Speedy Repentance Urged, Articles
TO Contribute a little further unto the Design of this Book, I shall here Annex Two Articles of Observations, extracted from an Hitherto-Reserved Collection of MEMORABLE PROVIDENCES. I have Recorded them in such Words (and the Rest in such Wayes) as these.
Article. I.
Act. XXVIII. 4.
A Murtherer—Vengeance suffereth not to live.
AMong all the perpetrators of the more hideous and enormous Impieties in the world, there is no person mor… Abhorred by the Lord, than the Murtherer … and there is none so much pursued by the Lord as that bloody Monster is. Those Children of Cain, that rob their innocent Neighbours of their lives, usually …dure first an Hell in their own Co…nces, by which Mark upon them, they are made more incapable of avoiding the Halter which they are worthy of, and that Halter is but a Sling out of which their guilty Souls are hurled into a further, a lasting, an endless Hell. very trivial are the occasions and pretences for which often this peice of Devilism is committed. No greater provocations truly, than what the two Brothers at Pad…a had, between whom there Issued first Quarrel and then a Murder, only from this Original, that on a certain evening together, one was wishing for Oxen as many as the Stars, the other was wishing for A Pasture as large as the Firmament. But the Expectations of its Concealment scarce ever escape a Lamentable Dissappointment in them who are so vain as to promise unto themselves a Secrecy and Impunity in this Villanny; for a …essus will find the very Swallowes to Chirr…p out his Murder of his Father. Nor can a Temporal Recompence for this atrocious I…iquity ordinarily be avoided by the … Repentance it self; besides the V…ngeance of eternal fire, which without … …nevitably followes thereupon. … his soul sw… away to Eternity in his blo…
To the innumerable Exemples of these things, which all Ages do admire, Let these be added.
EXEMPLE. I.
The First Murtherer of his Neighbour in New-England (as I take it) was one Billington at Plimouth in the year 1630. He shott a poor man that he was a mortal enemy unto, & expected that for want of Power or of People in that Infant Plantation he should have evaded the execution due to him for his Capital Offence▪ but Justice inflicted has deserved death upon him.
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 her as that he attempted her Chastity▪ Such was her weakness and Folly, that she… yeilded unto the vile Temptations; tho' with such Reluctancies, that begging of God for deliverance from the wicked …ollic…atio…, she pleaded, If ever she were over…en again, she would leave her selfe unto his …, to be made a publick Exemple, Howev… … governing her self, nor Remem…ng her promise, with the …me 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 Ba…barity. Hereupon she wrapt up the Infant in her Chest for fifteen days until her Master & Mistress went aboard the ship which they were Transporting themselves to England. On this Occasion she was put to remove unto another House where some that before had apprehended, now perceived that shee had lately been delivered of a C…ld. They charging it upon her, she at first denied the Murther, & said, It was still-born, but upon search it was found in her chest, and she being made to touch the Face of it, before the Jury, the blood came fresh thereinto; whereupon she confessed the whole Tru… … her imprisonment and at her … the carried her self so Exceeding … penitently, 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 Insant before she could make an end of it; so, through the unskilfulness of the Hang-man, they were …ain to turn her off the Ladder Twice before she co…id expire.
Exemple. III.
An English Ship sailing from some-where about the Mouth of the Streig…ts, was manned with some cruel Miscreants, who quarrelling with the M…ter & some of the Officers, turn'd them all into the Long-boat, with a small quantity of provisions, about an hundred Leagues to the westward of the Spanish Coast. These fellowes 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 Es…aped the Sea, yet Vengeance would not suffer them to live ashoar, … his Instance, and complaint they were …pprehended, and the Ring-leaders of this …derous Piracy had a Sentence of Death … on them. The horrours which attended the Cheef of these M…actors in his D…ing 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 sword, 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 slayes another.
Clamitat ad Caelum 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 L…rd and He will have mercy, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
It was once the affectionate Out-Cry of a C…ndemned 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 Sincere Paenitents in Old Age. When the Devils have had a Possession of many years, they plead a sort of Praescription 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, Vnbelief, 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 about the State of his own soul, …espair of Mercy from God in Christ; it reaches even to, she Chief of Sinners. It is for a Cain to roar, My sin is greater than can be forgiven! but perphaps his Despair was not inferiour to his Murder, and, Austin well replied upon him, mentiris, Cain, Cain, Thou liest. The Temp…er that once told thee; Tis too soon, may now tell thee, Tis too la…e 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, 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.
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 wife for Sixty three years, and yet she was Thirty five years younger than himself; 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 dayes a poor ignorant carnal and sottish man, and unacquainted with the very Principles of his Ca…echism, 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 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 dy'd▪ Wherein he continued under a good Character, so long as he continued in the World.
Exemple. II.
There dwelt at a Village in this Countrey, one who dyed in December 1688. This man had been remarkable for his bad Life, till he had spent fifty years in the lewd and rude Courses if notorious Ungodliness. Though he had the Benefit of a christian and pious Education, yet he had shaken off all the yokes which that had laid upon him. Hee became a foulmouth'd Scoffer at all good men and good things; and a great mocker of Church-Members in particular. The Vices of Drunkenness and Swearing and Lying made the Characters of his Conversation. Sabbath-Breaking and Promise-breaking, made him infamous among honest people, and his Disobedience to his Parents was not unequal to the rest of his miscarriages. Original Sin, in the furthest efforts of it, fill'd his whole man, and his whole way, for half an hundred years; at which age he left the world; and he had sat under & sinn'd against the meanes of Grace all this while. But yet, which you will admire to hear! Yet this enormous liver was iudg'd to be converted unto God some few weeks before he died, The great God so blessed & owned the Ministry which he enjoyed, that the Efficacy of it on him, became conspicuous to Astonishment. He became a serious Paenitent, and so devout, so pensive, that every one saw a New-Creature in him. He mourned for all his former faults, and caused his Complaints to reach unto the Plague of his Heart as the Root of all. He reformed what was amiss in him, and applyed himself with an exceeding Vigour to the Saviour, for the Salvation of his soul. While the Grace of God was thus beginning its Impressions on him, he fell mortally sick, and it was not long before he passed out of this world with a marvellous Assurance of his Interest in a better.
It were Endless to reckon up the extraordinary Expressions that fell from him, & Behaviours that he had in the sick and last dayes of his life; but some of them were such as these.
—O (said he) What a wonder of Mercy is it to my soul, that God halh not cast me immediately into Hell, and given me no Time to repent, or to beg for an Heart to Repent! But … Mercy hath spared a great Sinner.
—The stoutest man (said he) that ever lived, should he but seriously think on ETERNITY, and have no Christ to fly unto, it will so sink the the Heart of him, that he could never bear it; but the Lord will show Mercy to my distressed soul.
He gave himself wholly to Prayer, and would excuse Watchers from sitting with him, that he might be at leisure for Communion with God alone. Sometimes he would give a start as he lay, and being asked the Reason of it, he said, O I have a great work to do! and but a little time to do it!
The Conflicts which he endured in his Spirit were unutterable, under which, he… day & night kept wrestling with God for His Mercy. One morning his Brother enquiring of him how he did, he replied, O I have had as doleful a night as ever man had, I have had three great enemies this night encountering with me; the World, the Flesh, & the Devil. I have been this night, both in Hell & in Heaven; and I can truly say with David, all this night long I have watered my couch with my …ars, but as the day broke, my Saviour came & vanquished the Devil, & told him that he had no right in me, for He had Redeemed with His own Blood.
To his Father once he said, I have felt a great work on my distressed soul; This your son was lost and is found, was dead and is alive.Doleful nights have I seen; the Thoughts of my sins did sorely oppress me, when I would be crying to my dear Saviour for His mercy, He would seem not to pitty me, but to say, Thou hast been a servant of the Devil and of thy Lust, and dost thou now come to me? I have been calling to thee, and thou hast been hardening thy heart at my Calls, and dost thou expect mercy after all? And then the Devil would put in, saying, Thou hast been my Vassal so long, thy Cries for Mercy are now all too late. I have also seen the face of an Angry God, and that is the most terrible thing that was ever seen. I then found no s…ay for my distressed soul, but Free-mercy! Free-mercy! The Lord now put under me His everlasting Arms, and gave me an heart still to pray & say, Lord Iesus, Mercy for Thy own sake, Mercy for thy Name's sake! My Redeemer would say, Thou art a great sinner and an old sinner! The Answer of my soul was, Truth, Lord, but even such sinners have already found mercy at thy hands, I come to thee, for with thee the fatherless find mercy.
—He would break forth into very High Expressions; his great Comfort was fetch'd from that Promise in Ma…. 11. 28. Come to Me—and I will give you rest. He would now cry out, O the Riches of Free-grace! There are thousands of thousands, & ten thousand times ten thousand, in the third Heaven, rejoicing over a great and an … sinner coming to Glory! O glorify Free-grace for ever. —He would say, O blessed Sickness, blessed sickness! what a friend hast thou been to me! and now Welcome Death! or Wecome Life, what my dearest Redeemer please. O that I could declare to my Relations and my Neighbours! yea that I could declare to Kings and Worlds what the Lord has done for my soul! —He would reflect on the Humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ, with an amazed & a transported soul; he would break forth into a great Adoration of it, and say, O this wonderful mercy to undone sinners! He would also make that one of his Admirations, O the glorious work of faith, which doth role it self on Christ alone! [He bewailed it with a peculiar Bitterness, That he had been for the change of Government. But … said, he believed that God would restore … us, the judges as at the first, & the counsellours as at the beginning, & pastors according to His own heart. He was likewise much concerned about the Interest of Christ in the world; & about the Success of the Prince of Orange,whose glorious Expedition we had then by the edges, a small notice of, he talk'd in strains that seem'd surprisingly prophetical.] His counsil to every one was, To make their Calling & Election sure. And he would often say, O I am an old sinner▪ & & but a young Convert! I am fifty yeers old, and have lived but seven weeks all this whi….
To his Brethren he said, You are care full about a Garment for me under my weakness this winter, but Brothers, I have a better Garment than you can provide for me; the long white Robe of the… Righteousness of Jesus Christ, will cover me all over.
He kept praying & praising, & singing psalms till his end came; and then being taken speechless & senseless, his friends apprehended they should hear him speak no more. Thus he lay for divers hours drawing on; but at length he just came to himself again, and sprang up in his bed, spreading his arms abroad, as tho' going to leap into the Arms of a Redeemer, and Shouting, O my friends, Heaven rings all over at this! They wonder at this, a great and an old sinner coming to Heaven! Behold, in my father's house are many mansions; if it had not been so, my Saviour would not have said it, But He is gone to prepare a place for one, O the Riches of Grace! O glorifie Free-Grace for ever more! And so he went away to the Rest of God.
Despair not. That alone will mercy bar To faults that like the Sands & Mountains are.
FINIS.
ERRATUM.
Page, 46. Line, 14. r. Day of Grace
End of the text · Cotton Mather, Speedy Repentance Urged (1690)