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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	death_n	sin_n	sin_v	3,442	5	9.4313	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28822	A mirrour of mercy and judgement, or, An exact true narrative of the life and death of Freeman Sonds Esquier [sic], 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 [sic] 1655.	R. B. (Robert Boreman), d. 1675.	1655 (1655)	Wing B3759; ESTC R32573	28,004	41

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

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