LOVE. 129 was stopped on the road by several persons belonging to the late king's 'army, who opened the Scotch mail, and finding this letter of reprieve for Mr. Love, they took it, and with indignation tore it in pieces ; declaring, that he who had been so great a firebrand at Uxbridge, was not fit to live.. If this story be true, our divine fell a sacrifice to the ungo- vernable rage of the royalists. Upon the arrival of the mail from Scotland, and there being no letter from Cromwell in behalf of Mr. Love, it was coritluded that his silence was an absolute denial. Mr. Love was therefore ordered to be executed on Tower hill. During his confinement, after his trial, he received many encouraging and affectionate letters from his numerous friends, particularly from Dr. Drake, Mr. Robinson Mr. Jenkins and Mrs. Love, which are now before me. The last that he received from Mrs. Love, written the day before his execution, and well worthy of the pious reader's perusal, was the following : My heavenly dear, ".I call thee so, because God bath put heaven into thee before he hath taken thee to heaven. Thou now be- holdest God, Christ, and glory, as in a glass ; but to-morrow heaven's gates will be opened, and thou'shalt be in the full enjoyment of all those glories which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither can the heart of man understand. God hath-now swallowed up thy heart in the thoughts of heaven ; but ere long thou shalt be swallowed up in the enjoyment of heaven ! And no marvel there should be such quietness and calmness in thy spirit, whilst thou art sailing in this tem- pestuous sea, because thou perceivest, by the eye of faith, a haven of rest, where thou shalt be richly laden with all the glories of heaven ! 0, lift up thy heart with joy, when thou layest thy dear head on the block, in the thoughts of this; that thou art layiiig thy head to rest in thy Father's bosom ; which, when thou dost awake, shall be crowned, not with an earthly, fading crown; but with an heavenly, eternal crown of glory! Be not troubled when thou shalt see a guard of sol- diers triumphing with their trumpets about thee ; but lift up thy head, and thou shalt behold God with a guard of holy angels triumphing to receive thee to glory! Be not dis- mayed at the scoffs and reproaches thou mayest meet With in.thy short way to heaven ; for, be assured; God will not Kennet's Hi§t. of Eng. vol. iii. p. 185.-Eehard's Hht. of Eng. p. 706. VOL. III. IC
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=