N00429:122
Speedy repentance urged. A sermon preached at Boston, Decemb. 29. 1689. In the hearing,…
Speedy repentance urged. A sermon preached at Boston, Decemb. 29. 1689. In the hearing, and at the request of one Hugh Stone, a miserable man under a just sentence of death, for a tragical and horrible 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 among us. / By Cotton Mather Pastor of the Gospel in Boston.
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 these that should make an Example […] 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 these that should make an Example 〈…〉 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 Reasonable things which he uttered, he mingled as great Impertinences. I know no whether the use of his Rest were not sometimes disturbed by the Horror of his mind; for he thought himself sometimes haunted 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.