Serpents to wave his assault till our hour is come and we can gain and conquer by dying It is a weakness of mind not to know how to contemn an offence An honest man is not subject to Injury He is inviolable and unmoveable Inviolable not so much that he cannot be beaten but that being beaten he doth neither receive wound nor hurt We can receive no evil but of our selves We may therefore always say with Socrates My enemies may put me to death but they shall never enforce me to do that which I ought not Evils themselves through the wise over-ruling Providence of God have good fruits and effects The World would be extinguished and perish if it were not changed shaken and discomposed by a variety and an interchangable course of things wisely ordered by God the best Physitian This ought to satisfie every honest and reasonable mind and make it joyfully submit to the worst of changes how strange and wonderful soever they may seem since they are the works of God and Nature and that which is a loss in one respect is a gain in another Let not a wise man disdain or ill resent any thing that shall happen to him Let him know those things that seem hurtful to him in particular pertain to the preservation of the whole Universe and are of the nature of those things that finish and fill up the course and office of this World Meditations on Death IT is a fruit of true Wisdom not onely Christian but Natural to be found and kept in a frame of mind ready for Death The day of Death is the Judge of all our other dayes the very tryal and touchstone of the actions of our Life 'T is the end that crowns the work and a good Death honoureth a man's whole Life This last act as it is the most difficult so but by this a man cannot well judge of the actions of anothers Life without wronging him A wise Greek being asked concerning three eminent persons which of them was to be most esteemed returned this Answer We must see them all three die before this Question can be resolved With which accords that saying of Solon the wise Athenian to Craesus when he boastingly shewed him his great Treasures No man is to be accounted happy before his Death True natural Wisdom pursueth the learning and practise of dying well as the very end of Life and indeed he hath not spent his Life ill that hath learned to die well It is the chiefest thing and duty of Life The knowledge of Dying is the knowledge of Liberty the state of true Freedom the way to Fear nothing to Live well contentedly and peaceably Without this there is no more pleasure in Life than in the fruition of that thing which a man feareth alwayes to loose In order to which we must above all endeavour that our sins may die and that we see them dead before our selves which alone can give us boldness in the day of Judgement and make us alwayes ready and prepared for Death Death is not to be feared and fled from as it is by most but sweetly and patiently to be waited for as a thing natural reasonable and inevitable It is to be looked upon as a thing indifferent carrying no harm in it This that is all the hurt enemies can do us is that which we should desire and seek after as the onely Haven of Rest from all the Torments of this Life and which as it gives us a fuller fruition of Christ is a very great gain that the sooner we are possessors of the better Death is the onely thing of all evils or privations that doth no harm hath indeed no evil in it however it be reputed The sting of it is sin and that is the sting of Life too There is no reason to fear it because no man knows certainly what it is This made Socrates refuse to plead before his Judges for his justification or Life For saith he If I should plead for my Life and desire of you that I may not die I doubt I may speak against my self to my loss and hindrance who may find more good in death than yet I know Those things I know to be evil as unrighteousness and sin I fly and avoid those that I know not to be so as Death c. I cannot fear and therefore I leave it to you to determine for me whether it is more expedient for me to Dye or to Live He can never live contentedly that fears to dye That man only is a free man who feareth not Death Life it self being but slavery if it were not made free by Death It is uncertain in what place Death attends us therefore let us expect it in all places and be alwayes ready to receive it Great virtue and great or long Life do seldom meet together Life is measured by the end if that be good all the rest will have a proportion to it The quantity is nothing as to the making it more or less happy The Spirit of a good man when he ceases to live in the Body goes into a better state of Life than that which he exercises in this World and when once in that were it possible to resume this he would refuse it Yea were a man capable to know what this Life here is before he receives it he would scarce ever have accepted it at first The self same journey men have taken from no being to being and from pre-existent being into mortal Life without fear or passion they may take again from that Life by Death into a Life that hath immortality in it Death is the inevitable Law God and Nature have put upon us Things certain should not be feared but expected Things doubtful onely are to be feared Death in stead of taking away any thing from us gives us all even the perfection of our natures sets us at liberty both from our own bodily desires others domination makes the Servant free from his Master It doth not bring us into darkness but takes darkness out of us us out of darkness and puts us into marvellous light Nothing perishes or is dissolved by Death but the Vail and Covering which is wont to be done away from all ripe fruit It brings us out of a dark dungeon through the crannies whereof our sight of Light is but weak and small and brings us into an open Liberty an estate of Light and Life unvailed and perpetual It takes us out of that mortality which began in the womb of our Mother and now endeth to bring us into that Life which shall never end This day which thou fearest as thy last is thy Birth day into Eternity Death holds a high place in the policy and great common-wealth of the World It is very profitable for the succession and continuance of the works of Nature The fading corruption and loss of this life is the passage into a better Death is no less essential to us than to live
the two Houses Petition to the King for his Assent to the Bills by them drawn up and passed They used this as a means to induce the King to exempt me from all benefit of the Act of Indempnity and Oblivion and then at last perswade and absolve him from making good this Grant also thereby depriving me of all visible relief for my Life I conceived my Life as secure by that Grant as others Lives or Estates are by the Act of Indempnity it self for what is that but the Bill of both Houses with the King's Assent to it upon their Petition The PETITION of both Houses of Parliament to the King 's most excellent Majesty on the behalf of Sir Henry Vane and Col. John Lambert after they left them uncapable of having any benefit of the Act of Indempnity To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of the Lords and Commons assembled in PARLIAMENT Sheweth THat Your Majesty having declared your gracious pleasure to proceed only against the immediate Murderers of your Royal Father We your Majesties most humble Subjects the Lords and Commons assembled not finding Sir Henry Vane nor Col. Lambert to be of that number Are humble Suiters to Your Majesty that if they shall be Attainted that Execution as to their Lives may be remitted And as in duty bound c. The said Petition being read it was agreed to and ordered to be presented to his Majesty by the Lord Chancellor The Lord Chancellor reported That he had presented the Petition of both Houses to the King's Majesty concerning Sir Henry Vane and Col. Lambert and his Majesty grants the Desires in the said Petition John Browne Cler. Parliamentorum Concerning the Proceedings of the Court 1. THe Judges denied Counsel to the Prisoner on this pretext that they as they were to be would be his Counsel They are the King's Commissary Judges preferred and paid for their work by the King who in this case was through evil and false suggestions rendred the Prisoners chief or only Adversary whose Death he stood accused of imagining and compassing What Counsel or Assistance the Prisoner was like to have from them let the World judge 2. His Jury consisted of persons that had been engaged against him in that very Controversie and Cause for which he was tryed A Forreigner in any Criminal Case amongst us may require six of his Jurors to be of his own Countrymen a French-man six French-men a Dutch-man six Dutch-men c. There was but one here that was suspected only to have something of an English man in him sworn of the Jury and the Lord Chief Justice sharply rebuked the Clerk of the Court alledging that he knew not but he might have brought bread and cheese in his pocket and would keep them all night with other words to like purpose 3. The Prisoner was not suffered to speak a word to the Jury after the King's Counsel had spoken to take off the aggravating glosses they had put upon his pretended crime and the Judges that said they would be the Prisoner's Counsel dismissed the Jury possessed with the last exasperating charge given by those who were both the Accusers and professed Counsel against him 4. The Prisoner on his Sentence-day challenged the Sollicitor before the Court as to the injury done him on the day of his Tryal by his large and bitter Invective which he had not liberty to reply to for the vindicating of his own Innocency and unpejudicing the Juries understanding in the fittest season The Judges that had promised him before pleading they would be his Counsel instead of relieving him herein as in all reason they ought afforded him no other answer but a sharp Rebuke for criminating and scandalizing the Court together with some threatning expressions But what need had he to regard their threatnings that he saw resolved to pass a Sentence of Death upon him say what he would The main thing he charged the Sollicitor with was his saying openly in Court that he must be made a publick Sacrifice shewing no reason why and of whispering to the Foreman of the Jury in the Court before they went to Verdict a thing notoriously against all Law and Reason Amongst other things he had also said What Counsel did the Prisoner think would or durst speak for him in such a manifest Case of Treason unless he could call down the heads of those his fellow-Traitors Bradshaw or Cook from the top of Westminster-Hall or to that effect when as there were able heads in the bottom of Westminster-hall ready to have spoken to his Case if they might have been assigned by the Court But what may not be said when nothing may be replied For a person that is designing his own Interest Honours Advantages and Preferments to have the last word to the Jury against a Prisoner that stands at the Bar in danger of his Life and that a person of so generally acknowledged worth and publick concern and to perform it with impertinent flashes of Wit and declamatory flourishes of Rhetorick sending away the Jury with the fresh and last impressions of all that noise and buzze of his glosses upon the whole matter and having with irritating expressions misrepresented and aggravated the supposed crimes is a thing to be hissed oft the stage of this earth by the common Reason of all mankind What worse circumstances can a Prisoner be in than to stand at a Bar of Justice to be tryed and there hear his professed Accuser and Adversary misrepresenting miscalling and aggravating the actions he is questioned for pressing all upon the Jurors consciences with the greatest edge and flourish of all the Art Wit and Eloquence he is furnished with as Tertullus served Paul and then be deprived of all possible defence against his slanderous and injurious suggestions Paul was not so served he had the last word to his Jury when Tertullus had done Acts 24. But the children of this world are wise in their generation they knew well they had to deal with one that had been experienced for twenty years together to be a person of a very happy and unparallel'd dexterity in taking off the paint and false appearances that others by premeditated Speeches could put upon ill matters with an extemporary breath If it be said he had fair warning beforehand to say all that he had to mind the Jury of and that he was not to speak after the King's Counsel It is answered Though this were hard at best and indeed not at all sutable to the true and lawfull Liberties of English-men yet were it more tolerable in case the King's Counsel had started no new thing against the Prisoner used no provoking and unworthy expressions or made no new and unforeseen glosses upon the matter he stood charged with For then the Prisoner might be presumed to have sufficiently obviated beforehand any thing that would be said by the Counsel had they only recapitulated and so probably might have rendred his Jury somewhat uncapable
of being prejudiced thereby against him unless they were as willing to abuse him as the Counsel But here were many things said at random against all Sense Law and Reason as if Tully had been charactering a treacherous Catilâ—ne and the innocent Prisoner must be mute and suffer the Jury to be dismissed and sent to pass their Verdict on his Life without the least possibility of Remedy Put this and all the rest together to wit that the Jury themselves were of the opposit party to him in the late Wars and whole Cause in question depending before them and it had been far better for the Prisoner to have cast lots on a Drum-head for his Life as a Prisoner of War than to be so tryed in a time of Peace unless it can be reasonably presumed that they that would have killed him any time this twenty year in the field should now be like to spare his Life at the Bar. Occasional Speeches before his Tryal HE said there was something in this Cause that could never be conquered and that he blessed the Lord it had never been betrayed by him or conquered in him And before this in a Letter from Silly to a Friend he said God's Arm is not shortned doubtless great and precious Promises are yet in store to be accomplished in and upon Believers here on Earth to the making of Christ admired in them And if we cannot live in the power and actual fruition of them yet if we die in the certain foresight and imbracing of them by Faith it will be our great blessing This dark night and black shade which God hath drawn over his work in the midst of us may be for ought we know the ground-colour to some beautiful Piece that he is now exposing to the light When he came from his Tryal he told a Friend he was as much overjoyed as a chast Virgin that had escaped a Rape for said he neither flatteries before nor threatnings now could prevail upon me and I bless God that enabled me to make a stand for this Cause for I saw the Court resolved to run it down and through the assistance of God I resolved they should run over my Life and blood first June 13. being Friday the day before his Execution On this day liberty being given to Friends to visit him in the Tower he received them with very great chearfulness and with a composed frame of spirit having wholly given up himself to the will of God He did occasionally let fall many gracious expressions to the very great refreshing and strengthning of the hearts of the hearers To wit That he had for any time these two years made Death familiar to him and being shut up from the World he said he had been shut up with God and that he did know what was the mind of God to him in this great matter but that he had not the least recoyl in his heart as to matter or manner of what was done by him And though he might have had an opportunity of escaping or by policy might have avoided his Charge yet he did not make use of it nor could decline that which was come upon him It being told him by a Friend that his Death would be a loss to the People of God He answered that God would raise up other Instruments to serve him and his People And being desired to say something to take off that charge of Jesuitism that was cast upon him He said That he thought it not worth the taking notice of for if it were so he should never have been brought to this A Friend said Sir the Lord hath said Be thou faithful unto Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life The Lord enable you to be faithful He replied I bless the Lord I have not had any discomposure of spirit these two years but I do wait upon the Lord till he be pleased to put an end to these dayes of mine knowing that I shall change for the better For in Heaven there is an innumerable company of Angels the Spirits of Just men made perfect and JESUS the blessed Mediator of the New Covenant There are holy and just Laws a pure Government blessed and good Company every one doing their duty herr we want all these This is that City spoken of Psal 48. 1 2. That strong City that cannot be moved Isa 26. Why therefore should we be unwilling to leave this estate to go that And although I be taken from hence yet know assuredly God will raise up unto you Instruments out of the dust Another said to him Sir There is nothing will stand you in stead but justifying Faith in the Blood of Jesus To which he said There are some that through Faith in the Blood of Christ do escape the pollutions of the world yet afterwards are entangled therein again others there be that are carried through the greatest sufferings by a more excellent spiritual sort of Faith in the Blood of Jesus and endure them with the greatest joy He further said We were lately preaching a Funeral Sermon to our selves out of Heb. 11. 13 16. where those blessed Witnesses do declare themselves to be pilgrims and strangers on the Earth and do desire a better Country that is a heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City And if God said he be not ashamed to be called my God I hope I shall not be ashamed to endure his Cross and to bear his Reproach even whatsoever it be that man can impose upon me for his sake Yea he will enable me not to be ashamed I have not the least reluctancy or strugling in my spirit against Death I desire not to live but my will is resigned up to God in all Why are you troubled I am not You have need of Faith and Patience to follow the Lord's Call This ought chiefly to be in our eye the bringing Glory to our heavenly Father Surely God hath a glorious Design to carry on in the world even the building up of David's Throne to all Generations For he is compleating all his precious Stones making them Heaven-proof and then laying them together in the Heavenly Mansions with the Spirits of the Just till it be a compleat City When the Top-stone thereof is laid then will he come in all his Glory This day is a day wherein Christ appears in the Clouds Oh that every one of our eyes may see him and consider how we-have pierced him in his Members that we may mourn Our Lord Jesus said Father I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do and now Father glorifie me with the same Glory I had with thee before the world was Our Lord was capable of his Glory beforehand and although we be not so capable as he yet this we know he wills the same to us that where he is we may be also that we may behold his Glory And he is our Head in
whom we are made capable being chosen in him before the foundation of the world and he hath set us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus The hope of this Glory sweetens all our Sufferings I know a day of deliverance for Sion will come Some may think the manner of it may be as before with confused noise of the Warriour and garments rolled in Blood but I rathe think it will be with burning and fewel of fire The Lord will send a fire that shall burn in the Consciences of his Enemies a worm that shall not die and a fire that shall not go out Men they may fight against but this they cannot fight against It being told him by a Friend that he had delivered him up unto God as a Sacrifice though said he I have day and night prayed that this cup might pass from you He replied That he blessed God he had offered himself up first to God and it was a rejoycing to him that others had given him up also And why said he speaking before all the company should we be frighted with Death I bless the Lord I am so far from being affrighted with Death that I find it rather shrink from me than I from it His Children being then present to take their leave of him he said I bless God by the eye of Faith I can see through all my Relations to Mount Sion and there I shall need none of them I have better Acquaintance in Heaven These Relations are nothing to those I shall meet with there Then kissing his Children he said The Lord bless you he will be a better Father to you I must now forget that ever I knew you I can willingly leave this place and outward enjoyments for those I shall meet with hereafter in a better Country I have made it my business to acquaint my self with the society of Heaven Be not you troubled for I am going home to my Father I die in the certain faith and forefight That this Cause shall have its Resurrection in my Death My Blood will be the Seed sown by which this glorious Cause will spring up which God will speedily raise The laying down this earthly tabernacle is no more but throwing down the mantle by which a double portion of the Spirit will fall on the rest of Gods People And if by my being offered up the Faith of many be confirmed and others convinced and brought to the knowledge of the Truth how can I desire greater honour and matter of rejoycing As for that glorious Cause which God hath owned in these Nations and will own in which so many Righteous souls have lost their lives and so many have been engaged by my countenance and encouragement shall I now give it up and so declare them all Rebels and Murderers No I will never do it That precious Blood shall never lie at my door As a Testimony and Seal to the Justness of that Quarrel I leave now my Life upon it as a Legacy to all the honest Interest in these three Nations Ten thousand Deaths rather than defile my Conscience the chastity and purity of which I value beyond all this world and God is not a little concern'd on my behalf He will certainly judge my Case wherein is the bowels of this good Cause and in the bowels of that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ which will speedily be set on foot in these Nations I would not for ten thousand Lives part-with this Peace and Satisfaction I have in my own heart both in holding to the Purity of my Principle and to the Righteousness of this good Cause and the assurance I have that God is now fulfilling all these great and precious Promises in order to what he is bringing forth Although I see it not yet I die in the faith and assured expectation of it Hebr. 11. 13. And the eternal blessedness God hath prepared for me and is ready now to receive me into will abundantly make up all other things Through the power and goodness of God I have had in this Tryal of mine such a proof of the integrity of my own heart as hath been no small joy to me The expressions of grief from his Friends he said were but so many lets and hindrances to him in the view he had of that Glory he was going to possess that heavenly City and Commonwealth where he should behold the face of God and of his Son in a society of Angels and the Spirits of Just men made perfect Some few dayes before his Suffering his thoughts were much fixed upon Psal 118. 27. where are these words God is the Lord which hath shewed us light bind the Sacrifice with cords even unto the horns of the Altar From this he said that God gives light and is light to his People under their darkest circumstances and sufferings and when he calls them forth to suffer he binds them as Sacrifices with cords in three respects First by the Cord of his Love to us for he loved us first Secondly by the Cruelty of our Enemies Thirdly by our Resignation-duty and love to him These three Cords have bound me so fast I cannot stir Upon Friends perswading him to make some submission to the King and to endeavour the obtaining of his Life he said If the King did not think himself more concern'd for his Honour and word than he did for his Life he was very willing they should take it Nay I declare said he that I value my Life less in a good Cause than the King can do his Promise And when some others were speaking to him of giving some thousands of pounds for his Life he said If a thousand farthings would gain it he would not give it And if any should attempt to make such a bargain he would spoil their market For I think the King himself is so sufficiently obliged to spare my Life that it is fitter for him to do it than my self to seek it He rejoyced exceedingly that God assisted him so eminently in bearing his Testimony with faithfulness even unto Death and that he as willingly laid down his Life and with as much satisfaction as ever he went to bed For in a natural sickness Death seized on the body without any consent of the mind but this was a free action of his mind without any constraint upon his body Mention being made to him of the cruel proceedings against him Alas said he what ado they keep to make a poor creature like his Saviour In discourse he said If the shedding of my Blood may prove an occasion of gathering together in one the dispersed Interests and Remnant of the Adherers to this Cause of whatever differing perswasions I should think ten thousand Lives if I had them well spent in such a service He was much pleased in this consideration That he was hastening to a place where God nor none of his would be ashamed to own and receive him Here is nothing in this world saith he but reproaching and
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
and to betray our Countrey If God then do think fit to permit such a dispensation to pass upon us it is for the punishment of our sins and for a plague to those that are the Actors therein to bring more swift exemplary vengeance upon them Such as have discharged a good Conscience in what may most offend the higher Powers are not to fear though they be admitted to the exercise of their Rule with an unrestrained Power and revengeful mind Though from that Mountain the Storm that comes will be very terrible yet some are safest in Storms as experience shews Yea best therein by Gods Mercies when their greatest enemies think most irrecoverably to undo them Our late Condition held much resemblance with that of the Jewes and we deserve as well to be rejected as they were If Christ were in the flesh amongst us as he was with them we are as likely to prefer theeves and murtherers before him and crucifie him The present necessity in a righteous Cause is to be submitted to and we are not to be discouraged by the danger which to some seems threatned us from former or present Laws For no man that acts for common safety when the Sword hath absolute power and shall also command it can justly be questioned afterwards for acting contrary to some former Laws which could be binding no longer then whilst the Civil Sword had Soveraignty What People under Heaven have had more Experiments of God's timely assistance in all their Extreamities then English-men as well with respect to times past as within our remembrance Are the like Mercies recorded of any Nation In their times of greatest Confusion they were preserved They were a living active Body without a Head A Bush burning in the Flames of a Civil War yet not consumed A People when without a Government not embrued in one anothers Blood A wonder to all Neighbours round about and many signal Changes brought about without Blood which indubitably evidences that God is in the Bush and would gather us together as Chickens under a Hen to be brooded by him if we were not most stubbornly hardened Our sins have been the cause that our Counsels our Forces our Wit our Conquests and our Selves have been destructive to our selves to each other and to a happy advancement towards our long expected and desired Settlement Until these sins of ours be repented truly and throughly all the Wisdom and Power upon Earth shall not avail us but every day every attempt will encrease our Troubles until there be a final extirpation of all that hinders God's Work When this once is nothing shall harm us God being a sure refuge against all evils if we reconcile our selves to him by Faith and Repentance Then even those things that are most mischievous in their own natures shall be made our advantage and security The Peoples Cause whom God after trial hath declared free is a righteous one though not so prudently and righteously managed as it might and ought to have been God's doom therefore is justly executed upon us with what intent and jugglings soever it was prosecuted by men Man's corruption makes him more firmly to adhere to that which is good in which case it is not many times Virtue so much as Necessity that keeps men Constant having no other means of safety and subsistance for the most part The goodness of any Cause is not meerly to be judged by the Events whether visibly prosperous or unprosperous but by the righteousness of its Principles nor is our Faith and Patience to fail under the many fears doubts wants troubles and Power of Adversaries in the passage to the recovery of our long lost Freedom For it is the same Cause with that of the Israelites of old of which we ought not to be ashamed or distrustful How hath it fared with the Cause of Christ generally for more now than 1600 years being made the common object of scorn and persecution not from the base and foolish onely but from the noblest and wisest persons in the Worlds esteem Yet though our Sufferings and the time of our warfare seems long it is very short considering the perpetuity of the Kingdom which at last we shal obtain wherein we shal individually reign with the chief Soveraign thereof For whereas all the Kingdoms of the World have not yet lasted 6000 years this is everlasting and without end They that overcome by not loving their lives unto the death Rev. 12. 11. shall be Pillars in the House of this everlasting Kingdom never to be removed They shall be Kings and Priests to God sitting with him upon his Throne subjecting the Nations and reigning with him for ever and ever This is a Kingdom that consists with the Divinity of Christ and humanity of men Such a reign of Christ upon earth as will not be without Laws agreeable to humane Nature nor without Magistrates appointed as Officers under him in which Election God and the People shall have a joint concurrence God's Throne in mens Consciences must then be resigned and his People permitted to enjoy the Liberties due to them by the Laws of Grace and Nature Into this God's own immediate hand can now onely lead us by his own coming to Judgement in the Valley of Jehoshaphat Meditations concerning Man's Life c. Penned by this Sufferer in his Prison State IT is a principal part of Wisdom to know how to esteem Life to hold and preserve to loose or give it up There is scarce any thing man more fails in than this They that think nothing dearer than Life esteem Life for it self live not but to live Others think the shortest Life best either not to be born at all or else to die quickly These are two extreams That comes nearer Truth a Wise Man said Life is such a good that if a man knew what he did in it he would not accept at least not desire it Vitam nemo cuperet si daretur tantum scientibus Wise Men in living make a Virtue of Necessity live as long as they should not as long as they can There is a time to Live and a time to die A good Death is far better and more elegible than an ill Life A wise man Lives but so long as his Life is more worth than his Death The longer Life is not alwayes the better To what end serves a long Life Simply to live breath eat drink and see this World What needs so long a time for all this Me thinks we should soon be tired with the daily repetition of these and the like Vanities Would we live long to gain knowledge experience and Virtue This seems an honest Design but is better to be had other wayes by good men when their Bodies are in the grave None usually imploy their time so ill in this World as Men. Non inopes sumus vitae sed prodigi Some begin to live when they should die Some have ended before they begin 'T is incident to
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