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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	act_n	king_n	parliament_n	3,554	5	6.8839	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30965	The speeches, discourses, and prayers, of Col. John Barkstead, Col. John Okey, and Mr. Miles Corbet, upon the 19th of April being the day of their suffering at Tyburn : together with an account of the occasion and manner of their taking in Holland : as also of their several occasional speeches, discourses, and letters, both before, and in the time of their late imprisonment : faithfully and impartially collected for a general satisfaction.; Selections. 1662	Barkstead, John, d. 1662.; Okey, John, d. 1662. Selections. 1662.; Corbet, Miles, d. 1662. Selections. 1662.	1662 (1662)	Wing B817; ESTC R22773	95,595	102

Stations and to what God hath called them and so serve God and their Countrey and let them not be afraid And I think it is the honour of good Christians and of good People to be obedient to the Government they are under and to uphold it to the uttermost I have not much more to say If any man hath done me any wrong as I perceived when we came along some peoples tongues were against us I pray God forgive them I desire not to open my mouth against any of those Reproaches we met with Some I perceived did express their love and their love to my soul and I hope God will hear their Prayers And while we are in the Land of the Living I shall desire to do as we have done since his Majesty came unto the Government When we were in Holland we did pray for the King and the Government and desired of the Lord that they might settle Peace in the Nation which if we love our Countrey we ought to rejoyce in and our private interests must give way to it And truly I shall desire even from my very soul that if any man here or elsewhere hath wronged me that the Lord would forgive them And truly the Court of Justice that past their Judgement upon us as the Law stands I think did according to their Places And if we may have liberty in a few words to commend our selves to God I shall trouble you no further And I thank you for your Civility Then Collonel Okey spake a few words as followeth Mr. Sheriff Col. Okey I will not trouble you with any thing that he hath said something of which I thought to speak as to my own Judgement But this I would leave among you that live in the land of the living I have been in most Reformed places where they call themselves Protestants but I must tell you there is a great deal of difference between their Ministers and the Ministers that be in England and so of their Professors And therefore as God hath given you such Ministers as scarce any other Nation hath besides so that you would honour and respect them as also those that are Professors and godly People not such as have a shew only but those that are really such that you would countenance them and honour them for as for Ministers and People that live according to the Word I think there is not such again in the World as are to be found in these Nations I shall add one word further I was as near as I can reckon a Major and Colonel sixteen years in the Army I only speak that because I have a word to say to another thing I do not know whose Ox or whose Ass I took away in that sixteen years time and if I have done any man any wrong I hope and desire they wil forgive me as one that had many failings And whoever hath proceeded against my Life either in England or Holland for there was one who formerly was my Chaplain that did pursue me to the very death where I remained but two nights and was going back again for I had done my business But both him and all others upon the Earth I forgive as freely as I desire the Lord to forgive me I have no malice either to Judge or Jury but desire that the Lord would forgive them as also those in Holland that sent us over contrary to what they did engage to my Friends We will say nothing of them but pray God that our blood may not be laid to their charge nor to the charge of any in England Then Col. Barkstead addressed himself to speak as followeth Colonel Barkstead's Speech Mr. Sheriff I Shall as near as I can observe your order and not willingly do any thing that shall give offence I must confess the weakness of my body is such which hath not been of a day but of a long time that it will not give me liberty to speak much and I have had this advantage that my Brethren have spoken before me and were I to speak at large I must speak over the same things which they have spoken already and I am unwilling to trouble you with that because you said your time was overslipt and therefore I shall only speak to the Cause as it was at first stated and I hope without offence we may say something to that so far as the Acts of Parliament have sealed it up or rather left it open Truly therein I did engage very freely at the beginning of the War for King and Parliament and in the place to which I was chosen I bless the Lord he made me faithfull to those I served as to what hath been since that I shall forbear to speak to only in the general say That before and since I came into this late trouble I have begged of the Lord to give me a sight of all my sins and shew me a Pardon in the blood of Jesus Christ which through free grace and mercy I can say the Lord hath done I could not have stood with so much Comfort as I do now at this time if he had not given me an assurance of the Pardon of all my sins and where he hath spoken Peace there is none can speak War or Trouble I conceive it not proper to give you here an account of my Faith for if I should I should go very little aside from my Brethren that have spoken before me that which hath been my Judgment and my Practice hath been the Congregational way I must own that and do I should much rejoyce to see a spirit answering that great Mercy that the Lord hath given to this Nation I mean that great Mercy that he hath bestowed in giving them the Gospel and that in such a manner as truly we though we have been some hundreds and thousands of miles among the Protestants abroad yet I do not know it to be so pure as it is in this Isle blessed be the Lord and I hope to the Nation of England the Lord will give hearts to walk accordingly And as to the business of the Government of this Nation as it now stands I have prayed for it and can pray for it and shall as long as I have breath pray for it and do from my soul desire that the Lord would bless the King and give him a heart to rule for Him and his Glory and then I am sure the Lord will prosper him Indeed as to those that fear the Lord in the Nation I could wish that the Lord would settle them and make them of one mind but that is the work of the Lord and it must lye there and truly He will do it in his time I must confess I speak the rather to that because there hath formerly been something acted by me towards persons that were not of my Judgment which I have seen since was very hard and I bless God I have seen it and have been sorry for it and

by it in no other sense and upon no other 〈◊〉 but in order unto that or at least-wise no further then wi●l or can cons●st with that hath not the whole frame and ●onnexion of it a most apparent dependance upon and reference to the Religion aforesaid and if things be duely exami●● and the Reader will but take pains to search into the followin● Scriptures shal he not there find that the Covenanted Reformations of Hezekiah in 2 Chron. chap. 29 and 30. and of Josiah in the same 2 Chron. chapters 34 and 35. and of Ezra chap. 9 and 10. and of Nehemiah chap. 9. and 10 were not more holy nor Solemn in the matter of them then this our very Solemn League and Covenant And whereas it is farther said that it was unlawfully imposed and by an unlawful Power unjustly forced and therefore not obliging We Answer to this also when it was first taken men did not say so nor did the Generality or Body of the three Nations think so whatever some particular and otherwise interested persons might and we say further too that all the force used that we know of or can remember were only arguments and convictive discourses either from Prints or Pulpits This means indeed was used strongly urged and pressed upon peoples consciences and by those very men too chiefly that while it was burned to ashes were altogether silent in the defence of it a sin which we pray God to give them Repentance and Pardon for But if this Objection had any weight in it as indeed it hath not so long as the matter of the Covenant is good and the great God is now attested by them that took it and thereby indispensably obliged to God by it do not some of the Bishops themselves Dr. Sanderson by name hold it binding notwithstanding the pretended force of it But what need we trouble our selves with Arguments for this from the concession of mens since God himself pleads this very cause so irrefragably as he doth both in the case of the Gibeonites whose Covenant though gotten by fraud as is most apparent in the 9 of Joshua yet the breach of it was sharply revenged many years after in 2 Sam. 21. And of Zedekiah whose Covenant was forced upon him against his will even by an Heathen Prince and yet because he brake it see how God breaks him in the 17. of Ezekiel Let not men think to escape from an Omnipotent and an angry God A God that alwayes hath avenged and still will avenge the quarrel of his Covenant Levit. 26.25 and is therefore called the Lord G●d of Recompens●s and the Lord God of recompenses that will surely requite Jerem. 51.56 and himself gives the reason for it more then once by the mouth of the same Prophet saying that it is the vengeance of the Lord the vengeance of his Temple Jerem. 50.28 51.11 Let our Sufferings therefore be what they will or can be we are sure it is for doing no more then what in our Places and Callings by this Covenant we were bound to do and that upon the utmost hazzard of our inward peace here and eternal happiness hereafter We are charged indeed with Disloyalty to our late Prince but as matters stood with us being thus engaged how could we have been Loyal to the King of Kings if we had not endeavoured at least to perform our vows to him If we were brought into this dilemma or double straight that we must necessarily come under the censure of Disloyalty either to God or the King we say with the Apostles in Acts 4.19 whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God Judge ye Some may think and perhaps may be ready enough to say it too that we dye like Fooles and have no sufficient warrant for our Sufferings But for our parts we are of another mind and hope shall be enabled to assert and seal it to the last drop of our blood And though for a time in the present heat of things men may insult over our mangled bodies as if by killing us they had got the victory and may triumph at the sight of our exalted Quarters yet when the eyes of people are throughly opened and they have been long enough wearied with the Miseries and Oppressions of all sorts which they have been so eagerly fond of and for want of due fore-sight have so hastily and violently precipitated themselves into they will have other thoughts and such of us as now passe for Murtherers and the vilest and most execrable that are too may perhaps be accounted worthy of the esteem of Martyres for what hath brought us to this we are now come to Is it not the same Cause upon the whole matter which all the three Nations owned and which some of us pleaded in Parliament and others of us fought for in the Field was it not for opposing and doing what we were able to remove and prevent for the future those very mischiefs as well in Civils as Ecclesiasticks which while we were in power could not break in upon us but now are returned more fiercely then ever even like a mighty Torrent that bears all before it Let all true English-men lay their hands upon their hearts let them remember and compare without passion and prejudice the last twenty years Injoyments with present times and things Though we had Armies then and Taxes upon the people yea though we deny not but there were some Vnusuall Actings and Irregular Proceedings arising inavoidably from the necessity and exigence of Affairs not from the choise or desires of those that were Actors in them Yet how great and invaluable were the Priviledges and Liberties which the people then enjoyed Were their Charters and Enfranchisments endangered as now they are Was their Trading ever so low even in the worst of those times as at this present Was their Pretious and Glorious Gospel extinguished or so much Eclipsed at least in the light of it Did poverty every where march so fast upon them even in that time of War as now it doth in our dayes of peace like an armed man Did we not flowrish at Home at least comparatively and were we not a terrour to enemies abroad Though there was not so due a care as should or might have been for the preventing of Divisions and uniting all just and good interests together a sin that is to be lamented and will be lamented yet was there ever such a Flood-gate opened to all impiety as now there is What prophanations of the Sabbaths are now found among us What vain and superstitious Worships What dreadful Apostacy What Teaching for Doctrines the precepts and inventions of men directly contrary to Christ and the Apostles Mat. 15.9 Colloss 2.20 to 23. What lewd and lawlesse-lives among all sorts of men and women What Chamberings and Wantonnesse What Riot and excesse What Drinking and Whoring What Swearing and Swaggering What Gaming and Revelling What Cursing and Damning

quiet night nor day for while on the one hand these carnal fears and disturbed thoughts pulled him from his duty so he called it yet on the other hand it pleased God more strongly to draw him to it by often bringing and setting home upon his heart that Scripture in Revel 21.8 The fearful and unbelieving shall have their part in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone This Text did so work and work in his mind and so powerfully prevail with him that though he had deferred to appear at the High Court of Justice till the very last day of the Tryal yet then he durst stay no longer but made haste to come in and sit among them come what would come of it in this world lest the aforesaid punishment of the fearful should hereafter for ever befall him And what he now did he said he did it with a free and resolved mind and he blessed God that had conquered his cowardly spirit and enabled him at last though late first to come in and do his part and in some measure to prove himself faithful and obedient to God's as well as the Nations Call herein And further said that upon the grounds before alledged if all that hath been done were to be acted over again he would do as he had done and would not abate an inch of it which words he spake with great soberness and setledness of mind but the very day before his Execution Lastly as to the whole business he said he could and did appeal to God the righteous Judge of all things that what he did as far as he could discern himself was not out of any ill spirit towards the late King's Person nor out of any the least malice or disaffection to him nor yet out of any unworthy end or design of his own for as to the said King's Lands or Goods or other publick Title he never desired nor endeavoured to get any of them but alwayes by good Providence kept himself free that neither himself nor any of his might grow rich or make the least advantage that way And as for that necessary and publick Act of Justice as he called it he did never repent at all that he had a hand in it nor after all the searchings of heart about it did see cause so to do when at any time he had the most serious and calm reflexions upon it though he did confess as to the circumstances of that Act the substance whereof he said he must alwayes own he had been compassed about with many sinful weaknesses and infirmities in the managing of it as he had before in part hinted which he hoped and believed were all washed away in the Blood of Christ. This is a careful and true Collection of what at several times he said about this business to several persons and more than once too and as near as possibly can be remembred in his own very words and syllables especially in those passages that are of the greatest weight To which let this expression of his be also added That what he had now lived to see in the late amazing Changes and over-flowing Wickednesses of all kinds rather to be trembled at than reckoned up did give no small confirmation and justification to those former Proceedings which are now so much condemned On Thursday night late when tydings were brought to him of his suffering the Saturday following some persons came to convince him of the Sin for which Execution was to pass upon him and to exhort him to Repentance aggravating the heinousness of it but the next morning he told his Friends that they left him as they found him not at all altered by what they had said in his opinion about that business which he said he had examined as thorowly as he could and believing that he had a good Warrant both from God and man for what he did he was satisfied as to that whatever others did judge of it here and therefore left it to be judged over again by the Righteous Judge of all at the last and great day He said he found no consternation of spirit at all upon him when he was before the Kings Bench Court Being asked how he had slept that night after such heavy newes To this he smilingly answered he blessed God he had slept well much after the rate as he used to do and that he found not any consternation or fear at all upon his spirit for it was no more he said than what he expected and as far as God was pleased to enable him had been preparing for A little after speaking of the Journey he was to take I am going saith he where all good souls would be glad to be The Terminus à quo the place I am going from is this present evil world even this evil world and if ever it were evil sure now it is and now more than ever so evil as I never thought to see it and the Terminus ad quem the place I am going to is Mount-Zion the City of the living God the living God saith he doubling and putting an Emphasis on that word Living and to the heavenly Jerusalem which he also repeated again putting the like Emphasis on the word Heavenly Ah! saith he this living God and this heavenly Jerusalem how sweet is the thought of it the God that I am going to is the living God the God that lives that still lives that lives alwayes whatever persons die or whatever Cause or Interest seems to die yet He lives and can make what he will to live yea and to live again too even after it hath lain for dead And the Jerusalem that He lives in is an heavenly Jerusalem an heavenly that hath nothing of earthliness no dross no corruption nothing of impurity weakness mutability or instability Ah! this heavenly Jerusalem Thus he descanted on the words and even fed upon them Then he proceeded after the same manner to what follows And to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven and to GOD the Judge of all the Judge of all repeating that word and to the Spirits of Just men made perfect and to JESUS the Mediator of the New Covenant which last words he staid long upon doubling and trebling them again and again and to the Blood of sprinkling which also he dwelt upon Seeming to speak all with a very great fervor and inward joy upon his heart Scarce an hour passed in the day wherein he did not touch upon this Scripture in discourse with such new Friends as still came in upon him it being the last whole day of his life When he saw the Room begin to fill for now none were restrained he said it comforted him to see the faces of so many Servants of Christ together and that they should express such love and tenderness as he perceived was in their hearts towards him and truly saith he I take it as a token