Cromwell could bear ill Language and Reproaches with lefs Disturbance and Concern than any Perfon in Authority had ever done; yet the Profecution this Man exercis'd him with, made him plainly difcern that it would be impoffible to preferve his Dignity, or to have any Security in the Government while this Licence continu'd ; and therefore, after he had fet Spies upon him to ob ferve his Actions, and collect his Words, and up, on Advice with the Council at Law of the State, was confidently inform'd, that as well by the old eftablifh'd Laws, as by new Ordinances, Lilburnè was guilty of High Treason, and had forfeited his Life if he were profecuted in any Court of Juftice; he caus'd him to be fent to Newgate, and at the next Seffions to be indicted of High Treafon: All the Judges being prefent, and the Council at Law to enforce the Evidence, and all Care being taken to return fuch a Jury as might be fit for the Importance of the Cafe; Lilburne appear'd undaunted, and with the Confidence of a Man that was to play a Prize before the People for their own Liberty, he pleaded Not guilty, and heard all the Charge and Evidence against him with Patience enough, fave that by interrupting the Lawyers fometimes who profecuted him, and by fharp Anfwers to fome Queftions of the Judges, he fhew'd that he had no Reverence for their Perfons, nor any Submiffion to their Authority. The whole Day was spent in his Tryal, and when he came to make his Defence, he mingled fo much Law in his Difcourfe to invalidate their Authority, and to make it appear so tyrannical, that neither their Lives, Liberties, or Eftates, were in any Degree fecure whilft that Ufurpation was exercis'd, and answer'd all the Matters objected against him with fuch an Affurance, making them to contain nothing of High Treafon, and that to

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be a Government against which High Treafon could not be committed. He defended himself with that Vigour, and charm'd the Jury fo powerfully, that, againft all the Direction and Charge the Judges could give them (who affur'd them that the Words and Actions fully prov'd against the Prisoner were High Treafon by the Law, and that they were bound by all the Obligations of Confcience to find him guilty) after no long Confultation between themselves, they return'd with their Verdict that he was Not guilty, nor could they be perfuaded by the Judges to change or recede from their Verdict, which infinitely enrag'd and perplex'd Cromwell, who look'd upon it as a greater Defeat than the Lofs of a Battle would have been. And tho' Lilburne was acquitted on another Profecution in the Year 1653, yet Cromwell would never fuffer him to be fet at Liberty, as by Law he ought to have been, but fent him from Prison to Prison, and kept him enclos'd there till he himfelf died. Clar. Vol. III. 503.

Dr. Nalfon fums up the Character of John Lil burne in few Words: He fays, He was a Man of a restless,boiling and unwearied Spirit, condemn'd by his ungovernable Temper to perpetual Trou bles and Quarrels with his Superiors, and always opposing himself to the Power that was uppermoft. Nalfon's Col. Vol. L512. After his fecond Tryal, being imprifon'd by the Protector in Dover, Castle, he there met with fome of the Sect of the Quakers, who brought him over to their Opinions, in which he continu'd to his Death, and his Body was convey'd by the Brethren to their Meeting-house at the Bull and Mouth in London, where it was put into a plain Coffin, without any Covering, and from thence was carried with the Head forwards (in Oppofition to the ancient fuperftitious

perftitious Custom) to the new Church-yard by Bethlem, where it was interr'd.

The Execution of Mr. CHRISTOPHER LOVE, Auguft 22, 1651.

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R. Love was brought from the Tower by the Sheriffs of London to the Scaffold on Tower-hill, about two a-clock in the Afternoon : The Minifters that accompanied him were Mr. Afb, Mr. Calamy, and Mr. Manton. When he was upon the Scaffold, Sheriff Titchburn fhewed him the Warrant for his Suffering, telling him, that he took no Pleasure in this Work, but it was a Duty laid upon him. Mr. Love, I believe it, Sir. Sheriff Titchburn, I have done my Duty for you. Mr. Love, The Lord bless you.

Lieutenant of the Tower, The Lord ftrengthen you in this Hour of your Temptation. Mr. Love, Sir, I blefs God, my Heart is in Heaven, I am well. Then turning to Sheriff Titchburn, he faid, May I have the Liberty to speak and pray? Sheriff Titchburn, Yes: But I defire you to con fider, we have the other [meaning Mr. Gibbons] to execute afterwards, and fix a-clock is our Hour; but we will give you as much time as we can. Mr. Love, I fhall be the briefer. Then he put off his Hat two feveral times to the People, and fpake as followeth :

I am made this Day a Spectacle unto God, Angels, and Men: And among Men, I am made a Grief to the Godly, a Laughing-stock to the Wicked, and a Gazing-ftock to all; yet bleffed be my God, not a Terror to myself. Altho' there be but little between me and Death; yet this bears up my Heart, there is but little between

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me and Heaven. It comforted Dr. Taylor, the Martyr, when he was going to Execution, that there were but two Stiles between him and his Father's House; there is a leffer Way between me and my Father's Houfe; but two Steps between me and Glory; it is but lying down upon the Block, and I fhall afcend upon a Throne. I am this Day failing towards the Ocean of Eternity, thro' a rough Paffage to my Haven of Reft; thro a Red Sea to the promised Land. Methinks I hear God fay to me as he did to Mofes, Go up to: Mount Nebo, and die there: So to me,. Go up to Tower-hill, and die there. Ifaac faid of himself, that he was old, and yet he knew not the Day of his Death; but I cannot fay fo, I am young, and yet I know the Day of my Death, and I know the kind of my Death, and the Place of my Death alfo. I am put to fuch a kind of Death as two: famous Preachers of the Gofpel were put to before me, John the Baptift, and Paul the Apostle, they were both beheaded; you have Mention of the one in Scripture Story, and of the other in Ecclefiaftical History. And I read in Rev. 20. 4. The Saints were beheaded for the Word of God, and for the Teftimony of Jefus But herein is the Difadvantage which I lie under in the Thoughts

of many, they judge that I fuffer not for the Word of God, or for Confcience, but for meddling with State Matters. To this I fhall briefly fay, That it is an old Guife of the Devil, to impute the Caufe of God's Peoples Sufferings, to be Contrivements against the State, when in Truth it is their Religion and Confcience they are perfecuted for: The Rulers of Ifrael would have put Jeremy to Death upon a civil Account, tho❜indeed it was only the Truth of his Prophecy that made the Rulers angry with him; and yet upon a civil Account they pretend he must die, be

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caufe he fell away to the Chaldeans, and would have brought in foreign Forces to invade them : The fame thing is laid to my Charge, of which I am as innocent as Jeremy was. Yea, I find other Inftances in Scripture, wherein the Caufe of the Saints Sufferings were ftill imputed to their meddling with State Matters. Paul, tho' he did but preach Jefus Chrift, yet he muft die, if the People might have their Will, under Pretence that he was a Mover of Sedition. Upon a civil Account my Life is pretended to be taken away, whereas indeed it is because I purfue my Covenant, and will not proftitute my Principles and Confcience to the Ambition and Lufts of Men. Beloved, I am this Day making a double Exchange, I am changing a Pulpit for a Scaffold, and a Scaffold for a Throne; and I might add a third, I am changeing this numerous Multitude, the Prefence of this numerous Multitude on Tower-hill, for the innumerable Company of Saints and Angels in Heaven, the holy Hill of Sion; and I am changing a Guard of Soldiers for a Guard of Angels, which will receive me, and carry me into Abraham's Bofom. This Scaffold is the best Pulpit that ever I preach'd in; in my Church-Pulpit, God thro' his Grace made me an Inftrument to bring others to Heaven; but in this Pulpit he will bring me to Heaven. Thefe are the laft Words that I fhall speak in this World, and it may be I fhall bring more Glory to God by this one Speech on a Scaf fold, than I have done by many Sermons in a Pulpit.

Before I lay down my Neck upon the Block, I fhall lay open my Caufe unto the People that hear me this Day, that I might not die under all that Obloquy and Reproach that is caft upon me; and in doing it, I fhall avoid all Rancor, all Bit ternefs of Spirit, Animofity and Revenge; God

is