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
Heavenly Father and thine by redemption O most gracious Redeemer Lord Jesus Christ receive my soul at its departure out of my body and strengthen me O God the Holy Ghost the comforter that I may encounter with death cheerfully and tast of that bitter cup gladly of which my Saviour hath drunk deep before and for me and suckt the poyson out of it so that I believe it shall onely prove a wholsom potion to release me from the power of sin to redeem me from misery and to restore my soul to an everlasting life in Glory Which God of his infinite mercy vouchsafe unto me for the merits of my Lord Jesus This prayer is the very sense of my soul and the desire of my mournfull heart FREEMAN SONDS A Miscellanie of divers remarkable passages and practises of Mr. Freeman Sonds and others during his imprisonment Written by a Godly and learned Divine Mr. Theophilus Higgons Rector of Hunton nere Maidston and delivered to me Aug. 23. who have as he desired in his letter inserted some particulars to his observations Sect. 1. IT is generally reported in Maidstone concerning Sir George Sonds the Father of Master Freeman that no Religious duties have been performed in his Family Master Freeman Sonds told me that by this report his Father was greatly wronged for it was a constant course said he in our Family that after Supper my Brother read a Chapter in the Bible one night and I another by my Fathers appointment afterwards he said prayers himselfe all the servants being present This also is constantly affirmed since by Master Charnock Sir George his Setward who hath dwelt with him twenty years and saith farther that besides the former publick duty his Master prayed by himselfe privately Prayers also as he saith were often said before dinner So then we must not impute that bloody act of the young Gentleman so much to a want of Education in Religion as to a want of grace for the present which God did withdraw from him for a time when he was under a strong temptation and without which grace supporting and preventing us the Best may fall into the Worst of sinnes so that the most fortified Christian being weak if we respect his naturall condition may rightly and to Gods glory say with Saint Austin C. 6. Soliloq Tentator defuit et ut deesset tu fecisti locus et tempus defuâ—t et ut deessent tu fecisti Affuit tentator non defuit locus non defuit tempus sed ut non consentirem tu me tenuisti Lord the Tempter time and opportunitie of place was wanting and all these were so by thy grace and blessing The Tempter came and assaulted my infirmity I wanted not opportunity of time and place yet that I should not consent to him Thy goodness prevented me Blessed be the Lord for his grace and mercy Let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall A proud presumption and want of pitty to others is the first step to ruine and miserie in our selves Item Whereas some in Maidstone reported that Sir George Sonds in his Letters to his Son Freeman being in durance at Maidstone did not reprove as he ought his sonnes great offence but daub'd it over c. This report is malitious and false for in his first Letter about August 13. and in his second August 20. the day before his Sons execution he wrote very sharply and fully to him about the greatnesse of his sin and stirr'd him to a very deep repentance with serious and hearty prayers to God in his behalf This appears by his words cited in the Epistle of this book S. 2. MAster Freeman Sonds hath been loaded here with many grievous calumniations It was reported that he being at first committed to the common Gaole August 8. Wine was sent for him and divers Gentlemen with him drank freely he shewing no signe of repentance or remorse for his great offence I charged him with it his answer was and it was true confirmed by some of the said Gentlemen that they had not one drop of Wine nor any Beer and that for his part he who was of the temper of those Rechabites Jer. 35.6 drank no Wine nor strong Beer at any time This is most true of him as the other report's most false comming from the father of lies who is too busie in the hearts and tongues of the men of this Age who reported likewise most falsely that the Devill appeared to Master Freeman Sonds in a visible shape and that he had a conference with him This was strongly denyed by the young Gentleman two howers before he dyed who said he was only overcome by a strong suggestion from that old Serpent the enemy of mankind Let those that report such things maliciously beware lest for their uncharitablenesse God give them up also to Satan who may tempt them to commit the like or a worse sin Item It was reported here that for the space of three or foure years he had never taken a Bible into his hands and had no sign of Religion I asked him of it his answer was as before Sect. 1. that every second night he read a Chapter in the Bible and surely he had it then in his hands besides many other times but to have it in the hands is nothing unlesse a man have it with delight and love in his heart And as he ever prayed with his Father at night so Master Charnock aforesaid assured me that when they went to bed in two severall Chambers his Brother and he did upon their knees at their bed-side pray unto God in private and this was their constant course by imitation or injunction from their Father And it is farther testified by George Guthbert of little Chart who had the custody of him at the house of Master Foster Keeper of the Prison and truckled under him every night from August 8. to August 21. when he dyed that Master Freeman Sonds did duly every morning as soon as he arose and every night before he went to bed fall down upon his knees at his beds-side and prayed by himselfe Also I testifie that I saw a very good Prayer-book which he brought in his pocket to Maidstone the Title of it is Crums of Comfort a book full of good instructions and divine meditations Printed the thirty sixth time and many can witnesse upon their knowledge that being in the Keepers house he did read the Scripture and the Practise of Piety every day especially that content of the joyes of Heaven S. 3. AND as touching his disposition I found that true which was commonly reported by his friends that as he was no Drinker so no sweater no curser no lyar nor prophane in his conversation He resolved to fast on every Tuesday so long as he lived because on that day his Brother was murthered and could hardly be induc'd to eate that Tuesday night which was before the Wednesday morning on which day he should have suffered if
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
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