The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume IV | Page 5

the scourge below." [T.S.]]
[Footnote 6: Dr. Thomas Tenison (1636-1715), born at Cottenham,
Cambridgeshire. For his attacks on the Roman Catholics he was in
1691 created Bishop of Lincoln. He was made Archbishop of
Canterbury in 1694. He wrote a "Discourse of Idolatry," an answer to
Hobbes, and published several sermons. [T.S.]]
[Footnote 7: Dr. William King. See vol. iii., p. 241, note. [T.S.]]
[Footnote 8: Dr. King was twice imprisoned in the castle of Dublin
after the landing of King James in Ireland in 1699, and narrowly
escaped assassination. The title of the work alluded to is: "The State of
the Protestants in Ireland under the late King James's Government, in
which their carriage towards him is justified, and the absolute necessity
of their endeavouring to be freed from his Government, and of
submitting to their present Majesties, is demonstrated." [S.]]
[Footnote 9: The portion of this paragraph beginning with "The reason
why I mention him," to the end, "such as employ him," is omitted by
Faulkner. [T.S.]]
I now come to answer the other part of your letter, and shall give you
my opinion freely about repealing the Sacramental Test; only whereas
you desire my thoughts as a friend, and not as I am a member of
parliament, I must assure you they are exactly the same in both
capacities.
I must begin by telling you, we are generally surprised at your
wonderful kindness to us on this occasion, it being so very industrious
to teach us to see our interest in a point where we are so unable to see it
ourselves. This hath given us some suspicion; and though in my own
particular, I am hugely bent to believe, that whenever you concern
yourselves in our affairs, it is certainly for our good, yet I have the
misfortune to be something singular in this belief, and therefore I never
attempt to justify it, but content myself to possess my own opinion in
private, for fear of encountering men of more wit or words than I have
to spare.
We at this distance, who see nothing of the spring of actions, are forced

by mere conjecture to assign two reasons for your desiring us to repeal
the Sacramental Test: One is, because you are said to imagine it will be
one step towards the like good work in England: The other more
immediate, that it will open a way for rewarding several persons who
have well deserved upon a great occasion, but who are now unqualified
through that impediment.
I do not frequently quote poets, especially English, but I remember
there is in some of Mr. Cowley's love verses, a strain that I thought
extraordinary at fifteen, and have often since imagined it to be spoken
by Ireland:
"Forbid it Heaven my life should be Weigh'd with her least
conveniency:"
In short, whatever advantage you propose to yourselves by repealing
the Sacramental Test, speak it out plainly, 'tis the best argument you
can use, for we value your interest much more than our own: If your
little finger be sore, and you think a poultice made of our vitals will
give it any ease, speak the word and it shall be done; the interest of our
whole kingdom is at any time ready to strike to that of your poorest
fishing towns; it is hard you will not accept our services, unless we
believe at the same time that you are only consulting our profit, and
giving us marks of your love. If there be a fire at some distance, and I
immediately blow up my house before there be occasion, because you
are a man of quality, and apprehend some danger to a corner of your
stable; yet why should you require me to attend next morning at your
levee with my humble thanks for the favour you have done me?
If we might be allowed to judge for ourselves, we had abundance of
benefit by the Sacramental Test, and foresee a number of mischiefs
would be the consequence of repealing it, and we conceive the
objections made against it by the dissenters are of no manner of force:
They tell us of their merits in the late war in Ireland, and how
cheerfully they engaged for the safety of the nation; that had they
thought they had been fighting only other people's quarrels, perhaps it
might have cooled their zeal; and that for the future, they shall sit down
quietly and let us do our work ourselves; nay, that it is necessary they
should do so, since they cannot take up arms under the penalty of high
treason.
Now supposing them to have done their duty, as I believe they did, and

not to trouble them about the _fly on the wheel_; I thought Liberty,
Property and