The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Independent Whig.
• Number XXXIII.: The Ignorance of the High-church Vulgar, and Its Causes.
• Number XXXIV.: Of Fasting. Part 2.
• Number XXXV.: Of Reason.
• Number XXXVI.: Of the Peace of the Church.
• Number XXXVII.: The Enmity of the High Clergy to the Bible.
• Number XXXVIII.: Of Penance and Religious Revellings.
• Number XXXIX.: Priests Afraid of Ridicule.
• Number Xl.: of Priestly Cruelty.
• Number Xli.: the Folly of the Clergy ’s Demanding Respect When Their Characters Are Bad: With the Equity of Universal Toleration, and of Judging For Ourselves.
• Number Xlii.: of High-church Atheism.
• Number Xliii.: of High-church Atheism. Part 2.
• Number Xliv.: of High-church Atheism. Part 3.
• Number Xlv.: of High-church Atheism. Part 4.
• Number Xlvi.: of High-church Atheism. Part 5.
• Number Xlvii.: No Priests Instituted By the Christian Religion.
• Number Xlviii.: All Priestly Power Inconsistent With the Gospel, and Renounced By It.
• Number Xlix.: the Same Subject Continued.
• Number L.: an Inquiry Into Religious Establishments, With a Further Confutation of the Impious and Absurd Claims of High Priests.
• Number Li.: of the Three High Churches In England.
• Number Li.: an Analogy Between Ancient Heathenism and Modern Priestcraft.
• Number Liii.: Priestly Empire Founded On the Weaknesses of Human Nature.
• Number Liv.: In What Only True Religion Consists.
• Advertisement.
• The Craftsmen. a Sermon, Or Paraphrase, Upon Several Verses In the 19 Th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
• A Letter to a Gentleman At Edinburgh, &c.
• M. S. Johannis Trenchard, Armigeri.
• A Monument Sacred to the Memory of John Trenchard, Esq;

A Monument Sacred to the Memory ofJohn Trenchard,Esq;

• A Gentleman descended from an antient Family,
• And conspicuous for abundant Wealth:
• Yet neither from his Race, nor his Fortune,
• Did he derive his principal Renown.
• Some boast a Glory derived from the Lustre of their Lineage;
• And rely upon the Merits of their Ancestors:
• Others vaunt the Glory of their Wealth.
• Vain and accidental is all such Glory.
• His was of his own acquiring, without Allay,
• Personal and permanent,
• The pure Result of his Virtue and Parts.
• In his native Accomplishments, and in the Sanctimony of his Morals,
• He gained Splendor surpassing that of his House,
• In Vigour of Spirit, in Integrity of Life,
• In Tenderness to his Country, to his Kindred and Friends,
• Few ever equalled him,
• None ever surpassed him.
• Whilst yet a Youth, he attended the Bar,
• Learned in the Laws, and a powerful Pleader.
• But soon abandoning the Strife of Suits,
• And the Pursuit of Gain,
• Neque deposuit, nec frustra exercuit;
• Dominationis cujusvis generis hostis perpetuus,
• Et vere timendus;
• Libertatis, priscique moris,
• Custos rigidus, Vindex acer.
• Simul naturæ humanæ, pravitatis hominum,
• Ambitusque & calliditatis Potentium,
• Gnarus, ac probe suspicax,
• Prætextus eorum a consultis, a domino Magistratum,
• Discriminare valuit;
• Vimque et superbiam, quandocunque lacesserant,
• Summa facundia increpare ausus est.
• Missionem exercitus
• Post finem belli Gallici, Gulielmo Principe,
• Oratione scripta, adhuc Juvenis
• Efflagitavit atque obtinuit,
• Invitis Aulicis & frementibus.
• Par ipse summis negotiis,
• Et honores meritus, sed aspernatus,
• Artibus privati præcelluit.
• Mystarum Rabiem,
• Tristes Fanaticorum ineptias,
• Libertati civ um atque bonis inhiantium,
• Semper aversatus;
• Petulantiam istorum & aviditatem
• Ac iter redarguit & coercuit:
• Nec Deum Opt. Max.
• Truculentiæ effræni, vel vociferatui inani annuere,
• Aut lapsu & erroribus mentis offendi Ratus est.
• He preferr’d Retirement, and a private Life.
• His Concern however for the Public.
• (A Concern ever inseparable from his Thoughts)
• He neither renounced, nor exercised in vain;
• Of Encroachments and Domination of every kind
• A constant and a formidable Foe;
• Of public Liberty, and primitive Institutions,
• A rigid Assertor, a powerful Champion.
• From Observation he knew, from a just Principle he suspected,
• The Frailty of human Nature, and the Pravity of Men,
• With the Ambition and Artifices of Men in Power:
• Between their avowed Pretences, and real Pursuit,
• He could well distinguish,
• As between the worthy Magistrate, and the lawless Ruler;
• Ever resolute to encounter every public Violence,
• And all the Insolence of Power,
• With consummate Eloquence.
• The Disbanding the Army after the French War,
• In the Reign of King William,
• By an Argument written and published.
• Even in his Youth he undertook to procure,
• Urged it with great Force,
• And even succeeded,
• In Opposition to the Efforts and Rage of the Courtiers.
• To the highest Affairs his Abilities were equal;
• But deserving public Honours,
• And despising them,
• Annos V. post L. vixit, sibi satis;
• At non Patriæ, non amicis, nec uxori.
• Cæterum, ut sine labe vitam transegerat,
• Mortem absque formidine obiit,
• Liberis viris & bonis nunquam non desiderandus;
• Decemb. XVI. An. Ch. MDCCXXIII.
• Manent Monumenta ingenii, semperque manebunt,
• Scriptis multi generis sacrata.
• He shone in the Accomplishments of private Life.
• To the wild Fury of all Visionaries and Mystists,
• To the direful Fooleries of all Bigots,
• His Enmity was bent and perpetual,
• As Men ever ravening against the Liberty, against the Possessions,
• Of their Fellow-Citizens.
• Eloquently he exposed, zealously he restrained,
• The petulant Spirit and Avarice of such Men.
• That the God of Nature, supremely Great, supremely Good,
• Could ever approve wanton Cruelty, or devout
• Clamour, and empty Sounds,
• Or could ever be offended with the Mistakes and
• Roamings of the human Soul,
• Was what his rational Heart could never conceive.
• To the Age of almost Fifty-five he lived,
• An Age to himself sufficiently long;
• But not so to his Country, nor to his Friends, nor to his Lady.
• As he had passed his Life without Blemish,
• He encountered Death without Fear,
• A Man by all virtuous Men and Free-men
• Worthy to be for ever lamented.
• He died on the Sixteenth of December 1723.
• Of his Genius and Abilities there are Monuments remaining,
• Such as will for ever remain,
• Consecrated to Time and Posterity in Writings of various Kinds.