of Angels and the Spirits of Just men made perfect all fastned together with indissolvable and uninterrupted Chains of most pure Love and all continually wrapt up in and transported with the highest Admiration of Gods Love his infinite and incomprehensible excellencies and perfections singing Hallelujahs to him without ceasing and triumphing in his praise for ever and ever The Consideration also that I know so little of these sublime profound and divine misteries of the most glorious mystery of Salvation by Jesus Christ that I am so uncapable to fathom the depth of the Providences of God whose ways are in the Sea and whose paths are in the deep waters and whose footsteps are not known and particularly in the late stupendious and amazing one and that I am so ignorant of the Nature of Angels and Spirits with their Offices and Operations and of their high and glorious excellencies and that I am so little acquainted with the Nature of my own Soul as at present dwelling in and united to my Body and as disunited and separated from it how without corporeal Organs it shall most vivaciously and vigorously perform all its proper Functions and Offices and more than ever strongly and indefatigably serve the Lord Jesus most fervently and abundantly love him and delight in him every way much more obtain the supream and highest end of its Creation and being and this makes me much more willing to dye that I may have the knowledg hereof with innumerable other things that I am now either ignorant of or do but imperfectly know and so be made happy by a plenitude of fulness of enjoying intellectual Pleasures which are of all other most suitable sweet and satisfactory to immortal Souls And also I see that he that departs from Iniquity makes himself a prey and so many plunging themselves into the ways of Iniquity lest they should accounted odious and vile which makes them so much degenerate not only from Christianity but from Humanity it self as if they were scarce the excrement of either contemning even that most Noble Generous Heroick Spirit that dwelt in many Heathens who accounted it most honourable and glorious to contend for their Rights and Liberties yea to suffer Death and the worst of Deaths in Defence of the same and judge them accursed and most execrable in the World that do so and not only so but for their own profit and advantage have many of them inslaved their posterity by it and are most industrious and laborious most fierce and furious to destroy them whereby they are become as unnatural as Children that seek the ruine of their Parents that begot them and brought them forth or them that lay violent hands upon themselves dashing out their own Brains cutting their own Throats hanging and drawing themselves ripping up their own Bellies tearing out their own Bowels they being in diffirent sences Children and Members of that Body politick they design and attempt the Destruction of and when I know not how long the Duration and Continuance of these things shall be or a Conclusion or End by God shall be put thereto who by Divine and Unerring Wisdom governs the World why shall my Soul be unwilling to take it's flight into the unseen and eternal World where no sullied sordid or impious thing most incongruous and unbecoming Nature shall be seen and found and where I shall behold no narrow conclusive contracted Soul there habitually preferring their private before a publick good but all most unanimously and equally center in one common universal good and where the sighs and groans and cryes of the afflicted and persecuted shall be heard no more for ever I earnestly exhort all most highly to prize and value Time and diligently improve it for Eternity to be wise seriously and seasonably to consider of their latter End for by the Irrepealable and Irreversable Law of Heaven we must all dye yet we know not how where or when live with your Souls full of solicitude and care with a most deep concernedness and most diligent Industriousness whilst you have time and opportunity and the means of Grace Health and Strength make sure of these two great things viz. 1. What Merits for you a Right and Title to Eternal Life and Glory and the future unchangeable Blessedness as the Redeemers most precious Blood and Righteousness that thereby a real Application and Imputation may be unto you by sincere believing 2. That that which makes you qualified Subjects for it is the great work of Regeneration wrought in your Souls being renewed in the Spirit of your Minds the Divine Nature being imprest upon them repairing of the depraved Image of God in you that being transformed into his own likeness thereby in the World you may mind and savour more the things of the Spirit than the things of the Flesh Celestial and Heavenly more than Terrestial and Earthly Superiour more than Inferiour things And therewith have a Holy Life and Conversation conjoyned that results and springs from the same as Fruit from the Root and Acts from the Habits Let all in order thereto seriously consider these few Texts of sacred Scripture let them predominantly possess you let them be deeply and Indelibly Transcribed upon your Souls let them be assimulated thereunto and made the written Epistles the lively Pictures thereof Mat. 5. 8 20. Blessed be the pure in Heart for they shall see God. v. 20. For I say unto you except your Righoeousness exceed the Righteousness of Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven John 3. 3. Jesus answered and said unto him Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God c. Gal. 5. 19 20 to 23. Now the works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery c. Jam. 1. 18. Of his own Will hegat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures 1 Pet. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Vers. 13. Wherefore gird up the loyns of your Minds c. Colos. 3. 1 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things that are above set your affections on things above not c. Gal. 5. 24. And they that are Christs have Crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts c. Eph. 2. 1. And you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins Rev. 20. 6. Blessed and Holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no Power Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no Condemnation c. 1 Pet. 1. 15. But as he that hath called you is holy so be ye c. V. 23. Being born again not
be glorified by me the meanest and poorest of all his Servants but through Free-grace faithful unto the end My Soul is ravished I can hardly write and my Comforts are more unspeakable than my Terrors were I did this Evening see my dearest Brother and Companion his Face was to me as that of an Angel and he gave me that Comfort that I cannot but say my Love to him is beyond what I ever had to my dearest Relations When God comes every thing hath a beauty and lustre upon it here is an Answer of Prayers and such an Answer as Dearest Relations must engage you all to be constant in performance of that Duty which like Jacob's Ladder though it stand upon the Earth yet it reaches up to Heaven Here 's the Love of God made manifest to a poor Sinner at the last hour like the Thief upon the Cross he that never knew before what the Love of God was to his Soul finds it now filled with it and running over Now bless the Lord O my Soul yea all that is within me Bless his holy Name for this Dispensation Now light appears out of darkness in the face of Jesus now all worldly Joy and Comforts seem to me as they are things not hard to part with Father Mother Brothers Sister Wife Children House and Lands are as my Dear Saviour saith to be parted with for him or we are not worthy of him I Bless his Name I find no reluctancy to do it he hath brought me to his foot-stool and I can say heartily the Will of the Lord be done in this Matter I never before but saw a beauty in worldly Comforts but now those seem so faded by the greater lustre and beauty that I see in God in Christ Jesus that I am astonished where I have been wandering all my dayes spending my time and my money for that which is not Bread. O strive to get a taste of this Love of God in Christ Jesus and it will perfectly wean you from this deceitful foolish World What is worldly Honour and Riches O set not your hearts upon them but get a Treasure in Heaven that your hearts may be there also O lose no time for if you ever knew the sweetness of it you would never be at rest 'till you found him whom your Soul loved it will be more yea infinitely more than all worldly Injoyments can afford you though in their greatest perfection it will make your Life sweet and your Death most comfortable It is the Bread which this World knoweth not of and therefore maketh little or no enquiry after it Dearest Relations whilst you and my other dear Friends are like Aaron and Hur holding up the hands of Moses I am through Grace getting Victory over the Amalakites I can embrace my dear and beloved Brother and Companion with more Joy in the field of Suffering than ever I could have done had I met him crowned with the Laurels of Victory Oh the Mercy to dye with such a Friend and such a valiant Souldier of Jesus who hath kept his garments clean I now begin to pity you that stay behind who have many Temptations to conflict with for a little yea a very little time and my warfare will be accomplished and if God continue his Love and Influence upon my Soul it will be both short and sweet I have little of this World about me I leave you all the Legacy of what was ever dearest to me the best of Wives and five poor Children who must pass through an evil and sinful World but I have committed them to God who hath commanded to cast our Fatherless Children and Widdows upon him Dear Parents Brothers Sister all adieu my time draws on my Paper is finished and your dying Child and Brother recommends you all to him who is alsufficient to the God of Peace that brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus the great Shepherd of the sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant who will make you perfect in every good work to do his Will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen Richard Nelthrope From the Palace of Newgate October the 30th 1685. Two of the Clock in the Morning Mr. Richard Nelthrope's Letter to his Children My dear Children THE Providence of God hath so ordered it that your poor and ever loving Father is taken from you in such a manner as may cast both worldly Loss and Reproach upon you but I charge you let not this be a Stumbling-block to you in the way of God but that you remember your Creator in the days of your Youth That you never neglect a day without reading the Holy Scripture wherein you 'l find your Duty both to God and Man there you 'l find the way to everlasting Life there you 'l find Christ Jesus instructing you and dying for you Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all other things will be added to you After your Duty to God Almighty your dying Father charges and conjures you as you 'l answer it at the great day of Appearance of our dearest Saviour that you be dutiful and loving to the best of Mothers as long as God shall continue that great Mercy to you Hearken to her Voyce and be obedient to the words of her Mouth for she 'll be faithful to your Souls and Bodies and remember that Obedience to Parents hath the Promise of this Life as well as of Eternal Life Pay a great Duty and Obedience to your Grandfather and Grandmother Unkles and Aunt who all of them have not only testified the greatest Love to your dying Father but from whom if you carry your selves as becomes you you may expect both the good things of this World and Advice and Counsel for what is far beyond all temporal Blessings Diligence in your lawful Callings to which God shall in his Providence appoint you is both commendable and a Duty but let not the eager pursuit of the things of this World justle out the Time allotted for better things Prayer will bless what you get in your Imployments and so at once you obtain Gods Blessing upon worldly mercies and find God manifesting himself to you in his dear Son Christ Jesus in the Pardon of your sins and receiving worldly things in the Covenant Your tender years in which I leave you in this wicked and deceitful world may render you subject to many temptations but I commit you to the Father of the Fatherless who is able to preserve you both in Soul and Body your poor Father hath no Legacy to leave you but the Blessing of the great Jehovah which he begs for you upon the bended knees of his Soul. The Lord God bless you with the Dew of Heaven and if he sees good give you Jacob's Portion Food and Raiment and if the Lord bless you with any temporal Goods remember they are Talents employ them well to the Masters
his present Majesty for I was in the East Country when the Duke Landed and from thence I went directly to him when he was at Shipton-Mallet not one Man accompanying me from thence But hitherto as I lived so now I dye owning and professing the true Reformed Christian commonly called the Protestant Religion which is founded on the pure written Word of God only and which I acknowledge likewise to be comprehended in the Articles of the Doctrine of the Church this Religion I have made a reasonable and free Choice of and have heartily embraced not only as it protests against all Pagan and Mahometan Religion but against the Corruption of the Christian and I humbly and earnestly Pray to God that by his Infinite Wisdom and Almighty Power he will prevent not only the utter extirpation but diminition thereof by the heighth and influence of what is contrary thereto and for that end the Lord make the Professors of it to live up more to its Principles and Rules and bring their Hearts and Conversations more under the Governmeâ—t and Power of the same I dye also owning my Ministry Non-conformity for which I have suffer'd so much and which doth now obstruct the Kings Grace and Mercy to be manifested and extended to me For as I chose it not constrainedly so I appeal to God as a dying Man not moved from sullenness or humour or factious temper or erroneous Principles of Education or from secular Interests or worldly advantages but clearly from the Dictates of my own Conscience and as I judged it to be the Cause of God and to have more of Divine Truth in it than that which is contrary thereto so now I see no Cause to repent of it nor to recede from it not questioning but God will own it at the last Judgment-day If no more had been required after the late King's Restauration to qualifie Ministers for publick Preaching than was after the first Restauration from the time of Charles the first probably I might have satisfied my self therewith and not scrupled Conformity thereto but the Terms and Conditions thereof by a particular Law made in 1662. being not only new but so strict and severe that I could never have satisfaction in my own Conscience after all endeavours used for a Complyance therewith and a Conformity thereto to say nothing of the Covenant which I never took but the giving my Assent and Consent have been too difficult and hard for me to comply with And I very well remember that about fourteen years agoe entring into a Discourse with Mr. Patrick Heldore and Irish-man who was Contemporary with me in Dublin concerning Conformity which he much endeavour'd to perswade me to I urg'd the severity of the forementioned Conditions against it and after some Debates and Reasons with him I told him I did believe they were contrived and designed on purpose to prevent our publick Preaching and to keep us out of the Church to which he ingenuously reply'd he judged it was so For said he a Bishop in Ireland whose Name I have forgot told me the very same But though I could not wade through and conquer this Difficulty yet I censure not those that did it and I believe after all the hottest Disputes and most vehement Debates and violent Contests between Conformist and Non-conformist there are of both Parties will be glorified in Heaven hereafter According to the 29th Article of the Church of England a visible Church is a Congregation of faithful Men in the which the pure Word of God is Preached the Sacraments of the Lord duly administred according to Christ's Ordinance and all those things that of necessity are requisite and necessary to salvation so with such a Church I have held the most intimate Communion and with such did I live could hold it I would not therefore be so Incorporated with any Church as to exclude me from and render me uncapable of holding Communion with other Churches I was never strongly bound up to any form of Ecclesiastical Government but that under which a pure and undefiled Religion doth flourish and that which contains and really practises Holiness and advances the Kingdom of God in the World that can I approve of and submit to and willingly live under were I to live I did approve of the ancient and present form of Civil Government English Monarchy I am fully satisfied with and do also declare that it is not warrantable for any Subject to take up Arms against and resist their lawful Soveraigns and rightful Princes And therefore had I not been covinced by several things that I have read and heard to believe that the late Duke of Monmouth was the Legitimate Son of his Father Charles the second I had never gone into his Army judging that without this I could not be freed from the guilt of Rebellion which I always resolved to keep my self clear from And tho his Father denyed that he was marryed to his Mother I thought it might be answered with this That Kings and Princes for State-reasons often cannot be fathomed by their Subjects affirming and denying things which otherwise they would not do and make even their natural Affections to truckle and stoop thereto I exhort all to abhorr all treasonable Plots and pretences of all Rebellion with the highest Detestation and to take the plain Text of sacred Scripture to walk by in honouring and obeying and living in Subjection to rightful Kings and not readily to Receive or suddenly to be Impress'd with evil Reports and Defamations of them also not Rashly to be propagators of the same I desire God to forgive all mine Enemies and to give me an heart to forgive them which are many some mighty and all most malicious Particularly Barter of Lisnel who betrayed me and proved such a Traytor to James D. of M. his old and intimate Friend I am grievously afflicted that I should prove the occasion of the great sufferings of so many Persons and Families But this hath fallen under the Just and wise ordering of Divine Providence as Davids going to Abimelech when he proved the occasion of the Death of all the Persons Men Women and Children in the City But who shall say unto God What dost thou The care of my most dear Wife and a great many Children I cast upon God who I hope will be better than the best of Husbands unto her and the best of Fathers unto them God knows how Just and Legal Right my Wife hath unto her Estate to him therefore I commit her to defend her from the violence and oppression of men particularly from a most inhumane and unnatural Brother But no wonder if he will lay violent hands upon his Sisters Estate that hath so often laid them on his own Father I dye a deeply humbled self-judging and self-condemning Sinner loathing and abhorring my many and great Iniquities and my self for them earnestly desiring full Redemption from the bonds of Corruption under which I have groaned so many
him in particular saying It was so sad a thing to see such excellent Persons so cut off they scarce knew how to â—ear it Some of the most malicious in the place from whom nothing but Railing was expected said as they were carried to their Graves in Taunton-Church Voluntarily accompanied by most of the Town That these Persons had given sufficient Evidence that they were Glorified Saints in Heaven A great Officer in the Kings Army hath been heard to say If you will learn to Die go to the Young Men in Taunton Much more was uttered by him shewing the Blessed and Gracious frame of his Soul but this is what occurs to Memory About two Hours before his Death he Wrote this following Letter which shewed the great Composure of his Mind Mr. Hewlings last Letter a little before his Execution THat News which I know you have a great while feared and we expected I must now acquaint you with that notwithstanding the hopes you gave in your last Letter Warrants are come down for my Execution and within these few hours I expect it to be performed Blessed be Almighty God that gives Comfort and Support in such a day how ought we to Magnifie his Holy Name for all his Mercies that when we were running on in a course of Sin he should stop us in our full Career and shew us that Christ whom we had pierced and out of his free Grace enabled us to look upon him with an Eye of Faith believing him able to save to the uttermost all that come to him O Admirable long Suffering and Patience of God! That when we were a dishonouring his Name he did not take that time to Glorifie himself by our Destruction for he delights not in the Death of a Sinner but had rather he should turn to him and Live. And he hath many ways of bringing his own to himself Blessed be his holy Name that through Affliction he hath taught my Heart to be in some measure conformable to his Will which worketh Patience Patience Experience Experience Hope which maketh not ashamed I Bless God I am not ashamed for the Cause for which I lay down my Life and as I have Ingaged in it and Fought for it so I am now going to Seal it with my Blood. The Lord carry on the same Cause that hath been so long on foot and though I die in it and for it I question not but in his own good time he will raise up other Instruments more worthy to carry it on for the Glory of his Name and the Advancement of his Church and People I know there hath been nothing left undone by you or the rest of my Friends for the saving of my Life for the which I return my hearty acknowledgments to your self and them all and it is my dying request to you and them to pardon all Undutifulness in every Relation pray give my Duty to every Relation and to every Friend a particular Recommendation pray tell them all how pretious an Interest in Christ is when we come to die and advise them never to rest in a Christless state for if we are his it is no matter what the World does with us they can but kill the Body and Blessed be God the Soul is out of their reach for I question not but their Malice wishes the Damnation of the Soul as well as the Destruction of the Body which hath evidently appeared by their deceitful flattering Promises I commit you all to the Care and Protection of God who hath promised to be a Father to the Eatherless and a Husband to the Widow and to supply the wants of every Relation the Lord God of Heaven be your comfort under these Sorrows and your Refuge from those Miseries which we may easily fore-see coming upon poor England and upon the poor distressed People of God in it The Lord carry you through this Vale of Tears with a resigning submissive Spirit and at last bring you to himself in Glory where I question not but you will meet Your Dying Relation and Friend Benjamin Hewling Executed at Taunton September 30th 1688. FINIS ADVERTISEMENT ☞ There will speedily be Publish'd a second Collection of the Dying Speeches Letters and Prayers c. of those Eminent Protestants who Dyed in the West of England and else-where under the Cruel Sentence of the late Lord Chancellour ☞ There is now Publish'd a very Vseful Book Entituled The Joy of Faith Or a Treatise opening the true nature of Faith it 's lowest Stature and Distinction from Assurance with a Preliminary Tract evidencing the Divinity of the Sacred Scriptures By Samuel Lee M. A. Both to be sold at the Black-Raven in the Poultrey