A88575:141
Mr. Love's case
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. Far, 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 Tower Hill, August 22. 1651. Printed by an exact copy, taken in short-hand by John Hind. Fourthly, animadversions on the said speech and prayer.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.
London: printed for R.W. and Peter Cole, 1651
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Mr. Love's Speech made on the Scaffold on Tower-Hill, August 22. 1651. › Section 25
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
SECT. XXV.
Now Beloved, I shall not only justify God (as I do without a Complement,) for he is very Just, that my Prison was not my Hell, that this Scaffold is not the bottomless pit, I have deserved both, I have deserved it: I do not only justify God, but I desire this day to magnify God, to magnify the riches of his glorious grace, that such a one as I, born in an obscure Country in Wales, of obscure Parents, that God should look upon me, and single me out from among ⟨p. 26⟩all my kindred, single me out to be an Object of his everlasting Love; that when for the first fourteen years of my life I never heard a Sermon, and yet in the fifteenth year of my life, God through his grace did convert me: And I here speak it without vanity (what should a dying man be proud of?) for these twenty years, though I am accused of many scandalous evils, I speak it to the praise and glory of my God, for these twenty years God hath kept me, I have not fallen into a scandalous sin; I have laboured to keep a good Conscience from my youth up: I magnify his grace, that he hath not only made me a Christian, but made me a Minister, judged me faithful, and put me into the Ministry; and though the Office be trodden upon, and be disgraced, yet it is my glory, that I dye a despised Minister: I had rather be a Preacher in a Pulpit, then a Prince upon a Throne; I had rather be an Instrument to bring Souls to Heaven, then to have all the Nations to bring in tribute to me. I am not only a Christian, and a Preacher, but, what ever men judg me, I am a Martyr too, I speak it without vanity: Would I have renounced my Covenant, and debauched my Conscience, and ventured my Soul, there might have been more hopes of saving my life, that I should not have come to this place: but blessed be my God, I have made the best choice, I have chose affliction rather then Sin; and therefore welcome Scaffold, and welcome Axe, and welcome Death, welcome Block, welcome all, because it will send me to my Fathers House.