Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	authority_n	king_n	law_n	1,296	5	4.5981	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44619	The character of a trimmer his opinion of I. The laws and government, II. Protestant religion, III. The papists, IV. Foreign affairs / by ... Sir W.C.	Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of, 1633-1695.; Coventry, William, Sir, 1628?-1686.	1688 (1688)	Wing H296; ESTC R38783	43,501	48

Subjects tugging at the Oar laden with Chains and reduc'd to real Rags to give him imaginary Lawrels let us present him gazing among his Flatterers like a Child never contradicted and therefore always Cozen'd or like a Lady complemented only to be abus'd condemn'd 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 to 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 becomes a Beast a mistaken Creature swell'd with Panegyricks and slatter'd out of his Senses and not onely an Incumbrance but a common Nuisance to Mankind a harden'd 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 Beast 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 Mer to wish for such a Government but rather to acknowledge the happiness of our own under which we enjoy all the Priviledges Reasonable Men can desire and avoid all the Miseries others are subject too so that our Trimmer would keep it with all its faults and doth as little forgive those who give the occasion of breaking it as he doth 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 to believe no Government is perfect except Omnipotence recide in it to be exercis'd upon great Occasions Now this cannot be obtain'd by force upon the People let it be never so great there must be their consent too or else a Nation moveth only by being driven a sluggish and restrained Motion void of that Life and Vigour which is necessary to produce great things whereas the virtual Consent of the whole being inclnded in their Representatives and the King giving the faction of the united sense of the People every Act done by such an Authority seemeth to be an effect of their choice as well as part of their Duty and they do with an eagerness of which Men are uncapable whilst under a force execute whatsoever is so enjoined as their own Wills better explained by Parliament rather than from the terrour of incurring the Penalty of the Law for omitting it and by means of this Political Omnipotence what ever Sap or Juice there is in a Nation may be to the last drop produc'd whilst it rises naturally from the Root whereas all Power exercis'd without consent is 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 Disease come upon us but that the King may have time enough to consult with 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 imagined 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 be stifled rather than it should be help'd by the proper Officers The Cases themselves will bring a Remedy 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 which a Nation may at some Critical times secur'd from Ruine but then it must be kept as a Mistery it is rendred useless when touch'd by unlucky 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 first 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 hath a Contagion in it especially in an Age so much more 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 Solecisme in Government than a failure of Justice He would have one because nothing else can unite and heal us all other Means are meer Shifts and Projects Houses of Cards and 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 that tho' it may be deny'd to the unmannerly threatning Petitions of men that are malicious and disaffected it will be granted to the obsequious Murmurs of his Majesties best Subjects and there will be such a Rhetorick it 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 not 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 a 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 Protestant Religion REligion hath such a Superiority above other things and that indispensable Influence upon all Mankind that it is as nece Tary 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

one another but against themselves too they are a Sanct●●ry to which the Crown hath occasion to resort as often as the People ●o that it hath 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 misinterpret them and as River belong as much to the Chanel 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 distrub'd 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 wisheth that the Bench may have a Natural as well as a Legal Superiority to the Bar he thinketh Mens abilities much misplac'd when the Reasons of those that Plead is visibly too strong for those who Judge and give Sentence When those from the Bar seem to dictate to their Superious 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 others can be with all their 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 produc'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 hath such a Power lodg'd in him that the King will never be thought to have chosen well where the Voice of Mankind hath not before-hand recommended the Man to his Election 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 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 receiving Justice from a Judge 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 look'd upon as a better Qualification in a Judge than Skill or Integrity when such sacred things as the Laws are not only touch'd 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 us Cudgels to beat us with or rather that they will turn the Canon 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 thinketh the Laws are Jewels so he believeth 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 it is perfect or liable to no Objection such things are not of the World but if it hath more Excellencies and sewer Faults than any other we know it is enough to recommend it to our Esteem The Dispute which is a greater Beauty a Monarchy or a Common-wealth hath lasted long between their contending Lovers and they have behav'd themselves so like 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 at all times smil'd upon this eagerness and thonght 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 taking the words in the utmost extent which is a thing that Monarchy leaveth them no Liberty and a Common-Wealth such a one as allows them no Quiet We think that a wise Mean between these two barbarous Extreams is that which self-Preservation ought to dictate to our Wishes and we may say we have attained 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 plenty 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 Corfusion the Parity the Animosities and the License and yet reserve a due care of such 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 more general Consent and practice of Mankind seemeth 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 requireth such a spirit to carry it on as doth not dwel in great Numbers but is restrain'd to so very few especially in this Age that let the Methods appear never so much reasonable 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 the 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 Circumstances and Objections impartially consider'd that it hath so great an advantage above all other Forms when the Administration of that Power fal eth in good hands that all other Governments look out of Countenance when they are set in

fit only for the Society of Wolves and Bears therefore in all Ages it hath 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'tis 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 no Deity 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 Interessed with that of Government that it is never to be separated and the Foundations of it 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 distinguish'd by a peculiar effect of God Almighty's goodness in permitting it to be introduc'd or more properly restor'd by a more regular Method than the Circumstances of more other Reformed Churches would allow them to do in relation to the Government and the Dignity with which it hath supported it self since and the great Men our Church hath produc'd 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 desiring 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 Question will then be how and by what Methods the Church shall best support it self the present Circumstances consider'd in relation to Dissenters of all sorts I will first lay it for a ground That as there can be no true Religion without Charity so there can be no true humanePrudence without bearing and condescension This Principle doth not extend to oblige the Church always to yield to those who are disposed to molest it the expediency of doing it is to be considered and determined according to the occasion and this leadeth me to lay open the thoughts of our Trimmer in reference first to the Protestants and then to the Popish Recusants What hath lately hapned among us makes an Apology necessary for saying any thing that looketh like favour towards a sort of Men who have brought themselves under such a disadvantage The lateConspiracy 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 which our compassion for other Mens Sufferings cannot easily deny seemeth not only to be forfeited by the ill appearances that are against them but even becometh a Crime when it is so misapply'd 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 not to be against all those who have a fixed resolution against the Government established besides Men who act by a Principle grounded upon Moral Vertue can never let it be clearly extinghish'd by the most repeated Provocations if a right thing agreeable to Nature and good Sence taketh root in the heart of a Man that is impartial and unbyass'd no outward Circumstances can ever destroy it it 's true the degrees of a Mans Zeal for the prosecution of it may be differing the faults of other Men the consideration of the Publick and the seasonable Prudence by which Wise Men will ever be directed may give great delays they may lessen and for a time perhaps suppress the exercise of that which in a general Prosecution may be reasonable but whether be so will inevitably grow and spring up again having a Foundation in Nature which is never to be destroy'd Our Trimmer therefore endeavoureth 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 retaining such of the Dissenters as are not injurable and even to 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 looketh upon it as a Disease that hath seized upon their Minds very troublesome as well as dangerous by the Confequence it may produce he doth not go about to excuse their making it an indispensable duty to meet in numbers to say their Prayers such Meetings may prove misch evous to the State at least the Laws which are the best Judges have determin'd that there is danger in them he hath good nature enough to lament that the perversness of a Part should have drawn Rigorous Laws upon the 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 Laws 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 hath too much deference to the Constitution of our Government to wish any more Prerogative Declarations in favour of scrupulous Men or to dispence with Penal Laws in such manner and to such an end that suspecting Men might with some reason pretend that so hated a thing as Persectuion 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 mov'd 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

and sting to keep Men unquiet but these Infects 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 moveth like an angry Monster and will neither be convinc'd nor resisted the People can never agree to shew their united Powers till they are extreamly tempted and provoked to it so that to apply Cupping Glasses to a great Beast dispos'd to sleep and to force that same 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 preposterous 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 biddeth the People suffer any thing rather than resist but uncorrected Nature where e're it feeleth the smart will come to the nearest Remedy Mens Passions in this Case are to be consider'd as much as their Duty let it be never so strongly enforc'd for if their Passions are provoked they being so much a part of us as our Limbs they lead Men into a short way of Arguing that admitteth no distinction and from the foundation of Self Defence they will draw Inferences that will have inseparable effects upon the quiet of a Government Our Trimmer therefore dreadeth 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 is worketh several ways sometimes like a slow Poyson that hath its Effects a great distance from the time it is given sometimes like dry Flax prepated 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 thinketh no pains or precaution can be so great as to prevent it In short he thinketh himself in the right grounding his Opinion upon the Truth which equally hateth to be under the Oppressions of wrangling Sophistry of the one hand or the short dictates of mistaken Authority on the other Our Trimmer adoreth the Goddess Truth tho' in all Ages she hath been scurvily used as well as those that Worshipped her 't is of late become such a cozening Vertue that Mankind seems to be agreed to shun and avoid it yet the want of Practice which Repealeth the other Laws hath no influence upon the Law of Truth because it hath root in Heaver and an Intrinsick value in it self that can never be impaired she sheweth her Greatness in this that her Enemies when they are successful are asham'd to own it nothing but Power full of Truth hath 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 supperst but her Dignity still remaineth with her even when she is in Chains Falsehood with all her Impudence hath not enough to speak ill of her before her Face such Majesty she carrieth about her that her most prosperous Enemies are fain to whisper their Treason all the Power upon Earth can never extinguish her she hath 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 daugerous thing to persist she hath lived very retired indeed nay sometime so buried that only some sew of the discerning part of Mankind could have a Glimpse of her with all that she hath Eternity in her she knows not how to dye and from the darkest Clouds that shade and cover her she breaketh from time to time with Triumph for her Friends and Terrour for her Enemies Our Trimmer therefore inspired by this Divine Vertue 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 Phrenzy of Platonick 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 Vertue hath ever been thought a Trimmer and to have its dwelling in the middle between the two Extreams That even God Almighty 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 lea veth 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