his Family conveyed to the Keepers house and the next day being Thursday the 9th of this Month brought to the Bar after his pre-examination before Sr. Michael Livesly Sr. Tho. Stiles with other Justices where the Indictment was read that charged him upon the two Statutes of Stabbing Murther and being asked what he could plead for himself against the charge of kiling his brother he cryed Guilty and shewed a great willingness to suffer death for that barbarous fact as appear'd by his mild composed behaviour then at the barre which strook the Judges and Justices with the other Gentlemen of the County then present with an astonishing amazement Having thus pleaded guilty he was carried to the Dungeon in the Gaole where condemned persons are alwaies put whither divers persons resorted unto him and finding him in that loathsome place there being nothing but a Jakes to sit upon asked him if he were not sick and how he could endure it He replyed That it was more pleasant to him then his Fathers Dining-room which is as I hear a place of great Magnificence nor drank one drop till tenne at night so soberly patient was he then and all the time of his imprisonment till death From the Dungeon he was carried that night to Master Fosters house again and the next morning being Friday August 10. condemned to die after which sentence the Judge having advertised him to consider the foulnesse of his fact demanded of him the motives he had to commit it and pressed him thereunto for the clearing of his Conscience and satisfaction of the Country Whereupon he answered That he had done it in his examination before the Justices The Judge reflecting then upon him put this question to him Whether he had nothing else to say to testifie his remorse for his horrid murther He then being slow of speech and of a reserved nature made no answer but delivered the Petition to the under Sheriffe Master Maurice Eede to present it to the Judge who at the Petitioners request caused the same to be read in Court which was accordingly effected A Copy of the Petition To the right Honorable the Judge and the rest of the Honorable Justices of the peace for the Assize and Goal-delivery holden at Maidstone The humble Petition of Freeman Sonds Humbly sheweth THat your condemn'd Petitioner finding the guilt of the blood of his Brother crying for judgement and that according to the Law and justice a decree is passed against him for death Therefore in respect of the shortnesse of the time since your Petitioner committed this horrid murther and finding the guilt and sin to be so great before God and man he humbly in due obedience to your Honours beseecheth you in the bowells of mercy and tender commiseration of him in Jesus Christ that your Honours would be pleased to adde a few daies longer to his life that in a deeper and more sensible apprehension of his fact he may more penitently in remorse and sorrow of conscience make his peace with God and reconcile himself to his deservedly and highly offended Father that so not onely he may die in a more setled peace of conscience but also testifie unto the world the sincerity of his Petition And he shall pray c. Freeman Sonds To this Petition the Honorable Judge Crook condescended so far as to defer his death till Wednesday the 15. of August this was assign'd onely by word of mouth and not by speciall warrant which together with many weighty reasons referring to the poor soul of the condemn'd and to clear some scandalous reports thrown upon his Father and him by a wicked foul-mouth'd servant these with the two forenamed letters from Sir George Sonds to the High-Sheriffe in the behalf of his Sonne were the cause that the young Gentleman was not on that day executed He had a weeks reprieve from Wednesday till Tuesday the next week and was executed on that day fortnight on which his Brother by him was murthered In all which time how he demeand himself in sighs and tears and groanes in his bed in mournfull confessions and prayers to God and in frequent reading of his holy word especially such Psalmes Chapters as were commended by several Divines to his Devotions this was evident and well known to us who in our private prayers and exhortations endeavoured the conviction and conversion of his soul to God who is the Father of mercies and forgivenesse and never rejected penitent and humble sinners which made Saint Austine thus bespeak him in his devout Meditations Et si ego commisi unde me damnare potes at tu non amisisti unde salvare soles Although Lord I have commit that for which thou mightest justly damn me yet there is mercy with thee which thou still retainest for which I hope thou wilt save me And again Si ad veniam nos vocasti veniam non quaerentes quanto magis veniam impetrabimus postulantes Seeing thou hast inviited us to accept of a mercifull pardon when we did not seek it how much more shall we find mercy when wee earnestly sue for it Thus he in his meditations C. 39. It is not in the power of man to outsinne mercy I except that peccatum ad mortem 1 Joh. 5.16 that sin unto death that sin which he that is born of God sinneth not v. 18. I mean that damning sin against the Holy Ghost which is as Zanchy determines it an open and malicious rejecting of the truth or opposition of God's word against the light of knowledge and that opposition joyn'd with an hostil persecution of those that are the defenders of it Saint Paul then Saul when he was a persecutor and Blasphemer 1 Tim. 15. came near this sin as Calvin proves acutely on the 1 Ioh. 5. but doing what he did ignorantly through unbeliefe hee was exempted from the staining guilt of it Now so long as this Gentleman could not bee charged with this sin which carries death and damnation in the nature of it and for as much too as all godly Ministers in Kent and other parts thought him fit to be put into their publick prayers no man can be so wanting to Christian charity as not to entertain a beliefe or hope of his Salvation especially when they may charitably conclude from his ensuing humble confession as also from his daily practises in Prison of which you shall have an account from his praiers and holy purposes of redeeming the time he vainly spent if God spared his life of which he had no hope and lastly from his godly precepts which I took from his mouth and set down in writing before his death from all these may be inferred that God who gave him grace to repent hath crown'd his Repentance with reception into mercy and forgivenesse His confession taken from his mouth on munday the 13 th of August by Mr. Edmond Crisp a Gentleman who is a picture of a true friend another Achates a pattern of fidelity
he had not been reprieved So constant was he in his holy purposes and steadie in his resolutions And I am perswaded that if he had lived he would have made good by his practise what he asserted to me that night saying If I were to live as I have no hopes of it I would wait on my Father upon my knees all the daies of my life He was very willing to hear the Ministers who opened unto him the Scriptures and shewed him the greatnesse of his bloody fact he heard them patiently and meekly and comfortably joyned with them in frequent prayer Though he heard of divers calumnies shot out of the Devills bow against him by some malitious Archers yet he never was stirred at it nor spake any bitter words against them but was unto his death very gentle and humble like a child Sect. 4. BY the first command of the Judge he should have dyed August 15. wherefore I and Master Yate a good and faithfull Minister who usually attended him by Sir George his direction did very seriously imploy our selves some daies before to prepare him for death by instruction and prayer we shewed him the benefit and comfort of Absolution for which purpose I directed him to read the 40th content in the Practice of Pietie with serious consideration with the grounds and reasons of it Whereupon he was very glad and desired greatly to receive it and after a comfortable acknowledgement of his great offence he meekly kneeled down when I and Master Yate laid our hands upon his head and I pronounced the Absolution unto him which he joyfully received we assuring him according to Christs promise Mat. 17.19 c. 18.18 John 18.23 that it being duly performed by us and received by him on earth it was ratified in heaven No doubt but in this distracted time some men will blame our act herein but blessed be God we can justifie it by our pennes and tongues against them all Sect. 5. BUt now followeth a matter of higher concernment in reference to Master Freeman Sonds for now unto me and Master Yate was added Master Boreman a Batchelor of Divinity and Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge who comming to Maidston on Munday the 13th of August and hearing the distressed condition of Master Freeman came uâ—to him and joyning with us did perform many charitable offiâ—es for the good of the poor Gentleman Thus then it was Master Boâ—eman being absent when we Absolved Master Freeman I stayed till he returned from Teston it was in the evening August 14. at which time I took my leave of the Gentleman with grief and joy for him expecting his death certainly the nexâ— day very early in the morning but it was put off till August 21. for weighty reasons premised Upon my departure Master Freeman very humbly desired Master Yate to administer the holy Communion unto him which being proposed to Master Boreman was agreed to about nine that night after he had upon examination found the Gentleman prepared for it being truly sorrowfull for his foul sin and resolving if God spared his life which he did not hope for to lead a new one in a most strict conversation c. Upon these grounds and after a short exhortation to the Gentleman concerning the benefits and ends of the blessed Sacrament Master Boreman at the request of Master Yate did administer it unto him to his great comfort for after the receiving of it being assured by Gods grace of the pardon of his sins through the blood of Christ sealed up in that holy Sacrament He said to Master Boreman That he should die the next morning as cheerfully as ever he went to bed and it seemes his soul was in calme and sweet temper for when Master Yate came unto him the next morning to wait on him to his execution which was respited late that night Master Yate nor he knowing of it he found him first asleep which shewed that he was not afraid of death which he look'd on as a Droan its sting being taken out The sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15.55 which he believ'd to him was pardon'd why then might he not have the Seal of his pardon why should any man be so wanting to charity as to say that to minister to him the Holy Communion was to put a Seal to a blank Can we imagine that his own prayers and tears with the earnest supplications of many thousands sent up to Heaven on his behalfe did find no acceptance with the God of mercies who never rejected penitent sinners And if his sins were remitted why should not the Holy Sacrament which is a Sacrament of Consolation and Confirmation be ministred unto him for his strength and comfort Is the word of God against it where by plain expression or good consequence we profess our ignorance wee know no text that forbids it Wee highly reverence the judgement of our mother the Church of England which appoints in its most excellent Liturgie the Communion for the sick which is all one for substance with Mr. Freemans Case onely a sick man might live and he was assured to die But we reverence yet more the decree of that great and sacred first Councell of Nice Anno Christi 325. which saith thus C. 13. Concerning those that are near to death now also the antient and regular Law shall be observed that if any man be upon the point of death he may not be deprived of his last and necessary Viaticum provision for his death and long passage to eternity to wit the Holy Communion This was spoken especially for such as were under Ecclesiasticall Censure but it followeth afterward generally that the Communion shall be given to any man that is near death and desireth it So saith the famous Councell so the Church of England this the practice of the Universall Church of Christ in all ages it was no new Law in that Councell but lex antiqua an antient Law and practice in the primitive times If this may not satisfie the fierce opposers of it and that practice yet perhaps Master John Calvin may be accepted of them Hear then his judgement in his Epistles Col. 453. Printed at Geneva 2. Fol. 1616. Many and great causes inforce me not to deny the Lord's supper to sick persons and Col. 454. I collect well as I conceive from the nature end and use of the holy mystery that men being in danger of death should not be deprived of so great a good And pag. 455. he justifieth such a communion as not unlawfull though in a private house and pag. 55. he saith I think that the custome to give the communion to sick persons is willingly to be admitted Then he addeth Neither is it greatly to be repugned or denied but that the Communion should be given to such as are put to death for their offences which was Mr. Freeman Sonds his case Concerning which ConciliuÌ„ Moguntium the Councel of Mentz held An. 847. saith thus C. 27. If the
A MIRROVR OF Mercy and Iudgement OR An Exact true Narrative of the Life and Death of Freeman Sonds Esquier Sonne to Sir George Sonds of Lees Court in Shelwich in Kent Who being about the age of 19. for Murthering his Elder Brother on Tuesday the 7th of August was arraigned and condemned at Maidstone Executed there on Tuesday the 21. of the same Moneth 1655. Deus vindictae gladium Misericordiae oleo perungit James chap. 2. verse 13. For he shall have Judgement without mercy that hath shewed no mercy and Mercy rejoyceth over Judgement LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring and are to be sold at his shop at the Signe of the George in Fleetstreet neere Cliffords-Inne 1655. TO THE DISCONSOLATE Sr. GEORGE SONDS c. Sad Sir BEing a stranger to your person I shall bee secured I presume from prejudice and freed from the worlds censure whilst it cannot be imagined or said without an high guilt of malice that in compiling this work which I did too at others requests I aimed at any other interest or had any design but onely the glory of God in the manifestation of his mercy and justice I confesse Sir I had a little acquaintance with your mourning penne in a most Christian and Fatherlike letter to your sorrowing condemned Son Dated Aug. 20. wherein you acted the part of a tender Father and more of a Divine as appears by your large and pious exhortations advising him not to despair of mercy and forgivenesse For that mans sinne cannot be so great but God's mercy is greater and that Hell is only full of impenitent souls pressing him to beware of self-deceiving to deal plainly and clearly with his God by judging and condemning himself for his matchlesse sin and not to doubt but upon his humble and hearty sorrow for it he should find that made good to his soul which the Theef upon the Crosse heard from the sweet lips of our Lord Jesus This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Besides this to him I had the sight of two Letters more by you written to the honored Sir Humphrey Tufton Knight and Baronet Sheriffe c. one dated August 15. the other 16. Wherein you did most humbly beg and intreat it is your own phrase that he would be pleased to respite the execution for a short time upon this ground which was the chiefest cause of your earnest request that it might conduce much to the good of your Son 's poor soul And of this you were assured by a few lines from me the night before he should have suffered and so fallen into the bosome of Aeternity which that it might be of joy and everlasting happinesse was the subject of your prayers and pen which joyned issue with our Ministeriall actings and assistances of which he had by Gods blessing a plentifull measure You said well in your Letter to him that it was not all the prayers and tears and cries of all the godly Ministers about him nor the earnest beggings of your selfe his Father nor the Churches publick intercessions which could work his conversion and obtain a pardon for him unlesse his heart went along with ours and combined with our holy endeavours unlesse he begg'd it of God himselfe with earnest supplications you said truely that all would be in vain The hottest Sun cannot make a dead Tree live nor the strongest blowing kindle fire in a dead cole if there be no sap in the root the Sun doth but dry and not enliven the Tree and if no heat of fire lies under the Ashes all the blowings will never make it to burn These are your own words Then bespeaking your Son you adde this I hope thou hast some sparks of grace in Thee though deeply buried under a world of rubbish and I hope all those gody bellowes you mean the breath of the Ministers will blow that away and make thy fire of true repentance and godly sorrow burn clear and make thee able truly to say with the prodigall Father I have sinned against Heaven and against Thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son Then he will embrace thee in the armes of his mercy he will feast thee in his heavenly mansions and say unto thee Thou wert lost but now art found thou wast dead to sin but now thou art alive in Christ c. Oh happy sadnesse if it produce this joy Oh happy death if it procure thee this blessed life Happy change to leave a sinfull world and a sea of misery to go to an haven of blisse c. These are the breathings of your Soul and as you presaged and wished there we hope your converted Son is now beholding the glorious face of his Lord Jesus Now Sir Who but the malitious who look with a squint eye upon all good intents and actions will not say that you had in you towards your provoking son the same bowells that David had in him towards his Absalom Who can imagine that he can be guilty of discouraging severity to his child to whom he used too much cockering indulgence in his life and of whom he was so charitably carefull and forgiving before his death I confesse that the sweetest Wines turn to the sharpest vinegar and the best love abused into hatred and the worst displeasure An act of disobedience and contempt of command from one whom we have admitted into a deep affection is ever entertain'd with greater dislike repaid with frownes neglect and slighting Thus a command from you his Father in reference to his elder Brother being not obeyed forced you to a paternall severitie to threats c. which were not a sufficient ground to provoke him to that bloody act unlesse a melancholy passion h being deeply in love with a fair Gentlewrman together with a Diabolicall suggestion had Gods grace for a time deserting him possessed his heart and carried on his hand to attempt and act so horrid a sin Sir You do like a Christian in the close of your Letter to him in charging your selfe with a fault for which it may be God brought on you this heavy judgment It was old Elie's sin your too much softnesse and gentlenesse Do so no more my Son was Eli's 1 Sam. 2.14 the same your oft and soft expression as you attest to him You say You ought to have gone higher and I believe you did when you went to your heavenly Father by prayer for amending what was amisse in him but to go higher in passion might have made you fallen lower in his and your friends esteâ—m And it is a piece of your Sonnes glory that in all his sufferings restraints and high provocations from one of your unworthy servants he never discovered any passion or impatience but meekly with a composed countenance used to pray for him and the rest of his barbarous revilers and say God forgive them A moderate correction and reproofe carried on with moderation becomes the persons of Masters to their Servants Tutors to their Pupills
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
right line upon each other But the Devill that set enmity between Man and God sets enmity between Man and Man Thus by the malice of this foul Spirit in the beginning of the world the Elder Cain proved the Butcher of the yonger Abel but now when the world is drawing to its last period the younger kills the Elder and murther'd himself too in his Brother But what was the occasion of both murthers It was Envie The Father of murther as Basil of Seleucia calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Corrasive of all ill minds and the root of all desperate actions Abel's sacrifice is accepted and Cain's rejected was Abel to bee blamed for this It should have been Cain's joy to see his Brother Abel prosper and to behold his field flourish and grow fairer as it should have been his sorrow to see that himself had deserved a rejection from his Hevenly Father His Brother's example should have directed him to labour for acceptance and Grace with God his Creator was Cain ever the farther from obtaining a blessing because his brother found mercy and acceptation How proud and sottish even to folly and madnesse is envie and malice It makes a man hate that goodnesse in another which he neglects in himself and whosoever hates his Brother is a Murtherer 1 Joh. 3.15 Blood and cruelty are the Attendants of Envie it was ever bloody for if it feeds not on another's heart it will eat its own and unlesse it be restrained by the bridle of Grace it will not rest till it bee fed with another's ruine If there be an evill heart there will be an evill eye and if both these combine the hand at last will be guilty This Envie is a wasp of Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Gregory termes it it is a plant of the Devills setting in the heart of man and growes onely when it is watered with showers of blood I mean other mens losses and afflicting griefes It choaks the seed of all good Education for if this could have prevail'd over an envious disposition Cain had not been a murtherer neither had the yong Sonds kill'd his brother Doubtlesse Adam though in Paradise not innocent yet was a good man out of it his sinne and fall now made him religiously circumspect so that he laboured by all holy endeavours to repair that image in his two sons which he had lost by his trespasse in eating the forbidden fruit Notwithstanding this his care he could not prevent that murther Good breeding cannot alter Destiny A mans vast reading and knowledge on Earth cannot alter what is written in heaven May we not believe the charge of a Father to a dying Son are not these Sir George Sonds his very words to him in his last letter which he received the day before he suffered O Freeman rouse up thy selfe like a man stirre up the graces that I hope are in thee Thou hast been instructed in the waies of Godlinesse from a child thou hadst Masters and Tutors when thou wast abroad to keep thee in them He was for a short time educated in Sidney Colledge in Cambridge about six years since under one Master Mathews a religious godly and learned man and at home thou hast had thy Fathers counsell and example we must give leave to the Knight to speak himselfe a little in so weighty a businesse it is not selfe-flattery but a just vindication of the worlds censures He never faild to make you and your brother read the Scriptures and constantly himselfe prayed with you and call'd upon you to betake your selves to your private devotions and still had you to Church to hear the best men and the Godliest Sermons and would discourse unto you of what was preached Is all this lost Now give me leave to subjoyne and make answer to this Quere It will appear by his life and death that it was not lost though those sparks were even blown out with the blast of a strong temptation raised from an envious discontent thinking he had lost his Fathers love or that his brother had too much and he too little of it which was only vail'd with frownes for a time and mantled with threats following an act of his disobedience When he had given his sleeping Brother the first deadly blow on the right side of his head with the back of a Cleaver taken out of the Kitchen the Sunday night before he did the fact he after the first blow said he would have given all the world to recall it and made a stop of the rest to see how deep he had wounded him and finding it to be a mortall wound having broken the skull his brother strettching himselfe on his bed and struggling for life and he gahering from thence that he was in great torment discovered then even in that storm of temptation so much of a relenting spirit that to put him out of his pain at which he confessed to me he was sadly troubled he did reiterate his blowes with a Dagger which he had in his pocket When I had heard this story I demanded of him a little before he dyed what thoughts he entertain'd in his breast of himselfe when he had committed so foul a fact He replyed that he thought he was for this world utterly undone and often in our hearing he wished that that hand were cut off that did it When he had thus imbrued his hands in his Brothers blood he threw the Cleaver out of a window into the Garden and came with great confusion and disturbance in his face into his Fathers Bed-chamber adjoyning to his Brothers with the dagger in his pocket surely he had no farther intentions of murther God restraining the malitious power of Satan and undrawing the Curtains shook his Father by the shoulder who being thus awaken'd out of his sleep receiv'd from his mouth this heart-breaking message Father I have killed my brother He being astonished at it made this reply with much horror What sayest thou hast thou wretch killed thy brother then you were b st kill me too The son replied No Sir I have done enough I am sure it was too much The Father Sir George upon this said Why then you must look to be hanged And presently springing out of his bed took his Son along with him to behold his bleeding Brother and called in the Servants to seize on the other which was immediately done and after he had lien a while upon his mournfull bed an Officer comming in seized on his person and carried him the same day to an house adjoyning to his Fathers where he stayed that night under guard and from thence about noon the next day he was brought to Maidston the Assizes being there and delivered to the custody of Master Foster the Prison-keeper a civill honest man who carried him to the Gaole where though it were stench'd with the noysome sent of prisoners he behaved himselfe with great patience and meeknesse That night he was out of respect to
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
holy communion should be given accorcording to Canonicall injunction to all men upon the end of their lives making a sincere confession of their sinns and being truly penitent why not to them also who suffer death for their offences for which the Fathers of that Councell give their reasons which are too long and numerous to be inserted in this place If Calvin's judgement with this Councell's satisfie not hear yet the compleatly learned and most judicious Divine Hieron Zanchius who in his Epistles l. 1. p. 155. printed at Hanovia in Octavo 1609. saith expressly That the holy Commnuion may and ought to be given to sick persons for their spirituall comfort who also p. 421 422. setteth down the resolution of the Ministers of Geneva that where the Communion is given privately to sick persons the custome herein is not to be rashly abrogated upon certain conditions viz. of their true faith and contrition for their sinns So then to put a period to this weighty doubt the whole Christian Church asserts that the communion ought to be given if it be earnestly desired by them to all persons ready to die so our Church of England so Calvin so Zanchius so all sober Christians maintain and none oppose it but onely those who being of an hot temper and unruly dispositions the ofspring of Cham as St. Austine l. 1. de Civit. Dei well attests have overthrown the Church's wholsome constitutions in this particular and some others of great importance to their shame and our great disturbance To conclude this discourse concerning the care which was had of this poor Gentleman's Soul in his restranits It pleased God to move the pious heart of the right Honorable and truly Noble the Dutchess of Richmond to send from Cobham Hall her Domestick Chaplain Master Gunton a religious and learned Divine to visit him which he did on Friday the 10th and discoursed to him of Death of Repentance and the sufficiencie of Christ's blood or the efficacy of his meritorious death whereat Master Sonds as I have it under Mr. Gunton's hand was very attentive as he ever was to all good instructions and Mr. Gunton for his furtherance in devotion prescribed him the 25. 38. and 51. Psalmes which he frequently perused for I found him one day reading in the Bible in which he took delight and perceiving some leaves turn'd down I ask'd him by what means or by whose directiō he read those proper Psalms he told me that a Minister who came to visit him order'd him to do it whereupon I turn'd down leaves at the 7. Penitentiall Psalmes of which two of the former are a part likewise at the 4th of Gen. v. 7. If thou dost well c. So God to Cain c. which Shewes that there was a dore open for mercy if he would have repented of his sin and at the 18. and 33. ch of Ezekiel wee added to these that soul-establishing Chap. the 8. to the Romans These and many more with the Psalmes and Chapters for the day appointed by the Churches rubrick were besidees his private prayers the ground of his devotion meditation and practice whilst he was in Prison From whence he was after the commendation of his soul to God first by Master Higgons then by my self in private conveyed in mourning habit on horseback to the place of Execution many Gentlemen attending him with my self and that reverend Divine When he came to that place being dismounted from his horse he stood like a mournful penitent whilst a discourse for half an hour and more was uttered by me concerning the hainousnesse of sin in generall and of his murther in particular together with the nature of Conversion the parts and properties of it To which was adjoyned the freenesse of God's mercy in the Lord Jesus to all repentant sinners this done with an exhortation to the people to entertain a charitable and Christian perswasion of the Truth and sincerity of Master Sonds his conversion to the Lord the penitent standing at my right hand a prayer was conceived to commend his sad and mourning soul to God This ended he having-meekly and humbly submitted himself to death hee went up the Ladder and standing in the midst of it with great modesty and meeknesse hee desired the prayers of those that were present he likewise with erected hands and eyes did beseech God to forgive him his sinnes against his Father and Brother and praied in few words for a blessing on his distressed Father and closed all with this resignation of his soul into the hands of his Maker saying with a soft voice for his nature was not to speak either aloud or much God's will be done and Lord receive my soul After which words the Executioner did his Office and his body after it had hung a good while being cut down was put into a Coach and carried to a Church not farre from Maidstone the place is called Bersted where it lies interr'd expecting a joyfull resurrection through the mercies of the Lord Jesus A Postcript to the whole Kingdom IT is a true saying of Saint Augustine Deus non respicit quâ morte sed quales ex hac vitâ eximus God regards not what death we die as in what frame of spirit we are when we give up the Ghost A man may go to Hell upon a feather-bed and to Heaven dying on a Gibbet The end which Divine mercy proposes to its selfe cannot be prevented by humane means and if God intends his glory by mans shamefull death I see not but that I and all here should magnifie him for it It is Gods mercy to make us witnesses of the judgments of others that we may be forwarned ere we have an occasion of sinning in our selves So then if his Mercy and Justice his Justice in punishing his Mercy in releasing and giving a sinner time to repent If these two Attributes be advanced by Master Sonds his death we have all great cause to sing an Hallelujah to God It is said Heb. 11.4 of Righteous Abel that being dead he yet speaketh This is meant of his faith for which his sacrifice was accepted and by which he has left us a lesson behind him how to offer up our prayers and services to the God of Heaven Thus our young Cain that killed his elder Brother being dead yet speaketh He by his shamefull death 1. Bespeaketh the proud Gallants of this Age who minde the outward dresse of their bodies more then the inward ornament of their soules that starve the latter and pamper the former that spend whole mornings in decking a rotten carcase and sleep away those houres that they should imploy in Prayer and reading of the holy Scriptures with other Godly books Men if I may so call them that look like Monsters pictures of Phancie and walking Emblems of vanitie These he in a manner bespeaks thus Look upon me who have been guilty of your vanity and idlenesse and know that the eye of Justice never sleeps so that