Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	death_n	king_n	treason_n	2,352	5	9.2422	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63966	A new martyrology, or, The bloody assizes now exactly methodizing in one volume comprehending a compleat history of the lives, actions, trials, sufferings, dying speeches, letters, and prayers of all those eminent Protestants who fell in the west of England and elsewhere from the year 1678 ... : with an alphabetical table ... / written by Thomas Pitts.	Tutchin, John, 1661?-1707.	1693 (1693)	Wing T3380; ESTC R23782	258,533	487

could be in some years tho' the writer of them had intended it which did not appear But they being only the present crude and private thoughts of a man for the exercise of his own understanding in his studies and never shewed to any or applied to any particular case could not fall under the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. which takes cognizance of no such matter and could not by construction be brought under it such matters being thereby reserved to the Parliament as is declared in the Proviso which he desired might be read but was refused Several important points of Law did hereupon emerge upon which your Petitioner knowing his own weakness did desire that Council might be heard or they might be referr'd to be found specially But all was over rul'd by the violence of the Lord Chief Justice and your Petitioner so frequently interrupted that the whole method of his Defence was broken and he not suffer'd to say the tenth part of what he could have alledged in his defence So the Jury was hurried into a Verdict they did not understand Now for as much as no man that is oppressed in England can have relief unless it be from your Majesty your Petitioner humbly prays that the Premises considered your Majesty would be pleased to admit him into your presence and if he doth not shew that 't is for your Majesties Interest and Honour to preserve him from the said oppression he will not complain tho' he be left to be destroy'd An Abstract of the Paper delivered to the Sheriffs on the Scaffold on Tower-Hill December 7. 1683. by Algernoon Sidney Esquire before his Execution FIRST having excused his not speaking as well because it was an Age that made Truth pass for Treason for the proof of which he instances his Trial and Condemnation and that the Ears of some present were too tender to hear it as because of the Rigour of the Season and his infirmities c. then after a short reflection upon the little said against him by other Witnesses and the little value that was to be put on the Lord Howard's testimony whom he charges with an infamous life and many palpable perjuries and to have been byassed only by the promise of pardon c. and makes even tho' he had been liable to no exceptions to have been but a single Witness He proceeds to answer the charge against him from the writings found in his Closet by the Kings Officers which were pretended but not Lawfully evidenced to be his and pretends to prove that had they been his they contained no condemnable matter but principles more safe both to Princes and People too than the pretended high-flown plea for Absolute Monarchy composed by Filmer against which they seemed to be levelled and which he says all intelligent men thought were founded on wicked Principles and such as were destructive both to Magistrates and People too Which he attempts to make out after this manner First says he if Filmer might publish to the World That Men were born under a necessary indispensable subjection to an Absolute King who could be restrained by no Oath c. whether he came to it by Creation Inheritance c. nay o● even by Usurpation why might he not publish his opinion to the contrary without the breach of any known Law which opinion he professes consisted in the following particulars 1. That God had left Nations at the liberty of Modelling their own Governments 2. That Magistrates were instituted for Nations and not Econtra 3. That the Right and Power of Magistrates was fixed by the standing Laws of each Country 4. That those Laws sworn to on both sides were the matter of a contract between the Magistrate and People and could not be broken without the danger of dissolving the whole Government 5. The Vsurpation could give no Right and that Kings had no greater Enemies than those who asserted that or were for stretching their Power beyond its Limits 6. That such Vsurpations commonly effecting the slaughter of the Reigning Person c. the worst of crimes was thereby most gloriously rewarded 7. That such Doctrines are more proper to stir up men to destroy Princes than all the passions that ever yet swayed the worst of them and that no Prince could be safe if his Murderers may hope such rewards and that few men would be so gentle as to spare the best Kings if by their destruction a wild Vsurper could become Gods Anointed whi●● he says was the scope of that whole Treatise and asserts to be the Doctrine of the best Authors of all Nations Times and Religions and of the Scripture and so owned by the best and wisest Princes and particularly by Lewis 14 th of France in his Declaration against Spain Anno 1667. and by King James of England in his Speech to the Parliament 1603. and adds that if the writer had been mistaken he should have been fairly refuted but that no man was ever otherwise punished for such matters or any such things referred to a Jury c. That the Book was never finished c. nor ever seen by them whom he was charged to have endeavoured by it to draw into a Conspiracy That nothing in it was particularly or maliciously appplied to Time Place or Person but distorted to such a sense by Innuendo's as the Discourses of the expulsion of Tarquin c. and particularly of the Translation made of the Crown of France from one Race to another had been applied by the then Lawyer 's Innuendo's to the then King of England never considering adds he that if such Acts of State be not allowed good no Prince in the World has any title to his Crown and having by a short reflection shewn the ridiculousness of deriving absolute Monarchy from Patriarchal Power he appeals to all the World whether it would not be more advantagious to all Kings to own the derivation of their Power to the consent of willing Nations than to have no better title than force c. which may be over-powered But notwithstanding the Innocence and Loyalty of that Doctrine he says He was told he must die or the Plot must die and complains that in order to the destroying the best Protestants of England the Bench was fill'd with such as had been blemishes to the Bar and instances how against La● they had advised with the King's Council about bringing him to Death suffer'd a Jury to be pack'd by the King's Sollicitors and the Vnder-Sheriff admitted Jury-men no Free-holders received Evidence not valid refus'd him a Copy of his Indictment or to suffer the Act of the 46 th of Ed. 3. to be read that allows it had over-ruled the most important Points of Law without hearing and assumed to themselves a Power to make Constructions of Treason tho' against Law Sense and Reason which the Stat. of the 25 th of Ed. 3. by which they pretended to Try Him was reserved only to the ●arliament and so praying God to forgive

so mean a thought as that of going about to save his Life by accusing others for Crimes that they only talkt of and that as we may partly gather from his discourse he had effectually disswaded them from too so that his Intention was good and his part in that Transaction even in the strictest sense of Law but a Misprision of Treason and therefore he declares he cannot but think the Sentence of Death past against him to be very hard and he by a strange fetch brought within the compass of the Statute of Treason of Edward the Third He moreover adds that he had so convincing a sense of his own Innocence in that Case that he would not betray it by flight tho' much pressed to it He next excuses his saying so little at his Trial saying he hoped it lookt more like Innocence than Guilt Adding that he was advised not to confess Matter of Fact too plainly because it would certainly have brought him within the guilt of Misprision and so he thought it better to say little than by departing from the Ingenuity he had always practised by using little Tricks and Evasions to make the last and solemnest part of his Life so notably different from the preceding course of it as such a Conduct would have made it He farther subjoyns that he never pretended great Readiness in Speaking and advises those Gentlemen of the Law that have it to use it more conscientiously and not to run men down and impose on Easie and Willing Juries by Strains and Fetches c. the Killing unjustly by Law being the worst of Murthers He then as in several other places repeating his wishes that the Rage and Revenge of some men and the partiality of Juries may be stopped with his Blood and so after a small hint how by the importunity of his Dearest and most Virtuous Lady and some other Dear Friends he had been prevail'd upon against his Inclinations to Address tho' ineffectually for his Life he concludes with a fresh Protestation of his Innocency and a Devout Prayer to God suitable to that sad occasion Captain WALCOT c. CAptain Walcot and his Fellow-sufferers in order of time should have gone first he being convicted before my Lord Russel and executed the Friday as he on Saturday But my Lord Russel's Fate having so immediate a dependance on the Earl of Essex's and all the Plot hanging on him especially they two making the greatest Figure of any who suffer'd on this occasion it look'd more proper and natural to begin with them and reserve the other to this place Captain Walcot was a Gentleman of a considerable Estate in Ireland but more remarkable for the rare Happiness of having Eight Children all at once living and most of all for his Love to his Country which cost him his Life We can have but little dependance as has been before hinted on the publick Papers relating to these concerns especially in his Case where Cartwright was engaged What appears to us and we may believe most reasonable and what 's agreed on of all hands is ' That West Rumsey and I think one more of 'em had frequent Discourses at least of killing the King and Duke so horrid and barbarous a thing and so like the Practice and Principles of those worst of men the Papists that as every true Englishman and good Christian must needs conceive a detestation and horror at the very mention of it so no doubt it will be very acceptable to such to find when the thing is enquired closely into which has partly been done before and shall now be finished to find no probability of any thing real in the bottom none engaged in it but two or three Knaves and one Fool. No Person of Honour or Character who had heard so much as any Discourse of it but what immediately disapproved or detested it as much as every good Man ought to do Tho' some of 'em if there were more than Walcot might hear such mad Discourse as my Lord Russel says the Wickedness passions and vanities of other men might have occasion'd and yet not believing any thing in it more than words nor think they were obliged to turn Informers and Hangmen which because they did not do they suffer'd themselves And this any reasonable man will I doubt not upon a little free thinking acknowledge to be Walcot's Case and no further The pretended Crime for which Walcot suffer'd and which West and others witness against him was Consulting the Death of the King and charging the Guards at his return from New-market while the dreadful Blunderbuss was to be fired into the Coach by Rumbold or some others His Privacy to Discourses about the Kings Death was but Misprision For his acting in it they could not have pitch'd on a more unlikely man to command a Party in so desperate an Attempt as charging the Guards than one that was sick and Bed-rid of the Gout as about this time and often besides the Captain was Nor seems West's pretence more likely That he refused to be actual in the Assassination because of the baseness of it but offer'd to charge the Guards while others did it much as wisely and tenderly as if he had denied to cut a Man's Throat but consented to hold his hands while others did it This he denies with indignation in his Speech and Appeals to all that knew him Whether they thought him such an Idiot that he should not understand 't was the same thing to engage the Kings Guards whilst others kill'd him or to kill him with his own hands Here then 't is plain lies the pinch of the matter West and Rumsey c. had been frequently discoursing at that bloody villanous rate West was most impatiently eager of having it done He proposed the Lopping 'em at a Play which he said would be in their own calling For some of those who are charged with this foul business as Promoters or so much as Approvers thereof were the innocent or guilty as to that particular I can assure the Reader I have the same thought of 'em that Juvenal had of Sejanus and can say as he does Nunquam si quid mihi credis amavi But however one may add as he does Sed quo accidit sub crimine Quisnam Delator Quibus indiciis Quo teste and almost resolve all these Questions to the same way with a Nil horum Never was any Party without many ill men This no doubt had too many whose ill Lives both discredited and in probability ruined the best Cause in the World as my Lord Russel intimated in his Speech Some of these not having the fear of God before their Eyes might have such traiterous Designs nay and by their own Confession it appears they had so But let 's not however be hurried away in a popular Stream which generally runs very muddy to condemn those who whatever personal Faults they may have had how turbulent their Nature or bad their Morals or

he was very much above but meerly from the true respect he had for 'em and a sense of that imminent Danger they were in which his piercing Judgment and long Experience made him more sensible of and his Courage and Vertue more concern'd at than others not only those who sat unconcern'd Spectators or shar'd in their Ruins but even then most of them who were engag'd with him in the same Common Cause of their Defence and Preservation Nothing of such an impatience or eargerness or black melancholy cou'd be discern'd in his Temper or Conversation as is always the Symptom or Cause of such Tragical-Ends as his Enemies wou'd perswade us he came to Lastly What may be said of most of the rest does in a more especial and eminent manner agree to the illustrious Essex and than which nothing greater can be said of Mortality He liv'd an Hero and dy'd a Martyr Upon the Execrable Murther of the Right Honourable Arthur Earl of Essex MOrtality wou'd be too frail to hear How ESSEX fell and not dissolve with fear Did not more generous Rage take off the blow And by his Blood the steps to Vengeance show The Tow'r was for the Tragedy design'd And to be slaughter'd he is first confin'd As fetter'd Victims to the Altar go But why must Noble ESSEX perish so Why with such fury drag'd into his Tomb Murther'd by slaves and sacrific'd to Rome By stealth they kill and with a secrect stroke Silen●e that Voice which charm'd when e'er it spoke The bleeding Orifice o'reflow'd the Ground More like some mighty Deluge than a Wound Through the large space his Blood and Vitals glide And his whole Body might have past beside The wreaking Crimson swell'd into a Flood And stream'd a second time in Capel's Blood He 's in his Son again to Death pursu'd An Instance o● the high'st Ingratitude They then malicious Stratagems Imploy With Life his dearer Honour to destroy And make his Fame extinguish with his Breath An Act beyond the Cruelties of Death Here Murther is in all its shapes compleat As Lines united in their Centre meet Form'd by the blackest Politicks of Hell Was Cain so dev'lish when his Brother fell He that contrives or his own Fate desires Wants Courage and for fear of Death expires But mighty ESSEX was in all things brave Neither to Hope nor to Despair a Slave He had a Soul too Innocent and Great To fear or to anticipate his Fate Yet their exalted Impudence and Guilt Charge on himself the precious Blood they spilt So were the Protestants some years ago Destroy'd in Ireland without a Foe By their own barbarous Hands the Mad-men dye And Massacre themselves they know not why Whilst the kind Irish howl to see the Gore And pious Catholicks their Fate deplore If you refuse to trust Erroneous Fame Royal Mac-Ninny will confirm the same We have lost more in injur'd Capel's heir Than the poor Bankrupt age can e're repair Nature indulg'd him so that there we saw All the choice strokes her steddy hand cou'd draw He the Old English Glory did revive In him we had Plantagenets alive Grandeur and Fortune and a vast Renown Fit to support the lustre of a Crown All these in him were potently conjoyn'd But all was too ignoble for his Mind Wisdom and Vertue Properties Divine Those God-like ESSEX were entirely thine In his great Name he 's still preserv'd alive And will to all succeeding times survive With just Progression as the constant Sun Doth move and through its bright Ecliptick Run For whilst his Dust does undistinguish'd lye And his blest Soul is soar'd above the Sky Fame shall below his parted Breath supply William Lord Russel THE next who fell under their Cruelty and to whose Death Essex's was but the Prologue was my Lord Russel without all Dispute the finest Gentleman one of 'em that ever England bred and whose pious Life and Virtue was as much Treason against the Court by affronting 'em with what was so much hated there as any thing else that was sworn against him His Family was ancient tho' not rais'd to the Honours it at present enjoys till King Edward's time when John Russel a Dorsetshire Gentlemen who had done many Services and receiv'd many favours from the Crown both in Henry the Seventh and Henry the Eighth's time being by the latter made Lord High Admiral and at his Death Lord High Steward of England for the Solemnity of the Coronation obtain'd such a Victory for his young Master against his Rebels as was rewarded with the Title of The Earl of Bēdford The Occasion of it thu Idolatry and Superstition being now rooting out by the Publick Authority and Images every where pulling down the Loyal Papists mutined and one of their Priests stabb'd a Commander of the Kings who was obeying his Orders and ten thousand of the deluded Rabble rise in the Defence of that barbarous Action and their old Mass and Holy-water Against whom this fortunate Lord was sent with an Army who routed 'em all relieved Exeter which they had besieg'd and took their Gods Banners Crucifixes and all the rest of their Trumpery wherein the deluded Creatures trusted for Victory Thus the Family of the Russels were early Enemies to the Romish Superstition tho' this brave Gentleman only paid the Scores of all his Ancestors The Son and Heir of this John was Francis second Earl of Bedford who was as faithful to the Crown as his Father an Enemy and Terror to the French and a Friend to the Protestant Religion as may appear by the Learned Books of Wickliff which he collected and at his Death bequeath'd to a great Man who he knew wou'd make good use of ' em His eldest Son William Lord Russel the present Earl of Bedford is sufficiently known to every true English-man and his Person and Memory will be honoured by them as long as the World lasts But 't is necessary good men should not be immortal if they were we should almost lose their Examples it looking so like Flattery But to do 'em Justice while they are living with more safety and less censure we may discourse of that Noble Gentleman his Son and Name-sake William Lord Russel who made so great a Figure in our Courts and Parliaments before he was sacrificed to the Cruelty and Revenge of his Popish Enemies If we 'd find his first Offence which lay behind the Scene and was indeed the Cause of his Death though other Colours were necessary to amuse the Publick we must look some years backward as he himself does in his last Speech wherein he tells the World He cannot but think his Earnestness in the matter of the Exclusion had no small influence on his present Sufferings Being chosen Knight of the Shire for Bedfordshire where the evenness and sweetness of his Behaviour and his virtuous Life made him so well-beloved that he 'll never be forgotten He began sooner than most others to see into that danger we were in

I bid farewel to all my Friends and dear Relations Farewell my poor Wife and Children whom I leave in the good hand of him who is better than seven Husbands and who will be a Father to the Fatherless Farewell all Creature Comforts Welcome everlasting Life everlasting Glory Welcome everlasting Love everlasting Praise Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me Sic Subscrib JOHN KING August 14 th 1679. Tolbooth Circa horam Septimam A brief Account of the last Speech of Mr. John Kidd at the place of Execution at Edinburgh on the 14th day of August 1679. Right Worthy and well beloved Spectators and Auditors COnsidering what bodily Distempers I have been exercised with since I came out of the Torture viz. Scarce two hours out of my naked bed in one day it cannot be expected that I should be in a Case to say any thing to purpose at this Juncture especially seeing I am not as yet free of it however I cannot but Reverence the good hand of God upon me and desire with all my Soul to bless him for this my present Lot It may be there are a great many here that judge my Lot very sad and deplorable I must confess Death it self is very ●e●rible to Flesh and Blood but as it is an out-let to sin and an in-let to Righteousness it is the Christians great and inexpressible Priviledge and give me leave to say this that there is something in a Christian Condition that can never put him without the reach of insufferableness even shame death and the Cross b●ing included And then if there be peace betwixt God and the Soul nothing can damp peace with Go● through our Lord Jesus Christ this is a most supporting ingredient in the bitterest Cup and under the sharpest and firiest Tryal he can be exposed unto thi● is my mercy that I have something of this to lay Claim unto viz. The intimations of Pardon and Peace betwixt God and my Soul And as concerning that for which I am condemned I Magnifie his grace that I never had the least challenge for it but on the contrary I Judge it my Honour that ever I was counted worthy to come upon the Stage upon such a consideration another thing that renders the most despicable Lot of the Christian and mine sufferable is a felt and sensible presence from the Lord strengthening the Soul when most put to it and if I could have this for my Allowance this day I could be bold to say O death where is thy sting and could not but cry out Welcome to it and all that follows upon it I grant the Lord from an act of Soveraignty may come and go as he pleases but yet he will never forsake his people and this is a Cordial to me in the Case I am now exposed unto Thirdly The exercising and putting forth his glorious Power is able to Transport the Soul of the Believer and mine above the reach of all sublunary Difficulties and therefore seeing I have hope to be kept up by this power I would not have you to look upon my Lot or any other that is or may be in my C●se in the least deplorable seeing we have ground to believe that in more or less he will perfect his Power and Strength in Weakness Fourthly That I may come a little nearer to the purpose in hand I declare before you all in the sight of God Angels and Men and in the sight of that Son and all that he has Created that I am a most miserable Sinner in regard of my Original and Actual Transgressions I must confess they are more in number than the Hairs of my Head They are gone up above my Head and are past numbring I cannot but say as Jacob said I am less than the least of all God's Mercies yet I must declare to the exalting of his Free Grace That to me who am the least of all Saints is this Grace made known and that by a strong hand and I dare not but say he has loved me and washed me in his own Blood from all Iniquities and well is it for me this day That ever I heard or read that faithful saying that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am chief Fifthly I must also declare in his sight I am the most unworthiest that ever opened his mouth to preach the unsearchable Riches of Christ in the Gospel Yea the sense of this made me altogether unwilling to fall about so great a Work until by the importunity of some whose Names are precious and savoury to me and many others I was prevailed with to fall about it and yet I am hopeful not altogether without s●me fruit and if I durst say it without Vanity I never found so much of the presence of God upon my Spirit as I have found in Exercises of that Nature though I must still confess attended with inexpressible Weakness and this is the main thing for which I must lay down my Tabernacle this day viz. That I did preach Christ and the Gospel in several places of this Nation for which I bless him as I can That ever such a poor obscure person as I am have been thus priviledged by him for making mention of his Grace as I was able In the next place though to many I die desired yet I know to not a few my Death is not desired and it is the rejoycing of my heart that I die in the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ who has loved me and given himself for me and in the Faith of the Prophets and Apostles and in this Faith of there 's not a Name under Heaven by which Men can be saved but the Name of Jesus and in the Faith of the Doctrine and Worship of the Kirk of Scotland as it is now established according to the Word of God Confession of Faith Catechisms larger and shorter and likewise I joyn my Testimony against Popery Perjury Profanity Heresie and everything contrary to found Doctrine In the Close as a dying Person and as one who has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful I would humbly leave it upon godly Ministers to be faithful for their Lord and Master and not to hold their peace in such a day when so many way● are taken for injuring of him his N●me Way Sanctuary Ordinances Crown and Kingdom I hope there will be found a party in this Land that will continue for him and his Matters in all Hazzards and as faithfulnes●●s called for in Ministers so Professors would concern themselves that they Countenance not nor abet any thing inconsistent with former Principles and Practices Let the Land consider how Neutral and Indifferent we are grown in the Matters of God even like Ephrai● long ago a Cake not turned As concerning that which is the ground of my Death viz. Preaching here and there in some Corners I bless my God I have not the leas● Challenge for it and tho' those that