A sermon occasioned by the execution of a man found guilty of murder preached at Boston in N.E. March 11th 1685[/]6. : (Together with the confession, last expressions & solemn warning of that murderer to all persons; especially to young men, to beware of those sins which brought him to his miserable end.) / By Increase Mather, teacher of church of Christ.

The DISCOURSE of the MINISTER with James Morgan on the WAY to his Execution.

Min. I'm come hither to answer your desires which just now you exprest to me in the Church, that I would give you my company at your Execution.

Morg. Dear Sir, how much am I beholden to you! you have already done a great deal for me. Oh who am I that have bin such a vile wretch that any Servants of God should take notice of me!

Min. I beseech you to make this use of it, I believe there is not one Christian this day beholding you, who would not willingly be at the greatest pains they could devise to save your precious soul: How merciful then is that Man who is God as well as man! how unspea|kably ready is the Ld. Christ to save the souls of sin|ners that affectionately look unto him! The goodness & pittifulness of the most tender-hearted man in the world is but a shadow of what is in Him. The com|passions of any man compared with the Bowels of a merciful JESUS are but as the painted Sun, or the painted Fire in Comparison of the real.

Mor. Oh that I could now look unto Him as I ought to do! Lord help me.

Min. Well, you are now a dying man, the last hour or 2 of your life is now running. You know your self now to stand just on the brink of Eternity, you shall presently be in a state of wonderful happiness or of horrible misery which must endure forever: which of those estates do you now count your self stepping into▪

Mor. Oh Sir, I am afraid, but I am not with|out hope that God may have mercy on me.

Min. Whats your ground for that hope? O see that your confidences been't such as God will by'nd by reject.

Mor. I don't know well what to say, but this I hope is a good sign, I have lived in many grieve|ous sins, in Lying, Drinking, Sabbath-breaking & evil Company-keeping; God has made now these so bitter to my soul, that I would not commit them again, might I have my life this afternoon by doing it.

Min. That's a great word, God grant it may not be a word only, the good word of a good pang, without a through chang of heart, as you must have if you would not perish everlastingly You are not like to have any longer time in this world to try the Sin|cerity of your Profession.

Mor. I know it, and I beseech you Sir to help me what you can: I hope the means used with me since my Condemnation ha'n't been lost.

Min. I would not have the sense of the pain & shame which your Body is about to undergoe, any waies hin|der your Mind from being taken up about the Soul|matters which I shall endeavour to set before you.

Mor. Sir, as for the pain that my body must pre|sently feel I matter it not: I know what pain is; but what shall I do for my poor soul? I'm terrify'd with the Wrath of GOD; This, this terrifyes me, HELL terrifyes me: I should not mind my Death, if it were not for that.

Min. Now the Lord help me to deal faithfully with you, & the Lord help you to receive what He shall

unable me to offer unto you. Mark what I say: You were born among y^e enemies of God, you were born with a soul as full of emnity against God as a Toad is full of poison. You have liv'd now—how many years?

Morg. I think about Thirty.

Min. And all these 30 years have you been sinning against the holy God. Ever since you knew how to do any thing, you have every day bin guilty of innume|rable sins: you deserve the dreadful wrath & curse of the infinite God. But God has brought you here, to a place where you have enjoy'd the means of grace. And here you have added unto your old Sins, most fearful Iniquityes: you have bin such a matchless, prodigious Transgressor, that you are now to dye by the stroke of civil Justice; to dy before your time, for being wicked over much. There is hardly any sort of Wickedness which you have not wallowed in-That sin particularly which you are now to die for, is a most monstrous Crime. I can't possibly describe or declare the sins whereby you have made your self an astonishing Example of Impiety & punishment.

Mor. O Sir, I have bin a most hellish sinner. I am sorry for what I have bin.

Min. Sorry you say: well, tell me which of all your sins you are now most sorry for: which lyes most heavy?

Mor. I hope I am sorry for all my sins, but I must especially bewail my neglect of the means of grace. On Sabbath dayes I us'd to lye at home, or be ill imploy'd elsewhere when I should have bin at Church. This has undone me!

Min. And let me seriously tell you, Your Despise|ing of Christ is a most dreadful sin indeed. You have, for whole years together had the Call of Jesus Christ to seek an Interest in him, & you would now give all the world for that interest, but you would take no notice of him. The Jews of Old put him to a worse death than yours will be this afternoon, and by your contempt of Christ you have said, the Jews did well to do so. How justly might ••e now Laugh at your Calamity? And for these sins of yours, be|sides the direful woes & plagues that have already come upon you, you are now expos'd unto the Ven|geance of eternal fire. You are in danger of being now quickly cast into those exquisite amazing Tor|ments, in comparison of which, the anguishes which your body ever did feel, or shall feel before night, or can ever feel, are just nothing at all; and these do|lorous torments are such as never have an End; as many sands as could lie between this earth & the Stars in Heaven would not be near so many as the Ages, the end-less Ages of these Torments.

Mor. But is there not Mercy for me in Christ?

Min. Yes, and its a wonderful thing that I have now further to tell you: Mind, I entreat you. The SON of GOD is become the Son of Man; the Lord Jesus Christ is both God & man in one Per|son, & he is both sufficiently able & willing also, to be your Saviour. He lived a most righteous life, and this was that such as you & I might be able to say before God, Lord, accept of me as if I had

liv'd righteously. He died at length a most cursed death, and this was that we might be able to say un|to God, Lord, let not me die for sin, since thy Son has died in my room. This glorious Redeemer is now in the highest heaven, pleading with God for the Salvation of His chosen ones.—And He pours out his Spirit continually upon them that do believe on him: might you then be enabled by his grace to carry your poor, guilty, condemned, enslaved, ig|norant soul unto Jesus Christ, and humbly put your trust in him for deliverance from the whole bad state which you are brought into. Oh then his voice is to you the same that was to the penitent Thief, This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.

Mor. Oh that I might be so! Sir I would hear more of these things: I think, I can't better fit my self for my death than by hearkning to these things.

Min. Attend then: The never dying spirit that lodges within you, must now within a few minutes appear before the Tribunal of the Great GOD; in what, or in whose Righteousness will you then ap|pear? will you have this to be your Plea, Lord, I ex|perienced many good Motions & Desires in my soul, & many Sorrows for my sin before I dy'd: or will you expect to have no other Plea but This, Lord, I am vile, but thy Son is a Surety for the worst of sinners that believe in him; for his sake a|lone, have MERCY on me.

Morg. I thank God for what He has▪ wrought in my Soul—

Min. But be very careful about this matter: if you build on your own good Affections instead of Je|sus Christ the only Rock, if you think they shall recommend you to God, He that made you will not have mercy on you.

Mor. I would be clothed with the Righteous|ness of JESUS CHRIST.

Min. But you can't sincerely desire that Christ should justify you, if you don't also desire that He should sanctify you: those 2 alwdies go together. Is ev|ry lust that has hitherto had possession of your heart become so loathsom to you, that is would fill your soul with joy to hear Jesus Christ say, I will sub|due those Iniquities of thine; I will make a ho|ly, heavenly, a spiritually minded person of thee.

Mor. I would sin against God no more.

Min. But I must deal plainly with you: You have made it sadly suspicious that your repentance is not yet as it ought to be: when men truly & throughly repent of sin they use to be in a special manner watch|ful against that Sir which has bin their chief Sin: one of your principal sins which has indeed brought you to the Death of a Murderer, is Passion, un|mortifi'd & outragious Passionateness: Now I have been this day informed, that no longer since than the last night, upon some Dissatisfaction about the place which the Authority hath ordered you by and by to be buried in, you did express, your self with a most unruly Passionateness.

Mor. Sir, I confess it, and I was quickly sorry

for it, tho' for the present I was too much di|sturbed: 'Twas my folly to be so careful about the place where my body should be laid when my precious SOUL was in such a Condition.—

Min. Truly you have cause to mourn for it. Secure the welfarre of your soul, and this (now) pinion'd, hang'd vile body of yours will shortly be raised un|to glory, glory forevermore. And let me put you in mind of one thing more, I doubt you han't yet laid aside your unjust Grudges against the Persons concerned in your Conviction & Condemnation: You have no cause to complain of them: and you are not fit to pray, much less are you fit to dye till you heartily wish them as well as your own soul: if you die malicious, you die miserable.

Mor. I heartily wish them all well, I bear Ill-will to none—What a lamentable thing is this, Ah this is that which has brought me hither!

Min. What do you mean?

Mor. I over-heard a man mocking & scoffing at me when I stumbled just now, he does very ill. I have done so my self: I have mock'd & scoff'd like that man, and see what it hath brought me to: he may come to the like.

Min. The Lord forgive that foolish hard-he. te•• creature. But be not too much disturbed.

Mor. Yonder! I am now come in sight of the place where I must immediately end my dayes. Oh what a huge Multitude of people is come toge|ther on this occasion! O Lord, O Lord I pray

thee to make my Death profitable to all this Multitude of People, that they may not sin a|gainst thee as I have done!

Min. Amen, Amen ten thousand times; the Lord GOD Allmighty say Amen to this Prayer of yours! It would indeed be an excellent thing if you could now come to receive your death with some Sa|tisfaction of soul in this thought, That Much Glo|ry is like to come to God by it: I am verily per|swaded God intends to do good to many souls by means of your Execution: This is a greater ho|nour than you are worthy of.

[After the Discourse had been intermitted about a minute or two by reason of the miery way]

Mor. I beseech you Sir speak to me. Do me all the good you can: my time grows very short: your discourse sits me for my Death more than any thing.

Min. I'm sorry so small a thing as a plashy Street should make me loose one minute of this more-than-ordinary precious time: a few paces more bring you to the place which you have now in your eye, from whence you shall not come back alive. Do you find your self afraid to dy there?

Mor. Sir, If it were not for the Condition that my SOUL must by & by be in, I should not fear my death at all; but I have a little comfort from some of Gods promises about that.

Min. And what shall I now say? There are a|mong

the last words that I can have liberty to leave with you. Poor man, thou art now going to knock at the door of Heaven, and to beg & cry, Lord, Lord open to me! The only way for thee to speed, is, to open the door of thy own soul now unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Do this, and thou shalt undoubtedly be admitted into the gloryes of His heavenly Kingdom: You shall fare as well as Manasseh did before you: leave this undone, and there's nothing remains for you but the Worm which dyeth not, and the fire which shall not be quenched.

Mor. Sir, show me then again what I have to do.

Min. The voice, the sweet voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, (who was once hanged on a tree, to take away the Sting and Curse of even such a Death as yours) unto all that close with him, His heavenly voice now is, Oh that I & my Saving work might be entertained, kindly entreated, in that poor, perishing soul of thine! Are you willing?

Morg. I hope I am.

Min. His Voice further is, If I am lodged in thy soul I'll sprinkle my blood upon it, and on my account thou shalt find Favour with GOD▪ Do you consent to this?

Mor. This I want.

Min. But this is not all that he saith, His Voice further is, If I come into thy soul I will chang it, I will make all sin bitter to it, I will make it an holy heavenly soul. Do you value this above

the proffers of all the World?

Mor. I think I doe,—and now, Sir, I must go no further, Look here—what a solemn sight is this! Here lyes the Coffin which this Body of mine must presently be laid in. I thank you dear Sir, for what you have already done for me.

Min. When you are gone up this Ladder, my last service for you before you are gone off will be to pray with you: But I would here take my leave of you. Oh that I might meet you at the right Hand of the LORD JESUS in the last Day! Farewel poor heart, Fare thee well. The everlasting Armes receive thee! The Lord JESUS, the merciful SAVIOUR of Souls take possession of thy Spi|rit for himself. The Great GOD who is a great Forgiver, grant thee Repentance unto Life; and glorify himself in the Salvation of such a wounded soul as thine forever. With HIM, and with His free, rich, marvellous, infinite Grace, I leave you; Farewell.

FINIS.