Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/77

N° 21. the men of wit employed to turn the priesthood itself into ridicule: in short, groaning every where under the weight of poverty, oppression, contempt, and obloquy. A fair return for the time and money spent in their education, to fit them for the service of the altar; and a fair encouragement for worthy men to come into the church! However, it may be some comfort to the persons of that holy function, that their divine Founder, as well as his harbinger, met with the like reception: "John came neither eating or drinking, and they say, he hath a devil; the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, behold a glutton and a wine-bibber," &c.

In this deplorable state of the clergy, nothing but the hand of Providence, working by its glorious instrument the queen, could have been able to turn the people's hearts so surprisingly in their favour. This princess, destined for the safety of Europe, and a blessing to her subjects, began her reign with a noble benefaction to the church; and it was hoped the nation would have followed such an example; which nothing could have prevented, but the false politicks of a set of men, who form their maxims upon those of every tottering commonwealth, which is always struggling for life, subsisting by expedients, and often at the mercy of any powerful neighbour. These men take it into their imagination, that trade can never flourish, unless the country becomes a common receptacle for all nations, religions, and languages; a system only proper for small popular states, but altogether unworthy and below the dignity of an imperial crown; which, with us, is best upheld by a monarchy in possession of its just Rh