his manifold expressions both towards God and men first to God as Rom. 8. where he makes this Proclamation Who shall saith he separate us from the Charity of Christ Shall Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Peril or Sword As it is written for thy sake we are kill'd all the day long we are accounted as sheep to the slaughter He adds I am certain that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heigth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And for this Charity in order to his Neighbor let what he suffered to serve them testifie as he relates 2 Cor. 11. by being in Labors and Stripes in Prison in Death in Scourgings in Shipwracks being day and night in the bottom of the Sea in Perils in Weariness in Painfulness in Hunger in Thirst in Fasting in Cold and Weariness besides what he suffered through his care of all Churches ver 28 29. where he saith Who is weak and I am not weak understand by compassion as Fellow-sufferer Who is scandalized and I burn not understand by zeal Let those now consider this who never more rejoyce than now when they see their passive Neighbors scandalized and were never better content in their own apprehensions than now when they behold us suffering though before God we are innocent Were St. Paul on earth again he would rather give himself for others to ease them of their sufferings according to his wonted charity exprest 2 Cor. 12. 15. saying I will very gladly spend and be spent for you and he would rejoyce to suffer in charity for his Neighbor as he abundantly declares Colos 2. 4. saying I rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is wanting of the passions or afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodies sake which is the Church and this example is given for us to do the like and therefore he saith 1 Cor. 4. 9. We are made a spectacle to the World to Angels and to men and therefore God forbid but some of us if we be Christian men should endeavor to imitate some of his examples though we cannot all For he ascended to so superlative a degree of Charity towards his Neighbor that he declares to the World that he could be a Cast-away himself to save others for thus he saith Rom. 9. 3. I could wish my self were accursed from Christ for my Brethren Christians do not then henceforth so easily ruine your Neighbors neither in their Lives nor Estates or Credits by Persecutions and Scandals the Scripture holds forth no such Doctrine nor gives any such examples but as you see the contrary but if our Persecutors will not imitate these examples let us that are persecuted and suffer endeavor to imitate them by choosing rather to lose all we can call our own in this World and Life also rather than to break Charity to God and our Neighbor either by denying or dissembling our Faith and scandalizing the Church or bearing false Witness against our selves or our Neighbors to save our Lives or Fortunes or enrich our selves by false Witness And if we will put in practice the Virtues of Faith Hope and Charity I have spoke of we ought to do it thus what we profess by words we must confirm by deeds and actions Our profession of Catholick Faith is this I believe all Divine Revelations delivered to the Prophets and Apostles proposed by the Catholick Church in Her General Councils or by Her Universal Practice to be believed as an Article of Catholick Faith knowing this to be our Faith the confirmation of this knowledge or the practice of this by our deeds is as St. Paul teacheth Ephes 3. 8. To esteem all worldly things as dirt in respect of this eminent knowledge of Christ and his Faith and therefore for my own part I now being ready to leave all in the World and my Life in testimony of my Catholick Faith which I profess I desire and hope to manifest to all I value my knowledge of Christs Faith more than I value the universal World And as for my Christian Hope I profess to have the confirmation of it or the practical part is to be fulfilled thus being that we must as St. Peter saith 1 Pet. 3. 15. Be always ready to give an account to every one concerning the hope which is in us I have already by words expressed it and by deed I express it thus That whereas I do believe that God as the Scripture saith kills and brings to life again carrieth down to the depth and bringeth back again so now I do by this my present Execution which I am now to undergo willingly give my Body to be mortified in death for my Faith hoping in Gods infinite mercy he will restore my Body and Soul to eternal life and I do willingly resign my self to be carried down to my Grave hoping by my Saviours Cross and Passion Death and Burial he will raise me up again to a glorious Resurrection And as for the confirmation of my Charity to shew by deeds the love I owe to God and my Neighbor it hath pleased my Saviour by his own words to declare which is the best proof or practice of Charity where he saith No man hath a greater Charity than he that lays down his life for his Friend I therefore do willingly undergo this death I am to suffer now to testifie I love my Friend my Neighbor as my self whil'st I undergo this death for my self and them that seeing it is for the profession of my Faith I dye they whil'st they live may the more happily serve God in the same belief and I testifie I love God above all because I forsake the World and my self in death rather than offend him by doing any thing against my Conscience And forasmuch as for these many years I have had occasion by discoursing and reading the Holy Scriptures with others who desired to find out the true Faith I have by words declared what Faith I did believe and what Faith they ought to believe I now declare that for every Point of Faith that ever I believ'd my self or read to others or told them that they might believe as a Point of Faith for all and every such Points of Faith in confirmation of them as well to my self as others I here lay down my Life and omitting all other particular Points I believe Obedience to our King to be a Divine Law and that we are bound to obey His Commands in Temporal Laws and I believe it too a sin of Damnation for any Subject of His to Rebel against Him or His Kingdom and I believe it as certain a sin to Damnation for any Subject to endeavor either by thoughts words or deeds to take away His Life or act any thing
A NARRATIVE OF THE Proceedings and Tryal of Mr. Francis Johnson a Franciscan at Worcester last Summer-Assizes Anno Dom. 1679. Written with his own Hand as followeth To which is annexed His SPEECH at his Execution August 22. 1679. I Being at London on All-Saints-day when the Proclamation came forth to command all Catholiques to depart from thence by the Friday following I obeyed and came to a Friends house in Worcestershire not intending to stay there but the King 's second Proclamation being presently published That no Catholique should walk above Five miles without being stopt and carried before a Justice to have the Oaths tendred I asked Counsel of the wisest I could both of Protestants whereof one was a Lawyer and another a Constable as also of Catholiques Whether that Proclamation did so strongly oblige that it permitted me no longer to go further They all concluded it was not secure to go so I resolved to obey and stay where I was and with good reason First Because all Catholiques are obliged to obey the King's Commands in all things that are not against our Religion and Conscience and His Commands in this nature are against neither Secondly Should I have disobeyed and have been taken in Penalty I should have suffered which would not have been so directly for my Conscience and Religion sake as for disobeying the King's Command because in case I should be taken by staying there in obedience to the Proclamation and be carried before the Justices to have the Oaths offered whatever I was to suffer for refusing them I should have this double comfort before God and the King before the King because I rather chose to go to Prison than to remove from his Law by taking the Oaths against my Conscience Therefore I was taken and put in Prison The manner of my being taken was as followeth The Sheriff's Deputy came to the House where I was with six or eight men to Arrest a Gentleman in the House for Debt The Officers coming into the House in the morning and not finding the person they came for broke down all the doors and among the rest mine before I was out of Bed and by a mistake Arrested me instead of the other Gentleman and although the Deputy coming into my Chamber looking on me told them they were deceived for I was not the man they came for yet other Soldiers coming into my Chamber one of them said he knew me It seems he had been a Servant in the House seven Years before therefore he said he would have me to the Justices and bid his Companions secure me and so they did and would not let me go out of their sight until they carried me before the Justice And this they did without either Constable or Warrant Law or Justice When I came before the Justice of Peace I told him the occasion that had brought me to him and if I would have taken the Oaths I had been presently freed But I told them that persuaded me to take the Oaths That it was against the Faith and Religion I professed and against my Conscience and I would never offend against either by so complying whatever I suffered for the contrary The Justice's Wife was compassion ate towards me and desiring to speak privately with me she used her best persuasions to me to comply with what was desired of me concerning the taking the Oaths for fear of further trouble or danger I answered her with thanks and told her That I was sorry she had no better opinion of me than to think I had prosest such a Faith and Religion all my life-time and now upon the trial could be moved with any fear or danger which God sorbid I told her it was such a Faith that in it I deposed my Soul my Confidence Heaven and Eternal Life and therefore I neve r did nor by God's grace never would fear to suffer for it what pleased God For who could fear even Death itself of the Body whose life is momentary for Profession of that Faith wherein he deposeth the Eternal life of his Soul This Answer satisfi'd both her and my self for I was resolved to make a publick Profession of my Faith and Religion upon which I return'd to the Justice who thought fit I should go to another Justice who was Sir John Packington whither also he went with me When I came to Sir John he asked me who I was I answered him I was a Gentleman sufficiently known for these 20 Years in Worcestershire to all sorts of People He asked me of what Calling I was I answered him of none He asked me what Estate I had I answered I was no Landed man Then he asked me If I would take the Oaths I answered I understood them not He replied Will you take them or will you not I told him if he pleased to let me see them I should return him my Answer Now the reason why I desired to see the Oaths was because I was resolved to make a Publick Declaration of my Faith that they were against my Conscience and therefore by declaring publickly the Reasons why I could not take them it should be publickly known that whatsoever I was to suffer for not taking them was for no other cause but for my Faith and Religion because I would not swear against my Conscience For would I have taken them I had been there also freed When the Oaths were brought to me they told me I must read them out aloud but I told them that because it was a publick place and many there present of several degrees as well of the Housholders as Strangers I feared least reading them aloud some that heard me might think I sware what I read and so might go and report they heard me take the Oaths before the Justices But they declared they would not think so l so I read them over and over which when I had done I said aloud God save the King and then declared to both the Justices and all the rest in this manner I am ready to swear as followeth That I ever all my life-time have been and now am and ever will be to my last breath as saithful a Subject to the King as any Subject whatsoever and as faithful as if I should take the Oaths now offered by them to me an hundred times over but as for taking these Oaths offered me I could not take them whatever I suffered and the reason was because I understood what an Oath was and the conditions which God has prescribed to us before any could call him to witness lawfully in taking of any such Oaths The Conditions which God has prescribed I told them were these Thou shalt swear the Lord liveth in truth and in judgment and in righteousness so that in every Oath the life of God the truth of God the judgment of God and his righteousness are included by all which we swear and the Oath we take is to have all these Conditions truth judgment and
you shall dye at least not for the present until I know the King 's further pleasure I was not I thank God for it troubled with any disturbing thoughts either against the Judge for his Sentence nor the Jury that gave in such a Verdict nor against any of the Witnesses For I was then of the same mind as by God's grace I ever shall be esteeming them all the best Friends to me in all they did or said that ever I had in my life or ever shall have except upon the like occasion And I was I thank God so present with my self whil'st the Judge pronounced the Sentence to deliver me to Death that without any concern for any thing in this world I did actually at the same time offer my self and the world to God After the Judge was gone from the Bench to the other end of the Hall I stayed with the Keeper in the Hall where several Protestant Gentlemen and others who had heard my Tryal came to me though Strangers and told me how sorry they were for me To whom with thanks I replied that I was troubled they should grieve for me or my condition who was joyful for it my self for I told them I had professed this Faith and Religion all my life-time which I was as sure to be true as I was sure of the truth of God's Word on which it was grounded and therefore in it I deposed my Soul and Eternal Life and Happiness and therefore should I fear to lose my temporal life for this Faith whereon my Eternal life depends I were worse than an Infidel and whosoever should prefer the life of their Bodies before their Faith their Religion or Conscience they were worse than Heathens For my own part I told them I was as ready by God's grace to dye to morrow as I had been to receive the Sentence of Death to day and as willingly as if I had a Grant of the greatest Dukedom So we sate talking half an hour and I returned to the Prison there to remain as long as it pleased God and the King whom God long preserve in all happiness There was another Objection which I forgot to put in until I had finished the former Writing and it was an Objection which the Judge was pleased to put against me himself and it was that I had changed my name and went in several places by several names To which I answered the reason was Because in Cromwel's time in the great Troubles our Family suffered much my Father was imprisoned and a Fellow-Prisoner with Sir Thomas Ashton both confined together which Sir Thomas is now one of His Majesties Admirals of the Fleet. And for my own part I going Beyond Sea to Travel I changed my name and then coming into England again before the King's Restauration I was glad to conceal my self and go by several names as many others of the King 's Loyal Subjects did the better to be able to do His Majesty the best service I could which according to my small ability I did endeavor both before and since the King came into England like a dutiful Subject and like the rest of our Family who all endeavored to serve His Majesty For I have two Brothers served Him the one a Voluntier at Sea in Sir William Reeve's Ship which Sir William was killed in the last Engagement with the Dutch and the other Brother had a Command under his Royal Highness the Duke of York at Land therefore I hope the changing of my name on such an occasion as I did could not be imputed as a guilt upon me nor speak me other than a dutiful Subject which I could have made further appear before the Bench but I did not judge it convenient to say any more to the Judge there in publick But before his Lordship went out of VVorcester I presented him with a Petition to acquaint his Lordship that I having had the honour to kiss His Majesties Hand before His Restauration in the Low-Countries as also I have had the honour to be one of those whom His Majesty was pleased to grace with being entertained by us His then best Subjects His Majesty was pleased to make us a Gracious Promise that when it should please God to restore Him to His Crown we should not live so in Banishment as then we did Of this in my Petition I did acquaint the Judge and beseeched him that he would be pleased by declaring this to the King to endeavor to obtain some gracious Favor from His Majesty for me my condition now being such that I could never have greater need to be Partaker of His gracious Promise and Clemency The Judge promised me he would make an Address to His Majesty for me in this behalf which whether he hath done or no I wish some body may put him in mind to do it for me I do not here mention the place where in particular nor the other persons to whom His Majesty made that Promise but if you remember you know I did tell you with several other particular circumstances which I need not here make any further mention of THE Last SPEECH OF Mr. Francis Johnson Priest of the Order of St. Francis who was Executed as a PRIEST onely at Worcester upon the 22d of August Anno Dom 1679. Which he spake for the most part upon the Ladder immediately before his Execution but being interrupted and that which he did speak being taken by an unskilful Scribe was Printed by the halves and so imperfect that it was in some places Nonsense To correct that Abuse this which he left written with his own Hand is publish'd by a Friend ALmighty God out of his infinite Goodness to this World through the merits of his Son Christ Jesus ordained or made choice of three Virtues whereby we must walk which are these viz. Faith Hope and Charity First by virtue of Faith we are to believe all things that are done in this World Secondly by virtue of Hope we are to believe and hope for all things in another World And the reason why Christians do believe this Hope is to bring and conduct them to salvation in the other World And if we hope in God we cannot but believe God for with the mouth Confession is made but with the heart and through Faith we must believe unto salvation so that Faith is not to be trodden under foot or to be hid under a bushel but to be set upon a candlestick Luke 12. Whosoever doth confess me before men him will I confess before the Angels of God And therefore all are bound to believe that there is but one Faith and if but one Faith then but one Christian Faith There is but one Faith one Lord one Baptism if it be so how can this stand with so many Sectaries as there are If there be but one Faith how can this be I believe the Creed of St. Athanasius which is in your Common-Prayer Book there it is said That whosoever
righteousness Jerem. 4. Therefore if I should take these Oaths which are concerning damnable Doctrines and Heresies I must call God to witness that I no more believe him to be a living God and true God a just and righteous God than I believe these things contained in the Oaths to be true just and righteous to swear to which Oaths I do not nor cannot in my Conscience believe to be so For before I or any man else can understand the Contents of these Oaths to be true as to call God to witness that I believe them to be as true just and righteous I must be able to desine what is Faith or Heresie in these Contents I swear to and I must know the full extent of all cases of this nature that God has left to all Temporal Princes and their Power I must also understand the full extent of all cases of this nature of power spiritual which God hath left in his Church in or over Christian Kingdoms of Temporal Monarchs which power in these Oaths I am to swear on the one side and forswearing the other I told them I was not of capacity nor knowledge to set the Confines to each Power or to determine or define the extent given by God to all in this nature so as to swear and call God to witness I am as sure of it as I am sure he is a living God as I must do if I take these Oaths the extent of which I did not understand in my Conscience to be so as to believe them Therefore I could not nor would not swear to them I having spoken these things no body said any more to me but the Justices going out of the Hall made my Mittimus and Sentence for Worcester Prison because I would not take the Oaths they tendred me I have been since called to the Bar at the Sessions where I spake to the same effect before Judge Street and the Justices as I had spoken before to Sir John Packington having first asked their leave to speak which they gave me for a little time and then bid me return to the Prison But first they were urgent with me to answer positively Ay or No was I a Jesuitical Priest or was I not To which I answered It was an easie thing for me to say No but by saying No I might prejudice others who hereafter being asked the same question if they did not answer No it might be an Argument that they were guilty if they did not deny it as others before them had done Therefore I desired that what proof could be brought against me might be produced against me and I would answer for my self But I desired I might not be urged to answer Ay or No to any thing before some Witness or Argument came against me for I told them in such Cases neither Law of God nor Man obliged any one although he was guilty to bear witness against himself without some proof were alledged against him for that was no less than to be his own Executioner The Judge answered there were Witnesses would swear against me I answered if Witnesses could make out what they sware of me then my life was at the King's mercy But in the mean time I told them I remained guiltless though I did not answer them to their questions Ay or No because I told them that being my saying No in my own behalf would not be sufficient testimony to acquit me therefore there was no reason why any man should be urged to say Ay to accuse ones self though he was guilty Upon this the Judge sent me to Prison again at Worcester where now I am which Imprisonment in these Times especially when none can send to their Friends nor Friends come to them is the best means to teach us how to put our confidence in God alone in all things and then he will make his promise good That all things shall be added to us Luke 12. which Chapter if every one would read and make good use of a Prison would be better than a Palace and a Confinement for Religion and a good Conscience-sake more pleasant than all the liberties the World could afford As for my own part God give me his grace and all faithful Christians their prayers I am Happy enough And as for others I beseech God that the evil example of those that swear against their Consciences may not be Guides for the rest to follow nor their Deeds a Rule to their Actions We all ought to follow the narrow way though there be many difficulties in it It 's an easie thing to run the blind way of liberty but God deliver us all from broad sweet ways We know what Job saith of Libertines They lead their lives in the goods of this world and in a moment they descend into Hell But as our Saviour saith What doth it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul God gave Job a goodly increase for all the riches he took from him and blest his latter end more than his beginning and gave him an Hundred and forty years of flourishing life for his short affliction in which his constancy and faith in God was tried and our Saviour promiseth an Hundred-fold to all that leave Goods and every thing willingly for his fake Who well considers this will be content to leave both Friends and Fortunes and Freedom by Imprisonment for their Faith and Religion-sake till such time as it shall please God and the King in obedience to whose Command they suffer to release them And in the mean time they will have this comfort That they give a Testimony they fear God and honour the King They fear God because they choose rather to suffer Persecution than swear against their Consciences They honor the King because they are willing to suffer the Penalties He commands and yet remain faithful Subjects to Him whom God long preserve with His Parliament and People in all happiness On Tuesday April 15. 1679. I came before Judge Atkins at Worcester to have my Cause tryed at the Sessions having been Committed five Months before to Worcester-Castle by two Justices of the Peace Sir John Packinton and Mr. Townson because I refused the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and therefore was suspected to be a Jesuitical Priest The manner of my Tryal was as followeth Four Witnesses were brought in against me Three of them were forced by Warrant to come in whether they would or no from several Towns and were fore'd to speak all that they knew had heard or seen concerning me neither I nor any of my Friends knowing that any would be compelled so to do before the time of my Tryal was come The fourth Witness came of his own accord for Lucre sake who the same day that I was first brought to Worcester Prison offered himself to swear before the Mayor of the Town that I was a Priest before ever he came to see who I was The Testimony which he gave
that I had done the duty of a good Christian and every man in the like circumstances is bound as a Christian to do the like that I had done I told him that they doubting of such things and desiring me to shew them if such places were in the Bible or not and desiring to know what I did believe of those points and the reasons why I believed them I turned to such places in the Bible and read it to them and bid them read the same themselves which they did and so were satisfied And I told my Lord for what I had done I had the Scripture warrant and Scripture command also to do it and so had every Christian command to do the like for the Scripture commands all to be redy to give an answer to every man concerning the reason of the hope which is within us and this I had done to them or to any other that had asked me as they did But I told my Lord withal that I knowing the Statute of perswasion had alwaies so much regard to that when any would discourse with me concerning my Faith or theirs I told them that being there was such a Statute as the Statute of perswasion though I was bound to give them an account of my Faith and Hope if for conscience sake they asked me yet I told them I would not incur the penalty of that Statute by using any force or perswasion against their consciences for violent forcing of consciences was against the Law of God yet I told them what I did believe and shewed them the places of Scripture on which my Faith was grounded according as they desired me to do for them and then I would leave it to God and their own consciences and if they did not believe those texts I had no more to say to them and if they did believe them they best knew before God and their consciences what they had to do so that it was not my perswasion but God and their souls salvation that was to determine them in the belief of what they read in the Bible And I bade them bear witness that I told them thus if in case we should ever be called in question before any Judge and thus I have discoursed as several would bear witness for me I told his Lordship this was true and so did those witnesses for they declared publickly what I said was true whereupon I did appeal to my Lord if I was not innocent in this point and as for my bidding them say their prayers or when they desired to ease their minds by declaring what troubled them I desired to clear my self by asking my Lord with his leave what Nation or Sect in the world ought not and did not counsel and wish their Neighbours in their troubles to ease themselves by prayer to God and much more every good Christian ought when he understood that his Brother had acted the Prodigal Son offended his Heavenly Father and therefore was troubled in conscience ought I say to perswade him to return by repentance and beg mercy of our Father which is in Heaven I having done no more but this have only done a pious Christian duty to my Neighbours which any man though no Priest may and ought to do the same I having pleaded these things for my self the Judge was pleased to tell me I had a nimble tongue and wit and that by those discourses I strove to make the Jury attend more to my pleading for my self than to the witnesses Arguments against me To which I replied I spoke nothing but truth which I ought to do to defend my self against my enemies therefore I hoped his Lordship would not be offended But if I have exceeded as his Lordship said I did because I hindered him from speaking I humbly craved his pardon hoped I should obtain it being my Concerns and Reasons to plead as I did were of no less consequence than Life and Death But for all this the Judge told the Jury that they were to consider the Accusations of the Witnesses against me as having done such and such things which Priests use to do neither was it necessary that the Witnesses should prove me to have taken Orders from Foreign Power and so to prove me positively to be a Priest For that they not having seen me take Orders they could not do but it was sufficient they had seen me do such things by which it might be presumed it was so Whereupon I answered That there was never a Proof yet alledged that did or could make that appear or be sufficient to conclude me to be so and therefore I was no more guilty than many thousands of whom all these things alledged against me might be verifi'd who never were nor would be Priests as I had sufficiently shewed why therefore should they be thought sufficient to conclude against me I therefore desired the Judge before he sent out the Jury he would give me leave to speak a word or two to them He answered No he would not I then desired his Lordship would give me leave to speak again to him before them ere they went out to which he assented I therefore desired his Lordship to give me leave to ask this question of him which the Jury might hear Suppose all the Proofs which had been by all the Witnesses brought against me were to be alledged against the Jury or some of them so that if the Arguments were judged by them to be of force or concluding some of those of the Jury should lose part of their Estates and Credit and being in some danger of their lives who of all the Jury on whom this peril were like to fall would judge those Arguments alledged against me sufficient to condemn them to the loss of part of their Estates or part of their Credit with some danger of their Lives I therefore desired it might be considered that my All lay at stake all my Concerns in the World Credit and Life not only in some danger but certainly to be Condemned if those Arguments brought in by them against me should be judged to be of force Therefore I desired they would deal by me as if it were their own case according as I had proposed it to them and so I should give no further trouble in speaking being it was not judged fit I should say any more as I had desired to the Jury I had only one Favor more to beg of the Judge before they went out which was that his Lordship would read a Paper before them which I had ready whereby I could prove that the first and chiefest VVitness against me which was Rogers ought not in justice to be admitted as a competent VVitness against me as the VVriting I offered the Judge would shew which VVriting I gave to the Judge and he read it over privately to himself and seeing the hand of him that wrote it at the bottom who offered to swear for me against Rogers the Judge asked where
â—he slaughter of the sword they were so persecuted and impoverished that they were fain to go about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins needy in distress afflicted wandring in desarts in mountains in dens and caves of the Earth Dear Catholicks now in your present persecution think of this and be willing to follow these examples that you as in the same place it followeth being appointed as they were by the testimony of your Faith may receive ere long those better things which God as 't is there writ provides for you Happy those that have this Faith but thrice more happy those that suffer these persecutions for Faiths sake because by this Faith as St. Paul saith Gal. 3. 11. the just man lives and those that have not this Faith are dead to God because as 't is written Heb. 11. 6. Without saith 't is impossible to please God and yet though we have this Faith except we joyn when God requires our works of sufferings to this Faith both we and our Faith are dead to God because as St. James saith chap. 2. ver 17. Faith is to be shewed by works because Faith without works is dead And he further shews us in his first chap. v. 25. 't is the works make a man happy although there can be no good work without a firm Faith in nothing doubting as he saith ver 6. Christian Faith is a firm established and an infallible Faith because it is grounded upon a Rock against which the gates of Hell shall not prevail Matth. 16. v. 18. This Faith is firmly established by such Authority of God and his Church that he that will not own the Authority is as a Heathen and a Publican God hath declared him so and what the Church binds on Earth God binds in Heaven This Church and Faith is firmly establisht because our Saviour hath promised That the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth should teach the Believers all Truth remain with them for ever shew them things to come to be believed and should cause the Believers to remember all things which Christ had already taught which you read in John 14. and 16. chap. This Faith is firmly established because it was believed and published from the beginning throughout the whole world as St. Paul proclaims Romans the first where he speaks thus to all that be in Rome Beloved of God called to be Saints first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your Faith is published throughout the whole world Finally this Faith is established and infallibly confirmed that it can never decay till the worlds end because our Saviour hath promised to be with the Believers unto the worlds end Matth. 28. 19 20. Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and behold I am with you alwaies even to the end of the world Thus much briefly concerning my Christian Faith in which I truly believe in all points infallible and in confirmation of which one only Faith and Catholick Church I will and do lay down my life and whosoever will as he ought consider the Text that proves this Faith and Church of the Living God to be the pillar and ground of Truth as 't is evident it is 1 Tim. 3. 15. I question not but who I say considers this will believe the same our Faith being assisted by our second Divine Vertue which is our Christian Hope This Hope is that Vertue which assures us that for the reward of our Faith and the profession and due practice of it as we ought there are those heavenly gifts laid up for the Christian Believers which neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor the heart of man can conceive or comprehend as St. Paul declares This Hope gives such confidence that death cannot overcome it because as the Prophet saith Although he shall kill me yet I will hope in him Why then shall any sear to die for his Faith having this Hope 'T is for want of making due reflection and use of this Hope that causes so many to be fearful to suffer and makes them fly the field of persecution and forsake the banners of their Christian Faith that all ought to fight under and would still fight under would they make use of the divine hope of Gods promises which are such that as David saith Psal 125. That he that hopes or trusts in our Lord shall be as Mount Sion which cannot be removed but remain for ever As the Mountains saith God by the mouth of David are about Jerusalem so the Lord is round about his people that is such as will place their hope in him as the Prophet did and exhorts us to do the same saying Psal 130. 5 6. My soul hath hoped in our Lord from the morning watch even until night let Israel hope in our Lord that is from the beginning of the day of our life till the night of death as well in the morning of prosperity as in the evening of adversity because 't is also writ God is my Hope for ever and whosoever can truly say with David Psal 31. 1. In thee O Lord have I plac'd my Hope shall be assured of what there follows Not to be confounded for ever because as St. Paul saith Hope consoundeth not There is a contrary Vice to this Virtue a worldly Fear that brings all things to confusion it makes Worldlings swear and forswear and perjure For which Perjuries and False Oaths as the Prophet saith Judgment springs up as Hemlock in the Furrows of the Field And therefore Dr. Thorndick in his Book of just Weights and Measures saith That Coaction of Oaths is the crying Sin of this Nation to call down the wrath of God upon the Kingdom What better remedy than to secure our selves against all worldly Fears and these ensuing Dangers but by relying on the hope of future blessings which God if we fight and suffer for his sake hath promised God is the God of Hosts and we fight under him and if we trust in him we are happy as David saith Psal 84. 5. O Lord of Hosts blessed is the man that trusts in thee in whom to hope is to be secured and therefore David also saith Psal 91. He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wing shalt thou hope especially if we fight for our Faith and therefore he adds in the same verse His truth shall be thy shield and buckler if we will hope in him and his reward For if we hope for our great wages we shall easily undergo our little work As for example if we hope to drink of the torrent of pleasure as God hath promised we shall in his Kingdom who will fear to taste now of the Chalice of some small Persecution If we hope hereafter to be numbered amongst the Sons of God as he