The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders

I hid nothing from him, and he in return exhorted me to sincere

repentance, explained to me what he meant by repentance, and then drew

out such a scheme of infinite mercy, proclaimed from heaven to sinners

of the greatest magnitude, that he left me nothing to say, that looked

like despair, or doubting of being accepted; and in this condition he

left me the first night.

He visited me again the next morning, and went on with his method of

explaining the terms of divine mercy, which according to him consisted

of nothing more, or more difficult, than that of being sincerely

desirous of it, and willing to accept it; only a sincere regret for,

and hatred of, those things I had done, which rendered me so just an

object of divine vengeance. I am not able to repeat the excellent

discourses of this extraordinary man; 'tis all that I am able to do, to

say that he revived my heart, and brought me into such a condition that

I never knew anything of in my life before. I was covered with shame

and tears for things past, and yet had at the same time a secret

surprising joy at the prospect of being a true penitent, and obtaining

the comfort of a penitent--I mean, the hope of being forgiven; and so

swift did thoughts circulate, and so high did the impressions they had

made upon me run, that I thought I could freely have gone out that

minute to execution, without any uneasiness at all, casting my soul

entirely into the arms of infinite mercy as a penitent.

The good gentleman was so moved also in my behalf with a view of the

influence which he saw these things had on me, that he blessed God he

had come to visit me, and resolved not to leave me till the last

moment; that is, not to leave visiting me.

It was no less than twelve days after our receiving sentence before any

were ordered for execution, and then upon a Wednesday the dead warrant,

as they call it, came down, and I found my name was among them. A

terrible blow this was to my new resolutions; indeed my heart sank

within me, and I swooned away twice, one after another, but spoke not a

word. The good minister was sorely afflicted for me, and did what he

could to comfort me with the same arguments, and the same moving

eloquence that he did before, and left me not that evening so long as

the prisonkeepers would suffer him to stay in the prison, unless he

would be locked up with me all night, which he was not willing to be.