he had not been reprieved So constant was he in his holy purposes and steadie in his resolutions And I am perswaded that if he had lived he would have made good by his practise what he asserted to me that night saying If I were to live as I have no hopes of it I would wait on my Father upon my knees all the daies of my life He was very willing to hear the Ministers who opened unto him the Scriptures and shewed him the greatnesse of his bloody fact he heard them patiently and meekly and comfortably joyned with them in frequent prayer Though he heard of divers calumnies shot out of the Devills bow against him by some malitious Archers yet he never was stirred at it nor spake any bitter words against them but was unto his death very gentle and humble like a child Sect. 4. BY the first command of the Judge he should have dyed August 15. wherefore I and Master Yate a good and faithfull Minister who usually attended him by Sir George his direction did very seriously imploy our selves some daies before to prepare him for death by instruction and prayer we shewed him the benefit and comfort of Absolution for which purpose I directed him to read the 40th content in the Practice of Pietie with serious consideration with the grounds and reasons of it Whereupon he was very glad and desired greatly to receive it and after a comfortable acknowledgement of his great offence he meekly kneeled down when I and Master Yate laid our hands upon his head and I pronounced the Absolution unto him which he joyfully received we assuring him according to Christs promise Mat. 17.19 c. 18.18 John 18.23 that it being duly performed by us and received by him on earth it was ratified in heaven No doubt but in this distracted time some men will blame our act herein but blessed be God we can justifie it by our pennes and tongues against them all Sect. 5. BUt now followeth a matter of higher concernment in reference to Master Freeman Sonds for now unto me and Master Yate was added Master Boreman a Batchelor of Divinity and Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge who comming to Maidston on Munday the 13th of August and hearing the distressed condition of Master Freeman came uâ—to him and joyning with us did perform many charitable offiâ—es for the good of the poor Gentleman Thus then it was Master Boâ—eman being absent when we Absolved Master Freeman I stayed till he returned from Teston it was in the evening August 14. at which time I took my leave of the Gentleman with grief and joy for him expecting his death certainly the nexâ— day very early in the morning but it was put off till August 21. for weighty reasons premised Upon my departure Master Freeman very humbly desired Master Yate to administer the holy Communion unto him which being proposed to Master Boreman was agreed to about nine that night after he had upon examination found the Gentleman prepared for it being truly sorrowfull for his foul sin and resolving if God spared his life which he did not hope for to lead a new one in a most strict conversation c. Upon these grounds and after a short exhortation to the Gentleman concerning the benefits and ends of the blessed Sacrament Master Boreman at the request of Master Yate did administer it unto him to his great comfort for after the receiving of it being assured by Gods grace of the pardon of his sins through the blood of Christ sealed up in that holy Sacrament He said to Master Boreman That he should die the next morning as cheerfully as ever he went to bed and it seemes his soul was in calme and sweet temper for when Master Yate came unto him the next morning to wait on him to his execution which was respited late that night Master Yate nor he knowing of it he found him first asleep which shewed that he was not afraid of death which he look'd on as a Droan its sting being taken out The sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15.55 which he believ'd to him was pardon'd why then might he not have the Seal of his pardon why should any man be so wanting to charity as to say that to minister to him the Holy Communion was to put a Seal to a blank Can we imagine that his own prayers and tears with the earnest supplications of many thousands sent up to Heaven on his behalfe did find no acceptance with the God of mercies who never rejected penitent sinners And if his sins were remitted why should not the Holy Sacrament which is a Sacrament of Consolation and Confirmation be ministred unto him for his strength and comfort Is the word of God against it where by plain expression or good consequence we profess our ignorance wee know no text that forbids it Wee highly reverence the judgement of our mother the Church of England which appoints in its most excellent Liturgie the Communion for the sick which is all one for substance with Mr. Freemans Case onely a sick man might live and he was assured to die But we reverence yet more the decree of that great and sacred first Councell of Nice Anno Christi 325. which saith thus C. 13. Concerning those that are near to death now also the antient and regular Law shall be observed that if any man be upon the point of death he may not be deprived of his last and necessary Viaticum provision for his death and long passage to eternity to wit the Holy Communion This was spoken especially for such as were under Ecclesiasticall Censure but it followeth afterward generally that the Communion shall be given to any man that is near death and desireth it So saith the famous Councell so the Church of England this the practice of the Universall Church of Christ in all ages it was no new Law in that Councell but lex antiqua an antient Law and practice in the primitive times If this may not satisfie the fierce opposers of it and that practice yet perhaps Master John Calvin may be accepted of them Hear then his judgement in his Epistles Col. 453. Printed at Geneva 2. Fol. 1616. Many and great causes inforce me not to deny the Lord's supper to sick persons and Col. 454. I collect well as I conceive from the nature end and use of the holy mystery that men being in danger of death should not be deprived of so great a good And pag. 455. he justifieth such a communion as not unlawfull though in a private house and pag. 55. he saith I think that the custome to give the communion to sick persons is willingly to be admitted Then he addeth Neither is it greatly to be repugned or denied but that the Communion should be given to such as are put to death for their offences which was Mr. Freeman Sonds his case Concerning which ConciliuÌ„ Moguntium the Councel of Mentz held An. 847. saith thus C. 27. If the
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
holy communion should be given accorcording to Canonicall injunction to all men upon the end of their lives making a sincere confession of their sinns and being truly penitent why not to them also who suffer death for their offences for which the Fathers of that Councell give their reasons which are too long and numerous to be inserted in this place If Calvin's judgement with this Councell's satisfie not hear yet the compleatly learned and most judicious Divine Hieron Zanchius who in his Epistles l. 1. p. 155. printed at Hanovia in Octavo 1609. saith expressly That the holy Commnuion may and ought to be given to sick persons for their spirituall comfort who also p. 421 422. setteth down the resolution of the Ministers of Geneva that where the Communion is given privately to sick persons the custome herein is not to be rashly abrogated upon certain conditions viz. of their true faith and contrition for their sinns So then to put a period to this weighty doubt the whole Christian Church asserts that the communion ought to be given if it be earnestly desired by them to all persons ready to die so our Church of England so Calvin so Zanchius so all sober Christians maintain and none oppose it but onely those who being of an hot temper and unruly dispositions the ofspring of Cham as St. Austine l. 1. de Civit. Dei well attests have overthrown the Church's wholsome constitutions in this particular and some others of great importance to their shame and our great disturbance To conclude this discourse concerning the care which was had of this poor Gentleman's Soul in his restranits It pleased God to move the pious heart of the right Honorable and truly Noble the Dutchess of Richmond to send from Cobham Hall her Domestick Chaplain Master Gunton a religious and learned Divine to visit him which he did on Friday the 10th and discoursed to him of Death of Repentance and the sufficiencie of Christ's blood or the efficacy of his meritorious death whereat Master Sonds as I have it under Mr. Gunton's hand was very attentive as he ever was to all good instructions and Mr. Gunton for his furtherance in devotion prescribed him the 25. 38. and 51. Psalmes which he frequently perused for I found him one day reading in the Bible in which he took delight and perceiving some leaves turn'd down I ask'd him by what means or by whose directiō he read those proper Psalms he told me that a Minister who came to visit him order'd him to do it whereupon I turn'd down leaves at the 7. Penitentiall Psalmes of which two of the former are a part likewise at the 4th of Gen. v. 7. If thou dost well c. So God to Cain c. which Shewes that there was a dore open for mercy if he would have repented of his sin and at the 18. and 33. ch of Ezekiel wee added to these that soul-establishing Chap. the 8. to the Romans These and many more with the Psalmes and Chapters for the day appointed by the Churches rubrick were besidees his private prayers the ground of his devotion meditation and practice whilst he was in Prison From whence he was after the commendation of his soul to God first by Master Higgons then by my self in private conveyed in mourning habit on horseback to the place of Execution many Gentlemen attending him with my self and that reverend Divine When he came to that place being dismounted from his horse he stood like a mournful penitent whilst a discourse for half an hour and more was uttered by me concerning the hainousnesse of sin in generall and of his murther in particular together with the nature of Conversion the parts and properties of it To which was adjoyned the freenesse of God's mercy in the Lord Jesus to all repentant sinners this done with an exhortation to the people to entertain a charitable and Christian perswasion of the Truth and sincerity of Master Sonds his conversion to the Lord the penitent standing at my right hand a prayer was conceived to commend his sad and mourning soul to God This ended he having-meekly and humbly submitted himself to death hee went up the Ladder and standing in the midst of it with great modesty and meeknesse hee desired the prayers of those that were present he likewise with erected hands and eyes did beseech God to forgive him his sinnes against his Father and Brother and praied in few words for a blessing on his distressed Father and closed all with this resignation of his soul into the hands of his Maker saying with a soft voice for his nature was not to speak either aloud or much God's will be done and Lord receive my soul After which words the Executioner did his Office and his body after it had hung a good while being cut down was put into a Coach and carried to a Church not farre from Maidstone the place is called Bersted where it lies interr'd expecting a joyfull resurrection through the mercies of the Lord Jesus A Postcript to the whole Kingdom IT is a true saying of Saint Augustine Deus non respicit quâ morte sed quales ex hac vitâ eximus God regards not what death we die as in what frame of spirit we are when we give up the Ghost A man may go to Hell upon a feather-bed and to Heaven dying on a Gibbet The end which Divine mercy proposes to its selfe cannot be prevented by humane means and if God intends his glory by mans shamefull death I see not but that I and all here should magnifie him for it It is Gods mercy to make us witnesses of the judgments of others that we may be forwarned ere we have an occasion of sinning in our selves So then if his Mercy and Justice his Justice in punishing his Mercy in releasing and giving a sinner time to repent If these two Attributes be advanced by Master Sonds his death we have all great cause to sing an Hallelujah to God It is said Heb. 11.4 of Righteous Abel that being dead he yet speaketh This is meant of his faith for which his sacrifice was accepted and by which he has left us a lesson behind him how to offer up our prayers and services to the God of Heaven Thus our young Cain that killed his elder Brother being dead yet speaketh He by his shamefull death 1. Bespeaketh the proud Gallants of this Age who minde the outward dresse of their bodies more then the inward ornament of their soules that starve the latter and pamper the former that spend whole mornings in decking a rotten carcase and sleep away those houres that they should imploy in Prayer and reading of the holy Scriptures with other Godly books Men if I may so call them that look like Monsters pictures of Phancie and walking Emblems of vanitie These he in a manner bespeaks thus Look upon me who have been guilty of your vanity and idlenesse and know that the eye of Justice never sleeps so that