Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/156

142 discourses, which you had formerly preached with so great applause, though they were never heard of by us till they were recommended to our perusal by the Spectator, who some time since, in one of his papers, entertained the town with a paragraph out of the Postboy, and your lordship's extraordinary preface.

The world will perhaps be surprised, that gentlemen of our complexion, who have so long been piously employed in overturning the foundations of religion and government, should now stoop to the puny amusement of reading and commending sermons. But your lordship can work miracles, as well as write on them; and I dare assure your lordship and the world, that there is not an atheist in the whole kingdom (and we are no inconsiderable party) but will readily subscribe to the principles so zealously advanced and so learnedly maintained in those discourses.

I cannot but observe with infinite delight, that the reasons your lordship gives for reprinting those immortal pieces are urged with that strength and force which is peculiar to your lordship's writings, and is such as all who have any regard for truth, or relish for good writing, must admire, though none can sufficiently commend.

In a word, the preface is equal to the sermons: less than that ought not, and more cannot, be said of it. In this you play the part of a prophet, with the same address as that of a preacher in those; and, Rh