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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	church_n	england_n	3,146	5	6.0876	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47155	A just vindication of my earnest expostulation, added to my book, called The Antichrists and Sadduces detected, &c. directed to the pious and learned, in the Church of England, and among the dissenters, against the trifling exceptions of Edward Pennington, which he calls Some observations, etc.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1696 (1696)	Wing K178; ESTC R14235	8,105	7

A Just Vindication Of My Earnest EXPOSTULATION Added to my Book called The Antichrists and Sadduces detected c. Directed to the Pious and Learned in the Church of England and among the Dissenters against the Trifling Exceptions of Edward Pennington which he calls Some Observations c. PAssing by his Unchristian and Uncharitable Censures of my being guilty of Pride Ambition Malice c. and Monopolizing Knowledge among the Quakers which last he goes to prove with a lying Story he takes out of a lying Book published against me saying It seems he told a Friend of ours in America If you serve G. K. so G. K. will leave you and then ye shall wander about for lack of Knowledge and shall not find it Which is an abominable Falshood And this and the like false Accusations are the best Armour these my Adversaries have to Fight against me as also his falsly charging me with imposing fond Notions and Unscriptural Creeds upon them but what he calls so were no other then some of the great Fundamentals of the Christian Religion the Denyal whereof I have sufficiently proved them guilty of in the Meeting at Turners-Hall 11th of the 4th Month 1696. and in the Printed Narrative of the Proceedings there I think fit to give some brief Reply to his Charge p. 4 5. where he saith I once gave a different Character of their Learning and Piety too to whom I directed that Expostulation for which he citeth some Passages in a Book of mine called Help in time of Need. Printed above 30 Years ago But none of these Passages prove that I did judge there were none among them all Pious and Learned for indeed I was never so uncharitable This Man who will needs print Books had need to go to School to learn that from Particulars to the Universal the Consequence is not good What I said against the Philosophy then taught in the Colleges of that Nation many learned and Pious Men in both Nations will assent to be true to wit the Jesuit Philosophy for that was it which was then taught and which I learned almost Word by Word out of Jesuit Authors And since that time both that College and I suppose all the other Colleges in both Nations have changed that sort of Philosophy out of their dislike to it as I my self had done before I was a Quaker But what if I should blame the Philosophy that is now taught in all the Colleges Is there no other good Learning but that called Philosophy He has but little Learning that so argues What I then said against Schools and Universities was against the ill Constitution and great Abuses in them at that time but not against Schools well and duly constituted as neither was Luther whose Authority I cited against them Next as to what I said concerning Prelacy and Lording Bishops for so I cautioned it in that Book Neither doth this prove that I did conclude there could be no pious Bishops for within a few Lines in that very page I did own there were some Bishops in Queen Mary's Days to whom the Lord had a regard according to their Faithfulness to what they saw by Lording Bishops it is obvious what I meant even the same that is meant 1 Pet. 5. 3. being Lords over God's Heritage But doth this prove that I did judge there are none to be found Pious and Learned among any here in England Episcopal or others Even Bernard Thauler and T. Kempis with divers others that lived in the Church of Rome many Protestants as well as I have esteemed both Pious and Learned Indeed I have to my Experience found such great Lording and Tyrannical Imposition in George Whitehead and William Penn with their Lording Brethren of the Yearly Meeting 1695. as I never found in any of the Bishops either English or Scottish for by none of them was I ever Excommunicated but by the Former I was Excommunicated for bearing my Faithful Testimony against most Vile Errors opposing the Great Essentials of Christianity that I found among them But however to take away all Shadow of Clamour against me on the account of any hard or uncharitable Censures I had formerly at any time passed on any of the several Professions of Protestants whether Espiscopal or Dissenters of all sorts or on the account of the hard and uncharitable Names I have at any time given to any of them that were not deserving them I have oft by Word of Mouth freely and openly acknowledged my Rashness in so doing and in my Book of Retractations shortly to be published I revoke and retract them All that I have said or writ or printed at any time against any that did not deserve the same though it were easie for me to prove that they who now thus accouse me have far exceeded me in giving hard Names and passing hard Censures upon the Ministry of all Protestant Professions differing from them But the things is so evident that it were to waste Paper to prove it That they have generally called them Thieves Robbers Conjurers Witches c. But let them own and declare whether notwithstanding these hard Censures and Names they have given generally to all Dissenting from them of all Professions of Protestants do they extend this severe Censure to all and every one of them Are all and every one of them Witches Conjurers Thieves Robbers the Pest of the World the Bane of Soul and Body of the Universe Idle Gormandizing Priests c. the unlovely Epithets they have given Dissenters from them both Episcopal and Nonconformists in general do they make no exception Is all Britain become such a Sodom that there are not ten Pious or Righteous Persons to be found in it among all the Millions that dissent from them If they will affirm it is so their uncharitableness is detestable but if they will allow that some Righteous and Pious Persons are to be found among them then why do they quarrel with me for allowing the same and that there are Learned Men among them far beyond any stock of Learning any of the Quakers lay claim to I suppose they will not gain-say what is then my Trespass for allowing that there are such in the Church of England and among the Dissenters when they do the same And whereas they say pag. 6. Hath he ever retracted this If not what encouragement have ye to become his Journey-Men to work under him To the former I say I have both by Word and Writ and is designed by me to be in Print very shortly retracted all the hard Censures and Names that I have at any time given to any who have not deserved them as is above-said But what a base Insinuation is it in them that I would have any of the Pious and Learned of the several Protestant Professions to become my Journey-men to work under me Is there any thing like this in my Expostulation with them O shameless Men Have ye no better Weapons to fight against

all the Ministry in the Nation with being False Teachers Hirelings holding false Doctrines and though it were to carry Water to the Sea to prove it yet let but their own Books in Print particularly George Fox's Journal and Edward Bou●oughs collected Treatises bear witness to any such Novices among the Quakers that know it not And was G. F's Primmer to the two Universities which he himself could not read and his Battle door containing Words of many Languages of which he knew not one Letter only to clear the People called Quakers The Fourth Head contains nothing but repeated Recriminations and Reflections against me already Answered except that in the latter part of it they propose it Whether it would not be most equal and reasonable for them viz. such to whom I have directed my Expostulation to begin with me by calling me forth to a publick hearing upon my former Books To this I Answer that I am most willing they do and what I cannot justly and safely defend of any passages in my former Books I will fairly retract But whereas they upbraid me again and again with contradicting my former Doctrines and Principles as to Articles of Faith I cannot find that they have proved it against me in one particular But that they to whom I directed my Expostulation should begin with me I suppose they will not think so proper because whatever just Offence I have given to any of them my late Adversaries of that Gang among the Quakers have far exceeded me and they have that which casts the Ballance as to them that they justifie all they have said and printed against them to every tittle to maintain their Infallibility which I have not done but in divers things I confess my Mistakes and wherein I have justly offended any I humbly ask their Forgiveness The Fifth and Sixth Heads having sufficiently Answered them both in my Narrative and Expostulation I see not the least cause to say any thing unto but leave them to the Readers impartial Consideration Only I take notice of the bold Untruth he chargeth me with of my proposing the disturbing of their Meetings for I cautioned it expresly that what should be done to refute their Vile Errors might be done at the end of their Meetings or at other set times and this is more regular than what divers of them have done to make Opposition in the Meetings of others before their Meetings were ended as Jacob Talner lately did in one of our Meetings who is one of their Preachers And seeing they justifie what some of them did by way of publick Opposition to clear themselves and to detect the Abuses put on them and that they allow this to be equal and reasonable and no trespass against the Civil Peace and that many or rather indeed all of other Professions do judge that the Quakers have misrepresented them and put Abuses on them why should they not think it fair that these of other Professions who think themselves injured by them in point of Doctrine should have freedom in publick to their Faces to clear themselves And why should not I also by the same Argument have full Liberty to clear my Innocency and detect the Abuses they have put upon me and that Face to Face without any breach of the Civil Peace Was the taking away the Preachers Hour-glass with G. F. justified but a clearing themselves And Solomon Eccles coming into a publick Assembly here in London all besmeared with Mans Excrements and one that got on the Pulpit and began to sow and stitch with a Needle The Seventh Head is nothing but an unjust Insinuation That I would excite the Civil Authority against them and that I would fain instruct the Civil Authority what their Duty is in this Case But they bringing no Proofs of their Charge against me it were a superfluous labour in me to Answer them on this Head I am very hopeful that as formerly I have had the Countenance of some in Civil Authority in my publick Opposition to their Vile Errors so I may have the like for the future Their Insinuation That such Encouragement of any in the Civil Authority would be a breach of an established Act of Parliament is so silly and ignorant that it deserves not the least Consideration The Eighth Head is a bare-faced Calumny My high Opinion of my self in setting up for Director both of Church and State in Methods to be used for the preservation of the Protestant Religion Doth any honest Man that proposeth his humble Opinion what may be good for both the Protestant Religion and State of the Kingdom deserve such an unworthy Character Is not the like commonly practised from time to time without the least offence Had not divers of the Teachers among the Quakers particularly G. F. the Younger given far greater occasion to be judged having a high Opinion of himself in what he printed of Advise to the King himself viz. Charles the Second and what others have Printed of the like Nature and what G. F. the Elder and E. B. have printed to Parliaments In the Ninth Head whereas they charge me with being either grosly insincere or else very ignorant of the Law in such Cases which deeply affects both Persons and Estates by Imprisonments Fines and Pillory viz. because I said If Order were given by them bearing Authority in this Nation that all such Books of them as contain Vile and Abominable Errors were suppressed they viz. my Opposers among the Quakers should have no Cause to complain To this I Answer 1. Were not by the same Argument they insincere or ignorant who have charged not only some of their Brethren but differing from them in Punctilio's of their Church-Government and Women's Meetings as in particular Christopher Taylor his charging William Rogers with high Blasphemy in a Printed Book of his but also in charging with Heresie and Blasphemy many of the Ministry in the Nation reputed Orthodox by Civil Authority But 2dly must not their Vile Errors and Heresies be opposed and the Authors of them witnessed against and warning given against them otherwise all that do so must they be reckoned Persecutors and Malicious O ye partial Judges why judge ye so partially and insincerely that in another wherein ye are so guilty your selves If that were any Guiltiness to call Error and Heresie by their true Names In their Tenth and last Head they labour to state the Case betwixt their Books and my Books from Pensilvania as far different and that my Books were justly suppressed by them here at London they think it was but common Prudence to hide the Bone of Contention lest my quarrelsom Books as they are pleased to call them should infect some with the same Spirit of Discord But they plead hard that their Books should not be supprest To this I Answer 1. Had it not been more honesty in them as well as Christian Prudence to have disowned these gross Errors which I evidently proved against them in Pensilvania out of their own Letters and Manuscripts as well as by other Proofs than to have hid and cloaked them and Excommunicated me for my faithful opposing them 2. But where is the far different case why they should suppress my Books and the Civil Authority should not suppress theirs Why my Books would have been a Bone of Contention to infect some with the same Spirit of Discord But must not the Truth be contended for Are we not commanded to Contend earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints and such was the contention of my Books and of my Spirit The case indeed I confess is very different but to their great disadvantage and to my great advantage They did well they think to suppress my Books lest some Discredit or Reproach should fall on them if it should be known that any of them did hold such Principles which all true Christians abhor being contrary to the Essentials of Christianity But their Books must have free and full Scope to pass current through the Nations that have been a far greater Bone of Contention and tending not only to bring Infamy upon all other Christian Professions and Professors but Reproach and Contempt upon the Person and Doctrine of our blessed Saviour and his holy Prophets and Apostles as not only I but others have made clearly to appear and may be yet made more to appear in due time His idle Story about the Revolutions which they have so nauseously repeated and which I have oft fully Answered to answer it any more would be a needless Repetition therefore I let it pass with his other Impertinencies and Calumnies not worth the noticing But were I inclined to retort his idle Story of Erasistratus against me on the Hypothesis of the Revolution or Transmigration I might say these my late Adversaries who place all upon the Inward Principle excluding the Man Christ Jesus from being our Saviour are the old Stoicks Epicureans Pelagian Brittains redivive and other Ethnick Philosophers who bitterly opposed the Christian Faith But though they have not their Souls I am sure they have their Heathenish Antichristian Principles G. K. THE END London Printed by J. Bradford in New-street without Bishops-gate near Hand-Ally 1696.