in this place As to those things which belong to a private Christian I ought to know him better than most others and I did know that by him which gives me abundant comfort in his Death I knew him to be a Just and Charitable man a Devout a Zealous and Conscientious Christian. His Religion was more for use than for shew And yet he was constant in all the acts of Gods Worship He loved the Communion of the Church as well out of Judgment as Affection And though the compassion that he had for all men that did amiss extended it self to allmanner of Dissenters and among them he had a kindness for the Persons of many Roman-Catholicks Yet he always declared a particular Hatred and Detestation of Popery I say this on purpose to be remembred because some would have him a Papist or inclined that way I never pleased him with any duty I performed at least he never thanked me for any so much as he did for those Sermons which I preacht here against Popery But these things are less considerable in our loss we are more concerned for what he was in his Publick capacity And for that he seem'd made and fitted up with more than ordinary care God seemed to have singled him forth and designed him to be the Useful man that he was in this place He was composed for it both by Nature and Education Choice Study Practice I know not what could be added to make him fitter than he was He was as it were Born to be a Justice of Peace his Grand-father his Father his elder Brother were so before him The two last were also Members of Parliament His great Grand-father was a Captain which was considerable in those days His Education was sutable to his Birth being brought up at Westminster School from whence he was sent to the University thence to Travel in forein parts then he came to live in the Inns of Court where wanting health he retired for a time into the Countrey And now all our hopes of him might seem to have been defeated at once But that God who by his Providence designed him for this place brought him back with an intimate Friend and Relation who having suffered much for the late King whose Servant he was turned what he had left into Money and to make the most of that employed it in a Wood-yard in this Parish Our Friend could have no great Estate being the tenth Son of his Father who had four Sons younger than he was and his Father was a younger Son of his Grand-father So that though his Father had a plentiful Estate and his Grand-father one of the fairest in his Country yet but a small portion of these could fall to his share But what he had he laid it out as Partner with his Friend and so improved it till he had wherewith to live like himself And then he that was never bred to a Trade needed not be perswaded to ease himself of it He found other business more equal to his Soul Which having practised at first with his other emploiment afterwards he withdrew from all other business to this He dedicated himself wholly to it made his Country his Family this Parish his Wife and Children attended wholly to their good to keep up Law and Justice and Safety and Liberty to save others from violence and wrong to reduce them from disorder and idleness He was perhaps the Man of our Age that did the most good in that Station I should not doubt of it having so great an Author He that ought to know best hath often said Sir Edmund Godfrey he took to be the best Iustice of Peace in this Kingdom He knew what he had reason to expect would come of this the emulation even of good Men for they are but men And he shewed his own infirmity in this that sometimes he was troubled at it But for others he despised whatsoever they thought or said He knew before hand the price of doing his duty how many ill men he must displease what Scoffs and Censures he must indure what hazards he must run And this was all he expected for his labour He thought it worth the while to suffer this for God's Glory and the Public Good 'T is vulgar Virtue that puts men only upon safe good things 'T is Virtue in its Perfection when one dares do well and suffer for it And of this degree he shewed some as great proofs as perhaps have been given in our days In the Plague-time who would have done as he did not only to stay here but to expose himself upon every Occasion It was much to indure the very Air that besides its own Putrefaction was filled with the steams of so many thousands of dying-breaths It was fearful to see and hear the mournful Objects and Cries that went hourly every-where about the street It was a desperate thing to Flesh and Blood to converse with them and to be in the midst of them God knows when I am called to this how I shall perform it But he did what I have even trembled to hear He fed so many poor with his own hands distributed as well Physic as food exposing himself to be pulled and haled by them sometimes And that which exceeds all the rest where the Officers durst not he went himself into the Pesthouse to seize on a Malefactor These are instances of so high a Courage so undaunted a Zeal to Public Good that if we should have the like occasion again which God forbid we could scarce hope to find the like Instances He could not shew the like himself at other times And therefore I shall the more easily pass over those things which in themselves were very considerable those Watchings and Hazards and Toils which would have been great matters to others But they were less to him because he had inured himself to them They were by long and constant practice become so natural to him that he seemed to have left himself no sense of any Labour no Weariness of watching no Apprehension of Danger in any thing by which he might do service to God the King and his Countrey There are but few such men living the greater is our loss by his Death A great loss if he had died a Natural Death Then we should have submitted to the will of God And so we must now But we could easier have done it if he had lived out his time and done all the good we could have hoped from him If he had lived the Age of a man as his Grandfather did or as his Father to that which Moses calls Labour and Sorrow or as his Mother who is eighty six years old and yet living How much good might one do so qualified as he was so disposed so resolved so verst in Business How much more good might he have done if he had lived to those Years But to be taken off at six and fifty as he was when he might
have lived much longer to go on doing still as he did the thought of this hath much uneasiness in it But then farther to think how he was taken away by a violent Death He was Murthered The very mention of this strikes horror into one that considers it Human Nature abhors it Much more Grace in Christians whom God hath strictly forbidden it by all the Laws that are given to Christians But then to murther a Magistrate that should be the Keeper of those Laws This is so much beyond Common Horror I know not how to express it If it were an Assault if it were a false Imprisonment much more if the Murther of any other person the Magistrate is he that should punish it But that he should be murthered himself To murther Him it cannot be without the highest Affront to Authority and Laws to the King to the whole Nation to God himself Alas that such wickedness should be done in our Nation in this 〈◊〉 in this Place But especially upon such a Magistrate that was the blessing of this place They could not hurt him but they must hurt us all for whom he lived and cared more than for himself for whom he also died as we have too much reason to believe Considering this it concerns us all to know how he died There are ways that a Wise man may die like a Fool that he can neither fight nor run away as my Text shews us Thus died Abner and thus died our Friend and this heightens our horror above measure Had he died by sudden chance or by open Malicious design it had happened to him as it hath done to many others But perhaps never any was Murthered as he was so treacherously and basely and with such bloody and barbarous Cruelty For the Treacherousness of it if Abner were catcht so it is no wonder 'T is no hard thing for any one that hath made himself base enongh that will violate his Faith and break the bonds of human society to call another aside and secretly to cut his Throat The pretence of common Friendship is enough to enable any one that is wicked enough to do this But in our case there was no need of so much as that pretence or colour of Friendship Any Stranger might do it to a person of so easie access one that never denied himself to any one that had need of him one that neither feared force nor affected shew and therefore never took so much as a Servant along with him He was at every ones call to do that which was his daily business to make Peace to do Justice to do any good to any Person Was it not a worthy Prize to get such a one into their hands Oh Cowards that could go such a low mean way to take him Oh Monsters that having taken him could find in their hearts to do him hurt Well he is now in their hands as he thinks to do them Service in his place What business have they for him What they said we are not able to guess But what they did appeared by woful tokens in this poor body God knows where they kept him We know only it was under restraint and 't was not altogether in darkness by the Wax-candle-drops upon his Cloaths and therefore it was not altogether Hell upon Earth though it was like it in his usage that Hellish usage that he indured Ah poor Soul How many comfortless hours did he reckon in that merciless Trap where they kept him How many insulting words how many reproaches did he hear What Racks what Bodily tortures might he probably suffer And what Cordial what Refection to support him under all this We know nothing but what appeared in his Body his sunk Belly his empty Stomach his blancht Tongue were all witnesses of his Chear My Tears are my Meat day and night while I call upon my God Yet we cannot say they starved him God knows what they would have done had they had time but in all likelihood it was the fear of Search that hastned his Death And the same death it was that they deserved ten thousand times over They can suffer no worse if they are taken than this to be Strangled and then the Law hath done with them But when they had Strangled him they had not done with him so he must be cast forth to the Birds Beasts and that with the formality of a Sword thrust through his body that if men came to find him they might judge that he had killed himself Whether it were to save themselves from Suspicion or whether out of malice to him or whether both these together God knows Sure enough it was the worst they could do to him It was that which being believed would ruin all that they had left All that they could not reach the Law would if he had Murthered himself It must have ruined his Name it had forfeited his Estate it had brought a blot upon his Family Nothing could be done more to shew their Malice if that were their meaning If they rather sought to hide their own Guilt it was surely an Infatuation from God He took away their understandings that they could not consider those things which every Child could not but observe What would none miss his Band or take notice of his clean Shoes Would none look for the effusion of Blood or take notice of that which hindred it that so manifest Coagulation Twenty things more that have been considered elsewhere and are not to be repeated in this place It was surely an Infatuation from God Who having suffered them to run on in their sin to the utmost to make that scarlet sin of Murther even blush at it self if it were possible having suffered the Devil to teach them every thing else that he could think of to consummate the Ruin of this good man yet was pleased so to take away their understandings that they could not see so many evident proofs as would be made to all the world of his Innocence and of their horrible wickedness But now I speak of Discovery me-thinks I see you all stirred up as it were expecting that I should name you the Persons that did this bloody Fact I would I could for sundry reasons But I cannot pretend to that I can only say with David they were Wicked men He was the common Enemy of all such and it pleased God to let him fall into their hands He fell by the hands of Wicked men that is certain But if you would know more I will endeavour to shew you how possibly You may discover them Perhaps some that are wiser would be afraid to go so far But why so I speak for him that feared nothing but to lose an Opportunity of doing good And in hopes to do good by it I will be so far like him I will not fear to go on with what I offered as to the discovery There are three things to be chiefly considered in this matter First Mens Actions
Secondly Their Interests and Thirdly their Principles We shall consider each of these First their Actions and Practices Since we know not who they are that were the Authors of this Wickedness at least can we find who they are that are not willing we should know it They that have practised and intrigued to this purpose to endeavour to hinder the Search or the Discovery if they knew what they did we have reason to judge they were concerned for themselves or for their Friends You cannot but remember the dust that was raised in the week when the Search should have been made those Calumnies those various reports that went about as it were on purpose to hinder the discovery One while he had withdrawn himself for Debt Another while he was Married that not very decently Another while he was run away with a Harlot even what the Father of Lies put into their heads At last when they knew what they intended to do with him they prepared you to expect it by giving out that he had kild himself You know how impatient they were to have this believ'd I was told it some hours before the discovery that he was found with his own Sword through his Body Others could tell that he had two wounds about him These things were found to be True some hours after But then they devised sundry Untruths to colour it It was suggested that it might be done in Distraction which they said was an Hereditary Disease in his Family that his Father and his Grand-father had it before him that this Disease being stirred up by some mis-apprehensions wrought that direful effect upon him to make him kill himself These things from whatsoever Author they came being confidently said were as easily believed by them that knew nothing to the contrary I confess I knew not what to think my self till I saw the contrary with my eyes When I saw he was strangled as well as thrust through I soon considered that no man could kill himself both those ways And then for the Scandal that was raised of his Family I found upon inquiry that all the colour they had to say it was only this that his Father was sometime afflicted with Melancholy almost to Distraction but it was before he was fifty years old he soon recovered of it and lived till the eightieth year of his Age. Besides I am informed that there never was any appearance of the like Distemper in any one Person of all that numerous Family Nor did any of his Relations ever come to an untimely end as has been falsly reported For the Melancholy that was observed in our Friend I think none that knew him ever thought it Distraction or any thing tending that way but a thoughtfulness sometimes that proceeded from the Intricacy and Multiplicity of Business I believe the weightiest business that ever he had was that which made him say some Days before his Death I am told I shall be knock'd in the Head He said this in my hearing without any great visible Concern He continued the same he ever was in his daily Conversation Serious in Business but Chearful and Pleasant at other times Thus he used to be alway He was so the last day of his living life that is till the hour that we lost him And how he was afterwards I suppose they best know that were the Authors of these Rumors That 's one way to try men I think by their Actions and Practises A Second way to find out the Authors of any Fact is to consider who they were that were concerned to have it done It was Cassius's word Cui bono For whose Interest was it Now consider for whose Interest it was to kill this Person They must be some that were not safe while he lived or some that might be the better for his Death And that in some considerable measure such as would requite all the danger they were to incur by it If you know of any that could not think themselves safe while he lived you have great reason to believe you know the Authors of his Death I have not so far been Privy to his doings as that I could be able to enter into this Secret Much less to know of any Personal Malice against him He that was so tender hearted even to those whom he punished could not provoke any one to this height of Revenge Much less were they Robbers or any such Poor Rogues that kill men for what they have These did their work Gratis They left him all his Money They took nothing but his Band except Papers 'T is therefore very credible that the Authors had some other Interest that moved them to it And that seems rather to have been against the Government and the Laws They knew how firm he was in his Duty to both and perhaps they had tried it in something else than we know of If so they could not but think it worth their while to send him out of the World One that durst do his duty when he knew whom and what he should provoke by it One that would give so ill an Example to other Magistrates which if followed might be the Ruin of their Cause What could they think of such a man We cannot scare him We cannot bribe him but we can kill him They could not have thought of a more Compendious way than this Especially if the killing of him would dishearten others and so be a means to weaken Authority and Laws Such men cannot but know that Publick-Spirited men are not so many and they that are are but Men They may be daunted they may be discouraged And what can do that more than the Terror of such an Example I doubt not they that did this would rather have done it Publickly for that reason As we hang up Thieves for Example to others so to hang up Justices for doing their Duty Oh that would be a pleasant thing indeed No Gentlemen we are not come to that yet God knows what we may come to for our Sins and by your Means But it will be the longer first if the Laws can find You out And towards that we have some guess at you by this Token They that are against the Established Laws it was their Interest to do this That is the Second thing The Third Token is by their Principles And so whosoever did this they should be either such as hold nothing Unlawful or at least such as hold it Lawful to do such things For the First that is Men of Atheistical Principles they follow only their Lust or their Interest Which will scarce unite any number of men to carry on such a formed design as this was Or if it had they would scarce have held together so long they would have impeached one another and so saved us the Labour of Discovering them by this Token I do not therefore charge it upon them that hold nothing Unlawful But how shall we excuse them that hold it Lawful to do
such things If there are such Men in the World and if the other Tokens agree to them they surely are the likeliest that can be thought of for this Matter But such a sort of men there is even here in England we have them among us I could not but think of them when I named the other Tokens and so must any one that hath been conversant in their Books We need not put them upon the Rack to make them Confess They offer themselves they tell us such things which we scarce dare tell you again 'T is scarce credible how openly and how grosly they teach men these things They are the Iesuits I speak of And whosoever reads their Books cannot but know I do not wrong them in what I say I say First They teach men to raise such Reports as we heard of this Person And Secondly 'T is their Interest to discourage the Execution of the Law And Thirdly They hold it Lawful to kill Men that would prejudice them or their Religion If I prove these Three things we have all the Tokens together which I think are not to be found so in any other Persons or Society Let them clear themselves as they can of the Fact I will prove the Tokens And First for their teaching of Calumny In plain Terms to slander another man in Defence of ones own Right or Honor and especially one of the Fathers to do it in Defence of the Society some hold it plainly Lawful Some say it is a Venial Sin For the Proofs you may find them together in the Fifteenth of the Provincial Letters If so what should hinder these men from râ—ising all those Reports of this Person Since it was in Defence of themselves and of their Sect if they killed him Secondly That it was their Interest to kill him 't is manifest if they have any design against the Government And if either his Life would have hindred or discovered them in it or if his Death would discourage others from being Active in their Place But that it is the Interest of their Sect and of their Church to subvert the Government and that they for their Parts design it now at this Present I think this is so palpable that I should but lose time in proving it Thirdly That they hold it Lawful to kill in such cases For this 't is as plainly delivered in their Writings as any Article of Faith is in the Creed They say First in General To kill another is Murther indeed if you do it for Revenge or any such Sinister End And therefore you must be careful to direct your Intention aright And so by directing the Intention though you do the same Act it is not Murther For Example saith Amicus one of their Professors if one threatens to publish grievous crimes of my Self or of my Order When I have no other way to escape this I may lawfully kill him And saith he 't is plain that I have no other way if he be ready to charge me or my Order Publickly Coram gravissimis viris before men in Authority Saith Tannerus in like manner One may kill him if it be in Defence of his own Goods or of the Goods of his Society Saith Lessius If one endeavours to take away my life by revealing a secret crime I may kill him Nay if he endeavours to take away but my good name by revealing a secret crime I may kill him saith Lessius and the same saith Filliucius Now who that knows what Informations our Friend had against them can doubt but they might lawfully kill him by these Doctrines I name but one for each Whosoever would see more may find them collected in the seventh and the thirteenth of the Provincial Letters Though if we had but one Author for each of these Doctrines that 's enough to make a probable Doctrine as they tell us And then if it is probable we may practise it safely without sin I know what any Iesuit would answer to this They would say that these Doctrines are some of them delivered as being only Speculatively true that is they are true in their own Nature But they are not Practicè sequendae that is in respect of the Consequences they are not to be reduced to Practice And why so If they are speculatively true why then are they not to be practised They themselves tell you why They would cause disorders in the Commonwealth Lessius hath a better Reason for one of them He saith one ought not to practise it because if one doth he may be hang'd for it The mean while if one can do it so secretly as not to disturb the Commonwealth and then to be sure he shall not hang for it in that case it is Practicè sequenda 'T is to be practised according to their Doctrine Or if not while it is speculatively true that the thing it self is no sin Who that knows this and hath a mind to kill another and sees his Occasion will make any Scruple of the Practice Yes they will tell you the Pope hath forbidden it in that Decree of the Year 1665. which is set down in the end of the last Roman Index To their shame be it said These Doctrines are forbidden indeed But not as being Untrue not as Contrary to God's word or having any Immorality in them How then He saith they are ad minimum scandalosae At least they are apt to give Offence no doubt they are if we Hereticks come to know them And therefore he charges them upon their Obedience to himself that they must not Practise these Doctrines Had he said upon their Obedience to God that had been a dangerous word It would have made them afraid to Practise them even in his own Service He would take heed of that not to spoil that which may be a Useful Doctrine But he forbade it forsooth upon Obedience to himself which is such a Restraint as the Pope may take off when he pleaseth And how can we tell when he doth or doth not that which is in his Power secretly to do or not to do We have only this measure by which to judg He will do whatsoever he sees best for the Catholick Cause If he sees it best for the Cause we shall live If not you see it is no sin to kill us even the Pope being Judge So that now we hold our Lives at his Courtesie But thanks be to God that gives us better security than that gives us Government and Laws to protect us Or else no man here knows how soon he might be laid as our Friend is before us And we thank you Reverend Fathers of the Society if you were the men that killed him as you are the likeliest if we may believe yourselves We thank you that you did not begin with the Government first That you killed him not the King There had been a Blow indeed We thank you for not beginning with