gion? 'Tis to no purpose for such to say,
That they are cautious what Plays they see, and always go to the best
and that the _Play-Houses_ would thrive whether they frequented them or
no. This may he true, but what then, Will this excuse them? Suppose a
powerful _Rebellion_ is begun in a Nation, and carried on
_successfully_, for some time; and a Man should not only appear
sometimes among the Rebels, but should, now and then, send them a
_Supply_ (tho' never so little) of Money and Arms: Could such a one
pretend that he was no ways _Instrumental_ in this Rebellion, nor
Accessary to the Mischiefs that attended it, and that because it was not
only _begun_, but would have _prosper'd_ too, without him; and altho' he
did sometimes appear among the Authors of it, yet it was with the Party
which did the least Mischief? Do you think, _Madam_, this a just way of
Reasoning? I dare say you do not. Is not this then the very Case I am
speaking of? Is the _Stage_, as 'tis now manag'd, any thing else but a
downright Rebellion against God and his Holy Religion? Are not the
Plays, (if not by Design) yet by a natural and necessary Consequence, an
_undermining_ of his Laws, and an _Attempt_ upon his Government? And
must it not then follow, that _every one_ that frequents them, is a
_Party_ in the _Cause_, and _encourages_ the Undertaking? And tho' he
should be so Happy as never to smile at a _Prophane Jest_, nor join in
Applauding a _Vitious_ Play; yet, will that exempt him from a Share of
that _Guilt_ which his Presence and Purse has help'd to support? No,
_Madam_, 'tis _Numbers_ strengthen the Enemy, and give fresh Courage to
his Attempts! A _Full_ House is the very _Life_ of the Stage, and keeps
it in Countenance, whereas _thin Audiences_ would, in time, make it
dwindle to nothing.

I know, _Madam_, this is strange Doctrine to some People. If a Man talks
to them of leaving the Plays, they wonder what he means, and are ready
to take him for a Madman. They have so long habituated themselves to the
_Play-Houses_, that they begin to think a _Place_ there, to be part of
their _Birth-Right_: But I desire such would be perswaded to hear what
the late A. B. Tillotson thought of these matters, (and I hope some
Deference is due to his Judgment). If they look into the 11th Volume of
his 'Sermons', they will find that in his Discourse against the _Evil of
Corrupt Communication_, he tells them, _That Plays, as the Stage now is,
are intolerable, and