of corruptible Seed c. Psal. 4. 3. But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is Godly for himself c. I shall mention now no more the whole Bible abounds with these Texts with what a Renovation and change of our carnal and corrupt Hearts and Natures there must be with Holiness of Life and Conversation before we can be capable of a future and blessed Immortality and of inheriting the Kingdom of God for ever and ever Amen Captain Abraham Ansley's Speech I Am come to pay a Debt to Nature 't is a Debt that all must Pay though some after one manner and some after another The way that I pay it may be thought by some few Ignominious but not so by me having long since as a True Englishman thought it my Duty to venture my Life in Defence of the Protestant Religion against Popery and Arbitrary Power For this same Purpose I came from my House to the Duke of Monmouth's Army At first I was a Lieutenant and then a Captain and I was in all the Action the Foot was Engaged in which I do not Repent For had I a Thousand Lives they should all have been Engaged in the same Cause although it has pleased the Wise God for Reasons best known to himself to blast our Designs but he will deliver his People by ways we know nor think not of I might have saved my Life if I would have done as some Narrow-Soul'd Persons have done by Impeaching others but I abhor such ways of Deliverance choosing rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy Life with Sin. As to my Religion I own the Way and Practice of the Independent Church and in that Faith I die Depending on the Merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ for my Eternal Salvation His Blessing be with you all Farewel to thee Poor England Farewel Abraham Ansley Mr. Jenkin's Letter to Mrs. Scott on the 26th of September 1685. Dear Sister THE News which came in my Brothers Letter of the 22d instant to Mr. Duewy did not at all surprize me for indeed I expected no other and seeing all hopes of saving my Life are blasted I thought my self bound to write a Line or two to so near a Relation as your self wherein I may take my Leave of you I bid you farewel till we shall meet again in Glory and never be separated more As for my own part though such a sort of Death as I am like to suffer be that which I always dreaded at a Distance when I have sometimes thought on it yet I thank my God now it draws very near even but a few hours off I find my self supported under the thoughts of it and I hope by his Strength who will never forsake his own I shall be enabled to undergo it with Glory to his Name and my Comfort and to my own and other Souls good that are more nearly concerned for me And as I have made it my own endeavour to submit to the Will of God in this sad Dispensation without murmuring and repining I hope you have been sensible of your Duty in the same Respects which is patiently to submit to his Will and eye his Hand in this severe Stroke Though God hath been pleased to deny success to your Endeavours for the saving of my Life yet I am satisfied nothing hath been wanting on your parts and for all the Trouble you have been at on my Account though I do not live to shew my Gratitude yet I render you my dying Thanks and beg your Prayers for my support in the last moment of my Life if you receive this before my Death the certainty of which I have not yet notice of Remember my Love to my Brother and Thanks for all kindnesses And as for my young Relations my Prayer for them shall be That they may see more happy Days than I have done and Die more peaceably I cannot say A more happy Death And now my Dear Sister I take my leave of you and I commit you to the Protection of that God who hath made every thing Beautiful in its time and will shew you the meaning of this sad Providence which now we do not understand to whom I trust I am now going and in the Enjoyment of whose Presence I doubt not but e'er long you will meet your Affectionate Brother William Jenkins Mr. Jenkins's Letter to his Mother on the 29th of September at Midnight 1685. Dear and Honoured Mother I Have ev'n now received News of my Execution to morrow which though I have such short Notice of yet I am prepared for it and by Gods strength enabling of me I shall be joyfully carried through it The Kindness you have been pleased to shew in your great Concern for me since I have been under this trouble as well as the Duty I owe to so near a Relation as your self ingages me to acquaint you with my present Condition for your Satisfaction which truly is such as I must beg you to accept this present Letter as my last farewell and though the sad Providence cannot but be grievous to so near and Affectionate a Relation yet I hope it already hath and still doth yield the peaceable Fruits of Righteousness to your self and me who had been severely exercised with it As for my own part I hope I can truly say that God by his Providence hath weaned me from the World and made me willing to leave it and to be dissolved that I might be with Christ which is far better and now I am come to die I hope I can truly say I have nothing to do but to die I having fought a good Fight and finished my Course I am now in expectation of that Crown of Reward which God the Righteous Judge of the whole Earth hath promised to all those that love his appearance And as it is my great Work to be now every moment fitting my self for my great and last Change so it is the Duty that belongs to you and the rest of my Dear Relations to resign me up into the Hands of that God whose I am and to whom I am going and not to repine at his Righteous Will which we ought quietly to submit unto But now being at last leaving the World Dear and Honoured Mother I take my leave of you also hoping I shall again meet you in a place of Happiness where â—ll Tears shall he Wiped from our Eyes and we shall Sorrow no more I have nothing more to say but to return you my Dying Thanks for all the Trouble and Care you have been at for saving my Life which God hath not thought fit to make successful yet my Thankfulness is equally due to you for your Endeavours as if it had I shall end with Subscribing my self Dear and Honored Mother your Dutiful Son William Jenkins Mr. Jenkins's Letter to Mrs. Gourden on the 30th of September 1685. Dear Sister THough you be at a great Distance from me yet you
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
years longing for a most perfect Conformity to the most glorious and holy God the only Infinite pure Being thirsting for a perfect Diffusion of his Grace through all the Powers and Faculties of my Soul panting after perfect Spiritual Life and Liberty and a Consummate Love to my dearest Jesus who is an All-comprehensive Good and to be satisfied with his Love for ever A vigorous and vehement Zeal for the Protestant Religion with a Belief I had of the Dukes Legitimacy hath involved me into this ignominious Death yet blessed be God that by sincere Repentance and true Faith in the Blood of Jesus there is a passage from it to a glorious Eternal Life and from these bitter sorrows to the fulness of sweetest Joyes that are in his Presence and from these sharp bodily pains to those more pure Pleasures that are at his Right hand for evermore and blessed be God that such a Death as this cannot prevent and hinder Christ's changing of my vile Body and fashioning it like unto his Glorious Body in the general Resurrection-day I am now going into that World where many dark things shall be made perfectly manifest and clear and many doubtful things fully Resolved and a plenary Satisfaction given concerning them all Disputes and Mistakes concerning Treason Rebellion and Schism shall be at an end and cease for ever many things that are Innocent Lawful and Laudable which have foul Marks and black Characters stampt and fixt upon them here they shal be perfectly purified and fully cleansed from there where at one view more shall be known of them than by all wrangling Debates and eager Disputes or by Reading all Polemick Books concerning them here I greatly deplore and bewail the greedy Appetite and insatiable thirst that Professing Protestants have after the Blood of their Brethren and the high pleasure they take in the Effusion thereof But what will not Men do when they are either Judicially blinded or their secular worldly Interest insensibly insinuates and winds it self into their Religion Is so twisted and incorporated with it that it animates and acts it is the Life and Soul the vital Form and Power and made wholly subservient thereunto I bless God for all my Sufferings and particularly for this last for the benefit and fruit of it by Gods sanctifying of them to me have been great hereby I have been effectually convinced of the Vanity of the World and my own sinfulness by Nature and practice and to see that to be sin which I never saw before and to be more throughly humbled for what I know to be sin not only of Commission but of Omission also Hereby I have been brought to a more thorough deep inward sence and feeling of the absolute necessity of the Righteousness of Christ to justifie me and he hath been made much more dear and precious to my Soul than ever he was before Hereby my Soul hath been more Refin'd from the Dross of Sensuality wrought into a more heavenly Frame raised up to a higher pitch of Spirituality hereby I am made more Meek and Humble and so Judge more charitably of others that differ from me in Opinion and Judgment so though by God's most Righteous Judgment I have been apprehended and most Justly and deservedly undergo this Suffering for my Sins yet I hope they have wrought for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory fitting and preparing me making me a better qualified Subject for and far more meet to be a Partaker of the same By the Grace and Strength of God I will not purchase my Life by the Death and Blood of my Protestant Brethren but chuse to dye rather than be a Betrayer of them the Impetuous and violent assault of this I dreaded more than Death it self Blessed be God I was not exposed unto it and conquered by it as some have been having such full bodily vigour and strength being in such perfect Health notwithstanding my Age predominating in me it hath made it more difficult to dye than if I had been Clogged and Incumbred with Infirmities made to bow and stoop under them by prevailing Diseases and Distempers gradually worn out therewith which many times makes Men weary of Life and to desire to dye and this in Conjunction with many things which I forbear to mention highly gratifying and pleasing to sense which I must leave for ever strengthens and heightens the Difficulty and begets a greater Regret and Reluctancy in my Will to have the Earthly Tabernacle of my Body dissolved and my Soul to dislodge and quit the same But now when the black and gloomy Shades of Death do overspread me I can say to the Glory of God's most Free and Powerful Grace True Faith in some measure hath changed the difficulty into a Facility and easiness of Dying It hath very much subdued the Reluctancy of my Will against it for it makes Future things present and Invisible things visible and doth Realize and substantiate the same to me and as by it I penetrate and pierce into Eternity and behold Invisible and Immortal things so hereby blessed be God I have obtained a greater Victory over Sense The World is crucified to me and I to the World and all the most pleasant delightful Objects therein all finite fading Creatures Comforts and Injoyments are become minute and small Despicable and Contemptible to me in comparison thereof being infinitely Contained and Comprehended therein Shall my Soul clasp and cling about these Mortal and Perishing things Shall it cleave and be glued to them Shall it be confin'd and captivated into what is kept in the narrow bounds of Time and in this lower World Shall it earnestly desire and thirst for muddy Streams yea Rivers of Flesh-pleasing Good when by an Eye of Faith I can look into the Indeficient Inexhaustible purest Fountain the Immense Imensurate Ocean of Divine Good hoping to Drink thereof to Swim and Bathe my Soul therein for ever and ever And when I consider how long my Ears have been bound up and tyed to their innumerable and horrid Oaths and Cursed Blasphemies and my Eyes to see the prophanation of the day of God and when I behold such an overflowing Flood of most prodigious Impiety such an Inundation of most monstrous Iniquity and so much Hell upon Earth and that there is so much decay of holy Zeal and true Piety and Christian Religion among the Professors of it such seeming incurable Breaches and Divisions such expiring Love and Charity and parting 's among them it hath powerful influence on my Soul to reconcile it more to Death and makes it electively and from choice to leave this present World and to take up my abode in that which is Unseen and Future were there shall be nothing but perfect Love and Holiness a sinless state and serving God with all unweariedness and perfection with the highest complacency and delight that immortal Souls can be capable of there is perfect Peace and Concord the innumerable company