It is some skil in play to know when a game is lost; better fairly to give over, then to contest in vain.
I must now study to re-inforce my Judgment, and fortifie my mind with Reason and Religion, that I may not seem to offer up my Souls libertie, or make my Conscience their Captive; who ought at first to have used Arguments, not Arms, to have perswaded my consent to their demands.
I thank God, no success darkens or disguises Truth to me; and I shall no less conform my words to my inward dictates now, then if they had been as the words of aKingought to be among loyal Subjects,full of power.
Reason is the divinest power. I shall never think my Self weakned, while I may make full and free use of that. No ecclipse of outward Fortune shall rob me of that light: what God hath denied of outward strength, his grace, I hope, will supply with inward resolutions; not morositie to deny, what is fit to be granted; but not to grant any thing which Reason and Religion bids me denie.
I shall never think my Self less then my Self, while I am able thus to preserve the integrity of my Conscience, the only Jewel now left me, which is worth keeping.
O thou Soveraign of our Souls, the onelyCommander of our Consciences; though I know not what to do, yet mine eyes are toward thee: To the protection of thy mercy I still commend my self.
As thou hast preserved me in the day of Battell, so thou canst still shew me thy strength in my weaknesse.
Be thou unto me in my darkest night a pillar of fire, to enlighten and direct me; in the day of my hottest affliction, be also a pillar of cloud to over-shadow and protect me; be to me both a Sun and a Shield.
Thou knowest, that it is not any perverseness of will, but just perswasions of Honour, Reason, and Religion, which have made me thus far to hazard my Person, Peace, and Safetie, against those that by force have sought to wrest them from me.
Suffer not my just resolutions to abate with my outward Forces; let a good Conscience alwaies accompany me in my solitude and desertions.
Suffer me not to betray the powers of Reason, and that fortresse of my Soul which I am entrusted to keep for thee.
Lead me in the paths of thy righteousnesse, and shew me thy salvation.
Make my waies to please thee, and then thou wilt make mine enemies to be at peace with me.
YEtmay I justifie thoseScotsto all the world in this. That they have not deceived me; for I never trusted to them further then to men: if I am sold by them, I am only sorry they should do it: and that My price should be so much above My Saviors.
These are but further Essays which God will have Me make of mans uncertainty, the more to fix Me on himself, who never faileth them that trust in him; though the Reeds ofÆgyptbreak under the hand of him that leans on them, yet the Rock ofIsraelwill be an everlasting stay and defence.
Gods Providence commands Me to retire from all to himself, that in him I may enjoy My Self, which I lose, while I let out My hopes to others.
The solitude & captivity to which I am now reduced, gives Me leisure enough to study theworldsvanity and inconstancie.
God sees 'tis fit to deprive Me of Wife, Children, Armie, Friends, and Freedom, that I may be wholly his, who alone is all.
I care not much to be reckoned among theUnfortunate, if I be not in the black List of irreligious and sacrilegious Princes.
No Restraint shall ensnare my Soul in sin; nor gain that of me which may make my Enemies more insolent, my Friends ashamed, or my Name accursed.
They have no great cause to triumph, that they have got my Person into their power; since my Soul is still my own: nor shall they ever gain my Consent against my Conscience.
What they call obstinacie, I know God accounts honest constancie, from which Reason and Religion, as well as Honor, forbid Me to recede.
'Tis evident now, that it was not Evil Counsellors with Me, but a good Conscience in Me, which hath been fought against; nor did they ever intend to bring Me to my Parliament, till they had brought My mind to their obedience.
Should I grant what some men desire, I should be such as they with Me, not more a King, and far less both Man and Christian.
What Tumults and Armies could not obtain, neither shall Restraint; which though it have a little of safety to a Prince, yet it hath not more of danger.
The fear of men shall never be my snare; nor shal the love of any liberty entangle my soul: Better others betray me, then my self: and that the price of my liberty should be my conscience;the greatest injuries my Enemies seek to inflict upon me, cannot be without my own consent.
While I can deny with Reason, I shall defeat the greatest impressions of their malice, who neither know how to use worthily what I have already granted; nor what to require more of me but this, That I would seem willing to help them to destroy my self and mine.
Although they should destroy me, yet they shall have no cause to despise me.
Neither liberty nor life are so dear to me, as the peace of my Conscience, the Honor of my Crowns, and the welfare of my People; which my word may injure more then any War can do; while I gratifie a few to oppresse all.
The Laws wil by Gods blessing, revive, with the love and Loyaltie of my Subjects; if I bury them not by my Consent, and cover them in that grave of dishonor and injustice, which some mens violence hath digged for them.
If my Captivity or Death must be the price of their redemption, I grudge not to pay it.
No condition can make a King miserable, which carries not with it, his Souls, his Peoples, and Posterities thraldom.
After-times may see, what the blindnesse of this Age will not; and God may at length shew my Subjects, that I chuse rather to suffer for them, then with them; happily I might redeem my self to some shew of liberty, if I wouldconsent to enslave them: I had rather hazard the ruine of one King, then to confirm many Tyrants over them, from whom I pray God deliver them, what ever becomes of me, whose solitude hath not left me alone.
For thou, O God, infinitely Good, and Great, art with me, whose presence is better then life, and whose service is perfect freedom.
Own me for thy Servant, and I shall never have cause to complain for want of that liberty which becomes a Man, a Christian, and a King.
Blesse me still with Reason, as a Man; with Religion, as a Christian; and with constancie in Justice, as a King.
Though thou sufferest me to be stript of all outward ornaments, yet preserve me ever in those enjoyments wherein I may enjoy thy self; and which cannot be taken from me against my will.
Let no fire of affliction boile over my passion to any impatience or sordid fears.
There be many that say of me, There is no help for me: do thou lift up the light of thy Countenance upon me, and I shall want neither Safetie, Libertie, nor Majestie.
Give me that measure of patience and constancie which my condition now requires.
My strength is scattered, my expectation from Men defeated, my Person restrained: O be not thou far from me, lest my enemies prevail too much against me.
I am become a wonder, and a scorn to many: O be thou my helper and defender.
Shew some token upon me for good, that they that hate me may be ashamed, because thou Lord, hast holpen and comforted me; forestablishme with thy free Spirit, that I may do and suffer thy will, as thou wouldst have me.
Be mercifull to me, O Lord, for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, and in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, untill these calamities be over-past.
Arise to deliver me, make no long tarrying, O my God. Though thou killest me, yet will I trust in thy mercy, and my Saviours merit.
I know that my Redeemer liveth; though thou leadest me through the vail and shadow of death, yet shall I fear none ill.
WHenprovidence was pleased to deprive Me of all other civil comforts and secular attendants, I thought the absence of them all might best be supplied by the attendance of some of my Chaplains, whom for their Function I reverence, and for their Fidelitie I have cause to love. By their Learning, Pietie, and Praiers, I hoped to be either better enabled to sustain the want of all other enjoyments, or better fitted for the recovery and use of them in Gods good time; so reaping by their pious help a spiritual harvest of grace amidst the thorns, and after the plowings of temporal crosses.
The truth is, I never needed or desired more the service and assistance of men judiciously pious, and soberly devout.
The solitude they have confined me unto, adds the wildernesse to my temptations: For the company they obtrude upon me, is more sad then any solitude can be.
If I had asked my Revenues, my power of theMilitia, or any one of my Kingdoms, it had binno wonder to have been denied in those things, where the evil policy of men forbids all just restitution, lest they should confess an injurious usurpation: But to deny me the ghostly comfort of my Chaplains seems a greater rigor & barbarity, then is ever used bychristiansto the meanest prisoners, & greatest malefactors, whom though the justice of the law deprive of worldly comforts, yet the mercy of religion allows them the benefit of their Clergy, as not aiming at once to destroy their Bodies, and to damn their Souls.
But my agony must not be relieved with the presence of any one good Angel; for such I account a learned, godly, and discreet Divine: and such I would have all mine to be.
They that envie my being a King, are loth I should be a Christian: while they seek to deprive me of all things else, they are afraid I should save my Soul.
Other sense, Charity it self can hardly pick out of those many harsh repulses I received, as to that request so often made for the attendance of some of my Chaplains.
I have sometime thought the Unchristiannes of those denials might arise from a displeasure some men had to see me prefer my own Divines before their Ministers: whom, though I respect for that worth and piety wchmay be in them, yet I cannot think them so proper forany present comforters or Physitians, Who have (some of them at least) had so great an influence in occasioning these calamities, and inflicting these wounds upon Me.
Nor are the soberest of them so apt for that devotional compliance, and juncture of hearts, which I desire to bear in those holy Offices to be performed with me, and for me; since their judgments standing at a distance from me, or in jealousie of me, or in opposition against me, their Spirits cannot so harmoniously accord with mine, or mine with theirs, either in Prayer or other holy duties, as is meet, and most comfortable; whose golden rule, and bond of Perfection consists in that of mutual Love and Charitie.
Some remedies are worse then the disease, and some comforters more miserable then misery it self; when likeJob'sfriends, they seek not to fortifie ones minde with patience; but perswade a man by betraying his own Innocency, to despair of Gods mercy; and by justifying their injuries, to strengthen the hands, and harden the heart of insolent Enemies.
I am so much a friend to all Church-men, that have any thing in them beseeming that sacred Function, that I have hazarded my own interests, chiefly upon Conscience and Constancie, to maintain their Rights; whomthe more I looked upon as Orphans, and under the sacrilegious eyes of many cruell and rapacious Reformers; so I thought it my dutie the more to appear as a Father, and a Patron for them and the Church. Although I am very unhandsomly requited by some of them; who may live to repent no lesse for My sufferings, then their own ungrateful errours, and that injurious contempt and meannesse, which they have brought upon their Calling and Persons.
I pity al of them, I despise none: only I thought I might have leave to make choice of some for My special Attendance, who were best approved in My Judgment & most sutable to My affection: For, I held it better to seem undevout, and to hear no mans Praiers, then to be forced, or seem to comply with those Petitions to which the heart cannot consent, nor the tongue sayAmen, without contradicting a mans own understanding, or belying his own Soul.
In Devotions, I love neither profane boldnesse, nor pious non-sence; but such an humble and judicious gravitie as shews the Speaker to be at once considerate both of Gods Majestie, the Churches Honour, and his own vilenesse; both knowing what things God allows him to ask, and in what manner it becomes a sinner to supplicate the divine mercie for himself, and others.
I am equally scandalised with all Praiers, that sound either imperiously, or rudely, and passionately; as either wanting humilitie to God, or charitie to men, or respect to the dutie.
I confess I am better pleased as with studied and premeditated Sermons, so with such publick Forms of Praier, as are fitted to the Churches and every Christians daily and common necessities; because I am by them better assured, what I may join my heart unto, then I can be of any mans extemporary sufficiencie: which as I do not wholly exclude from publick occasions; so I allow its just libertie and use in private and devout retirements; where neither the solemnities of the dutie, nor the modest regards to others, do require so great exactness as to the outward manner of performance; Though the light of understanding, and the fervencie of affections I hold the main and most necessarie requisites both in constant, and occasionall, solitairie, and sociall Devotions.
So that I must needs seem to all equal minds with as much reason to prefer the service of my own Chaplains before that of their Ministers, as I do the Liturgie before their Directorie.
In the one I have been alwaies educated and exercised; In the other, I am not yet Catechized,nor acquainted: And if I were, yet should I not by that, as by any certain rule and Canon of Devotion, be able to follow or find out the indirect extravagancies of most of those men, who highly cry up that as a piece of rare composure and use, which is already as much despised and disused by many of them, as the Common-Prayer sometimes was by those men; a great part of whose Pietie hung upon that popular pin of railing against, and contemning the Government, and Liturgie of this Church. But, I had rather be condemned to the wo ofVæ soli, then to that ofVæ vobis Hypocritæ, by seeming to pray what I do not approve.
It may be, I am esteemed by my Denyers sufficient of my Self to discharge my dutie toGodas a Priest, though not to Men as a Prince.
Indeed, I think both Offices, Regal & Sacerdotal, might well become the same Person; as anciently they were under one name, and the united rights of primogeniture: nor could I follow better presidents, if I were able, then those two eminent Kings,DavidandSolomon; not more famous for their Scepters and Crowns, then one was for devout Psalms and Praiers; the other for his divine Parables and Preaching: whence the one merited and assumed the name of a Prophet, the other of a Preacher.Titles indeed of greater honour, where rightly placed, then any of those the Roman Emperors affected from the Nations they subdued: it being infinitely more glorious to convert Souls to Gods Church by the Word, then to conquer men to a subjection by the Sword.
Yet since the order of Gods wisdom and providence hath, for the most part, alwaies distinguished the gifts and offices of Kings, of Priests, of Princes and Preachers; both in the Jewish and Christian Churches: I am sorry to find My self reduced to the necessity of being both, or enjoying neither.
For such as seek to deprive Me of Kingly Power and Soveraigntie; would no lesse enforce Me to live many Moneths without all Praiers, Sacraments, and Sermons, unlesse I become My own Chaplain.
As I owe the Clergy the protection of a ChristianKing, so I desire to enjoy from them the benefit of their gifts and prayers; which I look upon as more prevalent then My own, or other mens; by how much they flow from minds more enlightned, and affections lesse distracted, then those which are encombered with secular affairs: besides, I think a greater blessing and acceptablenes attends those duties, which are rightly performed, as proper to, and within the limits of that calling, to which Godand the Church have specially designed and consecrated some men: And however, as to that Spirituall government, by which the devout Soul is subject to Christ, and through his merits daily offers it self and its services to God, every private believer is a King and a Priest, invested with the honour of a Royall Priest hood; yet as to Ecclesiastical order, and the outward policy of the Church, I think confusion in Religion will as certainly follow every mans turning Priest or Preacher, as it will in the State, where every one affects to rule as King.
I was always bred to more modest, and I think to more pious Principles: the consciousness to my spirituall defects makes Me more prize and desire those pious assistances, which holy and good Ministers, either Bishops or Presbyters, may afford Me; especially in these extremities, to which God hath been pleased to suffer some of my Subjects to reduce me; so as to leave them nothing more, but my life to take from Me: and to leave me nothing to desire, which I thought might less provoke their jealousie and offence to deny Me, then this of having some means afforded Me for my Souls comfort and support.
To which end I made choice of men, as no way (that I know) scandalous, so every way eminent for their learning and piety, no lessthen for their Loyalty: nor can I imagine any exceptions to be made against them, but onely this, that they may seem too able, and too well affected toward Me and My Service.
But this is not the first service (as I count it the best) in which they have forced Me to serve my self; though I must confess I bear with more grief and impatience the want of My Chaplains, then of My other Servants; and next (if not beyond in some things) to the being sequestred from My Wife and Children; since from these indeed more of humane and temporary affections, but from those more of heavenly and eternall improvements may be expected.
My comfort is, that in the enforced (not neglected) want of ordinary means, God is wont to afford extraordinary supplies of his Gifts and Graces.
If his Spirit will teach me, and help my infirmities in prayer, reading and meditation (as I hope he will) I shall need no other, either Orator, or Instructer.
To thee therefore, O my God, do I direct my now solitary Prayers; what I want of others help, supply with the more immediate assistance of thy Spirit, which alone can both enlighten my darknesse, and quicken my dulnesse.
O thou Sun of righteousness, thou sacred Fountain of heavenly light and heat, at once cleer and warm my heart, both by instructing of me, and interceding for me; In thee is all fulness, From thee all sufficiency, By thee is all acceptance. Thou art companie enough, and comfort enough; Thou art my King, be also my Prophet and my Priest. Rule me, teach me, pray in me, for me; and be thou ever with me.
The single wrestlings ofJacobprevailed with thee in that sacred Duel, when he had none to second him but thy selfe; who didst assist him with power to overcome thee, and by a welcome violence to wrest a blessing from thee.
O look on me thy servant, in infinite mercy, whom thou didst once blesse with the joynt and sociated Devotion of others, whose servency might inflame the coldnesse of my affections towards thee: when wee went to meet in thyHousewith the voice of joy and gladnesse, worshipping thee in the unity of spirits, and with the bond of peace.
O forgive the neglect, and not improving of those happy opportunities.
It is now thy pleasure that I should be as a Pelican in the wildernesse, as a Sparrow on the house top, and as a coale scattered from all those pious glowings and devout reflections, which might best kindle, preserve, and increasethe holy fire of thy Graces on the Altar of my heart, whence the sacrifices of prayers and incense of praises might be duly offered up to thee.
Yet, O thou that breakest not the bruised reed nor quenchest the smoaking flax, do not despise the weakness of my prayers, nor the smotherings of my soul in this uncomfortable loannesse to which I am constrained by some mens uncharitable denials of those helps, which I much want, and no lesse desire.
O let the hardness of their hearts occasion the softnings of mine to thee, and for them. Let their hatred kindle my love, let their unreasonable denials of my religious desires the more excite my prayers to thee: Let their inexorable deafnesse incline thine ear to me, who art a God easie to be intreated; thine ear is not heavie, that it cannot, nor thy heart hard, that it will not hear, nor thy hand shortned, that it cannot help me thy desolate Suppliant.
Thou permittest men to deprive me of those outward means which thou hast appointed in thy Church; but they cannot debarre me from the communion of that inward grace, which thou alone breathest into humble hearts.
O make me such, and thou wilt teach me, thou wilt hear me, thou wilt help me: The broken and contrite heart I know thou wilt not despise: Thou, O Lord canst at once make me thy templethy Priest, thy Sacrifice, and thine Altar; while from an humble heart I (alone) daily offer up in Holy Meditations, fervent Prayers, and unfeigned Tears, my Self to thee; who preparest me for thee, dwellest in me and acceptest of me.
Thou, O Lord, didst cause by secret supplies and miraculous infusions, that the handful of meal in the vessel should not spend, nor the little oyl in the cruise fail the widow, during the time of drought and dearth.
O look on my soul, which as a widow, is now desolate and forsaken: Let not those saving truths I have formerly learned now fail my memory; nor the sweet effusions of thy Spirit, which I have sometime felt, now be wanting to my heart in this famine of ordinary and wholsom food for the refreshing of my soul.
Which yet I had rather chuse then to feed from those hands who mingle my bread with ashes, and my wine with gall, rather tormenting, then teaching me; whose mouths are proner to bitter reproaches of me, then to hearty prayers for me.
Thou knowest, O Lord of truth, how oft they wrest thy holy Scriptures to my destruction, (which are clear for their subjection, and my preservation) O let it not be to their damnation.
Thou knowest how some men (under colour of long prayers) have sought to devour the houses of their Brethren, their King, and their God. O let not those mens balms break my head, northeir Cordials oppress my heart, I will evermore pray against their wickedness.
From the poyson under their tongues, from the snares of their lips, from the fire, and the swords of their words ever deliver me, O Lord, and all those loyal and religious hearts, who desire and delight in the prosperity of my soul, and who seek by their prayers to relieve this sadness and solitude of thy servant, O my King and my God.
GIveear to my words, O Lord, consider my Meditation, and hearken to the voyce of my cry, my King and my God, for unto thee will I pray.
I said in my haste, I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes; nevertheless, thou hearest the voyce of my supplication, when I cry unto thee.
If thou, Lord, shouldst be extream to mark what is done amiss, who can abide it? But there is mercy with thee, that thou mayest be feared; therefore shall sinners flie unto thee.
I acknowledg my sins before thee, which have the aggravation of my condition; the eminencieof my place, adding weight to my offences.
Forgive, I beseech thee, my personal, and my peoples sins; which are so far mine, as I have not improved the power thou gavest me, to thy glorie, and my Subjects good: Thou hast now brought me from the glorie and freedom of a King, to be a Prisoner to my own Subjects. Justlie, O Lord, as to thy over-ruling hand, because in many things I have rebelled against thee.
Though thou hast restrained my person, yet enlarg my heart to thee, & thy grace towards me.
I come far short ofDavidspietie; yet since I may equalDavidsafflictions, give me also the comforts, and the sure mercies ofDavid.
Let the penitent sense I have of my sins, be an evidence to me, that thou hast pardoned them.
Let not the evils, which I and my Kingdoms have suffered seem little unto thee, though thou hast not punished us according to our sins.
Turn thee (O Lord) unto me; have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and afflicted.
The sorrows of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my troubles.
Hast thou forgotten to be gracious, and shut up thy loving kindness in displeasure?
O remember thy compassions of old, and thy loving kindesses, which have been for many generations.
I had utterly fainted, if I had not believed tosee thy goodnesse in the land of the living.
Let not the sins of our prosperitie deprive us of the benefit of thy afflictions.
Let this fiery triall consume the drosse which in long peace and plentie we had contracted.
Though thou continuest miseries, yet withdraw not thy grace; what is wanting of prosperitie, make up in patience and repentance.
And if thy anger be not to be yet turned away, but thy hand of Justice must be stretched out still: Let it, I beseech thee, be against me, and my Fathers house; as for these sheep, what have they done?
Let my sufferings satiate the malice of mine, and thy Churches enemies.
But let their crueltie never exceed the measure of my charitie.
Banish from me all thoughts of Revenge, that I may not lose the reward, nor thou the glorie of my patience.
As thou givest me an heart to forgive them, so I beseech thee, do thou forgive what they have done against thee and me.
And now, O Lord, as thou hast given me an heart to pray unto thee; so hear and accept this Vow which I make before thee.
If thou wilt in mercie remember Me, and my Kingdoms; In continuing the light of thy Gospel, and settling thy true Religion among us:
In restoring to us the benefits of the Laws, and the due execution of Justice:
In suppressing the many schismes in Church,and Factions inState:
If thou wilt restore me and mine to the Ancient rights and glory of my Predecessors:
If thou wilt turn the hearts of my people to thy self in Pietie, to me in Loyaltie, and to one another in Charitie:
If thou wilt quench the flames, and withdraw the fewell of these Civill Wars:
If thou wilt bless us with the freedom of Publike Counsels, and deliver the Honour of Parliaments from the insolency of the vulgar:
If thou wilt keep me from the great offence of enacting any thing against my Conscience: and especially for consenting to sacrilegious rapines, and spoilings of thy Church:
If thou wilt restore me to a capacity to glorifie thee in doing good, both to the Church and State:
Then shall my soul praise thee, and Magnifie thy name before >my people.
Then shall thy glorie be dearer to me then my Crown; and the advancement of true Religion both in puritie and power be my chiefest care.
Then will I rule my People with justice, and my Kingdoms with equity:
To thy more immediate hand shal I ever ownas the rightfull succession, so the mercifull restauration of my Kingdoms, and the glorie of them.
If thou wilt bring me again with Peace safetie and honour, to my chiefest City and my Parliament:
If thou wilt again put the Sword of Justice into my hand to punish and protect:
Then will I make all the world to see, and my very Enemies to enjoy the benefit of this Vow and resolution of Christian charitie, which I now make unto thee O Lord.
As I do freely pardon for Christ's sake those that have offended me in any kind; so my hand shall never be against any man to revenge what is past, in regard of any particular injurie done to me.
We have been mutually punished in our unnaturall divisions, for thy sake O Lord, and for the love of my Redeemer have I purposed this in my heart, That I will use all means in the waies of amnesty, and indempnitie; which may most fullie remove all feares, and burie all jealousies in forgetfulnesse.
Let thy mercies be towards me and mine, as my resolutions of Truth and Peace are towards my people.
Hear my praier O Lord, which goeth not out of feigned lips.
Blessed be God, who hath not turned away myprayer, or taken his mercy from me.
O my soul commit thy way to the Lord, trust in him and he shall bring it to pass.
But if thou wilt not restore me and mine, what am I that I should charge thee foolishly?
Thou, ô Lord hast given, and thou hast taken, Blessed be thy name.
May my people and thy Church be happie if not by me, yet without me.
WHatpart God will have me now to act or suffer in this new and strange scene of affaires, I am not much solicitous; some little practise will serve that man, who only seeks to represent a part of honesty and honour.
This surprize of me tels the world, that aKingcannot be so low, but he is considerable, adding weight to that party where he appears.
This motion, like others of the Times, seems excentrique and irregular, yet not well to be resisted or quieted: Better swim down such a stream, then in vain to strive against it.
These are but the struglings of those twins, which lately one womb enclosed, the younger striving to prevail against the elder; what the Presbyterians have hunted after, the Independents now seek to catch for themselves.
So impossible it is for lines to be drawn from the center, and not to divide from each other, so much the wider, by how much they go farther from the point of union.
That the Builders of Babel should from division fall to confusion, is no wonder; but for those that pretend to build Jerusalem, to divide their tongues and hands, is but an ill Omen; and sounds too like the fury of those Zealots, whose intestine bitterness and divisions were the greatest occasion of the last fatall destruction of that Citie.
Well may I change my Keepers and Prison, but not my captive condition, onely with this hope of bettering, that those who are so much professed Patrons for the Peoples Liberties, cannot be utterly against the Liberty of theirKing; what they demand for their own Consciences, they cannot in Reason deny to mine.
In this they seem more ingenuous, then thePresbyterian rigour, who sometimes complaining of exacting their conformity to laws, are become the greatest Exactours of other mens submission to their novel injunctions, before they are stamped with the Authority of Laws, which they cannot well have without my Consent.
'Tis a great argument, that the Independents think themselves manumitted from their Rivals service, in that they carry on a businesse of such consequence, as the assuming my Person into the Armies custody, without any commission, but that of their own will and power. Such as will thus adventure on a KING, must not be thought over-modest, or timerous to carry on any designe they have a mind to.
Their next motion menaces, and scares both the two Houses and the City: which soon after acting over again that former part of Tumultuary motions, (never questioned, punished or repented) must now suffer for both; and see their former sin in the glasse of the present terrours and distractions.
No man is so blinde as not to see herein the hand of divine Justice; They that by Tumults first occasioned the raising of Armies, must now be chastned by their own Army for new Tumults.
So hardly can men be content with one sin,but add sin to sin, till the later punish the former; such as were content to see Me and many Members of both Houses driven away by the first unsuppressed Tumults, are now forced to flie to an Armie or defend themselves against them.
But who can unfold the riddle of some mens justice? The Members of both Houses who at first withdrew (as my Self was forced to do) from the rudeness of the Tumults, were counted Deserters, and outed of their places in Parliament.
Such as stayed then, and enjoyed the benefit of the Tumults, were asserted for the onely Parliament-men: now the Fliers from, and Forsakers of their Places, carry the Parliamentary power along with them; complain highly against the Tumults, and vindicate themselves by an Armie: such as remained and kept their stations, are looked upon as Abettors of Tumultuary Insolencies, and Betrayers of the Freedom and Honour of Parliament.
Thus is Power above all Rule, Order, and Law; where men look more to present Advantages then their Consciences, and the unchangeable rules of Justice; while they are Judges of others, they are forced to condemn themselves.
Now the plea against Tumults holds good,the Authours and Abettors of them are guiltie of prodigious insolencies; when as before they were counted as Friends, and necessary Assistants.
I see Vengeance pursues and overtakes (as the Mice and Rats are said to have done the Bishop inGermanie) them that thought to have escaped, and fortified themselves most impregnably against it, both by their multitude and compliance.
Whom the Laws cannot, God will punish by their own crimes and hands.
I cannot but observe this divine Justice, yet with sorrow and pity; for, I always wished so well to Parliament and Citie, that I was sorry to see them do or suffer any thing unworthy such great and considerable Bodies in this Kingdom.
I was glad to see them onely scared and humbled, not broken by that shaking: I never had so ill a thought of those Cities, as to despair of their Loyaltie to Me; which mistakes might eclipse, but I never beleeved malice had quite put out.
I pray God the storm be yet wholly passed over them, upon whom I look as Christ did sometime overJerusalem, as objects of my prayers and tears, with compassionate grief, foreseeing those severer scatterings which will certainly befall such as wantonly refuse to begathered to their duty: fatall blindnesse frequently attending and punishing wilfulnesse, so that men shall not be able at last to prevent their sorrows, who would not timely repent of their sins; nor shall they be suffered to enjoy the comforts, who securely neglect the counsels belonging to their peace. They will finde that brethren in iniquitie are not far from becoming insolent Enemies, there being nothing harder then to keep ill men long in one minde.
Nor is it possible to gain a fair period for those notions which go rather in a round and circle of fansie, then in a right line of reason tending to the Law, the onely center of publike consistency; whither I pray God at last bring all sides.
Which will easily be done, when we shall fully see how much more happie we are, to be subject to the known Laws, then to the various wils of any men, seem they never so plausible at first.
Vulgar compliance with any illegal and extravagant wayes, like violent motions in nature, soon grows weary of itself, and ends in a refractory sullennesse: Peoples rebounds are oft in their faces, who first put them upon those violent strokes.
For the Army (which is so far excusable, as they act according to Souldiers principles, andinterests, demanding pay and indemnity) I think it necessary, in order to the publike peace, that they should be satisfied, as far as is just; no man being more prone to consider them then my Self: though they have fought against Me, yet I cannot but so far esteem that valour and gallantry they have sometime shewed, as to wish I may never want such men to maintain my Self, my Laws, and my Kingdoms, in such a peace, as wherein they may enjoy their share and proportion, as much as any men.
But thou, O Lord, who art perfect Unity in a sacred Trinity, in mercy behold those whom thy Justice hath divided.
Deliver me from the strivings of my People, and make Me to see how much they need my prayers and pity, who agreed to fight against me, and yet are now ready to fight against one another, to the continuance of my Kingdoms distractions.
Discover to all sides the ways of peace from which they have swerved: which consists not in the divided wils of Parties, but in the point and due observation of the Laws.
Make me willing to go whither thou wilt lead me by thy providence; and be thou ever with me, that I may see thy constancy in the worlds varieti and changes.