Selected quad for the lemma: state_n
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A39587
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The narrative of Mr. John Fitz-Gerrald late of the order of St. Francis, in the kingdom of Ireland ...
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Fitz-Gerrald, John.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing F1074; ESTC R18280
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24,168
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36
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by him which is but one of his Lies although a most false and incredible Story it is to any Persons that have competent Judgment that the King would harbour with so great a Reception such a shitten School-Boy who never attained to such Knowledge or Worth as to be esteemed a Favourite by our Great Monarch as he most falsly and audaciously affirms he hath been Which I state here as an instance unto you that you may judge whether or no he that would tell such an abominable and an unprofitable Lye for nothing would tell a more Hainous though this is very Hainous for his Expectation of being made Bishop of the next vacant Bishoprick I infer this to this Effect that if the Credit Reputation Honour and Safety of these three Nations upon such a rotten Foundation as these three Persons are who will stick no more to Truth nor stumble no more at telling a Lye then they will to kiss their Whores when their Lusts most burn them or drink their Liquor when they are most desirous to be Drunk the which desire in them is never wanting Having shown this one instance of the insufficiency and unlawfulness of such Evidences to be taken in less importances and Consequences than the welfare of these three Nations I expect this Paper may come into some bodies hands whose good and knowing Inclination may lead them to construe well of this my inference As also of another that I shall place after it which is this that I would desire to know whether or not it is lawful for a man who takes upon himself to be an Evidence in Matters of State nay in any manner of Case in whatsoever Evidences are required when he or they undertakes to carry on and stand by as Evidences for to maintain such Cases as he proposes or promises to do and having so promised afterwards to go with his purse of Money to bribe people as I shall hereafter prove that the said Sympson Tonge and Captain Elie have given fourty shillings in money to a Woman who was Housekeeper to Doctor Tonge And afterwards they offered her three pounds more upon Condition she would declare and take upon Oath what they would have her do as to the placing of the first Ofspring and beginning of the Popish Plott upon the heads of Doctor Tonge Doctor Oates c. and if she would yield to take the said Oath she should be preferred to any preferment whatsoever she would desire From this Instance I infer that seeing motions of Bribery and Ambition of Exaltation is much made use of by the foresaid Persons for to raise suborned Witnesses which I suppose when you take it into Consideration you will judge the Promoters of this said Subornation should not nor must not be received as Evidences for the King or any State-Matter nay you must of necessity grant that it is abominable to suffer any such Bribe-hatchers to speak in this behalf for I am certain if it be so now in England that the Evidence of such people is received as Material and Colloteral it hath not been so in old times and the Laws are as good now as ever they were if Suborners could be kept at distance which if not it is not safe for an honest man to live in his own Countrey For he doth not know who to trust to whereas Bribes and pitiful ones leads away the Son falsly and treacherously to betray his Father And all that in hopes and Ambition of a little Preferment Which consideration when you read this will shew you the unlawfulness of such Persons who would not stumble to cut your Throats for their own Interest I pray therefore beware of Wolfs in Sheeps-Cloathing For I am sure these three persons of Subornation can be compared to no better thing Now having shewn you these persons Condition that is to say two of them with whom I was chiefest acquainted how and in what manner they lived only I left off giving an account of John Crawley whose dependency of Livelyhood depended most and chiefly upon the Benevolence of his Acquaintance here in Town his Business here was upon pretence of learning the Law and for ought I know he may learn his belly full of it and that in such measure as that if you will give him rope enough he will hang himself he is an Irishman by his Countrey he is a man of a very loose Life and Conversation he is a great Whoremaster mighty debauch'd in all Exercises a great Curser Swearer and Drinker mighty forgetful of the natural Course of Temperance and Modesty I speak nothing but what might be proved therefore in as much as I have in short shewn you the Lives Conversations and the distressed and destitute Condition of these two of whom I promised in the foregoing part of this Relation to give you an account of whose demerited distress by reason of their Debauchery and evil course of Life led them to be tempted by Captain Elie's Moneys which when you throughly weigh and consider the rate they led their lives in you will and must of necessity grant that there is but little or no trust to be confided on the Words or Oaths of such debauch'd and lewd Livers from whence I shall infer the unlawfulness of their Evidences But I shall cease of so doing until I give a further account of Doctor Tonge 's Son of whom I have to say that he or whoever that goes about to betray his own Parents which is contrary to the Precept and Commandment of God so to do that I guess Reason may guide any rational Christian to place the less trust or Confidence in him for he whoever he be that would be so soon led away and so easily perswaded by the World the Flesh and the Devil to counterpose his dear and good Father who is known to be a worthy and a reverend Man and a good and loyal Subject true and trusty to his King and Countrey upon the which account he hath spent all his Estate to defend maintain and propagate the King Church and Government Interest in these three Nations to the utmost and beyond his power Capacity and Ability and when this moderate learned and discreet man could not with safe Conscience neither his Stock nor his Estate was able to maintain the inordinate and riotous Desires and Designs of his Son but according to his Capacity allowed him competently as he thought fit or necessary for him But his Son being not therewith contented nor satisfied as he was ever unsatiable he betook him to a serious Consideration which way he should be revenged of his Father for cutting short his former and accustomed Allowance of Maintenance and Subsistence And thereupon after some premeditation and deliberation of time he rushes forth into these Exclamations against his Father and said come hang it thought he I will be thus revenged on him I will raise a measure of the dust and Streetsweepings of Rome about his Ears and
I Appoint Richard Janeway to Print this my Satisfactory Relation or Account Witness my Hand this Eleventh of October 1680. JOHN FITZ-GERRALD THE NARRATIVE OF Mr. John Fitz-Gerrald Late of the Order of S t. FRANCIS In the Kingdom of IRELAND Wherein is Contained 1 Several things relating to the Irish Plot Managed by Plunket the Titular Arch-Bishop of that Kingdom and now committed to the Goal of Newgate 2 The Intrigue of Sympson Tonge to Invalidate the Testimony of his Father Doctor Israel Tonge Doctor Oates and other of the King's Evidences 3 An Account of Captain Elie and their cursed Contrivance to undermine the Protestant Religion 4 The strange and wonderful manner of his Conversion from Popery with many other Remarkable Passages All Published for general Satisfaction LONDON Printed for Richard Janeway MDCLXXXI TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Have herein endeavoured for your Satisfaction to let you see the Treachery and Deceit of the World and to our woful Experience the Long Reign of the old Man Satan who was the only chief Instrument of depriving our Fore-Father Adam of the great Privileges and Enjoyments he had in the Garden of Eden and the Glory he had in his first State of Purity and Innocency but Satan through his Envy and Malice promised him Bribes the which Bribes were that if he had eaten the forbidden Fruit he should be capable of Good and Evil. Secondly he tempted Judas to betray Christ and sell him for thirty pieces of silver And dear Reader by these and several other Circumstances we see what Efficacy Bribery hath and what Iniquity and Wickedness ensues from it I must acknowledge I am not in a Capacity to grace this Paper with painted Eloquence or deciphered Phrases but notwithstanding the purpose that I designed it to I suppose you are as concerned to know it as I am for it is most certain that the Serpent lurketh about seeking whom to devour which is a Caution to us to have a care whom we trust though indeed sometimes we may mistrust honest Folks and entertain Knaves as we find it often falls out so but not to hinder your-coming to the reading of this my Endeavours for your satisfaction Blame me not for wanting Elegancy for Sincerity is better than Oratory I hope you will receive it kindly of me to trace my purpose as well as I could and excuse my weakness and errors in matter of Penning Orthography or Sence for it may be my Expectation will not be frustrated but some that read this will be Charitable and receive plain truth more desirable and welcome than false Philosophy for I am sure of the two Comparisons Truth will take place as it is said Omnia vincit Veritas I will leave you to your serious Consideration and charitable Opinion of me and take me as you please but I shall remain a Friend for England and so Farewell H. P. A SATISFACTORY RELATION OF Three Persons Who thought upon three respective several Accounts to perswade the King Parliament Council and Subjects of these three Nations no not adhibit Credit or Belief to any or all of the Discoverers of the late Popish Plot which by divine Providence hath been Discovered to the undeniable and ample view of the World AND thus the above three mentioned Persons whose names are as followeth Captain Elie Simpson Tonge and John Crawley laid about their three several Designs The First Captain Elie whose Design was and is to propagate the Popish Interest and also his own Exaltation and Fortune Secondly Simpson Tonge whose design was to be revenged of his Father as I shall give an account of more at large in the ensuing Treatise And thirdly John Crawly who through distress and want and also his desire and inclination to serve the Popish Party was by that and the Consultation and Combination he had with the other two perswaded that he could serve the Church of Rome and purchase for himself a better Interest of Livelyhood than he had before which as is manifestly known by his bare Garb and spare Diet he had no Livelyhood at all Having plainly laid down before you the Reasons and Designs the above three mentioned Persons proposed to themselves if they could by their audacious Subornation disanul the King's Evidences push off the King Councel Parliament and Countrey of these three Nations from believing the real being of any such thing as an intended Plot by the Papists kindled against his Majesties Person his Laws and Government or Church-Settlement and Establishment of England But instead of that they would first assert that the Popish Party in these three Kingdoms are the best Subjects and what they are imputed with of an insurrectious Conspiracy or Plot sprung first from Inveteracy Malice and Hatred and also an old Root of Antipathy that the Papists assert the Protestants to harbour for them These I say are the strongest Grounds the foresaid three Persons have for their firmest Foundations to carry on such Presumptous audacious and false Undertakings to contradict and invalidate the King 's prudent and wise Understanding as also the Great Parliament of England and the most Honourable Privy-Councel who to any mans rational understanding are Persons of incomparable Prudence Wisdom and Learning as that they would not undervalue their said several worthy Faculties and unparalell'd Understanding and likewise their Christian Principle as to give Credit to any uncertain hearsayings nor vain blasts of false Informations but their great Wisdom leads them narrowly to search and dive into the depth of all Causes that come before them to be tryed They are so careful how to pass their Judgment as that they try the very foundation of the Kings Evidences how and in what measure and in what years and in what times of the year the Evidences became acquainted with the first and the whole summary agitation of the Popish Plot. And if they find by the Evidences Instances and Circumstances that they have truth on their side by several Informations Depositions and Confessions that they make unto several persons distinctly and diversly or in divers places the Lords before whom these examinations and Depositions are taken do compare one Confession to another and proceed accordingly and accordingly place their Instances This through and ample search the King Parliament Councel and subordinate Magistrates through all Causes that come to be tryed before them so that thereupon it is a great Presumption and a contumelious Incredulity for any person or persons whatsoever to go about to invalidate and contradict what the said Lords or Subordinate Magistrates do upon well grounded and certain Instances confirm and acknowledge to be truth And therefore their Tryals in such Causes and in many inferiour Causes in any matter relating to the Popish Plot their approbation of it passeth as is above mentioned so that no particular Cause is winked at but is tryed as the Gold in the Furnace which implies that people of so great Wisdom as the Governour and