To the Reverend Mr. VILLETTE,
Ordinary of NEWGATE.

REVEREND SIR,

THE following Addresſs owes its present public
appearance to you. I read it to you after it was
composed, and you thought it proper to be delivered,
as was intended. You heard it delivered, and are
pleased to think that its publication will be useful.—
To a poor and abject worm, like myself, this is a
sufficient inducement to that publication; and I hear-
tily pray God, that in your hands it may frequently
and effectually administer to the instruction and comfort
of the miserable!

I am, dear Sir,

With my sincere thanks for your humane and friendly attention,

Your truly sorrowful,

and much afflicted Brother in Christ,

Friday, June 6,
1777.

WILLIAM DODD.

A N

ADDRESS, &c.

My dear and unhappy Fellow-Prisoners,

CONSIDERING my peculiar circumstances and situation, I cannot think myself justified, if I do not deliver to you, in sincere Christian love, some of my serious thoughts on our present awful state.

In the fixteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, you read a memorable story respecting *Paul* and *Silas*, who, for preaching the gospel, were caft by the magiftrates into prifon, ver. 23.—and, after having received many ftripes, were committed to the *jaylor*, with a ftrict charge to keep them safely. Accordingly he thruft them into the inner prifon, and made their feet faft in the ftocks. At midnight Paul and Silas, ſupported by the testimony

6 The CONVICT'S ADDRESS

testimony of a good conscience, prayed, and
 sang praifes to God, and the prisoners heard
 them; and suddenly there was a great earth-
 quake, so that the foundations of the prison
 were shaken; and immediately all the doors
 were opened, and every one's chains were
 loofed. The keeper of the prison awaking
 out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors
 open, in the greatest diftrefs, as might well
 be imagined, drew his sword, and would have
 killed himself, supposing that the prisoners
 had been fled. ---But Paul cried with a loud
 voice, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.

---The keeper, calling for a light, and find-
ing his prisoners thus freed from their bonds
by the imperceptible agency of divine power,
was irrefitibly convinced that these men were
not offenders against the law, but martyrs to
the truth: he sprang in therefore, and came
trembling, and fell down before Paul and
Silas, and brought them out, and said, SIRs,
WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?

*What must I do to be saved?* is the important question, which it becomes every human being to study from the first hour of reason to the last: but which we, my fellow prisoners, ought to consider with particular diligence and

to his Unhappy Brethren.

and intenseness of meditation. Had it not
been forgotten, or neglected by us, we had
never appeared in this place. A little time
for recollection and amendment is yet allowed
us by the mercy of the law. Of this little
time let no particle be lost. Let us fill our
remaining life with all the duties which our
present condition allows us to practise. Let
us make one effort for salvation! ---
And oh! heavenly Father, who desiring not
the death of a sinner, grant that this effort
may not be in vain!

To teach others what *they must do to be saved*,
has long been my employment and profession.
You see with what confusion and dishonour I
now stand before you---no more in the pulpit
of instruction, but on this humble seat with
yourselves. You are not to consider me now
as a man authorised to form the manners, or
direct the conscience, and speaking with the
authority of a pastor to his flock.---I am here
guilty, like yourselves, of a capital offence;
and sentenced, like yourselves, to publick and
shameful death. My profession, which has
given me stronger convictions of my duty than
most of you can be supposed to have attained,
and has extended my views to the consequences

of

## 8 The CONVICT'S ADDRESS

of wickedness farther than your observation is
likely to have reached, has loaded my sin with
peculiar aggravations; and I entreat you to
join your prayers with mine, that my sorrow
may be proportionate to my guilt!

I am now, like you, enquiring, *what I must
do to be saved?* and I stand here to communicate
to you what that enquiry suggests. Hear me
with attention, my fellow prisoners; and in
your melancholy hours of retirement, confider
well what I offer to you from the sincerity of
my good-will, and from the deepest conviction
of a penitent heart.

Salvation is promised to us Christians, on
the terms of *Faith*, *Obedience*, and *Repent-
ance*. I shall therefore endeavour to shew,
how, in the short interval between this mo-
ment and death, we may exert *faith*, perform
*obedience*, and exercise *repentance*, in a manner
which our heavenly Father may, in his infinite
mercy, vouchsafe to accept.

I. *Faith* is the foundation of all Christian
virtue. It is that *without which it is impossible
to please God*. I shall therefore consider, first,
How *faith* is to be particularly exerted by us
in our present state.

Faith

to his Unhappy Brethren.

9

*Faith* is a full and undoubting confidence
in the declarations made by God in the holy
Scriptures; a sincere reception of the doctrines
taught by our blessed Saviour, with a firm
assurance that he died to take away the sins of
the world, and that we have, each of us, a
part in the boundless benefits of the universal
Sacrifice.

To this *faith* we must have recourse at all
times, but particularly if we find ourselves
tempted to despair. If thoughts arise in our
minds, which suggest that we have finned
beyond the hope of pardon, and that therefore
it is vain to seek for reconciliation by repent-
ance; we must remember how God willeth
that every man should be saved, and that those
who obey his call, however late, shall not be
rejected.---If we are tempted to think that the
injuries we have done are unrepaired, and
therefore repentance is vain; let us remember
that the reparation which is impossible is not
required; that sincerely to will, is to do, in
the fight of Him to whom all hearts are open;
and that what is deficient in our endeavours is
supplied by the merits of Him who died to
redeem us.

B

Yet

The CONVICT'S ADDRESS

10

Yet let us likewise be careful, left an erroneous opinion of the all-sufficiency of our Saviour's merits lull us into carelessness and security. His merits are indeed all-sufficient! But he has prescribed the terms on which they are to operate. He died to save sinners, but to save only those sinners that repent. Peter, who denied him, was forgiven, but he obtained his pardon *by weeping bitterly*. They who have lived in perpetual regularity of duty, and are free from any groans or visible transgression, are yet but *unprofitable servants*:-- What then are we, whose crimes are ha羞ening us to the grave before our time?--Let us *work with fear and trembling*, but still let us endeavour to *work out our salvation*. Let us hope without presumption; let us fear without desperation; and let our faith animate us to that which we were to confide.

Secondly, “Sincere *Obedience* to the laws of God.” Our obedience, for the short time yet remaining, is restrained to a narrow circle. Those duties, which are called social and relative, are for the most part out of our power. We can contribute very little to the general happiness of mankind, while on those whom kindred

to his Unhappy Brethren.

II

kindred and friendship have allied to us, we have brought disgrace and sorrow. We can only benefit the publick by an example of contrition, and fortify our friends against temptation by warning and admonition.

The obedience left us now to practice is “submission to the will of God, and calm acquiescence in his wisdom and his justice.” We must not allow ourselves to repine at those miseries which have followed our of-fences, but suffer, with silent humility and resigned patience, the punishment which we deserve; remembering that, according to the apostle’s decision, no praise is due to them who bear with patience to be buffeted for their faults.

When we consider the wickedness of our past lives, and the danger of having been fum moned to the final judgement without preparation, we shall, I hope, gradually rise so much above the groans conceptions of human nature, as to return thanks to God for what once seemed the most dreadful of all evils--- our detection and conviction!---We shrink back, by immediate and instinctive terror, from the publick eye, turned as it is upon us with indignation and contempt. Imprison-

B 2

men

12 The CONVICT'S ADDRESS

ment is afflictive, and ignominious death is
fearful! But let us compare our condition
with that which our actions might reasonably
have incurred.---The robber might have died
in the act of violence, by lawful resistance.
The man of fraud might have funk into the
grave, while he was enjoying the gain of his
artifice:---and where then had been our hope?
We have now leisure for thought; we have
opportunities of instruction: and whatever we
suffer from offended laws, may yet reconcile
ourselves to God, who, if we fincerly seek
him, will assuredly be found.

But how are we to seek the Lord? By the
way which he himself hath appointed; by
humble, fervent, and frequent prayer.---Some
hours of worship are appointed us; let us
duly observe them. Some assistance to our
devotion is supplied; let us thankfully accept
it. But let us not rest in formality and pro-
scription: let us call upon God night and day.
When, in the review of the times which we
have past, any offence arises to our thoughts,
let us humbly implore forgiveness; and for
those faults (and many they are and must be)
which we cannot recollect, let us sollicit
mercy in general petitions. But it must be
our

to his Unhappy Brethren.

13

our constant care, that we pray not merely
with our lips; but that when we lament our
fins, we are really humbled in self-abhor-
rence;* and that, when we call for mercy,
we raise our thoughts to hope and trust in the
goodness of God, and the merits of our blessed
Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The reception of the holy sacrament, to
which we shall be called, in the most solemn
manner, perhaps a few hours before we die,
is the highest act of Christian worship. At
that awful moment it will become us to drop
for ever all worldly thoughts, to fix our
hopes solely upon Christ, whose death is re-
presented; and to consider ourselves as no
longer connected with mortality.---And pos-
fibly, it may please God to afford us some
consolation, some secret intimations of accept-
ance and forgiveness. But these radiations of
favour are not always felt by the sincerest
penitents. To the greater part of those whom
angels stand ready to receive, nothing is granted
in this world beyond rational hope;---and with
hope, founded on promise, we may well be fa-
tisfied.

But

* See Job, chap. xlii. ver. 6.

The CONVICT'S ADDRESS

14

But such promises of salvation are made
only to the penitent. It is requisite then that
we consider,

Thirdly, "How Repentance is to be exer-
cised," Repentance, in the general state of
Christian life, is such a sorrow for sin as pro-
duces a change of manners, and an amend-
ment of life. It is that dispoſition of mind,
by which he who fl ote, fleals no more; by which
the wicked man turneth away from his wicked-
neſs, and doth that which is lawful and right.
And to the man thus reformed, it is expreſsly
promised, that he ſhall ſave his ſoul alive.*
Of this repentance the proofs are visible, and
the reality certain, always to the penitent,
and commonly to the church with which he
communicates; becauſe the state of the mind
is discovered by the outward actions.---But of
the repentance which our condition requires
and admits, no such evidence can appear;
for

L* There cannot be a ſtronger exemplification of this
idea than the conduct of the Jayler, who uttered the
question, with which we commenced our enquiry---*What
ſhall I do to be ſaved?---What a change of mind and man-
ners was wrought in him by the power of God! Read
Acts, chap, xvi, 3

to his Unhappy Brethren.

15

for to us many crimes and many virtues are
made impossible by confinement; and the
shortness of the time which is before us, gives
little power, even to ourselves, of distinguishing
the effects of terror from those of conviction;
of deciding, whether our present
sorrow for sin proceeds from abhorrence of
guilt, or dread of punishment; whether the
violence of our inordinate passions be totally
subdued by the fear of God, or only crushed
and restrained by the temporary force of present
calamity.

Our repentance is like that of other finners
on the death-bed; but with this advantage,
that our danger is not greater, and our ſtrength
is more. Our faculties are not impaired by
weakness of body. We come to the great
work not withered by pains, nor clouded by
the fumes of disease, but with minds capable
of continued attention, and with bodies, of
which we need have no care! We may therefore
better discharge this tremendous duty,
and better judge of our own performance.

Of the efficacy of a death-bed repentance
many have disputed; but we have no leisure
for controversy. Fix in your minds this de-
cision, "Repentance is a change of the heart,
of

16 The CONVICT'S ADDRESS

of an evil to a good dispoſition." When that
change is made, repentance is complete. God
will confider that life as amended, which
would have been amended if he had ſpared it.
Repentance in the fight of man, even of the
penitent, is not known but by its fruits: but
our Creator ſees the fruit, in the bloſiom, or
the ſeed. He knows thoſe reſolutions which
are fixed, thoſe converſions which would be
permanent; and will receive them who are
qualified by holy deſires for works of righte-
ouſneſs, without exacting from them thoſe
outward duties which the ſhortneſs of their
lives hindered them from performing.

Nothing therefore remains, but that we
apply with all our ſpeed, and with all our
ſtrength, to reſtify our deſires, and purify our
thoughts; that we ſet God before us in all his
goodneſs and terrours; that we confider him
as the Father and the Judge of all the earth;
as a Father, deſirous to iave; as a Judge, who
cannot pardon unrepented iniquity: that we
fall down before him ſelf-condemned, and
excite in our hearts an intenſe deteſtation of
thoſe crimes which have provoked him; with
vehement and ſteady reſolutions, that if life
were granted us, it ſhould be ſpent hereafter

in

to his Unhappy Brethren.

17

in the practice of our duty :* that we pray the
Giver of grace to ſtrengthen and impreſs these
holy thoughts, and to accept our repentance,
though late, and in its beginnings violent :
that we improve every good motion by dili-
gent prayer; and having declared and con-
firmed † our faith by the holy communion,--
we deliver ourselves into his hands, in firm
hope, that he who created and redeemed us
will not ſuffer us to perisł. Rom. v. 8. viii. 32.

The condition, without which forgivenefs
is not to be obtained, is that we forgive others.
There is always a danger left men, fresh from
a trial in which life has been loft, ſhould re-

* See 2 Cor. ch. 5. v. 14, 15.

I would have this expression to be particularly
attended to--While as a dying man, and with all poſſible
sincerity of ſoul, I add, that if I could with to declare
my faith, I know not of any words in which I could
do it ſo well, and ſo perfectly to my ſatisfaction, as in
the Communion ſervice of our Church: and if I would
with to confirm that faith, I know not of any appointed
method ſo thoroughly adapted to that end as participation
in that communion it self. — See particularly in this ſer-
vice, the Exhortation, Conſeſſion, prayer beginning We do
not preſume, &c. — Conſecration— and prayer after receiving,
O Lord and heavenly Father, &c. — Convicts ſhould dili-
gently and repeatedly read over this ſervice before they
communicate.

C member

18 The CONVICT'S ADDRESS

member with resentment and malignity the
prosecutor, the witnesses, or the judges. It
is indeed scarcely possible, that with all the
prejudices of an interest so weighty, and so
affecting, the convict should think otherwife,
than that he has been treated, in some part of
the process, with unnecessary severity. In this
opinion he is perhaps singular, and therefore
probably mistaken. But there is no time for
disquification: we must try to find the shortest
way to peace. It is easier to forgive than to
reason right. He that has been injuriously or
unneCESSarily harrailed, has one opportunity
more of proving his sincerity, by forgiving the
wrong, and praying for his enemy.

It is the duty of a penitent to repair, so far
as he has the power, the injury which he has
done. What we can do, is commonly nothing
more than to leave the world an example of
contrition. On the dreadful day, when the
fentence of the law has its full force, some will
be found to have affected a nameless bravery,
or negligent intrepidity. Such is not the proper
behaviour of a convicted criminal. To rejoice
in tortures is the privilege of a martyr; to
meet death with intrepidity is the right only
of innocence, if in any human being inno-
cence

to his Unhappy Brethren.

19

cence could be found. Of him, whose life is
shortened by his crimes, the last duties are
humility and self-abasement. We owe to God
fincere repentance; we owe to man the ap-
pearance of repentance.---We ought not to
propagate an opinion, that he who lived in
wickedness can die with courage. If the fe-
renity or gaiety with which some men have
ended a life of guilt, were unfeigned, they
can be imputed only to ignorance or stupidity,
or, what is more horrid, to voluntary intoxi-
cation:---if they were artificial and hypocri-
tical, they were acts of deception, the useles
and unprofitable crimes of pride unmortified,
and obstinacy unsubdued,

There is yet another crime possible, and,
as there is reason to believe, sometimes com-
mitted in the last moment, on the margin of
eternity.---Men have died with a fixed last de-
nial of crimes, of which it is very difficult to
suppose them innocent. By what equivoca-
tion or reserve they may have reconciled their
consciences to falsohood, if their consciences
were at all consulted, it is impossible to know.
But if they thought, that when they were to
die, they paid their legal forfeit, and that the
world had no farther demand upon them;
that

20

The CONVICT'S ADDRESS

that therefore they might, by keeping their
own secrets, try to leave behind them a dif-
putable reputation; and that the falshood was
harmlefs, becaufe none were injured;---they
had very little confidered the nature of so-
ciety. One of the principal parts of national
felicity arises from a wife and impartial admi-
nistration of justice. Every man repofes upon
the tribunals of his country the stability of
poſſection, and the serenity of life. He there-
fore who unjustly exposes the courts of judi-
cature to ſuspicion, either of partiality or
error, not only does an injury to thofe who
dispense the laws, but diminishes the public
confidence in the laws themſelves, and shakes
the foundation of public tranquillity.

For my own part, I confefs, with deepest
compunction, the crime which has brought
me to this place; and admit the justice of my
sentence, while I am finking under its severity.
And I earneſtly exhort you, my fellow prison-
ers, to acknowledge the offences which have
been already proved; and to bequeath to our
country that confidence in public justice, with-
out which there can be neither peace nor
safety.

As

to his Unhappy Brethren.

21

As few men suffer for their first offences,
and most convicts are conscious of more crimes
than have been brought within judicial cogni-
zance, it is necessary to enquire how far con-
fection ought to be extended. Peace of mind,
or desire of instruction, may sometimes de-
mand, that to the minister, whose counsel is
requested, a long course of evil life should be
discovered:---but of this every man must de-
termine for himself.---To the publick, every
man, before he departs from life, is obliged
to confefs those acts which have brought, or
may bring unjust suspicion upon others; and
to convey such information, as may enable
those who have suffered losses to obtain reſi-
tution.

Whatever good remains in our power we
must diligently perform.---We must prevent,
to the utmost of our power, all the evil confe-
quences of our crimes.---We must forgive all
who have injured us.---We must, by fervency
of prayer and constancy in meditation, endea-
vour to repreſs all worldly passions, and gene-
rate in our minds that love of goodness, and
hatred of sin, which may fit us for the society
of heavenly minds.---And, finally, we must
 commend and entrust our ſouls to him, who
died

22

The CONVICT'S ADDRESS

died for the fins of men; with earneſt wishes
and humble hopes, that he will admit us with
the labourers who entered the vineyard at the
laſt hour, and affociate us with the thief whom
he pardoned on the croſs!

To this great end, you will not refuse to
unite with me, on bended knees, and with
humbled hearts, in fervent prayer to the
throne of grace! May the Father of mercy
hear our supplications, and have compassion
upon us!

“ O almighty Lord God, the righteous JUDGE of all the earth, who in thy providential justice doſt frequently inflict ſevere vengeance upon finners in this life, that thou mayeſt by their ſad examples effectually deter others from committing the like heinous offences; and that they themselves, truly repenting of their faults, may eſcape the condemnation of hell:---look down in mercy upon us, thy forrowſul ſervants, whom thou haſt ſuffered to become the unhappy objects of offended justice in this world!

“ Give us a thorough ſense of all thofe evil thoughts, words, and works, which have ſo provoked thy patience, that thou haſt been pleased to permit this public and ſhameful judgment to fall upon us; and grant us ſuch a portion of grace and godly ſincerity, that we may heartily confefs, and unfeignedly repent of every

to his Unhappy Brethren.

23

every breach of thofe moſt holy laws and ordinances, which if a man do, he ſhall even live in them.

“ Let no root of bitterneſs and malice, no habitual and deadly fin, either of omission or commission, remain undiſturbed in our hearts! But enable us to make our repentance universal, without the leaſt flattering or deceitful reserve, that ſo we may clear our conſciences before we close our eyes.

“ And now that thou haſt brought us within the view of our long home, and made us ſensible, that the time of our diſolution draweth near; endue us, we humbly pray thee, O gracious Father, with ſuch chriſtian fortitude, that neither the terrours of thy preſent diſpensations, nor the remembrance of our former fins, may have power to ſink our ſpirits into a deſpondency of thy everlaſting mercies in the adorable Son of thy love.

“ Wean our thoughts and affections, good Lord, from all the vain and deluſive enjoyments of this tranſitory world; that we may not only with patient resignation ſubmit to the appointed ſtroke of death, but that our faith and hope may be ſo elevated, that we may conceive a longing deſire to be diſolved from theſe our earthly tabernacles, and to be with Chriſt, which is far better than all the happiness we can wiſh for beſides!

“ And in a due ſense of our own extraordinary want of forgiſenſs at thy hands, and of our utter unworthineſs of the very leaſt of all

24. The CONVICT'S ADDRESS, &c.

all thy favours--of the meanest crumbs which fall from thy table---Oh! blessed Lord Jesus! make us so truly and universally charitable, that in an undivided compliance with thy own awful command, and most endearing example, we may both freely forgive and cordially pray for our most inveterate enemies, persecutors, and flanderers!---Forgive them, O Lord, we beseech thee--turn their hearts, and fill them with thy love!

" Thus, may we humbly trust, our sorrowful prayers and tears will be acceptable in thy fight. Thus shall we be qualified, through Christ, to exchange this dismal bodily confinement [and these uneasy fetters] for the glorious liberty of the sons of God.---And thus shall our legal doom upon earth be changed into a comfortable declaration of mercy in the highest heavens:---and all thro' thy most precious and all-sufficient merits, O blessed Saviour of mankind!---who with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, livest and reignest ever, One God, world without end. Amen.*

* See ROSSELL's Prisoner's Director:---a work of some merit—and which I have endeavoured, in my melancholy hours of leisure, to revise, and (I humbly hope) improve; and mean to leave behind me, in the hands of the Ordinary, as a small testimony of my sincere, but very weak, endeavours for the best welfare of unhappy men in confinement; to whom I have written a general Addres/s, to be prefixed to the new edition of ROSSELL.