Religion might not be Reducible into a Coalition or Unity I answered No because they were so Contrariant that they could never Cement so as to yield a safe Conduct to Eternal Life Inasmuch as Christ himself averred That in vain do all such Worship him who Teach for Divine Doctrines the Traditions of Men That whosoever Adds or Diminishes from Scriptural-Fundamentals despises and seeks to nullify the Wisdom and Authority of God Himself That Popish Principles undermine and subvert the All-sufficiency of Christ in the Execution of his Offices That as Socinians cannot be accounted Christians who deny the Divinity of Christ's Person So Romanists who Invalidate his Offices are Anti-Christian in their Spirits and in their Mis-belief Therefore there is no more hope that two Religions so opposite should ever Cement in One according to the Analogy of Faith prescribed by Christ than that Light and Darkness should agree or have Fellowship Nor can there be any Colour of right Reason for that Distinction That Popish Traditions are rather beside the Rule and Dictates of the Scriptures than directly contrary to them For whatever is not agreeable to the Revealed Perfect Will of God either directly or by natural Consequence or by right Deduction it is a Sin Consider There is as little Hope and Comfort for that Person who falls into a River by slipping betwixt or beside the Bridge as for him who directly casts himself into It. Both may be Drowned irrecoverably The One out of the Inadvertency or Mistake of a Drunken Giddyness The Other out of the Presumption of a sullen Obstinacy There are more Ways which lead to Death than the direct Stabbing of one's self So Transgression on the Right-Hand in a Superstitious Zeal may ruin a Man's Soul as certainly as down-right Atheism and Prophaneness After these Discourses I askt Mr. Langhorne That I might Pray with him He answered me No Yet I desire your Prayers at Home He said That Prayer in Presence was an Act of Communion but it was unfit to joyn with One who was not a Member of the Roman Church I replyed That I thought there was little or no Difference in such distinct Praying however it could not be any unlawful Act. He would not Admit me to Pray with him Therefore to root out such a Scruple I shall state now more at large what I then spake more succinctly Is not Prayer an Universal Duty and a Testification of Christian Charity Therefore to limit It only to such who are Adopted into any Faction is to look on all others as Excommunicated from Christ and the Hope of Salvation by him as the only Head who Influences the Universal Church with the Spirit of Faith Unity and Concord Can any Papist think to receive Benefit by Prayer himself being absent who hath not so much Charity as to bear Protestants Presence in Praying together What proud Singularity is this What Inconveniency can happen from a Protestants joyning with a Papist in Prayer if they do not mix their Private Opinions which are fitter for a Disputation in the time of Praying together Such Imprudence would turn Prayer which is the Badge of Christian Communion into an occasion of Reproach and imbitter each others Spirits to remain at a farther distance To prevent such a Mischief let them consent that they will keep close to Scripture Matter and Phrases in Prayer because in these they are agreed So shall they not grieve each other by an uncharitable Exagitating and venting of their private Opinions Yet I deny not but that they ought to desire of God that he would clear up to them his Truth and Ways more fully and that in whatever they dissent by way of Mistake about Opinions Forreign to the Essential Parts and Fundamentals of Christian Religion they may come to a right Understanding of each other and may recede from any false Mixtures super-added to Christ's pure Religion Therefore to deny any Protestant Divine to Pray with Popish Persons Conidemned when they cannot have the Relief thereof from any of their own Perswasion lest they should Confirm them in their corrupt Principles or joyn wicked Counsels to diffuse their Treasonable Designs by Messages to put Plots in Execution is a Warrant to deny them the Assistance of their own Party Yet they stick not to grow sullen and insolent in rejecting the Prayers of Protestant Divines How careless of and cruel to their own Souls are such who will not by all Lawful Helps secure and promote their Souls everlasting Blessedness Is not this such a Breach of Charity as to make voyd their own Prayers for Themselves and to limit Christian Religion only to the Roman Church which is but a Corner of the Christian World and cannot be properly Catholick unless It embrace an Universal Charity for All Christians who Profess the same Christ and the same Fundamentals of Christianity But Protestants have not so departed from the Church of Rome as to hate all Persons of her Society but only their Corruptions in Doctrine and Practice We deny not to them the Duties of Common Charity or such Requisite Assistances at the time of Extreme Sickness or Death which may safely consist with their not being Confirmed in Popish Principles too deeply rooted in them already and the Consistency of the Establisht Government in the English Church and State After these Conferences with Mr. Langhorne I askt him Whether he were the very Person Accused before the Committee of Parliament in 1666 for being Conscious at least of the Conflagration of London by Treachery Because Mr. Richard Langhorne Counsellor at the Temple is said in a Deposition upon Oath to have cast out Threatning Words about the said Conspiracy He answered me That he was the Person then Accused but knew no more of the Firing of London than he did of this Plot. But what he knew of This is sufficiently Demonstrated by his being Condemned and Executed for a Well-wisher to It and Agent in It. I offer'd a second Visit to him on the Thursday before his Execution but he sent me Thanks and desired to be wholly Retired to himself So being in the Country when he was Executed I cannot give any furthere Account concerning him THE False Appealing Jesuits Silenced and Confuted OR A Discovery of their False Courage and Chearfulness at Execution how differenced from the hidden Manna of Real Martyrs I Do more than probably believe that the Jesuits appenls relating to their Innocency were meer Equivocations and that I may not be censured to wrong them by a suspicion only I shall Endeavour to prove that they made false Apologies and Appeals This I shall do three ways First I will present you with many Assertions of the Doctors of their own Church and Society who maintain Equivocation yea down right Perjury Lawful in those Circumstances which occurred to these Jesuits Secondly I shall demonstrate how Sutably they drew the Coppy of their Defence after the Original Pattern set them by the Precedent Fathers of
the same Society Thirdly I shall Demonstrate how deep-dyed a Sin it is how great mischief it doth and what exemplary remarkable punishment God usually inflicts on such false Appellants First IT is very likely these Jesuits were Induced to make Equivocating Appeals when dying because so many Doctors of their Church assert these to be Venial nay Lawful in many Cases Soto who was a Principal Divine in the Council of Trent He acknowledges Perjury to be a greater Sin than Murther Notwithstanding he maintains the Violation of Promissory and Assertory Oaths to be only Venial not Mortal Sins how habitual and enstomary soever they be So that thereby the dint of the Magistrates just Sentence may be avoided or the Catholick Cause promoted Now if rash Appeals be in the right Construction of them a great Contempt of God False Ones must needs be an high degree of Blasphemy and Atheism These joyned with self-Imprecations are a Mocking of the Divine Majesty and the sending up of a Challenge to the God of Truth to damn the Appellant if he speaks what is False or any way Conceals the Truth Yet in the Jesuits account not only Officious Lyes but downright Perjuries are Lawful when they may serve the Interest of their Church maintain their false Doctrine or Conceal their Hellish Designes It is a great poice of Piety to make Lies for the promoting of their Religion So Ludavious Vives and Espencaeus Comment in Tim. lib. 1. cap. 11. pag. 156. Here it is to be Observ'd that the third Lateran Council decreed it Lawful to Depose and Kill any Prince Infected with Heresy that is to say being a Profest Protestant Hereupon these Jesuits thought They needed not the help of an Equivocation in asserting of their Innocency because by the Maxims of their Bloody and Hellish Divinity they affirm that it is better to suffer a King to be Slain than to reveal the Consession of such a design intended So Eudaemon in Apolog. Garneti ch 13. And Suarez Tractatu de Panitentia That the Lord gave to St. Peter and Consequently to the Pope Power to make that which is sin to be no Sin So Bellarm in Barklaium ch 31. That to Kill a King who is deposed is not to Kill a King but only a private Person So Tolet lib. 4. De Instructione Sacerdotali ch 58. That he is not a Murtherer who Kills an Excommunicated Person being possest with Zeal towards our Mother the Catholick Church So Pope Vrban in the 23d Cause and 5th Questions That the Sentences Decrees and Judgments of Judges who are Excommunicated as all Protestants are by them are Voyd and of no Authority So Tolet lib. primo De Instutione Sacerdotali cap. 13. That the Pope is Lord of all the Temporal Possessions of Kingdoms So Bellarm. in Barklaium cap. 21. Cardinal Du Perron in his Oration made to the States in Paris upon the 15th of January 1615. doth not think it fit that a King should be Killed but only Deposed which is all one as to Condemn him to Dye Because as they say from the time of his Deposing he is no more a Lawful King but an Vsurper Now every Vsurper of a Kingdom may Lawfully be Killed The said Cardinal Equivocates in his Advice For he speaks to this Effect Let us not Kill an Heretical King but Depose him That is Let us however Disarme him of his Authority that he may be Killed Let us take his Title from him which is a Means to preserve his Life Let us not Kill him while he is a King but let us Depose him And then who ever Kills him shall not Kill a King These Sayings are full of Contradiction and very Weakly yea Wickedly set together By such Popish Principles the very Foundations of the English Government are quite blown up as if they had been at the Mercy of Faux They hold That the Nation being Heretical because It will not stoop to the Yoke of Anti-Christian Tyranny hath no Government properly Its Own No King no Subjects no Parliament no Laws Liberties or Propriety in any thing They think they may deal with Us as Monsters of Mankind who have forseited all into their Hands and nothing shall hinder them from taking Possession any longer than till they can Master the Power of our Severeign Lord the King and his Laws They deny we can have any Legal Parliament because the Peers they alleadge are Infamous as Hereticks And Free-holders to Choose and be Chosen for Commonners have no Propriety None have Power they say by Consequence to Make Laws to Require or Grant Subsidies For no Order of Men among Hereticks have any thing of their Own to Give or Grant All is Forfeited from them for their Heresie They hold That our Laws are of no more Force than the Agreement of a Company of Robbers Because being Excommunicated we are Ipso Facto Divested of all Civil Right and Propriety in our Laws Estates Liberties and Municipal Priviledges So that these Jesuits pleaded Innocency because they Acted By and Vnder the Pope's Commission which is Presumptively-Constructive for Depraedation of our Goods and the Destruction of our Lives upon his Issuing out the Sentence of Excommunication though no Declaration should expresly injoyn the Execution of Rapine and Murther To be sure He who will Regulate himself by Their Maxims may Act any Wickedness in the World without any fear of Deadly Guilt Yet That Church pretends to a Monopoly of All the Holiness upon Earth They may persist till Death in all Perfidiousness to God and Man in Breach of Promises and Compacts in all Lying and Perjuries in Slandering or Detraction yea in all Unmercifulness and Cruelty to Protestants and yet Not fall short of Salvation if these Impostors may be trusted upon their Own Maxims These abominable Practices are but Specks or Motes not Against the Law of God the End of which is Charity but only Beside It. So Durandus Vega Rada Herrera Estius Becanus All these afore-mentioned Crimes are but Peccadilioes in Their account when Committed against Protestants For they owe These No Charity and therefore may justly Contrive their Destruction as Hereticks If an Atheist had a mind to render the Christian Name Odious and the Gospel a Licentious Doctrine tending to Debauch Mankind He could need no greater Argument but only This viz. To perswade Men that the Maxims of the Roman Divines are Conformed to the Rules of Christ and Christianity For Do not Popish Doctors Reverence Hypocrisie as an Holy Art A Lye though very Gross is only Venial in Their account unless it do Much Mischief not so when it is only against Truth it self Thus it may be as Innocent to tell Lies as Truth and as Criminal to speak Truth as Lies There will be no Difference in their Own Nature unless by accident they do Hurt Alike Thus Soto ibid. Lib 5. Quest 7. Artic. 4. Pag. 168. Yea Antonius Corduba determins that a Person Interrogated by a Judge whether such a Crime
altogether of Grace So I took leave of Mr. Grove desiring him to consider well of what I had said Praying that the Lord would in much mercy look upon his soul to pardon him and fit him for his approaching Death Mr. Grove seemed to take in good part what was said to him After which he was conducted down to the Sledg IV. Mr. Ireland MR. Ireland was Executed on the same day with Mr. Grove to whom I had not time to say more than these few words viz. Sir I do earnestly beg of God to grant you mercy and pardon for your great sins Trust alone in the Righteousness and Merits of Christ Jesus Compose your self in your passage and six your Heart upon the Lord till you Expire Which words Mr. Ireland seemed to take kindly from me And so we took leave of each other Here I cannot forbear to give some account of Mr. Irelands perverting of a Woman who was Burnt in Smithfield for Clipping his Majesties Coine This seduction of the said Woman from the Protestant Religion was before Mr. Ireland was Apprehended for the late Conspiracy An Officer in Newgate did assure me when Ireland was committed for the Plot that he was able to take his Oath that Ireland perverted that woman some time before for he well knew him upon a second Reveiw but knew him not to be a Papist or Priest at first for he was admitted to her as a Friend Irelands stratagem in turning the Woman to become a Papist was thus discovered Early on the morning on which she was Executed I askt her what hope she had of a future happy state she hufft at me telling me I need not trouble my self about her for she was sure of her Salvation I wondered at her Confidence but suspected not the Grounds of her Malepartness After I had Exhorted and Prayed with her at the place of Execution and was taking my farewell of her she entreated me to give her some time to pray for her self which she did In her Prayer she mixed these words Lord grant that the offering up of my Body to the Flames may expiate the guilt of all my Sins and save my soul I told her when she had finisht her prayer that the foresaid expression smelt rank of Popery and therefore askt her what Religion she came to die in She replied she was a Roman Catholick I askt her How long she had been such She said that a good Minister had told her that if she died in the Protestant Religion she was sure to be Damned And that he proved it by this Scripture Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I Build my Church So that he assur'd her that the Religion of the Romish Bishop who was St. Peter's Successor was the Rock there meant and so there was no Salvation to those who are Separatists from that Church and the Profession of it I told her That the Priest had deceived her For the Rock was not St. Peter's Person nor his Verbal Confession of Christ for if so Where was the Rock and What became of the Church when St. Peter so shamefully denyed his Lord thrice But the only True Rock on which the Church is Built is the very Person Offices and Merits of Christ the Son of God who was the Object of St. Peter's Confession She was attentive to what I said and seemed somewhat sensible of her being deceived Saying She was willing to be Saved betwixt us Both. But I told her She must not halt 'twixt two Religions so opposite to each other and that it was very dangerous to dye in the Roman Perswasion She told me She could not Renounce it in as much as the said Priest had obliged her by the Blessed Sacrament that she should never recant or depart from the Popish Religion as the best and safest to Dye in I convinced her with Arguments to the contrary yea she her self was not Credulous of their absurd Affirming of the Transubstantiation of the Sacramental Bread and Wine into the very Body and Blood of Christ For she said She neither tasted any Flesh or Blood She also declared That she had no Good Works of her own which she durst trust to as Meritorious of Heaven but relyed wholly and solely on Christ's Righteousness Whereupon I told her She denyed the grand Points of Popery and therefore was a Papist to get a Pretended Absolution or upon some Designe But fearing to Dye in the Romish Opinions she ask't me If she should not be Perjured if she renounced them having taken the Sacrament to persist in them I told her That she must not cleave to an unlawful wicked Oath but beg Repentance of God that she so easily suffered her self to be seduced I told her That the Lord saith by the Prophet That an Oath must be taken in Truth Righteousness and Judgment Now she did not neither could swear in Truth because it was to a False Religion nor in Judgment in Wisdom and Discretion because she swore rashly and inconsiderately Therefore this Oath was Void in its own Nature and it could not bind her the Matter of it being Unlawful and Wicked At last being Convinced of her Error she was willing to Retract it But I told her That what she did she must do willingly and from a sincere penitent Frame of Heart She said She could and would freely out of Conviction of her Duty Renounce all Romish Opinions and Practices which she did openly with an Audible Voice affirming That she dyed a True Protestant So I took her by the Hand and Prayed again with her that God would pardon her former Levity and give her Perseverance in the True Faith which she had so solemnly re-imbraced This was the first Discovery of Proselyting condemned Malefactors at Newgate To prevent which Seduction Captain Richardson since this came to his Knowledge is very watchful and gives all his Officers a Charge to suffer none to come to Condemned Persons but only such whom they know to be Protestant-Divines and that alwayes an Officer be present to hear what passes in Discourse V. Mr. Pickering I Had discourse with him before his Execution but he would not permit me to pray with him only desired my Prayers at Home for him which I promised him and he Thanked me I was present at his Execution because he was Hanged after three other ordinary Malefactors When he came out of the Sledge into the Cart He had a great Flushing in his Face I apprehended by his Words and Gesture that he had Elevated his Artificial Courage or rather sunck himself into a Sullenness by taking Cordyal-Spirits For he was unconcerned at the Approach of his own Death and no way affected with his monstrous Crime With an impudent Face a lying Tongue and anticke Carriage he Denyed what he was Condemned for and Asserted his Innocency He was reproved by the Sheriffs for such impudent Lying having had a fair Tryal and found Guilty of the whole Indictment charged upon him Yet so
Believed in and were sufficient to put us in mind of our Duty and to quicken holy Affections in us I said moreover That it was a more Refined peice of Idolatry to Conceive otherwise of God in our Thoughts than as He had Revealed himself by the Scriptures of Truth in his Infinite Excellencies And therefore to relieve us in preventing any gross Mistakes in our absurd Imaginations of God we were bound to fix our Thoughts and Conceptions in Prayer upon God in Christ as Incarnate who is the only express Image of the Deity and not any Corporeal dishonorable Mis-representations of God by the help of Pictures or Crucifixes I found also that his Popish Education had strongly prevailed on him to adhere to the false and absurd Dotages of the Romish Church For when I told him That it was not safe to Dye in that Religion He replyed That he was resolved to hold and persevere in it because he had been Bred up in it I said That could not be a solid Argument for then he might be as Peremptory to dye in a sinful State because the Principles of a Corrupt Nature were rivited in his Heart and were grown familiar to him by Custom He was sometimes Pettish yet when the Fit was off he harkned to my Advice and joyned with me in Prayer I desired him not to mock God either by any deliberate Wandring in his Thoughts while I should pray nor by saying any Ave-Maryes or Popish Petitions secretly to himself He promised me he would not He was troubled for his sinful Course of Life Yet I told him That was not Repentance deep enough David's Heart was the Centre of his Remorse and that not only his heinous-Crimes of Murder and Adultery were his Burthen but the Sense of his vile Corrupt Nature which was the poysonous Spring of all scandalous Impieties And that as we are in our Thanksgivings for Divine Mercies to Ascend to the Free-Grace of God in giving Christ to Redeem us as the Spring-head of all Spiritual Benefits So in a penitent Confession of Sin we must likewise Ascend to the Guilt and Defylement of Original Sin whence all Actual Abominations flow That this is a great Relief to us when we cannot make a distinct Particular Enumeration of our Sins And that no Hypocrite can be truly humbled for the sin of his Corrupt Nature nor for Gospel-Unbelief which is the direct damning Sin as being against the very Remedy of our Recovery from a State of Sin and Misery Every day after sutable Advices given to him I Pray'd with him He had not been Grammarred in that strange Distinction which most of those Popish Malefactors had learn't That a Papist may lawfully desire a Protestants Prayers at Home yet that his Joyning in Prayer is an owning of their reputed Heresie whose Breath is Infectious when poured out in the Solemnity of praying mutually in each others Presence Hill had learnt this Evasion though Staley and Berry as well as Green had not I believe the true reason why all the other Criminals denyed me Liberty to Pray with them was Lest I should touch too distinctly upon the right Sore which they palliated yea denyed and so dreaded that Trouble and Perplexity which might thereby be raised in their Consciences I can give no further Account of Green but only this That upon the Day before his Execution he told me That he had received much Information by my Discourses and Benefit by my Prayers in order to fit him for his Death He thank't me for my Visits but discharged me from farther Attendance upon him so I went not with him to the Place of Execution to observe what End he made VII Mr. Hill THis Hill was one of the Murtherers of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey He was Born and Bred a Papist He was not a Shoomaker as was reported but the Son of a Shoo-maker He said That he had been Servant to a Recusant Lady and managed some of her Concernments and went over Sea sometime to give her an Account thereof That he had lately hired an house for himself to Dwell in But was not present at the aforesaid Murther Yea that he knew nothing of it more or less neither before nor after This he often averred with so many self-Imprecations that I was afraid to urge him for the present to any farther Acknowledgment lest I might thereby give him an Occasion to aggravate his Sin and seal up his Damnation with greater Obduration and Impenitency I unfolded to him the wide Difference betwixt the Protestant and Popish Religion and that the Latter could not be a Religion Instituted by Christ because It was founded in Blood and propagated by Artifices of Cruelty Injustice Violence Equivocations and Perjuries Yea even by false Appeals to the Omniscient Judge of Innocency when Crimes were Juridically proved against the Appellants I said That this was the deepest Policy of Papists fetcht from the Conclave of Hell For such daring and Atheistical Appellants are not only possest with the Spirit of Lying and strongly deluded while Living to believe a false absurd Religion but also do as strangely out of an obstinate impenitent Heart palliate Bloody Crimes with a flat Denyal of them after Conviction thereof by due Process of Law Surely such a Violation of the Sentiments of Conscience must needs proceed from an Atheistical Denyal of God's Omniscient Inspection or a Prophane Doubting of the Future Judgment As if false Appellants had not Souls capable of Damnation or studied how to seal it up more firmly to themselves But such studied Evasion of their Crimes render them blacker and more horrid while they would make Credulous Persons suspect their Accusers to be Perjured which is a Sin of that deep Dye and Malignity that it rarely admits of any Repentance in the Sinner or Pardon from God Yet so hardned are some that they will stand out in the Denyal of their Crimes though proved against them to the last Breath They are not afraid to look the Almighty Judge in the Face with a Lye in their Mouth But then such frontless stupid Sinners presume they shall have this Relief as a Shield to keep off their Damnation that their Self-Imprecation was for the promoting of a greater Good viz. That the Romish Religion may not lye under the Reproach of a Blood-thirsty Disposition in its Professing Party lest being hindred in its Propagation if this were credited it should gradually become so Abominable as to be rooted out Papists think that they may lawfully safely yea commendably Perjure themselves to promote their false Religion especially if in a Transport of Zeal they Imprecate themselves that they may sit higher in the Good Opinion and Implicit Faith of their blinded Proselytes Such was Hill Who was not more subtilly Moulded unto than deeply Confirmed in all Popish Principles Hence it was that he would not admit of any Information which might beget the least suspicion of their Falsity Yet this was very Commendable in him
were Committed by him may stifly Deny It although he Did It with this Reserva I am not bound to Discover It though he be upon his Oath to declare the whole Truth He may Equivocate in usual Form sayes Lopez cap. 51. pag. 264. Angel Sum. V. Confess N. 1. Yea Popish Doctors have Devices to Legitimate the worst Wickedness Bellarmine sayes If the Pope should forbid Vertue and command Vice the Church must practice Vioe or sin against Her Conscience If the Pope can dispense with Vows which are Solemn Promises made to God why not with the Guilt of False Appeals So Canus pars Sexta Relict de Paenitentia Some affirm That the Pope can Legitimate Incest If so by the same Reason he may pardon False Appeals For What are such but a Spiritual Incest committed 'twixt the Heart and Tongue which ought to agree in speaking Truth for this is the Souls-Chastity They count it better than Innocent to abuse the VVorld with Lies even in point of Religion Surely if the Injury be not Great there wherein can it be Small Yea they allow of Lies in their very Devotion Peter Abbot of Cluny declares That in one Church-Hymne in the Praise of St. Bennet he found Twenty-four Lyes at least They affirm That they may safely Lye in Confessing that they abhor the Sin confest Yet themselves look upon the Confessors Chair as the Divine Tribunal So Angelus Sylvester Navar. Cap. 21. Num. 37. Covarruvius Soto Bannes Now if they may lawfully Lye in doing Penance when or wherein will they speak Truth If such a Sacred Part of their Religion be thus Prophaned we may well conclude that wheresoever they find any Liberty for speech they must have License to Lye and that ex Officio Nor can we rationally expect from Jesuits that they will Swear the Truth at Death You will say Then Conscience is more awakned made quick and serious in the Directive and Corrective Part of its Office So that the most profligate sort of Sinners when Dying will not dare but to declare the Truth I reply Yet Jesuits are Errant Designers upon Mens Consciences to seat themselves as Over-awing Demi-Gods therein while they dictate Cheats and Dotages unto them Yea How do these Seducers Instruct their Novices to believe such strange Absurdities which Themselves deny at Death Then they detest all Lying Doctrines and Miracles as also all Dispensations for Equivocating This they pretend to do when they have a Prospect of Damnation at Death and to make the World believe that Protestants Charge them with False Imputations Yet I cannot suppose them to be Serious in Renouncing their False Tenets at Death For if they did heartily do it How could they averr that they Dyed in the Profession of the Romish Church What Contradictions are these Asseverations If they spake the Truth when Dying then were they Apostats from that Religion which themselves style Catholick and Apostolick These Jesuitical Impostors dread not Damnation it self while they turn themselves into all Forms and for their Interest affirm and deny the same thing in a Breath whereas Truth is the same Eternally and Alters not Yet these Men live by a false Religion for Earthly Interest and Grandeur But after all their Dissimulation and Intrigues seem to Dye in the right Religion Instituted by Christ Hence it was That they Disclaimed the Merit of Good Works and at their Execution did not so much as Touch upon any Thing grosly different from the Purity of the Protestant Religion Hence it was that they Pray'd not Audibly to any Saint or Angel For had they Grosly Contradicted the Scriptures at their Death their Appeals they thought would not so Cleverly have been Believed by Credulous Vulgar Minds It may be in their Appeal to God they Equivocated and meant that they Appealed to the Pope whom they style Their Lord God as seated High in the Veneration of their Hearts For they give little less than Divine Honour to Him in presuming that his Vnholyness-Absolution is an Immediate Ticket to Challenge Heaven by and to wash them clean from the Guilt and Reproach of the Greatest Villanies Doubtless these Appealers were so well known to and Approved by his Holiness as it was a Wonder that he did not work a Miracle for their Impunity However It is likely that he so far honored these Eldest Sons in the Mystery of Iniquity that they escapt Purgatory by some rare Contrivance and were Dignifyed Saints immediately after Death for being Knights of the Post Doubtless they were hardned in this presumption that the Pope hath power to Dispence with the Sentiments of right reason yea can make void the positive Duties of the Divine Law Hence it is the common Doctrine of their Church That it is not Lawful to keep Faith with Hereticks in promissory Oaths or Assertory Justifications of their Integrity Romish Doctors affirm that if the Pope constitute and declare Virtue to be Vice and the most abominable Crimes to be Innocency they are bound under the Penalty of Damnation to believe him Now this is to Arrogate a Power above God himself who cannot alter the Eternal Nature of Moral Principles which are such Fixed Truths that what is Right and Just or Wicked and Unjust in the Nature of the thing it self was such before any declaration of the Will of God concerning it was superadded Therefore to change the Measures of Good and Evil which are Originally founded in the Essential Intrinsecal Goodness and Badness of Principles is to give a Dispensation to Sin It is to Exautorate or Invalidate the Eternal Principles of Virtue although these be Establisht on the very Dictates of right Reason This is to Supersede and make void the Authority of God himself who hath Implanted those common sentiments of what is right or wrong in the Hearts of all Men. They who draw all Appeals to the Pope for the Decision of what we are to believe or practise though contrary to Divine Revelation which is to make God himself a Lyar how can such Miscreans be credited in the most solemn Asseverations of their Integrity Had these Imposters turned their Eye with an Holy Awful Reverence upon God the Prototype of Truth had they had any regard of his Omniscient Inquisition after false Appellants they durst not have Challenged his Justice to detect and punish their Impudent Assertions Surely they dreamt of being weighed in Saint Michaels Ballance which is a Popish invention to deceive dying persons as if their Meritorious Treasons for promoting the Catholick Religion should Out-weigh their Lying Appeals that so they might not bind a Curse upon their Souls but directly go to Heaven Thus they did not weigh themselves in the Even Ballance of Gods Sacred Law but flattered themselves in the Contrivances of a deceitful Heart because any one grain of Sin makes all real Good works of no value at all in Gods account when he makes a Righteous disquisition of the Nature of our Actions All the Wayes
would consider seriously of that Sacred Scripture in the Twenty eighth of the Prov. of Solomon the Thirteenth verse He who hides his sin shall not prosper in the attempting of it but rather exposes himself to a Curse But whosoever Confesses and forsakes his Sin shall obtain Mercy He said That he had Confest 'twixt God and himself and that was Sufficient I told him that in respect of the great Scandal he had given and Reproach he had brought upon Religion which Obliges to all Fidelity towards Princes and forbids the Subvertion of a Lawful Government he ought to express great Sorrow for and detestation of such Principles which destroy Humane Society But he angerly replyed What! do you undertake to instruct me or others of my Order as if we were not Men of Reason and Learning I told him that I was bound to assist him as a dying Man and to put him in mind of seeking his Souls Salvation in a Right way And that whereas he slighted my Advice he ought not to look upon any Protestant Divine to be like Their Novices whom they Traine up in Ignorance as if it were the Mother of Devotion I said that I stood Amazed that any man of his Learning should so far forfeit the Repute thereof and all the Sentiments of a Good Conscience as to adhere to principles so destructive to all Order Equity and Government establisht by Light of Nature even among Savages He was not pleased with my discourse yet I did assure him I would not desist praying for him while I could Rationally think that he was Alive and within the reach or benefit of my prayers And so we parted IV V. Mr. Gawen and Mr. Turner I Could not speak with Gawen or Turner till they were placed in the Sledge I spake but little to them Time and the Noise of the people thronging me would not permit me to say much Only I told Mr. Gawen that Now death stared him in the face and his judgement to an Eternal State was very Near therefore I advised him not to palliate or extenuate his great Crime much lesse to deny it for he would hazard his Salvation if he went out of the world with a falsity in his mouth I told him I had and would continue to pray for him and his Fellow-Criminal in the Sledge with him So wishing them a penitential frame of Heart that they might obtain Eternal Life in Christ upon the drawing away of the Sledg Mr. Gawen shewed a publick Signal of Civility to me and thankt me He seemed much more cheerful than the rest And I hope he had better grounds for it Mr. Langhorne AFter Sentence of Death past upon the said Unhappy Gentleman as being Involved in the Jesuitical Conspiracy against the King and Nation I Addressed my self in a Visit to him which he Accepted When I first came into his Chamber I told him That I came not to upbraid a Dying Man though of a contrary Religion That I pittyed him as a Condemned Criminal yet was more troubled that he should Espouse the Popish Perswasions so far as to Suspend or Renounce rather the Sentiments of Right Reason in Embracing and Adhering to so Corrupt and Absurd Opinions He answered me That he thought himself in a surer Way for to attain Salvation than any of my Opinion could set themselves in For Protestants said he follow the Mistakes of their private Judgments and then cry them up for the Genuine Interpretation of the Holy Scriptures But We said he who are Roman Catholicks have the Conduct of an Infallible Guide to Interpret obscure Ambiguities in the Scriptures For no Scripture is of any private Interpretation otherwise well-meaning Persons may propose and put off their Fancies for solid Conclusions drawn from the sacred Records of God's Word He said That therefore there was great need of an external supreme infallible Judge on Earth whose Decision upon Appeals can only state and determine all Controversies about matters of Faith and Practice I replyed That the Divine Authority of God as imprest upon the Veracity of the Scriptures was never separated from the same Spirit who did Dictate them as unto special Guydance so far as not to Desert sincere Christians that they should fall into any Damnable Heresie But I feared that the Romish Opinions were such though they be imposed to be Believed and Obeyed upon the score of the Pope's Infallibility equally with the sacred Scriptures What Blasphemy is this for a sinful Man to arrogate the Title of Infallible due only to God the Fountain and Architype of all Truth That the Father of Lights gave Mankind the Best and Safest Conduct of his own Holy Infallible Spirit in Matters aforesaid And that the Scriptures being exemplified from his Essential Purity and Veracity were not defective as Human Laws which require an External Judge and Interpreter distinct from themselves in their Original Constitution So that in all Things necessary to Salvation the Scriptures were a Perfect Rule and Standard to dictate and determine Matters of Faith and Christian Obedience Yet so arrogant is the Pope as to Challenge an Authority to Himself to give the Scriptures a Sanction yea to Over-rule them by his Corrupt Traditions which he declares Infallible Thus he Exautorats and Invalidates their Divine Original and Superintendency as if they received all the Life of their Interpretation from his Authoritative Dilucidation as the Moon doth her Light from the Sun Hence it is that when the Pope enters into any Council he hath the Bible placed under his Feet while singly himself Over-rules the Council and Exalts his sole Determination above the sacred Records of Truth Hence it is that under a Pretence that the Scriptures are Obscure and a dead Letter in themselves that they must be Animated with his Traditions though never so Absurd and Contradictory to their Divine Authority Certainty and Perfection Also I said That where the Scriptures were Obscure in one Place they explained that Ambiguity in another So that there was no need of any External Judge And that Protestant Divines did not give out their Private Sentiments and Interpretations of the Scriptures for Laws to supersede the Innate Authority of the Scriptures or to oblige Christians to an Implicit Faith and Obedience as the Pope doth who over-rules the very Scriptures Themselves So that no part of them is Canonical but only those Books which he declares to be such Thus a sinful Man judges that sacred Law by which himself and all Men must be Judged though he claim a Power to Pardon Sin and Dispose of the Eternal Rewards of Virtue or Vice accordingly as himself pleases to determine the Nature and Circumstances of Both. Hence I said It proceeded that the Opinions of the Romish Church were so Corrupt as moulded and adapted to serve and promote the Carnal Interest of his Ambition and the Licentiousness of his Followers Then he askt me Whether I did not think that the Popish and Protestant