Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	believe_v	faith_n	implicit_a	1,688	5	13.6300	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41183	A letter to a person of honour, concerning the kings disavovving the having been married to the D. of M's mother	Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.	1680 (1680)	Wing F750; ESTC R13882	16,478	24

with this blot in his Scutcheon The Person I mean is Edw. the fourth who being a sprightly and amorous Prince was suddenly Contracted and Married to Elianor Talbot Daughter of the Earl of Shrewbury and that not only without any witnesses save Dr. Thomas Stillington Bishop of Bath into whose hands the Contract was made and who officiated at and celebrated the Marriage but besides the poor Doctor was strictly enjoyned by the King to conceal it and you may easily suppose the timorous Prelate would not fail in his duty to Majesty at least so long as he knew the King in a condition to punish and avenge the Discovery Now Ed. 4. finding thereupon admission into the embraces of the Lady and having satiated himself a while by secret injoyments and withall reckoning that none could or at least durst detect by what holy ties he was bound unto her he did some years after notwithstanding the Person to whom he was Affianced still survived both deny what was so solemnly transacted in the ptesence of Almighty God betwen them and withal Married another Woman namely my Lady Eliz. Gray Your Lordship may see the story both in Buck's Life of Richard the Third pag. 16 c. and in Comines's History of ●ewis the 1● th And without making any application of it to the present Case I shall crave liberty to make these Remarks upon it I. That it is possible for Princes especially such as have accompanied with many Women to have weak Memories and to forget upon what Terms they contracted their first Friendships with them For finding how their Familiarity arose with others of that Sex they may grow by degrees into a kind of perswasion that their Interest in all was established upon no better terms Or if they should not be supposed so forgetful as this amounts unto yet the Love of change may make them stifle their knowledg especially when the Objects of their fre●h Amours cannot be otherwise brought to entertain their flame but with a provision for their own Honour 2. That the denyals of Kings are not to be subscribed unto with an implicite Faith but that we ought to use the same discretion in believing or not believing what they say that we esteem our selves priviledged to use towards others in the credit which they require we should give unto them For though Princes be not lyable to be impleaded in our Courts nor be subject to Penalties that transgressing Subjects are yet seeing they may be guilty of the same facts which would both leave a reproach upon common men and make them obnoxious to punishments it cannot rationally be expected that their bare words should restrain the freedom of our Thoughts or give law to our Understandings in the Judgement that we are to make of Cases and Things 3. I would observe That though the Judicial Courts could not and the Parliaments during Edwards Reign would not take cognisance of that Kings contemning and violating the Ordinance of God by disclaiming his lawful Wife yet the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth in a little while after animadverted severely on the Offence For not only his two Sons whom he had by the Lady Gray were murdered by their Uncle but the Kingdom was translated from his Family and not only bestowed upon the chiefest enemy of his House but upon one who among all that for a long series before had been Rivals for the Crown had the weakest Title 4. It is not unworthy also of our Notice that notwithstanding King Edwards denying his first Marriage and assuming another Lady unto his Conjugal Bed yet all this could neither prevent the future enquiry into this matter nor the Parliaments recognizing the Marriage with Elianor Talbot 1. of Rich. 3. And besides the imputation of a Bigamist which is thereby stampt upon him to all Ages his Children by the second venture were Bastardised by Statute and an occasion from thence taken so place the Scepter in the hand of Richard Fifthly Nothing in this Declaration can preclude the Duke of Monmouth or any other true Englishman from enquiring when time serveth by legal and due wayes into the truth or falshood of the Kings marriage with Mrs. Walters For the D. cannot be denyed the same right which appertains to every person in the Kingdom namely the justifying his own legitimacy in due course and form And should he chuse to sit down with the imputation of a Bastard with all the other Losses which attend it Yet there are those in the Nation who preferring their duty to God their Country Themselves and an injured Gentleman before a Reverence to one man especially acting under the Influence of a Popish Brother will bring that whole business into an impartial examination before such where a single Negative will not be allowed as a sufficient proof to invalidate affirmative Testimonies providing such can be had And should that marriage hereafter be authentically proved how ill will they be found to have deserved both of the King and Kingdom that have either surprised cajol'd or threatned his Majesty to bring such a slur upon his Honour and Reputation as this Declaration will to all Ages Entail And my Lord Is it not strange if there was never any such Marriage that Mrs. Walters should not only when in travel with the said D. but at many other times particularly in her last hours when in the Prospect of approaching Death and ensuing Judgement affirm it with that positiveness which she did And is it not more surprising if there had been no such Marriage That Dr Fuller late Bishop of Lincoln should so often and in Verbo Sacerdotis declare to divers worthy Persons That he Married them Nay What should byass the Inkeeper at Liege to make it the great Mystery with which he entertained his English Guests That the Marriage was cellebrated and consummated in his House and that both he and his Wife were eye and ear Witnesses of it Moreover if it were such an Idle Story as the Declaration represents it how came it to pass that when some persons lately examined about the Black Box declared that they had heard of such a thing as the Kings being Married to that Gentlewoman they should be immediately commanded to withdraw and told that this was not the business they were interrogated about Besides My Lord as all who were abroad with his Majesty at that time knew the Passion the king had for that person so some of us can remember how through immoderate love to her being reduced to a condition that his Life was dispaired of and the late Queen his Mother recieving intelligence both of his Disease and the Cause of it she consented to his espousing of her rather than that he should consume and perish in his otherwise unquenchable flames Moreover as there were few had better opportunities of being acquainted with this whole affair than my late Lord Chancellor Hide so I 'm sure the advantages likely to accrue to his off-spring by