Enemies have used all the poyson of falsity and violence of hostility to destroy first the love and Loyalty which is in My Subjects and then all that content of life in Me which from these I chiefly enjoyed Indeed they have left Me but little of life and only the husk and shell as it were which their further malice and cruelty can take from Me having bereaved Me of all those worldly comforts for which life it self seems desirable to men But O My Soule think not that life too long or tedious wherein God gives thee any opportunities if not to doe yet to suffer with such Christian patience and magnanimity in a good Cause as are the greatest honour of our lives and the best improvement of our deaths I know that in point of true Christian valour it argues pusillanimity to desire to die out of wearinesse of life and a want of that heroick greatnesse of spirit which becomes a Christian in the patient and generous sustaining those afflictions which as shadows necessarily attend us while we are in this body and which are lessened or enlarged as the Sun of our prosperity moves higher or lower whose totall absence is best recompensed with the Dew of Heaven The assaults of affliction may be terrible like Sampson's Lyon but they yeild much sweetnesse to those that dare to encounter and overcome them who know how to overlive the witherings of their Gourds without discontent or peevishnesse while they may yet converse with God That I must die as a Man is certain that I may die a King by the hands of My own Subjects a violent sodain and barbarous death in the strength of My years in the midst of My Kingdoms My Friends and loving Subjects being helplesse Spectators My Enemies insolent Revilers and Triumphers over Me living dying and dead is so probable in humane reason that God hath taught me not to hope otherwise as to mans cruelty however I despaire not of Gods infinite mercy I know My Life is the object of the Devils wicked mens malice but yet under Gods sole custody disposall Whom I do not think to flatter for longer life by seeming prepared to die but I humbly desire to depend upon him to submit to his will both in life death in what order soever he is pleased to lay them out to Me. I confesse it is not easie for Me to contend with those many horrours of death wherewith God suffers Me to be tempted which are equally horrid either in the suddennesse of a barbarous Assasination or in those greater formalities whereby My Enemies being more solemnly cruell will it may be seeke to adde as those did who Crucified Christ the mockery of Justice to the cruelty of Malice That I may be destroyed as with greater pomp and artifice so with lesse pity it will be but a necessary policy to make My death appeare as an act of â—ustice done by Subjects upon their Soveraigne who know that no Law of God or Man invests them with any power of Judicature without Me much lesse against Me and who being sworn and bound by all that is sacred before God and man to endeavour My preservation must pretend Justice to cover their Perjury It is indeed a sad fate for any man to have his Enemies to be Accusers Parties and Judges but most desperate when this is acted by the insolence of Subjects against their Soveraigne wherein those who have had the chiefest hand and are most guilty of contriving the publique Troubles must by shedding My bloud seem to wash their own hands of that innocent bloud whereof they are now most evidently guilty before God and man and I believe in their owne consciences too while they carried on unreasonable demands first by Tumults after by Armies Nothing makes meane spirits more cowardly-cruell in managing their usurped power against their lawfull Superiours than this the Guilt of their unjust Usurpation notwithstanding those specious and popular pretensions of Justice against Delinquents applied onely to disguise at first the monstrousnesse of their designes who despaired indeed of possessing the power and profits of the Vineyard till the Heire whose right it is be cast out and slaine With them My greatest fault must be that I would not either destroy My selfe with the Church and State by My Word or not suffer them to doe it unresisted by the Sword whose covetous ambition no Concessions of Mine could ever yet either satisfie or abate Nor is it likely they will ever think that Kingdome of brambles which some men seek to erect at once weak sharp and fruitlesse either to God or man is like to thrive till watered with the Royall bloud of those whose right the Kingdome is Well Gods will be done I doubt not but My Innocency will find him both My Protectour and My Advocate who is My onely Judge whom I owne as King of Kings not onely for the eminency of his power and majesty above them but also for that singular care and protection which he hath over them who knows them to be exposed to as many dangers being the greatest Patrones of Law Justice Order and Religion on earth as there be either Men or Devils which love confusion Nor will he suffer those men long to prosper in their Babel who build it with the bones and cement it with the bloud of their Kings I am confident they will find Avengers of My death among themselves the injuries I have sustained from them shall be first punished by them who agreed in nothing so much as in opposing Me. Their impatience to beare the loud cry of My bloud shall make them think no way better to expiate it than by shedding theirs who with them most thirsted after Mine The sad confusions following My destruction are already presaged and confirmed to Me by those I have lived to see since My troubles in which God alone who onely could hath many waies pleaded My cause not suffering them to go unpunished whose confederacy in sinne was their onely security who have cause to feare that God will both further divide and by mutuall vengeance afterward destroy them My greatest conquest of Death is from the power and love of Christ who hath swallow'd up death in the victory of his Resurrection and the glory of his Ascension My next comfort is that he gives Me not onely the honour to imitate his example in suffering for righteousnesse sake though obscured by the foulest charges of Tyranny and Injustice but also that charity which is the noblest revenge upon and victory over My Destroyers By which I thank God I can both forgive them and pray for them that God would not impute My bloud to them further then to convince them what need they have of Christs bloud to wash their soules from the guilt of shedding Mine At present the will of My Enemies seems to be their onely rule their power the measure and their successe the Exactor of what they please to
the satisfaction to have destroyed my Soul with my Body of whose salvation while some of them have themselves seemed and taught others to despaire they have only discover'd this that they do not much desire it Whose uncharitable and cruell Restraints denying me even the assistance of any of my Chaplains hath rather enlarged than any way obstructed my accesse to the Throne of Heaven Where thou dwellest O King of Kings who fillest Heaven and Earth who art the fountaine of eternall life in whom is no shadow of death Thou O God art both the just Afflicter of death upon us and the mercifull Saviour of us in it and from it Yea it is better for us to be dead to our selves â—nd live in thee than by living in our selves to be deprived of thee O make the many bitter aggravations of My death as a Man and a King the opportunities and advantages of thy speciall graces and comfâ—rts in My Soule as a Christian. If thou Lord wilt be with Me I shall neither feare nor feel any evill though I walke through the valley of the shadow of death To contâ—nd with death is the worke of a weake and mortall mâ—n to overcome it is the grace of thee alone who art the Almighty and immortall God O My Saviour who knowest what it is to die with Me as a Man make Me to know what it is to passe through death to life with thee My God Though I die yet I know that thou my Redeeâ—er livest for ever though thou slayest Me yet thou hast incouraged me to trust in thee for eternall life O withdraw not thy favour from me which is â—â—tter than life O be not farre from me for I know not how neer a violent and cruell death is to me As thy Omniscience O God discovers so thy Omnipotence can defeat the designes of those who have or shall conspire my destruction O shew me the goodnesse of thy will through the wickednesse of theirs Thou givest me leave â—s a man to pray that this cup may passe from me but thou hast taught Me as a Christian by the example of Christ tâ— adde not My will but thine be done Yea Lord let our wills be one by wholly resolving mine into thine let not the desire â—f life in me be so great as that of doing or suffering thy â—ill in either life or death As I believe thou hast forgiven all the errours of my life so I hope thou wilt save me from the terrours of my death Make me content to leave the worlds nothing that I may come really tâ— enjoy all in thee whâ— hast made Christ unto me in life gaine and in death advantage Though my Destroyers forget their duty tâ— thee and me yet doe not thou O Lâ—rd forget to be mercifull to them For what profit is there in my bloud or in their gaining my Kingdomes if they lose their owne Sâ—ules Such as have not onely resisted my just Power but wholly usurped and turned it against my self though they may deserve yet let them not receive to themselves damnaâ—ion Thou madest thy Sonne a Saviour to many that Crucified Him while at once he suffered violently by them and yet willingly for them O let the voice of his bloud be heard for My Murtherers louder than the cry of mine against them Prepare them for thy mercy by due convictiâ—ns of their sinne and let them not at once deceive and damne theiâ— owne Soules by fallacious pretensions of Iustice in destroying me while the conscience of their unjust usurpation of power against me chiefly tempts them to use all extremities against me O Lord thou knowest I have found their mercies to me as very false so very cruell who pretending to preserve me have meditated nothing but my ruine O deale not with them as bloud-thirsty and deâ—eitfull men but overcome their cruelty with thy compassion and my charity And when thou makest inquisition for My bloud O sprinkle their polluted yet penitent Soules with the bloud of thy Sonne that thy destroying Angel may passe over them Though they think my Kingdomes on earth too little to entertaine at once both them and me yet let the capacious Kingdome of thy infinite mercy at last receive both me and my enemies When being reconciled to thee in the bloud of the same Redeemer we shall live farre above these ambitious desires which beget such mortall enmities When their hands shall be heaviest and cruellest upon me O let me fall into the armes of thy tender and eternall mercies That what is cut off my life in this miserable moment may be repaied in thy ever-blessed eternity Lord let thy Servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen thy salvation Vota dabunt quae bella negârunt FINIS
quarrell then any reall obstructions of publick Justice or Parliamentary Priviledge But this is pretended and this I must be able to avoid and answer before God in My owne Conscience however some men are not willing to beleeve Me lest they should condemne themselves When I first withdrew from White-hall to see if I could allay the insolency of the Tumults the not suppressing of which no account in Reason can be given where an orderly Guard was granted but only to oppresse both Mine and the Two Houses freedome of declaring and voting according to every mans Conscience what obstructions of Justice were there further then this that what seemed just to one man might not seeme so to another Whom did I by power protect against the Justice of Parliament That some men withdrew who feared the partiality of their tryall warned by My Lord of Straffords death while the vulgar threatned to be their Oppressors and Judgers of their Judges was from that instinct which is in all creatures to preserve themselves If any others refused to appear where they evidently saw the current of Justice and Freedom so stopped and troubled by the Rabble that their lawfull Judges either durst not come to the Houses or not declare their sense with liberty and safety it cannot seem strange to any reasonable man when the sole exposing them to publick odium was enough to ruine them before their Cause could be heard or tryed Had not factious Tumults overborne the Freedome and Honour of the two Houses had they asserted their Justice against them and made the way open for all the Members quietly to come and declare their Consciences I know no man so deare to Me whom I had the least inclination to advise either to withdraw himself or deny appearing upon their Summons to whose Sentence according to Law I think every Subject bound to stand Distempers indeed were risen to so great a height for want of timelyâ—repressing the vulgar insolencies that the greatest guilt of those which were Voted and demanded as Delinquents was this That they would not suffer themselves to be over-aw'd with the Tumults and their Patrones nor compelled to abet by their suffrages or presence the designes of those men who agitated innovations and ruine both in Church and State In this point I could not but approve their generous constancy and cautiousnesse further then this I did never allow any mans refractorinesse against the Priviledges and Orders of the Houses to whom I wished nothing more then Safety Fulnesse and Freedome But the truth is some men and those not many despairing in faire and Parliamentary wayes by free deliberations and Votes to gain the concurrence of the Major part of Lords and Commons betook themselves by the desperate activity of factious Tumults to sift and terrifie away all those Members whom they saw to be of contrary minds to their purposes How oft was the businesse of the Bishops enjoying their Ancient places and undoubted Priviledges in the House of Peeres carried for them by farre the Major part of Lords Yet after five repulses contray to all Order and Custome it was by tumultuary instigations obtruded again and by a few carried when most of the Peeres were forced to absent them-themselves In like manner as the Bill against Root and Branch brought on by tumultuary Clamours and schismaticall Terrours which could never passe till both Houses were sufficiently thinned and over-awed To which Partiality while in all Reason Justice and Religion My conscience forbids Me by consenting to make up their Votes to Acts of Parliament I must now be urged with an Army and constrained either to hazard My owne and My Kingdomes ruine by my Defence or prostrate My Conscience to the blind obedience of those men whose zealous superstition thinks or pretends they cannot do God and the Church a greater service than utterly to destroy that Primitive Apostolicall and anciently Universall Government of the Church by Bishops Which if other mens judgements bind them to maintain or forbids them to consent to the abolishing of it Mine much more who besides the grounds I have in My judgement have also a most strickt and indispensable Oath upon My Conscience to preserve that Order and the Rights of the Church to which most Sacrilegious and abhorred Perjury most un-beseeming a Christian King should I ever by giving My Consent be betrayed I should account it infinitely greater misery then any hath or can befall Meâ— in as much as the least sinne hath more evill in it then the greatest affliction Had I gratified their Anti-episcopall Faction at first in this point with My consent and sacrificed the Ecclesiasticall Government and Revenues to the fury of their covetuousnesse ambition and revenge I believe they would then have found no colourable necessity of raising an Army to fetch in and punish Delinquents That I consented to the Bill of putting the Bishops out of the House of Peers was done with a firm perswasion of their contentednes to suffer a present diminution in their Rights and Honour for My sake and the Common-weals which I was confident they would readily yeeld unto rather then occasion by the least obstruction on their part any dangers to Me or to My Kingdome That I cannot adde My consent for the totall extirpation of that Government which I have often offered to all fit regulations hath so much further tie upon My Conscience as what I think Religious and Apostolicall and so very Sacred and Divine is not to be dispensed with or destroyed when what is only of civill Favor and priviledge of Honour granted to men of that Order may with their consent who are concerned in it be annulled This is the true state of those obstructions pretended to be in point of Justice and Authority of Parliament when I call God to witnesse I knew none of such consequence as was worth speaking of a Warre being only such as Justice Reason and Religion had made in My owne and other mens Consciences Afterwards indeed a great shew of Delinquents was made which were but consequences necessarily following upon Mine or others withdrawing from or defence against violence but those could not be the first occasion of raising an Army against Me. Wherein I was so far from preventing them as they have declared often that they might seeme to have the advantage and Justice of the defensive part and load Me with all the envy and injuries of first assaulting them that God knows I had not so much as any hopes of an Army in My thoughts Had the Tumults been Honourably and Effectually repressed by exemplary Justice and the liberty of the Houses so vindicated that all Members of either House might with Honour and Freedome becomming such a Senate have come and discharged their Consciences I had obtained all that I designed by My withdrawing and had much more willingly and speedily returned then I retired this being My necessity driving the other My choise desiring But some men
wherein they doe not onely not consider their sin and danger but glory in their zealous adventures while I am rendred to them so fit to be destroyed that many are ambitious to merit the name of My Destroyers Imagining they then feare God most when they least honour their King I thanke God I never found but My pity was above My anger noâ— have My passions ever so prevailed against Me as to exclude My most compassionate prayers for them whom devout errours more than their own malice have betrayed to a most religious Rebellion I had the Charity to interpret that most part of My Subjects fought against My â—upposed Errours not My Person and intended to mend Me not to end Me And I hope that God pardoning their Errours hath so farre accepted and answered their good intentions that as he hath yet preserved Me so he hath by these afflictions prepared Me both to doe him better service and My people more good than hitherto I have done I doe not more willingly forgive their seductions which occasioned their loyall injuries then I am ambitious by all Princely merits to redeem them from their unjust suspicions and reward them for their good intentions I am too conscious to My own Affections toward the generality of My people to suspect theirs to Me nor shall the malice of My Enemies ever be able to deprive Me of the comfort which that confidence gives Me I shall never gratifie the spightfulnesse of a few with any sinister thoughts of all their Allegiance whom pious frauds have seduced The worst some mens ambition can do shall never perswade Me to make so bad interpretations of most of My Subjects actions who possibly may be Erroneous but not Hereticall in point of Loyalty The sense of the Injuries done to My Subjects is as sharp as those done to My self our welfares being inseparable in this only they suffer more then My self that they are animated by some seducers to injure at once both themselves and Me. For this is not enough to the malice of My Enemies that I be afflicted but it must be done by such instruments that My afflictions grieve Me not more then this doth that I am afflicted by those whose prosperity I earnestly desire and whose seduction I heartily deplore If they had been My open and forraigne Enemies I could have borne it but they must be My own Subjects who are next to My Children dear to Me And for the restoring of whose tranquillity I could willingly be the Ionah If I did not evidently foresee that by the divided Interests of their and Mine Enemies as by contrary winds the storm of their miseries would be rather encreased then allayed I had rather prevent My peoples ruine then Rule over them nor am I so ambitious of that Dominion which is but My Right as of their happinesse if it could expiate or countervail such a way of obtaining it by the highest injuries of Subjects committed against their Soveraign Yet I had rather suffer all the miseries of life and die many deaths then shamefully to desert or dishonourably to betray My own just Rights and Soveraignty thereby to gratifie the ambition or justifie the malice of My Enemies between whose malice other mens mistakes I put as great a difference as between an ordinary Ague and the Plague or the Itch of Novelty and the Leprosie of Disloyalty As Liars need have good memories so Malicious persons need good inventions that their calumnies may fit every mans fancy and what their reproaches want of truth they may make up with number and shew My patience I thank God will better serve Me to bear and My charity to forgive then My leisure to answer the many false Aspersions which some men have cast upon Me. Did I not more consider My Subjects Satisfaction then My own Vindication I should never have given the malice of some men that pleasure as to see Me take notice of or remember what they say or object I would leave the Authors to be punished by their own evill manners and seared Consciences which will I believe in a shorter time then they be aware of both confute and revenge all those black and false Scandalls which they have cast on Me And make the world see there is as little truth in them as there was little worth in the broaching of them or Civility I need not say Loyalty in the not-suppressing of them whose credit and reputation even with the people shall ere long be quite blasted by the breath of that same fornace of popular obloquy and detraction which they have studied to heat and inflame to the highest degree of infamy and wherein they have sought to cast and consume My Name and Honour First nothing gave Me more cause to suspect and search My own Innoceâ—â—y then when I observed so many forward to engage against Me who had made great professions of singular piety For this gave to vulgar mindes so bad a reflection upon Me and My Cause as if it had been impossible to adhere to Me and not withall part from God to think or speak well of Me and not to Blaspheme him so many were perswaded that these two were utterly inconsistent to be at once Loyall to Me and truly Religious toward God Not but that I had I thank god many with Me which were both Learned and Religious much above that ordinary size and that vulgar proportion wherein some men glory so much who were so well satisfied in the cause of My sufferings that they chose rather to suffer with Me then forsake Me. Nor is it strange that so religious Pretensions as were used against Me should be to many well-minded men a great temptation to oppose Me Especially being urged by such popular Preachers as think it no sin to lie for God and what they please to call Gods Cause cursing all that will not curse with them looking so much at and crying up the goodnesse of the end propounded that they consider not the lawfulnesse of the means used nor the depth of the mischeif chiefly plotted and intenâ—ed The weakness of these mens judgments must be made up by their clamours and activity It was a great part of some mens Religion to scandalize Me and Mine they thought theirs could not be true if they cried not downe Mine as false I thank God I have had more triall of his grace as to the constancy of My Religion in the Protestant profession of the Church of England both abroad and at home than ever they are like to have Nor doe I know any exception I am so liable to in their opinion as too great a fixednesse in that Religion whose judicious and solid grounds both from Scripture and Antiquity will not give My Conscience leave to approve or consent to those many dangerous and divided Innovations which the bold Ignorance of some men would needs obtrude upon Me and My People Contrary to those well tried foundations both of Truth and Order
obtaine neither shall Restraint which though it have as little of safety to a Prince yet it hath not more of danger The feare of men shall never be my snare nor shall the love of any liberty entangle my soule Better others betray me than my self and that the price of my liberty should be my Conscience the greatest injuries my Enemies seek to inflict upon me cannot be without my owne consent While I can deny with Reason I shall defeat the greatest impressions of their malice who neither know how to use worthily what I have already granted nor what to require more of me but this That I would seem willing to help them to destroy My self Mine Although they should destroy me yet they shall have no cause to despise me Neither liberty nor life are so deare to me as the peace of my Conscience the Honour of my Crownes and the welfare of my People which my Word may injure more than any Warre can doe while I gratifie a few to oppresse all The Lawes will by Gods blessing revive with the love and Loyalty of my Subjects if I bury them not by my Consent and cover them in that grave of dishonour and injustice which some mens violence hath digged for them If my Captivity or death must be the price of their redemption I grâ—dge not to pay it No condition can make a King miserable which carries not with it his Souls his Peoples and Posterities thraldome After-times may see what the blindnesse of this Age will not and God may at length shew my Subjects that I chuse rather to suffer for them than with them happily I might redeem my selfe to some shew of liberty if I would consent to enslave them I had rather hazard the ruine of one King than to confirme many Tyrants over them from whom I pray God deliver them whatever becomes of Me whose solitude hath not left Me alone For thou O God infinitely good and great art with Me whose presence is better than life and whose service is perfect freedome Owne Me for thy Servant and I shall never have cause to complaine for want of that liberty which becomes a Man a Christian and a King Blesse Me still with Reason as a Man with Religion as a Christian and with Coâ—stancy in Iustice as a King Though thou sufferest Me to be stript of all outward ornaments yet preserve Me ever in those enjoyments wherein I may enjoy thy selfe and which cannot be taken from Me against my will Let no fire of affliction boyle â—ver My passion to any impatience or sordid feares There be many say of Me There is no help for Me doe thou lift up the Light of thy Countenance upon Me and I shall neither want safety liberty nor Majesty Give Me that measure of patience and Constâ—ncy which my condition now requires My strength is scattered My expectation froâ— Men defeated My Person restrained O be not thou farre from Me lest My Enemies prevaile too much against Me. I am become a wonder and a scorne to many O be thou my Helper and Defender Shew some token upon me for good that they that hate me may be ashamed because thou Lord hast holpen and comforted me establish me with thy free Spirit that I may do and suffer thy will as thou wouldst have me Be mercifull to me O Lord for my Soule trusteth in thee yea and in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge untill these calamities be overpast Arise to deliver me make no long â—arrying O my God Though thou killest me yet will I trust in thy mercy and my Saviour merit I know that my Redeemer liveth though thou leadest me through the vayl and shadow of death yet shall I feare none ill 24. Vpon their denying His Majesty the Attendance of His Chaplaines WHen Providence was pleased to deprive Me of all other civill comforts and secular attendants I thought the absence of them all might best be supplyed by the attendance of some of My Chaplaines whom for their Function I reverence and for their Fidelity I have cause to love By their learning piety and prayers I hoped to be either better enabled to sustaine the want of all other enjoyments or better fitted for the recovery and use of them in Gods good time so reaping by their pious help a spirituall harvest of grace amidst the thornes and after the plowings of temporall crosses The truth is I never needed or desired more the service and assistance of men judiciously pious and soberly devout The solitude they have confined Me unto adds the Wildernesse to my temptations For the company they obtrude upon Me is more sad than any solitude can be If I had asked My Revenues My Power of the Militia or any one of My Kingdomes it had been no wonder to have been denyed in those things where the evill policy of men forbids all just restitution lest they should confesse an injurious usurpation But to deny Me the Ghostly comfort of My Chaplaines seemes a greater rigour and barbarity then is ever used by Christians to the meanest Prisoners and greatest Malefactors whom though the Justice of the Law deprive of worldly comforts yet the mercy of Religion allows them the benefit of their Clergy as not ayming at once to destroy their Bodies and to damne their Soules But My Agony must not be relieved with the presence of any one good Angell for such I account a Learâ—ed Godly and discreet Divine and such I would have all Mine to be They that envy My being a King are loath I should be a Christian while they seek to deprive Me of all things else They are afraid I should save my Soul Other sense Charity it self can hardly pick out of those many harsh Repulses I received as to that Request so often made for the attendance of some of My Chaplaines I have sometime thought the Unchristiannesse of those denialls might arise from a displeasure some men had to see me prefer my own Divines before their Ministers whom though I respect for that worth and piety which may be in them yet I cannot thinke them so proper for any present comforters or Physitians Who have some of them at least had so great an influence in occasioning these calamities and inflicting these wounds upon Me. Nor are the soberest of them so apt for that devotionall complyance and juncture of hearts which I desire to bear in those holy Offices to be performed with Me and for Me since their judgements standing at a distance from me or in jealousie of me or in opposition against me their Spirits cannot so harmoniously accord with mine 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 diseasâ— and some comforters more miserable then misery it self when like Iobs friends they seek not to fortifie ones mind
and You that grace which will teach and enable Us to want as well as to weare a Crowne which is not worth taking up or enjoying upon â—ordid dishonourable and irreligious tearms Keep You to true principles of piety vertue and honour You shall never want a Kingdome 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 been a means to blessâ— 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 isâ— whatever becomes of Me who am I thank God wrapt up and fortified in My own 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 justice piety and valour of what the folly and wickednesse of some men have so farre ruined as to leave nothing entire in Church or State to the Crown 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 cry 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 judgments 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 satisfied with the blessings of Your presence and 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 believe 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 doe You performe when God shall give You power much good I have offered more I purposed to Church State if times had been capable of it The deception will soone vanish and the Vâ—zards 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 sought 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 and their infelicity I pray 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 onely 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 Crowne 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 MAJESTIES closer Imprisonment in Carisbrooke-Castle AS I have leisure enough so I have cause more than enough to meditate upon and prepare for My Death for I know there are but few steps between the Prisons and Graves 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 burthen of moâ—tality 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 lifes 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 alwaies uncertaine Death being an eclipse which oft happeneth as well in clear as cloudy daies 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 terrors of it are dispelled and the speciall horrour 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 cruell and implacable enemies can put upon it affaires being drawn 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 either pulled them out or given Me the antidote of his Death against them which as to the immaturity unjustice shame scorne and cruelty of it exceeded whatever I can feare 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 â—o 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 die 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 a Christians life to dailyâ— in conquering by a lively faith and patient hopes of a better life those partiall and quotidian deaths which kill us as it were by piece-meales and make us overlive our owne fates while We are deprived of health honour liberty power credit safety or estate and those other comforts of dearest relations which are as the life of our lives Though as a KING I think My self to live in nothing temporall so much as in the love and good-will of My People for which as I have suffered many deaths so I hope I am not in that point as yet wholly dead notwithstanding My