most miserable sinners, find out a friend in Christ, or else within less than three hours longer, we shall be ruined souls to all eternity!" I then looked at them both and said, What then are you both sure that your lives cannot be saved? and that no such friend has interfered to obtain a pardon for you, however desperate your state may appear? Immediately they caught my eye, and cried, "What, is it possible! can there be a hope!" The eager and affectionate Mr. Lovely cried, "Oh! tell them-tell them there is a hope!"

Mrs. Wor. Oh! what an affecting scene this must have been!

Loveg. Madam, it was impossible that any thing could have been more affecting: they were both so overcome with such astonishment and surprize, as that they fell down upon their knees, as though they had been iron. Immediately we took the opportunity to kneel down with them, and prayed that their spared lives, though deservedly forfeited, yet now mercifully preserved, might be dedicated to God's future praise and glory.

Mrs. Wor. O how delightful that dear man, Mr. Lovely, must have been in their sight! by whose kind interposition, their lives were spared, especially at that very moment when they had given up all for lost.

Loveg. After prayer Madam, the Sheriff shewed them the respite, and I pointed them to Mr. Lovely, and said, There stands that most tender-hearted, though unknown friend of yours, by whose merciful solicitations your lives are spared, just as you were going to be led as victims of justice to the place of execution. Their eyes were immediately fixed upon him: they stood for a while motionless, like statues, till tears of gratitude began to run down their cheeks, intermixed with several broken expressions, arising from the most grateful sensations of their hearts; while dear Mr. Lovely, was quite as much affected as the prisoners

themselves. Just then Mrs. Sparkish knocked at the door, and would rather abruptly enter the room, that she might congratulate her son on this, not dess merciful, than unexpected event. She fled directly to him, embraced him, and cried, "Oh my child" they wept together for a considerable time. In short, we were all so affected, that immediately a very impressive silence took place.

Wor. No wonder that you were all so exceedingly overcome.---How could you proceed?

Loveg. Sir, at length 1 mustered together all the spirits I had left, and gave them a short exhortation on the evil tendency of a corrupted heart, and its horrid effects, unrestrained by grace; cautioning them, lest the same vicious principle should, after a while, prompt them to a similar practice to their eternal ruin, both of body and soul.

After this the keeper requested of me, that I would give an address to the rest of the prisoners, and while

was about to offer up another prayer, the under sheriff, with great civility said, "Sir, I am sorry to interrupt you, but according to my office, it is necessary that I should be punctual to the time." And directly the executioner was ordered to proceed. Sam Blood, at that time, was walking about with his priest, perfectly inattentive to all that passed with us, muttering their prayers, and crossing themselves, after their superstitious customs; even while we were at prayer, they would behave with equal inattention and disrespect. And when the sheriff came to address the priest, telling him that the time was now eome, he said, "Sir, Mr. Blood is now perfectly prepared for death, according to the rules of the Catholic Church" and while the executioner was taking the cord to bind his arms and hands together, the under sheriff catched the opportunity to say to him, “that he hoped he confessed that his sentence was just ;" he abruptly answered, "I have confessed all I shall confess, to the priest, and that is enough;" and when

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he further said, "I hope you are a true penitent for all your past offences!" his answer was, "I have done penance, according to the rules of the only true church, and am determined to die in that faith. If I had turned heretic, I suppose I should have been pardoned as well as the rest."

Grieved at his ignorance, I attempted to speak to him, for the last time, though I made two efforts before, but he always walked off sulky and reserved. -The priest immediately interrupted me; and with a considerable degree of sharpness and acrimony, gave me to understand, that it is unlawful for their people, to hear any thing from those who are of the protestant religion; or to hold any argument with them, which they conceived to be heretical, as being contrary to the faith of the infallible Catholic Church.

Wor. In what a dreadful state of mind this poor low went into the eternal world!

fel

Soon after

Loveg. Oh Sir! it could not be worse. wards he was conducted by the under sheriff and the executioner into the cart; his coffin being sent before him down stairs, and his priest went with him to the place of execution. He left the prison apparently quite hardened and sullen. And as we stopt this morning in Town, a little time after the execution, by report, we have every reason to fear, that he died in the same horrid state of mind, in which he had lived all the days of his life.

Wor. And yet he conceived that all would be safe, because he had one of their priests at his elbow, and that he died a papist.

Loveg. Had he been a Mahomedan, a Jew, or any thing but a Papist, I might have been able to have got at him: but such is the subtilty and craft of these Romish-priests, that they shut up the people's minds from all instruction, but what they chuse to administer themselves, and send them thus deluded, and unconverted from sin, with a rotten confidence in

their priestly power, to stand before the judgmentseat of Christ.*

Wor. But what became of the ordinary all this time? Lovey. Sir, you remember I told you before, that he had done his duty, as it is called, in the former part of the morning; and it was his design to have conducted them to the place of execution, but having been informed of the respite, he did not suppose it was necessary for him to attend any further: he is a very decent young man, but he wants the candor of the worthy Dr. Orderly.

Wor. Did you stop long after Sam Blood was carried to execution?

Loveg. Oh Sir, we should have been glad if time would but have allowed us to have stopt longer still. I was highly pleased at what William Frolic said, after all his present fear of death was over,

Mrs. Wor. You really think then, that his mind has been much softened by these events?

Loveg. I hope so Madam; but I have long learnt, not to draw hasty conclusions from appearances of this sort; yet he really seemed to be more anxious that I should pray for the conversion of his heart, after he had heard the good news of his pardon, than he was before; and as he said he could expect nothing less than to be transported, and that he well deserved it, yet that wherever he went, if he took the same evil heart with him, he should be liable to fall into the same evil ways, all the world over.

Hen. And Sir, it was very affecting to me, to hear him confess how ill he had treated my poor Sister, almost ever since she has been his wife; and how concerned he was at what my dear aged Father and Mother must have felt, since he has been connected with our family. He really wept more then, than at

Though I am satisfied this is no more than a just representation of the sad effects of popery upon the human mind, yet I by no means conclude that all papists are equally vitiated and corrupted, by that system they unhappily profess.

any time before, when he begged me to take home his most humble acknowledgments for all his past cruel conduct and misbehaviour; and that as he could not come and see any of them, he begged that they might come and see him, before he was sent abroad, that he might ask their pardon upon his bended knees; and as to his wife, it were too much to expect that she would go with him into transportation, at least, not till he had given some evidence, that his heart was truly changed, so as that she might depend upon this, that he would never treat her as he had done; and that while he suffered for his crimes, he would do all in his power to make her happy in her settlement in those parts, and that then he should be away from all such companions as had formerly drawn him aside.

Loveg. Yes, and then he cried, which pleased me most of all," but none of these resolutions will ever do, if God does not change my heart;" adding, "Oh Mr. Lovegood! pray, pray, above all things, that God would change my heart!"

Wor. One would hope that he could not have expressed himself in such language, without somewhat of the grace of God. But how did Ned Sparkish appear?

Loveg. Why sir, he could make a number of vows and resolutions, but he soon began asking his Mother about different people in the neighbourhood; and that as he was now to live, he should want some fresh clothes while he was in gaol. I am greatly afraid that all his repentance will evaporate with his fears.

Hen. Ah Sir! but that which affected us as much as any thing before, was what Mr. Lovely did.

Wor. Whatever he does is done so much like himself, that I beg we may hear it.

Loveg. [Takes out his watch.] Oh Sir, it is past eight o'clock, I must hasten home what will Mrs. Lovegood think of me?

Wor. Can't you stop a quarter of an hour longer,