humanity and charitable inclinations will afford me your devout prayers For my Saviours sweet mercy good people pray for me even for my eternal Saviours sake into whose bosom I render my woful and afflicted soul sweet Jesu my redeemer the redeemer even of me a woful and dejected sinner receive into thy arms my Spirit At the time appointed he marched to the Scaffold more like a General in the head of an Army to breath victory then like a condemned man to undergo the sentence of death The Lieutenant of the Tower desired him to take Coach for fear the people should rush in upon him and tear him in pieces No said he Master Lieutenant I dare look death in the face and I hope the people too have you a care that I do not escape and I care not how I dye whether by the hand of the Executioner or the madness and fury of the People if that may give them better content it is all one to me Having mounted the Scaffold and seeing his Brother Sir George Wentworth weeping Brother said he What do you see in me that deserves these tears doth my fear betray my guiltiness or my too much boldness any Atheism think now that you do accompany me to my marriage bed Nor did I ever throw off my cloathes with such freedom and content as in this my preparation to my Grave that stock pointing to the Block appointed for his Execution must be my Pillow here must I rest and rest from all my labours no thoughts of envy no dreams of treason jealousies of foes cares for the King the State or my self shall interrupt this nap therefore Brother with me pitty mine enemies who beside their intention have made me blessed rejoyce in my innocency rejoyce in my happiness Kneeling down upon the Scaffold he made this Protestation I hope Gentlemen you do think that neither fear of loss or love of reputation will cause me to belie God and my Conscience for now I am in the door going out and my next step must be from time to eternity either of peace or pain To clear my self to you all I do solemnly protest before God I am not guilty so far as I can understand of that great crime laid now to my charge nor have had the least inclination or intention to damnifie or prejudice the King the State the Laws or Religion of this Kingdom but with my best endeavours to serve all and support all concluding with these words as God might be merciful to his soul Addressing himself to my Lord Primate of Ireland he said It is my very great comfort that I have your Lordship by me this day in regard I have been known to you these many years and I do thank God and your Lordship for it that you are here I should be very glad to obtain so much silence as to be heard a few words but I doubt I shall not the noise is so great My Lords I am come hither by the good will and pleasure of Almighty God to pay that last debt I owe to sin which is death and by the blessing of that God to rise again through the merits of Jesus Christ to righteousness and life eternal Here he was much interrupted My Lords I am come hither to submit to that judgement which hath passed against me I do it with a very quiet and contented minde I thank God I do freely forgive all the world a forgiveness that is not spoken from the teeth outwards as they say but from the very heart I speak it in the presence of Almighty God before whom I stand that there is not a displeasing thought arising in me towards any man living I thank God I can say it and truly too my conscience bearing me witness that in all my employment since I had the honour to serve his Majesty I never had any thing in the purpose of my heart but what tended to the joynt and individual prosperity of the King and People although it hath been my ill fortune to be misconstrued I am not the first that hath suffered in this kinde it is the common portion of us all while we are in this life to erre righteous judgement we must wait for in another place for here we are very subject to be misjudged one of another There is one thing that I desire to free my self of and I am very confident speaking it now with so much chearfulness that I shall obtain your Christian Charity in the belief of it I was so far from being against Parliaments that I did alwayes think the Parliaments of England were the most happy Constitutions that any Kingdom or Nation lived under and the best means under God to make the King and People happy For my death I here acquit all the world and beseech the God of heaven heartily to forgive them that contrived it though in the intentions and purposes of my heart I am not guilty of what I die for And my Lord Primate it is a great comfort for me that his Majesty conceives me not meriting so severe and heavy a punishment as is the utmost execution of this sentence I do infinitely rejoyce in this mercy of his and I beseech God return it into his own bosome that he may finde mercy when he stands in need of it I wish this Kingdom all the prosperity and happiness in the world I did it living and now dying it is my wish I do most humbly recommend this to every one that hears me and desire they would lay their hands upon their hearts and consider seriously whether the beginning of the happinesse and Reformation of a Kingdom should be written in Letters of blood consider this when you are at your homes and let me be never so unhappy as that the least drop of my blood should rise up in judgement against any one of you but I fear you are in a wrong way My Lords I have but one word more and with that I shall end I profess that I dye a true and obedient son to the Church of England wherein I was born and in which I was bred peace and prosperity be ever to it It hath been objected if it were an objection worth the answering that I have been inclined to Popery but I say truly from my heart that from the time that I was one and twenty years of age to this present going now upon forty nine I never had in my heart to doubt of this Religion of the Church of England nor ever had any man the boldness to suggest any such thing to me to the best of my remembrance and so being reconciled by the merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour into whose bosom I hope I shall shortly be gathered to those eternal happinesses which shall never have end I desire heartily the forgivenesse of every man for any rash or unadvised words or any thing done amiss and so my Lords and Gentlemen farewel Farewel all the things of this world
to all Forreign Churches concerning his sincerity in the true Protestant Religion Declaratio serenissimi potentissimique Principis Caroli magnae Britanniae Regis ultramarinis Protestantium Ecclesiis transmissa Carolus singulari Omnipotentis Dei providentia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Rex fidei Defensor c. universis singulis qui praesens hos Scriptum seu Protestationem inspexerint potissimum reformatae Religionis cultoribus cujuscunque sint gentis gradus aut conditionis salutem Cum ad aures nostras non ita pridem fama pervenerit sixistros quosdam Rumores Literasque politica vel perniciosa potius quorundam industria sparsas esse nonnullis Protestantium Ecclesiis in exteris partibus emissas nobis esse animum consilium ab illa Orthodexi Religione quam ab incunabilis émbibimus ad hoc usque momentum per integrum vitae nostrae curriculum amplexi sumus recedendi Papismum in haec Regnaiterum introducendi quae conjectura seu nefanda potius calumnia nullo prorsus nixa vel imaginabili fundamento horrendos hosce tumultus rabiem plusquam belluinam in Anglia suscitavit sub larva cujusdam Chymericae Reformationis Regimini Legibusque hujus Domini non solum incongruae sed incompatibilis Volumus ut toti Christiano Orbi innotescat ne minimam quidem animum nostrum invasisse cogitatiunculam hoc aggrediendi aut transversum unguem ab illa Religione discedendi quam cum Coronâ Sceptroque hujus Regni solenni sacramentali juramento tenemur profiteri protegere propugnare Nec tantum constantissima nostra praxis quotidiana in exercitiis praefatae Religionis praesentia cum crebris in facie nostrorum Agminum asseverationibus publicisque Procerum hujus Regni testimoniis sedula in Regiam nostram sobolem educando circumspectione omissis plurimis aliis argumentis luculentissime hoc demonstrat sed etiam foelicissimum illud matrimonium quod inter nostram primogenitam et illustrissimum Principem Auriacum sponte contraximus idem fortissime attestatur quo nuptiali foedere insuper constat nobis non esse propositum illam profiteri solummodo sed expandere corroborare quantum in nobis situm est Hanc Sacrosanctam Anglicanae Christi Ecclesiae Religionem tot Theologorum Convocationibus sancitam tot Comitiorum Edictis confirmatam tot Regies Diplomatibus stabilitam unà cum Regimine Ecclesiastico Liturgia ei annexa quam Litergiam Regimenque celebriores Protestantium Authoxes tam Germani quam Galli tam Dani quam Helvetici tam Batavi quam Bohemi multis Elogiis nec sine quadam invidia in suis publicis scriptis comprobant applaudunt ut in transactionibus Dordrechtanae Synodi cui nonnulli nostrorum Praesulum quorum dignitati debita praestita fuerit Reverentia interfuerunt apparet Istam inquimus Religionem quam Regius noster Pater beatissimae memoriae in illa celeberrima fidei suae Confessione omnibus Christianis Principibus ut haec praesens nostra protestatio exhibita publicè asserit Istam istam Religionem solenniter protestamur nos integram sartam tectam invoilabilem conservaturos pro virili nostro Divino adjuvante Numine usque ad extremum vitae nostrae periodum protecturos omnibus nostris Ecclesiasticis pro muneris nostri supradicti sacrosancti Juramenti ratione doceri praedicari curaturos Quapropter injungimus in mandatis damus omnibus Ministris nostris in exteris partibus tam Legatis quam Residentibus Agentibusque Nunciis reliquisque nostris subditis ubicunque Orbis Christiani terrarum aut curiositatis aut commercii gratia degentibus hanc solennem synceram nostram protestationem quandocunque sese obtulerit loci temperis opportunitas communicare asserere asseverare Datum in Academia Civitate nostra Oxon. pridie Idus Maii 1644. The same in English Charles by the Providence of Almighty God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To all those who profess the true Reformed Protestant Religion of what Nation Degree and Condition soever they be to whom this present Declaration shall come Greeting Whereas we are given to understand that many false rumours and scandalous Letters are spread up and down amongst the Reformed Churches in Forreign parts by the politick or rather the pernicious industry of some ill-affected persons that we have an inclination to recede from that Orthodox Religion which we were born baptized and bred in and which we have firmly professed and practised through the whole course of our life to this moment and that we intend to give way to the Introduction and publick exercise of Popery again in our Dominions Which conjecture or rather most detestable calumny being grounded upon no imaginable foundation hath raised these horrid Tumults and more then barbarous Wars throughout this flourishing Island under pretext of a kinde of Reformation which would not prove onely incongruous but incompatible with the Fundamental Laws and Government of this Kingdom We desire that the whole Christian World should take notice and rest assured that we never entertained in our imagination the least thought to attempt such a thing or to depart a jot from that holy Religion which when we received the Crown and Scepter of this Kingdom we took a most solemn Sacramental Oath to profess and protect Nor doth our most constant practice and daily visible presence in the exercise of this sole Religion with so many Asseverations in the head of our Armies and the publick Attestation of our Barons with the circumspection used in the education of our Royal Off-spring besides divers other undeniable Arguments onely demonstrate this but also that happy Alliance of Marriage we contracted betwixt our eldest Daughter and the Illustrious Prince of Orange most clearly confirms the reality of our Intentions herein by which Nuptial engagement it appears further that our endeavours are not onely to make a bare profession thereof in our own Dominions but to enlarge and corroborate it abroad as much as lieth in our power This most holy Religion of the Church of England ordained by so many Convocations of Learned Divines confirmed by so many Acts of Parliament and strengthned by so many Royal Proclamations together with the Ecclesiastick Discipline and Liturgy thereunto appertaining which Liturgy and Discipline the most eminent of Protestant Authors as well Germans as French as well Danes as Swedes and Switzers as well Belgians as Bohemians do with many Elogies and not without a kinde of envy approve and applaud in their publick writings particularly in the Transactions of the Synod of Dort wherein besides other or our Divines who afterwards were Prelates one of our Bishops assisted to whose Dignity all due Reverence and Precedency was given This Religion we say which our Royal Father of blessed memory doth publickly assert in that this famous Confession addressed as we also do this our Protestation to all Christian
being by the divine disposal from the foregoing part of his life as strange as ever I have read in History His last words were to this effect Christian People I come hither to dye I am brought hither to dye and that I may dye Christian like I humbly beseech the assistance of your Christian prayers that by the benefit of them my passage may be the more easie Yet because men in that condition which it hath pleased God to reduce me to give the more credit to Speech in the discharge of my duty towards God I shall use a few words and so conclude I pray all of you joyn with me to praise this Almighty God to whom I desire to render all hearty thanks as for all his mercies so in particular for this that he hath brought me hither that whereas I owe a debt to sin and to nature that now I can pay the debt to nature I can pay it upon the account of Grace And because it is fit to render the blessed account of that hope that is in me I shall tell you to the praise of Almighty God that I have been born and bred up in the Doctrine of the Church of England I have no negative Religion believing to be saved by the onely merits of my Saviour Jesus Christ and whatsoever else is profest in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England authorized by Law humbly beseeching Almighty God to restore unto this Church her peace prosperity and patrimony whereof I have been an obedient and a loving however an unworthy Son and now both my hope being confident and my faith perfected there remains onely Christian Charity Charity we carry into heaven Charity on earth that I leave beseeching all whomsoever I have offended to forgive me as I from the bottom of my heart do all whomsoever blessing Almighty God for the happy advantage he takes to bring me the sooner to heaven I bless Almighty God that he hath given me this advantage as he hath been merciful to me before the foundation of the world in my Saviour so that now he hath in mercy honoured me with a suffering for his name in obedience to his Commandment On this day sevennight I was summoned before that Justice which condemned me on Friday last praised be Almighty God that by this way he hath brought me nearer to himself My charge I presume is publick as my punishment is visible if there have been any thing in the management of my part being unskilful having discontinued my own countrey many years I shall beseech the Christian Charity of all you my beloved Countrey-men to impute it rightly to the ignorance of my unskilful wayes of managing of affairs it was objected unto me there that I had a vanity of delighting in strange tongues I do acknowledge that I was best skilled in the Italian but free from that vanity I thank Almighty God and therefore I would in defence of my life if it had been the custom here or the Judges favour have used that language which was almost as natural to me as my mother tongue It was objected that I did not so freely as a thorow-paced Cavalier own my Master I was told since I came into England this skill I have in our Laws that a legal denyal in Law might be tollerable I hope I did not exceed the bounds of that in any thing for God forbid that I should be ashamed of serving so good so pious so just a Master putting off his hat for this I rejoyce and I humbly beseech Almighty God to fill my heart and my tongue and all that hear me this day with thankfulness for it As to the business that another construction had been made and believed here then what was there the righteous God knoweth it if any weakness were in the management that was mine I was sent to serve and protect not to injure any as God acquits me of the intention of matter of fact as having not done any manner of evil that way however here understood blessed be his holy name again putting off his hat so those Gentlemen of the Turky Company if they would might acknowledge for they know it very well the impossibility of my doing them any manner of harm Whereas that of the Embassy objected against me that my Master honoured me with it though I was never worthy of it I was his messenger and Internuntio for the conservation onely of his good Subjects of all the Merchants untill such time as he could confirme that Gentlemen now Resident or to send any other and they themselves know that there was an unpossibility as I bless God there was an innocency in me unto any such intention to do them harm for my Masters commands were point blank the contrary I was onely sent for their good as I never owned the title so the very letters themselves speaking no other I never did so much as think of any manner of address to the Grand Signior but gave him the letter from my Master the rest of the English Nation that were there present may when they please assert so much This I would insert that those Gentlemen as they have been losers by the miscarriages of others may now have a breach of their charity with me but if it be as it seems it is now in this Countrey a sin to be loyal I hope my God hath forgiven that when it is upon harmless employment not invading any according to my just Masters order for indeed I have been alwayes bred up in the Religion of Loyalty my Allegiance hath been incorporated into my Religion and I have thought it a great part of the service due from me to Almighty God to serve the King again putting off his hat He said I need not make any apology for any thing in relation to the present Affairs in England for were I as I spake beformy Judges were I as evil as my sentence here hath made me black it were impossible for me to have prejudiced any body in England or to England belonging in that employment but I bless God for his infinite mercy in Jesus Christ who hath taken me to himself by this manner of way it was the best Physick for the curing of my soul and those that have done it have no more Power then that of my body I leave nothing behinde me but that I am willing to part withal all that I am going to is desirable and that you may all know that Almighty God hath wrought in me a total denyal of my self and that there is that perfect reformation of me within of my own corruptions by the blessed assistance of his holy spirit I desire Almighty God in the abundance of the bowels of his mercy in Jesus Christ not onely to forgive every enemy if any such be in the world here or wheresoever but to bring him into his bosom so much good and particular comfort as he may at any time whether the cause
written thirty verses in a morning spent the rest of the day to convert them into three good ones like Ben. Johnson who to one that told him of his oyl and his lamp the pains he took before his Births those happy abstracts of the humours and manners of men gave this answer That his were Works the other printed things for the Stage were but Playes Dons and Cleavelands Poems how have they whipt and pedantized the other locusts of Poetry thus a true Diamond is to be esteemed above heaps of Bristol stones To instance further as to the writing of Lives Historians that are thus employed are or ought to be the most impartial of all other Authors except by their interests and flatteries they have resolved to render themselves worse then Pimps to posterity it being their determined employment and proper duties to pull off the perriwigs and disguises of great men and to present them in their own colours as a mans exterior actions are the best indicia of his minde some men in their publick actions being meer mimicks whereas in private they put off their assumed habits and become themselves again A disinterressed Historian for what next to God he can discover paints them to the life the general complaint in this particular is of the scarcity of the writers of lives Indeed I know but few of the modern have laboured this way for antiquity we have Laertius and Plutarch you may happily pardon me if I touch at either of them there is a certain abundance of moral wisdom in Laertius he is rich in his examples of ancient Sages is fraught almost in every page with moral instructions Plutarchs fortune is to have engaged with warlike spirits yet you may finde in him counsels as well for the Gown as the Sword I conceive no reason why Bodin and some others should bark at him and say his History may well be called Parallels for they never meet truly considering their internal inclinations by their leave in my judgement they are admirably well suited nay most of their actions concur now if one had not the same fortune as another Countrey rose when the other fell it makes nothing against him since chance may help the weak to the Victory But lest contrary to my own Intention I should enlarge my self too much it will now be high time for me to fall on my next particular what is the use benefit and advantages that accrew from the reading of History From this Study we learn the causes rises alterations revolutions characters of divers persons the mutability of Councels the remarkablenesse of actions the subtleties of pretensions the drifts of interests the secrets of State the deportments of Princes wisely dissimulating with their people from whose ambitious pretences Politicians determine that nothing is unlawful to him that hath power and nothing so unsafe to a Cedar of State as to be securely innocent By the assistance of History we finde out the especial Affairs of their Kingdoms their Treaties Articles Letters Charts Ordinances Entertainments Provisions of Arms Businesses of Commerce It is indeed one of the most profitable employments of a mans life to read Histories which stirs up men to vertue and deterrs from vice whilest they read how the one is rewarded and the other punished it makes a man serviceable both to the Church and State it is a Study fit for Divines to illustrate and confirm their Doctrines whilest they exhort to vertue and dehort from vice it shews them also the encrease and decrease of Religion with the divers concomitants thereof it is fit for the Lawyer to shew him the original diversities and changes of Laws and Governments for the same cause it is a fit Study for all Princes Magistrates and Politicians without which their Government will be but lame and no less necessary is it to Souldiers especially to Commanders and Captains where they may see the the divers causes events attendants and stratagems of War Physicians also Philosophers and Poets may reap no small benefit by reading Histories Alexander made himself so expert a Warriour as he was by reading the Life and Actions of Achilles and Caesar was animated to undertake his great exploits by reading the Life of Alexander Plutarch reports that Paulus Aemilius who subdued Perses the Macedonian King attained to his expertness in Souldiery by his indefatigable Study in History Selymus the Turk caused the actions of Julius Caesar to be translated whereas his Predecessours slighted all Histories as fabulous and by reading of these he became so expert a Souldier that in a short time he over-run a great part of Africa and Asia-Charles the Great was so affected with Histories that he usually caused them to be read to him as he sat at dinner and supper And Alexander Severus never undertook any great action till he had first consulted with Historians Innumerable other examples might be produced of the benefit attained by reading of Histories now as they received profit from so were they in ancient times as grateful to Historians Polybius that wrote the Roman History and their Wars with the Carthaginians was honoured with a Statue on high Pillar at Megalopolis Pompey the Great honoured Theophanes the Historian with the Priviledges of the City of Rome The Emperour Tacitus commanded the History of Tacitus to be placed in all Libraries and least it should perish he caused it every year to be written ten times over Titus Vespasian bestowed great wealth and honours on Josephus the Jewish Historian notwithstanding he had before been his deadly enemy and caused his Statue to be erected at Rome So did Julian the Apostate upon Aurelius Victor the Roman Historiographer We read of Alphonsus King of Arragon that he commanded the Musicians from his presence saying He heard a better Harmony out of Livy The Egyptians were so careful to preserve their Histories and ancient Monuments that they slighted the Grecians accounting them no better then children for their neglect herein History is the general treasury of times past present and a lively pattern of things to come and as one rightly terms it the Work-Mistresse of Experience and Mother of Prudence by Prudence we finde that a good Prince that is governed by evil Ministers is in as dangerous a posture of ruine as if he were evil himself we discover by the ruines of some rash great men what Ambition is torrenti similis which rises in an instant and falls in a moment In the Calamities of a Civil War we may perceive how the Law lies asleep and how the opinions of the Church are traduced when all things are governed by the Sword to see one brought a pallio crepedis from the greatest obscurity to the Purple and Scepter another once in the Meridian of Majesty in a short time set below in the Horizon of contempt the sins of the Father visited in the progeny of another Prince of a Prince in a Nation the hand of God guiding this dance like the
Life of LANCELOT ANDREWS Bishop of Winchester IT is poetized of the Thracian Orpheus that his Oratotary was so powerful that with it he drew the senseless stones after him towards the building of Thebes which some moralize that his eloquence was such as attracted the senseless and stony multitude from Barbarism to frame themselves to a civil and well ordered life What was storied of Orpheus may fitly be applied to this learned Bishop who with his heavenly Oratory drew many stony senseless hearts out of the Captivity of Satan unto the glorious freedom of the Gospel of Jesus Christ For his person we can add nothing to him to name him is enough to all that knew him and to read him will be enough to them that knew him not his piety being such as was esteemed comparable to that which was found in the primitive Church This right reverend father in God Bishop of Winchester Prelate of the Garter was born in the City of London descended from the ancient Family of the Andrews in Suffolk his Father a Merchant of good repute and according to the Religion of those ancient times very devout being one of the Society and Masters of the Holy Trinity commonly called Trinity-House He in his tender years shewed great aptness to learning which he so improved under his two School-masters Mr. Ward Master of the Coopers Free School in Radcliffe and Mr. Mulchaster Master of the Merchant-Taylors Free School in London that he promised a golden Harvest from so hopeful a seed-time So that from his youth he declared an extraordinary worth that he was made up of learning and vertue in both of them so eminent that it was hard to judge which had the precedency and greater interest though it was truly asserted from his contemporaries that there was not any kinde of Learning that he was a stranger to but in his profession admirable which was as well if not better known abroad then admired at home Having under these two gained an excellent knowledge in the Greek and Hebrew Languages he was sent to Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge where he was by Doctor Wats Archdeacon of Middlesex a Benefactor to that house placed in one of the Greek Schollarships soon after he was made Bachellour of Arts and a Fellowship being void he and Thomas Dove afterwards Bishop of Peterburgh for the obtaining thereof were put to a trial of some Schollastical exercises upon performance whereof they chose him into the fellowship yet so well did they approve of his opponent that they made him some allowance for his present maintenance under the title of a Tanquam Socius Thus this great miracle of worth that arrived to such a fulness of material learning had yet room enough left him in the temper of his brain for almost all Languages to seat themselves so that his learning had all the helps that Language could afford and his language learning enough for the best of them to express so that it might be said of him as it was of Claudius Drusus that he was a man of great parts as mortal nature could receive or industry make perfect In process of time his endowments made him so eminent that he was invited unto Jesus Colledge in Oxford by Mr. Hugh Price who built the same whose decerning spirit presaging of his future abilities nominated him in his foundation to be one of his first Fellows there and having taken the degree of Master of Art he applied himself wholly to the study of Divinity Soon after was he chosen Catechist in the Colledge which he performed so well that not onely the University became his common auditors but many out of the Countrey resorted thither greatly admiring at his profound learning Henry Earl of Huntington hearing of his worth sent for him to accompany him into the North whereof he was President where by his painful preaching he converted many Recusants to the Protestant Religion And now his abilities being still better known to the world Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary of State to Queen Elizaheth took special notice of him and by his means he was preferred to be Vicar of Saint Giles without Cripple-Gate London then Prebend and Residentiary of St. Pauls and afterwards Prebend of the Collegiate Church of Southwell soon after upon the death of Doctor Fulk he was elected into the Mastership of Pembroke-hall in Cambridge Afterwards he was made Chaplain in ordinary to Queen Elizabeth who took such delight in his preaching that she resolved upon his higher preferment but having made him first Prebend and not long after Dean of Westminster death prevented her of her intentions But what was wanting in her was performed by her learned successour King James who admiring him for his transcendent abilities soon after his coming to this Crown made him Bishop of Chichester and Lord Almoner and withal added the parsonage of Cheyham in Surrey to his Commendam He now as he excelled most of his Brethren in dignity he thought it not enough unless he did more then imitate them in sanctity of life and knowing no better rule for his direction herein then what Saint Paul had prescribed to Timothy he resolved to make those precepts his rules of practice In these addresses of his to Heaven first he led his life as in respect to men blameless his vertues admired by all but imitated of few his life being like a candle set on a candlestick which gave light to the whole House drawing many souls to God as well by his holy conversation as pious preaching It is a true saying A mans pious carriage makes his speech perswasive Secondly his charity was most transcendent to pass over many vast sums he bestowed upon poor Parishes Prisons and Prisoners his private Alms in his last six years besides those publique amounted to the sum of 1300. pounds and upwards Notwithstanding by what hath been said he might seem in his life time to be his own Almoner yet extended he his works of compassion most abundantly at his death leaving four thousand pounds to purchase two hundred pounds land per annum for ever to be distributed by fifty pounds quarterly thus to aged poor men fifty pounds to poor widdows the wives of one husband fifty pounds to the binding of poor Orphans Apprentices fifty pounds and to the relief of poor prisoners fifty pounds Also he gave two hundred pounds to poor Maid-servants of honest report who had served one Master or Mistress seven years to be distributed presently after his decease Many other acts of Charity did this good Bishop do a fair coppy for new succeeding rich Cleargy-men who are all for the mountain word of Faith but have nothing to do with good Works to write after He had alwayes a special care of promoting sufficient and able men to Livings a great mans letter will do but little good with him if he saw not piety as well as personage in the party His enquiry was constantly to know what hopeful young men were in the
provided in kinde where he was freed from corroding cares and seated on such a rock as the waves of want could not probably shake where he might sit in a calm and looking down behold the busie multitude turmoiled and tossed in a tempestuous sea of dangers And as Sir William Davenant has happily exprest the like in another person Laugh at the graver business of the State Which speaks men rather wise then fortunate He died in Decemb. 1639 having compleated seventy three years His will was made by himself above two years before his death wherein he appointed that his Executours should lay over his Grave a plain stone of Marble with this Epitaph enscribed thereon Hic jacet hujus sententiae primus Author Disputandi pruritus Ecclesiarum scabies Nomen alias quaere Which may be englished thus Here 's lies the first Authour of this Sentence The Itch of Disputation will prove the Scab of the Church Enquire his name elsewhere To acquaint the world with two or three other Instances of the readiness of his Wit he having in Rome retained an acquaintance with a pleasant Priest who invited him one evening to hear their Vesper-Musick at Church the Priest seeing Sir Henry stand obscurely in a corner sends to him by a Boy of the Quire this question written in a small piece of paper Where was your Religion to be sound before Luther To which question Sir Henry Wotton presently under-writ My Religion was to be found then where yours is not to be found in the written word of God To another that asked him Whether a Papist may be saved He replyed You may be saved without knowing that Look to your self To another whose earnest zeal exceeded his knowledge and was still railing against the Papists he gave this advice Pray Sir forbear till you have studied the Points better for the wise Italian hath this Proverb He that understands amiss concludes worse And take heed of entertaining this opinion That the further you go from the Church of Rome the nearer you are to God He left behinde him many Monuments of his Learning whose worth are such that they speak themselves more incomparably to posterity then any Eulogies I can bestow upon them Give me leave to conclude with the words of one of the learnedst Modern Criticks That for the generality of the stile throughout his Works 't is most queintly delightful gentle soft and full of all manner of blandishments onely his pen flowed a little too much with the oyly adulation of Court-flattery Questionless if Sir Henry Wotton was reduced to any of these subserviences they were occasioned from his generous expences in the time of his Embassies for his Masters honour who used him as Queen Elizabeth did Sir Francis Walsingham who had but from hand to mouth The Life of THOMAS VVENTWORTH Earl of Stafford and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland TO particularize all the actions of the Earl of Strafford would of its self require an intire Volume it being a Garden of choice Varieties wherein points of Law are interwoven with Acts of State and the Affairs of Ireland as in the same Escutcheon quartered with those of England I shall onely take a superficial view of his life and not strain my self ambitiously to shew forth the utmost reach of his perfections he being a rare conjunction of Courage attended with loyalty to danger Wisdom accompanied with Eloquence to admiration who could both think and speak speak and do whose answers and replyes to the Articles exhibited against him by the House of Commons show his abilities to be such that whatsoever is spoken of him is infinitely below what was spoken by himself He was born in Yorkshire well descended and as well educated which fitted him to sustain the weighty Affairs he afterwards underwent A great stickler at the first against the Prerogative until allured by Court-preferment he turned Royalist for the King finding his worth and ability never left till he had gained him to himself obliging him to his side by many titles of honour and places of trust whose services he found equivalent to his favours continuing to his death a trusty servant a faithful friend a prudent Counsellour and a constant adherer to his side in all his exigencies The greatest services he did to the King were during the time he was Lieutenant of Ireland by his augmenting and advancing the Kings Revenues there restoring the Churches maintenance suppressing the Out-laws establishing obedience to Royal Authority impediting the Tyranny and usurpation of the great ones over the Commons causing the Irish to leave off many of their barbarous customs and conform themselves to the more civil manners of the English which drew much hatred upon himself for changes though for the better are most times ill resented by the vulgar witness those troubles in England in the time of King Edward the Sixth Nor could these innovations have found more dislike in any Nation under the Heavens then Ireland so wedded are those people to their ancient vain ridiculous customs But since I have inserted his most remarkable actions in the Life of King Charles I shall omit those passages and come to his solemn Trial so paramount in the Equipage of all Cirumstances that as former ages have been unable so future are unlikely to produce a parallell of them This great Minister of State was by the Parliament well known for the length of it accused with twenty eight Articles of High Treason February 16. 1640. The particulars are too long for me here to recite the substance of them being that he endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Governments of the Realms of England and Ireland and enriching himself by indirect wayes in his office for incensing the King against the Scots for endeavouring to set things amisse betwixt his Majesty and the people and to have given counsel tending to the disquiet of the three Kingdoms The 13. of April following began his Trial in Westminster-Hall where there was a Throne erected for the King on each side whereof a Cabinet inclosed about with boards and before with a Tarras before that were the Seats for the Lords of the upper House and sacks of wool for the Judges before them ten stages of seats extending further then the midst of the Hall for the Gentlemen of the House of Commons at the end of all was a desk closed about and set apart for the Lord Lieutenant and his Councel The Earl of Arundel was Lord High Steward his Accusers were Pym Glin Mainard Whitlock St. Johns Palmers Sir Walter Earls Stroud Selden Hampden and others Many dayes were spent and much Rhetorick used on both sides for the Lieutenant was no childe but as cunning in the art of defence as any man in England equal if not surpassing his Predecessour the Earl of Kildare in the time of King Henry the Eighth But the House of Commons were implacable in their hatred towards him nothing being satisfactory to them but his downfal So
the Exchequer that he left his Son onely an empty Purse to encounter with a full bagg'd Monarch yet could not the Parliament be perswaded to come off roundly with their Subsidies some were very prompt to give without delay others would give but in convenient time not then but the most part agreed not to give and to make an humble Remonstrance declaring the causes wherefore Most of the Voters of this Remonstrance flew high against the Duke some would divest him of his Offices the Admirality especially others of his Revenue by resuming what he possest of the Crown Demesnes others demanded an account of what Publique moneys he had been intrusted with This being signified to the King occasioned this Speech of his Majesty His Majesties Speech at the same time concerning the Duke of Buckingham and Cook I must withal put you in minde of times past you may remember my Father moved by your Councel and won by your perswasions brake the Treaties in these perswasions I was your instrument towards him and I was glad to be instrumental in any thing which might please the whole body of the Realm Nor was there any then in greater favour with you then this man whom you now so traduce And now when you finde me so sure intangled in War as I have no honourable and safe retreat you make my necessity your priviledge and set what rate you please upon your Supplies a practice not very obliging towards Kings Mr. Cook told you It was better to dye by a Forreign Enemy then be destroyed at home Indeed I think it is more honourable for a King to be invaded and almost destroyed by a Forreign Enemy then to be despised at home The King expecting no conclusion from those for his assistance who were so divided in their opinions soon dissolved the Parliament Yet notwithstanding the backwardness of the Parliament the King so forwarded the business that in the beginning of October a Navy way was sent to sea under the Command of Vicount Whimbleton as also some ships of the Netherlanders with whom the King had entered an Offensive and Defensive League against the King of Spain and Emperour of Germany these landing at Cades had the Fort of Puntal surrendred unto them and in it fifteen barrels of powder and eight Peeces of Ordnance with store of Wine whereof the Souldiers drank so immoderately notwithstanding more sober commands to the contrary that had the Spaniard known his advantge he might have made a lamentable butchery amongst them The Admiral seeing this disorder of the Souldiers thought it bootless to stay any longer on Land and thereupon put to Sea again intending to stay twenty dayes in expectation of the Plate Fleet then in return from the West Indies but the Plague of Pestilence so raging amongst them that every day hundreds were thrown over-board he was forced to make all the speed he could back into England yet was not his haste such but that the News of his ill success was there before him So true is that of the Poet. Ill News hath wings it very fast doth go Comfort 's a Cripple and comes alwayes slow February the second next ensuing was the King crowned and four dayes after a Parliament assembled the Spring approaching a time fit for Martial employments supplies were desired to which the Commons by way of Remonstrance reply'd That if addition may be made of other things importing his service then in consultation amongst them they were resolved so to supply him as might evidence the truth of their intentions might make him safe at home and formidable abroad And now again fall they on a vigorous proceeding against the Duke of Buckingham accusing him with thirteen Articles of High Treason the Prologue whereof we have declared in his Life to which the Duke returned so modest and humble an answer that it abated the edge of some of their Indignations against him yet were they resolved to give a reply to his answer but whiles they were intentive upon it the King sent them a Letter demanding without further delay the speedy producing of their Bill of Subsidy to be passed which accordingly they did but first drew up a Declaration of the same make and minde with their former impeachment which so incensed his Majesty as on the very next day being June 15. he dissolved the Assembly Presently after the dissolution of the Parliament the King being informed of several misdemeanors committed by the Queens Servants commanded them all to leave the Land and depart into France the French King herewith incensed sent Mounsieur Bossompier extraordinary Embassadour into England to demand their restitution to their former places But returning without a satisfactory answer Lewis resolveth upon open hostility and seizeth upon the English ships at Burdeaux This indignity King Charles stomacht with such vehemency of spirit that he resolveth the sword should end the controversie to which purpose he publisht a Manifest as followeth A Manifest of the Reasons which moved his Majesty to take up Arms against the French published by the Duke of Buckingham in the Isle of Rhe July 21. 1627. What part the Kings of Great Brittain have alwayes taken in the affairs of the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom and with what care and zeal they have laboured for the good of them is manifest to all and the examples thereof are as ordinary as the occasions have been His now Majesty of Great Brittain comes nothing short of his Predecessours therein if his good and laudable designs for their good had not been perverted to their ruine by those who had most interest for their due accomplishment What advantages hath he refused What parties hath he not sought unto that by his Alliance with France he might work more profitably and powerfully the restitution of those Churches to their ancient liberty and splendour And what could be less hoped for by so strict an Alliance and from so many reiteratad promises by the mouth of a great Prince but effects truly Royal and sorting with his greatness But failings have been such that his Majesty by so many promises and so streight an obligation of friendship hath not onely been disappointed of means to obtain liberty and surety for the said Churches and to restore peace to France by the reconciliation of those whose breath utters nothing else but all manner of obedience to their King under the liberty of their Edicts that contrariwise they have prevailed by the interest which he had in those of the Religion to deceive them and by this means not onely to untye him from them but also to make him if not odious unto them at least suspected in perverting the means which he had ordained for their good to a quite contrary end witness the English Ships designed for the extirpation of them of the Religion but to the contrary express promise which was made that they should not be used against them in the last Sea-fight What then may be expected from so
puissant a Prince as his Majesty so openly eluded but a through feeling equal and proportionable to the injuries received But his patience hath gone beyond policy and as long as he had hopes that he could benefit the Churches by any other means he had no recourse by way of Arms so far that having been made an instrument and worker of the last Peace upon conditions disadvantageous enough and which would not have been accepted without his Majesties intervention who interposed his credit and interest in the Churches to receive them even with threatnings to the end to shelter the honour of the most Christian King under assurance of his part not onely for the accomplishment but also for the bettering of the said condition for which he stands caution to the Churches But what hath been the issue of all this but onely an abuse of his goodness And that which his Majesty thought a sovereign remedy for all their sores hath it not brought almost the last blow to the ruine of the Churches It wanted but a little by continuing the Fort before Rochel the demolishment whereof was promised by the violence of the Souldiers and Garrisons of the said Forts and Isles as well upon the inhabitants of the said Town as upon strangers in lieu whereas they should have retired they have been daily augmented and other Forts built as also by the stay of the Commissioners in the said Town beyond the time agreed on to the end to make broils and by means of the division which they made to slide amongst the Inhabitants to open the gates to the neighbouring Troops and by other withstandings and instructions of peace I say a little failed that the said Town and in it all the Churches had not drawn their last breath And in the mean time while his Majesty hath yet continued and not opposed so many injuries so many faith-breakings but by complaint of Treaty until he had received certain advice confirmed by intercepted Letters of the great preparation the most Christian King made to pour upon Rochel and then what could his Majesty of Great Brittain do but to vindicate his honour by a quick arming against those who had made him a complice of their deceits And to give testimony of his integrity and zeal which he hath alwayes had for the reestablishing of the Churches an establishment which shall be dear and precious to him above any other thing This is the sole end of his arming at this time and not any particular interest yet whosoever would doubt thereof let him consider the circumstance of times and disposition of affairs as they stand now with his Majesty For who will believe that he can have any design upon France or to have projected conquests here in a time so disadvantageous having now for his enemy one of the most puissant Kings of the world and if he had such a design surely he would have sent greater Forces than those now sent upon this action whereof if the number were known they would be Judged but Auxiliaries onely and that their aim is no other but for the good of the Churches which for many important reasons and considerations he findes himself obliged before God and man to protect and succour But if it be alleged that his Majesty hath been moved to take up Arms for other respects as the detention and seisure of the Ships and Goods of his Subjects at Burdeaux and other places of this Kingdom to the breach and manifest contravention of the peace betwixt the two Crowns which in this point tend expresly to the irreparable prejudice yea to the total ruine of Commerce in the rupture whereof the poor people of this Realm being not able to vent their Merchandizes groans not onely under the burthen of so many Taxes and Impositions but for the very necessity of life it self that the apprehensions his Majesty hath of the powerful encrease of the most Christian King by Sea hath moved him to arm for preventing the growth thereof And lastly that being hopeless of any accomodation of things he hath been constrained to put himself in arms The answer to all this is that whosoever shall search the Arrests Prizes and Seisures which have been made on both sides he shall finde his Majesty and his Subjects have hitherto profited by this breach and that it turned to their advantage In the second place he is so far off from being jealous of the pretended power of the French by Sea and that he should have reason to hinder it that there needs no more than for him to grant when he thinks it fit Letters of Mart to his Subjects and so these vain and feeble Forces at Sea might be dissipated without the employent of any Fleet Royal. Finally that there hath been a necessity to arm thus because there is no hope of accomodation otherwise the contrary will be most manifest to him who will consider the researches which have been made at several times as well by their own Ministers as by the Ministers of other Princes to his Majesty to treat of accommodating things at their instigation It appears by all this that his Majesty hath not been forced to arm for any particular interest but onely for defence of the Churches for the security and freedom whereof he stood responsible yet there are some that dare amuse the world that his Majesty hath a particular design in it and that he useth Religion for a pretext to gain a party by means whereof and by which conjunction he hopes to push on his purposes to the end at which they aym'd No no our Religion teacheth us otherwise his Majesties piety wherein he gives place to no man living will never permit him His design is the establishment of the Churches his interest is their good and his aim their contentment that being done these Drums beating those Ensigns displayed shall be folded up again And all this noise of War shall be buried in night and silence which would never have been but for their cause The King having raised good sums of money by loan and otherwise setteth forth a Fleet under the Dukes command for the relief of Rochel but the Duke returning home with ill success being discomfitted at the Isle of Rhe the King of France reinforceth his Siege whereupon the Rochellers sue once again to King Charles for supplyes who being necessitated for money assembleth a Parliament March 17. 1627. who readily and chearfully gave him five Subsidies whereupon the King granted them the Petition of Right That gallant Standard of Common Liberty deserving to be recorded to all posterity the substance whereof reduced to four heads take as followeth 1. They do pray your most excellent Majesty that no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any Gift Loan Benevolence Tax or such like charge without common consent by Act of Parliament and that none be called to make answer or to take such oath or to give attendance or be confin'd or otherwise
so faithfully discharged he hid endeavours that he won the love of both sides Thus after he had holily and peaceably for many years to the honour of God and edification of his Church continued to the time of his death constantly preaching the word of God he in the seventy sixth year of his age surrendered up his soul into the hands of his Maker his mamory being as a precious Oyntment yielding a sweet savour in the Nostrils of Gods Saints which gave occasion to one of our late Poets amongst many others to write these two Verses Usher remains sustain'd by the blest Powers A Saint in Heavens bright Orb a Star in ours He deceased the 21. of March 1655. and was honourably buried in Henry the Sevenths Chappel at the Abbey in Westminster Oliver then Lord Protectour dispending two hundred pounds at his Funeral extending to his the Grant of some of the Lands of the Primacy of Armagh for twenty one years I shall shut up all with this Character given him by a solemn Order in the Convocation at Oxford Anno 1644. James Vsher Archbishop of Armagh Primate of all Ireland The most skilful of Primitive Antiquity the unanswerable Defender of the Orthodox Religion the Maul of Errours in Preaching frequent eloquent very powerful a rare example of an unblameable life Of whom may be writ as one doth by way of Elegy on the late Martyr of our times that admirable Divine Dr. Hewet Since he is dead report it thou my Muse Vnto the world as grief and not as news Heark how Religion sighs the Pulpit groans And tears run trickling down the senseless stones That Church which was all ears is now turn'd eyes The Mother weeps and all her Children cries In remembrance of him and his incomparable abilities at Christ Church in Oxford there is an Oration spoke constantly once a year He left many Monuments of his Learning behinde him to posterity His Book De successione Ecclesiarum 4o. Londini 1613. Epistolarum Hibernicarum Sylloge 4o. Dublini 1630. Historia Goteschalci Dublini 1631. De Primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum 4o. Dublini 1631. the greatest part of which were cast away as they came by sea Ignatii Epistolarum annotationibus 4o. Oxoniae 1648. De anno solari Macedonum 8o Londini 1648. Annales Veteris Testamenti Folio Londini 1650. Annales Novi Testamenti Folio Londini 1654. both which are since in one Volumn printed in English a Work acknowledged by the learnedst men of this Age for the admirable Method and Worth of it not to have hitherto been parallel'd by any preceding Writers Epistola ad Cappellum de variantibus textus Hebraici Lectionibus 4o. Londini 1652. De Graeca septuaginta interpretum versione Syntagma 4o. Londini 1655. His English Works were these A Sermon preached before the House of Commons February 18. 1618. A Declaration of the visibility of the Church preached in a Sermon before King James June 20. 1624. A Speech delivered in the Castle Chamber in Dublyn the 22. of November 1622. An Answer to Malon the Jesuit 4o. 1631. The Religion professed by the ancient Irish and Brittains 4o. 1631. Two Works which routed the Catholicks of Ireland Immanuel of the Incarnation of the Son of God 4o. Dublin 1639. A Sermon for the learning and worth of it never to be sufficiently esteemed A Geographical description of the Lesser Asia 4o. Oxford 1644. Confessions and Proofs of Doctor Reinolds and other Protestant Divines concerning the Right of Episcopacy 4o. Oxford 1644. His Discourse of the Original of Bishops and Archbishops 4o. Oxford 1644. The Sum and Substance of Christian Religion being in part his but publisht without his consent Folio London His small Catechisme reviewed 12o. London A Method for Meditation or a direction for hearing the Word I have since had the happiness to peruse several Sermons of his ordained for the Press truly worthy of him they were all of them but one preached before the year 1626. most of them before he was Bishop I thought it for the better knowing of them from others that may be falsely father'd on him to be convenient to set down the several Texts Philip. 3.8 Ephes 2.1 2. Ephes 2.2 3. John 14.16 17. His most excellent Sermons on the Sacraments out of 1 Cor. 11.28 as also on Colos 1.21 Two Sermons on 1 Pet. 4.17 His Sermon preacht a little before he was made a Bishop before the King at Greenwich June the 25. 1626. his Text was taken out of the 1 Cor. 14.33 the words For God is not Authour of confusion but of peace as we see in all the Churches of the Saints At that time there was a strange division and clashing one against another of the great ones of the Court whom his sharp Sermon toucht so near to the quick that the Puritanical Bishop as they then called him put the highest spirits of them to a non plus These Sermons Dr. Bernard of Grayes-Inne formerly Chaplain to Bishop Vsher had the perusal of who said they wanted nothing but onely that Life and Majesty they were adorned with when the Bishop himself delivered them I have ended my discourse as to what concerns this reverend Father of the Church I have no more to write but onely to exprese my sorrow that I could not arrive to a right knowledge of the Lives of two of our late worthy Divines Doctour Featly who died first as his spirits were oppressed with the afflictions of our distracted times as also of that Contemplative Seraphical Clergy-man Bishop Hall who was in Heaven whilest he was on earth the Life of the former Doctor Featly the Champion of our Church against the Romanists I at last despaired of having after a long search and strict enquiry gained no perfect cognizance from any of his friends and concerning Bishop Hall having no acquaintance with the Heir to his blessed qualifications his most accomplisht Son otherwise then from the Pulpit my modesty being so much a stranger to him would not suffer me to make an address The Life of Master John Lilburne I Question not but that it will be admired that such an inferiour person as Master Lilburne should take up any room in this Volume I shall onely need to express that I have not inserted him as a Worthy but rather as a Wonder the truth is whosoever shall diligently mark the transactions of this person will finde such variety of matter contained in his Life not onely to excuse the publishing of it but also so far to transport them that read it as to believe him to be a fit object for an intire Volume by himself rather then this short relation I shall obtrude on his memory which considering how his Life was shufled and confused the Reader cannot expect any other then fragments no clear nor continued progress of his History When Taxaris saw his Countrey-man Anacharsis in Athens he said unto him I will at once shew thee all the Wonders of Greece So may I say of him I will
of the holy Catholique Church that I abhor all Sects Schisms Sedition and Tyranny in Religion Affirmatively so that as I hold communion with so I love and honour all Christians in the world that love the same Lord Jesus in sincerity and call on his name agreeing with those truths that are absolutely necessary and clearly demonstrated in the Word of God both in the Old and New Testaments though in Charity dissenting from some others that are not necessary And I as I am thus a Christian I hope for salvation through the merits of Christ Jesus his blood I rely on his merits I trust to for the salvation of my own soul Though to this Faith good works are necessary not meritorious in us but onely made meritorious by Christ his death by his all sufficiency by his satisfaction and his righteouss they become meritorious but in us they are no other then as defiled rags And truly as I am a Member of the Church so I told you I was a Member of this Community and so pleaded for the Liberties and Priviledges thereof I must now answer something I am aspersed withal in the world They talk of something of a Plot and a Treasonable design and that I had a great interest in the knowledge and practice thereof and that for the saving my life I would have discovered and betrayed I cannot tell what I hope my conversation hath not been such here in this City where I have been a long time very well known as to make one imagine I should intermeddle in such an action and go so contrary to the practice of my profession and I hope there are none so uncharitable towards me as to believe I had a knowledge of that design Here I must come to particulars for a Plot of having a design upon the City of London for the firing of it I so much tremble at the thought of the thing that should have been done as they say for the carrying on of such a design if my heart deceive me not had I known it I so much abhor the thing I should have been the first discoverer of it nor ever had I correspondency or meetings with such persons as would have carried on such a design It is said likewise I entertained the Earl the Marquess of Ormond to my remembrance I never saw the face of that honourable person in my life It is said One Lords day I did preach at Saint Gregory's and the next Lords day I was at Brussels or Bruges and kist the Kings hand and brought I cannot tell what orders and instructions from him this I shall say For these three years last past together I have not been sixty miles from this City of London and I think it is somewhat further to either of those places then threescore miles It is said that I kept correspondence with one Barrow and Bishop they are persons I have heard of their names but never saw their faces and to my knowledge I do not know they know me nor do I know them at all but onely as I have heard of their names And whosoever else hath suggested such things against me I know not His Highness was pleased to tell me I was like a flaming Torch in the midst of a sheaf of Corn he meaning I being a publick Preacher was able to set the City on fire by sedition and combustions and promoting designs Here truly I do say and have it from many of those that are Judges of the High Court that upon examination of the business they have not found me a meddler at all in these Affairs And truly I must needs say therefore that it was a very uncharitable act in them who ever they were that brought such accusations against me and irritated his Highness against me I will not say it was malice it might be zeal but it was rash zeal which caused me to be sentenced to this place the God of mercy pardon and forgive them all and truly as I am a Member of the Church and as a Member of the Community whereon behalf I have been speaking I cannot but do as our Saviour himself did for his Disciples when he was to be taken from them he blessed them and ascended up to heaven My trust is in the mercy of the most High I shall not miscarry and however my dayes are shortned by this unexpected doom and shall be brought untimely to the grave I cannot go without my prayers for a blessing upon all the people of this Land and cannot but bless them all in the Name of God and beseech God to bless them in all their wayes and his blessing be upon them Let us pray O most glorious Lord God thou whose dwelling is so far above the highest Heavens that thou humblest thy self but to look upon the things that are in heaven and that are in earth and thou doest whatsoever thou wilt both in heaven in earth in the sea and in all deep places in thy hands are the hearts of all men and thou turnest them which way soever thou wilt O Lord look in mercy and compassion we beseech thee on this great and innumerous people of this Land look upon them O Lord with an eye of pitty not with an eye of fury and indignation O look not upon all those great and grievous sins that have provoked thee most justly to wrath and displeasure against us Gracious God who can stand in thy sight when thou art angry when thou with rebuke doest correct man for sin thou makest his beauty to consume away like as it were a Moth fretting a Garment O Lord thy indignation and wrath lyes heavy upon us and thou hast vexed us with thy scourges thou hast made us a reproach and a by-word amongst our Neighbours and the very heathen laugh us to scorn O that thou wouldest turn us again O Lord God of Hosts that thou wouldest shew us the light of thy countenance that we may behold it that thou wouldest humble us for all those sins and grievous transgressions that are amongst us for those Atheisms for those infidelities horrid blasphemies and prophaneness for those sacriledges for those Heresies for those Schisms Errors and all those blindnesses of heart pride vain glory and hypocrisie for that envy hatred and malice and all uncharitableness that hath set us one against another that we are so dashed one against another even to destroy each other Ephraim against Manasseh and Manasseh against Ephraim and both against Judah O Lord we are like those Moabites and Ammonies c. This thou hast done to us O Lord because we have rebelled against thee O how greatly and grievously have we sinned against thee yet for all this thou hast not requited us according to our ill deservings for thou mightest have brought us to desolation and destruction fire might have come down from heaven and destroyed us our forreign enemies and the enemies of thee and thy Christ our Saviour might have swallowed us up
Commons so satisfied therewith but that some of them stood it out even unto imprisonment Much debate was afterward about it and the King got not so much money as ill will of the Subjects thereby At this time the King received a Letter from Sidan King of Morocco the Contents follow A Letter from Sidan King of Morocco to Charles King of ENGLAND When these our Letters shall be so happy as to come to your Majesties sight I wish the Spirit of the righteous God may so direct your minde that you may joyfully embrace the Message I send presenting to you the means of exalting the Majesty of God and your own reward amongst men The Regal Power allotted to us makes us common servants to our Creatour then of those people whom we govern so that observing the duties which we owe to God we deliver blessings to the world in providing for the publick good of our State we magnifie the Honour of God like the Celestial Bodies which though they have much veneration yet serve onely to the benefit of the world It is the excellency of our Office to be Instruments whereby happiness is delivered to the Nations Pardon me Sir This is not to instruct for I know I speak to one of a more clear and quick sight then my self but I speak this because it hath pleased God to give me a happy victory over some part of those rebellious Pyrates that have so long molested the peaceable trade of Europe and hath presented further occasion to rout out the generation of those who have been so pernicious to the good of our Nations I mean since it hath pleased God to be so auspicious to our beginnings in the Conquest of Salla that we might joyn and proceed in hope of like success in the War against Tunis Algier and other places Dens and Receptacles for the inhumane villanies of those who abhor Rule and Government Herein whilest we interrupt the corruption of malignant spirits of the world we shall glorifie the great God and perform a Duty that will shine as glorious as the Sun and Moon which all the earth may see and reverence a work that shall ascend as sweet as the perfume of the most precious odours in the Nostrils of the Lord a work grateful and happy to men a work whose memory shall be reverenced so long as there shall be any that delight to hear the Actions of Heroick and magnanimous spirits that shall last as long as there be any remaining among men that love and honour the piety and vertue of noble mindes This action I here willingly present to you whose piety and vertues equal the greatness of your power that we who are servants to the great and mighty God may hand in hand triumph in the glory which this action presents unto us Now because the Islands which you govern have been ever famous for the unconquered strength of their shipping I have sent this my trusty Servant and Ambassadour to know whether in your Princely wisdom you shall think fit to assist me with such Forces by Sea as shall be answerable to those I provide by Land which if you please to grant I doubt not but the Lord of Hosts will protect and assist those who fight in so glorious a cause Nor ought you to think this strange that I who much reverence the peace and accord of Nations should exhort to a War Your great Prophet CHRIST JESVS was the Lion of the Tribe of Judah as well as the Lord and Giver of peace which may signifie unto you that he who is a Lover and Maintainer of peace must alwayes appear with the terrour of the Sword and wading through Seas of Blood must arrive to Tranquillity This made James your Father of glorious memory so happily renown'd admongst all Nations It was the noble fame of your Princely vertues which resounds to the utmost corners of the earth that perswaded me to invite you to partake of that blessing wherein I boast my self most happy I wish God may heap the riches of his blessings on you encrease your happiness with your dayes and hereafter perpetuate the greatness of your name to all Ages The occasion of writing this Letter was as followeth a rabble of Pyrats rest themselves in Salla a Port Town of the Realm of Fess and belonging to the King of Morocca creating thence great mischief to him both by Sea and Land and not to them onely but to all the Merchants of other Countries whose business led them towards the Seas Vnable to suppress them for want of shipping he craved aid of King Charles of England by whose assistance he became Master of the Port destroyed the Pyrats and sent three hundred Christian Captives for a present to his sacred Majesty An. 1634. Nor staid he here but aiming at the general good of Trade and mankinde he sent this Letter to his Majesty by one of the chief Eunuchs of his Chamber handsomly attended in the Port and quality of an Ambassadour desiring the like aid against those of Tunis and Algiers who did as much infest the Mediterranean as the Pyrats of Salla did the Ocean In order whereunto his Majesty began immediately to strengthen and increase his Royal Navy and to that end required the wonted naval Aid lately best known by the name of Ship-money from all his Subjects and possible enough might have pursued this design for suppressing the Pyrats of Algiers and Tunis if he had not been unhappily hindered by the insurrection of the Scots and those continued troubles which ensued upon it I have the rather inserted this Letter considering how seriously our learned Doctor Heilin in his Cosmography reflected on it so as to blame Mr. Le-strange for omission of it the truth is the Letter carries some weight with it and savours of more piety then could be expected from a Mahometan His Ambassador was entertained with great honour with a magnificent Masque and a costly Antick Show through the Streets at the vast expences of the Inns of Court Gentlemen To proceed far greater troubles arose in Scotland concerning the Book of Common Prayer The King at his last being there observing that God Almighty was very negligently and as he thought undecently worshipt took the Reformation thereof into his Princely care to which end he gave directions to the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Ely and to divers other Bishops to Revise Correct Alter and Change as they pleased the Liturgy compiled in his Fathers time which accordingly they did and having shewed it to the King he approved thereof in regard that coming nearer to the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth in the Administration of the Lords Supper it might be a means to gain the Papists to the Church who liked far better of the first then second Liturgy But the Scotch a scrupulous Nation in their opinion who as one saith of them are more affraid of the name of yielding then resisting and would sooner offend against
Religion then the Ceremonies of it did publickly refuse it From hence proceeded Tragedies Tumults War and Invasion for upon the first reading thereof the people were so violent against it that the Dean and Bishop of Edenburgh hardly escaped with life nor were they onely the rascal multitude that thus opposed it but many of the Noblemen Barons and Gentlemen amongst whom the chief were the Earl of Hume and the Lord Lindsey To appease these disorders the King sent down the Marquess Hamilton in the quality of an high Commissioner impowring him with a Commission to use the utmost of his interest and power for the settling of peace but whether as some write he dealt deceitfully in aspiring to the Crown himself or no I judge uncertain but most certain it is that after his coming the differences encreased far greater then before and no question but it had become far better for the King had this Marquess been either a more close friend or an opener enemy The King being at home in no good condition used all means he could to pacifie his enemies abroad not onely winking at many of the foul disorders of the Scots but also yielded unto them in their desires for many things which nevertheless allayed not their spirits but rather encouraged them to proceed as they had begun For as Cleaveland hath it Nor Gold nor Acts of Grace 't is steel must tame The stubborn Scot a Prince that would reclaim Rebels by yielding doth like him or worse Who saddled his own back to save his horse Hamilton being returned into England the Scots began might and main to levy Souldiers to impose Taxes to raise Fortifications to block up some and seize others of the Kings Castles and to prepare for War The King not to be behinde hand with the Scots it being no good policy in War to strain courtesie who should begin first raised a considerable power to the maintenance whereof many of the Nobility contributed largely especially the Bishops it being for the preservation of their own Hierarchy March 27. the Army began to march the Earl of Arundel commanding in Chief but all the preparation both of one side and the other proved onely an interview of two Armies nothing being acted considerable in the way of engagement for after a few dayes attendance upon each other a Pacification was concluded upon distributed into these Articles On the Kings Part. 1. His Majesty to confirme what his Commissioner promised in his name 2. That a general Assembly be indicted to be kept at Edenburgh August 6. 3. That command be given for a Parliament to be holden at Edenburgh August the 20. 4. That he recal all his Forces by Land or Sea and restore all Ships and Goods arrested and detained since the pretended Assembly at Glasgow upon the Covenanters disarming and disbanding of their Forces dissolving their Tables and restoring to the King all his Castles Forts and Ammunition and releasing all the Persons Lands and Goods then under restraint or detained since the pretended Assembly of Glasgow This his Majesty to do by Declaration On the Scots Part. 1. The Forces of Scotland to be disbanded within eight and forty hours after publication of the Kings Declaration 2. They to render up after the said publication all Castles Forts Ammunition of all sorts so soon as the King shall send to receive them 3. They to hold no meetings treatings nor consultations but such as are warranted by act of Parliament 4. They to desist from all fortifications and those to be remitted to the Kings pleasure 5. They to restore to all the Kings Subjects their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means taken or detained from them since the first of February last This Pacification being solemnly ratified on both sides the King well hoped a general peace would ensue but what ever the Scots pretended the sequel shewed they intended nothing less for they still kept their Officers in constant Pay they did not slight their fortification at Leith they still continued their Meetings and Consultations they still disquieted molested and frighted all of different inclinations and which was worst of all they dispersed a scandalous Libel entituled Some conditions of his Majesties Treaty with his Subjects of Scotland before the English Nobility are set down here for remembrance Which Book tending to the defamation of his Majesty and disavowed by the Commissioners then present at the Treaty was by the command of the Council burnt by the common Hangman The King who intended to stay till the General Assembly was met seeing matters remain in this doubtful posture returned into England leaving the Earl of Traquair his Commissioner August the 6 the Assembly met at Edenburgh wherein Episcopacy the five Articles of Perth the High Commission the Liturgy and Book of Canons were abolished the Earl of Traquiar assenting thereunto The Assembly being ended the Parliament began who instead of reforming Abuses fell upon new moddelling the Government forming an Act Recissory whereby former Acts concerning the Judicatory of the Exchequer concerning Proxies and concerning confirmation of Ward Lands should be nulled Which being signified to the King he by his Commissioner the Earl of Traquair prorogued the Parliament until the 2. of June next These actings of the Scots warping altogether towards War were much forwarded by an accident November 19. it happened a great part of the walls of the Castle of Edenburgh with the Cannons mounted fell to the ground this being the Anniversary night of the Kings Birth-day was construed in the Grammar of Superstition an ominous presage of the ruine of the Kings design The King appointed the Lord Estrich Colonel Ruthen and the Governour of the Castle to take order for the re-edification of what was lapsed but the Scots would not suffer any materials to be carried in for reparation This Indignity the King concludeth intollerable and thereupon resolveth to relieve himself by force to this end a private Juncto is selected for the close carrying on of the design wherein it was agreed his Majesty should call a Parliament to assemble April the 13. next The King approved well of their Councel but withal said My Lords the Parliament cannot suddenly convene and the subsidies they grant will be so long in levying as in the interim I may be ruin'd therefore some speedy course must be thought upon for supplies The Lords willing to forward the business told him they would engage their own credits and the Lord Deputy of Ireland giving the onset subscribed for twenty thousand pound the other Lords writing after his Copy subscribed conformable to their Estates the Judges also contributed largely as also the Recusants who are ever sure to undergo the lash yielded according to their abilities From which Loyalty of theirs to his Majesty the more envious and schismatical sort of people gave out that the King was in his heart a Papist I have thought it my duty to insert in Latin and in English his Majesties Declaration
acted that Religious and Reverend Divine Doctor Hewet the golden-tongu'd Chrysostom entered the Lists of Death In this warfare the Doctour put on the spiritual armor of a blessed confidence delivering his minde to the people in these following words I am now become a publick spectacle to men and Angels and I hope God who is omniscient is now beholding me with much pitty and great mercy and compassion and the more because I am now come to that end that his own Son came into the world to to bear witness to the Truth he himself said For this end was I born for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness to the Truth I was brought into the world the Christian world for to bear witness to the truth of the Gospel as a common Christian I was brought into the world the Church as a Minister of his blessed Word and Sacraments Blessed be his name for that great honor and dignity and I came into the world to dye more immediately for the testimony of Jesus which God hath now called me to I came into this world this Commonwealth to be a member thereof to bear witness to the truths of the Customs the Laws the Liberties and Priviledges thereof so I am a Member of the Common-wealth And methinks it seems to me a strange thing that in as much as we all plead for Liberty and Priviledges and I pleading for the Priviledges the Laws the Statutes and the Customs of this Land yet I should dye by those that should stand for the Laws the Statutes and Priviledges of the Land And I am here beheld by those that plead for their Liberties and I hope I am pittied because I here give up my self willingly and freely to be a State-Martyr for the publick good and I had rather dye many deaths my self then betray my fellow-freemen to so many inconveniences that they might be like to suffer by being subject to the wills of them that willed me to this death And it is worthy remembrance that Master Solicitor having impeached me of Treason to the Commissioners of the Court against his Highness I did often when brought before those Commissioners plead for the liberties of the people of England though I had no knowledge of the Law yet I had instructions from those that were learned in the Law and had several Law-cases and Presidents put into my hand though not by them and urged several Law-cases and made my appeal First for the Judicature that I was to be tryed by Whether it were according to Law Whether it were according to the Act and whether it were according to the words of the said Act I did appeal to have the said Act argued by learned Lawyers on both sides and then to be resolved by his Highness own Councel which was denied me This by the by I pressing the Argument made a second Appeal that those Judges if they would give singly their several judgements that it was a just and lawful Court of Judicature I would answer to my Charge I did make another Appeal to those that were his Highnesses Councel and pleaded against me That if they would deliver it to me under their hands to be according to Law I would then go on to plead and answer to the Charge What was then said further my spirits being faint I shall not say much but onely this I was taken in three defaults upon formality of the Court It seems it is a custom in all Courts which I did not know before that if they answer not the third time speaking by the Clerk that then they are guilty of three defaults and proceeded against as mute I had no such knowledge of the Law So they found me guilty of those defaults and when I would have pleaded and resolved to begin to plead I was taken from the Bar. I did the next day make my Petition to the Court in the Painted Chamber two Petitions were presented the same in effect the former the Title was mistaken Yet because the title was mistaken and no answer given therefore it was that another Petition was drawn up to the same effect with a new title given as I remember presented by the Serjeant at Arms and one writ it over in such haste lest they should be drawn out of the Painted Chamber into the Court that I had not time to read it over onely I subscribed my name and there was in the front of the Petition a word left out but what the word was I know not and this was taken so ill as if I had put an affront and contempt on the Court And it was thought they would have heard me plead and then because of that mistake they sent word I should have my answer when I came into the Court and my answer was the sentence of condemnation And therefore I pray with all my soul that God would forgive all those that occasioned the charge to be drawn against me to give such unjust things against me I pray with all my soul that God would forgive all those that upon so slender and small grounds adjudg'd me to dye taking advantage of such simple ignorance as I was in And I had at the very beginning of my pleading engaged their Honours no advantage should be taken against me to my prejudice that in as much as I understood nothing of the Law And having heard that a man in the nicety of the Law might be lost in the severity thereof meerly for speaking a word out of simple ignorance I made it my prayer to them that no advantage might be taken against me to the prejudice of my person And there was to me a seeming consent for the President told there should be no advantage taken against me and upon these Considerations I am afraid there was too great uncharitableness but I pray God forgive them from the very bottom of my soul and I desire that even those that shed my blood may have the bowels of the God of mercy shed for them And now having given you the occasion of my coming hither it is fit I should give you somewhat as concerning my self as I am a Christian and as I am a Cleargy-man First as I am a Christian I thank God I was baptized to the Holy Church so I was baptized to be a Member of the Holy Catholique Church that is the Church of England which I dare say for purity of Doctrine and orderly Discipline till a sad Reformation had spoiled the face of the Church and made it a query whether it were a Church or no I say it was more purely Divine and Apostolical then any other Doctrine or Church in the Christian World whether National or Classical or Congregational And I must tell you That as I am a Member of this Church so I am a Member of the holy Catholique Church and shall give a most just confession of my Faith both negatively and affirmatively negatively I am so a Member