Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	church_n	minister_n	people_n	2,506	5	4.7611	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27232	The Quakers challenge made to the Norfolk clergy, or, A relation of a conference between some clergy-men of the Church of England and some Quakers held (on the 8th of December 1698 in West-Dereham Church) in the county of Norfolk : together with those letters which passed between them in order thereunto : to which is added a certificate relateing to the challenge.	Beckham, Edward, 1637 or 8-1714.; Meriton, Henry, d. 1707.; Topcliffe, Lancaster, 1646 or 7-1720.	1699 (1699)	Wing B1654; ESTC R27616	19,882	30

Words of those several Blasphemies Your direct Answer to those particulars 3dly We think it not worth while to follow you thro all the Parts of your Letter it being a great part of it Rattle and Noise besides our present business 4thly You evade our Instance of the Common Law We distinguish between matter of Fact and a Right to Judge You have Charged us with matter of fact We demand a Copy of our Charge that we may prepare our Answer to make as a point of Justice allowed by the Common Law to Male factors We deny your having any Jurisdiction over us as Judges and before we submit we will have full proof of your Commission Temporal Judges you are not and to be Spiritually qualified you must prove before we acknowledge you as such 5thly Seeing you resolutely refuse our just demand we do not look upon our selves obliged to Meet you under the limitation of your Terms We stand to our former offer and by the Terms we have offered to qualify yours and if you refuse it shews for all your pretence of Friendship a contrary design upon us we cannot look upon your Resolution to Friendship any thing else but an empty pretence until as a proof that it is otherwise you give us the instances of your Charge in Form and Manner aforesaid which is not as you say to send us your Arguments before-hand but the matter of fact you Charge us with This as a point of Justice from you we seek not your mercy make your Arguments as strong as you will But while you thus put us off we look upon it no other then a shift and Evasion on your Parts and a design to over-rule us We leave it with you as a Test upon your resoluet Friendship Give us our just demand of Author Title Book and Page with convenient time as set forth in our last to you to prepare to make Answer which if you still deny we look upon your pretence of Friendship to be a meer Complement and Decoy and a Design of much evil to us Couch'd under 't Notwithstanding we are your Friends and desire you would mind the witness of God in your Consciences that admits of no deceit and will if minded lead you to deal plainly To which you must stand or fall one day Richard Ashby John Hubbard Dan. Phillips Richard Case c. P. S. SEeing you have rejected our Terms as aforesaid and we have refused to be imposed upon by some of your Limitations we therefore shall take our Liberty either to Meet or not Meet you And if we Meet you to have others of our Friends present with us who are not Inhabitants within this Diocess if we see Cause and if they have freedom thereto A Certificate of several Principal Inhabitants within the Parishes of West-Dereham and of other adjacent Parishes to obviate the false Reports given out by the Quakers wherewith they endeavour to make the World believe that the late Norfolke Challenge was not made by them to the Clergy of the Church of England THE Parish of West-Dereham in Norfolke having in it several Divisions and Sectaries and but an Exceeding small Sallary for a Minister discouraged most Men from supplying the Cure By reason whereof it was seldom well Supplyed for any long time together and the greatest part of the People in danger of falling to the Quakers who seldom fail of making their Markets in such dark Corners until the present Minister thereof undertook it at the request of some Principal Men of the Parish and entred upon that Cure in June 1691. and very laboriously and constantly has continued till this present time Against whom the Quakers have been in a continual rage for being disappointed of their Prey Which displeasure of theirs they could not forbear to Express by many undecent Acts becoming a People of such pernicious Principles and rugged behaviour as they Such Instances whereof as at present occur to our minds are these The Wife of one Becket a Quaker gave her self the trouble of going three Miles to the Ministers House on purpose to vex him with Quakerly Questions in a Quibling way upon Aseension day Morning 1695. His Family can Witness the truth of this as also Mrs. Bishop a Principal Person of the Town of Barton who happened to be with the Minister then We of this Parish and divers other Persons of Neighbouring Parishes too do very well remember the time that Becket the Husband himself watcht our Minister in a Lane not far from the Church lin'd on both sides with People to Dispute him when his Spirits were exhausted with Preaching and his Strength weakened by performing the Duty of the Day One Phillips a Quaker went to disturb our Minister at his own House one Munday in May last to Challenge and Provoke him to Dispute with the Quakers at a Meeting at Stoak that was to be held on the Morrow as himself confessed after he came Home And he and his Friends set abroad the Report some days before to call the Country together and then gave it out that the Priests promised but durst not come both which we believe to be false This Phillips together with one Mason and Beket by speaking Profanely of the Ordinances of Christ and setting up a Conventicle contrary to Law in an unlicenc'd Barn where there never had been one before and their restless Importunities to make Men go to their Meetings and by Villifying our Minister for no other Cause but preserving his Sheep from being devoured by the Wolves gave our Minister and us great occasion to dread an Apostacy of the People from the Christian Faith This and nothing but this made us and our Minister willing to permit Mr. Bugg to come among 'em to try if he could conjure down this busy Spirit which possesses the Quakers and is so troublesom to us having heard that he had thrown that unclean and Blaspheming Legion out of some other Places before We and our Minister accompanied him to one Quakers House and sent one of his Printed Charges in a Letter to Sam. Cater a Speaker Further than which we believe our Minister was not concerned And it was his great desire of saving Souls and a quiet life that made him ingage so far For he was always averse that either he or his Brethren should ingage in a Publick Dispute He to our knowledge was ever so far from giving a Challenge as that he never would accept it when it was offer'd till now For many Provocations and Challenges has he had One above all the rest we cannot forget which was given him in Writing when he was in the Pulpit by one Lilly in sight of the whole Congregation Which besides many more he evaded as well as he could till this last bold Challenge came on which was to all the Clergy of England as well as to his Brethren and him So that whatsoever the Quakers may pretend to the contrary we verily believe They are the Challengers and none but they But we hope it has done much good and had the Ministers been permitted to make out their Charge which was Artificially drowned in Noise Quakerism in these Parts would have received a Mortal Stroke The truth of all this is Certified by us whose Names are here Subscribed William Fenn William Young Richard Taylor Geo. Archer John Smith John Wright Tho. Wade Tho. Complin John Goddard Tho. Ward Tho. Hubbard William Prick Caleb Mayor Grace Lamson Mary Parke Barth Ramsey Sam. Chicco VVil. Sargison FINIS

THE Quakers Challenge MADE TO THE Norfolk Clergy OR A RELATION OF A CONFERENCE BETWEEN Some Clergy-Men of the Church of England and some Quakers held on the 8th of December 1698. in West-Dereham-Church in the County of Norfolk together with those Letters which passed between them in order thereunto To which is added a Certificate relateing to the Challenge LONDON Printed by H. Hills for Edward Poole at the half Moon under the Royal Exchange Cornhill 1699. A Relation of a Conference between some Clergy-Men of the Church of England and some Quakers SOME Quakers in the County of Norfolke having by a Letter Challenged the Clergy of the Church of England Time and Place leave from our Superiours first obtained were at length fixed and our Charge according to their desire sent to them as appears by our first Letter and on the Day appointed viz. Dec. 8th 1698. the Quakers and We met in West Dereham Church in the County aforesaid and took our Places before prepar'd We first read the Service of the Day near the beginning of which they coming in staid it out not to Joyn in the Duty but rather to affront it carrying themselves Irreverently all the Time As soon as our Service was Ended one of their Speakers began to Pray whereupon all of them immediately pulled off their Hats and carried themselves as at a Religious Worship The first thing we did we read the Letter containing their Challenge presently they started up and denied it to be a Challenge and Avowed they would not go one step further unless we would own our selves to be the Agressors and acquit them of that Charge we Insisted that they were our Challengers and Repeated to them their own Letter of Challenge They told us they were provoked by certain Carriages of Ours to write that Letter But nothing could they make appear under our Hands only urged some Stories they had heard as a provocation we told them further that that was a plain owning of their Challenge that they did it only they were provoked to it And after many long Harangues of several of their Speakers they desired that all the Letters which had passed between us might be read to the Auditory not as if they could get any advantage by reading them but as appeared to us afterwards meerly to divert us an Hour or more from prosecuting our Charge Then they Quarrelled with us about the Preliminaries of our Charge that we did not send them the Charge some time before We told them we had in our first Letter and it was a Charge of Blasphemy against God c. but they Insisted to have a more particular account than a general Charge that is they Expected to have the Names of the Books Page and Line from whence we Intended to prove our Charge against them sent them some time before We answered we had Law and Equity against such an unreasonable demand We told them the Law was their own 't was from Edw. Burroughs who was a Son of Thunder and spoke all from the Mouth of the Lord whose Book used to be with them of as much Authority as the Bible which allows us a liberty to appoint our own Time Place and Terms They would by no Means have it read spending two Hours or more in a mighty noise against it which sufficiently Exposed them to all our People who in great numbers and very oft cryed out Let it be read Read Edw. Burroughs and tho we assured them it was not to be read as any proof of the Blasphemies we Charged them with but only to settle the preliminaries yet could we not prevail for a long while And so gladly would we be made manifest to all the World if that after the reading of this Book any be unsatisfied still in this matter and if any Especially of the Heads and Rulers have Doubts and Jealousies raised in them concerning Us and the Priests and that they further would be satisfied and resolv'd for that end let any wise Men propound for full satisfaction of all sorts of People that We with the consent of the Chief in Authority that have Power in this Nation who may preserve Peace and Safety among People and thereby to stop all Jealousies may Freely and Cheerfully 4 10 20 30 more or fewer of Us give as many of the Wisest and Ablest of the Priests and Professors a meeting for Dispute at any Place in England at what Place Time and for what Continuance as they shall Ascribe and Consent unto and to Dispute and Controvert betwixt Us and Them any such Thing and every such Particular as shall or may be objected by any of the Heads and Rulers or other grave understanding Men and a little after he saith thus And let such whether Them or Us that cannot prove our Selves to be the True Church of Christ nor of the True Worship and True Religion nor in the Truth but is found to be in the Errour and out of the Truth Let such deny their Worship and Church Renounce all their Religion and Confess to all the World under their Hands that they are and have been deceived and for ever hereafter stop their Mouths and never profess nor practice any more what they have done in such a Religion And freely upon these Issues and Conditions We will joyn Tryal with Them Let Them appoint Time Place and profer Terms at Their own pleasure and then to all the World it shall be manifest and to all People discovered whether We have not good Ground and sufficient Reason to War against these Priests The passage out of Edw. Burroughs being read at last they then alledged they were not bound neither would they stand to Edw. Burroughs's Terms for such Meetings as these And then We Insisted upon Equity and told them there was no reason as in one of our Letters that We should be so generously kind to Them as to tell 'em the very Place where We would Assault 'em for the nature of the Blasphemy We charge 'em with should be so Plain and Obvious that every Christian shall be able to understand it to be so upon the reading it to them But should we tell them the Names of our Books Page and Line beforehand we had deserv'd rather to be laughed at as Fools than looked on as Disputants for this would be to send them our Arguments before the Disputation if we should tell 'em all the Mediums from whence we intended to setch them We told them the Evidence we should bring was not from ours but from their own Books and it was not sit we should tell them the Names of our Witnesses beforehand that they might have time to Tamper with them and make them speak what they never Intended and so weaken their Testimony We assur'd them the Blasphemy we Charge them with should be very plain and they need not send for their Advocates from far Countries to Plead the Cause of it and make People believe that Blasphemy is