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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	england_n	law_n	statute_n	1,497	5	9.0809	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36212	An apostate-conscience exposed, and the miserable consequences thereof disclosed, for information and caution By an ancient woman, and lover of truth, and the sincere friends thereof, A.D.	Docwra, Anne, 1624-1710.	1699 (1699)	Wing D1777A; ESTC R222630	32,446	69

AN Apostate-Conscience EXPOSED AND THE Miserable Consequences thereof DISCLOSED FOR Information and Caution By an Ancient Woman and Lover of Truth and the sincere Friends thereof A. D. LONDON Printed and Sold by T. Sowle in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-Street and at the Bible in Lea●●…-Hall-Street 1699. AN Apostate-Conscience EXPOSED c. IT is not unknown to many of you what Contests have been about Religious Concerns in this Nation and what Unmerciful Means have been used to bring all Protestant Dissenters to the Church of England and altho' the Penal Statutes allowed both a lawful and reasonable Excuse that would not be allowed but some of the most sottish and busie Men of the Clergy always obstructed it under pretence that no Law was to be allowed but in case of Old Age or Infirmities of Body by which means the Magistrates that were most ignorant and busie were meer drudges to those Clergy-men of the immoderate sort and would hear nothing of Reason many times nor suffer Consciencious Dissenters to speak for themselves But our Merciful God looking upon the Afflictions of his People moved in the Heart of the King and Civil Magistrates to grant Tole in a do the Protestant Dissenting Subjects of this ation for which we are truly thankful and I do really believe that God hath a Blessing in store for all Kings that are so well disposed as to grant Liberty in the Exercise of Religion to Dissenting Subjects although of different Persuasions in matters of Religion 't is of greater concern than any worldly Interest or Profit and will be a great means to root Hypocrisie out of this Nation for forced Conformity makes Hypocrites but never makes good Christians or Subjects to any Prince Now Liberty is granted there can be no pretence of quarrelling with the Government that is kind to them whatsoever some have lately pretended to the contrary which hath been some cause of my undertaking this Work to Vindicate my Self and some Others that are unjustly charged with matter of Fact Some of the Clergy I Charge not all either being uneasie under the Liberty granted to the People called Quakers or by reason of their Ignorance of the Principles of their Religion have of late Years entertained a Poor Indegent Person viz. Francis Bugg of Milden-Hall in the County of Suffolk to abuse and clamour against the said People in Print but Lam persuaded it will not be for their Credit i● the Civil Magistrate would be so kind as to bear both Parties in their Book Imp●●●●●● Michael Dalton in his Book call'd Th●●●●●try Justice Printed Cum Privilegio 1630. exhorts the Magistrates to hear both Parties and brings several places of Scriptures for it one more remarkable than the rest in the Eighth Page Where God Almighty gives you an Example exprest in these Words Gen. 18. 21. in the case of Sodom I will now go down and see if it be altogether according to the Cry that is come up unto me Thus he shews the Magistrate how to perform his Office in true Justice in the ordering the affairs of the Nation Now because the said Francis Bugg hath accused us of matter of Fact high Crimes and Misdemeanors against the Government It belongeth to the Civil Magistrate to take notice of such things and we do desire it that they would read our Answers to his Aspersions that our Innocency may be cleared of what we are accused off This Francis Bugg says that he was a Quaker 25 Years He was but a Poor Man when he came first among us and Suffered Imprisonment several times upon the account of his Religion when he was Poor afterward he grew Rich and increased in Wealth very much his Father Died and there fell to him near 30 l. a Year by Relation he also purchased an Estate at Milden-Hall aforesaid with a fair Brick House upon it Built by a Knight Baronet for himself to dwell in for his Pleasure because his Estate lay in a durty Country I knew the Person that Built it he was my near Relation This F. Bugg had also a great Stock he was a Wool-man and used the Wool-Trade and a Shop besides of Cloaths and Stuffs and divers other things and an Adventure at Sea in a Coal Ship at Ipswich which he withdrew because of the smallness of the Profit he received by it this shews he was a Rich fore-handed-man and now Poor and blames the Quakers of being the chief cause of it which may be easily proved to the contrary neither was his Sufferings more than other Rich Men but still continued Rich so long as he was amongst us but being uneasie under his Sufferings he begun to contrive how to avoid them by subtle indirect means he writ two contentious Books against us before he conformed to the Church of England and when he was in danger of having the Statute of 20 l. a Month put in Execution against him he conformed to the Church of England and went on Writing against the Quakers until he had scribled away his Estate and run many Hundred Pounds in Debt and now goes about a Begging with a Certificate from the Bishop of Norwich About the Year 1682. he came to my House at Cambridge and made great complaint of George Fox that he had brought in Innovations into the Church about Marriages that all Marriages must be published at twice in the Men and Womens Meetings whereas they used to be published but once formerly I heard him but did not give my Judgment in this concern but let it rest until I had inquired further of it at last I understood it was an Order of Marriage of his own Recording in the Quakers Meeting Book in the Isle of Ely and partly of his own making as I understood by John Ainslo of Over in the County of Cambridge he also told me that F. Bugg was quarrelsome and that he see no way to prevent it he was so given to Contention This I can prove by his first Book he writ against the Quakers that he began the Quarrel and hath continued it to this Day F. Bugg came again to me and renewed his complaints against George Fox and George Whitehead that they were the cause of bringing Innovations into the Church he also brought a Book to me of his own Writing which he had got Printed I bought it of him the Title Page was Liberty of Conscience upon its true and proper Ground This Book Doctor Gunning Bishop of Ely read and said that it was an Envious Thing but the chief matter which was the Grounds of his Contention was that he would have been a Ruler over the Quakers to make Laws for them that all Preachers should tell their Names when Informers came into a Meeting to convict it whether they were asked their Names or no and pay their 20 l. Fines themselves if they were able if Poor then Money should be gathered at the Meetings for that purpose if he were fined for a Preacher that he might pay

Charges were greater to the Quakers Preachers in three Months than the Church of England Ministers have been in 15 Years I know no reason that the Church of England Preachers should lye upon F. Bugg more than upon others they want it not they have the Tenth Part of the increase of the greatest part of the Lands in the Nation and of the Labour and Industry of the Husband-man and several other Incomes that I could reckon I partly know the Charge he hath been at for the Quakers Preachers which was sometimes a Nights Entertainment for them and their Horses and that not without some Invitation on F. Bugg's part but this i know by what he said to me upon that account that the grudged their entertainment although he invited them to his House he divers times told me that the Quakers were chargeable to him I told him it was his own fault to give them entertainment and then grudge it After the decease of my Husband I kept a publick Meeting at my House in the Country about three Miles from Cambrige for about seven Years and entertained all Travelling Preachers and some others also I did not find it so chargeable as F. Bugg speaks of I do not think I was the Poorer upon that account of entertaining Preachers what I lost was upon the account of the Magistrate in the Year 1673. who plunder'd me for keeping Meetings at my House at a time when the King by Proclamation had granted Liberty of Conscience in matters of Religion nevertheless I kept up the Meeting at my House for above Six Years after that until a publick Meeting-House was provided on that side of the Country where I dwelt and then there was no need of my House so I removed to Cambrige F. Bugg knows this he hath been at some Meetings at my House and lain at my House also In Page 62. F. Bugg says if we look into Fox's Order for Marriages you may observe that he points to have the matter laid before the Ministers and therefore I shall shew you a brief Testimony of one of their Female Preachers a Woman of Note amongst them in a Letter I have by me c. in the Margent he quotes Ann Docwra's Letter This Letter I have disowned before with a Certificate to prove it false towards the beginning of this Book it mostly concerns a Common Bank and obstructing a Lawful Marriage by an Apostate-Quaker one that went about to make Devisions amongst us as F. Bugg did and to his report that I am a She-Preacher that he cannot prove that I ever Preached in a publick Meeting I have dwelt above 18 Years at Cambrige and he cannot prove this to be true That is not the Office in the Church that God hath called me to I have no Commission from God to Preach in a Meeting our Preachers have a Commission from God and they speak what he requires of them they know when to speak and when to be silent And when God requires me to speak or write I will not be silent as I am not at this time to reprove F. Bugg in writing for abusing so many honest Persons as he hath done in this wicked Book I suppose that F. Bugg was not the Author of some part of this Book called the 20 th Book for divers reasons for I heard that he was 16 weeks from home when this Book was written only he came home some times for a night or two least his Family should be at a loss for him and think he was come to some Misfortune Secondly he was seen at Oxford at the same time when this Book was about writing Thirdly it is written somthing in a better Form than his former Books are yet there is much of F. Bugg's Whimsies in divers places in it but more particularly in the Front under his Picture he was first courted by the Library-keeper of Bodleian Library at Oxford See his 19 th Book called the Picture of Quakerism the Second Part Page 164. there is a Letter from the Library-keeper to F. Bugg which begins thus Mr. Bugg you must needs think it strange to receive a Letter from a Man so utterly unknown to you c. It is matter of Admiration that University-Men should take his Books for Truth upon the Credit and Relation of F. Bugg being a stranger to them and an Apostate-Quaker which was never accounted good by any Rational Honest Men of what Persuasion soever I have read his three last Books lately and do affirm that there are as many repetitions of Lyes as there are Leaves in those Books only they are the same Lyes written over and over again very many times But F. Bugg met with Credulous Persons for his purpose to make a Market on to get his Debts paid For F. Bugg says in his last Book that ☞ Oxford exceeded Cambrige in their bounty to him It is worth the observing and a Mercy to us also that now they have entertained F. Bugg for their Informer against the Quakers they are obliged to pay him out of their own Purses formerly the Informers were paid out of our Estates by the spoil of our Goods I now come to answer something more that concerns my self and some others page 64 65. there are Verses F. Bugg says I writ of G. Fox this is False and that he knows in his own Conscience that I have told him divers times to the contrary in former Years and lately also a little before he writ this last Book The Verses I writ had a short Declaration at the beginning wherein a Preacher is mentioned but not G. Fox nor any other Man by Name I always told him that whatsoever I writ it was not against G. Fox these Printed Verses are partly mine and partly his own there is both adding and diminishing from mine in several places of them and mis-placing divers of them and making them hobble like his own in the very beginning by adding John Story 's Name in them the Man that these Verses did concern was dead some Years before G. Fox's decease But F. Bugg says he hath the Manuscript by him That may be forged I writ a plain hand easie to be Counterfeited I have several of the Copies of my Verses by me and can prove that those Printed Verses differs from mine in divers places I have something to say of some of our Preachers which F. Bugg hath abused much in Print The first two are Thomas Green and Samuel Cater my Brother G. Barnardiston's Companions in his Travels beyond the Seas in the Service of Truth to spread the Gospel in Forreign Nations F. Bugg says that Thomas Green was a poor Mason and now worth many Thousands But he does not say of what if he means Pounds I believe he does not say true T. Green hath neither House nor Land that ever I heard of upon enquiry his Wife Ellen Green had several Hundred Pounds given her by some of her Relations as I have often heard which