Fables of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists/Fable LXVII

by Roger L'Estrange

Fab. LXVII.

A Trumpeter taken Prisoner.

UPon the Rout of an Army there was a Trumpeter made a Pris'ner, and as the Soldiers were about to Cut his Throat; Gentlemen (says he) Why should You Kill a Man that Kills No Body? You shall Die the rather for That, cries one of the Company, for being so Mean a Rascal, as to set other People together by the Ears, without Fighting your self.

The Moral.

He that Provokes and Incites Mischief, is the Doer of it. 'Tis the Man that Kills Me, the Bullet is only a Passive Instrument to serve his End that Directs it.

REFLEXION.

This is to Reprove Those (according to the old Moral) that Stir upvMen in Power to do Publick Mischief; which is much Worse than any Man's Doing a Private One Himself: And only a Safer Way of Commntting greater Outrages.

The Trumpeter's Plea, is so Arrant a Shuffle here, that an Incendiary at the Barr, or in the Pulpit, has as much to say for Himself. He that Countenances, Encourages, or Abetts a Mischief, Does it. The Seditious Lawyer, or Divine, Kills No Body with his own Hand, but by a False Gloss perhaps, upon a Law, or a Text, he may cause Ten Thousand Swords to be Drawn, without Spilling One Drop of Bloud immediately Himself. Shall any Man now, that Willfully, and Maliciously, procures the Cutting of whole Armies to Pieces, set up for an Innocent? As it the Lives that were taken away by his Instigation, were not to be Charged upon his Account. He that Covers Murder, Oppression, Sacrilege, Rebellion, with a Cloak of Statute and Scripture, makes God and Government, Effectually, the Authors of the Wickedness: And Those are the Basest, and Worst of Bravo's, that Employ Journeymen-Mercenaries under them to do the Work. What is This, but to Engage our Bibles, and our Law-Books in a Conspiracy against Themselves? Shall He that gives Fire to the Train, pretend to Wash his Hands of the Hurt that’s done by the Playing of the Mine? Humane Corruptions are as Catching as Powder; as Easily Enflam‘d, and the Fire afterward as Hard to be Quench’d. That which a Man Causes to be Done, he Does Himself, and ’tis all a case whether he does it by Practice, Precept, or Example. In One Word, He that Kindles the Passions of the Mobile is Answerable for the Following Conflagration. When the Men of the Long Robe have once Preach’d the People to Tinder, the Least Spark sets them a Fire: so that they have no more to do then to Inculcate the Doctrine of Disobedicnce, and so leave the Multitude to chew upon't. A Trumpeter in the Pulpit is the very Emblem of a Trumpeter in the Field; and the same Charge holds Good against Both. Only the Spiritual Trumpeter is the more Pernicious Instrument of the Two; for the Latter serves only to Rowze the Courage of the Soldiers without any Doctrine of Application upon the Text, whereas the other infuses Malice over and above, and Preaches Death and Damnation, Both in Onc, and gives ye the very Chapter and Verse for’t.