haviour, and vilely name themselves to be guilty of it, make sport of the Crimes, and value themselves in being the Criminals; but it shall not be long before I may speak of it much plainer.
However, as the Offence is flagrant, is grown scandalous and notorious, and that we find the Age ripening up by it to the highest and most unnatural of all Crimes, to the shame of Society, and to the scandal even of the Protestant Profession; I have undertaken to begin the War against it as a Vice, and hope to make good the Charge, though I know I do make the Attempt at the risque of all that a modest Writer has to hazard.
He that undertakes a Satyr against an universal Custom, shall be sure to raise upon himself an universal Clamour; my Lord Rochester is plain in that Case:
"Nor shall weak Truth your Reputation save,
The Knaves will all agree to call you Knave."
It must be acknowledged the Age is ripened up in Crime to a dreadful heighth, and it is not a light, a gentle Touch, that will bring them to blush. The Learned and Reverend Ministers, the Good, the Pious, who would reprove them, are forced to content themselves to sit still, and pray for them; and, as the Scripture says, to mourn in Secret for their Abominations; they cannot foul their solemn Discourses with the Crimes which they have to Combat with; the Pulpit is sacred to the venerable Office of a Preacher of GOD's Word; and the Gravity of the Place, a decent Regard to the Work, and especially to the Assembly, forbids them pol-
