our grief and endured our punishment it made his soul cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me or else we must for ever be banished out of the presence of God and never have any hopes of glory of faith or of salvation had not the Son of God become our Mediator and Surety so there is one God and one Mediator the Man Christ Jesus He gave himself a Ransom for all our sins to free us from the wrath to come everlasting destruction and from the worm that never dies O that we could ever be thankful to God live to him that hath so loved us as to send his Son to die for us and is by the almighty power of God raised from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God and ever lives to make intercession Truly friends this is not the love of man but the love of God and therefore eternal love God so loved the world it is Gods love he loved sinners ungodly ones he did so love them as to give his only begotten Son to save them to reconcile them to uphold them to redeem them from wrath to come it was to seek and save them that were lost That is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners We all like sheep had gone astray and must perish in our sins had not the Lord Jesus been sent of his Father out of his bosom to declare the good-will of God and did it by which we are sanctified through the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ and this Lord Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God he is the Mediator between God and poor sinners Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden said Christ and I will give you rest now this grace is from God we are saved by grace and that not of our selves it is the gift of God through faith in Christ we are saved and all things that do pertain to life and godliness is the gift of God now all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses unto him Would you know the forgiveness of your sins your peace with God and that God is well pleased with you God is reconciled by Jesus Christ unto you and does not impute your sins unto you but looks on the righteousness of Christ as satisfaction that thereby you might have the remission of your sins through the blood of Christ Be it known unto all men that through this mans preaching the forgiveness of sins Act. 13.38 39. and by him all that do believe are justified from all things from which they could not be by the Law of Moses now justification from sin and redemption from iniquity is through the knowledge of Christs death for your sins and his resurrection and now there is no other name given under heaven whereby we can be saved but by the name of Jesus and whosoever believeth in his name shall not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 5.24 It is the doctrine of Jesus Christ it is his word and I hope you will search the Scriptures and look into those things for your souls good when Christ says Verily verily I say unto you He that heareth my words and believeth them he hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life The reason why God does assure poor sinners they shall not pass into everlasting condemnation and perish is through his rich grace through his promises for he hath promised he will be merciful to our iniquities and our sins will remember no more and these his promises of grace which are all Yea and Amen in Christ are ratified by the blood of Christ the blood of Christ is the blood of the New Covenant and it is that by which we have the forgiveness remission and cleansing of all our sins Vndersheriff Mr. Gibbs let me interrupt you this is very good and pertinent but you have said these things over and over there is another of your friends is to speak and the time grows short pray go on to the matter or conclude Gibbs I shall speak a word or two as to the knowledge of forgiveness of sins by and through Jesus Christ and so the knowledge of the Resurrection of the dead it is the fruit of Jesus Christ for by the first man came death and by the second man Christ came life and God that has by his exceeding great and mighty power raised up Jesus Christ from the grave and power of sin he also shall raise us up by the same power and when he comes again the second time at his appearing and coming we shall see him and be made like to him and he will receive us to himself he is gone to prepare a place for us and in his Fathers house are many Mansions and if it were not so he would have told us And now God that hath given eternal life and forgiveness of sins unto his poor servants he will also when Jesus Christ shall come to judge the world receive him into his everlasting glory which is my Faith expectation and hope in God through Jesus Christ A man may bear his infirmities but a wounded Conscience who can bear When God smites who can bear and therefore I desire as I believe the forgiveness of all my sins through the rich grace of God through the bloodshed of Jesus Christ his Son every one must give account to God and as their works are so will their reward be either accepted by God as workers of Christ or condemned as workers of iniquity Last of all as to the separated Congregations to whom I belong I have observed in those few days that I have lived there is a great deal of animosity evil will hard censuring and abusing the precious Saints of Jesus Christ If they are in an error you that are in the truth instruct them and you may recover them out of the claws of the Devil Are you Christians and have the light of God in your Souls O then strengthen your Brethren do not give them nick-names and abuse them that 's not the way Christ teaches another lesson That if thine enemy hunger you shall feed them and if he be thirsty give him drink we should pray to the Lord that he would turn those that be out of his way into the right way Vndersheriff You know we must be all subject to Government every Congregation must not have a Ruler their Meetings are prohibited by good Authority and because they will not be obedient to good Government Gibbs I do not say that every Congregation must have a Ruler and I hope I speak the words of sobriety I hope you will put a charitable construction upon what I say As to the Magistrates I have a word or two Vndersheriff Speak well of them Gibbs Be not
and be no more that I may receive that comfort and satisfaction which I have longed and looked for Lord my hope is in thee thou wilt not fail them that put their trust in thee in thee is my trust and confidence if I perish I will perish at the feet of Jesus Christ O that thou wouldst humble me and seal up the pardon of my sins before I go hence and let thy Son Jesus Christ manifest his gracious presence with me and cloath me with that wedding garment of his righteousness and then take me into his arms and present me to his Father O that thou wouldest be pleased to strengthen and uphold me under this great stroke which thou hast been pleased to inflict upon me I kiss the rod and receive it thankfully from thy hand I had been undone to all eternity hadst thou not afflicted me blessed be thy Name that thou hast been pleased to send Jesus Christ upon him I depend upon him I cast my confidence who is the rock of ages and never failed any that came to him Hear me and answer me do for me and all thy Churches and people abundantly above what I can ask or think and all for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ to whom with thy self and thy holy Spirit be all honour power and praise henceforth and for evermore Amen Mr. Tonge his Prayer O Most Glorious and Eternal Lord God thou that hast created the heavens and the earth and formedst of dust us thy poor creatures to which we are now returning Lord I beseech thee speak peace to my poor soul lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and let me see in thee and through faith in thy dear Son Jesus Christ that I am in covenant with thee and reconciled with thee Holy Lord I beseech thee let me see thy dear Son Jesus Christ sitting at thy right hand reconciling of me to thy self Let me find my soul washed in the blood of the Covenant of thy dear Son Jesus Christ Seal a pardon to me thy poor creature O Lord one smile of thy countenance is worth all the world blessed be thy Name that thou hast supported me hitherto Lord God I beseech thee finish thy good work thou hast begun in me and go along with me and strengthen and hold me to drink off this bitter cup. Be with me to the end Remember the Governours of this Nation O that thou wouldest showr down upon the King and Council thy mercies as thou showrest down rain on the ground that they may rule for thee and those that fear thy Name may live in happiness and peace under thee for the sake of thy dear Son Jesus Christ O Lord we pray thee remember all thy people and be good to them and deliver them out of their troubles and speak peace to them and let them know thou wilt deliver them Keep me to the end and uphold me by thy right hand and so receve me with joy for the sake of thy dear Son Jesus Christ to whom be all honour and power henceforward and for evermore Amen Mr. Gibbs his Prayer O Eternal Everliving and Everloving God who art a reconciled and loving Father unto thy poor unworthy Creatures before thee and unto all the children whom thou hast called to believe in thee O Lord this is no small priviledge that sinful dust and ashes mortal worms should have to do and to deal with so holy and infinite a God as thou art to make requests unto thee considering the vast disproportion that there is between thee and poor sinners Thou art of purer eyes than to behold any unclean thing in thy presence O Lord. We our selves are nothing but polluted rags and fountains of uncleanness from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot all the faculties of the soul and members of the body are all members of unrighteousness Were it not therefore that thou hast been pleased to give us good hopes and found out a way to hold communion with us which is through the Lord Jesus in whom thou are well pleased in whom thou hast spoke forgiveness of sins to our souls we durst not now stand before thee but thou hast promised that though our sins are as scarlet thou wilt make them as white as snow and though they be as crimson thou wilt make them as wool Thou hast opened a fountain of free grace and eternal mercy for poor sinners that through the blood of the Lord Jesus they may receive remission forgiveness cleansing and purging from all their sins Thou hast laid an All-sufficient help upon him who is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him We have nothing of our selves to bring unto God but sins to pardon and unclean souls to purge Thou hast been pleased to give thy Son and together with him freely to give us all things Thou hast given thy poor servant before thee saith that has brought salvation to his soul Thou hast saved him by thy free-grace not of works but through the mercies and blood of Jesus Christ and hast sprinkled the virtue of the blood of Christ in his conscience in the belief of the truth as it is in Jesus O blessed be thy Name that sent him to seek and to save us from condemnation who is risen with healing in his wings and hast set Christ before us that we should behold him that our sins have pierced Certainly great was that disease that needed such a medicine that nothing could expiate take away our sins and blot out the hand-writing that was against us but the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as of a Lamb without spot he is now become our peace who has made peace for us through the blood of that his Cross and has made twain one in himself Jew and Gentile He was delivered up for our offences and rose again for our justification We in the knowledge of him being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ And blessed be thy Name O merciful God that has made such a Covenant of everlasting grace to poor sinners and the children that do believe in thee through Jesus Christ Thou hast said thou wilt be merciful to all our iniquities and sins and wilt remember them no more These are thy promises and they are Yea and Amen Christ in Jesus Thou hast made thy servant to hear thy voice in thy Son Thou hast been a merciful God to him and forgiven him all his sins and justified him freely through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ Who shall condemn us or lay any thing to our Charge It is God that justifies who gave himself a ransom for our sins is risen again and now sits at the right Hand of God ever living and making intercession for us whose blood speaks better things than the blood of Abel His blood cryed for vengeance but the blood of Christ cries for peace and forgiveness God is
greatness of the villany and mischief that was intended But the Fanatick perhaps may object the uncharitableness of charging the sins of a few persons upon a whole party To this I answer When thou sawedst a Thief thou consentedst unto him Nor was this the product of a few mens brains as anon it will appear But how does it appear will they say that these men here convicted were Fanaticks ' â—is true indeed the Religion of the individual persons cannot be so far made out as to point to the particular Sect and Opinion of each since most of them were silent at their deaths as to that and he of them that did speak tells us rather what he is not than what he is for the same reason possibly with a late Brother in the like circumstances at Oxford that the blame and odium of their Crimes might not fall upon their Party Yet thus far without doubt we may venture from their employments in the late Civil War their affections to the King Lawn sleeves and Circingle to conclude that men so uneasie-under and so soon weary of Monarchy so little satisfied with and so ill affected to Hierarchy had not their education in nor ever were Members of that which alone deserves the glorious Sirname of true Protestant the Church of England by Law establisht It is likewise pretty plain they were not Papists further than all Sectaries are indirectly so being all several issue of that common Mother It remains then that they must be Dissenters Dissenters indeed and as much divided in their Tenets from each other as they are all from the Church of England Dissenters ih every thing but their old malice and continued Plots against her in conspiring whose overthrow though no two of them agree among themselves they are all of a piece to this they can give unfeignedly assent and consent so very forward in this ther zeal that they always resolve of pulling down the one before ever they once consider of setting up any other This was a Plot indeed that shewed the Authors Masters in their Mystery a general Plot not a few hot-brain'd fools met together without Order or Discipline Friends or Money but a close and deep contrivance formed after long deliberation things well weighed and digested every man his particular Province assigned and every Sect not one excepted engaged â— all interests were agreed Fifth Monarchy men Anabaptists Independents Fighting Quakers and the Congregational Churches were consenting and the Presbyterian that first-born of Rebellion though not so visibly at the head as in other cases yet full as deep as any and if he craftily pulled in his horns in appearance 't was but to play the villain with more success Yet some good honest harmless well-meaning men may perhaps mistake this policy for honesty and imagine remorse of Conscience for former offences or a grateful remembrance of an Act of Oblivion occasioned it but for my part I have not Charity enough to believe that they can either repent indeed of old sins or forbear attempting new ones when occasion offers itself Naturam expellas fureâ licet usque recurret Can a Black be washt white or do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles They were not grown honester but wiser if cunning in mischief improved by long practice may deserve that name they yet remembred how in the late Rebellion they had born the heat and burthen of the day and how yet those that came in at the eleventh hour were made not equal but superiour to them they had been the first aggressors at a vast expence of Blood and Treasure when the Independent stept in tript up their heels reaped the fruit of their labours and even surfeited with the riches of their spoils their Blood had paid for their birthright not bought but forced from them and not a single mess left them to feed on Virgil's fate was theirs Hanc ego rempublicam feci tulit alter honores they were therefore now for playing an after-game and desired in their turn to be even with their younger brother by which means nothing venturing they had hopes of all to step into the Government if the Plot succeeded to slip out of the halter if it miscarried For your true Protestant Dissenter whose Province is Rebellion hates no Plot but that which miscarries prosperum scelus vocatur virtus and is as proud to own a successful villany as cunning to shift it when 't is not so So when lately God for unscrutable causes was pleased to prosper the Arms of Traytors against their lawful Sovereign how forward even to ambition were they of being esteemed the Patrons of that then glorious villany Keepers of the Liberties of England Godly reforming Saints and what else were they not but when in process of time by as many sudden and extraordinary revolutions as any Age or History can boast of his Majesty was restored and the godly and thorough Reformation was solemnly damn'd and declared a downright detestable Rebellion not a Saint had a hand in it then 't was a damn'd Popish Plot devised to discredit the Kings Protestant Subjects and every babe was taught to answer to so much of his Catechism That the Papists cut off the Kings Head an evasion poor even to ridiculousness That the Papists should raise and carry on a War against Popery for that was then as still it is the burthen of the Song But a sorry shift is better than none That relation of Dr. du Moulin of disguised Jesuits sent over by the French Cardinal which they urge so often in their own excuse does not at all shift the Scene an account that makes in my opinion much against them it proves them Fools as well as Knaves derogating much from their policy without the least addition to their honesty For if a Jesuit suitably habited may pass for a zealous holder-forth and that they look no farther then the outside of a man a starcht Band a brace of Caps a whining Tone some six Grymaces with as many Crocodile Tears are all the ingredients that go to the making up a painful Soul-saving Preacher For they try not the spirits that are amongst them digesting every thing with an implicite Faith know no more of a man than his habit and seem not to have read or altogether to have forgotten that a tree is known by its fruit and men by their works not habits that ravenous Wolves are then most dangerous when they appear in sheeps cloathing If then Dissenters may be thus imposed upon if where there is a Conventicle there will be a Jesuit that is a villain which may by no means be questioned it having the authority of a man whose Evidence has stood the Test of Three Parliaments and of which a fresh instance we have in the person of the Doctor if so it be and that the most pernicious matter in point of Doctrine may be disguized by the ridiculous but most affected manner of delivering it so
not reflect upon his Majesty or the present Government which they all promised not to do and thanked him for his civility and then Phillips began in manner following Friends and Country-men I Am come this day to pay that great debt that I owe to Nature it is a work that had need be well done for it is but once to be done My hope is now above and for what I now come to suffer for my own part I bless God in whose presence I now speak as a dying man I had not any murderous thought against the King but I have prayed for him and wished that he might Live and Reign and long Reign in Righteousness and that God would make his Crown a Crown of Righteousness upon his Head and bless him in his Government so that he may not know any of these occasions more For my part I have ventured my life for his Majesty it was far from my heart to do any thing of that nature The Lord receive my soul I freely forgive all men as I hope to be forgiven of God I never did act any thing but only this which was my ignorance of the Laws that I did not discover it And I was justly found guilty for not discovering I have done Mr. Sheriff but hope after my Brethren have spoken we may have liberty to call upon the Lord. Vnder-Sher It will not be denied you Then Mr. Tonge began in this manner Friends and Countrey-men YOu see me here a dying man I have sometimes been in some mens company where I have heard them contriving the business for which I am condemned to die and that which led me to joyn with them was this I was and had been sometimes in the Army and I have looked upon this Cause to be good As for his Majesty the Lord bless him and prosper him and put it into his heart that he may be a Nursing-Father indeed to this Country Vnder-Sher Have you any more to say you may speak Tonge I have nothing more And then Gibbs proceeded and said COuntry-men and Friends and I hope Christians and the last consideration is that that makes me the more free to speak to you we all profess to own God and Jesus Christ to be our Saviour our Redeemer our Sanctifier and giver of and bestower upon us Eternal Life this should excite our Souls to love one another and upon the account of Gods love that God has so loved us as to give Jesus Christ to reconcile us sinners to God we ought to love one another it is his great command Truly as to the Cause for which I am brought here God the great Judge of Heaven and Earth before whom I stand knows that in the place where I have lived I behaved my self as an obedient Subject and when there was an Insurrection by the Fifth-monarchy-men I went out in my own person though I had Servants as well as others purely out of affection to his Majesty knowing that in the peace of his Government I should have peace and so I went out hazarded my life and continued out till all was quiet I was at a Neighbours house drinking of a cup of Beer on Tuesday night in the Kitchin alone save only the man of the house and the maid these men came in one Hill and Riggs that are the witnesses against me there was Riggs and Hill and this Stubbs and one Beazely and I being alone in the Kitchin they asked for one Gibbs the people of the house told me there were some Gentlemen would speak with me I wished them to direct them to me and they came to me and through the ignorance of the Law which it seems runs thus If any words treasonable against his Majesty is spoken it is Treason to conceal it So thus I have given you in part the cause of my being here Hereupon information was given to the Kings Majesty that I should say there would be a Rising and that Alhallows-eve was the time that there were Arms sent into the Country and that Ludlow was to be General and this was charged upon me by the Kings Majesty when I came before him to be examined and upon Hills and Rigg's Oath I was sent to the Tower and kept a long time a Prisoner examined three or four times over by the Lords of his Majesties Council I have one word more as touching my Judgment I am reputed in the world to be one of those that is called by the name of Anabaptist a name of derision and scorn One is an Anabaptist one an Independant one a Presbyterian one this and one that and one the other who gave these nick-names to Christians There is but one God one Lord Jesus one Baptism one Hope of Glory How comes the Body of Christ or the Members of Christ to be called these nick-names But now as I am one that do profess Faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ and do stand before you all and before the Lord I know no other God but the Eternal and Living God that hath made the World and that Rules and Reigns and disposes all his Creatures I do believe in this God he has been gracious to me a poor sinner and to all poor sinners that when we by reason of sin had forfeited our mercies and were under wrath and everlasting destruction and must perish for ever that God did out of his rich grace and tender mercies give his only begotten Son according to his promise to be the blessing of God to the poor Gentiles according as the Scripture did declare the Scripture forseeing that God would justifie the Heathens through Faith preached before the Gospel to Abraham saying In thee shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed he speaks not of the natural seed of Abraham but of Christ so that all the blessings that God did convey to the sinful world is by the means of Jesus Christ whom God in the fulness of time did send his Son born of a woman to redeem poor sinners under the Law and herein was the great grace and mercy of God towards all sinners that he was so gracious to send his beloved Son out of his own bosom to take our natures upon him who were defiled and cursed and condemned and separated from God I say Jesus Christ took our natures upon him and for this very end to do the will of his heavenly Father Lo it is written in the volume of thy book I come to do thy will O God and it was his meat and drink to do his will and what was that but that we might be sanctified through â—â—e offerâ— up of the body of Jesus Christ for our sins to tread the winepress of his Fathers wra and to endure the cross and bear all our sins in his own body that made his soul heavy unto death he was a surety for us and our sins and for our sakes the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all and he hath born