Exchange of Principles_; some of which were of a very abusive
kind, and such as can hardly be parallel'd; and did not call upon the
Magistrate to come to his Aid against that Author, or against any others
of the Clergy who had attack'd him with as great Mockery, Ridicule, and
Irony, as ever Bishop had been by the profess'd Adversaries of the Order;
or as ever the Bishops had been by the _Puritans_ and _Libellers_ in the
Reigns of Queen _Elizabeth_, King _James_ and King _Charles_ the First; or
as _Lesley_, _Hickes_, _Hill_, _Atterbury_, _Binks_, and other High-Church
Clergy, did the late Bishop _Burnet_. Instead of that he took the true and
proper Method, by publishing an _Answer_ to the said _Irony_, compos'd in
the same _ironical Strain_, intitled, _The Dean of_ Worcester _still the
same: Or his new Defence of the Bishop of_ Bangor_'s Sermon, consider'd,
as it is the Performance of a great Critick, a Man of Sense, and a Man of
Probity_. Which Answer does, in my Opinion, as much Honour to the Bishop,
by its Excellency in the _ironical Way_, as it does by allowing the Method
it self, and going into that Method, in imitation of his Reverend Brethren
of the Clergy, who appear to be under no Restraints from the _Immorality_
or _Indecency_ of treating the Bishop in the way of Ridicule and with the
utmost Contempt; but, on the contrary, to be spurr'd on by the
_Excellency_ and _Propriety_ thereof to use it against him, even in the
[100] _Pulpit_, as Part of the religious Exercise on the _Lord's-day_.

XI. There is an universal Love and Practice of _Drollery_ and _Ridicule_
in all, even the most _serious_ Men, in the most _serious Places_, and on
the most _serious Occasions_. Go into the Privy-Councils of Princes, into
Senates, into Courts of Judicature, and into the Assemblies of the Kirk or
Church; and you will find that Wit, good Humour, Ridicule, and Drollery,
mix themselves in all the Questions before those Bodies; and that the most
solemn and sour Person there present, will ever be found endeavouring, at
least, to crack his Jest, in order to raise a Character for Wit; which has
so great an Applause attending it, and renders Men so universally
acceptable for their Conversation, and places them above the greatest
Proficients in the Sciences, that almost every one is intoxicated with the
Passion of aiming at it.

In the Reports made to us of the Debates in the Houses of Lords, Commons,
and Convocation, the serious Parts o