Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A84360
|
Mr. John Eliot, called, doctor of medicine, his last speech and advice to the world, at his suffering, March 9. 1694
|
Eliot, John, d. 1694.
|
1694
(1694)
|
Wing E525; ESTC R231484
|
9,004
|
16
|
the same some Years before I Married her but the Reason I judge is she has thought that my Cure would be too expensive and I judge it has been concerted betwixt her and some of her Friends that this she should do to be a hinderance of her paying the Cure I shall pass this and it s my desire to God that he may pardon her Sins and make her sensible of her Error For she hath been no small Instrument in bringing me to this deplorable End as the sequel of my Discourse shall make more clear My Father at this time was under Trouble himself beside I was ashamed to discover to him the Reality of the Matter that my Wife had so Treated me and my so necessitous Circumstances in regard I had Married without his Consent However by thir Actings of my Wife I was redacted to such Straits and Wants that I was necessitat to apply to some of my Friends whereof the deceast Mrs Pringle was one who Entertained me kindly and was not wanting as I thought in truly commiserating my Condition But she designed another thing at that time which I could not then fathom the truth of this I find now to my own Ruine This is the way and manner I was brought to ingage in this unhappy Business for which I now am to suffer How this design was carried on I have sufficiently declared to the World especially to Their Majesties Advocat and Solicitor and publickly in the Criminal Court However you shall know that I was first imployed by the deceast Mr. Nicolson and Mrs. Pringle to Poyson the Wife of the said Mr. Nicolson which I did undertake to do and made them likeways believe that I actually did it but had done it so dexterously that it would require some time before it had its desired effect And I told them it would gradually spend her Body so that the World could judge no other but that she had Died of a Decay Notwithstanding all this I never so much as endeavoured the Acquaintance of the said Mistris Nicolson as she her self hath Deponed The next thing I was imployed in was to affix a Design of Poysoning upon Mistris Nicolson and Mistris Hamiltoun her Sister The meaning is this That Mistris Nicolson and Mistris Hamiltoun should have desired me to give them such a quantity of Poyson as would Poyson Mr. Nicolson this I accordingly did at the desire of Mr. Nicolson and Mrs Pringle I was likeways intreated by both Mr. Nicolson and Mistris Pringle to go along with them to their Majesties Advocat where I had a formal Story of the pernicious Design the two Sisters had against the Life of Mr. Nicolson Whereupon the said Mr. Nicolson consulted Their Majesties Advocat how his Life might be secured and the two Sisters taken Red-hand in their wicked Design as he alledged and accordingly my Lord Advocat drew a Draught of an Receipt which the Sisters were to give to me Subscribed before two Witnesses and this I was to have from the two Sisters before I was to give to them the Poyson After we were parted from my Lord Advocat it was concerted amongst us three viz Mr. Nicolson Mistris Pringle and me how the two Sisters Subscriptions should be got and affixed to the Receipt and Witnesses procured Which was done some dayes after in this manner viz. Mr. Nicolson brought his Wife's Contract of Marriage to the House of Mistris Pringle where her Subscription was counterfeited and affixed to the forged Receipt by the said Mr. Nicolson Mistris Pringle being present the Subscription of Mrs. Hamiltoun was counterfeited from off a Discharge granted by her to the said Mr. Nicolson her Name was also affixed to the sorged Receipt by the said Mr Nicolson This was that which was told me jointly by them both at the delivering of the Receipt to me So I procured the two Witnesses to Subscribe their Names being filled up in the Body of the said Receipt I likeways caused the Body of the said Receipt to be written by the Wife of one of the Witnesses viz Robert Wishart and I gave it to the said Mr. Nicolson who gave back the same to me again with the Names of the two Sisters affixed to it and then I procured the Witnesses to Subscribe This is the naked Truth as I have formerly declared and I take God to Witness before Whom ere long I must make my Appearance that I designed the Evil of none Living neither hath there Evil happened to those persons against whom it was designed For all my Design was to have my Straits Wants supplied without the prejudice of any person This Business being the thing for which I must now suffer Death I must be so particular as to let you know that I was the only person that made a perfect Discovery of this complicated Affair which my Declarations before Their Majesties Advocat and Solicitor as likeways before the Criminal Judges in publick Court doth sufficiently testifie I did in that publick Court make an open Confession and and threw my self at Mercy I was found Guilty by an Assyze without adducing any other probation save my own Confession for which I pleaded favour at the Judges Hands I received some But I expected that the Lords of Their Majesties Privy Council upon full Information would have imitated the Great GOD Who delighteth not in the Death of a Sinner but rather that he should Repent and Live For God Blessed for ever will not Reject a Sinner upon his due acknowledging of his Sins and throwing himself at the Throne of His Mercy So I hoped that the Lords of Council as gods on Earth would have shewn Mercy upon my ingenuous Confession and throwing my self upon their Clemency but the Great GOD Whose Ways are unsearchable and past finding out hath otherways ordered it and so I take it from the Hand of God and not from Mâ—n And it is my earnest desire that He may give me a Holy Submission to His Will Now to the Glory of God and my great Shame I have given you a short Narrative of my wicked and profligate Life in which I desire you may take notice of the many and different ways the most merciful God hath taken to reclaim me from my Sins and Wickedness You may likeways observe the many Vows and Promises I have made to God while His afflicting Hand was upon me and likewayes the several Convictions I had but as I have said the Rod of Affliction was no sooner removed than my Vows and Promises were forgot and my Convictions ceased But at last by bringing my Body to this Disgraceful and Untimely End I hope God in His Mercy hath found out a way to preserve my Soul from Eternal Death for my Hope is in Christ Jesus And as I believe in Him Lord strengthen my weak Belief so I expect by His Blood and Merits to see God in Mercy In all the Afflictions and Troubles I have met with and what I am now trysted