A True ACCOUNT of the BEHAVIOUR, CONFESSION, AND Last Dying SPEECHES Of the 12 Criminals that were Executed on Friday and Saturday the first and second of May 1691 .

THE Ordinary visited the Condemned Prisoners every day till their Execution; on the Lord's Day, in the Afternoon, he preacht on this Text, viz. Proverbs 10. 27. The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be cut short. These words are a safe Direction how to draw out the Line of Life to a fair extent, in prosecution of which many general Heads were treated of, amongst which were these:

First, How doth true Piety conduce to the lengthning out of the natural Life? Thus, the fear of the Lord doth engage his Protection over the Righteous, because he walks humbly in a dependance on God's Inspection over them. This holy fear doth not make Mens Spirits degenerate into Cowardize, to shrink at shadows of discouragement in attempting difficult Atchievements for Gods Honour.

Secondly, Godliness heals the Distempers of our Minds and Hearts, by composing them into an orderly and peaceful Harmony, as was shewed in many particulars. Thus a good temper of Mind works by Sympathy on the bodily Spirits, to make them flow with briskness, and not to sink into a despairing melancholy upon every appearance of danger, which is more terrible than Death, because this can but once be inflicted.

Thirdly, He only lives long, who carefully imploys his time in the service of God his maker, and doth not consume his years as a Tale which is told. How is this? In a fourfold respect:

1st, He makes his Life as a Story, full of fancy, in which is little real profit to himself or others.

2dly, As a Tale sometimes is almost ended, before any part of it is well attended unto; so a wicked man brings his years to a conclusion before he hath well considered wherefore his Life was given him, as neglecting to prosecute the Spiritual Designs of it.

3dly, The same Numerical Tale cannot be repeated, no more can the wasted oppertunities of living well be recalled that they may be better improved.

4thly, When Life like a Tale is ended, all the mirth is vanished, yea a tedious Tale is burdensome: Thus wicked men loath their lives and grow weary of them, when they reap the deserved bitter effects of finning. Now compare the long life of a wicked man with the shortest of a pious man, and then conclude which is to be preferred.

Fourthly, If some Saints dye young, as Enh and Josiah, they ripned the sooner for the state of heavenly glory. This World is a Foreign Soyle, where a Saints growth in Grace is not so beautified and consistent as under the immediate Inspection of Christ, the King of Righteousness. Therefore a real Christian loaths almost to live, that he may be consummated in Holiness; but a wicked man is never satisfied with living, because he lives to his own ease and the gratifying of his Lusts. Thus the renewing his date of Life, strikes him into a Dead Palsy of security, which is a stroke far worse than Death, because not felt: If the wicked live long and prosper, yet this is their punishment, because they often pyne away in their iniquities and are consumed with terrors, while they are vigorous in the fulfilling of their Lusts.

Here were four Inferences drawn from the whole Text, with several Improvements of it, in exhorting unto godliness from the benifits of it in this Life, and the prospect of a blessed Eternity.

The Conclusion was thus directed to the Condemned.

How have you contracted your years into a Span, by spinning out a Web of vanity in sinning? You have banished the fear of God out of your hearts. This would have been the safe Guide of your Lives, and a Sovereign Antidote against the terrors of an Ignominious Death. You have ventured to sin, while Gods Judgments on others have been fresh bleeding before your Eyes. Will you be wise at last? Then trifle no longer with God, in the weighty concernments of his honour and your own everlasting happiness. Mortifie your evil Inclinations, Execute your Lasts out right in a commendable revenge, as having crucified afresh the Lord of Life and Glory. How madly will you act against your own best Interest, if you still persist in your Impenitency, and do not return to the Lord with your whole Heart? Consider the past follys of your Lives, to bring you to an ingenuous self abasement, and to excite in you zealous endeavours to attain a blessed Eternity: value the fear of the Lord, that it may be implanted in your hearts. This will arm you against being overwhelmed with Consternation at the approach of death. A true Penitent, being cloathed with Christs Righteousness, may confidently look God in the Face, as Reconciled to him, yea, under the covert and shadow of his Wings, he may bid defiance to all the powers of Hell, and the Furies of a guilty despairing Conscience, which sink reprobate sinners into Eternal Torments in the greatest Anguish of their Souls.

I proceed to give an Account of the Behaviour and Confessions of the Condemned Criminals.

I. Elizabeth Dale< no role > This name instance is in set 839. This set is in the group(s): MothersOBP . , who murthered her Bastard Child. She said, That she was Educated by Religious Parents, but walkt not according to their good Counsel and Example: That she got a subsistance by winding of Silk , knitting and going a Nursekeeping . She did break the Sabbath, and seldom pray'd to God; when she read any part of the Scriptures, she little minded her duty required therein, but had worldly Covetous desires too prevailing on her, how to get fine things about her. The occasion of her great sin was thus, There was, within a little more than a Year since, a Meeting Place built in Stepney. Parish , she went to the House to get Chips to save the charges of Coals, were a Workman detained her in the House, and sollicited her to commit folly with him, she being left to her wicked heart consented, upon some Promises which he made her, but performed them not. She confest freely the Fact: I told her she ought to call to mind the former sins of her life, which not being duly sensible of, God justly left her to commit this unnatural Fact: She acknowledged as much. She said, That though her Heart was very hard after the Fact, yet now she is deeply humbled, and prays often with Tears, that God would more soften her Heart, and bring her to repentance. I exhorted her not to rest in the beginning of relenting, but to pray earnestly that she might become a thorow Convert to God, which she promised to do.

II. James Selby< no role > , condemned for murthering Mary Bartlet< no role > , who lived in Goodmans Fields and kept an Ale-house of ill Conversation. He said, That he was a Distiller of Strong Waters in Bishopsgate-street , that he fell into decay of his Estate, by living an idle and expensive course of life: That he seldom prayed against his excesses: That he was acquainted with the Woman who was killed: That going by her House she pulled him in, and inticed him to drink with her and another Woman; they drank togerher to the loss of their Reason, but he did not remember that he killed Mrs. Bartlet, though they quarrelled about the Reckoning. He confest that he was in a great Rage afterward, because, being drunk, the Woman pickt his Pocket of a Guinea and some loose Mony. I prayed with him before his Tryal, when he confest what is related before. I exhorted him every Sabbath to redeem his mispent time, and to repent of all his sinful courses. He denyed not that he frequented other Houses of ill note, and that he knew the woman who was murthered, with two more near Well Close . I told him that he was suspected for that, but he denied it. I intend to lay it close to his Conscience at his death. I wish that he had been more serious and sensible of his ill courses before his Tryal: since Condemnation I take pains with him, to bring him to true Repentance. On Munday last he said, That God was just in his Condemnation, because he had often prophaned the Sabbath, and when he went to Church, he did it in formality, and his heart was little affected with the publick worship. I desired him to consider that he could not be a Penitent i he stood out in denying any wicked act which he was guilty of, yet he was very reserved and would not acknowledge any of those scandals