MTLORd

I Thought it my bound Duty to return your Lordship Thanks for the great Care you have taken in preserving the Peace and Prosperity of this City, and for your Leyalty to my late Soveraign Lord the King and His Brother. My Lord, I shall always Admire you, and more especially the late Aldermen your Brethren; And as for Sir John Moors, he shall never be forgotten, for the great Care and Pains he took, and no Magistrate was ever so Abused; yet tho he had Power, he Revenged it not; And as for Sir William Pritchard, he carried him self both Prudent and Wise. And as for the late Sheriffs, I think They were as Worthy Civil Gentlemen as any that could Serve the City. And as for the People, none more inelin’d to Love their own Prince than they, but not willing to be in Subjection to another, and surely that is no Crime; for if it be a Crime, how highly guilty am I, that have always Loved my Soveraign Lord and no other: For how entirely did I Leve my late Soveraign? For there was nothing in the World I lov’d above Him, but God. O! That I had Died, that He might have Liv’d, then you would not have been exposed to the Flouts, Mocks, and Derisions of your Adversaries; but it is the Wisdom of God to suffer it to be so, for all our Trials, and I do not doubt but your Loyalty will remain to the end, that you may obta in the Crown of your Reward: But, my Lord, you know that Loyalty without Piety toward God, will avail nothing in the day of His Anger. Therefore I humbly beseech your Lordship, and the Aldermen your Brethren, and all the Loyal Men of this City, that they should be as Zealous for Gods Glory and His Truth, as they have been for the Kings Interest, and then I do not doubt but that God Almighty will accept of your Endeavours, and you may obtain that everlasting Name of being ood Servants to God, and Good Subjects to your prince; altho the Afflictons of Joseph be forgotten, and the Loyalty of the Church of England despised, and Her Adversaries Triumphing over Her, saying, Take down Her Hedges, that the Wild Boars of the Forrest may devour Her. O! who would have thought that my Soveraign that I Lov’d so well, and Pleaded His Caufe in all Things, and before all Perfons, whom I admire above all Princes for His Wisdom and Goodness, should now Expose us! Therefore I’ll put no Confidence in Trsuces, nor in the Sons of Men, but in God alone, who is able to Preserve us; and I shall always pray for my Soveraign Lord, that God would keep and preserve Him from that that is Hurefusto Princes. For I have been Concern’d for the Peace of this Nation above these Twenty Years, and it was Love to God that made me Love the King, and Love to the King that made me Love the People; And when any Pronounc’d any Judgments against this Nation for the Sins of the People, it troubled me, therefore I humbled my self with Fasting, to Implorethe Almighty, that the Judgments might be prevented, but I find that many People mocks at his Judgments, and do not forsake their Sins, as if they delighted to provoke the Most High to destroy them. Indeed when I first undertook the Quarrel, they blam’d me infinitely for it, saying, They were not worthy of it, but I matter’d it not, for I knew God did not delight in the Destruction of any; and let them be hovr they would toward me, yet my Love was so toward them, that I did not matter what they, said, for I Loved my Soveraign, therefore Iwas not willing to have His Kingdom de stroy’d, or His Throne uneasie; and indeed the Lord hath been very Good to me, for He hath given roe Favour before the Eys of all sorts of People; yet notwithstanding I am very sensible, I have a great many Enemies, that would have destroyed me a great while ago, if my Soveraign had not been as an Angel to preferve me, tho I muft needs saythe Roman Catholicks, hath been very Civil to me, but it is in hopes to make me a Trosvlite, but it is a question whether their Love will last any longer, than their Hopes; therefore I am very sorry for them, that they should think that none can be Sav’d but what owns Rome, when we all have but ope God, one Saviour and one Holy Spirit, and yet that we must be counted Heretical and Damn’d, it must proceed from Ignorance or Malice; yet I am perswaded, there is many Roman Cathoticks that Loves me, and I wish them Well; and for many Dissentors, I do not question but they Love me hkewise, tho they thought me to be Popisbly Inelin’d, but I never was,and I hope in God never shall be; And as for the Church-men, they have a great Reason to Love me, because I could Sacrifice my Life for them all, for their ood is my Good, and their Vnbappiness is my Vnhapprness, and I delight greatly in having them Happy. Therefore God requires that they should be Just, and then Merciful, and to abound in all ood Worts, for Christ says, By this all Men know you are my Disciples, if you keep my Commandments. To Love one another, and to Pray for the King, and to yield Obedience to Him in all Things that is agreeable to Gods Commands. And if ou Dissenting Brethren had done this, there would, have been no Contention amongst us; but Offences will tome, but Woe to them by whom tbey come. They have Condemn’d their Brethren for being. Fools, I wish that they may not be condemn’d with the same Judgment as they have condemn’d others. And so I rest, Your Lordships Humble Servant and Suls Well-wisher Elinor James.