the satisfaction to have destroyed my Soul with my Body of whose salvation while some of them have themselves seemed and taught others to despaire they have only discover'd this that they do not much desire it Whose uncharitable and cruell Restraints denying me even the assistance of any of my Chaplains hath rather enlarged than any way obstructed my accesse to the Throne of Heaven Where thou dwellest O King of Kings who fillest Heaven and Earth who art the fountaine of eternall life in whom is no shadow of death Thou O God art both the just Afflicter of death upon us and the mercifull Saviour of us in it and from it Yea it is better for us to be dead to our selves â—nd live in thee than by living in our selves to be deprived of thee O make the many bitter aggravations of My death as a Man and a King the opportunities and advantages of thy speciall graces and comfâ—rts in My Soule as a Christian. If thou Lord wilt be with Me I shall neither feare nor feel any evill though I walke through the valley of the shadow of death To contâ—nd with death is the worke of a weake and mortall mâ—n to overcome it is the grace of thee alone who art the Almighty and immortall God O My Saviour who knowest what it is to die with Me as a Man make Me to know what it is to passe through death to life with thee My God Though I die yet I know that thou my Redeeâ—er livest for ever though thou slayest Me yet thou hast incouraged me to trust in thee for eternall life O withdraw not thy favour from me which is â—â—tter than life O be not farre from me for I know not how neer a violent and cruell death is to me As thy Omniscience O God discovers so thy Omnipotence can defeat the designes of those who have or shall conspire my destruction O shew me the goodnesse of thy will through the wickednesse of theirs Thou givest me leave â—s a man to pray that this cup may passe from me but thou hast taught Me as a Christian by the example of Christ tâ— adde not My will but thine be done Yea Lord let our wills be one by wholly resolving mine into thine let not the desire â—f life in me be so great as that of doing or suffering thy â—ill in either life or death As I believe thou hast forgiven all the errours of my life so I hope thou wilt save me from the terrours of my death Make me content to leave the worlds nothing that I may come really tâ— enjoy all in thee whâ— hast made Christ unto me in life gaine and in death advantage Though my Destroyers forget their duty tâ— thee and me yet doe not thou O Lâ—rd forget to be mercifull to them For what profit is there in my bloud or in their gaining my Kingdomes if they lose their owne Sâ—ules Such as have not onely resisted my just Power but wholly usurped and turned it against my self though they may deserve yet let them not receive to themselves damnaâ—ion Thou madest thy Sonne a Saviour to many that Crucified Him while at once he suffered violently by them and yet willingly for them O let the voice of his bloud be heard for My Murtherers louder than the cry of mine against them Prepare them for thy mercy by due convictiâ—ns of their sinne and let them not at once deceive and damne theiâ— owne Soules by fallacious pretensions of Iustice in destroying me while the conscience of their unjust usurpation of power against me chiefly tempts them to use all extremities against me O Lord thou knowest I have found their mercies to me as very false so very cruell who pretending to preserve me have meditated nothing but my ruine O deale not with them as bloud-thirsty and deâ—eitfull men but overcome their cruelty with thy compassion and my charity And when thou makest inquisition for My bloud O sprinkle their polluted yet penitent Soules with the bloud of thy Sonne that thy destroying Angel may passe over them Though they think my Kingdomes on earth too little to entertaine at once both them and me yet let the capacious Kingdome of thy infinite mercy at last receive both me and my enemies When being reconciled to thee in the bloud of the same Redeemer we shall live farre above these ambitious desires which beget such mortall enmities When their hands shall be heaviest and cruellest upon me O let me fall into the armes of thy tender and eternall mercies That what is cut off my life in this miserable moment may be repaied in thy ever-blessed eternity Lord let thy Servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen thy salvation Vota dabunt quae bella negârunt FINIS
by scandalous articles and all irreverent demeanour to seeke to drive her out of My Kingdomes lest by the influence of her example eminent for love as a Wife and Loyalty as a Subject she should have converted to or retayned in their love and Loyalty all those whom they had a purpose to pervert The lesse I may be blest with her company the more I will retire to God and My owne Heart whence no malice can banish Her My enemies may envy but they can never deprive Me of the enjoyment of her vertues while I enjoy My self Thou O Lord whose Iustice at present sees fit to scatter us let thy mercâ—â— in thy due time reunite us on earth if it be thy will however bring us both at last to thy heavenly Kingdome Preserve us from the hands of our despitefull and deadly enemies and prepare us by our sufferings for thy presence Though we differ in some things as to Religion which is my greatest temporall infelicity yet Lord give and accept the sincerity of our affections which desire to seek to find to embrace every Truth of thine Let both our Hearts agree in the love of thy selfe and Christ crucified for us Teach us both what thou wouldst have us to know in order to thy glory our publique relations and our soules eternall good and make us carefull to doe what good we know Let neither Ignorance of what is necessary to be knowne nor unbelief or disobedience to what we know be our misery or our wilfull default Let not this great Scandall of those my Subjects which professe the same Religion with me be any hindrance to her love of any Truth thou wouldst have her to learne nor any hardning of her in any errour thou wouldst have cleared to her Let mine and other mens constancy be an Antidote against the poyson of their example Let the Truth of that Religion I professe be represented to her Iudgment with all the beauties of Humility Loyaltâ—â— Charity and Peaceablenesse which are the proper fruits and ornaments of it Not in the odious disguises of Levity Schisme Heresie Novelty Cruelty and Disloyalty which some mens practises have lately put upon it Let her see thy sacred and saving Truths as Thine that she may believe love and obey them as Thine cleared from all rust and drosse of humane mixtures That in the glasse of thy Truth she may see thee in those mercies which thou hast offered to us in thy Sonne Iesus Christ our onely Saviour and serve thee in all those Holy duties which most agree with his holy doctrine and most imitable example The experience we have of the vanity and uncertainty of all humane Glory and greatnesse in our scatterings and Eclypses let it make us both so much â—he more ambitious to be invested in those durable honours and perfections which are onely to be found in thy self and obtained through Iesus Christ. 8. Vpon His Majesties repulse at Hull and the fates of the Hothams MY repulse at Hull seemed at the first view an act of so rude disloyalty that My greatest enemies had scarce confidence enough to abeâ—t or owne it It was the first overt Essay to be made how patiently I could beare the Losse of My Kingdomes God knows it affected me more with shame and sorrow for others then with anger for My selfe nor did the affront done to Me trouble Me so much as their sinne which admitted no colour oâ— excuse I was resolved how to beare this and much more with patience But I foresaw they could hardly conteine themselves within the compasse of this one unworthy act who had effrontery enough to commit or countenance it This was but the hand of that cloud which was â—oone after to overspread the whole Kingdome and cast all into disorder and darknesse For t is among the wicked Maximes of bold and disloyall undertakers That bad actions must alwayes be seconded with worse and rather not be begun then not carried on for they think the retreat more dangerous then the assault and hate repentance more then perseverance in a Fault This gave Me to see clearly through all the pious disguises and soft palliations of some men whose words were sometime smoother then oyle but now I saw they would prove very Swords Against which I having as yet no defence but that of a good Conscience thought it My best policy with patience to bear what I could not remedy And in this I thank God I had the better of Hotham that no disdain or emotion of passion transported Me by the indignity of his carriage to doe or say any thing unbeseeming My self or unsutable to that temper which in greatest injuries I think best becomes a Christian as comming nearest to the great example of Christ. And indeed I desire alwaies more to remember I am a Christian then a King for what the Majesty of one might justly abhor the Charity of the other is willing to bear what the height of a King tempteth to revenge the humility of a Christian teacheth to forgive Keeping in compasse all those impotent passions whose excesse injures a man more then his greatest enemies can for these give their malice a full impression on our souls which otherwaies cannot reach very far nor doe us much hurt I cannot but observe how God not long after so pleaded and avenged My cause in the eye of the world that the most wilfully blind cannot avoid the displeasure to see it with some remorse and fear to own it as a notable stroke and prediction of divine vengeance For Sir Iohn Hotham unreproached unthreatned uncursed by any language or secret imprecation of Mine onely blasted with the conscience of his owne wickednesse and falling from one inconstancy to another not long after paies his owne and his eldest Sons heads as forfeitures of their disloyalty to those men from whom surely he might have expected another reward then thus to divide their heads from their bodies whose hearts with them were divided from their KING Nor is it strange that they who imployed them at first in so high a service and so successfull to them should not find mercy enough to forgive Him who had so much premerited of them For Apostacy unto Loyalty some men account the most unpardonable sinne Nor did a solitary vengeance serve the turne the cutting off one head in a Family is not enough to expiate the affront done to the head of the CoÌ„mon-weale The eldest Son must be involved in the punishment as he was infected with the sinne of the Father against the Father of his Country Root and branch God cuts off in one day These observations are obvious to every fancy God knows I was so farre from rejoycing in the Hotham's ruine though it were such as was able to give the greaâ—est thirst for revenge a full drought being executed by them who first employed him against Me that I so farre pitied him as I thought he at first acted more against the light
of his Conscience then I hope many other men doe in the same Cause For he was never thought to be of that superstitious sowrenesse which some men pretend to in matters of Religion which so darkens their judgment that they cannot see any thing of Sinne and Rebellion in those meanes they use with intents to reforme to their Models of what they call Religion who think all is gold of piety which doth but glister with a shew of Zeale and fervency Sir Iohn Hotham was I think a man of another temper and so most liable to those downright temptations of ambition which have no cloake or cheat of Religion to impose upon themselves or others That which makes me more pity him is that after he began to have some inclinations towards a repentance for his sinne and reparation of his duty to Me He should be so unhappy as to fall into the hands of their Justice and not My Mercy who could as willingly have forgiven him as he could have asked that favour of Me. For I think clemency a debt which we ought to pay to those that crave it when we have cause to believe they would not after abuse it since God himself suffer us not to pay any thing for his mercy but onely prayers and praises Poor Gentleman he is now become a noteable monument of unprosperous disloyalty teaching the world by so sad and unfortunate a spectacle that the rude carriage of a Subject towards his Soveraigne carries alwaies its own vengeance as an unseperable shadow with it and those oft prove the most fatall and implacable Executioners of it who were the first Imployers in the service After-times will dispute it whether Hotham were more infamous at Hull or at Tower-hill though 't is certain that no punishment so stains a mans Honour as wilfull preparations of unworthy actions which besides the conscience of the sinne brands with most indelible characters of infamy the name and memory to posterity who not engaged in the Factions of the times have the most impartiall reflections on the actions But thou O Lord who hast in so remarkable a way avenged thy Servant suffer me not to take any secret pleasure in it for his death hath satisfied the injury he did to me so let me not by it gratifie any passion in me lest I make thy vengeance to be mine and consider the affront against me more than the sin against thee Thou indeed without any desire or endeavour of mine hast made his mischief to returne on his owne head and his violent dealing to come down on his owne pate Thou hast pleaded my cause even before the sonnes of men and taken the matter into thine own hands that men may know it was thy work and see that thou Lord hast done it I do not I dare not say so let mine enemies perish O Lord yea Lord rather give them repentance pardon and impunity if it be thy blessed will Let not thy justice prevent the objects and opportunities of my mercy yea let them live and amend who have most offended me in so high a nature that I may have those to forgive who beare most proportion in their offences to those trespasses against thy majesty which I hope thy mercy hath forgiven me Lord lay not their sins who yet live to their charge for condemnation but to their consciences for amendment Let the lighting of this thunderbolt which hath been so severe a punishment to one be a terrour to all Discover to them their sinne who know not they have done amisse and scare theâ— from their sinne that sinne of malicious wickednesse That preventing thy judgments by their true repentance they may escape the strokes of â—â—â—ne eternall vengeance And doe thou O Lord establish the Throâ—e of thy servant in mercy and truth meeting â—â—â—â—â—gether let my Crowne ever flourish in rigâ—â—â—â—ousnesse and peace kissing each other Heare my prayer O Lord who hast taught us to pray for to doe good to and to love our enemies for thy sake who hast prevented us with offertures of thy love even when we were thine enemies and hast sent thy Sonne Iesus Christ to die for us when we were disposed to crucifie him 9. Vpon the listing and raising Armies against the KING I Find that I am at the same point and posture I was when they forced Me to leave White-hall what Tumults could not doe an Army must which is but Tumults lifted and enrolled to a better order but as bad an end My recesse hath given them confidence that I may be conquered And so I easily may as to any outward strength which God knowes is little or none at all But I have a Soule invincible through Gods grace enabling Me here I am sure to be Conquerour if God will give Me such a measure of Constancy as to feare him more than man and to love the inward peace of My Conscience before any outward tranquillity And must I be opposed with force because they have not reason wherewith to convince me O my Soule be of good courage they confesse their knowne weaknesse as to truth and Justice who chose rather to contend by Armies than by Arguments Is this the reward and thanks that I am to receive for those many Acts of Grace I have lately passed and for those many Indignities I have endured Is there no way left to make Me a glorious KING but by My sufferings It is a hard and disputable choice for a King that loves his People and desires their love either to kill his owne Subjects or to be killed by them Are the hazards and miseries of Civil War in the bowels of My most flourishing Kingdome the fruits I must now reap after 17 years living and reigning among them with such a measuâ—e of Justice Peace Plenty and Religion as all Nations about either admired or envied notwithstanding some miscarriages in Government which might escape rather through ill counsell of some men driving on their private ends or the peevishnesse of others envying the publique should be managed without them or the hidden and insuperable necessities of State then any propensity I hope of my self either to injuriousness or oppression Whose innocent bloud during My Reigne have I shed to satisfie My lust anger or covetousnesse what Widowes or Orphans tears can witnesse against me the just cry of which must now be avenged with My owne bloud For the hazards of Warre are equall nor doth the Cannon know any respect of Persons In vaine is My Person excepted by a Parenthesis of words when so many hands are armed against Me with Swords God knowes how much I have studied to see what Ground of Justice is alledged for this Warre against Me that so I might by giving just satisfaction either prevent or soone end so unnaturall a motion which to many men seemes rather the productions of a surfeit of peace and wantonnesse of mindes or of private discontents Ambition and Faction which easily find or make causes of
they saw no probability unlesse by miracle to preserve the remnant that had yet escaped God knowes with how much commiseration and solicitous caution I carried on that businesse by persons of Honour and Integrity that so I might neither incourage the Rebells Insolence nor discourage the Protestants Loyalty and Patience Yet when this was effected in the best sort that the necessity and difficulty of affaires would then permit I was then to suffer again in my reputation and Honour because I suffered not the Rebels utterly to devour the remaining handfuls of the Protestants there I thought that in â—ll reâ—son the gaining of that respite could not be so much to the Rebels advantages which some have highly calumniated against me as it might have been for the Protestants future as well as present safety If during the time of that Cessation some men had had the grace to have laid Irelands sad condition more to heart and laid aside those violent motions which were here carried on by those that had better skill to let bloud than to stanch it But in all the misconstructions of my actions which are prone to find more credulity in men to what is false and evill than love or charity to what is true and good as I have no Judge but God above me so I can have comfort to appeale to his omniscience who doth not therefore deny my Innocence because he is pleased so farâ—e to try my patience as he did his servant Iob's I have enough to doe to look to my owne Conscience and the faithfull discharge of my Trust as a KING I have scarce leisure to consider those swarmes of reproaches which issue out of some mens mouthes and hearts as easily as smoke or sparks doe out of a fornace Much lesse to make such prolix Apologies as might give those men satisfaction who conscious to their owne depth of wickednesse are loath to believe any man not to be as bad as themselves 'T is Kingly to doe well and heare ill If I can but act the one I shall not much regard to beare the other I thank God I can heare with patience as bad as my worst enemies can falsly say And I hope I shall still doe better than they desire or deserve I should I believe it will at last appear that they who first began to embroyle my other Kingdomes are in great part guilty if not of the first letting out yet of the not-timely stopping those horrid effusions of bloud in Ireland Which whatever my Enemies please to say or thinke I looke upon as that of my other Kingdomes exhausted out of my owne veins no man being so much weakned by it as my selfe And I hope though mens unsatiable cruelties never will yet the mercy of God will at length say to his justice It is enough and command the Sword of Civill Warres to sheath it self his mercifull justice intending I trust not our utter confusion but our cure the abatement of our sinnes not the desolating of these Nations O my God let those infinite mercies prevent us once againe which I and my Kingdomes have formerly abused and can never deserve should be restored Thou seest how much cruelty among Christians is acted under the colour of Religion as if we could not be Christians unlesse we crucifie one another Because we have not more loved thy Truth and practiced in charity thou hast suffered a Spirit of Errour and bitternesse of mutuall and mortall hatred to rise among us O Lord forgive wherein we have sinned and sanctifie what we have suffered Let our Repentance be our recovery as our great sinnes have been our ruine Let not the miseries I and my Kingdomes have hitherto suffered seeme small to thee but make our sins appeare to our consciences as they are represented in the glasse of thy judgments for thou never punishest small failings with so severe afflictions O therefore according to the multitude of thy great mercies pardon our sinnes and remove thy judgements which are very many and very heavy Yet let our sinnes be ever more grievous to us than thy judgments and make us more willing to repent than to be relieved first give us the peace of penitent consciences and then the tranquillity of united Kingdomes In the sea of our Saviours bloud drowne our sinnes and through this red sea of our own bloud bring us at last to a state of piety peace and plenty As my publique relations to all make Me share in all My Subjects suffâ—rings so give Me such a pious sense of them as becomes a Christian King and a loving Father of My People Let the scandalous and unjust reproaches cast upon Me be as a breath more to kindle my compassion Give me grace to heap charitable coles of fire upon their heads to melt them whose malice or cruell Zeale hath kindled or hindred the quenching of those flames which have so much wasted my three Kingdomes O rescâ—e and assist those poore Protestants in Ireland whom thou hast hitherto preserved And lead those in the waies of thy saving Truths whose ignorance or errours have filled them with rebelliâ—us and destrustive principles whâ—ch they act under an opinion That they doâ— thee good service Let the hand of thy justice be against those who maliciously and despitefully have raised or fomented those cruell and desperate Warres Thou that art far from destroying the Innocent with the Guilty and the Erroneous with the Malicious Thou that hadst pity on Niniveh for the many Children that were therein give not over the whole stock of that populous and seduced Nation to the wrath of those whose covetousnesse makes them cruell nor to their anger which is too fierce and therefore justly cursed Preserve if it be thy will in the midst of the fornace of thy severe justice a Posterity which may praise thee for thy mercy And deale with Me not according to mans unjust reproaches but according to the Innocency of my hands in thy sight If I have desired or delighted in the wofull day of my Kingdomes calamities if I have not earnestly studied and faithfully endeavoured the preventing and composing of these bloudy distractionsâ— then let thy hand be against me and my Fathers house O Lord thou seest I have eâ—emies enough of men as I need not so I should not dare thus to imprecate thy curse on me and mine if my Conscience did not witnesse my integrity which thou O Lord knowest right well But I trust not to my owne merit but thy merciesâ— spare us O Lord and be not angry with us for â—verâ— 13. Vpon the Calling in of the Scots and their Comming THe Scots are a Nation upon whom I have not onely common ties of Nature Soveraignty and Bounty with My Father of blessed memory but also speciall and late obligations of favours having gratified the active Spirits among them so farre that I seemed to many to prefer the desires of that Party before My owne interest and Honour But I
Other violent motions which are neither Manly Christian nor Loyall shall never either shake or settle my Religion nor any mans else who knowes what Religion means And how farre it is removed from all Faction whose proper engine is force the arbitrator of beasts not of reasonable men much lesse of humble Christians and loyall Subjects in matters of Religion But men are prone to have such high conceâ—ts of themselves that they care not what cost they lay out upon their opinions especially those that have some temptation of gain to recompence their losses and hazards Yet I was not more scandalized at the Scots Armies comming in against my will and their forfeiture of so many obligations of duty and gratitude to me then I wondered how those here could so much distrust Gods assistance who so much pretended Gods cause to the People as if they had the certainty of some divine Revelation considering they were more then competently furnished with my Subjects Armes and Ammunition My Navie by Sea my Forts Castles and Cities by Land But I find that men jealous of the Justifiablenesse of their doings and designes before God never think they have humane strength enough to carry their worke on seem it never so plausible to the People what cannot be justified in Law or Religion had need be fortified with Power And yet such is the inconstancy that attends all minds engaged in violent motion that whom some of them one while earnestly invite to come into their assistance others of them soone after are weary of and with nauseating cast them out what one Party thought to rivet to a setledness by the strength and influence of the Scots that the other rejects and contemnes at once despising the Kirk Government and Discipline of the Scots and frustrating the successe of so chargable more then charitable assistance For sure the Church of England might have purchased at a farre cheaper rate the truth and happinesse of Reformed government and discipline if it had been wanting though it had entertained the best Divâ—nes of Chrâ—stendome for their advice in a full and free Synod which I was ever willing to and desirous of that matters being impartially setled might be more satisfactory to all and more durable But much of Gods justice and mans folly will at length be discovered through all the filmes and pretensions of Religion in which Politicians wrap up their designes In vaine do men hope to build their piety on the ruines of Loyalty Nor can those considerations or designs be durable when Subjects make bankrupt of their Allegiance under pretence of setting up a quicker trade for Religion But as My best Subjects of Scotland never deserted Me so I cannot think that the most are gone so far from Me in a prodigality of their love and respects toward Me as to make Me to despaire of their returne when besides the bonds of nature and Conscience which they have to Me all Reason and true Policy will teach them that their chiefest interest consists in their fidelity to the Crowne not in their serviceablenesse to any Party of the People to a neglect and betraying of My Safety and Honour for their owne advantages However the lesse cause I have to trust to men the more I shall apply My self to God The Troubles of My Soule are enlarged O Lord bring thou me out of My distresse Lord direct thy Servant in the waies of that pious simplicity which is the best policy Deliver Me from the combined strength of those who have so much of the Serpents subtilty that they forget the Doves Innocency Though hand joyne in hand yet let them not prevaile against My soule to the betraying of My Conscience and Honour Thou O Lord canst turne the hearts of those Parties in both Nations as thou didst the men of Judah and Israel to restore David with as much loyall Zeale as they did with inconstancy and eagernesse pursue Him Preserve the love of thy Truth and uprightnesse in Me and I shall not despaire of My Subjects affections returning towards Me. Thou canst soone cause the overflowing Seas to ebbe and retire back again to the bounds which thou hast appointed for them O My God I trust in thee let me not be ashamed let not My enemies triumph over Me. Let them be ashamed who transgresse without a cause let them be turned back that persecute My Soule Let integrity and uprightnesse preserve Me for I wait on thee O Lord. Redeeme thy Church O God out of all its Troubles 14. Vpon the Covenant THe Presbyterian Scots are not to be hired at the ordinary rate of Auxiliaries nothing will induce them to engage till those that call them in have pawned their Soules to them by a Solemne League and Covenant Where many engines of religious and faire pretensions are brought chiefly to batter or rase Episcopacy This they make the grand evill Spirit which with some other Imps purposely added to make it more odious and terrible to the Vulgar must by so solemne a charm exorcism be cast out of this Church after more than a thousand yeares possession here from the first plantation of Christianity in this Island and an universall prescription of time and practise in all other Churches since the Apostles times till this last Century But no Antiquity must plead for it Presbytery like a young Heyre thinks the Father hath lived long enough and impatient not to be in the Bishops Chaire Authority though Lay-men go away with the Revenues all art is used to sink Episcopacy and lanch Presbytery in England which was lately boyed up in Scotland by the like artifice of a Covenant Although I am unsatisfied with many passages in that Covenant some referring to My selfe with very dubious and dangerous limitations yet I chiefly wonder at the designe and drift touching the Discipline and Government of the Church and such a manner of carrying them on to new waies by Oaths Covenants where it is hard for men to be engaged by no lesse then swearing for or against those things which are of no cleare morall necessity but very disputable and controverted among learned and godly men whereto the application of Oaths can hardly be made and enjoyned with that judgment and certainty in ones selfe or that charity and candour to others of different opinion as I think Religion requires which never refuses faire and equable deliberations yea and dissentings too in matters onely probable The enjoyning of Oaths upon People must needs in things doubtfull be dangerous as in things unlawfull damnableâ— and no lesse superfluous where former religious and legall Engagements bound men sufficiently to all necessary duties Nor can I see how they will reconcile such an Innovating Oath and Covenant with that former Protestation which was so lately taken to maintaine the Religion established in the Church of England since they count Discipline so great a part of Religion But ambitious minds never think they have laid snares and
on our purpose to amend When thou hast vindicated thy glory by thy Iudgments and hast shewed us how unsafe it is to offend thee upon presumptions afterwards to please thee Then I trust thy mercies will restore those blessings to us which we have so much abused as to force thee to deprive us of them For want of timely repentance of our sinnes Thou givest us cause to Repent of those Remedies we too late apply Yet I doe not Repent of My calling this last Parliament because ô Lord I did it with an upright intention to Thy glory and My Peoples good The miseries which have ensued upon Me and My Kingdomes are the Iust effects of thy displeasure upon us and may be yet through thy mercy preparatives of us to future blessings and better hearts to enjoy them O Lord though thou hast deprived us of many former comforts yet grant Me and My people the benefit of our afflictions and thy chastisements that thy rod as well as thy staffe may comfort us Then shall we dare to account them the strokes not of an Enemy but a Father when thou givest us those humble affections that measure of patience in repentance which becomes thy Children I shall have no cause to repent the miseries this Parliament hath occasioned when by them thou hast brought Me and My People unfeignedly to repent of the sinnes we have committed Thy Grace is infinitely better with our sufferings then our Peace could be with Our sinnes O thou soveraigne goodnesse and wisdome who Over-rulest all our Counsels over-rule also all our hearts That the worse things we suffer by thy Iustice the better we may be by thy Mercy As our sinnes have turned our Antidotes into Poyson so let thy Grace turne our Poysons into Antidotes As the sins of our Peace disposed us to this unhappy Warre so let this Warre prepare us for thy blessed Peace That although I have but troublesome Kingdoms here yet I may attaine to that Kingdome of Peace in My Heart and in thy Heaven which Christ hath purchased and thou wilt give to thy Servant though a Sinner for my Saviours sake Amen 2. Vpon the Earle of Straffords death I Looked upon my Lord of Strafford as a Gentleman whose great abilities might make a Prince rather afraid then ashamed to employ him in the greatest affaires of State For those were prone to create in him great confidence of undertakings and this was like enough to betray him to great errours and many enemies Whereof he could not but contract good store while moving in so high a spheare and with so vigorous a lustre he must needs as the Sun raise many envious exhalations which condensed by a popular odium were capable to cast a cloud upon the brightest merit and integrity Though I cannot in My Judgment approve all he did driven it may be by the necessities of times and the Temper of that People more then led by his owne disposition to any height and rigour of actions yet I could never be convinced of any such criminousnesse in him as willingly to expose his life to the stroke of Justice and malice of his enemies I never met with a more unhappy conjuncture of affaires then in the businesse of that unfortunate Earle when between My owne unsatisfiednesse in Conscience and a necessity as some told me of satisfying the importunities of some people I was perswaded by those that I think wished me well to chuse rather what was safe then what seemed just preferring the outward peace of My Kingdoms with men before that inward exactnesse of Conscience before God And indeed I am so farre from excusing or denying that complyance on My part for plenary consent it was not to his destruction whom in My Judgment I thought not by any cleare Law guilty of death That I never bare any touch of Conscience with greater regret which as a signe of My repentance I have often with sorrow confessed both to God and men as an act of so sinfull frailty that it discovered more a feare of Man than of God whose name and place on Earth no man is worthy to beare who will avoid inconveniences of State by acts of so high injustice as no publique convenience can expiate or compensate I see it a bad exchange to wound a mans owne Conscience thereby to salve State sores to calme the stormes of popular discontents by stirring up a tempest in a mans owne bosome Nor hath Gods Justice failed in the event and sad consequences to shew the world the fallacy of that Maxime Better one man perish though unjustly then the people be displeased or destroyed For In all likelyhood I could never have suffred with My People greater calamities yet with greater comfort had I vindicated Strafford's innocency at least by denying to Signe that destructive BILL according to that Justice which My Conscience suggested to Me then I have done since I gratified some mens unthankfull importunities with so cruell a favour And I have observed that those who counselled Me to signe that Bill have been so farre from receiving the rewards of such ingratiatings with the People that no men have been harassed and crushed more than they He onely hath been least vexed by them who counselled Me not to consent against the vote of My owne Conscience I hope God hath forgiven Me and them the sinfull rashnesse of that businesse To which being in My soule so fully conscious those Judgements God hath pleased to send upon Me are so much the more welcome as a meanes I hope which his mercy hath sanctified so to Me as to make Me repent of that unjuâ—t Act for so it was to Me and for the future to teach Me That the best rule of policy is to preferre the doing of Justice before all enjoyments and the peace of My Conscience before the preservation of My Kingdomes Nor hath any thing more fortified My resolutions against all those violent importunities which since have sought to gaine alike consent from Me to Acts wherein my Conscience is unsatisfied then the sharp touches I have had for what passed Me in My Lord of Strafford's Businesse Not that I resolved to have employed him in My affaires against the advise of My Parliament but I would not have had any hand in his Death of whose Guiltlesnesse I was better assured then any man living could be Nor were the Crimes objected against him so cleare as after a long and faire hearing to give convincing satisfaction to the Major part of both Houses especially that of the Lords of whom scarce a third part were present when the Bill passed that House And for the House of Commons many Gentlemen disposed enough to diminish My Lord of Straffords greatnesse and power yet unsatisfied of his guilt in Law durst not Condemne him to die who for their Integrity in their Votes were by Posting their Names exposed to the popular calumny hatred and fury which grew then so exorbitant in their clamours
able by his being with Me abundantly to compensate to Me as he did to Iob what ever honour power or liberty the Caldeans the Sabeans or the Devill himself can deprive Me of Although they take from me all defence of Armes and Militia all refuge by land of Forts and Castles all flight by Sea in my Ships and Navy yea though they study to rob me of the Hearts of my Subjects the greatest Treasure and best ammunition of a King yet cannot they deprive me of my own innocency or Gods mercy nor obstruct my way to Heaven Therefore O my God to thee I flie for help if thou wilt be on my side I shall have more with me then can be against me There is none in Heaven or in Earth that I desire in comparison of thee In the losse of all be thou more than all to me Make hast to succour me thou that never failest them that put their trust in thee Thou seest I have no power to oppose them that come against me who are encouraged to fight under the pretence of fighting for me But my eyes are toward thee Thou needest no help nor shall I if I may have thine If not to conquer yet at least to suffer If thou delightest not in my safety and prosperity behold here I am willing to be reduced to what thou wilt have me whose Iudgments oft begin with thy owne Children I am content to be nothing that thou mayst be all Thou hast taught me That no King can be saved by the multitude of an Host but yet thou canst save me by the multitude of thy mercies who art the Lord of Hosts and the Father of mercies Help me O Lord who am sore distressed on every side yet be thou on my side and I shall not feare what man can doe unto mee I will give thy Iustice the glory of my distresse O let thy mercy have the glory of my deliverance from them that persecute my Soule By my sinnes have I fought against thee and robbed thâ—e of thy glory who am thy subject and justly mayst thou by my owne Subjects strip me of my strength and eclypse my glory But shew thy self O my hope and onely refuge Let not mine enemies say There is no help for him in his God Hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not Keep me as the apple of thine eye hide me under the shadow of thy wings Shew thy marveilous loving kindnesse O thou that savest by thy right hand them that put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them From the wicked that oppresse me from my deadly enemies that compasse me about Shew me the path of life In thy presence is fulnesse of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore 11. Vpon the 19. Propositions first sent to the KING and more afterwards ALthough there be many things they demand yet if these be all I am glad to see at what price they set My owne safety and My Peoples peace which I cannot think I buy at too deare a rate save onely the parting with My Conscience Honour If nothing else will satisfie I must chuse rather to be as miserable and inglorious as My enemies can make or wish me Some things here propounded to Me have been offered by Me Others are easily granted The rest I think ought not to be obtruded upon Me with the point of the Sword nor urged with the injuries of a War when I have already declared that I cannot yeild to them without violating My Conscience 't is strange there can be no method of peace but by making warre upon My soule Here are many things required of Me but I see nothing offer'd to Me by the way of gratefull exchange of Honour or any requitall for those favours I have or can yet grant them This Honour they doe Mee to put Mee on the giving part which is more princely and divine They cannot aske more than I can give may I but reserve to My self the Incommunicable Jewell of my Conscience and not be forced to part with that whose losse nothing can repaire or requite Some things which they are pleased to propround seeme unreasonable to me and while I have any Mastery of my Reason how can they think I can consent to them Who know they are such as are inconsistent with being either a King or a good Christian. My yeilding so much as I have already makes some men confident I will deny nothing The love I have of my Peoples peace hath indeed great influence upon me but the love of Truth and inward peace hath more Should I grant some things they require I should not so much weaken my outward state of a King as wound that inward quiet of my Conscience which ought to be is and ever shall be by Gods grace dearer to me then my Kingdomes Some things which a King might approve yet in Honour and Policy are at some time to be denied to some men lest he should seeme not to dare to deny any thing and give too much incouragement to unreasonable demands or importunities But to bind my self to a generall and implicite consent to what ever they shall desire or propound for such is one of their Propositions were such a latitude of blind obedience as never was expected from any Free-man nor fit to be required of any man much lesse of a King by His own Subjects any of whom he may possibly exceed as much in wisdome as He doth in place and power This were as if Sampson should have consented not only to binde his own hands and cut off his haire but to put out his own eyes that the Philistins might with the more safety mock and abuse him which they chose rather to doe then quite to destroy him when he was become so tame an object and fit occasion for their sport and scorne Certainly to exclude all power of deniall seemes an arrogancy least of all becomming those who pretend to make their addresses in an humble and loyall way of petitioning who by that sufficiently confesse their owne inferiority which obligeth them to rest if not satisfied yet quieted with such an answer as the will and reason of their Superiour thinkes fit to give who is acknowledged to have a freedome and power of Reason to Consent or Dissent else it were very foolish and absurd to ask what another having not liberty to deny neither hath power to grant But if this be My Right belonging to Me in Reason as a Man and in Honour as a Soveraign King as undoubtedly it doth how can it be other then extream injury to confine my Reason to a necessity of granting all they have a mind to ask whose minds may be as differing from Mine both in Reason Honour as their aims may be and their qualities are which last God the Laws have sufficiently distinguishâ— making me their Soveraign and them my Subjects whose Propositions may soon prove
not the first service as I count it the best in which they have forced Me to serve My self though I must confesse I beare with more grief impatience the want of My Chaplaines than of any other My Servants and next if not beyond in some things to the being sequestred from my Wife and Children since from these indeed more of humane and temporary affections but from those more of heavenly and eternall improvements may be expected My comfort is that in the inforced not neglected want of ordinary meanes God is wont to afford extraordinary supplies of his gifts and graces If his Spirit will teach Me and help My Infirmities in prayer reading and meditation as I hope he will I shall need no other either Oratour or Instructer To Thee therefore O My God doe I direct My now solitary prayers what I want of others help supply with the more immediate assistances of thy Spirit which alone can both enlighten My darknesse and quicken My dulnesse O thou Sun of righteousnesse thou sacred Fountaine of heavenly light and heat at once cleare and warme my heart both by instructing of me and interceding for me In thee is all fulnesse From thee all-sufficiency By thee is all acceptance Thou art company enough and comfort enough Thou art my King be also my Prophet and my Priest Rule me teach me pray in me for me and be thou ever with me The single wrestlings of Jacob prevailed with thee in that sacred Duell when he had none to second him but thy selfe who didst assist him with power to overcome thee and by a welcome violence to wrest a blessing from thee O look on me thy Servant in infinite mercy whom thou didst once blesse with the joynt and sociated Devotions of others whose fervency might inflame the coldnesse of my affections towards thee when we went to or met in thy House with the voice of joy and gladnesse worshipping thee in the unity of spirits and with the bond of Peace O forgive the neglect and not improving of those happy opportunities It is now thy pleasure that I should be as a Pelican in the wildernesse as a Sparrow on the house top and as a coale scattered from all those pious glowings and devout reflections which might best kindle preserve and encrease the holy fire of thy graces on the Altar of my heart whence the sacrifice of prayers and incense of praises might be duly offered up to thee Yet O thou that breakest not the bruized Reed nor quenchest the smoaking Flax doe not despise the weaknesse of my prayers nor the smotherings of my soule in this uncomfortable lonenesse to which I am constrained by some mens uncharitable denialls of those helps which I much want and no lesse desire O let the hardnesse of their hearts occasion the softnings of mine to thee and for Them Let their hatred kindle my love let their unreasonable denials of my Religious desires the more excite my prayers to thee Let their inexorable deafnesse encline thine eare to me who art a God easie to be entreated thine eare is not heavy that it cannot nor thy heart hard that it will not heare nor thy hand shortned that it cannot help Me thy desolate Supplyant Thou permittest men to deprive me of those outward means which thou hast appointed in thy Church but they cannot debarre me from the communion of that inward grace which thou alone breathest into humble hearts O make me such and thou wilt teach me thou wilt heare me thou wilt help me The broken and contrite heart I know thou wilt not despise Thou O Lord canst at once make me thy Temple thy Priest thy Sacrifice and thine Altar while from an humble heart I alone daily offer up in holy meditations fervent prayers and unfeigned teares my self to thee who preparest me for thee dwellest in me and acceptest of me Thou O Lord didst cause by secret supplies and miraculous infusions that the handfull of meale in the vessell should not spend nor the little oyle in the cruise fayle the Widow during the time of drought and dearth O look on my soul which as a Widow is now desolate forsaken let not those saving Truths I have formerly learned now fail my memory nor the sweet effusions of thy Spirit which I have sometime felt now be wanting to my heart in this famine of ordinary and wholsome food for the refreshing of my Soule Which yet I had rather chuse than to feed from those hands who mingle my bread with ashes and my wine with gall rather tormenting than teaching me whose mouths are proner to bitter reproaches of me than to hearty prayers for me Thou knowest O Lord of truth how oft they wrest thy holy Scriptures to My destruction which are cleare for their subjection and my preservation O let it not be to their damnation Thou knowest how some men under colour of long prayers have sought to devoure the houses of their Brethren their King and their God O let not those mens balmes break my head nor their Cordialls oppresse my heart I will evermore pray against their wickednesse From the poyson under their tongues from the snares of their lips from the fire and the swords of their words ever deliver Me O Lord and all those Loyall and Religious hearts who desire and delight in the prosperity of my soul and who seek by their prayers to relieve this sadnesse and solitude of thy servant O my King and my God 25. Penitentiall Meditations and Vowes in the KING'S solitude at Holmeby GIve ear to my words ô Lord consider my Meditation and hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God for unto thee will I pray I said in my haste I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes neverthelesse thou hearest the voice of my supplication when I cry unto thee If thou Lord shouldst be extream to mark what is done amisse who can abide it But there is mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared therefore shall sinners fly unto thee I acknowledg my sins before thee which have the aggravation of my condition the eminency of my place adding weight to my offences Forgive I beseech thee my Personall and my Peoples sinnes which are so farre mine as I have not imprâ—ved the power thou gavest me to thy glory and my Subjects good Thou hast now brought me from the glory and freedome of a King to be a Prisoner to my own Subjects Iustly ô Lord as to thy over-ruling hand because in many things I have rebelled against thee Though thou hast restrained my Person yet enlarge my heart to thee and thy grace towards Me. I come far short of Davids piety yet since I may equall Davids afflictions give me also the comforts and the sure mercies of David Let the penitent sense I have of my sins be an evidence to me that thou hast pardoned them Let not the evils which I and my Kingdomes have suffered seem little unto thee
though thou hast not punished us according to our sins Turne thee O Lord unto me have mercy upon me for I am desolate and afflicted The sorrowes of my heart are enlarged O bring thou me out of my troubles Hast thou forgotten to be gracious and shut up thy loving kindnesse in displeasure O remember thy compassions of old and thy loving kindnesses which have been for many generations I had utterly fainted if I had not beleeved to see thy goodnesse in the land of the living Let not the sinnes of our prosperity deprive us of the benefit of thy afflictions Let this fiery triall consume the drosse which in long peace and plenty we had contracted Though thou continuest miseries yet withdraw not thy grace what is wanting of prosperity make up in patience and repentance And if thy anger be not to be yet turned away but thy hand of justice must be stretched out still Let it I beseech thee be against me and my Fathers house as for these sheep what have they done Let my sufferings satiate the malice of mine and thy Churches Enemies But let their cruelty never exceed the measure of my charity Banish from me all thoughts of Revenge that I may not lose the reward nor thou the glory of my patience As thou givest me a heart to forgive them so I beseech thee doe thou forgive what they have done against thee and me And now ô Lord as thou hast given me an heart to pray unto thee so hear and accept this Vow which I make before thee If thou wilt in mercy remember Me and my Kingdomes In continuing the light of thy Gospell and setling thy true Religion among us In restoring to us the benefit of the Lawes and the due execution of Iustice. In suppressing the many Schismes in Church and Factions in State If thou wilt restorâ— me and mine to the Ancient rights and glory of my Predecessours If thou wilt turne the heâ—rts of my people to thy self in Piety to me in Loyalty and to one another in Charity If thou wilt quench the flames and withdraw the fewell of these Civill Warres If thou wilt blesse us with the freedome of publick Counsels and deliver the Honour of Parliaments from the insolencie of the vulgar If thou wilt keep me from the great offence of enacting any thing against my Conscience and especially from consenting to sacrilegious rapines and spoilings of thy Church If thou wilt restore me to a capacity to glorifie thee in doing good both to the Church and State Then shall my soul praise thee and magnifie thy name before my People Then shall thy glory be dearer to me then my Crownes and the advancement of true Religion both in purity and power be my chiefest care Then will I rule my People with Iustice and â—y Kingdomes with equity To thy more immediate hand shall I ever own as the rightfull succession so the mercifull restauration of My Kingdomes and the glory of them If thou wilt bring Me again with peace safety and â—onour to My chiefest City and my Parliament If thou wilt againe put the Sword of Iustice into My hand to punish and protect Then will I make all the world to see and my very Enemies to enjoy the benefit of this Vow and resolution of Christian charity which I now make unto thee O Lord. As I doe freely pardon for Christ's sake those that have offended me in any kind so my hand shall never be against any man to revenge what is past in regard of any particular injury done to me We have been mutually punished in our unnaturall divisions for thy sake O Lord and for the love of my Redeemer have I purposed this in my heart That I will use all means in the waies of amnesty and indempnity which may most fully remove all feares and bury all jealousies in forgetfulnesse Let thy mercies be toward me and mine as my resolutions of Truth and Peace are toward my People Heare my prayer O Lord which goeth not out of fayned lips Blessed be God who hath not turned away my prayer nor taken his mercy from me O my soule commit thy way to the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to passe But if thou wilt not restore me and mine what am I that I should charge thee foolishly Thou O Lord hast given and thou hast taken Blessed be thy name May my People and thy Church be happy if not by me yet without me 26. Vpon the Armies Surprisall of the KING at Holmeby and the ensuing distractions in the two Houses the Army and the City WHat part God will have me now to act or suffer in this new and strange scene of affaires I am not much solicitous some little practise will serve that man who onely seeks to represent a part of honesty and honour This surprize of Me tells the world that a KING cannot be so low but He is consideraâ—le adding weight to that Party where he appeares This motion like others of the Times seems excentrique and irregular yet not well to be resisted or quieted Better swim down such a stream than in vain to strive against it These are but the struglings of those twins which lately one womb enclosed the younger striving to prevaile against the elder what the Presbyterians have hunted after the Independents now seek to catch for themselves So impossible is it for lines to be drawn from the center and not to divide from each other so much the wider by how much they go farther from the point of union That the Builders of Babel should from division fall to confusion is no wonder but for those that pretend to build Ierusalem to divide their tongues and hands is but an ill â—men and sounds too like the fury of those Zealots whose intestine bitternesse and divisions were the greatest occasion of the last fatall destruction of that City Well may I change my Keepers and Prison but not my captive condition onely with this hope of bettering that those who are so much professed Patrons for the Peoples Liberties cannot be utterly against the Liberty of their KING what they demand for their owne Consciences they cannot in Reason deny to Mine In this they seem more ingenuous than â—â—e Presbyterian rigour who sometimes complaining of exacting their conformity to laws are become the greatest Exactors of other mens submission to their novell injunctions before they are stamped with the Authority of Lawes which they cannot well have without My conâ—ent 'T is a great argument that the Independents think themselves manumitted from their Rivals service in that they carry on a businesse of such consequence as the assuming My Person into the Armies custody without any Commission but that of their owne will and power Such as will thus adventure on a King must not be thought over-modest or timerous to carry on any designe they have a mind to Their next motion menaces and scares both the two Houses and the City which soone
yeares so compliant they were to publique order nor indeed was their Party great either in Church or State as to mens judgments But as soone as discontents drave men into Sidings as ill humours fall to the disaffected mart which causes inflamations so did all at first who affected any novelties adhere to that Side as the most remarkable and specious note of difference then in point of Religion All the lesser Factions at first were oâ—ficious Servants to Presbytery their great Master till time and military successe discovering to each their peculiar advantages invited them to part stakes and leaving the joynt stock of uniforme Religion pretended each to drive for their Party the trade of profits and preâ—erments to the breaking and undoing not onely of the Church and State but even of Presbytery it self which seemed and hoped at first to have ingrossed all Let nothing seem little or despicable to you in matters which concerne Religion and the Churches peace so as to neglect a speedy reforming and effectuall suppressing Errours Schismes which seem at first but as a hand-bredth by seditious Spirits as by strong winds are soon made to cover and darken the whole Heaven When you have done justice to God your owne soule and his Church in the profession and preservation both of truth and unity in Religion the next main hinge on which your prosperity will depend and move is that of civill Justice wherein the setled Laws of these Kingdomes to which you are rightly Heire are the most excellent rules you can governe by which by an admirable temperament give very much to Subjects industry liberty and happinesse and yet reserve enough to the Majesty and prerogative of any King who ownes his People as Subjects not as Slaves whose subjection as it preserves their property peace and safety so it will never diminish your Rights nor their ingenuous Liberties which consists in the enjoyment of the fruits of their industry and the benefit of those Lawes to which themselves have consented Never charge your Head with such a Crowne as shall by its heavinesse oppresse the whole body the weaknesse of whose parts cannot returne any thing of strength honour or safety to the Head but a necessary debilitation and ruine Your Prerogative is best shewed and exercised in remitting rather than exacting the rigor of the Lawes there being nothing worse than legall Tyranny In these two points the preservation of established Religion and Lawes I may without vanity turne the reproach of My sufferings as to the worlds censure into the honour of a kind of Martyrdome as to the testimony of My owne Conscience The Troublers of My Kingdomes having nothing else to object against Me but this That I preferre Religion and Lawes established before those alterations they propounded And so indeed I doe and ever shall till I am convinced by better Arguments than what hitherto have been chiefly used towards Me Tumults Armies and Prisons I cannot yet learne that lesson nor I hope ever will you That it is safe for a King to gratifie any Faction with the perturbation of the Lawes in which is wrapt up the publique Interest and the good of the Community How God will deale with Me as to the removall of these pressures indignities which his justice by the very unjust hands of some of My Subjects hath been pleased to lay upon Me I cannot tell nor am I much solicitous what wrong I suffer from men while I retaine in My soule what I believe is right before God I have offered all for Reformation and Safety that in Reason Honour and Conscience I can reserving onely what I cannot consent unto without an irreparable injury to My own Soule the Church and My People and to You also as the next and undoubted Heire of My Kingdomes To which if the divine Providence to whom no difficulties are insuperable shall in his due time after My decease bring You as I hope he will My counsell and charge to You is That You seriously consider the former reall or objected miscarriages which might occasion My troubles that You may avoid them Never repose so much upon any mans single counsell fidelity and discretion in managing affaires of the first magnitude that is matters of Religion and Justice as to create in Your selfe or others a diffidence of Your owne judgment which is likely to be alwaies more constant impartiall to the interests of Your Crowne and Kingdome than any mans Next beware of exasperating any Factions by the crosnesse and asperity of some mens passions humours or private opinions imployed by You grounded onely upon the differences in lesser matters which are but the skirts and suburbs of Religion Wherein a charitable connivence and Christian toleration often dissipates their strength whom rougher opposition fortifies and puts the despised and oppressed Party into such Combinations as may most enable them to get a full revenge on those they count their Persecutors who are commonly assisted by that vulgar commiseration which attends all that are said to suffer under the notion of Religion Provided the differences amount not to an insolent opposition of Lawes and Government or Religion established as to the essentials of them such motions and minings are intolerable Alwaies keep up solid piety and those fundamentall Truths which mend both hearts and lives of men with impartiall favour and justice Take heed that outward circumstances and formalities of Religion devoure not all or the best incouragements of learning industry and piety but with an equall eye and impartiall hand distribute favours and rewards to all men as you find them for their reall goodnesse both in abilities and fidelity worthy and capable of them This will be sure to gaine You the hearts of the best and the most too who though they be not good themselves yet are glad to see the severer waies of virtue at any time sweetned by temporall rewards I have You see conflicted with different and opposite Factions for so I must needs call and count all those that act not in any conformity to the Lawes established in Church and State no sooner have they by force subdued what they counted their Common Enemy that is all those that adhered to the Lawes and to Me and are secured from that feare but they are divided to so high a rivalry as sets them more at defiance against each other than against their first Antagonists Time will dissipate all factions when once the rough hornes of private mens covetous and ambitious designes shall discover themselves which were at first wrapt up hidden under the soft and smooth pretensions of Religion Reformation and Liberty As the Wolfe is not lesse cruell so he will be more justly hated when he shall appeare no better than a Wolfe under Sheeps cloathing But as for the seduced Traine of the Vulgar who in their simplicity follow those disguises My charge and counsell to You is That as You need no palliations for any designes as