The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 04 / Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church — Volume 2

CONTENTS


Swift refers to this tract in his Memoirs relating to the change in the Queen's Ministry, as follows:— It was everybody's opinion, that the Earl of Wharton would endeavour, when he went to Ireland, to take off the test, as a step to have it taken off here: upon which I drew up and printed a pamphlet, by way of a letter from a member of parliament here, shewing the danger to the Church by such an intent. Although I took all care to be private, yet the Lieutenant's chaplain, and some others guessed me to be the author, and told his Excellency their suspicions; whereupon I saw him no more until I went to Ireland.
The tract is one of the most favourable specimens of Swift's controversial method and trenchant satire. The style is excellent—forcible and pithy; while the arguments are like most of Swift's arguments, aptly to the point with yet a potentiality of application which fits them for the most general statement of the principles under discussion. Scott considers the pamphlet as having materially contributed to the loss of the bill for repeal of the Test Act during the Earl of Pembroke's vice-royalty. In the same year Swift wrote A Letter to a Member of Parliament in Ireland on choosing a new Speaker there. This short tract bears also on the question of the Test; but it is not included in this volume, since it was intended as an electioneering pamphlet.
I have been unable to obtain access to a copy of the first edition of the Letter on the Sacramental Test. The text here given is that of the Miscellanies of 1711, collated with that given in the Miscellanies, 1728, and with those printed by Faulkner, Hawkesworth, and Scott.
In the second volume of Doctor Swift's and Mr. Pope's 'Miscellanies,' I found the following treatise, which had been printed in London, with some other of the Dean's works, many years before, but at first came out by itself in the year 1708, as the date shews: And it was at a juncture when the Dissenters were endeavouring to repeal the Sacramental Test, as by common fame, and some pamphlets published to the same purpose, they seem to be now again attempting, with great hope of success. I have, therefore, taken the liberty to make an extract out of that discourse, omitting only some passages which relate to certain persons, and are of no consequence to the argument. But the author's weight of reasoning seems at present to have more weight than it had in those times, when the discourse first appeared.