of William III.; Elizabeth, who died soon after her father; and Henrietta, afterwards

to them; a subject and a sovereign are clear different things. And therefore until they do that, I mean that you put the people in that liberty as I say, certainly they will never enjoy themselves. Sirs, it was for this that now I am come here: if I would have given way to an arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the power of the sword, I needed not to have come here; and therefore I tell you (and I pray God it be not laid to your charge), that I am the martyr of the people *.”——————Then his majesty, at the bishop's request, made a declaration of his dying a Christian, according to the profession of the church of England; saying, he had a good cause, and a gracious God; then giving directions to the executioner, his head was, at one blow, severed from his body." Thus," says Sir Rich. Warwick," this saint and martyr rested from his labours, and follows the Lamb"."

The behaviour of Charles, in his sufferings, is greatly celebrated by Burnet.

"The king himself," says he, "shewed a calm and composed firmness, which amazed all people; and that so much the more, because it was not natural to him. It was imputed to a very extraordinary measure of supernatural assistance. Bishop Juxon did the duty of his function honestly, but with a dry coldness that could not raise the king's thoughts: so that it was owing wholly to somewhat within himself, that he went thro' so many indignities with so much true greatness, without disorder or any sort of affectation. Thus he died greater than he had lived; and shewed that which has been often observed of the whole race of the Stuarts, that they bore misfortunes better than

King Charles's Works, p. 211.

b Sir R. Warwick's Memoirs, p. 346.

duchess of Orleans.-He styled himself a Martyr, and has frequently had that title

prosperity." All this seems very plausible: but as every thing has two handles, Milton ascribes his behaviour to no such extraordinary principles.-" Carolum si mortem ais [speaking to Salmasius] plane egisse vitæ respondentem assentior: si dicis piè & sanctè & secure vitam finiisse, scito aviam ejus Mariam, infamem feminam, pari in speciem pietate, sanctitate, constantiâ in pegmate, occubuisse: ne animi præsentiæ, quæ in morte quibusvis è vulgo maleficis per magna, sæpe est, nimium tribuas: sæpè desperatio aut obfirmatus animus fortitudinis quandam speciem & quasi personam induit; sæpe stupor tranquillitatis: videri se bonos, intrepidos, innocentes, interdum & sanctos pessimi quique non minùs in morte quàm in vita cupiunt; inque ipsa scelerum suorum capitali pœnâ solent ultimam simulationis suæ & fraudum, quàm possunt speciosissimè, pompam ducere; & veluti poëtæ aut histriones deterrimi, plausum in ipso exitu ambitiosissimè captare." i. e. "If you say that Charles died as he lived, I agree with you: if you say that he died piously, holily, and at ease, you may remember that his grandmother Mary, an infamous woman, died on a scaffold with as much outward appearance of piety, sanctity, and constancy as he did. And lest you

should ascribe too much to that presence of mind, which some common malefactors have so great a measure of at their death, many times despair, and a hardened heart, put on, as it were, a vizor of courage; and stupidity, a shew of quiet and tranquillity of mind: sometimes the worst of men desire to appear good, undaunted, innocent, and now and then religious, not

a Burnet, vol. I. p. 70. See also Whitlock, p. 375. Prose Works, vol. II. p. 353.

b Milton's

given him by his admirers, who have also sometimes paralleled him with Jesus Christ 78 others there are indeed who refuse

only in their life but at their death; and in suffering death for their villanies, use to act the last part of their hypocrisy and cheats with all the show imaginable; and like bad poets, or stage-players, are very ambitious of being clapped at the end of the play." The reader will please to remember, that I only here act the part of an historian, and am no ways answerable for the justness of what I cite on this occasion.

78 He styled himself a Martyr—and has been parallelled with Jesus Christ, &c.] On the 29th of January, the day before his death, the princess Elizabeth, his daughter, was admitted to see him, to whom he said, among other things, "That he wished her not to grieve and torment herself for him; for that would be a glorious death that he should die, it being for the laws and liberties of the land, and for maintaining the true protestant religion." And again, he desired her, "not to grieve for him, for he should die a Martyr."-And in his speech on the scaffold, he told the spectators that "he was the Martyr of the people," as I have already related.

And as Charles esteemed himself, so was he esteemed by many others. For we are assured, "that some took up his blood, after his execution, as the reliques of a martyr. And in some," continues my author, "hath had the same effect, by the blessing of God, which was often found in his sacred touch when living "."

After the Restoration, the memory of this prince was much revered, and a form of prayer, with fasting, was appointed by authority to be used yearly upon the 30th

King Charles's Works, p. 206.

▷ Id. p. 210.

to give him the title, or acknowledge the resemblance.

of January, being the day of the martyrdom of the blessed king Charles the First. This is still continued, as well as the style and title he thus assumed to himself, in the anniversary sermons which the return of the day of course produces.

In the text I have observed, that Charles has sometimes been paralleled with Jesus Christ. Mr. Symons, his vindicator, was the first that, according to the best of my knowledge, attempted it. This gentleman, out of his zeal for the royal cause, even during his majesty's life, published, “A true Parallel betwixt the Sufferings of our Saviour, and our Sovereign in divers Particulars" of which, as he himself relates it, "it was affirmed, that out of his zeal to flatter the king, he had blasphemed Christ"."-Dr. Binks, in a sermon preached the 30th of Jan. 1701, before the lower house of convocation has the following passages:

"And first, as to the near resemblance between the parties concerned, as well the actors as the sufferers, comparing those in the text with those of the day.

"And here one would imagine, that the latter were resolved to take St. Paul's expression in the most literal sense the words will bear, and crucify to themselves the Lord afresh, and, in the nearest likeness that could be, put him to an open shame. If, with respect to the dignity of the person, to have been born king of the Jews, was what ought to have skreened our Saviour from violence, here is also one, not only born to a crown, but actually possessed of it. He was not only called king by some, and at the same time derided by others for being so called, but he was acknowledged by all to be

* Preface to the Parallel, printed the second time with his Vindication of King Charles.

a king: he was not just dressed up for an hour or two in purple robes, and saluted with an Hail king, but the usual ornaments of majesty were his customary apparel; his subjects owned him to be their king, and yet they brought him before a tribunal; they judged him, they condemned him; and that they might not be wanting in any thing to set him at nought, they spit upon him, and treated him with the utmost contempt. Our Saviour's declaring that his kingdom was not of this world, might look like a sort of renunciation of his temporal sovereignty, for the present desiring only to reign in the he rts of men but here was nothing of this in the case before us; here was an indisputable, unrenounced right of sovereignty, both by the laws of God and man: he was the reigning prince, and the Lord's anointed; and yet, in despight of all law, both human and divine, he was by direct force of arms, and the most daring methods of a flagrant rebellion and violence, deprived at once of his imperial crown and life. The fact of this day was such a vying with the first arch-rebel, the apostate angel Lucifer; it was such a going beyond the old serpent in his own way of insolence and pride, that it is no wonder that if he then began to raise his head, and set up for do'minion in this world, when thus warmed and enlivened by a fiery zeal in some, and rage in others, to the degree of drunkenness, thirsting after and satiating themselves in royal blood; and in which respect only, heated to the degree of frenzy and madness, the plea in my text may seem to have some hold of them: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." -After this admirable parallel (which yet had the misfortune to be censured in the house of lords, as what gave just scandal and offence to all christian people), the reader will perhaps applaud the modesty of the

* Torbuck's Parliamentary Debates, vol. III. p. 255.