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.

The Trimmer's Opinion concerning Protestant Religion.

REligion hath such a Superiority above other things, and that indi∣spensable 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 fit only for the Society of Wolves and Bears; there∣fore 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, be∣cause 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 Pub∣lick 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 recom∣mend 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 wish∣ing 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 Po∣pish 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 for∣feited 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 Govern∣ment established; besides, Men who act by a Principle grounded upon Moral Vertue, can never let it be clearly extinghish'd by the most re∣peated 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 num∣bers 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 reaso∣nable 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 pros∣pect of Liberty and Indulgence; the inward Springs and Wheels where∣by 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 a∣gain, the effect it had at the time, and the Spirit it raised, will not ea∣sily be forgotten, and it may be presum'd the remembrance of it may se∣cure

us from any more attempts of that nature for the future; we must no more break a Law to give Men ease, than we are to Rob an House with a devout intention of giving Plunder to the Poor; in this case, our Com∣passion would be as ill directed as our Charity in the other.

In that the veneration due to the Laws is never to be thrown off, let the Pretences be never so specious; yet with all this he cannot bring him∣self to think, that an extraordinary diligence to take the uttermost pe∣nalyt of the Laws upon the Poor offending Neighbour, is of it self such an all-sufficient vertue, that without something else to recommend Men, it should Entitle them to all kind of preferments and Rewards; he would not detract from the merits of those who execute the Laws, yet he can∣not think such a piece of service can entirely change the Man, or either make him a better Divine, or a more knowing Magistrate than he was before, especially if it be done with a partial and unequal hand, in Re∣ference to greater and more dangerous Offenders.

Our Trimmer would have those mistaken Men ready to throw them∣selves into the arms of the Church, and he would have those arms as ready to receive them; he would have no supercilious look to fright those strayed Sheep from coming into the Fold again; no ill-natur'd maxims of an Eternal suspicion, or a belief that those who have once been in the wrong can never be in the right again; but a visible preparation of mind to receive with joy all the Proselites that come amongst us, and much greater earnestness to reclaim than punish them: It is to be confess'd, there is a great deal to forgive, a hard task enough for a Church so provoked; but that must not cut off all hopes of being reconciled, yet if there must be some anger left still, let it break out into a Christian Re∣venge, and by being kinder to the Children of Disobedience than they deserve, let the injur'd Church Triumph, by throwing shame and con∣fusion of face upon them; there should not always be Storms and Thun∣der, a clear Sky would sometime make the Church more like Heaven, and would be more towards the reclaiming those wanderers, than a per∣petual terrour, which seemeth to have no intermission, for there is in many, and particularly in English Man, a mistaken pleasure, in resisting the dictates of Rigorous Authority; a Stomach that riseth against a hard imposition, nay, in some, raise even a lust in suffering from a wrong point of Honour, which doth not want her greater applause, from the greater part of Mankind, who have not learnt to distinguish; constancy will be thought a vertue even where it is a mistake; and the ill Judging World will be apt to think that Opinion in thought which produceth the greatest number of those who are willing to suffer for it; all this is prevented, and falleth to the ground, by using well-timed Indulgence;

and the stubborn Adversary who values himself upon his resistance whilst he is oppress'd, yieldeth insensibly to kind Methods, when they are ap∣ply'd to him, and the same Man naturally melteth into Conformity, who perhaps would never have been beaten into it. We may be taught by the Compassion that attendeth the most Criminal Men when they are Con∣demned, that Faults are more natural things than Punishments, and that even the most necessary acts of severity do some kind of violence to our Nature, whose Indulgence will not be confin'd within the strait bounds of inexorable Justice; so that this should be an Argument for gentleness, besides that it is the likeliest way to make Men asham'd of their Sepa∣ration, whilst the pressing them too hard, tendeth rather to make them proud of it.

Our Trimmer would have the Clergy supported in their lawful Rights, and in all the Power and Dignity that belongeth to them, and yet he thinketh possibly there may be in some of them a too great eagerness to extend the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; which tho' it may be well intended, yet the straining of it too high hath an appearance of Ambition, that causeth many Objections to it, and it is very unlike the Apostolick Zeal, which was quite otherwise employ'd, that the World draweth inferences from it, which do the Church no service.

He is troubled to see Men of all sides sick of a Calenture of a mistaken Devotion, and it seemeth to him that the devout Fire of mutual Charity, with which the Primitive Christians were inflam'd, is long since extin∣guish'd, and instead of it a devouring Fire of Anger and Persecution breaketh out in the World; we wrangle now one with another about Religion 'till the Cloud cometh, whilst the Ten Commandments have no more authority with us, than if they were so many obsolete Laws or Proclamations out of date; he thinks that a Nation will hardly be men∣ded by Principles of Religion, where Morality is made a Heresy; and therefore as he believeth Devotion misplac'd where it getteth into a Con∣venticle, he concludeth that Loyalty is so, when lodg'd in a drunken Club, those Vertues deserve a better Seat of Empire, and they are de∣graded, when such Men undertake their defence, as have so great need for an Apology themselves.

Our Trimmer wisheth that some knowledge may go along with the Zeal on the right side, and that those who are in possession of the Pulpit, would quote at least so often the Authority of the Scriptures as they do that of the State; there are many who borrow too often Arguments from the Go∣vernment, to use against their Adversaries, and neglect those that are more proper, and would be more powerful; a Divine grows less, and put∣teth a diminution on his own Character, when he quoteth any Law but

that of God Almighty, to get the better of those who contest with him; and it is a sign of a decay'd Constitution, when Nature with good diet cannot expel noxious Humours without calling Foreign Drugs to her Assistance; So it looketh like want of health in a Church, when instead of depending upon that Truth which it holdeth, and the good Examples of them that teach it, to support it self, and to suppress Errors, it should have perpetual recourse to the secular Authority, and even upon the slight∣est occasions.

Our Trimmer hath his Objections to the too hasty diligence, and to the o∣verdoing of some of the dissenting Clergy, and he doth as little approve of those of our Church, who wear God Almighty's Liveries, as some old Warders in the Tower do the Kings, who do nothing in their place but re∣ceive their Wages for it; he thinketh that the Liberty of the late times gave Men so much Light, and diffused it so universally amongst the People, that they are not now to be dealt with, as they might have been of less enquiry; and therefore tho' in some well chosen and dearly beloved Audi∣tories, good resolute Nonsence back'd with Authority may prevail, yet ge∣nerally Men are become so good Judges of what they hear, that the Cler∣gy ought to be very wary how they go about to impose upon their Un∣derstandings, which are grown less humble than in former times, when the Men in black had made Learning such a sin in the Laity, that for fear of offending, they made a Conscience of being able to read; but now the World is grown sawcy, and do expect Reasons, and good ones too, before they give up their own Opinions to other Mens Dictates, tho' ne∣ver so Magisterially deliver'd to them.

Our Trimmer is far from approving the Hypocrisie which seemeth to be the reigning Voice amongst some of the Dissenting Clergy, he thinketh it the most provoking sin Men can be guilty of, in Relation to Heaven, and yet (which may seem strange) that very sin which shall destroy the Soul of the Man who preaches, may help to save those of the Company that hear him, and even those who are cheated by the false Ostentation of his strictness of life, may by that Pattern be encouraged to the real Practice of those Christian Vertues which he doth so deceitfully profess; so that the detestation of this fault may possibly be carry'd on too far by our own Orthodox Divines, if they think it cannot be enough expres'd without bending the Stick another way; a dangerous Method, and a worse Ex∣tream for Men of that Character, who by going to the outward line of Christian Liberty, will certainly encourage others to go beyond it: No Man doth less approve the ill-bred Methods of some of the Dissenters, in rebuking Authority, who behave themselves as if they thought ill man∣ners necessary to Salvation, yet he cannot but distinguish and desire a Mean

between the sawcyness of some of the Scotch Apostles, and the undecent Courtship of some of the Silken Divines, who, one would think, do pra∣ctice to bow at the Altar, only to learn to make the better Legs at Court.

Our Trimmer approveth the Principles of our Church, that Dominion is not founded in Grace, and that our Obedience is to be given to a Po∣pish King in other things, at the same time that our Compliance with him in his Religion is to be deny'd, yet he cannot but think it an extra∣ordinary thing if a Protestant Church should by a voluntary Election chuse a Papist for their Guardian, and receive Directions for supporting our Religion from one who must believe it a Mortal Sin not to endeavout to destroy it; such a refined piece of Breeding would not seem to be ve∣ry well plac'd in the Clergy, who will hardly find presidents to justify such an extravagant piece of Courtship, and which is so unlike the Pri∣mitive Methods, which ought to be our Pattern; he hath nc such un∣reasonable tenderness for any sorts of Men, as to expect their faults should not be impartially laid open as often as they give occasion for it; and yet he cannot but smile to see the same Man, who setteth up all the Sails of his Rhetorick, to fall upon Dissenters; when Popery is to be handled, he doth it so gingerly, that he looketh like an Ass mumbling of Thistles, so afraid he is of letting himself loose upon a Subject, where he may be in danger of letting his Duty get she better of his Discretion.

Our Trimmer is far from relishing the impertinent Wandrings of those who pour out long Prayers upon the Congregation, and all from their own Stock, which God knows, for the most part, is a barren Soil, which produceth Weeds instead of Flowers, and by this means they ex∣pose Religion it self, rather than promote Mens Devotions: On the o∣ther side, there may be too great Restraint put upon Men, whom God and Nature hath distinguished from their Fellow-Labourers, by bles∣sing them with a happier Talent, and by giving them not only good Sense, but a powerful Utteranee too, hath enabled them to gust out upon the attentive Auditory with a mighty Stream of Devout and unaffected Eloquence; when a Man qualified, endued with Learning too, and above that, adorn'd with a good Life, breaks out into a warm and well-de∣liver'd Prayer before his Sermon, it hath the appearance of a Divine Rapture, he raiseth and leadeth the Hearts of the Assembly in another manner than the most Compos'd or best Studied Form of Set Words can ever do; and the Pray-wees, who serve up all the Sermon with the same Garnishing, would look like so many Statues, or Men of Scraw in the Pulpit, compar'd with those who speak with such a Powerful

Zeal, that Men are tempted at the moment to believe Heaven it self hath directed their Words to them.

Our Trimmer is not so unreasonably indulgent to the Dissenters, as to excuse the Irregularities of their Complaints, and to approve their threatning Stiles, which is so ill-suited to their Circumstances as well as to their Duty; he would have them to shew their Grief, and not their Anger to the Government, and by such a Submission to Authority, as becomes them, if they cannot acquiesce in what is imposed; let them de∣serve a Legislative Remedy to their Sufferings, there being no other way to give them perfect redress; and either to seek it, or pretend to give it by any other Method, would not only be vain but Criminal too in those that go about it; yet with all this, there may in the mean time be a pru∣dential Latitude left, as to the manner of preventing the Laws now in force against them: The Government is in some degree answerable for such an Administration of them, as may be free from the Censure of Im∣partial Judges; and in order to that, it would be necessary that one of these Methods be pursued, either to let loose the Laws to their utmost ex∣tent, without any Moderation or Restraint, in which at least the Equa∣lity of the Government would be without Objection, the Penalties being exacted without Remission from the Dissenters of all kinds; or if that will not be done (and indeed there is no reason it should) there is a ne∣cessity of some Connivance to the Protestant Dissenters to execute that which in Humanity must be allowed to the Papists, even without any lean∣ing towards them, which must be supposed in those who are or shall be in the administration of publick Business; and it will follow that, according to our Circumstances, the distinction of such connivance must be made in such manner, that the greatest part of it may fall on the Protestant side, or else the Objections will be so strong, and the Inferences so clear, that the Friends, as well as the Enemies of the Crown, will be sure to take hold of them.

It will not be sufficient to say, the Papists may be conniv'd at, because they be good Subjects, but not the Protestant Dissenters, because they are ill ones; these general Maxims will not convince discerning Men, nei∣ther will any late Instances make them forget what hath passed at other times in the World; both sides have had their Turns of being good and ill Subjects, therefore 'tis easie to imagine what suspicions would arise in the present conjuncture, if such a partial Argument as this should be im∣pos'd upon us; the truth is, the Matter speaketh so much of it self, that it is not only unnecessary, but it may be unmannerly to say any more of it.

Our Trimmer therefore wisheth, that since notwithstanding the Laws

which deny Churches to say Mass in; not only the Exercise, but also the Ostentation of Popery is as well or better performed in the Chappels of so many Foreign Ministers, where the English openly resort in spight of Proclamations and Orders of Council, which are grown to be as harm∣less things to them, as the Popes Bulls and Excommunications are to Hereticks who are out of his reach; I say he could wish that by a sea∣sonable as well as an equal piece of Justice, there might be so much con∣sideration had of the Protestant Dissenters, as that there might be at sometimes, and at some places, a Veil thrown over an Innocent and re∣tired Conventicle, and that such an Indulgence might be practic'd with less prejudice to the Church, or diminution to the Laws, it might be done so as to look rather like a kind Omission to enqu••re too strictly, than an allow'd Toleration of that which is against the Rule Established.

Such a skilful hand as this is very Necessary in our Circumstances, and the Government by making Men entirely desperate, doth not only secure it self from danger of any Wild or Villianous attempts, but layeth such a Foundation for healing and uniting Laws, when ever a Parliament shall meet, that the Seeds of Differences and Animosities between the conten∣ding sides may (Heaven consenting) be for ever destroy'd.