Comprehensive, tho' Compendious CHARACTER of the Late Royal Martyr King CHARLES I. of ever-blessed Memory.  DELINEATED by One of the most EMINENT DIVINES OF THE CHURCH of ENGLAND. 

 depiction of Charles I with others 
— lues talia fando  
Temperet a lacrymis?—  VIRG.  
HE was a David, a Saint, a King, but never a Shepherd. Some of all the Royal Blood in Christendom ran in his Veins; that is to say, many Kings went into the Composition of this One Potentate: His Education and Improvements were commensurate to his Extraction: He was accurate in all the recommending Excellencies of human Accomplishments; able to deserve, had he not inherited a Kingdom: Of so controlling a Genius, that in every Science he attempted, he did not so much study as reign, and appeared not only a Proficient, but a Prince.  
HIS own Performances make good this Assertion, and speak him as much an Orator, as a Monarch. These are composed with such an uninterrupted, and unfailing Accuracy; such a commanding, majestic pathoes; as if they had been written, not with a Pen, but with a sceptre. As it is hard to counterfeit the Spirit of Majesty, and the inimitable Peculiarities of an incommunicable Genius and Condition; so are some of his Works ridiculously imputed to others; they did not writ them, because they could not.  
AT the Council-Board, he had the Ability still to give himself the best Counsel, but the unhappy Modesty to diffide in it: Indeed, his only Fault; for Modesty is a Paradox in Majesty, and Humility a Solecism in Supremacy.  
LOOK we next upon his Piety and unparallelled Virtues; tho', without an Absurdity, it may be affirmed, that his very Endowments of Nature were supernatural: So pious was he, that had Others measured their Obedience to Him, by his Obedience to God, he had been the most absolute Monarch in the World: As eminent for frequenting the Temple, as Solomon for building One: So firm to the Protestant Cause, that tho' he conversed in the Midst of Temptation, in the very Bosom of Spain; and tho' France lay in His; yet could nothing shake him, but that he espoused the Cause of Religion, even more than his beloved Queen.  
HE fitted every Way the Title under which he was prayed for. He could defend his Religion as a King; dispute for it as a Divine; and die for it as a Martyr.  
THIS eminent Piety of his was adorned with the whole Train of moral Virtues. His Temperance was so great and impregnable, amid all these Allurements, with which the Courts of Kings are apt to melt, even the most stoical and resolved Minds, that he did, at the same Time, both teach and upbraid the Court; so that it was not so much their own 'vice, as his Example, that rendered their Debauchery inexcusable. Look over the whole List of our Kings, and take in the Kings of Israel to boot, and Who ever kept the Bond of Conjugal Affection so inviolate? David was chiefly eminent for repenting in this Matter; Charles for needing no Repentance: None ever appeared of greater Fortitude of Mind, which was more resplendent in the Conquest of himself, and in those miraculous Instances of passive Valour, than if he had strewed the Field with all the Rebels Armies; and to the Justness of his own Cause, had joined the Success of theirs; and yet withal so meek, so gentle, so merciful, and that even to a Cruelty to himself, that, if ever the Lion and the Lamb dwelled together, if ever Courage and Meekness were united, it was in the Breast of this Royal Person.   

HIS EPITAPH  By the Celebrated Mr. BUTLER. 

STAY, Passenger, stay here, and see  
entombed lies injured Majesty.  
Why tremblest not?— Here's That would make  
All but a hardened Rebel quake.  
A King!— O! starts thou not with Fear?  
A murdered King lies buried here!  
Search all the Records of old Times,  
And muster up all Ages Crimes,  
And roll 'em up in one great Mass,  
'twill fall far short of what This was:  
A Monarch sentenced to his Death,  
By vulgar, base, Plebeian Breath:  
A Law-giver, by Laws unknown,  
condemned to lose his Head and Throne;  
Nay, and to make the Odium more,  
This must be done at his own Door;  
And all under the false Pretence  
Of Liberty of Conscience.   
N. B. His Majesty King Charles I. was Born in the Year of our Lord 1600, crowned in 1625, and martyred on the 30th. of January, 1649.