Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	call_v	chief_a	province_n	5,625	4	8.4072	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31025	The Dutch way of toleration, most proper for our English dissenters	Baron, William, b. 1636.	1698 (1698)	Wing B895; ESTC R24730	20,692	25

need not be so much as lukewarm and less than so where they should express a religious Fervour And since Almighty God threatened to spew the former out of his Mouth I fear his Blessings may be the less if these others be not spew'd out of the Government And this Sir brings me to the ●●estion you propounded and what I presume was chiefly aim'● at in the Acknowledgment you made How it comes to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dutch live in so much Peace and Quiet notwithstanding the ma●y Perswasions tolerated amongst them Which may be clearly answered in very few Words viz. because no such troublesome ●●easie People as aforementioned have to do in the Government And I have sometimes admir'd our great Sticklers for Liberty and Toleration who upon all occasions are too forward in crying up the Low-Country Model and pretend to be of a much quicker Scent than others never hit of this but upon second Thoughts considered they generally belong to some of the Factions and would be sure not to exclude themselves Yet doubtless what Horace observes in Poetry is as true in Politicks Decipit exemplar vitiis imitabile 't is hard coming at the same end without the like means To imitate their Toleration without their Caution and Restrictions will not only be sordid as the Poet terms it but ineffectual prove a Remedy worse than the Disease for from thence more especially it proceeds that their Toleration has turn'd to Account In all other Places where Vniversal and unlimited it has fallen a Prey to the undermining Stratagems of that Spiritual Vsurper upon all Christian Liberty whatsoever as will hereafter appear For your fuller satisfaction therefore I shall give you an Account of the Dutch Toleration as likewise how hard it will be to bring us to that Model and yet shew you 't is that alone can do our business All other Courses will be much more unpracticable and unsafe and multiply those Distractions which we design'd to prevent And that you may give the greater Credit to what I shall say herein it shall not depend upon my sole Authority though it was my chief Enquiry during some Years abode there but have the Confirmation of Sir William Temple's Observations upon those Provinces which as I think it was the first so 't is generally believed the exactest Piece we have had from that Ingenious Gentleman Clear Matter of Fact without that partiality and by respect which many times is not avoided by such as pretend most thereunto Now what makes it seem more difficult and unpracticable amongst us than them is That the Constitution of their Government and Temper of their People will be found better adapted thereunto with some other Advantages of lesser Moments All which take as follows First Then the Constitution of Their Government seems better adapted thereunto To which purpose I must let you know that however those Provinces are given out to be a Common-Wealth a Free State with such other swelling Titles of Liberty Priviledges c. as if the People had the sole Controll the Dernier Resort in all Publick Determinations and so indeed it was in those little Democracies of Greece and that great one of Rome where no Laws could be enacted nor Magistrates chosen c. but by their Consent upon Enquiry it will appear quite otherwise the Populace the Burghers have no more to do in the Government than you and I if we dwelt or but sojourn'd amongst them 'T is the exactest Oligarchy that is this day or perhaps ever was in the World where the Magistrates of every City or Province are as absolute as any Prince in Christendom Enact Laws levy Taxes chuse one another into the several Offices of Government and upon a Vacancy which seldom happens but by death elect another to fill up their number without any controll but from their Stadtholder who hath a negative Voice or somewhat like it in all their Elections and tho' a reasonable Check is what their Hogan Moganships have been most uneasie under and endeavoured more than once to free themselves from Sir W.T. instances more particularly in the City of Amsterdam as chief of the Province of Holland and in that as chief of the Seven Provinces and tells you the Government of that City is in the sole management of Thirty six Persons whom he calls Senators and saith indeed they were formerly chosen by the Voices of the Richer Burghers or Freemen of the City who upon the death of a Senator met together either in a Church a Market or some other Place spacious enough to receive their Numbers and there made an Election of the Person to succeed by a Majority of Voices But about One hundred and thirty or forty Years agoe when the Towns of Holland began to encrease in Circuit and People so as these frequent Assemblies grew into danger of Tumult and Disorders upon every occasion by reason of their Number and Contentions This Election of Senators came by the Resolution of the Burghers in one of their General Assemblies to be devolv'd forever upon the standing Senate for that time so that ever since when any of their Number dies a new one is chosen by the rest of the Senate without any intervention of the other Burghers which makes the Government a sort of Oligarchy and very different from a popular Government as it is generally esteemed by those who passing or living in these Countries content themselves with common Observations or Inquiries And this Resolution of the Burghers either was agreed upon or followed by General Consent or Example about the same time in all the Towns of the Province tho' with some difference in the Number of the Senators Thus far the forementioned Gentleman whereto I must farther add that these Senators both here and in all other Towns are of the same Communion as to the Publick Exercise of Religion which after some Debates and Alterations upon their Defection from Spain was fix'd upon the Geneva-Model with an Allay of Erastianism the better to keep under the Insolency of their Presbyteries so troublesome elsewhere 'T is not of much moment to tell you farther that as these Senators marry generally into one anothers Families so they keep the Government for the most part amongst themselves the Children with other Relations coming in and gradually ascending if capable of it which nevertheless being faithfully discharg'd without Partiality Avarice or any other such by-respects the People seem no ways dissatisfied therewith This Sir is a small Scratch of the Present Establishment of that People which I shall farther confirm to you upon the Authority of the present Bishop of Sarum who speaking of the Low-Countries how they got their Liberty and how they maintain'd it adds yet after all this tho' the Name of their Government has a greater sound towards Liberty than our own we are really the much freer People of the two where every Man has a more open access to a proportion'd Share in the Government