and sorrow to repent of all their sins and provocations least God's Vengeance overtake them in their Security and there be no Remedy And I beseech them farther to take Notice that if this Warning be slighted the wilfull neglect and Refusal thereof will at last be charged upon them as a heinous Aggravation of all their Sins they shall hereater commit will encrease their Condemnation and make their Doom more dreadful and terrible But that it may have a contrary effect and be a means to reduce 'em from their Sins to a Holy and Religious Life that so their Souls may be saved in the great Day of the Lord is the earnest desire of their Languishing and sorrowful Friend Duncomb Colchester Who desires this may be read in the Parish Churches of Michel Dean and Westbury and shewn to such Gentlemen Friends and others as may bring God most Glory Nov. 1693. Signed and Delivered in the presence of several of his Friends The other Letter is written by a Woman The remarkable penitence of J. H. and one of inferior quality in the World but not at all inferior in her Repentance It was that and the Grace of God in her Heart which moved her to do it long before it wasdone and it was the pure effect of that when at last it was done and all her own composure we are assured by a credible person who hath most reason to know it who gave her absolution approved her purpose in it and perused it when she had done it and hath seen other Letters of her writing by which he could easily discern the Composure of this if there had been any other hand in it or any reason to suspect it It is published with her consent who is very ready to embrace any Motion tending to the Honour and Service of God or her own Humiliation Her Letter was directed to Mr. Minister in Portsmouth and is as follows viz. Reverend Sir I Have put Pen to Paper humbly beseeching you to hear me of your Charity a few Words The Enemy of my Soul hath raised many Objections to hinder my intended purpose and I have been almost perswaded to give it over but now having the advice of a Pious Holy Minister of God who says it may be of great use I desire to take shame to my self and to give Glory to the Majesty of Heaven who in great Love and Pitty hath pluckt me as a Firebrand out of the Fire and I am this day a Living Monument of Mercy I cannot but be grieved at the many sad Examples I have given at Portsmouth My Sins have have encreased the heap of the publick Impieties and made them cry the louder to Heaven for Vengeance both there and here too It is very meet right and my duty to confess to the Glory of God and Praise of his Grace my crying sins committed in that place that some of my Companions in evil may hear and fear and do no more such wickedness About 9 or 10 years agone I came a young Woman if I deserve that name to P my Husband Cook of a Ship in that Harbour a very ill Husband no excuse for me Almighty God did suffer two sinners to come together to plague one another and whilst he acted the part of a Drukard with shame and confusion of face be it spoken I acted the part of a Harlot giving my self over to work all uncleanness with greediness insomuch that my very Name was a Proverb of Reproach to all Civil Women Two or three years I lived openly scandalous and then it pleased the Almighty to visit me with a sore fit fit of Sickness even to the loss of my Limbs for a Season at which time I did beg of God to restore me to my Health and did faithfully promise never more to defile my Marriage Bed and the Lord was intreated at that time also and hath added to my life these remaining years Some time after it pleased the All-wise Providence to make me a Mother I was very thankful for the Mercy and was much reclaimed and I was in some measure convinced of the great Evil of sin and did put pen to paper with intent it should come to the Ministers hand but the Enemies of my Soul prevented and hindred that reasonable design and I was again lull'd to sleep in the Bed of Carnal Security where I continued three or four years with little Interruption in which time I buried my Husband and two Children After this I was in danger of being as bad as ever living at Service in the very midst of Temptation at Porthridge I continued there but a short space for the good hand of Providence brought me to London where I had time and opportunity to reflect upon my ill spent life O that I might improve the mercy O that I could tell you what God hath done for my Soul He hath brought me out of Darkness into his marvellous light O that I could prevail with my Companions in evil to seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near Some of them are old Sinners grey hairs are upon them and they know it not I could be content to stand in a white shet in your Church if I might but prevail with any one Soul to see the heinousness of my sin Nay I could be content to be stoned without the walls of the Garrison so I might but be a means of the Conversion of any one Sinner O that I could write these Lines with my purest Blood I am grieved for the Dishonour I have done to God by my abominable sin and heartily wish my Head were Waters and mine Eyss were a Fountain of Tears that I might weep day and night for abusing mercy O Sir you live in a place relating to Sodom cry aloud spare not to tell the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseer their Sins and my Companions in evil their Sins The Lord is coming to reckon with the Nations and with you God grant you may be found among the Faithful Shepherds watching them and giving them their meat in due Season I humbly beg your Blessing desiring to be remembred in your Prayers and I humbly beseech the Almighty that this poor paper may have its designed effect that God may be glorifi'd and our Souls saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Amen and Amen J. H. Jan. 22. 1693 4. To this SPECIMEM we designed to have added several other Remarkable Instances of this nature never yet in Print but for want of room cou'd not insert 'em here But though this Specimen will not allow of instances under every head for if it wou'd we had added Specimens upon the Works of Nature and Art as we have done here upon Providence having prepared materials for that end yet b y what is here exhibited the ingenious Reader may easily perceive the usefulness of our design and as a farther Evidence thereof we shall only add That under
a good beginning to my Conversion to find my Conscience touch'd for my sins yet it went off again Nay all my Life long I had a secret value and reverence for an honest man and lov'd morality in others But I had form'd an odd Scheme of Religion to my self which would solve all that God or Conscience might force upon me yet I was not over-well reconcil'd to the business of Christianity nor had that Reverence for the Gospel of Christ as I ought to have which estate of Mind continu'd till the 53d Chapter of Isaiah was read to him and some other portions of Scripture by the Power and Efficacy of which Word assisted by his Holy Spirit God so wrought upon his heart that he declar'd that the mysteries of the Passion appear'd so clear and plain to him as ever any thing did that was represented in a Glass so that that joy and admiration which possessed his Soul upon the reading God's Word to him was remarkable to all about him and he had so much delight in his Testimonies that in my absence he begg'd his Mother and Lady to read the same to him frequently and was unsatisfied notwithstanding his great pains and weakness till he had learn'd the 53d of Isaiah without Book At the same time discoursing of his Manner of Life from his Youth up which all men knew was too much devoted to the service of Sin and that the Lusts of the Flesh the Eye and the Pride of Life had captivated him he was very large and particular in his acknowledgments about it more ready to accuse himself than any one else could be publickly crying out O blessed God! Can such an horrit Creature as I am be accepted by thee who has denied thy Being and contemn'd thy Power asking often Can there be mercy and Pardon for me Will God own such a Wretch as I and in the middle of his Sickness said Shall the unspeakable joys of Heaven be conferr'd on me O mighty Saviour never but through thine Infinite Love and Satisfaction O never but by the purchase of thy Blood adding that with all abhorrency he did reflect upon his former Life that sincerely and from his heart he did repent of all that folly and madness which he had committed He had a true and lively sence of God's great Mency to him in striking his hard heart saying If that God who died for great as well as lesser Sinners did not speedily apply his infinite Merits to his poor Soul his wound was such as no man could conceive or bear crying out That he was the vilest Wretch and Dog that the Sun shined upon or the Earth bore That now he saw his Error in not living up to that Reason which God endued him with and which he unworthily vilified and contemned wish'd he had been a starving Leper crawling in a Ditch that he had been a Link-Boy or a Beggar or for his whole life time confin'd to a Dungeon rather than thus to have sinned against God How remarkable was his Faith in a hearty embracing and devout Confession of all the Articles of the Christian Religion and all the Divine Mysteries of the Gospel saying that that absurd and foolish Philosophy which the World so much admir'd propagated by the late Mr. Hobs and others had undone him and many more of the best Parts of the Nation He cast himself entirely upon the mercies of Jesus Christ and the Free-Grace of God declared to repenting Sinners through him with a thankful Remembrance of his Life Death and Resurrection begging God to strengthen his Faith and often crying out Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief His mighty love and esteem of the Holy Scriptures his resolutions to read them frequently and meditate upon them if God should spare him having already tasted the good Word for having spoken to his heart he acknowledged all the seeming absurdities and contradictions thereof fancied by men of corrupt and reprobate Judgments were vanished and the Excellency and Beauty appeared being come to receive the Truth in the love of it How terribly did the Tempter assault him by casting upon him wicked and lewd imaginations But I thank God said he I abhor them all and by the power of his grace which I am sure is sufficient for me I have overcome them 't is the malice of the Devil because I am rescued from him and the goodness of God that frees me from all my spiritual enemies He was greatly rejoiced at his Ladies Conversion from Popery which he called a Faction supported only by Fraud and Cruelty He was heartily concerned for the pious education of his Children wishing that his Son might never be a Wit that is as he explain'd it One of those wretched creatures who pride themselves in abusing God and Religion denying his Being or his Providence but that he might become an honest and a religious Man which could only be the support and blessing of his Family He gave a strict charge to those persons in whose custody his Papers were to burn all his prophane and lewd Writings as being only sit to promote Vice and Immorality by which he had so highly offended God and shamed and blasphemed that holy Religion into which he had been baptized and all his obscene and filthy Pictures which were so notoriously scandalous I must not pass by his pious and most passionate exclamation to a Gentleman of some Character who came to visit him upon his Death-Bed O remember that you contemn God no more he is on avenging God and will visit you for your sins will in mercy I hope touch your Conscience sooner or later as he has done mine You and I have been Friends and Sinners together a great while therefore I am the more free with you We have been all mistaken in our Conceits and Opinions Our Persuasions have been false and groundless therefore God grant you repentance And seeing him again next day said to him Perhaps you were disobliged by my plainness to you yesterday I spake the words of truth and soberness to you and striking his hand upon his Breast said I hope God will touch your heart He commanded me continues our Author to Preach abroad and let all men know if they knew it not already how severely God had Disciplin'd him for his sins by his afflicting hand that his Sufferings were most just tho' he had laid ten thousand times more upon him how he had laid one stripe upon another because of his grievous provocations till he had brought him home to himself that in his former Visitations he had not that blessed Effect he was now sensible of He had formerly some loose thoughts and slight resolutions of reforming and designed to be better because even the present consequences of sin were still pestering him and were so troublesome and inconvenient to him but now he had other sentiments of things and acted upon other Principles He was willing to die if it pleased God resigning himself
always to the Divine Disposal but if God should spare him yet a longer time here he hoped to bring Glory to the Name of God in the whole course of his Life and particularly by his endeavours to convince others and to assure them of the danger of their condition if they continued impenitent and how graciously God had dealt with him The time of his Sickness and Repentance was just nine Weeks in all which time 30 hours about the middle of it excepted wherein he was delirous he was so much Master of his Reason and had so clear an understanding that he never dictated or spake more composed in his Life Three or four days before his Death he had Comfortable Perswasions of God's accepting him to his Mercy saying I shall Die but Oh what unspeakable Glories do I see What Joys beyond Thought or Expression am I sensible of I am assured of God's mercy to me through Jesus Christ O! how I long to die and to be with my Saviour His Dying Remonstrance For the benefit of all those whom I may have drawn into sin by my example and Encouragement The Lord Rochester's dying Remonstrance I leave to the World this my last Declaration which I deliver in the presence of the great God who knows the Secrets of all Hearts and before whom I am now appearing to be Judged That from the bottom of my Soul I detest and abhor the whole Course of my former wicked Life that I think I can never sufficiently admire the Goodness of God who has given me a lively sense of my pernicious Opinions and vile practices by which I have hitherto Liv'd without hope and without God in the World have been an open Enemy to Jesus Christ doing the Utmost despite to the holy Spirit of Grace and that the greatest Testimony of my Charity to such is to warn them in the name of God and as they regard the welfare of their immortal Souls no more to deny his being or his providence or dispise his Goodness no more to make a mock of Sin or contemn the pure and excellent Religion of my ever Blessed Redemer thro' whose Merits alone I one of the Greatest of Sinners do yet hope for Mercy and Forgiveness Amen Declared in the presence of Anne Rochester Rob. Parsons J. Rochester To this we shall add two Penitential Letters the one of Sir Duncomb Colchester late of Westbury in Gloucestershire a Gentleman well known to have been a person of Wit and Parts whose Repentance and Reformation may deserve a more perticular Relation then is proper for this place and occasion For the truth and certainty of it that is beyond all doubt there being Copies of it in many hands both in City and Country long before his Death and seen and perused by his acquaintance and by diverse persons of quality who visited him here in Town but little before he dyed c. He continued his Repentance and Resolution to the last often and very freely declaring upon all occasions the Horror he had suffered in his Soul for his sinful life past far exceeding all that he suffered in his Body which was very great his sense of the Wonderful Mercy of God to him and that he would die rather than commit the least wilfull Sin He dyed 25th May 1694. in his return from London toward Gloucestershire Sir Duncomb Colchester's Penitential Letter Gentlemen and Friends SInce it hath pleased Almighty God of his great and undeserved Mercy and Goodness to bring me one of the chiefest of Sinners Sir Duncomb Colchester's penitential Letter by a long and sharp Visitation to a sense of my Sins for which with all Humility of Soul I adore and praise him it is a Duty I know incumbent on me as ever I hope for his Pardon and Forgiveness to do what in me lyes to bring Honour to his Holy Name to make Reparation for the Mischief I have done by my former vitious Life and antidote as far as I can the Poyson which my Example has shed round about me In order whereunto I do hereby Declare that I am heartily sorry for all the Sins of my past life the remembrance whereof however pleasant they formerly seemed to be is now Grief and Bitterness to my Soul More particularly that I may take shame to my self I do with the deepest sorrow lament my Rioting and Drunkenness my Chambering and Wantonness those daring and presumptuous Sins which had so long dominion over me I do also most heartily lament that great sin which I was so frequently guilty of of encouraging and drawing others to Excess which has made me partaker O sad thought of other Mens sins and lyable to answer for more than mine own I am sensible that as it hath been my Practice so it is still of too many Gentlemen and that they as I did reckon excessive Drinking so far from a Fault as to be rather one of the best Indications of a hearty Respect and true Affection to the Persons they entertain But O false Love O treacherous Friendship to receive their Friends Men and send them out of their Houses Beasts I wish from the bottom of my Soul that any thing I could say would make all those whose Consciences accuse them of Guilt in this particular to loath and abhor this wicked Practice as I do And I do also heartily lament my great Neglect of putting the Laws in execution against common Drunkards Swearers and such like scandalous Sinners and do earnestly beseech all such as are in Authority and whose business it is to see the Laws executed if any such come to hear this Paper read that they will be more careful in that particular and consider that as their Power is a Talent entrusted in them whereof they must give a strict Account to their heavenly Lord so by their being duly conscientious in the discharge of their Duty herein we may hope for a Reformation amongst us and then with confidence expect God's Blessing to rest upon us And as I abhor my self for my Neglect in this particular now mentioned and all my great sins and Provocations against an Infinite Majesty so I do farther hereby deelare my full Purpose and Resolution if it shall please Almighty God with whom all things are possible to restore me to Health or prolong my days by his special Grace and Assistance without which I shall be able to do nothing to lead a New Life in all Holy Obedience to his Will and Commands and desire that this Declaration of mine if I fail to do so may be produced as a Testimony against me to my Shame and Reproach But since my Recovery is very uncertain and what I have the least reason in the world to hope for being heartily desirous to do what good I can in the Circumstances I am in I do hereby earnestly warn and beseech all Sinners especially those whom my Example has at any time encouraged the remembrance whereof still sills me with shame
Letters are herewith Publish'd was a person of great Understanding and Wit The Scene of his Life lay chiefly in Voyages and Expeditions by Sea whereby he made many laborious Attempts to repair the Collapsed Estate of his Ancestors but it pleased not God to give him the Success he hoped for therein It is wholly unfit for any Writer to touch upon any irreligious Principles or Practises that were as stains in his Life since he hath by his own Noble Pen in the following Letters acknowledged them and by his most exemplary Repentance washed them off Mr. Roger Coke in the second Volume of his Detection p. 142 mentions That the Fight wherein the Duke of York beat the Dutch and Opdam was blown up was the 3d. of June 1665. and that in this Fight the English lost the Renown'd Earl of Marlbourgh who tho' Admiral in K. Charles the firsts time died here a private Captain But it pleased God in that Naval Expedition to work in him such a sense of his Sins as did infinitely make amends for the former disappointments he met with by Sea or Land The Date of his first Letter being the 24th of April and that of the Second the 23d of May following will satisfie any Candid Reader that the New Birth in him was accompanied with many pangs and efforts of great Consideration during the firmness of his bodily Health and much transcending the low Nature of poor Death-bed Repentances which are so justly suspected by our Practical Divines of all perswasions And here it is necessary to acquaint the Reader that these two Letters of distant Dates were sent by his Lordship from the Royal Navy inclosed in other Letters to Mr Tredewy his Lordship's Agent in London with a particular Instruction both as to that to Sir Hugh Pollard and that to Mr. Glascok that each of them was to be delivered when Mr. Tredewy was credibly inform'd of his Lordships Death His design being that his Pen should Preach Repentance to the World in case he lived not to be a personal Adviser thereof himself The Publisher hereof assures the Reader that both the Letters had a happy influence on the lives of the two persons to whom they were directed and that Sir Hugh Pollard having lent the Original Letter which was sent to him to Sir W. Davenant to shew it to whom he pleased Sir William shew'd it to the Publisher among many others And that Mr. Glascock permitted the Publisher to take a Copy of that Letter directed to him The Reader may then awaken his most serious Thoughts to consider the two following Letters A Letter from the right Honourable James Earl of Marlbourgh a little before his Death in the Battle at Sea on the Coast of Holland 1665. To the right Honourable Sir Hugh Pollard Comptroller of His Majesties Household Sir I Believe the goodness of your Nature See Dr. Loyd's fair warning to a careless world for a Copy of this Letter of the Earl of Marlbourgh to Sir Hugh Pollard and the Friendship you have always born me will receive with kindness this last Office of your Friend I am in Health enough of Body and through the mercy of God in Jesus Christ well disposed in mind This I premise that you may be satisfied that what I write proceeds not from any Phantastick Terror of mind but from a sober Resolution of what concerns my self and earnest desire to do you more good after my death than mine Example God of his mercy pardon the badness of it in my Life-time may have done you harm I will not speak ought of the Vanity of this World your own Age and Experience will save that labour but there is a certain thing that goes up and down in the World call'd Religion Drest and Presented Phantastically and to purposes bad enough which yet by such evil Dealing loseth not its Being The great and good God hath not lest it without a Witness more or less sooner or later in every mans bosom to direct us in the pursuit of it and for the avoiding of those Inextricable difficulties and intanglements our own frail Reason would perplex us withal God in his infinite mercy has given us his Holy Word in which as there are many things hard to be Understood so there is enough plain and easie to be understood to quiet our minds and direct us concerning our future being I confess to God and you I have been a great neglecter and I fear despiser of it God of his infinite mercy pardon me that dreadful Fault but when I retired my self from the noise and deceitful Vanities of the world I found no true comfort in any other Resolution than what I had from thence I commend the same from the bottom of my Heart to your I hope happy use Dear Sir Hugh let us be more generous than to believe we die like Beasts that perish but with a Christian Manly brave Ambition let us look to what is Eternal I will not trouble you farther the only Great and Holy God Father Son and Holy Ghost direct you to an happy end of your Life and send us a joyful Resurrection So prays your dear Friend Marlbourgh Old James near the Coast of Holland 24th of April 1665. I beseech you commend my love to all my Acquaintance Particularly I pray you that my Cozen Glascock may have a sight of this Letter and as many of my Friends beside as you will or any else that desireth it I pray grant this my Request To William Glascock Esq May the 23. 1665 Dear Cozen IN case I be called away by God in this present Employment This Letter to Mr. Glascock was never printed before but is attested to be genuine in the following Specimen I have recommended these few Lines to you first earnestly begging God Almighty his most merciful Pardon and yours for the very bad example and many provocations to sin I have given you Next I do most heartily desire you to make use of your Remaining Time in bestowing it upon his Service who only can be your Comfort at your latter end when all the former Pleasures of your Life shall only leave Anguish and Remorse If God had spared me Life instead of this Paper I would through his Grace have endeavoured to have been as assistful to you in minding you of true Piety as the care of my own life could have enabled me do not think that Melancholly Vapours cause this it is Gods great mercy that by this Employment hath made me know my self for which his Name be for ever Praised Lastly I Pray shew these few Lines to my Lord of Portland by which I in like manner and for the same cause crave his pardon wishing you both the blessed peace and content of a good Conscience towards God and a happy end of your Lives Your truly Loving Cozen Marlbourgh My Lord Marlbourgh's Letter to Sir Hugh Pollard having been disperst throughout the Kingdom this Remarkable Penetence of his Lordship