A HAND-KIRCHIFE FOR LOYAL MOURNERS OR A Cordial for Drooping Spirits, Groaning for the bloody murder, and heavy loss of our GRACIOUS KING Martyred by his own traitorous and rebellious Subjects, for the truth of CHRIST, and the Liberties of his People. Being a LETTER to a FRIEND.  Lam. 1.12. 
It is nothing unto you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger?  Lam. 4.20. 
The Breath of our Nostrils, the Anointed of the LORD is fallen into their Pitts: of whom we said under his shadow we shall live.  
LONDON, Printed Anno Dom. 1649.   

A HANDKERCHIEF FOR LOYAL MOURNERS OR A cordial for drooping Spirits, Groaning for the bloody murder, and heavy loss of our GRACIOUS KING.  
THe great obligations that I bear unto you, for your many favours, and more especially for the refuge and comfort that I have received from you in the time of my persecution, will not suffer the sense that I have of the public calamities that are now upon us, in the loss of our gracious King, now sacrificed to destruction by the Tyranny of insolent and ungodly men, so wholly to take up all the room of my heart, but that the care of your safety and comfort, must be a partner with it, so far as to set me upon this endeavour to administer some Cordial unto you, to preserve you from fainting under the burden of those render thoughts that are in you toward his sacred Majesty. It is the condition that God hath allotted unto all Earthly things, that they are all bitter sweets, and have in them a mixture of joy and sorrow There is no delight so perfect in this world, but hath some affliction attending upon it. There is pure and sincere happiness in nothing but in God; that we they not be so taken with any earthly felicity as to give up our hearts unto it. Therefore every Rose that groweth in this garden hath its Thorn, every beauty its blemish, every Splendour its weight. That the one may be a remembrancer unto us, not to dote too much upon the other: That the full bend of our affections may still be reserved for God. If there were any thing found here of so entire and uniform a composure of felicity, that there were no other quarrel left for the mind of man to entertain against it, yet this is an inseparable abatement that sticks upon them all, that they are all frail and fading and must have an end; and nothing can make us truly happy, but that wherein happiness is lasting and perpetual and on the other side. There is nothing that befalleth us in this world, so purely grievous and calamitous, but there is some matter of comfort and consolation to be found in it, which grace can discover and make use of, though some times it is beyond the wisdom of nature.  
There is no Poison but hath something Medicinable in it, which the art of Piety may draw forth of it. I confess indeed that the present calamity we are under, the loss of his Sacred Majesty, is an evil of so sad a presence unto an honest and Christian heart, that if we look upon it, with a full view in all the consequences that are like to follow it will not be easily [for aught I know] to think upon any earthly calamity of more universal and perfect sorrow; and yet even in this. There are some corners of refuge for a Christian soul to hid itself in, that it may not be swallowed up with discontent; That so good a KING should die, it hath in it matter of eminent sorrow. But then that he died so good a KING That hath some recompense of comfort and solace. In the former, our loss calleth for our sighs, but in the latter his gain alloweth us some breathe of joy. That he should die under the name of a Tyrant, a Murderer, and a Traitor, is an object full of lamentation. But that he died indeed a Martyr; A Martyr both of the State and the Church, for the liberties of his Subjects, like a good KING; And in the defence of the true Religion, like a good and glorious Christian: This hath joy in it above that sorrow, whilst we see the ignominies of his death but shadows and falsehoods, But the Glories thereof as Substances and Truths, which will enrol him in the golden Catalougues both of faithful sufferers for his God, and saithful Patriots and Fathers of his Country. That he should be trampled on with so much insolence, as I think the like hath never been heard of in the World, (and I am sorry should have the first precedent in a Christian Church, and Nation) it is a matter of much sadness and grief, but that he should suffer so much insolence with such admirable courage and Christian patience, the like whereof I think hath scarce been read of in all the world, this presenteth him unto us as a Conqueror over his enemies and persecutors, and them as the slaves and captives of his Christian triumph, and affordeth us matter of joy and contentment. It is an heavy thing to think on, that he should suffer by his own judasses': But a joyful and glorious thing it is to think on, that he suffered so like his own jesus, so like him in the manner and circumstances of his sufferings being betrayed by, his own servants, arraigned before jews and Pilate, at the best, reviled, reproached, and they say spit upon by an unworthy varlet, scorned and contemned, & condemned unto death: so like him in the temper of his sufferings, with so much meekness and fortitude, undauntedness of spirit, and submission to the will of God: So like him in the cause of his sufferings (as fare as we may with all reverence to the infinite and incomparable sufferings of Christ: compare inferior things with those that are so fare above them) Christ suffered for the good of his of his people, so did he: Christ for the freedom of his people, so doth he for the freedom of his: indeed this difference there is which bars out infinitely any equality between the one and other: Christ he suffered for the whole world, he but for his three Kingdoms: Christ to free his people from an eternal captivity, and the tyranny of Satan: He to free his Kingdoms from a temporal captivity and the Tyranny of wicked men: so that though in these things he be fare below his master Christ jesus, yet so like him, that I think it will be very hard to finde a nearer parallel in any earthly story: and like him too in the person of the sufferer, Christ was a King and so was he, Christ the supreme and Charles his substitute; Christ a spiritual King, he a temporal, whose Kingdom was of this world, and therefore according to our Saviour's Rule, his servants should have fought, that he should not have been delivered to those jews.  
It is indeed a sad thing to consider, what a distressed Family and Kingdom he hath left behind him; But it is a joyful thing to think on, what a joyful and a glorious Kingdom he hath obtained, where every suffering of his hath as it were its peculiar crown: & his cruel death is succeeded with an eternal and immortal life: a Crown that fears no insolent deposers and a life that dreads no inhuman Traitors and murderers.  
To conclude as we find in him so much matter of joy to balance our sorrows, and such as doth add much honour to all those that have truly served so good, so gracious, and so pious a Lord and Master, so we have in him likewise great patterns of Patience and Christian resolution, that as he fainted not in his, so we may learn first of Christ, and then of him too, not to faint in our Trials, that as he went so patiently and meekly to the suffering of the loss of his Crowns and life, so we may prepare ourselves Patiently and meekly to suffer the loss of him, not murmuring against God, or charging him foolishly, but seeing and acknowledging God's hand even in this, that we may with the holy Psalmist hold our peaces and say nothing (nothing I mean in the way of murmuring and impatience) because it is his doing, but if we say any thing we may say with Eli; It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good, or with holy job; The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord, that however wicked men have taken upon them, without Commission to be the judges of his Substitute, yet we may not take upon us to judge God, or call him to an account for his actions, but rather reverence both his justice and mercy therein; his justice upon us for our sins, and his mercy unto his Anointed, in taking him away, from so wicked, cruel, bloody and insulting a Nation, humbling ourselves under his mighty hand, and waiting upon him in the ways of his judgements, and patiently expecting in this also the fulfilling of that gracious promise of his unto his people. That all things shall work together for good to those that love God. In which joyful promise, I hearty wish you and your worthy Husband, and your family a plentiful share, and in all that good which I hope the Lord will return yet upon the faithful, and loyal people of this land for the sufferings of his Anointed, whereby he is so much glorified. I shall end all with this Prayer unto God: that he will dispose us to submit as we ought unto this and all other afflictions he shall lay upon us, and give us grace to yield him the fruit of them: That he will be gracious to our young King, the afflicted Queen, and the Royal Family, and to the oppressed and distressed people of the Land. That he will forgive our Enemies, and soften their hearts, and multiply his blessings upon us and all our friends. So I rest,  
Your much obliged servant. january 31. 1648.   
FINIS.