your sins Having finished his Speech he then called on the Lord by Prayer intreating the people to join with him He prayed with an elevated voice and with many tears this Prayer following O Merciful GOD which according to the multitude of thy mercies doest so put away the sins of those which truly repent that thou remembrest them no mnore Open thine Eye of Mercy upon me wretched Sinner that I am who most earnestly desire pardon and forgiveness of all my former sins and particularly for my late horrid Blood guiltiness Lord if it be not too late and I trust no time is too late for thee to shew mercy wash away this blood of my Brother which sticks so close to my soul in the blood of my Saviour O let me call him so which was shed for my sins and the sins of the whole world Let not the voice of my murdered Brothers blood cry louder for vengeance then the blood of our crucified Jesus be heard to cry for pardon Give me Lord a truly penitent heart and then accept of that penitent heart of mine which is thine own gift Given me plenty of brinish tears but first steep and wash those tears of mine in the wounds of thy Son Make me here to abhor and loath and judge and condemn my self that in thy great day hereafter The great day of the Lord I may not be condemned eternally both body and soul Renew in me most loving Father whatsoever hath been decayed by the fraud and malice of the Devil or by mine own bloody carnal will and frailness Cause me to set all my sins before my face and then do thou cast them behind thy back Cause me to spread all my sins before thee my God as Hezekiah did the the blasphemous Papers of Rabshekah and then do thou blow them away with the blast of thy holy Spirit And forasmuch as I do humbly and earnestly desire to put my trust only in thy mercy Impute not unto me my former or latter sins the sins of my body and the sins of my soul sins of omission or sins of commission sins which I have done to please my self or others sins against the First or against the Second Table against thee my God against my Neighbor or against mine own Sonb Let this first death of mine which I am now ready to pay in satisfaction to Man's Law be acceptable in thy sight O God and so do thou deliver me from the second death Deliver me from my Blood guiltiness O God and take me yet into thy favour through the merits and blood shedding of thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ Amen! Amen! Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from my blood guiltiness who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death Lord have mercy upon me a sinner Christ have mercy upon me a sinner Lord have mercy upon me a sinner A Merciless a Profane a Thieving a Bloody sinner Lord though I had no mercy upon my Brother yet do Thou have mercy upon me For Lord I have so much the more need of mercy for my soul by how much I had so little mercy upon his life Lord I confess with horror of soul that I killed him suddenly giving him no time to prepare for death Yet Lord I must confess to thy great glory and goodness that Thou hast given me time and respite to repent before I die He then desir'd me as I stood upon the Ladder to pray for him which I also did he joining therein very solemnly I then having done prayer asked him how he did He told me he doubted not of doing well he laid all behind him and would go to Christ alone for life and salvation saying Now I am lanching into the Ocean of Eternity Then he delivered to me the written Speech desiring the Executioner to forbear Turning him off till he lifted up his hands and said Lord Jesus receive my soul I then took him by the hands and took my leave of him After he had stood still a little while in a way of Ejaculations with his Cap over his eyes he lifted up his hands and said the words aforesaid Then the Executioner did his office and he was a dead man in a few moments And in a few moments more who knows which of us will not be dead men also Oh consider therefore all you that yet are alive the following Admonition An Admonition to all persons whatsoever especially to Parents and Children Masters and Servants c. TO Parents and Masters of Families hear what the Lord faith to you Ephes 6.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a putting of a thing into the mind an urging and pressing of it an informing and instructing the mind Leigh crit sacâ—â— Now this Text tells you of two very great faults viz. First In case admonishing of Children and Servants be totally omitted where 's then your obedience to God who leaves their Education to your care Nay instead of giving good advice and examples to Youth you many times I mean many Heads of Families rather ruine them by living without Knowledge and without Conscience your selves Oh consider this and acquaint your selves with God and with Jesus Christ that you may be able to acquaint all committed to your nurture with the fame God and with the same Lord Jesus Christ the knowing of whom is the excellencie of knowledge Secondly A word to men of care but of very little care in this thing I grant you use prayer and you read Sermon-notes sometimes and the Scriptures themselves among your people at home but how often and how earnestly is that exercise Alas once it may be on the Lords day and then no great regard had how they profit or whether they profit or no so that something be done though nothing come by it by way of benefit to their Souls 'T is a wonderful weakness in many great Professors of Religion who will pray and beg of God strongly upon their knees for Light Knowledge Grace and Holiness to be given to their dear Children and to their Servants and yet these very persons will contribute little or nothing besides good wishes towards the conversion and welfare of souls that by their importunate supplications seem to be precious in their eye If praying be all you have to do for your Family what mean then those many Scriptures that command the doing of many other duties besides praying with and praying for your people and if prayer onely be not enough why do you onely pray Indeed 't is well done to wish well to them that dwell with you though it be part it is the least part of your duty doth not the Lord look for much more from you doth he not charge Fathers and Mothers and Masters to instruct rebuke correct their Children and Servants and to call them to account concerning their profiting in Gospel knowledge I am confident the carelesness of you in these things is that which renders Preaching so
The Penitent Murderer BEING AN Exact Narrative Of the Life and Death of NATHANIEL BVTLER Who through Grace became a Convert after he had most cruelly murdered JOHN KNIGHT With the several Conferences held with the said Butler in Newgate by the Right Honorable the LORD MAIOR and several eminent Ministers and others As also his Confession Speech Prayer and the Sermon preached after his Execution with several useful Admonitions and excellent Discourses Collected by RANDOLPH YEARWOOD Chaplain to the Right Honorable the Lord Major of the City of LONDON Deut 13.11 And all Israel shall hear and fear and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you London Printed by T. Newcomb for J. Rothwell at the Fountain in Goldsmiths-Row in Cheapside and Tho. Matthews at the White-horse in the New Buildings in Pauls Church-yard 1657. London Saturday Sept. 12. 1657. Reader THis is that Exact Narrative concerning Nathaniel Butler which was some time since promised to come forth by my appointment under the hand of Randolph Yearwood Robert Tichborne Major To the Right Honorable Sr ROBERT TICHBORNE Kt Lord Major of the City of LONDON My Lord You have done being directed and enabled from on high many noble and good actions for this City the Government whereof is yet yours But really my Lord the right honorable act was this your personal and frequent visiting Nathaniel Butler when he lay a prisoner in Newgate His soul certainly was precious in your eyes and this engaged you to send others and to go your self to see him several times I verily believe you will see him yet once more not as a Malefactor in an obscure disparaging Goal but as an Angel of God in the Kingdom of Christ whither I am confident he is gone and you are going Before he went he desired me to give you humble thanks for all the favor he had received from you or by your means from others He was very thankfull to your Lordship and the rest of the Honorable Bench for his Fortnights Reprieval confessing that Court to be both just and merciful Just in condemning his body to death and merciful in sparing his life for some weeks after the Sentence upon design to save his soul And truly you may safely conclude that his soul is safe And is not such a Conclusion a rich Requital of all your Exhortations Tears and Prayers My Lord I shall rejoice to see you grow and abound yet more and more in Righteousness Holiness and as the Elect of God bowels of Mercies which will render you like unto and well liked of by the LORD of Lords To whom I leave you and remain Your Lordship's Servant RANDOLPH YEARWOOD THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Reader THE Malefactor mentioned in this following Narrative was none of mine acquaintance till for his horrid fact he was apprehended and imprisoned So that it was not any Relation of mine to him that put me upon this publication but I undertook this work as judging it of general concernment to all men both good and bad 1. As to the bad If thou art an evil wicked man er woman then this Narrative with the annexed admonitions and sermon c. much concern thee to make thee if possible penitent and truly reformed 2. Art thou a gracious good man or woman then thou hast reason to rejoyce on carth as God himself and the Angels of God rejoyce in heaven ever one repenting sinner Luke 15.7 and 10. I doubt not but thou wilt be well satisfied by the following Lines concerning the true conversion of a very hainous Offendor Now good Reader grant me one request not to look upon the following Discourses as a bare story or a piece of News and so having read and seen it there is an end But read and consider read and pray that this great and extraordinary passage of divine Providence may profit thy Soul which is the desire of my heart and Soul to God himself Otherwise I could not be as indeed I am thy Well-wisher Friend and Servant RANDOLPH YEARWOOD Three Conferences held with Nathaniel Butler during his Imprisonment by the Right Honorable the Lord Major under his Lordships own hand WHen Nathaniel Butler was first apprehended and brought before me he was in exceeding great burden of Spirit full of tears free to confess the Fact with all the aggravations thereof and was sollicitous for nothing but a few days respit for his poor Soul it seeming to me that nothing at that time was on his thoughts but what should become of his Soul At my first Conference with him which was about five or six days after his Condemnation I found him very ready to acknowledge his actual sins and to charge himself with them and the aggravations that did accompany them and this with sad tears of complaint and indignation against himself and his sins but did take no notice of his sinful Nature Which my self and a Friend with me Mr Griffith of the Charter house perceiving We endeavoured by Scripture to shew him his sinful Nature as the Root of all his sinful actions which he diligently hearkened to and was affected with but acknowledged his former Ignorance herein and that he had not so expresly before thougth hereof or been instructed hereabout and what he heard and received at this time among other Particulars was so far blest and wrought into his soul that to our selves and as we heard to others he did from that Night following much insist upon and bemoan his sinful nature and the state of sin he was born in as well as or together with those sinful acts he was guilty of At my second being with him after applying the free grace of God and Christ crucified to his faith for the pardon of his sins I asked him whether his heart could most willingly receive that pardon or a pardon for his life and bid him consider and tell me what his heart said in that Point After a little pause he made me this Answer That indeed he did not desire to live longer in this world for he had found sin so bitter a thing and himself so prone to sin that if he should live longer and sin against God it would be much more bitter to him then death and he did heartily Blesse God that had brought him to the hand of Justice and did truly love the party who as he thought was the Instrument to discover him acknowledging that the Devil had tempted him to lay violent hands on himself and after that temptation to fly beyond the Sea which if God had suffered him to do and so escaped Justice he might have gone on in his former course of sin without Repentance but did truly bless God that had delivered him from these temptations and had brought him to that condition that then he was in he did acknowledge with much thankfulness to God man the mercy of a few days between death and judgement and that God had given him so great a share in
Servants both Ministers and others He did particularly acknowledge the extraordinary pains care and tenderness of the Chief Magistrate of the City to be beyond all president or expression 8. Great affection and compassion he expressed to the souls of others His Fellow-Prisoners profanenefs and desperate security he exceedingly lamented the ignorance and blindnefs of many that came to see him he heartily bewailed They would aggravate his bloody fact and ask him whether the sight of the Bags were not the first temptation to the murdering of his Brother But alas said he it was not the sight of the bags nor the instigation of the Devil that could have put me upon such a wickedness had there not been a cursed nature within me by means whereof I was a Murderer before ever I slew my Brother and an Adulterer and a Blasphemer c. Yea he said he looked upon that original corruption he carried about him a greater sin before God then a thousand acts of murder of adultery c. because it is the fountain of them all which I never saw said he or took notice of till now that God hath opened mine eyes in this wonderful manner Neither do the most of men and women see it but because by the restraining power of God they live free from such gross and scandalous crimes they think themselves in a good estate and that they shall be saved But alas said he they have the same nature that I had and until their natures are changed and renewed they are accounted as guilty of all sins before God and as uncapable of Heaven and salvation as if they had committed them in the greatest act this ignorance of the generality of people old and young he bewailed with much hearty sence and feeling 9. He was very firm and fixed to the Principles of the Protestant Religion though he had but newly suckt them in Insomuch that being several times encountred in Prison by some Priests and other Papists that came to seduce this poor dying Wretch who told him that if he would be reconciled to the Church of Rome and turn Catholique as they call it they has power to pardon absolve him which his Ministers had not and that if he would not renounce his Religion there was no way with him but damnation with divers such menaces to terrifie him and flatteries to ensnare him Yet the Young-man through grace stood against all these Temptations as a Rock that could not be moved but sent them away with a great deal of contempt and indignation He wisht the Civil Magistrate would be watchful and restrain the liberty and prevent the temptations of these Seducers which he promised to make his humble request to them at his death 10. He did not at all doubt of his salvation through Free-grace the merits and love of Jesus Christ though withall he did make it a very solemn Query Whether he might warrantably and safely cast himself upon Jesus Christ on such terms as God holds him forth in the Gospel to poor lost Sinners being such a Sinner as he had been 11. He was not at all afraid of death nor desirous to live but being asked by a Gentleman that stood by what he would do if he should live he answered He desired not life if he might have it partly because he durst not trust his own heart partly out of an infinite desire he had to be with Christ who had loved such a loveless wretch as he was One expression he used was That he was not at all angry with his sin for bringing him to such a shameful end the shame and death do not in the least trouble me He was above all these considerations and desired that God might be glorified in and by his sufferings 12. And lastly He earnestly desired them present to joyn in prayer with him which was performed by a Minister who was witness to this part of the Narative He exprest strong affections and workings of spirit during prayer and much thankfulness for that Christian office In many of these particulars possibly his very expressions in terminis may not be so exactly rendred but a to the import and substance of every particular this is a faithful and true relation In all he spake the manner of his speech and countenance exprest the highest affection that might be THO. CASE Certain Observations of Thomas Parson Minister at Micheal Wood-street London BEing desired to preach at Newgate Aug. 30. in the Afternoon being the Lords day immediately preceding the Execution of Nathaniel Butler I carefully observed him while preaching and had discourse with him both before and after Sermon While preaching I took notine that the man seemed wholly taken up with what he heard not minding the great crowd about him that came to see a poor reed shaken with the wind staring him in the face as a condemned Malefactor but he minded the Pardon I in the Name of God offered him treating of the Pardoning Grace of God with so fixed an eye frequently did he look upon me and so heedfully turn to Scriptures as one taken up with the weightiest matters when as otherwise it might have wrought som discomposure to have so many such Observers When with him before and after Sermon I took notice both of his carriage and Words by both which great discovery of the frame and temper of his mind might be made His Carriage to my Observant and Impartiall apprehension seemed to be excellently attempered to his present condition being sweetly submissive neither servilely dejected under the Apprehensions of his past sins and present state nor forwardly confident as though he forgot he were such a Malefactor His deportment did in my Judgment not without some admiration then after in the reviewing thoughts of it of the Decorum and suitableness of it to his present condition speak a well mixed and compounded sence of his own deserts and divine mercy which also did his Words His Words might be reduced to these two main and excellent heads A declamation against sin and Admiration of Grace Agrainst Sin he expressed the greatest Displicency and abhorrency yea the Sin of his Nature that Root of bitterness which he said men took but little notice of and for actuall Sin abstractedly from the fruit of it even sin as against the holy just and good law of God and as against God that had deserved better at his hands Professing that as in general he had no desire to live so if the greatest hier should be offered him to live if it might occasion his return unto folly he would not accept of life and the World with it And that Sin as Sin even the least Sin did make his heart rise at first thought of it and he could spit it out with detestation wondring that men made no more of Sin bewailing he was no more sensible of and humbled for Sin expressing how affraid he was now of doing any thing might offend God even in the least Then
very lewd Young man being addicted to divers sins which he himself hath freely confessed For instance 1. He was a great Company-keeper and given to Gaming very much whereby he gain'd money and several Watches of Young men one whereof he restor'd to the Owner after his Conscience was awaked in prison 2. He enticed some Servants to purloin from their Masters and sell the Goods then would he and they go together and spend the money among themselves 3. He lived in Fornication frequenting the company and the houses of Harlots in so much that as he himself under his own hand informed me he judged this very sin of Whoredom did draw him on to that of shedding blood Concerning which fact I shall now speak as also concerning his carriage in Prison and at his Execution being an Eye and Ear-witness thereof THis Nathaniel Butler came from Alton in Hampshire where he was born and at the time of his Apprehension was an Apprentice with one Mr. Goodday a Drawer of Cloth in Carter-lane London during which time he became acquainted with one John Knight an Apprentice also in the same City These two were much together but especially when Mr. Worth John Knight's Master was gone to Bristol-Fair then did these two young men lie together several nights at Mr. Worth's house at the Rose in Milk-street where in the shop on Wednesday morning being the 6. of August 1657. Nathaniel Butler seeing some Bags of money he was thereupon tempted to take away the life of his Friend and Bed-fellow that he might securely convey away the Money which he had now seen in the Till of the shop After they had been abroad that day at night they lay again together the bloody design running still in the mind of Butler he intending about the dead of the night for so he expressed himself to me to destroy the Young man by cutting his throat Accordingly he took his knife in his hand but his heart would not suffer him to do it then he laid down the knife again yea he took up and laid down hi sknife several times so he told me before he acted his cruelty But in the morning very early he did indeed fall very violently and inhumanely on the Youth who lay harmlesly asleep upon the bed The first wound not being mortal awaked him whereupon he strugled and made a noise not considerable enough which was heard into another room of the same house Then Butler chopt his fist into the mouth of the Young man and so they two lay striving and tumbling very near half an houre before the fatal blow was given but at length he did most barbarously murder the Young man giving him a very ghastly deadly wound cross the throat And then he went down taking away out of the shop a sum of money in two bags being about One hundred and twenty pounds And so with his double guilt of Robbery and Murder leaving his bloody Shirt behind him and a Lock of his own Hair in the hand of the dead Young man which Hair was pull'd off in their striving together one to commit the other to prevent the fact after he had so done he went to his masters house in Corter-lane where he privately laid the Money in a new Trunk that he bought with part of the Money This Murderer abode for certain days that is from Thursday to Saturday at his Masters house unsuspected following his business at home as formerly Many thoughts and jealousies were working in men who should be the Murderer And in a few days one in Milk-street the street where the Murder was done knowing that Butler used sometimes to be with the Young man who was now murder'd went to Butler's Master's house in Carter-lane and spake with him by whose words and carriage he supposed he might be guilty and so caused him to be apprehended But yet for some small time the said Butler denied the Fact but at length confessed That he and he only did it After his apprehension he was brought before the Lord Major of London to whom he declared the Murder and the Circumstances of it crying out for a little time for his soul and much lamenting his sin That night he was committed to Newgate and there lay exceedingly startled about the state of his soul saying often What will become of my poor soul What shall I do to be saved beginning now to see the sinfulness of sin Whom I may compare to Manasseh in three respects 1. As to matter of fact for Manasses shed much innocent blood 2 King 21.16 so did he shed too much innocent blood 2. He something resembled Manasses in his imprisonment mentioned 2 Chr. 33.11 As Manasses was taken and bound with fetters so was he clapt in the Hole or Dungeon of Newgate with heavy irons about his legs 3. Manasses and he were one and the same in this sense that when they were in affliction they besought the Lord God and humbled themselves greatly before the God of their fathers For this great Offender could often say He could never be humbled enough Upon the 13 of August when he was arraigned at the Sessions in the Old-Baily he pleaded Guilty to the Indictment with very much shame confusion of face and sorrow of heart And on Friday the 15. of August he demeaned himself very humbly before the Bench heartily submitting to the Sentence of Death that then passed upon him saying He had destroyed the Image of the Eternal GOD alluding as I verily believe to those words in Gen. 9.6 For in the image of God c. After his Sentence he was conveyed back to prison penitently acknowledging that he had neglected the good Word of God and therefore was the longer kept off through ignorance of the Gospel from closing with Christ Jesus But after a few days discourse with several Ministers and others who opened the Scriptures to him he began to understand through the grace of God the Word of Grace And though he had many good Books brought to him by divers visiting Friends yet he chiefly looked into the holy Scriptures themselves and found very much advantage light and peace by these following passages out of the Old Testament viz. 2 Sam. 12.9 Where Nathan spake sharply to David for despising the Commandment of the Lord to do evil in the sight of the Lord in killing Vriah the Hittite with the sword Vers 13 David said to Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said to David The Lord also hath put away thy sin From hence he understood the readiness of God to forgive confessing repenting sinners though they are guilty of innocent blood Job 33.27 28 He the Lord looketh upon men Oh that men would look after the Lord and if ANY say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not he that is the Lord will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light Isa 45.18 19. I said not unto the
seed of Jacob seek ye me in vain Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will ABVNDANTLY pardon The word abundantly he used to pronounce with an emphasis for he saw his eyes being now annointed with spiritual eye-salve that he had multiplied sins exceedingly and that he stood in absolute need of the Lords abundant multiplied pardons whereof he had good hope through this good word of Isaiah Ezek 18.23 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die saith the Lord God and not that he should return from his wases and live 30. Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions SO iniquity shall not be your ruine 31. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die O house of Israel 32. For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth wherefore turn your selves and live ye Ezek. 33.11 Say unto them As I live saith the Lord here the poor Prisoner would note to his comfort that a repenting sinner hadnot onely the Word and Promise of God for forgiveness but the Oath of God to give such a finner the greater assurance of pardon I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his ways and live Turn ye turn ye see the importunity of God with poor sinners for the good of their souls from your evil ways For why will ye die O house of Israel Micah 7.18 was a place pleasant to his soul Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the reranant of his heritage He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy Vers 19. He will turn again as one doth when his anger is gone he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast ALL their sins into the depth of the Sea Now I shall give you a short List of some New Testament Texts whereby the Lord conveyed Counsel and Consolation to this doubting staggering poor Wretch Matth. 18.11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost Joh. 3.14 15 16. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have eternal life For God SO loved the WORLD that whosoever this word whosoever he he spake with joy beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Now saith Nathaniel Butler I am one to whom this word speaketh and therefore God gave the Lord Jesus Christ for my soul I beleeve in him and therefore I trust to live eternally through him according to the gracious terms of the Gospel John 6.37 and him that cometh to me I will in no wise here he would repeat and reiterate these words in NO WISE CAST OVT in NO WISE in NO WISE cast out 1 Tim. 1.15 This a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief 1 Tim. 2.5 6. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time In hearing reading and conferring upon these and many more Scriptures he would often say to me and others these are good Scriptures brave Scriptures are they not brave Scriptures He would make very diligent and frequent search into his soul concerning the sincerity of his sorrow and would not easily beleeve that his repentance was true or that he had right to the precious promises of the Gospel But by much speaking to him by many good people that he would applie Christ and also by seeking unto God for a spirit of Faith for him he did begin to act a faith of recumbency and adherence being as he often said perswaded that the Lord Jesus Christ was able to save to the uttermost and willing to save such as come unto God by him yet he could not come up to that full assurance of hope and confidence as he desired and we also desired heartily on his behalf So that sometimes he would break forth and say How can I that have been gurlty of all sins whatsoever almost as Murder Fornication Theft c. challenge or apply a pardon He was much afraid of running upon either of these two Rooks that is presumption or despair I told him that diffidence and despair was the strongest presumption against God saying to him Is it not presumption for a man to dis obey God and not to beleeve him Now the command of God in his glorious Gospel is that men weary of and heavy laden with sins should come to Christ that they might find rest to their souls The design of God said I in the Scriptures is not to give some feeble weak hope of pardon but a lively hope and a firm expectation of salvation to all that mourn and really repent Which so wrought upon him that for the space of some daies before his suffering death it pleased the God of all comfort to give him joy and consolation and sometimes strong consolation insomuch that he would at times express very great inward gladness which all that knew his former mournings were glad to see and glorified God for giving him the joy of his salvation for he was so satisfied concerning the favour and mercy of God towads him in Jesus Christ that he rather now desired death then feared it as seeing death through Jesus Christ without a sting On the Lords Day towards evening the Lord Mayor to whose Conference I refer you went the third and last time to visit him for the next day he was to die and my Lords advice very much refreshed his spirit it being his Lordships design to speak of Heaven with the glory and joy of that Kingdom and to establish the Prisoners thoughts thereon After his Lordship had left him he seemed to be very chearful in his spirit blessing God that he should put it into his Lordships heart to condescend so far as to pray and confer with such a despicable poor wretch as he was heartily thanking his Lordship for his abundant love That night being his last night I kept him company in Newgate so did divers others continuing with him in the Dungeon or Hole for so the Keepers call it till towards midnight conferring with him and endeavouring to comfort him to the end he delighted all the time of his Imprisonment in Christian Company and spiritual Discourses but in his last night he was very much carried forth to spend himself about spiritual things So that we judged it meet to leave him alone a while lest being altogether without rest and refreshment in his body he might thereby be made unfit for the service of the next day intending then to
forgiveness from all the world for the wrongs and injuries which I have done so I do here desire to declare and that freely and with all my soul that I do truly forgive all the World for all the wrongs that I have suffered from every one therein even those evil Companions of mine which have in any kind been the Devils instruments in tempting me and thereby have brought me unto that evil which here I am now to undergo even the losing of my life Confessing it was more mine own evil and sin in consenting to do those wicked actions which have occasioned me now to be here to suffer then theirs and I am more to blame my self in being here then any other whatsoever I am fully satisfied that through Gods assistance I might have resisted the temptation and avoided that evil I have done so that that the true cause of this my present misery is wholly mine own though I intend not hereby to excuse the Devil nor any of his Instruments I therefore here once more advise all young men and women to take heed of the beginings of evil and to take heed that they never forsake God nor his ways and counsels for I have found that there first began my ruine neglecting Gods Word and not regarding his counsels given me there he left me to mine own ways and unto mine own counsels to follow them as a just punishment for my great wickedness in leaving God and the directions which he had given me for my good And as I desire to forgive every one so it is my heary prayer that God for Christs sake will forgive them for all that is evil in any of them And let me say this to magnifie the infinite goodness of God who oft-times makes a poor Creatures extremity to be his own opportunity I might now have been going from this place to Hell had not the mercy of God prevented me which I hope he hath done for his own names sake and for his dear Son Jesus Christ his sake who is my blessed Redeemer who hath purchased life and salvation for all humble penitent and believing sinners of whom I hope I am one who defire to manifest the truth of my Faith by all the means which God hath enabled me and where I am not able to do what I would Phope God in mercy will accept the will for the deed I have now almost done As I have been a wondrous greast sinner and God hath shewed forth wondrous mercy to save me so it hath pleased God to shew forth wonderful kindness to me in stiring and moving my Lord Major to move the Bench to give me so large a time of Repentance and not only so but his Lordship hath used great means not only in sending me the assistance of good Ministers but he also came twice himself to visit me and prayed with me which kindness of his I pray God to reward a hundred sold into his bosom And here I desire to bless God as for the time and means for repentance so for the grace and heart to repent which all were effects of the wonderful love of God towards me so vile and wicked a sinner as I have been I have great reason also in all humili y to thank the good people of this City for their many prayers to God for me and for their kind visits of me I hope they will believe that God hath heard their prayers on my behalf and wil visit them even every one of them that in love to my poor soul have visited me in this my great necessity And it is my desire and hope that the good people of this City may by this experiment be so encouraged as never to cease seeking of God for his grace for any sinner whatsoever who of his infinite grace and mercy hath had respect unto so wicked so vile and sinful a Creature as I was out of whom I hope I may truly say he hath cast forth legions of sins and left in me none behind to hinder my access unto God by Jesus Christ I have now done What shall I say more Lord teach me what to say that I may glorifie thee who hast thus glorified the riches of thy mercy upon me a poor vile Creature as a close of what I have to say and so therewith to close up my life my wicked and sinful life and withall go into a life where I shall sin no more offend God no more but be in an estate of blessing and praising God for ever and ever And therefore unto that God of all grace who is able to keep that which I shall commit unto his trust and to preserve me both sould and body into thy hands O merciful Father and blessed Redeemer I commit my soul humbly beseeching thee to remember that good word whereupon I desire to rest and wholly cast my self even the sure word of thy faithfulness O blessed Saviour from whose sweet lips dtopped this sweet saying That whosoever cometh unto him he will in no wise cast out This blessed saying hath been and at present is the joy and comfort of my soul And for this body of mine which hath been a body of sin it is now through grace become the Temple of the Holy Ghost And as the blessed Apostle Paul believed and therefore he spake so I believe and therefore speak That he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise me up also by Jesus and present me unto God without blame I have done Good people all you that have had the patience to bear me thus long let me humbly beg your prayers with me and for me That he which hath begun a good work in me will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ Nathaniel Butler After he had read some part of this Speech the people pressing and making a noise I told Mr. Sheriff Milner that I humbly conceived it best for the Malefactor to forbear reading any further the people not being able to hear because of the noise and that he should rather speak briefly from his own breast without book whereunto Mr. Sheriff consented and the Prisoner put up his written Speech and spake then with a very loud voice and with abundance of tears to this effect That he would humbly desire the Magistrates of London to look after the suppression of Popish Priests and Jesuites for some of the Popish party had been with him in prison perswading him but in vain to die in the Roman Catholique Religion Then he addressed himself to Masters and Servants advising and pressing them strongly to be both very watchful and careful in their several capacities Masters to look well after their Servants and Servants to serve their Masters in singleness of heart admonishing and exhorting all men to fear the Lord saying If you love your souls leave off evil ways and be warned by mine example But if ye will keep your sins and hope for pardon God will keep his pardon and you shall keep
unprofitable What will it profit you or yours to hear Sermons and after that never to hear more of them Take heed of ignorance and idleness ignorance in not knowing what ye ought to do and idleness in refusing to take pains with your people Mal. 3.16 Formerly They that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought on his name But now how seldom do we see Families conferring among themselves Husband and Wife speaking of God and of Christ that Children may learn Where is a Master and Mistris or Master and Dame that now adaies drop one gracious word in the hearing of their Servants the whole week or moneth nay it may be the whole year throughout is it any wonder then for young ones and inferiors to fall into evil ways when you that are elder and their Tutors and Governors walk so loosely and unchristianly before them Will you now search the Scriptures and know your work and do it entirely will you be faithful and true to all those Souls the Lord hath entrusted you with and take heed least their present miscarriages and their after-condemnation be and it will be unless you do all that belongs to your part charged upon your account Nathaniel Butler hath given me under his hand that if he had continued with one Master to whom he was turned over he beleeved he never had come to such a pass as he did The day is coming when it will come to pass that God shall set your sins and defaults in order before your faces And dare you then accuse God or can you excuse your selves when in truth it shall be laid to your charge that such a Son such a Daughter such a Man-servant or Maid-servant had never done so wickedly in one kind or other they never had faller into the waies of the Devil nor fallen under the wrath of God if we who had the nurturing over-sight and admonishing of them had done our duty O remember the counsel of Christ in these two Scriptures That of Paul to the Ephesians 5.4 and latter end lately touched upon Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord That is teach them to know and love to serve and fear the Lord give them such nurture and instruction such spiritual matter for their minds to work upon as the Lord prescribeth by the Scriptures The other Text of very great use and service to Masters is in Col. 4.1 Masters give to your Servants that which is just and equal knowing that also ye have a Master in Heaven 'T is not onely just and equal to give food and raiment or knowledge or understanding in a Trade to your Servants but 't is just and equal for you to give good counsel to your Servants to serve God and till this be you are unjust men and unequal in your waies unconscionable as to the souls of your Servants 'T is a very honourable character that the most High himself gives to Abraham Gen. 18.19 For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord Abraham did not command his Children and Servants to honour him and serve him onely for so most men are apt enough to lay their commands upon children and housholds but his command required his Relations to walk in the way of God If men would follow Abraham herein what orderly holy and reformed Families would then be found in the Land I hope that these Scripture-passages and passages of providence also one whereof and indeed a very sad one you have seen in the fore-going Narrative will touch your hearts and engage you to look after this that you and your Children you and your Servants be henceforth found in the way of the Lord. Many Masters are very like the Egyptian Task-masters in two respects which are both remarkable viz. 1. The Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage in Morter and in Brick and in all manner of service in the field all their service wherewith they made themserve was with rigor Exod. 1.13 14. O the rigor and bitterness that some servants abide during the time of their serving some men how many merciless harsh cruel Parents and Masters are more like Egyptians then Israelites more like Turks then Christians by their cruelty provoking directly against the Gospel-Statute Sons Daughters and Servants to do that which without unreasonable provocation they would never have done 2. Too many Heads and Rulers of houses seem Egyptians rather then Christians not only in exacting service from their inferiours with all storminess and bitterness of spirit but likewise in this sense more wicked then the former that they will not so far are these men from pressing their servants to serve God suffer them to go and serve the Lord do not some upbraid and revile threaten and discourage Servants and Sons and Daughters if they look after goodness and exactness of life Exod. 7.16 And thou shalt say The Lord God of the Hebrews bath sent me unto thee saying Let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness and behold hitherto thou wouldest not hear I beg of you these two things 1. That you would be content when your children and servants do perform to you reasonable service And 2ly that you would exhort and beseech them by the mercies of God to present their bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is to God-ward their reasonable service But least I should not prevail with you I shall therefore direct my counsel and admonition to children and servants themselves that in case your Overseers see not their duty or do it not yet your selves may make conscience to carry it so towards God and all men that ye adorn thereby the Doctrine of God our Saviour Young people hear what Christ commandeth Eph. 6.1 Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Gol. 3.20 The Lord is angry at and displeased with disobedient Sons and Daughters Eph. 6.5.6 7 8. Servants saith Paul a servant of Christ be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh for as to soul and conscience Christ only is Lord and Master and in this sense we are forbidden to call any man Master Matth. 23 8. with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ Not with eye-service as men-pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart With good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doth though never so mean a servant the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free Obj. But some servant may say My Master is a very harsh froward man or else I
brought him to Execution and from thence conveyed to Gregories Churchyard London where about Noon he was burled That Evening at S. Gregordes Church a Sermon was preached by Mr Randolph Yearwood the Lord Majors Chaplain there being a great confluence of People The Substance wherof take as followeth I JOH 3.15 Whosoever hateth his Brother is a Murderer and ye know that no Murderer hath eternal Life abiding in him THE Apostles intent in this Epistle was and indeed my design in this Sermon is to promote true love in mens hearts towards one another His Arguments are many which he propoundeth as so many provocations to love Consider these seven 1 Arg. 1 John 5.9 10 11. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whether he goeth because that darkness hath blinded his eyes as though he should say Love surpasseth hatred as far as light excelleth darkness Arg. 2. Men are not of God but they are the children of the Devil unless they love as brethren This is plain and manifest 1 John 3.10 In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother 1 Joh. 4.7 Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God Arg. 3. He that Ioveth not knoweth not God for God is love 1 Joh. 4.8 Arg. 4. A man otherwise cannot clear up his love to God 1 Joh. 4.20 If a man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a Lyar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Arg. 5. 1 John 4.10.11 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another Arg. 6. If you love the Brethren ye have passed from death to life 1 Joh. 3.14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren Arg. 7. The last Argument is drawn from the dreadful estate of a man that loves not his brother 1 Joh. 3.14 He abideth in death he is a murderer he hath not eternal life abiding in him And now I am returned to the words which I intend to handle Whosoever hateth his Brother is a murderer and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him Here we have two things very remarkable 1. A description of a Gospel-murderer for in the sense of our Law meer hatred doth not make a murderer Whosoever hateth his Brother is what is he a Murderer 2 A declaration of the damnable state of such a murderer And ye know 't is a known case that no murderer hath eternal life abideing in him Let us consider the first of these two truths in the words of the Apostle viz. Obser 1. Whosoever hateth his Brother is Murderer It is requisite to say something by way of Explication to this truth and then by way of Application Whosoever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one every malicious man without exception whether he be reputed good or bad holy or unholy if he hateth his brother he is a murderer if he be rich or poor high or low Magistrate or Minister whosoever he be if he hate he is here included in the indictment of murder Whosoever is a term of universality Hateth By hating two things are hinted in Scripture 1. A comparative respect This first is plain in Gen. 29 30. And he went in also unto Rachel and he loved also Rachel more then Leah 31. And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated that is was loved less then Rachel Luk. 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also cannot be my Disciple Now 't is not lawful properly and indeed to hate a mans self or his Relations though he might gain heaven thereby Observe Luke the Evangelist saith cap. 14.26 If a man hate not brethren he cannot be Christs Disciple and John the Apostle affirms Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer So that we must take the term hate in some places to signifie a less degree of love so in Luke He that loveth not Christ more then himself more then his Wife or Children more then Brethren or sisters cannot be my Disciple as suppose a man must either forsake Jesus Christ or else his natural and near relation this for saking of them and cleaving to Christ the Scripture expresseth by hating of them not that men hate or may lawfully hate their Friends but they love them less then they love the Lord Christ So Matth. 10.37 He that loveth Father or Mother more then me is not worthy of me and he that loveth Son or Daughter more then me is not worthy of me 2. Hating is taken for a very strong disrespect and a mighty implacable disaffection in the heart of one man towards another mans person insomuch that a man cannot find in his heart to say well of or do good unto another but he can find in his heart to speak all manner of evil and act all manner of mischief hurt and wickedness against another This is our Apostles sense He that hateth his brother i.e. he that sheweth no pitty or compassion to but prejudice cruelty and indignation against his brother is a Murderer This is utter hatred according to that in Judg. 15.2 I verily thought thou hadst utterly hated her Brother 1. Natural brother Mat. 4.18 And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother 2. Kinsman and Country-man Rom. 9.3 4. For my brethren and kinsmen according to the flesh who are Israelites 3. A Christian one obedient to Christ Mat. 12.48 49.50 Who is my mother and who are my brethren And he stretched forth his hand towards his Disciples and said Behold my mother and my brethaen for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven the same is my brother Heb. 3.1 Wherefore holy brethren partakers of the holy calling 4. Any humane creature man woman or child Mat. 7.3 4. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brothers eye meaning in the eye of any other person but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye Or how wilt thou say to thy brother to any man Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye and behold a beam is in thine own eye Acts 17.26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth Is a Murderer That is in his desire and
untill he came to be alone in his Chaines like Manasseh 2 Chron. 33 11.12 his prejudgment of the sentence of death brought in the thoughts of an eternall after-estate and then said he my conscience was enlightned and a wakened to see my self in the glass of Gods law and under the judgment of eternal death which wrought such horror consusion and astonishment that made me cry out in the bitterness of my soule as one under the wrath and tertors of the Almighty Moreover said he the thoughts of this second and after-death of my poor soule did blot out of my remembrance the death which was approaching Hereupon I began further to apply to him after this manner That in this your present condition there are two things of greatest concernment to your soule First that you be rightly regulated in your repentance Secondly rightly directed the way of beleeving in Christ I shall endeavor to make both plain and practicable 1. Not to swell the Narrative with the rehearsall of what I offered him about a true and right conviction of sin not of this notorious sin only but of others also and the corrupt root and fountain from whence all sprang with the nature and necessity of a Gospel-repentance pressing seriousness and sincerity upon him this not being a time to Trifle much less to dissemble about the weighty concernments of his soule a false and a faigned repentance being as bad as the sin it self with more the like as occasion was offered N. B. Answers very sensibly in these and such like words following not in a continued discourse but in an Intercourse of speech N. B. Oh saith he not only this one haynous sin but multitudes of other sins are set in order before me as well small as great and the smallest appeareth great to me as being against a holy God and an infinite good I never thought such things to be sins which I now see to be sins Oh what an ignorant dead Creature was I before I now apprehend the filthiness and feele the hardness of my heart my heart is discovered to the very bottome the whole trade and course of my life is brought to my remembrance and wringing his hands the most of the time Oh now saith he I discerne I was in a miserable and damnable condition before I committed this foule fact Others think themselves in a happy condition because they are not under the guilt of my sin and under the same sentence but alas they are lamentably mistaken as I also was Now do I apprehend the sinfulness of my thoughts and secret immaginations as wel as outward actions And all this and much more exprest with such a manner and measure of earnestness as did apparantly signifie that the two-edged Sword had past and pierced through the very powers of his soule discerning and abilitating him to discerne the inward thoughts and intents of his heart Oh saith he I dare not lessen my sins nor extenuate my great sin they are against the righteous law and holy nature of God and frequently in our discourse he would intermix this speech of Davids with hands wringing and strong affection against thee O Lord have I sinned against thee even thee O Lord have I sinned and done wickedly and Lord Pardon mine iniquity for it s exceeding great Psal 25.11 And when I proceeded upon the parts of repentance and contrition as one great branch of it he said That he did heartily repent to his utmost as before the Lord and did hope the Lord would break him more Oh saith he it s the griefe of my heart I can grieve no more and though my heart is broken yet I am sensible of hardness yet remaining and by way of concession to my words saying Oh it s not a time to Trifle indeed I know my heart is deceitfull but I desire nothing more then a through and faithful discovery of the deceitfulness of my heart by all that come to mee that I might not mistake and lose my soule and amongst other deceits I desire to avoid this of resting upon any repentance of mine but upon Christ only for salvation but I hate sin heartily not only for that it hath brought mee to this misery but also for its filthy nature and because against a holy and mercifull God 2. The second thing I endeavoured to mannage was the possibility of pardon and salvation notwithstanding the magnitude and multitude of his sins which when I began to speake his heart was raised to an earnest expectation and attention rejoycing to think there might be a dore of hope I proceeded to three or four considerations to evidence his sin pardonable and his soule salvable First because there was more grace in God to forgive and more vertue in the blood of Christ to save then was in his sin to damne him Secondly because God in the Gospel had determined all sins of all sorts pardonable except only the sin against the holy spirit Math. 12.31 1 John 5.16 which for sundry reasons he could not possibly be guilty of this I did inculcate the more that he might sted fastly and firmely beleeve the record and testimony hereof before he went further unto which he did profess a full and sound assent gathering herefrom hopes that he might be saved and exulted in those hopes Thirdly that God had recorded eminent examples in his word of shewing his mercy to such sinners who had committed the same sin and that with a higher hand viz. Manasseh 2 Kings 21.16 compared with 2 Chron. 33 11 12 13. I did endeavor to enforce the Parallel about the meanes and manner of Gods humbling by the same fetters of affliction upon which he said Oh I bless God for this affliction I bless God that I was discovered and taken I might have run out my course in sin and directly to hell had not God taken this course with me Oh I would not exchange my present imprisonment with my former liberty in sin for all the world I hinted also the Murder of David in the matter of Vriah and Davids prayer again Psal 25.11 which he said Mr. Samuel Jacombe of Lumbard Stret had preacht on in the Prison which did much help his hopes and he voluntarily called to remembrance the Jewes who murdered Christ Acts 2.36.37.38 and made a comfortable improvement thereof Fourthly I alledged that the Gospell did pronounce and proclaim pardon of sin and eternal salvation upon true repentance and beleeving on the Lord Jesus Christ and there was no visible barr to exclude him more then any other in world the substance of this faith lying in this that if upon the sight of his lost condition by sin and upon a firme assent to the record of God concerning his sons being an only and al-sufficient Saviour he could but cast himself upon the mercy of God and roule his sinfull sincking soule upon the Lord Jesus as a foundation heartily hateing sin and abhorring himself and cleaving to Christs righteousness
recommending of this providence to you and the duty which it calls for Psal 9 16. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth And surely this latter Age though an Age full of sin hath not set before you a more dreadful instance of mans sinfulness and Gods justice though in the end sweetned much with mercy then that which in and upon this notorious Malefactor hath been laid before your observation And therefore we cannot here be silent but must take this advantage with all humility and affection to your souls good plainly to open our hearts to you By some we know before hand we shall be slighted and censured as men too busy and may be as men too credulous but in the presence of God we can say our aim is publick good and the discharge of our consciences and therefore we are not discouraged And we are not wholly without hope but that some benefit may be reaped from these few lines which here with all sincerity we do present upon that late providence which hath been before you Exod. 14.20 That providence we say which like the Cloud is on one side very dark on the other side very bright very dark as to mans sin very bright as to Gods mercy T is the daily and inward grief of our spirits God knows it that our Ministry is so successeless that we see so little fruit of the word preached by us that in a City where there is such plain and powerful preaching such horrid sins should be committed Ezek. 19.14 This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation But possibly some secure sinners may be a little startled and awakened by this terrible judicial hand of God and so a word setting in with this providence may be more effectual then many in an ordinance We cannot but comply with the will of God in the use of all means for the furtherance of your salvation And oh that God would so bless this dispensation that you all may hear and fear and sin no more Touching the sad occasion we will not inlarge upon that the hainous murder the abominable uncleanness the wicked theft of which Nat Butler was guilty of the former but once which we speak not by way of extenuation for that 's too much of the two latter very often as also the shamefulness and dreadfulness of his death these we pass over as being very well known to all of you Neither shall we interest our selves in any narrative of the workings of God upon his heart during his imprisonment and at his execution though herein we could speak much as being for the most of us very often with him in this time and narrow observers of him Nor shall we expatiate upon some of those great truths of the Gospel which this famous instance doth lead us to Namely that sometimes it pleases God in the sovereignty and prerogative of his grace to ceaze upon the greatest sinners and out of the coursest rubbish to erect the monuments of his unlimited mercy 1 Tim. 1.16 The Lord doth sometimes take the vilest wretches and hangs them out as patterns of his infinite love that the freeness of his grace may be admired and the greatest of sinners may be incouraged but still in the way of Faith and Repentance we do not we dare not limit the Grace of God as to exclude this Notorious and Bloody sinner from it nay we have good hope that through the infinite Mercy of the Father and the All-sufficient Merits of the Son he is accepted to eternal Life Indeed when we consider the horribleness of his sin the greatness of his joy after a short humiliation yet deep and through we hope we easily conjecture that some will question both the prudence of any publication and the truth of his Conversion But we will meddle with neither of these leaving men to jude of the former and God alone who searches and knows the heart to judge of the latter Waving therefore all these things our only design and businesse in this application is to press upon you the inhabitants of this City to some of whom we are more neerly related in our respective Charges the several duties which do naturally result from this Providence We would exhort you in the first place To be thankful to God for his Restraining Grace which though it be short of his Renewing Grace yet t is with all thankfulness to be valued Oh! bless the Lord who keeps you from those sins which this poor Wretch was guilty of that you are not Adulterers Theeves nay Murderers and Malefactors to be punished by the Judge this is the Lords mercy 1 Cor. 4.7 Who makes you to differ from others Have not you the same Names Have not you the Seed and Spawn of all wickedness in you And should God leave you to the baseness of your own hellish hearts would you not also run to all Excess of sin and that with Greediness too When you read over this sad Story we beseech you lay your hands upon your hearts and say What a mercy is it I was neither the Murderer nor the Murdred We desire you to mourne over the crying sins that are to be found amongst us Oh! the Scarlet sins that swarm in London even in London Swearing Drunkenness Uncleanness Profanation of the Lords Day Contempt of the Gospel and of the Ministry thereof nay even Blood-guiltiness is to be found amongst us Should not your Souls like the Soul of Righteous Lot be vexed within you for these things 2 Pet. 2.7 Should you not all come up to be Ezekiel's mourners in the remembrance of them Ezek. 9.4 Especially considering that these things are done in times of Reformation and in a place of Vision even in London where the Light of the Gospel shines so gloriously where the Words is Preached so plentifully and powerfully even there these abominations are to be found Will you not lay them to heart And what reason have you to admire the patience of God to this City T is a wonder London is not made a Sodom that desolation doth not seize upon your houses that you are not all swept away with the Beesome of suddain destruction that you are not hung upon the Gibbet as Spectacles of Gods vengeance to all the Nations round about What so much provocation and yet the City to stand Oh the Patience and Long-suffering of God! Doubtless if God had not a Remnant amongst you who seek him daily and fear his Name you had been laid desolate long before now Isa 1 9. We need not from hence to stir you up to submit to Government and to bless God that you live in a place where Laws are Executed What a Chaos what a Wilderness of wild Beasts should we be if Malefactors were not punished What Confusion Cruelty Barbarousness would overspread all if by wholsome Laws and the care of good Magistrates in the Execution of them we had not some Boundaries set to the Lusts of
men whether would the heart of man run if there were not some rein upon it T is sad the Law of God will not keep men from sin but seeing it will not t is mercy we have the Laws of Man Many are afraid of the Gallowes which have no sense of Hell This great Sinner is represented to you as an eminent instance of the Grace of God and so we hope he was T is very necessary therefore we should here insert a Caveat against the abusing of this Grace of God How apt are we with the Spider to suck Poyson where with the Bee we should suck Honey How many will be apt from hence to encourage themselves in sin and to say Let us sin that Grace may abound Rom. 6.1 Or let us sin for Grace will abound Man is not more prone to any thing then to catch at eminent Acts of Grace and to make that Fewel to his Lust which God intended only to be Food to his Faith And never was there any age wherein there was more of this Spirit of Presumption then this wherein we live insomuch that upon this very account some of us were very inclinable to think That 't was better to have the story of this man suppressed then published But since providence hath so ordered it that it doth see the Light we cannot but annex to it an Antidote against presuming Sinners do not pervert this Grace of God God lets you have it to keep you off from the rock of despair not that you should run upon the rock of presumption Deut. 29.19 20. If you sin you may have mercy but if you presume to sin can you then expect mercy Grace rejected may yet save you though that will cost you dear but oh tremble to abuse the grace of God to incourage you in sins God sometimes gives some rare instances of his grace to notorious sinners that none may despair but he is very choice in these that none may presume T is true upon repentance the greatest sinner shall find mercy but how do you know that God will give you repentance How many are in the same condemnation that this offender was that die without any such work upon them we affectionately beseech you and warn you not to turn this grace of God into wantonnesse These things we hint in general More particularly we shall address our selves to you in the several capacities wherein you stand You the Right honourable Magistrates of the City with all submission and yet with all boldness we exhort you to do your duty T is not enough for you to punish sin when 't is before you but you are to endevour the preventing of it you see what is the sad fruit of Ale-houses Whore-houses and such places we hope your zeal will yet continue nay be heightned in the suppressing of them Down with them Down with them spare them not they are the Divels Shops and let him have no Free-Trade amongst us If you will none shall have so many Customers as he How many Labourers drink that away at these houses which should maintain their wives and children with bread How are the youth of this City debaunched at them where they have their Gaming Cheating Whoring and what not Oh let your Reformation be severe and throughout in this particular But herein blessed be God we have great cause as well to commend as to quicken your zeale We heartily wish that those who have power in the Suburbs of the City would be as active in the restraining of sin as you are that those places and persons which you will not indure in the City the naming of which would soul our pen might not be held up and harboured there otherwise it will be small advantage to smother Whores out of one Hive when they have another ready to receive them We hear and fear t is too true that Priests and Jesuites those Romish Locusts do swarm amongst us in the City and Suburbs We beseech you for the sake of Jesus Christ and for love to the Gospel to put forth your power to the utmost for the discovering suppressing of them And the rather because they and their party are so bold as to intrude themselves upon prisoners condemned to die to pervert them from the true Religion for this attempt they were bold to make upon N. B. before he was executed We should also speak to our selves and to our reverend Brethren in the Ministry Doth not this providence speak something to us Should we not from hence be stirred up in our several congregations more vigorusly to reprove sin and to deter men from sin Whither will sinners go if we let them alone Let our preaching be lively quick powerful by Gods blessing it may be a means to prevent these abominable practises However let 's do this and then let our hearers do what they will their blood shall be required at their own hands Ezech. 3.18 19. We shall be free from it Let us beat down drunkenness Adultery c. and such scandalous sins and while we labour to preach down unbelief let us take heed that presumption and gross sins do not break in upon us with a mighty breach Should we enlarge upon these things we should be tedious Our principal intendment was to speak a word to you the people and Citizens of the place which we shall dispatch with all plainness and brevity And here we will only take the liberty of advising you in the Notion of Governours and Governed You that are Governours we mean Governours of families give us leave to set in with this providence and to stir you up to make more conscience of the Family-duties and engagements that lie upon you in reference to your children and Servants Probably if things be not mis-repesented had there been a consciencious discharge of these duties in the Family where this young man lived he had never come to this sad end But we had rather awaken then censure Was not that a brave resolution of Joshua I and my house will serve the Lord. Josh 24.15 Gen. 18.9 Can you have a better Evidence of sincerity towards God then a faithful comming up to relative and Family-duties Do not parents that send up their children to you put a great trust into your hands Are not their children dearer to them then all their outward comforts and shall they miscarry under you for want of care Will not their blood be required at your hands if they perish through your neglect will it not be sad to have children and servanns to rise up in judgment against you and to bring in evidence at the great tribunall of Christ Lord my Father never minded me Lord my master never regarded me I might sin he never reproved me I might go to hell it was all one to him will not this be sad will not this be sweet to you when you come to die to be able to say Lord I have walked in my house with a perfect
heart Psal 101.2 Have you no love to religion to propagate it and to provide for it's flourishing when you are dead and gone Doth not your neglect of family-duties make all the endeavours of our godly magistrates and of godly ministers to be ineffectual and frustraineous God hath put it into their hearts to do good but t is but little they can do in publick because you are so remiss in private And t is the desire of our souls to beat down sin but we groan under the sense of sad disappointment and this is one reason of it what we do at the Church is undone by you again in your Families No setting on the word no praying over the word c. Oh that these things might be as so many spurs in your sides to quicken you to family duties Set up prayer in your Families There 's a curse pronouned upon the Families that do not call upon God The Lord be merciful to the thousands of Families in the City where there is scarce a purger by the master of the family from yeer to yeer How can such hope for the blessing of God to be upon them who though he gives mercy freely yet he will be sought unto for it Ezek. 36.3 7. How can such look for Gods bounty who deny him his worship Doth not prayer procure all your Family-comforts and sanctifie all your family-comforts Morning and Evening call upon God and call in your servants let them not want the benefit of prayer 't wil be poor to feed their bodyes and to starve their souls If you eate together by all means pray together Catechize your children and servants instruct them in the fundamentals of religion would you keep them from error in the Head from loosness in the life make conscience of this duty How excellent how necessary how profitable is this ordinance and yet how sadly is it neglected we may in a great measure blame you for the many Hereticks and erroneous persons with whom we swarm in these dayes Read and open the Scriptures to them but do this with all humility and sobriety or else there will be danger These are the Magazine the Treasury of all knowledge able to make you and yours wife to Salvation Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you and in all that belong to you See that they frequent the publick Ordinances let them follow you to the house of God not out of state but in love to their soules and when they are there see they keep there that they do not run out again to Ale-houses and Taverns as too many do to our grief and your shame be it spoken when a publick Ordinance is ended call them to an account see what they remember wherein they profit how they relish the word this is to do good indeed to their soules Keep them to a strict observance of the Lords-day you will not let them trifle away your day then you 'l hold them to their work Oh! let them not trifle away the Lords day Why do your children and servants stand gazeing at your doors upon the Sabbath Call them in put them upon reading wholsom books and other exercises which are proper to the day be not partakers of their sin What ever liberty you grant them at other times hold them to a close sanctification of the Sabbath And spend this day with them in prayer repetition singing of Psalms This is to make your Families as so many little Churches of Jesus Christ How little conscience do the generality of you make of Sabbath bath-duty we might sadly bemoan this before the Lord. For your selves you can make that day which is a day for Physick for the soul to be the Day for Physick for the Body you cannot spare time all the weeke long you 'l take it upon the Lords day And for your children and servants let them walk in the Field play in the streets sleep in their beds or drink in Taverns 't is all one to you Will God beare this from you Certainly this will be bitterness in the end Do not indulge your servants in idleness that is the bane of youth the Devils in-let to all temptations An idle person is like tinder that will take every sparke that falls upon it let them be out of imployment 't is a thousand to one but presently they are in some sin And yet those that know how to use their Liberty let them have it sometimes for lawful recreations but this we leave to your prudence In the pursuit of your own pleasures and conveniences have a care of your Families Many of you go to your Country houses we condemne you not for it but what becomes of your servants As Eliab said to David with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness Whilst you are in your pleasant gardens gratifying your selves in your creature-enjoyments who takes care of them that are left behind to pray with them to instruct them to see they sanctifie the Sabbath the health of some Masters bodies is the ruine of their servants souls Set them in all things a good example if they see you can strain in defraunding others they 'l easily come to strain in the defrauding of you let them see you fear to sin and that will be an awe upon their spirits against sin Take your Apprentices out of religious Families in the Country Many of you are punished with vexatious servants you may thank your selves for it you take your Apprentices by the pound not by good education who will give most not who will deserve most and you smart for it afterwards But how do these Heads swell upon our hearts though we do but name them These are some of the things which we should present to the serious consideration of you who are Governours Families and the Lord make them useful to you In particular it is of great use to prevent much wickedness to look to the keys and doors of your houses and to have them in your own custody not in your servants that so an occasion of sinning may be cut off from those that seek such occasions as most fit for their pernicious designs Keep up Discipline or rather restore it again How is it fallen in these times how is it almost lost amongst us in the City The reins which your predecessors held with a very strict hand are very loose in yours many of your servants will do what they list and you let them alone we do very much lament the low ebb of Discipline and Government and judg that to be one Cause of the many disorders which are among us we heartily wish it may be restored in Church in State in Families if this be wanting all things run up to strange confusion A Word to the Youth and Apprentices of this City and we have done Oh that you would hear us now least you mourne at the last and say How have we hated instruction and our hearts despised reproof And have