providence can avail nor prevent my destruction Lay aside all humane wisdom and let us rest upon Divine Revelation if you will condemn before you forewarn the danger Oh my Lords may your Lordships be pleased to give that regard unto the Peerage of England as never to suffer our selves to be put on those nice points upon such contractive interpretations and these are where Laws are not clear or known If there must be a tryal of wits I do humbly beseech you the subject and matter may be somewhat else than the lives and honours of Peers My Lords we find that the primitive times in the progression of the plain Doctrine of the Apostles they brought the Books of curious Arts and burned them And so likewise as I do conceive it will be wisdom and providence in your Lordships for your Posterity and the whole Kingdom to cast from you into the fire these bloudy and most mysterious Volumes of Constructive and Arbitrary Treason and to betake your selves to the plain Letters of the Law and Statute that telleth us where the crime is and by telling what is and what is not shews us how to avoid it And let us not be ambitious to be more wise and learned in the killing Arts than our Forefathers were It is now full two hundred and forty years since ever any man was touched for this alledged crime to this height before my self we have lived happily to our selves at home and we have lived gloriously to the World abroad Let us rest contented with that our Fathers left us and not awaken those sleepy Lions to our own destructions by raking up a few musty Records that have lain so many Ages by the walls quite forgotten and neglected May your Lordships be nobly pleased to add this to those other mis-fortunes befallen me for my sins not for my Treasons that a president should be derived from me of that disadvantage as this will be in the consequent to the whole Kingdom I beseech you seriously to consider it and let not my particular Cause be looked upon as you do though you wound me in my interest in the Commonwealth and therefore those Gentlemen say that they speak for the Commonwealth yet in this particular I indeed speak for it and the inconveniencies and mischiefs that will heavily fall upon us for as it is in the first of Henry the Fourth no man will after know what to do or say for fear Do not put my Lords so great difficulties upon the Ministers of State that men of wisdom honour and vertue may not with chearfulnesse and safety be imployed for the Publick if you weigh and measure them by grains and scruples the publick affaires of the Kingdom will be laid wast and no man will meddle with them that hath honours issues or any fortunes to lose My Lords I have now troubled you longer than I should have done were it not for the interest of those dear pledges a Saint in Heaven left me I should be loath my Lords there he stopped What I forfeit for my self it is nothing but that my indiscretion should forfeit for my child it even woundeth me deep to the very Soul You will pardon my infirmitie something I should have said but I am not able and sighed therefore let it passe And now my Lords I have been by the blessing of Almighty God taught that the afflictions of this life present are not to be compared to the eternal weight of that glory that shall be revealed to us hereafter And so my Lords even so with tranquility of mind I do submit my self freely and clearly to your Lordships judgments and whether that Righteous judgment shall be to life or death The Earl of Straffords Speech on the Scaffold immediatly before his Execution on Tower-hill May 12 1641. My L. Primate of Ireland IT is my very great comfort that I have your Lordship by me this day in regard I have been known to you these many years and I do thank God and your Lordship for it that you are here I should be very glad to obtain so much silence as to be heard a few words but I doubt I shall not the noise is so great My Lords I am come hither by the good will and pleasure of Almighty God to pay that last Debt I owe to sin which is death and by the Blessing of that God to rise again through the Merits of Jesus Christ to Righteousnesse and Life Eternal Here he was a little interrupted My Lords I am come hither to submit to that Judgment which hath passed against me I do it with a very quiet and contented mind I thank God I do freely forgive all the world a forgivenesse that is not spoken from the teeth outwards as they say but from the very heart I speak it in the presence of Almighty God before whom I stand that there is not a displeasing thought arising in me towards any man living I thank God I can say it and truly too my Conscience bearing me witness that in all my employment since I had the honour to serve his Majesty I never had any thing in the purpose of my heart but what tended to the joynt and individual prosperity of King and People although it hath been my ill fortune to be mis-construed I am not the first that hath suffered in this kind it is the common portion of us all while we are in this life to erre righteous Judgment we must wait for in another place for here we are very subject to be mis-judged one of another There is one thing that I desire to free my self of and I am very confident speaking it now with so much chearfulnesse that I shall obtain your Christian Charity in the belief of it I was so far from being against Parliaments that I did alwaies think the Parliaments of England were the most happy Constitutions that any Kingdom or Nation lived under and the best means under God to make the King and People happy For my Death I here acquit all the world and beseech the God of Heaven heartily to forgive them that contrived it though in the Intentions and Purposes of my heart I am not guilty of what I die for And my Lord Primate it is a great comfort for me that his Majesty conceives me not meriting so severe and heavy a punishment as is the utmost Execution of this Sentence I do infinitely rejoyce in this Mercy of his and I beseech God return it into his own bosom that he may find mercy when he stands most in need of it I wish this Kingdom all the Prosperity and Happinesse in the world I did it living and now dying it is my wish I do most humbly recommend this to every one who hears me and desire they would say their hands upon their hearts and consider seriously whether the beginning of the happiness and Reformation of a Kingdom should be written in Letters of Blood consider this when you are at your
Grace And this is certain the riches of his Grace he throweth amongst men that the Glory of his Grace might be given to himself if we can give him but the Glory of his Grace we shall never doubt to partake of the riches of it and that Fulness My Lord that fulness be your Comfort that fulness of Mercy that fulness of love that fulness of righteousness and power be now your riches and your only stay and the Lord interpose himself between God and you as your Faith hath endeavoured to interpose him between God and your soul so I doubt not there he stands my Lord to plead for you and when you are not able to do any thing your self yet lie down at the feet of him that is a merciful Saviour and knows what you would desire and wait upon him while you live trust in him when you die â—here is riches enough and mercy enough if he open not yet die at his door say there I 'le die there is Mercy enough Holland And here is the place where I lie down before him from whence I hope he will raise me to an eternal glory through my Saviour upon whom I relie from whom only I can expect Mercy into his Arms I commend my Spirit into his bleeding Arms that when I leave this bleeding body that must lie upon this place he will receive that Soul that ariseth out of it and receive it into his eternal mercy through the Merits through the worthiness through the Mediation of Christ that hath purchased it with his own most precious Bloud Bolton My Lord though you conclude here I hope you begin above and though you put an end here I hope there will never be an end of the Mercy and goodness of God and if this be the Morning of Eternity if this be the rise of Glory if God pleaseth to throw you down here to raise you up for ever say Welcome Lord welcome that death that shall make way for life and welcom any condition that shall throw me down here to bring me into the possession of Jesus Christ Hodges My Lord if you have made a Deed of Gift of your self to Jesus Christ to be found only in him I am confident you shall stand at the day of Christ my dear Lord we shall meet in happiness Holland Christ Jesus receive my soul my soul hungers thirsts after him clouds are gathering and I trust in God through all my heaviness and I hope through all impediments he will settle my Interest in him and throw off all the claim that Satan can make unto it and that he will carry my soul in despight of all the calumnies and all that the Devil and Satan can invent will carry it into eternal mercy there to receive the blessedness of his Presence to all Eternity Hodges My Lord it was his own by creation it is his own now by Redemption and purchase and it is likewise his own by resignation O my Lord look therefore up to the lamb of God that sits at the right hand of God to take away the sins of the world O that lamb of God! Holland That Lamb of God into his hands I commit my soul And that Lamb of God that sits upon the Throne to judge those 24 that fall down before him I hope he will be pleased to look downward and judge me with mercy that fall down before him and that adore him that only trusts upon his Mercy for his compassion and that as he hath purchased me he would lay his claim unto me now and receive me Bolton My Lord think of this there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ who is it that can condemn it is Christ that justifies and therefore look now upon this My Lord upon this Christ upon this Christ that justifies Hell Death Sin Satan nothing shall be able to condemn it is Christ that justifies you Holland Indeed if Christ justifie no body can condemn and I trust in God in his justification though there is a confusion here without us and though there are wonders and staring that now disquiet yet I trust that I shall be carried into that mercy that God will receive my Soul Bolton I doubt not my Lord but as you are a Spectacle of Pitty here so you are on Object of Gods mercy above Holland Then the Earl of Holland looking over among the People pointing to a Souldier said This honest man took me a Prisoner you little thought I should have been brought to this when I delivered my self to you upon conditions and espying Captain Watson on horse-back putting off his hat said to him God be with you Sir God reward you Sir Bolton My Lord throw your self into the arms of mercy and say there I will Anchor and there I will die he is a Saviour for us in all conditions whither should we go he hath the words of eternal life and upon him do you rest wait while you live and even trust in Death Holland Here must now be my Anchor a great storm makes me find my Anchor and but in storms no body trusts to his Anchor and therefore I must trust upon my Anchor Upon that God said Mr. Bolton Upon whom your Anchor trusts yeâ— God I hope will Anchor my Soul fast upon Christ Jesus and if I die not with that clearnesse and heir inesse that you speak of truly I will trust in God though he kill me I will relie upon him and in the Mercy of my Saviour Bolton There is mercy enough my Lord and to spare you shall not need to doubt they shall never go begging to another door my Lord that come to him Then the Earl of Holland speaking to Mr. Hodges said I pray God reward you for all your kindness and pray as you have done instruct my Family that they may serve God with faithfulness and holiness with more diligence than truly I have been careful to presse them unto you have the charge of the same place you may do much for them and I recommend them to your kindnesse and the goodnesse of your Conscience Dr. Sibbald standing upon the Scaffold in his passage to Col. Beecher expressed himself thus to his Lordship Dr. Sibbald The Lord lift up the light of his Countenance upon you and you shall be safe Holland Then the Earl of Holland embraced Lieutenant Col. Beecher and took his leave of him After which he came to Mr. Bolton and having embraced him and returned him many thanks for his great pains and affections to his Soul desiring God to reward him and return his love into his bosom Mr. Bolton said to him The Lord God support you and be seen in this great extremity the Lord reveal and discover himself to you and make your death the passage unto eternal life Then the Earl of Holland turning to the Executioner said here my friend let my Cloathes and my Body alone there is Ten pounds for thee that is better than
of Apprentices Seamen and others intermingled with so me of the leading Grandees who were to instruct this many-headed Monster what they should cry out for or what they should do upon any emergency who coming to Westminster-Hall made a violent cry for Justice against Strafford which continued so many dayes together till at last not seeing the businesse go on with that disparch they wished and being informed by their Members of the Faction in the House that the Bill of Attainder stuck with the Lords and that they refused to passe it they proceeded to that Impudence as to stop the Lords Coaches as they went to the House and threaten them if they would not consent to his Condemnation to hinder them from entring into the House and that they would turn them back withal they posted up the Names of those Lords who would not consent to this cruel and barbarous way of proceeding against the said Earle calling them Straffordians and enemies of their Country with this menacing Subscription This and more shall be done unto them c. If this had been meerly the Rage of the Multitude the Fate of this worthy and Noble Person had been something the lesse lamentable by how much injuries of violence are lesse terrible and imputable then those of Deliberation but here was the bloudy hand of the Puritan Preacher most apparently concerned who now thought to wreak himself of all those Silencings had been put upon their Seditious Mouths by this cry for bloud which no Horseleech ever more greedily sucked so by these Prophets the Word was put into the mouth of the multitude Many Enemies and those the ablest Lawyers of the Kingdom and Eloquent Orators also this Noble Earle was combated with against whom neverthelesse he most rationally politely and learnedly without any the least Passion confidence or Fear being alike distant from them both but in an even and excellent temper of mind so well defended himself that his Peers could not find where to fasten his Charge which because of the extraordinary manage of it and that he is the Protomartyr take a view of in this short Account An Account of the Life Tryal and Death of that Loyal PROTO-MARTYR THOMAS Earle of Strafford Lord Deputy of Ireland Beheaded May 12. 1641. VVHat was tauntingly said by the French concerning this great and prudent Statesman that the English were mad having but one wise Head to cut it off was Truth enough and too sadly experienced All Essaies of describing those great Abilities and comprehensiveness of his mind are therefore unfeasable because none but himself could pourtraict them to any Appearance or Semblance of that Life and Quicknesse which manifested it self even in that unsearchable and profound depth of his Counsels and Actions so that he hath left nothing transmittible to our Imitation but his Loyalty wherein we and his Enemies agree in this that we have nothing else to lay hold on his other superexcellent qualities being above our and their reach and understanding The Reason undoubtedly why he was assaulted with the new Engine of accumulative and constructive Treâ—son He hath for his honour and glory a most illustrious character given him by King Charles of blessed memory in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these words I look upon my Lord of Strafford as a Gentleman whose abilities might make a Prince rather afraid than ashamed to employ him in the greatest affaires of State c. so that all that can be added to his memory and renown by any other pen will be but a superfluous labour but because that good Prince only considered him in his setting wherein he was as unhappily concernd as he was happily in the raising of him it is thought requisiâ—e to take a farther view of him and deduce him from his Ancestry to whom he hath contributed more honour than he received from them He was born in Yorkshire of the illustrious Family of the Wentworths and educated according to the greatnesse of his Family which had brought forth many famous men As soon as he came of age he was chosen a Parliament Man where he presently gained the reputation of a States-Man and good Patriot by stickling against the Prerogative which mist not the Courts observation By King Charls the First out of honour to his merit and great parts he was made Bâ—ron Wentworth of Raby and soon after other Titles were conferred on him together with places of trust which he discharged to the Kings great content the services he received from him ballancing his favours bestowed on him which he never abused but continued to his death a most prudent Councellour Loyal Subject and faithful Friend being taken into the Kings bosom and most retired secrets Soon after he was created Earl of Strafford he was made also Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in which Government he exceeded in policy and good Laws and careful management in advancing the Kings revenue and ascertaining it for the future all that went before him He did also take care for the Church established the Protestant Religion countenanced learned men and preferred them and setled a constant revenue for them in that Kingdom of which prudent and pious action the now Clergy there do reape the fruit Some offences were taken at him by the Irish whom he kept in a very hard but orderly subjection suppressing their out-laws and Tories and reducing them to a perfect entire obedience to the Kings Authority and the Laws Unlesse the strings be wound up hard we cannot look for good Musick he repressed and beat down the insolent Lordings of the great ones over the Commons whom he sweetned and arctized into the English from their wild and barbarous Customs which caused him no great Love from the Irish Nobility who understood the design was by such artifices to take from them the absolute power they had over their poor Vassals and Tenants when they should find the difference between the English Manners and Laws and those of their own Country Herein notwithstanding the great opposition he meâ— in the obstinacy and indocibility and prejudice of that opinionated Nation he made a good procedure and no doubt had he continued longer in the Government and those times had not fallen out which soon put all into a confusion had obtained his end The Scotch War breaking out first as aforesaid he was called out of Ireland to assist the King with his Counsel in those Exigencies which had so unpreparedly surprized him to which work like a Noble Friend he set his head his hands and his purse advancing by subscription which the rest of the Nobility followed according to their estate twenty thousand pounds with which aid and the large supply of the Clergy who granted the King four shillings in the pound for six years together which was effected by his influence that King raised that Army against the Scots The Earl of Strafford was sick at the Defeat given the English at Newburne under my Lord Conway whereupon
and let it lie Speechless still and never cry The Life and Death of that Great Prelate and Martyr the most Reverend William Laud Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all England Beheaded January 10. 1644. THE Fate of this Learned and Magnificent Prelate first and signally verified that Presage of King James No Bishop no King he being the Usher to that miserable calamity which in the same manner and method the same way of death befel that most Blessed Prince for that Prophetick Saying was to be accomplished in every Point not only of Regiment but in the concerns of natural Life like Hippocrates his Twins to live and die together His Originals were from an honest and well-reputed Parentage of good esteem and credit in the Town of Reading the place of his Nativity his Father a Clothier his Mother of the Family of the Souths of a gentile extraction by which side Sir John Robinson is related to him The Estate they had was such as neither so low to cloud or obscure his promising natural Endowments or so advanced as to serene them and shew them to the world in that Pomp and Lustre to which at some distances they exerted themselves and by degrees mounted to the top 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Ecclesiastical Promotion and Dignity in this Kingdom From his Seed-place and Nursery of Reading he was transplanted to St. Johns Colledge in Oxford where he gave present signs of his Future Glory being observed by all men as the Ornament of the House and whole University He continued here having passed through all the Honourable Employments of his Colledge till his worth could be no longer concealed and much beholding was he to that his Modesty of Nature which so long hid him from publick employment and gave him time and opportunity of laying in that Stock and Provision of all kind of Learning which his unwearied diligence did so freely spend in the several Places and Provinces he so wisely discharged being Chaplain first to the Earl of Devonshire and Proctor of his University From Batchelor of Divinity he proceeded Doctor became Chaplain to Dr. Neat then Bishop of Rochester afterwards translated to York who preferred him to King James who made him Prebend of Bugden and Westminster Dean of Glocester and Archdeacon of Huntington and lastly President of his own Colledge Soon after he was made Bishop of St. Davids by the same bountiful Master but King Charles finding his great abilities took him into more especial favour giving him the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells made him Dean of his Chappel and one of his Privy Council then Bishop of London and Chancellor of Oxford and in conclusion Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Abbots his Predecessor in that See Remisseness and Indifferency concerning the ceremonies used in the Church of England was the cause that the Gangren of Non-conformity was so far spread that it was no lesse trouble then it raised Envy and Obloquy against him to strive to enjoyn and take order for the strict Observation of the said Rites being every where called Innovations By this means Episcopal Government was by many traduced many Books and Libels printed against them wherein this Prelate was sure to bear the greatest burthen the chief of those Writers were Bastwick Burton and Mr. Pryn who were afterwards sentenced in the Star-Chamber and suffered in the Pillory But that which mainly and chiefly helped forward his ruine was his recommending or enjoying the use of the English Liturgy in the Scotch Church which was received there with so much exasperation that it mightily promoted the Wars then in intention and designment by the Faction in that Kingdom Soon after Libels were thrown about full of sedition and railing and scurrilous jeers against him which were seconded with a Tumult and rabble of Londoners assaulting his House at Lambeth for which one of the chief Thomas Bensted was hanged in St. Georges Fields in Southwark He was falsly by such People reported for a Papist whereas what stronger proof can be brought for his firmnesse in the Protestant Religion than that Book of his against Fisher the Jesuit which like a Hammer hath beaten all the Romish Arguments into pieces an unanswerable Work and of which they will never clear themselves brag and vapour what they please As to his Religion this will suffice for the morality and integrity constant tenour of life let him be judged by his Diary published in part by Mr. Prin. He had little intermission of his pen or intention of mind against the Roman Faction whatsoever his Enemies have reported of him to the contrary having before his eyes as his main aim the glory and prosperity of this Church in the right and solemn Worship of God He first began the reedifying of that ruinous and decayed Cathedral of St. Pauls London towards the charge whereof he expended great sums of money out of his own purse and this was reckoned to him as Superstition though in the account of sober and wife men it was a noble zeal to Gods House The North-door of that Church he repaired wholly with his own money the Workmen not knowing whence their wages came In sum for these joynt Graces and Vertues Piety Learning magnificence prudence and humility he is hardly to be paralled by any of his Predecessors many have had one or two of them but wanted the other in him they were a bright constellation whose lustre made this Church glorious to the envy and wonder of the Nations about us But the time of Gods visitation being come for the unfruitfulnesse negligence and unthankfulnesse of the Clergy a generation of men were raised up as scourges to inflict the Divine Judgments For in the beginning of our dissentions as soon as the businesse of the Earl of Strafford was over the mad multitude fell a raving and crying no Bishops no Bishops In the beginning of the year 1641 and the latter end of 1640 this Reverend Prelate was committed from the Black Rod to the Tower whither not long after ten more of that sacred Order were sent after him He continued in the Tower four years before any charge was brought against him though he all along petitioned and desired the Parliament he might come to his trya◠which could not be obtained till the year 1644 a full account whereof 2s also of his death we have here subjoyned It would trouble Plutarch if he were alive to find out a fit Parallel with whom to match him All therefore I shall do at the present time and t is the last publique Office I shall do him is to lay down the story of his death and sufferings together with a view of those plots and practises which were set on foot to pluck a few years from a weak old man and bring him to an unnatural calamitous end For though that maxime in Philosophy is most true and certain that corruptio est in instanti that death comes to us in a moment or in the
was not done for the Lords stuck at it Some of which having not extinguished all the sparks of honour did by the light thereof discover the injustice of so foul a practice together with the danger might befal themselves if once disfavoured by the Grandees of that potent Faction A thing so stomacked by the Commons that after some evaporations of their heat and passion which broke out into open threats they presently drew and sent up an Ordinance to the Lords tending to dispossesse them of all power and command in their Armies But fearing this device was too weak to hold they fall upon another and a likelier project which was to bring the Lords to sit in the Commons House where they were sure they should be inconsiderable both for power and number And to effect the same with more speed and certainty they had recourse to their old Arts drew down Sir David Watkins with his general muster of subscriptions and put a petition in his hands to be rendred by him to the Houses that is themselves wherein it was required among other things that they would vigorously proceed unto the punishment of all Delinquents and that for the more quick dispatch of the publick businesses of the State the Lords would please to vote and sit together with the Commons On such uncertain terms such a ticklish Tenure do they now hold their place and power in Parliament who so officiously complied with the House of Commons in depriving the Bishops of their Votes and the Churches birth-right And this was it which helped them in that time of need For by this though stale and common Stratagem did they prevail so far upon some weak spirits that the Earls of Kent Pembroke Salisbury and Bullingbrooke the Lords North Gray of Wark and Brews a Scotchman but an English Baron and generally called the Earl of Elgin resolved to yield unto the current of so strong a stream and thought they had made a gaining voyage if by delivering the Lord Arch-Bishop to the Peoples fury they might preserve themselves in the Peoples favour And we know well both who it was and what end he came to who though he knew that the accused party was delivered him out of envy only and that he found no evil he was guilty of yet being wearied with the clamours and the Crucifiges of the common people and fearing that some tumult would be made about it delivered him unto his enemies to be put to death And for those other Lords who withdrew themselves and neither durst condemn nor protect the innocent though far the major part as it is reported it is not easie to determin whether their consciences were more tender their Collusion grosser or their courage weaker All I shall say is only this that Claudius Lysias in the Acts had been as guilty of Saint Paul's death as any of the forty who had vowed to kill him if upon notice of the Plot which was laid to murther him he had brought him down unto the people or not conveied him with a strong guard to the Court of Felix The journies end must needs be foul which such lewd and crooked waies do conduct unto And it is worth your observation that the same day the fourth of January in which they passed this bloody Ordinance as if therein they would cry quittance with his Sacred Majesty who on the same accused the six guilt Members they passed another for establishing their new Directory which in effect was nothing but a total abolition of the Common-Prayer-Book and thereby shewed unto the World how little hopes they had of setling their new form of Worship if the foundation of it were not laid in blood The Bill being thus dispatched in the House of Lords if still they may be called Lords which are so over-loaded by the Common-people there wanted yet the Kings Assent to give life to it which they so far contemned they had more reason to despair of it that they never sought it They had screwed up their Ordinances to so high a pitch that never Act of Parliament was of more authority and having found the Subjects so obedient as to yield unto them in matters which concerned them in their goods and liberties it was but one step more to make trial of them whether they would submit their lives to the self-same tyranny And this they made the first experiment in this kind both of their own power and the peoples patience he being the first man as himself noted in his Speech which words are purposely omitted in Hindes Copy of it that was ever put to death by Ordinance in Parliament but was not the last as we have too sadly experienced Certain it is that by that Ordinance they then made themselves the absolute Master of the Subjects lives and left them nothing that they could call their own but ruine and destruction Just as it was observed by our Gracious Soveraign upon occasion of the Ordinance for the 20th part that the same power which robbed the Subject of the twentieth part of their Estates had by that only made a claim and entituled it self to the other nineteen when soever it should be thought expedient to hasten on the general ruin In which His Majesty proved but too true a Prophet And though perhaps some of the people were well pleased with this bloody Ordinance and ran with joy to see it put in execution yet all wise men did look upon it as the last groan or gasp of our dying liberty And let both them and those who passed it be assured of this that they who did so gladly sell the blood of their fellow Subjects seldom want Chapmen for their own in an open Market And here as it was once observed that the predominant Party of the United Provinces to bring about their ends in the death of Barnovelt subverted all those fundamental Laws of the Belgick liberty for maintenance whereof they took up Arms against Philip the Second so would I know which of those Fundamental Laws of the English Government have not been violated by these men in their whole proceedings for preservation of which Laws or rather under colour of such preservation they did bewitch the people unto that Rebellion It is a Fundamental Law of the English Government and the first Article in the Magna Charta that the Church of England shall be free and shall have her whole Rights and Priviledges inviolable yet to make way unto the condemnation of this innocent man and other the like wicked and ungodly ends the Bishops must be Voted out of their place in Parliament which most of them had held far longer in their Predecessors than any of our noble families in their Progenitors And if the Lords refuse to give way unto it as at first they did the people must come down to the House in multitudes and cry No Bishops no Bishops at the Parliament doors till by the terror of their tumults they extort it from them It
is a Fundamental Law of the English liberty that no Free-man shall be taken or imprisoned without cause shewn or be detained without being brought unto his Answer in due form of Law yet here we saw a Freeman imprisoned ten whole weeks together before any Charge was brought against him and kept in prison three years more before his general Accusation was by them reduced into particulars and for a year almost detained close prisoner without being brought unto his answer as the Law requires It is a Fundamental Law of the English Government that no man be disseised of his Freehold or Liberties but by the known Laws of the Land yet here was a man disseised of his Rents and Lands spoyled of his Goods deprived of his jurisdiction devested of his Right and Patronage and all this done when he was so far from being convicted by the Laws of the Land that no particular charge was so much as thought of It is a Fundamental Law of the English Liberty that no man shall be condemned or put to death but by lawful judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land i. e. in the ordinary way of a legal tryal and sure an Ordinance of both Houses without the Royal Assent is no part of the Law of England nor held an ordinary way of trial for the English subject or ever reckoned to be such in the former times And finally it is a Fundamental Law in the English Government that if any other case than those recited in the Statute of King Edward 3. which is supposed to be Treason do happen before any of his Majesties Justices the Justices shall tarry without giving judgment till the cause be shewn and declared before the King and His Parliament whether it ought to be judged Treason or not yet here we had a new found Treason never known before nor declared such by any of His Majesties Justices nor ever brought to be considered of by the King and His Parliament but only voted to be such by some of those few Members which remained at Westminster who were resolved to have it so for their private ends Put all which hath been said together and then tell me truly if there by any difference for I see not any between the ancient Roman slaves and the once Free-born Subjects of the English Nation whose lives and liberties whose goods and fortunes depend on the meer pleasure of their mighty Masters But to return unto our Story the passing of the Ordinance being made known unto him he neither entertained the news with a Stoical Apathy nor wailed his Fate with weak and womanish Lamentations to which Extreams most men are carried in this case but heard it with so even and so smooth a temper as shewed he neither was afraid to live nor ashamed to die The time between the Sentence and the Execution he spent in Prayers and applications to the Lord his God having obtained though not without some difficulty a Chaplain of his own to attend upon him and to assist him in the work of his preparation though little preparation needed to receive that Blow which could not but be welcom because long expected For so well was he studied in the Art of dying especially in the last and strictest part of his Imprisonment that by continual Fasting Watching Prayers and such like Acts of Christian Humiliation his flesh was rarified into Spirit and the whole man so fitted for eternal Glories that he was more then half in heaven before death brought his bloudy but triumphant Chariot to convey him thither He that had been so long a Confessor could not but think it a release of miseries to be made a Martyr And as it is recorded of Alexander the great that the night before his best and greatest Battel with Darius the Persian he fell into so sound a sleep that his Princes hardly could awake him when the Morning came so is is certified of this great Prelate that on the Evening before his Passeover the night before the dismal combat betwixt him and death after he had refreshed his spirits with a moderate Supper he betook himself unto his rest and slept very soundly till the time came in which his Servants were appointed to attend his Rising a most assured sign of a Soul prepared The fatal morning being come he first applied himself to his private Prayers and so continued till Penington and other of their publick Officers came to conduct him to the Scaffold which he ascended with so brave a courage such a cheerful countenance as if he had mounted rather to behold a triumph then to be made a Sacrifice and came not there to die but to be translated And to say Truth it was no Scaffold but a Throne a Throne whereon he shortly was to receive a Crown even the most glorious Crown of Martyrdom And though some rude uncivil people reviled him as he passed along with opprobrious Language as loath to let him go to the Grave in peace it never discomposed his thoughts nor disturbed his patience For he had profited so well in the School of Christ that when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously And as he did not fear the Frowns so neither did he cover the applause of the vulgar Herd and therefore rather chose to read what he had to speak unto the People then to affect the Ostentation either of memory or wit in that dreadful Agony whether with greater Magnanimity or Prudence I can hardly say As for the matter of his Speech besides what did concern himself and his own purgation his great care was to clear His Majesty and the Church of England from any inclination unto Popery with a persivasion of the which the Authors of our then miseries had abused the People and made them take up Arms against their Soveraign approving himself a faithful Servant to the last By means whereof as it is said of Samson in the Book of Judges that the men which he slew at his death were more then they which he slew in his Life so may it be affirmed of this famous Prelate that he gave a greater blow unto the enemies of God and the King at the hour of his Death then he had given them in his whole life before But this you will more clearly see by the Speech it self which followeth here according to the best and most perfect Copies The Speech of the L. Archbishop of Canterbury spoken at his Death upon the Scaffold on the Tower-hill Jan. 10. 1644. Good People THis is an uncomfortable time to preach yet I shall begin with a Text of Scripture Heb. 12.2 Let us run with patience that Race which is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Crosse despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of
whom the Causes come which are unknown to the many could not or would not do Justice but at their appointment A way which may endanger many an Innocent man and pluck his bloud upon their own heads and perhaps upon the Cities also And this hath been lately practised against my self the Magistrate standing still and suffering them openly to proceed from Parish to Parish without check God forgive the setters of this with all my heart I beg it but many well meaning People are caught by it In St. Stephens case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the people against him and Herod went the same way when he had killed St. James yet he would not venter upon St. Peter till he found how the other pleased the people But take heed of having your hands full of bloud for there is a time best known to himself when God above other sins makes Inquisition for bloud and when that Inquisition is on foot the Psalmist tells us That God remembers but that 's not all He remembers and forgets not the Complaint of the Poor that is whose bloud is shed by oppression vers 9. take heed of this 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God but then especially when he is making Inquisition for bloud And with my Prayers to avert it I do heartily desire this City to remember the Prophesie that is expressed Jer. 26.15 The third particular is the poor Church of England It hath flourished and been a shelter to other neighbouring Churches when storms have driven upon them But alas now 't is in a storm it self and God only knows whether or how it shall get out and which is worse than a storm from without it s become like an Oak cleft to shivers with wedges made out of its own body and at every cleft prophanenesse and irreligion is entring in while as Prosper speaks in his second Book De vit a contemptu cap. 4. Men that introduce prophanenesse are cloaked over with the name Religionis Imaginariae of Imaginary Religion for we have lost the Substance and dwell too much in Opinion and that Church which all the Jesuits machinations could not ruine is fallen into danger by her own The last particular for I am not willing to be too long is my self I was born and baptized in the bosome of the Church of England established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that I come now to dye This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in matter of Religion and therefore I desire it may be remembred I have alwaies lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I come now to dye What Clamours and Slanders I have endured for labouring to keep a Uniformity in the external service of God according to the Doctrine and Discipline of this Church all men know and I have abundantly felt Now at last I am accused of High Treason in Parliament a Crime which my Soul ever abhorred this Treason was charged to consist of these two parts An endeavour to subvert the Laws of the Land and alike Endeavour to overthrow the true Protestant Religion Established by Law Besides my answers to the several Charges I protested my Innocency in both Houses It was said Prisoners Protestations at the Bar must not be taken I can bring no witnesse of my heart and the intentions thereof therefore I must come to my Protestation not at the Bar but my Protestation at this hour and instant of my death in which I hope all men will be such charitable Christians as not to think I would dye and dissemble being instantly to give God an account for the truth of it I do therefore in the presence of God and his holy Angels take it upon my death That I never endeavoured the subversion either of Law or Religion and I desire you all to remember this Protest of mine for my Innocencie in these and from all Treâ—sons whatsoever I have been accused likewise as an Enemy to Parliaments No I understand them and the benefit that comes by them too well to be so But I did mislike the misgovernment of some Parliaments many waies and I had good reason for it For Corruptio optimi est pessima there is no corruption in the World so bad as that which is of the best thing in it self for the better the thing is in nature the worse it is corrupted And that being the highest Court over which no other have Jurisdiction when 't is mis-informed or mis-governed the Subject is left without all remedy But I have done I forgive all the World all and every of those bitter Enemies which have persecuted me and humbly desire to be forgiven of God first and then of every man whether I have offended him or not if he do but conceive that I have Lord do thou forgive me and I beg forgivenesse of him And so I heartily desire you to joyn in Prayer with me Oeternal God and merciful Father look down upon me in mercy in the riches and fulnesse of all thy mercies look upon me but not till thou hast nailed my sins to the Crosse of Christ not till thou hast bathed me in the bloud of Christ not till I have hid my self in the wounds of Christ that so the punishment due unto my sins may passe over me And since thou art pleased to try me to the utmost I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great instant full Patience proportionable Comfort and a heart ready to dye for thy Honour the Kings happinesse and this Churches preservation And my zeal to these far from arrogance be it spoken is all the sin humane frailty excepted and all incidents thereto which is yet known to me in this particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this particular of Treason but otherwise my sins are many and great Lord pardon them all and those especially what ever they are which have drawn down this present Judgment upon me and when thou hast given me strength to bear it do with me as seems best in thine own eyes and carry me through death that I may look upon it in what visage soever it shall appear to me Amen And that there may be a stop of this issue of bloud in this more than miserable Kingdom I shall desire that I may pray for the people too as well as for my self O Lord I beseech thee give grace of repentance to all Bloud thirsty people but if they will not repent O Lord confound all their devises Defeat and Frustrate all their designs and endeavours upon them which are or shall be contrary to the Glory of thy great Name the truth and sincerity of Religion the establishment of the King and His Posterity after Him in their just Rights and Priviledges the Honour and Conservation of Parliaments in their just power the Preservation of this poor Church in her Truth Peace
and Patrimony and the settlement of this distracted and distressed People under their ancient Laws and in their native Liberties And when thou hast done all this in meer mercy for them O Lord fill their hearts with thankfulnesse and with Religious dutiful-obedience to thee and thy Commandments all their daies So Amen Lord Jesus Amen and receive my Soul into thy Bosome Amen Our Father which art c. The Speech and Prayers being ended he gave the Paper which he red unto Dr. Sterne his Chaplain now Lord Bishop of Carlisle desiring him to shew it his other Chaplains that they might know how he departed out of this World and so prayed God to shew his mercies and blessings on them And noting how one Hinde had employed himself in taking a Copy of his Speech as it came from his mouth he desired him not to do him wrong in publishing a false or imperfect Copy Which as Hinde promised him to be â—areful of calling for punishment from above if he should do otherwise so hath he reasonably well performed his promise he next applied himself to the fatal Block as to the Haven of his rest But finding the way full of people who had placed themselves upon the Theatre to behold the Tragedy he desired he might have room to dye beseeching them to let him have an end of his miseries which he had endured very long All which he did with so serene and calm a mind as if he had been rather taking order for another mans funeral then making way unto his own Being come near the Block he put off his doublet and used some words to this effect Gods will be done I am willing to go out of this World no man can be more willing to send me out of it And seeing through the chinks of the boards that some people were got under the Scaffold about the very place where the Block was seated he called on the Officers for some dust to stop them or to remove the people thence saying it was no part of his desires that his bloud should fall upon the heads of the People Never did man put off mortality with a braver courage not look upon his bloudy and malitious Enemies with more Christian charity And thus far he was gone in his way towards Paradise with such a Primitive magnanimity as equalled if not exceeded the example of ancient Martyrs Then he turned towards his Executioner and gave him money saying without the least distemper or change of countenance here honest friend God forgive thee and do thy office upon me with mercy and having given a sign when the blow should come he kneeled down upon his knees and prayed as followeth The Lord Arch-Bishops Prayer as he kneeled by the Block LOrd I am coming as fast as I can I know I must pass through the shadow of death before I can come to see thee But it is but umbra mortis a meer shadow of death a little darknesse upon nature but thou by thy merits and passion hast broke through the jaws of death So Lord receive my Soul and have mercy upon me and blesse this Kingdom with Peace and Plenty and with brotherly love and charity that there may not be this effusion of Christian blood amongst them for Jesus Christ 's sake if it be thy will Then laying his head upon the Block and praying silently to himself he said aloud Lord receive my Soul which was the signal given to the Executioner who very dextrously did his office and took it off at a blow his Soul ascending on the wings of Angels into Abrahams bosome and leaving his Body on the Scaffold to the care of men after he had lived 71 years 13 weeks and 4 dayes which was interd in Alhollows Barkin Church with the decent Ceremonies of the Church of England On the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury I Need no muse to give my passion vent He brews his tears that studies to lament Verse chymically weeps that pious raine Distill'd with Art is but the sweat o' th brain Who ever sob'd in numbers can a groan Be quaver'd out by soft division T is true for common formal Ellegies Not Bushels Wells can match a Poets eyes In wanton water-works hâ—e'l turn his tears From a Geneva Jig up to the Sphears But when he mourns at distance weeps aloof Now that the Conduit-head is our own roof Now that the fate is publick we may call It Britaines Vespers Englands Funeral Who hath a Pensil to express the Saint Put he hath eyes too washing off the paint There is no learning but what tears surround Like to Seths Pillars in the Deluge drown'd There is no Church Religion is grown From much of late that she 's increast to none Like an Hydropick body full of Rheumes First swells into a bubble then consumes The Law is dead or cast into atrance And by a Law dough-bak't an Ordinance The Lyturgie whose doom was voted next Died as a Comment upon Him the Text. There nothing lives life is since he is gone But a Nocturnal Lucubration Thus have you seen Deaths Inventory read In the sum total Canterburies dead A sight would make a Pagan to baptize Himself a Convert in his bleeding eyes Would thaw the rabble that fierce beast of ours That which Agena like weeps and devours Tears that flow brackish from their Souls within Not to repent but pickle up their sin Mean time no squallid grief his look defiles He guilds his sadder fate with noble smiles Thus the worlds eye with reconciled streams Shines in his showers as if he wept his beams How could success such villanies applaud The State in Strafford fell the Church in Laud The twins of publick rage adjudg'd to dye For Treasons they should act by Prophecy The facts were done before the Laws were made The trump turn'd up after the game was plaid Be dull great spirits and forbear to climbe For worth is sin and eminence a crime No Church-man can be innocent and high 'T is height makes Grantham steeple stand awry Master Robert Yeomans and Master George Bowcher Citizens of Bristol murdered there May 30 1643. THere were few cities in the Kingdom for all the Artifices and popular cheats of those at Westminster who had debauched a great number of the Kings good Subjects wherein his Majesties Cause had not an equal share in the Affection and Opinion of the Inhabitants if in some places it went lesse in others it was paramount as the Difference was visible in the neighbouring Cities of Glocester and Bristol In the last whereof we shall present you with a very sad and deplorable example of Loyalty and cruelty in the persons of Mr. Yeomans and Mr. Bowcher intending it as a sweet Oyntment to embasm their Funerals that though with their Saviour the Ignominy of whose Crosse sanctified even the death of that accursed Tree in their death they were numbred among the Transgressors yet Loyalty being their Epitaph they may make their Graves amongst the
Commodity was Security to Us Peace to Our People And We are confident another Parliam would remember how useful a Kings Power is to a Peoples Liberty Of how much We have divested Our self that We and they might meet again in a due Parliamentary way to agree the bounds for Prince and People And in this give belief to our Experience never to affect more Greatness or Prerogative then what is really and intrinsecally for the good of your Subjects not satisfaction of Favorites And if you thus use it you will never want means to be a Father to all and a bountiful Prince to any you would be extraordinarily Gracious unto You may perceive all men trust their Treasure where it returns them Interest and if Princes like the Sea receive and repay all the fresh streams and Rivers trust them with they will not grudge but pride themselves to make them up an Ocean These Considerations may make you a great Prince as your Father is now a low one and your state may be so much the more established as mine hath been shaken For Subjects have learnt We dare say that Victories over their Princes are but Triumphs over themselves and so will be more unwilling to hearken to Changes hereafter The English Nation are a sober People however at present under some Infatuation We know not but this may be the last time We may speak to you or the world publickly We are sensible into what hand We are faln and yet We bless God We have those inward Refreshments that the malice of Our Enemies cannot perturb We have learnt to own our self by retiring into Our self and therefore can the better digest what befals Us not doubting but God can restrain our Enemies malice and turn their fierceness into his Praise To conclude if God give you success use it humbly and far from Revenge If he restore you to your Right upon hard conditions whatever you promise keep Those men which have forced Laws which they were bound to observe will find their Triumphs full of Troubles Do not think any thing in this world worth obtaining by foul and unjust Means You are the Son of our Love and as We direct you to what we have recommended to you so we assure you We do not more affectionately pray for you to whom We are a Natural Parent then We do that the ancient Glory and Renown of this Nation be not buried in Irreligion and Phanatick humour And that all Our Subjects to whom VVe are a Politick Parent may have such sober Thoughts as to seek their peace in the Orthodox Profession of the Christian Religion as it was established since the Reformation in this Kingdom and not in new Revelations And that the ancient Laws with the Interpretation according to known practises may once again be an hedge about them that you may in due time govern and they be governed as in the fear of the Lord. C. R. The Lord Capel beheaded March 9. 1949. in the Palace yard Westminster THis Noble Lord Noble in his Life nobler in his Death and Memory noblest in his Posterity who fill the trumpet of Fame that summons all men to render them their deserved honours though he was not like some of our foregoing Martyrs viz. Sr. Charles Lucas and Sr. George Lisle murthered in the instant of the rendition of Colchester having quarter for life given him by the General yet did not long survive their hard fate being brought with more solemnity more perfidiousness though alike glory to his Death which he suffered with a Christian and no Roman but Colchester Spirit and resolution He was no great Captain nor ever undertook such a charge serving without any signal command in his Majesties Armies though no doubt sufficient thereto yet he is no less to be eternized for his indeavours his courage constancy and faithful adherence to the King when deserted by a great part of the Nobility parting with and hazarding a great and ample Estate which was sequestred from him and in conclusion laying down his life so that he may justly be stiled one of the Worthies of the English Nobility and his name ever to be honourably mentioned according to that of the Psalmist Psal 112.6 The Righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance He was Son and Heir to Sr. Arthur Capel of Hadham Hall in Herefordshire a Gentleman of Great Estate and who loved and followed the old mode of our Nation kept a Noble and bountiful House and shewed forth his Faith by his charity extending it in such abundant manner to the poor that he was bread to the hungry drink to the thirsty eies to the blind and legs the the same so that he might justly be stiled Great Almoner to the King of Heaven As this diffusive charity and bounty spread it self abroad no less did his Relative love and Paternal affection bestow it self on this his Son whom he most liberally educated to a perfection in Learning as his rich expressions and elegant stile in his Book Printed after his death and in other letters do best evidence Sr. Arthur dying as this Noble Lord inherited his Estate so did he his Virtues his pious bounty appearing so conspicuous that some envious persons who hate good works in others because they will do none themselves have maliciously traduced him as inclining to Popery But as such aspersions amongst persons of understanding signifie nothing more than the speakers malice so wrought it in others a deserved commendation of this Noble Person especially in those times and our own are worse when Charity lay bed-rid and Faith only and such hungry notions were talkt of whereas his Faith appeared by his works From the degree of Knight the ancient Dignity of his Family now advanced to the Earldom of Essex he was made Baron Capel of Hadham a little before the time the Earl of Strafford received his Tryal which in this brave Lords conscientious Judgment of himself was his original condemnation in foro coeli During the Rebellion and those differences between the King and Parliament he constantly and faithfully adhered to his Majesty contributing both in purse and person to his aid and assistance being appointed in that time for his eminent wisdom and prudence Councellour to the Prince by the King his Father whom he abandoned not till the disbanding of my Lord Hopton's Army in Cornwall from whence his Highness took shipping to Scilly giving my Lord an honourable but sorrowful dismission and conge to return home and attend though his heroical mind spur'd him on to pursue his most unworthy fate For at his coming home upon those Articles having scarce warmed himself there after his long absence from thence but some hopes appearing of the King's restauration to his former Authority by the coming in of Duke Hamilton with a potent Army as also by the Welch Insurrection and the rising of several Counties who declared for the same purpose he with a select number of his friends acquaintance and
servants joyned himself with the Lord Goring Sr. Charles Lucas and others who with a considerable Army were then in Essex and after a long Siege were forced to surrender their Garrison of Colchester In the Articles of that rendition this right noble Lord was included and had quarter given him for life though it was afterwards unhansomly unsaid again by him that gave it who left him after his Parol given to a High Court of Justice upon this surrender he was committed to the Tower where whilst he remained he endeavoured to escape which he well effected but crossing the water through some discourse he let fall Jones the Waterman conceiving what he was upon his landing discovered him had him retaken and committed again in order to his Tryal In the middle of March 1648 he was brought before the said High Court of Justice where he said enough in reason and justice to have cleared himself insisting upon his Priviledge as a Peer and claiming the benefit of the Laws which owned no such arbitrary Power as this against the life of any Subject especially a Noble Man and in sum denied their Jurisdiction and pleaded his quarter given him as abovesaid but nothing would avail they proceeded to Judgment and with Duke Hamilton the Earl of Holland Earl of Norwich and Sr. John Owen sentenced him to be beheaded which was executed accordingly on the ninth of March. We will now take a view of him after the tmie of his Condemnation when he was to encounter and look Death in the face He alwaies kept a very chearful and well composed temper of mind which proceeded from true Christian Principles he would often say it was the good God he served and the good cause he had served for that made him not to fear Death adding that he never had the temptation of so much as a thought to check him for his engagement in this quarrel for he took it for his Crown and glory and wished he had a greater ability and better fortune to engage in it The afternoon before his suffering he was a great while in private with a Minister where bewailing with that sense which became a true and not despairing penitent the sins of his life past the greatest he could remember was his voting my Lord of Straffords death which though as he said he did without any malice at all yet he confessed it to be a very great sin and that he had done it out of a base fear his own words of a prevailing party of which he had very often and very heartily repented and was confident of Gods pardon for it Then he desired to receive the Blessed Sacrament before he dyed After this being afraid of some danger to the Minister that attended him for that work of Love and some Conference in order to his preparation both for his provision and his voyage the Sacrament and his death he desired to go to Prayers which being performed he returned to his private devotions The next morning being the day of his death he desired the Minister who was with him before to hear and joyn with him in Prayers which he did for half an hour in an excellent method very apt Expressions and most strong hearty and passionate affections First confessing and bewailing his sins with strong cries and tears then humbly and most earnestly desiring Gods mercy through the Merits of Christ alone Secondly For his dear Lady and Children with some passion but for her especially with most ardent affections recommending them to the Divine Providence with great confidence and affurance and desiring for them rather the blessings of a better life than of this Thirdly For the King Church and Kingdom And Lastly For his Enemies with almost the same ardour and affection After Prayer ended my Lord of Norwich and Sr. John Owen being sent for the Minister read the whole Office of the Church for Good Friday and then after a short Homily for the occasion he received the Sacrament again in which action he behaved himself with great Humility Zeal and Devotion Being demanded after the receiving thereof how he found himself he replyed very much better stronger and cheerfuller for that heavenly repast and that he doubted not to walk like a Christian through the vale of death in the strength of it But he was to have an Agony before his Passion and that was the parting with his Wife eldest Son now Earl of Essex his Son in Law two of his Uncles and Sr. T.C. especially his parting with his dearest Lady which indeed was the saddest spectacle that could be In which occasion as he could not choose but shew and confesse a little of humane frailty yet even then he did not forget both to comfort and counsel her and the rest of his friends particularly in blessing the yuong Lord he commanded him never to revenge his death though it should be in his power the like he said unto his Lady He told his Son he would leave him a Legacy out of David's Psalms and that was this Lord lead me in a plain path For Boy saith he I would have you a plain honest man and hate dissimulation After this was past with much adoe his Wife and the rest of his Friends were perswaded to begone and then being all alone with the Minister he said Doctor the hardest part of my work in this World is now past meaning the parting with his Wife Then he desired the said Minister to pray preparatively for his death that in the last action he might so behave himself as might be most for Gods Glory for the indearing of his dead Masters memory and his present Masters service and that he might avoid the doing or saying of any thing which might savour either of ambition or vanity This being done he was conveyed with the other two Lords who suffered with him to Sr. Robert Cottons where the Minister staid with him till he was called to the Scaffold whither the Guard of Souldiers permitted him not to come so that my Lord took leave of him there The same day he died he wrote this following Letter to his Wife My dearest Life MY Eternal life is in Christ Jesus my wordly considerations in the highest degree thou hast deserved let me live long here in thy dear memory to the comfort of my Family our dear Children whom God out of mercy in Christ hath bestowed upon us I beseech thee take care of thy health sorrow not afflict not thy self too much God will be unto thee better than an Husband and to my Children better than a Father I am sure he is able to be so I am confident he is graciously pleased to be so God be with thee my most vertuous Wife God multiply many Comforts to thee and my Children which is the fervent Prayer of Thy c. He hath also left behind him an excellent Book of Meditations and some other Miscellaneous things especially an Exhertation to stir up the hearts and endeavours of
will make my conclusion with it that is That God Almighty would confer of his infinite and inestimable Grace and mercy to those that are the causers of my coming hither I pray God give them as much mercy as their hearts can wish and truly for my part I will not accuse any one of them of malice truly I will not nay I will not think there was any malice in them what other ends there is I know not nor will I examine but let it be what it will from my very Soul I forgive them every one And so the Lord of Heaven blesse you all God Almighty be infinite in goodnesse and mercy to you and direct you in those wayes of obedience to his Commands to His Majesty that this Kingdom may be an happy and glorious Nation again and that your King may be an happy King in so good and so obedient a people God Almighty keep you all God Almighty preserve this Kingdom God Almighty preserve you all Then turning about and looking for the Executioner who was gone off the Scaffold said which is the Gentleman which is the man Answer was made He is coming He then said Stay I must pull off my Doublet first and my Wastcoat and then the Executioner being come upon the Scaffold the Lord Capel said O friend prethee come hither Then the Executioner kneeling down the Lord Capel said I forgive thee from my Soul and not only forgive thee but I shall pray to God to give thee all grace for a better life There is five pound for thee and truly for my clothes and those things if there be any thing due to you for it you shall be fully recompenced but I desire my bedy may not be stripped here and no body to take notice of my body but my own Servants Look you Friend this I shall defire of you that when I lye down you would give me a time for a particular short Prayer Lieu. Col. Beecher Make your own sign my Lord. Capel Stay a little Which side do you stand upon speaking to the Executioner Stay I think I should lay my hands forward that way pointing fore-right and answer being made Yes he stood still a little while and then said God Almighty blesse all this people God Almighty slench this blood God Almighty stench stench stench this issue of blood this will not do the business God Almighty find out another way to do it And then turning to one of his Servants said Baldwin I cannot see any thing that belongs to my Wife but I must desire thee and beseech her to rest wholly upon Jesus Christ to be contented and fully satisfied and then speaking to his Servants he said God keep you and Gentlemen let me now do a business quickly privately and pray let mee have your prayers at the moment of death that God would receive my Soul L. Col. Beecher I wish it Capel Pray at the moment of striking joyn your Prayers but make no noise turning to his Servants it is inconvenient at this time Servant My Lord put on your cap. Capel Should I what will that do me good Stay a little it is well as it is now As he was putting up his hair And then turning to the Executioner he said honest man I have forgiven thee therefore strike boldly from my Soul I do it Then a Gentleman speaking to him he said Nay prethee be contented be quiet good Mr. be quiet Then turning to the Executioner he said Well you are ready when I am ready are you not and stretching out his hands he said Then pray stand off Gentlemen Then going to the front of the Scaffold he said to the People Gentlemen though I doubt not of it yet I think it convenient to ask it of you That you would all joyn in Prayers with me That God would mercifully receive my Soul and that for his alone mercies in Christ Iesus God Almighty keep you all Execut. My Lord shall I put up your hair Capel I I prethee do and then as he stood lifting up his hands and eyes he said O God I do with a perfect and willing heart submit to thy will O God! I do most willingly humble my self and then kneeling down said I will try first how I can Lye and laying his head upon the Block said Am I well now Execut. Yes And then as he lay with both his hand stretched out he said to the Executioner Here lie both my hands out when I lift up my hands thus lifting up his right hand then you may strike And then after he had said a short Prayer he lifted up his right hand and the Executioner at one blow severed his head from his body which was taken up by his Servants and put with his body into a coffin I Shall omit Duke Hamilton not only because of another Nation though a Peer of this but because it is in question whether he suffered not for obeying the commands of the Scotch Parliament and Kirk who sent him as General in that Expedition and that the Kings Interest was but collateral Let him therefore rest in his honourable grave while we softly and reverently pass over it to that of the Earl of Holland Henry Earl of Holland beheaded on the Scaffold in the Palace-yard at Westminster at the same time THis Lord in the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr was his special favourite and peculiar friend so that after that assassinate upon the Duke of Buckingham he was made Chancellor of the University of Cambridge having been newly before from Baron Rich of Kensington raised to the Honour of the Earldom of Holland and sent Colleague with the Earl of Carlisle in that splendid Embassy into France about the marriage of the Queen Mother Notwithstanding all these favours so freely conferred on him so uncertain variable and unobligeable are the minds of men for I cannot impute his siding with the Parliament to have been from any disgust or dislike he received from the King especially when Religion becomes the bone of contention he was one of those Lords that remained at London and made up a House of Peers although he never took up Arms Command or Employment against his good Master and Soveraign About the middle of the War sceing how unreasonably the Parliament persisted in carrying on the War being so often fruitlesly courted by the King to an accommodation he and the Earl of Bedford forsook their part and quarrel and escaped to the King at Oxford where finding not that kind and favourable reception they expected being looked on shily by the Court there especially this Lord he privately departed to London again having left a fair account of himself to the King But when the War was ended and the Parliament had refused to treat with his Majesty and so to settle the Kingdom he then took up Arms in earnest in the Kings behalf being real and cordial on this his last undertaking and engaged with him the Duke of
I find a great Reward of it for I have found their Prayers and their kindness now in this distress and in this condition and I think it a great reward and I pray God reward them for it I am a great sinner and I hope God will be pleased to hear my prayers to give me faith to trust in him that as he hath called me to death at this place he will make it but a passage to an eternal Life through Jesus Christ which I trust to which I rely upon and which I expect by the Mercy of God And so I pray God bless you all and send that you may see this to be the last execution and the last bloud that is likely to be spilt among you And then turning to the side-rayl he prayed for a good space of time after which Mr. Bolton said My Lord now look upon him whom you have trusted My Lord I hope that here is your last Prayer there will no more Prayers remain but Praises and I hope that after this day is over there will a day begin that shall never have end and I look upon this my Lord the Morning of it the Morning of that day My Lord You know where your Fulness lies where your riches lie where is your only Rock to anchor on you know there is fulness in Christ If the Lord comes not in with fulness of Comfort to you yet resolve to wait upon him while you live and to trust in him when you die and then say I will die here I will perish at thy feet I will be found dead at the feet of Jesus Christ Certainly he that came to seek and save lost sinners will not reject lost sinners when they come to seek him He that intreateth us to come will not sleight us when we come to intreat him My Lord there is enough there and fix your heart there and fix your eyes there that eye of Faith and that eye of Hope exercise these Grace now there will be no exercise hereafter As your Lordship said here take an end of Faith and take an end of Hope and take a Farewel of Repentance and all these and welcome God and welcome Christ and welcome Glory and welcome Happiness to all Eternity and so it will be an happy passage then if it be a passage here from misery to happiness And though it be but a sad way yet if it will bring you into the presence of Joy although it be a Valley of Tears although it be a shadow of death yet if God will please to bring you and make it a passage to that happiness welcome Lord. And I doubt not but God will give you an heart to tast some sweetness and Love in this bitter Potion and to see somthing of Mercy and Goodness to you and shew you some sign and token of good so that your soul may see that which we have had already experience of blessed be God for it many Experiences many Expressions not only in words nor tears God hath not left us without much Comfort and evidence and I hope my Lord you that have given so many Evidences to us I hope you want none your self but that the Lord will be pleased to support you and bear up your Spirit and if there want Evidence there is Reliance my security lies not in my knowing that I shall come to Heaven and come to Glory but in my resting and relying upon him when the Anchor of Faith is thrown out there may be shakings and tossings but there is Safety nothing shall interrupt Safety although somthing may interrupt Security my safety is sure although I apprehend it not and what if I go to God in the dark What if I come to him as Nicodemus did staggering in the night It is a night of trouble a night of darkness though I come trembling and staggering in this night yet I shall be sure to find comfort and fixedness in him And the Lord of Heaven be the strength stay and support of your soul and the Lord furnish you with all those Graces which may carry you into the besom of the Lord Jesus that when you expire this life you may be able to expire it into him in whom you may begin to live to all Eternity and that is my humble Prayer Holland M. Bolton God hath given me long time in this world he hath carried me through many great accidents of fortune he hath at last brought me down into a condition where I find my self brought to an end for a dis-affection to this State to this Parliament that as I said before I did believe no body in the world more unlikely to have expected to suffer for that cause I look upon it as a great Judgment of God for my sins And truly Sir since that the death is violent I am the less troubled with it because of those violent deaths that I have seen before principally my Saviour that hath shewed us the way how and in what manner he hath done it and for what cause I am the more comforted I am the more rejoyced It is not long since the King my Master passed in the same manâ—er and truly I hope that his purposes and intentions were such as a man may not be ashamed not only to follow him in the way that was taken with him but likewise not ashamed of his putposes if God had given him life I have often disputed with him concerning many things of this kind and I conceive his sufferings and his better knowledge and better understanding if God had spared him life might have made him a Pr. very happy toward himself this Kingdom I have seen and known that those blessed souls in Heaven have passed thither by the gate of sorrow and many by the gate of violence and since it is Gods pleasure to dispose me this way I submit my soul to him with all comfort and with all hope that he hath made this my end and this my conclusion that though I be low in death yet nevertheless this lowness shall raise me to the highest glory for ever Truly I have non said much in publick to the People concerning the particular Actions that I conceive I have done by my Counsels in this Kingdom I conceive they are well known it were somthing of vanity methinks to take notice of them here I 'le rather die with them with the comfort of them in my own bosom that I never intended in this Action or any action that ever I did in my life either malice or bloudshed or prejudice to any creature that lives For that which concerns my Religion I made my Profession before of it how I was bred and in what manner I was bred in a Family that was looked upon to be no little notorious in opposition to some liberties they have conceived then to be taken and truly there was some mark upon me as if I had some taint of it even throughout my whole
especially that of the King 's they made no bones of him but condemned him to the Gibbet with such fury and hast that they would scarce afford him time to recommend himself from their merciless Bar to the merciful and just Tribunal of Heaven which would ere long judge righteously in his cause between his Enemies and himself He was not long in preparation for his dissolution having as well learned as taught the necessity of Death improved to him into an easie suffering undergoing of it by the glory of his cause so that he quietly submitted to their Sentence and with Christian resolution owning his actions in order to his duty laid down his life the day and year aforesaid and will therefore deservedly among the rest of his glorious Company be had in precious and everlasting remembrance Not long afterwards followed the rendition of Pontefract-Castle surprized as aforesaid by Col. Morris they had stood it out to extremity there being no place in England for the King besides therefore were forced to accept of very hard Conditions which were that six of the garison whom they should chuse should be left at discretion The reason of this calling out this Number was a resolution to Sacrifice them to the ghost of the said Rainsborough being assured that those that performed that exploit were then in the Castle might be discovered upon view Among those or rather for those this Gentleman was taken being the Governor of the place and with Cornet Michael Blackbourn and the others brought to the City of York and committed to that Goal until the Summer-Assizes held there by Baron Thorp for that County when an Indictment of Treason was brought against them for levying War against the Parliament therupon found guilty by a pack'd Jury and after Sentence of being hanged drawn and quartered they were executed the day and year aforesaid the rigour of dismembring them being only abated At their death they spake as followeth The Speech of Col. John Morris Governour of Pontefract Castle at the place of his Execution at York August 23. 1649. WHen he was brought out of prison looking upon the Sledge that was there set for him lifting up his eyes to Heaven knocking upon his breast he said I am as willing to go to my death as to put off my doublet to go to bed I despise the shame as well as the Cross I know I am going to a joyful place with many like expressions When the Post met him about St. James Church that was sent to the Parliament to mediate for a reprieve and told him he could not prevailin it he said Sir I pray God reward you for your pains I hope and am well assured to finde a better pardon then any they can give my hope is not in man but in the living God At the place of Execution he made this profession of his faith his breeding his cause he had fought in Gentlemen First I was bred up in the true Protestant Religion having my education and breeding from that honorable House my dear Lord Master Strafford which place I dare boldly say was as well governed and ruled as ever any yet was before it I much doubt better then any will be after it unless it please God to put a period to these distracted times this Faith and Religion I say I have been bred in and I thank God I have hitherto lived in without the least wavering and now I am resolved by Gods assistance to dy in These pains are nothing if compared to those dolors and pains which Jesus Christ our Saviour hath suffered for us when in a bloody-Sweat he endured the Wrath of God the pain of Hell and the cursed and shameful death which was due to our sins therefore I praise the Lord that I am not plagued with far more grievous punishment that the like hath befallen others who undoubtedly are most glorious and blessed Saints with Christ in Heaven It is the Lords affliction and who will not take any affliction in good part when it comes from the hand of God And what shall we receive good from the hands of God and not receive evil And though I desire as I am carnal that this Cup may depart from me yet not my will but thy will be done Death brings unto the godly an end of sinning and of all miseries due unto sin so that aâ—ter death there shall be no more sorrow nor cry nor pain for God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes by Death our souls shall be delivered from thraldom and this corruptible body shall put on incorruption and this mortal immortality Therefore blessed are they that are delivered out of so vile a world and freed from such a body of bondage and corruption the soul shall enjoy immediate Communion with God in evetlasting bliss and glory it takes us from the miseries of this world and society of sinners to the City of the living God the celestial Jerusalem I bless God I am thought worthy to suffer for his Name and for so good a cause and if I had a thousand lives I would willingly lay them down for the cause of my King the Lords Anointed the Scripture commands us to fear God and honour the King to be subject to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether to the King as supreme or to to those that are in authority under him I have been always faithful to my Trust and though I have been most basely accused for betraying Leverpool yet I take God to witness it is a most false aspersion for I was then sick in my bed and knew not of the delivering of it till the Officers and Souldiers had done it without my consent and then I was carried prisoner to Sir John Meldrum afterwards I came down into the Country and seeing I could not live quietly at home I was perswaded by Colonel Forbes Colonel Overton Lieut-Colonel Fairfax whom I took for my good friends to march in their Troops which I did but with intention still to do my King the best service when occasion was and so I did and I pray God to turn the hearts of all the Souldiers to their lawful Sovereign that this Land may enjoy Peace which till then it will never do and though thou kill me yet will I put my trust in thee wherefore I trust in God he will not fail me nor forsake me Then he took his Bible and read divers Psalms fit for his own occasion and consolation and then put up divers prayers some publiquely and some privately the publique was this whiâ—h follows His Prayer WElcome blessed hour the period of my Pilgrimage the term of my Bondage the end of my cares the close of my sins the bound of my travels the Goal of my race and the haven of my hopes I have fought a long fight in much weakness I have finished my course though in great faintness and the Crown of my joy is that through the
you possesse here in my conversation in the world I do not know where I have an enemy with cause or that there is such a person whom I have to regret but if there be any whom I cannot recollect under the notion of Christian men I pardon them as freely as if I had named them by name I freely forgive them being in free peace with all the world as I desire God for Christs sake to be at peace with me For the business of death it is a sad sentence in it self if men consult with flesh and blood But truly without boasting I say it or if I do boast I boast in the Lord I have not to this minute had one consultation with the flesh about the blow of the Axe or one thought of the Axe more then as my pass-port to glory I take it for an honour and I owe thankfulness to those under whose power I am that they have sent me hither to a place however of punishment yet of some honour to die a death somewhat worthy of my blood answerable to my birth and qualification and this courtesie of theirs hath much helped towards the pacification of my mind I shall desire God that those Gentlemen in that sad bed-rol to be tried by the High Court of Justice that they may find that really there than is nominal in the Act an High Court of Justice a Court of high Justice high in its righteousness though not in its severity Father forgive them and forgive me as I forgive them I desire you now that you would pray for me and not give over praying till the hour of death not till the moment of death for the hour is come already that as I have a great load of sins so I may have the wings of your prayers to help those Angels that are to convey my soul to Heaven and I doubt not but I shall see my Saviour my gallant Master the King of England and another Master whom I much honoured my Lord Capel hoping this day to see my Christ in the presence of the Father the King in the presence of him my Lord Capel in the presence of them all and my self there to rejoyce with all other Saints and Angels for evermore Doctor Swadling he being upon the Scaffold spake as followeth unto the Colonel You have this morning in the presence of a few given some account of your Religion and under general notions or words have given an account of your faith charity and repentance To those on the Scaffold if you please to hear the same questions asked here you shall that it may be a general testimoney to you all that he died in the favour of God To the Colonel Now Sir I being to deal with you do you acknowledge that this stroke that you are to suffer is a just punishment laid upon you by God for your former sins Col. Andrews I dare not only deny it but dare not but confess it I have no opportunity of glorifying God more then by taking shame to my self and I have a reason of the Justice of God in my own bosom which I have put to your bosom Doctor You acknowledge that you deserve more then this stroak of the Axe and that a far greater misery is due to you even the pains and Torments of Hell that the damned there endure Col. I know it is due in righteous Judgement but I know again I have a satisfaction made by my Elder-brother Christ Jesus and then I say it is not due â—is due from me but quitted by his Righteousness Doct. Do you believe to be saved by that Mediator and none other Col. By that and that only renouncing all secondary causes whatsoever Doct. Are you truly and unfeignedly sorry before God as you appear to us for all those sins that have brought you hither Col. I am sorry and can never be sorrowful enough and am sorry I can be no more sorry Doct. If God should by a Miracle not to put you to a vain hope but if God should as he did to Ezekiah renew your days what life do you resolve to lead hereafter Col. It is a question of great length and requires a great time to answer Men in such straits would promise great things but I would first call some friends to limit how far I should make a Vow that I might 〈◊〉 make a rash one and to offer the Sacrifice of Fools but a Vow I would make and by Gods help endeavour to keep it Doct. Do you wish health and happiness upon all lawful Authorities and Government 〈◊〉 Col. I do prize all obedience to lawful Government and the adventuring against them is sinful and I do not justifie my self whatever my judgement be for my thus adventuring against the present Government I leave it to God to judge whether it be righteous if it be it must stand Doct. Are you now in love and charity with all men Do you freely forgive them Col. With all the World freely and the Lord forgive them and forgive me as I freely forgive them Doct. You have for some late years laid down your Gown and took up the Sword and you were a man of Note in those parts where you had your residence I have nothing to accuse you for want of diligence in hindering the doing of injuries yet possibly there might be some wrong done by your Officers or those under you to some particular men If you had your Estate in your hands would you make restitution Col. The wrongs themselves you bring to my mind are not great nor many some things of no great moment but such as they are my desire is to make restitution but have not wherewithall Doct. If you had ability would you likewise leave a legacy of thankfulness to Almighty God something to his poor Servants to his lame Members to his deaf Members to his dumb Members Col. My will hath always been better then my ability that way Doct. Sir I shall trouble you very little further I thank you for all those heavenly Colloquies I have enjoyed by being in your Company these three days and truly I am very sorry I must part with so heavenly an Associate We have known one another heretofore but never so Christian-like before I have rather been a Scholar to learn from you then an Instructor I wish this Stage wherein you are made a Spactacle to God Angels and the World may be a School to all about you for though I will not diminish your sins nor shall I conceal nor hypocrize my own for they are great ones betwixt God and my self yet I think there is few here have a lighter load upon them then you have if we consider things well and I only wish them your Repentance and that measure of Faith which God hath given you and that measure of Courage you have attained from God and that constant perseverance God hath crowned you with hitherto Col. His Name be praised Here the Doctor
them To this purpose His Engines were emptied at once upon all sorts of men though finding it impossible to engage or set any of the Nobility who had a small tast of what usage they might expect by the Death of 4 eminent Lords they at Last confined themselves to the middle rank of the people Gentry and Citizens and of those not the puny and weak but the resolute learned and couragious whose blood being of price and value might be of some religsh to them howsoever bitter and abominable soever to all the World besides being the thing they intended A High Court of Justice is therefore erected by the novel Authority of a Prorector and to keep even pace with the setting of it up divers persons are apprehonded and Committed amongst others this Noble Gentleman Colonel John Gerhard his Brother Mr. Charles Gerhard Brothers to the Honourable Sir Gilbert Gerhard Mr. Vowel a Schoolmaster of the Free-School at Islington Mr. Somerset Fox and others these were brought before that Bar of the High Court where bloody Lisle was then President Their Crime was an offence counted in one of those forty two Articles of the Instrument of Government which Oliver swore to at Westminster-Hall at his first seizure of the Government being a design against the Life of that Usurper This was feizible to the belief of all men for few there were that owed him not that kindnesse and therefore the colour of Truth was enough and onely requisite to blanch out the deformities and odiousnesse of the illegall proceedings and other barbarous dresse of mischief and villany But these Gentlemen were no way concerned in any such design save only as they were prompted and had some transient suggestions which they never entertained by some trapanning words to that purpose which had their danger not recalled to their memory had been utterly forgot by them though made records against them by those who were hired deeply to swear against them what they had by the by but whispered to them See more in Mr. Gerhards Speech But to strengthen and second this Device and to six their plot upon them they do not onely relye on their Witnesses for evidence but with promise of life and pardon to one of the pretended Complices in the businesse they undermine his integrity and blow up the lives of the other They tell him they can sufficiently prove it and that the onely way to save himself is by a free Confession and desiring the clemency of the Court thereupon Mr. Somerset Fox acknowledgeth the pretended Crime and referred himself to them for mercy and Mr. Gerhard the younger being not above the age of nineteen yeares gives some such like Testimony against his own Brother being not of that mature resolution to withstand the fear of Death which menaced himself whereupon this Noble Colonel was condemned by the said pretended Court for Treason in conspiring the death of Cromwel which he undauntedly having made a very excellent Defence against the supposed Fact and at last denyed their Authority and very chearfully received Mr. Vowel was the next against whom they had suborned a blind Minister one that had been fed and sustained by the charity of this Martyr The frequent converse this man used with him gave Cromwel's Spies a fit opportunitie of effecting their projected Design upon him for seeing the indigence and necessity of that blind wretched man they forthwith closed with him and with great promises of Pensions and such like proditory Reward drew the unwary man into the guilt of a most shamefull Treachery For having sounded the mind of his Benefactor and good Friend in reference to the Fines and particularly about the Protectors Usurpation by which the Commonwealth being now reduced to a kind of Monarchical Government and the people discerning thereby the Cheats put upon them by the Reformation it was not to be doubted but if the Tyrant were removed or otherwayes laid aside the Royal interest would be gladly embraced and without any difficulty reassumed to its Authority he caught hold of some words by way of discourse which as the judgement and inclination of Mr. Vowel led him were something to the purpose of their Design These words were presently taken hold of and upon this blind mans Examinations more enlarged with several Circumstances inserted which their Instruments had furnished them with out of their strict watch and observation of all his Company Wayes and Actions which at his Trial were instanced and the Examinations produced to prove them At the recitals whereof the blind man whether prickt in conscience for his detestible ingratitude or some present courage infused into him for to evidence the oppressed innocence of the prisoner at Bar who had a sad and numerous Family at home denyed and disowned the sad Examination and the words or Narrative therein set down to be his but that he was abused thereby and so persisted to the great confusion and puzzle of the Court till such time as Frontlesse Lisle averred it was his voluntary Act and that it appeared he had been since tampered withal and that the Court would take no notice of such prevarication So this proceeded to Sentence against him which was that for his Treason c. he should be hanged and so was removed to prison again On the 10th day of July 1654. Colonel Gerhard was brought to the Scaffold on Tower-hill where immediately after Don Pantaleon Sa the Pörtugal Embassadours Brother for a Riot committed at the new Exchange in London where this unfortunate Gentleman valiantly opposed him and his assistance to the hazard of his life was executed They both agreed in this fatal determination of their lives though not in the manner of parting with them the Portugal with some kind of reluctancy this with the bravest and most Christian willingnesse imaginable which he manifested in his dying gesture and words subjoyned hereunto Mr. Vowel on the 10th day of July was likewise brought to Charing-Crosse where he was readier for his death then that for him the Gibbet being not fixed he was conveighed to the Charing-Cross Tavern where he like a true Christian Souldier behaved himself having before prepared himself for his departure freely discoursing of the Kings indubitable and unconquerable Right to his Crownes and that though for a time it might be suppressed yet most certainly God in his righteous Judgement would not long delay his vindication to the Mind and confusion of his rebellious Enemies and that they could take no speedier course to bring it down upon their heads then by murthering his Subjects and that though it were a sad infliction on him in regard of his distressed Family yet he doubted not but it would prove to his everlasting glory and a better support of his Relations then he could provide for them And I hope his words with the latter part thereof be as happily verified as in the former Being called again to his Execution he took leave of a number of people who pressed
you to be satisfied with the brief account of the principal persons here because it will be not only some trouble to write their particular stories involved in the general design of this Service but by reason the whole was transacted by these mens Purses Authority and more signalized by their life death I presume not neither to be punctual in the matter of Colonel Penruddock for that he himself was abused in the hopes of the publishing his Examinations and Tryal wherein the high injustice offered him would most plainly appear especially in the business of Capt. Crook and therfore shall transmit the memory of this noble and Heroick Royalist with as much honor solemn veneration as indignation zeal against those Times and Persons that envied us the Retrospect of this his glory by forbidding suppressing any account thereof to be published that they might thereby conceal their base treachery and unlawful proceedings Colonel Penruddock thus butchered Colonel Groves a somewhat antient and very grave man was brought upon the reaking Scaffold he had been an Officer of that Dignity and Command in the Kings Armies before and therefore that honourable solemnity of murther was afforded him He spoke at his Trial little to his Judges whose enjoyned business and meritorious Service with Oliver he well knew was to bereave him of his life but addrest himself wholly to the Jury who were a packt number of Schismaticks and who Serpent like were deaf to his Charmes of Reason and Law though pressed and tenacioufly urged by him As he said little at the Bar so he said less at the Block but piously and fervently recommended his Soul to God desiring him to forgive his Enemies and so laid down his life and slept in the Lord their Speeches follow After this Execution was past they proceeded not because they saw it pleased the people for the Royal people of Exeter never beheld the like detestable sight in their violence against others of the meaner sort who were taken in that same business at Southmolton who by their discriminating malice were destined to the Gibbet nine of whom suffered thereat averting their most righteous Cause and telling the Sheriff a Knight of Olivers that another account and estimate would not long after be made of them to the shame and confusion of their Enemies After they were dead they were all honourably buried in that City all sorts of persons in great numbers following them to their Graves which was highly resented and stuck deeply in Cromwels stomack but he knew not which way to punish the City for that piety no more then he could brook or prevent their charity the Citizens from the time of the imprisonment of them being above fourscore in number maintaining them with all necessaries even to abundance and superfluity But though he could not stop the giver he found a way to hinder the receiver for after the Assizes wherein many more were condemned besides them that were Executed and the others still kept in durance in expectation of future tryal he caused them to be transported to the Barbado's selling them as slaves to some of those Turkish Merchants who trade in the lives of men as this Butcher Crommwel in their deaths who sold and employed them in those Plantations where the Pagan clowns or more properly villains used and worked them beyond their strength and endurance which soon after the Tyrant was gone to his place came to a hearing in Parliament in Richards non-age The same Judges at their return back held another Assize at Chard in Somersetshire where Cromwells Scouts had gleaned up a few of those scattered persons two whereof they murthered there but Major Hunt whom they had principally designed for the gorge gave them the slip in the habit of one of his Sisters who staid behind in his Chamber in bed which they discovered not till morning to the unspeakable intolerable vexation of the tyrant who threatned all manner of deaths to the Jaylor I had almost forgot their errand at Salisbury where they likewise beheaded on Mr. _____ of Hungerford and one Mr. Kency and three others were hanged for the same matter much stir was made and many addresses were presented to Cromwel in the behalf of them but all proved ineffectual onely one Mr. Dean the only son of a widow and he not actually in arms was after sentence reprieved The sufferers dyed constantly and assured in their just actions as the rest and gave glory to God and received it again in their eternal recompence The Speech of the Honourable Colonel Penruddock the greatest part whereof he delivered upon the Scaffold in Exon. Castle the 16. day of May 1655. the whole he left with a Gentleman and friend of his written with his own hand which is as followeth Together with the manner of his being beheaded As he was ascending the Scaffold baring his knees and bowing himself he used these words This I hope will prove to be like Jacobs ladder though the feet of it rest on Earth yet I doubt not but the top of it reacheth to Heaven When he came upon the Scaffold he said O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God who hath given me victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Then with abundance of Christian cheerfulnesse he spake to the people as followeth Gentlemen IT hath ever been the custom of all persons whatsoever when they come to die to give some satisfaction to the world whether they be guilty of the fact of which they stand charged The crime for which they stand charged the crime for which I am now to die is Loyalty but in this age call'd high Treason I cannot deny but I was at Southmolton in this County but whether my being there or my actions there amount to so high a crime as high Treason I leave it to the world and to the Law to judge Truly if I were concious to my self of any base ends that I had in this underâ—aking I would not be so injurious to my own soul or disingenuous to you as not to make a publique acknowledgment thereof I suppose that divers persons according as they are biassed in their several interests and relations give their opinions to the world concerning us I conceive it is impossible therefore so to expresse my self in this particular as not to expose both my judgement and reputation to the censure of many which I shall leave behind me Because I will not put others therefore upon a breach of Charity concerning me or my actions I have thought fit to decline all discourses which may give them a capacity either to enjure themselves or me My tryal was publick and my several examinations I believe will be produced when I am in my grave I will refer you therefore to the first which I am sure some of you heard and to the later which many of you in good time may see Had Captain Crook done himself and
much enlarged by Dr. R. Read The Queen of Arragon a Play in Folio In Quarto Large Jo. Barkley his Argenis Translated by Sr. Robert le Grise Knight by his Late Majesties special Command with Figures or without Quarto small An Experimental Treatise of Surgery by Felix Wortz Abrahams Faith or the good Old Religion c. by John Nicholson Minister of the Gospel The Anatomy of Mortality by George Stroud Attersols three Treatises Universal Husbandry improved or divers rare and choyce Experiments and Secrets in Husbandry Gardening and Planting with divers Rarities of Gabriel Plat and others by Sam. Hartlib Aynsworth on the Cantic Gralle against Appolonius A Treatise of Civil Policy c. By Sam. Rutherford Professor of Divinity of St. Andrews in Scotland Politick and Military Observations of Civil and Military Government containing the Birth Encrease Decay of Monarchies the Carriage of Princes and Magistrates Mr. Pinchin his Meritorious Price of mans Redemption cleared Astrology Theologized shewing what Nature and Influence the Stars and Planets have over men and how the same may be diverted and avoided Wells his Souls Progress Christ tempted the Devil conquered Being a plain Exposition on the Fourth Chapter of St. Matthews Gospel By John Gumbleden Minister of the Gospel The Saints Society D. Stoughtons thirteen choyce Sermons with his Body of Divinity The Reasons of the dissenting Brethren concerning the Presbyterian Government together with the Answer of the Assembly of Divines The Doctrine of mans Redemption by Edward Holioke Of the Doctrine of the Church of England sweetly harmonizing with the Confessions of Faith of all the Protestant Reformed Churches The Philosophical Touchstone or Observations upon Sr. Kenelme Digby's Discourses of the Nature of Bodies and of the reasonable Soul by Alexander Ross The Saints Triangles of Dangers deliverances and Duties by Nathanael Whiting Minister of the Gospel The Confession of Faith of all the Congregational Churches of England agreed upon at the Savoy 1659. An History of Angels being a Treatise of our Communion and War with them by Henry Lawrence The Description of the Universal Quadrant c. by Tho. Stirrup Mathem The whole Art of Drawing Painting Limning and Etching collected out of the choycest Italian and German Authors by Alex. Brown Practitioner Several Pieces of Mr. Edward Bagshaw Student of Christs-Church 1. Exercitationes duae de Presbyt Episcop 2. A Discourse of Christ and Antichrist 3. Signs of the Times or Prognosticks of Future Judgments with the way how to prevent them Large Octavo A Treatise of the Divine Promises by Edw. Liegh Esquire The Rights of the Crown of England as it is established by Law by Edward Bagshaw Esquire of the Inner Temple Florus Anglious with the Lively Effigies of all the Kings and Queens since the Conquest cut in brass The Life and Reign of King Charls from his Birth to his Dâ—th bp Lambert Wood. The Night-search the second part by H. Mill. A view of the Jewish Religion with their Rites Customs and Ceremonies Useful Instructions for these Evil times held forth in Twenty two Sermons bp Nicholas Lockier Provost of Eaton Colledge The Nâ—llity of Church-Censures or Excommunication not of Divine Institution but a meer humane Invention Written by the Famous Tho. Erastus and never before Englished Merry Drollery in two Parts being a Collection of Jovial Poems Merry Songs and Witty Drolleries intermixt with pleasan Catches Small Octavo Edw. Waterhouse Esquire His Discourse of Piety and Charity Panacea or the Universal Medicine being a Discourse of the admirable Nature Vertues of Tobacco by Dr. Everard and others A View and Defence of the Reformation of the Church of England very useful in these times Mr. Pet. du Moulin his Antidore against Popery published on purpose to prevent the Delusions of the Priests and Jesuits who are now very busie among us Vinditiae Gratiae Sacramentalis duobus Tractatulis comprehensae 1. De Efficacia Sacramentorum in genere 2 De Efficacia Baptismi quantum ad parvulos quibus praesigitur Epistola Reverendissimi Patris Johannis Davenanti nuper Episcopi Sarisburiensis Dr. R. Record his Urinal of Physick Rare Verities or the Cabinet of Venus unlockt and her Secrets laid open Ovid de Ponto in English The Loves of Clerrio Lozio a Romance Herberts Devotions Mr. Knowles his Rudiment of the Hebrew Tongue Florus Anglicus or an exact History of England from the Reign of William the Conqueror to the death of the Late King Lingua or the Combate of the Tongue and five senses for superiority a serious Comedy acted by Oliver Cromwel the Late Usurper The Spirits Touchstone being a clear Discovery how a man may certainly know whether he be truly taught by the Spirit of God or not The poor mans Physitian and Chyrurgion now Printing Physical Rarities containing the most choyce Receipts in Physick and Chyrurgery for the cure of all Diseases Incident to mans Body by R. VVilliams To which is added the Physical Mathematicks by Hermes Tris-megistus The Idol of Clowns or the Relation of VVat Tylers Rebellion The Raconian Catechism in English The Life of that incomparable man Faustus Socinus Senensis described by a Polonian Knight The Golden Fleece or a Discourse of the Cloathing of England Dr. Sibbs his Divine Meditations Vigerius Precepts of Idiotismes Grotii Poemata Three Books of M. Matthews Minister at Swansey in South-Wales Duodecimo Dr. Smiths Practise of Physick Proverbs English French Dutch Italian and Spanish all Englished and Alphabetically digested The London Distiller or the whole Art of Distillations laid open Fryer Bacon his Discovery of the Miracles of Art Nature and Magick The Grammar War Posselius Apothegmes Fasciculus Florum Crashaws Visions The Juniper Lecture Helvicus Colloquies The torments of Hell shaken or a discourse with many proofs shewing that there not is a punishment after this Life for any to endure that shall never end by Sam. Richardson The understanding Christians duty often to commemorate the death and Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus with the necessary preparatives thereunto The Christian Souldier his Combat with the three Arch Enemies of Mankind the World the Flesh and the Devil Seasonable Advice to the Apprentices of the Honourable City of London touching their duty to God and their Masters Heinsius de Crepundiis The History of Russia or the Government of the Emperour of Muscovia with the Manner and Fashions of the People of that Countrey Drexelius his School of Patience Drexelius his right Intention of every ones Action A School or Nurture for Children or the Duty of Children to Parents very useful for all that intend to bring up their Children in the Fear of God A Help to Prayer being the duty of every man and Woman that intends to be saved Viginti Quarto The New Testament The third Part of the Bible Sr. Richard Bakers Meditations and Prayers for every day of the Week All the Works of that Great and Glorious Monarch and Martyr King Charles the first Collected into one Volumn The London Chanticleers a Play
no truly Loyal Person ever was brought who was within the reach of their griping talents that ever escaped with his skin so aptly might that Fable of the Fox to the Lyon be rather unmoralized Vestigia cerno Omnia te advorsum spectantia nulla retrorsum It was in vain to move either their Honour Conscience or Duty or to plead ones own their ambiguous salvo's and reserves to themselves and their forward facing of others out of reason by their Janus-like cause which was for and against the King like the Basilisk killed all whom it directly aspected or were brought before them This Gentlemâ—ns fare was huddled up at Essex House before a Council of War held there on the walls whereof any man then might have red the Event The grand pillâ—r raiser and support of that unnatural War being proprietor thereof and at that present personally inhabiting it who was just come from Newbery first Fight where as yet he had left himself unrevenged Without any more adoe therefore but a setting Mr. Kniveton at their Bar as the mark and aim of all their impotent malice he was condemned to be hanged as a Spie for maintaining and managing intelligence with and from the Enemy that was the King whom they said they fought for but on what Article of War I never could tell and I presume the Reader can hardly imagine Little respit was afforded for the time of Execution for the Faction were enraged that any man should presume to tell them that it was Treason to counterfeit the Kings Seal and if such continual Messages upon every of their actions should be brought and declared it might in time open the eyes of the people to understand the Law and leave them in conclusion to its Justice and their due demerit He was brought therefore on the day he suffered as aforesaid on foot from Newgate being accompanied with Mr. Benson a Bookseller his acquaintance in Fleetstreet to a Gibbet erected over against the Exchange where he may most properly be said to have Sealed his Cause with his Blood being sent of another Message to Heaven where his Bliss and Happiness shall have no Terme Captain Burleigh Martyred at Westminster February 10. 1647. THe Execution of this Person was the absurdity of Law the contradiction of Magna Charta the infringment and violation of Nature and if it could be strained higher than an affront and Rebellion against the supreme power of the Universe it would passe with a lesser ignominy than the merit of this Cause will afford it That men tyed by their allegiance by several Oaths of Fealty by the benefit of their protection and advantages they received under the Government of so excellent a Prince were to be dispensed nay must be discharged from that Duty and Obedience they ought him and that the Parliament as they had subdued their Lawful King might give Law to him propound their own insolent terms and demands and rigidly insist on them secure his Person under pretence of publick safety administer the Kingdom themselves sequester and seize their Estates who resisted them in these violent and unheard of outrages all this I say might be as otherwise it could not be helpt as the sad state of the miseries of the Kingdom then was with some kind of patience endured but to see and hear to be upon the place where so many undutiful unchristian contempts after the Votes of Non Addresse were put upon the King in that place which he had chosen for his refuge and Sanctuary I can hardly allow any man in this case the glory of Martyrdom whose frame and temper had but the least ingredients of natural not to pride it in loyal compassion if he durst do that which bravery and courage prompted him to the Law and his obedience required and God commanded Yet I do not the less wonder and stand amazed at this butchery upon several considerations which though they be of different respects yet do center universally in this that they will make the murder of this person prodigiously infamous to all persons concerned in it First not to meddle with the Laws whose Divine stamp was most treasonably defaced in this act we will consider this attempt of Captain Burleighs in the invariable latitude of common humanity His pretended crime was the beating of a Drum in the Isle of Wight upon the news the Islanders had received that the Parliament had rejected the King upon their Votes of Non addresse and had resolved to settle the Kingdom without him when his Majesty was confined a close Prisoner to Carisbrook Castle This was misconstrued according to the left-handed learning of those times for Treason whereas had there been any sympathetical Musick in those Drums they would have made a noyse and Alarm of themselves borrowed from those groans and sighs the captive Prince made to his more compassionate walls who burst to give vent and eccho to those doleful notes And could men not allow that soft and tender-heartedness to men to Christians to Subjects to a Subject too well reputed and esteemed of in his Island as a good and honest man one who out of conscience and integrity and for no other sinister end whatsoever had faithfully served his Soveraign abroad that is had crost the Sea to do his devoir and there having weâ—ried himself and his fortunes had retired to his home as a shelter against his hard pursuing destinie where in privacy he thought to shroud himself No he finds death in the place of it first he is chiefly concern'd in the publick sorrow and distress of his Soveraign those breaths of grief soon pierce his ears and those Royal lamentations heightned by a generous Spirit quickly transport and possess him and by this most laudable and glorious action which signified only a courage to rescue what villany had captivated and hindred their wicked attempts no farther then by affording a brave and imitable example of Loyal magnanimity to all true Subjects in all exigencies and dangers of their Princes be becomes a sacrifice to their Moloch of Anarchycal Tyranny We will view him in the next consideration as his case stood in direct opposition to that of Major Rolfe then an Officer in the Army and of very great trust and intimacy with Cromwell who was tryed at the same time and Assizes by the same Commission Judges and Jury and then certainly nothing can appear more flagitious and hainously arbitrary than this Gentlemans condemnation Contraria juxta se posit a magis elucescunt contraries opposed one to another make each of them appear the clearer and so will it prove in the memory of this Noble Person which will hereby appear in a most venerable splendor Rolfes Crime was this he was accused by one Mr. Osborne and another gentleman then attending on the King in the Isle of Wight where this Rolfe had a Charge to have consâ—ired the death of the King and that particularly by assassinating him with a Brace of Pistols
the time and place of this Regicide also proved This Information was first made to the House of Lords and avowed by the said two Gentlemen whereupon Rolfe being apprehended in Bishopsgate where he had like to have been torn in pieces by the multitude of people had it not been for their very strong Guards they sent for him was carried in a Sedan to the Gate-house whence he was sent against the Assizes to Winchester where at his Arraignment the whole matter was punctually proved against him yet for all that both by Judges and Jury the then Lord Chief Baron and some packt desperate Wretches of that County he was to the wonder and astonishment of all the world acquitted and freed and soon after set at Liberty Next followed the Inditement and Arraignment of this our Martyr which was layd for levying war against the King to which he duly and of Right and Conscience pleaded Not guilty Tâ—e matter of Fact which was proved against him was that he had beaten up Drums in the Isle of Wight to raise men for to assist the King against the Parliament such a Contradiction in it self that had but Reason and Loyalty been at market there had been no such desperate Chapmen in the Country for without more ado these wretched Fellows bring him in guilty of High Treason and the Judge gave Sentence accordingly which was presently after executed We will consider Thirdly that this manner of Trial was never offered before to the Subjects of this Kingdom those men they murdered upon the Score of Loyalty during the war were either taken away by their Illegal Ordinances or Courts Marshal and Councils of war they not daring to refer their case to the decision of the Law but here assoon as they had reduced the King they thought it an easie work to reduce the Laws and though his Majesty would not comply with their unlimited demands they would bend the Law to their Lusts and most absolute will and Tyranny so that he is the first who suffered as a Martyr of the English Freedom Intercessions were made on all hands for his Life his poor wife even drowned in tears imploring their mercy but there was no Relenting or Compassion to be found among those men So Feb. 10. being come the day of his blessed Exchange he full of Christian Resolution and Comfort with Earnest Prayers to God for the King and Kingdoms Restoration to their former and lasting Happiness willingly resigned his Spirit to God sealing his Glorious Cause with his last Breath and Bloud Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle shot to death at Colchester by a Council of War upon the Rendition of the same Town THese Gemini of Valour and Honour as well as exact Loyalty I could not well divide in this Martyrology being so joyned in their deaths honourable Burial and Funerals and being both of them so equally eminent in their Generation for all true worth and Vertue Sr. Charles Lucas was descended of a very Ancient and Illustrious Family he who knows not the Name of Lucas knows nothing of Gentility but if this Noble Person had derived no Honour from his Ancestors yet his own purchased Glory and the Relative Merits of his two Famous Brethren the Lord Lucas and Sir Gervas formerly Governour of Belvoyr Castle in which three Nature and Education had summ'd up a Perfection will without any other Additaments transmit him to Posterity as a worthy and English Heroe He was a Person assisted with a resolute Spirit of an active disposition and a surable discretion to manage it strict and severe in his Commands without any pride or surliness free in his Rewards to persons of Desert and Quality in his Society and with his Friends he was affable and pleasant in his Charge serious and vigilant remiss in nothing that might any way improve or expedite his Dispatch in the Affairs of VVar as he is well charactered by a good Pen. We will therefore view him only in the Camp in which he gloriously lived and died excusing his Learning and other rare Endowments from the imputation of Crime and lay all the Load of his miserable Fate aggravated by the Name of an enemy to the Kingdom upon his Loyal carriage and magnanimity abstracted from all other Considerations In the beginning of the Tumults and Preparations for War in Scotland against their Native pious Pr. he raised a Troop of Horse in London and like an Expert and Resolute Commander behaved himself in that uncertain Service being a profest Enemy to the Insolencies and Rebellious Designs of that Nation That Broyl ceasing through the great condescentions of the King to the unreasonable Demands of that Kingdom which kindled the Combustions in this the King being necessitated to take up Arms to defend his Person and the Authority of the Laws against the like Rebellion at home Sr. Charles readily engaged on his Soveraigns side against the pretended 2 Houses The first place where he signally shewed his Valour in that just Cause omitting Exployts of less concernment as not to our purpose was at Auburn Chase and Newberry Field where the first memorable Battel was fought here Sr. Charles Lucas with many other Gallant Gentlemen behaved themselves with undanted courage and Resolution which so far engaged him in that dangerous Business the fight being obstinately maintained that he received some desperate wounds that fatal day but the Blood he lost there was but an Earnest or prognostick stillations drops of that mass of Bloud which was afterwards to flow out with his Life for the same Cause His next Appearance to the terror of his Enemies his Valour having gained him a frighting name amongst them was in his deserting of Cawood Castle assaulted by the Parliaments Forces whence with good conduct and as true Courage he forced his way through their Quarters to such places as he thought convenient and came at last in safety to York His Bravery in charging at Marston Moor and enduring the Brunt of his Enemies when the Fortune of that day declined on the Kings side as it then challenged the Praise of all men so it deserves everlasting Remembrance His discreet and military Management of the Affairs at Newark where he manifested himself an absolute Souldier both in Discipline of war and personal Action to the great satisfaction of the Governour and Garrison which alwaies consisted of Gallant and truly Noble Persons merits a Record to serve as an Example to Future Times His brave and successeful Attempt in his March from Berkly Castle with part of his Regiment betwixt Slymbridge and Beverston Castle upon Col. Masseys Garrisons together with his incomparable Gallantry in the pursuit of his Design at Tedbury was work for noble Imitation But all these Particulars signifie nothing to his Heroick Magnanimity in defence of the Town of Colchester beleaguered by a potent and victorious Army This was as the Corollary the summing up of all his Atchievements in the times and circumvallations