so many Martyrs in this Kingdom to which glory and Crown far above all his other Diadems this Defender of the Faith was through so many future hazards to aspire And the better to clear his innocency from those malicious aspersions it suffered under though the Sun at noon-day never was brighter or clearer than his entire profession of the Protestant Religion of his being in heart a Papist his Majesty being at christ-Christ-Church in Oxford in 1643 and prepared to receive the Sacrament from the hands of the Lord Arch-Bishop of Armagh used these publick expressions just before the receiving of the blessed Elements My Lord I Espy here many resolved Protestants who may declare to the World the resolution I now do make I have to the utmost of my power prepared my Soul to become a worthy receiver and so may I receive comfort by the blessed Sacrament as I do intend the establishment of the true Protestant Religion as it stood in its beauty in the happy dayes of Queen Elizabeth without any connivance of Popery I bless God that in the midst of these publick distractions I have still liberty to communicate and may this Sacrament be my damnation if my heart do not joyn with my lips in this Protestation But even this most sacred asseveration and then which nothing can more oblige belief and confidence was by these profaners of all holy things rejected and slighted and measured by their own perjurious Oaths and Covenants wherefore the King to undeceive the Forein Reformed Churches since he could not convince his own Subjects with whom their Emissaries had tampered and insinuated the same detestable falshood and who seemed to be otherwise affected to this their noble Defender than their duty required in those his times of affliction published a Declaration in Latin and sent it abroad the tenour whereof being of main concernment to our purpose is in English as followeth CHARLES by the special Providence of Almighty God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith To all those who profess the true reformed Protestant Religion of what Nation condition and degree soever they be to whom this present Declaration shall come Greeting Whereas we are given to understand that many false Rumours and scandalous Letters are spread up and down amongst the Reformed Churches in Forein parts by the politick or rather the pernicious industry of some ill affected persons that we have an inclination to recede from that Orthodox Religion which we were born baptized and bred in and which we have firmly professed and practised through the whole course of our life to this moment and that we intend to give way to the introduction and publick exercise of Popery again in our Dominions which conjecture or rather most detestable calumny being grounded upon no imaginable foundation hath raised these horrid Tumults and more than barbarous Wars throughout these flourishing Islands under pretext of a kind of Reformation which would not prove only incongruous but incompatible with the Fundamental Laws and Government of this our Kingdom We desire that the whole Christian World should take notice and rest assured that we never entertained in our imagination the least thought to attempt such a thing or to depart a jot from that Holy Religion which when we received the Crown and Scepter of this Kingdom we took a most solemn Sacramental Oath to profess and protect Nor doth our most constant practise and daily visible presence in the exercise of this sole Riligion with so many asseverations in the head of our Armies and the publick attestation of our Lords with the circumspection used in the education of our Royal Off-spring besides divers other undeniable Arguments only demonstrate this but also that happy alliance of mariage we contracted between our eldest Daughter and the illustrious Prince of Aurange most clearly confirms the reality of our Intentions herein By which nuptial engagement it appears further that our endeavours are not only to make a bare profession thereof in our own Dominions but to enlarge and corroborate it abroad as much as lieth in our power This most Holy Religion with the Hierarchy and Liturgy thereof we solemnly protest that by the help of Almighty God we will endeavour to our utmost power and last period of our life to keep entire and immovable and will be careful according to our Duty to Heaven and the tenour of the aforesaid most sacred Oath at our Coronation that all our Ecclesiasticks in their several stations and incumbencies shall preach and practise the same This came very seasonably into the World as to the Protestant part of it who never imagined or thought Subjects of their perswasion would take up Arms or resist without some grievous alteration in Religion though they condemn it in any case whatsoever and therefore the Protestant States abroad did wholly decline their owning of them though they did nothing positively for the Kings assistance which by this means he could not rationally promise to himself from the Catholick Princes who would not engage without some great advantages for his Popish Subjects against which his Majesty was so religiously resolved though he were most dutifully and cordially served by them throughout the War To resume our narrative the Kingdom was all in a flame the Sectaries every where finding Friends to their specious Cause and having the City of London for their inexhaustible Magazine and supplies of men money and Arms. Divers fields were fought in the chief whereof the King himself was personally present with various success till the year 1645 where at Naseby he received that fatal overthrow which ushered in so many succeeding calamities most unworthy of his great virtues and piety I cannot but observe before I come to repeat the perpetration of all their complicated mischief in his murder how gradually his enemies forsook their allegiance and how the paint of their religious and loyal pretences wore off by time which will leave their fair-faced impiety indelible First their General must go fight with the Kings Army and rescue him from his evil Councellors but preserve his Person this Riddle was resolved in my Lord Fairfaxes Commission when they had so far engaged their partakers that there was no way of receding from those dangerous courses where there was not such a word but kill and slay without exception During the War all their importunate desires were that he would be graciously pleased to disband his Army and return to his most dutiful Subjects at Westminster afterwards towards the expiration of the War when he urged what they had so vehemently obtested they were most ungraciously displeased at the proposal and so proceeded in conclusion to that heighth of impiety as Tacitus speaks of another cursed caytiffe Ferox scelerum quia prima provenerant their successe in one wickednesse provoking them to more For the King being every where worsted and besieged in his Chief Garrison the University of Oxford was advised and resolved to cast
and severe as inhumane Guards upon him intruding upon his devotions upbraiding him with his condition and most irreverently and impudently profaning his Person within his hearing He continued here untill he had kept his last Christmass but so privately in the most retired rooms of that Castle that no person but of their appointment to look to him was suffered to come near him till after that the Army had furbisht out a new House of Commons and prepared the design against his Sacred and most precious Life he was conveyed by Collonel Harrison sitting covered in the Coach with him though by Divine vengeance now bare-headed upon Westminster-Hall with a strong Guard of Horse to his Palace at St. James's and there lodged by order from their Juncto at Westminster there to wait the direful preparations for his Tryal advanced into some kind of method and lickt into some ravenous form already But what words shall we now use what expiating sense to expresse innocency and without some taint of guilt the slagiciousness of this villany we are about to relate what exaggerations of crimes to signifie and declare this Accumulative Treason a term first invented and created by the Authors of this mischief to weary and overburden that noble Earl of Strafford with his precious and most useful life and now accomplisht That baneful Prophetical Oracle being without all doubt and as the immediate direction of God to Fulfil the Measure of the sins of this Nation riddled in this most detestable wickedness Herein we may behold at one view all the miseries and confusions that befel the three Kingdoms from the commencement of our troubles whose large circumference and ambient circles of jealousies and fears centred in this fatal business That which Caligula most bloodily wisht that the City of Rome that extended to the Empire of the World had but one neck these cruel and impious persons had the unhappy enjoyment of for with this Royal Martyr fell the glory and honour of these Nations the people whereof as if the blow had reached their neck too stoopt and hung down their heads as ashamed and afraid to lift up their guilty faces towards angry Heaven Never were there so many sorrowful and dejected looks so many sad and oppressed hearts as at this deplorable occasion Every man presaged his private ruine from this of the Publick except those whose aimes were upon it and who had designed to themselves the profit of this Maxime Kill and take Possession Nay it seemed so barbarous even to those persons who had instrumentally served to the grand design which they thought reached not to this extent that the Presbiteryan Ministers in and about London avowedly remonstrated against it and subscribed their names laying the sin and impiety of any prosedure against the King at their door declaring the mischief that would inevitably follow thereupon all which they inforced and urged also from their Covenant While thus we would clear our selves and particular men from this horrid blood-guiltinesse how shall we wipe off the stain from the Protestant Religion it being the impious doctrine of the Church of Rome That Princes by the Popes Authority may be deposed and murthered Foraign Churches of our profession have suffered much under this imputation by the Papists themselves upon this score therefore we will not omit this vindication here worthy to be written upon all our Churches being this Royal Martyrs words in his advice to our Soveraign That he should not be alienated from the Religion established through any of the injuries and reproaches thrown upon him in this Rebellion for they were not Protestants that did them Indeed they lack names and terms for themselves and those monstrous facts they perpetrated nor Turk nor Jew nor infidel will reach them such was the incomparable innocence sanctity and virtue of this Prince and Heaven would have none but perfect Sacrifices I refer the Reader therefore to that which shews them best that which themselves dared to publish in this matter which in short is this There were three grand Interests that centred and combined in this fatal business The first was that of Oliver Cromwel whose often dreamt-of Soveraignty egged and provoked his ambition now propt with the power of the sword put him upon desperate invasion of his Soveraigns Crown and Life The second was that of the Republicans or Common-wealth men whose great tempting sin to this facinorous act and main ingredient was coverousness having designed to themselves the Kings Revenue and the Churches Patrimony The third was the Fifth Monarchy Heresie in whom mad ambition and pride and insatiable appetite of wealth and riches were at strise for superiority or else so well blended and mixt that it was hardly discernable which made the fairest shew in their political and pious claim of worldly power These three Factions thus agreed hoping when the accursed deed was done to over-reach one another and attain their particular ends conspired together and by their joynt Counsels after they had turned out the Parliament and erected a select Juncto by their directions to these men who were all parties concern'd in the share of the Spoyl A thing called an Act of Parliament having the Authority of some 50 Commons some whereof were also dissenters the generality of them being new elected Members by Writ of Parliament in the room of those at Oxford passed that House to bring the King to Tryal having therein appointed a High Court of Justice consisting of some 80 persons all interessed Grandees to be the Court before which the King should be charged of Divers Crimes which I abhor to relate This High Court of Justice the monster of English Judicature according to the power given by the said Act having assembled first in the Painted Chamber in order to set and braze their countenances by staring in one anothers faces then swelled with Devilish guilt and malice came in formality with their impudent President to their pretended Court erected at the further end of Westminster-Hall where the King soon after was brought and placed in his chair against the face of these effront Rebels There they exhibited the charge which the King refused to answer to or acknowledge that rout for any kind of Authority which he persisted in all the four times he was convened before them and in conclusion as before they had resolved by colour of a judicial proceeding was most trayterously sentenced to be beheaded to the astonishment and unspeakable grief of his three Kingdoms and the horrour and shame of the Christian World I have thus transiently past over this unpleasant business because it is so lamentably known and published at large in the black Tribunal to which I reser the amazed Reader His Majesties Reasons against the pretended Jurisdiction of the High Court of Injustice which he intended to have delivered in writing on Monday Jan. 22. 1648. but was not permitted HAving already made My protestations not only against the illegallity of
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 profess 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 the sixth practised in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles that blessed Prince deceased that Religion before it was defaced I am of which I take to be Christs Catholique though not the Roman Catholique Religion in the profession and practice whereof I will live and die that for my Religion Then he turnd 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 liberal but there is three pound for thee which is all I have Now tell me what I lack Execut. Your hair 's 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 bosomes 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 Voyce 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 fixed them very intentively upon Heaven he said when I say Lord Jesus receive me Executioner do thine Office then kissing the Ax he laid down and with as much undaunted yet Christian courage as possible as could be in man did he expose his throat to the fatal Ax. his life to the Executioner and commended his Soul into the Hands of a faithful and merciful Creator through the meritorious passion of a gracious Redeemer saying the forementioned words his head was smitten off at one blow Sir Henry Hide beheaded over against the Exchance March 4. 1650. AFter this Rebellion had assumed its various shapes put all by and made up with its several interests till it had quite outed the manner of true Religion when there was no Law left but the arbitrary Will and Powers of the Grandees at Westminster no man can wonder at this Turkish Example in the sad fate of this Honourable Person The truth is he was the noble Brother to that excellently prudent States-man the Right Honourable Earl of Clarendel Lord Chancellor of England But we must detract from this Martyrs merit if we involve it in his Brothers whose capacious influence upon the Councels and affairs of this Nation hath rescued all honest and loyal men from the brinks of misery and ruin ten thousand times worse then Death It is a sad Subject to Comment on especially because we may repeat nothing here but what has been most favourably and that at his honourable Relations importunity quite forgiven though I hope that pardon extends not beyond the Memory of the sufferer whatever it reaches to in the Oblivion of the Actor He was sent as he avowedly declared at his death as a Messenger only from our Sovereign King Charles the second soon after the murther of his Royal Father to the Grand Seignior that Office he aptly himself termed an Internuncio which to his and the Kindomes Enemies sounded worse then the jealousie of Popery I make use of that term to discover the occasion of this his fate since it hath its diversity of Names according to the customes and Languages of Nations as Envoy c. in the French but throughout the World barbarous or civil unlesse by sinister and bribed Artifices the very name of such persons were feared and had in publique Veneration He was bred a Merchant who traded to the Levant and who by experience had gained not only a considerable Estate therewith but also a Repute and Estimation amongst the Turkish Company who considering him as an intelligent Person in the businesse and management of that Traffique and entercourse made and constituted him their Consul at the Morea which place with what integrity he discharged and how discreetly and advantagiously for the benefit of the said Company he went through and performed we need not offer to the Test since so universally approved For the convenience therefore of that concerning which the King had them at the Port this Gentleman was pitch upon and sent thither but what he would have transacted there if not opposed is not to be ascertained only thus far we may be assured that there was little of publique matter therein especially of prejudice to this Nation or that Commerce in particular as was most falsly and scandalously noised by his Enemies as may appear by a little instance For near the same time the Right Honourable the Lord Wentworth being sent Ambassadour from the King to the Emperour of Russia to acquaint him with the horrid murther of our Sovereign his Royal Father and to desire some assistance from him in order to the reducing of his Revolted Kingdomes whereunto the Emperour frankly offered besides what he would disburse of his own the whole Estates Goods Merchandizes of the English residing in his Dominions my Lord utterly refused the motion acquainting the Emperour that the King never had harboured any displeasure against his Merchant Subjects of whose loyaltie and affection to him he was very well satisfied though it was out of their power and ability to serve him So that it was a groundless and unreasonable calumny framed on purpose to render him odious to the people that his design and errand to Constantinople was upon the Merchants there in relation to their Estates and that he was sent in the room of Sir Thomas Bendish to be his Majesties Leiger there for that
of Apprentices Seamen and others intermingled with so me of the leading Grandees who were to instruct this many-headed Monster what they should cry out for or what they should do upon any emergency who coming to Westminster-Hall made a violent cry for Justice against Strafford which continued so many dayes together till at last not seeing the businesse go on with that disparch they wished and being informed by their Members of the Faction in the House that the Bill of Attainder stuck with the Lords and that they refused to passe it they proceeded to that Impudence as to stop the Lords Coaches as they went to the House and threaten them if they would not consent to his Condemnation to hinder them from entring into the House and that they would turn them back withal they posted up the Names of those Lords who would not consent to this cruel and barbarous way of proceeding against the said Earle calling them Straffordians and enemies of their Country with this menacing Subscription This and more shall be done unto them c. If this had been meerly the Rage of the Multitude the Fate of this worthy and Noble Person had been something the lesse lamentable by how much injuries of violence are lesse terrible and imputable then those of Deliberation but here was the bloudy hand of the Puritan Preacher most apparently concerned who now thought to wreak himself of all those Silencings had been put upon their Seditious Mouths by this cry for bloud which no Horseleech ever more greedily sucked so by these Prophets the Word was put into the mouth of the multitude Many Enemies and those the ablest Lawyers of the Kingdom and Eloquent Orators also this Noble Earle was combated with against whom neverthelesse he most rationally politely and learnedly without any the least Passion confidence or Fear being alike distant from them both but in an even and excellent temper of mind so well defended himself that his Peers could not find where to fasten his Charge which because of the extraordinary manage of it and that he is the Protomartyr take a view of in this short Account An Account of the Life Tryal and Death of that Loyal PROTO-MARTYR THOMAS Earle of Strafford Lord Deputy of Ireland Beheaded May 12. 1641. VVHat was tauntingly said by the French concerning this great and prudent Statesman that the English were mad having but one wise Head to cut it off was Truth enough and too sadly experienced All Essaies of describing those great Abilities and comprehensiveness of his mind are therefore unfeasable because none but himself could pourtraict them to any Appearance or Semblance of that Life and Quicknesse which manifested it self even in that unsearchable and profound depth of his Counsels and Actions so that he hath left nothing transmittible to our Imitation but his Loyalty wherein we and his Enemies agree in this that we have nothing else to lay hold on his other superexcellent qualities being above our and their reach and understanding The Reason undoubtedly why he was assaulted with the new Engine of accumulative and constructive Treâ—son He hath for his honour and glory a most illustrious character given him by King Charles of blessed memory in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these words I look upon my Lord of Strafford as a Gentleman whose abilities might make a Prince rather afraid than ashamed to employ him in the greatest affaires of State c. so that all that can be added to his memory and renown by any other pen will be but a superfluous labour but because that good Prince only considered him in his setting wherein he was as unhappily concernd as he was happily in the raising of him it is thought requisiâ—e to take a farther view of him and deduce him from his Ancestry to whom he hath contributed more honour than he received from them He was born in Yorkshire of the illustrious Family of the Wentworths and educated according to the greatnesse of his Family which had brought forth many famous men As soon as he came of age he was chosen a Parliament Man where he presently gained the reputation of a States-Man and good Patriot by stickling against the Prerogative which mist not the Courts observation By King Charls the First out of honour to his merit and great parts he was made Bâ—ron Wentworth of Raby and soon after other Titles were conferred on him together with places of trust which he discharged to the Kings great content the services he received from him ballancing his favours bestowed on him which he never abused but continued to his death a most prudent Councellour Loyal Subject and faithful Friend being taken into the Kings bosom and most retired secrets Soon after he was created Earl of Strafford he was made also Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in which Government he exceeded in policy and good Laws and careful management in advancing the Kings revenue and ascertaining it for the future all that went before him He did also take care for the Church established the Protestant Religion countenanced learned men and preferred them and setled a constant revenue for them in that Kingdom of which prudent and pious action the now Clergy there do reape the fruit Some offences were taken at him by the Irish whom he kept in a very hard but orderly subjection suppressing their out-laws and Tories and reducing them to a perfect entire obedience to the Kings Authority and the Laws Unlesse the strings be wound up hard we cannot look for good Musick he repressed and beat down the insolent Lordings of the great ones over the Commons whom he sweetned and arctized into the English from their wild and barbarous Customs which caused him no great Love from the Irish Nobility who understood the design was by such artifices to take from them the absolute power they had over their poor Vassals and Tenants when they should find the difference between the English Manners and Laws and those of their own Country Herein notwithstanding the great opposition he meâ— in the obstinacy and indocibility and prejudice of that opinionated Nation he made a good procedure and no doubt had he continued longer in the Government and those times had not fallen out which soon put all into a confusion had obtained his end The Scotch War breaking out first as aforesaid he was called out of Ireland to assist the King with his Counsel in those Exigencies which had so unpreparedly surprized him to which work like a Noble Friend he set his head his hands and his purse advancing by subscription which the rest of the Nobility followed according to their estate twenty thousand pounds with which aid and the large supply of the Clergy who granted the King four shillings in the pound for six years together which was effected by his influence that King raised that Army against the Scots The Earl of Strafford was sick at the Defeat given the English at Newburne under my Lord Conway whereupon
whom the Causes come which are unknown to the many could not or would not do Justice but at their appointment A way which may endanger many an Innocent man and pluck his bloud upon their own heads and perhaps upon the Cities also And this hath been lately practised against my self the Magistrate standing still and suffering them openly to proceed from Parish to Parish without check God forgive the setters of this with all my heart I beg it but many well meaning People are caught by it In St. Stephens case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the people against him and Herod went the same way when he had killed St. James yet he would not venter upon St. Peter till he found how the other pleased the people But take heed of having your hands full of bloud for there is a time best known to himself when God above other sins makes Inquisition for bloud and when that Inquisition is on foot the Psalmist tells us That God remembers but that 's not all He remembers and forgets not the Complaint of the Poor that is whose bloud is shed by oppression vers 9. take heed of this 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God but then especially when he is making Inquisition for bloud And with my Prayers to avert it I do heartily desire this City to remember the Prophesie that is expressed Jer. 26.15 The third particular is the poor Church of England It hath flourished and been a shelter to other neighbouring Churches when storms have driven upon them But alas now 't is in a storm it self and God only knows whether or how it shall get out and which is worse than a storm from without it s become like an Oak cleft to shivers with wedges made out of its own body and at every cleft prophanenesse and irreligion is entring in while as Prosper speaks in his second Book De vit a contemptu cap. 4. Men that introduce prophanenesse are cloaked over with the name Religionis Imaginariae of Imaginary Religion for we have lost the Substance and dwell too much in Opinion and that Church which all the Jesuits machinations could not ruine is fallen into danger by her own The last particular for I am not willing to be too long is my self I was born and baptized in the bosome of the Church of England established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that I come now to dye 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 alwaies lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I come now to dye What Clamours and Slanders I have endured for labouring to keep a Uniformity in the external service of God according to the Doctrine and Discipline 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 to consist of these two parts An endeavour to subvert the Laws of the Land and alike Endeavour to overthrow the true Protestant Religion Established by Law Besides my answers to the several Charges I protested my Innocency in both Houses It was said Prisoners Protestations at the Bar must not be taken I can bring no witnesse of my heart and the intentions thereof therefore I must come to my Protestation not at the Bar but my Protestation at this hour and instant of my death in which I hope all men will be such charitable Christians as not to think I would dye and dissemble being instantly to give God an account for the truth of it I do therefore in the presence of God and his holy Angels take it upon my death That I never endeavoured the subversion either of Law or Religion and I desire you all to remember this Protest of mine for my Innocencie in these and from all Treâ—sons whatsoever I have been accused likewise as an Enemy to Parliaments No I understand them and the benefit that comes by them too well to be so But I did mislike the misgovernment of some Parliaments many waies and I had good 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 that being the highest Court over which no other have Jurisdiction when 't is mis-informed or mis-governed the Subject is left without all remedy But I have done I forgive all the World all and every of those bitter Enemies which have persecuted me and humbly desire to be forgiven of God first and then of every man whether I have offended him or not if he do but conceive that I have Lord do thou forgive me and I beg forgivenesse of him And so I heartily desire you to joyn in Prayer with me Oeternal God and merciful 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 Crosse of Christ not till thou hast bathed me in the bloud of Christ not till I have hid my self in the wounds of Christ that so the punishment due unto my sins may passe over me And since thou art pleased to try me to the utmost I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great instant full Patience proportionable Comfort and a heart ready to dye for thy Honour the Kings happinesse and this Churches preservation And my zeal to these far from arrogance be it spoken is all the sin humane frailty excepted and all incidents thereto which is yet known to me in this particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this particular of Treason but otherwise my sins are many and great Lord pardon them all and those especially what ever they are which have drawn down this present Judgment upon me and when thou hast given me strength to bear it do with me as seems best in thine own eyes and carry me through death that I may look upon it in what visage soever it shall appear to me Amen And that there may be a stop of this issue of bloud in this more than miserable Kingdom 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 Bloud thirsty people but if they will not repent O Lord confound all their devises Defeat and Frustrate all their designs and endeavours upon them which 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 just power the Preservation of this poor Church in her Truth Peace
and Patrimony and the settlement 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 dutiful-obedience to thee and thy Commandments all their daies So Amen Lord Jesus Amen and receive my Soul into thy Bosome Amen Our Father which art c. The Speech and Prayers being ended he gave the Paper which he red unto Dr. Sterne his Chaplain now Lord Bishop of Carlisle desiring him to shew it his other Chaplains that they might know how he departed out of this World and so prayed God to shew his mercies and blessings on them And noting how one Hinde had employed himself in taking a Copy of his Speech as it came from his mouth he desired him not to do him wrong in publishing a false or imperfect Copy Which as Hinde promised him to be â—areful of calling for punishment from above if he should do otherwise so hath he reasonably well performed his promise he next applied himself to the fatal Block as to the Haven of his rest But finding the way full of people who had placed themselves upon the Theatre to behold the Tragedy he desired he might have room to dye beseeching them to let him have an end of his miseries which he had endured very long All which he did with so serene and calm a mind as if he had been rather taking order for another mans funeral then making way unto his own Being come near the Block he put off his doublet and used some words to this effect Gods will be done I am willing to go out of this World no man can be more willing to send me out of it And seeing through the chinks of the boards that some people were got under the Scaffold about the very place where the Block was seated he called on the Officers for some dust to stop them or to remove the people thence saying it was no part of his desires that his bloud should fall upon the heads of the People Never did man put off mortality with a braver courage not look upon his bloudy and malitious Enemies with more Christian charity And thus far he was gone in his way towards Paradise with such a Primitive magnanimity as equalled if not exceeded the example of ancient Martyrs Then he turned towards his Executioner and gave him money saying without the least distemper or change of countenance here honest friend God forgive thee and do thy office upon me with mercy and having given a sign when the blow should come he kneeled down upon his knees and prayed as followeth The Lord Arch-Bishops Prayer as he kneeled by the Block LOrd I am coming as fast as I can I know I must pass through the shadow of death before I can come to see thee But it is but umbra mortis a meer shadow of death a little darknesse upon nature but thou by thy merits and passion hast broke through the jaws of death So Lord receive my Soul and have mercy upon me and blesse this Kingdom with Peace and Plenty and with brotherly love and charity that there may not be this effusion of Christian blood amongst them for Jesus Christ 's sake if it be thy will Then laying his head upon the Block and praying silently to himself he said aloud Lord receive my Soul which was the signal given to the Executioner who very dextrously did his office and took it off at a blow his Soul ascending on the wings of Angels into Abrahams bosome and leaving his Body on the Scaffold to the care of men after he had lived 71 years 13 weeks and 4 dayes which was interd in Alhollows Barkin Church with the decent Ceremonies of the Church of England On the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury I Need no muse to give my passion vent He brews his tears that studies to lament Verse chymically weeps that pious raine Distill'd with Art is but the sweat o' th brain Who ever sob'd in numbers can a groan Be quaver'd out by soft division T is true for common formal Ellegies Not Bushels Wells can match a Poets eyes In wanton water-works hâ—e'l turn his tears From a Geneva Jig up to the Sphears But when he mourns at distance weeps aloof Now that the Conduit-head is our own roof Now that the fate is publick we may call It Britaines Vespers Englands Funeral Who hath a Pensil to express the Saint Put he hath eyes too washing off the paint There is no learning but what tears surround Like to Seths Pillars in the Deluge drown'd There is no Church Religion is grown From much of late that she 's increast to none Like an Hydropick body full of Rheumes First swells into a bubble then consumes The Law is dead or cast into atrance And by a Law dough-bak't an Ordinance The Lyturgie whose doom was voted next Died as a Comment upon Him the Text. There nothing lives life is since he is gone But a Nocturnal Lucubration Thus have you seen Deaths Inventory read In the sum total Canterburies dead A sight would make a Pagan to baptize Himself a Convert in his bleeding eyes Would thaw the rabble that fierce beast of ours That which Agena like weeps and devours Tears that flow brackish from their Souls within Not to repent but pickle up their sin Mean time no squallid grief his look defiles He guilds his sadder fate with noble smiles Thus the worlds eye with reconciled streams Shines in his showers as if he wept his beams How could success such villanies applaud The State in Strafford fell the Church in Laud The twins of publick rage adjudg'd to dye For Treasons they should act by Prophecy The facts were done before the Laws were made The trump turn'd up after the game was plaid Be dull great spirits and forbear to climbe For worth is sin and eminence a crime No Church-man can be innocent and high 'T is height makes Grantham steeple stand awry Master Robert Yeomans and Master George Bowcher Citizens of Bristol murdered there May 30 1643. THere were few cities in the Kingdom for all the Artifices and popular cheats of those at Westminster who had debauched a great number of the Kings good Subjects wherein his Majesties Cause had not an equal share in the Affection and Opinion of the Inhabitants if in some places it went lesse in others it was paramount as the Difference was visible in the neighbouring Cities of Glocester and Bristol In the last whereof we shall present you with a very sad and deplorable example of Loyalty and cruelty in the persons of Mr. Yeomans and Mr. Bowcher intending it as a sweet Oyntment to embasm their Funerals that though with their Saviour the Ignominy of whose Crosse sanctified even the death of that accursed Tree in their death they were numbred among the Transgressors yet Loyalty being their Epitaph they may make their Graves amongst the
against St. Faith's Door a good and suitable prop to such constant Loyalty which he resolutely maintained to his last and so bravely exposed himself to their bullets Collonel Poyer shot to death in Covent Garden I Cannot deny this Gentleman a room in this Martyrology those that came the eleventh hour shall find entertainment though he was formerly for the Parliament especially because he was mainly concernd in this aforesaid businesse of Pembroke He rendred at mercy and by order of a Council of War drew lots with the other two for his life which fell upon him and thereupon he was shot as aforesaid The execrable and horrid Murther of our late Martyred Soveraign King Charls the First of ever blessed memory I Intend not to write the History of this Pious Prince so excellently and curiously drawn by himself and those who have traced his memorials and remains not taking a far prospect of him which was fair and beautiful and pleasant in the beginning of his Reign but viewing neerer at hand the black and dismal cloud which wrapt up and enveloped his setting glories now by Divine Justice and favour risen again to their full and radiant lustre We shall retrospect no further than the beginning of the Scotch War at which time the Symptomes of a general Rebellion first appeared For what the Scots covertly implyed in their undutiful Papers Declarations and Remonstrances was soon after avowedly insisted on by the prevailing Faction of the long Parliament The King was loaded with an heavy imputation of being led by evil Councellors that their design was to introduce Popery to erect an arbitrary Government as in the businesse of Ship-money Patents and Monopolies That he declined Parliaments as the boundaries of his unlimited Prerogative to the great burden and oppression of his Subjects No sooner therefore had he composed the Scotch War but to take away and remove all jealousie and distrust of him in his People though all along his Reign he had found some popular leading Grandees to be the untractable and unsatisfiable Enemies of his Kingdoms Peace he summoned his last the long Parliament in November 1640 which by a gracious Act of his was not to be dissolved or prorogued without their own consent and if that should so determine a Bill also was signed by him for a Tâ—iennial or perpetual Parliament that so his Subjects might rest confident and assured in the due manage and administration of the Government But these favours gave the Faction no other satisfaction then that they saw they might presume to add other demands and by how much more gracious his Majesty was to them they judged they might be the more impudent towards him in which they failed not a tittle dasiring as their only safety from the danger of the Prerogative the Militia in their own disposal the only defence and the unseparable right of his Crown To attain this they most insolently by their partisans in the City tumult him at his Court at White-hall from which to avoid both the danger and dishonour that rebel rout threatned he was compelled to withdraw to see if by his absence that rage and madnesse might be allayed and the two Houses set at freedom which by his presence was the more enflamed and the Priviledge of Parliament prostituted to the licentious and mad frenzy of the multitude But this afforded them their desired advantage from hence they calumniate the King that since he could not dissolve the Parliament he would invalidate their Authority and render them uselesse and unserviceable to those great ends for which they were called by refusing to concur with them and departing from that his great Council With these and such like suggestions they so filled the minds of men who were predisposed by some former discontents and who had their Authority through some disuse of it in great reverence that every where but especially in London parties were framed intelligencies and correspondencies held Divers Petitions presented in the pursute of these designs to the Parliament offering to stand by them with their lives and fortunes to the attainment of those ends held forth in their Declarations and Resolves which in conclusion were summed up in that unhappy Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom by the Lords and Commons remaining at Westminster divers of both Houses either out of fear of the rabble or conscience of their duty absenting themseves and retired home or followed the King's Fortune who having traversed some ground about London from one of his Royal Palaces to another in hope the distemper would abate and the People return to their reason and obedience together at last finding his hopes frustrated by more unreasonable demands every message to him from the two Houses came burdened with he resolved to go for York and secure his Magazine at Hull But Sr. John Hotham being newly sent thither by the Parliament refused the Kings admittance into that Town unless himself with some few of his retinue would please to enter the King passionately complained of this to the Parliament but with as little redress as his demand of Justice against the Authors of the Tumults this was the Inrroduction to those after violences of his Royal Person and Authority For the Parliament forthwith raised an Army under the command of the Earl of Essex and the County of York humbly professed themselves to the Service of his Majesty whereupon August the 22 1642. he set up his Standard at Nottingham whence after he had marched into Shrewsbury and having raised a considerable Army thereabouts was on his way to London he was overtaken by the Earl of Essex at a place called Edge Hill where ensued a fierce Fight with equal loss on both sides October 23 1642. where God was pleased to cover the Kings head in the day of Battel and permit him to fall by their execrable hands in the time of Peace to which he so often solicitously wooâ—d them In their Generals Commission they had tyed him up with a limitation the preservation of the Kings Person but left their bullets at random A subtil time-serving distinction between the Cannon and the Axe which afterwards they trayterously lifted up against his Annoynted and sacred Head The Parliament to strengthen their Cause treat with the Scots and for the better mutual assurance and to difference their abettors and fautors from the Kings Leige People as well as to lay a baite for all sacrilegious and covetous minded men to invite them to supplies of money in this rebellion enter into a Solemn League and Covenant the main design whereof was the utter extirpation as previous and necessary to the Kings destruction of Episcopacy and the established Government of the Church of England Popery being added also for the greater colour of this engagement against which the King issued forth his Royal Proclamation laying open the mischievous design thereof being resolved to maintain the Religion so long and so happily professed and sealed by the blood 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 Charitie 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 merciful to me before the foundation of the world in my Saviour so that now he hath in mercy honoured me with suffering for his Name in obedience to his Commandment On this day seven night I was summon'd before that Justice which condemned me on Friday last praised be Almightie God that by this way he hath brought me the nearer to himself putting off his hat My Charge I presume is publick as my punishment is visible if there have been any thing in the management of my part being unskilful having discontinued my own Countrie many years I shall beseech the Christian charity of all you my beloved Country-men to impute it unto the right part the ignorance that is in this skilful way of managing It was objected unto me there that I had a vanitie of delighting in strange Tongues I was best skill'd in the Italian but free from that vanity I thank Almightie God and therefore I would in defence of my life if it had been the Custom 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 Laws 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 Almightie 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 in jure 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 impossibilitie of my doing them any manner of harm Whereas that of the Embassie objected against me that my Master never honoured me with all I was never worthy of it I was his Messenger an Internuncia for the conservation only of his good Subjects of all the Merchants until 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 do 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 Seigniour 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 be Loyal I hope my God hath forgiven that when it is upon harmless employment not invading any according to his just Masters Order for indeed I have bin alwais bred up in that Religion my Allegiance hath been incorporated into my Religion and I have thought it a great part of the service due from me to Almighty God to serve the King putting off his Hat I need not make any Apology for any thing in relation to the present things in England for were I as I spake before my Judges as evil as my Sentence hath made me black it were impossible for me to have prejudiced any body in England or to England belonging in that employment but I bless God for his infinite mercy in Jesus Christ putting off his Hat who hath brought me home to him here in this way it was the best Physick for the curing of my Soul and those that have done it have no more power then that of my body I leave nothing behind me but that I am willing to part withal all that I am going to is desireable And that you may all know that Almighty God hath totally wrought in me a total Denial of my self and that there is that perfect Reformation of me within and of my own corruption by the blessed assistance of his holy Spirit I desire Almighty God in the abundance of the bowels of his mercy in Jesus Christ not only to forgive every Enemy if any such be in the World here or wheresoever but to bring him into his Bosom so much good and particular comfort as he may at any time whether the Cause were just or unjust have wished me any manner of evil for I take him to be the happy instrument of bringing me to Heaven It is tedious but I have an inward comfort I bless Almighty God pray Gentlemen give me leave speaking to some that prest upon him I should never do it but to give satisfaction to all charitable hearts I have been troublesome Sheriff You have your liberty to speak more if you please Sir Henry Hide But as to that part Master Sheriff that did concern the Denial as it was affirmed by Master Attorney General of my Masters employment Truly landing at Whitehall I told that Council there was just Commissions to an old Officer by the blessing of God I have by me and I have other good things that God hath blessed me withall more then all the good Christians in the World that are not the Grand Seigniour's Slaves And we that are Merchants abroad we allow our selves any sufferance that may conduce to our own safety enlargement of Trade or preservation of what is ours Why I had by the grace of my gracious Master a confirmation of my old Commission of Consulage in Greece But
except they water their beds and couches with tears of Repentence The court gave severe and rash Judgment on my body and sent a pitifull fellow bur a pitiless fellow that gave as rash a Judgment of my soul but that precious Jewel none of them could touch to hurt The souls under the Alter 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 at 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 intrap me under pretence 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 Devil 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 smoak'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 Bâ—lzebub the god of Flyes Amongst the Primitive Christians that lived nearest the time of our Saviour Christ the greatest Tyrants and persesecutors 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 killed then they could kill they offered their bodies and throats so thick unto the slaughter that the hands of Tyrants were weary with killing and yet Sanguis Martirum was Semâ—n Ecclesiâ—e and many Heathens came in with the Christians seeing their chearfull constancy turned 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 reall 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 employment not considering the great danger of spilling innocent blood 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 goodnesse 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 part condemned here to die 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 ruind You would never have pulled down the hedges and broken down the fences that the wild beasts of the Forrest should come in that the little foxes should devour and the wild Boar should root out so stately a Vine When the Jewes were led into captivity their goodly and magnificent Temple was burnt but in process of time they obtained favour amongst the Heathen KINGS they dwelt amongst and had liberty therewith to re-build re-build they did and finished a second Temple at which fight all the young men rejoyced to see so gallant a Temple but the old men wept to see how far 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 so me weep for your Country weep to see Religion Liberty and Laws taken from you weep to see so many good men snatcht a way but indeed from the miseries to come and weep for what your unhappy selves will suffer Souldiers however you flourish for atime and perhaps many of you may rejoyce 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 whither 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 himselfe is rounded with Thrones Principalities Powers and the Celestial Spirits of just men when the Trump shall blow when the dead shall rise at the dreadful day of Judgment How will you answer all your Rapes and Murthers Do you think your hands that have been bathed in the blood of your King the blood of so many of your eminent Country-men so unjustly that have been bathed in the blood 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 bloody Protector rescue your ancient Laws and call in your Royal young Prince whom you have long enough wronged Make your Add esses 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 he disheartned by my death but continue faithfull to the end And so farewell I forgive all the world c. Colonel Penrudock Colonel Groves and others are taken at Southmolton in
the title was mistaken and no answer given therefore it was that another petition was drawn up to the same effect with a new Title given as I remember presented by the Serjeant at arms and one writ it over in such hast lest they should be drawn out of the Painted-Chamber into the Court that I had not time to read it over only I subscribed my name and there was in the front of the Petition a word left out but what the word was I know not and this was taken so ill as if I had put an affront or contempt upon the Court And it was thought they would have heard me plead and then because of that mistake they sent word I should have my answer when I came into the Court and my answer was the sentence of condemnation And therefore I pray with all my sonl that God would forgive all those that occasioned the charge to be drawn against me to give such unjust things against me I pray with all my soul that God would forgive all those 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 honours 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 blood may have the bowels of the God of mercy shed for them And now having given you the occasion of my coming hit her 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 Catholique 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 query whether it were a Church or no I say it was more purely Divine and Apostolical then any other Doctrine or Church in the Christian world whether National or Classical or Congregational And I must tell you That as I am a Member of this Church so I am a Member of the holy Catholick Church shall give a most just confession of my Faith both negatively and affirmatively Negatively I am so a Member of the 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 blood I relie 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 alsufficiency by his satisfaction and his righteousness 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 withal in the World They talk of something of a Plot and a Treasonable design 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 tell what I hope my conversation hath not been such here in this City where I have been a long time very well known as to make one imagine I should intermedle in such an action and go so contrary to the practice 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 abhorre the thing I should have been the first discoverer of it Nor ever had I had correspondency or meerings 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 tell what Orders and Instructions from him This I shall 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 correspondency 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 only as I have heard of their names And whosoever else hath suggested such things against me I know not His Highnesse was pleased to tell 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 who are Judges of the High-Court that upon examination of the business they have not found me a medler at all in these Affairs And truly I must needs say therefore That it was a very uncharitable act in them whoever 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 senrenced 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