The HIS T 0 RY of t,5e PuRITANS. VoL. II. Commonu Upon the whole, though I never writ nor fent fetters into Scotland, wealth. " t I c. r. h • d' . h h k' .16,.5 r. ye ·con.e.s, t e1r procee mgs Wit t e ·mg are agreeable to my ~ "JUdgment, and for the good of the nation ; and though I difown the " commiffion and inilrutl:ions mentioned in the inditl:ment, yet 1have « defired an ageement between the king and the {cots, agreeably to the eo– " venant; for they having declared him to be their king, I have de fired '' and prayed as a private man, that they might accompliih their ends, '' upon .fuch terms as were confiftent with the fafety of religion and the " covenant." He concludes with befeeching the court, that he may not be put to death for ftate reafons. He owns he had been guilty of a concealment, and begs the mercy of the court for it, promifing for the future to lead a quiet and peaceable life. He puts them in mind, that when Abiathar the prieft had done an unjuilifiable action, king Solomo11 fa id, he would not put him to death at that time, becaufe he bore the ark qfthe L ord God before David his father; and becauje he hadbeen a!ftieled in affqvherein his father had been afftiC!ed-" Thus (f<1ys he) I commit myfclf and my all to " God, and to your judgments and confciences, with the words of Jere– " miah to the rulers of !Jrae/, asfor me, beholdI am in your hands, do with " me as flemeth good and meet to you; but knowye for certain, that ffye put " me to death,)•e jhalljitrely bring innocent blood upon youifelves. But I hope .., better things of you, tho' I thus fpeak." The court allowed Mr. Love the benefit of council learned in the law, to argue fome exceptions againft the indictment; but after all that Mr. 1-lales could fay for the prifoner, the court after fix days hearing, on the sth of July, pronounced fentence of death againil him as a traytor. Great intercel1ions were made for the life of this reverend perfon, by the chief of the prdbyterian party in London; his wife prefented feveral mov– ing petitions; and two were prefented from himfelf, in one of which he acknowledges the juftice of his fentence, according to the laws of the com– monwealth; in the other he petitions, that if he may not be pardoned, his fentence may be changed into baniiliment; and that he might do fame– thing to deferve his life, he prefented with his !aft p~tition a narration of all that he knew relating to the plot, which admits almoft all that had been objected to him at his trial. A remarkBut the affairs of the commonwealth were now at a crifis, and king able mctdent. Charles II. having entered England at the head of lixteen thoufandftots, it was thought necelfary to ftrike fome terror into the prefbyterian party, by making an example of one of their favourite clergymen. Mr. Whitlock fays, that colonel Fortifcue was fent to general Cromwe!l with a petitio? on Compl. hilt, p. 202. Each• k'• 689. behalf of Mr. Love, but that both the general and the reil: of the officers dec1ined meddling in the affair; biihop Ken11et and Mr. Eachard fay, the, · - genera>
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