N00729:143
Pillars of salt. An history of some criminals executed in this land, for capital crimes. : With some of their dying speeches; collected and published, for the warning of such as live in destructive courses of ungodliness. : Whereto is added, for the better improvement of this history, a brief discourse about the dreadful justice of God, in punishing of sin, with sin. : [Two lines from Deuteronomy]
printed by B. Green for Samuel Phillips, 1699
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.
Mor. Dear Sir, how much am I beholden to you! you have already done a great deal for me. Oh who and I that have […] wretch, that any Servants of God should take notice of me!
Mor. Dear Sir, how much am I beholden to you! you have already done a great deal for me. Oh who and I that have 〈…〉 wretch, that any Servants of God should take notice of me!
Min. I beseech you to make this use of it, I believe there is not one Christian this day beholding you, who would not willingly be at the greatest pains they could devise to save your precious Soul: How merciful then is that Man who is God as well as man! how unspeakably ready is the Lord Christ to save the Souls of sinners ⟨p. 74⟩that affectionately Look unto him! The goodness, and pitifulness of the most tender-hearted man in the world is but a shadow of what is in Him. The compassions of any man compared with the Bowels of a merciful JESUS are but as the painted Sun, or the painted Fire in comparison of the real.
Min. I beseech you to make this use of it, I believe there is not one Christian this day beholding you, who would not willingly be at the greatest pains they could devise to save your precious Soul: How merciful then is that Man who is God as well as man! how unspeakably ready is the Lord Christ to save the Souls of sinners ⟨p. 74⟩that affectionately Look unto him! The goodness, and pi•ifulness of the most tender-hearted man in the world is but a shadow of what is in Him. The compassions of any man compared with the Bowels of a merciful JESUS are but as the painted Sun, or the painted Fire in comparison of the real.
Mor. Oh that I could now look unto Him as I ought to do! Lord help me.
Min. Well, you are now a dying man, the last hour or two of your life is now running. You know your self now to stand just on the brink of Eternity; y•u sh••l •••sently be in a state of wonderful happiness of horrible misery which must endure forever: which of those estates do you now count your self stepping into?
Mor. Oh Sir, I am afraid, but I am not without hope that God may have mercy on me.
Min. What's your ground for that hope? O see that your confidences be not such as God will by and by reject.
Min. What's your ground for that hope? O see that your confidences been't such as God will by and by reject.
Mor. I don't know well what to say, but this I hope is a good sign, I have lived in many grievous sins, in Lying, Drinking, Sabbath breaking and evil Company keeping; God has made now these so bitter to my soul that I would not commit them again, might I have my life this afternoon by doing it.
Min. That's a great word, God grant it may not be a word only, the good word of a good pang, without such a through' change of heart as you must ⟨p. 75⟩have if you would not perish everlastingly. You are not like to have any longer time in this world to try the Sincerity of your Profession.
Min. That's a great word, God grant it may not be a word only, the good word of a good pang, without such a thro' change of heart as you must ⟨p. 75⟩have if you would not perish everlastingly. You are not like to have any longer time in this world to try the Sincerity of your Profession.
Mor. I know it, and I beseech you Sir to help me what you can: I hope the means used with me since my Condemnation ha'n't been lost.
Min. I would not have the sense of the pain and shame which your body is about to undergo, any ways hinder your mind from being taken up about the Soul matters which I shall endeavour to set before you.
Min. I would not have the sence of the pain and shame which your body is about to undergoe, any ways hinder your mind from being taken up about the Soul matters which I shall endeavour to set before you.
Mor. Sir, as for the pain that my body must presently feel, I matter it not: I know what pain is; but what shall I do for my poor Soul? I'm terrified with the Wrath of God; This, this terrifies me, Hell terrifies me: I should not mind my Death, if it were not for that.
Mor. Sir, as for the pain that my body must presently feel, I matter it not: I know what pain is; but what shall I do for my poor Soul? I'm terrify'd with the Wrath of God; This, this terrifyes me, Hell terrif•es me: I should not mind my Death, if it were not for that.
Min· Now the Lord help me to deal faithfully with you, and the Lord help you to receive what he shall enable me to offer unto you. Mark what I say: You were born among the enemies of God, you were born with a soul as full of enmity against God, as a Toad is full of poison. You have lived now, how many years?
Min· Now the Lord help me to deal faithfully with you, and the Lord help you to receive what he shall enable me to offer unto you. Mark what I say: You were born among the enemies of God, you were born with a soul as full of enmity against God, as a Toad is full of poison. You have liv'd now, how many years?
Morg I think about Thirty.
Min. And all these thirty years have you been sinning against the Holy God. Ever since you knew how to do any thing, you have every day been guilty of innumerable sins; you deserve the dreadful wrath and curse of the infinite ⟨p. 76⟩God. But God has brought you here, to a place where you have enjoyed the means of Grace. And here you have added unto your old Sins, most fearful Iniquities: you have been such a matchless, prodigious Transgressor, that you are now to Die by the stroke of civil Justice; to Die before your time, for being wicked overmuch. There is hardly any sort of Wickedness which you have not wallowed in. That Sin particularly which you are now to Die for, is a most monstrous Crime. I can't possibly describe or declare the sins whereby you have made your self an astonishing Example of Impiety and punishment.
Min. And all these thirty years have you been sinning against the Holy God. Ever since you knew how to do any thing, you have every day been guilty of innumerable sins; you deserve the dreadful wrath and curse of the infinite ⟨p. 76⟩God. But God has brought you here, to a place where you have enjoy'd the means of Grace. And here you have added unto your old Sins, most fearful Iniquities: you have been such a matchless, prodigious Transgressor, that you are now to Dy by the stroke of civil Justice; to Dy before your time, for being wicked overmuch. There is hardly any sort of Wickedness which you have not wallowed in. That Sin particularly which you are now to Dy for, is a most monstrous Crime. I can't possibly describe or declare the sins whereby you have made your self an astonishing Example of Impiety and punishment.
Mor. O Sir, I have been a most bellish Sinner. I am sorry for what I have been.
Min. Sorry, you say: well, tell me, which of all your sins you are now most sorry for, which lies most heavy.
