my Soul I cannot find my small Concern with the Duke of Monmouth doth deserve this heavy Judgment on me but I know as I said before it is for Sins long unrepented of I die in Charity with all Men I desire all of you to bear me witness I die a true Professor of the Church of England beseeching the Lord still to stand up in the Defence of it God forgive my passionate Judges and cruel and hasty Jury God forgive them they know not what they have done God bless the King and though his Judges had no Mercy on me I wish he may find Mercy when he standeth most in need of it Make him O Lord a nursing Father to the Church let Mercy flow abundantly from him if it be thy Will to those poor Prisoners to be hereafter tried and Lord if it be thy holy Will stop this issue of Christian Bood and let my guiltless Blood be the last spilt on this account Gentlemen all Farewel Farewel all the Things of the World Then singing some few Verses of a Psalm and putting up some private Ejaculations to himself said O Lord into thy hands I commend my Spirit and so submitted to the Executioner September the 7th 1685. 3. The Behaviour and Dying Speech of Mr. Joseph Speed of Culliton AT the same time and place as he came near the Place of his Execution he spying his Country-man and Friend called him and said I am glad to see you here now because I am not known in these Parts being answered by his Friend I am sorry to see you in this Condition He replies It is the best Day I ever saw I thank God I have not led my Life as Unchristian-like as many have done having since the Years of Sixteen always had the Checks of Conscience on me which made me to avoid many gross and grievous Sins my course of Life hath been well known to you yet I cannot justifie my self All Men Err. I have not been the least of Sinners therefore cannot excuse my self but since my Confinement I have received so great Comfort in some Assurance of the Pardon of my Sins that I can now say I am willing to die to be dissolved and to be with Christ and say to Death Where is thy Sting and to Grave Where is thy Victory Being ask'd by some rude Soldiers Whether he was not sorty for the Rebellion he was found Guilty of He courageously reply'd If you call it a Rebellion I assure you I had no sinister Ends in being concerned for my whole Design in taking up Arms under the Duke of Monmouth was to fight for the Protestant Religion which my own Conscience dictated to me and which the said Duke declared for and had I think a lawful Call and Warrant for so doing and do not question that if I have committed any Sin in it but that it is pardoned Pray Mr. Sheriff let me be troubled no farther in answering of Questions but give me leave to prepare my self those few Minutes I have left for another World and go to my Jesus who is ready to receive me Then calling to his Friend who stood very near him said My dear Friend you know I have a dear Wife and Children who will find me wanting being somewhat incumbred in the World let me desire you as a Dying Man to see that she be not abused and as for my poor Children I hope the father of Heaven will take care of them and give thern Grace to be Dutiful to their distressed Mother And so with my dying Love to all my Friends when you see them I take leave of you and them and all the World desiring your Christian Prayers for me to the last moment Then repeating some Sentences of Scripture as Colossians chap. 3. v. 1 2. If you then c. and praying very fervently said I thank God I have Satisfaction I am ready and willing to suffer Shame for his Name And so pouring forth some private Ejaculations to himself and lifting up his Hands the Executioner did his Office The Soldiers then present said They never before were so taken with a Dying Man's Speech his Courage and Christian-like Resolution caused many violent Men against the Prisoners to repent of their Tyranny towards them some of whom in a short time died full of Horror And thus fell this Good Man a true Protestant and one that held out to the end An Account of those that suffered at Bridport and Lyme 1. AT Bridport one John Sparke who was a very Good Man and behaved himself with a great deal of Christian-like Courage to the end Being asked how he could endure those Hardships he had undergone since his being taken Says he If this be all 't is not so much but my Friend if you were to take a Journey in those ways you were not acquainted with you would I hope desire Advice from those that had formerly used those ways or lived near by them Yes says he Then said he The ways of Affliction which I have lately travelled in I had Advice many a time from a Minister who hath often told his Congregation of the troublesomeness of the Road and of the difficulty of getting through and has given me and Hundreds of others to understand the Pits and Stones in the way and how to avoid them He has been a Man used to those Roads many Years I have taken his Advice I am got thus far on comfortably and I trust shall do so to the end I am not afraid to fight a Duel with Death if so it must be Now I thank God I can truly say Oh Death where is thy Sting and Oh Grave where is thy Victory Two or three Days after his Sentence he was drawn to Execution but was very rudely and opprobriously dealt with to the Shame of those that then had the Charge over him their Rigour to him was more more like Turks than Christians Being come to the Place of Execution he prayed very devoutly but by the Rudeness of the Guards there could be no Copy taken to be said to be true He died very Couragiously and spake to them in these Words looking on the Soldiers saying Little do you think that this very Body of mine which you are now come to see cut in pieces will one Day rise up in Judgment against you and be your Accuser for your delight in spilling of Christian Blood The Heathens have far more Mercy Oh 't is sad when England must out-strip Infidels and Pagans But pray take notice Don't think that I am not in Charity with you I am so far that I forgive you and all the World and do desire the God of Mercies to forgive you and open your Hearts and turn you from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to the Lord Jesus Christ And so Farewel I am going out of the Power of you all I have no dependance but upon my blessed Redeemer to whom I commit my dear Wife and Children
the aforesaid Memoirs Vnder this Stone the Matchless Digby lies Digby the Great the Valiant and the Wise This Age's Wonder for his Noble Parts Skill'd in six Tongues and Learn'd in all the Arts. Born on the day he died th' Eleventh of June On which he bravely fought at Scanderoon 'T is rare that one and self-same Day should be His Day of Birth of Death of Victory 13. I had a Maternal Uncle that died the Third of March last 1678. which was the Anniversary day of his Birth and which is a Truth exceeding strange many Years ago he foretold the day of his death to be that of his Birth and he also averr'd the same but about the Week before his departure 14. Of the Family of the Trevours six successive principal Branches have been born the Sixth of July Same Memoirs 15. Meekren in his Medico Chirurgical Observations gives an Account of a Man that had a Septenary-Fever and Pliny if we may believe him tells us of one Antipater a Sidonian that also had a Fever or as some call it an Ague every Year upon his Birth-day As for the Nature of such Fevers or Agues they are as unaccountable as the Revolution of Sevens a Year in which it 's observ'd a great part of the World that get out of Childhood die in and we read of one Family that never escapes it Whether an Anniversary Ague is curable I dare not pretend since we want Examples perhaps from the Fewness of ' em 16. In the Family of the Hastings Earls of Pembrooke it is memorable that for many Generations together no Son ever saw the Father The Father being always dead before the Son was born Chetwind's Historical Collections I shall take particular Notice here of the Third of November both because 't is my own Birth-day and also for that I have observ'd some remarkable Accidents to have happen'd thereupon I had an Estate left me in Kent of which between thirty and forty Acres was Marsh-Land very conveniently flanking its Up-land and in those Days this Marsh Land was usually lot for Four Nobles an Acre My Father died 1643. Within a Year and half after his Decease such Charges and Water-scots came upon this Marsh-land by the Influence of the Sea that it was never worth one Farthing to me but very often eat into the Rents of the Up-land So that I often think this Day being my Birth-day hath the same evil Influence upon me that it had 580 Years since upon Earl Godwin and others concern'd in Low Lands 18. The Parliament so fatal to Rome's Concerns here in Henry VIII's time began the Third of November 26th of his Reign in which the Pope with his Authority was clean banish'd the Realm See Stow's Annals and Weaver p. 80. 19. The Third of November 1640. began that Parliament so direfully fatal to England in its Peace its Wealth its Religion its Gentry Nobility nay it s King 20. The Third of September was a remarkable Day to the English Attila Oliver 1650. He obtain'd a memorable Victory at Dunbar another at Worcester 1651. And that day he died 1658. 21. The Third of September was Dismal and Unhappy to the City of London and consequently to the whole Kingdom I come now to the Days of the Week 22. I. Tuesday Dies Martis was a most remarkable Day with Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury as Weaver 201 observes from Mat. Paris Upon a Tuesday he suffer'd upon a Tuesday he was Translated upon Tuesday the Peers of the Land sate against him at Northampton upon Tuesday he was Banished upon Tuesday the Lord appear'd to him at Pontiniac saying Thomas Thomas my Church shall be glorified in thy Blood Upon Tuesday he return'd from Exile upon Tuesday he got the Palm or Reward of Martyrdom upon Tuesday 1220. his Venerable Body receiv'd the Glory and Renown of Translation fifty Years after his Passion Thus my Author 22. II. Wednesday is said to have been the fortunate day of Sixtus Quintus that Pope of Renowned Merit that did so great and excellent Things in the time of his Government See The just Weight of the Scarlet Robe p. 101. his desired Praises On a Wednesday he was born on that Day he was made Monk on the same he was made General of his Order on that also was he successively created Cardinal elected Pope and also Inaugurated See Heylin speaking of the Temple of Jerusalem 23. III. Thursday was a fatal Day to Henry VIII as Stow 812. and so also to his Posterity He died on Thursday Jan. 28. King Edward VI. on Thursday July 6. Queen Mary on Thursday November 17. Queen Elizabeth on Thursday March 24. 24. IV. Friday was observ'd to be very fortunate to the Great Renowned Capt. Gonsalvo he having on that day given the French many Memorable Defeats 25. V. Saturday was a Lucky Day to Henry VII Upon that Day he atchiev'd the Victory upon Richard III. being August 22. 1485. On that day he entred the City being August 29. Correct Stow who mistakes the Day and he himself always acknowledged he had experienced it fortunate See Bacon in his Life 26. At Feltwell in Norfolk which lies East and West a Fire happen'd to break out at the West end which the West Wind blew and burn'd all the Street On that Day Twenty Years another Fire happened there which began at the East end and burn'd it to the Ground again This I had from a Reverend Divine 27. Collonel Hugh Grove of Wiltshire was beheaded at Exeter together with Coll John Penrudock on the Ninth day of May 1655. On that very day Three Years his Son and Heir died at London of a Malignant Fever and about the same Hour of the Day 28. A very good Friend of mine and old Acquaintance was born on the 15th of November his eldest Son was born on the 15th of November and his Second Son's First Son on the 15th of November Thus far I 'm beholding to Mr. Aubrey's Collections CHAP. XVI Premonitions of particular Changes or Accidents of Life FOR God to take notice of and concern himself with Particulars was an Article of Religion which Epicurus could not allow of because it seemed Inconsistent with the Majesty of the Supream Being to interrupt his own Peace and Quiet with so many little Punctilioes But for us Christians to doubt of it were very unreasonable since we find in Sacred Scripture that He was concerned about the Sin of Adam the Murder of Abel the Punishment of Cain the preservation of Noah the Production of Isaac the Correction of David the safety of Daniel and the Three Children and to pass over many more Instances the Death of his Son and St. Peter his Apostle 1. Sir Henry Wooton speaking of the Duke of Buckingham's Death takes notice of these Ominous Presagements before his end being to take his Leave of my Lord's Grace of Canterbury the only Bishop of London whom he knew well planted in the King 's unchangeable Affection by
preparing that we may be ready to die Therefore oh my God I humbly pray receive my Soul by thy free Mercy in Jesus Christ my Saviour and Redeemer for Christ hath died for me and for all my Sins in this World committed My great God hath given me long Life and therefore I am now willing to die Oh Jesus Christ help my Soul and save my Soul I believe that my Sickness doth not arise out of the Dust nor cometh at peradventure but God sendeth it Job 5.6 7. By this Sickness God calleth me to repent of all my Sins and to believe in Christ now I confess my self a great Sinner Oh pardon me and help me for Christ his sake Lord thou callest me with a double Calling sometimes by Prosperity and Mercy sometimes by Affliction And now thou callest me by Sickness but let me not forget thee O my God For those that forget thy Name thou wilt forsake them As Psalm 9.17 All that forget God shall be cast into Hell therefore let me not forget thee Oh my God I give my Soul to thee Oh my Redeemer Jesus Christ pardon all my Sins and deliver me from Hell Oh do thoa help me against Death and then I am willing to die and when I die 〈◊〉 help me and receive me In so saying he died 39. Plaâ—bohon He was the second Man next Waban what received the Gospel he brought with him to the second Meeting at Wabay's House many when we formed them into Government he was chosen Ruler of Ten when the Church at Hassenamessit was gather'd he was called to be a Ruler then in that Church when that was scatter'd by the War they came back to Natick Church so many as survived and at Natick he died His Speech as followeth I rejoyce and am content and willing to take up my Sorrows and Sickness many are the Years of my Life long have I lived therefore now I look to die But I desire to prepare my self to die well I believe God's Promise that he will for ever save all that believe in Jesus Christ. Oh Lord Jesus help me deliver me and save my Soul from Hell by thine own Blood which thou hast shed for me when thou didest die for me and for all my Sins Now help me sincerely to confess all my Sins Oh pardon all my Sins I now beg in the Name of Jesus Christ a Pardon for all my Sins for thou O Christ art my Redeemer and Deliverer Now I hear God's Word and I do rejoyce in what I hear tho' I do not see yet I hear and rejoyce that God hath confirmed for us a Minister in this Church of Natick he is our VVatchman And all you People deal well with him both Men VVomen and Children hear him every Sabbath Day and make strong your praying to God and all you of Hassaunemesue restore your Church and Praying to God there Oh Lord help me to make ready to die and then receive my Soul I hope I shall die well by the help of Jesus Christ Oh Jesus Christ deliver and save my Soul in everlasting Life in Heaven for I do hope thou art my Saviour Oh Jesus Christ. So he died 40. Old Jacob He was among the first that pray'd to God he had so good a Memory that he could rehearse the whole Catechize both Questions and Answers when he gave thanks at Meat he would sometimes only pray the Lord's Prayer his Speech is as followeth My Brethren now hear me a few Words stand fast all you People in your praying to God according to that Word o God 1 Cor. 16.13 Watch ye stand fast in the Faith quit you like Men and be strong in the Lord. Especially you that are Rulers and Teachers Fear not the Face of Man when you Judge in a Court together help one another agree together Be not divided one against another remember the Parable of ten Brethren that held together they could not be broken nor overcome but when they divided one against another then they were easily overcome and all you that are Rulers judge right Judgment for you do not judge for Man but for God in your Courts 2 Chron. 19.6 7. Therefore judge in the fear of God Again You that are Judges see that ye have not only Humane Wisdom for Mans Wisdom is in many things contrary to the Wisdom of God counting it to be foolishness Do not judge that right which only seemeth to be right and consider Matth. 7.1 2. Judge right and God will be with you when you so do Again I say to you all the People make strong your Praying to God and be constant in it 1 Thess 5.17 Pray continually Again lastly I say to you Daniel our Minister be strong in your Work As Mat. 5.14 16. You must bring Light into the World and make it to shine that all may see your good Work and glorifie your Heavenly Father Every Preacher that maketh strong his Work doth bring precious Pearls As Matth. 13.52 And thou shalt have Everlasting Life in so doing I am near to Death I have lived long enough I am about 90 Years old I now desire to die in the presence of Christ Oh Lord I commit my Soul to thee 41. Antony He was among the first that prayed to God he was studious to read the Scriptures and the Catechism so that he learned to be a Teacher but after the Wars he became a Lover of strong Drink was often admonished and finally cast out from being a Teacher His Dying Speeches follow I am a Sinner I do now confess it I have long prayed to God but it hath been like an Hypocrite tho' I was a confessing Church-Member yet like an Hypocrite tho' I was a Teacher yet like a Backsliding Hypocrite I was often drunk Love of strong Drink is a lust I could not overcome tho' the Church did often admonish me and I confessed and they â—orgave me yet I fell again to the same Sin tho' Major Gookins and Mr. Eliot often admonished me I confessed they were willing to forgive me yet I fell again Now Death calls for me and I desire to prepare to die well I say to you Daniel beware that you love not strong Drink as I did and was thereby undone Strengthen your Teaching in and by the word of God take heed that you defile not your work as I did for I defiled my Teaching by Drunkenness Again I say to you my Children forsake not praying to God go not to strange places where they pray not to God but strongly pray to God as long as you live both you and your Children Now I desire to die well tho' I have been a Sinner I remember that word that saith That tho' your Sins be many and great yet God will pardon the Penitent by Jesus Christ our Redeemer Oh Lord save and deliver me by Jesus Christ in whom I believe send thy Angels when I die to bring my poor Soul to thee and save my poor sinful
Qualities upon any but as Dispositions to Eternal Glory and a Token of special Love and everlasting Favour I shall therefore in the next place proceed to enquire after a few Remarkable Instances of this Nature and first of all of Faith that Grace that is so mightily commended under the Oeconomy of the New Testament 1. Luther was a Man of great Faith and Resolution as appears by these Passages in his Sermons Sir Devil I gear not thy Threatenings and Terrors for there is one whose Name is Jesus Christ in whom I believe He hath abolished the Law condemned Sin vanquished Death and destroyed Hell And again Good Mrs. Death Dost thou know this Man Christ Come and bite out his Tooth Hast thou forgotten how little thy Biting prevailed with him once Faith kills Reason that Beast and Monster that all the World cannot kill and Laughs at all the Iniquiry Rage and Fury of the World c. 2. Arch-Bishop Vsher though he fore-told in the time of his greatest Prosperity that he should die in Poverty yet made little Provision for the Storm and though his Losses in Ireland upon the turn of the Times were great and his Straits in England very considerable yet when two several Offers were made him from Foreign Nations the one from Cardinal Richlieu in relation to his great Learning with a promise of large Maintenance and Liberty to live where he listed in France among the Protestants the other from the States of Holland who proffered him the Place of Honorarius Professor at Leyden which had an ample Stipend belonging to it yet he refused both and chose rather to put himself upon Divine Providence in his own Countrey Clâ—rk in his Life 3. Mr. Heron on his Death-bed being minded of his young Children whom he had made but slender Provision for made this Answer which my Author saith was Censured for too light by some Persons That he did not fear but He that fed the young Ravens when they cried unto him would likewise take care of and provide for the young Herons Dr. Fuller in his Meditations 4. Mr. Lancaster being by Birth a good Gentleman and sometime Fellow in King's College in Cambridge he was but little of Stature but eminent as for other things especially for his living by Faith His Charge being great and his Means so small his Wife would many times come to him when she was to send her Maid to Banbury Market to buy Provision and tell him that she had no Money his usual Answer was Yet send your Maid and God will provide and though she had no Money yet she never returned empty for one or other that knew her to be Mr. Lancaster's Maid either by the way or in Banbury Town meeting her would give her Money which still supplied their present wants Mr. Clark in the Life of Dr. Harris 5. Mr. Edw. Lawrence formerly Minister of Basckarth in Shropshire but refusing to comply with the Act of Vniformity and thereupon being in danger of being turned out of his Living being ask'd How he would maintain his VVife and so many small Children as he had Made Answer I intend to live and maintain my Family upon the Fifth Chapter of Saint Matthew CHAP. XXVIII Remarkable Courage and Boldness FEar not thou them saith our Saviour that can destroy the Body and after that have nothing that they can do c. certainly a good Christian Courage in a good Cause and under the Conduct of an humble Prudence is the Gift of God and Blessing of Heaven and one of those Graces that bespeak the person endowed therewith to be somewhat more than common Man Our dear Saviour was taken notice of for one that Preach'd with Authority and the Apostles with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a liberty of Speech and boldness of Spirit which their Adversaries were not able to resist And sometimes we may pick up such Examples of boldness in succeeding Ages of the Church as these that follow 1. Ignatius being required to be present at the Gratulatory Sacrifices appointed by Trajan after the Parthian War which were to be offered in every City before Trajan's Face did justly and sharply reprove the Idolatry for which cause he was delivered to ten Soldiers to be carried to Rome Clark's Mar. of Eccl. Hist 2. Polycarp would not flie when in danger of Persecution and Martyrdom saying The will of the Lord be done and coming to the Searchers he communed with them very chearfully and commanded that the Table should be spread for them intreating them to eat and dine well requesting but one Hours space for his Prayers which was granted him Ibid. 3. Origen was in his early Years desirous of Martyrdom and would have thrusted himself into the Persecutors Hands had not his Mother in the Night time privily convey'd away his Cloathes on purpose to restrain him and when he could do no more he stoutly Exhorted his Father then â—â—â—â—rison by Letters that he would not alter his purpose of Suffering for his Son's sake Dr. Cave Prim. Christ Clark Marrow of Eccl. Hist. c. 4. Valentinian Jun. compassing the Church where Ambrose was in a great rage with a great number of Armed Souldiers commanded him to come forth but he nothing terrified answered That I will never willingly do neither will I betray the Sheepfold of my Sheep to the Wolves nor deliver up the Temple of God to the Authors of Blasphemy but if thou pleasest to kill me here 's my Breast peirce it as thou pleasest with Spear or Sword I am willing to embrace such a Death Upon which resolute Answer the Emperor with-drew ibid. 5. Luther's Courage and Boldness is well known when disswaded from going to Dispute at Worms for fear of his Enemies If I thought saith he there were danger of our Cause I would go tho' there were as many Devils in Worms as Tiles upon the Houses And another time to his Friends quaking for fear of future troubles Come saith he let 's sing the 46th Psalm and let all the Devils in Hell do their worst Pref. to his Sermons 6. John Frith to certain Messengers sent by the Arch-Bishop to bring him before him and they disswading Frith from stiffness in his Opinion about the Sacrament made answer I most heartily thank you for your Good-will and Councel whereby I see your Good-will to me yet my Cause and Conscience is such that in no wise I may or can without danger of Damnation start aside and fly from the Truth whereof I am convinced and which I have Published concerning the Lord's Supper so that if I be askt what my Judgment is about it I must needs declare my Judgment and Conscience therein as I have formerly written tho' I was sure to lose Twenty Lives if I had so many Clarks Eccl. Hist p. 158. 7. King Arthur to increase the Courage of his Soldiers Instituted the Order of Knights of the Round Table that he might reward the well deserving with Titles of Honour None
is at best fickle and subject to change We are short sighted and cannot see at first what the Effects of such Love will be And therefore what more ordinary than for Lovers to grow cold and indifferent If the Person be loved for Beauty the Small-Pox or Feaver may put an end to that Love If for good Humour Age and Sickness often alters it if for Money Riches may make themselves Wings and fly away or else any Vnkindness or unsuitable Carriage from the Person loved often alters the Affections Yet with what delight can they talk of these they love 't is hard to put them off with other Discourse Lovers think not the time long they are together Yet O my Soul I am infinitely obliged to God his Love is beyond all Expression I have ever since I was born offended him and brought Sin enough into the World with me to set me at an eternal Distance from him Yet God's great Love was such that he thought nothing too much for fallen Man He knew before ever he fixt his Love on me what I should prove how I should carry it towards him yet that could not hinder his Thoughts of Love O my Soul thou canst never do enough to testify thy Love to God There 's no fear of the Decay of his Love to thee if thou dost but carry it ingenuously towards him There can be no Defect in God all that is is on my part I have cause to bewail my former Miscarriages and now to resolve to walk more holily and humbly before God Christ he is altogether lovely there is nothing in him but what if considered may inflame my Heart with Love to him I may wonder at my self that I do no more love to talk of this lovely Jesus that I do so seldom think of him Well now let me learn something from this Reflection to fill my Soul with Love to him and to set me a longing after Communion with him O that I may for ever have him in my Thoughts whose Thoughts I was never out of from Eternity if I am not mistaken but am truly his REFLECTION III. On her Brother H 's telling her Mother that she lay at Mrs. B 's and her Mother discoursing what her Landlord said of her Febr. 2. 1679. Her Reflections on this were these viz. OH my Soul What use should I make of all this I may see how vain it is to expect Satisfaction in the Creatures when they do in so small a matter disappoint me and prove false Sure the use God would have me to make of all the Disappointments I have ever yet met with is to expect more from God and less from the Creature I see and find by Experience this I may soon expect more from them than is to be had But I never yet expected that from God that is to be had in him I find I may soon loose my good Name and Credit in the World I should from hence learn to make it my business to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and Man that so whatever the World says or thinks of me I may still be able to approve my Heart to God and to carry it so towards all I converse with as not willingly to give them any just cause to speak Evil of me I see 't is a vain thing nay I shall be the most inexcusable of any one in the World if ever I should expect Satisfaction in the Creature For my Experience tells me it is not there to be had I no sooner promise my self Comfort in any Earthly Enjoyment but some way or other it is imbittered to me I promised my self a great deal of Comfort in Mrs. B 's Acquaintance and now I cannot go to see her without hazarding my good name Well I will now retreat back again to my former SOLITVDE and converse more with God and my own Soul I have found enough of the Vanity of Acquaintance But I never yet had cause to complain of my God The more I acquaint my self with him the better it is I should be so ingenuous in all cases to make a Spiritual Improvement of an Earthly Disappointment that so I may reap real Benefit by outward Vexations REFLECTION IV. Upon her being taken ill in the Night and thinking she was struck with Death OH my Soul thou seest what need I have to be always prepared for Death How soon can God take away Health and Life I am but Tenant at Will to my Maker and therefore I need to be ready I then began to call my self to account to see with what Comfort I could appear before God I find upon Examination and some sight of Eternity here is abundance of Sin to be repented of I dare not think of appearing before God without an Assurance of an Interest in Christ Well O my Soul what use should I make of this Providence I know not how soon I may die Death is a serious thing it is a solemn thing to appear before the Heart-searching God there to be accountable for all I have done in the body and for ever to be doomed to endless Happiness or Misery What a mad Body and Fool am I then to be so negligent in working â—â—t of my Salvation when I am sure I cannot live long The Pain I felt was great but nothing to what the Damned feel I did then bless God that it was not eternal I thought if my Pain was so sad what is it to be tormented in Body and Soul and that for ever I then considered what Sin it was that most disturbed my Peace and find it is trifling with God Well O my Soul it is time for thee now to resolve to be more serious and always prepared because in such an hour as I think not the Son of Man comes REFLECTION V. Upon her Mother's and Sister T 's saying to her She would neither make a fond Wife nor Mother OH my Soul What use should I make of all the Opinions People have of me and of their thinking I shall never be fond of any Relation Sure God hath some end in it that notwithstanding my Willingness to please all manner of Persons I cannot yet have their good word Let me now more than ever endeavour to please God I have great cause to love my Parents for under God I am beholding to them for my Being But I am not only beholden to God for my Creation but I hope for Redemption and a whole Life of Mercies that be hath continually followed me with I have great cause to love Relations but that is nothing if compared with what cause I have to love God Their greatest Love is Hatred when compared with God's Love Well then the use I should make of all this is to consider my Obligations to God I would not willingly displease an Earthly friend sure then had not Sin basely besotted me I should abhor the Thoughts of doing any thing that might displease God I should endeavour
God! Oh! how am I filled with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Oh Lord I solemnly resolve against all my Sins These are the Murtherers that would not have thee to Reign over me Original Sin the pollution of my own Nature the Sins that I have committed before I knew what Sin was have rendred me obnoxious to thy Displeasure I beg of thee that thou wouldest give them their Death's Wound I shall now meditate on the wonderful Love of God in electing some to Salvation and passing by others and wonder that I shou'd be an Object of Electing Love sure Lord thou cou'dst not have chosen one more vile than I am and one that wou'd have carried it to thee as I have done I may well wonder at thy infinite Love I considered of the Love of God in parting with the Son of his Love to die for Sinners that God shou'd contrive such a way of Salvation for fallen Man and not for fallen Angels What an astonishing amazing Love was that that Christ shou'd become Man that he shou'd be so poor as not to have where to lay his Head when he came to enrich the World Oh that sweet Expression of Christ's Love when he says I was with him when he laid the Foundations of the World yet then my Thoughts were in the habitable part of the Earth and my Delights were with the Sons of Men. That I shou'd be one of them that Christ shou'd have in his Thoughts of Love I cou'd not but cry out And why me Lord why me Oh infinite Free Grace that I shou'd be freely chosen whereas if God had but required Satisfaction for one Sin tho' but a sinful thought I must have perish'd for ever I told Christ Dearest Jesus I cannot at this Sacrament take a denial of thy gracious Presence I come to meet with God and I cannot be contented without him I bless thy Name I have often enjoyed great Delight in this Ordinance but now I would enjoy more of God than ever I would have all my Graces grow and flourish I would have my Sins utterly destroyed and rooted out O Blessed Jesus I come to thee here are my Lusts my Pride my Vnbelief my want of Love to thee the base Sins of my Nature my disingenuous Carriage towards thee here Lord slay them before thee They are unwilling that thou shouldest rule in my Soul I did in these or the like Expressions make over my self to be more entirely God's and I dare own upon review that I did enjoy Christ This did in some measure set my Soul a longing for Heaven Lord said I if a Smile of thy Love is so sweet what are the full and ravishing Views of thy Love If a Glimps of my dearest Jesus is so sweet and refreshing what will the full Visions of God be for ever But my base Heart was several times trying to draw me from God O surely a Freedom from Sin will be unconceivably sweet to me that am so continually harassed with these Corruptions She writ abundance of such MEDITATIONS and EJACVLATIONS as these but here 's all that her Husband could ever get transcribed By these her MEMOIRS and RVLES for holy Living we not only see what an extraordinary Wife she was for her Husband says she fully practis'd 'em but also the happy Effects of a regular Course of Piety for certainly never was there on a Sick-bed a greater Instance of a willing Resignation to the Will of God as to either Life or Death She would often say to her Husband O my dear 't is a solemn thing to die but I can freely leave all the World but you and at saying so she would still burst out into Tears she said at another time Sickness is no time to prepare for Death were my Work now to do I were undone for ever But I shall stop here for she needs not borrowed Shades to set her off I need do no more than refer you to these Memoirs which are all the curious Contexture of her own Brain I shall only add She was MISTRESS IN THE ART OF OBLIGING in which she attain'd that Sovereign Perfection that she reigned over all Hearts with whom she did converse In a word She did consecrate her self entirely to God and was more afraid of Sin than of Hell it self In such a loose Age as this such an extraordinary Instance may perhaps be doubted as to the Truth of it but I do assure the Reader there 's nothing inserted in this Relation of Mrs. L but what is real Matter of Fact CHAP. LII Good Husbands Remarkable HVsbands have as much cause to be good as Wives and more clearness of Reason and strength of Judgment ordinarily to govern their Passions and direct their Actions and therefore they should excel the Women not only in Prudence but in Goodness and particularly Patience And so they do sometimes as for Instance 1. Sir Nathanael Barnardiston seemed here to imitate the Practice of the Lord Jesus towards his Church in his Conjugal Love Protection and full Contentation and Delight until he became a Pattern and Mirrour of Matrimonial Sweetness and Faithfulness and as it is said by one of the Rabbins concerning Methuselah's Wife That she had Nine Husbands in One for Age and Years so I may say of this Gentleman's Lady that she had Nine Husbands in him alone for his aimable Carriage and Graces These were it is true acted while he was living but he left a Testimonial in his Will of his living Affection after his own Death over and above the Marriage-Covenants to shew his endearedness of her by his Affectionate Remembrance when he himself was gone See his Life 2. Dominicus Catalusius was the Prince of Lesbos and is worthy of eternal Memory for the entire Love which he bare to his Wife she fell into a grievous Leprosie which made her appear more like unto a rotten Carcase than a living Body Her Husband not fearing in the least to be infected with the Contagion nor frighted with her horrible Aspects nor distasted with the loathsome Smells sent forth by her filthy Ulcers never forbid her either his Board or Bed but the true Love he had towards her turned all those things to him into Security and Pleasure Lond. Theatr. p. 462. Fulgos L. 4. C. 6. p. 526. 3. Ant. Wallaeus lived most lovingly with his Wife they never brake forth into Anger or mutual Brawling their mutual Care was to please each other and by Deeds to prevent each others's Desires neither did Wallaeus fear any thing more than that his Dear Wife should die before him-for he used her not only for the Government of his Family but for his constant Companion What soever befel him in the Common-wealth Church or Civil Converse he acquainted her with it ask'd and often followed her Advice for she was a modest and prudent Woman Clark's Eccles Hist p. 488. 4. Mr. Eliot of New-England loved prized and cherished that one Wife which was given to
thy sight be justified After a little Rest and Slumber she spake to her Father with much Joy and Gladness 1 Cor. 15.54 c. Death is swallowed up of Victory c. She commanded afterwards Psal 84. to her Mother saying Read that Psalm Dear Mother and therewith ye may comfort one another As for me I am more and more spent and draw near unto my last Hour Pray with me pray that the Lord would vouchsafe me a soft Death And when they had prayed with her she turned to her Mother and with much Affection said Ah my Dear Loving Mother that which comes from the Heart doth ordinarily go to the Heart Once come and kiss me before I leave you and also my Dear Father and my Sister and Father let my Sister be trained up in the Ways of God as I have been I bewailed and wept for my Sister thinking she would die and now she weeps for me Also she took her young little Sister in her Ams a Child of Six Months old and kissed it with much Affection as if her Bowels had been moved speaking with many Heart-breaking Words both to her Parents and the Children 'till her Father said to one standing by Take away that young poor Lambkin from the hazard of that fiery Sickness Give her away for ye have too much already to bear Well Father said she did not God preserve the Three Children in the fiery Furnace Citing also Isa 43.3 After a little Rest awaking again she rehersed 1 Cor. 15.42 43. Isa 57.1 2. Job 19.25 26 27. John 5.28 c. Eph. 2.8 9. and descanted pathetically upon them adding My Dear Parents now we must shortly part my Speech faileth me pray the Lord for a quiet Close to my Combat I go to Heaven and there we shall find one another I go to Jesus Christ and to my Brother Jacob who did cry so much to God and call upon him to the very last Breath and to my little Sister which was but Three Years of Age when it died c. At last after she had prayed a pretty space by herself she asked her Parents If she had angred or grieved them at any time or done any thing that became her not Craving Forgiveness of them Then she began to dispose her Books and other little things with some proportion of Prudence and after a short Discant on the following Scriptures Psal 23. Rom. 8. 2 Tim. 4.7 8. 1 Cor. 6.20 Isa 53 Joh. 1. 1. Cor. 6.11 Rev. 7. 2 Cor. 5.1 2. she concluded with these Words My Soul shall now part from this Body and shall be taken up into the Heavenly Paradise there shall I dwell and go no more out but sit and sing Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts c. O Lord God into thy Hands I commend my Spirit O Lord be gracious be merciful to me a poor Sinner And hereupon she fell a sleep Sept. 1. between Seven and Eight in the Evening having obtained according to her Prayers a quiet and soft Departure 26. Jacob Bickes above-mentioned Brother to the aforesaid Susanna was visited Three or Four Weeks before his Sister and slept most of his time 'till near his Death but so often as he awaked he gave himself to pray Upon motion made to send for the Physician he said Dear Father and Mother I will not have the Doctor any more The Lord shall help me I know he shall take me to himself and then he shall help all After Prayer Come now Dear Father and Mother said he and kiss me I know now that I shall die Adieu Dear Father and Mother Adieu my Dear Sister Adieu all Now shall I go to Heaven unto God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Angels Father know ye not what is said by Jer. 17. Blessed is he who trusteth in the Lord. Now I shall trust in him and he shall bless me And 1 John 2. Little children love not the world for the world passeth away Away then all that is in the World away with all my pleasant Things in the World Away with my Dagger which a Student had given him for where I go there 's nothing to do with Dagger and Sword Men shall not fight there but praise God Away with all my Books for where I go there 's nothing to be done with Books there I shall know and be learned sufficiently all things of true Wisdom and Learning without Books The Father telling him God would be near to him and help him Yea Father the Apostle Peter saith God resisteth the proud but gives grace to the humble I shall humble myself under the mighty Hand of God and he shall help and lift me up God hath given me so strong a Faith upon himself through Jesus Christ that the Devil himself shall flee from me for it is said John 3. He who believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and hath overcome the wicked one 1 John 2. Now I believe in Jesus Christ my Redeemer and he will not leave nor forsake me but shall give unto me Eternal Life then shall I sing Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Sabath And with this short Word of Prayer Lord be merciful to me a poor Sinner he quietly breathed out his Soul and slept in the Lord aged Seven Years August 8. 1664. Extracted out of a Pamphlet called An Edifying Wonder of Two Children Printed at London for Richard Tomlins 1667. 27. The Reverend Mr. Clark in his Works quotes a Child of Two Years old that looked towards Heaven And credible History acquaints us with a Martyr of Seven Years old that was whipped almost to Death and never shed one Tear nor complained and at last had his Head struck off 28. Of Mary Warren born in May 1651 aged Ten Years in May 1661. When this Child was about Five or Six Years old she had a new plain Tammy Coat and when she was made ready was to be carried with other Children into Morefields but having looked upon her Coat how fine she was she presently went to her Chair sate down her Tears running down her Eyes she wept seriously by herself her Mother seeing it said to her How now Are you not well What 's the matter that you weep The Child answered Yes I am well but I would I had not been made ready for I am afraid my fine Cloaths will cast me down to Hell Her Mother said It 's not our Cloaths but wicked Hearts that hurt us She answered Aye Mother fine Cloaths make our Hearts proud What next follows was written by her Father on Friday Night Octob. 4. 1661. Her Mother asked her If she were willing to die she answered ' Aye very willing for then I shall sin no more for I know Christ's Blood hath made Satisfaction for my Sins October the Fifth her Mother going softly to the Chamber-door she heard her speaking alone and she listned and heard her say thus Come Lord Jesus come quickly and receive thy poor Creature out of all my Pains
Things He could not endure to be put to Bed without Family-Duty but would put his Parents upon Duty and would with much Devotion kneel down and with great Patience and Delight continue 'till Duty was at an end When he had committed any fault he was easily convinced of it and would get into some Corner and Secret Place and with Tears beg Pardon of God and Strength against such a Sin He had a Friend that oft watched him and listned at his Chamber-door from whom I received this Narrative A Friend of his asked him Whether he were willing to die when he was first taken sick he answered No because he was afraid of his State as to another World Why Child said the other thou didst pray for a new Heart for an humble and a sincere Heart and I have heard thee Didst thou not pray with thy Heart I hope I did said he Not long after the same Person asked him again Whether he were willing to die He answered Now I am willing for I shall go to Christ He still grew weaker and weaker but carried it with a great deal of sweetness and patience waiting for his Change and at last did cheerfully commit his Spirit unto the Lord and calling upon the Name of the Lord and saying Lord Jesus Lord Jesâ—â— in whose Bosom he sweetly slept dying as I remember when he was about Five or Six Years old 8. Of a little Girl that was wrought upon when she was between Four and Five Years old Mary A. when she was between Four and Five Years old was greatly affected in hearing the Word of God and became very solicitous about her Soul and Everlasting Condition weeping bitterly to think what would become of her in another World asking strange Questions concerning God and Christ and her own Soul So that this little Mary before she was full Five Years old seemed to mind the one thing needful and to choose the better part and sate at the Feet of Christ many a time and oft with Tears She was very Conscientious in keeping the Sabbath spending the whole time either in Reading or Praying or learning her Catechism or teaching her Brethren and Sisters See took great delight in Reading of the Scripture and some part of it was more sweet to her than her appointed Food she would get several choice Scriptures by heart and discourse of them savourly and apply them suitably A little before she died she had a great Conflict with Satan and cried out I am none of his Her Mother seeing her in trouble asked her what was the matter she answered Satan did trouble me but now I thank God all is well I know I am none of his but Christ's After this she had a great Sence of God's Love and a Glorious Sight as if she had seen the very Heavens open and the Angels come to receive her by which her Heart was filled with Joy and her Tongue with Praise Being desired by the Standers-by to give them a particular Account of what she saw she answered You shall know hereafter and so in an Extasie of Joy and holy Triumph she went to Heaven when she was about Twelve Years old Hallelujah 9. Of a Child that began to look towards Heaven when she was about Four Years old A certain little Child when she was about Four Years old had a Conscientious Sence of her Duty towards her Parents because the Commandment saith Honour thy Father and thy Mother And though she had little advantage of Education she carried it with the greatest Reverence to her Parents imaginable so that she was no small Credit as well as Comfort to them She would be very attentive when she read the Scriptures and be much affected with them and would by no means be perswaded to prophane the Lord's Day but would spend it in some good Duties When she was taken sick one asked her Whether she were willing to die she answered Yes if God would pardon her Sins Being asked How her Sins should be pardoned she answered Through the Blood of Christ. There were very many observable Passages in the Life and Death of this Child but the Hurry and Grief that her Friends were in buried them 10. Charles Bridgman had no sooner learned to speak but he betook himself to Prayer His Sentences were wise and weighty and well might become some ancient Christian His Sickness lasted long and at least Three Days before his Death he prophesied his Departure and not only that he must die but the very Day The last Words which he spake were exactly these Pray pray pray nay yet pray and the more Prayers the better all prospers God is the best Physician into his Hands I commend my Spirit O Lord Jesus receive my Soul Now close mine Eyes Forgive me Father Mother Brother Sister all the World Now I am well my Pain is almost gone my Joy is at hand Lord have mercy on me O Lord receive my Soul unto thee And thus he yielded his Spirit up unto the Lord when he was about Twelve Years old This Narrative was taken out of Mr. Ambrose 's Life's Lease 11. Of a poor Child that was awakened when she was about Five Years old A certain very poor Child that had a very bad Father but it was to be hoped a very good Mother was by the Providence of God brought to the sight of a Godly Friend of mine who upon the first sight of the Child had a great pity for him and took an Affection to him and had a mind to bring him for Christ It was not long before the Lord was pleased to strike in with the Spiritual Exhortations of this good Man so that the Child was brought to a liking of the things of God He would ask very excellent Questions and Discourse about the Condition of his Soul and Heavenly Things and seemed mightily concerned what should become of his Soul when he should die so that his Discourse made some Christians even to stand astonished He was greatly taken with the great kindness of Christ in dying for Sinners and would be in Tears at the mention of them and seemed at a strange rate to be affected with the unspeakable Love of Christ After the Death of his Mother he would often repeat some of the Promises that are made unto Fatherless Children especially that in Exod. 22.22 Ye shall not afflict any Widow or the Fatherless Child if thou afflict them in any wise and they cry at all unto me I will surely hear their cry These words he would often repeat with Tears I am Fatherless and Motherless upon Earth yet if any wrong me I have a Father in Heaven who will take my part to him I commit myself and in him is all my trust Thus he continu'd in a Course of Holy Duties living in the fear of God and shewed wonderful Grace for a Child and died sweetly in the Faith of Jesus My Friend is a Judicious Christian of many Years Experience who was
in Hell long ago if it had not been for thy Mercy O Lord I pray thee to keep my Parents in thy Truth and save them from this Infection if it be thy Will that they may live to bring me up in thy Truth O Lord I pray thee stay this Infection that rageth in this City and pardon their Sins and try them once more and see if they will turn unto thee Save me O Lord from this Infection that I may live to praise and glorifie thy Name but O Lord if thou hast appointed me to die of it fit me for Death that I may die with Comfort and O Lord I pray thee to help me to bear up under all Afflictions for Christ his sake Amen These are some of his dying Expressions The Lord shall be my Physician for he will cure both Soul and Body Heaven is the best Hospital It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his Eyes Again It is the Lord that taketh away my Health but I will say as Job did Blessed be the Name of the Lord. If I should live longer I should but sin against God Looking upon his Father he said If the Lord would but lend me the least Finger of his Hand to lead me through the dark Entry of Death I will rejoyce in him An hour and an half before his Death a Minister came to Visit him and asked him John Art thou afraid to die He answered No if the Lord will but comfort me in that hour But said the Minister How canst thou expect Comfort seeing we deserve none He answered No if I had my Deserts I had been in Hell long ago But replied the Minister which way dost thou expect Comfort and Salvation seeing thou art a Sinner He answered in Christ alone In whom about an hour and half after he fell asleep saying He would take a long sleep charging them that were about him not to wake him He died when he was twelve years three weeks and a day old 15. Anne Lane was born of honest Parents in Colebrook in the County of Bucks who was no sooner able to speak plain and express any thing considerable of Reason but she began to act as if she was sanctified from the very Womb. She was very solicitous about her Soul what would become of it when she should die and where she should live for ever and what she should do to be saved when she was about five years old I having occasion to lie at Colebrook sent for her Father an old Disciple an Israelite indeed and desired him to give me some account of his Experiences and how the Lord first wrought upon him He gave me this answer That he was of a Child somewhat civil honest and as to Man harmless but was little acquainted with the power of Religion till this sweet Child put him upon a thorow Inquiry into the state of his Soul and would still be begging of him and pleading with him to redeem his time and to act with life and vigor in the things of God which was no small Demonstration to him of the reality of Invisibles that a very Babe and Suckling should speak so feelingly about the things of God and be so greatly concerned not only about her own Soul but about her Father 's too which was the occasion of his Conversion It was the greatest Recreation to her to hear any good People talking about God Christ their Souls the Scriptures or any thing that concerned another Life She continued thus to walk as a Stranger in the World and one that was making haste to a better place And after she had done a great deal of work for God and her own Soul and others too she was called home to rest and received into the Arms of Jesus before she was ten years old she departed about 1640. 16. Talitha Alder was the Daughter of a Holy and Reverend Minister in Kent who lived near Gravesend She was much instructed in the Holy Scriptures and her Catechism by her Father and Mother but there appeared nothing extraordinary in her till she was between seven and eight years old About which time when she was sick one asked her what she thought would become of her if she should die She answered that she was greatly afraid that she should go to Hell Upon this seeing her in such a desponding Condition a dear Friend of her's spent the next day in Fasting and Prayer for her After this she had a Discovery of her approaching Dissolution which was no small comfort to her Anon said she with a holy Triumph I shall be with Jesus I am married to him he is my Husband I am his Bride I have given my self to him and he hath given himself to me and I shall live with him for ever I am going to Glory O that all of you were to go with me to that Glory With which words her Soul took wing and went to the Possession of that Glory which she had some believing sight of before She died when she was between eight and nine years old about 1644. 17. Susanna Bicks was born at Leyden in Holland Jan. 24. 1650. of very Religious Parents whose great care was to instruct and Catechise this their Child and to present her to the Minister of the Place to be publickly instructed and Catechised It pleased the Lord to bless Holy Education the good Example of her Parents and Catechising to the good of her Soul so that she soon had a true Savour and Relish of what she was taught and made an admirable use of it in a time of need as you shall hear afterwards That which was not the least observable in her was the ardenâ— Affection she had for the Holy Scriptures and her Catechism in which she was thorowly instructed by the Godly Divines of the place where she lived which she could not but own as one of the greatest Mercies next the Lord Christ O how did she bless God for her Catechism and beg of her Father to go particularly to those Ministers that had taken so much pains with her to instruct her in her Catechism and to thank them from her a dying Child for their good Instructions and to let them understand for their Encouragement to go on in that Work of Catechising how Refreshing those Truths were now to her in the hour of her distress O that sweet Catechising said she unto which I did always resort with Gladness and attended without Weariness She laid a great charge upon her Parents not to be over-grieved for her after her Death urging that of David upon them while the Child was sick he fasted and wept but when it died he washed his Face and sat up and ear and said Can I bring him back again from Death I shall go to him but he shall not return to me So ought you to say after my Death Our Child is well for we know it shall be well with them that trust in the Lord. She had
alibi 11. Bishop Vsher's Custom was to pray Four times a Day in and with his Family in the Morning at Six a Clock in the Evening at Eight and before Dinner and Supper in his Chappel at each of which he was always present On Fryday in the Afternoons there was constantly an Hour spent in his Chappel in Catechizing upon the Principles of Religion for the Instructing of his Family and on Sabbaths in the Evening the Sermon which he had preached in the Afternoon was repeated in his Chappel by one of his Chaplains See his Life 12. It is recorded to the everlasting Praise of the young Lord Harrington so famous for Piety that it was his constant use to pray twice every Day in secret twice with some choice Friends and Servants besides his Family-Duties See his Life 13. It was the Practice of Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston to pour out his Soul before the Lord in secret thrice every Day and sometimes oftner if he could gain opportunity besides his Family-Duties and Days of extraordinary Humiliation which he importunately embraced upon every occasion This I can testifie saith Mr. Fairclough upon mine own Experience that for many Years together when I was first acquainted with him I seldom visited him but if any convenient Place could be found we might not part except we had prayed together Nor was he more frequent in secret Prayer than constant in secret Reading the Scriptures See his Life 14. Mr. Samuel Fairclough upon the escape of his Child after a dangerous Fall made a solemn Vow in the Publick Congregation to give all the Tithe-Wool of the Parish to the Poor The Vow was Registred and Subscribed by his Hand and piously observed See his Life 15. Mr. Cotton Mather tells us Such was the Piety of Mr. Eliot that like another Moses he had upon his Face a continual Shine arising from his uninterrupted Communion with the Father of Spirits Indeed I cannot give a fuller Description of him than what was in a Paraphrase that I have heard himself to make upon that Scripture Our Conversation is in Heaven I writ from him as he uttered it Behold said he the Ancient and Excellent Character of a true Christian 't is that which Peter calls Holiness in all manner of Conversation you shall not find a Christian out of the way of Godly Conversation For First A Seventh part of our time is all spent in Heaven when we are duly zealous for and zealous on the Sabbath of God Besides God has written on the Head of the Sabbath Remember which looks both forwards and backwards and thus a good part of the Week will be spent in Sabbatizing Well but for the rest of our time Why we shall have that spent in Heaven e're we have done For Secondly We have have many Days for both Fasting and Thanksgiving in our Pilgrimage and here are so many Sabbaths more Moreover Thirdly we have our Lectures every Week and pious People won't miss them if they can help it Furthermore Fourthly We have our private Meetings wherein we Pray and Sing and repeat Sermons and confer together about the Things of God and being now come thus far we are in Heaven almost every day But a little farther Fifthly We perform Family Duties every Day we have our Morning and Evening Sacrifices wherein having read the Scriptures to our Families we call upon the Name of God and ever now and then carefully Catechise those that are under our Charge Sixthly We shall also have our daily Devotions in our Closets wherein unto Supplication before the Lord we shall add some serious Meditation upon his Word a David will be at this Work no less than thrice a Day Seventhly We have likewise many Scores of Ejaculations in a Day and these we have like Nehemiah in whatever place we come into Eighthly We have our occasional Thoughts and our occasional Talks upon Spiritual Matters and we have our occasional Acts of Charity wherein we do like the Inhabitants of Heaven every Day Ninthly In our Callings in our Civil Callings we keep up heavenly Frames we Buy and Sell and Toil yea we Eat and Drink with some Eye both to the Command and the Honour of God in all Behold I have not now left an Inch of Time to be carnal it is all engrossed for Heaven And yet lest here should not be enough Lastly We have our Spiritual Warfare We are always encountring the Enemies of our Souls which continually raises our Hearts unto our Helper and Leader in the Heavens Let no Man say 'T is impossible to live at this rate for we have known some live thus and others that have written of such a Life have but spun a Web out of their own blessed Experiences New-England has Examples of this Life thô alas 't is to be lamented that the Distractions of the World in too many Professors do becloud the Beauty of an Heavenly Conversation In fine our Employment lies in Heaven In the Morning if we ask Where am I to be to Day Our Souls must answer In Heaven In the Evening if we ask Where have I been to Day Our Souls may answer In Heaven If thou art a Believer thou art no Stranger to Heaven while thou livest and when thou diest Heaven will be no strange place to thee no thou hast been there a thousand times before In this Language have I heard him express himself and he did what he said he was a Boniface as well as a Benedict and he was one of those Qui faciendo docert quae facienda docent Thus far Mr. Cotton Mather 15. Mr. Henry Gearing's Covenant with GOD As I find it in his Life Published by Mr. John Shower O Most Dreadful GOD for the Passion of Thy Son I beseech Thee accept of Thy poor Prodigal now prostrating himself at Thy Door I have fallen from Thee by mine Iniquity and am by Nature a Son of Death and a Thousand-fold more the Child of Hell by my wicked Practice but of Thine Infinite Grace Thou hast promised Mercy to me in Christ if I will but turn to Thee with all my Heart Therefore upon the Call of thy Gospel I am now come in and throwing down my Weapons submit myself to thy Mercy And because Thou requirest as the Condition of my Peace with Thee that I should put away mine Idols and be at Defiance with all Thine Enemies which I acknowledge I have wickedly sided with against Thee I here from the bottom of my Heart renounce them all firmly Covenanting with Thee not to allow myself in any known Sin but to use Conscientiously all the Means that I know Thou hast prescribed for the Death and utter Destruction of all my Corruptions And whereas I have formerly inordinately and idolatrously let out my Affections upon the World I do here resign my Heart to Thee that madest it humbly protesting before Thy Glorious Majesty That it is the firm Resolution of my Heart and that I do unfeignedly desire Grace
seeking to direct your Life after it you shall be an Inheritour of such Riches as neither the Covetous shall take from you neither shall Thieves steal nor Moth corrupt Desire with David dear Sister to understand the Law of the Lord God live still to die that by Death you may purchase Eternal Life and trust not that the tenderness of your Age shall lengthen your Life for as soon if God calls goes the Young as the Old Labour therefore always to learn to die Defie the World deny the Devil despise the Flesh and delight your self wholly in the Lord be penitent for your Sins and yet despair not be strong in Faith and yet presume not and desire with St. Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ with whom even in Death there is Life Be like the good Servant and even at Midnight he waking lest when Death comes and steals upon you you be with the evil Servant found sleeping and lest for lack of Oyl you be found like the foolish Virgins and like him that had not on the Wedding-Garment and so you be shut out from the Marriage Rejoyce in Christ as I do follow the Steps of your Master Christ and take up his Cross lay your Sins upon him and always embrace him And as touching my Death rejoyce as I do Good Sister that I shall be delivered of this Corruption and put on Incorruption for I am assured that I shall for losing a Mortal Life win an Immortal Life the which I pray God to grant you and send you of his Grace to live in his Fear and die in the True Faith of Christ from which in the Name of God I exhort you that you never swerve neither for Hope of Life nor Fear of Death for if you deny his Truth to lengthen your Life God will deny you and shorten your Days and if you cleave unto him he will prolong your Days to his Glory and your Comfort To which Glory God bring me now and you hereafter when it shall please him to call you Fare you well Good Sister and put your only Trust in God who only must help you The next Morning with a Book in her Hand she made a pathetical Speech upon the Scaffold kneeled down to Prayers repeated over the 51st Psalm prayed for the Executioner laid her Head upon the Block and ended her Life with these words Lord into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Aged Sixteen Fox Martyrol Concerning the Respect of the Jews to the Law the Mahometans to their Alchoran c. see my History of all Religions 37. I had almost forgot to make mention of the Practice of my dear Friend and Correspondent Mr. Henry spoken of in the last Chapter which I am very unwilling to omit because I would provoke myself and others to some degree of Emulation in the Case besides his Exercise on the Lord's Days mentioned before every Day of the week his Custom was every Morning and Night to Read a Chapter to his Family and Expound it distinctly and clearly and after Singing a Psalm and Prayers to appoint his Children to retire by themselves and write over a Copy of his Exposition by which means as himself once told me every one of his Children Five in Number One Son and Four Daughters had the Exposition of the whole Bible by them written with their own Hands This Custom he kept up constantly in his own House for above Twenty if not above Thirty Years together without any intermission except in Cases of Absence from Home which happened but seldom 38. Dr. Harris in all his Wills always renewed this Legacy Item I bequeath to all my Children and to my Childrens Children to each of them a Bible with this Inscription None but Christ See his Life 39. Philip Melancthon always used to carry his Bible along with him wherein he read often Clark's Exampl Vol. II. p. 336. 40. Mr. William Garaway hath told me of a certain English Gentleman a Member of the House of Commons that never came into the Parliament-House without a Bible in his Pocket which he used to consult upon occasions 41. Mrs. Catherine Stubbs was seldom seen without a Bible or a good Book in her Hands See her Life 42. John Prince of Saxony had Six Pages attending on him in his Chambers that every day read to him Six Hours out of the Bible Luther Coll. Mens p. 462. 43. Mr. Fox tells a Story of one Crow a Sea-man who being Shipwreck'd lost all his Money and Goods but put his Bible about his Neck and swam with it to Shoar Mr. Barker's Flores 44. After Ptolomy had furnish'd his Library with so many Thousand Books Aristaeus told him It was but a poor Library being without the Sacred Volume of God the Book of Books the Holy Scripture So is all Knowledge but poor Knowledge without the Right Knowledge of God revealed in his Word Mr. Barker's Flores 45. I have read of one Cramerus a School-Master who had a Scholar who had in a Writing in his own Blood promised to give his Soul on certain Conditions to the Devil which Writing Cramerus got from him and the Devil in the Night knock'd at his Chamber-door and demanded the Paper of him but he answered I have laid the Paper in my Bible and in that Page where it is written The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent and take it thence Satan if thou canst And thereupon the Devil departed and left the Paper behind him and came no more Mr. Barker's Flores 46. Mr. Cotton Mather tell us in the Life of Mr. Nathaniel Mather That this young Man had a principle regard unto the Scriptures for the Subjects of his Meditations and he was very expensive of his Thoughts on the Book of God He was daily digging in the sacred Mines and with deligh he fetched thence Riches better then those of both the India's and he could say O how I love thy Law it is my Meditation every day Even in the time of his mortal Sickness he was very angry at himself if he had not heard a Portion of the Bible read unto him from day to day Once when he was near his End a good part of a day having pass'd before he had enjoyed his Meal of Scripture be said unto his Sister with some impatience Alas What an ungodly Life do I lead pray come and read my Bible to me and read me the forty ninth Psalm Indeed he read the Scripture not cursorily but very deliberately and considerately and as an effect of his doing so he could give such an account of the Difficulties in it as the most not only of Christians but of Divines too would judge an Attainment extraordinary Not long before he died he had read over all the large and great Annotations on the Bible lately published by Mr. Pool and some other Non-conformist Ministers but having dispatched those two noble Folio's he said unto one that was intimate with him Thus
of Kings Companion of the Stars and Brother to the Sun and Moon to Constantine my Brother wishes Health Or rather let us borrow Names from the Bisnagentian King who was wont to be saluted The Bridegroom of Good Luck the God of great Provinces the King of most potent Kings Lord of all the Armies of Horse the Master and Teacher of those that understand not how to speak Emperor over three Emperors Conqueror of whatever he saw Preserver of his Conquests whom Eight Parts of the World fear a Knight to whom there is none to be compar'd a Vanquisher of every one that boasts in Strength the Hunter of Elephants Lord of the East South North West and Sea All this Peter Irricus relates Are here Titles enough If you please let us add a Series of Eulogies which the Soldan sets before his Epistles in this order Omnipotent Salmander before Carthage Lord of Jordan Lord of the East Lord of Bethlehem Lord of Paradise Praefect of Hell Supremest Emperor of Constantinople Lord of the Dry Fig the Lord by whom the Sun and Moon steer their course Protector of John the first Priest Emperor King of Kings Lord of the Christians Jews Turks the God's Friend In a Style not much unlike to this Solyman wrote to our Caesar To Charles the Fifth always most August Emperor Solyman his Contemporary sprung from the Victorious and most Noble Family of the Ottomans Emperor of Trebizond and Constantinople Lord of the World and Conqueror of the Earth c. What wou'd ye have more O truly Splendid Misery O Ashes and Nothing O Vanity of Vanity Most shameful is that Ignorance when Man forgets himself to be Man Wouldst thou have an Abstract an Epitome of all Humane Life Daniel the Archbishop and Elector of Mentz in Germany in a little Book of Prayers wrote with his own Hand these Precepts of Living 1. Life short 2. Beauty deceitful 3. Money flies away 4. Empire envy'd 5. War pernicious 6. Victory doubtful 7. Friendship fallacious 8. Old Age miserable 9. Death happiness 10. Wisdom Fame Eternal That Heavenly Wisdom that brings us to Kingdoms never destitute never to be invaded eternal A Nation bordering upon the Thracians and in Customs agreeing with them has this one peculiar to themselves That when an Infant is born the Relations sitting about it weeping and wailing enumerate the Miseries which the Child is to endure On the other side when a Man dies they bury him with Joy and Exultation recounting from how many Miseries he is deliver'd Deservedly this Nation claims to it self the Applaute of Wisdom who celebrate the Birth of Man with Tears and his Funeral with Pomp and Gladness Elegantly answered Laeâ—ius that Wise Man to a certain Person saying I am Sixty Years of Age. Thou callest these Sixty answered he which thou hast not Neither what is past nor what is to come is thine We depend upon a point of flying Time and it is the part of a great Man to have been moderate Plato was of Opinion that any Man became so much the wiser by how much the more lively he considered Death Therefore he gave this Law to his Disciples studious in Philosophy that when they went a Journey they should never cover their Feet whereby that wise Man insinuated that the end of Life was always to be thought on Nicholas Christophorus Radzivile Prince of Poland affirms that in Egypt they who excelled others in Prudence and Age were wont to carry the long Bones of dead Men carved out of Wood or Ebony shew them one to another and thereby exhort one another to Contemplation They also introduce the Remembrance of Death at their Tables and conclude their Banquets with this sad Sentence Memento Mori Remember to Die Caleph King of the Tartars in the City of Bagdat upon a Festival Day which they call Ramadan being resolved to shew himself to the People rode forth upon a Mule clad in Vestments that glistered with Gold Silver and precious Stones but over his Tulipan he wore a black Veil signifying that all his Pomp was one day to be clouded by the shades of Death Justinian the Emperor being dead a Coverlet was thrown over him wherein were wrought in Phrygian Work the Essigies and Figures of the Vanquished Cities and Barbarous Kings whom he had overcome Behold the Image of Death among Pageants Scaffolds Triumphs and Victories Death plays with Empires and knocks as well at the Towers of Kings as at the Cottages of the Poor Pope Martin the Fifth had this Symbol of a speaking Picture or of silent Poesie Upon a Funeral Pile kindled and ready to burn lay the Popes Triple Crown the Cardinals Hat the Archbishops Cap the Emperors Diadem the Kings Crown the Ducal Cap and Sword with this Motto Sic omnis gloria Mundi Thus all the Glory of the World I cannot but approve the Answer of a certain Mariner who being ask'd where his Father dy'd In the Sea said he And when the other ask'd him the same Question concerning his Grandfather his Great Grandfather and his Great Great Grandfather the Mariner still returned him the same Answer Then inferred the other And dost not thou fear to go to Sea To which the Seaman waving a Reply And where did your Father die In his Bed said the other where your Father your Grandfather and the rest of your Ancestors They all said the other died in their Beds Then said the Mariner And do not you fear to go to Bed so Fatal to all your Predecessors Very Elegantly and somewhat above a Sailor's Genius John Patriarch of Alexandria who took his Name from giving Alms while he was living and in health caused his Monument to be built but not to be finished for this Reason that upon Solemn Days when he performed Divine Service he might be put in mind by some of the Clergy in these Terms Sir your Monument is yet unfinished command it to be finished for you know not when the Hour may come When the Emperor of the East was newly chosen no Person had liberty to speak to him before the Stone-cutter had shewed him several sorts of Marble and asked him of which his Majesty would be pleased to have his Monument made What was the meaning of this but only to intimate these Words O Emperor exalt not thy self thou art but a Man thou shalt die like the meanest of Beggars therefore so govern thy Kingdom which thou art to lose that thou may'st gain an Eternal Kingdom Domitian the Emperor gave a Banquet to the Chief of the Senate and the Order of Knighthood after this manner He hung his House all with Mourning the Roofs Walls Pavements Seats were all covered with black bespeaking nothing but sorrow Into this Funeral Dining-room were all the Guests introduced by Night without any Attendants By each was placed a Bier with every one his Name inscribed upon it with such Candles as they were wont to burn in their Monuments They that waited were dad in black
his End drew near being often ask'd how he did answered In no great pain I praise God only weary of my unuseful Life If God have no more Service for me to do here I could be gladly in Heaven where I shall serve him better free from Sin and Destractions I pass from one Death to another yet I fear none I praise God I can live yet dare die If God have more Work for me to do here I am willing to do it altho' my infirm Body be very weary Desiring one to pray That God would hasten the Work it was ask'd whether Pain put him upon that Desire he replied No But I do now no Good I hinder others which might be better imployed if I were not Why should any desire to live but to do God Service Now I cease from that I do not live The Violence of his Distempers and Advice of Physicians forbidding his Speech he called upon his Attendants to read the Scriptures and his Son to Pray with him and whilst Life and Language lasted he concluded all Prayers with a loud Amen Once upon his awaking finding himself exceeding ill he called for his Son and taking him by the hand said Pray with me it is the last time in all likelihood that ever I shall joyn with you And complaining to him of his weariness his Son answered There remains a Rest To whom he replyed My Sabbath is not far off and yours is at hand ere that I shall be rid of all my Trouble and you shall be eased of some At last his ruinous Fort which had held out beyond all expectation came to be yielded up About Saturday Evening he began to set himself to die forbids all Cordials to be administred gives his Dying Blessing to his Son who only of all his Children was with him and upon his Request enjoyns him to signifie in that Country where he was longest known that he lived and died in the Faith which he had Preached and Printed and now he found the Comfort of it And afterwards spake no more only commanded Rom. 8. to be read to him dying into his perpetual Rest betwixt Twelve and One of the Clock on Saturday Night December 11. 1658. aged 80 and more W. D. in the Life and Death of Dr. Harris p. 58 59 c. In all his Wills this Legacy was always renewed Item I bequeath to all my Children and their Children's Children to each of them a Bible with this Inscription None but Christ Ibid. I may not here forget to Remark an Answer which he made to one that told him Sir You may take much comfort in your Labours you have done much good c. All said he was nothing without a Saviour my best Works would Condenmn me O I am ashamed of them being mixed with so much Sin Oh! I am an unprofitable Servant I have not done any thing for God as I ought Loss of Time sits heavy upon my Spirits Work work apace assure your self nothing will more trouble you when you come to die than that you have done no more for God who hath done so much for you At another time I never in all my Life saw the worth of a Christ nor tasted the sweetness of God's Love in that measure as now I do And to two Reverend Doctors his chief Friends I praise God he supports me and keeps off Satan Beg that I may hold out I am now in a good way home even quite spent I am now at the Shore I leave you tossing on the Sea O it is a good time to die in Ibid. p. 57. 58. 66. Mr. John Machin made the following Will. I commit my Soul to God my God and my Saviour that created and redeemed it even into the Bosom of the Father of Spirits my Body to my Father Corruption and to the Worms my Mother and Sister Job 17.14 In hopes he will make good to me who with them some time have endeavoured to serve him his Promise of Eternal Life Rom. 2.7 As for my dear beloved Wife I freely return and I pray it may be with Advantage to him that hath lent her to whom I leave John 17.24 Rev. 21. last Jude 24. Psal 84.10 11 hoping that I leave them Heirs together with me or rather with Jesus Christ of a Kingdom that cannot be removed If the Lord should graciously give me Issue I pray it may be of his Heritage and prepared for a Room in Heaven to it I would leave 1 Chron. 28.9 and I pray God see it executed according to my Will And it is my Will concerning my Heir if the Lord give one that he may be a Samuel lent to the Lord and his Service in the Ministry for I can say he is an asking of the Lord as was Samuel And that he may have my Inheritance performing his Father's and my Will concerning my Lecture As for my Personal Substance c. ending thus Praying whoever Rules here may keep open house for God and his and all I leave may be his to whom I would in Faith say Psal 31.5 hereunto subscribing with my Heart and Hand _____ J. M. And in a Schedule dated herewith as followeth Some Particulars concerning the thing that hath long been in my heart to do for God written as my last Will as an occasion of some standing Service when I am not Motives God's Glory Christ's Kingdoms increase and poor Souls Salvation an expression of my Thankfulness for what he hath done for our Family and for me the least and last of it And the rather because I am here in my own apprehension so little serviceable in speaking doing and suffering for him and nothing at all advantageous in writing as others have been and I could have desired Those Motives together with that blessed Experience I have had of its Advantage already through God's sealing work with it makes me to think my self favoured the more of God if I may do this for him and I doubt not but he can and will if need be give me and mine much more than this as is said 2 Chron. 25.9 and if I could say as David 1 Chron. 29.23 I would think it little betwixt him and me who hath said That whosoever shall give you a Cup of cold Water to drinkin my Name because ye belong to Christ verily I say unto you he shall not lose his Reward and my Prayer is that those that come after me whose it might have been think it's better bestowed than the rest The Thing A double Lecture viz. of two Sermons once a Month chiefly intending Souls Conversion The Ministers The most Orthodox Able and Powerful that can be procured for love to Jesus Christ and his Service or the Will of the Dead chosen by my Trustees successively The Trustees Four Ministers and four Lay-men The Ministers I leave in Trust and question not their Faithfulness herein for Christ's sake are my dearest fellow-labourers in our Lord's Work Mr. N. Mr. S. Mr. B. and Mr.
how Happy it were for me to be with thee yet for thy Chosen sake send me Life and Death I suspect some Mistake in recording these last Words perhaps Life or Death that I may truly serve thee O my Lord God! bless thy People and save thine Inheritance O Lord God save thy People of England O my Lord God defend this Realm from Papistry and maintain thy true Religion that I and thy People may praise thy Holy Name for thy Son Jesus Christ's sake His last Words were I am faint Lord have mercy and take my Spirit He died aged 17. 108. The Lady Jane Grey by King Edward's Will proclaimed Queen of England the Night before she was beheaded sent her Sister her Greek Testament in the end whereof she wrote as may be seen under the Head of Love of the Holy Scriptures She spoke on the Scaffold thus GOod People I am come hither to Die and by a Law I am condemned to the same My Offence against the Queen's Majesty was only in consenting to the Device of others which now is deemed Treason yet it was never of my seeking but by Counsel of those who should seem to have further understanding of those things than I who knew little of the Law and much less of Titles to the Crown But touching the Procurement thereof by me or on my behalf I do here wash my Hands in Innocency before God and the Face of you all this Day and therewith she wrung her Hands wherein she had her Book I pray you all good Christian People to bear me Witness that I die a true Christian Woman and that I look to be saved by no other means but only by the Mercy of God in the Blood of his only Son Jesus Christ And I do confess That when I knew the Word of God I neglected the same and loved my self and the World and therefore this Plague and Punishment is justly befallen me for my Sins And I yet thank God of his Goodness that he hath been pleased to give me Respite to Repent in And now good People while I am alive I pray assist me with your Prayers She died 1554. aged 16. Tu quibus ista legas incertum est Lector ocellis Ipsa equidem siccis scribere non potui Fox 's Martyrol 109. Queen Elizabeth is reported upon her Death-bed but by what Author I confess I do not presently remember to complain of the want of Time Time Time a World of Wealth for an Inch of Time yet finished her Course with that of the Apostle 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought a good Fight c. 110. The young Lord Harrington professed in his Sickness That he feared not Death in what shape soever it came declaring about two Hours before his Death that he still felt the assured Comforts and Joys of his Salvation by Jesus Christ And when Death approached he breathed forth these longing Expressions Oh that Joy Oh my God! when shall I be with thee And so sweetly resigned up his Spirit unto God An. 1613. aged 22. See in his Life in the Young Man's Calling and my Christian 's Companion 111. Henry Prince of Wales eldest Son to King James in his Sickness had these Words to one that waited on him Ah Tom I in vain wish for that time I lost with thee and others in vain Recreations Which puts me in mind of what Mr. Smith relates in the Funeral Solemnity of Mr. Moor Fellow of Gaius College and Keeper of the University Library viz. That he often lamented the Misery of our English Gentry who are commonly brought up to nothing but Hawks and Hounds and know not how to bestow their Time in a Rainy Day and in the midst of all their Plenty are in want of Friends necessary Reproof and most loving Admonition 112. The Earl of Strafford made this Speech on the Scaffold May 12. 1641. MY Lord Primate of Ireland and my Lords and the rest of the Gentlemen it is a very great Comfort to me to have your Lordship by me this Day in regard I have been known to you a long time I should be very glad to obtain so much silence as to be heard a few Words but I doubt I shall not My Lord I come hither by the Good Will and Pleasure of Almighty God to pay that last Debt I owe to Sin which is Death and by the Blessing of God to rise again through the Merits of Christ Jesus to Eternal Glory I wish I had been private that I might have been heard My Lord if I might be so much beholden to you that I might use a few Words I should take it for a very great Courtesie My Lord I come hither to submit to that Judgment which hath passed against me I do it with a very quiet and contented Mind I do freely forgive all the World a Forgiveness that is not spoken from the Teeth outward as they say but from the Heart I speak it in the Presence of Almighty God before whom I stand that there is not in me so much as a displeasing Thought to any Creature I thank God I may say truly and my Conscience bears me witness that in all my Service since I have had the Honour to serve His Majesty in any Employment I never had any thing in my Heart but the joynt and individual Prosperity of the King and People If it hath been my Hap to be misconstrued it is the common Portion of us all while we are in this Life the Righteous Judgment is hereafter here we are subject to Error and apt to be misjudged one of another There is one thing I desire to clear my self of and I am very confident I speak it with so much clearness that I hope I shall have your Christian Charity in the belief of it I did always ever think the Parliaments of England were the happiest Constitutions that any Kingdom or Nation lived under and under God the happiest Means of making King and People happy so far have I been from being against Parliaments For my Death I here acquit all the World and pray God heartily to forgive them and in particular my Lord Primate I am very glad that His Majesty is pleased to conceive me not meriting so severe and heavy a Punishment as the utmost execution of this Sentence I am very glad and infinitely rejoyce in this Mercy of his and beseech God to turn it to him that he may find Mercy when he hath most need of it I wish this Kingdom all the Prosperity and Happiness in the World I did it living and now dying it is my Wish I do now profess it from my Heart and do most humbly recommend it to every Mâ—n here and wish every Man to lay his Hand upon his Heart and consider seriously whether the beginning of the Happiness of a People should be written in Letters of Blood I fear you are in a wrong way and I desire Almighty God that no one drop of my Blood may
rise up in Judgment against you My Lord I profess my self a True and Obedient Son to the Church of England to that Church wherein I was born and wherein I was bred Prosperity and Happiness be ever to it And wherein it hath been said That I have been enclined to Popery If it be an Objection worth answering let me say truly That from the Time I was One and twenty Years of Age till this Hour going up Nine and forty I never had thought in my Heart to doubt of the Truth of my Religion in England and never any had the boldness to suggest to me the contrary to the best of my Remembrance and so being reconciled to the Mercies of Christ Jesus my Saviour into whose Bosom I hope shortly to be gathered to enjoy those Eternal Happinesses that shall never have end I desire heartily the Forgiveness of every Man both for any rash or unadvised Word or Deed and desire your Prayers And so my Lords Farewel Farewel all the Things of this World Lord strengthen my Faith give me Confidence and Assurance in the Merits of Christ Jesus I desire that you would be silent and joyn in Prayers with me and I trust in God we shall all meet and live eternally in Heaven there to receive the Accomplishment of all Happiness where every Tear shall be wiped from our Eyes and every sad Thought from our Hearts and so God bless this Kingdom and Jesus have Mercy upon my Soul After this he prayed twice and with a low Obeysance took his Leave submitting to the Block The Relat. of his Execut. 113. Archbishop Laud made this his last Speech on the Scaffold Jan. 10. 1644. GOod People this is an uncomfortable time to preach yet I shall begin with a Text of Scripture Hebr. 12.2 Let us run with patience the race c. I have been long in my Race and how I have look'd to Jesus the Author and Finisher of my Faith he best knows I am now come to the end of my Race and here I find a Cross a Death of Shame but the Shame must be despised or no coming to the Right of God Jesus despised the Shame for me and God forbid but I should despise the Shame for him I am going apace as you see towards the Red Sea and my Feet are now upon the very brink of it an Argument I hope that God is bringing me into the Land of Promise for that was the way through which he led his Prophets but before they came to it he instituted a Passover for them a Lamb it was but to be eaten with sour Herbs I shall obey and labour to digest the sour Herbs as well as the Lamb and I shall remember it is the Lord 's Passover I shall not think of the Herbs nor be angry with the Hand that gathers them but look only to Him who instituted that and governs these for Men can have no more power over me than what is given them from above I am not in love with this Passage through the Red Sea for I have the Weaknesses and Infirmities of Flesh and Blood plentifully in me and I have prayed with my Saviour that this Cup of Red Wine might pass from me but if not God's Will not mine be done And I shall most willingly drink of this Cup as deep as he pleaseth and enter into this Sea yea and pass through it in the way that he shall lead me But I would have it remembred Good People that when God's Servants were in this boisterous Sea and Aaron among them the Egyptians which persecuted them and did in a manner drive them into that Sea were drowned in the same Waters while they were in pursuit of them I know the God whom I serve is able to deliver me from this Sea of Blood as the Three Children from the Furnace And I most humbly thank my Saviour for it my Resolution is now as theirs was then they would not worship the Image the King had set up nor will I the Imaginations which the People are setting up nor will I forsake the Temple and the Truth of God to follow the Bleating of Jeroboam's Calf in Dan and in Bethel And as for this People they are at this Day miserably misled God of his Mercy open their Eyes that they may see the right way for at this Day the Blind lead the Blind and if they go on both will certainly fall into the Ditch For my self I am and I acknowledge it in all Humility a most grievous Sinner many ways by Thought Word and Deed and I cannot doubt but that God hath Mercy in store for me a poor Penitent as well as for other Sinners I have now upon this sad Occasion ransacked every corner of my Heart and yet I thank God I have not found among the many any one Sin which deserves Death by any known Law of this Kingdom And yet hereby I charge nothing upon my Judges for if they proceed upon Proof by valuable Witnesses I or any other Innocent may be justly condemned and I thank God tho' the weight of this Sentence lie heavy upon me I am as quiet within as ever I was in my Life and tho' I am not only the first Archbishop but the first Man that ever died by an Ordinance in Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way tho' not by this means For Elphegus was hurried away and lost his Life by the Danes 3. and Simon Suabury in the Fury of Wat. Tyler and his Fellows before these St. John Baptist had his Head danced off by a lewd Woman and St. Cyprian Archbishop of Carthage submitted his Head to a persecuting Sword Many Examples great and good and they teach me Patience for I hope my Cause in Heaven will look of another dye than the Colour that is put upon it here and some Comfort it is to me that I go the way of these Great Men in their several Generations and also that my Charge as foul as it is made looks like that of the Jews against St. Paul Act. 25.3 for he was accused for the Law and the Temple i. e. Religion and like that of St. Stephen Act. 6.14 for breaking the Ordinances which Moses gave i. e. Law and Religion the Holy Place and the Temple v. 13. But you will say Do I then compare my self with the Integrity of St. Paul and St. Stephen No! far be that from me I only raise a Comfort to my self that these Great Saints and Servants of God were laid at in their times as I am now and 't is memorable that he who helped on this Accusation against St. Stephen did after all fall under the very same himself Yea but here 's a great Clamour that I would have brought in Popery I shall answer that more fully by and by In the mean time you know what the Pharisees said against Christ himself If we let him alone all men will believe in him venient Romani
to the uttermost I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great Instant full Patience proportionable Comfort and a Heart ready to die for thy Honour the King's Happiness and this Church's Preservation and my Zeal to these far from Arrogancy be it spoken is all the Sin Humane Frailty excepted and all Incidents thereto which is yet known to me in this Particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this particular of Treason but otherwise my Sins are very many and great Lord pardon them all and those especially whatever they are which have drawn down this special Judgment upon me And when thou hast given me Strength to bear it do with me as seems best in thine own Eyes and carry me through Death that I may look upon it in what Visage soever it appear unto me Amen And that there may be a Stop of this Issue of Blood in this more than miserable Kingdom I shall desire That I may pray for the People too as well as for my self O Lord I beseech thee give Grace of Repentance to all Blood-thirsty People but if they will not Repent O Lord confound all their Devices defeat and frustrate all their Designs and Endeavours upon them which shall be contrary to the Glory of thy Great Name the Truth and Sincerity of Religion the Establishment of the King and his Posterity after him in their just Rights and Privileges the Honour and Conservation of Parliaments in their just Power the Preservation of this poor Church in her Truth Peace and Patrimony and the Settlement of this distracted and distressed People under their ancient Laws and in their native Liberties And when thou hast done all this in Mercy for them O Lord fill their Hearts with Thankfulness and with Religious Dutiful Obedience to thee and thy Commandments all their Days So Amen Lord Jesus Amen And receive my Soul into thy Bosom Amen Our Father c. Again kneeling by the Block he prayed thus Lord I am coming as fast as I can I know I must pass through the Shadow of Death before I can come to see thee But it is but umbra mortis a meer Shadow of Death a little Darkness upon Nature but thou thro' thy Merits and Passion hast broke through the Jaws of Death So Lord receive my Soul and have Mercy upon me and bless this Kingdom with Peace and Plenty and with Brotherly Love and Charity that there may not be this Effusion of Christian Blood amongst them for Jesus Christ's sake if it be thy Will Then laying his Head upon the Block and praying silently to himself he said aloud Lord receive my Soul Which was the Signal given to the Executioner Thus he died Aged 71. Jan. 10. 1644. A brief Relat. of his Death and Sufferings printed at Oxon c. 1644. 114. King Charles the First made this his last Speech upon the Scaffold I Shall be very little heard by any body here I shall therefore speak a Word unto you here Indeed I could hold my Peace very well if I did not think that holding my Peace would make some Men think that I did submit to the Guilt as well as to the Punishment but I think it is my Duty to God first and to my Country for to clear my self both as an honest Man and a good Christian I shall begin first with my Innocency In troth I think it not very needful for me to insist long upon this for all the World knows I never did begin a War with the two Houses of Parliament and I call God to witness to whom I must shortly make an Account that I never did intend to encroach upon their Privileges They began upon me it was the Militia they began upon They confess'd that the Militia was mine but they thought it fit to have it from me And to be short if any Body will look to the Dates of Commissions both theirs and mine and likewise to the Declarations will see clearly that they began these unhappy Troubles not I So that for the Guilt of these enormous Crimes that are laid against me I hope in God that God will clear me of it I will not I am in Charity God forbid that I should lay it upon the two Houses of Parliament there is no necessity of either I hope they are free of this Guilt For I do believe that ill Instruments between them and me have been the Cause of all this Bloodshed so that by way of speaking I find my self clear of this I hope and pray God that they may be so too Yet for all this God forbid that I should be so ill a Christian as not to say That God's Judgments are just upon me Many times he doth pay Justice by an unjust Sentence that is ordinary I will only say this That an unjust Sentence that I suffered to take effect is punished now by an unjust Sentence upon me That is so far I have said to shew you that I am an innocent Man Now for to shew you that I am a good Christian I hope there is a good Man pointing to Dr. Juxon that will bear me witness that I have forgiven all the World and those in particular that have been the chief Causers of my Death who they are God knows I do not desire to know I pray God forgive them But this is not all my Charity must go further I wish that they may repent for indeed they have committed a great Sin in that Particular I pray God with St. Stephen that this be not laid to their Charge nay not only so but that they may take the right way to the Peace of the Kingdom So Sirs I do wish with all my Soul and I hope there is some here will carry it further that they may endeavour the Peace of the Kingdom Now Sirs I must shew you how you are out of the way and will put you in a way First You are out of the way for certainly all the way you ever had yet as I could find by any thing is in the way of Conquest Certainly this is an ill way for Conquest Sirs in my Opinion is never Just except there be a good just Cause either for Matter of Wrong or a just Title and then if you go beyond it that makes it Unjust in the end that was Just at first But if it be only Matter of Conquest then it is a great Robbery as a Pirate said to Alexander That he was the great Robber he was but a petty Robber And so Sirs I do think the way you are in is much out of the way Now Sirs for to put you in the way believe it you will never do right nor God will never prosper you until you give God his due the King his due that is my Successors and the People their due I am as much for them as any of you You must give God his due by regulating rightly his Church according to his Scriptures which is now out
they were hardly used and now in their Journey loaded with heavy Irons and more inhumanely dealt with They with great chearfulness profess'd That they were better in a more happy Condition than ever in their Lives from the sense they had of the Pardoning Love of God in Jesus Christ to their Souls wholly referring themselves to their wise and gracious God to chuse for them Life or Death Expressing themselves thus Any thing what pleases God what he sees best so be it We know he is able to deliver but if not blessed be his Name Death is not terrible now but desirable Mr. Benjamin Hewling particularly added As for the World there is nothing in it to make it worth while to live except we may be serviceable to God therein And afterwards said ' Oh! God is a strong Refuge I have found him so indeed The next Opportunity I had was at Dorchester where they both were carried there remaining together four days By reason of their strait Confinement our Converse was much interrupted but this appeared that they had still the same Presence and Support from God no way discourag'd at the approach of their Tryal nor of the event of it whatever it should be The 6th of September Mr. Benjamin Hewling was ordered to Taunton to be tryed there Taking my leave of him he said Oh! Blessed be God for Afflictions I have found such happy Effects that I would not have been without them for all this World I remained still at Dorchester to wait the Issue of Mr. William Hewling to whom after Tryal I had free Access whose Discourse was much filled with Admiring of the Grace of God in Christ that had been manifested towards him in calling him out of his Natural State he said God by his Holy Spirit did suddenly seize upon his Heart when he thought not of it in his retired Abode in Holland as it were secretly whispering in his Heart See ye my Face enabling him to answer his gracious Call and to reflect upon his own Soul shewing him the Evil of Sin and Necessity of Christ from that time carrying him on to a sensible adherence to Christ for Justification and Eternal Life He said Hence he found a Spring of Joy and Sweetness beyond the Comforts of the whole Earth He further said He could not but admire the wonderful Goodness of God in so Preparing him for what he was bringing him to which then he thought not of giving him hope of Eternal Life before he called him to look Death in the face so that he did chearfully resign his Life to God before he came having sought his Guidance in it and that both then and now the Cause did appear to him very Glorious notwithstanding all he had suffered in it or what he further might Although for our Sins God hath with-held these good things from us But he said God had carryed on his blessed Work in his soul in and by all his Sufferings and whatever the Will of God were Life or Death he knew it would be best for him After he had received his Sentence when he returned to Prison he said Methinks I find my Spiritual Comforts increasing ever since my Sentence There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus it 's God that justifies who shall condemn When I came to him the next Morning when he had received News that he must die the next day and in order to it was to be carried to Lyme that day I found him in a more excellent raised Spiritual Frame than before He said he was satisfied God had chosen best for him he knows what the Temptations of Life might have been I might have lived and forgotten God but now I am going where I shall sin no more Oh! it 's a blessed thing to be free from sin and to be with Christ Oh! the Riches of the Love of God in Christ to Sinners Oh! how great were the Sufferings of Christ for me beyond all I can undergo How great is that Glory to which I am going It will soon swallow up all our Sorrow here When he was at Dinner just before his going to Lyme he dropt many abrupt Expressions of his inward Joy such as these Oh! the Grace of God the Love of Christ Oh that blessed Supper of the Lamb to be for ever with the Lord He further said When I went to Holland you knew not what Snares Sins and Miseries I might fall into or whether ever we should meet again But now you know whither I am going and that we shall certainly have a most joyful meeting He said Pray give my particular Recommendations to all my Friends with acknowledgments for all their Kindness I advise them all to make sure of an Interest in Christ for he is the only Comfort when we come to die One of the Prisoners seemed to be troubled at the manner of the Death they were to die to whom he replied I bless God I am reconciled to it all Just as he was going to Lyme he writ these few Lines to a Friend being hardly suffered to stay so long I AM going to Launch into Eternity I hope and trust in the Arm of my Blessed Redeemer to whom I commit you and all my dear Relations my Duty to my dear Mother and Love to all my Sisters and the rest of my Friends William Hewling As they passed through the Town of Dorchester to Lyme multitudes of People beheld them with great Lamentations admiring at his Deportment at his parting with his Sister As they passed upon the Road between Lyme and Dorchester his Discourse was exceeding Spiritual as those declared who were present taking occasion from every thing to speak of the Glory they were going to Looking out on the Country as he passed he said This is a Glorious Creation but what then is the Paradise of God to which we are going 'T is but a few hours and we shall be there and for ever with the Lord. At Lyme just before they went to die reading John 14.18 He said to one of his fellow-Sufferers Here is a sweet Promise for us I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you Christ will be with us to the last One taking leaving of him he said Farewel till we meet in Heaven Presently I shall be with Christ Oh! I would not change conditions with any in this World I would not stay behind for Ten Thousand Worlds To another that ask'd him how he did now He said Very well he bless'd God And farther asking him if he could look Death in the face with Comfort now it approach'd so near He said Yes I bless God I can with great Comfort God hath made this a good Night to me my Comforts are much increased since I left Dorchester Then taking leave of him said Farewel I shall see you no more To which he replied How see me no more Yes I hope to meet you in Glory To another that was by him to the last
he said Pray remember my dear Love to my Brother and Sister and tell them I desire they would comfort themselves that I am gone to Christ and we shall quickly meet in the Glorious Mount Sion above Afterwards he prayed for about three quarters of an hour with the greatest fervency exceedingly blessing God for Jesus Christ adoring the Riches of his Grace in him in all the Glorious Fruits of it towards him Praying for the Peace of the Church of God and of these Nations in particular all with such eminent Assistance of the Spirit of God as convinced astonished and melted into Pity the Hearts of all present even the most malicious Adversaries forcing Tears and Expressions from them some saying They knew not what would become of them after Death but it was evident he was going to great Happiness When he was just going out of the World with a joyful Countenance he said Oh! now my Joy and Comfort is that I have a Christ to go to and so sweetly resign'd his Spirit to Christ the 12th of September 1685. An Officer who had shewed so malicious a Spirit as to call the Prisoners Devils when he was Guarding them down was now so convinced that he after told a Person of Quality That he was never so affected as by his chearful Carriage and fervent Prayer such as he believed was never heard especially from one so young and said I believe had the Lord Chief Justice been there he could not have let him die The Sheriff having given his Body to be buried although it was brought from the Place of Execution without any notice given yet very many of the Town to the Number of about 200 came to accompany him and several Young Women of the best of the Town laid him in his Grave in Lyme Church-yard the 13th of September 1685. After which his Sister writ this following Letter to her Mother ALthough I have nothing to acquaint my Dear Mother withal but what is most afflictive to Sense both as to the Determination of God's Will and as to my present Apprehension concerning my Brother Benjamin yet remaining yet there is such abundant Consolation mixt in both that I only wanted an Opportunity to pay this Duty God having wrought so Glorious a Work on both their Souls revealing Christ in them that Death is become their Friend My Brother William having already with the greatest Joy declared to those that were with him to the last That he would not change Conditions with any that were to remain in this World and he desired that his Relations would comfort themselves that he is gone to Christ My Brother Benjamin expects not long to continue in this World and is exceeding willing to leave it when God shall call being fully satisfied that God will choose that which is best for him and us all by these things God doth greatly support me and I hope you also my dear Mother which was and is my Brothers great desire there is still room for Prayer for one and God having so answered though not in kind we have Encouragement still to wait on him Honoured Mother Your Dutiful Daughter Hannah Hewling When I came to Taunton to Mr. Benjamin Hewling he had received the News of his Brother's being gone to die with so much comfort and joy and afterwards of the continued goodness of God increasing it to the end He expressed to this effect We have no cause to fear Death if the Presence of God be with us there is no evil in it the sting being taken away it 's nothing but our Ignorance of the Glory that the Saints pass into by Death which makes it appear dark for our selves or Relations if in Christ What is this World that we should desire an abode in it It 's all vain and unsatisfying full of sin and misery Intimating also his own chearful expectations soon to follow discovering then and all along great seriousness and sense of Spiritual and Eternal things complaining of nothing in his present Circumstances but want of place of Retirement to converse more uninterruptedly with God and his own Soul saying That this lonely time in Newgate was the sweetest in his whole Life He said God having some time before struck his Heart when he thought of the hazard of his Life to some serious Sense of his past Life and the great consequences of Death and Eternity shewing him that they were the only happy Persons that had secured their Eternal states The folly and madness of the ways of sin and his own Thraldom therein with his utter inability to deliver himself also the necessity of Christ for Salvation He said it was not without Terror and Amazement for some time the sight of unpardon'd sin with Eternity before him But God wonderfully opened to him the Riches of his Free-Grace in Christ Jesus for poor Sinners to flee to enabling to look alone to a crucified Christ for Salvation He said this blessed Work was in some measure carried on upon his Soul under all his business and hurries in the Army but never sprung forth so fully and sweetly till his close Confinement in Newgate There he saw Christ and all Spiritual Objects more clearly and embraced them more strongly there he experienced the blessedness of a reconciled State the Excellency of the ways of Holiness the delightfulness of Communion with God which remained with very deep and apparent impressions on his Soul which he frequently express'd with Admiration of the Grace of God towards him He said Perhaps my Friends may think this Summer the saddest time of my Life but I bless God it hath been the sweetest and most happy of it all nay there is nothing else worth the name of happiness I have in vain sought satisfaction from the things of this World but I never found it but now I have found Rest for my Soul in God alone O how great is our Blindness by Nature till God open our Eyes that we can see no Excellency in Spiritual things but spend our Precious Time in pursuing Shadows and are deaf to all the Invitations of Grace and Glorious Offers of the Gospel How just is God in depriving us of that we so much slighted and abused Oh! his Infinite Patience and Goodness that after all he should yet sanctifie any Methods to bring a poor sinner to himself Oh! Electing Love distinguishing Grace what great cause have I to admire and adore it He said What an amazing Consideration is the Suffering of Christ for sin to bring us to God his Suffering from wicked Men was exceeding great but alas what was that to the Dolours of his Soul under the infinite Wrath of God This Mystery of Grace and Love is enough to swallow up our thoughts to all Eternity As to his own Death he would often say He saw no reason to expect any other I know God is infinitely able to deliver and I am sure will do it if it be for his Glory and my Good in
as Mr. Battiscomb and made him such frequent Visits in the Prison till the Place it self was so far from being Scandalous that there was generally all the Conversation and where you might be sure to meet the best Company in the Town of both Sexes Mr. Battiscomb had the Happiness not to be displeasing to the fair Sex who had as much Pity and Friendship for him as consisted with the Rules of Decency and Vertue and perhaps their Respect for him did not always stop at Friendship tho' it still preserved the other Bounds inviolable Pity is generally but a little way from Love especially when the Object of it is any thing extraordinary But after he had been there some time and nothing could be prov'd against him which could any ways affect him he was at length almost unwillingly deliver'd from this sort of happy Slavery And when the Duke landed appear'd with him and serv'd him with equal Faith and Valour till the Rout at Sedgmoor when he fled with the rest and got up as far as Devonshire where he was seiz'd in a Disguise and brought to his old Palace the Prison at Dorchester He behav'd himself there the second time in the same courteous obliging manner as he did at the first tho' now he seem'd more thoughtful and in earnest than before as knowing nothing was to be expected but speedy Death tho' his Courage never droopt but was still the same if it did not encrease with his Danger At his Tryal Jeffreys rail'd at him with so much eagerness and barbarity that he was observ'd almost to foam upon the Bench. He was very angry with him because he was a Lawyer and could have been contented all such as he should be hang'd up without any Trial and truly 't was no great Matter whether he or the rest had had that Formality or no. Mr. Battiscomb was as undaunted at the Bar as in the Field or at Execution How he demeaned himself in Prison before his Death take this following Account verbatim as 't was written by his Friends The Account given of him by his Relations HE was observed to be always serious and chearful ready to entertain Spiritual Discourse manifesting Affection to God's People and his Ordinances he seem'd to be in a very calm Indifference to Life or Death referring himself to God to determine it expressing his great Satisfaction as to some Opportunities of Escape that were slipt saying That truly he sometimes thought the Cause was too good to flee from suffering in it tho' he would use all lawful Means for his Life but the Providence of God having prevented this he was sure it was best for him for he said he bless'd God he could look into Eternity with Comfort He said with respect to his Relations and Friends to whom his Death would be afflictive That he was willing to live if God saw good but for his own part he thought Death much more desirable He said I have enjoyed enough of this World but I never found any thing but Vanity in it no Rest or Satisfaction God who is an Infinite Spiritual Being is the only suitable Object for the Soul of Man which is spiritual in its Nature and too large to be made happy by all that this World can afford which is all but sensual Therefore methinks I see no reason why I should be unwilling to leave it by Death since our Happiness can never be perfected till then till we leave this Body where we are so continually clogg'd with Sin and Vanity frivolous and foolish Trifles Death in it self is indeed terrible and natural Courage is too low to encounter it nothing but an Interest in Christ can be our Comfort in it he said which Comfort I hope I have intimating much advantage to his Soul by his former Imprisonment The Day he went from Dorchester to Lyme after he had received the News of his Death the next Day he was in the same serious Cheerfulness declaring still the same Apprehension of the Desirableness of Death and the great Supports of his Mind under the Thoughts of so sudden passing through it alone from the Hope of the Security of his Interest in Christ taking leave of his Friends with this Farewel Tho' we part here we shall meet in Heaven Passing by 〈◊〉 Estate going to Lyme he said Farewel Temporal Inheritance I am now going to my Heavenly Eternal One. At Lyme the Morning that he died it appeared that he had the same Supports from God meeting Death with the same cheerfulness When he was mounting the Ladder he smiled and said I am not afraid of this I am going to a better Place from a poor and miserable World to a Celestial Paradise a Heavenly Jerusalem I might have chosen whether I would have undergone this Death if I had hearkened to the L. C. J. but it was upon such unworthy Terms that shou'd I have accepted of my Pardon it wou'd have been troublesome to me I die a true Protestant I am in Charity with all Men. God preserve this Nation from Popery The Lord bless you all So taking his leave of them he knew after Prayer he lanched into Eternity His CHARACTER All that knew or saw him must own Mr. Battiscomb was very much a Gentleman not that thin sort of Animal that flutters from Tavern to Play-house and back again all his Life made up of Wig and Crevat without one dram of Thought in his Composition but one who ha◠solid Worth well drest and set out to the World His Body made a very handsome and creditable Tenement for his Mind and it had been pity it shou'd have liv'd in any other He wa◠pretty tall well made I think inclining to Black not altogether unlike Mr. Benjamin Hewling as He has been thought to resemble the Duke of Monmouth He was Witty Brave exactly Honourable Pious and Vertuous and if ever that Character belong'd to any Man it did eminently to Mr. Battiscomb That he liv'd universally belov'd and dy'd as generally lamented 3. Mr. WILLIAM JENKYNS HIS Father was sufficiently known and his Circumstances hard enough being seized only for his Opinion and clapt up close in Newgate where the Inconvenience of the Place and want of the Exercise he formerly enjoy'd quickly kill'd him as he used to say before his Confinement 't would certainly do if ever it happen'd Thus was he requited by that very Person for whom with Mr. Love he ventured his Life so deeply and so hardly escaped with it 'T was his inhumane Treatment which edg'd and animated his Son and the Revenge of his Father's Blood may be presum'd to have gone very far in pushing him on to engage his Life and Fortune in this Undertaking he having given Funeral Rings for his Father with this Poesie William Jenkyns murder'd in Newgate He was his Father's only Son who had taken care to have him educated suitable to his ingenuous Birth and Inclinations He improved sufficiently in all useful Learning and was
now about One or Two and twenty He and several young Gentlemen rode down from London a little before the Duke landed and were taken on Suspicion and laid up in Ilchester Gaol till the Duke himself came and relieved them He continued in his Army till the Rout when if I mistake not he got to Sea and was forc'd back again with the Hewlings or some others He was condemned at the bloody Assizes in Dorchester A Friend discoursing to him at Dorchester about his Pardon and telling him the doubtfulness of obtaining it he replied Well Death is the worst they can do and I bless God that will not surprize me for I hope my great Work is done At Taunton being advised to govern the Airyness of his Temper telling him it made People apt to censure him as inconsiderate of his Condition to which he answered Truly this is so much my natural Temper that I cannot tell how to alter it but I bless God I have and do think seriously of my eternal Concerns I do not allow my self to be vain but I find cause to be chearful for my Peace is made with God through Jesus Christ my Lord. This is my only ground of Comfort and Cheerfulness the Security of my Interest in Christ for I expect nothing but Death and without this I am sure Death would be most dreadful but having the good Hope of this I cannot be melancholy When he heard of the triumphant Death of those that suffered at Lyme he said This is a good Encouragement to depend upon God Then speaking about the mangling of their Bodies he said Well the Resurrection will restore all with great Advantage the 15th Chapter of the First of Corinthians is Comfort enough for all Believers Discoursing much of the Certainty and Felicity of the Resurrection at another time he said I will as I think I ought use all lawful Means for the saving of my Life and then if God please to forgive me my Sins I hope I shall as chearfully embrace Death Upon the Design of Attempting an Escape he said We use this means for the preserving our Lives but if God is not with us it will not effect it It 〈◊〉 Business first to seek to him for Direction and Success if he sees good with resigning our Lives to him and then his Will be done After the Disappointments when there was no prospect of any other Opportunity he spake much of the Admirableness of God's Providence in those things that seem most against us bringing the greatest Good out of them For said he we can see but a little way God is only wise in all his Disposals of us If we were left to chuse for our selves we should chuse our own Misery Afterwards discoursing of the Vanity and unsatisfyingness of all things in this World he said It is so in the enjoying we never 〈◊〉 our Expectations answer'd by any thing in it and when Death comes it puts an end to all things we have been pursuing here Learning and Knowledge which are the best Things in this World will then avail nothing nothing but an Interest in Christ is then of any worth One reading to some of his Fellow-Prisoners Jer. 42.12 I will shew mercy unto you that he may have mercy upon you and cause you to return to your own Land he said Yes we shall but not in this World I am perswaded September the 29th at Night after he heard he must die the next Morning he was exceedingly composed and chearful expressing his Satisfaction in the Will of God The next Morning he was still more spiritual and chearful discovering a very sweet Serenity of Mind in all that he said and did Whilst he was waiting for the Sheriff reading the Scriptures Meditating and conversing with those about him of Divine Things amongst other things said be I have heard much of the Glory of Heaven but I am now going to behold it and understand what it is Being desir'd to disguise himself to attempt an Escape he said No I cannot tell how to disturb my self about it and methinks it is not my Business now I have other things take up my Thoughts If God saw good to deliver me he would open some other Door but seeing he has not it is more for the Honour of his Name we should die And so be it One saying to him that most of the Apostles died a violent Death he replied Nay a greater than the Apostles our Lord himself died not only a shameful but a painful Death He further said This manner of Death hath been the most terrible thing in the World to my Thoughts but I bless God now am I neither afraid nor ashamed to die He said The parting with my Friends and their Grief for me is my greatest Difficulty but it will be but for a very short time and we shall meet again in endless Joys where my dear Father is already enter'd him shall I presently joyfully meet Then musing with himself a while he with an extraordinary seriousness sung these two Verses of one of Herbert's Poems Death is still working like a Mole Digging my Grave at each remove Let Grace work so on my Soul Drop from above Oh come for thou dost know the way Or if to me thou wilt not move Remove me where I need not say Drop from above He then read the 53d of Isaiah and said He had heard many blessed Sermons from that Chapter especially from the 16th Verse All we like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way but the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquities of us all Seeming to intimate some Impress made on his Soul from them but was interrupted Then he said Christ is all When the Sheriff came he had the same chearfulness and serenity of Mind in taking Leave of his Friends and in the Sledge which seemed to encrease to the last as those present have affirmed joyning in Prayer and in singing a Psalm with great appearance of Comfort and Joy in his Countenance insomuch that some of his Enemies that had before censured his Chearfulness for unthoughtfulness of his Danger and therefore expected to see him much surprized now professed they were greatly astonished to see such a young Man leave the World and go through Death as he did His CHARACTER He was a very promising and ingenious young Gentleman He had a great deal of ready Wit and an extraordinary Briskness and Gaity He was a very good Scholar had run through a course of Philosophy but his particular Inclination was to the Mechanical part of it wherein he had a very happy Genius and performed many pretty things He wrote very good clean Latin He was indifferent tall pretty thin a fair Complexion his Nose a little inclining to one side being hurt in his Infancy He led a sober vertuous Life and dy'd a happy Death at Taunton September the 30th 1685. 4. Lady LISLE HAD those Persons who suffer'd about Monmouth's Business
in the performance of that Duty which like Jacob's Ladder tho' it stand upon the Earth yet it reaches up to Heaven Here 's the Love of God made manifest to a poor Sinner at the last hour like the Thief upon the Cross he that never new before what the Love of God was to his Soul finds it now filled with it and running over Now bless the Lord O my Soul yea all that is within me Bless his holy Name for this Dispensation Now Light appears out of Darkness in the Face of Jesus now all Worldly Joy and Comforts seem to me as they are things not hard to part with Father Mother Brothers Sister Wife Children House and Lands are as my dear Saviour saith to be parted with for him or we are not worthy of him I bless his Name I find no reluctancy to do it he hath brought me to his Foot-stool and I can say heartily the Will of the Lord be done in this matter I never before but saw a Beauty in Worldly Comforts but now those seem so faded by the greater Lustre and Beauty that I see in God in Christ Jesus that I am astonished where I have been wandring all my days spending my Time and my Money for that which is not Bread O strive to get a taste of this Love of God in Christ Jesus and it will perfectly wean you from this deceitful foolish World What is worldly Honour and Riches O set not your hearts upon them but get a Treasure in Heaven that your hearts may be there also O lose no time for if you ever knew the sweetness of it you would never be at rest till you found him whom your Soul loved it will be more yea infinitely more than all worldly Enjoyments can afford you tho' in their greatest Perfection it will make your Life sweet and your Death most comfortable It is the Bread which this World knoweth not of and therefore maketh little or no Enquiry after it Dearest Relations whilst you and my other dear Friends are like Aaron and Hur holding up the Hands of Moses I am through Grace getting Victory over the Amalekites I â—n embrace my dear and beloved Brother and Companion with more Joy in the Field of Suffering than ever I could have done had I met him crowned with the Lawrels of Victory Oh the Mercy to die with such a Friend and such a valiant Soldier of Jesus who hath kept his Garments clean I now begin to pity you that stay behind who have many Temptations to conflict with for a little yea a very little time and my Warfare will be accomplished and if God continue his Love and Influence upon my Soul it will be both short and sweet I have little of this World about me I leave you all the Legacy of what was ever dearest to me the best of Wives and five poor Children who must pass through an evil and sinful World but I have committed them to God who hath commanded to cast our Fatherless Children and Widows upon him Dear Parents Brothers Sister all adieu my time draws on my Paper is finished and your dying Child and Brother recommends you all to him who is All-sufficient to the God of Peace that brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant who will make you Perfect in every good Work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen RICHARD NELTHROP From the Palace of Newgate Octob. 30. 1685. Two of the Clock in the Morning Mr. Nelthrop's Last Speech THE great and inexpressible trouble and distraction I have been under since I came into Trouble especially since my close Confinement in Newgate hath so broken my Reason that for many Weeks last past till the day my Sentence was passed I have not had any composure of Mind and have been under the greatest trouble imaginable Since my dearest Wife hath had the Favour granted her of coming to me I am at present under great composedness of Mind through the Infinite Goodness of the Lord. As to what I stand Outlawed for and am now sentenced to die I can with comfort Appeal to the great God before whose Tribunal I am to appear that what I did was in the simplicity of my heart without seeking any private Advantage to my self but thinking it my Duty to hazard my Life for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and English Liberties which I thought invaded and both in great danger of being lost As to the Design of Assassinating the late King or his present Majesty it always was a thing highly against my Judgment and which I always detested and I was never in the least concerned in it neither in Purse nor Person nor ever knew of any Arms bought for that intent nor did I believe there was any such Design or ever heard of any disappointment in such an Affair or Arms or Time or Place save what after the Discovery of the General Design Mr. West spoke of as to Arms bought by him And as to my self I was in the North when the late King was at New-Market and the first News I had of the Fire was at Beverly in York-shire As to my coming over with the late Duke of Monmouth it was in prosecution of the same ends but the Lord in his Holy and Wise Providence hath been pleased to blast all our Undertakings tho' there seemed to be a very unanimous and zealous Spirit in all those that came from beyond the Seas And as to the Duke of Monmouth's being declared King I was wholly Passive in it I never having been present at any publick Debate of that Affair and should never have advised it but complained of it to Col. Holmes and Captain Patchet I believe the Lord Gray and Mr. F the chief Promoters of it As to the Temptation of being an Evidence and bringing either into trouble or danger of his Life the meanest Person upon the Account for which I suffer I always abhorred and detested the thoughts of it both when in and out of danger and advised some very strongly against it except when under my Distraction in Prison that amongst other Temptations did violently assault me but through the goodness of my dearest God and Father I was preserved from it and indeed was wholly incapable and could never receive the least shadow of comfort from it but thought Death more eligible and was some time afore out of my distracted and disquieted condition wholly free from it though not without other Temptations far more Criminal in the sight of Men. I bless the Father of all Mercies and God of all Consolations that I find a great Resignedness of my Will to his finding infinitely more comfort in Death than ever I could place in Life tho' in a condition that might seem honourable every hour seeing the Will of God in ordering
this Affair more and more cleared up to me God hath given God hath taken blessed be his holy Name that hath enabled me to be willing to suffer rather than to put forth my hand to Iniquity or to say a Confederacy with those that do so I am heartily and sincerely troubled for what hath happened many mans Lives being lost and many poor distressed Families ruin'd the Lord Pardon what of sin he hath seen in it He in his wonderful Providence hath made me and others concerned Instruments not only for what is already fallen out but I believe for hastening some other great Work he hath to do in these Kingdoms whereby he will try and purge his People and winnow the Chaff from the Wheat the Lord keep those that are his Faithful unto the end I die in Charity with all the World and can readily and heartily forgive my greatest Enemies even those that have been Evidences against me and I most humbly beg the Pardon of all that I have in the least any way injured and in a special manner humbly ask Pardon of the Lady Lisle's Family and Relations for that my being succoured there one Night with Mr. Hicks brought that worthy Lady to suffer Death I was wholly a Stranger to her Ladiship and came with Mr. Hicks neither did she as I verily believe know who I was or my Name till I was taken And if any other have come to any loss or trouble I humbly beg their Pardon and were I in a condition I would as far as I was able make them a requital As to my Faith I neither look nor hope for Mercy but only in the Free-Grace of God by the Application of the Blood of Jesus my dearest and only Saviour to my poor sinful Soul My distresses have been exceeding great as to my Eternal State but through the infinite goodness of God tho' I have many sins to answer for yet I hope and trust as to my particular that Christ came for this very end and purpose to relieve the Oppressed and to be a Physician to the Sick I come unto thee O blessed Jesus refuse me not but wash me in thine own Blood and then present me to thy Father as Righteous What though my Sins be as Crimson and of a Scarlet Dye Yet thou canst make them as white as Snow I see nothing in my self but what must utterly ruine and condemn me I cannot answer for one Action of my whole Life but I cast my self wholly upon thee who art the Fountain of Mercy in whom God is reconciling himself to the World the greatest of Sins and Sinners may find an All-sufficiency in thy Blood to cleanse them from all sin O dearest Father of Mercy look upon me as Righteous in and through the imputed Righteousness of thy Son he hath payed the Debt by his own Offering up himself for sin and in that thy Justice is satisfied and thy Mercy is magnified Grant me thy Love O dearest Father assist me and stand by me in the needful hour of Death give thy Angels charge over my poor Soul that the Evil One may not touch nor hurt it Defend me from his Power deliver me from his Rage and receive me into thine Eternal Kingdom in and through the alone Merits of my dearest Redeemer for whom I praise thee To whom with thy self and holy Spirit be ascribed all Glory Honour Power Might and Dominion for ever and for ever Amen Dear Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Amen R. NELTHROP Newgate Octob. 29. 1685. 6. Mrs. GAVNT ONE of the great Reasons why Mrs. Gaunt was burnt was 't is very possible because she lived at Wapping the honest Seamen and hearty Protestants thereabouts being such known Enemies to Popery and Arbitrary Government that the Friends of both gave all who oppose it the Name of Wappingers as an odious Brand and Title She was a good honest charitable Woman who made it her business to relieve and help whoever suffered for the forementioned Cause sparing no Pains refusing no Office to get them Assistance in which she was the most Industrious and Indefatigable Woman living Among others whom she had thus relieved who were obnoxious Persons was one Burton whom with his Wife and Family she had kept from starving for which may the very Name of them be register'd with Eternal Infamy they swore against her and took away her Life Tho' she says in her Speech there was but one Witness against her as to any Money she was charg'd to give him and that he himself an Outlawed Person his Outlawry not yet revers'd he not being Outlawed when she was with him and hid him away That which she writ in the Nature of a Speech has a great deal of Sense and Spirit Were my Pen qualified to represent the due Character of this Excellent Woman it would be readily granted That she stood most deservedly entituled to an Eternal Monument of Honour in the hearts of all sincere Lovers of the Reformed Religion All true Christians tho' in some things differing in Persuasion with her found in her an Universal Charity and sincere Friendship as is well known to many here and also to a multitude of the Scotch Nation Ministers and others who for Conscience-sake were formerly thrust into Exile These found her a most refreshing Refuge She dedicated her self with unwearied Industry to provide for their Supply and Support and therein I do incline to think she out-stripped every individual Person if not the whole Body of Protestants in this great City Hereby she became exposed to the implacable Fury of Bloody Papists and those blind Tools who co-operated to promote their accursed Designs And so there appeared little difficulty to procure a Jury as there were well-prepared Judges to make her a Sacrifice as a Traytor to the State Her Judges the King's Counsel the Solicitor-General the Common Serjeant c. rackt their Inventions to draw Burton and his Wife to charge Mrs. Gaunt with the knowledge of his being in a Plot or in the Proclamation but nothing of that could be made out nor is here any sort of Proof that Mrs. Gaunt harboured this ungrateful Wretch or that she gave him either Meat or Drink as the Indictment charges her but notwithstanding that her Jury brought her in Guilty The Sentence was executed upon this Excellent Woman upon Friday then following being the 23d of October 1685. when she left her Murderers the following Memorial Newgate 22d of October 1685. Mrs. Gaunt's Speech written the Day before her Sufferings NOT knowing whether I should be suffered or able because of weaknesses that are upon me through my hard and close Imprisonment to speak at the Place of Execution I writ these few Lines to signifie That I am well reconciled to the way of my God towards me though it be in ways I looked not for and by terrible things yet in Righteousness having given me Life he ought to have the disposing of it when and how he pleases
Duke 〈…〉 in Scotland with what Forces he could make to which were added some others who 〈…〉 which after several Marches and Counter-Marches were at length led into a Boggy sort of a place on pretence or with intention to bring him off from the other Army then upon the Heels of 'em where they all lost one another dispers'd and shifted for themselves the Earl being taken by a Country-man and brought to Edinburgh where he suffer'd for his former unpardonable Crime requiring Care shou'd be taken of the Protestant Religion and explaining his taking the Test conformable thereto for the Legality of which he had the Hands of most of the eminent Lawyers about the City He suffer'd at Edinburgh the 30th of June 1685. His Speech has a great deal of Piety and Religion nor will it be any Disgrace to say 't was more like a Sermon 'T is as follows The Earl of Aâ—gyle's Last Speech June 30. 1685. JOB tells us Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of trouble and I am a clear Instance of it I shall not now say any thing of my Sentence or Escape about three Years and a half ago nor of my Return lest I may thereby give Offence or be tedious Only being to end my Days in your presence I shall as some of my last Words assert the Truth of the Matter of Fact and the Sincerity of my Intentions and Professions that are published That which I intend mainly now to say is To express my humble and I thank God chearful Submission to his Divine Will and my Willingness to forgive all Men even my Enemies and I am heartily well satisfied there is no more Blood spilt and I shall wish the Stream thereof may stop at me And that if it please God to say as to Zerubbabel Zech. 4.6 Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts I know Afflictions spring not out of the Dust God did wonderfully deliver and provide for me and has now by his special Providence brought me to this Place and I hope none will either Insult or stumble at it seeing they ought not for God Almighty does all things well for good and holy Ends tho' we do not always understand it Love and Hatred is not known by what is before us Eccles 9.1 and 8.11 12 13. Afflictions are not only foretold but promised to Christians and are not only tolerable but desirable We ought to have a deep Reverence and Fear of God's Displeasure but withal a firm Hope and Dependance on him for a blessed Issue in compliance with his Will for God chastens his own to refine them and not to ruine them whatever the World may think Heb. 12.3 to 12. Prov. 3.11 12. 2 Tim. 1.8 2 Tim. 2.11 12. Matth. 10.18 to 40. Matth. 16.24 to 28. We are to imitate our Saviour in his Sufferings as 1 Pet. 2.23 and 1 Pet. 4.16 to 20. We are neither to despise our Afflictions nor to faint under them both are extreams We are not to suffer our Spirits to be exasperated against the Instruments of our Trouble for the same Affliction may be an effect of their Passion and yet sent by God to punish us for Sin Tho' 't is a Comfort when we may say to them with David Psal 59.3 Not for my transgression nor for my sin O Lord. Nor are we by fraudulent pusillanimous Compliances in wicked Courses to bring Sin upon our selves Faint Hearts are ordinary false Hearts choosing Sin rather than Sufferings and a short Life with eternal Death before temporal Death and a Crown of Glory Such seeking to save a little loses all and God readily hardens them to proceed to their own Destruction How many like Hazael 2 Kings 8.13 run to Excesses they never thought they were capable of Let Rulers and others read seriously and weigh Prov. 1.10 to 20. 2 Chr. 28.6 to 17. Prov. 24.11 12. and 28.10 And avoid what is Bad and follow what is Good For me I hope by God's strength to joyn with Job chap. 13. 15. and the Psalmist Psal 22.4 and 167. and shall pray as Psal 74.19 to 24. and Psal 122.6 to 9. and Luke 1.74 75. and shall hope as Psal 94.14 15. I do freely forgive all that directly or indirectly have been the Cause of my being brought to this Place first or last and I pray God forgive them I pray God send Truth and Peace in these Three Kingdoms and continue and encrease the glorious Light of the Gospel and restrain the Spirit of Profanity Atheism Superstition Propery and Persecution and restore all that have back-slidden from the Purity of their Life or Principles and bless his whole People with all Blessings spiritual and temporal and put an end to their present Trials And I entreat all People to forgive me wherein I have offended and concurr with me to pray That the Great Good and Merciful God would sanctifie my present Lot and for Jesus Christ his sake Pardon all my Sins and receive me to his Eternal Glory It is suggested to me That I have said nothing of the Royal Family and it remembers me that before the Justices at my Trial about the Test I said That at my Death I would pray That there should never want one of the Royal Family to be a Defender of the True Ancient Apostolick Catholick Protestant Faith which I do now And that GOD would enlighten and forgive all of them that are either luke-warm or have shrunk from the Profession of it And in all Events I pray God may provide for the Security of his Church that Antichrist nor the Gates of Hell may never prevail against it 8. Colonel RVMBOLD AT the same Place died Colonel Richard Rumbold June 26. 1685. Two or three Passages there are worth Remarks in his Speech and Tryal as Arguments of his Sense and Courage For this Cause he says were every Hair of his Head and Beard a Life he 'd joyfully sacrifice 'em all That he was never Antimonarchical in his Principles but for a King and Free Parliament the King having Power enough to make him Great and the People to make 'em happy That he died in the Defence of the just Laws and Liberties of the Nations That none was mark'd by God above another for no Man came into the World with a Saddle on their Backs nor others Booted and Spurr'd to ride upon 't And being ask'd if he thought not his Sentence dreadful answer'd He wish'd he had a Limb for every Town in Christendome The Last Speech of Colonel Richard Rumbold at the Market-Cross of Edinburgh with several Things that passed at his Tryal June 26. 1685. ABout Eleven of the Clock he was brought from the Castle of Edinburgh to the Justices Court in a great Chair on Mens shoulders where at first he was asked some Questions most of which he answer'd with silence at last said He humbly conceived it was not necessary for him to add to his
Cruelties to sweep the Country before him and Young and Old were hang'd by Clusters as if the Lord Chief Justice had designed to raise the Price of Halters After Ages will read with Astonishment the Barbarous Usage of those poor People of which among many Instances this one may seem sufficient whereby to take the Dimensions of all the rest That when the Sister of the two Hewlings hung upon the Chief Justice's Coach imploring Mercy on the behalf of her Brothers the merciless Judge to make her let go caused his Coachman to cut her hands and fingers with the Lash of his Whip Nor would he allow the Respite of the Execution but for two days tho' the Sister with Tears in her Eyes offered a Hundred Pounds for so small a Favour And whoever shelter'd any of those forlorn Creatures were hurried to the Slaughter-House with the same inexecrable Outrage without any consideration either of Age or Sex witness the Execution of the Lady Lisle at Winchester As for Argile and the Duke tho' they might die pitied yet in regard they had declared open Hostility it was no more than they were to expect upon ill Success The Christian Behaviour and Dying Speeches of some that were Condemned and Executed in the West I Shall next proceed to give an Account of the Christian Behaviour and Dying Speeches of some that were Condemned and Executed in the West And I shall begin with 1. The Dying Speech and Behaviour of Mr. Matth. Bragg MR. Matthew Bragg was a Gentleman descended from an Ancient and good Family he was bred an Attorney in which he practised the Law His Case being this He happened to be upon the Road Riding home to his House being come from a Gentleman's House for whom he kept Courts He as before being met with by a Party of Horse belonging to the Duke of Monmouth who were going to search the House of a Roman Catholick for Arms who lived two or three Miles from the Place they met him they required him to go with them and shew them the way he knowing the Country better than they did he desired to be excused telling them It was none of his Business and besides had no Arms. But his Excuses signified nothing they forced him amongst them where they went Being Arraigned and Pleading Not Guilty he put himself on the Tryal of God and his Country which found him and 28 more of 30 Guilty the Lord Chief Justice often saying If any Lawyer or Parson came under his Inspection they should not escape The Evidence against him was a Roman Catholick and a Woman of ill Fame to whom the Lord Chief Justice was wonderfully kind But his Evidence which were more than Twenty to prove his Innocence signified nothing the Jury being well instructed by my Lord Chief Justice Being thus found Guilty Sentence as presently pronounced and Execution awarded notwithstanding all the Interest that was made for him Thus being Condemned on Saturday and ordered to be Executed on Monday he spent the residue of his little time very devoutly and much becoming a good Christian and a true Protestant of the Church of England all which availed nothing with this Protestant Judge He was frequently visited by a worthy Divine of the Church of England who spent much time with him and received great Satisfaction from him The said Divine â—old me That his Deportment Behaviour and Converse was so much like an extraordinary Christian that he could not in the least doubt but this violent Passage would put him into the fruition of Happiness He wish'd and desir'd a little longer time out of no other Design but throughly to repent him of his Sins and make himself more sensible of and fit for to receive the Inheritance that is prepared for those that continue in Well-doing to the end When he came to the Place of Execution with great Courage and Resolution being as he said prepared for Death he behaved himself very gravely and devoutly Being asked when he was on the Ladder whether he was not sorry for his being concerned in the Rebellion He replied That he knew of none that he was Guilty of and prayed them not to trouble him adding He was not the first that was martyr'd He was so much a Christian as to forgive his Enemies And after some private Devotions he suddenly was Translated as we have all Hopes to believe from Earth to Heaven The only Favour of this Protestant Judge was to give his Body to his Friends in order to its Interment amongst his Ancestors 2. The Behaviour of Mr. Smith Constable of Chardstock ANother eminent Person that suffered with him at the same time and place was one Mr. Smith who was Constable of Chardstock who having some Monies in his Hands that belonged to the Militia which came to the knowledge of some of the Duke's Friends they obliged him to deliver it to them which he was forced to deliver and for this was Indicted for High Treason in assisting the Duke of Monmouth To which he pleaded Not Guilty The Evidence against him were the same with those that had been against Mr. Bragg The said Mr. Smith informed the Court and the Jury what little Credit ought to be given to the Evidence The Lord Chief Justice thundred at him saying Thou Villain methinks I see thee already with a Halter about thy Neck thou impudent Rebel to challenge these Evidences that are for the King To which the Prisoner reply'd very boldly My Lord I now see which way I am going and right or wrong I must die but this I comfort my self with That your Lordship can only destroy my Body it is out of your power to touch my Soul God forgive your Rashness Pray my Lord know it is not a small matter you are about the Blood of a Man is more precious than the whole World And then was stopped from saying any more The Evidences being heard a strict Charge was given the Jury about him To be short the Jury brought him in Guilty so that he with the rest received the Sentence of Death all together and were Executed on Monday but by particular Order from my Lord he was ordered to be first Executed The Day being come for Execution being Monday he with a Courage undaunted was brought to the Place where with Christian Exhortations to his Brethren that suffered with him he was ordered to prepare being the first to be Executed where he spake as followeth CHristian Friends I am now as you see launching into Eternity so that it may be expected I should speak something before I leave this miserable World and pass through those Sufferings which are dreadful to Flesh and Blood which indeed shall be but little because I long to be before a just Judge where I must give an Account not only for the Occasion of my Sufferings now but for Sins long unrepented of which indeed hath brought me to this dismal Place and shameful Death And truly dear Country-men having ransacked
and all the World 2. Colonel HOLMES THe next Place was Lime where many of Note died particularly Colonel Holmes who was the first of those there executed near the same Place where they landed when they came ashore with the Duke of Monmouth Being brought to the Place after some difficulty for the Horses that were first put into the Sledge would not stir which obliged those concerned to get others which they did from the Coachman who had that Morning brought them to Town When they were put into the Sledge they broke it in pieces which caused the Prisoners to go on foot to the Place of Execution Where being come as I told you before the Colonel began thus at the foot of the Ladder He sate down with an Aspect altogether void of Fear but on the contrary with a kind of smiling Countenance so began to speak to the Spectators to this purpoe That he would give them an Account of his first Undertaking in the Design which was long before in London for there he agreed to stand by and assist the Duke of Monmouth when Opportunity offer'd in order to which he went to Holland with him and there continued until this Expedition in which God had thought fit to frustrate his and other Good Mens Expectations He believed the Protestant Religion was bleeding and in a step towards Extirpation and therefore he with these his Brethren that were to suffer with him and Thousands more had adventured their Lives and their All to save it but God Almighty had not appointed 'em to be the Instruments in so glorious a Work Yet notwithstanding he did verily believe and doubted not but that God would make use of others that should meet with better success tho the way or means was not yet visible but of this he did not doubt He also was satisfied of the Duke's Title so that matter did not afflict him on account of his engaging on his Score And going on further with a Discourse of this nature he was asked by a Person why he did not pray for the King He with a smiling Countenance answered I am sorry you do not yet understand the Difference between Speaking and Praying And having ended his Discourse he then prepared himself by Prayer for his Dissolution which was very devout and pious for half an Hour which was as follows Colonel Holme's Last Prayer MOst Glorious most Great and most Merciful God! there is none in Heaven or in Earth that is like unto Thee Heaven is thy Throne and the Earth is thy Footstool Who shall say unto thee What doest thou Here we are poor deplorable Creatures come to offer up our last Prayers and Services unto thee We beseech thy favourable Ear to our Prayers and the Comfort of thy Holy Spirit at this time We praise and magnifie thy Name for all the Dispensations of thy Providence towards us especially for this thy Providence in bringing us to this Place and at this time to suffer Shame for thy Name Help and assist all of us to submit to thy Will patiently Pardon all our Sins remove them out of thy Presence as far as the East is from the West and accept of us in the Merits of thy Son Jesus Christ Thou who art the Searcher of Hearts and Tryer of Reins let there not at the moment of Death be the least spark of Sin in-dwelling in us nor the Strivings of Flesh and Blood that may hinder us from a joyful Passage unto thee Give us Patience also under these Sufferings and a Deliverance to all others from undergoing them and in thy good time work a Deliverance for poor England let thy Gospel yet flourish among them Hasten the Downfall of antichrist we trust the time is come Prevent O Lord this Effusion of Christian Blood and if it be thy Will let this be the last Lord bless this Town let them from the highest to the lowest set the Fear of God before their Eyes Bless all sorts and conditions of Men in all Ranks and Qualities pardon all their Sins give them all true Repentance and the Grace of thy Holy Spirit Fit and prepare us for the chearful fulfilling of thy Holy Will Let the Comforter be still with us Be Merciful to all our Friends and Relations and Acquaintance Forgive our Enemies Accept of our Thankfulness for all the Mercies and Favours afforded us and hear and graciously answer us in these our Requests and what else thou knowest needful and expedient for us and all for our Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ his sake who died for us that we might reign with him for ever and ever To whom with Thee and thy Blessed Spirit of Grace be ascribed as is most due all Honour Glory and Praise both now and for ever After having ended his Prayer he took occasion to speak to his suffering Brethren taking a solemn Leave of them encouraging them to hold out to the end and not to waver observing that this being a glorious Sun-shining Day I doubt not though our Breakfast be sharp and bitter it will prepare us and make us meet for a comfortable Supper with our God and Saviour where all Sin and Sorrow shall be wiped away So embracing each of 'em and kissing of them told the Sheriff You see I am imperfect only one arm I shall want assistance to help me upon this Tragical Stage Which was presently done and Execution suddenly followed 3. The Execution of Mr. SAMPSON LARKE MR. Sampson Larke who was a very Eminent Pious Minister and had lived in that Town but a little before Many Years he was there well acquainted and all People that knew him had a Value for him behaving himself with that Humility and Circumspection as no body could have any other Occasion but to value him He design'd to have spoken somewhat on a Portion of Scripture and was beginning having mentioned the Place he intended to speak upon but was interrupted and told the Work of the Day being great they should want time So then he stopp'd and reply'd He could make Application where he should not meet with Interruption and so apply'd himself to Prayer which he performed with great Devotion and Zeal for a quarter of an Hour to the great Satisfaction of the Auditors And so taking leave of his suffering Brethren he mounted the Stage which was to be the last Act he made in this World Being on the Ladder he saw some of his Friends and Neighbours weeping and mourning for him to whom he spake Pray weep not for me I am going to a Place of Bliss and Happiness Wherefore pray repair to your Houses and e're you get thither I doubt not but I shall be happy with my God and Saviour where all Tears shall be wiped away and nothing shall remain but Hallelujahs to all Eternity Leaving this Place we proceed to other Parts of the Country where with the like Butchery were only five Executed amongst whom was one 4. Mr. TYLER MR. Tyler of Bristol
it to lye No I will not I say if he was my Lawful King I was misled in my Judgment and have committed a great Error but Lord I hope thou hast washed away all my sins in and through the Blood of my dear Redeemer in whose alone Merits I hope for Mercy I desire to be asked no more Questions Then the Minister prayed very devoutly near half an hour after which lifting up his Hands and Eyes to Heaven he quietly submitted to Death 14. Mr. John Hicks's Last Speech 1685. I Suppose the Spectators here present may expect I should speak something before I leave this Sanguinary Stage and Passage through my Bloody Sufferings by which my Immortal Spirit will be speedily transported into an invisible and eternal World and I conclude that they have different Resentments hereof Some resent them with much Joy high Exultation and Triumph others with equal Grief and Sorrow that to the one I am a most pleasant Spectacle that they behold me with high complacency and delight but to the other I am a mournful and unpleasant one and they behold me with no less pity and compassion Concerning the first I can say I freely and heartily forgive them and heartily pray that God would most mercifully and graciously prevent their mourning through Misery not only here but eternally hereafter Concerning the other I will say Weep for your own sins and for the sins of the Nation for the highest Rebellions that ever were committed against the great and eternal God lament bitterly for those sins that have been the meritorious Cause of the late terrible Judgment that which I fear will cause God to break in upon this Nation with an overflowing Deluge of Judgments which are far more tremendous and dreadful As for Sympathizing with me in drinking this bitter Cup appointed for me I return you most humble and hearty thanks earnestly desiring God to come unto you and fill your Souls with all Coelestial Comforts and Spiritual Consolations Something I must say to purge and clear my self from a false Accusation laid to my Charge as that I was engaged with Col. Blood in Rescuing Col. Mason near Boston when he was sent down with a Guard from London to York to be Tryed for High Treason and that I was the Man that killed the Barber of that City and that also I was with him when he stole the Crown Now as I am a dying Man and upon the very brink of a very stupendous Eternity the truth and reality whereof I firmly believe without any Reservation or the least Equivocation I do declare in the Presence of the All-seeing God that Impartial Judge before whom in a very little time I must appear I never saw nor conversed with Mr. Thomas Blood from 1656 till after he stole the Crown which was in 71 or 72 nor was ever engaged with him in any of his Treasonable Plots and Practices 'T is true I being involved in great trouble of another Nature of which I have given to the World a Narrative and which is notoriously known in the Country where I then lived by some that were Enemies to me for my Preaching I was perswaded to apply my self to Mr. Blood to procure by his Intercession his late Majesty's Gracious Favour Accordingly he brought me into his Royal Presence while I was there his Majesty carried it with great Clemency without expressing one word of that which I am now charged with Mr. Blood continued with his Majesty a little longer than I did then he told me that he had granted me a Pardon which I did thankfully accept of knowing it would free me from all Penalties and Troubles that I was obnoxious to and were occasioned to me by my Nonconformity Then engaging him to take out my Pardon he told me That he got it out with several others that had been engaged with him in several Treasonable Designs and Actions at which I was troubled supposing it might be imputed to me thereby yet God knows I have often since reflected upon it with great regret and dissatisfaction If Mr. Blood did inform the late King to make himself the more considerable and to bring as many of his Party as he could to accept of their Pardons that he might be rendered utterly incapable of Plotting any further Mischief against his Government or any other ways that I was engaged with him in any of his Treasonable Attempts I now appeal to God as a dying Man concerning it that he hath done me an irreparable wrong I also in the same manner do declare That I was never engaged with any Party in Plotting or Designing or Contriving any Treason or Rebellion against the late King and particularly that I was altogether unconcerned in and unacquainted with that for which my Lord Russel and others suffered and as much a stranger to any against the present King And whereas it is reported of me That at Taunton I perswaded the late Duke of Monmouth to assume the Title of King I do once more selemnly declare That I saw not the said Duke nor had any Converse with him till he came to Shipton-Mallet which was Thirteen Days after he landed and several days after he had been at Taunton And 't is as false that I rid to and fro in the West to stir up and perswade Men to go into his Army and Rebel against his present Majesty for I was in the East Country when the Duke landed and from thence I went directly to him when he was at Shipton-Mallet not one Man accompanying me from thence But hitherto as I lived so now I die owning and professing the true Reformed Christian commonly called the Protestant Religion which is founded on the pure written Word of God only and which I acknowledge likewise to be comprehended in the Articles of the Doctrine of the Church This Religion I have made a reasonable and free choice of and have heartily embraced not only as it protests against all Pagan and Mahometan Religion but against the Corruption of the Christian and I humbly and earnestly pray to God that by his Infinite Wisdom and Almighty Power he will prevent not only the utter extirpation but diminution thereof by the heighth and influence of what is contrary thereto and for that end the Lord make the Professors of it to live up more to its Principles and Rules and bring their Hearts and Conversations more under the Government and Power of the same I die also owning my Ministry Non-conformity for which I have suffered so much and which doth now obstruct the King's Grace and Mercy to be manifested and extended to me For as I chose it not constrainedly so I appeal to God as a dying Man not moved from Sullenness or Humour or Factious Temper or Erroneous Principles of Education or from Secular Interests or Worldly Advantages but clearly from the Dictates of my own Conscience and as I judged it to be the Cause of God and to have more of Divine Truth
are of all other most suitable sweet and satisfactory to immortal Souls And also I see that he that departs from iniquity makes himself a Prey and so many plunging themselves into the ways of Iniquity lest they should be accounted odious and vile which makes them so much degenerate not only from Christianity but from Humanity it self as if they were scarce the Excrement of either contemning even that most Noble Generous Heroick Spirit that dwelt in many Heathens who accounted it most honourable and glorious to contend for their Rights and Liberties yea to suffer Death and the worst of Deaths in Defence of the same and judge them accursed and most execrable in the World that do so and not only so but for their own Profit and Advantage have many of them enslaved their Posterity by it and are most industrious and laborious most fierce and furious to destroy them whereby they are become as unnatural as Children that seek the ruine of their Parents that begot them and brought them forth or them that lay violent hands upon themselves dashing out their own Brains cutting their own Throats hanging and drawing themselves ripping up their own Bellies tearing out their own Bowels they being in different senses Children and Members of that Body Politick they design and attempt the Destruction of and when I know not how long the Duration and Continuance of these things shall be or a Conclusion or End by God shall be put thereto who by Divine and Unerring Wisdom Governs the World why shall my Soul be unwilling to take its flight into the unseen and eternal World Where no sullied sordid or impious thing most incongruous and unbecoming Nature shall be seen and found and where I shall behold no narrow conclusive contracted Soul there habitually preferring their private before a publick good but all most unanimously and equally centre in one common universal good and where the sighs and groans and cries of the afflicted and persecuted shall be heard no more for ever I earnestly exhort all most highly to prize and value Time and diligently improve it for Eternity to be wise seriously and seasonably to consider of their latter End For by the irrepealable and irreversible Law of Heaven we must all die yet we know not how where or when Live with your Souls full of solicitude and care with a most deep concernedness and most diligent industriousness whilst you have time and opportunity and the means of Grace Health and Strength make sure of these two great things viz. 1. What merits for you a Right and Title to Eternal Life and Glory and the future unchangeable Blessedness as the Redeemer's most precious Blood and Righteousness that thereby a real Application and Imputation may be unto you by sincere Believing 2. That that which makes you qualified Subjects for it is the great work of Regeneration wrought in your Souls being renewed in the Spirit of your Minds the Divine Nature being imprest upon them repairing of the depraved Image of God in you that being transformed into his own likeness thereby in the World you may mind and savour more the things of the Spirit than the things of the Flesh Coelestial and Heavenly more than Terrestrial and Earthly Superiour more than Inferiour things And therewith have a holy Life and Conversation conjoyned that results and springs from the same as Fruit from the Root and Acts from the Habits Let all in order thereto seriously consider these few Texts of Sacred Scripture let them predominately possess you let them be deeply and indelibly Transcribed upon your Souls let them be assimilated thereunto and made the written Epistles the lively Pictures thereof Matth. 5.8 20. Blessed be the pure in heart for they shall see God Vers 20. For I say unto you except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven John 3.3 Jesus answered and said unto him Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God c. Gal. 5.19 20 to 23. Now the works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery c. James 1.18 Of his own Will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures 1 Pet. 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Vers 13. Wherefore gird up the loyns of your Minds c. Colos 3.1 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things that are above Set your affections on things above not c. Gal. 5.24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts c. Ephes 2.1 And you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins Rev. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Rom. 8.1 There is therefore now no Condemnation c. 1 Pet. 1.15 But as he that hath called you is holy so be ye c. Vers 23. Being born again not of corruptible Seed c. Psal 4.3 But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself c. I shall mention now no more the whole Bible abounds with these Texts with what a Renovation and Change of our Carnal and Corrupt Hearts and Natures there must be with Holiness of Life and Conversation before we can be capable of a future and blessed Immortality and of inheriting the Kingdom of God for ever and ever Amen 15. Captain Abraham Ansley 's Last Speech I AM come to pay a Debt to Nature 't is a Debt that all must pay though some after one manner and some after another The way that I pay it may be thought by some few ignominious but not so by me having long since as a true English-man thought it my Duty to venture my Life in defence of the Protestant Religion against Popery and Arbitrary Power For this same purpose I came from my House to the Duke of Monmouth's Army At first I was a Lieutenant and then a Captain and I was in all the Action the Foot was engaged in which I do not repent For had I a Thousand Lives they should all have been engaged in the same Cause although it has pleased the wise God for Reasons best known to himself to blast our Designs but he will deliver his People by ways we know nor think not of I might have saved my Life if I would have done as some narrow-soul'd Persons have done by impeaching others but I abhor such ways of Deliverance choosing rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy Life with Sin As to my Religion I own the way and
her Death With some Remarkable Passages relating both to her Person and Government I Shall conclude this History of Providence with a Collection of the memorable Speeches and Sayings of our never-enough lamented Sovereign the late Queen MARY and shall here and there add some remarkable Passages relating to her Person and Government as a Noble Testimony to Religion from one whose Parts and Endowments were as high as her Dignity as if Providence would not leave the prophane Age room to say that Religion was only pretended to by the Mean and Ignorant but convince them by the Vertuous Life and Dying Breath of a Princess every way so Glorious and Great So extraordinary strict says Bishop Fowler in his Preface relating to the Queen was Her Majesty's Life even from her Youth that for the Seventeen Years of her Married State the King as he hath professed could never see any thing in her which he could call a Fault and no Man continues this Learned Author can keep a stricter Guard upon his Words than His Majesty is always observed to do Then certainly a Collection of the Memorable Speeches of such a Princess must needs be very useful and so much the more so as there are several remarkable Sayings of this Royal Person scattered in so many Books which its hardly possible for any private Person to have all of them by him and therefore a View of them all at once in a Collection from the best Authors that have writ upon this Subject may perhaps be very acceptable to the serious Reader 1. That we may begin from her Cradle The most August Queen MARY II. was born in the Sixty second Year of this Age upon the Tenth of May James then Duke of York and the Lord Chancellor's Daughter being her Parents Many and conspicuous were the Prognosticks of a true and far from counterfeited Piety that glitter'd in her and shin'd forth in the early Dawn of her Infancy For when in her tender Years she had lost an excellent Mother and under the Tuition of Persons less concern'd was deliciously bred up in a Court full of all manner of Pleasure and Voluptuousness such was always her Constancy such her Temperance and Modesty that no Example of others no Allurement of Vice no Contagion of Neighbouring-Courts could force her to go astray from the right Path. She was instructed in the Fundamentals of the true Reform'd Religion by the Bishop of London which he so happily laid and she so cordially imbib'd that she could never be shaken by any treacherous Insinuations any Promises or Threats any Punishments or Rewards choosing rather to die than never so little to recede from the Truth wherein she had been grounded After she had spent the rest of her Childhood in those Studies by which generous and illustrious Souls are rais'd to the Expectations of great Fortune and had abundantly furnish'd herself as well with Christian as with Royal Vertues in the Fifteenth Year of her Age she was auspiciously Married to William the Third of that Name Prince of Orange William marries Mary a Kinsman a Kinswoman and thus by a double Tye and a firmer Knot than hitherto the most Noble Families of all Europe are joyn'd together She for her Ancestors claims the Family of the Stuarts He the Nassavian Race She the Monarchs of Great Britain He the Governours of Germany and the Caesars themselves The Nuptial Solemnities being over the Royal Bride cross'd over out of England into these Parts together with her Husband and chose for her Seat and Residence the Hague the most pleasant and delightful place not only of Holland but almost of all Europe Where belov'd of all Men and fix'd in the Good-will of all the People propensly devoted to her for the space of some Years she so charmingly and affectionately liv'd with her Husband the best of Men and no less cordially affectionate to her not only without the least Contention or Quarrel but without the least suspicion of Lukewarmness that she might well be said to be a conspicuous Example of Conjugal Affection not only to Kings and Princes and Men in high Degree but also to private Persons After some Interval of Time when they who bare ill will to our Princes and us to Liberty and Religion and more especially to this Republick stirr'd up new Troubles in England and the Nobility of the Kingdom call'd to their Aid our Prince While he strove one way and the Winds drove another at length wafted over with favourable Gales and Wishes safely arriv'd in England and without Resistance but rather with the general Applause of the Nation and as it were born upon the Shoulders of the People came to the Royal City When afterwards he invited his dearest Consort then the Companion of his Bed now of his Kingdom to partake of the Honour offer'd him and the Dignity soon after to be conferr'd upon him and the equal share of his Fortune in the Eighty ninth Year of this Age luckily and auspiciously both Husband and Wife were declar'd King and Queen with equal Power and Authority by the common Vote and Suffrage and unanimous Consent of both Houses In the Morning she rose with the Sun and worship'd the Lord of Heaven and Earth But when she was sometimes forc'd to rise at Midnight by reason of the urgent Affairs of the State and could not afterwards sleep she commanded either the Holy Scripture or some other pious Book to be brought her If any Persons came to visit her in a Morning before she had pour'd forth her Prayers she sent them back with this Expression That she was first to serve the King of Kings If any persons were said to seek her life by Treachery and Conspiracy her Answer was That she submitted to the Will of Heaven Francius 's Oration upon the Death of the Queen 2. Such was the Sanctity of Mary's Life that King William after her Decease calling to mind her Piety towards God the Integrity of her Life and her Extraordinary Knowledge of Sacred Things brake forth into this expression That if he could believe that ever any mortal Man could be born without the contamination of Sin he would believe it of the Queen And she preserv'd herself so chast and spotless that while she resided upon Earth she liv'd the Life of the Saints even in the Hurry of the Court where there are so many Incitements to evil Grevius 's Oration on the Death of the Queen 3. We had very admirable Accounts of the late Queen from her Court at the Hague during her Abode there from most unquestionable Testimonies which made us envy our Neighbours Happiness in such a Princess who knew their Happiness as 't was impossible they should not and had an extraordinary Value and Veneration for her And since her Return to her Native Country and her Advancement to the Throne here we never knew a more eminent Exception than she was to that common Observation Minuit praesentia Famam The Fame