I designed T is easie for thee to keep Me safe in the love and confidence of my people nor is it hard for Thee to preserve Me amidst the uniust hatred and iealousies of to many which thou hast suffered so far to prevail upon Me as to be able to pervert and abuse my Acts of greatest Indulgence to them and assurance of them But no favours from Me can make others more guilty then my selfe may be of misusing those many and great ones which Thou O Lord hast conferred on me I beseech thee give ME and them such Repentance as thou wilt accept and such graces 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 for my sins I am by other mens sins deprived of thy temporall blessings yet I may be happy to enioy the comfort of thy mercies which often raise â—he greatest Sufferers to be the most glorious Saints 6Vpon his Maiesties retirement from VVestminster WIth what unwillingnesse I withdrew from WESTMINSTER let them judge who unprovided of tackling and victuall are forced to Sea by a storme yet better do so then venture splitting or sinking on a Lee-shore I stayed at White-Hall till I was driven away by shame more then fear 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 intollerable oppression my case alone though cheifly 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 Judgement nor can they include or carry with them My consent whom they represent not in any kinde 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 minde 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 desirous 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 insatiablenesse had not learned to thirst the more by how much more they drank whom no fountaine of Royall bounty was able to overcome so resolved they seemed either utterly to exhaust it or barbarously to obstruct 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 patrons shall project Hee deserves to be a slave without pitty or redemption that is content to have the rationall soveraignty of his Soule and liberty of his will and words so captivated Nor do I think my Kingdoms so considerable as to preserve them with the forfeiture of that freedom which cannot be denyed me as a King 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 vassallage 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 far am I from thinking the Majesty of the Crown of England to be bound by any Coronation Oath in a blind and bruitish formality to consent to what ever its subjects in Parliament shall require as some men will needs infer 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 publique who would take it very ill to be urged not to deny what ever my selfe as King or the House of Peers with Mee should not so much desire as enjoyne 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 Peers have chosen and my selfe have consented to I shall never think my selfe conscientiously tied to go as oft against my Conscience 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 wi h how much dishonour and absurdity they make their King the only 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 opiniativenesse weaknesse or wilfullnesse 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 obtrusions 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 Hee 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 staâ— as do best appear to him It argues rather thosâ— men to be conscious of their defects of Reason and convincing Arguments who call in the assistance of meere force to carry on the weaknesse of their Councells and Proposalls I may in the Truth and Vprightnesse of my heart protest before God and men that I never wilfully opposed or denyed any thing that was in a faiâ— 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 theâ— when my judgement so concurred with theirs that I might with good conscience consent to them yea in many things where not absolutâ— and morall necessity of Reason but temporary convenience in point of honour was to be considered I
chose rather to deny my selfe theâ— 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 owne interests and Personall Rights of whicâ— I conceive my self to be Master but in whaâ— concernes Truth Justice the Right of thâ— Church and My Crowne 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 deny before God I will rather chuse to wear a Crown of Thorns with My Saviour then to exchange that of Gold which is due to me for one of lead whose embassed 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 freedom For this I believe is thy will that we should maintain who though thou dost iustly require us to submit our understandings wills to thine whose wisdome and goodnes 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 do any thing for thee against our consciences as to the desires of men enioynest us to try all things by the touch-stone of Reason Laws which are the rules of Civill Justice and to declare our consent to that only which our Judgment approve Thou knowest O Lord how unwilling I was to desert that place in which thou hast set me and whereto the affairs of my Kingdoms at present did call me My People can witness how far I have bin content for their good to deny My Selfe 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 Subiects and the discharge of my owne duty to reason and Justice Make me willÃng to suffer the greatest indignities iniuries 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 fair and equall wayes 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 subiect My Reason to other mens passions and designs which to Me seem unreasonable unìust and irreligious So shall I serve thee in the truth and uprightnesle of my heart thovgh 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 own 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 Sootland 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 divorce of affections in her from that religion which is the only thing wherin we differ Which yet God can I pray he would in time take away not suffer these practises to be any obstruction to her judgement 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 knows not so perfectly to hate all Virtues as some mens subtilty doth among whom I yet think few are so malicious as to hate Her for Her self 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 shipwrackt so as she may be in safe Harbour This comfort I shall enjoy by her safety in the midst of My Personal 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 loyalty of my good subjects to his protection who is able to punish the faults of Princes and no lesse severely to reveng 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 darke st nights 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
good Conscience in me which hath been fought against nor did they ever intend to bring mee to my Parliament till they had brought my mind to their obedience Should I grant what some men desire I should be such as they wish me not more a King and far lesse both Man and Christian What Tumults and Armies could not obtain 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 selfe 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 own 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 selfe and mine Although they should destroy me yet they shall have no cause to despise me Neither liberty nor life are so dear 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 grudge 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 self to some shew of liberty if I would consent to enslave them I had rather hazard the ruine of one King than to confirm many Tyrants over them from whom I pray God deliver them what ever 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 Own me for thy servant and I shall never have cause to complain 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 constancy in justice as a King Though thou sufferest me to be stript of all outward ornaments yet preserve me ever in those enjoyments wherein I may injoy thy self and which cannot be taken from me against my will Let no fire of affliction boile over my passion to any impatience or sordid fears 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 constancy which my condition now requires My strength is scattered my expectation from men defeated my Person restrained ô be not thou far from me lest my Enemies prevaile too much against me I am become a wonder and a scorne to many ô â—e thou my Helper and Defender Shew some token upon me for good that they â—hat hate me may be ashamed because thou Lord hast â—olpen and comforted me establish me with thy free Spirit that I may do and suffer thy will as thou â—ouldst have me Be mercifull to me ô Lord for my soule trusteth in thee yea and in the shadow of thy wings will â— make my refuge untill these calamities be overâ—â—st Arise to deliver me make no long tarrying ô â—y God Though thou killest me yet will I trust in thy mercy and my Saviours merit I know that my Redeemer liveth though thou leadest me through the vale and shadow of death yet shall I fear none ill 24. Vpon their denying His Majesty the Attendance of His Chaplaines VVHen Providence was pleased to deprive Me of all other Civill comforts and secular Attendants I thought the abscence of them all might best be supplied by the attendance of some of my Chaplains 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 denied 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 aiming at once to destroy their Bodies and to damn their Soules But my Agony must not be relieved with the presence of any one good Angell for â—wich I account a Learned Godly and discreet Divine and such I would have all Mine to be They that envy my being a King are loath I â—â—ould be a Christian while they seek to deâ—rive me of all things else They are afraid I â—hould save my soule Other sense Charity it selfe 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 Unchristianâ—esse of those denialls might arise from a displeasure some men had to see me prefer my own Diuines before their Ministers whom though I â—uspect for that worth and piety which may be in them yet I cannot think them so proper for â—ny present Comforters or Physitians who have some of them at least had so great an influence â—n occasioning these calamities and inflicting these wounds upon me Nor are the soberest of them so apt for that devotionall compliance 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
smooth pretensions of Religion Reformation and Liberty As the Wolfe is not lesse cruell so he will be more justly hated when he shall appear no better than a Wolf under Sheeps cloathing But as for the seduced Train of the Vulgar who in their simplicity follow those disguises My charge and councel to You is That as You need no palliations for any designes as 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 ostentations of Religion so You shall neither fear any detection as they doe who have but the face and mask of goodnesse nor shall You frustrate the just expectations of Your People who cannot in reason promise themselves so much good from any subjects noveltis as from the vertuous constancy of their King VVhen these mountains of congealed factions shall by the sunshine of Gods mercy and the splendour 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 Patrons and Vindicators of them onely to usurp power over them Let then no passion betray You to any study of revenge upon those whose own sinne and folly will sufficiently punish them in due time But as soon as the forked arrow of factious emulations is drawn out use all princely arts and clemency to heal the wounds that the smart of the cure may not equall the angnish 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 securities I would have You alwayes propense to the same way when ever it shall be desired and accepted let it be granted not only 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 thank God I have a heart to do 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 don amisse have don 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 own 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 own 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 pardoing one than in punishing a thousand This I write to you not despairing of Gods mercy My Subjects affections towards you both which I hope you wil study to deserve yet we cannot merit of God but by his own 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 shal be so happy to see you in peace to let you more fully understand the things that belong to Gods glory your own honour and the kingdoms peace But if You never see My face againe and God will have Me buried in such a barbarous Imprisonment and obscurity which the perfecting some mens designes require wherein few hearts that love me are permitted to exchange a word or a look with Me I do require 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 only 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 pollishing which might here have easily been done by a safe and gentle hand if some mens precipitancy had not violently demanded such rude Alterations as would 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 VVarre 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 give such rules nor ever before set such examples '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 zeal abate Your value and esteem of true piety both of them are to be known by their fruits the sweetnesse of the Vine Fig-tree is not to be despised though the Brambles Thorns should pretend to bear Figs and Grapes thereby to rule over the Trees Nor would I have You to entertaine any aversation 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 blacke Parliament have been other then such however much biassed by Factions in the Elections if it had heen preserved from the insolencyes 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 Common enacting all things by publique
honour liberty power credit safety or estate those other comforts of dearest relations which are as the life of our lives Though as a KING I think My selfe 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 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 selfe 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 a sare 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 shaddows 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 yeeld 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 dye as a man is certain that I may dye a King by the hands of My own Subjects a violent sodain barbarous death in the strength of my years in the midst of My Kingdoms My Friends and loving Subjects being helples Spectators My Enemies insolent Revilers and Triumphers over me living dying dead is so probable in humane reason that God hath taught me not to hope otherwise as to mans cruelty however I despair not of Gods infinite marcy I know my life is the object of the Devils wicked mens malice but yet under Gods sole custody and disposall Whom I do not think to flatter for longer life by seeming prepared to dye but I humbly desire to depend upon him and to submit to his will both in Life and 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 horrors 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 seek to add 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 les pitty it wil be but a necessary pollicy to make my death appeare as an act of Justice don 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 publike Troubles must by shedding my blood seem to wash their owne hands of that innocent bloud whereof they are now most evidently guilty before God and Man and I beleive in their own Consciences too while they carried on unreasonable Demands First by Tumults after by Armies Nothing makes meane spirits more towardly-cruel in managing their usurped power against their lawfull Superiours than this the Guilt of their uniust Usurpation notwithstanding those specious and popular pretensions of Justice against Delinquents applyed only to disguize at first the monstrousnesse of their designs who despaired indeed of possessing the power and profits of the Vineyeard 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 do it unresisted by the Sword whose covetous ambition no Concessions of Mine could ever yet either satisfie or abate Nor is 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 thriue till watred with the Royal bloud of those whose right the Kingdom is Wel Gods will be don I doubt not but my Innocency will find him both my protectour and my Advocate who is my only Iudge 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 Patrons of Law Justice Order Religion on earth as there be either men or Devills which love confusion Nor will he suffer those Men long to prossper 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 amongst themselves the injuries I have susteined from them shall be first punished by them who agreed in nothing so much as in opposing Me. Their impatience to bear the loud cry of My bloud shall make them thinke no way better to expiate it than by shedd ing 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 only could hath many wayes pleaded my cause not suffering them to go unpuin shed whose confederacy in sin was their only security who have cause to fear that God wil both further divide and by mutual vengeance afterwards 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 Ascention 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
Coeli Specto Beatam et Aâ—ternum Gloria Asperam at Levem IN VERBO TUO SPES MEA Gratia Christi Tracto Splendidam at Gravem Vanitaâ— Mundi C 〈…〉 〈…〉 all delin The Explanation of the Embleme POnderibus genus omne mali probrique gravatus Vizque ferenda ferens Palma ut depressa resurgo Ac velut undarum Fluctûs Ventique furorem Irati Populi Rupes immota repello Clarior è tenebris coelestis stella corusco Victor aeternùm foelici pace triumpho Auro fulgentem rutilo gemmisque micantem At curis Gravidam spernendo calco Coronam Spinosam at ferri facilem quo spes mea Christi Auxilio Nobis non est tractare molestum Aeternam fixis fidei semper que beatam In Coelos occulis specto Nobisque-paratam Quod vanum est sperno quod Christi Gratia praebet Amplecti studium est Virtutis Gloria merces THough clogg'd with weights of miseries Palm-like depress'd I higher rise And as th' unmoved Rock out-braves The boyst'rous winds and raging waves So triumph I. And shine more bright In sad Affliction 's darksom night That splendid but yet toilsome Crown Regardlesly I trample down With joy I take this Crown of Thorn Though sharp yet easie to be born That heav'nly Crown already mine I view with eyes of faith divine I slight vain things and do embrace Glory the just reward of Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΕΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ THE PORVTRAICTVRE OF HIS SACRED MAIESTIE IN HIS SOLITUDES AND SVFFERINGS Together with His MAIESTIES Praiers delivered to Doctor Juxon immediatly before His Death Also His Majesties REASONS Against the pretended Jurisdiction of the high Court of Justice which he intended to deliver in Writing on Munday January 22. 1648. ROM 8. More then Conquerour c. Bona agere mala pati Regium est M. DC XLIX THE CONTENTS 1. UPon His Maiestyes calling this last Parliament p. 15 2 Upon the Earle of Strafford's death 3. Upon His Maiesties going to the House of Commnos 11 4. Vpon the Insolency of the Tumults 15 5. Upon His Maiestyes passing the Bil for the trienniall Parliaments and after setling this during the pleasure of the two Houses 23 6. Upon His Maiesties retirement from Westminster 30. 7. Upon the Queenes departure and absence out of England 37 8. Upon His Majestyes repulse at Hull and the fates of the Hothams 42 9. Upon the Listing and raysing armyes against the King 48 10. Upon their seizing the Kings Magazines Forts Navy and Militia 59 11 Upon the 19. Propositions first sent to the King and more afterwards 67 12 Vpon the Rebellion and troubles in Ireland 81 13. Upon the calling in of the Scots and their Comming 90 14. Upon the Covenant 99 15. Upon the many Jealousies raised and Scandalls cast upon the King to stirre up the People against him 110 16. Vpon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Book 124 17. Of the differences between the King and the 2. Houses in point of Church-Government 133 18. Vpon Uxbridge-Treaty and other Offers made by the King 150 19. Vpon the various events of the Warre Victories and Defeats 155 20. Vpon the Reformations of the Times 164 21. Vpon His Maiesties Letters taken and divulged 172 22. Vpon His Maiesties leaving Oxford and going to the Scots 178 23. Vpon the Scots delivering the King to the English and his Captivity at Holmeby 183 24. Vpon their Denying his Maiesty the Attendance of his Chaplains 187 25. Penitentiall Meditations and Vowes in the Kings solitude at Holmeby p. 199 â—6 Vpon the Armies Surprisall of the King at Holmby and the ensuing distractions in the two houses the army and the City 204 27. To the Prince of Wales 213 28. Meditations upon Death after the Votes of Non-addresses and his Maiesties closer Imprisonment in Carisbrook Castle â—32 ΕΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ 1. Vpon His Maiesties calling this last Parliament THis last Parliament I called not more by others advice and necessity of My affairs then by my owne choice and inclination who have alwayes thought the right way of Parliaments most â—afe for my Crown and best pleasing to My People And although I was not forgetfull of â—hose sparks which some mens distempers forâ—erly studied to kindle in Parliaments which â—y forbearing to convene for some yeares I â—oped to have extinguished yet resolving with â—y selfe to give all just satisfaction to modest â—nd sober desires and to redresse all pubâ—que greivances in Church and State I hoped â—y My freedome and their moderation to preâ—ent all misunderstandings and miscariages in â—is In which as I feared affaires would meet â—ith some passion and prejudice in other men â—o I resolved they should finde least of them in â—y selfe not doubting but by the weight of Reason I should counterpoise the over-ballancings of any factions I was indeed sorry to hear with what partiality and popular heat Elections were carried in many places yet hoping that the gravity and discretion of other Gentlemen would allay and fix the Commons to a due temperament guiding some mens wel-meaning zeal by such rules of moderation as are best both to preserve and restore the health of all States and Kingdomes No man was better pleased with the convening of this Parliament then My selfe who knowing best the largenesse of My owne Heart toward My peoples good and just contentment pleased my selfe most in that good and firmâ— understanding which would hence grow between Me and My people All Jealousies being laid aside My owne anâ— my Children Interests gave me many obligations to seek and preserve the love and welfare oâ— my Subjects The only temporall blessing thaâ— is left to the ambition of just Monarchs as theiâ— greatest honour and safety next Gods protection I cared not to lessen my self in some thing of my wonted prerogative since I knew I coulâ— be no loser if I might gain but a recompenâ— in My Subjects affections I intended not only to obliege My Friends bâ— Mine Enemies also exceeding even the desire of those that were factiously discontented â— they did but pretend to any modest and sobeâ— sense The odium and offences which some mens rigour or remissness in Church State had contracted upon my Government I resolved to have expiated by such Laws regulations for the future as might not only rectifie what was amisse in practise but supply what was defective in the constitution No man having a greater zeal to see Religion setled in Unity and Order than My selfe whom it most concernes both in piety and policy as knowing that no flames of civill dissentions are more dangerous then those which make Religious pretensions the grounds of Factions I resolved to reform what I should by free and full advice in Parliament be convinced to be amisse and to grant whatever My Reason Conscience told me was fit to be desired I wish I had kept my selfe within those bounds and not suffered My own Iudgement to have been over-born in some things more by others
Cannon know any respect of Persons In vaine is My Person excepted by a Parenthesis of words when so many hands are armed against Me with Swords God knowes how much I have studied to seâ— what ground of Justice is alledged for this Wa against Me that so I might by giving just satisfaction either prevent or soone end so unnaturall a motion which to many men seemâ— rather the productions of a surfeit of peace anâ— wantonnesse of minds or of private discontents Ambition and Faction which easily find o make causes of quarrell then any reall obstructions of publick Justice or Parliamentary Priviledge But this is pretended and this I must be abâ— to avoid and answer before God in My owâ— Conscience however some men are not wiâ—ling to believe Me lest they should condemâ— themselves VVhen I first with drew from White-hall â— see if I could allay the insolency of the Tumulâ— of the not suppressing of which no account i Reason can be given where an orderly Guaâ— was granted but only to oppresse both Mine aâ— the Two Houses freedome of declaring and voting according to every mans Conscience whâ— obstructions of Justice were there further the this that what seemed just to one man might nâ— seeme so to another VVhom did I by powâ— protect against the Justice of Parliament That some men withdrew who feared tâ— partiality of their tryal warned by My Loâ— of Straffords death while the vulgar threatned to be their Oppressors and Judgers of their judges was from that instinct which is in all creatures to preserve themselves If any others refused to appear where they evidently saw the cur rent of Iustice freedom so stopped and troubled by the Rabble that their lawfull Judges either durst not come to the houses or not declare their sense with liberty safety it cannot seem strange to any reasonable man when the sole exposing them to publick odium was enough to ruine them before the cause could be heard or tryed Had not factious Tumults overborn the Freedom and Honour of the two Houses had they asserted their Iustice against them made the way open for all the Members quietly to come and declare their Consciences I know no man so dear to Me whom I had the least inclination to advise either to withdraw himselfe or deny appearing upon their summons to whose sentence according to Law I think every Subject bound to stand Distempers indeed were risen to so great a height for want of timely repressing the vulgar insolencies that the greatest guilt of those which were Voted demanded as Delinquents was this That they would not suffer themselves o be over-aw'd with the Tumults and their Paâ—ons nor compelled to abet by their suffrages â—r presence the designs of those men who agiated innovations and ruine both in Church â—â—ate In this point I could not but approve their generous constancy and catiousnesse further then this I did never allow any mans refractorinesse against the Priviledges and Orders of the Houses to whom I wished nothing more then Safety Fulnesse and Freedom But the truth is some men and those not many despairing in fair and parliamentary ways by free deliberations and Votes to gain the concurrence of the Major part of Lords and Commonâ— betook themselves by the desperate activity o factious Tumults to sift and terrifie away aâ— those Members whom they saw to be of contrary minds to their purposes How oft was the businesse of the Bishops enjoying their Ancient places and undoubted Priviledges in the House of Peers carried for theâ— by far the Major part of Lords Yet after fiâ— repulses contrary to all Order and Custome â— was by tumultuary instigations obtruded again and by a few carried when most of the Peeâ— were forced to absent themselvs In like manner was the Bill against Root aâ— Branch brought on by tumultuary Clamours â— schismaticall Terrours which could never pasâ— till both houses were sufficiently thinned aâ— over-awed To which Partiality while in all reâ—son Justice and Religion My conscience forbâ— Me by consenting to make up their Votes â— Acts of Parliament I must now be urged wiâ— an Army and constrained either to hazard M owne and My Kingdoms ruins by My Defence or prostrate My Conscience to the blind obedience of those men whose zealous superstition thinks or pretends they cannot do God and the Church a greater service than utterly to destroy that Primitive Apostolicall and anciently Universall Government of the Church by Bishops Which if other mens Iudgements bind them to maintaine or forbids them to consent to the abolishing of it Mine much more who besides the grounds I have in My Iudgement have also a most strikt and indispensable Oath upon My Conscience to preserve that Order and the Rights of the Church to which most Sacrilegious and abhorred Perjury most un-beseeming a Christian King should I ever by giving My consent be betrayed I should account it infinitely greater misety then any hath or can befall Me in as much as the least sinne hath more evill in it then the greatest affliction Had I gratified their Anti-episcopall Faction at first in this point with My consent and sacrificed the Ecclesiasticall Government and Revenues to the fury of their covetousnesse ambition and Revenge I believe they would then have found no colourable necessity of raising an Army to fetch in and punish Delinquents That I consented to the Bill of putting the Bishops out of the House of Peers was done with a firme perswasion of their contentednâ— to suffer a present diminution in their Rights and Honour for My sake and the Common weals which I was confident they would readily yeeld unto rather then occasion by the leaâ— obstruction on their part any dangers to Me o to My Kingdome That I cannot adde My consent for the totall extirpation of that Government which I have often offered to all fit regulations hath so much further tie upon My Conscience as what I think Religious and Apostolicall and so very Sacred and Divine as no to be dispensed with or destroyed when what â— only of civill Favor and priviledge of Honoâ— granted to men of that Order may with theâ— consent who are concerned in it be annuâ— led This is the true state of those obstruction pretended to be in point of Justice and Authority of Parliament when I call God to witneâ— I knew none of such consequence as was wort speaking of a VVarre being only such as Jâ—stice Reason and Religion had made in My ow and ther mens Consciences Afterwards indeed a great shew of Delinquents was made which were but consequeâ—ces necessarily following upon Mine or other withdrawing from or defence against viâ—lence but those could not be the first occasion of raising an Army against Me. VVherein was so far from preventing them as the have declared often that they might seeme to have the advantage and Justice of the defensive part and load Me with all the envy injuries of first assaulting them
Tumult and Faction for their rise must not go alone but ever be backt and seconded with Armies of Souldiers Though the second should prevaile against My Person yet the first shall never overcome Me further than I see cause for I look not at their number and power so much as I weigh their Reason and Justice Had the two Houses first sued out their livery and once effectually redeemed themselves from the Wardship of the Tumults which can be no other than the Hounds that attend the cry and hollow of those Men who hunt after Factious and private Designes to the ruine of Church and State Did my judgement tell Me that the Proposions sent to Me were the Results of the Major part of their votes who exercise their freedome as well as they have a right to sit in Parliliament I should then suspect My own judgement for not speedily fully concurring with every one of them For I have charity enough to think there are wise men among them and humility to think that as in some things I may want so t is fit I should use their advise which is the end for which I called them to a Parliament But yet I cannot allow their wisdom such a compleatnesse and inerrability as to exclude My self since none of them hath that part to Act that Trust to discharge nor that Estate and Honour to preserve as My self without whose Reason concurrent with theirs as the Suns influence is necessary in Nallatures productions they cannot beget or bring forth any one compleat and authoritative Act of publick wisdom which makes the Laws But the unreasonablenesse of some Propositions not is more evident to Me than this is That they are not the joynt and free desires of those in their Major number who are of right to Sit and Vote in Parliament For many of them savour very strong of that old leaven of Innovations masked vnder the name of Reformation which in my two last famous Predecessours daies heaved at and sometime threatned both Prince and Parliaments But I am sure was never wont so farre to infect the whole masse of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdome however it dispersed among the vulgar Nor was it likely so suddenly to taynt the Major part of both Houses as that they should unanimously desire and affect so enormous and dangerous innovations in Church State contrary to their former education practice and judgement Not that I am ignorant how the choice of many Members was carried by much faction in the Countryes some thirsting after nothing more than a passionate revenge of what ever displeasure they had conceived against me my Court or the Clergy But all reason bids me impute these sudden and vast desires of change to those few who armed themselves with the many-headed and many handed Tumults No lesse doth Reason Honour and Safety both of Church and State command me to chew such morsells before I let them down If the straitnes of my coscience will not give me leave to swallow down such Camels as others do of sacriledg injustice both to God man they have no more cause to quarrell withme than for this that my throat is not so wide as theirs Yet by Gods help I am resolved That nothing of passion or peevishnesse or list to contradict or vanity to shew my negative power shal have any byas upon my judgement to make me gratifie my will by denying any thing which my Reason and Conscience commands me not Nor on the other side will I consent to morâ— than Reason Justice Honour and Religion perswade me to be for Gods glory the Churches good my Peoples welfare and my own peace I will study to satisfie my Parliament and my People but I wil never for feare or flattery gratifie any Faction how potent soever for this were to nourish the disease oppres the body Although many mens loyalty and prudence are terrified from giving me that free and faithfull counsell which they are able and willing to impart and I may want yet none can hindeâ— me from craving the counsell of that mighty Counsellour who can both suggest what is best and incline my heart stedfastly to follow it O thou first and eternall Reason whose wisdomâ— is fortified with omnipotency furnish thy Servant first with cleare discoveries of Truth Reason anâ— Iustice in My understanding then so confirme My will and resolution to adheere to them that no terrours Iniuries or oppressions of my Enemies may ever inforce me against those rules whicâ— thou by them hast planted in My Conscience Thou never madest me a King that I should 〈◊〉 lesse then a Man and not dare to say Yea or Naâ— as I see cause which freedom is not denied to thâ— meanest creature that hath the use of Reason anâ— liberty of speech Shall that be blameable in Me which is commendable veracity and constancy in others Thou seest O Lord with what partiality anâ— iniustice they deny that freedom to me their KING which Thou hast given to all Men which Themselves pertinaciously challenge to themselves while they are so tender of the least breach of their priviledges To thee I make my supplication who canst guide us by an unerring rule through the perplexed labyrinths of our own thought and other mens proposalls which I have some cause to suspect are purposely cast as snares that by My granting or denying them I might be more eutangled in those difficultyes wherewith they lie in wayt to afflict Me. O Lord make thy way playn before Me. Let not my own sinfull passions cloud or divert thy sacred suggestions Let thy glory be my end thy word my rule and then thy will be done I cannot please all I care not to please some men If I may be happy to please thee I need not fear whom I displease Thou that makest the wisdome of the world foolishnesle and takest in their own devices such as are wise in their own conceits make Me wise by thy truth for thy Honour my Kingdomes generall good and my own soules salvation and J shall not much regard the worlds opinion or diminution of me The lesse wisdome they are willing to impute to me the more they shall be convinced of thy wisedome directing me while I deny nothing fit to be granted out of crosseness or humour nor grant any thing which is to be denied out of any feare oâ— flattery of men Suffer me not to be guilty or unhappy by willing or inconsiderate advancing any mens designes which are iniurious to the publique good while confirme them by my consent Nor let me be any occasion to hinder or defrauâ— the publique of what is best by any morose or perverse dissentings Make me so humbly charitable as to follow their advise when it appears to be for the publique good of whose affections to me I have yet but few evidences to assure Me. Thou canst as well blesse honest errours as blâ—â— fraudulent counsells Since we must give
to in their opinion as too great a fixednes in that Religion whose judicious solid grounds both from Scripture and Antiquity wil not give My Conscience leave to approve or consent to those many dangerous and divided Innovations which the bold Ignorance of some men would needs obtrud upon me my people Contrary to those well tried foundations both of Truth and Order 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 or 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 fameness of duty Allegiance and subjection The first they owe 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 entertaine in their service who find most fault with me without any scruple as to the diversity of 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 King to a necessary use of Papists or any other who did but their duty to help Me to defend My selfe Nor did I more than is lawfull for any King in such exigents to use the aid of any his Subjects I am sorry the Papists should have a greater sense of their Allegiance than many Protestant professors who seem to have learned to practise the worst principles of the worst Papists Indeed it had bin 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 Councellours 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 counsel 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 down then a draught which might be fairly and leisurely drank if I liked it I will not justifie beyond humane errours and frailties My selfe or My Counsellours They might be subject to some miscariages yet such as were far more reparable by second and better thoughts than those enormous extravagances where with some men have now even wil dred 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 Couucels 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 State in three flourishing Kingdomes to such a Chaos of confusions and Hell of miseries as some have done out of which they cannot or will not in the midst of their many great advantages redeeme either Me or My Subjects No men were more willing to complaine than I was to redresse what I saw in Reason was either done or advised amisse and this I thonght 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 releive my Subjects 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 withall hath deprived all those now so zealous Persecutors both of the comfort reward of their former pretended persecutions wherein they so much gloryed 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 Crowne of christian Patience which attends humble injured sufferers Another artifice used to withdraw My Peoples affections from Me to their designes was The noise and ostentation of liberty which men are not more prone to desire then unapt to bear in the popular sense which is to do what every man likes best If the Divinest liberty be to will what men should to do what they so will according to Reason Lawes and Religion I envy not My subjects that Liberty which is all I desire to enjoy My self So far am I from the desire of oppressing theirs Nor were those Lords 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 Peers and People wil never desire greater freedoms then the Laws alow whose bounds good men count their Ornament protection others their Menacles and Opression Nor is it just any man should expect the reward benefit of the Law who despiseth its rule and direction losing justly his safety while he seeks an unreasonable liberty Time will best inform my Subjects that those are the best preserver of their true liberties who allow themselves the least licentiousness against or beyond the Laws They will feele it at last to their cost that it is impossible those men should be really tender of their fellow-Subjects libertyes who have the hardinesse to use their King with so severe restraint against all Laws both Divine and Humane under which yet I wil rather perish then complain to those who want nothing to compleat their mirth and triumph but such musick In point of true consciencious tendernes attended with humility and meeknes not with proud arrogant activity which seeks to hatch every Egge of different opinion to a Faction or Schisme I have oft declared how little I desire My Laws 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 liberty to break the Law established further then with meeknes and patience they are content to suffer the penalties
all men in their own case esteem injurious unreasonable as being against the very natural and essentiall liberty of our souls yet it should be invalid and to be broken in another clause wherein I think my self justly obliged both to God Man Yet upon this Rack chiefly have I been held so long by some mens ambitious covetousnesse and Sacrilegious Cruelty torturing with Me both Church and State in Civill dissentions till I shall be forced to consent and declare that I doe approve what God knowes I utterly dislike and in My Soul abhorre as many wayes highly against Reason Justice and Religion and whereto If I should shamefully and dishonourably give My consent yet should I not by so doing satisfie the divided Interests and Opinions of those Parties which contend with each other as well as both against Me and Episcopacy Nor can My late condesending 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 judgement best I may not think so absolutly necessary for all places and at all times If any shall impute My yeelding 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 yeelding to them bin 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 Order Charity and Loyalty in those that pretend to other modes of Government I might suspect My judgement to be biased or fore-stalled with some prejudice wontednes 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 paterns are so cryed up and obtruded upon the Churches under My Dominion that either Learning or Religion works of Piety or Charity have so flourished beyond what they have done in My Kingdomes by Gods blessing which might make me beleive 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 far better to hold to primitive uniform 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 affairs should be managed neither with tyranny purity nor popularity neither Bishops ejected nor Presbiters despised nor People oppressed And in this integrity both of My judgment 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 Protector of thy Church so susser me not by any violence to be overborn against My Conscience Arise O Lord maintaine thine own 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 thâ— Revenues of the Church became the obiect 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 pitty 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 Censcience 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 iust permission thus to let in the wilde Boar and subtill Foxes to wast and deforme thy Vineyard which thy right hand hath planted and the dew of Heaven so long watred to a happy and flourishing estate O let me not bear the infamous brand to all Posterity of being the the first Christian KING in this Kingdom who should consent to the oppressions of thy Church and the fathers of it whose errours I would rather with Constantine cover with silence and reform 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 hoth 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 time 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 thy salvation even before 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 yeeld 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 was very unwillingly compelled to defend My self with Arms so I very willingly embraced any thing tending to peace The events of all War by the sword being very dubious and of a Civill VVarre uncomfortable the end had hardly recompencing late repairing the mischief of the means Nor did any successe I had ever enhance with Me the price of Peace as earnestly desired by Me as any man though I was like to pay dearer for it then 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 hapdy
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 disease and some Comforters more miserable then misery it selfe when like Jobs 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 sacred 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 owne 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 judgement 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 own understanding or belying his own soule In Devotions I love neither profane boldnesse nor pious non-sense but such an humble and judicious gravity as shewes the Speaker to be at once considerate 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 Prayers as are fitted to the Churches and every Christians daily and common necessities because I am by them better assured what I may joyne 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 equall 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 certaine rule and Canon of devotion be able to follow or find out the indirect extravagances 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 railing 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 do not approve It may be I am esteemed by my Denyers sufficient of My self 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 will become the same Person as anciently they were under one name and the united rights of primogeniture Nor could I follow better presidents if I were able than those â—wo 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 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 Souls to Gods Church by the Word than to conquer men to a subjection by the Sword Yet since the order of Gods wisdome providence hath for the most part alwayes distinguished the gifts and offices of Kings of Priests of Princes and Preachers both in the Jewish Christian Churches I am sorry to find My self 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 â—o live many Months without all Prayers Sacraments and Sermons unlesse I become My owne Chaplain 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 looke upon as more prevalent than My own or other mens by how much they flow from minds more enlightned affections lesse distracted than those which are uncombred with secular affairs besides I think a greater blessing and acceptablenesse attends those duties which are rightly performed as proper to 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 Sonl is â—ubject to Christ and through his merits daily offers it self and its services to God every private believer is a King Preist invested with tbe 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 always bred to more modest and I think more pious principles the consciousnesse to My Spirituall defects makes me more prize desire those pious assistances which holy and good Ministers either Bishops or Presbyters may afford Me especially in these extremities to which God hath bin 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 means afforded Me for My Soules comfort and support To which end I
they know not what they did The teares they have denied me in my saddest condition give them grace to bestow upon themselves who the lesse they were for me the more cause they have to weep for themselves O let not my bloud be upon them and their Children whom the fraud and faction of some not the malice of all have excited to crucifie Me. But thou O Lord canst and wilt as thou dist my Redeemer both exalt and perfect me by my sufferings which have more in them of thy mercy then of mans cruelty or thy owne Iustice Natus May 29 An o 1630 AEtatis â— 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 cheif passages which hath 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 like for time to come It is some kind of deceiving and lessening the injury of my long restraint when I find My leisure 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 Judgement of things by My misfortunes which I count the greater by far because they have so farr 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 wisdome you have above other Princes that you have begunne and now spent some years 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 borne and by providence designed The evidence of which different education the holy VVrit affords us in the contemplation of David and Rehoboham The one prepared by many afflictions for a flourishing Kingdome the other unsoftned 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 could weather drives away I had rather you should be Charles Le Bon then le Grand good then great I hope God hath designed you to 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 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 pullest down one and setteth up another The best Government highest Sove raignty 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 publike Peace Piety will make you prosperous at least it wil keep you from being miserable nor is he much a loser that looseth all yet saveth his own Soul 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 bin 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 phisick having that in healthfulnesse which it wants in pleasure Above all I would have you as I hope you are already well-grounded 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 Iudgement and Reason now seal to that sacred bond which education hath written that it may be judiciously your owne Religion and not other mens custome or tradition which you professe In this I charge you to persevere as comming nearest to Gods VVord for Doctrine and to the primitive examples for Government with soms little amendment which I have otherwhere expressed and often offered though in vaine Your fixation in matters of Religion will not be more necessary for your soule then your Kingdoms peace when God shall bring you to them For I have observed that the Divell of Rebellion doth commonly turne himselfe 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 settled you shall never want temptations to destroy you and yours under pretensions of forming matters of Religion for that seemes even to worst men as the best and most auspicious beginning of their worst designes VVhere besides the Novelty which is taking enough with the Vulgar every one hath an affection by seeming forward to an outward Reformation of Religion to be thought zealous hoping to cover those irreligious deformities whereto they are conscious by severity 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 loseth you in others who think themselves and their profession first despised then persecuted by you Take such a course as may either with calmnesse and charity quite remove the seeming differences and offences by impartiality or so order affairs in point of Power that you shall not need to feare or flatter any Faction For if ever you stand in need of them or must stand to their curtesie you are undone The Serpent will devour the Dove you may never expect lesse of loyalty justice or humanity
consent without tyranny or Tumults We must not starve our selves because some men have surfeited of wholsome food And if neither I nor You be ever restored to Our Rights but God in his severest justice will 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 and You that grace which will teach and enable Vs to want as well as to weare a Crowne which is not worth taking up or enjoying upon sordid dishonourable and irreligious terms Keep you to true principles of piety virtue and honour you shall never want a Kingdom 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 beene a meanes to blesse 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 is what ever becomes of Me who am I thank God wrapt up and fortified in My owne 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 Iustice piety and valour of what the folly and wickednesse of some mâ—n have so farre ruined as to leave nothing entire in Church or State to the Crowne 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 crie 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 judgements 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 satisfyed with the blessings of Your presence 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 beleive 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 do you performe when God shall give You power much good I have offered more I purposed to church and State if times had been capable of it The deception will soon vanish and the Vizards 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 fought 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 their infelicity And if 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 only 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 Crown 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 Maiesties Closer Jmprisonment in Carisbrooke-Castle AS I have leisure enough so I have cause more than enough to meditate upon prepare for My Death for I know there are but few steps between the Prisons and grave 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 burden of mortality 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 lives 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 alwayes uncertain Death being an eclipse which oft happineth as well in clear as cloudy dayes 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 terrours of it are dispelled and the speciall horour 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 cruel and implacable enemies can put upon it affaires being drawne 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 eith er pulled them out or given Me the Antidote of his death against them which as to the immaturity unjustice shame scorn and cruelty of it exceeded what ever I can fear 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 to 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 dye 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 christians life to dye daily in conquering by a lively faith and patient hopes of a better life those partiall and quotidian deaths which kills us as it were by peicemeales and make us over-live our own FATES while we are deprived of health
that degree of Honour and Majesty which becomes the Place in which thou hast set me who art the lifter up of my head and my salvation Lord by thy grace lead me to thy Glory which is both true and eternall 22. Vpon His Majesties leaving Oxford and going to the Scots ALthough God hath given Me three Kingdomes yet in these he hath noâ— now left me any place where I may witâ— Safety and Honour rest my Head Shewing me that himselfe is the fafest Refuge and the strongest Tower of defence in which I may put my Trust In these extremities I look not to man so much as to God He will have it thus that I may wholly cast my self and my now distressed affaires upon his mercy who hath both hearts and hands of all men in his dispose What providence denies to Force it may grant to Prudence Necessity is now my Counsellour and commands me to study my safety by a disguised withdrawing from my chiefest strength and adventuring upon their Loyalty who first began my Troubles Happily God may make them a means honourably to compose them This my confidence of Them may dis-arme and overcome them my rendring my Person to them may engage their affections to me who have oft professed They â—ought not against me but for me I must now resolve the riddle of their Loyalty and give them opportunity to let the world see they mean not what they do but what they say Yet must God be my chiefest Guard and My Conscience both My Counsellour and My Comforter Though I put my Body into their hands yet I shall reserve my Soule to God and my selfe nor shall any necessity compell me to desert mine Honour or swerve from my Judgement What they sought to take by force shall now be given them in such a way of unusuall confidence of them as may make them ashamed not to be really such as they ought and professed to be God sees it not enough to deprive me of all Military power to defend my self but to put me upon using their power who seem to fight against me yet ought in duty to defend me So various are all humane affaires and so necessitous may the state of Princes be that their greatest danger may be in their supposed safety and their safety in their supposed danger I must now leave those that have adhered to me and apply to those that have opposed me this method of Peace may be more prosperous than that of Warre both to stop the effusion of bloud and to close those wounds already made and in it I am no lesse solicitous for My Friends safety than mine owne chusing to venture my selfe upon further hazards rather then expose their resolute Loyalty to all extremities It is some skill in play to know when a game is lost better fairly to give over than to contest in vaine I must now study to re-inforce my judgement and fortifie my mind with Reason and Religion that I may not seem to offer up my Soules liberty or make my Conscience their Captive who ought at first to have used arguments not Armes to have perswaded my consent to their new demands I thank God no successe darkens or disguises Truth to me and I shall no lesse conforme my words to my inward dictates now than if they had been as the words of a KING ought to be among loyall Subjects full of power Reason is the divinest power I shall never think my selfe weakned while I may make full and free use of that No eclipse of outward fortune shall rob me of that light what God hath denied of outward strength his grace I hope will supply with inward resolutions not morosely to deny what is fit to be granted but not to grant any thing which Reason and Religion bids me deny I shall never think my self lesse than my self while I am able thus to preserve the Integrity of my Conscience the onely Jewell now left me which is worth keeping O thou Soveraigne of our Soules the onely Commander of our Consciences though I know not what to do yet mine eyes are toward thee To the protection of thy mercy I still commend my self As thou hast preserved me in the day of Battaile so thou canst still shew me thy strength in my weaknesse Be thou unto me in my dâ—rkest night a pillar of fire to enlighten and direct me in the day of my hottest affliction be also a pillar of cloud to overshadow and protect me be to me both a Sun and a Shield Thou knowest that it is not any perversenesse of will but just perswasions of Honor Reason and Religion which have made me thus far to hazard my Person Peace and Safety against those that by force have sought to wrest them from Mee Suffer not my just resolutions to abate with my outward Forces let a good conscience alwayes accompany me in my solitude and desertions Suffer me not to betray the powers of Reason and that fortresse of my soule which I am intrusted to keep for thee Lead me in the paths of thy righteousnesse and shew me thy salvation Make my wayes to please thee and then thou wilt make mine Enemies to be at peace with me 23. Vpon the Scots delivering the KING to the English and his Captivity at Holmeby YEt may I justifie those Scots to all the world in this that they have not deceived me for I never trusted to them further than to men If I am sold by them I am onely sorry they should doe it and that my price should be so much above my Saviours These are but further Essaies which God will have me make of mans uncertainty the more to fix me on himselfe who never faileth them that trust in him Though the Reeds of Aegypt break under the hand of him that leanes on them yet the Rock of Israel will be an everlasting stay and defence Gods providence commands me to rerire from all to himself that in him I may enjoy my selfe which I lose while I let out my hopes to others The solitude and captivity to which I am now reduced gives me leisure enough to study the worlds vanity and inconstancy God sees 't is fit to deprive me of Wife Children Army Friends and Freedom that I may be wholly his who alone is all I care not much to be reckoned among the Unfortunate if I be not in the black List of irreligious and sacrilegious Princes No Restraint shall ensnare my soul in sinne nor gaine that of me which may make my Enemies more insolent my Friends ashamed or my Name accursed They have no great cause to triumph that they have got my Person into their power since my Soule is still my owne nor shall they ever gaine my Consent against my Conscience What they call obstinacy I know God accounts honest constancy from which Reason and Religion as well as Honour forbid me to recede 'T is evident now that it was not evill Counsellours with me but a