PLATO , a Heathen , thought Virtue so aimable in it self , that could it appear clad in Humane shape , the excellency of its Features would attract the love and admiration of all its Spectators : and shall we , who are Christians , be less in love with the Beauty 〈◇〉 Holiness ? Shall we , who live under the Meridian Illustrations of Divine ●… isdom , not see those Glorious Truths which the glimmering light of ●… ture He so much revers'd ? O shame on that Egyptian Darkness which ●… ouds our Reason ! He liv'd a Divine Heathen , while we live and dye ●… ofessed Christians , but in Practice more wretched and inexcusable than ●… gans , witness the Avarice and Rapine of some , the Malice and Ambition 〈◇〉 others ; in a word , the frequent Murders , and the more close Adulteries ; 〈◇〉 bloody Revenge of the enraged B●avo , and the wanton Embraces of the ●… tful Paramour , the two last , viz. Murder and Adultery , are the crying ●… s of this Age : Murder , 't is true , got the start of Adultery , and was the ●… st born of its wretched Parent Cain . Murder has been always look'd up●… as a most detestable Sin in the sight of God and Man , and punished as ● capital Offence ; yet had the Precepts of God or the Laws of Man been ●… le to restain the Extravagence of our debauch'd Natures within the limits 〈◇〉 our Duty , we shou'd have had not only no Occasion , but no Examples 〈◇〉 such wicked Wretches , whose Lust , Ambition , or Revenge , has made ●… em the unhappy Arguments of humane Misery . Their vicious Courses ●… ve plung'd them into Crimes which could not be expiated here , but by 〈◇〉 severest Punishments . The following Relation is very Tragical , and the parts of the Actors writ in Characters of Blood ; the publishing 〈◇〉 which is not so much designed to divert the Reader with the variety 〈◇〉 surprizing Circumstances , as to affright him , by the sad Example from th●… Commission of that horrid Sin of Murther , of which fincerely to repen●… is highly difficult , but to make satisfaction far impossible . When once th●… Golden Bowl is broke ( which the Wise man speaks of , Ecclesiastes the 12th . ▪ by the Impious hand of some bold Assassin , he fills full the Cup of God●… Indignation against him , which will be a draught more bitter than a●… the glorying pleasures Life or Fortune can sweeten with their greate●… advantages . Humane Laws have provided Shackles and Dungeons , Rack●… and Gibbets , not only to punish , but deter such Sanguinary Bravoes , wh●… if they chance ( which but rarely happens ) to escape the latest han●… of Justice , yet are they constantly haunted with the horror of the Crime ▪ and antedate the Torments of a future , by the present Hell of an Evi● Conscience : But I proceed to the Relation , which is thus .

In Short's-Garden by Piccadilly , near the Hay-Market , there lately live●… one Mrs. Sarah Wilkins , an Antient Widow-woman , with one Jane Gi●… her Neice , keeping a Coffee-house of good Repute and Trade , and wer● supposed to be indifferent well to pass in the world . On Saturday th● 1●th . of this Instant December , Jane Gill the Neice , coming down Stairs ▪ as her usual custom was , about Five in the Morning , to cleanse the Coffe● Room , order the Cinders and prepare the Fire , &c. some Persons got o● were let into the House , and immediately seized the Maid and cut he● Throat : then going up two pair of Stairs , where Mrs. Wilkins lay , they served her in the like Barbarous manner , taking off four Rings that sh● generally wore on her Fingers , which when they had done , they rifle● the House of all that was valuable and portable , which was to a pretty considerable value , particularly ( as a Relation of the Deceased does Relate ) there was in a Dressing-Box a Medal of Massy Gold , and severa● Guinnies , and other things of worth . The Murtherers at present , are s● far from being discovered , that it 's now known how many they were , o● so much as whether they were Men or Women , that were the Author● o● this Horrid Fact , onely some Persons that were up in the Adjacen● Houses , heard a knocking at the Coffee-house Door about the hour of fiv● that Morning .

These poor Unhappy People have lived in the Parish for several years in very good Credit and Repute , demeaning themselves very Civilly and Honestly to all Persons , upon which account the Neighbours in general , are very sorry for so Cruel and Barbarous a Murther .