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
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
that when I exhorted him to take a strict Review of his Sins that so being deeply humbled for them he might obtain some hopeful Prospect of their Pardon He replyed That he had endeavoured to search out whatever might provoke the Lord to desert him and suffer him to fall under the fatal Sentence pronounced upon him He said He had been Guilty of Sins enough for which he was thus severely punisht Among the rest he instanced in this That he had wronged one in a Twelve-penny matter but he was now so troubled about it that he had made Restitution since his Condemnation although he was in extream want of Necessaries for his present Subsistence I Commended this in him but withal told him That there was one Crime committed by him for which he could never make any Satisfaction viz. The Murthering of Sir Edmund yet that upon his true Repentance Christ's Blood-shed was All-sufficient to wash away the Stain and Reproach of this most Prodigious Wickedness He still stood out in a peremptory Denyal That he knew any thing of it more or less And in the usual Canting Language affirmed That he was as Innocent of it as the Child unborn Which Words may admit of an Equivocation For the Child unborn is Innocent as not being Capable of committing or declaring the Heinousness of such a Crime But though Hill was Capacitated for it with all imaginable Principles of Jesuitical Subtilty yet his deepest Sophistry appeared in pretending to be as Innocent as the Child unborn viz. In this Sense Innocent as not able to declare his Guiltyness of the said Murther For so he might be unable in respect of an Oath of Secresie which was the Seal of his Impenitency Or he might think to Evade the Confession of it by this Equivocation viz. I am as Innocent of the Fact as there is Truth in this That the Child unborn is here present reserving this Supplement of the Assertion unto himself And then it being unriddled in plain English it comes to thus much I am as Innocent of the Fact laid to my Charge that is There is as much Truth in affirming This as there is in the Childs being present which is yet Unborn For there is not Truth in either I did fear that some such Equivocation might shroud it self under Hill's flat Denyal of the said Murther Therefore I told him That his Ingenuity in Confessing a pecuniary Wrong and making Restitution could not demonstrate any sound Repentance unless he took the Shame of this Murther upon himself by a free Confession of it For a sincere Penitentiary dares not conceal any sin though of never so Ignominious a Nature He replyed That he had taken Shame to himself in confessing his doing Wrong and that he had violated the Integrity and Peace of his Conscience for a very Trifle Therefore I could not think he denyed the Murther laid to his Charge that he might maintain his Reputation But to Confute this Plea I knew a Fellon who deny'd the Robbery for which he was Condernned yet probably to insinuate into me a good Opinion of him he Confest that he once Robb'd a poor man going to Market but being afterward troubled in his Conscience for so doing he inquired out where the person wronged Lived and sent him double Restitution because happily said he the poor man losing of his market might have gain'd as much as I sent him by selling the Provisions which he was carrying thither Thus some will pretend to be Ingenious in Confessing hidden Crimes and yet will stand out in denying such which are proved against them This is but a counterfeit remorse On the day before Hills his Execution he discharged me of farther attendance because he said he would be in greater retirement to fit himself for his Death now so neerly approaching whereupon I took leave of him and he prayd God to reward me for all my Visits of him VIII Mr. Berry BErry the Porter of Summerset-house was one of the Murtherers of Sir Edmunbury Godfrey and was Executed some time after Hill and Green He willingly admitted me to Visit him for many days somtimes twice in the same day I found him dejected at the first yet afterwards he was reduced to a more composed frame I observed that he had some books in his Chamber of all which I took an inspection and found no popish Author among them I told him that I much approved of his Care in the Choice of those Books especially of the Bible to be his Associates and Guides in his solitary Confinement Then I advised him to search his Heart-state God-ward and to consider for what special sins God had deserted him to fall into so shamefull and notorious a Crime as the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey who had Demonstrated himself to be a worthy Patriot of his Country He replyed that he knew nothing of it neither before nor after and that he was no way Accessary to the guilt of it I said I could not give Credit to him in that For the Crime was cleerly proved against him I did not much urge him to confess it at that time fearing I might provoke him to be more shie of imbracing any future Visits or Advice I bent my Discourse to fit him for his approaching Death and from Scripture Demonstrated that immediatly after the Souls expiration every one is presented by Angels Good or Evil according as their state is in which they dye before the dreadful Tribunal of Christ the most Impartial righteous Judge of all men And that of what nature the sentence which then past was of it was irrepealable Therefore he could not be too circumspect in trying his heart-frame which is naturally deceitful For if his faith and repentance the only qualifications and evidences of a future happy State were not solidly built on Christ as the Rock of Salvation after his being adjudged there could not be any retrieval of the Sentence though it were to the Eternal banishment of his Soul from the bliss-making Vision and fruition of the God of Glory This awakned him to some Remorse for the sins of his Life I then proceeded to advise him not to venture to die in the the Romish Perswasion For this could not produce solid nor lasting tranquillity in any Conscience perplext and defiled with the guilt of the least sin In as much as Papists build their hopes of future happiness on corrupt Principles viz. they mix the belief of the falsities of the Apostatical-Trent-Council with the Articles of the Apostolical Creed which can never cement into any consistency of Truth either in matters of Faith or Practise I did undertake to discover the notorious absurdity of some popish Opinions in doing which he was not only very attentive but said he did not believe many things which the Doctors of the Romish Church Teach as necessary to be embraced for Articles of the true Faith I told him I hoped that he was not stubborn in that Heresy having declared