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
them from those exact Tribunalls To which in the obstructions of justice among men we must religiously appeale as being an argument to us Christians of that after unavoidable judgement which shall rejudge what among men is but corruptly decided or not at all I endeavoured to have prevented if God had seen fit those future commotions which I foresaw would in all likelyhood follow some mens activity if not restrained and so now hath don to the undoing of many thousands the more is the pitty But to over-awe the freedom of the Houses or to weaken their just Authority by any violent impressions upon them was not at all my design I thought I had so much justice and reason on my side as should not have needed so rough assistance and I was resolved rather to bear the repulse with patience then to use such hazardous extremities But thou O Lord art my witnesse in heaven and in my Heart if I have purposed anie violence or oppression against the innocent or if there were anie such wickednesse in my thoughts Then let the enemie persecute my soule and tread my life to the ground lay mine Honour in the dust Thou that seest not as a man seeth but lookest beyond all popular appearances searching the heart and trying the reins bringing to light the hidden things of darknesse shew thy self Let not my afflictions be esteemed as with wise and godly men they cannot be any argument of my sinne in that matter more then their impunity among good men is any sure token of their innocency But forgive them wherein they have done amissâ— though they are not punished for it in this world Save thy servant from the privie conspiracies open violence of bloodie and unreasonable men according to the uprightnes of my heart the innocency of my hands in this matter Plead my cause and maintain My Right O thou that sittest in the Throne iudging rightlie that thy Servant may ever reioyce in thy Salvation 4Vpon the Insolency of the Tumults I Never thought any thing except our sins more ominously presaging all these mischeifs which have followed then those Tumults in LONDON and WESTMINSTER soon after the Convening of this Parliament which were not like a storm at Sea which yet wants not its terror but like an Earth-quake shaking the very foundations of all then which nothing in the world hath more of horrour As it is one of the most convincing Arguments that there is a God while his power sets bounds to the raging of the Seas so 't is no lesse that he restraines the madnesse of the people Nor doth any thing portend more Gods displeasure against a Nation then when he suffers the confluence and clamours of the vulgar to passe all boundaries of Lawes and reverence to Authority VVhich those Tumults did to so high degrees of insolence that they spared not to invade the Honour and Freedome of the two Houses menacing reproaching shaking yea and assaulting some Members of both Houses as they fancyed or disliked them nor did they forbeare most rude and unseemly deportments both in contemptuous words and actions to my selfe and my Court. Nor was this a short fit or two of shaking as an Ague but a quotidian feaver always encreasing to higher inflamations impatient of any mitigation restraint or remission First they must be a guard against those fears which some men scared themselves and others withall when indeed nothing was more to be feared and lesse to be used by wise men then those tumultuary confluxes of meane and rude people who are taught first to petition then to protect then to dictate at last to command and overawe the Parliament All obstructions in Parliament that is all freedome of differing in Votes and debating matters with reason and candour must be taken away with these Tumults By these must the Houses be purged and all rotten Members as they please to count them cast out By these the obstinacy of men resolved to discharg their Consciences must be subdued by these all factious seditious and schismaticall proposalls against Government Ecclesiasticall or Civill must be backed and abetted till they prevailed Generally who ever had most mind to bring forth confusion and ruine upon Church and State used the midwifery of those Tumults whose riot and impatience was such that they would not stay the ripening season of counsells or fair production of Acts in the order gravity and deliberatenesse befitting a Parliament but ripped up with barbarous cruelty forcibly cut out abortive Votes such as their inviters and incouragers most fancyed Yea so enormous and detestable were their outrages that no sober man could be without an infinite shame and sorrow to see them so tolerated and connived at by some countenanced encouraged and applauded by others What good man had not rather want any thing he most desired for the publique good then obtain it by such an unlawfull and irreligious means But mens passions and Gods direction seldome agree violent designes and motions must have sutable engins such as too much attend their own ends seldome confine themselves to Gods means Force must croud in what reason will not lead VVho were the chief Demagogues and Patrons of Tumults to send for them to flatteâ— and emboulden them to direct and turne theiâ— clamorous importunities some men yet living are too conscious to pretend ignorance God in his due time will let these see that those were no fit means to be used for attaining his ends But as it is no strange thing for the Sea to rage when strong winds blow upon it so neither for multitudes to become insolent when they have Men of some reputation for partâ— and piety to fet them on That which made their rudenesse most formidable was that many Complaints being made and Messages sent by My self and some of both Houses yet no order for redresse could be obtained with any vigour and efficacy proportionable to the malignity of that now far spread disease and predominant mischiefe Such was some mens stupidity that they feared no inconvenience Others petulancy that they joyed to see their betters shamefully outraged and abused while they knew their only security consisted in vulgar flattery So insensible were they of mine or the two Houses common safety and honours Nor could ever any order be obtained impartially to examine censure punish the knowâ— Boutefeus and impudent Incendiaries who boasted of the influence they had and used to convoke those Tumults as their advantages served Yea some who should have bin wiser Statesmen owned them as friends commending their Courage Zeal and industry which to sober men could seem no better then that of the Devill who goes about seeking whom he may deceive and devoure I confesse when I found such a deafnes that no Declaration from the Bishops who were first fouly insolenced and assaulted nor yet from other Lords and Gentlemen of Honour nor yet from my self could take place for the due repression of
commonweal The eldest son must be involved in the punishment as he was infected with the sinne of the Father against the Father of his country root branch God cuts off in one day These observations are obvious to every fancy God knows I was so far from rejoycing in the Hotham's ruine though it were such as were able to give the greatest thirst for revenge a ful draught being executed by them who first imployed him against Me that I so far pitied him as I thought he at first acted more against the light of his Conscience then I hope many other men do in the same cause For he was never thought to be of that superstitious sowrnesse which some men pretend to in matters of Religion which so darkens their judgment that they cannot see any thing of Sin and Rebellion in those means they use with intents to refrom to their Models what they call Religion who think all is Gold of piety which doth but glister with a shew of Zeale fervency Sir John Hotham was I think a man of another temper and so most liable to those downright temptations of ambition which have no cloak or cheat of religion to impose upon themselves or others That which makes me more pity him is that after he begun to have some inclinations towards a repentance for his sinne and reparations of his duty to Me He should be so unhappy as to fall into the hands of their Justice and not my Mercy who could as willingly have forgiven him as he could have asked that favour of Me. For I think clemency a debt which wee ought to pay to those that crave it when wee have cause to beleive they would not after abuse it since God himself suffers us not to pay any thing for his mercy but only prayers and praises Poor Gentleman he is now become a noteable monument of unprosperous disloyalty teaching the world by so sad and unfortunate a spectacle that the rude carriage of a Subject towards his Soveraigne carries alwayes its own vengeance as an unseparable shadow with it and those oft prove the most fatall and implacable Executioners of it who were the first imployers in the service After-times will dispute it whether Hotham were more infamous at Hull or at Tower-hill though 't is certain that no punishment so stains a mans Honour as wilfull perpetrations of unworthy actions which besides the conscience of the sin brands with most indelible characters of infamy the name memory to posterity who not engaged in the Factions of the times have the most impartiall reflections on the actions But thou O Lord who hast in so remarkable a way avenged thy servant suffer me not to take any secret pleasure in it for as his death hath satisfyed the iniury he did to me so let me not by it gratifie any passion in me lest I make thy vengeance to be mine consider the affront against me more then the sinne against thee Thou indeed without any desire or endeavour of mine hast made his mischief to return on his own head and his violent dealing to come down on his own pate Thou hast pleaded my cause even before the sons of men and taken the matter into thine own hands that men may know it was thy work and see that thou Lord hast done it I do not I dare not say so let mine enemies perish O Lord yea Lord rather give them repentance pardon and impunity if it be thy blessed will Let not thy iustice prevent the obiects and opportunities of my mercy yea let them live and amend who have most offended me in so high a nature that I may have those to forgive who beare most proportion in their offences to those trespasses against thy Maiesty which I hope thy mercy hath forgiven me Lord lay not their sins who yet live to their charge for condemnation but to their consciences for amendment Let the lightning of this Thunderbolt which hath been so severe a punishment to one be a torrour to all Discover to them their sinne who know not they have done amisse and scare them from their sinne that sin of malicious wickednesse That preventing thy Iudgements by their true repentance they may escape the strokes of thine eternall vengeance And do thou O Lord establish the Throne of thy servant in mercy and truth meeting together let my Crown ever flourish in righteousnesse and peace kissing each other Heare my prayer O Lord who hast taught us to pray for to do good to and to love our Enemies for thy sake who hast prevented us with offertures of thy love even when we were thine Enemies and hast sent thy Son Iesus Christ to die for us when we were disposed to crucifie him 9. Vpon the listing and raising Armies against the King I Finde that I am at the same point and posture I was when they forced Me to leave White-Hall what Tumults could not doe an Army must which is but Tumults listed and enrolled too a better order but as bad an end My recesse hath given them confidence that I may be conquered And so I easily may as to any outward strength which God knowes is little or none at all But I have a Soule invincible through Gods grace enabling Me here I am sure to be Conqueror if God will give Me such a measure of Constancy as to feare him more then man and to love the inward peace of My Conscience before any outward tranquility And must I be opposed with force because they have not reason wherewith to convince Me O My Soule be of good courage they confesse their knowne weaknesse as to truth and Justice who choose rather to contend by Armies then by Arguments Is this the reward and thanks that I am to receive for those many Acts of Grace I have lately passed and for those many Indignities I have endured Is there no way left to make Me a glorious KING but by My sufferings It is a hard and disputable choice for a King that loves his People and desires their love either to kill his own Subjects or to be killed by them Are the hazards and miseries of Civill War in the bowels of My most flourishing Kingdome the fruits I must now reap after 17. years living and reigning among them with such a measure of Justice Peace Plenty and Religion as all Nations about either admired or envied notwithstanding some miscarriages in Government which might escape rather through ill counsell of some men driving on their private ends or the peevishnes of others envying the publike should be managed without them or the hidden and insuperable necessities of State then any propensity I hope of my selfe either to injuriousnes or oppression Whose innocent bloud during My Reign have I shed to satisfie My lust anger or covetousnes what Widdowes or Orphans tears can witnesse against me the just cry of which must now be avenged with My own bloud For the hazards of War are equall nor doth 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
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
though never so successefull yet dare not adventure their Authors upon any other way of safety then that of the Sword and Militia which yet are but weak defences against the stroaks of divine vengeance which will overtake or of mens owne Consciences which alwayes attend injurious perpetrasions For my selfe I do not think that I can want any thing which providentiall necessity is pleased to take from Me in order to my Peoples tranquillity and Gods glory whose protection is sufficient for me and he is able by his being with me abundantly to compensate to Me as he did to Iob what ever honour power or liberty the Caldeans the Sabeans or the Devill himselfe can deprive Me of Although they take from Me all defence of Armes and Militia all refuge by Land of Forts and Castles all flight by Sea in My Ships and Navie yea though they study to Rob me of the Hearts of my Subjects the greatest Treasure best Ammunition of a King yet cannot they deprive me of my own innocency or Gods mercy nor obstruct My way to Heaven Therefore O my God to thee I flye for help if thâ— wilt be on my side J shall have more with we the can be against me There is none in Heaven or in Earth that I dâ—sire in comparison of thee In the loss of all â— thou more then all to me Make hast to succour 〈◊〉 thou that never failest them that put their trust â— thee Thou seest I have no power to oppose them thâ— come against me who are encouraged to fight undâ— the pretence of fighting for me But my eyes aâ— toward thee Thou needest no help nor shall I if I may haâ— thine If not to conquer yet at least to suffer If thou delightest not in my safety prosperiâ— behold here am I willing to be reduced to what thâ— wilt have me whose Judgements oft begin with 〈◊〉 own Children I am content to be nothing that thou mayst be all Thou hast taught me That no King can be savâ— by the multitude of an Host but yet thou canst saâ— me by the multitude of thy mercyes who art the Lâ— of Hosts and the Father of mercies Help Me O Lord who am sore distressed on eâ—ry side yet be thou on my side and I shall not feâ— what man can do unto me I will give thy justi the glory of mydistresse O let thy mercy have the glory of my delivraâ— from them that persecute my Soule By my sinnes have I fought against thee aâ— robbed thee of thy glory who am thy subiect and iustly mayst thou by my owne Subiects strip me of my strength and eclypse my glory But shew thy selfe O my hope and only refuge Let not mine Enemies say There is no help for him in his God Hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not Keep me as the apple of thine eye hide me under the shâ—ddow of thy wings Shew thy marveilous loving kindnesse O thou that savest by thy right hand them that put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them From the wicked that oppresse me from my deadly Enemies that compasse me about Shew me the path of life In thy presence is fulnesse of Ioy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore 11. Vpon the 19 Propositions first sent to the King and more afterwards ALthough there be many things they demand yet if these be all I am glad to see at what price they set My owne safety and My Peoples peace which I cannot thinke I buye at too deare a rate save onely the parting with my Conscience and Honour If nothing else will satisfye I must chuse ratheâ— to be as miserable and inglorious as My Enemies can make or wish Me. Some things here propounded to me have biâ— offered by me Others are easily granted The rest I think ought not to be obtruded upon me with the point of the Sword nor urged with thâ— injuries of a war when I have already declareâ— that I cannot yeild to them without violatinâ— my Conscience 't is strange there can be nâ— method of peace but by making Warre upoâ— My Soul Here are many things required of me but â— see nothing offer'd to me by the way of grate full exchange of Honour or any requitall foâ— those favours I have or can yet grant them This Honour they doe me to put me oâ— the giving part which is more princely anâ— divine They cannot ask more than I can give may I but reserve to my self the incommunicable Jewell of my Conscience and not be forced to part with that whose loss nothing caâ— repair or requite Some things which they are pleased to propound seem unreasonable to Me and whilâ— I have any mastery of My Reason how caâ— they think I can consent to them who knoâ— they be such as are inconsistent with being eitheâ— a KING or a good Christian My yeilding so much as I have already makes some men confident I will deny nothing The love I have of My Peoples peace hath indeed great influence upon me but the love of Truth and inward peace hath more Should I grant some things they require I should not so much weaken My outward state of a King as wound that inward quiet of My Conscience which ought to be is and ever shall be by Gods grace dearer to Me than My kingdomes Some things which a King might approve yet in Honour Policy are at some time to be denyed to some men lest he should seeme not to dare to deny any thing and give too much incouragement to unreasonable Demands or importunities But to bind My selfe to a generall and implicite consent to what ever they shall desire or propound for such is one of their Propositions were such a latitude of blind obedience as never was expected from any Free-man nor fit to be required of any man much lesse of a King by His owne Subjects any of whom he may possibly exceed as much in wisdome as he doth in place and power This were as if Sampson should have consented not only to bind his owne hands and cut off his hair but to put out his own eyes that the Philistins might with the more safety mock and abuse him which they chose rather to doe then quite to destroy him when he was become so tame an object fit occasion for their sport and scorne Certainly to exclude all power of deniall seemes an arrogancy least of all becomming those who pretend to make their addresses in aâ— humble and loyall way of petitioning who by that sufficiently confesse their owne inferiority which obligeth them to rest if not satisfied yâ— quieted with such an answer as the will and reason of their Superiour thinks fit to give whâ— is acknowledged to have a freedome and poweâ— of Reason to Consent or Dissent else it werâ— uery foolish and absurd to ask what anothe having not liberty to deny neither hath powe to grant But if this
above mine Own the salvations of mens souls above the presevation of their Bodies and Estates Nor may any men I think without sinne and presumption forcibly endeavour to cast the Churches under my care and tuition into the moulds they have fancied and fashioned to their designes till they have first gained my consent and resolved both my own and other mens Consciences by the strength of their reasons Other violent motions which are neither Manly Christian nor Loyall shall never either shake or settle my religion nor any mans else who knowes what Religion means and how farre it is removed from all Faction whose proper engine is force the arbitrator of beasts noâ— of reasonable men much lesse of humble Christians and loyall Subjects in matters of religion But men are prone to have such high conceits of themselves that they care not what cost they lay out upon their opinions especially those that have some temptation of gaine to recompence their losses and hazards Yet I was not more scandalized at the Scots Armies comming in against my will and their forfeiture of so many obligations of duty and gratitude to me then I wondred how those here could so much distrust Gods assistance who so much pretended Gods cause to the People as if they had the certainty of some divine Revelation considering they were more then competently furnished with my Subjects Armes and Ammunition My Navy by Sea my Forts Castls and Cities by Land But I find that men jealous of tue Jnstifiablenesse of their doings and designes before God never think they have hnmane strength enough to carry their work on seem it never so plausible to the People what cannot be justified in Law or Religion had need be fortified with Power And yet such is the inconstancy that attends all minds engaged in violent motion that whom some of them one while earnestly invite to come into their assistance others of them soone after are weary of and with nauseating cast them out what one Party thought to rivet to a setlednesse by the strength and influence of the Scots that the other rejects and contemnes at once despising the Kirk Government and â—iscipline of the Scots and frustrating the successe of so chargable more then charitable assistance For sure the Church of England might have purchased at a farre cheaper rate the truth and happinesse of Reformed government and discipline if it had been wanting though it had entertained the best Divines of Christendome for their advice in a full and free Synod which I was ever willing to and desirous of that matters being impartially setled might be more satisfactory to all and more durable But much of Gods justice and mans folly will at length be discovered through all the filmes and pretensions of Religion in which Politicians wrap up their designes In vaine do men hope to build their piety on the ruines of Loylty Nor can those confederations or designes 〈◊〉 durable when Subjects make bankrupt of their Allegiance under pretence of setting up a quicker trade for Religion But as my best Subjects of Scotland never deserted Me so I cannot think that the most are gone so far from Me in a prodigality of their love and respects toward Me as to make Me to despair of their return when besides the bonds of nature and Conscience which they have to Me all Reason and true policy will teach them that their chiefest interest consists in their fidelity to the Crown not in their serviceablenesse to any party of the People to a neglect and betraying of My Safety and Honour for their advantages However the lesse cause I have to trust to men the more I shall apply my self to God The Troubles of My Soul are enlarged O Lord bring thou Me out of My distresse Lord direct thy Servant in the wayes of that pious simplicity which is the best policy Deliver Me from the combined strength of those who have so much of the Serpents subtilty that they forget the Doves Innocency Though hand ioyne in hand yet let them not prevaile against My soule to the betraying of My Conscience and Honour Thou O Lord caâ—st turne the hearts of thâ—se Parties in both Nations as thou didst the men of Judah and Israel to restore David with as much loyall Zeal as they did with inconstancy and eagernesse pursve him Preserve the love of thy Truth and uprightnes in me and I shall not despair of My Subjects affections returning towards me Thou canst soone cause the overflowing Seas to ebb and retire back again to the bounds which thou hast appointed for them O my God I trust in thee let me not be ashamed let not my Enemies triumph over me Let them be ashamed who transgress without a cause let them be turned back that persecute my Soule Let integrity and uprightnesse preserve me for I wait on thee O Lord. Redeem thy Church O God out of all its Troubles 14 Vpon the Covenant THe Presbyterian Scots are not to be hired at the ordinary rate of Auxiliarie nothing will induce them to engage till those that call them in have pawned their Soules to them by a Solemne League and Covenant Where many engines of religious and faire pretensions are brought chiefly to batter or rase Episcopacy This they make the grand evill Spirit which with some other Imps purposely added to make it more odious and terrible to the Vulgar must by so solemne a charme and exorcisme be cast out of this Church after more than a thousand yeares possession here from the first plantation of Christianity in this Island and an universall prescription of time practise in all other Churches since the Apostles times till this last Century But no Antiquity must plead for it Presbytery like a young Heyr thinks the Father hath lived long enough and impatient not to be in the Bishops Chair Authority though Lay-men go away with the Revenues all art is used to sink Episcopacy and lanch Presbytery in England which was lately boyed up in Scotland by the like artifice of a Covenant Although I am unsatisfyed with many passages in that covenant some referring to My self with very dubious dangerous limitations yet I chiefly wonder at the designe drift touching the Discipline and Government of the Church and such a manner of carying them on to new ways by Oaths and Covenants where it is hard for men to be engaged by no less then swearing for or against those things which are of no cleare morall necessity but very disputable controverted among learned godly men whereto the application of Oaths can hardly be made and enjoyned with that judgement and certainty in ones self or that charity and candour to others of different opinion as I think Religion requires which never refuses faire and equable deliberations yea dissentings too in matters only probable The enjoyning of oaths upon people must needs in things doubtfull be dangerous as in things unlawfull damnable and no lesse
all men in their own case esteem injurious unreasonable as being against the very natural and essentiall liberty of our souls yet it should be invalid and to be broken in another clause wherein I think my self justly obliged both to God Man Yet upon this Rack chiefly have I been held so long by some mens ambitious covetousnesse and Sacrilegious Cruelty torturing with Me both Church and State in Civill dissentions till I shall be forced to consent and declare that I doe approve what God knowes I utterly dislike and in My Soul abhorre as many wayes highly against Reason Justice and Religion and whereto If I should shamefully and dishonourably give My consent yet should I not by so doing satisfie the divided Interests and Opinions of those Parties which contend with each other as well as both against Me and Episcopacy Nor can My late condesending to the Scots in point of Church-government be rightly objected against Me as an inducement for Me to consent to the like in My other Kingdoms For it should be considered that Episcopacy was not so rooted and setled there as 't is here nor I in that respect so strictly bound to continue it in that Kingdom as in this for what I think in My judgement best I may not think so absolutly necessary for all places and at all times If any shall impute My yeelding to them as My failing and sin I can easily acknowledge it but that is no argument to do so again or much worse I being now more convinced in that point nor indeed hath My yeelding to them bin so happy and successefull as to incourage Me to grant the like to others Did I see any thing more of Christ as to Meeknesse Justice Order Charity and Loyalty in those that pretend to other modes of Government I might suspect My judgement to be biased or fore-stalled with some prejudice wontednes of opinion but I have hitherto so much cause to suspect the contrary in the manners of many of those men that I cannot from them gain the least reputation for their new wayes of Government Nor can I find that in any Reformed Churches whose paterns are so cryed up and obtruded upon the Churches under My Dominion that either Learning or Religion works of Piety or Charity have so flourished beyond what they have done in My Kingdomes by Gods blessing which might make me beleive either Presbytery or Independency have a more benigne influence upon the Church and mens hearts and lives than Episcopacy in its right constitution The abuses of which deserve to be extirpated as much as the use retained for I think it far better to hold to primitive uniform Antiquity than to comply with divided novelty A right Episcopacy would at once satisfie all just desires and interests of good Bishops humble Presbyters and sober people so as Church affairs should be managed neither with tyranny purity nor popularity neither Bishops ejected nor Presbiters despised nor People oppressed And in this integrity both of My judgment Conscience I hope God will preserve Me. For Thou O Lord knowest My uprightnesse and tendernesse as thou hast set me to be a Defender of the Faith and a Protector of thy Church so susser me not by any violence to be overborn against My Conscience Arise O Lord maintaine thine own Cause let not thy Church be deformed as to that Government which derived from thy Apostles hath been retained in purest and primitive times till thâ— Revenues of the Church became the obiect of secular envy which seeks to rob it of all the incouragements of Learning and Religion Make me as the good Samaritan compassionate and helpfull to thy afflicted Church which some men have wounded and robbed others passe by without regard either to pitty or relieve As my power is from thee so give me grace to use it for thee And though I am not suffered to be Master of my other Rights as a KING yet preserve me in that liberty of Reason love of Religion and thy Churches welfare which are fixed in my Censcience as a Christian Preserve from sacrilegious invasions those temporall blessings which thy providence hath bestowed on thy Church for thy glory Forgive their sinnes and errours who have deserved thy iust permission thus to let in the wilde Boar and subtill Foxes to wast and deforme thy Vineyard which thy right hand hath planted and the dew of Heaven so long watred to a happy and flourishing estate O let me not bear the infamous brand to all Posterity of being the the first Christian KING in this Kingdom who should consent to the oppressions of thy Church and the fathers of it whose errours I would rather with Constantine cover with silence and reform with meeknesse than expose their persons and sacred functions to vulgar contempt Thou O Lord seest how much I have suffered with and for thy Church make no long tarrying O my God to deliver hoth me and it from unreasonable men whose counsels have brought forth and continue such violent confusions by a precipitant destroying the ancient boundaries of thy Churches peace thereby letting in all manner of errours schismes and disorders O thou God of order and of truth in thy good time abate the malice aswage the rage and confound all the mischievous devices of thine mine and thy Churches enemies That I and all that love thy Church may sing praises to thee and ever magnifie thy salvation even before the sons of men 18 Vpon Vxbridge-treaty and other Offers made by the King I Look upon the way of Treaties as a retiring from fighting like Beasts to arguing like Men whose strength should be more in their understandings than in their limbs And though I could seldome get opportunities to Treat yet I never wanted either desire or disposition to it having greater confidence of My Reason than My Sword I was so wholly resolved to yeeld to the first that I thought neither My selfe nor others should need to use the second if once we rightly understood each other Nor did I ever think it a diminution of Me to prevent them with Expresses of My desires and even importunities to Treat It being an office not onely of humanity rather to use Reason than Force but also of Christianity to seek peace and ensue it As I was very unwillingly compelled to defend My self with Arms so I very willingly embraced any thing tending to peace The events of all War by the sword being very dubious and of a Civill VVarre uncomfortable the end had hardly recompencing late repairing the mischief of the means Nor did any successe I had ever enhance with Me the price of Peace as earnestly desired by Me as any man though I was like to pay dearer for it then any man All that I sought to reserve was Mine Honour and My Conscience the one I could not part with as a KING the other as a Christian The Treaty at Uxbridge gave the fairest hopes of an hapdy
come far short of Davids piety yet since I may equall Davids afflictions give Me also the comforts and the sure mercies of David Let the penitent sense I have of my sins be an evidence to me that thou hast pardoned them Let not the Evils which I and my Kingdomes have suffered seem little unto thee though thou hast noâ— punished us according to our sins Turn thee O Lord unto Me have mercy upon Me for I am desolate and afflicted The sorrows of my heart are enlarged O bring thou me out of my troubles Hast thou forgotten to be gracious and shut up thy loving kindnesse in displeasure O Remember thy compassions of old and thy loviâ—g kindnesse which have been for many Generations I had utterly fainted if I had not believed to see thy goodnes in the land of the living Let not the sins of our prosperity deprive us of the benefit of thy afflictions Let this fiery tryall consume the dross which in long peace and plenty we had contracted Though thou continuest miseryes yet withdraw not thy grace what is wanting of prosperity make up â—n patience and repentance And if thy anger be not to be yet turned away but thy â—and of iustice most be stretched out still Let it I beseech thee be against me and my Fathers house as for these sheep what have they done Let my sufferings satiate the malice of Mine and thy Churches Enemies But let their cruelty never exceed the measure of my charity Banish from me all thoughts of Revenge that I may not lose the reward nor thou the glory of my patience As thou givest me a heart to forgive them so I beseech thee doe thou fergive what they have done against thee and me And now O Lord as thou hast given me an heart to pray unto thee so hear and accept this Vow which I make before thee If thou wilt in mercy remember me and My Kingdoms In continuing the light of thy Gospell and setling thy true Religion among us In restoring to us the benefit of the Laws and the due execution of â—â—â—tice In suppressing the many Schisms in Church and Factions in State If thou wilt restore me and mine to the anciâ—nt Rights and glory of my Predecessours If thou wilt turne the hearts of My people to thy self in Piety to me in Loyalty and to one another in Charity If thou wilt quench the flames and withdraw the fewell of these Civill Wars If thou wilt bless us with the freedom of publique Counsels and deliver the Honour of Parliaments from the insolency of the Vulgar If thou wilt keep me from the great offence of enacting any thing against my Conscience and especially from consenting to sacrilegious rapines spoilings of thy Church If Thou wilt restore Me to a capacity to glorefâ—e Thee in doing good both to the Church and State Then shall my soule praise thee and magnifie thy name before my People Then shall thy glory be dearer to me then my Crownes and the advancement of true Religion both in purity and power be My chiefest care Then will I rule my People with iustice and my Kingdomes with equity To thy more immediate hand shall I ever owne as the rightfull succession so the mercifull restauration of My Kingdomes and the glory of them If thou wilt bring Me again with peace safety honour to my chiefest City and my Parliament If thou wilt againe put the Sword of Iustice into my hands to punish and protect Then will I make all the world to see and my very Enemics to enioy the benefit of this Vow and resolution of Christian Charity which I now make unto thee O Lord. As I do freely pardon for Christ's sake those that have offended me in any kind so my hand shall never be against any man to revenge what is past in regard of any particular iniury done to me We have been mutually pnnished in our unnaturall divisions for thy sake O Lord for the love of my Redeemer have I purposed this in my heart That I will use all means in tbe wayes of amneâ—ly and indempnity which may most fully remove all fears and bury all iealousies in forgetfulnesse Let thy mercies be toward me and mine as my resolutions of Truth and Peace are toward my People Hear my prayer O Lord which goeth not out of fayned lips Blessed be God who hath not turned away my prayer nor taken his mercy from Me. O my soule commit thy way to the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to passe But if thou wilt not restore me and mine what am I that I should charge thee foolishly Thou O Lord hast given and thou hast taken Blessed be thy name May my people and thy Church be happy if not by me yet without me 26 Vpon the Armies Surprisall of of the King at Holmeby and the ensuing destractions in the two Houses the Army and the City VVHat part God will have Me now to act or suffer in this new and strange scene of affaires I am not much solicitous since little practise will serve that man who onely seeks to represent a part of honesty and honour This surprize of Me tells the world that a KING cannot be so low but He is considerable adding weight to that Party where he appeares This motion like others of the Times seemes excentrique and irregular yet not well to be resisted or quieted Better swim down such a stream than in vaine to strive against it These are but the struglings of those twins which lately one womb enclosed the younger striving to prevaile against the elder what the Presbyterians have hunted after the Independents now seek to catch for themselves So impossible is it for lines to be drawn from the center and not to divide from each other so much the wider by how much they go farther from the point of union That the Builders of Babell should from division fall to confusion is no wonder but for those that pretend to build Ierusalem to divide their Tongues and hands is but an ill omen and sounds too like the fury of those Zealots whose intestine bitternesse and divisions were the greatest occasion of the last fatall destruction of that City Well may I change my Keepers and Prison but not my captive condition onely with this hope of bettering that those who are so much professed Patrons for the Peoples Liberties cannot be utterly against the Liberty of their King what they demand for their own Consciences they cannot in Reason deny to Mine In this they seem more ingenuous than the Presbyterian rigour who sometimes complaining of exacting their conformity to laws are become the greatest Exactors of other mens submission to their novell injunctions before they are stamped with the Authotity of Lawes which they cannot well have without my consent 'T is a great argument that the Independents think themselves manumitted from their Rivals service in that they carry on a businesse of such consequence as the
Subject Nor do I wish other than the safe bringing of the ship to shore when they have cast me over-board though it be very strange that Marriners can find no other means to appease the storme themselves have raised but by drowning their Pilot. I thank God my Enemies cruelty cannot prevent my preparation whose malice in this I shall defeat that they shall not have the satisfaction to have destroyed my Soule with my Body of whose salvation while some of them have themselves seemed and taught others to despaire they have only discover'd this that they do not much desire it VVhose uncharitable and cruell Restraints denying me even the assistance of any of my Chaplains hath rather enlarged than any way obstructed my accesse to the Throne of Heaven Where thou dwellest O King of Kings who fillest Heaven and Earth who art the fountain of eternall life in whom is no shadow of death Thou O God art both the iust Afflicter of Death upon ns and the mercifull Saviour of us in it and from it Yea it is better for us to be dead to our selves and live in thee than by living in our selves to be deprived of thee O make the many bitter agravations of my death as a Man and a King the opportunities and advantages of thy speciall graces and comforts in my Soule as a Christian If thou Lord wilt be with me I shall neither fear nor feel any evill though I walk through the valey of the shadow of death To contend with death is the work of a weak and mortall man to overcome it is the grace of thee alone who art the Almighty and immortal God O My Saviour who knowest what it is to dye with Me as a Man make Me to know what it is to pass through death to life with thee My God Though I dye yet I know that thou my Redeemer livest for ever though thou slayest Me yet thou hast incouraged me to trust in thee for eternal life O withdraw not thy favour from me which is better than life O be not farre from me for I know not how neer a violent and cruel death is to Me. As thy Omniscience O God discovers so thy Omnipotence can defeat the designes of those who have or shall conspire my destruction O shew me thy goodnesse of thy will through the wickednesse of theirs Thou givest me leave as a man to pray that this cup may passe from me but thou hast taught Me as a Christian by the example of Christ to adde not my will but thine be done Yea Lord let our wills be one by wholy resolving mine into thine let not the desire of life in me be so great as that of doing or suffering thy will in either life or death As I believe thou hast forgiven all the errors of my life so I hope thou wilt save me from the terrours of my death Make me content to leave the worlds nothing that I may come really to enioy all in thee who hast made Christ unto me in life gaine and in death advantage Though my destroyers forget their duty to thee and me yet do not thou O Lord forget to be mercifull to them For what profit is there in my bloud or in their gaining my Kingdoms if they lose their own Souls Such as have not only resisted my iust Power but wholy usurped and turned it against my selfe though they may deserve yet let them not receive to themselvs damnation Thou madest thy Son a Saviou to many that Crucified Him while at once he suffered violently by them and yet willingly for them O let the voice of his hloud be heard for My murtherers louder than the cry of mine against them Prepare them for thy mercy by due convictions of their sinne and let them not at once deceive and damme their owne Soules by fallacioâ—s pretentions of Iustice in destroying me while the conscience of their uniust usurpation of power against me chiefly tempts them to use all extremities against me O Lord thou knowest I have found their mercies to me as very false so very cruell who pretending to preserve me have meditated nothing but my ruine O deal not with them as bloud-thirsty and deceitfull men but overcome their cruelty with thy compassion and my charity And when thou makest inquisition for My bloud O sprinkle their polluted yet penitent Souls with the bloud of thy Sonne that thy destroying Angell may passe over them Though they think my Kingdoms on earth too little to entertaine at once both them and me yet let the capacious Kingdome of thy infinite mercy at last receive both me and my enemies When being reconciled to thee in the bloud of the same Redeemer we shall live farre above these ambitious desires which beget such mortall enmities When their hands shall be heaviest and cruellest upon me O let me fall into the arms of thy tender and eternall mercies That what is cut off of my life in this miserable moment may be repaiedin thy ever blessed eternity Lord let thy Servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen thy salvation Vota dabunt quae bella negârunt FINIS