is pleased to lay them out to Me. I confess it is not easie for Me to contend with those many horrors of Death wherewith God suffers Me to be tempted which are equally horrid either in the suddenness of a Barbarous Assassination or in those greater Formalities whereby my Enemies being more solemnly cruel will it may be seek to add as those did who crucified Christ the Mockery of Justice to the Cruelty of Malice That I may be destroyed as with greater Pomp and artifice so with less Pity it will be but a necessary policy to make my Death appear as an act of Justice done by Subjects upon their Soveraign who know that no Law of God or Man invests them with any power of Judicature without Me much less against Me and who being sworn and bound by all that is Sacred before God and Man to endeavour my preservation must pretend Justice to cover their Perjury It is indeed a sad fate for any man to have his Enemies to be his Accusers Parties and Judges but most desperate when this is acted by the insolence of Subjects against their Soveraign wherein those who have had the chiefest hand and are most guilty of contriving the publick Troubles must by shedding My Blood seem to wash their own hands of that innocent blood whereof they are now most evidently guilty before God and man and I believe in their own Consciences too while they carried on unreasonable demands first by tumults after by Armies Nothing makes mean spirits more cowardly-cruel in managing their usurped power against their lawful Superiors than this the Guilt of their unjust Vsurpation notwithstanding those specious and popular pretensions of Justice against Delinquents applied only to disguise at first the monstrousness of their designs who despaired indeed of possessing the power and profits of the Vineyard till the Heir whose right it is be cast out and slain With them my greatest Fault must be that I would not either destroy My self with the Church and State by my word or not suffer them to do it unresisted by the Sword whose covetous Ambition no Concessions of Mine could ever yet either satisfie or abate Nor is it likely they will ever think that Kingdom of Brambles which some men seek to erect at once weak sharp and fruitless either to God or man is like to thrive till watered with the Royal Blood of those whose right the Kingdom is Well God's will be done I doubt not but my innocency will find him both my Protector and my Advocate who is my onely Judge whom I own as King of Kings not onely for the eminency of his Power and Majesty above them but also for that singular Care and Protection which he hath over them who knows them to be exposed to as many Dangers being the greatest Patrons of Law Justice Order and Religion on Earth as there be either Men or Devils which love Confusion Nor will he suffer those men long to prosper in their Babel who build it with the Bones and cement it with the Blood of their KINGS I am confident they will find Avengers of my Death among themselves the Injuries I have sustained from them shall be first punished by them who agreed in nothing so much as in opposing Me. Their impatience to bear the loud cry of my Blood shall make them think no way better to expiate it then by Shedding theirs who with them most thirsted after Mine The sad Confusions following my Destruction are already presaged and confirmed to Me by those I have lived to see since my Troubles in which God alone who onely could hath many ways pleaded my Cause not suffering them to go unpunished whose confedaracy in Sin was their only Security who have cause to fear that God will both further divide and by mutual Vengeance afterward destroy them My greatest conquest of Death is from the Power and Love of Christ who hath swallow'd up Death in the Victory of his Resurrection and the glory of his Ascension My next Comfort is That he gives Me not only the Honour to imitate his Example in suffering for Righteousness sake though obscured by the foulest charges of Tyranny and Injustice but also that Charity which is the noblest Revenge upon and Victory over my Destroyers by which I thank God I can both forgive them and pray for them that God would not impute my Blood to them further than to convince them what need they have of Christs Blood to wash their Souls from the guilt of shedding Mine At present the Will of my Enemies seems to be their only rule their Power the measure and their Success the exactor of what they please to call Justice while they flatter themselves with the fancy of their own Safety by My Danger and the security of their Lives and Designs by My Death forgetting that as the greatest temptations to Sin are wrapped up in seeming Prosperities so the severest Vengeances of God are then most accomplished when men are suffered to compleat their wicked purposes I bless God I pray not so much that this bitter cup of a Violent Death may pass from Me as that of his Wrath may pass from all those whose hands by deserting Me are sprinkled or by acting and consenting to my Death are embrued with my Blood The will of God hath confined and concluded Mine I shall have the pleasure of dying without any pleasure of desired Vengeance This I think becomes a Christian toward his Enemies and a King toward his Subjects They cannot deprive Me of more than I am content to lose when God sees fit by their hands to take it from Me whose Mercy I believe will more than infinitely recompence whatever by mans Injustice he is pleased to deprive me of The glory attending my Death will far surpass all I could enjoy or conceive in Life I shall not want the heavy and envied Crowns of this world when my God hath mercifully crowned and consummated his Graces with Glory and exchanged the shadows of my Earthly Kingdoms among men for the substance of that Heavenly Kingdom with Himself For the censures of the world I know the sharp and necessary Tyranny of my Destroyers will sufficienly confute the Calumnies of Tyranny against Me I am perswaded I am happy in the judicious Love of the ablest and best of my Subjects who do not only pity and pray for Me but would be content even to die with Me or for Me. These know how to excuse my Failings as a man and yet to retain and pay their Duty to Me as their KING there being no Religious necessity binding any Subjects by pretending to punish infinitely to exceed the faults and errors of their Princes especially there where more than sufficient Satisfaction hath been made to the publick the enjoyment of which private Ambitions have hitherto frustrated Others I believe of softer tempers and less advantaged by My Ruin do already feel sharp Convictions and some remorse in their Consciences where they
Him tryed and condemned by their Council of War But the Chiefs thought fit to proceed more artificially in their Crime and when they should get more Authority destroy Him by a Parliamentary way of Justice To bring this about they must proceed to make Him more odious that the People might be patient while they kill Him and undoe them To proceed therefore to their Impiety Cromwell and his Creatures stickle fiercely in the House of Commons and cause the Parliament to send not Conditions of Peace to be treated on but Propositions like Commands that admitted no Dispute which if the King had yielded unto He had despoiled Himself of Majesty and been thought guilty of so much want of Spirit as would conclude an unfitness for Empire besides such a voluntary Diminution would have been equally unsafe as unglorious And if he did not then He was to be esteemed the only Obstacle of the Universal Peace And lest the King should put them to more tedious arts by signing them they themselves to divert Him privately promised to procure more soft Articles and professed to be sorry the Presbyterian Sowreness and Rigour did yet leaven the House which made these Propositions so unpleasant The King could not but perceive the practices of the Army yet being resolved that no Dangers whatsoever should make Him satisfie those unreasonable Demands of the Parliament which granted would have been the heaviest oppression on His Subjects and the greatest injury to His Posterity He could possibly be guilty of For to good Princes the Safety of their People and their own Memory which is built upon the Happiness of Posterity through their Counsels are more pretions than Life and Power and although Providence and the Malice of His Enemies had obstructed His way to Glory by Victories and Success yet He would trace it in the unenvied and unquestionable paths of Constancy and Justice Therefore to make His denial of them advantageous to Himself by a seeming confidence in the Army's proffers thereby to oblige if it were possible those that had no sense either of Faith or Honour or at least to injealous those two Rivals for His Power and commit them the King absolutely rejects the Parliaments Propositions and requires the Demands of the Army as more equal and fit for a Personal Treaty and that the Army also should nominate Commissioners Cromwell and his Complices seemed to be joyful for this Answer of His Majesty which had preferred them before their Competitiors to the Honour of Justice and Moderation in the Eyes of the People but yet secretly did they exasperate the minds of the more short-sighted Commons against the King for this Affront And to the King they profess a shame and trouble upon their Spirits for so they loved to speak that they could not now perform their Promises sometimes they excused themselves by a Reverence to the Parliament at other times by the fierceness of the Adjutators and when by these excuses they had coloured their delayes to some length they began to interpret their sayings otherwise than the King apprehended them to forget what they had assured Him of and at last openly to refuse any performance To all these Perfidies they add other Frauds to beget a fear in Him of the Adjutators and the Levellers who they informed Him meditated His Murder professed they could not for the present moderate their bloody and impetuous Consultations but when they should recover the lost Discipline of their Army then they might easily and speedily satisfie their engagements to Him To give credit to their words the Fury of the Adjutators was blown to a more conspicuous Flame their Papers were published for a change of Government call'd The Case of the Army and The Agreement of the People the animations of Peter's and another of the same Diabolical Spirit saying His Majesty was but a dead Dog were divulged and all were communicated to some Attendants about the King with an Advice from the Chiefs of the Army to escape for His Life for they were unwilling He should be killed while they helplessly look'd on The Fury and Threatnings of Men of such destructive and bloudy Principles who accounted all things lawful that they could do that Providence administring Opportunity did invite and license their Impieties and who imputed all their lusts that had no colour from Justice to the Perswasions of the Holy Spirit were not to be despised nor was the King to abandon His Life if He could without sin preserve it to a longer waiting upon God Therefore with three of His most trusty Attendants in the dark tempestuous and ominous night of Nov. 11. He leaves Hampton-Court some say uncertain where to seek safety others that he intended to take Ship but being disappointed in his Expectation He was at last fatally led into the Power and when He could not escape committed Himself to the Loyalty and Honour of Col. Hammond a Confident of Cromwell's who had been but a little before made Governour of the Isle of Wight for this very purpose and was by him conveyed to Carisbrook Castle the very Pit his Enemies had designed for Him For it was discoursed in the Army above a fortnight before that the King e're long would be in the Isle of Wight and the very night He departed from Hampton-Court the Centinels were withdrawn from their usual Posts on purpose to facilitate His Flight The all-wise God not permitting Him to fly from those greater Trials and more Glorious Acts of Patience He had designed for Him Being here in this false Harbour He minds that business which lay most upon His Heart the Settlement of the Nation He sends Concessions to the Parliament more benign and easie than they could desire or hope together with His Reasons why He could not assent to their Demands and earnestly sollicites them to pity the Languishing Kingdom and come to a Personal Treaty with Him on His Concessions and the Army's Demands But the Conspirators to cut off all hopes of a Treaty take this Occasion to send Four Preliminary Articles which if He would pass as Acts they would treat of the rest These were so unjust that the Scotch Commissioners in the Name of their Kingdom declare against them in publick Writings and following the Messengers of Parliament to the Isle of Wight do in the presence of His Majesty protest against them as contrary to the Religion the Crown and Accords of both Kingdoms The King according to His wonted Wisdom and Greatness of Mind presently returns them an Answer to shew the Injustice of having Him grant the chief things before the Treaty which should be the Subject of it and to give them such an Arbitrary Power to the ruine of all the People This Answer He delivered sealed to their Messengers who desired that they might hear it read and that they might be dealt with as Commissioners not as bare Carriers a greater trust than which their Masters had not committed unto them and promise upon
the Ministers in the several Churches in London and in those parts of the Kingdom where His danger was known were very earnest in their Prayers to God for His Diliverance and Spiritual Assistance Some of them in their Sermons declared the horrour of that sin that was about to be committed detested the Impiety of the Parricides and denounced the heavy Judgments which such a sinful Nation polluted with their Prince's blood were to expect The Congregations were dissolved into Tears Some bewailed the sad Condition of the King as the effect of the Sins of the Nation Others cursed their damnable Credulity of the Slanders of that Just man and the promises of Liberty by their Impostors And another sort wept because their Fears did prognosticate those Miseries which the Issue of His blood would let in upon them And every one found matter of grief fear and indignation in the loss of so Excellent a Prince All countenances were full of sadness and astonishment there was no Tumults nor any Quiet every one listning and hearkning either as impatient to know the greatness of their Misery or greedy to receive some hopes of Comfort in their Sovereign's Safety otherwise there was a stilness like that which too strong Passions effect and might be thought a Stupidity rather than a Calmness The next day being Jan. 29. the King was permitted the sight of His Children His conference and words with them was taken in writing and communicated to the World by the Lady Elizabeth His Daughter a Lady of most eminent Endowments who though born in the supremest Fortune yet lived in continual Tears the passages of her Life being spent in beholding the Ruines of her Family and the Murther of her dear Father whom she not long survived but died in that Confinement to which they had cheated His Majesty in Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight While these things were done in publick the Conspirators meet in private in a Committee to appoint every one their part in this Tragedy determine what Gestures they were to affect what Words they were to use as also for the manner place and time of the Murther In which Consultations both now and before the Sentence each one according to the bloodiness of his temperament or servilely to flatter Cromwell by their Cruelty to Him that did obstruct his Ambition did propose several ways either of contempt or hatred in killing their sentenced yet anointed Sovereign Some would have His Head and Quarters fastned upon Poles as it is usual with Traitors that the marks of their Curelty might out-last His Death Others would have Him hanged as they punished Thieves and Murtherers Others gave their Vote that He should suffer in His Royal Habiliments with His Crown and in His Robes that it might be a Triumph of the Peoples power over Kings At last they think it sufficient that He should lose His Head by the stroak of an Ax on a Scaffold near White-Hall Gates before the Banqueting-House that so from thence where He used to sit on His Throne and shew the Splendour of Majesty He might pass to His Grave there parting with the Ensigns of Royalty and laying them down as Spoils where He had before used them as the Ornaments of Empire Thus did they endeavour to make their Malice ingenious and provided Triumphs for their revenge And because they suspected or were informed that as the King had not owned their Authority so He would not submit to their Execution not willingly stoop to the Block they caused to be fastned in it some Iron Staples and Rings that by them with Cords they might draw Him down if He would not comply But His prudent Meekness prevented this Inhumanity and He died disowning their Authority though He could not escape their Power In the midst of these Preparations they cause some Souldiers to offer to His Majesty certain Articles and Conditions to which if He would subscribe they promise Life and the continuance of a precarious Empire either out of a Terrour and Fear of the consequents of their Impieties for the confidence of contriving great Crimes is often turned into a sollicitude when they come to be acted or out of Design to ruine His Conscience and Honour together with His mortal Life if He should consent But when one or two of them had been read to Him He refused to hear any more saying I will suffer a thousand deaths ere I will so prostitute my Honour or betray the Liberties of my People Thus mindful of Justice He would not deface the Splendor of His former Vertues with a too impotent desire of Life At last that Fatal Day Jan. 30. approached and that morning a little before His Death the Conspirators ordered some of their Ministers viz. Marshall Nye Caryl Salway and Dell to pray with Him as they said in order to His passage out of this Life but when these sent to let Him know the end of their coming He returned answer that He was busie they sent a second time and He replied that He was at His Devotions they importunately sent a third time and my Lord of London then desiring to know what answer he should give to satisfie them His Majesty then as unconcerned in their Ministery said My Lord you may give them what answer you please but I am resolved that they who have so often and so causelesly prayed against Me shall not in this My Agony pray with Me they may pray for Me if they please Therefore the King arming Himself with His own Devotions in the Offices of the Church of England in them found an unexpected Comfort for the Gospel for that Day being the History of the Passion of our Saviour did by that Example strengthen the King to follow Jesus and to take up His Cross and His Majesty was thankful for that Pattern Being thus confirmed by the Blood for He took the Sacrament that Morning and Sufferings of His LORD whose Vicegerent He was together with His own Innocency against the Terrors of Death He was brought from St James's through the Park to White-Hall walking very fast and with as chearful a Countenance as if He were going to Hunting a Recreation He was much pleased with often advising His slow guards to move faster adding I now go before you to strive for an Heavenly Crown with less sollicitude than I formerly have led My Souldiers for an Earthly Diadem And being come to the end of the Park He with much Alacrity went up the Stairs leading to the long Gallery in White-Hall and so into the Cabinet-Chamber where He continued some time in Devotion while they were fitting the Theatre of His Murther While these things were acting the Lord Fairfax who had always forborn any publick appearance in the practices of this Murther had taken up as is credibly reported some Resolutions either in abhorrency of the Crime or by the Solicitations of others with his own Regiment though none else should follow him to hinder the
the Corruptions of men is more efficacious to Impiety than to Vertue could not do that His Law should and He would restrain those Vices which He could not extirpate Religion was never used by Him to veil Injustice for this was peculiar to His Adversaries who when they were plotting such acts as Hell would blush at they would fawn and smile on Heaven and they used it as those subtle Surprisers in War who wear their Enemies Colours till they be admitted to butcher them within their own Fortresses But His Majesty consulted the Peace of His Conscience not only in Piety to God but also in Justice to Men. He was as a Magistrate should be a speaking Law It was His usual saying Let me stand or fall by My own Counsels I will ever with Job rather chuse Misery than Sin He first submitted His Counsels to the Censure of the Lawyers before they were brought forth to Execution Those acts of which the Faction made most noise were delivered by the Judges to be within the Sphere of the Prerogative The causes of the Revenue were as freely debated as private Pleas and sometimes decreed to be not good which can never happen under a bad Prince The Justice of His Times shewed that of His Breast wherein the Laws were feared and not Men. None were forced to purchase their Liberty with the diminution of their Estates or the loss of their Credit Every one had both security and safety for His Life Fortune and Dignity and it was not then thought as afterwards to be a part of Wisdom to provide against Dangers by obscurity and Privacies His Favours in bestowing Great Offices never secured the Receivers from the force of the Law but Equity overcame His Indulgences For He knew that Vnjust Princes become Odious to them that made them so He submitted the Lord Keeper Coventrey to an Examination when a querulous person had accused him of Bribery He sharply reproved one whom He had made Lord Treasurer when he was petitioned against by an Hampshire Knight on whose Estate being held by Lease from the Crown that Treasurer had a design and He secured the Petitioner in his right The greatest Officer of His Court did not dare to do any the least of those injuries which the most contemptible Member of the House of Commons would with a daily Insolency act upon his weaker Neighbour In the Civil Discords He bewailed nothing more than that the Sword of Justice could not correct the illegal Furies of that of War Though by His Concessions and Grants He diminished His Power yet He thought it a Compensation to let the World see He was willing to make it impossible for Monarchy to have an unjust Instrument and to secure posterity from evil Kings Although He proved to a Leading Lord of the Faction That a People being too cautious to bind their King by Laws from doing Ill do likewise fetter Him from doing Good and their fears of Mischief do destroy their hopes of Benefit And that such is the weakness of Humanity that he which is intrusted only to Good may pervert that Power to the extremest Ills. And indeed there is no security for a Community to feel nothing in Government besides the Advantages of it but in the Benignity of Providence and the Justice of the Prince both which we enjoyed while we enjoyed Him Though He was thus in Love with Justice yet He suffered not that to leven His Nature to Severity and Rigour but tempered it with Clemency especially when His Goodness could possibly find out such an Interpretation for the Offence that it struck more at His Peculiar than the Publick Interest He seemed almost stupid in the Opinion of Cholerick Spirits as to a sense of His own Injuries when there was no fear lest His Mercy should thereby increase the Miseries of His People And He was so ambitious of the Glory of Moderation that He would acquire it in despight of the Malignity of the times For the Exercise of this Vertue depends not only on the temper of the Prince but the frame of the People must contribute to it because when the Reverence of Majesty and fear of the Laws are proscribed sharper Methods are required to from Obedience Yet He was unwilling to cut off till He had tried by Mercy to amend even guilty Souls Thus He strove to oblige the Lord Balmerino to peaceful practices by continuing that Life which had been employed in Sedition and forfeited to the Law Soon after His coming into the Isle of Wight by which time He had experienced the numerous Frauds and implacable Malice of His Enemies being attended on by Dr Sheldon and Dr Hammond for they were the earliest in their duties at that time a discourse passed betwixt His Majesty and the Governour wherein there was mention made of the fears of the Faction that the King could never forgive them To which the King immediately replies I tell thee Governour I can forgive them with as good an appetite as ever I eat My Dinner after an hunting and that I assure you was not a small one yet I will not make My self a better Christian than I am for I think if they were Kings I could not do it so easily This shewed how prone His Soul was to Mercy and found not any obstruction but what arose from a sense of Royal Magnanimity He sooner offered and gave life to His captive Enemies than their Spirits debauched by Rebellion would require it and He was sparing of that blood of which their fury made them Prodigal No man fell in battel whom He could save He chose rather to enjoy any Victory by Peace and therefore continually sollicited for it when He seemed least to need it than make one triumph a step to another and though He was passionate to put all in Safety yet He affected rather to end the War by Treaty than by Conquest The Prisoners He took He used like deluded men and oftener remembred that God had made them His Subjects than that the Faction had transformed them to Rebels He provided for them while in His Power and not to let them languish in Prison sent them by Passes to their own homes only ingaging them by Oath to no more injuries against that Sovereign whom they had felt to be Gracious for so He used those that were taken at Brainford But yet the Casuists of the Cause would soon dispense with their Faith and send them forth to die in contracting a new guilt Those whom the fury of War had left gasping in the Field and fainting under their wounds He commends in His Warrants as in that to the Mayor of Newbury to the care of the Neighbourhood either tenderly to recover or decently bury and His Commands were as well for those that sought to murther Him as those that were wounded in His Defence This made the Impudence and Falshood of Bradshaw more portentous when in his Speech of the Assassination he belch'd
Majesty having by His Proclamation of the 22. of December upon the occasion of the Invasion threatned and in part begun by some of His Subjects of Scotland summoned all the Members of both Houses of Parliament to attend him here at Oxford we whose Names are under-written are here met and Assembled in obedience to those His Majesty's Commands His Majesty was pleased to invite us in the said Proclamation by these gracious expressions That His Subjects should see how willing He was to receive Advice for the preservation of the Religion Laws and Safety of the Kingdom and as far as in Him lay to restore it to its former Peace and Security His chief and only end from those whom they had trusted though He could not receive it in the Place where He appointed This most gracious Invitation hath not only been made good unto us but seconded and heightned by such unquestionable Demonstrations of the deep and Princely sense which possesses His Royal Heart of the Miseries and Calamities of His poor Subjects in this unnatural War and of His most entire and passionate Affections to redeem them from that sad and deplorable condition by all ways possible consistent either with His Honour or with the future Safety of the Kingdom that as it were Impiety to question the Sincerity of them so were it great want of Duty and Faithfulness in us His Majesty having vouchsafed to declare that He did call us to be Witnesses of His Actions and privy to His Intentions should we not testifie and witness to all the World the assurance we have of the Piety and sincerity of both We being most entirely satisfied of this truth we cannot but confess that amidst our highest afflictions in the deep and piercing sense of the present Miseries and Desolations of our Country and those farther Dangers threatned from Scotland we are at length erected to some chearful and comfortable thoughts that possibly we may yet by God's Mercy if his Justice have not determined this Nation for its Sins to total Ruine and Desolation hope to be happy Instruments of our Countries Redemption from the Miseries of War and restitution to the Blessings of Peace And we being desirous to believe your Lordship howsoever ingaged a person likely to be sensibly touched with these considerations have thought fit to invite you to that part in this blessed Work which is only capable to repair all our misfortunes and to buoy up the Kingdom from Ruine that is by conjuring you by all the Obligations that have Power upon Honour Conscience or publick Piety that laying to heart as we do the inwardly-bleeding condition of your Country and the outward more menacing Destruction by a Foreign Nation upon the very point of invading it you will co-operate with us to its Preservation by truly representing to and faithfully and industriously promoving with those by whom you are trusted this following most sincere and most earnest desire of ours That they joyning with us in a right sense of the past present and more threatning Calamities of this deplorable Kingdom some persons be appointed on either part and a place agreed on to treat of such a Peace as may yet redeem it from the brink of Desolation This Address we should not have made but that His Majesty's Summons by which we are met most graciously proclaiming Pardon to all without exception is evidence enough that His Mercy and Clemency can transcend all former Provocations and that He hath not only made us witnesses of His Princely Intentions but honoured us also with the name of being Security for them God Almighty direct your Lordship and those to whom you shall present these our most real desires in such a course as may produce that happy Peace and Settlement of the present Distractions which is so heartily desired and prayed for by us and which may make us Your c. From Oxford the 27. of Jan. 1643. We are not ashamed of that earnest meek and Christian request we made in that Letter though it was cryed through London Streets in scorn as the Petition of the Prince and Duke of York for Peace and we thought it would have prevailed to have procured a Treaty for so blessed a thing as Peace and for such an end as redeeming the Kingdom from Desolation the only desire of that our Letter But instead of a compliance with us in this Christian work of Treaty and Accommodation we received a mere frivolous Answer or rather a paper of Scorn in form of a Letter directed to the Earl of Forth wherein was inclosed a Printed paper called A National Covenant of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and two other Papers in writing one called A Declaration of both those Kingdoms and the other A Declaration of the Kingdom of Scotland Pamphlets full of Treason Sedition and Disloyalty which being publick and needless here to be inserted the Copy of the Letter hereafter followeth My Lord I Received this day a Letter of the nine and twentieth of this instant from your Lordship and a Parchment subscribed by the Prince Duke of York and divers other Lords and Gentlemen but it neither having Address to the two Houses of Parliament nor therein there being any acknowledgment of them I could not communicate it to them My Lord the maintenance of the Parliament of England and of the Privileges thereof is that for which we are all resolved to spend our blood as being the foundation whereupon all our Laws and Liberties are built I send your Lordship herewith a National Covenant solemnly entred into by both the Kingdoms of England and Scotland and a Declaration passed by them both together with another Declaration of the Kingdom of Scotland I rest Your Lordships humble Servant Essex Essex-House Jan. 30. 1643. Whosoever considers this Letter will easily find it was fully understood to whom ours was desired to be communicated under the expression of those by whom their General was trusted And although it be pretended because there was no Address to the two Houses of Parliament nor ackuowledgment of them it could not be communicated to them it is notoriously known he did so far impart it that a Committee of theirs advised the Answer and it appears by the penning they all concurred in the resolution therein mentioned whereby it is evident that this was but an excuse framed to avoid a Treaty And what could that printed Covenant and two Declarations enclosed signifie but to let us know that before we come to any Treaty we must also joyn in that Covenant with them for the absolute extirpation of Church-Government here without nay though against the Kings Consent submit the Lives Liberties and Estates of us and all those who according to their Allegiance have assisted His Majesty to their Mercy and admit and justifie the Invasion from Scotland according to the plain sense of their Declaration which all indifferent Men will think strange Preparatives to a Treaty for Peace and after such
Coronation that all Our Ecclesiasticks in their several degrees and incumbences shall preach and practise the same Wherefore We enjoyn and command all Our Ministers of State beyond the Seas as well Ambassadors as Residents Agents and Messengers and We desire all the rest of Our loving Subjects that sojourn either for curiosity or commerce in any Foreign parts to communicate uphold and assert this Our solemn and sincere Protestation when opportunity of time and place shall be offered Given in Our Vniversity and City of Oxford the 14th day of May 1644. The goodly CEDAR of Apostolick EPISCOPACY compâ—â—â—d with the moderne Shoots Slips of divided NOVELTIES in the Church before the Introduction of the Apostles Lives PAPERS AND PASSAGES CONCERNING THE TREATY OF PEACE AT UXBRIDGE MDCXLIV XLV By the King A Proclamation declaring His Majesty's Resolution for settling a speedy Peace by a good Accommodation and an Invitation to all His Loyal Subjects to joyn together for His Assistance therein AMongst the many Troubles wherewith for more than two years last past We have been involved nothing hath more afflicted Us than the real sense of Our Subjects Sufferings occasioned by this most unnatural War and the chief of Our Care hath been and by God's assistance shall still be to settle them in a happy Peace with that freedom of enjoyning the exercise of their Religion Rights and Liberties according to the Laws of this Kingdom as they or any of their Ancestors enjoyed the same in the best times of the late Queen Elizabeth or Our Royal Father And as we have always profest in the sincerity of Our Heart That no Success should ever make Us averse unto Peace so have We always when God hath blessed Us with any eminent Victory sollicited the Members of both Houses of Parliament remaining at Westminster by frequent Messages for a Treaty conducing thereunto and in particular upon Our late Victory over the Earl of Essex his Army in Cornwal which We wholly attribute to the immediate hand of God We presently dispatch'd a Message to them to desire a Treaty for Peace and Accommodation of which as likewise of that former Message for Peace which We sent them from Evesholm the fourth of July last We have yet received no Answer and therefore have resolved with Our Army to draw presently towards London and Our Southern and Eastern Counties not looking upon those parts as Enemies to Us and so to suffer by the approach of Our Army or the disorders thereof which We will use all possible means to prevent but as Our poor Subjects oppressed by Power of which We rest assured the greater part remain Loyal to Us and so deserving Our Protection And We hope that at a nearer distance of place there may be begot so right an understanding between Us and Our People that at length We may obtain a Treaty for Peace and a full free and peaceable Convention in Parliament and therein make an end of these unhappy Differences by a good Accommodation In which We hereby assure all Our People upon Our Royal Word and the Faith of a Christian which is the greatest Security We can give them that We will insist only upon the setling and continuance of the true Reformed Protestant Religion Our own undoubted known Rights the Privileges of Parliament and Our Subjects Liberty and Property according to the Laws of the Land and to have all these settled in a full and free Parliament whereby the Armies on both sides may be presently disbanded this Kingdom may be secured from the danger of a Conquest by Foreign Forces all Strangers now in Arms may return to their own Countries and Our poor Subjects be freed of those grievous burthens which by reason of the late Distractions have much against Our Will too much pressed them And to the end Our Subjects may no longer be misled be false pretences We do desire all of them as well in Our own Quarters as where the Rebels have usurped a Power to take into serious consideration the Duty and Loyalty which by the Law of God and their Oath of Allegiance they owe unto Us and more particularly that part thereof which concerns the Defence of Our Person and Assistance of Us against Rebels and such as rise in Arms against Us which they may find plainly set down in the Statute of the II. year of King Henry the Seventh Cap. 1. And We do hereby require Our Subjects within Our own Quarters through or near which We shall pass by that Duty they owe to Us and their Country that they forthwith prepare themselves with the best Arms they can get to be ready and joyn and go along with Us in this present Expedition We resolving to take special care to place them under the Command of Gentlemen of Quality of their own Countries to their good content and satisfaction And we likewise require and authorize all Our good Subjects as well the Trained Bands as others of Our City of London and Our Southern and Eastern Counties to chuse their own Commanders and Leaders amongst those Gentlemen and Citizens that are of approved Loyalty to Us and Lovers of the Peace of their Country and upon Our approach towards those parts to put themselves into Arms and march in warlike manner to assist Us in this good Work and free themselves from the Tyranny of their fellow-Subjects under which they groan commanding and authorizing them to seize such places of Strength in those Southern and Eastern Counties as the Rebels have possessed themselves of to oppose with force of Arms such Persons as shall resist them in obeying these Our Commands and to apprehend and secure the Persons of all such as shall endeavour to continue this Rebellion and to hinder the settling of the Peace of this Kingdom in a full and free Convention of Parliament the only visible means lest by blessing of God to redeem this Nation from utter Ruine wherein We will afford Our utmost Protection and Safety unto all Our Subjects that shall give Obedience to these Our Commands And as We doubt not but that all Our good Subjects will come chearfully to Our assistance for so good an end beyond which We do not require it so We trust that God who hath hitherto wonderfully preserved Us will crown this Action with happy Success for his Glory and the welfare of this poor Nation Given at Our Court at Chard the thirtieth day of September 1644. God Save the KING By the King A Proclamation for a Solemn Fast on Wednesday the Fifth of February next upon occasion of the present Treaty for Peace VVHereas Almighty God in his Justice to punish the Common and Crying Sins of the Land hath sent a Civil Sword throughout all Our Dominions which hath miserably wasted and threatens a speedy and utter Desolation to the same and now in the height of these Calamities a Treaty is assented to to begin at Vxbridge on Thursday the Thirtieth day of this instant January touching
to the Committee of both Kingdoms and in case of Disagreement an Appeal lies to the two Houses of the Parliament of England in whom the power of prosecuting the War is to be settled And we must insist to desire that the Lord Lieutenant and the Judges in that Kingdom may be nominated by the two Houses of Parliament who have by sad experience to the great cost of this Kingdom expence of so much Treasure and Blood the loss of many thousand Lives there and almost of all that whole Kingdom from His Majesties Obedience and an inestimable prejudice to the true Protestant Religion found the ill consequence of a bad choice of Persons for those great places of Trust Therefore for His Majesties Honour the good of His Service the great Advantage it will be to the rest of His Majesties Dominions the great Comfort to all good Christians and even an acceptable Service to God himself for the attaining of so much good and the prevention of so much evil they desire to have the nomination of those great Officers that by a prudent and careful Election they may by providing for the good of that now miserable Kingdom discharge their Duty to God the King and their Countrey And certainly if it be necessary to reduce that Kingdom and that the Parliament of England be a faithful Council to his Majesty and fit to be trusted with the prosecution of that War which his Majesty was once pleased to put into their hands and they faithfully discharged their parts in it notwithstanding many practices to obstruct their proceedings as is set forth in several Declarations of Parliament then we say your Lordships need not think it unreasonable that His Majesty should ingage himself to pass such Acts as shall be presented to him for raising Moneys and other necessaries for that War for if the War be necessary as never War was more that which is necessary for the maintaining of it must be had and the Parliament that doth undertake and manage it must needs know what will be necessary and the People of England who have trusted them with their Purse will never begrudge what they make them lay out upon that occasion Nor need his Majesty fear the Parliament will press more upon the Subject then is fit in proportion to the occasion It is true that heretofore Persons about his Majesty have endeavoured and prevailed too much in possessing him against the Parliament for not giving away the Money of the Subject when his Majesty had desired it but never yet did his Majesty restrain them from it and we hope it will not be thought that this is a fit occasion to begin We are very glad to find that your Lordships are so sensible in your expressions of the Blood and Horrour of that Rebellion and it is without all question in His Majesties Power to do Justice upon it if your Lordships be willing that the Cessation and all Treaties with those bloody and unnatural Rebels be made void and that the prosecution of the War be settled in the two Houses of the Parliament of England to be managed by the joynt advice of both Kingdoms and the King to assist and to do no Act to discountenance or molest them therein This we dare affirm to be more than a probable course for the remedying those mischiefs and preserving the remainder of His Majesties good Subjects there We cannot believe your Lordships will think it fit there can be any Agreement of Peace any respite from Hostility with such Creatures as are not fit to live no more than with Wolves or Tigers or any ravenous Beasts destroyers of mankind And we beseech you do not not think it must depend upon the condition of His Majesties other Kingdoms to revenge or not revenge God's Quarrel upon such perfiduous Enemies to the Gospel of Christ who have imbrued their hands in so much Protestant Blood but consider the Cessation that is made with them is for their advantage and rather a Protection then a Cessation of Acts of Hostility as if it had been all of their own contriving Arms Ammunition and all manner of Commodities may be brought unto them and they may furnish themselves during this Cessation and be assisted and protected in so doing that afterwards they may the better destroy the small remainder of his Majesties Protestant Subjects We beseech your Lordships in the bowels of Christian Charity and Compassion to so many poor Souls who must perish if the strength of that raging Adversary be not broken and in the Name of him who is the Prince of Peace who hates to be at Peace with such shedders of Blood give not your consents to the continuation of this Cessation of War in Ireland and less to the making of any Peace there till Justice have been fully executed upon the Actors of that accursed Rebellion Let not the Judgment of War within this Kingdom which God hath laid upon us for our Sins be encreased by so great a Sin as any Peace or Friendship with them whatsoever becomes of us if we must perish yet let us go to our Graves with that comfort that we have not made Peace with the Enemies of Christ yea even Enemies of mankind declared and unreconciled Enemies to our Religion and Nation let not our War be a hindrance to that War for we are sure that Peace will be a hindrance to our Peace We desire War there as much as we do Peace here for both we are willing to lay out our Estates our Lives and all that is dear unto us in this World and we have made Propositions unto your Lordships for both if you were pleased to agree unto them We can but look up to God Almighty beseech him to encline your hearts and casting our selves on him wait his good time for the return of our Prayers in settling a safe and happy Peace here and giving success to our Endeavours in the prosecution of the War of Ireland It had been used by the Commissioners during the Treaty that when Papers were delivered in of such length and so late at night that present particular Answers could not be given by agreement between themselves to accept the Answers the next day dated as of the day before although they were Treating of another Subject and these two last Papers concerning Ireland being of such great length and delivered about twelve of the clock at night when the Treaty in time was expiring so as no Answer could be given without such consent and agreement therefore the King's Commissioners delivered in this Paper 22. February YOur Lordships cannot expect a particular Answer from us this night to the two long Papers concerning Ireland delivered to us by your Lordships about twelve of the clock this night but since there are many particulars in those Papers to which if they had been before mentioned we could have given your Lordships full satisfaction and for that we presume your Lordships are very willing to
the Church of England as well by their personal Subscriptions as otherwise so attested and declared and which Himself in His Judgment and Conscience hath for so many years been and yet is perswaded to be at least of Apostolical Institution and Practice Truly His Majesty cannot but wonder what should be the reason of your great shiness and unwillingness to discover your minds in a matter of so great and necessary consequence and for a final conclusion of this whole Dispute which His Majesty thinketh fit to shut up with this Paper He must plainly tell you That your endeavours to have given Him satisfaction in the Questions proposed would have added much in His opinion to the reputation of your Ingenuity in the whole undertaking it being not probable you should work much upon His Judgment whilst you are fearful to declare your own nor possible to relieve His Conscience but by a free discharge of yours Nevertheless His Majesty liketh well of your Prayer in the close of your Paper and thinketh you should do very well to joyn therewith your utmost possible endeavours towards the settling of Truth and a happy Peace in this unsettled Church and Kingdom THE END ΕΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ THE POURTRAICTURE OF HIS SACRED MAJESTY IN HIS SOLITUDES and SUFFERINGS I. Vpon His MAJESTIES Calling this last PARLIAMENT THIS last Parliament I called not more by others advice and necessity of my Affairs than by my own choice and inclination who have always thought the right way of Parliaments most safe for my Crown as best pleasing to my People And altho I was not forgetful of those sparks which some mens distempers formerly studied to kindle in Parliaments which by forbearing to convene for some years I hoped to have extinguished yet resolving with My self to give all just satisfaction to modest and sober desires and to redress all publick Grievances in Church and State I hoped by my freedom and their moderation to prevent all misunderstandings and miscarriages in this In which as I feared affairs would meet with some Passion and Prejudice in other men so I resolved they should find least of them in My self not doubting but by the weight of Reason I should counterpoise the over-balancings of any Factions I was inded sorry to hear with what Partiality and Popular heat Elections were carried in many places yet hoping that the Gravity and Discretion of other Gentlemen would allay and fix the Commons to a due temperament guiding some mens well-meaning zeal by such rules of moderation as are best both to preserve and restore the health of all States and Kingdoms no man was better pleased with the convening of this Parliament than My self who knowing best the Largeness of my own Heart toward my Peoples good and just contentment pleased My self most in that good and firm understanding which would hence grow between Me and my People All Jealousies being laid aside My own and My Childrens Interests gave Me many obligations to seek and preserve the Love and welfare of my Subjects the only temporal Blessing that is left to the ambition of just Monarchs as their greatest Honour and Safety next Gods Protection I cared not to lessen My self in some things of my wonted Prerogative since I knew I could be no loser if I might gain but a recompence in my Subjects Affections I intended not only to oblige my Friends but mine Enemies also exceeding even the desires of those that were factiously discontented if they did but pretend to any modest and sober sense The Odium and offences which some mens Rigor or Remisness in Church and State had contracted upon my Government I resolved to have expiated by such Laws and regulations for the future as might not only rectify what was amiss in Practice but supply what was defective in the Constitution No man having a greater zeal to see Religion setled and preserved in Truth Unity and Order than My self whom it most concerns both in Piety and Policy as knowing that No flames of civil Dissentions are more dangerous than those which make Religious pretensions the grounds of Factions I resolved to reform what I should by free and full advice in Parliament be oonvinced of to be amiss and to grant whatever my Reason and Conscience told Me was fit to be desired I wish I had kept My self within those bounds and not suffered my own Judgment to have been overborn in some things more by others importunities than their Arguments My confidence had less betrayed My self and my Kingdomes to those advantages which some men sought for who wanted nothing but Power and Occasions to do mischief But our Sins being ripe there was no preventing of Gods Justice 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 always satisfie thy Justice nor prevent thy Vengeance for former miscarriages Our Sins have overlaid 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 Judgments and hast shewed us how unsafe it is to offend Thee upon presumptions afterwards to please Thee then I trust thy Mercies will restore those Blessings to us which we have so much abused as to force Thee to deprive us of them For want of timely Repentance of our 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 Kingdoms are the just effects of thy displeasure upon us and may be yet through thy mercy preparative of us to future Blessings and better hearts to enjoy them O Lord tho Thou hast deprived us of many former comforts yet grant Me and My people the benefit of our afflictions and thy chastisements that thy rod as well as thy staff may comfort us Then shall we dare to account them the strokes not of an Enemy but a Father when thou givest us those humble affections that measure of Patience in Repentance which becomes thy Children I shall have no cause to repent the Miseries this Parliament hath occasioned when by them thou hast brought Me and My people unfeignedly to repent of the Sins we have committed Thy Grace is infinitely better with our Sufferings than our Peace could be with our Sins O thou soveraign Goodness and Wisdom who over-rulest all our Counsels over-rule also all our hearts That the worse things we suffer by thy Justice the better we may be by thy Mercy As our Sins 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 War prepare us for thy blessed Peace That although I have but troublesom Kingdoms here yet I may
than snow Teach Me to learn Righteousness by thy Judgments and to see my frailty in thy Justice While I was perswaded by shedding one mans blood to prevent after-troubles thou hast for that among other sins brought upon Me and upon my Kingdoms great long and heavy troubles Make Me to prefer Justice which is thy Will before all contrary clamors which are but the discoveries of mans injurious 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 Judg of our Consciences Whatever O Lord Thou seest fit to deprive Me of yet restore unto Me the joy of thy Salvation and ever uphold Me with thy free Spirit which subjects my Will to none but thy Light of Reason Justice and Religion which shines in my Soul for Thou desirest Truth in the inward parts and Integrity in the outward expressions Lord hear the voice of thy Sons and my Saviours Blood which speaks better things O make Me and my People to hear the voice of Joy and Gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce in thy Salvation III. Vpon his MAJESTIES going to the House of COMMONS MY going to the House of Commons to demand Justice upon the Five 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 Friends resented it as a motion rising rather from Passion than Reason and not guided with such discretion as the touchiness of those times required But these men knew not the just motives and pregnant grounds with which I thought My self so furnished that there needed nothing to such evidence as I could have produced against those I charged save only a free and legal Tryal which was all I desired Nor had I any temptation of displeasure or revenge against those mens Persons further than I had discovered those as I thought unlawful correspondencies they had used and engagements they had made to embroyl My Kingdoms of all which I missed but little to have produced writings under some mens own 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 half a dozen men in a fair and Legal way which God knows was all my design could have amounted to no worse effect had it succeeded than either to do Me and My Kingdom right in case they had been found guilty or else to have cleared their Innocency and removed My Suspicions 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 tho I sought by all speedy and possible means to quench it soon kindled all the world is witness 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 Privilege 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 coming than 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 learn'd to think those hard thoughts which they have since abundantly vented against Me both by words and deeds The Sum of that business was this Those men and their adherents were then looked upon by the affrighted Vulgar as greater Protectors of their Laws and Liberties than My self and so worthier of their protection I leave them to God and their own Consciences who if guilty of evil machinations no present impunity or Popular vindications of them will be subterfuge sufficient to rescue them from those exact Tribunals To which in the obstructions of Justice among men we must religiously appeal as being an argument to us Christians of that after unavoidable Judgement which shall re-judge what among men is but corruptly decided or not at all I endeavoured to have prevented if God had seen fit those future Commotions which I foresaw would in all likelihood follow some mens activity if not restrained and so now have done to the undoing of many thousands the more is the pity But to over-awe the Freedom of the Houses or to weaken their just Authority by any violent impressions upon them was not at all My design I thought I had so much Justice and Reason on My side as should not have needed so rough assistance and I was resolved rather to bear the repulse with Patience than to use such hazardous extremities But thou O Lord art my witness in heaven and in my heart If I have purposed any violence or oppression against the Innocent or if there were any such wickedness in my thoughts Then let the Enemy persecute my Soul and tread my life to the ground and lay mine Honour in the dust Thou that seest not as man seeth but lookest beyond all popular appearances searching the heart and trying the reins and bringing to light the hidden things of darkness shew thy self Let not my Afflictions be esteemed as with wise and godly men they cannot be any argument of my Sin in that matter more than their Impunity among good men is any sure token of their Innocency But forgive them wherein they have done amiss though they are not punished for it in this world Save thy Servant from the privy Conspiracies and open Violence of bloody and unreasonable men according to the uprightness of my heart and the innocency of my hands in this matter Plead my cause and maintain my right O thou that sittest in the Throne judging rightly that thy Servant may ever rejoyce in thy Salvation IV. Vpon the Insolency of the Tumults I Never thought any thing except our Sins more ominously presaging all these Mischiefs which have followed than those Tumults in London and Westminster soon after the Convening of this Parliament which were not like a Storm at Sea which yet wants not its Terror but like an Earthquake shaking the very foundations of all than which nothing in the world hath more of horror As it is one of the most convincing Arguments that there is a God while his power sets bounds to the raging of the Sea so 't is no
is more than an even lay that they may one day see themselves punished by that way they offended Had this Parliament as it was in its first Election and Constitution sate full and free the Members of both Houses being left to their freedom of Voting as in all Reason Honour and Religion they should have been I doubt not but things would have been so carried as would have given no less content to all good men than they wished or expected For I was resolved to hear Reason in all things and to consent to it so far as I could comprehend it But as Swine are to Gardens and orderly Plantations so are Tumults to Parliaments and Plebeian Concourses to publick Counsels turning all into Disorders and sordid Confusions I am prone sometimes to think that had I called this Parliament to any other place in England as I might opportunely enough have done the sad Consequences in all likelihood with Gods Blessing might have been prevented A Parliament would have been welcom in any place no place afforded such confluence of various and vicious humours as that where it was unhappily convened But we must leave all to God who orders our Disorders and magnifies his Wisdom most when our Follies and miseries are most discovered But thou O Lord art my refuge and defence to Thee I may safely fly who rulest the raging of the Sea and the Madness of the People The floods O Lord the floods are come in upon Me and are ready to overwhelm Me. I look upon My Sins and the Sins of My People which are the tumults of our Souls against Thee O Lord as the just cause of these Popular inundations which Thou permittest to over-bear all the banks of Loyalty Modesty Laws Justice and Religion But Thou that gatheredst the waters into one place and madest the dry land to appear and after didst asswage the Flood which drowned the World by the word of thy power rebuke those Beasts of the People and deliver Me from the Rudeness and strivings of the Multitude Restore we beseech Thee unto us the freedoms of our Councels and Parliaments make us unpassionately to see the light of Reason and Religion and with all order and gravity to follow it as it becomes Men and Christians so shall we praise thy Name who art the God of Order and Counsel What man cannot or will not repress thy Omnipotent Justice can and will O Lord give them that are yet living a timely sense and sorrow for their great sin whom Thou knowest guilty of raising or not suppressing those Disorders Let Shame here and not Suffering hereafter be their Punishment Set bounds to our Passions by Reason to our Errors by Truth to our Seditions by Laws duly executed and to our Schisms by Charity that we may be as thy Jerusalem a City at unity in it self This grant O my God in thy good time for Jesus Christ's sake Amen V. Vpon His MAJESTIES passing the Bill for the Triennial Parliaments and after setling this during the pleasure of the Two Houses THAT the World might be fully confirmed in my purposes at first to contribute what in Justice Reason Honour and Conscience I could to the happy success of this Parliament which had in Me no other design but the general Good of my Kingdoms I willingly passed the BILL for Triennial Parliaments which as gentle and seasonable Physick might if well applied prevent any distempers from getting any head or prevailing especially if the Remedy proved not a Disease beyond all remedy I conceived this Parliament would find work with convenient recesses for the first three years but I did not imagine that some men would thereby have occasioned more work than they found to do by undoing so much as they found well done to their hands Such is some mens activity that they will needs make work rather than want it and chuse to be doing amiss rather than do nothing When that first Act seemed too scanty to satisfie some mens Fears and compass publick Affairs I was perswaded to grant that BILL of Sitting during the pleasure of the Houses which amounted in some mens sense to as much as the perpetuating this Parliament By this Act of highest Confidence I hoped for ever to shut out and lock the door upon all present Jealousies and future Mistakes I confess I did not thereby intend to shut My self out of doors as some men have now requited Me. True it was an Act unparallel'd by any of my Predecessors yet cannot in reason admit of any worse interpretation than this of an extreme Confidence I had that My Subjects would not make ill use of an Act by which I declared so much to trust them as to deny My self in so high a point of my Prerogative For good Subjects will never think it just or fit that My condition should be worse by my bettering theirs Nor indeed would it have been so in the events if some men had known as well with moderation to use as with earnestness to desire advantages of doing good or evil A continual Parliament I thought would but keep the Common-weal in tune by preserving Laws in their due execution and vigor wherein My interest lies more than any mans since by those Laws My Rights as a KING would be preserved no less than My Subjects which is all I desired More than the Law gives Me I would not have and less the meanest Subject should not Some as I have heard gave it out that I soon repented Me of that setling Act and many would needs perswade Me I had cause so to do but I could not easily nor suddenly suspect such ingratitude in men of Honour that the more I granted them the less I should have and enjoy with them I still counted My self undiminished by My largest Concessions if by them I might gain and confirm the love of my People Of which I do not yet despair but that God will still bless Me with increase of it when Men shall have more leisure and less prejudice that so with unpassionate representations they may reflect upon those as I think not more Princely than friendly contributions which I granted towards the perpetuating of their Happiness who are now only miserable in this That some mens ambition will not give them leave to enjoy what I intended for their good Nor do I doubt but that in Gods due time the Loyal and cleared affections of My People will strive to return such retributions of Honour and Love to Me or My Posterity as may fully compensate both the acts of My Confidence and My Sufferings for them which God knows have been neither few nor small nor short occasioned chiefly by a perswasion I had that I could not grant too much or distrust too little to men that being professedly My Subjects pretended singular Piety and Religious strictness The Injury of all Injuries is that which some men will needs load Me withal as if were a wilful and resolved Occasioner of
think in my Conscience to be against thy Glory the good of my Subjects and the discharge of my own duty to Reason and Justice Make Me willing to suffer the greatest Indignities and Injuries they press upon Me rather than commit the least sin against my Conscience Let the just Liberties of my People be as well they may preserved in fair and equal ways without the slavery of my Soul Thou that hast invested Me by thy Favours in the power of a Christian King suffer Me not to subject my Reason to other mens Passions and Designs which to Me seem unreasonable unjust and irreligious So shall I serve Thee in the truth and uprightness of my Heart tho I cannot satisfie these men Though I be driven from among them yet give Me grace to walk always uprightly before Thee Lead Me in the way of Truth and Justice for these I know will bring Me at last to Peace and Happiness with Thee though for these I have much trouble among men This I beg of Thee for my Saviours sake VII Vpon the QUEENS 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 scandal 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 Tragedy which was lately begun in Scotland the brands of that fire being ill quenched have kindled the like flames here I fear such motions so little to the adorning of the Protestant profession may occasion a further alienation of Mind and divorce of Affections in Her from that Religion which is the only thing wherein We differ Which yet God can and I pray he would in time take away and not suffer these practices to be any obstruction to her Judgment 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 firm to their former setled Principles and Laws 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 Rudeness 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 and shipwrackt so as She may be in safe Harbor This comfort I shall enjoy by Her Safety in the midst of My Personal Dangers that I can perish but half if She be preserved In whose Memory and hopeful Posterity I may yet survive the Malice of My Enemies altho they should be satiated with my Blood I must leave her and Them to the Love and Loyalty of my good Subjects and to his Protection who is able to punish the Faults of Princes and no less severely to revenge the Injuries done to Them by those who in all duty and Allegiance ought to have made good that Safety which the Laws chiefly provide for Princes But common Civility is in vain 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 pity so noble and peaceful a Soul should see much more suffer the Rudeness of those who must make up their want of Justice with Inhumanity and Impudence Her sympathy with Me in my Afflictions will make her Virtues shine with greater lustre as Stars in the darkest nights and assure the envious world that She loves Me not my Fortunes Neither of Us but can easily forgive since We do not much blame the unkindness of the Generality and Vulgar for we see God is pleased to try both our Patience by the 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 Us and those of our own Houshold are become our Enemies I pray God lay not their sin to their charge who think to fatisfie all obligations to duty by their Corban of Religion and can less endure to see than to sin against their Benefactors as well as their Soveraigns But even that Policy of my Enemies is so far venial as it was necessary to their designs by scandalous Articles and all irreverent demeanor to seek to drive Her out of my Kingdoms lest by the influence of her Example eminent for Love as a Wife and Loyalty as a Subject She should have converted to or retained in their Love and Loyalty all those whom they had a purpose to pervert The less I may be blest with her company the more I will retire to God and my own 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 Justice at present sees fit to scatter Vs let thy Mercy in the due time re-unite Vs on Earth if it be thy Will however bring Vs both at last to thy Heavenly Kingdom Preserve Vs from the hands of our despiteful and deadly Enemies and prepare Vs by our Sufferings for thy presence Tho We differ in some things as to Religion which is my greatest temporal 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 self and Christ crucified for us Teach Vs both what Thou wouldst have Vs to know in order to thy Glory our publick relations and our Souls eternal good and make Vs careful to do what good We know Let neither Ignorance of what is necessary to be known nor Vnbelief or Disobedience to what We know be our misery or our wilful default Let not this great Scandal of those my Subjects which profess the same Religion with Me be any hindrance to her love of any Truth thou wouldst have Her to learn nor any hardning of Her in any Error 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 profess be represented to Her Judgment with all the beauties of Humility Loyalty Charity and Peaceableness which are the proper fruits and ornaments of it not
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 satisfied the Injury he did to Me so let Me not by it gratifie any Passion in Me lest I make thy vengeance to be mine and consider the affront against Me more than the sin against Thee Thou indeed without any desire or endeavour of Mine hast made his mischief to 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 Justice prevent the objects and opportunities of My Mercy yea let them live and amend who have most offended Me in so high a nature that I may have those to forgive who bear most proportion in their offences to those trespasses against thy Majesty which I hope thy Mercy hath forgiven Me. Lord lay not their sins who yet live to their charge for condemnation but to their Consciences for amendment Let the lightning of this thunderbolt which hath been so severe a punishment to one be a terror to all Discover to them their sin who know not they have done amiss and scare them from their sin that sin of malicious wickedness That preventing thy Judgments by their true Repentance they may escape the strokes of thine eternal Vengeance And do Thou O Lord establish the Throne of thy Servant in mercy and truth meeting together let My Crown ever flourish in righteousness and peace kissing each other Hear 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 Jesus Christ to die for us when we were disposed to crucisie him IX Vpon the listing and raising Armies against the KING I Find that I am at the same point and posture I was when they forced Me to leave White-hall what Tumults could not do an Army must which is but Tumults listed and enrolled to a better order but as bad an End My recess hath given them confidence that I may be conquered And so I easily may as to any outward strength which God knows is little or none at all But I have a Soul 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 fear him more than man and to love the inward peace of my Conscience before any outward tranquillity And must I be opposed with Force because they have not Reason wherewith to convince Me O my Soul be of good courage they confess their known weakness as to Truth and Justice who chuse rather to contend by Armies than by Arguments Is this the reward and thanks that I am to receive for those many Acts of Grace I have lately passed and for those many Indignities I have endured Is there no way left to make Me a Glorious KING but by my Sufferings It is 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 Civil War in the bowels of my most flourishing Kingdom the fruits I must now reap after Seventeen 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 counsel of some men driving on their private ends or the peevishness of others envying the Publick should be managed without them or the hidden and insuperable necessities of State than any propensity I hope of My self either to Injuriousness or Oppression Whose innocent blood during my Reign have I shed to satisfy my Lust Anger or Covetousness What Widows or Orphans tears can witness against Me the just cry of which must now be avenged with My own Blood For the hazards of War are equal nor doth the Cannon know any respect of Persons In vain is my Person excepted by a Parenthesis of Words when so many hands are Armed against Me with Swords God knows how much I have studied to see what Ground of Justice is alledged for this War against Me that so I might by giving just satisfaction either prevent or soon end so unnatural a motion which to many men seems rather the production of a surfeit of Peace and wantonness of minds or of private discontents Ambition and Faction which easily find or make causes of quarrel than any real obstruction of publick Justice or Parliamentary Priviledg But this is pretended and this I must be able to avoid and answer before God in my own Conscience however some men are not willing to believe Me lest they should condemn themselves When I first withdrew from White-hall to see if I could allay the Insolency of the Tumults of the not suppressing of which no account in Reason can be given where an orderly Guard was granted but only to oppress both Mine and the Two Houses freedom of declaring and voting according to every mans Conscience what obstructions of Justice were there further than this that what seemed just to one man might not seem so to another Whom did I by power protect against the Justice of Parliament That some men withdrew who feared the partiality of their tryal warned by my Lord of Strafford's death while the Vulgar threatned to be their Oppressors and Judgers of their Judges was from that instinct which is in all creatures to preserve themselves If any others refused to appear where they evidently saw the current of Justice and Freedom so stopped and troubled by the Rabble that their lawful Judges either durst not come to the Houses or not declare their sense with liberty and safety it cannot seem strange to any reasonable man when the sole exposing them to the publick Odium was enough to ruine them before their Cause could be heard or tried Had not factious Tumults overborn the Freedom and Honor of the Two Houses had they asserted their Justice against them and made the way open for all the Members quietly to come and declare their Consciences I know no man so dear to Me whom I had the least inclination to advise either to withdraw himself or deny appearing upon their Summons to whose Sentence according to Law I think every Subject bound to stand Distempers indeed were risen to so great a height for want of timely repressing the vulgar Insolencies that the greatest guilt of those which were Voted and demanded as Delinquents was
as far from meditating a War as I was in the eye of the world from having any preparation for one I find that comfort that in the midst of all the unfortunate successes of this War on My side I do not think My Innocency any whit prejudiced or darkned nor am I without that Integrity and Peace before God as with humble confidence to address my Prayer to him For Thou O Lord seest clearly through all the cloudings of humane affairs Thou judgest without prejudice Thy Omniscience eternally guides thy unerrable Judgment O my God the proud are risen against Me and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my Soul and have not set Thee before their eyes Consider my Enemies O Lord for they are many and they hate Me with a deadly hatred without a cause For thou knowest I had no Passion Design or Preparation to embroil My Kingdoms in a Civil War whereto I had least temptation as knowing I must adventure more than any and could gain least of any by it Thou O Lord art my witness how oft I have deplored and studied to divert the necessity thereof wherein I cannot well be thought so prodigally thirsty of my Subjects blood as to venture my own Life which I have been oft compelled to do in this unhappy War and which were better spent to save than to destroy my People O Lord I need much of thy grace with Patience to bear the many Afflictions Thou hast suffered some men to bring upon Me but much more to bear the unjust reproaches of those who not content that I suffer most by the War will needs perswade the world that I have raised it first or given just cause to raise it The confidence of some mens false tongues is such that they would make Me almost suspect my own Innocency Yea I could be content at least by my silence to take upon Me so great a guilt before men if by that I might allay the Malice of my Enemies and redeem my People from this miserable War since thou O Lord knowest my Innocency in this thing Thou wilt find out bloody and deceitful men many of whom have not lived out half their days in which they promised themselves the enjoyment of the fruits of their violent and wicked Counsels Save O Lord thy Servant as hitherto Thou hast and in thy due time scatter the people that delight in War Arise O Lord lift up thy self because of the rage of mine Enemies which encreaseth more and more Behold them that have conceived mischief travelled with iniquity and brought forth falshood Thou knowest the chief design of this War is either to destroy My Person or force My Judgment and to make Me renege My Conscience and Thy Truth I am driven to cross David's choice and desire rather to fall into the hands of men by denying them tho their mercies be cruel than into thy hands by sinning against My Conscience and in that against Thee who art a consuming fire Better they destroy Me than thou shouldst damn Me. Be thou ever the defence of My Soul who wilt save the upright in heart If nothing but My Blood will satisfie My Enemies or quench the flames of My Kingdoms or Thy temporal Justice I am content if it be Thy will that it be shed by Mine own Subjects hands But O let the Blood of Me tho their King yet a Sinner be washed with the Blood of My innocent and peace-making Redeemer for in that Thy Justice will find not only a temporary expiation but an eternal plenary satisfaction both for My sins and the sins of My People whom I beseech thee still own for Thine and when Thy wrath is appeased by My Death O remember thy great Mercies toward them and forgive them O My Father for they know not what they do X. Vpon their seizing the KING's Magazines Forts Navy and Militia HOW untruly I am charged with the first raising of an Army and beginning the Civil War the eyes that only pity Me and the Loyal hearts that durst only pray for Me at first might witness which yet appear not so many on My side as there were men in Arms lifted against Me. My unpreparedness for a War may well dishearten those that would help Me while it argues truly my unwillingness to fight yet it testifies for Me that I am set on the defensive part having so little hopes or power to offend others that I have none to defend My self or to preserve what is Mine own from their prereption No man can doubt but they prevented Me in their purposes as well as their injuries who are so much before-hand in their Preparations against Me and surprizals of My strength Such as are not for Them yet dare not be for Me so over-aw'd is their Loyalty by the others Numbers and Terrors I believe My Innocency and unpreparedness to assert My Rights and Honour makes Me the more guilty in their esteem who would not so easily have declared a War against Me if I had first assaulted them They knew My chiefest Arms left Me were those only which the ancient Christians were wont to use against their Persecutors Prayers and Tears These may serve a good mans turn if not to Conquer as a Soldier yet to Suffer as a Martyr Their preventing of Me and surprizing My Castles Forts Arms and Navy with the Militia is so far best for Me that it may drive Me from putting any trust in the arm of flesh and wholly to cast My self into the protection of the living God who can save by few or none as well as by many He that made the greedy Ravens to be Elias's Caterers and bring him food may also make their surprisal of outward Force and Defence an opportunity to shew Me the special support of his Power and Protection I thank God I reckon not now the want of the Militia so much in reference to My own protection as My Peoples Their many and sore Oppressions grieve Me I am above My own what I want in the hands of Force and Power I have in the wings of Faith and Prayer But this is the strange method these men will needs take to resolve their Riddle of making Me a Glorious King by taking away My Kingly Power Thus I shall become a Support to My Friends and a Terror to my Enemies by being unable to succour the one or suppress the other For thus have they designed and proposed to Me the new modelling of Soveraignty and Kingship as without any reality of Power so without any necessity of Subjection and Obedience That the Majesty of the Kings of England might hereafter hang like Mahomet's Tomb by a magnetick Charm between the Power and Priviledges of the Two Houses in an aiery imagination of Regality But I believe the surfeit of too much Power which some men have greedily seized on and now seek wholly to devour will ere long make the Common-wealth sick both of it and them since they cannot well
digest it Soveraign Power in Subjects seldom agreeing with the stomacks of fellow-Subjects Yet I have even in this point of the constant Militia sought by satisfying their Fears and importunities both to secure My Friends and overcome Mine Enemies to gain the peace of all by depriving My self of a sole power to help or hurt any yielding the Militia which is My undoubted Right no less than the Crown to be disposed of as the Two Houses shall think fit during My time So willing am I to bury all Jealousies in them of Me and to live above all Jealousies of them as to My self I desire not to be safer than I wish them and My People If I had the sole actual disposing of the Militia I could not protect My People further than they protected Me and themselves so that the use of the Militia is mutual I would but defend My self so far as to be able to defend My good Subjects from those mens violence and fraud who conscious to their own evil merits and designs will needs perswade the World That none but Wolves are fit to be trusted with the custody of the Shepherd and his Flock Miserable experience hath taught My Subjects since Power hath been wrested from Me and employed against Me and them That neither can be safe if both be not in such a way as the Law hath entrusted the publick safety and welfare Yet even this Concession of Mine as to the exercise of the Militia so vast and large is not satisfactory to some men which seem to be Enemies not to Me only but to all Monarchy and are resolved to transmit to Posterity such Jealousies of the Crown as they should never permit it to enjoy its just and necessary Rights in point of Power to which at last all Law is resolved while thereby it is best protected But here Honour and Justice due to My Successors forbid Me to yield to such a total alienation of that Power from them which Civility and Duty no less than Justice and Honour should have forbad them to have asked of Me. For although I can be content to eclipse My own beams to satisfie their fears who think they must needs be scorched or blinded if I should shine in the full lustre of Kingly Power wherewith God and the Laws have invested Me yet I will never consent to put out the Sun of Soveraignty to all Posterity and succeeding Kings whose just recovery of their Rights from unjust Usurpations and Extortions shall never be prejudiced or obstructed by any Act of Mine which indeed would not be more injurious to succeeding Kings than to my Subjects whom I desire to leave in a condition not wholly desperate for the future so as by a Law to be ever subjected to those many factious Distractions which must needs follow the many-headed Hydra of Government which as it makes a shew to the People to have more eyes to foresee so they will find it hath more mouths too which must be satisfied and at best it hath rather a monstrosity than any thing of perfection beyond that of right Monarchy where Counsel may be in many as the Senses but the Supreme Power can be but in One as the Head Haply when men have tried the horrors and malignant influence which will certainly follow my enforced Darkness and Eclipse occasioned by the interposition and shadow of that Body which as the Moon receiveth its chiefest light from Me they will at length more esteem and welcome the restored glory and blessing of the Sun 's light And if at present I may seem by my receding so much from the use of my Right in the Power of the Militia to come short of the discharge of that Trust to which I am sworn for my Peoples protection I conceive those men are guilty of the enforced Perjury if so it may seem who compel Me to take this new and strange way of discharging My Trust by seeming to desert it of protecting My Subjects by exposing My self to Danger or Dishonour for their safety and quiet Which in the conflicts of Civil War and advantages of Power cannot be effected but by some side yielding to which the greatest love of the Publick-Peace and the firmest assurance of God's protection arising from a good Conscience doth more invite Me than can be expected from other mens Fears which arising from the Injustice of their actions tho never so successful yet dare not adventure their Authors upon any other way of safety than that of the Sword and Militia which yet are but weak defences against the stroaks of Divine Vengeance which will overtake or of mens own Consciences which always attend injurious perpetrations For My self I do not think that I can want any thing which providential necessity is pleased to take from Me in order to My Peoples tranquility and God's Glory whose protection is sufficient for Me and he is able by his being with Me abundantly to compensate to Me as he did to Job whatever Honour Power or Liberty the Chaldoeans the Saboeans or the Devil himself can deprive Me of Although they take from Me all defence of Arms and Militia all refuge by Land of Forts and Castles all flight by Sea in My Ships and Navy yea tho they study to rob Me of the Hearts of my Subjects the greatest treasure and best ammunition of a King yet cannot they deprive Me of My own Innocency or God's Mercy nor obstruct My way to Heaven Therefore O My God to Thee I flie for help if Thou wilt be on my side I shall have more with Me than can be against Me. There is none in Heaven or in Earth that I desire in comparison of Thee In the loss of all be Thou more than all to Me. Make hast to succor Me Thou that never failest them that put their trust in Thee Thou seest I have no power to oppose them that come against Me who are encouraged to fight under the pretence of fighting for Me But my eyes are toward Thee Thou needest no help nor shall I if I may have thine if not to conquer yet at least to suffer If Thou delightest not in my safety and prosperity behold here I am willing to be reduced to what Thou wilt have Me whose Judgments oft begin with thy own Children I am content to be nothing that Thou mayest be all Thou hast taught Me That no King can be saved by the multitude of an Host but yet Thou canst save me by the multitude of thy Mercies who art the Lord of Hosts and the Father of Mercies Help Me O Lord who am sore distressed on every side yet be Thou on my side and I shall not fear what man can do unto Me. I will give thy Justice the glory of my distress O let thy Mercy have the glory of my deliverance from them that persecute my Soul By my sins have I fought against Thee and robbed Thee of thy Glory who am thy Subject and justly mayest
patience as bad as my worst Enemies can falsly say and I hope I shall still do better than they desire or deserve I should I believe it will at last appear that they who first began to embroil my other Kingdoms are in great part guilty if not of the first letting out yet of the not timely stopping those horrid effusions of blood in Ireland Which whatever my Enemies please to say or think I look upon as that of my other Kingdoms exhausted out of My own veins no man being so much weakned by it as My self And I hope tho mens unsatiable Cruelties never will yet the Mercy of God will at length say to his Justice It is enough and command the Sword of Civil wars to sheath it self his merciful Justice intending I trust not our utter Confusion but our Cure the abatement of our Sins not the desolating of these Nations O my God let those infinite Mercies prevent us once again which I and My Kingdoms 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 unless we crucifie one another Because we have not more loved thy Truth and practised in Charity Thou hast suffered a spirit of Error and bitterness of mutual and mortal Hatred to rise among us O Lord forgive wherein we have sinned and sanstifie what we have suffered Let our Repentance be our Recovery as our great Sins have been onr 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 glass of thy Judgments for Thou never punishest small failings with so severe Afflictions O therefore according to the multitude of thy great Mercies pardon our Sins and remove thy Judgments which are very many and very heavy Yet let our Sins be ever more grievous to us than thy Judgments and make us more willing to repent than to be relieved first give us the Peace of penitent Consciences and then the tranquillity of united Kingdoms In the sea of our Saviours Blood drown our Sins and through this Red sea of our own blood bring us at last to a state of Piety Peace and Plenty As My publick relations to all make Me share in all My Subjects 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 unjust Reproaches cast upon Me be as a breath more to kindle My Compassion Give Me grace to heap Charitable coals of fire upon their heads to melt them whose Malice or cruel Zeal hath kindled or hindred the quenching of those Flames which have so much wasted My Three Kingdoms O rescue and assist those poor Protestants in Ireland whom Thou hast hitherto preserved And lead those in the ways of Thy saving Truths whose Ignorance or Errors have filled them with Rebellious and destructive Principles which they act under an opinion that they do Thee good service Let the hand of Thy Justice be against those who maliciously and despitefully have raised or fomented those cruel and desperate Wars Thou art far from destroying the innocent with tho guilty and the erroneous with the malicious thou that hadst pity on Nineveh 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 Covetousness makes them Cruel nor to their Anger which is too fierce and therefore justly cursed Preserve if it be thy will in the midst of the furnace of thy severe Justice a Posterity which may praise Thee for Thy Mercy And deal with Me not according to mans unjust Reproaches but according to the Innocency of My hands in Thy sight If I have desired or delighted in the woful 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 witness my Integrity which Thou O Lord knowest right well But I trust not to My own Merit but thy Mercies Spare us O Lord and be not angry with us for ever XIII Vpon the calling in of the SCOTS and their Coming THE Scots are a Nation upon whom I have not only common ties of Nature Soveraignty and Bounty with my Father of Blessed memory but also special and late obligations of Favours having gratified the active Spirits among them so far that I seemed to many to prefer the desires of that Party before My own Interest and Honour But I see Royal bounty emboldens some men to ask and act beyond all bounds of Modesty and Gratitude My Charity and Act of Pacification forbids Me to reflect on former passages wherein I shall ever be far from letting any mans ingratitude or inconstancy make Me repent of what I granted them for the publick good I pray God it may so prove The coming again of that Party into England with an Army only to conform this Church to their late New model cannot but seem as unreasonable as they would have thought the same measure offered from hence to themselves Other Errand I could never understand they had besides those common and vulgar flourishes for Religion and Liberty save only to confirm the Presbyterian Copy they had set by making this Church to write after them tho it were in bloody Characters Which Design and End whether it will justifie the use of such violent Means before the Divine Justice I leave to their Consciences to judg who have already felt the misery of the Means but not reaped the benefit of the End either in this Kingdom or that Such knots and crosness of grain being objected here as will hardly suffer that Form which they cry up as the only just Reformation and setling of Government and Discipline in Churches to go on so smoothly here as it might do in Scotland and was by them imagined would have done in England when so many of the English Clergy through levity or discontent if no worse Passion suddenly quitted their former engagements to Episcopacy and faced about to their Presbytery It cannot but seem either Passion or some Self-seeking more than true Zeal and pious Discretion for any foreign State or Church to prescribe such medicines only for others which themselves have used rather successfully than commendably not considering that the same Physick on different constitutions will have different operations that may kill one which doth but cure another Nor do I know any such tough and malignant Humours in the constitution of the English Church which gentler applications than those of an Army might not easily have removed Nor is it so proper to hew out
my reproach and my dishonour my Adversaries are all before Thee My Soul is among Lions among them that are set on fire even the sons 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 turn 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 lest my Enemies prevail against Me and lay mine honour in the dust Thou O Lord shalt destroy them that speak lies the Lord will abhor both the Blood-thirsty and Deceitful men Make my Righteousness to appear as the light and mine Innocency to shine forth as the Sun at noon-day Suffer not my silence to betray mine Innocency nor my displeasure my Patience That after my Saviours example being reviled I may not revile again and being cursed by them I may bless them Thou that wouldst not suffer Shimei's tongue to go unpunished when by thy Judgments on David he might seem to justifie his disdainful 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 eternal fire may not be brought upon them Let my Prayers and Patience be as water to cool 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 evil-speaking by well-doing and let them enjoy not the fruit of their lips but of my Prayer for their Repentance and thy Pardon Teach Me David's Patience and Hezekiah's Devotion that I may look to thy Mercy through mans Malice and see thy Justice in their Sin Let Sheba's Seditious speeches Rabshekah's Railing and Shimei's Cursing provoke as my humble Prayer to Thee so thy renewed Blessing toward Me. Though they curse do Thou bless 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 Look down 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 and keep Me from the strife of tongues XVI Vpon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Book IT is no news to have all Innovations ushered in with the name of Reformations in Church and State by those who seeking to gain reputation with the Vulgar for their extraordinary Parts and Piety must needs undo 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 Wisdom or Godliness And because matter of Prayer and Devotion to God justly bears a great part in Religion being the Souls more immediate converse with the Divine Majesty nothing could be more plausible to the People than to tell them they served God amiss in that point Hence our publick Liturgy or Forms of constant Prayers must be not amended in what upon free and publick advice might seem 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 Book and those that used it according to their Consciences and the Laws in force it must be crucified by an Ordinance the better to please either those men who gloried in their extemporary vein 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 total rejecting of it as a dead letter thereby to excuse the deadness of their hearts As for the matter contained in the Book sober and Learned men have sufficiently vindicated it against the Cavils and exceptions of those who thought it a part of Piety to make what profane objections they could against it especially for Popery and Superstition whereas no doubt the Liturgy was exactly conformed to the Doctrine of the Church of England and this by all Reformed Churches is confessed to be most sound and Orthodox For the manner of using Set and Prescribed Forms there is no doubt but that wholesom words being known and fitted to mens Understandings are soonest received into their Hearts and aptest to excite and carry along with them judicious and fervent Affections Nor do I see any reason why Christians should be weary of a well-composed Liturgy as I hold this to be more than of all other things wherein the constancy abates nothing of the Excellency and Usefulness I could never see any Reason why any Christian should abhor or be forbidden to use the same Forms of Prayer since he prays to the same God believes in the same Saviour professeth the same Truths reads the same Scriptures hath the same Duties upon him and feels the same daily wants for the most part both inward and outward which are common to the whole Church Sure we may as well beforehand know what we pray as to whom we pray and in what words as to what sense when we desire the same things what hinders we may not use the same Words our appetite and digestion too may be good when we use as we pray for our daily bread Some men I hear are so impatient not to use in all their Devotions their own invention and gifts that they not only disuse as too many but wholly cast away and contemn the Lords Prayer whose great guilt is that it is the warrant and original Pattern of all set Liturgies in the Christian Church I ever thought that the proud ostentation of mens abilities for invention and the vain affectations of variety for expressions in Publick Prayer or any sacred administrations merits a greater brand of sin than that which they call Coldness and Barrenness Nor are men in those Novelties less subject to formal and superficial tempers as to their hearts than in the use of constant Forms where not the words but mens hearts are to blame I make no doubt but a man may be very Formal in the most extemporary variety and very fervently Devout in the most wonted expressions nor is God more a God of variety than of constancy nor are constant Forms of Prayers more likely to flat and hinder the Spirit of Prayer and Devotion than unpremeditated and confused variety to distract and lose it Tho I am not against a grave modest discreet and humble use of Ministers gifts even in publick the better to fit and excite their own and the Peoples affections to the present occasions yet I know no necessity why private and single abilities should quite justle out and deprive the Church of the joynt abilities and concurrent gifts of many Learned and Godly men such as the Composers of the Service-Book were who
Gods Tribunal or their own Consciences where they are more afraid to encounter those many pregnant Reasons both from Law Allegiance and all true Christian grounds which conflict with and accuse them in their own thoughts than they oft were in a desperate bravery to fight against those Forces which sometimes God gave Me. Whose condition conquered and dying I make no question but is infinitely more to be chosen by a sober man that duly values his Duty his Soul and Eternity beyond the enjoyments of this present Life than the most triumphant glory wherein their and Mine Enemies supervive who can hardly avoid to be daily tormented by that horrid guilt wherewith their suspitious or now-convincted Consciences do pursue them especially since they and all the World have seen how false and un-intended those pretensions were which they first set forth as the only plausible tho not justifiable grounds of raising a War and continuing it thus long against Me and the Laws established in whose safety and preservation all honest men think the welfare of their Country doth consist For and with all which it is far more honourable and comfortable to suffer than to prosper in their ruine and subversion I have often prayed that all on My side might joyn true Piety with the sense of their Loyalty and be as faithful to God and their own Souls as they were to Me That the defects of the one might not blast the endeavours of the other Yet I cannot think that any shews or truth of Piety on the other side were sufficient to dispence with or expiate the defects of their Duty and Loyalty to Me which have so pregnant convictions on mens Consciences that even profaner men are moved by the sense of them to venture their lives for Me. I never had any Victory which was without My Sorrow because it was on mine own Subjects who like Absolom died many of them in their sin And yet I never suffered any Defeat which made Me despair of Gods Mercy and Defence I never desired such Victories as might serve to conquer but only restore the Laws and Liberties of My People which I saw were extremely oppressed together with My Rights by those men who were impatient of any just restraint When Providence gave Me or denied Me Victory My desire was neither to boast of My Power nor to charge God foolishly who I believe at last would make all things to work together for My good I wished no greater advantages by the War than to bring My Enemies to Moderation and My Friends to Peace I was afraid of the temptation of an absolute Conquest and never prayed more for Victory over others than over My self When the first was denied the second was granted Me which God saw best for Me. The different events were but the methods of Divne Justice by contrary winds to winnow us That by punishing our Sins he might purge them from us and by dedeferring Peace he might prepare us more to prize and better to use so great a Blessing My often Messages for Peace shewed that I delighted not in War as my former Concessions sufficiently testified how willingly I would have prevented it and my total unpreparedness for it how little I intended it The conscience of my Innocency forbade Me to fear a War but the love of My Kingdoms commanded Me if possible to avoid it I am guilty in this War of nothing but this That I gave such advantages to some men by confirming their Power which they knew not to use with that modesty and gratitude which became their Loyalty and My Confidence Had I yielded less I had been opposed less had I denied more I had been more obeyed 'T is now too late to review the Occasions of the War I wish only a happy Conclusion of so unhappy Beginnings The inevitable fate of our Sins was no doubt such as would no longer suffer the Divine Justice to be quiet we having conquered his Patience are condemned by mutual conquerings to destroy one another for the most prosperous Successes on either side impair the welfare of the whole Those Victories are still miserable that leave our Sins un-subdued flushing our Pride and animating to continue Injuries Peace it self is not desirable till Repentance have prepared us for it When we fight more against our selves and less against God we shall cease fighting one against another I pray God these may all meet in our hearts and so dispose us to an happy conclusion of these Civil Wars that I may know better to obey God and govern my People and they may learn better to obey both God and Me. Nor do I desire any man should be further subject to Me than all of us may be subject to God O my God make Me content to be overcome when Thou wilt have it so Teach Me the noblest Victory over My self and my Enemies by Patience which was Christs Conquest and may well become a Christian King Between both thy hands the right sometimes supporting and the left afflicting fashion us to that frame of Piety Thou likest best Forgive the Pride that attends our prosperous and the Repinings which follow our disastrous events when going forth in our own strength Thou withdrawest thine and goest not forth with our Armies Be Thou all when we are something and when we are nothing that Thou mayest have the Glory when we are in a victorious or inglorious condition Thou O Lord knowest how hard it is for Me to suffer so much evil from my Subjects to whom I intend nothing but good and I cannot but suffer in those Evils which they compel Me to inflict upon them punishing My self in their Punishments Since therefore both in conquering and being conquered I am still a Sufferer I beseech Thee to give Me a double portion of thy Spirit and that measure of Grace which only can be sufficient for Me. As I am most afflicted so make Me most reformed that I may be not only happy to see an end of these Civil Distractions but a chief instrument to restore and establish a firm and blessed Peace to My Kingdoms Stir up in all parties pious ambitions to overcome each other with Reason Moderation and such Self-denial as becomes those who consider that our mutual Divisions are our common Distractions and the Vnion of all is every good mans chiefest Interest If O Lord as for the sins of our Peace Thou hast brought upon us the miseries of War so for the sins of War Thou shouldst see fit still to deny us the blessing of Peace and so keep us in a circulation of Miseries yet give Me thy Servant and all Loyal tho afflicted Subjects to enjoy that Peace which the world can neither give to us nor take from us Impute not to Me the Blood of My Subjects which with infinite unwillingness and grief hath been shed by Me in My just and necessary Defence but wash Me with that precious Blood which hath been shed for Me
great offence of enacting any thing against my Conscience and especially from consenting to Sacrilegious Rapines and spoilings of thy Church If Thou wilt restore Me to a capacity to glorifie Thee in doing good both to the Church and State Then shall my Soul praise Thee and magnifie thy Name before my People Then shall thy Glory be dearer to Me than my Crowns and the advancement of true Religion both in purity and power be my chiefest care Then will I rule My People with Justice and My Kingdoms with Equity To thy more immediate hand shall I ever owe as the rightful Succession so the merciful Restauration of My Kingdoms and the glory of them If Thou wilt bring Me again with Peace Safety and Honour to my chiefest City and My Parliament If Thou wilt again put the Sword of Justice into My hand to punish and protect Then will I make all the world to see and my very Enemies to enjoy the benefit of this Vow and Resolution of Christian Charity which I now make unto Thee O Lord. As I 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 injury done to Me. We have been mutually punished in our unnatural Divisions for thy sake O Lord and for the love of my Redeemer have I purposed this in my heart That I will use all means in the ways of Amnestie and Indemnity which may most fully remove all Fears and bury all Jealousies in forgetfulness 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 feigned lips Blessed be God who hath not turned away my Prayer nor taken his Mercy from Me. O my Soul commit thy way to the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to pass 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. XXVI Vpon the Armies Surprizal of the KING at Holdenby and the ensuing Distractions in the Two Houses the Army and the City WHat part God will have Me now to act or suffer in this new and strange scene of affairs I am not much solicitous some little practice will serve that man who only 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 appears This motion like others of the Times seems eccentrick and irregular yet not well to be resisted or quieted Better swim down such a stream than in vain to strive against it These are but the struglings of those Twins which lately one Womb enclosed the younger striving to prevail against the elder what the Presbyterians have hunted after the Independents now seek to catch for themselves So impossible is to for lines to be drawn from the Center and not to divide from each other so much the wider by how much they go farther from the point of union That the Builders of Babel should from Division fall fall to Confusion is no wonder but for those that pretend to build Jerusalem to divide their tongues and hands is but an ill omen and sounds too like the fury of those Zealots whose intestine bitterness and divisions were the greatest occasion of the last fatal destruction of that City Well may I change My Keepers and Prison but not my captive Condition only 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 Rigor who sometimes complaining of exacting their conformity to Laws are become the greatest Exactors of other mens submission to their novel injunctions before they are stamped with the Authority of Laws 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 business of such consequence as the assuming My Person into the Armies custody without any Commission but that of their own Will and Power Such as will thus adventure on a KING must not be thought over-modest or timorous to carry on any design they have a mind to Their next motion menaces and scares both the Two Houses and the City which soon after acting over again that former part of tumultuary motions never questioned punished or repented must now suffer for both and see their former Sin in the glass of the present Terrors and Distractions No man is so blind as not to see herein the hand of Divine Justice they that by Tumults first occasioned the raising of Armies must now be chastened by their own Army for new Tumults So hardly can men be content with one sin but add sin to sin till the latter punish the former Such as were content to see Me and many Members of both Houses driven away by the first unsuppressed Tumults are now forced to fly to an Army or defend themselves against them But who can unfold the riddle of some mens Justice The Members of both Houses who at first withdrew as My self was forced to do from the rudeness of the Tumults were counted Desertors and outed of their Places in Parliament such as stayed then and enjoyed the benefit of the Tumults were asserted for the only Parliament-men Now the Fliers from and Forsakers of their Places carry the Parliamentary power along with them complain highly against the Tumults and vindicate themselves by an Army such as remained and kept their stations are looked upon as Abettors of tumultuary insolencies and betrayers of the freedom and honour of Parliament Thus is Power above all Rule Order and Law where men look more to present Advantages than their Consciences and the unchangeable rules of Justice while they are Judges of others they are forced to condemn themselves Now the Plea against Tumults holds good the Authors and Abettors of them are guilty of prodigious Insolencies whenas before they were counted as Friends and necessary Assistants I see Vengeance pursues and overtakes as the Mice and Rats are said to have done a Bishop in Germany them that thought to have escaped and fortified themselves most impregnably against it both by their Multitude and Compliance Whom the Laws cannot God will punish by their own Crimes and hands I cannot but observe this Divine Justice yet with sorrow and pity for I always wished so well to Parliament and City that I was sorry to see them do or suffer any thing unworthy such great and considerable Bodies in this Kingdom I was glad to
motives to Repentance and earnest desires to make some reparations for their former defects As Your quality sets you beyond any Duel with any Subject so the Nobleness 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 Pardoning one than in Punishing a thousand This I write to You not despairing of God's Mercy and My Subjects affections towards You both which I hope You will study to deserve yet we cannot merit of God but by his own Mercy If God shall see fit to restore Me and You after Me to those enjoyments which the Laws have assigned to Us and no Subjects without an high degree of Guilt and Sin can divest Us of then may I have better opportunity when I shall be so happy to see You in Peace to let You more fully understand the things that belong to God's Glory Your own Honour and the Kingdoms Peace But if You never see My face again and God will have Me buried in such a barbarous Imprisonment and Obscurity which the perfecting some mens Designs requires wherein few hearts that love Me are permitted to exchange a word or a look with Me I do require and entreat You as Your Father and Your KING that You never suffer Your Heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the true Religion established in the Church of England I tell You I have tried it and after much search and many Disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world not only in the Community as Christian but also in the special notion as Reformed keeping the middle way between the pomp of Superstitious Tyranny and the meanness of Fantastick Anarchy Not but that the draught being excellent as to the main both for Doctrine and Government in the Church of England some lines as in very good Figures may haply need some sweetning or polishing 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 scandal 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 own thoughts in this That scarce any one who hath been a Beginner or an active Prosecutor of this late War against the Church the Laws and Me either was or is a true Lover Embracer or Practiser of the Protestant Religion established in England which neither gives such Rules nor ever before set such Examples 'T is true some heretofore had the boldness 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 sweetness of the Vine and Fig-tree is not to be despised tho the Brambles and Thorns should pretend to bear Figs and Grapes thereby to rule over the Trees Nor would I have you to entertain any aversation or dislike of Parliaments which in their right constitution with Freedom and Honour will never injure or diminish your Greatness but will rather be as interchangings of Love Loyalty and Confidence between a Prince and his People Nor would the events of this Black Parliament have been other than such however much biassed by Factions in the Elections if it had been preserved from the Insolencies of Popular dictates and Tumultuary impressions The sad effects of which will no doubt make all Parliaments after this more cautious to preserve that Freedom and Honour which belongs to such Assemblies when once they have fully shaken off this yoke of Vulgar encroachment since the Publick Interest consists in the mutual and common good both of Prince and People Nothing can be more happy for all than in fair grave and honourable ways to contribute their Counsels in common enacting all things by publick consent without Tyranny or Tumults We must not starve our selves because some men have surfeited of wholsom food And if neither I nor You be ever restored to Our Rights but God in his severest Justice will punish My Subjects with continuance in their Sin and suffer them to be deluded with the prosperity of their Wickedness I hope God will give Me and You that Grace which will teach and enable Us to want as well as to wear a Crown which is not worth taking up or enjoying upon sordid dishonourable and irreligious terms Keep You to true Principles of Piety Virtue and Honour You shall never want a Kingdom A Principal point of Your Honour will consist in Your conferring all Respect Love and Protection on Your Mother My Wife who hath many ways deserved well of Me and chiefly in this that having been a means to bless Me with so many hopeful Children all which with their Mother I recommend to your Love and Care She hath been content with incomparable Magnanimity and Patience to suffer both for and with Me and You. My Prayer to God Almighty is whatever becomes of Me who am I thank God wrapt up and fortified in My own Innocency and his Grace that he would be pleased to make You an Anchor or Harbour rather to these tossed and weather-beaten Kingdoms a Repairer by Your Wisdom Justice Piety and Valour of what the Folly and Wickedness of some men have so far ruined as to leave nothing intire in Church or State to the Crown the Nobility the Clergy or the Commons either as to Laws Liberties Estates Order Honour Conscience or Lives When they have destroyed Me for I know not how far God may permit the Malice and Cruelty of My Enemies to proceed and such apprehensions some mens words and actions have already given Me as I doubt not but My Blood will cry aloud for Vengeance to Heaven so I beseech God not to pour out his Wrath upon the generality of the People who have either deserted Me or engaged against Me through the Artifice and hypocrifie of their Leaders whose inward Horror will be their first Tormentor nor will they escape exemplary Judgments For those that loved Me I pray God they may have no miss of Me when I am gone so much I wish and hope that all good Subjects may be satisfied with the Blessings of Your Presence and Virtues For those that repent of any defects in their Duty toward Me as I freely forgive them in the word of a Christian King so I believe You will find them truly zealous to repay with interest that Loyalty and Love to You which was due to Me. In sum what Good I