A Faithful and Impartial ACCOUNT OF THE BEHAVIOUR OF A PARTY OF THE Essex Free-Holders, AT THEIR LATE ELECTION OF PARLIAMENT-MEN( At Chelmsford) for that County.  
Occasioned by a most false and scandalous Pamphlet, entitled THE ESSEX EXCELLENCY.  
In a LETTER to a FRIEND.  
LONDON, Printed for W. K. at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1679.   

A LETTER TO A FRIEND, &c.  
SIR,  
THE last Night I received the Narrative, of the late Election at Chelmsford, you so kindly sent me; and since your desires are so pressing, I cannot but comply with them; in first giving my Opinion of that Paper, and next, in making you a true and faithful Relation of what I, and others of your Acquaintance, were Eye and Ear Witnesses of upon the spot. To speak truth, I was more offended at reading the Paper, than at all the Passages I observed at the Election; considering that a great difference should be allowed betwixt what men say and do when their Passions are disturbed, and their Spirits raised by men skilled in moving the Multitude, and what they writ in cool blood, with deliberation, and( as they pretend) for the Glory of God and the public Good. I am very confident, should other Counties be persuaded( as the Pen-man there exhorts) to follow the Example of the Free-holders of this, it would be of infinitely mischievous consequence, both to his Majesty's Government, and the Protestant Religion.  
And what a Reproach and Scandal is it to see Christians and Protestants admired and applauded for saying, upon this occasion, that, They had rather trust God with their Corn, than the Devil with choosing their Parliament men: making the Duke, Knights, Gentlemen and Clergy of this County,( of all which there was a great and most solemn Appearance) so many Agents for the Devil. Whose only Crime was, That they appeared for two Gentlemen, that were never suspected to be other than hearty Protestants, and are known to be of sober and moderate, as well as Loyal Principles; and one of them thought worthy, the last year, by these men themselves, to be their Representative in Parliament. Can any thing in the World be more uncivil, uncharitable, and inhuman than this?  
I hope the Gentleman himself, for whose sake these vile words were uttered and applauded, is of another Spirit, and that when he comes to his place in Parliament, he'll make it his care to stop such wicked Mouths and Pens, which, in a short time, may otherwise bury his Honour, as they have endeavoured to do his betters.  
I wish I were able to confute our Author in his accusing former Elections of being managed too much by Drinking and reveling; but what can tend to the reproach of our Country like this, that this last was begun and carried on( as you shall see anon) by most barbarous and most outrageous Revilings? Whereas our Author is pleased to say, that, It is a thousand times more honourable to be called Fanaticks,( by those, he means, of the Duke of Albemarle's Party) than good Christians, he speaks himself in the mean time to be a very special Christian, and a man of marvelous Charity towards those who are not of his own Party, unless he really thinks fanatic to be a more Honourable Title than Good Christian. But that good Christians and Fanaticks are a two very different sort of people, no man can doubt, that shall take a measure of the latter by the Spirit and temper of this man, and the behaviour of not a few of them at this Election.  
But what hath our poor Clergy done? What Wrongs and Oppressions, or Wicked Practices, have they, above all other men, been guilty of? that such Reflections should be past upon them in that Paper, as might speak them the vilest of all Mortals, and not fit to live. Sir, I will assert nothing but the truth, I know very many of those Divines which were present at the Election, whom I really judge to be Men of as upright Conversations, and Consciences as voided of Offence towards God and man, as any whatsoever of the different Parties; Men truly diligent and painful in their places, that study all Methods of gaining upon their Flocks, in spite of all manner of Vexatious, Discouragements, and that would teach this person better than to bely or rail on any( much less Divines) for God's and his Countries sake.  
This Testimony, I dare undertake, all honest and sober people, in their own Parishes, will give them; and that they shall defy the worst of their Enemies to do any thing like proving the contrary. I know them to be true men, true to the King and Church, most firm to the Protestant Profession and Interest, Men that will venture as deep in the defence of both as any men in the whole Kingdom besides, and whose Knowledge and Abilities are answerable to their Zeal: And if these things be their Guilt, I assure you they promise themselves more comfort in their Sufferings, than their fiercest Adversaries can have pleasure in venting their spite and rage against them.  
But what if some one, or more, among two hundred( who are men composed of Flesh and Blood as others, and subject to like Temptations with others) should have been too weak to withstand Temptations, doth not our Christianity oblige us to pity and hid, and not, like cursed Chams, to expose and sport ourselves with our Fathers or Brethrens Nakedness? A poor and pitiful boast! while men, perhaps of greater Guilt, shall insult over their Fellows, if not their Betters, because they have less cunning to disguise it to the World.  
If some of the Clergy were overtaken,( as our Narrator most spitefully suggests) why doth he not name any of them, or give some hints whereby they may be guessed at, which is manifest he would most gladly have done, had it lain in his power: In the name of God let the faulty bear their own shane, and not a whole Order be reviled, threatened, and exposed to the Rabble of mad Zealots, for the sake of a very few.  
I should not take notice of the passage relating to the public Notary, but to do some right to Esquire wrath, whom the Print most rudely terms A wrathful Fellow. The Notary was severely reproved, in my hearing, by this Justice, for saying, That none( he thought) but Priests gave their Voices for Sir Thomas Middleton: Whereupon the Justice called for the bailiff to carry him away, but upon his refusing to leave his Papers behind him, there was no more done: As for Blows I saw none, except his being pulled by the Cravat could be called striking.  
Sir, You know the Title of Priest was heretofore the Glory of Princes; nor is our Blessed Saviour ashamed of it now in his Glory; and therefore 'tis a most impious and profane thing to give that Title to Clergy-men in Contempt, and to use it as a name of Reproach. It will be excused, I know, by saying, That those who use it as such, mean Popish Priests, but do they not know that so to term Protestant Ministers, and such as with their Souls abhor Popery, is wickedly to revile and calumniate, and infinitely unbecoming Professors of Christianity?  
Now this so public dirty Reflection upon Ministers of the Church of England( who are well known to be the Champions for the Reformed Religion, whom, above all men, the Papists most hate and fear) might well provoke any one to be angry, who bears them a Reverence.  
At the same time, and upon the same occasion, I heard the Esquire protest his sincere and hearty wishes for a Free Election, but he said, this was not the way to it, for persons entrusted to express so much partiality and prejudice. And this Notary is belied, if this were the only Expression of his partiality, but I will choose to be silent, where I am not in Circumstances( as at present I am not) to make good proof.  
As for Mr. Mildmay's being taken by the Nose by one, who was by His Majesty and not by himself( as the Narrator suggests) made a Knight, I will not endeavour to justify it,( if it were so) but withal 'tis fit the Story should be made public, as to that part also which reflects on Mr. Mildmay, namely, That the Knight was provoked by being given the lie in open Court.  
But I wonder at nothing more, than how a Gentleman of that Spirit and persuasion, that our Narrator is manifestly of, should so forget the year Forty one, as so to fall foul at the first dash upon Long Parliaments, as being the great mischief and ruin of the Free-born English mens Liberty, even to the utter overthrow of almost all Property and privileges, as well as Religion: As if he thought the first Invasion of the peoples Liberties, and Properties and Religion too, did in truth begin at that self-perpetuating Parliament, and that these Mischiefs were continued to these distressed Kingdoms, by that other Long Parliament, after his Majesty's happy Restauration.  
I come now, Sir, to give you a true and faithful Relation of what I, and others of your Acquaintance, saw and heard at that Election.  
Before the Duke of Albemarle road a Trumpeter in very rich Attire, after whom followed four or six Pages on foot, in the same Livery, then came the Duke himself in very plain Habit, without any such thing as Sword by his side, or Pistols before him, having only a slender Cane which hung by a Chain to his Wrist. This I observe, to show he came like one resolved before-hand not to fight nor Quarrel. On his left hand road Sir Thomas Middleton, and after him most of the Knights and Gentlemen throughout the County; together with above two hundred( as is acknowledged by the Narrator) of the Clergy. And indeed it was the most pleasant Conjunction, and most solemn Appearance of Nobility, Gentry and Clergy, that ever I beholded.  
When the Duke came near the Town he flourished his Hat, and cried, SILENCE, which accordingly was sent through the whole Body, of above( as I was  told by such as I thought could guess best) two thousand Horse.  
As we road into the Town, we were saluted with most barbarous Outcries and shoutings from every Quarter: They cried a Mildmay, a Mildmay, no Dukes, no Crosses,( which related, I suppose, to the Star the Duke wore on his Arm or Breast) no Semstress's Son, to his very Face, no Courtier, no Pensioner, no Black-Coat, and all the while the Duke's Party road by in silence.  
Then I saw the Clergy abused by such Incivilities and Affronts as I hope are not to be paralleled, and the tenth part of which I am not able to give you account of. Among others, these were some of the Civil Titles and Christian Language they bestowed upon them, viz. Dumb Dogs, Jesuitical Dogs, Dark lanterns, Baal's Priests, Damned Rogues, Jacks and Villains, the Black Guard, the black Regiment of Hell, the Devil sent them, and to the Devil they would go. And one of them uttered this piece of profane folly, I have heard of three persons and one God, but here are an hundred Parsons and never a God.  
And for the space of many days after, they boasted how they had used them of the Long rob. One gloried in having thrown Dirt in a Parsons Face; another, that he tore their Gowns; another, that he knocked a person off his Horse; another, that he gave a person a good punch, with his Knee, in his Belly; adding, that he thought with himself that he should not come there for nothing: This was done in the crowd at Polling. And one Divine  told me that he had like to have lost his life among them. An Eminent Clergy-man that lives out of the County, being at Chelmsford at that time, and observing how rudely his Brethren were treated, procured a Coat to disguise himself in when he road out of Town, but for all that( as he said) he could not escape their Flouts and Jeers.  
Nor did they stick to boast in open Markets, That they dressed the Rogues( meaning the Clergy) so at Chelmsford, as they were never dressed in their lives.  
I cannot but believe that some, even of that Party blushed and were hearty grieved to see such doings: One of them  told a very worthy person, of your particular acquaintance, that he never heard or saw more rude doings than that side he was on was guilty of, and instanced in several of the particulars.  
But all this( thanks be to God) the Clergy bore with an incomparable patience, not in the least reviling again, but encouraged one another to meekness, and not to suffer themselves to be overcome of evil. This occasioned some passages in a Letter from a very Religious and Excellent person, that is no Clergy-man, which I think worth the transcribing. I find that the Spirit and Temper of the Church of England best corresponds with the ancient and best Christians, who not only bore patiently the malice of the Tongue, but Torture and death. It joys my heart to find a Party in this Kingdom, who repined not at their hard Fate, but compassionate a bewildered Multitude, who know not what they do, but are lead by some secret Machine to fight against their own Securities. Oh how ill-favoured a sight is it, to see imperious ignorant Guides smile and thank God for their Disciples Courage? Are these sure Pilots to the New Jerusalem, where all is Love and Obedience? We may easily perceive the effect that talking so contemptuously of Morality hath upon the Separatists.  
As for the Duke, I must be so just to his Grace as to declare, that he behaved himself with such perfect composure in his Countenance, which argued a like composure in his Mind, as I never saw under such high indignities in my life, in a great person.  
And in all that appearance, I profess I neither saw Noble-man, Gentleman, or Clergy-man in the least disordered by drinking; nor did I hear the least Oath from any of their Mouths, so far were they at that time from being in the number of the Damme's our Author speaks of.  
I say, all the time I was there, I saw no one person of either Party that was drunk, and much less any Clergy-man. I heard indeed since of two, on whom this Report was fastened with the most probability of proving true, but, upon my strictest enquiry; I am able to prove it was a Slander at that time upon both.  
To be short, Sir, had you been there, to have heard the Language, to have seen the Carriage and the Looks of those of that Party,( I speak of the Multitude) you might expect as much Civility from Turks and Barbarians, and hope to find( if times serve them) as much Mercy from a Popish Inquisition, as from this sort of Zealots, as much as they now cry out against Persecution, and cry up Toleration.  
Upon this occasion I cannot forbear to set down what King James saith to his Son, in his {αβγδ}, p. 41, 42. concerning this kind of Pretenders to Purity in Scotland. Saith he, They are the very Pests in the Church and commonweal, whom no deserts can oblige, neither Oaths or Promises bind; breathing nothing but Sedition and Calumnies, aspiring without measure, railing without Reason, and making their own Imagination( without any warrant of the Word) the Square of their Conscience. I protest, before the great God,( and since I am here upon my Testament, it is no place for me to lie) that you shall never find with any High-land or Border Thieves, greater Ingratitude, and more lies, and vile Perjuries, than with these fanatic Spirits.( They are the King's own words.) And suffer not( as he there goes on) the Principles of them to brook your Land, if you like to sit at rest; except you would keep them for trying your patience, as Socrates did an evil Wife.  
Sir, I have now, no doubt, tired your patience with this long Scribble, I draw therefore to a close: Did I at all delight in Recriminations, I would style a Pamphlet, by way of Reply, Essex's Insolency, for Essex's Excellency; and the Base Brutish, for the Brave British Behaviour, &c. But I rather choose, after a better Example, to say, Good Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do.  
Sir, It grieves me that I am constrained thus to employ my Pen, now we are all of us in such danger of a Common Enemy; but the heady Separatists will not consider it, and will still writ and act, as if they had no sense of the least danger. Witness one Gulielmus Jenkinus his late Clamorous Celeusma, which may be eminently serviceable to the Romanists; but as for its Author, it hath and will more expose him for a strangely weak and imprudent( not to say proud and ill-spirited) man, than his dvo putidi Literatores,( as he most scornfully calls two Excellent Scholars) or those sad heretics his Novatores, will ever be able to expose him. Had the poor man no one wise Friend to advice him not to publish such Latin, and much less such Matter and Sense?  
I say, I am grieved at thus employing my Pen at such a time as this, but there is a necessity in the Case, as we would not be run down by the other Extreme, if God in his Infinite Mercy should put an end to our fears of Popery.  
Aug. 28th. 1679. I am, SIR, Your Affectionate Servant, &c.  
FINIS.