Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A63959
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The Dying speeches, letters and prayers &c. of those eminent Protestants who suffered in the west of England (and elsewhere) under the cruel sentence of the late Lord Chancellour, then Lord Chief Justice Jefferys : with an account of their undaunted courage at the barr, and afterwards : with the most remarkable circumstances that attended their execution : never before published.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing T3372A; Wing D2956_CANCELLED; ESTC R42261
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33,759
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40
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of corruptible Seed c. Psal. 4. 3. But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is Godly for himself c. I shall mention now no more the whole Bible abounds with these Texts with what a Renovation and change of our carnal and corrupt Hearts and Natures there must be with Holiness of Life and Conversation before we can be capable of a future and blessed Immortality and of inheriting the Kingdom of God for ever and ever Amen Captain Abraham Ansley's Speech I Am come to pay a Debt to Nature 't is a Debt that all must Pay though some after one manner and some after another The way that I pay it may be thought by some few Ignominious but not so by me having long since as a True Englishman thought it my Duty to venture my Life in Defence of the Protestant Religion against Popery and Arbitrary Power For this same Purpose I came from my House to the Duke of Monmouth's Army At first I was a Lieutenant and then a Captain and I was in all the Action the Foot was Engaged in which I do not Repent For had I a Thousand Lives they should all have been Engaged in the same Cause although it has pleased the Wise God for Reasons best known to himself to blast our Designs but he will deliver his People by ways we know nor think not of I might have saved my Life if I would have done as some Narrow-Soul'd Persons have done by Impeaching others but I abhor such ways of Deliverance choosing rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy Life with Sin. As to my Religion I own the Way and Practice of the Independent Church and in that Faith I die Depending on the Merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ for my Eternal Salvation His Blessing be with you all Farewel to thee Poor England Farewel Abraham Ansley Mr. Jenkin's Letter to Mrs. Scott on the 26th of September 1685. Dear Sister THE News which came in my Brothers Letter of the 22d instant to Mr. Duewy did not at all surprize me for indeed I expected no other and seeing all hopes of saving my Life are blasted I thought my self bound to write a Line or two to so near a Relation as your self wherein I may take my Leave of you I bid you farewel till we shall meet again in Glory and never be separated more As for my own part though such a sort of Death as I am like to suffer be that which I always dreaded at a Distance when I have sometimes thought on it yet I thank my God now it draws very near even but a few hours off I find my self supported under the thoughts of it and I hope by his Strength who will never forsake his own I shall be enabled to undergo it with Glory to his Name and my Comfort and to my own and other Souls good that are more nearly concerned for me And as I have made it my own endeavour to submit to the Will of God in this sad Dispensation without murmuring and repining I hope you have been sensible of your Duty in the same Respects which is patiently to submit to his Will and eye his Hand in this severe Stroke Though God hath been pleased to deny success to your Endeavours for the saving of my Life yet I am satisfied nothing hath been wanting on your parts and for all the Trouble you have been at on my Account though I do not live to shew my Gratitude yet I render you my dying Thanks and beg your Prayers for my support in the last moment of my Life if you receive this before my Death the certainty of which I have not yet notice of Remember my Love to my Brother and Thanks for all kindnesses And as for my young Relations my Prayer for them shall be That they may see more happy Days than I have done and Die more peaceably I cannot say A more happy Death And now my Dear Sister I take my leave of you and I commit you to the Protection of that God who hath made every thing Beautiful in its time and will shew you the meaning of this sad Providence which now we do not understand to whom I trust I am now going and in the Enjoyment of whose Presence I doubt not but e'er long you will meet your Affectionate Brother William Jenkins Mr. Jenkins's Letter to his Mother on the 29th of September at Midnight 1685. Dear and Honoured Mother I Have ev'n now received News of my Execution to morrow which though I have such short Notice of yet I am prepared for it and by Gods strength enabling of me I shall be joyfully carried through it The Kindness you have been pleased to shew in your great Concern for me since I have been under this trouble as well as the Duty I owe to so near a Relation as your self ingages me to acquaint you with my present Condition for your Satisfaction which truly is such as I must beg you to accept this present Letter as my last farewell and though the sad Providence cannot but be grievous to so near and Affectionate a Relation yet I hope it already hath and still doth yield the peaceable Fruits of Righteousness to your self and me who had been severely exercised with it As for my own part I hope I can truly say that God by his Providence hath weaned me from the World and made me willing to leave it and to be dissolved that I might be with Christ which is far better and now I am come to die I hope I can truly say I have nothing to do but to die I having fought a good Fight and finished my Course I am now in expectation of that Crown of Reward which God the Righteous Judge of the whole Earth hath promised to all those that love his appearance And as it is my great Work to be now every moment fitting my self for my great and last Change so it is the Duty that belongs to you and the rest of my Dear Relations to resign me up into the Hands of that God whose I am and to whom I am going and not to repine at his Righteous Will which we ought quietly to submit unto But now being at last leaving the World Dear and Honoured Mother I take my leave of you also hoping I shall again meet you in a place of Happiness where â—ll Tears shall he Wiped from our Eyes and we shall Sorrow no more I have nothing more to say but to return you my Dying Thanks for all the Trouble and Care you have been at for saving my Life which God hath not thought fit to make successful yet my Thankfulness is equally due to you for your Endeavours as if it had I shall end with Subscribing my self Dear and Honored Mother your Dutiful Son William Jenkins Mr. Jenkins's Letter to Mrs. Gourden on the 30th of September 1685. Dear Sister THough you be at a great Distance from me yet you
years longing for a most perfect Conformity to the most glorious and holy God the only Infinite pure Being thirsting for a perfect Diffusion of his Grace through all the Powers and Faculties of my Soul panting after perfect Spiritual Life and Liberty and a Consummate Love to my dearest Jesus who is an All-comprehensive Good and to be satisfied with his Love for ever A vigorous and vehement Zeal for the Protestant Religion with a Belief I had of the Dukes Legitimacy hath involved me into this ignominious Death yet blessed be God that by sincere Repentance and true Faith in the Blood of Jesus there is a passage from it to a glorious Eternal Life and from these bitter sorrows to the fulness of sweetest Joyes that are in his Presence and from these sharp bodily pains to those more pure Pleasures that are at his Right hand for evermore and blessed be God that such a Death as this cannot prevent and hinder Christ's changing of my vile Body and fashioning it like unto his Glorious Body in the general Resurrection-day I am now going into that World where many dark things shall be made perfectly manifest and clear and many doubtful things fully Resolved and a plenary Satisfaction given concerning them all Disputes and Mistakes concerning Treason Rebellion and Schism shall be at an end and cease for ever many things that are Innocent Lawful and Laudable which have foul Marks and black Characters stampt and fixt upon them here they shal be perfectly purified and fully cleansed from there where at one view more shall be known of them than by all wrangling Debates and eager Disputes or by Reading all Polemick Books concerning them here I greatly deplore and bewail the greedy Appetite and insatiable thirst that Professing Protestants have after the Blood of their Brethren and the high pleasure they take in the Effusion thereof But what will not Men do when they are either Judicially blinded or their secular worldly Interest insensibly insinuates and winds it self into their Religion Is so twisted and incorporated with it that it animates and acts it is the Life and Soul the vital Form and Power and made wholly subservient thereunto I bless God for all my Sufferings and particularly for this last for the benefit and fruit of it by Gods sanctifying of them to me have been great hereby I have been effectually convinced of the Vanity of the World and my own sinfulness by Nature and practice and to see that to be sin which I never saw before and to be more throughly humbled for what I know to be sin not only of Commission but of Omission also Hereby I have been brought to a more thorough deep inward sence and feeling of the absolute necessity of the Righteousness of Christ to justifie me and he hath been made much more dear and precious to my Soul than ever he was before Hereby my Soul hath been more Refin'd from the Dross of Sensuality wrought into a more heavenly Frame raised up to a higher pitch of Spirituality hereby I am made more Meek and Humble and so Judge more charitably of others that differ from me in Opinion and Judgment so though by God's most Righteous Judgment I have been apprehended and most Justly and deservedly undergo this Suffering for my Sins yet I hope they have wrought for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory fitting and preparing me making me a better qualified Subject for and far more meet to be a Partaker of the same By the Grace and Strength of God I will not purchase my Life by the Death and Blood of my Protestant Brethren but chuse to dye rather than be a Betrayer of them the Impetuous and violent assault of this I dreaded more than Death it self Blessed be God I was not exposed unto it and conquered by it as some have been having such full bodily vigour and strength being in such perfect Health notwithstanding my Age predominating in me it hath made it more difficult to dye than if I had been Clogged and Incumbred with Infirmities made to bow and stoop under them by prevailing Diseases and Distempers gradually worn out therewith which many times makes Men weary of Life and to desire to dye and this in Conjunction with many things which I forbear to mention highly gratifying and pleasing to sense which I must leave for ever strengthens and heightens the Difficulty and begets a greater Regret and Reluctancy in my Will to have the Earthly Tabernacle of my Body dissolved and my Soul to dislodge and quit the same But now when the black and gloomy Shades of Death do overspread me I can say to the Glory of God's most Free and Powerful Grace True Faith in some measure hath changed the difficulty into a Facility and easiness of Dying It hath very much subdued the Reluctancy of my Will against it for it makes Future things present and Invisible things visible and doth Realize and substantiate the same to me and as by it I penetrate and pierce into Eternity and behold Invisible and Immortal things so hereby blessed be God I have obtained a greater Victory over Sense The World is crucified to me and I to the World and all the most pleasant delightful Objects therein all finite fading Creatures Comforts and Injoyments are become minute and small Despicable and Contemptible to me in comparison thereof being infinitely Contained and Comprehended therein Shall my Soul clasp and cling about these Mortal and Perishing things Shall it cleave and be glued to them Shall it be confin'd and captivated into what is kept in the narrow bounds of Time and in this lower World Shall it earnestly desire and thirst for muddy Streams yea Rivers of Flesh-pleasing Good when by an Eye of Faith I can look into the Indeficient Inexhaustible purest Fountain the Immense Imensurate Ocean of Divine Good hoping to Drink thereof to Swim and Bathe my Soul therein for ever and ever And when I consider how long my Ears have been bound up and tyed to their innumerable and horrid Oaths and Cursed Blasphemies and my Eyes to see the prophanation of the day of God and when I behold such an overflowing Flood of most prodigious Impiety such an Inundation of most monstrous Iniquity and so much Hell upon Earth and that there is so much decay of holy Zeal and true Piety and Christian Religion among the Professors of it such seeming incurable Breaches and Divisions such expiring Love and Charity and parting 's among them it hath powerful influence on my Soul to reconcile it more to Death and makes it electively and from choice to leave this present World and to take up my abode in that which is Unseen and Future were there shall be nothing but perfect Love and Holiness a sinless state and serving God with all unweariedness and perfection with the highest complacency and delight that immortal Souls can be capable of there is perfect Peace and Concord the innumerable company