but for their weighty and judicious piety than those are whose weaknes or giddines they sought to gratifie by taking it away One of the greatest faults some men found with the Common-Prayer-book I beleive was this That it taught them to pray so oft for Me to which Petitions they had not Loyalty enough to say Amen nor yet charity enough to forbear Reproaches and even cursings of Me in their own forms instead of praying for Me. I wish their Repentance may be their only punishment that seeing the mischiefs which the disuse of publique Liturgyes hath already produced they may restore that credit use and reverence to them which by the ancient Churches were given to Set Formes of sound and wholsome words And thou O Lord which art the same God blessed for ever whose mercies are full of varie y yet of constancy Thou denyest us not a new fresh sense of our old and dayly wants nor despisest renued affections ioyned to constant expressions Let us not want the benefit of thy Churches united wel-advised Devotions Let the matters of our prayers be agreeable to thy will which is alwaies the same and the fervency of our spirits to the motions of thy holy Spirit in us And then we doubt not but thy spirituall perfections are such as thou art neither to be pleased with affected Novelties for matter or manner nor offended with the pious constancy of our petitions in them both Whose variety or constancy thou hast no where either forbidden or commanded but left them to the piety and prudence of thy Church that both may be used neither dispised Keep men in that pious moderation of their Iudgments in matters of Religion that their ignorance may not offend others nor their opinion of their own abilities tempt them to deprive others of what they may lawfully and devoutly use to help their infirmities And since the advantage of Errour consists in novelty and variety as Truths in unity and constancy Suffer not thy Church to be pestered with errours and diformed with undecencies in thy service under the pretence of variety and novelty Nor to be deprived of truth unity and order under this fallacy That constancy is the cause of formality Lord keep us from formall Hypocisie in our own hearts and then we know that praying to thee or praising of thee with David and other holy men in the same formes cannot hurt us Give us wisdome to amend what is amisse within us and there will be lesse to mend without us Evermore defend and deliver thy Church from the effects of blind zeal and over-bold devotion 17. Of the differences betweene the King and the two Houses in point of Church-government TOuching the GOVERNMENT of the Church by Bishops the common Jealousie hath bin that I am earnest and resolute to maintain it not so much out of piety as policy and reason of State Wherein so far indeed reason of State doth induce Me to approve that Government above any other as I find it impossible for a Prince to preserve the State in quiet unlesse he hath such an influence upon Church-men and they such a dependance on Him as may best restraine the seditions exorbitances of Ministers Tongues who with the Keys of Heaven have so far the Keys of the Peoples hearts as they prevaile much by their Oratory to let in or shut out both Peace and Loyalty So that I being as King intrusted by God the Laws with the good both of Church and State I see no reason I should give up or weaken by any change that power and influence which in right and reason I ought to have over both The moving Bishops out of the House of Peers of which I have elsewhere given an account was sufficient to take off any suspicion that I encline to them for any use to be made of their Votes in State affairs Though indeed I never thought any Bishop worthy to sit in that House who would not Vote according to his Conscience I must now in charity be thought desirous to preserve that Government in its right constitution as a matter of Religion wherein both My judgement is justly satisfyed that it hath of all other the fullest Scripture grounds and also the constant practise of all Christian Churches til of late years the tumultuarinesse of People or the factiousnesse and pride of Presbyters or the covetousnesse of some States and Princes gave occasion to some mens wits to invent new modells aud propose them under specious titles of Christs Government Scepter and Kindome the better to serve their turns to whom the change was beneficiall They must give Me leave having none of their temptations to invite Me to alter the Government of Bishops that I may have a Title to their Estates not to believe their pretended grounds to any new wayes contrary to the full and constant testimony of all Histories sufficiently convincing unbiased men that as the Primitive Churches were undoubtedly governed by the Apostls and their immediate Successors first best Bishops so it cannot in reason or charity be supposed that al churches in the world should either be ignorant of the rule by thē prescribed or so soon deviate from their divine and holy patterne That since the first Age for 1500. years not one Example can be produced of any setled Church wherein were many Ministers and Congregations which had not some Bishop above them under whose jurisdiction and government they were Whose constant and universall practise agreeing with so large and evident Scripture-directions and examples as are set down in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus for the setling of that Government not in the persons only of Timothy and Titus but in the succession the want of Government being that which the Church can no more dispense with in point of wel-being then the want of the Word Sacraments in point of being I wonder how men came to look with so envious an eye upon Bishops power and authority as to oversee both the Ecclesiasticall use of them and Apostolicall constitution which to Me seems no lesse evidently set forth as to the maine scope design of those Epistles for the setling of a peculiar Office Power and Authority in them as President-Bishops above others in point of Ordination Censures and other acts of Ecclesiasticall discipline then those shorter Characters of the qualities and duties of Presbiter-Bishops and Deacons are described in some parts of the same Epistles who in the latitude and community of the name were then and may now not improperly be called Bishops as to the oversight and care of single Congregations committed to them by the Apostles or those Apostolicall Bishops who as Timothy and Titus succeeded them in that ordinary power there assigned over larger divisions in which were many Presbyters The humility of those first Bishops avoiding the eminent title of Apostles as a name in the Churches stile appropriated from its common notion of a Messenger or one sent to
that speciall dignity which had extraordinary call mission gifts and power immediatly from Christ they contented themselves with the ordinary titles of Bishops and Presbyters untill use the great Arbitrator of words and Master of Language finding reason to distinguish by a peculiar name those persons whose power and office were indeed distinct from and above all other in the Church as suceeding the Apostles in the ordinary and constant power of governing the Churches the honour of whose name they moderately yet commendably declined all Christian Churches submitting to that special anthority appropriated also the name of Bishop without any suspition or reproach of arrogancy to those who were by apostolical propagation rightly descended invested into that highest largest power of governing even the most pure primitive Churches which without all doubt had many such holy Bishops after the pattern of Timothy Titus whose speciall power is not more clearly set down in those Epistles the chief grounds limits of all Episcopall claim as from divine Right then are the Characters of these perilous times those men that make them such who not enduring sound doctrine clear testimonies of all Churches practise are most perverse disputers and proud Usurpers against true Episcopacy who if they be not Traytors and Boasters yet they seem to be very covetous heady high-minded inordinate feirce lovers of themselves having much of the form litle of the power of godlines Who by popular heaps of weak light and unlearned Teachers seeke to over-lay smother the pregnancy and authority of that power of Episcopall government which beyond al equivocation vulgar fallacy of names is most convincingly set forth both by Scripture and all after-Historyes of the Church This I write rather like a Divine than a Prince that Posterity may see if ever these Papers be publick that I had fair grounds both from scripture-Canons Ecclesiasticall examples whereon My judgment was stated for Episcopall government Nor was it any policy of State or obstinacy of wil or partiality of affection either to the men or their Function which fixed Me who cannot in point of worldly respects be so considerable to me as to recompence the injuries and losses I and My dearest relations with My Kingdomes have sustained and hazarded chiefly at first upon this quarrell And not only in Religion of which Scripture is the best rule and the Churches Vniversall practice the best commentary but also in right reason and the true nature of Government it cannot be thought that an orderly Subordination among Presbyters or Ministers should be any more against Christianity then it is in all secular and civill Governments where parity breeds Confusion and Faction I can no more believe that such order is inconsistent with true Religion then good features are with beauty or numbers with harmony Nor is it likely that God who appointed severall orders and a Prelacy in the Government of his Church among the Jewish Priests should abhor or forbid them among Christian Ministers who have as much of the principles of schisme and division as other men for preventing and suppressing of which the Apostolicall wisdom which was divine after that Christians were multiplied to many Congregations and Presbyters with them appointed this way of Government which might best preserve order and union with Authority So that I conceive it was not the favour of Princes or ambition of Presbyters but the wisdome and piety of the Apostles that first setled Bishops in the Church which Authority they constantly used and injoyed in those times which were purest for Religion though sharpest for Persecution Not that I am against the managing of this presidency and authority in one man by the joynt Counsell and consent of many Presbyters I have offerd to restore that as a fit means to avoid those Errours Corruptions and Partialities which are incident to any one man Also to avoyd Tyranny which becomes no Christians least of all Church-men besides it will be a means to take away that burden and odium of afaires which may lie too heavy on one mans shoulders as indeed I think it formerly did on the Bishops here Nor can I see what can be more agreeable both to Reason and Religion then such a frame of Government which is paternall not Magisterial and wherein not only the necessity of avoyding Faction and Confusion Emulations and Contâ—mps which are prone to rise among equals in power and function but also the differences of some Ministers gifts and aptitudes for Government above others doth invite to imploy them in reference to those Abilities wherein they are eminent Nor is this judgment of Mine touching Episcopacy any pre-occupation of opinion which wil not admit any oppositions against it it is well knowne I have endeavoured to satisfie my self in what the chiefe Patrons for other wayes can say against this or for theirs And I finde they have as sarr lesse of Scripture grounds and of Reason so for examples and practise of the Church or testimonies of Histories they are wholy destitute where in the whose stream runs so for Episcopacy that there is not the least rivolet for any others As for those obtruded examples of some late reformed Churches for many retain Bishops still whom necessity of times and affaires rather excuseth then commendeth for their inconformity to all Antiquity I could never see any reason why Churches orderly reformed and governed by Bishops should be forced to conforme to those few rather then to the Catholick example of all Ancient Churches which needed no Reformation and to those Churches at this day who Governed by Bishops in all the Christian world are many more then Presbyterians or Independents can pretend to be All whom the Churches in My three Kingdoms lately Governed by Bishops would equalize I think if not exceed Nor is it any point of wisdom or charity where Christians differ as many do in some points there to widen the differences at once to give all the Christian world except a handfull of some Protestants so great a scandall in point of Church-government whom though you may convince of their Errours in some points of Doctrine yet you shal never perswade them that to compleat their Reformation they must necessarily desert and wholly cast off that Government which they and all before them have ever owned as Catholick Primitive and Apostolicall So farre as never Schismaticks nor Hereticks except those Aerians have strayed from the Vnity and Conformity of the Church in that point ever having Bishops above Presbyters Besides the late generall approbation and submission to this Government of Bishops by the Clergy as well as the Laity of these Kindoms is a great confirmation of My Judgement and their inconstancy is a great prejudice against their novelty I cannot in charity so far doubt of their learning or integrity as if they understood not what heretofore they did or that they did confirme contrary to their consciences So that their
facility and levity is never to be excused who before ever the point of Church-government had any free and impartiall debate contrary to their former Oathes and practice against their obedience to the Laws in force and against My consent have not only quite cryed down the government by Bishops but have approved and incouraged the violent and most illegall stripping all the Bishops and many other Church-men of all their due Authority and Revenues even to the selling away utter alienation of those church-lands from any Ecclesiastical uses So great a power hath the stream of times the prevalency of parties over some mens judgements of whose so sudden and so total change little reason can be given besides the Scots Army comming into England But the folly of these men will at last punish it self and the Desertors of Episcopacy will appear the greatest enemies to betrayers of their own interest for Presbytery is never so considerable or effectuall as when it is joyned to and crowned with Episcopacy All Ministers will find as great a difference in point of thriving between the favour of the People of Princes as Plants do betweene being watered by hand or by the sweet and liberal dews of Heaven The tenuity and contempt of Clergy-men wil soon let them see what a poor carcasse they are when parted from the influence of that Head to whose Supremacy they have been sworn A little moderation might have prevented great mischiefs I am firm to Primitive Episcopacy not to have it extirpated if I can hinder it Discretion without passion might easily reform whatever the rust of times or indulgence of laws or corruption of manners have brought upon it It being a grosse vulgar errour to impute to or revenge upon the Function the faults of times or persons which seditious popular principle and practise all wise men abhor For those secular additaments ornaments of Authority civill Honor Estate which My Predecessors Christian Princes in al countries have annexed to Bishops Church-men I look upon them but as just rewards of their learning and piety who are fit to be in any degree of Church-Government also enablements to works of Charity and Hospitality meet strengthenings of their Authority in point of respect and observance which in peaceable times is hardly payed to any Governours by the measure of their vertues so much as by that of their Estates Poverty and meannesse exposing them and their Authority to the contempt of licentious minds and manners which persecuting times much restrained I would have such men Bishops as are most worthy of those incouragements and best able to use them if at any time my judgement of men failed My good intention made My errour veniall And some Bishops I am sure I had whose learning gravity and piety no men of any worth or forehead can deny But of all men I would have Church-men especially the Governours to be redeemed from that vulgar neglect which besides an innate principle of vitious opposition which is in all men against those that seem to reprove or restrain them will necessarily follow both the Presbyterian party which makes all Ministers equall and the Independent inferiority which sets their Pastors below the People This for My judgment touching Episcopacy wherein God knows I do not gratifie any design or passion with the least perverting of truth And now I appeal to God above and all the Christian world whether it be just for Subjects or pious for Christians by violence infinite indignities with servile restraints to seek to force Me their KING and Soveraign as some men have endeavoured to do against al these grounds of My Judgment to consent to their weake and divided noveltis The greatest Pretender of them desires not more then I do That the Church should be governed as Christ hath appointed in true Reason and in Scripture of which I could never see any probable shew for any other wayes who either content themselves with the examples of some Churches in their infancy solitude when one Presbyter might serve one Congregation in a City or Country or else they deny these most evident Truths That the Apostles were Bishops over those Presbyters they ordained as wel as over the Churches they planted and that Government being necessary for the Churches wel-being when multiplyed sociated must also necesarily descend from the Apostles to others after the example of that power and superiority they had above others which could not end with their persons since the use and ends of such Government still continue It is most sure that the purest Primitive and best Churches flourished under Episcopacy may so still if ignorance superstition avarice revenge and other disorderly and disloyall passions had not so blown up some mens minds against it that what they want of Reasons or primitive Patterns they supply with violence and oppression wherein some mens zeal for Bishops Lands Houses Revenues hath set them on work to eat up Episcopacy which however other men esteeme to Me is no lesse sin then Sacriledge or a robbery of God the giver of all we have of that portion which devout minds have thankfuly given again to him in giving it to his Church and Prophets through whose hands he graciously accepts even a cup of cold water as a libation offered to him Furthermore as to My particular engagement above other men by an Oath agreeable to My judgment I am solemnly obliged to preserve that Government and the Rights of the Church Were I convinced of the unlawfulnes of the Function as Antichristian which some men boldly but weakly calumniate I could soon with Judgement break that Oath which erroneously was taken by Me. But being daily by the best disquisition of truth more confirmd in the reason Religion of that to which I am Sworn how can any man that wisheth not My damnation perswade Me at once to so notorious and combined sins of Sacriledg and Perjury besides the many personall Injustices I must doe to many worthy men who are as legally invested in the ir Estates as any who seek to deprive thē and they have by no Law been convicted of those Crimes which might forfeit their estates livelyhoods I have oft wondred how men pretending to tendernes of Conscience and Reformation can at once tell Me that My Coronation Oath binds Me to consent to whatsoever they shall propound to me which they urge with such violence though contrary to all that Rationall and Religious freedom which every man ought to preserve and of which they seem so tender of their own Votes yet at the same time these men will needs perswade Me That I must and ought to dispense with and roundly break that part of My Oath which binds me agreeable to the best light of Reason and Religion I have to maintain the Government and legall Rights of the Church 'T is strange My Oath should be valid in that part which both My self and
all men in their own case esteem injurious unreasonable as being against the very natural and essentiall liberty of our souls yet it should be invalid and to be broken in another clause wherein I think my self justly obliged both to God Man Yet upon this Rack chiefly have I been held so long by some mens ambitious covetousnesse and Sacrilegious Cruelty torturing with Me both Church and State in Civill dissentions till I shall be forced to consent and declare that I doe approve what God knowes I utterly dislike and in My Soul abhorre as many wayes highly against Reason Justice and Religion and whereto If I should shamefully and dishonourably give My consent yet should I not by so doing satisfie the divided Interests and Opinions of those Parties which contend with each other as well as both against Me and Episcopacy Nor can My late condesending to the Scots in point of Church-government be rightly objected against Me as an inducement for Me to consent to the like in My other Kingdoms For it should be considered that Episcopacy was not so rooted and setled there as 't is here nor I in that respect so strictly bound to continue it in that Kingdom as in this for what I think in My judgement best I may not think so absolutly necessary for all places and at all times If any shall impute My yeelding to them as My failing and sin I can easily acknowledge it but that is no argument to do so again or much worse I being now more convinced in that point nor indeed hath My yeelding to them bin so happy and successefull as to incourage Me to grant the like to others Did I see any thing more of Christ as to Meeknesse Justice Order Charity and Loyalty in those that pretend to other modes of Government I might suspect My judgement to be biased or fore-stalled with some prejudice wontednes of opinion but I have hitherto so much cause to suspect the contrary in the manners of many of those men that I cannot from them gain the least reputation for their new wayes of Government Nor can I find that in any Reformed Churches whose paterns are so cryed up and obtruded upon the Churches under My Dominion that either Learning or Religion works of Piety or Charity have so flourished beyond what they have done in My Kingdomes by Gods blessing which might make me beleive either Presbytery or Independency have a more benigne influence upon the Church and mens hearts and lives than Episcopacy in its right constitution The abuses of which deserve to be extirpated as much as the use retained for I think it far better to hold to primitive uniform Antiquity than to comply with divided novelty A right Episcopacy would at once satisfie all just desires and interests of good Bishops humble Presbyters and sober people so as Church affairs should be managed neither with tyranny purity nor popularity neither Bishops ejected nor Presbiters despised nor People oppressed And in this integrity both of My judgment Conscience I hope God will preserve Me. For Thou O Lord knowest My uprightnesse and tendernesse as thou hast set me to be a Defender of the Faith and a Protector of thy Church so susser me not by any violence to be overborn against My Conscience Arise O Lord maintaine thine own Cause let not thy Church be deformed as to that Government which derived from thy Apostles hath been retained in purest and primitive times till thâ— Revenues of the Church became the obiect of secular envy which seeks to rob it of all the incouragements of Learning and Religion Make me as the good Samaritan compassionate and helpfull to thy afflicted Church which some men have wounded and robbed others passe by without regard either to pitty or relieve As my power is from thee so give me grace to use it for thee And though I am not suffered to be Master of my other Rights as a KING yet preserve me in that liberty of Reason love of Religion and thy Churches welfare which are fixed in my Censcience as a Christian Preserve from sacrilegious invasions those temporall blessings which thy providence hath bestowed on thy Church for thy glory Forgive their sinnes and errours who have deserved thy iust permission thus to let in the wilde Boar and subtill Foxes to wast and deforme thy Vineyard which thy right hand hath planted and the dew of Heaven so long watred to a happy and flourishing estate O let me not bear the infamous brand to all Posterity of being the the first Christian KING in this Kingdom who should consent to the oppressions of thy Church and the fathers of it whose errours I would rather with Constantine cover with silence and reform with meeknesse than expose their persons and sacred functions to vulgar contempt Thou O Lord seest how much I have suffered with and for thy Church make no long tarrying O my God to deliver hoth me and it from unreasonable men whose counsels have brought forth and continue such violent confusions by a precipitant destroying the ancient boundaries of thy Churches peace thereby letting in all manner of errours schismes and disorders O thou God of order and of truth in thy good time abate the malice aswage the rage and confound all the mischievous devices of thine mine and thy Churches enemies That I and all that love thy Church may sing praises to thee and ever magnifie thy salvation even before the sons of men 18 Vpon Vxbridge-treaty and other Offers made by the King I Look upon the way of Treaties as a retiring from fighting like Beasts to arguing like Men whose strength should be more in their understandings than in their limbs And though I could seldome get opportunities to Treat yet I never wanted either desire or disposition to it having greater confidence of My Reason than My Sword I was so wholly resolved to yeeld to the first that I thought neither My selfe nor others should need to use the second if once we rightly understood each other Nor did I ever think it a diminution of Me to prevent them with Expresses of My desires and even importunities to Treat It being an office not onely of humanity rather to use Reason than Force but also of Christianity to seek peace and ensue it As I was very unwillingly compelled to defend My self with Arms so I very willingly embraced any thing tending to peace The events of all War by the sword being very dubious and of a Civill VVarre uncomfortable the end had hardly recompencing late repairing the mischief of the means Nor did any successe I had ever enhance with Me the price of Peace as earnestly desired by Me as any man though I was like to pay dearer for it then any man All that I sought to reserve was Mine Honour and My Conscience the one I could not part with as a KING the other as a Christian The Treaty at Uxbridge gave the fairest hopes of an hapdy
him the onely Blasphemer of this City and fit to die Still I see while the breath of Religion fills the Sailes Profit is the Compasse by which Factious men steer their course in all seditious Commotions I thank God as no man lay more open to the sacrilegious temptation of usurping the Churches Lands and Revenues which issuing chiefly from the Crowne are held of it and legally can revert onely to the Crowne with My Consent so I have alwayes had such a perfect abhorrence of it in My Soule that I never found the least inclination to such sacrilegious Reformings yet no man hath a greater desire to have Bishops and all Church-men so reformed that they may best deserve and use not only what the pious munisicence of My Predecessours hath given to God and the Church but all other additions of christian bounty But no necssity shall ever I hope drive Me or Mine to invade or sell the Priests Lands which both Pharaoh's divinity and Ioseph's true piety abhorred to doe So unjust I think it both in the eye of Reason and Religion to deprive the most sacred imployment of all due encouragements and like that other hard-hearted Pharaoh to withdraw the straw and encrease the Taske so pursuing the oppressed Church as some have done to the read sea of a Civil Warre where nothing but a miracle can save either It or Him who esteems it His greatest Title to be called and His chiefest glory to be The Defender of the Church both in its true faith its iust fruitions equally abhorring Sacriledge and Apostacy I had rather live as My Predecessour HENRY 3 sometime did on the Churches Alms then violently to take the bread out of Bishops and Ministers mouthes The next work will be Ieroboam's reformation consecrating the meanest of the People to be Preists in Israel to serve those Golden Calves who have enriched themselves with the Churches Patrimony and Dowry which how it thrived both with Prince Priests and People is well enough knowne And so it will be here when from the tuition of Kings and Queenes which have been nursing Fathers and Mothers of this Church it shal be at their alowance who have already discovered what hard Fathers and Stepmothers they will be If the poverty of Scotland might yet the plenty of England cannot excuse the envy and rapine of the Churches Rights and Revenues I cannot so much as pray God to prevent those sad consequences which will inevitably follow the parity and poverty of Ministers both in Church and State since I thinke it no lesse than a mocking and tempting of God to desire him to hinder those mischiefs whose occasions and remedies are in our own power it being every mans sin not to avoid the one and not to use the other There are wayes enongh to repair the breaches of the State without the ruins of the Church as I would be a Restorer of the one so I would not be an oppressour of the other under the pretence of Publiquâ— Debts The occasions contracting them were bad enough but such a discharging of them would be much worse I pray God neither I nor Mine may be accessary to either To thee O Lord doe I addresse My prayer beseeching thee to pardon the rashnesse of My Subiects Swearings and to quicken their sense and observation of those just morall and indispensable bonds whiâ—h thy Word and the Lawes of this Kingdome have laid upon their Consciences From which no pretensions of Piety and Reformation are sufficient to absolve them or to engage them to any contrary practises Make them at length seriously to consider that nothing violent and iniurious can be religious Thou allowest no mans committing Sacriledge under the Zeal of abhorring Idolls Suffer not sacrilegious designs to have the Countenance of religious ties Thou hast taught us by the wisest of Kings that it is a snare to take things that are holy and after Vâ—ws to make enquiry Ever keep thy servant from consenting to periurious and sacrilegious rapines that I may not have the brand and curse to all posterity of robbing Thee and thy Church of what thy bounty hath given us and thy clemency hath accepted from us wherewith to encourage Learning and Religion Though My Treasures are Exhausted My Revenues Diminished and My Debts Encreased yet never suffer Me to be tempted to use such prophane Reparations lest a coal from thine altar set such a fire on My Throne and Conscience as will be hardly quenched Let not the Debs and Engagements of the Publique which some mens folly and prodigality hath contracted be an occasion to impoverish thy Church The State may soone recover by thy blessing of peace upon us The Church is never likely in times where the Charity of most men is grown so cold their Religion so illeberall Continne to those that serve Thee and thy Church all those incouragements which by the will of the pious Donours and the Iustice of the Laws are due unto them and give them grace to deserve and usâ— them aright to thy glory and the releif of the poor That thy Preists may be cloathed with righteousnesse and the poor may be satisfyed with breád Let not holy things be given to Swine nor the Churches bread to Dogs rather let them go about the City grin like a Dog and grudg that they are not satisfyed Let those sacred morsells which some men have already by violence devoured never digest with them nor theirs Let them be as Naboth's Vineyard to Ahab gall in their mouths rottennesse to their mames a moth to their Families and a sting to their Consciences Break in sunder O Lord all violent and sacrilegious Confederations to doe wickedly and inâ—uriously Divide their hearts and tongues who have bandyed together against the Church and State that the folly of such may be manifest to all men and proceed no further But so favour My righteous dealing O Lord that in the mercies of thee the most High I may never miscarry 15. Vpon the many Jealousies raised and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against Him IF I had not My own Innocency and Gods protection it were hard for Me to stand out against those stratagems and conflicts of malice which by Falsities seek to oppresse the Truth and by Jealousies to supply the defect of Reall causes which might seeme to justifie so unjust Engagements against Me. And indeed the worst effects of open Hostility come short of these Designes For I can more willingly lose My Crowneâ— than My Credit nor are My Kingdoms so dear to Me as My Reputation and Honour Those must have a period with My life but these may survive to a glorious kind of Immortality when I am dead and gon A good name being the embalming of Princes a sweet consecrating of them to an Eternity of love gratitude among Posterity Those foule and false aspersions were secret engines at first employed against My peoples love of Me that
all meet in our hearts and so dispose us to an happy conclusion of these Civill Warres that I may know better to obey God and governe my People and they may learn better to obey both God and me Nor do I desire any man should be further subject to me then all of us may be subject to God O my God make me content to be overcome when thou wilt have it so Teach me the noblest victory over my self and my Enemies by patience which was Christs conquest and may well become a Christian King Between both thy hands the right somtimes supporting and the left afflicting fashion us to that frame of piety thou likest best Forgive the pride that attends our prosperous and the repinings which follow our disasterous events when going forth in our own strength thoâ— withdrawest thine and goest not forth with our Armies Be thou all when we are somthing and when we are nothing that thou mayst have the glory when we are in a victorious or inglorious condition Thou O Lord knowest how hard it is for me 〈◊〉 suffer so much evill from my Subjects to whom I intend nothing but good and I cannot but suffer in those evills which they compell me to inflict upon them punishing my self in their punishments Since therefore both in conquering and being conquered I am still a Sufferer I beseech thee to give me a double portion of thy Spirit and that measure of grace which only can be sufficient for me As I am most afflicted so make me most reformed that I may be not onely happy to see an end of these civill distractions but a chief Instrument to restore and establish a firm and blessed Peace to my Kingdoms Stir up in all Parties pious ambitions to overcome each other with reason moderation and such self deniall as becomes those who consider that our mutuall divisions are our common distractions and the union of all is every good mans chiefest interest If O Lord as for the sins of our peace thou hast brought upon us the miseries of warre so for the sins of war thou shouldst see fit still to deny us the blessing of peace and so to keep us in a circulation of miseries yet give me thy Servant and all loyall though afflicted Subjects to enjoy that peace which the world can neither give to us nor take from us Impute not to me the blood of my Subjects which with infinite unwillingnesse and grief hath been shed by me in my just and necessary defence but wash me with that precious blood which hath been shed for me by my great Peace-maker Iesus Christ who will I trust redeem me shortly out of all my troubles For I know the triumphing of the Wicked is but short and the joy of Hypocrites is but for â— moment 20. Vpon the Reformations of the Times NO Glory is more to be envied than that of due Reforming either Church or State when deformities are such that the perturbation and novelty are not like to exceed the benefit of Reforming Although God should not honour me so far as to make me an Instrument of so good a work yet I should be glad to see it done As I was well pleased with this Parliaments first intentions to reforme what the iudulgence of Times and corruption of manners might have depraved so I am sorry to see after the freedome of Parliament was by factious Tumults oppressed how little regard was had to the good Lawes established and the Religion setled which ought to be the first rule and standard of reforming with how much partiality and popular compliance the passions and opinions of men have been gratified to the detriment of the publique and the infinite scandall of the Reformed Religion What dissolutions of all Order and Government in the Church what novelties oâ— Schismes and corrupt opinions what undecencies and confusions in sacred administrations what sacrilegious invasions upon the Rights and Revenues of the Church what contempt and oppressions of the Clergie what injurious diminutions and persecutings of me have followed as showres do warme gleames the talk of Reformation all sober men are Witnesses and with my selfe sad Spectators hitherto The great miscarriage I think is that popular clamours and fury have been allowed the reputation of Zeal and the publique sense so that the study to please some Parties hath indeed injured all Freedome moderation and impartiality are sure the best tempers of reforming Councells and endeavours what is acted by Factions cannot but offend more than it pleaseth I have offered to put all differences in Church affaires and Religion to the free consultation of a Synod or Convocation rightly chosen the results of whose Counsells as they would have included the Votes of all so it 's like they would have given most satisfaction to all The Assembly of Divines whom the two Houses have applied in an unwonted way to advise of Church Affaires I dislike not further then that they are not legally convened and chosen nor Act in the name of all the Clergy of England nor with freedome and impartiality can doe any thing being limited and confined if not over-â—wed to do and declare what they do For I cannot think so many men cryed up for learning and piety who formerly allowed the Liturgy and Government of the Church of England as to the maine would have so suddenly agreed quite to abolish both of them the last of which they knew to be of Apostolicall institution at least as of Primitive and Universall practice if they had been left to the liberty of their own suffrages and if the influence of contrary Factions had not by secret incroachments of hopes and feares prevailed upon them to comply with so great and dangerous Innovations in the Church without any regard to their own former judgement and practice or to the common interest and honour of all the Clergy and in them of Order Learning and Religion against examples of all Ancient Churches the Lawes in force and my consent which is never to be gained against so pregnant light as in that point shines on my understanding For I conceive that where the Scripture is not so clear and punctuall in precepts there the constant and Universall practice of the Church in things not contrary to Reason Faith good Manners or any positive Command is the best Rule that Christians can follow I was willing to grant or restore to Presbytery what with reason or discretion it can pretend to in a conjuncture with Episcopacy but for that wholly to invade the Power and by the Sword to arrogate and quite abrogate the Authority of that Ancient Order I think neither just as to Episcopacy nor safe for Presbytery nor yet any way convenient for this Church or State A due reformation had easily followed moderate Counsells and such I believe as would have given more content even to the most of those Divines who have been led on with much Gravity and Formality to carry on other mens
deceived and destroyed Nor can any mens malice be gratified further by my Letters than to see my constancie to my VVife the Lawes and Religion Bees will gather Honey where the Spider sucks Poison That I endeavour to avoid the pressures of my Enemies by all fair and just correspondencies no man can blame who loves me or the Common-wealth since my Subjects can hardly be happy if I be miserable or enjoy their peace and liberties while I am oppressed The world may see how soon mens designe like Absoloms is by enormous actions to widen differences and exasperate all sides to such distances as may make all reconciliation desperate Yet I thank God I can not only with patience bear this as other indignities but with Charity forgive them The integrity of my intentions is not jealous of any injury My expressions can doe them for although the confidence of privacy may admit greater freedome in writing such Letters which may be liable to envious exceptions yet the Innocency of my chief purposes cannot be so obtained or mis-interpreted by them as not to let all men see that I wish nothing more than an happy composure of differences with Justice and Honour not more to my own then my Peoples content who have any sparks of Love or Loyalty left in them who by those my Letters may be convinced that I can both mind and act my owne and My Kingdomes Affaires so as becomes a Prince which mine enemies have alwaies been very loath should be believed of me as if I were wholly confined to the Dictates and Directions of others whom they please to brand with the names of Evill Counsellours It 's probable some men will now look upon me as my owne Counsellour and having none else to quarrell with under that notion they will hereafter confine their anger to my selfe Although I know they are very unwilling I should enjoy the liberty of my own Thoughts or follow the light of my owne Conscience which they labour to bring into an absolute captivity to themselves not allowing me to think their Counsells to be other then good for me which have so long maintained a Warre against me The Victory they obtained that day when my Letters became their prize had been enough to have satiated the most ambitious thirst of popular glory among the Vulgar with whom prosperity gaines the greatest esteem and applause as adversity exposeth to their greatest slighting and dis-respect As if good fortuâ—e were alwaies the shadow of Vertue and Justice and did not oftner attend vitious and injurious actions as to this world But I see no secular advantages seem sufficient to that cause which began with Tumults and depends chiefly upon the reputation with the Vulgar They think no Victories so effectuall to their designes as those that most rout and waste my Credit with my People in whose hearts they seek by all meanes to smother and extinguish all sparks of Love Respect and Loyalty to me that they may never kindle againe so as to recover mine the Lawes and the Kingdomes Liberties which some men seek to overthrow The taking away of my Credit is but a necessary preparation to the taking away of my life and my Kingdomes First I must seem neither fit to live nor worthy to Reigne By exquisite methods of cunning and cruelty I must be compelled first to follow the Funeralls of my Honour and then be destroyed But I know Gods un-erring and impartiall justice can and will over-rule the most perverse wills and designes of men He is able and I hope will turn even the worst of mine enemies thoughts and actions to my good Nor doe I think that by the surprize of my Letters I have lost any more than so many Papers How much they have lost of that reputation for Civility and Humanity which ought to be pay'd to all men and most becomes such as pretend to Religion besides that of respect and Honour which they owe to their KING present and after-times will judge And I cannot think that their owne consciences are so stupid as not to inflict upon them some secret impressions of that shame and dishonour which attends all unworthy actions have they never so much of publique flattery and popular countenance I am sure they can never expect the divine approbation of such indecent actions if they doe but remember how God blest the modest respect and filâ—all tendernesse which Noahs Sons bare to their Father nor did his open infirmity justifie Chams impudency or exempt him from that curse of being Servant of Servants which curse must needs be on them who seek by dishonourable actions to please the Vulgar and confirme by ignoble acts their dependance upon the People Nor can their malicious intentions be ever either excusable or prosperous who thought by this meanes to expose me to the highest reproach and contempt of My People forgetting that duty of modest concealment which they owed to the Father of their Country in case they had disovered any reall uncomelinesse which I thank God they did not who can and I believe hath made me more respected in the hearts of many as he did David to whom they thought by publishing my private Letters to have rendred me as a vile Person not fit to be trusted or considered under any notion of Majesty But thou ô Lord whose wise and all-disposing providence ordereth the greatest contingences of humane affairs make me to see the constancy of thy mercies to me in the greatest advantages thou seemest to give the malice of my Enemies against me As thou didst blast the counsell of Achitophel â—urning it to Davids good and his own ruine so so canst thou defeat their designe who intended by publishing my private Letters nothing else but to under me more odious contemptible to my People I must first appeale to thy Omniscience who canst witnesse with my integrity how unjust and â—alse those scandalous misconstructions are which â—y Enemies endeavour by those Papers of mine to â—epresent to the world Make the evill they imagined and displeaâ—â—râ— they intended thereby against me so to 〈◊〉 on their owne heads that they may be ashamed and covered with their owne confusion as with a cloake Thou seest how mine Enemies use all means to cloud mine Honor to pervert my purposes and to slander the footsteps of thine Annointed But give me an heart content to be dishonoured for thy sake and thy Churches good Fix in me a purpose to honour thee and then I know thou wilt honour me either by restoring to me the injoyment of that Power and Majesty which thou hast suffered some men to seeke to deprive me of or by bestowing on me that crowne of Christian patience which knowes how to serve thee in honour or dishonour in good report or evill Thou O Lord art the fountain of goodnesse and honour thou art colathed with excellent Majesty make me to partake of thy excellency for wisdome justice and mercy and I shall not want
or mine with theirs either in Prayer or other holy duties as is meet and most comfortable whose golden Rule and bond of Perfection consists in that of mutuall Love and Charity Some remedies are worse then the disease and some Comforters more miserable then misery it selfe when like Jobs friends they seek not to fortifie ones mind with patience but perswade a man by betraying his own Innocency to despair of Gods mercy and by justifying their injuries to strengthen the hands and harden the hearts of insolent Enemies I am so much a friend to all Church-men that have any thing in them beseeming that sacred Function that I have hazarded My owne Interests chiefly upon Conscience and Constancy to maintaine their Rights whom the more I looked upon as Orphans and under the sacrilegious eyes of many cruell and rapacious Reformers so I thought it my duty the more to appeare as a Father and a Patron for them and the Church Although I am very unhandsomly requited by some of them who may live to repent no lesse for my sufferings than their owne ungratefull errours and that injurious contempt and meannesse which they have brought upon their Calling and Persons I pity all of them I despise none onely I thought I might have leave to make choice of some for my speciall Attendants who were best approved in my judgement and most sutable to my affection For I held it better to seem undevout and to heare no mens prayers than to be forced or seem to comply with those Petitions to which the heart cannot consent nor the tongue say Amen without contradicting a mans own understanding or belying his own soule In Devotions I love neither profane boldnesse nor pious non-sense but such an humble and judicious gravity as shewes the Speaker to be at once considerate of Gods Majesty the Churches honour and his owne Vilenesse both knowing what things God allows him to ask and in what manner it becomes a Sinner to supplicate the divine Mercy for himself and others I am equally scandalized with all prayers that sound either imperiously or rudely and passionately as either wanting humility to God or charity to men or respect to the duty I confesse I am better pleased as with studied and premeditated Sermons so with such publique Formes of Prayers as are fitted to the Churches and every Christians daily and common necessities because I am by them better assured what I may joyne my heart unto than I can be of any mans extemporary sufficiency which as I doe not wholly exclude from publique occasions so I allow its just liberty and use in private and devout retirements where neither the solemnity of the duty nor the modest regard to others doe require so great exactnesse as to the outward manner of performance Though the light of understanding and the fervency of affection I hold the maine and most necessary requisites both in constant and occasionall solitary and sociall Devotions So that I must needs seem to all equall minds with as much Reason to prefer the service of my own Chaplains before that of their Ministers as I do the Liturgy before their Directory In the one I have been alwaies educated and exercised In the other I am not yet Catechized nor acquainted And if I were yet should I not by that as by any certaine rule and Canon of devotion be able to follow or find out the indirect extravagances of most of those men who highly cry up that as a piece of rare composure and use which is already as much despised and disused by many of them as the Common-Prayer sometimes was by those men a great part of whose piety hung upon that popular pin of railing against and contemning the Government and Liturgy of this Church But I had rather be condemned to the woe of Vae soli than to that of Vae vobis Hypocritis by seeming to pray what I do not approve It may be I am esteemed by my Denyers sufficient of My self to discharge My duty to God as a Priest though not to Men as a Prince Indeed I think both Offices Regall and Sacerdotall might will become the same Person as anciently they were under one name and the united rights of primogeniture Nor could I follow better presidents if I were able than those â—wo eminent Kings David and Solomon not more famous for their Scepters and Crownes than one was for devout Psalmes and Prayers the other for his divine Parables and Preaching whence one merited and assumed the name of a Prophet the other of a Preacher Titles indeed of greater Honour where rightly placed than any of those the Roman Emperours affected from the Nations they subdued it being infinitely more glorious to convert Souls to Gods Church by the Word than to conquer men to a subjection by the Sword Yet since the order of Gods wisdome providence hath for the most part alwayes distinguished the gifts and offices of Kings of Priests of Princes and Preachers both in the Jewish Christian Churches I am sorry to find My self reduced to the necessity of being both or enjoying neither For such as seek to deprive Me of Kingly power and Soveraignty would no lesse enforce Me â—o live many Months without all Prayers Sacraments and Sermons unlesse I become My owne Chaplain As I owe the Clergy the protection of a Christian KING so I desire to enjoy from them the benefit of their gifts and prayers which I looke upon as more prevalent than My own or other mens by how much they flow from minds more enlightned affections lesse distracted than those which are uncombred with secular affairs besides I think a greater blessing and acceptablenesse attends those duties which are rightly performed as proper to within the limits of that calling to which God and the Church have specially designed and consecrated some men and however as to that Spirituall Government by which the devout Sonl is â—ubject to Christ and through his merits daily offers it self and its services to God every private believer is a King Preist invested with tbe honour of a Royall Priesthood yet as to Ecclesiasticall order and the outward polity of the Church I think confusion in Religion will as certainly follow every mans turning Priest or Preacher as it will in the State where every one affects to rule as King I was always bred to more modest and I think more pious principles the consciousnesse to My Spirituall defects makes me more prize desire those pious assistances which holy and good Ministers either Bishops or Presbyters may afford Me especially in these extremities to which God hath bin pleased to suffer some of my Subjects to reduce me so as to leave them nothing more but My life to take from me and to leave me nothing to desire which I thought might lesse provoke their jealousie and offence to deny Me than this of having some means afforded Me for My Soules comfort and support To which end I
come far short of Davids piety yet since I may equall Davids afflictions give Me also the comforts and the sure mercies of David Let the penitent sense I have of my sins be an evidence to me that thou hast pardoned them Let not the Evils which I and my Kingdomes have suffered seem little unto thee though thou hast noâ— punished us according to our sins Turn thee O Lord unto Me have mercy upon Me for I am desolate and afflicted The sorrows of my heart are enlarged O bring thou me out of my troubles Hast thou forgotten to be gracious and shut up thy loving kindnesse in displeasure O Remember thy compassions of old and thy loviâ—g kindnesse which have been for many Generations I had utterly fainted if I had not believed to see thy goodnes in the land of the living Let not the sins of our prosperity deprive us of the benefit of thy afflictions Let this fiery tryall consume the dross which in long peace and plenty we had contracted Though thou continuest miseryes yet withdraw not thy grace what is wanting of prosperity make up â—n patience and repentance And if thy anger be not to be yet turned away but thy â—and of iustice most be stretched out still Let it I beseech thee be against me and my Fathers house as for these sheep what have they done Let my sufferings satiate the malice of Mine and thy Churches Enemies But let their cruelty never exceed the measure of my charity Banish from me all thoughts of Revenge that I may not lose the reward nor thou the glory of my patience As thou givest me a heart to forgive them so I beseech thee doe thou fergive what they have done against thee and me And now O Lord as thou hast given me an heart to pray unto thee so hear and accept this Vow which I make before thee If thou wilt in mercy remember me and My Kingdoms In continuing the light of thy Gospell and setling thy true Religion among us In restoring to us the benefit of the Laws and the due execution of â—â—â—tice In suppressing the many Schisms in Church and Factions in State If thou wilt restore me and mine to the anciâ—nt Rights and glory of my Predecessours If thou wilt turne the hearts of My people to thy self in Piety to me in Loyalty and to one another in Charity If thou wilt quench the flames and withdraw the fewell of these Civill Wars If thou wilt bless us with the freedom of publique Counsels and deliver the Honour of Parliaments from the insolency of the Vulgar If thou wilt keep me from the great offence of enacting any thing against my Conscience and especially from consenting to sacrilegious rapines spoilings of thy Church If Thou wilt restore Me to a capacity to glorefâ—e Thee in doing good both to the Church and State Then shall my soule praise thee and magnifie thy name before my People Then shall thy glory be dearer to me then my Crownes and the advancement of true Religion both in purity and power be My chiefest care Then will I rule my People with iustice and my Kingdomes with equity To thy more immediate hand shall I ever owne as the rightfull succession so the mercifull restauration of My Kingdomes and the glory of them If thou wilt bring Me again with peace safety honour to my chiefest City and my Parliament If thou wilt againe put the Sword of Iustice into my hands to punish and protect Then will I make all the world to see and my very Enemics to enioy the benefit of this Vow and resolution of Christian Charity which I now make unto thee O Lord. As I do freely pardon for Christ's sake those that have offended me in any kind so my hand shall never be against any man to revenge what is past in regard of any particular iniury done to me We have been mutually pnnished in our unnaturall divisions for thy sake O Lord for the love of my Redeemer have I purposed this in my heart That I will use all means in tbe wayes of amneâ—ly and indempnity which may most fully remove all fears and bury all iealousies in forgetfulnesse Let thy mercies be toward me and mine as my resolutions of Truth and Peace are toward my People Hear my prayer O Lord which goeth not out of fayned lips Blessed be God who hath not turned away my prayer nor taken his mercy from Me. O my soule commit thy way to the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to passe But if thou wilt not restore me and mine what am I that I should charge thee foolishly Thou O Lord hast given and thou hast taken Blessed be thy name May my people and thy Church be happy if not by me yet without me 26 Vpon the Armies Surprisall of of the King at Holmeby and the ensuing destractions in the two Houses the Army and the City VVHat part God will have Me now to act or suffer in this new and strange scene of affaires I am not much solicitous since little practise will serve that man who onely seeks to represent a part of honesty and honour This surprize of Me tells the world that a KING cannot be so low but He is considerable adding weight to that Party where he appeares This motion like others of the Times seemes excentrique and irregular yet not well to be resisted or quieted Better swim down such a stream than in vaine to strive against it These are but the struglings of those twins which lately one womb enclosed the younger striving to prevaile against the elder what the Presbyterians have hunted after the Independents now seek to catch for themselves So impossible is it for lines to be drawn from the center and not to divide from each other so much the wider by how much they go farther from the point of union That the Builders of Babell should from division fall to confusion is no wonder but for those that pretend to build Ierusalem to divide their Tongues and hands is but an ill omen and sounds too like the fury of those Zealots whose intestine bitternesse and divisions were the greatest occasion of the last fatall destruction of that City Well may I change my Keepers and Prison but not my captive condition onely with this hope of bettering that those who are so much professed Patrons for the Peoples Liberties cannot be utterly against the Liberty of their King what they demand for their own Consciences they cannot in Reason deny to Mine In this they seem more ingenuous than the Presbyterian rigour who sometimes complaining of exacting their conformity to laws are become the greatest Exactors of other mens submission to their novell injunctions before they are stamped with the Authotity of Lawes which they cannot well have without my consent 'T is a great argument that the Independents think themselves manumitted from their Rivals service in that they carry on a businesse of such consequence as the
they know not what they did The teares they have denied me in my saddest condition give them grace to bestow upon themselves who the lesse they were for me the more cause they have to weep for themselves O let not my bloud be upon them and their Children whom the fraud and faction of some not the malice of all have excited to crucifie Me. But thou O Lord canst and wilt as thou dist my Redeemer both exalt and perfect me by my sufferings which have more in them of thy mercy then of mans cruelty or thy owne Iustice Natus May 29 An o 1630 AEtatis â— 27 To the Prince of VVales SOn if these Papers with some others wherein I have set down the private reflections of My Conscience and My most impartiall thoughts touching the cheif passages which hath been most remarkable or disputed in My late troubles come to your hands to whom they are chiefly designed they may be so far usefull to you as to state your judgement aright in what hath passed whereof a pious is the best use can be made and they may also give you some directions how to remedy the present distempers and prevent if God will the like for time to come It is some kind of deceiving and lessening the injury of my long restraint when I find My leisure solitude have produced something worthy of My self and usefull to you That neither you nor any other may hereafter measure My Cause by the Successe nor My Judgement of things by My misfortunes which I count the greater by far because they have so farr lighted upon you and some others whom I have most cause to love as well as My self and of whose unmerited sufferings I have a greater sense then of Mine own But this advantage of wisdome you have above other Princes that you have begunne and now spent some years of discretion in the experience of troubles and exercise of patience wherein Piety and all Vertues both Morall and Politicall are commonly better planted to a thriving as Trees set in Winter then in the warmth and serenity of times or amidst those delights which usually attend Princes Courts in times of peace and plenty which are prone either to root up all plants of true Vertue and Honour or to be contented only with some leaves and withering formalities of them without any reall fruits such as tend to the Publick good for which Princes should alwayes remember they are borne and by providence designed The evidence of which different education the holy VVrit affords us in the contemplation of David and Rehoboham The one prepared by many afflictions for a flourishing Kingdome the other unsoftned by the unparalel'd prosperity of Solomons Court and so corrupted to the great diminution both for Peace Honour and Kingdome by those flatteries which are as unseparable from prosperous Princes as Flies are from fruit in Summer whom adversity like could weather drives away I had rather you should be Charles Le Bon then le Grand good then great I hope God hath designed you to both having so early put you into that exercise of his Graces and Gifts bestowed upon you which may best weed out all vicious inclinations and dispose you to those Princely endowments employments which will most gain the love and intend the welfare of those over whom God shall place you With God I would have you begin and end who is King of Kings the Soveraign disposer of the Kingdomes of the world who pullest down one and setteth up another The best Government highest Sove raignty you can attain to is to be subject to him that the Scepter of his Word and Spirit may rule in your heart The true glory of Princes consists in advancing Gods glory in the maintenance of true Religion and the Churches good Also in the dispensation of civill Power with Justice and Honour to the publike Peace Piety will make you prosperous at least it wil keep you from being miserable nor is he much a loser that looseth all yet saveth his own Soul at last To which center of true Happinesse God I trust hath and will graciously direct all these black lines of Affliction which he hath bin pleased to draw on Me and by which he hath I hope drawn me nearer to himself You have already tasted of that cup whereof I have liberally drank which I look upon as Gods phisick having that in healthfulnesse which it wants in pleasure Above all I would have you as I hope you are already well-grounded setled in your Religion The best profession of which I have ever esteemed that of the Church of England in which you have been educated yet I would have your own Iudgement and Reason now seal to that sacred bond which education hath written that it may be judiciously your owne Religion and not other mens custome or tradition which you professe In this I charge you to persevere as comming nearest to Gods VVord for Doctrine and to the primitive examples for Government with soms little amendment which I have otherwhere expressed and often offered though in vaine Your fixation in matters of Religion will not be more necessary for your soule then your Kingdoms peace when God shall bring you to them For I have observed that the Divell of Rebellion doth commonly turne himselfe into an Angell of Reformation and the old Serpent can pretend new Lights When some mens Consciences accuse them for Sedition and Faction they stop its mouth with the name and noise of Religion when Piety pleads for peace and patience they cry out Zeale So that unlesse in this point You be well settled you shall never want temptations to destroy you and yours under pretensions of forming matters of Religion for that seemes even to worst men as the best and most auspicious beginning of their worst designes VVhere besides the Novelty which is taking enough with the Vulgar every one hath an affection by seeming forward to an outward Reformation of Religion to be thought zealous hoping to cover those irreligious deformities whereto they are conscious by severity of censuring other mens opinions or actions Take heed of abetting any Factions or applying to any publick discriminations in matters of Religion contrary to what is in your judgement and the Church well setled your partiall adhering as head to any one side gaines you not so great advantages in some mens hearts who are prone to be of their Kings Religion as it loseth you in others who think themselves and their profession first despised then persecuted by you Take such a course as may either with calmnesse and charity quite remove the seeming differences and offences by impartiality or so order affairs in point of Power that you shall not need to feare or flatter any Faction For if ever you stand in need of them or must stand to their curtesie you are undone The Serpent will devour the Dove you may never expect lesse of loyalty justice or humanity
consent without tyranny or Tumults We must not starve our selves because some men have surfeited of wholsome food And if neither I nor You be ever restored to Our Rights but God in his severest justice will punish My Subjects with continuance in their sinne and suffer them to be deluded with the prosperity of their wickednesse I hope God will give Me and You that grace which will teach and enable Vs to want as well as to weare a Crowne which is not worth taking up or enjoying upon sordid dishonourable and irreligious terms Keep you to true principles of piety virtue and honour you shall never want a Kingdom A principall point of your honour will consist in your deferring all respect love and protection to your Mother My Wife who hath many waies deserved well of Me and chiefly in this that having beene a meanes to blesse Me with so many hopefull Children all which with their Mother I recommend to your love and care She hath been content with incomparable magnanimity and patience to suffer both for and with Me and you My prayer to God Almighty is what ever becomes of Me who am I thank God wrapt up and fortified in My owne Innocency and his grace that he would be pleased to make you an Anchor or Harbour rather to these tossed and weather-beaten Kingdomes a Repairer by your wisdome Iustice piety and valour of what the folly and wickednesse of some mâ—n have so farre ruined as to leave nothing entire in Church or State to the Crowne the Nobility the Clergy or the Commons either as to Lawes Liberties Estates Order Honour Conscience or Lives When they have destroyed Me for I know not how farre God may permit the malice and cruelty of My Enemies to proceed and such apprehensions some mens words and actions have already given Me as I doubt not but My bloud will crie aloud for vengeance to heaven so I beseech God not to poure out his wrath upon the generality of the people who have either deserted Me or engaged against Me through the artifice and hypocrisie of their Leaders whose inward horrour will be their first Tormenter nor will they escape exemplary judgements For those that loved Me I pray God they may have no misse of Me when I am gone so much I wish and hope that all good Subjects may be satisfyed with the blessings of Your presence virtues For those that repent of any defects in their duty toward Me as I freely forgive them in the word of a Christian King so I beleive You will find them truly zealous to repay with interest that Loyalty and love to you which was due to Me. In summe what good I intended do you performe when God shall give You power much good I have offered more I purposed to church and State if times had been capable of it The deception will soon vanish and the Vizards will fall off apace This maske of Religion on the face of Rebellion for so it now plainly appears since My restraint and cruell usage that they fought not for Me as was pretended will not long serve to hide some mens deformities Happy times I hope attend you wherein Your Subjects by their miseries will have learned That Religion to their God and Loyalty to their King cannot be parted without both their sin their infelicity And if God blesse You and establish your Kingdomes in righteousnesse your Soule in true Religion and your honour in the love of God and your People And if God will have disloyalty perfected by My destruction let My memory ever with My name live in You as of your Father that loves you and once a KING of three flourishing Kingdomes whom God thought fit to honour not only with the Scepter and government of them but also with the suffering many indignities and an untimely death for them while I studied to preserve the rights of the Church the power of the Lawes the honour of My Crown the priviledge of Parliaments the liberties of My People and My owne Conscience which I thank God is dearer to Me than a thousand Kingdomes I know God can I hope he yet will restore Me to My Rights I cannot despaire either of his mercy or of My Peoples love and pity At worst I trust I shall but go before you to a better Kingdome which God hath prepared for Me and Me for it through My Saviour Jesus Christ to whose mercies I commend you and all mine Farewell till we meet if not on Earth yet in Heaven Meditations upon Death after the Votes of Non-Addresses and His Maiesties Closer Jmprisonment in Carisbrooke-Castle AS I have leisure enough so I have cause more than enough to meditate upon prepare for My Death for I know there are but few steps between the Prisons and grave of Princes It is Gods indulgence which gives Me the space but Mans cruelty that gives Me the sad occasions for these thoughts For besides the common burden of mortality which lies upon Me as a Man I now bear the heavy load of other mens ambitions fears jealousies and cruell passions whose envy or enmity against Me makes their owne lives seem deadly to them while I enjoy any part of Mine I thank God My prosperity made Me not wholly a Stranger to the contemplations of mortality Those are never unseasonable since this is alwayes uncertain Death being an eclipse which oft happineth as well in clear as cloudy dayes But My now long and sharp adversity hath so reconciled in Me those naturall Antipathies between Life and Death which are in all men that I thank God the common terrours of it are dispelled and the speciall horour of it as to My particular much allayed for although my death at present may justly be represented to Me with all those terrible aggravations which the policy of cruel and implacable enemies can put upon it affaires being drawne to the very dregs of malice yet I blesse God I can look upon all those stings as unpoysonous though sharp since My Redeemer hath eith er pulled them out or given Me the Antidote of his death against them which as to the immaturity unjustice shame scorn and cruelty of it exceeded what ever I can fear Indeed I never did find so much the life of Religion the feast of a good Conscience and the brazen wall of a judicious integrity and constancy as since I came to these closer conflicts with the thoughts of Death I am not so old as to be weary of life nor I hope so bad as to be either afraid to dye or ashamed to live true I am so afflicted as might make Me sometime even desire to die if I did not consider that it is the greatest glory of christians life to dye daily in conquering by a lively faith and patient hopes of a better life those partiall and quotidian deaths which kills us as it were by peicemeales and make us over-live our own FATES while we are deprived of health