Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 16.djvu/228

220 Page 161. "The pope and other great church dons." I suppose he means bishops: but I wish he would explain himself, and not be so very witty in the midst of an argument; it is like two mediums; not fair in disputing.

Page 167. "Clemens Romanus blames the people, not for assuming a power, but for making a wrong use of it, &c." His great errour all along is, that he does not distinguish between a power, and a liberty of exercising that power, &c. I would appeal to any man, whether the clergy have not too little power, since a book like his, that unsettles foundations, and would destroy all, goes unpunished, &c.

Page 171. "By this or some such method the bishops obtained their power over their fellow presbyters, and both over the people. The whole tenour of the Gospel directly contrary to it." Then it is not an allowable means: This carries it so far as to spoil his own system; it is a sin to have bishops as we have them.

Page 172. "The preservation of peace and unity, and not any divine right, was the reason of establishing a superiority of one of the presbyters over the rest. Otherwise there would, as they say, have been as many schismaticks as presbyters. No great compliment to the clergy of those days." Why so? It is the natural effect of a worse independency, which he keeps such a clatter about; an independency of churches on each other, which must naturally create schism.

Page 183. "How could the Christians have asserted the disinterestedness of those who first preached the Gospel, particularly their having a right to the tenth part?" Yes, that would have passed easy enough; for they could not imagine teachers could