Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/170

 a heart ready to die for Thine honour, the king's happiness and the Church's preservation. And my zeal for this (far from arrogancy be it spoken!) is all the sin (human frailty excepted, and all the incidents thereunto) which is yet known to me in this particular, for which I now come to suffer; I say, in this particular of treason. But otherwise my sins are many and great. Lord, pardon them all; and those especially (whatever they are) which have drawn down this present judgment upon me! And when Thou hast given me strength to bear it, do with me as seems best in Thine own eyes, and carry me through death, that I may look upon it in what visage so-ever it shall appear to me. Amen! And that there may be a stop of this issue of blood in this more than miserable kingdom (I shall desire that I may pray for the people too, as well as myself), O Lord, I beseech Thee, give grace of repentance to all blood-thirsty people. But if they will not repent, O Lord, confound all their devices, defeat and frustrate all their designs and endeavours, upon them which are or shall be contrary to the Glory of Thy great Name, the truth and sincerity of religion &hellip; the preservation of this poor Church in her truth, peace and patrimony, and the settlement of this distracted and distressed people, under their ancient laws, and in their native liberty."

This was a part of the prayer of the Primate now about to die. It rings with sincerity, and no man at the hour of death can trifle, can put on a mask of sanctity. It is rather the opposite to this. Great sanctity, true faith, come out of the man at that trying moment. The last words Laud uttered, just before the axe fell, were the words of a greater martyr