Gods have over-match'd Methinks Belzebub if he be outdone In his Grand Mysteries and Rome needs none Of his Black Arts but can Out-Devil Hell His Envy and Revenge this Plot should tell And by disclosing in his own defence Not only Vindicate his Innocence But hasten their destruction and prevent Loss of his Trade the Jesuites intent Unless he fears them as indeed he may When once in Hell none shall Command but they But if this Tragedy be all his own And Roman Actors taught by him have shown How they can play all parts he can devise Female or Male with or without disguise And need no Cacodoemons prompting Art Or Whisper but can fill up any part Fast Pray and Weep Swear and for swear decoy Trappan Kiss Flatter Smile and so Destroy Stab Pistoll Poison Kings Unking Dethrone Blow up or down Save Damn make all their own Knows not he then tho' founder of the Stage The Laws of Theatres in every Age That th' Actors not the Author of the Play Do challenge the Rewards of the first day Make then their Names renown'd and come to hide Such Children of thy Revels and thy Pride Send to their Father and thy eldest Son That Lucifer of Rome what feats they 've done That he may make their names be understood Written in Kalenders of Martyrs Blood But if the Fiends below be Deaf and Dumb And this conjuring cannot overcome They and their Imps be damn'd together I To Gods on Earth will send my Hue and Cry Arise Just Charles Three Kingdoms Soul and mine Great James thy Grandfather could wel divine And without spell the bloody Riddle Spell Writ by like Secretaries of Rome and Hell And if Thy Proclamation cannot do We pray Gods Spirit may inspire Thee too If thy Prophetick Usher did not erre The Mass would enter by a Massacre The Wounds Thy Godfry found were meant for Thee And thou ly'st Murder'd in Effigie In Gods Kings Kingdoms Cause this Knight was slain Let him a Noble Monument obtain Erected in your Westminsters great Hall That Courts of Justice may lament his Fall And may when any Papist cometh near His Marble Statue yield a bloudy tear Yet let him not be buried let him lie The fairest Image to draw Justice by There needs no Balm or Spices to preserve The Corps from Stench his innocence will serve Ye Lords and Commons joyn your speedy Votes A Pack of Bloud-Hounds threaten all your Throats And if their Treason be not understood Expect to be dissolv'd in your own Blood O Vote that every Papist high and low To martyr'd Godfreys Corps in person go And laying hand upon his wounded Brest By Oath and Curse his ignorance protest But oh the Atheism of that Monstrous Crew Whose Holy Father can all Bonds undo Whose Breath can put away the heavi'st Oath Who fears no Heaven nor Hell but laughs at both Therefore a safer Vote my Muse suggests For Priests and Jesuites can swallow Tests As Hocus Pocus doth his Rope or Knife And cheats the gaping Farmer and his Wife Oh Vote each Sign-post shall a Gibbet be And hang a Traytor upon every Tree Yet we 'le find Wood enough for Bone-fire piles T' inlighten and inflame our Brittish Isles Upon th' approaching fifth November night And make Incendiaries curse the light November Fires Septembers may reveal One Burn we say another Burn will heal Lastly And surely let this Hue and Cry Reach Heaven where every Star looks like an Eye To that High Court of Parliament above Whose Laws are mixt with Justice and with Love Whither Just Godfrey's Soul 's already come And hath receiv'd the Crown of Martyrdome Where Murder'd Kings and slaughter'd Saints do cry Their Blood may never unrevenged lie Ye Saints and Angels hath that Scarlet Whore Whose Priests and Brats before your shrines adore And in their Massacres your Aid implore Staining your Altars with the precious Gore Pour down your Vials on their Cursed heads And in Eternal flames prepare their Beds And Thou Judge Jesus Hang'd and Murder'd too By Power of Rome and Malice of the Jew In Godfrey's Wounds Thine own do bleed anew Oh Rend Thy Heavens Come Lord and take Thy Throne Revenge Thy Martyrs Murder and Thine own FINIS ADVERTISEMENT THere is now Published a Book Intituled The Plot in a Dream or the Discoverer in Masquerade fully and truly relating the History of the present Popish Plot from its Original until this time as namely the first Contrivement of it beyond the Seas The Ways and Methods there resolved upon for the effecting of it The manner of its first Discovery The Description of the Papists Grand Consult and proceedings upon it Sir Edmonbury Godfrey's Murther related The several Trials and Executions of Staly Coleman the Jesuits that were employed to kill the King Reading's Subornation and Punishment The Story of the Meal-Tub-Plot and other Sham-Plots since The Proceedings against the Lords in the Tower with the Trial and Execution of the Lord Stafford An account of the last Parliament held at Oxford with the Proceedings against Fitz-Harris c. Intermixt with Verses and variety of Fancies with several Cuts to illustrate the Design and the whole digested into Chapters with Contents for the better Satisfaction of the Reader By Philopatris Price bound 1 s. 6 d. The Life and Death of Captain William Bedloe one of the Chief Discoverers of the horrid Popish Plot wherein all his more Eminent Cheats and whatever is Remarkable of him both Good and Bad is Impartially discovered 8 o. Price bound 1 s. Both these are sold by John Hancock and Enoch Prosser Booksellers at their Shops at the Three Bibles at the end of Popes-Head Alley over against the Royal Exchange and at the Rose and Crown in Sweetings Alley at the East end of the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1681. Sed genus provaos quae non fecimus ipsi Vix ea nostra voco Ovid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarchus lib. cont Nobilitatem Sr. Edm. Godfrey's Funeral Sermon Page 14. Quis autem vir bonus erectus ad honesta non est laboris appetens justi ad officia cum periculo promptus Cui non industrioso otium poena est Senec. lib. de Providentia * Quis est istorum qui non malit Rempub turbari quam comam suam qui non solicitior sit de capitis sui decore quam de salute qui non comptior esse malit quam honestior Senec. de Provid Cap. 12. Sir Edm. Godfrey's Funeral Sermon Howels Treatise of Embassadors Mat. 5. 9. Funeral Sermon pag. 12 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vita Arhan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Lachete Funeral Sermon pag. 16. Flectere si uequerunt superos Acheronta movebunt Vide Narrative of the Tryals of Green Berry and Hill Murus hic â—heneus esto Nil conscire sibi Horat. Vide Mr. Prances Narrative pag. 20 21. Mr. Prances Narrat pag. 24. ☜ Note Note the sincerity of Popish principles where such Equivocations are allowed of to justify the greatest Villanies See Narrative of the Trials Funeral Sermon p. 28.
Courages of true Romans of the new Stamp denying the Crime they Suffered for with that their formal Evasion of being Innocent as the Child unborn that is as no body A Child unborn may be a Non ens Had it been as a Sucking Child I question whether their dying Consciences could so well have dispensed with the Expression But what other might be expected from Consciences so charmed as theirs was by the Sophisticating Juggles of their Superiours ty'd up by so many Oaths and Sacraments to conceal that truth which by the divulging must necessarily turn to the Scandal of the Romish Church whose principles will rather admit the blame and punishment of a Crime than the shame of it And that there were some designs contrived to oblige them to such a prophane concealment in so solemn a case as dying I can give it no fitter an Epithet is evident by one notorious Circumstance That when Hill and Green were Hang'd and dead Captain Richardson the Keeper of Newgate with several others saw the Executioner amongst other things take a Paper out of Hill's Pocket purporting to be the form of the Speech that he should use to the People at the Gallows which being penn'd in a singular way of expression I shall take leave to insert Verbatim as followeth I Am come now to the fatal place where I must end my Life and I hope with that Courage that may become my Innocence I must now appear before the great Judge who knows all things and Judges rightly and I hope it will be happy for me a Sinner that I am thus wrongfully put to Death I call God Angels and Men to Witness that I am wholly Ignorant of the Manner Cause or Time of the Death of Justice Godfrey although on that account by the Malice of wicked men brought to this shameful death which I hope will give me a speedy passage to Eternal Life In this hope I dye chearfully because of mine Innocence and the benefit of the precious wounds of my blessed Saviour by whose Merits I hope for Salvation I dye a Roman Catholick desiring all such to Pray for me And I beseech God in his Justice to discover this horrid Murther with the Contrivers thereof that my Innocence may appear And though from my Heart I forgive my Accusers Yet I Cite all such as have a hand in this bloody Contrivance before the great Tribunal of Gods Justice to answer for the wrong they have done the Innocent and particularly the Lord Chief Justice and the Brothers of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey with Jury Witnesses and all their Partakers Oh Lord bless and Preserve his Majesty and be merciful to this poor Nation and lay not Innocent Blood to its Charge Dying words ought to have their just allowances of credit as supposing men if ever they dare speak the truth will do it then when they are within an immediate prospect of a sudden appearance before the Omnâ—â—ient and righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth to answer for what they have said and done But when the truth has been once determined as in this case by no less than a Cloud of Witnesses some of them unknown to the other yet all of them harmoniously agreeing in the particular circumstances of the Fact and the Fact it self sufficiently proved on all hands by persons that prosess such a Religion as gives no allowances to lying or dissimulation When on the other hand the truth so proved shall be denyed by persons instructed in such false principles as these to deny the truth when the secular Interest of their Idoliz'd as well as Idolatrous Church shall be indanger'd by it to invert the moral nature of good and evil and to account those actions and things good vertuous and meritorious which in their own nature besides the express commands of Gods Word are wicked and sinful No wonder if such persons upon such principles should deny or conceal the truth especially when they can make such unhappy distinctions betwixt the form and reality of a Fact as to deny the crime of Murther when they know themselves to be guilty of killing a person killing in their sence being sometimes no more Murder than it was for the Priests of old to kill a Sacrifice or for the Jews to slaughter the reprobated Amalekites they arrogating to themselves the same dominion over the lives and properties of Hereticks as we are accounted by them that the Jews that priviledged people of old had over the execrated Pagan Nations so that in their sence Killing is no Murder Upon which considerations it 〈◊〉 easie for any impartial man to judge how much credit such dying attestations may admit of against such clear and undeniable proofs as were brought against them And it is more than probable that the words of the aforesaid Paper were not Hill's own words but dictated for him in that form by those of his party that were afraid of a Confession and durst not trust the reputation of their cause to the hazard of any unwary expressions that the consternation of death might extort from him Wherefore otherwise might not a verbal expression of his Innocency if he were minded to declare it be lookt upon as more credible from one in his dying circumstances than a set and Studyed form of Speech calculated for the purpose But they feared either the terrors of death would force him to a plain Confession or that the power of truth fortified with such awful Sentiments would over-bear his Tongue in some circumstance or at least that he would not deny the Fact so resolutely and in such a taking manner as might fix a Suspicion and odium upon the Witnesses Judge and Jury in the minds of the People which was the great thing they aimed at No doubt therefore this form of what he should say at his Execution was drawn up for him by some of the Religion that every word might be according to their mind and to the purposes of their designs how remote soever it were to his thoughts or the truth And no Wonder it is that they should instruct their Proselytes to make Speeches just as they say Prayers resting in the Opere Operato without any understanding or attention or consent of mind to the words they use when a bare doing or a bare saying can excuse an intention To conclude It is evident that the words were framed by another for him to Con by heart and not of his own doing by this undenyable circumstance that he never had Pen Ink nor Paper all the while he was in Newgate and his Wife being Examined about it testified that it was not of his hand-writing nor did she ever see it before or know how he came by it yet he began his Speech with these very Words and repeated as much thereof as his memory under such confused circumstances would serve him to do In the Speech it self we may observe the great Charity of the Author of it whoever he were in citing all such
as had any hand in his Death before the great Tribunal of Gods Justice particularly the Lord Chief Justice Sir Edmondbury Godfrey's Brothers with the Jury Witnesses and all their partakers And yet but in the words just before he declares that he does from his Heart forgive his Accusers We may see by this Passage of what nature such mens Forgiveness is seeming to Pardon when at the same time they cry out for Vengeance upon their Adversaries The Papists for the still better colouring of the business have commonly reported that Berry was alwayes or at least dyed a Protestant which is notoriously false having been known to be a Papist for many years induced thereto as he confessed to the Ordinary out of Lucre and to get an imployment And though he did not believe many things as he declared a little before his Execution which the Romish Doctors teach as necessary Articles of Faith which is no more than many other Papists will affirm Yet the said Berry neither before nor at his Execution would ever disown the Romish Church nor in the least declare himself a Protestant I would not have these last Passages thought altogether an at least impertinent digression from our Subject the design of their rehearsal being chiefly to Evidence the truth against the subtil Designs of the Papists to suppress it which they have managed not only by suborning if I may so say or at least seducing their mischievous Agents to persist to the very death in denying of what they did But despairing upon just grounds of the success of that Imposture so lyable to detection they have since by their malicious slanders endeavoured to remove the Charge of the fact from those that were the real Actors and from all their own party to those that were most clear of it And perceiving that the Belief of their designs and actings against the Life of this Innocent Gentleman was in the length of time not only the more confirmed but that the credit of it had a fatal influence upon their further proceedings they were so effrontless in their Villanous Prosecution that they stuck not to commit a second Murther upon the good Name as well as they had before done upon the Person of this worthy Martyr for his King and Countrey by endeavouring to charge the Murther upon himself a brief account of which to shut up this Tragical discourse I shall now give you But by the way it may be observed from this last account of Hills Confession that he or his Party had at that time no thoughts of fixing such a slander upon him of his being Felo de se but did own it as a Murther committed upon him by others though Hill would have shifted it off from himself as appears by the words of his Confession I beseech God in his Justice to discover this Horrid Murther The manner of the expression may sufficiently evince that he meant it not of his being Murther'd by himself but others The Popish Plot which by the goodness of the divine Providence was hitherto prevented in its progress by surprizing discoveries was forced to shift its Scenes and assume new forms of Enterprize upon the defeats of the former And now a new Instrument of theirs is brought upon the Stage One Fitz-Harris lately Executed for Treason who upon his first Arraignment before the Justices of the Kings Bench did offer upon a private Examination to discover to them some persons before unknown who were instrumental in the Murther of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey himself by his own confession being one that was concerned in it and so had the better opportunity to know the rest These Examinations were taken in private and therefore what the Effects of them were and who the persons particularly were that were thereby accused Time the Parent of Truth may hereafter discover But whether the Accusation of some persons mentioned in the Informations might provoke them to it or that the Revival of this new Evidence might Stimulate the malicious party to the undertaking a new design is contriv'd to fix this Murther upon the Murther'd Person This was one of their Sham-plots many of which they have set up with an irrefragable persistance by such Methods if possible to amuse us into a disbelief of the real one then and yet in Prosecution They never want Instruments to effect their Villanies when they have once contrived them and had one at this time fit for their purpose an Irish-man Mac-gar by name a Zealous Papist and one of a suitable reputation who coming lately over from Ireland and judged by them to be a man fit enough for the purpose of an ill design they engage him to spread about reports up and down the Town that Sir Edmondbury Godfrey had Murthered himself but that to save his Estate from a forfeiture by reason of his so doing His Brothers had engaged him the Informant to run Sir Edmondbury Godfrey's own Sword through him and so to leave him in that Condition in which he was found in the ditch upon the first Discovery This Tale could get little credit amongst the Towns-men who were upon just grounds more apt to abhorr it than believe it so that not succeeding with the mobile as the People by the wits of this time are finely termed it is resolved that he should apply himself to persons of greater note and influence And to that purpose Mac-gar is next instructed to apply himself to a Great Person then a Prisoner in the Tower to whom he sends word that he had such a matter to inform him of concerning this murther But the other refused to have any discourse with him about it till he had acquainted the Constable of the Tower with it who upon notice thereof came and Examined Mac-gar about what he had to say of the business he formally relates the Story as aforesaid But the Constable of the Tower judging it to be a matter of too great importance to be slightly canvas'd resolved to acquaint the Privy Council with it and Mac-gar was carryed before them to be Examin'd about the particulars He there gives in the same Information and obstinately persists in the asserting of the truth of it but that Honourable and Judicious Assembly though sufficiently convinced in their own minds of the maliciousness of this Calumny yet the better to find out the depth of the design of it Order'd the said Mac-gar to be taken into a Messengers hands in order to a further Examination at such time as he should be appointed again to be brought before them While he continued thus in Custody being conscious to himself as well of his Crime as of the likelyhood of its Discovery and the disgrace that thereupon would fall upon him and his party he contrives with himself how to acquaint his Imployers with his condition and to desire their further direction and Assistance either to carry on the design or to bring him off as to what he had already acted impunè To
The true Effigies Of S r. EDMONDBURY GODFâ—â—â— Knight and Iustice Of the Peace who 〈◊〉 MURTHERED by Papists the 12 th day of October AnÌ„ DomÌ„ 1678. F. H. van Hove Sculpâ—â—â— Memoires OF THE LIFE and DEATH OF Sir Edmondbury Godfrey LATE Justice of the Peace for Middlesex who was Barbarously Murthered by the Papists upon the first Discovery of THE Horrid Plot TOGETHER WITH A full Account of the strange Discovery of the Murther the Tryal of the Murtherers and the Sham-Plot of the Papists to charge the Murther of Sir Edm. Godfrey upon himself Detected Protomartyr pro Patriâ Moriendo restituit rem LONDON Printed for John Hancock at the three Bibles over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill and Enoch Prosser at the Rose and Crown at the East end of the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1682. TO THE KINGS Most Excellent Majesty Most Gracious and dread Soveraign THat I should presume to lay this little Treatise at your Royal Feet and to implore your Majesties most gracious Patronage of it is not out of any vain Ostentation of leaping from the distances of my mean Station to approach Majesty But rather to do that right to my Subject as to shelter it against malicious Censurers under your Royal and powerful protection Those that Persecuted him while living and at last took away his Life at once bereaving your Majesty of a faithful Subject and the Nation of a useful Member will I question not endeavour as they have often attempted to bear down the true Value of his Merits by unjust Slanders but he was too well known to be Scandaliz'd by such men who are as well known as they were his so to be Enemies to your Sacred Majesty your Kingdoms and the true Protestant Religion It was for his firm adherence to all these that he fell an Innocent Sacrifice to their Revenge and Malice He faithfully served your Majesty and Countrey while he had Life to spend in such Services 'T is fit the World should know what he was He dyed for his Zeal in such Services for his Loyalty to your Majesty and Constancy to the Protestant Religion To whom then should the Protection of his Memory upon such accounts be better though with a humble respect to your greatness dedicated than to our Gracious King and Defender of the Faith Honorantes me honorabo is the Royal Promise of the King of Kings to his Worshippers Sir Edmondbury Godfrey was one that dutifully Honoured and Served your Majesty And your Majejesty according to your Native Clemency and Goodness and after the pattern of him whose Vicegerent you are was pleased in compensation of his Duty to confer many Honours upon him You Honoured him with the Dignity of Knighthood with admitting him into the Commission of the Peace and that great Character your Majesty was pleased to give him of his Abilities for that Service He was honoured with the freedom of access to your Royal Presence and being imployed for your Majesty in some great Services After his Death your Majesty was pleased so far to Honour him by your gracious Sympathy with your People in his loss as to extend your Justice by your Royal Proclamation for the Discovering of his Murtherers and then to grant a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer for their Tryal and to bring them to condign Punishment Unto all these Honours that living and Dead your Majesty has graciously been pleased to extend to him May it please your Sacred Majesty to grant one more in his behalf in graciously condescending to Vouchsafe your Royal Patronage to these Memoires of your late faithful Loyal and Protestant Subject and of your Princely goodness as well to pardon the presumption of the Author as the defects of his undertaking May the divine goodness that hath hitherto to the unspeakable Joy of your Subjects preserved your Sacred Person and your Government against all the Plots and Contrivances of your Enemies continue to defend you and increase such Loyalty in the hearts of your Subjects as this man dyed for That the Crown may long flourish on your Royal Head and that you may be bless'd with a long happy and peaceable Reign over these Kingdoms is the hearty Prayer of Great SIR Your Majesties most humble Loyal and Obedient Subject and Servant Ric. Tuke Memoirs OF THE LIFE and DEATH OF Sir Edmondbury Godfrey A Good Name sayes the Royal Moralist is better than precious Oyntment Eccl. 7. 1. 't is this that while the Body of a good Man is prey'd upon by corruption and insected with stench and faetor in the Grave perfumes the World with the Odours of grateful and pleasing remembrances fit as well for the delight as use of the Living That the worthy Sr. Edmondbury Godfrey left such a Name behind him needs not the confirmation of this Narrative there is no place where ever he had a mention but is scented with it The confection of those great and imitable Vertues with which this Good-Name was by himself in his life time compounded I am now to spread before you and to open this Box of Nard for your delight and benefit The very last Act and Apotheosis of his Life though Tragical and bitter to him yet as it was occasioned by that loyal Zeal and Resolution for the Service of his King and Country which provoked the malitious Papists to cut him off was an Offering of a Sweet-smelling Savour and made this precious Unguent to savour in the Nostrils of all good Men with the greater redolencie and sweetness And notwithstanding the cursed designs of his revengeful Enemies after having taken away his Life to take away his good Name too it was not in the power of those dead Flies to corrupt this Oyntment If the accessions of a Gentile Stock and generous breeding thereto suitable might be any advantage to own Personal worthiness he might boast of both but he had more to boast of had he been given to that idle humour which he never was from his own acquirements so that whatever bequests of Honour or Estate he received from his worthy Ancestors were accumulated by the acquests of his own Industry and Vertue by both which he became tam famae quà m fortunae suae faber and Ennobled the Coat of his Ancestors with his own Atchievements Yet to render him a Gentleman of the truest Stamp he was so qualified as well by Descent as Purchase The Moralist thought the former sufficient That Nobility was nothing else but Ancient Wealth and Ancient Worship but this was not sufficient for him without building upon an Ancient Basis a New Superstructure of a Personal Merit His Father was Sir Thomas Godfrey Knight of an Ancient and reputable Family in the County of Kent where not only his said Father but his Grandfather and Elder Brother were Justices of the Peace as was this worthy Knight himself afterwards for the County of Middlesex So that in this kind of Series and Succession of Magistracy from
likewise so much inlarged there might be a necessity as was the case once between Abraham and Lot of a Separation I know not but these two Partners having first fairly and justly stated the Accounts betwixt each other agreed upon a parting And accordingly Sir Edmondbury resolving still to follow the same Employment having found out a convenient House and Yard fit for his purpose at the other end of the Town at Hartshorn-Lane near Charing-Cross removed thither And having furnished his Yard with a good Stock of Wares began now to Trade for himself And found the same Providence that had hitherto been propitious to him to succeed his industry and endeavours in this his new undertaking with a suitable Blessing The Arts he used as means subservient to the Divine Providence of his Thriving in the World were no other than those of an ingenious industry and unreproveable Integrity the two best and most solid Bases of a prosperous condition He being in his private Capacity as strict an Observer of the Rules of Commutative Justice as he was afterwards of the distributive when called to the exercise of a more publick Function And it was not long that he continued in this private way of Commerce and Trading but that the great Abilities both of Estate and Parts of one so near residing to the Court being represented to his Majesty who as of his piercing Wisdom he is most able to judge of so of his Native Clemency and Goodness is most ready to prefer such Persons to Places of Trust and Honour wherein they may become serviceable to himself and People It pleased his Majesty to admit him into the Commission of the Peace as one of his Justices for the County of Middlesex and City of Westminster in which Place he faithfully served him till such time as for the last Services wherein he performed the greatest act of Loyalty to his Prince and Countrey that lay in the power of a Subject to do he was by the malice of his and our implacable Enemies the Papists taken from us We are now therefore to consider him in his more publick Capacity as a Justice of the Peace in which place as he spent many and the last Years of his Life we may remark more solemnly those Graces and Excellencies which alwayes did illustrate his most imitable Conversation But whether or no any happy Conjunction of Sydereal influences might auspicate this Honour to him by way of Succession to his worthy Ancestors 't is certain one of the greatest of Princes thought him not unworthy the Office And was so well satisfied in his choice of him that in confirmation of his approvement He that ought to know best sayes the Learned Doctor in his Threnodia hath often said He took Sir Edmondbury Godfrey to be the best Justice of Peace in this Kingdom and adds a great Word of his own in the first Clause of that Paragraph That He was perhaps the Man the Man of our Age that did the most good in that Station He did saith he Dedicate himself wholly to it made his Countrey his Family his Parish his Wife and Children attended wholly to their good to keep up Law and Justice and Safety and Liberty to save others from Violence and Wrong to reduce them from Disorder and Violence What greater Testimonies than these of so judicious a Prince and so Learned a Prelate could be expected or desired to Illustrate the Merits of a worthy and deserving Magistrate But if we may Comment upon this Royal Theme it will be worth our while to consider those Excellencies apart which rendred him capable of so great a Character And here we may not unfitly take the opportunity to give you in brief the Character of this Excellent Person both as to his Natural and Moral Indowments by which it may be easily judged how well qualified he was as well for the Honour as Trust of that Eminent Place in which he served As to his Person the Graver hath furnished you in the Frontispiece with a Copy not much disagreeing to the Life of his comely and graceful Countenance in which as if Nature had cast him into a Mould fit for the purpose of his future Office we may perceive a duly composed Feature equally mixt with gravity and sweetness a becoming mien that carried as well Authority as ingenuity in it and commanded at once both awe and love from the beholders The gracefulness of a Mans presence in the Fancies of some adds much of respect and reverence to their Persons especially where their Characters require it or deserve it And therefore Howell treating of the qualifications of Embassadors gives this for one That being to represent the Person of his Prince he ought to be a comely and graceful Person And such an one was Sir Edmondbury his Stature was elevated somewhat above the common Size of ordinary tall Men the habit of his Body spare far from Corpulencie but well set and exactly proportioned He was indeed as most tall Men are somewhat inclined to stoop in his going which might be occasioned by the Thoughtfulness of his musing Head mostly working upon some good and generous Designs in the way of his Business His disposition and humour were such as obliged love and respects from all that knew him being Naturally of a kind courteous and affable temper free of access and ready to hear the meanest Persons that in way of complaint or business had any thing to do with him and this accompanied with a faceteness and pleasancie of humour that was no less Natural him rendred his Conversation lovely and delightful to all Persons If it may not seem impertinent I will give you one instance for all of the Urbanity of his temper That he being one Night attending at the Council Table at Whitehall till it was somewhat late and being then to go to the Temple upon Business called a Coach at the Court Gates and perceiving a Gentleman standing there whom he had observed likewise attending upon Business at the Board was pleased courteously to enquire of him whether his way lay towards the Temple understanding which he was pleased though a Stranger to take him into the Coach with him and gave him his passage thither Civility and Courtesie were the Flowers and Ornaments of that excellent temper the ground of which consisted of an exact Justice and Compleat Charity both these were Eminent in this Worthy None more punctual and exact as to the Commutative parts of Justice than he in his dealings in the keeping of his Accounts in performance of his promises rendring to every Man his right and discreetly looking to his own And for his Charity as he was Naturally indued with a large and bountiful Spirit so the expressions of it were Visible in such circumstances and instances as may perhaps be parallel'd by few Men of this Age if we respect either the Charity of his Mind or the Charity of his Hands And as to the First
was A living and immortal Pillar of Vertue We shall lastly consider him in his more publick Capacity as a Magistrate or Justice of the Peace in which province as he stood more lyable to Vulgar notice we shall observe those remarkables of him that may be satisfactory to the Readers attention and his own due merits How well he deserved this Office needs no higher or greater Confirmation than that he was elected to it and approved in it by him that bestow'd it on him A Great and Wise Prince who as he is himself the Fountain of Justice cannot be thought to commit the Administration thereof especially to one in vicinity so near and so well known to him as Sir Edmondbury Godfrey was but to Persons of exact approvement Besides what we have before hinted of his fitness for this Service by the happiness of his Education having been brought up a Student in the Laws of England he was otherwise qualified for it by many excellent Endowments of Nature requisite to the composition of a good Magistrate a deep and piercing Judgment to search into the Niceties and Intricacies of such difficult business as he often met with and to determine accordingly An indefatigable Patience mixed with a genuine serenity of Mind whereby he could bear with the Clamours and Impertinencies of such as came before him leisurely attending to the Allegations both of Appellants and Criminals and fully hearing whatever and so long as they had any thing in reason to offer to him rather than the Truth on either side should be undiscovered by any prejudicate fore-stalling of the Evidence A right and sound Integrity of Mind the golden Vein that ran through the whole body of his Actions and all the parts of it not to be corrupted by gifts bribes or pensions the common taint of Justice nor to be warp'd or byas'd by any sinister Interests but plain and upright uninterested and regularly conformable to the exactest rules of Justice and Honesty in all the particular administrations of his Province being well known as to any partiality in his actings to be no Respector of Persons Add unto all these an Heroick Fortitude and Invincible Courage of Mind which was the Shield of his other Vertues and whereby he was bravely armed and defended against all the difficulties and discouragements which were not a few that he met with still keeping his ground with a stedfast Uprightness and unmoved Vertue amidst such Tryals as persons of less Courage than himself would have sneaked and grovel'd under Fortitude is stiled by Plato One of the most Fair and Excellent Vertues And is by Aristotle in his Ethicks made to bring up the Van of the Four Cardinal Vertues Quia haec virtus circa res arduas difficilimas versatur Virtutis autem proprium est versari inter difficiliora A Vertue therefore certainly most becoming a Good Magistrate who must dare to be such in the worst of times and greatest of dangers 'T is vulgar Vertue says the Learned Prelate speaking on this head that puts men only upon Safe good things 'T is Vertue in its perfection when one dares do well and suffer for it And of this Degree he shewed some as great proofs as perhaps have been given in our days We shall in the first place give you one Instance which with due Allowance to the unusualness of the Practice may give sufficient proof of the greatness of his Mind in daring to be just to himself Justice as well as Charity beginning at home in a case wherein a Sneaking Softness or Complyance might have betray'd him to the ruining advantages of a Sconc'd and Insulting Adversary Having a considerable Debt owing to him from a Great Person at Court to whom he had made many and often applications for the Payment of it without any other satisfaction than that of fair promises from time to time and nothing performed Sir Edmond-Bury well knowing the Ability of the Person and that his pretences were but so many formal delays to deferr the Payment of that which though justly due he knew by reason of his priviledge he could not in an ordinary course of Justice be troubled for resolved however to sue him at Common-Law notwithstanding his said Priviledge and rather to cast himself upon His Majesties Clemency for infringing the Priviledge of his Houshold than to suffer himself to be unjustly defrauded of his due Debt by one that would make such a Protection an Asylum to that Injustice which he knew His Majesty would never patronize or allow of Accordingly after all other fair ways unsuccessfully attempted he got the said Courtier Arrested by vertue of the Kings Writt and a Warrant thereupon granted by the Sheriff and the Defendant was thereupon taken into Custody till such time as he should give in sufficient Bail to answer the Action instead of which the Defendant insisting upon his Priviledge sent to White-Hall and got an Order for the Commitment of Sir Edmond-Bury for breach of Priviledge upon which he was taken into Custody and so remained for the space of six days a Prisoner and was so to continue till such time as he should discharge the other of the Arrest which Sir Edmond-Bury would not consent unto but rather suffered the severity of that uneasie restraint than to gratifie his Adversaries stubbornness with a too easie compliance His Majesty being then acquainted with the Circumstances of the Case was pleased graciously to Order Sir Edmond-Bury Godfreys discharge and taking notice in his Princely Judgement of that Magnanimity and Heroick disposition he shewed in hearing the brunt of this trouble was pleased not only to pardon the Misdemeanour but by this Action to take such farther notice of him as to conferr upon him the Honour of Knighthood and as a more special token of his Grace and Favour to admit him again into the Commission of the Peace out of which he had by means of his Adversary been then lately before strucken out But a more noble instance than this to prove the fortitude of his mind as well in daring dangers as bearing troubles appears in his staying in Town in the time of the last great Sickness when the two great Cities of London and Westminster were in a manner deserted by their Inhabitants and few left but such of the poorer sort who wanted Mony or Friends to remove themselves farther when the Arrows of the Almighty were scattered abroad in every corner when almost every House was turned into a Sepulchre and Epitaph'd with the doleful Inscription of a Miserere Domine while the Dead and Living seemed buryed together when the fear of the Contagion rendered the few Inhabitants as unsociable to each other as they would with wild Beasts in a Wilderness every man fearing to come near another lest he should meet with his own Executioner when their very words conveyed with a lethiferous Air were feared as Bullets when breath it self the Instruments of Life in one should be death
in the upper Court and Prance having a mind to see where they had laid him they all went together with a dark Lanthorn to the said place Dr. Goddins Lodgings where also Captain Bedloe came who had not hitherto before ingaged himself in any actual performance with them and perceiving Mr. Prance there amongst the rest took sâ—ch particular observation of him as served him aftervvards to make a discovery of him and the rest concerned in the Murther On Tuesday Night they convey'd the Body to another Room in the long Entry over against Dr. Goddins Lodgings And the Wednesday Night following being removing it again from thence to the place where it was first lodged Mr. Prance happening to come suddenly upon them at unawares they fearing it had been a Stranger left the Body in the Entry and ran away together in a fright till such time as Mr. Prance perceiving their mistake called out to them and discovering who he was they went back together and carried the Body into the little Room where it was first placed And now to perfect their Villany to the heighth of malice that they might as well Murther his Reputation as they had done his Person a thing more than once by them attempted the two Priests Girald and Kelly advised to carry him out into the Fields and there to leave him run through with his own Sword in some obsure place where upon discovery he might be supposed to have murther'd himself and therefore his Money Rings and such other things of value as he had about him were all to be left with him Captain Bedloe had before the Murther been acquainted by them with the design and fain they would have ingaged him to have assisted them in the Execution for which they told him there was 4000 l. to be given by a great Lord of the Popish Party and acquainted him with the time when they intended to dispatch him then desiring his assistance but he honestly failed them which made Monsieur Le Faire one of the Undertakers very angry with him but meeting him on the Munday following told him that the business was done without him and having shewed him the Body as we have before told you would then have ingaged him to assist them in carrying it off according to their last mentioned contrivance and bound him to it upon the Sacrament he last took a pretty knack of prophane Conjuration by which they usually adjure their Parties to Trust and Secrecy Captain Bedloe promised to meet them at Twelve a Clock that Night to that purpose as judging that the fittest time for such deeds of Darkness to be transacted in but failed them again and came no more at them but instead thereof taking a journey to Bristoll where some time after the horror of this fact had made such impressions on him that thereupon changing his mind as well as he had done his Company he sent up to one of the Secretaries of State in writing together with a discovery of other matters relating to the Plot an Account so far as he knew of this Murther But in the mean while the aforesaid Complices being thus defeated of his assistance went about the work themselves to which end they had procured a Sedan into which though with some difficulty by reason of its stiffness they crouded the Murthered Body this was done about Twelve a Clock the Hour appointed Prance and Girald carrying him out at the great Gate the Door of which Berry the Porter opened to them having to avoid their taking notice of the action invited the Souldiers who used to attend there to his House and there treated them with Drink and Tabacco till such time as they had conveyed away the Body What breasts besides those of these hardned and cruel wretches would not have quiver'd with the horror of such inhumane actions to deal so familiarly with the Carkass of a murder'd person a person murdered by their own hands and whose blood they could not but think at the same time cryed loud for vengeance upon their heads But oh the Stiffness of a Romish Zeal how immalleable does it render their Stony Natures to the force of all humane Impressions Yet neither the horror of the Fact nor yet that of a dark night could scare them from their hideous purposes but they proceeded with their dead Burthen carrying it in the Sedan by turns between them till they came to So-hoe Fields near the Grecian Church there lately built and there Hill attended with an Horse ready for their purpose upon which they placed the Body before Hill who held it from falling Oh horrid Boldness Mean while the rest conveyed the Sedan into an House that was building but unfinisht that stood near by to remain there till they came back And then Girald the Priest said I wish we had an hundred such Rogues as secure as we have this Mr. Prance then because he was an House-keeper took his leave of them and returned home and the other four went away with him one leading the Horse Hill riding and holding the Body and the other two walking by They carried him into an obscure place about two miles out of Town towards Hamstead near a place called Primrose-Hill and there in a ditch they left the Body after all these harrasings to its quiet repose this was the Grave they had prepared for him but before they left him as a token of their malicious design Girald runs Sir Edmondbury's own Sword through him laying the Scabbard together with his Gloves on the bank at a small distance from the Body In the mean time Sir Edmondbury's Servants and then his Friends and then the whole Town were not a little concerned for his absence and there was once a Proclamation order'd to discover him but countermanded by reason of false Informations spread about by some of the Popish Party that he was living and well And there were several persons that went designedly up and down to Coffee-houses to spread false Reports upon this Subject as that he was gone into the Countrey to be married to a certain Lady whom they took upon them to name and that they saw him in such and such places Upon Saturday the twelfth of October the very Evening that Sir Edmundbury was Murthered Father Harcourt the Jesuit afterwards Executed sent away a Letter to Father Ewers a Priest at the Lord Astons in Stafford-shire wherein were these words This Night is Sir Edmondbury Godfrey dispatcht This Letter was received there on the Monday and shewn to Mr. Dugdale as he hath since made Oath at seveveral Tryals and the same since confirmed by Mr. Chetwin a worthy Gentleman who being then in that Countrey heard a report of it there by means of that Letter on the Tuesday vvhich was before ever there was any discovery of it at London But as Murther the great Object of the Divine Justice does most unseldom escape Discovery but that the Murther is detected and the Murtherer by some
means brought to light God was pleased by his Providence so to order it that the Murther of this good Man the miss of whom had caused great Thoughtfulness of Heart I may say all the Kingdom over was in a fevv days after Discovered For upon Thursday the Seventeenth Day of October which was the next Day after they had left him in his uncover'd Grave two Men by chance passing over the Fields spied the Gloves and Scabbard and upon further search discovered the Body it self lying in the Ditch with the Sword run through it in such manner as his Murtherers had left it besides that they found about him his Rings Watch and some Moneys both Gold and Silver all which the Covetousness of his Enemies dispensed with the loss of to gratifie a more unjustifiable end thereby of a malicious Slander which they thought might be thereby occasioned of being his own Murtherer These two honest Discoverers well weighing the circumstances of what they had seen and that there was no Blood any where appeared upon the Wounds made by the Svvord run through him concluded it vvas some Extraordinary case and thereupon one of them fetching a Constable and some others to assist them convey'd the yet restless Body to an house vvhere he lay not long before upon the rumour the Body vvas knovvn to be the Relict of the much desired and wanted Sir Edmondbury Godfrey The Coroner of Middlesex vvas then sent for as is required in such Cases of unnatural Deaths to inquire of the Death of this person who by the Oaths of a Jury of substantial Credits found that Sir Edmondbury Godfrey vvas murthered not murthered himself as the design vvas laid and the Verdict vvas recorded But yet the Felons concerned in the Murther could not be yet discovered His Majesty being graciously inclined to be concerned as vvell as others in the loss of this good man and faithful Subject understanding that vvhat vvas feared vvas novv certainly proved that he vvas Murthered vvas pleased upon the twentieth day of October following to issue out his Royal Proclamation Commanding all his Subjects and Officers to use their utmost Diligence to find out and Discover the Murtherers of Sir Edmondbury graciously promising 500 l. reward to any that should make such Discovery and if any one of the Murtherers should Discover the rest he should not only be Pardoned but likewise have the same Reward But this Royal Offer could not prevail with them to come in for the present guilty Consciencies are aw'd as well by the Clemency as Justice of the Magistrate but they seem'd more hardened in their Wickedness by its Success For it was not above a Fortnight afterwards that they drew up a Narrative of this so meritorious Act of theirs in killing a Protestant Magistrate in writing which Vernatti read in an insulting manner at a meeting they had at the Queens-Head at Bow where he declared that the same was drawn up to be shewed to one of the Popish Lords now in the Tower and other great Persons that were the Original Designers and Promoters of the business for their Satisfaction by whom it might possibly be sent to Rome and there no doubt it would find a great approbation and acceptance The Murther we see is found out but the Murtherers yet undiscovered notwithstanding his Majesties gracious Proclamation with promises of reward besides Pardon to the Discoverer Captain Bedloe had as we have told you sent up a general account of it but not being himself present at the Murther could not give a particular account of those that were actually concerned in it So that the Assassinates for about ten weeks had lull'd themselves into a fond Security becoming almost as fearless as they were graceless But the Keeper of Israel that neither slumbereth nor sleepeth and from whom no Secrets are hidden was then pleased to make the Triumphs of his own Wisdom and Justice the more Illustrious when all humane attempts to that end seemed in a manner defeated to work out a Discovery by such unthought-of means as plainly shewed it was Digitus Dei and the Lords own doing We have before informed you that Mr. Prance was drawn into the cursed Combination and how far he Acted in it vvho as he was bound by the Tyes of Secrecy to a sinful Silence had hitherto concealed the Fact But there happening some misunderstanding betwixt him and a Neighbour of his the latter knowing Mr. Prance to be a Zealous Papist and having understood by some of his Servants that one time about Michaelmas then last he had absented himself two or three nights from home an imagination came into his Head that Mr. Prance might be concerned in Sir Edmondbury Godfrey's Murther although indeed such his absenting was a fortnight before Sir Edmondbury's death not upon the account of that but some others more dangerous to him The Proclamation being then newly issued prohibiting all Papists and Popishly affected persons from staying in Town about which time when the Plot was first noised abroad Fenwick Ireland and others of the Conspirators were seized whom he was so Zealous to defend in a publick Coffee-house that for some Words then spoken he was threatned by some persons present to be Prosecuted and upon that account only lay from home the said two or three nights as he was able to prove by credible Witnesses till such time as the business might be composed However this Neighbour of his upon the bare suspition took out a Warrant against him to appear before the Council which Mr. Prance readily obey'd as knowing him not able to prove any thing against him upon that account But being taken by Vertue of that Warrant upon the tvventy first of December and being first carryed into the Lobby by the House of Commons Captain Bedloe whom he did not then know having been seen by him but once before viz. upon the View of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey's body in Somerset-house before mentioned at which time Mr. Prance took no great notice of him knew his Face again and charged him with that Murther whereupon after a strict Examination he was Committed Prisoner to Newgate The next day being the 22 th of December he made his Discovery the Narrative of which is since by License of Authority Printed and thereby charged the before named Dominick Kelly Robert Green Henry Berry and Laurence Hill as Confederates in this Murther of whom the three last were apprehended but the two first Escaped the Subtil Priests according to the old Proverb of those that have the better luck shifting for themselves and leaving those whom they had drawn in to answer for themselves Although afterwards Kelly was taken up in Surrey by the name of Daniel Edmonds as a Recusant but understanding Prances being taken got out upon Bail hired by him for that Service before he was known to be Kelly though afterwards the same was Discovered the account of which because it is not so pertinent to our present History we
how free was he from a censorious Spirit the unhappy temper of too many of this Age and no doubt the main ground of our present differences both in Church and State when Men not content to enjoy the satisfaction and liberty of their own perswasions do injuriously censure and perhaps maliciously despight those that are of the contrary But this Good Man was none of that Leaven he was himself of a Sound and Orthodox perswasion and principles yet censured none that differed from him in lesser Circumstances not material to the Essence and Vitals of Religion but honoured many such for the Characters of a solid goodness appearing in them from whom he differed in his own private Judgment and Opinion though he was most strict in reproving and punishing grosser Enormities yet he could charitably bear with the lesser infirmities of such in whom a controuling Vertue did more eminently prevail In fine though he had a severe regard to himself and his own actions yet he could bear with others for greater miscarriages than he allowed in himself though he alwayes frown'd upon the frontless Sinner yet such was his candour that he would rarely put a modest Transgressor to the Blush As to the Charity of his Hands it must be a labour though a delightful one to any that should go about to enumerate those labours of Love those Offices of a true Christian Charity in which he abounded It may now be lawful to declare to the World that which in his Life he most laboured to conceal for indeed his Charity was so truly Christian and Heroick that in the expressions of it his left Hand was a Stranger to what his right Hand did few have more merited applause in this kind than himself none sought it less being coâ—â—ted to have done his duty expecting his reward from his Heavenly Father and leaving the fame of it to the contingent notice of a posthumous Memorie It is now known which durst not before be mentioned how kind he was to a Religious but suffering Family in the City of Westminster allowing them Ten Pounds per Annum towards their support and this Annuity he continued to them for several Years together But this was but one Family of many that were in the like nature though in different proportions relieved by him Although he was ever severe against idle Beggers and Vagabonds such as refusing the honest wayes of Industry and Labour to maintain themselves lived altogether upon the Alms of others yet he was so much a friend to those that were necessitatedly poor and whose poverty was neither occasioned by ill Husbandry nor continued by idleness that such should never want his Charity but he would either set them on Work or otherwise relieve them by some charitable donation Although as I have said it was the Christianity of his temper to do his Alms in secret there are many Hundreds of living Witnesses that are able to give in their Testimonials to this part of his Character that he was a truly charitable Man And as he arrived to this grade of the beatifying Scale of being Merciful so he declared himself to be a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Child of God by ascending another he was a Peace-maker one that coveted not so much the Triumph of the Lawrel as the shadow of the Olive-bough Moderation and Peace were the proper Elements of his Nature If he observed any differences to arise betwixt any of his Friends or Neighbours how industrious would he be to reconcile them nor would he rest whatever pains he was exposed to till he had accomplished his ends The reputation of his Peace-making humour occasioned him much trouble by such as desired the benefit of it by putting him frequently upon Arbitrations and composing of differences which province as by reason of his great judgment and experience he was very capable to manage so he rarely declined it though it were a great hindrance both to his Publick and Private Business it is well known by the Neighbourhood amongst whom he lived how much of his time and pains were laid out in such friendly Services Thus was he as a Man take him as a Christian and a Religious Man and I cannot give you his Character more truly and fully than is mentioned by the aforesaid Learned Prelate in his Funeral Sermon one who as by reason of his intimacy with him he had the greatest opportunity so by his faculty was most capable to judge of him in this particular His words are these As to those things which belong to a private Christian I ought to know him better than most others And I did know that by him which gives me abundant comfort in his Death I knew him to be a just and charitable Man A Devout a Zealous and Conscientious Christian His Religion was more for use than shew And yet he was constant in all the Acts of Gods worship as well out of Judgment as Affection And though the compassion that he had for all Men that did amiss extended it self to all manner of Dissenters and amongst them he had a kindness for the Persons of many Roman Catholicks yet he alwayes declared a particular hatred and detestation of Popery I say this on purpose to be remembred because some would have him a Papist or inclined that way I never pleased him with any duty I performed at least he never thanked me for any so much as he did for those Sermons which I preached here against Popery Thus far the worthy Doctor whose words I have quoted at large as a Noble confirmation of what has been before hinted of his Piety Charity Moderation and Religion and withall under this Head to take off that groundless and malicious calumny devised no doubt by the Papists themselves of his inclination to their Religion a Scandal so grosly absurd to them especially that were acquainted with his Conversation that if the known opposition he made against them and their Practices in the first discovery of their present Plot and his dying for it by their violent and malicious Hands were not a sufficient refutation we have here an unexceptionable confirmation from the Mouth and Pen of this worthy Bishop whose judgment was too great and who knew him too well to be deceived in so material a cirstance We have by these rude touches given you a rough draught of some of those lineaments that made up his Excellent composition some faint Ideas of his well featur'd Soul whose several Graces as they were singly most Excellent and Lovely so the Harmony of their contexture agreeing in an exact Symmetry rendred him a pure form of Vertue the complexion of which was not of a faint or fading Nature like some tender Constitutions that change with every Air but strong and permanent not to be altered by any Vicissitudes of Fortune or Condition What he was he was alwayes of whom it may be said as it was once of the great Athanasius That he