Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A95011
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A true copy of a speech made by an English colonel to his regiment, immediately before their late transportation for Flanders at Harwich
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1691
(1691)
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Wing T2633A; ESTC R185628
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11,235
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12
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A true Copy of a Speech made by an English Colonel to his Regiment immediately before their late Transportation for Flanders at Harwich THus far Gentlemen and Fellow Souldiers I have conducted you in order to your Transportation for Flanders The Honour of that Post which I now enjoy is due only to his Majesties Goodness but the Happiness which I propose to my self in possessing it is a Gift which none but your selves can bestow upon me Your Civil Deportment and Strict Obedience hitherto I take as an Earnest to me of my good Hopes and Successes for the future and when I consider'd you are English Men whose Loyalty to your Kings and Natural Courage are celebrated and fear'd all Europe over I once thought I might have spared both my self and you the trouble of this Meeting But though long Speeches are now grown out of Date yet having Something of high Importance to communicate to you I was resolved to be rather out of Fashion than out of Humour at an old Custom at this time so necessary for the good of the Nation and service of Our King I must acquaint you then that notwithstanding our Loyalty and Courage may be at as high a pitch as any mortal Men upon Earth can boast of yet the greatest Loyalty may be debaucht and Courage daunted by the false Suggestions and malicious Insinuations of our cunning Enemies at home which captivating our Understandings and perverting our Judgments disarm us more effectually than the Force of our declared Foes abroad could have done Honour is such an inseparable Qualification of a Souldier that when the Honour is gone the Souldier dies though the Man perhaps may drag on miserably a despised Life Now the Justice of the Cause in which we engage hath ever been esteemed the first and greatest Motive to Men of Honour to venture their Lives and Fortunes to endure all the Hardships of a tedious War and to appear Glorious with all those Wounds those Scars and Deformities upon them which still from the Justice of the Cause have been ever reputed Honourable What Man of Honour then would appear in a villanous Cause and venture his Limbs and Life nay and his Salvation too in an unjust War Slaughter in such becomes Murther Plunder is Robbery and Theft and Victory it self if ever it happens to them oftentimes ends in their Destruction Having premised these things I must now mind you that probably most of your selves as well as I cannot but have observed how industrious our Enemies at home have been in representing our Cause as unjust nay as Villanous and Scandalous to the Reputation and Name of an English Man much more of Christian and with Grief and Abhorrence I must acknowledge that the Generality of most Towns Cities and Provinces too have of late so alter'd their Opinions and so publickly asperst our Cause with injurious terms not now to be repeated that I think my self bound in Conscience to put some stop to this growing Mischief especially since our Courts themselves have not been free from the Contagion no not that most Honourable Court in Parliament assembled in which to our Grief and great Amazement some of those very Men have appeared the most constant Enemies to our Cause who have been reputed Men of the best Estates and to this day lookt upon as the truest Patriots of the English Nation What then can be less expected from me who have the Honour to command such brave Men as you are than to instruct you in those things which may preserve your Loyalty as well as inform and teach you that military Discipline which may animate your Courage Most of you have come in Volunteers to recruit that Regiment of mine the greatest part whereof lye buried in the Bed of Honour To you therefore who have never crost the Seas it may be acceptable to know what kind of Entertainment and Reception you are like to meet with abroad You Gentlemen and Fellow Soldiers who have been Partners of our Sufferings and our repeated Victories abroad will be informed of what hath past at home since you left your Native Country and All of you will be convinc'd I hope how Just and Honourable the Cause is in which we are engaged I shall begin at the Fountain and Head of all Justice and Honour I mean the King and follow the Stream of his most admirable Qualifications until they are Lost in the Vast Ocean of noble Thought First then he is our Natural and Hereditary King and Sovereign Leige Lord and We his Natural-born Subjects Had I no more but this to say of him it were more than sufficient to confirm our bounden Duty and Loyalty to him What can be more Just and Honourable than to observe the inviolable Laws of Nature especially when they are inforced by the positive Laws of God What Man of Honour can forbear to Blush or Rage with Indignation should he hear himself accused of some unnatural Sin The Crimes which we commit against Nature make us degenerate below the Condition of unreasonable Beasts who even without Reason preserve the Law of Nature From the Kid and its Dam to the Lion's Whelp and the fiercest Lioness all Creatures by Nature love and follow those which nourish and preserve them and shall we whose Profession and Reward is Honour forsake our Natural Hereditary King who is our Father and Protector too But to proceed Were he not our King yet since he is so Who doth not wish him so He it is who at the hazzard of his own dear and pretious Life and at his own vast Expence for our sakes alone accepted of Three troublesome Crowns to deliver us from those two dreadful Monsters Popery and Slavery He it is who brought in Peace and Plenty among us and hath entail'd them upon us too beyond the Prospect of the most descerning Eye He it is who so tenderly and compassionately Loves us that he holds our Lives in the Palms of his Hands and is so Cautious of exposing them to the ordinary Dangers of an Enemy that he heaps up his own dear Countrymen as a mighty Bulwark before us whilst himself remains in the Rear as a safe retreat when dangers overtake us In his nature he is Affable Courtious and Liberal event to a fault He is Merciful and so free from Ambition and Tyranny the Common and darling Vices of Kings that he hath divided his Throne with the Consort of his Bed and hath entrusted his Power to the Will of his People But not to dwell too long upon Words let us proceed to Effects which are the more convincing by how much they are the more sensible to us And First How free have we been from the intolerable burden of Eternal Taxes How do we wallow in Wealth and Plenty and secure even from the Noise and Rumour of War Is not our Trade encreast and our Merchants freed from the anxious Fears Dangers and Losses of the Seas Do not their Numbers daily grow