V. It will probably be a Motive with you to be against abolishing _Drollery_, when you reflect that the Men of _Irony_, the _Droles_ and _Satirists_, have been and always will be very numerous on your side, where they have been and are so much incourag'd for acting that Part, and that they have always been and always will be very few on the side of _Heterodoxy_; a Cause wherein an Author by engaging, may hurt his Reputation and Fortune, and can propose nothing to himself but Poverty and Disgrace. I doubt whether you would be for punishing your Friend Dr. _Rogers_, from whom I just now quoted an _Irony_ on the Author of _The Scheme of Literal Prophecy consider'd_, or any one else, for _laughing_ at and making sport with him; or whether you would be for punishing the Reverend Mr. _Trapp_, who implies the _Justness_ and _Propriety of ridiculing Popery_; when he says[75], that _Popery is so foolish and absurd, that every body of common Sense must_ LAUGH _at it_; and when he refers to _Erasmus_ for having _abundantly_ RIDICUL'D their _Reliques_; and himself puts _Ridicule_ in Practice against them, by representing their Doctrines and Practices as _ridiculously foolish_, as _despicably childish_, and _Matter of mere Scorn_; as _monstrous_; as _Spells_, _juggling Tricks_, _gross Cheats_, _Impostures_[76], and _wretched Shifts_; and in fine, in representing by way of _Specimen_, all their _Miracles_ as _Legends_; of which he says, _These and a thousand more such like unreasonable Lies, which a Child of common Sense would laugh at, are impos'd upon and swallow'd by the ignorant People, and make a_ VERY GREAT _Part of the Popish Religion._
And this, in concurrence with Mr. _Trapp_, I also take to be the Case of Popery, that it must make Men _laugh_; and that it is much easier to be gravely disposed in reading a _Stage-Comedy_ or _Farce_, than in considering and reflecting on the _Comedy_ and _Farce_ of _Popery_; than which, Wit and Folly, and Madness in conjunction, cannot invent or make a thing more ridiculous, according to that Light in which I see their Doctrines, Ceremonies and Worship, the Histories and Legends of their Saints, and the pretended Miracles wrought in their Church; which has hardly any thing _serious_ in it but its Persecutions, its Murders, its Massacres; all employ'd against the most innocent and virtuous, and the most sensible and learned Men, because they will not be _Tools_ to support Villany and Ignorance.