Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	see_v	word_n	4,495	5	4.2390	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40765	A Faithful account of the renewed persecution of the churches of Lower Aquitaine in France in the year 1692 to which is prefixed a parallel between the ancient and new persecutors, or the portraicture of Lewis XIV in some of his cruelties and barbarities : with some reflections upon the unreasonable fondness of a certain party amongst us, for the French king.		1692 (1692)	Wing F263; ESTC R31494	23,131	32

things That the King his Master being persuaded of their obstinacy in continuing thier Separation from the Church without any grounds he was resolved out of his Royal Mercy to reconcile them to her Holy Communion and that therefore they must either voluntarily renounce their Heresy or they should be compelled to do it according to the precept of the Gospel One may easily guess what a cruel Stab these words were to the hearts of these poor Inhabitants and yet with a noble Bravery they return'd him this Answer That their Estates and Lives being in the power of the King they were resolved to undergo all manner of hardships as to them but God alone being the Master of their Consciences they would rather suffer a thousand Deaths than renounce his true Religion which they professed 5. I have observed how the Primitive Persecutors seeing that notwithstanding all their Persecutions the Christians still stood firm to their Rules practised more and more upon them all manner of Cruelties and Lactantius gives this following Description of the horrid Punishments they condemned many Christians to They were says he first chained to a Post then there was a gentle Fire set under the Soles of their Feet by which all the Callus of the Foot was shrivel'd up till at last it fell off from the Bones then Flambeaux were lighted and put out and while they were not clapt to all the parts of their Bodies that so they might be tortured all over and care was taken to keep them alive as long as was possible by throwing cold Water on their Faces and every now and then giving them somewhat to cool and refresh their Mouths lest otherwise the Violence of the Misery they suffered should quite dry up their Throats and so choak them Thus their Sufferings were lengthned out whole days till at last their Skin being quite consumed by the Fire it reached their Vitals and then a great Fire was kindled into which they were thrown and so their Bodies were burnt to Ashes and their Bones that were not wholly destroyed were gathered and grounded to Powder and then thrown into some River or else into the Sea Truly the lively Picture of this horrid Torment is very dismal and hideous And were I as Eloquent as Lactantius or at least capable of putting what Monsieur Claude hath said of the Sufferings of the French Protestants into a graceful Turn in English I would undertake to make as frightful a Portraicture as this of that famous Writer The Infernal Missionnaries set on foot says he to convert the French Protestants did with a thousand Blasphemies and execrable Oaths hang up Men and Women by their Hairs of their Head or downwards by their Feet in the smoak of wet Hay where they were almost choaked to Death and when they had taken them down and let them come a little to themselves if they would not then turn Papists they hung them up again They pinched their Beards off and their Hairs of their Heads till they had made an absolute Depilation They threw them into great Fires and when they were half roasted took them up again and tying them under the Arm-pits dipped them in cold Water again and again till they had made them promise to renounce their Heresy They tied up some others like Criminals who were to suffer the Rack and then with a Funnel poured strong Wines down their Throats till its Vapours getting up into their heads had almost drowned their Reason and then they asked them to be reconciled to the Church They strip'd them stark naked and after a thousand horrid Indignities they stuck all their Bodies with Pins They mangled others in a most strange manner with Pen-knives and their Inhumanity went so far as to take them by the Nose with hot Tongs till they forced them to a compliance They struck others with Sticks and when they were almost dead carried them into the Churches where their bare Presence was taken for a formal Abjuration They kept them from sleeping for seven or eight days together either by throwing fresh Water on their Faces or by making a horrid Noise with Drums or Kettles If they could find any Sick they caused the Drums to be beat round their Beds and so obliged those miserable Creatures to renounce their Religion Sometimes they tied Parents and Husbands to Bed-posts and then would attempt to Ravish their Daughters and their Wives before their faces They pulled their Nails off their hands and Feet which is the most acute and sensible Pain imaginable and if any of them died they were drawn to the common Lay-stalls and there eaten up by Dogs and other Beasts I should never have done if I were to give in Retail an Account of all the Barbarities committed on the French Protestants therefore I will content my self with these particulars which I hope are sufficient to prove that I could make as gastly a Picture of the Persecution of our Age as Lactantius has done of that of the Primitive Christians But if this be not enough I refer my Reader to a Book called The Complaints of the persecuted Protestants in France at which the French King was so offended that at the desire of his Minister here at our Court it was publikly burnt in the late King's time 6. To make an exact Parallel between the Modern and Ancient Persecutors it remains only to inquire further whether the Books of the Holy Scripture have not been burnt by the French King's orders as well as by Maximians But this I think will be out of question since we have here so many thousand Witnesses who can all attest the truth of that horrid Impiety for tho I have seen it with my own Eyes yet I do not desire to be believed upon my single Word or Testimony I have sufficiently made out the Parallel I promised between the French King and the Persecutors of the Primitive Church I have shewed that they were alike in their Tempers and in their Actions that the pretences of their Persecution have been the same and that they have made use of the like Methods to compass their design I must nevertheless observe that those Ancient Monsters cannot pretend to come up to the late heights of Cruelty but must yield therein to the French King they persecuted the Christians because they denied their Gods to be Gods and maintained that some of them had never been and that the others were vicious Men and dead long ago We know says Tertullian to them where some of your Gods are buried Besides they were not prohibited by the Laws of their Gods to be cruel towards the Christians but on the contrary Lactantius observeth That Apollo being consulted by Dioclesian advised him to persecute them with the last Severity which maketh their Persecution a little excusable But what can excuse the French King's Cruelty Do the Protestants deny the God the Papists worship I mean the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost to be the