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A48489
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A Circular letter to the clergy of Essex to stir them up to double-diligence for the choice of members of their party for the ensuing parliament ; with some queries offered to the consideration of the honest free-holders.
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H. L.; L. H.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing L21A; ESTC R43333
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3,461
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3
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A CIRCULAR LETTER to the Clergy of Essex To stir them up to Double-diligence for the Choice of Members of Their Party for the ensuing Parliament With some QUERIES Offered to the Consideration of the Honest FREE-HOLDERS The LETTER SIR THere is a Trial of Skil to be it seems between Coll Mildmay's Interest and the Church Party in Essex How much is behoves you at this time to use your utmost endeavour to send good Men to the Parliament you cannot but be very sensible let me therefore intreat you earnestly to persuade the Clergy of your Deanry to use their utmost endeavours to bring in as many Voices as they can for Sir Anthony Abdy and Sir Eliab Harvey and not to fail bâ—ing themselves at the Election if their health will permit I pray give my hearty Service to them and let them know it is I who most earnestly intreat this at their hands who am Theirs and SIR Your most assured Friend and Brother H. L. The Attestation to this Letter by a Conformable Minister who was willing to have it communicated for the Edification of the Laity SIR I Do assure you the above-written is a true Copy which I my self took from the Original It was superscribed to no particular Person but put into the hand of a Neighbouring Minister with a Direction That the Apparitor for the Archdeaconry of Essex should carry it to the Habitation of every Minister in his Jurisdiction Besides this from the B. I have seen another from the E. of N. written to an infamous Bailiff of an Hundred ordering him to endeavour to prevail with the Freeholders of that Hundred to appear for Sir Anthony and Sir Eliab So far the honest Clergy man who it seems is not to be compell'd to a Choice against his Judgment by the threats or artifice of any Spiritual or Temporal Bum. â— 1. Whether the shiling the weight 〈…〉 ir of chusing Members to sit in Parliament 〈◊〉 Manual of Skill suits not better with the air of a Soldier than with the gravity of a B 〈…〉 2. Whether if solliciting for the Choice of Members to sit in Parliament be part of the Priestly Function or within the things lawful and honest in which they 〈◊〉 Obedience 〈◊〉 was not great condescention in the B. earnestly to entreat in such humble terms 3 Whether the Office of a Sollâ—citor or that of an Informer upon Penal Laws in default of Church-wardens be the greater Ecclesiastical Dignity or Promâ—tiâ—n 4. Whether whoever he was that wrote the Letter to the Clergy he does not lay himself open to a Complaint in Parliament not only for the 〈…〉 ness of his Letter to those who are under him hardly consistent with that freedom of Elections which the Law is tender of but for his following the late Observator in dividing Protestants into Parties and censuâ—iâ—g as opposite to the Church-Party all those of the Nobility and Gentry and the Body of the Freeholders of Essex who have for several years look'd upon the Collonel as the fiâ—test person to represent them in Parliament for his Experience Prudence Courage and unshaken Fidelity to his Countrey and to the Crown too where it has not carried on a Separate Interest 5. If by the Church-Party is not meant a Faction engaged in an Interest divided from the Protestant Interest at home and abroad why is not the present Lord Lieut the E. of Oxford who is for the Collonel as well to be thought of the Church-Party as the D. of Albemarl was except that He cannot drink so much for it as the Other did And why should not the Circular Letters now press the Clergy to be for them whom the now Ld. Lieut and the Gentry with him think fittest to serve their Country as formerly by an implicit Faith without knowledg of the Persons they did for such as the then Ld. Lieut. and his Gentry should recommend 6. Whether the bustle now made by them who call themselves the Church-Party does not naturally revive the memory of a Great Man's Ministry when Money was receiv'd from France for a Peace advantageous only to the Factors and them that bought it though at the same time the Parliament had paid much more largely for actual War aud when the Popish Plot was stifled and they who enquir'd too far into it were made Plotters themselves 7. Whether the effect of a like Circular Letter in the beginning of the late King's Reign when the Collonel was set aside how fairly is not now to be enquir'd into doth not shew that the Church-Party which then prevail'd may well be thought of an Interest divided from all other Protestants Can it otherwise be believ'd that when they knew that King to be a Papist they for the sake of a few good words to the Church would have trusted him with the Revenue for life when they had it in their hands and need not have parted with it till full provision had been made for the safety of the Religion and Laws of their Countrey 8. Whether seeing those who were for the Regency that is for having James still King and this King but a Minister of State or General under him list themselves with the Church-Party and the Papists that Party are not to be thought to be for King James while the Earl of Oxford suitable to his Character and all Coll. Mildmay's Interest to a man are for our present King and Queen that is for Protestancy against Popery England against France 9. Whether the B of L. who is personated in this Letter can be thought to have written it himself having appear'd in Arms for this King before the other withdrew and being past possibility of making his peace with the late King unless he turn mere Lay-man and accept of the Regency and administration of Affairs under him in a Lay capacity being already become irregular according to the Doctrine not only of Papists but of the Church-Party here who notwithstanding all his Sollicitations for them will no more dispense with his Irregularity than they did with good Archbishop Abbot's in the time of King Charles the First 10. Whether the Laymen who are wheedled into the separate Church-Party ought not to consider that if they believe as the Church believes they are bound to think that not only they who join'd in inviting over our Great Deliverer and appear'd with or for him in Arms before the late King withdrew but all who were under that King's Allegiance and swear to this are or have been neither good Subjects nor good Christians at least not good Church-of-England-men for the Church has these Passages among many others of the like nature in its Homilies to which God be thanked none but Clergy-men have given any solemn or unfeigned assent and consent Had English-men at that time known their Duty to their Prince set forth in God's Holy Word would English Subjectâ— have sent for and received the Dauphin of France with a great Army of French men into the Realm of England Would they have sworn Fidelity to the Dauphin of France breaking their Oath of Fidelity to their natural Lord the King of England and have stood under the Dauphin's Banner Displayed against the King of England This King it must be known was King John one of the worst of Men who not only had violated the Original Contract between him and his People but had voluntarily Abdicated in giving the Kingdom as much as in him lay to be held as the Pope's Fee And yet you see what the Church holds of inviting and joyning with a Foreign Prince even in such a Case 11. Whether Clergy-men are to be thought ignorant of the Contents of the Homilies Whether therefore all Lay-men concern'd for the support of this Government and of the Protestant Religion ought not to be very jealous of those for whom they are sollicited by the Clergy especially considering that their Representatives when they were prest by the Bps. to thank His present Majesty for rescuing them from Popery and Slavery were not for medling with any thing but what concern'd the Church of England as if its concerns lay another way And the generality of them were against all manner of alterations being it seems fond of those passages in the Homilies which condemn all that adhere to this Government 12. Whether tho the Bp. of L's late Action wherein he forsook his Church Party is justly popular yet he who was advanced in ill times and complied so far with K. James as to desire Dr. Sharp to discontinue Preaching and so far submitted to the High Commission-Court as not to insist upon a Legal Plea to its Jurisdiction deserves to be trusted by the People of Essex more than Coll. Mildmay who stood up for them undauntedly in the worst of Times to his great Expence and Hazard and yet behaved himself with such Moderation and Prudence that the Managers then so eager to make Plots could frame no pretence against him The Freeholders of Essex have us'd to see for themselves without Ecclesiastical Spectacles Nor have they more than once since the Pensioner-Parliament been Hector'd or Wheedled by the Church-Party from their own true Interest They cannot but remember what they suffered under their insolencies formerly nor is it likely that they will again put themselves under that uneasie yoke They cannot so soon forget the Fines Imprisonments and Dancings of Attendance from Sessions to Sessions merely for Voting for such Parliament-men as they could trust It is not therefore to be thought that they will contribute towards setting that Party again in the Saddle LONDON Printed in the Year M DCXC. Apparitor or Bailiff Vid. the case of the L d. Mohun in Mr. P Miscel Parl. Homilies The sixâ—h 〈…〉 against wâ—llful Rebellion last Edit f. 383.