composure had others applyed them selvs to it with the same moderatioÌ„ as I did I am confident the War had then ended I was willing to condescend as far as Reason Honour and Conscience would give Me leave nor were the remaining difference so essential to My Peoples happines or of such consequence as in the least kind to have hindred My Subjects either security or prosperity for they beter enjoyed both many years before ever those demands were made some of which to deny I think the greatest Justice to My self and favour to My subjects I see Jealousies are not so easily allayed as they are raised Some men are more afraid to retreat from voilent Engagements than to Engage what is wanting in equity must be made up in pertinacy Such as had little to enjoy in Peace or to lose in warre studied to render the very name of Peace odious and suspected In Church affaires where I had least liberty of prudence having so many strict tyes of Conscience upon Me yet I was willing to condescend so far to the setling of them as might have given fair satisfaction to all men whom faction covetousnesse or superstition had not engaged more than any true zeal charity or love of reformation I was content to yeild to all that might seeme to advance true piety I onely sought to continue what was necessary in point of Order maintenance and Authority to the Churches Goverment and what I am perswaded as I have elsewhere set down My thoughts more fully is most agreeable to the true principles of all Government raised to its full stature perfection as also to the primitive Apostolicall pattern and the practise of the Universall Church conforme thereto From which wholly to recede without any probable reason urged or answered only to satisfie some mens wills and fantasies which yet agree not among themselves in any point but that of extirpating Episcopacy fighting against me must needs argue such a softnes infirmity of mind in Me as will rather part with Gods Truth than Mans peace and rather lose the Churches honour than crosse some mens Factious humours God knows and time wil discover who were most too blame for the un-succesfulness of that Treaty and who must bear the guilt of after-calamityes I beleive I am very excusable both before God and all unpassionate men who have seriously weighed those transactions wherein I endeavoured no lesse the restauration of peace to my People than the preservation of my own Crowns to my posterity Some men have that height as to interpret all fair Condescendings as Arguments of feeblenesse and glory most in an unflexible stifnesse when they see others most supple and inclinable to them A grand Maxime with them was alwaies to ask something which in reason and honour must be denied that they might have some colour to refuse all that was in other things granted setting Peace at as high a rate as the worst effects of Warre endeavouring first to make Me destroy My self by dishonourable Concessions that so they might have the lesse to do This was all which that Treaty or any other produced to let the world see how litle I would deny or they grant in order to the publik peace That it gave occasion to some mens further restivenesse is imputable to their own depraved tempers not to any Concessions or negations of Mine I have alwayes the content of what I offered and they the regret and blame for what they refused The highest tide of successe set me not above a Treaty nor the lowest ebbe below a Fight Though I never thought it any sign of true valour to be prodigall of mens lives rather then to be drawn to produce our own reasons or to subscribe to other mens That which made Me for the most part presage the unsuccessefulnes of any Treaty was some mens unwillingnesse to Treat which implyed some things were to be gained by the Sword whose unreasonablenes they were loath to have fairly scanned being more proper to be acted by Souldiers than by Councellours I pray God forgive them that were guilty of that Treaties breaking give them grace to make their advantages gotten by the the Sword a better opportunity to use such moderation as was then wanting that so though Peace were for our sins justly deferred yet at last it may be happily obtain'd what we could not get by our Treaties we may gain by our prayers O Thou that art the God of Reason and of Peace who disdâ—inest not to Treat with Sinners presenting them with offers of attonement and beseeching them to be reconciled with thy selfe â—ho wantest not power or Iustice to destroy them â—et aboundest in mercy to save so often our hearts ly the bloud of our Redeemer and perswade us to accept of Peace with my selfe and both to procure and preserve peace among our selves as Men and Christians How oft have I intreated for Peace but then I speak thereof they make them ready to War Condemne us not to our passions which are destructive both of our selves and of others Cleare up our understandings to see thy Truth both in Reason as Men and in Religion as Christians and encline all our hearts to hold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Take from us that enmity which is now in our hearts against thee and give us that charity which should be among our selves Remove the evils of War we have deserved and â—estow upon us that Peace which only Christ our great Peace maker cannot merit 19 Vpon the various events of the Warre Vistories and Defeats THe various Successes of this unhappy war have at least afforded Me variety of good Meditations sometimes God was pleased to try Me with victory by worsting My Enemies that I might know how with moderation and thanks to own and use his power who is only the true Lord of Hosts able when he pleases to represse the confidence of those that fought against Me with so great advantages for power and number From small beginnings on My part he let Me see that I was not wholly forsaken by My peoples love or his protection Other times God was pleased to exercise My patience and teach Me not to trust in the arme of Flesh but in the living God My sins sometimes prevailed against the justice of My Cause and those that were with Me wanted not matter and occasion for his just chastisement both of them and Me Nor were My enemies lesse punished by that prosperity which hardened them to continue that injustice by open hostility which was began by most riotous and unparliamentary Tumults There is no doubt but personall and private sins may oft times over-balance the Justice of Publick engagements nor doth God account every gallant Man in the worlds esteeme a fit instrument to assert in the way of War a righteous Cause The more men are prone to arrogate to their own skill valour and strength the lesse doth God ordinarily work by them for
designes which no doubt many of them by this time discover though they dare not but smother their frustrations and discontents The specious and popular titles of Christs Government Throne Scepter and Kingdome which certainly is not divided nor hath two faces as their Parties now have at least also the noise of a through Reformation these may as easily be fixed on new modells as faire colours may be put to ill-favoured figures The breaking of Church-windowes which Time had sufficiently defaced pulling downe of Crosses which were but civill not Religious marks defacing of the Monuments and Inscriptions of the Dead which served but to put Posterity in mind to thank God for that clearer light wherein they live The leaving of all Ministers to their liberties and private abilities in the Publike service of God where no Christian can tell to what he may say Amen nor what adventure he may make of seeming at least to consent to the Errours Blasphemies and ridiculous Undecencies which bold and ignorant men list to vent in their Prayers Preaching and other offices The setting forth also of old Catechismes and Confessions of Faith new drest importing as much as if there had been no sound or cleare Doctrine of Faith in this Church before some foure or five yeares consultation had matured their thoughts touching their first Principles of Religion All these and the like are the effects of popular specious and deceitfull Reformations that they might not seem to have nothing to doe and may give some short flashes of content to the Vulgar who are taken with novelties as Children with Babies very much but not very long But all this amounts not to nor can in Justice merit the glory of the Churches thorow Reformation since they leave all things more deformed disorderly and discontented then when they began in point of Piety Morality Charity and good Order Nor can they easilâ— recompense or remedy the inconveniences and mischiefs which they have purchased so dearly and which have and ever will necessarily ensue till due remedies be applied I wish they would at last make it their Unanimous work to doe Gods work and not their owne Had Religion been first considered as it merited much trouble might have been prevented But some men thought that the Government of this Church and State fixed by so many Lawes and long Customes would not run into their new moulds till they had first melted it in the fire of a Civill Warre by the advantages of which they resolved if they prevailed to make my selfe and all my Subjects fall down and worship the Images they should forme and set up If there had been as much of Christs Spirit for meeknesse wisdome and charity in mens hearts as there was of his Name used in the pretensions to reforme all to Christs Rule it would certainly have obtained more of Gods blessing and produced more of Christs Glory the Churches good the Honour of Religion and the Unity of Christians Publique Reformers had need first Act in private and practice that on their owne hearts which they purpose to trie on others for Deformities within will soon betray the pretenders of publike Reformations to such private designs as must needs hinder the publike good I am sure the right Methods of Reforming the Church cannot consist with that of perturbing the Civill State nor can Religion be justly advanced by depressing Loyalty which is one of the chiefest Ingredients and Ornaments of true Religion for next to fear God is Honour the King I doubt not but Christs Kingdome may be set up without pulling downe Mine nor will any men in impartiall times appear good Christians that approve not themselves good Subjects Christs Government will confirm Mine not overthrow it since as I own mine from him so I desire to rule for his Glory and his Churches good Had some men truly intended Christ's Government or knew what it meant in their hearts they could never have been so ill-governed in in their words and actions both against me and one another As good ends cannot justifie evill meanes so nor will evill beginnings ever bring forth good conclusions unlesse God by a miracle of Mercy create Light out of Darknesse order out of our confusions and peace out of our passions Thou O Lord who onely canst give us beauty for ashes and Truth for Hypocrisie suffer us not to be miserably deluded with Pharisaicall washings instead of Christian reformings Our greatest deformities are within make us the severest Censurers and first Reformers of our own soules That we may in clearnesse of judgment and uprightnesse of heart be means to reform what is indeed amisse in Church and State Create in us clean hearts O Lord and renew right spirits within us that we may do all by thy directions to thy glory and with thy blessing Pity the deformities which some rash and cruell Reformers have brought upon this Church and State Quench the fires which Factions have kindled under the pretence of Reforming As thou hast shewed the world by their divisions and confusions what is the pravity of some mens intentions and weaknesse of their judgments so bring â—s at last more refined out of these fires by the methods of Christian and charitable Reformations wherein nothing of ambition revenge covetousnesse or srcriledge may have any influence upon their coâ—nsells whom thy providence in just and lawfull wayes shall entrust with so great good and now most necessary work that I and my People may be so blest with inward piety as may best teach us how to use the blessing of outward peace 21. Vpon his Majesties Letters taken and divulged THe taking of my Letters was an opportunity which as the malice of mine enemies could hardly have expected so they knew not how with honour and civility to use it Nor doe I think with sober and worthy minds any thing in them could tend so much to my reproach as the odious divulging of them did to the infamy of the Divulgers the greatest experiments of vertue and noblenesse being discovered in the greatest advantages against an enemy and the greatest obligations being those which are put upon us by them from whom we could least have expected them And such I should have esteemed the concealing of My Papers The freedome and secresie of which commands a civility from all men not wholly barbarous nor is there any thing more inhumane than to expose them to publique view Yet since providence will have it so I am content so much of My heart which I study to approve to Gods omniscience should be discovered to the world without any of those dresses or popular captations which some men use in their Speeches and Expresses I wish my Subjects had yet a clearer sight into my most retired thoughts Where they might discover how they are divided between the love and care I have not more to preserve my owne Rights than to procure their peace and happinesse and that extreme griefe to see them both
objected against him so clear as after a long and fair hearing to give convincing satisfaction to the major part of both Houses especially that of the Lords of whom scarce a third part were present when the Bill passed that House And for the House of Commons many Gentlemen disposed enough to diminish My L. of Straffords greatnes and power yet unsatisfied of his guilt in Law durst not condemne him to die who for their integrity in their Votes were by poasting their names exposed to the popular calumny hatred and fury which grew then so exorbitant in their clamours for Justice that is to have both my self and the two Houses vote and do as they would have us that many 't is thought were rather terrified to concur with the condemning party then satisfied that of right they ought so to do And that after Act vacating the authority of the precedent for future imitation sufficiently tells the world that some remorse touched even his most implacable Enemies as knowing he had very hard measure and such as they would be very loath should be repeated to themselves This tendernesse and regret I find in my soul for having had any hand and that very unwillingly God knows in shedding one mans bloud unjustly though under the colour and formalities of Justice and pretences of avoiding publike mischiefs which may I hope be some evidence before God and Man to all posterity that I am far from bearing justly the vast load and guilt of all that bloud which hath been shed in this unhappy War which some men will needs charge on Me to case their own soules who am and ever shall be more afraid to take away any mans life unjustly then to lose my own But thou O God of infinite mercies forgive me that act of sinfull complyance which hath greater aggravations upon Me then any Man Since I had not the least temptation of envie or malice against him and by my place should at least so farre have bin a preserver of him as to have denied my consent to his destruction O Lord I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me Deliver me from bloudguiltiness O God thou God of my salvation and my tongue shal sing of thy righteousness Against thee have I finned and done this evill in thy sight for thou sawest the contradiction between my heart and my hand Yet cast me not away from thy presence purge me with the blood of my Redeemer and I shall be clean wash me with that pretious efusion and I shall be whiter then snow Teach me to learn Righteousnesse by thy Judgements and to see my frailtie in thy Justice while I was perswaded by shedding one mans bloud to prevent after-troubles thou hast for that among other sins brought upon Me and upon My Kingdomes great long and heavie troubles Make me to preferre Justice which is thy wil before all contrarie clamours which are but the discoveries of mans iniurious will It is too much that they have once overcome me to please them by displeasing thee O never suffer me for any Reason of State to go against my Reason of Conscience which is highly to sin against thee the God of Reason and Iudg of our Consciences Whatever O Lord thou seest fit to deprive me of yet restore unto me the ioy of thy Salvation and ever uphold me with thy free Spirit which subiects my will to none but thy light of Reason Justice and Religion which shines in my Soule for thou desirest Truth in the inward parts and integritie in the outward expressions Lord hear the voice of thy Sons and my Saviours Bloud which speaks better things O make me and my people to hear the voice of ioy gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may reioice in thy Salvation 3 Upon His Maiestes going to the House of Commons MY going to the House of Commons to demand justice upon the 5. Members was an act which my enemies loaded with all the obloquies and exasperations they could It filled indifferent men with great jealousies and fears yea and many of my freinds resented it as a motion rising rather from Passion than Reason and not guided with such discretion as the touchines of those times required But these men knew not the fast motives and pregnant grounds with which I thought my self so furnished that they needed nothing to such evidence as I could have produced against those I charged save only a free legall Triall which was all I desired Nor had I any temptation of displeasure or revenge against those mens persons further then I had discovered those as I thought unlawful correspondencies they had used engagements they had made to embroyle my Kingdomes of all which I missed but little to have produced writings under some mens owne hands who were the chief contrivers of the following innovations Providence would not have it so yet I wanted not such probabilities as were sufficient to raise jealousies in any Kings heart who is not wholly stupid and neglective of the publick peace which to preserve by calling in question halfe a dozen men in a fair and legall way which God knows was all my design could have amounted to no worse effect had it succeeded then either to do me and my Kingdome right in case they had bin found guilty or else to have clear'd their innocency and removed my suspitions which as they were not raised out of any malice so neither were they in Reason to be smothered What flames of discontent this spark though I sought by all speedy and possible means to quench it soon kindled all the world is witnes The aspersion which some men cast upon that action as if I had designed by force to assault the House of Commons and invade their priviledge is so false that as God best knows I had no such intent so none that attended Me could justly gather from any thing I then said or did the least intimation of any such thoughts That I went attended with some Gentlemen as it was no unwonted thing for the Majesty and safety of a King so to be attended especially in discontented times so were my followers at that time short of my ordinary guard and no way proportionable to hazard a tumultuary conflict Nor were they more scared at my comming then I was unassured of not having some affronts cast upon me if I had none with me to preserve a reverence to me For many people had at that time learned to think those hard thoughts which they have since abundantly vented against Me both by words and deeds The summe of that businesse was this Those men and their adherents were then looked upon by the afrighted vulgar as greater Protectors of their Lawes and Liberties then my self and so worthier of their protection I leave them to God and their own Consciences who if guilty of evill machinations no present impunity or popular vindications of them will be subter fuge sufficient to rescue
True it was an Act unparallel'd by any of My Predecessors yet cannot in reason admit of any worse interpretation then this of an extream confidence I had That my Subjects would not make ill use of an Act by which I declared so much to trust them as to deny my self in so high a point of my Prerogative For good Subjects will never think it just or fit that my condition should be worse by my bettering theirs Nor indeed would it have been so in the events if some men had known as well with moderation to use as with earnestnes to defire advantages of doing good or evill A continuall Parliament I thought would but keep the commonweal in tune by preserving Laws in their due execution and vigour wherein my Interest lyes more then any mans since by those Laws My Rights as a King would be preserved no lesse then My Subjects which is al I desired More then the Law gives Me I would not have and lesse the meanest Subject should not Some as I have heard gave it out that I soon repented Me of setling that act many would needs perswade Me I had cause so to do But I could not easily nor sudenly suspect such ingratitude in Men of Honour That the more I granted them the lesse I should have and enjoy with them I still counted my Selfe undiminished by my largest Concessions if by them I might gain and confirme the love of my people Of which I do not yet despair but that God will still blesse me with increase of it when men shall have more leisure and lesse prejudice that so with unpassionate representations they may reflect upon those as I think not more Princely then freindly Contributions which I granted toward the perpetuating of their happines who are now only miserable in this That some mens ambition will not give them leave to enioy what I intended for their good Nor do I doubt but that in Gods due time the Loyall and cleared affections of My people will strive to returne such retributions of Honour and love to Mee or my posterity as may fully compensate both the acts of my confidence and my sufferings for them which God knowes have been neither few nor small nor short occasioned chiefly by a perswasion I had that I could not grant too much or distrust too little to men that being professedly My Subjects pretended singular piety and religious strictnesse The Injury of all Injuries is That which some men will needs load me withall as if I were a wilfull and resolved Occasioner of My owne and My Subjects miseries while as they confidently but God knowes falsly divulge I repiniâ—g at the establishment of this Parliament endeavoured by force and open hostility to undoe what by My Royall assent I had done Sure it had argued a very short sight of things and extreme fatuity of minde in Me so farre to binde My owne hands at their request If I had shortly meant to have used a Sword against them God knowes though I had then a sense of injuries yet not such as to think them worth vindicating by a Warre I was not then compelled as since to injure my selfe by their not using favours with the same candour wherewith they were conferred The Tumults indeed threatned to abuse all Acts of Grace and turne them into wantonnesse but I thought at length their owne feares whose black arts first raised up those turbulent Spirits would force them to conjure them down againe Nor if I had justly resented any indignities put upon Me or others was I then in any capacity to have taken just revenge in an Hostile and Warlike way upon those whom I knew so wel fortified in the love of the meaner sort of the people that I could not have given my enemies greater and more desired advantages against Me then by so unprincely inconstancy to have assaulted them with Armes thereby to scatter them whom but lately I had solemly setled by an Act of Parliament God knows I longed for nothing more then that My selfe and My Subjects might quietly enjoy the fruits of my many condescendings It had been a Course full of sin as well as of Hazard and Dishonour for me to go about the cutting up of that by the Sword which I had so lately planted so much as I thought to my Subjects content and Mine owne too in all probability if some men had not feared where no feare was whose security consisted in scaring others I thank God I knew so well the sincerity and uprightnesse of My owne heart in passing that great Bill which exceeded the very thoughts of former times That although I may seâ—m lesse a Politition to men yet I need no secret distinctions or evasions before God Nor had I any reservations in my own soul when I passed it nor repentings after till I saw that my letting some men go up to the pinacle of the temple was a temptation to them to cast me downe headlong Concluding that without a miracle Monarchy it self together with Me could not but be dashed in peices by such a precipitious fall as they intended whom God in mercy forgive and make them see at length That as many Kingdomes as the Devill shewed our Saviour and the glory of them if they could be at once enioyed by them are not worth the gaining by wayes of sinfull ingratitude and dishonour which hazards a Soule worth more worlds then this hath Kingdoms But God hath hitherto preserved Me made Me to see That it is no strange thing for men left to their own passions either to do much evill themselvs or abuse the over-much goodness of others whereof an ungratefull surfet is the most desperate and incurable disease I cannot say properly that I repent of that Act since I have no reflections upon it as a sin of my will though an errour of too charitable a iudgment only I am sorry other mens eyes should be evill because mine were good To thee O My God do I still appeale whose Aldisâ—erning Justice sees through all the disguises of mens preâ—ensions and deceitfull darknesses of their Hearts Thou gavest Me a heart to grant much to my subiects and now I need a heart fitted to suffer much from some of them Thy will be don though never so much to the crossing of ours even when we hope to doe what might be most conformable to thine theirs too who pretended they aimed at nothing else Let thy Grace teach me wisely to enioy as wâ—ll the frustratings as the fulfillings of My best hopes and most specious desires I see while I thought to allay others fears I have raised My Own and by setling them have unsetled My self Thus have they requited Me evill for good and hatred for My good will towards them O Lord be thou my Pilot in this dark dangerous storme which neither admits My return to the Port whence I set out nor My making any other with that safety and honour which
most self-punishing sin the Ingratitude of those who having eaten of our bread and being enriched with Our bounty have Scornfully lift up themselves against Vs and those of Our owne Houshold are become Our Enemies I pray God lay not their sin to their charge who think to satisfie all obligations to duty by their Corban of Religion and can lesse endure to see then to sin against their benefactours as well as their Soveraignes But even that policy of my Enemies is so far veniall as it was necessary to their designes by scandalous Articles and all irreverent demeanour to seek to drive her out of my Kingdomes lest by the influence of Her example eminent for love as a Wife and Loyalty as a Subject Shee should have converted to or retained in their love and Loyalty all those whom they had a purpose to pervert The lesse I may be blest with Her company the more I wil retire to God and my owne Heart whence no malice can banish Her My Enemies may envy but they can never deprive me of the enjoyment of her virtues while I enjoy my self Thou O Lord whose Iustice at present sees fit to scatter us let thy mercy in thy due time re unite us on earth if it be thy will however bring us both at last to thy heavenly Kingdome Preserve us from the hands of our despitefull and deadly Enemies and prepare us by our sufferings for thy presence Though we differ in some things as to Religion which is My greatest temporall infelicity yet Lord give and accept the sincerity of our affections which desire to seek to find to embrace every truth of thine Let both our Hearts agree in the love of thy selfe and Christ crucified for us Teach us both what thou wouldst have us to know in order to thy glory our publique relations and our soules eternall good and make us carefull to doe what good we know Let neither ignorance of what is necessary to be known nor unbelief or disobedience to what we know be our misery or our wilfull default Let not this great scandall of those my Subiects which professe the same Religion with me be any hindrance to her love of any Truth thou wouldst have her to learne nor any hardning of her in any errour thou wouldst have cleared to her Let mine and other mens constancy be an Antidote against the poyson of their example Let the Truth of that Religion I professe be represented to her Iudgement with all the beauties of Humility Loyalty Charity and Peaceablenesse which are the proper fruits ornaments of it Not in the odious disguises of levity Schisme Heresie Novelty Cruelty and Disloyalty which some mens practises have lately put upon it Let her see thy sacred and saving Truths as Thine that she may believe love and obey them as Thine cleared from all rust and drosse of humane mixtures That in the glasse of thy Truth shee may see thee in those mercies which thou hast offered to us in thy Son Iesus Christ our only Saviour serve thee in all thâ—se Holy duties which most agree with his Holy Doctrine and most imitable example The experience we have of the vanity and uncertainty of all humane glory and greatnesse in our scattering and eclypses let it make us both so much the more ambitious to be invested in those durable honours and perfections which are only to be found in thy selfe and obtained through Jesus Christ 8. Vpon His Maiesties repulse at Hull and the fates of the Hothams MY repulse at Hull seemed at the first view an act of so rude disloyalty that My greatest Enemies had scarce confidence enough to abett or owne it It was the first overt Essay to be made how patiently I could beare the Losse of My Kingdomes God knowes it affected me more with shame and sorrow for others then with anger for My â—elfe nor did the affront done to Me trouble Me so much as their sinne which admitted no colour or excuse I was resolved how to beare this and much more with patience But I foresaw they could hardly conteine themselves within the compasse of this one unworthy act who had effrontery enough to commit or countenance it This was but the hand of that cloud which was soone after to overspread the whole Kingdom and cast all into disorder and darknesse For 't is among the wicked Maximes of bold and disloyall Undertakers that bad actions must alwaies be seconded with worse and rather not be begun then not carried on for they think the retreat more dangerous then the assault hate repentance more then perseverance in a fault This gave me to see clearly through all the pious disguises and soft palliations of some men whose words were somtime smoother then oyl but now I saw they would prove very Swords Against which I having as yet no defence but that of a good conscience thought it my best pollicy with patience to bear what I could not remedy And in this I thank God I had the better of HOTHAM that no disdain or emotion of passion transported me by the indignitie of his carriage to do or say any thing unbeseeming my selfe or unsutable to that temper which in greatest injuries I think best becoms a Christian as coming nearest to the great example of Christ And indeed I desire alwayes more to remember I am a Christian than a King for what the Majesty of one might justly abhor the charity of the other is wiling to bear what the height of a King tempteth to revenge the humility of a Christian teacheth to forgive Keeping in compasse all those impotent passions whose excesse injures a man more then his greatest Enemies can for these give their malice a full impression on our soules which otherwaies cannot reach very farre nor do us much hurt I cannot but observe how God not long after so pleaded and avenged My cause in the eye of the world that the most wilfully blind cannot avoid the displeasure to see it and with some remorse and fear to own it as a notable stroke and prediction of divine vengeance For Sir Iohn Hotham unreproached unthreatned uncursed by any language or secret imprecation of Mine only blasted with the conscience of his own wickednesse and falling from one inconstancy to another not long after paies his owne and his eldest Sons heads as forfeitures of their disloyalty to those men from whom surely he might have expected another reward then thus to divide their heads from their bodies whose hearts with them were divided from their KING Nor is it strange that they who imployed them at first in so high a service and so successefull to them should not find mercy enough to forgive Him who had so much premerited of them For Apostacy unto Loyalty some men account the most unpardonable sinne Nor did a solitary vengeance serve the turne the cutting off one head in a Family is not enough to expiate the affront don to the head of the
he hath done The confiscation of mens estates being more beneficiall then the charity of saving their lives or reforming their Errours When all proportionable succours of the poor Pretestants in Ireland who were daily massacred and over-borne with numbers of now desperate Enemies were diverted and obstructed here I was earnestly entreated and generally advised by the chief of the Protestant Party there to get them some respite and breathing by a cessation without which they saw â—o probability unlesse by miracle to preserve the remnant that had yet escaped Go knows with how much commiseration and solâ—citous caution I carried on that bnsinesse by peâ—sons of Honour and Integrity that so I migâ— neither incourage the rebells Insolence nor discourage the Protestants loyalty and patience Yet when this was effected in the best soâ— that the necessity and difficulty of affaires woulâ— then permit I was then to suffer againe in mâ— reputation and Honour because I suffered nâ— the Rebels utterly to devoure the remainiâ— handfulls of the Protestants there I thought that in all reason the gaining 〈◊〉 that respite could not be so much to the Rebeâ— advantages which some have highly calumniâ—ted against me as it might have been for tâ— Protestants future as well as present safety during the time of that Cessation some men hâ— had the grace to have laid Irelands sad conditio more to heart and laid aside those violent mâ—tions which were here carried on by those thâ— had better skill to let bloud then to stanch it But in all the misconstructions of my actioâ— which are prone to find more credulity in mâ— to what is false and evill than love or charity 〈◊〉 what is true and good as I have no Judge 〈◊〉 God above me so I can have comfort to appâ— to his omniscience who doth not therefoâ— deny my Innocence because he is pleased far to try my patience as he did his servant Iobâ— I have enough to doe to look to My own Conscience and the faithfull discharge of My Trust as a KING I have scarce leisure to consider those swarmes of reproaches which issue out of some mens mouths hearts as easily as smoke or sparks do out of a Fornace Much lesse to make such prolix Apologies as might give those men satisfaction who conscious to their owne depth of wickednesse are loath to beleive any man not to be as bad as themselves 'T is Kingly to do well and heare ill If I can but act the one I shall not much regard to bear the other I thank God I can hear with patience as bad as my worst enemies can falsly say And I hope I shall still doe better than they desire or deserve I should I beleive it will at last appear that they who first began to embroyle my other Kingdomes are in great part guilty if not of the first letting out yet of the not-timely stopping those horrid effusion of bloud in Ireland Which what ever my Enemies please to say or think I look upon as that of my other Kingdomes exhausted out of my own veins no man being so much weakned by it as my selfe And I hope though mens unsatiable crueltiâ—s never wil yet the mercy of God wil at length say to his justice It is enough command the sword of civil wars to sheath it self his mercifull justice intending I trust not our utter confusion but our cure the abatement of our sins or the desolating of these Nations O my God let those infinite mercies prevent us once againe which I and my Kingdomes have formerly abused and can never deserve should be restored Thou seest how much cruelty among Christians is acted under the colour of Religion as if we could not be Christians unlesse we crucifie one another Because we have not more loved thy Truth and practised in Charity thou hast suffered a Spirit of Errour and bitternesse of mutuall and mortall hatred to rise among us O Lord forgive wherein we have sinned and sanctifie what we have suffered Let our repentance be our recovery as our great sins have been our ruine Let not the miseries I and my Kingdoms have hitherto suffered seem small to thee but make our sins appear to our consciences as they are represented in the glasse of thy judgements for thou never punishest small failings with so severe afflictions O therefore according to the multitude of thy great mercies pardon our sinnes and remove thy iudgements which are very many and very heavy Yet let our sinnes be evermore grievous to us thaâ— thy Iudgements and make us more willing to repent then to be relieved first give us the peace of penitent consciences and then the tranquillity of united Kingdomes In the Sea of our Saviours bloud drowne our sinnes and throngh this red Sea of our own bloud bring us at last to a state of piety peace and plenty As my publique relations to all make me share in all my Subiects sufferings so give me such a pious sense of them as becomes a Christian King and a loving Father of my people Let the scandalous and uniust reproaches cast upon me be as a breath more to kindle my compassion Give me grace to heap charitable coales of fire upon their heads to melt them whose malice or truell Zeal hath kindled or hindred the quenching of those flames which have so much wasted my three Kingdoms O rescue and assist those poore Protestants in Ireland whom thou hast hitherto preserved And lead those in the wayes of thy saving Truths whose ignorance or errours have filled them with Rellellious and destructive principles which they act under an opinion That they do thee good service Let the hand of thy Iustice be against those who maliciously and dispitefully have raised or fomented those cruell and desperate Wars Thou that art far from destroying the Innocent with the Guilty and the Erroneous with the Malicious Thou that hadst pity on Niniveh for the many Children that were therein give not over the whole stock of that populous and seduced Nation to the wrath of those whose covetousnesse makes them cruell nor to their anger which is too fierce and therefore iustly cursed Preserve if it be thy will in the midst of the fornace of thy severe iustice a Posterity which may praise thee for thy mercy And deale with Me not according to mans uniust reproaches but according to the innocency of my hands in thy sight If I have desired or delighted in the wofull day of my Kingdoms calamities if I have not earnestly studied and faithfully endeavoured the preventing and composing of these bloody distractions then let thy hand be against me and my Fathers house O Lord thou seest I have enemies enough of men as I need not so I should not dare thus to imprecate thy curse on me and mine if my Conscience did not witnesse my integrity which thou O Lord knowest right will But I trust not to My own merit but thy mercies spare us O Lord and be not
undermining their opinion value of Me My enemies and theirs too might at once blow up their affections and batter down their loyalty Wherein yet I thank God the detriment of My Honour is not so afflictive to Me as the sin and danger of My peoples souls whose eye once blinded with such mists of suspicions they are soon mis-led into the most desperate precipices of actions wherein they do not only not consider their sin and danger but glory in their zealous adventures while I am rendred to them so fit to be destroyed that many are ambitious to merit the name of My Destroyers imagining they then fear God most when they least honor their King I thank God I never found but My pity was above My anger nor have My passions ever so prevailed against Me as to exclude My most compassionate prayres for them whom devout errours more than their own malice have betraied to a most religious Rebellion I had the Charity to interpret that most paâ—â— of My Subjects fought against My supposed errours not My Person and intended to mend Me not to end Me And I hope that God pardoning their Errours hath so farre accepted and answered their good intentions that as he hath yet preserved Me so he hath by these afflictions prepared Me both to doe him better service and My people more good than hitherto I havâ—don I doe not more willingly forgive their seductions which occasioned their loyall injuries then I am ambitious by all Princely merits to redeem them from their unjust suspicions and reward them for their good intentions I am too conscious to My own Affections toward the generality of My people to suspect theirs to Me nor shall the malice of My Enemies ever be able to deprive Me of the comfort which that confidence gives Me I shall never gratifie the spightfulnesse of a few with any sinister thoughts of all their Allegiance whom pious frauds have seduced The worst some mens ambition can do shall never perswade Me to make so bad interpretations of most of My Subjects actions who possibly may be Erroneous but noâ— Hereticall in point of Loyaltie The sense of the Injuries done unto My Subjects is as sharp as those done to My selfe our welfares being inseparable in this onely they suffer more then My selfe that they are animated by some seducers to injure at once both themselves and Me. For this is not enough to the malice of My enemyes that I be afflicted but it must be don by such instruments that My afflictions grieve Me not more then this doth that I am afflicted by those whose prosperity I earnestly desire whose seduction I heartily deplore If they had been My open and forreign Enemies I could have born it but they must be My own Subjects who are next to My Children dear to Me And for the restoring of whose tranquility I could willingly be the Ionah If I did not evidently fore-see that by the divided Interests of their Mine enemies as by contrary winds the storm of their miseries would be rather encreased then allayed I had rather prevent my peoples ruine then rule over them nor am I so ambitious of that Dominion which is but My Right as of their happinesse if it could expiate or countervaile such a way of obtaining it by the highest injuries of Subjects committed against their Soveraign Yet I had rather suffer all the miseries of life and dy many deaths then shamefully to desert or dishonourably to betray My own just rights and Soveraignty thereby to gratify the ambition or justifie the malice of My Enemies between whose malice and other men mistakes I put as great a difference as betweene an ordinary AGUE and the PLAGUE or thâ— Itch of Novelty and the Leprosie of Disloyalty As Lyars need have good Memories so Malicious Persons need good inventions That their calumnies may fit every mans fancy and what their reproaches want of truth they may make up with number and shew My patience I thank God will better serve Me to bear and My charity to forgive then My leisure to Answer the many false Aspersions which some men have cast upon Me. Did I not more consider My Subjects Satisfaction then my own Vindication I should never have given the malice of some men that pleasure as to see Me take notice of or remember what they say or object I would leave the Authors to be punished by their own evil manners and seared Consciences which will I beleive in a shorter time then they be aware of both confute and revenge all those black and false scandals which they have cast on Me And make the world see there is as little truth in them as there was little worth in the broaching of them or Civility I need not say Loyalty in the not-suppressing of them whose credit reputation even with the People shall ere long be quite blasted by the breath of that same fornace of popular obloquy and detraction which they have studied to heat and inflame to the highest degree of infamy wherein they have sought to cast and consume My Name and Honour First nothing gave Me more cause to suspect and search My owne Innocency then when I observed so many forward to engage against Me who had made great professions of singular piety For this gave to vulgar minds so bad a reflection upon Me and My Cause as if it had been impossible to adhere to Me and not withall part from God to think or speak well of Me and not to Blaspheme Him so many were perswaded that these two were utterly inconsistent to be at once Loyall to Me and truly Religious toward God Not but that I had I thank God many with Me which were both Learned and Religious much above that ordinary size and that vulgar proportion wherein some men glory so much who were so well satisfied in the cause of My sufferings that they chose rather to suffer with Me then forsake Me. Nor is it strange that so religious Pretensions as were used against me should be to many wel-minded Men a great temptation to oppose Me Especially being urged by such popular Preachers as think it no sin to lie for God and what they please to call Gods Cause cursing all that will not curse with them looking so much at and crying up the goodnesse of the end propounded that they consider not the lawfullnesse of the means used nor the depth of the mischief chiefly plotted and intended The weaknesse of these mens judgements must be made up by their clamours and activity It was a great part of some mens Religion to scandalize Me Mine they thought theirs could not be true if they cried not down Mine as false I thank God I have had more triall of his grace as to the constancy of My Religion in the Protestant Profession of the Church of England both abroad and at home than ever they are like to have Nor do I know any exception I am so liable
facility and levity is never to be excused who before ever the point of Church-government had any free and impartiall debate contrary to their former Oathes and practice against their obedience to the Laws in force and against My consent have not only quite cryed down the government by Bishops but have approved and incouraged the violent and most illegall stripping all the Bishops and many other Church-men of all their due Authority and Revenues even to the selling away utter alienation of those church-lands from any Ecclesiastical uses So great a power hath the stream of times the prevalency of parties over some mens judgements of whose so sudden and so total change little reason can be given besides the Scots Army comming into England But the folly of these men will at last punish it self and the Desertors of Episcopacy will appear the greatest enemies to betrayers of their own interest for Presbytery is never so considerable or effectuall as when it is joyned to and crowned with Episcopacy All Ministers will find as great a difference in point of thriving between the favour of the People of Princes as Plants do betweene being watered by hand or by the sweet and liberal dews of Heaven The tenuity and contempt of Clergy-men wil soon let them see what a poor carcasse they are when parted from the influence of that Head to whose Supremacy they have been sworn A little moderation might have prevented great mischiefs I am firm to Primitive Episcopacy not to have it extirpated if I can hinder it Discretion without passion might easily reform whatever the rust of times or indulgence of laws or corruption of manners have brought upon it It being a grosse vulgar errour to impute to or revenge upon the Function the faults of times or persons which seditious popular principle and practise all wise men abhor For those secular additaments ornaments of Authority civill Honor Estate which My Predecessors Christian Princes in al countries have annexed to Bishops Church-men I look upon them but as just rewards of their learning and piety who are fit to be in any degree of Church-Government also enablements to works of Charity and Hospitality meet strengthenings of their Authority in point of respect and observance which in peaceable times is hardly payed to any Governours by the measure of their vertues so much as by that of their Estates Poverty and meannesse exposing them and their Authority to the contempt of licentious minds and manners which persecuting times much restrained I would have such men Bishops as are most worthy of those incouragements and best able to use them if at any time my judgement of men failed My good intention made My errour veniall And some Bishops I am sure I had whose learning gravity and piety no men of any worth or forehead can deny But of all men I would have Church-men especially the Governours to be redeemed from that vulgar neglect which besides an innate principle of vitious opposition which is in all men against those that seem to reprove or restrain them will necessarily follow both the Presbyterian party which makes all Ministers equall and the Independent inferiority which sets their Pastors below the People This for My judgment touching Episcopacy wherein God knows I do not gratifie any design or passion with the least perverting of truth And now I appeal to God above and all the Christian world whether it be just for Subjects or pious for Christians by violence infinite indignities with servile restraints to seek to force Me their KING and Soveraign as some men have endeavoured to do against al these grounds of My Judgment to consent to their weake and divided noveltis The greatest Pretender of them desires not more then I do That the Church should be governed as Christ hath appointed in true Reason and in Scripture of which I could never see any probable shew for any other wayes who either content themselves with the examples of some Churches in their infancy solitude when one Presbyter might serve one Congregation in a City or Country or else they deny these most evident Truths That the Apostles were Bishops over those Presbyters they ordained as wel as over the Churches they planted and that Government being necessary for the Churches wel-being when multiplyed sociated must also necesarily descend from the Apostles to others after the example of that power and superiority they had above others which could not end with their persons since the use and ends of such Government still continue It is most sure that the purest Primitive and best Churches flourished under Episcopacy may so still if ignorance superstition avarice revenge and other disorderly and disloyall passions had not so blown up some mens minds against it that what they want of Reasons or primitive Patterns they supply with violence and oppression wherein some mens zeal for Bishops Lands Houses Revenues hath set them on work to eat up Episcopacy which however other men esteeme to Me is no lesse sin then Sacriledge or a robbery of God the giver of all we have of that portion which devout minds have thankfuly given again to him in giving it to his Church and Prophets through whose hands he graciously accepts even a cup of cold water as a libation offered to him Furthermore as to My particular engagement above other men by an Oath agreeable to My judgment I am solemnly obliged to preserve that Government and the Rights of the Church Were I convinced of the unlawfulnes of the Function as Antichristian which some men boldly but weakly calumniate I could soon with Judgement break that Oath which erroneously was taken by Me. But being daily by the best disquisition of truth more confirmd in the reason Religion of that to which I am Sworn how can any man that wisheth not My damnation perswade Me at once to so notorious and combined sins of Sacriledg and Perjury besides the many personall Injustices I must doe to many worthy men who are as legally invested in the ir Estates as any who seek to deprive thē and they have by no Law been convicted of those Crimes which might forfeit their estates livelyhoods I have oft wondred how men pretending to tendernes of Conscience and Reformation can at once tell Me that My Coronation Oath binds Me to consent to whatsoever they shall propound to me which they urge with such violence though contrary to all that Rationall and Religious freedom which every man ought to preserve and of which they seem so tender of their own Votes yet at the same time these men will needs perswade Me That I must and ought to dispense with and roundly break that part of My Oath which binds me agreeable to the best light of Reason and Religion I have to maintain the Government and legall Rights of the Church 'T is strange My Oath should be valid in that part which both My self and
his owne glory I am sure the event or successe can never state the Justice of any Cause nor the peace of mens conscinces nor the eternall fate of their soules Those with Me had I thinke clearly and undoubtedly for their Justification the Word of God and the Lawes of the Land together with their own Oaths all requiring obedience to My just commands but to none other under Heaven without Me or against Me in the point of raising Armes Those on the other side are forced to flie to the shifts of some pretended Fears and wild fundamentals of State as they call them which actually overthrow the present fabrick both of Church and State being such imaginary Reasons for self-defence as are most impertinent for those men to alledge who being My Subjects were manifestly the first assaulters of Me and the Lawes first by unsuppressed Tumults after by listed forces The same allegations they use wil fit any Faction that hath but power and confidence enough to second with the sword all their demands against the present Lawes Governour which can never be such as some side or other will not find fault with so as to urge what they call a Reformation of them to a Rebellion against them some parasitick Preachers have dared to call those martyrs who dyed fighting against Me the Laws their Oaths and the Religion Established But sober christians know That glorious Title can with Truth be applyed only to those who sincerely preferred Gods Truth and their duty in all these particulars before their lives and all that was dear to them in this world who having no advantagious designs by any Innovation were religiously sensible of those ties to God the church my self wch lay their Souls both for obedience just assistance God could and I doubt not but he did through his mercy crown many of them with eternall life whose lives were lost in so just a Cause The destruction of their bodies being sanctified as a means to save their soules Their wounds and temporall ruine serving as a gracious opportunity for their eternall health and happinesse while the evident approach of death did through Gods grace effectually dispose their hearts to such Humility Faith and Repentance which together with the Rectitude of their present engagement would fully prepare them for a better life then that which their enemies brutish and disloyall fiercenesse could deprive them of or without Repentance hope to enjoy They have often indeed had the better against My side in the field but never I belive at the Barre of Gods Tribunall or their owne Consciences where they are more afraid to encounter those many pregnant Reasons both from Law Allegiance and all true Christian grounds which conflict with and accuse them in theâ— owne thoughts then they oft were in a desperate bravery to fight against those Forces which sometimes God gave Me. Whose condition conquered and dying â— make no question but is infinitely more to be chosen by a sober man that duely values 〈◊〉 duty his soule and eternity beyond the enjoyments of this present life then the most triumphant glory wherein their and Mine Enemies supervive who can hardly avoid to be daily tormented by that horrid guilt wherwith their suspicious or now convicted Consciences doe pursue them especially since they and all the world have seen how false un-intended those pretensions were which they first set forth as the only plausibl though not justifiable grounds of raising a War and continuing it thus long against Me and the Laws established in whose â—afety and preservation all honest men think the welfare of their Countrey doth consist For and with all which it is far more honourable and comfortable to suffer then to prosper in their ruine and subversion I have often prayed that all on My side might joyn true piety with the sense of their Loyalty and be as faithfull to God and their owne soules as they were to Me. That the defects of the one might not blast the endeavours of the other Yet I cannot thinke that any shews or truth of piety on the other side were sufficient to dispence with or expiate the defects of their Duty and Loyalty to Me which have so pregnant convictions on mens consciences that even profaner men are moved by the sence of them to venture their lives for me I never had any victory which was without My sorrow because it was on mine owne Subjects who like Absolom died many of them in their sin And yet I never suffered any defeate which made Me despair of Gods mercy and defence I never desired such Victoryes as might serve to conquer but only restore the Laws and Libertyes of My People which I saw were extreamly oppressed together with my Rights by those men who were impatient of any just restraint When Providence gave me or denyed Me Victory My desire was neither to boast of My power nor to charge God foolishly who I beleved at â—ast would make all things to work together for my good I wished no greater advantages by the Warr then to bring My Enemies to moderation and my Freinds to peace I was afraid of the temptation of an absolute conquest and never prayed more for victory over others than over my self When the first was denyed the second was granted me which God saw best for Me. The different events were but the methods of divine justice by contrary winds to winnow us That by punishing ouâ— sinnes he might purge them from us by deferring peace he might prepare us more to prise and better to use so great a blessing My often Messages for Peace shewed that I delighted not in Warre as my former Concessiâ—ns sufficiently testified how willingly I would have prevented it and My total unpreparedness for it how little I intended it The conscience of my Innocency forbade Me to feare a Warre but the love of my Kingdomes commanded me if possible to avoid it I am guilty in this Warre of nothing but this That I gave such advantages to some men by confirming their power which they knew not to use with that modesty and gratitude which became their Loyalty and my confidence Had I yâ—ilded lesse I had been opposed lesse had I denied more I had been more obeyed 'T is now too late to review the occasions of the Warre I wish only a happy conclusion of so unhappy beginnings The unevitable fate of our sinnes was no doubt such as would no longer suffer the divine justice to be quiet we having conquered his patience are condemned by mutuall conquerings to destroy one another for the most prosperous successes on either side impaire the welfare of the whole Those Victories are still miserable that leave our sinnes un-subdued flushing our pride and animating to continue injuries Peace it felâ— is not desirable till repentance have prepared us for it When we fight more against our selves and lesse against God we shall cease fighting against one another I pray God these may
deceived and destroyed Nor can any mens malice be gratified further by my Letters than to see my constancie to my VVife the Lawes and Religion Bees will gather Honey where the Spider sucks Poison That I endeavour to avoid the pressures of my Enemies by all fair and just correspondencies no man can blame who loves me or the Common-wealth since my Subjects can hardly be happy if I be miserable or enjoy their peace and liberties while I am oppressed The world may see how soon mens designe like Absoloms is by enormous actions to widen differences and exasperate all sides to such distances as may make all reconciliation desperate Yet I thank God I can not only with patience bear this as other indignities but with Charity forgive them The integrity of my intentions is not jealous of any injury My expressions can doe them for although the confidence of privacy may admit greater freedome in writing such Letters which may be liable to envious exceptions yet the Innocency of my chief purposes cannot be so obtained or mis-interpreted by them as not to let all men see that I wish nothing more than an happy composure of differences with Justice and Honour not more to my own then my Peoples content who have any sparks of Love or Loyalty left in them who by those my Letters may be convinced that I can both mind and act my owne and My Kingdomes Affaires so as becomes a Prince which mine enemies have alwaies been very loath should be believed of me as if I were wholly confined to the Dictates and Directions of others whom they please to brand with the names of Evill Counsellours It 's probable some men will now look upon me as my owne Counsellour and having none else to quarrell with under that notion they will hereafter confine their anger to my selfe Although I know they are very unwilling I should enjoy the liberty of my own Thoughts or follow the light of my owne Conscience which they labour to bring into an absolute captivity to themselves not allowing me to think their Counsells to be other then good for me which have so long maintained a Warre against me The Victory they obtained that day when my Letters became their prize had been enough to have satiated the most ambitious thirst of popular glory among the Vulgar with whom prosperity gaines the greatest esteem and applause as adversity exposeth to their greatest slighting and dis-respect As if good fortuâ—e were alwaies the shadow of Vertue and Justice and did not oftner attend vitious and injurious actions as to this world But I see no secular advantages seem sufficient to that cause which began with Tumults and depends chiefly upon the reputation with the Vulgar They think no Victories so effectuall to their designes as those that most rout and waste my Credit with my People in whose hearts they seek by all meanes to smother and extinguish all sparks of Love Respect and Loyalty to me that they may never kindle againe so as to recover mine the Lawes and the Kingdomes Liberties which some men seek to overthrow The taking away of my Credit is but a necessary preparation to the taking away of my life and my Kingdomes First I must seem neither fit to live nor worthy to Reigne By exquisite methods of cunning and cruelty I must be compelled first to follow the Funeralls of my Honour and then be destroyed But I know Gods un-erring and impartiall justice can and will over-rule the most perverse wills and designes of men He is able and I hope will turn even the worst of mine enemies thoughts and actions to my good Nor doe I think that by the surprize of my Letters I have lost any more than so many Papers How much they have lost of that reputation for Civility and Humanity which ought to be pay'd to all men and most becomes such as pretend to Religion besides that of respect and Honour which they owe to their KING present and after-times will judge And I cannot think that their owne consciences are so stupid as not to inflict upon them some secret impressions of that shame and dishonour which attends all unworthy actions have they never so much of publique flattery and popular countenance I am sure they can never expect the divine approbation of such indecent actions if they doe but remember how God blest the modest respect and filâ—all tendernesse which Noahs Sons bare to their Father nor did his open infirmity justifie Chams impudency or exempt him from that curse of being Servant of Servants which curse must needs be on them who seek by dishonourable actions to please the Vulgar and confirme by ignoble acts their dependance upon the People Nor can their malicious intentions be ever either excusable or prosperous who thought by this meanes to expose me to the highest reproach and contempt of My People forgetting that duty of modest concealment which they owed to the Father of their Country in case they had disovered any reall uncomelinesse which I thank God they did not who can and I believe hath made me more respected in the hearts of many as he did David to whom they thought by publishing my private Letters to have rendred me as a vile Person not fit to be trusted or considered under any notion of Majesty But thou ô Lord whose wise and all-disposing providence ordereth the greatest contingences of humane affairs make me to see the constancy of thy mercies to me in the greatest advantages thou seemest to give the malice of my Enemies against me As thou didst blast the counsell of Achitophel â—urning it to Davids good and his own ruine so so canst thou defeat their designe who intended by publishing my private Letters nothing else but to under me more odious contemptible to my People I must first appeale to thy Omniscience who canst witnesse with my integrity how unjust and â—alse those scandalous misconstructions are which â—y Enemies endeavour by those Papers of mine to â—epresent to the world Make the evill they imagined and displeaâ—â—râ— they intended thereby against me so to 〈◊〉 on their owne heads that they may be ashamed and covered with their owne confusion as with a cloake Thou seest how mine Enemies use all means to cloud mine Honor to pervert my purposes and to slander the footsteps of thine Annointed But give me an heart content to be dishonoured for thy sake and thy Churches good Fix in me a purpose to honour thee and then I know thou wilt honour me either by restoring to me the injoyment of that Power and Majesty which thou hast suffered some men to seeke to deprive me of or by bestowing on me that crowne of Christian patience which knowes how to serve thee in honour or dishonour in good report or evill Thou O Lord art the fountain of goodnesse and honour thou art colathed with excellent Majesty make me to partake of thy excellency for wisdome justice and mercy and I shall not want
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
good Conscience in me which hath been fought against nor did they ever intend to bring mee to my Parliament till they had brought my mind to their obedience Should I grant what some men desire I should be such as they wish me not more a King and far lesse both Man and Christian What Tumults and Armies could not obtain neither shall Restraint which though it have as little of safety to a Prince yet it hath not more of danger The feare of men shall never be my snare nor shall the love of any liberty entangle my soule Better others betray me than my selfe and that the price of my liberty should be my Conscience the greatest injuries my Enemies seek to inflict upon me cannot be without my own consent While I can deny with Reason I shall defeat the greatest impressions of their malice who neither know how to use worthily what I have already granted nor what to require more of me but this That I would seem willing to help them to destroy my selfe and mine Although they should destroy me yet they shall have no cause to despise me Neither liberty nor life are so dear to me as the peace of my Conscience the Honour of my Crownes and the welfare of my People which my word may injure more than any Warre can doe while I gratifie a few to oppresse all The Lawes will by Gods blessing revive with the love and Loyalty of my Subjects if I bury them not by my Consent and cover them in that grave of dishonour and injustice which some mens violence hath digged for them If my Captivity or Death must be the price of their redemption I grudge not to pay it No condition can make a King miserable which carries not with it his Souls his Peoples and Posterities thraldome After-times may see what the blindnesse of this Age will not and God may at length shew my Subjects that I chuse rather to suffer for them than with them happily I might redeem my self to some shew of liberty if I would consent to enslave them I had rather hazard the ruine of one King than to confirm many Tyrants over them from whom I pray God deliver them what ever becomes of me whose solitude hath not left me alone For thou O God infinitely good and great art with me whose presence is better than life and whose service is perfect freedome Own me for thy servant and I shall never have cause to complain for want of that liberty which becomes a Man a Christian and a King Blesse me still with Reason as a Man with Religion as a Christian and with constancy in justice as a King Though thou sufferest me to be stript of all outward ornaments yet preserve me ever in those enjoyments wherein I may injoy thy self and which cannot be taken from me against my will Let no fire of affliction boile over my passion to any impatience or sordid fears There be many say of me There is no help for me doe thou lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and I shall neither want safety liberty nor majesty Give me that measure of patience and constancy which my condition now requires My strength is scattered my expectation from men defeated my Person restrained ô be not thou far from me lest my Enemies prevaile too much against me I am become a wonder and a scorne to many ô â—e thou my Helper and Defender Shew some token upon me for good that they â—hat hate me may be ashamed because thou Lord hast â—olpen and comforted me establish me with thy free Spirit that I may do and suffer thy will as thou â—ouldst have me Be mercifull to me ô Lord for my soule trusteth in thee yea and in the shadow of thy wings will â— make my refuge untill these calamities be overâ—â—st Arise to deliver me make no long tarrying ô â—y God Though thou killest me yet will I trust in thy mercy and my Saviours merit I know that my Redeemer liveth though thou leadest me through the vale and shadow of death yet shall I fear none ill 24. Vpon their denying His Majesty the Attendance of His Chaplaines VVHen Providence was pleased to deprive Me of all other Civill comforts and secular Attendants I thought the abscence of them all might best be supplied by the attendance of some of my Chaplains whom for their Function I reverence and for their Fidelity I have cause to love By their learning piety and prayers I hoped to be either better enabled to sustaine the want of all other enjoyments or better fitted for the recovery and use of them in Gods good time so reaping by their pious help a spirituall harvest of grace amidst the thornes and after the plowings of temporall crosses The truth is I never needed or desired more the service and assistance of men judiciously pious and soberly devout The solitude they have confined me unto adds the Wildernesse to my temptations for the company they obtrude upon me is more sad than any solitude can be If I had asked my Revenues my Power of the Militia or any one of my Kingdomes it had been no wonder to have been denied in those things where the evill policy of men forbids all just restitution lest they should confesse an injurious usurpation But to deny me the Ghostly comfort of my Chaplaines seemes a greater rigour and barbarity then is ever used by Christians to the meanest Prisoners and greatest Malefactors whom though the justice of the Law deprive of worldly comforts yet the mercy of Religion allows them the benefit of their Clergy as not aiming at once to destroy their Bodies and to damn their Soules But my Agony must not be relieved with the presence of any one good Angell for â—wich I account a Learned Godly and discreet Divine and such I would have all Mine to be They that envy my being a King are loath I â—â—ould be a Christian while they seek to deâ—rive me of all things else They are afraid I â—hould save my soule Other sense Charity it selfe can hardly pick out of those many harsh Repulses I received as to that request so often made for the attendance of some of my Chaplaines I have sometime thought the Unchristianâ—esse of those denialls might arise from a displeasure some men had to see me prefer my own Diuines before their Ministers whom though I â—uspect for that worth and piety which may be in them yet I cannot think them so proper for â—ny present Comforters or Physitians who have some of them at least had so great an influence â—n occasioning these calamities and inflicting these wounds upon me Nor are the soberest of them so apt for that devotionall compliance and juncture of hearts which I desire to bear in those holy Offices to be performed with me and for me since their judgements standing at a distance from me or in jealousie of me or in opposition against me their Spirits cannot so harmoniously accord with mine
honour liberty power credit safety or estate those other comforts of dearest relations which are as the life of our lives Though as a KING I think My selfe to live in nothing temporall so much as in the love and good-will of My People for which as I have suffered many deaths so I hope I am not in that point as yet wholly dead notwithstanding My Enemies have used all the poyson of falsity and violence of hostility to destroy first the love and Loyalty which is in My Subjects and then all that content of life in Me which from these I chiefly enjoyed Indeed they have left Me but little of life and only the husk and shell as it were which their further malice and cruelty can take from Me having bereaved Me of all those worldly comforts for which life it selfe seems desirable to men But O My Soule think not that life too long or tedious wherein God gives thee any opportunities if not to doe yet to suffer with such Christian patience and magnanimity in a good Cause a sare the greatest honour of our lives and the best improvement of our deaths I know that in point of true Christian valour it argues pusillanimity to desire to die out of wearinesse of life and a want of that heroick greatnesse of spirit which becomes a Christian in the patient and generous sustaining those afflictions which as shaddows necessarily attend us while we are in this body and which are lessened or enlarged as the Sun of our prosperity moves higher or lower whose totall absence is best recompensed with the dew of Heaven The assaults of affliction may be terrible like Sampson's Lyon but they yeeld much sweetnesse to those that dare to encounter and overcome them who know how to overlive the witherings of their Gourds without discontent or peevishnesse while they may yet converse with God That I must dye as a man is certain that I may dye a King by the hands of My own Subjects a violent sodain barbarous death in the strength of my years in the midst of My Kingdoms My Friends and loving Subjects being helples Spectators My Enemies insolent Revilers and Triumphers over me living dying dead is so probable in humane reason that God hath taught me not to hope otherwise as to mans cruelty however I despair not of Gods infinite marcy I know my life is the object of the Devils wicked mens malice but yet under Gods sole custody and disposall Whom I do not think to flatter for longer life by seeming prepared to dye but I humbly desire to depend upon him and to submit to his will both in Life and death in what order soever he is pleased to lay them out to me I confesse it is not easie for me to contend with those many horrors of death wherewith God suffers me to be tempted which are equally horrid either in the suddennesse of a barbarous Assasination or in those greater formalities whereby my Enemies being more solemnly cruell will it may be seek to add as those did who Crucified Christ the mockery of Justice to the cruelty of malice That I may be destroyed as with greater pomp and artifice so with les pitty it wil be but a necessary pollicy to make my death appeare as an act of Justice don by Subjects upon their Soveraigne who know that no Law of God or Man invests them with any power of Judicature without me much lesse against me and who being sworn and bound by all that is sacred before God and Man to endeavour my preservation must pretend Justice to cover their perjury It is indeed a sad fate for any man to have his Enemies to be Accusers Parties and Judges but most desperate when this is acted by the insolence of Subjects against their Soveraigne wherein those who have had the chiefest hand and are most guilty of contriving the publike Troubles must by shedding my blood seem to wash their owne hands of that innocent bloud whereof they are now most evidently guilty before God and Man and I beleive in their own Consciences too while they carried on unreasonable Demands First by Tumults after by Armies Nothing makes meane spirits more towardly-cruel in managing their usurped power against their lawfull Superiours than this the Guilt of their uniust Usurpation notwithstanding those specious and popular pretensions of Justice against Delinquents applyed only to disguize at first the monstrousnesse of their designs who despaired indeed of possessing the power and profits of the Vineyeard till the heire whose right it is be cast out and slaine With them my greatest fault must be that I would not either destroy My selfe with the Church and State by my Word or not suffer them to do it unresisted by the Sword whose covetous ambition no Concessions of Mine could ever yet either satisfie or abate Nor is likely they will ever think that Kingdome of brambles which some men seek to erect at once weak sharp and fruitlesse either to God or Man is like to thriue till watred with the Royal bloud of those whose right the Kingdom is Wel Gods will be don I doubt not but my Innocency will find him both my protectour and my Advocate who is my only Iudge whom I owne as King of Kings not onely for the eminency of his power and Majesty above them but also for that singular care and protection which he hath over them who knows them to be exposed to as many dangers being the greatest Patrons of Law Justice Order Religion on earth as there be either men or Devills which love confusion Nor will he suffer those Men long to prossper in their Babel who build it with the bones and cement it with the bloud of their Kings I am confident they will find Avengers of my death amongst themselves the injuries I have susteined from them shall be first punished by them who agreed in nothing so much as in opposing Me. Their impatience to bear the loud cry of My bloud shall make them thinke no way better to expiate it than by shedd ing theirs who with them most thirsted after Mine The sad confusions following my destruction are already presaged and confirmed to Me by those I have lived to see since My troubles in which God alone who only could hath many wayes pleaded my cause not suffering them to go unpuin shed whose confederacy in sin was their only security who have cause to fear that God wil both further divide and by mutual vengeance afterwards destroy them My greatest conquest of Death is from the power and love of Christ who hath swallow'd up death in the Victory of his Resurrection and the glory of his Ascention My next comfort is that he gives me not onely the honour to imitate his example in suffering for righteousnesse sake though obscured by the foulest charges of Tyranny and injustice but also that charity which is the noblest revenge upon and victory over My Destroyers By which I thank God
I can both forgive them pray for them that God would not impute My bloud to them further then to convince them what need they have of Christs bloud to wash their soules from the guilt of shedding Mine At present the will of My Enemies seems to be their only rule their power the measure and their successe the Exactor of what they please to call Justice while they flatter themselves with the fancy of their owne safety by my danger and the security of their lives and designes by My Death forgetting that as the greatest temptations to sinne are wrapped up in seeming prosperities so the severest vengeance of God are then most accomplished when men are suffered to compleat their wicked purposes I blesse God I pray not so much that this bitter cup of a violent death may passe from Me as that of his warth may passe from all those whose hands by deserting Me are sprinkled or by acting and consenting to My death are embrued with My bloud The will of God hath confined and concluded Mine I shall have the pleasure of dying without any pleasure of desired vengeance This I think becomes a Christian toward his Enemies and a King toward his subjects They cannot deprive Me of more than I am content to lose when God sees fit by their hands to take it from me whose mercy I believe will more then infinitely recompence what ever by mans injustice he is pleased to deprive me of The glory attending my death will farre surpasse all I could enjoy or conceive in life I shall not want the heavy and envyed Crownes of this world when my God hath mercifully Crowned and Consummated his graces with Glory and exchanged the shadows of my earthly Kingdomes among men for the substance of that Heavenly Kingdom with himselfe For the censures of the world I know the sharpe and necessary tyranny of my Destroyers will sufficiently confute the calumnies of tyranny against me I am perswaded I am happy in the judicious love of the ablest and best of my Subjects who doe not onely pity and pray for me but would be content even to dye with me or for me These know how to excuse my failings as a man and yet to retaine and pay their duty to me as their King there being no religious necessity binding any Subjects by pretending to punish infinitely to exceede the faults and errours of their Princes especially there where more then sufficient satisfaction hath been made to the publike the enjoyment of which private ambitions have hitherto frustrated Others I beleive of softer tempers and lesse advantaged by my ruine doe already feel sharp convictions and some remorse in their consciences where they cannot but see the proportions of their evill dealings against me in the measure of Gods retaliations upon them who cannot hope long to enjoy their owne thumbs and toes having under pretence of paring others nails bin so cruell as to cut off their chiefest strength The punishment of the more insolent and obstinat may be like that of Korah and his complices at once mutining against both Prince and Priest in such a method of divine justice as is not ordinary the earth of the lowest and meanest people opening upon them and swallowing them up in a just disdain of their ill-gotten and worse-used Authority upon whose support and strength they cheifly depended for their building and establishing their designes against me the Church and State My chiefest comfort in death consists in My peace which I trust is made with God before whose exact tribunall I shal not fear to appear as to the Cause so long disputed by the sword between me and my causlesse Enemies where I doubt not but his righteous judgment wll conâ—ute their fallacy who from worldly successe â—rather like Sophisters than sound Christians â—raw those popular conclusions for Gods apâ—robation of their actions whose wise proviâ—ence we know oft permits many events which â—s revealed word the only clear safe and fixed rule of good actions good consciences in no sort approves I am confident the Justice of My Cause and clearnesse of my conscience before God and toward my people wil carry me as much above them in Gods decision as their successes have lifted them above me in the vulgar opinion who consider not that many times those undertakings of men are lifted up to heaven in the prosperity and applause of the world whose rise is from Hell as to the injuriousnesse and oppression of the designe The prosperous winds which oft fill the sayles of Pyrates doth not justifie their piracy and rapine I look upon it with infinite more content and quiet of Soule to have been worsted in my enforced contestation for and Vindication of the Laws of the Land the freedome and honour of Parliaments the rights of My Crown the just liberty of My Subjects and the true Christian Religion in its Doctrine Government and due encouragements then if I had with the greatest advantages of successe overborn them all as some men have now evidently done whatever designes they at first pretended The prayers and patience of my Freinds and loving Subjects will contribute much to the sweetning of this bitter cup which I doubt not but I shall more cheerefuly take and drink as from Gods hand if it must be so than they can give it me whose hands are unjustly and barbarously lifted up against me And as to the last event I may seeme to owe more to my Enemies than my Freinds while those will put a period to the finnes and sorrows attending this miserable life wherewith these desire I might still contend I shall be more then Conquerour through Christ enabling me for whome I have hitherto suffered as he is the Authour of Truth Order and Peace for all which I have beene forced to contend against Errour Faction and confusion If I must suffer a violent death with my Saviour it is but mortality crowned with martyrdome where the debt of death which I owe for sinne to nature shall be raised as a gift of faith and patience offered to God Which I humbly beseech him mercifully to accept and although Death be the wages of my owne sinne as from God and the effect of other sinnes as men both against God and me yet as I hope my owne sinnes are so remitted that they shall be no ingredients to imbitter the cup of my death so I desire God to pardon their sinnes who are most guilty of my destruction The Trophees of my charity will be more glorious and durable over them than their ill-managed victories over me Though their sin be prosperous yet they had need to be penitent that they may be pardoned Both which I pray God they may obtaine that my temporall Death unjustly inflicted by them may not be revenged by Gods just inflicting eternall death upon them for I look upon the temporall destruction of the greatest King as far lesse deprecable than the eternall damnation of the meanest