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A44134 The peoples happinesse a sermon preached in St. Maries in Cambridge, upon Sunday the 27 of March, being the day of His Majesties happy inauguration / by Ri. Holdsworth ... Holdsworth, Richard, 1590-1649. 1642 (1642) Wing H2396; ESTC R22516 27,766 54

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sea for water and for tendernesse softer not onely then water but then oyl To lay down as it were his own royall neck under the sword of the Angell when he saw it hanging over him by a lesse thrid then that of Damocles To open his own religious breast to receive the blow that he might ward it from the people To value the peoples safety so farre aboue his own as to interpose himself betwixt the sword and the slaughter O how farre doth he here renounce himself and recede not onely from royalty but from life it self It is much which is mentioned in the text that he should name the people first to the happinesse more that he should offer himself first to the punishment very much that he should put the people betwixt himself and the blessing farre more that he should place himself betwixt the people and the curse He made himself in this SPECULUM PRINCIPUM the mirrour of Princes a mirrour into which as we may well presume our Gracious Sovereigne King CHARLES hath made frequent and usefull inspections for it is manifest by many passages of his reign and happy government that the tendernesse of his love towards his people if it doth not fully reach yet it comes close up to the recessions of David It is the more remarkable for that he hath this virtue as it were in proper and by himself he is almost the sole possessour of it The most of ordinary men as living more by will then reason are all for holding so stiffe and inflexible so tenacious and unyielding even in matters of small moment that they will not stirre a hair-breadth Entreat them persuade them convince them still they keep to this principle and 't is none of the best Obtein all Yield nothing It is a nobler spirit that resides in the breast of our Sovereign as appears by his manifold yieldings and recessions Of such recessions we have many instances in the course of his Majesties government I might go as farre back as his first coming to the Crown when he receded from his own profit in taking upon him the payment of his Fathers debts which were great and but small supplies to be expected from an empty Exchequer yet the love of justice and his peoples emolument overswayed him and armed him with Epaminondas his resolution Totius orbis divitias despicere prae patriae charitate Having but glanced at that I might draw a little nearer to the third of his reign when in that Parliament of Tertio he was pleased to signe the so much desired Petition of Right a Title which I confesse takes me much both because it speaks the d●●ifulnesse of the subject in petitioning although for right and the great goodnesse of a Gracious Prince who knows how to recede from power and in some case even from prerogative when besought by prayers and rejoyceth not to sell his favours but to give them For I have heard some wise men say That that single grant was equivalent to twenty subsidies But the time will not give me leave to dwell as I should upon particulars therefore I will call you nearer to the transient remembrance and but the transient for it is no pleasure to revive it of the commotions in the North. The eyes of the whole world were upon that action and they all are witnesses what pains and travell were taken what clemencie and indulgence was used what yieldings and condescentions both in point of hononr and power to purchase as it were by a price paid out of himself the peace and tranquillity of both kingdomes Whereby he made all men understand how much more pleasing it was to his Princely disposition with Cyrus in Xenophon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to conquer not by might but by clemency By clemency I say the word which I named before and I cannot name it too often It is the virtue God most delights in to exercise himself and 't is the copie also which he sets us to write after It is the virtue which draws both eyes and hearts unto it in that it maketh Royalty it self which is so farre above to become beneficiall and sovereign It corrects the brightnesse of Majestie calmes the strictnesse of Justice lightens the weight of Power attemperates whatsoever might cause terrour to our mind and liking If we never had known it before yet the onely time of this Parliament would teach us sufficiently how much we ow to the King's clemencie The laws and statutes which have been made this last year are lasting and speaking monuments of these royall recessions as well to posteritie as to our selves Surely if the true picture and resemblance of a Prince be in his laws it cannot be denied that in the acts for trienniall Parliaments for the continuation of the Parliament now being for the regulating of impositions pressing of souldiers courts of Judicature and others not a few of the like nature are the lineaments and expressions to the life of the perfect pourtraiture of a Benigne and Gracious Prince who seems resolved of a new way and hitherto unheard of by wholesome laws to enlarge his subjects and to confine himself Yet it may be said It is not his onely hand which is in these laws the proposall of them is from others although the ratification be in him Be it so But the ratification is ten-fold to the proposall nay it is the life and essence of a law So we ow the laws themselves to his goodnesse Nay and if it be granted that the proposall of such laws comes from others let us then look to the many gracious messages which occasionally have been sent at severall times to that great Assemblie In these he speaks onely by himself and in so gracious a manner that to read some passages would ravish a loyall heart as well as endear it In some of them we may see how he puts the happinesse of his people into the same proximitie with his own in others how he neglects his own for our accommodation In that of January the 20 you have these golden words That he will rather lay by any particular respect of his Own dignity then lose time for the Publick good That out of his Fatherly care of his people he will be ready both to equall and to exceed the greatest examples of the most Indulgent Princes in their Acts of Grace and Favour to their people Again in that of the 28 of January there is yet more tendernesse He calls God to witnesse and with him the attestation of that sacred name is very religious that the preservation of the publick peace the law and the libertie of the subject is and shall alwayes be as much his care and industrie as the safety of his own life or the lives of his dearest children Lastly in the other of the 15 of March there is more then yieldings and concessions a gracious prevention of our desires for he is pleased to excite and call upon that Great