THe Heaven is thy Throne O Lord and the Earth is thy footstool but to this man wilt thou look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at thy Word Thou O Lord art the great God of Heaven and Earth thou fillest all places with thy presence art the Judge of the whole World and dost Righteousness We are poor unworthy sinful creatures by nature children of wrath as well as others We are wise to do evil but to do good we have no knowledge If to will be present with us yet how to perform and go through with that which is good and not be weary of well-doing we find not Bring us O Lord into the true mystical Sabbath-state that we may cease from our own works rest from our labors not think our own thoughts find our own desire or walk in the way of our own hearts but become a meet habitation of thy Spirit by the everlasting Covenant the place of thy Rest Let the Spirit of God and of Glory that is greater than he that is in the world rest upon us work in and by us mightily to the pulling down of flesh and blood the strong holds of Sin and Satan in our selves and others causing us so to suffer under the Fire-Baptism thereof as that we may cease from sin for ever or from that fleshly mutable temporary state of life and righteousness which at best is liable to roul back into sin again to be intangled overcome and finally triumphed over by the pollutions of this world Deliver us O Lord from the Evil One deliver us from our selves take us out of our own dispose our own liberty and power the freedom the mutable holiness and righteousness of the sons of men at its best and bring us into the most glorious Liberty the most holy immutable and righteous state of the sons of God a freedom to Good only and non at all to evil attended and accompanied with a power in us through thy Spirit of doing all things for the Truth and a disability brought upon us as to the doing of any thing against the Truth in the single power and freedom of our own spirit Then the prince of this world coming to us will find nothing in us at least no prevailing activity of self nature or flesh which at best is capable to be made by him an ergin of opposition to the Kingdom of Christ and our own true blessedness Thou hast laid on thy Son the iniquities of us all by his stâ—ipes we are healed We must all stand before the Judgment-Seat of Christ to give an account of what we have done in the body whether it be good or whether it be evil He will bring every secret counsel to light things that are wrought in darkness he maketh plain and evident Thine eyes O Lord run to and fro through the whole earth Thine eyes do behold thine eye-lids try the children of men The wicked and him that loveth violence thy soul hateth But thou upholdest the poor and needy him that is of a broken heart and of a contrite spirit The humble and lowly thou wilt teach the meek thou wilt guide in Judgment thou wilt beautifie the meek with Salvation Thou art the supream disposer of all the Kingdoms of men giving them to whomsoever thou wilt Whatever cross-blows thou sufferest to be given thy People for a season thou orderest all to thy own glory and their true advantage But thou hast a set time for Sions deliverance in which the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given unto the best and choicest of men the people of the Saints of the most high whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom Let the exceeding near approach of this bear up the spirits of thy poor despised ones in this day of extremity and suffering from sinking and despondency Carry them through their suffering part with a holy triumph in thy Chariots of Salvation How long O Lord holy and true make hast to help the Remnant of thy People Break the Heavens and come down touch the Mountains of prey the Kingdoms of this evil world and let them smoak Let the mouth of all Iniquity be stopped Silence every one that stands up against thee Rebuke the debauched prophane spirits of men that set themselves to work wickedness running with greediness into all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness They eat thy People as they eat bread They are profound to make slaughter skilful to destroy though thou hast been the rebuker of them all But Lord be this dispensation of what continuance it will for the serving of thy most gracious and wise designs let the spirit and resolution of thy Servants be steady and unchangeable that whether they live they may live to the Lord that died for them or whether they die they may die to the Lord who lives for ever to make intercession for them that they may glorifie thee with their bodies and spirits whether by life or by death Thou knowest O Lord that in the Faith of Jesus and for the Truth as it is in Jesus thy Servant desires to die walking in the steps of our father Abraham and for Righteousness and Judgment following the Lord in all his wayes whithersoever he goes worshipping the God of his believing fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob in that way which men call Heresie In this Faith dear Lord I have lived and in this Faith and Profession I die as one that hath herein stood up for the Testimony of JESUS against all Idolatry Superstition Prophaness and Popery or whatever is unsound or unfit to be brought before the Throne of so great and glorious a Majesty 'T is in this Faith that thy Servant dies Now set thy Seal to it and remove the reproaches and calumnies with which thy Servant is reproached for thou knowst his innocency Dear Father thou sentest us into this world but this world is not our home we are strangers and pilgrims in it as all our fathers were We have no abode here but there is a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens that when this tabernacle is dissolved we may enter into In our Fathers house are many mansions Oh! whatever the curses and condemnations of the Law are be thou near to us and spread the Righteousness of Christ over us and we shall be safe Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered Who wil speak who will take on him to say any thing or to plead with Thee upon any other terms but in the Name and Merits of the mighty Redeemer on whom our help is laid We desire to lie low to be abased and take shame confusion of face to our selves as that which properly belongs to us that Thou alone maist be exalted and advanced 'T is of meer Grace O Lord that thy Servant hath now some sign of thy special Salvation even thy free-Grace O God whereby thou dost accept him in thy
the Lord which therefore we should be most willing unto and with greatest longing after desire The strait which the Apostle found himself in was not at all from the least haesitation in his mind which of the two was in it self best and to be preferred but by which Christ might most be magnified and the Church benefitted according to the will of Christ So then unless to live were Christ and a real and clear magnifying of Christ in his Body he cared not for Life but contemned Death He saw evidently how it was his own particular loss and hindrance even not to Die since to be dissolved to depart and be with Christ and in the Society of the blessed Angels and Saints in Heaven was best of all and far more gainful and to be valued by him than any longer continuance or abode in the flesh The magnifying of Christ in his Body whether by Life or by Death was the Consideration with Paul that held the ballance cast the scale and that onely So it ought to be with every true Christian The end of man's coming into the Body and his temporary continuance and abode there according to the Law of his Creation is the magnifying and glorifying Christ either by his Life or by his Death or both the one of which if he do not it must needs be his sin and he is left without excuse For none can violate or corrupt the mind of man by the Law of Nature nor let in Death upon his Spiritual Substance but himself though they dissolve his temporary abode in the flesh break his outward case and shel and rather than do the one we should choose the other choose affliction rather than sin the dissolution of the Body rather than the corrupting of the Mind In so doing and dying Christ is magnifyed Thus Peter was foretold by what Death he should glorify God And to such it is given by Christ not onely to Believe but Suffer and Die for his Names sake as a transcendent priviledge and honour If no restraint then be upon our mind from without what hinders that Christ is not magnified in our Body but something within us in our judgement will and affections that are not right set and fixed nor as yet wrought to this self same thing by God who hath given us the earnest of his Spirit But it may be demanded What is it in which this great duty of man lies as to the magnifying of Christ in his Body by his Life or living in the Body which is a more difficult thing to do than to Die Christ himself tells us when he saith Let your Light so shine before men that they may see feel and sensibly discern your good works and so glorify your father which is in Heaven There are two sorts of signs we read of in those that believe which justifie their Faith in consortship as it were with which their Faith works and is made perfect so as the work of Faith is fulfilled in them with power 1. Signs Extraordinary as Mark 16. 18. with which the Primitive Christians were well acquainted and so may all such again as arrive to any competent maturity in that primitive Christian Spirit 2. Signes Ordinary as those mentioned Gal. 5. 22 23. called the fruits of the Spirit in us that makes us mighty in word and in deed not onely to will but to perform that which is good by being filled with the Spirit in our very Bodies made the Temples of the holy Ghost rich in Faith and Tuch good Works as are the fruit of Faith without which Faith it self is dead and unprofitable and by which Abraham justified his Faith and was called the Friend of God It is in this sense the Prophet urges the sanctification of our Vessels when he saith Be ye clean that bear the Vessels of the Lord. And the Apostle when he saith 1 Cor. 6. 19. What! know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the holy Ghost unto which Redemption by Christ extends as well as to your Spirits therefore glorify God in your Body as well as in your Spirit which is God's and wherein he hath and challengeth a special propriety The Body in Scripture acceptation signifies not onely the material substance from which the Soul is actually separated when it is laid in the Grave but very usually the Soul it self that is to say that part of the Soul which vitally unites the Body to it self whose faculty and operation is in and by the Body and doth properly and immediately exercise bodily Life as that which is co-natural and co-essential to it There is a higher part in man's Soul called Spirit in distinction from Soul and Body expressed 1 Thes 5. 23. as if the Spirit were an entire thing in it self though it be that in and with which Soul and Body doth consist as parts of the whole Man I pray God saith the Apostle that your whole Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless to the coming of Christ and that you may be sanctified throughout or in every part of you in your Soul and in your Body which are to be esteemed but as parts comparatively with your whole Spirit Man considered as entire in his Spirit may have and hath being before he partakes of Flesh and Blood as it is written Behold saith Christ I and the children which thou hast given me Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also himself took part of the same even he who with the children were a mystery hid with the Father before the World was and had their Seminal and radical Being in the Word of Life the Father of Spirits In this Word as in the Image and Mental conception of the invisible God the Souls of all men even of Christ himself as man were comprehended as in their original pattern and rule in order at the time appointed to come into flesh and there make their temporary abode allotted to them By the Condition and Law of Man's Creation he is made a Spiritual essence with two distinct faculties and operations according to which he may be said to be both Immortal and Mortal Immaterial and Material Spirit and Body as Body signifies man's animal rational Soul that is to live in flesh and hath its peculiar desire faculty and operation proportioned thereunto In all this Man bears the Image and Similitude of God the Mediator or of the Godhead in Christ as two Natures in him are Hypostatically united and make but one Compositum or Person This was comprehended in that Counsel which the blessed Trinity took concerning the making of Man in their Image and after their Similitude He was made male and female in his very Spiritual substance First with a faculty and operation of mind superiour stronger and more excellent which is free and independent upon bodily organs exercising Life properly and purely Spiritual and Immaterial above and without the use of sensible signes or shapes Secondly With that inferiour faculty and operation of mind whose subsistence life being and motion is in with and by the body and through the use of bodily organs sensible signes and external mediums on the loss of which this second faculty and operation of man's Soul which is the weaker inferiour and less valuable ceases at least is for a time suspended which in Scripture phrase is called Death even the Death of the Body Yet the more vigorous the exercise of this latter is and the more that thereby we are at home in the Body the more in truth and reality we are dead at least asleep in the earth as to our more Noble and Spiritual part in and through which we enjoy most of the presence of God and of Christ Since therefore mans constitution of Being in such as he cannot live both these Lives together untill the Resurrection but that in the one of them he must be incompleat have his operation much suspended and be as it were dead or asleep To resolve which of these to choose and prefer ought not to be so difficult as commonly it is made On the SUFFERINGS of the Renowned Sir H. Vane Knight GReat Soul ne're Understood Until deciphered by thy Blood A Priest a Prophet and a King Systeme of every worthy thing Dying that Liberty might Live The English Cause he doth retrieve Stating it in no formal dress But in the Spirit of Righteousness Which he from th' earth perceiving fled Dy'd to Return with 't from the Dead Persons or Forms of Government Did little make to his intent To nought was he an Enemy But what was fix'd in Enmity ' Gainst which he fought with eager breath Became Victorious in his Death And this not by necessity It was his Principle to Dye Flesh will resist but Faith can suffer The soft hand 's gone beware the rougher Th' envy and hate of every Form Upon his head pour'd down the Storm Whilst he sublim'd and sav'd the good O' th' lowest and seal'd it with his Blood How great he was his Enemies tell Who while he liv'd could not be well And in what stead his offering stood By resolute silence Friends made good The male o' th' Flock is ta'ne the best To expiate the blame o' th' rest What tears and prayers wanted in strength His crying blood brings down at length Groan English Hearts groan help the cry Lord Jesus Come I come quickly FINIS The Printer to the Reader IT 's very probable thou mayest meet with some faults and misprintings escaped the Corrector which could not be avoided by reason of the distance between the Transcriber and the Press thou art desired to correct them and pass them by with candor One thou mayest find in page 54 and 55 all those words within the Parenthesis should come in after the word Penetent And page 97. in the Title to that part read Case for Cause ☜
King is acknowledged to have two capacities in him one a natural as he is descended of the Blood Royal of the Realm and the Body natural he hath in this capacity is of the creation of Almighty God and mortal The other is a politick capacity in respect of which he is a Body politick or mystical framed by the policy of man which is immortal and invisible To the King in both these capacities conjoyn'd Allegiance is due that is to say to the natural person of the King accompanied with his politick capacity or the politick appropriated to the natural The politick capacity of the King hath properly no body nor soul for it is framed by the policy of man In all Indictments of Treason when any one does intend the death and destruction of the King it must needs be understood of his natural body the other being immortal The Indictment therefore concludes contra Legiantiae suae debitum against the duty of his Allegiance so that Allegiance is due to the natural body Admitting then that thus by Law Allegiance is due to the King as before recited yet it is alwayes to be presumed that it is to the King in conjunction with the Parliament the Law and the Kingdom and not in disjunction from or opposition to them and that while a Parliament is in being and cannot be dissolved but by the Consent of the three Estates This is therefore that which makes the matter in question a new Case that never before happened in the Kingdom nor was possible to happen unless there had been a Parliament constituted as this was unsubjected to Adjournment Prorogation or Dissolution by the King's will Where such a power is granted and the co-ordinates thereupon disagree and fall out such effects and consequents as these that have happened will but too probably follow And if either the Law of Nature or England inform not in such case it will be impossible for the Subjects to know their duty when that Power and Command which ought to flow from three in conjunction comes to be exercised by all or either of them singly and apart or by two of them against one When new and never-heard-of Changes do fall out in the Kingdom it is not like that the known and written Laws of the Land should be the exact Rule but the Grounds and Rules of Justice contained and declared in the Law of Nature are and ought to be a Sanctuary in such cases even by the very Common Law of England For thence originally spring the unerring Rules that are set by the Divine and Eternal Law for Rule and Subjection in all States and Kingdoms In contemplation hereof as the Resolve of all the Judges it was agreed 1. That Allegiance is due to Soveraignty by the Law of Nature to wit that Law which God at the creation of Man infused into his heart for his preservation and direction the Law eternal Yet is it not this Law as it is in the heart of every individual man that is binding over many or legislative but as it is the Act of a Community or an Associated People by the right dictates and perswasions of the work of this Law in their hearts This appears in the Case of the Israelites Judg. 20 21 chapters cited in the 4th part of Cook 's Institutes where mention is made of a Parliament without a King that made War and that with their Brethren They met as one man to do it in vindication of that Justice unto which they were obliged even by the Law of Nature This is that which Chancellor Fortescue calls Political Power here in England by which as by the Ordinance of man in pursuance of the Ordinance of God the Regal Office constituted or the King 's Politick Capacity and becomes appropriated to his natural person Thus Politick Power is the immediate Efflux and Off-spring of the Law of Nature and may be called a part of it To this Hooker in his Ecclesiastical Polity agrees and Selden on that subject The Law of Nature thus considered is part of the Law of England as is evident by all the best received Law-Books Bracton Fleta Lambard upon the Saxon Laws and Fortescue in the praise of the Laws of England This is the Law that is before any judicial or municipal Law as the root and fountain whence these and all Government under God and his Law do flow This Politick Power as it is exercised in conjunction with and conformity to the Eternal Law partakes of its moral and immutable nature and cannot be changed by Act of Parliament Of this Law it is that Magna Charta and the Charter of Forest with other Statutes rehearsed in the Petition of Right are for the most part declaratory For they are not introductive of any new Law but confirmations of what was good in all Laws of England before This agrees with that Maxime Salus Populi suprema Lex that being made due and binding by this Law which in the Judgment of the Community declaring their mind by their own free chosen Delegates and Trustees in harmony with the Eternal Law appears profitable and necessary for the preservation and good of the whole Society This is the Law which is put forth by the common consent of the whole Realm in their Representative and according to the fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom is that with which the Kings of this Land by the joynt co-operation of the three Estates do make and repeal Laws But through the disorders and divisions of the times these two Powers the Regal and Political which according to the Law of England make up but one and the same supream Authority fell assunder and found themselves in disjunction from and opposition to one another I do not say The question is now which of these is most rightly according to the principles of the Law of Nature and the Law of England to be adhered unto and obeyed but unto whether Power adherence is a crime in such an Exigent of State Which since it is such a new and extraordinary Case evidently above the Track of the ordinary Rules contained in the positive and municipal Laws of England there can be no colour to bring it within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. cap. 2. forasmuch as all Statutes presuppose these two Powers Regal and Political in conjunction perfect unity and subserviency which this Case does not cannot admit So exceeding new and extraordinary a Case is it that it may be doubted whether and questioned how far any other Parliament but that Parliament it self that was privy to all its own Actings and Intentions can be an indifferent and competent Judge But however the point is of so abstruse and high consideration as no inferiour Court can or ought to judge of it as by Law-Books is most undeniable to wit Bracton and others This then being the true state of the Case and the spring of that Contest that ensued and received its decision by the late War
to his Majesty that now is and to the Church and People of God in these Nations and to the innocent Blood of all that have been slain in this Quarrel Nothing it seems will now serve unless by the Condemnation passed upon my person they be rendred to posterity Murderers and Rebels and that upon Record in a Court of Justice in Westminster-hall And this would inevitably have followed if I had voluntarily given up this Cause without asserting their and my Innocency by which I should have pulled that Blood upon my own head which now I am sure must lie at the door of others and in particular of those that knowingly and precipitately shall embrew their hands in my innocent Blood under whatever form or pretext of Justice My Case is evidently new and unusual that which never happened before wherein there is not only much of God and of his Glory but all that is dear and of true value to all the good People in these three Nations And as I have said it cannot be Treason against the Law of Nature since the duties of the Subjects in relation to their Soveraigns and Superiours from highest to lowest are owned and conscientiously practised and yeelded by those that are the Assertors of this Cause Nor can it be Treason within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3 since besides what hath been said of no King in possession and of being under Powers regnant Kings de facto as also of the Fact in its own nature and the Evidence as to Overt Acts pretended it is very plain it cannot possibly fall within the purview of that Statute For this Case thus circumstantiated as before declared is no Act of any private person of his own head as that Statute intends nor in relation to the King there meant that is presumed to be in the exercise of his Royal Authority in conjunction with the Law and the two Houses of Parliament if they be sitting as the fundamental Constitutions of the Government do require My Lords If I have been free and plain with you in this matter I beg your Pardon For it concerns me to be so and something more than ordinarily urgent where both my Estate and Life are in such eminent peril nay more than my Life the Concerns of thousands of Lives are in it not only of those that are in their graves already but of all posterity in time to come Had nothing been in it but the care to preserve my own Life I needed not have stayed in England but might have taken my opportunity to have withdrawn my self into forreign parts to provide for my own safety Nor needed I to have been put upon pleading as now I am for an Arrest of Judgment but might have watch'd upon advantages that were visible enough to me in the managing of my Tryal if I had consulted only the preservation of my Life or Estate No my Lords I have otherwise learned Christ than to fear them that can but kill the Body and have no more that they can do I have also taken notice in the little reading that I have had of History how glorious the very Heathens have rendred their names to posterity in the contempt they have shewed of Death when the laying down of their Life has appeared to be their Duty from the love which they have owed to their Country Two remarkable examples of this give me leave to mention to you upon this occasion The one is of Socrates the divine Philosopher who was brought into question before a Judgment-Seat as now I am for maintaining that there was but one onely true God against the multiplicity of the superstitious Heathen gods and he was so little in love with his own Life upon this account wherein he knew the Right was on his side that he could not be perswaded by his friends to make any defence but would chuse rather to put it upon the conscience and determination of his Judges to decide that wherein he knew not how to make any choice of his own as to what would be best for him whether to live or to die he ingenuously professing that for ought he knew it might be much to his prejudice and loss to endeavour longer continuance in this bodily Life The other example is that of a chief Governour that to my best remembrance had the Command of a City in Greece which was besieged by a potent Enemy and brought into unimaginable straits Hereupon the said Governor makes his address to the Oracle to know the event of that danger The answer was That the City should be safely preserved if the chief Governour were slain by the Enemy He understanding this immediately disguis'd himself and went into the Enemies Camp amongst whom he did so comport himself that they unwittingly put him to death by which means immediately safety and deliverance arose to the City as the Oracle had declared So little was his Life in esteem with him when the Good and Safety of his Country required the laying of it down The BILL of EXCEPTIONS translated out of the best Latine form the Prisoner could procure No Counsel learned in the Law daring to assist him in those Circumstances without Assignment from the Court which was denied First Concerning my Imprisonment 1. I Shall here mention my entrance into this new Scene of Sufferings under the present Power after my having been handled at will and pleasure under the six years Usurpation of Cromwel which I conceive not to have been at all according to the Law of the Land as may appear by the 29th chap. of Magna Charta and Cook upon it with many other Statutes and Law-Books In all which it appears that the Law of England is so tender not to say curious in providing for the Subjects Liberty that he is not to suffer the least restraint confinement of imprisonment but by the lawfull Judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land Contrary to all which I was committed at meer Will and Pleasure and have been detained close Prisoner these two years without any cause specified or any particular crime laid to my charge Secondly Concerning Transactions at the Grand Jury 2. The Grand Jury of Middlesex without my privity knowledge or presence after I had been kept a close Prisoner two full years did meet take the Depositions of Witnesses and find the Bill against me which inevitably exposed me to a Tryal at the Kings Bench Bar for I knew not what whereas Major Rolph and others have had the Right of Englishmen granted them to be present at the Grand Juries proceedings yea and to have Counsel also present to plead any thing in a way of Reason or Law for invalidating the Testimony or disabling the Witnesses whereby the Indictment hath been immediately quash'd and so the party accused delivered from any shadow of Infamy by so much as appearing in the circumstances of a Male-factor at any publick Bar of Justice That this Prisoner had great need
despising God's precious Saints but in Heaven there is a good reception for them where are Mansions prepared from the beginning of the world He said You will shortly see God coming forth with Vengeance upon the whole Earth Vengeance upon the outward-man of his Saints and Vengeance upon the inward-man of his and their Enemies and that shall perform greater execution than was heretofore After his Sentence he said to some Friends God brought him upon on three stages to wit before the Court and was now leading him to the fourth his Execution-place which was far easier and pleasanter to him than any of the other three Saturday June 14. 1662 being the day of his Execution on Tower-Hill He told a Friend god bid Moses go to the top of Mount Pisgah and die so he bid him now go to the top of Tower-hill and die Some passages of his Prayer with his Lady Children and other Friends in his Chamber MOst holy and gracious Father look down from the habitation of thy Holiness visit relieve and comfort us thy poor Servants here gathered together in the Name of Christ Thou art rending this Vaile and bringing us to a Mountain that abides firm We are exceeding interrupters of our own joy peace and good by the workings and reasonings of our own hearts Thou hast promised that thou wilt be a Mouth to thy People in the hour of Tryal for thou hast required us to forbear the preparatory agitations of our own minds because it is not we that are to speak but the Spirit of our heavenly Father that speaketh in us in such seasons In what seasons more Lord than when thou callest for the Testimony of thy Servants to be writ in Characters of Blood Shew thy self in a poor weak Worm by enabling him to stand against all the power of thy Enemies There hath been a battel fought with garments rouled in blood in which upon solemn Appeals on both sides thou didst own thy Servants though through the spirit of Hypocrisie and Apostacy that hath sprung up amongst us these Nations have been thought unworthy any longer to enjoy the fruits of that Deliverance Thou hast therefore another day of decision to come which shall be wrought by fire Such a battel is to begin and be carried on by the Faith of thy People yea is in some sort begun by the Faith of thy poor Servant that is now going to seal thy Cause with his Blood Oh that this decision of thine may remarkably shew it self in thy Servant at this time by his bold Testimony and sealing it with his Blood We know not what interruptions may attend thy Servant but Lord let thy Power carry him in a holy Triumph over all difficulties Thou art the great Judge and Law-giver for the sake of thy Servants therefore O Lord return on high and cause a righteous Sentence to come forth from thy presence for the relief of thy despised People This thy Servants with Faith and Patience wait for The working of this Faith in us causeth the Enemy to give ground already If Death be not able to terrifie us from keeping a good Conscience and giving a good Testimony against them what can they do but stumble and fall backwards The day approaches in which thou wilt decide this Controversie not by Might nor by Power but by the Spirit of the living God This Spirit will make its own way and run through the whole Earth Then shall it be said Where is the fury of the Oppressor Who is he that dares or can stand before the Spirit of the Lord in the mouth of his Witnesses Arise O Lord and let thine Enemies be scattered Thy poor Servant knows not how he shall be carried forth by thee this day but blessed be thy great Name that he hath whereof to speak in this great Cause When I shall be gathered to thee this day then come thou in the Ministry of thy holy Angels that excel in strength We have seen enough of this World and thou seest we have enough of it Let these my Friends that are round about me commit me to the Lord and let them be gathered into the Family of Abraham the Father of the Faithful and become faithful Witnesses of those principles and Truths that have been discovered to them that it may be known that a poor weak Prophet hath been amongst them not by the words of his mouth onely but by the voice of his Blood and Death which will speak when he is gone Good Lord put words into his mouth that may daunt his Enemies so that they may be forced to say God is in him of a Truth and that the Son of God is in his heart and in his mouth My hour-glass is now turned up the sand runs out apace and it is my happiness that Death doth not surprize me It is Grace and Love thou dost shew thy poor Servant that thou hastenest out his time and lettest him see it runs out with Joy and Peace Little do my Enemies know as eager as they are to have me gone how soon their breaths may be drawn in But let thy Servant see Death shrink under him What a glorious sight will this be in the presence of many Witnesses to have Death shrink under him which he acknowledgeth to be only by the power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ whom the bands of Death could not hold down Let that Spirit enter into us that will set us again upon our feet and let us be led into that way that the Enemies may not know how to deal with us Oh! what abjuring of Light what Treachery what meanness of spirit has appeared in this day What is the matter Oh! Death is the matter Lord strengthen the Faith and Heart of thy poor Servant to undergo this dayes work with Joy and Gladness and bear it on the Heart and Consciences of his Friends that have known and seen him that they also may say the Lord is in him of a truth Oh that thy Servant could speak any blessing to these three Nations Let thy Remnant be gathered to thee Prosper and relieve that poor handful that are in Prisons and Bonds that they may be raised up and trample Death under foot Let my poor Family that is left desolate let my dear Wife and Children be taken into thy Care be thou a Husband Father and Master to them Let the Spirits of those that love me be drawn out towards them Let a Blessing be upon these Friends that are here at this time strengthen them let them find Love and Grace in thine Eyes and be increased with the Increasings of God Shew thy self a loving Father to us all and do for us abundantly above and beyond all that we can ask or think for Jesus Christ his sake Amen Several Friends being with him in his Chamber this morning he oft encouraged them to chearfulness as wel by his example as expression In all his deportment he shewed himself marvellously fitted to
railed against the Judges and that it was a lye and I am here sayes he to testifie that it is false Sir Henry Vane replied God will judge between me and you in this matter I speak but matter of Fact and cannot you bear that 'T is evident the Judges have refused to sign my Bill of Exceptions Then the Trumpets were ordered to sound or murre in his face with a contemptible noise to hinder his being heard At which Sir Henry lifting up his hand and then laying it on his breast said What mean you Gentlemen is this your usage of me did you use all the rest so I had even done as to that could you have been patient but seeing you cannot bear it I shall only say this That whereas the Judges have refused to seal that with their hands that they have done I am come to seal that with my Blood that I have done Therefore leaving this matter which I perceive will not be born I judge it meet to give you some account of my Life I might tell you I was born a Gentleman had the education temper and spirit of a Gentleman as well as others being in my youthfull dayes inclined to the vanities of this world and to that which they call Good-fellowship judging it to be the only means of accomplishing a Gentleman But about the fourteenth or fifteenth year of my age which is about thirty four or five years since God was pleased to lay the foundation or ground-work of Repentance in me for the bringing me home to himself by his wonderful rich and free Grace revealing his Son in me that by the knowledge of the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent I might even whilst here in the body be made partaker of Eternal Life in the first-fruits of it When my Conscience was thus awakened I found my former course to be disloyalty to God prophaneness and a way of sin and death which I did with tears and bitterness bewail as I had cause to do Since that foundation of Repentance laid in me through Grace I have been kept steadfast desiring to walk in all good Conscience towards God and towards men according to the best light and understanding God gave me For this I was willing to turn by back upon my Estate expose my self to hazards in Forreign parts yea nothing seemed difficult to me so I might preserve Faith and a good Conscience which I prefer before all things and do earnestly perswade all people rather to suffer the highest contradictions from men than disobey God by contradicting the light of their own Conscience In this it is I stand with so much comfort and boldness before you all this day and upon this occasion being assured that I shall at last sit down in Glory with Christ at his right hand I stand here this day to resign up my Spirit into the hands of that God that gave it me Death is but a little word but 't is a great work to die it is to be but once done and after this cometh the Judgment even the Judgment of the great God which it concerns us all to prepare for And by this Act I do receive a discharge once for all out of Prison even the Prison of the mortal body also which to a true Christian is a burdensom weight In all respects wherein I have been concerned and engaged as to the Publick my design hath been to accomplish Good things for these Nations Then lifting up his eyes and spreading his hands he said I do here appeal to the great God of Heaven and all this Assembly or any other persons to shew wherein I have defiled my hands with any mans Blood or Estate or that I have sought my self in any publick capacity or place I have been in The Cause was three times stated 1. In the Remonstrance of the House of Commons 2. In the Covenant the Solemn League and Covenant Upon this the Trumpets sounded the Sheriff catched at the Paper in his hand and Sir John Robinson who at first had acknowledged that he had nothing to do there wishing the Sheriff to see to it yet found himself something to do now furiously calling for the Writers-Books and saying he treats of Rebellion and you write it Hereupon six Note-Books were delivered up The Prisoner was very patient and composed under all these injuries and soundings of the Trumpets several times in his face only saying 'T was hard he might not be suffered to speak but sayes he my usage from man is no harder than was my Lord and Masters And all that will live his life this day must expect hard dealing from the worldly spirit The Trumpets sounded again to hinder his being heard Then again Robinson and two or three others endeavoured to snatch the Paper out of Sir Henry's hand but he kept it for a while now and then reading part of it afterwards tearing it in pieces he delivered it to a Friend behind him who was presently forced to deliver it to the Sheriff Then they put their hands into his pockets for Papers as was pretended which bred great confusion and dissatisfaction to the Spectators seeing a Prisoner so strangely handled in his dying words This was exceeding remarkable in the midst of all this disorder the Prisoner himself was observed to be of the most constant composed spirit and countenance which he throughout so excellently manifested that a Royallist swore he dyed like a Prince The Prisoner suspecting beforehand the disorder afore-mentioned writ the main Substance of what he intended to speak on the Scaffold in that Paper they catched at and which he tore in pieces delivering it to a Friend from whom the Sheriff had it as above-said the true Copy whereof was by the Prisoner carefully committed to a safe hand before he came to the Scaffold which take as followeth THe Work which I am at this time called unto in this place as upon a Publick Theater is to Die and receive a Discharge once for all out of Prison to do that which is but once to be done the doing or not doing of which well and as becomes a Christian does much depend upon the life we have been taught of God to lead before we come to this They that live in the Faith do also die in it Faith is so far from leaving Christians in this hour that the work of it breaks forth then into its greatest power as if till then it were not enough at freedom to do its office that is to look into the things that are unseen with most steadfastness certainty and delight which is the great Sweetner of Death and Remover of its Sting Give me leave therefore in a very few words to give you an account of my Life and of the wonderful great Grace and Mercy of God in bringing me home to himself and revealing his Son in me that by the knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent I might
even whilst here in the body be made partaker of Eternal Life in the first fruits of it and at last sit down with Christ in Glory at his right-hand Here I shall mention some remarkable passages and changes of my Life In particular how unsought for by my self I was called to be a Member of the Long Parliament what little advantage I had by it and by what steps I became satisfied with the Cause I was engaged in and did pursue the same What the Cause was did first shew it self in the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons Secondly in the Solemn League and Covenant Thirdly in the more refined pursuit of it by the Commons House in their Actings single with what Result they were growing up into which was in the breast of the House and unknown or what the three Proposals mentioned in my Charge would have come to at last I shall not need now to say but only from all put together to assert That this Cause which was owned by the Parliament was the CAUSE of GOD and for the Promoting of the Kingdom of his dear Son JESUS CHRIST wherein are comprehended our Liberties and Duties both as Men and as Christians And since it hath pleased God who separated me from the womb to the knowledge and service of the Gospel of his Son to separate me also to this hard and difficult service at this time and to single me out to the defence and justification of this his Cause I could not consent by any words or actions of mine that the innocent Blood that hath been shed in the defence of it throughout the whole War the Guilt and moral evil of which must and does certainly lye somewhere did lye at my door or at theirs that have been the faithful Adherers to this Cause This is with such evidence upon my heart that I am most freely and chearfully willing to put the greatest Seal to it I am capable which is the pouring out of my very Blood in witness to it which is all I shall need to say in this place and at this time having spoken at large to it in my Defence at my Tryal intending to have said more the last day as what I thought was reasonable for Arrest of the Judgment but I was not permitted then to speak it Both which may with time and God's providence come to publick view And I must still assert That I remain wholly unsatisfied that the course of proceedings against me at my Tryal were according to Law but that I was run upon and destroyed contrary to Right and the Liberties of Magna Charta under the form only of Justice which I leave to God to decide who is the Judge of the whole World and to clear my Innocency Whilst in the mean time I beseech him to forgive them and all that have had a hand in my Death and that the Lord in his great mercy will not lay it unto their charge And I do account this Lot of mine no other than what is to be expected by those that are not of the World but whom Christ hath chosen out of it for the Servant is not greater than his Lord And if they have done this to the green tree they will do it much more to the dry However I shall not altogether excuse my self I know that by many weaknesses and failers I have given occasion enough of the ill usage I have met with from men though in the main the Lord knows the sincerity and integrity of my heart whatever Aspersions and Reproaches I have or do lye under I know also that God is just in bringing this Sentence and Condemnation upon me for my sins there is a body of sin and death in me deserves this Sentence and there is a similitude and likeness also that as a Christian God thinks me worthy to bear with my Lord and head in many circumstances in reference to these dealings I have met with in the good I have been endeavouring for many years to be doing in these Nations and especially now at last in being numbred amongst transgressors and made a publick Sacrifice through the wrath and contradictions of men and in having finished my course and fought the good fight of Faith and resisted in a way of suffering as you see even unto blood This is but the needful preparation the Lord hath been working in me to the receiving of the Crown of Immortality which he hath prepared for them that love him The prospect whereof is so chearing that through the Joy in it that is set before the eyes of my Faith I can through mercy endure this Cross despise this Shame and am become more than Conquerour through Christ that hath loved me For my Life Estate and all is not so dear to me as my Service to God to his Cause to the Kingdom of Christ and the future welfare of my Country and I am taught according to the Example as well as that most Christian saying of a Noble Person that lately died after this publick manner in Scotland How much better is it to chuse Affliction and the Cross than to sin or draw back from the Service of the Living God into the wayes of Apostacy and Perdition That Noble Person whose Memory I honour was with my self at the beginning and making of the Solemn League and Covenant the Matter of which and the holy Ends therein contained I fully assent unto and have been as desirous to observe but the rigid way of prosecuting it and the oppressing Uniformity that hath bin endeavored by it I never approved This were sufficient to vindicate me from the false Aspersions and Calumnies which have been laid upon me of Jesuitism and Popery and almost what not to make my Name of ill savour with good men which dark mists do now dispel of themselves or at least ought and need no pains of mine in making an Apology For if any man seek a proof of Christ in me let him reade it in his action of my Death which will not cease to speak when I am gone And henceforth let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus I shall not desire in this place to take up much time but only as my last words leave this with you That as the present storm we now lie under and the dark Clouds that yet hang over the Reformed Churches of Christ which are coming thicker and thicker for a season were not un-fore-seen by me for many years passed as some Writings of mine declare So the coming of Christ in these Clouds in order to a speedy and sudden Revival of his Cause and spreading his Kingdom over the face of the whole Earth is most clear to the eye of my Faith even that Faith in which I dye whereby the Kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ Amen Even so come Lord Jesus Some Passages of his PRAYER on the Scaffold
or to be born In flying Death thou flyest thy self thy essence is equally parted into these two Life and Death It is the condition and Law of thy Creation Men are not sent into the World by God but with purpose to go forth again which he that is not willing to do should not come in The first day of thy birth bindeth thee and sets thee in the way as well to Death as to Life To be unwilling therefore to die is to be unwilling to be a Man since to be a Man is to be Mortal It being therefore so serviceable to Nature and the institution of it why should it be feared or shunned Besides it is necessary and inevitable we must do our best endeavour in things that are not Remediless but ought to grow resolute in things past Remedy It is most just reasonable and desirable to arive at that place towards which we are alwayes walking Why fearest thou to go whither all the World goes It is the part of a valiant and generous Mind to prefer some things before Life as things for which a man should not doubt nor fear to die In such a case however matters go a man must more account thereof than of his Life He must run his race with resolution that he may perform things profitable and exemplary The contempt of Death is that which produceth the boldest and most honourable exploits He that fears not to die fears nothing From hence have proceeded the commendable Resolutions and free Speeches of Vertue uttered by men of whom the world hath not been worthy A gallant Romane commanded by Vespasian not to come to the Senate answered He was a Senator therefore sit to be at the Senate and being there if required to give his advice he would do it as his Conscience commanded him Hereupon being threatned by the Emperor he replyed Did I ever tell you that I was immortal Do you what you will and I will do what I ought It is in your power to put me unjustly to death and in mine to die constantly What hard dealing cannot he suffer that fears not to die Other designments may be hindred by our enemies but they cannot hinder us from dying The means whereby to live free is to contemn Death It is no great thing to live slaves and beasts can do that but it is a great matter to live freely and die honestly wisely constantly Emori nolo saith one sed me esse mortuum nihil estimo I would not die but to be dead I look upon as nothing But no man can be said resolute to die that is afraid to confront it and suffer with his eyes open as Socrates did without passion or alteration In a miserable estate of a Life which a man cannot remedy Death is lawfully desirable as our best retreat and onely haven from the storms of this Life and as the Soveraign good of nature the onely stay and pillar of Liberty It is a good time to die when to live is rather a burthen than a blessing and there is more ill in Life than good There are many things in Life far worse than Death in respect whereof we should rather die than live The more voluntary our Death is the more honourable Life may be taken away from every man by every man but not Death It is no smal reproach to a Christian whose faith is in immortality and the blessedness of another Life to fear Death much which is the necessary passage thereunto He ought rather to desire and thirst after death as great gain Vitam habere in patientiâ mortem in desiderio to endure Life and desire Death But it is greater constancy well to use the chain wherewith we are bound than to break it A man is not to abandon his charge in Life without the express command of him that gave it him Sylvanus and Proximus being pardoned by Nero chose Death rather than to Live upon those terms Nerva a great Lawyer Cato of Urica and others died as not able to bear the sight of the Weal-publick in that bad and declining state into which by Gods Providence it was brought in their times but they should have considered Multa dies variusque labor mutabilis Aevi Retulit in melius A man ought to carry himself blamlesly and with a steddy courage in his place and calling against his assailants and consider that it is better to continue firme and constant to the end then fearfully to fly or dye It is not a less evil to quit the place and fly than obstinately to be taken and perish It is a great point of wisdom to know the right hour and fit season to Die Many men have survived their own Glory That is the best Death which is well recollected in it self quiet solitary and attendeth wholly to what at that time is fittest But let us more particularly and upon truly and purely Christian Principles weigh and consider Death They that live by Faith die daily The Life which Faith teaches works Death It leads up the mind to things not seen which are eternal and takes it off with its affections and desires from things seen which are temporary It acquaints the soul experimentally with that heavenly way of converse and intercourse which is not expressed by sensible signes but by the demonstration proper to spirits whether angels souls separate or souls yet in the body as they live by faith not by sense In which respect the use of voice and mouth is attributed to God to Christ to Angels who have that with them and in them whereby they outwardly manifest what they inwardly conceive although they express not the inward word of their mental conception by any outward voice hand eye or other external sign but by the way of its own self evidencing brightness and essential demonstration Such a way of living and shining forth in man's naked essential beams he then arrives unto when the thick vail and wall of his flesh is dissolved and his earthly tabernacle put off The knowledge sight and experience of such a kind of subsisting and heavenly manner of Life that man is capable of is the best preparative and most powerful motive to leave the body and surcease the use of our earthly organs This in effect is all that bodily death rightly known and understood doth impart a lawful surceasing the use and exercise of our earthly organs and our willing and chearful resorting to the use and exercise of that Life without the Body which man is capable to subsist in when made perfect in spirit an equal and associate with angels under the power and order of expressing what he inwardly conceives as they do This made Paul look upon Life in the Body and Life out of it with no indifferent eye but as accounting the being at home in the body an absence from the Lord and such a kind of absence from the body as death causes to be that which makes us most present with