against the said Charls Stuart and also of replying to the Answers which the said Charls Stuart shall make to the Premises or any of them or any other Charge that shall be so Exhibited doth for the said Treasons and Crimes on the behalf of the said People of England Impeach the said CHARLS STUART as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and a publike and Implacable Enemy to the Common-wealth of England And pray That the said CHARLS STUART King of England may be put to answer All and Every the Premises That such Proceedings Examinations Tryals Sentence and Judgment may be thereupon had or shall be agreeable to Justice IT is observed that the time the Charge was reading the King sate down in his Chair looking sometimes on the Court sometimes up to the Galleries and having risen again and turned about to behold the Guards and Spectators sate down looking very sternly with a countenance not at all moved till these words viz. Charls Stuart to be a Tyrant and Traytor c. were read at which he laughed as he sate in the face of the Court. The Charge being read the Lord President replyed Lord President Sir you have now heard your Charge read containing such matter as appears in it you finde That in the close of it it is prayed to the Court in the behalf of the Commons of England that you answer to your Charge The Court expects your Answer The King I would know by what power I am called hither I was not long ago in the Isle of Wight how I came there is a longer story then I think is fit at this time for me to speak of but there I entred into a Treaty with both Houses of Parliament with as much publique faith as it 's possible to be had of any people in the world I treated there with a number of Honorable Lords and Gentlemen and treated honestly and uprightly I cannot say but they did very nobly with me we were upon a conclusion of the Treaty Now I would know by what Authority I mean lawful there are many unlawful Authorities in the world Theeves and Robbers by the high-ways but I would know by what Authority I was brought from thence and carryed from place to place and I know not what and when I know what lawful Authority I shall answer Remember I am your King your lawful King and what sins you bring upon your heads and the Judgment of God upon this Land think well upon it I say think well upon it before you go further from one sin to a greater therefore let me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here and I shall not be unwilling to answer in the mean time I shall not betray my Trust I have a Trust committed to me by God by old and lawful descent I will not betray it to answer to a new unlawful Authority therefore resolve me that and you shall hear more of me Lord President If you had been pleased to have observed what was hinted to you by the Court at your first coming hither you would have known by what Authority which Authority requires you in the name of the People of England of which you are Elected King to answer them The King No Sir I deny that Lord President If you acknowledg not the Authority of the Court they must proceed The King I do tell them so England was never an Elective Kingdom but an Hereditary Kingdom for neer these thousand years therefore let me know by what Authority I am called hither I do stand more for the Liberty of my People then any here that come to be my pretended Judges and therefore let me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here and I will answer it otherwise I will not answer it Lord President Sir how really you have managed your Trust is known your way of answer is to interrogate the Court which beseems not you in this condition You have been told of it twice or thrice The King Here is a Gentleman Lievt Col. Cobbet ask him if he did not bring me from the Isle of Wight by force I do not come here as submitting to the Court I wil stand as much for the priviledg of the house of Cōmons rightly understood as any man here whatsoever I see no House of Lords here that may constitute a Parliament and the King too should have been Is this the bringing of the King to his Parliament Is this the bringing an end to the Treaty in the publike Faith of the world Let me see a legal Authority warranted by the Word of God the Scriptures or warranted by the Constitutions of the Kingdom and I will answer Lord President Sir You have propounded a Question and have been answered seeing you will not answer the Court will consider how to proceed in the mean time those that brought you hither are to take charge of you back again The Court desires to know whether this be all the Answer you will give or no. The King Sir I desire that you would give me and all the world satisfaction in this let me tell you it is not a slight thing you are about I am sworn to keep the Peace by that duty I ow to God and my Country and I will do it to the last breath of my body and therefore you shall do well to satisfie first God and then the Country by what Authority you do it if you do it by a usurped Authority that will not last long There is a God in Heaven that will call you and all that give you Power to account Satisfie me in that and I will answer otherwise I betray my Trust and the Liberties of the People and therefore think of that and then I shall be willing For I do avow That it is as great a sin to withstand lawful Authority as it is to submit to a Tyrannical or any other ways unlawful Authority and therefore satisfie God and me and all the world in that and you shall receive my Answer I am not afraid of the Bill Lord President The Court expects you should give them a final Answer their purpose is to adjourn till Monday next if you do not satisfie your self though we do tell you our Authority we are satisfied with our Authority and it is upon Gods Authority and the Kingdoms and that Peace you speak of will be kept in the doing of Justice and that 's our present Work The King Let me tell you if you will shew me what lawful Authority you have I shall be satisfied But that you have said satisfies no reasonable man Lord Presid That 's in your apprehension we think it reasonable that are your Judges The King 'T is not my apprehension nor yours neither that ought to decide it Lord Presid The Court hath heard you and you are to be disposed of as they have commanded Two things were remarkable in this days Proceedings 1. It is to be observed That as the Charge was reading against the
King the silver head of his staff fell off the which he wondred at and seeing none to take it up he stoops for it himself 2. That as the King was going away he looked with a very austere countenance upon the Court with stirring of his Hat replyed Well Sir when the Lord President commanded the Guard to take him away and at his going down he said I do not fear that pointing with his Staff at the Sword The people in the Hall as he went down the stairs cryed out some God save the King and some for Justice O Yes being called the Court adjourned till Monday next January 22. at 9. in the morning to the painted Chamber and from thence to the same place again in Westminster Hall At the high Court of Justice sitting in Westminster Hall Munday January 22. 1648. O Yes made Silence commanded The Court called and answered to their names Silence commanded upon pain of imprisonment and the Captain of the Guard to apprehend all such as make disturbance Upon the Kings coming in a shout was made Command given by the Court to the Captain of the Guard to fetch and take into his custody those who make any disturbance Mr Solicitor May it please your Lordship my Lord President I did at the last Court in the behalf of the Commons of England exhibit and give into this Court a Charge of high Treason and other high Crimes against the Prisoner at the Bar whereof I do accuse him in the name of the People of England and the Charge was read unto him and his Answer required My Lord He was not then pleased to give an Answer but instead of answering did there dispute the Authority of this high Court My humble Motion to this high Court in behalf of the Kingdom of England is That the Prisoner may be directed to make a positive Answer either by way of Confession or Negation which if he shall refuse to do That the matter of Charge may be taken pro confesso and the Court may proceed according to justice Lord President Sir You may remember at the last Court you were told the occasion of your being brought hither and you heard a Charge against you containing a Charge of high Treason and other high Crimes against this Realm of England you heard likewise that it was prayed in the behalf of the People that you should give an Answer to that Charge that thereupon such proceedings might be had as should be agreeable to justice you were then pleased to make some scruples concerning the Authority of this Court and knew not by what Authority you were brought hither you did divers times propound your Questions and were as often answered That it was by authority of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament that did think fit to call you to account for those high and capital Misdemeanours wherewith you were then charged Since that the Court hath taken into Consideration what you then said they are fully satisfied with their own authority and they hold it fit you should stand satisfied with it too and they do require it that you do give a positive and particular Answer to this Charge that is exhibited against you they do expect you should either confess or deny it if you deny it is offered in the behalf of the Kingdom to be made good against you their authority they do avow to the whole world that the whole Kingdom are to rest satisfied in and you are to rest satisfied with it and therefore you are to lose no more time but to give a positive Answer thereunto The KING When I was here last 't is very true I made that Question and truly if it were only my own particular case I would have satisfied my self with the Protestation I made the last time I was here against the legality of this Court and that a King cannot be tryed by any Superiour Jurisdiction on Earth but it is not my case alone it is the Freedom and the Liberty of the People of England and do you pretend what you will I stand more for their Liberties For if Power without Law may make Laws may alter the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom I do not know what Subject he is in England that can be sure of his life or any thing that he calls his own therefore when that I came here I did expect particular Reasons to know by what Law what Authority you did proceed against me here and therefore I am a little to seek what to say to you in this particular because the Affirmative is to be proved the Negative often is very hard to do but since I cannot perswade you to do it I shall tell you my Reasons as short as I can My Reasons why in Conscience and the duty I owe to God first and my People next for the preservation of their Lives Liberties and Estates I conceive I cannot answer this till I be satisfied of the legality of it All proceedings against any man whatsoever Lord President Sir I must interrupt you which I would not do but that what you do is not agreeable to the proceedings of any Court of Justice you are about to enter into Argument and dispute concerning the Authority of this Court before whom you appear as a Prisoner and are charged as an high Delinquent if you take upon you to dispute the Authority of the Court we may not do it nor will any Court give way unto it you are to submit unto it you are to give in a punctual and direct Answer whether you will answer your Charge or no and what your Answer is The KING Sir by your favour I do not know the forms of Law I do know Law and Reason though I am no Lawyer profess'd but I know as much Law as any Gentleman in England and therefore under favour I do plead for the Liberties of the People of England more then you do and therefore if I should impose a belief upon any man without Reasons given for it it were unreasonable but I must tell you That that Reason that I have as thus informed I cannot yield unto it Lord President Sir I must interrupt you you may not be permitted you speak of Law and Reason it is fit there should be Law and Reason and there is both against you Sir the Vote of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament it is the Reason of the Kingdom and they are these that have given to that Law according to which you should have ruled and raigned Sir you are not to dispute our Authority you are told it again by the Court. Sir it will be taken notice of that you stand in contempt of the Court and your contempt will be recorded accordingly The KING I do not know how a King can be a Delinquent but by any Law that ever I heard of all men Delinquents or what you will let me tell you they may put in Demurrers against any proceeding as legal and
do not the Court cannot forget what delatory dealings the Court hath found at your hands you were pleased to propound some Questions you have had your Resolution upon them You were told over and over again That the Court did affirm their own Jurisdiction That it was not for you nor any other man to dispute the Jurisdiction of the Supream and highest Authority of England from which there is no Appeal and touching which there must be no dispute yet you did persist in such carriage as you gave no manner of obedience nor did you acknowledge any Authority in them nor the high Court that constituted this Court of Justice Sir I must let you know from the Court That they are very sensible of these delays of yours and that they ought not being thus Authorized by the supream Court of England to be thus trifled withal and that they might in Justice if they pleased and according to the Rules of Justice take advantage of these delays and proceed to pronounce judgment against you yet nevertheless they are pleased to give direction and on their behalfs I do require you That you make a positive Answer unto this Charge that is against you Sir in plain terms for Justice knows no respect of persons you are to give your positive and finall Answer in plain English whether you be guilty or not guilty of these Treasons laid to your Charge The KING after a little pause said When I was here yesterday I did desire to speak for the Liberties of the People of England I was interrupted I desire to know yet whether I may speak freely or not Lord President Sir You have had the Resolution of the Court upon the like Question the last day and you were told That having such a Charge of so high a Nature against you and your Work was that you ought to acknowledge the JURISDICTION of the COURT and to Answer to your CHARGE Sir if you Answer to your Charge which the Court gives you leave now to do though they might have taken the advantage of your contempt yet if you be able to Answer to your Charge when you have once Answered you shall be heard at large make the best Defence you can But Sir I must let you know from the Court as their commands that you are not to be permitted to issue out into any other discourses till such time as you have given a positive Answer concerning the Matter that is CHARG'D upon you The King For the Charge I value it not a Rush it is the Liberty of the People of England that I stand for for me to acknowledge a new Court that I never heard of before I that am your King that should be an example to all the people of England for to uphold Justice to maintain the old Laws indeed I do not know how to do it you spoke very well the first day that I came here on Saturday of the Obligations that I had laid upon me by God to the maintenance of the Liberties of my People The same Obligation you spake of I do acknowledge to God that I owe to him and to my People to defend as much as in me lies the ancient Laws of the Kingdom therefore untill that I may know that this is not against the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom by your favour I can put in no particular Charge If you will give me time I will shew you my reasons why I cannot do it and this Here being interrupted he said By your favour you ought not to interrupt me how I came here I know not there 's no Law for it to make your King your Prisoner I was in a Treaty upon the publique Faith of the Kingdom that was the known two Houses of Parliament that was the Representative of the Kingdom and when that I had almost made an end of the Treaty then I was hurried away and brought hither and therefore Here the Lord President said Sir you must know the pleasure of the Court. The King By your favour Sir Lord President Nay Sir by your favour you may not be permitted to fall into those discourses you appear as a Delinquent you have not acknowledged the authority of the Court the Court craves it not of you but once more they command you to give your positive Answer Clark Do your Duty The King Duty Sir The Clark reads CHARLES STVART KING of England You are accused in the behalf of the Commons of England of divers high crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto You the Court now requires you to give Your positive and final Answer by way of confession or denial of the Charge The King Sir I say again to you so that I might give satisfaction to the People of England of the clearness of my proceeding not by way of Answer not in this way but to satisfie them that I have done nothing against that Trust that hath been committed to me I would do it but to acknowledge a new Court against their Priviledges to alter the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Sir you must excuse me Lord President Sir this is the the third time that you have publiquely disown'd this Court and put an affront upon it how far you have preserv'd Priviledges of the People your actions have spoke it but truly Sir mens intentions ought to be known by their actions you have written your meaning in bloudy Characters throughout the whole Kingdom but Sir you understand the pleasure of the Court Clerk Record the default and Gentlemen you that took charge of the Prisoner take him back again The King I will only say this one word more to you if it were only my own particular I would not say any more nor interrupt you Lord President Sir you have heard the pleasure of the Court and you are notwithstanding you will not understand it to find that you are before a COURT of JUSTICE Then the King went forth with his Guard and Proclamation was made That all persons which had then appear'd and had further to do at the Court might depart into the Painted-Chamber to which place the Court did forthwith adjourn and intended to meet in Westminster Hall by ten of the clock the next morning Cryer God bless the Kingdom of England Wednesday January 4. 1648. THis day it was expected the High Court of Justice would have met in Westminster Hall about ten of the clock but at the time appointed one of the Ushers by direction of the Court then sitting in the Painted Chamber gave notice to the people there assembled That in regard the Court was then upon the examination of Witnesses in relation to present affairs in the Painted-Chamber they could not sit there but all persons appointed to be there were to appear upon further Summons The Proceedings of the High Court of Justice sitting in Westminster Hall on Saturday the 27. of January 1648. O Yes made Silence commanded The Court called Serjeant Bradshaw Lord
Image we shall thus apply it That though we should not be delivered from those bloody hands and hearts that conspire the overthrow of the Kingdom in general of us in particular for acting in this great work of Justice though we should perish in the work yet by Gods grace and by Gods strength we will go on with it And this is all our Resolutions Sir I say for your self we do heartily wish and desire that God would be pleased to give you a sense of your sins that you would see wherein you have done amiss that you may cry unto him that God would deliver you from blood-guiltiness A good King was once guilty of that particular thing and was clear otherwise saving in the matter of Vriah Truly Sir the story tels us that he was a repentant King and it signifies enough that he had dyed for it but that God was pleased to accept of him to give him his pardon thou shalt not die but the child shal die thou hast given cause to the enemies of God to blaspheme King I would desire onely one word before you give sentence and that is That you would hear me concerning those great imputations that you have layd to my charge Lord Presid Sir You must give me now leave to go on for I am not far from your Sentence and your time is now past King But I shall desire you will hear me a few words to you for truly what ever Sentence you will put upon me in respect of those heavy imputations that I see by your speech you have put upon me Sir It is very true that Lord Pres Sir I must put you in minde Truly Sir I would not willingly at this time especially interrupt you in any thing you have to say that is proper for us to admit of but Sir you have not owned us as a Court and you look upon us as a sort of people met together and we know what language we receive from your party King I know nothing of that Lord Pres You dis-avow us as a Court and therefore for you to address your self to us not to acknowledg us as a Court to judg of what you say it is not to be permitted and the truth is all along from the first time you were pleased to dis-avow and dis-own us the Court needed not to have heard you one word For unless they be acknowledged a Court and engaged it is not proper for you to speak Sir we have given you too much liberty already and admitted of too much delay and we may not admit of any farther were it proper for us to do we should hear you freely and we should not have declined to have heard you at large what you could have said or proved on your behalf whether for totally excusing or for in part excusing those great and hainous charges that in whole or in part are layd upon you But Sir I shall trouble you no longer your sins are of so large a dimension that if you do but seriously think of them they will drive you to a sad consideration of it and they may improve in you a sad and serious repentance And that the Court doth heartily wish that you may be so penitent for what you have done amiss that God may have mercy at least-wise upon your better part Truly Sir for the other it is our parts and duties to do that that the Law prescribes we are not here Jus dare but Jus dicere we cannot be unmindful of what the Scripture tells us For to acquit the guilty is of equal abomination as to condemn the innocent we may not acquit the guilty what sentence the Law affirms to a Traytor Tyrant a Murtherer and a publike Enemy to the Country that sentence you are now to hear read unto you and that is the sentence of the Court. The Lord President commands the sentence to be read Make an O yes and command silence while the sentence is read O yes made Silence commanded The Clerk read the sentence which was drawn up in parchment Where as the Commons of England in Parliament had appointed them an High Court of Justice for the trying of Charls Stuart King of England before whom he had been three times convented and at the first time a Charge of High Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanors was read in the behalf of the Kingdom of England c. Here the Clerk read the Charge Which Charge being read unto him as aforesaid he the said Charls Stuart was required to give his Answer but he refused so to do and so exprest the several passages at his Tryal in refusing to answer For all which Treasons and Crimes this Court doth adjudg That the said Charls Stuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and a publique Enemy shall be put to Death by the severing his Head from his Body After the sentence read the Lord President said This sentence now read and published it is the act sentence judgment and resolution of the whole Court Here the Court stood up as assenting to what the President said King Will you hear me a word Sir Lord Pres Sir you are not to be heard after the sentence King No Sir Lord Presid No Sir by your favor Sir Guard withdraw your Prisoner King I may speak after the sentence By your favor Sir I may speak after the sentence ever By your favor hold the sentence Sir I say Sir I do I am not suffered for to speak expect what Justice other people will have O Yes All maner of persons that have any thing else to do are to depart at this time and to give their attendance in the painted Chamber to which place this Court doth forthwith adjourn it self Then the Court rose and the King went with his Guard to Sir Robert Cottons and from thence to Whitehall King Charls HIS SPEECH Made upon the SCAFFOLD at Whitehall-Gate immediately before his Execution Tuesday January 30. ABout ten in the Morning the King was brought from St. James's walking on foot through the Park with a Regiment of Foot part before and part behinde him with Colours flying Drums beating his private guard of Partizans with some of his Gentlemen before and some behinde bare-headed Dr Juxon next behinde him and Colonel Thomlinson who had the charge of him talking with the King bare-headed from the Park up the stairs into the Gallery and so into the Cabinet-Chamber where he used to lie where he continued at his Devotion refusing to dine having before taken the Sacrament onely about an hour before he came forth he drank a glass of Claret wine and eat a piece of bread about twelve at noon From thence he was accompanyed by Dr. Juxon Colonel Thomlinson and other Officers formerly appointed to attend him and the private guard of Partizans with Musketiers on each side through the Banqueting-house adjoyning to which the Scaffold was erected between Whitehall-Gate and the G 〈…〉 ding into the Gallery from S. James's
Seizable and Forfeitable as if you had it but for a year and for your Life Therefore Sir it will concern you to take into your serious consideration your great miscarriages in this kind Truly Sir I shall not particularize the many miscarriages of your Reign whatsoever they are famously known it had been happy for the Kingdom and happy for you too if it had not been so much known and so much felt as the story of your miscarriages must needs be and hath been already Sir That that we are now upon by the command of the highest Court hath been and is to try and judg you for these great offences of yours Sir the Charge hath called you Tyrant a Traytor a Murtherer and a publique Enemy to the Commonwealth of England Sir It had been well if that any of all these terms might rightly and justly have been spared if any one of them at all King Ha Lord Pres Truly Sir We have been told Rex est dum bene regit Tyrannus qui populum oppâ—â—vit and if so be that be the definition of a Tyrant then see how you come short of it in your actions whether the highest Tyrant by that way of Arbitrary Government and that you have sought for to introduce and that you have sought to put you were putting upon the people whether that was not as high an act of Tyranny as any of your predecessors were guilty of nay many degrees beyond it Sir the term Traytor cannot be spared we shall easily agree it must denote and suppose a breach of Trust and it must suppose it to be done by a Superior and therefore Sir as the People of England might have incurred that respecting you if they had been truly guilty of it as to the definition of Law so on the other side when you did break your Trust to the Kingdom you did break your Trust to your Superior For the Kingdom is that for which you were trusted And therefore Sir for this breach of Trust when you are called to account you are called to account by your Superiors Minimus ad majorem in judicium voâ—it And Sir the People of England cannot be so far wanting to themselves which God having dealt so miraculously and gloriously for they having power in their hands and their great Enemy they must proceed to do Justice to themselves and to you For Sir the Court could heartily desire That you would lay your hand upon your heart and consider what you have done amiss That you would endeavor to make your Peace with God Truly Sir These are your high Crimes Tyranny and Treason There is a third thing too if those had not been and that is Murther which is layd to your charge All the bloody Murthers that have been committed since this time that the division was betwixt you and your People must be layd to your charge that have been acted or committed in these late Wars Sir it is an heinous and crying sin and truly Sir if any man will ask us what punishment is due to a Murtherer Let Gods Law let mans Law speak Sir I will presume that you are so well read in Scripture as to know what God himself hath said concerning the shedding of mans blood Gen. 9. Numb 35. will tell you what the punishment is and which this Court in behalf of the Kingdom are sensible of of that innocent blood that has been shed wherby indeed the Land stands stil defiled with that blood as the text hath it It can no way be cleansed but with the shedding of the blood of him that shed this blood Sir we know no Dispensation from this blood in that Commandment Thou shalt do no Murther we do not know but that it extends to Kings as well as to the meanest Peasants the meanest of the People the Command is universal Sir Gods Law forbids it Mans Law forbids nor do we know that there is any manner of exception not even in mans Laws for the punishment of Murther in you 'T is true That in the case of Kings every private hand was not to put forth it self to this work for their Reformation and punishment But Sir the People represented having power in their hands had there been but one wilful act of Murther by you committed had power to have convented you and to have punished you for it But then Sir the weight that lies upon you in all those respects that have been spoken by reason of your Tyranny Treason breach of Trust and the Murthers that have been committed surely Sir it must drive you into a sad consideration concerning your eternal condition as I said at first I know it cannot be pleasing to you to hear any such things as these are mentioned unto you from this Court for so we do call our selves and justifie our selves to be a Court and a High Court of Justice authorized by the highest and solemnest Court of the Kingdom as we have often said and although you do yet endeavor what you may to dis-court us yet we do take knowledg of our selves to be such a Court as can administer Justice to you and we are bound Sir in duty to do it Sir all I shall say before the reading of your Sentence it is but this The Court does heartily desire that you will seriously think of those evils that you stand guilty of Sir you said well to us the other day you wisht us to have God before our eyes Truly Sir I hope all of us have so that God that we know is a King of Kings and Lord of Lords that God with whom there is no respect of persons that God that is the avenger of innocent blood we have that God before us that God that does bestow a curse upon them that with-hold their hands from sheding of blood which is in the case of guilty Malefactors and that do deserve death That God we have before our eyes and were it not that the conscience of our duty hath called us unto this place and this imployment Sir you should have had no appearance of a Court here but Sir we must prefer the discharge of our duty unto God and unto the Kingdom before any other respect whatsoever and although at this time many of us if not all of us are severely threatened by some of your party what they intend to do Sir we do here declare That we shall not decline or forbear the doing of our duty in the administration of Justice even to you according to the merit of your offence although God should permit those men to effect all that bloody design in hand against us Sir we will say and we will declare it as those Children in the fiery furnace that would not worship the golden Image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up That their God was able to deliver them from that danger that they were neer unto but yet if he would not do it yet notwithstanding that they would not fall down and worship the
faithful to the true Protestant Religion in the which I have been bred in the which I have lived and in the which by Gods grace and mercy I shall dye I have not lived according to that education I had in that Family where I was born and bred I hope God will forgive me my sins since I conceive that it is very much his pleasure to bring me to this place for the sins that I have committed The cause that hath brought me hither I beleeve by many hath been much mistaken They have conceived that I have had ill designs to the State and to the Kingdom Truly I look upon it as a Judgment and a just Judgment of God not but I have offended so much the State and the Kingdom and the Parliament as that I have had an extream vanity in serving them very extra-ordinarily For those actions that I have done I think it is known they have been ever very faithful to the Publique and very particularly to Parliaments My affections have been ever exprest truly and clearly to them The dispositions of affairs now have put things in another pasture then they were when I was engaged with the Parliament I have never gone off from those principles that ever I have professed I have lived in them and by Gods grace will dye in them There may be alterations and changes that may carry them further then I thought reasonable and truly there I left them but there hath been nothing that I have said or done or professed either by Covenant or Declaration which hath not been very constant and very clear upon the principles that I ever have gone upon which was to serve the King the Parliament Religion I should have said in the first place the Common-wealth and to seek the Peace of the Kingdom That made me think it no improper time being prest-out by accidents and circumstances to seek the Peace of the Kingdom which I thought was proper since there was something then in agitation but nothing agreed on for sending Propositions to the King that was the furthest aym that I had and truly beyond that I had no intention none at all And God be praised although my blood comes to be shed here there was I think scarcely a drop of blood shed in that action that I was engaged in For the present affairs as they are I cannot tell how to judg of them and truly they are in such a condition as I conceive no body can make a judgment of them and therefore I must make use of my Prayers rather then of my opinion which are that God would bless this Kingdom this Nation this State that he would settle it in a way agreeable to what this Kingdom hath been happily governed under by a King by the Lords by the Commons a Government that I conceive it hath flourished much under and I pray God the change of it bring not rather a prejudice a disorder and a confusion then the contrary I look upon the Posterity of the King and truly my Conscience directs me to it to desire that if God be pleased that these people may look upon them with that affection that they ow that they may be called in again they may be not through blood nor through disorder admited again into that power and to that glory that God in their birth intended to them I shall pray with all my Soul for the happiness of this State of this Nation that the blood which is here spilt may be even the last which may fall among us and truly I should lay down my life with as much cheerfulness as ever person did if I conceived that there would no more blood follow us for a State or Affairs that are built upon blood is a foundation for the most part that doth not prosper After the blessing that I give to the Nation to the Kingdom and truly to the Parliament I do wish with all my heart happiness and a blessing to all those that have been authors in this business and truly that have been authors in this very work that bringeth us hither I do not onely forgive them but I pray heartily and really for them as God will forgive my sins so I desire God may forgive them I have a particular relation as I am Chancellor of Cambridg and truly I must here since it is the last of my prayers pray to God that that Vniversity may go on in that happy way which it is in that God may make it a Nursery to plant those persons that may be distributed to the Kingdom that the Souls of the people may receive a great benefit and a great advantage by them and I hope God will reward them for their kindness and their affections that I have found from them I have said what Religion I have been bred in what Religion I have been born in what Religion I have practised I began with it and I must end with it I told you that my actions and my life have not been agreeable to my breeding I have told you likewise that the Family where I was bred hath been an exemplary Family I may say so I hope without vanity of much affection to Religion and of much faithfulness to this Kingdom and to this State I have endeavored to do those actions that have become an honest man and which became a good Englishman and which became a good Christian I have been willing to oblige those that have been in trouble those that have been in persecution and truly I finde a great reward of it for I have found their prayers and their kindness now in this distress and in this condition I am in and I think it a great reward and I pray God reward them for it I am a great sinner and I hope God will be pleased to hear my prayers to give me faith to trust in him that as he hath called me to death at this place he will make it but a passage to an eternal life through Jesus Christ which I trust to which I rely upon and which I expect by the mercy of God And so I pray God bless you all and send that you may see this to be the last execution and the last blood that is likely to be spilt among you And then turning to the side-rail he prayed for a good space of time after which Mr Bolton said My Lord now look upon him whom you have trusted My Lord I hope that here is your last prayer there will no more prayers remain but praises And I hope that after this day is over there will a day begin that shall never have end And I look upon this my Lord the morning of it the morning of that day My Lord you know where your fulness lies where your riches lie where is your onely rock to anchor on You know there is fulness in Christ If the Lord comes not in with fulness of comfort to you yet resolve to wait upon him
King Charls HIS TRYAL AT THE High Court of Justice sitting in Westminster Hall Begun on Saturday Jan 20. Ended Jan. 27. 1648. Also His Majesties SPEECH On the SCAFFOLD Immediately before his Execution On Tuesday Ian. 30. Together with the Several SPEECHES OF Duke HAMILTON the Earl of HOLLAND and the Lord CAPEL Immediately before their EXECUTION On Friday March 9. 1649. The Second Edition much enlarged and faithfully Corrected LONDON Printed by J. M. for Petâ—â— Cole Francis Tyton and John Playford 1650. King Charls HIS TRYAL AT THE High Court of Justice sitting in Westminster Hall Begun on Saturday January 20. and ended Saturday Jan. 27. 1648. A List of the Names of the Judges and Officers of the High Court of Justice appointed by an Act of the Commons of England in Parliament assembled for the Tryal of the King THomas Lord Fairfax General Oliver Cromwel Lievt General Henry Ireton Commissary General Philip Skippon Major General Sir Hardress Waller Colonel Colonel Valentine Walton Colonel Thomas Harrison Col. Edward Whalley Col. Thomas Pride Col. Isaac Ewers Col. Richard Ingolsby Col. Richard Dean Col. John Okey Col. Robert Overton Col. John Harrison Col. John Desborough Col. William Goff Col. Robert Duckenfield Col. Rowland Wilson Col. Henry Marten Col. William Purefoy Col. Godfrey Bosvil Col. Harbottle Morley Col. John Berkstead Col. Matthew Tomlinson Col. John Lambert Col. Edward Ludlow Col. John Hutchingson Col. Robert Titchburn Col. Owen Roe Col. Robert Manwaring Col. Robert Lilburn Col. Adrian Scroop Col. Alg Sidney Col. John Moore Col. Francis Lassels Col. Alexander Rigby Col. Edm Harvey Col. John Venn Col. Anthony Stapley Col. Thomas Horton Col. Thomas Hammond Col. George Fenwick Col. George Fleetwood Col. James Temple Col. Thomas Wayt. Sir Henry Mildway Sir Thomas Honywood Thomas Lord Grey Philip Lord Lisle William Lord Munson Sir John Danvers Sir Thomas Maleverer Sir John Bowcher Sir James Harrington Sir William Brâ—reton Robert Wallop Esquire William Henningham Esquire Isaac Pennington Alderman Thomas Atkins Alderman Sir Peter Wentworth Thomas Trencherâ— Esquire John Blackstone Esquire Gilbert Millington Esq Sir William Constable Sir Arthur Haslerig Sir Michael Livessey Richard Saloway Esq Humphrey Saloway Esq Cornelius Holland Esq John Carne Esq Sir William Armine John Jones Esq Miles Corbet Esq Francis Allen Esq Thomas Lister Esq Ben Weston Esq Peregrin Pelham Esq John Gourdon Esq Francis Thorp Esq Serjeant at Law John Nutt Esq Thomas Challoner Esq John Anlaby Esq Richard Darley Esq William Say Esq Iohn Aldred Esq Iohn Fagge Esq Iames Nelthorp Esq Sir William Roberts Henry Smith Esq Edmond Wilde Esq Iames Challener Esquire Iosias Barns Esq Dennis Bond Esq Humph Edwards Esq Gregory Clement Esq Iohn Fray Esq Thomas Wogan Esq Sir Gregory Norton Iohn Bradshaw Esq Serjeant at Law Iohn Dove Esq Iohn Foulks Alderman Thomas Scot Alderman Thomas Andrews Alderman William Cawley Esq Abraham Burrel Esq Roger Gratwick Esq Iohn Downes Esq Robert Nichols Esq Serjeant at Law Vincent Potter Esq Sir Gilbert Pickering Iohn Weaver Esquire Iohn Lenthal Esquire Robert Reynolds Esquire Iohn Lisle Esquire Nicholas Love Esquire Sir Edward Baynton John Corbet Esquire Thomas Blunt Eq Thomas Boone Esq Augustine Garland Esquire Augustine Skinner Esq John Dickswel Esq Simon Mayne Esq John Brown Esq John Lowrey Esq John Bradshaw Esq Serjeant at Law Lord President of the Court. Counsellors assistant to the Court and to draw up the Charge against the King are Doctor Dorislow Mr Ask. Mr Steel Attorney General Mr Cook Solicitor General Clerks to the Court. Mr Broughton Mr Phelps Officers of the Court. Serjeant Danby Serjeant at Arms and Mace-Bearer Col. John Humphrey Sword-Bearer Mr King Cryer of the Court. The Messengers and Door-Keepers with Tip-Staves Mr Walford Mr Radley Mr Payn Mr Powel Mr Hull The manner of the Tryal of CHARLES STUART King of England in the great Hall in Westminster ON Saturday being the 20. day of January 1648. The Lord President of the High Court of Justice with neer fourscore of the Members of the said Court having sixteen Gentlemen with Partizans and a Sword and a Mace with their and other Officers of the said Court marching before them came to the place ordered to be prepared for their sitting at the West end of the great Hall at Westminster where the Lord President in a Crimsion Velvet Chair fixed in the midst of the Court placed himself having a Desk with a Crimsion Velvet Cushion before him The rest of the Members placing themselves on each side of him upon the several Seats or Benches prepared and hung with Scarlet for that purpose and the Partizans dividing themselves on each side of the Court before them The Court being thus sate and silence made the great Gate of the said Hall was set open to the end That all persons without exception desirous to see or hear might come into it upon which the Hall was presently filled and silence again ordered This done Colonel Thomlinson who had the charge of the Prisoner was commanded to bring him to the Court who within a quarter of an hours space brought him attended with about twenty Officers with Partizans marching before him there being other Gentlemen to whose care and custody he was likewise committed marching in his Rear Being thus brought up within the face of the Court The Sergeant at Arms with his Mace receives and conducts him streight to the Bar having a Crimsion Velvet Chair set before him After a stern looking upon the Court and the people in the Galleries on each side of him he places himself not at all moving his Hat or otherwise shewing the least respect to the Court but presently rises up again and turns about looking downwards upon the Guards placed on the left side and on the multitude of Spectators on the right side of the said great Hall After Silence made among the people the Act of Parliament for the Trying of CHARLS STVART KING of England was read over by the Clerk of the Court who sate on one side of a Table covered with a rich Turky Carpet and placed at the feet of the said Lord President upon which table was also laid the Sword and Mace After reading the said Act the several names of the Commissioners were called over every one who was present being 80. as aforesaid rising up and answering to his Call Having again placed himself in his Chair with his face towards the Court Silence being again ordered the Lord President stood up and said Lord President CHARLES STVART King of England The Commons of England Assembled in Parliament being deeply sensible of the Calamities that have been brought upon this Nation which is fixed upon you as the principal Author of it have resolved to make inquisition for Blood and according to that Debt and Duty they owe to Justice to God the Kingdom and themselves and according to the Fundamental Power that rests in themselves They have resolved to bring you to Tryal and Judgement and for that purpose have constituted
President in a Scarlet robe with sixty eight other Members of the Court. As the King comes in a cry made in the Hall for Execution Iustice Execution King I shall desire a word to be heard a little and I hope I shall give no occasion of interruption Lord President You may answer in your time hear the Court first King If it please you Sir I desire to be heard and I shall not give any occasion of interruption and it is only in a word a sudden Judgment Lord President Sir you shall be heard in due time but you are to hear the Court first King Sir I desire it will be in order to what I believe the Court will say and therefore Sir an hasty Judgment is not so soon recall'd Lord President Sir You shall be heard before the Judgment be given and in the mean time you may forbear King Well Sir shall I be heard before the Judgment be given Lord President Gentlemen it is well known to all or most of you here present That the Prisoner at the Bar hath been severall times convented and brought before the Court to make Answer to a Charge of Treason and other high crimes exhibited against him in the name of the People of England to which Charge being required to Answer he hath been so far from obeying the commands of the Court by submitting to their Justice as he began to take upon him to offer reasoning and debate unto the Authority of the Court and of the highest Court that constituted them to Try and judge him but being over-ruled in that and required to make his Answer he was still pleased to continue contumacious and to refuse to submit or Answer Hereupon the Court that they may not be wanting to themselves to the trust reposed in them nor that any mans wilfulness prevent Justice they have thought fit to take the matter into their consideration They have considered of the contumacy and of that confession which in Law doth arise upon that contumacy They have likewise considered of the notoriety of the Fact charg'd upon this Prisoner and upon the whole matter they are resolved and have agreed upon a Sentence to be now pronounced against this Prisoner but in respect he doth desire to be heard before the Sentence be read and pronounc'd the Court hath resolved that they will hear him yet Sir thus much I must tell you before-hand which you have been minded of at other Courts That if that you have to say be to offer any debate concerning Jurisdiction you are not to be heard in it you have offered it formerly and you have indeed struck at the root that is the power and Supreme Authority of the Commons of England which this Court will not admit a debate of and which indeed is an irrational thing in them to do being a Court that acts upon Authority derived from them that they should presume to judge upon their Superior from whom there 's no Appeal But Sir if you have any thing to say in defence of your self concerning the matter charged the Court hath given me in command to let you know they will hear you The King Since that I see that you will â—ot hear any thing of debate concerning that which I confess I thought most material for the peace of the Kingdom and for the Liberty of the Subject I shall wave it I shall speak nothing to it but only I must tell you That this many a day all things have been taken away from me but that that I call more dearer to me then my life which is My Conscience and my Honor and if I had respect to my Life more then the Peace of the Kingdom the Liberty of the Subject certainly I should have made a particular defence for my self for by that at leastwise I might have delayed an ugly Sentence which I believe will pass upon me Therefore certainly Sir as a man that hath some understanding some knowledge of the world if that my true zeal to my Country had not over-born the care that I have of my own preservation I should have gone another way to work then that I have done Now Sir I conceive That an hasty Sentence once past may sooner be repented then recalled and truly the self-same desire that I have for the Peace of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject more then my own particular does make me now at last desire That having something for to say that concerns both I desire before Sentence be given that I may be heard in the Painted-Chamber before the Lords and Commons this delay cannot be prejudicial to you whatsoever I say if that I say no reason those that hear me must be Judges I cannot be Judge of that that I have if it be reason and really for the welfare of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject I am sure on 't very well t is worth the hearing Therefore I do conjure you as you love that that you pretend I hope it 's real the Liberty of the Subject the Peace of the Kingdom that you will grant me the hearing before any Sentence be past I only desire this that you will take this into your consideration it may be you have not heard of it before hand if you will I 'le retire and you may think of it but if I cannot get this Liberty I do here protest that so fair shews of Liberty and Peace are pure shews and not otherwise then that you will not hear your KING Lord President Sir you have now spoken King Yes Sir Lord President And this that you have said is a further declining of the Iurisdiction of this Court which was the thing wherein you were limited before King Pray excuse me Sir for my interruption because you mistake me It is not a declining of it you do judge me before you hear me speak I say it will not I do not decline it though I cannot acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Court Yet Sir in this give me leave to say I would do it though I did not acknowledge it in this I do protest it is not the declining of it since I say if that I do say any thing but that that is for the Peace of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject then the shame is mine Now I desire that you will take this into your consideration if you will I 'le withdraw Lord President Sir This is not altogether new that you have moved unto us not altogether new to us though the first time in Person you have offered it to the Court Sir you say you do not Decline the Jurisdiction of the Court. King Not in this that I have said Lord President I understand you well Sir but nevertheless that which you have offered seems to be contrary to that saying of yours for the Court are ready to give a Sentence it is not as you say That they will not hear your King for they have been ready to
and the High Court of Justice the PARLIAMENT of England that are not only the highest Expounders but the sole makers of the Law Sir for you to set your self with your single judgment and those that adhere unto you to set your self against the highest Court of Justice that is not Law Sir as the Law is your Superior so truly Sir there is something that is Superior to the Law and that is indeed the Parent or Author of the Law and that is the People of England For Sir as they are those that at the first as other Countries have done did choose to themselves this Form of Gouernment even for Justice sake that Justice might be administred that Peace might be preserved so Sir they gave Laws to their Governors according to which they should Govern and if those Laws should have proved inconvenient or prejudiciall to the Publique they had a power in them and reserved to themselves to alter as they shall see cause Sir it is very true what some of your side have said Rex non habet parem in Regno This Court will say the same while KING That you have not your Peer in some sense for you are major singulis but they will aver again that you are minor universis and the same Author tels you that in exhibitione Juris there you have no power but in _____ quasi minimus This we know to be Law Rex habet superiorem Deum Legem etiam curiam and so says the same Author and truly Sir he makes bold to go a little further Debent ei ponere frenum they ought to bridle him and Sir we know very well the stories of old Those Wars that were called the Barons Wars when the Nobility of the Land did stand out for the Liberty and Property of the Subject and would not suffer the Kings that did invade to play the Tyrants free◠but called them to account for it we know that truth That they did Frenum ponere But Sir if they do forbear to do their Duty now and are not so mindfull of their own Honor and the Kingdoms good as the Barons of England of old were certainly the Commons of England will not be unmindfull of what is for their preservation and for their safety Justitiae fruendi causâ Reges constituti sunt This we learn the end of having Kings or any other Governors it 's for the enjoying of Justice that 's the end Now Sir if so be the King will go contrary to that End or any other Governor will go contrary to the end of his Government Sir he must understand that he is but an Officer in trust and he ought to discharge that Trust and they are to take order for the animadversion and punishment of such an offending Governor This is not Law of yesterday Sir since the time of the division betwixt you and your People but it is Law of old And we know very well the Authors and the Authorities that do tell us what the Law was in that point upon the Election of Kings upon the Oath that they took unto their People and if they did not observe it there were those things called Parliaments The Parliaments were they that were to adjudge the very words of the Author the plaints and wrongs done of the King and the Queen or their Children such wrongs especially when the People could have no where else any remedy Sir that hath been the People of Englands case they could not have their remedy elsewhere but in Parliament Sir Parliaments were ordained for that purpose to redress the grievances of the People that was their main end and truly Sir if so be that the Kings of England had been rightly mindfull of themselves they were never more in Majesty and State then in the Parliament but how forgetful some have been Stories have told us We have a miserable a lamentable a sad experience of it Sir by the old Laws of England I speak these things the rather to you because you were pleased to let fall the other day you thought you had as much knowledg in the Law as most Gentlemen in England it is very well Sir And truly Sir it is very fit for the Gentlemen of England to understand that Law under which they must live and by which they must be governed And then Sir the Scripture says They that know their Masters will and do it not what follows The Law is your Master the Acts of Parliament The Parliaments were to be kept anciently we find in our old Author twice in the year That the subject upon any occasion might have a ready remedy and redress for his Grievance Afterwards by several Acts of Parliament in the days of your Predecessor Edward the third they must have been once a year Sir what the intermission of PARLIAMENTS hath been in your time it is very well known and the sad Consequences of it and what in the interim instead of these PARLIAMENTS hath been by you by an high and Arbitrary hand introduced upon the People that likewise hath been too well known and felt But when God by his Providence had so far brought it about that you could no longer decline the calling of a Parliament Sir yet it will appear what your ends were against the Ancient and your Native Kingdom of SCOTLAND The Parliament of England not serving your ends against them you were pleased to dissolve it Another great necessity occasioned the calling of this Parliament and what your Designs and Plots and endeavours all along have been for the crushing and confounding of this Parliament hath been very notorious to the whole Kingdom And truly Sir in that you did strike at all That had been a sure way to have brought about that that this Charge laies upon you Your Intention to Subvert the FVNDAMENTAL LAWES of the Land For the great Bulwark of the Liberties of the People is the PARLIAMENT of England and to Subvert and Root up that which your aim hath been to do certainly at one blow you had confounded the liberties and the property of England Truly Sir it makes me call to minde I cannot forbear to express it for Sir we must deal plainly with you according to the merits of your cause so is our Commission it makes me call to mind these proceedings of yours That we read of a great Roman Emperor by the way let us call him a great Roman Tyrant Caligula That wisht that the People of Rome had had but one neck that at one blow he might cut it off and your proceedings hath been somewhat like to this for the body of the People of England hath been and where else represented but in the Parliament and could you have but confounded that you had at one blow cut off the neck of England But God hath reserved better things for us and hath pleased for to Confound your designs and to break your Forces and to bring your Person into Custody that you might
taken I would have digested it into some better method then now I can and shall desire these Gentlemen that does write it that they will not wrong me in it and that it may not in this manner be published to my disadvantage for truly I did not intend to have spoken thus when I came here There is Sirs terrible Aspersions has been laid upon my self truly such as I thank God I am very free from as if my actions and intentions had not been such as they were pretended for but that notwithstanding what I pretended it was for the King there was nothing less intended then to serve him in it I was bred with him for many years I was his Domestique servant and there was nothing declar'd by the Parliament that was not really intended by me and truly in it I ventured my Life one way and now I loose it another way and that was one of the ends as to the King I speak only of that because the rest has many particulars and to clear my self from so horrid an Aspersion as is laid upon me neither was there any other design known to me by the incoming of that Army then what is really in the Declaration published His Person I do profess I had reason to love as he was my King and as he had been my Master it has pleased God now to dispose of him so as it cannot be thought flattery to have said this or any end in me for the saying of it but to free my self from that Calumny which lay upon me I cannot gain by it yet truth is that which we shall gain by for ever There hath been much spoken Sir of an invitation into this Kingdom it 's mentioned in that Declaration and truly to that I did and do remit my self and I have been very much laboured for discoveries of these Inviters 'T is no time to dissemble How willing I was to have served this Nation in any thing that was in my power is known to very many honest Pious and Religious men and how ready I would have been to have done what I could to have served them if it had pleased them to have preserved my Life in whose hands there was a power They have not thought it fit and so I am become unuseful in that which willingly I would have done As I said at first Sir so I say now concerning that point I wish the Kingdoms happiness I wish its peace and truly Sir I wish that this bloud of mine may be the last that is drawn and howsoever I may perhaps have some reluctancie with my my self as to the matter of my suffering for my Fact yet I freely forgive all Sir I carry no rancor along with me to my grave His will be done that has created both heaven and earth and me a poor miserable sinful creature now speaking before him For me to speak Sir to you of State-business and the Government of the Kingdom or my opinion in that or for any thing in that nature Truly it is to no end it contributes nothing My own inclination hath been to Peace from the begining and it is known to many that I never was an ill instrument betwixt the King and his People I never acted to the prejudice of the Parliament I bore no Arms I medled not with it I was not wanting by my Prayers to God Almighty for the happiness of the King and truly I shall pray still that God may so direct him as that may be done which shall tend to his Glory and the peace and happiness of the Kingdome I have not much more to say that I remember of I think I have spoken of my Religion Dr. Sibbald Your Lordship has not so fully said it Cambridg Truly I do believe I did say something Dr. Sibbald I know you did 't is pleasing to hear it from your Lordship again Cambridg Truly Sir for the Profession of my Religion That which I said was the established Religion and that which I have practised in my own Kingdom where I was born and bred my Tenents they need not to be exprest they are known to all and I am not of a rigid opinion many Godly men there is that may have scruples which do not concern me at all at no time they may differ in opinion and more now then at any time differing in Opinion does not move me not any mans my own is clear Sir The Lord forgive me my sins and I forgive freely all those that even I might as a Wordly man have the greatest animosity against We are bidden to forgive Sir 'T is a Command laid upon us and there mentioned Forgive us our Trespasses as We forgive them that trespass against us Dr. Sibbald 'T is our Saviours Rule Love your Enemies blesse them that curse you Pray for them that Persecute you do good to them which despightfully use you Cambridg Sir it is high time for me to make an end of this and truly I remember no more that I have to say but to pray to God Almighty a few words and then I have done Then kneeling down with Doctor Sibbald He prayed thus MOST Blessed Lord I thy poor and most unworthy Servant come to thâ—â— presuming in thy infinite mercy and the merits of Jesus Christ who sits upon the Throne I come flying from that of Justice to that of mercy and tenderness for his sake which shed his bloud for sinners that he would take compassion upon me that he will look upon me as one that graciously hears me that he would look upon me as one that hath redeemed me that he would look upon me as one that hath shed his bloud for me that he would look upon me as one who now cals and hopes to be saved by his Al-sufficient merits for his sake Glorious God have compassion upon me in the freeness of thy infinite mercy that when this sinful Soul of mine shall depart out of this frail carcass of clay I may be carried into thy everlasting Glory O Lord by thy Free-Grace and out of thy infinite mercy hear me and look down and have compassion upon me and thou Lord Iesus thou my Lord and thou my God and thou my Redeemer hear me take pitty upon me take pitty upon me gracious God and so deal with my soul that by thy precious merits I may attain to thy Ioy and Bliss O Lord remember me so miserable and sinful a creature Now thou O Lord thou O Lord that dyed for me receive me and receive me into thy own bound of mercy O Lord I trust in thee suffer me not now to be confounded Satan has had too long possession of this soule O let him not now prevail against it but let me O Lord from henceforth dwell with thee for evermore Now Lord it is thy time to hear me hear me gracious Iesus even for thy own goodness mercy and truth O Glorious God O blessed Father O holy Redeemer O gracious Comforter O
while you live and to trust in him when you dye and then say I will dye here I will perish at thy feet I will be found dead at the feet of Jesus Christ Certainly he that came to seek and save lost sinners will not reject lost sinners when they come to seek him He that intreateth us to come will not slight us when we come to intreat him My Lord there is enough there and fix your heart there and fix your eyes there that eye of Faith and that eye of hope exercise these graces now there wil be no exercise herafter As your Lordship said here take an end of Faith and take an end of Hope and take a farewel of Repentance and all these and welcom God and welcom Christ and welcom Glory welcom Happiness to all Eternity and so it will be a happy passage then if it be a passage here from misery to happiness And though it be but a sad way yet if it will bring you into the presence of joy although it be a vally of tears although it be a shadow of death yet if God wil please to bring you and make it a passage to that happiness welcom Lord. And I doubt not but God will give you a heart to taste some sweetness and love in this bitter potion and to see something of mercy and goodness to you and shew you some sign and token of good so that your soul may see that which we have had already experience of blessed be God for it many experiences many expressions not only in words but tears God hath not left us without much comfort nor evidence and I hope my Lord you that have given so many evidences to us I hope you want none your self but that the Lord will be pleased to uphold and support you and bear up your spirit and if there want evidence there is reliance my security lies not in my knowing that I shall come to heaven and come to glory but in my resting and relying upon him When the Anchor of Faith is thrown out there may be shakings and tossings but there is safety nothing shall interrupt safety although something may interrupt security my safety is sure although I apprehend it not And what if I go to God in the dark What if I come to him as Nicodemus did staggering in the night It is a night of trouble a night of darkness though I come trembling and staggering in this night yet I shall be sure to find comfort and fixedness in him And the Lord of heaven be the strength stay and the support of your soul and the Lord furnish you with all those graces which may carry you into the bosom of the Lord Jesus that when you expire this life you may be able to expire it into him in whom you may begin to live to all eternity and that is my humble prayer Holland Mr Bolton God hath given me long time in this world he hath carried me through many great accidents of Fortune he hath at last brought me down into a condition where I find my self brought to an end for a disaffection to this State to this Parliament that as I said before I did believe no body in the world more unlikely to have expected to suffer for that Cause I look upon it as a great Judgment of God for my sins And truly Sir since that the death is violent I am the less troubled with it because of those violent deaths that I have seen before principally my Saviour that hath shewed us the way how and in what manner he hath done it and for what cause I am the more comforted I am the more rejoyced It is not long since the King my Master passed in the same manner and truly I hope that his purposes and intentions were such as a man may not be ashamed not only to follow him in the way that was taken with him but likewise not ashamed of his purposes if God had given him life I have often disputed with him concerning many things of this kind and I conceive his sufferings and his better knowledg and better understanding if God had spared him life might have made him a Prince very happy towards himself and very happy towards this Kingdom I have seen and known that those blessed Souls in Heaven have passed thither by the gate of sorrow and many by the gate of violence and since it is Gods pleasure to dispose me this way I submit my soul to him with all comfort and with all hope that he hath made this my end and this my conclusion that though I be low in death yet nevertheless this lowness shall raise me to the highest glory for ever Truly I have not said much in publique to the People concerning the particular actions that I conceive I have done by my counsels in this Kingdom I conceive they are well known it were something of vanity methinks to take notice of them here I 'le rather dye with them with the comfort of them in my own bosom and that I never intended in this action or any action that ever I did in my life either malice or bloodshed or prejudice to any creature that lives For that which concerns my Religion I made my profession before of it how I was bred and in what manner I was bred in a Family that was looked upon to be no little notorious in opposition to some liberties that they conceived then to be taken and truly there was some mark upon me as if I had some taint of it even throughout my whole ways that I have taken every body knows what my affections have been to many that have suffered to many that have been in troubles in this Kingdom I endeavored to relieve them I endeavored to oblige them I thought I was tied so by my Conscience I thought it by my Charity and truly very much by my Breeding God hath now brought me to the last instant of my time all that I can say and all that I can adhere unto is this That as I am a great sinner so I have a great Saviour that as he hath given me here a fortune to come publiquely in a shew of shame in the way of this suffering truly I understand it not to be so I understand it to be a glory a glory when I consider who hath gone before me and a glory when I consider I had no end in it but what I conceive to be the service of God the King and the Kingdom and therefore my Heart is not charged much with any thing in that particular since I conceive God will accept of the intention whatsoever the action seem to be I am going to dye and the Lord receive my Soul I have no reliance but upon Christ for my self I do acknowledg that I am the unworthiest of sinners my life hath been a vanity and a continued sin and God may justly bring me to this end for the sins I have