Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A47808
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L'Estrange's case in a civil dialogue betwixt 'Zekiel and Ephraim
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L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing L1204; ESTC R15999
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18,053
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36
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Scribler and Hedg-Printer and it is at their pleasure whether we shall be Honest Men or Rascals Traytors Plotters Suborners Trepanners All as They please Eph. Pray do but mind now how all this hangs together You are censured for discrediting the Kings Witnesses and you discharge your self with saying that they abuse you and there is not one word neither to clear your self from being a Papist L'Estr I have examined both my Books and my Thoughts For the Latter I am satisfied in my own Conscience and that 's enough for me As to the Former let but any man shew me where I have so much as implyed any thing to be False that was true where I have so much as intimated the Doubt or Discredited the Evidence of any thing that was sworn or where I have so much as advis'd a Caution in the point of believing but to the advantage of the Kings Evidences upon the true and real Plot and I 'le be his Bond-Slave Now the Sum of all my words and meaning is wrapt up in This Distinguish betwixt Street-Reports and Sworn-Evidences do not bring a Disparagement upon the Truth by being over-easie to believe Fables for nothing more supports the credit of any Cause than the casting of all Trash and Trumpery out of it To the Scandal of Popery I am not ignorant how Liberal diverse People are of their Censures in this Case who by the Ties of Nature Honour and Good Manners ought to be more tender and careful of what they say And some among the rest that stab me with this Poyson'd Dagger in their very Arms for I can scarce pass them without an Embrace If what I have said and prov'd already upon this Subject will not satisfie the World nothing will But however it is only so much pains lost to attempt it once more In my Reformed Catholique pag. 3. The Author say I is no Disguised or Concealed Papist but of the Communion of the Church of England Trained up in the strictest way of it and standing firm to it against all sorts of Provocation Discouragement Temptation and Argument and without warping to the Jesuits either on the Right Hand or on the Left In my Discovery upon Discovery Pag. 9. I expound the Passage above recited in these Words I had the Honour in the Late Times and being then an Exile to pass a matter of Eight Months in the House of the Cardinal of Hesse where I was as kindly received as if I had been at my own Father's I wanted neither Invitations nor Arguments to carry me over to the Church of Rome beside the private Temptation of a Hopeless Interest as to the King and a Broken Fortune Now if I had been so easily disposed to Truck my Religion for Money as the whole Litter of the Town-Scriblers will have it I do assure you Dr. I could then have made my Market And then in my Letter to Dr. Oates p. 21. thus Now to discharge my Soul to you Dr. as in Confession I am by my Hopes of Heaven a True Son of the Church of England Some there are that will have me a Papist of Fifteen Years Standing others only of Six Months But a Papist I am to be in despight of my Hearts-Blood The Coffee House-Doctors have in fine pronounc'd me a Papist but where and how often and how many Witnesses to prove me at Mass they are not yet agreed upon The Scene is said to be laid in Somerset-House Wyld-House and three or four other obscure Places The High-Fliers will not abate a single Ave-Mary of Forty Masses but the more Moderate reckon upon Nine precise within a Dominus Tecum which looks like Five Pound wanting a Penny in a Tavern-Bill With the same Conscience they might have made it Even Money as well if they had so pleas'd There 's some body has made mention of Prance as the Person to produce the Witnesses but I 'le not believe it I could silence all these Calumnies by telling you that I have satisfi'd the Law in Receiving of the Sacrament and taking the Tests but I 'le go further with you By my Hopes of a Future State I am in my Heart and Judgment a True Son of the Church of England according to the Nine and Thirty Articles And if I was ever present at the Celebration of any Mass since His Majesties Return or if to the best Recollection I can make of Things past I have ever so much as set my Foot into a Romish Chappel since His Majesties Return I wish I may never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Zek. This is a bold Push but all this Swearing and Staring will not bring you off yet for your Writing L'Estr As to my Writings they are at this Instant under the Anatomy and I know most of the very Persons that are Commissioned to Read upon the Dissection I look upon my self to be under the Protection of the Law and I do positively say that without a most Unnatural Violence both upon the Scope and Wording of them I am secure POST-SCRIPT MY Attendance upon his Majesty in Council about this Business of Tong since the Publishing of these Papers has Created new Matter for a Postscript which I am bound in common prudence to communicate to the world for the obviating of those malicious Calumnies which are daily promoted against me by the skill and industry of a Faction to which I have render'd my self odious by asserting the Rites and Interests both of Church and State according to my Conscience and Duty Upon a strict Examination of this Sham-Plot of Tongs and a full hearing of all Parties I presented my Defence as I have already set it forth and it was admitted without any sort of contradiction But as I had occasion to say upon the place If one Nail will not drive another must The Charge of the Sham-Plot falling to the Ground without one word of Mrs. Cellier as to any concern of mine Mr. Oates was pleased to represent me as a Person Popishly-affected and he produced Mr. Prance who declared upon Oath that he had seen me three or four several times at Masse at Somerset House about two years since and that I did there as other People did but that he could not speak any more as to my being a Papist or that he ever saw me receive neither could he name any body else that saw me there and he added to this that he had known me about the Town for several years Now to this Information I answer first That if I had been there it would not prove me to be a Papist for Thousands of People resort thither many times upon Curiositie without any respect to Religion Secondly that having taken the Oaths and Tests required by the Law I am Rectus in Curia so that this Testimony cannot operate upon me for that reason neither that is to say any further than as to a Scandal And yet under these safe and legal Circumstances without any avail to me more than purging my self from the Reproache I do here deliberately and solemnly make this further Declaration to the whole world As I do believe there is a God and that there is a Heaven and a Hell with Reverence to the Divine Majesty and to Truth may I be sav'd or damn'd as I speak true or false in this matter and without any reserve or collusion whatsoever and I deliver this upon cold and considerate thoughts having before me the Prospect of the most dreadful Vengeance to fall upon me if I tell a lye that ever befell any Mortal ☞ I never was present at Mass in any place whatsoever since his Majesties Return nor to the best of my memory have been under the Roof of a Romish Chappel since that time After this Mr Oates exhibited an Information against me for conveying away Bulls and Popish Books that had been seiz'd and lock'd up whereupon the Messenger of the Press discharg'd himself upon Oath that the Name of L' Estrange was not so much as mentioned in the case Mr. Oates Expounding himself afterwards that what he spake was only upon Information The next Blow at me will be as I am inform'd for saying at Will 's Coffee House that there is no Plot which is a thing that I do averr by all that I have said before was never spoken by me either there or any where else In the last place I am to be question'd for my Books and that concludes the Story Whosoever duly considers the Quality of my Case and the necessity of encountring so many spiteful flams as are already dispers'd even since yesterday with a fair and a modest Narration of the matter of Fact will easily excuse this Appendix Octob. 14. 1680. THE END
but Mrs. Cellier would not stand to it by reason of the many Bruises she received on the Pillory But next Wednesday Mr. Tonge will be brought to Confront them face to face Eph. These Papers of Young Tongs I must confess I never heard of But I am fully Convinc'd of the benefit of Coupling L'Estrange with Celliers L'Estrange Pray'e my Masters will you give me Leave now to put in a word in my own Case And you shall have the Naked Truth of it as if I were upon my Last Confession Eph. 'T is an Old saying that Listeners seldome hear well of themselves but it is as True again in another Case that he that makes a Conscience of his ways needs never fear being surpriz'd L'E With what face can you pretend to appeal to the integrity of your own Souls when you are not more convinc'd of the difference betwixt Truth and Falshood then you are Conscious to your selves of a Malicious Conspiracy against an Innocent Person in This Practice For your Calumnies are all Supported by Confederacy and Inconsistent with Themselves The Pretended Foundation of your Outrage against me is for Abetting a Subornation against the Kings Witnesses And when you finde that upon That Ground you cannot sustain your Charge I am to be made a Papist When That Calumny fails you too my Writings are to be pickt and sifted and an Inquisition to passe upon my Papers So that your business is not to punish any Open Faults in me but to hunt for secret ones and to revenge your selves upon my Person because I have layd my Offences out of your Sight Zek. You should do better to value your self upon the simplicity of your manners then upon a flourish of Words and Phrases And since you are so forward to offer your self to a Defence Pray'e will you speak to such Points concerning this business of Tong as you judg may be sufficient for your Vindication L'Estrange It is most Unwillingly that I enter upon This Subject and for many Reasons First as my Case must necessarily take in some matters that fall under the Cognizance of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Councell Secondly As I am no Friend to the Circumstances of almost All Vindications being still accompany'd more or less with Vanity and Clamour Thirdly It is an Argument of great Weakness and Ill manners for me to impose upon the World and to expect that the Sun should stand still in the Firmament to attend my Little Story And truly in This Outrageous Liberty of the Press I should be no more mov'd at a Personal Libell than at a Pug upon the Thames for calling me the Son of a Whore or at a Privileg'd Fool upon the Land for making as many Sorts of Rascals of me as ever were created out of the Four and Twenty Letters For Course Language is the Dialect of Courser Natures I never met with any man that was angry with a Frogg for Croaking and every one knows that it is as natural for a Puppy to Bark as to Breath But yet under favour when This Popular Venom comes to Resolve into a Crime of State and that the Honour of a Family the Life Freedome and Reputation of a Loyal Subject and an Honest man comes to be the Issue of the Question I have no other Choyce before me but either to Sink under the Infamy of a Fool and a Traytor which is the Character that the Little Scribbling Hirelings of this Town have bestow'd upon me or else to Redeem my self by a Clear and Open Defence Wherein I shall endeavour to govern my self with a due Reverence both to Authority and Truth Eph. Pray'e Speak in the first place to the matter of your Examination L'E Upon Wednesday the 6th of this Instant Oct. I attended the Councill where Mr. Oates being present referr'd himself as to any Charge against me to Young Tongs Affidavit The Affidavit being read I spake with Leave of the Board to thoe Parts of it that seem'd to affect me And as I then promised so I delivered a Just and punctual Account upon the whole matter in question which was to This following effect Mr. Thomas Newcomb of the Savoy did at my Instance desire Mr. Choqueux his near Neighbour there that he would appoint me some time to discourse with him at his own House concerning several Historical Passages of the Late War whereof as I was enform'd he had reserv'd diverse Memorials He set the Time and I went to him accordingly telling him in Generall terms my businesse But company being There and just setting down to a Collation it was too late to enter upon the Discourse after Supper and so we referr'd it to another time Upon my next Visit a maid directed me into a low Room where there were two young men both Strangers to me Mr. Choqueux coming down Immediately saluted me and made Young Tonge who it seems was One of them and myself known to each other Mr. Tonge said I I have been sometimes at your Fathers Lodgings in White-Hall did I ever see You There No Sir says he I never saw you before in my Life but I have often heard my Father speak of You. Yes says Mr. Choqueux for refusing to License his Royal Martyr which he took very Ill at your hands There were several dangerous Passages in it said I that I durst not meddle with As Sir says Young Tonge so there were And upon That he took an Occasion to tell me some Generall Stories of his Father and Mr. Oates That they had had many Privacies together but without naming any Particulars of businesse And Then he told of one Green a Weaver that seeing his Father looking about him in the Court of Requests as I remember askt him what News Dr. Tonge replying that he heard none Green made answer that he would tell Him some and that there would sodainly be a Popish Massacre After which says young Tonge my Father made an Acquaintance with him and not long after follow'd the Plot. Some other wild Discourses he made but all of them so Extravagant and Incoherent that I cut him off as fairly as with Civility I could by Pishing at all he had said and telling him in plain terms that it signify'd just nothing Upon shewing this Dislike Tonge whisper'd to Mr. Choqueux who told me presently that if I had any Writing-work Mr. Tonge would Transcribe any thing for me with all his heart Mr. Choqueux also recommending Tonge to me as one that had a great esteem for me I told him that I had no businesse of That kinde and that I should be ready to Oblige Mr. Tong And so we sat together over a glasse of Wine without one syllable more of businesse more then that I desir'd Mr. Choqueux to remember me for what Notes he had of the late Warre the which he said he would but that his Papers were most of them at Paris As I was going to take leave M. Tonge desir'd that he might