A clergy-man of the Church of England his vindication of himself for reading His Majesties late declaration. With allowance. Elys, Edmund, ca. 1634-ca. 1707. 1688 Approx. 5 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 2 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-01 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A39341 Wing E665 ESTC R214796 99826865 99826865 31274 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. A39341) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 31274) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English Books, 1641-1700 ; 1776:12) A clergy-man of the Church of England his vindication of himself for reading His Majesties late declaration. With allowance. Elys, Edmund, ca. 1634-ca. 1707. 1 sheet ([2] p.) printed, and publish'd by Randal Taylor, near Stationers-Hall, [London : 1688] Signed at end: Edmund Ellis, Rector of East-Alling in Devon. Caption title. Imprint from colophon. Reproduction of the original in the Bodleian 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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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Clergy -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Early works to 1800. Oaths -- England -- Early works to 1800. 2005-11 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-03 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-05 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2006-05 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A CLERGY-MAN OF THE Church of England His Vindication of Himself for Reading His Majesties Late DECLARATION . With Allowance . THo' my Averseness from all appearance of Opposition to Our Most Reverend Metropolitan , and the Reverend Bishop of this Diocess made me Resolve ( as I acquainted a Learned man in Answer to a Letter I lately received from him ) that I would not Publish any thing upon ●…ion of this Great Controversy ; yet upon Second Thoughts of My Duty 〈◊〉 Our Gracious Sovereign , and the Regard I ought to have to My own Reputation in reference to that Apostolical Injunction , Let no man Despise 〈◊〉 I now Resolve to make known to the World what Reasons I had to 〈◊〉 the DECLARATION . I receiv'd it from the hands of the Totness-Apparitor , without the Least doubt or scruple but that it came from my Lord Bishop of Exeter : I read it the Sunday after I receiv'd it . The Saturday following I receiv'd a Letter from the Apparitor , acquainting me that it was my Lord Bishops Pleasure that I should not Read the DECLARATION . Since that time I have often said that I shall not make the least scruple to Read it again , if I shall receive an Order so to do from the KING , or the Bishops : And yet amongst a Multitude of the Foulest Calumnies imaginable that have been rais'd against ●…e upon this Occasion , this is one , that I am so vext and disquieted in mind for ●…aving read this DECLARATION that I am like to be quite Distracted ●…rough Anguish that ever I did such a thing . This is so Prodigious a Lye , at GOD is my Witness I never had the least Inclination to Repent of it . ●…ave written to several Learned men of the Church of England , that in a ●●ere Desire to keep a Conscience void of Offence both towards GOD , 〈◊〉 towards Men , I resolv'd to submit to this Order , upon these , and the 〈◊〉 Considerations , " That Our Sovereign Lord the King , has a Right to Declare or make known his Mind as to any Matter whatsoever , to every ●…e of his Subjects : And Consequently that he has a Right to Constrain ●…l Priests and Deacons to be his Instruments to make his Mind known by ●…eading any DECLARATION , &c. I was prompted to these thoughts my Remembrance of those words of St. Gregory , which I took special 〈◊〉 of Twenty years since . St. Greg. Regist . L. 2. Ep 62. Greg. — Gregorius Mauricio Augusto . Ego quidem Jussioni Subjectus , eandem Legem per diversas terrarum pa●… transmitti feci , & quia Lex ipsa Omnipotenti Deo minime concordat , ecce per 〈◊〉 gestionis meae paginam serenissimis Dominis nunciavi Utrobique ergo quae d●… exolui , qui & Imperatori Obedientiam praebui , & pro Deo quod sensi minime t●… Since I am subject to Your Command , I caus'd the Law ( you had sent me ▪ 〈◊〉 be dispers'd through diverse parts of the World ; and , because the Law it self i●… so agreeable to the Will of Almighty God , behold I have declar'd the same by 〈◊〉 Paper which suggests my Reasons . And by doing so , I have in both regards pa●… Duty I ow'd ; while I both perform my Obedience to the Emperour , and 〈◊〉 known my sentiments in relation to God. I suppose all the Learned Clergy of the Church of England know w●… saying this is : If the Exemption from Obedience be not as Eviden●… 〈◊〉 the Command to Obey , it must needs be Sin not to Obey . This I 〈◊〉 fastly Believe ; and therefore I am Resolv'd by the Help of God to do 〈◊〉 thing that His Majesty shall Command Me , unless I find it to be of s●… nature , that I shall be ready to Declare to His Majesty and All the W●… that I am so Confident that the performance of such an Action wou●… 〈◊〉 Contrary to the Law of God , Declar'd in the Holy Scriptures , or to 〈◊〉 Law of the Land , or to some Canon or Constitution Ecclesiastical , that I 〈◊〉 be ready to lay down my Life in Testimony that my refusing to do ▪ 〈◊〉 the King Commands is not in Disobedience to Him , but in True ●…ence to the King of Kings : And with this Resolution I Pity all my ●…mies ; and I Desire my Friends not to be Troubled when they hear M●… Bitterly Censur'd , and Revil'd ; but to Consider that some of the Rep●… that are Dayly cast upon Me make Me expressly Conformable to th●…●…ferings of Our Blessed LORD , of whom it was said : He hath a Dev●… 〈◊〉 is MAD , why hear ye him ? Edmund Ellis , Rector of East-Alling in Devon. FINIS . LONDON Printed , and Publish'd by Randal Taylor , near Stationers-Hall . 1●●●