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
Importunities then their Arguments My confidence had lesse betrayed My self and My Kingdomes to those advantages which some men sought for who wanted nothing but power and occasion to do mischiefe But our sinnes being ripe there was no preventing of Gods Iustice from reaping that glory in our Calamities which we robb'd him of in our Prosperity For thou O Lord hast made us see that Resolutions of future Reforming do not alwaies satisfie thy Justice nor prevent thy vengeance for former miscarriages Our sins have over laid our hopes Thou hast taught us to depend on thy mercies to forgive not on our purpose to amend When thou hast vindicated thy glory by thy Iudgement and hast shewed us how unsafe it is to offend thee upon presumptions afterwards to please thee Then I trust thy mercies wil restore those blessings to us which we have so much abused as to force thee to deprive us of them For want of timely repentance of our sins thou givest us cause to repent of those Remedies we too late apply Yet I do not Repent of my calling this last Parliament because O Lord I did it with an upright intention to Thy glory and My Peoples good The miseries which have ensued upon Me and My Kingdomes are the just effects of thy displeasure upon us and may be yet through thy mercy preparatives of us to future blessings and better hearts to enioy them O Lord though thou hast deprived us of many former comsorts yet grant Me and my People the benefit of our afflictions and thy chastisements that thy rod as well as thy Staffe may comfort us Then shall we dare to account them the strokes not of an Enemy but a Father when thou givest us those humble affections that measure of patience in repentance which becoms thy Children I shall have no cause to repent the miseries this Parliament hath occasioned when by them thou hast brought Me and My People unfeignedly to repent of the sins we have committed Thy Grace is infinitely better with our sufferings then our peace could be with our sins O thou Soveraign goodness and wisdom who over-rulest all our Counsels over rules also all our hearts that the worse things we suffer by thy iustice thâ— better we may be by thy Mercy As our sinnes have turned our Antidotes into poyson so let thy grace turn our poysons into Antidotes As the sins of our peace disposed us to this unhappy war so let this Warre prepare us for thy blessed Peace That although I have but troublesome Kingdoms here yet I may attain to that kingdom of peace in My Heart and in thy Heaven which Christ hath purchased and thou wilt give to thy servant though a Sinner for my Saviours sake Amen 2 Vpon the Earle of Straffords death I Looked upon my Lord of Strafford as a Gentleman whose great abilities might make a Prince rather afraid then ashamed to employ him in the greatest affaires of State For those were prone to create in him great confidence of undertakings and this was like enough to betray him to great errours and many Enemies whereof he could not but contract good store while moving in so high a spheare and with so vigorous a lustre he must need as the sun raise many envious exhalations which condensed by a popular Odium were capable to cast a cloud upon the brightest merit and integrity Though I cannot in my judgement approve all he did driven it may be by the necessities of times and the Temper of that people more then led by his own disposition to any height and rigour of actions yet I could never be convinced of any such criminousnesse in him as willingly to expose his life to the stroak of Justice and malice of his Enemies I never met with more unhappy conjuncture of affaires then in the businesse of that unfortunate Earl when between My own unsatisfiednesse in Conscience and a necessity as some told me of satisfying the importunities of some people I was perswaded by those that I think wished me well to chuse rather what was safe then what seemed just preferring the outward peace of My Kingdoms with men before that inward exactnesse of Conscience before God And indeed I am so farre from excusing or denying that complyance on my part for plenary consent it was not to his destruction whom in my judgement I thought not by any clear Law gilty of death That I never bare any touch of Conscience with greater regret which as a sign of my repentance I have often with sorrow confessed both to God and men as an act of so sinfull frailty that it discovered more a feare of Man than of God whose name and place on Earth no man is worthy to bear who will avoid inconveniences of State by acts of so high injustice as no publique convenience can expiate or compensate I see it a bad exchange to wound a mans own Conscience thereby to salve State sores to calme the stormes of popular discontents by stirring up a tempest in a mans own bosome Nor hath Gods justice failed in the event and sad consequences to shew the world the falacy of that Maxime Better one man perish though uniustly then the people be displeased or destroyed For In all likelyhood I could never have suffered with My People greater calamities yet with greater comfort had I vindicated Strafford s innocency at least by denying to signe that destructive Bill according to that justice which my Conscience suggested to me then I have done since I gratified some mens unthankfull importunities with so cruell a favour And I have observed that those who counselled me to sign that Bill have been so farre from receiving the rewards of such ingratiatings with the people that no men have bin harassed and crushed more than they He only hath bin least vexed by them who counselled me not to consent against the vote of my owne Conscience I hope God hath forgiven me and them the sinfull rashnesse of that busines To which being in my Soul so fully conscious those judgments God hath pleased to send upon me are so much the more welcome as a meanes I hope which his mercy hath sanctified so to me as to make me repent of that unjust act for so it was to me and for the future to teach me That the best rule of policy is to prefer the doing of Iustice before all enjoyments and the peace of my conscience before the preservation of my Kingdoms Nor hath any thing more fortified my â—esolutions against all those violent importunityes which since have sought to gaine alike consent from me to Acts wherein my conscience is unsatisfied then the Sharp touches I have had for what passed Me in My Lord of Straffords Busines Not that I resolved to have imployed him in My affaires against the advice of my Parliament but I would not have had any hand in his Death of whose Guiltlesnesse I was better assured than any man living could be Nor were the Crimes
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
these Tnmults and securing not only Our freedom in Parliament but Our very Persons in the streets I thought My self not bound by My presence to provoke them to higher boldnesse and contempts I hoped by My withdrawing to give time both for the Ebbing of their tumultuous fury and others regaining som degrees of modesty and sober sense Some may interpret it as an effect of Pusillanimity in any man for popular terrours to desert his publique station But I think it a hardinesse beyond true valour for a wise man to set him self against the breaking in of a Sea which to resist at present threatens imminent danger but to withdraw gives it space to spend its fury and gaines a fitter time to repaire the breach Certainly a Gallant man had rather sight to great disadvantages for number and place in the sield in an orderly way then skuffle with an undisciplined rabble Some suspected and affirmed that I meditated a Warre when I went from Whitehall only to redeem My Person and Conscience from violence God knowes I did not then thinke of a Warre Nor will any prudent man conceive that â— would by so many former and some after-acts have so much weakned my self if I had purposed to engage in a War which to decline by all means I denyed My self in so many particulars T is evident I had then no Army to flie unto foâ— protection or vindication Who can blame Me or any other for withdrawing our selves from the daily baitings oâ— the Tumults not knowing whether their furâ— and discontent might not fly so high as to worry and tear those in peices whom as yet they buâ— played with in their Pawes God who is Mâ— sole Judge is My Witnes in Heaven that I never had any thoughts of going from My Housâ— at Whitehall if I could have had but any reasonable fair Quarter I was resolved to bear much and did so but I did not think My self bound tâ— prostitute the Majesty of my place and Person the safety of My Wife and Children to those who are prone to insult most when they havâ— objects and opportunity most capable of theâ— rudenesse and petulancy But this businesse of the Tumults whereof some have given already an account to God others yet living know themselves desperately guilty Time and the guilt of many hath so smothered up and buried that I think it best to leave it as it is Onely I beleive the just Avenger of al disorders will in time make those men and that City see their sin in the glasse of their punishment 'T is more then an even-lay that they may one day see themselves punished by that way they offended Had this Parliament as it was in its first Election and constitution sate full and free the Members of both houses being left to their freedom of Voting as in all reason honour and Religion they should have bin I doubt not but things would have bin so carried as would have given no lesse content to all good men then they wished or expected For I was resolved to hear reason in all things to consent to it so far as I could comprehend it but as Swine are to Gardens and orderly Plantations so are Tumults to Parliaments and Plebeian concourses to publick Councels turning all into disorders and sordid confusions I am prone sometimes to think that had I called this Parliament to any other place in England as I might opportunly enough have don the sad consequences in all likelyhood with Gods blessing might have been prevented A Parliament would have bin welcom in any place no place afforded such confluence of various and vitious humours as that where it was unhappily convened But we must leave all to God who orders our disorders and magnifies his wisdom most when our follies and miseries are most discovered But thou O Lord art My refuge and defence to thee J may safely flie who rulest the raging of the Sea and the madnesse of the People The flouds O Lord the flouds are come in upon me and are readie to overwhelme me J look upon My sinnes and the sinnes of My people which are the tumults of our soules against thee O Lord as the iust cause of these popular inundations which thou permittest to overbeare all the banks of loyaltie modestie Lawes Justice and Religion But thou that gatheredst the waters into one place and madest the dry land to appeare and after did'â— asswage the floud which drowned the world by thâ— word of thy power Rebuke those beasts of thâ— People and deliver Me from the rudeness and strivingâ— of the multitude Restore we beseech thee unto us the freedomes oâ— our Councells and Parliaments make us unpassiâ—naâ—ly to see the light of reason and Religion anâ— wiâ—h all order and gravitie to follow it as it becomâ— Men and Christians so shall we praise thy name who art the God of Order and Councell What man cannot or will not repress thy â—mnipâ—tent Justice can and will O Lord give them that are yet living a timely sâ—â—ce and sorrow for their great siâ—ne whom thou knowest guiltie of raising or not suppressing those disorders Let shame here and not suffering hereafter be their punishment Set bounds to our passions by Reason to our errour by Truth to our seditions by lawes duly executed and to our schisms by Charitie that we may bâ— as thy Jerusalem a Citie at unitie in it selfe This grant O My God in thy good time for Iesus Christs sake Amen 5Vpon his Maiesties passing the bill for Trieniall Parliaments and after setling this during the pleasure of the two houses THat the world might be fully confirmed in My purposes at first to contribute what in Justice Reason Honour and Conscience I could to the happy successe of this Parliament which had in me no other designe but the generall Good of My Kingdoms I willingly passed the Bill for Trieniall Parliaments which as gentle and seasonablâ— Physick might if well applyed prevent any distempers from getting any head or prevailing especially if the remedy proved not a desease beyond all remedy I conceived this Parliament would sind work with convenient Recesses for the first 3. yeares But I did not imagine that some Men would thereby have occasioned more work then they found to do by undoing so much as they found well don to their hands Such is some mens activity that they will needs make worke rather then want it chuse to be doing amisse rather then doe nothing When that first Act seemed too scanty to satisfy some mens fears and compasse publick affairs I was perswaded to grant that BILL of Sitting during the pleasure of the Houses which amounted in some mens sense to as much as the perpetuating of this Parliament By this Act of highest confidence I hoped for ever to shut out and lock the door upon all present jealousies and future mistakes I confesse I did not thereby intend to shut My selfe out of doores as some men have now requited Me.
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
composure had others applyed them selvs to it with the same moderatioÌ„ as I did I am confident the War had then ended I was willing to condescend as far as Reason Honour and Conscience would give Me leave nor were the remaining difference so essential to My Peoples happines or of such consequence as in the least kind to have hindred My Subjects either security or prosperity for they beter enjoyed both many years before ever those demands were made some of which to deny I think the greatest Justice to My self and favour to My subjects I see Jealousies are not so easily allayed as they are raised Some men are more afraid to retreat from voilent Engagements than to Engage what is wanting in equity must be made up in pertinacy Such as had little to enjoy in Peace or to lose in warre studied to render the very name of Peace odious and suspected In Church affaires where I had least liberty of prudence having so many strict tyes of Conscience upon Me yet I was willing to condescend so far to the setling of them as might have given fair satisfaction to all men whom faction covetousnesse or superstition had not engaged more than any true zeal charity or love of reformation I was content to yeild to all that might seeme to advance true piety I onely sought to continue what was necessary in point of Order maintenance and Authority to the Churches Goverment and what I am perswaded as I have elsewhere set down My thoughts more fully is most agreeable to the true principles of all Government raised to its full stature perfection as also to the primitive Apostolicall pattern and the practise of the Universall Church conforme thereto From which wholly to recede without any probable reason urged or answered only to satisfie some mens wills and fantasies which yet agree not among themselves in any point but that of extirpating Episcopacy fighting against me must needs argue such a softnes infirmity of mind in Me as will rather part with Gods Truth than Mans peace and rather lose the Churches honour than crosse some mens Factious humours God knows and time wil discover who were most too blame for the un-succesfulness of that Treaty and who must bear the guilt of after-calamityes I beleive I am very excusable both before God and all unpassionate men who have seriously weighed those transactions wherein I endeavoured no lesse the restauration of peace to my People than the preservation of my own Crowns to my posterity Some men have that height as to interpret all fair Condescendings as Arguments of feeblenesse and glory most in an unflexible stifnesse when they see others most supple and inclinable to them A grand Maxime with them was alwaies to ask something which in reason and honour must be denied that they might have some colour to refuse all that was in other things granted setting Peace at as high a rate as the worst effects of Warre endeavouring first to make Me destroy My self by dishonourable Concessions that so they might have the lesse to do This was all which that Treaty or any other produced to let the world see how litle I would deny or they grant in order to the publik peace That it gave occasion to some mens further restivenesse is imputable to their own depraved tempers not to any Concessions or negations of Mine I have alwayes the content of what I offered and they the regret and blame for what they refused The highest tide of successe set me not above a Treaty nor the lowest ebbe below a Fight Though I never thought it any sign of true valour to be prodigall of mens lives rather then to be drawn to produce our own reasons or to subscribe to other mens That which made Me for the most part presage the unsuccessefulnes of any Treaty was some mens unwillingnesse to Treat which implyed some things were to be gained by the Sword whose unreasonablenes they were loath to have fairly scanned being more proper to be acted by Souldiers than by Councellours I pray God forgive them that were guilty of that Treaties breaking give them grace to make their advantages gotten by the the Sword a better opportunity to use such moderation as was then wanting that so though Peace were for our sins justly deferred yet at last it may be happily obtain'd what we could not get by our Treaties we may gain by our prayers O Thou that art the God of Reason and of Peace who disdâ—inest not to Treat with Sinners presenting them with offers of attonement and beseeching them to be reconciled with thy selfe â—ho wantest not power or Iustice to destroy them â—et aboundest in mercy to save so often our hearts ly the bloud of our Redeemer and perswade us to accept of Peace with my selfe and both to procure and preserve peace among our selves as Men and Christians How oft have I intreated for Peace but then I speak thereof they make them ready to War Condemne us not to our passions which are destructive both of our selves and of others Cleare up our understandings to see thy Truth both in Reason as Men and in Religion as Christians and encline all our hearts to hold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Take from us that enmity which is now in our hearts against thee and give us that charity which should be among our selves Remove the evils of War we have deserved and â—estow upon us that Peace which only Christ our great Peace maker cannot merit 19 Vpon the various events of the Warre Vistories and Defeats THe various Successes of this unhappy war have at least afforded Me variety of good Meditations sometimes God was pleased to try Me with victory by worsting My Enemies that I might know how with moderation and thanks to own and use his power who is only the true Lord of Hosts able when he pleases to represse the confidence of those that fought against Me with so great advantages for power and number From small beginnings on My part he let Me see that I was not wholly forsaken by My peoples love or his protection Other times God was pleased to exercise My patience and teach Me not to trust in the arme of Flesh but in the living God My sins sometimes prevailed against the justice of My Cause and those that were with Me wanted not matter and occasion for his just chastisement both of them and Me Nor were My enemies lesse punished by that prosperity which hardened them to continue that injustice by open hostility which was began by most riotous and unparliamentary Tumults There is no doubt but personall and private sins may oft times over-balance the Justice of Publick engagements nor doth God account every gallant Man in the worlds esteeme a fit instrument to assert in the way of War a righteous Cause The more men are prone to arrogate to their own skill valour and strength the lesse doth God ordinarily work by them for
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
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