OF all crimes committed by Mortals here on earth, there is none which crys to heaven for louder vengeance then that sin of wilful Murther, when men play the Beasts and in humanly gore each other to death, making the world a shambles for humane slaughters, by desacing Gods I­mage in others, murdering their own souls, the Vshers to which sin is commonly cove­tousness, and whoredom, Covetousness, faith St. Paul, is the root of all evil, and a Whore saith Solomen, will hunt for the pretious life of a man, for those who prosti­tute their be [...]tes to all comers, will not fear to prostitute their souls to all vices, & thus covetousness provokes whoredom, & whore­dom causes Murther to be committed, one sin deawing another as it were with Cart-Ropes, when the final conclusion is the de­struction both of body purse and rep [...]tation, and (if God be not the more merciful) the eternal punishment of body and soul in hell­fire.

[Page 2] Youthful extravagancies have common­ly had consequences, and more perish by too much indulgence, then too much severity, men abusing their liberty, so that where discipline is neglected, all vices flow in wich a monstrous impetuosity.

That which we shall now relate is a sad example for the evidencing of these tenths, in the person of one Thomas Savage, a Vint­ners man, at the sign of the Ship at Rateliff-Cross, in the Parish of Stepacy, near Lon­don, who by the instigation of a Whore, blinded with lust, was wrought upon to Murther his fellow-servant, who indeavou­ [...]d to hinder him in the Robbing of his Ma­ [...]er, the story whereof followeth.

This Thomas Savage was born of honest Parentage, his Father dying when he was young his Mother ma [...]ried again, to one who proved a loving step-father to the Son as a careful Husband to the Mother, and both of them by their care and cost endea­vouring to have their son well educated, which they expressed in bringing him up to Schooling whereby he might be fit and the more capable of a Trade; which afterwards (comming to more maturer years) they be­stowed upon him, placing him with one Mr, [Page 3]Collins a Vintner at the sign of the Ship, at Ratcliff Cross, where he continued with much love and good will of his Master and follow-servants for some space of time, though that was likewise attended with some [...]outh [...]l extravagancies, for which his Master would much blame him.

Thus you sée here was an indeavor to have had th [...] [...]ds of vertue, and good living implanted in his heart, but where grace wanteth, all outward means will fail, Paul may plant and Apollos water, but it is God alone that [...] give the increase, young persons like t [...]s are flexible, and as war fi [...] [...]ceive any impression that is put up­on th [...]m [...] more easily inducible to that which i [...] had then good, by reason of the de­pra [...]e [...]ness of our nature. He hapned to light into some Whore-houses, the nurseries of wickedness, and séed plots of all filthiness, pro [...]hanene [...]s, and debauchery whatsoever. Sin is chargable, and many persons ruine their estates out of the love they bear to fil­thy v [...]ces, the [...] is forced to maintain lust, and so the whore hath it, she cares not by what means or from whom, by such means w [...]s this young man brought to ruine, for a wh [...]re seldom leaves a man till she hath [Page 4]brought him either to the Hospital, or the Gallows.

It so hapned that one Sunday morning going with his Master to the Church he gave him the slip, and instead of the house of God, rambles to the sink of sin, the Baw­dy-house, [...]here he takes his pleasure, his whore is plyant to him, they drink and dally without controul, but this full of plea­sure causes an ebb of Money, he complains [...]o her of the emptyness of his pockets, this was to go to the Devil for counsel and who a better spokes-woman for him then a whore, she tells him he was a fool to have so little, and his Master so much, why should locks and bolts hinder him, a picklock or a Hammer would remedy that, he replys that he was never left at home alone, the Maid was with him, and therefore the b [...]ness was not sensible, she returns answer knock her on the Head, a sure way to find employ­ment for the Hangman, as be afterwards too sadly felt to his cost.

Thus we plainly sée that a whore is the high-way to the Devil, he that looks on her is entring on the Road, he that talks to her mends his pace, and he that injoys her is at his Iourneys end. O how many baits [Page 5]and alurements have they to sin, using pa [...]ing to set forth their Corpses of dis­eases, which having been long in the Chy­rurgions hands, is ready to drop in piece [...] through rottenness, the love that they pre­tend to bear to men, is worse then the dead­liest hatred of men, for where they kiss they kill, their breath is more venomous then a Dragons, their sight more deadly then a Basilisks, and their embraces more dangerous then those of a Serpents.

But to return where we left, time post­ing away, calls to the Prentice to hasten home, which he does, but findes his Master at dinner already, who questions him where he had been so long? the Devill is a ready prompter of lies, he returns him answer that he was at Church, his Master misdoubting the truth of his report, tells him that for his so late staying in the forenoon, he should keep at houre in the afternoon, this was as he would have it, the Maid and he are appointed to stay, the rest are gone to Church, Now he begins to put the Whores instructions in execution, Money he will have though he venture his neck for't.

And now his chief endeavou [...] is to fall out with the Maid, to effect this he goes to [Page 6]make clean his Masters dirty shooes on the [...]ew washed Dresser: this angers her much and some cross words passes betwixt [...]h [...]m a Hammer lying by he catches it up strikes at her with it and knocks her down, the bloud gashing out of the wound aboun­dantly, she crying out be redoubles his blows so long untill he had killed her, and then laid a dish clout upon her wound which gushed forth in streams of purple gore.

Then with the same Hammer he brak open his Masters Cupboard, from whence he takes sixty two pounds, and with it re­turns to his Whore again: where having spent ten pence he informs her of what he had done. She knowing the danger he had brought himself into, like a right Whore indéed, forsakes him in his greatest extre­mity and re [...]es to give him entertain­ment. Now knows he not what to d [...], what course to take, like the first Murtherer Cain he must become a Runnagate upon the earth, fearful that any one which should finde him would apprehend him, he having the brand of a guilty Conscience sticking within him, London was to hot for him, he therefore crosses the water and goes to­wards Greenwich accompanted onely with [Page 7]fear, horror, and guilt of Conscience.

In the mean time (Sermon being ended) his Master returns home, and finding the doo [...]s shut knocks and calls, but receives no answer, after much fruitless knocking, the door in forced open, where ent [...]ing he findes his Maid murthered and himself Robbed; this strikes him into much grief and asto­nishment, but perceiving some Life in the Maid, they strive to recover her but in vain who onely living so long as to detect the the Murtherer, (God enabling her so much that such wickedness might be the better found out) [...]he then yielded to Fate, and surrendred [...] her innocent soul to death.

H [...]reupon immediately Hue and Cryes are sent out after the Murtherer, who com­min [...] [...]o Greenwich, went t [...] one Charltons a Watermans house to drink, laying the Mony down by him, where having no [...] long béen, but hearing some whispe [...]ings of a murther do [...]e at Stepney, and a Hue and Cry after the murtherer, guilt of Conscience and fear so po [...]ess [...]s him, that leaving the Mony behind him, he quits the Chamber where he was, and b [...]takes himself to his heels. Weary [...]nd dismaid with the guilt he carried about him, a [...] Coom Farm betwixt Green­wich [Page 8]and Woolwich he again betakes him­ [...]elf to an Ale-house, where sitting down [...]nd calling [...]or a pot of Béer, he presently falls fast a sleep, where the Hue and Cry overtook him, from whence he was guarded towards London, and had in examination before Major Manley one of His Majesties Iustices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex, where he fréely confessed the [...]act in manner as is related before unto [...]ou, detecting the Whore that enticed him [...]n to his destruction, who with her Spiders Web of wickedness had intangled him in her Nets, whereupon he was Committed to Newgate, and a Warrant being also issued out for her, she was taken, examined before a Iustice, and committed also unto Newgate.

Thus you see sin goes before, and shame follows after, the danger of keeping had Company, especially Whores, those in­struments of the Devill, the bane of youth and Lyme-twigs o [...] w [...]ckedness, the center of all mischiefes, and the Gulphs that de­vours the lives, estates, and reputati­ons of all that use them.

At the Sessions house in the Old-Bayly October 24. 1668. he had his Tryall, [Page 9]where confessing his fact sentence of deat [...] was passed upon him to be executed again [...] the place where he committed the fact. Hannah Blay also who had perswaded him t [...] this execrable act, by bidding him to knock the Maid on the head, was also condemned to be executed at Tyburn, but pleading tha [...] she was with child she was for the present reprieved.

But Thomas Savage the principal in the murther, according to the sentence a­foresaid was Wednesday, October the 28 conveyed to a Cart from Newgate to the place of Execution appointed for him, being over against his Masters house, at the sign of the Ship in Ratcliff-cross, where was assembled a great concourse of people to be spectators of his sad Catastrophe, he séemed to be very peninent, desiring all peo­ple, especially young persons to take warn­ing by him, what company they addicted themselves unto, which was either the bane or making of youth, he gave them an Item as near as they could to get into such ser­vices where the word of God was constant­ly read and practised, to beware of whores and whore-houses, those seed plots of wick­edness, being such labyrinths of ungodli­ness, [Page 10]that nothing but the Clue of Gods grace can bring them forth again, when they are once entred into them. With many other words to the like purpose after which he was turned off the Ladder, where having hung some space of time he was cut down and carried to the sign of the Rose by Ratcliff, where his body was laid upon a Table, divers Seamen being in the Room, [...]ut long he had not lain when they might [...]erceive some signs of life in him, where­ [...]pon having a fire kindled, warming their hands they bathed his body with spirits, and an Apothecary being in the room desired to have him in a warm bed, when presently he began to move his arms and legs, with se­veral other symptoms of a living creature. In the mean space some Officers belonging to Newgate, going to view the dead corps, but finding it in such a living posture, one of them posts to the Sheriff, to acquaint him with it, whom he found at Dinner, who sud­denly hasted thither, the Officer by the way méeting also accidentally with the Executt­ion [...]r, took him along with him, whereby [...]he way we may note, [...]ew every thing [...]onsentred together, for the spéedier execu­ [...]ion of Gods Iustice upon this sin of wilful [Page 11]Murther, for séeing all things were thought to be done before, it was accidental for the Officer to méet with either of them bo [...]h just so on a sudden,

When the Sheriffe came to the sign of the Rose aforesaid, he found Savage sitting in the bed, perfectly living, but wanting the use of speech, though [...] was ju [...]ged [...]ot of sence or reason; wher [...]n exec [...] o [...] his sentence of Condemna [...]n he comma [...]d him to be put in a Blank [...]t and [...] in a Cart, it being the spac [...] [...] four ho [...] [...] the time of his first ha [...]g, to his second going to Execution, [...]e did strive [...]nd str [...] ­gle s [...]me what both at his [...], [...]ay [...]nd to the Cart, giving a kick to t [...] executio­ner and one of the Baylive [...] a [...] on the mouth, but soon he was had to the Gibbet aforesaid, and there hanged till he was quite dead.

And this was the end of Thomas Savage one who by the course of Nature might have lived many years had he not by his wicked courses caused the hand of Iustice to shorten his days. He was said to be very penitent in Prison, free in the confession of the horridness of his crime, earnestly im­ploring Gods mercy for the pardon of the [Page 12]same, and no doubt but God who is the God of mercy had compassion on him, his end may be a warning to others for com­mitting the like, least trying the same sins they taste of the same punishments that he did.

His Corps was afterward conveyed to Islington, the place where his sorrowful Mother dwelt, and that night there buried, notwithstanding the idle reports of some, who (forsooth) would have him to be alive still, such idle rumours when they are once got into the nodles of the more idler multi­ [...]ude, gain still by report, and like snowbals encrease with being roled from one to a­nother.

Hannah Blay who had given him that wicked Counsell of knocking the Maid on [...]he head, remains still a condemned pri­ [...]oner in Newgate. She pleading that she was with child, which hath gained her a re­ [...]rieve for a time.

And thus we may sée the ill effects that [...]n produces, for as the Apostle saith, the [...]eward of sin is death, which though it ma­ [...]y times scapes the death of the body, yet ever falls to kill the soul the [...] more nobler art, in comparison of which the body is but [Page 13]a méer dunghil, yet if we look also upon th [...] punishments that it brings on the body, w [...] shall find enough there to work in us a detestation of it; how doth it impair our healt [...] consume our riches? destroy our credits? making us a scorn to our foes and a detestation to our friends, even wicked me [...] hating those in whom they see their ow [...] vices predominant.

But for this bloody sin of Murther it is crime of a crimson dye, which nothing bu [...] the tears of true repentance, can wash of t [...] guilt of it, from off the soul, yet man ha [...] no greater enemy to himself then manki [...] bi [...]ds, beasts and fowls, go lovingly tog [...] gether in Troops and Herds not hurtin [...] each other, oh let us then learn at least much civility from those which we cou [...] beasts, least by our bloody actions at the d [...] of Iudgement we be found to be great [...] beasts our selves.