Being for this end met together in a large room prepared for them, they began the duty; and first, Mr. Peters acquainted them with the occasion of the meeting, recommending all to the direction and a.s.sistance of the Lord. He spoke to them upon the Psalm pertinent to the occasion, and to the mention of the voyage, hardships, dangers, and difficulties, wherein G.o.d had delivered them; and what sense these things ought to work upon their hearts, and what thankfulness they ought to return to G.o.d for his mercies.

After a psalm sung, Mr. Ingelo, one of Whitelocke's chaplains, prayed with them, and then amplified the favours and deliverances which G.o.d had wrought for them, the great difficulties and dangers wherein He had preserved them, and their unworthiness of any mercy; he exhorted them to all grat.i.tude to the Author of their mercies: in all which he expressed himself with much piety, ingenuity, and with great affection. Mr. George Downing, who had been a chaplain to a regiment in the army, expounded a place of Scripture very suitable to the occasion, and very ingeniously and pertinently. After him, Mr. Stapleton prayed very well, and spake pertinently and feelingly to the rest of the company, his fellow-travellers. Then they sang another psalm; and after that, Mr.

c.o.kaine spake very well and piously, and gave good exhortations on the same subject.

[SN: Whitelocke's address to his company.]

When all these gentlemen had ended their discourses proper for the occasion, Whitelocke himself spake to the company to this effect:--

"Gentlemen,

"You have heard from our worthy Christian friends many words of precious truth, with which I hope all our souls are refreshed, and do pray that our practice may be conformed. The duty of this day, and of every person, is _gratiarum actio_: I wish we may all act thankfulness to our G.o.d, whereunto we are all obliged who have received so great benefits from Him. In a more peculiar manner than others I hold myself obliged to render thanks--

"1. To our G.o.d, who hath preserved us all, and brought us in safety and comfort to our dear country and relations.

"2. To our Christian friends, from whom we have received such powerful instructions this day, and prayers all the days of our absence.

"3. To you, Gentlemen, who have shown so much affection and respect in bearing me company in a journey so full of hardships and dangers.

"I am of the opinion of the Roman soldier who told Caesar, 'I have in my own person fought for thee, and therefore that the Emperor ought in his own person to plead for the soldier' (which he did); and have in your own persons endured all the hardships, difficulties, and dangers with me: and were I as able as Caesar, I hold myself as much obliged in my own person to serve you, and, to the utmost of my capacity, shall do all good offices for any of you, who have, with so much affection, respect, and hazard, adventured your persons with me.

"I am obliged, and do return my hearty thanks, to our worthy friends who have so excellently performed the work of the day, and shall pray that it may be powerful upon every one of our hearts, to build us up in the knowledge of this duty; and I should be glad to promise, in the name of all my company, that we shall give a ready and constant observance of those pious instructions we have received from you.

"Some here have been actors with us in our story; have gone down to the sea in ships and done business in great waters; have seen the works of G.o.d and His wonders in the deep; His commanding and raising the stormy wind, lifting up the waves thereof, which mount up to the heavens and go down again to the deep, whose souls have melted because of trouble, and have been at their wits' end: then have cried unto the Lord in their distress, and He hath brought them out of trouble. We have seen Him make the storm a calm, and the waves thereof still: then were we glad, and He brought us to our desired harbour. Oh that we would praise the Lord for His goodness, for His wonderful works! Let us exalt Him in the congregation of the people, and praise Him in the a.s.sembly of the elders.

"These my companions, who have been actors, and others, I hope will give me leave to make them auditors of some special providences of the Lord, wherein we may all reap benefit from the relation. The Apostle saith, 2 Pet. i., 'Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them, and be established in the present truth.' To all I may say, with the wise man (Prov. viii.), 'Hear! for I will speak of excellent things,' free mercies, great deliverances, wonderful preservations: excellent things to those who were sharers of them in action, and for the contemplation of those who are hearers of them; therefore I may shortly recite some of the most eminent of them.

"In the first day of our voyage with a fair wind, at night it changed, and we were stopped till comfortable letters came to me, which otherwise could not have come, and were no sooner answered but the wind came fair again. When we toiled in the open sea with cross winds and tempests, driven near to our own coast back again, G.o.d sent us then fair weather and a good gale for our voyage. How was He pleased to bring us so very near great danger on the Riff, and then bring us safe off from it and hold on our course again!

"When we were in no small danger in the tempestuous seas on the back of the Skaw, when the anchors dragged a league in one night with the storm, and every moment _we_ expected to be devoured by the raging waves, there the Lord was also our deliverer; as He also was upon the rocky coast of Norway and in the difficult pa.s.sage to the harbour of Gothenburg. Throughout our voyage the providence of G.o.d watched over us and protected us. Thus did He in our land journey, where the extreme hardships we were put unto are sufficiently known to all of us, and will to our life's end be felt by some of us.

"My particular preservation was wonderful from an intended a.s.sa.s.sination by one who thrust himself into my company to have the better opportunity to execute it; but, overcome with kindness, his heart relented, and he forsook his purpose and my company.

"If the snow had fallen (as in other years) in the time of our travel, we could not have pa.s.sed our journey; but He who rules the heavens and the earth restrained it till we came within half a day of our journey's end, and in safety He conducted us to Upsal. The same Providence kept us there, and when some of our company were sick and hurt, restored health again.

"It was marvellous and unexpected, that in a foreign country, at such a distance from friends and acquaintance, G.o.d should raise us up friends out of strangers, namely the Queen, foreign ministers, and great officers, in whose sight we found wonderful favour, to our preservation under G.o.d and a great means of effecting what we came about, maugre the labours and designs of our enemies against it, and their plots and attempts for our destruction, had not our Rock of Defence secured us.

"I should detain you very long, though I hope it would not be thought too long, to recite all our remarkable mercies; and it is an excellent thing that they are so numerous. We are now coming homewards. How did our G.o.d preserve us over the Baltic Sea from innumerable dangers of the rocks, sands, coasts, islands, fierce lightnings, storms, and those high-swelling waters! Such was our preservation in the Elbe, when our countrymen leaped into the water to bring us off from danger, and when the tempests hurried us up and down, by Heligoland, then towards Holland, then to the northward, then to the southward, in the open breaking rough seas, when we had lost our course and knew not where we were.

"Above all other was that most eminent deliverance near our own coast, when our ship was stuck upon the sand twelve leagues from any sh.o.r.e, when no help nor human means were left to save us, when pale death faced us so long together, when no hopes remained to escape his fury or the rages of the waves, which we expected every instant to swallow us; even then, to show where our dependence ought to be, our G.o.d would make it His own work to deliver us. He it was that raised the wind, and brought it from the higher part of the bank, to shake our fastened ship, and crumble the loose sands; and no sooner had we taken a resolution of praying and resigning our souls to G.o.d, but He gave us our lives again, moving our ship by His powerful arm, making it to float again, none knowing how or by what means, but by the free act of His mercy, and not a return of ours, but of the prayers of some here present, and divers others our Christian friends, who at that very time were met together to seek the Lord for us and for our safe return.

"Methinks the hearts of us who were partakers of these mercies should rejoice in the repet.i.tion of them, and those that hear them cannot but say they hear excellent things; and certainly never had any men more cause than we have of returning humble and hearty thanks to G.o.d who hath thus saved us.

"And having received these mercies, and been delivered out of these distresses, I may say to you, as Jacob said to his household (Gen.

x.x.xv.), 'Let us arise and go to Bethel;' let us serve G.o.d and praise His name who answered us in the day of our distress, and was with us in the way which we went. Let us also keep Jacob's vow: 'The Lord hath been with us and kept us in our way, and brought us again to our fathers' house in peace; let the Lord be our G.o.d.' Let not any of our former vanities or l.u.s.ts, or love of the world, be any more our G.o.d, but let the Lord be our G.o.d; let our thanksgiving appear in owning the Lord for our G.o.d, and in walking answerable to our mercies; let our prayers be according to the counsel of the Apostle (Eph. v.), 'See then that ye walk circ.u.mspectly, giving thanks always for all things.' How much more are we bound to do it from our special mercies!

"Gentlemen, give me leave to conclude with my particular thanks to you who accompanied me in my journey, and have manifested very much respect, care, diligence, courage, and discretion. You have, by your demeanour, done honour to our profession of religion, to our country, to yourselves, to your Amba.s.sador, who will be ready to testify the same on all occasions, and to do you all good offices; chiefly in bearing you company to return praises to our G.o.d, whose mercies endure for ever."

After these exercises performed, wherein Whitelocke was the more large in manifesting the abounding of his sense of the goodness of G.o.d towards him, and was willing also to recollect his thoughts for another occasion, the company retired themselves; and Whitelocke complimented his particular friends, giving them many thanks who had shown kindness to his wife and family, and had taken care of his affairs in his absence.

[SN: A banquet held in State, as in Sweden.]

He bid them all welcome, and desired them to accompany company him the next day to his audience before the Protector and Council. Then he led them into a great room, where the table was spread, and all things in the same state and manner as he used to have them in Sweden, that his friends might see the fashion of his being served when he was in that condition, and as his farewell to those pomps and vanities.

The trumpets sounding, meat was brought in, and the mistress of the house made it appear that England had as good and as much plenty of provisions as Sweden, Denmark, or Germany. His friends and company sat down to meat as they used to do in Sweden; the attendants, pages, lacqueys, and others, in their liveries, did their service as they were accustomed abroad. Their discourse was full of cheerfulness and recounting of G.o.d's goodness; and both the time of the meat and the afternoon was spent in rejoicing together for the present mercy, and for the whole series of G.o.d's goodness to them; and in the evening they parted, every one to his own quarters.

_July 6, 1654._

[SN: Whitelocke give an account of his Emba.s.sy to the Council.]

Whitelocke went in the morning early to Whitehall. At Secretary Thurloe's lodging he found most of his company, the gentlemen in their habits, the others in their liveries; and in a short time they were all come together, to attend their Amba.s.sador to his last audience, who was put to the patience of staying an hour and a half at Master Secretary's lodging before he was called in to his Highness; then, being sent for, he went, attended in the same manner as he used to go to his audiences in Sweden.

Being come to the outward room, he was presently brought into the Council-chamber, where the Protector sat in his great chair at the upper end of the table, covered, and his Council sat bare on each side of the table. After ceremonies performed by Whitelocke, and great respect shown him by the Protector and his Council, Whitelocke spake to this effect:--

"May it please your Highness,

"I attend, by your command, to give an account of the discharge of that great trust and weighty burden which, through the a.s.sistance of G.o.d, I have undergone in my employment to Sweden, and with the success of that negotiation, wherein I shall not waste much of your time, for which you have other great affairs; but, in as few words as I can, I shall with clearness and truth acquaint your Highness and your Honourable Council with those matters which I apprehend most fit and worthy of your knowledge.

"After the receipt of my commission and instructions from the Parliament then sitting, to go Amba.s.sador to Sweden, I neglected no time, how unseasonable soever, to transport myself to that country.

Upon the 5th of November I embarked at the Hope, and after ten days'

voyage, through many storms, enemies, and dangers, it pleased G.o.d on the 15th of November to bring me in safety, with all my company, into the port of Gothenburg. The next day I despatched two of my servants to the Court with letters to Prince Adolphus, the Grand Master, and to the Ricks-Chancellor of Sweden, to advertise them of my arrival, and to desire their advice whither to direct my journey to attend the Queen.

"In this city I received many civilities and testimonies of respect to your Highness and this Commonwealth from the magistrates, officers, and others there; and a small contest I had with a Dutchman, a Vice-Admiral of her Majesty's, about our war with his countrymen, and about some prizes brought in by me, wherein I took the liberty to justify the proceedings of this State, and ordered, upon submission, the release of a small Dutch prize taken by me.

"Having refreshed myself and company some days, I began my land journey the last day of November. The military officers accompanied me out of town; the citizens and garrison-soldiers stood to their arms, and with many volleys of great and small shot (the bullets pa.s.sing somewhat too near for compliments) they gave me an honourable farewell.

"In our journey we met with extreme hardships, both in the weather and in want of necessary accommodations. The greater towns where we quartered showed much respect to your Highness and this Commonwealth; only in one town a little affront was given in words by a praetor, who acknowledged his fault, and it appeared to proceed more from drink than judgement. In all places the officers took great care, with what the country would afford, to furnish what I wanted; the ways were prepared, waggons and horses brought in, and all things requisite were done by the country, upon command of her Majesty.

"After twenty-one days in our land-journey, near four hundred miles from Gothenburg up into the country, in that climate in December, it pleased G.o.d through all our difficulties to bring us safe to Upsal the 20th of December. About half a league from the town, the Master of the Ceremonies, and after him two Senators with two coaches of the Queen's, and those of the Spanish Resident and of divers grandees, met me, and with more than ordinary ceremony conducted me to a house in the town, by the Queen's order taken up and furnished for me. Divers compliments pa.s.sed from the Queen herself and many of her Court, expressing much respect to your Highness and this Commonwealth, in the person of your servant.

"By favour I obtained my first audience from the Queen the 23rd of December, the particular pa.s.sages whereof (as of most other matters which I have to mention) were in my letters imparted, as they arose, to Mr. Secretary Thurloe, and by him, I presume, to your Highness and the Council. Two or three days after this I procured a private audience from her Majesty, when I showed her my commission, and took time to wait on her with my proposals.

"The Spanish Resident, Don Piementelle, now in this Court, expressed high respects for your Highness and this Commonwealth, and particular affection to me; and I, knowing his great favour with the Queen and his own worth, contracted an intimacy of friendship with him, as I had also with M. Woolfeldt, the King of Denmark's brother-in-law, with Field-Marshal Wrangel, Grave Tott, the Queen's favourite, and with divers senators and great men, but especially with the old Chancellor.

"I found very useful for your Highness's service there Mr.

Lagerfeldt, Secretary Canterstein, Mr. Ravius, and others; and I had good a.s.sistance from my countrymen, General-Major Fleetwood, a true friend to England, my Lord Douglas, Colonel Hamilton, and others.

"And having now given your Highness some account of persons, I come to the matter of my negotiation, which I laid the best I could.

"By advice I made my applications to the Queen herself, and, as much as I could, put the business upon her personal determination, which she liked, and it proved advantageous. I presented to her at once all my articles, except three reserved. The articles proposed a league offensive and defensive; whereupon she objected the unsettledness of our Commonwealth, the present peace of her kingdoms, and our being involved in a war. To which I answered, that her kingdoms could not long continue in peace, and would have as much need of our a.s.sistance as we of theirs; and our war and successes against Holland were arguments that our friendship merited acceptance; that I hoped our Commonwealth was settled, and that leagues were between nations, not governments.

"This debate was very large with her Majesty, who seemed satisfied with my answers, and appointed her Chancellor to treat with me; who much more insisted upon the unsettledness of our Commonwealth and upon the same objections which the Queen had made, and received from me the same answers; which proved the more satisfactory after the news of your Highness's accession to the Government, which made this treaty proceed more freely.

"I had often and long disputes with the Chancellor upon the article touching English rebels being harboured in Sweden; most of all, touching contraband goods, and about reparation of the losses of the Swedes by prizes taken from them in our Dutch war by us, besides many other objections, whereof I have given a former account by letters. The Chancellor being sick, his son Grave Eric was commissioned to treat with me in his father's stead, and was much more averse to my business, and more earnest upon the objections, than the old man, whom, being recovered, I found more moderate, yet we could not agree one way or other. And when I pressed for a conclusion, both the Queen and her Chancellor did ingenuously acknowledge, that they desired first to see whether the peace would be made between us and Holland, before they came to a determination upon my treaty; wherein I could not but apprehend reason: and when the news came that the peace between your Highness and the Dutch was concluded, I urged a conclusion of my treaty; and what the Chancellor and I differed in, the Queen was pleased to reconcile, and so we came to the full agreement contained in this instrument, signed and sealed by the Queen's Commissioners, which I humbly present to your Highness and this Honourable Board; and which I hope, through the goodness of G.o.d, may be of advantage to this Commonwealth, and to the Protestant interest."

Here Whitelocke, making a little pause, delivered into the Protector's hand the instrument of his treaty, fairly written in Latin, in a book of vellum, with the hands and seals to it of the Ricks-Chancellor and his son Grave Eric, which being done, Whitelocke went on in his speech.

"I cannot but acknowledge the great goodness of G.o.d to me in this employment, in my preservation from attempts against my person, raising me up such eminent friends, giving me so much favour in the eyes of strangers, inclining the Queen's heart to an extraordinary affection and favour towards me, and giving this good success to my business, notwithstanding the designs and labours of many enemies to the contrary. The treaty with me being thus finished, the business came on of the Queen's resignation of the Crown, wherein she was pleased to express a great confidence in a stranger, by imparting it to me many weeks before, whereof I took the boldness to certify your Highness.

"The Prince who was to succeed the Queen was sent for to Upsal, and their Ricksdag, or Parliament, was to meet there in the beginning of May. Your Highness will not expect many arguments of your servant's longing desires of returning, when he had advice that your frigates sent for him were in the Elbe; yet, judging it might conduce to your service to salute the Prince, I staid till his entry (which was in great state) into Upsal, where I saluted him from your Highness, and acquainted him with my negotiation, which he well approved; and, to testify his great respect to your Highness and this Commonwealth, he came in person to visit me at my house, and used me with so much extraordinary favour and ceremony, that never the like had been done before to any amba.s.sador. We had several conferences at large, much discourse of your Highness and of this Commonwealth, with the particulars whereof I shall acquaint you at your better leisure.