AT the S [...]ssions held for London and Mid­dlesex, August the 23, &c. 1676, there were in all Sixteen persons Condemned to be hang'd for several great and noto­rious Crimes: And though, for the most part, they were persons that all-along, both at their Apprehension, Imprisonment, and Tryals, car­ried and behaved themselves with too much Confidence, yet when Sentence of death came to be pronounced upon them (which was done in a most pathetick Oration and a Gravity suit­ing the solemness of the occasion, by that worthy person whose Charge it was) it could not but much affect the hearts of all present to hear the sad Cries and doleful Lamentations which these miserable Wretches made, begging and impor­tuning the Court for mercy, when their own repeated offences had excluded it, and left room for nothing but Judgment.

Yet so great has been the Clemency of his gra­cious Majesty (the Fountain of all Terrestrial Mercy as well as of Justice) that Eight of these desperate Malefactors were Reprieved from death, the other Eight that suffered their Names and Offences were as followes:

Thomas Moore and James Parker, convicted for stealing the Goods of a person of Quality at Cue in Surrey; and though they were here only indicted for Felony, because they were taken with the Goods, by one that knew them to be Thieves, in Aldersgate-street, the same day the Fact was done, yet it appeared to the Court to be a Burglary too in the said County of Surrey. These Two upon their first apprehension, were put into Bridewel, and sent aboard a Ship by their consent, whence they run away; and being retaken on a new score, were now found guilty: the latter of them was transported for the like Tricks about five years ago, and by trifling now with the Court before he would plead, forced them to commit him to the Press, where, before he would recant his obstinacy, he was very much bruised, so that without further Execution, 'twas much doubted whether he would have survi­ved.

Charles Godfry and Roger Withers, were con­victed for stealing Goods, to the value of Ten pounds; which likewise appeared to the Court to be a Burglary in Hartfordshire.

Richard Cooke and Matthew Walkenden, were condemned for Burglary: They were both old Offenders; had several times had the mercy of the Court, but it seems would by no warning be reclaimed from their vitious Courses.

The next we may justly call a matchless piece of Female Impudence: A young wo­man, named Martha Harman, was condem­ned for breaking open a house at Islington, a Crime rarely if ever attempted by that Sex. She had four times before been tryed before the Court for several Offences; but now could not obtain further indulgence, Laesa toties mise­ricordia fit furor.

The last we are to mention, was the youngest in years, not above Fifteen; by name John E­vans: He was convicted for breaking open a house, and several other Indictments against him; to which he pleaded guilty within the be­nefit of the Clergy, but that Plea in his Case was vain; for he had received that Legal fa­vour in his hand several Sessions ago.

All these were visited in Goal by several able and godly Ministers, whose Charity to their pe­rishing Souls led them to come to them in the Dungeon; besides the dayly pains of the Ordi­nary, who very diligently performed his Christian duty on this occasion.

The Ignorance they had been bred in, the ill Courses they had all their lives time followed, [Page 6] whereby the custom of sinning had taken away the sense of it, rendred them very hard and dif­ficult to be wrought upon, or p [...]eked into any degree of Contrition, by the most earnest or sear­ching Discourses or Perswasions that could be used to them for a long time, their minds being more taken up with flettering hopes and vain en­deavours to prolong their lives in this world, than to prepare and fit them for an eternal life in the next.

But that omnipotent wisdome which of old was pleased to afford, by miracle, plentiful wa­ter out of a dry and barren Rock, did now gra­ciously vouchsafe at last to mollifie some of their obdurate hearts, into a deep, due, and melting sense of their miserable state.

The Ministers, as Embassaders sent from the glorious Court of Heaven with Offers of Peace and Pardon to these desperate and forlorn wret­ches, were not wanting to represent to them their miserable Condition by nature, aggravated and increased by a numberless number of actual Transgressions; not onely against the light of their Consciences, and dictates of humane Rea­son, and common Right, but also against several political Indulgences and Warnings from their own former dangers and others miserable fates.

Some of them appeared to be very sensibly touched with these grave and seasonable Admo­nitious, and to cast back a repentant Eye on their [Page 7] former miscarriages, with endeavours to improve those few remaining minutes of their lives, to obtain pardon for their past Offences: Oh! how welcome would a few of those days, they had formerly spent in vanity, been now to these poor wretches, that they might have had suffi­cient time and opportunity to bewail their past miscarriages, and get some assurance of future happiness, being now to lanch out into the Ocean of Eternity.

Most of them were very full and open breasted in their acknowledgments, that they had viola­ted both the Laws of God, of man, and Dictates of their own Consciences, in unjustly invading the proprieties of other men. And (what is ve­ry remarkable) they confessed, that what they died for was the least of their Transgressions a­gainst the Laws of God; having otherwise by multiplied Offences justly provoked the Divine Vengeance against themselves.

On the Tuesday there were at once four Mini­sters attending them in Spiritual Instructions and Prayer, for several hours together, the effect of which was, That several of the dying men seemed intirely convinced of their desperate Estate, and in that Agony to intreat, with the greatest ear­nestness in the world, the Prayers of all good people.

When they were brought to the place of Exe­cution (whither they were attended besides the [Page 8] people, with several Ministers) few of them spoke any thing considerable, onely one or two declared the Original of their ruine to be disobe­dience to their Masters, and particularly negle­cting their duties on Sabbath-days at the places of publick Worship, the temptations of leud Women, and idleness in their lawful Callings; from which they were debauch'd by ill and ex­travagant Company: of, and from all, which they seriously and in the words of dying men, desired all that heard them to beware and re­frain.

And so suffered according to their Sentence: And may their lamentable Examples warn all o­thers that saw the same, or shall here read it tru­ly related, deter them from those wicked Facts and Courses, which brought these unhappy Wret­ches to this sad, deplorable, and ignominious End.