Since thou are to die for the evil thou hast committed, endeavour to do good before thy Death…. And a principal inducement hereunto would it be, if you would make publick to the world, your carriage from your Cradle to your Death…. [B]y your ingenious Confession … satisfie the world that are yet unsatisfied.

Under a sense of that Horrid and Hellish Sin of Murther, which I lately committed, I desire to leave to the World this following Treatise. First, the Cause of my Provocation: Secondly, the manner in brief of the Murther: And thirdly, my hearty and unfeigned sorrow for my Offence, which I hope may stand as a Monument to succeeding Ages.

I have now done with the Introduction to this tragick and dismal story, having unravelled as many of those, almost occult causes, by which being first propagated, it since hath been made horridly publick, as civillity or necessity in enucleating the truth requires.

New, new, new, and true; is now adayes (to ordinary Readers) an authentication sufficient, for Relations of this or the like nature. But Reader it is the Cry of Blood, of Blood! Therefore more Seriousness becomes our pen: in the perusal of this Relation, thou shalt in a chain of dependencies read the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth.