PROPHECIES OF THE Rev. Christopher Love: Who was beheaded on Tower-Hill, LONDON, ON The Twenty-second Day of August 1651. AND His LAST WORDS ON The SCAFFOLD.
BOSTON: Reprinted and sold at the Bible and Heart, in Cornhill, 1794.
PROPHECIES, &c. OF Mr. Christopher Love.
A FEW Nights after he was sentenced to be beheaded on Tower-Hill, which was on the 22d day of August, 1651, ten days before his appointed time, by the sentence which he received at the bar; being one night visited by two of his intimate acquaintances, or bosom friends, as he himself called them, they began to complain of the cruelties of the times, and the masicious usage of time-serving brethren; to which Mr. Love answered,—"And think you this is an evil time? No, No; this is the very time, when grace and true godliness can be distinguished from hypocrisy. Many have followed Christ, hitherto, for the loaves, and are now turned back for the roughness of the way, and the sore trial and tribulation, which others met with, who are gone before them.
"There are many in London, at this very day, who think to go to Heaven in their gilded coaches, and who have denied Christ's [Page 3]cause before men (against whom I now witness) and Christ, in his never failing word, has promised to deny all such before his Father and the holy Angels. This is the time to discern between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not. They formerly were my familiar acquaintances, in fellowship and in sweet converse. I sent this day to have a few words with them, here in the prison, but they would not come; for their countenances are fallen, and their consciences wounded; they cannot look me in the face; because I knew of their resolution, and was a witness of their perjuration. But, ah! how will they look the blessed JESUS in the face, in the morning of the resurrection? What answer or excuse will they have for what they have done? O foolish people! who think to escape the Cross, and come to the Crown! I tell you nay: you must all suffer persecution, who follow the Lamb. We must be hated of all nations, for Christ's sake. We must go through great tribulation, and through the fiery furnace of affliction, before we can enter the land of joy and felicity. Know ye not, that the souls that were slain for the testimony of Jesus, are placed under the Altar. Happy, happy are those men at this day, and ever shall be happy, who suffer for Christ's sake in a right [Page 4]way, i. e. through love to his cause, and an honesty of heart; and not through pride and hypocrisy, without the root of the matter, to have it said they died martyrs. These are they who will miss their mark. I am now pointed out by many to be in a destitute and forlorn condition; but I would not exchange my state, no, not for all the glory that is on earth. I find my Redeemer's love stronger in my bonds, than ever I did in the days of my liberty: I am as full of love and joy in the Holy Spirit, as ever a bottle was filled with new wine. I am ready to cry out, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. I will not take upon me to prophesy; nevertheless, the Spirit of the Lord causeth me to utter.—This usurped authority, now in the hand of Cromwell, shall shortly be at an end. * England shall be blessed with meek kings, and with a mild government, and powerful preachers. But good sermons to them will be but as musick to a sleepy man; they shall hear, but not understand, nor lay the word to heart, to practise it in their lives, and walk by it. O England! thou shalt wax old in wickedness; and thy sins abound like those of Sodom; thy voluptuousness shall cry aloud for vengeance; and the Lord shall [Page 5]threaten and chastife thee; * yet in mercy and love will he look upon those who fear him, and call upon his name; he will spare and save them alive in the day of his anger, when the wicked shall be sifted from amongst you, as the chaff is sifted from amongst the wheat. Out of thee, O England! shall a bright Star arise, † whose light and voice shall make the heathen to quake, and bow with submission to the Gospel of Jesus. He shall be as a sound of thunder in the ears of the wicked, and as a lantern to the Jews. to lead them to the knowledge of Jesus, the only Son of God, and the true Messiah, whom they so long mistrusted; for the short work spoken of by the Apostle, which the Lord is to make upon the earth, in the latter age of the world, cannot be far off. Observe, my dear friends, while you live, my calculation of the dates in the book of the Revelations, and in Daniel, which the Spirit of the Lord led me into; for the Lord will [Page 6]reveal it to some of his own, e'er that time come; for the nearer the time is, the seals shall be taken away, and more and more shall be revealed to God's People; for the Lord doth nothing without he reveal it, by his Spirit, to his Servants the Prophets. He destroyed not the old world without the knowledge of Noah.—He did not overthrow Sodom and Gomorrah without the knowledge of Abraham. I do not mean now, that any new Prophet shall arise: But the Lord by his Spirit shall canse knowledge to abound among his people, whereby the old prophecies shall be clearly and perfectly understood. And I die in that thought, and really believe that my calculation will be found true, on the Revelation by St. John, and the prophecy which St. Jerome copied off, and translated out of the Hebrew Language, as it is written on Seth's Pillar in Damascus; which pillar is said to have stood since and before the flood, and was built by Seth, Adam's son, and written by Enoch the Prophet; as likewise the holy precepts, whereby the Patriarchs walked, before the law was given to Moses, which were also engraven on the said Pillar; whereof many Jews have copies, in their own language, written on parchment, and engraven on brass and copper, This prophecy is entitled, "A short work of the Lord's, in the latter age of the world."
PERIODS.
Great earthquakes and commotions by sea and land, * shall come in the year of God 1779.
Great wars in Germany and America, † in 1780.
The destruction of Popery, or Babilon's fall, † in the year 1790.
God will be known by many § in the year 1795. This will produce a great man.
The Stars will wander, and the Moon shall turn as blood in 1800 ‖
Africa, Asia, and America will tremble in 1803. ¶
A great earthquake over all the world in 1805. ** God will be universally acknowledged by all: Then a general reformation and peace, when the people shall learn war no more. †† Happy is the man that liveth to see this day.
The last Words of the Reverend CHRISTOPHER LOVE. Minister of Laurence Jury, London, who was beheaded on Tower-Hill, August 22, 1651, in the time of Cromwell's usurpation, under pretence of his plotting against it. His words on the scaffold were these.
"ALTHOUGH there be but little between me and death, yet this bears up my heart, there is little between 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 lesser way between me and my Father's house, but two steps between me and glory. It is but laying down my head upon that block, and I shall ascend upon a throne. I am this day sailing towards the ocean of eternity, through a rough passage to my haven of rest; through a red sea to the promised land. Methinks I hear God say to me, as he did to Moses, Go up to Mount Neho, and die there; so to me, Go up to Tower-Hill, and die there. Isaac said of himself, that he was old, and yet he knew 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. [Page 9]I am put to such a kind of death, as two famous preachers of the gospel were before me, John the Baptist, and Paul the Apostle. They were both beheaded. I read, Rev. xxth, 4th, The saints were beheaded for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus. But herein is the disadvantage which I lie under, in the thoughts of some; they judge that I suffer 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 people's 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 Jeremiah 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 they pretended 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 Jeremiah was. So Paul, though he did but preach Jesus Christ, yet his enemies would have 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 [Page 10]covenant, and will not prostitute my principles and conscience to the ambition and the lusts 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 scaffold for a throne,—And I might add a third, I am changing the presence of this numerous multitude upon Tower-Hill, for the innumerable company of saints and angels in Heaven, the holy Hill of Zion; and I am changing a guard of soldiers for a guard of angels, which will receive me, and carry me to Abraham's bosom. This scaffold is the best pulpit that ever I preached in. In my church pulpit, God, through his grace, made me an instrument to bring others to heaven; but in this pulpit he will bring me to heaven."
Afterwards he said, "Though my blood be not the blood of nobles, yet it is Christian blood, minister's blood; yea more, it is innocent blood. I magnify the riches of God's grace and mercy towards me, that I, who was born in Wales, an obscure country, and of obscure parents, should be singled out to honourable sufferings. For the first fourteen years of my life, I never heard a sermon preached; yet in the fifteenth year of my life it pleased God to convert me. Blessed [Page 11]be God, who not only made me a christian, but also a minister, judging me faithful, and putting me into the ministry, which is my glory, I had rather be a preacher in the pulpit than a prince on the throne. I had rather be an instrument to bring souls to heaven, than that all nations should bring tribute to me.—Formerly (said he) I have been under a spirit of bondage; yea, sometimes I have had more fear in drawing out a tooth, than now I have for cutting off my head. When fear was upon me, death was not near; now, when death is near to me, my fear is evanished.—I am comforted in this, though men kill me, they cannot damn me; though they thrust me out of the world, yet they cannot shut me out of heaven.— When I have shed my blood, I expect the full declaration of the remission of sins through the blood of Christ. I am going to my long home, and ye to your short homes; but I shall be at my home before you be at yours."
When the executioner was raising the fatal axe, Mr. Love's neck being placed across the block to receive it, he prayed. That, seeing he was called to do the work which he never did, he might have the strength which he never had. The blow followed, and fevered the head from the trunk.
Dr. Wild in his Elegy hath these Lines: