SECONDLY, What we are to do, in order to our being cleansed from our secret Faults.

And under this Head, we consider'd chiefly, the Necessity of acknowledging our smallest and secret Faults to be Sins, and not to endeavour to gloss them over with other specious Titles; For how could they be prevail'd on to repent of a Sin, if no Words could perswade them that it was a Fault?

The Account of the Behaviour, &c. of the Malefactors, till the Day of Execution.

As I had all the Prisoners condemn'd to dye carry'd constantly to the Chapel, that they might offer up their Prayers to God in Publick, hear the Scripture read, be instructed in their Duty, and in whatever could be judged necessary for their Salvation; and as this was perform'd twice every Day, during the Space of Time they lay under Sentence, I had Opportunities of observing their several Behaviours, Deportments, and Signs of Seriousness and Repentance.

As there were Boys very young in that lamentable Condition, it was not a little shocking to see their Behaviour when they were first Condemn'd: The Corruption of their Minds, and the little Knowledge they had of the Condition they were in, appear'd in their disturbing their Fellow Prisoners, who were disposed to be serious, by privately kicking, mocking them, &c. As they could not be convinc'd they had done any Harm in Returning from Transportation, scarce any one of them could believe he should dye for it. Henry Woodford< no role > in particular undertook (as he had declared in Chapel he would) to demonstrate to me, That the returning to his Wife and young Children, in order to keep them from Starving in his Absence, was so far from being a Crime, that it was his Duty so to act; and that no Law could disingage him, or any thing but Death, from the great Duty of providing for his Family.

After a few Days, they were brought to a Behaviour something more decent, except Jasper Andrews< no role > , and James Dalton< no role > This name instance is in set 3043. . They never made Excuses to absent themselves from the Prayers, and read alternately after me. But as Mary North< no role > had the unhappiness, she said, to be at certain Times Lunatick, she was some Times troublesome to the Prisoners, and to all who heard her, using most wicked Expressions; That she should go to Hell, that she cared not if she was damned, that she could not say the Lord's Prayer she had so much Enmity in her Heart, and that she would hang herself that Night, or if she could not, she would dash out her Brains against the Stones. But at other Times, when she was right in her Mind, she appear'd to be very Devout, and earnest in her Addresses to Heaven for the Pardon of her Sins.