Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/444

436 at his foot, bound fast with three or four chains, his teeth drawn out, and his claws pared to the quick, or an angry cat in full liberty at his throat; he would take no long time to determine.

I have been sometimes admiring the wonderful significancy of that word persecution, and what various interpretations it has acquired even within my memory. When I was a boy, I often heard the presbyterians complain, that they were not permitted to serve God in their own way; they said they did not repine at our employments, but thought that all men who live peaceably, ought to have liberty of conscience, and leave to assemble. That impediment being removed at the revolution, they soon learned to swallow the sacramental test, and began to take very large steps, wherein all who offered to oppose them, were called men of a persecuting spirit. During the time the bill against occasional conformity was on foot, persecution was every day rung in our ears, and now at last the sacramental test itself has the same name. Where then is this matter likely to end, when the obtaining of one request, is only used as a step to demand another? a lover is ever complaining of cruelty, while any thing is denied him; when the lady ceases, to be cruel, she is from the next moment at his mercy: so persecution it seems, is every thing, that will not leave it in men's power to persecute others.

There is one argument offered against a sacramental test, by a sort of men, who are content to be styled of the church of England, who perhaps attend its service in the morning, and go with their wives to a conventicle in the afternoon, confessing they hear very good doctrine in both. These men are much fended,