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
any man gain My consent to that wherein My Heart gives My tongue or hand the Lie nor will I be brought to affirme that to Men which in My Conscience I denied before God I will rather chuse to wear a Crown of Thornes with My Saviour then to exchange that of Gold which is due to Me for one of lead whose embased flexiblenesse shall be forced to bend and comply to the various and oft contrary dictates of any Factions when instead of Reason and Publick concernments they obtrude nothing but what makes for the interest of parties and flowes from the partialities of private wills and passions I know no resolutions more worthy a Christian King then to prefer His Conscience before His Kingdomes O my God preserve thy servant in this Native Rationall and Religious freedome For this I believe is thy will that we should maintaine who though thou dost justly require us to submit our understandings and wills to thine whose wisdom and goodnesse can neither erre nor misguide us and so farre to deny our carnall reason in order to thy sacred Mysteries and commands that we should believe and obey rather then dispute them yet dost thou expect from us only such a reasonable service of thee as not to doe any thing for thee against our consciences and as to the desires of men enjoynest us to try all things by the touch-stone of Reason and Lawes which are the rules of Civill Iustice and to declare our consents to that only which our Iudgements approve Thou knowest ô Lord how unwilling I was to desert that place in which thou hast set me and whereto the affaires of My Kingdoms at present did call me My People can witnesse how far I have been content for their good to deny My self in what thou hast subjected to My disposall O Let not the unthankfull importunities tumultuary violence of some mens Immoderate demands ever betray Me to that degenerous unmanly slavery which should make Me strengthen them by My consent in those things which I think in My Conscience to be against thy glory the good of My subjects and the discharge of My own duty to Reason and Iustice. Make Me willing to suffer the greatest indignities and injuries they presse upon Me rather then commit the least sinne against My Conscience Let the just liberties of My people be as well they may preserved in faire and equall wayesâ— without the slavery of My soul. Thou that hast invested Me by thy favours in the power of a Christian King suffer Me not to subject My Reason to other mens passions and designes which to Me seeme unreasonable unjust and irreligious So shall I serve thee in the truth and uprightnesse of My heart though I cannot satisfie these men Though I be driven from among them yet give Me grace to walk alwayes uprightly before thee Lead Me in the way of Truth and Iustice for these I know will bring Me at last to peace and happinesse with thee though for these I have much trouble among men This I beg of thee for My Saviours sake 7. Vpon the Queenes departure and absence out of England ALthough I have much cause to be troubled at My Wifes departure from Me and out of My Dominions yet not Her absence so much as the scandall of that necessity which drives her away doth afflict Me. That She should be compelled by My owne Subjects and those pretending to be Protestants to withdraw for Her safety This being the first example of any Protestant Subjects that have taken up Arms against their King a Protestant For I look upon this now done in England as another Act of the same Tragedie which was lately begun in Scotland the brands of that fire being ill quenched have kindled the like flames here I fear such motions so little to the adorning of the Protestant profession may occasion a farther alienation of mind and divorce of affections in Her from that Religion which is the only thing wherein me differ Which yet God can and I pray he would in time take away and not suffer these practises to be any obstruction to Her judgementâ— since it is the motion of those men for the most part who are yet to seek and settle their Religion for Doctrine Government and good manners and so not to be imputed to the true English Protestants who continue firme to their former setled Principles and Lawes I am sorry My relation to so deserving a Lady should be any occasion of her danger and affliction whose merits would have served her for a protection among the savage Indians while their rudenesse and barbarity knowes not so perfectly to hate all Vertues as some mens subtilty doth among whom I yet thinke few are so malicious as to hate Her for Her selfe The fault is that she is My wife All justice then as well as affection commands Me to study her Security who is only in danger for My sake I am content to be tossed weather-beaten and shipwrackt so as she may be in safe Harbour This comfort I shall enjoy by her safety in the midst of My Personall dangers that I can perish but halfe if she be preserved In whose memory and hopefull Posterity I may yet survive the malice of My enemies although they should be satiated with My bloud I must leave her and them to the Love and Loyalty of My good Subjects and to his protection who is able to punish the faults of Princes and no lesse severely to revenge the injuries done to Them by those who in all duty and Allegiance ought to have made good that safety which the Lawes chiefly provide for Princes But common civility is in vaine expected from those that dispute their Loyalty Nor can it be safe for any relation to a King to tarry among them who are shaking hands with their Allegiance under pretence of laying faster hold on their Religion T is pitty so noble and peacefull a soule should see much more suffer the rudenesse of those who must make up their want of justice with inhumanity and impudence Her sympathy with Me in My afflictions will make her vertues shine with greater lustre as stars in the darkest nights and assure the envious world that she loves Me not My fortunes Neither of us but can easily forgive since We do not much blame the unkindnesse of the Generality and Vulgar for we see God is pleased to try both our patience by the most selfe-punishing sin the Ingratitude of those who having eaten of our bread and being enriched with Our bounty have Scornfully lift up themselves against Us and those of Our owne Houshold are become Our enemies I pray God lay not their sin to their charge who thinke to satisfy all obligations to duty by their Corban of Religion and can lesse endure to see then to sin against their benefactours as well as their Soveraignes But even that policy of my enemies is so farre veniall as it was necessary to their deâ—â—gnes
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
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
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
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
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
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
other men so that you study really to exceed in true and constant demonstrations of goodnesse piety and virtue towards the People even all those men that make the greatest noise and ostentations of Religion so You shall neither feare any detection as they doe who have but the face and maske of goodnesse nor shall You frustrate the just expectations of Your People who cannot in Reason promise themselves so much good from any Subjects novelties as from the vertuous constancy of their Kingâ— When these mountaines of congealed factions shall by the sunshine of Gods mercy and the splendor of Your virtues be thawed and dissipated and the abused Vulgar shall have learned that none are greater Oppressours of their Estates Liberties and Consciences than those men that entitle themselves The Patrones and Vindicators of them onely to usurp power over them Let then no passion betray You to any study of revenge upon those whose owne sinne and folly will sufficiently punish them in due time But as soone as the forked arrow of factious emulations is drawn out use all princely arts and clemency to heale the wounds that the smart of the cure may not equall the anguish of the hurt I have offered Acts of Indempnity and Oblivion to so great a latitude as may include all that can but suspect themselves to be any way obnoxious to the Laws and which might serve to exclude all future Jealousies and insecurities I would have You alwaies propense to the same way when ever it shall be desired and accepted let it be granted not onely as an Act of State-policy and necessity but of Christian charity and choice It is all I have now left Me a power to forgive those that have deprived Me of all and I thanke God I have a heart to doe it and joy as much in this grace which God hath given Me as in all My former enjoyments for this is a greater argument of Gods love to Me than any prosperity can be Be confident as I am that the most of all sides who have done amisse have done so not out of malice but mis-information or mis-apprehension of things None will be more loyall and faithfull to Me and You than those Subjects who sensible of their Errours and our Injuries will feel in their owne Soules most vehement motives to repentance and earnest desires to make some reparations for their former defects As Your quality sets You beyond any Duell with any Subject so the noblenesse of Your mind must raise You above the meditating any revenge or executing Your anger upon the many The more conscious You shall be to Your owne merits upon Your People the more prone You will be to expect all love and loyalty from them and to inflict no punishment upon them for former miscarriages You will have more inward complacency in pardoning one than in punishing a thousand This I write to you not despairing of Gods mercy and my Subjects affections towards You both which I hope You will study to deserve yet We cannot merit of God but by his owne mercy If God shall see fit to restore Me and You after Me to those enjoyments which the Lawes have assigned to Us and no Subjects without an high degree of guilt and sinne can devest Us of then may I have better opportunity when I shall be so happy to see You in peace to let You more fully understand the things that belong to Gods glory Your owâ— honour and the Kingdoms peace But if You never see My face againe and God will have Me buried in such a barbarous Imprisonment obscurity which the perfecting some mens designs require wherein few hearts that love me are permitted to exchange a word or a look with Me I doe require and entreat You as your Father and your KING that You never suffer Your heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the true Religion established in the Church of England I tell You I have tried it and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world not onely in the Community as Christian but also in the speciall notion as Reformed keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitious Tyranny and the meannesse of fantastique Anarchy Not but that the draught being excellent as to the maine both for Doctrine and Government in the Church of England some lines as in very good figures may happily need some sweetning or polishing which might â—ere have easily been done by a safe and gentle hand if some mens precipitancy had not â—â—olently demanded such rude alterations as wâ—â—ld have quite destroyed all the beauty and proportions of the whole The scandall of the late Troubles which some may object and urge to You against the Protestant Religion established in England is easily answered to them or Your owne thoughts in this That scarce any one who hath been a Beginner or an active Prosecutor of this late Warre against the Church the Lawes and Me either was or is a true Lover Embracer or Practiser of the Protestant Religion established in England which neither gives such rules nor ever before set such â—xamples 'T is true some heretofore had the boldnesse to present threatning Petitions to their Princes and Parliaments which others of the same Faction but of worse Spirits have now put in execution but let not counterfeit and disorderly Zeale abate Your value and esteem of true piety both of them are to be knowne by their fruits the sweetnesse of the Wine Fig-tree is not to be despised though the Brambles and Thornes should pretend to beare Figs and Grapes thereby to rule over the Trees Nor would I have You to entertain any averâ—ation or dislike of Parliaments which in their right constitution with Freedome and Honour will never injure or diminish Your greatnesse but will rather be as interchangings of love loyalty and confidence between a Prince and his People Nor would the events of this black Parliament have been other than such however much biassed by Factions in the Elections if it had been preserved from the insolencies of popular dictates and tumultuary impressions The sad effects of which will no doubt make all Parliaments after this more cautious to preserve that Freedome and Honour which belongs to such Assemblies when once they have fully shaken off this yoke of Vulgar encroachment since the publique interest consists in the mutuall and common good both of Prince and People Nothing can be more happy for all than in faire grave and Honourable waies to contribute their Counsels in Commonâ— enacting all things by publique consent without tyranny or Tumults We must not starve our selves because some men have â—urfeited of wholsome food And if neither I nor You be ever restored to Our Rights but God in his severest justice wâ—ll punish My Subjects with continuance in their sinne and suffer them to be deluded with the prosperity of their wickednesse I hope God will give Me
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
them such Repentance as thou wilt accept and such Grace as we may not abuse Make Me so far happy as to make a right use of others abuses and by their failings of Me to reflect with a reforming displeasure upon My offences against Thee So although by My sins I am by other mens sins deprived of thy temporall blessings yet I may be happy to enjoy the comfort of thy mercies which often raise the greatest Sufferers to be the most glorious Saints 6. Vpon His Majesties retirement from VVestminster WIth what unwillingnesse I withdrew from Westminster let them judge who unprovided of tackling and viâ—tuall are forced by Sea to a storm yet better do so then venture splitting or sinking on a Lee shore I stayed at Whitehall till I was driven away by shame more than feare to see the barbarous rudenesse of those Tumults who resolved they would take the boldnesse to demand any thing and not leave either My self or the Members of Parliament the liberty of our Reason and Conscience to deny them any thing Nor was this intolerable oppression My case alone though chiefly Mine For the Lords and Commons might be content to be over-voted by the major part of their Houses when they had used each their owne freedome Whose agreeing Votes were not by any Law or reason conclusive to My Judgment nor can they include or carry with them My consent whom they represent not in any kind Nor am I further bound to agree with the Votes of both Houses then I see them agree with the will of God with My just Rights as a King and the generall good of My People I see that as many men they are seldome of one mind and I may oft see that the major part of them are not in the right I had formerly declared to sober and moderate mindes how deâ—irous I was to give all just content when I agreed to so many Bills which had been enough to secure and satisfie all If some mens Hydropick inâ—atiablenesse had not learned to thirst the more by how much more they drank whom no fountain of Royall bounty was able to overcome so resolved they seemed either utterly to exhaust it or barbarously to obsâ—ruct it Sure it ceases to be Councell when not Reason is used as to men to perswade but force and terrour as to beasts to drive and compell men to assent to what ever tumultuary patrones shall project He deserves to be a slave without pitty or redemption that is content to have the rationall soveraignty of his Soul and liberty of his will and words so captivated Nor do I think My Kingdomes so considerable as to preserve them with the forfeiture of that freedome which cannot be denied Me as a Kingâ— because it belongs to Me as a Man and a Christian owning the dictates of none but God to be above Me as obliging Me to consent Better for Me to die enjoying this Empire of My Soul which subjects Me only to God so farre as by Reason or Religion he directs Me then live with the Title of a King if it should carry such a vassalage with it as not to suffer Me to use My Reason and Conscience in which I declare as a King to like or dislike So farre am I from thinking the Majesty of the Crown of England to be bound by any Coronation Oath in a blind and brutish formality to consent to what ever its subjects in Parliament shall require as some men will needs inferre while denying Me any power of a Negative voice as King they are not ashamed to seek to deprive Me of the liberty of using My Reason with a good Conscience which themselves and all the Commons of England enjoy proportionable to their influence on the publick who would take it very ill to be urged not to deny whatever My self as King or the House of Peeres with Me should not so much desire as enjoyn them to passe I think My Oath fully discharged in that point by My Governing only by such Lawes as My People with the House of Peeres have Chosen and My self have consented to I shall never think My self conscientiously tied to goe as oft against My Consciâ—nce as I should consent to such new Proposalls which My Reason in Justice Honour and Religion bids Me deny Yet so tender I see some men are of their being subject to Arbitrary Government that is the Law of anothers will to which themselves give no consent that they care not with how much dishonour and absurdity they make their King the onely man that must be subject to the will of others without having power left Him to use His own Reason either in Person or by any Representation And if My dissentings at any time were as some have suspected and uncharitably avowed out of error opinion activenesse weaknesse or wilfulnesse and what they call Obstinacy in Me which not true Judgement of things but some vehement prejudice or passion hath fixed on My mind yet can no man think it other then the Badge and Method of Slavery by savage rudenesse and importunate detrusions of violence to have the mist of His Errour and Passion dispelled which is a shadow of Reason and must serve those that are destitute of the substance Sure that man cannot be blameable to God or Man who seriously endeavours to see the best reason of things and faithfully followes what he takes for Reason The uprightnesse of his intentions will excuse the possible failings of his understanding If a Pilot at Sea cannot see the Pole-star it can be no fault in him to steere his course by such stars as do best appear to him It argues rather those men to be conscious of their defects of Reason and convincing Arguments who call in the assistance of meer force to carry on the weaknesse of their Councells and Proposalls I may in the Truth and uprightnesse of My heart protest before God and Men that I never wilfully opposed or denied any thing that was in a fair way after full and free debates propounded to Me by the two Houses Further then I thought in good reason I might and was bound to do Nor did any thing ever please Me more then when My Judgment so concurred with theirs that I might with good Conscience consent to them yea in many things where not absolute and morall necessity of Reason but temporary convenience on point of Honour was to be considered I chose rather to deny My self then them as preferring that which they thought necessary for My Peoples good before what I saw but convenient for My self For I can be content to recede much from My own Interests and Personall Rights of which I conceive My self to be Master but in what concernes Truth Justice the Rights of the Church and My Crown together with the generall good of My Kingdomes all which I am bound to preserve as much as morally lies in Me here I am and ever shall be fixt and resolute nor shall