Love Honour and Obey this Lord that has Redeem'd you with his Precious Blood shed upon the Cross his Meritorious Righteousness learn to hear and know his Voice he speaks to you in your Bibles by Faithful Ministers by your own Consciences by his Spirit by Sound Christians if you seek to get into their Company their Houses yea their Hearts by enquiring of them concerning his Will Nay sure he calls you by your Dying Parent now to come to him that you may have Life to prefer him before this World before childish Sports and Vanity Oh my Aking Heart for you my Yearning Bowels towards you what a World of Snares and Wickedness have you to pass thro' What a Life probably of Labour Contempt and Poverty to undergo and of Persecution too if you will live Godly in Christ Jesus What a Subtle Devil to resist Cunning and Malicious to cheat and destroy you To whom shall I leave you to whose Care and Conduct You have been sometime without a Father on Earth shortly you 'll be without a Mother too Will you not seek a Father in Heaven Oh chuse Christ Jesus he 'll be a Friend a Portion a Guard a Guide Honours Pleasures all things yea more and better than all things to you in him God will be your Father Oh Blessed Trinity in Unity wilt thou accept my I hope now unfeigned Dedication of these my poor Children to thee Oh Son of God wilt thou be their Saviour from Sin and from Eternal Death Oh Blessed Spirit wilt thou early Enlighten strongly Incline and powerfully Enable them to chuse God for their Portion Jesus for their Prince and Saviour thy Word for the Rule of their Life Shall my Unworthy Prayer be heard on the Account of my Saviour for these my Distressed Children Oh then I 'll no longer call them forsaken no nor think them so the Lord is their Shepherd they shall not want Well had I my Life again my Tender Hearts would I not again Travel in Birth with you till Christ were formed on you were you not Happy think you if you were in such a case will you not be happy Children if your God be the Lord Well then as you love your Souls Pray dayly Early Earnestly that you may be Renewed in the Spirit of your Minds Pray till you find a Return of your Prayers Pray till you can understandingly and truly say you need no more Grace no more Aids against Corruption no more Help in Religious Duties no more Wisdom and Resolution to contest against the Devil who will be always Tempting you then I 'm sure you 'll from this time to your latest Breath on Earth and in all likelyhood till you breath Praises in Heaven If you pray aright pray earnestly believe those Honest Christians that tell you there are Joys in Religion above the Joys of Harvest not to the Formal Sluggish Inconstant Trifling Christian I believ but to the Diligent Must you not work in this World to maintain you will you not work for Eternity much more with what words shall I Excite you will not my Death my Doubts my Danger of Everlasting Death excite you Oh I exceedingly Fear and Tremble lest your hard Heart should barr out or despise my wholsome Councel how oft has Heaven Thundred in my Ears and yet I dead in Trespasses and Sins arose not to call upon my God I started indeed once in my dead Sleep but the World Flesh and Devil soon Lull'd me asleep again faster than I was before on the Pillow of Carelessness and Security Now by waking Pains I pay for that Lethargick Sleep Come cast a Look with me into Eternity see if that will move you Oh that I could leave you the Eyes wherewith I now see but use your own I mean the Eyes of your Mind to look into Eternity Such Thoughts will Instruct and make you Wise Thoughts of your Temporal Death may stir you up to lay hold on Everlasting Life Keep Death always in view of your Minds so whenever it seizes it shall not surprize you If you shall fear at any time henceforward when you are reading this Paper that I 'm gone to the Blackness of Darkness for ever where God is only known by the Vengeance which he Executeth where the Damned drink Eternally of Rivers of Flaming Brimstone and keep Company with Spiteful Fiends in endless Despair Will you not be afraid to follow tho' it were a Mother to that Eternal Prison Or how can I bear the Thought that you should come to share yet not alleviate but sharpen Torments before Intolerable To Curse my former Negligence towards you and your own Neglects of my present Advice in so doleful a Place in such dreadful Company for ever Oh take Heed better Ten Thousand times better a Millstone were hang'd about your Necks and you cast into the Depths of the Sea But if you can believe from this Copy of my Mind that I 'm gone to Heaven the place of Everlasting Joys will you not take my foregoing Advice wherein I have mark'd you out the Strait and Narrow Way thither Oh if you do who can tell the Joys shall attend our Meeting in those chearful Regions that never know a Storm nor so much as fear a Cloud Blest with the most Healthful Refreshing Airs of Gods Countenance Water'd with the Rivers of Pleasures that flow at his Right Hand Oh how shall we there Rejoyce Eternally together Oh that I could prevail with you to Meditate some time every day upon Eternity Your Mother in a few Hours will be swallow'd up therein will not that draw your Thoughts a little thither Oh that you might be Haunted as it were whereever you go with the Thoughts of Death and Eternity I see Death marching towards me every Hour and Moment and is it not thus marching towards you and all the World whether they Eat Drink Sleep or Play I see my Judge seated on his Throne will he not be yours likewise having Eyes as a Flame of Fire which will pierce into all the Secrets both of mine and your Hearts and Actions I see methinks my own Conscience unfolded and as it were compar'd with Gods Omniscience where all I have done in the Body is Recorded and is there not in Heaven a Register kept of your Actions too I hear the Devil as it were charging all my Sins against me at Gods Barr Asserting my Services to his Interest and puting in an High Challenge to me as his own Will he not serve you so think you if you serve him I would think I hear on the other side the Blood of Jesus pleading for my Ransom from Eternal Death and Hell as being made a Penitent Believer This is all the Life I have in Death Will you not want it at your Deaths may you not have it in your Lives In short I see as it were Hell naked before me and Destruction without a Covering I see Heaven fill'd with Crowned Martyrs Triumphing Saints and Shining Angels all swallow'd up in the Light and Love of the Glorious Jehovah And now what Hope and Fear fills my Head and Heart I can't certainly determine which is my Place and what my Portion I liv'd neglecting to determine this great Point 't is just if Heaven suffer me to dye doubting of it And will you dare to do so can you like to dye so Oh now a World for such a Repentance as I could be assur'd I should never repent of were I to live in this World again as that I should hate Sin in my very Soul and burn it up with Jealousie and Indignation Oh for such a Love to God and Holiness as I could be assur'd if I were to live on Earth again would carry me thro' the Force of contrary Examples thro' the Fires of raging Persecution thro' the deepest Waters of Affliction thro' the strongest Contradictions of my own Corruption to Love Serve Honour Fear Obey Trust Reverence Desire Delight in the Living God Then would I welcome Death in its closest Attack and most dismal Shape yea I would leave this World with a more chearful Heart than ever I bore in it thro' my whole Life My Dear Children that I have any Hopes now of Pardon of my Sin Peace with God and Everlasting Life is owing to the abundant Riches of the Glory of Gods Grace Oh take you heed of Sinning that Grace may abound if you do you may come to rue it for ever But go I must hence whether I hop'd or no Time draws to a Close and calls me to bid you a long Farewel Farewel my Dear Children May your Souls be bound up in the Bundle of Life I commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace May the very God of Peace Sanctify you wholly and preserve you Blameless in Body Soul and Spirit to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Amen Amen Sign'd with my own Hand Mary Goodenough POSTSCRIPT I am in this Paper a Witness to you my poor Orphans of your Duty and Danger Oh force me not in as a Witness against you by your Carelessness and Obstinacy at the Great Tribunal whither I am now called and where you must shortly appear Read this Paper or get it Read to you by my Neighbour Thomas Bolt or Mrs. Mary Rose or such others as will teach you to Understand and Improve not to Contemn and Neglect it Read it over or a good Part of it every Lords Day be not asham'd of my Dying Confessions or Advice for they are the best Remains of your Dying Mother the only Legacy she has to leave you and if well Improv'd they will indeed yield you a Goodly Heritage FINIS
but Unhappiness But as to this I 'm less concern'd if you shall but make a good use of it endeavouring to humble your selves under that mighty Hand of the Just God which falls so heavy even upon you thro' me Consider this your Affliction is righteous with God since you also were born in Sin and that it may by your due Improvement be a means of greatest good to your Souls That which is my greatest Trouble with reference to you is that I have not only conceiv'd and brought you forth in Sin but have neglected the means I should have us'd for the changing of you from Darkness to Light and bringing you from under the Power of Satan unto God And tho' I have indeed brought you to Baptism therein professing to give you up to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit to be his true and faithful Servants and to engage you by that Solemn Vow against the World the Flesh and the Devil Yet I have not instructed you about that Ingagement nor call'd upon you to perform it Had I consider'd how much I my self stood oblig'd to God in my Baptism and by my farther Resolutions upon sometime hearing of my Duty from Mr. Birch I had never fallen into those Depths of Sin which have brought me into the Depths of Misery that at present cover me 'T is now my last time to call and your last time of hearing me call in the Land of the Living this Call is accented to you with Groans and Sighs from the deepest Bowels of a Dying Parent 'T is a Call to which God and all good Men witness to be your Duty yea to which your own Consciences will witness to be so If you diligently listen to them and do not stifle and harden them by sinning against them 't is a Call to the performance of what I have laid you under the most Solemn Vow and Oath to Almighty God to perform in your Baptism 'T is a Call of both of you so soon as ever you come to understand your selves to sign or take upon you your parts of that Baptismal Covenant which you are brought under according to the Direction given you in Page 155 of the Reverend Mr. Allein's Sure Guide to Heaven Which I herewith send you that you may have all the Blessings of that Covenant for your Heritage in this Life and the alsufficient God for your everlasting Portion If you take not upon you this Covenant so soon as you ripen in Understanding but shou'd go on to neglect it to your Lives end I testify to you both that your Baptism will prove no other than a strong Band to tye you faster to everlasting and aggravated Misery And take notice this Call to you to this your Duty is from one who feels every Sin cut deeper into her Soul by its having been acted against such a Vow so early laid upon me so reasonable so beneficial a Vow A Vow which had I kept would have kept me from those Sins which now as Spears pierce my Heart and are the poysoned Arrows that drink up my Spiritis A Vow which if kept by you will sweeten the bitterest Miseries of your Life yea the most harsh and terrifying Embraces of the most painful and linguering Death A Vow which ought to curb all your sinful Inclinations and to constrain you to all vertuous and religious Conversation in the World A Vow which greatens all the Sins that the World count little tho' they will not so account them I 'm sure when they come either to repent of or suffer for them eternally In short it is the Vow upon you in force of which I conjure you both deeply to consider and diligently to observe this my Dying Charge that you may live eternally Let not the Devil cheat you of your Youthful days with the Promise of a long Life to come wherein you shall serve God and save your Souls Let him not cheat you with the fair out-side of Profit Pleasure Ease or Esteem in Sin no nor with the hopes of Secresie Impunity or the hopes of an after and late Repentance This last believe me is most difficult to attain most dangerous to trust to And as to Secresie and Impunity in Sin both which were promis'd me by the Father of Lyes behold how I enjoy them whose Crimes are brought forth and punish'd in the sight of the Sun and then depend on them if you can or dare 'T is a Mercy I bless the God of Grace for that I enjoy'd them not Believe Gods Word which tells you a Companion of Fools shall be destroy'd Be you so wise for your selves as to be Companions of those that fear the Lord whilst you shun all idle Company or loose or profane with more care because more dangerous than Persons infected with the Plague The former will corrupt your Souls the latter do but threaten the corrupting of your Bodies I charge you as you will answer it at the Tribunal of the great God that you get and labour to understand the Catechisms I herewith send you Two Questions at least every Week out of them that the Elder of you teach it to the Younger whilst you are together Hence shall you learn what God would have you be believe and do the Ten Commandments Lords Prayer and Creed being there Thus shall you not be destroy'd for lack of Knowledge which want highly greatens my present Misery I farther charge you that you read some part of Gods Word daily diligently and reverently in your Bibles since according to that Word you must finally be Judg'd I charge you to keep the Lords Day holy to the Lord spending it in publickly hearing Gods Word where most soundly and affectionately Preached And in privately reading and meditating on that Word and in Prayer because God has promis'd great Blessings to those who keep that day from polluting it And because your religious Conversation all the Week depends much that I say not altogether upon this I charge you that you pray to God devoutly and fervently on the Morning and Evening of every day at least confessing the Sins of your Natures and the Sins of your Thoughts Words and Deeds begging Gods Pardon and his Renewing Grace that you may amend and grow fitter every day you live for Heaven when you dye Beg also in your Prayers Gods Protection Provision Guidance and Blessing as those who are sensible that on him you depend for Life and Breath and all things Renounce particularly in your Prayers the Black Siâ—s for which I dye and pray to God that he will not farther visit them upon you yea Watch and Pray that you enter not into Temptation to them Be content with what Condition God shall assign you in this World Besure you Love your Neighbours as your selves do no body the least Injury in Thought Word or Deed yea Love your Enemies even those I charge you who you may think had the first hand in your poor Mothers Death whom with all
FAIR WARNING TO Murderers of Infants BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE Tryal Codemnation and Execution OF Mary Goodenough AT THE Assizes held in Oxon in February 1691-92 TOGETHER With the Advice sent by her to her Children In a Letter Sign'd by her own Hand the Night before she was Executed with some Reflections added upon the whole Printed for the Publick Good LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson at the Sign of the Golden Lyon in St. Paul's Church-yard 1692 TO THE READER IT would grieve a Man to think how many's Curiosity will tempt them to buy this Paper how few's Consideration will lead them to make useful Application of it to themselves how many more will through a vainly censorious Wit charge the Publishing this Letter as a Trick to pick Pockets how few's Wisdom will conduct them to fall in with the direct Tendency it hath to enrich and ennoble their Minds whilst most it 's to be fear'd read such things with no more concern than Persons in Health read Quack-Doctors Bills and make no better use of them Yet he that hath an Ear to hear let him hear this Letter speaks by strong Consequence at least to the highest concerns of Mankind in general it lays open Mens greatest Mistakes about and misconducts of them Oh that they were wise that there were in all that shall read an heart to consider this In this Letter is wrap'd up most suitable Persuasions to the Youth of these Kingdoms to consider thoroughly of and engage themselves heartily in their Baptismal Covenant It gives an awakening Alarm to negligent Parents to instruct their Children in and conduct them diligently into the Paths of Heavenly Wisdom lest they deeply mourn at last as this poor Woman did their fatal Cruelty to their Childrens Souls This Letter suggests a Warning to Adulterers and Adulteresses to repent of and forsake their Crimes lest God bring them to repent by open shame as he did this poor Creature or suffer them to go on in a covert way to Hell It 's a Cry after the Backsliders in heart those who have had strong Convictions taken up good Resolutions and follow'd them for a while with a course of Amendment but are return'd with the Dog to his Vomit that they return to God from whom they have fallen lest he in Judgment give them up to commit enormous Sins to fali under dismal Punishments yea the most dismal of all final Impenitency Here 's a discharge to all their Hopes of the Favour of God and everlasting Life who are but formal hypocritical heartless Pretenders to Religion till their Hearts are renew'd as well as the Face of their Conversation reform'd And who amongst the dissolute profane and profligate part of Mankind can say but here 's a most passionate Cry to them that break and shake off the fatal Chains wherein the Devil is leading them down to the Chambers of Eternal Death In short there 's that in this Letter which may lead all to the most intimately acquainting themselves with their own Mortality There 's that by which all Persons may determine whether they belong to the Kingdom of Light or that of Darkness the Letter of a Dying Persons Tryal of the Truth and Life of her Repentance Faith Love and Obedience Reader will you not use what you have bought do you know all this Letter tells you already Oh be persuaded now to fall a doing it Will you censure it as being above these Children Oh cast it not away as if it were below you it was calculated as a Guide to them thro' their Lives Will you charge it as too wordy Oh confute not your charge by making it appear there are not Words enow to persuade you to become Pious Well when the Testament of our Dying Jesus nay his last charge in that Testament Do this in Remembrance of me prevails so little with Christians what Effects shall we hope for from the words of a Dying Malefactor recommending him to the World she has so lately left Yet canst not thou Oh God that causest Gibbets to preach make the most Refractory of Rebels hear You that will not hearken to Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles will you not hear tho' one is here rais'd from the Dead a living Witness to the great Truth they taught Was she not dead in Trespasses and Sins Was she not made alive to God thro' Jesus Christ think you before she dy'd to Nature Hear her then Christ Jesus by her that your Souls may live Open thou the Ears Oh God that are deaf to the Voice of Charms Is not Judgment thy strange Work Oh then Reform Multitudes by the Chastisement of this one Criminal who will otherwise by their Rebellions run themselves into great Misery in this World if not also into everlasting Misery in the next Well whether any Person that reads this Letter will give a practical regard to it or no this is certain it will barden where it does not soften They are a Degree nearer Hell by refusing who don't advance towards Heaven by embracing its Instructions And if ever they repent their slight of this Counsel will yield them a most bitter Reflection or if they never repent this reflex Advice will add to the Smart of their Eternal Vexations in the World they 're posting to of Horrour and Despair As to that man who had the first and principal hand in this Womans and her Infants Tragedy I would desire some Neighbours supposing he 'll scarce take pains to read this to ask him seriously some such Questions as these Whether he did not act the Devils part when he tempted this Woman as Satan our Saviour to purchase a Supply for the cravings of her Nature by a Crime tending to the Ruin of her Soul Whether he that serves the Devil in his Life and repents not is not like to fall into his Condemnation and merciless hands at Death Whether he believes God has commanded Thou shalt not commit Adutery If he does not whether he believes or can prove the Christian World Fools or Madmen who also thus believe it Whether God has not own'd this Command as often in History so now by avenging the Breach of it in this his fellow Criminals Death This were easily argued tho' she was Condemn'd at mans Barr for another Crime But if he believes God has forbidden Adultery whether he thinks God will always bear with him in the violating the plain Letter of his Laws Whether he that being often reprov'd hardens his heart shall not suddenly be destroy'd and that without Remedy Whether he does not flatter himself with a secret Thought of future Repentance Whether it be not his best and may not happen to be his only time to repent now or if he has no thought of Repentance how he can think to dwell with devouring Flames or everlasting Burnings And as to the Neighbourhood of this poor Woman if the Judgments of God abroad in the World should teach the Inhabitants
the World I do now heartily forgive Set a Watch before the Door of your Lips against all Swearing Lying Idle Talking or Foolish Jesting Slandering or Censuring any that you offend not with your Tongues See that you be diligent in whatsoever Imployment God shall assign to you for the gaining a Livelyhood in this World obey those that shall have Rule over you as Masters Mistresses c. in all things Lawful for the Lords Sake And beg time from them yea Redeem time by your Diligence from their Business wherein you may serve God every day Shun all unjust ways of getting tho' for the Supply of mere Necessity In a word get Gods Commands into your Heads and hide them in your Hearts that you may not sin against him Remembring always you are not of your selves sufficient so much as to think any good thing as of your selves but believe it upon my sad Experience who fail'd and fell by trusting to my own strength for performing the good Resolutions I took up Without Christ you can do nothing That all your Sufficiency is of God whose Spirit and Grace you must therefore beg as you would do Bread when you are ready to starve of your Parents Since Christ hath told you if Parents tho' evil give good Gifts to their Children how much more will not your Heavenly Father give the Spirit to them that ask it and continue asking it Oh Children would you live happily and dye so take the Advice of your Dying Mother Would you not have it to say at last How have we hated Instruction and despised Reproof Wou'd you not have God laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear cometh Oh then take my Advice as here given you Would you be Blessings to your Generation the Love of Good Men the Delight and Care of Heaven Read then over and over Ponder and Practise my Advice Bind these my Precepts on your Heads Hands and Hearts an Ornament of Grace they will be unto you even as Chains about your Neck and Bracelets on your Arms. Oh what a Peaceful Happy and Joyful Life had I lead if I had ever chosen these ways of Wisdom these ways of Pleasantness which I mark you out Oh what an Honourable Death should I have dyed what a Sweet Flourishing and Blessed Memory should I have left behind me whereas now Woe is me my Life is going out like the Snuff of a Candle cut off in the midst of my Years the Proud Waters are come in unto my Soul Oh what would I now give Ten Thousand Worlds surely if I had them that I had lead my Life as I am persuading you the Dear Fruit of my Womb to lead yours Oh had I my past Life again would I barter it away for Toyes for Vanity or sinful Pleasures Should the World or the Devil again impose upon me as I find they have done No surely No Yet alas had I kept the Precepts I have recommended to you from my Youth upward as exactly as I would beg of you to keep them or as you would wish you had kept them did you stand in my present Circumstances yea allowing these Precepts to contain a perfect Rule of Life yet would there be one thing lacking and chargeable upon me even a Satisfaction for the Guilt of my Sin in and from Adam Nor can my present Prayers Tears Penitent Confessions Promises of future Obedience c. expiate that Guilt much less attone for all the Violations of Gods Laws thro' my past Life Oh no I must have the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus to cover my naked Soul withal before the Barr of God in order to my Acceptance and Salvation Where 's any room then my Children for that vain Conceit think you that Persons may be too diligent exact or abounding in the Way and Works of God When you have done all must you not own your selves unprofitable Servants But oh how much short of the whole will you fall when you do all you can of whatever I have counselled you Believe me then for 't is undoubted Truth never any repented of too much Diligence in Gods Service whilst they liv'd much less when they came to dye Oh that I could draw forth the present earnest Pantings of my Soul before you Sure they would put your Souls into the like or better motion Hear Children the Prayers of your Dying Parent for her own Soul which she puts up with infinitely more Earnestness if it were possible than she could pray for her Release from the present Chains she wears the Dungeon she lyes in the Shame and approaching Death she is to undergo Yea hear the Prayers and pray them whilst you live which your Dying Mother makes for you not for Riches Preferment Esteem Ease or Plenty in this World No let the World enjoy the Gods they dote on May you my Children who are born with Souls naked before God and so ought to be asham'd have the Cloathing of Christs Righteousness to cover your sinful Nakedness May you who have Souls expos'd to the Wrath of God for the Sin of your Natures and the Sins of your but as it were newly begun Lives have Christs Righteousness as Armour against the second Death Armour of Proof to keep off all furious Discharges of Gods Law upon you May you who have Souls miserably poor by Nature void of all saving Knowledge and Grace which are the true Riches have your Souls made Rich by Christ Jesus with his Gold try'd in the Fire Rich in Faith Rich with all the Graces of his Holy Spirit dwelling richly in you Rich in the Love of God manifested to your Souls and Rich thro' Christs Purchase in your being united to him having a sure Reversion of Eternal Glory These mighty Blessings may you seek after may God give you them early Had I look'd after them as I advise you now to do I might once more easily have attained and secured them I might have had the Use and Comforts of them thro' my Life Oh that I may not now fail of these Blessings at Death Alas that I have driven it to this doubtful Point God and Christ waited on me with these Offers ever since and are ready always to bestow them upon you if you are but ready to receive them Well shall I shew you the way wherein you are to seek these Blessings wherein seeking ye shall find yea wherein only seeking I hope my self to find them why truly 't is in the way of Repentance and Faith on the Lord Jesus Christ The World think they can as easily Repent and Believe almost as I can write the Words but alas they 'l find themselves desperately mistaken if they don't alter their Minds mistaken to their endless Ruin Oh how hard is it for me to believe my Heart which was but some Weeks ago in deep Love and League with Sin and with this World to be now absolutely unalterably irreconcilably set against all Sin and set fixedly to mortify