Home › The Bold Sea Rogue, John Quelch › The Bold Sea Rogue, John Quelch: Iniquity

The Bold Sea Rogue, John Quelch: Iniquity

Oh ! let us beg it of our God that He would not be so Provoked at their Multiplied and Prodigious Impieties, and at their obstinate Hardness under means of Good formerly afforded them, as to withhold those Influences from them. We cry to thee, 0 God of all Grace, That thou wouldst not Suffer them to continue in the Gall of Bitterness and Bond of Iniquity, and in the Possession of the Devil. Oh!. Knock off the Chains of Death which are upon their Souls; Oh! Snatch the prey out of the Hands of the Terrible. ". . . Discover to them, the only Saviour of their Souls. Oh ! Dispose them, Oh! Assist them to give the Consent of their Souls unto His Wonderful Proposals. Let them dy Renouncing all Dependence on any Righteousness of their own. Alas, what can they have of their own to Depend upon ! As a Token and Effect of their having Accepted the Righteousness of God, Let them heartily Repent of all their Sins against thee, and Abhor and cast up every Morsel of their Iniquity. Oh! Let them not go out of the World raging and raving against the Justice of God and Man. And whatever part of the Satanick Image is yet remaining on their Souls, Oh! Efface it! Let them now dy in such a State and such a Frame as may render them fit to appear before God the Judge of all. What shall plead for them? "Great GOD grant that all the Spectators may get Good by the horrible Spectacle that is now before them ! Let all the People hear and fear, and let no more any such Wickedness be done as has produced this woeful Spectacle. And let all the People beware how they go on in the ways of Sin, and in the paths of the Destroyer, after so Solemn Warnings. "Oh! but shall our Sea-faring Tribe on this Occasion be in a Singular manner affected with the Warnings of God ! Lord, May those our dear Bretheren be Saved from the Temptations which do so threaten them ! Oh ! Let them not Abandon Themselves to Profanity, to Swearing, to Cursing, to Drinking, to Lewdness, to a cursed Forgetfulness of their 176 'THE BOOK OF BURIED TREASURE Maker, and of the End for which He made them ! Oh! Let them not be abandoned of God unto those Courses that will hasten them to a Damnation that slumbers not ! Oh ! Let the men hear the Lord exceedingly, We Pray thee ! Let the Condition of the Six or Seven men whom they now see Dying for their Wickedness upon the Sea be Sanctified unto them. . . They then severally Spoke, Viz. ICaptain John Quelch. The last Words he spoke to one of the Ministers at his going up the Stage were, I am not afraid of Death. I am not afraid of the Gallows, but I am afraid of what follows; I am afraid of a Great God, and a Judgment to Come. But he afterwards seem'd to brave it out too much against that fear; also when on the Stage first he pulled off his Hat, and bowed to the Spectators, and not concerned, nor behaving himself so much like a Dying man as some would have done. The Ministers had in the Way to his Execution much desired him to Glorify God at his Death, by bearing a due Testimony against the Sins that had ruined him, and for the ways of Religion which he had much neglected ; yet now being called upon to speak what he had to say, it was but this much. What I have to say is this. I desire to be informed for what I am here. I am Condemned only upon Circumstances. I forgive all the World. So the Lord be Merciful to my Soul. When Lambert was Warning the Spectators to beware of Bad Company, Quelch joyning They should also take care how they brought Money into New England, to be Hanged for it! IIJohn Lambert. He appeared much hardened, and pleaded much on his Innocency ; He desired all men to beware of Bad Company ; he seem'd in a great Agony near his Execution ; he called much and frequently on Christ for Pardon of Sin, that God Almighty would save his innocent Soul; he desired to forgive all the World. His last words were, Lord, forgive my Soul! Oh, receive me into Eternity! Blessed Name of Christ, receive my Soul.