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THE DESPERATE INSECURITY OF THE SINNER AND THE 
 CERTAINTY OF HIS ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION: 
 
 A SERMON, 
 
 SUGGESTED BY THE 
 
 LATE AWFUL MUKDEKS IN NORFOLK, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 HARDENED CONDUCT OF THE MURDERER ; 
 
 PREACHED IN SAINT MARY^S CHURCH, HULL, 
 
 ON SUNDAY EVENING, APRIL 29th, 1849. 
 
 BY THE REV. JOHN SCOTT, M.A. 
 
 INCUMBENT. 
 
 SSCOND SDlTZOrr, 
 
 Witf) an 
 
 CONTAINING A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE CHARGES PROVED AGAINST 
 JAMES BLOOMFIELD RUSH ; WITH THE ADDRESS ACCOMPANY- 
 ING THE SENTENCE PRONOUNCED BY THE JUDGE, 
 BARON ROLFE. 
 
 "THE WAT OE THE WICKED SEDUCETH THEM.” — PtOV. xii. 26. 
 ''ACCORDING TO THEIR DEEDS, ACCORDINGLY HE WILL REPAY’, FURY TO 
 HIS ADVERSARIES.” — Isaiah. lix. 18 
 "WHO KNOWETH THE POWER OF THINE ANGER?” — Psalm XC. 11. 
 
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 SEELEYS, 54, FLEET-STREET, AND 2, HANOVER- STREET, LONDON. 
 
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2. V/' '3 
 
 5co 
 
 A SERMON. 
 
 DEUTERONOMY xxxii. 35. 
 
 THEIR FOOT SHALL SLIDE IN DUE TIME. 
 
 ** The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, 
 that there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flat- 
 tereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found 
 to be hateful. The words of his mouth are iniquity and 
 deceit : he hath left off to be wise and to do good. He 
 deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way 
 that is not good: he abhorreth not evil.*” Such is the 
 inspired Psalmist’s picture of the characteristic features of 
 the man, who having no fear of God before his eyes, and 
 having gradually let slip various minor restraints, which 
 might withhold him from the commission of sin, has at 
 length attained to that confirmed hardihood and audacity in 
 guilt, which seeks the cover of secresy, only lest day light 
 should involve in personal danger. Great multitudes there are 
 thus virtually ** living even as they lust,” regardless of any 
 checks which a salutary fear of God would occasion; influ- 
 enced only by such a fear of man as exposure to punishment, 
 or the loss of reputation, may excite. All such may well 
 tremble at the imminent danger to which they so wantonly 
 expose themselves. Having no principle which can support 
 them in difficulties, none which can elevate them above the 
 
 * Psalm xxxvi. 1 — 4. 
 
4 
 
 fear of reproach, none which can nerve them against the 
 sallies of tempestuous and unbridled lust, or strengthen them 
 when suddenly and unexpectedly assailed even by the most 
 startling suggestions of Satan, — they may expect — when 
 least of all perhaps anticipating such an issue — to be left at 
 the mercy of their malignant foe, who will forthwith hurry 
 them onward at a pace which surprizes even themselves, and 
 which prematurely issues in eternal death. And into this 
 eternal death itself they are sometimes hastened by the hands 
 of insulted human justice — sometimes even by their own 
 hand ; goaded to the commission of an act, which bars for 
 ever the door of mercy, by the intolerable, unendurable tor- 
 turings, and upbraidings of a now maddened, because once 
 resisted and despised conscience. 
 
 Of the latter kind we have an awful instance in the case 
 of him of whom our Lord so fearfully declared ; “ It had 
 been good for that man if he had not been born.” “ Then 
 Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was 
 condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty 
 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have 
 sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And 
 they said, What is that to us ? see thou to that. And he 
 cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, 
 and went, and hanged himself.” “ And it was known unto 
 all the dwellers at Jerusalem, insomuch as that field is 
 called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, 
 the field of blood.” 
 
 For samples of the former case I might refer to the annals of 
 crime in our own times and country. I content myself with 
 mentioning one, the dying confession of the murderer of two 
 aged and highly respectable persons of the name of Bonar, in 
 the neighbourhood of London. He acknowledged the. deed, 
 but declared that it was unpremeditated ; that he awoke out 
 of sleep under the impulse at once to go and perpetrate the 
 
5 
 
 crime ; a suggestion which he immediately carried into fatal 
 execution. ‘ From the crafts and assaults of the Devil, good 
 Lord deliver us !' But then this man also acknowledged 
 that he had given in to habits of drunkenness ; 
 “ He had left off to be wise and to do good:’’ thus he 
 
 gave place to the Devil ” — who then “ took him captive 
 at his will.” That we may be preserved from the power of 
 the evil spirit, let us seek and pray to be always under the 
 influence of the good Spirit of God, and ‘ evermore follow 
 his godly motions.’ So may we trust that we shall be safe 
 under the “ shadow of his wings.” 
 
 You are aw’are that my thoughts have been directed into 
 this channel by an event of uncommon atrocity which has 
 lately occurred in a neighbouring county, and which, 
 in consequence of the fatal success which crowned the 
 murderous assault — of the rank and station of the victims 
 who fell by the hand of the assassin — of the audacity and 
 cruelty which led him further, in his insatiable malignity, 
 to wound, wdth the purpose of destroying, two helpless fe- 
 males — of the unparalleled effrontery and hardheartedness 
 w'ith wdiich he conducted himself on his trial — of the ap- 
 peals respecting his avowed innocence so constantly ad- 
 dressed to the Almighty, equalled only in their frequency by 
 the daring blasphemy which characterized them, and — of 
 the shameful exposure of his own villainy, which under the 
 pretence of proving his innocence, and under the forms of law, 
 he unblushingly elicited, or rather wrung from one whom, by 
 the most insidious baseness, he had wantonly seduced, — has 
 caused a sensation through the land, rarely equalled, never 
 exceeded. All these, with other causes, which might be 
 easily assigned, have, I say, excited an interest of a character 
 the most intense in this most awful catastrophe. 
 
 It is not, brethren, you will believe me, from any vain 
 desire of notoriety — not from any wish or intention to 
 
6 
 
 pander to a sickly, most unhealthy, curious appetite for the 
 horrible and the marvellous — nor yet for the sake of venting 
 anathemas against a wretched fellow sinner, audacious 
 trampler though he was, both on the laws of God and man ; 
 but rather for the sake of warning others against following 
 in the paths which, in his case, have had so fatal an issue, 
 that I am discoursing on such a subject. True it is, and 
 'we thank God for it, few are found thus openly and daringly 
 to defy all laws, human and divine ; but like moving 
 causes, like strong temptations, like tampering with sin, 
 may have a like fatal issue, even as regards this world, 
 where there is no true fear of God — no real principle of 
 religion at bottom — no ballast to keep the bark steady, 
 when a mighty wind ariseth, which lifteth up the waves 
 that are alway ready to rage, and swell, and beat in merci- 
 less fury against those, who are every way unprepared to 
 meet, to mitigate, or to escape their madness. We would 
 sound in every ear the salutary caution, “ Let him that 
 thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” And if ye 
 will not hear, and fear, and escape the impending danger, 
 how secure soever ye may feel, we dare venture to predict. 
 
 Your foot shall slide in due time.’’ 
 
 The language of the text is truly awful, and must surely 
 thrill through every soul. It contains a prediction of God’s 
 terrible judgments against Israel : “ Their vine is of the 
 vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes 
 are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter : their wine is 
 the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps. Is not 
 this laid up in store with me, and sealed among my 
 treasures ? To me belongeth vengeance and recompence : 
 their foot shall slide in due time ; for the day of their 
 calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon 
 them make haste.’’* 
 
 * Deuta xxxii, 32 — 35. 
 
7 
 
 It has been justly said by a profound Divine,* that the 
 solemn expression of the text— “ Their foot shall slide in 
 due time,'’ — seems to imply the following things relating to 
 the punishment and destruction to which the wicked are 
 exposed. 
 
 1. ‘‘ That they w'ere always exposed to destruction, as 
 one who stands or walks in slippery places is always liable 
 to fall. This is implied in the mannor of their destruction, 
 being represented by their feet sliding. The same is 
 expressed in Psalm Ixxiii. 18 ; Surely thou didst set them 
 in slippery places, thou castedst them down into destruc- 
 tion.” 
 
 2. It implies, that they were always exposed to sudden, 
 unexpected destruction. As he that w^lks in slippery 
 places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one 
 moment whether he shall stand or fall the next ; and when 
 he does fall, he falls at once, without warning, which is 
 also expressed in Psalm Ixxiii. 18, 19. “ Surely thou didst 
 set them in slippery places ; thou castedst them down into 
 destruction : how are they brought into desolation as in a 
 moment ! ” 
 
 3. “A third thing implied is that they are liable to fall of 
 themselveSi without being thrown down by another’s hand ; 
 as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs 
 nothing but his own weight to throw him down. 
 
 4. “ And then lastly, that the reason why they are not 
 fallen already, and do not fall now, is only that God’s 
 appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when 
 that due time, or appointed time, comes, their foot 
 shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall as they are 
 inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up 
 in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go ; 
 and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruc- 
 
 • Dr. Jonathan Edwards. 
 
tion ; as he that stands m such slippery declining ground, 
 on the edge of a pit where lie cannot stand alone, immedi- 
 ately falls and is lost, when he is let go.” 
 
 The observation from the words that I would insist 
 upon,” adds the same writer, is this : There is nothing 
 that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of Hell, but 
 the mere pleasure — the sovereign will — of God.*^' 
 
 This it were easy. Brethren, to show you both from 
 Scripture and from the nature of things. We might 
 shew you that there is no lack of power on God^s part to 
 accomplish such an end: that there is no desert on the 
 part of impenitent sinners,, save that which calls on 
 God’s justice to east them headlong into the pit of de- 
 struction r that^ they are already under the actual sen- 
 tence of condemnation ; for “ He that believeth not is 
 condemned already that they are now the objects of 
 God’s wrath ; for God is angry with the wicked every 
 day and that as it has been truly said, ‘ God is a great deal 
 more angry with numbers that are now on earth, who it 
 may be, are at ease and quiet, than he is with many of those 
 who are in the flames of hell.’ Furthermore, we might re- 
 mind you that Satan, your great enemy, is anxious, and 
 ready at any moment, to seize on you: that, did not 
 God invisibly restrain the wicked, they would soon make to 
 themselves a very hell upon earth: that the fact that they 
 may be now well and strong, and that no visible means of 
 death surround them, is no proof whatever that they are for 
 a moment secure : that God may “ suddenly shoot at them 
 with a swift arrow,” and call them to his bar; and that, no 
 care, no prudence, no foresight, either of themselves or their 
 friends, can possibly prevent such a fatal stroke : that while 
 they reject Christ, or live not under the abiding influence 
 of true religion, no pains or contrivance whatsoever of their 
 own can avail for a moment to secure them : and that God 
 
9 
 
 is under no obligation from any cause to delay tbe irreme- 
 diable destruction in which, if they continue impenitent, 
 they must inevitably be involved. “ Consider this, ye that 
 forget God, lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to 
 deliver you.” “ Your foot shall slide in due time.”* 
 
 On all these topics we might and should, under ordinary 
 circumstances, enlarge. But there are some special lessons 
 well fitting the subject, which I wish to impress from the 
 awful history of him, whose life and whose death have sug- 
 gested the present discourse. 
 
 I would first impress on you the comment which this 
 man’s history furnishes on the Saviour’s language to 
 Nicodemus: Tliis is the condemnation that light is 
 
 come into the world, and men loved darkness rather 
 than light, because their deeds were eviL”f Infidelity 
 is the fault of the heart rather than the head^ Men's 
 tempestuous appetites and unbridled passions hurry them 
 into sin, against which their consciences remonstrate. 
 They are in a state of wretched distraction. Bewildered by 
 their passions which they have no inclination or intention 
 to control and bring into subjection ; enamoured with the 
 pleasures of sin,” which are but ‘‘for a season,” and which 
 leave a bitter sting of anguish and regret behind : goaded 
 by feelings of remorse, which threaten to become insup- 
 portable, and which draw their bitterest ingredients from 
 the scenes of future misery which they threaten, and at 
 times unfold ; men are determined to he infidels^ contrary 
 to every conviction of their reason. The evil heart is the 
 source of their unbelief. There is light enough, and they 
 know it, to disperse their every doubt, and satisfy their 
 every scruple ; but men “ love darkness rather than light, 
 
 BECAUSE THEIR DEEDS ARE EVIL.” 
 
 ♦ See Discourse on these words by Dr. Jonathan Edwards, in 
 which he dwells on all these points. 
 
 f John iii. 19. 
 
10 
 
 Moreover were there nothing more than a bare possi- 
 bility of the statements o^ God’s word, as expounded by 
 us, being true : were there ever such strong presump- 
 tion for believing that heaven and hell were mere fables, 
 and that eternal punishment and eternal happiness were 
 idle phantoms, formed in the. phrenzied brain of the 
 wild enthusiast ; yet when so much is at stake on 
 the one hand, and so little, save what is gross, and carnal, 
 and debasing, to be sacrificed on the other ; surely the 
 calmest reason would decide, that he was reft of reason who 
 should hesitate for a moment to shun the path that could 
 lead no where save to hell; and to follow that which, even if 
 it did not lead to heaven, would still involve no after damage 
 to the soul. How much more when “ God manifest in 
 the flesh,” ‘‘ to save sinners,” who seek to him for 
 salvation — “ God who cannot lie,” — stands forth, and in 
 mercy to mankind, gives the most solemn, unequivocal 
 instruction on the matter. Fear not them which kill the 
 body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I 
 will forewarn you whom ye shall fear : fear him, who after 
 he hath destroyed hath power to cast into hell, yea, I say 
 unto you, fear him.” And when in consequence, he gives 
 this stirring and salutary exhortation, “ Strive (agonize) 
 to enter in at the straight gate, for many I say unto you 
 will seek to enter in and shall not be able.” How is it, that 
 notwithstanding the commands of scripture, backed by the 
 dictates of conscience, and of reason, men will not yield 
 themselves to God ? This is the one true reason, and abun- 
 dantly sufficient to account for it : “ Men lov^ darkness 
 rather than light, because their deeds are evil.” 
 
 Such was the case with that unhappy man, the mention 
 of whose name, causes “ both the ears of every one 
 that heareth it to tingle.” He yielded to the lawless lusts 
 of his own wicked heart, and in order to pacify conscience 
 
11 
 
 and repel its unwelcome remonstrances, he sought refuge 
 in infidelity ; and, for the pure “ word of God which liveth 
 and abideth for ever,’' he dared to substitute the blas- 
 phemies of Paine. He so loved the lie, that banishes God from 
 the universe, that whether or not, he w’as (as some are) 
 given over to a strong delusion to believe a lie," he so far 
 cherished it, as to revel in every sin which was congenial to 
 his taste. He set himself in slippery places, and how did 
 his foot slide. Where is he now? He was ‘^fool" enough 
 to “ say in his heart,'’ ‘‘ There is no God." Has he found 
 it so ? We put the question : so awful is the consequence 
 which the reply involves, that we shudder to answer it. 
 
 And when once a stride like this is taken ; when the creed 
 is adopted to suit the practice, and the truth disbelieved be- 
 cause it brands the conduct ; when the sinner is so ‘ fast 
 tied and bound in the chain of his sins,' and so enamoured 
 of his bonds, that he is determined, at whatever cost to grati- 
 fy his corrupt tastes and appetites ; then what should hinder, 
 but that with advancing hardness of the heart, daring ad- 
 vances in crime should keep pace. Such was the case here. 
 No species of sin, which promised gratification, was checked. 
 Far otherwise ! The largest indulgence was conceded. The 
 very religion which he had learned to disbelieve and ridi- 
 cule ; which in theory he despised — was prostituted to 
 the purpose of pacifying the conscience of the unhappy 
 victim of seduction. Mock prayer was established as a 
 cover for the worst of crimes. Nothing to my mind shows 
 the hardening nature of sin more fearfully than this : that 
 a man durst deliberately, repeatedly, on his knees, under 
 pretence of prayer, mock his Creator and his Judge, while 
 he was, by the very act, seeking for the conscience-sake of 
 an accomplice in sin, to cover their mutual guilt. ' From all 
 the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the Devil, good 
 Lord deliver us ! ' 
 
12 
 
 And the event proves how awfully such a course may 
 be permitted to issue even in this world. Passions uncon- 
 trolled may over-master their indulger. Malignant'feelings, 
 cherished and brooded on, may issue in murder. Extrava- 
 gant wantonness may ‘ 'clothe a man with rags,” or urge him 
 to lay hold on others’ property to avoid, what seems to his ap- 
 prehension, such an unbearable disgrace : while every species 
 of forgery, deceit and perjury, shall seem comparatively venial 
 sins, by the side of those which have been deliberately con- 
 templated and determined on. “ Lord ! what is man }” 
 " The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately 
 wicked !” " He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” 
 
 There is one lesson which I would seek most especially 
 to impress on your minds, and it is this : How utterly 
 without any security whatever, as to their future course of 
 conduct, are they who are without true religion. It is the 
 one only principle, which can effectually restrain fallen 
 man, under any and all circumstances whatever in which he 
 may be situated. Here let me quote the words of my 
 revered relative and predecessor. Speaking on an occasion 
 of a very awful nature, he says : — 
 
 “ I should feel myself greatly wanting to my duty, did I 
 not avail myself of the deep impression that has now been 
 made, to urge upon my hearers some of the solemn lessons 
 which the occasion suggests. 
 
 “ The first is the necessity, the indispensable necessity of 
 religion, deep serious practical religion, seated as a princi- 
 ple in the heart and governing the life. And I now mean 
 its necessity not only as our preparation for eternity, and 
 on the ground of the charge, " Be ye therefore ready also, 
 for ye know neither the day, nor the hour,” nor the way, 
 “ in which the Son of man cometh I mean not now 
 only or even chiefly, the necessity of religion, for this pur- 
 pose, but its necessity as the great means of preserving us 
 
13 
 
 from the most awful catastrophes To go no further 
 
 at this time into the question of religion, than the one great 
 principle of the Christian faith — that of an eternal heaven, 
 and an eternal hell, lying just beyond the confines of this life : 
 let this one principle have full possession of the mind — and 
 what an awful amount of evil would it alone prevent. 
 
 “ And then let it be remembered, that to live without the 
 principle of religion in our hearts, or in violation of its 
 rules in our conduct, is to do what in us lies to provoke 
 God to depart from us, and to leave us in the hand of 
 our adversary the devil and woe “ unto us if God depart 
 from us.” ‘ There is but one perfectly wise and virtuous 
 will in the universe, and our well being depends wholly on 
 our being in unison with it.’ ” 
 
 Another lesson which I would seek almost as 
 strongly to impress, is, the danger of indulging any one 
 favourite sin. The feet of that man shall most assuredly 
 ** slide in due time,” to the amazement perhaps of many 
 who thought well of him, and to the anguish of all con- 
 nected with him, who indulges, however secretly, any one 
 sinful inclination. No man suddenly arrives at a full pitch of 
 hardened audacity. But no less surely does he do so, ulti- 
 mately, who gives in to sin. The nature of sin is most harden- 
 ing. The way of the wicked seduceth them,” — seduceth 
 them by its fair appearance, seduceth them by its insidious 
 charms, seduceth them gradually further and further, and 
 so renders return more difficult and apparently less desira- 
 ble, till the victory over ruling passions seems utterly 
 unattainable. “ He feedeth on ashes, a deceived heart 
 hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor 
 say. Is there not a lie in my right hand.^” The breaking of 
 the Sabbath : evil company — I mean irreligious company — 
 the frequenting of scenes of temptation ; the indulgence of 
 natural or acquired appetites ; any of these may very quickly 
 
14 
 
 render a man a terror to himself, and a cause of bitter 
 anguish to his friends. He may maintain — all that he cares 
 for — a fair external appearance which shall deceive his fel- 
 lows ; but he is on slippery ground, and assuredly “ his foot 
 shall slide in due time,’" if immediate and diligent prayer, 
 and turning to God do not avert the catastrophe. The 
 sentence may be issued in a moment, “ E])hraim is joined 
 to idols, let him alone.” And let God but once utter that 
 sentence, and all is over with him i over for this world, 
 over for the next : he is lost for time ; lost for eternity. 
 
 O ! beware then, all ye v/ho are living in sin, and neg- 
 lecting religion. Ye are acting contrary to your own con- 
 victions ! contrary to resolutions formed a thousand times ! 
 The very next sin you indulge, God may for ever leave 
 you! ''Your foot” may irrecoverably slide! What are 
 you purposing to do to-night ? Whither are you going 
 when you leave this house of God } To the house of 
 rioting or infamy perhaps. Perhaps to join some com- 
 panions in idleness, and folly, and sin, where intemper- 
 ance and debauchery may close the scene ? Take with you 
 then the words of our text : " Their foot shall slide in due 
 time.” Place them fully before you ! Dare you do this ? 
 You dare not ! Will you forego the intended occupation ? 
 Alas ! you fear the sneer or the derisive smile of some vain 
 and wicked companion ! And so, lest "fools,” who "make 
 a mock at sin,” should make a mock at you, and call you 
 saint, you are content to lose your soul ! Such is virtually 
 the case even now. Such shall assuredly be the result at 
 last: Your foot shall slide in due time.” Furthermore, 
 
 if after the warning which you have had to night, you 
 again venture to run into temptation, awful as it would be, 
 it would surprise none, if you were cut down, then and 
 there, in the haunt which you had so daringly sought, not- 
 withstanding our solemn entreaty. Do you ask, what 
 
15 
 
 course we would have you to adopt ? You know it well. 
 Your own conscience suggests it. Go home. Court retire- 
 ment. ‘‘Enter into thy closet and shut thy doors about 
 thee.'^ “ Fall low on your knees before God’s footstool/’ 
 and crave his pardoning mercy and renewing grace, with 
 an earnestness and intensity of soul to which you have 
 been perhaps an utter stranger heretofore. Renounce in 
 his strength, haunts, and companions, and indulgences, 
 which shall, if again sought, possibly if once again, 
 “drown your soul in destruction and perdition.*’ Fain would 
 I hope that you will “foresee the evil and hide yourselves.” 
 But if ye will not hear, “Your foot shall slide in due time.” 
 
 Learn again the vanity and folly of expecting to escape 
 detection. This vain delusive hope blinds thousands to 
 their ruin. I need not show you how strikingly the folly 
 of such a hope is exposed in the history of the miserable 
 man to whom we have referred. “ Be sure your sin will 
 find you out.” The most secret sin will assuredly be ex- 
 posed, and will cover the sinner with shame and remorse. 
 “ Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from 
 the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say. 
 Who seeth us ? and who knoweth us ?” Thou seest and 
 thou knowest, thou omniscient Jehovah, “ For thou hast 
 set our iniquities before thee ; our secret sins in the light 
 of thy countenance.” 
 
 ‘ God infinitely hates all sin ; hence its exposure is 
 absolutely certain. He can disclose the most secret sins of 
 men in an infinite variety of ways, and by an infinite variety 
 of means. Sometimes by events which transpire in the 
 course of Providence, which men could not foresee, and 
 over which they had no control, secret sinners have been 
 detected and exposed. Frequently such characters have 
 adopted the means of exposing themselves, although those 
 means were designed by them to keep their sins, if possible. 
 
16 
 
 more secret. I would give a remarkable instance of this 
 kind. An aged and venerable minister of Jesus Christ, 
 one morning, in the early part of the week, called on a 
 member of his congregation, and after the usual salutation, 
 the person began to speak of his own remarkably happy ex- 
 perience, and observed that he had been thinking much upon 
 a text from which he should greatly like to hear his minister 
 preach. It was this — “ And Enoch walked with God;” and 
 he added, that he thought his own experience corresponded 
 with that of Enoch. Earnestly requesting his Pastor to 
 preach upon that text on the following Sunday, he received 
 a promise to that effect. The godly minister felt peculiar 
 pleasure in finding one of his flock so happy, and left him, 
 praying that his happiness might continue and increase. 
 Soon after he had quitted the house of his supposed happy 
 friend, his mind w'as powerfully impressed with this passage 
 of scripture, ** Be sure your sin will find you out.” He 
 had not the slightest suspicion of anything being wrong in 
 the character of him whom he had just visited ; and could 
 not account for the extraordinary impression, which that 
 text of scripture had made upon his mind. It was almost 
 constantly in his thoughts. Having prepared a discourse 
 on the words, Enoch walked with God,” he was con- 
 strained to fix upon the others — Be sure your sin will find 
 you out,” as a text for the following discourse. The Sunday 
 arrived. The good man preached in the morning from 
 the text which his friend had suggested, and the latter 
 appeared to enjoy the discourse. In the afternoon, he 
 preached from the text, which he concluded God, for some 
 important purpose, had fixed upon his mind. During the 
 exposition of this subject, the man who appeared to be so 
 delighted in the morning, was observed to sit with his head 
 drooping, and seemed to be very uneasy. Still the minister 
 had no suspicion that the discourse particularly applied to 
 
17 
 
 that person. A few weeks only passed away, before the awful 
 text was verified in the exposure of his sin. It was proved 
 that he had been for several years living in adultery with 
 the sister of his own wife ! Is there an adulterer or an 
 adulteress in this congregation ? “Be sure your sin will 
 find you out.” “ Your foot shall slide in due time.” You 
 may as well expect to blind Omniscience, as to prevent an 
 exposure of your secret wickedness.' 
 
 Let it not be thought fpr a moment by any one, that we 
 are merely reprobating and exposing the fatal consequences 
 of what seem, and are allowed by all to be, notorious and 
 flagrant sins. We are sadly too apt to draw conclusions 
 such as this, as if the sins against which human laws must 
 be enacted, and which tend to produce the greatest alarm to 
 the community, were necessarily the sins most offensive to 
 God, and which God would most severely punish. But 
 scripture teaches nothing of the kind ; and, were it worth 
 while, we might adduce reasons which should verge towards 
 an opposite conclusion. The fact is, Brethren, that many 
 sins which society never frowns on, are sins which 
 are most severely reprobated in God’s word; and which, by 
 that independence of God, which they tend to foster, must, 
 of necessity, be most hateful in his sight. Forgetfulness of 
 God is branded in scripture with the strongest reprobation. 
 Destruction is denounced against all who are guilty of it, in 
 the same sentence which condemns the openly and noto- 
 riously wicked. “ The wicked shall be turned into hell, 
 and all the nations that forget God.” Idolatry is most 
 tremendously reprobated, and lest any should think them- 
 selves beyond the reach of the many severe censures de- 
 nounced against those who practise it, scripture calmly and 
 decisively includes under its votaries those who are guilty of 
 that, which is perhaps the commonest of all sins, — Covetous- 
 
18 
 
 ness, — ‘‘ The covetous man who is an Idolater.” Think 
 not, Brethren, that rich men only are covetous — that 
 misers only are idolaters ; they who would be rich — they 
 who seek to be rich — they who are not content with such 
 things as they have, but cast about for schemes of self- 
 aggrandisement — they who envy others the prosperity 
 which God denies to them — they who hoard, or who squander 
 on themselves, all that they have — they who selfishly refuse 
 to part with a portion of their property to promote import- 
 ant objects, or to relieve the wants and woes of others — 
 all such are included by scripture under the title of covetous. 
 ‘‘ Their foot shall slide in due time.” 
 
 And other sins which are most alarmingly common amongst 
 all ranks and orders of men, and of which it were a shame 
 openly to speak, but which, alas ! are most openly and un- 
 blushingly practised, these bring in their train almost every 
 species of evil. Half, and more than half, the miserable 
 men who suffer an ignominious death, by the laws of their 
 country, have not hesitated to admit, that their course of sin 
 either commenced, or was strengthened and maintained, by 
 associating with the abandoned of the other sex, and yield- 
 ing to the commission of crimes to which they were incited 
 and urged on by such as had themselves “ forgotten the 
 Guide of their youth, and forsaken the Covenant of their 
 God.” And yet here again the masses of society act as if 
 such sins were no where reprobated in Scripture. “ Let 
 no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these 
 things cometh the wrath of God on the children of disobe- 
 dience.” Be not ye therefore partakers with them,” for 
 “ whoremongers and adulterers God v/ill judge.” “ Know 
 ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of 
 God — neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor 
 thieves, nor covetous, (mark the catalogue in which the 
 
19 
 
 covetous are placed) nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor ex- 
 tortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.’’ Many 
 persons may be ready to consider the conduct of that 
 wretched man who has given occasion to this discourse, as 
 comparatively , at least, without reprehension for the infa- 
 mous acts of seduction which, alas ! he so successfully 
 practised. True it is, that human laws cannot take cogni- 
 zance of such offences, as they may of rapine and murder. 
 But think not, O man, who doest such things — or any thing 
 akin to such things — that thou shalt escape the judgment 
 of God. In proportion as thou hast passed unscathed on 
 earth, thou shalt be, were it possible, infinitely surer of full 
 and bitter punishment hereafter. “ Be not deceived ; 
 God is not mocked. He that soweth to the fiesh, 
 shall of the flesh reap corruption.’* For my own 
 part, I really believe that the practice of the wretched 
 man in regard to that part of his conduct to which 
 I now refer, was fully as hateful in the sight of God — 
 as offensive to Him, who is ‘‘of purer eyes than to be- 
 hold iniquity” — as those violent outrages against the laws 
 of man, as well as of God, which have issued so fatally to 
 himself and to his victims. Deceive not yourselves. 
 Brethren. If you hope to escape, although you indulge 
 in such practices, you shall be fearfully disappointed. 
 “ Your foot shall slide in due time.” 
 
 Similar remarks might be shown strictly to apply to 
 dispositions and tempers, which meet with little, or no dis- 
 countenance, from the world. Proud and envious feelings, 
 which lead us, while scrupulously alive to our owm reputa- 
 tion, to be careless and indifferent to others’ welfare, nay 
 even to grudge any favour which others may enjoy, as if a 
 wrong was done to ourselves : selfish and malignant and 
 vindictive feelings, which lead us while we bend every thing 
 
20 
 
 to the promotion of our own gratification, to expect all 
 others to pay deference to us, and induce us to cherish 
 ill-will and even hatred towards those who may, or may 
 seem to us to thwart our plans or interfere with dur success : 
 all such feelings, dispositions, and tempers are hateful to, 
 God, and betray a mind as unfit for Heaven, as does the 
 open murderer and the debased seducer. We dare not 
 withhold from such the address of the text:— “ Their foot 
 shall slide in due time/^ 
 
 It is true of many, who lead ungodly lives, and yield to 
 some besetting sin, that so does their adversary” gain 
 hold on them, that proceeding from sin to sin, “ their foot” 
 is seen to ‘‘ slide” even in this world, and they live shunned 
 and degraded, or die a righteous sacrifice to the insulted 
 laws of their country ; or by the progress of disease, induced 
 and cherished by their own intemperance and lust. 
 
 But as regards multitudes who live without God in the 
 world,” i. e. without any true governing principle of religion 
 in their heart — nothing may occur on earth to shake either 
 their own vain presumption or the assurance which their fel- 
 lows entertain, that it shall fare as well with them as with 
 others. Alas ! there is truth, and awful truth in this : It shall 
 fare as welly and no better with them than with all others who 
 live a like careless, irreligious life. So saith God’s word, 
 as we have already seen : “ The wicked shall be turned into 
 hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Their feet may 
 not slide on earth : they may retain their reputation to the 
 close : they may be valuable as men and as citizens: but as 
 servants of God, amenable to his laws, how stands it with 
 them here ? “ Their feet shall slide in due time.” 
 
 What saith God, in effect to all those who are thus 
 living in his sight careless, irreligious lives, albeit they 
 may be highly esteemed among men. Judgment will I 
 
21 
 
 lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet ; and the 
 hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters 
 shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with 
 death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell 
 shall not stand ; when the overflowing scourge shall pass 
 
 through, then ye shall be trodden down by it For 
 
 the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on 
 it; and the covering narrower than that he can wrap him- 
 self in it.’* * 
 
 * Isaiah xxviii. 17, 18, 20. The following practical observations 
 on this passage are extracted from Scott’s Commentary : — 
 
 When we declare the vengeance of the Lord against all those 
 who trust in refuges of lies,” we should expect to hear loud clamours 
 against our bigotry and want of charity ; and scornful infidels will 
 divert themselves, and each other, even with the most scriptural de- 
 nunciations of hell and damnation. They have no fears in that 
 respect, and deride those who have, as men of narrow, weak, and 
 superstitious minds : and they speak an'fi act, as if indeed they had 
 made a covenant with death, and were at agreement with Hell,” and 
 were secured against the vengeance of God; having made those 
 things their refuge, which we are as sure, are lies and falsehoods, as 
 that the Bible is the truth of God. He has laid one foundation, and 
 no man can lay any other : this is tried, approved, and precious ; and 
 he that believeth shall never be confounded.” But let men con- 
 trive and endeavour whatever they please : if they do not build on 
 this Foundation, and be not interested in the incarnate God and 
 Saviour ; if his person, character, and offices be not precious to their 
 souls; their hopes will be found delusion and presumption; the storm 
 of death and judgment will sweep away their refuges of lies, and 
 overflow their hiding place ;” their “ covenant with death shall be 
 disannulled ;” and the execution of the righteous sentence of God, 
 according to his holy law, will be so dreadful, that the very report of 
 it is sometimes, even now, intolerably vexatious to them. For what- 
 ever men trust to, for justification, except the righteousness of 
 Christ ; or for wisdom, strength, and holiness, except the regene- 
 rating and new creating influences of the Holy Spirit ; or for happi- 
 
 
22 
 
 It is a dreadful sight to witness men so enslaved by sin 
 as to be unable to resist any impulse wherewith Satan may 
 assail their bewildered souls. Such a case have we wit- 
 nessed, and many such cases there are, many, many more 
 than we have any idea of. To see the sinner’s feet thus 
 slide and let him down visibly, if I may so express it, into 
 the gulph of hell, is a truly alarming sight. O ! may it 
 quicken us to keep at the furthest possible distance from 
 any course which may issue in so fatal a result. But to 
 the reflecting mind it is quite as awful to recollect, that the 
 foot of the sinner shall slide no less surely and no less fatally, 
 (though perhaps not so palpably to his fellows on earth,) 
 who lives and dies neglecting the salvation of his soul. 
 Made it any ultimate difference to the voluptuary that he 
 fared sumptuously with his five brethren every day to the 
 close, and that to man’s apprehension his “feet did not slide?” 
 Not a whit, as it appears to me, save in the v/ay of aggra- 
 vation — aggravation arising from utter consternation at the 
 unexpected issue! “The rich man died and was buried, and 
 
 ness, except the favour of Almighty God; 'will be found a bed 
 which is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and a 
 covering which is narrower, than that a man can wrap himself in 
 it.” Let sinners then fear becoming mockers, lest they be bound in 
 the strong cords of their own iniquity ; for the Lord has unalterably 
 decreed the destruction of all ungodly men throughout the whole 
 earth. 
 
 But men presume because God spares them from day to day ; 
 not knowing that he has his method and seasons of operation ; and 
 knows how to deal with all his creatures as may best answer the 
 
 purposes of his glory He has not yet made all ready for the 
 
 great day of account : and sinners have not yet filled up the measure 
 of their crimes, nor performed their part in the universal plan of 
 him, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will 
 
 and therefore they are spared But whatever delay may seem 
 
 to intervene, the chaff shall be burnt with unquenchable fire.” ” 
 
23 
 
 in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments.” How fearfully 
 is his surprize exhibited ! ‘‘ Father Abraham have mercy on 
 me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger 
 in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this 
 flame !’' And this request denied, he puts another which 
 evinces yet greater amazement at his present fearful lot. 
 “ I pray thee, therefore, that thou wouldest send him to my 
 Father’s house, for I have five brethren, that he may testify 
 unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” 
 They are living exactly as I lived ; I had no expectation of 
 the possibility of such a result, neither do they suppose it 
 possible that such an end awaits them. They have no idea 
 that I am now in hell : “ Send him, that he may testify unto 
 them lest they also come into this place of torment.” 
 
 But a thought often startles me, and causes the most pain- 
 ful anxiety, anxiety which it is impossible to describe, on be- 
 half of the amiable, the honourable, the moral, the lovely, the 
 decorous, hut no less on this account the irreligious ^ for getters 
 of God, practical triflers ! It is this : How awful is the 
 idea that there is but one place prepared for all in common, 
 who forget God. The gay, the rich, the elegant, the 
 mighty, the honourable, the wise, the delicate, and the 
 learned, (forgetting Him,) will be shut out from God, and 
 shut up with the riotous, the brutal, the impure, the pro- 
 fane, the murderer, the seducer and his victims. ‘ O ! what 
 eternal horrors hang, around the second death 1 ’ And yet. 
 Brethren, if God’s word be true, this is true, and there is 
 no alternative. “ The Son of man shall send forth his 
 angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things 
 that offend, and them that do iniquity ; and shall cast them 
 into a furnace of fire ; there shall be wailing and gnashing 
 of teeth.” Into this horrible dungeon “ the feet of all 
 shall slide,” who are not God’s servants, and that as soon 
 
24 
 
 as death closes their earthly existence. You would indeed 
 have esteemed it a dreadful thing to be shut up in the con- 
 demned cell for a single week with that wuetched man 
 whose name I purposely abstain from mentioning; and yet 
 perhaps you are-living a course of life w^hich shall issue in your 
 being shut up, not only with him, but with thousands and 
 tens of thousands of equally lost, degraded, and polluted, 
 outcasts ; and that not for a week alone, but for an eternity. 
 And yet you will not escape it. You will not flee from 
 the wrath to come. O ! Brethren, I can give you no idea of 
 ‘‘ the misery which is coming upon you.” O ! to look back 
 from such a state, upon the vanity of reputation, and 
 wealth, and power, and learning, unsanctified and unconse- 
 crated to God, Can any thing exceed the thought in 
 terror ! I know of nothing. It is so terrific, that one feels 
 as if one almost owed an apology to one’s hearers for men- 
 tioning it. It has presented itself to my own mind 
 in this light a thousand times before, and yet I never 
 dared to put it in writing and lay it before you. But 
 I am convinced more than ever that nothing must be 
 kept back, that haply might arouse (even should it be to 
 fierce indignation in the first instance) slumbering, dying sin- 
 ners. And should this statement lead but one to flee irom the 
 wrath to come, then will I contentedly bear whatever others 
 may say and think on the matter. And if it harden any, 
 or cause any one among you to scoff, I warn you before 
 God, I am not responsible for that, painful though it is to 
 contemplate such a probability. Surely such an awful 
 thought as we have dwelt on above, should cause all men, 
 from their heart to cry with the Holy Psalmist, Gather 
 
 NOT MY SOUL WITH SINNERS.” 
 
 But, Brethren, if I believed that such as has been de- 
 scribed, was helplessly and hopelessly your case — the case 
 
25 
 
 of any among you, I would not dare to draw such a picturca 
 But it need not be your case. You may escape it. Know- 
 ing the terror of the Lord we persuade men.” I feel no 
 difficulty in inviting each of you individually — “ Acquaint 
 now thyself with God and be at peace,” So shall not your 
 
 foot slide.” The eternal God will be your refuge,” and 
 place “ underneath you the everlasting arms.” God is 
 Love!” Behold his love ! Mark it as seen in the Cross 
 of Christ ! “ God so loved the world that he gave his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
 perish, but have everlasting life.” God was in Christ re- 
 conciling the world unto himself.” “ Now then we are am- 
 bassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we 
 pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled unto God.” 
 " Christ is able to save to the uttermost all those that come 
 unto God by Him.” And whoso cometh unto Him, He 
 will in no wise cast out.” 
 
 Finally ; how ought such subjects and events to lead us 
 all to pray with an energy hitherto unknown — “ Lead us 
 not into temptation :” Hold thou me up, so shall I be 
 safe.” Make these, and such as these, your prayers, and 
 your footsteps shall not slide. God wild set your feet 
 
 UPON A ROCK AND ESTABLISH YOUR GOINGS. 
 
 “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and 
 to present you faultless before the presence of His glory 
 with exceeding joy ; to the only wdse God our Saviour, be 
 glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for 
 ever. Amen.” 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 On the evening of Tuesday, the 28th of November, 1848, 
 the inhabitants of the city of Norwich were thrown into a state 
 of unprecedented alarm by the arrival of a telegraphic mes- 
 sage, stating that Isaac Jermy, Esq., the recorder of Norwich, 
 who resided at Stanfield Hall, a distance of about nine miles, 
 and his son, Isaac Jermy Jermy, had been brutally murdered, 
 and that the lives of other inmates of the mansion had been 
 attempted by the assassin. 
 
 Immediately on the arrival of the message, the intelligence 
 was dispatched, by telegraph, throughout the kingdom, accom- 
 panied by directions from the active superintendent of the Nor- 
 wich police force, that Rush, who has since been convicted of 
 the murder, and on whom alone suspicion fell, should be at once 
 taken into custody, if he was anywhere to be found. That this 
 precaution, though highly advisable, was quite unnecessary, 
 will be seen in the sequel, the wretched murderer having, im- 
 mediately after the commission of the frightful deeds, returned 
 to his own house, where he was, some hours after, apprehended. 
 
 On the Tuesday evening above named, the family, consisting 
 of Mr. Jermy, Mr. and Mrs. Jermy, jun., and Miss Jermy, a 
 young lady of about fourteen years of age, had been dining to- 
 gether, and had just retired into the drawing-room, when Mr. 
 Jermy stepped out at the hall door. This was about half-past 
 eight o’clock. It is supposed that, at this time, the assassin must 
 have been secreted outside, and that before Mr. Jermy re-entered 
 the porch, the assassin had stationed himself within it. As Mr. 
 
27 
 
 Jermy returned, he received a charge from a gun or pistol, which 
 entered his heart, and he fell dead upon the mat and flag-stone, 
 which exhibited signs of a large effusion of blood. 
 
 Immediately after the perpetration of this deed, the assassin 
 appears to have hastened to the servants’ door, which he en- 
 tered, and proceeding through the short passage, turned to the 
 left. At the end of a long passage, he was met by the butler, 
 towards whom he kept his side, and pushing him with his left 
 elbow, towards the butler’s pantry, seemed to intimate that it 
 would be better for him to retreat in that direction. The 
 butler took his silent advice, and hastened into the pantry, 
 greatly alarmed ; the assassin, who was in disguise, holding 
 his arms extended, with a pistol in each hand. Proceeding 
 through the passage he saw Mr. Jermy, jun., who having been 
 alarmed by the noise of the first shot, was proceeding towards 
 the servants’ hall, to make inquiries as to the cause, and had 
 just opened the door leading from the staircase hall. The vil- 
 lain at once discharged another pistol, the contents of which 
 Mr. Jermy received in his breast, and fell lifeless on the spot, 
 under the hall staircase. Mrs. Jermy immediately hastened 
 from the dining-room, and running in the direction of the 
 noise, stumbled over the body of her husband, past the mur- 
 derer, into the lobby. The heartless villain, without a mo- 
 ment’s hesitation, attempted her immediate destruction, and 
 the wall near the point at which she stood, exhibited marks 
 of a portion of the fearful charge which was aimed at her per- 
 son. Part of the charge entered her right arm, shivering the 
 bone for two or three inches above the elbow, and frightfully 
 lacerating the flesh. It has since been found necessary to 
 amputate the limb. 
 
 At this moment, it appears that two servants, Margaret 
 Head, the cook, and Eliza Chestney, the ladies’ maid, were in 
 the servants’ hall, when, hearing the third report, the ladies’ 
 
28 
 
 maid courageously rushed through the long passage to the 
 last scene of destruction. She there found her unfortunate 
 mistress, whom she immediately attempted to sustain from 
 falling, hut was herself shot in the right thigh by the assassin, 
 whom she saw standing in the staircase hall. 
 
 In consequence of the screams which she uttered, the cook 
 was also about to hurry to the spot, but stopped suddenly at 
 the door of the passage, in consequence of seeing Miss Jermy 
 hastening towards her, down the long passage, screaming. 
 Behind Miss Jermy she observed the assassin following, with 
 a pistol in his right hand. 
 
 Miss Jermy and the cook fearing lest they, too, should fall a 
 prey to the same diabolical treatment, fled through the back 
 door into the stables, where they remained in trembling con- 
 cealment for some time, until informed by the butler that the 
 villain had decamped. 
 
 Either the moment before or after the murderer was seen 
 in the long passage by the cook, Maria Blanchflower, the nurse- 
 maid, having just descended the stairs into that passage, turned 
 her head and saw him coming round the corner, and carrying 
 a pistol in his right hand. She hastened immediately, in a 
 state of great alarm, through the servants’ hall, and secreted 
 herself in the back kitchen, until the murderer had escaped, 
 and the terror had in some measure subsided. 
 
 During all this time nothing whatever was known of the 
 fate of Mr. Jermy, Sen., every survivor in the house being 
 afraid to go out of doors. The noise of fire-arms having been 
 first heard on the outside of the house, naturally gave rise to 
 the apprehension that the assassin, who had been seen within, 
 was not without accomplices in his bloody work. 
 
 As soon as the news was spread, several persons armed 
 themselves and proceeded at once to the Hall. A considerable 
 number also of gentlemen from different parts of the country 
 
29 
 
 were quickly on the spot, and the body of Mr. Jenny, Sen., was 
 then found. In the meantime a body of police arrived from 
 Norwich, who, with the Wymondham officer, were directed to 
 proceed to Rush’s house, a distance of seven furlongs, by the 
 fields. There they watched until Rush came down stairs, 
 about six o’clock in the morning, when they immediately ap- . 
 prehended him. Some of the officers remained to search the 
 house, while others took the prisoner for examination before 
 the magistrates. Witnesses were examined on that and several 
 subsequent days, and the examination resulted in the commit- 
 tal of Rush to Norwich Castle for trial. An inquest was also 
 held before Mr. Press and an intelligent jury, who, after a very 
 protracted inquiry, which was from time to time adjourned, 
 found the prisoner guilty of the murders. 
 
 At the prisoner’s house several disguises were found, and 
 also two guns with shot, caps, powder, &c., but no pistols were 
 discovered, although the search was continued, on the farm, 
 for many weeks, by upwards of seventy labourers and police- 
 men. 
 
 The entire history of this man is most instructive and 
 admonitory. Sensuality, selfishness, and ungodliness, appear 
 to have been his prominent characteristics. He seems to have 
 put no restraint upon his passions, but indulged them to an 
 excess which brutalised and debased his whole nature. 
 He yielded submission neither to the dictates of reason, nor 
 the precepts of divine revelation. His conscience, seared and 
 defiled by sin, rendered him unscrupulous as to the means by 
 which he accomplished his designs ; and when seduction, 
 forgery, and murder seemed needful to his success, he com- 
 mitted them cautiously, coolly, and determinate! y. 
 
 It were foreign to our purpose to give any further account of 
 the past life of the unhappy man. 
 
 That which renders his case the most horrible is, that it is 
 
30 
 
 the course of a man who, while he was practising falsehood and 
 fraud, wallowing in sensuality, and steeped in infidelity, made a 
 profession of religion, by attending church, by reading the Scrip- 
 tures, and by prayer in his family, but who rendered his very de- 
 votions subservient to his lusts, and referred to the crimes con- 
 demned in Scripture as an apology and justification for his own. 
 
 The trial was conducted at the Castle, Norwich, and was 
 one of the most important and protracted on record. It lasted 
 from nine o’clock on Thursday, March 29th, till half-past 
 eight on Wednesday evening, April 4th, the intense interest 
 and excitement of the public continuing to increase day by 
 day, until the conclusion of the inquiry. 
 
 The terms in which the prisoner was addressed by the 
 Judge, immediately prior to pronouncing Sentence against 
 him, are too striking to be omitted. He spoke in a tone of 
 slow and measured solemnity, and the severe dignity of his 
 manner, and the power of his language produced the pro- 
 foundest impression. 
 
 “ James Blomfield Hush, after a trial unusually protracted 
 in length, you have been found guilty of the crime of wilful 
 murder — a crime the greatest which one human being can 
 perpetrate towards another — a deep crime under any circum- 
 stances of extenuation, but I regret to say, in this case, there 
 is every thing which can make it of a still deeper dye — every 
 thing which can make the guilt, of a character the most hor- 
 rible. It appears from letters which you have yourself put in, 
 that you felt you owed a debt of deep gratitude to the father 
 of the unfortunate victim of your malice. You commenced 
 a system of fraud by endeavouring to cheat your landlord ; 
 you followed that up by making the unfortunate girl, whom 
 you had seduced, the tool whereby to commit forgery ; and 
 having done that, you have terminated your guilty career by the 
 murder of the son and grandson of your friend and benefactor. 
 
31 
 
 It unfortunately happens that great guilt is sometimes, in 
 imagination at least, too nearly connected with something of 
 heroism — something that dazzles the mind ; but fortunately 
 in your case, you have made vice as loathsome as it is ter- 
 rible. There is no one, after he has witnessed your conduct 
 during this trial, and heard the evidence disclosed against you, 
 that will not feel with me, what I say, when I tell you, that 
 vou must quit this v^orld — by an ignominious death — the ob- 
 ject of unmitigated abhorrence to every well-regulated mind. I 
 shrink not from making this statement, for the purpose of 
 pointing out to you the awful situation in which you stand. To 
 society it must be a matter of the most perfect indifference 
 what will be your conduct in the few remaining days of your 
 life that yet remain for you. No concealment of the truth in 
 which you may continue to persist, will cast the slightest 
 doubt upon the propriety of the verdict which the jury have 
 returned. No confession which you can make, will add even 
 a taper’s light to the broad glare of day-light which has been 
 disclosed against you. As far, therefore, as society is con- 
 cerned, the course of conduct which you may pursue during the 
 few days of your life, is a matter of perfect indifference ; but to 
 yourself it may be all important, and 1 can only conjure you 
 by every consideration of interest, no less than duty, that you 
 employ that short space of time that yet remains to you, in 
 endeavouring by penitence and prayer, as far as may be, to 
 reconcile yourself to that offended God, before whom you are 
 shortly to appear. In the mysterious dispensations of the 
 Almighty, not only is much evil permitted, but much guilt is 
 also allowed to go unpunished. Perhaps it is presumption, 
 therefore, to attempt to trace the finger of God in the develop- 
 ment of any particular crime ; but the mind does delight 
 sometimes in making such investigations, and I cannot in this 
 case but remark, that if you had performed to that unfortu- 
 
32 
 
 nate girl the promises you made her, to make her your wife, 
 the policy of the laA^, which seals the lips of a wife in any pro- 
 ceedings against her husband, might, perhaps, have permitted 
 you to go unpunished. You have been convicted on testimony 
 so clear, that observations or comment are perfectly unneces- 
 sary. Having thus charged you as to the small portion of 
 your life which remains — for all human interests with you are 
 now at an end — I will only add my earnest hope that 
 the only social right which yet remains — entire seclusion — 
 may be guaranteed to you, that neither morbid sensibility 
 nor the idle curiosity of the world will be allowed to pry 
 into the secrets of the murderer’s cell, or to raise a factitious 
 interest about that in which you alone are concerned. 
 It remains only that I pronounce the awful sentence of 
 the law upon you, which is, that you be taken to the place 
 whence you came and from thence to a convenient place of 
 execution ; that you be there hanged by the neck until you 
 are dead ; and that after death your body be buried within 
 the precincts of the jail in which you will be confined under 
 this conviction ; and may the Lord Almighty have mercy upon 
 your soul.” 
 
 The prisoner then looked to the judge as if he would say 
 something, but he was immediately removed. Throughout 
 the passing of the sentence he did not evince the slightest con- 
 cern or emotion, and, when leaving the dock, a smile was seen 
 on his countenance. 
 
 John Hutchinson, Printer, 20, Silver Street, Hull. 
 
LATELY PUBLISHED, 
 
 By the District Visiting Tract Society, and may be had 
 at the Depository, 20, Silver- Street, Hull. 
 
 Price Id. or 7s. per 100. 
 
 The Nearness and Certainty of Future Judgment, by the Rev. John 
 King, M.A. 
 
 The Saviour’s Strength made perfect in Weakness, by the Rev. John 
 King, M.A. 
 
 Dedication of the Heart to God, by the Rev. John King, M.A. 
 Consistent piety in Humble Life. 
 
 Short Account of Martha Flounder, by the Rev. W. Knight, M.A. 
 
 The Hoary Head a Crown of Glory, by the Rev. John King, M.A. 
 
 The Advantages of Early Piety, or the History of Two Cousins. 
 
 The Poor Man’s Friend, by the Rev. Legh Richmond, M.A. 
 
 Remarks on the Parable of the Tares and the Wheat. 
 
 Remarks on the Parable of the Talents. 
 
 Rest in Reversion for the People of God — Funeral Sermon for Mrs. 
 J. Scott, by the Rev. John King, M.A. 
 
 Cottage Lectures, or, The Pilgrim’s Progress practically explained, 
 by the Rev. C. Overton, Vicar of Cottingham. 
 
 Lecture 1 . — The Awakening. 
 
 „ 2. — Temptations to draw 
 
 hack. 
 
 ,, 3 . — The Mount Sinai. 
 
 „ 4 . — The Backslider Restored 
 
 ,, 5 .— The Strait Gate. 
 
 ,, 6. — The Interpreter’s House. 
 
 ,, 7 — The Interpreter’s Lessons 
 
 „ 8.— Godly Fear, and the 
 
 sight of the Cross. 
 
 „ 9 . — Simple, Sloth, and Pre- 
 
 sumption. Formality 
 and Hypocrisy. 
 
 ,, 10. — Assurance lost and re- 
 gained. 
 
 11 — The Communion of Saints 
 
 ,, 12. — Godly edifying. 
 
 ,, 13 .— Our adversary the Devil. 
 
 ,, 14 . — Tlie region of darkness. 
 
 „ 15 . — The Pope’s Cave, and 
 
 Faithful’s experience. 
 
 16. — The character of Taika 
 
 five. 
 
 17. — Vanity Fair. 
 
 18 . — The Faithful Martyr. 
 
 19. — By-ends, or the Double- 
 
 minded Man. 
 
 20. — The character of Demas. 
 
 21. — Doubting Castle. 
 
 22. -jrhe Delectable Moun- 
 
 tains gained. 
 
 23 . — Ignorance, Turnaway 
 
 and Little- Faith. 
 
 24 . — Tlie Flatterer, Atheist, & 
 
 Hopeful’s experience. 
 
 25 . — Ignorance questioned 
 
 and admonished. 
 
 26. — The character of Tempo- 
 
 rary. 
 
 27. — The Land of Beulah. 
 
 28 . — The Passage over Jordan 
 
 29. — The Celestial City. 
 
 The above 29 Traots on the Pilgrim's Progress for I5. Qd 
 
The following Tracts, by the late Rev, JOHN SCOTT, M,A, 
 
 Which may he had of the Printer ^ or the Rev. John Scott, Hull: 
 or, 3Iessrs. Wertheim and Macintosh, 24 , Paternoster Row, London. 
 
 Price Id. or 7s. per 100. 
 
 Elijah’s A^ppeal to the 'Worshippers of Baal on the Polly and Danger 
 of Indecision in Beligion. A Sermon preached before the 
 Magistrates of Hull, on Sunday, October 18th, 1829. 
 
 The Vanity of the World. A Sermon preached at the Holy Trinity 
 Church, in 1813. 
 
 The true Remedy against Fear: on the Threatened Visitation of 
 Pestilence. A Sermon preached at St. Mary’s, Hull, No- 
 vember 6th, 1831. 
 
 The Lost Sinner the Object of the Saviour’s Mission. A Sermon 
 on behalf of the Hull General Female Penitentiary, preached 
 at the Holy Trinity Church, Hull, August 29th, 1813. 
 
 Moses Renouncing the World. A Sermon preached at St. John’s 
 Chapel, Bedford !^kOW, London, April 14th, 1822. 
 
 Account of H. W , o^ N. Ferriby. 
 
 Account of the late John Frost, Esq., extracted from a Sermon 
 preached at St. John’s Church, Hull, July 29, 1832. 
 
 The Christian Minister’s Serious and Affectionate Address to Persons’ 
 presenting a Child to be baptized. 
 
 The Duties of Masters. 
 
 The following hy the same Author, 
 
 Price Igd. each; or 10s. 6d. per 100. 
 
 Preparation for Death. A Sermon preached at St. John’s Church, 
 Hull, December 5th, 1819, on occasion of the Death of 
 Mrs. Wawn, only daughter of the Rev. Thomas Dykes. 
 
 Reciprocal Duties of Ministers and People. A Sermon preached 
 Sunday, November 24th, 1816, on entering upon the living 
 of St. Mary’s Church, Hull. 
 
 The Origin, Nature and Effects of True Religion. A Sermon 
 preached at Great Driffield, July 8th, 1811. 
 
 Relaxation of Discipline the source of the Corruption of Manners. A 
 Sermon preached at the Holy Trinity Church, Hull, October 
 21st, 1827, on occasion of the Mayor’s entrance upon Office. 
 
 Religion the basis of our National Institutions. A Sermon preached 
 at the Holy Trinity Church, Hull, on the Inauguration of 
 the Mayor, October, 1833. 
 
 The Penitent Manasseh. A Sermon addressed to the British Prisoners 
 of War on their return from France. Preached at the Holy 
 Trinity Church, Hull, June 19th, 1814. 
 
 Popular Delusions exposed by Scripture. A Sermon preached before 
 the Corporation of Hull, in the Holy Trinity Church, 
 October 21st 1832. 
 
 The Fatal Consequences of Licentiousness. A Sermon preached at 
 Hull, on occasion of the Trial of a Young Woman for the al- 
 leged Murder of her Illegitimate Child. 
 
 The Duties of Servants. 
 
 Notices of Jowett’s Life of the Rev. Cornelius Neale. 
 
 The Character and Happy Death of Miss Sarah Jane C . Edited 
 
 by the Rev. John Scott. 
 
 Address on the Sabbath and on approach of Asiatic Cholera. ,