A Discourse Concerning Ridicule and Irony in Writing (1729)
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    Clark, who among other things sayd, that the Archbp of Canterbury might have writ all that related to Toleration in it: to say nothing of what I hear from others. D

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    Rogers himself has acknowledg[ed] to his Bookseller who sent it to him into the Country, that he has receivd it; but says that he is so engaged in other affairs, that he has no thought at present of answering it; tho he may perhaps in time do so.

      [8]

   In time Rogers did. He counterattacked on 2 February 1728 with a

    Vindication of the Civil Establishment of Religion

   .

     [9]

   For Collins this work was a dogged repetition of what had gone before, and so it could be ignored except for one of its appendices,

    A Letter from the Rev. Dr. Marshall jun. To the Rev. Dr. Rogers, upon Occasion of his Preface to his Eight Sermons

   . Its inclusion seemed an afterthought; yet it altered the dimensions of the debate by narrowing and particularizing the areas of grievance which separated the debaters. Collins, therefore, rebutted it some fourteen months later in

    A Discourse concerning Ridicule and Irony

    in Writing

   . He had great hopes for this pamphlet, preparing carefully for its reception. He encouraged the republication of his three preceding works, which find their inevitable conclusion, even their exoneration, in this last performance, and he probably persuaded his bookseller to undertake an elaborate promotional campaign. For the new editions were advertised on seven different days between 10 January and 27 February 1729 in the

    Daily Post

   . He wanted no one to miss the relationship between the

    Discourse concerning Ridicule and Irony

   and these earlier pieces or to overlook 
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