as appeared by his indefatigable actings for Master Sonds in his extremity I Freeman Sonds do hereby make my voluntary confession That I am most truly sensible of the horrid and detestable murther which I have committed against my late dear brother Master George Sonds in that most bloody and inhumane manner as I did act the same For which most detestable sin and murther I do from the bottome of my heart and soul beg of the Lord Jesus to pardon and forgive this my murther I confesse my sins O Lord and this my murther is ever before thy face O sprinkle my soul with some pretious drops of thy blood and wash away this my murther I confesse nothing but the instigation of the Devill did cause me to attempt this sin which if it were possible to be undone I should not dare to have such a thought again for a thousand worlds First because by this same cruell murther I have dishonoured my Heavenly Father whose Image I have killed and murthered in my Brother Secondly I have hereby destroyed so much as in me lyeth human societie And lastly I have broken the Lawes both of God and man For all which sins my heart is truly and penitentially sorrowfull and do beg at the Lords hand in and for his Son Jesus Christ his sake to make a greater manifestation of this my sorrow that I may weep day and night for this my sin and murther This is my confession and the very grief and sorrow of my heart desiring the Lord in mercy to pardon this my great offence for which from the bottome of my soul I am hereby truly and heartily sorrowfull and so Lord Jesus for thy infinite mercies sake look upon me in thine own most pretious blood and receive my soul into thy heavenly Kingdome when I shall depart this life and in the mean time continue in me a true and hearty sorrow for this my great sin and wickednesse against thee my Heavenly Father Freeman Sonds MAster Freeman Sonds August 13. 1655. did read the writing before set down in the presence of us confessing it to be for the main part pronounced by his own mouth and from his very heart sincerely though written by Master Edmond Crispe and subscribed the attestation in the end with his own hand and from his own minde desiring it may be taken as the overt act act of his penitent soul Theophilus Higgons Rector of Hunton in Kent and Ro. Yate Rector of Belsmire A prayer which I compos'd for his private devotions subscribed and daily used by him oft-times on his knees in which posture I often found him LOrd receive my soul when it shall take its flight out of my sinfull body and receive I beseech thee the humble prayer that goes forth out of the lips of a penitent sinner O Lord God merciful and Gracious my Creator and reconciled Father in the Lord Jesus when I call to mind the numberlesse abominations the vanities the frailties of my disordered youth shame and confusion with horrour and dread covers the face and perplexes the soul of thy poor servant and I cannot but look upon all those transgressions through the glasse of thy justice as clad with damnation and clothed with Hell and when I reflect upon that great host consisting of many thousand thousand sinnes headed with a Goliah-sin a sin of great magnitude a sin against nature the murthering of my Brother my soul is overwhelmed with grief and driven even upon the Rock of despair But when with the other eye of faith and hope I look upon thy mercy which is over all thy works upholding and sustaining them and above our sinfull works which thou usest to pardon upon an humble and hearty confession of them that mercy being infinite easily covers that which is finite when too I consider that great act of thy goodnesse in forgiving a Manasseh who had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood worshipt Devils and defied thee his God To this expresse of thy incomprehensible mercy when I adjoin the murther and adultery of thy Kingly Prophet David the perjurie of Peter the blasphemies and massacres vented and acted by Paul then Saul against thee and thy Church yet all received to mercy and crowned with forgivenesse I grounding my tottering soul upon these considerations and relying upon thy gracious invitation of sinners together with thy mercifull promises of admitting them into thy favour upon their unfeigned repentance presume to begge mercy of thee my God in the name of the Lord Jesus who came into the world to seek that which was lost and to save poor sinners of whom I confesse and acknowledge my self to be the chiefest Sweet Jesus make a bath of thy precious blood and bath my black polluted soul in it Wash me throughly from mine wickednesse and cleanse me from the guilt of disobedience to my Father and destroying my innocent Brother Oh let my prayers find the same successe as Manasseh his supplications did with thee they at once loosed him from his sins freed him from his chains and of a Captive made him a King and from the Dungeon of Babylon restored him to the Palace of Jerusalem Lord thou art the same for ever and ever thy essence is unchangeable thy power irresistible thy love inexpressible if thou wilt thou canst make me cleane Oh be pleased to adde a will to thy Almighty power and say unto my troubled soul by the still voice of thy blessed spirit Thy sins are remitted though I am now a loathsome and monstrous spectacle of wickednesse yet I shall be as white as snow being clothed with the long white robe my Saviour's imputed righteousnesse Lord first cleanse and then cloath my soul with this pure and precious garment of my Elder Brother in Heaven my Lord Jesus Let his blood shed for me on the Crosse which hath a purifying protecting and saving vertue in it let that expiate my bloody aime in shedding my elder Brothers on his bed It was done in his sleep I hope not to him in his sins however Lord forgive the guilt of this sinful circumstance attended with base cruelty and unmanly cowardise Lord when I am dead let me live in my example both of thy justice and mercy of thy justice in punishing me so deservedly for my rebellion against thee and of thy mercy in giving mee grace to repent by softning my obdurate heart and vouchsafing pardon upon my repentance for all my transgressions let my fall into this pit drive those that stand from presuming and let my rising again to thy favour keep others that shall sin against thee from despairing of mercy Oh let not the voice of my Brothers blood cry for vengeance against this Nation let the mouth of it be stopped with my breath and let the voice of my Saviours blood so outcrie that which I spilt that his intercession in Heaven and the prayers of thy servants on Earth may be heard for me who am thine by Creation Oh save me
and Parents to their children Too much severity and too much remissenesse from them hath destroyed many Some hearts like clay are hardened by the Sun-shine of favours and gentlenesse To say with that old Eli Why do ye so to say this and no more with a gentle voyce when the sin deserves the thunder of a bold and Majestick reprehension or more such an easie reproof doth encourage wickednesse and makes it measure it selfe by that sleight censure and thinks it selfe light because it finds no greater weight from its reprover As it is with ill humors that a weak Dose doth but stirre and anger them and not bring them off so it fareth with sins acted by inferiors some whereof being of a greater magnitude and deeper stain get growth and encrease by remissenesse To trouble you no more with a farther glosse upon your confession I shall only adde this as a caution to all parents They that are indulgent are cruell to themselves and their posteritie Had you been more severe you might have had two Sons living to be the prop of your family and lesse sorrow which is augmented by your reflecting on your indulgency and loving care of them which by them was as it seemes abused and not improved to that height of pietie as was by you their Father intended I hope this complicate sin in you and them hath met with a gratious pardon from the God of mercy your Father which is in heaven who will in his good time drie up the stream of your sorrow which now runs full so that I conceive it vaine to oppose counsell or to go about to stop that torrent which will runne over the banks of nature and never cease till it be bounded with grace and comfort from the God of patience I confesse such losses the losse of Children when they come single afflict us but when double astonish and overwhelm our Spirits even to impatience A Wife is a mans self divided Children himself multiplied and at one blow to loose all is enough to batter the greatest courage and it is a mercy if that man bee not with immoderate grief distracted But good sir remember that saying of that brave Spartane Lady who hearing of the death of her two Sons in one day onely replyed thus with an undaunted courage though in another language peperimortales What newes is it for those that carry death in their names and natures to die no more hath it befallen them then was expected But so was not your Sons death it was sodain and unexpected and as providence or foresight abates grief and discountenances a crosse so now that you could not foresee this bloody storm by so much must your grief be augmented I professe I mourn with you in secret and at this hour tears are ready to mingle with mine Ink and could I mitigate your sorrow by bearing a part with you I wish my burden might be your ease but let me tell you that now is the tryal of your spirit and Christianity you are now in the lists set upon by a Lion and a Bear two of Gods fierce afflictions one Sonne murthered another executed notwithstanding this shew your fortitude and patience and hereby approve to us in this great difficultie and heavy strait that you have all this while been a Christian in earnest Resigne up your self and all that you have to God to be disposed by him the doner according to his good will and pleasure say with those humble ones to Saint Paul the will of the Lord be done Acts 21.14 And be ready to suffer patiently more for him who hath done and suffered so much for your salvation Our Lord Christ for the glory that was set before him endured the Crosse and despised the shame Heb. 12.2 This text your Son had in his mouth a little before his death and what I then said to him I repeat to you so long as glory may redound to God by his shameful death upon a Gibbet do you take comfort and glory in it Resolve hence-forward to act what the noble Matron in St. Hierom once said and did when she had at one time the corps of her dead husband and the bodies of her two onely Sons slain in the field exposed to her view onely replyed thus with weeping eies by this I shall learne to take off my heart from the world and serve my God with more attention and greater devotion being more frequent n praier and reading of his holy word Thus did she and thus if you do putting into practice that counsell which Daniel gave to the King of Babylon Dan. 4.24 Then will God when he sees it fit and the times being in his hands his seasons are best Then will God turn the darknesse of your sorrow into brightnesse of joy your sadnesse into comfort he will do by you as he did by Job He will blesse your latter end more then your beginning and in the end of your daies you shall close up your eies with full assurance of enjoying the soul-ravishing presence and beholding the saving countenance of Christ in Heaven Where when you shal see your Son with greater sinners then he that repented crown'd with immortality and advanced to glory you shall have a just cause to say and sing with them in the Revelation Chap. 15.3 Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy waies thou King of Saints Chap. 7.12 Blessing and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen To this God Almighty the God of Consolation who is able to comfort and to keep you from falling and present you faultlesse before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy I commend your sad soul and rest Your loving though unknown friend to serve you in the Lord Jesus R. BOREMAN From my Brothers house in Teston 24. Aug. 1655. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF FREEMAN SONDS Esq c. Christians WHen you hear or read his name you wil look for a Monster in Nature or as the Pharisee once said one not like other men Luk 10.11 So horrid so unheard of so unnaturall was the fact that I confesse when I first made my addresses to him at Mr. Fosters house in Maidstone I plainly told him that I expected to see the head of a Monster a Bear or a Tigre see upon the shoulders of a man So amazed even to misbeliefe was I at the first report of the murther For who would think that Brethren and they but two nurs'd up in the lap of Religion and bosomes of the Church should not love each other dispersed love that is cut into many streams grow's weak but fewnesse of Objects useth to unite affections And if two Brothers be left alive of many wee think that the love of all the rest should center and survive in them and that the beams of their affection should be so much the better because they reflect mutually in a
Tractat in the Practice of Piety concerning the Lords Supper Secondly I examin'd him my self in respect of his Faith Knowledge Repentance and Charity the requisites of a worthy communicant then thirdly grounding my act upon a charitable perswasion of his true and and hearty sorrow for his bloody sin I did upon these grounds minister the Saerament unto him Mr. Y. who only did coÌ„municate In so doing I hope I have offended none but those who will not give the Sacrament to any but to them who are of their faction and they but a few as I am informed to submit to which faction subscribe to their decrees is counted the first and main degree of conversion so that they of that Town that will not submit and they are the greater number by far they and their children must be debarred from both Sacraments Baptism and the Holy Communion which none of them can receive living or dying neither in publick nor private and without it many have deceas'd by whom it hath been earnestly desired Oh sad and fearfull condition As I would not have the Childrens bread given to dogs so not denied to the Children themselves I mean those Christians who live soberly and honestly with repute in their severall callings whose compasse by which they steere their lives is Faith not Faction whose profession too is not to side with parties but to serve the Lord Jesus If Mr. Sonds had staid the leisures of our Lording Censurers and received not till they had given him a Probat He had died I verily believe without the Seal of his everlasting comfort and that because it may be he was of a different judgement from them for which cause my selfe with others are censur'd so severely and unchristianly by them who make us either ignorant men that know not our duty or unconscionable men that will not perform it But God forgive them Qui volens detrahit famae meae invitus addit gloriae meae So said Saint Austine once to his reviler so Mr. Higgons Mr. Yate and my self who glory in the shaming unjust reproaches of our Adversaries To do well and hear ill was not onely the portion and lot of our blessed Saviour and Master Jesus but it is also ours who are his unworthy Ministers Malice will ever find a tongue to blast the persons and blot the actions of well-meaning and deserving Christians I shall onely exhort them in the words of St. Peter 1 Ep. c. 2. v. 1. Mistaken seduced and seducing Christians laying aside all maliciousnesse and all guile and dissimulation and envie and evill speaking as new born babes be innocent and not injurious to those that are living the true Ministers of God not to the memory of the deâ—eased Mr. Sonds who being dead yet speaketh and in the fifth place exhorteth all those that lie under any Diabolicall temptation a temptation which is against nature as for a man to murther himself or another he exhorts those and all such who are troubled in mind or afflicted in Conscience to open their minds to a godly friend or companion to a Minister especially that is knowing and prudent which if Mr. Sonds had done he had not committed so foul a sin He likewise advises all such to be earnest with God and frequent in prayer when they are so tempted It is a good saying of an antient Father Gravis sit nobis illius Tentatio sed gravior illi nostra Oratio His Temptation i. e. the Devills may molest and trouble us but let us be assur'd that our faithful prayers to God who is above the Devil do much more molest and disquiet him In hoc uritur incendio he is scorched and tormented with the flame and fire of our devotion He is compared to a roaring Lion by St. Peter 1 Eph. 4.8 now as a Lion is as the naturalists observe frighted at the crowing of a Cock and runs away at the first hearing of it so the Devill will not stand but cease from tempting so soon as a man betakes himself to the Souls Sanctuary which is hearty praying I demanded of Mr. Sonds once whether he said his prayers during the time that the Devill did assault him with that fearful suggestion his answer was that he was at prayers the night before he did the fact with his Father and his Family whereof his brother was one and so went to bed and died with prayer and his Fathers blessing but confessed that he prayed faintly he meant formally he onely heard another pray but his heart did not join with him It is an hearty fervent faithfull prayer which prevailes with God This mentioning of the Devill puts me in mind of a false unchristian report in a lying Pamphlet which was that the Devil appear'd and talked with him about two hours before his death I shew'd him the Pamphlet and demanded of him an account of that flying report he mildly as his manner was to answer replied that there was no such apparition that he was only assaulted with a strong suggestion which he believed as is true was from the Devill arising from discontent and melancholy which he advised all men to avoid and shun as they desire inward peace and comfort lest they fall into some fearfull sin as he did Who sixtly and lastly as his last legacy and we know that the last words of David were as the words of dying men are especially noted 2 Sam. 23.1 He desired me a little before he was to die to publish these very words by way of advise to the world First I desire all Gentlemen to learn by my example to read the word of God frequently and not omit their prayers to him daily He read the Bible with his brother by course most nights as I am inform'd and join'd with his Father in praier but he did this then as it seems onely in appearance with an outward compliance but not with hearty and sincere affections as he did afterwards in his restraints Then is our reading of the word and praiers sincere when they end in practice Secondly I advise all Parents not to suffer their Sons to live in idlenesse which exposes a man to temptation but to imploy them in some honest publique calling These be the dying words of Master Freeman Sonds and I believe he might say at last as David did v. 2. of the forenamed Chapter The spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue The Lord of Heaven grant that what hath here been published may tend to the honour and glory of his name by the conversion of sinfull soules the confirming of those that stand and the raising of those that are fallen Amen Amen An appeal to the godly Orthodox Clergy of the Church JT was a most true saying of the Roman Orator though in better language that there was never any act not so vicious but in some age had a commender and none so laudable virtuous but that it found many times a
it will not connive at that sinne in you which it hath severely punished in another If you turn not speedily to the God that made you throwing off your plume of pride walk humbly with him Mic. 6.8 in a constant profession of pietie and temperance unlesse you speedily do this he will strip you of your glory and by some fearfull judgment bring you down and throw you into the pit of shame and miserie Ex aliorum vulneribus medicamentum faciamus malis nostris Aug. 2. To all stubborn Children he speaks thus Consider what a train of heavie Judgments followed upon my disobedience to my Father who commanded mâ— to give that which I desired to keep unto my Brother which command I disobeyed and thereby incens'd my indulgent Father Consider this with your selves and by my example learn obedience to your Parents in small and great things Consider what Saint Paul writes to the Ephesians Chap. 6.1 and to the Colossians Chap. 3.20 Children obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right this obedience is most just and meet Again to the Colossians Children obey your Parents in all things that are lawfull good and indifferent for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Parents should not provoke their children Ephes 6.4 in so doing they sin and may be the cause of sin in them for which they must answer severely before God and yet if Parents should exceed in severity and chasten them according to their will and pleasure which may be immoderate and irregular Children should give them reverence Heb. 12.9 10. ever remembring that ingenious saying of Cicero Non modo reticere homines parentum injurias sed etiam aequo animo ferre oportet Our dutie is not only to conceal the injuries of our parents but also to bear and sustain them with a meek submissive patience Stubborn and disobedient children were to be stoned under the old Law then w re they given up into the hands of men But now under the Gospell God takes the matter chiefly into his own hands and it is a fearfull thing to fall into them he ever did and will punish disobedience to Parents by fearfull and shameful Judgements and to shew the horriblenesse of this sin the same death viz. of Stoning was appointed for Idolaters and Blasphemers 3ly To all Indulgent Parents he speaks thus powre not oyle the soile of flattery and soft speeches into your Childrens wounds when they need Corrasives or Vinegar of sharp reproofs Chasten your Children betimes Prov. 13.24 and thereby shew your true love to their soules in the dawning of their tender years in the morning of their age sow the seed of Religion and the fear of God in their hearts then will their Masters at school and Tutors have lesse to do in the Universities and have more comfort ease and credit in their Education when they shall not meet as usually they doe with a double task and labour which is first to pull up the bitter roots of Vices and to weed their souls of corrupt habits as lying swearing c before they plant them with the Arts and Sciences and other Academicall accomplishments which plants will not grow well amongst Thorns and Briars Oh then let your Children bear the yoke in their youth Lamentations 3 27. Break the sinews of their proud necks before they get strength in wickednesse and force them to obedience of your holy and just commands He that smiles on his Child when he should frown and flatters him in his sin may justly be served by him as King David was by Adonijah his son whom he would not displease from his child-hood to say why dost thou so 1 King 1.6 Oh the fondnesse of cockering love He was punished for his doaring with rebellion against his Person Adonijah saies the Text exalted himselfe and said I will be King 1 King 1.5 So commonly indulgent Parents are domineer'd over by their Children who at last for their just reward meet with a Rope or some other Judgment 4ly To those who by reason of their bosome sins and open impieties are fallen into misery and lie mourning in a Prison to such he reads by his example a lecture of consolation saying as it were in these words We may not alwaies measure the displeasure of God by his stripes many times after the remission of sin the chastisements of the Almightie are deadly no repentance can assure us we shall not smart by outward afflictions Thou forgavâ—st their sin O Lord and punishedst their inventions So David his Psalms speaking of the rebellious Israelites Our hearty sorrow for sin may prevent the eternall displeasure of God but still it may be necessary and good both in respect of our selves and others that we should be corrected our care and suit must be that the evills which shall not be averted may be sanctified which is when we look upon our sinnes in the glass of God's goodnesse and Christs sufferings and accordingly lament and mourn for them by an humble confession of them and resolving by God's grace to turn the stream of our lives backward to become new men in sobriety and strictnesse of an holy conversation Thus did Mr. Fr. Sonds bewail his sins before his death and to this he was exhorted earnestly and frequently with great aggravations of them by my self and other Divines forenamed who for all our Christian paines and holy endeavours meet with reproaches and obloquies as our Saviour did in his time from the envious malicious Pharisees of our age who are it seems angry that we did that by Gods blessing which they perhaps would have done themselves and by themselves without our assistance and so get which was their aim a little glory by popular applause to their proud persons Then whom to speak the truth which I do with much meeknesse I know no greater nor worse Dawbers as they call us They endeavoured once to set up their Idol their Dagon and to fence it with a wall of Discipline in the Church which they cemented with the blood the lives and fortunes of many thousand deserving persons eminent for their learning and godlinesse but God be prais'd the stones fetch'd out of the Quarries of Scotland and Geneva are fallen upon their own heads the wall is beaten down The snare is broken and we are delivered from their intended cruelty and persecution for conscience They are offended poor mistaken souls with me for giving Mr. Sonds the Holy Communion the night before he was to die Hereby they seem to accuse me of sottish stupidity and rashnesse as if I had thereby abus'd the Holy Ordinance Let them them read what hath been premis'd Sect. 5. of the Miscellanies concerning this particular and let them consider with what circumspection and caution I gave it as first being assured by Mr. Yate a grave and knowing Divine whom Sir George Sonds sent to his Son that the young Gentleman was prepared being instructed by him and read for many daies the