N00729:87
Pillars of salt. An history of some criminals executed in this land, for capital…
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.
This leads me to add, There have been those among us, that have been Exterminated for Capital Sins: the Sword of Justice, hath cut them off, in the Execution of Just Laws, which have Condemned such Criminals to Die before their Time. And there are especially Four or Five Sins, which I have known, the Malefactors, in the Cords of Death at the Gallows, bemoan, as the Sins for which the Holy God left them unto the Crimes, that were so Capital.
This leads me to add, There have been those among us, that have been Exterminated for Capital Sins: the Sword of Justice, hath cutt them off, in the Execution of Just Laws, which have Condemned such Criminals to Dy before their Time. And there are especially Four or Five Sins, which I have known, the Malefactors, in the Cords of Death at the Gallows, bemoan, as the Sins for which the Holy God left them unto the Crimes, that were so Capital.
First; Some of the Dying Malefactors, have much Lamented, the Sin, o• Apostasy from Good Beginnings in Religion. They had been under some Convictions, and Awakenings in their Younger Time, and they had been concerned about the Condition of their Souls; but they ⟨p. 53⟩have cast off all Seriousness, and so gone on from Bad to Worse, until they had utterly lost themselves in a Deep Gulf of Wickedness: First I left God, and then God left me, and now. I am come to This! Thus have I known them Cry out, when the Dimness of the Anguish of Death was upon them. Come then; You that have been well Catechised, and Admonished in your Childhood, and that have afterwards Joined yourselves unto Assemblies in which the Lord Jesus Christ hath been most Purely Worshipped: O Don't Cast off the Thing that is Good, lest you Roll down the Hill, without ever Stopping till you come at the Bottom of Wickedness. It was the Observation of an Excellent Man, That if any began well in the ways of Religion, & Godliness, and afterwards cast off their Profession, God usually sets a Visible Mark of His Displeasure upon them, even by some Visible Judgment in this World; so that all who passed by, might say, This was an Apostate!