Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/295

Rh this very dedication complains of some in holy orders, who have made the constitution of their country, (in which and the Coptick Mr. Steele is equally skilled) a very little part of their study, and yet made obedience and government, the frequent subjects of their discourses. This difficulty is easily solved; for by politicks, they mean obedience. Mr. Hoadly, who is a champion for resistance, was never charged with meddling out of his function: Hugh Peters, and his brethren, in the times of usurpation, had full liberty to preach up sedition and rebellion; and so here, Mr. Steele issues out his licence to the clergy, to preach up the danger of a popish pretender, in defiance of the queen and her administration.

Every whiffler in a laced coat, who frequents the chocolate-house, and is able to spell the title of a pamphlet, shall talk of the constitution with as much plausibility as this very solemn writer, and with as good a grace blame the clergy for meddling with politicks, which they do not understand. I have known many of these able politicians furnished before they were of age, with all the necessary topicks of their faction, and by the help of about twenty polysyllables, capable of maintaining an argument, that would shine in the Crisis; whose author gathered up his little stock from the same schools, and has written from no other fund.

But after all, it in not clear to me, whether this gentleman addresses himself to the clergy of land