honourable remembrance than upon this occasional mention can be allowed dying some weeks before her as if she had taken the Allarm to prepare for her own dissolution shortly to follow from that providence she more than doubled that proportion even to Davids seven times a day Ps 119. 164. In mentioning her Devotions I mean not only secret prayer and meditation but also constant reading and study of the Scriptures which was alwaies a considerable part of the employment that filled up her daily hours of retirement together with something or other of the writings of some learned practical Divines with which her Closet was well furnished I might reckon also as a part of her daily task the reading over one Sermon a day most daies out of her note-books for she constantly pen'd the Sermons she heard and I could wish that other great Sermon writers would herein follow her example and not turn their notes to wast-paper so soon as they filled their books as 't is to be feared too many do By which practise of hers learned from the mention of the like in the Life of the Young Lord Harrington by frequent inculcation she fixed in her memory all that she had heard and had it in a readiness for the direction of her conversation when ever she had need to make use of it And now it is possible that some persons that knew her not upon the mention of so great a daily task of Closet Religion comparing her with other Ladies of that Quality may be sollicitous to know what time she could allow for the trimming and adorning her Body or it may be may suspect her to have been some strange deformed Piece who being fallen out with her Glass for telling too much truth had neglected all care of auxiliary handsomness as meer lost labour and addicted her self to the beautifying of her Soul out of despair of ever rendring her bodie tolerably handsome or beautiful To satisfie therefore all those who may be concerned in this matter I must tell them that as her Person was such as to a middle and decent Pitch and just proportion of all Parts wanted not a Face whose amiable lineaments might by the ordinary Artifices of that kind have been advanced to the Reputation of a Beauty had she thought fit to have made use of them So she neglected not to bestow upon it so much time and pains after the necessary occasions of her Soul first attended as decency required though possibly not so much as Curiosity had she studied it would have called for And so much shall suffice for this digression To this proportion of constant Devotion which she cut her self out for every day if you add her great care to fill up all the rest of her time with profitable converse you cannot but look upon her as a great Instance of that command Eph. 5. 16. So did she 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 buy Time out as the word signifies of the hands of those wasters of precious minutes which are apt where they are not observed to forestall the Market and buy it up all even from the most religious employments I mean Pastimes and Recreations Whence it was that though she did not rigidly censure the liberty taken by others in that kind as absolutely and in its own nature unlawful yet she never allowed her self to see any Masque Enterlude or Play or to play at Cards or the like Games meerly because she doubted whether the expence of so much time as commonly such diversions require would be allowed upon her account or no. Much herein of a different temper from those great Persons whose Time so lies on their hands as a dead Commodity that they study all waies possible to put it off because they know not what profitableuse to put it unto A prodigallity which how much cause they have to repent of they may possibly understand when upon their death-beds they find the want of those precious minutes for more serious uses which they have so lavishly thrown away In the mean time to the Apostolical command but now mentioned I would entreat them to add in their serious meditations the commendable resolve of that Heathen who purposed Nemo ullum aufer at Diem nihil dignam tanto impendio redditurus Sen. de Tranq to allow a whole day to no converse that would not make him amends for the precious Time expended in it But to return again to our excellent Personage whom we left pursuing her daily design of acquainting her self with God in her set hours of devotion accounting it as she said a singular mercy that the great God of Heaven and earth would vouchsafe his Creatures such plentiful discoveries of himself both in the books of Nature and Providence and beyond both those in his written Word And therefore she prized them all but especially the last with an infinite affection insomuch that she often rose early in the morning to read and meditate thereon nor would she when she was engaged in that holy work suffer any interruptions how necessary soever without evident signs of trouble discomposure till she returned to her beloved Bible again Yea towards the Book it self for love of the excellent matter contained in it she expressed such a respect that she resented with a pious displeasure any undecent usage of it or careless throwing it among ordinary Books Now though she had a singular value for every part of the holy Bible yet there was one part of it the Book of Psalms which she seemed to be most passionately in love withall Perhaps because similitude being the ground of Love according to the great Philosopher she found so much agreement Arist Eth 8 betwixt her own heart and the spirit of that Book This affection she shewed by reading or causing to be read one or more of them constantly at her hour of repose in the evening which by meditation and discourse she was wont to improve to her own benefit and theirs who were about her And in her bed she was wont to lock up her lips till morning with the repetition of some one that she had by heart to which having added some devout ejaculations with wonderful fervency she usually dropped asleep in some holy extasie of Devotion And as she shut up her lips and heart too in this manner at night so she constantly opened them again in the morning with the same golden Key So that her sleep seemed to be but a Parenthesis betwixt her evening and morning Devotions which discontinued indeed but not disordered them yea rather connexed and united them into one entire piece of which it is probable her very sleeping Phantasie by holy Dreams made a part seeing it was next to impossible that even they being hedged in between two such immediate acts of Devotion should not receive a proportionable tincture from them These her set Devotions 't is likely she methodized most commonly according to her own discretion but yet she did
those against their wills who would not be led with their wills to submit unto it Ducunt volentem Fata nolentem trahunt Seneca Trag. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. c. 77. Edit Roterd. Better read by Lipsius in his Notes on Seneca Ep. 107. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lact. de vero cultu Whence Cleanthes for to him Simplicius assigns that saying delivered in Iambick verse at the end of Epictetus took up that noble Resolution of following where-ever his God and his Fate led him as thinking it more eligible to obey with his good wil than to be hurried against it It is true the irresistableness of such events as God assigns us is a reason for submission much below a Christian for as Lact antius saies nulla laus est non facere quod non possis it is no commendation to a man not to do what if he would he cannot and so to submit to that providence which he cannot resist yet because even Christians sometimes act below Christianity and humanity too I thought it not amiss to suggest this low consideration here as that which if it will not purchase them the praise of doing well yet may serve to keep them from the guilt of doing ill kicking against the pricks of providence and attempting a bootless and hurtful resistance against an irresistable will But Secondly that that carries a more generous veyn of Reason in it is 2. That could we hinder God of his will yet it is most just and equall that we should yield it him voluntarily upon the account of his deep Wisdom great Goodness spotless Justice and absolute Soveraignty considering that he that is infinitely wise can commit no error he that is infinitely good can do no evil he that is in infinitely just can offer no wrong and he that is an absolute Lord and unlimited Soveraign needs ask no leave in whatsoever he pleaseth to doe Now God is so wise that the Scripture tells us he is only wise and all creatures fooles to him Rom. 16. 17. all his works are done in wisdome infinite incomprehensible wisdome Ps 104. 24. so good that it assures us there is none as he is good absolutely originally independently and immutably good but he Mat. 19. 17. All the Earth is full of his goodness Ps 33. 5. There is no unrighteousness in him John 7. 18. He is righteous in all his wayes Ps 145. 17. And though all the World sift and scan his actions never so much they will be able to finde nothing after him to quarrel him justly for Eccles 7. 14. and therefore we shall but exalt our folly and render it more conspicuous Prov. 14. 29. and declare our sin Is 3. 9. and shew our taking pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2. 12. if we set up our foolish evil and unjust wills in opposition against him Wilt thou quarrel him because his wisdome is not concordant with humane maximes his goodness is not measured by humane measures and his justice not directed and governed by humane lawes Consider then in the last place that it is as Tertullian sayes a most foolish Stultissimi qui de humanis divina praejudicant Adv. Marc. lib. 2. thing to prejudge Gods affaires by humane Rules Because he is an absolute Soveraign over all the World he doth what he pleaseth in the Army of Heaven and among the Inbahitants of the Earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him what dost thou as the greatest Monarch at that day in the World confesseth Dan. 4. 35. Now it is proper to an absolute Soveraign to give Laws to all and receive them from none yea to be as unaccountable as the Potter is to the clay to all under his Dominion Rom. 9. 21. and therefore not to be commanded to yield an answer to any ones cavills concerning the work of his hands as both the Context the Chaldee Paraphrast the Arabick Version and St. Jerome will have us understand that Text which some modern Divines take for an high straine of Divine condescention to the force of Prayer Is 45. 11. It is hardly possible saith St. Austin but in Aliquid proprium velle difficile est ut tibi non contingat sed statim cogita illum supra te te infra illum illum creatorem te creaturam illum omnipotentem te infirmum corrigens te subjungens voluntati ejus c. Aug. in Ps 32. ubi supra something or other every man should incline to his own private will but then he ought presently to think that God is the Soveraign he the subject God the Creator he the creature God Omnipotent he impotent and then he will see cause to correct himself and say yet not as I will Lord but as thou wilt To summe up this Paragraph then If the will of man shall take upon it to prescribe to the will of God either Man must pretend to more Reason or more Right to govern the World than He. To pretend to more Reason must imply a fondly blasphemous conceit that he hath either skill to doe it more wisely or goodness to doe it more obligingly or justice to do it more equally than God And to plead more Right implyes no less a blasphemous absurdity For who hath more right to dispose of the Creature than he that made it Now he made us not we our selves Ps 100. 3. Of him and from him are all things Rom. 11. 36. and therefore in reason as followes they should be to him All the World was created for his pleasure Rev. 4. 11. and undoubtedly therefore he hath right to dispose of it at his pleasure The Father is the most proper Governour of the Childe he hath begotten and the Workman Master of the Manufacture that he hath made How absurd then is it for us that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods off-spring Act. 17. 28. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Workmanship Quorsum tandem prosiliet vestra arrogantia ut non sinatis me in officina mea dominari Calv. in Is 45. Eph. 2. 10. not to suffer the Father of our beings to govern in his own Family and the great Architect of all the World to be Master in his own Shop as a learned Commentator descants on that Text of Isaiah but now quoted 2. And Secondly on our part it is infinitely for our advantage to be managed by the will of God beyong what it would be to be left to our own and that in four particulars 1. This onely can effectually quiet us Ps 119. 165. Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them sayes the Psalmist All our disturbances as St. Bernard descants upon that Vnde scandala unde turbatio nisi quod propriam sequimur voluntatem c. Bern. Serm. de sub vol. Text arises from this that men will not be governed by Gods Law but their own wills Mans will if left to its own dispose will never be at rest
would fain perswade my self that by what hath been said your Judgments are Applyed convinced of this truth But that I am afraid unruly Passions will not suffer them especially in your particular concernments to pronounce according to their convictions Reason is alwayes more easily managed than Passion Man than the beast in Man The Law of the Members as the blessed Apostle complains is hardly brought into subjection to the Law of the Minde Rom. 7. 23. whence it comes to pass that though we know this Doctrine to be true and will assent to it in Thesi in general yet in Hypothesi when it comes to be reduced to every Mans particular there can hardly a Man be found that doth not perswade himself his Case doth not fall under this Rule nor ought he to be governed by it I complain of my self Christians as well as of you And Tertullian did so before me who Confiteor satis temerè me si non impudenter de patientia componere ausum cui praeftandae omninc idâ—â—eus non sum Ne dicta factis deficient ibus erubescant De Patient makes this ingenuous confession in the presence of God in the very entrance of his excellent Book De Patientia That he had somewhat imprudently and in a manner impudently undertaken to Treat of a Duty which he was not able to practise in so much that he was afraid lest his lines should blush at the disagreement that was betwixt them and his Life Indeed we may all of us if we will be ingenuous take up the same confession in reference to the subject of this Doctrine We can all of us say We must submit to Gods will and every one of us finde reasons to perswade our Brethren unto it but whenever Gods will crosseth us in our particular Interests how few of us are there of whom that may not be said truely which Eliphaz charges on Job Chap. 4. 5. Now it is come upon thee and thou faintest it toucheth thee and thou art troubled If God take a way a Neighbours Wife Childe Estate we can presently say and no words are more common in our mouths than these that seeing God pleaseth to have it so he must submit to and acquiesce in it But when it is our own case we must have a dispensation for our impatience our immoderate grief our murmuring our discontented Omnes cum valemus sana consilia aegrotis damus c. Ter. speeches and carriages So much harder is it to take good counsel than to give it Now in such cases it is plain that our Passions usurp the Throne of Reason And therefore I pray give me leave after all these Demonstrations with which I have endeavoured to satisfie your Judgments to descend to some moving considerations to make impression upon your Affections themselves that by making a Party for God among them I may by their help once raised be the better able to reduce those others to obedience that stand in Rebellion against him And because there is no passion that hath a greater influence upon us to recover us from our sinful extravagancies than shame of the absurdities that attend them for which reason Scripture so frequently makes it a companion of Repentance I shall endeavour to stir up in you that just abhorrency and detestation of this sinfull distemper as may provoke an holy and ingenuous indignation against it Now there are two things in this sinfull opposition and resistance of heart against the will of God which we may justly be ashamed of 1. That it debaseth us below those with whom we account it the greatest disparagement to be ranked and mustered There is no Name of greater disgrace among Christians than an Heathen and therefore to be accounted as an Heathen is used by our Saviour to express the highest brand of infamy that Christianity can marke the greatest offender withall Mat. 18. 17. So that certainly there can be nothing in the World which a Christian hath more cause to blush at than what is condemned by Heathens themselves Now in the point in hand it is amazing to think what an height some Heathens have arrived to beyond most of us that call our selvs Christians As you must needs say when you shall read in Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That a Man ought so far 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. Ench. c. 13. to renounce his own will that he must not so much as seek or desire to have things fall out as he will but be willing to have them fall out as they doe and that Men come into this World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as Actors upon a Stage who are not to choose the parts they will Act but only to take care to Act that part decently which is assigned them and that Men ought to demean themselves in the World as well-bred Persons at a Feast who carve decently to themselves of the Dish that is set before them but call not for that which is taken off or set by That thus we ought to carry our selves towards Wives Children Honours Estates use them moderately whiles God vouchsafes the enjoyment of them but if he deny them to us or take them from us not to be too sollicitous after them That a Man thus affected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 21. is sit to be a Guest at the Table of the Gods but he that can advance so high as to despise all these even when he hath them is in a sort a sharer with them in their Throne and Soveraignty as also That the chief Principle of Religion is to have a right opinion of the Gods as being most good and most just and administring all affairs accordingly that Man is appointed to obey and acquiesce in all that they doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. C. 38. Cap. 15. and to follow willingly their conduct as grounded on the supreme Reason for otherwise Men will measure their Religion by their advantages and love their God or hate him as they apprehend him the cause of good or evil to them and that Men must not say when any enjoyment is taken from them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have lost it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have restored it to the right owner and proprietor thereof restored a dead Wife or Childe or Friend a wasted Estate c. and whiles they enjoy any thing must look on it as a Permittes ipsis expendere numinibus quid conveniat nobis rebusque sit utile nostris Nam pro jucundis aptissima quaeque dabunt Dii Charior est illis homo quam sibi Juv. Sat. 10. Traveller on his Inn as his own Lodging but anothers House To add to these that of the Heathen-Poet and he none of the best neither That Men must leave it to the Gods to choose for them who because they love Man better than he can himself will choose what
charity and kindness much good counsel and desired her Husband to add something to her favours too but above all to dismiss her with a second largess of good Advice To the Poor She was hugely charitable sometimes not staying till they expressed their own wants but pressing out of them those complaints which their modesty would have suppressed by her own enquiries into their conditions that She might know wherein She might be beneficial to them And when She had information of any wants above an ordinary charity She was even sollicitous how to procure a proportionable relief for the parties concerned nor was She charitable to the bodies only of those whom She relieved for She gave to most but to those especially whose great exigences in probability rendred them more capable and inclinable to follow it the double Alms of her bounty and counsel together which last though the other were not mean neither was constantly the best of the two A thousand Instances of her great Charity in this kind have escaped the observation of any but those only that received it She being in acts of this nature contented with the notice of God and Conscience so that our Saviours Rule in this was hers not to let her left hand know what her right hand did Mat. 6. 3. And yet to Gods glory and her own deserved commendation those good deeds of this nature which She studiously to avoid what She alwaies abhorred the very appearance of vain-glory concealed in her life time in a great measure came to light after her death as appeared in the passionate resentments of great crowds of poor people who as is usual in such cases thronging to obtain a sight of her Herse whiles exposed to view declared that not so much their curiosity as affection drew them thither by the bitter lamentations and tears wherewith they bewailed her death as the Widdows did Dorcas Acts 9. 39. as their common and irreparable loss In this her bounty partly out of her great fear as I told you before to be too well thought of if others knew the proportions of it and partly that She might be the more assured that it was not diverted from the right channel She commonly trusted no hands but her own making it her care before She went out of doors at any time to furnish her Poor-mans Purse with such monies as were most convenient to be distributed and divided among those necessitous people which providence before She returned might cast in her way One special passage I must not omit under this Head of Charity though it only so far concern her as it expresseth her judgment in the choice of fit subjects to lay it forth upon She was once told of the prodigious bounty of some of her Ancestors towards Religious places and Persons and particularly upon young students in the Vniversities This last sort of charity as soon as mentioned She especially applauded thus expressing her thoughts of it Indeed said She it is the best Charity to promote the good of souls and in that respect it is a much nobler bounty to be the means of consecrating the life of one than relieving the age and infirmities of twenty Let me close up this Section with the averseness she expressed to the great bane of Love and charity Tale-bearing for which she constantly had a high degree of detestation She alwaies suspected a passionate Accuser as commonly more faulty than the party accused it being the usual artifice of malice to endeavour the concealing its own guilt by stopping the ears of Justice with a prejudicate opinion against those from whom it fears a recrimination And in all differences of this nature which came under her cognizance she constantly used this healing method first to allay the acrimony of the contending spirits and then to accommodate the difference it self In a word her Charity in all points answered the Character which the great Apostle gives of that Heavenly Grace 1 Cor. 13. which to read is to comprise the whole History of her Life in a nutshel a short Abstract or Epitome Read it here if you please and accommodate the several parts of it to my former Relation Charity and such was hers suffereth long and is kind envieth not vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the Truth beareth all things believeth all things endureth all things v. 4 5 6 7. And now to so eminent a progress in all manner of perfections there could hardly be made any accession in this world so that it was high time for her to be transplanted from hence to the society of the spirits made perfect in another And God whose wont it is Heb 12 23 to gather his fruit when it is fully ripe having thus made her meet for the inheritance of the Saints in Col 1 12 light accordingly thought fit on March 28. 1664. to translate her thither Her sickness of which she dyed surprised her tanquam ex insidiis being the small Pocks disguised under the reliques of a Feaver to appearance almost perfectly profligated Such a surprize of death in the very borders and confines of expected health had been sufficient to have discomposed any soul and ruffled it into disorder but such an one as hers which kept alwaies so good a guard that no event could befall her for which she was not provided During that twilight of hopes and fears which sometimes held both her Physitians and Relations in suspence concerning her she alwaies seemed in her own inclinations to propend to Saint Pauls choice Phil. 1. 23. having a desire to depart and to be with Christ begging of her dear Husband who was as he had great cause humbly importunate with God for a longer enjoyment of her that he would not pray for her life but for her soul and that God would make her fit to die or if he pleased to gratifie the desires of those who so affectionately wished her recovery that he would so sanctifie his hand unto her that she might obtain grace to pay her vows Indeed her great aim and design was to 2 Cor. 7. 1. perfect holiness in the fear of God and her great request for her self in midst of her feverish Paroxysms was that by that burning heat as she said she might be purified and refined Conformable hereunto was that Request of hers taken notice of in a former sickness which fell out a year before her Marriage which she expressed with a most pathetical vehemency O that I could do the whole will of God! At other times of this her last weakness when her Husband praying by her prosecuted with earnestness his constant Request for her recovery to health and a longer life she would after the duty kindly chide the exuberancy of his affection desire him to rest content in Gods Promise that all things should work together