servants joyned himself with the Lord Goring Sr. Charles Lucas and others who with a considerable Army were then in Essex and after a long Siege were forced to surrender their Garrison of Colchester In the Articles of that rendition this right noble Lord was included and had quarter given him for life though it was afterwards unhansomly unsaid again by him that gave it who left him after his Parol given to a High Court of Justice upon this surrender he was committed to the Tower where whilst he remained he endeavoured to escape which he well effected but crossing the water through some discourse he let fall Jones the Waterman conceiving what he was upon his landing discovered him had him retaken and committed again in order to his Tryal In the middle of March 1648 he was brought before the said High Court of Justice where he said enough in reason and justice to have cleared himself insisting upon his Priviledge as a Peer and claiming the benefit of the Laws which owned no such arbitrary Power as this against the life of any Subject especially a Noble Man and in sum denied their Jurisdiction and pleaded his quarter given him as abovesaid but nothing would avail they proceeded to Judgment and with Duke Hamilton the Earl of Holland Earl of Norwich and Sr. John Owen sentenced him to be beheaded which was executed accordingly on the ninth of March. We will now take a view of him after the tmie of his Condemnation when he was to encounter and look Death in the face He alwaies kept a very chearful and well composed temper of mind which proceeded from true Christian Principles he would often say it was the good God he served and the good cause he had served for that made him not to fear Death adding that he never had the temptation of so much as a thought to check him for his engagement in this quarrel for he took it for his Crown and glory and wished he had a greater ability and better fortune to engage in it The afternoon before his suffering he was a great while in private with a Minister where bewailing with that sense which became a true and not despairing penitent the sins of his life past the greatest he could remember was his voting my Lord of Straffords death which though as he said he did without any malice at all yet he confessed it to be a very great sin and that he had done it out of a base fear his own words of a prevailing party of which he had very often and very heartily repented and was confident of Gods pardon for it Then he desired to receive the Blessed Sacrament before he dyed After this being afraid of some danger to the Minister that attended him for that work of Love and some Conference in order to his preparation both for his provision and his voyage the Sacrament and his death he desired to go to Prayers which being performed he returned to his private devotions The next morning being the day of his death he desired the Minister who was with him before to hear and joyn with him in Prayers which he did for half an hour in an excellent method very apt Expressions and most strong hearty and passionate affections First confessing and bewailing his sins with strong cries and tears then humbly and most earnestly desiring Gods mercy through the Merits of Christ alone Secondly For his dear Lady and Children with some passion but for her especially with most ardent affections recommending them to the Divine Providence with great confidence and affurance and desiring for them rather the blessings of a better life than of this Thirdly For the King Church and Kingdom And Lastly For his Enemies with almost the same ardour and affection After Prayer ended my Lord of Norwich and Sr. John Owen being sent for the Minister read the whole Office of the Church for Good Friday and then after a short Homily for the occasion he received the Sacrament again in which action he behaved himself with great Humility Zeal and Devotion Being demanded after the receiving thereof how he found himself he replyed very much better stronger and cheerfuller for that heavenly repast and that he doubted not to walk like a Christian through the vale of death in the strength of it But he was to have an Agony before his Passion and that was the parting with his Wife eldest Son now Earl of Essex his Son in Law two of his Uncles and Sr. T.C. especially his parting with his dearest Lady which indeed was the saddest spectacle that could be In which occasion as he could not choose but shew and confesse a little of humane frailty yet even then he did not forget both to comfort and counsel her and the rest of his friends particularly in blessing the yuong Lord he commanded him never to revenge his death though it should be in his power the like he said unto his Lady He told his Son he would leave him a Legacy out of David's Psalms and that was this Lord lead me in a plain path For Boy saith he I would have you a plain honest man and hate dissimulation After this was past with much adoe his Wife and the rest of his Friends were perswaded to begone and then being all alone with the Minister he said Doctor the hardest part of my work in this World is now past meaning the parting with his Wife Then he desired the said Minister to pray preparatively for his death that in the last action he might so behave himself as might be most for Gods Glory for the indearing of his dead Masters memory and his present Masters service and that he might avoid the doing or saying of any thing which might savour either of ambition or vanity This being done he was conveyed with the other two Lords who suffered with him to Sr. Robert Cottons where the Minister staid with him till he was called to the Scaffold whither the Guard of Souldiers permitted him not to come so that my Lord took leave of him there The same day he died he wrote this following Letter to his Wife My dearest Life MY Eternal life is in Christ Jesus my wordly considerations in the highest degree thou hast deserved let me live long here in thy dear memory to the comfort of my Family our dear Children whom God out of mercy in Christ hath bestowed upon us I beseech thee take care of thy health sorrow not afflict not thy self too much God will be unto thee better than an Husband and to my Children better than a Father I am sure he is able to be so I am confident he is graciously pleased to be so God be with thee my most vertuous Wife God multiply many Comforts to thee and my Children which is the fervent Prayer of Thy c. He hath also left behind him an excellent Book of Meditations and some other Miscellaneous things especially an Exhertation to stir up the hearts and endeavours of
waies that I have taken every body knows what my Affections have been to many that have suffered to many that have been in troubles in this Kingdom I endeavoured to relieve them I endeavoured to oblige them I thought I was tied so by my Conscience I thought it by my Charity and truly very much by my Breeding God hath now brought me to the last instant of my time all that I can say and all that I can adhere unto is this That as I am a great sinner so I have a great Saviour that as he hath given me here a Fortune to come publickly in a shew of shame in the way of this suffering truly I underst and it not to be so I understand it to be a Glory a glory when I consider who hath gone before me and a glory when I consider I had no end in it but what I conceive to be the Service of God the King and the Kingdom and therefore my heart is not charged much with any thing in that particular since I conceive God will accept of the intention whatsoever the Action seems to be I am going to die and the Lord receive my Soul I have no Reliance but upon Christ For my self I do acknowledge that I am the unworthiest of sinners my Life hath been a vanity and a continued sin and God may justly bring me to this end for the sins I have committed against him and were there nothing else but the iniquities that I have committed in the way of my Life I look upon this as a great Justice of God to bring me to this Suffering and to bring me to this Punishment and those hands that have been most active in it if any such there hath been I pray God forgive them I pray God there may not be many such Trophies of their Victories but that this may be as I said before the last shew that this People shall see of the Bloud of persons of Condition of Persons of Honour I might say somthing of the way of our Trial which certainly hath been as extraordinary as any thing I think hath ever been seen in this Kingdom but because that I would not seem as if I made some complaint I will not so much as mention it because no body shall believe I repine at their Actions that I repine at my Fortune it is the will of God it is the hand of God under whom I fall I take it entirely from him I submit my self to him I shall desire to roul my self into the Arms of my blessed Saviour and when I come to this * Pointing to the Block place when I bow down my self there I hope God will raise me up and when I bid farewel as I must now to Hope and to Faith that Love will abide I know nothing to accompany the Soul out of this world but Love and I hope that Love will bring me to the fountain of glory in Heaven through the Arms Mediation and the Mercy of my Saviour Jesus Christ in whom I believe O Lord help my Unbelief Hodges The Lord make over unto you the Righteousness of his own Son it is that Treasury that he hath bestowed upon you and the Lord shew you the light of his countenance and fill you full with his Joy and Kindness O my dear Lord the Lord of Heaven and Earth be with you and the Lord of Heaven Earth bring you to that Safety Holland I shall make as much hast as I can to come to that Glory and the Lord of Heaven and Earth take my Soul I look upon my self entirely in him and hope to find Mercy through him I expect it and through that Fountain that is opened for sin and for uncleanness my soul must receive it for did I rest in any thing else I have nothing but sin and Corruption in me I have nothing but that which in stead of being carried up into the Arms of God and of Glory I have nothing but may throw me down into Hell Bolton But my Lord when you are cloathed with the Righteousness of another you will appear Glorious though now sinful in your self The Apostle saith I desire not to be found in my own Righteousness and when you are cloathed with another the Lord will own you and I shall say but thus much Doubt not that ever God will deny Salvation to sinners that come to him when the end of all his death and sufferings was the Salvation of sinners when as I say the whole end and the whole Design and the great work that God had to do in the world by the death of Christ wherein he laid out all his Counsels and infinite wisdom and goodness beyond which there was a non ultra in Gods thoughts when this was the great design and great end the salvation of poor sinners that poor souls should come over to him and live certainly when sinners come he will not reject he will not refuse And my Lord do but think of this the greatest work that ever was done in the world was the bloud of Christ that was shed never any thing like it And this Bloud of Christ that was shed was shed for them that come if not for them for none it was in vain else You see the Devils they are out of capacity of good by it the Angels they have no need of it wicked men will not come and there are but few that come over but a few that come over and should he deny them there were no end nor fruit of the Blond and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus and had your Lordship been with Christ in that bloudy Agony when he was in that bloudy sweat sweating drops of Bloud if you had asked him Lord what art thou now a doing art thou not now reconciling an angry God and me together art thou not pacifying the wrath of God art thou not interposing thy self between the Justice of God and my soul Would he not have said Yea and surely then he mill not deny it now My Lord his Passions are over his Compassions still remain and the larger and greater because he is gone up into an higher place that he may throw down more abundance of his mercy and grace upon you and my Lord think of that infinite love that abundance of riches in Christ I am lost I am empty I have nothing I am poor I am sinful be it so as bad as God will make me and as vile as I possibly can conceive my self I am willing to be but when I have said all the more I advance that Riches and honour that Grace of God And why should I doubt when by this he puts me into a capacity into a disposition for him to shew me Mercy that by this I may the better advance the riches of his Grace and say grace grace to the Lord to all Eternity that God should own such a Creature that deserves nothing and the less I deserve the more conspiâ—uous is his
twinckling of an eye as the Scriptures phrase is yet are there many previous dispositions which make way unto it all which are comprehended in the name of death And in that latitude of expression do we take the word in laying down the story of his death before you which being writ out of an honest zeal to truth and a sincere affection to his name and memory shall either be approved of or at least excused It was the practice and position of the antient Donatists the Predecessors and Progenitors of the modern Puritan occidere quemcunâ— qui contra eos fecerit to kill and make away whoever durst oppose their doings or was conceived to be an hindrance to their growing faction And by this Card their followers in these Kingdoms have been steered of late imprisoning and destroying all who have stood against them It is long since they entertained such desperate purposes against the life and person of the Lord Arch-Bishop threatnig his death in scattered Libels tellig him that his life was sought for that neither God nor man could endure so vile a Counsellor to live any longer This was about the end of March 1629 and was the Prologue to those libels full of threats and scandals which year by year exasperated and inflamed the People till they had made them ripe for mischief and readily prepared to execute whatever their grand Directors should suggest unto them Saint Paul did never fight more frequent and more terrible combats with the beasts of Ephesus for the promotion of the Gospel then he with these untractable and fiery spirits who most seditiously opposed his religious purposes of setling unity and uniformity in this Church of England And in this state things stood till the year 1640 in which not only many factious and seditious People in and about the City of London made an assault by night on his House at Lambeth with an intent to murther him had they found him there but the whole faction of the Scots declared in a Remonstrance to the English Nation that one of the chief causes which induced them to invade this Realm was to remove him from his Majesty and bring him to the punishment which he had deserved The manner of their coming hit her and the great entertainment given them by the faction here shewed plainly that they were not like to be sent away without their Errand and makes it evident that his ruine was resolved on in their secret Councils before the Parliament was called or that they had declared so much by their will revealed The Parliament had not long continued but he is named for an Incendiary by the Scottish Commissioners and thereupon accused of Treason by the House of Commons And although no particular Charge was brought against him but only a bare promise to prepare it in convenient time yet was he presently committed to the custody of the Gentleman Vsher and by him kept in durance till the end of February being full ten weeks about which time his Charge was brought unto the Lords but in generals only and longer time required for particular instances And yet upon this Lydsord law by which they used to hang men first and endite them afterwards was he committed to the Tower being followed almost all the way by the Râ—scal multitude who barbarously pursued him with reproaches and clamours to the very gates and there detained contrary to all Law and Justice almost four years longer This was the first great breach which was made by Parliament in the liberties of the English Subject save that their like proceedings with the Earl of Strafford was a preparative unto it and was indeed the very gap at which the slavery and oppression under which this miserable Nation hath for many years pined and languished did break in What right could meaner persons look for when as so great a Peer was doomed to so long imprisonment without being called to his Answer But yet the malice of his Enemies was not so contented For though some of the more moderate or rather the lesse violent Lords who did not pierce into the depth of the design gave out that they intended only to remove him from his Majesties eare and to deprive him of his Arch-Bishoprick which resolution notwithstanding being taken up before any charge was brought against him was as unjust though not so cruel as the others yet they shewed only by this Ovonture that they did reckon without their Hosts and might be of the Court perchance but not of the Counsel The leading and predominant party thought of nothing lesse then that he should escape with life or go off with liberty Only perhaps they might conceive some wicked hopes that either the tediousnesse of his restraint or the indignitie and affronts which day by day were offer'd to him would have broken his heart not formerly accustomed to the like oppressions And then like Pilate in the Gospel they had called for water and washed their hands before the multitude and said that they were innocent of the blood of that righteous person thinking that by such wretched figg-leaves they could not only hide their wickednesse and deceive poor men but that God also might be mocked and his All-seeing eie deluded to which all hearts lye open all desires are known and from which no secrets can be hidden To this end not content to immute him up within the walls of the Tower they robb him of his menial servants restrain him to two only of his number and those not to have conserence with any others but in the presence of his Warder and in conclusion make him a close Prisoner not suffering him to go out of his lodging to refresh himself but in the company of his Keeper And all this while they vex his Soul continually with scandalous and infamous Papers and set up factious and seditious Preachers to inveigh against him in the Pulpit to his very face so to expose him to the scorn both of boyes and women who many times stood up and turned towards him to observe his countenance to see if any alteration did appear therein And to the same ungodly end did they divest him of his Archiepiscopal and Episcopal jurisdiction conferring it on his inferiour and subordinate Officers sequester his rents under pretence of maintenance for the Kings younger Children as if his Majesties Revenues which they had invaded were not sufficient for that purpose convert his House at Lambeth into a Prison and confiscate all his coals and fewel to the use of their Gaoler deprive him of his right of Patronage and take into their own hands the disposing of all his Benefices seize upon all his goods and books which they found at Lambeth and in conclusion rifle him of his notes and papers not only such as were of ordinary use and observation but such as did concern him in the way of his just defence In which they did not any thing from the first to the last but in a proud
the title was mistaken and no answer given therefore it was that another petition was drawn up to the same effect with a new Title given as I remember presented by the Serjeant at arms and one writ it over in such hast lest they should be drawn out of the Painted-Chamber into the Court that I had not time to read it over only I subscribed my name and there was in the front of the Petition a word left out but what the word was I know not and this was taken so ill as if I had put an affront or contempt upon the Court And it was thought they would have heard me plead and then because of that mistake they sent word I should have my answer when I came into the Court and my answer was the sentence of condemnation And therefore I pray with all my sonl that God would forgive all those that occasioned the charge to be drawn against me to give such unjust things against me I pray with all my soul that God would forgive all those upon so slender and small grounds adjudg'd me to die taking advantage of such simple ignorance as I was in And I had at the very beginning of my pleading engaged their honours no advantage should be taken against me to my prejudice that in as much as I understood nothing of the Law And having heard that a man in the nicety of the Law might be lost in the severity thereof meerly for speaking a word out of simple ignorance I made it my prayer to them that no advantage might be taken against me to the prejudice of my person and there was to me a seeming consent for the President told me there should be no advantage taken against me and upon these considerations I am afraid there was too great uncharitableness But I pray God forgive them from the very bottom of my soul and I desire that even those that shed my blood may have the bowels of the God of mercy shed for them And now having given you the occasion of my coming hit her it is fit I should give you somewhat as concerning my self as I am a Christian and as I am a Clergy-man First as I am a Christian I thank God I was baptized to the holy Church so I was baptized to be a Member of the holy Catholique Church that is the Church of England which I dare say for purity of Doctrine and orderly Discipline till a sad reformation had spoiled the face of the Church and made it a query whether it were a Church or no I say it was more purely Divine and Apostolical then any other Doctrine or Church in the Christian world whether National or Classical or Congregational And I must tell you That as I am a Member of this Church so I am a Member of the holy Catholick Church shall give a most just confession of my Faith both negatively and affirmatively Negatively I am so a Member of the Catholick Church that I abhor all Sects Schisms Sedition and Tyranny in Religion Affirmatively so that as I hold Communion with so I love and honour all Christians in the world that love the same Lord JESUS in sincerity and call on his Name agreeing with those truths that are absolutely necessary and clearly demonstrated in the Word of God both in the Old and New Testament though in charity dissenting from some others that are not necessary And I as I am thus a Christian I hope for salvation through the Merits of Christ Jesus his blood I relie on his merits I trust to for the salvation of my own soul though to this Faith good Works are necessary not meritorious in us but onely made meritorious by Christ his death by his alsufficiency by his satisfaction and his righteousness they become meritorious but in us they are no other than as defiled Rags And truly as I am a Member of the Church so I told you I was a Member of this Community and so pleaded for the Liberties and Priviledges thereof I must now answer something I am aspersed withal in the World They talk of something of a Plot and a Treasonable design and that I had a great interest in the knowledge and practise thereof and that for the saving my life I would have discovered and betrayed I cannot tell what I hope my conversation hath not been such here in this City where I have been a long time very well known as to make one imagine I should intermedle in such an action and go so contrary to the practice of my profession and I hope there are none so uncharitable towards me as to believe I had a knowledge of that design Here I must come to particulars for a Plot of having a design upon the City of London for the firing of it I so much tremble at the thought of the thing that should have been done as they say for the carrying on of such a design if my heart deceive me not had I known it I so much abhorre the thing I should have been the first discoverer of it Nor ever had I had correspondency or meerings with such persons as would have carried on such a design It is said likewise I entertained the Earl the Marquess of Ormond To my remembrance I never saw the face of that honourable person in my life It is said one Lords day I did preach at Saint Gregories and the next Lords day I was at Brussels or Bruges and kist the Kings hand and brought I cannot tell what Orders and Instructions from him This I shall say For these three years last past together I have not been sixty miles from this City of London and I think it is somewhat further to either of those places than threescore miles It is said that I kept correspondency with one Mallory and Bishop They are persons I have heard of their names but never saw their faces and to my knowledge I do not know they know me nor do I know them at all but only as I have heard of their names And whosoever else hath suggested such things against me I know not His Highnesse was pleased to tell me I was like a flaming Torch in the midst of a sheaf of Corn He meaning I being a publick Preacher was able to set the City on fire by sedition and combustions and promoting designes Here truly I do say and have it from many of those who are Judges of the High-Court that upon examination of the business they have not found me a medler at all in these Affairs And truly I must needs say therefore That it was a very uncharitable act in them whoever they were that brought such accusation against me and irritated his Highness against me I will not say it was malice it might be zeal but it was rash zeal which caused me to be senrenced to this place The God of mercy pardon and forgive them all And truly as I am a Member of the Church and as a member