he had not been reprieved So constant was he in his holy purposes and steadie in his resolutions And I am perswaded that if he had lived he would have made good by his practise what he asserted to me that night saying If I were to live as I have no hopes of it I would wait on my Father upon my knees all the daies of my life He was very willing to hear the Ministers who opened unto him the Scriptures and shewed him the greatnesse of his bloody fact he heard them patiently and meekly and comfortably joyned with them in frequent prayer Though he heard of divers calumnies shot out of the Devills bow against him by some malitious Archers yet he never was stirred at it nor spake any bitter words against them but was unto his death very gentle and humble like a child Sect. 4. BY the first command of the Judge he should have dyed August 15. wherefore I and Master Yate a good and faithfull Minister who usually attended him by Sir George his direction did very seriously imploy our selves some daies before to prepare him for death by instruction and prayer we shewed him the benefit and comfort of Absolution for which purpose I directed him to read the 40th content in the Practice of Pietie with serious consideration with the grounds and reasons of it Whereupon he was very glad and desired greatly to receive it and after a comfortable acknowledgement of his great offence he meekly kneeled down when I and Master Yate laid our hands upon his head and I pronounced the Absolution unto him which he joyfully received we assuring him according to Christs promise Mat. 17.19 c. 18.18 John 18.23 that it being duly performed by us and received by him on earth it was ratified in heaven No doubt but in this distracted time some men will blame our act herein but blessed be God we can justifie it by our pennes and tongues against them all Sect. 5. BUt now followeth a matter of higher concernment in reference to Master Freeman Sonds for now unto me and Master Yate was added Master Boreman a Batchelor of Divinity and Fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge who comming to Maidston on Munday the 13th of August and hearing the distressed condition of Master Freeman came uâ—to him and joyning with us did perform many charitable offiâ—es for the good of the poor Gentleman Thus then it was Master Boâ—eman being absent when we Absolved Master Freeman I stayed till he returned from Teston it was in the evening August 14. at which time I took my leave of the Gentleman with grief and joy for him expecting his death certainly the nexâ— day very early in the morning but it was put off till August 21. for weighty reasons premised Upon my departure Master Freeman very humbly desired Master Yate to administer the holy Communion unto him which being proposed to Master Boreman was agreed to about nine that night after he had upon examination found the Gentleman prepared for it being truly sorrowfull for his foul sin and resolving if God spared his life which he did not hope for to lead a new one in a most strict conversation c. Upon these grounds and after a short exhortation to the Gentleman concerning the benefits and ends of the blessed Sacrament Master Boreman at the request of Master Yate did administer it unto him to his great comfort for after the receiving of it being assured by Gods grace of the pardon of his sins through the blood of Christ sealed up in that holy Sacrament He said to Master Boreman That he should die the next morning as cheerfully as ever he went to bed and it seemes his soul was in calme and sweet temper for when Master Yate came unto him the next morning to wait on him to his execution which was respited late that night Master Yate nor he knowing of it he found him first asleep which shewed that he was not afraid of death which he look'd on as a Droan its sting being taken out The sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15.55 which he believ'd to him was pardon'd why then might he not have the Seal of his pardon why should any man be so wanting to charity as to say that to minister to him the Holy Communion was to put a Seal to a blank Can we imagine that his own prayers and tears with the earnest supplications of many thousands sent up to Heaven on his behalfe did find no acceptance with the God of mercies who never rejected penitent sinners And if his sins were remitted why should not the Holy Sacrament which is a Sacrament of Consolation and Confirmation be ministred unto him for his strength and comfort Is the word of God against it where by plain expression or good consequence we profess our ignorance wee know no text that forbids it Wee highly reverence the judgement of our mother the Church of England which appoints in its most excellent Liturgie the Communion for the sick which is all one for substance with Mr. Freemans Case onely a sick man might live and he was assured to die But we reverence yet more the decree of that great and sacred first Councell of Nice Anno Christi 325. which saith thus C. 13. Concerning those that are near to death now also the antient and regular Law shall be observed that if any man be upon the point of death he may not be deprived of his last and necessary Viaticum provision for his death and long passage to eternity to wit the Holy Communion This was spoken especially for such as were under Ecclesiasticall Censure but it followeth afterward generally that the Communion shall be given to any man that is near death and desireth it So saith the famous Councell so the Church of England this the practice of the Universall Church of Christ in all ages it was no new Law in that Councell but lex antiqua an antient Law and practice in the primitive times If this may not satisfie the fierce opposers of it and that practice yet perhaps Master John Calvin may be accepted of them Hear then his judgement in his Epistles Col. 453. Printed at Geneva 2. Fol. 1616. Many and great causes inforce me not to deny the Lord's supper to sick persons and Col. 454. I collect well as I conceive from the nature end and use of the holy mystery that men being in danger of death should not be deprived of so great a good And pag. 455. he justifieth such a communion as not unlawfull though in a private house and pag. 55. he saith I think that the custome to give the communion to sick persons is willingly to be admitted Then he addeth Neither is it greatly to be repugned or denied but that the Communion should be given to such as are put to death for their offences which was Mr. Freeman Sonds his case Concerning which ConciliuÌ„ Moguntium the Councel of Mentz held An. 847. saith thus C. 27. If the
holy communion should be given accorcording to Canonicall injunction to all men upon the end of their lives making a sincere confession of their sinns and being truly penitent why not to them also who suffer death for their offences for which the Fathers of that Councell give their reasons which are too long and numerous to be inserted in this place If Calvin's judgement with this Councell's satisfie not hear yet the compleatly learned and most judicious Divine Hieron Zanchius who in his Epistles l. 1. p. 155. printed at Hanovia in Octavo 1609. saith expressly That the holy Commnuion may and ought to be given to sick persons for their spirituall comfort who also p. 421 422. setteth down the resolution of the Ministers of Geneva that where the Communion is given privately to sick persons the custome herein is not to be rashly abrogated upon certain conditions viz. of their true faith and contrition for their sinns So then to put a period to this weighty doubt the whole Christian Church asserts that the communion ought to be given if it be earnestly desired by them to all persons ready to die so our Church of England so Calvin so Zanchius so all sober Christians maintain and none oppose it but onely those who being of an hot temper and unruly dispositions the ofspring of Cham as St. Austine l. 1. de Civit. Dei well attests have overthrown the Church's wholsome constitutions in this particular and some others of great importance to their shame and our great disturbance To conclude this discourse concerning the care which was had of this poor Gentleman's Soul in his restranits It pleased God to move the pious heart of the right Honorable and truly Noble the Dutchess of Richmond to send from Cobham Hall her Domestick Chaplain Master Gunton a religious and learned Divine to visit him which he did on Friday the 10th and discoursed to him of Death of Repentance and the sufficiencie of Christ's blood or the efficacy of his meritorious death whereat Master Sonds as I have it under Mr. Gunton's hand was very attentive as he ever was to all good instructions and Mr. Gunton for his furtherance in devotion prescribed him the 25. 38. and 51. Psalmes which he frequently perused for I found him one day reading in the Bible in which he took delight and perceiving some leaves turn'd down I ask'd him by what means or by whose directiō he read those proper Psalms he told me that a Minister who came to visit him order'd him to do it whereupon I turn'd down leaves at the 7. Penitentiall Psalmes of which two of the former are a part likewise at the 4th of Gen. v. 7. If thou dost well c. So God to Cain c. which Shewes that there was a dore open for mercy if he would have repented of his sin and at the 18. and 33. ch of Ezekiel wee added to these that soul-establishing Chap. the 8. to the Romans These and many more with the Psalmes and Chapters for the day appointed by the Churches rubrick were besidees his private prayers the ground of his devotion meditation and practice whilst he was in Prison From whence he was after the commendation of his soul to God first by Master Higgons then by my self in private conveyed in mourning habit on horseback to the place of Execution many Gentlemen attending him with my self and that reverend Divine When he came to that place being dismounted from his horse he stood like a mournful penitent whilst a discourse for half an hour and more was uttered by me concerning the hainousnesse of sin in generall and of his murther in particular together with the nature of Conversion the parts and properties of it To which was adjoyned the freenesse of God's mercy in the Lord Jesus to all repentant sinners this done with an exhortation to the people to entertain a charitable and Christian perswasion of the Truth and sincerity of Master Sonds his conversion to the Lord the penitent standing at my right hand a prayer was conceived to commend his sad and mourning soul to God This ended he having-meekly and humbly submitted himself to death hee went up the Ladder and standing in the midst of it with great modesty and meeknesse hee desired the prayers of those that were present he likewise with erected hands and eyes did beseech God to forgive him his sinnes against his Father and Brother and praied in few words for a blessing on his distressed Father and closed all with this resignation of his soul into the hands of his Maker saying with a soft voice for his nature was not to speak either aloud or much God's will be done and Lord receive my soul After which words the Executioner did his Office and his body after it had hung a good while being cut down was put into a Coach and carried to a Church not farre from Maidstone the place is called Bersted where it lies interr'd expecting a joyfull resurrection through the mercies of the Lord Jesus A Postcript to the whole Kingdom IT is a true saying of Saint Augustine Deus non respicit quâ morte sed quales ex hac vitâ eximus God regards not what death we die as in what frame of spirit we are when we give up the Ghost A man may go to Hell upon a feather-bed and to Heaven dying on a Gibbet The end which Divine mercy proposes to its selfe cannot be prevented by humane means and if God intends his glory by mans shamefull death I see not but that I and all here should magnifie him for it It is Gods mercy to make us witnesses of the judgments of others that we may be forwarned ere we have an occasion of sinning in our selves So then if his Mercy and Justice his Justice in punishing his Mercy in releasing and giving a sinner time to repent If these two Attributes be advanced by Master Sonds his death we have all great cause to sing an Hallelujah to God It is said Heb. 11.4 of Righteous Abel that being dead he yet speaketh This is meant of his faith for which his sacrifice was accepted and by which he has left us a lesson behind him how to offer up our prayers and services to the God of Heaven Thus our young Cain that killed his elder Brother being dead yet speaketh He by his shamefull death 1. Bespeaketh the proud Gallants of this Age who minde the outward dresse of their bodies more then the inward ornament of their soules that starve the latter and pamper the former that spend whole mornings in decking a rotten carcase and sleep away those houres that they should imploy in Prayer and reading of the holy Scriptures with other Godly books Men if I may so call them that look like Monsters pictures of Phancie and walking Emblems of vanitie These he in a manner bespeaks thus Look upon me who have been guilty of your vanity and idlenesse and know that the eye of Justice never sleeps so that
his Family conveyed to the Keepers house and the next day being Thursday the 9th of this Month brought to the Bar after his pre-examination before Sr. Michael Livesly Sr. Tho. Stiles with other Justices where the Indictment was read that charged him upon the two Statutes of Stabbing Murther and being asked what he could plead for himself against the charge of kiling his brother he cryed Guilty and shewed a great willingness to suffer death for that barbarous fact as appear'd by his mild composed behaviour then at the barre which strook the Judges and Justices with the other Gentlemen of the County then present with an astonishing amazement Having thus pleaded guilty he was carried to the Dungeon in the Gaole where condemned persons are alwaies put whither divers persons resorted unto him and finding him in that loathsome place there being nothing but a Jakes to sit upon asked him if he were not sick and how he could endure it He replyed That it was more pleasant to him then his Fathers Dining-room which is as I hear a place of great Magnificence nor drank one drop till tenne at night so soberly patient was he then and all the time of his imprisonment till death From the Dungeon he was carried that night to Master Fosters house again and the next morning being Friday August 10. condemned to die after which sentence the Judge having advertised him to consider the foulnesse of his fact demanded of him the motives he had to commit it and pressed him thereunto for the clearing of his Conscience and satisfaction of the Country Whereupon he answered That he had done it in his examination before the Justices The Judge reflecting then upon him put this question to him Whether he had nothing else to say to testifie his remorse for his horrid murther He then being slow of speech and of a reserved nature made no answer but delivered the Petition to the under Sheriffe Master Maurice Eede to present it to the Judge who at the Petitioners request caused the same to be read in Court which was accordingly effected A Copy of the Petition To the right Honorable the Judge and the rest of the Honorable Justices of the peace for the Assize and Goal-delivery holden at Maidstone The humble Petition of Freeman Sonds Humbly sheweth THat your condemn'd Petitioner finding the guilt of the blood of his Brother crying for judgement and that according to the Law and justice a decree is passed against him for death Therefore in respect of the shortnesse of the time since your Petitioner committed this horrid murther and finding the guilt and sin to be so great before God and man he humbly in due obedience to your Honours beseecheth you in the bowells of mercy and tender commiseration of him in Jesus Christ that your Honours would be pleased to adde a few daies longer to his life that in a deeper and more sensible apprehension of his fact he may more penitently in remorse and sorrow of conscience make his peace with God and reconcile himself to his deservedly and highly offended Father that so not onely he may die in a more setled peace of conscience but also testifie unto the world the sincerity of his Petition And he shall pray c. Freeman Sonds To this Petition the Honorable Judge Crook condescended so far as to defer his death till Wednesday the 15. of August this was assign'd onely by word of mouth and not by speciall warrant which together with many weighty reasons referring to the poor soul of the condemn'd and to clear some scandalous reports thrown upon his Father and him by a wicked foul-mouth'd servant these with the two forenamed letters from Sir George Sonds to the High-Sheriffe in the behalf of his Sonne were the cause that the young Gentleman was not on that day executed He had a weeks reprieve from Wednesday till Tuesday the next week and was executed on that day fortnight on which his Brother by him was murthered In all which time how he demeand himself in sighs and tears and groanes in his bed in mournfull confessions and prayers to God and in frequent reading of his holy word especially such Psalmes Chapters as were commended by several Divines to his Devotions this was evident and well known to us who in our private prayers and exhortations endeavoured the conviction and conversion of his soul to God who is the Father of mercies and forgivenesse and never rejected penitent and humble sinners which made Saint Austine thus bespeak him in his devout Meditations Et si ego commisi unde me damnare potes at tu non amisisti unde salvare soles Although Lord I have commit that for which thou mightest justly damn me yet there is mercy with thee which thou still retainest for which I hope thou wilt save me And again Si ad veniam nos vocasti veniam non quaerentes quanto magis veniam impetrabimus postulantes Seeing thou hast inviited us to accept of a mercifull pardon when we did not seek it how much more shall we find mercy when wee earnestly sue for it Thus he in his meditations C. 39. It is not in the power of man to outsinne mercy I except that peccatum ad mortem 1 Joh. 5.16 that sin unto death that sin which he that is born of God sinneth not v. 18. I mean that damning sin against the Holy Ghost which is as Zanchy determines it an open and malicious rejecting of the truth or opposition of God's word against the light of knowledge and that opposition joyn'd with an hostil persecution of those that are the defenders of it Saint Paul then Saul when he was a persecutor and Blasphemer 1 Tim. 15. came near this sin as Calvin proves acutely on the 1 Ioh. 5. but doing what he did ignorantly through unbeliefe hee was exempted from the staining guilt of it Now so long as this Gentleman could not bee charged with this sin which carries death and damnation in the nature of it and for as much too as all godly Ministers in Kent and other parts thought him fit to be put into their publick prayers no man can be so wanting to Christian charity as not to entertain a beliefe or hope of his Salvation especially when they may charitably conclude from his ensuing humble confession as also from his daily practises in Prison of which you shall have an account from his praiers and holy purposes of redeeming the time he vainly spent if God spared his life of which he had no hope and lastly from his godly precepts which I took from his mouth and set down in writing before his death from all these may be inferred that God who gave him grace to repent hath crown'd his Repentance with reception into mercy and forgivenesse His confession taken from his mouth on munday the 13 th of August by Mr. Edmond Crisp a Gentleman who is a picture of a true friend another Achates a pattern of fidelity
as appeared by his indefatigable actings for Master Sonds in his extremity I Freeman Sonds do hereby make my voluntary confession That I am most truly sensible of the horrid and detestable murther which I have committed against my late dear brother Master George Sonds in that most bloody and inhumane manner as I did act the same For which most detestable sin and murther I do from the bottome of my heart and soul beg of the Lord Jesus to pardon and forgive this my murther I confesse my sins O Lord and this my murther is ever before thy face O sprinkle my soul with some pretious drops of thy blood and wash away this my murther I confesse nothing but the instigation of the Devill did cause me to attempt this sin which if it were possible to be undone I should not dare to have such a thought again for a thousand worlds First because by this same cruell murther I have dishonoured my Heavenly Father whose Image I have killed and murthered in my Brother Secondly I have hereby destroyed so much as in me lyeth human societie And lastly I have broken the Lawes both of God and man For all which sins my heart is truly and penitentially sorrowfull and do beg at the Lords hand in and for his Son Jesus Christ his sake to make a greater manifestation of this my sorrow that I may weep day and night for this my sin and murther This is my confession and the very grief and sorrow of my heart desiring the Lord in mercy to pardon this my great offence for which from the bottome of my soul I am hereby truly and heartily sorrowfull and so Lord Jesus for thy infinite mercies sake look upon me in thine own most pretious blood and receive my soul into thy heavenly Kingdome when I shall depart this life and in the mean time continue in me a true and hearty sorrow for this my great sin and wickednesse against thee my Heavenly Father Freeman Sonds MAster Freeman Sonds August 13. 1655. did read the writing before set down in the presence of us confessing it to be for the main part pronounced by his own mouth and from his very heart sincerely though written by Master Edmond Crispe and subscribed the attestation in the end with his own hand and from his own minde desiring it may be taken as the overt act act of his penitent soul Theophilus Higgons Rector of Hunton in Kent and Ro. Yate Rector of Belsmire A prayer which I compos'd for his private devotions subscribed and daily used by him oft-times on his knees in which posture I often found him LOrd receive my soul when it shall take its flight out of my sinfull body and receive I beseech thee the humble prayer that goes forth out of the lips of a penitent sinner O Lord God merciful and Gracious my Creator and reconciled Father in the Lord Jesus when I call to mind the numberlesse abominations the vanities the frailties of my disordered youth shame and confusion with horrour and dread covers the face and perplexes the soul of thy poor servant and I cannot but look upon all those transgressions through the glasse of thy justice as clad with damnation and clothed with Hell and when I reflect upon that great host consisting of many thousand thousand sinnes headed with a Goliah-sin a sin of great magnitude a sin against nature the murthering of my Brother my soul is overwhelmed with grief and driven even upon the Rock of despair But when with the other eye of faith and hope I look upon thy mercy which is over all thy works upholding and sustaining them and above our sinfull works which thou usest to pardon upon an humble and hearty confession of them that mercy being infinite easily covers that which is finite when too I consider that great act of thy goodnesse in forgiving a Manasseh who had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood worshipt Devils and defied thee his God To this expresse of thy incomprehensible mercy when I adjoin the murther and adultery of thy Kingly Prophet David the perjurie of Peter the blasphemies and massacres vented and acted by Paul then Saul against thee and thy Church yet all received to mercy and crowned with forgivenesse I grounding my tottering soul upon these considerations and relying upon thy gracious invitation of sinners together with thy mercifull promises of admitting them into thy favour upon their unfeigned repentance presume to begge mercy of thee my God in the name of the Lord Jesus who came into the world to seek that which was lost and to save poor sinners of whom I confesse and acknowledge my self to be the chiefest Sweet Jesus make a bath of thy precious blood and bath my black polluted soul in it Wash me throughly from mine wickednesse and cleanse me from the guilt of disobedience to my Father and destroying my innocent Brother Oh let my prayers find the same successe as Manasseh his supplications did with thee they at once loosed him from his sins freed him from his chains and of a Captive made him a King and from the Dungeon of Babylon restored him to the Palace of Jerusalem Lord thou art the same for ever and ever thy essence is unchangeable thy power irresistible thy love inexpressible if thou wilt thou canst make me cleane Oh be pleased to adde a will to thy Almighty power and say unto my troubled soul by the still voice of thy blessed spirit Thy sins are remitted though I am now a loathsome and monstrous spectacle of wickednesse yet I shall be as white as snow being clothed with the long white robe my Saviour's imputed righteousnesse Lord first cleanse and then cloath my soul with this pure and precious garment of my Elder Brother in Heaven my Lord Jesus Let his blood shed for me on the Crosse which hath a purifying protecting and saving vertue in it let that expiate my bloody aime in shedding my elder Brothers on his bed It was done in his sleep I hope not to him in his sins however Lord forgive the guilt of this sinful circumstance attended with base cruelty and unmanly cowardise Lord when I am dead let me live in my example both of thy justice and mercy of thy justice in punishing me so deservedly for my rebellion against thee and of thy mercy in giving mee grace to repent by softning my obdurate heart and vouchsafing pardon upon my repentance for all my transgressions let my fall into this pit drive those that stand from presuming and let my rising again to thy favour keep others that shall sin against thee from despairing of mercy Oh let not the voice of my Brothers blood cry for vengeance against this Nation let the mouth of it be stopped with my breath and let the voice of my Saviours blood so outcrie that which I spilt that his intercession in Heaven and the prayers of thy servants on Earth may be heard for me who am thine by Creation Oh save me