the most inferiour of which companie carries better blood in their veines because untainted then the proudest Adversarie that fights against them and I trust God will preserve it as preciously and the Citie wherein they are High exceeding high alreadie is the Honour of that Citie for being the Citie wherein Lucius Helena and Constantine the first Christian King Empresse and Emperour in the world were borne And it may please the Lord in his mercie notwithstanding our multiplied iniquities crying so loud for the contrarie to rayse its honour yet much higher by making it the Citie wherein King Charles the most Religious of Christian Kings the Established Religion of the Church of England the Helena or Empresse of Christian Religion and the Incomparable Lawes and Liberties of this Kingdome which for equitie and Christianitie deserve the Crowne Imperiall of the World shall be preserved from ruine and be restored to their pristine glory The same Almightie God that wrought that first great Work in that Citie is all-sufficiently able there even there to accomplish this second And we humbly beseech him that neither their nor our sinnes may separate betweene his blessing and their Loyall and Christian indeavours to that purpose and whatever the successe be that that Citie nor those Worthies that are in it may never want their due honour nor his gracious protection and comforts But suppose the worst Suppose that by your ingagement against that Citie and those Worthies in it their Enemies should prevaile over them to their and this whole Kingdomes further weltering in blood must not their and the rest of the blood of this Kingdome be charged upon your score When as if you had but sat still and not ingaged against them as you were by many bonds never to be cancelled obliged to doe there had not beene in all probalitie at this time any Enemies to Peace or thirsters after Blood that durst to have showne themselves so throughout the whole Nation And therefore what will God say or doe unto you when he comes to make inquisition for blood to avenge it This is the bloody Countie that had Peace layd at their feet and trampled on it that had Peace brought home to their doores and not onely shut it out but called to bloodie Warre to enter in that had many thousands of their fellow Brethren and Neighbours that would have ventured their lives to have preserved them in Peace and they chose rather to lose many of their owne lives to take away some of theirs They loved not Peace therefore it shall be farre from them they delighted in Warre therefore shall it cleave close to them and they thirsted for blood therefore shall they be drunke with their owne blood Doe not thinke that I speake more in Gods Name then I have warrant from Gods Word for though ye have bin too long used so and abused by such lying Prophets Search the Scriptures and observe from thence what God speakes of the shedding of blood and you I find that I speak very sparingly as having regard to your infirmities For there God tells you That shedding of blood is one of those crying sinnes which makes a land to mourne and every one that dwelleth therein to languish Hos 4. v. 2.3 That blood defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein or there can be no expiation for the Land but by the blood of him that shed it and that If a people would have God to dwell among them they must not so defile the land which they inhabit Numb 35. v. 33.34 That the shedding of innocent blood is such a sinne that of all other horrid sinnes the Lord will not pardon 2 King 24. v. 4. And therefore no satisfaction was to be taken for the life of a murtherer which was guiltie of death but he was to be surely put to death Numb 35. v. 31. with a multitude of other sayings on that subject that are to be trembled at by the Rebellious Subjects of this Kingdome 'T is true if a man killed any person unawares there were Cities of refuge appointed by God for such a one to flye unto from the avenger of blood but Oh my poore Countrey-men what Cities of refuge can ye fancie to your selves who wilfully murther your brethren And what lesse can the King say of you then this or to this effect The Countie of Suffolke 't is the most Rebellious Countie of all my Dominions For when one of my Kingdomes moved not against me when a second rose up for me and when the third Petitioned for me from almost all parts and tooke up Armes for me in most parts they of Suffolke neither Petitioned for me nor moved for me but rose up against me and when Rebellion was expiring its last poysonous breath they hazarded their owne lives to prolong its life and to preserve the lives of those Rebells that seeke nothing more then to take away mine When thousands of my Loyall Subjects were indeavouring to fetch me out of my Cruell Bondage and Imprisonment then they helpt to besiege and imprison to kill murther those very Subjects and when others with them were making what haste they could to set my Crowne againe firme on my head and to restore me againe to those Rights Honours and Comforts which I was wont to injoy they did what they could to throw my Crowne back againe to the ground and to keepe mine Honour still in the dust and me from all hopes of enjoying any Rights or externall Comforts here in this life Thus have they indeavoured to continue and adde to my Miseries who have therefore indured such Miseries in such Extremities because I would not yeeld to the delivering up of them amongst others to extreme Slavery and Tyranny Thus have they not onely fought against me without a cause but for the love that I had unto them they take now my contrarie part and have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my good will But I give my selfe unto Prayer Stirre up thy selfe and awake to my judgement even unto my Cause my God and my Lord. Judge me O Lord according to thy righteousnesse and let them not rejoyce over me Psal 35. Let them not say in their hearts Ah so would we have it Let them not say We have swallowed him up Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoyce at my hurt Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnifie themselves against me Let them shout for joy and be glad that favour my righteous Cause yea let them say continually Let the Lord be magnified which hath pleasure in the prosperitie of his servant and my tongue shall speake of thy righteousnesse and of thy prayse all the day long Amen Amen But what then will all the other Counties of England say of you O bewitched besotted Countie of Suffolke They that had lived in peace and plentie all these times when in the most
to the height of cruelty and proceeded against them onely by Votes and Ordinances or by illegall Judges and unwarrantable Juries and other unheard of proces Or to bring the answer yet closer If the Rebellion and Blood guiltinesse of this Nation be to be charged upon the King and his loyall Subjects why doe they of the other part that have shewn so much mercy to them despair of all security or at least distrust all the security that can be given them against the known established Laws of this Kingdome What need they any act of Indemnity or Oblivion What need they any Pardon from the King or any security against him or his party Let the King live and the Law run in her course might be their wish rather then any's But alas their Consciences tell them That if the King and his party should return to their own just power and rights again and the Laws of this Kingdome to their due force and vigor and they should be no more mercifull to them then they have been just to them or then the Laws are favourable to their courses they and theirs would indeed as they say be but in a miserable condition But whereas they from thence resolve That therfore surely 't is their best course to stand still upon their justification and to go on to the last as hitherto they have done That is but a deceitfull as well as an impious resolution Impious it is and that so hideously impious that I will spend no more breath in declaring the impiety of it then by telling you that this is despaire worse then Caines Gen. 4. for when he had slain his brother and God had told him of the cry of his brothers blood and what panishment he must suffer for it he did not resolve to go on in his shedding more bloods but the guilt of that blood which he had shed did so torment him that he was afraid that every one that should find him would shed his blood and therefore I know not with what desperate wicked resolution to match this unlesse it be with that of Judahs before mentioned though in other words and from another text when they returned this answer to the Prophet Jeremiah Jer. 2.25 There is no hope No for I have loved strangers and after them will I goe And I may say of them that so resolve v. 26. as the Prophet saith of those of Judah in the next words As the theife is ashamed when he is found c. so will they be ashamed when God shall in his inquisition for blood and other iniquities 1 sal 37. finde them out and bring them to shame they their Kings for they have set up many Kings for one their Princes their Priests their Prophets And for the deceitfulnesse of this resolution â—o Doe but rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him not fearing thy selfe because of him who prospereth in his way because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to passe c. and behold yet within a little while and the wicked shall not be Yea thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be And though the wicked still plotteth against the just Ih. and gnasheth upon him with his teeth Yet the Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth that his day is comming And that sword which the wicked have drawn out to slay such as be of upright conversation shall enter into their own bea rt But I desire to forwarn and not to forejudge and therefore suffer a word of expostulation before I return you back this objection so answered as I desire it Why do any of you despaire of your safetie and securitie if you should now return to your obedience and dutie Doe you distrust the mercy of the King The truth is your foule breach of Faith to him and your high Rebellion against him have been such as would provoke the meekest and most mercifull Prince that ever lived even Moses himselfe to excessive wrath and indignation Yea so farre was Moses provoked by a lesse Rebellion then this that he that had so often interceded with the Lord for that people when the Lord was ready to destroy them Num. 16 did in the heat of that Rebellion pray against them at least against the ring-leaders of them But what was sometimes said of the Kings of Israel in generall That they were mercifull Kings 1 Kings 20. v. 31 is most true of the present King of England in particular He is a mercifull King indeed few Kings ever matcht him for that grace It hath been made a great objection against him that he is too mercifull and this to be sure He hath been so mercifull all these merciless times through as well as formerly that the presuming upon his mercy above his enemies justice hath seduced not a few that have professed themselves to be his friends to joyn with his enemies and they have not been ashamed to say that they would rather hazard their lives and all that they had upon the hope of his mercy then expose ought of theirs to the power of his adversaries And if the censure of his reall friends indeed as well as his pretending be not extremly out of the way King Charles his mercy hath been occasionally by others abusing it none of the least advantages to his Enemies for their bringing him and his to so much misery and yet for my part though it were so I verily believe he will be no looser by it in the end if he be not a saver by it already For the God of mercy will not nor hath not already let that mercy of his go unrewarded And for mercifulnesse hereafter Surely the mercies of God to him in his miseries and afflictions and the good which those afflictions and miseries sanctified unto him have wrought in him will not render him lesse mercifull then before but rather far more as having therein tasted so much of the sweet fruits of his former mercifulnesse O most pious and gracious Prince how hath he oftentimes wept for griefe at the folly and madnesse of his Subjects in these Rebellious times and how much more would he now weep for joy to see any of them acknowledge their folly and madnesse and to return to their wits and to their duties without doubt if that were done they should not need to crave or beg his Pardon He would prevent them by proclaiming it before they should aske it Luke 15. and like the Father of the Prodigall representing God the Father himselfe he would run to meet them if he saw them comming though afar off and weep on their necks before they could throw themselves at his feet yea and think no entertainment to deare for them though some of his other Sonnes that have all this while obeyed and served him should perchance murmure at it An my deare Country-men King Charles hath not left out of his prayers that petition of beseeching
such cause only they made use of that suggestion to further their mischievous designe of murthering the innocent had at last the Romans brought upon them indeed and were utterly ruined by them The factious tumultuous people of this Nation have in all other things the most resembled the pharisees that ever did any people God of his mercy grant that they do not also resemble them in this 3. Next to the consideration of the dangerous and deplorable condition of Religion here in this Kingdome be pleased as many of you as have any spark of Religion in you timely to consider the state and condition of your King I forbeare the assaying any description of his condition because 't is so well knowne and so far beyond the being comprehensible in a description by the best of Artists as I likewise abstaine from all Epithetes or Periphrases to set it out by or to set mens passions on worke to condole it the condition of our King being above all sympathie of passion even of his most loving and compassionate Subjects as well as expression of language of the most fluent and passionate of Orators I have heard it objected against a reverend and deare brother-sufferer in these times though without any just cause alledged that he ascends too high when he compares so many of our Kings sufferings with some of our Saviours which I am assured he did neither with the least intent of flattering his Majestie then in no condition to be flattered nor without all due feare of approaching neer the verge of Blasphemy then and ever so much abhorred by him but on the other side with all due honour to our blessed Saviours sufferings and with no small comfort to the King and to all that suffered with them that his sufferings were and are so conformable to them and he himselfe therein to his and our Saviours image And although I sleight the objection Phil. 3.10 Rom. 8.29 yet I shall avoid the occasion of having any such throwne in my way and because I may not without some scandall taken make use of any such comparison I shall not compare them at all with anie other sufferings there being none other that ever I have read or heard of that do in all respects match them Take them therefore in their bare narration thus Charles King of Great Britaine the first of that name the only surviving Son and the immediate successour to his royall Father King James to whom this whole Kingdome by their Representatives in Parliament after a large commemoration of the inestimable and unspeakable benefits as they truly called them powred upon this Nation by his becoming our King 1. Jacob. 1. and after great and high expressions of joy and rejoying at the same not forgetting their thanks to Almighty God for that blessing as also after a modest repetition of that their Soveraignes personall gifts and graces and the assured fruits and effects thereof which they had tasted in that little time of his Government together with an humble and hearty profession of constant faith obedience and loyalty to his Majesty and to his Royall Progeny made this acknowledgement and promise in these very words We therefore your most humble and loyall Subjects the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled do from the bottome of our hearts yeeld to the diuine Majesty all humble thanks and praises not onely for the said unspeakable and inestimable benefits and blessings before mentioned but also that he hath further inriched your Highnesse with a most Royall Progenie of most rare and excellent gifts and forwardnesse and in his goodnesse is like to increase the happy number of them And in most humble and lowly manner do beseech your most excellent Majesty that as a memoriall to all posterities amongst the Records of your high Court of Parliament for euer to endure of our Loyalty obedience and hearty and humble affection it may be published and declared in this high Court of Parliament and enacted by authority of the saute that we being bounden thereunto both by the Lawes of God and man doe recognize and acknowledge and thereby expresse our unspeakable joyes that immediately upon the dissolution and decease of ELIZABETH late Quéen of England the Imperiall Crowne of the Realme of England and of all the Kingdomes Dominions Rights belonging to the same did by Inherent birthright and lawfull and undoubted succession descend and come to your most excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heire of the Blood Royall of this Realme as is aforesaid And that by the goodnesse of Almighty God lawfull Right of Descent under one Imperiall Crown your Majesty is of the Realmes and Kingdomes of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty King and by Gods goodnesse more able to protect and gouerne us your louing Subjects in all peace and plenty then any of your noble Progenitors And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully submit and oblige our selues our Heires and Posterities for euer untill the last drop of our bloods be spent And do beseech your Majesty to accept the same as the first fruits in this high Court of Parliament of our loyalty and faith to your Majesty and your Royall Progeny and Posterity for euer O the shamelesse degeneration and falsification of these times CHARLES to whom his Subjects each one for himself and in particular every Member of the House of Commons when he was admitted a Member of that House solemnly sware That he did testifie and declare in his conscience that he the Kings Highnesse is the onely supreme Gouernour of this Realm and of all other his Highnesse Dominions and Countries as well in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or Causes as Temporall c. And that he would beare Faith and true Allegiance to the Kings Highnesse his Heires and lawfull Successors and to his power assist defend all Iurisdictions Priuiledges Preheminences Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highnes His Heires and Successors c. as followes in the Oath of Supremacy as also againe in the Oath of Allegiance That he would beare Faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty his Heires and Surcessors and him and them would defend to the uttermost of his power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoeuer which should be made against his or their Persons their Crowne and Dignity by reason or colour of any sentence of Excommunication or Depriuation made or granted by the Pope c. or otherwise and would do his best endeauour to disclose and make known unto His Majesty his Heires and Successors all Treasons and traiterous conspiracies which he should know or heare of to be against him or any of them Oh the damnable perjury of these times CHARLES whose Person Honour and Estate the same Members of the House of Commons did on May 3. 1641. in the presence of Almighty God promise vow and protest to maintain and
be avouched and will be by those that know them of the rest of those Worthies that are with them infinitely beyond what can be affirmed of the most select Regiment yea Troop that the adverse Army can cull out But I speake only of those two because the people have spoken most of them and they are best knowne to mee and indeed so well knowne are they to mee that I should have been more guilty of bearing false witnesse then they of raising such a false report had I not vindicated their Honours from such a notorious calumnie And now that they are named suffer me to interpose this one word more concerning them If there be any thing besides their known loyaltie that does exasperate the factious seditious party against them 't is their eminent and approved firmenesse and immoveablenesse in the Protestant Religion And if they should miscarry in this action which I shall with all earnestnesse and constancie as all that wish well to this languishing Church and state ought to do pray that they may not the Protestants would find as great a losse in them as in any of their Peeres within the three Kingdomes But I have severed them too long from their honourable and ever to be honoured society and fellow-Souldierie Are they not all or the most of them men of known tried integrity and honesty and many of them your very next neighbours and have they not so proved themselves by their Declarations Remonstrances and actions Do they not all professe clearly that they have and do ingage themselves in this present undertaking only for the defence and preservation of the established Protestant Religion for the delivering their Soveraigne from bondage and imprisonment and from being murdered therein for the restoring of his Majesty to his lawful Government just rights and throne in Parliament for the maintenance of the known Lawes of the land and the rights Liberties and properties of their fellow-subjects and for the procuring and setling of a firme and happy peace in this miserably divided and all most utterly ruined Kingdome would to God that the Army which call themselves the Parliaments when they please had declared or would but yet declare halfe so much and give such assurance for the performance thereof as those Worthies will give and then it might be hoped that these unnaturall warres would soone be ended But when so many of that Army have so openly declared and proclaimed the contrary to all these and some of them have been bold to say that they fought neither for King nor Parliament and that they had above sixty thousand to be at eight houres warning to fight both against King and Parliament and have given very observable earnests of their having too many in a readinesse by their sudden raising such considerable Troopes and Regiments of such and wholly such within very few daies It is high time for all those that would not bee gull'd cheated or forced out of all those forenamed comforts and honours to betake themselves to their armes for their defence maintainance and continuance And what a staine shame and reproach will it be to you of this Countie and to your Posterities after you That when such men of such knowne honour and integritie and of such approved firmnesse and fidelity to their Religion King and Countrie like those renowned Worthies eternized by the Spirit of God to memory and imitation jeoparded their lives to death in the high places of the field for the defence and maintainance of those very truths and rights Judg. 5. which ye your selves have often sworne and protested and doe still pretend and professe to defend and maintaine and that against the most base perfidious pernicious seditious trayterous bloodie tyrannous professed and proclaimed Enemies thereof yee not onely deserted them and came not out to their helpe To the helpe of the Lord against his and their adversaries but rose up and came out against them and cast in your lot with those Adversaries that lay waite for blood for the blood of Kings Princes Priests and people Prov. 1. and lurke privily for the innocent without a cause not considering that by so doing ye lay wait for your owne blood and lurke privily for your owne lives And so my poore Countrey-men I come a little closer yet to your selves and to the consideration of your owne state and condition and then I shall commend you to Gods mercy if by your repentance ye shall render your selves capable thereof How little you of this Countie have beene sensible of the miseries and distresses of your fellow Subjects and Brethren and how much you have contributed to them I leave to your owne conscience to examine and to your selves to judge your selves for them Only take these two conclusions along with you as two inseparable consequents of those two premises First That mers not being sensible of their brethrens miseries Amos 6. from v. 2. to v. 12. Isa 22. v. 12 13 14. Jer. 4. v. 8 10. u. and chap. 12. v. 11. and so not taking warning by them pulls so much the more certaine and sore judgments upon themselves they that remember not Texts of Scripture enough to that purpose consult those in the margent Secondly That when God hath made use of any people to scourge others by for their sinnes and iniquities as he usually does of the worse to scourge the better he does constantly cast that his rod into the fire and punish that people the more severely by whom he hath severely punished others and one principall Reason thereof is because they whom God makes use of as his scourge to others doe with Gods chastisement or vengeance for their sinnes constantly intermix their owne malice and other iniquities in chastising and taking vengeance on them And this conclusion you have confirmed in each circumstance by many remarkable and cleare examples as one of the Bookes of the Prophets namely in Ezekiels Prophesie As in Gods dealing with the Ammonites the Moabites and those of Mount-Seir the Edomites and the Philistines Ezek. 25. with those of Tyrus chap. 26. with those of Zidon chap. 28. with Pharoah and all Egypt chap. 29. and with the rest of the heathen chap. 36. All which people had beene at severall times scourges to the people of Israel and Judah and are in that relation there called to an account adjuged by God to those judgements And though you may from these sad conclusions see evidence enough of your hastning Calamities yet there are other visible symptomes of your approaching Miseries which may perchance more awaken you as crying yet somewhat louder unto you and at lesse distance either to repent speedily or to expect swift destruction suddainly As first What thinke ye will be the inevitable consequents of your late ingagement against those Worthies of our David before but never too often named to their honour and your shame those English Heroes those Lords Knights Gentlemen Yeomen and others in renowned Colchester