Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	answer_v	ask_v	believe_v	2,709	5	6.2047	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51532	The portraicture of Roger L'Estrange drawn to the life as it was taken in the Queens Chappel	Mowbray, Lawrence.; Prance, Miles, fl. 1678-1689. L'Estrange a papist.	1681 (1681)	Wing M2995; ESTC R15766	12,436	24

Tavern in Cheap-side about Licensing a book entitl'd The workes of Geber an Arabian Prince and Philosopher and gave Mr. L' Strange a Guiny for his License and a discourse happening about Religion Mr. L' Strange asked of what Religion this Informant was who answered a Catholick L' Strange replyed are you a Roman Catholick This Informant answered that was Nonsence Catholick being universal and not to be circumscrib'd Then L'Strange bid this Informant explain himself I answered that Faith that wrought the fear of God and to do righteously doth declare those that are of the Catholick Church which I take to be the Church of England Mr. L'Strange then declar'd himself to be a Catholick of Rome and to beleive the Faith of that Church and told this Informant that his difinition was too large This Informant then ask'd the said L' Strange whether the Pope were the head of that Church of which he acknowledged himself a Member who answered he was and hoped ere long many others would return to that Church or to that effect and further saith not As to my own Affidavit which is the first here produced I do find Mr. L' STRANGE triumphing in the 35. Page of his Appeal that I had seen him no more than three or four times at Mass at Somerset House Whereupon says he I did with the most horrid Solemnity of Imprecation Imaginable declare my self to be of the Religion of the Church of England and that I had never entred into any Popish Chappel or been present at any Mass since his Majestie 's Return Which Protestation I do here again resume intending by these words His Majesties Return the Kings blessed Restauration in the year 1660. And then as if he thought this Protestation not sufficient he makes a note upon the great abatement of my reckning as being assured by report that I had sworn in the company of Care Curtiss and others that I had seen him at Mass at least or about a hundred times As for what he was assur'd of by report I value it not neither is it material to the Poynt as being of little or no force against him The difference is between his Protestation and my Oath Which I have here confirmed by the Oath of another Person Mr. Mowbray by name who likewise swears he saw him twice in the year 1677. at a Popish Chappel that is to say at Somerset-House To the great disparagement of that part of his Protestation never since the Kings Restauration which was in the year 1660. Now I would never have taken notice of Mr. L' Strange's solemn Declaration had it been upon any other account but this that either he has some particular reserves to himself or I must be perjur'd and that should he now go unanswered which is a thing he boasts of the sharp Twits which he has given the Kings Evidence would pass for Currant and he would come to be a quoted Author against Us. And therefore I do as publickly and as solemnly declare as he has done that I am as tender of Swearing to the detriment of my Neighbour as any other person that aimes at the Enjoyment of a future Happiness For my part I know not to what very great purpose the latter part of his Declaration was made For having so solemnly declared himself of the Church of England what if he had been seen twenty times at a Popish Chappel But that part of his Potestation was perticularly level'd at my Oath which I am oblig'd to uphold so farr as honestly I may And that too without any reflection upon Mr. L'Estrange's Honesty or his Loyalty fully believing neither to be inconsistent with the Profession of the Popish Religion In his Case where he talks to himself in his own Cause under the Persons of Zekiel and Ephraim like one that playes at Tables with his right Hand against his left Ephraim tells Zekiel that he was rounded in the Ear that Prance had Ten Witnesses in readiness to prove that L'Estrange had been Forty times at Mass here and solemnly Worshipping according to the Profession of the Romish Communion And thus I who made a Confession so remarakble and thereby discover'd that bloody deed of darkness which enlighten'd the whole Nation am here rendred as one that kept Witnesses in readiness or rather pickl'd Witnesses for present use By this means in a short time the Murther of Sr. Edmonbury Godfrey will be as little believ'd as the silly Story of Mr. Powel To which purpose Mr. L'Estrange's Narrative of the Plot seems to have but odly Coupl'd that foul Fact with the ridicule of Mr. Powel's escape which renders the Frame work very suspicious For though it be true that the disparagement of a juggle no way weakens the Truth Yet there may be that manner of speaking and that Art made use of in the contexture of Words that may overturn that Maxime With submission to Mr. L'Estrange there is in that place Nar. P. 19. such a mixture of the meanest fourberies of Report which the most inconsiderable Circumstance of the Discovery that my slender Opinion is that a more prudent Progression in Logick ought to have supported the violent Death of Sir Edmunbury Godfrey For if the Story of Monsieur Choqueuz Fire-works were never prov'd the suspition of Tukesbury Mustard-Balls was never yet accounted the greatest Argument of the Plot. And if the business of Sir Henry Titchbourns Armes were not made out the Surmise of the Black-Bills lies as much at the Mercy of any mans Belief without any prejudice to the Belief of the Plot and thus Posterity shall Argue from Circumstances not much material whether they are believed or no the falshood of the greatest Discoveries of the Grand Plot that ever was made in the World Especially when Mr. L'Estrange shall go about to convince the World of the falshood and Perjury of the chief Evidence of his Murther For my part I much wonder why Mr. L'Estrange should so much trouble himself with his Schismatical-Plot They who discovered the Popish-Plot produced the Conspirators nam'd their Names brought their Evidence against them and were the occasion of Sentence and Execution If Mr. L'strange knew of any Schismatical or Phanatick-Plot He ought to have done the same Otherwise upon no other Grounds but the wandring Notions of unlicens'd Books to cry out a Phanatick-Plot is but just as when they cry out Thieves at one end of the House and at the same time to cry out Thieves at the other end and thereby to distract and discompose the Defence of the whole In the next place I observe that when in your Appeal you have dignified Mr. Care with the meanest of Characters though in some Sheets of Mr. Cares there are those things produc'd that will take up Mr. L'Estrange a full year to Answer by way of Dialogue You tell the World he wrote my Narrative That is to say my Narrative was a pittiful contemptible thing and consequently little to be credited Nevertheless

the person was acquainted with his Offence and perhaps he judged it slight and trivial or else he did ill to engage his Friend But this Captain Eli was a Conspirator with himself deeply engaged a person that he knew to be concerned with him a person that had paid Tongue several sums of money toward the carrying on the Design and therefore it became him as a Gentleman to procure Bail for his fellow Conjurator Let him make a Dialogue to clear himself of this and then for Papist or no Papist when he pleases he shall have more of it in the mean time the World is to consider upon what account this Affidavit is produced There is yet behind the Examination of Mr. Richard Fletcher who swears that after some discourse Mr. L'Estrange declar'd himself to him to be a Catholick of Rome and to believe the Faith of that Church and that being ask'd whether the Pope were the head of that Church He answered he was and he hoped ere long many others would turn to that Church or to that effect As for the person that swears he is well known both in City and Country a person that lives handsomely gentielely and a great lover of that noble Science to which Mr. L'Estrange cannot be thought to bear any Spleen though for his excellency in performance he has been too unkindly reproach'd so that the world does hardly believe that Mr. Fletcher a person by his Industry so well guarded from Necessity would make such a Discord in Human Society as to swear though it were for 500 l. to the prejudice of the least Hair of Mr. L'Estrang's head Now then the Question is which the unbyassed are to believe Dick or Tom Zekiel or Ephraim Citt or Bumkin Philo-L'Estrange or Pragmaticus or Mr. L'Estrange himself with his own Lips declaring himself to be a Catholick of Rome and to believe the Faith of that Church If Mr. L'Estrange has chang'd his mind since he made this Declaration there 's no more to be said I 'le yield my Affidavit lost if not 't is a Riddle to me unless he mean such a Church of England Man as in the Reign of Henry the 7th or Queen Mary He declares one thing and protests another How to judg is a hard Case and yet me thinks there is but little Reason that he who will not believe himself should be believ'd by others What is it to me whe Mr. L'Estrange be a Papist or no And yet I cannot conceive it to be such an irrefragable Argument that a man is no Papist because he rattles the Phanaticks and exclaims with so much bitterness against the outragious Liberty of the Press He is the most improper person in the World to combat the freedom of Scribling or at least to pursue that Subject with so much virulence and bitterness of Spirit For all the world will judg that to be Self-Interest in him which would be thought real Sentiment in another On the other side nothing more prevails with me to believe the Gentleman is no Papist because I cannot conceive that any person of true Learning and Ingenuity would be of such a Mock show Gewgaw Joynted-Baby Religion that puts Divine worship to hold de la quenoville and would inforce us to deifie the Distaff with as many Titles of Honour in her Liturgie as ever the Queen of Spain had But if self-Interest happen to dazle the Sight or the Prospect of preferment better improve a mans judgment I have nothing more to say But what is it to me whether Mr. L'Estrange be a Papist or no My design is only to maintain the Truth of my Information I have sworn that I did see Mr. L'Estrange at Mass in the Queens Chappel since his Majesties happy Restauration 1660 And that I will justify though he resume a Protestation as long as from Charing-Cross to Milend-Green For if he will not believe his own Lips I must and will believe my own Eyes He says indeed I could not say I saw him Receive 'T is very right for I saw no such thing and therefore because I swore no more then I saw 't is the fairer Argument that what I swore was the Truth But what says Ephraim my Beloved Why Ephraim says that I should say that I would swear I had seen him forty times at Mass But you see my Beloved that Ephraim was unkind in his Report He was a false Brother and strayed from the Truth But what if Ephraim had heard it 't was onely a report and no more than what Mr. L'Estrange himself tells the world in his Appeal onely that the Number differs viz. That I should say in company That I would swear I had seen Him at Mass above a hundred times By which the world may see that Mr. L'Estrange was more Afraid than Hurt But I would fain know what 't is to the purpose what Ephraim reports or what he by his Eeves-droppers is assured of when the Oath it self appears and puts all Reports and Hear says out of doors Why then to unfold the Mystery they were only Attaques of Disparagement one of the most prudent waies in the world to undermine and blow up a Testimony To which purpose Ephraim the Cunning layes another Train and tells Zekiel the Suttle that he was rounded in the Ear that I had Ten Witnesses in a readiness to make good my proof A Reproach which wherever it takes fast hold spreads it self and eats into the Reputation of a Testimony like Oil of Spike spilt upon Deal Boards This Ephraim I perceive was like all the rest of the world nothing refin'd by his Baptism easie to believe any thing that made for his Advantage But now who can blame Harris or Gay for writing and publishing ridiculous Fables when the person that finds fault shall publish upon Ephraim's being barely Rounded in the Ear such trivial stuff as this which onely denotes the want of better Defence For I would know if Mr. L'Estrange were to be try'd upon the single Issue seen at Mass or not seen at Mass and I should come and swear as I do that I had seen him at Mass so many times whether Reports and Hear-sayes and Roundings in the Ear that I would swear this or that which I did not hear would acquit him For if I thinks and as I remembers and as I believes will not be admitted into an Oath which must be absolute as mine is certainly Hear-sayes and Reports and Roundings in the Ear will be as little admitted in the Defence So that in my Opinion Ephraim's Intelligence was not at that time worth the Coffee he gave for it though it were but one Dish But now Ephraim comes to the particulars of the Report and sayes Ten in number pray Gentlemen give me leave to consider a little Well I have done it and I must faithfully declare to the world that I do not know of any Store Ponds that I have for any such sort of Fish If Ephraim