Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A39372
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The second epistle to the truly religious and loyal gentry of the Church of England written by Edmund Elys ...
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Elys, Edmund, ca. 1634-ca. 1707.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing E693; ESTC R19490
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6,204
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11
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THE SECOND EPISTLE To the truly Religious and Loyal GENTRY OF THE Church of England Written by Edmund Elys Rector of East-Allington in the County of Devon. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod Published by Permission LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1687. TO THE TRULY RELIGIOUS and LOYAL GENTRY OF THE Church of England My Honor'd Brethren SINCE the writing of my other Letter I have seen a Book Entitled The Popish Royal Favorite by which the Author William Prynne endeavors with might and main to expose that Blessed Prince KING CHARLES the First to the Odium of the People for the practise of that Christian Lenity towards the Papists which as he that searcheth the Heart and tryeth the Reins knows has ingag'd Me in this Design and methinks the Blood of that Glorious Monarch Cries to Me and to all others that venerate His Sacred Memory to declare our Desires of the Abrogation of those Rigorous Laws For manifest it is by this very Book that those Laws were the occasion of the destructive Animosity of the People against their Sovereign and the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury That His Gracious Majesty upon a Principle of Divine Clemency did take great care and pains to preserve not only many Priests from Death by the Execution of those Laws but also many other Papists from utter Ruin as to their Estates This William Prynne has abundantly declar'd with an Intention to asperse but as to the Event to the immortal Honor of that Pious Prince But so far the intention of this Pristerian Agitator took Effect that he strengthned the Hands of the basest of Traitors to the shedding of the Blood of their Most Gracious Sovereign p 57. All the Parliaments during His Majesties Reign says this mischievious Scribler till now urging the Execution of Old Laws against Recusants Priests Jesuits and endeavoring to make new strict Acts against them have contrary to the practice of all former Ages been broken up and dissolv'd in discontent Such Fire-brands as this thrown amongst the People made them run out of their wits to the most Prodigious Enormities that the World ever saw but when the Sun withdrew his Light. I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Our Lord Iesus Christ to consider the Anti-Christianism of this William Prynne and his Complices in this one instance of His Majesties Most Christian compassion towards the Papists for which those Phanatical Men so clamor'd against him Viz. His Gracious Answer to this most reasonable Petition The Humble Petition of Robert Courtese c. MOst humbly shewing That whereas the Petitioners have lately exhibited a Petition unto your Majesty declaring that for being Recusants there are Writs out of your Highness Court of Exchequer directed to the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex to seize their Goods to Your Majesties use Albeit they have been always and now are ready to compound according to Your Majesties most Gracious Favor and their mean Ability being poor Trades-men which by reason of this contagious time and other the weighty Affairs of Your Majesties Most Honorable Commission they have not yet done and so stand in danger to perish unless Your Majesty of your accustomed Clemency do extend your gracious favor towards them in giving order that the said Writs may be staid which they most humbly pray Since which time they humbly shew there are no other Writs come out of the Crown-Office to arrest their Persons Therefore they do most humbly beseech your Majesty to take compassion of them and their poor Estates and to give order that the said Writs may be staid and that they may not be molested neither in their Persons or Goods whilst they are upon composition with your Majesty which they will endeavor to hasten with as much speed as may be And as by duty bound your poor Petitioners shall daily pray for Your Majesty long to Reign most happily over us At the Court at Oatelands 7 August 1637. HIS Majesties pleasure is that the Writs shall be staid according to the desire of the Petitioners c. Fran. Windebank Now let us see how this Blood-thirsty Man stirs up the Beast with many Heads to destroy the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury They had says he the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Wren Montague Cosin with many other Prelates and Priests to introduce and establish their Popish Doctrins To make way for the reception of this Lye he had spoken of the Arch-Bishops endeavors to protect some Priests from the force of the Laws which is as probably true as what he would prove by it is certainly False Here you see that the same Spirit which is so bloodily set against the Papists would have all those to pass for Papists who joyn with them in a due Veneration of the Ancient Fathers and acknowledge the Church of Rome upon account of their acknowledging the H. Scriptures to be the Word of God and of their Profession to adhere to the Four General First Councils c. to be a True Church This was the Crime of those Great Men Laud Wren Montague Cosin And here I shall beseech you to consider whether if the Church of Rome be a True Church as all the True Sons of the Church of England have ever acknowledg'd we are not bound by our Christianity to exercise towards Persons of that Communion not only Common Charity but Brotherly Love And since there is not a Papist in any of His Majesties Dominions that denies that our Gracious Sovereign has as undoubted a Right to the Crown he possesses as any Man living to any of his Possessions do's not the profession of Brotherly Love oblige us to desire the Abrogation of those Rigorous Laws There are no such Laws against the HOBBISTS or SOCINIANS neither do I desire there ever should be and yet I am sure there is not one of you will say that we owe any Brotherly Kindness to those Monsters A learned Papist who I suppose is still living in this Kingdom has done that Service to the Church of England and indeed to the Whole Church of Christ as to publish a compleat Confutation of the Fundamental Error of the LEVIATHAN Viz. That there can be no Idea or intellectual Representation of an Infinite Being or to deliver it in T. H's own words that A Man can have no Thought representing any thing not subject to Sense Now what a grievous thing would it be to the Heart of any learned sincere Christian to see Hobbists or Socinians insulting over so excellent a Person as a Criminal c. And as for the Nobility and Gentry of the Communion of the Church of Rome we find most of them to be very ingenious and of generous Education And is it not pity that there should be such Distance betwixt Us and Them as to Moral Friendship and Civil Conversation that we must be thought to desire that they should be