Hor. I did not expect this. The Bench of Bishops won't thank you for
your Prescription: They would call it an Attempt to cure the Patients
by blistering the Physicians.

Cleo. Those who would call it so, must be strange Protestant Divines.

Hor. I am sure, that some, if not most of them, would think the Remedy
worse than the Disease.

Cleo. Yet there is none equal to it, no Remedy so effectual, either to
cure us of those Evils, and put an entire Stop to, or to hinder and
obstruct the Encrease as well of Atheism and Prophaneness, as of
Popery and Superstition. And I defy all the Powers of Priestcraft to
name such another, a practicable Remedy, of which there is any
Probability, that it would go down or could be made use of in a
clear-sighted Age, and among a knowing People, that have a Sense of
Liberty, and refuse to be Priest-rid. It is amazing, that so many fine
Writers among the Clergy, so many Men of Parts and Erudition should
seem very earnestly to enquire into the Causes of Libertinism and
Infidelity, and never think on their own Conduct.

Hor. But they'll tell you, that you make the Doctrine of the Gospel
stricter than it really is; and I think so too; and that you take
several Things literally, that ought to be figuratively understood.

Cleo. When Words are plain and intelligible, and what is meant by them
in a literal sense is agreeable to the Tenour and the whole Scope of
the Book in which we meet with those Words, it is reasonable to think,
that they ought to be literally understood. But if, notwithstanding
this, there are others, who are of Opinion, that these Words are to be