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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28822	A mirrour of mercy and judgement, or, An exact true narrative of the life and death of Freeman Sonds Esquier [sic], sonne to Sir George Sonds of Lees Court in Shelwich in Kent who being about the age of 19, for murthering his elder brother on Tuesday the 7th of August, was arraigned and condemned at Maidstone, executed there on Tuesday the 21. of the same moneth [sic] 1655.	R. B. (Robert Boreman), d. 1675.	1655 (1655)	Wing B3759; ESTC R32573	28,004	41

and Parents to their children Too much severity and too much remissenesse from them hath destroyed many Some hearts like clay are hardened by the Sun-shine of favours and gentlenesse To say with that old Eli Why do ye so to say this and no more with a gentle voyce when the sin deserves the thunder of a bold and Majestick reprehension or more such an easie reproof doth encourage wickednesse and makes it measure it selfe by that sleight censure and thinks it selfe light because it finds no greater weight from its reprover As it is with ill humors that a weak Dose doth but stirre and anger them and not bring them off so it fareth with sins acted by inferiors some whereof being of a greater magnitude and deeper stain get growth and encrease by remissenesse To trouble you no more with a farther glosse upon your confession I shall only adde this as a caution to all parents They that are indulgent are cruell to themselves and their posteritie Had you been more severe you might have had two Sons living to be the prop of your family and lesse sorrow which is augmented by your reflecting on your indulgency and loving care of them which by them was as it seemes abused and not improved to that height of pietie as was by you their Father intended I hope this complicate sin in you and them hath met with a gratious pardon from the God of mercy your Father which is in heaven who will in his good time drie up the stream of your sorrow which now runs full so that I conceive it vaine to oppose counsell or to go about to stop that torrent which will runne over the banks of nature and never cease till it be bounded with grace and comfort from the God of patience I confesse such losses the losse of Children when they come single afflict us but when double astonish and overwhelm our Spirits even to impatience A Wife is a mans self divided Children himself multiplied and at one blow to loose all is enough to batter the greatest courage and it is a mercy if that man bee not with immoderate grief distracted But good sir remember that saying of that brave Spartane Lady who hearing of the death of her two Sons in one day onely replyed thus with an undaunted courage though in another language peperimortales What newes is it for those that carry death in their names and natures to die no more hath it befallen them then was expected But so was not your Sons death it was sodain and unexpected and as providence or foresight abates grief and discountenances a crosse so now that you could not foresee this bloody storm by so much must your grief be augmented I professe I mourn with you in secret and at this hour tears are ready to mingle with mine Ink and could I mitigate your sorrow by bearing a part with you I wish my burden might be your ease but let me tell you that now is the tryal of your spirit and Christianity you are now in the lists set upon by a Lion and a Bear two of Gods fierce afflictions one Sonne murthered another executed notwithstanding this shew your fortitude and patience and hereby approve to us in this great difficultie and heavy strait that you have all this while been a Christian in earnest Resigne up your self and all that you have to God to be disposed by him the doner according to his good will and pleasure say with those humble ones to Saint Paul the will of the Lord be done Acts 21.14 And be ready to suffer patiently more for him who hath done and suffered so much for your salvation Our Lord Christ for the glory that was set before him endured the Crosse and despised the shame Heb. 12.2 This text your Son had in his mouth a little before his death and what I then said to him I repeat to you so long as glory may redound to God by his shameful death upon a Gibbet do you take comfort and glory in it Resolve hence-forward to act what the noble Matron in St. Hierom once said and did when she had at one time the corps of her dead husband and the bodies of her two onely Sons slain in the field exposed to her view onely replyed thus with weeping eies by this I shall learne to take off my heart from the world and serve my God with more attention and greater devotion being more frequent n praier and reading of his holy word Thus did she and thus if you do putting into practice that counsell which Daniel gave to the King of Babylon Dan. 4.24 Then will God when he sees it fit and the times being in his hands his seasons are best Then will God turn the darknesse of your sorrow into brightnesse of joy your sadnesse into comfort he will do by you as he did by Job He will blesse your latter end more then your beginning and in the end of your daies you shall close up your eies with full assurance of enjoying the soul-ravishing presence and beholding the saving countenance of Christ in Heaven Where when you shal see your Son with greater sinners then he that repented crown'd with immortality and advanced to glory you shall have a just cause to say and sing with them in the Revelation Chap. 15.3 Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy waies thou King of Saints Chap. 7.12 Blessing and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen To this God Almighty the God of Consolation who is able to comfort and to keep you from falling and present you faultlesse before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy I commend your sad soul and rest Your loving though unknown friend to serve you in the Lord Jesus R. BOREMAN From my Brothers house in Teston 24. Aug. 1655. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF FREEMAN SONDS Esq c. Christians WHen you hear or read his name you wil look for a Monster in Nature or as the Pharisee once said one not like other men Luk 10.11 So horrid so unheard of so unnaturall was the fact that I confesse when I first made my addresses to him at Mr. Fosters house in Maidstone I plainly told him that I expected to see the head of a Monster a Bear or a Tigre see upon the shoulders of a man So amazed even to misbeliefe was I at the first report of the murther For who would think that Brethren and they but two nurs'd up in the lap of Religion and bosomes of the Church should not love each other dispersed love that is cut into many streams grow's weak but fewnesse of Objects useth to unite affections And if two Brothers be left alive of many wee think that the love of all the rest should center and survive in them and that the beams of their affection should be so much the better because they reflect mutually in a

his Family conveyed to the Keepers house and the next day being Thursday the 9th of this Month brought to the Bar after his pre-examination before Sr. Michael Livesly Sr. Tho. Stiles with other Justices where the Indictment was read that charged him upon the two Statutes of Stabbing Murther and being asked what he could plead for himself against the charge of kiling his brother he cryed Guilty and shewed a great willingness to suffer death for that barbarous fact as appear'd by his mild composed behaviour then at the barre which strook the Judges and Justices with the other Gentlemen of the County then present with an astonishing amazement Having thus pleaded guilty he was carried to the Dungeon in the Gaole where condemned persons are alwaies put whither divers persons resorted unto him and finding him in that loathsome place there being nothing but a Jakes to sit upon asked him if he were not sick and how he could endure it He replyed That it was more pleasant to him then his Fathers Dining-room which is as I hear a place of great Magnificence nor drank one drop till tenne at night so soberly patient was he then and all the time of his imprisonment till death From the Dungeon he was carried that night to Master Fosters house again and the next morning being Friday August 10. condemned to die after which sentence the Judge having advertised him to consider the foulnesse of his fact demanded of him the motives he had to commit it and pressed him thereunto for the clearing of his Conscience and satisfaction of the Country Whereupon he answered That he had done it in his examination before the Justices The Judge reflecting then upon him put this question to him Whether he had nothing else to say to testifie his remorse for his horrid murther He then being slow of speech and of a reserved nature made no answer but delivered the Petition to the under Sheriffe Master Maurice Eede to present it to the Judge who at the Petitioners request caused the same to be read in Court which was accordingly effected A Copy of the Petition To the right Honorable the Judge and the rest of the Honorable Justices of the peace for the Assize and Goal-delivery holden at Maidstone The humble Petition of Freeman Sonds Humbly sheweth THat your condemn'd Petitioner finding the guilt of the blood of his Brother crying for judgement and that according to the Law and justice a decree is passed against him for death Therefore in respect of the shortnesse of the time since your Petitioner committed this horrid murther and finding the guilt and sin to be so great before God and man he humbly in due obedience to your Honours beseecheth you in the bowells of mercy and tender commiseration of him in Jesus Christ that your Honours would be pleased to adde a few daies longer to his life that in a deeper and more sensible apprehension of his fact he may more penitently in remorse and sorrow of conscience make his peace with God and reconcile himself to his deservedly and highly offended Father that so not onely he may die in a more setled peace of conscience but also testifie unto the world the sincerity of his Petition And he shall pray c. Freeman Sonds To this Petition the Honorable Judge Crook condescended so far as to defer his death till Wednesday the 15. of August this was assign'd onely by word of mouth and not by speciall warrant which together with many weighty reasons referring to the poor soul of the condemn'd and to clear some scandalous reports thrown upon his Father and him by a wicked foul-mouth'd servant these with the two forenamed letters from Sir George Sonds to the High-Sheriffe in the behalf of his Sonne were the cause that the young Gentleman was not on that day executed He had a weeks reprieve from Wednesday till Tuesday the next week and was executed on that day fortnight on which his Brother by him was murthered In all which time how he demeand himself in sighs and tears and groanes in his bed in mournfull confessions and prayers to God and in frequent reading of his holy word especially such Psalmes Chapters as were commended by several Divines to his Devotions this was evident and well known to us who in our private prayers and exhortations endeavoured the conviction and conversion of his soul to God who is the Father of mercies and forgivenesse and never rejected penitent and humble sinners which made Saint Austine thus bespeak him in his devout Meditations Et si ego commisi unde me damnare potes at tu non amisisti unde salvare soles Although Lord I have commit that for which thou mightest justly damn me yet there is mercy with thee which thou still retainest for which I hope thou wilt save me And again Si ad veniam nos vocasti veniam non quaerentes quanto magis veniam impetrabimus postulantes Seeing thou hast inviited us to accept of a mercifull pardon when we did not seek it how much more shall we find mercy when wee earnestly sue for it Thus he in his meditations C. 39. It is not in the power of man to outsinne mercy I except that peccatum ad mortem 1 Joh. 5.16 that sin unto death that sin which he that is born of God sinneth not v. 18. I mean that damning sin against the Holy Ghost which is as Zanchy determines it an open and malicious rejecting of the truth or opposition of God's word against the light of knowledge and that opposition joyn'd with an hostil persecution of those that are the defenders of it Saint Paul then Saul when he was a persecutor and Blasphemer 1 Tim. 15. came near this sin as Calvin proves acutely on the 1 Ioh. 5. but doing what he did ignorantly through unbeliefe hee was exempted from the staining guilt of it Now so long as this Gentleman could not bee charged with this sin which carries death and damnation in the nature of it and for as much too as all godly Ministers in Kent and other parts thought him fit to be put into their publick prayers no man can be so wanting to Christian charity as not to entertain a beliefe or hope of his Salvation especially when they may charitably conclude from his ensuing humble confession as also from his daily practises in Prison of which you shall have an account from his praiers and holy purposes of redeeming the time he vainly spent if God spared his life of which he had no hope and lastly from his godly precepts which I took from his mouth and set down in writing before his death from all these may be inferred that God who gave him grace to repent hath crown'd his Repentance with reception into mercy and forgivenesse His confession taken from his mouth on munday the 13 th of August by Mr. Edmond Crisp a Gentleman who is a picture of a true friend another Achates a pattern of fidelity