Page:Strange and wonderful predictions of the Reverend martyr, Mr Christopher Love.pdf/12

 ſay to me, as he did to Moſes, Go up to the mount Nebo and die there; ſo to me, go up to Tower hill and die there. Iſaac ſaid to himſelf, that he was old, and yet he know not the day of his death: but I cannot ſay ſo; 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 alſo. I am put to ſuch a kind of death, as two famous preachers of the goſpel were put to before me; John the baptiſt, and Paul the apoſtle, they were both beheaded. I read alſo in Rev XX. 4. The ſaints were beheaded for the word of God, and teſtimony of Jeſus. But herein is the diſadvantage which I ly under in the thoughts of many; they judge that I ſuffor not for the word of God, or for conſcience, but for meddling with ſtate matters. To this I ſhall briefly ſay, that it is an old trick of Satan, to impute the cauſe of God's peoples ſufferings, to be contrivements againſt the ſtate; when, in truth, it is their religion and conſcience they are perſecuted for. The rulers of Iſrael would have put Jeremy to death upon a civil account, though indeed it was only the truth of his prophecy that made the rulers angry with him and yet upon a civil account thy pretend he muſt die, becauſe he fell away to the Chaldeans, and would have brought in foreign forces to invade them. The ſame thing is laid to my charge, of which I am as innocent as Jeremy was. So Paul, though he did but preach Jeſus Chriſt, yet his enemies would had him put to death, under pretence that he was a mover of ſedition. Upon a civil account my life is pretended to be taken away; whereas it is, becauſe I purſue my covenant, and will not proſtitute my principles and conſcience to the ambition and luſt of men. I had rather die a covenant-keeper, than live a covenant-breaker. Beloved, I am this day making a double exchange; I am changing a pulpit for a ſcaffold, and a