Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	death_n	mercy_n	sin_n	3,579	5	4.7173	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88575	Mr. Love's case: wherein is published, first, his several petitions to the Parliament. Secondly, a full narrative of the late dangerous design against the state, written with Mr. Loves own hand, and by him sent to the Parliament; wherein he setteth down his several meetings and secret actings with Major Alford, Maj. Adams, Col. Barton, Mr. Blackmore, Mr. Case, Mr. Cauton, Dr. Drake, Mr. Drake, Cap. Farr, Mr. Gibbons, Mr. Haviland, Major Huntington, Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Jaquel, Mr Jackson, Lieut. Col. Jackson, Cap. Massey, Mr. Nalton, Cap. Potter, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Sterks, Colonel Sowton, Colonel Vaughan, and others. Thirdly, Mr. Loves speech and prayer on the scaffold on Towerhil, August 22. 1651. Printed by an exact copy, taken in short-hand by John Hinde. Fourthly, animadversions on the said speech and prayer.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Hinde, John, 17th cent.	1651 (1651)	Wing L3143; Thomason E641_10; Thomason E790_1; ESTC R202750	68,137	69

hours between your Petitioner and Death he is humbly bold before he breathe out his soul to God to breathe out his Request to the Parliament by making his last Address to you humbly acknowledging he hath incurred your high Displeasure of which he is deeply sensible and violated the Laws of this Commonwealth for which he is unfeignedly sorrowful and now also submitteth to the Sentence of the High Court and promiseth and offereth further Security neither to Plot Contrive or Design the Subversion of this present Government accounting it as a brand of the highest Ingratitude to imploy his life against you if he should by an Act of Grace and Favor receive a new life from you Wherefore your dying Petitioner before he commend his soul to God on the Block he pours out his soul to you at your Bar That you would be pleased by your gracious merciful and seasonable Interposition to prevent this sad stroke now the hand is even lifted up and he is as one giving up the ghost and if he have provoked you so far as to render him uncapable of an Absolute Pardon yet he humbly beseeches you to change the Sentence of death into perpetual Banishment in so doing your Mercy will triumph over Iustice and the greatness and nearness of his danger he being as one free among the dead will exceedingly greaten the freeness of your Grace and Mercy And your Petitioner shall pray c. Christopher Love Read July 15. 1651. To the Supream Authority The Parliament of the Common-wealth of ENGLAND The humble Petition of Mary the Wife of Christopher Love SHEWETH THat your poor Petitioner hath great cause to say Blessed be God and blessed be You for your merciful Vote of the 15th of Iuly a Day never to be forgotten in adding a moneth to the Life of her dear Husband which hath opened a door of Hope to her in the midst of the Valley of Achor and made her glad though she be a woman of a sorrowful Spirit yet your distressed Handmaid is overwhelmed with grief and anguish of Soul and cannot be comforted when she remembers that doleful Day the 15th of August so near approaching her heart doth almost die within her and she is as one giving up the ghost before she is delivered of the fruit of her womb Wherefore your greatly distressed Handmaid doth again pour out her soul with renewed and importunate Requests Beseeching your Honors to commiserate her deplorable Condition by putting on bowels of Pity and Compassion towards her dear condemned Husband that she may not grapple with the intollerable pains of Travel and the unsupportable thoughts of her Husband's death in one day O that the Life of your Handmaid and her Babe might be a Ransom for the Life of her condemned Husband she had rather chuse out of love to die for him then for sorrow of heart to die with him Now the good Lord incline your hearts to give him his life for a Prey wheresoever it shall please your Honors to cast him And your Petitioner shall ever pray c. Mary Love To the Supream Authority The Parliament of the Common-wealth of ENGLAND The humble Petition of Christopher Love a Condemned Prisoner in the Tower of London SHEWETH THat your Petitioner doth humbly adore the wonderful Goodness of God and most thankfully acknowledge the great Mercy of the Parliament for so seasonable and acceptable an Act of Grace to such an offending Suppliant that when there was but a step between him and death the number of his days being accomplished and he almost cut off from the Land of the living then you mercifully interposed and gave him his Life for a moneth longer which was to him as a Resurrection from the dead The consideration whereof melteth the heart of your Petitioner and makes him after a more narrow search into his heart and ways more deeply sensible then ever of his sin against God and more sorrowful for his high Crimes and Offences against the Parliament in his late and great Miscarriages He humbly acknowledgeth he hath so highly violated the Laws of the Commonwealth as that thereby he hath rendered himself guilty of the Sentence of death justly passed on him by the High Court of Justice He doth also herewith humbly offer to your Honors a free and full Narrative under his hand of the whole Design to the best of his remembrance which he leaveth to your grave Wisdoms and favorable Interpretations fully resolving that he will neither plot contrive or design any thing prejudicial to the present Government but will in his place and calling oppose any Designs whatsoever whether in this or the neighbor Nation that may tend to the ruine of this Commonwealth Your dying Petitioner with all humble importunity prostrates himself at your feet puts his mouth in the dust O that there may be hope craving your tender Mercy begging his Life at your hands promising never to imploy that Life against you he shall receive from you but doth hold it his Duty in his place and calling to lay out himself for the glory of God the good of his people the Peace and Safety of this Commonwealth And your Petitioner shall ever pray c. Christopher Love Read August 14. 1651. Reod again August 16. 1651. A Brief and full NARRATIVE Humbly presented with my Petition to the Parliament By me CHRISTOPHER LOVE COnsidering how a clear and full Narrative may satisfie the State although it may prejudice my self I am willing with an Ingenuous Freedom and openness of heart to make known the whole matter so far as I distinctly know and well remember humbly hoping that this large acknowledgement of mine which is more then any in the world can prove against me shall not be taken as an Aggravation of my fault but as a Demonstration of my Ingenuity Before I mention the matters of Fact I humbly crave leave to signifie the time when and maner how I came to be intangled in this unhappy Business As for the time it was after the breaking off the Treaty between the King and the Scots at Jersey for before that time to the best of my remembrance I was not privy to or acquainted with any meetings about the sending of Captain Titus whose face I never saw to Jersey or sending Letters to him or receiving Letters from him whiles he was there or about sending any Letters to or receiving Letters from the King Queen Jermyn Piercy or any other person in Forraign parts during the Treaty at Jersey But after that Treaty was ended Mr. William Drake came to me told me he had News to impart and to that end he desired to know if he could get Friends together whether I was willing that they should meet at my house it being conveniently scituate in the midst of the City that so he might communicate what he heard of Affairs abroad To satisfie my curiosity to hear News I was content to let him with those he should bring to meet

which have not received countenance or approbation from the generality of Ministers of a later Edition and since the times of Luthers and Calvins Reformations his advice is indeed artificially calculated for the Meridian of high Presbytery but very disserviceable to the advancement and growth of Christianity 4. He exhorteth them to bewaile their great losse in the taking away of so many Ministers out of their City and then recounting the number of them finds them if he mistakes not ten under the covert of such an exception or reserve he might as truly have said they had been twenty He speaks of some as being in banishment Those of them in this condition were adjudged thither by no other Judges then their own Consciences When the City of refuge is sought unto it is a sign that there is bloud shed and that there is some avenger of bloud that follows the chase The Ministers he speaks of he doth the rather lift up unto heaven with those glorious Elogiums he bestows on them that so he may cast those so much the deeper into hell in the peoples thoughts whom he would have lookt upon as the Authors of their taking away But the Malefactour as hath been said not the Judge is the Author of his sufferings If they were lights they were far more burning then shining but with an un-hallowed fire if Starres starres they were of a very Malignant influence upon the State where they liv'd and in their Conjunction made a very dangerous and fiery constellation Those of whom as the Scripture testifieth the world was not worthy were a generation of men of another spirit holy humble and harmlesse were content to suffer from the world to do the world service Mr. Love's men are a generation that must have the world bow down unto them and lick the dust at their feet to strengthen their hand to do them service neglect from men is as the shadow of death unto them 5. And lastly He gives them a brief Item to take heed of being forward to ingage in a war against their godly Brethren in Scotland If these godly Brethren in Scotland had not been forward to ingage in a war against them the Counsell had been Christian and prudent But inasmuch as these godly Brethren first ingaged in a war against their godly Brethren here as hath been formerly shewed it is no point of Christianity or prudence to demurre upon a course of defence or of prevention of the mischiefe ANIMAD upon Sect. 21. There is a red threed of revenge against the Parliament and State struck quite thorough this fare-well piece of Mr. Loves to the world from the very beginning to the end of it visible enough and indeed too much in every Section which creates a sad jealousie with me left his fi●●s Architectonicus his predominant end in his last addresse on earth was to have the men in present Power under the hardest and most hatefull ●●●●ment with the people that he could imagine or devise In many passages he hales in by head and shoulders such things which a man cannot tell how or why they should come there but only to asp●rse the State and to envenom the spirits of the people against them In these his Applications to the godly Ministery as he terms it of the City he doth his best to make them believe for he affirms that he knoweth it that they are maligned and threatned and this the people must conceive to be by the State yea and the cause and ground hereof must be supposed to be for setting themselves against the sins and Apostacies of the times for his faithfulness wherein he himself had procured ill will from men Poor man Doth he call his sin against God his high crimes and offences against the Parliament in his late and great miscarriages for which himself confesseth in his last Petition to the Parliament as was formerly shewed that the Sentence of death was justly passed on him by the High-Court of Justice doth he I say call sin against God high crimes great miscarriages his faithfulness in setting himself against the sins and Apostacies of this present age I confess if these were his faithfulness in that kind he speaks of it was his faithfulness that procured him the ill-will of men If such notions and conceits as these were the foundation of that abundant peace of his Conscience and which he saith he hath with God and with which he dieth I fear he may be too truly compared to the foolish builder who neglected the rock and built his house upon the sand which soon after fell and great was the fall thereof But to perswade the godly Ministers of his present address together with the people the more effectually that they were certainly maligned and threatned he will needs upon this account lift up a prayer for them in the words of those Christians Act. 4. 29. And now Lord behold their threatnings and grant that thy servants may preach the word with all boldness But is not this an horrid prophanation of the sacred Ordinance of Prayer and of him that hath appointed it to represent persons unto God as guilty of such crimes whereof he knows them to be innocent especially when he also that prayeth hath no tolerable ground to judge them such as they are represented by him unto God in his Prayer What ground or colour of ground had Master Love to accuse the Parliament or State before God of threatning the godly Ministers of the City for preaching the Word of God What Minister did they ever threaten upon any such account as this Possibly such Ministers s who in their preachings have turn'd the good Word of God and Gospel of Jesus Christ into fire-brands of Sedition into scurrilous and bitter invectives against those whom God hath set in Authority over them who in stead of lifting up their voices like Trumpets to make the people to know their abominations have lift them like Trumpets to provoke and animate them to commit abominations possibly I say such Ministers as these they have discountenanced in such ways of impiety and prophanation of the Word of God as these His perswasion that the Presbyterial Government makes most for purity and for unity throughout the Churches of the Saints the experience which the world hath had of this Government in those places or Churches where it hath had its throne doth not much countenance or confirm but I shall not here counter-argue it Whereas he beggs of the Ministers that they would keep up Church-Government and had onely added and not intermeddle with the Civil-Government of the State his advice had been both Christian and seasonable ANIMAD upon Section 22. I will not say that Master Love here freeth all the Ministers in the City those onely excepted who are already discovered from having a hand in his business he dislikes it seems the word Plot in such a sense wherein not long since he freed himself from whatsoever was not or could

Mr. LOVE's CASE Wherein is Published First His several Petitions to the Parliament Secondly A full Narrative of the late Dangerous Design against the State written with Mr. Loves own hand and by him sent to the Parliament wherein he setteth down his several Meetings and Secret Actings with Major Alford Maj. Adams Col. Barton Mr. Blackmore Mr. Case Mr. Cauton Dr. Drake Mr. Drake Cap. Farr Mr. Gibbons Mr. Haviland Major Huntington Mr. Jenkins Mr. Jaquel Mr Jackson Lieut. Col. Jackson Cap. Massey Mr. Nalton Cap. Potter Mr. Robinson Mr. Sterks Colonel Sowton Colonel Vaughan and others Thirdly Mr. Loves Speech and Prayer on the Scaffold on Towerhil August 22. 1651. Printed by an Exact Copy taken in Short-hand by JOHN HINDE Fourthly Animadversions on the said Speech and Prayer Whose hatred is covered by deceit his wickedness shall be shewed before the whole Congregation Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein And he that rolleth a stone it will return upon him Prov. 26. 26 27. London Printed for R. W. and Peter Cole at the Printing-Press in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange 1651. To the Supream Authority The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England The Humble Petition of Christopher Love a condemned Prisoner in the Tower of London Most humbly sheweth THat your Petitioner having received the Sentence of Death by the High Court of Justice and is preparing himself in all humility and serious submission to drink that bitter Cup the terror whereof though much abated through the pardoning Mercies of God in the blood of sprinkling yet your Petitioner being brought down to the dust of death desires to see the righteous Lord in this Sentence acknowledging it to be just with the Most High to cut him off both in the middest of his days and in the midst of his Ministry He desires to be deeply humbled under the mighty hand of God lying now before the Lord and you putting his mouth in the dust that there may be hope that the Lord will pardon his manifold iniquities and that your Honors will pass by his Offences done contrary to your Laws which as he formerly did so still doth confess renders him culpable for which he is unfeignedly sorry Your Petitioner goeth not about to plead Excuse but with an humble Submission prostrates himself at your feet acknowledging he hath offended against the Acts of this Common-wealth and thereby is fallen under your sore displeasure of which he is very deeply sensible and sorrowful also Your Petitioner therefore having no other refuge left him on earth to redeem his Life from death but the Favor of this Honorable House makes his humble Addresses to you in the day of his deep Distress that you would as the Elect of God put on bowels of Compassion towards him that his life may be given him for a prey that he may give his life for a Sacrifice for the glory of God and good of this Nation and if the Lord shall please to stir up your hearts to remit the Execution and absolve him from the Sentence of Death it will be to him as life from the dead and he shall thankfully acknowledge God as the Author and you as the Instruments and humbly hopes it will be no matter of grief to you in the Great Day of your Accompt to rescue his life from going down to the Pit and he is perswaded that hereby the hearts of many that are godly will be comforted and united and many Thanksgivings from them will redound to God in your behalf and will lay Obligations on your Petitioner the remainder of his days to lead a peaceable and quiet life in all godliness and honesty and a Promise in his place and calling to endeavor the Peace and Welfare of this Commonwealth And your Petitioner shall ever pray c. Christopher Love Read July 9. 1651. To the Supream Authority The Parliament of the Common-wealth of ENGLAND The Humble Petition of Christopher Love a Condemned Prisoner in the Tower of London Most humbly sheweth THat your Petitioner doth with all Thankfulness acknowledge it a singular Providence of God and special Favor of the Parliament that a door of Hope is yet open and opportunity once more offered to prostrate himself at your feet for a Grant of his Life which if you vouchsafe he shall accept as an Act of great Grace and Mercy It is no little grief of heart to your Petitioner that through unadvisedness and weakness he is fallen under your sad and heavy Displeasure and hath offended against the Laws of this Commonwealth and now by the Sentence of the High Court of Justice to which he submits with all Christian meekness and humble acknowledgement of Gods hand therein is in inevitable and sudden danger to lose his Life without your merciful and gracious Interposition And whereas there is a Surmise of a Plot continued against the Peace and Welfare of this Commonwealth he doth protest in the presence of God the Searcher of all hearts that he knoweth no Plot or Design against the present Government nor is he privy in the least to any preparations for or intendments towards any intestine Insurrections or forreign Invasions or to any Correspondencies now held with any in or of the Scotish Nation or any other whatsoever He is not ignorant how much Malignants will triumph at his death nor is he without natural affections to his dear Wife and Children nor without real desires of life to do God and his Countrey service which are powerful Perswasions to him to do whatever he can without wounding his Conscience Your dying Petitioner humbly prays That as the Elect of God you would put on bowels of Compassion and in imitation of your Heavenly Father whose Mercy rejoyceth against Judgement be pleased to absolve him from the Sentence of Death which will be to him as life from the dead and this new Life received from your hands will lay strong Obligations on your Petitioner to endeavor in his place and calling the composing of Differences among the Godly and preserving spiritual Peace and Love throughout the Churches of the Saints as well as the civil Peace and Welfare of the Commonwealth And he further promises neither to Plot Contrive or Design any thing to the hurt of this present Government and if it shall be required to put in further Security for performance hereof and if none of these things should move you to vouchsafe an Absolute Pardon yet let him implore thus much from your hands as his last though very uncomfortable Request That you would be pleased to change the Sentence of death into Banishment into some strange Land where he may sit alone lamenting his sad and deplorable Condition And your Petitioner shall pray c. Christopher Love Read July 11. 1651. To the Supream Authority The Parliament of the Common-wealth of ENGLAND The humble Petition of Christopher Love condemned to die and the hour of Execution drawing near Most humbly sheweth THat whereas there are but very few

Conscience being honest and good and rightly informed Whereas Mr Love suffered a beheading if for the discharge of his Conscience which I think to considering men must needs be very questionable yet was it for the discharge of an erroneous conscience as his Petitioners themselves pleaded by way of extenuation of his Crime yea indeed of a conscience so desperate erroneous and corrupt that the like conscience hath scarce been heard of no not among the Heathen themselves much less among Christians viz. That a man stands bound in stead of being subject to the Powers that are which is the express Commandment of God to destroy or practice the destruction of these Powers So that Mr Love's conscience for which as he saith he suffered being truly interpreted was such a conscience by which he judged himself bound to act in a Diametral opposition to the plain and express revealed Will of God And whether such a conscience as this be a Christian foundation of Martyrdom let Mr Love 's greatest Friends judge Concerning Paul and the Saints spoken of in the Revelation they were beheaded for the Word of God and for the testimony of Iesus Whereas Mr Love as himself acknowledged in his Narrative written with his own hand and delivered unto the Parliament was to suffer beheading in case he should not obtain pardon from them for his sundry and great Offences confessing withal that by what he had done he was an object of their just displeasure and again that by their justice they might in one day leave a Flock without a Shepherd a Wife without an Husband Children without a Father c. Doubtless neither Paul nor the Saints mentioned by M. Love were objects of the just displeasure of those who beheaded them nor were they beheaded for their sundry and great Offences nor yet by the justice of those who punished them with death Therefore M. Love being partaker with Iudas in his sin the cause of his death can reap no honor for having Iohn or Paul or the Saints his companions in the kinde of his death And indeed might he not as well yea and much better all this duly considered have prophesied of shame and dishonor likely to acrue unto him by such a kinde of death which had been frequently inflicted upon Papists Priests and Iesuits for treasonable practices against the State and Supream Rulers thereof as indulge himself with a conceit That his death must needs become a Crown of Honor unto him because Iohn Baptist and the great Apostle Paul died the same kinde of death though as the world knoweth upon far different occasions ANIMAD upon Sect. 2. In this Section Mr. Love busieth himself in washing a Blackamoor hoping by that time he hath done to make him as white as Snow That he suffereth for the Word and Conscience and not for medling in State-matters he proves 1. Because it is an old guise of the Devil to impute the cause of Gods Peoples Sufferings to be Contrivements against the State 2. Because the Rulers of Israel would have put Jeremy to death upon a Civil account whereas the true ground was the truth of his Prophesie and that this made them angry with him 3. Because Paul though he did but preach Christ yet the people would have him dye under a pretence that he a was mover of Sedition 4. And lastly because himself saith That his Life is pretended to be taken away upon a Civil account whereas it is indeed because he pursueth his Covenant will not prostitute his Principles c. Light and darkness have in a maner as much communion between them as the three first of these Arguments with his Cause For is any guise of the Devil whatsoever a Demonstration or proof of Mr. Loves Innocency or that he must needs suffer for the Word and Conscience and not for Statizing out of his Sphaer Who is able to finde out the Quadrature of this Circle Or must Mr. Love needs be innocent of the Crimes charged upon him and proved against him because Ieremy and Paul were innocent from those Imputations which without any proof at all were charged upon them Or must those Magistrates who being persons of known godliness and worth at least a great part of them yea and Mr. Loves real and cordial Friends most of them upon Tryal found Mr. Love guilty and passed Sentence upon him accordingly must these I say of necessity be Corrupt Malicious Enemies to the Truth and Word of God because the Rulers of Israel with whom Ieremy had to do and the people with whom Paul had to do were of no better Principles or Temper Certainly neither Satan nor Ieremy nor Paul nor their Adversaries are any Legal or Rational Compurgators for Mr. Love in his Cause now in Agitation Indeed if he or any Advocate for him could as substantially prove as he confidently asserts that which follows in the fourth place viz. That his life was pretended I suppose he would rather have said intended though neither would be very proper to be taken away because he pursues his Covenant and will not prostitute his Conscience to the ambition and lusts of men this would amount somewhat near to a Proof of his Conclusion But alas for him to affirm such things as these not onely without any sufficient yea or tolerable proof or colour of proof but even against his own Concessions and Confessions in his Narrative specified under the former Section wherein he pretends over and over to Ingenuity proves nothing else but that either he wanteth ingenuity or the knowledge of his own heart or both when he spake § 4. thus God is my record whom I serve in the Spirit I speak the truth I lye not I do not bring a revengeful heart to the Scaffold this day c. I marvel what the man means by a revengeful Heart Rancor bitterness of Spirit Animosity c. Surely he is a Barbarian unto me and speaks a Language which I understand not To charge Ingenuous and Conscientious men with taking away his life because he pursues his Covenant will not prostitute his Principles and Conscience to the ambition and lusts of men with much more of like strain of which afterwards is in my understanding as pregnant as express a Symptome of a revengeful Heart Rancor c. as a person in his condition is lightly capable of Can saith Bildad in Iob the Rush grow without mire Or is it possible that such virulency and viperousness of words as those should proceed from any other Principle but from an heightned spirit of Rancor Bitterness and Revenge But what Article in Mr. Loves Covenant was it for his pursuit whereof his Life was taken from him Is there was there any such Article in this Covenant by which he stood in conscience bound to trinket with the declared and professed Enemies of the State and Nation to attempt the undermining or disturbing of the present Government here by Correspondencies and Communication of Councels with Forreign States

terrified others c. that so the blot and shame of a miscarrying tongue may not test upon him Fourthly Because by reason of his swallowing even Camels of untruth so frequently and familiarly as he doth in this Discourse I have ground to be jealous at least lest as the conscience of the Iesuit is moulded into this principle that it is lawful to say or do things otherwise unlawful in ordine ad bonum spirituale so Mr. Love's conscience stood free and large in him to speak and do almost any thing in ordine ad bonum Presbyteriale Fifthly and lastly Because M. Love was rooted to the center of the Earth and built up to the midst of Heaven in such a Principle in Divinity which gives fair quarter to the foulest practices that are in the Saints especially when they certainly know they shall die presently viz. that no perpetration of sin and wickedness whatsoever can separate those from the love of God in Christ who have at any time believed in him ANIMAD upon Sect. 7. I never met with so many senceless and unsavory Contradictions within so small a compass as in this Speech How can Mr. Love say that he will not judge his Judges nor yet justifie them when as in the words immediately following he must of necessity either do the one or the other For if he supposeth the Oath for the sake whereof his Judges as he saith cut off his head to have been justifiable or lawful and they by the tenor and band of this Oath stood bound to do what they did in cutting off his Head then he clearly justifieth them if he supposeth either the said Oath to have been unlawful or their Fact in cutting off his Head to have been besides or contrary to this Oath and that they had no Ingagement upon them otherwise to do it then he judgeth them But the truth is we can upon no better or more favorable account ease Mr. Love in the greatest part of things uttered by him in this Speech then by conceiving that the words spoken by him bear a far differing sence and signification in his understanding from that which they bear in ours For what is it to judge in our sence of the Word then to charge with Injustice Unrighteousness acting contrary to the Word or Laws of God And whither Mr. Love doth not again and again and seven times over in this discourse thus charge his Judges I refer to his Friends themselves to judge and determine Therefore in the ordinary acception of the word Judge when Mr. Love saith he will not judge his Judges he speaks besides the Truth And though here he refuseth to justifie them yet when the Spirit of Ingenuity was upon him as himself once and again professeth it was in the Composure of his Narrative he did fairly and fully justifie them as we have already heard and is further manifest in the Narrative it self Printed herewith By the way of how sad and bleeding a consideration is it that a man whose heart served him to be ingenuous in his life should quench so Christian a Spirit and suffer himself to be hardened at the time of his death Besides did he not fully justifie his Judges in his last Petition to the Parliament in these words He humbly acknowledgeth that he hath so highly violated the Laws of the Common-wealth as that thereby he hath rendred himself guilty of the Sentence of death justly passed on him by the High Court of Justice The words immediately preceding these are of a like import ANIMAD upon Sect. 8. I shall say little upon this Section having already given notice how untruly and unchristianly he calls the Letter here specified an insulting Letter Yet to say that it was written to him for such an end as here he chargeth it with viz. To tell him that after he was dead something should be published against him c. as if this had been either the onely or the principal drift of the Letter is much more dis-ingenuous I presume there is no man that shall please to read this Letter being since printed but will acknowledge the drift and scope of it to have been honorable and Christian and not unworthy the best and dearest Friend M. Love had ANIMAD upon Sect. 9 10 11 12. M. Love here instanceth five Aspersions laid upon him in point of practice As for those of Extortion and Adultery I never so much as heard M. Love and either of them named together I will not say that M. Love prudentially subjecteth himself to such aspersions from which he knows he can sufficiently purge himself But he that lyeth under a suspition of several Crimes and is able fully to assert his innocency in respect of any one or more of them gains an advantage hereby to make the purgation of himself from the rest the more creditable Concerning Murther neither did I ever hear this formally or in the letter of it laid to his charge But that in his Communications with the King of Scots and other persons of his adherency declared Enemies to the State and Government of this Commonwealth he was eminently and transcendently a murtherer hath been sufficiently proved against him upon oath by many witnesses yea his own Confessions in his Narrative and Petitions do not fall much short of such a proof Therefore whereas § 11. he traduceth those who charge him with the guilt of that blood which hath been spilt in the present Wars between the two Nations that they do by him as Nero did by the Christians c. a notion suggested by the same spirit of Revenge unto his fellow Gibbons also he deals by them as Potiphar's wife did by her servant Joseph who being incontinent her self accused him of incontinency to his Lord because he refused to gratifie her lust M. Love Mr. Gibbon and the rest of their Association being desirous that this State and those in present power amongst us should condescend to their impolitique Principles and Humors in admitting the Scotish King to a monarchical Throne over this Nation and herein to own a Scotisb Superintendency over them and the Nation and they refusing to comport with them in such their lusts and desires and attempting by the best and indeed the onely means they had to withstand the said King in his claim to the English Throne together with the Scotish Nation his imperious and proud Abettors in this his Claim upon this Account and this onely Mr. Love and M. Gibbon charge the Blood that hath been spilt in the present Wars between the Nations upon the State and present Powers amongst us Let the world if there be a part of it yet unbewitched and capable of judging give Sentence in case there be blood spilt between a company of Thieves and a like party of harmless Travellers by the way upon occasion of an Assault made by the former upon the latter whether the spilling of this blood be to be charged upon the latter or the

former Nor let any Advocate either for M. Love or M. Gibbon think to justifie them in their imputation of the said blood spilt upon the State or men in present power by pretending that they sent an Army into Scotland and made war upon the said King and Scotish Nation before they attempted any thing against this For evident it was and is circumstances purporting hostility in that Nation against this standing as then they did that the warlike Preparations and Levies at this time on foot and hastened in that Nation sorely threatned and endangered this So that the war since breaking out between the two Nations was not occasioned or properly begun by the English Army sent into Scotland but by those Levies and formidable Preparations for War which the Scotish King and Nation were advancing with an high hand before the said English Army came amongst them Nor is there the least colour or pretext of Reason to think that in case the said Army had not entred the Scotish Territories the War hereby might have been prevented because the Scotish Nation was now big with this bloody birth ready to cry out and to be delivered when the said Army entred All that can reasonably be imputed to the entrance of the English Army into Scottish quarters before their entrance into English is was That Scotland by this means became the Seat of the War which otherwise England must have been It is the opinion and judgement of Civilians generally That men may lawfully make War when they fear lest themselves should be warred upon We ought not saith Albericus Gentilis a learned Civilian in Oxford in Queen Elizabeth's days we ought not to expect present Force it is more safe if we meet with that which is future with much more to this purpose transcribed by M. Prynne in his third Part of the Soveraign Power of Parliaments and Kingdoms cap. 14. where a judicious Reader may receive plenary satisfaction not simply concerning the Lawfulness but also the Necessity of the Parliaments sending an Army into Scotland under such circumstances as then ruled So that it was unworthiness of spleen and revenge both in M. Love and M. Gibbons though they be both great pretenders to meekness and clearness of spirit towards their Adversaries not goodness of Conscience that prompted them upon the Scaffold with this imputation against those whom they call their Adversaries viz. That they are the men upon whose heads the blood spilt between the two Nations resteth And as the high Priest with the chief Priests took it very hainously at the hand of the Apostles that they should charge them with the crucifying of Christ Ye have filled Jerusalem say they with your Doctrine and intend to bring this mans blood upon us So do M. Love and his fellows swell with indignation against those who entitle them to the late blood-shed between the Nations though their title in this kinde be as unquestionable as that of the Priests to the crucifying of Christ It cannot upon any tolerable account of Reason be said That had not the English Army entred Scotland no blood between the Nations had been spilt but it may upon a very lively and pregnant account be said That had not M. Love M. Gibbons with the rest of the Conspiracy tampered the King of Scots into an Agreement with that Nation by solemn promissory engagement of themselves and their Party in England to stand by him upon that condition and by signifying unto him and his Party their disaffections to the present Government this blood had not been shed And this I have credibly heard to be the acknowledged soul-perswasion of one of the greatest and ablest parts amongst the Conspirators The Conclusion here is That both M. Love and M. Gibbon wash their hands from blood with very foul water and which defiles them yet more when they burthen their Adversaries so called by them with that guilt which sticks so fast and close unto themselves and is the fruit not of the Ambition and Lusts of their Adversaries but of their own Whereas in purging himself from the Aspersion of Lying he saith thus I hope you will believe a dying man who dare not look God in the face with a lie in his mouth intimating as if his being ready to die was a bridle in his lips to restrain him from lying the truth is according to that principle of his formerly mentioned that he who ever once truly believed can never by any sin or wickedness whatsoever lose the love and favor of God his being ready to die in conjunction with a perswasion of his Saintship should rather be a temptation upon him to lie or commit any other wickedness then an engagement upon him to refrain lying For in case he were in hope of living still in the world and should practice lying or any other sin he had cause to fear that though God would not cast him out of his saving Love for such practices yet he might and would severely punish him otherwise But when a person of such a principle certainly knows that he shall presently die he hath no ground to fear any punishment at all from God for whatsoever he shall now either say or do because death according to the said principle delivers him for ever out of his hand Nor am I free from all Jealousie but that the Principle I speak of had some malignant inf●uence upon M. Love's spirit in many of those unworthy strains and misdemeanors which proceeded from him at his death Whereas he pleads to that particular indictment of lying insisted upon by himself That what he denied before the High Court of Justice he neither afterwards confessed himself nor was it proved by others against him very possibly in his equivocal sence of the words denying proving and confessing that which he pleads may be true But M. Love had he been ingenuous when he was before a Court of Judicature where the common and known Dialect of the Law useth to be spoken and where critical and captious Formalities of speech are not expected he should have denied onely such things which according to a Law-sense of the words used by him he could truly have denied Upon these terms he could neither have denied that he ever wrote Letter to the King Queen Church or State of Scotland nor yet that he never received any Letter c. Because in the Law-signification of the words writing Letters they are as well said to write Letters who are either advising or consenting to or directing in the writing of them as they who write them with a Pen And I presume That if any man aspersed Mr. Love with the Crime of Lying in this particular by lying they meant equivocating and so used the milder term of the two in their Charge But whereas he presently saith That he came meaning to die upon the Scaffold onely for moving for money for Massey and for being present when Letters were read c. How notorious an