Transcribed from the 1830 Hatchard and Son edition by DavidPrice,
BY
FRANCIS CUNNINGHAM, A. M.
RECTOR OF PAKEFIELD.
LONDON: HATCHARD AND SON,PICCADILLY;
SEELEY AND SONS, FLEET STREET; AND J.NESBITT,
BERNERS STREET.
1830.
p. iiLONDON:
IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOYSTREET, STRAND.
To determine the real state of mind in a criminal manifesting,for the first time, when under sentence of death, signs ofrepentance, is plainly a work of much difficulty. If everdissimulation may be expected, it must be in the case of a personprobably long habituated, and, in his present circumstances,additionally excited to it by the fear of death: and theexperience of every minister of religion conversant in suchcases, must teach him that professions of religion, under suchcircumstances, are far oftener the language of alarm, than ofreal conversion. Every one, therefore, would earnestlycovet, with Mr. Newton, to know rather how the man lived, thanhow he had died. But here the life and the death may offerthe most conflicting evidence. How difficult it is then soto decide as not, on the one hand, to make “the heart ofthe righteous sad, whom God has not made sad;” upon theother, to say “peace” to the soul, “when thereis no peace.”
Most of the cases of religious communication with dyingcriminals, recorded in the public prints, are in the highestdegree painful. The chaplain goes through the forms ofinstruction, the sermon is preached, and then, without one proofbeing assigned of the fitness of the criminal for that solemnordinance of religion, the sacrament is administered. Allthe requisitions of our church, as to “those who come tothe Lord’s supper,” are passed by. The deepworkings of repentance, and longing for amendment, the exerciseof a lively faith in Christ, the thankful remembrance of hisdeath, the feeling of universal charity so difficult p. ivin suchcircumstances; in short, every evidence of an awakened andconverted heart is neglected, and the man forced upon ahypocritical avowal of truth, to which he is in reality utterly astranger. He dies, in fact, with “a lie in his righthand”—a lie, the guilt of which is surely dividedbetween himself and the minister who urges him to the rashreception of the sacrament.
It is under the deepest conviction of the difficulty of suchcases, that the present tract, recording the events of the lasteleven days in the life of a criminal is presented to thepublic. His crimes had been great, but hypocrisy was notamongst their number. His faculties were not such as togive him any peculiar facility in adopting the truths presentedto him. He had received no previous religiousinstruction. He had no uncommon power of utterance. Let the reader judge whether the words and conduct, both beforeand after conviction, as recorded in these pages, do not supplyan evidence of the power of God to reclaim the wandere