A true ACCOUNT of the BEHAVIOUR, CONFESSION, AND Last Dying SPEECHES Of the Criminals that were Executed at TYBURN, ON Wednesday the 26st of October, 1692 .

THE Ordinary, on the Lord's-Day, preached on Isa. 3. 9. Woe to them, for they have rewarded, or purchased, Evil to their own Souls.

1. Was shewed, What are those woful Miseries which are justly inflicted on wilful, impenitent Sinners in this Life; also the eternal Loss of the Soul, as rejected from the Enjoyment of God, who is the Fountain of Blessedness, in the other World. 2. What miserable Reflections Sinners, who reprobate themselves to Hell, will eternally be forming in their despairing Thoughts, that their Torments shall be endless and remediless. 3. What Ways perverse Sinners chuse, wherein to express Cruelty to their own Souls. These were various.

Next was the Answer to an Objection, That Sinners do not procure Eternal Torments to themselves, because it is said in the Proverbs of Solomon, that The Lord hath made the Wicked for the Day of Destruction.

Answ The Lord infuses not any Malignity of Sinning into our Nature, but Sinners prepare and ripen themselves for Ruin, by the long Abuse of God's Patience, being obstinate in impenitency. Such who wilfully sin against the holy God, wrong their own Souls; and being fond in gratifying their Lusts, they virtually are in love with Death. The Lord is not bound always to strive with incorrigible Sinners, nor to inforce his Mercies on such who slight them: He justly withdraws the Offers and Opportunities of Salvation, when any presumptuously trifle out their Working Seasons for Eternal Life. What is more equal, than that a perverse Sinner, who loves to wander from God's Laws, should have none to advise him in a good Way, nor to stop him in a false? The Lord will make every Man's Conscience which is self-pregnant with Guilt, an authentick Witness against himself; so that he shall be condemned out of his own Mouth.

The Conclusion was thus directed to the Condemned.

Set up a Tribunal in your own Hearts, before the All-knowing Judge charge this Crime of Crimes upon you, That you have rewarded, or procured, the demerit of Eternal Torments to your own Souls. Have you not sold your selves to Satan, that you might fulfil his Drudgery, though the only Reward thereof be Shame, and Eternal Death, without God's interposing Mercy? Have you not bid him depart from you, by remaining wilfully ignorant of his Divine Excellencies, in the Carelesness of your Duty? Have you not razed out the Dictates of Nature, that you migh get an absolute Conquest over the Checks of Conscience? How will all such Self-destroyers torment themselves, that Christ wept over their Obstinacy in sinning, which themselves made sport of, and played away their Souls at a Cast for every Vanity? With what Face can any wilful Sinner beg Mercy of God in Distress, who would not afford any to his own Soul; but wasted many precious Opportunities of Salvation, in making provision for the gratifying of his Lusts, to his Eternal Ruin? To bear the Wrath of God will be intolerable, and to avoid it will be impossible: Therefore stand not out a Moment longer from submitting to the Terms and Articles of God's Salvation, as if you envied Christ, to confer Eternal Felicity upon you. O monstrous Ingratitude against him! O affected Cruelty to your own Souls! There cannot be any Safety in a State of Impenitency: Hasten therefore with all diligence, vigour and speed, to be found of Christ in Peace, as reconciled to God by a penitential obedient Reliance on his Righteousness. This is the only Covert of Safety, to secure the trembling Sinner from God's fiery Indignation. You may comfortably pay down your Lives, as a Forfeiture to Humane Justice, if Christ hath satisfied Divine Wrath in your behalf. O happy Cross, which lifts up penitent Sinners to the Enjoyment of the Tree of Life in Paradise! Therefore supplicate the Lord of Life, that he would sanctifie your Distresses in Dying: So the fatal Tree shall blossom in solid Comfort, while you are made wise to Salvation by your present Sufferings. Thus shall the Man be bless'd, in whose Spirit there is no Guile, to impose upon himself false Notions of Repentance, and Converting unto God: He will judge such, not rigorously, but with the Allays of Mercy; yea, he will abundantly delight to magnifie the Riches of his Free Grace and Goodness on those who seek him with their whole Heart, as the Fountain of Blessedness, and Infinite Satisfaction.

The Ordinary visited the Condemned Criminals on Monday in the Forenoon, and enquired what divine Impressions the Preaching and Prayers on the Lord's-day had made upon their Hearts? They replied, most of them, that they were much affected therewith. After this, I endeavoured to make them more sensible of their particular Crimes, and stated to them the necessary Qualifications of Salvation; without which, they would deceive themselves by a false Reliance on God's Mercy, and Christ's Merits, though infinite: And shewed them, wherein True Saving Faith differs from a strong, yet pernicious Presumption of being reconciled to God. Also how True Repentance differs from Attrition, or wounding Convictions only in the Conscience. Then I prayed for them, that God would sanctifie their Distresses so, that they might be above the fond Love of natural Life, and the slavish Fear of Death, and prepared for a blessed Eternity.

On Tuesday I visited them again, and shewed them the heinous nature of their several Crimes, especially Murther, by Duelling, or otherwise; also the greatness of the Sin of Clipping the Current Coin of this Nation, and Burglaries; and stated withal the Means of God's Provision, how they might obtain his Pardoning-Mercy, and an Interest in Christ for Eternal Life: And, after much Exhortation, dismissed them with Prayer.

I visited them every Day, and they seemed affected with what I exhorted them unto, and the Prayers for them.

I declared, that God never leaves Sinners destitute of his Preventing-Grace, till they first harden their own hearts, indulging themselves in some secret Sins, which is a considerable degree of Atheism, because they are not for some time discovered, and brought to publick Shame. I pressed them to a strict, serious Examination of their Hearts, that so the Review of their Sins now might be as bitter, as the Commission of them had been delightful: Exhorting them to a speedy Repentance, and thorough Conversion to God in Christ.