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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	soul_n	spirit_n	17,497	5	5.6554	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97283	The penitent murderer. Being an exact narrative of the life and death of Nathaniel Butler; who (through grace) became a convert, after he had most cruelly murdered John Knight. With the several conferences held with the said Butler in Newgate, by the Right Honorable the Lord Maior, and several eminent ministers, and others. As also his confession, speech, prayer, and the sermon preached after his execution; with several useful admonitions, and excellent discourses. / Collected by Randolph Yearwood, chaplain to the Right Honorable, the Lord Major of the city of London.	Yearwood, Randolph, d. 1689.	1657 (1657)	Wing Y23; Thomason E1660_2; ESTC R209007	51,603	133

the hearts and prayers of his people he did several times throw himself on the free grace of God in the blood and merits of Jesus Christ alone for his Salvation renouncing all but Christ acknowledging that he beleeved to be washed from his bloody Fact and all his other sins by no means but by the blood of Jesus Christ At my third and last time of being with him which was the night before he died I indeavoured to hold forth to his faith from Scripture the glorious state in heaven to all Eternity that Jesus Christ had purchased and was in the possession of for true believers and into which such souls should immediatly enter when they leave the body and abide there with Christ their Head for ever To which he gave very great heed and attention and though his lips said little yet to my apprehension his soul spake very much for it wrought in his body as if it were raised up by Faith through what was held out to him even to the admiring of that grace and glory The working of his soul was mixt with Tears as I conceive of Joy for he mentioned nothing of the fear of Death though he was often minded of it how neer it was at hand nor did I then perceive any paleness in his face or sinking of Spirit the Symptomes of the fear of Death But that those workings of his Soul were reachings after that glorious Inheritance held out in Rom. 8.17 To be heirs of God joynt heirs with Christ which Scripture was then opened to him And that glorious inheritance set forth by the concurrence of several other Scriptures with an indeavour to give him a View by the eye of faith of that which in a very few moments after his soul should to all Eternity be made partaker of in joy and glory with Christ in Heaven which was infinitely more then could be expressed or conceived and this I judge did make his Soul so work within him After some time in prayer I parted with him and almost the last words I had from him were these He told me he was really offended with himself because he hated sin no more which had caused him to offend God so much he told me Satan was busie to perswade him That all his Faith and Repentance was false but he had beleeved the Divel too long and he would trust him no longer but now cast his eternal soul on the free grace of God in the Blood of Christ alone for Salvation renouncing himself wholly In this resolution and frame of Spirit I left him And as I am informed through the free grace of God he did abide and increase in it to his last breath Upon the whole I am truly perswaded from that Work of God that I observed to be wrought in him and the degrees of it that though his former life was full of all wickedness his soul exceeding ignorant of God and his own sinful nature all that time and his Repentance and Faith in Christ very late yet that the free grace of God who is not bounded to time did make both his Faith and Repentance true and do beleeve he is with Christ in glory I do not give this Publike Attest to encourage sin but to magnifie the free grace of God in Jesus Christ to Sinners and I do assure whosoever reads this that poor soul which is the Subject of it found sin to be exceeding bitter before he had any tast of the sweetness of Gods free grace in Christ Hoping this may be of Publike Use I am free to Attest it with my Name September 10. 1657. Robert Tichborne Major A brief Account of a Visit given to Nathaniel Butler a Prisoner in Newgate upon the Friday before he suffered by Tho. Case a Minister of the City of London wherein he made these following Observations THE said Nathaniel Butler expressed 1. A deep sense of that desperate Bloody fact which he had committed which he loaded with all the blackest aggravations that might be especially with this Consideration That for ought he knew he had destroyed body and soul with oue blow He had begg'd and obtained a space of Repentance from his Judges but had not afforded his Brother one moment to beg pardon at the hand of God This Consideration stuck so deeply upon his spirit that it had well nigh sunk him into despair had not God sent in some relief by the hand of one that visited him in prison in the instance of Manasseh who having sacrificed his sons unto Devils and shed much other innocent blood upon his repentance finding mercy did not despairingly afflict himself with the consideration of what became of the souls of those whom he had so cruelly murdered Secret things belong unto the Lord c. 2. He exprest not only sense of the guilt of Blood but a right Gospel-notion of the sinfulness of sin All sin the least sin not as destroying only but as defiling not as contrary to the Creature in the effects of it but as contrary to God in the nature of it A grieving of the Spirit a crucifying of Jesus Christ afresh a most unworthy requital of the love of a crucified Saviour 3. He discovered also that which indeed was the thing which I came purposely to the Prison to enquire after viz. A right apprehension of Original sin the Corruption of his Nature which he lookt upon as the Fountain and Spring-head of his Murder Theft and all other actual wickedness bewailing them all with David in their first source and spring Behold I was born in sin and in iniquity did my mother conceive me Ps 51.5 In a word He had as right a notion of the state of Unregeneracie as ever I found in any new Convert 4. He exprest also an high appretiation of Jesus Christ not only for pardon of sin but for power against sin not only to deliver the soul from the wrath to come and everlasting burning but from the state of Nature As a Fountain of Holiness as well as a Fountain of Happiness 5. An high apprehension and admiration of Free-grace in pardoning such a sinner as he was Which he exprest with much self-abhorrencie as one that had no regard to the Sabbath never acquainted himself with the Bible or Catechism never prayed And if a good Thought were entring his heart he would thrust it away from him with greatest indignation The pardon of these with other sins he admired in some such language as the Apostle did 1 Tim. 1.13 6. God had vouchsafed him a sweet taste of the Promises some whereof most suitable to his condition God had pitched his soul upon which he repeated with so sweet a relish as a man might perceive his soul was even ravished with the sence thereof 7. Wonderfully did he bless and admire the goodness of God in calling such a cruel enemy to mankind as he was in murdering his Brother into the prayers compassion and care of so many of his precious

design and in God's sense and esteem who searcheth the heart As a man that doth not commit the act of Adultery is an Adulterer nevertheless if his heart lust after a woman Mat. 5.28 So if a man never lay violent hands upon another yet if his heart disaffect and hate him he is a Murderer And ye know that no Murderer whether he be a Murderer in the sense of this Scripture or any other hath eternal life abiding in him that is hath the promise of eternal life or the evidence of it abiding in him Do not conceive from this clause that a man who was at any time guilty of blood by murthering another or hating another cannot be saved or enter into life for Manasseh David and others were blood-guilty but upon repentance were pardoned I doubt not of Nathaniel Butlers life eternal though he did destroy and take away the life of his Brother because God gave him repentance and humiliation The meaning is this No Murderer hath eternal life abiding in him if this man abide in his malice hatred and under his murder impenitent and stupid Is he whosoever he be that hateth another a Murderer Then Vse 1. Examine your selves Is Hatred so hainous a sin How may we know then whether we are not haters of any man Now Hatred is manifested thus 1. By refusing to rebuke thy brother or neighbor for his sin Lev. 19.17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy brother and not suffer sin upon him Prov. 13.24 He that spareth the rod hateth his son 2. By keeping without cause at a distance from men Gen. 26.27 And Isaac said unto them Wherefore come ye to me seeing ye hate me and have sent me away from you If ye cry Away with him away with him to banishment imprisonment Away with such an one out of my sight I cannot endure this or that person in my sight Thou art an hater and a murderer See Judg 11.7 And Jephtah said unto the Elders of Gilead Did not ye hate me and expel me out of my fathers house 3. Warlike language Gen. 37.4 They hated him and could not speak peaceably to him When men cannot give one another a good word what is this but malice and hatred in the heart Gen. 49.29 The archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him Bending the bow and shooting bitter words speak out bitterness and hatred within 4. Lying in wait for rising up against and mortally wounding another Deut. 19.11 But if any man hate his neighbor and lie in wait for him and rise up against him and smite him mortally that he die c. Rev. 17.16 These shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire Harsh usage shews hatred Try your selvs by these and other Scripture-signs and try impartially Vse 2. Exhort men to lay aside their sin See what the word chargeth upon 't 1. 'T is from the Devill as love is of God 1 Thes 4.9 Ye are taught of the Devill to hate 1 John 4.11 12. This is the Message that ye heard from the beginning that we should love one another not as Cain who was of that WICKED ONE meaning as Cain was a man of cruelty and hatred so he was of the Divell hatred is all hatcht in Hell O then retain it no more in your hearts 2. It proves a man to be yet unregenerate Titus 3.2 3. For we our selves also were sometimes foolish and disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in MALICE and ENVY hatefull and hateing one another But after that the kindness and love of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appeared c. It s too too apparent from this passage that the kindness and love of God hath not wrought kindly upon mens hearts so long as they live in malice envy and hatred how can a man be a cut throat and a Christian at the same time a man of hatred and a child of God 3. Thou art a murderer I have here transscribed some suteable passages of a very reverend Godly man I mean Mr. Joseph Caryl who in his excellent exposition upon the 5th Chapter of Job and 2 verse speaketh thus concerning wrath So in like manner wrath is said to slay a man first because it thrusts him headlong upon such things as are his death he runs willfully upon his own death sometimes by the dangerousness of the action when a casuall sudden death surprises him sometime by the unlawfulness of the action which brings him to a legal judiciary death Secondly his wrath is said to kill him because his wrath is so vexations to him that it makes his life a continual death to him and at last so wearieth him out and wasts his Spirits that he dies for very grief and so at once commits a threefold murder First he murders him intentionally against whom he is wroth Secondly he really murders his own body And thirdly he meritoriously murders his Soul for ever except the Lord be more merciful then he hath been wrathful and the death of Christ heale those wounds by which he would have procured the death of others and hath as much as in him lies procured his own This is true of hatred as well as of wrath for he that hateth his brother is a Murderer 1. He murthers his Brother whom he hates hatred is a wishing and seeking for at least in heart the slaughter death and destruction of his Brother when the Apostle John affirmeth whosoever hateth his Brother is a Murderer his meaning is he is a Murderer of that Brother whom he hateth and he is so because he hateth him 2. He that hateth his Brother is a Murderer more then once he doth not only murder his brother but himself by bringing eternal death upon himself for hateing his Brother he that murders himself is felo de se a Self-murderer is manifest from these words and ye know that no murderer meaning a malicious man hath eternal life abiding in him To be a murderer is 1. A crying sin Gen. 4.10 And he said what hast thou done the voyce of thy Brothers blood cryeth unto me from the Ground If men would think what am I doing now I am hateing my Brother I am murdering in Gods account and murder is a loud sin Surely then we should harbour no hatred Murder 2 It is a very reproachful shameful sin considered in the act that followes it to prove a man guilty of willfull murder renders him a shame to himself a blot to his relations thou that hatest art a murderer O be ashamed of this shameful hatred 3. Murder is a sin that sets the vengeance of God against a man the very Barbarians beleeve that vengeance and death will fall strangely and speedily on Murderers Acts 28.4 And when the Barbarians saw the venemous beast hang on his hand they said among themselves very confidently no doubt this

your sins Having finished his Speech he then called on the Lord by Prayer intreating the people to join with him He prayed with an elevated voice and with many tears this Prayer following O Merciful GOD which according to the multitude of thy mercies doest so put away the sins of those which truly repent that thou remembrest them no mnore Open thine Eye of Mercy upon me wretched Sinner that I am who most earnestly desire pardon and forgiveness of all my former sins and particularly for my late horrid Blood guiltiness Lord if it be not too late and I trust no time is too late for thee to shew mercy wash away this blood of my Brother which sticks so close to my soul in the blood of my Saviour O let me call him so which was shed for my sins and the sins of the whole world Let not the voice of my murdered Brothers blood cry louder for vengeance then the blood of our crucified Jesus be heard to cry for pardon Give me Lord a truly penitent heart and then accept of that penitent heart of mine which is thine own gift Given me plenty of brinish tears but first steep and wash those tears of mine in the wounds of thy Son Make me here to abhor and loath and judge and condemn my self that in thy great day hereafter The great day of the Lord I may not be condemned eternally both body and soul Renew in me most loving Father whatsoever hath been decayed by the fraud and malice of the Devil or by mine own bloody carnal will and frailness Cause me to set all my sins before my face and then do thou cast them behind thy back Cause me to spread all my sins before thee my God as Hezekiah did the the blasphemous Papers of Rabshekah and then do thou blow them away with the blast of thy holy Spirit And forasmuch as I do humbly and earnestly desire to put my trust only in thy mercy Impute not unto me my former or latter sins the sins of my body and the sins of my soul sins of omission or sins of commission sins which I have done to please my self or others sins against the First or against the Second Table against thee my God against my Neighbor or against mine own Sonb Let this first death of mine which I am now ready to pay in satisfaction to Man's Law be acceptable in thy sight O God and so do thou deliver me from the second death Deliver me from my Blood guiltiness O God and take me yet into thy favour through the merits and blood shedding of thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ Amen! Amen! Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from my blood guiltiness who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death Lord have mercy upon me a sinner Christ have mercy upon me a sinner Lord have mercy upon me a sinner A Merciless a Profane a Thieving a Bloody sinner Lord though I had no mercy upon my Brother yet do Thou have mercy upon me For Lord I have so much the more need of mercy for my soul by how much I had so little mercy upon his life Lord I confess with horror of soul that I killed him suddenly giving him no time to prepare for death Yet Lord I must confess to thy great glory and goodness that Thou hast given me time and respite to repent before I die He then desir'd me as I stood upon the Ladder to pray for him which I also did he joining therein very solemnly I then having done prayer asked him how he did He told me he doubted not of doing well he laid all behind him and would go to Christ alone for life and salvation saying Now I am lanching into the Ocean of Eternity Then he delivered to me the written Speech desiring the Executioner to forbear Turning him off till he lifted up his hands and said Lord Jesus receive my soul I then took him by the hands and took my leave of him After he had stood still a little while in a way of Ejaculations with his Cap over his eyes he lifted up his hands and said the words aforesaid Then the Executioner did his office and he was a dead man in a few moments And in a few moments more who knows which of us will not be dead men also Oh consider therefore all you that yet are alive the following Admonition An Admonition to all persons whatsoever especially to Parents and Children Masters and Servants c. TO Parents and Masters of Families hear what the Lord faith to you Ephes 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a putting of a thing into the mind an urging and pressing of it an informing and instructing the mind Leigh crit sac●● Now this Text tells you of two very great faults viz. First In case admonishing of Children and Servants be totally omitted where 's then your obedience to God who leaves their Education to your care Nay instead of giving good advice and examples to Youth you many times I mean many Heads of Families rather ruine them by living without Knowledge and without Conscience your selves Oh consider this and acquaint your selves with God and with Jesus Christ that you may be able to acquaint all committed to your nurture with the fame God and with the same Lord Jesus Christ the knowing of whom is the excellencie of knowledge Secondly A word to men of care but of very little care in this thing I grant you use prayer and you read Sermon-notes sometimes and the Scriptures themselves among your people at home but how often and how earnestly is that exercise Alas once it may be on the Lords day and then no great regard had how they profit or whether they profit or no so that something be done though nothing come by it by way of benefit to their Souls 'T is a wonderful weakness in many great Professors of Religion who will pray and beg of God strongly upon their knees for Light Knowledge Grace and Holiness to be given to their dear Children and to their Servants and yet these very persons will contribute little or nothing besides good wishes towards the conversion and welfare of souls that by their importunate supplications seem to be precious in their eye If praying be all you have to do for your Family what mean then those many Scriptures that command the doing of many other duties besides praying with and praying for your people and if prayer onely be not enough why do you onely pray Indeed 't is well done to wish well to them that dwell with you though it be part it is the least part of your duty doth not the Lord look for much more from you doth he not charge Fathers and Mothers and Masters to instruct rebuke correct their Children and Servants and to call them to account concerning their profiting in Gospel knowledge I am confident the carelesness of you in these things is that which renders Preaching so

The Penitent Murderer BEING AN Exact Narrative Of the Life and Death of NATHANIEL BVTLER Who through Grace became a Convert after he had most cruelly murdered JOHN KNIGHT With the several Conferences held with the said Butler in Newgate by the Right Honorable the LORD MAIOR and several eminent Ministers and others As also his Confession Speech Prayer and the Sermon preached after his Execution with several useful Admonitions and excellent Discourses Collected by RANDOLPH YEARWOOD Chaplain to the Right Honorable the Lord Major of the City of LONDON Deut 13.11 And all Israel shall hear and fear and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you London Printed by T. Newcomb for J. Rothwell at the Fountain in Goldsmiths-Row in Cheapside and Tho. Matthews at the White-horse in the New Buildings in Pauls Church-yard 1657. London Saturday Sept. 12. 1657. Reader THis is that Exact Narrative concerning Nathaniel Butler which was some time since promised to come forth by my appointment under the hand of Randolph Yearwood Robert Tichborne Major To the Right Honorable Sr ROBERT TICHBORNE Kt Lord Major of the City of LONDON My Lord You have done being directed and enabled from on high many noble and good actions for this City the Government whereof is yet yours But really my Lord the right honorable act was this your personal and frequent visiting Nathaniel Butler when he lay a prisoner in Newgate His soul certainly was precious in your eyes and this engaged you to send others and to go your self to see him several times I verily believe you will see him yet once more not as a Malefactor in an obscure disparaging Goal but as an Angel of God in the Kingdom of Christ whither I am confident he is gone and you are going Before he went he desired me to give you humble thanks for all the favor he had received from you or by your means from others He was very thankfull to your Lordship and the rest of the Honorable Bench for his Fortnights Reprieval confessing that Court to be both just and merciful Just in condemning his body to death and merciful in sparing his life for some weeks after the Sentence upon design to save his soul And truly you may safely conclude that his soul is safe And is not such a Conclusion a rich Requital of all your Exhortations Tears and Prayers My Lord I shall rejoice to see you grow and abound yet more and more in Righteousness Holiness and as the Elect of God bowels of Mercies which will render you like unto and well liked of by the LORD of Lords To whom I leave you and remain Your Lordship's Servant RANDOLPH YEARWOOD THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Reader THE Malefactor mentioned in this following Narrative was none of mine acquaintance till for his horrid fact he was apprehended and imprisoned So that it was not any Relation of mine to him that put me upon this publication but I undertook this work as judging it of general concernment to all men both good and bad 1. As to the bad If thou art an evil wicked man er woman then this Narrative with the annexed admonitions and sermon c. much concern thee to make thee if possible penitent and truly reformed 2. Art thou a gracious good man or woman then thou hast reason to rejoyce on carth as God himself and the Angels of God rejoyce in heaven ever one repenting sinner Luke 15.7 and 10. I doubt not but thou wilt be well satisfied by the following Lines concerning the true conversion of a very hainous Offendor Now good Reader grant me one request not to look upon the following Discourses as a bare story or a piece of News and so having read and seen it there is an end But read and consider read and pray that this great and extraordinary passage of divine Providence may profit thy Soul which is the desire of my heart and Soul to God himself Otherwise I could not be as indeed I am thy Well-wisher Friend and Servant RANDOLPH YEARWOOD Three Conferences held with Nathaniel Butler during his Imprisonment by the Right Honorable the Lord Major under his Lordships own hand WHen Nathaniel Butler was first apprehended and brought before me he was in exceeding great burden of Spirit full of tears free to confess the Fact with all the aggravations thereof and was sollicitous for nothing but a few days respit for his poor Soul it seeming to me that nothing at that time was on his thoughts but what should become of his Soul At my first Conference with him which was about five or six days after his Condemnation I found him very ready to acknowledge his actual sins and to charge himself with them and the aggravations that did accompany them and this with sad tears of complaint and indignation against himself and his sins but did take no notice of his sinful Nature Which my self and a Friend with me Mr Griffith of the Charter house perceiving We endeavoured by Scripture to shew him his sinful Nature as the Root of all his sinful actions which he diligently hearkened to and was affected with but acknowledged his former Ignorance herein and that he had not so expresly before thougth hereof or been instructed hereabout and what he heard and received at this time among other Particulars was so far blest and wrought into his soul that to our selves and as we heard to others he did from that Night following much insist upon and bemoan his sinful nature and the state of sin he was born in as well as or together with those sinful acts he was guilty of At my second being with him after applying the free grace of God and Christ crucified to his faith for the pardon of his sins I asked him whether his heart could most willingly receive that pardon or a pardon for his life and bid him consider and tell me what his heart said in that Point After a little pause he made me this Answer That indeed he did not desire to live longer in this world for he had found sin so bitter a thing and himself so prone to sin that if he should live longer and sin against God it would be much more bitter to him then death and he did heartily Blesse God that had brought him to the hand of Justice and did truly love the party who as he thought was the Instrument to discover him acknowledging that the Devil had tempted him to lay violent hands on himself and after that temptation to fly beyond the Sea which if God had suffered him to do and so escaped Justice he might have gone on in his former course of sin without Repentance but did truly bless God that had delivered him from these temptations and had brought him to that condition that then he was in he did acknowledge with much thankfulness to God man the mercy of a few days between death and judgement and that God had given him so great a share in

seed of Jacob seek ye me in vain Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will ABVNDANTLY pardon The word abundantly he used to pronounce with an emphasis for he saw his eyes being now annointed with spiritual eye-salve that he had multiplied sins exceedingly and that he stood in absolute need of the Lords abundant multiplied pardons whereof he had good hope through this good word of Isaiah Ezek 18.23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die saith the Lord God and not that he should return from his wases and live 30. Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions SO iniquity shall not be your ruine 31. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die O house of Israel 32. For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth wherefore turn your selves and live ye Ezek. 33.11 Say unto them As I live saith the Lord here the poor Prisoner would note to his comfort that a repenting sinner hadnot onely the Word and Promise of God for forgiveness but the Oath of God to give such a finner the greater assurance of pardon I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his ways and live Turn ye turn ye see the importunity of God with poor sinners for the good of their souls from your evil ways For why will ye die O house of Israel Micah 7.18 was a place pleasant to his soul Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the reranant of his heritage He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy Vers 19. He will turn again as one doth when his anger is gone he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast ALL their sins into the depth of the Sea Now I shall give you a short List of some New Testament Texts whereby the Lord conveyed Counsel and Consolation to this doubting staggering poor Wretch Matth. 18.11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost Joh. 3.14 15 16. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have eternal life For God SO loved the WORLD that whosoever this word whosoever he he spake with joy beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Now saith Nathaniel Butler I am one to whom this word speaketh and therefore God gave the Lord Jesus Christ for my soul I beleeve in him and therefore I trust to live eternally through him according to the gracious terms of the Gospel John 6.37 and him that cometh to me I will in no wise here he would repeat and reiterate these words in NO WISE CAST OVT in NO WISE in NO WISE cast out 1 Tim. 1.15 This a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief 1 Tim. 2.5 6. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time In hearing reading and conferring upon these and many more Scriptures he would often say to me and others these are good Scriptures brave Scriptures are they not brave Scriptures He would make very diligent and frequent search into his soul concerning the sincerity of his sorrow and would not easily beleeve that his repentance was true or that he had right to the precious promises of the Gospel But by much speaking to him by many good people that he would applie Christ and also by seeking unto God for a spirit of Faith for him he did begin to act a faith of recumbency and adherence being as he often said perswaded that the Lord Jesus Christ was able to save to the uttermost and willing to save such as come unto God by him yet he could not come up to that full assurance of hope and confidence as he desired and we also desired heartily on his behalf So that sometimes he would break forth and say How can I that have been gurlty of all sins whatsoever almost as Murder Fornication Theft c. challenge or apply a pardon He was much afraid of running upon either of these two Rooks that is presumption or despair I told him that diffidence and despair was the strongest presumption against God saying to him Is it not presumption for a man to dis obey God and not to beleeve him Now the command of God in his glorious Gospel is that men weary of and heavy laden with sins should come to Christ that they might find rest to their souls The design of God said I in the Scriptures is not to give some feeble weak hope of pardon but a lively hope and a firm expectation of salvation to all that mourn and really repent Which so wrought upon him that for the space of some daies before his suffering death it pleased the God of all comfort to give him joy and consolation and sometimes strong consolation insomuch that he would at times express very great inward gladness which all that knew his former mournings were glad to see and glorified God for giving him the joy of his salvation for he was so satisfied concerning the favour and mercy of God towads him in Jesus Christ that he rather now desired death then feared it as seeing death through Jesus Christ without a sting On the Lords Day towards evening the Lord Mayor to whose Conference I refer you went the third and last time to visit him for the next day he was to die and my Lords advice very much refreshed his spirit it being his Lordships design to speak of Heaven with the glory and joy of that Kingdom and to establish the Prisoners thoughts thereon After his Lordship had left him he seemed to be very chearful in his spirit blessing God that he should put it into his Lordships heart to condescend so far as to pray and confer with such a despicable poor wretch as he was heartily thanking his Lordship for his abundant love That night being his last night I kept him company in Newgate so did divers others continuing with him in the Dungeon or Hole for so the Keepers call it till towards midnight conferring with him and endeavouring to comfort him to the end he delighted all the time of his Imprisonment in Christian Company and spiritual Discourses but in his last night he was very much carried forth to spend himself about spiritual things So that we judged it meet to leave him alone a while lest being altogether without rest and refreshment in his body he might thereby be made unfit for the service of the next day intending then to

they are first checked for their sins Therefore good people as you love your own Souls take heed of the beginnings of sin and kill sin betimes before it grow too strong for you If I had done so I verily beleeve and think that sin had not at this time thus killed me as now it will certainly do But seeing it is so that I am here brought a poor distressed Captive unto my death by the Tyranny and cruelty of sin it is my desire that I may through the gracious assistance of God be enabled to do a greater mischief unto sin by my death then sin hath done unto me in bringing me to this death which will I hope but kill my body onely although it be a bitter cursed and a shameful death Oh hearken to what I have said unto you and let me for that purpose humbly beg of all that either hear me or shall hear of me and oh that I could prevail with every young person to cast away sin betimes to check it in the first beginning I do seriously think there is no such course to destroy the growing of it in the hearts of men and women as that would be Sirs I am now a dying man and truly if I knew of any better way to ruine sin then other in mine own observation I would surely now tell you For I bless God I can say it truly that I am a real enemie to sin because sin I find is such a great enemy to God to all Mankind and particularly I have found it my greatest enemy that ever I had Oh that I had taken this counsel which now through the great goodness and grace of God I have given to you certainly it would have prevented the growth of sin in this poor sad and now sorrowful soul of mine Certainly I had not now been here as I am to suffer this cursed and shameful death which I am justly to suffer both from God and Man for my most foul horrid and bloody sin The taking away the life of him who was unto me as dear as my Brother which sin I hope God for his Son Jesus Christ his sake hath in mercie to my poor Soul forgiven This sin this bloody sin I hope the onely wise merciful gracious and good God hath sanctified for the everlasting good of my poor Soul He who is able to bring light out of darkness and good from the greatest evill can by his infinite goodness bring from this sin of mine which is the destruction of my Body the eternal salvation of my Soul This is a Mercy never to be forgotten by my friends that although I have been so unhappie as to stain their Names and Reputations here yet I hope through the grace mercy and goodness of God I may be their joy and rejoycing hereafter Oh this sin that the Devil was suffered to tempt me to commit my wicked heart consenting thereunto I have observed since my imprisonment this blood-guilty sin was as a punishment of my other sins which I went on in without considering whither I was going Had I truly and timely repented of my former sins I verily beleeve and am fully perswaded I had prevented this this foul this horrid sin for which I can never be too much affected nor afflicted Yet nevertheless this sin I hope through the grace of God hath been a rousing and an awakening sin to me it hath caused me to call to remembrance all my former sins and to be humbled for them and I hope through the gracious assistance of God I have truly repented of them all I thank God for his mercy I can truly say that I am now another manner of Creature then formerly I was Formerly God came not into my thought with any joy and content but now to think of God is exceeding precious to my soul To think of the name of God and of his Son Jesus Christ is the chief joy and rejoycing of my soul This is some change and I think a great change and I hope a good change formerly I sinned with great delight and now through the grace of God I delight not in any sin nay I can truly say more I do now through Gods grace hate and loath sin and this I know to be true for I do even hate my most beloved sin The sin of Uncleanness which I do advise all Young-men to watch and pray against and for the more effectual prevention thereof to live very temperately and soberly making no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof This sin I bless God for his grace I can now truly say I hate it I hope if I were to live as many years in the world as I may do moments I should through the grace of God never commit more And the sin of Lying which formerly I made no conscience of I think I can truly say now through the grace of God thar I truly hate it as a wicked sin and Lying now is so base an evil in my sight that I could not be hired to tell a lye no not I hope if I had the promise of my life givenme which in my condition is the greatest gift which man can bestow upon me yet I hope even for my life to save it from this terrible death I should not be tempted to sin against so good a God who hath given me the hopes of an eternal life and delivered me from a thousand times a more terrible death nor against my blessed Redeemer who died to take away my sins and who hath thus graciously looked upon me so vile so wicked and so miserable a sinner as I have been and hath shewed mercy upon me not for any worth that is in me who am the unworthiest of all men but for his own names sake because mercy pleaseth him To whom therefore be glory for ever Amen I have now declared unto you the grounds I have of my hope that I have made my peace with God through Jesus Christ and have obtained through his grace and mercy my perfect reconciliation to God and my blessed Redeemer Jesus Christ I shall in the next place in deep humility as being very sensible that I have wronged very many and therefore I do here humbly beg my pardon from all the World for all the wrong and injury that I have in any kind done unto any one And indeed I should be glad if I could to make restitution to every one but that I am not able to do and therefore I must content my self with begging their pardon and forgiveness which I do here desire from every one man woman and child even for Jesus Christ his sake whom it is that they themse ves must all fle unto for his pardon or else be miserable for ever and as they desire the Lord Jesus should forgive them all their wrongs done against him so I hope they will for his sake forgive me all mine committed against them And as I have desired my pardon and