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
deceived and destroyed Nor can any mens malice be gratified further by my Letters than to see my constancie to my VVife the Lawes and Religion Bees will gather Honey where the Spider sucks Poison That I endeavour to avoid the pressures of my Enemies by all fair and just correspondencies no man can blame who loves me or the Common-wealth since my Subjects can hardly be happy if I be miserable or enjoy their peace and liberties while I am oppressed The world may see how soon mens designe like Absoloms is by enormous actions to widen differences and exasperate all sides to such distances as may make all reconciliation desperate Yet I thank God I can not only with patience bear this as other indignities but with Charity forgive them The integrity of my intentions is not jealous of any injury My expressions can doe them for although the confidence of privacy may admit greater freedome in writing such Letters which may be liable to envious exceptions yet the Innocency of my chief purposes cannot be so obtained or mis-interpreted by them as not to let all men see that I wish nothing more than an happy composure of differences with Justice and Honour not more to my own then my Peoples content who have any sparks of Love or Loyalty left in them who by those my Letters may be convinced that I can both mind and act my owne and My Kingdomes Affaires so as becomes a Prince which mine enemies have alwaies been very loath should be believed of me as if I were wholly confined to the Dictates and Directions of others whom they please to brand with the names of Evill Counsellours It 's probable some men will now look upon me as my owne Counsellour and having none else to quarrell with under that notion they will hereafter confine their anger to my selfe Although I know they are very unwilling I should enjoy the liberty of my own Thoughts or follow the light of my owne Conscience which they labour to bring into an absolute captivity to themselves not allowing me to think their Counsells to be other then good for me which have so long maintained a Warre against me The Victory they obtained that day when my Letters became their prize had been enough to have satiated the most ambitious thirst of popular glory among the Vulgar with whom prosperity gaines the greatest esteem and applause as adversity exposeth to their greatest slighting and dis-respect As if good fortuâ—e were alwaies the shadow of Vertue and Justice and did not oftner attend vitious and injurious actions as to this world But I see no secular advantages seem sufficient to that cause which began with Tumults and depends chiefly upon the reputation with the Vulgar They think no Victories so effectuall to their designes as those that most rout and waste my Credit with my People in whose hearts they seek by all meanes to smother and extinguish all sparks of Love Respect and Loyalty to me that they may never kindle againe so as to recover mine the Lawes and the Kingdomes Liberties which some men seek to overthrow The taking away of my Credit is but a necessary preparation to the taking away of my life and my Kingdomes First I must seem neither fit to live nor worthy to Reigne By exquisite methods of cunning and cruelty I must be compelled first to follow the Funeralls of my Honour and then be destroyed But I know Gods un-erring and impartiall justice can and will over-rule the most perverse wills and designes of men He is able and I hope will turn even the worst of mine enemies thoughts and actions to my good Nor doe I think that by the surprize of my Letters I have lost any more than so many Papers How much they have lost of that reputation for Civility and Humanity which ought to be pay'd to all men and most becomes such as pretend to Religion besides that of respect and Honour which they owe to their KING present and after-times will judge And I cannot think that their owne consciences are so stupid as not to inflict upon them some secret impressions of that shame and dishonour which attends all unworthy actions have they never so much of publique flattery and popular countenance I am sure they can never expect the divine approbation of such indecent actions if they doe but remember how God blest the modest respect and filâ—all tendernesse which Noahs Sons bare to their Father nor did his open infirmity justifie Chams impudency or exempt him from that curse of being Servant of Servants which curse must needs be on them who seek by dishonourable actions to please the Vulgar and confirme by ignoble acts their dependance upon the People Nor can their malicious intentions be ever either excusable or prosperous who thought by this meanes to expose me to the highest reproach and contempt of My People forgetting that duty of modest concealment which they owed to the Father of their Country in case they had disovered any reall uncomelinesse which I thank God they did not who can and I believe hath made me more respected in the hearts of many as he did David to whom they thought by publishing my private Letters to have rendred me as a vile Person not fit to be trusted or considered under any notion of Majesty But thou ô Lord whose wise and all-disposing providence ordereth the greatest contingences of humane affairs make me to see the constancy of thy mercies to me in the greatest advantages thou seemest to give the malice of my Enemies against me As thou didst blast the counsell of Achitophel â—urning it to Davids good and his own ruine so so canst thou defeat their designe who intended by publishing my private Letters nothing else but to under me more odious contemptible to my People I must first appeale to thy Omniscience who canst witnesse with my integrity how unjust and â—alse those scandalous misconstructions are which â—y Enemies endeavour by those Papers of mine to â—epresent to the world Make the evill they imagined and displeaâ—â—râ— they intended thereby against me so to 〈◊〉 on their owne heads that they may be ashamed and covered with their owne confusion as with a cloake Thou seest how mine Enemies use all means to cloud mine Honor to pervert my purposes and to slander the footsteps of thine Annointed But give me an heart content to be dishonoured for thy sake and thy Churches good Fix in me a purpose to honour thee and then I know thou wilt honour me either by restoring to me the injoyment of that Power and Majesty which thou hast suffered some men to seeke to deprive me of or by bestowing on me that crowne of Christian patience which knowes how to serve thee in honour or dishonour in good report or evill Thou O Lord art the fountain of goodnesse and honour thou art colathed with excellent Majesty make me to partake of thy excellency for wisdome justice and mercy and I shall not want
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
him the onely Blasphemer of this City and fit to die Still I see while the breath of Religion fills the Sailes Profit is the Compasse by which Factious men steer their course in all seditious Commotions I thank God as no man lay more open to the sacrilegious temptation of usurping the Churches Lands and Revenues which issuing chiefly from the Crowne are held of it and legally can revert onely to the Crowne with My Consent so I have alwayes had such a perfect abhorrence of it in My Soule that I never found the least inclination to such sacrilegious Reformings yet no man hath a greater desire to have Bishops and all Church-men so reformed that they may best deserve and use not only what the pious munisicence of My Predecessours hath given to God and the Church but all other additions of christian bounty But no necssity shall ever I hope drive Me or Mine to invade or sell the Priests Lands which both Pharaoh's divinity and Ioseph's true piety abhorred to doe So unjust I think it both in the eye of Reason and Religion to deprive the most sacred imployment of all due encouragements and like that other hard-hearted Pharaoh to withdraw the straw and encrease the Taske so pursuing the oppressed Church as some have done to the read sea of a Civil Warre where nothing but a miracle can save either It or Him who esteems it His greatest Title to be called and His chiefest glory to be The Defender of the Church both in its true faith its iust fruitions equally abhorring Sacriledge and Apostacy I had rather live as My Predecessour HENRY 3 sometime did on the Churches Alms then violently to take the bread out of Bishops and Ministers mouthes The next work will be Ieroboam's reformation consecrating the meanest of the People to be Preists in Israel to serve those Golden Calves who have enriched themselves with the Churches Patrimony and Dowry which how it thrived both with Prince Priests and People is well enough knowne And so it will be here when from the tuition of Kings and Queenes which have been nursing Fathers and Mothers of this Church it shal be at their alowance who have already discovered what hard Fathers and Stepmothers they will be If the poverty of Scotland might yet the plenty of England cannot excuse the envy and rapine of the Churches Rights and Revenues I cannot so much as pray God to prevent those sad consequences which will inevitably follow the parity and poverty of Ministers both in Church and State since I thinke it no lesse than a mocking and tempting of God to desire him to hinder those mischiefs whose occasions and remedies are in our own power it being every mans sin not to avoid the one and not to use the other There are wayes enongh to repair the breaches of the State without the ruins of the Church as I would be a Restorer of the one so I would not be an oppressour of the other under the pretence of Publiquâ— Debts The occasions contracting them were bad enough but such a discharging of them would be much worse I pray God neither I nor Mine may be accessary to either To thee O Lord doe I addresse My prayer beseeching thee to pardon the rashnesse of My Subiects Swearings and to quicken their sense and observation of those just morall and indispensable bonds whiâ—h thy Word and the Lawes of this Kingdome have laid upon their Consciences From which no pretensions of Piety and Reformation are sufficient to absolve them or to engage them to any contrary practises Make them at length seriously to consider that nothing violent and iniurious can be religious Thou allowest no mans committing Sacriledge under the Zeal of abhorring Idolls Suffer not sacrilegious designs to have the Countenance of religious ties Thou hast taught us by the wisest of Kings that it is a snare to take things that are holy and after Vâ—ws to make enquiry Ever keep thy servant from consenting to periurious and sacrilegious rapines that I may not have the brand and curse to all posterity of robbing Thee and thy Church of what thy bounty hath given us and thy clemency hath accepted from us wherewith to encourage Learning and Religion Though My Treasures are Exhausted My Revenues Diminished and My Debts Encreased yet never suffer Me to be tempted to use such prophane Reparations lest a coal from thine altar set such a fire on My Throne and Conscience as will be hardly quenched Let not the Debs and Engagements of the Publique which some mens folly and prodigality hath contracted be an occasion to impoverish thy Church The State may soone recover by thy blessing of peace upon us The Church is never likely in times where the Charity of most men is grown so cold their Religion so illeberall Continne to those that serve Thee and thy Church all those incouragements which by the will of the pious Donours and the Iustice of the Laws are due unto them and give them grace to deserve and usâ— them aright to thy glory and the releif of the poor That thy Preists may be cloathed with righteousnesse and the poor may be satisfyed with breád Let not holy things be given to Swine nor the Churches bread to Dogs rather let them go about the City grin like a Dog and grudg that they are not satisfyed Let those sacred morsells which some men have already by violence devoured never digest with them nor theirs Let them be as Naboth's Vineyard to Ahab gall in their mouths rottennesse to their mames a moth to their Families and a sting to their Consciences Break in sunder O Lord all violent and sacrilegious Confederations to doe wickedly and inâ—uriously Divide their hearts and tongues who have bandyed together against the Church and State that the folly of such may be manifest to all men and proceed no further But so favour My righteous dealing O Lord that in the mercies of thee the most High I may never miscarry 15. Vpon the many Jealousies raised and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against Him IF I had not My own Innocency and Gods protection it were hard for Me to stand out against those stratagems and conflicts of malice which by Falsities seek to oppresse the Truth and by Jealousies to supply the defect of Reall causes which might seeme to justifie so unjust Engagements against Me. And indeed the worst effects of open Hostility come short of these Designes For I can more willingly lose My Crowneâ— than My Credit nor are My Kingdoms so dear to Me as My Reputation and Honour Those must have a period with My life but these may survive to a glorious kind of Immortality when I am dead and gon A good name being the embalming of Princes a sweet consecrating of them to an Eternity of love gratitude among Posterity Those foule and false aspersions were secret engines at first employed against My peoples love of Me that
annexed rather then perturb the publick peace The truth is some men thirst after Novelties others despaire to relieve the necessities of their Fortunes or satisfie their Ambition in peaceable times distrusting Gods providence as well as their own merits were the secret but principal impulsives to those popular Commotions by which Subjects have been discharged to expend much of those plentifull Estates they got enjoyed under my government in peaceable times which yet must now be blasted with all the odious reproaches which impotent malice can invent My self exposed to all those contempts which may mostdiminish the Majesty of a King and encrease the ungratefull Insolencies of My People For Mine Honour I am wel assured that as mine Innocency is clear before God in point of of any calumnies they object so My reputation shall like the Son after Owles and Bats have had their freedome in the night and darker times rise and recover it selfe to such a degree of splendour as those ferall Birds shall be greived to behold and unable to bear For never were any Princes more glorious thē those whom God hath suffer'd to be tried in the fornace of afflictions by their injurious subjects And who knows but the just and merciful God will do Me good for some mens hard false evill speeches against Me wherein they spake rather what they wish than what they believe or know Nor can I suffer so much in point of honour by those rude and scandalous Pamphlets which like fire in great conflagration◠fly up down to set all places on like flames than those men do who pretending to so much piety are so forgetfull of their duty to God and Me By no way ever vindicating the Majesty of their KING against any of those who contrary to the precept of God and precedent of Angels speak evill of dignityes and bring rayling accusations agaynst those who are honoured with the name of Gods But 't is no wonder if men not fearing God should not Honour their Kings They will easily contemn such shaddowes of God who reverence not that Supreme and adorable Majesty in comparison of whom all the glory of Men Angels is but obscurity yet hath he graven such Characters of divine Authority and sacred power upon Kings as none may without sin seek to blot them out Nor shal their black veiles be able to hide the shining of My face while God gives Me a heart frequently humbly to converse with him from whom alone are all the traditions of true glory and Majesty Thou O Lord knowest My reproach and My dishonour My Adversaries are all before thee My Soule is among Lyons among them that are set on fire even the Suns of Men whose teeth are spears and arrows their tongue a sharp sword Mine Enemies reproach Me all the day long and those that are mad against me are sworn together O My God how long shall the sons of men turne my glory into shame how long shall they love vanity and seek after lies Thou hast heard the reproaches of wicked men on every side Hold not thy peace least My Enemies prevaile against me and lay mine Honour in the dust Thou O Lord shalt destroy them that speak lies the Lord will abhor both the bloud thirsty and deceitfull men Make my righteousnesse to appear as the light and mine innocency to shine forth as the Sun at noone day Suffer not my silence to betray mine innocence nor my displeasure my patience That after my Saviours example being reviled I may not revile againe being cursed by them I may blesse them Thou that wouldst not suffer Shimei's tongue to go unpunished when by thy iudgements on David he might seem to iustifie his disdainfull reproaches give me grace to intercede with thy mercy for these my enemies that the reward of false and lying tongues even hot burning coals of eternall fire may not be brought upon them Let my prayers and patience be as water to coole and quench their tongues who are already set on fire with the fire of Hell and tormented with those malicious flames Let me be happy to refute and put to silence their evill-speaking by well-doing and let them enioy not the fruit of their lips but of my prayer for their repentance and thy pardon Teach me Davids patience and Hezekiahs devotion that I may look to thy mercy through mans malice and see thy Iustice in their sin Let Sheba's seditious speeches Rabsheka's railing Shemei's cursing provoke as my humble prayer to thee so thy renewed blessing toward Me. Though they curse do thou blesse and I shall be blessed and made a blessing to my people That the stone which some builders refuse may become the head-stone of the corner Looke downe from heaven and save me from the reproach of them that would swallow me up Hide me in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man keep me from the strife of tongues 16. Vpon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Booke IT is no news to have all Innovations ushered in with the name of Reformations in Church and State by those who seeking to gaine reputation with the Vulgar for their extraordinary parts and piety must needs undoe whatever was formerly setled never so well and wisely So hardly can the pride of those that study Novelties allow former times any share or degree of wisdome or godlinesse And because matter of prayer and devotion to God justly beares a great part in Religion being the Souls more immediate converse with the divine Majesty nothing could be more plausible to the peopl than to tel them They served God amisse in that point Hence our publique Liturgy or Formes of constant Prayers must be not amended in what upon free and publique advice might seeme to sober men inconvenient for matter or manner to which I should easily consent but wholly cashiered and abolished and after many popular contempts offered to the Booke and those that used it according to their Consciences and the Lawes in force it must be crucified by an Ordinance the better to please either those men who gloried in their extemporary veyn and fluency or others who conscious to their own formality in the use of it thought they fully expiated their sin of not using it aright by laying all the blame upon it and a totall rejection of it as a dead letter thereby to excuse the deadness of their hearts As for the matter contained in the book sober learned men have sufficiently vindicated it against the cavils and exceptions of those who thought it a part of piety to make what profan objections they could against it especially for Popery Superstition whereas no doubt the Liturgy was exactly conformed to the doctrine of the Church of Engl. and this by all reformed churches is confessed to be most sound and Orthodox For the manner of using Set prescribed Formes there is no doubt but that wholsome words being known fitted to mens
designes which no doubt many of them by this time discover though they dare not but smother their frustrations and discontents The specious and popular titles of Christs Government Throne Scepter and Kingdome which certainly is not divided nor hath two faces as their Parties now have at least also the noise of a through Reformation these may as easily be fixed on new modells as faire colours may be put to ill-favoured figures The breaking of Church-windowes which Time had sufficiently defaced pulling downe of Crosses which were but civill not Religious marks defacing of the Monuments and Inscriptions of the Dead which served but to put Posterity in mind to thank God for that clearer light wherein they live The leaving of all Ministers to their liberties and private abilities in the Publike service of God where no Christian can tell to what he may say Amen nor what adventure he may make of seeming at least to consent to the Errours Blasphemies and ridiculous Undecencies which bold and ignorant men list to vent in their Prayers Preaching and other offices The setting forth also of old Catechismes and Confessions of Faith new drest importing as much as if there had been no sound or cleare Doctrine of Faith in this Church before some foure or five yeares consultation had matured their thoughts touching their first Principles of Religion All these and the like are the effects of popular specious and deceitfull Reformations that they might not seem to have nothing to doe and may give some short flashes of content to the Vulgar who are taken with novelties as Children with Babies very much but not very long But all this amounts not to nor can in Justice merit the glory of the Churches thorow Reformation since they leave all things more deformed disorderly and discontented then when they began in point of Piety Morality Charity and good Order Nor can they easilâ— recompense or remedy the inconveniences and mischiefs which they have purchased so dearly and which have and ever will necessarily ensue till due remedies be applied I wish they would at last make it their Unanimous work to doe Gods work and not their owne Had Religion been first considered as it merited much trouble might have been prevented But some men thought that the Government of this Church and State fixed by so many Lawes and long Customes would not run into their new moulds till they had first melted it in the fire of a Civill Warre by the advantages of which they resolved if they prevailed to make my selfe and all my Subjects fall down and worship the Images they should forme and set up If there had been as much of Christs Spirit for meeknesse wisdome and charity in mens hearts as there was of his Name used in the pretensions to reforme all to Christs Rule it would certainly have obtained more of Gods blessing and produced more of Christs Glory the Churches good the Honour of Religion and the Unity of Christians Publique Reformers had need first Act in private and practice that on their owne hearts which they purpose to trie on others for Deformities within will soon betray the pretenders of publike Reformations to such private designs as must needs hinder the publike good I am sure the right Methods of Reforming the Church cannot consist with that of perturbing the Civill State nor can Religion be justly advanced by depressing Loyalty which is one of the chiefest Ingredients and Ornaments of true Religion for next to fear God is Honour the King I doubt not but Christs Kingdome may be set up without pulling downe Mine nor will any men in impartiall times appear good Christians that approve not themselves good Subjects Christs Government will confirm Mine not overthrow it since as I own mine from him so I desire to rule for his Glory and his Churches good Had some men truly intended Christ's Government or knew what it meant in their hearts they could never have been so ill-governed in in their words and actions both against me and one another As good ends cannot justifie evill meanes so nor will evill beginnings ever bring forth good conclusions unlesse God by a miracle of Mercy create Light out of Darknesse order out of our confusions and peace out of our passions Thou O Lord who onely canst give us beauty for ashes and Truth for Hypocrisie suffer us not to be miserably deluded with Pharisaicall washings instead of Christian reformings Our greatest deformities are within make us the severest Censurers and first Reformers of our own soules That we may in clearnesse of judgment and uprightnesse of heart be means to reform what is indeed amisse in Church and State Create in us clean hearts O Lord and renew right spirits within us that we may do all by thy directions to thy glory and with thy blessing Pity the deformities which some rash and cruell Reformers have brought upon this Church and State Quench the fires which Factions have kindled under the pretence of Reforming As thou hast shewed the world by their divisions and confusions what is the pravity of some mens intentions and weaknesse of their judgments so bring â—s at last more refined out of these fires by the methods of Christian and charitable Reformations wherein nothing of ambition revenge covetousnesse or srcriledge may have any influence upon their coâ—nsells whom thy providence in just and lawfull wayes shall entrust with so great good and now most necessary work that I and my People may be so blest with inward piety as may best teach us how to use the blessing of outward peace 21. Vpon his Majesties Letters taken and divulged THe taking of my Letters was an opportunity which as the malice of mine enemies could hardly have expected so they knew not how with honour and civility to use it Nor doe I think with sober and worthy minds any thing in them could tend so much to my reproach as the odious divulging of them did to the infamy of the Divulgers the greatest experiments of vertue and noblenesse being discovered in the greatest advantages against an enemy and the greatest obligations being those which are put upon us by them from whom we could least have expected them And such I should have esteemed the concealing of My Papers The freedome and secresie of which commands a civility from all men not wholly barbarous nor is there any thing more inhumane than to expose them to publique view Yet since providence will have it so I am content so much of My heart which I study to approve to Gods omniscience should be discovered to the world without any of those dresses or popular captations which some men use in their Speeches and Expresses I wish my Subjects had yet a clearer sight into my most retired thoughts Where they might discover how they are divided between the love and care I have not more to preserve my owne Rights than to procure their peace and happinesse and that extreme griefe to see them both
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
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