Selected quad for the lemma: conscience_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
conscience_n	destruction_n	friend_n	great_a	23	3	2.1046	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88575	Mr. Love's case: wherein is published, first, his several petitions to the Parliament. Secondly, a full narrative of the late dangerous design against the state, written with Mr. Loves own hand, and by him sent to the Parliament; wherein he setteth down his several meetings and secret actings with Major Alford, Maj. Adams, Col. Barton, Mr. Blackmore, Mr. Case, Mr. Cauton, Dr. Drake, Mr. Drake, Cap. Farr, Mr. Gibbons, Mr. Haviland, Major Huntington, Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Jaquel, Mr Jackson, Lieut. Col. Jackson, Cap. Massey, Mr. Nalton, Cap. Potter, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Sterks, Colonel Sowton, Colonel Vaughan, and others. Thirdly, Mr. Loves speech and prayer on the scaffold on Towerhil, August 22. 1651. Printed by an exact copy, taken in short-hand by John Hinde. Fourthly, animadversions on the said speech and prayer.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Hinde, John, 17th cent.	1651 (1651)	Wing L3143; Thomason E641_10; Thomason E790_1; ESTC R202750	68,137	69

Conscience being honest and good and rightly informed Whereas Mr Love suffered a beheading if for the discharge of his Conscience which I think to considering men must needs be very questionable yet was it for the discharge of an erroneous conscience as his Petitioners themselves pleaded by way of extenuation of his Crime yea indeed of a conscience so desperate erroneous and corrupt that the like conscience hath scarce been heard of no not among the Heathen themselves much less among Christians viz. That a man stands bound in stead of being subject to the Powers that are which is the express Commandment of God to destroy or practice the destruction of these Powers So that Mr Love's conscience for which as he saith he suffered being truly interpreted was such a conscience by which he judged himself bound to act in a Diametral opposition to the plain and express revealed Will of God And whether such a conscience as this be a Christian foundation of Martyrdom let Mr Love 's greatest Friends judge Concerning Paul and the Saints spoken of in the Revelation they were beheaded for the Word of God and for the testimony of Iesus Whereas Mr Love as himself acknowledged in his Narrative written with his own hand and delivered unto the Parliament was to suffer beheading in case he should not obtain pardon from them for his sundry and great Offences confessing withal that by what he had done he was an object of their just displeasure and again that by their justice they might in one day leave a Flock without a Shepherd a Wife without an Husband Children without a Father c. Doubtless neither Paul nor the Saints mentioned by M. Love were objects of the just displeasure of those who beheaded them nor were they beheaded for their sundry and great Offences nor yet by the justice of those who punished them with death Therefore M. Love being partaker with Iudas in his sin the cause of his death can reap no honor for having Iohn or Paul or the Saints his companions in the kinde of his death And indeed might he not as well yea and much better all this duly considered have prophesied of shame and dishonor likely to acrue unto him by such a kinde of death which had been frequently inflicted upon Papists Priests and Iesuits for treasonable practices against the State and Supream Rulers thereof as indulge himself with a conceit That his death must needs become a Crown of Honor unto him because Iohn Baptist and the great Apostle Paul died the same kinde of death though as the world knoweth upon far different occasions ANIMAD upon Sect. 2. In this Section Mr. Love busieth himself in washing a Blackamoor hoping by that time he hath done to make him as white as Snow That he suffereth for the Word and Conscience and not for medling in State-matters he proves 1. Because it is an old guise of the Devil to impute the cause of Gods Peoples Sufferings to be Contrivements against the State 2. Because the Rulers of Israel would have put Jeremy to death upon a Civil account whereas the true ground was the truth of his Prophesie and that this made them angry with him 3. Because Paul though he did but preach Christ yet the people would have him dye under a pretence that he a was mover of Sedition 4. And lastly because himself saith That his Life is pretended to be taken away upon a Civil account whereas it is indeed because he pursueth his Covenant will not prostitute his Principles c. Light and darkness have in a maner as much communion between them as the three first of these Arguments with his Cause For is any guise of the Devil whatsoever a Demonstration or proof of Mr. Loves Innocency or that he must needs suffer for the Word and Conscience and not for Statizing out of his Sphaer Who is able to finde out the Quadrature of this Circle Or must Mr. Love needs be innocent of the Crimes charged upon him and proved against him because Ieremy and Paul were innocent from those Imputations which without any proof at all were charged upon them Or must those Magistrates who being persons of known godliness and worth at least a great part of them yea and Mr. Loves real and cordial Friends most of them upon Tryal found Mr. Love guilty and passed Sentence upon him accordingly must these I say of necessity be Corrupt Malicious Enemies to the Truth and Word of God because the Rulers of Israel with whom Ieremy had to do and the people with whom Paul had to do were of no better Principles or Temper Certainly neither Satan nor Ieremy nor Paul nor their Adversaries are any Legal or Rational Compurgators for Mr. Love in his Cause now in Agitation Indeed if he or any Advocate for him could as substantially prove as he confidently asserts that which follows in the fourth place viz. That his life was pretended I suppose he would rather have said intended though neither would be very proper to be taken away because he pursues his Covenant and will not prostitute his Conscience to the ambition and lusts of men this would amount somewhat near to a Proof of his Conclusion But alas for him to affirm such things as these not onely without any sufficient yea or tolerable proof or colour of proof but even against his own Concessions and Confessions in his Narrative specified under the former Section wherein he pretends over and over to Ingenuity proves nothing else but that either he wanteth ingenuity or the knowledge of his own heart or both when he spake § 4. thus God is my record whom I serve in the Spirit I speak the truth I lye not I do not bring a revengeful heart to the Scaffold this day c. I marvel what the man means by a revengeful Heart Rancor bitterness of Spirit Animosity c. Surely he is a Barbarian unto me and speaks a Language which I understand not To charge Ingenuous and Conscientious men with taking away his life because he pursues his Covenant will not prostitute his Principles and Conscience to the ambition and lusts of men with much more of like strain of which afterwards is in my understanding as pregnant as express a Symptome of a revengeful Heart Rancor c. as a person in his condition is lightly capable of Can saith Bildad in Iob the Rush grow without mire Or is it possible that such virulency and viperousness of words as those should proceed from any other Principle but from an heightned spirit of Rancor Bitterness and Revenge But what Article in Mr. Loves Covenant was it for his pursuit whereof his Life was taken from him Is there was there any such Article in this Covenant by which he stood in conscience bound to trinket with the declared and professed Enemies of the State and Nation to attempt the undermining or disturbing of the present Government here by Correspondencies and Communication of Councels with Forreign States

the said Narrative to the Parliament and the time of his coming to the Scaffold his best Advocate I suspect would be ashamed to declare Innocency is not contracted by obstinacy or by the greatest confidence in denial of the Truth Mr. Love when he ingenuously as himself professed acknowledged the Justice of the Parliament in their proceedings against him did plainly enough confess that the Proof against him was not empty but as high and full as the Charge it self Those Expressions That no witness proved that ever he writ a Letter or directed any man to write a Letter into Scotland c. plainly prove him to have been more cautelous then chaste and that he walked all along with his fellows in their unhallowed practices under the protection of that Motto Si non castè tamen cautè He that desires to know more particularly how Mr. Love with the rest of his fellow Trinketers divided their thoughts and endeavors between doing of mischief on the one hand and the keeping themselves out of danger what mischief soever they should do on the other hand may receive satisfaction onely by a perusal of the six and seven pages of a small Discourse lately published under the title of A short Plea for the Commonwealth whereas he affirmeth That all that was sworn against him was That he was present when Letters were read and that he made a motion to give Money to Massey is a most shameless and horrid untruth as appears by the Depositions of several Witnesses against him Captain Potter deposed That he carried the Letters sent from Bampfield from Argile Loudon Lothian Belcarris and another from a nameless person supposed to be Mr. Baily to Mr. Love to take advice upon them This Letter had the letter L endorsed upon it whereupon this Captain Potter conceived it to have been intended to Mr. Love and therefore carried it to him This witness further deposed That Mr. Love himself and Mr. Jaquel read those Letters that were opened and opened the others also and read them likewise and discoursed of them and upon advice resolved to do nothing in it the business negotiated in these Letters This is more then that All which Mr. Love affirmeth was sworn against him The same witness yet further deposed That Mr. Love and Dr. Drake were appointed to draw up a Letter to be sent into Scotland to Col. Bampfield and that this Letter was left at his shop and that he apprehended that it came from Mr. Love This is yet more then Mr. Loves All. Major Robert Huntington another witness deposed That a Question being moved about a Commission to be sent into Holland to the Lord Willoughby of Parham Col. Graves Massey and others what power they had to give or send such a Commission Mr. Drake answered We have the Kings Command for it and the Authority of some secluded Parliament men which I look upon as the Power beyond that now sitting Whereupon Mr. Love replied Come come let it go This is not simply more but much more in import and weightiness of crime then what Mr. Love affirmeth was sworn against him Instance might be given in sundry particulars besides these deposed upon Oath against him by other the Witnesses whereby Mr. Love may be evicted not to have been so consciencious or tender of speaking nothing but Truth as becomes a Minister of the Gospel especially at such a time when he is called immediately to give up an account of his Stewardship to his great Lord and Master with whom there is no place for any man that loveth and maketh a lye Revel 22. 15. ANIMAD upon Sect. 6. We heard § 1. that M. Love pleased himself much with his Conformity to John Baptist in the kinde of his death though he was conformable to Iudas in the occasion and cause of his death here to make his face to shine like the Sun in the eyes of weak and dim-sighted men he conforms himself to Christ himself in his Accusers although herein also he much forgets himself in calling those Christs Accusers whom the Evangelists call Witnesses What he affirmeth that he may without vanity or falshood say of his whether witnesses or accusers as far as my Informations which I judge competent in the case do extend he cannot affirm without both I never heard of any disagreement between them in the least about any thing relating to M. Love much less of any of them contradicting himself Nor do I know any sufficient ground to believe that one of them should in writing pray him to forgive him the wrong he had done him or that he told him any such story as he relates considering first that § 8. he tells an untruth of the same kinde as viz. that on the night before his Execution there was an insulting Letter written unto him to tell him that after he was dead there should be something published against him to his shame The Letter he speaks of not having the least touch or savor of any insultation nor threatning any thing to be published to his shame after his death but was grave and sober full of love and respects to him as an unpartial perusal of it will inform any man it being since printed by the Author upon occasion of such an unchristian aspersion cast upon it by M. Love Secondly that none of his Accusers as he terms them or Witnesses did testifie any thing against him but what as far as I understand they stand by and own to this hour no nor any thing to my best remembrance that makes more against him then his own Narrative and Confessions here Thirdly Because what he immediately subjoyns towards the close of this Section I have reason in abundance to believe is absolutely false as viz. That some of his Witnesses were terrified others hired some fined before they would testifie against him For though a Fine was pronounced to be imposed on one of them which after upon his conformity was omitted yet it was not before he would i.e. was willing to testifie against him For this he freely offered in Court to do before his Fining Nor was he fined for refusing to testifie against M. Love being ready enough as was said to do this without fining but for refusing to take an Oath according to the Law justly provided in such cases But for him to affirm that any of his Witnesses were either terrified or hired in order to the drawing of any Testimony from them against him was to wrong his Conscience at such a time when it most nearly concerned him to have been most tender of it He hath Friends and Favorers surviving in great numbers many of them men of learning and parts and that know how to inform themselves of any thing that is like to make for his Vindication One or more of these shall do the office of a friend to his Name and Memory by engaging themselves to make due proof of what he here affirmeth viz. That some of his Witnesses were

untruth this is hath been already shewed where we found Matters of a far higher Nature proved against him then these But I cannot but tremble to meet with those words from his mouth That for the things I am condemned neither doth God nor my own Conscience condemn me When I compare them with words coming from himself both in his Narrative and Petition a few days before In his Narrative as was formerly observed he acknowledged once and again the Justice of the Parliament in their Proceedings against him In his Third Petition he professeth himself unfeignedly sorrowful for his violating the Laws of this Commonwealth In his Fourth and last he hath these words The consideration whereof speaking of the Grace of the Parliament in his Reprieval melteth the heart of your Petitioner and maketh him after a more narrow search into his heart and ways more deeply sensible then ever of his sin against God and more sorrowful for his High Crimes and Offences against the Parliament in his late and great miscarriages c. Doth not God condemn sin committed against him as well in Mr. Love as in other men Or was Mr. Love Antinomianized at his death holding that God seeth no sin in believers Or however was Mr. Loves Conscience so desperately now hardned as not to condemn him for high Crimes and great Miscarriages If his meaning were That God had pardoned the sins for which he was brought to the Scaffold and in this respect did not condemn him for them or that his Conscience notwithstanding these sins did not condemn him for an Hypocrite nulli fidian or the like the words were nothing but a meer delusion of the people When he comes to wash off the aspersion of his being a man of a turbulent spirit § 12. How notoriously and indeed senslesly doth he prevaricate with his Cause in hand doing like a man that should with an importune confidence assert his Chastity and yet immediately commit the crime of Adultery in the very face of those before whom he had endeavored such a Vindication of himself For who is a man of a turbulent spirit but he that seeks and sets himself to divide between Rulers and those that ought to live in subjection unto them by alienating the mindes and affections of the one from the other Upon which there must needs follow an interruption and disturbance of the Political Harmony and Accord in the State and Commonwealth Or what course can be taken by any man of a most desperate Consequence for the firing of the spirits of People with Hatred and Revenge against their Governors then to accuse them of Usurpation of their Power on the one hand and with the Administration of it with Injustice and Cruelty on the other and withal to labor to possess the people with a conceit That God hath determined to cast them out of the possession of their Power with Ignominy and Shame Or are not these words of Mr. Loves Those who have gotten power into their hands by policy c. Words of this import and conquently of as turbulent an inspiration as a tongue set on fire of Hell as the Apostle speaketh could lightly utter Is this Mr. Loves ingenuity his meekness his sweetness of spirit his forgiving from his heart the worst of his enemies If this be his forgiveness what would his revenge have been How true is that intelligence which we have from Solomon The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel Whereas the Cruelties so called by Mr. Love of just men are tender mercies Neither can the persons whom he so unchristianly traduceth by any act whatsoever express more Mercy greater Compassion towards the many Millions of persons in the Land then by cutting off evil doers from it by the Sword of Justice such especially who defile it with Blood But with what face could Mr. Love charge those in Power to have gotten this power into their hand by policy if by policy he means any thing dishonest or dishonorable unto them Were not those who now sit in Parliament lawfully called to these places of trust by the people Or was it any ways dishonest or dishonorable in them to keep their Covenant in bringing the Grand Delinquent and Incendiary of the Land to condign punishment Or to dissolve that Government under the intolerable Oppressions and Vexations whereof the people of the Nation had now groaned these 500 years and upwards wanting either the heart or opportunity until now to break the yoke of so cruel a bondage Or was it any policy in them but what was most worthy men in those high places of trust committed unto them by the people when they clearly and by sufficient experience found That the House of Peers who had no Parliamentary Interest granted unto them by the people together with some of their own Members daily prevaricating with the common cause and real Interest of the people palpably bent in their Counsels and Actings to have kept the Nation under the abomination of that Tyrannical Insolency and Power from which it was now in an hopeful way of deliverance Was it I say any unworthy policy in those now in power to provide for the Liberties Peace and Safety of the people by discharging the one and the other from those places of Interest and Power which gave them the opportunity of practising with so high an hand against them Whereas they are charged to use their Power with cruelty this is so broad-fac'd a calumny that nothing need be said for their vindication from it Magistrates are not therefore cruel because they carry not the sword in vain or because being Ministers of God to take vengeance on evil doers they fulfil their Ministery in this kinde Cruelty would be much more truly and justly chargeable upon them in case they should carry the sword in vain and suffer evil doers Traytors Incendiaries Disturbers of States and Commonwealths c. to pass unpunished And therefore unless Mr. Love could either have produced some better ground for his charge of Cruelty against the State then his own sufferings or else have evicted not onely the many evidences brought against him as an evil doer but his own confessions also in this behalf he had provided much better for his honor and conscience too by leaving this charge to be levied by some son of Belial who hath neither honor nor conscience to pollute Whereas he undertakes to Prophesie That those in Power will lose it with Ignominy it is well for them that as the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God so neither doth the righteousness of God accomplish the wrath of man But upon what account doth Mr. Love prophesie this hard prediction against the State If God revealed it unto him certainly it is a new light and himself in the sequel of this Speech chargeth us to take heed of believing new Lights it may be because himself had no more whither wisdom orgrace then to lose his Ministery with Ignominy therefore

which have not received countenance or approbation from the generality of Ministers of a later Edition and since the times of Luthers and Calvins Reformations his advice is indeed artificially calculated for the Meridian of high Presbytery but very disserviceable to the advancement and growth of Christianity 4. He exhorteth them to bewaile their great losse in the taking away of so many Ministers out of their City and then recounting the number of them finds them if he mistakes not ten under the covert of such an exception or reserve he might as truly have said they had been twenty He speaks of some as being in banishment Those of them in this condition were adjudged thither by no other Judges then their own Consciences When the City of refuge is sought unto it is a sign that there is bloud shed and that there is some avenger of bloud that follows the chase The Ministers he speaks of he doth the rather lift up unto heaven with those glorious Elogiums he bestows on them that so he may cast those so much the deeper into hell in the peoples thoughts whom he would have lookt upon as the Authors of their taking away But the Malefactour as hath been said not the Judge is the Author of his sufferings If they were lights they were far more burning then shining but with an un-hallowed fire if Starres starres they were of a very Malignant influence upon the State where they liv'd and in their Conjunction made a very dangerous and fiery constellation Those of whom as the Scripture testifieth the world was not worthy were a generation of men of another spirit holy humble and harmlesse were content to suffer from the world to do the world service Mr. Love's men are a generation that must have the world bow down unto them and lick the dust at their feet to strengthen their hand to do them service neglect from men is as the shadow of death unto them 5. And lastly He gives them a brief Item to take heed of being forward to ingage in a war against their godly Brethren in Scotland If these godly Brethren in Scotland had not been forward to ingage in a war against them the Counsell had been Christian and prudent But inasmuch as these godly Brethren first ingaged in a war against their godly Brethren here as hath been formerly shewed it is no point of Christianity or prudence to demurre upon a course of defence or of prevention of the mischiefe ANIMAD upon Sect. 21. There is a red threed of revenge against the Parliament and State struck quite thorough this fare-well piece of Mr. Loves to the world from the very beginning to the end of it visible enough and indeed too much in every Section which creates a sad jealousie with me left his fi●●s Architectonicus his predominant end in his last addresse on earth was to have the men in present Power under the hardest and most hatefull ●●●●ment with the people that he could imagine or devise In many passages he hales in by head and shoulders such things which a man cannot tell how or why they should come there but only to asp●rse the State and to envenom the spirits of the people against them In these his Applications to the godly Ministery as he terms it of the City he doth his best to make them believe for he affirms that he knoweth it that they are maligned and threatned and this the people must conceive to be by the State yea and the cause and ground hereof must be supposed to be for setting themselves against the sins and Apostacies of the times for his faithfulness wherein he himself had procured ill will from men Poor man Doth he call his sin against God his high crimes and offences against the Parliament in his late and great miscarriages for which himself confesseth in his last Petition to the Parliament as was formerly shewed that the Sentence of death was justly passed on him by the High-Court of Justice doth he I say call sin against God high crimes great miscarriages his faithfulness in setting himself against the sins and Apostacies of this present age I confess if these were his faithfulness in that kind he speaks of it was his faithfulness that procured him the ill-will of men If such notions and conceits as these were the foundation of that abundant peace of his Conscience and which he saith he hath with God and with which he dieth I fear he may be too truly compared to the foolish builder who neglected the rock and built his house upon the sand which soon after fell and great was the fall thereof But to perswade the godly Ministers of his present address together with the people the more effectually that they were certainly maligned and threatned he will needs upon this account lift up a prayer for them in the words of those Christians Act. 4. 29. And now Lord behold their threatnings and grant that thy servants may preach the word with all boldness But is not this an horrid prophanation of the sacred Ordinance of Prayer and of him that hath appointed it to represent persons unto God as guilty of such crimes whereof he knows them to be innocent especially when he also that prayeth hath no tolerable ground to judge them such as they are represented by him unto God in his Prayer What ground or colour of ground had Master Love to accuse the Parliament or State before God of threatning the godly Ministers of the City for preaching the Word of God What Minister did they ever threaten upon any such account as this Possibly such Ministers s who in their preachings have turn'd the good Word of God and Gospel of Jesus Christ into fire-brands of Sedition into scurrilous and bitter invectives against those whom God hath set in Authority over them who in stead of lifting up their voices like Trumpets to make the people to know their abominations have lift them like Trumpets to provoke and animate them to commit abominations possibly I say such Ministers as these they have discountenanced in such ways of impiety and prophanation of the Word of God as these His perswasion that the Presbyterial Government makes most for purity and for unity throughout the Churches of the Saints the experience which the world hath had of this Government in those places or Churches where it hath had its throne doth not much countenance or confirm but I shall not here counter-argue it Whereas he beggs of the Ministers that they would keep up Church-Government and had onely added and not intermeddle with the Civil-Government of the State his advice had been both Christian and seasonable ANIMAD upon Section 22. I will not say that Master Love here freeth all the Ministers in the City those onely excepted who are already discovered from having a hand in his business he dislikes it seems the word Plot in such a sense wherein not long since he freed himself from whatsoever was not or could

not as he thought be proved against him I judge it not improbable but that the Ministers of his exemption may be free from all interposure of particularities of advice for the driving on M. Loves designe this word he owns in one of his Petitions though the word Plot grates upon his spirit yea possibly they may be free in respect of the knowledge of the particularities of the method and transactions by which the Designe was carryed on and ripened from time to time by the Arch-Contrivers such works of darkness are in danger of coming abroad into the light before their time and so to mischieve or destroy the workmen in case the number of those who either shall meet frequently for the managing and forming of them or to whom the particulars of them shall be imparted be too great It is seldom seen but that that which is known to many soon after comes to be known unto all Yet I beleeve there is hardly any Minister of the Presbyterian perswasion about the City but knew well enough that there was Scotch-Ale in brewing and that Master Love and his Complices were not asleep as to their Interest and cause Yea and that from time to time though they could not call Master Loves Designe by its proper name yet they prayed heartily in general and covert terms for the prosperity of it But Master Loves Conscience now upon the Scaffold tells him it seems a quite contrary t●le to what it told him a few days before When he was a Petitioner to the Parliament for his life his Conscience told him that he had Sinned against God that his late miscarriages were great his crimes and offences against the Parliament high c. But in the interim it seems the Rabbies of his Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been with him and shin'd a new light into him About the entertainment whereof had he followed his own Counsel directed unto others in the like case formerly mentioned and had taken heed of receiving it it had been much better and safer for him ANIMAD upon Sect. 23. What M. Love gives in honor to his Congregation I shall not take from them Onely what he gives unto himself in this kind as 1. That he should never have parted from them had not death parted them 2. That he submitteth unto death with all Christian meeknesse c. I make some question whether he had right to give it or no. For he that had parted from one Congregation upon a far different occasion from that of death he speaks of why might he not his judgment remaining the same touching a lawfulnesse of parting have parted from another and another after that upon a like occasion Men may be confident of their present intentions and purposes but to prophesie of their future is to run an adventure But whereas he professeth his submission unto death with all Christian meeknesse I leave him to be judged out of his own mouth in this very discourse wherewith he hath avenged himself on his Judges whom he calls his adversaries to the uttermost ANIMAD upon Sect. 24. In the beginning of this Section he professeth his desire to justifie God and to condemne himself A Christian and worthy profession But that which he professeth a desire to do he doth very faintly and by halfs But that which is contrary to what he desires as he saith to do he doth vigorously and with his might In his justifying of God he is very generall and faint and yet more generall and superficiall in condemning himself But in the justifying of himself and condemning others he is inlarg'd beyond his line For the justifying of God he saith only that he is righteous in the condemning of himself he saith no more but onely I have sinned which the most innocent and righteous person under heaven may say truly But for the justifying and commending of himself with a mixture of insinuations against others how copious and eloquent is he First he saith his bloud shall not be spilt for nought wherein he make's himself equall with the Saints he mentioneth from the Psalm 2. That he may do more good by his death then by his life which though it may be true enough in a sence little to his honor yet in his notion must imply either that his Oration which he was now uttering was so effectuall and full of power that many of those that heard it would either be converted or els much edified by it or els that his dying with so much courage in such a worthy cause as he was now to suffer for would make others confident in the further maintenance and prosecution of it whereby God should be much glorified 3. He sings over his former note of confidence I blesse my God I have not the least trouble c. I die with as much quietnesse of mind c. By which he doth not only commend himself as one of the first-born sons of Faith but farther insinuates the goodnesse and justifiablenesse of his cause whereby the people may be the more incens'd against his Judges 4. He saith that he sees that men hunger after his flesh and thirst after his blood which hastens his happinesse and their ruine c. wherein at once he justifieth himself in the highest and condemneth others proportionably 5. He saith his blood is innocent blood is this to condemne himself and not plainly to condemne others by his self-justification 6. He saith that his dead body will be a morsell which he believes will hardly be digested and that his blood will be bad food c. What are these but Rhetoricall flourishes of his own righteousnesse and innocency full of reflexion upon his Judges as men that had sinned with an high hand against the peace and safety of the Common-wealth by sentencing him to die 7. And lastly that he may proclaim his innocency as well in the Negative as Affirmative he saith Mine is not Malignant bloud though c. was Mr. Loves desire to condemn himself in speaking these things or are they the words of a man taking shame unto himself and justifying God thereby The truth is he hath condemn●d himself by speaking them all along calling evill good and good evill putting darknesse for light and light for darknesse bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter stumblings and mistakes of a very sad import so neer the threshold of death ANIMAD upon Sect. 25. In the beginning of this Section he seems in part to repent of the former but his words are of no good consistence He proves God to be very just by this that his prison was not his Hell c. inasmuch as he had deserved it This is an argument to prove him gracious or mercifull but that men have not in punishment what they have deserved in sin hath no face of a proof that God is very just If Mr. Love had here also stood upon his Justification and said I have not deserved it his Argument had been more