A50164:113
Speedy repentance urged a sermon preached at Boston, December 29, 1689
Speedy repentance urged a sermon preached at Boston, December 29, 1689 : in the hearing and at the request of one Hugh Stone, [a mis]erable man [under a just sen]tense of [death] for a [tragical and] hor[rible murder : together with some account concerning the character, carriage, and execution of that unhappy malefactor : to which are added certain memorable providences relating to some other murders, & some great instances of repentance which have been seen amongst us / by Cotton Mather.]Speedy repentance urged a sermon preached at Boston, December 29, 1689 : in the hearing and at the request of one Hugh Stone, [a mis]erable man [under a just sen]tence of [death] for a [tragical and] hor[rible murder : together with some account concerning the character, carriage, and execution of that unhappy malefactor : to which are added certain memorable providences relating to some other murders, & some great instances of repentance which have been seen amonst us / by Cotton Mather.]
Boston: printed by Samuel Green, 1690
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
THE Character and Carriage and Execution of Hugh Stone.
The foregoing Sermon having been Preached unto the Guilty Murderer, I thought it my Duty to observe what operation the Truth and Word of God might have upon him; and to answer his own desires, that I would assist him in the last minutes of his life; nor was I altogether ignorant that the Labours that the Famous Perkins used with Prisoners, were so successful, as to encourage those that should make an Example of them.
THe foregoing Sermon having been Preached unto the Guilty Murderer, I thought it my Duty to observe what operation the Truth and Word of God might have upon him; and to answer his own desires, that I would assist him in the last minutes of his life; nor was I altogether ignorant that the Labours that the Famous Perkins used with Prisoners, were so successful, as to encourage those that should make an Example of them.
I have hardly met with so unintelligible a man, as this Hugh Stone. He could and would frequently speak very ⟨p. 68⟩well, but with many very Reasonabl• things which he uttered, he mingle as great Impertinences. I know no whether the use of his Reason were not sometimes disturbe• by, the Horror of his mind; fo he thought himself sometimes haunte with the Ghost of his Murdered Wife. But his Conversation in the Prison before his Condemnation, was in diverse things very Scandalous; and I could wish there had been more exactness in his Repentance afterwards. His Passions upon any Provocation were so inordinate, as that we did not wonder to see what he was come unto. And as on the one side, I never saw a Man express less fear of Dying, so on the other, I never heard a Man express more care about every Trifle, which he counted himself concerned in.