the same Society Thirdly I shall Demonstrate how deep-dyed a Sin it is how great mischief it doth and what exemplary remarkable punishment God usually inflicts on such false Appellants First IT is very likely these Jesuits were Induced to make Equivocating Appeals when dying because so many Doctors of their Church assert these to be Venial nay Lawful in many Cases Soto who was a Principal Divine in the Council of Trent He acknowledges Perjury to be a greater Sin than Murther Notwithstanding he maintains the Violation of Promissory and Assertory Oaths to be only Venial not Mortal Sins how habitual and enstomary soever they be So that thereby the dint of the Magistrates just Sentence may be avoided or the Catholick Cause promoted Now if rash Appeals be in the right Construction of them a great Contempt of God False Ones must needs be an high degree of Blasphemy and Atheism These joyned with self-Imprecations are a Mocking of the Divine Majesty and the sending up of a Challenge to the God of Truth to damn the Appellant if he speaks what is False or any way Conceals the Truth Yet in the Jesuits account not only Officious Lyes but downright Perjuries are Lawful when they may serve the Interest of their Church maintain their false Doctrine or Conceal their Hellish Designes It is a great poice of Piety to make Lies for the promoting of their Religion So Ludavious Vives and Espencaeus Comment in Tim. lib. 1. cap. 11. pag. 156. Here it is to be Observ'd that the third Lateran Council decreed it Lawful to Depose and Kill any Prince Infected with Heresy that is to say being a Profest Protestant Hereupon these Jesuits thought They needed not the help of an Equivocation in asserting of their Innocency because by the Maxims of their Bloody and Hellish Divinity they affirm that it is better to suffer a King to be Slain than to reveal the Consession of such a design intended So Eudaemon in Apolog. Garneti ch 13. And Suarez Tractatu de Panitentia That the Lord gave to St. Peter and Consequently to the Pope Power to make that which is sin to be no Sin So Bellarm in Barklaium ch 31. That to Kill a King who is deposed is not to Kill a King but only a private Person So Tolet lib. 4. De Instructione Sacerdotali ch 58. That he is not a Murtherer who Kills an Excommunicated Person being possest with Zeal towards our Mother the Catholick Church So Pope Vrban in the 23d Cause and 5th Questions That the Sentences Decrees and Judgments of Judges who are Excommunicated as all Protestants are by them are Voyd and of no Authority So Tolet lib. primo De Instutione Sacerdotali cap. 13. That the Pope is Lord of all the Temporal Possessions of Kingdoms So Bellarm. in Barklaium cap. 21. Cardinal Du Perron in his Oration made to the States in Paris upon the 15th of January 1615. doth not think it fit that a King should be Killed but only Deposed which is all one as to Condemn him to Dye Because as they say from the time of his Deposing he is no more a Lawful King but an Vsurper Now every Vsurper of a Kingdom may Lawfully be Killed The said Cardinal Equivocates in his Advice For he speaks to this Effect Let us not Kill an Heretical King but Depose him That is Let us however Disarme him of his Authority that he may be Killed Let us take his Title from him which is a Means to preserve his Life Let us not Kill him while he is a King but let us Depose him And then who ever Kills him shall not Kill a King These Sayings are full of Contradiction and very Weakly yea Wickedly set together By such Popish Principles the very Foundations of the English Government are quite blown up as if they had been at the Mercy of Faux They hold That the Nation being Heretical because It will not stoop to the Yoke of Anti-Christian Tyranny hath no Government properly Its Own No King no Subjects no Parliament no Laws Liberties or Propriety in any thing They think they may deal with Us as Monsters of Mankind who have forseited all into their Hands and nothing shall hinder them from taking Possession any longer than till they can Master the Power of our Severeign Lord the King and his Laws They deny we can have any Legal Parliament because the Peers they alleadge are Infamous as Hereticks And Free-holders to Choose and be Chosen for Commonners have no Propriety None have Power they say by Consequence to Make Laws to Require or Grant Subsidies For no Order of Men among Hereticks have any thing of their Own to Give or Grant All is Forfeited from them for their Heresie They hold That our Laws are of no more Force than the Agreement of a Company of Robbers Because being Excommunicated we are Ipso Facto Divested of all Civil Right and Propriety in our Laws Estates Liberties and Municipal Priviledges So that these Jesuits pleaded Innocency because they Acted By and Vnder the Pope's Commission which is Presumptively-Constructive for Depraedation of our Goods and the Destruction of our Lives upon his Issuing out the Sentence of Excommunication though no Declaration should expresly injoyn the Execution of Rapine and Murther To be sure He who will Regulate himself by Their Maxims may Act any Wickedness in the World without any fear of Deadly Guilt Yet That Church pretends to a Monopoly of All the Holiness upon Earth They may persist till Death in all Perfidiousness to God and Man in Breach of Promises and Compacts in all Lying and Perjuries in Slandering or Detraction yea in all Unmercifulness and Cruelty to Protestants and yet Not fall short of Salvation if these Impostors may be trusted upon their Own Maxims These abominable Practices are but Specks or Motes not Against the Law of God the End of which is Charity but only Beside It. So Durandus Vega Rada Herrera Estius Becanus All these afore-mentioned Crimes are but Peccadilioes in Their account when Committed against Protestants For they owe These No Charity and therefore may justly Contrive their Destruction as Hereticks If an Atheist had a mind to render the Christian Name Odious and the Gospel a Licentious Doctrine tending to Debauch Mankind He could need no greater Argument but only This viz. To perswade Men that the Maxims of the Roman Divines are Conformed to the Rules of Christ and Christianity For Do not Popish Doctors Reverence Hypocrisie as an Holy Art A Lye though very Gross is only Venial in Their account unless it do Much Mischief not so when it is only against Truth it self Thus it may be as Innocent to tell Lies as Truth and as Criminal to speak Truth as Lies There will be no Difference in their Own Nature unless by accident they do Hurt Alike Thus Soto ibid. Lib 5. Quest 7. Artic. 4. Pag. 168. Yea Antonius Corduba determins that a Person Interrogated by a Judge whether such a Crime
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
AN ACCOUNT OF THE Behaviour of the Fourteen Late Popish Malefactors whil'st in NEWGATE And Their Discourses with the Ordinary VIZ. Mr. Staley Mr. Coleman Mr. Grove Mr. Ireland Mr. Pickering Mr. Green Mr. Hill Mr. Berry Mr. Whitebread Mr. Harcourt Mr. Fenwick Mr. Gawen Mr. Turner AND Mr. Langhorn ALSO A CONFVTATION of their Appeals Courage and Cheerfulness at Execution By SAMUEL SMITH Ordinary of Newgate and Minister of the GOSPEL He who is First in his Own Cause seemes Just But his Neighbor comes and Searches him Prov. 18.17 It is not probable that such who will Perjure themselves to Calunmiate Protestants should be Capable of giving any real Testimonies for Themselves London Printed for Tho. Parkhurst Dorman Newman Tho. Cockeril and Tho. Simmons 1679. The Unmasking of the Thirteen Popish Malefactors AND Their Discourses with the Ordinary c. IT being desired of me by a Worthy Divine that I should Publish what I said to Staley who was Condemn'd for Treasonable Speeches Likewise my Discourses with the other Twelve Jesuitical and Popish Conspirators before their being Drawn out to their Execution I could not though with some reluctancy at first but grant him his Request hoping that this Narrative may be of publick Use and Benefit to all into whose hands it shall come to acquaint them with the Truth of what I spake to them by way of Advice to Prepare them for their approaching Death And that I may give some Satisfaction to such as are apt to be staggered in the Belief of their Abominable Crimes because they frequently Avowed their Innocency Which Satisfaction I shall perform in order as they Suffered I. Mr. Staley THe first person Executed was Mr. Staley who spake Treasonable words against his Majesty which expresly threatned to take away his Sacred Life I did frequently after the Sentence of Death was past on the said Staley visit him in order to Prepare him for his Execution In my first Address to him I told him I came not to insult over him but out of Conscience to discharge the Duty of my Office He received me with great willingness and said He had great Terror upon his Conscience for the Guilt of his many and great Sins yet utterly deny'd the speaking of those words for which he stood Condemned I told him that the readiest way to be free from those Terrors was to make an Ingenuous Penitent acknowledgement and that for Tongue-sins or secret Heart-sins formerly Indulged God might justly desert him to ensnare himself by such Treasonable Words He said He never had any thought of mischief against the Kings Person I replied that words were the natural product of thoughts and a frequent Prologue to the most abominable Actions He persisted in denying that he spoke any words tending to that sense but when I told him that his friend who was Drinking with him could or had Deposed upon Oath that he spake those very words He replied Nay if my Friend will sware so much it is probable I might in the heat and extravagancy of Passion utter them though they never were intended in my Heart He had great Remorse for the sinfulness of his Life and expressed some particulars which I shall not mention I told him if he expected any settlement of true serenity in Conscience that he must not seek it in adhering to the Romish Religion For false and loose Principles can never produce solid and lasting Comfort then I undertook to convince him from the Sacred Scriptures of the many Absurdities which are maintain'd by Popish Doctors that it is a presumption not to doubt of Salvation and yet that a person may Merit it which is utterly inconsistent for if any man doubt of his future happy estate how can he Merit it and if he may Merit it what need he doubt when by works of a self-Righteousness he can create a Title or may lay Claim to Eternal Life I judged it necessary in order to the removing his Terror in Conscience to inform him aright that although it were impossible to fulfil the Covenant of Works or to attain any Perfection in this Life yet there is a Foundation of hope for degenerate Man-kind as restored to the Image of God by Christ Whose satisfaction to divine Justice is of infinit value and vertue so that Christ being the only Mediator by Redemption it is Blasphemy and the highest Sacriledg to constitute or invocate any Saint or Angel as a Mediator of intercession For this is equivalent to Christ's Infinit Satisfaction as grounding the Right of his intercession especially considering that Mediatory Intercession is only the representing and pleading the Merit of infinit Satisfaction Upon this he exprest an Assent to what I had affirmed by bowing his head and applying his hand to his Breast he said Sir Go on Then I unfolded the nature and necessity of Faith and Repentance in order to the Justification of a sinner how they were the conditions of the Covenant of Grace So required of us for pardon of sin and eternal Life As that they could not be extracted out of the power of free-will in man but were the sole purchase of Christs free-Love who by his Spirit infusing the principle of Faith and Repentance doth Regenerate and actually reconcile a sinner to God and so Redeem or set him free from the slavery of his corrupt will which he cannot shake off by any Improvement of Natural Reason or moral Resolutions I stated also the difference twixt true saving faith and repentance from that which is false And that the Office of Faith is not only to rely on the mercy of God and merits of Christ but also to give back the the whole man in an hearty resignation to the conduct and government of Christs Word and Spirit in all things That Saving-Repentance was not an Act of meer Attrition which only effects a legal consternation in Conscience from the apprehension of guilt and divine Wrath But true Repentance is Evangelical wrought deep in the heart by sound Contrition for sin as sin chiefly for offending the Holy God so that it is the result of an holy filial Ingenuity and is incouraged by the hope of Mercy attended with an hatred of all sin and a studious resolution to walk in all holy Obedience Here I told him what an unsound dangerous Opinion that was of the Romish Doctors who maintain Attrition only with the receit of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Absolution at the very point of Death to be a sufficient Pasport for a comfortable Exit out of the World or Ticket to claime Salvation After this and some other Discourse he thankt me for my Advice and said He was much Benefited Supported and Comforted thereby And desired me as frequently as I could to renew my visits of him so I promised I would and then I prayd with him and he was very intentive and much affected with what I Pray'd When I came again he complained that his heart was not so throughly
Contrite for sin as he desired that he was much perplexed that he had no more Assurance of a future happy state I stated the nature of true saving-Faith that it was an adherence to the free grace of God in Christ for pardon and Eternal Life joyned with an obedient self-resignation and where this was wrought the soul-state was safe tho assurance of Gods Love might be wanting For this was not an essential Priviledge absolutely necessary to Salvation but only a peculiar favor given to strict walking Christians and that only at some set-times in great extremity and need of such hidden Manna That it was rather of the nature of a Rational short sensation than the Ground of setled Comfort which is the result of an Heroical strain of Faith to trust in God when he seems to reject and slay us and that the Lord doth more esteem this resolute dependency in the midst of seeming-contradictions than the most multiplyed Acts of external Worship Upon this he was somwhat more serene in his mind And I told him that in praying and seeking the Lord more fervently comfort would gradually be obtained The next day he distrusted his Heart as to the Truth of his Faith and Repentance which I told him was a good signe that he was in a hopeful way of making his Peace with God That he must wait in believing that he should obtain Comfort promised to the Penitent He desired me to pray with him and for him and to prepare to speak somwhat of the sufferings of Christ when I should next Visit him Accordingly from that Text I am Crucified with Christ I treated of many parts of his Bitter Passion and of his Soul-agonies inferring matter not only of Comfort from thence but also of Instruction for our Imitation and Conformity I left him afterward in a frame more willing and fit to Die and comming to him on the very Morning he was to Suffer he told me that Now he had more Comfort and an hope of his future Happy-state yet renouncing all opinion of worth in his own Tears Prayers and Humiliation He was solicitous if the Executioner should deal with him according to the strictness of the Sentence lest feeling any pain if Cut down ript up Alive he should Curse or use any Unchristian word Which rather than to do said he I would Bite my Tongue in pieces for I dread Sin now more than Death I told him that I hoped the manner of his Execution would be mitigated however that God would prevent Sin in him at the time of his Suffering because he was so anxious as to distrust himself and cautious to avoid all unbecomming Words or Gestures After some farther Discourse I pray'd with him and he was much pleased with my attendance about him yet he spared me from going with him to the place of Execution for some Reasons I cannot say how he declared himself there because I was not present But upon my whole Observation of his Behaviour in Prison I do charitably judge he was a real Penitentiary It was doubtful to some whether he dyed in the Roman or Protestant Religion because as I think he did not at last declare himself either way Yet this I am sure of that if he had solid and true Comfort in Dying this could not proceed from such a sandy foundation as his old Popish Principles but only from Self-abhorrency in the sense of his great Sinfulness and the defectiveness of his best Repentance and Obedience that he might build his hope on Christ and his Righteousness only as the Rock of Eternal Life II. Mr. Coleman I Come now to Coleman of whom I can say very little because he had an Arrogant opinion of his own Abilities and out of an Hope to be Canonized for a Saint despised and rejected any Assistance from me either by Discourse or Prayer I offered him both on the next day after the Sentence of Death pass'd upon him but he returned me this Answer by the Messenger I sent to him to know if he would admit me That he had but a very short time to Prepare himself for Death and would not be hindred in the Loss of any part of it thanking me for my offer of Visiting him but desired me to forbear I put a fair construction on the Message brought me at the first thinking he might be very busie at that time about some extraordinary emergency or indisposed to be Visited and therefore told the Messenger that I would attend on him on some other fit time The Officer told me that Mr. Coleman would never admit me and he inferred it from his manner of speaking that Message which he sent by him he observed his Countenance and Gestures in the delivery of it So I totally desisted Yet when he was brought down from his Chamber in the Press-yard-side to go to the Sledge I stayed him a little saying Mr. Coleman You did not think well of admitting me yet know I have earnestly Prayed that God would give you true and great Repentance for your great Crimes stand not out in your denying of them Some other words I used to which he replyed in short and quick tone Thank you thank you As I moved nearer with him towards the gate he said Sir I must beg your Pardon It being a strange word to drop from Him I askt him for what He replyed That I did not Admit you but truly it was not in any contempt of your Office but when you sent to me I was under some perplexed Thoughts and for other Consideratious thought it not Convenient Then I told him that I would pray for him as a dying man which he took well and so we parted III. Mr. Grove MR. Grove was Executed on Friday the 24th of January 1678. I spake to him in the Chappel these words before he was carried down the Stone-stairs unto the Sledg Sir I earnestly desire you Now that you are going to appear at the Tribunal of Christ that you would clear your Conscience and speak the Truth that you may die in Peace And I do Exhort you that you would beg of God great Repentance for your great sins He repli'd That he did understand his Duty Yet I persisted to exhort him not to trust to the merits of any Saint or Angel but wholly to go out of himself not grounding any Confidence of his Salvation on any prayers tears nor the deepest Humiliation of his own heart That even Cardinal Bellarmine said when dying It was safest to rely wholly and solely on the Alsufficient Merits of the blessed Jesus Mr. Grove replied That Thomas a Kempis had said the same To which I replied Do you consider of it and Act accordingly For you must not hazard your Souls eternal welfare by any presumptious mixing of your own good works with Christs Infinit Satisfaction and Merits For the Apostle saint Paid saith If Justification be of Works it is altogether of Works but if of free Grace it is
altogether of Grace So I took leave of Mr. Grove desiring him to consider well of what I had said Praying that the Lord would in much mercy look upon his soul to pardon him and fit him for his approaching Death Mr. Grove seemed to take in good part what was said to him After which he was conducted down to the Sledg IV. Mr. Ireland MR. Ireland was Executed on the same day with Mr. Grove to whom I had not time to say more than these few words viz. Sir I do earnestly beg of God to grant you mercy and pardon for your great sins Trust alone in the Righteousness and Merits of Christ Jesus Compose your self in your passage and six your Heart upon the Lord till you Expire Which words Mr. Ireland seemed to take kindly from me And so we took leave of each other Here I cannot forbear to give some account of Mr. Irelands perverting of a Woman who was Burnt in Smithfield for Clipping his Majesties Coine This seduction of the said Woman from the Protestant Religion was before Mr. Ireland was Apprehended for the late Conspiracy An Officer in Newgate did assure me when Ireland was committed for the Plot that he was able to take his Oath that Ireland perverted that woman some time before for he well knew him upon a second Reveiw but knew him not to be a Papist or Priest at first for he was admitted to her as a Friend Irelands stratagem in turning the Woman to become a Papist was thus discovered Early on the morning on which she was Executed I askt her what hope she had of a future happy state she hufft at me telling me I need not trouble my self about her for she was sure of her Salvation I wondered at her Confidence but suspected not the Grounds of her Malepartness After I had Exhorted and Prayed with her at the place of Execution and was taking my farewell of her she entreated me to give her some time to pray for her self which she did In her Prayer she mixed these words Lord grant that the offering up of my Body to the Flames may expiate the guilt of all my Sins and save my soul I told her when she had finisht her prayer that the foresaid expression smelt rank of Popery and therefore askt her what Religion she came to die in She replied she was a Roman Catholick I askt her How long she had been such She said that a good Minister had told her that if she died in the Protestant Religion she was sure to be Damned And that he proved it by this Scripture Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I Build my Church So that he assur'd her that the Religion of the Romish Bishop who was St. Peter's Successor was the Rock there meant and so there was no Salvation to those who are Separatists from that Church and the Profession of it I told her That the Priest had deceived her For the Rock was not St. Peter's Person nor his Verbal Confession of Christ for if so Where was the Rock and What became of the Church when St. Peter so shamefully denyed his Lord thrice But the only True Rock on which the Church is Built is the very Person Offices and Merits of Christ the Son of God who was the Object of St. Peter's Confession She was attentive to what I said and seemed somewhat sensible of her being deceived Saying She was willing to be Saved betwixt us Both. But I told her She must not halt 'twixt two Religions so opposite to each other and that it was very dangerous to dye in the Roman Perswasion She told me She could not Renounce it in as much as the said Priest had obliged her by the Blessed Sacrament that she should never recant or depart from the Popish Religion as the best and safest to Dye in I convinced her with Arguments to the contrary yea she her self was not Credulous of their absurd Affirming of the Transubstantiation of the Sacramental Bread and Wine into the very Body and Blood of Christ For she said She neither tasted any Flesh or Blood She also declared That she had no Good Works of her own which she durst trust to as Meritorious of Heaven but relyed wholly and solely on Christ's Righteousness Whereupon I told her She denyed the grand Points of Popery and therefore was a Papist to get a Pretended Absolution or upon some Designe But fearing to Dye in the Romish Opinions she ask't me If she should not be Perjured if she renounced them having taken the Sacrament to persist in them I told her That she must not cleave to an unlawful wicked Oath but beg Repentance of God that she so easily suffered her self to be seduced I told her That the Lord saith by the Prophet That an Oath must be taken in Truth Righteousness and Judgment Now she did not neither could swear in Truth because it was to a False Religion nor in Judgment in Wisdom and Discretion because she swore rashly and inconsiderately Therefore this Oath was Void in its own Nature and it could not bind her the Matter of it being Unlawful and Wicked At last being Convinced of her Error she was willing to Retract it But I told her That what she did she must do willingly and from a sincere penitent Frame of Heart She said She could and would freely out of Conviction of her Duty Renounce all Romish Opinions and Practices which she did openly with an Audible Voice affirming That she dyed a True Protestant So I took her by the Hand and Prayed again with her that God would pardon her former Levity and give her Perseverance in the True Faith which she had so solemnly re-imbraced This was the first Discovery of Proselyting condemned Malefactors at Newgate To prevent which Seduction Captain Richardson since this came to his Knowledge is very watchful and gives all his Officers a Charge to suffer none to come to Condemned Persons but only such whom they know to be Protestant-Divines and that alwayes an Officer be present to hear what passes in Discourse V. Mr. Pickering I Had discourse with him before his Execution but he would not permit me to pray with him only desired my Prayers at Home for him which I promised him and he Thanked me I was present at his Execution because he was Hanged after three other ordinary Malefactors When he came out of the Sledge into the Cart He had a great Flushing in his Face I apprehended by his Words and Gesture that he had Elevated his Artificial Courage or rather sunck himself into a Sullenness by taking Cordyal-Spirits For he was unconcerned at the Approach of his own Death and no way affected with his monstrous Crime With an impudent Face a lying Tongue and anticke Carriage he Denyed what he was Condemned for and Asserted his Innocency He was reproved by the Sheriffs for such impudent Lying having had a fair Tryal and found Guilty of the whole Indictment charged upon him Yet so
Believed in and were sufficient to put us in mind of our Duty and to quicken holy Affections in us I said moreover That it was a more Refined peice of Idolatry to Conceive otherwise of God in our Thoughts than as He had Revealed himself by the Scriptures of Truth in his Infinite Excellencies And therefore to relieve us in preventing any gross Mistakes in our absurd Imaginations of God we were bound to fix our Thoughts and Conceptions in Prayer upon God in Christ as Incarnate who is the only express Image of the Deity and not any Corporeal dishonorable Mis-representations of God by the help of Pictures or Crucifixes I found also that his Popish Education had strongly prevailed on him to adhere to the false and absurd Dotages of the Romish Church For when I told him That it was not safe to Dye in that Religion He replyed That he was resolved to hold and persevere in it because he had been Bred up in it I said That could not be a solid Argument for then he might be as Peremptory to dye in a sinful State because the Principles of a Corrupt Nature were rivited in his Heart and were grown familiar to him by Custom He was sometimes Pettish yet when the Fit was off he harkned to my Advice and joyned with me in Prayer I desired him not to mock God either by any deliberate Wandring in his Thoughts while I should pray nor by saying any Ave-Maryes or Popish Petitions secretly to himself He promised me he would not He was troubled for his sinful Course of Life Yet I told him That was not Repentance deep enough David's Heart was the Centre of his Remorse and that not only his heinous-Crimes of Murder and Adultery were his Burthen but the Sense of his vile Corrupt Nature which was the poysonous Spring of all scandalous Impieties And that as we are in our Thanksgivings for Divine Mercies to Ascend to the Free-Grace of God in giving Christ to Redeem us as the Spring-head of all Spiritual Benefits So in a penitent Confession of Sin we must likewise Ascend to the Guilt and Defylement of Original Sin whence all Actual Abominations flow That this is a great Relief to us when we cannot make a distinct Particular Enumeration of our Sins And that no Hypocrite can be truly humbled for the sin of his Corrupt Nature nor for Gospel-Unbelief which is the direct damning Sin as being against the very Remedy of our Recovery from a State of Sin and Misery Every day after sutable Advices given to him I Pray'd with him He had not been Grammarred in that strange Distinction which most of those Popish Malefactors had learn't That a Papist may lawfully desire a Protestants Prayers at Home yet that his Joyning in Prayer is an owning of their reputed Heresie whose Breath is Infectious when poured out in the Solemnity of praying mutually in each others Presence Hill had learnt this Evasion though Staley and Berry as well as Green had not I believe the true reason why all the other Criminals denyed me Liberty to Pray with them was Lest I should touch too distinctly upon the right Sore which they palliated yea denyed and so dreaded that Trouble and Perplexity which might thereby be raised in their Consciences I can give no further Account of Green but only this That upon the Day before his Execution he told me That he had received much Information by my Discourses and Benefit by my Prayers in order to fit him for his Death He thank't me for my Visits but discharged me from farther Attendance upon him so I went not with him to the Place of Execution to observe what End he made VII Mr. Hill THis Hill was one of the Murtherers of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey He was Born and Bred a Papist He was not a Shoomaker as was reported but the Son of a Shoo-maker He said That he had been Servant to a Recusant Lady and managed some of her Concernments and went over Sea sometime to give her an Account thereof That he had lately hired an house for himself to Dwell in But was not present at the aforesaid Murther Yea that he knew nothing of it more or less neither before nor after This he often averred with so many self-Imprecations that I was afraid to urge him for the present to any farther Acknowledgment lest I might thereby give him an Occasion to aggravate his Sin and seal up his Damnation with greater Obduration and Impenitency I unfolded to him the wide Difference betwixt the Protestant and Popish Religion and that the Latter could not be a Religion Instituted by Christ because It was founded in Blood and propagated by Artifices of Cruelty Injustice Violence Equivocations and Perjuries Yea even by false Appeals to the Omniscient Judge of Innocency when Crimes were Juridically proved against the Appellants I said That this was the deepest Policy of Papists fetcht from the Conclave of Hell For such daring and Atheistical Appellants are not only possest with the Spirit of Lying and strongly deluded while Living to believe a false absurd Religion but also do as strangely out of an obstinate impenitent Heart palliate Bloody Crimes with a flat Denyal of them after Conviction thereof by due Process of Law Surely such a Violation of the Sentiments of Conscience must needs proceed from an Atheistical Denyal of God's Omniscient Inspection or a Prophane Doubting of the Future Judgment As if false Appellants had not Souls capable of Damnation or studied how to seal it up more firmly to themselves But such studied Evasion of their Crimes render them blacker and more horrid while they would make Credulous Persons suspect their Accusers to be Perjured which is a Sin of that deep Dye and Malignity that it rarely admits of any Repentance in the Sinner or Pardon from God Yet so hardned are some that they will stand out in the Denyal of their Crimes though proved against them to the last Breath They are not afraid to look the Almighty Judge in the Face with a Lye in their Mouth But then such frontless stupid Sinners presume they shall have this Relief as a Shield to keep off their Damnation that their Self-Imprecation was for the promoting of a greater Good viz. That the Romish Religion may not lye under the Reproach of a Blood-thirsty Disposition in its Professing Party lest being hindred in its Propagation if this were credited it should gradually become so Abominable as to be rooted out Papists think that they may lawfully safely yea commendably Perjure themselves to promote their false Religion especially if in a Transport of Zeal they Imprecate themselves that they may sit higher in the Good Opinion and Implicit Faith of their blinded Proselytes Such was Hill Who was not more subtilly Moulded unto than deeply Confirmed in all Popish Principles Hence it was that he would not admit of any Information which might beget the least suspicion of their Falsity Yet this was very Commendable in him
were Committed by him may stifly Deny It although he Did It with this Reserva I am not bound to Discover It though he be upon his Oath to declare the whole Truth He may Equivocate in usual Form sayes Lopez cap. 51. pag. 264. Angel Sum. V. Confess N. 1. Yea Popish Doctors have Devices to Legitimate the worst Wickedness Bellarmine sayes If the Pope should forbid Vertue and command Vice the Church must practice Vioe or sin against Her Conscience If the Pope can dispense with Vows which are Solemn Promises made to God why not with the Guilt of False Appeals So Canus pars Sexta Relict de Paenitentia Some affirm That the Pope can Legitimate Incest If so by the same Reason he may pardon False Appeals For What are such but a Spiritual Incest committed 'twixt the Heart and Tongue which ought to agree in speaking Truth for this is the Souls-Chastity They count it better than Innocent to abuse the VVorld with Lies even in point of Religion Surely if the Injury be not Great there wherein can it be Small Yea they allow of Lies in their very Devotion Peter Abbot of Cluny declares That in one Church-Hymne in the Praise of St. Bennet he found Twenty-four Lyes at least They affirm That they may safely Lye in Confessing that they abhor the Sin confest Yet themselves look upon the Confessors Chair as the Divine Tribunal So Angelus Sylvester Navar. Cap. 21. Num. 37. Covarruvius Soto Bannes Now if they may lawfully Lye in doing Penance when or wherein will they speak Truth If such a Sacred Part of their Religion be thus Prophaned we may well conclude that wheresoever they find any Liberty for speech they must have License to Lye and that ex Officio Nor can we rationally expect from Jesuits that they will Swear the Truth at Death You will say Then Conscience is more awakned made quick and serious in the Directive and Corrective Part of its Office So that the most profligate sort of Sinners when Dying will not dare but to declare the Truth I reply Yet Jesuits are Errant Designers upon Mens Consciences to seat themselves as Over-awing Demi-Gods therein while they dictate Cheats and Dotages unto them Yea How do these Seducers Instruct their Novices to believe such strange Absurdities which Themselves deny at Death Then they detest all Lying Doctrines and Miracles as also all Dispensations for Equivocating This they pretend to do when they have a Prospect of Damnation at Death and to make the World believe that Protestants Charge them with False Imputations Yet I cannot suppose them to be Serious in Renouncing their False Tenets at Death For if they did heartily do it How could they averr that they Dyed in the Profession of the Romish Church What Contradictions are these Asseverations If they spake the Truth when Dying then were they Apostats from that Religion which themselves style Catholick and Apostolick These Jesuitical Impostors dread not Damnation it self while they turn themselves into all Forms and for their Interest affirm and deny the same thing in a Breath whereas Truth is the same Eternally and Alters not Yet these Men live by a false Religion for Earthly Interest and Grandeur But after all their Dissimulation and Intrigues seem to Dye in the right Religion Instituted by Christ Hence it was That they Disclaimed the Merit of Good Works and at their Execution did not so much as Touch upon any Thing grosly different from the Purity of the Protestant Religion Hence it was that they Pray'd not Audibly to any Saint or Angel For had they Grosly Contradicted the Scriptures at their Death their Appeals they thought would not so Cleverly have been Believed by Credulous Vulgar Minds It may be in their Appeal to God they Equivocated and meant that they Appealed to the Pope whom they style Their Lord God as seated High in the Veneration of their Hearts For they give little less than Divine Honour to Him in presuming that his Vnholyness-Absolution is an Immediate Ticket to Challenge Heaven by and to wash them clean from the Guilt and Reproach of the Greatest Villanies Doubtless these Appealers were so well known to and Approved by his Holiness as it was a Wonder that he did not work a Miracle for their Impunity However It is likely that he so far honored these Eldest Sons in the Mystery of Iniquity that they escapt Purgatory by some rare Contrivance and were Dignifyed Saints immediately after Death for being Knights of the Post Doubtless they were hardned in this presumption that the Pope hath power to Dispence with the Sentiments of right reason yea can make void the positive Duties of the Divine Law Hence it is the common Doctrine of their Church That it is not Lawful to keep Faith with Hereticks in promissory Oaths or Assertory Justifications of their Integrity Romish Doctors affirm that if the Pope constitute and declare Virtue to be Vice and the most abominable Crimes to be Innocency they are bound under the Penalty of Damnation to believe him Now this is to Arrogate a Power above God himself who cannot alter the Eternal Nature of Moral Principles which are such Fixed Truths that what is Right and Just or Wicked and Unjust in the Nature of the thing it self was such before any declaration of the Will of God concerning it was superadded Therefore to change the Measures of Good and Evil which are Originally founded in the Essential Intrinsecal Goodness and Badness of Principles is to give a Dispensation to Sin It is to Exautorate or Invalidate the Eternal Principles of Virtue although these be Establisht on the very Dictates of right Reason This is to Supersede and make void the Authority of God himself who hath Implanted those common sentiments of what is right or wrong in the Hearts of all Men. They who draw all Appeals to the Pope for the Decision of what we are to believe or practise though contrary to Divine Revelation which is to make God himself a Lyar how can such Miscreans be credited in the most solemn Asseverations of their Integrity Had these Imposters turned their Eye with an Holy Awful Reverence upon God the Prototype of Truth had they had any regard of his Omniscient Inquisition after false Appellants they durst not have Challenged his Justice to detect and punish their Impudent Assertions Surely they dreamt of being weighed in Saint Michaels Ballance which is a Popish invention to deceive dying persons as if their Meritorious Treasons for promoting the Catholick Religion should Out-weigh their Lying Appeals that so they might not bind a Curse upon their Souls but directly go to Heaven Thus they did not weigh themselves in the Even Ballance of Gods Sacred Law but flattered themselves in the Contrivances of a deceitful Heart because any one grain of Sin makes all real Good works of no value at all in Gods account when he makes a Righteous disquisition of the Nature of our Actions All the Wayes
of a Man are Clean in his own Eyes but the Lord weighs the Spirit Prov. 16.2 The Heart of a Sinner often mistakes the Nature of its own Actions and yet a False Appeal concerning them doth not Appale him I desire all False Appellants to consider well how they Seal up their Damnation to themselves I remember how the Wife suspected of Adultery was Tryed by God's own Order and Appointment in the 5th Chapter of Numb The Oblation to Try and Discover was called An Offering of Memorial to bring Iniquity to Remembrance vers the 15th The Lord's Jealousie will wax Hot and his Fury Flame forth against Hypocritical Appellants God Himself will become a more Zealous Witness and as Severe a Judge to Entayl their Self-Imprecations upon themselves and their Posterity The Sacrament of Christ's bitter Death and Passion shall not Purge away their Guilt nor Comfort them in asserting of their Innocency It shall rather Revive and ingraven their Iniquity in the horrid Reflexions of their Conscience Their Appeal shall not prove their Compurgation but shall more suddenly and strangely Reveal their Iniquity to their shame while Upright Souls are made more Fruitful in a Conception of Holy Thoughts and are impregnated with all the Graces of Christ's Spirit An Hypocrites Belly shall swell with Pain while he prepares Deceit and when he falls in Travel with Iniquity Satan that Lying Spirit shall take the Deeper Possession of him His Sin shall be brought more sadly to Remembrance Haunt him in the Guilt and Hunt him to swift Destruction Thus a False Appeal like the Jealousie-Water shall hasten a Consumption upon the Credit of every Impostor The Curse shall enter as Oyl into his Bones yea soak deeper into his very Soul Thus Perjury binds firm every Self-Imprecation upon the Hypocritical Appellant Such Prostituting of Sinners Consciences to Perjury in making false Apologies to be Credited is as Great a Sin as the Heathens Sacrificing of their Children to the Idol-Moloch For such False Appeals may ruin thousands of Deluded Souls causing them to Justifie the Wicked and Condemn Righteous Judges Both which are equally an Abomination to the Lord. It is very observable in the 5th of Numbers the 15th That in the Oblation made for Tryal of the suspected Wise there was No Oyl nor Frankinsense mixt with the Offering of Jealousie This signified that while any Sinner gives the Lord cause to suspect the Chastity and Loyalty of his Soul in any False Appeal such an Impudent Pretender unto Truth which ought to tye the Heart and Tongue in the sacred Bond of Chastity and Agreement shall not go Unpunisht He cannot have any Hope of being Anoynted with the Spirit of Holiness and of Peace His best Services shall not be Received with any Merâ—iful Interpertation nor can the Prayers of such yield any Delightful Savor to the Lord because they cannot be mixt with the Fragrant Incense of Christ's Meritorious Intercession This Advocate shall rather turn the Edge of his just Indignation against them Yea by degrees such Sinners will Commence from Lying Equivocations to down-right Perjurious Atheism and the scoffing at all Religious Fear of Damnation to all Eternity Apologies artificially contrived neither cover the Scandal of the Sin nor Cure or Recover the Sinner They are rather Libelling Accusations against God's Justice who hath found out the Hypocrite in his Atheistial Presumption of Impunity Such Self-Defences rather aggravate Guilt than wash away the Stain of Sin or Reproach Ingenuously to Confess the Crime laid to our Charge and proved upon us is the only Honorable Apology and not any Sordid Yielding up of the Cause Judah's Name which signifyed to give Praise to God by Confession of Sin was made good by his Practice in the Case of Thamar A True Penitentiaries Heart is Grieved for his Offence and not Imbittered against any Adversary for Charging It Home upon him Thus by Ingenuity we prevent the Judgment and severer Condemnation of the Lord. He will never Reject such who will put themselves to Shame but will then be most pacifyed when they least spare Themselves At Christ's Tribunal to Justify ones Self is to Lose the Cause and more incense the Judge of all the World There impudent Appealers shall neither be able to Conceal nor to Deny their Crimes Then they shall not Defend themselves much less Glory in their Shame A free Penitential Confession Reconciles God to the Sinner and the Sinner to Himself in the Recovery of his Lost Peace and Reputation Yea it is attended with the Wonderful Essicacy of Faith not only in applying the Merit and Vertue of Christ's Blood shed for the Expiation of Guilt but it also obtains Singular Remarks of Divine Favor I shall instance This in a Minister who once joyned with others of his Brethren in Ejecting Satan out of one Possest Satan being loath to be disturbed or ejected designed to discourage this Minister by suggesting to the possest Person that he was formerly of a Scandalous Conversation whereof the Daemoniack Accused him before All who were present The Faithful Servant of the most High God acknowledged all those Crimes laid to his Charge and took the Shame of them to Himself thereby giving Glory to the Lord. Hereupon he grew more Confident that the Lord would signally Honor him as an Instrument to Eject Satan out of the Possest Person Hereupon he set himself more humbly and fervently to Pray and in the very time of the Duty the Devil flew out of his Long loved Tennement so that the Daemoniack was not longer Tormented by him If these Jesuits had been as Ingenuous Confitenâ—s as they had been Busie Confessors in racking other Mens Consciences This it self had been a Miracle But they Dye in the same Impostures which they promote while they Live Their Religion as they have moulded it to Secular Interest is nothing but a Cheat Varnisht over with Specious Shews of Piety It is only a Fardle of Lyes subtilly packt together and the Dead-Sea of all abominable Impieties Therefore no wonder if such who avowedly profess the Trade of Seduction are as Dextrous at the Art of Equivocation Hence it is that they Obstinately and Impudently sport Themselves in maintaining that Mystery of Iniquity against all Right Reason and Self-Conviction While they draw all Appeals to the Pope as Infallible they presume that He can supersede the Righteous Judgment of the supreme Majesty of Heaven in delivering of them from the Curse of their False Appeals All the fore-going Considerations being well weighed the Self-Imprecating Appeals of these Jesuits If they were not as Innocent as the Child Vnborn needed not stagger any Person concerning the Justice of their Condemnation and Execution For that Form of their Canting Plea which very probably was prescribed to them or fore-agreed to among themselves without any Alteration may be thus Unriddled viz. I can no more Protest my Innocency than the Child Vnborn can I cannot Really do it though in Artificial Words I
Religion retain a firm Belief that they shall be Canonized for Saints Yes For Graffius Bellarmine and other Divines have found out a compendious way to Salvation For by Forming the Signe of the Cross with Three Fingers to signify the Mystery of the Sacred Trinity by drawing the Cross from the Fore-head to the Navel to signify that the Son of God Descended from Heaven into the Bowels of his Mother and then drawing the Cross line from the Left-Arm to the Right Hereby the Cause of the Incarnation is Exprest viz. Christ came from Heaven to Earth that we who had deserved to be placed amongst the Goats at his Left-hand might be removed to his Right-hand amongst the Sheep Behold What Mysteries of Faith Mother Church hath taught Her Eldest Sons yea all her Novices that by these Exact Moods of Forming a Cross without the Knowledge of any thing besides even this alone may be sufficient for Salvation This is All the Faith necessary for a Roman Catholick and when by such Admirable Conduct of the Cross he hath but Once believed he need never more trouble Himself with Faith while he Lives So Bonacina Tom. 2. in 1. Precept Disp 3. Q. 2. N. 16. Graff Decis Part 1. Lib. 1. Cap. 24. N. 3. You have seen the Admirable Efficacy of a Jesuits Faith in Signing himself when Dying with the Sign of the Cross Now view the Effects of their Hopes Jesuitical Hopes of Divine Mercy and Salvation at Death Detected to be False and Vain ALL Rational Hope of Salvation is Divine in its Original and Foundation this will not make them Ashamed who are Possest of it Rom. 5.5 It is not like the Spiders-Web because it hath God in Christ for its Foundation 1 Col. 27. Christ in You the Hope of Glory But now Popish Doctrine is opposite to Christ in all his Offices as making him to be an Insufficient Saviour Thus they joyn Pennances as necessary Additions to Christ's Infinite Satisfaction for Sin as if he had Merited to take away only the Fault or Offence and had left the Sinner himself to compleat the Redemption of his Soul by satisfying for the punishment of Sin in Self-invented and Self-imposed Severities upon the Body How doth this derogate from Christ's Infinite Redeeming Love in making a full and perfect Satisfaction for All Sin and the Appurtenances thereof in respect of Persons truly Justifyed Besides Romish Doctrine over-throws another part of the Foundation of true Christian Hope which is the Alone All-sufficiency of Christ's Meritorious Intercession Thus they joyn with Him Suffragans and Coadjutors in this part of his Priestly Office as if Himself were not a pityful and faithful High-priest as God-man solely and sufficiently prevalent with his Father to Obtain whatever we can Ask according to His Will But Papists pray amiss to Saints and Angels who know not their particular Distresses nor the Thoughts of the Heart which Ascend to God directly in Prayer He only can Hear the Suppllcations of Millions at the same time and Supply the Wants of All Creatures Therefore they are Guilty of Idolatry and Blasphemy in their Orlsons And Can such Sacriledgious Derogation from God's Honor ground any real Hope of being Heard or Supplyed with the Necessary Means of Salvation So far are such Prayers from giving the least Hope of Eternal Life 2. True Hope hath the Promises of Free-Grace in Christ for its Support which Promises are only Yea and Amen in Him to Christians that are sincere in their Obedience But Popish Doctors assert that the Highest or most Necessary Duties of Christianity are only Counsels which they are at Liberty to imbrace or not so as to make them practical Thus they dispense with the Necessary Duties of Religion in which the very Essence Life and Power of it consists As they fancy Divine Precepts to be but Arbitrary Duties so to such Christ's Promises of Eternal Life become as meer Cyphers because they do dispense with his Laws when and as themselves please to be partial in their Obedience That only is a Lively Hope of Salvation which makes the Possessors of it to purisy their Hearts as God is Pure which is fruitful in Obedience and active in the wayes of Holiness which Girds up the Loyns of the Mind by avoyding all Impediments and making use of all Expedients in the Christian-Race thus the Hope of seeing and enjoying God doth strenuously work up the Heart to a Conformity in Holyness Such an Hope only can be a firm Anchor in all Extremities But Popish Hopes as the Spiders-Web are soon swept away like Vanity Yea there is no Hope of Remedy to Recover such to a Salvable State who study to be Ignorant and fear to know the Latitude of God's Will lest they should be Obliged to follow it How dangerous is an Implicite Faith viz. to believe Only as the Church dictates though she teach Points contrary to the Purity of the Christian-Institution How can that Faith which is grounded on the Authority of the Pope and consequently which is meerly Human as moulded to his Determination produce any solid Hope of Eternal Life Hope is the Daughter or Twin-Sister of Faith Therefore As the Nature of This is so Hope is True or False Such blind Bigots who hold their Souls in this Miserable Captivity cannot rationally think them Redeemed by the Blood of Christ while they reject that Saving Light which is offered to them What then shall we think of Jesuits who sin against Conviction that they may uphold a Carnal Interest If any persist in This they Sin damnably and cannot have any real Hope of Salvation The like we may affirm of such who to Preserve their Trading and Worldly Accommodations in Popish Countries quench the Sparks of True Convictions in themselves These Persons are Ashamed or Afraid to Confess Christ's intire Truth in the Purity thereof against all Romish forged Innovations although These betray Men's Souls insensibly to Perdition Such persons who for State-Interest viz. to gain Favour or Wealth suppress the Sentiments of Christ's pure Religion and receive the Mark of the Beast though not in the Fore-head openly yet closely in their Hand This Anathema from God may justly take hold of them that they shall be blinded and hardned to believe Romish Lies according to that Just Sentence 2 Thess 2.11 That They all may be Damned who Believe not the Truth once profest but Reject it Or refuse to be informed of the Danger of Heretical Tenets when Means of Conviction are offered because they Demonstrate hereby That they have Pleasure in Vnrighteousness Now Popish Religion is the Greatest Seminary of Viciousness and all Impiety For Doth not the Council of Trent Establish this That Attrition only which is but a slight Grief for Sin from meer slavish Fear of Hell or Shame without any Love to God is a sufficient Demonstration of Repentance to Eternal Life so that the Sacrament of Penance be joyned with it Yet this Sacrament of Penance