order to this their reclaim they would take occasion from that degree of Punishment which at present they endure to reflect seriously upon those several evils and inconveniencies which by the just Judgment of God attend upon sin even in this life And for this meditation they may find abundance of matter supplyed by observing the circumstances of their present condition They are in restraint and other men enjoy their liberty and so might they have done too if they had used their liberty more soberly they are exposed to scorn and contempt disgrace and obloquy while other men live in Credit and repute among their neighbours and thus they might have lived too if they had sought the praise of God and man by a Faithful continuance in well doing They are employed at hard drudgery and severe Labour under their fierce and Aegyptian Task-masters while others follow their callings with mirth and cheerfulness maintain their Families by a prudent and moderate industry take paines in an honest way but are forced to take no more then the conveniency of their concerns engages them to and what is the condition of other men might have been theirs if they had so pleased themselves but because they refused an honest labour they are brought now to this forced and constrained drudgery Surely no way is so foolish as the path of iniquity and no Fool so unwise as the sinner is He loses his ends by those very methods whereby he pursues them and runs upon mischief by those very ways by which he seeks to avoid it the pride of his heart made him ungovernable and in Bridewel he finds a severe check for his pride He hated labour and there he finds a drudgery more toilsome than any of those labours that industrious men are usually engaged in he was of a gadding and a vagrant humour but there he hath a close restraint he loved sloth and pleasure but there he wants both and instead of them meets with the Lash and the working-house to correct the riot and laziness of his former conversation It is possible that sinners when they are under the smart may murmur at God and his providence towards them in all this but if they will but seriously consider the tendency of things they will have reason to acknowledge that what they call severity is the greatest mercy imaginable for it is much for our interest that sin should be made uneasie to us that the Paths of it should be hedged with Thorns and that sinners should meet with rubbs and blocks in their way for fear the pleasure of sin should prove a bate to them to tempt them to swallow the hook more glibly and the more uninterruptedly to pursue those ways the end of which will be destruction and perdition at that dreadful day of judgment when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels In flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1. 9. And this brings me to another direction suitable to the condition of those that are concerned in the Meditations of this Chapter and that is Thirdly When these offenders have in their most retired thoughts considered the several inconveniencies which attend sin and sinners in this life it would be a very useful instance of spiritual wisdom in them to carry their thoughts further to those punishments which are due to it in the world to come Suitable in this case is the counsel of our Saviour to the impotent man whom he found and healed at the Pool of Bethesdah sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee S. John 5. 14. For although heavy are those afflictions which they are under already more heavy are those which they may still expect unless the grace of God and a timely repentance prevent both in this world and in the next grievous it is for men to consider that they are slighted by their friends that their kindred and acquaintance forsake them that they are accounted and that justly the fiâ—th and off-scouring of the world but more grievous is it for them to think that they are rejected of God accounted by him as reprobate Silver Vessels in which there is no pleasure Vessels of dishonour here hereafter likely to be Vessels of wrath and indignation Now at present accursed children without Christ aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise Without hope without God in the world hereafter like to be of the number of those Goats which shall be cast to Christs left hand those tares whose end shall be to be burned those unprofitable Servants whose lot it shall be to be cast into utter darkness and whose dreadful sentence that shall be which our Saviour mentions St. Mat. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devils and his Angels Shame is burdensome to an ingenious spirit and God hath planted a keen and quick sense of it in our natures for this very purpose that it may be a check to sin and a present punishment to those that do things deserving shame and however mildly men or women may be used when they come to Bridewel yet a punishment it is barely to be sent thither in that it brings a blot to their Name and a stain to their reputation and will be a note of infamy upon them even after they are delivered from that place Now if shame be grievous as indeed it is there is another shame and a more lasting one attends the wicked after they are delivered from this For as the righteous shall go into everlasting glory so also the wicked shall go into a place of shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12. 2. Here only our grosser actions and such are scandalous are exposed there our very secret thoughts Here the greater miscarriages of our lives there the naughtiness of our hearts Here men only and usually but few are spectators of our infamy and disgrace but there we shall be made in a worse sense then that in which the Apostle spoke it Aspectacle to the world and to Angels and men Even God himself the God of mercy and all consolations shall laugh then at their destructions The Good Angels who rejoyce in Heaven at the Conversion of one sinner that repenteth shall shout at the ruine of those transgressours against their own souls and the Devils who were their tempters to sin here shall be their tormentours for it there and all mankind shall behold their shame and none shall endeavour to cover it none shall pity it But if the sense of shame be but a weak argument to those that have cast off all shame let them consider that that is a place of pain too If fire be tormenting there they shall converse with everlasting burnings if the gnawing of a Viper in
our bowels may be thought to be grievous there their worm shall never dye if the smart of the whip be tormenting there it is said that the wicked shall be delivered up to the tormentours and their torment shall never end I know there are dispersed up and down in the Gospel many more sweet and ravishing motives to repentance then these are The Love of Christ ought to constrain us the Grace of the Gospel ought to invite us the promises of it are with enough to encourage us to obedience and men of ingenuous spirits men who will act like men will be drawn by these cords of Love by these cords of a man as the Prophet calls them and they will follow God But the same Gospel hath more rough Arguments then these for men of more rough tempers and where we meet with obdurate sinners as knowing the terrours of the Lord We ought to perswade them We ought to tell them That vengeance is his and he will repay it That tribulation and anguish indignation and wrath shall be the Portion of every soul of man that worketh evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile That God will consume the wicked from the very beginning of revenges that his wrath will begin to burn against them here and will reach against them everlastingly hereafter If the Present sufferings of offenders raise up in them such thoughts as these are they have then a very useful effect upon them The very end of Punishment is that the wicked may see and hear and feel and be sensible of that hand of God that is stretched out against them and do no more wickedly And if this be the effect of such punishments as in this Chapter have been described they have reason to rejoyce That these chastisements which are not for the present Joyous but grievous have begun to bring forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness that these corrections which are in the Flesh have any way contributed to the saving of the Spirit in the day of the Lord Jesus and that these afflictions which are but for a moment have begun to work in them that fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom that Godly sorrow which is naturally productive of that repentance which is never to be repented of and that reformation of life which if persevered in to the end will entitle them to a far more exceeding weight of Glory And when these motions begin to work in them it is their duty and it is their interest to pray to God for that Spirit that may further convince them of sin and of righteousness and of Iudgment and our Heavenly Father hath promised that he will not deny his Spirit to them that ask it and if they lack Wisdom to direct them in that way with which as yet they are very much unacquainted Let them ask of God who giveth to all men Liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given them And because that of themselves as of themselves they are they are not sufficient to think any thing that is good much less to do it and much less still to preserve in doing Let them implore the Grace of God which is ready at hand to all those that by Faith and Prayer and sincere endeavours seek after it Let them ask and it shall be given Let them seek and they shall find Let them knock and God will open to them Let them draw nigh to God in sincere purposes of repentance and he will draw nigh to them in his grace and mercy and will enable them to cleanse their hands though they have been sinners and to purify their hearts though they have been double minded and to assist them in such supplications as these I have here subjoyned this ensuing Prayer A PRAYER O LORD our God we beseech thee look down upon us poor and miserable sinners who now groan under the weight of our sins and the punishment of them We desire to submit to thy providence in all things and to ackowledg that thou art just and righteous in those evils which thou sendest upon us and thou hast but recompenced upon us the fruits of our doings we have misused our liberty thou hast punished us with thraldom We have sinned in pride and the haughtiness of our hearts and thou hast brought us to shame and disgrace We have sinned by riot and excess by sloth and wantonness and thou hast exercised us with slavery and drudgery and hast made us to serve under Egyptian Task-masters We beseech thee O Lord of thy mercy to teach us how to discern our sin in our punishment to learn repentance and obedience by the things that we suffer and to humble 〈…〉 selves under thy mighty hand that thou mayest deliver us in thy due time However thou dealest with us now cast us not from thy presence hereafter howsoever thou exercises us with shame at present make us not then in our perdition to be a spectacle to the World and to Angels and to Men But let the sense of thy wrath at present instruct us in thy fear and withdraw us from the errour of our ways that our Soul may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Give us thy spirit O God further to convince us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment and to guide our feet into the way everlasting Give us thy wisdom to direct our steps and to lead us into those paths which as yet we are very much acquainted with Grant us thy grace to enable us to do those things which thou requirest of us As thou hast given us a heart to will what is good so of thy good pleasure give us strength to do and to persevere in well doing And whensoever of thy goodness it shall please to deliver us from this miserable condition wherein we are grant that we may return from the folly of the wicked to the wisdom of the just Let the time past of our Lives suffice us to have fulfilled the lusts of the flesh and for the time to come teach us to live more soberly and righteously and godly than hitherto we have done that we may adorn the Gospel as much by our repentance as we have dishonoured it by our looseness that we may break off our sins by repentance that we may work with our hands the thing that is good that we may commit our selves to thee well-doing that we may provide for the things that are honest in the sight of God and men that we may serve thee in this world and be happy in another and all this we beg of thee and what else thou shall see needful for us in the name and mediation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ In whose name and words we further pray Our Father c. CHAP. III. Directions for those that are tried and cast for their lives but have them spared by the mercy of the King or the Bench. FRom these that in Law are counted lesser
sinned and he repented of it in some degree and as an instance of it made restitution of the price of blood but had not recourse by faith and Gospel repentance to that blood of atonement and therefore died as a sad instance and dreadful example of horrid dispair and indeed no sin except that one unpardonable one against the Holy Ghost is exempted from forgiveness upon a true repentance And to take away doubt in this the Scripture hath particularly mentioned the greatest sorts as actually forgiven to sincere Penitents As particularly The Blasphemies of Saul the Fornications of Magdalen the extortions of Zaccheus the Murder and uncleanness of David the drunkenness and incest of Noah and the Robberies of the Thief upon the Cross But as there may be an error on this hand so there may be and possibly is more frequently on the other hand toc in relying too confidently upon the pardoning mercy of God in Christ without those Gospel preparations of heart which will sit us to receive it And this seems to be the sin of those very confident but very much mistaken fiduciaries mentioned and reproved by our Saviour Mat. 7. 21 22 23. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Many will say unto me in that day Lord have we not Prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils and in thy name done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity And if they would guide themselves between presumption and despair it will behave them to take the Advice of St. Peter to Simon Magus so Acts 8. 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee He saith not and so certainly it shall be this possibly might be too confident a presumption to depend upon but if perhaps that an humble hope may be allowed to seek after The carriage of Benhahad to King Ahab may well become them The Kings of Israel are merciful Kings says he and so they The God of Israel is a merciful God this they may with fulness of Faith believe and peradventure he will save us this they may with an humble hope desire And to accommodate a little to this purpose that expression of Queen Esther They may go into the presence of God by humble supplication and prayer and say if we perish we will perish praying unto God we will perish imploring his Grace we will Perish rolling our selves upon his mercy in Christ Jesus and it is possible God may be more merciful to us then we are apt to think he will when we reflect upon the great defect of our death bed repentance The rest I shall refer to the Conduct of their spiritual guides of which number I am bound in duty to be one and shall request them often to read these seven Psalms 6 32 38 51 102 130 143. Paraphrased into Prayers by Bishop Taylour which I have provided for them at my own charge A small Treatise called The Penitent sinner provided for them by the care of the Court of Aldermen and these two Prayers the one taken out of Doctor Patricks Devout Christian the other from Bishop Taylour and with a small alteration accommodated to their condition A Prayer for condemned Malefactors written by Dr. Patrick in his Devout Christian O MOST holy and righteous judge of the whole world give us sinful and miserable wretches leave to prostrate our selves before the throne of thy Grace and to implore that mercy which we have formerly despised or abused We are not worthy we confess to lift up our eyes towards heaven and it becomes us in the greatest dejection of spirit to sigh and groan under the Load of our sins which have been so great and many so bold so presumptuous and shameles that when with an awakened mind we reflect upon them we are ready to sink into Hell and utterly despair of any mercy O God how have we hated instruction and our heart despised reproof And have not obeyed the voice of our teachers nor inclined our ear to them that admonished us How swift have our feet been to run into evil and how backward and averse have we been to any thing that is good O the injuries that we have done our neighbours the abuse of our selves and thy good creatures the prophane contempt or neglect of thee and the duties of thy worship and service * Here let them reckon up the blasphemies debaucheries and violences that they have been guilty of The remembrance of all this is dreadful the burden is intolerable How shall we appear before thee at whose rebuke the mountains quake since we cannot think of our appearance before an earthly judge without shame and affrightment of spirit O Lord work in us a greater dread of thee with a greater shame and confusion of face now that we are in thy presence For which end represent unto us essectually the wickedness the baseness and vileness of our evil doings as well as the guilt and just desert of thee O that we could hate and abhor them more than death which we expect shortly to suffer for them Bestow on us that ingenuous and godly sorrow which worketh repentance and unfeigned purposes of amendment of life If thou through thy great mercy and unexpected providence shouldest grant enlargement of it These purposes come too late indeed we may justly think to find acceptance with thee and therefore not without great fear and trembling and a great sense of our undeserving we look up unto thee acknowledging thy infinite goodness if thou wilt vouchsafe but the smallest hope of mercy Mercy mercy Good Lord cast us not quite out of thy sight for Jesus sake who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity It is the beginning of some mercy and an earnest we hope of more that thou hast made us sensible of our offences Help us to manifest our sincerity by making free and open confession of our crimes and taking the shame of them before others and by acknowledgment that we are unworthy to live and by earnest admonishments to all to be warned by our example and to cease betimes to do evil and learn to do well O that we could glorifie thee O God a little in our latter end after this manner And till we come to receive our deserved punishment help us to spend our time in bewailing our sins in humbling our selves before thee for them in setting our hearts against them in studying and admiring with the greatest affection the holy life of our Lord Jesus in calling other offenders to repentance and exhorting them thereby to give thee glory Deny us not we beseech thee the grace thus to employ our selves that we may have some tast of thy mercy and the fear of death may
the poor that are cured in the Hospital of St. Bartholomews at the time of their delivery from thence upon their knees in the Hall before the Hospitaler and two Masters of the House at the least WE magnifie and praise thee O Lord that so mercifully and favourably hast looked upon us miserable and wretched sinners which so highly have offended thy Divine Majesty that we are not worthy to be numbred among thy elect and chosen People our sins being great and grievous are daily before our eyes we lament and be sorry for them and with sorrowful heart and lamentable tears we call and cry unto thee for mercy Have mercy upon us O Lord have mercy upon us 〈…〉 d according to thy great mercy 〈…〉 way the multitude of our sins and grant us now O Lord thy most holy and working Spirit that setting aside all vice and idleness we may in thy fear walk and go forward in all vertue and godliness And for that thou hast moved O Lord the hearts of Godly men and the Governours of this House to shew their exceeding charity towards us in curing of our maladies and diseases we yield most humble and hearty thanks to thy Majesty and shall incessantly laud and praise thy most holy and glorious name Beseeching thee most gracious and merciful Lord according to thy holy word and promise so to bless this thine own dwelling House and the Faithful Ministers thereof that there be here found no lack but that their riches and substance may encrease that thy holy name may thereby be the more praised and glorified to whom be all laud honour and glory world without end Amen CHAP. VII Instructions for those that have been restored to their senses in the Hospital of Bethleem IT hath been already observed in this small Treatise to the great Glory of this City that there is scarce any infirmity to which humane nature is liable but some Provision hath been made against it by the generous charity of the Honourable and Worshipful Patriots thereof and as in other Hospitals this hath been manifested so also it is very demonstrable from the worthy intents of this charitable foundation where very ample provision is made for Physick and Lodging and attendance and all other things requisite for the cure and welfare of those miserable people that are crazed in their brains To the Governours of this place there is no need to address any advice Their worthy performances supply abundant matter for praise and leave no room for further directions to do any thing more then they do already The Poor people under cure are not capable of it for it would be a piece of madness to direct advice to such as are under actual phrensy and so are not capable of it The only men therefore to whom applications of this nature must be made must be such as have received cure in this House and by that means have been restored to the enjoyment of heir senses and use of their reason To these My first direction shall be that they would endeavour to be thankful to God for so great a mercy We usually value mercies by the want of them as those that have been sick know how to put an estimate upon health those that have been confined upon Liberty and those that have been exercised with any other affliction know how to prize those enjoyments which others have and undervalue for the commonness of them and therefore if any know how to put a due esteem upon this great mercy the undisturbed use of their sense and reason these men do Those that are under the care and Provision of other Hospitals are not half so miserable as they lately were Christ-Church is a receptacle of poor mens Children but poverty though a great misery is not wholly without relief and remedy if men have the use of their sense and reason whereby to learn and practise honest and ingenuous arts for their relief and maintenance In St. Bartholomews and St. Thomas's there are lame and decrepit and infirm People exercised with diverse pains but seeing their distemper doth not touch their brain they can enjoy the sweet and delightful converse of Friends and acquaintance and communicate pleasant and useful discourse with them and both the former and the latter of these have opportunities for the working out their Salvation with fear and trembling But the Patients of Bethleem want all this if they be poor they want the use of reason to attend upon a beneficial calling and if surrounded with a multitude of Friends they are not bettered by their converse as not understanding what they say or what they do but if they have been addicted to any course of mortal sin they are as it were locked up under a state of impenitence having not sense to apprehend the error of their former ways nor reason to direct them how to return to the wisdom of the just But by being restored to their senses they are restored to all these advantages They are better enabled to maintain their charge better enabled to enjoy their Friends better enabled to serve their God And as it is a complicated mercy so it deserves a complicated thankfulness And they that are restored to their senses ought to return a several acknowledgment to the Divine goodness as for the fundamental mercy it self so for all those that are contained in it Men are Instruments in the hand of God and as such there is due to them a gratitude proportionable to their care over them but God is the principal agent and therefore he may claim their highest praise and adoration Secondly My second exhortation to those that have a happy cure in this Hospital is to take care of those sinful passions that heretofore have either caused or hastened their former distraction upon them For seldom it is that a man of a sedate temper or a quiet mind or of moderate propensions or that hath bounded his desires within the limits of reason and Religion that arrives at these phrensies which have their cure in this House But usually some inordinate passion transports us first beyond our duty and then beyond our wits Some are vain glorious and because they meet with scorn where they looked for respect it is a disturbance first to their thoughts then to the very constitution of their brain and then perverts their senses some guide their Love more by fancy then by reason not regarding the consent of Parents nor approbation of Friends nor any of those circumstances which a wise man ought to consider and that passion which was but the issue of an unreasonable lust concludes at last in a more unreasonable phrensy And some disturb their minds with unreasonable scruples and Religion which hath a natural tendency to compose mens Spirits disturbs theirs My advice to all such is that when they are restored to their senses they would correct their passions by reason and Religion and they will find the benefit of it in the
they shall give a very dreadful account for all those mercies that they have abused here and therefore very little reason have they that are righteous to murmur at those afflictions which shall so soon end or to envy to the wicked those mercies for which they must give so sad a reckoning Secondly When good men suffer under that Imprisonment which is the result rather of their misfortune then their 〈◊〉 they have little reason to complain as if they suffered more then they did deserve for how innocent soever we may be before men there is no man but is guilty before God He that punisheth a man of upright intentions and just purposes meerly because he cannot pay the Debt which he hath contracted and which he desires if he could to satisfie is cruel and unmerciful and as he hath shown Iudgment without mercy so there is a time coming wherein he shall want the mercy himself which he denied to others and as he hath shown no mercy to others so in his Case also mercy shall rejoyce against Iudgment St. Iam. 2. 13. But whatsoever may be said of the prosecutor God is not unjust to punish those that are sinners against him by the hands of those that are more sinful then themselves nay very frequent it is for God to correct the sins of those that belong to him by the hands of those that are more unrighteous than they Thus the sins of Israel are punished by the Caldeans of David by Saul of Ioseph by his wicked Brethren and in these cases they that afflict shall bear their sin because they have used severity to those that have not deserved it at their hands but those that are afflicted have no reason to repine at the Justice of God as if he were unrighteous to make use of wicked men as his Rod and his Scourge and the Instruments of his displeasure against them for their particular transgressions committed against him Thirdly Another consideration to allay the impatience of such mens spirits may be this that those very miseries which they groan under are sent by God with designs of love and mercy the afflictions of their Bodies are sent as Physick to their Souls and the sufferings of one as improvements of the other To this import are those many assertions in Scripture that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8. 28. That our light afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. and while our outward man perisheth our inward man is renewed day by day ver 16. of the same Chapter And therefore it would be spiritual prudence to convert our murmurings into spiritual cautions and holy diligence how we may improve all our sufferings to so great and to so spiritual purposes which if we should do we shall have no reason to grieve that we have suffered so much but much reason to rejoyce that these our sufferings have proved unto us so happy an opportunity of enhancing our Crown of glory Thirdly A third duty which I shall direct such Prisoners to is to pray to God for an happy deliverance out of their troubles but with the reserve of a quiet submission unto his Will if he shall see the continuance under their afflictions more fit for them Both parts of this duty are recommended in the example of our Saviour before cited When he was to dye he prayed for the averting of that bitter Cup but when he perceived that God had determined otherwise concerning it he declares his desire to submit rather to the Will of God than choose his own Prayer is a proper remedy against all sorts of afflictions If any man be afflicted let him pray James 5. 13. and as God hath made it our duty to pray so he hath made it his particular style that he is a God learning prayer And if he be attentive to any prayers more than others he is so to the prayers of the afflicted This is more than once asserted in the 102. Psalm He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer ver 17. He hath looked down from the height of his Sanctuary from Heaven did the Lord behold the Earth to hear the groanings of the Prisoners to loose those that are appointed to dye ver 19. 20. Our poverty is the time of our destitution from men and though the rich hath many friends the poor is forsaken of his Neighbours but that which discommends us to men most potently recommends us to God who in divers places of Scripture hath made it his most peculiar stile that he is a Father to the Fatherless a Husband to the Widow adjutor in opportunitatibus a ready help in time of trouble and therefore it is not only our duty that we should but our priviledge and advantage that we may cast our care upon him who careth for us 1 Pet. 5. 7. Among all these duties it is not only allowable but very commendable for those that are Prisoners to endeavour their liberty by all just and prudent methods such as are receiving such supplies as they can get from their more wealthy friends accepting of such contributions as they may have from the charity of merciful and well minded men the offering of such compositions as the meanness of their circumstances will enable them to make and such honest methods as these For our endeavours are very consistent with Gods Providence and our diligence with his blessing and so far is our dependence upon God from discouraging our industry that it is rather proper to promote it for God hears not the prayers of the Lazy but sends an answer to our Petitions in his blessing upon our Diligence But above all things we must be careful that our streights prove not our temptations that our trouble put us not upon any indirect courses to deliver us from it for he that thus endeavours to draw his foot out of the snare doth but by fluttering intangle himself the faster and change not his trouble but his Prosecutour and as man hath been his adversary hitherto so makes God to be so for the time to come and discharges himself from the first rank of men to whom I designed these directions and hath placed himself into the second that of ungodly Debtors And so men may be upon a double account either First with reference to the beginning of their troubles when they fall into these streights by their own profuseness or prodigality or Luxury or negligence or ill husbandry or secondly with reference to the means that they use to extricate themselves out of their troubles as fraudulent compositions or unrighteous arts or unjust concealment of that estate with which they might pay their Debts or any other such ungodly Methods as these The Directions suitable to such as these may be First That they would not appropriate to themselves any of those promises which the Scripture give
think it not safe to handle that point in a Treatise which will be read both by the condemned and reprieved But judge it more prudent to leave the Conduct of the souls of dying men in that particular to those Ministers that shall visit them near the approaches of their death For the supply of which in such cases I suppose there is some provision made in all places of this Nation but in this City very plentifully They have a particular Minister allotted to them whose duty it is wholly to attend this affair to his assistance there are allotted by the order of the Honourable the Court of Aldermen and upon the motion of the Right Worshipful the present Sheriffs the Ministers of Ludgate and both the Counters and Diverse other Ministers of this City out of their Pious compassion towards them very frequently contribute their spiritual aids who may privately Minister to them such comfort as their condition is capable of without danger of occasioning presumption and spiritual security to other Malefactors who at such times are not within hearing But such other considerations as I may safely let down without this danger I shall here insert First The condemned Malefactor ought humbly to confess his sins and this when accompanied with other requisites of repentance has a promise of pardon So we have it expressed by the beloved Disciple St. John 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is Faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness So in Hosea 14. 2. Take to you words that is of confession and supplication and turn to the Lord your God say unto him take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the Calves of our lips For this pardon upon a true and sincere confession Solomon depends by Faith in his Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple 2 Chronicles 6. 36 37 39. If they sin against thee for there is no man that sinneth not and thou be angry with them and they turn and pray unto thee and say we have sinned we have done amiss we have dealt wickedly then hear thou from the Heavens even from thy dwelling place their Prayer and their supplication and forgive thy People which have sinned against thee and that Faith that Solomon had in this Prayer of his was founded upon that promise which we find in Lev. 26. 40. 42. If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their Fathers with the trespass that they have trespassed against me and that also they have walked contrary unto me Then will I remember my Covenant That is his Covenant of mercy and forgiveness And suitably to the Faith of Soloman and the promise of God David found it Psalm 32. 5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee says he there and my iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And where the sin against God is complicated with injustice towards men as in condemned Malefactors it always is there it is requisite that the sinner confess to men and shew his Zeal against unrighteousness by discovering the combinations of wickedness that he hath been acquainted with for it is hardly conceivable that they thoroughly repent of their unrighteousness who at their death desire it should go unobserved and unreformed and unpunished in others Secondly These confessions where they are accepted with God are always accompanied with a deep sorrow and contrition of Spirit for those sins that we acknowledge otherwise they are Hypocritical but together with this they are often a sacrifice acceptable to God Psal 51. 16 17. For thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thee thou delightest not in burnt offerings the Sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite Spirit a broken and a contrite Heart ô God thou wilt not despise And so to the same effect we find it in the Prophet Isaiah ch 57. v. 15. For thus saith the high and the Holy one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a pure and contrite Spirit to revive the Spirit of the humble to revive the heart of the contrite ones Thirdly To that repentance that will find pardon there ought to be joyned a forsaking of sin and we are to explain the place before cited 1 St. John 1. 9. by that other place from whence it seems to be taken Prov. 28. 13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy And by this the Scripture every where describes saving repentance calling it a turning from our evil ways returning from the folly of the wicked to the wisdom of the righteous cleansing our hands and purifying our hands with many other expressions importing a thorough reformation of the whole man in life and heart and lip many parts of which because they are always wanting in the late conversion of old Transgressours the above mentioned Divines have very much doubted of the efficacy of such a death-bed repentance to the great intents of mercy and pardon and if it be said sincere intentions are often accepted by God instead of performances it is possible it may be as difficult to distinguish between the integrity Hypocrisie of mens purposes as between the truth and falseness of their conversion and therefore it is more prudent to leave the decision of such questions to the Oral solution of such Divines as shall either out of Duty or Christian Charity visit them then to deliver it in Printed rules where it may be read by those who have more need to be pressed to a speedy Conversion then be perswaded of the efficacy of a late repentance Fourthly After such acts of confession and contrition and repentance as the condition of the Malefactors is capable of let them cast themselves upon God by a holy Faith and reliance mixed with fear and trembling both these conjoyned are and neither of these single is suitable to the condition of these condemned sinners They ought to have a Faith in the mercy of God as sufficient to pardon the greatest sinners that return according to the terms of the Gospel for else it were in vain to pray to God if we thought him wholly inexorable but this Faith of theirs ought to be joyned with a holy trembling for fear lest their repentance should not be such as God will accept and lest their preparations should not be according to the Preparation of the Sanctuary or else their Faith may soon degenerate into presumption Where the first is wanting men run into despair This seems to be the sin of Cain who said as it is in the marginal interpretation of our Bibles and suitable enough to the signification of the Hebrew verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used My iniquity is greater then that it may be forgiven This seems to be the sin of Judas he knew he had