A sermon occasioned by the execution of a man found guilty of murder preached at Boston in N.E. March 11th 1685[/]6. : (Together with the confession, last expressions & solemn warning of that murderer to all persons; especially to young men, to beware of those sins which brought him to his miserable end.) / By Increase Mather, teacher of church of Christ.

A sermon occasioned by the execution of a man found guilty of murder preached at Boston in N.E. March 11th 1685[/]6. : (Together with the confession, last expressions & solemn warning of that murderer to all persons; especially to young men, to beware of those sins which brought him to his miserable end.) / By Increase Mather, teacher of church of Christ.

Table of contents

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Title page

To the Reader.

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Title page

To the Reader.

The CALL of the GOSPEL, unto All the Ends of the Earth; Apply'd especially unto a poor man under the 〈◊〉 •entence of Death for the Crying Sin of MURDER.

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Title page

To the Reader.

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The Printer to the Reader.

The DISCOURSE of the MINISTER with James Morgan on the WAY to his Execution.

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SERMON Occasioned by the EXECUTION OF a man found Guilty of MURDER Preached at Boston in N. E. March 11th 1685/6. Together with the Confession, Last Expressions, & solemn Warning of that Murderer to all persons; especially to Young men, to beware of those Sins which brought him to his miserable End.)

By INCREASE MATHER, Teacher of Church of CHRIST.

The SECOND EDITION.

Deut. 19. 20. 21. And those which remain shall hear and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such Evil among you.

[...]. 21. And thine eye shall not pity, but Life shall go for Life, Eye for Eye. &c.

Prov. 28. 17. A man that doth violence to the blood of any person, shall flee to the pit, let no man stay him.

Boston, Printed by R. P. Sold by J. Brunning Book-seller, at his Shop at the Corner of the Prison-Lane next the Exchange. Anno 1687.

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To the Reader.

THe Sermons emitted herewith (both that of mine, and that also delivered by my Son) are published to gratify some, who have been perhaps too importunately desirous to have it so. The Person that occasioned the Preaching of them is now uncapable of receiving Benefit by them. Whether they were blessed for any saving. Good to his Soul, the Lord knowes; and it becomes us to leave Secret things with GOD. Late Repentance is seldom true There are who think that many who perished in the Floud, were by means of that Judgment, brought to true Repentance. To this sense some interpret that Scripure, 1. Pet. 4. 6. otherwise we read not of more than one man in all the Book of God, that was brought home to Christ bnt a few hours before his death. Nevertheless, the Lord knows how to make the woful death (as to his Body) of a great Sinner, to occasion the Conversion and Salvation of many Souls.

If any be awakned by this sad Example, to turn from those sins which proved the ruin of a miserable [Page]man: and if these Sermons (such as they are) may be a meanes to further the work of Repentance towards God, & Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ in any that shall read them; the Design of this Publication will be attained.

As for the Exhortation annexed to these Discourses, it was delivered on the same day with that Sermon preached by my Son, (whom the Lord Jesus hath fixed in the same Church to which I am related) but in the after part of the day. The Reverend and worthy Author has not had time to transcribe his whole Sermon, only that part of it which concerned the then Condemned Malefactor. Many have earnestly desired that it might in this way be made publick. And because it is most suitable that the Best should come last, it is in this Publication added to the other Sermons The Lord prosper his Truth, by whomsoever spoken or written for the Good of Souls.

Increase mather.

March 26. 1686.

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NUMB XXXV. 16.‘And if he smi [...]e him with an Instrument of Iron so that he die) he is a Murderer, the Murderer shall surely be put to DEATH.’

A Great part of this Chapter is taken up in declaring who should have benefit by the City of Refuge; and who might not expect advantage thereby. There are Two sorts of Man-slayers, (1) One may kill his Neighbour Accidentally, tho he had no design of Hurt to him, nor any Displeasure against him. The City of Refuge was for such. (2.) A Man may in Hatred or in Passion kill another, and then then the City of Refuge could not secure or save him from the [...] of [...] stice; To intimate which is the Scope of the Words which have been now read: wherein we have two things, 1. A Criminal. 2. The Punishment to be insticted on such a Criminal.

1. A Criminal, He is a Murderer: There are three Particulars mention'd which if they [...] the Person is guilty of Murder: 1. If he smites another man, h. e. if he does so, not accidentally but designedly. 2. If the Instrument which he smites him with be of Iron, that makes the Murder to be the more evident. In the Verses following it is added, That if he smite him mortally [Page] with a Stone or with Wood, he shall be accounted a Murderer. The Jewish Writers tell us,(a) That if a man were slain, there was diligent enquiry made concerning the Instrument, whereby he was killed: If it was with a Stone or with Wood, they examin'd whether the stone or wood were of that Bigness as that the dead man might probably receive his Deaths Wound thereby: But (they say) if it were with an Instrument of Iron, [...] enquiry was made as to the greatness of it, because the least nail of Iron might easily kill. And it is to be presumed, that a man will not strike another with an Instrument of Iron, except Blood and Murder be in his Heart. 3. If the Wound prove mortal, then the Striker is guilty of Murder. Tho a man should smite another, and that with an Instrument of Iron, if Death does not follow, he is not guilty of that high degree of Murder which the Text speakes of; but if he smite his Neighbour so that he dye, then he is a Murderer.

2. Here is the Punishment to be inflicted on such a Criminal. The Murderer shall surely be put to death. Only Gods Order was to be observed; he was to be put to death in a Judiciary way. Amongst the Jews, the Avenger of blood was to be the Executioner; as the 19th ver. in this chapter shews, where it is said, that the Avenger of blood himself shall slay the Murderer. The Hebrew word for the Avenger of blo [...]d is GOEL, which [Page] [...]s sometimes translated a Redeemer: The word properly signifyes one that is near a kin. The [...] Kinsman had right to Redeem, he also was to be the Avenger of blood: Only before Execution could be done the Magistrate was to pass a Judgment. The Man-slayer was sent from the City of Refuge whither he fled, unto the place where the Fact was done, there to have his Tryal. If the Magistrates of that Place found him not guilty, he was returned to the City of Refuge, there to be in safety till the death of the High Priest, and then to be set at Liberty: But if he was found Guilty of Murder, he was to be put to death publickly by the hand of Justice.

The DOCTRINE then before us, as suited to the present Occasion is,

That Murder is a Sin so great & heinous, as that whoever shall be found Guilty of it, must be put to death by the hand of publick Justice.

The Explication and Confirmation of this Doctrin may be set before us in 3 Propositions.

Prop. 1. Murder, is when a man does voluntarily & unjustly take away the Life of another person.

So that there are 3 Things implied in Murders.

1. The Object slain must be one of Man-kind. To take away the Life of another Creature is not Murder. The Sixth Commandment saith, Ye shall not kill. The Hebrew words are, LO TIRTZACH, i.e. Thou shalt not Murder. It was a vain Opinion of the Ma [...]chees, whom Austin [Page] confutes, That the Life of no Creature might be taken away because the Commandment of God [...] shalt not kill. God has given express [...] to all the Sons of Noah, i.e., to Mankind that they should takeaway the Lives of other creatures as they should see cause; only Man being a more Divine Creature, his Life is to be Sacred: it may not be medled with, except in cases where the Great & Soveraign God, who has an absolute power of Life and Death, hath appointed.

2. Capital Murder is wilful. There is a difference between Murder and casual Homicide, or accidental Manslaughter. If a man shoots an Arrow, or throws a stone, or the like, not thinking that any one will be hurt thereby; in case it should happen to kill a man, it is not Murder▪ If he did it ignorantly, unawares, and no way sought the harm of the slain man, he is not to be punished as a Murderer. This we see in the Context, ver. 15. to 26. The City of Refuge was for such an one; Deut. 19. 4. [...]. And this is the case of the slayer which shall flee thither, that he may live: whosoever killeth his neighbour ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past; as when a man goes into the Wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his [...]d fetcheth a stroke with the A [...], to cut down the tree, and the [...]e [...]d slippeth from the helve, & light [...] upon his neighbour that he die, he shall flee unto one of those cities and live. Not but that a man may [Page] [...]e guilty of Murdering his Neighbour, tho he did not intend to kill him; namely, If he did smite him in Anger, or intend to harm him, as the expression is in the 23. ver. of this Chapter. And it is here expresly declared, not only that he who shall lye in wait, or watch for an opportunity to destroy his Neighbour, or that did formerly [...] him shall be judged a Murderer, but if he smi [...]e him in emnity that he dy [...] v. 21. i.e. in an hostile way: tho he had no quarrel with him before, if he fall out with him, and in his passion smite him a mortal Blow, he hath murdered his Neighbour, and is guilty of death. This is presumptous Murder, the heart was in it, nor can it be said to be done ignorantly. There is another clear Scripture which proves, that if persons fall out, and in the strife one shall strike the other a deadly blow, life shall go for life. Ex. 21. 14, 21, 22.

But then 3dly. In Murder, the Life of a man is taken away unjustly. In some cases it is lawful to take away the Life of another. Yea, Matters may be so circumstanced, as it would be a great sin not to do it. There are Three cases wherein the Life of a man may be taken away, and yet no Sin, no Murder committed.

1. In case of a Just War. There is a great difference between blood shed in war, and in a time of Peace. Joab was guilty of Murder, because he shed the blood of War in peace. 1. King 2. 5. had he killed Abner & Amasa in the war-time, [Page] David had made peace with him, he had not bi [...] guilty of Murder; but because he shed blood after a peace was concluded, he was a Murderer. Somtimes in War, they that take away lives, do an acceptable service to God. Abigal told David, that God would certainly bless, him because he fought the Battles of the Lord. 1. Sam. 25. 28. And we know that Abraham was blessed, after he returned from the Slaughter of the Kings with whom he had a just war. Heb. 7. 2. In these cases, the not shedding of blood may possibly expose to a Curse. Jer. 48. 10 Cursed be he that does the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keeps back his sword from blood.

2. They that are in Civil Authority, may and ought to take away the Lives of men, that shall commit Crimes, by the Law of God worthy of Death. The Apostle therefore saith concerning the Magistrate, He is the minister of God to thee for good, but if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he [...]ear [...]th not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God; a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that does Evil. Rom. 13 4. Private Reveng is evil, but publick Revenge on those that violate the Laws of God, is good. The Magistrate is God's Vice-g [...]rent. As none can give life but God; so none may take it away. but God, or such as He has appointed. It is their work to see that the Lives of men be taken from them, when God has said, that they shall surely be put to death. Hence [Page] David speaks, as in Psal. 101. 8. I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, tha [...] I may cut off all the wicked Doers from the City of the Lord. God had put the Sword into his hand for that end, that so he might clear the Land of Malefactors, who were worthy of Death, and he was resolved to see Justice done. But private Persons are not to arrogate to themselves that which is the Magistrate's proper work. Men must have lawful Authority for what they do; else in taing away Life, they become guilty of Murder. Suppose a person to have committed never such Capital Crimes, if a private person, or one that has no Legal Authority shall take away his Life, he is guilty of Murder. Except

3. In case of a man's own just Defence. So a private person may takeaway the life of another: The light of Nature teaches men Self-Preservation. If a Murderer assault him, he may kill rather than be killed. We cannot say that Abner was guilty of Murder when he flew Asahal in his own defence. (b) If a man be, coutrary to Justice, invaded or set upon by another in an hostile manner, and there he no other way for him to preserve his own life, but by killing the Assailant; the Law of Nature, and of all Nations acquit him from the guilt of Murder. But he that has shed blood causless, or that has avenged himself, is a Murderer. 1. Sam. 25. 31.

[Page] Propos. 2. Murder is an exceeding great Sin▪ It's an expression in the Scriptures, he is as if he flew a man, Isa. 66. 3. Implying that to slay a man is a thing most horrid & hateful: it is indeed the greatest Sin against the 2nd Table of the Moral Law, and is therefore set in the first place, amongst negative Precepts therein. God forbids the greatest sin in the first place. It is a Crying Sin: The Lord said to Cain. The voice of thy brothers blood cry [...]h to me from the ground, Gen. 4 10. In the Original, the word is in the Plural Number, the voice of thy brothers bloods. Every drop of [...] blood, had as it were a voice▪ a tongue in [...] for vengeance against his brother that had murdered him. But that This is a grievous sin is manifest: 1. In that it is a most unnatural thing. Creatures of the same kind are not wont to destroy one another. Naturalists observe concerning Wolves, that though they be cruel creatures, they will never kill one mother: therefore if Men do so they are worse than Wolves & lygers: so that Murder is an unnatural and a monstrous Wickedness. 2. The Vengeance which is wont to follow this Sin, proves that it is an horrid and hainous Transgression. There is a peculiar Vengeance that does pursue this sin at the heels of it. The Gentiles had the notion of this fix'd in their minds: hence those Barbarians could say, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom tho' he escaped the seas, yet Vengeance[Page]suffereth-not to live, Act. 21. 4.‖ The Heathen esteemed [dike] (the word there used for Vengeance) as a Deity that would not suffer great Sinners, and in special Murderers to go unpunished. Temporal Vengeance pursueth this Sin. Hence they that have been guilty of it, seldom live long in quiet. Bloody and deceitful [...] shall not live out half their days. Psal. 55. 23. Either they are cut off by the Sword of Civil Justice, or if their Murders happen to be undiscovered, a secret Curse of God follows them: Often times they are themselvs Murdered, as both Divine and humane Records do abundantly declare▪ Nay, tho men should truly repent of this sin, and are then thro' the Merit of Christ saved from everlasting Punishment, yet not from Temporal Judgment. I cannot tell whether ever any man that was found guilty of this sin, did escape Temporal Judgment at last. When David had caused Uriah to be Murdered, he did repent of it most deeply and unfeignedly, yet God punished him severely as to outward judgments; he saw but few comfortable dayes after that, the Sword never departed from his house. I have read of a man that fought a Duel, and murdered his Adversary, who afterwards was very penitent, and for several years an eminent instance of exemplary piety; but at last he was [Page] [...] by the immediate hand of God, so as that Blood gussied out of all the passages of his Body, and he dyed suddenly. The Relator notes upon it, that tho' God forgave him as to eternal, yet not as to temporal Vengeance. But especially Spiritual Vengeance follows this Sin: The Murderers Soul is filled with hellis [...] [...]rour of heart; so that he is as it were Damned above ground, and in hell whilst he is yet alive. The avenger of blood pursues his soul. Murderers have confessed, that as soon as ever they had com [...] ed the bloody fact, they felt the flames of Hell fire in their consciences: and this we see in Cain: therefore after he had murdered his Brother, he cried and roared out that his sin was greater than could be forgiven, his punishment greater than could be endured. And some think that the mark which the Lord set upon Cain, was a ga [...]tly guilty Countenance, that he had Hell & Horror in his countenance, as well as in his Conscience. And without Repentance, everlasting vengeance will follow that Sin. Its said, No murderer has eternal life. 1. Joh. 3. 15. that is, without true Repentance. And if he has not eternal life, then I am sure he has eternal death and Damnation. If the Murderer were only to have the life of his body taken from him, tho' in a painful, shameful & accursed way, that were a light matter; but there is an eternal Curse, a weight of everlasting vengeance, heavier than Mountains [Page] of Lead, that shall press his Soul to deathpunc; world without end. Murder then is a fearful sin.

Propos. 3. The Murderer is to be put to death by the hand of Publick Justice. And this confirms the former Propositions concerning the greatness of this Sin. Men may not pardon or remit the Punishment of that Sin. Among the Jews there was no City of Refuge for a wicked or wilful man-slayer; and it is said in the 31 verse of this Chapter, You shall take no satisfaction for the life of a Murderer which is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. This sin shall not be satisfyed for, with any other punishment, but the death of the Murderer. There are some Crimes, that other punishment less than Death may be accepted of, as a Compensation for the wrong done; either by some Mulct or Fine in their Estates, or some other Coporal Punishment less than death▪ but in case of Murder, no Fine or Imprisonment, or Banishment, or corporal punishment less than death can be accepted; You shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer. And indeed Equity requires this; by the law of Retaliation, it is meet that men should be done unto, as they have done to others; and that as limb should go for limb▪ so Life for Life. But besides that, there are two Reasons mentioned in the Scripture, why the Murderer must be put to Death.

Reas. 1. That so the Land where the murder is [Page] [...] be p [...]ged from the guilt of Blood▪ [...] Murder is such a sin as does pollute the very [...] where it is done; not only the person that has shed blood is polluted thereby, but the whose Land lies under Pollution until such time as Justice is done upon the Murderer. Thus in the 33. v. of this Chapter, this is given as the Reason why no Satisfaction might be taken for the life of a Murderer; so shall ye not pollute the land wherein you are [...] for blood it de [...]leth the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. One Murder unpunished, may bring guilt & a curse upon the whole Land▪ that all the Inhabitants of the Land shall suffer for it; So that Mercy to a Murderer is Cruelty to a People. Therefore it is said concerning the Murderer, Thine eye shall [...]ot pity him but thou shal [...] put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee. If the Murderer be not punished it may go ill with the Whole, all may [...]a [...]e the worse for it; if the sin be not duly punished, there is a partaking in the guilt of it.

[...]. 2. Because man is made in the Image of God. This reason is mentioned Gen. 9. 6. Whos [...]ever sheddeth mans blood, by man (i.e. by some man in Authority, proceeding in an orderly way of Judicature, as the Hebrew Expositors do rightly interpret the words) shall [...] blood be shed, for in [...] [...] of God madepunc; [...] him, [Page] Hence there is Sacrilegious Guilt in this Sin. Amongst the Romans (d) if a man did but strike: his Servant near the place where one of their Emperours lay, he was to dye for it, because that was look'd upon as an affront put upon his Imperial Majesty; so he that shall kill a man that is made after the Image of God, puts a Contempt upon the DIVINE Majesty, there is Treason against God contained in the bloody Bowels of this Sin. Upon this account it is indeed a greater sin to kill a good man that has the Image of God renewed in him, than to kill a [...]icked man. Nevertheless, that also is a Capital Crime; for all men have something(e) of Gods Image remaining in them: not only in that every man has an immortal soul, and is in that respect more like the immortal God than any other creature in the world, and in that men have a dominion over the Creatures, which is one part of Gods Image; on that account does the Apostle [...]ay, that Man is the Image and Glory of God. 1. Cor. 12, 7. But also, in that the Law is written in the hearts of men by Nature; (f) though God has executed spiritual death upon Mankind for Adam's Apostasy, after a dreadful manner, yet he has moderated that punishment; hence men in a natural estate, yet close with [Page] some practical principles of Piety & Righteousness; as That God ought to be worshiped, that Men should do as they would be done by: and the like: and many natural men, yet have an image of Vertue; they have something like Grace, a shadow of it; they hate flagitious Crimes, and approve of a morally honest Conversation; These things shew that there are some Remainders of the Image of God in men: therefore he that shall murder such a creature is worthy of death.

But thus for the Doctrinal handling of the Truth before us. I proceed to make some Application. (1.) By way of Information. (2.) For Exhortation.

Infor. 1. This Doctrin justifyeth the Authority hore, in respect of the Sentence of Death which has been passed on the Murderer, who is this day to be Executed. There is a man standing before the Lord, and among His people this day, who has done just as my Text expresseth, he hath smitten his Neighbour, and that with an Instrument of lorn too, with a cruel Spit made of Iron; the thing proved by several Witnesses, and the man that was hurt dyed of that wound, therfore he that has smitten him [...] a Murderer, and must surely be put to death. Tho' for a long time [...]e denied it, nevertheless since his Condemnation he has acknowledged it; and yesterday he confessed to me, that he had in his Rage murdered the man, whose death and blood has [...]in [Page] said to his Charge; he told me that the other gave him some ill language whereby he was provoked, and that he said to him, if he [...] within the door, he would run the Spit into his Bowels; and he was as wicked as he said he would be, so that he is guilty of Murder. Therefore none ought to blame Those in Authority for causing the Murderer to be put to death; Conscience to God, & to the People under their Charge, and to their own Souls also, has necessitated them to do what they have done in this matter. Let every one remember that Scripture, Prov. 28. 17. A man that doth violence to the blood of any person, shall flee to the Pit, let no man stay him; if he has shed blood, to the Pit let him go, and flee thither; let all convenient Speed be used in the Execution of Justice, that so the Land may be cleared from blood, and let no man in Authority stay him, let no private person solicit for him. But let us be thankful to God, that we are under such Magistrates as will do Justice, and Execute Judgment, & punish Sin according as the Word of God requires that it should be done.

Infor. 2. Hence, Those Things which have a tendency to, and a degree of Murder in them, must needs be evil. e.g. Rash sinful Anger is an evil thing, Murder begins there. 'Twas said of those Brethren in Iniquity, Simeon & Levi, That Instruments of Cruelty were in their habitations, for in their Anger they flew a man, cursed be their [Page] wrath for it was cruel. Gen. 49. 5. 6. And our Lord Jesus Christ in His Exposition of the Sixth Commandment, shews, that rash Anger is a degr [...] of Murder, Mat. 5. 21, 22. You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Ye shall not kill, and whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the Judgement, but I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment. There is Man's Judgment-seat, and GOD's Judgment-seat: Murder makes a man be in danger of the former, sinful Anger exposes him to the latter. Not that all Anger is sinful; there is an Anger that is good; when a man is angry in God's cause, moved with zeal & indignation because God is dishonoured; that's very good: and a man may sometimes be angry in his own cause too and yet not sin. Be angry and sin not. But when men are angry without a just cause, that's Evil. When they are angry more than they have cause for, that they are all in a flame for a meer trifle, when (as one well expres [...]es it) a man shall suffer the (g) Beco [...] of his soul to be set all on fire at the landing of every small [...]oat, that's a foolish and evil thing; or when men shall be angry longer than they ought to be; an implacable spirit, is a vile murderous spirit. Anger rests in the bosom of [...]ools. Sinful Anger is poyson, which as soon as ever a man has taken it into his mouth, he shall spit it [Page] [...] again. And when Anger shall break out into Curses and wicked Imprecations, thats wicked A [...]ger. This condemned man, that stands here, confesses, that he was wont in his passion to curse all near him. He murdered many a man with his bloody tongue, before he was left of God to murder any with his hand. His mouth was full of Cursing & Bitterness, before he shed blood. And when men in their Ra [...]ge imprecate & curse themselvs, its a very evil thing: there are some that will say, They wish they might be hang'd, if such a thing be so, and many times the righteous Judgment of God brings that very evil upon 'em.

There is a Printed Relation concerning(h) a Person of Quality that was hang'd for a Crime laid to his charge; and when he came to dye, he confessed, that he had been mnch addicted to that sinful Recreation of Card-Playing, and that many times when the Game went otherwise than he wish'd for, he would in his passion, wish that he might he hang'd if it were so, and once he wish'd he might be hang'd if ever he play'd agen; and therefore (said he) God is just in bringing me to such a death as this. And when Anger shall break out into Blows, Quarreling, and Fighting between Neighbours that [Page] ought to live in peace, there is great Evil in it. This miserable creature before us, acknowledgeth that it was so with him. In his mad passions he car'd not who he did strike or hurt. It is not good for them that have lawful power to strike others, to do it in passion. It is not good for Parents to strike their children, or Masters their Servants, or School-masters their Scholars in heat of Anger, lest they become guilty of breaking the sixth Commandment. A moral Heathen, when his servant had committed a fault that greatly insensed him, said to him, If I were not angry with thee, I would strike thee, but I will stay till my passion is over before I punish thee. Again, a spirit of Revenge is an evil thing: it is Murder in God's [...]ight, 1. Joh. 3. 15. He that hateth his brother is a Murderer. Hatred never rests but in the destruction of the thing hated. To say no more here; Cruelty is a degree of Murder, and a great Evil: and most of all for men to be cruel to those that stand in nearest Relation to them (as this Malefactor owns that he has been) whom they ought to love dearly, is an high degree of Inhumanity. No man that acted like a man, ever hated his own flesh. To be cruel, tho to a Servant or Slave, is a very sinful thing. Nay, Cruelty tho to a Beast argueth a murderous, bloody Disposition. The Scripture saith, a good man is merciful to his Beast. They then that make themselvs sport with Putting [Page] dumb creatures to misery, do very sinfully▪ [...] that has been practised here of later years in the open Streets, especially on one day of the year. To do it at such a* Time is vanity & Heathenish Superstition; besides to make sport with exercising cruelty on dumb creatures, which had never bin miserable had not the sins of men made them so, it is a wicked thing, and ought not to be among those that call themselvs Christians.

Infor. 3 [...] If Murder be such a Crime as hath been shewed, It is then a sorrowful thing that so many of the Children of men should be found guilty of this Evil. There are some places of the world where Murder is a common sin. The dark corners of the earth, are full of the habitations of Cruelty. And there are many in the world, that call themselvs Christians, who nevertheless delight in shedding innocent blood. Persecutors are Murderers. Bloody Papists are in the Scriptures charged with Murder on this account: it is said of them, they repented not of their Murders, Rev. 9. 21. namely of their murdering the Saints of God for their Religion, for the Truth-sake, and because they would not comply with their Superstitions and Idolatries. That Mother of Harlots, the Church of Rome, she has made herself drunk with blood; many Millions of Saints have been murdered by her. Persecutors are Cain's Children. O how many are there going [Page] up and down the world with Cain's [...] in their hands to this day! It was Luther's Saying, Cain will [...]ill Abel to the end of the world. But besides this▪ That which the Civil Laws of Nations make to be Murder, is frequent in some places. A late Historian reports, that in the the Kingdom of France, * within the space of ten years, there were known to be no less than 6 [...]00 Murders committed. And in popish Countries, they have Sanctuaries for Murderers(i) A man that has bin guilty of wilful Murder, if he does but run into a Church (as they call it) or into a Monastery, he is protected in those bloody places of Refuge. Their Writers plead for this. And tho no convicted Murderer did ever escape the stroke of Justice in this Land (which is a matter of rejoicing) yet it is a very sad thing that any in such a place as this should be found guilty of such a Crime: that men should do so wickedly in a Land of Uprightness! but so it has been. Divers have been executed for this sin formerly, and here is one that is to be executed for it this day. And there have been several Murders committed among us, the Authors of which are not yet known. Some have bin so monstrously wicked and unnatural, as to embrew their hands in the blood of their own Children; who they are God knowes, and [Page] will find a time to judg them; and one day [...] and all the world shall know who they are. Besides these, several others have bin under vehement Suspition, and tryed for their Lives▪ on the account of this sin. We have all cause to pray for New-England, as the Lords People of old were directed to do, in case of an uncertain Murder, Deut. 21. 7. 8. They shall answer & say, our hands have not shed [...] blood, neither have our eyes seen it; Be merciful, O Lord, to thy people Israel, whom Thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood to the people of Israels charge: and the blood shall be forgiven them. Be merciful, O Lord, to Thy people in New-England, and lay not innocent blood to their Charge!

USE. 2. For Exhortation. There is a double Exhortation before us.

1. Hence men should beware that they do not become guilty of this Sin. It is in Man's corrup-Nature. Nothing is more natural than a spirit of Revenge: as we see in little Children; which discovers that the Children of men bring murderous natures into the world with 'em. Hence the Apostle declaring what men by nature are, faith, that their f [...]et are swift to shed blood. Rom. 3. 15. because there is a marvellous Propensity in Man's nature unto this sin. Should not the Lord either by special or common Grace restrain them, how many would soon become guilty of Murder it self! Yea, and those too that don't [Page] believe any such thing concerning, themselve [...] When the Prophet Elisha told Hazael what a prodigious Murderer he would be, What (said he) am I a Dog, that thou shouldst have such thoughts of me? But in a little time he appeard to be as curs'd a Blood- [...]ound as ever the Prophet had said to him. O then beware of this sin. And therefore take heed of giving way to wicked Passions. Lesser sins make way for greater. And especially take heed of great sins: For many a man by being guilty of other great sins▪ has provoked the Holy GOD to leave him unto this sin too. The poor condemed Malefactor who stands here in the sight of this congregation, does acknowledge, that he hath by living in other sins provoked God to leave him unto this, which he must now dye for. And he warns others, especially Young Men, to take heed of those sins, as they love their Lives or Souls. I know not but that it may be for E [...]ation, and tend to God's Glory, if I should read in this great Assembly, what I received in Writing from this dying & distressed Creature. Its this which followeth.

1. James Morgan, being Condemned to dye, must [...] own to the glory of God, that He is righteous, and that I have by my sins provoked Him [...] destroy me before my time. I have bin a great sinner▪ guilty of Sabbath-breaking, of Lying, and of Uncleanness; but there are especially two Sins, [Page]whereby I have offended the great God; one is that Sin of Drunkenness, which has caused me to co [...] [...]our many other Sins; for when in Drink, I have been often guilty of Cursing and Swearing, and quarrelling▪ and striking others: But the Sin which lies most heavy upon my Conscience, is, that I have despised the Word of God, and many a time refused to hear it preached. For these things, I beleeve God has left me to that, which has brought me to a shameful & miserable death. I do therefore beseech & warn all persons, young men especially to take heed of these Sins, lest they provoke the Lord to do to them as He has justly done by me. And for the further peace of my own Conscience, I think my self obliged to add this unto my foregoing Confession, That I own the Sentence which the Honoured Court has pass'd upon me, to be exceeding just; in as much as (tho I had no former Grudge and Malice against the man whom I have killed, yet) my Passion at the time of the Fact was so out-ragious, as that it hurried me on to the doing of that which makes me justly now proceeded against as a Murderer.

Thus does this miserable man confess. But how many are there in the Congregation, that this may strike terror & trembling into their souls!

O Lord, how many are there in this great Assembly, who have lived, and do live in those very sins, for which this Man confesseth that God has been provoked to destroy him! Let sinners hear & take warning this day▪ This man now [Page] that the Terrors of God have awakned his soul, bitterly complains of two Sins especially; one is that of Drunkenness. And indeed, Drunkenness has bin a bloody sin; it has bin the cause of many a Murder. The man here, who is now flying to the Pit, confesseth▪ that in his Drink, he was wont to Curse & Swear, and to quarrel, and strike those near him; and he acknowledged to me, that he had made himself grievously drunk the day before he was left of God to commit the Murder which he now must dye for; yea, and that he had that very night bin drinking to excess, and that he was not clear of drink at the time when he did the bloody Fact. And does not the Scripture say, Who has wo, who has sorrow, who has contentions, who has babling, who has Rounds without cause? They that tarry long at the Wine—&c. Prov. 23. 29, 30. Wicked men when they are in drink, will fall to Quarrelling; words will bring on blows, and those blows will cause wounds, and those wounds may perhaps prove mortal: and then, what Woe & Sorrow followes! O how many have by means of this sin▪ been guilty of Interpretative Murder! They have caused others to dye by making them drunk. There has been an horrible thing done in this place; some wicked persons (who they are God knows) have given or sold strong Liquor [...] to the Indians, and made them drunk also, and several of them have dyed in that condition [Page] Let such know▪ that the Lord will [...]udg them; yea, He will judg 'em as Men that have shed blood shall be judged; they must answer for the blood of Souls and Bodyes too. Most wicked and miserable Creatures they are, that to gain a few pence, will bring upon themselvs the guilt of the blood of Souls & of Bodies too! And this bloody sin of Drunkenness has bin the cause of many a Self-Murder: how many have made themselvs the woful Martyrs of Bac [...] thus thereby. By Drunkenness & Intemperance, they have brought their Bodies to the Grave, and their Souls to Hell before their time. It is an unhappy thing that of later years, a kind of strong† Drink kath been common amongst us, which the poorer sort of people, both in Town & Country, can make themselves drunk with, at cheap & easy rates. They that are poor and wicked too (Ah most miserable Creatures) can for a peny or two pence make themselvs drunk, I wish to the Lord, some remedy might be thought of, for the prevention of this evil. It's a very sad thing, that so many Bodyes & Souls should be eternally ruin'd, and no help for it. How [...]ew are there, that if once they be addicted to this vice, do ever truly repent of it or turn from it. [Page] There was a Man, who hearing that his So [...] took evil courses, and that he followed such a vice, well, (said he) I hope he'll leave that and that he was given to another vice, I hope (said he) he'll leave that too; but it was told him that his Son was given to Drunkenness also Nay, then (said he) I have no hope of him▪ I will not say (as he did) There is no hope that ever a Drunkard should repent▪ but I say, there have been but few such Instances in the world. How rarely have any of you known a man that has been addicted to this Body-destroying, and Soul-murdering Iniquity, that has truly repented of it, or turned from it again! O then, Let Men that have any love for their Lives on Souls, beware of this bloody Sin.

But the other Evil which this undone Man does especially cry out of, and which (now that he seeth his Soul going into Eternity) he [...]aith, lies most heavy upon his Conscience, is his Despising the Word of God. I do not wonder to hear him speak so, for I have known several Condemned persons, who have made the same out-cry: O nothing terrifies our Consciences like the thought of This, that we have neglected the Means of grace; And what think you of Sinners in Hell, who are wayling for this with tears of blood for ever & ever? whose doleful and bitter cry, is, O the Sermons which we once heard▪ [...] might have heard but would not! Ten [Page]Thousand worlds would we give for an opportunity to hear one of those Sermons again, with any hope of finding Mercy with God. O you that have lived under the Gospel, but despised it, think of this. Verily I say unto you, all the sins in the world will not damn like this: Suppose a man to have bin guilty of Adultry, or Murder, or the most horrid Transgressions against the Law of God, these will not damn his Soul like that of Despising the Word of God. For this is the Condemnation, that Light is come into the world, and men love Darkness rather than Light. And How shall we escape, if we neglect so great Salvation? They that shall be found guilty of neglecting the great Salvation offered in the Gospel, cannot escape the wrath of God, to the utmost of it. And this is true, not only concerning such as have lived under the constant Preaching of the Gospel, and yet remain, and live & dye in a natural unconverted estate; but of them also that might hear the Word of God but will not: concerning Such, Christ saith, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah at the day of Judgment, than for them. Mat. 10. 15. This dying man, now that his Conscience is awaken'd, saith, It is a terrour to him to think, I might have heard the Word of God preached many a time▪ but refused it. He neglected to hear Sermons, not only on Lecture-dayes, but on Lords-Dayes too: when he was a Servant, he [Page] was wont (as himself [...]aith) on Sabbath-Days, to go out into the [...], and there to profane the Lords Dayes, at the very time when [...]e might and ought to have him hearing the Word of God: and since he had a Family, his custom was to keep at home, when others [...] attending the publick Worship of God. And he [...]old me, that he did foolishly please himself in thinking that he had sufficient reason to stay at home, because he had not clothes good enough to appear publickly in; whenas the mony that he misspent in drink would have procur'd him Cloatheing. Let others then by his Example be warned against this evil left they provoke God, and feel sorrow for it, as he has done. I doubt there are very many in this great Town, guilty of his sin in this particular, perhaps some▪ that are professors of Religion, which is dreadful to think on. I hear some say▪ that there are many Hundreds, nay, some Thousands in this place, that seldom hear a Sermon preached, from one end of the year to the other: if that be so, it is very lamentable. What is like to become of the souls of such profane persons? If they that are in place of power (be they Superior or Inferior Officers) can possibly redress this evil, they will certainly do a Service acceptable to GOD and to our Lord JESUS CHRIST.

But I proceed to the Second Exhortation. If Murder be such a Crime▪ as [...] declared [Page] [...] whoever has been guilty of this Sin be [...] for it, and repent of it. As for Interpretative▪ Murder, many are guilty of that. O how many have by Debauchery & Intemperance, shortened the lives of themselvs or others! let such repent, and turn from their sins unto God. But I hope there is none in this vast Assembly, that has bin guilty of that Murder which is by the Law of God and of the Land a Capital Crime, excepting one man, and one such person there is here present, unto whom I shall now particularly apply my self. Do you then hear, that your soul may live. This is the Last Sermon that ever you shall hear. Time was when you might have heard Sermons but would not, and now you shall not hear them, tho' you would▪ For as God said to him, This night thy soul shall be required of thee; so I say to you in His Name, This night thy soul shall be taken from thee: This night your soul shall be in Heaven or Hell for ever. You are appointed to dye this day, and after death commoth the Judgment. As soon as your Body is dead, your immortal soul must appear before the great GOD and Judg of all, and a Sentence of everlasting Life, or Everlasting Death shall be passed upon you. Are you willing when those Chains, which are about you, shall be taken off, that your immortal soul should be hang'd in everlasting Chains? Are you willing that when your Body is removed from the Prison, your Soul [Page] should go to the Spirits that are in prison? You have complain'd that you have bin in a Dungeon, and had little light there; but are you willing to go where [...] shall never see light▪ Are you willing that when your Body is delivered from this Dungeon, your Soul should go into that Dungeon, where is Blackness of darkness for ever? If not I charge you in the Name of God to hear and obey his Word; yea, that Word which you have many a time despised▪ I have spoken so often to you in private, since your being Apprehended, that I shall not need to say much now, only a few words.

1. Consider what a sinner you have bin. The Sin which you are to die for, is as red as Scarlet and many other sins, hath your wicked life been filled with. You have been a stranger to me, never saw you, I never heard of you, till you, had committed the Murder for which you must dye this day; but I hear by others, that have known you, how wicked you have been: and you have your self confessed to the world, that you have been guilty of Drunkenness, guilty of Cursing & Swearing, guilty of Sabbath-breaking, guilty of Lying, guilty of secret Uncleanness; a [...] Salomon said to Shimei, Thou knowest the wickedness which thine own heart is [...] [...]: so I say to you. And that which aggravates your Guiltiness not a little, is, That since you have been in Prison, you have done wickedly▪ you have made your self drunk several times since your Imprisonment▪ [Page] yea, and you have bin guilty of Lying since your Condemnation▪ It was said to a dying man▪ Dust not thou fear God▪ [...] Condemnation! Oh what a sinner have you [...] for since you have bin under Condemnation, you have not feared God. And [...] have [...] sinned against the Gospel? What [...] what Impenitency have you bin guilty of [...]

Consider 2. What Misery you have by might upon your self, on your Body, that must dye an accursed death▪ you must hang between Heaven and Earth, as it were forsaken of both, and unworthy to be in either. And what Misery have you brought upon your poor Children! you have brought an everlasting Reproach upon them▪ How great will their Shame be, when it shall be said to them, that their Father was hang'd, [...] for his goodness, as many in the world have him▪ but for his wickedness: not as a Martyr, but as a Malefactor, truly so! But that which is Ten Thousand Thousand times worse than all this, is, That you have (without Repentance) brought undoing Misery upon your poor yet precious Soul [...] not only Death on your Body, but a Second Death on your never-dying Soul. It is said in the Scripture, That Murderers shall have their part in the lake, which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the Second Death, Rev: 21. 8. O tremble at that! I remember a Man that was condemned and Executed in this place▪ [...] years ago, that had been a Souldier, [Page] and as stout a spirited man as most in the World, who when he came to dye, thus expressed himself to a Minister that treated with him about his Soul; I (said he) never knew what Fear meant, tho' I have bin amongst drawn Swords, and before the Cannons mouth, I feared not death but now you tell me of a Second Death, it makes my Soul to shake within me! That's a Death, the Thoughts whereof may make the soul of the stoutest Sinner in the world to tremble; for that's a death which is ETERNAL▪ The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are ETERNAL. The death of the Body, that's seen, and is soon over; but what becomes of the Soul when a Sinner dyeth, they that stand by him do not see, but if he dye impenitent, the Death which is not seen takes hold on him, and it is eternal. The God against whom he has sinned, liveth for ever to punish him. And a fearful thing it is, to fall into the [...]nds of the ever-living God. O run not into the mouth of the Second Death, into the wid [...] Mouth of the fiery Pit, which has devoured Millions of Millions of immortal souls; and know you for certain, that if you die impenitent, your Damnation will be no ordinary one: for yo [...] have not only transgress'd against the Law o [...] God, with a high hand, but sinn'd against the Gospel too. The Sermons which you have heard formerly, or might have done, will be as so many [Page] witnesses against you, before the Judgment▪ se [...] of Christ: the 3 Sermons which have hi [...] preached to you in publick, since your Condemnation, the pains that has bin taken with you in private by one or other of the Lords Servants; all these will aggravate your Condemnation, when you shall be judged again, before all the world at the last Day, if you dye impenitent.

Consider. 3. There's yet a Possibility that your soul may be saved. Notwithstanding all that has bin spoken to you, don't despair; repent but do not despair. I would not have you say as Cain did, My sin is greater than can be forgiven. The Lord is a merciful God. Tho' Men cannot forgive you, God can; and He will do it, if you unfeignedly repent & believe on the Lord Jesus. There is infinite Merit in the Death of Christ: if your bloody soul be wash'd in his blood, it shall be made whiter than the Snow. That Sin which you must now dye for, God has forgiven to others upon their true Repentance. Manasseh filled the streets of Jerusalem with innocent blood, but when he humbled himself, and besought the Lord for Mercy, God was entreated of him. O therefore Repent, and then though your Body must dye, your Soul shall live and not dye.

I have but two words more to say to you, and then I shall take my leave of you for ever.

1. Be sure what you be sincere in your Repentance. Many times men under Fears, will seem very peintent▪ [Page] whenas they do but [...]latter God with the [...] mouths, and lye [...]nto him with their tongues. Thus it was with▪ Pharoah, and with many a sinner, whose hard heart was never broken nor changed; we see often, that sinners on sick beds, when they behold Death & Eternity before their eyes, will confess their sins and promise Reformation▪ but if the Lord spare & restore them, they are the same that they were before. And we have known Instances among our selvs, of men, that when they have bin Captive, and in Turkish Slavery, they have pretended to a sense of those sins which provoked the Most High to bring that misery upon them, and have written seemingly pious & penitent Letters to their Friends, but now God has delivered them they are as vain [...] profane as ungodly as ever in their lives before nay, some of them worse. For the Truth is, i [...] men be not humbled and converted by such signal Dispensations, many times they are judicially [...] everlastingly hardned: They never leave sinning until they have sinned themselvs into [...], past all hopes of Mercy or Recovery. To come nearer to you, I have known some, more tha [...] [...] or 2 or 3, that have bin condemned to dye▪ and whilest they remained under that Sentence, they seemed very penitent, but they were pardoned (for they had not bin guilty of Murder, [...] you have) and since that, have bin as wicked [...] O then look to your self, that you do not▪ [...] with GOD and Man, [...] your [...] [Page] soul too. And let not the Fear of Punishment only, but the Sense of Mercy break your heart.

2. In this way of sincere Repentance, Betake your self to the City of Refuge. Go to Christ for Life. The wilful man-slayer had (as you heard but now) no benefit by the City of Refuge; so shall impenitent Sinners have no Salvation by Christ: but they that have a real sight of their Sins, and flee from the Avenger of blood unto Christ for life, Pie is ready to succour them. Poor man! has the fiery Serpent stung thy soul? then look unto the Brazen Serpent, look unto the Lord Jesus that you may live and not dye forever. Build your hopes of Salvation on Christ & His Righteousness alone. Don't think you shall be saved only because good men have pray'd for you, or for the Confession of your sins which you have now made, or for the sake of any thing but CHRIST. And I pray the Son of GOD to have Compassion on you.

The Last Expressions & solemn Warning of James Morgan: As they were in Short-hand taken from [...] Mouth, at the Place of Execution. Mar. 11. 8⁵⁶.

I Pray God that I may be a Warning to you all, it and that I may be the last that ever shall suffer after this manner: in the fear of God I warn you to have a care of taking the Lord [...] Name in v [...]in▪ Mind & have a care of that sin of Drunkenness▪ for that sin leads to all manner of sins and Wickedness:[Page](mind & have a care of breaking the sixth Commandment, where it is said, Thou shalt do n [...] Murder) for when a man is in Drink, he is re [...] ready to commit all manner of Sin, till he fill up the cup of the wrath of God, as I have done by committing that sin of Murder. I beg of God as I am a dying man, and to appear before the Lord within a few minutes, that you may take notice of what I say to you. Have a care of drunkenness, & ill Company, and mind all good Instruction, and don't turn your back upon the Word of God, as I have done. When I have bin at meeting, I have gone out of the meeting-house to commit sin & to please the lust of my flesh▪ Don't make a mock at any poor object of pity, but bless God that he has not left you as he has justly done me to commit that horrid sin of Murder. Another thing that I have to say to you, is to have a care of that house where that wickedness was commited, & where I have bin partly ruind by. But here I am, and know not what will become of my poor soul which is within a few moments of eternity. I have murder'd a poor man, who had but little time to repent, and I know not what is become of his poor soul; O that I may make use of this opportunity that I have! O that I may make improvement of this little little time, before I go hence and be no more. O let all mind what I am a saying now I'm going out of this world. O take warning by me, [...]nd beg of God to keep you from this sin which has [...] [His last words were] O Lord, receive any spirit, I come unto thee O Lord, I come unto thee O Lord, I come, I come, I come.

Notes

(a)

v. Grotium & Ainsworth in loc.

↵

(b)

Alsted, Theol. Cas. Cap. 15. p. 350.

↵

‖

Ethnici Dicen tanquam deam & [...]iliam Jovisme tebant in Plut l. de for a vindict. [...]word [...]

↵

(d)

Sueton. in Tiber. cap. 58.

↵

(e)

Calvin. Rivet. & Pareus in Gen. 9. 6.

↵

(f)

Ames. Theol. lib. 1. cap. 14.

↵

(g)

[...] Supplement. cap. 9. p. 368.

↵

(h)

Sr. Gerv. Elways. mention'd by Mr. Howel in his Londinop. & by Mr. Ball, of the power of Godliness▪ l. 4. c. 3. p. 329. & by Mr. Leigh in his Body of Di [...]mity. Lib. 4. Cap. 16 P. 445.

↵

*

I intend the Cock-s [...]alings on Shrove-Tuesday.

↵

*

See Trap. on Genes. 9. 6.

↵

(i)

Vide Corn. a Lapide in Deut. 19.

↵

†

Reverend Mr. Wilson once said in a Sermon, there is a sort of drink come into the country, which is called Kill-Devil, that it should be call'd Kill-men for the Devil.

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§

§

§

[Page]

THE CALL OF THE GOSPEL APPLYED Unto All men in general, and Unto a Condemned Malefactor in particular. In a SERMON, Preached on the 7th Day of March. 1686. At the Request, and in the Hearing of a man under a just Sentence of Death for the horrid SIN of MURDER.

By COTTON MATHER. Pastor to a Church at Boston in N. E.

The SECOND EDITION.

Psal. 89. 1. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever, with my mouth will I make known thy Faithfulness to all generations.

Nulla species Peccati tanta est qua non sit Superior JESUS. Orig.

Printed at Boston, by Richard Pierce. 1687.

[Page]

To the Reader.

ALtho' my Consent to the Publication of the ensuing Sermon had no small Objections to Encounter with: for, First, The short time allow'd me for Preparation after I was (by the little▪ expected dying Desire of a poor man) diverted from my spending the whole of the Sabbath with a bereaved Congregation to which my help was promised; and Next, the Regard to be had unto the Administration of the Lords Supper, which now in the Absence of an Honoured Relation that kindly answered my Engagement elsewhere I was to keep some Eye unto both necessitated me to want in this Discourse that Accuracy & that full pertinency which might recommend it unto the Judicious; Nevertheless, so long as among all the Faults in it, I found not this, That it was not designed to do good, and so long as among all the Pleas (which in a curious & captious age my [...] to my own repose brought) against the emitting of [...], I never met with this, That ▪It was impossible any good should be done by it, I have at the urgent Importunity of others ventur'd to deliver it into the Hands of as many as shall think themsel [...] concerned to peruse it: Praying that it may reach & touch the hearts of them, to whom [...] Christ should be a Pearl of great Price, till they LOOK unto HIM and be SAVED.

Cotton Mather,

[Page]

The CALL of the GOSPEL, unto All the Ends of the Earth; Apply'd especially unto a poor man under the [...] [...]entence of Death for the Crying Sin of MURDER.

Isai. XLV. 22.‘LOOK unto M, and be ye SAVED, all the Ends of the Earth.’

THESE Words give unto us the most Joyful Sound that ever the Children of Death had the favour of. Some of us doubtless can with a most Distinguishing and Experimental Relish, profess concerning this Oracle of God, as some other persons have concerning some other Passages in the Sacred Pages, We would not have had this Sentence left out of our Bibles, for the riches of both the India's Yea, who among us all, at the reading of these glad Tydings unto us, can forbear joyning with the Rapturous shouts of Heaven, with that Angelical, and Evangelical Out-cry, in Luc. 3. 14. Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, Good-will towards men▪ Behold, the Saviour of the world is this day speaking unto you, ye Congregation of the Lord▪ Arrayed in His white garments, He looks thro' the Windows of His bright Ivory Palace, and [...]tereth an Invitation to you, which Blessed are your ears that hear this day.

[Page] This 45th Chapter of (that which we may not ineptly call, the Gospel according to) Isaiah, seem [...] the Close of a Sermon begun at the 40th chapter of that admirable Book, whose Gospel-strains [...] so abundant, that in the New-Testament▪ some have counted perhaps about threescore Quotations from it; and good old Ambrose▪ hence advised Austin unto a peculiar frequency in the Reading of it. Isaiah signifies the Salvation of God; now that very thing, especially in the more promissory Conclusion of his Prophecy, is very much the Subject of his Ministry.

The Princely Prophet is predicting, perhaps about 200 years before the Accomplishment thereof, the Reduction and Redemption of the C [...]ptiv'd Jews from Babylon, together with the very name of the Persian Emperor Cyrus, who should be the Instrument thereof; and thereupon he assigns the several reasons of this stuperidious Dispensation. One ground thereof laid down is, that the Nations of the world, far and near, might be brought to abandon their Lying vanities, and to acknowledg the Only true GOD, with Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. At the mention of this there immediately falls in the gracious invitation to those Nations which we have now to insist upon: wherein we may observe▪

(1.) The Subjects which are call'd upon, These are all the ends of the earth; even the Gentiles, in all quarters of the world, whose Vocation is here [Page] foretold; The poor souls whose natural Distance from the Church of God, and whose moral Distance from the Love of God was exceeding deplorable. (2.) The Object propounded for these to converse withal. This by that Expression Me, is determined to be the Lord Himself. But who? Truly, it is God the Saviour, it is the Lord Jesus Christ; a Devotion to whom should come instead of the Homage which men had [...] wont to yeild unto their other Images of God, and Deliverance by whom is the Antitype of what the Lords people had of old by other Saviour [...] ▪ To confirm this Interpretation, I find the Cha [...]ee Paraphrase rendring this Me, by My Word▪ using the Term of [Meemar] which belongs to the 2nd Person in the adorable Trinity. (3.) The Act to be applyed hereunto: This is to Look▪ namely with an Eye of faith & of repentance. In this Clause, there seems to be an Allusion to the Looks that the ancient Israelite [...] had bin wont to give unto the Brazen Serpent; which, if that great Reformer Hezekiah had not made meer brass of it, might, for ought I know be still abus'd to vain & vile Superstitions among 'em. (4.) The End of the Whole. Tis said, Be ye saved; and the intent of that is Double, it is both, be desireous that ye may be saved, & it is, be assured that ye shall be saved. The two-fold End (both finis Operis, and finis Operani [...]s) both the Design▪ & the Event is to be Salvation▪ Salvation, [Page] SALVATION—but what a Word is That it is a word that does contain more than a [...] man can conceive.

From hence then, This Doctrin of GOD you [...] Saviour does challeng your serious Attention.

Doct. The Lord Jesus Christ in His Gospel, graciously & earnestly invite [...]th all the Children of men to Look unto Him, by Faith upon Him for SALVATION.

When the no less unexpected than un deniabl [...] Request of the dying man who now stands in in this Assembly, that I would allow him this Morning a Discourse proper for his uncomfortable Circumstances, was yesterday brought unto me; I cold not suddenly think on any thing more accommodated unto all the Persons & Services which are before me, than that which have now pitch'd upon. The Body of this Congregation can't hear of a more important thing than this, of Looking unto Jesus Christ for Salvation. Men and Brethren, This is the One thing [...]eedful. The little flock of Communicants, unto whom I am by & by to administer the Holy Supper, cannot be excited unto a fitter work than this, of Looking unto Jesus Christ for Salvation. Christians, this is our Errand hither▪ The poor condemned Malefactor, who is here [...]tening to one of the three last Sermons that ever he is like to [...]it under before his Encounter▪ with the King of Terrors, cannot be put in mind [Page] of any thing that will more tend to prepa [...] him for his near approaching death, than this of Looking unto the Lord of Life, for Salvation & Life. Poor man, do you hearken, I'll study to make this whole hour very particularly suitable & serviceable to you; and methinks a man that knows himself about to take an eternal Farewel [...]f all Sermons, should endeavour to hear with most earnest heed. The God of Heaven grant, that Faith may come unto you by your Hearing.

It is a very pretions Repast, which is thus brought unto you, O immortal Souls! It comes from the Land flowing with milk & honey. The ensuing Propositions may carve it out unto you. The 1st Proposition that arrests ou [...] thoughts is▪

1. That, to Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ▪ is to Look unto Him for Salvation. These blessed things are equivalent each to the other; and herein, we have both the Act of Faith, and the End of Faith: fairly suggested unto us.

¶ As for the Act of Faith, that is a Looking▪ The Faith of God's Elect [...]ath in the Scripture several Bodily Actions, used as the Metaphors & shadows of it. There is the Action of the Hand, for the sake of which in Joh. 1. 12. Faith is said to be a Receiving of Jesus Christ. There is the Action of the Mouth, in Resemblance of which, in Joh. 6. 54. Faith is said to Eat the flesh of Jesus Christ. There is the Action of [Page] the Foot, in [...]egard of which Joh. 6. 35. Faith is said to be a Coming unto Jesus Christ. Thus likewise the Action of the Eye is here improved, to denote the Christ-ward motions of soul which the Believer hath.

There is indeed a 3 [...]old Look, which the beleeving Soul in its Agonies does give towards the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a Look of Desire; a Look with a Wish, yea, with a Groan: a Look with a, Lord help me! Such a Look as the hoarse Leper gave in Marc. 1. 40. when he came to Jesus Christ, beseeching Him, & kneeling down unto Him. There is also a Look of Dependance▪ a Trusting a Rolling a Relying Look; a Look accompanied with the Language of the Psalmis [...] in Psal. 25. 2. O my God, I trust in thee. And there is a Look of Acknowledment, producing both of these. Many things doth the Believer discern & confess to be in that Jesus, whose Name is, Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. But these 2 things especially: One thing of which he is sensible is, that Jesus Christ is a mighty Saviour, owning that in Heb. 7. 25. He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him. Another thing whereof he is not unsensible is, that Jesus Christ is a Merciful Saviour, owning that in Joh. 6. 37. Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. After this manner does the Believer look to the Saviour upon the everlasting [Page] [...] from whence [...] all his help. [...] for What [...] Did of Faith▪ that is SALVATION. This the Apostle grants in [...] where he speaks to Christians about the end of their Faith▪ the Salvation o [...] [...] That which the Believer doth purpose to himself by his Addresses to [...] that he may be [...]esctied from all the Calamities which his Fall from God hath br [...]ght upon him, and that he may be [...] partaker of Benefits contrary thereunto▪ by the means of an All▪sufficient, & a Compa [...]nate Jesus the Mediator. There are indeed especially three things which the Believer does look unto the Lord Jesus for. His first Look is with that glance in Psal. 119. 122. Lord, [...] surety for thy servant for good. He would behold Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, appearing before divine Justice in his room▪ adding unto this cast of his Eye, this Throb of his heart▪ [...] Jesus Christ take away all my Sins, with all [...] wants & [...]oes, which thereby I bec [...]me [...]. He would have Jesus Christ to remo [...]e all the guilt that lies upon him, to ensta [...]e him in the Favour and Fellowship of God, and to procure for [...] all Blessings whatsoever▪ especially▪ spiritual Blessings, the Blessings of the [...] the [...] of the Covenant, [...] own [...]bedience & Intercession. His [...] [...] is with this sight in Psal. 25. 4. Shew me thy [...][Page]O Lord, Teach me thy paths. There is an Eye salve which he petitions unto this Lord our hea [...]er for. He flyes & cryes unto Jesus Christ, as that son of sorrow did of old, Lord that I may receive my sight. He would have Christ to remove all the blindness of his mind, to reveal unto him the happiness which is not seen, and which is eternal, and to discover unto him all that he must know & [...] in order to his obtaining of it. His Look, it with that Aim in Psal. 119. 5. Oh that my maye [...] [...]ere Directed to Keep thy statutes O God! He submits unto the ruling Will of God while he implores the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ▪ He reckons that the Most High by saying, I have sent my Son to bless you, by turning you away from your Iniquities, hath told him of a Blessedness [...] Loving kindness, which he hath infinite cause to say Amen unto. He would have Jesus Christ to remove all the Disorder of his Will, to inclin [...] him so that he may refuse the evil & choose the good, and to shield him against all the ruining attempts of the World; the Flesh and the Devil for evermore. This, all of this Faith is beck'nned for in this one word, Look unto Me.

[And these are the Christward Looks which must be given by you, whose eyes will be within a few dayes clos'd by the cold hands of grim Death, if you would not roar in outer (wor [...] than▪ Egyptian) darkness for evermore.]

On the heal of the former, this second [Page] Proposition taketh hold.

2. SALVATION will most undoubledly be the Fruit of a Believer's Looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. The great God, who once said unto upright man, Obey and live, now saith unto lapsed man, Believe & be saved; and truly an Exceeding great multitude, whom no man can number, have bin happy witnesses to the Fulfilment of it. It is that which our Lord has ordered to be proclaimed unto every creature, I mean (as the Hebrews do by that Phrase) unto every man in the world. Marc. 16. 16. He that believeth shall [be saved.] And when a convinced Jayler was solicitous about his everlasting Weal, the Messengers of heaven gave him this Testimony (which surely the convinced Prisoner that I have before me, may very reasonably look upon himself as concerned in) Act. 16. 31. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt [be saved.] Thus also it is represented as the Property & the Priviledge of true Believers, in Heb, 10. 39. We are of them that believe unto the saving of the soul. Verily, a man does no sooner look unto Jesus Christ in away of Beleeving, than a Sentence of Salvation is passed upon him, and all the [...], yea and all the Attributes of the Eternal Jehovah are engaged for the execution of it.

¶ Shall we descend unto some Particulars!

Every part of that Salvation which Jesus Christ is the Author of, ever follows upon Looking & Believing for it. As those three comprehensible [Page] and inexhaustible Treasures of life, in 2. Cor. 13. 14. even the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ▪ and the Love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit, are to be got by Lo [...]king. So particularly, the voice, the sweet soul-melting voice of the Lord Jesus Christ unto Sinners is, LOOK unto Me, and you shall be Justified. Hence, not to speak of the large Discourses on this point, in the Epistle to the Romans, concerning whom the spirit of Prophecy fore-saw that they would apostatize from their Orthodox Perswasion and Professions herein: It is said in Joh. 3. 18. He that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ is not condemned. No, he is in Christ, and there shall [no [...] one] Condemnation fall upon him, (as the Appostle else-where has it) tho' he may have deserved a Thousand Million. He is saved from the horrendous Wrath & Curse of God. The free Grace of God forgives all his transgressions, and accepts him as righteous▪ imputing the Righteousness of Jesus Christ [...] him; the just & holy God that was once angry with him every day, now [...]ayes unto him, Fury is not in me; Fury is not in me. And he rejoices with such a white stone put into his hand as that Parahtick had, unto whom it was said, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee. Yet again, The voice of the Lord Jesus unto sinners is, Look unto Me▪ and you shall be Adopted. Hence is it ave [...]r'd in Gal. [...]: 26. Ye are the children of God, by Faith in [Page]Christ Jesus. Thus these blessed believing Lookers shall be saved from the doleful Family of the Devil, they shall be taken into the number, they shall have a Title to the Felicity and Dignity of them that are the s [...]ns of God; the Angels now call them Brethren: and the Almighty Magnificent Governor of the world saies unto them, Ye are my sons & my daughters Besides all this, the Voice of the Lord Jesus unto sinners moreover is, Look unto Me, and you shall be Sanctified, in regard of this it is that He has said in Joh. 3. 36. He that believeth hath everlasting life; the Seed & the Spring of it is in Him. Truly such a man shall be saved from his slavery to the Enemies of his soul. He shall be renewed in his whole man after the Image of God, and be enabled more & more unto a dying to sin, and a living in Grace; his spirit, his soul, his body, his All [...] now under an enobling Dedication unto the Service of shewing forth the praises of God: a curious Needle-work made by the singers of the eternal Spirit covers him, adorns him, makes him more excellent than his neighbour. And Oh what peace [...] even the peace of God that passeth all understanding; O what Joy! even Joy unspeakable & full of glory; Oh what Assurance, Oh what Perseverance in this life will flow from these unto the saved Believer [...] [...]inally the Voice of the Lord Jesus unto sinners likewise is, Look unto Me and you shall be Glorified. On this score has the beloved[Page]Disciple said in 1. Joh. 5. 13. You that believe on the Name of the Son of God may know that ye have eternal life. Oh how firmly is Eternal Life ensured unto Believers! Certainly, those Christ-prizing Ones shall be saved from the second Death; they shall awake in the upper world, in the future world▪ they shall behold the Face of God and Christ in Righteousness, and be satisfied with His likeness. The Lamb shall feed them and lead them to Fountains of Living water. they shall enter into the Joy of their LORD; they shall drink of the Rivers of pleasure, at the right hand of GOD for ever more: they shall so partly at their Dissolution, they shall so fully at their Resurrection, they shall so in the Heaven of Heavens, until the very Heavens be no more. Such is a little of the [Be ye saved] which all Believers hear from their heavenly Friend, from their Undertaker on high. So great Salvation will a Believing LOOK procure.

But that this Gospel may have a sit and full dwelling in your hearts, there is one Proposition more to be laid into your Understandings.

3. The Lord Jesus Christ in His Gospel does graciously & earnestly INVITE all men thus to Look unto Him and be saved. That ever-glorious One whom God has exalted to be a Prince and Saviour, to give Repentance unto His Elect with Remission of sins; He hath with a matchless [Page] degree of Favour and Fervour too, advised Man-kind about this matter; He hath reviv'd a dying world with such sweet words of his mouth as these, O ye perishing Out-casts, I am a Saviour infinitely able & ready to relieve the Distresses which you are plung'd into: I require you and entreat you therefore, that you don't keep [...] distance from me. And for this cause it is that in Isa. 65. 1. he makes (according to the Apostolical Interpretation in Rom. 10.) this proffer even to the very Heathen (O let the blackest blindest Negroe, at the further end of this Assembly count himself bound to answer such a Call) Behold me, behold me! q. d. O that you would LOOK at me for my SALVATION. We have indeed a most precious Bible in our hands [that Book of Life I see in those hands too that must dye pinion'd before many dayes have roll'd away; man do you first look downward upon that, and so look upward unto Him from whom it comes] it is a Bible indited by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and preserved by His Providence; and the very scope of this, the principal business of it, is, to come from the Third Heaven, as a Letter with thy name, & mine, & every man's on the Endorsment of it, bespeaking the beleeving looks of every Reader unto a saving Jesus. But there are likewise many special passages to this purpose, sparkling and glittering like so many Jewels in the Cabinet of God. It is a Rule which our [Page] Lord Jesus has given about His Exhortations, [...] Ma [...]c. 13. 37. [...] What I say to one I say to Al [...] And will not the same square to His Invitation [...] also? Yes, the old loving Invitations which were more immediately given to other people do likewise call upon us upon whom the ends of the world are come. upon Thee, and thee, and thee Well, we are informed in Joh. 7. 36. That when our Lord Jesus was Incarnate among the moving Dust-heaps and Potsherds of the earth here below, once on the eight day of the Feast of Tabernacles, when there was a vast Confluence of People going to draw water from he Pool of Siloam, singing the words of the Prophet, [...] joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of Salvation [...], then He took occasion to stand, that He might be seen, to cry that he might be heard, & to say, If any man thirst, let him come to me & drink. [...] then all the needy dying souls of men are still one thus offered; the only Appointed & Anointed Redeemer of men does thus counsil them, Let me be it from you whensoever & whereinsoever you want Salvation. But how many other such amazing lines has He also sent down from the Excellent▪ Glory into a desolate world! It is the Lord Jesus Christ who has compared the Gospel of Salvation unto a well-fraught Vessel [...] up a River, whereabout He makes that [...]oud & loving Out cry—O Never, never was there an O yet's vouchsafed unto the world like [Page] [...] This [...] in Isai. 55. 1. Ho, every one [...] steth let him come and partake hereof. It is the Lord Jesus Christ too, who concludes this miraculous Book with that remarkable Period—when He would put a full Stop to inspired infallible Writings, He does it by exposing His Salvation unto general Acceptation, in Rev. 22. 17. Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. In a word: For the fuller Inculcation of such a marvellous Thing, we have this immortal King, laying upon us in the name of Him that is Higher than the highest, in [...] Joh. 3. 23. A Commandment to believe. We have Him hence also annexing the Sanctions of a Commandment hereunto, laying Bonds & Graplings of Iron upon the Consciences of men: We have Him both upon Mount Ebal & upon Mount God rizzin giving accents to His Look unto Me. He discharges the dreandful rumbling Thunderelaps of such denunciations as that in Joh 3. 36. He that believeth not shal not see life. And many more such Threats and Menaces does He roar out of Sion with, wherein the smoke of the Fire and Brimstone reserved in a hot Hell for the Portion of Unbelievers is blown under the Nostr [...]s of men. Yea, and He presents no less charming Encouragements to Beleeving than those in the Preface▪ to ye Proverbs of Solomon: & one Text more above all I have [...]ound which I must bring to you, an Sam [...]son did unto his Relations the Honey [...] [Page] he had light upon, it is in Mat. 11. 28. O feed upon it, every word in it is a drop of Canaans Hony; it is Honey from the Rock. He was a renowned Person that once said, mallem carere Clbo et Coelo quam ho [...] Verbo, I had rather not have a bit of Bread to put in my mouth, I had rather the Sun in the Firmament should shine no more upon me, than that I should loose so dear a Word as this. Thus our Lord speakes COME, gr. [Deute] a most friendly & familiar Call: q. d. I pray be so kind as to step hither to a Friend. But unto whom shall we come? Lo, He faith, come unto Me, unto Me that have all things deliver'd unto Me by the Father, unto Me that am by Him empowered and employed to pluck never-dying souls from the devouring Jaws of every Heath. But who shall come? mark the Answer, Let ALL come. But what if we have horrible Burdens of Filth and Fear lying upon us? Its no matter, sayes our Ever-living and Ever-loving Lord, come all ye that Labour and are heavy Laden. But what if we do come, shall we not miscarry miserably, and miss of our Expectations, notwithstanding all? No, no. The Faithful & true witness saith unto us, I will GIVE you REST.

[O let the poor fetter'd Prisoner recollect himself; James, thy name is not excepted in these INVITATIONS.]

It is a Feast of Fat things full of marrow, and [Page] of wines on the lees well refined, which the Lord ha [...] made in this Doctrin for the ruin'd Race of sinfuls men. It remains that we make some Uses of it.

USE. 1. And now Praises, Millions of Praises, an Eternity of High-praises [...]e given unto our Lord Jesus Christ who speakes such things to the rebellious. O the Admiration, O the Adoration which the never-enough praised Grace of Jesus Christ should beget in us! At the preaching of this Doctrin we have unnutterable cause to do as the Jews did at the building of the Temple in Zech. 4. 7. even to shout Grace, Grace, concercerning it, until our Acclamations reach unto the very Heavens. It is recorded of the poor slaves among the Brick-kilns in Egypt, Exod, [...] 31. That when they [...] the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and had look'd on their Affliction, then they bowed their hands and worshiped: behold, you have this morning heard, that the Lord Jesus Christ hath visited the children of men, and bid them in their Afflictions to Look unto Himself. O where are the good words, where are the kind thought [...] that we ought to magnify this Redeemer and His Grace withal? David once in an holy Ecstasie of soul, 1. Chron. 29. 10,—14. Blessed the Lord, and said, O who am I! Verily now, all of us have cause to abound with such▪ notes as those, Lord [...] are we, that He who sits on the lofty Throne of Eternity should send away unto us that ly starving like odious Beggars [Page] among the Ditches and under the Hedges of [...] inviting us to LOOK unto Him and be SAVED The Pharisees of old aspers'd Him with this as His Disgrace, but let us cry it up in Him as his Honour, This man receiveth sinners. The vertuous Elizabeth in Luc. [...]. 43. Wondred that the Mother of her Lord should come unto her: but what a thing is this, that our Lord Himself should Invite us to Look, yea, to come unto himself! That he who [...]its as King for ever upon the lofty Battlements of Heaven, & charges the very Angels with Folly▪ should so far smile upon [...]s a company of born-fools wandering about the earth: upon us who dwell in houses of Clay▪ [...] [...]undation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth; did I say so? Nay this is not the worst of our Character: we are not only undeserving creatures, but also Hell-deserving sinners. When our first Father began a desperate War against the Omnipotent God, we were part of the mad Regiment involved in his perfidious Treason, and our Emnity against our Maker ha [...] from our very Cradles been so enormous, that we should long ere now have bin Devils-in-flesh, if the checks of Restraining Grace had bin taken away. And, what unreasonably vitious lives has we been leading ever since a Rational Soul appar [...]ntly acted in us! How have we bin every moment sinning against the Law of God, transgressing every precept of Love to God & to man [...] [...] [Page] how grievouslly, have we bin sinning against the Gospel too! fearfully grieving, fleighting, and shamefully affronting a Redeemer that for many a day besought us to be reconciled unto God! This have we been & done. And Ah Lord, doest thou open thine eyes upon such ones? What if the Lord Jesus Christ had now only spoken unto us such fiery wrathful words as those in Isa. 1. 23. Aha, I will ease me of mine enemies, & avenge me of mine Adversaries! or th [...]se in L [...]c. 19. 27. Those mine enemies bring hither, and s [...]ay before me! Verily I say unto you, he would be clear in his speaking and just in his judging so. What if he should appear unto us in the black garments of all-desolating indignation, with keen Darts & consuming Thunder-bolts in his hand? What if he should appear in flaming fire, to take vengeance on us that have not known God, nor obeyed his Gospel? Surely this would be no more than a proper and a proportionable Dispensation. But instead of this, the winning Language, which with bowels full of such Philanthropy as (this King's wedding a Queen out of our poor Family) His taking our Nature to subsist in his Second Person, doth evince and encline Him to have unto us) he speakes unto us, is, O Look in [...]o Me and be SAVED. Yea, and in this thing he doth with a Riddle of Free Grace distinguish us from, by dignifying us above uncountable Multitudes of our Fellow-creatures, our Fellow-criminals▪ [Page] If we do look through the earth and into Hell we shall soon see our selves lifted up to heaven by the Invitation which our Lord Jesus has given to us to Look unto Him for Salvation. Let us (we especeally in this Wilderness that that like Gideon's Fleece, enjoyes these Dewes of Heaven when the rest of the world is dry, may do it) take a view of all the Visible World and see what incredible Millions in every Generation, there are that either never had one beam from the Sun of Righteousness falling on them, but drop down into the Land of Darkness without hearing a word of Him, or, at least, are by their blind Guides muffled up in such Ignorance as proves to them the Mother of Destruction, Alas, Alas,—for the people that perish for lack of vision, that sit in the region of the shadow of death. But here, in a little Spot of ground that other day the Devil was worshiped in, there now are the Colonies, whom the Invitations of Jesus Christ have known above all the Families of earth. This is much! But take a view likewise of the [...]owling people in the Invisible world, Who are there in the fiery dismal Vault below▪ There are vast Legions of Devils in that place of torment; but unto which of those apostate spirits has our Lord Jesus said, I would have thee to look unto me? There is an innumerable number of our▪ Race too gone down into that formidable Pit but unto none of those does the Lord Christ ever [Page] say, Thou mayst be saved by me if thou wilt▪ No, those Invitations are our Prerogative. Wonderments, where are you? Halleluiahs, where are you? Syrs, let us place the utmost of them upon this misterious Love. But we are sottish; our unaffected rocky hearts are insensible of our obligations to the Lord Jesus Christ; Then wonder, O ye Angels, give Thanks, O all ye ministring Spirits, Let the Morning stars in the upper Regions, throughout eternal Ages think honourably of the Saviour whom we are unapt to acknowledge, for his remembring us in our low estate, because his mercy endures for ever. O how, how shall we enough extol the merciful High-Priest, whose Look unto me and be saved, has bin vouchsaved unto us! Is this the manner of men, O Lord▪ No, no. Then, Let the people praise the, O Lord, let all the people praise thee, since Thy way is known upon the earth, and Thy SAVING Health among all Nations.

But This is not all the Good-Speech of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto us; There's some-what more that remains to be said unto us all, [and particularly unto that Condemned Malefactor here who is never to see the Light of another Sabbath in the world] It was a pathetic word of the Apostle to his Corinthians in 2. Cor. 6. 1. We beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain. Wherefore.

[Page] USE. 11. O Let every one of us now [...] [...]th Jesus Christ by Faith for SALVATION▪ If he say unto us, Look unto me, let not us [...] such prodigies of madness as to reply▪ [...] will not look unto thee. It is a sweet in [...] between God and man, which the [...] prescribes in Jer. 3. 22. where the Can of God [...] Return ye backsliding [...] backslidings: and the Echo of man is▪ [...]ehold [...] come unto thee, for thou ar [...] th [...] Lord [...] God. [...] that there might now [...]e such a Communion between Christ and us. His [...] Look unto Me and be saved: let our Return [...], [...]hould we look unto thee, for thou art the Lord our saviour. Do not, I entreat you, do not give unto the Lord Jesus Christ such a daring and damning Answer as that in Jer. 44. 16. As for the word spoken by us in the Name of the Lord, we will not heart thereunto. It is a thing declared by the Lord Jesus Christ concerning these Gospel times Zech 12. 10. Men shall look upon me and morn▪ No shall a like thing be brought to pass with these walls this day? How shall so great thing as this be gained? A sad part of this Congregation, tis to be doubted, are too much [...] the Leviathan, Their hearts are as firm as a [...] as a peice of the nether Milstone: The [...] of him that Layeth at them cannot hold. Alas, [...] shall be done for them? Unto Thoe, O Lord, [...] my [...]; O Father of spirits [...][Page] [...], look down with thy tender meroies on the spirits of the unperswadeable Children. And O Thou that hast the keyes of David in thy hand, Open, open our hearts as thou didst Lydia's of old, and effect by thy mighty power that we may look unto thee & believe.

God forbid that there should be any Esau-like despisers of Jesus Christ, and his Invitation, or his Salvation, in the Congregation. God forbid that there should be one such child of perdition as an impenitent unbeliever among us all Some persons there are indeed, who make a Scruple of it, May▪ I venture to look unto Jesus Christ, notwithstanding all my vileness, my wretchedness, my unworthiness? To these it may be safely rejoin'd If you find that God hath wrought your heart to a willingness to close with a whole Christ, you [...] should not let your Unworthiness be your Discouragement against doing of it. The Invitatitation Look unto me, is enough to embolden you unto beleeving looks towards the Lord Jesus Christ, notwithstanding all the damps & doubts which your misgiving hearts may have about your acceptance in it. Syrs, the Golden Sceptre is held out, you may draw near. When Jesus Christ said unto Peter, you may come, he presently ran over the dangerous waves of the boisterous Sea unto Him; Truly so, since Jesus Christ sayes to you, you may look, let no hard suspicions and surmises keep you from doing your duty in it. The Canaanitess in Mat. 15. 27. did, as one of [Page] the An [...]ients expresseth it, play the Philosopher she disputed the case after this rate; A Dog may have Crumbs, It seems I am a dog; Therefore (an ingenious & a gracious Therefore) I may have crumbs too. Thus may you Argue prostrate as the footstool of the Lord Jesus Christ, All the Ends of the earth should look unto thee, O Lord I am one at the Ends of the earth; Therefore I may look unto thee. Surely He that hath his Chair in the heavens, will deny no part of the Syllogism which shall thus be framed by a wrestling Faith. Though you have bin as bad as any among the Corinthians were of old, yet if you have arrived unto a due hunger & thirst after Jesus Christ, you may endeavour to look unto him, saying as Samuel to Eli, Lord here I am for thou calledst me; and He will be far from saying to you as Eli to Samuel, No, I called not.

The Question which some will now be ready to ask, is, (and O that many with an earnestness like that wherewith Peter's hearers put forth their What shall we do, would ask such a question)

How shall I look unto Jesus Christ?

About this there are a few Directions to be given.

O set your hearts unto the words that shall be [...] stified among you, for they are not vain things; your very lives, yea the lives of your souls are concerned in them.

¶ Know then, that besides your occasional glances towards the Lord Jesus Christ, which every day ought to be very many, at least as many as [Page] the stings which the infernal vipers do [...] your souls withal; there is a Set-work of this nature to be solemnly performed both by them whose▪ died eyes never yet look'd to Jesus Christ, & by them whose dimeyes have cause enough to continue looking unto him whom they have already seen.

Now there are Two things to be premised concerning this. Let this be the 1st. premised.

It is highly expedient that you should speedily set apart a time to make attempts about the grand work of Looking unto Jesus Christ. It is indeed true, that an unbeliever hath no other Assureance of prospering in his Essayes to break the iron Prison doors of his unbelief, but such an Who can tell? such an Who knowes such an It may it, as the Prophets of old were wont much to insist upon. If you set your selvs to believe in your own strength, the Faith of Simon Magus is all you are like to attain unto. Yet you may be quickned to do what you can, from the renowned History of the man with the withred hand in Mat. 13. 13. unto whom Jesus saying, stretch forth thy hand; he tryed to do it without any demurr at the seeming unsuitableness of the Injur [...]tion, and Behold he stretched it forth and it was restored.

Let this be next premised. It is extreamly [...]qui [...] that this rare work of Looking unto Jesus Christ should be often renewed. Sometimes perhaps the spirit of jealousy will come upon you, you will be fearing, Alas, I did never yet aright [Page] look unto Jesus Christ! Now the best way to set▪ t [...]e these troubled waters, will be that which Jonah had, I will look yet AGAIN. And O remember, that to do this work often, over & over again, is a thing than which nothing can more tend to your Victory over all the Adversaries of your endless Welfare. Yea, sometimes if an Half or a Whole of a day, were purposely laid out i [...], this work, the time will be found not to have bin lost when Eternity shall dawn upon the world. Hence in 1. Pet. 2. 4. they who have already tasted the grace of Jesus Christ are bid still to come unto him. [Some of us before the sands of another hour be run out, shall so meet with this King of glory in his Galleries that we may have a special opportunity to catch hold on the feet of the Lord who deigns to sup with us, and like Mary cry my Lord, my Lord until we have renewed the Looks that have hitherto kept ou [...] souls in life. O be you thankful for this, and do with your might what your hands find to do.]

And now, Hear and your soul shall live. [...] that you would [...]abour in a wise Retirement to [...]i [...]t up the woful eyes of your Hell-stung souls toward [...] the Lord Jesus Christ after such a manner.

1. Meditate most affectionately on those things which may awaken the Christ-ward LOOKS of of your souls. It is hinted in Luc. 1. 17. That ordinarily before persons can look, unto Jesus Christ, they must be a people prepared for the [Page]Lord. Now to promote and produce this peice of Soul-good, there is no Engine, like to Consideration. O Consideration, what Medicine for soul maladies is comaparable to That! If we would [...]ut let the Angel of CONSIDERATION stir the Pool, how probably might we step in, and have our unbelieving▪ eyes enabled to look unto our dear Helper who longs to be doing good unto us! It's said of a Convert in Ezek. 18. 28. He considers & he turns, perhaps it may likewise at last [...]e said of us, he considers & he looks. There are then 2 or 3 savory Meditations, to which if you should give a time and room, you may hereafter reap the comfort of it. I perceive in Hos. 14. 2. and elsewhere, that the prophets would sometimes put words into the mouths of them that they were travelling for the Salvation of: Something of that kind shal now be done by the bringing of th [...]se thoughts into your mind which may▪ comport with the Invitations of Jesus Christ.

Let your first Head of Meditation be an I Must Think with your selves, I must look unto Jesus Christ. Say to your own souls about Looking to Jesus Christ, as Paul did about preaching of Jesus Christ, Necessity is laid upon me, and woe unto me if I do it not. Bestow one look in the first place on your selvs, upon your own most rue [...]ul [...] & Fears. O ponder on the hideous doleful plight which by your Iniquities you have sunk your selves into and with an Anguish of Soul speak to [Page] your selvs in such Soli-loquies as these.

‘Ah, wo is me; In the Fruition of God is enwrapped all my happiness, without this, O Lord, what will become of me for evermore! But never was there a more lamentably forsaken Soul than I. The Terrible God, at whose Rebukes the Everlasting Rocks are tumbled down, and the mountainous Pillars of heaven tremble, He is such an Adversary to me, that if I do not agree quickly with Him, never-ceasing Tormentors will take me into their unpittying hands. I have like a Fool in whom [...]olly was exalted horribly provoked him by my▪ sins that are as many as the Sands, & as mighty as the Hills that over-top the Clouds. I am hereupon justly already smitten with spiritual plagues, & justly given over into the clutches of the red roaring Dragons, & devouring Lions whom I have most fondly hearkned unto Yes I see the dreadful Gulf below gaping for me, I see my self ready to be pray'd upon by the worm that dyes not, & by the fire which never shall be quenched. Nor can I by any means pluck my self out from this horrible Pit, this miery clay. Alas, What shall I do? O wretchman that I am, who shall deliver me?’

Let your second Head of Meditation hereupon [...]e an, I May. Think with your selvs, I May look to Jesus Christ. O hear him crying to you from the fragrant Tops of the Spicy Mountains [Page] [...] in Hos. 13. 9. O Soul, thou hast destroy [...] self but in Me is thy help. Don't let your Imaginations be, that There is no hope. No, reserve now another look for Jesus Christ, as the Moses sent by God to draw you out from black stoods of your perplexities. Now refresh yourselvs with this▪ Reflection.

That there is such an one as the God-man Jesus Christ to goe unto; and so (say) [...]is possible that I may live. Say now with your selvs.

‘But is there no hope in Israel concerning me? yes, I see a door of hope. My God may become my Friend, and His Foe MAY become His child yet for all this. Yet may I glorify Him & enjoy Him forever. The Son of God is become the Son of man, a Dayes-man between God & man. It has pleas'd the [...]ather that in him should all fulness dwell, and it hath pleased Himself, to engage in the blessed work of bringing God and man together. Neither will I undervalue Him so▪ much, as to count that any of my streights are too difficult for Him to meddle with▪ or that any of my Faults will cause him to reject the Supplications that his Spirit shall help me to come before him with. No, No, when I am▪ about to say unto him, Lord, If thou wilt thou canst save me, His preventing Goodness sayes to me, Soul, if thou wilt, I will. Then I will [...] longer pine away in mine Iniquities, but look unto Him immediately.’ Having got thus far,

Then 2. Cry to Heaven that you may be [Page] Enabled to Look unto the Lord Jesus Christ▪ The Case is so that you cannot look unto Jesus Christ until you see that you cannot look. Never will you aright look, unto Jesus Christ, if you do it not with Sentiments a kin to that in Joh. 6. 44. No man can come (or look) unto Jesus Christ except the Father draw him. No, we have bin told by the heavenly Records, concerning this Look of Faith, that it is the gift of God. That it is the Operation of GOD, and that it is caused by the mighty power of God. It was asked of old in Joh. 6. 44. How can ye believe? Such an humbling Quaere should you put unto your selves, How can I look unto Jesus Christ? Certainly you can as easily make Iron swim, and ponderous Mountains to fly like Atoms about the Air, and bulky Rocks to place themselves among the shining stars in the Firmament of God, as look unto Jesus Christ by any Abilities of your [...]. If you would not have your Faith prove a Cobweb in the day when the fiery Beesom of Destruction shall sweep the world, you mus [...] first say with him in Psal. 40. 12. I am not able to look up. Now with a bleeding soul, on the precipeice of an inevitable Hell, make your moans as the man did in Mar. 9. 24. Lord [...] my [...]belief. Now say; ‘O Lord I must believe or dy, I may believe and live; but I cannot, O I cannot. Do thou draw me, do thou turn me, or I shall yet miscarry. Doe thou work [Page] this work of thine own in me and for me. In the whole of my Salvation will at length redound to thy Honour. Not unto me, not unto me, but unto Thee, O Lord will be all the Glory.’ Hereupon: Labour to look as well as you can unto Jesus Christ for All that Salvation which He has to confer upon you. There is a probable likelyhood that the issue of your struggling after faith may be this, That the Lord Jesus Christ will say unto you, as once unto deceased Lazarus, O thou dead Soul, arise. Watch now to follow him as Peter did the Angel in Act 12. 9. till you have got out of the Goal which you have on a Light fire over your heads. Tis possible and more than so, that Jesus Christ may now do by you as he did to that man in Marc. 8. 25. when He put His hands upon his eyes, and made him look up. Now, now profess unto the Lord Jesus Christ, as did Jehoshaphat long ago, in 2. Chron. 20. 12. I know not what to do, O Lord, but my eyes are up unto thee. O say to him, Lord, I look unto Thee for for thy Salvation, yea, as the Hart panteth after the water brooks; so does my soul after Thee, O Saviour. I do heartily close with Thee, as the Surety of the New everlasting Covenant which is made between the First Being & my sou [...] [...] and I wait upon Thee for the Communication of all the sure me [...]cies which belong unto it.

But in doing thus, have a special Regard to this, That you do not retain a Prejudice against any [Page] part of the Salvation which you ought to be desireous of▪ O don't look a squint when you look unto Jesus Christ. Don't divide his saving Offices His saving Kindnesses; but with a single eye, say, Lord, be all that to me which thou art to any of thy chosen ones. Hath the Lord said of Him, in Psal. 110, 4. Thou art a Priest forever! Now do you answer, Lord, I consent to have Jesus Christ on my behalf a Priest whose Obedience▪ & Inetrcession shall take away all Controversies between Thee & me. Has the Lord said of him in Act, 3. 22. A Prophet shall the Lord raise up unto you▪ Do you answer, Lord, let Jesus Christ be my Prophet, leading me evermore in the way wherein I should go. Has the Lord said of him in Psal. 2. 6. I have set him as my King upon my holy hill? Do you answer, Lord, I would have Jesus Christ be my King forever, Governing, Strengthening, desending of me whilest I have any being. Do this;—And then labour to rest with glorious Transports and Triumphs now saying, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope in the Lord, for thou shalt praise Him, who is thy Salvation.

This is the good way, walk therein and you shall find Rest for your souls. But, O ye souls in peril, what is the Resolution that you intend to go out of this House withal? Is your answer like theirs in Jer. 6. 16.—we will not walk therein? [...] Shall yonder Doors anon bear witness against you, Here passes by a person that will still neglect [Page] to look unto Jesus Christ. Alas has all this Rain fallen upon the Rocks? Will none of us now with full purpose of heart, say before the heart▪searching One, with him in Marc. 7. 7. I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my Salvation. how strangely besotted must that Israelite have been, who should have declined to have given a Look unto the Remedy which the Almighty had provided for him, when the mortal spreading Venome of a Scorpion had set his bloud in a torturing flame? Epecially, when all the world (as I perceive by what the Roman Poet Lucan wrote many Ages after) could not help to any other cure of the stinging Strokes which the Tayls of these Presters gave? Every Unbeliever here is to be charged with a more bruitish & stupid Madness. Indeed the Jewish [...]almud affirms, that a Look mith the eye to the brazen Serpent did the people in the Disart no good, unless there were at the same time a look with the heart unto the heavenly Father also. [...] assuredly, without your Look unto Jesus Christ, [...] is impossible that your Souls should do any other than Welter and languish under dolours more scorching than Rivers of burning Brimstone or of running Bell-metal world without end. 'Tis uncertain what your esteem of Salvation is, but surely Salvation should be worth a Look. My Friend, if the Saviour had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? yea, thou [Page] shouldst have reckoned Salvation to be worth Rocks of Diamonds. Thousands of Rams, and the Thousands of Rivers of oyl, are not too much to be parted with by him that would have SALVATION. What an obdurate heart of Adamant must he then have that shall be disobedient when our Lord only faith LOOK and be saved! You have now a season to secure Salvation at so cheap a rate; but I may not break off till I have most vehemently and faithfully protested unto you, that you shall not alwayes have so. You are here mourning over a man in Irons whose life will be done before this week be out: and yet who among you can say that your Great Change is not nearer unto you? but I do with utmost ardour of spirit declare unto you, That if your souls are found Faithless & Christless when they are required of you, Wo, wo unto you ten thousand times,—for infinitely more than ten thousand Ages. He that made you will not have mercy on you; He that formed you will shew you no Favour. You shall, be banished from the light of his countenance for evermore. Because you would not look unto the Son of God while the day of His patience did continue, you, shall miserably perish when his wrath is kindled more than a little. Then instead of the delightful sound which the High-Priests Bells do now make, of Look & be saved, or the silver Trumpets wherewith the Lord Christ doth proclaim a Jubilee of [...] to Captives [Page] and opening of the prison to them that are bound, you shall hear nothing but the Thunder of his exasperated Jealousy. Now you have him offering of Salvation for a Look, but if you are such deaf Adders as to disregard the same, you shall hearafter look unto him, and see nothing but Frowns & fierce Lightennings, and flagrant sparkling Coals of Juniper about him: Alas, in the room thereof you shall have from him only those bitter angry astonishing Words in Matt. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire. Then, O then all your looks unto him will meet with such confusion as the Lord speaks of in Zech. 7. 13. It is come to pass, as he cryed & they would not hear, so they cryed and I would not hear, saith the Lord. And will you make such a choice as this, ye children of Folly? You that have a million times bin hearkning to the bloudy Devil when he has said serve me and take Hell for thy pains: will you not hearken unto that▪ altogether lovely Lord who saith unto you, Look unto me, and I with all my Salvation will be thine Verily, the most black mouth'd Oathes, and foul Uncleannesses and filthy Drunkennesses of the vilest Debauchee, will not pull down forer Punishment than this UNBELIEF will bring upon the UNLOOKING Sinners, who will thus render themselves as the Fat of Lambs before the JUSTICE of the Almighty [Page] for their contemning the Lamb of God. I pray you Brethren, do not thus wickedly. O do not for want of a Look make it more tolerable for Sodom & Gomorrha in the day of Judgment than for you. O that the eternal Spirit would rend the heavens & come down to rend the hearts which are still shut against all the motions that Jesus Christ does make unto them. It is foretold concerning the Day of the Lord's working upon Israel, in Isai. 12. In that day shall a man look to his Maker. O for the Dawns of such a day upon us, wherein it may be said, In this day, many a man looks to his Redeemer. O that every seat within these walls might be full of the believing souls, who at this moment say unto the Lord Jesus Christ, as he in Psal. 5. 3. My voice shalt Thou hear, O Lord, and I will look up: and who will evermore keep looking, and looking, and looking, unto the Lord Jesus Christ, until He do arise & save them. Amen.

But what is thus said unto All is now mainly to be said unto One. I see a Condemed Prisoner here, to whom this CALL of the GOSPEL is most particularly to be directed.

The Message which I have to bring unto You, is like that which the Prophet once carried unto a better man, O Set thy Soul in order, for thou shal [...] DY and not live. It is indeed a very sorrowful thing unto us, to see, that a man in his early [Page] dayes should thus dy before his time for his being wicked overmuch! That when half the Age of a man has not pass'd over you, a doelful dreadful Storm of God does hurry you away from your afflicted family. Yea, that men do clap their hands at you, and hiss you out of your place. I hope there are no such flinty bowels here, as do not yern over you: yet the Land must not be polluted by the sparing of you. You have slain a man to your wounding & a miserable man to your hurt. You that have been wont formerly to say of the Sabbath, What a weariness is it? must not now be permitted to draw your breath until the Revolution of another Sabbath. Behold Now is your accepted time, Now is your day of Salvation. By that time a few swift hours are flown away, your pretious and yet perishing soul is to be hurried away into Eternity.—But O what a [...] soul ga [...]tring word is that, ETERNITY, ETERNITY! If within 4 or 5 days you have not secured the Salvation of your soul by looking unto Jesus Christ, your soul, that never-dying Soul of yours, that Spark of Immortality which yet takes up its lodging in you, must be broken in the place of dragons, for as many millions of Years as there are stars in the Sky, or drops in the Sea, or sands on the Shore, and yet be no nearer to [...]he end of the Gnawes & Scalds that shall overwhelw it, than the first moment that they began. [...] Sips of the cup which is there alwaies in [Page] the trembling hands of the Out cast Ones [...] before now made a man in this world to say▪ I desire no greater mitigation of my misery, than that I might ly in the room of the Back-log behind the fire on my hearth forever. Suerly you don't intend [...] try how you can grapple with such a Damnation, as you are now upon the brink and the Border [...] of Can your heart be strong, or can your hands endure in the day that I shall deal with you? saith the Lord.

I am glad for the seemingly penitent Confession of your monstrous Miscarriages which yesterday I obtained in writing from you, and which indeed was no more than there was need of. But it now remains yet▪ That you give your dying Looks unto the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation▪ from all your Guilt, and from all the Plagues in the flying Roll which that does expose you to. The man-slayer of old had a City of Refuge to befriend him; Behold I do this day in the name of Jesus Christ point you to such an one. O poor soul, LOOK, look up, and run unto it. O don't sit down on this side a full Resignation of your self unto Jesus Christ, left the Everlasting and the ever-bnrning Vengeance of the Almighty do overtake you in your doing so. For your Assistance herein, besides what I have more privately said to you, since you first writt to me your desires of speaking with me, I have now only these Requests to make unto you. My [...] Request unto you is,

[Page] That you would at this hour think of an Interest in Jesus Christ, as you will quickly at the hours of your death & of your judgment. Surely when the Executioner is laying the cloth of Death over your eyes, the Look with the Shrick of your▪ soul will then say, O now a 1000 worlds for an interest in Jesus Christ! Surely, a few minutes after that, when your naked soul shall appear before the Judgment seat of the most High, you will again have it over, An Interest in Jesus Christ is now worth whole mountains of massie gold. O let this be now the settled opinion of your awakned heart: reckon that if God help you to give one Look unto Jesus Christ, it will be a greater mercy to you than if not only a life in this world, but all the Riches & honour & pleasures of it were bestowed upon you. My next Request to you is,

That you would look upon Jesus Christ, as not only able but willing to be your Saviour. It is true, that you have murdered your own soul many Thousands of times, by leading a life of most horrid Impietyes. It is true that after all you have murdered the Body (and no thanks to you if not the soul) of your Neighbour too. Yea, it is true, (and O that the Rock in your bosom might [...]low with tears at the stroke of such a thought) that you have by sin wickedly murdered the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Yet, yet is the Lord Jesus Christ from yonder heaven this day pleading with you, O look upon Me as one ready [Page]to be thine. He that saies, Look unto me all [...] end of the earth, also saith, Poor man, do thou look unto me from thy Dungeon, yea; and when thou shalt be at the end of the Town upon thy Ladder also. Oh Jesus Christ is that Saviour who said once to a Malefactor in the after-noon wherein he was hang'd, This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Christ is that Saviour who made a pardoned Discipile of one from whom he was put to cast out [...] devils, perhaps as many fiends as your soul has bin the Castle of. Multitudes of such bloody creatures as the infamous Manasseh was have been taken under the merciful wings of Jesus Christ. O thou Prisoner of hope, it is not an utterly impossible thing, that Jesus Christ should take from the Gallows unto Glory.

My Third Request unto you is, That your looks unto Jesus Christ may be very humble, exceeding sincere, and exceeding earnest. O while you are looking to Jesus Christ be loathing of your self. Abhor and condemn your self as most worthy of all the crushes that you can have in the wine-press of Omnipotent Fury, of all the [...]owling Torments between the Mill-stones in the Pit below. And set every way of wickedness become hateful, yea, more bitter than death unto you, as rendring you obnoxious hereunto. Nay, set open the Door of your soul unto the Saviour that is knocking at it, for this very thing, that he may make it an evil and a better thing unto you, to forsake the Lord: [Page] for▪ if you go out of the world with any [...] morsel in your mouth or with any harboured beloved l [...]st of which you don't truly say, Lord, [...] me from it. I do most solemnly testify unto you, It had bin good for [...] that you never had been born▪ you shall becomeas a glowing Iron fully possessed by the hot wrath of God; & you shall be made as a fiery Oven fill'd with his indignation, without any Ease, without any End. Be also most importunate in your Sighs & Cries unto Jesus Christ for such desireable things, urge hard, [...] for the life of a soul that shall never die. If the Court should say to you, Beg hard & you shall live. Oh how affectionate would you be! Soul, the Lord Jesus Christ saies that thing to you, If thou canst heartily look & beg thou shalt not be hang'd up among the monuments of my vengeance in chains of darkness forevermore. How can you now be silent or sensless? or not strive in prayer? or not stir up your self to take hold of such boundless mercy? It was indeed the insolent speech of Pilate unto Jesus Christ when he had Him at his Barn, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, & have power to release thee? But it is more fitly spoken by Jesus Christ unto you, Knowest thou not that I have power to destroy thee soul & body in hell forevermore? knowest thou not that if thou passest a day or two more without a due regard unto me, thou canst not be saved therefrom, tho' the life of all the Angels in heaven[Page]should be proffered for thy ransom; and speakest thou not unto Me? O thou deplorable soul, speak and seek and look unto Him as for Life eternal [...]

May last Request unto you is, O give & get all the Honour you can unto that Jesus from whom you look for your Salvation. While you are seeking to look well unto Him, O see that you speak well of Him, and do well for Him, until you shall speak and do & be among the living on the earth no more. Surely you have by presumptions things enough reproached him already. The sharp Ax of Civil [...] will speedily cut you down; O for a little good fruit before the blow! Manifest your penitence for your Inequities by a due care to excel in tempers quite contrary to those ill Habits and customs whereby you have heretofore blasphemed the worthy Name of Christ & Christianity. Especially employ the last minutes of your Life [...]in giving a zealous Warning unto others to take heed of those things which have bin destructive unto you. Tell them what wild Gourds of death they are by which you have got your Bane; point out before them those pathes of the destroyer which have led you down so near unto the Congregation of the dead. When the numerous croud of spectators are 3 or 4 days hence thronged about the place where you shall then breathe your last before them all, then do you with the heart-piercing groans of a deadly wounded man [...] on your Fellow-sinners that they would [Page] turn now every one from the evil of his way. Beseech of them to keep clear of ill Haunts & ill Houses, with as much dread of them▪ as they could have of lying down in a nest of poisonful [...] Beseech of them to abhor all Uncleanness as they would the deep ditch which the abhorred of the Lord do fall into. Beseech of them to avoid all Excess in Drinking as they would not rott themselves with more bitter Liquors than the Waters of [...]. Beseech of them to moderate and mortifie all inordinate Passions as they would not surrender themselves into the hands of Devils that will hurry them down into deeper Deeps than they are aware. Beseech of them to Shun idle Swearing as a Prophanity that the GOD to whom Vengeance belongeth will not permit to go unpunished. Beseech of them to avoid Curses on themselves or others, lest while they like Madmen so throw about fire-brands & arrows & death, they bring upon their own heads, as you have done, the things which they are apt ramly to be wishing of. Beseech of them to beware of Lying, as they would not be put to need & crave & be denied a drop of water to cool their tongue▪ in the place of Torment. Beseech of them to be as averse to all Stealing as they would be to carry coals of fire into the Nests that they so feather by their dishonesty. Beseech of them to price the means of Grace; to sleep At or keep from [...]ermons no more; to love the Habitation of God's [Page]house, and the place where His Honour dwels lest God do soon send their froward barren souls to dwell in silence, where there never shall be a Gospel-Sermon heard; never, never as long as the Almighty sits upon His Chrystal Throne.

And when you have given these Warnings upon the Leader from whence you shall not come off without taking an irrecoverable step into eternity; O remember still you give unto Jesus Christ the honour of LOOKING to Him for His Salvation. Remember that if you would do a work highly for the honour of Him, This is The work of God, that you Believe on Him. Even after your eyes are so covered as to take their leave of all lights below, still continue LOOKING unto Him whom you have heard saying, Look unto [...] And now let the Everlasting Saviour LOOK down in much mercy on you: O that He would give this Murderer and extraordinary Sinner, a place among the Wonders of free Grace! O that this wretched man might be made meet for the Inheritance with the Saints in Light; being kept from such an unrepenting and deluded heart as [...] fire will find Fuel in.

And be thou pleased, O Holy Lord God Almighty to sanctifie this Example so, that the Sinners in this Zion may be afraid, & that Fearfulness may surprise the Hypocrites thereof, and they may all hear, and fear, and do wickedly no more.

AMEN, AMEN.

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AN EXHORTATION To A CONDEMNED MALEFACTOR Delivered March the 7th 1686.

By JOSHUA MOODY, Preacher of the Gospel at Boston in New-England.

Ezek. 33. 9. If thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, if he do not turn from his way, he shall dy in his iniquity, but thou shalt deliver thy soul.

Josh. 7. 19. —Give glory—to the God of Israel and make Confession to Him, and tell me what thou hast done.

Isa. 55. 6, 7. Seek the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his Way, and the unrighteous man his Thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

Printed at BOSTON, by R. P. Anno 1687.

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To the Reader.

IT was the Motion of many, and the Importunity of some that drew from me my consent to make this (almost extemporary) discourse thus public. The Prisoner sent to me on the After-noon before the Sabbath, a writing under his hand, wherein he own'd the Justice of God in bringing him to this untimely End, and the Righteousness of the Sentence of Man upon him▪ together with a Confession of those sins that he had lived in all his dayes, of which there is something spoken in the Sequel: adding 2 Requests, viz. that I would take some Notice of him in my Sermon, and that I would give warning to those of his Fellow-Siners that had been guilty of the like evils, left they also become like monuments of divine Justice. Such reasonable requests especially from a dying man I could not deny. My Subject that day was Isa. 12. 1. and my Business at that time to discourse of the necessity, means & marks of the turning away of God's Anger, which I judged not unsutable for a person in his condition; accordingly did, as there was occasion, apply my self particularly to him in my Sermon, which is not so proper to insert here, What was directly spoken to himself, or to others at his desire, so far at least as my memory would serve me, is committed to the Press, and added as an Appendix to those more studied sermons which the Lord put into the heart of other of His Servants to preac [...] for his sake that is gone, and publish for the good of others that survive. The good Lord follow the whole with his blessing, and grant that all Israel may hear & fear, so that there may no more such great wickedness be done in this our Land.

Joshua Moody.

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WHat I have to say to the poor condemned Prisoner shall be under these Two Heads: viz. Something▪ 1. By way of Conviction and Awakning. 2. By way Encouragement and Counsel First, To begin with Matter of Conviction & Awakening, and tho' I understand he is already somewhat considerably affected & concerned, yet more of that may be useful for him. And here I shall use all Plamess & Freedom, taking it for granted, that dying men are past all expectation of Flatteries or Complements, and that plain dealing, which will do most Good, will find best Acceptance.

1. Thou standest here before the Lord and his People at this Time, as a solemn Example of that sacred Text, Numb. 32. 23. You have sinned against the Lord, and be [...] your sin will find you out. This day is this Scripture awfully fulfilled upon you. You have owned under your hand that you have lived all your dayes in those abominable sins of Cursing, Swearing, Lying, Drunkenness and Sabbath-breaking, such sins as that the least of them (however you have made a light matter of them) without deep Humiliation & sincere Application to the Blo [...]d of Christ, is enough to exclude you forever from any Inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven. 1. Cor. 6, 9, 10. And those that have been acquainted with you think you have not wrong'd your self in that Confession. Besides all the other evils that [Page] your own heart is privy to, and many more which the All seeing God has observed in you. I speak not this to upraid you but further to humble you, and withal to tell you, that you glorify God by this Confession. Thus you say you have liv'd, and these sins you traded in, till now at last the Lord has lest you to commit that great & horrendous Sin of Murder, in the doing of which you have even fill'd up your measure, and all the rest of your sins do in this one sin find you out and light upon you. You may look at this sin as part of the punishment of your former and other sins. And it is one of the Lord's most righteous, but withal most tremendous wa [...]es of punishing Sin; viz. with Sin, or by Sin: Lesser sins are punished by leaving men to greater sins. Thus did the Lord punish the Gentiles, Rom. 1. 18, &c. the Apostle there calls it the Revelation of the wrath of God from heaven, when for their Unthankfulness & Vanity &c. He gave them up to vile Affections, and Actions, among which Murder is mentioned as one, v. 18.—32. Solomon tells us, Prov. 13. 21 that Evil pursueth sinners, and it is true of the Evil of Sin and the Evil of Punishment both, that they do pursue sinners, tho there that of Punishment is properly intended, as appears by the Opposition unto the Good which shall be repaid to the righteous. You have bin pursuing the evil of Sin, and the evil of Punishment hath been in the mean time pursuing you, and now you are overtaken & seized thereby.

[Page] 2. The Great & terrible God is dreadfully angry with you for this sin, & for all the rest that that have bin previous thereunto. The only Subject upon which that fearful thing the Anger of God fa [...]ls, is Sin, and Sinners for Sin. All His own works are good, his Creatures good, so owned & pronounced in Gen. 1. 31. and therefore the Lord is pleased with them, SIN only that is the Devils work & Man's work, God is angry with. You have heard something e'en how of the nature of God's Anger, but who knowes the Power of it. Psal. 90. 11. And you are the person against whom this inconceiveable Anger is enkindled; O let this word sink down into the bottom of thy Heart, and pierce thy very soul. Say to thy self, I am the man with whom the eternal GOD, the Soveraign of the whole World is angry. Think on that Text, & let thy heart meditate terror the while, Psa. 7. 11. God is angry with the wicked every day. While thou wert Cursing, Swearing, Drinking, to excess, &c. God was angry with thee, even every one of those dayes was he angry, while thou wert wickedly transgressing, living in a course of open Transgression, He was angry all the while; Thou wert conceiving Sin, and God was conceiving Anger, which is now brought forth, tho thou tookst no notice of it, nor hadst any dread of it before. Especially He is severely angry with thee for this execrable Sin of [Page] Murder, for which there is no expiation but by the death of the Murderer; whereof that Reason is given Gen. 9. 1. because man was made in God's Image, so that the Killing of a man is the Destroying of the image of God. Murder is a fill against the light of Nature; and so hainous that the Barbarians who had no knowledg of the true God, yet concluded that Vengeance followed the Murderer up and down, so that tho' he may escape for a while, however at length it would not suffer him to live. Act. 28. 4. Know then that this is the main thing thou hast to think on, this is the most terrible thing before thee, not so much the pain or shame of the death thou art speedily to undergoe, as the Anger of God that comes with it. This is the great Concernment of every man at all times, and of thee principally at this time: How stand matters between God and thee? how is He affected, is He angry or pleased? Why, I tell thee, That God whose favour is life, and whose Wrath is Death, He is angry with thee. That Anger of God at which the Heavens shake, the Earth moves, the Hills quake, the Rocks rend, Hell it self trembles is now upon thee. The Devils believe that there is a God and tremble, Jam. 2. 16. do thou believe that, and further that God is angry with thee, and tremble at it.

3. You are by the Law of God and man, for this Sin declared to be a person whom the earth [Page] cannot bent. The Creation groans under you is a common Enemy to mankind, and one who by the positive and indispensable Command of God must fly to the pit and no man must stay you, Prov. 28. 17. This is the Decree of God, and the righteous Sentence of man concerning you.

You are yet but a young man, and according to ordinary course might have lived many years in this world, had not your over-much Wickedness brought you to dy before your time, as Eccles. 7. 17. Not before God's time, but before your time, i. e. before that time which is usual for man, whose dayes are reckoned threestore and ten, and sometimes four score years. Ps. 9. 10. Also before your time which probably you had lotted on, and which men too often do promise themselvs. Such as upon any awakenings of Conscience and Calls to Repentance, delay & put it off while in their Youth, it is upon a promise of repenting when they are old, and how many in that sense die before their time!

And here for your further awakning, observe the Lord in his Providence making good another dreadful word upon you, viz. that [...] and deceitful men shall not live out half their dayes, Psal. 55. 23. Thus you are a son of Death. God and man have said to thee, Oh wicked man, thou shalt surely dye.

4. Your time is numbred and almost finished. Indeed God has numbred all our times & Years [Page] and the number of our months is with him, Job. [...] ▪ 8. But the number of your (I cannot say month but) dayes is with your self, you your self may number your own dayes; The Lord teach you to apply your heart unto wisdom while numbering them, Psal. 90. 12. You are just now upon the very brink of the Pit, the Grave is ready for you, upon the very Edge of Eternity are you (I say eminently you) now walking, & will be within the line of it very speedily.

Job could say, when a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return, Cap. 16. 22. But you may say, Before 4 dayes are come & gone, I shall be gone to the place from whence I shall not return till the very heavens be no more. It made Belshazzar's Countenance to be changed, the joints of his loins to be loosed, and his knees to knock one against another, to set the Hand-Writing upon the wall. Dan. 5. 6. and we may imagine (or at least one would think you whose very case it is may imagine) how his thoughts within him were troubled, when the Interpretation laid that dreadful doom upon himself, that his Kingdom was numbred & furnished by God, and it was meant of his life & All, which was lost that night. v. 27. 30. It's true, we have none of us any lease of our lives, we cannot say what may be [...]al us this night, and yet (O amazing Madness & Folly!) how apt are we (if not to boast of, yet) to lot upon to-morrow! [Page] How ready to promise to our selvs many year & as the Fool in the Gospel did! L [...]. 12. 20. who well [...] the name of Fool, had it been for that one evidence of it only.

But for your part, you have your bounds set, & told you, beyond which you cannot pass; you know at the utmost the Date of your life, and Day of your Death, you may die sooner, but you must not live longer, your end is in your view, you have but a few steps thither, and had not need take any vain, unprofitable or false ones.

You seem to bewail your sin of Sabbath-breaking, well, know that you shall never have another Sabbath to break.—The Lord help you to keep this as you ought. I cannot pass this particular without once more commending it to your serious Consideration; O chew upon it, dwell upon it, that a few hours hence you shall cirtainly dye. It's a very awful thing to us to look upon you, a person in your Youth, Health, and Strength, Breasts full of milk, and Bones moistned with marrrow and then to think that within so many daies this man, tho' in his full Strength must dy: and methinks it should be much more awful to you.

5. Your Death will not expiate your Offence in the sight of God, nor cause the Turning away of His Anger from you: Its true the shedding of your bloud will take away, the Sin from the Land that it shall not ly there, else innocent bloud [Page] should be imputed to the Land; but this does nothing towards the Satisfaction of Gods Justice In order to the Removal of his wrath from the Murderer. Punishment makes no amends for Sin, unless it be that which was inflicted upon Christ as he stood in the capacity of a Surety in behalf of the Elect, and so bare both their sin and their punishment, but otherwise Hell torments don't satisfy God's Justice nor quench the fire of his wrath, muchless can any bodily suffering do it, tho it be the highest, even death it self. Do not then deceive your self; Say not I have sinned, its [...], but am now to suffer the Law, and that being undergone I shall then be quitt. It is so indeed as to any thing that men can do to thee, but thy death does not at all deliver thee out of the hands of Divine Justice. Nay rather Sixthty,

If you get not this Sin and all the rest of your sins done away, and so the Anger of God removed, your approaching Death will be but the beginning of Sorrows to you. However sensually or like a Beast (or worse) you have lived, you shall not dye as Beasts dye, so as that there shall be an end of you and all your sufferings together: No, no such matter. Your precious immortal soul must live forever, and if you get not the fire God's Anger put out, Know that there is a Fire kindled in his anger that shall burn to the lowest Hell. Without Repentance [Page] into life (which is the gift of Christ, and for your Comfort I tell you in the midst of all these bitter things I have been speaking to you, he is freely willing to give it, even to you: Oh look upto Him heartily for the same, I say unless you get this Repentance unto life) your death is but an In-let to the Second death. No sooner shall your guilty soul be forced out of your wretched body, but it shall appear before God that gave it, there to receive another manner of Sentence of Condemnation than what you have already heard from man, by which you were condemned to dye, but there was room for a Lord have Mercy on your soul, to be annexed, whereas in that Sentence there will be no mercy upon your soul, for your soul is the principal subject of the 2nd. death. Separating your soul and body asunder was the aim and will be the issue of this Sentence, but the death & everlasting, utter loss of your soul (for which nothing can be given to God in Exchange Mat. 16. 26. I will be the meaning of this Sentence. Then shall your soul be committed into & left in the hand [...] of the Devil your master, whom you have served, that great Murderer & Lyar (who was so from the beginning, and is the father & lord of such) to be dragged down by him into the place where your fellow-Murderers and fellow-Lyars and fellow-Drunkards are, viz. into the lake that burns with fire & brimstone, which is the [Page]second death Rev. [...]1. 8. there to be tormented ▪ with the Devil & his angels, where the Worm never dyeth, and the fire never shall be quenched. Marc. 9. 43. 44. You have a scareing Vision, Rev. 6. 8. of one whose name was Death sitting on a pale horse, that vision is now before you and it cannot but be very terrible and affrighting, but the main terror lies in what comes after, Hell followes it, Hell followes Death hard at the heels. Death is but the door between the two worlds, that lets the soul of a Christless sinner out of this world into Hell. The Second Death after the first, is the misery of the first, and the first would be compartively but a small matter were it not for the second.

7. Finally, Consider you have no time to get sin pardoned & wrath turned away (if it be not done already) but between this and Death, into the very Borders, and under the Sentence of which you now are. In the grave there is no repentance, no Remission, Eccl. 9. 10. Before 4 dayes more pass over your head (and Oh how swiftly do they fly away!) you will be entred into an Eternal & unchangeable state of weal or woe, and of Woe it will be if speedy and thorough Repentance prevent it not.

Thus far by way of Conviction & Awakning. My 2nd Word is principally by way of Counsel. Unto which I shall promise a Word of Encouragement, lost what has bin said may seem to harsh [Page] and severe to a man in his Condition. But the Wound must be opened & searched before the Plaister be laid on; and there is a Plaister as large as the sore, the Lord in mercy make it stick. Know then, That notwithstanding all that has bin spoken, there is Hope in Israel concerning this thing. There is a way found out & reveal'd by God for the Turning of His Anger even from such sinners. The bloud of Jesus can wash away the guilt of the sin of sheddng man's blood, for which no Ransome may be taken by man, yet God has sound out a Ransome, and does now graciuosly offer thee the benefit of it.— [...] Paul was a Murderer and yet pardoned. Manasseh made the streets of Jerusalem to swim with innocent bloud, and yet was forgiven. Nay the greatest Murderers that ever were in the world, even those that imbrewed their wicked hands in the bloud of the Son of GOD were, many of them, converted & reconciled to God; and are now in heaven beholding the Glory of that Christ whom they Crucifyed, Act. 2. And several others who were under the same Condemnation, were exhorted in the following Chapter to repent & to be converted, and were thereupon promis'd that their sins should be blotted out. ver. 29.

It is true that no murderer hath eternal life. 1▪ Jo [...]. 3. 15. and that Drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, 1. Cor. 6. 10. and yet the next words say (ver. 11.) such were some of you, but [Page]you are washed, sanctifyed, justifyed. If all Sins and Blasphemy against the Son of Man may be forgiven, Mat. 12. 31. 22. then this Sin against one of the sons of men may be forgiven too. God can pardon great sins, yea, & therefore or the rather pardon them because great, Psal 25. 11. And He does delight, where Sin has abounded to make Grace super-abound, Rom. 5. 20. And so I come to my word of Counsel.

And Oh let my Counsel be acceptable to the [...] ▪ before thou be driven out from among men, & put beyond all possibility of hearing or taking counsels.

1. See & be yet more affected with this deplorable condition, and let thy soul be afflicted at the thoughts of it, and especially at thy sin that has brought thee into it. I urge this again because thou canst not be too much concerned thereabout.

2. Look upon all thy life past: let this solemn hand of God upon thee bring all thy sins to Remembrance. Consider how thou hast walked is a Course of sin from step to step, and let all thy Actual sins lead thee back to the Sin of thy Nature, the evil Fountain from whence all these bitter streams have issued; and let all put together make thoe vile in thine own eyes, and make thee to abhor thy self for the same.

3. Beg hard for a broken heart, that may unfeignedly mourn for sin, that being burdened with it thou mayst most bitterly weep, and sigh & groan [...] it. Such sins as thou standest Convicted [Page] of call for the deepest Humiliation & Contrition Its the bane of multitudes of Sinners in the world, that their Convictions of Sin were but [...]eighty and their Humiliation superficial, and so their Conversion not real. God will prick thee to the heart, yea and break thy Heart all to pieces for thy sin if ever he pardon thee. Also bemoan thy self for all thy Prophanness, Loosness, Sensuality which has exposed thee to this great sin at last. Bewail all those evils which the holy God has to charge thee with; thy Rending His Sacred name by Curses & Oaths, wronging His Truth by Lying, Abusing his good Creatures to Excess, Making thy Belly thy god, and sacri [...]ceing the Lord's Blessings thereunto, which he sent thee for His own Use and Service; And especially for thy rejecting of his Gospel, of which great and horrible sin, thou art convicted out of thy own mouth, while thou wert profaning his Sabbaths, & neglecting to give thy Attendance on the publick Worship, and so turning away thine Ear from Hearing the joyful sound by which thou mightst have been forever blessed.—

Let all these be remembred, and be as Gall and Wormwood to thy soul.

4. Acknowledge an Holy & Righteous hand of God in leaving thee to this great Transgression. Confess what thou hast done and give glory to God for what He has done: Say, He is just for I have sinned. Yea, and glorify him for this, that He [Page] can make even this Sin, at least the punishment▪ Attending it, a means to bring thee to Repentance for all the rest of thy sins which else thou mightest have gone on securely in, unto endless Perdition. This prodigious sin of Murder, together with thy being brought to Condign Punishment for the same, may (through the Soveraign Grace of God, who can bring good out of evil) be an occasion by its loud cry of blood in thine [...]ars to awaken thee out of that sleep from which thou mightst else have never awakned, till everlasting burnings had awakned thee. The Lord blessed Manasseh's being brought into Chains to put him upon seeking the God of his Fathers; and the same God can bless this Chain with which thou art now bound, as a means to bring thee to everlasting Liberty. It's one of the Lords wayes of Dealing with men to bring them to good; viz. when they are bound in Fetters, and holden in Cords of Affliction, to shew them their work and their Transgression that they have exceeded in, and then to open their ears to Discipline and to command them to return Jo [...]. 36. 8. 9. 10. Yea, and he can cause them to return by Sealing Instruction at such a Time and in such a way. Thus can the Lord bring back thy soul from the pit tho' thy body must go thither. It is I confess a strange way to leave men to undo themselves, thereby to prevent their being everlastingly undone: But [Page] doubtless there have been such Examples in the world, of men that have been thus saved; and who can tell but thou mayst make one more?

5. Heartily bless God, and wonder at His Kindness therein, that He did not suddenly take thee away with His stroke, as He has done many such a sinner as thou hast been. Many a Drunkard has staggered and reeled into the Pit, has dropt into Hell in a moment, and gone full of Drink into the place where there is not a drop of water to cool his tongue. Bless Him that he did not choak thee with a Lye in thy mouth, or make thee fall down dead as soon as ever thou hast vented it. So were Ananias and Sapp [...]irah serv'd, Act. 5. 5,—10. Bless him that He did not stop thy breath just when some execrable Curse or Oath was out of the evil Treasury of thy filtthy rotten heart crawling up that [...] of thy thr [...]. Bless him that he did not strike thee dead in the place when the [...] wert profaning of His Sabbaths and for not sanctifying that holy Rest unto God, that He did not in the twinkling of an eye send thee to the place where thou should have no rest, night no [...] day. O bless him for this time of Patience and forbearance; for a space to repent that Divine Long-suffering has afforded thee. Bless Him that He has given thee a longer time of Consideration & Preparation for a latter end, that that poor wretch had who was by thy cruel hand [Page] hurried away [...]nto Eternity in a little time. When thou gavest him his death's wound, Vengeance might have given thee a fatal stroak, and sent thee to thy own place before him. But he is gone, and thou art left, and forborn a little (tho' but for a very little) longer;—let the Goodness of God lead thee to Repentance.

6. See that of thy self thou hast no way left to satisfy Justice or pacify divine Anger. Say within thy self, Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, before whose dreadful Tribunal I must appear within a few hours? And then say to thy self, I have no thousands of rams nor 10 thousands of rivers of oyl: and if thou hadst, hear the Lord saying to thee that they would avail nothing; no, not would the first-born of thy Body be an expiation for the sin of thy soul. All thy confessions▪ prayers, [...]ears will not answer for the least of a Thousand of those sins, under the guilt of which thy soul is now lying. Shouldest thou spend every precious moment of thy short time in Confessing Praing, sighing, groaning, weeping, all that would not doe. No, no: Here thou standest, a guilty Creature, condemned of God & man; and canst not strike one stroke toward thy own Salvation nor deserve that God should do it for thee. God has judged thee, and men have judged thee worthy of Death, and do thou judge thy self worthy of Damnation too. A self-judging and self-condemning frame is a suitable frame for thee to be in this day. [Page] [...] Humbly & heartily, like a poor, laborious heavy lade [...], perishing▪ s [...]i [...]tless Creature, cast thy self down at the Footstool of the Throne of Grace crying and looking for the Mercy of God through the Merits of Christ unto thy Pardon & Acceptance. And Oh the height and depth and length and breadth of the Grace of God in Christ! There's room for a Curser, Swearer, Lyar, Drunkard, yea and a Murderer too, to [...] at that Footstool with hope. Then fly for refuge to lay hold on that hope that is set before thee Heb. 6. 18. Flee away to the City of Refuge, and I do assure thee from God that the Door stands ready to receive thee: and Oh make haste for the Avenger of blood is at thy very heels. The City of Refuge under the Old Testament was only to entertain the Man-slayer, not the Murderer, him that killed a man unwittingly and unwillingly, while the wilful Murderer was by express Command from God to be deliver'd up: But herein (as in all other things) does the Antitype out doe the Type. Jesus Christ who was and is the Substance of that shaddow invites Murderer as well as Man-slayer; and has declared it to be the Father's Will and his own Resolution that whosoever comes to Him He will in no wise cast out. Joh. 6. 37. The same Advice which was given to the Murderers of Christ (as has been hinted to thee Act. 3. 20.) I do now in the name of the Lord give to thee, Repent and receive Christ, [Page] and thou shalt be saved. Thou hast sorely angered God already by all that Course of sin that thou hast lived in, and principally by this last great sin that thou art condemned for; now do not anger Him yet more by neglecting to embrace his Son. Thou hast done all these Wickednesses, now don't add to all the rest that which will be unspeakably more than all the rest, the reject-of a Saviour; yea of a Saviour thus openly, freely, heartily, offering himself to thee, even to thee in particular in this solemn Ordinance, and that as verily & as really as if He should by an audible voice call to thee by name from Heaven and invite thee to come.

Set thy heart to these things that from the Lord I am Testifying to thee this day, for they are thy life. Hearken then, as for thy life, as for thy last, or at least that which is next to thy last.

And that which I have to say to thee is this,

Behold Jesus Christ is for thy sake come into this place this day, this Sabbath, this thy last Sabbath, which should therefore be a great Day to thee, and here He stands, & cries to thee, that [...]f thy guilty soul be heated & scorcht by God's Anger and made thirsty after Righteousness which may put out that flame, & allay that heat, and in which thou mayst be found in that day, Lo, here it is for thee; Open thy mouth wide, and He will abundantly satisfy thee. Hear Christ saying to thee, Thou condemned Malefactor, I pitty thy [Page]case, my bowels do yern over thee, and that dye thou must by a violent death, as to the taking away thy bodily life, yet I profess I have no delight in thy destruction, I have no pleasure in thy death, and [...] thou dye Temporally, I would have thee live Eternally. Again, hear the same Lord Jesus asking thee & expostulating the case about thy soul, What doest thou mean to do with thy soul? Whither▪ shall it goe, when it leaves thy body? what care hast▪ thou taken about it? I'm afraid but little hitherto. Hast thou provided a place of rest for it? Why if thou be at a loss (and it is a good step to thy being found if thou dost feel thy self lost) if thou art afraid lest the devil should get it at last, whose slave thou hast too much bin all thy days and art willing to be effectually eased of that fear, why then, (faith Christ) Give it me, while it is yet thy own soul and thou art possessor of it, let me have it alienated unto Me; it is indeed a silly, sorry, guilty, bloody soul, but be it as it is, give it me, I know how to take & wash & cleanse & keep & save it. Don't deny me, I have often asked thy heart & soul of thee, and could never yet get a grant of thee I ask it once more, and it is one of the last times that I shall ask it, and I came this day into this Ordinance on purpose to be sp [...]ke thy soul that I may have it for my self, and save it for thee. Why thus is Christ urging, intreating, pleading with thee, & even forceing himself upon thee by His Importunity. How canst thou send Him away [Page] grieved for want of His Errand! Especially consider that if thou do not voluntarily & freely (Oh pray hard that in this day of power He will make thy soul a willing soul) give thy soul to Christ presently, the Devil will have it quickly whether thou wilt or no.

Thou hast then before thee this one great Duty of Beleeving, and He sayes to thee this day, only believe; and that's my great Counsel in His Name.

If thou ask, What is Believing on Christ?

I Answer, It is for a poor, sinning, damned soul that is past standing in himself, humbly to fall down before him, and prostrate it self at His feet, that He may save it. It is to commit thy soul into the hands of Christ, believing that He is able to keep what thou hast committed to Him until that Day.

I am informed that thou didst this morning hear a precious Discourse in another Congregation, from that most suitable and seasonable Text (Isai. 45. 22.) Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth. Why that is Beleeving; viz. Looking to Jesus for Salvation. Looking to and taking Him as thy Lord and Saviour. One such humble hearty Look will save thee, which if thou canst but do before thou go'st out of this world, then those that have bin affectionately and sincerely looking up to God for thee, shall find thee to their great Joy & Comfort at the right hand of Christ in the day of His appearing among [Page] those sheep that heard His voice and followed Hint, tho' thou didst never hear him till one of the [...] of his voices, nor follow him at all unless it were with some of thy latest Steps. And it will be magnifyed Mercy, amazing Mercy if it be so.

The Lord grant it may be so.

Only remember also, that is no easy matter to believe, no easy matter to repent, and if thou know'st ought of the nature of each, thou hast experienc'd it so to be. Faith and Repentance are the gift of Christ; ask them of Him, and be well assur'd that He is more ready to give, than thou art to ask.

And if the Lord help thee now to believe, i. e. to receive and take up with Christ as thy Lord & Saviour, thou shalt give glory to God by believing, and the Lord will account Himself, by the righteousness of Christ, which by Faith thou laidst hold on, abundantly satisfyed for all the Dishonour thou hast done to Him all thy dayes.

Now if any thing will break a hard heart, sure it is the affectionate warming yea melting Offers of the Grace of Christ in the Gospel unto a Person so vile that might be ready enough to fear he had sinn'd himself into an estate beneath, & out of the reach of Mercy. And Oh be speedy about this work: almost all thy dayes are rolled away in Gods anger, thou mayst count the few hours that are left thee, don't lose an hour, a Minute; spend every one of them seriously in Reading, Meditation, Prayer, good Discourse, Asking Questions of and Hearing Counsel [Page] from any that are concern'd for thy soul.

Let it appear to all that look on thee that after so much mispence & loss of precious time, the scarcity of it has raised the price with thee. Unto thee may it be most truly said Now or Never.

And because he desires it, bear with me while I offer a Word of Warning & Council to others. And it is commendable to see such a person desireous to have his Companions in sin warned.

Are there any that hear me (and I wish there were not many) who are guilty of Lying, Cursing, Swearing, Drunkenness, let me say to you▪

You may not expect to have any come from the dead to warn you, but here is one that is just going to the dead who bequeathes you this Warning, lest you also be in like manner hung up as Monuments of God's wrath. God is picking him out, and seting him forth to be an Example unto you Jude. 7. He might as righteously have left some of you to have bin examples unto him and others; but unto the holy Soveraign Counsel of God it has seemed meet to take him and leave you, and in taking him has left you that solemn warning which if you take it not, shall be a Testimony against you in that Day. And because he in his Writing desir'd me that I would speak something to Young men, I would also desire them especially to mind what is said, tho' as it concerns all, let every one take his portion.

[Page] See wither lesser sins will lead you, even unto greater till at last you come to the Great Transgression. Your frequent swallowing of Gnats will make you not to stick at Camels. Custom of sin will take away Conscience of Sin; and when Conscience of sin is gone, what sin is there that you are not ready for?

I shall speak a few words to each of those Sins which he Wills them a Warning against.

Cursing & Swearing begin to grow common in this Land. It was not so in our first dayes. I lived near 20 years in this Countrey before I heard an Oath or a Curse. But now as you pass along in the streets, you may hear children curse and Swear, and take the great & dreadful Name of God in vain. They have learnt it from elder persons. Wo to those that taught them if they repent not. The Lord will not hold you guiltless: You shall answer not only for your own Oaths & Curses & Blasphemings of God's Name, but for the sins of those Children whom you have taught, yea made to sin. It has alwayes bin the great design of Satan to debauch the Professors of Religion; hence he suggested to Balaam the Counsel which he gave to Bal [...]k to draw Israel unto sin, to debauch the Youth, and then he need not hire any to curse them because their holy God would be wroth with them: and its dreadful to think what success the Instruments of the Devil have had of late years [Page] in this Land. Those that vainly swear, let [...] [...]ead what Jesus Christ the Judg of all saith, (and He is a Judge that stands at the door and heares and is ready to judge both the quick and the dead, (Jam. 5. 9. with Pet. 5. 5.) I say hear Him speaking thus (Mat. 5. 34.) I say unto you, (and there is a great deal of weight to be laid upon that Introduction, I say unto you swear not at all. The same is also repeated by the Apostle James Cap. 5. 12. where note the form of veheinency & earnestness (as one calls it) in which He propounds it, Above all things, Swear not, it being a great Sin much in use, and when so,Manton Locum. it is hardest left: therefore above all things do not swear, and its enforced from the danger of falling into Condemnation. I remember [...] Herbert saith in his Advice to young men [...] the Swearer has neither any fair pretence [...] [...]oing it, nor excuse when done, either from pleasure or profit, &c. and adds, that if an Epicure he could forbear Swearing.

As to Cursing I shall commend that solemn Text to all that are guilty of it Psa. 109. 17, 18, 19.) As he loved Cursing, so let it come unto him, &c. let it come into his [...] like water and oyl into his bones. The causeless Curse, shall not come (Pro. 26. 2.) unless it be upon the head of him that vented it. The Apostle James inveighs against it among the evils of an unruly Tongue, intimating how absurd it is, that out of the same mouth [Page] should proceed blessing & cursing, that we should bless God▪ and curse men that are made in the same Image, with the same Tongue Cap. 3. 9, 10. If ever you desire to be blest, hate & shun Cursing. God will curse them that curse.

The next is Lying, a Sin that we learn from the Womb, Ps [...]. 58. 3. and can hardly leave it when old. Hence David saw need to pray to be kept from the way of Lying Ps. 119. 27. A sin eminently contrary and so displeasing unto God, as He calls Himself a God of Truth, and yet I may truly say, a Sin much predominant among us.

We have had Truths Monthly Market kept of late in this place: and Truth has solemnly bin exposed to Sale, in that faithful & true witness that has been born to [...] worth of Truth, from that Text Prov. 23. 2 [...] and it has bin offer'd a very good peniworth; what Buyers there have have bin God knowes, and the Day will Discover: but when the Truth is fallen in the Streets, and men don't according to the rule Eph. 4. 25▪ every man speak truth to his Neighbour, I fear they have missed their Market. If Truth be received into the heart in the love of it, the tongue that speakes out of the abundance of the heart Mat. 12. 34. would be taught to utter Truth. Remember that great Command, love the Truth & peace, Zech. 8. 19. and if you mean to have the latter you must love and use the former. Truth & Peace come & go together. Want of Truth in [Page] ordinary Converse, utterly spoils all Conversation here; and he that loves and frames a Lye, makes a way to himself down to the lake which is framed and prepared for the En-Entertainment of such Lyars, Rev. 1. 8. and is the place allotted to them all Herbert well adviseth men to dare to speak truth, and adds,Vide his Church Porch that nothing needs a Lye but a Fault, and that needs it least because it is doubled thereby.

And O you Drunkards! Let Trembling take hold of you, especially you Drunkards of Ephraim Isa. 28. 1. I mean Church-Member Drunkards, I wish there were none such that hear me this day, who either are Church-Members now, or were till dismembred for that sin: see (I say) unto what end one of your Companions in that sin is brought. God sometimes hangs up Drunkards in chains, as Spectacles to the world, and that by snatching them away by some untimely End: Sometimes they they fall in the Water, and are drowned, sometimes into the fire & are burned, and sometimes by other observable Providences He sets a mark on those sinners, & bears His Testimony against the Sin. And it was that sin chiefly that exposed this poor creature to the sin of Murder for which he is now to suffer. Receive Instruction lest Vengeance overtake you when you are least aware of it.

Sabbath-breaking is likewise a growing evil [Page] and therefore to be testifyed against. It was that Sin which brought Israel of old unto Desolation. Hear this person telling you that he feels this sin now lying as an insupportable load upon him. And believe it, all that are guilty of that sin, shall find it sooner or later, alike burdensome to them. As men spend their Sabbaths, so they are. The right Sanctifyer of the Sabbath is a blessed man, Isa. 58. 13, 14. It has bin observed of old, that Religion lives & dyes with the Sabbath. Hear this dying man bewailing his Sabbath-breaking, and if you would not bewail also when dying and suffer for it for ever, after you are dead, repent of and reform that sin. Its worth observing, that this Duty of Sanctifying the Sabbath in the 4th Commandment, is commended to the care and charge of Superiors and Heads of Families especially. See that you set a good example, and require all that are under your shaddow to immitate you,

Whether there be any other present that are guilty of the the sin of Murder God knowes. Some Acts of Murder have been done among us sundry years since, the Actors whereof lye yet concealed, but let them know; if there be any such, that the Lord will have a time to bring to light all the hidden works of darkness. The same hand that has delivered up this Murderer to Justice, will also find out you at some time or other. You may wonder that a just and holy [Page] GOD hath suffered you to live all this while. Happy you if this Example may awaken you, and Gods Forbearance may lead you to Repentance. Otherwise be assur'd that you are but reserved to be punished, if not in this world, as usually such sinners are, yet in the world to come.

To Conclude in a few words more to this Bloody Sinner.

Consider, that all who live under the Gospel, are brought to Jesus the Mediator of the New-Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel, Heb. 12. 24. And thereupon its presently added ver. 25. see that ye refuse not him that speakes from Heaven. Abels blood cryed for Vengeance upon the Murderer, but Christ's blood cries for Pardon: and Christ Himself calls on thee to receive & not refuse Him; unto which Call if thou yeild the Obedience of Faith, His blood will speak on thy behalf. Thy Sins speak bitter things against thee, old sins, sins of youth, a Course of sin, and this bloody sin cries aloud & speaks most bitterly, but that blood of Christ can out-speak, out-cry all these. It was from Hence that David when under the Anguish of soul for his Blood-Guiltiness, expected pardon and had it, and so mayst thou, Psal. 51.

Let thy heart leap to hear such Language of this blood. Goe thy way and spend that little time that is left thee in studying the Vileness of thy sins committed, & the Misery unto which [Page] thou art thereby exposed, together with the Excellence and Preciousness of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, who is ready to save thee from Sin present and wrath to come. And tho' thou art not able to come, yet the glorious lifting up of Christ in the Gospel, together with the general Invitation unto all that need Him, are the means appointed & blest by God to draw Men to come.

Christ would [...]ain have the Honour of saving such a wretched Sinner as thou art, and be thou well assured that unless thou add unto that Sin of shedding of Man's Blood, the guilt of Refusing and Slighting of Christ's Blood, thou shalt not perish.

All the sins that ever thou hast committed shall not damn thee, unless thou add Unbelief to all the rest, viz. the wilful rejecting of a tendered Saviour. There is Wrath on thee, but it shall not be Everlastingly upon thee, if thou Believe; it is Unbelief only that makes Wrath abide, (Joh. 3. ult.) other Sins do displease, but this only can destroy.

Look up to Him for the gift of Faith.

The good Lord open thine Ear, that thou may'st be no longer rebellious, but help thee so to hear as that thy Soul may live.

FINIS.

[Page]

The Printer to the Reader.

THe general Usefulness & Acceptableness of this Book, together with the speedy sale of the 1st Impression, as also some honest gain to my self & good to others, has enclin'd me to renew the Impression of it. But to render it the more compleat, I have (yet not without hazarding the displeasure of a worthy Friend, the Reverend Person who labour'd for the best good of the Prisoner in his last hours) procured (utterly against his knowledg, I entreat him that it may be with his pardon) by an innocent Wile, the true Copy of the Discourse which pass'd between himself & the Malefactor from the Goal to the place of Execution; judgeing it would contain things for the profit of the living: The last words of dying men being wont to leave no small Impressions on the hearts of the surviving Spectators; many having bin captivated & convinced, & at last converted (with the blessing of Heaven thereupon) by a Speech from an illiterate Malefactor at the Gallows, who have broken the sharp shining Swords of an Eloquent Divine, and laughed at the Shaking of his threatning Spear: and it being upon experience found that the Publication of the Prison-discourses between some other Malefactors & their friends has prov'd edifying to the surviving. By a harmless Stratagem I have, as is said, got into my hands a Transcript of the Summ & Substance of what was spoken: (drawn up, for ought I know, for the Author's own use, or ye satisfaction of some of his private friends, who I know have ask'd him to do it) it is as follows.

R. P.

[Page]

The DISCOURSE of the MINISTER with James Morgan on the WAY to his Execution.

Min. I'm come hither to answer your desires which just now you exprest to me in the Church, that I would give you my company at your Execution.

Morg. Dear Sir, how much am I beholden to you! you have already done a great deal for me. Oh who am I that have bin such a vile wretch that any Servants of God should take notice of me!

Min. I beseech you to make this use of it, I believe there is not one Christian this day beholding you, who would not willingly be at the greatest pains they could devise to save your precious soul: How merciful then is that Man who is God as well as man! how unspeakably ready is the Ld. Christ to save the souls of sinners that affectionately look unto him! The goodness & pittifulness of the most tender-hearted man in the world is but a shadow of what is in Him. The compassions of any man compared with the Bowels of a merciful JESUS are but as the painted Sun, or the painted Fire in Comparison of the real.

Mor. Oh that I could now look unto Him as I ought to do! Lord help me.

Min. Well, you are now a dying man, the last hour or 2 of your life is now running. You know your self now to stand just on the brink of Eternity, you shall presently be in a state of wonderful happiness or of horrible misery which must endure forever: which of those estates do you now count your self stepping into▪

[Page] Mor. Oh Sir, I am afraid, but I am not without hope that God may have mercy on me.

Min. Whats your ground for that hope? O see that your confidences been't such as God will by'nd by reject.

Mor. I don't know well what to say, but this I hope is a good sign, I have lived in many grieveous sins, in Lying, Drinking, Sabbath-breaking & evil Company-keeping; God has made now these so bitter to my soul, that I would not commit them again, might I have my life this afternoon by doing it.

Min. That's a great word, God grant it may not be a word only, the good word of a good pang, without a through chang of heart, as you must have if you would not perish everlastingly You are not like to have any longer time in this world to try the Sincerity of your Profession.

Mor. I know it, and I beseech you Sir to help me what you can: I hope the means used with me since my Condemnation ha'n't been lost.

Min. I would not have the sense of the pain & shame which your Body is about to undergoe, any waies hinder your Mind from being taken up about the Soulmatters which I shall endeavour to set before you.

Mor. Sir, as for the pain that my body must presently feel I matter it not: I know what pain is; but what shall I do for my poor soul? I'm terrify'd with the Wrath of GOD; This, this terrifyes me, HELL terrifyes me: I should not mind my Death, if it were not for that.

Min. Now the Lord help me to deal faithfully with you, & the Lord help you to receive what He shall [Page]unable me to offer unto you. Mark what I say: You were born among ye enemies of God, you were born with a soul as full of emnity against God as a Toad is full of poison. You have liv'd now—how many years?

Morg. I think about Thirty.

Min. And all these 30 years have you been sinning against the holy God. Ever since you knew how to do any thing, you have every day bin guilty of innumerable sins: you deserve the dreadful wrath & curse of the infinite God. But God has brought you here, to a place where you have enjoy'd the means of grace. And here you have added unto your old Sins, most fearful Iniquityes: you have bin such a matchless, prodigious Transgressor, that you are now to dye by the stroke of civil Justice; to dy before your time, for being wicked over much. There is hardly any sort of Wickedness which you have not wallowed in-That sin particularly which you are now to die for, is a most monstrous Crime. I can't possibly describe or declare the sins whereby you have made your self an astonishing Example of Impiety & punishment.

Mor. O Sir, I have bin a most hellish sinner. I am sorry for what I have bin.

Min. Sorry you say: well, tell me which of all your sins you are now most sorry for: which lyes most heavy?

Mor. I hope I am sorry for all my sins, but I must especially bewail my neglect of the means of grace. On Sabbath dayes I us'd to lye at home, or be ill imploy'd elsewhere when I should have bin at Church. This has undone me!

[Page] Min. And let me seriously tell you, Your Despiseing of Christ is a most dreadful sin indeed. You have, for whole years together had the Call of Jesus Christ to seek an Interest in him, & you would now give all the world for that interest, but you would take no notice of him. The Jews of Old put him to a worse death than yours will be this afternoon, and by your contempt of Christ you have said, the Jews did well to do so. How justly might [...]e now Laugh at your Calamity? And for these sins of yours, besides the direful woes & plagues that have already come upon you, you are now expos'd unto the Vengeance of eternal fire. You are in danger of being now quickly cast into those exquisite amazing Torments, in comparison of which, the anguishes which your body ever did feel, or shall feel before night, or can ever feel, are just nothing at all; and these dolorous torments are such as never have an End; as many sands as could lie between this earth & the Stars in Heaven would not be near so many as the Ages, the end-less Ages of these Torments.

Mor. But is there not Mercy for me in Christ?

Min. Yes, and its a wonderful thing that I have now further to tell you: Mind, I entreat you. The SON of GOD is become the Son of Man; the Lord Jesus Christ is both God & man in one Person, & he is both sufficiently able & willing also, to be your Saviour. He lived a most righteous life, and this was that such as you & I might be able to say before God, Lord, accept of me as if I had [Page] liv'd righteously. He died at length a most cursed death, and this was that we might be able to say unto God, Lord, let not me die for sin, since thy Son has died in my room. This glorious Redeemer is now in the highest heaven, pleading with God for the Salvation of His chosen ones.—And He pours out his Spirit continually upon them that do believe on him: might you then be enabled by his grace to carry your poor, guilty, condemned, enslaved, ignorant soul unto Jesus Christ, and humbly put your trust in him for deliverance from the whole bad state which you are brought into. Oh then his voice is to you the same that was to the penitent Thief, This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.

Mor. Oh that I might be so! Sir I would hear more of these things: I think, I can't better fit my self for my death than by hearkning to these things.

Min. Attend then: The never dying spirit that lodges within you, must now within a few minutes appear before the Tribunal of the Great GOD; in what, or in whose Righteousness will you then appear? will you have this to be your Plea, Lord, I experienced many good Motions & Desires in my soul, & many Sorrows for my sin before I dy'd: or will you expect to have no other Plea but This, Lord, I am vile, but thy Son is a Surety for the worst of sinners that believe in him; for his sake alone, have MERCY on me.

Morg. I thank God for what He has▪ wrought in my Soul—

[Page] Min. But be very careful about this matter: if you build on your own good Affections instead of Jesus Christ the only Rock, if you think they shall recommend you to God, He that made you will not have mercy on you.

Mor. I would be clothed with the Righteousness of JESUS CHRIST.

Min. But you can't sincerely desire that Christ should justify you, if you don't also desire that He should sanctify you: those 2 alwdies go together. Is evry lust that has hitherto had possession of your heart become so loathsom to you, that is would fill your soul with joy to hear Jesus Christ say, I will subdue those Iniquities of thine; I will make a holy, heavenly, a spiritually minded person of thee.

Mor. I would sin against God no more.

Min. But I must deal plainly with you: You have made it sadly suspicious that your repentance is not yet as it ought to be: when men truly & throughly repent of sin they use to be in a special manner watchful against that Sir which has bin their chief Sin: one of your principal sins which has indeed brought you to the Death of a Murderer, is Passion, unmortifi'd & outragious Passionateness: Now I have been this day informed, that no longer since than the last night, upon some Dissatisfaction about the place which the Authority hath ordered you by and by to be buried in, you did express, your self with a most unruly Passionateness.

Mor. Sir, I confess it, and I was quickly sorry [Page] for it, tho' for the present I was too much disturbed: 'Twas my folly to be so careful about the place where my body should be laid when my precious SOUL was in such a Condition.—

Min. Truly you have cause to mourn for it. Secure the welfarre of your soul, and this (now) pinion'd, hang'd vile body of yours will shortly be raised unto glory, glory forevermore. And let me put you in mind of one thing more, I doubt you han't yet laid aside your unjust Grudges against the Persons concerned in your Conviction & Condemnation: You have no cause to complain of them: and you are not fit to pray, much less are you fit to dye till you heartily wish them as well as your own soul: if you die malicious, you die miserable.

Mor. I heartily wish them all well, I bear Ill-will to none—What a lamentable thing is this, Ah this is that which has brought me hither!

Min. What do you mean?

Mor. I over-heard a man mocking & scoffing at me when I stumbled just now, he does very ill. I have done so my self: I have mock'd & scoff'd like that man, and see what it hath brought me to: he may come to the like.

Min. The Lord forgive that foolish hard-he. te [...] creature. But be not too much disturbed.

Mor. Yonder! I am now come in sight of the place where I must immediately end my dayes. Oh what a huge Multitude of people is come together on this occasion! O Lord, O Lord I pray [Page] thee to make my Death profitable to all this Multitude of People, that they may not sin against thee as I have done!

Min. Amen, Amen ten thousand times; the Lord GOD Allmighty say Amen to this Prayer of yours! It would indeed be an excellent thing if you could now come to receive your death with some Satisfaction of soul in this thought, That Much Glory is like to come to God by it: I am verily perswaded God intends to do good to many souls by means of your Execution: This is a greater honour than you are worthy of.

[After the Discourse had been intermitted about a minute or two by reason of the miery way]

Mor. I beseech you Sir speak to me. Do me all the good you can: my time grows very short: your discourse sits me for my Death more than any thing.

Min. I'm sorry so small a thing as a plashy Street should make me loose one minute of this more-than-ordinary precious time: a few paces more bring you to the place which you have now in your eye, from whence you shall not come back alive. Do you find your self afraid to dy there?

Mor. Sir, If it were not for the Condition that my SOUL must by & by be in, I should not fear my death at all; but I have a little comfort from some of Gods promises about that.

Min. And what shall I now say? There are among[Page]the last words that I can have liberty to leave with you. Poor man, thou art now going to knock at the door of Heaven, and to beg & cry, Lord, Lord open to me! The only way for thee to speed, is, to open the door of thy own soul now unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Do this, and thou shalt undoubtedly be admitted into the gloryes of His heavenly Kingdom: You shall fare as well as Manasseh did before you: leave this undone, and there's nothing remains for you but the Worm which dyeth not, and the fire which shall not be quenched.

Mor. Sir, show me then again what I have to do.

Min. The voice, the sweet voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, (who was once hanged on a tree, to take away the Sting and Curse of even such a Death as yours) unto all that close with him, His heavenly voice now is, Oh that I & my Saving work might be entertained, kindly entreated, in that poor, perishing soul of thine! Are you willing?

Morg. I hope I am.

Min. His Voice further is, If I am lodged in thy soul I'll sprinkle my blood upon it, and on my account thou shalt find Favour with GOD▪ Do you consent to this?

Mor. This I want.

Min. But this is not all that he saith, His Voice further is, If I come into thy soul I will chang it, I will make all sin bitter to it, I will make it an holy heavenly soul. Do you value this above [Page]the proffers of all the World?

Mor. I think I doe,—and now, Sir, I must go no further, Look here—what a solemn sight is this! Here lyes the Coffin which this Body of mine must presently be laid in. I thank you dear Sir, for what you have already done for me.

Min. When you are gone up this Ladder, my last service for you before you are gone off will be to pray with you: But I would here take my leave of you. Oh that I might meet you at the right Hand of the LORD JESUS in the last Day! Farewel poor heart, Fare thee well. The everlasting Armes receive thee! The Lord JESUS, the merciful SAVIOUR of Souls take possession of thy Spirit for himself. The Great GOD who is a great Forgiver, grant thee Repentance unto Life; and glorify himself in the Salvation of such a wounded soul as thine forever. With HIM, and with His free, rich, marvellous, infinite Grace, I leave you; Farewell.

FINIS.

Information about this book

Title statement

A sermon occasioned by the execution of a man found guilty of murder preached at Boston in N.E. March 11th 1685[/]6. : (Together with the confession, last expressions & solemn warning of that murderer to all persons; especially to young men, to beware of those sins which brought him to his miserable end.) / By Increase Mather, teacher of church of Christ.

Mather, Increase, 1639-1723.

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI :

Date

2007-10.

ID [DLPS]

N00355

ID [TCP]

N00355

ID [STC]

Evans 432

ID [STC]

Wing M1248

ID [NOTIS]

APX3036

ID [IMAGE-SET]

432

ID [EVANS-CITATION]

99019800

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This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early American Imprints, 1639-1800 ; no. 432.

Notes

(Evans-TCP ; no. N00355)

Transcribed from: (Readex Archive of Americana ; Early American Imprints, series I ; image set 432)

Images scanned from Readex microprint and microform: (Early American imprints. First series ; no. 432)

Source

— A sermon occasioned by the execution of a man found guilty of murder preached at Boston in N.E. March 11th 1685[/]6. : (Together with the confession, last expressions & solemn warning of that murderer to all persons; especially to young men, to beware of those sins which brought him to his miserable end.) / By Increase Mather, teacher of church of Christ., Mather, Increase, 1639-1723., Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728. Call of the Gospel., Moodey, Joshua, 1633?-1697. Exhortation to a condemned malefactor.. The second edition. [Seven lines of Scripture texts].

Extent

[4], 124 p. ; 15 cm. (8vo)

Printed by R.P. [i.e., Richard Pierce] Sold by J. Brunning book-seller, at his shop at the corner of the Prison-Lane next the Exchange.,. Boston, :: Anno 1687.. ("The call of the Gospel applyed ... in a sermon, preached on the 7th day of March. 1686 ... by Cotton Mather ... the second edition ... Printed at Boston, by Richard Pierce. 1687."--p. [37]-82, with separate title page.) ("An exhortation to a condemned malefactor delivered March the 7th 1686. By Joshua Moody [sic] ... 1687."--p.[83]-124, with separate title page.)

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