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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