VII.

CHAS. I. A.D. 1649.

CHAPTER fully abstained from expressing approbation of the deed which covered the land with mourning. The strongest passage is that in which he says, " when kings command unrighteous things, and the people suit them with willing compliance, none doubts but the destruction of them both is just and righteous." This is very discreditable to Owen's character. It is timid and time-serving. Had he avowed his approbation of the measure, we should at least have respected his integrity. Had he condemned it, we should have reverenced his courageous spirit. If it were a deadly sin it was base to heal the wound slightly, and to daub the wall with untempered mortar. If it were a righteous act his audience was entitled, at that critical hour, to all the encouragement a minister of God could offer. It is a dark blot on the fame of a man in many respects both good and great; and when it shall cease to be thus regarded, the moral tone of English feeling will have been already degraded and debased. Milton, with incomparable powers and entire good will, hastened to the regicides' defence. In a few months his Eiconoclastes was before the world. Two years later he returned to the charge and published his Defence of the people of England.* The one was in English, the other in Latin. The former was perhaps, when it first appeared, the richest specimen of English prose writing in existence; severely simple, full, nervous, and majestic. Scholars have awarded equal praise to his Latinity, though on this field no honours so distinguished could

* Eikonoclastes, &c., the author I M. Published by authority, 1649. Ioannis Miltoni Angli pro populo Anglicano Defensio, &c. 1651.

VII.

CHAS. I.

A.D. 1649.

be won; for Latin had long been the vernacular CHAPTER
tongue of learned Englishmen. It had never been
written before with equal force, but often with
equal grace. Here his superiority lay in his vast
mind more than his deep scholarship. But the two
volumes will now for ever stand amongst those
models to which the learned and the wise incessantly
repair to refresh their taste and to invigorate their
powers. And yet all that Milton wrote has in
nowise impaired the reputation of his king! No
upright historian has recourse to him. In all his
might of intellect he is nothing more than a party
scribe. He assails the dead with bitterness. Without
evidence, and often in open violation of truth, in
contemptuous disregard of facts with which he was,
or might have been acquainted, he heaps upon the
king's memory charges the most unjust-cruelty,
prodigality, licentiousness, and lust. In short it is
no feeble triumph to the memory of Charles I. that
it was assailed by Milton-and assailed in vain.

Once embarked in crime, the regicidal party
afforded no exception to the universal law. One
sin provoked another. Once stained with blood,
their hands with less reluctance were defiled with
it again. On the 9th of March the scaffold was
once more erected in Palace Yard, and three of the
greatest of the royalists were beheaded-the duke of
Hamilton, the earl of Holland, and lord Capel; and
the scaffold never witnessed nobler specimens of
christian heroism. The duke of Hamilton was
addressing the people when his chaplain requested
him to turn another way, the sun shining brightly
in his face. "No, sir," he replied, "I hope I shall

7

VII.

COMMON

WEALTH,

CHAPTER see a brighter sun than this very speedily:" and, proceeding in his address, he added, "I know that there is a God in heaven that is exceeding merciful. A.D. 1649. I know that my Redeemer sits at his right hand, and am confident (laying his hand upon his breast) is mediating for me at this instant. I am hopeful, through his free grace and all-sufficient merits, to be pardoned of my sins and to be received into his mercy. Upon that I rely, trusting to nothing but the free grace of God through Jesus Christ." The earl of Holland followed. There was something in his fate which, even in such illustrious company, excited peculiar sympathy. He had been a very great friend to the old puritans, and when in power had often exerted it on their behalf.* He was condemned by the casting vote of Lenthall, the worthless speaker of the contemptible house of commons; and on the same day, by the same casting vote,† lord Goring, who had been some time a prisoner and was now brought to trial, was reprieved; the one probably the best, the other beyond all doubt the worst, of the royalists. Holland had always stood up for the rights of the people; he was full of generosity and courtesy; he was the friend of the oppressed. Goring was selfish, licentious, and degraded; he had one merit and only one, he was a gallant soldier. He never professed the least regard for liberty either civil or religious; but he exceeded the earl as much in his crimes as he fell short of him in his popularity. For several days before his * Whitelocke, p. 79.

+ Clarendon says the majority was four or five against lord Capel. But Whitelocke was a member of the house and must be taken as the better authority.

VII.

COMMON

death the earl of Holland had been in great distress CHAPTER and agony-distress and agony the deepest dying men can know. He said he had no assurance of WEALTH, pardon and of the love of God to him; he was not A.D.1649. prepared to die; Christ would be of no advantage to him. He was attended by two puritan divines, Bolton and Hodges, who directed him to the great sacrifice for sin. They prayed with him, and he "with wonderful expression" frequently offered up prayer for himself. The day before his death peace broke in upon his soul. He had now prevailed, he told them, through the strength of Christ, over Satan and all his spiritual enemies and temptations. "The Lord has given me an assurance of his love in Christ. I am now both ready and willing to die." He sat down to supper with his chaplains with no more disturbance of mind or manner than if in the soundest health, and slept with so perfect a repose that he was roused with difficulty. On the scaffold he spoke long and calmly to the people; expressing his entire satisfaction with the cause for which he died, and his humble trust in Christ. "I look upon myself entirely in him; and hope to find mercy through him. I expect it; and through that fountain which is open for sin and for uncleanness my soul must receive it; for did I rest in anything else I have nothing but sin and corruption in me." Lord Capel died last, with something, as the by-standers observed, of the lofty bearing of an ancient Roman. As he walked to the scaffold he courteously raised his hat and bowed repeatedly. Arrived at the fatal block, reeking with the blood of his companions, the officer in command inquired,

VII.

WEALTH,

CHAPTER IS your chaplain here? "No," said he, "I have taken my leave of him." leave of him." His attendants bursting COMMON- into tears, he at once reproved them: "Gentlemen, A.D. 1649. refrain yourselves, refrain yourselves." Then turning to the officer, he asked how the lords spoke; with their hats off or no? He was answered in the affirmative; he then walked to the front of the scaffold, leaned gracefully upon the rail, raised his hat as if giving a slight salutation, and addressed the vast crowd before him. In his cause he gloried. "I die," said he, "for keeping the fifth commandment given by God himself and written with his own finger. It commands obedience to parents; and all divines, differ as they will on other points, agree in this, and acknowledge that it includes the magistrate." Like the king, and using the king's own words upon the scaffold, he confessed his guilt in consenting to the earl of Strafford's death; "but that," he added, "I doubt not but God Almighty hath washed away with a more precious blood, the blood of his own Son, and my dear Saviour, Jesus Christ. It was done through cowardice, for malice against him I had none." And having expressed his perfect charity for all men, he concluded thus: "And so the Lord of heaven bless you all; God Almighty be infinite in goodness and mercy to you, and direct you in those ways of obedience to his commands, and to his majesty, that this kingdom

*

* Milton thought otherwise : "Pater et rex diversissima sunt. Pater nos genuit; at non rex nos, sed nos regem creavimus. Patrem natura dedit populo, regem ipse populus dedit sibi; non ergo propter regem populus sed propter populum rex est." Defensio, p. 3. This fiction of an elective monarchy runs through the treatise, and renders it, as an argument, of no value.