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BOHN'S STANDARD LIBRARY


THE PROSE WORKS

OF

JONATHAN SWIFT, D.D.

EDITED BY

TEMPLE SCOTT

WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION BY

THE RT. HON. W.E.H. LECKY, M.P.

VOL. IV


[Illustration]


LONDON

GEORGE BELL AND SONS

1898

CHISWICK PRESS:--CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.

TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.


SWIFT'S

WRITINGS ON RELIGION

AND THE CHURCH

VOL. II


[Illustration]




CONTENTS.


TRACTS ON THE SACRAMENTAL TEST:

A Letter Concerning the Sacramental Test

The Presbyterian's Plea of Merit

Narrative of Attempts for the Repeal of the Sacramental Test

Queries relating to the Sacramental Test

Advantages proposed by Repealing the Sacramental Test

Reasons for Repealing the Sacramental Test in Favour of the Catholics

Some Few Thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test

Ten Reasons for Repealing the Test Act


SERMONS:

On Mutual Subjection

On the Testimony of Conscience

On the Trinity

On Brotherly Love

On the Difficulty of Knowing One's Self

On False Witness

On the Wisdom of this World

On Doing Good

On the Martyrdom of King Charles I

On the Poor Man's Contentment

On the Wretched Condition of Ireland

On Sleeping in Church


APPENDICES:

I. Remarks on Dr. Gibbs's Paraphrase of the Psalms

II. Proposal for Preventing the further Growth of Popery

III. Swift and Serjeant Bettesworth

IV. A True and Faithful Narrative of what passed in London


INDEX TO THE WRITINGS ON RELIGION AND THE CHURCH


NOTE.

The portrait which forms the frontispiece to this volume is taken, by
permission, from the painting in the possession of the Earl of Howth,
K.P.

***** ***** ***** ***** *****




A LETTER

FROM A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN IRELAND TO

A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN ENGLAND

CONCERNING THE

SACRAMENTAL TEST.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1708.


NOTE.

In the "foreword" to the reprint of this tract in the "Miscellanies" of
1711, Swift remarks: "I have been assured that the suspicion which the
supposed author lay under for writing this letter absolutely ruined him
with the late ministry." The "late ministry" was the Whig ministry of
which Godolphin was the Premier. To this ministry the repeal of the Test
Act was a matter of much concern. To test the effect of such a repeal it
was determined to try it in Ireland first. There the Presbyterians had
distinguished themselves by their loyalty to William and the Protestant
succession. These, therefore, offered a good excuse for the introduction
of such a measure, particularly when, in 1708, an invasion was rumoured,
they were the first to send in loyal addresses to the Queen. Swift
likened this method to "that of a discreet physician, who first gives a
new medicine to a dog, before he prescribes it to a human creature."
Further, the Speaker of the Irish House had come over to England to
agitate for the repeal. On this matter Swift wrote to Archbishop King,
under date April 15th (the letter was first published by Mr. John
Forster in his "Life of Swift," p. 246), as follows: "Some days ago my
Lord Somers entered with me into discourse about the Test clause, and
desired my opinion upon it, which I gave him truly, though with all the
gentleness I could; because, as I am inclined and obliged to value the
friendship he professes for me, so he is a person whose favour I would
engage in the affairs of the First Fruits.... If it became me to give
ill names to ill things and persons, I should be at a loss to find bad
enough for the villainy and baseness of a certain lawyer of Ireland
[Speaker Brodrick, afterwards Lord Midleton], who is in a station the
least of all others excusable for such proceedings, and yet has been
going about most industriously to all his acquaintance of both houses
towards the end of the session to show the necessity of taking off the
Test clause in Ireland by an act here, wherein you may be sure he had
his brother's assistance. If such a project should be resumed next
session, and I in England, unless your grace send me your absolute
commands to the contrary, which I should be sorry to receive, I could
hardly forbear publishing some paper in opposition to it, or leaving one
behind me, if there should be occasion." In August of the same year the
agitation for the repeal was renewed, and in December Swift published
his "Letter on the Sacramental Test," writing as if from Dublin and as a
member of the Irish House of Commons. When he writes to King in the
following month he makes a mild attempt to convince the Archbishop that
the pamphlet was not of his authorship. "The author has gone out of his
way to reflect on me as a person likely to write for repealing the test,
which I am sure is very unfair treatment. This is all I am likely to get
by the company I keep. I am used like a sober man with a drunken face,
have the scandal of the vice without the satisfaction." But King was not
deceived. In his reply to Swift he simply remarks: "You need not be
concerned: I will engage you will lose nothing by that paper." Swift,
however, lost more than the Archbishop thought; for "that paper" led to
his severance from the Whigs, and, in after life, to much contumely cast
on his character for being a political renegade. Because "he was not
Whig enough;" because he would not forsake his Church for his party,
critics and biographers have thought fit to make little of him, and to
compare him to his discredit with contemporaries whose intellects he
held in the palm of his hand, and to whom he might have stood as a moral
exemplar.

Swift refers to this tract in his "Memoirs relating to the change in the
Queen's Ministry," as follows:--"It was everybody's opinion, that the
Earl of Wharton would endeavour, when he went to Ireland, to take off
the test, as a step to have it taken off here: upon which I drew up and
printed a pamphlet, by way of a letter from a member of parliament here,
shewing the danger to the Church by such an intent. Although I took all
care to be private, yet the Lieutenant's chaplain, and some others
guessed me to be the author, and told his Excellency their suspicions;
whereupon I saw him no more until I went to Ireland."

The tract is one of the most favourable specimens of Swift's
controversial method and trenchant satire. The style is
excellent--forcible and pithy; while the arguments are like most of
Swift's arguments, aptly to the point with yet a potentiality of
application which fits them for the most general statement of the
principles under discussion. Scott considers the pamphlet "as having
materially contributed to the loss of the bill for repeal of the Test Act
during the Earl of Pembroke's vice-royalty." In the same year Swift
wrote "A Letter to a Member of Parliament in Ireland on choosing a new
Speaker there." This short tract bears also on the question of the Test;
but it is not included in this volume, since it was intended as an
electioneering pamphlet.

I have been unable to obtain access to a copy of the first edition of
the "Letter on the Sacramental Test." The text here given is that of the
"Miscellanies" of 1711, collated with that given in the "Miscellanies,"
1728, and with those printed by Faulkner, Hawkesworth, and Scott.

[T.S.]

A LETTER CONCERNING THE
SACRAMENTAL TEST.

_ADVERTISEMENT._[1]

[Footnote 1: This "Advertisement" is taken from "Miscellanies in Prose
and Verse," printed for John Morphew, 1711. On page 314 of that volume
it forms a "foreword" to "A Letter concerning the Sacramental Test." It
is omitted from the reprint in the "Miscellanies" of 1728. The page
which Swift says he has taken leave to omit cannot be identified.
Probably this was another of Swift's manoeuvres for concealing the
identity of the author. The "Advertisement" of George Faulkner to his
edition of Swift's Works (vol. iv., 1735) is as follows:

"In the second volume of Doctor Swift's and Mr. Pope's 'Miscellanies,' I
found the following treatise, which had been printed in London, with
some other of the Dean's works, many years before, but at first came out
by itself in the year 1708, as the date shews: And it was at a juncture
when the Dissenters were endeavouring to repeal the Sacramental Test, as
by common fame, and some pamphlets published to the same purpose, they
seem to be now again attempting, with great hope of success. I have,
therefore, taken the liberty to make an extract out of that discourse,
omitting only some passages which relate to certain persons, and are of
no consequence to the argument. But the author's weight of reasoning
seems at present to have more weight than it had in those times, when
the discourse first appeared.

"The author, in this letter, personates a Member of Parliament here
[Dublin], to a Member of Parliament in England.

"The Speaker mentioned in this letter was Allen Broderick, afterwards
Chancellor and Lord Middleton; and the prelate was Dr. Lyndsay,
afterwards Lord Primate," [T.S.]]


_The following letter is supposed by some judicious persons to be of the
same author, and, if their conjectures be right, it will be of no
disadvantage to him to have it revived, considering the time when it was
writ, the persons then at the helm, and the designs in agitation,
against which this paper so boldly appeared. I have been assured that
the suspicion which the supposed author lay under for writing this
letter, absolutely ruined him with the late ministry. I have taken leave
to omit about a page which was purely personal, and of no use to the
subject._


Dublin, Dec. 4, 1708.

Sir,

I received your letter, wherein you tell me of the strange
representations made of us on your side of the water. The instance you
are pleased to mention is that of the Presbyterian missionary, who,
according to your phrase, hath been lately persecuted at Drogheda for
his religion: But it is easy to observe, how mighty industrious some
people have been for three or four years past, to hand about stories of
the hardships, the merits, the number, and the power of the
Presbyterians in Ireland, to raise formidable ideas of the dangers of
Popery there, and to transmit all for England, improved by great
additions, and with special care to have them inserted with comments in
those infamous weekly papers that infest your coffee-houses. So, when
the clause enacting a Sacramental Test was put in execution, it was
given out in England, that half the justices of peace through this
kingdom had laid down their commissions; whereas upon examination, the
whole number was found to amount only to a dozen or thirteen, and those
generally of the lowest rate in fortune and understanding, and some of
them superannuated. So, when the Earl of Pembroke was in Ireland and the
Parliament sitting, a formal story was very gravely carried to his
Excellency by some zealous members, of a priest newly arrived from
abroad to the north-west parts of Ireland, who had publicly preached to
his people, to fall a-murdering the Protestants; which, though invented
to serve an end they were then upon, and are still driving at, it was
presently handed over, and printed with shrewd remarks by your worthy
scribblers. In like manner, the account of that person who was lately
expelled our university for reflecting on the memory of King William,
what a dust it raised, and how foully it was related, is fresh enough in
memory.[2] Neither would people be convinced till the university was at
the pains of publishing a Latin paper to justify themselves. And, to
mention no more, this story of the persecution at Drogheda, how it hath
been spread and aggravated, what consequences have been drawn from it,
and what reproaches fixed on those who have least deserved them, we are
already informed. Now if the end of all this proceeding were a secret
and mystery, I should not undertake to give it an interpretation, but
sufficient care hath been taken to give it sufficient explanation.[3]
First, by addresses artificially (if not illegally) procured, to shew
the miserable state of the dissenters in Ireland by reason of the
Sacramental Test, and to desire the Queen's intercession that it might
be repealed. Then it is manifest that our Speaker, when he was last year
in England, solicited, in person, several members of both Houses, to
have it repealed by an act there, though it be a matter purely national,
that cannot possibly interfere with the trade and interest of England,
and though he himself appeared formerly the most zealous of all men
against the injustice of binding a nation by laws to which they do not
consent. And lastly, those weekly libellers, whenever they get a tale by
the end relating to Ireland, without ever troubling their thoughts about
the truth, always end it with an application against the Sacramental
Test, and the absolute necessity there is of repealing it in both
kingdoms. I know it may be reckoned a weakness to say anything of such
trifles as are below a serious man's notice; much less would I disparage
the understanding of any party to think they would choose the vilest and
most ignorant among mankind, to employ them for assertors of a cause. I
shall only say, that the scandalous liberty those wretches take would
hardly be allowed, if it were not mingled with opinions that _some men_
would be glad to advance. Besides, how insipid soever those papers are,
they seem to be levelled to the understandings of a great number; they
are grown a necessary part in coffee-house furniture, and some time or
other may happen to be read by customers of all ranks, for curiosity and
amusement; because they lie always in the way. One of these authors (the
fellow that was pilloried I have forgot his name)[4] is indeed so grave,
sententious, dogmatical a rogue, that there is no enduring him; the
_Observator_[5] is much the brisker of the two, and I think farther gone
of late in lies and impudence, than his Presbyterian brother. The reason
why I mention him, is to have an occasion of letting you know, that you
have not dealt so gallantly with us, as we did with you in a parallel
case: Last year, a paper was brought here from England, called, "A
Dialogue between the Archbishop of Canterbury and Mr. Higgins," which we
ordered to be burnt by the common hangman, as it well deserved; though
we have no more to do with his Grace of Canterbury[6] than you have with
the Archbishop of Dublin[7]; nor can you love and reverence your prelate
more than we do ours, whom you tamely suffer to be abused openly, and by
name, by that paltry rascal of an _Observator_; and lately upon an
affair wherein he had no concern; I mean the business of the missionary
at Drogheda, wherein our excellent primate was engaged, and did nothing
but according to law and discretion. But because the Lord Archbishop of
Dublin hath been upon several occasions of late years, misrepresented in
England, I would willingly set you right in his character. For his great
sufferings and eminent services he was by the late King promoted to the
see of Derry. About the same time, he wrote a book to justify the
Revolution, wherein was an account of King James's proceedings in
Ireland, and the late Archbishop Tillotson recommended it to the King as
the most serviceable treatise that could have been published at such a
juncture.[8] And as his Grace set out upon those principles, he has
proceeded so ever since, as a loyal subject to the Queen, entirely for
the succession in the Protestant line, and for ever excluding the
Pretender; and though a firm friend to the Church, yet with indulgence
toward dissenters, as appears from his conduct at Derry, where he was
settled for many years among the most virulent of the sect; yet upon his
removal to Dublin, they parted from him with tears in their eyes, and
universal acknowledgments of his wisdom and goodness. For the rest, it
must be owned, he does not busy himself by entering deep into any party,
but rather spends his time in acts of hospitality and charity, in
building of churches, repairing his palace, in introducing and
preferring the worthiest persons he can find, without other regards; in
short, in the practice of all virtues that can become a public or
private life. This and more, if possible, is due to so excellent a
person, who may be justly reckoned among the greatest and most learned
prelates of his age, however his character may be defiled by such mean
and dirty hands as those of the _Observator_ or such as employ him.[9]

[Footnote 2: The Provost and Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, had
lately expelled Edward Forbes for the cause mentioned in the text. [S.]]

[Footnote 3: Faulkner prints: "But sufficient care hath been taken to
explain it." [T.S.]]

[Footnote 4: Daniel Defoe (1663?-1731), the son of a Cripplegate
butcher. Entered business as a hosier, but failed. In 1695 he was
appointed one of the commissioners for duties on glass. Wrote "The True
Born Englishman" (1701); "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters," for
which he was pilloried, fined, and imprisoned; and numerous other works,
including "Robinson Crusoe;" "Life of Captain Singleton;" "History of
Duncan Campbell;" "Life of Moll Flanders;" "Roxana;" "Life of Colonel
Jack;" "Journal of the Plague;" "History of the Devil;" and "Religious
Courtship." He edited a paper called "The Review," to which Swift here
refers, and against which Charles Leslie wrote his "Rehearsals." [T.S.]]

[Footnote 5: John Tutchin, a virulent writer of the reign of James II.
For a political work in defence of Monmouth he was sentenced by Judge
Jefferies to be whipped through several market towns. He wrote the
"Observator" (begun April, 1702), and suffered at the hands of the
Tories for his writings. He died in great poverty in 1708, at the age of
forty-seven. He was also the author of a play entitled, "The Unfortunate
Shepherd." Pope refers to these punishments meted out to Defoe and
Tutchin, in the second book of the "Dunciad":

"Earless on high, stood unabashed De Foe,
And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge below." [T.S.]]

[Footnote 6: Dr. Thomas Tenison (1636-1715), born at Cottenham,
Cambridgeshire. For his attacks on the Roman Catholics he was in 1691
created Bishop of Lincoln. He was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1694.
He wrote a "Discourse of Idolatry," an answer to Hobbes, and published
several sermons. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 7: Dr. William King. See vol. iii., p. 241, note. [T.S.]]

[Footnote 8: Dr. King was twice imprisoned in the castle of Dublin
after the landing of King James in Ireland in 1699, and narrowly escaped
assassination. The title of the work alluded to is: "The State of the
Protestants in Ireland under the late King James's Government, in which
their carriage towards him is justified, and the absolute necessity of
their endeavouring to be freed from his Government, and of submitting to
their present Majesties, is demonstrated." [S.]]

[Footnote 9: The portion of this paragraph beginning with "The reason
why I mention him," to the end, "such as employ him," is omitted by
Faulkner. [T.S.]]

I now come to answer the other part of your letter, and shall give you
my opinion freely about repealing the Sacramental Test; only whereas you
desire my thoughts as a friend, and not as I am a member of parliament,
I must assure you they are exactly the same in both capacities.

I must begin by telling you, we are generally surprised at your
wonderful kindness to us on this occasion, it being so very industrious
to teach us to see our interest in a point where we are so unable to see
it ourselves. This hath given us some suspicion; and though in my own
particular, I am hugely bent to believe, that whenever you concern
yourselves in our affairs, it is certainly for our good, yet I have the
misfortune to be something singular in this belief, and therefore I
never attempt to justify it, but content myself to possess my own
opinion in private, for fear of encountering men of more wit or words
than I have to spare.

We at this distance, who see nothing of the spring of actions, are
forced by mere conjecture to assign two reasons for your desiring us to
repeal the Sacramental Test: One is, because you are said to imagine it
will be one step towards the like good work in England: The other more
immediate, that it will open a way for rewarding several persons who
have well deserved upon a great occasion, but who are now unqualified
through that impediment.

I do not frequently quote poets, especially English, but I remember
there is in some of Mr. Cowley's love verses, a strain that I thought
extraordinary at fifteen, and have often since imagined it to be spoken
by Ireland:

"Forbid it Heaven my life should be
Weigh'd with her least conveniency:"

In short, whatever advantage you propose to yourselves by repealing the
Sacramental Test, speak it out plainly, 'tis the best argument you can
use, for we value your interest much more than our own: If your little
finger be sore, and you think a poultice made of our vitals will give it
any ease, speak the word and it shall be done; the interest of our whole
kingdom is at any time ready to strike to that of your poorest fishing
towns; it is hard you will not accept our services, unless we believe at
the same time that you are only consulting our profit, and giving us
marks of your love. If there be a fire at some distance, and I
immediately blow up my house before there be occasion, because you are a
man of quality, and apprehend some danger to a corner of your stable;
yet why should you require me to attend next morning at your levee with
my humble thanks for the favour you have done me?

If we might be allowed to judge for ourselves, we had abundance of
benefit by the Sacramental Test, and foresee a number of mischiefs would
be the consequence of repealing it, and we conceive the objections made
against it by the dissenters are of no manner of force: They tell us of
their merits in the late war in Ireland, and how cheerfully they engaged
for the safety of the nation; that had they thought they had been
fighting only other people's quarrels, perhaps it might have cooled
their zeal; and that for the future, they shall sit down quietly and let
us do our work ourselves; nay, that it is necessary they should do so,
since they cannot take up arms under the penalty of high treason.

Now supposing them to have done their duty, as I believe they did, and
not to trouble them about the _fly on the wheel_; I thought Liberty,
Property and Religion had been the three subjects of the quarrel, and
have not all those been amply secured to them? Had they not at that time
a mental reservation for power and employments? And must these two
articles be added henceforward in our national quarrels? It is grown a
mighty conceit among some men to melt down the phrase of a _Church
Established by law_ into that of the _Religion of the Magistrate_; of
which appellation it is easier to find the reason than the sense: If by
the magistrate they mean the prince, the expression includes a
falsehood; for when King James was prince[10], the Established Church
was the same it is now. If by the same word they mean the Legislature,
we desire no more. Be that as it will, we of this kingdom believe the
Church of Ireland to be the National Church, and the only one
established by law, and are willing by the same law to give a toleration
to dissenters: But if once we repeal our Sacramental Test, and grant a
toleration, or suspend the execution of the penal laws, I do not see how
we can be said to have any Established Church remaining; or rather why
there will not be as many established churches, as there are sects of
dissenters. No, say they, yours will still be the National Church,
because your bishops and clergy are maintained by the public; but, that,
I suppose, will be of no long duration, and it would be very unjust it
should, because, to speak in Tindal's phrase,[11] it is not reasonable
that revenues should be annexed to one opinion more than another, when
all are equally lawful, and 'tis the same author's maxim, that no
freeborn subject ought to pay for maintaining speculations he does not
believe. _But why should any man, upon account of opinions he cannot
help, be deprived of the opportunity of serving his Queen and country?_
Their zeal is commendable, and when employments go a begging for want of
hands, they shall be sure to have the refusal, only upon condition they
will not pretend to them upon maxims which equally include atheists,
Turks, Jews, infidels, and heretics, or which is still more dangerous,
even Papists themselves; the former you allow, the other you deny,
because these last own a foreign power, and therefore must be shut out.
But there is no great weight in this; for their religion can suit with
free states, with limited or absolute monarchies, as well as a better,
and the Pope's power in France is but a shadow; so that upon this foot
there need be no great danger to the constitution by admitting Papists
to employments. I will help you to enough of them who shall be ready to
allow the Pope as little power here as you please; and the bare opinion
of his being vicar of Christ is but a speculative point, for which no
man it seems ought to be deprived of the capacity of serving his
country.

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