Murder to the last as I said before We opened to her the ways whereby she might participate in the Guilt but still she denied all saving that she stood at a distance when her Husband 's Brother-in-law stabb'd the Man and when he had done the Fact he told her Husband in their Cant that he had kill'd the Man and threw away the Knife The next time I came I found her very much humbled in Spirit bewailing that she had been a very great Sinner and with many Tears and loud Cries for sin she seemed glad that she should go out of a sinful World in which she desired to live no longer What said Mr. D that you may sin no more Yes yes that I may sin no more against a merciful God The World said she was a sinful World And how are you reconciled to the manner of your Death said I Said she I could bear it I can suffer it tho all the Friends I have in the World look'd on I judg'd this to be a considerable degree of Humiliation remembring how high she was before While Mr. D. was preparing to preach I was preparing them for it and did explain and enlarge upon some things which I was afraid they understood not she apprehended me and her Knowledge grew I remember I told her That she should not think the way to obtain Pardon was to diminish her Sin in Number Nature and Aggravation and that Pardon extended even unto Blood to all penitent Believers that the Blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth from all Sin and therefore besought her to acknowledge her sin of Blood-guiltiness She received my Words with meekness and sense but persisted as before At Prayer and Sermon she behaved her self with Attention and Reverence and we hope it was not in vain she promised to observe our Direction in our absence Her Demeanour at my Sermon was very attentive and with Signs of inward Affection After we had done Mr. D. desired them to remember what was preach'd and to retire and that we would come again to them that night When we thought it most convenient we repaired to them there were several others in the Room well employed but she was at Prayers at her Bed-side Her Heart was so full that she could not refrain from speaking out the Language of her own Heart with good words and matter Flames of Fervency and then with Silence When she rose up she thanked us for our Pains and said She blessed God now she understood how it was and must be with her She understood her Case and found her self willing to die and tho she had been a great Sinner she hoped she should find Mercy She now knew the way she told us she was not afraid to see her Coffin which was brought into the Room She desired to live no longer to sin in a sinful World Next Morning we came betimes and adjusted several matters of Reckonings as Offences that nothing might be a stop in her way She reproved some and counselled others She reproved an old Man for flouting at me when I was wont to visit There comes or there goes your Soul-saver which we took not well but she spake well While we were busie with the poor Fellow she the Room filling fell on her Knees to secret Prayer and continued a good space taking no notice of any thing that might interrupt her When the Officer came to unlock her Irons she wept bitterly and roar'd sorrowing and rejoycing at her end I applied my self as pertinently as I could to that occasion upon which she was very quiet and well composed After a preparatory Preface concerning Prayer as the last Exercise of the Thief upon the Cross one of us praid in the Prison I told her I would attend her to the place and bad her if any Doubt or Fear should arise that she should let me know it She went along weeping praying confessing and counselling one that held her by the Arm. When once I turned from her to speak to the Fellow she turned quick and said O Sir do not leave me When she came in sight of the Tree she burst out into more Tears and said O yonder is the place yonder is the place but I am to suffer nothing for my Sins in comparison of what my Saviour suffered for me for my Sins and was much upon that till we came to the place of her End There one of us pray'd and she went up the Ladder without Fear or Boldness spake little she desired them all to reverence and hearken to the Ministers of God confessed she had been a great sinner and being ask'd about the Murder she denied it as before she prayed a little while and went off to Eternity The Fellow had disobediently ran away from his Master and Father who knew not what was become of him He gave himself to Thieving and other Sins maintained by his Theft He was arraigned the foregoing Assizes and burnt in the Hand before my Lord Chief Justice Pollixfen who shewed by his Countenance and Carriage an unwillingness to condemn him to die but that he feared there was no hope of his amendment that would not carry his Warning in his Hand so lately given him We found him grosly ignorant in the three Forms of Religion the Lords Prayer Ten Commandments and Creed he could not repeat them without help He was ripe in Sin but slow to take in what was good He had the same pains taken with him which the other had if not more for he stood in need of more His Face was covered with shame exceedingly dejected and he was penitent something he spake of Pardon of Sin Repentance and Mercy but understood nothing of Jesus Christ as Mediator and Salvation by him or Faith in him We instructed him in those things and had some weak Hopes concerning him but we had cause to fear all would be lost the morning of his Dying Day Then we instructed him in the knowledge of Christ the Mercy and Grace of God in the Nature of Repentance Confession of Sin that his Repentance and Confession might be full that God might be glorified and others might be warned and called from the Evil of their ways We pressed him to detect his Complices and acknowledge the Injuries he had done and to ask Pardon who could not restore or compensate Mr. D. told him he was at Coventry when he and others had broken into several Houses when they were going towards Ireland Here all the signs of Ingenuity and Goodness fell flat and went in again An horrid sullen paleness and dulness of Spirit seized him We told him his Detection would be no accusation of any we should make no ill use of what he told us to endanger any Man's Life but if it lay in our Power to warn them and call them from the way of Death to Life and break the Knot and Combination We applied our selves to him with Mercy and Judgment we told him of the
danger of a partial Confession and Repentance of the horridness of the Judgment of God of the sinfulness of having and hiding Sin and pleaded with him by the Patience and Mercy of God by his Grace in affording him the means and helps God had granted him how that notwithstanding what was done upon him all would be to no purpose as to his Salvation but would aggravate his Condemnation Nothing would stir him nor a Word come from him At last I told him 't was Satan's Great Design to lock him up for his own to harden him against Christ and that we would have him know and the Devil know that we were the Ministers of Christ and must declare his Word and should leave him to the Judgment of the Great God We told him That whose confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy but he that hideth his sin shall not prosper i. e. shall not be blessed or happy but on the contrary We spared no Arguments or Pains to recover him out of the hands of the strong Man armed There were some good People with us who dealt with him to the same purpose At last God was pleased to own us and preserve us from a Foyl and baffle off the Devils and so he told us He believed none of his Confederates were living however he knew of none And then we went on again His Heart was melted his Tears returned his Ears were opened to further Instruction As he went along to the place of Execution he sighed mourned wept groan'd that I never heard the like Oh! how did he complain of his hard and obstinate Heart Oh this hard Heart O mercy mercy Oh sweet Jesus have mercy upon me When he came in sight of the Tree Oh! there is the place I am going to Oh! my sins have brought me to it Oh! my stealing my drinking my swearing my whoring my Sabbath-breaking my gaming I turned to him and said And your stealing was to maintain your other sins Oh! Ay ay Oh my hard and obstinate Heart Oh sweet Jesus have mercy upon me Oh Father have mercy upon me Oh pardon my sins And thus he continued from the Prison to the place of Execution which is I suppose a good Mile or more He said little upon the Ladder but desired all present to take Example He died very soon after he was turned off so that I believe his Heart was almost broken with Grief before the last stroke of Death This is a plain and true Account of both these Persons as to the matter and as to the very Words that are most remarkable I have but few Remarks upon them 1. They who are not at all ashamed of the most shameful sins think the Punishment deserved a great shame to themselves and Kindred 2. It is a good sign when persons are more grieved for their sins than ashamed of the Punishment 3. The Devil will hold out to the last and baffle Ministers if he can but we must not suffer it but resist him with those Weapons that are mighty through God 4. What Honourable Reverent Sweet Words will poor Souls that have been ignorant Despisers of Christ give him when they come to see their need of him Grace and Mercy to every Reader of what is written Three useful Books written by Mr. Edward Pearse viz. The Best Match or the Souls Espousal to Christ A Serious Warning to a lively and thorough Preparation for Death A Treatise of God's Unchangableness Books lately Printed A Discourse of Sickness and Recovery By T. Rogers M. A. A Treatise of Closet-Prayer by Mr. Slater Hearts Ease in Heart Trouble A Book useful for those that are in Affliction By J.B. An Abridgment of the Holy History By S. Clark Author of the Annotations on the Bible lately Published Sold by J. Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard FINIS
of Unions c. The Apostle doth mix both these Unions of Husband and Wife Head and Members Ephes 5.28 29 30. The Elaborate and Judicious Mr. Charnock's Disc Weak Grace victorious p. 1339. as between Head and Members and the closest political Union as between Husband and Wife Not that our Union with Christ is wrought after a natural manner but is like unto it in respect of the closeness and effect of it the Bonds of our Union with Christ is of all the streightest and indissoluble Death will separate and untie all our Joynts and Bands of Nature and Marriage-ties but he who hath the Son hath Life and that eternal and Death is so far from keeping us from it that it is made an open Door and Passage into it The Bands of our Spiritual Union with Christ are such as convey unto us Life and Nourishment from him and without such an Union as this by vertue of which we receive Spiritual Life and Power to obey his Commandments and live under his Government he might in vain call for Service and Obedience which is due to him whether we can pay it or not or we ever expect the Reward of our Obedience Christ is an Head for Government but if our Union with him were only as to a King Political Head and Governor we should be related to him only in respect of his Kingly Office and that only as to the outward administration of that his Kingly Office and Policy But the Nature of our Union with him is best understood by the effect of it If we have Life by having him we so have him as to have Life in him and with him and by him and without the Spirit of Life and Faith we can never obey him as he requires Christ infinitely excels all those things to which he is compared and our Union with him by the Spirit and Faith hath those things singular in it which cannot be comprehended in any one of those Unions to which it is compared it excels the natural Union of Head and Members A. B. Vsher's Sermon before quoted p. 19. c. Immuel added to his Sum. p 438. Sum. and Subst p. 154. Lyford 118. Mr. T. Hooker Serm. Soul's Exaltation p. 25. c. Cameron Praelect de Ecclesia for it is spiritual and everlasting it excels the political Union between a King and his Subjects by Compacts and Laws for Subjects pay Obedience and Tribute of their own but we are made a willing People by the Power of Grace and having nothing of our own we have all in having Christ The Political Union by Marriage doth more fully express it but not fully Hold to this then that to have Christ is so to have him as to have Life given us and maintained by our Union with him The Wife hath the Benefit of Counsel Direction Haec Vnionis exempla adumbrant tantum non satis exprimunt Vnionem nostri cum Christo c. Cameron Praelec de Ecclesia 225. p. Government Protection Maintenance from her Husband but not Life and she doth not live because her Husband lives But a Believer hath Life as well as Counsel Protection and Maintenance from Christ and he is our Life the Cause of our Life It is hid or laid up for us in him Col. 3.3 4. And because I live said Christ ye shall live also John 14.19 There is a distinction between Christ and his Members they are not what he is nor he what they are notwithstanding this Spiritual Union but he is said rather to live in Believers than they to live Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the Life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who gave himself for me So much of the first Doctrin attend to the Application of it I must be short upon many Heads or else too long for a short Discourse I. Use of Information in many Particulars 1. Hence you may learn the true way and method of having eternal Life Observe the Words He that hath the Son hath Life The Son first and then Life and all those Benefits and Blessings which are comprehended in that sweet and precious Word Life We cannot have any Promises nor Priviledges without Christ nor before we have him by Faith For as none can be made Partakers of the Vertue of the Bread and Wine to his bodily sustenance unless he do first receive the substance of those Creatures so neither can any participate in the benefits arising from Christ to his spiritual relief except he first have Communion with Christ himself We must have the Son before we have Life Most Reverend Usher 's Serm. before H. of C. p. 17. His 18 Sermons p. 421. not the pardon of Sin nor Peace nor Hope nor any access to God but by having Christ and him first in order though at the same instant and time of having Christ we have some Benefits for the present and a Right and Title to all the rest in due time Whoever shall eat of the Marriage-Feast must have a Wedding-garment and be married to the Son by Faith first In vain do all those hope for great things that care not for the Knowledg of Christ or having of him The having of the Son makes Faith effectual lively and working because it hath Life and Faith without Life from Christ can never be but a dead Faith And this is also the trial of our sincere Love to Christ when we receive him and close with him as he is proposed to us as altogether lovely Then do we like those who marry for Love to the Person and not for Wealth as too many do See the clearly judicious and holy Dr. Preston's Treatise of Faith p. 11 And of Effectual Faith p. 12 13. And Mr. Baxter's Dir. and Perswas to a sound Conversion p. 286. who care not for the Person so they have the Wealth Hypocrites would have Mercy to pardon them yea Heaven that Kingdom who care not for having Christ as a Saviour to save them from their Sins These can forsake him deny him be Traitors to him in a time of Danger and Temptation 2. Hence learn That if every one that hath the Son hath Life then our Faith and our Love are set upon the most holy and glorious Person of the Son of God but then as invested in the Office of Mediator for as such he hath received Life from his Father for us Doth the Word Son here in this Text denote and signifie the Person of our Redeemer Was it the Person of our Saviour that was given us when it was said To us a Child is born to us a Son is given Isa 9.6 If it was the Person that was born and given to us then it is the Person that they have who have Life as able to give them Life It is a spiritual and real Union whereby Christ and a