Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A47818
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A caveat to the cavaliers, or, An antidote against mistaken cordials dedicated to the author of A cordial for the cavaliers.
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing L1214; ESTC R230800
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18,489
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42
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the meaning of it or make appear how little it concerns us Can it be Thought that Worthy and Deserving Gentlemen such as you stile the Cavaliers would presse upon the Kings Necessities Truly These Hints sound little lesse than Accusations Allow us we beseech you to know something of court-Court-affairs although we have no Places there and to discern the Bias of the Season as well as you can tell it us We can very well recount how long his Majesty hath been in England and we have read when Henrie the Great of France appointed Pensions for lame Souldiers Paid his old Debts and pass'd an Edict for the Squeezing of Publique Spunges We know our Share likewise of the King's Streights and which is more the Reasons of them but what 's all this to Us We do not Importune his Majesty nor Charge him Is it to say that our Relief must be the work of Time and to preach Patience to us Truly 'twere hard we should not yet have learn'd That Lesson of all others which we have now been Twenty years in practising But I shall wait upon you Forward 4. Now whereas some object he hath rewarded Round-heads Truly I believe if a Catalogue were made of those upon whom he hath conferr'd Honour or Office since his Return there will be found above twentie Cavaliers for one of any other upon whom he hath set any marks of Favour 'T is true albeit he came not in by the Presbyterian yet he could not have come in without Him so peaceably Though some alledge that what the Presbyterian did was not as much out of a Love to the King as out of a Hatred be bore to the Independent who may be said to have us'd the Presbyterian as the Fox useth to deal with the Badger who having found out his Chamber in the Earth he so berayeth it that the Badger comes thither no more and so the Fox makes himself master of the hole 4. By your kind leave Sir Count again and I 'm afraid you 'll find a Dozen of Larks and a Capon instead of a Dozen of Capons and a Lark We are not yet so Insolent as to Confine and Question the King's Bounties we do in truth complain and grieve to see a Faction pack'd by some whom his Majestie entrusts out of the rankest of his Enemies and to see divers persons recommended to the Kings Favour and unknown receive it too whose Foulness casts a Blot upon the Honour Concerning the supposed Antipathy betwixt the wrangling Presbyter and Independent All comes to this they are Two Ravenous Beasts that agree well enough to devour Beeves and Muttons and prey upon the Innocent So soon as the Object of their Common Appetite is spent they fall to worry one another yet in the heat of all their Fury cast but a Sheep betwixt them a Cavalier they shall Part Reconcile Fall on and share the Quarry Now to your next Exception 5. Whereas som except against his Majesties lenity and Indulgence let Them know that Mercy is the inseparable Inmate of a magnanimous breast and that the noblest way of Revenge is to forget and scorn injuries I have read in Story that one thing which made Lewis the twelf of France most famous was a Speech which drop'd from Him when being advis'd by some of his Counsell to punish such and such as were profess'd Enemies unto Him while He was Duke of Orleans He answer'd That the King of France doth not use to revenge the Injuries of the Duke of Orleans No more with most humble submission be it spoken doth King Charles resent much the wrongs that were done to CHARLES STUART 5. This is to enter further then becomes us into the Actions of our Soveraign We do not blame the King's Indulgence but rather adore that Divine Sweetnesse of his Nature yet we detest those wretches that abuse it and we affirm that Mis-placed Mercy was his Fathers Ruine To say that the Snake kill'd the man that gave it Life and warm'd it in his Bosome reflects upon the Serpent not the Charity Nor by your Favour Sir is the Exercise of Mercy a Virtue in all Cases Suppose Six Persons ready to perish for want of Bread Three of them Murtherers and my Enemies the other Three my Honest Friends I can relieve but Half which Three shall I save Or if I be uncertain how my stock will hold out with which shall I begin In this case were not Mercy to the Guilty Cruelty to the Innocent Love your Enemies is not Hate your Friends A will to save All is indeed a Princely Virtue but he that makes the Experiment shall most Infallibly destroy the best As your Discourse of Mercy to my thinking needs a Distinction so has your Application of it one too much King Charles distinguished from Charles Stuart All was King Charles Father and Son without the Interruption of a moment nor were the wrongs done to Charles Stuart but to King Charles 6. Therefore Noble Cavaliers possess your Souls with Patience We have a most gracious King who is in the Meridian of his years and will live to reward all in time In the confused medley of mundane affairs the Proverb often is verified Some have the hap but some stick still in the gapp Some have the fortune of preferment some not and 't will be so to the worlds end The Author hereof though during the many years that he was in prison for his loyaltie had 3. sworn over his head in an Office of Credit that he should have had de jure yet it nothing discomposeth him being more than in hope of a compensation some other way 6. Why Noble Sir at your Request we will possesse our Souls with Patience We know the King and our own Duty and we shall rather serve him without Flattering then Flatter without serving him We never hackny'd out our selves for Wages or Reward and sure that distance from whence your care descends to overlook us makes us appear Lesse then effectually we Are. You treat us in a Phrase better apply'd to stop a Bawling Mutiny than to compose a Generous Passion If we are sad 't is not so much because we are Poor nor has our Grief any disloyal mixture But will you know what troubles us VVe find the Court dangerously throng'd with Parasites Knaves represented to the King for Honest men and Honest men for Villeines a watch upon his Majestie 's Eare to keep out better Enformation seditious Ministers protected and encouraged Libels against the Authority and Person of the King dispersed even by his Majesties sworn Servants and to Discover Treason is of a consequence in some respects more hazardous than to commit it These are our Grievances and to find the Reverence of Government invaded by the pretending but mistaken Preservers of it Let any man tell Titon a Stationer in Fleetstreet and now of the Royal Trayn of his True Pourtraicture of the Kings of England printed in 1650. where the whole Line of the
Stuarts is branded for Spurious his Sacred Majesty now living stung with the most exquisite and piercing point of Rhetorique and Malice The late King handled worse than common modesty would treat his Murtherers Let a Man mention this I say and his mouth 's stopp'd with the Act of Indemnity although this very Person hath of Late publish'd a Pamphlet of near equivalence to This against our Gracious and abused Soveraign Are we obliged by the Act of Oblivion to quit our Nature and our Reason with our Passions to such a Losse of Memory as utterly defaces the very Images of things Past and robbs us of the benefit of our dear-bought experience VVe have our Private Causes of Disquiet too but Patience is your advise and without more adoe wee 'll take it especially encouraged by the President you set before us your Patient self And yet if your Composure proceed from your Compensation as the Cohaerence renders it your Instance does not reach Us. We do not envy you the Glory of your Sufferings and yet we do not need your Pattern to proceed by We have among our selves Sir divers that would more willingly Repeat the very Losses and Hazards themselves then the Story of them and for that modest Reason the Words of Some weigh down the Actions of Others You proceed and conclude Thus 7. And as we have a Gracious so have we a Glorious King the most Glorious that ever wore these three Crowns For all the eyes of Christendom are fix'd upon Him with a kind of astonishment and admiration and not only of Christendom but of all the World besides for 't is written that the Great Turk should say If he were to change his Religion he would fall to Worship the God of King Charles of England who hath done such miracles for him such miracles that no story can parallel And certainly God Almighty must needs love Him for whom he doth miracles which that his Divine Majestie may continue to do are the incessant Prayers of 20 Julii 1661. J. H. 7. We do not understand the Phrase of the Court A Gracious Prince we have no doubt as ever Liv'd but how so Glorious if so opprest as you have rendred him we do not comprehend Great as he is Good we wish him and let That suffice Love is the best Praise and the best Language of the Soul is Action Till we are call'd to That our Prayer shall be that all the ENEMIES of the last King may prove the FRIENDS of this R. L. But where 's the Cordial all this while you pretend to comfort people under Corporal necessities by telling them they have a Gracious Prince and a Good Cause you bid them not Despayr for it is possible they may receive their Reward when the Publique shall have nothing else to do with their mony that is at Last VVords will not feed the Hungry nor Speculations clothe the Naked This is no more than what we might have heard from a Good Old wife in a Chimny-Corner Have a good Heart God's all-sufficient This may Relieve the Mind but not the Body Your Fourth and Fifth Sections are spent in the Defence of what we do not Oppose and not without Mistake even in the ground of your Plea The King may give his Honours and Rewards Pardon or Punish where and as he pleases that is he may forgive such faults as God allows him to dispense with but still your Twenty to One is more oddes than the proportion will bear The learned Bishop Sanderson concerning Oathes tells us That an Errour in the substance of the thing which was the proper cause of the Oath renders the Promise Invalid and the Obligation void Lect. 4. Sect. 13. Upon which Equity it may be a question whether his Majesty be bound or not to make good all those Grants which by Deceipt about the substance of the Thing have been obtained from him the proper cause whereof was his perswasion of their Loyalty to whom he pass'd such Grants Under this Notion have been Dignified some Persons with whose Character I shall not foul my Paper further than Thus Those blessings which his Sacred Majesty meant to shed upon his Friends fell upon his Enemies The VOYCE was JACOBS but the HANDS are ESAU'S Upon the Main your Paper bears the Name of a Cordial without the Effect of it and such is our Condition that it is equally dangerous either to fasten upon false Comforts or neglect True ones VVhat the King Does or Is what Hopes of Profit or Reward is not one jote material to our businesse The Rule of Loyaltie is the same whatever may be the humour of the Prince and he that makes Profit the Reason of his Virtue will when that Reason is gone think it likewise an Excuse of his wickednesse Our best part is to behave our selves with Clearnesse and Prudence and honourably to Bear what we cannot honestly avoid without mincing or palliating the Worst or Looking into the Starrs for Better We have an Uncertainty of Events before us of Decree above us of Counsells and Design about us a Light and Guide within us and if there be no new thing under the Sun the Future is Behind us Be it our Care then to discover what Dangers threaten us from whence which we may struggle with which not how fairly to shunn all and by the square of Honesty and Reason mend a bad Game All which may be effected by procuring that his Majestie may neither mistake his Friends nor the People his Majestie together with a waryness not to rely upon our Enemies nor to Divide among our selves These Four hints duly observed secure us without a Miracle as on the Contrary we fall into Disorder and Confusion The First and grand Expedient is I. That his Majesty may rightly understand his People A Failing in this point would prove a Mischief without Remedie or Comfort one of the saddest Judgements can befall a Prince or Nation It gives Authority to a general Ruine puts Loyaltie out of countenance and it makes Faith and Honour cheap and ridiculous As the Mistake is Mortall so 't is not easie to distinguish betwixt Truths and Appearances especially for a Prince so long unwonted and so much a Stranger to his People Mens Hearts are not read in their Faces and we live in an age where commonly the Blackest Souls wear the cleerest Forheads and Confidence supplies the place of Merit Let us not wonder then at benefits misplaced but rather labour to prevent by better Information so many dangerous tho' well-meaning disappointments for his Majestie hath no other means of knowing his People then either faithfull Notice or long Observation and Delay kills us This is not yet to impose upon his Majesties Free grace or intercept the Course and Influence of his Royal Goodness We are with Reverence to beleeve that where he knowes the Person he Preferrs or Saves he knowes likewise the Reason of his Bounty or Mercy and we are not to