Item #70402 The Surey impostor: being an answer to a late fanatical pamphlet, entituled, The Surey demoniack. By Zach. Taylor, A.M. and one of the King's Preachers for the County-Palatine of Lancaster. Zachary TAYLOR.
The Surey impostor: being an answer to a late fanatical pamphlet, entituled, The Surey demoniack. By Zach. Taylor, A.M. and one of the King's Preachers for the County-Palatine of Lancaster.
The Surey impostor: being an answer to a late fanatical pamphlet, entituled, The Surey demoniack. By Zach. Taylor, A.M. and one of the King's Preachers for the County-Palatine of Lancaster.

The Surey impostor: being an answer to a late fanatical pamphlet, entituled, The Surey demoniack. By Zach. Taylor, A.M. and one of the King's Preachers for the County-Palatine of Lancaster.

London: Printed for John Jones, at the Dolphin and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard; and Ephraim Johnson, bookseller in Manchester, 1697. First Edition. Hardcover. Large octavo. [viii] + 76pp. (actually 70pp for this copy, as all, is irregularly paginated skipping page numbers 64 - 67, despite their being no break in the text). Half leather binding: twentieth century (?) dark brown over marbled paper-covered boards. Brown leather title-label to spine with gilt titling down spine reading "The Surey Impostor. Taylor. 1697." Fresh endpapers. Woodcut frontispiece and one design in text. Errata slip pasted onto rear of title-pae. A stinging rebuttal of Jolly and Carrington's work "The Surey Demoniack, Or, An account of Satans Strange and Dreadful Actings" (1697) in which Jolly recounted, the story of the alleged demonic possession and release through excorcism, of "the Surrey Demoniack" Richard Dugdale, arguing that both were as real as any that had been recounted in the New Testament. This was a highly contentious argument, as at the time there was a huge theological divide on the question of possession and exorcism, with various Catholics and non-Conformists believing strongly in both, whilst the official perspective of the Church of England was that they were seldom if ever encountered. The author of this reply, Zachary Taylor, was a curate and "King's Preacher" (whose role it was to defend and propogate the tenets of the established Church) who had no doubt whatsover that Dugdale's supposed malady was either a part of some obscure Papist plot, or more likely, the consequence of some genuine ailment, and that the cure, if there had been one at all, was completely natural. The spine & boards show just the merest hint of shelf-wear. The edges of the text-block are quite darkened, to the extent that we suspect that the book must have been housed in a smokey room for a very long time, with some dark spotting from the edges reaching into the text block. The title-page and frontispiece are quite darkened, it apparears that they might have been somewhat sooty, and have been cleaned, but with some darker areas remaining (see photos). Some minor chipping to page edges. Still a else a clean solid copy, about VG or better for an antiquarian book. Item #70402

Price: $1,600.00

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