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A60684 A reply to the Observator together with a sermon preached on the 24th of August last past, on Gal. 6. 2. at St. Giles in the Fields : most unjustly reflected upon by him / by William Smythies ... Smythies, William, d. 1715. 1684 (1684) Wing S4370; ESTC R19686 22,281 48

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A REPLY TO THE Observator TOGETHER With a SERMON Preached on the 24th of August last past on Gal. 6.2 at St. Giles in the Fields most unjustly reflected upon by him By WILLIAM SMYTHIES Curate at St. Giles Cripplegate LONDON Printed for John Southby at the Plough in Cornhil 1684. TO THE READER READER AS I hope you will be more ingenuous towards me than the Observator hath been and pass a favourable Construction upon a very plain Sermon which was far from being intended for the Press so I will deal as fairly in giving you an account of some Passages which occasion'd his virulent Reflections upon me I had formerly preached upon the Verse immediately foregoing the Subject of this Sermon If a Man be overtaken in a Fault c. Which I made choice of on purpose to persuade my Auditors so to behave themselves towards Dissenters that they might be encouraged to a sincere and exact Compliance with our Church Upon which account there were such Reproaches cast upon me that I was forced to Publish it in my own Vindication Having finished what I intended from that Verse I resolved to proceed to this which I saw would give me opportunity for seasonable Discourses relating to other Matters I live in a Parish where the Burden of Poverty is very heavy and yet some have been offended at me for concerning my self for the Poor as I have done pretending that it encreased the number of them I thought therefore I should do well to give a Reproof to these Persons There hath been likewise very vexatious Contests at Law and great Complaints that the Innocent w●re slandered by secret Backbiters These I considered did likewise deserve a sharp Reprehension But that which the Observator charges me with of suggesting that Dissenters lay under the Burden of Oppression and Persecution and that the Government ought to ease them or any thing to that Purpose never entred into my Thoughts nor can I believe that he really thought I intended any such thing If he did I challenge him to name another Person in the Congregation that was of his Mind But want of Stuff for his Papers and not Ill will against any that are of a contrary Temper to himself provoked him to accost me after this rude manner If I had been of such Principles as he would persuade the World I am certainly I should not have been so unworthy as to have vented them in the Pulpit of that great and good Man the D. of N. to whom he shewed but little respect in that he knew that so far as he could be believed to speak Truth the D. must be very ill thought of in desiring such a factious Preacher to supply his Absence I have transcribed part of his Observator that you may see how unlike a Christian or a Gentleman he is pleased to treat me At the end of his first Column he is reviling a Magistrate and a Constable by charging them with being Favourers of Conventicles and from thence takes occasion to ridicule my Sermon as followeth What is This but Making Friends of the Vnrighteous Mammon and Providing before-hand against a Rainy Day He that Shuffles and Cuts thus betwixt God and his Own Soul and Crys Let the King and the Church take their Fortune I 'le Shift for my self That Man I say has already Abandon'd his Post and Enter'd into a Treaty with the Faction He does as good as say Look ye Gentlemen We are Christians and it is Our Duty to Help one Another and to bear one Anothers Burdens If the King gets the Better on 't Let Me alone to do Your Bus'ness And in case of a Turn T'other way You shall do as much for Me. What 's All This I say but a Tacit Composition with a Publique Enemy where a man delivers-up his Honour and his Conscience for the Saving of his Skin and Int'rest And the Devil Himself with his Cloven-Foot Attests the Contract Why This Man would have been Safe in the Coach it self Nay in the very Arms of the King and the Duke at the Rye-House unless a Chance-Shot should have happen'd to take-him-off And he would have pleaded the very Merit of his Services to the Party You are Wonderfully Tender too on the behalf of your Dispensing Ministers Their Good Name is Wounded it seems for bearing with the Infirmities of their Weak Brethren What 's their Discretion I prethee to the Authority of a Law Do they make more Scruple of Gratifying their Weak Brethren in their Peevish Mistakes than they do of Keeping their Own Oaths I have heart of One of Your Godly Ministers that was willing to do a Good Office for a Man of Power and Reputation with the Dissenters by putting out an In Verbo Sacerdotis to Interest for theVse and Behoof of the Good Old Cause He was Judicially Interrogated about somebodie 's coming to Church and their Conformity to the Rites Ceremonies and Methods of the Publick Worship as by Law Appointed Particularly about coming to Church Yes and then about Receiving the Sacrament Yes too Ay but How says the Question Very Decently truly Crys the Answer Well! But what do you Call Decently says the Question again Is it Sitting or Standing or How Come was it Kneeling or not No Truly it was Sitting but very Decently And in another place he proceeds thus Trim. Prethee say Nobs If This Furious Zeal of Thine This Inexorable Cruelty and Rigour be of Heaven or Hell Is This according to the Apostles Advice The Bearing of one anothers Burdens And in so doing the Fulfilling of the Law of Christ Do you not know that Loving One Another is the Great Lesson of Christianity It was the very Precept Inculcated to the Disciples upon the Treason and Apostacy of Judas How are Poor People Griev'd under Pressures and who Heeds it Nay we have a Generation of Men that take Offence at Those that Help 'em Ay and they are e'en Glad of seeing Mischief And so far from Relieving their Brethren that they make Themselves their Burdens They Seek Occasion against them And when they have Slander'd the Innocent without Cause They Hide Themselves Their Tongues are Set on fire with the Fire of Hell And instead of Bearing their Fellows Burdens They Break their Backs But who are they that do All This They are the Sons of the Devil And are come to do the Work of their Father which is the Devil Oh the Baseness of These Devillish Natures that will not be Content with Conformity It is the Due Execution of the Law that is the Way to Convince Dissenters And when they come once to Answer the Law Well! The Law of Christ is above All Laws And Christ is a Great Prince But there is Another Prince which is the Prince of This World That 's the Prince they Serve Obs Hold thy Hand as thou lov'st me Trimmer and tell me betwixt Friends now Which thou Mean'st by That Other Prince whether the Prince of the Air