A True ACCOUNT of the BEHAVIOUR, CONFESSION, AND Last Dying SPEECHES Of the 5 Criminals that were Executed at TYBURN, On Friday the 17th of July, 1691 .

THE Ordinary Visited the Condemned on Saturday, to convince them of their sinful and deplorable state, and to prepare them for the Duties of the Lord's Day. He chose for his Text the 19th Verse of the 2d Chapter of Jeremiah, viz. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy back-slidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord, and that my fear is not in thee, &c. From which words were drawn these Observations:

1. The procuring cause of all those mischiefs which are inflicted on sinners is, their own Provocations of God, not any delight in him to punish them. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee.

2. Sin sooner or later shall not go unpunished, though the sinner be secure.

3. There is a great degree of punishment in the very act of sinning. Sinners are very uneasie in themselves in contriving it, they are always surrownded with fear, lest their works of darkness should be discovered; yea, God himself cannot devize a sorer punishment, than the giving up a sinner to the greedy persute of his Lusts.

4. The sins of some Men are so Notorious by an excess in wickedness, that this might correct and put them on amendment, as being already so extreamly wicked. Thy back-slidings shall reprove thee.

5. They who multiply new Moods in sinning, try all sin rather than truly leave any: such shall be convinced at last, that there is no solidity in sinning, but that they gratifie their Lusts, to the aggravation of their own Condemnation. Thy frequent back-slidigs shall reprove thee.

6. The want of reverenceing God, sutably to his Divine Perfections, is the root of all Apostacy. My fear is not in thee.

7. Wilful back-slidings from God, after acquaintance with him in the experience of his Goodness and solemn Vows to cleave to him, denotes greater malignity of Heart, in such tretcherous dealing, so that the Penal consequents of this, shall be as bitter as bitterness it self. It is an evil and a bitter thing that thou hast forsaken me.

8. It is very difficult to convince a sinner, in whom sin is riveted by custome, that it will prove bitter by the exemplary and remarkable Punishment of it. Know therefore and see this, in the very malignant nature of thy forsaking me, the Fountain of blessedness, who have heapt Obligations on thee to cleave to me.

9. Though sin be sweet and pleasant in the acting, yet it will prove bitterness, yea a deadly Poyson, as the biting of an Asp, which so stupifies that the Pains of Death are not felt. Thus White Powder kills without giving any crack or report of Death: Those Wounds are most Mortal, of which we do not complain; there is no remedy nor antidote against a studied continued concealment of sin; when it is bound on by custome, it soon becomes delightful, as if it were the Perfection of Mens Nature; yea, there is such a pleasing witchcraft in sinning, that it is gratified against all Arguments of Conviction, and held fast against all good nature to the sinners own Destruction. Thus sin will prove a bittersweet, for the wicked conceive their Projects in sorrow, as torturing their Brains to contrive sin cleverly, and to conceal it with the profoundest secrecy; yet they are filled with fears of an Abortion, in the disappointment of their hopes: If they do bring their Design to the Birth, yet they travel to their own Destruction. There is a Destraction in serving the commands of divers contrary Lusts, so that the sinner is perplext which he should first gratifie. Sin turns Prosperity into a Snare; it arms the whole Creation against the sinner when he is most secure; it makes his own guilty fears to fall upon him: Sin is bitter in the effects of shame and reproach; it makes Death terrible as the Persevant of God's Justice, which drags the sinner to Hell, where Divine Wrath shall be poured out in its utmost severity, both endless and irremediless. Considering that sin is thus bitter, be not industrious in Planting and Cultivating such a poysonous Weed, stub it up by the severity of an universal Mortification: Who but a Mad Man would prodigally take up the momentary pleasures of sin on such hard terms as the anguish of a future repentance, though he were sure to attain it. Sinners will be forced at last to confess, that there is no fruit in sinning, but vanity, self-deceit and vexation of Spirit, in the loss of God and their own Souls to Eternity. Therefore repent and be in bitterness of spirit for sinning, as a Parent for the loss of his Firstborn: You have surfeited on the forbidden bitter Fruits of sinning, but in the Lord there are allowed sweets, fulness of Divine Joys and Pleasures, not to be exhausted, but eternally flowing forth without stint; yet what malignity of Heart have you exprest against God in a willful departure from him: Hath the Lord been a Land of Darkness, or a Barren Wilderness to you, that you have quitted his equal, holy, honourable, profitable and pleasant ways? Is there not an infinite reward of Happiness promised to such who persevere to walk in them? what Spiritual Phrensie is this, that you have forsaken the Fountain of blessedness, to drink the poysonous Waters of Iniquity? You have offered violence to the Law of your Creation, and to all Good Nature or Kindness to your selves, in a perverse rejecting the Lord, from the Love and Loyalty of your Hearts. He may now justly harden his Heart against you, though you cry to him in distress: He may beset you with Terrours, because in forsaking him you have been cruel to your own Souls. Yet be not discouraged, if you return to the Lord with your whole Heart, he will not reject you, but imbrace you with the strength and delight of his Mercy. He will create peace in your Consciences, establish his fear in your Hearts, and thereby so confirm his Love to you, that you shall not dread to walk through that dark Vally of the shadow of Death, because the Lord of Life and Glory will be with you, to make you triumph in his Salvation.

I proceed to give an Account of the Behaviour of the Condemned Criminals, and what their Preparation was for Death.

On Munday my self with another Minister joyned in Exhortation and Prayer: We stated dearly the nature of Saving Faith, Repentance and Self-denyal, in an hearty intire Resignation to the Will of God, both preceptive, and in his Righteous inflicting of Punishment on Sinners, which they ought to accept to their amendment. Afterwards we took them apart and inquired what Impression was made on their Hearts by our present Discourses; also what hopes they had as to a Blessed Eternity, and how they had led their Lives before they committed these Crimes; some of them were willing to disburden their Consciences of their secret