In his 37 Homily upon the Eleventh Chapter of St. _Matthew_ he declaims more at large against the Stage.
'Smutty Songs (says he) are much more abominable than Stench and Ordure. And which is most to be lamented, you are not at all uneasy at such Licentiousness. You Laugh when you should Frown; and Commend what you ought to abhor.----Heark you, you can keep the Language of your own House in order: If your Servants or your Childrens Tongues run Riot, they presently smart for't. And yet at the _Play-House_ you are quite another Thing. These little Buffoons have a strange Ascendant! A luscious Sentence is hugely welcome from their Mouth: And instead of Censure, they have thanks and encouragement for their Pains. Now if a Man would be so just as to wonder at himself, here's Madness, and Contradiction in Abundance.
'But I know you'l say what's this to me, I neither sing nor pronounce, any of this Lewd stuff? Granting your Plea, what do you get by't? If you don't repeat these Scurrilities, you are very willing to hear them. Now whether the Ear, or the Tongue is mismanaged, comes much to the same reckoning. The difference of the _Organ_, does not alter the Action so mightily, as you may imagine. But pray how do you prove you don't repeat them? They may be your Discourse, or the Entertainments of your Closet for ought we know to the contrary. This is certain; you hear them with pleasure in your Face, and make it your business to run after them: And to my Mind, these are strong Arguments of your Approbation.
'I desire to ask you a Question. Suppose you hear any wretches Blaspheme, are you in any Rapture about it? And do your Gestures appear airy, and obliged? Far from it. I doubt not but your blood grows chill, and your Ears are stopt at the Presumption. And what's the Reason of this Aversion in your Behaviour? Why 'tis because you don't use to Blaspheme, your self. Pray clear your self the same way from the Charge of Obscenity. Wee'l then believe you don't talk Smut, when we percieve you careful not to hear it. Lewd Sonnets, and Serenades are quite different from the Prescriptions of Virtue. This is strange Nourishment for a Christian to take in! I don't wonder you should lose your Health, when you feed thus Foul. It may be Chastity is no such easy Task! Innocence moves upon an Ascent, at least for sometime. Now those who are always Laughing can never strain up Hill. If the best preparations of Care will just do, what must become of those that are dissolv'd in Pleasure, and lie under the Instructions of Debauchery?----Have you not heard how that St. _Paul_ exhorts us _to rejoyce in the Lord_? He said _in the Lord_; not in the Devil. But alas! what leisure have you to Mind St. _Paul_? How should you be sensible of your Faults, when your Head is always kept Hot, and as it were intoxicated with Buffooning?'---- ----He goes on, and lashes the Impudence of the _Stage_ with a great deal of Satir and Severity; and at last proposes this Objection.