secret Addresses to God and indeed it appeared to those who conversed most with him in his Enquiries into Nature that his main design in that on which as he had his own Eye most constantly so he took care to put others often in mind of it was to raise in himself and others vaster Thoughts of the Greatness and Glory and of the Wisdom and Goodness of God This was so deep in his Thoughts that he concludes the Article of his Will which relates to that Illustrious Body the Royal Society in these Words Wishing them also a happy success in their laudable Attempts to discover the true Nature of the Works of God and praying that they and all other Searchers into Physical Truths may Cordially refer their Attainments to the Glory of the Great Author of Nature and to the Comfort of Mankind As he was a very Devout Worshipper of God so he was a no less Devout Christian. He had possessed himself with such an amiable view of that Holy Religion separated from either superstitious Practices or the sourness of Parties that as he was fully perswaded of the Truth of it and indeed wholly possessed with it so he rejoyced in every discovery that Nature furnisht him with to Illustrate it or to take off the Objections against any part of it He always considered it as a System of Truths which ought to purifie the Hearts and govern the Lives of those who profess it he loved no Practice that seemed to lessen that nor any Nicety that occasioned Divisions amongst Christians He thought pure and disinteressed Christianity was so Bright and so Glorious a thing that he was much troubled at the Disputes and Divisions which had arisen about some lesser Matters while the Great and the most Important as well as the most universally acknowledged Truths were by all sides almost as generally neglected as they were confessed He had therefore designed tho' some Accidents did upon great Considerations divert him from settling it during his Life but not from ordering it by his Will that a liberal Provision should be made for one who should in a very few well digested Sermons every year set forth the Truth of the Christian Religion in general without descending to the Subdivisions among Christians and who should be changed every Third year that so this Noble Study and Imployment might pass through many Hands by which means many might become Masters of the Argument He was at the Charge of the Translation and Impression of the New Testament into the Malyan Language which he sent over all the East-Indies He gave a Noble Reward to him that Translated Grotius his incomparable Book of the Truth of the Christian Religion into Arabick and was at the Charge of a whole Impression which he took care to order to be scattered in all the Countries where that Language is understood He was resolved to have carried on the Impression of the New Testament in the Turkish Language but the Company thought it became them to be the doers of it and so suffered him only to give a large share towards it He was at 700 l. Charge in the Edition of the Irish Bible which he ordered to be distributed in Ireland and he contributed liberally both to the Impressions of the Welsh Bible and of the Irish Bible for Scotland He gave during his Life 300 l. to advance the design of propagating the Christian Religion in America and as soon as he heard that the East-India Company were entertaining Propositions for the like design in the East he presently sent 100 l. for a Beginning and an Example but intended to carry it much further when it should be set on foot to purpose Thus was his Zeal lively and effectual in the greatest and truest concerns of Religion but he avoided to enter far into the unhappy Breaches that have so long weakened as well as distracted Christianity any otherwise than to have a great aversion to all those Opinions and Practices that seemed to him to destroy Morality and Charity He had a most particular zeal against all Severities and Persecutions upon the account of Religion I have seldom observ'd him to speak with more Heat and Indignation than when that came in his way He did throughly agree with the Doctrines of our Church and conform to our Worship and he approved of the main of our Constitution but he much lamented some abuses that he thought remained still among us He gave Eminent Instances of his value for the Clergy Two of these I shall only mention When he understood what a share he had in Impropriations he ordered very large Gifts to be made to the Incumbents in those Parishes and to the Widows of such as had died before he had resolved on this Charity The Sums that as I have been Informed by one that was concerned in two Distributions that were made amounted upon those two Occasions to near 600 l. and another very liberal one is also ordered by his Will but in an indefinite Sum I suppose by reason of the present condition of Estates in Ireland So plentifully did he supply those who served at the Altar out of that which was once devoted to it though it be now converted to a Temporal Estate Another Instance of his sence of the Sacred Functions went much deeper Soon after the Restoration in the Year Sixty the great Minister of that time pressed him both by himself and by another who was then likewise in a high Post to enter into Orders He did it not meerly out of a respect to him and his Family but chiefly out of his regard to the Church that he thought would receive a great strengthening as well as a powerful Example from one who if he once entered into Holy Orders would be quickly at the Top. This he told me made some Impressions on him His mind was even then at Three and thirty so intirely disingaged from all the Projects and Concerns of this World that as the prospect of Dignity in the Church could not move him much so the Probabilities of his doing good in it was much the stronger Motive Two things determined him against it one was That his having no other Interests with relation to Religion besides those of saving his own Soul gave him as he thought a more unsuspected Authority in writing or acting on that side He knew the prophane Crew fortified themselves against all that was said by Men of our Profession with this That it was their Trade and that they were paid for it He hoped therefore that he might have the more Influence the less he shared in the Patrimony of the Church But his main Reason was That he had so high a sense of the Obligations of the Pastoral care and of such as watch over those Souls which Christ purchased with his own blood and for which they must give an Account at the last and great day that he durst not undertake it especially not having felt within himself an
of these Kingdoms for above fifty Years of any Woman of our Age. She imployed it all for doing good to others in which she laid out her Time her Interest and her Estate with the greatest Zeal and the most Success that I have ever known She was indefatigable as well as dextrous in it and as her great Understanding and the vast Esteem she was in made all Persons in their several turns of Greatness desire and value her Friendship so she gave her self a clear Title to imploy her Interest with them for the Service of others by this that she never made any use of it to any End or Design of her own She was contented with what she had and though she was twice stript of it she never moved on her own account but was the general Intercessor for all Persons of Merit or in want This had in her the better Grace and was both more Christian and more effectual because it was not limited within any narrow Compass of Parties or Relations When any Party was down she had Credit and Zeal enough to serve them and she employed that so effectually that in the next Turn she had a new stock of Credit which she laid out wholly in that Labour of Love in which she spent her Life and though some particular Opinions might shut her up in a divided Communion yet her Soul was never of a Party She divided her Charities and Friendships both her Esteem a well as her Bounty with the truest Regard to Merit and her own Obligations without any Difference made upon the Account of Opinion She had with a vast Reach both of Knowledge and Apprehensions an universal Affability and Easiness of Access a Humility that descended to the meanest Persons and Concerns an obliging Kindness and Readiness to advise those who had no occasion for any further Assistance from her and with all these and many more excellent Qualities she had the deepest Sense of Religion and the most constant turning of her Thoughts and Discourses that way that has been perhaps in our Age. Such a Sister became such a Brother and it was but suitable to both their Characters that they should have improved the Relation under which they were born to the more exalted and endearing one of Friend At any time a Nation may very ill spare one such but for both to go at once and at such a time is too melancholly a Thought and notwithstanding the Decline of their Age and the Waste of their Strength yet it has too much of Cloud in it to bear the being long dwelt on You have thus far seen in a very few hints the several Sorts and Instances of Goodness that appeared in this Life which has now its Period that which gives value and lustre to them all was that whatever he might be in the sight of Men how pure and spotless soever those who knew him the best have reason to conclude that he was much more so in the sight of God for they had often Occasions to discover new Instances of Goodness in him and no secret ill Inclinations did at any time shew themselves He affected nothing that was solemn or supercilious He used no Methods to make Multitudes run after him or depend upon him It never appeared that there was any thing hid under all this appearance of Goodness that was not truly so He hid both his Piety and Charity all he could He lived in the due Methods of Civility and would never assume the Authority which all the World was ready to pay him He spoke of the Government even in Times which he disliked and upon occasions which he spared not to condemn with an exactness of respect He allowed himself a great deal of decent chearfulness so that he had nothing of the moroseness to which Philosophers think they have some right nor of the Affectations which Men of an extraordinary pitch of Devotion go into sometimes without being well aware of them He was in a word plainly and sincerely in the sight of God as well as in the view of Men a good Man even One of a Thousand That which comes next to be considered is the share that this good Man had in those Gifts of God Wisdom Knowledg and Joy If I should speak of these with the copiousness which the Subject affords I should go too far even for your Patience tho I have reason to believe it would hold out very long on this Occasion I will only name things which may be enlarged on more fully in another way He had too unblemish'd a candor to be capable of those Arts and Practices that a false and deceitful World may call Wisdom He could neither lie nor equivocate but he could well be silent and by practising that much he cover'd himself upon many uneasy Occasions He made true Judgments of Men and Things His Advices and Opinions were solid and sound and if Caution and Modesty gave too strong a Biass his Invention was fruitful to suggest good Expedients He had great Notions of what Humane Nature might be brought to but since he saw Mankind was not capable of them he withdrew himself early from Affairs and Courts notwithstanding the Distinction with which he was always treated by our late Princes But he had the Principles of an English-man as well as of a Protestant too deep in him to be corrupted or cheated out of them and in these he studied to fortify all that conversed much with him He had a very particular Sagacity in observing what Men were fit for and had so vast a Scheme of different Performances that he could soon furnish every Man with Work that had leasure and capacity for it and as soon as he saw him engaged in it then a handsom Present was made to enable him to go on with it His Knowledg was of so vast an Extent that if it were not for the variety of Vouchers in their several sorts I should be afraid to say all I know He carried the study of the Hebrew very far into the Rabbinical Writings and the other Oriental Languages He had read so much of the Fathers that he had formed out of it a clear Judgment of all the eminent Ones He had read a vast deal on the Scriptures and had gone very nicely through the whole Controversies of Religion and was a true Master in the whole Body of Divinity He run the whole Compass of the Mathematical Sciences and though he did not set himself to spring new Game yet he knew even the abstrusest Parts of Geometry Geography in the several parts of it that related to Navigation or Travelling History and Books of Travels were his Diversions He went very nicely through all the Parts of Physick only the tenderness of his Nature made him less able to endure the exactness of Anatomical Dissections especially of living Animals though he knew these to be the most instructing But for the History of Nature Ancient and Modern of the
Productions of all Countries of the Virtues and Improvements of Plants of Oars and Minerals and all the Varieties that are in them in different Climates He was by much by very much the readiest and the perfectest I ever knew in the greatest Compass and with the truest Exactness This put him in the way of making all that vast variety of Experiments beyond any Man as far as we know that ever lived And in these as he made a great progress in new Discoveries so he used so nice a strictness and delivered them with so scrupulous a Truth that all who have examined them have found how safely the World may depend upon them But his peculiar and favourite Study was Chymistry in which he engaged with none of those ravenous and amitious Designs that draw many into them His Design was only to find out Nature to see into what Principles things might be resolved and of what they were compounded and to prepare good Medicaments for the Bodies of Men. He spent neither his Time nor Fortune upon the vain pursuits of high Promises and Pretensions He always kept himself within the Compass that his Estate might well bear And as he made Chymistry much the better for his dealing in it so he never made himself either the worse or the poorer for it It was a Charity to others as well as an Entertainment to himself for the Produce of it was distributed by his Sister and others into whose Hands he put it I will not here amuse you with a List of his astonishing Knowledg or of his great Performances this way They are highly valued all the World over and his Name is every where mentioned with most particular Characters of Respect I will conclude this Article with this in which I appeal to all competent Judges that few Men if any have been known to have made so great a Compass and to have been so exact in all the Parts of it as he was As for Joy he had indeed nothing of Frolick and Levity in him he had no Relish for the idle and extravagant Madness of the Men of Pleasure he did not waste his Time nor dissipate his Spirits into foolish Mirth but he possessed his own Soul in Patience full of that solid Joy which his Goodness as well as his Knowledg afforded him He who had neither Designs nor Passions was capable of little Trouble from any Concerns of his own He had about him all the Tenderness of good Nature as well as all the Softness of Friendship these gave him a large share of other Mens Concerns for he had a quick sense of the Miseries of Mankind He had also a feeble Body which needed to be look'd to the more because his Mind went faster than that his Body could keep pace with it yet his great Thoughts of God and his Contemplation of his Works were to him Sources of Joy which could never be exhausted The Sense of his own Integrity and of the Good he found it did afforded him the truest of all Pleasures since they gave him the certain Prospect of that Fulness of Joy in the Sight of which he lived so long and in the Possession of which he now lives and shall live for ever and this spent and exhausted Body shall then put on a new Form and be made a fit Dwelling for that pure and exalted Mind in the final Restitution I pass over his Death I looked at it some time ago but I cannot bring down my Mind from the elevating Thoughts that do now arise into that depressing one of his Death I must look beyond it into the Regions of Light and Glory where he now dwells The only Thought that is now before me is to triumph on the Behalf of Religion to make our due Boast of it and to be lifted up I had almost said proud upon this occasion how divine and how pure a thing must that Religion be in it self which produced so long a Series of great Effects thorow the whole Course of this shining Life What a thing would Mankind become if we had many such And how little need would there be of many Books writ for the Truth and Excellency of our Religion if we had more such Arguments as this one Life has produced Such single Instances have great Force in them but when they are so very Single they lose much of their Strength by this that they are ascribed to Singularity and something particular in a Man's Humour and Inclinations that makes him rise above common Measures It were a Monopoly for any Family or Sort of Men to ingross to themselves the Honour which arises from the Memory of so great a Man It is a Common not to be inclosed It is large enough to make a whole Nation as well as the Age he lived in look big and be happy But above all it gives a new Strength as well as it sets a new Pattern to all that are sincerely zealous for their Religion It shews them in the simplest and most convincing of all Arguments what the Humane Nature is capable of and what the Christian Religion can add to it how far it can both exalt and reward it I do not say that every one is capable of all he grew to I am very sensible that few are nor is every one under equal Obligations for the Service of the Universe there must be a vast Diversity in Mens Tempers there being so great a Variety of Necessities to be answered by them but every Man in every Imployment and of every size of Soul is capable of being in some Degrees good in the sight of God and all such shall receive proportioned Degrees of Wisdom Knowledg and Joy even though neither their Goodness nor these Accessions to it rise up to the Measure of him who was a while among us indeed one of a thousand and is now but one of those ten thousand times ten thousand that are about the Throne where he is singing that Song which was his great Entertainment here as it is his how endless Joy there Great and marvellous are thy Works O Lord God Almighty and just and true are thy Ways O King of Saints To follow him in the like Exercises here is the sure Way to be admitted to join with him in those above to which God of his infinite Mercy bring us all in due time through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Amen FINIS Chap. 7.25 27. Eccles. 8.17