The compendium, or, A short view of the late tryals in relation to the present plot against His Majesty and government with the speeches of those that have been executed : as also an humble address, at the close, to all the worthy patriots of this once flourishing and happy kingdom.

Mr. Turner's Speech.

BEing now, good People, very near my End, and summon'd by a violent Death to appear before God's Tribunal, there to render an account of all my thoughts, words, and actions, before a just Judge, I conceive I am bound in Conscience to do my self that Justice, as to declare upon Oath my Innocence from the horrid Crime of Treason, with which I am falsely accused: And I esteem it a Duty I owe to Christian Charity, to publish to the World before my death, all that I know in this point, concerning those Catholicks I have conversed with since the first noise of the Plot, desiring from the bottom of my heart, that the whole Truth may appear, that Innocence may be clear'd, to the great Glory of God, and the Peace and Welfare of the King and Country. As to my self, I call God to VVitness, that I was never in my whole life present at any Consult or Meeting of the Jesuits, where any Oath of Secrecy was taken, or the Sacra∣ment, as a Bond of secresy, either by me or any one of them, to conceal any Plot against His Sacred Majesty; nor was I ever pre∣sent at any Meeting or Consult of theirs, where any proposal was made, or Resolve taken or signed, either by me or any of them, for taking away the Life of our dread Soveraign; an impiety of such a nature, that had I been present at any such Meeting, I should have been bound by the Laws of God, and by the Principles of my Religion, (and by God's Grace would have acted accordingly) to have dicove∣red such a devilish Treason to the civil Magistrate, to the end they might have been brought to condign punishment. I was so far, good people, from being in September last at a Consult of the Jesuits at Tixall, in Mr. Ewer's Chamber, that I vow to God, as I hope for Salvation, I never was so much as once that year at Tixall, my Lord Astons House. 'Tis true, I was at the Congregation of the Jesuits held on the 24th. of April was twelve month, but in that meeting, as I hope to be saved, we meddled not with State Af∣fairs, but only treated about the Concerns of our Province, which

is usually done by us, without offence to temporal Princes, every third Year all the VVorld over.

Sheriff How. You do only Justify your selves here. We will not be∣lieve a word that you say. Spend your time in Prayer, and we will not think our time too long.

I am, good People, as free from the Treason I am accused of, as the Child that is unborn, and being innocent I never accused my self in Confession of any thing that I am charged with, Certainly, if I had been conscious to my self of any Guilt in this kind, I should not so franckly and freely, as I did, of my own accord, have pre∣sented my self before the Kings Most Honourable Privy Coun∣cil. As for those Catholicks which I have conversed with since the noise of the Plot, I protest before God, in the words of a dying Man, that I never heard any one of them, either Priest or Layman, ex∣press to me the least knowledg of any Plot, that was then on foot amongst the Catholicks, against the King's Most Excellent Majesty, for the advancing the Catholick Religion. I die a Roman Catholick, and humbly beg the Prayers of such, for my happy passage into a better Life. I have been of that Religion above Thirty years, and now give God Almighty infinite thanks for calling me by his holy Grace to the knowledge of this Truth, notwithstanding the preju∣dice of my former Education. God of his infinite Goodness bless the King, and all the Royal Family, and grant his Majesty a prosperous Reign here, and a Crown of Glory hereafter. God in his mercy forgive all those which have falsely accused me, or have had any hand in my Death; I forgive them from the bottom of my heart, as I hope my self for forgiveness at the Hands of God.