Contrite for sin as he desired that he was much perplexed that he had no more Assurance of a future happy state I stated the nature of true saving-Faith that it was an adherence to the free grace of God in Christ for pardon and Eternal Life joyned with an obedient self-resignation and where this was wrought the soul-state was safe tho assurance of Gods Love might be wanting For this was not an essential Priviledge absolutely necessary to Salvation but only a peculiar favor given to strict walking Christians and that only at some set-times in great extremity and need of such hidden Manna That it was rather of the nature of a Rational short sensation than the Ground of setled Comfort which is the result of an Heroical strain of Faith to trust in God when he seems to reject and slay us and that the Lord doth more esteem this resolute dependency in the midst of seeming-contradictions than the most multiplyed Acts of external Worship Upon this he was somwhat more serene in his mind And I told him that in praying and seeking the Lord more fervently comfort would gradually be obtained The next day he distrusted his Heart as to the Truth of his Faith and Repentance which I told him was a good signe that he was in a hopeful way of making his Peace with God That he must wait in believing that he should obtain Comfort promised to the Penitent He desired me to pray with him and for him and to prepare to speak somwhat of the sufferings of Christ when I should next Visit him Accordingly from that Text I am Crucified with Christ I treated of many parts of his Bitter Passion and of his Soul-agonies inferring matter not only of Comfort from thence but also of Instruction for our Imitation and Conformity I left him afterward in a frame more willing and fit to Die and comming to him on the very Morning he was to Suffer he told me that Now he had more Comfort and an hope of his future Happy-state yet renouncing all opinion of worth in his own Tears Prayers and Humiliation He was solicitous if the Executioner should deal with him according to the strictness of the Sentence lest feeling any pain if Cut down ript up Alive he should Curse or use any Unchristian word Which rather than to do said he I would Bite my Tongue in pieces for I dread Sin now more than Death I told him that I hoped the manner of his Execution would be mitigated however that God would prevent Sin in him at the time of his Suffering because he was so anxious as to distrust himself and cautious to avoid all unbecomming Words or Gestures After some farther Discourse I pray'd with him and he was much pleased with my attendance about him yet he spared me from going with him to the place of Execution for some Reasons I cannot say how he declared himself there because I was not present But upon my whole Observation of his Behaviour in Prison I do charitably judge he was a real Penitentiary It was doubtful to some whether he dyed in the Roman or Protestant Religion because as I think he did not at last declare himself either way Yet this I am sure of that if he had solid and true Comfort in Dying this could not proceed from such a sandy foundation as his old Popish Principles but only from Self-abhorrency in the sense of his great Sinfulness and the defectiveness of his best Repentance and Obedience that he might build his hope on Christ and his Righteousness only as the Rock of Eternal Life II. Mr. Coleman I Come now to Coleman of whom I can say very little because he had an Arrogant opinion of his own Abilities and out of an Hope to be Canonized for a Saint despised and rejected any Assistance from me either by Discourse or Prayer I offered him both on the next day after the Sentence of Death pass'd upon him but he returned me this Answer by the Messenger I sent to him to know if he would admit me That he had but a very short time to Prepare himself for Death and would not be hindred in the Loss of any part of it thanking me for my offer of Visiting him but desired me to forbear I put a fair construction on the Message brought me at the first thinking he might be very busie at that time about some extraordinary emergency or indisposed to be Visited and therefore told the Messenger that I would attend on him on some other fit time The Officer told me that Mr. Coleman would never admit me and he inferred it from his manner of speaking that Message which he sent by him he observed his Countenance and Gestures in the delivery of it So I totally desisted Yet when he was brought down from his Chamber in the Press-yard-side to go to the Sledge I stayed him a little saying Mr. Coleman You did not think well of admitting me yet know I have earnestly Prayed that God would give you true and great Repentance for your great Crimes stand not out in your denying of them Some other words I used to which he replyed in short and quick tone Thank you thank you As I moved nearer with him towards the gate he said Sir I must beg your Pardon It being a strange word to drop from Him I askt him for what He replyed That I did not Admit you but truly it was not in any contempt of your Office but when you sent to me I was under some perplexed Thoughts and for other Consideratious thought it not Convenient Then I told him that I would pray for him as a dying man which he took well and so we parted III. Mr. Grove MR. Grove was Executed on Friday the 24th of January 1678. I spake to him in the Chappel these words before he was carried down the Stone-stairs unto the Sledg Sir I earnestly desire you Now that you are going to appear at the Tribunal of Christ that you would clear your Conscience and speak the Truth that you may die in Peace And I do Exhort you that you would beg of God great Repentance for your great sins He repli'd That he did understand his Duty Yet I persisted to exhort him not to trust to the merits of any Saint or Angel but wholly to go out of himself not grounding any Confidence of his Salvation on any prayers tears nor the deepest Humiliation of his own heart That even Cardinal Bellarmine said when dying It was safest to rely wholly and solely on the Alsufficient Merits of the blessed Jesus Mr. Grove replied That Thomas a Kempis had said the same To which I replied Do you consider of it and Act accordingly For you must not hazard your Souls eternal welfare by any presumptious mixing of your own good works with Christs Infinit Satisfaction and Merits For the Apostle saint Paid saith If Justification be of Works it is altogether of Works but if of free Grace it is
altogether of Grace So I took leave of Mr. Grove desiring him to consider well of what I had said Praying that the Lord would in much mercy look upon his soul to pardon him and fit him for his approaching Death Mr. Grove seemed to take in good part what was said to him After which he was conducted down to the Sledg IV. Mr. Ireland MR. Ireland was Executed on the same day with Mr. Grove to whom I had not time to say more than these few words viz. Sir I do earnestly beg of God to grant you mercy and pardon for your great sins Trust alone in the Righteousness and Merits of Christ Jesus Compose your self in your passage and six your Heart upon the Lord till you Expire Which words Mr. Ireland seemed to take kindly from me And so we took leave of each other Here I cannot forbear to give some account of Mr. Irelands perverting of a Woman who was Burnt in Smithfield for Clipping his Majesties Coine This seduction of the said Woman from the Protestant Religion was before Mr. Ireland was Apprehended for the late Conspiracy An Officer in Newgate did assure me when Ireland was committed for the Plot that he was able to take his Oath that Ireland perverted that woman some time before for he well knew him upon a second Reveiw but knew him not to be a Papist or Priest at first for he was admitted to her as a Friend Irelands stratagem in turning the Woman to become a Papist was thus discovered Early on the morning on which she was Executed I askt her what hope she had of a future happy state she hufft at me telling me I need not trouble my self about her for she was sure of her Salvation I wondered at her Confidence but suspected not the Grounds of her Malepartness After I had Exhorted and Prayed with her at the place of Execution and was taking my farewell of her she entreated me to give her some time to pray for her self which she did In her Prayer she mixed these words Lord grant that the offering up of my Body to the Flames may expiate the guilt of all my Sins and save my soul I told her when she had finisht her prayer that the foresaid expression smelt rank of Popery and therefore askt her what Religion she came to die in She replied she was a Roman Catholick I askt her How long she had been such She said that a good Minister had told her that if she died in the Protestant Religion she was sure to be Damned And that he proved it by this Scripture Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I Build my Church So that he assur'd her that the Religion of the Romish Bishop who was St. Peter's Successor was the Rock there meant and so there was no Salvation to those who are Separatists from that Church and the Profession of it I told her That the Priest had deceived her For the Rock was not St. Peter's Person nor his Verbal Confession of Christ for if so Where was the Rock and What became of the Church when St. Peter so shamefully denyed his Lord thrice But the only True Rock on which the Church is Built is the very Person Offices and Merits of Christ the Son of God who was the Object of St. Peter's Confession She was attentive to what I said and seemed somewhat sensible of her being deceived Saying She was willing to be Saved betwixt us Both. But I told her She must not halt 'twixt two Religions so opposite to each other and that it was very dangerous to dye in the Roman Perswasion She told me She could not Renounce it in as much as the said Priest had obliged her by the Blessed Sacrament that she should never recant or depart from the Popish Religion as the best and safest to Dye in I convinced her with Arguments to the contrary yea she her self was not Credulous of their absurd Affirming of the Transubstantiation of the Sacramental Bread and Wine into the very Body and Blood of Christ For she said She neither tasted any Flesh or Blood She also declared That she had no Good Works of her own which she durst trust to as Meritorious of Heaven but relyed wholly and solely on Christ's Righteousness Whereupon I told her She denyed the grand Points of Popery and therefore was a Papist to get a Pretended Absolution or upon some Designe But fearing to Dye in the Romish Opinions she ask't me If she should not be Perjured if she renounced them having taken the Sacrament to persist in them I told her That she must not cleave to an unlawful wicked Oath but beg Repentance of God that she so easily suffered her self to be seduced I told her That the Lord saith by the Prophet That an Oath must be taken in Truth Righteousness and Judgment Now she did not neither could swear in Truth because it was to a False Religion nor in Judgment in Wisdom and Discretion because she swore rashly and inconsiderately Therefore this Oath was Void in its own Nature and it could not bind her the Matter of it being Unlawful and Wicked At last being Convinced of her Error she was willing to Retract it But I told her That what she did she must do willingly and from a sincere penitent Frame of Heart She said She could and would freely out of Conviction of her Duty Renounce all Romish Opinions and Practices which she did openly with an Audible Voice affirming That she dyed a True Protestant So I took her by the Hand and Prayed again with her that God would pardon her former Levity and give her Perseverance in the True Faith which she had so solemnly re-imbraced This was the first Discovery of Proselyting condemned Malefactors at Newgate To prevent which Seduction Captain Richardson since this came to his Knowledge is very watchful and gives all his Officers a Charge to suffer none to come to Condemned Persons but only such whom they know to be Protestant-Divines and that alwayes an Officer be present to hear what passes in Discourse V. Mr. Pickering I Had discourse with him before his Execution but he would not permit me to pray with him only desired my Prayers at Home for him which I promised him and he Thanked me I was present at his Execution because he was Hanged after three other ordinary Malefactors When he came out of the Sledge into the Cart He had a great Flushing in his Face I apprehended by his Words and Gesture that he had Elevated his Artificial Courage or rather sunck himself into a Sullenness by taking Cordyal-Spirits For he was unconcerned at the Approach of his own Death and no way affected with his monstrous Crime With an impudent Face a lying Tongue and anticke Carriage he Denyed what he was Condemned for and Asserted his Innocency He was reproved by the Sheriffs for such impudent Lying having had a fair Tryal and found Guilty of the whole Indictment charged upon him Yet so
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
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