To give the Charge its due Compass: To comprehend the whole _Audience_, and take in the Motives of Religon.
And here I can't imagine how we can reconcile such Liberties with our Profession. These Entertainments are as it were Litterally renounc'd in _Baptism_. They are the _Vanities of the wicked World, and the Works of the Devil_, in the most open, and emphatical Signification. _What Communion has Light with Darkness, and what concord has Christ with Belial._[505] Call you this Diversion? Can Profaness be such an irresistable Delight? Does the Crime of the Performance make the Spirit of the Satisfaction, and is the Scorn of Christianity the Entertainment of Christians? Is it such a Pleasure to hear the _Scriptures_ burlesqu'd? Is Ribaldry so very obliging, and _Atheism_ so Charming a Quality? Are we indeed willing to quit the Privilege of our Nature; to surrender our _Charter_ of Immortality, and throw up the Pretences to another Life? It may be so! But then we should do well to remember that _Nothing_ is not in our Power. Our Desires did not make us, neither can they unmake us. But I hope our wishes are not so mean, and that we have a better sense of the Dignity of our _Being_. And if so, how can we be pleas'd with those Things which would degrade us into Brutes, which ridicule our _Creed_, and turn all our Expectations into _Romance_.
And after all, the Jest on't is, these Men would make us believe their design is Virtue and Reformation. In good time! They are likely to combat Vice with success, who destroy the Principles of Good and Evil! Take them at the best, and they do no more than expose a little Humour, and Formality. But then, as the Matter is manag'd, the Correction is much worse than the Fault. They laugh at _Pedantry_, and teach _Atheism_, cure a Pimple, and give the Plague. I heartily wish they would have let us alone. To exchange Virtue for Behaviour is a hard Bargain. Is not plain Honesty much better than Hypocrisy well Dress'd? What's Sight good for without Substance? What is a well Bred Libertine but a well bred Knave? One that can't prefer Conscience to Pleasure, without calling himself Fool: And will sell his Friend, or his Father, if need be, for his Convenience.