Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A31907
|
A full and final proof of the plot from the Revelations whereby the testimony of Dr. Titus Oates and Mr. Will. Bedloe is demonstrated to be jure divino, and all colours and pretences taken away that might hinder the obstinate from assenting to the truth and sincerity of their evidence : dedicated to all Roman-Catholicks and infidels / by E.C., Doctor of the civil law.
|
E. C., Doctor of the civil law.
|
1680
(1680)
|
Wing C23; ESTC R9091
|
13,342
|
20
|
and that whatever they say in reference to the Plot can be no Contrivance or Figment of their own but the Dictate of a Spirit long since promis'd out of the Revelations by John the Divine My intended Explanation of the Text I hope will put the Plot out of all Controversie and force us all to confess that Dr. Oates and Mr. Bedloe discover by Illumination or a Supernatural Light and thereby render their Evidence unquestionably true Jure Divino To be short the Holy Record in John is this And I will give power unto my two Witnesses and they shall prophecie one thousand two hundred and threescore days cloathed in Sackcloth Revelat. Chap. 11. v. 3. Ruminating with my self upon the aptness of these words to the present times I was invited by my curiosity to reflect and dive into their sense whereupon I found they related to other Chapters as well as the matter in this their Latitude comprehending all the remarkable Revolutions foretold by John But above all this Verse has such a direct immediate aspect and intuition upon the Fall of Babylon threatned in a following Chapter which our Protestant Divines conclude to be the Church of Rome that it seems to squint only and look awry at other Passages but to appear with a full and gazing face upon this Prediction The Prophecy of the Down-fall of the See of Rome we all know to be yet uncompleated the foreboding Signs and Tokens of this Calamity are two preliminary Witnesses that shall prophecy and as it is Gods usual Method when He intends to strike to give warning of the Blow so here it was reveal'd to John to declare That the Almighty would send two Witnesses to prophecy and give Evidence of the Whoredoms and Villanies of this Spiritual Strumpet to discover the dark Intrigues of this Hellish Plot to bring the Conspirators to a just Punishment to free us all from the Tyranny and Yoke of Popery and finally to batter down that Monster of Religion and Bawd of Sin and Iniquity the Pope himself It may perhaps be ask'd why Holy John mentions two Witnesses indefinitely without offering at some description of the Instruments in this Great Work I answer 't was policy in him to mention them by the general character of Witnesses he would not give plain and signal Marks of the Persons that were by an Eternal Providence pitch'd upon to over-turn this damnable Design an Ignatian sort of People whom he well knew to be ready charg'd with revenge and malice by such a light given of the Discoverers might have murdered or strangled them as Instruments intended to mischief their Cause and quench the red-hot Iron upon the Anvel Without doubt he could have supplied us with their Names at least their two first Letters for this any ordinary Jugler can do by erecting a Scheme or casting a Figure but then this would have expos'd the Divine Mysteries to the busie curiosities of prying Men who too often impiously attempt to rifle the Cabinet of Heavens Decrees and prostitute them to humane Knowledge I cannot believe that John talk'd at random as Men do in their Dreams many of his Prophecies have been fulfilled and to say he was not privy to the mystick Sense he uttered were to make no more of a Prophet than a Puppet that squeaks by the Voice and moves by the Hand of the Manager The next thing to be explained is the latter part of the Verse which says They shall prophecy one thousand two hundred and threescore days cloathed in Sack-cloth By this is suggested Dr. Oates's first disclosing the Intrigue and heard with prejudice and aversion to his great discouragement telling a wonderful and strange Story a hideous and dismal Conspiracy and not believ'd at length they shall both be received as Oracles of Truth by the Parliament but by reason of some Occurrences and Conjunctures of State that Great Council shall be Prorogued and afterwards Dissolved then shall these two Witnesses Prophecy in Sack-cloth i. e. they shall be for some time under a Cloud expos'd to the publick Censure and Infamy of Cheats being deprived of that which chiefly invigorated their Evidence However they shall still prophecy and stoutly adhere to their first Affirmations though sorrowful and dejected and with heavy Hearts and sad Countenances for the safety of the Kingdom preach up the imminent danger of a Plot and so from Parliament to Parliament till one thousand two hundred and threescore days are expired they shall with great constancy and hopes of Justice expect to have a final Period put to it And this I dare avouch is no distorted or wrested Sense of this branch of the Verse but a free and natural understanding of the Metaphor And Ver. 7. of the same Chapter When they have finished their Testimony the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless Pit shall make War against them c. which interpreted is the Jesuites with the Remains of an inveterate and cruel malice shall persecute and be ever attempting to revenge the ruine of their Cause upon the Persons of these two Witnesses But I foresee it will be ask'd by the Curious and Inquisitive why are only two Witnesses nam'd by the Diviner when there is so great a Herd of guilty Reformades come in to give their Testimony of and assert the same numerical Plot why should these be omitted who are certainly assisting to win our perswasion of it and but two mention'd why I 'le tell you Dr. Oates and Mr. Bedloe were the Principal Men commission'd by Providence to unravel this Bottom of Iniquity the rest were only followers appointed by secret Purposes of the Divine Will to Corroborate and Dignifie the Evidence of the former it being rather an attendance of State and Triumph annex'd to their Testimony for the greater splendor of the Protestant Cause for 't was not necessary to intimate any but the Capital Witnesses the Evidence of Dr. Oates and Mr. Bedloe being in Law sufficient to hang all the Subjects in England if they were guilty Two Oaths in Court for the King and Country are like a brace of Dragons that depopulate whole Cities and devour all they approach the zealous breath of honest Witnesses in point of Treason carrying the same force with a strong West-wind of Aegypt that in a trice scours and cleanses the Land from Locusts Malefactors and Traitors Thus I hope I have made out the sense of John's Prophecy and I appeal to all the Orthodox Divines in Europe if this be not the most proper and genuine Exposition of the Text. And now what strange Impiety will it be for any body to deny or question the Truth of this Plot We must not censure where Heaven has set his Stamp when the Testimony comes from the Eternal source of Truth and Wisdom 't is our duty to believe though we despair to apprehend for where we cannot rely upon our Reason we must exercise our Faith Every good Christian and Loyal Subject ought to believe
as much of the Plot as is positively sworn nor does it become us to question or stagger at any thing that they with so much courage and assurance have asserted 'T is impossible in this case to be impos'd upon or allured into the snare of Falshood for if John were inspir'd which we believe as certainly as the Miracle of Cloven Tongues we are sure to be grounded upon a firm Faith His Prophecy being a secret of Divinity imparted to Illustrate the Attribute of Gods Goodness we have no more reason to boggle at the Truth of the two Witnesses than the Doctrine of an Apostle 'T is impossible for them upon this Basis to speak a Falshood they are Engines the Diviner says actuated by Him Witnesses He has chosen to lay open the Destruction our Enemies design'd us And as it is from hence both irrational and highly irreligious to deny the Being of a Plot in general so to clip and pare part of it off and believing it by halves is no less impious for owning the Discovery of the whole to Inspiration 't were to imply a Contradiction in Divinity to condemn part and approve of the rest We must therefore acknowledge every tittle of it or it will be to no purpose to believe it mincingly 'T is not my design here to discourse of the Probabilities of Mens Innocence or Guilt by weighing Circumstances and Matters in a Humane Method and in the Scale of Partial Reason mine is a shorter and more compendious way and not liable to fundamental Errors Heaven has revealed the Plot and 't is needless for me to make wrangling scrutiny into it for after I have done my best in such a search I must whether I will or no acquiesce in a Supine Judgment of its truth because Holy John hath said it and I told you before whence he had it But if we should stoop a little to the Cavils of the Contentious what would this avail or signifie What if you alledge you have good reasons to doubt of the Truth of some Particulars laid to the charge of the late Malefactors Why suppose you have the main of the Accusations and that which hang'd them was High Treason the throng of such important business in a Witnesses Head may easily be conceived to justle out trivial Circumstances of Time and Place and trapan him unawares into a false Computation The Witness believes it was so and so there done and in such an order of time and then punctually swears to it this is no Crime in Conscience if he errs 't is only a fault in memory and so not a Lie but a mistake which a Court of Justice readily passes by and pardons This Maxime being in vogue with us as well as the Romish Casuists Nemo peccat nisi actu voluntario So this bubble of an Objection vanishes But to humour the Captious a little further Granting these are Lies couch'd under and mix'd with the Truth of the Evidence and supposing the Witnesses Knaves which is the utmost Malice can do yet cannot I think there is any reason to separate our selves from a total Belief of every thing they say since the main of the Plot in spight of the most sear'd obstinacy in Nature will compel us to acknowledge a great part of it And though we wholly depend upon them for our information and pin our Faith upon their sleeves yet ought we not to be so uncharitable as to bring a suspicion of Imposture upon the whole 'T is true in this case we are liable to abuse and if they will deceive us in some things they may but for as much as we want a certain Criterion to judge of and winnow Truth from Falshood and that if I choose to be my own Conductor 't is an even Wager but I embrace a Lie and reject a saving Truth therefore if there were a hundred times more of the Plot sworn than there now is I think it prudence to swallow all and disgorge none nay I affirm if there were ten Millions of Lies I am obliged by the Law of Nature slightly to believe them all rather than earnestly dissent from one precious Truth which unespous'd would prove my utter ruine for otherwise the bloody Machinators have as fair play at our Throats as ever and the Discovery will be as ineffectual to frustrate their Designs as looking upon a Train of Powder with a lighted Match laid to it will hinder it from taking fire The Sum is then seeing we cannot distinguish between Truth and Falshood it behoves us passionately to embrace both together for our own safety and preservation And pray let this be a Bug-bear to no body for what is there in all this Shall I keep a clutter and ado about Assent and Dissent and in the interim have my Throat cut for my Curiosity Shall I grin and have an ill opinion of the Evidence because the Plot is not contriv'd as I would have form'd it had I been a Conspirator This is such Nonsense as nothing but a pragmatical conceited Asse would be guilty of We thank them very heartily for their Critical Wisdom and Skill in Plots I am rather perswaded they are angry and peevish because it was not rightly projected and would be though to storm at the folly of the Design when they secretly blame the ill fortune and success of the Undertakers But it may very materially be urg'd That in this mist of Evidence innocent Men may be condemned wrongfully their Estates forfeited and their Lives taken away to the great scandal of Government and the impious abuse of the Sword of Justice To this 't is answer'd That in Cases of this moment and weight relating to the Body-Politick 't is better that now and then an Innocent suffer than that all Malefactors escape for as in the Body-natural labouring under a Fever the Chyrurgeon to preserve the whole Mass from dissolution draws from it both good and bad Blood together there being so subtil and close a union between the corrupted and sound part of it that no Art or Skill of his can free the Body of one without taking a Portion of the other So in matters of Justice 't is impossible for any Magistrate to make such nice discriminations between Innocence and Guilt as he shall be sure always to punish one and acquit the other bare Innocence being no vindication of it self must bring proofs and violent presumptions to plead for it when these are wanting the Law devests her of that Title and sets her in the rank of Criminals But above all the Witnesses that are upon their Oaths are to be heard and believ'd notwithstanding any contrary conjectures and surmises an Oath being to be esteemed and valued with all reverence as the most Sacred Engagement in the World And for as much as a Witness is oblig'd to stake his Soul a thing of inestimable price to the Body of every Man to be Arraigned and Tryed I think a Judge and Jury are bound in