annexed rather then perturb the publick peace The truth is some men thirst after Novelties others despaire to relieve the necessities of their Fortunes or satisfie their Ambition in peaceable times distrusting Gods providence as well as their own merits were the secret but principal impulsives to those popular Commotions by which Subjects have been discharged to expend much of those plentifull Estates they got enjoyed under my government in peaceable times which yet must now be blasted with all the odious reproaches which impotent malice can invent My self exposed to all those contempts which may mostdiminish the Majesty of a King and encrease the ungratefull Insolencies of My People For Mine Honour I am wel assured that as mine Innocency is clear before God in point of of any calumnies they object so My reputation shall like the Son after Owles and Bats have had their freedome in the night and darker times rise and recover it selfe to such a degree of splendour as those ferall Birds shall be greived to behold and unable to bear For never were any Princes more glorious thē those whom God hath suffer'd to be tried in the fornace of afflictions by their injurious subjects And who knows but the just and merciful God will do Me good for some mens hard false evill speeches against Me wherein they spake rather what they wish than what they believe or know Nor can I suffer so much in point of honour by those rude and scandalous Pamphlets which like fire in great conflagration◠fly up down to set all places on like flames than those men do who pretending to so much piety are so forgetfull of their duty to God and Me By no way ever vindicating the Majesty of their KING against any of those who contrary to the precept of God and precedent of Angels speak evill of dignityes and bring rayling accusations agaynst those who are honoured with the name of Gods But 't is no wonder if men not fearing God should not Honour their Kings They will easily contemn such shaddowes of God who reverence not that Supreme and adorable Majesty in comparison of whom all the glory of Men Angels is but obscurity yet hath he graven such Characters of divine Authority and sacred power upon Kings as none may without sin seek to blot them out Nor shal their black veiles be able to hide the shining of My face while God gives Me a heart frequently humbly to converse with him from whom alone are all the traditions of true glory and Majesty Thou O Lord knowest My reproach and My dishonour My Adversaries are all before thee My Soule is among Lyons among them that are set on fire even the Suns of Men whose teeth are spears and arrows their tongue a sharp sword Mine Enemies reproach Me all the day long and those that are mad against me are sworn together O My God how long shall the sons of men turne my glory into shame how long shall they love vanity and seek after lies Thou hast heard the reproaches of wicked men on every side Hold not thy peace least My Enemies prevaile against me and lay mine Honour in the dust Thou O Lord shalt destroy them that speak lies the Lord will abhor both the bloud thirsty and deceitfull men Make my righteousnesse to appear as the light and mine innocency to shine forth as the Sun at noone day Suffer not my silence to betray mine innocence nor my displeasure my patience That after my Saviours example being reviled I may not revile againe being cursed by them I may blesse them Thou that wouldst not suffer Shimei's tongue to go unpunished when by thy iudgements on David he might seem to iustifie his disdainfull reproaches give me grace to intercede with thy mercy for these my enemies that the reward of false and lying tongues even hot burning coals of eternall fire may not be brought upon them Let my prayers and patience be as water to coole and quench their tongues who are already set on fire with the fire of Hell and tormented with those malicious flames Let me be happy to refute and put to silence their evill-speaking by well-doing and let them enioy not the fruit of their lips but of my prayer for their repentance and thy pardon Teach me Davids patience and Hezekiahs devotion that I may look to thy mercy through mans malice and see thy Iustice in their sin Let Sheba's seditious speeches Rabsheka's railing Shemei's cursing provoke as my humble prayer to thee so thy renewed blessing toward Me. Though they curse do thou blesse and I shall be blessed and made a blessing to my people That the stone which some builders refuse may become the head-stone of the corner Looke downe from heaven and save me from the reproach of them that would swallow me up Hide me in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man keep me from the strife of tongues 16. Vpon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Booke IT is no news to have all Innovations ushered in with the name of Reformations in Church and State by those who seeking to gaine reputation with the Vulgar for their extraordinary parts and piety must needs undoe whatever was formerly setled never so well and wisely So hardly can the pride of those that study Novelties allow former times any share or degree of wisdome or godlinesse And because matter of prayer and devotion to God justly beares a great part in Religion being the Souls more immediate converse with the divine Majesty nothing could be more plausible to the peopl than to tel them They served God amisse in that point Hence our publique Liturgy or Formes of constant Prayers must be not amended in what upon free and publique advice might seeme to sober men inconvenient for matter or manner to which I should easily consent but wholly cashiered and abolished and after many popular contempts offered to the Booke and those that used it according to their Consciences and the Lawes in force it must be crucified by an Ordinance the better to please either those men who gloried in their extemporary veyn and fluency or others who conscious to their own formality in the use of it thought they fully expiated their sin of not using it aright by laying all the blame upon it and a totall rejection of it as a dead letter thereby to excuse the deadness of their hearts As for the matter contained in the book sober learned men have sufficiently vindicated it against the cavils and exceptions of those who thought it a part of piety to make what profan objections they could against it especially for Popery Superstition whereas no doubt the Liturgy was exactly conformed to the doctrine of the Church of Engl. and this by all reformed churches is confessed to be most sound and Orthodox For the manner of using Set prescribed Formes there is no doubt but that wholsome words being known fitted to mens
chose rather to deny my selfe theâ— them as preferring that which they thought necessary for my peoples good before what I saw but convenient for my self For I can be content to recede much from my owne interests and Personall Rights of whicâ— I conceive my self to be Master but in whaâ— concernes Truth Justice the Right of thâ— Church and My Crowne together with the generall good of My Kingdomes all which I am bound to preserve as much as morally lies in Me here I am and ever shall be fixt and resolute nor shall any man gain My consent to that wherein My Heart gives My tongue or hand the Lie nor will I be brought to affirme that to men which in My Conscience I deny before God I will rather chuse to wear a Crown of Thorns with My Saviour then to exchange that of Gold which is due to me for one of lead whose embassed flexiblenesse shall be forced to bend and comply to the various and oft contrary dictates of any Factions when instead of Reason and Publick concernments they obtrude nothing but what makes for the interest of Parties and flowes from the partialities of private wills and passions I know no resolutions more worthy a Christian King then to prefer His Conscience before His Kingdomes O my God preserve thy servant in this Native Rationall and Religious freedom For this I believe is thy will that we should maintain who though thou dost iustly require us to submit our understandings wills to thine whose wisdome and goodnes can neither erre nor misguide us and so farre to deny our carnall reason in order to thy sacred mysteries and Commands that we should believe and obey rather then dispute them yet dost thou expect from us only such a reasonable service of thee as not to do any thing for thee against our consciences as to the desires of men enioynest us to try all things by the touch-stone of Reason Laws which are the rules of Civill Justice and to declare our consent to that only which our Judgment approve Thou knowest O Lord how unwilling I was to desert that place in which thou hast set me and whereto the affairs of my Kingdoms at present did call me My People can witness how far I have bin content for their good to deny My Selfe in what thou hast subjected to my disposall O Let not the unthankfull importunities tumultuary violence of some mens immoderate demands ever betray Me to that degenerous unmanly slavery which should make me strengthen them by my consent in those things which I think in my Conscience to be against thy glory the good of my Subiects and the discharge of my owne duty to reason and Justice Make me willÃng to suffer the greatest indignities iniuries they presse upon Me rather then commit the least sinne against my Conscience Let the just liberties of my people be as well they may preserved in fair and equall wayes without the slavery of My Soul Thou that hast invested Me by thy favours in the power of a Christian King suffer me not to subiect My Reason to other mens passions and designs which to Me seem unreasonable unìust and irreligious So shall I serve thee in the truth and uprightnesle of my heart thovgh I cannot satisfie these men Though I be driven from among them yet give Me grace to walk alwayes uprightly before thee Lead Me in the way of Truth and Iustice for these I know will bring Me at last to peace and happinesse with thee though for these I have much trouble among men This I beg of thee for My Saviours sake 7 Vpon the Queenes departure and absence out of England ALthough I have much cause to be troubled at My Wifes departure from Me and out of My Dominions yet not Her absence so much as the scandall of that necessity which drives her away doth afflict Me. That She should be compelled by My own Subjects and those pretending to be Protestants to withdraw for Her safety This being the first example of any Protestant Subjects that have taken up Arms against their King a Protestant For I look upon this now done in England as another Act of the same Tragedie which was lately begun in Sootland the brands of that fire being ill quenched have kindled the like flames here I fear such motions so little to the adorning of the Protestant profession may occasion a farther alienation of mind divorce of affections in her from that religion which is the only thing wherin we differ Which yet God can I pray he would in time take away not suffer these practises to be any obstruction to her judgement since it is the motion of those men for the most part who are yet to seek and settle their Religion for Doctrine Government and good manners and so not to be imputed to the true English Protestants who continue firme to their former setled Principles and Lawes I am sorry My relation to so deserving a Lady should be any occasion of her danger and affliction whose merits would have served her for a protection among the savage Indians while their rudenesse and barbarity knows not so perfectly to hate all Virtues as some mens subtilty doth among whom I yet think few are so malicious as to hate Her for Her self The fault is that She is my Wife All justice then as well as affection commands me to study her security who is only in danger for my sake I am content to be tossed weather-beaten shipwrackt so as she may be in safe Harbour This comfort I shall enjoy by her safety in the midst of My Personal dangers that I can perish but halfe if she be preserved In whose memory and hopefull Posterity I may yet survive the malice of my enemies although they should be satiated with my bloud I must leave Her and them to the love loyalty of my good subjects to his protection who is able to punish the faults of Princes and no lesse severely to reveng the injuries done to Them by those who in all duty and Allegiance ought to have made good that safety which the Lawes chiefly provide for Princes But common civility is in vaine expected from those that dispute their Loyalty Nor can it be safe for any relation to a King to tarry among them who are shaking hands with their Allegiance under pretence of laying faster hold on their Religion 'T is pitty so noble and peacefull a soule should see much more suffer the rudenesse of those who must make up their want of justice with inhumanity and impudence Her sympathy with Me in My afflictions will make her vertues shine with greater lustre as stars in the darke st nights assure the envious world that she loves me not my fortunes Neither of us but can easily forgive since we do not much blame the unkindnesse of the Generality and Vulgar for we see God is pleased to try both our patience by the
superfluous where former religious and legall Engagements bound men sufficiently to all necessary duties Nor can I see how they will reconcile such an Innovating Oath and Covenant with that former protestation which was so lately taked to maintain the Religion established in the Church of England since they count Discipline so great a part of Religion But ambitious minds never thinke they have laid snares and ginnes enough to catch and hold the Vulgar credulity for by such politique and seemingly-pious stratagems they think to keep the populacy fast to their Parties under the terrour of perjury Whereas certainly all honest and wise men ever thought themselvs sufficiently bound by former ties of Religion Allegiance and Laws to God and Man Nor can such after-Contracts devised and imposed by a few Men in a declared Party without My Consent and without any like power or precedent from Gods or mans lawes be ever thought by judicious men sufficient either to absolve or slacken those morall eternall bounds of duty which lie upon all My Subjects consciences both to God and Me. Yet as things now stand good men shal lest offend God or Me by keeping their Covenant in honest lawfull ways since I have the charity to think that the chief end of the Covenat in such mens intentions was to preserve Religion in purity and the kingdoms in peace To other then such ends and meanes they cannot think themselves engaged nor will those that have any true touches of Conscience endeavour to carry on the best designes much lesse such as are and will be daily more apparently factious ambitious by any unlawfull means under that title of the Covenant unlesse they dare preferre ambiguous dangerous and un-authorized novelties before their known and sworn duties which are indispensable both to God and My self I am prone to believe and hope That many who took the Covenant are yet firm to this judgment That such later Vows Oaths or Leagues can never blot out those formâ—r gravings and characters which by just lawfull Oaths were made upon their Soul That which makes such Confederations by way of solemn leagues covenants more to be suspected is that they are the common road used in all factions and powerfull perturbations of State or Church where formalities of extraordinary zeal and piety are never more studied and elaborate then when Politicians most agitate desperate designes against all that is setled or sacred in Religion and Laws which by such scrues are cunningly yet forcibly wrested by secret steps and lesse sensible degrees from their known rule wonted practise to comply with the humours of those men who aym to subdue all to their own will and power under the disguises of Holy Combinations Which cords and wythes will hold mens Consciences no longer then force attends and twists them for every man soone growes his owne Pope and easily absolves himselfe of those ties which not the commands of Gods word or the Lawes of the Land but only the subtilty and terrour of a Party casts upon him either superfluous and vaine when they were sufficiently tied before or fraudulent and injurious if by such after-ligaments they find the Imposers really ayming to dissolve or suspend their former just and necessary obligations Indeed such illegall waies seldome or never intend the engaging men more to duties but only to Parties therefore it is not regarded how they keep their Covenants in point of piety pretended provided they adhere firmly to the Party and Designe intended I see the Imposers of it are content to make their Covenant like Manna not that it came from heaven as this did agreeable to every mans palate and relish who will but swallow it They admit any mens senses of it though diverse or contrary with any salvoes cautions and reservations so as they crosse not their chief Designe which is laid against the Church and Me. It is enough if they get but the reputation of a seeming encrease to their Party So little do men remember that God is not mocked In such latitudes of sense I believe many that love Me and the Church well may have taken the Covenant who yet are not so fondly and superstitiously taken by it as now to act clearly against both all piety and loyalty who first yeilâ—ed to it more to prevent that imminent violence and ruine which hung over their heads in case they wholly refused it than for any value of it or devotion to it Wherein the latitude of some generall Clauses may perhaps serve somewhat to relieve them as of Doing and endeavouring what lawfully they may in their Places and Callings and according to the Word of God for these indeed carry no man beyond those bounds of good Conscience which are certaine and fixed either in Gods Lawes as to the generall or the Lawes of the State and Kingdome as to the particular regulation and exercise of mens duties I would to God such as glory most in the name of Covenanters would keepe themselves within those lawfull bounds to which God hath called them Surely it were the best way to expiate the rashnesse of taking it which must needs then appeare when besides the want of a full and lawfull Authority at first to enjoyne it it shall actually be carried on beyond and against those ends which were in it specified and pretended I willingly forgive such mens taking the Covenant who keep it within such bounds of Piety Law and Loyalty as can never hurt either the Church My selfe or the Publique Peace Against which no mans lawfull Calling can engage him As for that Reformation of the Church which the Covenant pretends I cannot think it just or comely that by the partiall advice of a few Divines of so soft and servile tempers as disposed them to so sudden acting and compliance contrary to their former judgements profession and practise such foule scandalls and suspitions should be cast upon the Doctrine and Government of the Church of England as was never done that I have heard by any that deserved the name of Reformed Churches abroad nor by any men of learning and candour at home all whose judgments I cannot but perfer before any mens now factiously engaged No man can be more forward than My selfe to carry on all due Reformations with mature judgement and a good Conscience in what things I shall after impartiall advise be by Gods Word and right reason convinced to be amisse I have offered more than ever the fullest freest and wisest Parliaments did desire But the sequele of some mens actions makes it evident that the main Reformation intended is the abasing of Episcopacy into Presbytery and the robbing the Church of its Lands and Revenues For no men have beene more injuriously used as to their legall Rights than the Bishops and Church-men These as the fattest Deer must be destroyed the other Rascal-herd of Schismes Heresies c. being lean may enjoy the benefit of a Toleration Thus Naboth's Vineyard made
to in their opinion as too great a fixednes in that Religion whose judicious solid grounds both from Scripture and Antiquity wil not give My Conscience leave to approve or consent to those many dangerous and divided Innovations which the bold Ignorance of some men would needs obtrud upon me my people Contrary to those well tried foundations both of Truth and Order which men of far greater Learning and clearer Zeal have setled in the Confession and Constitution of this Church in England which many former Parliaments in the most calme and unpassionate times have oft confirmed In which I shall ever by Gods help persevere as believing it hath most of Primitive Truth and Order Nor did My using the assistance of some Papists which were my Subjects any way fight against My Religion as some men would needs interpret it especially those who least of all men cared whom they imployed or what they said or did so they might prevaile 'T is strange that so wise men as they would be esteemed should not conceive That differences of perswasion in matters of Religion may easily fall out where there is the fameness of duty Allegiance and subjection The first they owe as men and Christians to God the second they owe to Me in Common as their King different professions in point of Religion cannot any more than in Civill Trades take away the community of relations either to Parents or to Princes And where is there such an Oglio or medley of various Religions in the world again as those men entertaine in their service who find most fault with me without any scruple as to the diversity of their Sects and Opinions It was indeed a foule and indelible shame for such as would be counted Protestants to enforce Me a declared Protestant their Lord King to a necessary use of Papists or any other who did but their duty to help Me to defend My selfe Nor did I more than is lawfull for any King in such exigents to use the aid of any his Subjects I am sorry the Papists should have a greater sense of their Allegiance than many Protestant professors who seem to have learned to practise the worst principles of the worst Papists Indeed it had bin a very impertinent and unseasonable scruple in Me and very pleasing no doubt to My enemies to have been then disputing the points of different beliefs in My Subjects when I was disputed with by swords points and when I needed the help of My Subjects as men no lesse then their prayers as Christians The noise of My Evill Councellours was another usefull device for those who were impatient any mens counsels but their owne should be followed in Church or State who were so eager in giving Me better counsel that they would not give Me leave to take it with freedome as a Man or honour as a King making their counsels more like a drench that must be powred down then a draught which might be fairly and leisurely drank if I liked it I will not justifie beyond humane errours and frailties My selfe or My Counsellours They might be subject to some miscariages yet such as were far more reparable by second and better thoughts than those enormous extravagances where with some men have now even wil dred and almost quite lost both Church and State The event of things at last will make it evident to My Subjects that had I followed the worst Couucels that My worst Counsellours ever had the boldnesse to offer to Me or My self any inclination to use I could not so soon have brought both Church and State in three flourishing Kingdomes to such a Chaos of confusions and Hell of miseries as some have done out of which they cannot or will not in the midst of their many great advantages redeeme either Me or My Subjects No men were more willing to complaine than I was to redresse what I saw in Reason was either done or advised amisse and this I thonght I had done even beyond the expectation of moderate men who were sorry to see me prone even to injure My self out of a Zeal to releive my Subjects But other mens insatiable desire of revenge upon Me My Court and My Clergy hath wholly beguiled both Church and State of the benefit of all My either Retractations or Concessions withall hath deprived all those now so zealous Persecutors both of the comfort reward of their former pretended persecutions wherein they so much gloryed among the vulgar and which indeed a truly humble Christian will so highly prize as rather not be relieved then be revenged so as to be bereaved of that Crowne of christian Patience which attends humble injured sufferers Another artifice used to withdraw My Peoples affections from Me to their designes was The noise and ostentation of liberty which men are not more prone to desire then unapt to bear in the popular sense which is to do what every man likes best If the Divinest liberty be to will what men should to do what they so will according to Reason Lawes and Religion I envy not My subjects that Liberty which is all I desire to enjoy My self So far am I from the desire of oppressing theirs Nor were those Lords Gentlemen which assisted Me so prodigall of their liberties as with their Lives and Fortunes to help on the enslaving of themselves and their posterities As to Civill Immunities none but such as desire to drive on their Ambitious and Covetous designes over the ruines of Church and State Prince Peers and People wil never desire greater freedoms then the Laws alow whose bounds good men count their Ornament protection others their Menacles and Opression Nor is it just any man should expect the reward benefit of the Law who despiseth its rule and direction losing justly his safety while he seeks an unreasonable liberty Time will best inform my Subjects that those are the best preserver of their true liberties who allow themselves the least licentiousness against or beyond the Laws They will feele it at last to their cost that it is impossible those men should be really tender of their fellow-Subjects libertyes who have the hardinesse to use their King with so severe restraint against all Laws both Divine and Humane under which yet I wil rather perish then complain to those who want nothing to compleat their mirth and triumph but such musick In point of true consciencious tendernes attended with humility and meeknes not with proud arrogant activity which seeks to hatch every Egge of different opinion to a Faction or Schisme I have oft declared how little I desire My Laws and Scepter should intrench on Gods Soveraignty which is the only King of mens Consciences and yet he hath laid such restraints upon men as commands them to be subject for Conscience sake giving no men liberty to break the Law established further then with meeknes and patience they are content to suffer the penalties
understandings are soonest received into their hearts and aptest to excite and carry along with them judicious and fervent affections Nor doe I see any reason why Christians should be weary of a wel-composed Liturgy as I hold this to be more than of all other things wherein the constancy abates nothing of the excellency and usefulnesse I could never see any Reason why any Christian should abhor or be forbidden to use the same forms of prayer since he prayes to the same God believes in the same Saviour professeth the same Truths reads the same Scriptures hath the same duties upon him and feels the same daily wants for the most part both inward outward which are common to the whole Church Sure we may as wel before-hand know what we pray as to whom we pray in what words as to whatsense when we desire the same things what hinders we may not use the same words our appetite and disgestion too may be good when we use as we pray for our daily bread Some men I heare are so impatient not to use in all their devotion their own invention and gifts that they not only disuse as too many but wholly cast away contemn the Lords Prayer whose great guilt is that it is the warrant originall pattern of all set Liturgies in the Christian Church I ever thought that the proud ostentation of mens abilities for invention and the vain affectations of variety for expressions in Publique Prayer or any sacred Administrations merits a greater brand of sinne than that which they call Coldnesse and Barrennesse Nor are men in those noveltyes lesse subject to formall and superficiall tempers as to their hearts than in the use of constant Formes where not the words but mens hearts are too blame I make no doubt but a man may be very formal in the most extemporary variety and very fervently devout in the most wonted expressions Nor is God more a God of variety than of constancy Nor are constant Forms of Prayers more likely to flat hinder the Spirit of prayer devotion than un-premeditated confused variety to distract and lose it Though I am not against a grave modest discreet humble use of Ministers gifts even in publique the better to fit excite their own the Peoples affections to the present occasions yet I know no necessity why private and single abilityes should quite justle out and deprive the Church of the joynt abilityes concurrent gift of many learned and godly men such as the Composers of the Service booke were who may in all reason be thought to have more of gifts and graces enabling them to Compose with serious deliberation concurrent advise such Forms of prayers as may best fit the churches common want inform the Hearers understanding and stir up that fiduciary and fervent application of their spirits wherein consists the very life and soul of prayer and that so much pretended Spirit of prayer than any private man by his solitary abilities can be presumed to have which what they are many times even there where they make a great noise and shew the affectations emptinesse impertinency rudenesse confusions flatnesse levity obscurity vain and ridiculous repititions the senselesse and oft-times blasphemous expressions all these burthened with a most tedious and intolerable length do sufficiently convince all men but those who glory in that Pharisaick way Wherein men must be strangely impudent and flatterers of themselves not to have an infinite shame of what they so do and say in things of so sacred a nature before God the Church after so ridiculous indeed profane a manner Nor can it be expected but that in dutyes of frequent performance as Sacramentall administrations and the like which are stil the same Ministers must either come to use their own forms constantly which are not like to be sound or comprehensive of the nature of the duty as Forms of Publick composure or else they must euery time affect new expressions when the subject is the same which can hardly be presumed in any mans greatest sufficiencyes not to want many times much of that compleatnesse order and gravity becomming those duties which by this means are exposed at every celebration to every Ministers private infirmities indispositions errours disorders defects both for judgment and expression A serious sense of which inconvenience in the Church unavoidably following every mans severall manner of officiating no doubt first occasioned the wisdom piety of the Ancient churches to remedy those mischiefs by the use of constant Lyturgies of publick composure The want of which I believe this Church will sufficiently feel when the unhappy fruits of many mens un-governed ignorance and confident defects shall be discovered in more errours scismes disorders and uncharitable distractions in Religion which are already but too many the more is the pity However if violence must needs bring in and abet those innovations that men may not seem to have nothing to do which Law Reason Religion forbids at least to be so obtruded as wholy to justle out the publick Lyturgy Yet nothing can excuse that most unjust and partiall severity of those men who either lately had subscribed to used and maintained the Service-book or refusing to use it cryed out of the rigour of the Laws and Bishops which suffered them not to use the liberty of their consciences in not using it That these men I say should so suddenly change the Lyturgie into a Directory as if the Spirit needed help for invention though not for expressions or as if matter prescribed did not as much stint and obstruct the Spirit as if it were cloathed in and confined to fit words So slight and easie is that Legerdemain which will serve to delude the vulgar That further they should use such severity as not to suffer without penalty any to use the Common-Prayer-Book publickly although their Consciences binde them to it as a duty of piety to GOD and Obedience to the Laws Thus I see no men are prone to be greater Tyrants and more rigorus exacters upon others to conform to their illegall novelties then such whose pride was formerly least disposed to the obedience of lawfull Constitutions and whose licentious humours most pretended Conscientious liberties which freedome with much regret they now allow to Me and My Chaplains when they may have leave to serue Me whose abilities euen in their extemporary way come not short of the other but their modesty and learning far exceeds the most of them But this matter is of so popular a nature as some men knew it would not bear learned and sober debates least being convinced by the evidence of Reason as well as Laws they shoulâ— have been driven either to sinne more againsâ— their knowledge by taking away the Lyturgy or to displease some faction of the people by continuing the use of it Though I believe they have offended more considerable men not only for their numbers estate
that degree of Honour and Majesty which becomes the Place in which thou hast set me who art the lifter up of my head and my salvation Lord by thy grace lead me to thy Glory which is both true and eternall 22. Vpon His Majesties leaving Oxford and going to the Scots ALthough God hath given Me three Kingdomes yet in these he hath noâ— now left me any place where I may witâ— Safety and Honour rest my Head Shewing me that himselfe is the fafest Refuge and the strongest Tower of defence in which I may put my Trust In these extremities I look not to man so much as to God He will have it thus that I may wholly cast my self and my now distressed affaires upon his mercy who hath both hearts and hands of all men in his dispose What providence denies to Force it may grant to Prudence Necessity is now my Counsellour and commands me to study my safety by a disguised withdrawing from my chiefest strength and adventuring upon their Loyalty who first began my Troubles Happily God may make them a means honourably to compose them This my confidence of Them may dis-arme and overcome them my rendring my Person to them may engage their affections to me who have oft professed They â—ought not against me but for me I must now resolve the riddle of their Loyalty and give them opportunity to let the world see they mean not what they do but what they say Yet must God be my chiefest Guard and My Conscience both My Counsellour and My Comforter Though I put my Body into their hands yet I shall reserve my Soule to God and my selfe nor shall any necessity compell me to desert mine Honour or swerve from my Judgement What they sought to take by force shall now be given them in such a way of unusuall confidence of them as may make them ashamed not to be really such as they ought and professed to be God sees it not enough to deprive me of all Military power to defend my self but to put me upon using their power who seem to fight against me yet ought in duty to defend me So various are all humane affaires and so necessitous may the state of Princes be that their greatest danger may be in their supposed safety and their safety in their supposed danger I must now leave those that have adhered to me and apply to those that have opposed me this method of Peace may be more prosperous than that of Warre both to stop the effusion of bloud and to close those wounds already made and in it I am no lesse solicitous for My Friends safety than mine owne chusing to venture my selfe upon further hazards rather then expose their resolute Loyalty to all extremities It is some skill in play to know when a game is lost better fairly to give over than to contest in vaine I must now study to re-inforce my judgement and fortifie my mind with Reason and Religion that I may not seem to offer up my Soules liberty or make my Conscience their Captive who ought at first to have used arguments not Armes to have perswaded my consent to their new demands I thank God no successe darkens or disguises Truth to me and I shall no lesse conforme my words to my inward dictates now than if they had been as the words of a KING ought to be among loyall Subjects full of power Reason is the divinest power I shall never think my selfe weakned while I may make full and free use of that No eclipse of outward fortune shall rob me of that light what God hath denied of outward strength his grace I hope will supply with inward resolutions not morosely to deny what is fit to be granted but not to grant any thing which Reason and Religion bids me deny I shall never think my self lesse than my self while I am able thus to preserve the Integrity of my Conscience the onely Jewell now left me which is worth keeping O thou Soveraigne of our Soules the onely Commander of our Consciences though I know not what to do yet mine eyes are toward thee To the protection of thy mercy I still commend my self As thou hast preserved me in the day of Battaile so thou canst still shew me thy strength in my weaknesse Be thou unto me in my dâ—rkest night a pillar of fire to enlighten and direct me in the day of my hottest affliction be also a pillar of cloud to overshadow and protect me be to me both a Sun and a Shield Thou knowest that it is not any perversenesse of will but just perswasions of Honor Reason and Religion which have made me thus far to hazard my Person Peace and Safety against those that by force have sought to wrest them from Mee Suffer not my just resolutions to abate with my outward Forces let a good conscience alwayes accompany me in my solitude and desertions Suffer me not to betray the powers of Reason and that fortresse of my soule which I am intrusted to keep for thee Lead me in the paths of thy righteousnesse and shew me thy salvation Make my wayes to please thee and then thou wilt make mine Enemies to be at peace with me 23. Vpon the Scots delivering the KING to the English and his Captivity at Holmeby YEt may I justifie those Scots to all the world in this that they have not deceived me for I never trusted to them further than to men If I am sold by them I am onely sorry they should doe it and that my price should be so much above my Saviours These are but further Essaies which God will have me make of mans uncertainty the more to fix me on himselfe who never faileth them that trust in him Though the Reeds of Aegypt break under the hand of him that leanes on them yet the Rock of Israel will be an everlasting stay and defence Gods providence commands me to rerire from all to himself that in him I may enjoy my selfe which I lose while I let out my hopes to others The solitude and captivity to which I am now reduced gives me leisure enough to study the worlds vanity and inconstancy God sees 't is fit to deprive me of Wife Children Army Friends and Freedom that I may be wholly his who alone is all I care not much to be reckoned among the Unfortunate if I be not in the black List of irreligious and sacrilegious Princes No Restraint shall ensnare my soul in sinne nor gaine that of me which may make my Enemies more insolent my Friends ashamed or my Name accursed They have no great cause to triumph that they have got my Person into their power since my Soule is still my owne nor shall they ever gaine my Consent against my Conscience What they call obstinacy I know God accounts honest constancy from which Reason and Religion as well as Honour forbid me to recede 'T is evident now that it was not evill Counsellours with me but a
or mine with theirs either in Prayer or other holy duties as is meet and most comfortable whose golden Rule and bond of Perfection consists in that of mutuall Love and Charity Some remedies are worse then the disease and some Comforters more miserable then misery it selfe when like Jobs friends they seek not to fortifie ones mind with patience but perswade a man by betraying his own Innocency to despair of Gods mercy and by justifying their injuries to strengthen the hands and harden the hearts of insolent Enemies I am so much a friend to all Church-men that have any thing in them beseeming that sacred Function that I have hazarded My owne Interests chiefly upon Conscience and Constancy to maintaine their Rights whom the more I looked upon as Orphans and under the sacrilegious eyes of many cruell and rapacious Reformers so I thought it my duty the more to appeare as a Father and a Patron for them and the Church Although I am very unhandsomly requited by some of them who may live to repent no lesse for my sufferings than their owne ungratefull errours and that injurious contempt and meannesse which they have brought upon their Calling and Persons I pity all of them I despise none onely I thought I might have leave to make choice of some for my speciall Attendants who were best approved in my judgement and most sutable to my affection For I held it better to seem undevout and to heare no mens prayers than to be forced or seem to comply with those Petitions to which the heart cannot consent nor the tongue say Amen without contradicting a mans own understanding or belying his own soule In Devotions I love neither profane boldnesse nor pious non-sense but such an humble and judicious gravity as shewes the Speaker to be at once considerate of Gods Majesty the Churches honour and his owne Vilenesse both knowing what things God allows him to ask and in what manner it becomes a Sinner to supplicate the divine Mercy for himself and others I am equally scandalized with all prayers that sound either imperiously or rudely and passionately as either wanting humility to God or charity to men or respect to the duty I confesse I am better pleased as with studied and premeditated Sermons so with such publique Formes of Prayers as are fitted to the Churches and every Christians daily and common necessities because I am by them better assured what I may joyne my heart unto than I can be of any mans extemporary sufficiency which as I doe not wholly exclude from publique occasions so I allow its just liberty and use in private and devout retirements where neither the solemnity of the duty nor the modest regard to others doe require so great exactnesse as to the outward manner of performance Though the light of understanding and the fervency of affection I hold the maine and most necessary requisites both in constant and occasionall solitary and sociall Devotions So that I must needs seem to all equall minds with as much Reason to prefer the service of my own Chaplains before that of their Ministers as I do the Liturgy before their Directory In the one I have been alwaies educated and exercised In the other I am not yet Catechized nor acquainted And if I were yet should I not by that as by any certaine rule and Canon of devotion be able to follow or find out the indirect extravagances of most of those men who highly cry up that as a piece of rare composure and use which is already as much despised and disused by many of them as the Common-Prayer sometimes was by those men a great part of whose piety hung upon that popular pin of railing against and contemning the Government and Liturgy of this Church But I had rather be condemned to the woe of Vae soli than to that of Vae vobis Hypocritis by seeming to pray what I do not approve It may be I am esteemed by my Denyers sufficient of My self to discharge My duty to God as a Priest though not to Men as a Prince Indeed I think both Offices Regall and Sacerdotall might will become the same Person as anciently they were under one name and the united rights of primogeniture Nor could I follow better presidents if I were able than those â—wo eminent Kings David and Solomon not more famous for their Scepters and Crownes than one was for devout Psalmes and Prayers the other for his divine Parables and Preaching whence one merited and assumed the name of a Prophet the other of a Preacher Titles indeed of greater Honour where rightly placed than any of those the Roman Emperours affected from the Nations they subdued it being infinitely more glorious to convert Souls to Gods Church by the Word than to conquer men to a subjection by the Sword Yet since the order of Gods wisdome providence hath for the most part alwayes distinguished the gifts and offices of Kings of Priests of Princes and Preachers both in the Jewish Christian Churches I am sorry to find My self reduced to the necessity of being both or enjoying neither For such as seek to deprive Me of Kingly power and Soveraignty would no lesse enforce Me â—o live many Months without all Prayers Sacraments and Sermons unlesse I become My owne Chaplain As I owe the Clergy the protection of a Christian KING so I desire to enjoy from them the benefit of their gifts and prayers which I looke upon as more prevalent than My own or other mens by how much they flow from minds more enlightned affections lesse distracted than those which are uncombred with secular affairs besides I think a greater blessing and acceptablenesse attends those duties which are rightly performed as proper to within the limits of that calling to which God and the Church have specially designed and consecrated some men and however as to that Spirituall Government by which the devout Sonl is â—ubject to Christ and through his merits daily offers it self and its services to God every private believer is a King Preist invested with tbe honour of a Royall Priesthood yet as to Ecclesiasticall order and the outward polity of the Church I think confusion in Religion will as certainly follow every mans turning Priest or Preacher as it will in the State where every one affects to rule as King I was always bred to more modest and I think more pious principles the consciousnesse to My Spirituall defects makes me more prize desire those pious assistances which holy and good Ministers either Bishops or Presbyters may afford Me especially in these extremities to which God hath bin pleased to suffer some of my Subjects to reduce me so as to leave them nothing more but My life to take from me and to leave me nothing to desire which I thought might lesse provoke their jealousie and offence to deny Me than this of having some means afforded Me for My Soules comfort and support To which end I