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Show fJil emDrials of mens Doings , fo, as you would have your own to be judged. And, to that l'urpofe, I humbly beieech God to c1eer the eye of your mind , that you may fee the Truth, and r..very one for hi 5 parr do that which Equity 1·equires ; efpec1ally, that you may find out the way of Peace, which at this time is molt neceffary. BJ this Narration, the charttab!e Reader cannot hut be well ptr[waded of our .Author·s Innocency and Pati1nce ~f'ertues happily conjoyned in him , and appearing alfo in that Epijlle whtch he fent out •f pri[on to hu great friend Du Maurier the French £mbaj[ador, M.followeth: * Piugo Gr~tius * To the moH ChriA:ian Kmg, to his Jt~. Auh.JMat~- rnofl: wife Council , and namely to you I t'trJB, 1 f· Jan. k l d r If · d b d h 1u 1• ex car- ac now e ge my 1e more tn e te t an ecrt tupiPeni. can be expreH, forthe labours undertaken to eafe my calamities, into which I am fallen by the fate of our Commonwealth. And , although as yet the matter is come to no dfetl:, ·cis no frnall refrelhment to me to fee fo good and fo great Men compaffionating our fufferings. The dec_reed Embaffy into France yie\deth now iome better Hope : but , .that again is abated by confidering how ill-affeeted they, who are fent thither: are to us; and how eafy it is, with all for'ts of calumny, co traduce thofe, who have their voice Hope by the walls of a priion , for this reafon chiefly, that the world rna y not hear, what i r con· cerns them to be concealed. Havinz thus long the ..Author. long examined my Ca ul ~ in the Auditory of my ow,n Conlctence (more facred to me than all Tnbun:: ls1 in ,ne inmoH re~effes of my own Soul I ~nd onely th1s, that ~~ conltanc purpoie ~as (libe: ty of opmtons m thtPgs dilputabJe'bemg preferved) t.o retain the Unity of the Church; a thmg wanting neither o1d nor new examples. I never meant to innovate any thino in the Commonwealt~ : ~t wa~ my 0 hearty endeavour, to rnamtam theu Right, to whom Nature hath made me a Subje&, and' my, office a Servant , and to whom I was f worn : that Power rernainino in the hand of the Confederates, and of the Prince, which hitherto they hadenjoy"d being conferr·d on them by pub1ick fuf: frages. They that know the matter, ea?ly underHa~d this to be our onely cr1me~tha t we dtd not a& in the Commonwealth according to thofe Laws which they were about to confiituto for their own Interelt. If, upon that account we are depriv'd of our Goods, Honour/ Fame, this a1io is n~t wi~hout example: ~ut the worlt of all ts , tnat , both the l~firmity of my body is denied the free atr , and the fadnefs of my · tnind the comfort of my friends. Yet, by Gcds affiltance, I will endure this, and whatfoever can be imagined more cruel , ra- . ther r?an as~ pardon -of thofe things wheremmy·mmd acknowledges no fault. If |