of this Baron Hene one of his Majestie 's Justiciaries in Ireland assured a Person of Honor that one John Curphy a Papist Condemned for a Burglary in the Year 1671. at the time of his Execution did peremptorily Deny the Fact and made solemn Appeals to God of his Innocency Yet the Contrary was thus Discovered After he had Hung some little time the Rope by Chance brake so he fell down a little Stunned Yet some Seed of Life remaining in him he was brought to his perfect Speech Hereupon Terror was so deeply imprest upon his Conscience for Lying though counted a Venial Sin before that he was forced to Confess the Fact and after some time given him for Repentance he was Executed as he deserved Thus you see that Impudent Impenitent Malefactors at different Seasons have different Sentiments of God's Omniscient Justice for Forging Lies deliberately to make the World believe that they are Innocent God is concerned in the Honor of his Justice to Vindicate his Omnisciency in some strange Discovery of such Matchless Impostors who can hardly Repent in the time of Dying Indeed it is not probable they should who Entayl upon themselves a Voluntary Curse by their pertinacious Dissimulation and their Lying Artifices These Men are of late Commenced such profound Doctors in all Treason Rebellion Cruelty and what not which may destroy a Protestant Government that they out-strip all former Monsters of Impiety Had this Unparellel'd Villainy been Effected it would have been Celebrated for a Meritorious Act in Contriving a Speedier and more Effectual Method for the Propagation of the Romish Perswasion This is not the Truly Antient Apostolical Faith but a Mushrom of Fancy started up out of an Affectation of Superstitious Novelty and cherisht or spred by the Boundless Ambition of Earthly Pomp and Grandeur How can any Man who hath not quite Extinguisht all Sparks of Reason and Ingenuity Embrace such a Religion which any Idiot may be Ashamed to Live in and Afraid to Dye in For it is a Miscellany of Blasphemies and all Absurd Opinions yea of all Impieties Hereby it comes to pass that at last they are not able to put any Difference 'twixt Light and Darkness Truth and Falshood nor to distinguish Righteousness from Violence and Injustice nor Piety it self from the Extremity of Prophaneness I have done with the Discovery of the Falseness of their Appeals Let us now see whether their Faith and Charity in Dying were of any Better Stamp The Jesuits False-Faith in Dying Detected to be Fancy and Presumption HOw many False Martyrs hath the world afforded who while they Courted Death Sacrificed only a Sturdy Body to a Stubborn Mind to keep up some Heresy in Repute Jesuits count this a brave Resolution yet it flows from the Inconsiderateness of a Sleepy secure Conscience They weigh not the after-claps of Death nor Dread the future Assizes of the Universal Judgment Hypocrits will as confidently commit and commend their Spirits into the Hand and Bosom of Christ as if they had been Washt in his Blood and changed into his Image Jesuits who are a Faithless Generation cannot really make use of the Sheild of Faith to Blunt the Sting of Death or to Quench the Fiery Dartings of Despair into their Hearts For that Faith which they pretend to is rather Carnal fancy and presumption than any well regulated Resignation of their Souls to the Conduct of the Scriptures as imbraced by a firm Belief Such Resignation flowing from a Right-bred Faith is Divinely grounded on the Sacred Authority of God Alone who is the Architype of Truth But Jesuits do not believe the Scriptures to be a perfect Rule of Faith and of the practicals of Christian Self-denyal If they esteemed the Sacred Records able to make the Man of God Compleatly wise unto Salvation then Consequently they must needs be the strongest and only Sheild to overcome the Inordinate Love of Natural Life and the Slavish fear of a Violent Ignominious Death Such a frame can never be attained unless the Purity of the Scriptures which are Divine in their Original and Authority be Assented to and Imbraced with a Faith Divinely subjected to them I must receive and defend Divine Truth to the very Death not because I believe it with an Humane Faith as giving more credit to the Churches Tradition which Consignes the Scriptures to be Canonical than to the Authority of Divine Revelation If so I ground my Faith for Eternal Life upon an Vncertain Opinion or at best upon the Rash and bold Assertion of some Pope or Council who say and unsay Decree and Abolish the same Constitution in a Breath Thus the Jesuits-Faith which is meerly or chiefly Humane in the very essence and formality of it because the Church or Pope determines So or So can never reach to the Spiritual pitch and excellency of that Divine Faith which being grounded on the Sole Authority of Divine Revelation can only Justify and Save a mans Soul and Consequently can only afford true courage and comfort in Dying But Jesuits never had their Hearts purified by believing and obeying the Truths of Christ as such for then they would have their Affections more in Heaven But spending their Conversation chiefly among Machivilians of their own Tribe and Order to promote a Secular Interest rather than to Subject themselves to the Rules of the Blessed Jesus whose name their Society Blasphemously pretends to they cannot have any Experimental Tast of the powerful joys of the World to come Their confidence therefore in Dying cannot be Hearty and Ingenuous It flows cheifly from the Effort and vigor of natural courage not from a Super-elevated Principle of Unfeigned Faith which takes a prospect of Eternal Life not only beyond the pleasing Accomodations and Advantages of this present World but also beyond the Torments of Death that so God himself may be Glorified All in All and not only a Saint-like Cannonization be Ambitiously aspired unto which without real Holiness is but the Dream of a Fools-Paradise Are not such men under the delusion of a strange Phrency and Spiritually bewicht who put on an Artificial courage and zeal in sealing a false Religion with their Blood only out of a fond Ambition to avoid Purgatory on the left hand and that the Pope may immediately Canonize them for Heroical Champions in defending the pride of his Tripple Crown Jesuits account this to be justifying Faith to Eternal Life firmly to Assont to all the Popes determinations as Infallible when oftentimes Popes have been persons neither of common Truth nor Honesty but Atheists Hereticks Conjurers Sodomites yea Incarnate Devils Platina in the Life of John the 13th Constan Concil Sess 11. Art 5. Benedict 9. vide Baronium anno 1034. N. 3. Yet the unwritten Traditions or Fancies rather of these wicked Monsters must be Imbraced as Objects of justifying Faith by all such who expect not to be sent to Purgatory when they Dye But Can Jesuitical Martyrs for the Pope's
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
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
seared are the Consciences of these Grand Traytors and Enemies to all Order and well-Establish't Government as well as the True and Pure Religion that they will hazard the Eternal Loss of their Souls as to a future happy State rather than declare any Remorse for their abominable Designes and Practices Yea they stick not to justify themselves as if Perjury could change the heinous Nature of Treason and wash it into a perfect Innocency Sir Richard How told Pickering That he should have a considerable Time to prepare for his instant Death if he would improve it well and not mispend it in extravagant and false Pretences He likewise call'd unto him to put him in mind of Praying for himself alleading that it was reported that he was a Priest therefore he ought to be able to pray in Expressions and with Affections suitable to his present Distress Yet Pickering neither warned the People to take heed of an ill Life nor Confess'd any Sin to God of which himself was Guilty but with a kind of rude smiling denyed himself to be a Priest but only a Religious Brother Sir Richard ask't him If he were ashamed of his Religion or That the People should hear him Pray For some of his Fraternity Executed before only muttered a few Private Ave-Maryes or other Popish Prayers to themselves Then Pickering repeated the Lord's-Prayer and the Apostolical-Creed and said no more as to any Religious Concernments Then the Ordinary being in the Cart with him exhorted him to Express himself more fully and pathetically in Prayer sutable to the distress of a Dying Man which he refused to do Then I ask't him that I might Pray for him because he might be uncomposed or indisposed himself But he said That he did not matter it he had rather I should let it alone So after a strange unbecoming stupid and sullen behaviour of himself when he desired no longer time his face was vailed and he was turned off he hung about half an hour and then was Cut down and Quartered VI. Mr. Green GReen was one of the Murtherers of Sir Edmundberry Godfrey He was born in Ireland of a Protestant Father as himself said but his mother being a Papist and his father dying she committed the Son to his Uncle her brother for Education in the Popish Religon Green could neither read nor write yet his Uncle had so trained him up in the Popish Principles that he was a fitter subject when grown up for Popish Priests to work upon and make him an Engine for their destructive Practises This appeared by their inveigling of him into the horrid murther of the said Sir Edmund Green had some time before been prefer'd to be Chappel-keeper at Sommerset-house Hereupon the chief contrivers of that Murther took their opportunity to draw him in to be an Actor in that bloody Tragedy Green was very ready at hand for that purpose and was the easier induced thereunto because Sir Edmund being one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace was very active in discovering and committing Popish Priests to Custody his Life was laid wait for several times not only for the reason aforesaid but chiefly because he had taken some Examinations upon Oath concerning the late Horrid popish Conspiracy which they thought if Sir Edmund were kill'd would be lost or not so valid in their Credibility But in this they were infatuated for the murther of this Worthy Patriot confirmed the belief of the Plot. The manner of contriving Sir Edmund's Death was thus As he passed by Sommerset-House he was importun'd by some of the Complices in the murthering of him to turn in at the Gate under pretence that there was a fray within the Court and that he being a Justice of the Peace might as he was bound do a great good Office in appeasing the Scuffle Sir Edmund went in not mistrusting their design on him But these cruel Enemies to the Protestant Religion had no sooner got him into the back part of Sommerset-House but they josled him into a private room and there set upon him with their Fury The Narrative is in Print and too tedious to relate Therefore in sum as to Greens part who acted in that bloody Tragedy it was proved upon Oath that he strangled Sir Edmund and farther acted in conveighing his dead body to the place where it was afterwards found Green being condemned to be hanged for this Barbarous Murther I proffer'd my self as Ordinary to visit and fit him for his approaching Death He accepted of it and I went to him several days to make him sensible of so great a Crime He stifly denied it as also did Hill and Berry to the last I urged Green with various Arguments to adore the Soveraignty of divine Providence which had thus wonderfully brought to light such a secret mistery of Iniquity hardly to be parallell'd in any Age. Yet Green was very obstinate in standing out to deny that he knew any thing of this Murther more or less which I told him proceeded from some or all of these Reasons following either because he had taken an Oath of Secresy or counted it no sin but rather a meritorious Act to destroy such a grand Heretick as Sir Edmund was accounted Or had received a Popish Absolution from the Guilt of that Murther and so lookt upon himself as Innocent as the Child Unborn Or would not confess that horrid Crime to decline casting a great reproach upon the Popish Party Yet however I did not cease for many days to exhort him to unburthen his Conscience of this particular Guilt I aggravated in many particulars the heinousness of the sin of Murther especially of this committed with such perfidious and cruel Circumstances Yet no Arguments prevailed with him to acknowledg it I found him Ignorant in the Principles of the Christian Faith therefore I took the more pains to inform him of the danger of dying in the Romish Perswasion which is grosly opposite by the Mixture of many absurd Traditions to the saving Fundamentals of Christianity He said That he did not believe many Points of Popery viz. The Power of Priestly Absolution nor the Merits of Good Works to claim Salvation by Nor that it was Lawful to Pray to any Saint or Angel And that no Sin was Venial in its own Nature though it were never so small I much wondred that he should say He believed not any of these Popish Points and yet that he should wear a Crucifix at his Girdle I desired him not to put any Religion in Looking on It nor in Kissing of It. He said He put no Confidence of Salvation in It only It was a Remembrance of his Blessed Saviour I told him That Christ had left no such nor any other Memorials of Himself but only in the Scriptures of Sacred Truth and in the Sacraments That it is the Office of the Holy Spirit to bring every Truth necessary for Salvation to our Remembrance And that Christ his Offices and Merits were only to be