Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A60683
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A reply to a letter sent by William Newberry, and William Edmunds to Dr. Fowler by William Smythies, his curate.
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Smythies, William, d. 1715.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing S4369; ESTC R13305
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13,999
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9
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Affidavit made before one or more Justices of the Peace that the Child was not search'd It may be they intend when the Nurse and others that can testify concerning the Child's Death are dead to try if they can fix an Accusation against me by which they may try me for my Life It was very well that at the end of this Paragraph they did not think of saying they had no Malice or Ill-will against me as they said elsewhere concerning the Doctor In short I desire no blessing from the great God of Heaven and Earth whose Minister I am to my self and numerous Family but according to my faithfulness in that which hath been committed to me for the Poor Nor do I desire that my own dear Children when I am dead should ever be committed to the Care of those who will be more tender and saithful than I was to the poor Children It was great satisfaction to me not long since to hear that one of my Enemies said he believed That I endeavoured by my Preaching to save Mens Souls And that another when he took occasion to revile me said That he believed I was faithful in the distribution of other Mens Charity The next Paragraph desires the Doctor as he values his Credit and theirs not to be led by me into uncharitable Mistakes I do not think the Doctor is very ambitious that his Credit and Theirs should be Companions But it seems that his Mistakes are uncharitable by my means How far I have been from doing ill Offices I have already mentioned and I am sure if need be the Doctor 's Death-bed will acquit me from any such Guilt But it is an odd conceit that they should charge him of uncharitable Mistakes As if such a shameful Prosecution as I believe was never heard of in any Age their putting him to so vast a Charge for doing what he did by the best Advice and Direction which these Men acknowledge they did believe and what many other Ministers had done by the like Advice Their disregarding our Saviour's Command of telling him his Fault in private and falling upon him on a sudden and unexpectedly was in kindness to him and his Family and he would have taken it so if his Curat had not led him into an uncharitable Mistake 'T is mighty probable Then it follows Curats do not behave themselves so in other Parishes and it is hard for Cripplegate to be the only Curat-ridden Parish in London I can scarcely forbear a merry Answer to this The Curat was a Rector many Years in a considerable Living where he hath the respect of all the Parish to this day And he was a Curat in a Parish in London before he came to Cripplegate in which he heartily concern'd himself for the Poor and yet the Parishioners were not offended at him unless it were for leaving them But it seems Cripplegate is Curat-ridden I do not think there is one of many hundreds that will join in that complaint It is a Parish for which he hath a most sincere Affection and will have till his Death if he should remove to morrow and never come more into it But I must say if one of them be ridden it is the Curat for I am sure he is very lean and tires almost every day under his Burden tho he is very far from repining at it But these Jockeys cannot be contented unless they ride the Curat and the Doctor too There is one notorious Falshood which came late into their Minds as appears by their placing it That I concern'd my self in the choice of Common-Council Men which I once before denied in Print and now do it the second time and challenge any Man that useth to speak Truth to charge me of one word that ever I spake to any Man by which it might appear This is as true as that I sold the Keys of Pews in the Church which never entred into my thoughts Or that I lost the favour of the Bishop of Glocesier whereas he was pleased to send many miles for me to attend him upon his Death-bed and preach his Funeral Sermon Or that I was parted from my Wife which the supposed Penman of the Letter with others was pleas'd to publish when there was not the least absence nor so much as one angry word that might be the occasion of that Report And I do bless God for it few were ever united in that Relation who delight more in the Society of each other I might mention a great many more but that I am so us'd to be slandered by these and a few other such Men that my Innocency will not suffer my Memory to stand charged with them There is one thing I omitted in its due place viz. That the Church-Wardens who refused the Oath were of the Doctor 's bringing in is as great an untruth as ever they told for the Doctor professeth that as to the best of his remembrance he never held up his hand for any one Church-Warden so he spoke to no one to give his Voice for either of these and that he never heard of one of them before he was nominated for the Office nor remembers that there was one word of Objection then against him But as for the other whereas they say he never received the Sacrament before he was excommunicated the Doctor declared in the Court that 't is false and that for about or above a year before he several times received it at his hands and that he took him for as honest a Man as any in the Parish tho he had once been a Dissenter Another thing worthy to be observed is That one of these Men viz. Mr. N. never made it his endeavour to get the Vestry purged till it was carried against the admitting of him and then immediatly he bestirred himself to be revenged upon those who he was told were for keeping him out so far was his pretended zeal for the Government the Motive by which he was acted in so doing And when he and his Companion went about to get Hands to their Petition they never acquainted the Doctor with it And whereas they call the ill Men of the Vestry the Doctor 's Party as he was over impartial and would side with no Party against the reason of his Mind as he hath declared to them so he stifly opposed that Party that opposed Mr. N's being a Vestry-man they know likewise that I was extreamly troubled at it and this was the only ill Thing if it were so that the worst of them ever did in the Vestry in the Doctor 's Time But as for him whom he now makes the very worst of these Men no Man was for a long time greater with him than he was In short I desire it may be taken notice of that the Doctor declared in the Court last Wednesday That if good proof could be made of his shewing undue Favour to any one Dissenter he will forfeit his Living of S. Giles Cripplegate And
A Reply to a Letter Sent By William Newbery AND William Edmunds TO D R. FOWLER By WILLIAM SMYTHIES his Curate Licensed and Entered according to Order THere having been a very Abusive Letter Published the last week against Doctor Fowler whose Eminency in the Church is well known to Wise and Judicious Men Subscribed only by Two of his six or seven notorious Enemies I could not considering my great Obligations to him let it pass unanswered although I think that it may be slighted of all Sober Men as it is of him Their Abuses of Me have been so common that I value them not yet having this opportunity the World shall see how much they are to blame for Reproaching me likewise They tell me that I Study but little I am sure I shall not need to Study much for an Answer to their Letter I might in the first place descant upon their mock title Reverend Pastor which they give the Doctor when they design to cast the greatest Reproaches upon him But I will let that pass with all their rude Language knowing they are the best Expressions they have to shew how much they honour our Function I will keep close to Matters of Fact and not render reviling for reviling They first Charge the Doctor for bearing hard upon them from the Pulpit which only proceeds from their Guilty Consciences charging them I would fain know how the Doctor should discharge his Duty without reproving those Vices which he observes some of his People guilty of and secretly spreading so that he cannot otherwise prevent the Mischjef of them But it seems they are most Galled by that which is lately sent abroad from the Press And I doubt not but the Conclusion was as grievous to them and their Associates in the reading as the Congregation observed it to be when they heard it though for very good reasons they are silent concerning it I am Astonished to think how they could have the Face to mention that Certificate and Confess the Trapan with which the Doctor charges them They say That a great Man told them It would shake the credit of their Loyalty And I suppose it was the same Great Man to whom they accus'd him soon after But whatsoever they pretend it appears they had too great an opinion of their Loyalty to desire his Certificate concerning it All Men may see that they desired it on purpose that they might be credited in the Stories with which they endeavoured to do him the greatest Mischief and that they might not be thought to be acted by ill-will against Him who had given them such an undeserved Character It follows And so we laid it aside as a thing we were not proud of It was time for them to lay it aside when they had obtained what they designed by it But though they say they were not proud of it yet to my knowledge they refus'd to part with it when the Doctor would have retrieved it Let all Men judge what name they deserve for the requital which the Doctor had for being so ready to Certify for Loyal-Men when they could not have endeavoured to do him greater Mischief if they had received his Denial It is likewise observable That as they afterwards make a Certificate for Mr. W. which the Doctor never gave him so they make such a one for themselves They say that He certified they were peaceable and Christian-like spirited men Whereas he only Certified that for ought he knew they were such Persons Which words were of their own penning as the Doctor hath told them in his Preface They do in the next place oblige the Doctor by speaking truth for they say that His Opinion is much altered since he gave them that Certificate And all Men in City and Country would wonder at him if his Opinion were not altered from that time to this But before I proceed farther I must ingenuously confess That I was the occasion of his being so impos'd upon by them and that the Character which I had given of them over-rul'd his suspition of their being otherwise I hope I have his Pardon being a true Penitent for it As to the Satyrs Invectives and Comminations which they say the Doctor hath vented against them in the Pulpit Let the Congregation judge whether he be not Egregiously Slandered unless his general exposing of the damnableness of the sin of Malice and Ill-will before the Sacrament which is administred every Sunday be Satyrs Invectives and Comminations against them They Appeal to all that know them and to their Consciences also That They never oppos'd the Doctor out of ill-will to his Person but only to put a stop to his Latitudinarian Designs and Practices by a due course at Law And I will undertake That the Doctor shall joyn with them in this Appeal to all that know them and are not of their Party and to their own Consciences too whether they have not been for above a Year and half acted by the greatest Ill-will to him And whereas they pretend That their design was only to put a stop to his Latitudinarian Designs and Practices which word they understand as well as I do their Welch Rhyme I Challenge them if they dare to declare the least Proof of his being Guilty of such Designs and Practices They cannot forget that Sir Thomas Exton declared to them in his Court That They had not made the least Proof of any Accusation they had brought against him And much less can they forget that Sir Richard Lloyd declared the same to them in His Court before a great Number of People on Wednesday last And whereas they talk of their proceeding against the Doctor in a due course of Law Their many Journeys made on that account Proclaim the Hypocrisy of this pretence as the Doctor knows by sad Experience As to the Certificate which the Doctor gave to Mr. W. they say that He represented him as a truly Loyal and a Conformable Man But I am Astonished at their Confidence considering He did not Certify one title for him more than that he was a Constant attender upon the Prayers and a frequenter of the holy Communion according to the Order of the Church and forward to publique good Works in the Parish The Truth of which I am sure they cannot deny But they Accuse him of antique Gestures in the time of Prayers But the Doctor is Confident they Slander him It is more to be suspected That they who thus Accuse him come to the Prayers rather to be Spyes upon others than to be Devout themselves The Doctor hath observ'd him so Reverently and Piously affected at the Communion that he seldom receives it without wet Eyes They accuse him of being a Dissenter till he was Church-Warden but I am able to testify the contrary For I had often given him the Sacrament before that time and do really think that he was a frequenter of the Church about two Years before and then too when the Conventicles were