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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A31725 The Character of an honest, and worthy Parliament-man 1688 (1688) Wing C2008; ESTC R13652 2,402 2

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THE CHARACTER Of an Honest and Worthy Parliament-Man I Hope the Reader will not be so unwife as to expect that I should here entertain him with a Pompous Enumeration of all those Imaginary Vertues wherewith the Romantick Modellers of a Platonick or Utopian Common-wealth adorn their Paper Senators when the Character even of a Real Cato wou'd be altogether as useless in our Times as it is rarely found to be practis'd and consequently as little regarded now as he himself was by the Corrupt Age wherein he lived Not but that our Nation has of late produced as Great Heroes as any Antiquity can boast of yet it cannot be imagined that they are to be found in every little Town or Borrough As for my Honest and Worthy Parliament Man all the Qualifications that I desire to find in him are only such as it wou'd be the greatest affront imaginable to any English Gentleman to think him destitute of That is that he shou'd be a Man of Sense Integrity and Honour Let him but follow their Dictates and then all the duties which we may reckon or think of to be incumbent on him will be as easily performed by him as they are demonstrable to be the obvious and Natural Consequents of such Principles As for his Religion he is a sincere as well as open Profess●r of that which by our Laws is now become Essential to his Office I mean that of the Church of England Nor is he of it because it is Establish'd by Law or that he was bred in it but before he settled his Opinion he maturely examin'd its first Principles and found them agreeable to the Divine will and Right Reason he discovered the Folly and Errours of those who oppose any points of its Doctrine And being throughly satisfied in the Fundamentals for its Discipline he entirely submits himself to the Judgment and Authority of those to whose Conduct and Discretion the Government of the Church has been in all Ages committed But tho' he be a zealous Church-man himself yet he is so far from Persecuting those who Dissent from the Establisht Religion purely for Conscience sake that he is ready to pity their weakness have Compassion on their Infirmities and express the greatest Tenderness imaginable for their Persons whenever that time shall come when it will be his chance to meet with those whose scruples arise rather from a real defect in their understandings than some Worldly Interest or desire of Filthy Lucre an Obstinate Peevish or Self-conceited Humour or the vain glorious Spirit of Contradiction As for his Sentiments in State Affairs in which next to his Religion his greatest desire is to be Orthodox before they fixt he always tries them with the Touchstone of Reason and consequently thinks it Lawful for him to be a Latitudinarian in Judgment in Relation to Civil Matters I mean so far as not to expect to find an Infallible Judge amongst either Torys Whigs or Trimmers He takes up Opinions upon trust from no Party nor condemns any because they are of it who differ from him in other things And therefore he cou'd not but smile to see in our late Times of Dissention so many in all outward appearance Honest and thinking men continually jogg on like a Gang of Pack-Horses after the Leaders of their several Parties and tho they wander after these Blazing butdeceitful Lights into never so many Crooked and by paths yet with an Implicit and Blind Faith still believe themselves to be in the right way For his part his only aim is at the Honour Safety and Interest of his Countrey On this Mark he keeps his eye constantly fixt nor can the dreadful Frowns of an Enraged Prince or the horrid Clamours of a possess'd Multitude ever be able to remove him from his point He finds that his beloved vertue brings such solid tho invisible rewards along with her that he is equally insensible to the promising smiles of fawning great ones that wou'd tempt and the terrible menaces of the Fiercest Demagogues that wou'd force him to forsake her He can securely without any Fear of Infection deride the folly and pity the madness of those who forfeit their Honesty to found their happiness upon the unstable Basis of Court Favours or Popular Applause He truly enjoys all that Freedom in his Actions which he thinks his Duty to procure for and defend his Countrey-men in He is wholly a stranger to the servile Ambition of gaining the favourable Opinion of others nor can he tell what it is to fear the Censures of any He is Directed Influenc'd or Byass'd by none And whilst he is engaged in his Countries service he thinks the most Glorious Epithetes the World can fix upon him are those of a Rigid Inflexible Ill-natur'd Honest Man. When he discovers that any have Designs contrary to the Publick good let their Authority and Power be never so great he opposes their Opinions with all the Courage and Zeal his generous Principles can furnish him with without any respect to their Persons But when the time comes wherein the right side shall turn uppermost as after all Revolutions it ever will at last he is then so far from trampling upon his faln Adversaries tho he becomes I mean as a private Man most tender of the Persons without any Respect to their Opinions He is altogether unacquainted with that base and degenerate Passion called Hatred Yet there is one sort of Men whom he thinks worthy of the utmost Degree of his Contempt and Scorn I mean those false and Treacherous Friends who have formerly gone along with nay much before him in the same Cause those pretended Zealots for their Country and Religion who for their own Paultry Interest or some by ends made it their business to set us together by the Ears with their nosy Clamours against Popery and Slavery But when the danger was become real and just hanging over our Heads when our Church and State were design'd for immediate Ruin with the same Mercenary breath servilly offer'd themselves to be employ'd as Tools in the Destruction of them both These he conceives ought to have a mark put upon them as the worst of Traytors he takes them to be the vilest of Men or rather to use he expression of one who perhaps may think himself cocern'd here to carry nothing of men that is English Men but the shape But I now find my self necessiated to take my hand from off the Tablet lest instead of compleating the Portraicture of an Honest Parliament-man I shou'd insensibly touch upon them who deserve another Character My intention then being like my Honest Patriots willingly to offend no man I shall take my leave of him at present with this Remark only That a Nation where such as he preside at the Helm will without doubt be altogether as happy as if it were Steer'd by Plato's Philosophizing Governours or Governing Philosophers FINIS