Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A63246
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The speech of Charles Trinder, recorder of Gloucester at his entrance upon that office, January the 8th, 1687/8.
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Trinder, Charles.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing T2283; ESTC R37902
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12,670
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19
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White-Hall January 21st 1687 / 8. This may be Printed SVNDERLAND P. THE SPEECH OF Charles Trinder Esq RECORDER OF GLOUCESTER AT HIS Entrance upon that Office JANVARY the 8th 1687 / 8. LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1687 / 8. THE SPEECH OF Charles Trinder Esq Gentlemen IT has pleased His Sacred Majesty to send His Royal Mandate hither in obedience to which I have had the Honour to be Elected Admitted and Sworn Recorder of this City Gentlemen I am very sensible of those many Defects which may seem to others as well as to my self to render me unqualified for so weighty an Office. But I shall not here loose time either in extenuating or excusing the same None here are ignorant of those many invincible Obstacles as to all sorts of Learning and Knowledge which have been laid in the way to Persons of my Character and Religion To mention no more then the very Oaths which we could not take and for the not taking of which till of late there was no Dispensation to be had These I say alone were a too sufficient cause of discouragement and hindrance from any close pursuit of Study or Conversation in such Knowledge and Practice as are requisit to an accomplish'd Lawyer But our Comfort is that in the present state of Affairs not so much profoundness of Skill as sincerity of Heart not the great Understanding but the good Will are the most indispensable Necessaries for His Majesty's Service not only in this but in most other Stations and Employments And for these I may without vanity challenge them to my self and I hope being no Stranger to most of you here present you will easily believe and acknowledge the same and that if on the one side you regard His Majesty's Affairs and on the other side the circumstances of my Life and Profession it would have been perhaps difficult to have found any One in this County more entirely at His Majesty's Service then my self And let this suffice to justifie His Majesty's Choice and notwithstanding my own avowed Defectiveness and Incapacity in other respects my submission to it Mean while I am not to be put in mind that even these beloved Oualities which I seem to glory in of Zeal and Fidelity in His Majesty's Service and which I plead as an Atonement for my other Unworthinesses that even these alone I say are enough to blast me in the Opinion of some men who will never hope for any good from One so disposed and declared The distractions and differences of Opinions have caused such disaffections of Heart that Mens Fancies are fill'd with Fears and Jealousies against the most innocent and laudable Purposes and Protestations of this nature even before they are reduced into Act. Hence it comes to pass that a Man can no sooner make profession of his Duty and Zeal to His Majesty's Service but some discontented and ill-affected Worldling who knows little and loves less besides what concerns his own self-interest represents him to himself and others as one of the Court-Party no Friend to his Country One ready to sacrifice his own and all other Mens Liberties and Properties to the Arbitrary Will and Pleasure of the Prince Neither does this happen in matters which relate to the Service of the King only or upon Temporal accounts alone but also in all Endeavours and good Desires for the welfare of our fellow-Subjects too and that in things which are Spiritual and concern the Conscience only Hence it comes to pass that a man cannot compassionate the heavy Sufferings of his innocent Neighbours for matters of meer Religion but he is presently maligned by some Bigot or other as an Enemy and Underminer of the Church of England as I my self was in this very place for this only cause in the late heats at the Quarter-Sessions for this County publickly traduced and branded as One that did more mischief then any other Man in the County But let such Worldlings and Bigots give me leave to tell them That they know not what Spirit they are of The first of them seem to trace back the Practices of those Times in which it was neither sufficient nor safe for a man to declare for the King but he must be for the King and Parliament too till at last he must upon his peril disclaim both King and Parliament Whereas in reality Loyalty to the King and Justice to the People are in their very Essence so united together that they are incapable of separation The second sort seem to have forgotten or even deserted the so-much boasted Principle of their own Church which they use to say is not of a Persecuting Genius or Spirit unless peradventure they mean by a Distinction that it is so in its Articles but not in its Members But Gentlemen that we may spare both these sorts of Spirits and calm them too I will say no more of either but only this That I am sent hither to serve a Prince who makes it His business to content both who to all His Subjects however affected is a Mirrour of Justice and Clemency And as I cannot serve so neither can I please Him better then by using my best endeavours as by God's Grace I ever shall in what-ever comes before me that the effects of these two God-like Attributes in Him may be equally distributed to all without regard to Fear or Favour But because I told you in the beginning of this Discourse that the cause of all these Jealousies and Disaffections was that great distraction in Opinion and Judgment wherewith this Age has been divided and perplex'd while each one endeavours to maintain and promote his own sometimes one prevailing and sometimes another and all equally labouring if not for Power at least for Ease and Security Give me leave to entertain you a little with the cause of those Distractions in Opinions which are the cause of these Disaffections I hope the Remarks which I shall make will prove no mis-expence of time either to you or me This great and famous Kingdom of England being many Ages past as again now at present highly blest with Kings enrich'd with a most sublime Wisdom as well as other Princely Vertues The Government of it was many hundred years since founded on such Rocks of Prudence and Justice as might in all humane prospect have secured it unshaken to the Worlds end It is that of Monarchy which has for its pattern the Great Monarch of Heaven and of all created Beings A Monarchy by Descent which secures us from all those dismal Factions and Wars which commonly attends the Election of Kings to the great weakning and oft-times final destruction of the Government and People A Monarchy wherein the King has all the Power the Nobility all the Honour and the People all the Security which the Hearts of men truly Rational can wish or aspire to How often and with what great Solemnity hath the great Charter of the
Trains and Lines prepared for it These are a few of the many Instances I could give on this Subject I pray you then what Interpretation can be made of such Endeavors for Excluding and Wresting from his Majesty's Service and Presence and from his Counsel in Parliament so vast a Number of his Subjects more valuable than Forts or Ships of whose Fidelity and Capacity to serve him he has the utmost assurance Looks not this somewhat like taking him into their Power who thus Thrust others from him And who knows but in time to come the Number thus excluded may be ten times greater than now it is And who knows also but many of those who make no scruple of the Tests may yet pretend it or whether they pretend it or no may yet forbear them of set purpose to defert his Service till between such as cannot and such as will not take them under pretence of Conformity to Law we shall have at last a King left without one Subject to Counsel Obey or Come near him Under this Contemplation of what now really is and what hereafter may farther happen with what face can any but pretend to Loyalty and not to be open Enemies to their King their Country and the Publick Peace when at the same time they cling and hug themselves up in so Pernicious or perhaps Treasonous Interpretation of these Two Acts. And what Horror and Indignation against them must it needs create in every man that has but the least spark of Loyalty left in his breast Gentlemen My business is not here to declare what I take to be true or false in Matters of Religion nor to advance the one nor depress the other What I speak of is only in reference to the Publick Peace which as much as in me lies is my Duty to promote To this end it is that I have given you here for the Subject a very short tho' for our time too large a Scheme of many of the great Mutations in Religion here in England of late times by Publick Authority and of some few of the many sharp Laws from time to time invented by each prevailing Party to force the submission of others The multitude of Men and even of whole Families not only that have suffer'd but have been driven into Foreign Lands or ruin'd and swallow'd up by those Devouring Laws are even beyond account or any Man's power to number up Where by the way it must be observed that the very suffering is a clear proof of the sincerity and well-meaning tho' it cannot be always of the truth of the sufferer And after all this Havock where every little Knave receives encouragement to insult over and make a prey of his more worthy Neighbour at length up comes this Brace of Tests Midwiv'd into Acts by the aid of persons then fam'd indeed for Patriots but soon after Notorious in the ensuing Conspiracy succeeded as their Natural Issue by a Plot that is the Disgrace of our Nation or rather The Plot and later Tests Twinchildren of the first succeeded also by Votes for Excluding his present Majesty from his Inheritance by an Horrible Conspiracy against the Lives of our present and late King and by the Great and Dangerous Rebellion of England and now at last to the World's wonder and their own shame most closely and that in the worst sence adhered unto by such Vain Boasters of Loyalty as would allow no share of it to any part of the World but themselves thô by this very adherence their own share of it becomes far too little for any prudent Prince to rely on But at length God Almighty in his Mercy hath given us a King whose Heart he has inspired with Wisdom to discern the Imprudence as well as Injustice of all these Severe Laws with mildness to admit a general Abolition of them all tho' from many of them great Riches have been and might still be drawn to the Crown and with Fortitude to prosecute with an undaunted Courage as well as indefatigable Labour so glorious a Work tho' strongly encountred therein by Two sorts of men Both I confess too numerous and in their own Opinions very mighty and as many more as either of these are able to impose upon or deceive The one such as being unacquainted with the use of Reasoning or not liking the labour of it imagine Religion can be no longer kept up than it is Gig-like lasht into motion and yet themselves much too tender to bear the least touch And yet again thrô want of Thought expose themselves to the utmost peril not foreseeing that they cannot be sure to be always uppermost and when not so the Penalties they prepare or retain for others fall directly on their own heads The other sort such whose manner of life seems to indicate little other sense of Religion than a fear lest their vicious Customs should fall under some restraint by the Practice of it Right Religion consists not in Violence Noise or Tumult God was not in the Whirl-wind nor in the Earthquake nor in the Fire when he spoke to Elias but in the still small Voice Religion rather consists in Meekness long Suffering and doing as we would have others do to us We have our Saviour's word That a Kingdom divided cannot stand Now there are but two ways imaginable whereby such a Division among Christians can possibly be avoided as must else necessarily terminate in the utter overthrow of Christianity it self which is Christ's own Kingdom and which every Christian must needs abhor to think of One is by the general Submission of particular Christians to one common Authority which how much soever to be wisht for cannot now be supposed practicable and therefore no more need be said of that The other is by bearing with one anothers differences in Religion and in letting every man enjoy his own without offending or being offended at his Neighbour This later His Majesty has graciously chosen He has not only already granted a general Indulgence which yet can last but during Pleasure but he is also ready totally to dissolve our Bonds and set us so free that even his own or Successor's hands shall not be able to hurt us for matters of Religion And this by a Magna Charta as solemn and sacred as that by which we enjoy our Lives and Estates What then remains on our parts Must we always imitate the hardned Jews in murmuring against our most Benign Rulers against God himself and nauseate the Quails and Manna he sends us Must we always Slave-like hug the Chains which tye up both King and People not onely from restoring the Kingdom 's Glory abroad but even from its necessary Defence at home Or ought we not rather with united Hearts first offer up our Thanks and Praises to God in whose Hands are the Hearts of Kings for having put it into the King's heart to do such good things for his People Next to present our unanimous Thanks in an Humble Address to His Majesty and then with as united hands and with all the power we have to serve and assist Him Which at this time we can no ways better do than by employing our utmost endeavours to Find and Elect for Parliament when called such Members as we may be sure or reasonably hope will readily and chearfully joyn with His Majesty in this so Pious Prudent Charitable and kind Determination joyned with our hearty Prayers for the good success of it It remains now Gentlemen of the Jury that I Address my self particularly to you and that I give you in charge what Offences you are to make enquiry of for this present Sessions But I am sensible that I have already trespassed sufficiently upon the Patience of the Court and thô the importance of my Subject be really so great and considerable both for the Service of His Majesty and for the Welfare of us all that it does very well justifie the length of my Discourse yet that I may not render it tedious without necessity I shall wave at present all enumeration of such particular matters as make the usual and ordinary subject of a Charge You your selves Gentlemen are not unacquainted of what nature they are and Indictments and Presentments will be brought in to you for all such more urgent matters as shall need and require a more special Consideration and Redress FINIS ERRATA Page 4. l. 19. read need to fear p. 8. l. 21. after Jurisdiction 1. but by from and under His Majesty