A sacrifice to the justice of a long-offended God

Mon 11 Jan 1742: I went twice to Newgate, at the request of poor Robert Ramsey, who lay there under sentence of death, but was refused admittance. Receiving a few lines from him on the day he was to die, I desired Mr. Richards to try if he could be admitted then. But he came back with a fresh refusal.
It was above two years before that, being destitute and in distress, he applied to me at Bristol for relief. I took him in and employed him for the present in writing and keeping accounts for me. Not long after I placed him in the little school which was kept by the United Society. There were many suspicions of him during that time, as well as of his companion Gwillim Snowde. But no proof appeared, so that, after three or four months, they quietly returned to London. But they did not deceive God nor escape his hand. Gwillim Snowde was soon apprehended for a robbery, and when condemned sent for me and said nothing lay heavier upon him than his having thus returned evil for good. I believe it was now the desire of poor Ramsey, too, to tell me all that he had done. But the hour was past! I could not now be permitted to see or speak with him. So that he who before would not receive the word of God from my mouth, now desired what he could not obtain. And on Wednesday he fell a sacrifice to the justice of a long-offended God. O consider this, ye that now forget God, and know not the day of your visitation!
In the afternoon I buried the body of James St. Angel, who having long been tried in the fire, on Monday, in the full triumph of faith, gave up his spirit to God.
I heard of several today who began to run well but did not endure to the end. Men fond of their own opinions tore them from their brethren and could not keep them when they had done; but they soon fell back into the world, and are now swallowed up in its pleasures or cares. I fear those zealots who took these souls out of my hands will give but a poor account of them to God.