ry at all!

_For_, say they, _seeing His Majesty is our joy and life; seeing that he
is so courageous and wise; seeing that he is so very tender of, and well
affected to, all his subjects; and that he has been at such large
expenses, for five and twenty whole years, to defend and protect this his
realm: therefore, in all duty and gratitude, and as a manifest token of
our unfeigned thankfulness, We do grant unto the king and his heirs for
ever, &c._

It follows as closely as can be, that because the king has been a good
and deserving king, and had been at much trouble and expense for the
safety and honour of the nation, that therefore all his wants shall be
supplied _out of the Church_! as if all the charges that he had been at,
were upon the account only of his Ecclesiastical subjects, and not in
relation to the rest.

It is not, Sir, for you or I to guess, which way the whole Clergy in
general, might be better provided for. But, sure it is, and must not be
denied, that so long as many Livings continue as they now are, thus
impoverished; and that there be so few encouragements for men of
sobriety, wisdom, and learning: we have no reason to expect much better
Instructors and Governors of parishes, than at present we commonly find.

There is a way, I know, that some people love marvellously to talk of;
and that is a just and equal levelling of Ecclesiastical preferments.

"What a delicate refreshment," say they, "would it be, if L20,000 or
L30,000 a year were taken from the Bishops, and discreetly sprinkled
amongst the poorer and meaner sort of the Clergy! how would it rejoice
their hearts, and encourage them in their Office! What need those great
and sumptuous palaces, their city and their country houses, their parks
and spacious waters, their costly dishes and fashionable sauces? May not
he that lives in a small thatched house, that can scarcely walk four
strides in his own ground, that has only _read_ well concerning venison,
fish, and fowl: may not he, I say, preach as loud and to as much purpose
as one of those high and mighty Spiritualists? Go to, then! Seeing it
hath pleased GOD to make such a bountiful provision for His Church in
general, what need we be solicitous about the emending the low condition
of many of the Clergy, when as there is such a plain remedy at hand, had
we but grace to apply it?"

This invention pleases some mainly well. But for all the great care they
pretend to have of the distressed pa