being set the Charge against Him was read with all those reproachful terms of Tyrant Traitor and Murtherer after which He was impleaded in the name of the People of England This false Slander of the People of England was heard with Impatience and Detestation of all and stoutly attested against by the Lady Fairfax Wife of the Lord Fairfax who by this act shewed her self worthy of her Extract from the Noble Family of the Veres for from an adjoyning Scaffold where she stood she cryed out with a loud voice but not without danger that It was a Lie not the Tenth part of the People were guilty of such a Crime but all was done by the Machinations of that Traitor Cromwell But the King after the Charge was read with a countenance full of Majesty and Gravity demands by what Authority they proceeded with Him thus contrary to the Publick Faith and what Law they had to try Him that was an absolute Sovereign Bradshaw replying that of the Parliament His Majesty shewed the detestable Falshood in pretending to what they had not and if they had it yet it could not justifie these Practices To which reply when they could not answer they force Him back to the place of His Captivity The Magnanimity of the King in this dayes contest with these inhumane Butchers did much satisfie the People and they were glad while they thought not of His Danger that He wanted not either Speech or Courage against so powerfull Enemies that He had spoken nothing unworthy of Himself and had preserved the Fame of His Vertues even in so great Adversities For He seemed to triumph over their Fortune whose Arms He was now subject to The Parricides sought to break His Spirit by making His appearances frequent before such contemptible Judges and often exposing Him to the contempt of the armed Rabble therefore four dayes they torture Him with the Impudence and Reproaches of their Infamous Sollicitor and President But He still refused to own their Authority which they could not prove lawful and so excellently demonstrated their abominable Impiety that He made Col. Downes one of their Court to boggle at and disturb their Proceedings They therefore at last proceeded to take away that Life which was not to be separated from Conscience and Honour and pronounced their Sentence of Death upon their Lawful and Just Sovereign Jan. 27. not suffering Him to speak after the Decree of their Villany but hurrying Him back to the place of His Restraint At His departure He was exposed to all the Insolencies and Indignities that a phanatick and base Rabble instigated by Peters and other Instructors of Villany could invent and commit And He suffer'd many things so conformable to Christ His King as did alleviate the sense of them in Him and also instruct Him to a correspondent Patience and Charity When the barbarous Souldiers cryed out at His departure Justice Justice Execution Execution as those deceived Jews did once to their KING Crucifie Him Crucifie Him this Prince in imitation of that most Holy King pitied their blind fury and said Poor Souls for a piece of Money they would do as much for their Commanders As He passed along some in defiance spit upon His Garments and one or two as it was reported by an Officer of theirs who was one of their Court and praised it as an evidence of His Souldiers Gallantry while others were stupified with their prodigious baseness polluted His Majestick Countenance with their unclean spittle the Good King reflecting on His great Exemplar and Master wiped it off saying My Saviour suffer'd far more than this for me Into his very face they blowed their stinking Tobacco which they knew was very distastefull to Him and in the way where He was to go just at His feet they flung down pieces of their nasty pipes And as they had devested themselves of all humanity so were they impatient and furious if any one shewed Reverence or Pity to Him as He passed For no honest Spirit could be so forgetful of humane frailty as not to be troubled at such a sight to see a Great and Just King the rightful Lord of three flourishing Kingdoms now forced from His Throne and led captive through the streets Such as pull'd off their Hats or bowed to Him they beat with their Fists and Weapons and knock'd down one dead but for crying out God be mercifull unto Him When they had brought Him to His Chamber even there they suffered Him not to rest but thrusting in and smoaking their filthy Tobacco they permitted Him no privacy to Prayer and Meditation Thus through variety of Tortures did the King pass this day and by His Patience wearied His Tormentors nothing unworthy His former greatness of Fortune and Mind by all these Affronts was extorted from Him though Indignities and Injuries are unusual to Princes and these were such as might have forced passion from the best-tempered meekness had it not been strengthned with assistance from Heaven In the Evening the Conspirators were acquainted by a Member of the Army of the King's desire that seeing His death was nigh it might be permitted Him to see His Children and to receive the Sacrament and that Doctor Juxon then Lord Bishop of London now Arch-Bishop of Canterbury might be admitted to pray with Him in His private Chamber The first they did not scruple at the Children in their power being but two the Lady Elizabeth and the Duke of Glocester and they very young The second they did not readily grant Some would have had Peters to undertake that employment for which the Bishop was sent for But he declined it with some Scoffs as knowing that the King hated the Offices of such an unhallowed Buffoon So that at last they permitted the Bishops access to the King to whom his eminent Integrity had made him dear For with so wonderful a prudence and uprightness he had managed the envious Office of the Treasury that that accusing age especially of Church-men found not matter for any impeachment nor ground for the least reproach The next day being Sunday the King was removed to St. James's where the Bishop of London read Divine Service and preached before Him in private on these words In the day when God shall judge the secrets of all men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel While the King and the Bishop at this time and also at other times were performing the Divine Service the rude Souldiers often rushed in and disturbed their Offices with vulgar and base Scoffs vain and frivolous Questions The Commanders likewise and other impertinent Anabaptists did interrupt His Meditations who came to tempt and try Him and provoke Him to some unnecessary disputations But He maintained His own Cause with so irrefragable Arguments that He put some to silence the petulancy of others He neglected and with a modest contempt dissembled their Scoffs and Reproaches In the narrow space of this one day and under so continued Affronts and Disturbances
the King whose whole Soul was totally composed to Religion applyed Himself as much as was possible to the Reading Holy Scriptures to Prayer Confession of Sins Supplications for the forgiveness of His Enemies the receiving the Eucharist holy Conferences and all the Offices of Piety so under the utmost Malice and Hatred of men He laboured for the Mercy of God and to fit Himself for His last victory over Death While the King thus spent this day the Ministers in the several Churches in London and in those parts of the Kingdom where His danger was known were very earnest in their Prayers to God for His Deliverance and Spiritual Assistance Some of them in their Sermons declared the horrour of that sin that was about to be committed detested the Impiety of the Parricides and denounced the heavy Judgements which such a sinfull Nation polluted with their Prince's blood were to expect The Congregations were dissolved into Tears Some bewailed the sad Condition of the King as the effect of the Sins of the Nation Others cursed their damnable Credulity of the Slanders of that Just Man and the promises of Liberty by their Impostors And another sort wept because their Fears did prognosticate those Miseries which the Issue of His blood would let in upon them And every one found matter of grief fear and indignation in the loss of so Excellent a Prince All countenances were full of sadness and astonishment there was no Tumults nor any Quiet every one listning and hearkning either as impatient to know the greatness of their Misery or greedy to receive some hopes of Comfort in their Sovereign's Safety otherwise there was a stilness like that which too strong Passions effect and might be thought a Stupidity rather than a Calmness The next day being Jan. 29. the King was permitted the sight of His Children His conference and words with them was taken in writing and communicated to the World by the Lady Elizabeth His Daughter a Lady of most eminent Endowments who though born in the supremest Fortune yet lived in continual Tears the passages of her Life being spent in beholding the Ruines of her Family and the Murther of her dear Father whom she not long survived but died in that Confinement to which they had cheated His Majesty in Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight While these things were done in publick the Conspirators meet in private in a Committee to appoint every one their part in this Tragedy determine what Gestures they were to affect what Words they were to use as also for the manner place and time of the Murther In which Consultations both now and before the Sentence each one according to the bloodiness of his temperament or servilely to flatter Cromwell by their Cruelty to Him that did obstruct his Ambition did propose several wayes either of contempt or hatred in killing their sentenced yet anointed Sovereign Some would have His Head and Quarters fastned upon Poles as it is usual with Traitors that the marks of their Cruelty might out-last His Death Others would have Him hanged as they punished Thieves and Murtherers Others gave their Vote that He should suffer in His Royal Habiliments with His Crown and in His Robes that it might be a Triumph of the Peoples power over Kings At last they think it sufficient that He should lose His Head by the stroak of an Axe on a Scaffold near White-Hall Gates before the Banqueting-House that so from thence where He used to sit on His Throne and shew the Splendour of Majesty He might pass to His Grave there parting with the Ensigns of Royalty and laying them down as Spoils where He had before used them as the Ornaments of Empire Thus did they endeavour to make their Malice Ingenious and provided Triumphs for their revenge And because they suspected or were informed that as the King had not owned their Authority so He would not submit to their Execution nor willingly stoop to the Block they caused to be fastned in it some Iron Staples and Rings that by them with Cords they might draw Him down if He would not comply But His prudent Meekness prevented this Inhumanity and He died disowning their Authority though He could not escape their Power In the midst of these Preparations they cause some Souldiers to offer to His Majesty certain Articles and Conditions to which if He would subscribe they promise Life and the continuance of a precarious Empire either out of a Terrour and Fear of the consequents of their Impieties for the confidence of contriving great Crimes is often turned into a sollicitude when they come to be acted or out of Design to ruine His Conscience and Honour together with His mortal Life if He should consent But when one or two of them had been read to Him He refused to hear any more saying I will suffer a thousand deaths ere I will so prostitute my Honour or betray the Liberties of my People Thus mindful of Justice He would not deface the Splendor of His former Vertues with a too impotent desire of Life At last that Fatal Day Jan. 30. approached and that morning a little before His Death the Conspirators ordered some of their Ministers viz. Marshal Nye Caryl Salway and Dell to pray with Him as they said in order to His passage out of this Life but when these sent to let Him know the end of their coming He returned answer that He was busie they sent a second time and He replyed that He was at His Devotions they importunately sent a third time and my Lord of London then desiring to know what answer he should give to satisfie them His Majesty then as unconcerned in their Ministery said My Lord you may give them what answer you please but I am resolved that they who have so often and so causelesly prayed against Me shall not in this My Agony pray with Me they may pray for Me if they please Therefore the King arming Himself with His own Devotions in the Offices of the Church of England in them found an unexpected Comfort for the Gospel for that Day being the History of the Passion of our Saviour did by that Example strengthen the King to follow Jesus and to take up His Cross and His Majesty was thankful for that Pattern Being thus confirmed by the Blood for He took the Sacrament that Morning and sufferings of His LORD whose Vicegerent He was together with His own Innocency against the Terrors of Death He was brought from St. James's through the Park to White-Hall walking very fast and with as chearful a Countenance as if He were going to Hunting a Recreation He was much pleased with often advising His slow Guards to move faster adding I now go before you to strive for an Heavenly Crown with less sollicitude than I formerly have led My Souldiers for an Earthly Diadem And being come to the end of the Park He with much Alacrity went up the Stairs leading to the long Gallery in
Shirts But said He I scorned to give them that pleasure as to tell them I wanted Thus all the strokes of Fortune upon His Magnanimous Soul were but like the breaking of Waves upon a Rock of Diamonds which cannot shake but only wash it to a greater Brightness But though He knew not how to submit to the Power of Men His Patience yet He would tremble under the Frowns of God His great Spirit made Him not unquiet or furious under the Corrections of the Almighty But with a wonderful Patience a Vertue not usual with Kings to whom the bounds of Equity seem a restraint and therefore are more restless in Injuries He did submit to the Will of His eternal Sovereign He never murmured nor repined at that Providence which had given Him plenty of tears to drink But His Meditations still breath the Justice of God and the Holiness of all His wayes with Him He would take Occasions from displeasing Occurrences to thank God that had sitted Him for the Condition he had brought Him unto For when He marched after His Carriage in pursuit of Essex into the West one of them broke in a very narrow Lane which made Him stop till an intolerable Shower of Rain came pouring upon Him from which that He might seek for a Shelter in the Neighbouring Village His Courtiers offered to hew Him out a way through the Hedge with their Swords but He refused and when they wondred at it He lifting up His hat and Eyes to worship the Fountain of All Grace said As God hath given me Afflictions to exercise My Patience so He hath given me Patience to bear My Afflictions The Indignity He received from Hotham provoked no Curse from Him nor could the Injuries from Scotch and English move Him to any thing more than Prayers for God's sanctifying them to Him He wanted not Temptations to Passion from His own Party for in a Letter to the Queen He tells Her that She could not but Pity Him in His Condition as to them yet He so managed their several Humours and so cherished their Expectations with Patience and Meekness that they quietly waited for a return of His Fortune When He was in His Captivity at Carisbrook under the strictest Restraint those that attended Him never almost observed Him but chearfull and pleasant in His Discourses and sometimes breaking out into pleasing Reparties and Jests When in the Treaty at Newport where He had occasions of Passion daily administred by the Perverseness to Peace of the Party He was to deal with one of the Commissioners was importunate with Him for more Concessions and minded Him of His saying That if there were another Treaty it should not lie in the power of the Devil's Malice to hinder Peace the King answered It would be so when there was a Treaty but as for this it could not be thought a Treaty but He was like the man in the Play that cryed out he had been in a Fray and when they asked him what Fray he replyed there was a Fray and no Fray for there were but three blows given and he took them all So this is a Treaty and not a Treaty for there be many Concessions but I have made them all Another time when He met one of the Presbyterian Ministers near His Chamber enquiring for Captain Titus who then waited on Him and had been faithful to Him in that Service the King told him He wondred he would have any more to do either with Titus or Timothy since he fared so ill in medling with them in his Disputes about Episcopacy the day before These shewed how free His Soul was and uncontrolled in the greatest and most displeasing perplexities He would never take any indirect courses to avoid the Cross nay He scrupled at such expedients as some deemed most conducing to His great end For at the Treaty in the Isle of Wight there being offered to Him an expedient to secure His Conscience and satisfie the Commissioners in the Propositions about the Church and it being urged by a great and faithful Counsellour that He must grant what possibly He could to preserve His own Life for the good of the Church for it was said her safety depended on His with a present and pious indignation He replyed Tell not Me what I should do for saving of My Life but what I may do with a safe Conscience God forbid that the Life or Safety of the Church should depend upon My Life or upon the Life of any mortal man and I thank God I have a Son whom I have reason to believe will love the Church as well as I do Another time a little after the Treaty was ended Dr. Morley shewing to Him a billet he had received by the Lady Wheeler the King's Laundress who often conveyed much Intelligence from an Officer of the Army that the King's Death was resolved on His Majesty answered I have done what I can to save My Life without losing of my Soul I can do I will do no more God's will be done In the Pomp of His Murther wherein He was made a Spectacle to the World Angels and Men no Tryals were ever greater nor ever were any better born the Parricides found it was easie to take away His Life but impossible His Honour and Patience His Passions being then so low and quiet that the natural Insirmity of His Speech did not in the least measure appear which uses to be most evident in the smallest discomposure of the Spirit After the Regicides had passed their Decree for His Assassination and caused Him to be persecuted with all the Indignities of the fanatick Souldiers there fell from Him nothing like Passion or Indignation but that He gave the Authors of those Impieties the title that was due to them for when my Lord of London came to Him which was not till eight a Clock on Saturday Night He told him My Lord that you came no sooner I believe was not your fault but now you are come because these Rogues pursue My Blood you and I must consult how I may best part with it Yet even this was spoken without any Fury or Violence for though all about Him was tumultuous with Horror Destruction and Contempt His Soul seemed unconcerned enjoyed a Calm Serenity and was full of its own Majesty This Vertue made Him forget He was a Prince born to Command and only consider that He was a Christian whose Calling obliges to Suffer He had found out a way to Glory by Humility For the supreme Power to which nothing can be added His Humility hath no better way to encrease than when secured of its own Greatness it humbleth it self And the Dignity of Princes is in nothing farther from Envy and Danger than in Humility He despised the converse of none though poor if honest He shewed to Sir Philip Warwick who had much of His Trust and Affections in the Isle of Wight a poor ragged Old Man and told him he was
causers themselves can do so that of all wonders yet this is the greatest to Me. But it may be easily gathered how those men intend to govern who have used Me thus And if it be My hard Fate to fall together with the Liberty of this Kingdom I shall not blush for My self but much lament the future Miseries of My People the which I shall still pray to God to avert whatever becomes of Me. CHARLES R. Meditations upon DEATH after the Votes of Non-Addresses and His MAJESTIES closer Imprisonment in Carisbrook Castle AS I have leisure enough so I have cause more than enough to meditate upon and prepare for my Death for I know there are but few steps between the Prisons and Graves of Princes It is God's indulgence which gives Me the space but Mans Cruelty that gives Me the sad occasions for these thoughts For besides the common burthen of Mortality which lies upon Me as a Man I now bear the heavy load of other mens Ambitions Fears Jealousies and cruel Passions whose Envy or Enmity against Me makes their own lives seem deadly to them while I enjoy any part of Mine I thank God my Prosperity made Me not wholly a stranger to the contemplations of Mortality Those are never unseasonabble since this is alwayes uncertain Death being an Eclipse which oft happeneth as well in clear as cloudy dayes But my now long and sharp Adversity hath so reconciled in Me those natural Antipathies between Life and Death which are in all men that I thank God the common terrours of it are dispelled and the special horrour of it as to My particular much allayed for although my Death at present may justly be represented to Me with all those terrible aggravations which the policy of Cruel and Implacable enemies can put upon it affairs being drawn to the very dregs of Malice yet I bless God I can look upon all those stings as unpoisonous though sharp since my Redeemer hath either pulled them out or given Me the Antidote of his Death against them which as to the Immaturity Unjustice Shame Scorn and Cruelty of it exceeded whatever I can fear Indeed I never did find so much the Life of Religion the Feast of a good Conscience and the brazen wall of a judicious Integrity and Constancy as since I came to these closer conflicts with the thoughts of Death I am not so old as to be weary of Life nor I hope so bad as to be either afraid to dye or ashamed to live true I am so afflicted as might make Me sometime even desire to dye if I did not consider that it is the greatest glory of a Christians life to dye daily in conquering by a lively Faith and patient Hopes of a better life those partial and quotidian deaths which kill us as it were by piece-meals and make us overlive our own fates while we are deprived of Health Honour Liberty Power Credit Safety or Estate and those other Comforts of dearest Relations which are as the Life of our lives Though as a KING I think My self to live in nothing temporal 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 poison of Falsity and violence of Hostility to destroy first the Love and Loyalty which is in my Subjects and then all that content of Life in Me which from these I chiefly enjoyed Indeed they have left Me but little of Life and only the husk and shell as it were which their further Malice and Cruelty can take from Me having bereaved Me of all those worldly Comforts for which Life it self seems desirable to men But O my Soul think not that Life too long or tedious wherein God gives Thee any opportunities if not to do yet to suffer with such Christian Patience and Magnanimity in a good Cause as are the greatest Honour of our Lives and the best improvement of our Deaths I know that in point of true Christian Valour it argues Pusillanimity to desire to dye out of weariness of life and a want of that heroick greatness of spirit which becomes a Christian in the patient and generous sustaining those Afflictions which as shadows necessarily attend us while we are in this Body and which are lessened or enlarged as the Sun of our Prosperity moves higher or lower whose total absence is best recompenced with the dew of Heaven The assaults of Affliction may be terrible like Sampson's Lion but they yield much sweetness to those that dare to encounter and overcome them who know how to overlive the witherings of their Gourds without discontent or peevishness 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 sudden and barbarous death in the strength of my years in the midst of my Kingdoms my Friends and loving Subjects being helpless Spectators my Enemies insolent Revilers and Triumphers over Me living dying and dead is so probable in humane reason that God hath taught Me not to hope otherwise as to mans Cruelty however I despair not of God's infinite Mercy I know my Life is the object of the Devils and Wicked mens Malice but yet under God's sole custody and disposal whom I do not think to flatter for longer Life by seeming prepared to die 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 confess 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 suddenness of a barbarous Assassination or in those greater formalities whereby my Enemies being more solemnly cruel 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 less Pity it will be but a necessary policy to make my Death appear as an act of Justice done by Subjects upon their Soveraign who know that no Law of God or Man invests them with any power of Judicature without Me much less 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 his Accusers Parties and Judges but most desperate when this is acted by the insolence of Subjects against their Soveraign wherein those who have had the chiefest hand and are most guilty of contriving the publick Troubles must by shedding My Blood seem to wash their own hands of that innocent blood whereof they are now most evidently guilty before God and Man and I believe in their own
in contracting a new guilt Those whom the fury of War had left gasping in the Field and fainting under their wounds He commends in His Warrants as in that to the Major of Newbury to the care of the Neighbourhood either tenderly to recover or decently bury and His Commands were as well for those that sought to murther Him as those that were wounded in His Defence This made the Impudence and Falshood of Bradshaw more portentous when in his Speech of the Assassination he belch'd out those Comparisons of Caligula and Nero the first would kill numbers of Senators to make himself Sport and the last thought it just enough that Paetus Thraseas should die because he look'd like a School-master But this Prince's Anger was without Danger to any His Admonitions were frequent Corrections seldom but Revenge never He grieved when His Pity had not Power or Skill to save Offenders and then He punished the bad but yet gave them space to repent and make their Execution as near as He could like a natural Death to translate them from hence to a place where they could not Sin He had nothing of the Beast in Him which Machiavel requires in such Princes as make Success the only end of their Counsels and consult a prosperous Grandeur more than an unspotted Conscience He scorned to abuse the Character of God upon Him by turning a Fox to dissemble and abhorred to think that He whom Heaven had made above other men should degenerate to the Cruelty of a Lion He sooner parted with Mortality than Mercy for He ended His dayes with a Prayer for His Enemies and laboured to make His Clemency immortal by commanding the practice of it to His Son None of His Vertues were in the Confines of Vice and therefore this Admirable Clemency proceeded not from a defect of Spirit as His Detractors imputed it His Fortitude and the Vulgar who mistake Cruelty for Valour imagined but like the Bowels of the Supremest Mercy which are incircled with an Infinite Power so this Pity to guilty and frail men was attended with an Incomparable Fortitude For this Vertue consisting in despising Dangers and Enemies in those Causes that render Death comely and glorious the King gave several Evidences of a Contempt of all Power beneath that of Heaven When the Lord Rey first acquainted Him with the Conspiracy of Ramsey and Hamilton He was upon a Remove to Theobalds where the Marquess was to wait upon Him as Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber who having some notice given him of the Discovery besought His Majesty to spare his attendance till he could clear his innocence and return the Treason upon the Accuser The King answered that He would therefore make him wait to let him see He did as little fear his strength as distrust his Loyalty for He knew he durst not attempt His Life because He was resolved to sell it so dear And to make good His Confidence He made him ride alone with Him in His Coach to Theobalds and lie in His Chamber that Night while the sollicitous Court admired and even censured His Magnanimity for it went beyond His pattern and did more than that Emperour who was styled the Delight of Mankind who being informed of a Conspiracy against him invited the two Chiefs of it to accompany him to the Spectacula and caused them both to sit next on each side to him in the Theatre and to give them more advantage for their design put the swords of the Gladiators under colour of enquiring their judgements concerning their sharpness into their hands to shew how little dread he had of their fury But the British Prince's Magnanimity exceeded that of the Excellent Roman's as much as the privacies of a Bed-chamber and the darkness of Night make up a fitter Scene for the Assassination of a beloved Soveraign than a publick Theatre As He never provoked War so He never feared it and when the miserable Necessity lay upon Him to take up Arms to preserve Himself from an unjust Violence He shewed as much if not more Valour than those can boast of that with equal force finished Wars with Conquest in the success of these Fortune the Vanity of an Enemy and the assistances of Friends may challenge a part of the Praise but in that none but His own brave Soul had the Glory For to attempt at Victory against an Enemy that had almost more Forts and Garrisons than He had Families to joyn with Him that with Cannon out-vied the Number of His Muskets that had gotten from Him a Navy which His Care had made the most formidable in the World and not left Him the command of a Cock-boat that were prodigal with the Treasure of a Nation and His Revenues when He begged for a subsistence was such a Courage that would have made that Senate of Gallant Persons who were the most competent Judges of Valour and never censured Vertue by the Success but thanked their Imprudent Consul for not despairing of the Commonwealth when he gathered up those broken Legions which his Rashness had obtruded to an Overthrow to have decreed a Triumph for CHARLES had His life been an Honour to that Age or could those Generations have reckoned Him among their great Examples Most men indeed thought the King's side most glorious yet they concluded the other more terrible those that minded their Duty were in the Royal Camp but such as cared for Safety took part with the Faction or at least did not oppose them As He first entred the War so did He continue in it His Moderation alwayes moved Him to desire Peace and His Fortitude made them sometimes sue for it His Adversaries never prevailed upon His Fears but upon the Treachery and Covetousness of some of His Party who could not endure an Honourable Want and on such their Gold was stronger than their Iron on Him and He was rather Betrayed than Overcome His Greatness of Mind forsook Him not with His Fortune Arms and Liberty it being Natural and not built upon them this made Him tenacious of Majesty when His Power was gone For when Whaley that had the Command of the Guards upon Him while He was in the Army insolently intruded into His Presence to hear His Discourse with a Foreign Minister of State and being bold in his Power and Office refused to obey the Command for a greater Distance the King caned him to an Observance When the Parricides sent their party of Soldiers to force Him from the Isle of Wight to the Slaughter Cobbet that commanded them thrust himself into the Coach with Him but the King sensible that the nearness of such a Villain was like a Contagion to Majesty with His Hand forced him away to herd among his bloody fellows His Spirit alwayes kept above the barbarous Malice of His Enemies and of their rudest Injuries would seem unsensible He told a faithfull Servant of His that the Conspirators had kept Him for two Moneths under a want of Linen and
the Glory of that God whose Minister He was so His Soul was stored with a full Knowledge of the Nature of Things and easily comprehended almost all kinds of Arts that either were for Delight or of a Publick Use for He was ignorant of nothing but of what He thought it became Him to be negligent for many parts of Learning that are for the Ornament of a Private person are beneath the Cares of a Crowned Head He was well skilled in things of Antiquity could judge of Meddals whether they had the number of years they pretended unto His Libraries and Cabinets were full of those things on which length of Time put the Value of Rarities In Painting He had so excellent a Fancy that He would supply the defect of Art in the Workman and suddenly draw those Lines give those Airs and Lights which Experience and Practice had not taught the Painter He could judge of Fortifications and censure whether the Cannon were mounted to Execution or no. He had an excellent Skill in Guns knew all that belonged to their making The exactest Arts of building Ships for the most necessary uses of strength or good sailing together with all their furniture were not unknown to Him He understood and was pleased with the making of Clocks and Watches He comprehended the Art of Printing There was not any one Gentleman of all the three Kingdoms that could compare with Him in an Universality of Knowledge He incouraged all the Parts of Learning and He delighted to talk with all kind of Artists and with so great a Facility did apprehend the Mysteries of their Professions that He did sometime say He thought He could get His Living if Necessitated by any Trade He knew of but making of Hangings although of these He understood much and was greatly delighted in them for He brought some of the most curious Workmen from Foreign Parts to make them here in England His Writings shew what Notions He had gathered from the whole store of Learning His Eloquence which He cloathed with a Wonderfull and most charming Eloquence Which was unquestionably so great that those who endeavoured to despoil Him of His Civil Dominions granted Him a deserved Empire among famous Writers The Book of His Meditations is alone sufficient to make His Assassinates execrable to all that in any Age shall have a sense of Piety or a love to Wisdom and Eloquence For so great an affection in the Breasts of men do excellent Writings acquire for their Authors that though they may be otherwise blameable yet their Works render their Memories precious and the violent Deaths of such increase their Glory while they load their Murtherers with Ignominy All men especially among Posterity deeming so great Wits could not be cut off but to the Publick Injury and by Persons brutishly mad or by some horrid sins debauched to an Enmity with mankind So that all suture times shall admire and applaud His Writings against them and curse their Injustice to Him His Wisdom was not only Speculative in His Writings but also Practical in His Counsels His Political Prudence None found out better means for accomplishing a Design provided safer expedients for the Ressorts of Difficulties or more clearely foresaw the Event at a Distance nor were any Counsels so prosperous as His own when they were vigorously prosecuted by those whom He intrusted with the Execution and He seldom miscarried but when He inclined to follow the Advices of others as He did in that inauspicious Attempt to take Gloucester wherein He forsook His own Reasons which He urged with all possible Evidence of Success to march towards London He saw into the Intrigues of His Enemies and had not the Treacheries which being secret are above the Caution of Humane Nature of some that followed Him opened to them His Designs He had by the Ordinary Course of Providence covered them with the shame both of Imprudence and Overthrow Those Miseries that the Faction after they got into Power brought upon the Nation and the Events of their destructive Enterprises were discovered and foretold by Him in the very beginnings to the deluded World who notwithstanding were Fatally blinded to chuse their own Ruine Whensoever His Secretaries had drawn up by the Direction of the Council Declarations or any other Papers and offered them to His perusal though both they and the Council had done their parts yet He would alwayes with His own hand correct them both as to Matter and Form He commonly using these words when He took the Pen in His hand Come I am a good Cobler and the Corrections were acknowledged by them all to be both for the greater lustre and advantage of the Writings His Instructions to His Ambassadors Commissioners Deputies were so full of Wisdom and such prudent provisions for all the Ressorts of those they were to treat with that there was nothing to be supplyed on their parts to make their Negotiations happy but seasonable Applications or a fortune to deal with reasonable men It was the Observation of a Noble Person who was dear to Him for his Wisdom and Faithluiness and was of His Council in all His Troubles that had the King been a Counsellor to any other Prince He would have gained the Esleem of an Oracle all His Proposals being grounded upon the greatest Reason and proper to the Business consulted about Those that have been forward to interpret His Actions by the Suceess and from thence have proceeded to the Censure of His Prudence considered not the numerous Difficulties in forming any Resolution nor the fallacious representations of Affairs to Him but only looked upon His unprosperous Resolves according to the Fate of unhappy Counsels which is to have that condemned which was put in Execution and that praised as best which was never tryed Thus was He made for Empire as well as born unto it and had all those Excellencies which The Censure of His Fortune if we had been free to chuse must have determined our Election of a Sovereign to Him alone there being nothing wanting in Him that the severest Censors of Princes do number among the Requisites of a compleat Monarch It was therefore the wonder of those who conceive every man to be the Artificer of His own Fortune how it came to pass that He had not that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an uninterrupted current of Success which some men reckon among the constitutives of Happiness in all His Enterprises To Others that impute all our affairs here below to an inviolable Method of the Decrees of Heaven which yet they acknowledge just though dark it seemed one of the Riddles of Providence that a King of so great Vertues should yet be calamitous for let Posterity judge how great and how good this Prince was that could not be ruined even after a War which usually embitters the Spirits of those that are molested by it and a total Overthrow whose common Consequent is Contempt but by so various and
Consciences too while they carried on unreasonable demands first by Tumults after by Armies Nothing makes mean spirits more cowardly-cruel in managing their usurped Power against their lawfull Superious than this the Guilt of their unjust Vsurpation notwithstanding those specious and popular pretensions of Justice against Delinquents applyed only to disguise at first the monstrousness of their designs who despaired indeed of possessing the power and profits of the Vineyard till the Heir whose right it is be cast out and slain With them my greatest Fault must be that I would not either destroy My self 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 it likely they will ever think that Kingdom of Brambles which some men seek to erect at once weak sharp and fruitless either to God or Man is like to thrive till watered with the Royal Blood of those whose right the Kingdom is Well God's will be done I doubt not bu◠my Innocency will find him both my Protector and my Advocate who is my only Judge whom I own as King of Kings not only 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 and Religion on Earth as there be either Men or Devils which love Confusion Nor will he suffer those men long to prosper in their Babel who build it with the Bones and cement it with the Blood of their KINGS I am confident they will find Avengers of my Death among themselves the Injuries I have sustained from them shall be first punished by them who agreed in nothing so much as in opposing Me. Their impatience to bear the loud cry of my Blood shall make them think no way better to expiate 〈◊〉 than by shedding theirs who with them most thirsted after Mine The sad Confusions following my Destruction are already presaged and confirmed to Me by those I have lived to see since my Troubles in which God alone who only could hath many wayes pleaded my Cause not sustering them to go unpunished whose Confederacy in Sin was their only Security who have cause to fear that God will both further divide and by murual Vengeance afterward destroy them My greatest conquest of Death is from the Power and Love of Christ who hath swallow'd up Death in the Victory of his Resurrection and the glory of his Ascension My next Comfort is that he gives Me not only the honour to imitate his Example in suffering for Righteousness sake though obscured by the foulest charges of Tyranny and Injustice but also that Charity which is the noblest Revenge upon and Victory over my Destroyers by which I thank God I can both forgive them and pray for them that God would not impute my Blood to them further than to convince them what need they have of Christs Blood to wash their Souls 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 Success the exactor of what they please to call Justice while they flatter themselves with the fancy of their own Safety by My Danger and the security of their Lives and Designs by My Death forgetting that as the greatest temptations to Sin are wrapped up in seeming Prosperities so the severest Vengeances of God are then most accomplished when men are suffered to compleat their wicked purposer I bless God I pray not so much that this bitter cup of a Violent Death may pass from Me as that of his Wrath may pass from all those whose hands by deserting me are sprinkled or by acting and consenting to my Death are embrued with my Blood 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 than infinitely recompence whatever by Mans Injustice he is pleased to deprive me of The Glory attending my Death will far surpass all I could enjoy or conceive in Life I shall not want the heavy and envied Crowns of this world when my God hath mercifully crowned and consummated his Graces with Glory and exchanged the shadows of my Earthly Kingdoms among men for the substance of that Heavenly Kingdom with Himself For the censures of the world I know the sharp 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 do not only pity and pray for Me but would be content even to die with Me or for Me. These know how to excuse my Failings as a Man and yet to retain and pay their Duty to Me as their KING there being no Religious necessity binding any Subjects by pretending to punish infinitely to exceed the faults and errours of their Princes especially there where more than sufficient Satisfaction hath been made to the publick the enjoyment of which private Ambitions have hitherto frustrated Others I believe of softer tempers and less advantaged by my Ruine do already feel sharp Convictions and some remorse in their Consciences where they cannot but see the proportions of their evil dealings against Me in the measure of God's retaliations upon them who cannot hope long to enjoy their own thumbs and toes having under pretence of paring others nails been so cruel as to cut off their chiefest strength The punishment of the more insolent and obstinate 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 chiefly depended for their building and establishing their Designs 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 Tribunal I shall not fear to appear as to the Cause so long disputed by the Sword between Me and my causless Enemies where I doubt not but his Righteous Judgement will confute their Fallacy who from worldly Success rather like Sophisters than sound Christians draw those popular Conclusions for God's Approbation of their actions whose wise Providence we know oft permits many events which his revealed Word the only clear safe and fixed Rule of good Actions and good Consciences in no sort approves I am confident the Justice of my
Cause and Clearness of my Conscience before God and toward my People will carry Me as much above them in God's 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 Injuriousness and Oppression of the Design The prosperous winds which oft fill the sails of Pirats do not justifie their Piracy and Rapine I look upon it with infinite more content and quiet of Soul to have been worsted in my enforced Contestation for and Vindication of the Laws of the Land the Freedom 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 than if I had with the greatest advantages of Success over-born them all as some men have now evidently done what-ever Designs they at first pretended The Prayers and Patience of my Friends and loving Subjects will contribute much to the sweetning of this bitter Cup which I doubt not but I shall more chearfully take and drink as from God's hand if it must be so than they can give it to Me whose hands are unjustly and barbarously lifted up against Me. And as to the last event I may seem to owe more to my Enemies than my Friends while those will put a period to the Sins and Sorrows attending this miserable Life wherewith these desire I might still contend I shall be more than Conquerour through Christ enabling Me for whom I have hitherto suffered as he is the Author of Truth Order and Peace for all which I have been forced to contend against Errour Faction and Confusion If I must suffer a Violent Death with my Saviour it is but Mortality crowned with Martyrdom where the debt of Death which I owe for Sin 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 own Sin as from God and the effect of others Sins as men both against God and Me yet as I hope My own Sins are so remitted that they shall be no ingredients to imbitter the cup of my Death so I desire God to pardon their Sins 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 obtain that my Temporal Death unjustly inflicted by them may not be revenged by God's just inflicting Eternal Death upon them for I look upon the Temporal Destruction of the greatest King as far less deprecable than the Eternal Damnation of the meanest Subject Nor do I wish other than the safe bringing of the Ship to shore when they have cast Me over-board though it be very strange that Mariners can sind no other means to appease the Storm themselves have raised but by drowning their Pilot. I thank God my Enemies Cruelty cannot prevent my Preparation whose Malice in this I shall defeat that they shall not have the satisfaction to have destroyed my Soul with my Body of whose Salvation while some of them have themselves seemed and taught others to despair they have only discovered this that they do not much desire it Whose uncharitable and cruel Restraints denying Me even the assistance of any of my Chaplains hath rather enlarged than any way obstructed my access to the Throne of Heaven Where Thou dwellest O King of Kings who fillest Heaven and Earth who art the fountain of Eternal Life in whom is no shadow of Death Thou O God art both the just Inflicter of Death upon us and the merciful Saviour of us in it and from it Yea it is better for us to be dead to our selves and live in Thee than by living in our selves to be deprived of Thee O make the many bitter aggravations of my Death as a Man and a King the opportunities and advantages of thy special Graces and Comforts in my Soul as a Christian If Thou Lord wilt be with Me I shall neither fear nor feel any evil though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death To contend with Death is the work of a weak and mortal man to overcome it is the Grace of Thee alone who art the Almighty and Immortal God O my Saviour who knowest what it is to die with Me as a man make Me to know what it is to pass through Death to Life with Thee my God Though I die yet I know that Thou my Redeemer livest for ever though Thou slayest Me yet Thou hast incouraged Me to trust in Thee for Eternal Life O withdraw not thy Favour from Me which is better than Life O be not far from Me for I know not how near a violent and Cruel Death is to Me. As thy Omniscience O God discovers so thy Omnipotence can defeat the Designs of those who have or shall conspire my Destruction O shew Me the goodness of thy Will through the wickedness of theirs Thou givest Me leave as a man to pray that this Cup may pass from Me but Thou hast taught Me as a Christian by the example of Christ to add Not My will but Thine be done Yea Lord let our wills be one by wholly resolving Mine into Thine let not the desire of Life in Me be so great as that of doing or suffering thy Will in either Life or Death As I believe Thou hast forgiven all the Errours of my Life so I hope Thou wilt save Me from the Terrours of my Death Make Me content to leave the Worlds Nothing that I may come really to enjoy All in Thee who hast made Christ unto Me in Life Gain and in Death Advantage Though my Destroyers forget their Duty to Thee and Me yet do not Thou O Lord forget to be merciful to them For what profit is there in my Blood or in their gaining my Kingdoms if they lose their own Souls Such as have not only resisted my just Power but wholly usurped and turned it against My self though they may deserve yet let them not receive to themselves Damnation Thou madest thy Son a Saviour to many that crucified Him while at once He suffered violently by them and yet willingly for them O let the voice of his Blood be heard for My Murtherers louder than the Cry of Mine against them Prepare them for thy Mercy by due Convictions of their Sin and let them not at once deceive and damn their own Souls by fallacious pretensions of Justice in destroying Me while the conscience of their unjust Vsurpation of power against Me chiefly tempts them to use all extremities against Me. O Lord Thou knowest I have found their Mercies to Me as very false so very cruel who