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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41556	Some observations on the fables of Æsop as commented upon by Sir Roger L'Estrange, kt. Yet not on all, for some need not any addition or review, and there be many of them which are coincident as to the individual scope, I mean the same moral instruction, which is couched in them. Illustrated with several pertinent stories of antient and modern history. By a divine of the Church of Scotland.	Gordon, James, 1640?-1714.	1700 (1700)	Wing G1284; ESTC R215162	66,798	60

Legislator to make all his Laws subservient to Mars and Bellona But the main Scope of this Fable is to shew us that the cunning Imposturs of men put a Necessity upon the injured to appeal to the Justice of an omniscient GOD who sees the Thoughts of the Heart afar off even long before they are thought no doubt Atheists both in Judgement Practice are apt to deride that Appellation as to a very long Day and questionless that general Judgement must needs be very far off in the Eys of these faithless souls who do not believe that ever such a Day will come neither do they consider how nigh they are by such Provocations to a particular Judgement of which I shall subjoine one or two Instances in Lieu of many When the grand Master of the Knights Templars was tyed to the Stake in France to be burnt alive with diverse of his Order He first crav'd Pardon of God of the Brethren of his Order for the wrong He had done them in confessing those Crimes to be true which were charged upon the Order in general and that thro' the Vehemency of Torment for being shortly to appear before the righteous Judge of the World He not only appealed to Him for their Innocency but also cited Pope Clement V. and Philip the Fair then K. of France for it was mainly by the Authority of those two great men with their Influence on other Princes that this horrid Massacre was carryed on thro all Europe He summoned them I say to appear within a Year before the impartial Tribunal of GOD there to answer for the great Injustice done to his Order And it 's most certain that both these summoned Pannels dyed within the prefixed Time which induced many to believe that the Templars were not guiltie of these execrable Crimes which were laid to their Charge The Iews have a Proverb Cum Elias venerit solvet nodos and Me fears this is one of the Mysterys which the Day of Judgement shall fully unriddle There was indeed some little discovery made of that Intrigue even in the Age wherein it was acted For some Historians report that Philip of France would have all the Templars destroyed per fas aut nefas that his German Brother might enjoy the Forfeitry of the whole Order and no doubt he had become one of the greatest Princes of the Western World as to Revenue if that Design had taken effect For the Templars had great possessions almost in every Kingdom of Europe But tho' King Philip thought he had the Pope upon his Finger ends for he was indeed his Creature yet his Ghostly Father with his Council at Vienna disappointed him by making a Gift of all the Temple Lands to the Knights Hospitallers called otherwise The Order of St. Iohn at Hierusalem I hope the Reader will pardon this small Digression if any so account it to give my Sentiments concerning that cruel Method practised in some parts of the World in order to the finding out of an obscure Truth as is pretended the same being usually termed Torture And that either by the formidable Rack Boots Thumbikins Water Oyl or any other manner of way whereby human Nature is tormented I joyn issue with the great St. Augustine That it is the greatest Injustice to inflict the greatest bodily Torment imaginable upon an innocent Person for such are all in the Construction of Law till they be proven guilty It being an approved Maxime both of the Civil and Canon Law and of Divinity also praesumitur esse bonus qui non probatur esse malus And I must needs say it they who iudge such an Extorted Confession a sufficient probation have never sufficiently considered the Frailty of human Nature So that I think Torture should never be admitted in any Case except the Confession can instantly verifie it self e g. Suppose there were great Presumptions against a Man that He were guilty of Crimen Peculatus by robbing the publick Treasury of a vast sum of money I would lay no stress on his tortured Confession till he had brought the Judge to the place where he had laid that stollen Treasure then the Ocular Inspection justifies the Confession This had been the case of that bold Caudiot who alone pilfer'd one of the richest Treasures in the World I mean that of Venice laid up in the Church of St. Mark if his new Confident had not made the Indication for him Therefore such a Case should be reduced to that Maxime of Law concerning the Examination of Witnesses who are suble●…lae fidei That if it be done at all it should be done ad eruendam Veritatem sed non ad faciendam fidem There remains yet a more admirable instance of these Appeals to Heaven from unjust Sentences on Earth which may be found in the Spanish History penn'd by Mariana There was a Nobleman of Spain found privatly murthered neither was it known who had done that villanous Act the King was the more diligent in making Inquisition for that Blood because the murdered Person had been his principal Minion At last it was suggested that there were two Castilian Bretheren who were picked at this Nobleman so that it was very probable they were the Malefactors and meerly upon this presumption they were sentenced to be thrown down from the top of an high Rock that by their Death they might expiate their Crime The Brethren indeed confessed that they were sensible of a great wrong done them by that Nobleman but withal appealed to the Omniscient GOD that they had no hand in his death neither directly nor indirectly They further declared that as Christians they would never have been so wicked and as Persons of Honour for they were Gentlemen well descended they could not have been so base to murther any Man of what Quality soever But when all their Prote●…cations were made in vain one of them upon the top of that Fatallock in the Audience of many thousands of People cited the King to appear before the Tribunal of the King of kings and Lord of lords there to abide the just Sentence of that unerring Judge for the great Injustice he had done both to him and his Brother and that within the space of thirty days No doubt many of the Spectators deem'd him no less than mad to prefix so short a time to the King who was but a Young Man and in good Health at the time neither was there at that time any fear of Intestine Commotion or Forraign Invasions Yet it is a most certain Truth that the King dyed of a Fever within the 30 dayes which Providential Dispensation was judged by many a more weighty presumption of the young Mens Innocencie than that whereon the King had founded their Guilt FAB LIX Page 59. To his Adages he might have added that other Diverb That few are wise before the hand like Prometheus but too many resemble his Brother Epimetheus in being wise behind the hand for so fareth it with

his Master so stupid when he was a School-boy But to shut up this Point certainly the most innocent Plagium of this nature is when a Man borrows something of a former Treatise to illustrat a latter for they both being his own it cannot properly be termed Theft For a Merchant may air his Goods whensoever he pleases and this hath hapned to many renowned copious Writers such as Plutarch and Seneca Aquinas and the great To●…tatus Ioseph Hall Ioseph Mede Iere●…y Taylor and many others without any Dread of having an Action of Injuries commenced against them for doing with their own what they pleased FAB XXXVIII Page 36. To this largest of his Comments wherein He traceth human Envy Pride from its Infancy He might have added for illustration that Observation of St. Augustine in his Confessions that he hath seen a sucking Child look as fiercely upon another Infant that was brought to the others Teat as if it had been a young Gladiator Among his Huffing Sparks tumlbed from the Ruff of all their glorie under the Wheel of the Victors Chariot he might have instanced ●…ajazet the great Turk and 1st of that Name couped in an Iron Cage on which Tamerlane mounted his Horse as the Emperor Valerian was served long before in that same manner by Sapores K. of Persia Such a sudden Degradation being patheticaly described by Seneca the Tragoedian in the person of Sejanus Quem Dies vidit veniens superbum Hunc Dies vidit fugiens jacentem He was adored in the morning as a God saith the Philosopher of that same Name if not the Author of both but e're the evening was so torn by the enraged Multitude that there was not a Mammock of flesh left upon his Bones for the Hang-man to fix his Hook in and thus the Greek Historians descrive the Tragoedy of Andronicus the elder who was Emperour of the Bast. FAB XL. Page 42. Mentioning the Neutrality of the Batt whom he calls a time-serving Trimmer he might have added Solon's severe Law against all Neuters dureing the great combustions of a State that they ought to be condignly punished as self seeking People who make themselves alone the center and circumference of all their Desires and Endeavours FAB XLVI XLVII XLVIII XLIX Page 47. To so pitifull Bussiness and so small a thing which may prove at last so much as a mans Life Honour or Estate are worth he might have added the Observation of the great Lord Verulam that there be manie Men who think it nothing to give Letters of Recommendation to any who im●…ortune them for that Effect not considering that if they recommend unworthy persons to the ●…avour of great Ones they loose so much of their true Honour by the Mi●…demeanures of a naughty Favourite as Plutarch instanceth in the Recommendation of a young Philosopher to his Friend Polysperchon by the famous Zenocrales that old Captain of Alexander reproved the old Philosopher ●…or his Indiscretion tho' he gave all the Money that the young ●…ool sought at the very first sight of 〈◊〉 and it amounted to no less than a Talent but whether it was of Gold or Silver is not ex-pressed FAB LII LIII Page 52 In his Comment he might have added these two English Proverbs The Masters Eye makes the Horse fat and the Farmers foot ye●…lds the best Compo●… or Dunging to the Land As also that of the Proverbs of Solomon An ignorant or a Simple Prince void of all Under landing is also a great Oppressour For many Tyrants under the 〈◊〉 of his Authority lift up their heads and miserably oppress the People when in the mean time these petty Tyrants have barricado'd his Ears from hearing their Clamours so that they are apt to say much better be oppressed by one Tyrant than many Thus Demetrius Son to the great Antigonus was cast out of the Kingdom of Macedon by that People whose Petitions he would not hear And it cost another of their Kings his Life because he would not do Justice to one of his Subjects I mean Philip the Father of the Great Alexander was openly murdered by ●…ausanias in regard that the King would not punish his Minion At●…alus who had most unnaturally abused the Body of the said Complainer But on the contrary there was nothing that so effectually recommended the Great Augustus to the favour of the People as his Readiness to hear their Grieveances even when he was tyed to his Bed And I dare say his descending to the Bar to plead the Cause of an Old Souldier who bad received many wounds for Augustus without a Deputy endeared him more to the 40 Roman Legions than a Donative of fourty Million of Crowns would have done FAB LIV. Page 54. He might have subjoined that excellent Poem of Horace to the same purpose Olim quod vulpes aegroto cauta Leoni Respondit referam quia me vestigia terrent Omnia te adversum spectantia nulla retrorsum which Verse was the usual Answer that Rodolph of Habsburg the first Founder of the Austrian Greatness gave to all those who demanded of him after he was elected Emperour wherefore he went not to R●…me in Imitation of his Predecessors to receive the Golden Crown from the hands of the Pope His meaning was that many of his Predecessours especially the Fredericks of Swa●…en and Henries of Franconia had been so ill treated in Italy that it was much safer for him to sit at home and let the Popes domineer in Italy as they pleased FAB LV. Page 55. He might have added that old physical Aphorism Vinum moderate sumptum acuit Ingenium but when it is taken excessively it may be granted that the grand Impostor Ma●…omet once spoke Truth in his Alcoran when He said that there is a Devil in every Grape for that hellish Ingredient either stupifies or distracts the foolish Recipient Likewise wholsome Meats if temperatly used beget subtile Spirits which dispose a thinking Man either to Contemplation or Action as oportunity servs whereas a gross Belly makes a gross Understanding and a crass Devotion Thus that luxurious Emperour Vitellius having embogued his Witt in the Superfluitys of Ceres and Bacchus He became a most easie Prey to his mortal Enemies And that prodigious Drinker Bonosus having hanged Himself in Despair because his usurped Empire was not like to thrive with Him his own Souldiours justly derided Him when they said that it was not a Man but a Tanker that was hanged up there FAB LVIII Page 58. It was one of the worst Laws which Lycurgus gave to the Spartans whereby young men were allowed to steal from their Neighbours providing they did it neatly and subtily but if they were deprehended in the fact they were severely corrected it was certainly a most unjust Ordinance because it inured Youth to lying and fraudulent Habites neither could the immorality of it be counterpoysed by their pretended learning the Stratagems of War by such childish Circumventions it being indeed the grand Design of that

Valentinian II. Thus We find at last the Mysterie of the purple Dream unriddled and to conclude if Constantius had considered and believed that Maxime of an old Philosopher That it 's simply impossible for any Man to Kill his Successor He would not in all probability have endeavoured by such inhumane Means to interrupt the current of that stream which may easily over-flow the greatest but cannot be stopped by any FAB CX Page 103. Here He might have taken occasion to narrate that story of the Golden Tripos which some fishermen haled to land in their Net instead of a fish in the Time of the seven wise men of Greece which being successively refused by them all it was at last dedicated to the Priestess of Apollo at Delphi to be set upon that Chasma of the earth from whence they had their Oracular Evaporations FAB CXIII Page 106. It was an usual expression of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Truth thereof is verified by the far greatest part of the World who are mightily afraid of Death especially voluptuous Persons who make their Bellies their Gods are most unwilling to have that sensual Idol torn from them when they are in full possession of all its endearing Circumstances O Death saith Syracides How bitter is thy Remembrance to him who is sitting at Ease in his own house and enjoyes the World at Will But it 's much more admirable to find a Man that 's surrounded with Misery to be unwilling to go to that Place where the weary be at Rest Yet I my self knew one who was as miserable as any man in this World can be supposed to be for he was in the further side of LXXX and besides the usual Infirmities of a decrepit Age He was most pitifully tormented with Nephritical pains yea with such frequent and violent Fits of the Gravel that He hath been heard crying at a great Distance as for his external Condition in the World He was a most indigent Beggar who would undoubtedly have starved many a Time if charitable Neighbours had not succoured Him I did visit Him on his Death-Bed and well knowing all his deplorable Circumstances I doubted not in the least but that He was very glad of the Approach of Death to rescue Him out of the Jaws of extreme misery and having demanded the same of him I heard Him with great Admiration say That if it were the Will of God he could be content to live yet a while longer for all his misery which I could not possibly impute to any other Principle than the Natural Horror of Death and that more Spiritual one of a bad Conscience Yet I judge the Conclusion of the Commentator too general as to all those who improve the lawfull means in order to their Recovery as if they were most unwilling to die who call for Physicians Apothecaries and Surgeons He fancies them to resemble for all the World Lewis XI of France who had such an infinit Dread of Death that if We believe Philip de Comines there was nothing that sounded so terribly to his evil Conscience as the very mention of that Fatal word But he should have considered that they Sin against Nature who spurn at the Means when they are in a Capacity to use them it being a true Maxime of the Casuists That the means are ours but the event is Gods for I have known some good Christians that were so weary of the Fable of this World as Epiphanius usually said and had so little Kindness for this natural Life yea were so desirous To be dissolved and to be with Christ that if their Consciences had not commanded them to use the Means they would have rather chosen to have dyed more than once if it had been possible than to have endured the Fatigue of medicinal Applications which minds Me of the famous Consul Marius who being both pained and deformed in his legs with that Distemper that Physicians term Varices He having to all outward Appearance suffered most patiently the Lanceing and Cutting of one of them when the Surgeon addressed to the other He told Him that these Incisions and Amputations were not worth the while and since Death was the worst of it He would choose rather to die than undergo so much Trouble again Yea more than so if all true Christians were not convinced that the Lord of Life hath fixed Us here away as a Sentinel at a post who must not remove without his Captains Order I am fully persuaded that some of them for any Dread they have of Death would not be shy to imitate that Roman Senator who being informed that the monster of Nature named Nero had determined to put Him to a tormenting death He resolved to anticipat the Tyrant's Malice by starving Himself to death and having intirely abstained from all Kind of Food the space of five or six Days one of his Friends came and told Him that he was misinformed For the Emperour had no bad Design upon Him therefore subjoined he all your Friends are resolved to come and sup with you this Night and we will make a merry Night of it for your escapeing so great a Misfortune He answered that his Friends should be allways welcome to him but when they were assembled all their Oratory could not persuade Him to take one Morsel of Bread nor one Dram of Wine tho' some of them urged him with that Aphorism of Hippocrates Famem Vini Potus solvit and for His Pertinacy he gave them this Reason That He was now within the Confines of Death and had already a full Vieu of that King of Terrors and since He knew infallibly that He behooved once to pay that last Debt to Nature He would not be at the pains again to begin his passage thro' that dark Trance of Death but hoped within 2 or 3 Days to grapple with his Adversary tho' He knew before hand what the Event would be even to be laid flat upon the Ground by his invincible Enemy FAB CXV Page 103. They who are curious may find many other pertinent little Stories to this purpose in Plutarch his Treatise of Brutes having some Use of Reason whose general Topic is very plausible it may appear says He to be the general Sentiment of Mankind in calling Dogs Horse c. mad which undoubtedly in Man imports the Privation of the Use of Reason FAB CXVI Page 108. In my weak Judgement this Fable militats as much if not more against the unhappiness of Successive as of Elective Kingdoms it being very rare to find Electors so infatuated as to make choise of an Infant of a Female of a deformed Creature of a mere Simpleton who is deform'd both in body and mind or of a notorious Coward or finaly of one that is odicus in the Eyes of the World for brutish Sensuality and Excess Germany once stumbled upon such a disastrous Election When Wenceslaus K. of Bohemia was chosen their Emperour to the mighty Prejudice of the Empire