Save a THIEF from the Gallows, and he'll Hang Thee if he can:
Or, The Merciful FATHER and the Merciless SON.
To the Tune of, Fortune my Foe.
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YOu disobedient Children mark my fall,
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And by my timeless end take warning all,
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Against my own dear Father have I done,
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A deed the like did never graceless Son.
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In blooming years I was intic'd to sin,
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E're I perceiv'd what danger lay therein:
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And so from day to day, until this hour,
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To leave the same, as yet I have no power.
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My Mother dead, my Father cockered me,
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As men will do when Motherless we be:
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And nothing for me then he thought too dear,
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Which brought me thus into a graceless fear.
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And when as I to elder years did grow,
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By wicked courses got I timely woe;
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Each vain delight belonging to Young-men,
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Deceived me, and wrought my ruine then.
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The deadly sins that are in number seaven,
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without more grace have lost my joys in heaven:
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From first to last of these most cursed crimes,
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Have made me now a wonder of these times.
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For wanting means to nourish my delight,
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I went the wrong, and left the ways of right;
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Which to maintain, my Father growing poor,
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Forgetting God, I daily rob'd for more.
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Three times he sav'd me from the Gallow-tree,
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[Three ti]mes he cast himself in debt for me,
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[Three times h]e set me up in good estate,
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[In hope to keep me f]rom untimely fate.
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[By me the Proverb is] fulfilled here,
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[Who saves a thief from gallows finds it dear.]
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For saving me, I sought his dear life's woe,
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My gentle Fathers timeless overthrow.
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For wanting means still to relieve my need,
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Put me in mind to do a woful deed:
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And seek his blood, the high way unto sin,
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Who wanting grace, I soon grew perfect in.
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My Fathers Brother of good living known,
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Being dead, as next of Kin they were mine own
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The which I wrought with these accursed hands
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To be the heir of all my Uncles Lands.
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With mind prepar'd for Murder thus I went,
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Unto the Field where he did much frequent,
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where meeting him, with mine own fathers knife
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Which I had stoln, I took away his life.
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And laid it down all bloody by his side,
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That all might see my Uncle therewith dy'd:
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And challeng'd it my Fathers knife to be,
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When people came the Murdered Corps to see.
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O homicide! O cursed viprous brood,
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Like Cain, to seek my fathers dearest blood;
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My own dear father being thus betray'd,
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I his own child the evidence was made.
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So judg'd to death for that he never did,
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The Lord in mercy did the same [forbid:
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F[or as] he [was to] Exe[cut]ion le[d
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A World of torments in my bosome bred.
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To see him stand upon the Gallow-tree,
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From which before poor man he saved me:
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I could not chuse but tell what I had done,
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And so confess myself a wicked son.]
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GOds judgements now are rightly seen said I,
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Dear Father I have slain him, let me dye,
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O let me dye and set my Father free,
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Or else like Judas damned shall I be.
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Whereat the people in that very place,
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They praised God that gave me so much grace,
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To quit my Father from that crying sin,
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Which I with blood-red streams am drowned in.
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My Father sav'd and I to Prison sent,
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Where I remain'd with many a sad lament,
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Which when you see, you cannot chuse but say,
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Repentance comes before my Dying day.
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