberty to his Pen, which
might not fuit with maturer Tears, or graver
Characters, and which he could have eafily
corrected with a very few Blots, had he been
Mafter of his Papers for a Tear or two before
their Publication.

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Not that he would have governed his Fudg ment by the ill-placed Cavils of the Sour, the Envious, the Stupid, and the Taftless, which he mentions with disdain. He acknowledges there are feveral youthful Sallies, which from the Grave and the Wife may deferve a Rebuke. But he defires to be answerable no farther than he is guilty, and that his Faults may not be multiply'd by the ignorant, the unnatural, and uncharitable Applications of those who have neither Candor to fuppofe good Meanings, nor Palate to distinguish true Ones. After which, he will forfeit his Life, if any one Opinion can be fairly deduced from that Book, which is contrary to Religion or Morality.

Why Should any Clergyman of our Church be angry to fee the Follies of Fanaticism and Superftition expofed, tho' in the most ridiculous Manner? fince that is perhaps the most probable way to cure them, or at least to hinder them from further Spreading. Befides, tho it was not intended for their Perufal; it raillies nothing but what they preach against. It contains nothing to provoke them by the leaft Scarillity upon their Perfons or their Functions. It Celebrates the Church of England as the most perfect of all others in Difcipline and Doctrine, it advances no Opinion

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Opinion they reject, nor condemns any they receive. If the Clergy's Refentments lay upon their Hands, in my humble Opinion, they might have found more proper Objects to employ them on: Nondum tibi defuit Hoftis ; I mean those heavy, illiterate Scriblers, proftitute in their Reputations, vicious in their Lives, and ruin'd in their Fortunes, who to the flame of good Senfe as well as Piety, are greedily read, meerly upon the Strength of bold, falje, impious Affertions, mixt with unmannerly Reflections upon the Priesthood, and openly intended against all Religion; in fhort, full of fuch Principles as are kindly received, because they are levell'd to remove thofe Terrors that Religion tells Men will be the Confequence of immoral Lives. Nothing. like which is to be met with in this Difcourfe, tho' fome of them are pleafed fo freely to cen fure it. And I wish, there were no other Inftance of what I have too frequently obferved, that many of that Reverend Body are not always very nice in diftinguishing between their Enemies and their Friends.

Had the Author's Intentions met with a more candid Interpretation from fome whom out of Refpect he forbears to name, he might bave been encouraged to an Examination of Books written by Jome of thofe Authors abovedefcribed,

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defcribed, whofe Errors, Ignorance, Dullnefs and Villany, he thinks he could have detected and expofed in fuch a Manner, that the Perfons who are most conceived to be infected by them, would foon lay them afide and be ashamed: But he has now given over thofe Thoughts, fince the weightiest Men in the weightiest Stations are pleased to think it a more dangerous Point to laugh at those Corruptions in Religion, which they them felves must disapprove, than to endeavour pulling up thofe very Foundations, wherein all Chriftians have agreed.

He thinks it no fair Proceeding, that any Perfon fhould offer determinately to fix a name upon the Author of this Difcourfe, who hath all along concealed himself from most of his nearest Friends: Tet feveral have gone a farther Step, and pro

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nounced another Book to have been Enthusiasm. the Work of the fame. Hand with this; which the Author directly affirms to be thorough mistake; he having yet never fa much as read that Difcourfe, a plain Instance how little Truth, there often is in general Surmifes, or in Conjectures drawn from a Similitude of Style, or way of thinking.

Had the Author writ a Book to expose the Abuses in Law, or in Phyfick, he believes the

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the Learned Profeffors in either Faculty, would have been fo far from refenting it, as to have given him Thanks for his Pains, efpecially if he had made an honourable Reservation for the true Practice of either Science: But Religion they tell us ought not to be ridiculed, and they tell us Truth, yet furely the Corruptions in it may; for we are taught by the triteft Maxim in the World, that Religion being the beft of Things, its Corruptions are likely to be the worst.

There is one Thing which the judicious Reader cannot but have observed, that fome of thofe Paffages in this Difcourfe, which appear moft liable to Objection are what they call Parodies, where the Author perfonates the Style and Manner of other Writers, whom he has a mind to expofe. I shall produce one Inftance, it is in the 51ft Page. Dryden, L'Eftrange, and fome others I shall not name, are here levelled at, who having spent their Lives in Faction, and Apoftacies, and all manner of Vice, pretended to be Sufferers for Loyalty and Religion. So Dryden tells us in one of his Prefaces of his Merits and Suffering, thanks God that he poffeffes his Soul in Patience: In other Places he talks at the fame Rate, and L'Eftrange often.ufes the like Style, and I believe the Reader may find

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