rt of the Clergy, I am confident, one
might easily guess what would please them much better! if (instead of
augmenting small benefices) the Bishops would be pleased to return to
them, those lands purchased in their absence [_i.e., during the
Commonwealth, which were restored to the Bishoprics at the Restoration_]:
and then, as for the relieving of the Clergy, they would try if they could
find out another way!

But, art thou in good earnest? my excellent Contriver! Dost thou think
that if the greatest of our Church preferments were wisely parcelled out
amongst those that are in want, it would do such feats and courtesies?
And dost thou not likewise think, that if ten or twenty of the lustiest
Noblemen's estates of England were cleverly sliced among the indigent;
would it not strangely refresh some of the poor Laity that cry "Small
Coal!" or grind scissors! I do suppose if GOD should afterwards incline
thy mind (for I fancy it will not be as yet, a good while!) to be a
Benefactor to the Church; thy wisdom may possibly direct thee to disperse
thy goodness in smaller parcels, rather than to flow in upon two or three
with full happiness.

But if it be my inclination to settle upon one Ecclesiastical person and
his successors for ever, a L1,000 a year [= L3,000 _now_] upon condition
only to read the _Service_ of the Church once in a week; and you take it
ill, and find fault with my prudence and the method of my munificence,
and say that "the stipend is much too large for such a small task": yet,
I am confident, that should I make thy Laityship heir of such an estate,
and oblige thee only to the trouble and expense of spending a single
chicken or half a dozen larks once a year, in commemoration of me; that
thou wouldst count me the wisest man that ever was, since the Creation!
and pray to GOD never to dispose thy mind, to part with one farthing of
it for any other use, than for the service of thyself and thy family.

And yet so it is, that, because the Bishops, upon their first being
restored [in 1660], had the confidence to levy fines, according as they
were justly due; and desired to live in their own houses, if not pulled
down! and to receive their own rents: presently, they cry out, "The
Churchmen have got all the treasure and money of the nation into their
hands."

If they have, let them thank GOD for it! and make a good use of it. Weep
not, Beloved! for there is very little hope that they will cast it all
into the se