A True Account of the Behaviour, Confessions, and last Dying Speeches of the Condemned Criminals, that were Executed at Tyburn on Wednesday the 3d. of this Instant August, 1698 .

THE Ordinary is much obliged to the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of London, for sending to his Assistance Mr. Adams, Minister of St. Alban's in Wood-street; and Mr. Moorer, Minister of St. Anns Aldersgate, who visited the Condemned Criminals every Day with great Care and Fidelity.

On the Lord's-Day, after the Condemnation of the Condemned Criminals, a Sermon was Preached on this Text,

Proverbs 30. 17. The Eye which mocks the Father, and despises the Counsel of the Mother, the Ravens of the Valley shall pluck it out, and the young Eagles shall eat it.

TThis Text is suitable, because many Criminals at their Execution lament their undutifulness to their Parents affirming That this sin made way to their succeeding Crimes, which may warn Young Persons against Disobedience to their Parents to prevent an untimely ignominious death. Persons undutiful to either Parent, being driven to extreme want, usually fly to the Wars, as a Refuge; and being slain, their Carcasses lie unbury'd. The Ravens which haunt the Valleys for Careon, pick out the Eyes of a Rebellious Son, as the Instrument of unnatural Malignity; and if they leave it uneaten out of a loathing Contempt, the young Eagles as more greedily intent upon the Prey, devour that Eye, which disdainfully abused the Parent, as a just revenge of undutifulness. The Mothers Person, and her Instructions, are usually more slighted than the Fathers.

Therefore the Sacred Scripture stiles the Mothers Admonition a Law, to guard its Authority from contempt, Prov. 1. 8, and 6. 20. What tho' Children do not so absolutely depend on the Mother for a livelihood, yet the Observation of Reverence towards her, should not be grafted in Self-Interest. The Tongues and Doings of such who despise their Parents, will soon affront the Father of their Spirits, and provoke him to destroy them. Such are seldom the objects of God's Converting Grace; for that when Common Reason is silent, or deposed, their Passions are more furious than those of Beasts. A Curse will come swiftly on such who frustrate the Design of Gospel Grace, which is, to turn the Disobedient to the Wisdom of the Ju, to comply with the Counsels and Examples of Holy and Righteous Parents. Otherwise it cannot be expected that the Hearts of a Nation should be prepared for a thorough Reformation, St. Luke 1. 17. It is very observable in the 19. Chapter of Leviticus the 3. verse, That the Law of obeying Parents is placed before the observation of the Sabbath. Therefore he cannot truly fear the Lord, nor be Religious, who doth not honour his Parents. This introduces the Contempt of God himself, and leaves the tainture of Impiety on the Heart. Such will soon violate the Sanctity of the Sabbath who slight their Father and their Mother, Ezekiel, 22. 7, 8, 9. Nor will this pretence vacate or disannul my Duty to Parents, that he or she is unnatural to their Off-spring, or impious toward God. For in the wst of Parents, there is the impress of God's Authority who hath made them the Instruments of their Childrens Being.

In the Great Day of Christ's Universal Judgment, Parents shall implead their Disobedient Children, who rejected their tender faithful Admonitions with a scornful Heart.

How will good Children acknowledge their Parents faithfulness, who train'd them up in early Piety, bequeathing the fear of God's Majesty as the best Inheritance? How will such Parents be honour'd in presenting their Off-spring at Christ's Tribunal, as the regenerate Sons of God, as made Ornaments to Heaven it self; Good Parents did not rigidly stand upon their Authority, and at the same time undermine it by any icious practice. Their Examples were more prevalent than their Precepts. They did not indulge them in any show of Vanity, but convinced them of the odiousness of the sin of Pride and Voluptuous Sensuality. They put them upon Serious Employment. Their Reproofs were not too mild: They did not stroak them when they did amiss, but used all means to save their Souls. They exercised and maintained mutually in the Marry'd State, the Purity and Strength of Love; this shed a benign influence on their Off-spring to force them into an high Veneration of their Parents. The Reason is, because the quarrelsom Husband or Wife, indulge that Child most, in vicious Excesses, who strikes in, and upholds the Contest, by a contempt of the other Parent.

Let Parents consider, that they have begotten their Children, with the Image of Sin and Satan upon them. Tho' Parents cannot cure corrupt Nature (it being God's Prerogative only, to work Grace in the Heart) yet the Parents wining Amiability of an exemplary Holiness, may check a sensual course, and by degrees, may form their Off-spring to the love of Christian Vertues. Thus they shall not strengthen the poisonous works of sinful Nature in their Children, who otherwise affix the Seal of their own choice, to make themselves miserable to Eternity.

How may Parents who have neglected their duty to their Children, condole their untimely death? O my unhappy Child, how have I contributed to thy Perdition? I thrust thee forth into the World as a Sea of Temptation, without instructing thee in the knowledge of God, and thy Duty to him. Had any Limb of thy Body grown awry, surely I had rectified this betimes, while Nerves were gentle and pliable; but I have not been careful to set thy Heart strait toward God. How unworthy have I been of the Title of a Parent, who deckt thy Body and taught thee Complemental Postures, but not how to foot it right in the Paths of the Lord. Had I Instructed, Reprov'd, and Corrected thee, thou mightest have been an Ornament to Heaven: But Oh! How have I sunk thee to the Regions of Darkness, with the weight of sinful Guilt, which might in time have been O my ! How am I dress'd with Anguish of Heart and fruitless Complaints? It is too late to recover thy Soul by all my Prayers and Tears.

Think on the other hand, how the Rebellious Fondling will lament his untimely and shameful death. Is any misery like I despised all the Counsel of my Parents: This was the Source of my Profaneness, in breaking all the Laws of God and Man. How have I walkt in the Counsels of my own He which have betray'd me to my Ruin? How hath Satan train'd me up by all the of his Temptations, to the pursuit of my Lusts with greediness? How hath my Affectation of too much Liberty made me shameless as seating my self in the Chair of the Scorner? I have refus'd to acknowledge even God's Supremacy. How active have I been in sinning, as if it were the very perfection of my Nature? I have not regarded either the Favour of God, nor his Frowns, but have obey'd readily the corrupt dictates of one false Heart. Therefore, I am now justly plagu'd with an obdurate Heart which cannot repent. Yet let me not leave such in a despairing condition. O beg of God before it be too late, that tho' your Ears have been shut against the beseeching Sollicitations of his Spirit, yet that now your Hearts may be set wide open to Christ, the King of Righteousness, that he may be formed in them, and so may rule them by the Conduct of his Word and Spirit. Strive that all the effects of sincere repentance may be made conspicuous in your Conversion from the Dominion of all Iniquity, to the love of the Power of Godliness. O that every self-condemning Sinner would nor rest in meer complaining of the malignity of Sin against the Holy Jesus, but would tudy to make his Heart clean from the incorporating delement of his Lusts. The Lord's great end and design in inflicting anguish of Spirit on Sinners, is, that they may return from the pursuit of their youthful Vanities. As yet it is not too late to retrieve a course of sinning. If you earnestly and incessantly beg the renewing Grace of God's Holy Spirit he will assist you with success. If you unfeignedly repent and convert to God, the Guilt of your Impieties shall be expiated, to present you before the Throne of his Glory, pure and spotless with exceeding Joy.