Selected quad for the lemma: word_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	church_n	tradition_n	unwritten_a	4,667	5	12.8172	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64269	The devil turn'd casuist, or, The cheats of Rome laid open in the exorcism of a despairing devil, at the house of Thomas Pennington in Orrel in the parish of Wigan and county of Lancaster / by Zachary Taylor ...	Taylor, Zachary, 1653-1705.	1696 (1696)	Wing T595A; ESTC R39717	24,170	30

THE DEVIL TURN'D CASUIST OR THE Cheats of ROME Laid open in the Exorcism of a Despairing DEVIL At the House of Thomas Pennington in Orrel in the Parish of Wigan and County of Lancaster By Zachary Taylor M. A. Chaplin to the right reverend Father in God Nicholas Lord Bishop of Chester and Rector of Wigan Spectatum admissi Risum teneatis LONDON Prnited for Peter Buck near the Middle-Temple Gate in Fleet-street 1696. To the Right Reverend Father in God NICHOLAS Lord Bishop of CHESTER My truly Honoured Lord WHereas Dedications are generally intended to Express the Editors Acknowledgement unto the Patron that he doth Address yet this must beg your Lordships pardon for Prefixing your name to a Transaction that may seem too Light for the gravity of your Function to be interested in But besides the Presumption on your Lordships Condescention the Reasons moving me thereunto were these Your Lordship as a Father in the Church must needs be concerned for the Religion of it and it is a matter of Religion altho she and her Author be the Greatest Sufferers by it that is here pretended Now as we teach our Children to know Good Coin by acquainting them with what is Counterfeit so there is no better way to Ground weak persons in the full Assurance of Divine Truths than by Discovering to them the Juggles of Superstitious Bigots for God having settled All and Every Article of the Christian Faith on the Veracity of his own Vnerring Word and the Evidence of Vn●●●●ested Miracles there can be no Greater Argument of the Hellish Villany as well as Crafty Knavery of those that Tack and Super add any thing thereto th●n in Contradistinction to Gods word and works to have them Build the same on the Fanaticism of Vnwritten Tradition and the Sophistry of Lying Wonders For My Lord what Opinion must any sober Person 〈◊〉 of that Church who ●ndeavours to Prove the Truth and Confirm her Members in the Belief of the Fundamentals that she coin'd at Constance and at Trent from the Testimony of the Father of Lyes and one whom in her Exorcisms she labours what she can to perswade the Assembly that he is indeed the Devil This seems to me an Infatuation of that Size that I cannot apprehend it to be any thing else but that very Judgment that God hath Threatned to Deliver such Artificers up to 2 Thes 2.11 Your Lordship will meet with a deplorable Instance of this in the Following Pages where if you find any thing that shews an Air Lighter than these present Lines it is because the Subject will endure no other and Solomon must Apologize for me who hath made it a Rule To Answer a Fool according to his Folly Anoth●r Inducement to me was the Scene 's being Acted in your Lordships ●a●ish and the Great Trust you have been pleas'd to Commit to me there doth require that I should be Accountable to your Lordship for all Affairs of such a nature as this is as you are the Rector of the Parish as well as the Ordinary of the Diocess But that which to me is none of the least is what relates unto the Reader he is here to meet with such a Medley of ●opperies as will be hard to believe that any who call themselves Christians should be Guilty of for the Priests have so far over-acted each part of the Play that the plan Relation of it will appear more like Burlesque than Narrative It was necessary therefore that I should Court your Lordships Patronage that the Reader when he meets with all such passages may be convinced of the Rea●●y of the● Whilst he must conclude that I durst not presume to Abuse your Lordships Name by Prefixing it to what was only my own Invention and 〈◊〉 having plenty of Witnesses for the Protestants were Frankly invited 〈◊〉 the ●a●e-Show in hopes of a Good Harvest as the Narrative will inform 〈◊〉 I have been carefull to Assert Nothing but what I have Vndeniable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of and what hath been twice read over to those that gave me thy 〈…〉 the Operation Several Passages where I had not a Plura●●ty of Concurring Voices I have designedly left out that the rest might be Vnexcep●●●●●●le For instance When a Person whom they were afraid of loseing came into the Room the Demoniack seem'd to Laugh and the Priest ask'd him why he was so pleasant to which he replied he could not but Laugh to think If that she turned to ●er Husbands Religion She must certainly be his the Rest not taking notice of this passage I have omitted it The Priest also amongst on other Qu●●se● would needs know Whether Protestants were not Damned Which the Devil that is the Title and Language they gave the Demoniack and therefore I must use it wishing no doubt but that they all might avouched that they were this several will aver but because the Priest I hear denies it and thereby intimates as if he had some Charity left for Poor Protestants I am willing by way of Return to his Civility to pass it by with some others I know of what moment it is in order to satisfaction in matters of this nature to direct the Reader personally to the Deponerts themselves that by some Friend or other he may inquire of it from their Mouths I therefore once had design●d to have affixed to the Relation the names of those that gave me this account but considering what manner of Spirit the Romish Zealots their neighbours are of I siffered my self to be disswaded from it but if Curiosity on the one hand or Scepticism on the other lead any to be Inquisitive after it the Circumstances of time and Place when and where the Game was acted the names of the Parties concerned together with the Managers of it will direct him where he may find amplesatisfaction As for the order of it I have methodized it according to the Rules of their Proceedings at Exorcisms but I do not pretend to be responsible for the place that every passage is ranked in for in so tedious a Process as this was it must be above the Capacity of mean Persons to charge their Memory with every Punctilio It is difficient that there is Truth as to matter of Fact it is not at all necessary that there should be the Juncto's of exact order in the relation of it What the Papists design was in this Exploit is easily unsolded we are not Ignorant of there Devices nor the Artificies they make use of to cajose simple well meaning people to their Party It is not the first time nor I sear like to be the Last that they have had to do with the Devil on this score only according to Circumstances they play a different game and turn the Tables as obcasion offers Sometimes they chance to stumble on the opportunity of a natural Disease and that is their Great Advantage for Physical operations are not wanting to be ascribed to a miraculous Energy But generally the whole