Psalterium Carolinum. THE DEVOTIONS OF HIS SACRED majesty CHARLES THE FIRST IN HIS SOLITUDES AND SUFFERINGS, rendered in Verse by T. S. Esq;,  
And set to music for three voices, an Organ or Theorbo, by John Wilson, Dr. and music Professor in OXFORD.  
LONDON, Printed for John Martin, James Allestry, and Thomas Dicas, and are to be sold at the Bell in St. Paul's churchyard, 1660..   


   

TO HIS SACRED MAJESTY CHARLES, THE SECOND.  
SIR,  
THe psalms of David have been continued in verse through many Languages; in these your Majesty's Royal Father, (a Person of like Dignity, Sufferings and Piety,) breathes forth, (for so he calls them) the comforts of David. The Parallel gave occasion to this attempt; and that inaccessible perfection of Language, in which they were first clothed, will justify to the World, that there could not be any possible encouragement to this undertaking, more than that of a pious Duty to the sacred memory of the Author; and a particular Devotion to declare myself,  
SIR, Your majesty's most Loyal and Obedient Subject; THO. STANLEY.   

Psalterium Carolinum.  
ODE. I. upon his majesty's calling the Parliament.  
THou Lord, hast made us see, that pious thoughts  
Of future reformation for past faults;  
Nor satisfy thy justice; or prevent  
Always the strokes of thy dire punishment.  
Our hopes, o'erlaid by sin, on thee depend  
For pardon, not on our Resolves t'amend,  
When by vindictive judgements on us laid,  
Thou hast thy glory in our shame displayed:  
And how unsafe it is, shown us by these,  
To dare t' offend, on after hopes to please.  
Thy mercies then (I trust) the blessings may  
Restore, which wronged, we forced thee snatch away.  
Who early penitence for sin denied,  
Now mourn for remedies too late applied.  
Yet as my Aims were right, I not repent  
That I this later council did convent.  
Th'ensuing Miseries have, for our sin,  
The sad effects of thy just anger been;  
And through thy mercy may preparatives  
Of future blessings be, and better lives.  
Stripped of all else, teach us by them to thrive;  
That as thy Staff, thy Rod may comfort give▪  
If with afflictions, patience thou bestow,  
The strokes are of a Father, not a Foe.  
Nor shall I then the ills this council wrought  
Repent; by them to true repentance brought.  
Our sufferings with thy Grace, far more we prize,  
Than our own peace with our impieties.  
Sole Good and Wise, our hearts as counsels steer;  
That the worst things we from thy justice bear  
To better, by thy mercy us enure,  
Poisoned with Antidotes, with poison cure.  
So we by sins of Peace, to War inclined,  
Through this sad war, thy happy peace may find.  
Whilst I (though troubles here perplex my reign)  
May in my heart, and in thy heaven attain  
That Crown of Peace which Christ hath bought, & thou  
Wilt on thy servant for his sake bestow.   

ODE II. upon the Earl of Strafford's death.  

THou whose mercies know no bound,  
Pardon my compliant sin.  
Death in me the guiltless found,  
Who his Refuge should have been.   

To herself and thee my Soul,  
Her transgression open lays;  
Cleanse me from a guilt so foul,  
And thy mercies I shall praise.   

With the crime, my heart withstood,  
Did my differing hand comply;  
Yet if bathed in thy rich blood,  
Snow my whiteness shall outvie.   

Justice let me learn of thine,  
Who for death unjustly given;  
Future dangers to decline,  
Into greater now am driven.   

Nor by partial judgements swayed  
Let me with thy will dispense.  
Once (too oft) I was betrayed  
Man to appease and thee incense.   

Nor bribed by Interest let me,  
My misguided heart withdraw  
From my conscience and from thee:  
Thou my judge, and that my Law.   

To thy joy my Soul unite,  
And my ready will submit  
To thy spirits saving light,  
Truth my heart and actions knit.   

Lord to the interceding Voice,  
Of my saviour's blood incline.  
O make me and mine rejoice,  
And the broken bones rejoin.    

ODE III. upon his majesty's going to the house of Commons.  

LOrd thou in heaven and in my heart  
My witness art,  
If to oppress the Innocent  
I ever meant,  
Then let the Foe my life confound,  
And tread my Honours to the ground.   

The mists which cozen human sight  
Shrink from thy light;  
The Heart and Reins thy searching eyes  
Anatomize;  
Truth wrapped in darkness, lost in doubt,  
To day restoring; O shine out.   

Nor guilty in the ills I bear  
Let me appear;  
Though innocence from their success  
My foes profess,  
Yet pardon what amiss they do,  
Even in this World unpunished too.   

From ills that rage, or seem to sleep,  
Thy servant keep:  
As to this crime my hands are white;  
My heart upright.  
Plead thou my cause, just judge defend me,  
And joy in thy salvation send me.    

ODE iv. upon the insolency of the Tumults.  
TO thee I fly thou sole defence  
Of my invaded innocence:  
Who only canst the stubborn Main,  
And people more enraged restrain.  
The floods, the floods, o'erswell their bounds,  
Danger my threatened soul surrounds.  
Mine and my realm's iniquity,  
(The tumults of our souls 'gainst thee)  
These popular inundations cause,  
That bear down Loyalty and laws.  
But thou to Seas didst fix a shore,  
And from the Deluge, Earth restore,  
O quell these savage Beasts, and me  
From their tumultuous Rapines free.  
In all our counsels once again,  
Let peace and equal freedom reign:  
That Reason, and Religion may  
Our Hearts, as Men and Christians, sway.  
And we thy sacred name shall bless,  
Who canst, what men design, repress.  
Instruct their Leaders to repent,  
Be Shame, not Death, their punishment:  
Errors with Truth, Passion with Reason,  
Schisms with Love, with Laws bound Treason:  
That like thy City, We in one  
May meet▪ This grant for thy dear Son.   

ODE V. upon his majesty's passing the Bill for triennial Parliaments.  

TO thee, my God, I still appeal,  
Whose all discerning eyes reveal,  
The clouds that human thoughts conceal.   

A heart thou gav'st me to bestow  
Much on my Subjects, which must now  
Learn much from them to undergo.   

Thy will be done, and ours denied,  
When most to thine, it seems allied  
And theirs, who thee pretend their guide.   

Instruct me wisely to employ  
The Crosses, that my hopes destroy;  
As the fullfillings of my joy.   

I raised my own fears, theirs t'abate,  
Unsettled mine, to fix their State,  
Who recompense my love with hate.   

In this dark storm my Pilot be,  
Which to make home, nor suffers me,  
Nor elsewhere, with security.   

My life thou safely canst dispose,  
Circled by friends, or tossed by those  
Who poison what my love bestows.   

My bounty they, I thine abuse:  
Such Grace, such Penitence infuse,  
We may not injure, thou accuse.   

May I their errors rightly see,  
By their ingratitude to me,  
Wisely reforming mine to thee.   

That though from temporal blessings thrown,  
By sins of others for my own;  
Thy mercies may my sufferings crown.    

ODE VI. Upon his majesty's retirement from Westminster.  

OUR native freedom, Lord, preserve,  
Which bids our wills thy will obey:  
Yet from our Conscience never swerve,  
Whilst men's Decrees with Law we weigh,  
And Reason, nor of aught allow  
But that, to which our judgements bow.   

Where fixed by thee I did reside,  
That place, by Subjects forced, I quitted:  
Yet for their good myself denied  
In all to my dispose submitted:  
Let no Demands in Tumults pressed,  
From my consent unjust power wrest.   

The greatest mischief of my Foes,  
Teach me with joy to entertain;  
Ere the least sin that they propose,  
The whiteness of my Conscience stain:  
just freedom let thy People have,  
Yet not my Soul be made a Slave.   

Thou hast disposed me to a Throne,  
And with a Crown my Temples decked:  
The reason which from thee I own,  
Let others Passions not subject.  
So shall my truth with thee comply,  
Though them I cannot satisfy.   

Whilst I, by their injurious wrath,  
With violence am forced away;  
Guide thou my steps, nor from the path  
Of Truth and Justice, let me stray.  
For which my troubles now increase,  
But they at last shall crown my Peace.    

ODE VII. Upon the Queen's departure and absence out of England.  

LOrd those whom thou in vows hast tied,  
Yet now by distance dost divide,  
Here or in heaven unite.  
Defend Us from despiteful Foes,  
And by the sufferings they impose,  
Prepare Us for thy sight.   

Though in Religion we dissent,  
Hear our Devotions jointly bent  
Thy sacred Truth to find:  
Love in our equal hearts infuse  
Of thee, and him, who us to excuse  
His sinless life resigned.   

With judgement and desire endue,  
Goodness to know and to pursue;  
These in our Souls prevent:  
Ere Disobedience Harbour win,  
Or Blindness, be not that our sin;  
Nor this our punishment,   

O let no Truth my Foes profess,  
Be blemished by the wickedness  
That in their actions thrives;  
May Mine and others Constancy,  
An Antidote more powerful be  
Against their poisonous lives.   

Let that sole Faith thou dost approve,  
In loyal Peace, and humble Love,  
(Their native dress) appear:  
Not in the loathsome black disguise,  
Of new Rebellious Heresies,  
Which they would force her wear.   

That she whom vows make part of me,  
Thy sacred saving Truth may see,  
From human dross refined;  
And (in that crystal Glass displayed)  
The mercies in his Blood conveyed,  
Whose life his Precepts signed:   

May knowledge of earth's vain delights,  
Eclipsed by unexpected Nights,  
By sudden storms o'ercast;  
Inflame our Spirits with desire,  
To those celestial joys t'aspire,  
Which time shall never wast.    

ODE VIII. Upon his majesty's repulse at Hull, and the Fates of the Hotham's.  

WHO vengeance on my wrongs hast shown,  
And by my Foes, my Foes o'erthrown:  
Let not his fall invite  
My Soul by close delight;  
To make thy just revenge her own.   

Thou hast reverted on his head  
The mischiefs he for others spread,  
Unwished, unasked by me:  
That all the Earth may see;  
Thou didst my Cause in judgement plead.   

I will not, dare not imprecate  
The like on all that bear me hate.  
No: to their Souls dispense  
Pardon and Penitence,  
Charged with no due afflictions weight.   

Deprive me not of themes so fit  
For Mercy: but their sins remit  
Whose bold Demerit climbs,  
Next those ungrateful Crimes,  
Of which thou Me art pleased t'acquit.   

Their sins be to their Conscience pressed,  
In Sorrow not in judgement dressed;  
The Thunder that was thrown  
So dreadfully at one,  
Be a just terror to the rest.   

Fear with repentant Knowledge join,  
Of their malicious black design:  
That to thy mercies they,  
Finding the spacious way;  
May thy devouring Wrath decline.   

Lord, send thy Truth and Mercy down,  
In them set fast thy servant's Throne,  
Let Peace and justice meet,  
With mutual Kisses greet,  
And prop my never fading Crown.   

Be to our prayer for Foes intent;  
Whom (when thy foes) thou didst prevent  
With offered Clemency,  
Sending thy Son to die  
For them who on his Death were bent.    

ODE ix.. Upon the Listing and Raising Armies against the King.  

THrough human clouds thy rays  
like Lightning glide;  
No prejudice thy Sentence sways,  
For Knowledge is thy judgements guide.   

The proud, my Soul oppose,  
And slight thy laws;  
Help, Lord, for many are my Foes,  
They hate me yet without a cause.   

I never did (thou know'st)  
These broils begin,  
In which, though I adventure most,  
Yet I am certain lest to win.   

But oft deplored and strove,  
With care t'avoid;  
My life such dangers could not love,  
Better to save than kill employed.   

My other sufferings far  
Their calumny  
Outweighs: who tell the World this war  
(My greatest cross) was raised by Me.   

Yet this by silence I  
Willingly could own;  
Might it their malice satisfy,  
Whilst thou my innocence hast known.   

Deceitful murderers shall  
Thy Vengeance find;  
Already some by timeless fall,  
Are barred the fruit their Rage designed.   

Who War affect suppress,  
My God arise,  
Lift up thyself, my Foes increase,  
Pregnant with Mischief, Sin, and Lies.   

My Life and Conscience they  
At once invade;  
Let that to their fierce Rage a Prey,  
Ere this to thy just Wrath be made.   

My clearness Refuge claims;  
Yet if my Blood  
Can only quench my kingdom's flames,  
Let my own Subjects sluice the Flood.   

But (O) the Blood of Me  
their sinful King,  
Washed in my guiltless Saviours, be  
Thy mercy's unexhausted Spring.   

When Death, thy Wrath t'appease  
I undergo,  
My People from this sin release;  
Forgive! They know not what they do.    

ODE X. upon the seizing the King's magazines, Forts Navy, and Militia.  
O my God, to thee I fly,  
Stronger than the Enemy;  
Heaven nor Earth are wished by me,  
In comparison of thee.  
Let me be when All denied,  
More than All by thee supplied.  
Hast to help, thou failest not those  
Who their trust in thee repose.  
Robbed of power to check their Will,  
Who are blindly led to Kill,  
By pretences to Protect;  
I to thee my Eyes erect.  
Help thou needest not, nor shall I,  
Whilst thou dost not thine deny;  
To subdue or undergo.  
If success thou not bestow,  
Nor my safety wilt allow,  
To thy judgement see I bow;  
Which upon thy Children fall:  
Nothing I, so thou be all.  
King's are unsecure that boast  
In the number of an host;  
But thy numerous Mercies are  
Our defence, O God of War.  
Dangers on each side press near;  
Help; and Man I shall not fear.  
My distresses glory I  
To thy justice will apply,  
Glorified thy Mercy be,  
In my safe delivery.  
By my sins 'gainst thee I fought,  
And to rob thy Glory sought;  
Though thy Subject; by my own,  
Justly me thou Mighest unthrone.  
But break forth! nor let the Foe  
Boast his God no strength can show.  
In thy paths my footsteps guide,  
Suffer not my feet to slide;  
As thine Eye my Soul defend,  
And thy shady wing extend,  
From the wicked that oppose,  
And with Malice me enclose;  
To those joys my conduct be,  
Which in fullness wait on thee.   

ODE XI. Upon the Nineteen Propositions sent to the King.  

Eternal wisdom armed with might,  
With Truth and Right my Reason clear;  
To which so make my will adhere,  
No threats may from their Dictates fright:   

Thou didst not raise me to a Throne,  
To bar me common liberty.  
Shall that be named a crime in me,  
Which others as a virtue own?   

Unjustly they their King deny  
The freedom, which all mortals claim:  
Whilst even themselves exact the same,  
With partial pertinacity.   

To thee I pray who through the maze  
Of my own thoughts, and suits (like snares  
Spread to involve my soul in cares)  
Canst surely guide: make plain thy ways.   

Let not my Passions cloud thy light;  
Thy Word my Rule, thy Praise my End.  
To all I cannot, will not bend  
To some; Thee pleased all else I slight.   

Who Plots unweavest, and the Self-wise  
Entangl'st in their own design;  
To thy wise Truth my soul incline,  
And men's esteem I shall despise.   

The less my wisdom shall appear,  
More thine that guideest me shines; whilst I  
Nothing through wilfulness deny,  
Nor grant through Flattery, or Fear.   

No suits by my consent be signed,  
Injurious to the public good:  
No public benefits withstood,  
To soothe my own dissenting mind.   

To such, though from my Enemies,  
Teach me to give a free access;  
Our honest errors thou canst bless,  
As blast the counsels falsely wise.   

Since private words thy scourge obey,  
Teach me to poise what I declare.  
The bolder men's Petitions are,  
Let me the more my Answers weigh.   

Though troubles Me and mine attend,  
And Peace our Pressures would acquit;  
Yet let me not to purchase it,  
My Conscience (which is thine) expend.    

ODE XII. Upon the Rebellion and troubles in Ireland.  

THy mercy's Lord (hence in displeasure fled)  
On me and my torn Kingdoms I implore:  
Whose loss we both too justy merited,  
But never can deserve thou shouldst restore.   

Thou seest the cruelty that Christians use,  
In the false colours of Religion died;  
As if the names of Christians they should lose,  
Unless they one another crucified.   

Since we thy Truth and Charity despised,  
Error, and Hatred now their room possess.  
My God, O pardon those thou hast chastized;  
Our wounds with penitential Balm redress.   

Make not our sufferings less in thy esteem;  
And to our Conscience let our sins appear,  
As they in th'mirrour of thy judgements seem;  
Which to small crimes are never so severe.   

Remove their numerous weight, and be appeased,  
Yet than our sins may they afflict us less:  
More willing to repent than to be eased,  
With peace our Souls, & next our Kingdoms bless.   

By thy great mercy our offences drowned,  
In the calm Sea of our redeemer's blood:  
And through the purple current of our own,  
Steer us at last to Plenty, Peace, and Good.   

To me a share of all the ills that press  
My Subjects, doth my wide relation bring:  
Give me a pious sense of their distress,  
Such as befits their Father and their King.   

Let the reproachful breath their Malice spreads,  
Kindle in me compassionate desires:  
My Charity heap Coles upon their heads,  
Whose zealous cruelty my Kingdom fires.   

O rescue those whom yet thou hast preserved,  
Reduceing all to thy Truths saving ways;  
Who by mistake or ignorance have swerved,  
But punish them who these combustions raise.   

Not with the guilty thou the innocent,  
Nor th'erring, wilt with the malicious slay:  
To Foes, through avarice on Slaughter bent,  
Give not that poor seduced Realm away.   

In the devouring furnace of thine ire,  
A race, that may thy mercy praise, maintain▪  
Deal not with me as men's untruths require,  
But as my guiltless hands are free from stain.   

If I have sought or loved my kingdom's woes,  
Nor did my studies faithfully employ,  
These bloody wild distractions to compose,  
Then let thy hand my father's house destroy.   

That I have Foes enough thou Lord dost see,  
I durst not call thy curse on me and mine,  
Were I not guiltless to myself and thee;  
Thy mercies are my trust: Thy wrath decline.    

ODE XIII. Upon the calling in of the Scots.  

MY troubles, Lord, are multiplied,  
O succour the distressed!  
In simplest truth thy Servant guide,  
The wisest interest.   

From th'associate strength of Foes  
Be thou my just defence,  
Who, for the serpent's craft, depose  
The Doves white Innocence.   

Though to oppress Me they agree;  
Combined in mutual aid,  
Let not my Soul and Honours, be  
to their deceits betrayed.   

Devotion, and Allegiance, thou  
Canst in their hearts renew;  
That him they may restore, whom now  
They eagerly pursue.   

Love of thy Truth preserve in me,  
And I despair not theirs:  
At thy command the flowing Sea  
Back to its Bound repair's.   

My God, on thee my hopes depend,  
Me let not shame surprise,  
But them who without cause offend;  
Repulse my Enemies.   

My Armour be Integrity,  
For Lord, on thee I wait:  
The Church, which thou hast owned, set free  
From her perplexed estate.    

ODE XIV. Upon the Covenant.  

LOrd, I to thee direct my cries,  
My Subjects forward Oaths remit:  
Quicken their sense of those firm ties,  
By law upon their Conscience knit.  
With which no pious, no pretence  
Of Reformation can dispense.   

Religion owns no injury:  
No Sacreledge by thee allowed;  
Though masked with hate t'idolatry:  
Their zeal-disguised fraud uncloud.  
Things Holy 'tis a snare to take,  
And after vows enquiry make.   

Assist thy servant to withstand  
Rapines involved in Perjury:  
Nor ever let me wear the brand  
Of having robbed thy Church and thee.  
Since what to us thy bounty gives,  
From us thy Clemency receives.   

Though my Revenues are decreased,  
My debts enlarged, my Treasures drained,  
Let not my wants, by such unblessed  
Rapines, consent to be sustained:  
lest from thy Altar fall a coal,  
And fire at once my Throne and Soul.   

Let no vain public Indigence,  
The Church from her endowments sever,  
The ' State, by peaceful Providence,  
May theirs regain the Church can never:  
Whilst Charity is thought a vice,  
Religion placed in Avarice.   

Let them who in thy Temple serve,  
What pious Donors gave, enjoy:  
And (those incitements to deserve)  
Their wealth, to aid the low, employ:  
The Priests in Righteousness arrayed,  
The hunger of the Poor allayed.   

No hallowed things let Swine divide,  
Nor dogs devour the church's bread:  
But Grin and snarl unsatisfied.  
Whilst all that have already fed  
Death in those sacred morsels find,  
And leave a rotten name behind.   

Lord, break the Treasons of my Foes,  
In sacrilege Confederate:  
Disjoin the Hearts and Tongues of those  
Who bandy 'gainst the Church and State  
Let all the world their folly see,  
And in my clearness succour me.    

ODE XV. Upon the jealousies raised, and scandals cast upon the King &c.  

O Lord thou seest my wrongs abound;  
Lions enraged my Soul surround,  
With poi'snous words  
Their Tongues like Swords,  
Their teeth like Arrows wound.   

My foes reproach me all the day,  
And sworn deceits together lay;  
My God how long  
Shall they grow strong,  
Who with vain Lies inveigh.   

The Calumnies which they have sown  
On every side to thee are known,  
Hold not thy peace  
lest they increase,  
And bury my Renown.   

The liar thou wilt ruinate,  
The Bloody and the false dost hate;  
Let my upright  
Intents, a light,  
Clear as the Sun dilate.   

My patience let not wrath outweigh,  
Nor silence Innocence betray,  
That I may tread,  
As thou hast led,  
Curses with blessings pay.   

Shimei, when his envenomed pride  
Seemed by thy judgements justifi●d▪  
Thou didst o'erthrow:  
But deal not so  
With them that me deride.   

My prayer and Patience in these wrongs,  
Like water, cool, and quench their tongues;  
inflamed with Ire,  
By that black fire  
Which unto Hell belongs.   

O let my Deeds their Words refute,  
Nor they enjoy the deadly fruit  
Which (Dipped in gall)  
Their lips let fall:  
But my indulgent suit.   

My Soul to meek Devotion win:  
That I thy boundless mercies, in  
Their malice, may  
With joy survey;  
Thy justice in their sin.   

O let the Curses they have thrown  
At me, invite thy blessings down.  
What some refuse,  
Be pleased to choose  
For the Head corner stone.   

Look down from thy eternal Tower,  
Redeem from them that would devour:  
My Soul O hide,  
From men's bold pride,  
From their invective power.    

ODE XVI. Upon the Ordinance against the Common-prayer-book.  

THou still the same for ever blessed,  
Whom mercies infinite invest,  
In various constancy expressed?   

Thou hast us with new sense endued  
Of our old wants, nor scorn'st renewed  
Desires, in unchanged words pursued.   

Still let our fixed Devotions join;  
Our suits to thy firm will incline;  
Our fervent Spirits move by thine.   

For thou, in all perfection wise,  
Nor novelty in prayer dost prize,  
Nor pious constancy despise.   

By thy command preferring neither,  
Left in thy church's pow●r together,  
To use, but not disparage either.   

Devotions moderately guide,  
None injured, none just helps denied,  
By others ignorance or pride.   

Since errors ever are unsure,  
And by pretence of change allure;  
Whilst truth in Union is secure:   

Preserve thy Church, that no unfit  
Orders (as various) she admit;  
Nor Constancy, as formal, quit.   

Lord, chase hypocrisy away,  
And then (we know) we safely may,  
In settled forms, or praise, or pray.   

Teach us what dwells within to mend,  
And less we outwards need attend.  
From bold blind zeal thy Church defend.    

ODE XVII. Upon the differences between the King, and the two Houses, in point of Church-Government.  

TO thee my uprightness is known,  
Who hast appointed me to own  
Thy s●cred faith's defence;  
O let me not of thee forlorn,  
Against my Conscience be ore-born,  
By floods of violence.   

Up Lord, in thine own cause arise;  
lest Schism make thy Church its prize,  
And trample on her power;  
From thee continued to our time,  
When Wealth is made her fatal crime;  
Her sin is her fair do.   

Whom, some have plundered, others wound,  
The rest deserted as they found,  
Or in her sufferings joy:  
May I her hurts, and wants relieve,  
The power which I from thee receive:  
Teach me for thee t'imploy.   

To her that love be still sustained,  
I owe as Christian, though restrained:  
As King from all my right;  
The bounties on thy Church displayed:  
By providence, let none invade,  
With sacrilegious might.   

Forgive their error, and their Sin,  
Who wrought thy sufferance to let in:  
Fly Foxes and wild Boars,  
To lay that goodly Vineyard wast,  
Which thy right hand in planting graced  
Watered with heavenly showers.   

Oh! never let such Infamy,  
Brand my clear Name, as to agree:  
T'oppose the Church and those,  
Whose errors I should rather hide:  
With silence, or with meekness chide,  
Than to comtempt expose.   

The wrongs which with thy Church I bear,  
And for her sake, to thee appear:  
Hast, Lord, to set us free,  
From ravenous men of reason void:  
Who have old Bounds of Peace destroyed,  
To let in heresy.   

Thou God of Peace and Order, quell  
The malice of our Foes, dispel  
Their black devices, than  
May we, who in thy Church delight,  
The wonders of thy praise recite,  
Before the Sons of men.    

ODE XVIII. Upon the Uxbridge treaty, &c.  
OF Peace and Reason Lord!  
Delighting in accord;  
The wicked who from sin,  
With offered Grace would win!  
Whose mercy courts to save,  
Though power to kill thou have!  
(Our hearts to softness wooed  
In our redeemer's blood)  
Persuade us to agree,  
Both with ourselves and thee:  
As Men and Christians ought,  
Peace often have I sought,  
But it no sooner name,  
Than war my Foes proclaim.  
Our actions never may,  
Destructive Passions sway.  
Our judgements clear, that we  
Thy Truth may plainly see.  
Our stubborn Hearts incline,  
In bonds of Peace to join.  
Our irreligious hate  
To thee, oh dissipate;  
That to ourselves, remove  
With interchanged Love,  
The war our sins have wrought,  
With Peace, which Christ hath bought;   

ODE XIX. Upon the various events of War, Victories, and Defeats.  

With ready joy oh let me, Lord! agree  
To be o'ercome when thou wilt have it so:  
Instruct me in the noblest Victory,  
By patience to subdue myself, and foe;  
Conquest like Christ's, a Christian King best show:   

Mould us to Piety betwixt thy Hands,  
Pressed by thy left, supported by thy right;  
Pardon the pride of our successful Bands,  
And the repinings of our luckless Fight,  
When (trusting in our own) denied thy might:   

When we are aught, or nothing, be thou All;  
That thy wide glory's the whole World may fill,  
Or in our Conquest, or inglorious fall.  
Thou know'st with what Regret I suffer ill,  
From those whose Good's the scope of all my will.   

The Ills they force me to inflict, I bear;  
And in their punishments, my own embrace,  
Victor or vanquished? since a double share  
Of certain suffering doth my Hope displace,  
Grant me a double Portion of thy Grace.   

As most afflicted, Lord, reform me most,  
To see our Peace, and to restore it blessed.  
That all subdued by reasons power, may boast,  
A mutual Conquest, common strife suppressed  
In public Union, our joint Interest.   

But if as sins of Peace provoked this War,  
Peace for the sins of War thou shouldst deny,  
Making our miseries more circular:  
Yet let thy servant midst these broils enjoy  
That Peace the World nor gives, nor can destroy.   

To me impute not, Lord! the purple Flood,  
Shed with unwilling grief in my defence.  
But wash me in my saviour's precious blood:  
By whom my troubles hope a quick dispense;  
For short are impious joys, and Confidence.    

ODE XX. Upon the Reformation of the Times.  

LOrd, thou who Beauty canst return,  
To them that mourn;  
And the disguised pretext of Art,  
To Truth convert;  
Oh let us not by shows beguil'd,  
Seem pure without, within defiled.   

Within, where most deformed we are,  
Be our first care,  
Then with clear eyes the Church we may  
And State survey.  
Our Hearts, our Spirits, Lord, renew,  
That we thy Dictates may pursue.   

Upon our foul disorders, bred  
By them, who (led  
With rage) to purge us undertook,  
With pity look.  
Quench thou the fire that Factions raise,  
From Reformations specious Blaze.   

As their Division, Lord, proclaims  
Their weak, bad Aims?  
So let us (in those fires refined)  
In love be joined;  
From Passions freed: blessed with increase  
Of inward virtue, outward Peace.    

ODE XXI. Upon his majesty's Letters taken and divulged?  

THou Lord, who by thy wise Decree,  
Dost our Contingency dispose;  
Make me thy constant mercies see,  
In the advantage of my Foes.   

Thou canst their counsels turn away,  
And their devices ruinate:  
Who all my secrets open lay,  
To work me in my people's hate.   

To thy Omniscience I repair,  
Witness with my Integrity,  
How false the wrested Comments are,  
Which they to what I write apply.   

The ill directed by their Aim  
To me; so turn upon their Head,  
That they may be involved in shame;  
And with Confusion overspread.   

Thou seest with what malicious Art,  
They seek to cloud me with disgrace:  
But give me a submissive Heart,  
Dishonour for thy sake t'embrace.   

Make me intent to honour thee,  
And I in Honour shall abound;  
Restored to my first Dignity,  
Or else with equal Patience crowned.   

Thou art in Majesty arrayed!  
Goodness and Glory from Thee spring:  
With wisdom, Justice, Mercy aid,  
I shall not want what fits a King.   

Thou the Exalter of my Head,  
In Thee is my Salvation placed:  
Lord by thy Grace to Glory lead,  
Which to eternity shall last.    

ODE XXII. Upon his majesty's leaving Oxford, and going to the Scots.  

Thou, who all Souls, all Consciences dost sway,  
To thee I look dismayed!  
To thy Protection I commit my way.  
Thou, who my life didst aid,  
Still in thy weakness canst thy strength display.   

A fiery Pillar in dark nights to me,  
And with thy light direct,  
In scorching Day's a cloudy Pillar be;  
And with thy shade protect.  
O let me find both Sun, and Shield in Thee.   

My life I was not by perverseness wrought  
To hazard thus t'xpose:  
But Reason, Honour, and Religion taught,  
To guard myself from those,  
Whose impious force to wrest them from me sought.   

Let not the just Resolves, I have endued  
With outward strength, abate  
A Conscience where no wrong did ere intrude:  
Be my Associate,  
In my Desertions greatest Solitude.   

My Fort of Reason let me not betray,  
Trusted to keep for Thee.  
From thy Salvation that I never stray,  
My constant Conduct be.  
If Thee I please, Peace shall my Foes allay.    

ODE XXIII. Upon the Scots delivering the King to the English, and his Captivity at Holmeby  

THou that alone art infinite  
In good, and greatness; dwel'st with me,  
Weighed with thy Presence Life is light,  
Thy service perfect Liberty:  
Own me for thine, I cannot but be free.   

As I am Man with Reason bless,  
With Zeal as Christian; Right as King:  
Of outwards stripped, let me possess  
Thee in the joy's that from Thee spring;  
Which 'gainst my will no force can from me wring.   

Let not my Passion over-boil  
To fruitless Rage, or sordid fear:  
They think him helpless whom they foil:  
But let thy cheerful light appear,  
And secure freedom shall my glories clear.   

Befitting my afflicted state,  
A patient Constancy bestow:  
My strength and hopes are dissipate,  
Myself imprisoned by the Foe:  
O be not far, lest they too mighty grow.   

A scorn and wonder I am made;  
Thou my defence and succour be:  
My Foes ashamed to see thy aid,  
In thy free Spirit settle me  
To act and suffer, what is willed by Thee.   

My Soul into thy favour bring,  
For She her Hope in Thee hath placed?  
My shelter is thy shady Wing,  
Till these Calamities be past:  
Rise to deliver us, my God make haste!   

Thy mercy (though the Life it gives,  
Thou take away) shall be my Trust:  
I know that my Redeemer lives,  
Though in death's vale resolved to Dust,  
Yet shall no taint of fear my bright Faith rust.    

ODE XXIIII. Upon their denying his Majesty the attendanc● of his Chaplains.  

TO Thee my solitary prayers I send,  
The help that others my Distress deny,  
With thy assistant Spirit Lord supply:  
To dulness Life, Light to my Darkness lend.   

Thou, Sun that beams of righteousness dost spread,  
Thou sacred Spring of heavenly Light and heat,  
Both warmth and clearness in my Heart beget,  
Instruct, and for thy Servant intercede.   

Fullness, sufficience, favour thee array;  
Enough Thou Comfort art, and Company:  
Thou art my King, my Priest and Prophet be;  
Rule, teach, pray, in me, for me, with me stay.   

Jacob who singly did with Thee contest  
In sacred duel, Thee his second had:  
He conquered, and a blessing (by thy aid)  
From Thee with welcome Violence did wrest.   

With mercy on thy Servant be intent,  
Who his Devotions once with them did join,  
Whose fervour might inflame the cold of mine;  
When to thy House with Joy and Peace we went.   

Of those Occasions our neglect forgive,  
Which we with just Improvement would not scan;  
Now like the desert-hunting Pelican,  
Or Sparrow parched on some housetop I live.   

And scattered like a dying coal, from all  
Those pious glowings that might fire impart:  
Keep and increase on th'Altar of my Heart,  
On Thee in sacrifice of prayer to call.   

Yet thou that dost not break the bruised Reed,  
Nor quench the smoking Flax, oh! not despise,  
The smothered prayers that from my lone Soul rise,  
Denied the helps which I desire and need.   

The hardness of their Hearts, let soften mine;  
Their hate my Love, deny all prayers excite,  
Their deafness thy Attention Lord invite,  
Whose ready ear, Heart, Hand to help incline.   

Men may debar thy Churches outward right,  
Not inward Grace to humble minds conveyed.  
O make me such, and thou wilt Teach, Hear, Aid:  
A broken contrite Heart, thou wilt not slight.   

Thou Temple, Altar, Sacrifice and Priest,  
At once canst make me▪ who each day alone  
In vows prayers, Tears am thy Oblation:  
By whom prepared, accepted, and possessed?   

Thou didst the Widow's meal and oil increase,  
And secretly by strange supplies infuse  
Into the Vessel and unwasting Cruze,  
Which with the Drought and Dearth did only cease.   

O my forsaken widowed Soul preserve,  
Let not thy Truth and sweet Effusions fail  
My memory and heart, but so prevail,  
Kept from accustomed food, I may not starve.   

Yet better starve than by their Hands to feed,  
Who mix my Bread with Ashes, and infect  
My Wine with Gall; who torture, not direct;  
Prone to reproaches, which their prayers exceed.   

To my Destruction they pervert thy Word,  
O be it not eternally to theirs:  
Devouring under colour of long prayers,  
The Houses of their Brethren, King, and Lord.   

Let not the balm of these Men break my Head,  
Nor let their Cordials my heart oppress:  
'Gainst their precisely coloured wickedness,  
My fervent prayers incessantly shall plead.   

Lord from the Snares their treacherous Lips include,  
Their poy'snous tongues, & from their words sharp fire  
Keep me and those who my Souls good desire,  
Relieving with their prayers my solitude.    

ODE XXV. Penitential Meditations and vows in the King's solitude at Homeby.  

My God, my King incline thine ear,  
My cry to Thee directed hear.  
Incensed I said, we from Thy Care  
Are cast: yet Thou receivest my prayer.   

Thy rigour who can satisfy?  
But to thy mercy's sinners fly.  
Lord I acknowledge my offence,  
Dilated in my Eminence.   

The sins I act, or do permit  
By unimproved power acquit.  
Rebellious I to Thee became,  
Now, Prisoner to my Subjects am.   

Yet though restrained my Person be,  
By grace enlarge my Heart to Thee;  
Though David's Piety I want,  
His griefs I have; His comforts grant!   

O be my penitential sense  
Of sins, their Pardons evidence.  
●steem not our Afflictions small,  
Though our loud Crimes for greater call   

Turn Thee, O Lord, Thy mercy show,  
For I am desolate and Low.  
The sorrow's of my Heart increase,  
O give my miseries release.   

Hast Thou forgotten to be kind?  
In wrath thy tender Care confined?  
O call to mind thy Love of old,  
And thy Compassions manifold.   

Amongst the living I expected,  
Thy Goodness, else had been dejected.  
Let not our prosperour sins make less,  
The benefits of our distress.   

Consume the Dross in this sharp fire,  
Which by long Peace, we did acquire:  
On us if Thou Afflictions lay,  
Take not thy strengthening Grace away.   

With patient Penitence supply  
The want of our Prosperity.  
And if thy Wrath not yet shall end,  
If still thy Justice thou extend:   

Me and my father's House o'errun,  
As for these sheep what have they done?  
O let my sufferings satiate those,  
Who to thy Church and me are Foes.   

But not when they most cruel grow,  
My wider Charity outgo:  
No vengeful thought my Patience stain,  
Whose glorys thine, but mine the gain.   

Me thou to Pardon hast inclined,  
Let both our Foes thy Pardon find:  
And now as Thou my heart dost bow  
To prayer, hear, and accept my vow.   

If thou remember us in Love,  
Nor wilt thy sacred Light remove;  
Of Law and Justice repossessed,  
Faction and heresy suppressed.   

If me and mine thou wilt restore  
To the just Rights we held before:  
If thou each subjects stubborn Heart  
By Piety to Thee convert:   

By humble Loyalty to Me,  
And to themselves by Charity;  
From civil broils, if thou release,  
And mak'st their fatal causes cease:   

If thou free counsels wilt dispense,  
Not curbed by vulgar insolence:  
If thou my Conscience wilt defend:  
Nor to Church rapines let me bend:   

If me with Power thou reinvest,  
Such as thy glories may attest,  
Then shall my soul thy praise proclaim:  
And to thy people laud thy Name:   

Then shall thy truth, and thy Renown  
My only treasure be and Crown,  
Than I with Equity shall sway;  
In justice shall my Realms obey.   

That as my Right from Thee alone,  
I may my Restitution own:  
If I by thy Assistance come  
With honour, Peace, and safety home.   

If thou once more the awful sword  
To punish and protect afford,  
Than all shall see my Foes partake,  
This Vow which now to Thee I make.   

What now as Christian I forgive,  
No snare of law shall back retrieve.  
Me from myself their Skill can part,  
But I will never learn that art.   

A full Indemnity shall clear  
The growing doubts of jealous fear:  
Strict Amnesty shall Peace prefer,  
And in Oblivion wrongs inter.   

No future counsels shall control  
This solemn purpose of my Soul:  
To me let Mercy so increase,  
As I resolve on Truth and Peace.   

To my Petition, Lord, attend,  
Which Lips with guile untainted send:  
His Name be blessed who hears my Cry,  
Nor his full mercy will deny.   

My Soul thy way to God commit,  
Him trust, and he shall perfect it.  
If not restored, yet who am I,  
That I should charge thee foolishly?   

Thou gav'st? thou, Lord, hast ta'en away,  
We blessings to thy Name shall pay.  
Happy thy Church, my People, be,  
At least without, if not by Me.    

ODE XXVI. Upon the army's surprisal of the King at Holmeby, and the Ensuing distractions in the two Houses, the army, and the City,  

Lord, Thou sacred unity,  
In an undivided Trine,  
Those combined in Mercy see;  
Whom thy justice doth disjoin.   

Save me from dissenting Foes,  
Who my prayers and pity need;  
And each other now oppose,  
Though to fight with me agreed.   

All discording parties guide,  
To the Peace from which they sway,  
Whilst they serve or Court a side,  
Not the voice of Law obey.   

Make me willingly to go  
Where thy Providence will lead:  
And the change of things below,  
In thy constant Presence read.   

Make me by thy skilful Hand,  
Such as thou wouldst have me be;  
Then waft me safely to that Land,  
Where Peace ever dwells with thee.   

Spare our city's (Lord) impure,  
Through their Wealth and Plenty made;  
In their multitude secure,  
By Security betrayed.   

Make them see, weigh, chose and do  
For thy Glory, and our Peace:  
Lest affliction like a Foe,  
Armed for slaughter on them seize.   

Enemies their sins excite,  
Long unfoyled they cannot be,  
Who (their conscience thwarting) fight  
More against themselves than Me.   

Gild thy justice has pursued,  
And for Rapin Wealth makes way:  
Tumults grow from multitude;  
Those to confusion betray.   

Though with mutual forwardness,  
They have set malicious Snares  
Me in mischief to oppress:  
Be not yet my ruin theirs.   

Let me not so much debate,  
What they do, or what I bear;  
As my Saviour imitate,  
And their Advocate appear.   

That when longer Me to live,  
These extremities forbid;  
Pray, Father them forgive!  
For they knew not what they did.   

Tears which to my Misery,  
They denied, to theirs deplore:  
Which the less they spend for me,  
For themselves they need the more.   

My Blood light not on their Head,  
Who my Crucifixion sought:  
By the fraud of some misled,  
Not by general malice taught.   

But thou, Lord, canst with thy Care,  
Me by sufferings elevate;  
Where thy mercies have more share,  
Than thy justice, or man's hate.    

ODE XXVII. Meditations upon Death after the votes of Non-Addresses, and his Majesty's closer Imprisonment in Carisbrook Castle.  

THou that fill'st Heaven and Earth, O King of Kings,  
In whom no Death, whence Life eternal Springs:  
Who canst our Souls unto the yawning Grave  
Justly condemn, or mercifully save.  
Better be dead t'our selves, in thee survive;  
Than robbed of Thee, and to ourselves alive.  
O let the bitter means that aggravate  
My fall, thy Comforts in my Soul dilate.  
If thou art with Me, fear shall not assail,  
Though I should walk along death's shady Vale.  
Weak mortal man may with his Fate contend,  
But 'tis thy Grace must strength to vanquish lend.  
Thou know'st as Man what 'tis to die with Me,  
Teach me by Death to live, my God, with Thee.  
Though I should die I know thou ever liv'st:  
Though thou shouldst kill, eternal Life thou giv'st.  
O hold not back thy Love more wished than Breath,  
O be not far, for near perhaps is Death:  
All the close Snares for my Destruction set,  
Thy knowledge can disclose, thy Power defeat.  
Let me thy will discover that declares,  
The good of Thine, through the much ill of theirs!  
As I am Man I beg Thee turn away  
This Cup; as Christian I have learned to Pray,  
That not my will, but thine, my God, be done;  
Mine into thine resolve, and make them One.  
Let my desires Life with less fervour woe,  
Than thy Commands to suffer, or to do.  
As thou hast pardoned all my lives frail errors,  
So thou wilt save me from my death's false terrors.  
Make me content this nothing World to leave,  
That all in thee (my All) I may receive.  
My Foes their Duty to us both reject,  
Let not thy mindful mercies them neglect.  
What profit by my blood can they obtain,  
To lose their Souls, though they my kingdom gain.  
Though my just Power against myself they bent,  
Let not themselves have their just Punishment.  
Thou by thy Son thy mercies haste allied  
To those Offenders, by whom crucified?  
Whilst violence he suffered from his Foes,  
Yet for their sakes those wrongs did freely choose.  
O hear the Voice of his acquitting Blood,  
Then the accusing cries of mine more loud.  
Let them their sins, and thy full mercies know,  
Not their own Souls deceive and overthrow.  
Tempted by unjust Power, extremes t'employ,  
And by fallacious Justice me destroy.  
Cruel as false their mercy's have I found,  
Pretending to defend, they seek to wound.  
Their bloody fraud O do not thou pursue;  
But with thy Pity, and my Love subdue.  
And for my Blood when Inquisition  
Thou mak'st; in that of thy beloved Son  
Their Souls polluted, yet repentant die;  
That thy destroying Angel may pass by.  
They think my Realm's too narrow both to hold,  
Let thy wide Mercy me, and them enfold,  
So by our Saviour reconciled to Thee,  
we'll ' live above ambitious Enmity.  
When their hard, heavy Hands press down with harms,  
O let me fall into thy tender Arms.  
That from my life's sad moments what away  
Is cut, thy blessed Eternity may pay.   

Lord thy divine Salvation clearly I  
Have seen: in Peace O let thy Servant die.   
FINIS.