The ORDINARY of NEWGATE his Account of the Behaviour, Confessions, and Last Speeches of the Malefactors that was Executed at Tyburn, on Wednesday the 3d day of August, 1709 .

AT the Sessions held at Justice-Hall in the Old-Baily, on Wednesday and Thursday, the 20th and 21st of July, last past; Four Persons receiv'd Sentence of Death. Two of them are now order'd for Execution, and the other Two have obtain'd HER MAJESTIE's gracious Reprieve; which (if they be wise) they will take care to improve according to the intent thereof, and as it becomes and concerns them; that is, Not to follow any more that wicked Course of Life, in which (it seems) they have not been long engaged; and therefore so much the more easie for them to leave it off, and the more hope there is that they will do so, and seriously apply themselves to that which is opposite to such a wicked Course, viz. Religion and Virtue; which will make their Life comfortable and happy in this World, and secure to them Eternal Life and all blisful Enjoyments in the World to come.

While they lay under this Condemnation I constantly visited them, and had them brought up to the Chapel twice every day: And there I pray'd with them, and read and expounded the Word of God to them; giving them such Instructions and Exhortations, and endeavouring to exercise them in such a Course of Devotion, as I thought most conducive to the healing of their Sin-sick Souls.

On the Lord's Day the 24th of July last , I preach'd to them and other Prisoners in Newgate in the audience of a great many Strangers, that resorted thither, some out of Devotion, and others out of Curiosity, as I may suppose: And I took for my Text in the Morning these Words of the Apostle, Rom. 6. 23. For the Wages of Sin is Death; but the Gift of God is Eternal Life, through JESUS CHRIST Our Lord.

From which Words, I shew'd;

I. How the Reward or Wages due to Men for their Sins, is Shame, and Misery; and Death at last.

1. It is Temporal Death, which all Men, both Religious and Wicked, must expect, and can by no means escape: For it is appointed unto Men once to die. And this Death some Men, by Intemperance, Rashness, Capital Crimes &c. (as we do see) too often hasten, and bring sooner upon themselves, than Nature would have done.

2. The Reward or Wages of Sin, is chiefly Eternal Death, which they must inevitably undergo, who shall carry into the other World, the guilt of their Sins committed, and unrepented of in this.

II. How the End of Holiness here, is Eternal Life hereafter, which God freely bestows, as a gracious Gift, on Believers and true Penitents, for the sake and thro' the Merits of Christ, and not for any Merits or Worthiness of their own; the Apostle shewing, That though Death be the due Wages and just Reward of Sin, yet Eternal Life is not a Reward due to Men upon the account of any their Works or Deserts; but (as in the Variation of the Phrase he expresses it) it is the Gift of God through JESUS CHRIST Our Lord.

That was the Subject-matter of my Discourse in the Morning.

And in the Afternoon I preach'd upon this Text, Heb. 9th Chap. the latter part of the 27th Verse. It is appointed unto Men once to Die; but after this, the Judgment.

Having first open'd the Text, and shew'd how few Persons (viz. Enoch and Elijah) have been exempted from Death, and excepted from this general Rule, That Men are appointed to Die once in this World, which is the first Clause of the Text, and is provable from our daily Experience and Observation; I then proceeded to the Second, which clearly discovers to us; That after this Death there is a Judgment, which all Men must look for in the other World.

And what that Judgment will be, I shew'd from several places of Scripture; and endeavour'd to make my Hearers (particularly the Condemned) sensible of the great importance it was to Men to die well; because they die but Once, but that Once is for Erernity.

To imprint this Truth upon their Hearts and Minds, I lay'd before them these Considerations, viz.

I. That this Life is the only time we have allotted to us to prepare our selves for Death, and for that State which is immediately to ensue after it; and, That Faith and Repentance are the great Graces necessary for this Preparation.

II. That when Death has once given the determining Stroke, and put a final Period to this mortal Life, our day of Grace (if it was not so before) then certainly will be at an end, and we shall not be able to repent to any good purpose.

III. and lastly, That as a necessary Consequence of both these, Judgment will seize on us just upon our departure out of this World; and as Death once finds us, so it will for ever leave us: For according as we are then prepar'd, our Souls shall in that instant be translated into an irreversible and eternal State, either of Happiness or Misery.

On those Three Heads I inlarg'd; explaining to my Auditory the State of another World, and shewing them how to avoid the Misery, and obtain the Happiness of it. And I concluded this, as I did my Morning's Discourse, with a pressing Exhortation to the Persons condemn'd, That they would endeavour to redeem the time they had mispent, and make a due Preparation for a happy Eternity.

Upon the last Lord's Day the 31st of July , I preach'd again to them, both in the Morning and Afternoon, on part of the Gospel for the Day, viz. Mat. 5. 20. For I say unto You, That except your Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

From which Words of our Blessed Saviour, I did these Three Things.

I. I shew'd the Drift and Design of the Christian Religion.

II. I stated the Comparison between it and the Pharisaical Religion; shewing how the Sin of Hypocrisie will exclude and shut Men out of Heaven.

III. I gave them some Directions for the sincere Practice of true Religion and Virtue.

And lastly, I drew those Practical Inferences which naturally flow from the Doctrine in the Text.

And concluded all with proper Exhortations to the Condemn'd, who seemed attentive to such Instructions and Admonitions, as were then (and daily) given them: Yet I fear, some of them still harbour'd Worldly Thoughts in their Breasts, and turn'd that long time granted them for their Preparation for Death, into Contrivances and Designs how to avoid and escape it.

Now, as to the Account which they gave me of themselves, it is as follows.

I. Thomas Sollars< no role > , Condemned for three Robberies committed by him and two other Persons on the Queen's High-way, the 22d of June last past. He readily confess'd, that he was guilty of all those Robberies; but withal said, That a certain Person (who shall here be mention'd under J. P.) had induced him to the Commission of them; and that the said J. P. was the Man, who had drawn him before into a Business that was like to have cost him his Life; viz. that Burglary which he took a Trial and received Sentence of Death in the Old-Baily, on the 16th day of Octob. 1708 , and had since (and that very lately too) obtain'd his Pardon for: And yet, notwithstanding the Mercy he had thus received, he was soon tempted to transgress again, even by him who had been the unhappy Occasion of his former Troubles, and had then brought him to Ruin and to his Death, had not Mercy interven'd. Which Mercy as he had so unworthily abus'd, so he confess'd, that now he highly deserved what the Law had laid upon him, and that he was justly condemned, and had nothing to say for himself, but willingly submitted to his Sentence; and pray'd to God, That he would please to forgive him all his Sins, which were many and great; and that those Persons whom he had