Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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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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in this Caveat or in the Writer of it and yet upon the search of every Period in it and every Corner of my Soul I should be still at so great a Losse where to find it Nay more then that the further and the longer I enquire into my self the stronger is the Testimony my Conscience bears of my Integrity But to approve my Heart in this particular as well as to Man as I blesse Heaven I can and do to God we 'l look into the Coherence of This Section The professed Drift of it is This. Having in the Foregoing Section soberly proposed by Information to give His Majesty a clear and naked view of Men and Actions for prevention of such mistakes as probably might arise from false representations I passe forward to a Caution lest we might mistake his MAIESTY where the First Page and half is a discourse upon the Authority of Kings and the Duty of Subjects stating the Power as large as Majesty it self can wish and tying up the Subject by the most strict and conscientious bonds of Duty applying all at last to the very Person of our King and to his Party Toward the bottome of the Page mention is made of the Kings Proclamation against Prophane and dissolute persons which I advise may not be understood as any sharpness from the King upon his Party but as a pious and prudential zeal against the vice of blasphemy and distemper Yet we know very well what art is used to blast the Royal Party with that Character and that his Majesty can onely by report take notice of those liberties which no man is so shameless as to practise in his Presence I come now to that passage which were I given to Boast should be my Glory but as 't is toss'd upon the tongue of fame t is that which I would rather be a Beast then be the Author of In the Language of mistake it sounds thus much That I should undertake to question the Kings Bounties and tax his Sacred Majesty with giving away forty threescore thousand pounds in a morning while his friends starve With respect to the first Promoter of this Calumny I shall be bold to blow it off and lay before you the ground of this reproch and thus it runs in Paraphrase There are say I a sort a people that stop the hungry Royalists mouths with telling us 't is not time yet 'T is time enough for them to beg though not for us even before the King himself is served which is a little preposterous Again I say they beg I do not say Obtain great sums that is the Equivalence which if the King should grant 't is as I say a little higher but the unquestionable Prerogative of his own freedom so I presume not to restrain his Royal goodness Nay yet again it may fall out so that the thing they beg may prove worth five times more then they pretend it is then is the Kings gift but a fift part of what they get But to finish In this connexion of discourse the question is not what the King gives nor what they get nor is his Majesty accountable for their importunities But do they deal fairly with us or no That 's the point Is it not time for us as well as them Not that we murmur but they trifle us When we want bread we will starve honourable because the Publick weale will have it so yet still we shall subject our selves to virtue not to delusions At last 't is said we shall have something too but have a care of that for when the Nation is drawn low a heavy tax upon the people would do the King more hurt then our relief is worth Wherefore though our necessities are great yet still our Loyalty ought to surmount our wants Let us not rob the King of his peoples affections to fill our own bellies Rather say I let us resolve to suffer any thing for his Majesty then cause him to suffer in the least for us P. 29. This foregoing Caution not to mistake his MAJESTY or in effect our selves is follow'd with an enquiry into the designs and workings of the Kings enemies wherein the necessity of restitution or else of damnation is offered to the judgment of the learned and I do now upon my honour engage my self to become Presbyterian if in that most important point no less then Heaven or Hell The Casuists of the Consistory will but vouchsafe me the honour of a confutation The next and last Chapter treats how necessary it is for a Prince to oblige the generality of the people and of the arts the Faction uses to put his Majesty and his Party upon necessities to do the contrary concluding with a saying of Barclay in his Euphornio Voenalis hominum vita est et licitatores eapitum nostrorum publicè regnant I was my self Sold by Thomas Leman of Linn Regis in Norfolk a Renegado from our own Party and now living One of the Contractors for my Head for virtually he was so Doctor Mills that sentenced me to Death without a Hearing is now Chancellor to the Bishop of Norwich After my condemnation I threw a Paper among them and told them that was my defence since they would not hear it they might read it One of the Committee takes the Paper and against the sence of the Court burns it Sir Edward Baynton knows whether this be so or no Now to my Post-script what can be more conducing to the King's safety then the discovery of those of whom his Majesty stands most in danger That is first such as have actually betray'd his Majesties Counsels and Designs Secondly such as have received monyes possibly for the Kings relief and never accounted for them These people are upon a double account exceeding dangerous First they are cast out of Protection and in hourly fear to be Detected which makes them desperate Next they have farther opportunities of doing mischief They appear among us as friends and act against us as enemies It is in short but this the enemy is in our Quarters and has got the Woâ—d Let me look back now or let any man now answer me where is that syllable to which an honest man may not set his Name Many there are to which a wise man would not but want of skill may be born with where there 's good meaning If reverence to the King's Authority hnmble affection to his Person If absolute submission to all his Actions be an offence then am I guilty My fault is only the putting those Points by which otherwise would wound the King because perhaps they prick some of his Enemies where is the man that presses Loyalty that streins the knot of Duty harder then I do And to conclude where have I practis'd other then I preach Yet truly were the subject in it self not altogether blameless the occasion and my first fault might excuse me I did not lead the Dance I. H. would needs be
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