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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

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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 Catil●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
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