Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	death_n	sleep_n	sleep_v	1,140	5	9.8184	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63192	The tryal of Sir Henry Vane, Kt. at the Kings Bench, Westminster, June the 2d. and 6th, 1662 together with what he intended to have spoken the day of his sentence (June 11) for arrest of judgment (had he not been interrupted and over-ruled by the court) and his bill of exceptions : with other occasional speeches, &c. : also his speech and prayer, &c. on the scaffold.	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662, defendant.; England and Wales. Court of King's Bench.	1662 (1662)	Wing T2216; ESTC R21850	115,834	133

meet the King of Terrors without the least affrightment But to shew where his strength lay he said he was a poor unworthy wretch and had nothing but the Grace and Goodness of God to depend upon He said moreover Death shrunk from him rather than he from it Upon the occasion of parting with his Relations he said There is some flesh remaining yet but I must cast it behind me and press forward to my Father Then one of the Sheriffs men came in and told him There was no Sled to come but he was to walk on foot He told his Friends the Sheriffs Chaplain came to him at twelve of the clock that night with an Order for his Execution telling him he was come to bring him that fatal Message of Death I think Friends that in this Message was no dismalness at all After the receipt of which I slept four hours so soundly that the Lord hath made it sufficient for me and now I am going to sleep my last after which I shall need sleep no more Then Mr. Sheriff coming into the Room was friendly saluted by him and after a little pause communicated a Prohibition that he said he had received which was That he must not speak any thing against his Majesty or the Government His Answer to this he himself relates on the Scaffold He further told Mr. Sheriff he was ready but the Sheriff said he was not nor could be this half hour yet Then Sir it rests on you not on me said Sir Henry for I have been ready this half hour Then the Shriff at his request promised him his servants should attend him on the Scaffold and be civilly dealt with neither of which were performed for notwithstanding this promise they were beaten and kept off the Scaffold till he said What have I never a servant here After this one of the Sheriffs men came and told him there must be a Sled to which Sir Henry replied Any way how they please for I long to be at home to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all He went very chearfully and readily down the stairs from his Chamber and seated himself on the Sled Friends and Servants standing about him then he was forthwith drawn away towards the Scaffold As he went some in the Tower Prisoners as well as others spake to him praying the Lord to go with him And after he was out of the Tower from the tops of houses and out of windows the people used such means and gestures as might best discover at a distance their respects and love to him crying aloud The Lord go with you The great God of Heaven and Earth appear in you and for you whereof he took what notice he was capable in those circumstances in a chearful manner accepting their respect putting off his Hat and bowing to them Being asked several times how he did by some about him he answered Never better in all my life Another replied How should he do ill that suffers for so glorious a Cause To which a tall black man said Many suffered for a better Cause and may for a worse said Sir Henry wishing That when they come to seal their better Cause as he called it with their Blood as he was now going to seal his they might not find themselves deceived And as to this Cause said he it hath given Life in Death to all the Owners of it and Sufferers for it Being passed within the Rails on Tower-hill there were many loud acclamations of the people crying out The Lord Jesus go with your dear Soul c. One told him that was the most glorious Seat he ever sate on he answered It is so indeed and rejoyced exceedingly Being come to the Scaffold he chearfully ascends and being up after the crowd on the Scaffold was broken in two pieces to make way for him he shewed himself to the People on the front of the Scaffold with that Noble and Christian-like deportment that he rather seemed a looker-on than the person concerned in the Execution Insomuch that it was difficult to perswade many of the People that he was the Prisoner But when they knew that the Gentleman in the black Sute and Cloak with a Scarlet silk Wastcoat the victorious colour shewing it self at the breast was the Prisoner they generally admired that Noble and great Presence he appeared with How chearful he is said some he does not look like a dying-man said others with many like speeches as astonished with that strange appearance he shined forth in Then silence being commanded by the Sheriff lifting up his hands and eyes towards Heaven and then resting his hands on the Rails and taking a very serious composed and majestick view of the great multitude about him he spake as followeth His SPEECH on the SCAFFOLD Gentlemen fellow-Countrymen and Christians VVHen Mr. Sheriff came to me this morning and told me he had received a Command from the King that I should say nothing reflecting upon his Majesty or the Government I answered I should confine and order my Speech as near as I could so as to be least offensive saving my faithfulness to the Trust reposed in me which I must ever discharge with a good Conscience unto Death for I ever valued a man according to his faithfulness to the Trust reposed in him even on his Majesties behalf in the late Controversie And if you dare trust my discretion Mr. Sheriff I shall do nothing but what becomes a good Christian and an Englishman and so I hope I shall be civilly dealt with When Mr. Sheriffs Chaplain came to me last night about twelve of the clock to bring me as he called it the fatal Message of Death it pleased the Lord to bring that Scripture to my mind in the third of Zechary to intimate to me that he was now taking away my filthy garments causing mine iniquities to pass from me with intention to give me change of raiment and that my mortal should put on Immortality I suppose you may wonder when I shall tell you that I am not brought hither according to any known Law of the Land It is true I have been before a Court of Justice and am now going to appear before a greater Tribunal where I am to give an account of all my actions under their Sentence I stand here at this time When I was before them I could not have the liberty and priviledge of an Englishman the grounds reasons and causes of the Actings I was charged with duly considered I therefore desired the Judges that they would set their Seals to my Bill of Exceptions I pressed hard for it again and again as the Right of my self and every free-born English-man by the Law of the Land but was finally denied it Here Sir John Robinson Lieutenant of the Tower interrupted him saying Sir you must not go on thus and in a furious manner generally observed even to the dis-satisfaction of some of their own attendants said that he

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