to forbid that detestable custom of drinking to the damnation or confusion of any person whatsoever.* Such desperate acts, and the opinions infused along with them into heads already inflamed by youth and wine, are enough to scatter madness and sedition through a whole camp. So seldom upon their knees to pray, and so often to curse! this is not properly atheism, but a sort of antireligion prescribed by the devil, and which an atheist of common sense would scorn as an absurdity. I have heard it mentioned as a common practice last autumn, somewhere or other, to drink damnation and confusion (and this with circumstances very aggravating and horrid) to the new ministry, and to those who had any hand in turning out the old; that is to say, to those persons whom her majesty has thought fit to employ in her greatest affairs, with something more than a glance against the queen herself. And if it be true, that these orgies were attended with certain doubtful words of standing by their general, who, without question, abhorred them, let any man consider the consequence of such dispositions, if they should happen to spread. I could only wish, for the honour of the army, as well as of the queen and ministry, that a remedy had been applied to the disease, in the place and time where it grew. If men of such principles were able to propagate them in a camp, and were sure of a general for life, who had any tincture of ambition, we might soon bid farewell to ministers and parliaments, whether new or old. * Several of the officers in Marlborough's army had drunk damnation to the new ministry on their knees; for which General Honeywood and others lost their commissions. See Journal, Vol. II. p. 106. They are to education, unTheir fortunes I am only sorry such an accident has happened toward the close of a war, when it is chiefly the interest of those gentlemen, who have posts in the army, to behave themselves in such a manner as might encourage the legislature to make some provision for them, when there will be no farther need of their services. consider themselves as persons, by their qualified for many other stations of life. will not suffer them to retain to a party after its fall, nor have they weight or abilities to help toward its resurrection. Their future dependence is wholly upon the prince and parliament, to which they will never make their way by solemn execrations of the ministry; a ministry of the queen's own election, and fully answering the wishes of her people. This unhappy step in some of their brethren may pass for an uncontrollable argument, that politics are not their business or their element. The fortune of war has raised several persons up to swelling titles, and great commands over numbers of men, which they are too apt to transfer along with them into civil life, and appear in all companies, as if they were at the head of their regiments, with a sort of deportment that ought to have been dropt behind in that short passage to Harwich. It puts me in mind of a dialogue in Lucian, where Charon, wafting one of their predecessors over Styx, ordered him to strip off his armour and fine clothes, yet still thought him too heavy : "But," said he, "put off likewise that pride and presumption, those high-swelling words, and that vain glory;" because they were of no use on the other side of the water. Thus, if *This mode of expression is now obsolete, though we still say retainers to a party. all that array of military grandeur were confined to the proper scene, it would be much more for the interest of the owners, and less offensive to their fellow-subjects. No. XXI. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1710. Nam et majorum instituta tueri, sacris ceremoniisque retinendis, sapientis est. A wise man will protect and defend the rights of the church; which, in spite of the malice of its enemies, although tottering, and on the brink of destruction, stands secure, to the admiration of all men. WHOEVER is a true lover of our constitution, must needs be pleased to see what successful endeavours are daily made to restore it, in every branch, to its ancient form, from the languishing condition it has long lain in, and with such deadly symptoms. the rest. I have already handled some abuses during the late management, and shall, in convenient time, go on with Hitherto I have confined myself to those of the state; but, with the good leave of some who think it a matter of small moment, I shall now take liberty to say something of the church. For several years past, there has not, I think, in Europe, been any society of men upon so unhappy a foot as the clergy of England, nor more hardly treated by those very persons, from whom they deserved much better quarter, and in whose power they chiefly had put it to use them so ill. I would not willingly misrepresent facts; but I think it generally allowed by enemies and friends, that the bold and brave defences made before the Revolution, against those many invasions of our rights, proceeded principally from the clergy, who are likewise known to have rejected all advances made them, to close with the measures at that time concerting; while the dissenters, to gratify their ambition and revenge, fell into the basest compliances with the court, approved of all proceedings by their numerous and fulsome addresses, and took employments and commissions, by virtue of the dispensing power, against the direct laws of the land.* All this is so true, that, if ever the Pretender comes in, they will, next to those of his own religion, have the fairest claim and pretensions to his favour, from their merit and eminent services to his supposed father; who, without such encouragement, would probably never have been misled to go the lengths he did. It should likewise be remembered, to the everlasting honour of the London divines, that, in those dangerous times, they writ and published the best collection of arguments against popery that ever appeared in the world. At the Revolution, the body of the clergy joined heartily in the common cause, except a few, whose sufferings, perhaps, * The dissenters were at first disposed to make common cause with the Catholics in favour of the dispensing power claimed by James II.; and an address from the Presbyterians went so far as to praise the king for having "restored to God his empire over conscience." have atoned for their mistakes, like men who are content to go about for avoiding a gulf or a precipice, but come into the old straight road again as soon as they can. But another temper had now begun to prevail; for, as in the reign of King Charles the First, several well-meaning people were ready to join in reforming some abuses, while others, who had deeper designs, were still calling out for a thorough reformation, which ended at last in the ruin of the kingdom; so, after the late king's coming to the throne, there was a restless cry from men of the same principles for a thorough revolution, which, as some were carrying it on, must have ended in the destruction of the monarchy and church. What a violent humour has run ever since against the clergy, and from what corner spread and fomented, is, I believe, manifest to all men. It looked like a set quarrel against Christianity; and if we call to mind several of the leaders, it must, in a great measure, have been actually so. Nothing was more common, in writing and conversation, than to hear that reverend body charged in gross with what was utterly inconsistent, despised for their poverty, hated for their riches; reproached with avarice, and taxed with luxury; accused for promoting arbitrary power, and for resisting the prerogative; censured for their pride, and scorned for their meanness of spirit. The representatives of the lower clergy were railed at for disputing the power of the bishops, by the known abhorrers of episcopacy, and abused for doing nothing in the convocations, by those very men who helped to bind up their hands. The vice, the folly, the ignorance of every single man, were laid upon the character; their jurisdiction, censures, and discipline, trampled under foot; yet mighty complaints against their exces |