her yea the time is come for thy servants think upon her stones and it pitieth them to set her in the dust Lord maintain thine own cause Rescue the light of thy Truth from all those clouds of Errors and Heresies which doe so much obscure it and let the light thereof in a free profession break forth and shine again among us and that continually even as long as the Sun and Moon endures To this end O Lord blesse us all and blesse Him the posterity which in Authority ought to rule over and be above us Blesse Him in His soul and in His body in his Friends and in His Servants and in His Relations Guide Him by thy Counsell prosper Him in all undertakings granting Him a long prosperous and honourable life here upon earth and that He may attain to a blessed life hereafter And gracious God! look mercifully upon all our Relations and doe thou bring them to the light of thy Truth that are wandring and ready to fall Confirm them in thy Truth that already stand Shew some good token for good unto them that they may rejoyce O let thy good hand of providence be over them in all their ways And to all orders and degrees of men that be amongst us Give religious hearts to them that now rule in Authority over us Loyall hearts in their Subjects towards their Supreme And loving hearts in all men to their Friends and charitable hearts one towards another And for the continuance of thy Gospel among us restore in thy good time to their severall Places and Callings and give Grace O Heavenly Father to all Bishops Pastors and curates that they may both by their Life and Doctrine set forth thy true and lively word and rightly and duly administer thy holy Sacraments And Lord blesse thy Church still with Pastors after thine own heart with a continuall succession of faithfull and able men that they may both by Life and Doctrine declare thy Truth and never for fear of favour back slide or depart from the same And give them the assistance of thy spirit that may inable them so to preach thy word that may keep thy People upright in the midst of a corrupted and corrupt generation And good Lord blesse thy people every where with hearing ears understanding hearts consciencious souls and obedient lives especially those over whom I have had either lately or formerly a charge that with meek heart and due reverence they may hear and receive thy holy word truly serving thee in righteousnesse and holinesse all the days of their lives And we beseech thee of thy goodnesse O Lord to comfort and succour all those that in this transitory life be in trouble sorrow need sicknesse or any other adversity Lord help the helpless comfort the comfortless visit the sick relieve the oppressed help them to right that suffer wrong set them at liberty that are in Prison restore the banished and of thy great mercy and in thy good time deliver all thy people out of their necessities Lord do thou of thy great mercy fit us all for our latter end for the hour of death and the day of Judgment and doe thou in the hour of death and at the day of Judgement from thy wrath and everlasting damnation good Lord deliver us through the cross and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ In the mean time O Lord teach us so to number our dayes and me my Minutes that we may apply our hearts to true wisdome that we may be wise unto salvation that we may live soberly godly and righteously in this present world denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts Lord teach us so to live thaâ— we may not be afraid to die and that we may so live that we may be alwaies prepared to die that when death shall seize upon us it may not surprise us but that we may lift up our heads with joy knowing that our redemption draws nigh and that we shall be for ever happy being assured that we shall come to the felicitie of the chosen and rejoyce with the gladness of the people and give us such a fulnesse of thy holy Spirit that may make us stedfast in this faith and confirm us in this hope indue us with patience under thy afflicting hand and withall a cheerful resolution of our selves to thy divine disposing that so passing the pilgrimage of this world we may come to the Land of promise the heavenly Canaan that we may reign with thee in the world to come through Jesus Christ our Lord in whose blessed Name and Words we further call upon thee saying Our Father c. Let thy mighty hand and outstretched arme O Lord be the defence of me and all other thy servants thy mercy and loving kindness in Jesus Christ our salvation thy true and holy Word our instruction thy Grace and holy Spirit our comfort and consolation to the end and in the end through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen FINIS Here the King would have delivered his Reasons * Hereabout the King was stopt and not sufferd to speak any more concerning Reason Here an honorable Lady interrupted the Court saying not halfe the People but she was soon silenced * Pointing to Dr. Juxod * Turning to some Gentlemen that wrote * Meaning if he did blunt the edge * Pointing to Dr. Juxon * It is thought for to give it to the Prince * He was hereunto moved by Mr. Peters * An. Aet 72. * Lib. 2. de vitae Contemp. Cap. 4. * Observing the Writers * Looking towards M. Bolton * Pointing to the Block * At which word King and Laws a Trooper said aloud we will neither have King Lord nor Laws and upon a sudden the souldiers being either surprized with fear at a strange noise that was heard or else falling into mutiny presently fell into a tumult riding up and down the streets cutting and slashing the people some being killed and many wounded his Lordship looking upon this sad spectacle said thus Gentlemen it troubles me more then my own death that others are hurt and I fear die for me I beseech you stay your hands I flie not you pursue not me and here are none to pursue you But being interrupted in his speech and not permitted to go on further for which the Officers were much troubled he turn'd aside to his servant and gave him the speech into his hand saying I will speak to my God who I know will hear me and when I am dead let the world know what I would have said Here his Lordship was interrupted but it was as follows in his own copy under his own hand Here his Lordship began to speak again M. Bond. M. Caryl
this your Clorious King Did you by Oaths your God and Countrie mock Pretend a Crown and yet prepare a Block Did you that swore you 'd Mount Charles higher yet Intend the Scaffold for His Olivet Was this Hail Master Did you bow the knee That you might murther Him with Loyaltie Alas two Deaths what cruelty was this The Ax design'd you might have spar'd the Kiss London did'st thou Thy Princes Life betray What could thy Sables vent no other way Or else did'st thou bemoan His Cross then ah Why would'st thou be the cursed Golgotha Thou once hadst Men Plate Arme a Treasurie To bind thy King and hast thou none to free Dull blast thou should'st before thy Head did fall Have had at least thy Spirits Animal Did You Ye Nobles envie Charles His Crown Jove being fal'n the Punie-gods must down Your Raies of Honor are eclip'st in Night The Sun is set from whence You drew your Light Religion Vail's her self and Mourns that She Is forc'd to own such horrid Villanie The Church and State do shake the Building must Expect to fall whose Prop is turn'd to Dust But cease from Tears Charles is of light bereav'n And snuft on Earth to shine more bright in Heav'n FINIS Englands Black Tribunall THE SECOND PART Set forth in the DYEING SPEECHES And manner of Putting to Death of viz. Earl of Strafford Archbishop of Canterbury Duke of Hamilton Earl of Holland Lord Capell Earl of Derby Sir Alex. Carew Sir John Hotham Capt. John Hotham Mr. Nath. Tompkins Mr. Chaloner Coll. Jo. Moris Cor. Blackburn Coll. Andrews Sir Henry Hide Coll. Gerrard Mr. Peter Vowell Coll. Penruddock Capt. Hugh Grove Sir Hen. Slingsby Doctor Jo. Hewit London Printed 1660. The Earl of Straffords Speech or the conclusion of his Defence before the Lord High Steward and the rest of the Lords sitting in Westminster Hall April 12. 1641. Together with his Speech on the Scaffold immediately before his Execution on Tower-Hill May 12. 1641. MY Lords There yet remains another Treason that I should be guilty of the endeavouring to subvert the fundamental Lawes of the Land that they should now be Treason together that is not Treason in any one part of Treason accumulative that so when all will not do it is woven up with others it should seem very strange Under favour my Lords I do not conceive that there is either Statute Law nor Common-Law that doth declare the endeavouring to subvert the fundamentall Laws to be high treason For neither Statute Law nor Common-Law written that ever I could hear of declareth it so And yet I have been diligent to enquire as I believe you think it doth not concern me to do It is hard to be questioned for life and honour upon a Law that cannot be shown There is a rule which I have learned from Sir Edward Cooke De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem ratio Jesu where hath this fire lain all this while so many hundreds of years without any smoak to discover it till it thus burst out to consume me and my children extreme hard in my opinion that punishment should precede promulgation of Law punished by a Law subsequent to the Acts done Take it into your considerations for certainly it is now better to be under no Law at all but the will of men then to conform our selves under the protection of a Law as we think and then be punished for a crime that doth precede the Law what man can be safe if that be once admitted My Lords it is hard in another respect that there should be no token set upon this offence by which we should know it no admonition by which we should be aware of it If a man passe down the Thames in a Boat and it be split upon an Anchor and no booy be set as a token that there is an Anchor there that party that owes the Anchor by the Maritine Lawes shall give satisfaction for the dammage done but if it were marked out I must come upon my own peril Now where is a mark upon this crime Where is the token this is high treason If it be under water and not above water no humane providence can availe nor prevent my destruction Lay aside all humane wisdom and let us rest upon divine Revelation if you will condemn before you forewarn the danger Oh my Lords may your Lordships be pleased to give that regard unto the Peerage of England as never to suffer our selves to be put on those nice points upon such contractive interpretations and these are where Laws are not clear or known If there must be a tryal of wits I do humbly beseech you the subject and matter may be somewhat else then the lives and honours of Peers My Lords we find that the primitive times in the progression of the plain Doctrine of the Apostles they brought the Books of Curious Arts and burned them And so likewise as I do conceive it will be wisdom and providence in your Lordships for your posterity and the whole Kingdom to cast from you into the fire these bloody and most mysterious Volumes of constructive and Arbitrary Treason and to break your selves to the plain Letters of the Law and Statute that telleth us where the crime is and by telling what is and what is not shews us how to avoid it And let us not be ambitious to be more wise and learned in the killing Arts then our forefathers were It is now full two hundred and forty years since ever any man was touched for this alledged crime to this height before my self we have lived happily to our selves at home and we have lived gloriously to the world abroad Let us rest contented with that our fathers left us and not awaken those sleepy Lions to our own destructions by raking up a few musty Records that have lyen so many ages by the walls quite forgotten and neglected May your Lordships be Nobly pleased to adde this to those other mis-fortunes befallen me for my sins not for my Treasons that a president should be derived from me of that disadvantage as this will be in the consequent to the whole Kingdom I beseech you seriously to consider it and let not my particular cause be looked upon as you do though you wound me in my interest in the Common-wealth and therefore those Gentlemen say that they speak for the Common-wealth yet in this particular I indeed speak for it and the inconveniencies and mischiefes that will heavily fall upon us for as it is in the first of Henry the fourth no man will after know what to do or say for fear Do not put my Lords so great difficulties upon the Ministers of State that men of wisdome honour and vertue may not with cheerfulnesse and safety be imployed for the publick if you weigh and measure them by grains and scruples the publick affaires of the Kingdome will be laid wast and no man will meddle with them that hath honours issues or
any fortunes to lose My Lords I have now troubled you longer then I should have done were it not for the interest of those dear pledges a Saint in heaven left me I should be loth my Lords there he stopped What I forfeit for my self it is nothing but that my indiscretion should forfeit for my child it even woundeth me deep to the very soul You will pardon my infirmity something I should have said but I am not able and sighed therefore let it passe And now my Lords I have been by the blessing of Almighty God taught that the afflictions of this life present are not to be compared to the eternal weight of that glory that shall be revealed to us hereafter And so my Lords even so with tranquility of mind I do submit my self freely and clearly to your Lordships judgments and whether that righteous judgement shall be to life or death Te Deum laudamus te Dominum consitemur The Earl of Straffords Speech on the Scaffold immediately before his Execution on Tower-hill May 12. 1641. My L. Primate of Ireland IT is my very great comfort that I have your Lordship by me this day in regard I have been known to you this many years and I doe 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 righteousnesse and life eternal Here he was a little 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 mind I thank God I doe freely forgive all the world a forgivenesse 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 imployment since I had the Honour to serve his Majestie I never had any thing in the purpose of my heart but what tended to the joynt and Individuall prosperity of King and people although it hath been my ill fortune to be misconstrued I am not the first that hath suffered in this kind 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 mis-judged 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 chearfulnesse that I shall obtain your Christian charity in the belief of it I was so far from being against Parliaments that I did alwaies 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 dye 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 find mercy when he stands most in need of it I wish this Kingdom all the Prosperity and happinesse in the world I did it living and now dying it is my wish I do most humbly recommend this to every one who 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 bloud consider this when you are at your homes and let me be never so unhappy as that the last drop of my bloud 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 professe that I die 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 boldnesse 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 bosome I hope I shall shortly be gathered to those eternall happinesses which shall never have end I desire heartily the forgivenesse of every man for any rash or unadvised words or any thing done amisse and so my Lords and Gentlemen Farewell Farewell all the things of this world I desire that you would be silent and joyn with me in prayer and I trust in God we shall all meet and live eternally in heaven there to receive the Accomplishment of all happinesse where every teare shall be wiped away from our eyes and every sad thought from our hearts and so God blesse this Kingdom and Jesus have mercy on my Soul Then turning himself about he saluted all the noble men and took a solemn leave of all considerable persons upon the Scaffold giving them his hand After that he said Gentlemen I would say my prayers and intreat you all to pray with me and for me then his Chaplain laid the book of Common-prayer upon the Chaire before him as he kneeled down on which he prayed almost a quarter of an hour and then as long or longer without the Book and concluded with the Lords prayer Standing up he espies his Brother Sir Gorge Wentworth and calls him to him saying Brother we must part remember me to my Sister and to my wife and carry my blessing to my Son and charge him that he fear God and continue an obedient Son to the Church of England and warne him that he bears no private grudge or revenge toward any man concerning me And bid him beware that he meddle not with Church-livings for that will prove a moth and canker to him in his estate and wish him to content himself to be a Servant to his Country not aiming at higher Preferments Aliter To his Son
up Your Spirit and if there want evidence there is reliance my security lies not in my knowing that I shall come to Heaven and come to Glory but in my resting and relying upon him When the Aâ—chor of Faith is thrown out there may be shakings and tossings but there is safety nothing shall interrupt safety although something may interrupt security my safety is sure although I apprehend it not and what if I goe to God in the dark What if I come to him as Nicodemus did staggering in the night It is a night of trouble a night of darkness though I come trembling and slaggering in this night yet I shall be sure to find comfort and fixedness in him And the Lord of heaven be the strength stay and support of Your soul and the Lord furnish You with all those graces which may carry You into the bosome of the Lord Jesus that when You expire this life You may be able to expire it into him in whom You may begin to live to all Eternity and that is my humble Prayer Holland M. Bolton God hath given me long time in this world he hath carried me through many great accidents of Fortune he hath at last brought me down into a condition where I find my self brought to an end for a dis-affection to this State to this Parliament that as I said before I did believe no body in the world more unlikely to have expected to suffer for that Cause I look upon it as a great judgement of God for my sins And truly Sir since that the death is violent I am the less troubled with it because of those violent death that I have seen before principally my Saviour that hath shewed us the way how and in what manner he hath done it and for what cause I am the more comforted I am the more rejoyced It is not long since the King my Master passed in the same manner and truly I hope that his purposes and intentions were such as a man may not be ashamed not onely to follow him in the way that was taken with him but likewise not ashamed of his purposes if God had given him life I have often disputed with him concerning many things of this kind and I conceive his sufferings and his better knowledge and better understanding if God had spared him life might have made him a Prince very happy towards himself and very happy towards this Kingdom I have seen and known that those blessed souls in heaven have passed thither by the gate of sorrow and many by the gate of violence and since it is Gods pleasure to dispose me this way I submit my soul to him with all comfort and with all hope that he hath made this my end and this my conclusion that though I be low in death yet neverthelesse this lownesse shall raise me to the highest glory for ever Truly I have not said much in publick to the people concerning the particular Actions that I conceive I have done by my counsels in this Kingdom I conceive they are well known it were something of vanity methinks to take notice of them here I 'le rather die with them with the comfort of them in my own bosom and that I never intended in this action or any action that ever I did in my life either malice or bloud-shed or prejudice to any creature that lives For that which concerns my Religion I made my profession before of it how I was bred and in what manner I was bred in a Family that was looked upon to be no little notorious in opposition to some liberties they have conceived then to be taken and truly there was some mark upon me as if I had some taint of it even throughout my whole ways that I have taken every body knows what my affections have been to many that have suffered to many that have been in troubles in this Kingdom I endeavourad to relieve them I endeavoured to oblige them I thought I was tyed so by my Conscience I thought it by my charity and truly very much by my Breeding God hath now brought me to the last instant of my time all that I can say and all that I can adhere unto is this That as I am a great sinner so I have a great Saviour that as he hath given me here a fortune to come publickly in a shew of shame in the way of this suffering truly I understand it not to be so I understand it to be a glory a glory when I consider who hath gone before me and a glory when I consider I had no end in it but what I conceive to be the service of God the King and the Kingdom and therefore my heart is not charged much with any thing in that particular since I conceive God will accept of the intention whatsoever the action seems to be I am going to dye and the Lord receive my Soul I have no relyance but upon Christ for my self I do acknowledge that I am the unworthyest of sinners my life hath been a vanity and a continued sin and God may justly bring me to this end for the sins I have committed against him and were there nothing else but the iniquities that I have committed in the Way of my Life I look upon this as a great Justice of God to bring me to this Suffering and to bring me to this Punishment And those Hands that have been most active in it if any such there hath been I pray God forgive them I pray God that there may not be many such Trophies of their Victories but that this may be as I said before the last Shew that this People shall see of the Blood of Persons of Condition of Persons of Honour I might say something of the Way of our Tryall which certainly hath been as extraordinary as any thing I think hath ever been seen in this Kingdom but because that I would not seem as if I made some complaint I will not so much as mention it because no body shall believe I repine at their actions that I repine at my Fortune it is the will of God it is the hand of God under whom I fall I take it entirely from him I submit my self to him I shall desire to roul my self into the Arms of my blessed Saviour and when I come to this place when I bow down my self there I hope God will raise me up and when I bid farewell as I must now to Hope and to Faith that Love will abide I know nothing to accompany the soul out of this World but Love and I hope that Love will bring me to the Fountain of Glory in Heaven through the Arms Mediation and the Mercy of my Saviour Jesus Christ in whom I Believe O Lord help my Unbelief Hodges The Lord make over unto You the righteousness of his own Son it is that Treasurie that he hath bestowed upon You and the Lord shew You the Light of his Countenance and
fill You full with his joy and kindness O my dear Lord the Lord of Heaven and Earth be with You and the Lord of Heaven and Earth bring You to that Safety Holland I shall make as much haste as I can to come to that glory and the Lord of Heaven and Earth take my soul I look upon my self entirely in Him and hope to find mercy through Him I expect it and through that Fountain that is opened for Sin and for Uncleanness my soul must receive it for did I rest in any thing else I have nothing but sin and corruption in me I have nothing but that which in stead of being carried up into the Arms of God and of Glory I have nothing but may throw me down into Hell Bolton But my Lord when you are cloathed with the righteousnesse of another you will appear glorious though now sinfull in your self The Apostle saith I desire not to be found in my own righteousness and when you are cloathed with another the Lord will own you and I shall say but thus much Doubt not that ever God will deny salvation to sinners that come to him when the end of all his death and sufferings was the salvation of sinners when as I say the whole end and the whole design and the great work that God had to do in the world by the death of Christ wherein he laid out all his councells and infinite wisdom and mercy and goodness beyond which there was a Non ultra in Gods thoughts what this was the great design and great end the salvation of sinners that poor souls should come over to him and live certainly when sinners come he will not reject he will not refuse And my Lord do but think of this the greatest work that ever was done in the world was the bloud of Christ that was shed never any thing like it and this blood of Christ that was shed never any thing like it And this blood of Christ that was shed was shed for them that come if not for them for none it was in vain else you see the Devills they are out of capacity of good by it the Angels they have no need of it wicked men will not come and there are but a few that come over but a few that come over and should he deny them there were no end nor fruit of the bloud and sufferings of the Lord Jesus and had your Lordship been with Christ in that bloudy agony when he was in that bloudy sweat sweating drops of bloud if you had asked him Lord what art thou now a doing art thou not now reconciling an angry God and me together art thou not pacifying the wrath of God art thou not interposing thy self between the justice of God and my soul Would he not have said yea and surely then he will not deny it now My Lord His passions are over his compassions still remain and the larger and greater because he is gone up into a higher place that he may throw down more abundance of his mercy and grace upon you and my Lord think of that infinite love that abundance of riches in Christ I am lost I am empty I have nothing I am poor I am sinfull be it so as bad as God will make me and as vile as I possibly can conceive my self I am willing to be but when I have said all the more I advance that riches and honour that grace of God And why should I doubt when by this he puts me into a capacity into a disposition for him to shew we mercy that by this I may the better advance the riches of his grace and say grace grace to the Lord to all eternity that God should own such a Creature that deserves nothing and the lesse I deserve the more conspicuous is his grace and this is certain the riches of his grace he throweth amongst men that the glory of his grace might be given to himself if we can give him but the glory of his grace we shall never doubt to partake of the riches of it and that fulnesse My Lord that fulness be your comfort that fulnesse of mercy that fulnesse of love that fulnesse of righteousness and power be now your riches and your onely stay and the Lord interpose himself between God and you as your Faith hath indeavoured to interpose him between God and your soul so I doubt not but there he stands my Lord to plead for you and when you are not able to do any thing your self yet lie down at the feet of him that is a mercifull Saviour and knowes what you would desire and wait upon him while you live trust in him when you die there is riches enough and mercy enough if he open not yet die at his doore say there I 'le die there is mercy enough Holland And here is the place where I lie down before him from whence I hope he will raise me to an eternall Glory through my Saviour upon whom I rely from whom only I can expect mercy into his armes I commend my spirit into his bleeding armes that when I leave this bleeding body that must lie upon this place he will receive that soul that ariseth out of it and receive it into his eternall mercy through the merits through the worthiness through the mediation of Christ that hath purchased it with his own most pretious bloud Bolton My Lord Though you conclude here I hope you begin above and though you put an end here I hope there will never be an end of the mercy and goodness of God and if this be the morning of Eternity if this be the rise of Glory if God pleaseth to throw you down here to raise you up for ever say Welcome Lord welcome that death that shall make way for life and welcome any condition that shall throw me down here to bring me into the possession of Jesus Christ Hodges My Lord if you have made a Deed of Gift of your self to Jesus Christ to be found onely in him I am confident you shall stand at the day of Christ my dear Lord we shall meet in happiness Holland Christ Jesus receive my soul my soul hungers and thirsts after him clouds are gathering and I trust in God through all my heavinesse and I hope through all impediments he will settle my interest in him and throw off all the claime that Satan can make unto it and that he will carry my soul in despight of all the calumnies and all that the Devil and Satan can invent will carry it into eternal mercy there to receive the blessednesse of his presence to all Eternity Hodges My Lords it was his own by Creation it is his own now by Redemption and purchase and it is likewise his own by resignation O my Lord look therefore up to the Lamb of God that sits at the right hand of God to take away the sinnes of the World O that Lamb of God! Holland That Lamb of God
though I confess a very hard one as to perform it pretty handsomly both as becomes a Gentleman and a Christian Onely I must desire you to expect no fine Prologue or Speech from me I never studied to make Orations a very unfit man to lay plots against a State who am scarce able to lay a few lines of plain English together as I ought But though I cannot speak happily I doubt not but I shall die happily I confess my self a great sinner Who is innocent God be mercifull to me a miserable sinner I adore the justice of God in all this that is come upon me I have deserved to die long since and blessed be God who hath given me such time to prepare But for this Crime I stand condemned for to day I do protest mine own innocency as to any consent or engagement to act in it I hope you will believe me when you consider upon what slender proofs and testimonies I suffer none of them legal or positive but circumstantial For my Brother Charls Alas poor youth how he was wrought upon But I desire all my friends to think honourably of him For my Brother Sir Gilbert This imagination of a Plot is said to have been hatched in France but I fear the nest was at Whitehall As for the King so far from concurring to such a Deed that I am only unsatisfied in this whether I shall die right in his favour because suspected of any thing so unworthy of him I fear he lost his Kingdome by such practises but whether he would recover them so is a question God hath better ways when it shall be good in his sight to plead his cause I was lately in France but on mine own score for I have commanded there and probably might For my past life it hath been but a troublesome one but now I hope I shall rest Since I was any thing I have served the King as I was bound And I wish all that did so had done it as faithfully He was condemned for a Tyrant but God For my Religion though a Souldier I am able to profess I am a Christian Souldier a true Son of the Church of England as constituted under Q. Elizabeth K. James and K. Charls of blessed memory Her Doctrine and Government I embrace Her Truth and Peace I pray God to restore I humbly give thanks to God Almighty for providing me the comfort of a Minister on whose fidelity I might repose my soul And I pray God to bless the poor faithful Ministers of this Church and give you hearts to esteem them the want whereof is no small cause of our misery My days have been few and evil yet God be blessed in all the vanities and folly of youth I have been far from Atheism or contempt of Gods worship I had alwaies awful impressions of Gods honour and service which is now my comfort And now dear Countrymen fare you well I pray God bless you all this whole Nation Alas poor England When will these black days be over When will there be blood enough I wish mine might fill up the measure I forgive all Once more fare you well Commend me to all my friends Pray for me I pray God make you as faithful and loyal as I have lived and as happy as I shall be by and by when I am dead Come Lord Jesus come quickly Father of mercies have mercy on me Saviour of the world save my soul O Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world hear my prayers Into thy hands O Lord I commend my Spirit Lord Jesus receive my soul The last Speech of Mr. Peter Vowell which he intended to have delivered had he been permitted upon Munday the tenth of July 1654. on which day he suffered death in the place where Charing-Cross stood as from the Original paper written with his own hand appeareth Gentlemen AT this earthly Bar from them that pretend to have a great measure of sanctity I had hard measure but to that Bar I am now going the Bar of heaven I shall have Justice yea one day Justice against them except they water their beds and couches with tears of Repentance The Court gave severe and rash Judgement on my body and sent a pitifull fellow but a pitiless fellow that gave as rash a Judgement of my soul but that precious Jewel none of them could touch to hurt The Souls under the Altar cry loud for vengeance long ago how many more of late years have been added to them to help the cry the cry is loud of those lately whose blood hath been unlawfully spilt but vengeance is Gods and I will leave it to him The Court of my Tryal said I was confident and held it as a fault He also whom they sent to the Tower I know not if to entrap me under pretense to comfort my soul told me also I was confident I say the same and the same confidence I bring with me now and by Gods assistance I hope I shall carry it out of this world with my innocency Gentlemen Souldiers Among the ancient and savage sort of Heathen they had a Law once every three six or twelve moneths to offer up a sacrifice of humane blood to their God and that their God was a Divel Among us whether heathen or not you best know of late years we have had a fatal custome once in three six or twelve moneths to make not only a sacrifice but many sacrifices of humane Christian blood our Scaffolds have reek'd and smok'd with the choisest sort of blood But unto what God do you judge What God is he that delights in the blood of man Baal the god of Ekron Beelzebub the god of Flyes Amongst the Primitive Christians that lived neerest the time of our Saviour Christ the greatest Tyrants and persecutors of the Christians lived the persecution was great and yet the courage of those persecuted Christians was so great that it excelled the fury of the persecutors that they came in faster to be kill'd then they could kill they offered their bodies and throats so thick unto the slaughter that the hands of the Tyrants were weary with killing and yet Sanguis Martirum was Semen Ecclesiae and many Heathens came in with the Christians seeing their cheerful constancy rurned Christians and dyed Christians and dyed with them the Christians still encreased the more Of late years here hath been a great persecution in this Nation and yet the sufferers have been so many and present themselves so thick in the vindication of their King Country and Laws that they startled the very enemy himself their constancy so great that the eyes of their Judges dropped tears whether real or true let the Judge of Judges judge They still stand amazed at their constancy though they exceed the old Heathens Are not weary of killing Oh Souldiers How many of you have been brought up and led on by blind Principles wronged in your Education or seduced by your indiscreet