of our Tongue, which he would adorn with some
more such graces of Speech; as, [Sidenote: _Preface, p. 21._] _Lord,
what a Filthy Croud is here; Bless me! what Devil has rak'd this Rabble
together; Z---nds, what squeezing is this! A Plague confound you for an
overgrown Sloven? Who in the Devil's Name, I wonder, helps to make up
the Crowd half so much as your self? Don't you consider with a Pox, that
you take up more room with that Carcass than any Five here? Bring your
own Guts to a reasonable Compass, and be d----d._ I tremble while I
repeat such Stuff, which I defy any Man to match in any Language, Dead
or Living, _Pagan_ or _Christian_; and yet this is the Eloquence, as is
pretended, of a sound Orthodox Divine; one of the Champions of our
Church, and the design'd Chairman of a new Academy to reform and improve
our Stile. I shall only add here another Flower in p. 101. _If you fail
hereof G---- damn you and yours to all Eternity_, says the same Reverend
Author, whose Works on some other Occasion I shall examine, as to their
Divinity, Piety, and other Merit, that the World may see on what Foot
that Author has establish'd his Fame, and how judiciously a Man of his
Cloth made himself first known to the World. Whether the late
_Examiner_, the _Miscellanies in Prose and Verse_ publish'd by
_Morphew_, and some more such Political and Pious Productions, did not
come from the same Hand, I shall not determine. They are generally said
to be written by the same Person, and how nearly related that Person is
to our Letter Writer, is as well known as that he is a Doctor of
Divinity, and hopes to make his Fortune by Preferments in that Church of
which he is so bright an Ornament, as appears by what has been already
quoted; by which one may perceive, how well qualify'd he is to form
Schemes, for the _refining of our Tongue_, and the _Advancement of
Religion_; of both which he has written. The latter does not come under
Consideration so naturally in this Discourse as it will in another, and
therefore it shall be deferr'd till such an Opportunity offers. Perhaps
Our Elegant Writer will pretend to justify these Innovations in our
Speech, for which the best Critick upon him would be my Lord Chief
Justice, by the Example of our Modern Poets, and the Oaths and Curies of
the Stage, where I never heard any thing so very Lewd, in Defyance of
our Religion, Laws, and whatever is held Sacred by Christians, and
Protestants. If he had a hand in the _