hath shed his Or if the guilt of our great Sins cause this Treaty to break off in vain Lord let the Truth clearly appear who those men are which under pretence of the Publick Good do pursue their own private ends that this People may be no longer so blindly miserable as not to see at least in this their day the things that belong unto their Peace Grant this gracious God for His sake who is our Peace it self even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen III. A Prayer drawn by His MAJESTY's special directions for a Blessing on the Treaty at Newport in the Isle of Wight O Most merciful Father Lord God of Peace and Truth we a People sorely afflicted by the scourge of an unnatural War do here earnestly beseech Thee to command a Blessing from Heaven upon this Treaty brought about by Thy Providence and the only visible remedy left for the establishment of an happy Peace Soften the most obdurate hearts with a true Christian desire of saving those mens blood for whom Christ himself hath shed His. O Lord let not the guilt of our Sins cause this Treaty to break off but let the Truth of Thy Spirit so clearly shine in our minds that all private ends laid aside we may every one of us heartily and sincerely pursue the Publick Good and that thy People may be no longer so blindly miserable as not to see at least in this their day the things that belong unto their Peace Grant this gracious God for His sake who is our Peace it self even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen IV. A Prayer for Pardon of Sin ALmighty and most merciful Father look down upon Me thy unworthy Servant who here prostrate My self at the Footstool of thy Throne of Grace but look upon Me O Father through the Mediation and in the Merits of Jesus Christ in whom Thou art only well pleased for of My self I am not worthy to stand before Thee or to speak with my unclean lips to Thee most Holy and Eternal God For as in sin I was conceived and born so likewise I have broken all thy Commandments by my sinful Motions unclean Thoughts evil Words and wicked Works omitting many Duties I ought to do and committing many Vices which Thou hast forbidden under pain of thy heavy displeasure As for my Sins O Lord they are innumerable wherefore I stand here liable to all the Miseries in this life and everlasting Torments in that to come if Thou shouldst deal with Me according to My deserts I confess O Lord that it is Thy Mercy which endureth for ever and Thy Compassion which never fails which is the cause that I have not been long ago consumed But with Thee there is Mercy and plenteous Redemption In the multitude therefore of thy Mercies and by the Merits of Jesus Christ I entreat thy Divine Majesty that Thou wouldst not enter into Judgement with thy Servant nor be extream to mark what is done amiss but be Thou merciful unto Me and wash away all my Sins with that precious Blood that my Saviour shed for Me. And I beseech Thee O Lord not only to wash away all my Sins but also to purge my Heart by thy Holy Spirit from the dross of my natural Corruption And as Thou dost add days to my Life so Good Lord I beseech Thee to add Repentance to my days that when I have pass'd this mortal life I may be partaker of thy everlasting Kingdom through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen V. A Prayer and Confession in and for the times of Affliction ALmighty and most merciful Father as it is only Thy goodness that admits of our imperfect Prayers and the knowledge that Thy Mercies are infinite which can give us any hope of Thy accepting or granting them so it is our bounden and necessary Duty to confess our Sins freely unto Thee And of all men living I have most need most reason so to do no man living having been so much obliged by Thee that degree of Knowledge which Thou hast given Me adding likewise to the guilt of my Transgressions For was it through Ignorance that I suffered innocent blood to be shed by a false pretended way of Justice or that I permitted a wrong way of thy Worship to be set up in Scotland and injured the Bishops in England O no but with shame and grief I confess that I therein followed the perswasions of worldly Wisdom forsaking the Dictates of a right-informed Conscience Wherefore O Lord I have no excuse to make no hope left but in the multitude of Thy Mercies for I know my Repentance weak and my Prayers faulty Grant therefore merciful Father so to strengthen my Repentance and amend my Prayers that Thou maist clear the way for thine own Mercies to which O let thy Justice at last give place putting a speedy end to my deserved Afflictions In the mean time give Me Patience to endure Constancy against Temptations and a discerning spirit to chuse what is best for Thy Church and People which Thou hast committed to My Charge Grant this O most merciful Father for thy Son Jesus Christ's sake our only Saviour Amen VI. A Prayer in time of Captivity O Powerful and eternal God to whom nothing is so great that it may resist or so small that it is contemned look upon My Misery with Thine Eye of Mercy and let thy infinite Power vouchsafe to limit out some proportion of deliverance unto Me as to Thee shall seem most convenient Let not injury O Lord triumph over Me and let my faults by Thy Hand be corrected and make not my unjust Enemies the Ministers of thy Justice But yet my God if in thy Wisdom this be the aptest chastisement for my unexcusable Transgressions if this ungrateful bondage be fittest for my over-high desires if the pride of my not enough humble Heart be thus to be broken O Lord I yield unto Thy Will and chearfully embrace what sorrow Thou wilt have Me suffer Only thus much let Me crave of Thee let my craving O Lord be accepted of since it even proceeds from Thee that by thy Goodness which is Thy self Thou wilt suffer some beam of thy Majesty so to shine in my mind that I who acknowledge it my noblest Title to be Thy Creature may still in my greatest Afflictions depend confidently on Thee Let Calamity be the exercise but not the overthrow of my Vertue O let not their prevailing power be to My Destruction And if it be thy Will that they more and more vex Me with punishment yet O Lord never let their Wickedness have such a hand but that I may still carry a pure mind and stedfast resolution ever to serve Thee without Fear or Presumption yet with that humble Confidence which may best please Thee so that at the last I may come to thy eternal Kingdom through the Merits of thy Son our alone Saviour Jesus Christ Amen VII A Prayer in time of imminent Danger O Most merciful Father
think in my Conscience to be against thy Glory the good of my Subjects and the discharge of my own duty to Reason and Justice Make Me willing to suffer the greatest Indignities and Injuries they press upon Me rather than commit the least sin against my Conscience Let the just Liberties of my People be as well they may preserved in fair and equal ways without the slavery of my Soul Thou that hast invested Me by thy Favours in the power of a Christian King suffer Me not to subject my Reason to other mens Passions and Designs which to Me seem unreasonable unjust and irreligious So shall I serve Thee in the truth and uprightness of my Heart tho I cannot satisfie these men Though I be driven from among them yet give Me grace to walk always uprightly before Thee Lead Me in the way of Truth and Justice for these I know will bring Me at last to Peace and Happiness with Thee though for these I have much trouble among men This I beg of Thee for my Saviours sake VII Vpon the QUEENS Departure and Absence out of ENGLAND ALthough I have much cause to be troubled at my Wifes departure from Me and out of my Dominions yet not her absence so much as the scandal of that Necessity which drives Her away doth afflict Me That She should be compelled by My own Subjects and those pretending to be Protestants to withdraw for her Safety This being the first example of any Protestant Subjects that have taken up Arms against their King a Protestant For I look upon this now done in England as another Act of the same Tragedy which was lately begun in Scotland the brands of that fire being ill quenched have kindled the like flames here I fear such motions so little to the adorning of the Protestant profession may occasion a further alienation of Mind and divorce of Affections in Her from that Religion which is the only thing wherein We differ Which yet God can and I pray he would in time take away and not suffer these practices to be any obstruction to her Judgment since it is the motion of those men for the most part who are yet to seek and settle their Religion for Doctrine Government and good Manners and so not to be imputed to the true English Protestants who continue firm to their former setled Principles and Laws I am sorry my relation to so deserving a Lady should be any occasion of her Danger and Affliction whose Merits would have served her for a protection among the savage Indians while their Rudeness and Barbarity knows not so perfectly to hate all Virtues as some mens Subtilty doth among whom I yet think few are so malicious as to hate Her for Her self The fault is That She is my Wife All Justice then as well as Affection commands Me to study Her Security who is only in danger for My sake I am content to be tossed weather-beaten and shipwrackt so as She may be in safe Harbor This comfort I shall enjoy by Her Safety in the midst of My Personal Dangers that I can perish but half if She be preserved In whose Memory and hopeful Posterity I may yet survive the Malice of My Enemies altho they should be satiated with my Blood I must leave her and Them to the Love and Loyalty of my good Subjects and to his Protection who is able to punish the Faults of Princes and no less severely to revenge the Injuries done to Them by those who in all duty and Allegiance ought to have made good that Safety which the Laws chiefly provide for Princes But common Civility is in vain expected from those that dispute their Loyalty Nor can it be safe for any relation to a King to tarry among them who are shaking hands with their Allegiance under pretence of laying faster hold on their Religion 'T is pity so noble and peaceful a Soul should see much more suffer the Rudeness of those who must make up their want of Justice with Inhumanity and Impudence Her sympathy with Me in my Afflictions will make her Virtues shine with greater lustre as Stars in the darkest nights and assure the envious world that She loves Me not my Fortunes Neither of Us but can easily forgive since We do not much blame the unkindness of the Generality and Vulgar for we see God is pleased to try both our Patience by the most self-punishing sin the Ingratitude of those who having eaten of our Bread and being enriched with our Bounty have scornfully lift up themselves against Us and those of our own Houshold are become our Enemies I pray God lay not their sin to their charge who think to fatisfie all obligations to duty by their Corban of Religion and can less endure to see than to sin against their Benefactors as well as their Soveraigns But even that Policy of my Enemies is so far venial as it was necessary to their designs by scandalous Articles and all irreverent demeanor to seek to drive Her out of my Kingdoms lest by the influence of her Example eminent for Love as a Wife and Loyalty as a Subject She should have converted to or retained in their Love and Loyalty all those whom they had a purpose to pervert The less I may be blest with her company the more I will retire to God and my own Heart whence no Malice can banish Her My Enemies may envy but they can never deprive Me of the enjoyment of her Virtues while I enjoy My self Thou O Lord whose Justice at present sees fit to scatter Vs let thy Mercy in the due time re-unite Vs on Earth if it be thy Will however bring Vs both at last to thy Heavenly Kingdom Preserve Vs from the hands of our despiteful and deadly Enemies and prepare Vs by our Sufferings for thy presence Tho We differ in some things as to Religion which is my greatest temporal Infelicity yet Lord give and accept the sincerity of our Affections which desire to seek to find to embrace every Truth of thine Let both our hearts agree in the Love of thy self and Christ crucified for us Teach Vs both what Thou wouldst have Vs to know in order to thy Glory our publick relations and our Souls eternal good and make Vs careful to do what good We know Let neither Ignorance of what is necessary to be known nor Vnbelief or Disobedience to what We know be our misery or our wilful default Let not this great Scandal of those my Subjects which profess the same Religion with Me be any hindrance to her love of any Truth thou wouldst have Her to learn nor any hardning of Her in any Error Thou wouldst have cleared to Her Let mine and other mens Constancy be an Antidote against the poyson of their Example Let the truth of that Religion I profess be represented to Her Judgment with all the beauties of Humility Loyalty Charity and Peaceableness which are the proper fruits and ornaments of it not
actions But Thou O Lord who hast in so remarkable a way avenged thy Servant suffer Me not to take any secret pleasure in it for as his death hath satisfied the Injury he did to Me so let Me not by it gratifie any Passion in Me lest I make thy vengeance to be mine and consider the affront against Me more than the sin against Thee Thou indeed without any desire or endeavour of Mine hast made his mischief to return on his own head and his violent dealing to come down on his own pate Thou hast pleaded my Cause even before the sons of men and taken the matter into thine own hands That men may know it was thy work and see that Thou Lord hast done it I do not I dare not say So let mine Enemies perish O Lord yea Lord rather give them Repentance Pardon and impunity if it be thy blessed will Let not thy Justice prevent the objects and opportunities of My Mercy yea let them live and amend who have most offended Me in so high a nature that I may have those to forgive who bear most proportion in their offences to those trespasses against thy Majesty which I hope thy Mercy hath forgiven Me. Lord lay not their sins who yet live to their charge for condemnation but to their Consciences for amendment Let the lightning of this thunderbolt which hath been so severe a punishment to one be a terror to all Discover to them their sin who know not they have done amiss and scare them from their sin that sin of malicious wickedness That preventing thy Judgments by their true Repentance they may escape the strokes of thine eternal Vengeance And do Thou O Lord establish the Throne of thy Servant in mercy and truth meeting together let My Crown ever flourish in righteousness and peace kissing each other Hear my Prayer O Lord who hast taught us to pray for to do good to and to love our Enemies for thy sake who hast prevented us with offertures of thy love even when we were thine enemies and hast sent thy Son Jesus Christ to die for us when we were disposed to crucisie him IX Vpon the listing and raising Armies against the KING I Find that I am at the same point and posture I was when they forced Me to leave White-hall what Tumults could not do an Army must which is but Tumults listed and enrolled to a better order but as bad an End My recess hath given them confidence that I may be conquered And so I easily may as to any outward strength which God knows is little or none at all But I have a Soul invincible through Gods grace enabling Me here I am sure to be Conqueror if God will give Me such a measure of Constancy as to fear him more than man and to love the inward peace of my Conscience before any outward tranquillity And must I be opposed with Force because they have not Reason wherewith to convince Me O my Soul be of good courage they confess their known weakness as to Truth and Justice who chuse rather to contend by Armies than by Arguments Is this the reward and thanks that I am to receive for those many Acts of Grace I have lately passed and for those many Indignities I have endured Is there no way left to make Me a Glorious KING but by my Sufferings It is hard and disputable choice for a King that loves his People and desires their love either to kill his own Subjects or to be killed by them Are the hazards and miseries of Civil War in the bowels of my most flourishing Kingdom the fruits I must now reap after Seventeen years living and Reigning among them with such a measure of Justice Peace Plenty and Religion as all Nations about either admired or envied Notwithstanding some Miscarriages in Government which might escape rather through ill counsel of some men driving on their private ends or the peevishness of others envying the Publick should be managed without them or the hidden and insuperable necessities of State than any propensity I hope of My self either to Injuriousness or Oppression Whose innocent blood during my Reign have I shed to satisfy my Lust Anger or Covetousness What Widows or Orphans tears can witness against Me the just cry of which must now be avenged with My own Blood For the hazards of War are equal nor doth the Cannon know any respect of Persons In vain is my Person excepted by a Parenthesis of Words when so many hands are Armed against Me with Swords God knows how much I have studied to see what Ground of Justice is alledged for this War against Me that so I might by giving just satisfaction either prevent or soon end so unnatural a motion which to many men seems rather the production of a surfeit of Peace and wantonness of minds or of private discontents Ambition and Faction which easily find or make causes of quarrel than any real obstruction of publick Justice or Parliamentary Priviledg But this is pretended and this I must be able to avoid and answer before God in my own Conscience however some men are not willing to believe Me lest they should condemn themselves When I first withdrew from White-hall to see if I could allay the Insolency of the Tumults of the not suppressing of which no account in Reason can be given where an orderly Guard was granted but only to oppress both Mine and the Two Houses freedom of declaring and voting according to every mans Conscience what obstructions of Justice were there further than this that what seemed just to one man might not seem so to another Whom did I by power protect against the Justice of Parliament That some men withdrew who feared the partiality of their tryal warned by my Lord of Strafford's death while the Vulgar threatned to be their Oppressors and Judgers of their Judges was from that instinct which is in all creatures to preserve themselves If any others refused to appear where they evidently saw the current of Justice and Freedom so stopped and troubled by the Rabble that their lawful Judges either durst not come to the Houses or not declare their sense with liberty and safety it cannot seem strange to any reasonable man when the sole exposing them to the publick Odium was enough to ruine them before their Cause could be heard or tried Had not factious Tumults overborn the Freedom and Honor of the Two Houses had they asserted their Justice against them and made the way open for all the Members quietly to come and declare their Consciences I know no man so dear to Me whom I had the least inclination to advise either to withdraw himself or deny appearing upon their Summons to whose Sentence according to Law I think every Subject bound to stand Distempers indeed were risen to so great a height for want of timely repressing the vulgar Insolencies that the greatest guilt of those which were Voted and demanded as Delinquents was
digest it Soveraign Power in Subjects seldom agreeing with the stomacks of fellow-Subjects Yet I have even in this point of the constant Militia sought by satisfying their Fears and importunities both to secure My Friends and overcome Mine Enemies to gain the peace of all by depriving My self of a sole power to help or hurt any yielding the Militia which is My undoubted Right no less than the Crown to be disposed of as the Two Houses shall think fit during My time So willing am I to bury all Jealousies in them of Me and to live above all Jealousies of them as to My self I desire not to be safer than I wish them and My People If I had the sole actual disposing of the Militia I could not protect My People further than they protected Me and themselves so that the use of the Militia is mutual I would but defend My self so far as to be able to defend My good Subjects from those mens violence and fraud who conscious to their own evil merits and designs will needs perswade the World That none but Wolves are fit to be trusted with the custody of the Shepherd and his Flock Miserable experience hath taught My Subjects since Power hath been wrested from Me and employed against Me and them That neither can be safe if both be not in such a way as the Law hath entrusted the publick safety and welfare Yet even this Concession of Mine as to the exercise of the Militia so vast and large is not satisfactory to some men which seem to be Enemies not to Me only but to all Monarchy and are resolved to transmit to Posterity such Jealousies of the Crown as they should never permit it to enjoy its just and necessary Rights in point of Power to which at last all Law is resolved while thereby it is best protected But here Honour and Justice due to My Successors forbid Me to yield to such a total alienation of that Power from them which Civility and Duty no less than Justice and Honour should have forbad them to have asked of Me. For although I can be content to eclipse My own beams to satisfie their fears who think they must needs be scorched or blinded if I should shine in the full lustre of Kingly Power wherewith God and the Laws have invested Me yet I will never consent to put out the Sun of Soveraignty to all Posterity and succeeding Kings whose just recovery of their Rights from unjust Usurpations and Extortions shall never be prejudiced or obstructed by any Act of Mine which indeed would not be more injurious to succeeding Kings than to my Subjects whom I desire to leave in a condition not wholly desperate for the future so as by a Law to be ever subjected to those many factious Distractions which must needs follow the many-headed Hydra of Government which as it makes a shew to the People to have more eyes to foresee so they will find it hath more mouths too which must be satisfied and at best it hath rather a monstrosity than any thing of perfection beyond that of right Monarchy where Counsel may be in many as the Senses but the Supreme Power can be but in One as the Head Haply when men have tried the horrors and malignant influence which will certainly follow my enforced Darkness and Eclipse occasioned by the interposition and shadow of that Body which as the Moon receiveth its chiefest light from Me they will at length more esteem and welcome the restored glory and blessing of the Sun 's light And if at present I may seem by my receding so much from the use of my Right in the Power of the Militia to come short of the discharge of that Trust to which I am sworn for my Peoples protection I conceive those men are guilty of the enforced Perjury if so it may seem who compel Me to take this new and strange way of discharging My Trust by seeming to desert it of protecting My Subjects by exposing My self to Danger or Dishonour for their safety and quiet Which in the conflicts of Civil War and advantages of Power cannot be effected but by some side yielding to which the greatest love of the Publick-Peace and the firmest assurance of God's protection arising from a good Conscience doth more invite Me than can be expected from other mens Fears which arising from the Injustice of their actions tho never so successful yet dare not adventure their Authors upon any other way of safety than that of the Sword and Militia which yet are but weak defences against the stroaks of Divine Vengeance which will overtake or of mens own Consciences which always attend injurious perpetrations For My self I do not think that I can want any thing which providential necessity is pleased to take from Me in order to My Peoples tranquility and God's Glory whose protection is sufficient for Me and he is able by his being with Me abundantly to compensate to Me as he did to Job whatever Honour Power or Liberty the Chaldoeans the Saboeans or the Devil himself can deprive Me of Although they take from Me all defence of Arms and Militia all refuge by Land of Forts and Castles all flight by Sea in My Ships and Navy yea tho they study to rob Me of the Hearts of my Subjects the greatest treasure and best ammunition of a King yet cannot they deprive Me of My own Innocency or God's Mercy nor obstruct My way to Heaven Therefore O My God to Thee I flie for help if Thou wilt be on my side I shall have more with Me than can be against Me. There is none in Heaven or in Earth that I desire in comparison of Thee In the loss of all be Thou more than all to Me. Make hast to succor Me Thou that never failest them that put their trust in Thee Thou seest I have no power to oppose them that come against Me who are encouraged to fight under the pretence of fighting for Me But my eyes are toward Thee Thou needest no help nor shall I if I may have thine if not to conquer yet at least to suffer If Thou delightest not in my safety and prosperity behold here I am willing to be reduced to what Thou wilt have Me whose Judgments oft begin with thy own Children I am content to be nothing that Thou mayest be all Thou hast taught Me That no King can be saved by the multitude of an Host but yet Thou canst save me by the multitude of thy Mercies who art the Lord of Hosts and the Father of Mercies Help Me O Lord who am sore distressed on every side yet be Thou on my side and I shall not fear what man can do unto Me. I will give thy Justice the glory of my distress O let thy Mercy have the glory of my deliverance from them that persecute my Soul By my sins have I fought against Thee and robbed Thee of thy Glory who am thy Subject and justly mayest
patience as bad as my worst Enemies can falsly say and I hope I shall still do better than they desire or deserve I should I believe it will at last appear that they who first began to embroil my other Kingdoms are in great part guilty if not of the first letting out yet of the not timely stopping those horrid effusions of blood in Ireland Which whatever my Enemies please to say or think I look upon as that of my other Kingdoms exhausted out of My own veins no man being so much weakned by it as My self And I hope tho mens unsatiable Cruelties never will yet the Mercy of God will at length say to his Justice It is enough and command the Sword of Civil wars to sheath it self his merciful Justice intending I trust not our utter Confusion but our Cure the abatement of our Sins not the desolating of these Nations O my God let those infinite Mercies prevent us once again which I and My Kingdoms have formerly abused and can never deserve should be restored Thou seest how much Cruelty among Christians is acted under the colour of Religion as if we could not be Christians unless we crucifie one another Because we have not more loved thy Truth and practised in Charity Thou hast suffered a spirit of Error and bitterness of mutual and mortal Hatred to rise among us O Lord forgive wherein we have sinned and sanstifie what we have suffered Let our Repentance be our Recovery as our great Sins have been onr Ruine Let not the Miseries I and My Kingdoms have hitherto suffered seem small to Thee but make our Sins appear to our Consciences as they are represented in the glass of thy Judgments for Thou never punishest small failings with so severe Afflictions O therefore according to the multitude of thy great Mercies pardon our Sins and remove thy Judgments which are very many and very heavy Yet let our Sins be ever more grievous to us than thy Judgments and make us more willing to repent than to be relieved first give us the Peace of penitent Consciences and then the tranquillity of united Kingdoms In the sea of our Saviours Blood drown our Sins and through this Red sea of our own blood bring us at last to a state of Piety Peace and Plenty As My publick relations to all make Me share in all My Subjects sufferings so give Me such a pious sense of them as becomes a Christian King and a loving Father of My People Let the scandalous and unjust Reproaches cast upon Me be as a breath more to kindle My Compassion Give Me grace to heap Charitable coals of fire upon their heads to melt them whose Malice or cruel Zeal hath kindled or hindred the quenching of those Flames which have so much wasted My Three Kingdoms O rescue and assist those poor Protestants in Ireland whom Thou hast hitherto preserved And lead those in the ways of Thy saving Truths whose Ignorance or Errors have filled them with Rebellious and destructive Principles which they act under an opinion that they do Thee good service Let the hand of Thy Justice be against those who maliciously and despitefully have raised or fomented those cruel and desperate Wars Thou art far from destroying the innocent with tho guilty and the erroneous with the malicious thou that hadst pity on Nineveh for the many Children that were therein give not over the whole stock of that populous and seduced Nation to the wrath of those whose Covetousness makes them Cruel nor to their Anger which is too fierce and therefore justly cursed Preserve if it be thy will in the midst of the furnace of thy severe Justice a Posterity which may praise Thee for Thy Mercy And deal with Me not according to mans unjust Reproaches but according to the Innocency of My hands in Thy sight If I have desired or delighted in the woful day of My Kingdoms Calamities if I have not earnestly studied and faithfully endeavoured the preventing and composing of these bloody Distractions then let thy hand be against Me and My Fathers house O Lord Thou seest I have Enemies enough of men as I need not so I should not dare thus to imprecate Thy Curse on Me and Mine if My Conscience did not witness my Integrity which Thou O Lord knowest right well But I trust not to My own Merit but thy Mercies Spare us O Lord and be not angry with us for ever XIII Vpon the calling in of the SCOTS and their Coming THE Scots are a Nation upon whom I have not only common ties of Nature Soveraignty and Bounty with my Father of Blessed memory but also special and late obligations of Favours having gratified the active Spirits among them so far that I seemed to many to prefer the desires of that Party before My own Interest and Honour But I see Royal bounty emboldens some men to ask and act beyond all bounds of Modesty and Gratitude My Charity and Act of Pacification forbids Me to reflect on former passages wherein I shall ever be far from letting any mans ingratitude or inconstancy make Me repent of what I granted them for the publick good I pray God it may so prove The coming again of that Party into England with an Army only to conform this Church to their late New model cannot but seem as unreasonable as they would have thought the same measure offered from hence to themselves Other Errand I could never understand they had besides those common and vulgar flourishes for Religion and Liberty save only to confirm the Presbyterian Copy they had set by making this Church to write after them tho it were in bloody Characters Which Design and End whether it will justifie the use of such violent Means before the Divine Justice I leave to their Consciences to judg who have already felt the misery of the Means but not reaped the benefit of the End either in this Kingdom or that Such knots and crosness of grain being objected here as will hardly suffer that Form which they cry up as the only just Reformation and setling of Government and Discipline in Churches to go on so smoothly here as it might do in Scotland and was by them imagined would have done in England when so many of the English Clergy through levity or discontent if no worse Passion suddenly quitted their former engagements to Episcopacy and faced about to their Presbytery It cannot but seem either Passion or some Self-seeking more than true Zeal and pious Discretion for any foreign State or Church to prescribe such medicines only for others which themselves have used rather successfully than commendably not considering that the same Physick on different constitutions will have different operations that may kill one which doth but cure another Nor do I know any such tough and malignant Humours in the constitution of the English Church which gentler applications than those of an Army might not easily have removed Nor is it so proper to hew out
and encrease the holy fire of thy Graces on the Altar of my Heart whence the sacrifice of Prayers and incense of Praises might be duly offered up to Thee Yet O Thou that breakest not the bruised Reed nor quenchest the smoaking Flax do not despise the weakness of my Prayers nor the smotherings of my Soul in this uncomfortable loneness to which I am constrained by some mens uncharitable denials of those helps which I much want and no less desire O let the hardness of Their Hearts occasion the softnings of mine to Thee and for them Let their Hatred kindle my Love let their unreasonable denials of my Religious desires the more excite my Prayers to Thee Let their inexorable deafness encline thine ear to Me who art a God easy to be entreated Thine Ear is not heavy that it cannot nor thy Heart hard that it will not hear nor thy Hand shortned that it cannot help Me thy desolate Suppliant Thou permittest men to deprive Me of those outward means which Thou hast appointed in thy Church but they cannot debar Me from the communion of that inward Grace which Thou alone breathest into humble hearts O make Me such and Thou wilt teach Me Thou wilt hear Me Thou wilt help Me the broken and contrite heart I know Thou wilt not despise Thou O Lord canst at once make Me thy Temple thy Priest thy Sacrifice and thine Altar while from an humble Heart I alone daily offer up in holy Meditations fervent Prayers and unfeigned Tears my self to Thee who preparest Me for Thee dwellest in Me and acceptest of Me. Thou O Lord didst cause by secret supplies and miraculous infusions that the handful of meal in the vessel should not spend nor the little Oyl in the cruise fail the Widow during the time of drought and dearth O look on my Soul which as a Widow is now desolate and forsaken let not those saving truths I have formerly learned now fail my memory nor the sweet effusions of thy Spirit which I have sometime felt now be wanting to my Heart in this Famine of ordinary and wholsome food for the refreshing of my Soul Which yet I had rather chuse than to feed from those hands who mingle my bread with ashes and my wine with gall rather tormenting than teaching Me whose mouths are proner to bitter Reproaches of Me than to hearty Prayers for Me. Thou knowest O Lord of Truth how oft they wrest thy Holy Scriptures to my destruction which are clear for their Subjection and my Preservation O let it not be to their damnation Thou knowest how some men under colour of long Prayers have sought to devour the houses of their Brethren their King and their God O let not those mens Balms break my head nor their Cordials oppress my heart I will evermore pray against their Wickedness From the poison under their tongues from the snares of their lips from the fire and the swords of their words ever deliver Me O Lord and all those Loyal and Religious hearts who desire and delight in the prosperity of my Soul and who seek by their Prayers to relieve this Sadness and Solitude of thy Servant O my King and my God XXV Penitential Meditations and Vows in the KING's Solitude at Holdenby GIve ear to my words O Lord consider my Meditation and hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God for unto Thee will I pray I said in mine hast I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes nevertheless Thou hearest the voice of my supplication when I cry unto Thee If Thou Lord shouldst be extream to mark what is done amiss who can abide it But there is mercy with Thee that Thou mayest be feared therefore shall sinners fly unto Thee I acknowledg my Sins before Thee which have the aggravation of my Condition the eminency of my Place adding weight to my Offences Forgive I beseech Thee my personal and my peoples Sins which are so far Mine as I have not improved The power thou gavest Me to thy Glory and my Subjects good Thou hast now brought Me from the glory and freedom of a King to be a Prisoner to my own Subjects justly O Lord as to thy over-ruling hand because in many things I have rebelled against Thee Tho Thou hast restrained my Person yet enlarge my Heart to Thee and thy Grace towards Me. I come far shart of David's Piety yet since I may equal David's Afflictions give Me also the Comforts and the sure Mercies of David Let the penitent sense I have of my Sins be an evidence to Me that Thou hast pardoned them Let not the Evils which I and my Kingdoms have suffered seem little unto Thee the Thou hast not punished us according to our Sins Turn Thee O Lord unto Me have mercy upon Me for I am desolate and afflicted The sorrows of my Heart are enlarged O bring Thou Me out of my Troubles Hast Thou forgotten to be gracious and shut up thy loving kindness in displeasure O remember thy Compassions of old and thy loving kindnesses which have been for many generations I had utterly fainted if I had not believed to see thy Goodness in the land of the living Let not the sins of our Prosperity deprive us of the benefit of thy Afflictions Let this fiery trial consume the dross which in long Peace and Plenty we had contracted Tho Thou continuest Miseries yet withdraw not thy Grace what is wanting of Prosperity make up in Patience and Repentance And if thy Anger be not yet to be turned away but thy hand of Justice must be stretched out still let it I beseech Thee be against Me and my Fathers house as for these Sheep what have they done Let my Sufferings satiate the malice of mine and thy Churches Enemies But let their Cruelty never exceed the measure of my Charity Banish from Me all thoughts of Revenge that I may not lose the reward nor Thou the glory of my Patience As Thou givest Me a heart to forgive them so I beseech Thee do Thou forgive what they have done against Thee and Me. And now O Lord as Thou hast given Me an heart to pray unto Thee so hear and accept this Vow which I make before Thee If Thou wilt in mercy remember Me and my Kingdoms in continuing the light of thy Gospel and setling thy true Religion among us In restoring to us the benefit of the Laws and the due execution of Justice In suppressing the many Schisms in Church and Factions in State If Thou wilt restore Me and mine to the ancient Rights and Glory of my Predecessors If Thou wilt turn the hearts of my People to Thy self in Piety to Me in Loyalty and to one another in Charity If Thou wilt quench the flames and withdraw the fewel of these Civil Wars If Thou wilt bless us with the freedom of publick Counsels and deliver the Honour of Parliaments from the insolency of the Vulgar If Thou wilt keep Me from the
great offence of enacting any thing against my Conscience and especially from consenting to Sacrilegious Rapines and spoilings of thy Church If Thou wilt restore Me to a capacity to glorifie Thee in doing good both to the Church and State Then shall my Soul praise Thee and magnifie thy Name before my People Then shall thy Glory be dearer to Me than my Crowns and the advancement of true Religion both in purity and power be my chiefest care Then will I rule My People with Justice and My Kingdoms with Equity To thy more immediate hand shall I ever owe as the rightful Succession so the merciful Restauration of My Kingdoms and the glory of them If Thou wilt bring Me again with Peace Safety and Honour to my chiefest City and My Parliament If Thou wilt again put the Sword of Justice into My hand to punish and protect Then will I make all the world to see and my very Enemies to enjoy the benefit of this Vow and Resolution of Christian Charity which I now make unto Thee O Lord. As I do freely pardon for Christ's sake those that have offended Me in any kind so my hand shall never be against any man to revenge what is past in regard of any particular injury done to Me. We have been mutually punished in our unnatural Divisions for thy sake O Lord and for the love of my Redeemer have I purposed this in my heart That I will use all means in the ways of Amnestie and Indemnity which may most fully remove all Fears and bury all Jealousies in forgetfulness Let thy Mercies be toward Me and Mine as my resolutions of Truth and Peace are toward my People Hear my Prayer O Lord which goeth not out of feigned lips Blessed be God who hath not turned away my Prayer nor taken his Mercy from Me. O my Soul commit thy way to the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to pass But if Thou wilt not restore Me and Mine what am I that I should charge Thee foolishly Thou O Lord hast given and thou hast taken Blessed be thy Name May my People and thy Church be happy if not by Me yet without Me. XXVI Vpon the Armies Surprizal of the KING at Holdenby and the ensuing Distractions in the Two Houses the Army and the City WHat part God will have Me now to act or suffer in this new and strange scene of affairs I am not much solicitous some little practice will serve that man who only seeks to represent a part of Honesty and Honour This surprize of Me tells the world that a KING cannot be so low but he is considerable adding weight to that Party where he appears This motion like others of the Times seems eccentrick and irregular yet not well to be resisted or quieted Better swim down such a stream than in vain to strive against it These are but the struglings of those Twins which lately one Womb enclosed the younger striving to prevail against the elder what the Presbyterians have hunted after the Independents now seek to catch for themselves So impossible is to for lines to be drawn from the Center and not to divide from each other so much the wider by how much they go farther from the point of union That the Builders of Babel should from Division fall fall to Confusion is no wonder but for those that pretend to build Jerusalem to divide their tongues and hands is but an ill omen and sounds too like the fury of those Zealots whose intestine bitterness and divisions were the greatest occasion of the last fatal destruction of that City Well may I change My Keepers and Prison but not my captive Condition only with this hope of bettering that those who are so much professed Patrons for the Peoples Liberties cannot be utterly against the Liberty of their KING What they demand for their own Consciences they cannot in reason deny to Mine In this they seem more ingenuous than the Presbyterian Rigor who sometimes complaining of exacting their conformity to Laws are become the greatest Exactors of other mens submission to their novel injunctions before they are stamped with the Authority of Laws which they cannot well have without My Consent 'T is a great argument that the Independents think themselves manumitted from their Rivals service in that they carry on a business of such consequence as the assuming My Person into the Armies custody without any Commission but that of their own Will and Power Such as will thus adventure on a KING must not be thought over-modest or timorous to carry on any design they have a mind to Their next motion menaces and scares both the Two Houses and the City which soon after acting over again that former part of tumultuary motions never questioned punished or repented must now suffer for both and see their former Sin in the glass of the present Terrors and Distractions No man is so blind as not to see herein the hand of Divine Justice they that by Tumults first occasioned the raising of Armies must now be chastened by their own Army for new Tumults So hardly can men be content with one sin but add sin to sin till the latter punish the former Such as were content to see Me and many Members of both Houses driven away by the first unsuppressed Tumults are now forced to fly to an Army or defend themselves against them But who can unfold the riddle of some mens Justice The Members of both Houses who at first withdrew as My self was forced to do from the rudeness of the Tumults were counted Desertors and outed of their Places in Parliament such as stayed then and enjoyed the benefit of the Tumults were asserted for the only Parliament-men Now the Fliers from and Forsakers of their Places carry the Parliamentary power along with them complain highly against the Tumults and vindicate themselves by an Army such as remained and kept their stations are looked upon as Abettors of tumultuary insolencies and betrayers of the freedom and honour of Parliament Thus is Power above all Rule Order and Law where men look more to present Advantages than their Consciences and the unchangeable rules of Justice while they are Judges of others they are forced to condemn themselves Now the Plea against Tumults holds good the Authors and Abettors of them are guilty of prodigious Insolencies whenas before they were counted as Friends and necessary Assistants I see Vengeance pursues and overtakes as the Mice and Rats are said to have done a Bishop in Germany them that thought to have escaped and fortified themselves most impregnably against it both by their Multitude and Compliance Whom the Laws cannot God will punish by their own Crimes and hands I cannot but observe this Divine Justice yet with sorrow and pity for I always wished so well to Parliament and City that I was sorry to see them do or suffer any thing unworthy such great and considerable Bodies in this Kingdom I was glad to
suffering thy Will in either Life or Death As I believe Thou hast forgiven all the Errors of my Life so I hope Thou wilt save Me from the Terrors of my Death Make Me content to leave the Worlds Nothing that I may come really to enjoy All in Thee who hast made Christ unto Me in Life Gain nnd in Death Advantage Tho my Destroyers forget their Duty to Thee and Me yet do not Thou O Lord forget to be merciful to them For what profit is there in my Blood or in their gaining my Kingdoms if they lose their own Souls Such as have not only resisted my just Power but wholly usurped and turned it against My self tho they may deserve yet let them not receive to themselves Damnation Thou madest thy Son a Saviour to many that crucified Him while at once He suffered violently by them and yet willingly for them O let the voice of his Blood be heard for my Murtherers louder than the Cry of Mine against them Prepare them for thy Mercy by due Convictions of their Sin and let them not at once deceive and damn their own Souls by fallacious pretensions of Justice in destroying Me while the conscience of their unjust Vsurpation of power against Me chiefly tempts them to use all extremities against Me. O Lord Thou knowest I have found their Mercies to Me as very false so very cruel who pretending to preserve Me have meditated nothing but my Ruine O deal not with them as blood-thirsty and deceitful men but overcome their Cruelty with Thy Compassion and My Charity And when Thou makest inquisition for my Blood O sprinkle their polluted yet penitent Souls with the Blood of thy Son that thy destroying Angel may pass over them Tho they think my Kingdoms on Earth too little to entertain at once both them and Me yet let the capacious Kingdom of thy infinite Mercy at last receive both Me and my Enemies When being reconciled to Thee in the Blood of the same Redeemer we shall live far above these Ambitious desires which beget such mortal Enmities When their hands shall be heaviest and cruellest upon Me O let Me fall into the arms of thy tender and eternal Mercies That what is cut off of my Life in this miserable moment may be repayed in thy ever-blessed Eternity Lord let thy Servant depart in Peace for my eyes have seen thy Salvation Vota dabunt quae bella negârunt FINIS An Historical TABLE of both PARTS That the Reader may the more easily discern the Order of those Historical Papers which are digested under their several Heads in the First Part and more readily conjoyn them in their proper Places with the Second it is thought fit to represent both together in this Table according to their Dates and Dependencies MDCXXV HIS Majesties Speech at the Opening of His First Parliament June 18. 1625. page 159 160 His Speech to both Houses at Oxford Aug. 4. 1625. ibid. MDCXXV VI. His Speech to the Speaker of the Lower House of His Second Parliament 1625 6. p. 160 His Speech to both Houses at White-Hall March 29. 1626. p. 161 His Speech to the House of Lords at Westminster May 11. 1626. ibid. A Declaration concerning His Two First Parliaments p. 217 MDCXXVII VIII His Majesties Speech at the Opening of His Third Parliament March 17. 1627 8. p. 162 His Speech to both Houses at White-Hall April 4. 1628. ibid. His Speech to the Speaker and House of Commons April 14. 1628. p. 163 His Speeches to both Houses in Answer to their Petition Jun. 2. 7. 1628. ibid. His Speech to the Lower House at the Reading their Remonstrance June 11. 1628. ibid. His Speech to both Houses at the Prorogation Jun. 26. 1628. p. 164 MDCXXVIII IX His Speech to both Houses Jan. 24. 31. 1828 9. p. 164 165 His Speech to the Lower-House concerning Tonnage and Poundage Feb. 3. 1628 9. p. 165 A Declaration concerning His Third Parliament p. 222 A Proclamation for suppressing false Rumours touching Parliaments Mar. 27. 1629. p. 230 MDCXXXVI VII His Majesties Letter to the Judges concerning Ship-money Feb. 2. 1636 7. With their Answer p. 231 232 MDCXL His Majesty's Speech to the Speaker of the Lower House of His Fourth Parliament 1640. p. 166 A Declaration concerning His Fourth Parliament p. 233 His Speech to the Great Council of the Lords at York Septemb. 24. 1640. p. 167 MDCXL XLI Of His Calling His Fifth Parliament See Icon Basil I. p. 647 His Speech at the Opening of His Fifth Parliament Nov. 3. 1640. p. 168 Six Speeches to both Houses Nov. 5. 1640. Jan. 25. Feb. 3. 10. 15. 1640 4. 1. Apr. 28. 1641. p. 168 seqq MDCXLI His Speech to the Lords concerning the Earl of Strafford May 1. 1641. p. 172 His Letter to the Lords May. 11. p. 138 See also Icon Basil II. V. p. 648 654 Two Speeches to both Houses Jun. 22. Jul. 5. 1641. p. 172 173 His Speech to the Scotish Parliament at Edinburgh Aug. 19. 1641. p. 173 Two Speeches to both Houses after His Return out of Scotland Dec. 2. 14. 1641. p. 174 A Petition of the Lower House With a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom Dec. 1. 1641. p. 241 243 His Majesty's Answer to the Petition p. 254 His Declaration in Answer to the Remonstrance p. 255 The Petition and Protestation of the Bishops Dec. 28. 1641. p. 258 MDCXLI II. Articles of High Treason against the Five Members Jan. 3. 1641 2. p. 259 His Majesties Speech to the Lower House concerning them Jan. 4. 1641 2. p. 175 His Speech to the Londoners at Guild-Hall Jan. 5. 1641 2. p. 175 See also Icon Bafil III. IV. VI. VII p. 650 651 656 658 His Message for Peace from Canterbury Jan. 20. 1641 2. p. 97 His Speeches to the Committees of both Houses at Theobalds Mar. 1. at Newmarket Mar. 9. 1641 2. p. 175 His Message from Huntingdon Mar. 15. 1641 2. p. 97 MDCXLII Two Speeches to the Gentry of Yorkshire April 5. May 12. 1642. p. 177 Of His Majesty's Repulse at Hull See Icon Basil VIII p. 659 The Nineteen Propositions Jun. 2. 1642 p. 260 His Majesty's Answer p. 262 See also Icon Basil XI p. 659 His Majesty's Declaration to the Lords at York Jun. 13. 1642. p. 271 With their promise thereupon p. 272 His Declaration concerning the Scandalous Imputation of His Raising War Jan. 1642. p. 273 With the Declaration and Profession of the Lords p. 276 Of the many Jealousies and Scandals cast upon His Majesty See Icon Basil XV. p. 680 A Proclamation forbidding Levies of Forces Jun. 18. 1642. p. 277 See also Icon Basil IX X. p. 661 665 His Majesty's Speeches to the Inhabitants of Nottinghamshire Jul. 4. of Lincolnshire Jul. 15. of Leicester Jul. 20. and the Gentry of Yorkshire Aug. 4. 1642. p. 178 179 180 Votes for Raising an Army against the King Jul. 12. 1642. p. 279 A Declaration of both Houses for Raising Forces Aug. 8. 1642. p. 280 His Majesty's
My own and My Subjects Miseries while as they confidently but God knows falsly divulge I repining at the establishment of this Parliament endeavoured by force and open hostility to undo what by My Royal assent I had done Sure it had argued a very short sight of things and extream fatuity of mind in Me so far to bind My own hands at their request if I had shortly meant to have used a Sword against them God knows tho I had then a sense of Injuries yet not such as to think them worth vindicating by a War I was not then compelled as since to injure My self by their not using favours with the same Candor wherewith they were conferred The Tumults indeed threatned to abuse all Acts of Grace and turn them into wantonness but I thought at length their own Fears whose Black arts first raised up those turbulent Spirits would force them to conjure them down again Nor if I had justly resented any indignities put upon Me or others was I then in any capacity to have taken just revenge in an Hostile and Warlike way upon those whom I knew so well fortified in the love of the meaner sort of the people that I could not have given My Enemies greater and more desired advantages against Me than by so unprincely Inconstancy to have assaulted them with Arms thereby to scatter them whom but lately I had solemnly setled by an Act of Parliament God knows I longed for nothing more than that My self and My Subjects might quietly enjoy the fruits of My many Condescendings It had been a course full of Sin as well as of Hazard and Dishonour for Me to go about the cutting up of that by the Sword which I had so lately planted so much as I thought to My Subjects content and Mine own too in all probability if some men had not feared where no fear was whose security consisted in scaring others I thank God I know so well the sincerity and uprightness of My own Heart in passing that great BILL which exceeded the very thoughts of former times that although I may seem less a Politician to men yet I need no secret distinctions or evasions before God Nor had I any reservations in My own Soul when I passed it nor repentings after till I saw that My letting some men go up to the Pinnacle of the Temple was a temptation to them to cast Me down headlong concluding that without a Miracle Monarchy it self together with Me could not but be dashed in pieces by such a precipitious fall as they intended Whom God in mercy forgive and make them see at length That as many Kingdoms as the Devil shewed our Saviour and the glory of them if they could be at once enjoyed by them are not worth the gaining by ways of sinful ingratitude and dishonour which hazards a Soul worth more Worlds than this hath Kingdoms But God hath hitherto preserved Me and made Me to see that it is no strange thing for men left to their own Passions either to do much evil themselves or abuse the overmuch goodness of others whereof an ungrateful Surfeit is the most desperate and incurable disease I cannot say properly that I repent of that Act since I have no reflections upon it as a Sin of my Will tho an Error of too charitable a Judgment Only I am sorry other mens eyes should be evil because Mine were good To Thee O my God do I still appeal whose all-discerning Justice sees through all the disguises of mens pretensions and deceitful darknesses of their hearts Thou gavest Me a heart to grant much to my Subjects and now I need a heart fitted to suffer much from some of them Thy will be done tho never so much to the crossing of ours even when we hope to do what might be most conformable to thine and theirs too who pretended they aimed at nothing else Let thy Grace teach Me wisely to enjoy as well the frustratings as the fulfillings of my best hopes and most specious desires I see while I thought to allay others Fears I have raised mine own and by setling them have unsetled My self Thus have they requited me evil for good and hatred for my good will towards them O Lord be thou my Pilot in this dark and dangerous storm which neither admits my return to the Port whence I set out nor my making any other with that Safety and Honour which I designed 'T is easie for Thee to keep Me safe in the love and confidence of my people nor is it hard for Thee to preserve Me amidst the unjust hatred and jealousies of too many which Thou hast suffered so far to prevail upon Me as to be able to pervert and abuse my acts of greatest Indulgence to them and assurance of them But no Favors from Me can make others more guilty than My self may be of misusing those many and great ones which Thou O Lord hast conferred on Me. I beseech Thee give Me and them such Repentance as thou wilt accept and such Grace as we may not abuse Make Me so far happy as to make a right use of others abuses and by their failings of Me to reflect with a reforming displeasure upon my Offences against Thee So altho for My sins I am by other mens sins deprived of thy temporal Blessings yet I may be happy to enjoy the comfort of thy Mercies which often raise the greatest Sufferers to be the most glorious Saints VI. Vpon His MAJESTIES retirement from WESTMINSTER WIth what unwillingness I withdrew from Westminster let them judg who unprovided of tackling and victual are forced to Sea by a Storm yet better do so than venture splitting or sinking on a Lee-shore I stayed at White-hall till I was driven away by shame more than fear to see the barbarous Rudeness of those Tumults who resolved they would take the boldness to demand any thing and not leave either My self or the Members of Parliament the liberty of Our Reason and Conscience to deny them any thing Nor was this intolerable Oppression My case alone though chiefly Mine For the Lords and Commons might be content to be over-voted by the major part of their Houses when they had used each their own freedom Whose agreeing Votes were not by any Law or Reason conclusive to My Judgment nor can they include or carry with them My consent whom they represent not in any kind nor am I further bound to agree with the Votes of both Houses than I see them agree with the will of God with my just Rights as a King and the general good of my People I see that as many men they are seldom of one mind and I may oft see that the major part of them are not in the right I had formerly declared to sober and moderate minds how desirous I was to give all just content when I agreed to so many Bills which had been enough to secure and satisfie all if some mens Hydropick insatiableness had not
in the odious disguises of Levity Schism Heresie Novelty Cruelty and Disloyalty which some mens practices have lately put upon it Let Her see thy Sacred and Saving Truths as Thine that She may believe love and obey them as Thine cleared from all rust and dross of human mixtures That in the glass of thy Truth She may see Thee in those Mercies which thou hast offered to us in thy Son Jesus Christ our only Saviour and serve Thee in all those Holy Duties which most agree with his Holy Doctrine and most imitable Example The experience We have of the vanity and uncertainty of all human Glory and Greatness in our scatterings and eclipses let it make Vs both so much the more ambitious to he invested in those durable Honours and Perfections which are only to be found in Thy self and obtained through Jesus Christ. VIII Vpon His MAJESTIES repulse at HVLL and the fates of the HOTHAMS MY repulse at Hull seemed at the first view an act of so rude Disloyalty that my greatest Enemies had scarce confidence enough to abet or own it It was the first overt Essay to be made how patiently I could bear the loss of my Kingdoms God knows it affected Me more with shame and sorrow for others than with Anger for My self nor did the Affront done to Me trouble Me so much as their Sin which admitted no colour or excuse I was resolved how to bear this and much more with Patience But I foresaw they could hardly contain themselves within the compass of this one unworthy act who had effrontery enough to commit or countenance it This was but the hand of that Cloud which was soon after to overspread the whole Kingdom and cast all into Disorder and darkness For 't is among the wicked Maxims of bold and disloyal undertakers That bad actions must always be seconded with worse and rather not be begun than not carried on for they think the retreat more dangerous than the assault and hate repentance more than perseverance in a Fault This gave me to see clearly through all the pious disguises and soft palliations of some men whose words were sometime smoother than oyl but now I saw they would prove very Swords Against which I having as yet no defence but that of a good Conscience thought it my best Policy with Patience to bear what I could not remedy And in this I thank God I had the better of Hotham that no disdain or emotion of Passion transported Me by the indignity of his carriage to do or say any thing unbeseeming My self or unsuitable to that temper which in greatest Injuries I think best becomes a Christian as coming nearest to the great example of Christ And indeed I desire always more to remember I am a Christian than a King for what the Majesty of the one might justly abhor the Charity of the other is willing to bear what the height of a King tempteth to revenge the humility of a Christian teacheth to forgive Keeping in compass all those impotent Passions whose excess injures a man more than his greatest enemies can for these give their Malice a full impression on our Souls which otherways cannot reach very far nor do us much hurt I cannot but observe how God not long after so pleaded and avenged my Cause in the eye of the world that the most wilfully blind cannot avoid the displeasure to see it and with some remorse and fear to own it as a notable stroke and prediction of Divine Vengeance For Sir John Hotham unreproached unthreatned uncursed by any language or secret imprecation of Mine only blasted with the Conscience of his own Wickedness and falling from one Inconstancy to another not long after pays his own and his eldest Sons heads as forfeitures of their Disloyalty to those men from whom surely he might have expected another reward than thus to divide their Heads from their bodies whose Hearts with them were divided from their KING Nor is it strange that they who imployed them at first in so high a service and so successful to them should not find mercy enough to forgive him who had so much premerited of them For Apostasie unto Loyalty some men account the most unpardonable sin Nor did a solitary Vengeance serve the turn the cutting off one Head in a Family is not enough to expiate the affront done to the Head of the Common-weal The eldest Son must be involved in the punishment as he was infected with the sin of the Father against the Father of his Country Root and Branch God cuts off in one day These observations are obvious to every fancy God knows I was so far from rejoicing in the Hothams ruin tho it were such as was able to give the greatest thirst for revenge a full draught being executed by them who first employed him against Me that I so far pitied him as I thought he at first acted more against the light of his Conscience than I hope many other men do in the same Cause For he was never thought to be of that superstitious sowreness which some men pretend to in matters of Religion which so darkens their Judgment that they cannot see any thing of Sin and Rebellion in those means they use with intents to reform to their Models of what they call Religion who think all is gold of Piety which doth but glister with a shew of Zeal and fervency Sir John Hotham was I think a man of another temper and so most liable to those down-right temptations of Ambition which have no cloak or cheat of Religion to impose upon themselves or others That which makes Me more pity him is that after he began to have some inclinations towards a repentance for his sin and reparation of his Duty to Me he should be so unhappy as to fall into the hands of their Justice and not My Mercy who could as willingly have forgiven him as he could have asked that favour of Me. For I think Clemency a debt which we ought to pay to those that crave it when we have cause to believe they would not after abuse it since God himself suffers us not to pay any thing for his Mercy but only Prayers and Praises Poor Gentleman he is now become a notable monument of unprosperous Disloyalty teaching the world by so sad and unfortunate a spectacle That the rude carriage of a Subject towards his Soveraign carries always its own Vengeance as an unseparable shadow with it and those oft prove the most fatal and implacable Executioners of it who were the first Employers in the service After-times will dispute it whether Hotham were more infamous at Hull or at Tower-hill tho 't is certain that no punishment so stains a mans Honour as wilful perpetrations of unworthy actions which besides the conscience of the sin brand with most indeleble characters of infamy the name and memory to Posterity who not engaged in the Factions of the times have the most impartial reflections on the
my reproach and my dishonour my Adversaries are all before Thee My Soul is among Lions among them that are set on fire even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows their tongue a sharp sword Mine Enemies reproach Me all the day long and those that are mad against Me are sworn together O my God how long shall the sons of men turn my glory into shame how long shall they love vanity and seek after lies Thou hast heard the reproaches of wicked men on every side Hold not thy peace lest my Enemies prevail against Me and lay mine honour in the dust Thou O Lord shalt destroy them that speak lies the Lord will abhor both the Blood-thirsty and Deceitful men Make my Righteousness to appear as the light and mine Innocency to shine forth as the Sun at noon-day Suffer not my silence to betray mine Innocency nor my displeasure my Patience That after my Saviours example being reviled I may not revile again and being cursed by them I may bless them Thou that wouldst not suffer Shimei's tongue to go unpunished when by thy Judgments on David he might seem to justifie his disdainful reproaches give Me grace to intercede with thy Mercy for these my Enemies that the reward of false and lying tongues even hot burning coals of eternal fire may not be brought upon them Let my Prayers and Patience be as water to cool and quench their tongues who are already set on fire with the fire of Hell and tormented with those malicious flames Let Me be happy to refute and put to silence their evil-speaking by well-doing and let them enjoy not the fruit of their lips but of my Prayer for their Repentance and thy Pardon Teach Me David's Patience and Hezekiah's Devotion that I may look to thy Mercy through mans Malice and see thy Justice in their Sin Let Sheba's Seditious speeches Rabshekah's Railing and Shimei's Cursing provoke as my humble Prayer to Thee so thy renewed Blessing toward Me. Though they curse do Thou bless and I shall be blessed and made a Blessing to my People That the stone which some builders refuse may become the head-stone of the corner Look down from Heaven and save Me from the reproach of them that would swallow Me up Hide Me in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man and keep Me from the strife of tongues XVI Vpon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Book IT is no news to have all Innovations ushered in with the name of Reformations in Church and State by those who seeking to gain reputation with the Vulgar for their extraordinary Parts and Piety must needs undo whatever was formerly setled never so well and wisely So hardly can the Pride of those that study Novelties allow former times any share or degree of Wisdom or Godliness And because matter of Prayer and Devotion to God justly bears a great part in Religion being the Souls more immediate converse with the Divine Majesty nothing could be more plausible to the People than to tell them they served God amiss in that point Hence our publick Liturgy or Forms of constant Prayers must be not amended in what upon free and publick advice might seem to sober men inconvenient for matter or manner to which I should easily consent but wholly cashiered and abolished and after many Popular contempts offered to the Book and those that used it according to their Consciences and the Laws in force it must be crucified by an Ordinance the better to please either those men who gloried in their extemporary vein and fluency or others who conscious to their own formality in the use of it thought they fully expiated their sin of not using it aright by laying all the blame upon it and a total rejecting of it as a dead letter thereby to excuse the deadness of their hearts As for the matter contained in the Book sober and Learned men have sufficiently vindicated it against the Cavils and exceptions of those who thought it a part of Piety to make what profane objections they could against it especially for Popery and Superstition whereas no doubt the Liturgy was exactly conformed to the Doctrine of the Church of England and this by all Reformed Churches is confessed to be most sound and Orthodox For the manner of using Set and Prescribed Forms there is no doubt but that wholesom words being known and fitted to mens Understandings are soonest received into their Hearts and aptest to excite and carry along with them judicious and fervent Affections Nor do I see any reason why Christians should be weary of a well-composed Liturgy as I hold this to be more than of all other things wherein the constancy abates nothing of the Excellency and Usefulness I could never see any Reason why any Christian should abhor or be forbidden to use the same Forms of Prayer since he prays to the same God believes in the same Saviour professeth the same Truths reads the same Scriptures hath the same Duties upon him and feels the same daily wants for the most part both inward and outward which are common to the whole Church Sure we may as well beforehand know what we pray as to whom we pray and in what words as to what sense when we desire the same things what hinders we may not use the same Words our appetite and digestion too may be good when we use as we pray for our daily bread Some men I hear are so impatient not to use in all their Devotions their own invention and gifts that they not only disuse as too many but wholly cast away and contemn the Lords Prayer whose great guilt is that it is the warrant and original Pattern of all set Liturgies in the Christian Church I ever thought that the proud ostentation of mens abilities for invention and the vain affectations of variety for expressions in Publick Prayer or any sacred administrations merits a greater brand of sin than that which they call Coldness and Barrenness Nor are men in those Novelties less subject to formal and superficial tempers as to their hearts than in the use of constant Forms where not the words but mens hearts are to blame I make no doubt but a man may be very Formal in the most extemporary variety and very fervently Devout in the most wonted expressions nor is God more a God of variety than of constancy nor are constant Forms of Prayers more likely to flat and hinder the Spirit of Prayer and Devotion than unpremeditated and confused variety to distract and lose it Tho I am not against a grave modest discreet and humble use of Ministers gifts even in publick the better to fit and excite their own and the Peoples affections to the present occasions yet I know no necessity why private and single abilities should quite justle out and deprive the Church of the joynt abilities and concurrent gifts of many Learned and Godly men such as the Composers of the Service-Book were who