The Scourge : In Vindication Of The Church Of England ; To Which Is Added, I. The Danger Of The Church-establishment Of England, From The Insolence Of Protestant Dissenters ; Occasion'd By A Presentment Of The Forty Second Paper Of The Scourge At The -

London : [s.n.]. Hardcover. B003O8WLL6 Issued 1720 (London), 5 x 7 7/8 inches tall full leather bound, blind stamped double border to boards, five raised bands and blind stamped title to spine, frontispiece with five portraits of the Stuarts, primary title page in red and black, [4], 384, [10] pp. Though there is no publisher named for the primary work, 'Printed for Charles Rivington' appears on the two additional title pages, for the secondary works, 'The Danger of the Church-Establishment,' and 'The Anatomy of the Heretical Synod' (the latter of which also includes an additional full-page engraved frontispiece, in this case of the 'synod' members). Continuously paginated. Boards are mildly bumped, rubbed, stained and edgeworn. Cracking between front pastedown and free-endpaper, but the binding holds firm. Contemporaneous prior owner name in ink to title page. Altogether, a very good copy of this polemic, with a splendid shelf appearance. ~OOO~ The author, identified on the title page only as 'T.L.,' was Thomas Lewis (1689-1749?), a controversial Anglican writer, and this edition collects together three connected works. Lewis, ordained an Anglican priest in 1713, four years later established a periodical publication entitled 'The Scourge, in vindication of the Church of England.' This sheet, which appeared every Monday, was characterized by violent and trenchant abuse of dissenters, broad churchmen, and papists alike. In the fall of 1717, for example, he headed an attack on Scottish presbyterianism with the words, 'Every beast loveth his like.' His paper was presented by the grand jury of Westminster as the work of a libeller and an embroiler of the nation, and Lewis, who promptly absconded, was ordered to stand trial for sedition at the king's bench. In the meantime there appeared 'The Scourge Scourged, or a short Account of the Life of the Author of the Scourge,' full of violent and obscene abuse of Lewis and his 'weekly excrement.' From his hiding-place, Lewis defiantly issued 'The Danger of the Church Establishment of England from the Insolence of the Protestant Dissenters, wherein it appears from their late writing that they have attempted to subvert the Liturgy, the Canons, Articles and the whole Discipline of the Church of England, to Ruin the Reputation of the Universities and the Episcopal Clergy, and to inflame the minds of the People against the Established Form of Church Government in this Kingdom. In a Letter to Sir John Smith [his accuser in the matter of the 'Scourge.'] Heu pietas, heu prisca fides,' (London 1718). This epistle, which included a bitter attack on Hoadly, rapidly passed through two editions, and was shortly answered by a comparatively moderate, though anonymous, pamphlet entitled 'A brief Answer to a long Libel.' Lewis had the last word in the controversy with his 'Anatomy of the Heretical Synod of Dissenters at Salter's Hall,' 1719, which is the final work reprinted in this volume. . Very Good. 1720.