Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	judge_n	king_n	power_n	3,562	5	5.1146	4	false

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

ADVICE TO A DAUGHTER AS TO Religion Husband House Family and Children Behaviour and Conversation Friendship Censure Vanity and Affectation Pride Diversions The Sixth Edition 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. Printed for M. Gillyflower and B. Tooke 1699. THE Lady's New-Year's-Gift OR ADVICE TO A DAUGHTER Under these following Heads Viz. Religion Husband House Family and Children Behaviour and Conversation Friendships Censure Vanity and Affectation Pride Diversions The Sixth Edition exactly Corrected LONDON Printed by W. H. for M. Gillyflower at the Spread-Eagle in Westminster-Hall 1699. Licensed Jan. 9. 1689. Rob. Midgley THE CHARACTER OF A TRIMMER HIS OPINION OF I. The Laws and Government II. Protestant Religion III. The Papists IV. Foreign Affairs By the late Noble M. of H. The Third Edition LONDON Printed for M. Gillyflower and B. Tooke 1699. THE PREFACE IT must be more than an ordinary provocation than can tempt a Man to write in an Age over-run with Scriblers as Egypt was with Flies and Locusts That worst Vermin of small Authors has given the World such a Surfeit that in●te●● of desiring to Write a Man would be more inclin'd to wish fo● h●● own ease that hecould not Read but there are some things which do so raiseour passions that our Reason can make no Resistance and when Madmen in two Extreams shall agree to made common sense Treason and joyn to fix an ill Character upon the only Men in the Nntion who deserve a good one I am no longer Master of my better Resolution to let the World alone and must break loose from my more reasonable Thoughts to expose these false Coyners who would make their Copper Wares pass upon us for good Payment Amongst all the Engines of Dissention there has been none more powerful in all Times than the fixing Names upon one another of Contumely and Reproach and the reason is plain in respect of the People who tho' generally they are uncapable of making a Syllogism or forming an Argument yet they can pronounce a word and that serves their turn to throw it with their dull malice at the Head of those they do not like such things ever begin in Jest and end in Blood and the same word which at first makes the Company merry grows in time to a Military Signal to cut one anothers Throats These Mistakes are to be lamented tho' not easily cured being suitable enough to the corrupted Nature of Mankind but 't is hard that Men will not only invent ill Names but they will wrest and misinterpret good one so afraid some are even of a reconciling sound that they raise another noise to keep it from being heard left it should set up and encourage a dangerous sort of Men who prefer Peace and Agreement before Violence and Confusion Were it not for this why after we have played the Fool with throwing Whig and Tory at one another as Boys do Snow-Balls do we grow angry at new a Name which by its true signification might do as much to put us into our Wits as the other has done to put us out of them This innocent word Trimmer signifies no more than this That if Men are together in a Boat and one part of the Company would weigh it down on one side another would make make it lean as much to the contrary it happens there is a third Opinion of those who conceive it would do as well if the Boat w●nt even without endangering the Passengers now 't is hard to imagin by what Figure in Language or by what Rule in Sense this comes to be a fault and it is much more a wonder it should be thought a Heresy But so it happens that the poor Trimmer has now all the Powder spent upon him alone while the Whig is a forgotten or at least a neglected Enemy there is no danger now to the State if some Men may be believed but from the Beast called a Trimmer take heed of him he is the Instrument that must d●stroy Church and State a new kind of Monster whose deformity is so expos'd that were it a true Picture that is made of him it would be enough to fright Children and make Women miscarry at the sight of it But it may be worth the examining whether he is such a Beast as he is ●ainted I am not of that Opinion and am so far from thinking him an Infidel either in Church or State that I am neither afraid to expose the Articles of his Faith in Relation to Government nor to say that I prefer them before any other Political Creed that either our angry Divines or our refined States-men would impose upon us I have therefore in the following Discourse endeavour'd to explain the Trimmer's Principles and Opinions and then leave it to all discerning and impartial Judges whether he can with Justice be so Arraign'd and whether those who deliberately pervert a good Name do not very justly deserve the worst that can be put upon themselves THE Trimmer's Opinion OF THE LAWS AND GOVERNMENT OUr Trimmer as he has a great Veneration for Laws in general so he has more particular for our own he looks upon them as the Chains that tye up our unruly Passions which else like wild Beasts let loose would reduce the world into its first State of Barbarism and Hostility the good things we enjoy we owe to them and all the ill things we are freed from is by their Protection God himself thought it not enough to be a Creator without being Law-giver and his goodness had been defective towards mankind in making them if he had not prescribed Rules to make them happy too All Laws flow from that of Nature and where that is not the Foundation they may be legally impos'd but they will be lamely obeyed By this Nature is not meant that which Fools and Madmen misquote to justify their Excesses it is innocent and uncorrupted Nature that which disposes Men to chuse Vertue without its being prescrib'd and which is so far from inspiring ill thoughts into us that we take pains to suppress the good ones it infuses The Civilized World has ever paid a willing subjection to Laws even Conquerors have done homage to them as the Romans who took Patterns of good Laws even from those they had subdued and at the same time that they Triumph'd over an enslav'd People the very Laws of that place did not only remain safe but became Victorious their new Masters instead of suppressing them paid them more respect than they had from those who first made them and by this wise method they arrived to such an admirable Constitution of Laws that to this day they Reign by them the Excellency of them Triumphs still and the World pays now an acknowledgment of their obedience to that Mighty Empire though so many Ages after it is dissolved and by a later instance the Kings

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