William Law

The Absolute Unlawfulness of the Stage-Entertainment William Law

I am sensible that the Title of this little Book will, to the Generality of People, seem too high a Flight; that it will be looked upon as the Effect of a fanatical Spirit, carrying Matters higher than the Sobriety of Religion requires. I have only one Thing to ask of such People, that they will suspend their Judgment for awhile, and be content to read so small a Treatise as this is, before they pass any Judgment, either upon the Merits of the Subject, or the Temper of the Writer. Had a Person some Years ago, in the Time of Popery, wrote against the Worship of Images, as a Worship absolutely unlawful, our Ancestors would have looked upon him as a Man of a very irregular Spirit. Now it is possible for the present Age to be as much mistaken in their Pleasures, as the former were in their Devotions, and that the allowed Diversions of these Times may be as great a Contradiction to the most essential Doctrines of Christianity, as the Superstitions and Corruptions of the former Ages. All therefore that I desire, is only a little Free-thinking upon this Subject; and that People will not as blindly reject all Reason, when it examines their Pleasures, as some blindly reject all Reason, when it examines the Nature of their Devotions.