and You that grace which will teach and enable Us to want as well as to weare a Crowne which is not worth taking up or enjoying upon â—ordid dishonourable and irreligious tearms Keep You to true principles of piety vertue and honour You shall never want a Kingdome A principall point of Your honour will consist in Your deferring all respect love and protection to Your Mother My Wife who hath many waies deserved well of Me and chiefly in this that having been a means to blessâ— Me with so many hopefull Children all which with their Mother I recommend to Your love and care She hath been content with incomparable magnanimity and patience to suffer both for and with Me and You. My prayer to God Almighty isâ— whatever becomes of Me who am I thank God wrapt up and fortified in My own Innocency and his Grace that he would be pleased to make You an Anchor or Harbour rather to these tossed and weather-beaten Kingdomes a Repairer by Your wisdome justice piety and valour of what the folly and wickednesse of some men have so farre ruined as to leave nothing entire in Church or State to the Crown the Nobility the Clergy or the Commons either as to Lawes Liberties Estates Order Honour Conscience or lives When they have destroyed Me for I know not how farre God may permit the malice and cruelty of My Enemies to proceed and such apprehensions some mens words and actions have already given Me as I doubt not but My bloud will cry aloud for vengeance to heaven so I beseech God not to poure out his wrath upon the generality of the People who have either deserted Me or engaged against Me through the artifice and hypocrisie of their Leaders whose inward horrour will be their first Tormenter nor will they escape exemplary judgments For those that loved Me I pray God they may have no misse of Me when I am gone so much I wish and hope that all good Subjects may be satisfied with the blessings of Your presence and virtues For those that repent of any defects in their duty toward Me as I freely forgive them in the word of a Christian KING so I believe You will find them truly Zealous to repay with interest that loyalty and love to You which was due to Me. In summe what good I intended doe You performe when God shall give You power much good I have offered more I purposed to Church State if times had been capable of it The deception will soone vanish and the Vâ—zards will fall off apace This maske of Religion on the face of Rebellion for so it now plainly appears since My Restraint and cruell usage that they sought not for Me as was pretended will not long serve to hide some mens deformities Happy times I hope attend You wherein Your Subjects by their miseries will have learned That Religion to their God and Loyalty to their King cannot be parted without both their sin and their infelicity I pray God blesse You and establish Your Kingdomes in righteousnesse Your Soule in true Religion and Your honour in the love of God and Your people And if God will have disloyalty perfected by My destruction let My memory ever with My name live in you as of Your Father that loves You and once a KING of three flourishing Kingdomes whom God thought fit to honour not onely with the Scepter and Government of them but also with the suffering many indignities and an untimely death for them while I studied to preserve the rights of the Church the power of the Lawes the honour of My Crowne the priviledge of Parliaments the liberties of My People and My owne Conscience which I thank God is dearer to Me than a thousand Kingdomes I know God can I hope he yet will restore Me to My Rights I cannot despaire either of his mercy or of My Peoples love and pity At worst I trust I shall but go before You to a better Kingdome which God hath prepared for Me and Me for it through My Saviour Jesus Christ to whose mercies I commend You and all Mine Farewell till We meet if not on Earth yet in Heaven Meditations upon Death after the Votes of Non-Addresses and HIS MAJESTIES closer Imprisonment in Carisbrooke-Castle AS I have leisure enough so I have cause more than enough to meditate upon and prepare for My Death for I know there are but few steps between the Prisons and Graves of Princes It is Gods indulgence which gives Me the space but Mans cruelty that gives Me the sad occasions for these thoughts For besides the common burthen of moâ—tality which lies upon Me as a Man I now bear the heavy load of other mens ambitions fears jealousies and cruell passions whose envy or enmity against Me makes their owne lifes seem deadly to them while I enjoy any part of Mine I thank God My prosperity made Me not wholly a Stranger to the contemplations of mortality Those are never unseasonable since this is alwaies uncertaine Death being an eclipse which oft happeneth as well in clear as cloudy daies But My now long and sharp adversity hath so reconciled in Me those naturall Antipathies between Life and Death which are in all men that I thank God the common terrors of it are dispelled and the speciall horrour of it as to My particular much allayed for although My death at present may justly be represented to Me with all those terrible aggravations which the policy of cruell and implacable enemies can put upon it affaires being drawn to the very dregs of malice yet I blesse God I can look upon all those stings as unpoysonous though sharp since My Redeemer hath either pulled them out or given Me the antidote of his Death against them which as to the immaturity unjustice shame scorne and cruelty of it exceeded whatever I can feare Indeed I never did find so much the life of Religion the feast of a good Conscience and the brazen wall of a judicious integrity and constancy as since I came â—o these closer conflicts with the thoughts of Death I am not so old as to be weary of life nor I hope so bad as to be either afraid to die or ashamed to live true I am so afflicted as might make Me sometime even desire to die if I did not consider That it is the greatest glory of a Christians life to dailyâ— in conquering by a lively faith and patient hopes of a better life those partiall and quotidian deaths which kill us as it were by piece-meales and make us overlive our owne fates while We are deprived of health honour liberty power credit safety or estate and those other comforts of dearest relations which are as the life of our lives Though as a KING I think My self to live in nothing temporall so much as in the love and good-will of My People for which as I have suffered many deaths so I hope I am not in that point as yet wholly dead notwithstanding My
them such Repentance as thou wilt accept and such Grace as we may not abuse Make Me so far happy as to make a right use of others abuses and by their failings of Me to reflect with a reforming displeasure upon My offences against Thee So although by My sins I am by other mens sins deprived of thy temporall blessings yet I may be happy to enjoy the comfort of thy mercies which often raise the greatest Sufferers to be the most glorious Saints 6. Vpon His Majesties retirement from VVestminster WIth what unwillingnesse I withdrew from Westminster let them judge who unprovided of tackling and viâ—tuall are forced by Sea to a storm yet better do so then venture splitting or sinking on a Lee shore I stayed at Whitehall till I was driven away by shame more than feare to see the barbarous rudenesse of those Tumults who resolved they would take the boldnesse to demand any thing and not leave either My self or the Members of Parliament the liberty of our Reason and Conscience to deny them any thing Nor was this intolerable oppression My case alone though chiefly Mine For the Lords and Commons might be content to be over-voted by the major part of their Houses when they had used each their owne freedome Whose agreeing Votes were not by any Law or reason conclusive to My Judgment nor can they include or carry with them My consent whom they represent not in any kind Nor am I further bound to agree with the Votes of both Houses then I see them agree with the will of God with My just Rights as a King and the generall good of My People I see that as many men they are seldome of one mind and I may oft see that the major part of them are not in the right I had formerly declared to sober and moderate mindes how deâ—irous I was to give all just content when I agreed to so many Bills which had been enough to secure and satisfie all If some mens Hydropick inâ—atiablenesse had not learned to thirst the more by how much more they drank whom no fountain of Royall bounty was able to overcome so resolved they seemed either utterly to exhaust it or barbarously to obsâ—ruct it Sure it ceases to be Councell when not Reason is used as to men to perswade but force and terrour as to beasts to drive and compell men to assent to what ever tumultuary patrones shall project He deserves to be a slave without pitty or redemption that is content to have the rationall soveraignty of his Soul and liberty of his will and words so captivated Nor do I think My Kingdomes so considerable as to preserve them with the forfeiture of that freedome which cannot be denied Me as a Kingâ— because it belongs to Me as a Man and a Christian owning the dictates of none but God to be above Me as obliging Me to consent Better for Me to die enjoying this Empire of My Soul which subjects Me only to God so farre as by Reason or Religion he directs Me then live with the Title of a King if it should carry such a vassalage with it as not to suffer Me to use My Reason and Conscience in which I declare as a King to like or dislike So farre am I from thinking the Majesty of the Crown of England to be bound by any Coronation Oath in a blind and brutish formality to consent to what ever its subjects in Parliament shall require as some men will needs inferre while denying Me any power of a Negative voice as King they are not ashamed to seek to deprive Me of the liberty of using My Reason with a good Conscience which themselves and all the Commons of England enjoy proportionable to their influence on the publick who would take it very ill to be urged not to deny whatever My self as King or the House of Peeres with Me should not so much desire as enjoyn them to passe I think My Oath fully discharged in that point by My Governing only by such Lawes as My People with the House of Peeres have Chosen and My self have consented to I shall never think My self conscientiously tied to goe as oft against My Consciâ—nce as I should consent to such new Proposalls which My Reason in Justice Honour and Religion bids Me deny Yet so tender I see some men are of their being subject to Arbitrary Government that is the Law of anothers will to which themselves give no consent that they care not with how much dishonour and absurdity they make their King the onely man that must be subject to the will of others without having power left Him to use His own Reason either in Person or by any Representation And if My dissentings at any time were as some have suspected and uncharitably avowed out of error opinion activenesse weaknesse or wilfulnesse and what they call Obstinacy in Me which not true Judgement of things but some vehement prejudice or passion hath fixed on My mind yet can no man think it other then the Badge and Method of Slavery by savage rudenesse and importunate detrusions of violence to have the mist of His Errour and Passion dispelled which is a shadow of Reason and must serve those that are destitute of the substance Sure that man cannot be blameable to God or Man who seriously endeavours to see the best reason of things and faithfully followes what he takes for Reason The uprightnesse of his intentions will excuse the possible failings of his understanding If a Pilot at Sea cannot see the Pole-star it can be no fault in him to steere his course by such stars as do best appear to him It argues rather those men to be conscious of their defects of Reason and convincing Arguments who call in the assistance of meer force to carry on the weaknesse of their Councells and Proposalls I may in the Truth and uprightnesse of My heart protest before God and Men that I never wilfully opposed or denied any thing that was in a fair way after full and free debates propounded to Me by the two Houses Further then I thought in good reason I might and was bound to do Nor did any thing ever please Me more then when My Judgment so concurred with theirs that I might with good Conscience consent to them yea in many things where not absolute and morall necessity of Reason but temporary convenience on point of Honour was to be considered I chose rather to deny My self then them as preferring that which they thought necessary for My Peoples good before what I saw but convenient for My self For I can be content to recede much from My own Interests and Personall Rights of which I conceive My self to be Master but in what concernes Truth Justice the Rights of the Church and My Crown together with the generall good of My Kingdomes all which I am bound to preserve as much as morally lies in Me here I am and ever shall be fixt and resolute nor shall
any man gain My consent to that wherein My Heart gives My tongue or hand the Lie nor will I be brought to affirme that to Men which in My Conscience I denied before God I will rather chuse to wear a Crown of Thornes with My Saviour then to exchange that of Gold which is due to Me for one of lead whose embased flexiblenesse shall be forced to bend and comply to the various and oft contrary dictates of any Factions when instead of Reason and Publick concernments they obtrude nothing but what makes for the interest of parties and flowes from the partialities of private wills and passions I know no resolutions more worthy a Christian King then to prefer His Conscience before His Kingdomes O my God preserve thy servant in this Native Rationall and Religious freedome For this I believe is thy will that we should maintaine who though thou dost justly require us to submit our understandings and wills to thine whose wisdom and goodnesse can neither erre nor misguide us and so farre to deny our carnall reason in order to thy sacred Mysteries and commands that we should believe and obey rather then dispute them yet dost thou expect from us only such a reasonable service of thee as not to doe any thing for thee against our consciences and as to the desires of men enjoynest us to try all things by the touch-stone of Reason and Lawes which are the rules of Civill Iustice and to declare our consents to that only which our Iudgements approve Thou knowest ô Lord how unwilling I was to desert that place in which thou hast set me and whereto the affaires of My Kingdoms at present did call me My People can witnesse how far I have been content for their good to deny My self in what thou hast subjected to My disposall O Let not the unthankfull importunities tumultuary violence of some mens Immoderate demands ever betray Me to that degenerous unmanly slavery which should make Me strengthen them by My consent in those things which I think in My Conscience to be against thy glory the good of My subjects and the discharge of My own duty to Reason and Iustice. Make Me willing to suffer the greatest indignities and injuries they presse upon Me rather then commit the least sinne against My Conscience Let the just liberties of My people be as well they may preserved in faire and equall wayesâ— without the slavery of My soul. Thou that hast invested Me by thy favours in the power of a Christian King suffer Me not to subject My Reason to other mens passions and designes which to Me seeme unreasonable unjust and irreligious So shall I serve thee in the truth and uprightnesse of My heart though I cannot satisfie these men Though I be driven from among them yet give Me grace to walk alwayes uprightly before thee Lead Me in the way of Truth and Iustice for these I know will bring Me at last to peace and happinesse with thee though for these I have much trouble among men This I beg of thee for My Saviours sake 7. Vpon the Queenes departure and absence out of England ALthough I have much cause to be troubled at My Wifes departure from Me and out of My Dominions yet not Her absence so much as the scandall of that necessity which drives her away doth afflict Me. That She should be compelled by My owne Subjects and those pretending to be Protestants to withdraw for Her safety This being the first example of any Protestant Subjects that have taken up Arms against their King a Protestant For I look upon this now done in England as another Act of the same Tragedie which was lately begun in Scotland the brands of that fire being ill quenched have kindled the like flames here I fear such motions so little to the adorning of the Protestant profession may occasion a farther alienation of mind and divorce of affections in Her from that Religion which is the only thing wherein me differ Which yet God can and I pray he would in time take away and not suffer these practises to be any obstruction to Her judgementâ— since it is the motion of those men for the most part who are yet to seek and settle their Religion for Doctrine Government and good manners and so not to be imputed to the true English Protestants who continue firme to their former setled Principles and Lawes I am sorry My relation to so deserving a Lady should be any occasion of her danger and affliction whose merits would have served her for a protection among the savage Indians while their rudenesse and barbarity knowes not so perfectly to hate all Vertues as some mens subtilty doth among whom I yet thinke few are so malicious as to hate Her for Her selfe The fault is that she is My wife All justice then as well as affection commands Me to study her Security who is only in danger for My sake I am content to be tossed weather-beaten and shipwrackt so as she may be in safe Harbour This comfort I shall enjoy by her safety in the midst of My Personall dangers that I can perish but halfe if she be preserved In whose memory and hopefull Posterity I may yet survive the malice of My enemies although they should be satiated with My bloud I must leave her and them to the Love and Loyalty of My good Subjects and to his protection who is able to punish the faults of Princes and no lesse severely to revenge the injuries done to Them by those who in all duty and Allegiance ought to have made good that safety which the Lawes chiefly provide for Princes But common civility is in vaine expected from those that dispute their Loyalty Nor can it be safe for any relation to a King to tarry among them who are shaking hands with their Allegiance under pretence of laying faster hold on their Religion T is pitty so noble and peacefull a soule should see much more suffer the rudenesse of those who must make up their want of justice with inhumanity and impudence Her sympathy with Me in My afflictions will make her vertues shine with greater lustre as stars in the darkest nights and assure the envious world that she loves Me not My fortunes Neither of us but can easily forgive since We do not much blame the unkindnesse of the Generality and Vulgar for we see God is pleased to try both our patience by the most selfe-punishing sin the Ingratitude of those who having eaten of our bread and being enriched with Our bounty have Scornfully lift up themselves against Us and those of Our owne Houshold are become Our enemies I pray God lay not their sin to their charge who thinke to satisfy all obligations to duty by their Corban of Religion and can lesse endure to see then to sin against their benefactours as well as their Soveraignes But even that policy of my enemies is so farre veniall as it was necessary to their deâ—â—gnes
which men of far greater Learning and clearer Zeal have setled in the Confession and Constitution of this Church in England which many former Parliaments in the most calme and unpassionate times have oft confirmed In which I shall ever by Gods help persevere as believing it hath most of Primitive Truth and Order Nor did My using the assistance of some Papists which were my Subjects any way fight against My Religion as some men would needs interpret it especially those who least of all men cared whom they imployed or what they said and did so they might prevaile 'T is strange that so wise men as they would be esteemed should not conceive That differences of perswasion in matters of Religion may easily fall out where there is the samenesse of duty Allegiance and subjection The first they owne as men and Christians to God the second they owe to Me in Common as their KING different professions in point of Religion cannot any more than in civill Trades take away the community of relations either to Parents or to Princes And where is there such an Oglio or medley of various Religions in the world again as those men entertain in their service who find most fault with me without any scruple as to the diversity oâ— their Sects and Opinions It was indeed a foule and indelible shame for such as would be counted Protestants to enforce Me a declared Protestant their Lord and King to a necessary use of Papists or any other who did but their duty to help Me to defend My self Nor did I more than is lawfull for any King in such exigents to use the aide of any his Subjects I am sorry the Papists should have a greater sense of their Allegiance than many Protestant Professours who seem to have learned and to practise the worst Principles of the worst Papists Indeed it had been a very impertinent and unseasonable scruple in Me and very pleasing no doubt to My Enemies to have been then disputing the points of different beliefs in My Subjects when I was disputed with by Swords points and when I needed the help of My Subjects as men no lesse then their prayers as Christians The noise of My Evill Counsellours was another usefull device for those who were impatient any mens counsels but their owne should be followed in Church or State who were so eager in giving Me better counsell that they would not give Me leave to take it with freedome as a Man or honour as a King making their counsels more like a drench that must be powred downe than a draught which might be fairly and leisurely dranke if I liked it I will not justifie beyond humane errours and frailties My selfe or My Counselloursâ— They mâ—ght be subject to some miscarriages yet such as were farre more reparable by second and better thoughts than those enormious extravagances wherewith some men have now even wildred and almost quite lost both Church and State The event of things at last will make it evident to My Subjects that had I followed the worst Counsels that My worst Counsellours ever had the boldnesse to offer to Me or My self any inclination to use I could not so soon have brought both Church and Staâ—e in three flourishing Kingdomes to such a Chaos of confusions and Hell of miseriesâ— as some have done out of which thâ—y cannâ—tâ— or will not in the midst of their many 〈◊〉 advantages redeeme either Me or My Subjects No even were more willing to complâ—in than I was to redresse what I saw in Reasâ—n was either done or advised amâ—â—se and thâ—s I thought I had done even beyond the expectation of moderate men who were sorry to see Me prone even to injure My self out of a Zeal to relieve My Subâ—ects But other mens insatiable desire of revenge upon Me My Court and My Clergy hath wholly beguiled both Church and State of the benefit of all My either Retractations or Concessions and withall hath deprived all those now so zealous Persecutors both of the comfort and reward of their former pretended persecutions wherein they so much gloried among the vulgar and which indeed a truly humble Christian will so highly prize as rather not be relieved then be revenged so as to be bereaved of that Crown of Christian Patience which attends humble and injured sufferers Another artifice used to withdraw My peoples affections from Me to their designes was The noise and oâ—tentation of liberty which men are not more prone to desire then unapt to bear in the popular sense which is to doe what every man liketh best If the Divinest liberty be to will what men should and to do what they so will according to Reason Lawes and Religion I envie not My Subjects that liberty which is all I deâ—ire to enjoy My self So farre am I from the desire of oppressiâ—â— theirs Nor were those Lords and Gentlemen which assisted Me so prodigall of their liberties as with their Lives and Fortunes to help on the enslaving of themselves and their posterities As to Civill Immunities none but such as desire to drive on their Ambitious and Covetous designes over the ruines of Church and State Prince Peeres and People will ever desire greater Freedomes then the Lawes allow whose bounds good men count their Ornament and Protection others their Menacles and Oppression Nor is it just any man should expect the reward and benefit of the Law who despiseth his rule and direction losing justly his safety while he seekes an unreasonable liberty Time will best informe My Subjects that those are the best preservers of their true liberties who allow themselves the least licentiousnesse against or beyond the Lawes They will feel it at last to their cost that it is impossible those men should be really tender of their fellow-subjects liberties who have the hardinesse to use their King with so severe restraints against all Lawes both Divine and Humane under which yet I will rather perish then complain to those who want nothing to compleat their mirth and triumph but such musick In point of true conscientious tendernesse attended with humility and meeknesse not with proud and arrogant activity which seekes to hatch every egge of different opinion to a Faction or Schisme I have oft declared how little I desire My Lawes and Scepter should intrench on Gods Soveraignty which is the only King of mens Consciences and yet he hath laid such restraints upon men as commands them to be subject for Conscience sake giving no men lâ—berty to break the Law established further then with meeknesse and patience they are content to suffer the penalties annexed rather then perturb the publick Peace The truth is some mens thirst after Novelties others despair to relieve the necessities of their Fortunes or satisfie their Ambition in peaceable times distrusting Gods providence as well as their own merits were the secret but principall impulsives to these popular Commotions by whâ—ch Subjects have been perswaded to expend much of those
plentifull Estates they got and enjoyed under My Government in peaceable times which yet must now be blasted with all the odious reproaches which impotent malice can invent and My self exposed to all those contempts which may most diminish the Majesty of a King and encrease the ungratefull insolencies of My People For Mine Honour I am well assured that as Mine Innocency is clear before God in point of any calumnies they object so My reputation shall like the Sun after Owles and Bats have had their freedome in the night and darker times rise and recover it self to such a degree of splendour as those ferall birds shall be grieved to behold and unable to bear For never were any Princes more glorious than those whom God hath suffer'd to be tried in the fornace of afflictions by their injurious Subjects And who knows but the just and mercifull God will doe Me good for some mens hard false and evill speeches against Me wherein they speak rather what they wish than what they believe or know Nor can I suffer so much in point of Honour by those rude and scandalous Pamphlets which like fire in great conflagrations flie up and downe to set all places on like flames than those men doe who pretending to so much piety are so forgetfull of their duty to God and Me By no way ever vindicating the Majesty of their KING against any of those who contrary to the precept of God and precedent of Angelsâ— speake evill of dignities and bring railing accusations against those who are honoured with the name of Gods But 't is no wonder if men not fearing GOD should not Honour their KING They will easily contemne such shadowes of God who reverence not that Supreme and adorable Majesty in comparâ—son of whom all the glory of Men and Angels is but obscurity yet hath he graven such Characters of divine Authority and Sacred power upon Kings as none may without sinne seek to blot them out Noâ—â—hall their black veiles be able to hide the shâ—ning of My face while God gives Me a heart frequently and humbly to converse with him from whom alone are all the traditions of true glory and majesty Thou O Lord knowest My reproach and My dishonour My Adversaries are all before thee My Soule is among Lyons among them that are set on fire even the Sons of Men whose teeth are spears and arrows their tongue a sharp sword Mine enemies reproach Me all the day long and those that are mad against Me are sworne together O My God how long shall the sonnes of men turne My glory into shame how long shall they love vanity and seek after lies Thou hast heard the reproaches of wicked men on every side Hold not thy peace lest My Eâ—emies prevaile against me and lay mine Honour in the dust Thou O Lord shalt destroy them that speak lâ—es the Lord will abhorre both the bloud-thirsty and deceitfull men Make my righteousnesse to appeare as the light and mine innocency to shine forth as the Sun at noone day Suffer not my silence to betray mine innocence â—or my displeasure my patience That after my Saviours example being reviled I may not revile againe and being cursed by them â— may blesse them Thou that wouldst not suffer Shimei's tongue to go unpunished when by thy judgements on David he might seem to justiâ—â—e his disdainfull reproaches give me grace to intercede with thy mercy for these my enemies that the reward of false and lying tongues even hot burning coals of eternall fire may not be brought upon them Let my prayers and patience be as water to coole and quench their tongues who are already set on fire with the fire of Hell and tormented with those malicious flames Let me be happy to refute and put to silence their evill-speaking by well-doing and let them enjoy not the fruit of their lips but of my prayer for their repentance and thy pardon Teach me Davids patience and Hezekiah's devotion that I may look to thy mercy through mans malice and see thy justice in their sin Let Sheba's seditious speeches Rabshekah's railing and Shimei's cursing provoke as my humble prayer to thee so thy renewed blessing toward me Though they curse doe thou blesse and I shall be blessed and made a blessing to my people That the stone which some builders refuse may become the head-stone of the corner Looke downe from heaven and save me from the reproach of them that would swallow me up Hide me in the secret of thy presence from the pridâ— of man and keep me from the strife of tongues 16. Vpon the Ordinance against the Commoâ— Prayer-Booke IT is no news to have all Innovations ushered in with the name of Reformations in Church and State by those who seeking to gaine reputation with the Vulgar for their extraordinary parts and piety must needs undoe whatever was formerly setled never so well and wisely So hardly can the pride of those that study Novelties allow former times any share or degree of wisdome or godlinesse And because matter of prayer and devotion to God justly beares a great part in Religion being the Soules more immediate converse with the divine Majesty nothing could be more plausible to the People than to tel them They served God amisse in that point Hence our publique Liturgy or Formes of constant Prayers must be not amended in what upon free and publique advice might seem to sober men inconvenient for matter or manner to which I should easily consent but wholly cashiered and abolished and after many popular contempts offered to the Booke and those that used it according to their Consciences and the Lawes in force it must be crucified by an Ordinance the better to please either those men who gloried in their extemporary veyne and fluency 〈◊〉 others who conscious to their owne formality in the use of it thought they fully expiated their sin of not using it aright by laying all the blame upon it a totall rejection of it as a dead letter thereby to excuse the deadnesse of their hearts As for the matter contained in the Booke sober and learned men have sufficiently vindicated it against the cavils and exceptions of those who thought it a part of piety to make what proâ—ane objections they could against it especially for Popery Superstition whereas no doubt the Liturgy was exactly conformed to the doctrine of the Church of England and this by all Reformed Churches is confessed to be most sound and Orthodox For the manner of using Set and prescribed Formes there is no doubt but that wholsome words being knowne and fitted to mens understandings are soonest received into their hearts and aptest to excite and carry along with them judicious and fervent affections Nor doe I see any reason why Christians should be weary of a wel-composed Liturgy as I hold this to be more than of all other things wherein the Constancy abates nothing of the excellency and usefulnesse I could never see any
some mens ambitious Covetousnesse and sacrilegious Cruelty torturing with Me both Church and State in Civill distentions till I shall be forced to consent and declare that I doe approve what God knowes I utterly dislike and in My Soul abhor as many wayes highly against Reason Justice and Religion and whereto if I should shamefully and diâ—honourably give My consent yet should I not by so doing satisfie the dâ—vided Interests and Opinions of those Parties which contend with each other as well as both against Me and Epiâ—copacy Nor can My late condescending to the Scots in point of Church-government be rightly objected against Me as an inducement for Me to consent to the like in My other Kingdoms For it should be considered that Episcopacy was not so rooted and setled there as 't is here nor I in that respect so strictly bound to continue it in that Kingdom as in this for what I think in My judgment best I may not think so absolutely necessary for all places at all times If any shall impute My yeilding to them as My failing and sin I can easily acknowledge it but that is no argument to do so again or much worse I being now more convinced in that point nor indeed hath My yeilding to them been so happy and successefull as to incourage Me to grant the like to others Did I see any thing more of Christ as to Meeknesse Justice Orâ—er Charity and Loyalty in those that pretend to other modes of Government I might suspect My judgment to be biassed or foreâ—stalled with some prejudice and wontednesse of opinion but I have hitherto so much cause to suspect the contrary in the manners of many of those men that I cannot from them gain the least reputation for their new wayes of Government Nor can I find that in any Reformed Churches whose paternes are so cryed up and obtruded upon the Churches under My Dominion that eâ—ther Learning or Religion workes of Pâ—ety or Charity have so flourished beyond what they have done in My Kingdomes by Gods blessing which might make Me believe either Presbytery or Independency have a more benigne influence upon the Church and mens hearts and lives than Episcopacy in its right constitution The abuses of which deserve to be extirpated as much as the use retained for I think it farre better to hold to primitive and uniforme Antiquity than to comply with divided novelty A right Episcopacy would at once satisfie all just desires and interests of good Bishops humble Presbyters and sober People so as Church affaires should be managed neither with tyrannie parity nor popularity neither Bishops ejected nor Presbyters despised nor People oppressed And in this integrity both of My Judgment and Conscience I hope God will preserve Me. For Thou O Lord knowest my uprightnesse and tendernesse as thou hast set me to be a Defender of the Faith and a Protectour of thy Church so suffer me not by any violence to be overborne against my Conscience Arise O Lord maintaine thine owne Cause let not thy Church be deformed as to that Government which derived from thy Apostles hath been retained in purest and primitive times till the Revenues of the Church became the object of secular envy which seeks to rob it of all the incouragements of Learning and Religion Make me as the good Samaritan compassionate and helpfull to thy afflicted Church which some men have wounded and robbed others passe by without regard either to pity or relieve As my power is from thee so give me grace to use it for thee And though I am not suffered to be Master of my other Rights as a KING yet preserve me in that liberty of Reason love of Religion and thy Churches welfare which are fixed in my Conscience as a Christian. Preserve from Sacrilegious invasions those temporall blessings which thy providence hath bestowed on thy Church for thy glory Forgive their sinnes and errours who have deserved thy just permission thus to let in the wild Boare and subtill Foxes to wast and deform thy Vineyard which thy right hand hath planted and the dew of Heaven so long watered to a happy and flourishing estate O let me not beare the infamous brand to all Posterity of being the first Christian KING in this Kingdome who should consent to the oppression of thy Church and the Fathers of it whose errours I would rather with Constantine cover with silence and reforme with meeknesse than expose their persons and sacred Functions to vulgar contempt Thou O Lord seest how much I have suffered with and for thy Church make no long tarrying O my God to deliver both me and it from unreasonable men whose counsels have brought forth and continue such violent confusions by a precipitant destroying the ancient boundaries of thy Churches peace thereby letting in all manner of errours schismes and disorders O thou God of order and of truth in thy good â—ime abate the malice aswage the rage and confound all the mischievous devices of thine mine and thy Churches enemies That I and all that love thy Church may sing praises to thee and ever magnifie thâ— salvation even beâ—ore the sons of men 18. Vpon Vxbridge-Treaty and other Offers made by the KING I Look upon the way of Treaties as a retiring from fighting like Beasts to arguing like Men whose strength should be more in their understandings than in their limbs And though I could seldome get opportunities to Treat yet I never wanted either desire or disposition to it having greater confidence of My Reason than My Sword I was so wholly resolved to yeild to the first that I thought neither My selfe nor others should need to use the second if once we rightly understood each other Nor did I ever think it a diminution of Me to prevent them with Expresses of My desires and even importunities to Treat It being an office not onely of humanity rather to use Reason than Force but also of Christianity to seek peace and ensue it As I am very unwillingly compelled to defend My self with Armes so I very willingly embraced any thing tending to Peace The events of all Warre by the Sword being very dubious and of a Civill Warre uncomfortable the end hardly recompencing and late repairing the mischief of the means Nor did any successe I had ever enhaunce with Me the price of Peace as earnestly desired by Me as any man though I was like to pay dearer for it than any man All that I sought to reserve was Mine Honour and My Conscience the one I could not part with as a KING the other as a Christian. The Treaty at Uxbridge gave the fairest hopes of an happy composure had others applied themselves to it with the same moderation as I did I am confident the War had then ended I was willing to condescend as farre as Reason Honour and Conscience would gâ—ve Me leave nor were the remaining differences so essentiall to My Peoples happinesse or of such consequence as in the
obtaine neither shall Restraint which though it have as little of safety to a Prince yet it hath not more of danger The feare of men shall never be my snare nor shall the love of any liberty entangle my soule Better others betray me than my self and that the price of my liberty should be my Conscience the greatest injuries my Enemies seek to inflict upon me cannot be without my owne consent While I can deny with Reason I shall defeat the greatest impressions of their malice who neither know how to use worthily what I have already granted nor what to require more of me but this That I would seem willing to help them to destroy My self Mine Although they should destroy me yet they shall have no cause to despise me Neither liberty nor life are so deare to me as the peace of my Conscience the Honour of my Crownes and the welfare of my People which my Word may injure more than any Warre can doe while I gratifie a few to oppresse all The Lawes will by Gods blessing revive with the love and Loyalty of my Subjects if I bury them not by my Consent and cover them in that grave of dishonour and injustice which some mens violence hath digged for them If my Captivity or death must be the price of their redemption I grâ—dge not to pay it No condition can make a King miserable which carries not with it his Souls his Peoples and Posterities thraldome After-times may see what the blindnesse of this Age will not and God may at length shew my Subjects that I chuse rather to suffer for them than with them happily I might redeem my selfe to some shew of liberty if I would consent to enslave them I had rather hazard the ruine of one King than to confirme many Tyrants over them from whom I pray God deliver them whatever becomes of Me whose solitude hath not left Me alone For thou O God infinitely good and great art with Me whose presence is better than life and whose service is perfect freedome Owne Me for thy Servant and I shall never have cause to complaine for want of that liberty which becomes a Man a Christian and a King Blesse Me still with Reason as a Man with Religion as a Christian and with Coâ—stancy in Iustice as a King Though thou sufferest Me to be stript of all outward ornaments yet preserve Me ever in those enjoyments wherein I may enjoy thy selfe and which cannot be taken from Me against my will Let no fire of affliction boyle â—ver My passion to any impatience or sordid feares There be many say of Me There is no help for Me doe thou lift up the Light of thy Countenance upon Me and I shall neither want safety liberty nor Majesty Give Me that measure of patience and Constâ—ncy which my condition now requires My strength is scattered My expectation froâ— Men defeated My Person restrained O be not thou farre from Me lest My Enemies prevaile too much against Me. I am become a wonder and a scorne to many O be thou my Helper and Defender Shew some token upon me for good that they that hate me may be ashamed because thou Lord hast holpen and comforted me establish me with thy free Spirit that I may do and suffer thy will as thou wouldst have me Be mercifull to me O Lord for my Soule trusteth in thee yea and in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge untill these calamities be overpast Arise to deliver me make no long â—arrying O my God Though thou killest me yet will I trust in thy mercy and my Saviour merit I know that my Redeemer liveth though thou leadest me through the vayl and shadow of death yet shall I feare none ill 24. Vpon their denying His Majesty the Attendance of His Chaplaines WHen Providence was pleased to deprive Me of all other civill comforts and secular attendants I thought the absence of them all might best be supplyed by the attendance of some of My Chaplaines whom for their Function I reverence and for their Fidelity I have cause to love By their learning piety and prayers I hoped to be either better enabled to sustaine the want of all other enjoyments or better fitted for the recovery and use of them in Gods good time so reaping by their pious help a spirituall harvest of grace amidst the thornes and after the plowings of temporall crosses The truth is I never needed or desired more the service and assistance of men judiciously pious and soberly devout The solitude they have confined Me unto adds the Wildernesse to my temptations For the company they obtrude upon Me is more sad than any solitude can be If I had asked My Revenues My Power of the Militia or any one of My Kingdomes it had been no wonder to have been denyed in those things where the evill policy of men forbids all just restitution lest they should confesse an injurious usurpation But to deny Me the Ghostly comfort of My Chaplaines seemes a greater rigour and barbarity then is ever used by Christians to the meanest Prisoners and greatest Malefactors whom though the Justice of the Law deprive of worldly comforts yet the mercy of Religion allows them the benefit of their Clergy as not ayming at once to destroy their Bodies and to damne their Soules But My Agony must not be relieved with the presence of any one good Angell for such I account a Learâ—ed Godly and discreet Divine and such I would have all Mine to be They that envy My being a King are loath I should be a Christian while they seek to deprive Me of all things else They are afraid I should save my Soul Other sense Charity it self can hardly pick out of those many harsh Repulses I received as to that Request so often made for the attendance of some of My Chaplaines I have sometime thought the Unchristiannesse of those denialls might arise from a displeasure some men had to see me prefer my own Divines before their Ministers whom though I respect for that worth and piety which may be in them yet I cannot thinke them so proper for any present comforters or Physitians Who have some of them at least had so great an influence in occasioning these calamities and inflicting these wounds upon Me. Nor are the soberest of them so apt for that devotionall complyance and juncture of hearts which I desire to bear in those holy Offices to be performed with Me and for Me since their judgements standing at a distance from me or in jealousie of me or in opposition against me their Spirits cannot so harmoniously accord with mine or mine with theirs either in Prayer or other holy duties as is meet and most comfortable whose golden Rule and bond of Perfection consists in that of mutuall Love and Charity Some remedies are worse then the diseasâ— and some comforters more miserable then misery it self when like Iobs friends they seek not to fortifie ones mind
with patience but perswade a man by betraying his own Innocency to despair of Gods mercy and by Justifying their injuries to strengthen the hands and harden the hearts of Insolent Enemies I am so much a friend to all Church-men that have any thing in them beseeming that â—acred function that I have hazarded my owne Interests chiefly upon Conscience and Constancy to maintaine their Rights whom the more I looked upon as Orphans and under the sacrilegious eyes of many cruell and rapacious Reformers so I thought it my duty the more to appeare as a Father and a Patron for them and the Church Although I am very unhandsomly requited by some of them who may live to repent no lesse for My sufferings than their own ungratefull errours and that injurious contempt and meannesse which they have brought upon their Calling and Persons I pity all of them I despise none onely I thought I might have leave to make choice of some for My speciall Attendants who were best approved in My Judgment and most sutable to My affection For I held it better to seem undevout and to heare no mens prayers than to be forced or seem to comply with those petitions to which the heart cannot consent nor the tongue say Amen without contradicting a mans owne understanding or belying his owne soule In Devotions I love neither profane boldnesse nor pious non-senseâ— but such an humble and judicious gravity as shews the Speaker to be at once considerate both of Gods Majesty the Churches honour and his owne Vilenesse both knowing what things God allows him to ask and in what manner it becomes a Sinner to supplicate the divine Mercy for himself and others I am equally scandalized with all prayers that sound either imperiously or rudely and passionately as either wanting humility to God or charity to men or respect to the duty I confesse I am better pleased as with studied and premeditated Sermons so with such publique Formes of Prayer as are fitted to the Churches and every Christians daily common necessities because I am by them better assured what I may joyn My heart unto than I can be of any mans extemporary sufficiency which as I doe not wholly exclude from publique occasions so I allow its just liberty and use in private and devout retirements where neither the solemnity of the duty nor the modest regard to others doe require so great exactnesse as to the outward manner of performance Though the light of understanding and the fervency of affection I hold the maine and most necessary requisites both in constant and occasionall solitary and sociall Devotions So that I must needs seem to all equal minds with as much Reason to prefer the service of My own Chaplains before that of their Ministers as I do the Liturgy before their Directory In the one I have been alwaies educated and exercised In the other I am not yet Catechized nor acquainted And if I were yet should I not by that as by any certain rule and Canon of devotion be able to follow or find out the indirect extravagancies of most of those men who highly cry up that as a piece of rare composure and use which is already as much despised and disused by many of them as the Common-prayer sometimes was by those men a great part of whose piety hung upon that popular pin of rayling against and contemning the Government and Liturgy of this Church But I had rather be condemned to the woe of Vae soli than to that of Vae vobis Hypocritis by seeming to pray what I doe not approve It may be I am esteemed by My Denyers sufficient of My selfe to discharge My duty to GOD as a Priest though not to Men as a Prince Indeed I think both Offices Regall and Sacerdotall might well become the same Person as anciently they were under one name the united rights of primogeniture Nor could I follow better presidents if I were able than those two eminent Kings David and Solomon not more famous for their Scepters and Crownes than one was for devout Psalmes and Prayers the other for his divine Parables and Preaching whence the one merited and assumed the name of a Prophet the other of a Preacher Titles indeed of greater honour where rightly placed than any of those the Roman Emperours affected from the Nations they subdued it being infinitely more glorious to convert Soules to Gods Church by the Word than to conquer men to a subjection by the Sword Yet since the order of Gods wisdome and providence hath for the most part alwaies distinguished the gifts and offices of Kings of Priests of Princes and Preachers both in the Jewish and Christian Churches I am sorry to find My selfe reduced to the necessity of being both or enjoying neither For such as seek to deprive Me of Kingly Power and Soveraignty would no lesse enforce Me to live many Months without all Prayers Sacraments and Sermons unlesse I become My owne Chaplaine As I owe the Clergy the protection of a Christian KING so I desire to enjoy from them the benefit of their gifts and prayers which I look upon as more prevalent than My owne or other mens by how much they flow from minds more enlightned and affections lesse distracted than those which are encombred with secular affaires besides I think a greater blessing and acceptablenesse attends those duties which are rightly performed as proper to and within the limits of that calling to which God and the Church have specially designed and consecrated some men And however as to that Spirituall Government by which the devout Soule is subject to Christ and through his merits daily offers it self and its services to GOD every private believer is a King and Priest invested with the honour of a Royall Priesthood yet as to Ecclesiasticall order and the outward polity of the Church I think confusion in Religion will as certainly follow every mans turning Priest or Preacher as it will in the State where every one affects to rule as King I was alwaies bred to more modest and I think more pious Principles the consciousnesse to My spirituall defects makes Me more prize and desire those pious assistances which holy and good Ministers either Bishops or Presbyters may afford Me especially in these extremities to which God hath been pleased to suffer some of My Subjects to reduce Me so as to leave them nothing more but My life to take from Me and to leave Me nothing to desire which I thought might lesse provoke their jealousie and offence to deny Me than this of having some meanâ—s afforded Me for My Soules comfort and support To which end I made choice of men as no way that I know scandalous so every way eminent for their learning and piety no lesse than for their Loyalty nor can I imagine any exceptions to be made against them but only this that they may seem too able and too well affected toward Me and My service But this is
of all have excited to crucifie Me. But thou O Lord canst and wilt as thou didst My Redeemer both exalt and perfect Me by My sufferings which have moâ—e in them of thy mercy than of mans cruelty or thy owne justice 27. To the Prince of VVales SOn if these Papers with some others wherein I have set down the private reflections of My Conscience and My most impartiall thoughts touching the chiefe passages which have been most remarkable or disputed in My late troubles come to your hands to whom they are chiefly designed they may be so far usefull to you as to state your judgement aright in what hath passed whereof a pious is the best use can be made and they may also give you some directions how to remedy the present distempers and prevent if God will the lâ—ke for time to come It is some kind of deceiving and lessening the injury of My long restraint when I find My leisure and solitude have produced something worthy of My self and usefull to you That neither you nor any other may hereafter measure My Cause by the Successe nor My Judgment of things by My misfortunes which I count the greater by farre because they have so farre lighted upon you and some others whom I have most cause to love as well as My self and of whose unmerited sufferings I have a greater sense then of Mine own But this advantage of wisedome you have above most Princes that you have begun and now spent some yeares of discretion in the experience of troubles and exercise of patience wherein Piety and all Vertues both Morall and Politicall are commonly better planted to a thriving as trees set in winter then in the warmth and serenity of times or amidst those delights which usually attend Princes Courts in times of peace and plenty which are prone either to root up all plants of true Vertue and Honour or to be contented only with some leaves and withering formalities of them without any reall fruits such as tend to the Publick good for which Princes should alwayes remember they are born and by providence desigâ—ed The evidence of which different education the holy Writ affords us in the contemplation of David and Rehoboam The one prepared by many afflictions for a flourishing Kingdom the other softned by the unparalel'd prosperity of Solomons Court and so corrupted to the great diminution both for Peace Honour and Kingdome by those flatteries which are as unseparable from prosperous Princes as Flies are from fruit in summer whom adversity like cold weather drives away I had rather you should be Charles le Bow then le Grand good then great I hope God hath designed you to be both having so early put you into that exercise of his Graces and gifts bestowed upon you which may best weed out all vicious inclinations and dispose you to those Princely endowments and employments which will most gain the love and intend the welfare of those over whom God shall place you With God I would have you begin and end who is King of Kings the Soveraign disposer of the Kingdomes of the world who pulleth downe one and setteth up another The best Government and highest Soveraignty you can attain to is to be subject to him that the Scepter of his Word and Spirit may rule in your heart The true glory of Princes consists in advancing Gods Glory in the maintenance of true Religion and the Churches good Also in the dispensation of civill Power with Justice and Honour to the publick Peace Piety will make you prosperous at least it will keep you from being miserable nor is he much a loser that loseth all yet saveth his owne soule at last To which Center of true Happinesse God I trust hath and will graciously direct all these black lines of Affliction which he hath been pleased to draw on me and by which he hath I hope drawn me nearer to himself You have already tasted of that cup whereof I have liberally drank which I look upon as Gods Physick having that in healthfulnesse which it wants in pleasure Above all I would have you as I hope you are already well-grounded and setled in your Religion The best profession of which I have ever esteemed that of the Church of England in which you have been educated yet I would have your own Judgement and Reason now seal to that sacred bond which education hath written that it may be judiciously your own Religion and not other mens custome or tradition which you professe In this I charge you to persevere as comming nearest to Gods Word for Doctrine and to the primitive examples for Government with some little amendment which I have other where expressed and often offered though in vain Your fixation in matters of Religion will not be not more necessary for your soules then your Kingdomes peace when God shall bring you to them For I have observed that the Devill of Rebellion doth commonly turn hâ—mself into an Angell of Reformation and the old Serpent can pretend new Lights When some mens Consciences accuse them for Sedition and Faction they stop its mouth with the name and noise of Religion when Piety pleads for peace and patience they cry out Zeale So that unlesse in this point You be well setled you shall never want temptations to destroy you and yours under pretensions of reforming matters of Religion for that seemes even to worst men as the best and most auspicious beginning of their worst designes Where besides the Novelty which is taking enough with the Vulgar every one hath an affectation by seeming forward to an outward Reformation of Religion to be thought zealous hoping to cover those irreligious deformities whereto they are conscious by aseverity of censuring other mens opinions or actions Take heed of abetting any Factions or applying to any publick Discriminations in matters of Religion contrary to what is in your Judgement and the Church well setled your partiall adhering as head to any one side gaines you not so great advantages in some mens hearts who are prone to be of their Kings Religion as it losâ—th you in others who think themselves and their profession first despised then persecuted by you Take such a course as may either w th calmnes charity quite remove the seeming differences and offences by impartiality or so order affaires in point of Power that you shal not need to fear or flatter any Faction For if ever you stand in need of them or must stand to their courtesie you are undone The Serpent will devour the Dove you may never expect lesse of loyalty justice or humanity than from those who engage into religious Rebellion Their interest is alwaies made Gods under the colours of Piety ambitious policies march not onely with greatest security but applause as to the populacy you may heare from them Iacob's voice but you shall feele they have Esau's hands Nothing seemed lesse considerable than the Presbyterian Faction in England for many
other men so that you study really to exceed in true and constant demonstrations of goodnesse piety and virtue towards the People even all those men that make the greatest noise and ostentations of Religion so You shall neither feare any detection as they doe who have but the face and maske of goodnesse nor shall You frustrate the just expectations of Your People who cannot in Reason promise themselves so much good from any Subjects novelties as from the vertuous constancy of their Kingâ— When these mountaines of congealed factions shall by the sunshine of Gods mercy and the splendor of Your virtues be thawed and dissipated and the abused Vulgar shall have learned that none are greater Oppressours of their Estates Liberties and Consciences than those men that entitle themselves The Patrones and Vindicators of them onely to usurp power over them Let then no passion betray You to any study of revenge upon those whose owne sinne and folly will sufficiently punish them in due time But as soone as the forked arrow of factious emulations is drawn out use all princely arts and clemency to heale the wounds that the smart of the cure may not equall the anguish of the hurt I have offered Acts of Indempnity and Oblivion to so great a latitude as may include all that can but suspect themselves to be any way obnoxious to the Laws and which might serve to exclude all future Jealousies and insecurities I would have You alwaies propense to the same way when ever it shall be desired and accepted let it be granted not onely as an Act of State-policy and necessity but of Christian charity and choice It is all I have now left Me a power to forgive those that have deprived Me of all and I thanke God I have a heart to doe it and joy as much in this grace which God hath given Me as in all My former enjoyments for this is a greater argument of Gods love to Me than any prosperity can be Be confident as I am that the most of all sides who have done amisse have done so not out of malice but mis-information or mis-apprehension of things None will be more loyall and faithfull to Me and You than those Subjects who sensible of their Errours and our Injuries will feel in their owne Soules most vehement motives to repentance and earnest desires to make some reparations for their former defects As Your quality sets You beyond any Duell with any Subject so the noblenesse of Your mind must raise You above the meditating any revenge or executing Your anger upon the many The more conscious You shall be to Your owne merits upon Your People the more prone You will be to expect all love and loyalty from them and to inflict no punishment upon them for former miscarriages You will have more inward complacency in pardoning one than in punishing a thousand This I write to you not despairing of Gods mercy and my Subjects affections towards You both which I hope You will study to deserve yet We cannot merit of God but by his owne mercy If God shall see fit to restore Me and You after Me to those enjoyments which the Lawes have assigned to Us and no Subjects without an high degree of guilt and sinne can devest Us of then may I have better opportunity when I shall be so happy to see You in peace to let You more fully understand the things that belong to Gods glory Your owâ— honour and the Kingdoms peace But if You never see My face againe and God will have Me buried in such a barbarous Imprisonment obscurity which the perfecting some mens designs require wherein few hearts that love me are permitted to exchange a word or a look with Me I doe require and entreat You as your Father and your KING that You never suffer Your heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the true Religion established in the Church of England I tell You I have tried it and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the world not onely in the Community as Christian but also in the speciall notion as Reformed keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitious Tyranny and the meannesse of fantastique Anarchy Not but that the draught being excellent as to the maine both for Doctrine and Government in the Church of England some lines as in very good figures may happily need some sweetning or polishing which might â—ere have easily been done by a safe and gentle hand if some mens precipitancy had not â—â—olently demanded such rude alterations as wâ—â—ld have quite destroyed all the beauty and proportions of the whole The scandall of the late Troubles which some may object and urge to You against the Protestant Religion established in England is easily answered to them or Your owne thoughts in this That scarce any one who hath been a Beginner or an active Prosecutor of this late Warre against the Church the Lawes and Me either was or is a true Lover Embracer or Practiser of the Protestant Religion established in England which neither gives such rules nor ever before set such â—xamples 'T is true some heretofore had the boldnesse to present threatning Petitions to their Princes and Parliaments which others of the same Faction but of worse Spirits have now put in execution but let not counterfeit and disorderly Zeale abate Your value and esteem of true piety both of them are to be knowne by their fruits the sweetnesse of the Wine Fig-tree is not to be despised though the Brambles and Thornes should pretend to beare Figs and Grapes thereby to rule over the Trees Nor would I have You to entertain any averâ—ation or dislike of Parliaments which in their right constitution with Freedome and Honour will never injure or diminish Your greatnesse but will rather be as interchangings of love loyalty and confidence between a Prince and his People Nor would the events of this black Parliament have been other than such however much biassed by Factions in the Elections if it had been preserved from the insolencies of popular dictates and tumultuary impressions The sad effects of which will no doubt make all Parliaments after this more cautious to preserve that Freedome and Honour which belongs to such Assemblies when once they have fully shaken off this yoke of Vulgar encroachment since the publique interest consists in the mutuall and common good both of Prince and People Nothing can be more happy for all than in faire grave and Honourable waies to contribute their Counsels in Commonâ— enacting all things by publique consent without tyranny or Tumults We must not starve our selves because some men have â—urfeited of wholsome food And if neither I nor You be ever restored to Our Rights but God in his severest justice wâ—ll punish My Subjects with continuance in their sinne and suffer them to be deluded with the prosperity of their wickednesse I hope God will give Me
Enemies have used all the poyson of falsity and violence of hostility to destroy first the love and Loyalty which is in My Subjects and then all that content of life in Me which from these I chiefly enjoyed Indeed they have left Me but little of life and only the husk and shell as it were which their further malice and cruelty can take from Me having bereaved Me of all those worldly comforts for which life it self seems desirable to men But O My Soule think not that life too long or tedious wherein God gives thee any opportunities if not to doe yet to suffer with such Christian patience and magnanimity in a good Cause as are the greatest honour of our lives and the best improvement of our deaths I know that in point of true Christian valour it argues pusillanimity to desire to die out of wearinesse of life and a want of that heroick greatnesse of spirit which becomes a Christian in the patient and generous sustaining those afflictions which as shadows necessarily attend us while we are in this body and which are lessened or enlarged as the Sun of our prosperity moves higher or lower whose totall absence is best recompensed with the Dew of Heaven The assaults of affliction may be terrible like Sampson's Lyon but they yeild much sweetnesse to those that dare to encounter and overcome them who know how to overlive the witherings of their Gourds without discontent or peevishnesse while they may yet converse with God That I must die as a Man is certain that I may die a King by the hands of My own Subjects a violent sodain and barbarous death in the strength of My years in the midst of My Kingdoms My Friends and loving Subjects being helplesse Spectators My Enemies insolent Revilers and Triumphers over Me living dying and dead is so probable in humane reason that God hath taught me not to hope otherwise as to mans cruelty however I despaire not of Gods infinite mercy I know My Life is the object of the Devils wicked mens malice but yet under Gods sole custody disposall Whom I do not think to flatter for longer life by seeming prepared to die but I humbly desire to depend upon him to submit to his will both in life death in what order soever he is pleased to lay them out to Me. I confesse it is not easie for Me to contend with those many horrours of death wherewith God suffers Me to be tempted which are equally horrid either in the suddennesse of a barbarous Assasination or in those greater formalities whereby My Enemies being more solemnly cruell will it may be seeke to adde as those did who Crucified Christ the mockery of Justice to the cruelty of Malice That I may be destroyed as with greater pomp and artifice so with lesse pity it will be but a necessary policy to make My death appeare as an act of â—ustice done by Subjects upon their Soveraigne who know that no Law of God or Man invests them with any power of Judicature without Me much lesse against Me and who being sworn and bound by all that is sacred before God and man to endeavour My preservation must pretend Justice to cover their Perjury It is indeed a sad fate for any man to have his Enemies to be Accusers Parties and Judges but most desperate when this is acted by the insolence of Subjects against their Soveraigne wherein those who have had the chiefest hand and are most guilty of contriving the publique Troubles must by shedding My bloud seem to wash their own hands of that innocent bloud whereof they are now most evidently guilty before God and man and I believe in their owne consciences too while they carried on unreasonable demands first by Tumults after by Armies Nothing makes meane spirits more cowardly-cruell in managing their usurped power against their lawfull Superiours than this the Guilt of their unjust Usurpation notwithstanding those specious and popular pretensions of Justice against Delinquents applied onely to disguise at first the monstrousnesse of their designes who despaired indeed of possessing the power and profits of the Vineyard till the Heire whose right it is be cast out and slaine With them My greatest fault must be that I would not either destroy My selfe with the Church and State by My Word or not suffer them to doe it unresisted by the Sword whose covetous ambition no Concessions of Mine could ever yet either satisfie or abate Nor is it likely they will ever think that Kingdome of brambles which some men seek to erect at once weak sharp and fruitlesse either to God or man is like to thrive till watered with the Royall bloud of those whose right the Kingdome is Well Gods will be done I doubt not but My Innocency will find him both My Protectour and My Advocate who is My onely Judge whom I owne as King of Kings not onely for the eminency of his power and majesty above them but also for that singular care and protection which he hath over them who knows them to be exposed to as many dangers being the greatest Patrones of Law Justice Order and Religion on earth as there be either Men or Devils which love confusion Nor will he suffer those men long to prosper in their Babel who build it with the bones and cement it with the bloud of their Kings I am confident they will find Avengers of My death among themselves the injuries I have sustained from them shall be first punished by them who agreed in nothing so much as in opposing Me. Their impatience to beare the loud cry of My bloud shall make them think no way better to expiate it than by shedding theirs who with them most thirsted after Mine The sad confusions following My destruction are already presaged and confirmed to Me by those I have lived to see since My troubles in which God alone who onely could hath many waies pleaded My cause not suffering them to go unpunished whose confederacy in sinne was their onely security who have cause to feare that God will both further divide and by mutuall vengeance afterward destroy them My greatest conquest of Death is from the power and love of Christ who hath swallow'd up death in the victory of his Resurrection and the glory of his Ascension My next comfort is that he gives Me not onely the honour to imitate his example in suffering for righteousnesse sake though obscured by the foulest charges of Tyranny and Injustice but also that charity which is the noblest revenge upon and victory over My Destroyers By which I thank God I can both forgive them and pray for them that God would not impute My bloud to them further then to convince them what need they have of Christs bloud to wash their soules from the guilt of shedding Mine At present the will of My Enemies seems to be their onely rule their power the measure and their successe the Exactor of what they please to