acted that Religious and Reverend Divine Doctor Hewet the golden-tongu'd Chrysostom entered the Lists of Death In this warfare the Doctour put on the spiritual armor of a blessed confidence delivering his minde to the people in these following words I am now become a publick spectacle to men and Angels and I hope God who is omniscient is now beholding me with much pitty and great mercy and compassion and the more because I am now come to that end that his own Son came into the world to to bear witness to the Truth he himself said For this end was I born for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness to the Truth I was brought into the world the Christian world for to bear witness to the truth of the Gospel as a common Christian I was brought into the world the Church as a Minister of his blessed Word and Sacraments Blessed be his name for that great honor and dignity and I came into the world to dye more immediately for the testimony of Jesus which God hath now called me to I came into this world this Commonwealth to be a member thereof to bear witness to the truths of the Customs the Laws the Liberties and Priviledges thereof so I am a Member of the Common-wealth And methinks it seems to me a strange thing that in as much as we all plead for Liberty and Priviledges and I pleading for the Priviledges the Laws the Statutes and the Customs of this Land yet I should dye by those that should stand for the Laws the Statutes and Priviledges of the Land And I am here beheld by those that plead for their Liberties and I hope I am pittied because I here give up my self willingly and freely to be a State-Martyr for the publick good and I had rather dye many deaths my self then betray my fellow-freemen to so many inconveniences that they might be like to suffer by being subject to the wills of them that willed me to this death And it is worthy remembrance that Master Solicitor having impeached me of Treason to the Commissioners of the Court against his Highness I did often when brought before those Commissioners plead for the liberties of the people of England though I had no knowledge of the Law yet I had instructions from those that were learned in the Law and had several Law-cases and Presidents put into my hand though not by them and urged several Law-cases and made my appeal First for the Judicature that I was to be tryed by Whether it were according to Law Whether it were according to the Act and whether it were according to the words of the said Act I did appeal to have the said Act argued by learned Lawyers on both sides and then to be resolved by his Highness own Councel which was denied me This by the by I pressing the Argument made a second Appeal that those Judges if they would give singly their several judgements that it was a just and lawful Court of Judicature I would answer to my Charge I did make another Appeal to those that were his Highnesses Councel and pleaded against me That if they would deliver it to me under their hands to be according to Law I would then go on to plead and answer to the Charge What was then said further my spirits being faint I shall not say much but onely this I was taken in three defaults upon formality of the Court It seems it is a custom in all Courts which I did not know before that if they answer not the third time speaking by the Clerk that then they are guilty of three defaults and proceeded against as mute I had no such knowledge of the Law So they found me guilty of those defaults and when I would have pleaded and resolved to begin to plead I was taken from the Bar. I did the next day make my Petition to the Court in the Painted Chamber two Petitions were presented the same in effect the former the Title was mistaken Yet because 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 haste lest they should be drawn out of the Painted Chamber into the Court that I had not time to read it over onely 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 and contempt on 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 soul 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 that upon so slender and small grounds adjudg'd me to dye 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 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 hither it is fit I should give you somewhat as concerning my self as I am a Christian and as I am a Cleargy-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 Catholique Church and shall give a most just confession of my Faith both negatively and affirmatively negatively I am so a Member
being by the divine disposal from the foregoing part of his life as strange as ever I have read in History His last words were to this effect Christian People I come hither to dye I am brought hither to dye and that I may dye Christian like I humbly beseech the assistance of your Christian prayers that by the benefit of them my passage may be the more easie Yet because men in that condition which it hath pleased God to reduce me to give the more credit to Speech in the discharge of my duty towards God I shall use a few words and so conclude I pray all of you joyn with me to praise this Almighty God to whom I desire to render all hearty thanks as for all his mercies so in particular for this that he hath brought me hither that whereas I owe a debt to sin and to nature that now I can pay the debt to nature I can pay it upon the account of Grace And because it is fit to render the blessed account of that hope that is in me I shall tell you to the praise of Almighty God that I have been born and bred up in the Doctrine of the Church of England I have no negative Religion believing to be saved by the onely merits of my Saviour Jesus Christ and whatsoever else is profest in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England authorized by Law humbly beseeching Almighty God to restore unto this Church her peace prosperity and patrimony whereof I have been an obedient and a loving however an unworthy Son and now both my hope being confident and my faith perfected there remains onely Christian Charity Charity we carry into heaven Charity on earth that I leave beseeching all whomsoever I have offended to forgive me as I from the bottom of my heart do all whomsoever blessing Almighty God for the happy advantage he takes to bring me the sooner to heaven I bless Almighty God that he hath given me this advantage as he hath been merciful to me before the foundation of the world in my Saviour so that now he hath in mercy honoured me with a suffering for his name in obedience to his Commandment On this day sevennight I was summoned before that Justice which condemned me on Friday last praised be Almighty God that by this way he hath brought me nearer to himself My charge I presume is publick as my punishment is visible if there have been any thing in the management of my part being unskilful having discontinued my own countrey many years I shall beseech the Christian Charity of all you my beloved Countrey-men to impute it rightly to the ignorance of my unskilful wayes of managing of affairs it was objected unto me there that I had a vanity of delighting in strange tongues I do acknowledge that I was best skilled in the Italian but free from that vanity I thank Almighty God and therefore I would in defence of my life if it had been the custom here or the Judges favour have used that language which was almost as natural to me as my mother tongue It was objected that I did not so freely as a thorow-paced Cavalier own my Master I was told since I came into England this skill I have in our Laws that a legal denyal in Law might be tollerable I hope I did not exceed the bounds of that in any thing for God forbid that I should be ashamed of serving so good so pious so just a Master putting off his hat for this I rejoyce and I humbly beseech Almighty God to fill my heart and my tongue and all that hear me this day with thankfulness for it As to the business that another construction had been made and believed here then what was there the righteous God knoweth it if any weakness were in the management that was mine I was sent to serve and protect not to injure any as God acquits me of the intention of matter of fact as having not done any manner of evil that way however here understood blessed be his holy name again putting off his hat so those Gentlemen of the Turky Company if they would might acknowledge for they know it very well the impossibility of my doing them any manner of harm Whereas that of the Embassy objected against me that my Master honoured me with it though I was never worthy of it I was his messenger and Internuntio for the conservation onely of his good Subjects of all the Merchants untill such time as he could confirme that Gentlemen now Resident or to send any other and they themselves know that there was an unpossibility as I bless God there was an innocency in me unto any such intention to do them harm for my Masters commands were point blank the contrary I was onely sent for their good as I never owned the title so the very letters themselves speaking no other I never did so much as think of any manner of address to the Grand Signior but gave him the letter from my Master the rest of the English Nation that were there present may when they please assert so much This I would insert that those Gentlemen as they have been losers by the miscarriages of others may now have a breach of their charity with me but if it be as it seems it is now in this Countrey a sin to be loyal I hope my God hath forgiven that when it is upon harmless employment not invading any according to my just Masters order for indeed I have been alwayes bred up in the Religion of Loyalty my Allegiance hath been incorporated into my Religion and I have thought it a great part of the service due from me to Almighty God to serve the King again putting off his hat He said I need not make any apology for any thing in relation to the present Affairs in England for were I as I spake beformy Judges were I as evil as my sentence here hath made me black it were impossible for me to have prejudiced any body in England or to England belonging in that employment but I bless God for his infinite mercy in Jesus Christ who hath taken me to himself by this manner of way it was the best Physick for the curing of my soul and those that have done it have no more Power then that of my body I leave nothing behinde me but that I am willing to part withal all that I am going to is desirable and that you may all know that Almighty God hath wrought in me a total denyal of my self and that there is that perfect reformation of me within of my own corruptions by the blessed assistance of his holy spirit I desire Almighty God in the abundance of the bowels of his mercy in Jesus Christ not onely to forgive every enemy if any such be in the world here or wheresoever but to bring him into his bosom so much good and particular comfort as he may at any time whether the cause
written thirty verses in a morning spent the rest of the day to convert them into three good ones like Ben. Johnson who to one that told him of his oyl and his lamp the pains he took before his Births those happy abstracts of the humours and manners of men gave this answer That his were Works the other printed things for the Stage were but Playes Dons and Cleavelands Poems how have they whipt and pedantized the other locusts of Poetry thus a true Diamond is to be esteemed above heaps of Bristol stones To instance further as to the writing of Lives Historians that are thus employed are or ought to be the most impartial of all other Authors except by their interests and flatteries they have resolved to render themselves worse then Pimps to posterity it being their determined employment and proper duties to pull off the perriwigs and disguises of great men and to present them in their own colours as a mans exterior actions are the best indicia of his minde some men in their publick actions being meer mimicks whereas in private they put off their assumed habits and become themselves again A disinterressed Historian for what next to God he can discover paints them to the life the general complaint in this particular is of the scarcity of the writers of lives Indeed I know but few of the modern have laboured this way for antiquity we have Laertius and Plutarch you may happily pardon me if I touch at either of them there is a certain abundance of moral wisdom in Laertius he is rich in his examples of ancient Sages is fraught almost in every page with moral instructions Plutarchs fortune is to have engaged with warlike spirits yet you may finde in him counsels as well for the Gown as the Sword I conceive no reason why Bodin and some others should bark at him and say his History may well be called Parallels for they never meet truly considering their internal inclinations by their leave in my judgement they are admirably well suited nay most of their actions concur now if one had not the same fortune as another Countrey rose when the other fell it makes nothing against him since chance may help the weak to the Victory But lest contrary to my own Intention I should enlarge my self too much it will now be high time for me to fall on my next particular what is the use benefit and advantages that accrew from the reading of History From this Study we learn the causes rises alterations revolutions characters of divers persons the mutability of Councels the remarkablenesse of actions the subtleties of pretensions the drifts of interests the secrets of State the deportments of Princes wisely dissimulating with their people from whose ambitious pretences Politicians determine that nothing is unlawful to him that hath power and nothing so unsafe to a Cedar of State as to be securely innocent By the assistance of History we finde out the especial Affairs of their Kingdoms their Treaties Articles Letters Charts Ordinances Entertainments Provisions of Arms Businesses of Commerce It is indeed one of the most profitable employments of a mans life to read Histories which stirs up men to vertue and deterrs from vice whilest they read how the one is rewarded and the other punished it makes a man serviceable both to the Church and State it is a Study fit for Divines to illustrate and confirm their Doctrines whilest they exhort to vertue and dehort from vice it shews them also the encrease and decrease of Religion with the divers concomitants thereof it is fit for the Lawyer to shew him the original diversities and changes of Laws and Governments for the same cause it is a fit Study for all Princes Magistrates and Politicians without which their Government will be but lame and no less necessary is it to Souldiers especially to Commanders and Captains where they may see the the divers causes events attendants and stratagems of War Physicians also Philosophers and Poets may reap no small benefit by reading Histories Alexander made himself so expert a Warriour as he was by reading the Life and Actions of Achilles and Caesar was animated to undertake his great exploits by reading the Life of Alexander Plutarch reports that Paulus Aemilius who subdued Perses the Macedonian King attained to his expertness in Souldiery by his indefatigable Study in History Selymus the Turk caused the actions of Julius Caesar to be translated whereas his Predecessours slighted all Histories as fabulous and by reading of these he became so expert a Souldier that in a short time he over-run a great part of Africa and Asia-Charles the Great was so affected with Histories that he usually caused them to be read to him as he sat at dinner and supper And Alexander Severus never undertook any great action till he had first consulted with Historians Innumerable other examples might be produced of the benefit attained by reading of Histories now as they received profit from so were they in ancient times as grateful to Historians Polybius that wrote the Roman History and their Wars with the Carthaginians was honoured with a Statue on high Pillar at Megalopolis Pompey the Great honoured Theophanes the Historian with the Priviledges of the City of Rome The Emperour Tacitus commanded the History of Tacitus to be placed in all Libraries and least it should perish he caused it every year to be written ten times over Titus Vespasian bestowed great wealth and honours on Josephus the Jewish Historian notwithstanding he had before been his deadly enemy and caused his Statue to be erected at Rome So did Julian the Apostate upon Aurelius Victor the Roman Historiographer We read of Alphonsus King of Arragon that he commanded the Musicians from his presence saying He heard a better Harmony out of Livy The Egyptians were so careful to preserve their Histories and ancient Monuments that they slighted the Grecians accounting them no better then children for their neglect herein History is the general treasury of times past present and a lively pattern of things to come and as one rightly terms it the Work-Mistresse of Experience and Mother of Prudence by Prudence we finde that a good Prince that is governed by evil Ministers is in as dangerous a posture of ruine as if he were evil himself we discover by the ruines of some rash great men what Ambition is torrenti similis which rises in an instant and falls in a moment In the Calamities of a Civil War we may perceive how the Law lies asleep and how the opinions of the Church are traduced when all things are governed by the Sword to see one brought a pallio crepedis from the greatest obscurity to the Purple and Scepter another once in the Meridian of Majesty in a short time set below in the Horizon of contempt the sins of the Father visited in the progeny of another Prince of a Prince in a Nation the hand of God guiding this dance like the
What have we not deserved yet O the long-suffering and patience and goodness of our God! O Lord our God we pray thee that thy patience and long-suffering might lead to repentance that thou wouldest be pleased thou who delightest not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his sins and live that thou wouldest turn us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned draw us and we shall run after thee draw us with the cords of Love and by the bands of loving kindness by the powerful working of thy holy spirit in our souls working contrition in our hearts and a godly sorrow for all our sins even a sorrow to repentance and a repentance to salvation never to be repented of Lord break those stony hearts of ours by the hammer of thy word mollifie them by the oyl of thy grace smite these rocky hearts of ours by the rod of thy most gracious power that we may shed forth rivers of tears for all the sins we have committed O that thou wouldest make us grieve because we cannot grieve and to weep because we cannot weep enough that thou wouldest humble us more and more in the true sight and sense of all our provocation against thee and that thou wouldest be pleased in the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us from all our sins Lord let his blood that speaks better things then that of Abel cry louder in thine ears for mercy then all those mischiefs and wickednesses that have been done amongst us for vengeance O besprinkle our polluted but penitent souls in the blood of Jesus Christ that we may be clean in thy sight and that the light of thy countenance may shine upon us Lord be pleased to seal unto our souls the free pardon and forgiveness of all our sins say to each of our souls and say that we may hear it that thou art well pleased with us and appeased towards us Lord do thou by the Spirit assure our spirits that we are thy children and that thou art reconciled to us in the blood of Jesus Christ To this end O Lord create in us new hearts and renew right spirits within us Cast us not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from us but give us the comfort of thy help and establish us with thy free spirit Help us to live as they redeemed ones and Lord let us not any longer by our wicked lives deny that most holy faith whereof our lips have for so long time made profession but let us that call on the name of the Lord Jesus depart from iniquity and hate every evil way Help us to cast away all our transgressions whereby we have transgressed and make us new hearts Carry us along through the pilgrimage of this world supplying us with all things needful for us thy grace alone is sufficient for us Lord let thy grace be assistant to us to strengthen us against all the temptations of Satan especially against those sins whereunto we are most prone either by custom or constitution or most easily provoked O Lord with what affliction soever thou shalt punish us do not punish us with spiritual judgements and desertions Give us not over to our own hearts lusts to our vile lewd and corrupt affections give us not over to hardness and impenitency of heart but make us sensible of the least sin and give us thy grace to think no sin little committed against thee our God but that we may be humbled for it and repent of it and reform it in our lives and conversations and Lord keep us from presumptuous sins O let not them get the dominion over us but keep us innocent from the great offence O Lord our strength and our Redeemer And Lord sanctifie unto us all thy methods and proceedings with us fitting us for all further tribulations and tryals whatsoever thou in thy divine pleasure shalt be pleased to impose upon us Lord give us patience constancy resolution and fortitude to undergo them that though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we may fear none ill knowing that thou O Lord art mercifully with us and that with thy rod as well as with thy staff thou wilt support and comfort us and that nothing shall be able to separate us from thy love which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. And gracious God we beseech thee be thou pleased to look mercifully and compassionately on thy holy Catholique Church and grant that all they that do confess thy holy Name may agree together in the truth of thy holy Word and live in unity and godly love Thou hast promised O Lord the gates of hell shall not prevail against thy Church perform we beseech thee thy most gracious promises both to thy whole Church and to that part of it which thou hast planted and now afflicted in these sinful Lands and Nations wherein we live arise O Lord and have mercy upon our Sion for it is time that thou have mercy upon her yea the time is come for thy servants think upon her stones and it pittieth them to see her in the dust Lord maintain thine own cause rescue the light of thy truth from all those clouds of errours and heresies which do so much obscure it and let the light thereof in a free profession break forth and shine again among us and that continually even as long as the Sun and Moon endures To this end O Lord bless us all and bless him the posterity which in Authority ought to rule over and be above us Bless him in his soul and in his body in his friends and in his servants and all his relations Guide him by thy Counsel prosper him in all undertakings granting him a long prosperous and honourable life here upon earth and that he may attain to a blessed life hereafter And gracious God look mercifully upon all our Relations and do thou bring them to the light of thy truth that are wandering and ready to fall Confirm them in thy truth that already stand show some good token for good unto them that they may rejoyce O let thy good hand of providence be over them in all their wayes And to all orders and degrees of men that be amongst us give religious hearts to them that now rule in Authority over us Loyal hearts in the subjects towards their Supream and loving hearts in all men to their Friends and charitable hearts one towards another And for the continuance of thy Gospel among us restore in thy good time to their several places and callings and give Grace O Heavenly Father to all Bishops Pastors and Curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrine set forth thy true and lively word and rightly and duly administer thy Holy Sacraments And Lord bless thy Church still with Pastors after thine own heart with a continual succession of faithful and able men that they may both by Life and Doctrine declare thy truth and never