Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	life_n	live_v	world_n	13,510	5	4.9137	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70521	The last speech and carriage of the Lord Russel, upon the scaffold, &c. on Saturday the 21st of July, 1683	Russell, William, Lord, 1639-1683.	1683 (1683)	Wing L504C; ESTC R8683	7,370	4

though he swears he came in after and there were things said by some with much more Heat than Judgment which I did sufficiently disapprove and yet for these things I stand condemned But I thank God my part was sincere and well meant It is I know inferred from hence and was pressed to me that I was acquainted with these Heats and ill Designs and did not discover them But this is but Misprision of Treason at most So I dye innocent of the Crime I stand condemn'd for and I hope nobody will imagine that so mean a Thought could enter into me as to go about to save my self by accusing others The part that some have acted lately of that kind has not been such as to invite me to love Life at such a rate As for the Sentence of Death passed upon me I cannot but think it a very hard one For nothing was sworn against me whether true or false I will not now examine but some Discourses about making some Stirs And this is not levying War against the King which is Treason by the Statute of Edward the Third and not the consulting and discoursing about it which was all that was witnessed against me But by a strange Fetch the Design of seizing the Guards was construed a Design of killing the King and so I was in that cast And now I have truly and sincerely told what my part was in that which cannot be more than a bare Misprision and yet I am condemned as guilty of a design of killing the King I pray God lay not this to the charge neither of the King's Counsel nor Judges nor Sheriffs nor Jury And for the Witnesses I pity them and wish them well I shall not reckon up the Particulars wherein they did me wrong I had rather their own Consciences should do that to which and the Mercies of God I leave them Only I still avers that what I said of my not hearing Col. Rumsey deliver his Message from my Lord Shaftsbury was true for I always detested Lying tho never so much to my advantage And I hope none will be so unjust and uncharitable as to think I would venture on it in these my last Words for which I am so soon to give an account to the Great God the Searcher of Hearts and Judg of all Things From the Time of chasing Sheriffs I concluded the Heat in that Matter would produce something of this kind and I am not much surprized to find it fall upon me And I wish what is done to me may put a stop and satiate some Peoples Revenge and that no more innocent Blood may be shed for I must and do still look upon mine as such since I know I was guilty of no Treason and therefore I would not betray my Innocence by Flight of which I do not I thank God yet repent tho much pressed to it how fatal soever it may have seem'd to have proved to me for I look upon my Death in this manner I thank God with other eyes than the World does I know I said but little at the Trial and I suppose it looks more like Innocence than Guilt I was also advis'd not to confess matter of Fact plainly since that must certainly have brought me within the Guilt of Misprision And being thus restrained from dealing frankly and openly I chose rather to say little than to depart from Ingenuity that by the grace of God I had carried along with me in the former parts of my Life and so could easier be silent and leave the whole matter to the Conscience of the Jury than to make the last and solemnest part of my life so different from the course of it as the using little Tricks and Evasions must have been Nor did I ever pretend to a great readiness in speaking I wish those Gentlemen of the Law who have it would make more Conscience in the use of it and not run Men down by Strains and Fetches impose on easie and willing Juries to the Ruine of innocent Men For to kill by Forms and Subtilties of Law is the worst sort of Murder But I wish the Rage of hot Men and the Partialities of Juries may be stopp'd with my Blood which I would offer up with so much the more Joy if I thought I should be the last were to suffer in such a way Since my Sentence I have had few Thoughts but Preparatory ones for Death Yet the Importunity of my Friends and particularly of the best and dearest Wife in the World prevailed with me to sign Petitions and make Addresses for my Life To which I was very averse For I thank God tho in all respects I have lived one of the happiest and contented'st men in the world for now near fourteen years yet I am so willing to leave all that it was not without Difficulty that I did any thing for the saving of my Life that was Begging But I was willing to let my Friends see what Power they had over me and that I was not obstinate nor sullen but would do any thing that an honest Man could do for their Satisfaction Which was the only Motive that sway'd or had any weight with me And now to summ up all as I never had any Design against the King's Life or the Life of any man whatsoever so I never was in any Contrivance of altering the Government What the Heats Wickednesses Passions and Vanities of other men have occasioned I ought not to be answerable for nor could I repress them tho I now suffer for them But the Will of the Lord be done into whose Hands I commend my Spirit and trust that thou O most merciful Father hast forgiven me all my Transgressions the Sins of my Youth and all the Errors of my past Life and that thou wilt not lay my secret Sins to my Charge but wilt graciously support me during that small part of my Life now before me and assist me in my last Moments and not leave me then to be disorder'd by Fear or any other Temptation but make the Light of thy Countenance to shine upon me for thou art my Sun and my Shield and as thou supportest me by thy Grace so I hope thou wilt hereafter crown me with Glory and receive me into the Fellowship of Angels and Saints in that blessed Inheritance purchased for me by my most merciful Redeemer who is I trust at thy Right Hand preparing a Place for me into whose Hands I commend my Spirit Signed Will. Russel

THE Last Speech and Carriage OF THE LORD RUSSEL upon the Scaffold c. On Saturday the 21st of July 1683. ABout Nine in the Morning the Sheriffs went to Newgate to see if my Lord Russel was ready and in a little time his Lordship came out and went into his Coach taking his Farewel of his Lady the Lord Cavendish and several other of his Friends at Newgate in the Coach were Dr. Tillotson and Dr. Burnet who accompanied him to the Scaffold built in Lincolns-Inn-fields which was covered all over with Mourning Being come upon the Scaffold his Lordship bowed to the Persons present and turning to the Sheriff made this following Speech Mr. SHERIFF I Expected the Noise would be such that I should not be very well heard I was never fond of much speaking much less now therefore I have set down in this Paper all that I think fit to leave behind me God knows how far I was always from designs against the King's Person or of altering the Government And I still pray for the preservation of both and of the Protestant Religion Mr. Sheriff I am told that Capt. Walcot Yesterday said some things concerning my knowledge of the Plot I know not whether the Report is true or not Mr. Sheriff I did not hear him name your Lordship Writer No My Lord your Lordship was not named by any of them Lord Russ. I hope it is not for to my knowledge I never saw him nor spake with him in my whole Life and in the words of a Dying Man I profess I know of no Plot either against the King's Life or the Government But I have now done with this World and am going to a better I forgive all the World heartily and I thank God I die in Charity with all Men and I wish all sincere Protestants may love one another and not make way for Popery by their Animosities I pray God forgive them and continue the Protestant Religion amongst them that it may flourish so long as the Sun and Moon indures I am now more satisfied to die then ever I have been Then kneeling down his Lordship prayed to himself after which Dr. Tillotson kneeled down and prayed with him which being done his Lordship kneeled down and prayed a second time to himself then pulled off his Wigg put on his Cap took off his Crevat and Coat and bidding the Executioner after he had lain down a small moment do his Office without a Sign he gave him some Gold then embracing Dr. Tillotson and Dr. Burnet he laid him down with his Neck upon the Block The Executioner missing at his first stroke though with that he took away Life at two more severed the Head from the Body The Executioner held up the Head to the People as is usual in Cases of Treason c. Which being done Mr. Sheriff ordered his Lordships Friends or Servants to take the Body and dispose of it as they pleased being given them by his Majesties Favour and Bounty The Paper delivered to the Sheriffs by My L d. Russel I Thank God I find my self so composed and prepared for Death and my Thoughts so fixed on another World that I hope in God I am now quite weaned from setting my Heart on this Yet I cannot forbear spending some time now in setting down in Writing a fuller Account of my Condition to be left behind me than I 'll venture to say at the Place of Execution in the. Noise and Clutter that is like to be there I bless God heartily for those many Blessings which he in his infinite Mercy has bestowed upon me through the whole Course of my Life That I was born of worthy good Parents and had the Advantages of a Religious Education which I have often thank'd God very heartily for and look'd upon as an invaluable Blessing For even when I minded it least it still hung about me and gave me Checks and hath now for many Years so influenced and possessed me that I feel the happy Effects of it in this my Extremity in which I have been so wonderfully I think God supported that neither my Imprisonment nor the Fear of Death have been able to discompose me to any degree but on the contrary I have found the Assurances of the Love and Mercy of God in and through my blessed Redeemer in whom only I trust and I do not question but that I am going to partake of that Fulness of Joy which is in his presence the hopes whereof does so wonderfully delight me that I reckon this as the happiest time of my Life though others may look upon it as the saddest I have lived and now die of the Reformed Religion a true and sincere Protestant and in the Communion of the Church of England though I could never yet comply with or rise up to all the heights of some People I wish with all my Soul all our unhappy Differences were removed and that all sincere Protestants would so far consider the Danger of Popery as to lay aside their Heats and agree against the Common Enemy and that the Church-men would be less severe and the Dissenters less scrupulous For I think Bitterness and Persecution are at all times bad but much more now For Popery I look on it as an Idolatrous and Bloody Religion and therefore thought my self bound in my Station to do all I could against it And by that I foresaw I should procure such great Enemies to my self and so powerful Ones that I have been now for some time expecting the worst And blessed be God I fall by the Axe and not by the Fiery Tryal Yet whatever Apprehensions I had of Popery and of my own severe and heavy share I was like to have under it when it should prevail I never had a Thought of doing any thing against it basely or inhumanly but what could well consist with the Christian Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom And I thank God I have examined all my Actings in that Matter with so great Care that I can appeal to God Almighty who knows my Heart that I went on Sincerely without being moved either by Passion By-End of Ill Design I have always loved my Country much more than my Life and never had any Design of changing the Government which I value and look upon as one of the best Governments in the World and would always have been ready to venture my Life for the preserving of it and would have suffered any Extremity rather than have consented to any Design to take away the King's Life Neither ever had Man the Impudence to propose so base and barbarous a thing to me And I look upon it as a very unhappy and uneasy part of my present Condition That in my Indictment there should be so much as mention of so vile a Fact though nothing in the least was said to prove any such Matter but the contrary by the Lord Howard Neither does any Body I am confident believe the