Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 5.djvu/320

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE PRESBYTERIANS PLEA, ETC.

I have been assured by some persons who were present, that several of these dissenting teachers, upon their first arrival hither[1] to solicit the repeal of the test, were pleased to express their gratitude by publickly drinking the healths of certain eminent patrons, whom they pretend to have found among us. If this be true, and that the test must be delivered up by the very superiours appointed to defend it; the affair is already in effect at an end. What secret reasons those patrons may have given for such a return of brotherly love, I shall not inquire: "for O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united. For, in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel."

  1. 'Arrival hither,' is not English; it should be 'arrival here.'

THE