made choice of men as no way that I know scandalous so every way eminent for their learning and piety no lesse than for their Loyalty nor can I imagine any exceptions to be made against them but only this that they may seem too able and too wel affected toward me and My service But this is 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 bear with more greif and impatience the want of My Chaplains 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 means God is wont to afford extraordinary supplies of his gifts and graces If his Spirit will teach me help My infirmities in prayer reading and meditation as I hope he will I shall need no other either Orator 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 darkness 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 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 ioynt and sociated Devotions of others whose fervencie might inflame the coldnesse of my affections towards thee when we went to or met in thy House with the voice of Iâ—y and gladnesse worshiping thee in the unity of spirits and with 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 â—indle 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 do not despise the weaknesse of my prayers nor the smotherings â—f my soul in this uncomfortable loneness to which I am constrained by some mens uncharitable deniâ—lls of those helps which I much want and no lesse desire O let the hardnes of their hearts occasion the softnings of mine to thee and for Them Let their hatred kindle my love let their unreasonable deâ—â—alls of my Religious desires the more excite my prayers to thee Let their inexorahle deafnesse encline thine eare to me who art a God easie to be â—ntreated thine eare is not heavy that it cannot nor thy heart hard that it will not heare nor thy â—and shortned that it cannot help Mâ— thy desolate Suppliant Thou permittest men to deprive me of those outâ—ard means which thou hast appointed in thy Church but they cannot debarre me from the comâ—union of that inward grace which thou alone â—reathest into humble hearts O make mâ— such and thou wilt teach me thou â—ilt hear me thou wilt help me The broken and â—â—ntrite heart I know thou wilt not despise Thou O Lord canst aâ— once make me thy Temple â—hy Priest thy sacrifice and thine Altar while from an humble heart I alone daily offer up in holy meditations fervent prayers and unfeigned tears my self to thee who preparest me for thee dwelle sâ— in me â—ad acceptest of me Thou O Lord didst cause by secret supplyes miraculous infusions that the handful of meal in the vessell should not spend nor the little oyl in the cruise fail the Widow during the time of drought and dearth O look on my soul which as a Widow is now desolate and 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 wy heart in this famine of ordinary and wholsome food for the refreshing of My Soul Which yet I had rather chuse than to feed fom those hands who mingle my bread with ashes and my wine with gall rather torme nting than teaching me whose mouâ—hs are proner to bitter reproaches of me â—hen to hearty prayers for me Thou knowest O Lord of truth how oft they wrest thy holy Scriptures to my destruction which are clear for their subiection and my preservation O let it not be to their damnation Thou knowest how some men under colour of long prayrs have sought to devour the houses of their Brethren their King and their God O Let not those mens balms 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 soule 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 Kings solitude at Holmeby GIve eare to my words O Lord consider my Meditations aud hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God for unto thee will I pray I said in my hast 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 don amisse who can abide it But there is mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared therefore shall sinners fly unto thee I acknowledge my sius before thee which have the aggravation of my condition the eminency of my place adding weight to my offence Forgive I beseech thee my Personall and my Peoples sinnes which are so far mine as I have not improved the power thou gavest me to thy glory and my Subiects good Thou hast now brought Me from the glory and freedom of a King to be a Prisoner to my oun Subiects Justly O 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 thy grace towards Me. I
chose rather to deny my selfe theâ— 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 owne interests and Personall Rights of whicâ— I conceive my self to be Master but in whaâ— concernes Truth Justice the Right of thâ— Church and My Crowne 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 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 deny before God I will rather chuse to wear a Crown of Thorns with My Saviour then to exchange that of Gold which is due to me for one of lead whose embassed 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 freedom For this I believe is thy will that we should maintain who though thou dost iustly require us to submit our understandings wills to thine whose wisdome and goodnes 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 do any thing for thee against our consciences as to the desires of men enioynest us to try all things by the touch-stone of Reason Laws which are the rules of Civill Justice and to declare our consent to that only which our Judgment approve Thou knowest O Lord how unwilling I was to desert that place in which thou hast set me and whereto the affairs of my Kingdoms at present did call me My People can witness how far I have bin content for their good to deny My Selfe 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 Subiects and the discharge of my owne duty to reason and Justice Make me willÃng to suffer the greatest indignities iniuries 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 fair and equall wayes 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 subiect My Reason to other mens passions and designs which to Me seem unreasonable unìust and irreligious So shall I serve thee in the truth and uprightnesle of my heart thovgh 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 own 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 Sootland 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 divorce of affections in her from that religion which is the only thing wherin we differ Which yet God can I pray he would in time take away not suffer these practises to be any obstruction to her judgement 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 knows not so perfectly to hate all Virtues as some mens subtilty doth among whom I yet think few are so malicious as to hate Her for Her self 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 shipwrackt so as she may be in safe Harbour This comfort I shall enjoy by her safety in the midst of My Personal 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 loyalty of my good subjects to his protection who is able to punish the faults of Princes and no lesse severely to reveng 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 darke st nights 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
he hath done The confiscation of mens estates being more beneficiall then the charity of saving their lives or reforming their Errours When all proportionable succours of the poor Pretestants in Ireland who were daily massacred and over-borne with numbers of now desperate Enemies were diverted and obstructed here I was earnestly entreated and generally advised by the chief of the Protestant Party there to get them some respite and breathing by a cessation without which they saw â—o probability unlesse by miracle to preserve the remnant that had yet escaped Go knows with how much commiseration and solâ—citous caution I carried on that bnsinesse by peâ—sons of Honour and Integrity that so I migâ— neither incourage the rebells Insolence nor discourage the Protestants loyalty and patience Yet when this was effected in the best soâ— that the necessity and difficulty of affaires woulâ— then permit I was then to suffer againe in mâ— reputation and Honour because I suffered nâ— the Rebels utterly to devoure the remainiâ— handfulls of the Protestants there I thought that in all reason the gaining 〈◊〉 that respite could not be so much to the Rebeâ— advantages which some have highly calumniâ—ted against me as it might have been for tâ— Protestants future as well as present safety during the time of that Cessation some men hâ— had the grace to have laid Irelands sad conditio more to heart and laid aside those violent mâ—tions which were here carried on by those thâ— had better skill to let bloud then to stanch it But in all the misconstructions of my actioâ— which are prone to find more credulity in mâ— to what is false and evill than love or charity 〈◊〉 what is true and good as I have no Judge 〈◊〉 God above me so I can have comfort to appâ— to his omniscience who doth not therefoâ— deny my Innocence because he is pleased far to try my patience as he did his servant Iobâ— I have enough to doe to look to My own 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 mouths hearts as easily as smoke or sparks do 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 beleive any man not to be as bad as themselves 'T is Kingly to do well and heare ill If I can but act the one I shall not much regard to bear the other I thank God I can hear 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 beleive 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 effusion of bloud in Ireland Which what ever my Enemies please to say or think I look upon as that of my other Kingdomes exhausted out of my own veins no man being so much weakned by it as my selfe And I hope though mens unsatiable crueltiâ—s never wil yet the mercy of God wil at length say to his justice It is enough command the sword of civil wars to sheath it self his mercifull justice intending I trust not our utter confusion but our cure the abatement of our sins or 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 practised 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 sins have been our ruine Let not the miseries I and my Kingdoms have hitherto suffered seem small to thee but make our sins appear to our consciences as they are represented in the glasse of thy judgements 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 iudgements which are very many and very heavy Yet let our sinnes be evermore grievous to us thaâ— thy Iudgements and make us more willing to repent then 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 throngh 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 Subiects sufferings 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 uniust reproaches cast upon me be as a breath more to kindle my compassion Give me grace to heap charitable coales of fire upon their heads to melt them whose malice or truell Zeal hath kindled or hindred the quenching of those flames which have so much wasted my three Kingdoms O rescue and assist those poore Protestants in Ireland whom thou hast hitherto preserved And lead those in the wayes of thy saving Truths whose ignorance or errours have filled them with Rellellious and destructive principles which they act under an opinion That they do thee good service Let the hand of thy Iustice be against those who maliciously and dispitefully have raised or fomented those cruell and desperate Wars 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 iustly cursed Preserve if it be thy will in the midst of the fornace of thy severe iustice a Posterity which may praise thee for thy mercy And deale with Me not according to mans uniust reproaches but according to the innocency of my hands in thy sight If I have desired or delighted in the wofull day of my Kingdoms calamities if I have not earnestly studied and faithfully endeavoured the preventing and composing of these bloody distractions then let thy hand be against me and my Fathers house O Lord thou seest I have enemies 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 will But I trust not to My own merit but thy mercies spare us O Lord and be not
than from those who engage into religious Rebellion Their interest is alwaies made Gods under the colours of Piety ambitious policies march not only with greatest security but applause as to the populacy you may heare from them Iacob's voyce but you shall feel they have Esau's hands Nothing seemed lesse considerable then the Presbyterian Faction in England for many yeeres so compliant they were to publique order nor indeed was their party great either in Church or State as to mens judgments But as soon as discontents drave men into Sidings as ill humors fall to the dissaffected part which causes inflamations so did all at first who affected any novelties adhere to that Side as the the most remarkable and specious note of difference then in point of Religion All the lesser Factions at first were officious Servants to Presbytery their great Masters till time and military successe discovering to each their peculiar advantages invited them to part stakes and leaving the joynt stock of uniform Religion pretended each to drive for their Party the trade of profits preferments to the breaking and undoing not only of the Church and State but even of Presbytery it Selfe which seemed and hoped at first to have ingrosed all Let nothing seem little or despicable to you in matters which concern Religion the churches peace so as to neglect a speedy reforming an effectuall suppressing Errours and Schisms 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 VVhen 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 maine hinge on which your prosperity will depend and move is that of civil Justice wherein the setled Lawes 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 Crown as shall by its heavinesse oppresse the whole body the weaknesse of whose parts cannot returne any things of strength honour or safety to the head but a necessary debiliatation and ruine Your Prerogative is best shewed and exercised in remitting rather then 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 turn the reproach of My sufferings as to the worlds censure into the honour of a kind of Martyrdome as to the testimony of my own Conscience The Troublers of My Kingdomes have nothing else to object against Me but this That I preferre Religion and Laws established before those alterations they propounded And so indeed I doe and ever shall till I am convinced by better Arguments then what hitherto hath 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 Laws in which is wrapt up the publick Interest and the good of the Community How God will deal with Me as to the removal of these pressures and 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 foule what I beleive is right before God I have offered all for Reformation and Safety that in Reason Honour and Conscience I can reserving only what I cannot consent unto without an irreparable injury to My owne Soule the Church and My People and to You also as the next and undoubted Heire of My Kingdoms 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 councell fidelity and discretion in managing affairs of the first magnitude that is matters of Religion and Justice as to create in Your selfe or others a diffidence of Your own judgement which is likely to be alwayes more constant and impartiall to the interests of your Crowne and Kingdom then any mans Next beware of exasperating any Factions by the crosnesse and asperity of some mens passions humours and private opinions imployed by You grounded onely upon the differences in lesser matters which are but the skirts subbâ—rbs of religion Wherein a charitable connivence and Christian toleration often dissipates their strength whoÌ„ 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 al that are said to suffer under the notion of Religon Provided the differences amount not to an insolent opposition of Laws and Government or Religion established as to the essentials of them such motions and minings are intollerable 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 devour not all or the best encouragements 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 wayes 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 have adheered to the Lawes and to Mee and are secured from that fear but they are divided to so high a rivarly as sets them more at defiance against each other than against their first Antagonists Time will dissipate all factions when once the rough horns of private mens covetous and ambitious designes shall discover themselves which were at first wrapt up and hidden under the soft and
most self-punishing sin the Ingratitude of those who having eaten of our bread and being enriched with Our bounty have Scornfully lift up themselves against Vs and those of Our owne Houshold are become Our Enemies I pray God lay not their sin to their charge who think to satisfie 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 far veniall as it was necessary to their designes by scandalous Articles and all irreverent demeanour to seek 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 Shee should have converted to or retained 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 wil 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 virtues while I enjoy my self Thou O Lord whose Iustice at present sees fit to scatter us let thy mercy in thy due time re unite 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 known nor unbelief or disobedience to what we know be our misery or our wilfull default Let not this great scandall of those my Subiects 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 Iudgement with all the beauties of Humility Loyalty Charity and Peaceablenesse which are the proper fruits 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 shee may see thee in those mercies which thou hast offered to us in thy Son Iesus Christ our only Saviour serve thee in all thâ—se 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 scattering and eclypses let it make us both so much the more ambitious to be invested in those durable honours and perfections which are only to be found in thy selfe and obtained through Jesus Christ 8. Vpon His Maiesties 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 abett or owne it It was the first overt Essay to be made how patiently I could beare the Losse of My Kingdomes God knowes it affected me more with shame and sorrow for others then with anger for My â—elfe nor did the affront done to Me trouble Me so much as their sinne which admitted no colour or 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 soone after to overspread the whole Kingdom and cast all into disorder and darknesse For 't is among the wicked Maximes of bold and disloyall Undertakers that bad actions must alwaies be seconded with worse and rather not be begun then not carried on for they think the retreat more dangerous then the assault 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 somtime smoother then oyl 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 pollicy 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 indignitie of his carriage to do or say any thing unbeseeming my selfe or unsutable to that temper which in greatest injuries I think best becoms a Christian as coming nearest to the great example of Christ And indeed I desire alwayes more to remember I am a Christian than a King for what the Majesty of one might justly abhor the charity of the other is wiling 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 soules which otherwaies cannot reach very farre nor do 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 and 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 only blasted with the conscience of his own 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 successefull 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 don to the head of the
commonweal 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 branch God cuts off in one day These observations are obvious to every fancy God knows I was so far from rejoycing in the Hotham's ruine though it were such as were able to give the greatest thirst for revenge a ful draught being executed by them who first imployed him against Me that I so far pitied him as I thought he at first acted more against the light of his Conscience then I hope many other men do in the same cause For he was never thought to be of that superstitious sowrnesse which some men pretend to in matters of Religion which so darkens their judgment that they cannot see any thing of Sin and Rebellion in those means they use with intents to refrom to their Models what they call Religion who think all is Gold of piety which doth but glister with a shew of Zeale fervency Sir John Hotham was I think a man of another temper and so most liable to those downright temptations of ambition which have no cloak or cheat of religion to impose upon themselves or others That which makes me more pity him is that after he begun to have some inclinations towards a repentance for his sinne and reparations 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 wee ought to pay to those that crave it when wee have cause to beleive they would not after abuse it since God himself suffers us not to pay any thing for his mercy but only 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 alwayes its own vengeance as an unseparable 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 perpetrations of unworthy actions which besides the conscience of the sin brands with most indelible characters of infamy the name 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 as his death hath satisfyed the iniury he did to me so let me not by it gratifie any passion in me lest I make thy vengeance to be mine consider the affront against me more then the sinne against thee Thou indeed without any desire or endeavour of mine hast made his mischief to return on his own head and his violent dealing to come down on his own pate Thou hast pleaded my cause even before the sons 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 iustice prevent the obiects 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 Maiesty 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 lightning of this Thunderbolt which hath been so severe a punishment to one be a torrour to all Discover to them their sinne who know not they have done amisse and scare them from their sinne that sin of malicious wickednesse That preventing thy Iudgements by their true repentance they may escape the strokes of thine eternall vengeance And do thou O Lord establish the Throne of thy servant in mercy and truth meeting together let my Crown ever flourish in righteousnesse and peace kissing each other Heare my prayer O Lord who hast taught us to pray for to do 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 Son Iesus Christ to die for us when we were disposed to crucifie him 9. Vpon the listing and raising Armies against the King I Finde 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 listed and enrolled too 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 Conqueror if God will give Me such a measure of Constancy as to feare him more then man and to love the inward peace of My Conscience before any outward tranquility 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 choose rather to contend by Armies then 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 own Subjects or to be killed by them Are the hazards and miseries of Civill 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 measure 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 peevishnes of others envying the publike should be managed without them or the hidden and insuperable necessities of State then any propensity I hope of my selfe either to injuriousnes or oppression Whose innocent bloud during My Reign have I shed to satisfie My lust anger or covetousnes what Widdowes or Orphans tears can witnesse against me the just cry of which must now be avenged with My own bloud For the hazards of War are equall nor doth the
above mine Own the salvations of mens souls above the presevation of their Bodies and Estates Nor may any men I think without sinne and presumption forcibly endeavour to cast the Churches under my care and tuition into the moulds they have fancied and fashioned to their designes till they have first gained my consent and resolved both my own and other mens Consciences by the strength of their reasons 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 noâ— of reasonable men much lesse of humble Christians and loyall Subjects in matters of religion But men are prone to have such high conceits of themselves that they care not what cost they lay out upon their opinions especially those that have some temptation of gaine 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 wondred 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 Navy by Sea my Forts Castls and Cities by Land But I find that men jealous of tue Jnstifiablenesse of their doings and designes before God never think they have hnmane strength enough to carry their work 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 setlednesse by the strength and influence of the Scots that the other rejects and contemnes at once despising the Kirk Government and â—iscipline 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 Divines of Christendome 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 Loylty Nor can those confederations or designes 〈◊〉 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 despair of their return 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 Crown not in their serviceablenesse to any party of the People to a neglect and betraying of My Safety and Honour for their advantages However the lesse cause I have to trust to men the more I shall apply my self to God The Troubles of My Soul are enlarged O Lord bring thou Me out of My distresse Lord direct thy Servant in the wayes 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 ioyne in hand yet let them not prevaile against My soule to the betraying of My Conscience and Honour Thou O Lord caâ—st turne the hearts of thâ—se Parties in both Nations as thou didst the men of Judah and Israel to restore David with as much loyall Zeal as they did with inconstancy and eagernesse pursve him Preserve the love of thy Truth and uprightnes in me and I shall not despair of My Subjects affections returning towards me Thou canst soone cause the overflowing Seas to ebb 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 transgress 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. Redeem 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 Auxiliarie 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 charme and exorcisme 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 practise in all other Churches since the Apostles times till this last Century But no Antiquity must plead for it Presbytery like a young Heyr thinks the Father hath lived long enough and impatient not to be in the Bishops Chair 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 unsatisfyed with many passages in that covenant some referring to My self with very dubious dangerous limitations yet I chiefly wonder at the designe drift touching the Discipline and Government of the Church and such a manner of carying them on to new ways by Oaths and Covenants where it is hard for men to be engaged by no less then swearing for or against those things which are of no cleare morall necessity but very disputable controverted among learned godly men whereto the application of Oaths can hardly be made and enjoyned with that judgement and certainty in ones self or that charity and candour to others of different opinion as I think Religion requires which never refuses faire and equable deliberations yea dissentings too in matters only probable The enjoyning of oaths upon people must needs in things doubtfull be dangerous as in things unlawfull damnable and no lesse
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 noâ— punished us according to our sins Turn thee O Lord unto Me have mercy upon Me for I am desolate and afflicted The sorrows 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 loviâ—g kindnesse which have been for many Generations I had utterly fainted if I had not believed to see thy goodnes in the land of the living Let not the sins of our prosperity deprive us of the benefit of thy afflictions Let this fiery tryall consume the dross which in long peace and plenty we had contracted Though thou continuest miseryes yet withdraw not thy grace what is wanting of prosperity make up â—n patience and repentance And if thy anger be not to be yet turned away but thy â—and of iustice most 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 fergive what they have done against thee and me And now O 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 Kingdoms In continuing the light of thy Gospell and setling thy true Religion among us In restoring to us the benefit of the Laws and the due execution of â—â—â—tice In suppressing the many Schisms in Church and Factions in State If thou wilt restore me and mine to the anciâ—nt Rights and glory of my Predecessours If thou wilt turne the hearts 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 Wars If thou wilt bless us with the freedom of publique Counsels and deliver the Honour of Parliaments from the insolency 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 spoilings of thy Church If Thou wilt restore Me to a capacity to glorefâ—e Thee in doing good both to the Church and State Then shall my soule 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 my Kingdomes with equity To thy more immediate hand shall I ever owne 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 honour to my chiefest City and my Parliament If thou wilt againe put the Sword of Iustice into my hands to punish and protect Then will I make all the world to see and my very Enemics to enioy the benefit of this Vow and resolution of Christian Charity which I now make unto thee O Lord. As I do 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 iniury done to me We have been mutually pnnished in our unnaturall divisions for thy sake O Lord for the love of my Redeemer have I purposed this in my heart That I will use all means in tbe wayes of amneâ—ly and indempnity which may most fully remove all fears and bury all iealousies in forgetfulnesse Let thy mercies be toward me and mine as my resolutions of Truth and Peace are toward my People Hear 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 of the King at Holmeby and the ensuing destractions in the two Houses the Army and the City VVHat part God will have Me now to act or suffer in this new and strange scene of affaires I am not much solicitous since 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 considerable adding weight to that Party where he appeares This motion like others of the Times seemes excentrique and irregular yet not well to be resisted or quieted Better swim down such a stream than in vaine 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 Babell 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 omen 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 own Consciences they cannot in Reason deny to Mine In this they seem more ingenuous than the 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 Authotity of Lawes which they cannot well have without my consent '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
smooth pretensions of Religion Reformation and Liberty As the Wolfe is not lesse cruell so he will be more justly hated when he shall appear no better than a Wolf under Sheeps cloathing But as for the seduced Train of the Vulgar who in their simplicity follow those disguises My charge and councel to You is That as You need no palliations for any designes as 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 ostentations of Religion so You shall neither fear any detection as they doe who have but the face and mask of goodnesse nor shall You frustrate the just expectations of Your People who cannot in reason promise themselves so much good from any subjects noveltis as from the vertuous constancy of their King VVhen these mountains of congealed factions shall by the sunshine of Gods mercy and the splendour 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 Patrons and Vindicators of them onely to usurp power over them Let then no passion betray You to any study of revenge upon those whose own sinne and folly will sufficiently punish them in due time But as soon as the forked arrow of factious emulations is drawn out use all princely arts and clemency to heal the wounds that the smart of the cure may not equall the angnish 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 securities I would have You alwayes propense to the same way when ever it shall be desired and accepted let it be granted not only 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 thank God I have a heart to do 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 don amisse have don 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 own 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 own 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 pardoing one than in punishing a thousand This I write to you not despairing of Gods mercy My Subjects affections towards you both which I hope you wil study to deserve yet we cannot merit of God but by his own 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 shal be so happy to see you in peace to let you more fully understand the things that belong to Gods glory your own honour and the kingdoms peace But if You never see My face againe and God will have Me buried in such a barbarous Imprisonment and obscurity which the perfecting some mens designes require wherein few hearts that love me are permitted to exchange a word or a look with Me I do require 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 only 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 pollishing which might here have easily been done by a safe and gentle hand if some mens precipitancy had not violently demanded such rude Alterations as would 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 VVarre 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 give such rules nor ever before set such examples '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 zeal abate Your value and esteem of true piety both of them are to be known by their fruits the sweetnesse of the Vine Fig-tree is not to be despised though the Brambles Thorns should pretend to bear Figs and Grapes thereby to rule over the Trees Nor would I have You to entertaine any aversation 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 blacke Parliament have been other then such however much biassed by Factions in the Elections if it had heen preserved from the insolencyes 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 Common enacting all things by publique
Subject Nor do I wish other than the safe bringing of the ship to shore when they have cast me over-board though it be very strange that Marriners can find no other means to appease the storme themselves have raised but by drowning their Pilot. I thank God my Enemies cruelty cannot prevent my preparation whose malice in this I shall defeat that they shall not have the satisfaction to have destroyed my Soule 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 VVhose 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 fountain of eternall life in whom is no shadow of death Thou O God art both the iust Afflicter of Death upon ns and the mercifull Saviour of us in it and from it Yea it is better for us to be dead to our selves and live in thee than by living in our selves to be deprived of thee O make the many bitter agravations of my death as a Man and a King the opportunities and advantages of thy speciall graces and comforts in my Soule as a Christian If thou Lord wilt be with me I shall neither fear nor feel any evill though I walk through the valey of the shadow of death To contend with death is the work of a weak and mortall man to overcome it is the grace of thee alone who art the Almighty and immortal God O My Saviour who knowest what it is to dye with Me as a Man make Me to know what it is to pass through death to life with thee My God Though I dye yet I know that thou my Redeemer livest for ever though thou slayest Me yet thou hast incouraged me to trust in thee for eternal life O withdraw not thy favour from me which is better than life O be not farre from me for I know not how neer a violent and cruel 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 thy goodnesse of thy will through the wickednesse of theirs Thou givest me leave as a man to pray that this cup may passe from me but thou hast taught Me as a Christian by the example of Christ to adde not my will but thine be done Yea Lord let our wills be one by wholy resolving mine into thine let not the desire of life in me be so great as that of doing or suffering thy will in either life or death As I believe thou hast forgiven all the errors 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 to enioy all in thee who hast made Christ unto me in life gaine and in death advantage Though my destroyers forget their duty to thee and me yet do not thou O Lord forget to be mercifull to them For what profit is there in my bloud or in their gaining my Kingdoms if they lose their own Souls Such as have not only resisted my iust Power but wholy usurped and turned it against my selfe though they may deserve yet let them not receive to themselvs damnation Thou madest thy Son a Saviou to many that Crucified Him while at once he suffered violently by them and yet willingly for them O let the voice of his hloud be heard for My murtherers louder than the cry of mine against them Prepare them for thy mercy by due convictions of their sinne and let them not at once deceive and damme their owne Soules by fallacioâ—s pretentions of Iustice in destroying me while the conscience of their uniust 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 deal not with them as bloud-thirsty and deceitfull 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 Souls with the bloud of thy Sonne that thy destroying Angell may passe over them Though they think my Kingdoms 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 arms of thy tender and eternall mercies That what is cut off of my life in this miserable moment may be repaiedin thy ever blessed eternity Lord let thy Servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen thy salvation Vota dabunt quae bella negârunt FINIS
Importunities then their Arguments My confidence had lesse betrayed My self and My Kingdomes to those advantages which some men sought for who wanted nothing but power and occasion to do mischiefe But our sinnes being ripe there was no preventing of Gods Iustice from reaping that glory in our Calamities which we robb'd him of in our Prosperity For thou O Lord hast made us see that Resolutions of future Reforming do not alwaies satisfie thy Justice nor prevent thy vengeance for former miscarriages Our sins have over laid our hopes Thou hast taught us to depend on thy mercies to forgive not on our purpose to amend When thou hast vindicated thy glory by thy Iudgement and hast shewed us how unsafe it is to offend thee upon presumptions afterwards to please thee Then I trust thy mercies wil 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 sins thou givest us cause to repent of those Remedies we too late apply Yet I do not Repent of my calling this last Parliament because O 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 just effects of thy displeasure upon us and may be yet through thy mercy preparatives of us to future blessings and better hearts to enioy them O Lord though thou hast deprived us of many former comsorts 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 becoms 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 sins we have committed Thy Grace is infinitely better with our sufferings then our peace could be with our sins O thou Soveraign goodness and wisdom who over-rulest all our Counsels over rules also all our hearts that the worse things we suffer by thy iustice thâ— better we may be by thy Mercy As our sinnes have turned our Antidotes into poyson so let thy grace turn our poysons into Antidotes As the sins of our peace disposed us to this unhappy war so let this Warre prepare us for thy blessed Peace That although I have but troublesome Kingdoms here yet I may attain to that kingdom 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 need 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 judgement approve all he did driven it may be by the necessities of times and the Temper of that people more then led by his own 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 stroak of Justice and malice of his Enemies I never met with more unhappy conjuncture of affaires then in the businesse of that unfortunate Earl when between My own 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 judgement I thought not by any clear Law gilty of death That I never bare any touch of Conscience with greater regret which as a sign 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 bear 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 own Conscience thereby to salve State sores to calme the stormes of popular discontents by stirring up a tempest in a mans own bosome Nor hath Gods justice failed in the event and sad consequences to shew the world the falacy of that Maxime Better one man perish though uniustly then the people be displeased or destroyed For In all likelyhood I could never have suffered 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 sign that Bill have been so farre from receiving the rewards of such ingratiatings with the people that no men have bin harassed and crushed more than they He only hath bin 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 busines To which being in my Soul so fully conscious those judgments 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 unjust act for so it was to me and for the future to teach me That the best rule of policy is to prefer the doing of Iustice before all enjoyments and the peace of my conscience before the preservation of my Kingdoms Nor hath any thing more fortified my â—esolutions against all those violent importunityes 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 Straffords Busines Not that I resolved to have imployed him in My affaires against the advice of my Parliament but I would not have had any hand in his Death of whose Guiltlesnesse I was better assured than any man living could be Nor were the Crimes
objected against him so clear as after a long and fair 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 L. of Straffords greatnes and power yet unsatisfied of his guilt in Law durst not condemne him to die who for their integrity in their Votes were by poasting their names exposed to the popular calumny hatred and fury which grew then so exorbitant in their clamours for Justice that is to have both my self and the two Houses vote and do as they would have us that many 't is thought were rather terrified to concur with the condemning party then satisfied that of right they ought so to do And that after Act vacating the authority of the precedent for future imitation sufficiently tells the world that some remorse touched even his most implacable Enemies as knowing he had very hard measure and such as they would be very loath should be repeated to themselves This tendernesse and regret I find in my soul for having had any hand and that very unwillingly God knows in shedding one mans bloud unjustly though under the colour and formalities of Justice and pretences of avoiding publike mischiefs which may I hope be some evidence before God and Man to all posterity that I am far from bearing justly the vast load and guilt of all that bloud which hath been shed in this unhappy War which some men will needs charge on Me to case their own soules who am and ever shall be more afraid to take away any mans life unjustly then to lose my own But thou O God of infinite mercies forgive me that act of sinfull complyance which hath greater aggravations upon Me then any Man Since I had not the least temptation of envie or malice against him and by my place should at least so farre have bin a preserver of him as to have denied my consent to his destruction O Lord I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me Deliver me from bloudguiltiness O God thou God of my salvation and my tongue shal sing of thy righteousness Against thee have I finned and done this evill in thy sight for thou sawest the contradiction between my heart and my hand Yet cast me not away from thy presence purge me with the blood of my Redeemer and I shall be clean wash me with that pretious efusion and I shall be whiter then snow Teach me to learn Righteousnesse by thy Judgements and to see my frailtie in thy Justice while I was perswaded by shedding one mans bloud to prevent after-troubles thou hast for that among other sins brought upon Me and upon My Kingdomes great long and heavie troubles Make me to preferre Justice which is thy wil before all contrarie clamours which are but the discoveries of mans iniurious will It is too much that they have once overcome me to please them by displeasing thee O never suffer me for any Reason of State to go against my Reason of Conscience which is highly to sin against thee the God of Reason and Iudg of our Consciences Whatever O Lord thou seest fit to deprive me of yet restore unto me the ioy of thy Salvation and ever uphold me with thy free Spirit which subiects my will to none but thy light of Reason Justice and Religion which shines in my Soule for thou desirest Truth in the inward parts and integritie in the outward expressions Lord hear the voice of thy Sons and my Saviours Bloud which speaks better things O make me and my people to hear the voice of ioy gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may reioice in thy Salvation 3 Upon His Maiestes going to the House of Commons MY going to the House of Commons to demand justice upon the 5. Members was an act which my enemies loaded with all the obloquies and exasperations they could It filled indifferent men with great jealousies and fears yea and many of my freinds resented it as a motion rising rather from Passion than Reason and not guided with such discretion as the touchines of those times required But these men knew not the fast motives and pregnant grounds with which I thought my self so furnished that they needed nothing to such evidence as I could have produced against those I charged save only a free legall Triall which was all I desired Nor had I any temptation of displeasure or revenge against those mens persons further then I had discovered those as I thought unlawful correspondencies they had used engagements they had made to embroyle my Kingdomes of all which I missed but little to have produced writings under some mens owne hands who were the chief contrivers of the following innovations Providence would not have it so yet I wanted not such probabilities as were sufficient to raise jealousies in any Kings heart who is not wholly stupid and neglective of the publick peace which to preserve by calling in question halfe a dozen men in a fair and legall way which God knows was all my design could have amounted to no worse effect had it succeeded then either to do me and my Kingdome right in case they had bin found guilty or else to have clear'd their innocency and removed my suspitions which as they were not raised out of any malice so neither were they in Reason to be smothered What flames of discontent this spark though I sought by all speedy and possible means to quench it soon kindled all the world is witnes The aspersion which some men cast upon that action as if I had designed by force to assault the House of Commons and invade their priviledge is so false that as God best knows I had no such intent so none that attended Me could justly gather from any thing I then said or did the least intimation of any such thoughts That I went attended with some Gentlemen as it was no unwonted thing for the Majesty and safety of a King so to be attended especially in discontented times so were my followers at that time short of my ordinary guard and no way proportionable to hazard a tumultuary conflict Nor were they more scared at my comming then I was unassured of not having some affronts cast upon me if I had none with me to preserve a reverence to me For many people had at that time learned to think those hard thoughts which they have since abundantly vented against Me both by words and deeds The summe of that businesse was this Those men and their adherents were then looked upon by the afrighted vulgar as greater Protectors of their Lawes and Liberties then my self and so worthier of their protection I leave them to God and their own Consciences who if guilty of evill machinations no present impunity or popular vindications of them will be subter fuge sufficient to rescue