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
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
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
reprover Thus of late have I with some others of my judgement and profession met with a sort of men who I thank God cannot meet with me nor reach me with a just reproofe men whose teeth are spears and arrows their throat an open Sepulchre and their tongue a sharp sword whose common trade it is to invent crimes with defamatorie calumnies that so they may wound the persons and blot the reputations of those whose actions are built upon Scripture-grounds and carried on with good intentions It is said that the ink of the Cuttlefish poured into Lamps maketh the bravest and most exact pieces of painting to be seeen with horrour as dressed with ugly shapes so these wicked tongues stirr'd up by malicious envie which has for its companion as her picture is in Lucian detraction or calumny when they have cast their poison upon the light colours of a life or action that is innocent make it appear with hideous deformity But I shall not dip my pen any farther in the ink of confutation to discover the men and their malice who have rais'd a dust in Maidstone and the adjacent parts which has flown into their own eies as they that spit against the wind defile themselves I could describe their persons at large from true informations that two of them had been Mechanicks and Tradsemen in the City of London one of which Mr. T.D. is much spoken of for his profitable employment about Mr. Sonds and how he wrought upon him and so far won his good opinion that he desired him to lodge with him this is constantly reported though it be most false for Mr. Sonds utterly denied this thing and said He troubled me so much in the day with his weak and simple discourse that I had no reason to desire his company in the night Yet this is made a great matter to magnifie Mr. T. D. and to vilifie us the true Ministers of Christ sent by him which cannot be said of them There is a great stir too about Mr. I. D. another Mechanick which was his first degree to the Ministry who pressed with another beardlesse youth at the place of Execution to speak unto Mr. Sonds who stood then between my self and that reverend Divine Master Higgons it was forsooth to make him sensible of his sin of which it was conceived by him and his fraternity that he had no sence so rash and uncharitable are they in their censures But we suspecting truly and justly that his speeches might disturb the poor Gentleman whose soul was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak in Chrysostom's phrase most quietly composed and fitted God be blessed for its passage to eternity being assured of this wee would not give way to this unseasonable intruder to whom I said thus it is known with great moderation and mildnesse that wee could not but thank him for his good intention to the soule of the dying Gentleman but not approve of his indiscretion which defaces learning and sowres Religion both which without discretion are disordered wild and furious Moreover I said that if he had given a visit to the Gentleman at his Chamber before his death when he should have met with us to witnesse his piety then I would have commended his Charity c. But there are Solifugae those that hate the light love to do what they do in private Christ ever spoke in publick they love to make disturbance he is the God of order and Prince of Peace Are these then the messengers or servants of our Master Jesus Are these who have disturbed the Church of Christ and rent his seamlesse Coat by schisms and Heresies fit persons to quiet a distress'd conscience I pray God that be not true which I said then to this Master I. D. and his companion it was that I fear'd himself and that other made that unseasonable motion to conferre with Master Sonds being at the point of death more to be talk'd of by the people then out of love to his soul otherwise he would have been more tender then at that time to disturb it which is now I hope out of the reach of malice freed from the power of sin and Satan and in the bosome of Abraham in that place of rest which is provided for the faithfull and all true Penitents But who are such was Mr. Sonds sir 2. Quaeries which I shall answer briefly and so I trust satisfie all parties who have loaded us with reproaches and harsh unchristian Censures for giving the Sacrament to him 1. As it is an hard task to prescribe a just period to the best mans repentance to say after he is fallen he must repent such a day week or month or else never hope to rise for the holiest soul may take long and dead sleeps in fearfull sins as is evident in David who after the murther of Uriah c. between whose sin and his sorrow for it tenne months had well nigh passed as then in the former case it is an hard matter to prescribe c. So it is as difficult a task to describe the parts of repentance and the true properties of a penitent who is in a right frame of Spirit to receive the Holy Sacrament However what I said upon the suddain God assisting me at the place of Execution about half an hour before Mr. Sonds died I shall now make of the same a short repetition 1. That repentance is sound which is grounded upon the consideration of Gods goodnesse and mercy to a soul in the Lord Jesus 2. This consideration begets that heart-compunction or grief of minde which is by the Apostle 2 Cor. 7.10 tearmed Godly sorrow that worketh repentance unto salvation not be repented of A grief or heartie sorrow that we have offended our good God our heavenly and most loving Father Upon which sorrow there followes in the soul of a true penitent first a change in the Mind or Judgment disproving or disallowing that evill which we have ungodlily committed and approving of the contrary good which by us was omitted Secondly upon this there followes a change of the will which repudiates or declines that evill and embraces with a delightfull choice the good which formerly was refused and enclines to it as its chief joy and content resolving for the time to come to act or do it To this change of the will succeeds in true a Convert a change of the heart or affections hating and detesting that sin wherein we have offended joyn'd with a love and prosecution of that good duty which we did not and is to be done These be the parts and degrees of an Evangelicall repentance which being seconded with a religious practice that crownes all are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which we discern true Converts And having discern'd these in so short a time as was allotted to the deceased Master Freeman Sonds as you have had a full narrative in the former discourse we conceiving that God in mercy to his poor soul had given him a true sight of his sinnes with a sence of his mercy in the Lord Jesus presum'd we might after his Absolution minister unto him the blessed Sacrament which is not without great danger to those that refuse to give it to be denied to any that are not notoriously scandalous and wicked and shall having heartily desired it as a Sacrament of their Union and Communion with Christ in his merits humbly confesse their sins in the face of the Congregation Wil now any man dare call us Dawbers of sin or say that wee Blanch it with a gentle connivence when that wee ground our practice upon such strict principles The Lord rebuke Satan in the mouths of such revilers For a close of all I shall take leave to give an account of what I heard the last Lords day September 1. at Saint Peters Pauls Wharf delivered by their Godly and learned Teacher Master M. to that most Christian Congregation where I my selfe with many did receive to our great Comfort the Holy Communion His words punctually set down are these which suit with my judgement and are the very sense of the soules of the other Divines that did attend Master Sonds in his restraint they being the summe of that Doctrine which wee preach and professe and I hope none will say they savour of loseness He that accounts it a slight and easie taske to be humbled for sinne and sue for pardon hath not yet learnt how dreadfull it is to offend God and how joyous to please him To be humbled for sinne in its guilt because exposing to wrath and eternall death this may be meerely from a principle of servile feare To bee humbled for sin in its filth as defiling the Conscience and polluting the soul this may be meerly from a principle of ingenuous shame But to be humbled for sinne as offensive to God loathsome to so sacred a Majesty and Divine a goodnesse this is the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and full growth of repentance as to contrition whose rooting is that of a dutifull love and filiall feare whereby the humiliation becomes purely evangelicall and most acceptable unto God through faith in the blood of Jesus To the blessing of the same Jesus I commend this work proceeding from a principle of love to souls and driving at the main end of all the honour and glory of God in the establishing of weak converts and the conversion of poor dejected sinners and I shall onely supplicate the Divine goodnesse to turn the hearts of our enemies that their tongues may instead of censuring us be fiilled with with his praises who gave grace to Mr. Sonds to repent heartily of his misdoings that by his example as others may be scared from self dependency and presumption so sinners not despairing may turn and be converted to God the God of pardon and Salvation Glory be to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS