Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	great_a	king_n	people_n	5,724	5	4.8029	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44583	Advice to a daughter as to religion, husband, house, family and children, behaviour and conversation, friendship, censure, vanity and affectation, pride, diversions : to which is added The character of a trimmer, as to the laws and government, Protestant religion, the papists, forreign affairs / by the late noble M. of H..; Lady's New-Year's gift	Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of, 1633-1695.; Coventry, William, Sir, 1628?-1686.	1699 (1699)	Wing H290; ESTC R9539	80,252	294

of France who in practice use their Laws pretty familiarly yet think their Picture is drawn with most advantage upon their Seals when they are placed in the Seat of Justice and tho' the Hicroglyphick is not there of so much use to the People as they would wish yet it shews that no Prince is so Great as not to think fit for his own Credit at least to give an outward when he refuses a real worship to the Laws They are to mankind that which the Sun is to Plants whilst it cherishes and preserves ' em Where they have their force are not clouded or supprest every thing smiles and flourishes but where they are darkened and not suffered to shine out it makes every thing to wither and decay They secure Men not only against one another but against themselves too they are a Sanctuary to which the Crown has occasion to resort as often as the People so that it is an Interest as well as a Duty to preserve them There would be no end of making a Panegyrick of Laws let it be enough to add that without Laws the World would become a Wilderness and Men little less than Beasts but with all this the best things may come to be the worst if they are not in good hands and if it be true that the wisest Men generally make the Laws it is as true that the strongest do often Interpret them and as Rivers belong as much to the Channel where they run as to the Spring from whence they first rise so the Laws depend as much upon the Pipes thro' which they are to pass as upon the Fountain from whence they flow The Authority of a King who is Head of the Law as well as the Dignity of Publick justice is debased when the clear stream of the Law is puddled and disturbed by Bunglers or convey'd by unclean Instruments to the People Our Trimmer would have them appear in their full lustre and would be grieved to see the day when instead of speaking with Authority from the Seats of Justice they should speak out of a Grate with a lamenting voice like Prisoners that desire to be rescu'd He wishes that the Bench may have a Natural as well as a Legal Superiority to the Bar he thinks Mens abilities very much misplac'd when the Reason of him that pleads is visibly too strong for those who Judge and give Sentence When those from the Bar seem to dictate to their Superiours upon the Bench their Furrs will look scurvily about them and the respect of the World will leave the bare Character of a Judge to follow the Essential knowledge of a Lawyer who may be greater in himself than the other can be with all his Trappings An uncontested Superiority in any Calling will have the better of any distinct Name that Authority can put upon it and therefore if ever such an unnatural Method should be introduc'd it is then that Westminster-Hall might be said to stand upon its Head and though Justice it self can never be so yet the Administration of it would be rendered Ridiculous A Judge has such power lodg'd in him that the King will never be thought to have chosen well where the voice of Mankind has not before-hand recommended the Man to his Station when Men are made Judges of what they do not understand the World censures such a Choice not out of ill-will to the Men but fear to themselves If the King had the sole power of chusing Physicians Men would tremble to see Bunglers preferred yet the necessity of taking Physick from a Doctor is generally not so great as that of recieving Justice from a Judge and yet the Inferences will be very severe in such cases for either it will be thought that such Men bought what they were not able to deserve or which is as bad that Obedience shall be lookd upon as a better Qualification in a Judge than Skill or Integrity when such sacred things as the Laws are not only touchd but guided by prophane hands Men will fear that out of the Tree of the Law from whence we expect Shade and Shelter such Workmen will make Cudgels to beat us with or rather that they will turn the Cannon upon our Properties that were intrusted with them for their Defence To see the Laws Mangled Disguised Speak quite another Language than their own to see them thrown from the Dignity of protecting Mankind to the disgraceful Office of destroying them and notwithstanding their Innocence in themselves to be made the worst Instruments that the most refined villany can make use of will raise Mens Anger above the power of laying it down again and tempt them to follow the Evil Examples given them of Judging without Hearing when so provoked by their desire of Revenge Our Trimmer therefore as he thinks the Laws are Jewels so he believes they are no better set than in the constitution of our English Government if rightly understood and carefully preserved It would be too great Partiality to say they are perfect or liable to no Objection such things are not of this world but if they have more Excellencies and fewer Faults than any other we know it is enough to recommend them to our Esteem The Dispute which is a greater Beauty a Monarchy or a Common-wealth has lasted long between their contending Lovers and they have behav'd themselves so like Lovers who in good Manners must be out of their Wits who used such Figures to exalt their own Idols on either side and such angry Aggravations to reproach one another in the Contest that moderate men have in all times smil'd upon this eagerness and thought it differ'd very little from a downright Frenzy we in England by a happy use of the Controversie conclude them both in the wrong and reject them from being our Pattern not taking the words in the utmost extent which is a thing that Monarchy leaves men no Liberty and a Common-wealth such a one as allows them no Quiet We think that a wise Mean between these barbarous Extreams is that which self-Preservation ought to dictate to our Wishes and we may say we have attained to this Mean in a greater measure than any Nation now in being or perhaps any we have read of tho never so much Celebrated for the wisdom or Felicity of their Constitutions We take from one the too great power of doing hurt and yet leave enough to govern and protect us we take from the other the Confusion the Parity the Animosities and the License and yet reserve a due care of such a Liberty as may consist with Mens Allegiance but it being hard if not impossible to be exactly even our Government has much the stronger Biass towards Monarchy which by the general Consent and Practice of Mankind seems to have the Advantage in dispute against a Commonwealth The Rules of a Commonwealth are too hard for the Bulk of Mankind to come up to that Form of Government requires such a

turning into such storms of Hurricane as that the State should run any hazard of being Cast away by them these struglings which are natural to all mixed Governments while they are kept from growing in Convulsions do by a mutual agitation from the several parts rather support and strengthen than weaken or maim the Constitution and the whole frame instead of being torn or disjointed comes to be the better and closer knit by being thus exercised but what ever faults our Government may have or a discerning Critick may find in it when he looks upon it alone let any other be set against it and then it shews its Comparative Beauty let us look upon the most glittering outside of unbounded Anthority and upon a nearer enquiry we shall find nothing but poor and miserable deformity within let us imagine a Prince living in his Kingdom as if in a great Gally his Subjects tugging at the Oar laden with Chains and reduced to real Rags that they may gain him imaginary Lawrels let us Represent him gazing among his Flatterers and receiving their false Worship like a Child never Contradicted and therefore always Cozen'd or like a Lady complemented only to be abused condemned never to hear Truth and consequently never to do Justice wallowing in the soft Bed of wanton and unbridled Greatness not less odious to the Instruments themselves than to the Objects of his Tyranny blown up into an Ambitious Dropsy never to be satisfied by the Conquest of other People or by the Oppression of his own by aiming to be more than a Man he falls lower than the meanest of 'em a mistaken Creature swelled with Panegyricks flattered out of his Senses and not only an Incumbrance but a Nuisance to Mankind a hardened and unrelenting Soul and like some Creatures that grow fat with Poisons he grows great by other Mens Miseries an Ambitious Ape of the Divine Greatness an unruly Gyant that would storm even Heaven it self but that his scaling Ladders are not long enough in short a Wild and devouring Creature in rich Trappings and with all his Pride no more than a Whip in God Almighty's hand to be thrown into the Fire when the World has been sufficiently scourged with it This Picture laid in right Colours would not incite Men to wish for such a Government but rather to acknowledge the happiness of our own under which we enjoy all the Priviledge Reasonable Men can desire and avoid all the Miserie 's many others are subject too so that out Trimmer would keep it with all its faults and does as little forgive those who give the occasion of breaking it as he does those that take it Our Trimmer is a Friend to Parliaments notwithstanding all their faults and excesses which of late have given such matter of Objection to them he thinks that tho' they may at sometimes be troublesome to Authority yet they add the greatest strength to it under a wise Administration he believes no Government is perfect except a kind of Omnipotence reside in it to exercised upon great Occasions Now this cannot be obtained by force alone upon People let it be never so great there must be their consent too or else a Nation moves only by being driven a sluggish constrained Motion void of that Life and Vigour which is necessary to produce great things whereas the virtual Consent of the whole being included in their Representatives and the King giving the sanction to the united sense of the People every Act done by such an Authority seems to be an effect of their choice as well as a part of their Duty and they do with an eagerness of which Men are uncapable whilst under a force execute whatsoever is so enjoyned as their own Wills better explained by Parliament rather than from the terrour of ic●urring the Penalty of the Law for omiting it and by means of this Political Omnipotence what ever Sap or Juice there is in a Nation may be to the last drop be produc'd whilst it rises naturally from the Root whereas all power exercis'd without consent is like the giving Wounds and Gashes and tapping a Tree at unseasonable Times for the present occasion which in a very little time must needs destroy it Our Trimmer believes that by the advantage of our Scituation there can hardly any such sudden Disease come upon us but that the King may have time enough left to consult with his Physitians in Parliament pretences indeed may be made but a real necessity so pressing that no delay is to be admitted is hardly to be imagin'd and it will be neither easie to give an instance of any such thing for the time past or reasonable to presume it will ever happen for the time to come but if that strange thing should fall out our Trimmer is not so strait-lac'd as to let a Nation dye or to be stifled rather than it should be help'd by any but the proper Officers The Cases themselves will bring the Remedies along with them and he is not afraid to allow that in order to its preservation there is a hidden Power in Government which would be lost if it was designed a certain Mystery by virtue of which a Nation may at some Critical times be secur'd from Ruine but then it must be kept as a Mystery it is rendered useless when touch'd by unskilful hands and no Government ever had or deserv'd to have that Power which was so unwary as to anticipate their claim to it Our Trimmer cannot help thinking it had been better if the Triennial Act had been observ'd because 't is the Law and he would not have the Crown by such an example teach the Nation to break it all irregularity is catching it has a Contagion in it especially in an Age so much enclin'd to follow ill Patterns than good ones He would have a Parliament because 't is an Essential part of the Constitution even without the Law it being the only Provision in extraordinary Cases in which there would be otherwise no Remedy and there can be no greater Solecism in Government than a failure of Justice He would have had one because nothing else can unite and heal us all other Means are meer Shifts and Projects Houses of Cards to be blown down with the least Breath and cannot resist the difficulties which are ever presum'd in things of this kind and he would have had one because it might have done the King good and could not possibly have done him hurt without his consent which in that Case is not to be supposed and therefore for him to fear it is so strange and so little to be comprehended that the Reasons can never be presum'd to grow in our Soyl or to thrive in it when Transplanted from any other Country and no doubt there are such irresistable Arguments for calling a Parliament and tho it might be deny'd to the unmannerly mutinous Petitions of men that are malicious and disaffected it will be granted to the

spirit to carry it on as dos not dwell in great Numbers but is restrained to so very few especially in this Age that let the Methods appear never so much reasonably in Paper they must fail in Practice which will ever be suited more to Mens Nature as it is than as it should be Monarchy is lik'd by the People for the Bells and the Tinsel the outward Pomp and Gilding and there must be milk for Babes since the greatest part of Mankind are and ever will be included in that List and it is approv'd by wise and thinking Men all Circumstances and Objections impartially considerd that it has so great an advantage above all other Forms when the Administration of that Power falls in good hands that all other Governments look out of Countenance when they are set in Competition with it Lycurgus might have sav'd himself the trouble of making laws if either he had been Immortal or that he could have secur'd to Posterity a succeeding Race of Princes like himself his own Example was a better Law than he could with all his skill tell how to make such a Prince is a Living Law that dictates to his subjects whose thoughts in that case never rise above their Obedience the Confidence they have in the vertue and Knowledge of the master preventing the Scruples and Apprehensions to which Men are naturally inclin'd in relation to those that govern them such a Magistrate is the Life and Soul of Justice whereas the Law is but a Body and a dead one too without his influence to give it warmth and vigour and by the irresistible Power of his vertue he do's so reconcile Dominion and Allegiance that all disputes between them are silenced and subdued and indeed no Monarchy can be Perfect and Absolute without exception but where the Prince is Superior by his Vertue as well as by his Character and his Power so that to screw out Presidents and unlimited Power is a plain diminution to a Prince that Nature has made Great and who had better make himself a glorious Example to Posterity than borrow an Authority from Dark Records raised out of the Grave which besides their Non-usage have always in them matter of Controversie and Debate and it may be affirmed that the instances are very rare of Princes having the worst in the dispute with their People if they were Eminent for Justice in time of Peace or Conduct in time of War such advantage the Crown giveth to those who adorn it by their own Personal vertues But since for the greater Honour of Good and Wise Princes and the better to set off their Character by the Comparison Heaven has decreed there must be a mixture and that such as are perverse and insufficient or at least both are perhaps to have their equal turns in the Government of the World and besides that the Will of Man is so various and so unbounded a thing and so fatal too when joined with Power misapply'd it is no wonder if those who are to be govern'd are unwilling to have so dangerous as well as so uncertain a Standard of their Obedience There must be therefore Rules and Laws for want of which or at least the Observation of them it was as Capital for a Man to say that Nero did not play well upon the Lute as to commit Treason or Blaspheme the Gods And even Vespasian himself had like to have lost his Life for sleeping whilst he should have attended and admir'd that Emperours Impertinence upon the Stage There is a wantonness in great Power that Men are generally too apt to be corrupted with and for that Reason a wise Prince to prevent the temptation arising from common frailty would choose to Govern by Rules for his own Sake as well as for his Peoples since it only secures him from Errors and does not lessen the real Authority that a good Magistrate would care to be possess'd of for if the Will of a Prince is contrary either to Reason it self or to the universal Opinion of his Subjects the Law by a kind restraint rescues him from a disease that would undo him if his will on the other side is reasonable or well directed that Will immediately becomes a Law and he is arbitrary by an easie and natural Consequence without taking pains or overturning the World for it If Princes consider Laws as things impos'd on them they have the appearance of Fetters of Iron but to such as would make them their choice as well as their practice they are Chains of Gold and in that respect are Ornaments as in others they are a defence to them and by a Comparison not improper for God's Vicegerents upon Earth as our Maker never Commands our obedience to any thing that as reasonable Creatures we ought not to make our own Election so a good and wise Governor tho' all Laws were abolish'd would by the voluntary direction of his own Reason do without restraint the very same things that they would have enjoyned Our Trimmer thinks that the King and Kingdom ought to be one Creature not to be separated in their Political Capacity and when either of them undertake to act a-part it is like the crawling of Worms after they are cut in pieces which cannot be a lasting motion the whole Creature not stirring at a time If the Body has a dead Palsie the Head cannot make it move and God hath not yet delegated such a healing power to Princes as that they can in a moment say to a Languishing People oppress'd and in despair take up your beds and walk The Figure of a King is so comprehensive and exalted a thing that it is a kind of degrading him to lodge that power separately in his own Natural Person which can never be safely or naturally great but where the People are so united to him as to be Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone for when he is reduc'd to the single definition of a man he sinks into so low a Character that it is a temptation upon Mens Allegiance and an impairing that veneration which is necessary to preserve their Duty to him whereas a Prince who is so joined to his people that they seem to be his Limbs rather than his Subjects Cloathed with Mercy and Justice rightly apply'd in their several ●laces his Throne supported by Love as ●ell as by Power and the warm wishes ●f his devoted Subjects like never-fail●●g Incense still ascending towards ●im looks so like the best Image we ●●n frame to our selves of God Al●ighty that Men would have much ado ●ot to fall down and worship him and ●ould be much more tempted to the ●in of Idolatry than to that of Disobe●ience Our Trimmer is of Opinion that ●here must be so much Dignity insepa●ably annexed to the Royal Function ●s may be sufficient to secure it from in●olence and contempt and there must ●e Condescensions from the Throne ●●ke kind showers from Heaven that ●he Prince may look so

useful The various Methods and deep Intrigues with the differing Notes in several Countries do not only give suspicion but assurance that every thing is put in Practice by which Universal Monarchy may be obtained Who can reconcile the withdrawing of his Troops from Luxenburg in consideration of the War in Hungary which was not then declared and presently after encouraging the Turk to take Vienna and consequently to destroy the Empire Or who can think that the Persecution of the Poor Protestants of France will be accepted of God as an Attonement for hazarding the loss of the whole Christian Faith Can he be thought in earnest when he seem'd to be afraid of the Spaniards and for that reason must have Luxenburg and that he cannot be safe from Germany unless he is in possession of Strasburg All Injustice and Violence must in it self be grievous but the aggravations of supporting 'em by false Arguments and insulting Reasons has something in it yet more provoking than the Injuries themselves and the World has ground enough to apprehend from such a Method of arguing that even their Senses are to be subdu'd as well as their Liberties Then the variety of Arguments used by France in several Countries is very observable In England and Denmark nothing insisted on but the Greatness and Authority of the Crown on the other side the Great Men in Poland are commended who differ in Opinion with the King and they argue like Friends to the Priviledge of the Dyet against the separate Power of the Crown In Sweden they are troubled that the King should have chang'd something there of late by his single Authority from the antient and settled Authority and Constitutions at Ratisbone the most Christian Majesty taketh the Liberties of all the Electors and free States into his immediate protection and tells them the Emperour is a dangerous Man an aspiring Hero that would infallibly devour them if he was not at hand to resist him on their behalf but above all in Holland he has the most obliging tenderness for the Common-wealth and is in such disquiets lest it should be invaded by the Prince of Orange that they can do no less in gratitude than undo themselves when he bids them to show how sensible they are of his excessive good Nature yet in spight of all these Contradictions there are in the World such refin'd States-men as will upon their Credit affirm the following Paradoxes to be real truth first that France alone is sincere and keeps its Faith and consequently that it is the only Friend we can rely upon that the King of France of all Men living has the least mind to be a Conqueror that he is a sleepy tame Creature void of all Ambition a poor kind of a Man that has no farther thoughts than to be quiet that he is charm'd by his Friendship to us that it is impossible he should ever do us hurt and therefore tho Flanders was lost it would not in the least concern us that he would fain help the Crown of England to be absolute which would be to take pains to put it into a condition to oppose him as it is and must be our Interest as long as he continues in such an overballancing Power and Greatness Such a Creed as this if once receiv'd might prepare our belief for greater things and as he that taught Men to eat a Dagger began first with a Pen-knife so if we can be prevail'd with to digest the smaller Mistakes we may at last make our stomachs strong enough for that of Transubstantiation Our Trimmer cannot easily be converted out of his senses by these State Sophisters and yet he has no such peevish Obstinacy as to reject all Correspondence with France because we ought to be apprehensive of the too great power of it he would not have the Kings Friendship to the Confederates extended to the involving him in any unreasonable or dangerous Engagements neither would he have him lay aside the consideration of his better establishment at home out of his excessive Zeal to secure his Allies abroad but sure there might be a Mean between these two opposite Extreams and it may be wish'd that our Friendship with France should at least be so bounded that it may consist with the humour as well as the interest of England There is no Woman but has the fears of contracting too near an intimacy with a much greater Beauty because it exposes her too often to a Comparison that is not advantageous to her and sure it may become a Prince to be as jealous of his Dignity as a Lady can be of her good looks and to be as much out of Countenance to be thought an humble Companion to so much a greater Power to be always seen in an ill Light to be so darkned by the brightness of a greater Star is somewhat mortifying and when England might ride Admiral at the head of the Confederates to look like the Kitching-Yatch to the Grand Louis is but a scurvy Figure for us to make in the Map of Christendom it would rise up in our Trimmer's stomach if ever which God forbid the power of calling and intermitting Parliaments here should be transferred to the Crown of France and that all the opportunities of our own settlements at home should give way to their Projects abroad and that our Interest should be so far sacrific'd to our Compliance that all the Omnipotence of France can never make us full amends for it In the mean time he shrinks at the dismal prospect he can by no means drive away from his thoughts that when France has gatherd all the fruit arising from our Mistakes and that we can bear no more with them they will cut down the Tree and throw it into the fire for all this while some Superfine States-Men to comfort us would fain perswade the World that this or that accident may save us and for all that is or ought to be dear to us would have us to rely wholly upon Chance not considering that Fortune is Wisdoms Creature and that God Almighty loves to be on the Wisest as well as the Strongest side therefore this is such a miserable shift such a shameful Evasion that they would be laught to death for it if the ruining Consequence of this Mistake did not more dispose Men to rage and a detestation of it Our Trimmer is far from Idolatry in other things in one thing only he comes near it his Country is in some degree his Idol he does not Worship the Sun because 't is not peculiar to us it rambles about the World and is less kind to us than others but for the Earth of England tho perhaps inferior to that of many places abroad to him there is Divinity in it and he would rather dye than see a piece of English Glass trampled down by a Foreign Trespasser he thinks there are a great many of his mind for all Plants are apt to taste of the Soyl in which

a House they seldom give warning or blow a Trumpet but there are some small States-Men who are so full charg'd with their own Expectations that they cannot contain And kind Heaven by sending such a seasonable Curse upon their undertakings has made their ignorance an Antidote against their Malice some of these cannot treat peaceably yielding will not satisfy them they will have Men by storm there are others that must have Plots to make their Service more necessary and have an Interest to keep them alive since they are to live upon them and perswade the King to retrench his own Greatness so as to shrink into the head of a Party which is the betraying him into such an Unprincely mistake and to such a wilful diminution of himself that they are the last Enemies he ought to allow himself to forgive such Men if they could would prevail with the Sun to shine only upon them and their Friends and to leave all the rest of the World in the dark this is a very unusual Monopoly and may come within the Equity of the Law which makes it Treason to Imprison the King when such unfitting bounds are put to his Favour and he confin'd to the narrow limits of a particular set of Men that would inclose him these Honest and only Loyal Gentlemen if they may be allow'd to bear Witness for themselves make a King their Engine and degrade him into a property at the very time that their Flattery would make him believe they paid Divine Worship to him besides these there is a flying Squadron on both sides that are afraid the World should agree small dabblers in Conjuring that raise angry Apparitions to keep Men from being reconcil'd like Wasps that fly up and down buz and sting to keep Men unquiet but these Insects are commonly short-liv'd Creatures and no doubt in a little time Mankind will be rid of them they were Gyants at least who fought once against Heaven but for such Pigmies as these to contend against it is such a provoking Folly that the insolent Bunglers ought to be laught and hist out of the World for it they should consider there is a Soul in that great body of the People which may for a time be drowzy and unactive but when the Leviathan is rouz'd it moves like an angry Creature and will neither be convinc'd nor resisted the People can never agree to shew their united Powers till they are extremely tempted and provoked to it so that to apply Cupping-Glasses to a great Beast naturally dispos'd to sleep and to force the Tame thing whether it will or no to be Valiant must be learnt out of some other Book than Machiavil who would never have prescrib'd such a proposterous Method It is to be remembred that if Princes have Law and Authority on their sides the People on theirs may have Nature which is a formidable Adversary Duty Justice Religion nay even Humane Prudence too bids the People suffer any thing rather than resist but uncorrected Nature where e're it feels the smart will run to the nearest Remedy Mens Passions in this Case are to be consider'd as well as their Duty let it be never so strongly enforc'd for if their Passions are provok'd they being as much a part of us as our Limbs they lead Men into a short way of Arguing that admits no distinction and from the foundation of Self-Defence they will draw Inferences that will have miserable effects upon the quiet of a Government Our Trimmer therefore dreads a general discontent because he thinks it differs from a Rebellion only as a Spotted Fever does from the Plague the same Species under a lower degree of Malignity it works several ways sometimes like a slow Poyson that has its Effects at a great distance from the time it was given sometimes like dry Flax prepared to catch at the first Fire or like Seed in the Ground ready to sprout upon the first Shower in every shape 't is fatal and our Trimmer thinks no pains or precaution can be so great as to prevent it In short he thinks himself in the right grounding his Opinion upon that Truth which equally hates to be under the Oppressions of wrangling Sophistry of the one hand or the short dictates of mistaken Authority on the other Our Trimmer adores the Goddess Truth tho' in all Ages she has been scurvily used as well as those that Worshipped her 't is of late become such a ruining Virtue that Mankind seems to be agreed to commend and avoid it yet the want of Practice which Repeals the other Laws has no influence upon the Law of Truth because it has root in Heaven and an Intrinfick value in it self that can never be impaired she shews her Greatness in this that her Enemies even when they are successful are asham'd to own it nothing but Power full of Truth has the prerogative of Triumphing not only after Victories but in spite of them and to put Conquest her self out of Countenance she may be kept under and supprest but her Dignity still remains with her even when she is in Chains Falshood with all her Impudence has not enough to speak ill of her before her Face such Majesty she carries about her that her most prosperous Enemies are fain to whisper their Treason all the Power upon Earth can never extinguish her she has lived in all Ages and let the Mistaken Zeal of prevailing Authority Christen any opposition to it with what Name they please she makes it not only an ugly and unmannerly but a dangerous thing to persist she has lived very retired indeed nay sometime so buried that only some few of the discerning part of Mankind could have a Glimpse of her with all that she has Eternity in her she knows not how to dye and from the darkest Clouds that shade and cover her she breaks from time to time with Triumph for her Friends and Terrour to her Enemies Our Trimmer therefore inspired by this Divine Virtue thinks fit to conclude with these Assertions That our Climate is a Trimmer between that part of the World where men are Roasted and the other where they are Frozen That our Church is a Trimmer between the Phrenzy of Pratonick Visions and the Lethargick Ignorance of Popish Dreams That our Laws are Trimmers between the Excess of unbounded Power and the Extravagance of Liberty not enough restrained That true Virtue has ever been thought a Trimmer and to have its dwelling in the middle between the two Extreams That even God Almighty himself is divided between his two great Attributes his Mercy and his Justice In such Company our Trimmer is not asham'd of his Name and willingly leaves to the bold Champions of either Extream the Honour of contending with no less Adversaries than Nature Religion Liberty Prudence Humanity and Common Sense FINIS THE Lady's New-Year's-Gift OR ADVICE TO A DAUGHTER Dear Daughter I Find that even our most pleasing Thoughts will be unquiet they will

soft and obsequious Murmurs of his Majestys best Subjects and there will be such Rhetorick in their silent Grief that it will at last prevail against the Artifices of those who either out of Guilt or Interest are afraid to throw themselves upon their Country knowing how scurvily they have used it that day of Judgment will come tho we know neither the day nor the hour And our Trimmer would live so as to be prepared for it with full assurance in the mean time that the lamenting Voice of a Nation cannot long be resisted and that a Prince who could so easily forgive his People when they had been in the wrong cannot fail to hear them when they are in the right The Trimmer's Opinion concerning the Protestant Religion REligion has such a Superiority above other things and that indispensable Influence upon all Mankind that it is as necessary to our Living Happy in this World as it is to our being Sav'd in the next without it Man is an abandon'd Creature one of the worst Beasts Nature hath produc'd and fit only for the Society of Wolves and Bears therefore in all Ages it has been the Foundation of Government and tho false Gods have been impos'd upon the Credulous part of the World yet they were Gods still in their Opinion and the Awe and Reverence Men had to them and their Oracles kept them within bounds towards one another which the Laws with all their Authority could never have effected without the help of Religion the Laws would not be able to subdue the perverseness of Mens Wills which are Wild Beasts and require a double Chain to keep them down for this Reason 't is said That it is not a sufficient ground to make War upon a Neighbouring State because they are of another Religion let it be never so differing yet if they Worship'd nor Acknowledg'd any Deity at all they may be Invaded as Publick Enemies of Mankind because they reject the only thing that can bind them to live well with one another the consideration of Religion is so twisted with that of Government that it is never to be separated and tho the Foundations of it ought to be Eternal and Unchangeable yet the Terms and Circumstances of Discipline are to be suited to the several Climates and Constitutions so that they may keep men in a willing Acquiescence unto them without discomposing the World by nice disputes which can never be of equal moment with the publick Peace Our Religion here in England seems to be distinguished by a peculiar effect of God Almighty's goodness in permiting it to be introduc'd or rather restored by a more regular Method than the Circumstances of most other Reformed Churches would allow them to do in relation to the Government and the Dignity with which it has supported it self since and the great Men our Church hath produced ought to recommend it to the esteem of all Protestants at least Our Trimmer is very partial to it for these Reasons and many more and desires that it may preserve its due Jurisdiction and Authority so far he is from wishing it oppressed by the unreasonable and malicious Cavils of those who take pains to raise Objections against it The Questions will then be how and by what Methods this Church shall best support it self the present Circumstances consider'd in relation to Dissenters of all sorts I will first lay this for a ground That as there can be no true Religion without Charity so there can be no true humane prudence without bearing and condescension This Principle does not extend to oblige the Church always to yield to those who are disposed to Contest with her the expediency of doing it is to be considered and determined according to the occasion and this leads me to lay open the thoughts of our Trimmer in reference first to the Protestants and then to the Popish Recusants What has lately hapned among us makes an Apology necessary for saying any thing that looks like favour towards a sort of Men who has brought themselves under such a disadvantage The late Conspiracy hath such broad Symptoms of the disaffection of the whole Party that upon the first reflections while our thoughts are warm it would almost perswade us to put them out of the protection of our good Nature and to think that the Christian Indulgence with our compassion for other Mens Sufferings cannot easily deny seems not only to be forfeited by the ill appearances that are against them but even becomes a Crime when it is so misapplied yet for all this upon second and cooler thoughts moderate Men will not be so ready to involve a whole Party in the guilt of a few and to admit inferences and Presumptions to be Evidence in a Case where the Sentence must be so heavy as it ought to be against all those who have a fixed resolution against the Goverement established besides Men who act by a Principle grounded upon Moral Vertue can never let it be clearly extinguished by the most repeated Provocations if a right thing agreeable to Nature and good Sence taks root in the heart of a Man that is impartial and unbyass'd no outward Circumstances can ever destroy it its true the degrees of a Mans Zeal for the prosecution of it may be differing faults of other Men the consideration of the publick and the seasonable Prudence by which Wise Men will ever be directed may give great Allays they may lessen and for a time perhaps suppress the exercise of that which in general Proposition may be reasonable but still whatever is so will inevitably grow and spring up again having a Foundation in Nature which is never to be destroy'd Our Trimmer therefore endeavours to separate the detestation of those who had either a hand or a thought in the late Plot from the Principle of Prudential as well as Christian Charity towards Mankind and for that reason would fain use the means of reclaiming such of the Dissenters as are not incurable and even bearing to a degree those that are as far as may consist with the Publick Interest and Security he is far from justifying an affected separation from the Communion of the Church and even in those that mean well and are mistaken he looks upon it as a Disease that has seized upon their Minds very troublesome as well as dangerous by the Consequence it may produce he does not go about to excuse their making it an indispensable duty to meet in numbers to say their Prayers such meetings may prove mischievous to the State at least the Laws which are the best Judges have determined that there is danger in them he has good nature enough to lament that the perversness of a Part should have drawn Rigorous Laws upon the whole Body of the Dissenters but when they are once made no private Opinion must stand in Opposition to them if they are in themselves reasonable they are in that respect to be regarded even without being

enjoyned if by the Change of Time and Circumstances they should become less reasonable than when they were first made even then they are to be obey'd too because they are Laws till they are mended or repealed by the same Authority that Enacted them He has too much deference to the Constitution of our Government to wish for more Prerogative Declarations in favour of scrupulous Men or to dispence with Penal Laws in such manner or to such an end that suspecting Men might with some reason pretend that so hated a thing as Persecution could never make way for it self with any hopes of Success otherwise than by preparing the deluded World by a false prospect of Liberty and Indulgence The inward Springs and Wheels whereby the Engine moved are now so fully laid open and expos'd that it is not supposable that such a baffled Experiment should ever be tryed again the effect it had at the time and the Spirit it raised will not easily be forgotten and it may be presum'd the remembrance of it may secure us from any more attempts of that Nature for the future we must no more break a Law to give Men ease than we are to Rifle an House with a devout intention of giving the plunder to the Poor in this case our Compassion would be as ill directed as our Charity in the other In short the veneration due to the Laws is never to be thrown off let the pretences be never so specious yet with all this he cannot bring himself to think that an extraordinary diligence to take the uttermost penalty of Laws upon the poor offending Neighbour is of it self such an all-sufficient vertue that without any thing else to recommend Men it should Entitle them to all kind of Preferments and Rewards he would not detract from the merits of those who execute the Laws yet he cannot think such a piece of service as this can entirely change the Man and either make him a better Divine or a more knowing Magistrate than he was before especially if it be done with a partial and unequal hand in Reverence to greater and more dangerous Offenders Our Trimmer would have those mistaken Men ready to throw themselves into the arms of the Church and he would have those arms as ready to receive them that shall come to us he would have no supercilious look to fright those strayed Sheep from coming into the Fold again no ill-natur'd maxims of an Eternal suspicion or a belief that those who have once been in the wrong can never be in the right again but a visible preparation of mind to recieve with joy all the Proselites that come amongst us and much greater earnestness to reclaim than punish them It is to be confess'd there is a great deal to forgive a hard task enough for the Charity of a Church so provoked but that must not cut off all hopes of being reconciled yet if there must be some anger left still let it break out into a Christian Revenge and by being kinder to the Children of Disobedience than they deserve let the injur'd Church Triumph by throwing shame and confusion of face upon them there should not always be Storms and Thunder a clear Sky would sometime make the Church look more like Heaven and would do more towards the reclaiming those wanderers than a perpetual terrour which seemed to have no intermission for there is in many and particularly in English Men a mistaken pleasure in resisting the dictates of Rigorous Authority a Stomach that riseth against a hard imposition nay in some raise even a lust in suffering from a wrong point of Honour which does not want the applause from the greater part of Mankind who have not learnt to distinguish constancy will be thought a virtue even where it is a mistake and the ill Judging World will be apt to think that Opinion most right which produces the greatest number of those who are willing to suffer for it all this is prevented and falls to the ground by using well-timed Indulgence and the stubborn Adversary who values himself upon his resistance whilst he is oppress'd yields insensibly to kind Methods when they are apply'd to him and the same Man naturally melts into Conformity who perhaps would never have been beaten into it We may be taught by the Compassion that attendeth the most Criminal Men when they are Condemned that Faults are much more natural things than Punishments and that even the most necessary acts of severity do some kind of violence to our Nature whose Indulgence will not be confined within the strait bounds of inexorable Justice so that this should be an Argument for gentleness besides that it is the likeliest way to make these Men asham'd of their Separation whilst the pressing them too hard tends rather to make them proud of it Our Trimmer would have the Clergy supported in their lawful Rights and in all the Power and Dignity that belongs to them and yet he thinks that possibly there may be in some of them a too great eagerness to extend the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which tho it may be well intended yet the straining of it too high has an appearance of Ambition that raises mens Objections to it and is far unlike the Apostolick Zeal which was quite otherwise employ'd that the World draws inferences from it which do the Church no service He is troubled to see Men of all sides sick of a Calenture of a mistaken Devotion and it seems to him that the devout Fire of mistaken Charity with which the Primitive Christians were inflam'd is long since extinguish'd and instead of it a devouring Fire of Anger and Persecution breaks out in the World we wrangle now one with another about Religion till the Blood comes whilst the Ten Commandments have no more authority with us than if they were so many obsolete Laws or Proclamations out of date he thinks that a Nation will hardly be mended by Principles of Religion where Morality is made a Heresy and therefore as he believes Devotion misplaced when it gets into a Conventicle he concludes that Loyalty is so too when lodg'd in a Drunken Club those Vertues deserve a better Seat of Empire and they are degraded when such Men undertake their defence as have too great need of an Apology themselves Our Trimmer wishes that some knowledge may go along with the Zeal on the right side and that those who are in possession of the Pulpit would quote at least so often the Authority of the Scriptures as they do that of the State there are many who borrow too often Arguments from the Government to use against their Adversaries and neglect those that are more proper and would be more powerful a Divine grows less and puts a diminution on his own Character when he quoteth any Law but that of God Almighty to get the better of those who contest with him and it is a sign of a decay'd Constitution when Nature with good diet cannot expel