Lord forgive them and forgive me as I freely forgive them Doct. You have for some late years laid down your gown and took up the Sword and you were a man of note in those parts where you had your residence I have nothing to accuse you for want of diligence in hindering the doing of injuries yet possibly there might be some wrong done by your Officers or those under you to some particular men if you had your Estate in your hands would you make restitution Col. The wrongs themselves you bring to my mind are not great nor many some things of no great moment but such as they are my desire is to make restitution but have not wherewithall Doct. If you had ability would you likewise leave a legacy of thankfulness to Almighty God something to his poor Servants to his lame Members to his deaf Members to his dumb Members Col. My will hath alwayes been better then my ability that way Doct. Sir I shall trouble you very little further I thank you for all those heavenly Colloquies I have enjoyed by being in your Company these three days and truly I am very sorry I must part with so heavenly an associate We have known one another heretofore but never so Chriâ—â—ian-like before I have rather been a Scholler to learn from you then an instructer I wish this Stage wherein you are made a spectacle to God Angels and the World may be a School to all about you for though I will not diminish your sins not shall I conceal nor hypocrize my own for they are great ones betwixt God and my self yet I think there is few here have a lighter load upon them then you have if we consider things well and I only wish them your repentance and that measure of faith God hath given you and that measure of courage you have attained from God and that constant perseverance God hath crowned you with hitherto Col. His name be praised Here the Doctor prayed with him almost a quarter of an hour after which the Col. turning himself again to the people spake as followeth One thing more I desire to be clear in There lieth a common imputation upon the Cavaliers that they are Papists and under that name we are made odious to those of the contrary opinion I am not a Papist but renounce the Pope with all his dependencies when the distractions in Religion first sprang up I might have been thought apt to turn from this Church to the Roman but was utterly unsatisfied in their Doctrine in point of faith and very much as to their discipline The Religion which I professe is that which passeth under the name of Protestant though that be rather a name of distinction then properly essential to Religion But the Religion which was found out in the reformation purged from all the errours of Rome in the Reign of Edward 6. practiced in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth K. James and K. Charles that blessed Prince deceased that Religion before it was defaced I am of which I take to be Christs Catholick though not the Roman Catholick Religion in the profession and practice whereof I will live and die that for my Religion Then he turned himself unto the Executioner I have no reason to quarrel with thee thou art not the hand that throws the stone I am not of such an Estate to be liberall but there is three pound for thee which is all I have Now tell me what I lack Executioner Your hair to be turned up Col. Shew me how to fit my self upon the block After which his doublet being off and hair turned up he turned again to the people and prayed a good while Before he laid down upon the block he spake again to the people viz. There is not one face that looks upon me though many faces and perhaps different from me in opinion and practice but methinks hath something of pity in it and may that mercy which is in your hearts fall into your own bosoms when you have need of it and may you never find such blocks of sin to stand in the way of your mercy as I have met with I beseech you joyn with me in prayer Then he prayed leaning on the Scaffold with an audible voice for about a quarter of an hour having done he had some private conference with Doctor Swadling then taking his leave of his friends Sheriffs and acquaintance saluting them all with a courteous valediction he prepared himself for the block kneeling down said let me try the block which he did after casting his eyes up and fixing them very intentively upon Heaven he said when I say Lord Jesus receive me Executioner do thine Office then kissing the Axe he laid down and with as much undaunted yet Christian courage as possibly as could be in man did he expose his throat to the fatall Axe his life to the Executioner and commended his soul into the hands of a faithfull and mercifull Creator through the meritorious passion of a gracious Redeemer saying the forementioned words his head was smitten off at one blow Sir Henry Hide 's Speech on the Scaffold near the Exchange immediately before his execution March 4. 1650. REader Take notice That this Speech following is published in those very words that the Gentleman delivered them and though there be some abrupt breakings off and other expressions not so smooth as might have been yet I could not with honesty alter a word and therefore have I tied my self to his own expressions that I may neither abuse the world or the dying man or my self THe Gentleman came in a Coach to the Scaffold attended by the Lieutenant of the Tower and the Sheriffs of London and also in his company one of his Servants and Doctor Hide Sir H. Hide I Am come to put in practice the Christian Profession and as I owe a death to nature and sin now I pay it upon the score of grace Dr. Hide Blessed be God that hath enabled you to it God hath and will enable you Sir H. Hide Looking round on the People he said A populous City God blesse it and grant they may live to his Grace Then turning to his Man he said John I pray now though I have not been a good Master to you be you a good Servant and accompany me with your prayers and help me both in body and mind John Have you my things about you John Then staying for his Servants they being not on the Scaffold he said I had rather have my Servants then Strangers Then the Lieutenant of the Tower coming to him he said pray Sir rejoyce with me I think Almighty God I am brought hither to suffer for him Lieut. of the Tower I am glad you are so comforted Gods will be fulfilled in all things Sir H. Hide If God call me to him and I glorifie him it is well I seek only the company of your Christian Prayers L. of the Tower I shall not be wanting in that God
willing Then then Chyrurgion coming but not his Kinsman who was called for he said My Kinsman is of no use you may be usefull about my body I hope Mr. Sheriff that you 'l give order I may have a little more room here Sheriff Yes yes Sir Sir H. Hide And likewise for liberty of speech and that it shall please you for I am not acquainted with the Forms here of England that I may speak my own sense I am now going into the presence of Almighty God a very little without any disturbance Sheriff Why Sir you shall Sir H. Hide John where is my Coffin John It is here Sir Sheriff Sir it seems these men cannot be found Sir H. Hide But if Mr. Barret could be found After some stay Mr. Barret being not found the Sheriff spake to him saying Sheriff You have your liberty you know your time Sir H. Hide Where is the place of standing that way or this way pointing towards the Exchange and the Poultery Sheriff Which way you please you may stand which way you will but that way you must lie pointing towards the Exchange Sir H. Hide I am indifferent It is not the way to Heaven where a man stands One brought word to him that there was no help to be had Sir H. Hide That is no hindrance to my felicity Dr. Hide God enable you that you may find that joy and comfort which is due to the glory of his Holy Name he will not forsake you that have put your trust in him Sir H. Hide I will open my heart and my mouth with thanksgiving if this Gentleman please to give way Then turning towards the Poultery he put off his Hat and said Glory be to God on high on Earth Peace Good-will to men CHristian People I come hither to die I am brought hither to die and that I may die Christian like I humbly beseech the assistance of your Christian Prayers that by the benefit of them my passage may be the more easie yet because men in that condition which it hath pleased God to reduce me carry more credit to their Speeches In the discharge of my Duty towards God I shall use a few words and so dispatch I pray all of you joyn with me to praise this Almighty God to whom I desire to render all hearty thanks as for all his mercies so in in particular for this That he hath brought me hither That whereas I owe a duty to Sin and to Nature that now can pay the account A debt to Nature I can pay it upon the account or Grace And because it is sit to render an account of that Hope that is in me I shall tell you to the praise of Almighty God That I have been born and bred up in the Doctrine of the Church of England I have no Negative Religion believing to be saved by the onely merits of my Saviour Jesus Christ putting off his Hat and whatsoever else is profest in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England authorized by Law humbly beseeching almighty God to restore unto this Church her Peace Prosperity and Patrimony whereof I have been an obedient and a loving however an unworthy Son And now both my Hope being confident and my Faith perfected there remains onely Christian Charity Charity we carry into Heaven Charity on Earth and that I leave beseeching all whomsoever I have offended whether I have or no to forgive me as I from the bottom of my heart do them whomsoever blessing Almighty God for the happy advantage he takes to bring me nearer to heaven blessing Almighty God that he hath given me this advantage as he hath been mercifull to me before the foundation of the World in my Saviour so that now he hath in mercy honoured me with a suffering for his Name in obedience to his Commandement On this day seven night I was summoned before that Justice which ondemned me on Friday last praised be Almighty God that by this way he hath brought me the nearer to Himself putting off his hat My Charge I presume is publike as my Punishment is visible if there have been any thing in the management of my part being unskilfull having discontinued my own Country many years I shall beseech the Christian charity of all you my beloved Countrey-men to impute it unto the right part the ignorance that is in this skilfull way of managing It was objected unto me there That I had a vanity of delighting in strange Tongues I was best skill'd in the Italian but free from that vanity I thank Almighty God and therefore I would in defence of my life if it had been the Custome here or the Judges favour have used that Language It was objected That I did not so freely as a thorow-paced Cavalier own my Master I was told since I came into England for other skill I have not in your Lawes that a legal Denial in Law might be tolerable I hope I did not exceed the bounds of that in any thing for God forbid that I should be ashamed of serving so good so pious so just a Master putting off his hat for that I therein rejoyce and I humbly beseech almighty God to fill my heart and my tongue and all that hear me this day with thankfulness for it As to the Business that another construction had been made and believed here then what was there the righteous God knoweth it if any weakness was in the management that was mine I was sent to serve and protect not to injure any and as God acquits me of the intention in matter of Fact as having done any manner of evil that way however here understood blessed be his holy Name putting off his hat so those Gentlemen of the Turkey Company if they would seriously consider for they know it very well the impossibility of my doing them any manner of harm Whereas that of the Embassie objected against me that my Master never honored me withall I was never worthy of it I was his Messenger an Internuncio for the conservation only of his good Subjects of all the Merchants untill such time as he could confirm that Gentleman now Resident or to send any other and they themselves know that there was impossibility in me as I bless God there was an innocency in me unto any such intention to doe them any harm for my Masters Commands were point-blank the contrary I was onely sent for their good as I never owned the Title so the very Letters themselves speaking no other I never did so much as think of any manner of Address unto the Grand Seignior but gave him the Letter from my Master the rest of the English Nation that were there present may when they please assert so much This I would insert that those Gentlemen as they have been losers by the miscarriages of others may now have no breach of their charity with me but if it be as it seems it is now in this Country a Sin to
condemned And I thank God though the weight of the Sentence lye very heavy upon me yet I am as quiet within as I thank Christ for it I ever was in my life and though I am not the first Archbishop but the first man that ever dyed by an Ordinance of Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way though not by this means for Elfegus was hurried away and lost his head by the Danes and Simon Sudbury in the fury of Wat Tyler and his fellowes And long before these Saint John Baptist had his head danced off by a lewd Woman and Saint Cyprian Archbishop of Carthage submitted his head to a persecuting sword Many examples great and good for they teach me patience and I hope my cause in Heaven will look of another dye then the colour that is put upon it here upon earth and some comfort it is to me not only that I go the way of these great men in their several Generations but also that my charge if I may not be partiall looks somewhat like that against Saint Paul in the 25. of the Acts for he was accused for the Law and the Temple that is the Law and Religion and like that of St. Stephen in the sixth of the Acts for breaking the Ordinances which Moses gave us which Ordinances were Law and Religion but you 'l say do I then compare my self with the integrity of Saint Paul and Saint Stephen no God forbid far be it from me I onely raise a comfort to my self that these great Saints and servants of God were thus laid up in their severall times And it is very memorable that Saint Paul who was one of them and a great one that helped on the accusation against Saint Stephen fell afterwards into the self-same accusation himself yet both of them great Saints and servants of God I but perhaps a great clamour there is that I would have brought in Popery I shall answer that more fully by and by in the mean time you know what the Pharisees said against Christ himself in the eleventh of John If we let him alone all men will believe him Et veniunt Romani and the Romanes will come and take away both our place and the Nation Here was a causelesse cry against Christ that Romans would come and see how just the Judgement of God was they crucified Christ for fear lest the Romanes should come his death was that that brought in the Romanes upon them God punishing them with that which they most feared and I pray God this clamour of veniunt Romani of which I have given to my knowledg no just cause help not to bring him in for the Pope never had such an harvest in England since the Reformation as he hath now upon the Sects and divisions that are among us in the mean time by honour and dishonour by good report and evil report as a deceiver and yet true am I now passing out of this world Some particulars also I think not amisse to speak of First this I shall be bold to speak of the King our gracious Soveraign he hath been much traduced by some for labouring to bring in Popery but upon my Conscience of which I am now going to give God a present account I know him to be as free from this Charge I think as any man living and I hold him to be as sound a Protestant according to the Religion by Law established as any man in this Kingdom and that he will venture his Life as far and as freely for it and I think I do or should know both his affection to Religion and his grounds upon which that affection is built as fully as any man in England The second particular is concerning this great and populous City which God blesse here hath been of late a fashion taken up to gather hands and then goe to the Honourable and great Court of the Kingdome the Parliament and clamour for Justice as if that great and wise Court before whom the causes come which are unknown to the many could not or would not doe Justice but at their call and appointment a way which may endanger many an innocent man and pluck innocent bloud upon their own heads and perhaps upon this City also which God forbid and this hath been lately practis'd against my self God forgive the setters of this with all my heart I begge it but many well-meaning people are caught by it In Saint Stevens case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the people against him Acts 6. and Herod went just the self same way for when he had kill'd Saint James he would not venture upon Saint Peter too till he saw how the people took it and were pleased with it in the 12. of the Acts. But take heed of having your hands full of bloud in the first of Isaiah for there is a time best known to himself when God among other sinnes makes inquisition for bloud and when Inquisition is on foot the Psalmist tells us Psalme 9. that God remembers that is not all that God remembers and forgets not saith the Prophet the complaint of the poor and he tells you what poor they are in the ninth verse the poor whose bloud is shed by such kind of meanes Take heed of this It is a fearfull thing at any time to fall into the hands of the living God in the 12. of the Hebrews but it is fearfull indeed then especially when he is making his Inquisition for bloud and therefore with my prayers to avert the Prophesie from the City let me desire that this City would remember the Prophesie that is expressed Jeremiah 26.15 The third particular is this poor Church of England that hath flourished and been a shelter to other neighbouring Churches when stormes have driven upon them but alas now it is in a storme it self and God knows whether or how it shall get out and which is worse them a storme from without it is become like an Oake cleft to shivers with wedges made out of its own body and that in every cleft prophanesse and irreligion is creeping in apace while as Prosper saith men that introduce prophaness are cloaked with a name of imaginary religion for we have in a manner almost lost the substance and dwell much nay too much a great deal in Opinion and that Church which all the Jesuites machinations in these parts of Christendome could not ruine is now fallen into a great deal of danger by her own The last particular for I am not willing to be tedious I shall hasten to goe out of this miserable world is my self and I beseech you as many as are within hearing observe me I was born and baptized in the bosome of the Church of England as it stands yet established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that profession of the Protestant Religion here established I come now to die this is no time to dissemble
with God least of all in matter of Religion and therefore I desire it may be remembred I have always lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I come now to die What Clamors and Slanders I have endured for labouring to keep an Uniformity in the external service of God according to the Doctrine and Disciplice of this Church all men know and I have abundantly felt Now at last I am accused of high Treason in Parliament a crime which my soul ever abhorred this Treason was charged upon me to consist of two parts An endeavour to subvert the Law of the Realm and a like endeavour to overthrow the true Protestant Religion established by those Laws Besides my Answers which I gave to the severall Charges I protested my innocency in both Houses it was said Prisoners protestations at the Barre must not be taken de ipso I can bring no witnesse of my heart and the intentions thereof therefore I must come to my Protestation not at the bar but to my Protestation at this hour and instant of my death in which as I said before I hope all men will be such charitable Christians as not to think I would die and dissemble my Religion I doe therefore here with that caution that I delivered before without all prejudice in the world to my Judges that are to proceed secundum allegata probata and so to be understood I die in the presence of Almighty God and all his holy and blessed Angels and I take it now on my death that I never endeavoured the subversion of the Laws of the Realm nor never any change of the Protestant Religion into Popish superstition and I desire you all to remember this Protest of mine for my innocency in these and from all manner of Treasons whatsoever I have been accused likewise as an enemy to Parliaments no God forbid I understood them and the benefits that come by them a great deal too well to be so but I did indeed dislike some misgovernments as I conceived of some few one or two Parliaments and I did conceive humbly that I might have reason for it for corruptio optimi est pessima There is no corruption in the world so bad as that which is of the best thing in it self for the better the thing is in nature the worse it is corrupted and this being the highest and greatest Court over which no other can have any jurisdiction in the Kingdome if by any way a mis-government which God forbid should any ways fall upon it the Subjects of this Kingdome are left without all manner of remedy and therefore God preserve them and bless them and direct them that there may be no mis-conceit much lesse mis-government amongst them I will not inlarge my self any further I have done I forgive all the world all and every of those bitter enemies or others whosoever they have been which have any wayes prosecuted me in this kind and I humbly desire to be forgiven first of God and then of every man whether I have offended him or no if he doe but conceive that I have Lord doe thou forgive me and I beg forgivenesse of him and so I heartily desire you to joyn with me in prayer The Bishop of Canterburies first prayer on the Scaffold O Eternall God and mercifull Father look down upon me in mercy in the riches and fulnesse of all thy mercies look upon me but not till thou hast nailed my sins to the Cross of Christ look upon me but not till thou hast bathed me in the blood of Christ not till I have hid my self in the wounds of Christ that so the punishment that is due to my sinnes may passe away and goe over me and since thou art pleased to try me to the uttermost I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great instant full patience proportionable comfort a heart ready to die for thine honour the Kings happinesse and the Churches preservation and my zeal to these farre from arrogancy be it spoken is all the sin humane frailty excepted and all incidents thereunto which is yet known of me in this particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this particular of Treason but otherwise my sinnes are many and great Lord pradon them all and those especially whatsoever they be which have drawn down this present Judgment upon me and when thou hast given me strength to bear it then doe with me as seems best in thy own eyes and carry me through death that I may look upon it in what visage soever it shall appear to me and that there may be a stop of this issue of blood in this more then miserable Kingdome I shall desire that I may pray for the people too as well as for my self O Lord I beseech thee give grace of repentance to all people that have a thirst for blood but if they will not repent then scatter their devices so and such as are or shall be contrary to the glory of thy great name the truth and sincerity of Religion the establishment of the King and his Posterity after him in their just Rights and Priviledges the honour and conservation of Parliaments in their ancient and just power the preservation of this poor Church in her truth peace and patrimony and the setlement of this distracted and distressed people under their ancient Laws and in their native Liberties and when thou hast done all this in meer mercy for them O Lord fill their hearts with thankfulnesse and with religious dutifull obedience to thee and thy Commandments all their daies So Amen Lord Jesus and I beseech thee receive my soul to mercy Our Father which art in Heaven Hollowed be thy Name Thy Kingdome come Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Amen When he had finished his Prayer he gave his Paper to Doctor Sterne saying Doctor I give you this that you may shew it to your Fellow-Chaplains that they may see how I am gone out of the world and Gods blessing and his mercy be upon them Then turning to Master Hinde he said Friend I beseech you hear me I cannot say I have spoken every word as it is in my Paper but I have gone very neer it to help my memory as well as I could but I beseech you let me have no wrong done me Hinde Sir you shall not if I doe any wrong let it fall on my own head I pray God have mercy on your soul Cant. I thank you I did not speak with any jealousie as if you would doe so but I spake it onely as a poor man going out of the world it is not possible for me to keep to the words in my paper and a phrase may doe me wrong I did think here would have been an
though I confess a very hard one as to perform it pretty handsomly both as becomes a Gentleman and a Christian Onely I must desire you to expect no fine Prologue or Speech from me I never studied to make Orations a very unfit man to lay plots against a State who am scarce able to lay a few lines of plain English together as I ought But though I cannot speak happily I doubt not but I shall die happily I confess my self a great sinner Who is innocent God be mercifull to me a miserable sinner I adore the justice of God in all this that is come upon me I have deserved to die long since and blessed be God who hath given me such time to prepare But for this Crime I stand condemned for to day I do protest mine own innocency as to any consent or engagement to act in it I hope you will believe me when you consider upon what slender proofs and testimonies I suffer none of them legal or positive but circumstantial For my Brother Charls Alas poor youth how he was wrought upon But I desire all my friends to think honourably of him For my Brother Sir Gilbert This imagination of a Plot is said to have been hatched in France but I fear the nest was at Whitehall As for the King so far from concurring to such a Deed that I am only unsatisfied in this whether I shall die right in his favour because suspected of any thing so unworthy of him I fear he lost his Kingdome by such practises but whether he would recover them so is a question God hath better ways when it shall be good in his sight to plead his cause I was lately in France but on mine own score for I have commanded there and probably might For my past life it hath been but a troublesome one but now I hope I shall rest Since I was any thing I have served the King as I was bound And I wish all that did so had done it as faithfully He was condemned for a Tyrant but God For my Religion though a Souldier I am able to profess I am a Christian Souldier a true Son of the Church of England as constituted under Q. Elizabeth K. James and K. Charls of blessed memory Her Doctrine and Government I embrace Her Truth and Peace I pray God to restore I humbly give thanks to God Almighty for providing me the comfort of a Minister on whose fidelity I might repose my soul And I pray God to bless the poor faithful Ministers of this Church and give you hearts to esteem them the want whereof is no small cause of our misery My days have been few and evil yet God be blessed in all the vanities and folly of youth I have been far from Atheism or contempt of Gods worship I had alwaies awful impressions of Gods honour and service which is now my comfort And now dear Countrymen fare you well I pray God bless you all this whole Nation Alas poor England When will these black days be over When will there be blood enough I wish mine might fill up the measure I forgive all Once more fare you well Commend me to all my friends Pray for me I pray God make you as faithful and loyal as I have lived and as happy as I shall be by and by when I am dead Come Lord Jesus come quickly Father of mercies have mercy on me Saviour of the world save my soul O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world hear my prayers Into thy hands O Lord I commend my Spirit Lord Jesus receive my soul The last Speech of Mr. Peter Vowell which he intended to have delivered had he been permitted upon Munday the tenth of July 1654. on which day he suffered death in the place where Charing-Cross stood as from the Original paper written with his own hand appeareth Gentlemen AT this earthly Bar from them that pretend to have a great measure of sanctity I had hard measure but to that Bar I am now going the Bar of heaven I shall have Justice yea one day Justice against them except they water their beds and couches with tears of Repentance The Court gave severe and rash Judgement on my body and sent a pitifull fellow but a pitiless fellow that gave as rash a Judgement of my soul but that precious Jewel none of them could touch to hurt The Souls under the Altar cry loud for vengeance long ago how many more of late years have been added to them to help the cry the cry is loud of those lately whose blood hath been unlawfully spilt but vengeance is Gods and I will leave it to him The Court of my Tryal said I was confident and held it as a fault He also whom they sent to the Tower I know not if to entrap me under pretense to comfort my soul told me also I was confident I say the same and the same confidence I bring with me now and by Gods assistance I hope I shall carry it out of this world with my innocency Gentlemen Souldiers Among the ancient and savage sort of Heathen they had a Law once every three six or twelve moneths to offer up a sacrifice of humane blood to their God and that their God was a Divel Among us whether heathen or not you best know of late years we have had a fatal custome once in three six or twelve moneths to make not only a sacrifice but many sacrifices of humane Christian blood our Scaffolds have reek'd and smok'd with the choisest sort of blood But unto what God do you judge What God is he that delights in the blood of man Baal the god of Ekron Beelzebub the god of Flyes Amongst the Primitive Christians that lived neerest the time of our Saviour Christ the greatest Tyrants and persecutors of the Christians lived the persecution was great and yet the courage of those persecuted Christians was so great that it excelled the fury of the persecutors that they came in faster to be kill'd then they could kill they offered their bodies and throats so thick unto the slaughter that the hands of the Tyrants were weary with killing and yet Sanguis Martirum was Semen Ecclesiae and many Heathens came in with the Christians seeing their cheerful constancy rurned Christians and dyed Christians and dyed with them the Christians still encreased the more Of late years here hath been a great persecution in this Nation and yet the sufferers have been so many and present themselves so thick in the vindication of their King Country and Laws that they startled the very enemy himself their constancy so great that the eyes of their Judges dropped tears whether real or true let the Judge of Judges judge They still stand amazed at their constancy though they exceed the old Heathens Are not weary of killing Oh Souldiers How many of you have been brought up and led on by blind Principles wronged in your Education or seduced by your indiscreet
heedless and heady Teachers How many of you young men have for some small discontent departed from your loving Masters dear Friends or tender Parents and fled into the Army How many of you driven by Tyranous oppression poverty or cruelty have left your dear wives and children And some for novelty or wantonness adhere to this imployment not considering the great danger of spilling innocent bloud How many of you have drawn your Swords you do not know for what How many of you keep drawn your swords you do not know for what You have put to death a pious and just King and in his stead have reared up even another Jeroboam that makes Israel to sin What his goodness is you best know You have put down a good old Law and reared up another of your own to judge the people by my calling for the benefit of the former and for the equity even of your own Law I am in parr condemned here to dye Be you Judge of the proceedings How many of you have had a hand in putting down the ancient true Church and raised up in your own imaginations a new one But alas You know not what you do if you did you would grieve to see what a glorious Church you have ruined you would never have pulled down the hedges and broken down the senses that the wild beasts of the Forrest should come in that the little foxes should devour and the wilde Boar should rout out so stately a Vine When the Jewes were led into captivity their goodly and magnificent Temple was burnt but in processe of time they obtained favour amongst the Heathen Kings they dwelt amongst and had liberty therewith to rebuild rebuild they did and finished a second Temple at which sight all the young men rejoyced to see so gallant a Temple but the old men wept to see how farre different and short the second Temple was from the glory of the first So you young men rejoyce at your imaginary Church but the old men methinks I see some weep Oh weep not for me weep for your Country weep to see Religion Liberty and Laws taken from you weep to see so many good men snatcht away but indeed from the miseries to come and weep for what your unhappy selves will suffer Souldiers however you flourish for a time and perhaps many of you may reioyce at our deaths but believe it as Sampson pull'd the house of the Philistims down when he fell so shall we give you and your Cause a greater blow by our deaths than living we possibly could have done You may for a time flourish but remember what our Saviour said All you that make use of the Sword shall perish by the Sword you shall be cut down like the grass and wither away like the green herbs But do you behold yonder glorious place Do you behold the spangled Heavens where the holy Angels dwell where God himself is rounded with thrones Principalities Powers and the Celestiall Spirits of just men when the Trump shall blow when the dead shall rise at the dreadfull day of judgement How will you answer all your Rapes and Murthers Do you think your hands that have been bathed in the bloud of your King the bloud of so many of your eminent Country-men so unjustly they have been bathed in the bloud of many of your friends your kindred perhaps your Parents can ever reach yonder glorious place without repentance Oh no repent now therefore it is not too late shake off your bloudy Protector rescue your ancient Laws and call in your Royal young PRINCE whom you have long enough wronged Make your Addresses to the great Protector of Heaven and earth as I now do my self for a Pardon for all your former and present transgressions I dye an obedient Son of the Church of England and with a dutifull heart to the KING and desire that none present that love him will be disheartned by my death but continue faithfull to the end And so farewel I forgive all the world c. The Speech of the Honourable Colonel Penruddock the greatest part whereof he delivered upon the Scaffold in Exon. Castle the 16. day of May 1655. the whole he left with a Gentleman and friend of his written with his own hand which is as followeth Together with the manner of his being beheaded As he was ascending the Scaffold baring his knees and bowing himself he used these words This I hope will prove to be like Jacobs ladder though the feet of it rest on earth yet I doubt not but the top of it reacheth to Heaven When he came upon the Scaffold he said O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God who hath given me victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Then with abundance of Christian chearfulnesse he spake to the people as followeth Gentlemen IT hath ever been the custom of all persons whatsoever when they come to die to give some satisfaction to the world whether they be guilty of the fact of which they stand charged The crime for which they stand charged The crime for which I am now to die is Loyalty but in this age call'd high Treason I cannot deny but I was at Southmoulton in this County but whether my being there or my actions there amount to so high a crime as high Treason I leave to the world and to the Law to judg Truly if I were conscious to my self of any base ends that I had in this undertaking I would not be so in jurious to my own soul or disingenuous to you as not to make a publick acknowledgement thereof I suppose that divers persons according as they are biassed in their severall interests and relations give their opinions to the world concerning us I conceive it impossible therefore so to expresse my self in this particular as not to expose both my judgement and reputation to the censure of many which I shall leave behind me Because I will not put others therefore upon a breach of charity concerning me or my actions I have thought fit to decline all discourses which may give them a capacity either to injure themselves or me My Tryall was publick and my severall examinations I believe will be produced when I am in my grave I will refer you therefore to the first which I am sure some of you heard and to the later which many of you in good time may see Had Captain Crook done himself and us that right which a Gentleman and a Souldier ought to have done I had not now been here The man I forgive with all my heart but truly Gentlemen his protesting against those Articles he himself with so many protestations and importunities put upon us hath drawn so much dishonour and bloud upon his head that I fear some heavy judgement will pursue him Though he hath been false to us I pray God I do not prove a true prophet to him Nay I must say more
things against me I pray with all my soul that God would forgive all those that upon so slender and small grounds adjudg'd me to die taking advantage of such simple ignorance as I was in And I had at the very beginning of my pleading engaged their Honors no advantage should be taken against me to my prejudice that in as much as I understood nothing of the Law And having heard that a man in the nicety of the Law might be lost in the severity thereof meerly for speaking a word out of simple ignorance I made it my prayer to them that no advantage might be taken against me to the prejudice of my person and there was to me a seeming consent for the President told me there should be no advantage taken against me and upon these considerations I am afraid there was too great uncharitableness But I pray God forgive them from the very bottom of my soul and I desire that even those that shed my bloud may have the bowels of the God of Mercy shed for them And now having given you the occasion of my coming hither it is fit I should give you somewhat as concerning my self as I am a Christian and as I am a Clergy-man First as I am a Christian I thank God I was baptized to the Holy Church so I was baptized to be a Member of the holy Catholick Church that is the Church of England which I dare say for purity of Doctrine and orderly Discipline till a sad reformation had spoiled the face of the Church and made it a querie whether it were a Church or no I say it was more purely Divine and Apostolical than any other Doctrine or Church in the Christian World whether National or Classical or Congregational And I must tel you That as I am a Member of this Church so I am a Member of the holy Catholick Church and shall give a most just confession of my Faith both negatively and affirmatively Negatively I am so a Member of the holy Catholick Church that I abhor all Sects Schisms Sedition and Tyranny in Religion Affirmatively so That as I hold Communion with so I love and honour all Christians in the world that love the same Lord JESUS in sincerity and call on his Name agreeing with those truths that are absolutely necessary and clearly demonstrated in the Word of God both in the Old and New Testament though in charity dissenting from some others that are not necessary And I as I am thus a Christian I hope for salvation through the merits of Christ Jesus his bloud I rely on his merits I trust to for the salvation of my own soul though to this Faith Good Works are necessary not meritorious in us but onely made meritorious by Christ his death by his all-sufficiency by his satisfaction and his righteousnesse they become meritorious but in us they are no other than as defiled Rags And truly as I am a Member of the Church so I told you I was a Member of this Community and so pleaded for the Liberties and Priviledges thereof I must now answer something I am aspersed withall in the world They talk of something of a Plot and a Treasonable desâ—gn and that I had a great interest in the knowledge and practise thereof and that for the saving my life I would have discovered and betrayed I cannot tel what I hope my conversation hath not been such here in this City where I have been a long time very wel known as to make one imagine I should intermeddle in such an action and go so contrary to the practise of my profession and I hope there are none so uncharitable towards me as to believe I had a knowledge of that design Here I must come to particulars for a Plot of having a design upon the City of London for the firing of it I so much tremble at the thought of the thing that should have been done as they say for the carrying on of such a design if my heart deceive me not had I known it I so much abhor the thing I should have been the first discoverer of it Nor ever had I correspondencie or meetings with such persons as would have carried on such a design It is said likewise I entertained the Earl the Marquess of Ormond To my remembrance I never saw the face of that honourable person in my life It is said One Lords day I did preach at Saint Gregories and the next Lords day I was at Brussels or Bruges and kist the Kings hand and brought I cannot tel what Orders and Instructions from him This I shal say For these three years last past together I have not been sixty miles from this City of London and I think it is somewhat further to either of those places than threescore miles It is said that I kept correspondence with one Mallory and Bishop They are persons I have heard of their names but never saw their faces and to my knowledge I do not know they know me nor do I know them at all but onely as I have heard of their names And whosoever else hath suggested such things against me I know not His Highness was pleased to tel me I was like a flaming Torch in the midst of a sheaf of Corn He meaning I being a publick Preacher was able to set the City on fire by sedition and combustions and promoting designes Here truly I do say and have it from many of those that are Judges of the High-Court that upon examination of the business they have not found me a medler at all in these Affaires And truly I must needs say therefore That it was a very uncharitable act in them who ever they were that brought such accusation against me and irritated his Highness against me I will not say it was malice it might be zeal but it was rash zeal which caused me to be sentenced to this place The God of mercy pardon and forgive them all And truly as I am a Member of the Church and as a Member of the Community where on behalf I have been speaking I cannot but do as our Saviour himself did for his Disciples when he was to be taken from them he blessed them and ascended up to heaven My trust is in the mercy of the most High I shall not miscarry and however my daies are shortned by this unexpected doom and shal be brought untimely to the grave I cannot go without my prayers for a blessing upon all the people of this Land and cannot but bless them all in the name of God and beseech God to bless them in all their waies and his blessing be upon them Let us pray O Most glorious Lord God thou whose dwelling is so far above the highest Heavens that thou humblest thy self but to look upon the things that are in Heaven and that are in earth and thou dost whatsoever thou wilt both in Heaven in Earth in the Sea and in all deep places In thy hands are