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-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
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
A New Book OF LOYAL English Martyrs AND CONFESSORS Who have endured the Pains and Terrours of Death Arraignment Banishment and Imprisonment for the Maintenance of the Just and Legal Government of these Kingdoms Both in CHURCH and STATE By James Heath Gent. Psal 112.6 The Righteous shall be had in Everlasting Remembrance LONDON Printed for R. H. and are to be Sold by Simon Miller at the Star in St. Pauls Church-Yard A List of the Martyrs contained in this Volume THomas Earl of Strafford Proto-Martyr M. Yeomans of Bristol Mart. M. Bowcher of Bristol Martyr M. Tompkins of London Mart M. Chaloner of Lon. Martyr M. Kniveton Martyr William Laud L. Archbishop of Canterburie Martyr Sr. Charles Lucas Martyr Sr. George Lisle Martyr Major Pitcher Martyr Our Dread Soveraign KING CHARLES the First the Glorious Martyr Arthur L. Capel Martyr Henrie Earl of Holland Mart. M. Beaumont Minister Mart. Major Morris Martyr Cornet Blackburne Martyr Col. Eusebius Andrews Mart S. Henrie Hide Martyr M. Benson Martyr Capt. Brown Bushel Martyr M. Love Ministe Martyr Capt. Gibbons Martyr James Earl of Darbie Mart. S. Tim. Fetherston Haugh Martyr Col. Benbow Martyr Col. John Gerrard Martyr M. Vowel Martyr Col. Penruddock Martyr Col. Grove Martyr Sr. Henrie Slingsbiâ— Martyr Dr. Huit Martyr Col. Ashton Martyr M. John Bettelie Martyr M. 〈◊〉 Martyr ENGLANDS NEW BOOK of Loyal Martyrs Being a perfect Account of all those Loyal Persons that suffered the pains and Terrours of Death By colour of any Sentence during the Lateâ— Rebellion The Introduction NO sooner was the Marian Persecution ceased and the Flames thereof extinguished in which so many of the most able and faithful Assertors as well as weaker Professors of the Protestant Religion were sacrificed to the Rage and Pride of Romes Revenge by the most happy and auspicious Assumption of Queen Elizabeth of Famous Memory to this Crown and Kingdom whose Blessed Influences enlivened those dying Embers of the Reformation to a most bright Profession but a strange and a new kind of Fire like a subterraneous Conflagration as indiscernably as irresistably smothered and kindled in the minds of some Factious Persons pretending to a more holy and severer Discipline of Life until the Eruption of it in the times of Arthington and Hacket the last of which deservedly suffered in the gainsaying of Corah and persecuted this but just escaped Church like Vertue betwixt two Extreams afresh The Pretence of those men was a Reformation of that which so lately had been reformed taxing it of retaining the Faeces and Dregs of Romish Superstition as being but superficially and slightly purified of those grosse corruptions which yet their own eâ—es had observed to have passed through more then 70 times 7 fires in that hot Martyrdom This Male-contented Opinion and Humour was first vented in secret whispering and murmuring against the Government which amounted in short time after to several Conventicles and Meetings of the dissatisfied Brethren as they were humbly pleased to term themselves into sundry Invectives and publick Expostulations with the Queen her Councils and Parliaments so that the Party grew so formidable that particular Lawes were made against them and the aforesaid Hacket thereupon executed For a while after this Justice the Faction slunk into Corners and hid themselves in the Dens and Retreats of their own shame till the Coming in of King James towards whom they assumed out of some confidence of his present advancement to this Crown to obtrude the same irreverend Postulata complaining among other things chiefly of the Common Prayer and of the extraordinary Power of Bishops in restrayning the Violence and Fury of their Libelling and pragmatical Books and Lectures whose main Design and aim was the same with the Complices of Corah Ye Sons of Levi take too much upon you when their Conspiracy was to take all a Truth most lamentably confirmed in these out Late Reforming Times For from that Conference that King vouchsafed their impertinencies at Hampton-Court where his Learning had the good Fortune of reducing and reclaiming one of their most able but ingenuou Champions by name D. Reynolds they never desisted from underminining the Policy and Government of the Kingdome Nor was that wise King unsensible of their Serpentine waies and Proceedings but yet was loath to discover such a fear of them as might render them confident and bold to attempt any thing You may see in his Character of them by the name of Puritan in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Prince Henry what he thought of them The Lenity and good Nature of his Son and Successor Charles the Martyr afforded them the Advantages they had long expected and waited for It is incredible what a number of Proselytes they had gained by their crosse grain'd Sanctity into how many Families they had insinuated themselves in so short a time so that now they had gain'd almost an equal Voyce in the Parliament where without Petitions or Supplications intermixed with some doubtful Menacings their ordinary style and continued to this day they brought about their long projected Device of Rebellion and Sacâ—edge Omne malum ex Aquilone the wind that first tempested the Calm and Serenity of a long Series and Tract of Peace which this Nation had enjoyed was conjured up by these evil Spirits out of the North from Scotland which had never been freed from such tumultuous Boutefews in the Clergy since their Reformation as our Zealots here but the prize of a Sedition Church-Lands was not competent enough there to the hazard as for the share the Ministers might expect as to engage and embroyl them without some Assurances and Augmentations from abroad to which how industriously and passionately many of our beginning Reformists in this Kingdom consented and contracted 't wil be impertinent to reâ—eat here being so fully cleared by subsequent Proofs of mutual Assistance by several Treaties by the Covenant by advance of Money and joynt Counsels Indeed the Scotch Nobility were mainly concerned for by an Act of Revocation passed in that Kings Reign the Church-Lands were to revert again to the right Proprietors which the Nobility were then possessed of and though the King afterwards out of some prudent Considerations had indulged them a longer tenure yet as there is no security safe enough to a covetous mind they could not rely on that Favour so that the Scotch Rebels fought for that they had sacrilegiously got and the English Rebel for what sacrilegiously he should get The Event of that unlucky War or rather Preparations to it soon inflated and pust up the Non-Conformist in England the Quarrel as the Grave Lecturers deceived and imposed on the people being thought to be the same against Bishops against the Liturgy against Ceremonies and such like but it was clearly against the Bishops-Lands against Loyalty and Obedience and against the indispensable duties of a good Conscience things more indifferent to these strict Disciplinarians then a Reverend Decency in holy Performances Their way being
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
God I have been long in my Race and how I have looked to Jesus the Author and Finisher of my Faith he best knowes I am now come to the end of my Race and here I find the Crosse a death of shame but the shame must be despised or no coming to the right hand of God Jesus despised the shame for me and God forbid but I should despise the shame for him I am going apace as you see towards the Red Sea and my feet are now upon the very Brink of it an Argument I hope that God is bringing me into the Land of Promise for that was the way through which he led his People But before they came to it he instituted a Passeover for them a Lamb it was but it must be eaten with sour herbs I shall obey and labour to digest the sour herbs as well as the Lamb. And I shall remember it is the Lords Passeover I shall not think of the herbs nor be angry with the hand which gathereth them but look up only to him who instituted that and governs these For men can have no more power over me then what is given them from above I am not in love with this passage through the Red Sea for I have the weaknesse and infirmities of flesh and bloud plentifully in me and I have prayed with my Saviour ut transiret Calix iste that this Cup of Red Wine might passe from me But if not Gods will not mine be done and I shall most willingly drink of this Cup as deep as he pleases and enter into this Sea yea and passe through it in the way that he shall lead me But I would have it remembred good people that when Gods Servants were in this boysterous Sea and Aaron among them the Egyptians which persecuted them and did in a manner drive them into that Sea were drowned in the same waters while they were in pursuit of them I know my God whom I serve is as able to deliver me from this Sea of Bloud as he was to deliver the Three Children from the Furnace and I most humbly thank my Saviour for it my Resolution is now as theirs was then They would not worship the Image the King had set up nor will I the Imaginations which the people are setting up nor will I forsake the Temple and the Truth of God to follow the bleating of Jeroboams Calf in Dan and Bethel And as for this People they are at this day miserably misled God of his mercy open their eyes that they may see the right way for at this day the Blind lead the Blind and if they go on both will certainly fall into the Ditch For my self I am and I acknowledge it in all humility a most grievous sinner many waies by thought word and deed and I cannot doubt but that God hath Mercy in store for me a poor Penitent as well as for other sinners I have now upon this sad occasion ransacked every Corner of my heart yet I thank God I have not found among the many any one sin which deserves death by any known Law of this Kingdom And yet hereby I charge nothing upon my Judges for if they proceed upon Proof by valuable Witnesses I or any other Innocent may be justly condemned And I thank God though the weight of the Sentence lie heavy upon me I am as quiet within as ever I was in my life And though I am not only the first Archbishop but the first man that ever died by an Ordinance of Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way though not by this means For Elphegus was hurried away and lost his Head by the Danes and Simon Sudbury in the Fury of Wat Tyler and his Fellows Before these St. John Baptist had his Head danced off by a Lewd Woman and St. Cyprian Archbishop of Carthage submitted his Head to a persecuting Sword Many examples great and good and they teach me Patience For I hope my Cause in Heaven will look of another Dye then the colour that is put upon it here 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 as foul as 't is made looks like that of the Jews against St. Paul Acts 25.3 For he was accused for the Law and the Temple i. e. Religion And like that of S. Stephen Acts 6.14 for breaking the Ordinances which Moses gave i. e. Law and Religion the holy place and the Temple v. 13. But you will say do I then compare my self with the Integrity of St. Paul and St. Stephen No far be that from me I only raise a Comfort to my self that these great Saints and Servants of God were laid at in their times as I am now And 't is memorable that S. Paul who helped on this Accusation against S. Stephen did after fall under the very same himself Yea but here is a great Clamour 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 If we let him alone all men will believe in him venient Romani and the Romans will come and take away both our Place and the Nation Here was a causelesse Cry against Christ that the Romans will come And see how just the Judgment of God was they crucified Christ for fear lest the Romans should come and his death was it which brought in the Romans upon them God punishing them with that which they most feared And I pray God this Clamour of venient Romani of which I have given no cause help not to bring them in for the Pope never had such a Harvest in England since the Reformation as he hath now upon the Sects and Divisions that are amongst us In the mean time by honour and dishonour by good and evil report as a Deceiver and yet true am I passing through this world 2 Cor. 6.8 Some Particulars also I think it not amiss to speak of And first this I shall be bold to speak of the King our Gracious Soveraign He hath been much traduced for bringing in of Popery but on my Conscience of which I shall give God a very present account I know Him to be as free from this Charge 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 for it as fully as any man in England The second Particular is concerning this great and Populous City which God bless Here hath been of late a fashion taken up to gather hands and then to go to the Great Court of this Kingdom 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 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
Commodity was Security to Us Peace to Our People And We are confident another Parliam would remember how useful a Kings Power is to a Peoples Liberty Of how much We have divested Our self that We and they might meet again in a due Parliamentary way to agree the bounds for Prince and People And in this give belief to our Experience never to affect more Greatness or Prerogative then what is really and intrinsecally for the good of your Subjects not satisfaction of Favorites And if you thus use it you will never want means to be a Father to all and a bountiful Prince to any you would be extraordinarily Gracious unto You may perceive all men trust their Treasure where it returns them Interest and if Princes like the Sea receive and repay all the fresh streams and Rivers trust them with they will not grudge but pride themselves to make them up an Ocean These Considerations may make you a great Prince as your Father is now a low one and your state may be so much the more established as mine hath been shaken For Subjects have learnt We dare say that Victories over their Princes are but Triumphs over themselves and so will be more unwilling to hearken to Changes hereafter The English Nation are a sober People however at present under some Infatuation We know not but this may be the last time We may speak to you or the world publickly We are sensible into what hand We are faln and yet We bless God We have those inward Refreshments that the malice of Our Enemies cannot perturb We have learnt to own our self by retiring into Our self and therefore can the better digest what befals Us not doubting but God can restrain our Enemies malice and turn their fierceness into his Praise To conclude if God give you success use it humbly and far from Revenge If he restore you to your Right upon hard conditions whatever you promise keep Those men which have forced Laws which they were bound to observe will find their Triumphs full of Troubles Do not think any thing in this world worth obtaining by foul and unjust Means You are the Son of our Love and as We direct you to what we have recommended to you so we assure you We do not more affectionately pray for you to whom We are a Natural Parent then We do that the ancient Glory and Renown of this Nation be not buried in Irreligion and Phanatick humour And that all Our Subjects to whom VVe are a Politick Parent may have such sober Thoughts as to seek their peace in the Orthodox Profession of the Christian Religion as it was established since the Reformation in this Kingdom and not in new Revelations And that the ancient Laws with the Interpretation according to known practises may once again be an hedge about them that you may in due time govern and they be governed as in the fear of the Lord. C. R. The Lord Capel beheaded March 9. 1949. in the Palace yard Westminster THis Noble Lord Noble in his Life nobler in his Death and Memory noblest in his Posterity who fill the trumpet of Fame that summons all men to render them their deserved honours though he was not like some of our foregoing Martyrs viz. Sr. Charles Lucas and Sr. George Lisle murthered in the instant of the rendition of Colchester having quarter for life given him by the General yet did not long survive their hard fate being brought with more solemnity more perfidiousness though alike glory to his Death which he suffered with a Christian and no Roman but Colchester Spirit and resolution He was no great Captain nor ever undertook such a charge serving without any signal command in his Majesties Armies though no doubt sufficient thereto yet he is no less to be eternized for his indeavours his courage constancy and faithful adherence to the King when deserted by a great part of the Nobility parting with and hazarding a great and ample Estate which was sequestred from him and in conclusion laying down his life so that he may justly be stiled one of the Worthies of the English Nobility and his name ever to be honourably mentioned according to that of the Psalmist Psal 112.6 The Righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance He was Son and Heir to Sr. Arthur Capel of Hadham Hall in Herefordshire a Gentleman of Great Estate and who loved and followed the old mode of our Nation kept a Noble and bountiful House and shewed forth his Faith by his charity extending it in such abundant manner to the poor that he was bread to the hungry drink to the thirsty eies to the blind and legs the the same so that he might justly be stiled Great Almoner to the King of Heaven As this diffusive charity and bounty spread it self abroad no less did his Relative love and Paternal affection bestow it self on this his Son whom he most liberally educated to a perfection in Learning as his rich expressions and elegant stile in his Book Printed after his death and in other letters do best evidence Sr. Arthur dying as this Noble Lord inherited his Estate so did he his Virtues his pious bounty appearing so conspicuous that some envious persons who hate good works in others because they will do none themselves have maliciously traduced him as inclining to Popery But as such aspersions amongst persons of understanding signifie nothing more than the speakers malice so wrought it in others a deserved commendation of this Noble Person especially in those times and our own are worse when Charity lay bed-rid and Faith only and such hungry notions were talkt of whereas his Faith appeared by his works From the degree of Knight the ancient Dignity of his Family now advanced to the Earldom of Essex he was made Baron Capel of Hadham a little before the time the Earl of Strafford received his Tryal which in this brave Lords conscientious Judgment of himself was his original condemnation in foro coeli During the Rebellion and those differences between the King and Parliament he constantly and faithfully adhered to his Majesty contributing both in purse and person to his aid and assistance being appointed in that time for his eminent wisdom and prudence Councellour to the Prince by the King his Father whom he abandoned not till the disbanding of my Lord Hopton's Army in Cornwall from whence his Highness took shipping to Scilly giving my Lord an honourable but sorrowful dismission and conge to return home and attend though his heroical mind spur'd him on to pursue his most unworthy fate For at his coming home upon those Articles having scarce warmed himself there after his long absence from thence but some hopes appearing of the King's restauration to his former Authority by the coming in of Duke Hamilton with a potent Army as also by the Welch Insurrection and the rising of several Counties who declared for the same purpose he with a select number of his friends acquaintance and
Buckingham Earl of Peterborough Lord Francis Villers and Lord Peter who with a gallant company of men rendezvouz'd at Kingston where immediately Sr. Michael Livesey set upon them and routed them The Earl fled to St. Neets in Bedfordshire where in his Quarters he was taken by Collonel Scroop's Regiment of Horse where Collonel Dolbier was killed and by order of the Parliament sent Prisoner to Warwick Castle He continued there for the space of six moneths in pretty good health both of body and mind but as soon as he heard of the murther of the King his heart failed him and sickness seized on him so that he never dawed day afterwards nor could endure to stir out of his chamber lamenting the loss of his gracious Master and providing for his own violent dissolution the same way which being condemned by the same High Court of Iustice with my Lord Capel and Duke Hamilton he suffered on the same Scaffold His Lordships Speech on the Scaffold immediatly before his Death March 9. 1649. Holland IT is to no purpose I think to speak any thing here Which way must I speak And then being directed to the Front of the Scaffold he leaning over the Rayls said I think it is fit to say somthing since God hath called me to this place The first thing which I must profess is what concerns my Religion and my Breeding which hath been in a good Family that hath ever been faithful to the true Protestant Religion in the which I have been bred in the which I have lived and in the which by Gods Grace and Mercy I shall die I have not lived according to that Education I had in that Family where I was born and bred I hope God will forgive me my sins since I conceive it is very much his pleasure to bring me to this place for the sins that I have committed The cause that hath brought me hither I believe by many hath been much mistaken They have conceived that I have had ill Designs to the State and to the Kingdom Truly I look upon it as a Judgment and a just Judgment of God not but I have offended so much the State and the Kingdom and the Parliament as that I have had no extream vanity in serving them very extraordinarily For those Actions that I have done I think it is known they have been ever very faithful to the Publick and very particularly to Parliaments My Affections have been ever exprest truly and clearly to them The dispositions of Affairs now have put things in another posture then they were when I was engaged with the Parliament I have never gone off from those Principles that ever I have professed I have lived in them and by Gods Grace will die in them There may be Alterations and Changes that may carry them further then I thought reasonable and truly there I left them But there hath been nothing that I have said or done or professed either by Covenant or Declaration which hath not been very constant and very clear upon the Principles that I ever have gone upon which was to serve the King the Parliament Religion I should have said in the first place the Common-wealth and to seek the Peace of the Kingdom That made me think it no improper time being prest out by Accidents and Circumstances to seek the Peace of the Kingdom which I thought was proper since there was somthing then in Agitation but nothing agreed on for sending Propositions to the King that was the furthest aim that I had and truly beyond that I had no Intention none at all And God be praised although my Bloud comes to be shed here there was I think scarce a drop of Bloud shed in that Action that I was ingaged in For the present Affairs as they are I cannot tell how to judge of them and truly they are in such a condition as I conceive no body can make a judgment of them and therefore I must make use of Prayers rather then of my Opinion which are That God would bless this Kingdom this Nation this State that he would settle it in a way agreeable to what this Kingdom hath bin happily governed under by a King by the Lords by the Commons a Government that I conceive it hath flourished much under and I pray God the change of it bring not rather a Prejudice a disorder and a confusion then the contrary I look upon the Posterity of the King and truly my Conscience directs me to it to desire that if God be pleased that these people may look upon them with that Affection that they owe that they may be called in again and they may be not through bloud nor through disorder admitted again into that power and to that glory that God in their birth intended to them I shall pray with all my soul for the happiness of this State of this Nation that the Bloud which is here spilt may even be the last that may fall among us and truly I should lay down my Life with as much Chearfulness as ever person did if I conceived that there would be no more Bloud follow us for a State or Affairs that are built upon Bloud is a Foundation for the most part that doth not prosper After the Blessing that I give to the Nation to the Kingdom and truly to the Parliament I do wish with all my heart happiness and a blessing to all those that have been Authors in this business and truly that have been Authors in this very work that bringeth us hither I do not only forgive them but I pray heartily and really for them as God will forgive my sins so I desire God may forgive them I have a particular Relation as I am Chancellor of Cambridge and truly I must here since it is the last of my Prayers pray to God that that University may go on in that happy way which it is in that God may make it a Nursery to plant those persons that may be distributed to the Kingdom that the souls of the people may receive a great benefit and a great advantage by them and I hope God will reward them for their kindness and their affections that I have found from them * Looking towards Mr. Bolton I have said what Religion I have been bred in what Religion I have been born in what Religion I have practised I began with it and I must end with it I told you that my Actions my Life have not been agreeable to my Breeding I have told you likewise that the Family where I was bred hath been an exemplary Family I may say so I hope without Vanity of much affection to Religion and of much faithfulness to this Kingdom and to this State I have endeavoured to do those Actions that became an honest man and a good Englishman and which became a good Christian I have been willing to oblige those that have been in trouble those that have been in Persecution and truly
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
as to the Embassie no more then my Credential Letters did speak nor no more then that I attempted an Internuncio they call it in those places which is a Messenger between the one and the other KING They both unhappily died of several Deaths and both violent too And it is a Custom not unknown to you Master Sheriff and other Gentlemen that practice in the World that Princes of course for the continuance of Amity do send Messengers where there is Peace that the transaction of those publique expressiens of reciprocal Affection may be performed but for Embassie God forbid I should own it I never had it however they have used it as the happy means to bring me to God this day I beseech God in the Bowels of my Saviour to forgive those people that have done it I owe them no harm so God pay them home with all the good of this and an everlasting life As for power I have been long absent here in England I meddle with none Sufficient to me is Gods grace to to the salvation of my soul I have been alwayes fearful of offending Almighty God according to the grace he hath given me but to learn new Religion and new Wayes that I must say Mr. Sheriff to you and all others that hear me I cannot dispence with my Conscience to give offence to Almighty God I am now if it may be with your permission Master Sheriff to pour out my soul to Almighty God in two or three words the place is straitned if I knew wherein to give any satisfaction to any thing whatsoever wherein I have offended or no I am here in the fear of God to do it I forgive them with all my soul and my forgiveness is clear as I am now going to receive happiness at the hands of my Saviour But if I thought it were satisfaction to Sir Thomas Bendish and all the Company or any who think they have offended me I am come Mr. Sheriff to pay that Obedience willingly that Debt I owe to Nature to pay it upon the score of a Subject because Conscience within me tels me not that for the intentions of serving my Prince that I could deserve such a Death though ten thousand times more other ways Dr. Hide There was some suspition that you might impart the way you were upon to some of those servants that were with you Sir Henry Hide I humbly thank you for remembring me of it and if any be here of the Turky Company this day or any Friend of theirs I shall desire them from a dying Man to take this Truth That neither my Brother my innocent Brother that this is with me not other Gentlemen with me in my Company have contributed any thing to their disturbance it was my own business whatsoever hath been done that hath been to evil or loss though I deny both of them in my intentions I come not here to accuse any man not excuse my self but I praise God for all his deliverances yet I know I shall do God a great deal of Service and them a great deal of Justice in not involving any of my Company in any thing of mischief I cannot answer Objections I finde a man may be in Turky or in any place all the World over where they will give that Language which they hold fitting but this is beneath me Blessed be Almighty God that hath called me to the knowledge of him and this ready Obedience which I pray and mercifully accepting of my Saviour and patient death And I beseech you all whatsoever you are that you will accompanie me with your Prayers whereby my Soul may be assisted within me in that passage to my Saviour whether I am going I am weak of body I have discontinued long from the Kingdom I am unacquainted with new Forms I have desired to serve God according to his Commandements after the old way I have begged mercy of God for all my offences to him and have had my pardon sealed from Heaven by the blood of my Saviour I beg pardon of all whosoever whether I have offended them or no I truly for give them and have besought Almighty God to pour his blessings upon them I accuse no man I find fault nor quarrel with no man neither with the persons that were the occasions they were but instruments neither 〈◊〉 the persons condemning I accept thankfully the Sentence of Death upon my self and I beseech Almighty God that I may be the last that may suffer upon this score or upon any other Master Sheriff If there be any thing wherein I can give any other satisfaction to any Christian whatsoever in any kind as I spake in general I bless God Almighty from my own Heart now so assisted by the special Operation and Motions and Dictates of the Holy Ghost If I can know any thing wherein or how to be now in my dying not having served God so well in my life serviceable to the Church of God of Christ and the full satisfaction of any whatsoever I am here ready I am unacquainted but in my extasies to Heaven there is that glorie I am going to I beseech Almighty God that he will give me grace to bless his holie Name as for all as for Jesus Christ and in him all things so particularly for this that he hath thought me worthie to bring me hither for my faithfulness to my Master that is the most pious and most just Prince in all the World My Master hath suffered bitterly in England and if there be any failing in his service the fault is only mine God knows I have done nothing in the business but by the instance of the Merchants I delivered my Letters and there they lie To other things I am a stranger I hope that God will give me the grace of perseverance in that Christian Religion in that loyaltie to my Prince in that love to all the World that now being to give up my account to him that I may with comfort be received into the Arms of his Mercie If there be any thing Master Sheriff that I may give satisfaction in I am readie to do it according to the poor talent I have I will receive my punishment in the way God hath prepared for me 〈…〉 nie waies I have been taken up Truly I am bound to all that see me and manie thousands more since I came into England not an uncivil look we had strange Reports aborad not an uncivil look from anie God repay them all and return them from the Throne of his grace into their own Bosoms And God in particular bless that honourable Ladie who was the occasion of the coming of my Lords Grace of Armagh with the Confirmation of those glorious and eternal Messages of Comfort which now I am going to enjoy being thankful to all those that know me and know me not for since I am come hither whereas I might have received prejudice in respect to my Loyaltie which is not the