A sermon occasioned by the execution of a man found guilty of murder preached…

May last Request unto you is, O give & get all the Honour you can unto that Jesus from whom you look for your Salvation. While you are seeking to look well unto Him, O see that you speak well of Him, and do well for Him, until you shall speak and do & be among the living on the earth no more. Surely you have by presumptions things enough reproached him already. The sharp Axe of Civil […] will speedily cut you down; O for a little good fruit before the blow! Manifest your penitence for your Inequities by a due care to excel in tempers quite contrary to those ill Habits and customs whereby you have heretofore blasphemed the worthy Name of Christ & Christianity. Especially employ the last minutes of your Life •in giving a zealous Warning unto others to take heed of those things which have bin destructive unto you. Tell them what wild Gourds of death they are by which you have got your Bane; point out before them those paths of the destroyer which have led you down so near unto the Congregation of the dead. When the numerous crowd of spectators are 3 or 4 days hence thronged about the place where you shall then breathe your last before them all, then do you with the heart-piercing groans of a deadly wounded man […] on your Fellow-sinners that they would ⟨p. 81⟩turn now every one from the evil of his way. Beseech of them to keep clear of ill Haunts & ill Houses, with as much dread of them▪ as they could have of lying down in a nest of poisonful […] Beseech of them to abhor all Uncleanness as they would the deep ditch which the abhorred of the Lord do fall into. Beseech of them to avoid all Excess in Drinking as they would not rot themselves with more bitter Liquors than the Waters of […]. Beseech of them to moderate and mortify all inordinate Passions as they would not surrender themselves into the hands of Devils that will hurry them down into deeper Deeps than they are aware. Beseech of them to Shun idle Swearing as a Profanity that the GOD to whom Vengeance belongeth will not permit to go unpunished. Beseech of them to avoid Curses on themselves or others, lest while they like Madmen so throw about fire-brands & arrows & death, they bring upon their own heads, as you have done, the things which they are apt ramly to be wishing of.

May last Request unto you is, O give & get all the Honour you can unto that Jesus from whom you look for your Salvation. While you are seeking to look well unto Him, O see that you speak well of Him, and do well for Him, until you shall speak and do & be among the living on the earth no more. Surely you have by presumptions things enough reproached him already. The sharp Ax of Civil will speedily cut you down; O for a little good fruit before the blow! Manifest your penitence for your Inequities by a due care to excel in tempers quite contrary to those ill Habits and customs whereby you have heretofore blasphemed the worthy Name of Christ & Christianity. Especially employ the last minutes of your Life in giving a zealous Warning unto others to take heed of those things which have bin destructive unto you. Tell them what wild Gourds of death they are by which you have got your Bane; point out before them those pathes of the destroyer which have led you down so near unto the Congregation of the dead. When the numerous croud of spectators are 3 or 4 days hence thronged about the place where you shall then breathe your last before them all, then do you with the heart-piercing groans of a deadly wounded man on your Fellow-sinners that they would