another. Let any Man read the Writings of our
most eminent Divines against the _Papists_, _Puritans_, _Dissenters_, and
_Hereticks_, and against one another, and particularly the Writings of
_Alexander Cook_, _Hales_, _Chillingworth_, _Patrick_, _Tillotson_,
_Stillingfleet_, _Burnet_, _South_, _Hickes_, _Sherlock_ and _Edwards_,
and he will find them to abound with _Banter_, _Ridicule_, and _Irony_.
_Stillingfleet_ in particular, our greatest controversial Writer, who
passes for _grave_ and _solemn_, is so conscious of his use thereof, that
he confesses that Charge of the Papists against him, saying[32], "But I
forget my Adversary's grave admonition, that I _would treat these Matters
seriously, and lay aside Drollery_." And again, after a _Banter_ of near a
Page, he says[33], "But I forget I am so near my Adversary's Conclusion,
wherein he so _gravely_ advises me, that I _would be pleas'd for once to
write Controversy, and not Play-Books_." Nor did I ever hear the Divines
of the Church condemn the Doctor for his sarcastical Method of writing
Controversy. On the contrary, I remember at the University, that he used
to be applauded no less for his Wit than for his Learning. And to exalt
his Character as a Wit, his _Conferences between a_ Romish _Priest, a
Fanatick Chaplain, and a Divine of the Church of_ England, _&c._ were
spoken of as an excellent _Comedy_, and especially for that Part which the
_Fanatick Chaplain_ acts therein, who makes as comical and as ridiculous a
Figure as he does in any of the _Plays_ acted on the Stage. And in his
_Controversy_ with _Dryden_ about the _Royal Papers_, and those of the
_Duchess_ of _York_, he was deem'd to have out-done that famous _Satirist_
in tart Repartees and Reflections; and to have attack'd the Character of
the _Poet_ with more severity, than that _Poet_, who was so remarkable for
his satirical Reflections on the holy Order, did the Character of the
_Divine_: As for example, he says to _Dryden_[34], "Could nothing be said
by you of Bishop _Morley_, but that _Prelate of rich Memory_? Or had you a
mind to tell us he was no _Poet_? Or that he was out of the Temptation of
changing his Religion for Bread?" And many Citations us'd to be produc'd
out of his Writings, as Specimens of his ironical Talent; among which I
particularly remember his _Ridicule_ of his Adversary Mr. _Alsop_, a
famous Presbyterian Wit and Divine; whose Book, which was full of low
Raillery and Ridicule, he resem