I die alive

Oh life! what lets thee from a quick decease?
Oh death! what draws thee from a present prey?
My feast is done, my soul would be at ease,
My grace is said,
O death! come take away. 
I live, but such a life as ever dies; 
I die, but such a death as never ends;
My death to end my dying life denies, 
And life my loving death no whit amends. 
Thus still I die, yet still I do remain; 
My living death by dying life is fed; 
Grace more than nature keeps my heart alive, 
Whose idle hopes and vain desires are dead. 
Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live; 
Not where I love, but where I am, I die; 
​The life I wish must future glory give, 
The death I feel in present dangers lie.
Robert Southwell SJ

On 21 February 1595, Southwell was sent to Tyburn. Execution of sentence on a notorious highwayman had been appointed for the same time, but at a different place – perhaps to draw the crowds away – and yet many came to witness Southwell’s death.

Having been dragged through the streets on a sledge, he stood in the cart beneath the gibbet and made the sign of the cross with his pinioned hands before reciting a Bible passage from Romans 14.

The sheriff made to interrupt him, but he was allowed to address the people at some length, confessing that he was a Jesuit priest and praying for the salvation of Queen and country. As the cart was drawn away, he commended his soul to God with the words of the psalm in manus tuas. [into your hands]

He hung in the noose for a brief time, making the sign of the cross as best he could. As the executioner made to cut him down, in preparation for disemboweling him while still alive, Lord Mountjoy and some other onlookers tugged at his legs to hasten his death.

His lifeless body was then disemboweled and quartered. As his severed head was displayed to the crowd, no one shouted the traditional “Traitor!”.

Wikipedia​