While under Sentence, they were instructed how necessary it is to be contented with that Lot and Condition, in which God hath placed us in the World, since Discontentedness is the Cause of that Vice, namely Covetousness, for which all of them suffered so much Disgrace and Shame; and this Contentedness we showed them, is, being well pleased with that Condition, whatever it is, that God hath placed us in, not murmuring and repining at our Lot, but chearfully welcoming whatsoever God sends. How great and pleasant a Vertue this is, will appear by the contrariety it hath to several painful Vices; for where this is rooted in the Heart, it not only subdues some single Sin, but a Cluster of Sins together; it is contrary to the Sin of Murmuring, which we find so much reproved in the Israhtes; and if it be a pleasant Thing to be thankful, murmuring must be unpleasant and troublesome; it is contrary to Ambition, that makes one displeased with his present Condition; to Covetousness, as the Apostle witnesseth, Heb. 13. 5. Let your Conversation be without Covetousness, and be content with such Things as you have. Where we see Contentedness set in a direct Opposition to Covetousness, which is a very great Crime, as being contrary to the very Foundation of all good Life; those three great Duties we owe to God, to ourselves, and to our Neighbours. It is contrary to our Duty to God, Luke 16, 13, We cannot serve God and Mammon. It is contrary to our Duty to our selves, both in respect of our Souls and Bodies. The Covetous Man despises his Soul, by selling it to eternal Destruction for a little Money, which the Apostle calls the Row of all Evil, and which can be of no Use to us in the Distress, and much less in the Hour of Death: Upon the covetous Person, the Apostle pronounceth, That he shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 6. 10. And the Covetous Man offendeth not only against his Soul, but his Body too, in denying those necessary Refreshments it wants, for which Riches, so far as they concern himself, were given him. And Covetousness is contrary to the Duty we owe to our Neighbours, in both Parts of it, Justice and Charity.

From many such Considerations as these, we took Occasion to expose to them, the great Wickedness of their Lives, which had been a direct Contradiction to every Thing that's Religions and Virtuous, for which now the heavy Judgments of God had overtaken them.

One of them convicted of that heinous and attrocious Sin of Murder, I exhorted to think upon the Wickedness of his Life, and what it was that brought him into the Commission of so vile an Action, his unbridled Passion, want of Consideration, and having no regard to the fear and love of God, which Dispositions if he had been endowed with, they must necessarily have restrained him from such an outragious Action, whereby a Man is at once divested of all Humanity, and reduced into the pestiferous Nature of the most voracious and destructive Animals, whose only delight it is to tear in Pieces, and destroy their Fellow-Creatures.

Upon Wednesday the 30th of April , Report was made to his Majesty in Coun