THE LAST SPEECH, Of that Pious and ●…ned Divine Mr. JOHN HICKS: Who was Executed at Glassenbury, Octob. 1685.  
I Suppose the spectators here present expect I should speak something before I leave this sanguinary stage and pass through my bloody sufferings, by which my immortal spirit will be speedily transported into an invisible and eternal world. And I conclude they have different resentments thereof, that some resent them with much joy with high exaltations and triumphs, others with equal grief and sorrow: that to the one I am a most pleasant spectale and they behold me with high complacencye and delight; that to the other I am a mouthful and unpleasant one, and that they behold me with no less pity and compassion: concerning the first I can say I freely forgive them, and hearty pray that God most mercifully and graciously, will prevent their mourning through misery not only here but to eternity hereafter.  
Concerning the other I will say weep for your sins and for the sins of the Nation, for the highest rebellions that ever were committed against the eternal God. Lament bitterly for those sins that have been the meritorious cause of the late terrible judgement, & which I fear will provoke God to break in upon this Nation with an inundation and overflowing deluge of judgements, which are far more tremendous and dreadful, and for sympathizeing with me in drinking this bitter cup appointed for me, I return you most humble and hearty thanks, and earnstly desire God to flow into and fill your souls with all, celestial and spiritual consolations.  
Some thing I must say before I die to purge and clear myself from some false accusations laid to my charge as that I was engaged with Capt. Blood in rescueing of Capt. Mason when he was sent down from London to York to be tried for high treason, that I was the man that killed the Barber of that City who traveled with them, and also that I was with him when he stole the Crown. Now as I am a dying man and upon the brinck of a stupendious eternity, the reality and truth whereof I firmly believe without any mental reservation or the least equivocation, I do declare in the presence of the all seeing God that impartial judge before whom in a little time I must appear, that I never saw, nor conversed with Tho. Blood from the year 1656. till after he had stolen the Crown which was in the year 1671 or there about in the year 1672. Nor was ever in the least engaged with him in any of his treasonable plots or practices.  
'Tis true I being most injuriously & wrongfully involved in great troubles of another nature, of which I have given an account to the world in a printed narrative, and which is notoriously known in the country where then I lived, by some which were grand enemies to me for my preaching, I was persuaded to apply myself to Mr. Blood, to procure by his intercession his 〈◊〉 Majesty's grace and favour for me. Accordingly he brought me into his Royal presence, whilst I was in it his Majesty expressed himself with great clemency and mercy towards me without expressing one word of what I am charged with, after Mr. Blood came from his Majesty (he continuing a little longer with him than I did) he told me he had granted me my pardon, which I did most thankfully accept, knowing it would free me from all penalties and troubles I was obnoxious to, which were occasioned by my nonconformity. I then engaging him, to take out my pardon, he told me he would put me into one with several others that had been engaged with him in several treasonable designs and actions, at which I was troubled fearing it might be imputed to me thereby, & though I did acquiesce therein for the present, yet God knows I have often 〈◊〉 reflected upon it with great regret and dissatisfaction. If Mr. Blood did inform the late King for this end to make himself the more considerable, (he endeavouring to bring in as many of his party as he could to accept their pardon that they might be rendered utterly unable of Plotting any further mischief against his Person or Government) or any other, that was engaged with him in any of his treasonable attempts: I appeal to God in it he hath done me an irreparable wrong. Also after the same manner do I declare that I was never the least engaged with any party in plotting designing or contriving any treason or rebellion against the late King, and particularly that I was altogether unconcerned and unacquainted with that for which the Lord Russel and others suffered; and as much a Stranger to the last against the present King, till it was ready to be put in Execution and whereas it was reported of me. That at Tanton I persuaded the late Duke of Monmouth to assume the title of King, I do as solemnly declare that I saw not the said Duke, nor had any converse with him till he came to Shipton Mallet which was 13 days after he landed, and several days after he had been at Tanton. It is also false that I road to and fro in the West to persuade men to go into his Army and rebel against his present Majesty, for I was in the East Country, when the Duke landed, and from thence I went directly when he was at Shipton Mallet, not one man accompanying me from thence thither. As I have live so I die owning and professing the true reformed Christian commonly (called the Protestant) Religion, which is founded upon the pure written word of God only, which I acknowledge likewise to be comprehended in the thirty nine Articles of the Doctrine of the Church of England. This Religion I have made a rational and free choice of and have heart'ly embraced, not only as it protests against all Paganism and the Mahometan Religion, but against the corruption of the Christian especially in its essentials.  
And I humble and earnestly pray unto God, that by his infinite wisdom and almighty power, he would prevent not only the utter extirpation, but the least diminution thereof, by the groweth and prevalency of what is contrary to it, (in the utter abhorrence whereof as I have lived so now I die) and for that end the Lord make the professors of it, to live more up to its principles and rules, and bring their hearts and conversations more under the Governing power of the same. I die also owning my Ministerial Nonconformisty, (for which I have suffered so much, and which now doth obstruct the King's grace and mercy to be manifested and extended to me) for as I chose it not (concerning which I now appeal to God as a dying man] from sullenness, or humour, or a factious temper, or from principles of Education, or for secular interest or worldly advantage, but purely from the dictates of my own conscience, and as judging it to be the cause of God, and to have more of divine truth in it, then that which is contrary thereunto, so now I see no cause to repent of, or to recede and departed from it, not questioning, but God will own it at the last day of judgement. If no more had been required after the late King's restauration, to qualify Ministers for public preaching, then was after the first Reformation to the time of Charles the First, probably I might have satisfied myself there with, and not have scrupled conformity thereto. But the terms and conditions thereof by a Parliamentary Law in 1662. being made not only new, but so strict and severe, I could never yet have satisfaction in my own conscience, (after all endeavouts used) for a compliance therewith and submission thereunto. To say nothing of the Covenant (which I never took) the renouncing of my ordination and giving unfeingend assent and consent, have been always to difficult and hard for me to come up to.  
And I do very well remember about 14 years ago entering into a discourse with Mr. Patrick Sheriden then an Irish Dean (and who was my contemporary in Dublin College) concerning conformity (which he much endeavoured to persuade me to) I urged the severity of the fore mentioned conditions against it, and after some debates and reasonings, I told him I did believe they were contrived designedly and on purpose to keep us out of the Church, and to prevent our public Ministry, to which he ingeniously replied, he judged it was, for said he a Bishop in Ireland (whose name I have forgot) told and the very same. But though I could not wade through and conquer those difficulties yet I censure not those that have done it, and I believe after all the hottest disputes the most vehement debates and violent contests betwixt conformists and conconformists, here, there are of both that will be glorified in heaven hereafter. According to that 19 Article of the Church of England, (a visible Church is a congregation of faithful men in the which the pure Word of God is preached, the Sacraments duly administered according to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same) so with such Churches I have held the most intimate communion, and which such (were I to live) could hold it as occasion should require.  
I would not therefore be so incorporated with any such Church, as to exclude me from and render me uncapable of holding communion with other Churches. I was never strictly bound up to any form of Ecclesiastical Government, that under which pure and undefiled Religion doth flourish, that which contenances, and cherisheth real practical holiness, and advanceth the Kingdom of God in the World, I can approve of, submit to, and peaeably live under, were I to live.  
I do approve of the ancient and present form of civil Government. English Monarchy, I am fully satisfied with, and I do also declare that it is not warrantable, for subjects to take up Arms and resist their Lawful and rightful Sovereign Princes, and therefore had I not been induced by several things I have read and heard, to belive the late Duke of Monmouth was the legitimate Son of his Father Charles the Second, I had never gone into his Army, judging without this I could not be free the guilt of rebellion, which I always resolved to keep myself clear from, and though his Father denied he was married to his Mother, I thought it might be answered with this, that Kings and Princes for State reasons the depth whereof can not be fathomed by their subjects, may affirm or deny things which without them they would not do, and make even their natural affections to truckle and stoop thereto. I exhort all to abhor treasonable plots and practices, to have all rebellion in the highest detestation, to make the plain text, of Sacred writ their rule to walk by, in honouring obeying and living in subjection to rightful Kings, and not suddenly to receive nor to be suddenly impressed with evil reports and defamatious of them, also not rashly to be the Spreaders and Propagaters of the same. I desire God to forgive all my enemies and to give me a heart to forgive them, which are many, some mighty and all most malicious: particularly Barret of Fovent who betrayed me, and proved so treatherous to James Dun his old and intimate Friend. I die grievously afflicted that I should prove the occasion of the great sufferings of so many persons & families, but this hath fallen under the just and wise ordering of the divine providence, as David's going to Abimelech for some relief did, when it proved the occasion of his death, and all the Priests, with the destruction of men women and Children in the City. But who shall say unto God what dost thou. The care of my most dear wife and many dear children I cast upon God, who I hope will be better than the best of Husbands unto her, and better than the best of parents unto them. God knows how just and legal a right my wife hath unto her estate, to him therefore I commit her, to defend her from the violence and oppression of many, particularly of a most inhuman and, unnatural Brother: but no wonder if he will lay violent hands upon his Sister's Estate, that laid them so often on his own Father. I die a deeply humbled self judging, self condemning sinner, loathing and abhorring my many and great iniquities, and myself for them, earnestly desiring full redemption from the bondage of corruption under which I have groaned many years, longing for a perfect conformity to the most glorious holy God, the only infinitely pure being, thirsting for a perfect effusion of his image through all the powers and faculties of my soul, panting after perfect spiritual light, life and liberty, and a consummated love to my dearest Jesus the all comprehending good, and to be satisfied with his love for ever, a vigorous and a vehement zeal for the Protestant Religion, which a belief of the Duke's legitimacy hath involved me in that for which I am condemned. And though it hath brought me to this ignominious death, yet blessed be God that by sincere repentance and true faith in the blood of Jesus, there is a passage from it to a glorious, eternal life, and from those bitter sorrows to the fullness of sweetest joy that is in his presence, and from those sharp bodily pains to those most pure pleasures that are at his Right hand for ever more. Blessed be God that such a death as this cannot prevent and hinder Christ's changing my vile body and fashoning it according to his most glorious body at the general resurrection day. I am now going into that world where many dark things shall be made perfectly manifest and clear, and many doubtful things shall be resolved, with plenary satisfaction given concerning them, all disputes and mistakes concerning treason, and schism, shall there be at an end & cease for ever. Many things that are innocent lawful & laudable, often have foul marks and black characters stamped and fixed upon them here, but shall be perfectly purified and fully cleansed from them there, & where at one vieuw far more shall be known of them, then by all the wrangling debats and eager disputes, or by reading all polemical books concerning them here. I greatly deplore and bewail the greedy appetite and unsatiable thirst of some professing Protestants after the blood of their Brothers, and the high pleasures they take in the effusion thereof, but what will not men do when they are judicially blinded, or their secular worldly interest so insensibly insinuates and winds itself into their Religion, is so twisted and incorporated wiith, animates and acts it, is the life and soul, the vital form and power of it, and it is made wholly subservient and subordinate there unto. I bless God for all my sufferings, and particularly for this last, for the benefits and fruits of them, by Gods sanctifing them to me, hath been very great: for thereby I have been made more effectually convinced of the vanity of this world, and of my own sinfulness by nature, and by practice, and to see that to be sin which I never saw before: to be more throughly humbled for what I knew to be sin, not only of commission but of omission also: thereby I have also been brought to a more inward sense and feeling the absolute necessity of the righteousness of Christ to justify me, and he hath been made much more dear and precious to my soul then ever he was before: hereby my soul hath been refined from the dross of sensuality and wrought into a more heavenly frame, raised up to a higher pitch of spirituality, and made more to aspire towards invisible & immortal things: thereby I am made more meek and humble, and to judge more charitably of others that differ from me in opinion and judgement. So that though by Gods most righteous judgements I have been apprehended & most justly & deservedly undergo these sufferings for my sins; yet I hope they have wrought for me a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory, fitting & preparing me & making me a better qualified person & subject, and far more meet to be partaker of the same. Through the grace and strength of God, I will not purchase my life by the death and blood of my Protestant Brothers, but will choose rather to die then to be a betrayer of them. The imperious and violent assault of this temptation I dreaded more than death itself, blessed be God therefore that I was not exposed unto und conquered by it, as some have sadly been. I having such full bodily vigour and strength and being in such perfect health, that I know no quality notwithstanding my age predominant in me, it hath made it much more difficalt to die, then if I had been clogged and cumbered with infirmity and made to bow and stoop under habitual prevailing diseases and distempers, gradually worn out there with (which many times makes men weary of life and to choose death before it) and this in conjunction with many things (which I forbear to mention) highly grateful and pleasing unto sense (which I must leave for ever) strengthens & heightens the difficulty and begets a greater regret and reluctancy in my will to have the earthly tabernacle of my body dissolved, and my soul dislodged and quit the same. But now when the black and glumy shades of death do overspread me I can say to the praise and glory of Gods most free and powerful grace, that faith in some measure, changing the difficulties into a facility and easiness of dying, hath very much subdued the reluctance of my will against it, for it makes future things present, invisible things, visible, & doth realize and substantiate the same unto me. And as by it I penetrate and pace into eternity, and behold immersible and immortal things, so hereby blessed be God I have obtained a greater victory over sense, the world is more crucified unto me and I unto it, and all the most pleasant delightful things and comforts therein. All finite fading creature comforts are become minute, small, despicable and contemptible to me in comparaison hereof, being infinitely contained and comprehended therein: shall my soul clasp and cling about these perishing things, shall it cling and be glued to them, shall it be confined and captivated unto what is kept within the narrow bounds of time, and the lower world, shall it earnestly desire and thirst after muddy streams, yea rivers of flesh pleasing good, when by an eye of faith I can look into the in lesicient & inexhaustible pure fountain, immense immeasurable Ocean of supreme divine goodness, hoping to drink there of. To swim and bathe myself for ever therein, & when I consider how long my ears have been bound up to hear innumerable and horrid Oathts, curses, blasphemies, and my eyes to see the profanation of so many days of God, & when I behold such an overflowing of flood of most prodigious impiety, such an inundation of monstrous iniquity, and so much of hell upon earth, and that there is such a decay of holyzeal, true piety and Christian Religion among the Professors of it, it hath a powerful influence on my soul to reconcile it more unto death, and make me affectually and from choice to leave this visible World, to dwell and take up my abode in that which is un seen, and future, for there shall be nothing but perfect purity and holiness, a sinless state, a serving of God with all unweariedness and perfection, with highest complacency & delight, that mortal souls are capable of. There is perfect peace and concord; there are innumerable company of Angels, & the spirits of just men made perfect, all fastened together with indissolvable & interruptible chains of most sweet and pure love, and all continually wrapped up in and transported to the highest admiration of God's love, his infinite and comprehensible excellencies, and perfections singing Hallelujah to him, without ceasing and Triumphing in his praises for ever and ever. The consideration also that I know so little of the sublime and profound divine mysteries of the most glorious mystery of Salvation by Jesus Christ, and that I am so uncapable of to fathom the depth of the providence of God whose ways are in the sea, and his paths in the deep waters and whose foot steps are unknown, and particularly of the late most stupendious and amazing one. And that I am so ignorant of the nature of Angels and Spirits with their offices & operations & of the high & glorious excellency appropriate & and peculiar to that order, that I am so little acquainted with the nature of my own soul as at present dwelling with and united to my body: and as disunited and separated from it, how with out corporel organs it shall vivaciously & vigorously performs all its proper functions and offices more strongly & indefatigably serve the Lord more fervently and abundantly delight in him, every way attain the suprerm end of its creation and being. This makes me much more willing to die, that I may have the knowledge thereof, with innumerable other things that I am now ignorant of or do but imperfectly know, completed and perfected, and so be made happy, by a plenitude and fullness of intellectual pleasures, which of all others are most suitable sweet and satisfing to immortal souls. When I also see that he that departs from iniquity makes himself a prey, and so many engulf and plung themselves into the depth of wickedness, lest they should make themselves odious and vile, (so accounted) which makes them so much to degenerate not only from Christianity but humanity also, as if they where scarce the excressence of either, abandoning even that most noble generous heroic spirit, that hath dwelled in many hearthens, who counted it most honourable and glorious to contend for their countries' rights and libertyes, yea to suffer death & the worst of deaths in defence of the same, and judging them most accursed execrable horrid villains that do so & not only so, but for their own private advantage, though many of them enslave their posterity by it, are most industrious & laborious, most fierce & furious in destroying them, whereby they are become as unnatural children that seek the ruin of their parents that begat them and brought them forth, or they that lay violent hands upon themselves, dashing out there own brains, cutting their own throats, hanging and drowning themselves ripping up their own bowels. They being in a different sense but children and members of that body politic they design and attempt the death & destruction of: and when I know not how long the duration and continuance of these things shall be, or a conclusion and end by God (who by an infallible and unerring wisdom governs the World) shall be put there to; why shall my soul be unwilling to take its flight into the unseen and eternal World, where no such sordid & impious things (most in congruous unto & unbecoming nature) shall be seen & found, and where I shall behold no narrow convulsive contracted souls, that habitually perfer their private before a public Good. But all most unanimously and equally concentring in one common universal Good; and where the sighs groans and tears of the afflicted shall be heard no more for ever. I earnestly exhort all most highly to prize & value time, diligently to improve it to externity, to be wise seriously and seasonably, to consider there latter end, for though by the irreparable & irrevesible Law of Heaven we must all die, yet we know not how where nor when; to live with their souls full of solicitude & care, and with the most deep concernedness, and while you have time & opportunity, means of grace, health and strength to make sure of those two great things viz.  
1. What merits for you a right and title to eternal life and the future unchangeable blessedness, and that is the redeemers most precious blood, and righteousness; and therefore let there be a sincere application and imputation thereof unto you by believing.  
2. That which makes you qualified subjects for it, and that is the great work of regeneration wrought in your souls, & a being renewed in the Spirit of your minds, the having the divine nature imprinted on you, a repairing of the decayed image of God in you; the transformation into his own likeness, whereby they may mind and Savour more of the things of the Spirit, than the things of the flesh, celestial & heavenly more than the terrene & earthy: superior more then inferior things, and here with to have a holy life and conversation conjoined that results and springs, from the same as fruits from the feeds and roots, and acts from the habit, let all in order thereunto seriously consider those few Texts of Sacred Scripture, let them be deeply transcribed upon your souls, let them be assimulated thereunto, be made the written Epistle, the lively picture & portraiture thereof Matth. 5: 8. blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God, verse 20. for I say unto you except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of God, John. 3: 3. and Jesus said unto him except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, 1 Cor. 6: 9 know ye not that the unrighteous shall not enter into the Kingdom of God, be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers & verse 11. such were some of you but now ye are washed ye are sanctified 5 Gal. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24. James 18. of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures, 1 Pet. 1: 23. being born again no● of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abided for ever & 3 Coll. 1, 2. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, & set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth, 5 Gal. 24. & they that aer Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof: 2 Ephes. 1. and you hath be quickened who were dead in Trespasses & in sins: 2. Revel. 6. Rom. 8.1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus etc. 1 Pet. 1: 15. But as he that hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation 4. Ps. 3. But know that the Lord hath set a part him that is God by for himself, I shall mention no more, the Holy Bible abounds with those texts, which shows what renovation and change of our carnal and corrupt nature and hearts there must be. with holiness of life and conversation before we can be capable of a future blessed immortality and of inheriting he Kingdom of God for ever.