hath shed his Or if the guilt of our great Sins cause this Treaty to break off in vain Lord let the Truth clearly appear who those men are which under pretence of the Publick Good do pursue their own private ends that this People may be no longer so blindly miserable as not to see at least in this their day the things that belong unto their Peace Grant this gracious God for His sake who is our Peace it self even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen III. A Prayer drawn by His MAJESTY's special directions for a Blessing on the Treaty at Newport in the Isle of Wight O Most merciful Father Lord God of Peace and Truth we a People sorely afflicted by the scourge of an unnatural War do here earnestly beseech Thee to command a Blessing from Heaven upon this Treaty brought about by Thy Providence and the only visible remedy left for the establishment of an happy Peace Soften the most obdurate hearts with a true Christian desire of saving those mens blood for whom Christ himself hath shed His. O Lord let not the guilt of our Sins cause this Treaty to break off but let the Truth of Thy Spirit so clearly shine in our minds that all private ends laid aside we may every one of us heartily and sincerely pursue the Publick Good and that thy People may be no longer so blindly miserable as not to see at least in this their day the things that belong unto their Peace Grant this gracious God for His sake who is our Peace it self even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen IV. A Prayer for Pardon of Sin ALmighty and most merciful Father look down upon Me thy unworthy Servant who here prostrate My self at the Footstool of thy Throne of Grace but look upon Me O Father through the Mediation and in the Merits of Jesus Christ in whom Thou art only well pleased for of My self I am not worthy to stand before Thee or to speak with my unclean lips to Thee most Holy and Eternal God For as in sin I was conceived and born so likewise I have broken all thy Commandments by my sinful Motions unclean Thoughts evil Words and wicked Works omitting many Duties I ought to do and committing many Vices which Thou hast forbidden under pain of thy heavy displeasure As for my Sins O Lord they are innumerable wherefore I stand here liable to all the Miseries in this life and everlasting Torments in that to come if Thou shouldst deal with Me according to My deserts I confess O Lord that it is Thy Mercy which endureth for ever and Thy Compassion which never fails which is the cause that I have not been long ago consumed But with Thee there is Mercy and plenteous Redemption In the multitude therefore of thy Mercies and by the Merits of Jesus Christ I entreat thy Divine Majesty that Thou wouldst not enter into Judgement with thy Servant nor be extream to mark what is done amiss but be Thou merciful unto Me and wash away all my Sins with that precious Blood that my Saviour shed for Me. And I beseech Thee O Lord not only to wash away all my Sins but also to purge my Heart by thy Holy Spirit from the dross of my natural Corruption And as Thou dost add days to my Life so Good Lord I beseech Thee to add Repentance to my days that when I have pass'd this mortal life I may be partaker of thy everlasting Kingdom through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen V. A Prayer and Confession in and for the times of Affliction ALmighty and most merciful Father as it is only Thy goodness that admits of our imperfect Prayers and the knowledge that Thy Mercies are infinite which can give us any hope of Thy accepting or granting them so it is our bounden and necessary Duty to confess our Sins freely unto Thee And of all men living I have most need most reason so to do no man living having been so much obliged by Thee that degree of Knowledge which Thou hast given Me adding likewise to the guilt of my Transgressions For was it through Ignorance that I suffered innocent blood to be shed by a false pretended way of Justice or that I permitted a wrong way of thy Worship to be set up in Scotland and injured the Bishops in England O no but with shame and grief I confess that I therein followed the perswasions of worldly Wisdom forsaking the Dictates of a right-informed Conscience Wherefore O Lord I have no excuse to make no hope left but in the multitude of Thy Mercies for I know my Repentance weak and my Prayers faulty Grant therefore merciful Father so to strengthen my Repentance and amend my Prayers that Thou maist clear the way for thine own Mercies to which O let thy Justice at last give place putting a speedy end to my deserved Afflictions In the mean time give Me Patience to endure Constancy against Temptations and a discerning spirit to chuse what is best for Thy Church and People which Thou hast committed to My Charge Grant this O most merciful Father for thy Son Jesus Christ's sake our only Saviour Amen VI. A Prayer in time of Captivity O Powerful and eternal God to whom nothing is so great that it may resist or so small that it is contemned look upon My Misery with Thine Eye of Mercy and let thy infinite Power vouchsafe to limit out some proportion of deliverance unto Me as to Thee shall seem most convenient Let not injury O Lord triumph over Me and let my faults by Thy Hand be corrected and make not my unjust Enemies the Ministers of thy Justice But yet my God if in thy Wisdom this be the aptest chastisement for my unexcusable Transgressions if this ungrateful bondage be fittest for my over-high desires if the pride of my not enough humble Heart be thus to be broken O Lord I yield unto Thy Will and chearfully embrace what sorrow Thou wilt have Me suffer Only thus much let Me crave of Thee let my craving O Lord be accepted of since it even proceeds from Thee that by thy Goodness which is Thy self Thou wilt suffer some beam of thy Majesty so to shine in my mind that I who acknowledge it my noblest Title to be Thy Creature may still in my greatest Afflictions depend confidently on Thee Let Calamity be the exercise but not the overthrow of my Vertue O let not their prevailing power be to My Destruction And if it be thy Will that they more and more vex Me with punishment yet O Lord never let their Wickedness have such a hand but that I may still carry a pure mind and stedfast resolution ever to serve Thee without Fear or Presumption yet with that humble Confidence which may best please Thee so that at the last I may come to thy eternal Kingdom through the Merits of thy Son our alone Saviour Jesus Christ Amen VII A Prayer in time of imminent Danger O Most merciful Father
digest it Soveraign Power in Subjects seldom agreeing with the stomacks of fellow-Subjects Yet I have even in this point of the constant Militia sought by satisfying their Fears and importunities both to secure My Friends and overcome Mine Enemies to gain the peace of all by depriving My self of a sole power to help or hurt any yielding the Militia which is My undoubted Right no less than the Crown to be disposed of as the Two Houses shall think fit during My time So willing am I to bury all Jealousies in them of Me and to live above all Jealousies of them as to My self I desire not to be safer than I wish them and My People If I had the sole actual disposing of the Militia I could not protect My People further than they protected Me and themselves so that the use of the Militia is mutual I would but defend My self so far as to be able to defend My good Subjects from those mens violence and fraud who conscious to their own evil merits and designs will needs perswade the World That none but Wolves are fit to be trusted with the custody of the Shepherd and his Flock Miserable experience hath taught My Subjects since Power hath been wrested from Me and employed against Me and them That neither can be safe if both be not in such a way as the Law hath entrusted the publick safety and welfare Yet even this Concession of Mine as to the exercise of the Militia so vast and large is not satisfactory to some men which seem to be Enemies not to Me only but to all Monarchy and are resolved to transmit to Posterity such Jealousies of the Crown as they should never permit it to enjoy its just and necessary Rights in point of Power to which at last all Law is resolved while thereby it is best protected But here Honour and Justice due to My Successors forbid Me to yield to such a total alienation of that Power from them which Civility and Duty no less than Justice and Honour should have forbad them to have asked of Me. For although I can be content to eclipse My own beams to satisfie their fears who think they must needs be scorched or blinded if I should shine in the full lustre of Kingly Power wherewith God and the Laws have invested Me yet I will never consent to put out the Sun of Soveraignty to all Posterity and succeeding Kings whose just recovery of their Rights from unjust Usurpations and Extortions shall never be prejudiced or obstructed by any Act of Mine which indeed would not be more injurious to succeeding Kings than to my Subjects whom I desire to leave in a condition not wholly desperate for the future so as by a Law to be ever subjected to those many factious Distractions which must needs follow the many-headed Hydra of Government which as it makes a shew to the People to have more eyes to foresee so they will find it hath more mouths too which must be satisfied and at best it hath rather a monstrosity than any thing of perfection beyond that of right Monarchy where Counsel may be in many as the Senses but the Supreme Power can be but in One as the Head Haply when men have tried the horrors and malignant influence which will certainly follow my enforced Darkness and Eclipse occasioned by the interposition and shadow of that Body which as the Moon receiveth its chiefest light from Me they will at length more esteem and welcome the restored glory and blessing of the Sun 's light And if at present I may seem by my receding so much from the use of my Right in the Power of the Militia to come short of the discharge of that Trust to which I am sworn for my Peoples protection I conceive those men are guilty of the enforced Perjury if so it may seem who compel Me to take this new and strange way of discharging My Trust by seeming to desert it of protecting My Subjects by exposing My self to Danger or Dishonour for their safety and quiet Which in the conflicts of Civil War and advantages of Power cannot be effected but by some side yielding to which the greatest love of the Publick-Peace and the firmest assurance of God's protection arising from a good Conscience doth more invite Me than can be expected from other mens Fears which arising from the Injustice of their actions tho never so successful yet dare not adventure their Authors upon any other way of safety than that of the Sword and Militia which yet are but weak defences against the stroaks of Divine Vengeance which will overtake or of mens own Consciences which always attend injurious perpetrations For My self I do not think that I can want any thing which providential necessity is pleased to take from Me in order to My Peoples tranquility and God's 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 Job whatever Honour Power or Liberty the Chaldoeans the Saboeans or the Devil himself can deprive Me of Although they take from Me all defence of Arms and Militia all refuge by Land of Forts and Castles all flight by Sea in My Ships and Navy yea tho they study to rob Me of the Hearts of my Subjects the greatest treasure and best ammunition of a King yet cannot they deprive Me of My own Innocency or God's Mercy nor obstruct My way to Heaven Therefore O My God to Thee I flie for help if Thou wilt be on my side I shall have more with Me than can be against Me. There is none in Heaven or in Earth that I desire in comparison of Thee In the loss of all be Thou more than all to Me. Make hast to succor Me Thou that never failest them that put their trust in Thee Thou seest I have no power to oppose them that come against Me who are encouraged to fight under the pretence of fighting for Me But my eyes are toward Thee Thou needest no help nor shall I if I may have thine if not to conquer yet at least to suffer If Thou delightest not in my safety and prosperity behold here I am willing to be reduced to what Thou wilt have Me whose Judgments oft begin with thy own Children I am content to be nothing that Thou mayest be all Thou hast taught Me That no King can be saved by the multitude of an Host but yet Thou canst save me by the multitude of thy Mercies who art the Lord of Hosts and the Father of Mercies Help Me O Lord who am sore distressed on every side yet be Thou on my side and I shall not fear what man can do unto Me. I will give thy Justice the glory of my distress O let thy Mercy have the glory of my deliverance from them that persecute my Soul By my sins have I fought against Thee and robbed Thee of thy Glory who am thy Subject and justly mayest
patience as bad as my worst Enemies can falsly say and I hope I shall still do better than they desire or deserve I should I believe it will at last appear that they who first began to embroil my other Kingdoms are in great part guilty if not of the first letting out yet of the not timely stopping those horrid effusions of blood in Ireland Which whatever my Enemies please to say or think I look upon as that of my other Kingdoms exhausted out of My own veins no man being so much weakned by it as My self And I hope tho mens unsatiable Cruelties never will yet the Mercy of God will at length say to his Justice It is enough and command the Sword of Civil wars to sheath it self his merciful Justice intending I trust not our utter Confusion but our Cure the abatement of our Sins not the desolating of these Nations O my God let those infinite Mercies prevent us once again which I and My Kingdoms 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 unless we crucifie one another Because we have not more loved thy Truth and practised in Charity Thou hast suffered a spirit of Error and bitterness of mutual and mortal Hatred to rise among us O Lord forgive wherein we have sinned and sanstifie what we have suffered Let our Repentance be our Recovery as our great Sins have been onr 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 glass of thy Judgments for Thou never punishest small failings with so severe Afflictions O therefore according to the multitude of thy great Mercies pardon our Sins and remove thy Judgments which are very many and very heavy Yet let our Sins be ever more grievous to us than thy Judgments and make us more willing to repent than to be relieved first give us the Peace of penitent Consciences and then the tranquillity of united Kingdoms In the sea of our Saviours Blood drown our Sins and through this Red sea of our own blood bring us at last to a state of Piety Peace and Plenty As My publick relations to all make Me share in all My Subjects 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 unjust Reproaches cast upon Me be as a breath more to kindle My Compassion Give Me grace to heap Charitable coals of fire upon their heads to melt them whose Malice or cruel Zeal hath kindled or hindred the quenching of those Flames which have so much wasted My Three Kingdoms O rescue and assist those poor Protestants in Ireland whom Thou hast hitherto preserved And lead those in the ways of Thy saving Truths whose Ignorance or Errors have filled them with Rebellious and destructive Principles which they act under an opinion that they do Thee good service Let the hand of Thy Justice be against those who maliciously and despitefully have raised or fomented those cruel and desperate Wars Thou art far from destroying the innocent with tho guilty and the erroneous with the malicious thou that hadst pity on Nineveh 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 Covetousness makes them Cruel nor to their Anger which is too fierce and therefore justly cursed Preserve if it be thy will in the midst of the furnace of thy severe Justice a Posterity which may praise Thee for Thy Mercy And deal with Me not according to mans unjust Reproaches but according to the Innocency of My hands in Thy sight If I have desired or delighted in the woful 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 witness my Integrity which Thou O Lord knowest right well But I trust not to My own Merit but thy Mercies Spare us O Lord and be not angry with us for ever XIII Vpon the calling in of the SCOTS and their Coming THE Scots are a Nation upon whom I have not only common ties of Nature Soveraignty and Bounty with my Father of Blessed memory but also special and late obligations of Favours having gratified the active Spirits among them so far that I seemed to many to prefer the desires of that Party before My own Interest and Honour But I see Royal bounty emboldens some men to ask and act beyond all bounds of Modesty and Gratitude My Charity and Act of Pacification forbids Me to reflect on former passages wherein I shall ever be far from letting any mans ingratitude or inconstancy make Me repent of what I granted them for the publick good I pray God it may so prove The coming again of that Party into England with an Army only to conform this Church to their late New model cannot but seem as unreasonable as they would have thought the same measure offered from hence to themselves Other Errand I could never understand they had besides those common and vulgar flourishes for Religion and Liberty save only to confirm the Presbyterian Copy they had set by making this Church to write after them tho it were in bloody Characters Which Design and End whether it will justifie the use of such violent Means before the Divine Justice I leave to their Consciences to judg who have already felt the misery of the Means but not reaped the benefit of the End either in this Kingdom or that Such knots and crosness of grain being objected here as will hardly suffer that Form which they cry up as the only just Reformation and setling of Government and Discipline in Churches to go on so smoothly here as it might do in Scotland and was by them imagined would have done in England when so many of the English Clergy through levity or discontent if no worse Passion suddenly quitted their former engagements to Episcopacy and faced about to their Presbytery It cannot but seem either Passion or some Self-seeking more than true Zeal and pious Discretion for any foreign State or Church to prescribe such medicines only for others which themselves have used rather successfully than commendably not considering that the same Physick on different constitutions will have different operations that may kill one which doth but cure another Nor do I know any such tough and malignant Humours in the constitution of the English Church which gentler applications than those of an Army might not easily have removed Nor is it so proper to hew out
though my Sins are so many and grievous that I may rather expect the effects of thy Anger than so great a deliverance as to free Me from my present great Danger yet O Lord since thy Mercies are over all thy Works and Thou never failest to relieve all those who with humble and unfeigned Repentance come to Thee for succour it were to multiply not diminish my Transgressions to despair of thy heavenly favour wherefore I humbly desire thy Divine Majesty that Thou wilt not only pardon all my Sins but also free Me out of the hands and protect Me from the Malice of my cruel Enemies But if thy wrath against my hainous offences will not otherwise be satisfied than by suffering Me to fall under my present Afflictions thy Will be done yet with humble importunity I do and shall never leave to implore the assistance of thy Heavenly Spirit that My Cause as I am Thy Vicegerent may not suffer through My weakness or want of Courage O Lord so strengthen and enlighten all the Faculties of my Mind that with clearness I may shew forth thy Truth and manfully endure this bloody Trial that so my Sufferings here may not only glorifie Thee but likewise be a furtherance to My Salvation hereafter Grant this O merciful Father for His sake who suffered for Me even Jesus Christ the Righteous Amen KING CHARLES HIS MESSAGES FOR PEACE I. From CANTERBURY Jan. 20. MDCXLI II. For the Composing of all Differences HIS Majesty perceiving the manifold distractions which are now in this Kingdom which cannot but bring great inconveniencies and mischief to this whole Government in which as His Majesty is most chiefly interessed so He holds Himself by many reasons most obliged to do what in Him lies for the preventing thereof though He might justly expect as most proper for the duty of Subjects that Propositions for the remedies of these evils ought rather to come to Him than from Him yet His Fatherly care of all His People being such that He will rather lay by any particular respect of His Own Dignity than that any time should be lost for prevention of these threatning evils which cannot admit the delays of the ordinary proceedings in Parliament doth think fit to make this ensuing Proposition to both Houses of Parliament that they will with all speed fall into a serious consideration of all those particulars which they shall hold necessary as well for the upholding and maintaining of His Majesty's Just and Regal Authority and for the setling of His Revenue as for the present and future establishment of their Priviledges the free and quiet enjoying of their Estates and Fortunes the Liberties of their Persons the security of the true Religion now professed in the Church of England and the setling of Ceremonies in such a manner as may take away all just offence Which when they shall have digested and composed into one intire body that so His Majesty and themselves may be able to make the more clear Judgment of them it shall then appear by what His Majesty shall do how far he hath been from intending or designing any of those things which the too great Fears and Jealousies of some persons seem to apprehend and how ready He will be to equal and exceed the greatest examples of the most indulgent Princes in their Acts of Grace and Favour to their People So that if all the present Distractions which so apparently threaten the Ruine of this Kingdom do not by the blessing of Almighty God end in an happy and blessed Accommodation His Majesty will then be ready to call Heaven and Earth God and Man to witness that it hath not failed on His part From HUNTINGDON March 15. Upon His Removal to YORK In pursuance of the Former HIS Majesty being now on His remove to His City of York where He intends to make His Residence for some time thinks fit to send this Message to both Houses of Parliament That he doth very earnestly desire that they will use all possible industry in expediting the business of Ireland in which they shall find so chearful a concurrence by His Majesty that no inconvenience shall happen to that service by His absence He having all that Passion for the reducing of that Kingdom which He hath expressed in His former Messages and being unable by words to manifest more affection to it than He hath endeavoured to do by those Messages having likewise done all such Acts as he hath been moved unto by His Parliament therefore if the misfortunes and calamities of His poor Protestant Subjects shall grow upon them though His Majesty shall be deeply concerned in and sensible of their sufferings He shall wash His hands before all the World from the least imputation of slackness in that most necessary and pious work And that His Majesty may leave no way unattempted which may beget a good understanding between Him and His Parliament He thinks it necessary to declare That as He hath been so tender of the Priviledges of Parliament that He hath been ready and forward to retract any Act of His own which He hath been informed hath trencht upon their Priviledges so He expects an equal tenderness in them of His Majesty 's known and unquestionable Priviledges which are the Priviledges of the Kingdom amongst which He is assured it is a Fundamental one That His Subjects cannot be obliged to obey any Act Order or Injunction to which His Majesty hath not given His consent And therefore He thinks it necessary to publish That He expects and hereby requires Obedience from all His loving Subjects to the Laws established and that they presume not upon any pretence of Order or Ordinance to which His Majesty is no party concerning the Militia or any other thing to do or execute what is not warranted by those Laws His Majesty being resolved to keep the Laws Himself and to require Obedience to them from all His Subjects And His Majesty once more recommends to His Parliament the substance of His Message of the twentieth of January last that they compose and digest with all speed such Acts as they shall think fit for the present and future establishment of their Priviledges the free and quiet enjoying their Estates and Fortunes the Liberties of their Persons the security of the true Religion now professed in the Church of England the maintaining His Majesties Regal and Just Authority and setling His Revenue His Majesty being most desirous to take all fitting and just wayes which may beget a happy understanding between Him and His Parliament in which He conceives His greatest Power and Riches do consist III. From NOTTINGHAM Aug. 25. MDCXLII When He set up His Standard By the Earls of Southampton and Dorset Sir John Culpepper Knight Chancellour of the Exchequer and Sir W. Wedale Knight WE have with unspeakable grief of heart long beheld the distractions of this our Kingdom Our very Soul is full of anguish until We may find some remedy to
Bearer Seamour to wait upon Your Majesty and to bring me an account of it that I may withal assure Your Majesty I do not only pray for Your Majesty according to my Duty but shall alwaies be ready to do all which shall be in my power to deserve that Blessing which I now humbly beg of Your Majesty upon Sir Your Majesties most humble and most obedient Son and Servant CHARLES Hague January 23. 1648. HIS MAJESTY'S SPEECHES I. To the Lords and Commons at the opening of His First Parliament at WESTMINSTER June 18. MDCXXV I Thank God that the business to be treated on at this time is of such a nature that it needs no Eloquence to set it forth for I am neither able to do it neither doth it stand with My Nature to spend much time in words It is no new business being already happily begun by My Father of blessed memory who is with God therefore it needeth no Narrative I hope in God you will go on to maintain it as freely as you advised My Father to it It is true He may seem to some to have been slack to begin so just and so glorious a Work but it was His Wisdom that made Him loth to begin a work until He might find means to maintain it But after that He saw how much He was abused in the confidence He had with other States and was confirmed by your advice to run the course we are in with your Engagement to maintain it I need not press to prove how willingly He took your Advice for the Preparations that are made are better able to declare it than I to speak it The assistance of those in Germany the Fleet that is ready for action with the rest of the Preparations which I have only followed My Father in do sufficiently prove that He entred into this Action My Lords and Gentlemen I hope that you do remember that you were pleased to imploy Me to advise My Father to break off those two Treaties that were on foot so that I cannot say I came hither a free unengaged man It 's true I came into this business willingly and freely like a young man and consequently rashly but it was by your interest your engagement So that though it were done like a young man yet I cannot repent Me of it and I think none can blame Me for it knowing the love and fidelity you have born to your King having My self likewise some little experience of your affections I pray you remember that this being My first Action and begun by your advice and entreaty what a great dishonour it were to you and Me if this Action so begun should fail for that assistance you are able to give Me. Yet knowing the constancy of your love both to Me and this Business I needed not to have said this but only to shew what care and sense I have of your Honours and Mine own I must entreat you likewise to consider of the Times we are in how that I must adventure your lives which I should be loth to do should I continue you here long and you must venture the Business if you be slow in your resolutions Wherefore I hope you will take such grave Counsel as you will expedite what you have in hand to do which will do Me and your selves an infinite deal of Honour You in shewing your love to Me and Me that I may perfect that Work which My Father hath so happily begun Last of all because some malicious men may and as I hear have given out that I am not so true a Keeper and Maintainer of the true Religion that I profess I assure you that I may with St Paul say that I have been trained up at Gamaliel's feet and although I shall never be so arrogant as to assume unto My self the rest I shall so far shew the end of it that all the World may see that none hath been nor ever shall be more desirous to maintain the Religion I profess than I shall be Now because I am unfit for much speaking I mean to bring up the fashion of My Predecessors to have My Lord Keeper speak for Me in most things Therefore I have commanded him to speak something unto you at this time which is more for formality than any great matter he hath to say unto you II. To the Lords and Commons in the Hall at CHRISTS-CHURCH in OXFORD Aug. 4. MDCXXV MY Lords and you of the Commons We all remember that from your Desires and Advice My Father now with God brake off those two Treaties with Spain that were then in hand Well you then foresaw that as well for regaining My dispossessed Brothers Inheritance as Home defence a War was likely to succeed and that as your Counsels had let My Father into it so your assistance in a Parliamentary way to pursue it should not be wanting That Aid you gave Him by Advice was for succour of His Allies the guarding of Ireland and the home part supplie of Munition preparing and setting forth of His Navy A Councel you thought of and appointed for the War and Treasurers for issuing of the Moneys And to begin this Work of your Advice you gave three Subsidies and as many Fifteens which with speed were levied and by direction of that Councel of War in which the preparation of this Navy was not the least disbursed It pleased God at the entrance of this Preparation by your Advice begun to call My Father to His Mercy whereby I entred as well to the care of your Design as His Crown I did not then as Princes do of Custom and Formality re-assemble you but that by your further Advice and Aid I might be able to proceed in that which by your Counsels My Father was ingaged in Your love to Me and forwardness to further those Affairs you expressed by a grant of two Subsidies yet ungathered although I must assure you by My self and others upon credit taken up and aforehand disbursed and far short as yet to set forth that Navy now preparing as I have lately the estimate of those of care and who are still employed about it whose particular of all expences about this Preparation shall be given you when you please to take an accompt of it Another contracted Copy of the two foregoing Speeches Other Copies having contracted the substance of both these Speeches foregoing into one supposed to be spoken at Westminster at the Opening of the Parliament it was thought fit to represent both Copies leaving it to the Memory of such as were then present to decide which is the true MY Lords and Gentlemen You are not ignorant that at your earnest entreaty the twenty third of March sixteen hundred twenty three My Father of Happy Memory first took up arms for the recovery of the Palatinate for which purpose by your assistance He began to form a considerable Army and to prepare a goodly Armado and Navy Royal. But Death intervening between Him and
and Dishonour by what is committed whereby in all Policy Reason and Religion having least cause to give the least consent and most grounds of utter detestation I might be represented by them to the World the more inhumane and barbarous like some Cyclopick Monster whom nothing will serve to eat and drink but the flesh and blood of My own Subjects in whose common Welfare My Interest lies as much as some mens doth in their Perturbations who think they cannot do well but in evil times nor so cunningly as in laying the odium of those sad events on others wherewith themselves are most pleased and whereof they have been not the least occasion And certainly 't is thought by many wise men that the preposterous rigor and unreasonable severity which some men carried before them in England was not the least Incentive that kindled and blew up into those horrid flames the sparks of Discontent which wanted not predisposed fewel for Rebellion in Ireland where Despair being added to their former Discontents and the fears of utter Extirpation to their wonted Oppressions it was easy to provoke to an open Rebellion a people prone enough to break out to all exorbitant violence both by some Principles of their Religion and the natural desires of Liberty both to exempt themselves from their present restraints and to prevent those after Rigors wherewith they saw themselves apparently threatned by the covetous Zeal and uncharitable Fury of some men who think it a great Argument of the truth of their Religion to endure no other but their own God knows as I can with truth wash My hands in Innocency as to any Guilt in that Rebellion so I might wash them in my Tears as to the sad apprehensions I had to see it spread so far and make such waste And this in a time when Distractions and Jealousies here in England made most men rather intent to their own safety or designs they were driving than to the relief of those who were every day inhumanly butchered in Ireland whose Tears and Blood might if nothing else have quenched or at least for a time repressed and smothered those sparks of Civil Dissentions and Jealousies which in England some men most industriously scattered I would to God no man had been less affected with Ireland's sad estate than My self I offered to go My self in Person upon that expedition But some men were either afraid I should have any one Kingdom quieted or loath they were to shoot at any mark here less than My self or that any should have the glory of my Destruction but themselves Had My many offers been accepted I am confident neither the Ruine had been so great nor the Calamity so long nor the Remedy so desperate So that next to the sin of those who began that Rebellion theirs must needs be who either hindred the speedy suppressing of it by Domestick Dissentions or diverted the Aids or exasperated the Rebels to the most desperate resolutions and actions by threatning all Extremities not only to the known Heads and chief Incendiaries but even to the whole community of that Nation resolving to destroy Root and branch men women and children without any regard to those usual pleas for Mercy which Conquerors not wholly barbarous are wont to hear from their own breasts in behalf of those whose oppressive Fears rather than their Malice engaged them or whose imbecillity for Sex and Age was such as they could neither lift up a hand against them nor distinguish between their right hand and their left Which preposterous and I think un-evangelical Zeal is too like that of the rebuked Disciples who would go no lower in their revenge than to call for fire from Heaven upon whole Cities for the repulse or neglect of a few or like that of Jacob's sons which the Father both blamed and cursed chusing rather to use all extremities which might drive men to desperate obstinancy than to apply moderate remedies such as might punish some with exemplary Justice yet disarm others with tenders of mercy upon their submission and our protection of them from the fury of those who would soon drown them if they refused to swim down the popular stream with them But some kind of Zeal counts all merciful moderation Lukewarmness and had rather be cruel than counted cold and is not seldom more greedy to kill the Bear for his skin than for any harm he hath done the confiscation of mens Estates being more beneficial than the Charity of saving their Lives or reforming their Errors When all proportionable succors of the poor Protestants in Ireland who were daily massacred and overborn with numbers of now desperate Enemies was 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 no probability unless by Miracle to preserve the remnant that had yet escaped God knows with how much Commiseration and solicitous Caution I carried on that business by persons of Honour and Integrity that so I might neither incourage the Rebels Insolence nor discourage the Protestants Loyalty and Patience Yet when this was effected in the best sort that the necessity and difficulty of affairs would then permit I was then to suffer again in my Reputation and Honour because I suffered not the Rebels utterly to devour the remaining handfuls of the Protestants there I thought that in all reason the gaining of that respite could not be so much to the Rebels advantages which some have highly calumniated against Me as it might have been for the Protestants future as well as present safety if during the time of that Cessation some men had had the grace to have laid Ireland's sad condition more to heart and laid aside those violent motions which were here carried on by those that had better skill to let blood than to stanch it But in all the misconstructions of my Actions which are prone to find more credulity in men to what is false and evil than love or charity to what is true and good as I have no Judg but God above Me so I can have comfort to appeal to his Omniscience who doth not therefore deny my Innocence because he is pleased so far to try my Patience as he did his servant Job's I have enough to do to look to My own Conscience and the faithful discharge of My Trust as a KING I have scarce leisure to consider those swarms of reproaches which issue out of some mens mouths and hearts as easily as smoke or sparks do out of a furnace much less to make such prolix Apologies as might give those men satisfaction who conscious to their own depth of wickedness are loath to believe any man not to be as bad as themselves 'T is Kingly to do well and hear ill if I can but act the one I shall not much regard to hear the other I thank God I can hear with
height as to interpret all fair Condescendings as Arguments of Feebleness and glory most in an unflexible stifness when they see others most supple and inclinable to them A grand Maxime with them was always 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 War endeavouring first to make Me destroy My self by dishonourable Concessions that so they might have the less to do This was all which that Treaty or any other produced to let the world see how little I would deny or they grant in order to the Publick Peace That it gave occasion to some mens further restiveness is imputable to their own depraved tempers not to any Concessions or Negations of Mine I have always the content of what I offered and they the regret and blame for what they refused The highest tide of Success set Me not above a Treaty nor the lowest ebb below a Fight tho I never thought it any sign of true Valor to be prodigal of mens lives rather than to be drawn to produce our own Reasons or subscribe to other mens That which made Me for the most part presage the unsuccessfulness of any Treaty was some mens unwillingness to Treat which implied some things were to be gained by the Sword whose unreasonableness they were loath to have fairly scanned being more proper to be acted by Soldiers than by Counsellors I pray God forgive them that were guilty of that Treaties breaking and give them grace to make their advantages gotten by the Sword a better opportunity to use such Moderation as was then wanting that so tho 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 disdainest not to Treat with Sinners preventing them with offers of Atonement and beseeching them to be reconciled with thy self who wantest not Power or Justice to destroy them yet aboundest in Mercy to save soften our hearts by the Blood of our Redeemer and perswade us to accept of Peace with Thy self and both to procure and preserve Peace among our selves as Men and Christians How oft have I intreated for Peace but when I speak thereof they make them ready to War Condemn us not to our Passions which are destructive both of our selves and of others Clear up our Vnderstandings to see thy Truth both in Reason as Men and in Religion as Christians and encline all our hearts to hold the Vnity 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 bestow upon us that Peace which only Christ our great Peace-maker can merit XIX Vpon the various Events of the War Victories 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 repress 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 arm 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 less punished by that Prosperity which hardened them to continue that Injustice by open Hostility which was begun by most riotous and unparliamentary Tumults There is no doubt but personal and private Sins may oft-times over-balance the Justice of publick engagements nor doth God account every gallant man in the worlds esteem 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 less doth God ordinarily work by them for his own Glory I am sure the Event or Success can never state the Justice of any Cause nor the peace of mens Consciences nor the eternal fate of their Souls Those with Me had I think clearly and undoubtedly for their Justification the Word of Cod and the Laws 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 Arms. 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 alledg who being My Subjects were manifestly the first assaulters of Me and the Laws first by unsuppressed Tumults after by listed Forces The same Allegations they use will fit any Faction that hath but power and Confidence enough to second with the Sword all their demands against the Present Laws and Governors 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 died fighting against Me the Laws their Oaths and the Religion established But sober Christians know that glorious Title can with truth be applied only to those who sincerely preferred God's 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 and My self which lay upon their Souls both for Obedience and just Assistance God could and I doubt not but he did through his Mercy crown many of them with Eternal Life whose lives were lost in so just a Cause the destruction of their Bodies being sanctified as a means to save their Souls Their Wounds and temporal Ruine serving as a gracious opportunity for their eternal Health and Happiness 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 than that which their Enemies brutish and disloyal Fierceness 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 believe at the Bar of
and with Constancy in Justice as a King Tho Thou sufferest Me to be stript of all outward Ornaments yet preserve Me ever in those enjoyments wherein I may enjoy Thy self and which cannot be taken from Me against My Will Let no fire of Affliction boyl over my Passion to any Impatience or sordid Fears There be many say of Me there is no help for Me do Thou lift up the light of thy Countenance upon Me and I shall never 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 O be not Thou far from Me lest My Enemies prevail too much against Me. I am become a wonder and a scorn to many O be Thou My Helper and Defender Shew some token upon Me for good that they that hate Me may be ashamed because Thou Lord hast holpen and comforted Me. Establish Me with thy free Spirit that I may do and suffer Thy will as Thou wouldst have Me. Be merciful to Me O Lord for my Soul trusteth in Thee yea and in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these Calamities be over-past Arise to deliver Me make no long tarrying O my God Tho Thou killest Me yet will I trust in thy Mercy and My Saviour's Merit I know that My Redeemer liveth tho Thou leadest Me through the vale and shadow of Death yet shall I fear none ill XXIV Vpon their denying His MAJESTY the attendance of His Chaplains WHen Providence was pleased to deprive Me of all other civil Comforts and secular Attendants I thought the absence 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 sustain the want of all other enjoyments or better fitted for the recovery and use of them in God's good time so reaping by their Pious help a spiritual harvest of Grace amidst the thorns and after the plowings of temporal 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 Wilderness 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 Kingdoms it had been no wonder to have been denied in those things where the evil Policy of men forbids all just restitution lest they should confess an injurious Usurpation But to deny Me the Ghostly comfort of My Chaplains seems a greater Rigor and Barbarity than is ever used by Christians to the meanest Prisoners and greatest Malefactors whom tho the Justice of the Law deprives 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 Souls But My Agony must not be relieved with the presence of any one good Angel for such 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 loth I should be a Christian while they seek to deprive Me of all things else they are afraid I should save My Soul Other sense Charity it self 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 Chaplains I have sometime thought the Unchristianness of those denials might arise from a displeasure some men had to see Me prefer My own Divines before their Ministers whom tho I respect for that worth and piety which may be in them yet I cannot think them so proper for My present Comforters or Physicians who have some of them at least had so great an influence in occasioning these Calamities and inflicting these Wounds upon Me. Nor are the soberest of them so apt for that Devotional compliance and juncture of hearts which I desire to bear in those holy Offices to be performed with Me and for Me since their Judgments standing at a distance from Me or in jealousie of Me or in opposition against Me their Spirits cannot so harmoniously accord with Mine or Mine with theirs either in Prayer or other holy Duties as is meet and most comfortable whose Golden Rule and bond of Perfection consists in that of mutual Love and Charity Some Remedies are worse than the Disease and some Comforters more miserable than Misery it self when like Job's Friends they seek not to fortifie ones mind with Patience but perswade a man by betraying his own Innocency to despair of God's Mercy and by justifying their injuries to strengthen the hands and harden the hearts of insolent Enemies I am so much a friend to all Church-men that have any thing in them beseeming that Sacred Function that I have hazarded My own Interest chiefly upon Conscience and Constancy to maintain their Rights whom the more I looked upon as Orphans and under the Sacrilegious eyes of many cruel and rapacious Reformers the more I thought it My duty to appear as a Father and a Patron for them and the Church Although I am very unhandsomly requited by some of them who may live to repent no less for My Sufferings than their own ungrateful Errors and that injurious Contempt and Meanness which they have brought upon their Calling and Persons I pity all of them I despise none only I thought I might have leave to make choice of some for my special Attendants who were best approved in My Judgment and most suitable to My Affection For I held it better to seem undevout and to hear no mens Prayers than to be forced or seem to comply with those Petitions to which the Heart cannot consent nor the Tongue say Amen without contradicting a mans own Understanding or belying his own Soul In Devotions I love neither Profane Boldness nor Pious Nonsense but such an humble and judicious Gravity as shews the Speaker to be at once considerate of God's Majesty the Churches Honour and his own Vileness both knowing what things God allows him to ask and in what manner it becomes a Sinner to supplicate the Divine Mercy for himself and others I am equally scandalized with all Prayers that sound either imperiously or rudely or passionately as either wanting Humility to God or Charity to men or Respect to the Duty I confess I am better pleased as with studied and premeditated Sermons so with such publick Forms of Prayer as are fitted to the Churches and every Christians daily and common necessities because I am by them better assured what I may joyn my Heart unto than I can be of any mans Extemporary sufficiency which as I do not wholly exclude from publick occasions so I allow its just liberty and use in private and
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 Terrors of my Death Make Me content to leave the Worlds Nothing that I may come really to enjoy All in Thee who hast made Christ unto Me in Life Gain nnd in Death Advantage Tho my Destroyers forget their Duty to Thee and Me yet do not Thou O Lord forget to be merciful to them For what profit is there in my Blood or in their gaining my Kingdoms if they lose their own Souls Such as have not only resisted my just Power but wholly usurped and turned it against My self tho they may deserve yet let them not receive to themselves Damnation Thou madest thy Son a Saviour to many that crucified Him while at once He suffered violently by them and yet willingly for them O let the voice of his Blood be heard for my Murtherers louder than the Cry of Mine against them Prepare them for thy Mercy by due Convictions of their Sin and let them not at once deceive and damn their own Souls by fallacious pretensions of Justice in destroying Me while the conscience of their unjust Vsurpation 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 cruel who pretending to preserve Me have meditated nothing but my Ruine O deal not with them as blood-thirsty and deceitful men but overcome their Cruelty with Thy Compassion and My Charity And when Thou makest inquisition for my Blood O sprinkle their polluted yet penitent Souls with the Blood of thy Son that thy destroying Angel may pass over them Tho they think my Kingdoms on Earth too little to entertain at once both them and Me yet let the capacious Kingdom of thy infinite Mercy at last receive both Me and my Enemies When being reconciled to Thee in the Blood of the same Redeemer we shall live far above these Ambitious desires which beget such mortal Enmities When their hands shall be heaviest and cruellest upon Me O let Me fall into the arms of thy tender and eternal Mercies That what is cut off of my Life in this miserable moment may be repayed in thy ever-blessed Eternity Lord let thy Servant depart in Peace for my eyes have seen thy Salvation Vota dabunt quae bella negârunt FINIS An Historical TABLE of both PARTS That the Reader may the more easily discern the Order of those Historical Papers which are digested under their several Heads in the First Part and more readily conjoyn them in their proper Places with the Second it is thought fit to represent both together in this Table according to their Dates and Dependencies MDCXXV HIS Majesties Speech at the Opening of His First Parliament June 18. 1625. page 159 160 His Speech to both Houses at Oxford Aug. 4. 1625. ibid. MDCXXV VI. His Speech to the Speaker of the Lower House of His Second Parliament 1625 6. p. 160 His Speech to both Houses at White-Hall March 29. 1626. p. 161 His Speech to the House of Lords at Westminster May 11. 1626. ibid. A Declaration concerning His Two First Parliaments p. 217 MDCXXVII VIII His Majesties Speech at the Opening of His Third Parliament March 17. 1627 8. p. 162 His Speech to both Houses at White-Hall April 4. 1628. ibid. His Speech to the Speaker and House of Commons April 14. 1628. p. 163 His Speeches to both Houses in Answer to their Petition Jun. 2. 7. 1628. ibid. His Speech to the Lower House at the Reading their Remonstrance June 11. 1628. ibid. His Speech to both Houses at the Prorogation Jun. 26. 1628. p. 164 MDCXXVIII IX His Speech to both Houses Jan. 24. 31. 1828 9. p. 164 165 His Speech to the Lower-House concerning Tonnage and Poundage Feb. 3. 1628 9. p. 165 A Declaration concerning His Third Parliament p. 222 A Proclamation for suppressing false Rumours touching Parliaments Mar. 27. 1629. p. 230 MDCXXXVI VII His Majesties Letter to the Judges concerning Ship-money Feb. 2. 1636 7. With their Answer p. 231 232 MDCXL His Majesty's Speech to the Speaker of the Lower House of His Fourth Parliament 1640. p. 166 A Declaration concerning His Fourth Parliament p. 233 His Speech to the Great Council of the Lords at York Septemb. 24. 1640. p. 167 MDCXL XLI Of His Calling His Fifth Parliament See Icon Basil I. p. 647 His Speech at the Opening of His Fifth Parliament Nov. 3. 1640. p. 168 Six Speeches to both Houses Nov. 5. 1640. Jan. 25. Feb. 3. 10. 15. 1640 4. 1. Apr. 28. 1641. p. 168 seqq MDCXLI His Speech to the Lords concerning the Earl of Strafford May 1. 1641. p. 172 His Letter to the Lords May. 11. p. 138 See also Icon Basil II. V. p. 648 654 Two Speeches to both Houses Jun. 22. Jul. 5. 1641. p. 172 173 His Speech to the Scotish Parliament at Edinburgh Aug. 19. 1641. p. 173 Two Speeches to both Houses after His Return out of Scotland Dec. 2. 14. 1641. p. 174 A Petition of the Lower House With a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom Dec. 1. 1641. p. 241 243 His Majesty's Answer to the Petition p. 254 His Declaration in Answer to the Remonstrance p. 255 The Petition and Protestation of the Bishops Dec. 28. 1641. p. 258 MDCXLI II. Articles of High Treason against the Five Members Jan. 3. 1641 2. p. 259 His Majesties Speech to the Lower House concerning them Jan. 4. 1641 2. p. 175 His Speech to the Londoners at Guild-Hall Jan. 5. 1641 2. p. 175 See also Icon Bafil III. IV. VI. VII p. 650 651 656 658 His Message for Peace from Canterbury Jan. 20. 1641 2. p. 97 His Speeches to the Committees of both Houses at Theobalds Mar. 1. at Newmarket Mar. 9. 1641 2. p. 175 His Message from Huntingdon Mar. 15. 1641 2. p. 97 MDCXLII Two Speeches to the Gentry of Yorkshire April 5. May 12. 1642. p. 177 Of His Majesty's Repulse at Hull See Icon Basil VIII p. 659 The Nineteen Propositions Jun. 2. 1642 p. 260 His Majesty's Answer p. 262 See also Icon Basil XI p. 659 His Majesty's Declaration to the Lords at York Jun. 13. 1642. p. 271 With their promise thereupon p. 272 His Declaration concerning the Scandalous Imputation of His Raising War Jan. 1642. p. 273 With the Declaration and Profession of the Lords p. 276 Of the many Jealousies and Scandals cast upon His Majesty See Icon Basil XV. p. 680 A Proclamation forbidding Levies of Forces Jun. 18. 1642. p. 277 See also Icon Basil IX X. p. 661 665 His Majesty's Speeches to the Inhabitants of Nottinghamshire Jul. 4. of Lincolnshire Jul. 15. of Leicester Jul. 20. and the Gentry of Yorkshire Aug. 4. 1642. p. 178 179 180 Votes for Raising an Army against the King Jul. 12. 1642. p. 279 A Declaration of both Houses for Raising Forces Aug. 8. 1642. p. 280 His Majesty's