Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	england_n	true_a	2,893	5	5.1810	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44076	Great Britain's groans, or, An account of the oppression, ruin, and destruction of the loyal seamen of England, in the fatal loss of their pay, health and lives, and dreadful ruin of their families	Hodges, William, Sir, 1645?-1714.	1695 (1695)	Wing H2327; ESTC R13450	23,824	31

as if the Wives being truly inform'd by one of the Clerks tho she never look into the Books would be the blowing up of the whole Book But if I am not mistaken if I had not left off Ticket-buying above three years ago but had taken all the Advantages of Sea-mens miseries this Trick it self might have helped me with a good Friend to get the Books searched privatly and so have bought Seamens miserable pay at the same cursed price as some others have bought it at But blessed be God that my Mother taught me the Catechism to defy the Devil and all his Works the vain pomps and vanities of this wicked World And now I think of the Church Catechism of defying the Devil and all his Works and teaching us to do to all men as we would they should do to us makes me think also how honest men may Buy the Seamens pay at two or three Shillings in the pound profit as I did and so long as they do as they would be done unto may serve the King the Nation and the Seamen therein But those that buy at ten or twelve shillings in the pound loss to the poor Seamen as many have done since the Seamen beat the French those I do take to be such as the ministers and people and whole Church of England are bound to curse every Year for I find in the Book of Common-prayer that in the Comination there are these several Curses Cursed is he that removeth his Neighbours Land-mark Cursed is he that maketh the Blind to go out of his way Cursed is he that perverteth the Judgment of the Stranger the Fatherless and the Widow Cursed is he that smiteth his Neighbour secretly Cursed are the unmerciful and extortioners Now there is not a Minister in England allowed to take upon him the Cure of Souls in the Church of England but is bound to declare his assent and consent to this by Act of Parliament and these Curses are to be read once every year and all the people are bound to say Amen Now the proving that the generality of seamen have been extorted out of half their pay by Ticket-buyers and been very unmercifully dealt with will prove to all mankind that they that have been unmerciful to them and they that have been Extortioners to them and their Families are a cursed Generation by the Doctrine of the whole Church and by the Assent and Consent of near ten Thousand Ministers and then again if this so solemn a Curse be dreadful as being the work of the whole Church and if one Accursed Act of Achan did trouble the whole Host of Israel and made them flee before their Enemies until it was Discovered and the Author punished then who can tell how dangerous it may be to these Nations to let such unmercifulness cursed unmercifulness and cruelty go unpunished for if God Requires the Authors of such horrid miseries to be found out and punished he expects it should be done or this Nation must surely expect to be Corrected for St. Paul saith God is not mocked for whatsoever a Man sows that shall he also reap And I am sure since the running and ruining of the Seamen and their Families our poors Book is risen to be twenty Seaven months to the Year and we are also in Debt so that I doubt our poors books next year must be about twenty eight or Thirty months in the Year to get us out of Debt for our poors Tax and since we have had so miserable a number of poor ruined seamens Widows or Children our poors Taxes are so exceeding high and our Trade in the mean time is so way-laid that when his Majesty ordered the payment of several Ships it hath been so managed that tho the men are discharged and paid off the King is put to the charge to pay them off near thirty miles from London and the City and Country way-laid to catch them if they come to London and those poor souls who escaped with their Lives where an Hundred or two in a ship died and several scores sent on shore sick when they came in to be paid yet not a sonl of them safe from the Press one day for their poor Wives to take care of them or they to bring their mony to their Wives or to eat fresh provision and get a little strength to Recruit again before they go out or to lay out their mony at best hand in London or to return it home to Scotland but when the King pays them they are many of them prest away in a day or two very miserably and the City of London and Subarbs who must supply them with Bread and Cloaths when they come from Captivity or they may starve are disappointed in taking any of their mony and I think if we have lost above a Thousand merchant ships and near an Hundred men of War it may be modestly computed that there hath been near twenty Thousand carried Captives to France this War and yet let the City supply them what they will in their distress they shall be sure to be paid far enough off from their taking any of their mony so that tho the City of London hath been always Loyal and Faithful to K. William and ready to assist him with their purses and persons and the seamen of England always Loyal and Ready to lay down their Lives at any time for His Majesty and the Nation if led on to the muzels of their Enemies Guns and yet I will challenge all mankind to shew such Examples of the Cities being deprived of the seamens Trade and the sea-mens being so Ruined in their pay in their Liberty and in their Lives with such fatal Ruin and for so long continuance since England was a Nation And indeed however it comes to pass the providence of God by my extraordinary Zeal to assist all Seamen to serve his Majesty and these Nations hath enabled me to know more of their Cases than it may be any private man in England For as I have assisted Thousands and that as cheap as for ready money to encourage them chearfully in the Service so among their Deaths and being turned over or prest from Ship to Ship I shall lose about a Thousand pound and that by about Four Hundred men and of all those Four Hundred men there are near Three Hundred and Forty Dead or gone I know not where and I bless God that I buy my Experience of the Seamens miseries thus dear for instead of Repining against his holy providence I find he fitteth me with Content and with an Heart to compassionate the miseries of those that I have lost so much by and all the rest of their Ruined Companions And I may almost admire how some that have been Raised up in the Ruines of the poor and miserable Seamen can have their Hearts so hard and obdurate yea I say Case-hardened as to help Ruine them more and more and in the mean time smother up what they

can of his Majesties and the Nations Loss in our Seamen and the King and Nations being cheated of a multitude of money or Stores I had written much more largely of the miserableness of the Seamen and the method of the King 's being cheated and the Seamen being cheated but that I was afraid it was too large to trouble the Two most Honourable Houses with and so haue in these I ast Four Days drawn up this short Breviate of what part of their miseries came readily to my mind having not time nor patience to look over my other book considering that every misery that is Represented the Cause being found out the Cure will be quickly understood It doth seem strange to me that the Nation which doth all in general agree such as are men of Sense Honesty and Love to their Countrey and the true Protestant Religion that they have Cause to bless and admire at the good miraculous and gracious providence of God in Raising up our most gracious King William to be a means of a Deliverance for us and a Defence for these Nations and oppressed Christendom I say it is strange that we should see Cause to bless God for this and even enjoy our selves under our own Vines and Fig-Trees and yet at the same time let the Seamen of England be Ruined and dwindled away so many Ten Thousands of them and not mind them and yet call them the Walls of the Nation as if it could be safe and secure to dwell in any House in the World after the Walls are thrown down For my part I do faithfully declare my Opinion before God and man That if these abide not in the Ships as St. Paul said of the Mariners that were with him in the storm there is none can be safe and I am sure our Scamen cannot abide in the Ships if they are kept until they are stifled to Death for want of fresh Air and fresh provisions and so thrown half of them over Board Neither will they I fear abide in the Ships many of them if they see their ships are prisons for seven years without Fourteen Days Release and especially if they see many of their Prison-Keepers beat and abuse some of them like Dogs and it may be call them Dogs and eternal damn'd Dogs into the Bargain and if as Purser Maidman says in his book called Naval Speculations printed by Mr. Gilliflower That in some ships the Officers must live like slaves in Algier if they cannot like Spaniels fawn enough on the Captains I say if the Officers live so what must the poor sea-men do that are liable to be beaten by Captains and inferiour Officers also But however we have some worthy Admirals and Commanders that will not abuse the seamen neither suffer the Officers to abuse them and this I speak to their praise And now coming to a Conclusion I bless God who hath put it into the King's Heart to speak for the seamen and that for their encouragement And thus I have plainly laid down some of their miseries And I might begin again for more of their miseries crowd in upon me But these before-mentioned if well redressed will remedy most of the rest But when all is done if any of the Tools who have helped to Ruine them already be left to Ruine them again I cannot help it my book is done and the Lord Jehovah bless our Gracious King William the Loyal Lords and Commons and these Nations so prays W. Hodges Hermitage-Bridge Decemb. 25. 1695 FINIS ERRATA PAge 4. line 35. for who are n●w read None Ibid. l. 36. for rais'd read received p. 6. l. 25. for 20 l. read 12 l. p. 1● l. ●2 for one r. many