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A60546
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An account of the behaviour of the fourteen late popish malefactors whil'st in Newgate and their discourses with the Ordinary ... : also a confutation of their appeals, courage, and cheerfulness at execution / by Samuel Smith ...
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Smith, Samuel, 1620-1698.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing S4197; ESTC R10786
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43,028
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42
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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
on which they say the stress of Sinners Salvation depends is a meer Human Invention God hath promised nothing to it upon Popish Terms neither can a Man build any rational Hope upon It that it will secure him from Damnation They affirm That the Sacrament of Penance infuses All saving Graces when Men are Dying This is a Rare Device by which Debaucht Persons may escape Hell at last without True Repentance There was never any Heresie more monstrous and pernitious than this of the Trent-Council which makes all Sins Safe and all Duties Needless by a Knack of very Easy Use and New Invention viz. Absolution upon the meer Profession of any slight Grief for Sin though the Motive be but Natural and the Grief it self in the next Degree to Nothing The Premises considered I cannot see how Papists can rightly Ground their Hopes for Salvation which is to be attained by Faith in Christ alone as it purifyes the Heart to an Obediential Hope of Glory Jesuitical Charity Counterfeit in Life and Death I Do suspect the Jesuits Charity in Dying could be no Better than their Faith For according to the Truth and Strength of This which is the first Radical Grace Implanted is proportionably the Genuine Nature and Extension of Christian Love Now if the Jesuits Faith be Vnsound as I have Demonstrated I cannot see any reason why their Charity should be of the right Scriptural-stamp How could these Jesuits sincerely Forgive their Enemies Is Self-denyal this Grand Master-piece of Christianity so easily practised by Anti-Christian Spirits Yet they would make us believe that they heartily Forgave their Enemies as themselves expected Forgiveness from God But such Sophisters use to Forgive their Just Accusers in a Complement as they believe themselves to be Forgiven of God in a Dream I suspect that their Reconciliation to their Adversaries was as Mystical as their Faith is Dubious For if they require an Implicite Faith only to believe whatever the Church Virtual viz the Pope dictates why should their Charity be more expressive and distinct viz. in Comprehending such Persons who designedly as themselves asserted sought to take away their Lives Is This the Charity of the Roman Church to Condemn all Protestants to Hell while in a fond-mistaken Compassion all Her Own Faction though never so prodigiously Wicked are Canonized for Saints Yea Why doth the Pope that Merciful High priest permit so many Souls to lye broyling in Purgatorian Flames when he ought with a more fervent Charity and at a more easie price to Redeem them thence How could these Jesuits sincerely Forgive their Enemies who fancy a strange Mock-Forgiveness of a Sinner by the God of Truth This they do to colour and palltate their own Hypocritical Reconciliation Their Blasphemy is this That God in Pardoning Sinners forgives the Offence but not the Punishment This must be satisfyed For In and By Themselves This makes way for fraudulent Reconciliations For the Malicious Person may alledge the Example of God Himself who while he pretends to Remit an Injury yet Reserves in his Heart Seeds of Wrath for a Crop of Future Revenge For he will say Would you have me more Merciful than God! Herein I have followed His Example We are too much inclined to Revenge we need not seâ—k Devices to prove that God Invites us there unto These Men pretend Meekness of Spirit but it is Malice Raked up in Embers till they find a fit Opportunity to be Revenged in Earnest and with a fuller Interest I cannot see thorow the Mists of their Impostures nor can I Reconcile their Hearts and Words together when almost in the same Breath they Revile and Condemn their Judges of Injustice Virtually they Supplicated for the Avenging of their Blood as wrongfully spilt while in those very Appeals which they made to God they asserted themselves to be as White and Innocent as Innocency it self I have Read of Apollonius Thyanaeus that when he Pray'd he had his Sword lying drawn before him as ready to take Vengeance on his Enemies though this were the only Expedient to cut off Mercy from himself Do not Popish Doctors maintain That it is Lawful to Kill any one who only Reviles us This they count not Revenge but a Regular Self-Love yea a very Just Care which the Injured Person Owes unto Himself At the Least he may Repair his Honor by the Swords-point of Recrimination Doubtless they who hold That we owe No Express Act of Love to God Himself all our Life-long and that the Intention and Desire only of Loving Him when we are Dying fulfils our Duty in this Respect could have but Little or No Charity for their Enemies This is really the Merciful Temper of Romanists to wish That by One Blow in the Destruction of His Majesty they had readily dispatcht Three Nations because they will not stoop to the Yoke of Anti-Christian Heresie and Tyranny How Diabolically did these Malefactors presume to Clear themselves by clapping One Lye gravely upon Another First They asserted their Innocency though Convicted and Righteously Condemned Then to testify their Innocence by their Meekness they pretended to Forgive their Enemies while by a Jesuitical Back Blow they endeavoured to stab their Reputation and Invalidate their Testimony by false Recriminations Now it is alike Absurd for a Malefactor convicted by Law to presume to Clear himself by Calumniating of another as for one really Innocent to bear a False Testimony against himself This is Vnnatural and against Regular Self-Love but the Other is Natural to a Corrupt Heart though it be Diabolical I will prove the Absurdity of the First-mentioned Artifice by instancing in a True Example of the Latter viz. An Innocent Woman bore false Witness against Her self that she was the proper Murtherer of a Child which was destroyed by its own Mother The Devil suggested to this feign'd Criminal that it was impossible she could have a broken Heart for Sin unless she were publickly Hanged and. so shamed into a Penitential Frame The Woman closed with this Self-cruel Design Indicted her self and Pleaded Guilty of the Murther But the Judge observing her modest and penitential Behaviour could not think that she was the Real Murtherer Therefore he urged her not wilfully to cast away her own Life by palliating and pâ—rsonating of anothers Crime She frequently affirmed that she Killed the Child Yet at last God was pleased to discover Satan's Stratagem So the Mother who was the proper-Criminal was sought for and Apprehended but the Other was set at Liberty with some Râ—buke and Pity of her Folly This strange Occurrence a Person worthy of Credit Related to my self upon his own Knowledge as he attended the Iudge in his Circuit Now Why is it not probable that the Devil might as designedly Animate these Jesuits to assert their own Innocency by darting Calumniations against their upright Witnesses to Confirm them in their Impenitency The Charity of these Jesuits towards their Enemies is the more to be suspected because their