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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	speak_v	word_n	3,123	5	3.7835	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64274	Popery, superstition, ignorance, and knavery, very unjustly by a letter in the general pretended but as far as was charg'd, very fully proved upon the dissenters that were concerned in the Surey imposture / by Zach. Taylor.	Taylor, Zachary, 1653-1705.	1698 (1698)	Wing T599_VARIANT; ESTC R34648	26,353	28

will engage that our Church though he thinks that I am oblig'd not to endeavour any Alteration of Government in it p. 6 shall indulge him and his Brethren in the capricious Liberty of their pretended Consciences But is not that an excellent Stroak that follows Some of them say the Imposing Terms of Communion is an Invasion of Gods Prerogative And that it is an usurping of Authority to make Laws for him to obey with an annexed Penalty on him for he shall either take that Worship which they have composed for him or he shall have none c. p. 13. Really Friend I have sometimes heard Men in Jest say That the Parliament was Omnipotent but I never had Reason to believe it till now that you tell me They have made Laws for God Almighty to obey with a Penalty annexed on him You are a pleasant Spark indeed and very fit to be an Advocate for Dissenters For tell me my Friend is reading Gods Word which makes up so considerable a part of his Worship with us Is repeating his own Commandment professing our Christian Faith by the Apostles Creed and addressing our selves to him in his beloved Sons own Words making Laws for him to obey My Friend I perceive wants a little of my Doctor 's help p. 7. But Goodman Friend pray tell me what you call them that make God to be Content with whatever comes next to their Tongues end that will not be at the Pains to Compose a sober Form of Worship for him but too often Foam out their own Shame and yet are not ashamed to Entitle it to but will needs have God admit it for the Groans of his Spirit To close this Head if these be the lofty Notions your Academick infuseth into his Disciples I thank God I have no Reason to envy his Learning The last Charge which his Title-page bears is that of Knavery but so conscious is he that he cannot acquit them of it that in his Book he drops it In short I had proved them Guilty of that which in another Case might have cost them their Ears and it was wisely done of our common Friend to stifle the Accusation I have I hope justified my Charge and clear'd my self from the Imputation of Injustice therein And indeed easily I might for so kind was my Friend that on a Fourfold Indictment he did not preduce one Instance on any one Head against me I was therefore forced to search my own Book not being conscious to my Self of any such unjust Dealings And I hope my Reader will think there is no other Language given them than what Truth on one Hand and Fanaticism on the other demanded from me There is one Thing remains and that the most plausible in all my Friends Books and 't is That I have charged on the whole Party the Miscarriages of a few I might justly demand what they mean by a Party For are the Presbyterians and Independants both but one Party I won't tell him how the Pharisees and Scribes made but one Party against Christ but I will examine how far I have charged the Body of Dissenters in general and what Reasons I had so to do Now I must still observe as before That though my Friend lay this to my Charge yet he produceth not one Instance of it no nor his Pedantick Seconds Baldwin and Janeway and if the Indictment be not proved I think of course it should be quash'd But that the World may see more into this Mystery I proceed to inquire how far I charged the Party with the Miscarriages of the Persons concern'd in the Surey Demoniack I have examined my Answer to it and can find but one Place unless he will refer hither what I before mentioned p. 3 4. that looks that way and it is p. 6. where speaking of that Sincerity that is requisite in Authors in Matters of this Nature I use these general Words If we be found tripping herein we expose not only our selves but our whole Party especially if the Leaders of them as in the present Case be conspiring with us to promote the Intrigue These Words affect not any one Party more than another but might have been retorted on the Church of England had any Man of Note in it been found guilty of such Tricks as the Surey Operators were Perhaps because I speak all along in the Plural to a Number of Men they apply my Words to the whole Party but that is very unjust for nothing ought to be enlarged further than the Circumstances of the Subject will allow Now I had to deal with no less than Fifteen Dissenting Ministers Heads of the Party that were one way or other concern'd in the Surey Demoniack There were no less than about Fifty Hearers that are produced as Eye or Ear-witnesses to Attest the pretended Truth of it in all about Sixty six adding the two Ministers that were dead since the Transaction a pretty little Conventicle And could I other than speak of these People in the Plural and Words that must imply what they were a Party and I think a considerable one too but if any will enlarge my Expressions to them to the whole Body of Dissenters I think they are very unjust to me since I could not speaking to so many write otherwise than as to a Party But I know the Spirit of the Men I have to deal with having laid it to my Charge they will admit of no Excuse but plead to it I must Then open your Ears my Friend and you shall hear what might be alledg'd for me were your Suggestion true 1. Mr. C. tells us This Thing was not done in a Corner Pr. And in one Sense true it is for he gives us the Names of Ministers not only in Lancashire but out of York shire that assisted at it so publick was the Matter 2. He tells us Mr. Baxter was desirous to add this Narrative to his late Book called The World of Spirits Pr. And that another Reverend London Divine desired that it should be printed as an Appendix to Mr. Increase Mather 's Book called A further Account of the Trials of the New England Witches A.D. 1693. Vpon which saith he much of it was then at London for the same purpose as is declared in an Advertisement on the Back of the said Books Title-page Pr. If this be true and if it be not let them fall on Mr. C. that deceives us This Act of Mr. Baxter is sufficient to bear it self the weight of such a Charge for what he did desire I do not doubt but the Party would own But here is also another Divine urgeth the same and to invite the Parties to make it publick Notice is given of it by an open Advertisement But to go on 3. If the Party disallowed it why did they not censure it by some Overt-Act before my Impostor did appear They had time enough and enough to have declared their dislike of it and ought if they took it to be a

divide from a Church establish'd by Law Tell it not in Gath. Yet he hopes that no greater a Crime than for us to have had an Vnconsecrated Chappel by Force p. 12. This might have been a Fling of my Friend J. G. who if he speaks of a Chappel can scarcely speak a Word of Truth The Chappel hinted at for I suppose 't is Hindley and the Straak is levell'd at the Bishop's Head and not the Curate's was in our quiet Possession ever since the Restoration of our Lectures till the Dissenters whilst the Incumbent was alive forc'd in upon it and wrested it out of our Hands And if the Right Honourable the Chancellor of the Dutchy hath not relieved the Bishop under this Oppression which at my writing hereof I hear nothing of notwithstanding this falsly pretended Force of ours 't is at present in their Possession such Conscience do these Men make of what they say or write He hath another Fling at Bishops upon account of the largeness of their Diocesses p. 18. But he would do well to consider whether he doth not by this spit in the Face of Christ and his Apostles whose Oecumenical Provinces were something larger than the largest of our Diocesses His next Stroak is at the Body of the Clergy who Nero-like he could wish had but one Head for then he could strike it off with this one Blow A general Practice of Praying in the late Reign That it may please thee to keep and strengthen in the true worshipping of thee in Righteousness and Holiness of Life thy Servant our most gracious King and Governour p. 19. Now was not his Worship Idolatrous c. Now are the Mans Eyes in his Head or hath he put on his Spectacles What did we pray for That God would keep and strengthen in the true worshipping of him in Righteousness And is Popery such a Mass of Idolatry that there is no piece of true Worship in it Do they not worship God through the Intercession of Christ Jesus though they join other Mediators with him And was not that that true Worship that we prayed God to keep and strengthen him in as the best Means to reclaim him from the other My Friend I perceive is very blind and then though his Hand be never so Impartial his Feet may chance to run him into a Ditch and that is something worse than the Jaundice which since the Doctor could not discover in me my Friend hath for it seems I said these diminutive Slaves the Dissenters are Pluralists and if so he will never excuse them from Ambition and Pride and Covetousness nor from being Self-condemned p. 20. a Charge fouler by far than what I am made to lay against them But how doth my Friend acquit them from it He doth not so much as deny it such an able Advocate have they got of my Friend But all that he saith is He will unriddle the Dissenters Pluralities ib. And so he goes on to give some Reasons why they hold them as there is no Man but can give Reasons and better than his too why he holds Pluralities Thus he leaves them by his own Sentence upon them guilty of Ambition Pride Covetousness and Self-condemnation But let us examine his Reasons and the First is For the Convenience of the same People and Congregations that some of them may have less way to go one Day and others another Day p. 21. Do you intend this for a Reason in good earnest Friend I know one of your Preachers that hath a Run of Fifteen Miles long and another that hath a Round of near Thirty Miles Compass and have not the Congregations a great Convenience in having less way to go after them one day than another His other Reason is no better 2. There is another Mistery in it there are a sort of Ecclesiastical Officers mentioned Can. 138. These are hungry Beasts of Prey c. and the only way to secure the poor innocent Sheep and Lambs from their Guts is the Guard of a Recorded House p. 21. Be it so All that I shall say is They have more of those Guards in this one County of Lancashire than the King hath Castles in all his Three Kingdoms And now the Mistery is unriddled p. 22. Pluralities they have and Pluralities they will have And thus I have answered my Friend Whether it be with Pride and Passion uncharitable Censures and unjust Inferences with superstitious Scorn Reproach and invidious Reflections and unchristian Surmises and worse than Jefferian Innuendos p. 2. or p. 3. with spiteful Representations invidious Charge much Spleen and Rage Mire and Dirt little Tricks and Mispresentations of Things and confident Misjudging and Wier-drawing every Passage to the worst Sense c. I expect my Friend should tell me in his next Had I really been guilty of such Billingsgate Language as this is which I cannot find that I am Yet thou art inexcusable O Man whosoever thou art that judgest for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same Things The Truth of the Matter is thus The Narrative of the Surey Demoniack was fraught with so many Legends and Forgeries such Prophanations of Holy Scripture and if not Blasphemous Enthusiastical Presumptions upon God and Religion that it was not possible for any one to expose the Villany of it but he must be constrained if he would not call Darkness Light and Evil Good to make such Reflections upon them as could he be otherwise just to the Truth he would be willing to forbear Some Mens Actions are so very black that the naming of them is a Reproach unto them of this Nature were those at Surey which are so far from being capable of being covered with the Spirit of Meekness that St. Paul in the like Case chargeth us to Rebuke them sharply Tit. 1.13 For the Mouths of such unruly and vain Talkers and Deceivers must be stopped v. 10 11. He makes it a Duty incumbent on our Function They must be stopped And he countenanceth it with his own Example telling the Cretians in as plain Language as any my Friend meets with in the Surey Impostor That they were Liars bruit Beasts and lazy Gluttons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 12. And doth our Saviour smooth up the Pharisees a Generation that you suspect your selves may be compared to p. 6. such is the Force of a guilty Conscience doth he sooth them up in their Sins by soft Words and oily Language I hope he was all Condescension and Meekness and Humility and yet I find him roundly calling the Pharisees Children of the Devil Fools and blind Hypocrites and a Generation of Creatures poisonous as Aspers Doth he not resemble Herod to a Fox And reprimand one of his own Disciples who out of a mistaken Kindness dissuaded him from laying down his Life an Offering for Sin with no gentler a Rebuke than of Satan Mat. 16.23 For ought I see St. Paul nay the blessed Jesus since they

it Only before he engages in it he must remove if possible out of the way a frightful Word which a learned Man no Dissenter calls an Ecclesiastical Scare-crow p. 12. yolep'd Schismatick That learned Man for such all that have heard of him will own him lay under violent Temptations when he writ that Tract and was suspected to be what for ought I know my Friend is a Socinian For what makes the Man when he had demanded of me Whether the Dissenters held centrary to the Church of England with the Papists p. 5. begin with the Ninth Article Is it not that he may leave out what concerns the Trinity Art 1. The Eternal Son of God being made Man Art 2. c. Or that he would not disoblige the Papists by taking notice of their false Canon of the Scripture Art 6. If this be so verily Friend I must add another frightful Word to that of Schismatick and let you know that you are an Heretick But to pass that by how doth he clear them from the Guilt of Schism Why he tells us some of them think thus and some are offended at that And what is it to me what they think Should I tell my Friend what I have heard what Thought did I suppose he would be offended too but more of this upon the Head of Ignorance where I shall make a little more bold with my Friend Let us now see what my Charge against them was And p. 4. I had accidentally occasion to speak of Corah Dathan and Abiram and I chanc'd to call them Schismaticks becaused they caused a Schism or if the Word fright my Friend for tho' he hath learn'd to give bad Words I perceive he loves not hard ones made a Division in the Jewish Church and that was all I did not then tell him what I do now That God caused the Earth to open her Mouth and swallow them up alive that had opened their Mouths against their lawful Church-Governours A Judgment so dreadful one would think no Dissenter should ever forget it For did not these Men subscribe all the Articles of the Jewish Faith Not so much as one excepted Did they not conform to all the Ceremonies of Moses Law Yet in that they did not submit to their lawful Church-Governours God thought fit to make them an Example to all Ages of the Sin and Deserts of those that will not submit to their lawful Church-Governours But let us go on and it seems p. 20. I call their Conventicles Schismatical and p. 69. their Division Vnchristian For these five Words here is an Outcry made against me as if I meant with my Doctor to knock out the Dissenters Brains p. 7. which if they have no more than my Friend are not very many and therefore ought to be spared But hark you my Friend are not Divisions Unchristian I find one of our Lords last Prayers was That we may be all one Jo. 17.21 22 23. Or do not your Conventicles make a Division and so are Schismatical for I have before told you these are both one You that herein undertake to vindicate the Dissenters will in your next I suppose vindicate Corah Dathan and Abiram against the Lancashire Levite that hath made them Schismaticks and till that time I dismiss this Head We now may pass to the fearful Story of one Darrel a Devil-monger that purged out seven Devils at a time out of seven Women c. And this Man you say you will not vindicate p. 15. But the Reason I suppose is because you cannot for notwithstanding your Word you first close upon it and you observe 1. That the Relator of this Story is accused by the Learned Bishop Vsher as a partial and fabulous Historian My Friend should have told us where But he goes on to pass his own Judgment upon him and censures that Book of Dr. Heylin's for a Farce of Diabolical Stories and malignant malicious Reflections upon all Parties p. 15. I have read of a sort of Men that say Our Lips are our own who is Lord over us And such an one I suppose my Friend is For since I writ the Surey Impostor I have seen Dr. Harnest's Book against Darrel and if Dr. Heylin hath been as sincere in his other Collections as he was in this a more faithful Historian that was not Inspired did never set Pen to Paper The only thing that seems in any thing the least to discredit it is the Opinion of Bishop Hall to which I reply That that Great Man was but a Youth when Darrel plaid these Tricks for the Bishop was born Anno 1574. and Darrel practiseth with Katharin Wright 1586. when the Bishop was but 12 Years old and from her proceeds to the rest And the Bishop being born at Ashly de la Zouch his Friends possibly might be some of Darrel's Admirers and so infuse such an Opinion of Darrel into him in his Youth as afterwards he was not able to remove Besides it doth not appear that the Bishop ever perus'd Dr. Harnest's Book and so might retain his Prejudices imbibed from his Neighbours for the scarceness of the Book could make one guess that it underwent the same Fate with that of his Friends Surey Impostor is said to meet with to be bought up by the Party and burnt Be the Opinion of that single Bishop what it will I think I have the Judgment of a whole Convocation to oppose unto it and that in the Canon where my Friend finds the Popish Word Obsession whence he thinks it probable the Dissenters had the Word and not from the Papists And probable enough it may be so for the Dissenters finding the pretence there Censured out of that Spirit of Contradiction to the Church of England which they mostly act by may be supposed not only to make use of the Word but the Imposture also which is there condemned But let us inspect the Canon Can. 72. which prohibits all Ministers without Licence obtained To attempt upon any pretence whatsoever either of Possession or Obsession by Fasting and Prayer to cast out any Devil or Devils under Pain of the Imputation of Imposture or Cosenage and Deposition from the Ministry Now would my Friend know the Reason which that Convocation had for making this Canon I must remind him that the Noise which Darrel made with casting out Devils and the Imposture of it was then fresh in every Bodies Mind Dr. Harnest's Book which contain'd the Discovery of it was printed but three or four Years before viz. 1599. and this Convocation begins to sit 1603. and they judged it necessary for the future Prevention of such Imposture and Cosenage to make a Canon that might discountenance and suppress such Hypocritical Pretences What say you to this my Friend Where is the Dirt that I cast in the Face of my Mother p. 5. Could the Convocation condemn such a Fanatical piece of Popery as this is without naming and advising us of the thing My Friend is a Man

say be true there is some Hope that in due time these Persons may come to be reconciled to a religious and frequent use of the Creed the Lords Prayer and other Sacred Forms of Worship which I suppose will not be much for my Friends Advantage But Richard's finding no Benefit by the Ministers Attendance on him sticks on his Stomach and the more so because he reads That they were erroneously Religious Offices that they performed for him which he found no Benefit at all by p. 25. Hereupon he enquires what they were Were they not Fasting and Prayers And for the first he imagines the Dissenters would be content to exclude that for an erroneously Religious Worship their Appetites inclining them to solemnize Good Friday with a good piece of Roast Beef and the Thirtieth of January with the Reserved Relicks of their Christmas Pies but that Prayers should be accounted among the erroneously Religious Offices will not sound well in Christian Ears ib. And why so What doth my Friend think of Prayers to Saints and Angels Why those are Popish Prayers whereas these are the Prayers of honest Fanaticks And what makes them erroneously so ib. Was it because it was their Prayers Or was it because it was not a Form of Prayer c. If my my Friend will have it with a because it was because their Prayers were sometimes very wicked Such was Mr. Jolly's Prayer when he prayed God That Satan might appear to be in those that did not believe him to be in that young Man meaning Dicky p. 70. And such I suppose was Mr. C.'s Prayer though he hath disguised it wherein some Persons thought that he turn'd his Speech unto Satan in the midst of Prayer Sur. Dem. p. 40. And another Because is because both the End and Ground of their Prayers were Erroneous they were founded upon a Cheat and tended to Superstition and if they were as my Friend saith conceived in a Barn ib. it was the fittest Place for them to be begotten in And this brings me to the next Insinuation which he thinks had been better left out for my own Sake viz. what I writ p. 62. That the Neighbourhood affirm that there was never such Whoring heard of as whilst the Ministers kept up their Meetings they scarce being able to go into the Fields but they found Men and Women trading almost under every Hedge Had this been true saith he you would have prov'd it by Instances but by this may be guess'd what sort of People you traded with for Informations and what Credit is to be given to such false Tongues p. 26. The People I traded with for Informations were such that I find tho' he hath a good Will he dare not so much as deny one single Information throughout my whole Book and for this Particular I refer my self to the Warrants that were granted out on Account of the Bastards that were then gotten which my Friend if he will pay the Clerk for transcribing of them shall have Copies of And had the Primitive Christians to whom that he might excuse this Play of his Lambs together he wickedly makes an Allusion been found upon such Evidence guilty of such Debauchery it would not have been the putting out the Candles that would have conceal'd the Infamy But suppose there had been Miscarriage as he against full Proof will hope there was not must their Meetings Fastings Praying and Preaching be the Cause of it Yes when Tenterden-steeple is the cause of Goodwin-sands p. 26. Now this had been well enough had my Friend had Wit to stop here but so far is he from that that in the very next Words he gives a Reason why by Accident it was so And is not this made out to be so saith he in Mr. Ray 's Book of Proverbs or somewhere else c. Just such an accidental Cause was the Ministers Meetings of their Hearers Whorings only by the by my Friend hath spoil'd a good Story in giving a silly Reason for it which he had not from Mr. Ray tho' he quotes him for it for Children that play at acting Proverbs give me a far better Account of it But I will tell my Friend a Story for I find he loves them There was one Mr. W. that I was pretty well acquainted with a Dissenting Minister and an honest Man as the Sequel will manifest he lived when I went to School about a Mile and a half distant from us and on Sunday-Evenings when the Church-Service was over kept a Conventicle at his own House whither the Neighbourhood flock'd in great Numbers especially in Summer-Evenings but there were so many Bastards got in their return Home as I am credibly inform'd that he found he did more Hurt than Good upon which he left the Place and I cannot learn that he ever after held any more Night-Conventicles And thus my Friend may learn how Tenterden-steeple became the Cause of Goodwin-sands I am weary with answering my Friend's Impertinencies who concludes like a Wasp with a Sting in the Tail by which he meant to sting the Establish'd Church p. 27. But so gross is the Misrepresentation that one may be tempted to believe that himself is as blind as Tobit was and so much the more because he is wilful and spiritual such as the Pharisees was whereas the other was natural and accidental For would this Man's Prejudice suffer him to see he would never have bid me ask my Ingenious Dr. R. Whether a Preternatural Distemper that had continued so long could be cured at the first Dose p. 26. For Dr. Chew's Certificate to which he refers is thus I administred him Phisick at Whalley March 25th 1690. which I thank God had good Success for that afterwards observing my Directions he never since had any more Fits Sur. Imp. p. 56. Now tell me Goodman Friend If following his Directions afterwards imply but one Dose with all the Spectacles you have p. 19. I find you either cannot or will not read right There are some other little Things which occur in your Book that should I pass them over tho' they are nothing to the purpose you may flatter your self you are in the right of them such is your goodly Notion of going to St. Ellen's Chappel where a Dissenting Minister preacheth and hath it you say by Law more Shame for those that gave it him for theirs I fear is the greater Sin and so you divide not from a Church establish'd by Law p. 12. Now not to take notice that this Argument was it brought into the Form of a Syllogism would have four Terms in it such a goodly Logician is my Friend I always thought that a Toleration had been quite another Thing from Legal Establishment but in my Friends Conceit it is not The Quakers need only to assume the Presbyterian Impudence and invade one of our Conscerated Chappels and get it Licens'd and there are ways to make Friends and then according to my Friends deep Learning They will not