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. 1690 Approx. 12 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 2 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2009-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A48489 Wing L21A ESTC R43333 27212582 ocm 27212582 110037 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A48489) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 110037) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1723:6) 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. H. L. L. H. 1 sheet ([2] p.) [s.n.], London : Printed in the year, MDCXC [1690] Imperfect: faded. Contains, in part, a letter signed: H.L. Reproduction of original in British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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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 b●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. ● 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 Soll●citor , or that of an Informer upon Penal Laws in default of Church-wardens , be the greater Ecclesiastical Dignity or Prom●ti●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 censu●i●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 fi●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 Subject● 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. Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A48489-e10 Apparitor or Bailiff . Vid. the case of the L d. Mohun in Mr. P Miscel . Parl. Homilies ▪ The six●h 〈…〉 against w●llful Rebellion , last Edit . f. 383.