The following bad character has been given of Church by Mr. and Mrs. Gee,
of the New Cut, who keep a cake-shop, where he once lodged:—
“Mr Church, the minister, lodged at our house a year and a half, and
left last year at Lady Day.
“We were in hopes that we were about to have a godly praying minster
in our house; and to be sure the first night he had somewhat like a
prayer, and that once afterwards were the only times he ever went to
family prayer in our house. Nor could they have any prayer, as he
would be frequently out almost all hours of the night, and would lie
in bed till ten in the morning. Several times he and his wife would
have skirmishings and fightings between themselves, while the
children would be left to run about the streets out of school hours,
and allowed to keep company with children that would swear in our
hearing most shockingly. His children were always left to be very
dirty, and would be sent sometimes three or four times in a morning
for spirituous liquors of all sorts. As for reading good books, or
even the Bible, he scarce ever thought of it, but would spend a deal
of his time in loose and vain talk, in walking about, and fawning
upon young men, that was his chief delight.
“Sundays and working days were all alike to them, for they would send
out to buy liquors, and whatever else they wanted, on Sundays as well
as other days.
“The house would be frequently more like a playhouse (I might say a
bawdy house) than a minister’s house, were a set of young people
would come and behave more indecently than ought to be mentioned.
Even one Sunday morning they made such an uproar as that they broke
one of the windows, after that they would go with him to his chapel,
and, after that, he would give the sacrament to such disorderly
people, let their characters be ever so loose.
“He was always ready to go fast enough out to dinner or supper where
he could get good eating and drinking, but poor people might send to
him from their sick bed times and times before he would come to them.
Seeing so much of his inconsistencies and shocking filthiness in
their rooms, (though they always paid their rent,) we were determined
to give them warning to quit our house, and we do not think that a
worse man or woman ever came into any house before, especially as Mr.
Church pretended to preach the gospel; such hypocrites are much worse
than others, and, besides this, we never heard a man tell lies so
fast in all our lives. It is a great grief to us that ever we went
to hear him preach, or suffered him to stop so long in our house.”