The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 3/The Examiner, Number 36
NUMBER XXXVI.
THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1711.
Tres species tam dissimiles, tria talia texta,
Una dies dedit exitio——
Such different forms of various threads combin'd,
One day destroy'd in common ruin join'd.
I WRITE this paper for the sake of the dissenters, whom I take to be the most spreading branch of the whig party, that professes Christianity; and the only one that seems to be zealous for any particular system of it; the bulk of those we call the low church, being generally indifferent and undetermined in that point; and the other subdivisions having not yet taken either the Old or the New Testament into their scheme. By the dissenters therefore it will easily be understood that I mean the presbyterians, as they include the sects of anabaptists, independents, and others, which have been melted down into them since the restoration. This sect, in order to make itself national, having gone so far as to raise a rebellion, murder their king, destroy monarchy and the church, was afterward broken in pieces by its own divisions; which made way for the king's return from his exile. However the zealous among them did still entertain hopes of recovering the dominion of grace: whereof I have read a remarkable passage in a book published about the year 1661, and written by one of their own side. As one of the regicides was going to his execution, a friend asked him, whether he thought the cause would revive? He answered, The cause is in the bosom of Christ; and as sure as Christ rose from the dead, so sure will the cause revive also. And therefore the nonconformists were strictly watched, and restrained by penal laws, during the reign of king Charles the second; the court and kingdom looking on them as a faction, ready to join in any design against the government in church or state. And surely this was reasonable enough, while so many continued alive who had voted, and fought, and preached against both, and gave no proof that they had changed their principles. The nonconformists were then exactly upon the same foot with our nonjurors now, whom we double-tax, forbid their conventicles, and keep under hatches, without thinking ourselves possessed with a persecuting spirit; because we know they want nothing but the power to ruin us. This, in my opinion, should altogether silence the dissenters complaints of persecution under king Charles the second; or make them show us wherein they differed at that time, from what our jacobites are now.
Their inclinations to the church were soon discovered, when king James the second succeeded to the crown; with whom they unanimously joined in its ruin, to revenge themselves for that restraint they had most justly suffered in the foregoing reign; not from the persecuting temper of the clergy, as their clamours would suggest, but the prudence and caution of the legislature. The same indulgence against law was made use of by them and the papists; and they amicably employed their power, as in defence of one common interest.
But the revolution happening soon after, served to wash away the memory of the rebellion; upon which the run against popery was no doubt as just and seasonable, as that of fanaticism after the restoration: and the dread of popery being then our latest danger, and consequently the most fresh upon our spirits, all mouths were open against that; the dissenters were rewarded with an indulgence by law; the rebellion and king's murder were now no longer a reproach; the former was only a civil war, and whoever durst call it a rebellion, was a jacobite and friend to France. This was the more unexpected, because, the revolution being wholly brought about by church of England hands, they hoped one good consequence of it would be, the relieving us from the encroachments of dissenters, as well as those of papists; since both had equally confederated toward our ruin; and therefore, when the crown was new settled, it was hoped at least that the rest of the constitution would be restored. But this affair took a very different turn: the dissenters had just made a shift to save a tide, and join with the prince of Orange, when they found all was desperate with their protector king James; and observing a party then forming against the old principles in church and state, under the name of whigs and low churchmen, they listed themselves of it, where they have ever since continued. It is, therefore, upon the foot they now are, that I would apply myself to them, and desire they would consider the different circumstances at present, from what they were under when they began their designs against the church and monarchy, about seventy years ago. At that juncture they made up the body of the party; and whosoever joined with them from principles of revenge, discontent, ambition, or love of change, were all forced to shelter under their denomination; united heartily in the pretences of a farther and purer reformation in religion, and of advancing the great work (as the cant was then) that God was about to do in these nations; received the systems of doctrine and discipline prescribed by the Scots, and readily took the covenant; so that there appeared no division among them, till after the common enemy was subdued.
But now their case is quite otherwise: and I can hardly think it worth being of a party, upon the terms they have been received of late years. For, suppose the whole faction should at length succeed in their design of destroying the church; are they so weak as to imagine, that the new modelling of religion would be put into their hands? would their brethren, the low churchmen and freethinkers, submit to their discipline, their synods, and their classes; and divide the lands of bishops, or deans and chapters, among them? how can they help observing, that their allies, instead of pretending more sanctity than other men, are some of them for levelling all religion, and the rest for abolishing it? Is it not manifest, that they have been treated by their confederates exactly after the same manner as they were by king James the second; made instruments to ruin the church; not for their own sakes, but, under a pretended project of universal freedom in opinion, to advance the dark designs of those who employ them? for, excepting the antimonarchical principle, and a few false notions about liberty, I see but little agreement between them; and even in these, I beiieve, it would be impossible to contrive a frame of government that would please them all, if they had it now in their power to try. But however, to be sure the presbyterian institution would never obtain. For, suppose they should, in imitation of their predecessors, propose to have no king but our Saviour Christ; the whole clan of freethinkers would immediately object, and refuse his authority. Neither would their lowchurch brethren use them better, as well knowing what enemies they are to that doctrine of unlimited toleration, wherever they are suffered to preside. So that upon the whole, I do not see, as their present circumstances stand, where the dissenters can find better quarter than from the church of England.
Besides, I leave it to their consideration, whether, with all their zeal against the church, they ought not to show a little decency; and how far it consists with their reputation to act in concert with such confederates. It was reckoned a very infamous proceeding in the present most christian king, to assist the Turk against the emperor: policy and reasons of state were not allowed sufficient excuses, for taking part with an infidel against a believer. It is one of the dissenters quarrels against the church, that she is not enough reformed from popery; yet they boldly entered into a league with papists and a popish prince to destroy her. They profess much sanctity, and object against the wicked lives of some of our members; yet they have been long, and still continue, in strict combination with libertines and atheists to contrive our ruin. What if the Jews should multiply, and become a formidable party among us? Would the dissenters join in alliance with them likewise, because they agree already insome general principles, and because the Jews are allowed to be a stiffnecked and rebellious people?
It is the part of wise men to conceal their passions, when they are not in circumstances of exerting them to purpose: the arts of getting power, and preserving indulgence, are very different. For the former, the reasonable hopes of the dissenters seem to be at an end; their comrades, the whigs and freethinkers, are just in a condition proper to be forsaken; and the parliament, as well as the body of the people, will be deluded no longer. Besides, it sometimes happens for a cause to be exhausted[1] and worn out, as that of the whigs in general seems at present to be: the nation had felt enough of it. It is as vain to hope restoring that decayed interest, as for a man of sixty to talk of entering on a new scene of life, that is only proper for youth and vigour. New circumstances and new men must arise, as well as new occasions, which are not likely to happen in our time. So that the dissenters have no game left at present, but to secure their indulgence: in order to which, I will be so bold as to offer them some advice.
First, That until some late proceedings are a little forgot, they would take care not to provoke, by any violence of tongue or pen, so great a majority as there is now against them; nor keep up any longer that combination with their broken allies; but disperse themselves, and lie dormant against some better opportunity. I have shown they could have got no advantage, if the late party had prevailed; and they will certainly lose none by its fall, unless through their own fault. They pretend a mighty veneration for the queen; let them give proof of it by quitting the ruined interest of those who have used her so ill; and by a due respect to the persons she is pleased to trust at present, with her affairs. When they can no longer hope to govern, when struggling can do them no good, and may possibly hurt them, what is left, but to be silent and passive?
Secondly, Although there be no law (beside that of God Almighty) against occasional conformity, it would be prudence in the dissenters to use it as tenderly as they can: for, beside the infamous hypocrisy of the thing itself, too frequent practice would perhaps make a remedy necessary. And after all they have said to justify themselves in this point, it still continues hard to conceive, how those consciences can pretend to be scrupulous, upon which an employment has more power, than the love of unity.
In the last place, I am humbly of opinion, that the dissenters would do well to drop that lesson they have learned from their directors, of affecting to be under horrible apprehensions, that the tories are in the interest of the pretender, and would be ready to embrace the first opportunity of inviting him over. It is with the worst grace in the world that they offer to join in the cry upon this article: as if those, who alone stood in the gap against all the encroachments of popery and arbitrary power, are not more likely to keep out both, than a set of schismaticks; who, to gratify their ambition and revenge, did, by the meanest compliances, encourage and spirit up that unfortunate prince, to fall upon such measures, as must at last have ended in the ruin of our liberty and religion.
- ↑ 'It sometimes happens for a cause to be exhausted,' &c. A vulgar ungrammatical idiom; it should be 'it sometimes happens that a cause is exhausted,' &c.