[BBC List] pirates

Fri Sep 8 14:07:50 EAST 2006

With all the hub bub re pirate (the film) here is an oldie, but goodie,

SENTENCING OF THE PIRATE MAJOR STEDE BONNET AT CHARLESTON, SOUTH
CAROLINA WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12TH, 1718

>From Captain Charles Johnson's "A General History of the Robberies and
Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates" London, 1724

"On the 28th of October, 1718, a court of Vice Admiralty was held at
Charleston, in South Carolina, and by several adjournments continued
until Wednesday, the 12th of November following, for the trial of the
Pirates taken in a sloop formerly called the Revenge, but afterwards the
Royal James, before Nicholas Trot, Esq., Judge of the Vice Admiralty,
and chief Justice of the said Province of South Carolina, and other
assistant judges."

"The Lord Chief Justice's Speech, upon his Pronouncing Sentence on Major
Stede Bonnet."

"Major Stede Bonnet, you stand here convicted upon two indictments of
piracy; one by the verdict of the jury, and the other by your own
confession. Although you were indicted but for two facts, yet you know
that at your trial it was fully proved, even by an unwilling witness,
that you piratically took and rifled no less than thirteen vessels since
you sailed from North Carolina. So that you might have been indicted and
convicted on eleven more acts of piracy since you took the benefit of
the King's Act of Grace, and pretended to leave that wicked course of
life. Not to mention the many acts of piracy you committed before; for
which, if your pardon from man was never so authentic, yet you must
expect to answer for them before God. You know that the crimes you have
committed are evil in themselves, and contrary to the light and law of
nature, as well as the law of God, by which you are commanded that you
shall not steal (Exo. 20. 15).  And the Apostle St. Paul expressly
affirms that thieves shall not inherit the Kingdom of God (I Cor. 6.
10). 

But to theft you have added a greater sin, which is murder.  How
many you may have killed of those that resisted you in the committing of
your former piracies, I know not, but this we all know, that besides the
wounded you killed no less than eighteen persons out of those that were
sent by lawful authority to suppress you, and put a stop to those
rapines that you daily acted. And, however you might fancy that that was
killing men fairly in open fight, yet this know, that the power of the
sword not being committed into your hands by any lawful authority, you
were not empowered to use any force, or fight anyone; and therefore
those persons that fell in that action, in doing their duty to their
King and Country, were murdered, and their blood now cries out for
vengeance and justice against you.  For it is the voice of Nature
confirmed by the Law of God, that whosoever sheddeth man's blood by man
shall his blood be shed (Gen. 9. 6). And consider that Death is not the
only punishment due to Murderers; for they are threatened to have their
part in the lake witch burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the
second Death (Rev. 21. 8 See Chap. 22. 15).  Words which carry that
terror with them that considering your circumstances and your guilt,
surely the sound of them must make you tremble, for who can dwell with
everlasting burnings? (Isaiah 33. 14). 

As the testimony of your
conscience must convince you of the great and many evils you have
committed, by which you have highly offended God, and provoked most
justly His wrath and indignation against you, so I suppose I need not
tell you that the only way of obtaining pardon and remission of your
sins from God is by a true and unfeigned repentance and faith in Christ,
by whose meritorious Death and Passion you can only hope for salvation.
You being a gentleman that have had the advantage of a liberal
education, and being generally esteemed a man of letters, I believe it
will be needless for me to explain to you the nature of repentance and
faith in Christ, they being so fully and often mentioned in the
Scriptures that you cannot but know them.  

And therefore, perhaps, for
that reason it might be thought by some improper for me to have said so
much to you, as I have already upon this occasion.  Neither should I
have done it, but that considering the course of your life and actions,
I have just reason to fear that the principles of religion that had been
instilled into you by your education have been at least corrupted, if
not entirely defaced, by the Scepticism and Infidelity of this wicked
age; and that what time you allowed for study was rather applied to the
Polite Literature and the vain philosophy of the times, than a serious
search after the Law and Will of God, as revealed unto us in the Holy
Scriptures.  For had your delight been in the Law of the Lord and that
you had meditated therein day and night (Psalm 1. 2) you would have then
found that God's Word was a lamp unto your feet, and a light to your
path (Psalm 119. 105) and that you would account all other knowledge but
loss in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
(Phil. 3. 8) who to them that are called is the power of God and the
wisdom of God (I Cor. 1. 24) even the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world (Chap. 2. 7). You would then have esteemed the
Scriptures as the Great charter of Heaven, and which delivered to us not
only the most perfect laws and rules of life, but also discovered to us
the Acts of Pardon from God, wherein they have offended those righteous
laws.  For in them only is to be found the great mystery of fallen man's
Redemption which the angels desire to look into (I Pet. 1. 12). And they
would have taught you that Sin is the debasing of human nature as being
a deviation from that Purity, Rectitude and Holiness in which God
created us, and that Virtue and Religion and walking by the laws of God
were altogether preferable to the ways of Sin and Satan, for that the
ways of Virtue are ways of pleasantness, and all their paths are peace
(Prov. 3. 17). But what you could not learn from God's Word, by reason
of your carelessly or but superficially considering the same, I hope the
course of His Providence and the present afflictions that He hath laid
upon you, hath now convinced you of the same.  

For however in your
seeming prosperity you might make a mock at your sins (Prov. 14. 9) yet
know that you see God's hand hath reached you, and brought you to public
justice, I hope your present unhappy circumstances hath made you
seriously reflect upon your past actions and course of life; and that
you are now sensible of the greatness of your sins, and that you find
the burden of them is intolerable. And that therefore being thus
labouring and heavy laden with sin (Matt. 11. 28) you will esteem that
as the most valuable knowledge, that can show you how you can be
reconciled to that supreme God that you have so highly offended; and
that can reveal to you Him who is not only the powerful Advocate with
the Father for you (I John 2. 1) but also who hath paid that debt that
is due for your sins by His own Death upon the Cross for you; and
thereby made full satisfaction for the justice of God.  And this is to
be found nowhere but in God's Word, which discovers to us that Lamb of
God which takes away the sins of the world (John 1. 29) which is Christ
the Son of God; for this know and be assured, that there is none other
name under heaven given among men whereby they must be saved (Acts 4.
12) but only by the name of the Lord Jesus. But then consider how He
invites all sinners to come unto Him and that he will give them rest
(Matt. 11. 28) for He assure us that he came to seek and to save that
which was lost (Luke 19. 10; Matt. 18. 11) and hath promised that he
that cometh to him, he will in no wise cast out (John 6. 37). So that if
you will now sincerely turn to Him, though late, even at the eleventh
hour (Matt. 20. 6, 9) He will receive you. But surely I need not tell
you that the terms of His mercy is Faith and Repentance. And do not
mistake the nature of repentance to be only a bare sorrow for your sins,
arising from the consideration of the evil and punishment they have now
brought upon you; but your sorrow must arise from the consideration of
your having offended a gracious and merciful God. But I shall not
pretend to give you any particular directions as to the nature of
repentance.  

I consider that I speak to a person whose offences have
proceeded not so much from his not knowing, as to his slighting and
neglecting his duty.  Neither is it proper for me to give advice, out of
the way of my own profession. You may have that better delivered to you
by those who have made Divinity their particular study and who, by their
knowledge as well as their office, as being ambassadors of Christ (II
Cor 5. 20) are best qualified to give you instruction therein. I only
heartily wish that what, in compassion to your soul, I have now said to
you upon this sad and solemn occasion, by exhorting you in general to
faith and repentance, may have that due effect upon you that thereby you
may become a true penitent. And therefore, having now discharged my duty
to you as a Christian by giving you the best council I can, with respect
to the salvation of your soul, I must now do my office as a judge. The
sentence that the Law hath appointed to pass on you for your offences,
and which this court doth therefore award is; That you, the said Stede
Bonnet, shall go from hence to the place from whence you came, and from
thence to the place of execution, where you shall be hanged by the neck
till you are dead. And the God of Infinite Mercy be merciful to your
soul."

Near the end of November, 1718, The Pirate Major Stede Bonnet was
executed between the tides at the White Point near Charleston, pursuant
to his sentence.

Charis, 

Mike Abendroth 

'God rides forth conquering in the chariot of His Gospel. . . He conquers
the pride of the heart, and makes the will which stood out as a Fort Royal
against Him, to yield and stoop to His grace; He makes the stony heart
bleed. Oh! it is a mighty call! Why then do some men seem to speak of a
moral persuasion? That God in the conversion of a sinner only morally
persuades and no more? If God in conversion should only morally persuade and
no more, then He does not put forth so much power in saving men as the Devil
does in destroying them.'   Thomas Watson

HYPERLINK "http://www.bbcchurch.org"www.bbcchurch.org 

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