VPon Aprill 19. 1662. being the day appointed for the Execution of John Barkstead, John Okey, and Miles Corbet, who were drawn on three seve­ral Hurdles from the Tower to Tyburn, Barkstead was first brought to the the place of Execution, then Okey, and then Miles Corbet, who mounted a Cart which was [Page 2] prepared for them to stand in whilest they spake to the people.

The first that ascended the Cart was Barkstead, as soon as he was in he lifted up his eies to Heaven, and said, Blessed be God (the Executioner having put the Rope about his neck, and fastned it to the Gallowes) he then sate down upon the side of the Cart: After a little space, the Sheriff said, Colonel Barkstead, I am com­manded not to suffer you to speak any thing in justifi­cation of that horrid Act for which you come here to suffer.

Barkstead. I cannot speak much, by reason of the weak­ness of my body; I desire to get as much refreshment as I can before I speak.

Some while after my Lord of Newport looking upon the Prisoner, and smiling at him, said, F [...]r wel Colonel Barkstead, farewel.

B. You are a Gentleman I am sure, I bless God I can say Death is not terrible to me, and that is onely through Je­sus Christ.

Executioner. You may go on with your prayers.

B I desire to see my Brethren.

Sher. Sir, are you sorry for the Fact for which you are brought here to suffer?

B. J shall be sorry for every thing that is a sin, when the Lord sets home that to me, J shall be sorry before God and men; this must be from God alone. Then he drank a little Cordial, and said, J bless God J have a better Comforter than this.

Then a gentleman said, Sir, you had me once a pri­soner.

B. Then I hope I used you civilly, if I have not, I beg forgiveness, as freely as I forgive all men: I bless God I have an assurance through Jesus Christ to be happy. One standing by said, I Sir, that may be within half an hour.

Barkstead being asked by a person of quality, whether he were not troubled, answered,

B. Sir, I bless God I have no more trouble at this minute upon my spirit, then I had upon my wedding­day.

The other two Prisoners being taken out of the Sledges, and brought into the Cart, Okey presently embraced Barkstead, and kissed h [...]m, and being about to speake, one of the Sheriffs said to him, Sir, I must not permit you to speake any thing in justification of that horrid Act for which you are brought here to suf­fer.

Okey. Sir, I must not lye for God, much less for you: J hope you will give me leave to speake what lies upon my Conscience, if asked whether guilty or not guilty.

Sher. Are you sorry?

Okey. J hope J may speak what lyes upon my Consci­ence.

Soon after Colonel Okey standing up in the Cart, Shewing a great deal of modesty and resolution in his department. and looking upon the people, spake as followeth.

Okey. Mr. Sheriffs and Gentlemen, the Providence of God hath brought me hither to suffer; J shall not trou­ble you with that which J look upon me as superfluous, which is to tell you my Family, which of all the Fa­milies [Page 4] in Israel is one of the least, and I the least of that Family: It is not unknown to many here, who hear me this day, how I was called forth to serve God and my Countrey, upon the service of the King and Parliament: I served them faithfully to the best of my knowledge: I bless God, when I was called to the work, I was perswaded it was for the glory of God, and good of his people; and had I had as many lives as hairs on my head, I would have adventured them in that Cause. I have nothing upon me as to that; I am satisfied as to the Cause: As the Parents of him that was born blind, being asked how he came to his sight, said, He is of age, let him speak for himself; so say I.

That which I have been adjudged for, is the death of the late King; I think most of you know I was none of the Councel that contrived it; neither did I know any thing till I saw my Name inserted in a Paper: I sate but once or twice; but for malice or envy I never had any, but prayed for him to the last hour: What aims others had, time did discover; I have nothing upon my Spirit for that: I have many hundred times, not onely since I went out of England (which is about two years) but many times be­before begged, that if I had any mali [...]e or hatred in my heart, that God would make me sensible of it, and I would confess it to God, and before you all. What other men aimed at, I can say nothing to that; there were some, as it did appear, had self-ends; I never got any thing by i, I was advanced to the Dignity of a Colonel before that: I thank the Lord I have no trouble upon me for that.

A great disturbance being amongst the People he cea­sed speaking for a while, then the Sherriffs said to him, Sir you may go on.

IT is not the meaning of this Postill, or observations of these persons Speeches, to make dirt of their dust, by aspersing them or laying to their charge any more, then what their own Confession hath impli­citely declared: but to solve those riddles and ambiguity of Expres­sion, which is used throughout these dying and their funeral Orations.

Whether it be the fate of these men, as it was of those of Babel, to be confounded in their language as they here ta their Death, which will be evident by the ensuing Notes; or to be divided in their minds, as before the King's most miraculous Restitution was most apparent; or, to be joyned together in their end persisting in the same hardnesse of heart and strange scelerate combina­tion of not expressely acknowledging their guilt con­cerning the King; let the Reader judge by what hath already passed in their History of Life and Death, and what is added thereunto in the death of these men.

For just as the war began with a riddle so in these Boū ­tefe us, and great abbettors of it doth it expire. Nay, the [Page 2] very doubtful Oracle of the Times for King and Parli­ment, is here brought into credit again; and according to that equivocation the whole drift of their Speeches is guided; that Satan may shew and assert the Scripture to his advandage, that Rebellion is worse than witchcraft.

Not any person of those Regicides hath yet come to the point, when the whole world hath proclaimed it the greatest villany in the world nay, when themselves, espe­cially these, had here by circumlocution and about-ways said as much, (witness that of Corbats— It is the Honour of Protestants to be obedient to the known Laws) as amounts to it. But either through the extreme wickedness and impiet [...] of the fact, of which for their pre [...]en [...]ed S [...] ­ctit [...] they must not acknowl [...]ge themselves as [...]f them­selves guilty, (as Hypocrime is one of the Devil's lon­gest possessions) or else, out of infatuation and just judge­ment of God upon them, that as they have so desperately and wilfully sinned, they should as foolishly persist in it, it so happens that none have given that Glory to God and justice to the world, as to acknowledge any thing in that heinous matter save their pretended ignorance, and that too, by way of excuse to men, who are subject to frailty, and therefore with whom it may pass for a plea, but not to the avenger of blood, whom they have thought to illude with the same defence.

If this appears not to all men from the precedent, and this late Execution of the same Complices in that Guilt, more particularly in this last, the Animadvertor thinks, that the crime hath a Curse upon it like that of Cains, to wander still in uncertainty, to be a reprobate flagitious­ness which yet none must or can wound or strike, though still it be as odious as ever.

For herein, in these Speeches, as first of Colonel Okey, we shall find words able to Condemn a Parliament par­taker, but for the very first years guilt of the War, they are these, I leave this to all my Brethren that they would wait in their places, and see the Salvation of God rather than deliver themselves by any indirect means. — [Page 3] If his Majesty had given me my life, or had I come in with the rest of the members, I would have lived quietly, and rather suffered any thing, then done any thing against the known LAW, — I would have rather have suffered then taken any indirect ways. Will not the world wonder to hear such words? If these Speeches should be Printed in For­raign Countries, they would never be able to distinguish or understand the meaning.

The known Law of England is not like their Good Old Cause that varied every day, and was tuned by I know not what instruments: Every man knew his Duty and Station by that, and nothing but Poverty and Pride instructed men to forsake them. Out of his own mouth, this is enough, where the Law is quoted to as much benefit to him and his Party, as the Devil once did the Scripture.

That they agree in this mistaken (though well applyed) point, (I will not here cite all Colonel Okey's passages to this matter, but reserve them till anon) See Master Cor­bet, — Many Sects and Heresies have risen in our days, and God hath appeared against them. — I desire his Majesty that now rules as he rules from God, so he may rule for God. — When the business [the King's Murder] was mentioned, I spake against it. What Contradictions are here? He appears to be and approves himself of the Congregational way, that allows those Sects, and prospered by them, and thinks so to rise again. He acknowledgeth the King ruleth from God, not from the people, yet grieveth not that he murdered his most God-like Father. He confes­seth a scruple, nay his aversness, at the first mentioning of this murther in the House or Juncto of Commons, yet is not sorry at all after the bloody perpetration. See Colonel Berkstead. — As to the Cause God hath owned it — As to the Government as now it is, I have and shall as long as I have breath pray for it. — I was no Contriver in the murder of the King. Seriously such absurdities as these are would become no crime but this, for should an ordinary male­factour have said so, they would have judged him fit onely for Bedlam. First the Good Cause is justified, that's the [Page 4] Major, God hath owned it, as it was the Canting term in all their successes, and which Needham the great Friend of this Person hath used in every Pamphlet. That's not yet done with, they will adhere to that still, there's no pitty to be had from any, but such as were Complices in that. Next, as to the Government he hath, and shall as long as he lives pray for it. The time is not set when he begun, it is determined when it shall end: And now he will pray as long as he lives; But why not this before, or else why now? This Government was the same which he endea­voured to extirpate, and our late blessed Soveraign's ver­tues and goodness as great (pardon this just Comparison) as any Prince's living. What new incongruous strange kindness and affection is this of a sudden? Reader be not partial, These words are his own, not foysted in, or dis­joynted from the entire sense preceeding, as upon the review you will find.

And then for a Corollary or Conclusion, He was no con­triver of the King's Death. This is a tacite confession of his guilt, because he would so ward the imputation of it; he seems to disallow it, in saying he Contrived it not, he appears to have liked it in that he sealed it. 'Tis the same thing when a piece of work passeth through many hands, and is finished by another, for that man to say he medled not with it: yet certainly Col. Berkstead, a man of that Toust, as he saith here of himself, could not but know what was a doing from the time of that Contrivance, as he terms it; if he consented not to the first beginnings: which may well be presumed from those endearments and neerness of Cromwell, and he afterwards: which may mind the Reader of a passage betwixt them; One Time some Gentlemen coming about business to this Colonel, then Lieutenant of the Tower, and having stayed in Ex­pectation of an Answer, which they were Promised: He at last came out in hast and told them, that now he could not tarry by any means for that the Protectour had sent for him, with this word, that he would not stir one foot from the place where he stood till he came to him. Besides may other [Page 5] mutual kindnesses betwixt them, of which there may be occasion to speak hereafter.

It is time now to consider these persons and their Spee­ches more particularly; wherein not to follow the order of their Sledges or their precedency in their way thither, and because Col. Okey both for the priority and length of of his Speech which comprehends most of what the other said doth require it, we will consider him first, with this protestation, that the Animadverter (with many more se­rious persons) is sorry the Col. hath given this only occa­sion to rake in his ashes, for that he will not deny him his p [...]rsonal worth, which [...]deed for true valour was very eminent. But all those Jewells are buryed in a Dunghill, where a Hens foot not this Pen must scrape for them.

It is observable in him, that he came nearer the purpose then any of the rest, did confess, from whence the design­ing of the Subversion of the Goverment came, and what was the original of the Kings death, viz. some mens Aims to make themselves great; but whether this was not from some grudge to them, being the same with Harrison's de­fence, that he had snared nothing by the Revolution, is thought no great a question. For consider him from the rise of the War, of so mean and despicable a Fortune, and so unfit to reform any thing but his own condition by his Sword, and no way remarkable for any Zeal, save that of mony, but for that, that he was bred 16. years in the Discipline of our purer times, when such Expressions and Countenances of Religion and Piety, were as neces­sary as a Colonels Pay: he had never been so throughly versed in the Concerns of gainful Godlinesse. And it will and must seem a Paradox to all knowing-men, for per­sons to become truly devout in an Army, which certain­ly, for Perjuries, Sacriledge, Disloyalty, and Hypocri­sies, was the most notorious in all ages.

This is mentioned the rather, because he so vehemently declaims against the vices of these times, and presseth the practice of, and living up of the Gospel; and very nota­ble is that place therein, which he hath cited for his [Page 6] justification of his rebelling against the King. His words with those are these, — I am justified to the Cause, as the Parents of him that was born blind, being asked how his sight came, said, he is of age, let him speak for himself; so say I. For here's another miracle, his eyes are now ope­ned too, he begins to see neer at hand, he sees Trees and Men, but so blind was he before, that he could see nothing. He now sees the King is to be prayed for, and he confes­seth he hath done it a good while, but he could not see afar off to prevent (I will not say) everlasting Darknesse, by a dutiful submission to his late Majesty.

'Tis to be confessed and deplored that the Sins of the Times are great, and so much the worse, that they are justly censured and taxed by such men as these, whom the reprehended condemn as the most perdite sort of people in the world. Yet notwithstanding twas a very remarkable & something revengeful kind of censure in that time & assembly; and the after words, that England with such sins could not stand 3 years, was a kind of an Angry Prophetical menace, and did seem to interpret that he would have it so; but for his 3 Years prophecy of Desolation, we may reckon them with the 3 days of Harrison's Resurrection, and our late posterity may read them 300. years hence, with old mother Shipton and Father Merlin.

He seems indeed very ingenuous in one place, and as clear, where he saith these words, You see we have had many troubles, &c. and there was a vacancy to a single Person a great while, and then the Nation earnestly desired Him who now reigneth, and I wish he may reign gloriously for ever. Again he saith, I am afraid the bloud that hath been shed hath not those Returns for which the War was begun; and in ano­ther place adviseth all men to be obedient and submit to the King; and lastly prayes God to scatter them that delight in War; In which good words and prayer we also will con­clude with him, as more desirous and concerned in that Harmony of Peace, leaving the discord of his other words, which are quite contrary to these, (as Saul was mad when the Musick ceased) to such, who like Qua­kers [Page 7] delight in, and can rellish nothing but absurdities.

Next let us glean after Miles Corbet; one that also pre­tends no malice, and a sort of ignorance to the Kings Death, and yet saith be had been a Parliament man in all the Parliaments of the late King: where by reason thereof; he must have often took the Oath of Alleigance; could not but be well versed in the dispute of the Prerogative, which he knew was asserted and maintained by the Laws; and likewise knew the Constitution of Parliaments, and what Power and Jurisdiction each Estate had, he acknow­ledgeth the mercy of his Majesties Restitution to his peo­ple, and that private Interests should give way to publick; yet he comes to the vomit again, owns a Juncto of the Commons for a lawfull Authority, saith he will not justifie the Kings death, and yet clans in a Salvo and Reservation to please his party — because he will not offend others. So that in effect he said nothing, and leaves a good inuen­do to the Faction, to think he would have spoke our, if he might have been permitted. But Consider a little further, for all his great shew of Piety and you shall find him ano­ther man. This is that Corbet which was Chearman to the Committee of Examinations, the great Pryer into the Lan­ses of the Government, and the Ruins of the Kingdom, besides, many hundred Families, without any more adoe then a close illegal order from that Committee were quite undone. Examination serving for Tryal, Sentence, and Execution, yet Mr. Corbet hath legally underwent them all, being tryed by a due course of Law, as he himself ac­knowledged. This is (if we said no more) he that mur­dered the best and most vertuous Prince in Europe, and who afterwards so tyrannously oppressed the people in Ire­land: who have spent so ma [...]y groans for themselves, that they cannot spare him an Oh hone: And that you may per­fectly know what sort of Christian he was, it is he whose most known name was Corbet the Jew.

This almost spent discourse will bestow its last effort upon languishing Baxter, a kind of Prodigy of Fortune, yet a great admirer of Providence, though he rever talkt [Page 8] lesse of it then here. His Bottel was his prompter, and he was wise to hear the others speak before him, for else he might have said nothing at all but that he was sick and could not; however it amounts to very little more, being a meer Crambe or repetition of what they spoke. He in­sisted mainly upon his Comfort, it is supposed he meant his Cordial, and the Spirit of Life, not of Grace, for that ne­ver appeared in any of his actions, they were so impious and unjust, especially to the bails for the Kings Friends. He used the same unmethodical way as Witches do when they pray backward, not to say to the same purpose, and his Language was as significant to charm his Congregational Brethren. This man hath such a load upon him for his base­ness, that it is in vain to charge him with any thing more, and therefore he ought not to be vouchsafed an Answer to this unquestionable and transcendent guilt against the King, whose blood he mingled with every penny and Pre­ferment he got.

In conclusion, it may be presumed they knew not what to say; as their Crime wanted precedent, so it wants a Plea or defence, and therefore they have recourse to any thing which stuft out with the old specious shews of Piety, they think still shall deceive the World.