deceived and destroyed Nor can any mens malice be gratified further by my Letters than to see my constancie to my VVife the Lawes and Religion Bees will gather Honey where the Spider sucks Poison That I endeavour to avoid the pressures of my Enemies by all fair and just correspondencies no man can blame who loves me or the Common-wealth since my Subjects can hardly be happy if I be miserable or enjoy their peace and liberties while I am oppressed The world may see how soon mens designe like Absoloms is by enormous actions to widen differences and exasperate all sides to such distances as may make all reconciliation desperate Yet I thank God I can not only with patience bear this as other indignities but with Charity forgive them The integrity of my intentions is not jealous of any injury My expressions can doe them for although the confidence of privacy may admit greater freedome in writing such Letters which may be liable to envious exceptions yet the Innocency of my chief purposes cannot be so obtained or mis-interpreted by them as not to let all men see that I wish nothing more than an happy composure of differences with Justice and Honour not more to my own then my Peoples content who have any sparks of Love or Loyalty left in them who by those my Letters may be convinced that I can both mind and act my owne and My Kingdomes Affaires so as becomes a Prince which mine enemies have alwaies been very loath should be believed of me as if I were wholly confined to the Dictates and Directions of others whom they please to brand with the names of Evill Counsellours It 's probable some men will now look upon me as my owne Counsellour and having none else to quarrell with under that notion they will hereafter confine their anger to my selfe Although I know they are very unwilling I should enjoy the liberty of my own Thoughts or follow the light of my owne Conscience which they labour to bring into an absolute captivity to themselves not allowing me to think their Counsells to be other then good for me which have so long maintained a Warre against me The Victory they obtained that day when my Letters became their prize had been enough to have satiated the most ambitious thirst of popular glory among the Vulgar with whom prosperity gaines the greatest esteem and applause as adversity exposeth to their greatest slighting and dis-respect As if good fortuâ—e were alwaies the shadow of Vertue and Justice and did not oftner attend vitious and injurious actions as to this world But I see no secular advantages seem sufficient to that cause which began with Tumults and depends chiefly upon the reputation with the Vulgar They think no Victories so effectuall to their designes as those that most rout and waste my Credit with my People in whose hearts they seek by all meanes to smother and extinguish all sparks of Love Respect and Loyalty to me that they may never kindle againe so as to recover mine the Lawes and the Kingdomes Liberties which some men seek to overthrow The taking away of my Credit is but a necessary preparation to the taking away of my life and my Kingdomes First I must seem neither fit to live nor worthy to Reigne By exquisite methods of cunning and cruelty I must be compelled first to follow the Funeralls of my Honour and then be destroyed But I know Gods un-erring and impartiall justice can and will over-rule the most perverse wills and designes of men He is able and I hope will turn even the worst of mine enemies thoughts and actions to my good Nor doe I think that by the surprize of my Letters I have lost any more than so many Papers How much they have lost of that reputation for Civility and Humanity which ought to be pay'd to all men and most becomes such as pretend to Religion besides that of respect and Honour which they owe to their KING present and after-times will judge And I cannot think that their owne consciences are so stupid as not to inflict upon them some secret impressions of that shame and dishonour which attends all unworthy actions have they never so much of publique flattery and popular countenance I am sure they can never expect the divine approbation of such indecent actions if they doe but remember how God blest the modest respect and filâ—all tendernesse which Noahs Sons bare to their Father nor did his open infirmity justifie Chams impudency or exempt him from that curse of being Servant of Servants which curse must needs be on them who seek by dishonourable actions to please the Vulgar and confirme by ignoble acts their dependance upon the People Nor can their malicious intentions be ever either excusable or prosperous who thought by this meanes to expose me to the highest reproach and contempt of My People forgetting that duty of modest concealment which they owed to the Father of their Country in case they had disovered any reall uncomelinesse which I thank God they did not who can and I believe hath made me more respected in the hearts of many as he did David to whom they thought by publishing my private Letters to have rendred me as a vile Person not fit to be trusted or considered under any notion of Majesty But thou ô Lord whose wise and all-disposing providence ordereth the greatest contingences of humane affairs make me to see the constancy of thy mercies to me in the greatest advantages thou seemest to give the malice of my Enemies against me As thou didst blast the counsell of Achitophel â—urning it to Davids good and his own ruine so so canst thou defeat their designe who intended by publishing my private Letters nothing else but to under me more odious contemptible to my People I must first appeale to thy Omniscience who canst witnesse with my integrity how unjust and â—alse those scandalous misconstructions are which â—y Enemies endeavour by those Papers of mine to â—epresent to the world Make the evill they imagined and displeaâ—â—râ— they intended thereby against me so to 〈◊〉 on their owne heads that they may be ashamed and covered with their owne confusion as with a cloake Thou seest how mine Enemies use all means to cloud mine Honor to pervert my purposes and to slander the footsteps of thine Annointed But give me an heart content to be dishonoured for thy sake and thy Churches good Fix in me a purpose to honour thee and then I know thou wilt honour me either by restoring to me the injoyment of that Power and Majesty which thou hast suffered some men to seeke to deprive me of or by bestowing on me that crowne of Christian patience which knowes how to serve thee in honour or dishonour in good report or evill Thou O Lord art the fountain of goodnesse and honour thou art colathed with excellent Majesty make me to partake of thy excellency for wisdome justice and mercy and I shall not want
undermining their opinion value of Me My enemies and theirs too might at once blow up their affections and batter down their loyalty Wherein yet I thank God the detriment of My Honour is not so afflictive to Me as the sin and danger of My peoples souls whose eye once blinded with such mists of suspicions they are soon mis-led into the most desperate precipices of actions wherein they do not only not consider their sin and danger but glory in their zealous adventures while I am rendred to them so fit to be destroyed that many are ambitious to merit the name of My Destroyers imagining they then fear God most when they least honor their King I thank God I never found but My pity was above My anger nor have My passions ever so prevailed against Me as to exclude My most compassionate prayres for them whom devout errours more than their own malice have betraied to a most religious Rebellion I had the Charity to interpret that most paâ—â— of My Subjects fought against My supposed errours not My Person and intended to mend Me not to end Me And I hope that God pardoning their Errours hath so farre accepted and answered their good intentions that as he hath yet preserved Me so he hath by these afflictions prepared Me both to doe him better service and My people more good than hitherto I havâ—don I doe not more willingly forgive their seductions which occasioned their loyall injuries then I am ambitious by all Princely merits to redeem them from their unjust suspicions and reward them for their good intentions I am too conscious to My own Affections toward the generality of My people to suspect theirs to Me nor shall the malice of My Enemies ever be able to deprive Me of the comfort which that confidence gives Me I shall never gratifie the spightfulnesse of a few with any sinister thoughts of all their Allegiance whom pious frauds have seduced The worst some mens ambition can do shall never perswade Me to make so bad interpretations of most of My Subjects actions who possibly may be Erroneous but noâ— Hereticall in point of Loyaltie The sense of the Injuries done unto My Subjects is as sharp as those done to My selfe our welfares being inseparable in this onely they suffer more then My selfe that they are animated by some seducers to injure at once both themselves and Me. For this is not enough to the malice of My enemyes that I be afflicted but it must be don by such instruments that My afflictions grieve Me not more then this doth that I am afflicted by those whose prosperity I earnestly desire whose seduction I heartily deplore If they had been My open and forreign Enemies I could have born it but they must be My own Subjects who are next to My Children dear to Me And for the restoring of whose tranquility I could willingly be the Ionah If I did not evidently fore-see that by the divided Interests of their Mine enemies as by contrary winds the storm of their miseries would be rather encreased then allayed I had rather prevent my peoples ruine then rule over them nor am I so ambitious of that Dominion which is but My Right as of their happinesse if it could expiate or countervaile such a way of obtaining it by the highest injuries of Subjects committed against their Soveraign Yet I had rather suffer all the miseries of life and dy many deaths then shamefully to desert or dishonourably to betray My own just rights and Soveraignty thereby to gratify the ambition or justifie the malice of My Enemies between whose malice and other men mistakes I put as great a difference as betweene an ordinary AGUE and the PLAGUE or thâ— Itch of Novelty and the Leprosie of Disloyalty As Lyars need have good Memories so Malicious Persons need good inventions That their calumnies may fit every mans fancy and what their reproaches want of truth they may make up with number and shew My patience I thank God will better serve Me to bear and My charity to forgive then My leisure to Answer the many false Aspersions which some men have cast upon Me. Did I not more consider My Subjects Satisfaction then my own Vindication I should never have given the malice of some men that pleasure as to see Me take notice of or remember what they say or object I would leave the Authors to be punished by their own evil manners and seared Consciences which will I beleive in a shorter time then they be aware of both confute and revenge all those black and false scandals which they have cast on Me And make the world see there is as little truth in them as there was little worth in the broaching of them or Civility I need not say Loyalty in the not-suppressing of them whose credit reputation even with the People shall ere long be quite blasted by the breath of that same fornace of popular obloquy and detraction which they have studied to heat and inflame to the highest degree of infamy wherein they have sought to cast and consume My Name and Honour First nothing gave Me more cause to suspect and search My owne Innocency then when I observed so many forward to engage against Me who had made great professions of singular piety For this gave to vulgar minds so bad a reflection upon Me and My Cause as if it had been impossible to adhere to Me and not withall part from God to think or speak well of Me and not to Blaspheme Him so many were perswaded that these two were utterly inconsistent to be at once Loyall to Me and truly Religious toward God Not but that I had I thank God many with Me which were both Learned and Religious much above that ordinary size and that vulgar proportion wherein some men glory so much who were so well satisfied in the cause of My sufferings that they chose rather to suffer with Me then forsake Me. Nor is it strange that so religious Pretensions as were used against me should be to many wel-minded Men a great temptation to oppose Me Especially being urged by such popular Preachers as think it no sin to lie for God and what they please to call Gods Cause cursing all that will not curse with them looking so much at and crying up the goodnesse of the end propounded that they consider not the lawfullnesse of the means used nor the depth of the mischief chiefly plotted and intended The weaknesse of these mens judgements must be made up by their clamours and activity It was a great part of some mens Religion to scandalize Me Mine they thought theirs could not be true if they cried not down Mine as false I thank God I have had more triall of his grace as to the constancy of My Religion in the Protestant Profession of the Church of England both abroad and at home than ever they are like to have Nor do I know any exception I am so liable
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
them from those exact Tribunalls To which in the obstructions of justice among men we must religiously appeale as being an argument to us Christians of that after unavoidable judgement which shall rejudge what among men is but corruptly decided or not at all I endeavoured to have prevented if God had seen fit those future commotions which I foresaw would in all likelyhood follow some mens activity if not restrained and so now hath don to the undoing of many thousands the more is the pitty But to over-awe the freedom of the Houses or to weaken their just Authority by any violent impressions upon them was not at all my design I thought I had so much justice and reason on my side as should not have needed so rough assistance and I was resolved rather to bear the repulse with patience then to use such hazardous extremities But thou O Lord art my witnesse in heaven and in my Heart if I have purposed anie violence or oppression against the innocent or if there were anie such wickednesse in my thoughts Then let the enemie persecute my soule and tread my life to the ground lay mine Honour in the dust Thou that seest not as a man seeth but lookest beyond all popular appearances searching the heart and trying the reins bringing to light the hidden things of darknesse shew thy self Let not my afflictions be esteemed as with wise and godly men they cannot be any argument of my sinne in that matter more then their impunity among good men is any sure token of their innocency But forgive them wherein they have done amissâ— though they are not punished for it in this world Save thy servant from the privie conspiracies open violence of bloodie and unreasonable men according to the uprightnes of my heart the innocency of my hands in this matter Plead my cause and maintain My Right O thou that sittest in the Throne iudging rightlie that thy Servant may ever reioyce in thy Salvation 4Vpon the Insolency of the Tumults I Never thought any thing except our sins more ominously presaging all these mischeifs which have followed then those Tumults in LONDON and WESTMINSTER soon after the Convening of this Parliament which were not like a storm at Sea which yet wants not its terror but like an Earth-quake shaking the very foundations of all then which nothing in the world hath more of horrour As it is one of the most convincing Arguments that there is a God while his power sets bounds to the raging of the Seas so 't is no lesse that he restraines the madnesse of the people Nor doth any thing portend more Gods displeasure against a Nation then when he suffers the confluence and clamours of the vulgar to passe all boundaries of Lawes and reverence to Authority VVhich those Tumults did to so high degrees of insolence that they spared not to invade the Honour and Freedome of the two Houses menacing reproaching shaking yea and assaulting some Members of both Houses as they fancyed or disliked them nor did they forbeare most rude and unseemly deportments both in contemptuous words and actions to my selfe and my Court. Nor was this a short fit or two of shaking as an Ague but a quotidian feaver always encreasing to higher inflamations impatient of any mitigation restraint or remission First they must be a guard against those fears which some men scared themselves and others withall when indeed nothing was more to be feared and lesse to be used by wise men then those tumultuary confluxes of meane and rude people who are taught first to petition then to protect then to dictate at last to command and overawe the Parliament All obstructions in Parliament that is all freedome of differing in Votes and debating matters with reason and candour must be taken away with these Tumults By these must the Houses be purged and all rotten Members as they please to count them cast out By these the obstinacy of men resolved to discharg their Consciences must be subdued by these all factious seditious and schismaticall proposalls against Government Ecclesiasticall or Civill must be backed and abetted till they prevailed Generally who ever had most mind to bring forth confusion and ruine upon Church and State used the midwifery of those Tumults whose riot and impatience was such that they would not stay the ripening season of counsells or fair production of Acts in the order gravity and deliberatenesse befitting a Parliament but ripped up with barbarous cruelty forcibly cut out abortive Votes such as their inviters and incouragers most fancyed Yea so enormous and detestable were their outrages that no sober man could be without an infinite shame and sorrow to see them so tolerated and connived at by some countenanced encouraged and applauded by others What good man had not rather want any thing he most desired for the publique good then obtain it by such an unlawfull and irreligious means But mens passions and Gods direction seldome agree violent designes and motions must have sutable engins such as too much attend their own ends seldome confine themselves to Gods means Force must croud in what reason will not lead VVho were the chief Demagogues and Patrons of Tumults to send for them to flatteâ— and emboulden them to direct and turne theiâ— clamorous importunities some men yet living are too conscious to pretend ignorance God in his due time will let these see that those were no fit means to be used for attaining his ends But as it is no strange thing for the Sea to rage when strong winds blow upon it so neither for multitudes to become insolent when they have Men of some reputation for partâ— and piety to fet them on That which made their rudenesse most formidable was that many Complaints being made and Messages sent by My self and some of both Houses yet no order for redresse could be obtained with any vigour and efficacy proportionable to the malignity of that now far spread disease and predominant mischiefe Such was some mens stupidity that they feared no inconvenience Others petulancy that they joyed to see their betters shamefully outraged and abused while they knew their only security consisted in vulgar flattery So insensible were they of mine or the two Houses common safety and honours Nor could ever any order be obtained impartially to examine censure punish the knowâ— Boutefeus and impudent Incendiaries who boasted of the influence they had and used to convoke those Tumults as their advantages served Yea some who should have bin wiser Statesmen owned them as friends commending their Courage Zeal and industry which to sober men could seem no better then that of the Devill who goes about seeking whom he may deceive and devoure I confesse when I found such a deafnes that no Declaration from the Bishops who were first fouly insolenced and assaulted nor yet from other Lords and Gentlemen of Honour nor yet from my self could take place for the due repression of
commonweal The eldest son must be involved in the punishment as he was infected with the sinne of the Father against the Father of his country root branch God cuts off in one day These observations are obvious to every fancy God knows I was so far from rejoycing in the Hotham's ruine though it were such as were able to give the greatest thirst for revenge a ful draught being executed by them who first imployed him against Me that I so far pitied him as I thought he at first acted more against the light of his Conscience then I hope many other men do in the same cause For he was never thought to be of that superstitious sowrnesse which some men pretend to in matters of Religion which so darkens their judgment that they cannot see any thing of Sin and Rebellion in those means they use with intents to refrom to their Models what they call Religion who think all is Gold of piety which doth but glister with a shew of Zeale fervency Sir John Hotham was I think a man of another temper and so most liable to those downright temptations of ambition which have no cloak or cheat of religion to impose upon themselves or others That which makes me more pity him is that after he begun to have some inclinations towards a repentance for his sinne and reparations of his duty to Me He should be so unhappy as to fall into the hands of their Justice and not my Mercy who could as willingly have forgiven him as he could have asked that favour of Me. For I think clemency a debt which wee ought to pay to those that crave it when wee have cause to beleive they would not after abuse it since God himself suffers us not to pay any thing for his mercy but only prayers and praises Poor Gentleman he is now become a noteable monument of unprosperous disloyalty teaching the world by so sad and unfortunate a spectacle that the rude carriage of a Subject towards his Soveraigne carries alwayes its own vengeance as an unseparable shadow with it and those oft prove the most fatall and implacable Executioners of it who were the first imployers in the service After-times will dispute it whether Hotham were more infamous at Hull or at Tower-hill though 't is certain that no punishment so stains a mans Honour as wilfull perpetrations of unworthy actions which besides the conscience of the sin brands with most indelible characters of infamy the name memory to posterity who not engaged in the Factions of the times have the most impartiall reflections on the actions But thou O Lord who hast in so remarkable a way avenged thy servant suffer me not to take any secret pleasure in it for as his death hath satisfyed the iniury he did to me so let me not by it gratifie any passion in me lest I make thy vengeance to be mine consider the affront against me more then the sinne against thee Thou indeed without any desire or endeavour of mine hast made his mischief to return on his own head and his violent dealing to come down on his own pate Thou hast pleaded my cause even before the sons of men and taken the matter into thine own hands that men may know it was thy work and see that thou Lord hast done it I do not I dare not say so let mine enemies perish O Lord yea Lord rather give them repentance pardon and impunity if it be thy blessed will Let not thy iustice prevent the obiects and opportunities of my mercy yea let them live and amend who have most offended me in so high a nature that I may have those to forgive who beare most proportion in their offences to those trespasses against thy Maiesty which I hope thy mercy hath forgiven me Lord lay not their sins who yet live to their charge for condemnation but to their consciences for amendment Let the lightning of this Thunderbolt which hath been so severe a punishment to one be a torrour to all Discover to them their sinne who know not they have done amisse and scare them from their sinne that sin of malicious wickednesse That preventing thy Iudgements by their true repentance they may escape the strokes of thine eternall vengeance And do thou O Lord establish the Throne of thy servant in mercy and truth meeting together let my Crown ever flourish in righteousnesse and peace kissing each other Heare my prayer O Lord who hast taught us to pray for to do good to and to love our Enemies for thy sake who hast prevented us with offertures of thy love even when we were thine Enemies and hast sent thy Son Iesus Christ to die for us when we were disposed to crucifie him 9. Vpon the listing and raising Armies against the King I Finde that I am at the same point and posture I was when they forced Me to leave White-Hall what Tumults could not doe an Army must which is but Tumults listed and enrolled too a better order but as bad an end My recesse hath given them confidence that I may be conquered And so I easily may as to any outward strength which God knowes is little or none at all But I have a Soule invincible through Gods grace enabling Me here I am sure to be Conqueror if God will give Me such a measure of Constancy as to feare him more then man and to love the inward peace of My Conscience before any outward tranquility And must I be opposed with force because they have not reason wherewith to convince Me O My Soule be of good courage they confesse their knowne weaknesse as to truth and Justice who choose rather to contend by Armies then by Arguments Is this the reward and thanks that I am to receive for those many Acts of Grace I have lately passed and for those many Indignities I have endured Is there no way left to make Me a glorious KING but by My sufferings It is a hard and disputable choice for a King that loves his People and desires their love either to kill his own Subjects or to be killed by them Are the hazards and miseries of Civill War in the bowels of My most flourishing Kingdome the fruits I must now reap after 17. years living and reigning among them with such a measure of Justice Peace Plenty and Religion as all Nations about either admired or envied notwithstanding some miscarriages in Government which might escape rather through ill counsell of some men driving on their private ends or the peevishnes of others envying the publike should be managed without them or the hidden and insuperable necessities of State then any propensity I hope of my selfe either to injuriousnes or oppression Whose innocent bloud during My Reign have I shed to satisfie My lust anger or covetousnes what Widdowes or Orphans tears can witnesse against me the just cry of which must now be avenged with My own bloud For the hazards of War are equall nor doth the
his owne glory I am sure the event or successe can never state the Justice of any Cause nor the peace of mens conscinces nor the eternall fate of their soules Those with Me had I thinke clearly and undoubtedly for their Justification the Word of God and the Lawes of the Land together with their own Oaths all requiring obedience to My just commands but to none other under Heaven without Me or against Me in the point of raising Armes Those on the other side are forced to flie to the shifts of some pretended Fears and wild fundamentals of State as they call them which actually overthrow the present fabrick both of Church and State being such imaginary Reasons for self-defence as are most impertinent for those men to alledge who being My Subjects were manifestly the first assaulters of Me and the Lawes first by unsuppressed Tumults after by listed forces The same allegations they use wil fit any Faction that hath but power and confidence enough to second with the sword all their demands against the present Lawes Governour which can never be such as some side or other will not find fault with so as to urge what they call a Reformation of them to a Rebellion against them some parasitick Preachers have dared to call those martyrs who dyed fighting against Me the Laws their Oaths and the Religion Established But sober christians know That glorious Title can with Truth be applyed only to those who sincerely preferred Gods Truth and their duty in all these particulars before their lives and all that was dear to them in this world who having no advantagious designs by any Innovation were religiously sensible of those ties to God the church my self wch lay their Souls both for obedience just assistance God could and I doubt not but he did through his mercy crown many of them with eternall life whose lives were lost in so just a Cause The destruction of their bodies being sanctified as a means to save their soules Their wounds and temporall ruine serving as a gracious opportunity for their eternall health and happinesse while the evident approach of death did through Gods grace effectually dispose their hearts to such Humility Faith and Repentance which together with the Rectitude of their present engagement would fully prepare them for a better life then that which their enemies brutish and disloyall fiercenesse could deprive them of or without Repentance hope to enjoy They have often indeed had the better against My side in the field but never I belive at the Barre of Gods Tribunall or their owne Consciences where they are more afraid to encounter those many pregnant Reasons both from Law Allegiance and all true Christian grounds which conflict with and accuse them in theâ— owne thoughts then they oft were in a desperate bravery to fight against those Forces which sometimes God gave Me. Whose condition conquered and dying â— make no question but is infinitely more to be chosen by a sober man that duely values 〈◊〉 duty his soule and eternity beyond the enjoyments of this present life then the most triumphant glory wherein their and Mine Enemies supervive who can hardly avoid to be daily tormented by that horrid guilt wherwith their suspicious or now convicted Consciences doe pursue them especially since they and all the world have seen how false un-intended those pretensions were which they first set forth as the only plausibl though not justifiable grounds of raising a War and continuing it thus long against Me and the Laws established in whose â—afety and preservation all honest men think the welfare of their Countrey doth consist For and with all which it is far more honourable and comfortable to suffer then to prosper in their ruine and subversion I have often prayed that all on My side might joyn true piety with the sense of their Loyalty and be as faithfull to God and their owne soules as they were to Me. That the defects of the one might not blast the endeavours of the other Yet I cannot thinke that any shews or truth of piety on the other side were sufficient to dispence with or expiate the defects of their Duty and Loyalty to Me which have so pregnant convictions on mens consciences that even profaner men are moved by the sence of them to venture their lives for me I never had any victory which was without My sorrow because it was on mine owne Subjects who like Absolom died many of them in their sin And yet I never suffered any defeate which made Me despair of Gods mercy and defence I never desired such Victoryes as might serve to conquer but only restore the Laws and Libertyes of My People which I saw were extreamly oppressed together with my Rights by those men who were impatient of any just restraint When Providence gave me or denyed Me Victory My desire was neither to boast of My power nor to charge God foolishly who I beleved at â—ast would make all things to work together for my good I wished no greater advantages by the Warr then to bring My Enemies to moderation and my Freinds to peace I was afraid of the temptation of an absolute conquest and never prayed more for victory over others than over my self When the first was denyed the second was granted me which God saw best for Me. The different events were but the methods of divine justice by contrary winds to winnow us That by punishing ouâ— sinnes he might purge them from us by deferring peace he might prepare us more to prise and better to use so great a blessing My often Messages for Peace shewed that I delighted not in Warre as my former Concessiâ—ns sufficiently testified how willingly I would have prevented it and My total unpreparedness for it how little I intended it The conscience of my Innocency forbade Me to feare a Warre but the love of my Kingdomes commanded me if possible to avoid it I am guilty in this Warre of nothing but this That I gave such advantages to some men by confirming their power which they knew not to use with that modesty and gratitude which became their Loyalty and my confidence Had I yâ—ilded lesse I had been opposed lesse had I denied more I had been more obeyed 'T is now too late to review the occasions of the Warre I wish only a happy conclusion of so unhappy beginnings The unevitable fate of our sinnes was no doubt such as would no longer suffer the divine justice to be quiet we having conquered his patience are condemned by mutuall conquerings to destroy one another for the most prosperous successes on either side impaire the welfare of the whole Those Victories are still miserable that leave our sinnes un-subdued flushing our pride and animating to continue injuries Peace it felâ— is not desirable till repentance have prepared us for it When we fight more against our selves and lesse against God we shall cease fighting against one another I pray God these may
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
I can both forgive them pray for them that God would not impute My bloud to them further then to convince them what need they have of Christs bloud to wash their soules from the guilt of shedding Mine At present the will of My Enemies seems to be their only rule their power the measure and their successe the Exactor of what they please to call Justice while they flatter themselves with the fancy of their owne safety by my danger and the security of their lives and designes by My Death forgetting that as the greatest temptations to sinne are wrapped up in seeming prosperities so the severest vengeance of God are then most accomplished when men are suffered to compleat their wicked purposes I blesse God I pray not so much that this bitter cup of a violent death may passe from Me as that of his warth may passe from all those whose hands by deserting Me are sprinkled or by acting and consenting to My death are embrued with My bloud The will of God hath confined and concluded Mine I shall have the pleasure of dying without any pleasure of desired vengeance This I think becomes a Christian toward his Enemies and a King toward his subjects They cannot deprive Me of more than I am content to lose when God sees fit by their hands to take it from me whose mercy I believe will more then infinitely recompence what ever by mans injustice he is pleased to deprive me of The glory attending my death will farre surpasse all I could enjoy or conceive in life I shall not want the heavy and envyed Crownes of this world when my God hath mercifully Crowned and Consummated his graces with Glory and exchanged the shadows of my earthly Kingdomes among men for the substance of that Heavenly Kingdom with himselfe For the censures of the world I know the sharpe and necessary tyranny of my Destroyers will sufficiently confute the calumnies of tyranny against me I am perswaded I am happy in the judicious love of the ablest and best of my Subjects who doe not onely pity and pray for me but would be content even to dye with me or for me These know how to excuse my failings as a man and yet to retaine and pay their duty to me as their King there being no religious necessity binding any Subjects by pretending to punish infinitely to exceede the faults and errours of their Princes especially there where more then sufficient satisfaction hath been made to the publike the enjoyment of which private ambitions have hitherto frustrated Others I beleive of softer tempers and lesse advantaged by my ruine doe already feel sharp convictions and some remorse in their consciences where they cannot but see the proportions of their evill dealings against me in the measure of Gods retaliations upon them who cannot hope long to enjoy their owne thumbs and toes having under pretence of paring others nails bin so cruell as to cut off their chiefest strength The punishment of the more insolent and obstinat may be like that of Korah and his complices at once mutining against both Prince and Priest in such a method of divine justice as is not ordinary the earth of the lowest and meanest people opening upon them and swallowing them up in a just disdain of their ill-gotten and worse-used Authority upon whose support and strength they cheifly depended for their building and establishing their designes against me the Church and State My chiefest comfort in death consists in My peace which I trust is made with God before whose exact tribunall I shal not fear to appear as to the Cause so long disputed by the sword between me and my causlesse Enemies where I doubt not but his righteous judgment wll conâ—ute their fallacy who from worldly successe â—rather like Sophisters than sound Christians â—raw those popular conclusions for Gods apâ—robation of their actions whose wise proviâ—ence we know oft permits many events which â—s revealed word the only clear safe and fixed rule of good actions good consciences in no sort approves I am confident the Justice of My Cause and clearnesse of my conscience before God and toward my people wil carry me as much above them in Gods decision as their successes have lifted them above me in the vulgar opinion who consider not that many times those undertakings of men are lifted up to heaven in the prosperity and applause of the world whose rise is from Hell as to the injuriousnesse and oppression of the designe The prosperous winds which oft fill the sayles of Pyrates doth not justifie their piracy and rapine I look upon it with infinite more content and quiet of Soule to have been worsted in my enforced contestation for and Vindication of the Laws of the Land the freedome and honour of Parliaments the rights of My Crown the just liberty of My Subjects and the true Christian Religion in its Doctrine Government and due encouragements then if I had with the greatest advantages of successe overborn them all as some men have now evidently done whatever designes they at first pretended The prayers and patience of my Freinds and loving Subjects will contribute much to the sweetning of this bitter cup which I doubt not but I shall more cheerefuly take and drink as from Gods hand if it must be so than they can give it me whose hands are unjustly and barbarously lifted up against me And as to the last event I may seeme to owe more to my Enemies than my Freinds while those will put a period to the finnes and sorrows attending this miserable life wherewith these desire I might still contend I shall be more then Conquerour through Christ enabling me for whome I have hitherto suffered as he is the Authour of Truth Order and Peace for all which I have beene forced to contend against Errour Faction and confusion If I must suffer a violent death with my Saviour it is but mortality crowned with martyrdome where the debt of death which I owe for sinne to nature shall be raised as a gift of faith and patience offered to God Which I humbly beseech him mercifully to accept and although Death be the wages of my owne sinne as from God and the effect of other sinnes as men both against God and me yet as I hope my owne sinnes are so remitted that they shall be no ingredients to imbitter the cup of my death so I desire God to pardon their sinnes who are most guilty of my destruction The Trophees of my charity will be more glorious and durable over them than their ill-managed victories over me Though their sin be prosperous yet they had need to be penitent that they may be pardoned Both which I pray God they may obtaine that my temporall Death unjustly inflicted by them may not be revenged by Gods just inflicting eternall death upon them for I look upon the temporall destruction of the greatest King as far lesse deprecable than the eternall damnation of the meanest