N00429:196
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.
Articles › Article 1 › Example 2: Example, II.Articles › Article 1 › Example 2: Exemple, II.
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.
Example, II.
Exemple, II.
One Mary Martin, her Father going away from hence to England, had left her in the House of one Mr. Mitten, a Married man, who became so enamoured of h•• as that he attempted her Chastity: Such was her weakness and Folly, that •hee yielded unto the vile Temptations; tho' with such Reluctancies, that begging of God for deliverance from the wi••• solicitations, she pleaded, If over she were overtaken again, she would leave her self unto his Justice, to be made a publi•• ••mple, However not governing her self, nor Remembering ⟨p. 4⟩her promise, with the same Sin a third time was she overtaken. Afterwards going to Service in Boston, she found her self to have conceived; but living with a favourable Mistress, who would not allow any Suspicion or Suggestion of her Dishonesty, and thinking her self unable to bear the shame or grief of the Discovery, she wholly concealed it until the Time of her Delivery. Being then alone by her self in a dark room she used violence to destroy the Child, once and again, before she effected the unnatural Barbarity. Hereupon she wrapped up the Infant in her Chest for fifteen days until her Master & Mistress went aboard the ship in which they were Transporting themselves to England. On this Occasion the was put to remove unto another House there some that before had apprehended, how perceived that she had lately been delivered of a Child. They charging it upon her, she at first denied the Murder, & said, It was still, •orn, but upon search it was […] him her chest, and she being made to […] the […] of it, before the Jury, the blood came fresh thereinto; whereupon the confessed the whole Truth. In her […] […] and at her Execution she carried her self so Exceeding penitently ⟨p. 5⟩that the observers had great Hopes of her true Repentance. But this was particularly remarkable, That as she acknowledged her Twice Essaying to kill her Infant before she could make an end of it; so, through the unskilfulness of the Hang-man, they were fain to turn her off the Ladder Twice before she could expire.
One Mary Martin, her Father going away from hence to England, had left her in the House of one Mr. Mitten, a Married man, who became so enamoured of h•• as that he attempted her Chastity: Such was her weakness and Folly, that •hee yeilded unto the vile Temptations; tho' with such Reluctancies, that begging of God for deliverance from the wi••• follicitations, she pleaded, If over she were overtaken again, she would leave her selfe unto his Justice, to be made a publi•• ••mple, However not governing her self, nor Remembring ⟨p. 4⟩her promise, with the same Sin a third time was she overtaken. Afterwards going to Service in Boston, she found her self to have conceived; but living with a favourable Mistriss, who would not allow any Suspicion or Suggestion of her Dishonesty, and thinking her self unable to bear the shame or grief of the Discovery, she wholly concealed it until the Time of her Delivery. Being then alone by her self in a dark room she used violence to destroy the Child, once and again, before she effected the unnatural Barbarity. Hereupon she wrapt up the Infant in her Chest for fifteen days until her Master & Mistress went aboard the ship in which they were Transporting themselves to England. On this Occasion the was put to remove unto another House there some that before had apprehended, how perceived that shee had lately been delivered of a Child. They charging it upon her, she at first denied the Murther, & said, It was still, •orn, but upon search it was 〈…〉 him her chest, and she being made to 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 of it, before the Jury, the blood came fresh thereinto; whereupon the confessed the whole Truth. In her 〈…〉 〈…〉 and at her Execution she carried her self so Exceeding penitenly ⟨p. 5⟩that the observers had great Hopes of her true Repentance. But this was particularly remarkable, That as she acknowledged her Twice Essaying to kill her Infant before she could make an end of it; so, through the unskilfulness of the Hang-man, they were fain to turn her off the Ladder Twice before she could expire.
Example. III.
Exemple. III.
An English Ship sailing from some-where about the Mouth of the Straits, was manned with some cruel Miscreants, who quarrelling with the Master & some of the Officers, turned them all into the Long-boat, with a small quantity of provisions, about an hundred Leagues to the westward of the Spanish Coast. These follows in the mean while sail for New-England, where as Providence would have it, the Master and his afflicted Company in the Long-boat arrived too; all except one who died of their Barbarous usage. His countenance was now become terrible unto them, who though they had Escaped the Sea, yet Vengeance would not suffer them to live ushaoer. At his Instance and complaint they were Apprehended and the Ring-leaders of this Murderous Piracy had a Sentence of Death executed on them. The horrors which ⟨p. 6⟩attended the Chief of these Malefactors in his Dying hours were such as exceedingly astonished the beholders. Though he was a very stout man, yet now his Tremblings and Agonies were inexpressible. One speech let fall by him was, I have been amongst drawn swords, flying bullets, roaring Canons, amidst all which I never knew what fear meant; but now I have apprehensions of the dreadful wrath of God in the other world, which I am going into, my soul within me is amazed at it.
An English Ship sailing from some-where about the Mouth of the Streights, was manned with some cruel Miscreants, who quarrelling with the Master & some of the Officers, turn'd them all into the Long-bont, with a small quantity of provisions, about an hundred Lengues to the westward of the Spanish Coast. These followes in the mean while saile for New-England, where as Providence would have it, the Master and his afflicted Company in the Long-boat arrived too; all except one who died of their Barbarous usage. His countenance was now become terrible unto them, who though they had Escaped the Sea, yet Vengrance would not suffer them to live ushaoer. At his Instance and complaint they were Apprehended and the Ring-leaders of this Murderous Piracy had a Sentence of Death executed on them. The horronts which ⟨p. 6⟩attended the Cheef of these Malefactors in his Dying hours were such as exceedingly astonisht the beholders. Though he was a very stout man, yet now his Tremblings and Agonies were inexpressible. One speech let fall by him was, I have been amongst drawn swords, flying bullets, roaring Canons, amidst all which I never knew what fear meant; but now I have apprehensions of the dreadful wrath of God in the other world, which I am going into, my soul within me is amazed at it.
Loud cries the spilt blood of a Brother;
He kills himself that slays another.
He kills himself that slayes another.
Clamitat ad Coelum vox Sanguinis.
Article. II.
Isa. LV. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
It was once the affectionate Out-Cry of a Condemned but a Converted and a Comforted Malefactor, God is a great forgiver, God is a great forgiver! It is indeed rarely seen that Bad livers to, ever become ⟨p. 7⟩Sincere Penitents in Old Age. When the Devils have had a Possession of many years, they plead a sort of Prescription against the Holy Spirit of God, and make their interest so strong, that very Extraordinary must be the Influences of the Grace that shall destroy it. Scripture seems to pronounce a sinner of an hundred years old to be cursed, and Experience commonly discovers a Sinner of Fifty years old to be hardened beyond all recovery. The Generality of them that are brought home to God under the constant Dispensations of the Gospel, will find that between Fifteen and Thirty is the Age in which most of the Elect become Called ones. But as nothing is more Sovereign than the Free-Grace of God, He calls both Whom and When he will; and He leaves many Civil and Moral people in their Unbelief, when He Renews the Worst of men, and those that not only have done evil an hundred times, but likewise an hundred years been in the rebellious Tents of the Ungodly; So nothing is more glorious than that Free-Grace which pardons without bounds, and forgives the Sins which no Conscience has vigour enough to describe all the Aggravations of. Let no man that begins to have sad Thoughts ⟨p. 8⟩about the State of his own soul, despair of Mercy from God in Christ; it reaches even to, The Chief of Sinners. It is for a Cain to roar, My sin is greater than can be forgiven! but perhaps his Despair was not inferior to his Murder, and Austin well replied upon him, mentiris, Cain, Cain, Thou l•est. The Tempter that once told thee; Tis too soon, may now tell thee, Tis too late to repent; and thou mayest have in thy Thoughts the Voice which once a flagitious man had in his Ears, a little before he dyed, No Mercy, No Mercy! But When he speaketh hard unto thee, believe him not. Come, and Confess and forsake all thy sins, and thou shalt have Mercy. Come, and cast the Burdens of a Guilty and Wretched soul upon the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt have Rest. Unto the Greatest and the Oldest Sinners, yet, Return unto me, saith the Lord.
It was once the affectionate Out-Cry of a Condemned but a Converted and a Comforted Malefactor, God is a great forgiver, God is a great forgiver! It is indeed rarely seen that Bad livers to, ever become ⟨p. 7⟩Sincere Poenitents in Old Age. When the Devils have had a Possession of many years, they plead a sort of Proescription against the Holy Spirit of God, and make their interest so strong, that very Extraordinary must be the Influences of the Grace that shall destroy it. Scripture seems to pronounce a sinner of an hundred years old to be cursed, and Experience commonly discovers a Sinner of Fifty years old to be hardened beyond all recovery. The Generality of them that are brought home to God under the constant Dispensations of the Gospel, will find that between Fifteen and Thirty is the Age in which most of the Elect become Called ones. But as nothing is more Soveraign than the Free-Grace of God, He calls both Whom and When he will; and He leaves many Civil and Moral people in their Unbelief, when He Renewes the Worst of men, and those that not only have done evil an hundred times, but likewise an hundred years been in the rebellious Tents of the Ungodly; So nothing is more glorious than that Free-Grace which pardons without bounds, and forgives the Sins which no Conscience has vigour enough to describe all the Aggravations of. Let no man that begins to have sad Thoughts ⟨p. 8⟩about the State of his own soul, despair of Mercy from God in Christ; it reaches even to, The Chief of Sinners. It is for a Cain to roar, My sin is greater than can be forgiven! but perhaps his Despair was not inferiour to his Murder, and Austin well replied upon him, mentiris, Cain, Cain, Thou l•est. The Tempter that once told thee; Tis too soon, may now tell thee, Tis too late to repent; and thou mayest have in thy Thoughts the Voice which once a flagitious man had in his Ears, a little before he dyed, No Mercy, No Mercy! But When he speoeketh hard unto thee, beleeve him not. Come, and Confess and forsake all thy sins, and thou shalt have Mercy. Come, and cast the Burdens of a Guilty and Wretched soul upon the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt have Rest. Unto the Greatest and the Oldest Sinners, yet, Return unto me, saith the Lord.
Example, I.
Exemple, I.
A while since, there dyed at Lancaster, a man whose name was Richard Lenten, arrived in age to so many years above an hundred, That he had lived in Wedlock with his wise for Sixty three years, and yet she was Thirty five years younger than himself; ⟨p. 9⟩and he was able to follow his toils at Husbandry, very livelily but about a month before his End.
This man had been all his days a poor ignorant carnal and sottish man, and unacquainted with the very Principles of his Catechism, after he had sat under so many hundreds of Sermons as he had: Nevertheless, when he was about, an hundred years old, God blessed the Ministry of His Word unto this mans awakening; and he became a diligent Enquirer after the things of the life to come, and a Constant Serious Attender on all that was Religious. He arrived unto such measures of a well informed Devotion, that the Church which was very strict in the terms of their Communion, yet received him into their Fellowship about Two years before he died; Wherein he continued under a good Character, so long as he continued in the World.
This man had been all his dayes a poor ignorant carnal and sottish man, and unacquainted with the very Principles of his Catechism, after he had satt under so many hundreds of Sermons as he had: Nevertheless, when he was about, an hundred years old, God blessed the Ministry of His Word unto this mans awakening; and he became a diligent Enquirer after the things of the life to come, and a Constant Serious Attender on all that was Religious. He arrived unto such measures of a wellinformed Devotion, that the Church which was very strict in the terms of their Communion, yet received him into their Fellowship about Two years before he dy'd; Wherein he continued under a good Character, so long as he continued in the World.