Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A47885
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A modest plea both for the caveat, and the author of it with some notes upon Mr. James Howell, and his sober inspections / by Roger L'Estrange.
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing L1272; ESTC R37601
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15,257
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50
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Honours may give himself a second thought to understand the meaning of it p. 28. But to impute these incongruities to the King were to commit a sin against Duty and Reason So far is his Majesty from Allowing or Directing them they are kept as much as possibly from his bare knowledge The Plot is laid against him and as they did before they do but now remove his Friends to make way to his Person ib. Further Those favours which the King himself bestowed were given by the unquestionable Prerogative of his own freedom the grounds whereof in part we know and in the whole we reverence p. 29. Yet once again So was the State of the Nation represented to his Majesty and such was his Royal Goodnesse that he thought fit to remit all and it is our Duty not to Murmure at it Thus far with Reverence to His Majesty which is yet more then had been needfull had not the frivolous apology of him that wrote the Cordial drawn it from me Nor do I find a Syllable that can by any Violence of comment or conjecture touch the Counsel nay to prevent all colour for such a mistake Thus I clear my self Beyond doubt there are true Converts and divers that even in the Counsells of the Kings Enemies did his Majesty Service Now to the Act of Indemnity let it be taken in the utmost Latitude we willingly submit to 't As'tis an Act of PARDON we complain not and as an Act of INDEMNITY we are obliged by it nor shall we start an Inch from the literal strictnesse of it As an Act of OBLIVION which forbids the MALICIOUS revival of past Differences we do not oppose it neither but a Preventional Prudence is allow'd us and to defend the justice of our Cause against the publick enemies of it In fine from the strict airection of the Act of Oblivion we must not swerve a Title Let it be now considered what this same Caveat may rationally effect upon the People If any thing that looks like Tumult or Irreverence let me dye the Death of a Traytour for it See first my Tendernesse for fear of misconstructions Were all the Ills we suffer joyned with as many more as we have hitherto endured imposed upon us by the direct Will and Order of the King If he should say Hang half my Friends for their Fidelity and Sterve the rest for Gaping when they are Hungry We ought to take all this but as a sad occasion of greater Honour a sharper Tryal of our Faith or at the worst as an unkind requital of our Love but no discharge of Duty Pag. 26. The Authority of Princes is Divine and their Commission makes their Persons sacred If They transgresse 't is against God whose Officers and Deputies they are not against Us. If We transgresse 't is both against God and Them a double Disobedience ibid. That Subject is guilty of his Masters Bloud that sees the Person of his Prince in danger and does not interpose to save him though he be sure to Dye himself even by the hand of him who he preserves Pag. 27. Not is it enough for Subjects to keep a Guard upon their Actions unlesse they set a VVatch before the Doors of their Lips their Tongues must be Tyed as well as their Hands Nay and the very Boylings of their Thoughts must be suppressed VVe that are thus instructed in the Grounds and Terms of Duty even toward the worst of Kings cannot mistake our selves sure toward the Contrary and become doubly Guilty First by imputing our Misfortunes to a wrong Cause and then by an undutiful and simple men age of them Pag. 29. Further upon Discourse of the Cavaliers party which very well deserves a Thought and of the Nations too which is not in Condition without some inconvenience to Relieve us rather then our necessities shonld any way oppress the publick and consequently reflect upon the King my Counsell's this Rather let us Resolve to suffer any thing for his Majesty then cause him to suffer in the Least for us Is this the Language of a Mutineer Certainly I have expressed my meaning ill if this tends to Sedition Once more finding a general distast against some persons whom the Kings knows only upon Recommendation what could be softer then to say that those Blessings which his Sacred Majesty meant to shed upon his Friends fell upon his Enemies The VOYCE was IACOBS but the HANDS are ESAU's what does this intimate but an Obligation still to the King even in those benefits which fell beside us To sum up the main scope of the Discourse It is by a Prudential Modesty and warynesse to state a right uuderstanding betwixt His Majesty and his People for nothing is more evident then that ill offices are done both to the King to misperswade him of the Royal Party and to possess his miserable Friends that the King cares not for them Since Discontents there are and some unhappy mistakes what could be more agreeable to Duty and Reason then to endevour to set all clear Which I have laboured first by assigning our misfortunes to their true Cause and Then by counselling a Fair and humble Notice concerning matter of Fact to his Sacred Majesty Where lyes the Crime of This I am to seek especially proceeding with all that 's possible of Honour and Humility toward the Person Office Dignity and the unquestioned wisdome of my Soveraign It is not lawful for a Private Subject to offer his Prince an Information Nay is he not obliged under the pain of Perjury and Treason if under Oath as I am to the Discovery of any thing he knows or hears of that may be Dangerous to his Majesty If it be Criminal to tell those truths without the Knowledge of which a Prince cannot be safe then I 'm in a mistake otherwise not For there I rest without prescribing my Duty being only to discover without presumiug to Advise or Direct Within these Limits I contain my self and by This rule of Resignation I have not only governed my Life my Tongue my pen but even my Thoughts And yet some take Exception at this following passage Let us examine it There are another sort also of cold Comforters that tell us 't is not Time yet This to a company of VVretches that can stay no longer then they can Fast yields little consolation Are we such Owles as not to see the Sun at Noon 'T is time Enough for some that tell us these fine things even before the Kings Revenue is setled to beg their Fourty Fifty nay their Hundred Thousand Pound a man and when the Nation shall be drawn so low that every Tax runs Blood 't is then Prognosticated that something shall be done for Us That is the Honour shall be ours to finish the undoing of the Nation and furnish Argument for another VVar. p. 29. 'T is a strange thing there should be so much Venome