Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bad_a	good_a	reason_n	1,431	5	5.5448	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67137	The wounds of a friend, or, A letter mentioned by Mr. Love upon the scaffold in his speech a little before his death sent unto him the night before he should have been executed in the moneth of July, which is upon the occasion of the said mention thereof published / by John Price, of Colemanstreet, London.	Price, John, of Colemanstreet, London.	1651 (1651)	Wing W3664; ESTC R9250	4,693	10

THE Wounds of a Friend OR A LETTER Mentioned by Mr Love upon the Scaffold in his SPEECH a little before his Death Sent unto him the night before he should have been executed in the Moneth of JULY Which is upon the occasion of the said Mention thereof published BY Iohn Price of Colemanstreet London LONDON Printed by I. M. for H. Cripps and L. Lloyd and are to be sold at their shop in Popes-head Alley 1651. The Wounds of a Friend OR A Letter mentioned by Mr Love upon the Scaffold c. READER I Understand that Mr Love in his Speech upon the Scaffold a little before his death amongst other things made mention of a certain Letter sent unto him the night before he should have been executed the last Moneth which he called an insulting Letter importing a resolution in some to publish in print several things reflecting dishonor upon him after his death The truth is the Letter he spake of was written by my self and his jealousie of any mans writing concerning him after his death had its rise onely from a marginal note of the said Letter which it seems made a deep impression upon him and since his death I perceive that not onely Mr Love but some of his friends did take that Letter very ill at my hands especially considering that deep sense pity and compassion that did as they say seem to appear in me towards him in his sad condition but a little before that Letter was sent which was I confess so great that as on the one hand I could not be well satisfied how the Parliament could in Honor and Conscience have vouchsafed him a Pardon they being indeed not their own but Trustees for the Commonwealth and therefore obliged to pursue the publique and common benefit in saving or destroying him his life being forfeited to the Commonwealth and no probable much less certain publique advantage appearing to accrue from his Pardon but rather a giving up their cause so maintained and assetted by him during all the time of his tryal and nothing appearing to the contrary in all his post addresses how ever slily and cunningly couch'd and pen'd so on the other hand my bowels and affections did so melt and yearn towards him that I verily beleeve I could have been contented in Gods way to have parted with one of my limbs for his life and however I was by him and am by others unhappily mistaken in that letter yet God and mine own Conscience do witness for me the uprightness plainness and singleness of my heart and spirit out of which I wrote it for the spiritual peace and advantage of his soul had he been pleased to have improved it to that end being as I conceived very genuinely naturally improvable thereunto And mine own Family can bear me witness which I would not mention but upon this occasion that with many prayers night and day I did according to my poor measure importune the Almighty for grace and mercy for him until the time of his death The truth is I was plain and clear with him in my Letter applying my self to him in such matter which I thought might be most healthful and profitable for him It is now about eleven years sithence my first acquaintance with him in which time I have had very many advantages by a strict observation of him his deportment in publique and private of inspection as into his worth and excellency whereof he was always sufficiently sensible so into his weakness and infirmities for I hope they were no worse and I found and it was not onely my observation of him but also many others for alas it could not be hid that he was exceeding apt not onely to be courted but even captivated with that secret close and dangerous lust and sin of popularity affecting multitude of followers and not able to bear opposition and contradiction and therefore well perceiving the policy of Satan that great adversary of mankinde adepting and sitting this feare of death wherein his foot was so aptly and easily taken and mounting him upon the wing and pinnacle of popular observation and considering also his seeming penitential Addresses unto the Parliament though cloudily obstrucely and very uncertainly fram'd and pen'd arguing at least unto me a kinde of a trembling shaking and exceeding dissatisfactory frame and temper of minde to venture his life upon so bad a cause and understanding also by some of his very neer friends that were dayly with him how uncertain he was in his disposition to an ingenuous christian and plenary acknowledgment in his Addresses unto the Parliament for mercy and that by reason of the various and diverse disposed and opinionated persons that were his constant Visitors some inclining him one way and some another some endevoring as it seemed to me to make him a meer * Calf or Heifer a Victim to their cause though happily instructing him in that black art of double dealing dis-ingenuous distinctions and reservations to save his life together with their cause could it so be brought about some of which friends I fear stuck too close to him even to his death a Others again advising him to acknowledg his sin and to give glory to God I say perceiving this poor young man thus harrassed and hurried in his thoughts and minde and ready to offer up his life in this perplexed temper and disposition And lastly calling to minde the most dangerous and desperate estate and condition of his poor Soul should he offer it up unto the service of this lust not withstanding his seeming zeal for Gods glory and the great temptation hereunto by a mighty concourse of people to see the manner of his death and hear his last Scaffold Oration These Considerations wrought upon me out of very faithfulness to write this ensuing Letter which take as followeth Mr Love I do not know nor am I much solicitous whether you esteem me an enemy or a friend but as I abhor to salute you with the Kisses of an enemy so I judg it unseasonable to afflict you with the Wounds of a friend and yet the bowels of a spiritual Brother I know not whether you can eccho Brother to me do so implacably importune me that I am compel'd by the workings thereof to be bold with you in one word of Counsel before our final parting it is this Offer not up your precious life with all its concernments natural spiritual a victim to the great Godess of vain Professors popula●ity though confind within the Circle of a certain Party You may call this Censoriousness for want of love but my conscience calls it Faithfulness through the abundance of love to be prais'd while you live and talked on after you be dead for a valiant Assertor even unto death of that Cause judged by many of your own Friends and Judgment to be weak yea wicked is but a small price for this precious life and the hazards of a better It is well

if the arms of Christ do bear you up above these troubled waters and not windy bladders but it is very rare considering your Cause the projecting promoting actual producing a new bloody War a War between Saints a War against Saints a War to restore a wicked a bloody Family so signally and eminently dethroned by the vindicative Iustice of Almighty God so decryed so imprecated with such zeal expectation and confidence by your own self in publike in private and you not so much as touched with the guilt of a Busiy-body in all your Tryal and sufferings how ever you have valu●d or undervalued your precious life yet let not Bassilix eyes destroy your Soul viz. an ambition to be look'd at and admired It is now high time to recollect your self your Breeding your Education * at whose charges from what sort of Professors you have received mercy and favour all your life and how you have requited them at the last by not only not doing the least thing for them but striving to undermine them in their Liberties and failing therein to cut them off by a bloody War I should have been glad had the due consideration of your miscarriages wrought you to an ingenuous and Christian acknowledgment in due season for your life sake I should now rejoyce might it be yet considered for your Souls sake Do you plead your Conscience If it be so indeed consider the strange hand of God upon your Judgment not much unlike his hand upon the late King in whose Cau●e how ever palliated you must yeeld up your life who could not submit to the Power that tryed him for his Conscience sake That a Minister of Iesus Christ should intermeddle with the State and Condition of several Nations so as to involve them in a bloody war yea to strive to subvert that Government under which he might live a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty a thing never practised by any of the Prophets of old by Christ his Apostles or Successors that your self have judged faithful except you judg Iesuits to be such should do all this not only without hesitansie but with a zealous Conscience argues a great hand of God upon such a Judgment Again do you plead Conscience and therefore cannot subject to a Christian Consession of your miscarriage though it might have saved your life and that for Conscience sake See here another strein of divine Iustice you endeavored to bring in a Power though by an Army to compel mens subjection against their Consciences and your self now must perish upon the same accompt But once more Consider is it Conscience indeed Is it not rather Popularity then Conscience Shall I submit now Will not the world say 't is base 't is dishonorable c. Well Sir consult God and plead not Conscience against Conscience it is bad to live but worse to dye with an ill Conscience especially under the vizor of a good Conscience an ill Cause yea and an ill Conscience may be slily palliated with many good prayers Scripture phrases and a zealous shew of a very tender Conscience and to dye stoutly in such a Cause may be reputed Martyrdom amongst men and just punishment with God it may have a shew of pure Christianism with man but it is pure Atheism with God the more close secret and spiritual any sin is the more dangerous and noxious it is unto the sinner Sir I do not judg you but I fear you I would I had no cause if I am mistaken it is well this can do you no hurt if I am not mistaken this may do you good that is my aim and the desire of my Soul for if I know my heart I could willingly part with my right hand in Gods way for your life and with my very life in that way for your Soul That the Lord of Life and Glory would so communicate himself yet unto you before you go hence that having a due sense of the riches and freeness of his grace in our dear Lord Iesus Christ and so rest peace and fulness of satisfaction upon that accompt and also a due feeling of your own miscarriages in all your ways and chiefly of that that hath brought you to this precipitated end that you may yield up your life as becomes such a sense and that eternal life may second your temporal is the hearty prayers of Sir Your very faithful and truly affectionate Brother in our Lord Jesus Christ JOHN PRICE Coleman street London Iuly 14 1651. REader Thou hast the Letter truly and faithfully committed to thy strictest view and examination and submitted to thy Judgment if thou findest any thing of an insulting nature therein nay any thing but love and faithfulness unto Mr Love most certain I am thou reapest that which was never sown by me nay it past a strict examen by a judicious godly man one of Mr Loves very good friends and acquaintance and very zealously industrious for his Pardon before it was sent unto Mr Love for indeed I feared Mr Loves sinister interpretation and misconstruction of it who was very importunate with me to send it unto him but it is true which Solomon saith That a froward heart findeth no good All that I shall say of Mr Love is this His sin vanity and folly have found him out and pursued him to his grave but I hope shall follow him no further As for my self I cannot with my self better in wishes of this nature then to desire God to g●●e me as ●●●●●ful a friend in the day of my departure from this world as I did desire to approve my self to Mr Love and a better heart to improve the same Farewell FINIS * Very tamperable for such a purpose being of a rash furious hasty violent popular temper disposition a Whose altum silentium when their dying brother vented such bitter invectives against the present Authority bespeaks either their own minds and judgments in the same or themselvs very unfit ghostly fathers at such a time * 〈…〉 〈…〉