The Life of the Reverend George Trosse : Written by himself, and published posthumously according to his order in 1714

The research was undertaken with a Canada Council grant, and this book has been published with the help of a further grant from the Humanities Research Council of Canada, using funds provided by the Canada Council and a subsidy from the President's Special Research Fund for the Arts Division of McMaster University. [...] She offered him what proportion he pleased of her estate, but he chose only a competency to provide him food and raiment, with something for books and works of charity; and freely let the bulk of her estate go to his elder brother's son.'7 As minister of the thriving James' Meeting in Exeter from 1689 to the end of his life, Trosse enjoyed security and a competent income—a far cry from the youthfu [...] The recent impres- sion of him as a somewhat belligerent figure', reinforcing the depleated ranks of Nonconformist teachers', is only an impression, and to judge him fairly we must look at the controversies he took part in toward the end of his career.9 In that age of acrimonious religious dispute, involving local churchmen and the several sorts of dissenters, Trosse, not surprisingly, showed hims [...] There are two Exeter controversies which display his attitudes: the controversy between Quakers and their critics over the claims of first-day' against the seventh for worship and the John Withers—John Agate dispute over the definition of schism within the church. [...] It is not surprising that one point the sermon makes is the need for accurate self-knowledge, no matter the price, to bring about harmony with the will of the Holy Spirit, the single certain source of religion: `To be able to go immediately to the Fountainhead ourselves, must be more contenting, satisfactory, and delightful, then to receive the streams through Pipes, by which we know not what may