THe Heaven is thy Throne O Lord and the Earth is thy footstool but to this man wilt thou look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at thy Word Thou O Lord art the great God of Heaven and Earth thou fillest all places with thy presence art the Judge of the whole World and dost Righteousness We are poor unworthy sinful creatures by nature children of wrath as well as others We are wise to do evil but to do good we have no knowledge If to will be present with us yet how to perform and go through with that which is good and not be weary of well-doing we find not Bring us O Lord into the true mystical Sabbath-state that we may cease from our own works rest from our labors not think our own thoughts find our own desire or walk in the way of our own hearts but become a meet habitation of thy Spirit by the everlasting Covenant the place of thy Rest Let the Spirit of God and of Glory that is greater than he that is in the world rest upon us work in and by us mightily to the pulling down of flesh and blood the strong holds of Sin and Satan in our selves and others causing us so to suffer under the Fire-Baptism thereof as that we may cease from sin for ever or from that fleshly mutable temporary state of life and righteousness which at best is liable to roul back into sin again to be intangled overcome and finally triumphed over by the pollutions of this world Deliver us O Lord from the Evil One deliver us from our selves take us out of our own dispose our own liberty and power the freedom the mutable holiness and righteousness of the sons of men at its best and bring us into the most glorious Liberty the most holy immutable and righteous state of the sons of God a freedom to Good only and non at all to evil attended and accompanied with a power in us through thy Spirit of doing all things for the Truth and a disability brought upon us as to the doing of any thing against the Truth in the single power and freedom of our own spirit Then the prince of this world coming to us will find nothing in us at least no prevailing activity of self nature or flesh which at best is capable to be made by him an ergin of opposition to the Kingdom of Christ and our own true blessedness Thou hast laid on thy Son the iniquities of us all by his stâ—ipes we are healed We must all stand before the Judgment-Seat of Christ to give an account of what we have done in the body whether it be good or whether it be evil He will bring every secret counsel to light things that are wrought in darkness he maketh plain and evident Thine eyes O Lord run to and fro through the whole earth Thine eyes do behold thine eye-lids try the children of men The wicked and him that loveth violence thy soul hateth But thou upholdest the poor and needy him that is of a broken heart and of a contrite spirit The humble and lowly thou wilt teach the meek thou wilt guide in Judgment thou wilt beautifie the meek with Salvation Thou art the supream disposer of all the Kingdoms of men giving them to whomsoever thou wilt Whatever cross-blows thou sufferest to be given thy People for a season thou orderest all to thy own glory and their true advantage But thou hast a set time for Sions deliverance in which the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given unto the best and choicest of men the people of the Saints of the most high whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom Let the exceeding near approach of this bear up the spirits of thy poor despised ones in this day of extremity and suffering from sinking and despondency Carry them through their suffering part with a holy triumph in thy Chariots of Salvation How long O Lord holy and true make hast to help the Remnant of thy People Break the Heavens and come down touch the Mountains of prey the Kingdoms of this evil world and let them smoak Let the mouth of all Iniquity be stopped Silence every one that stands up against thee Rebuke the debauched prophane spirits of men that set themselves to work wickedness running with greediness into all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness They eat thy People as they eat bread They are profound to make slaughter skilful to destroy though thou hast been the rebuker of them all But Lord be this dispensation of what continuance it will for the serving of thy most gracious and wise designs let the spirit and resolution of thy Servants be steady and unchangeable that whether they live they may live to the Lord that died for them or whether they die they may die to the Lord who lives for ever to make intercession for them that they may glorifie thee with their bodies and spirits whether by life or by death Thou knowest O Lord that in the Faith of Jesus and for the Truth as it is in Jesus thy Servant desires to die walking in the steps of our father Abraham and for Righteousness and Judgment following the Lord in all his wayes whithersoever he goes worshipping the God of his believing fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob in that way which men call Heresie In this Faith dear Lord I have lived and in this Faith and Profession I die as one that hath herein stood up for the Testimony of JESUS against all Idolatry Superstition Prophaness and Popery or whatever is unsound or unfit to be brought before the Throne of so great and glorious a Majesty 'T is in this Faith that thy Servant dies Now set thy Seal to it and remove the reproaches and calumnies with which thy Servant is reproached for thou knowst his innocency Dear Father thou sentest us into this world but this world is not our home we are strangers and pilgrims in it as all our fathers were We have no abode here but there is a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens that when this tabernacle is dissolved we may enter into In our Fathers house are many mansions Oh! whatever the curses and condemnations of the Law are be thou near to us and spread the Righteousness of Christ over us and we shall be safe Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered Who wil speak who will take on him to say any thing or to plead with Thee upon any other terms but in the Name and Merits of the mighty Redeemer on whom our help is laid We desire to lie low to be abased and take shame confusion of face to our selves as that which properly belongs to us that Thou alone maist be exalted and advanced 'T is of meer Grace O Lord that thy Servant hath now some sign of thy special Salvation even thy free-Grace O God whereby thou dost accept him in thy
meet the King of Terrors without the least affrightment But to shew where his strength lay he said he was a poor unworthy wretch and had nothing but the Grace and Goodness of God to depend upon He said moreover Death shrunk from him rather than he from it Upon the occasion of parting with his Relations he said There is some flesh remaining yet but I must cast it behind me and press forward to my Father Then one of the Sheriffs men came in and told him There was no Sled to come but he was to walk on foot He told his Friends the Sheriffs Chaplain came to him at twelve of the clock that night with an Order for his Execution telling him he was come to bring him that fatal Message of Death I think Friends that in this Message was no dismalness at all After the receipt of which I slept four hours so soundly that the Lord hath made it sufficient for me and now I am going to sleep my last after which I shall need sleep no more Then Mr. Sheriff coming into the Room was friendly saluted by him and after a little pause communicated a Prohibition that he said he had received which was That he must not speak any thing against his Majesty or the Government His Answer to this he himself relates on the Scaffold He further told Mr. Sheriff he was ready but the Sheriff said he was not nor could be this half hour yet Then Sir it rests on you not on me said Sir Henry for I have been ready this half hour Then the Shriff at his request promised him his servants should attend him on the Scaffold and be civilly dealt with neither of which were performed for notwithstanding this promise they were beaten and kept off the Scaffold till he said What have I never a servant here After this one of the Sheriffs men came and told him there must be a Sled to which Sir Henry replied Any way how they please for I long to be at home to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all He went very chearfully and readily down the stairs from his Chamber and seated himself on the Sled Friends and Servants standing about him then he was forthwith drawn away towards the Scaffold As he went some in the Tower Prisoners as well as others spake to him praying the Lord to go with him And after he was out of the Tower from the tops of houses and out of windows the people used such means and gestures as might best discover at a distance their respects and love to him crying aloud The Lord go with you The great God of Heaven and Earth appear in you and for you whereof he took what notice he was capable in those circumstances in a chearful manner accepting their respect putting off his Hat and bowing to them Being asked several times how he did by some about him he answered Never better in all my life Another replied How should he do ill that suffers for so glorious a Cause To which a tall black man said Many suffered for a better Cause and may for a worse said Sir Henry wishing That when they come to seal their better Cause as he called it with their Blood as he was now going to seal his they might not find themselves deceived And as to this Cause said he it hath given Life in Death to all the Owners of it and Sufferers for it Being passed within the Rails on Tower-hill there were many loud acclamations of the people crying out The Lord Jesus go with your dear Soul c. One told him that was the most glorious Seat he ever sate on he answered It is so indeed and rejoyced exceedingly Being come to the Scaffold he chearfully ascends and being up after the crowd on the Scaffold was broken in two pieces to make way for him he shewed himself to the People on the front of the Scaffold with that Noble and Christian-like deportment that he rather seemed a looker-on than the person concerned in the Execution Insomuch that it was difficult to perswade many of the People that he was the Prisoner But when they knew that the Gentleman in the black Sute and Cloak with a Scarlet silk Wastcoat the victorious colour shewing it self at the breast was the Prisoner they generally admired that Noble and great Presence he appeared with How chearful he is said some he does not look like a dying-man said others with many like speeches as astonished with that strange appearance he shined forth in Then silence being commanded by the Sheriff lifting up his hands and eyes towards Heaven and then resting his hands on the Rails and taking a very serious composed and majestick view of the great multitude about him he spake as followeth His SPEECH on the SCAFFOLD Gentlemen fellow-Countrymen and Christians VVHen Mr. Sheriff came to me this morning and told me he had received a Command from the King that I should say nothing reflecting upon his Majesty or the Government I answered I should confine and order my Speech as near as I could so as to be least offensive saving my faithfulness to the Trust reposed in me which I must ever discharge with a good Conscience unto Death for I ever valued a man according to his faithfulness to the Trust reposed in him even on his Majesties behalf in the late Controversie And if you dare trust my discretion Mr. Sheriff I shall do nothing but what becomes a good Christian and an Englishman and so I hope I shall be civilly dealt with When Mr. Sheriffs Chaplain came to me last night about twelve of the clock to bring me as he called it the fatal Message of Death it pleased the Lord to bring that Scripture to my mind in the third of Zechary to intimate to me that he was now taking away my filthy garments causing mine iniquities to pass from me with intention to give me change of raiment and that my mortal should put on Immortality I suppose you may wonder when I shall tell you that I am not brought hither according to any known Law of the Land It is true I have been before a Court of Justice and am now going to appear before a greater Tribunal where I am to give an account of all my actions under their Sentence I stand here at this time When I was before them I could not have the liberty and priviledge of an Englishman the grounds reasons and causes of the Actings I was charged with duly considered I therefore desired the Judges that they would set their Seals to my Bill of Exceptions I pressed hard for it again and again as the Right of my self and every free-born English-man by the Law of the Land but was finally denied it Here Sir John Robinson Lieutenant of the Tower interrupted him saying Sir you must not go on thus and in a furious manner generally observed even to the dis-satisfaction of some of their own attendants said that he
a final Decision of the Controversie between his People and the Inhabitants of the earth by his own Judgement This is there called The Valley of Jehoshaphat in which the Lord will sit to Judge all his enemies round about In this Battel and great Decision of his Peoples Controversie he will cause his Mighty Ones to come down from Heaven to put in their sickle as reapers in this Vintage and Harvest when the wickedness is great Unto this Revel 14. 14 20. refers which doth plainly evidence that this grand Decision is to fall out in the very last of times and probably is that which will make way to the Rising of the Witnesses and will be accompanied with that Earthquake in which shall be slain of men seven thousand and the tenth part of the City will thereupon fall Rev. 11. It is expressed Joel 3. That in this day of the Lord wherein he will be near in the Valley of Decision the Heavens and the Earth shall shake by the Lords own roaring out of Sion and he himself will be the Harbour Hope and Strength of his People The Sun and Moon of earthly Churches and Thrones of Judicature that contest with them shall be darkened and the Stars even the choicest and most illuminated gifted Pastors Leaders in the earthly Jerusalem Churches with their most refined Forms of Worship resisting the power of true spiritual Godliness shall withdraw their shining Even their holy flesh will pass off from them and consume away upon their spiritual lewdness and confident opposing the Faith of Gods Elect Jer. 11. 17. Their very Eyes will consume away in their holes with which they say we see and for which Christ tells the Pharisees in like case that therefore ther sin remaineth John 9. 41. Or there remaineth no more benefit from Christ's Sacrifice for their sin and therefore onely a fearful looking for of the fiery and devouring indignation Heb. 10. 26 27. Here 's that the great confidence and boast of many professing Churches and eminent Pastors in the earthly Jerusalem Fabrick or House on the sand will come to Ezek. 13. and Mat. 7. Their very Eyes their high enlightenings and excellent spiritual Gifts their supernatural or infused humane Learning that 's admitted only as an adorning and accomplishment of the natural man unaccompanied with that Fire-Baptisme that 's performed by the unspeakable gift of the Spirit it self for the transforming of the natural man into spiritual even these Eyes becoming evil Mat. 6. 23. and this light opposing and preferring it self to the more excellent discerning and marvellous light in spiritual Believers are turned by the just Judgement of God into the greatest and most fatal blindness and darkness of all Their tongues also though the tongues of men and angels for excellency and dexterity of expressing what they see with the forementioned eyes will consume away in their mouth Zech. 14. 12. and leave them exposed to become and accordingly be dealt with as meer sounding brass and tinckling Cymbals 1 Cor. 12. 31. and 13. 1. giving no certain sound and right warning to the Battels of the Lord the good sight of Faith This comes to pass through their confidence in those attainments which may be and oft are turned into an Idol of jealousie and spiritual whoredom Ezek. 16. 1 15. All these considerations of Church and State put together afford great ground of enquiry as to the Condition of the times in which we live how far the face which they bear and which God hath put upon them in the course of his Providences for some years now past doth speak or signifie the near approach of any such extraordinary and signal appearance or day of Gods Judgement for the Decision of his own or his Peoples quarrel and controversie with the prophane Heathen that are round about them waiting for an advantage utterly and universally to remove and root them out from off the face of the whole earth That which hath been acted upon the Theater of these Nations amongst us in the true state of our Controversie seems to be reducible to this following Querie Whether the Representative Body of the Kingdom of England in Parliament assembled and in their Supream Power and Trust made indissolvable unless by their own Consent and free Vote and this by particular and express Statute have not had a just and righteous Cause A Quarrel more God's than their own 1. It may appear they had First from the Ground of their undertaking the War Was it not in their own and the Kingdoms just and necessary defence and for the maintaining of the publick Rights and Liberties of both 2. Secondly Was it not undertaken upon mutual Appeals of both Parties to God desiring him to judge between them to give the Decision and Issue by the Law of War when no other Law could be heard as the definitive Sentence in this Controversie from the Court of Heaven 3. Thirdly Pursuant to such Decision did they not recover and repossess the Kingdoms original and primitive freedom Did they not endeavour to conserve and secure it as due to them by the Law of God and of Nature For man was made in God's Image and all Adams Posterity are properly one Universal Kingdom on earth under the Rule and Government of the Son of God both as Creator and Redeemer By virtue of this original and primitive Freedom so recovered they were at their own choice whether to remain in and retain this their true freedom unresigned and unsubjected to the Will of any Man under the Rule of the Son of God and his Lawes or else to set up a King or any other Form of Government over them after the manner of other Nations In this latter case it is acknowledged that when a Common-wealth or People do choose their first King upon condition to obey him and his Successors Ruling justly they ought to remain subject to him according to the Law and tenor of the Fundamental Compact with him on whom they have transferred their Authority No Jurisdiction remaineth in them after that free and voluntary Act of theirs either to Judge the Realm or determine who is the true Successor otherwise than is by them reserved and stipulated by their Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of Government And though the righteousness of this Cause contained in the forementioned particulars be such as carries in it its own evidence yet as as things have fallen out it is come to be oppressed and buried in the grave of Malefactors in the room of which a contrary Judgement and Way is visibly owned upheld and intended to be prosecuted to the utmost for its own fast-rooting and establishment and this by the common Consent and Association of Multitudes What then remaines for the recovery and restitution of that good old Cause and Way but such a seasonable and signal appearance of God as aforesaid in the Valley of Jehoshaphat What but the taking things immediately into his own hands for administration
extraordinariness thereof And I beseech your Lordships to let me go on without interruption in my endeavouring to make it out as clearly as God shall enable me and as briefly also not to spend too much of your time In general I do affirm of this Case That it is so comprehensive as to take in the very Interests of Heaven and Earth First Of God the Universal Soveraign and King of Kings Secondly That of earthly Soveraigns who are God's Vicegerents as also the Interests of all Mankind that stand in the relation of Subjects to the one or both those sorts of Soveraigns This is general More particularly within the bowels of this Case is that Cause of God that hath stated it self in the late Differnces and Wars that have happened and arisen within these three Nations and have been of more than twenty years continuance which for the greater certainty and solemnity hath been recorded in the form of a National Covenant in which the generality of the three Nations have been either implicitly involved or expresly concern'd by the signing of their Names The principal things contained in that Covenant were the known and commonly received Duties which either as Men or as Christians we owed and stood obliged to perform either to God the highest and universal King in Church and State or to our natural Lord and Sovereign the Kings of this Realm in subordination to God and his Laws Again It contains as well the Duties which we owe to every particular and individual person in their several stations and callings as to the King in general and our Representative Body in Parliament assembled These Duties we are thereby obliged to yeeld and perform in consistency with and in a just subordination and manifest agreeableness to the Laws of God as is therein expressed And this also in no disagreement to the Laws of the Land as they then were By this solemn Covenant and Agreement of the three Nations giving up themselves in subjection to God and to his Laws in the first place as the Allegiance they owe to their highest Soveraign as the Creator Redeemer Owner and Ruler of all Mankind they have so far interested the Son of God in the the Supream Rule and Government of these Nations that nothing therein ought to be brought into practice contrary to his revealed Will in the holy Scriptures and his known and most righteous Laws This Duty which we owe to God the universal King Nature and Christianity do so clearly teach and assert that it needs no more than to be named For this subjection and allegiance to God and his Laws by a Right so indisputable all are accountable before the Judgment-seat of Christ It is true indeed men may de facto become open Rebels to God and to his Laws and prove such as forfeit his Protection and engage him to proceed against them as his professed Enemies But with your Lordships favour give me leave to say that that which you have made a Rule for your proceedings in my Case will indeed hold and that very strongly in this that is to say in the sence wherein Christ the Son of God is King de jure not only in general over the whole World but in particular in relation to these three Kingdoms He ought not to be kept out of his Throne nor his visible Government that consists in the Authority of his Word and Laws suppressed and trampled under foot under any pretence whatsoever And in the asserting and adhering unto the Right of this highest Soveraign as stated in the Covenant before mentioned The Lords and Commons joyntly before the year 1648 and the Commons alone afterwards to the very times charged in the Indictment did manage the War and late Differences within these Kingdoms And whatever defections did happen by Apostates Hypocrites and Time-serving worldlings there was a party amongst them that continued firm sincere and chast unto the last and loved it better than their very lives of which number I am not ashamed to profess my self to be not so much admiring the form and words of the Covenant as the righteous and holy ends therein expressed and the true sense and meaning thereof which I have reason to know Nor will I deny but that as to the manner of the prosecution of the Covenant to other ends than it self warrants and with a rigid oppressive spirit to bring all dissenting minds and tender Consciences under one Uniformity of Church-discipline and government it was utterly against my Judgment For I alwayes esteemed it more agreeable to the Word of God that the Ends and Work declared in the Covenant should be promoted in a spirit of love and forbearance to differing Judgments and Consciences that thereby we might be approving our selves in doing that to others which we desire they would do to us and so though upon different principles be found joynt and faithful advancers of the Reformation contained in the Covenant both publick and personal This happy Union and Conjunction of all Interests in the respective duties of all relations agreed and consented to by the common suffrage of the three Nations as well in their publick Parliamentary capacity as private stations appeared to me a Rule and measure approved of and commanded by Parliament for my action and deportment though it met with great opposition in a tedious sad and long War and this under the name and pretext of Royal Authority Yet as this Case appeared to me in my conscience under all its circumstances of Times of Persons and of Revolutions inevitably happening by the hand of God and the course of his wise Providences I held it safest and best to keep my station in Parliament to the last under the guidance and protection of their Authority and in pursuance of the Ends before declared in my just Defence This general and publick Case of the Kingdoms is so well known by the Declarations and Actions that have passed on both sides that I need but name it since this matter was not done in a corner but frequently contended for in the high places of the Field and written even with characters of Blood And out of the bowels of these Publick Differences and Disputes doth my particular Case arise for which I am called into question But admitting it come to my lot to stand single in the witness I am to give to this Glorious Cause and to be left alone as in a sort I am yet being upheld with the Authority before asserted and keeping my self in union and conjunction therewith I am not afraid to bear my Witness to it in this great Presence nor to seal it with my Blood if called thereunto And I am so far satisfied in my conscience and understanding that it neither is nor can be Treason either against the Law of Nature or the Law of the Land either malum per se or malum prohibitum that on the contrary it is the duty I owed to God the universal King and
despising God's precious Saints but in Heaven there is a good reception for them where are Mansions prepared from the beginning of the world He said You will shortly see God coming forth with Vengeance upon the whole Earth Vengeance upon the outward-man of his Saints and Vengeance upon the inward-man of his and their Enemies and that shall perform greater execution than was heretofore After his Sentence he said to some Friends God brought him upon on three stages to wit before the Court and was now leading him to the fourth his Execution-place which was far easier and pleasanter to him than any of the other three Saturday June 14. 1662 being the day of his Execution on Tower-Hill He told a Friend god bid Moses go to the top of Mount Pisgah and die so he bid him now go to the top of Tower-hill and die Some passages of his Prayer with his Lady Children and other Friends in his Chamber MOst holy and gracious Father look down from the habitation of thy Holiness visit relieve and comfort us thy poor Servants here gathered together in the Name of Christ Thou art rending this Vaile and bringing us to a Mountain that abides firm We are exceeding interrupters of our own joy peace and good by the workings and reasonings of our own hearts Thou hast promised that thou wilt be a Mouth to thy People in the hour of Tryal for thou hast required us to forbear the preparatory agitations of our own minds because it is not we that are to speak but the Spirit of our heavenly Father that speaketh in us in such seasons In what seasons more Lord than when thou callest for the Testimony of thy Servants to be writ in Characters of Blood Shew thy self in a poor weak Worm by enabling him to stand against all the power of thy Enemies There hath been a battel fought with garments rouled in blood in which upon solemn Appeals on both sides thou didst own thy Servants though through the spirit of Hypocrisie and Apostacy that hath sprung up amongst us these Nations have been thought unworthy any longer to enjoy the fruits of that Deliverance Thou hast therefore another day of decision to come which shall be wrought by fire Such a battel is to begin and be carried on by the Faith of thy People yea is in some sort begun by the Faith of thy poor Servant that is now going to seal thy Cause with his Blood Oh that this decision of thine may remarkably shew it self in thy Servant at this time by his bold Testimony and sealing it with his Blood We know not what interruptions may attend thy Servant but Lord let thy Power carry him in a holy Triumph over all difficulties Thou art the great Judge and Law-giver for the sake of thy Servants therefore O Lord return on high and cause a righteous Sentence to come forth from thy presence for the relief of thy despised People This thy Servants with Faith and Patience wait for The working of this Faith in us causeth the Enemy to give ground already If Death be not able to terrifie us from keeping a good Conscience and giving a good Testimony against them what can they do but stumble and fall backwards The day approaches in which thou wilt decide this Controversie not by Might nor by Power but by the Spirit of the living God This Spirit will make its own way and run through the whole Earth Then shall it be said Where is the fury of the Oppressor Who is he that dares or can stand before the Spirit of the Lord in the mouth of his Witnesses Arise O Lord and let thine Enemies be scattered Thy poor Servant knows not how he shall be carried forth by thee this day but blessed be thy great Name that he hath whereof to speak in this great Cause When I shall be gathered to thee this day then come thou in the Ministry of thy holy Angels that excel in strength We have seen enough of this World and thou seest we have enough of it Let these my Friends that are round about me commit me to the Lord and let them be gathered into the Family of Abraham the Father of the Faithful and become faithful Witnesses of those principles and Truths that have been discovered to them that it may be known that a poor weak Prophet hath been amongst them not by the words of his mouth onely but by the voice of his Blood and Death which will speak when he is gone Good Lord put words into his mouth that may daunt his Enemies so that they may be forced to say God is in him of a Truth and that the Son of God is in his heart and in his mouth My hour-glass is now turned up the sand runs out apace and it is my happiness that Death doth not surprize me It is Grace and Love thou dost shew thy poor Servant that thou hastenest out his time and lettest him see it runs out with Joy and Peace Little do my Enemies know as eager as they are to have me gone how soon their breaths may be drawn in But let thy Servant see Death shrink under him What a glorious sight will this be in the presence of many Witnesses to have Death shrink under him which he acknowledgeth to be only by the power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ whom the bands of Death could not hold down Let that Spirit enter into us that will set us again upon our feet and let us be led into that way that the Enemies may not know how to deal with us Oh! what abjuring of Light what Treachery what meanness of spirit has appeared in this day What is the matter Oh! Death is the matter Lord strengthen the Faith and Heart of thy poor Servant to undergo this dayes work with Joy and Gladness and bear it on the Heart and Consciences of his Friends that have known and seen him that they also may say the Lord is in him of a truth Oh that thy Servant could speak any blessing to these three Nations Let thy Remnant be gathered to thee Prosper and relieve that poor handful that are in Prisons and Bonds that they may be raised up and trample Death under foot Let my poor Family that is left desolate let my dear Wife and Children be taken into thy Care be thou a Husband Father and Master to them Let the Spirits of those that love me be drawn out towards them Let a Blessing be upon these Friends that are here at this time strengthen them let them find Love and Grace in thine Eyes and be increased with the Increasings of God Shew thy self a loving Father to us all and do for us abundantly above and beyond all that we can ask or think for Jesus Christ his sake Amen Several Friends being with him in his Chamber this morning he oft encouraged them to chearfulness as wel by his example as expression In all his deportment he shewed himself marvellously fitted to
Soveraign or General Vicegerent of his Supremacy over all in Heaven and in Earth He therefore is the true Universal King and Root of all Soveraign and just Governing Power whether in Heaven or on Earth His Soveraignty is unquestionable and unaccountable because of the Perfection of his Person carrying in it an aptitude and sufficiency to Govern without possibility of Error or Defect of any kind Soveraign and Governing Power doth necessarily relate to Subjects that are to be the Ruled and Subjects capable of such Government Therefore when God himself purposes within himself to be Supream Legislator and Governour he doth withal purpose the Being and Creation of both Worlds as the Subject matter of his Kingdom He propounds to Govern his Subjects by and with their own consent and good liking or without and against it in the way of his revenging Justice Governing by Laws clearly stating and ascertaining the Duty or the Offence as also the Rewards and Penalties Herein Just Government consists or the Justice of Government for he that Rules over others must be Just and indeed should be seen to be so in all his Commands so seen as to render the Consciences of the Ruled and those whose duty it is to Obey inexcusable before God and before Men if they Dissent or Resist Inexcusable they are before God because the matter Commanded is the matter of God's Law therefore just to be obeyed They are also Inexcusable before Men that which is required of them being generally acknowledged and affirmed by those in whom the common consent of the Subjects is intrusted to that end to be Just and Reasonable and therefore to be Obeyed For the end of all Government being for the Good and Welfare and not for the Destruction of the Ruled God who is the Institutor of Government as he is pleased to Ordain the Office of Governors intrusting them with Power to command the Just and Reasonable Things which his own Law Commands that carry their own evidence to common Reason and Sense at least that do not evidently contradict it so he grants a Liberty to the Subjects or those that by him are put under the Rule to refuse all such Commands as are contrary to his Law or to the judgement of common Reason and Sense whose trial he allows by way of assent or dissent before the Commands of the Ruler shall be Binding or put in Execution and this in a Co-ordinacy of Power with Just Government and as the due Ballance thereof The Original Impressions of Just Laws are in Mans Nature and very Constitution of Being Man hath the Law in his Mind or the Superior and Intellectual part of him convincing and bringing that into obedience and subjection to the Law of God in Christ himself He hath also that which is a Law in his Members that are on the Earth or his earthly and sensual part whose Power is Co-ordinate with the other but such that if it be not gained into a Harmony and Conjunction with its Head the Spirit or Mind of man hath ability to let and hinder his Mind or Ruling part from performing and putting in execution that which is good just fit and to be acknowledged as the righteous dictates of the Mind which ought to be the Ruling Power or Law to the Man So in the outward Government over Man the secondary or co-ordinate Power concurring with that which is the chief ruling Power is essential to Just Government and is acknowledged to be so by the Fundamental Constitution of the Government of England as well as in the Legal Being and Constitution of Parliaments whether that which hath been usual and ordinary according to the Common Law or that which of late hath been Extraordinary by express Statute for the continuance of the Parliament 17. Car. until dissolved by Act of Parliament For together with the Legal Being which is given to Regal Power and the Prerogative of the Crown there is the Legal Power and Being reserved also unto that Body which is the Peoples or Kingdoms Representative who are the Hands wherein that which is called Power Politick is seated and are intrusted with giving or with holding the common Consent of the whole Nation according to the best of their Understandings in all matters coming before them and are to keep this Liberty Inviolate and Entire against all Invasions or Encroachments upon it whatsoever This second Power in the very Writ of Summons for calling a Parliament is declared to be of that Nature that what the first doth without obtaining the Consent and Approbation of the second in Parliament is not binding but ineffectual And when the Representative Body of the Kingdom in and with whom this Power is intrusted as the Due and Legal Ballance and Boundary to the Regal Power set and fixed by the Fundamental Constitution is made a standing Court and of that Continuance as not to be dissolvable but by its own consent during such its continuance it hath right to preserve it self from all violent and undue Dissolution and to maintain and defend its own Just Priviledges a chief of which is to binde or loose the People in all matters good or hurtful to them according to their best Judgement and discretion In the exercise of this their Trust they are Indemnified by Law and no hurt ought to come unto them that Governing Power which is originally in God and slowes at first from him as the sole and proper Fountain thereof is brought into exercise amongst men upon a differing and distinct account First As it is a Trust and Right derived conditionally from God to his Officers and Ministers which therefore may be lost who being called by him and in the course of his Providence to the exercise of it are to hold it of him the Universal King and to own themselves in the exercise thereof as his Vicegerents to cut off by the Sword of Justice evil-doers and to be a Protection and encouragement to them that do well But because it is part of God's Call of any person to this high Trust to bring him into the possession and free Exercise thereof by the common consent of the Body of the People where such Soveraign Power is set up unless they have forfeited this Liberty Therefore Secondly God doth allow and confer by the very Law of Nature upon the Community or Body of the People that are related to and concerned in the right of Government placed over them the Liberty by their common Vote or Suffrage duely given to be Assenters or Dissenters thereunto and to Affirm and make Stable or Disallow and render Ineffectual what shall apparently be found by them to be for the good or hurt of that Society whose welfare next under the justice of God's Commands and his Glory is the Supream Law and very end of all Subordinate governing Power Soveraign Power then comes from God as its proper Root but the restraint or enlargement of it in its Execution over such or
of Judgement and giving the last and final decision Especially since what was foretold by Daniel is remarkably accomplished amongst us to wit that the visible Power of Gods People should be broken and scattered so as that they should have no might remaining in and with them to go against the Multitudes that design and resolve their Ruine There is not any remedy left to them wherein they may expect success but from such a signal day of the Lord 's immediate appearance in Judgement on their behalf For their sakes therefore O Lord return thou on high Psal 7. 7. take thy Throne of Judicature over men from which thou hast seemed to have departed and execute that righteous Judgement which thou hast seemed for a season to have suspended upon wise and holy ends best known to thy self In such a dark and gloomy day those that truely fear the Lord are directed and required by him not to fear or be dismayed because he will be with them They are encouraged in the way of Faith onely to expect this deliverance even to stand still as having no need to fight in this Battel but onely to see the Salvation of the Lord through believing ANtient Foundations when once become destructive to those very ends for which they were first ordained and prove hinderances to the good and enjoyment of humane Societies to the true Worship of God and the Safety of the People are for their sakes and upon the same Reasons to be altered for which they were first laid In the way of God's Justice they may be shaken and removed in order to accomplish the Counsels of his Will upon such a State Nation or Kingdom in order to his introducing a righteous Government of his own framing This may have been the cause of our Wandrings as it were in a Wilderness and of God's bringing us back again into Egypt after our near approach to the Land of Rest that we have no better known and had no more care to prosecute what he principally intended in and by all our Changes and Removes in the course of his Providence Yea we have added this also to the rest of our sins that we have improved the Gifts and Deliverances that God bestowed upon us another way and to another end than was by him intended as well as Providentially intimated by that holy Decree of his in the Decision declared at the Trial in his Martial Court with points of Swords Here the great Controversie that had been depending many Ages between Rulers and the Ruled as to the Claimes of the one in point of Prerogative and of the other in their Spiritual and Temporal Freedoms was after many heats colds many skirmishings and battels at last decided by the Sword This is a way of Tryal allowed by the known common Law of England and the Law in force throughout all Nations By this the Verdict is given forth from a Court of such a Nature as from whence there is no further appeal Especially since after the Tryal past quiet possesion was given to the Conquerors and continued some years Upon this Reason and Gratitude to God obliged us to such a prosecution as might answer the true end of Government and in especial after that manner as might be most to God's well-pleasing The Powerful Being which by success of Armes as given to the Peoples Representative Body in Parliament did communicate to it essentiallity according to the nature of that Being for which it was ordained For that Being with Power of continuing together at their own pleasure were as the Soul and Body unseperated and they might have performed things necessary at present for the safety and preservation of the Body they represented They might have been a good help to settle righteous Government in a constitution most acceptable to God and beneficial to the Governed on the Foundation of God's Institution and the Peoples Ordination in consent together laid by the Power of God and the Peoples own Swords in the hands of their faithful Trustees It would imply a high contempt of God and his Dispensations so signal amongst us to communicate the benefit of them to his opposers The right of choosing and being chosen into places of Trust in the Government was returned by the Law of the Sword which is paramount to all humane Laws into its primitive exercise which is warranted by the Law of God and of Nature By that Law the most famous Monarchies of the World in all Ages were first constituted and setled and by it God decided our Cause looking for an event and fruit answerable to the benefit by him given even such a Government as God would have given us the Pattern of had we sought it as was our duty whereby Justice and Mercy should have been daily administred according to his will to the bringing on the new Heavens and new Earth wherein Righteousness might dwell The Vessel of this Common-wealth now weather-heaten and torn seems to be more in danger than that wherein Jonah would have sled to Tarsus For though we have cast forth a great part of our goods to secure it this has done us but small good That Ship had but one Delinquint aboard which occasioned the Storm and his being thrown into the Sea brought immediate safety They had also many skilful Seamen to guide it but all our Pilots are cast over-board and none left in appearance but guilty Passengers Nay admit with Jonah both the Common-wealth and Cause be brought into most desperate Exigents and Extreamities from whence there is no more appearing redemption for them then such as they have that go down quick into the grave and belly of the Whale yet they may be preserved even by that which naturally of it self is irrecoverably destructive to them and be employed again in service by him against whom they have been so ungratefully rebellious after former great deliverances So infinite are God's Mercies yea so exceeding Merciful are the severest of his Judgements and Dispensations towards his People Thus may both People and Army be deprived of their Power and another party let in to plague and root out from amongst us such as are more wicked than themselves and so make room for a more righteous Generation which will begin all things anew By the course of things acted amongst us God's sentence on our behalf is made void and that seems given away for ever which was recovered by the Sword Our troubles are onely prorogued No Faith or Contract is thought meet to be kept with Rebels and Hereticks when by acquired Power it may be broken 'T was the great solly and self-flattery of some to think it would be otherwise It is most certainly true that no Time or Prescription is a just Bar to God's and the Peoples Right To murmure against God's Verdict and resist his Doom so solemnly given and executed amongst us in the sight and concurring acknowledgement of the Nations round about is to become adversaries to God
even whilst here in the body be made partaker of Eternal Life in the first fruits of it and at last sit down with Christ in Glory at his right-hand Here I shall mention some remarkable passages and changes of my Life In particular how unsought for by my self I was called to be a Member of the Long Parliament what little advantage I had by it and by what steps I became satisfied with the Cause I was engaged in and did pursue the same What the Cause was did first shew it self in the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons Secondly in the Solemn League and Covenant Thirdly in the more refined pursuit of it by the Commons House in their Actings single with what Result they were growing up into which was in the breast of the House and unknown or what the three Proposals mentioned in my Charge would have come to at last I shall not need now to say but only from all put together to assert That this Cause which was owned by the Parliament was the CAUSE of GOD and for the Promoting of the Kingdom of his dear Son JESUS CHRIST wherein are comprehended our Liberties and Duties both as Men and as Christians And since it hath pleased God who separated me from the womb to the knowledge and service of the Gospel of his Son to separate me also to this hard and difficult service at this time and to single me out to the defence and justification of this his Cause I could not consent by any words or actions of mine that the innocent Blood that hath been shed in the defence of it throughout the whole War the Guilt and moral evil of which must and does certainly lye somewhere did lye at my door or at theirs that have been the faithful Adherers to this Cause This is with such evidence upon my heart that I am most freely and chearfully willing to put the greatest Seal to it I am capable which is the pouring out of my very Blood in witness to it which is all I shall need to say in this place and at this time having spoken at large to it in my Defence at my Tryal intending to have said more the last day as what I thought was reasonable for Arrest of the Judgment but I was not permitted then to speak it Both which may with time and God's providence come to publick view And I must still assert That I remain wholly unsatisfied that the course of proceedings against me at my Tryal were according to Law but that I was run upon and destroyed contrary to Right and the Liberties of Magna Charta under the form only of Justice which I leave to God to decide who is the Judge of the whole World and to clear my Innocency Whilst in the mean time I beseech him to forgive them and all that have had a hand in my Death and that the Lord in his great mercy will not lay it unto their charge And I do account this Lot of mine no other than what is to be expected by those that are not of the World but whom Christ hath chosen out of it for the Servant is not greater than his Lord And if they have done this to the green tree they will do it much more to the dry However I shall not altogether excuse my self I know that by many weaknesses and failers I have given occasion enough of the ill usage I have met with from men though in the main the Lord knows the sincerity and integrity of my heart whatever Aspersions and Reproaches I have or do lye under I know also that God is just in bringing this Sentence and Condemnation upon me for my sins there is a body of sin and death in me deserves this Sentence and there is a similitude and likeness also that as a Christian God thinks me worthy to bear with my Lord and head in many circumstances in reference to these dealings I have met with in the good I have been endeavouring for many years to be doing in these Nations and especially now at last in being numbred amongst transgressors and made a publick Sacrifice through the wrath and contradictions of men and in having finished my course and fought the good fight of Faith and resisted in a way of suffering as you see even unto blood This is but the needful preparation the Lord hath been working in me to the receiving of the Crown of Immortality which he hath prepared for them that love him The prospect whereof is so chearing that through the Joy in it that is set before the eyes of my Faith I can through mercy endure this Cross despise this Shame and am become more than Conquerour through Christ that hath loved me For my Life Estate and all is not so dear to me as my Service to God to his Cause to the Kingdom of Christ and the future welfare of my Country and I am taught according to the Example as well as that most Christian saying of a Noble Person that lately died after this publick manner in Scotland How much better is it to chuse Affliction and the Cross than to sin or draw back from the Service of the Living God into the wayes of Apostacy and Perdition That Noble Person whose Memory I honour was with my self at the beginning and making of the Solemn League and Covenant the Matter of which and the holy Ends therein contained I fully assent unto and have been as desirous to observe but the rigid way of prosecuting it and the oppressing Uniformity that hath bin endeavored by it I never approved This were sufficient to vindicate me from the false Aspersions and Calumnies which have been laid upon me of Jesuitism and Popery and almost what not to make my Name of ill savour with good men which dark mists do now dispel of themselves or at least ought and need no pains of mine in making an Apology For if any man seek a proof of Christ in me let him reade it in his action of my Death which will not cease to speak when I am gone And henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus I shall not desire in this place to take up much time but only as my last words leave this with you That as the present storm we now lie under and the dark Clouds that yet hang over the Reformed Churches of Christ which are coming thicker and thicker for a season were not un-fore-seen by me for many years passed as some Writings of mine declare So the coming of Christ in these Clouds in order to a speedy and sudden Revival of his Cause and spreading his Kingdom over the face of the whole Earth is most clear to the eye of my Faith even that Faith in which I dye whereby the Kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ Amen Even so come Lord Jesus Some Passages of his PRAYER on the Scaffold