would consider seriously of that Sacred Scripture in the Twenty eighth of the Prov. of Solomon the Thirteenth verse He who hides his sin shall not prosper in the attempting of it but rather exposes himself to a Curse But whosoever Confesses and forsakes his Sin shall obtain Mercy He said That he had Confest 'twixt God and himself and that was Sufficient I told him that in respect of the great Scandal he had given and Reproach he had brought upon Religion which Obliges to all Fidelity towards Princes and forbids the Subvertion of a Lawful Government he ought to express great Sorrow for and detestation of such Principles which destroy Humane Society But he angerly replyed What! do you undertake to instruct me or others of my Order as if we were not Men of Reason and Learning I told him that I was bound to assist him as a dying Man and to put him in mind of seeking his Souls Salvation in a Right way And that whereas he slighted my Advice he ought not to look upon any Protestant Divine to be like Their Novices whom they Traine up in Ignorance as if it were the Mother of Devotion I said that I stood Amazed that any man of his Learning should so far forfeit the Repute thereof and all the Sentiments of a Good Conscience as to adhere to principles so destructive to all Order Equity and Government establisht by Light of Nature even among Savages He was not pleased with my discourse yet I did assure him I would not desist praying for him while I could Rationally think that he was Alive and within the reach or benefit of my prayers And so we parted IV V. Mr. Gawen and Mr. Turner I Could not speak with Gawen or Turner till they were placed in the Sledge I spake but little to them Time and the Noise of the people thronging me would not permit me to say much Only I told Mr. Gawen that Now death stared him in the face and his judgement to an Eternal State was very Near therefore I advised him not to palliate or extenuate his great Crime much lesse to deny it for he would hazard his Salvation if he went out of the world with a falsity in his mouth I told him I had and would continue to pray for him and his Fellow-Criminal in the Sledge with him So wishing them a penitential frame of Heart that they might obtain Eternal Life in Christ upon the drawing away of the Sledg Mr. Gawen shewed a publick Signal of Civility to me and thankt me He seemed much more cheerful than the rest And I hope he had better grounds for it Mr. Langhorne AFter Sentence of Death past upon the said Unhappy Gentleman as being Involved in the Jesuitical Conspiracy against the King and Nation I Addressed my self in a Visit to him which he Accepted When I first came into his Chamber I told him That I came not to upbraid a Dying Man though of a contrary Religion That I pittyed him as a Condemned Criminal yet was more troubled that he should Espouse the Popish Perswasions so far as to Suspend or Renounce rather the Sentiments of Right Reason in Embracing and Adhering to so Corrupt and Absurd Opinions He answered me That he thought himself in a surer Way for to attain Salvation than any of my Opinion could set themselves in For Protestants said he follow the Mistakes of their private Judgments and then cry them up for the Genuine Interpretation of the Holy Scriptures But We said he who are Roman Catholicks have the Conduct of an Infallible Guide to Interpret obscure Ambiguities in the Scriptures For no Scripture is of any private Interpretation otherwise well-meaning Persons may propose and put off their Fancies for solid Conclusions drawn from the sacred Records of God's Word He said That therefore there was great need of an external supreme infallible Judge on Earth whose Decision upon Appeals can only state and determine all Controversies about matters of Faith and Practice I replyed That the Divine Authority of God as imprest upon the Veracity of the Scriptures was never separated from the same Spirit who did Dictate them as unto special Guydance so far as not to Desert sincere Christians that they should fall into any Damnable Heresie But I feared that the Romish Opinions were such though they be imposed to be Believed and Obeyed upon the score of the Pope's Infallibility equally with the sacred Scriptures What Blasphemy is this for a sinful Man to arrogate the Title of Infallible due only to God the Fountain and Architype of all Truth That the Father of Lights gave Mankind the Best and Safest Conduct of his own Holy Infallible Spirit in Matters aforesaid And that the Scriptures being exemplified from his Essential Purity and Veracity were not defective as Human Laws which require an External Judge and Interpreter distinct from themselves in their Original Constitution So that in all Things necessary to Salvation the Scriptures were a Perfect Rule and Standard to dictate and determine Matters of Faith and Christian Obedience Yet so arrogant is the Pope as to Challenge an Authority to Himself to give the Scriptures a Sanction yea to Over-rule them by his Corrupt Traditions which he declares Infallible Thus he Exautorats and Invalidates their Divine Original and Superintendency as if they received all the Life of their Interpretation from his Authoritative Dilucidation as the Moon doth her Light from the Sun Hence it is that when the Pope enters into any Council he hath the Bible placed under his Feet while singly himself Over-rules the Council and Exalts his sole Determination above the sacred Records of Truth Hence it is that under a Pretence that the Scriptures are Obscure and a dead Letter in themselves that they must be Animated with his Traditions though never so Absurd and Contradictory to their Divine Authority Certainty and Perfection Also I said That where the Scriptures were Obscure in one Place they explained that Ambiguity in another So that there was no need of any External Judge And that Protestant Divines did not give out their Private Sentiments and Interpretations of the Scriptures for Laws to supersede the Innate Authority of the Scriptures or to oblige Christians to an Implicit Faith and Obedience as the Pope doth who over-rules the very Scriptures Themselves So that no part of them is Canonical but only those Books which he declares to be such Thus a sinful Man judges that sacred Law by which himself and all Men must be Judged though he claim a Power to Pardon Sin and Dispose of the Eternal Rewards of Virtue or Vice accordingly as himself pleases to determine the Nature and Circumstances of Both. Hence I said It proceeded that the Opinions of the Romish Church were so Corrupt as moulded and adapted to serve and promote the Carnal Interest of his Ambition and the Licentiousness of his Followers Then he askt me Whether I did not think that the Popish and Protestant
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
Casuistical Divines declare that a Criminal may lawfully Perjurate himself in pleading of his Innocency yea may without Sin falsly Recriminate and Murder such Witnesses who are likely to prove the Crime against Him This is their common Doctrine Bannes 22 Q. 70 Art 3 pag. Thus Bolsec and Chocleius did cast out False Aspersions to desame Luther and Calvin that Credit might not be given to their Writings against the Roman-Church Ledesma a Dominican assures us that to Defame falsly any Adversary is no Sin For it is the Common Doctrine of Aquinas his Disciples Caramuel sayes Twenty Doctors assert it Lawful If Popish Confitents will be Prodigal of their own Reputation and out of a Superstitious Fear of losing the Benefit of Absolution if they Enumerate not punctually all their Sins will Charge themselves with such Wickedness which they never Committed How little Conscience will Jesuited Persons make of Murthering not only the Good Name but the Person also of an upright Witness that so they may prevent a True Testimony against them or weaken the Validity of it By this Maxime which Legitimats false Desamations the grand Sophisters in that Hellish Art have set themselves upon a Pillory of Infamy with this Inscription That they are never to be Credited though they Imprecate themselves if they speak not Truth Yet these are the Persons who would be Admired for their Self-Denyal in Forgiving of their Enemies This is of kind to the Blind preposterous Charity of their Popes who often Canonize for Saints and Martyrs such who are Executed for Treason and Rebellion Yet Cotton sayes in the 26th Chap. of 1st Book of the Institution That to doubt of the Blessedness of such Canonized Saints is to make a Challenge against the Book of Predestination which the Pope as Christ's Vicar hath the Keeping and Opening of though it be sealed up from the Knowledge of all Hereticks What a blasphemous Charity is this to Arrogate the Disposal of the Book of Eternal Life For Who can think that Popes have a Right to inrole whom they will amongst the Saints when our Adversaries affirm that many of Their Holynesses are Damn'd themselves Let us now see whether the Jesuits Courage and Chearfulness in Dying for their Religious Treasons be of any better Stamp than their Dissembled Charity Jesuitical Courage and Chearfulness in Dying for Heresie and Treason how Differenced from the Comforts of Real MARTYRS Object BVt is it likely that such Holy Men should put on a Dissembled Courage and Chearfulness in Dying for Heresie or Treason Answ I Answer Although this is the Worst sort of Lying because it Counterfeits the Anoynting of God's Holy Spirit and stains the Glory of their Reputed Martyrdom yet I shall demonstrate that Dissimulation in this kind is not only possible but frequently Exercised Erroneous Principles may have such a Prevalency upon the Conscience and Affections of Hereticks and Traytors as to raise a Passionate False Joy in Suffering a Violent and Ignominious Death But How doth this strange Witch-Craft differ from the Real Joy of Christ's Martyrs 1. True Chearfulness in Suffering differs in the Spring-head or Root There is a Gracious and a Moral Kind of Sincerity Now from this Moral Inducement only meer Opinionists will Do and Suffer much that they may preserve the Peace of an Erroneous Conscience in being Honest to their False Light Yet do they not enjoy the Comfort of a Renewed Conscience This prefers the Glory of God and the Propagation of the Truth before the Preservation of its own Peace 2. Jesuitical Courage is Artificial and Forced meerly out of designe to keep up the credit of a False Opinion rather than any Hearty Demonstration of Real Self-Denyal It spends it self in Vain-Glory and is not attended with any Humble Distrust of Persevering Impostors in their pretended Comfort are either Besotted with Sensuality or Tickled with Phantastick Joy It is no wonder if they suffer out of a Brain-sick Fancy for the Brats of Popish Superstition But Fancies in the Head beget only Flashes of false Zeal and Comfort by the Concitation of Brisk Animal Spirits Thus Phrentick Persons the Brain being over-heat Cant in ratling of their Chains as if they were Princes in their own Imagination Impostors suffer either from the Strength of Delusion or from Stiffness and Rigidness of Spirit because they hold it a Discredit to be Changlings in Opinion But one Divinely Couragious for the Truth chuses rather to be Its Captive than the Champion of Error 3. Impostors cover a sad peevish Heart with a jocund Countenance But real Martyrs having the secret Consolations of God's Spirit are not Transported with Aiery Joys neither are they Theatrical in their Carriage Joy in the Holy Ghost not in Fancy or the Face only rests upon them Res est Severa Verum Gaudium 4. Dissembled Courage cannot be Vniform in a constant Undauntedness viz. Such which becalms the Passions and confirms the Sufferer in his Uprightness But some Jesuits have used Opiate Potions that they might bring a Stupefaction on the Animal Spirits so as to have Little or No Sensation of their Death But real Martyrs refuse to use any Artificial Sinful Means to force Joy rather than to wait for it from Heaven by the Acting of a Regular Faith A Pseudo-Martyrs Courage is designed to Hector Protestants into a Belief of their Cheats and their Patience is as Counterfeit as their Penitence 5. True Courage in Christ's Martyrs Convinces Shames and Converts some of their Adversaries because the Lord sets an edge on that Comfort which flows from His Spirit rather than the Gallantry of a Roman Resolution True Comfort in Suffering is demonstrated to carry a Divine-Stamp by begetting a secret Veneration in the very Hearts of such who Oppose the Truth But Jesuits in their Just Execution never I think did win over any Protestant to become a Patron for their Lies The Reasons are these 1. Their Delusive Joy arises partly from fortifying and confirming themselves with the Signe of the Cross as a Charm against the Fear of Death 2. From a Popish Absolution given before their Death The Form of which as Emanuel Sa reports runs thus The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Merits of the most Blessed Virgin Mary and of All the Saints and of all those Good Acts done by Thee we may interpret them for Exploits of Treason and of all the Evil which thou shalt patiently endure though justly for thy Crimes serve or be of Benefit unto thee for the Remission of all thy Sins for Increase of Grace and for the Reward of Eternal Life 3. Their False-forced Courage flows from an Ambitious Superstitious Opinion that their Super-abundant Sufferings shall constitute a Stock or Treasury of Merit for granting Indulgence to looser Papists For the like purpose some Relicks of Pseudo-Martyrs have been Buryed under an Altar either to cry for Vengeance against their Unjust Judges Reputed such by themselves or that every Mass said over such
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
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