in the conquest of her self and mastery of her passions as I could give several pregnant instances but epecially in that of the death of her dear and only Son wherein her behaviour was so submiss serene and calm I confess I cannot but judge it scarce imitable or attainable by any other Great in a thousand things besides which the world admires as such but I can be and here profess my self her faithful witness she despised them all and counted them but loss and dung in comparison of the fear of God and the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. The Substance of great Volumes uses to be summarily contracted into Contents and Titles All I have said is but an imperfect Index to this great Folio of Voluminous Virtue You that knew her must have the Book before you turn over the leaves of your own memories and read with pleasure what those hints refer you to But I promised you to present her as an example of Solomon's Rule let us therefore bring her and the Text together and never two were better met If ever this Scripture were fulfilled 't is this day fulfilled in your ears O thou Great Heroick Noble Blessed Soul and blessed be that God and Grace that made thee such Many daughters have done virtuously but thou excellest them all Though thou wantedst not Beauty and didst exceed in Favour thou didst neither prize them nor catch at praises by them but didst fear the Lord with all thy heart and esteemedst that thy only praise and honour Thy hands were fruitful and thy lips too and thy Fruits were many pleasant useful seasonable ripe sweet and fragrant both to God and Man Thou art now praising God and we are praising thee with the Sprigs of those Lawrels will we crown thee which thy own hands did plant and eyes did water that God may be praised in thee and for thee and others drawn by holy emulation to transcribe thy Copy I shall begin with that which always had the first place in her care and heart her Religion and Piety which in the language of my Text is the fear of the Lord. And I may as is said of Hannaniah Neh. 7.2 truly attest that she feared the Lord above many above most not to say above all that she feared the Lord greatly as is testified of Obadiah 1 King 18.3 Or as David calls himself Gods servant devoted to his fear Psal 119.38 So might she most truly I shall give you an account of 1. Her Entrance or Beginning 2. Progress or Growth 1. Practice and Exercise of Religion as to her self 2. Of her Zeal and holy Industry to promote it and encourage it in others First as to her beginning to be seriously Religious and to make it her business in good earnest though she had good education and had been principled in the Grounds of Catechism in her youth yet she would confess she understood nothing of the life and power of Religion upon her heart had no spiritual sense of it till some years after she was married She hath told me also with what prejudice and strange apprehensions as to matters of Religion she came into the Family in which she lived and died with so much Honour for she was almost frighted with the disadvantageous account was given of it but when she came to see the regular performance of divine Worship and hear the useful edifying preaching of the most necessary practical and substantial truths and observe the order and good Government and received encouragement from her Right Honourable Father-in-law who had always an extraordinary value for her and affection to her her prejudice wore off and approbation followed Which minds me of a comparison used by the Learned P. Martyr which occasioned the Conversion of the Pious Galeacius Caracciolus If a Man standing at a great distance see a Company dancing he wonders at their antick Gestures and seemingly ridiculous motions and thinks them a company of mad men but if he approaches nearer and comes within the hearing of the sweet and harmonious Musick which guides and measures out those motions and observes how regularly one answers to the other he then admires them approves their decency and order and desires to dance with them So if a man take up the reports the world gives of serious Christians or sees them at a distance busily attending all the duties of their holy Calling and Profession he thinks of them as Festus did of Paul that they are beside themselves or mad but if he acquaint himself more throughly with them and hears and understands the Word of God which is as it were the Musick to which they dance and takes notice how they measure all their motions by its melody he sees such an agreeing and beautiful conformity betwixt them he cannot but approve it and joyn with them God made use of two more remote means of her Conversion Afflictions and Retirement the kind of the first and the occasion of the second need not here be named Only the divine Wisdom and Grace is very adorable for adapting suitable means to bring his purposes to pass as these were in her circumstances for she would since acknowledge that her great difficulty and remora was her love of the pleasures and vanities of the world which she neither knew how to reconcile with the strictness of Religion nor yet could be content to part with for that whose sweets and better pleasures she was not then acquainted with God therefore gradually weaned her by rendring more insipid what had too much pleased her and by giving her vacancy and freedom from distraction to acquaint her self more throughly with the things of God By which she was enabled to set to her seal to that testimony which God gives to spiritual Wisdom That all her ways are pleasantness and all her paths are peace and to her Friends would frequently and freely do it assuring them That she had no cause to repent the change she found of the solid and satisfying pleasures she obtained in Religion for those unquiet empty ones she left in ways of vanity thereby encouraging them to try not doubting but upon experience they would become of the same mind Two more immediate helps which God blessed to her were the preaching of the Word which God hath ordained for the salvation of them that believe 1 Cor. 1.21 and Christian Conference and because such an hint may do others good the pressing the necessity of speedy and true repentance and shewing the danger of procrastination and puttings off and stifling present convictions by delay This seemed to turn the wavering trembling balance and to fix the scale of her resolution This is about nine and twenty years since from which time though before her conversation was viceless sweet and inoffensive yet she would confess her mind was vain she walk'd with God most closely circumspectly accurately And I verily believe few if any ever chose the better part more resolutely than
Temple but served God with fasting and prayers night and day 1 Thes 5. Rom. 12.12 Pray without ceasing continuing instant in prayer giving thanks continually and in all things And the Left Hand though it grow on another Arm draws Sap and Virtue from the same Tree and Root to make it fruitful in variety and multitude of Acts of Justice and Charity 1. Of Justice thinking speaking no evil of any Man but dealing honestly with all Men Superiors Equals Inferiours in all natural moral civil Actions in all concernments of Body Goods and Name wronging no Man defrauding no Man but doing to others as they would others should do to them and observing this rule constantly and in all occasions and occurrences and so doing righteousness at all times 2. In Charity Matth. 25. relieving the distressed feeding the hungry cloathing the naked visiting the afflicted by sickness prison or any other pressures instructing the ignorant comforting the feeble-minded and supporting them who are cast down under any temptation Eccl. 12.6 â— and this not once or twice or to one or two but sowing this seed in the Morning and not withholding in the Evening giving this portion to seven and also to eight casting Bread upon the waters yea scattering by all waters This briefly of the good Womans character 2. Her Crown Praise Praise is the shadow which attends the Body of Virtue The Eccho which sounds an honorary Testimony 1. From the Consciences of all Men even those who will not practise it themselves cannot but approve it and applaud it in them that do if there be any virtue if there be any praise the Apostle of the Gentiles nay the Consciences of the very Gentiles hath annexed them so close together Se Judice nemo nocens absolvitur they cannot be parted for as no vicious and guilty person can be absolved though he were to be his own Judge so no virtuous person can be condemned Rom. 2. though to be judged by his Enemies That law written in the heart cannot but approve the Transcript and Counter-part and Copy of it self where ere it meets it 2. From the Mouths of all good Men and those especially who have found and felt its beneficial influence Beloved thou dost faithfully whatever thou dost to the Brethren 3 Joh. 5.6 and to Strangers which have born witness of thy Charity before the Church S. Paul even boasted of the forward zeal of them of Achaia 2 Cor. 9.12 13. 2 Cor. 8.3 and God was glorified for their liberal distribution to all Men. And of the Churches of Macedonia he bears record That to their power yea and beyond their power they were willing of themselves Job 31.20 The Loyns of the poor blessed Job who were warmed by the sleece of his Sheep Her children rise up and call her blessed for the care of their tender and pious education and her husband for her chaste conversation and faithful industry of which he is not only a witness but reaps the benefit of it and for those he praiseth her 3. From the whole Chorus of the Heavenly Hierarchy the Angels Joy in Heaven is the most landative acclamation to her Virtues 4. From God and Christ whose Euge Well done good and faithful servants whose Come ye blessed of my Father whose testimony I was hungry Matth. 25. and ye fed me naked and ye cloathed me is the highest praise imaginable or possible Now this praise is first promised She shall be praised God leaves us not without encouragements to make us good Promises and Threats Rewards and Punishments are the great instruments of Government both with God and Men and all Rewards include Praise and are the silent yet the loudest commendations A Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. and Life is provided and fore-promised to them that fight the good Fight that keep the Faith that are faithful unto death Great and precious promises 2 Cor. 6.7 that God will receive us be our Father and our God to provoke us to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God 1 Pet. An Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven Rivers of pleasure fulness of joy an eternal Kingdom and everlasting life And in the Letter the highest praise Rom. 2.28 for he that is circumcised in heart and spirit that is a Christian within his praise shall be of God and he is approved indeed whom God commendeth Ps 11.26 and we have God's word for it that the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance 2. 'T is commanded and given in charge concerning her to others Give her of the fruit of her hands let her works praise her in the Gates Let them be spoken of and mentioned to her honour in the Assemblies of the great Men and in the concourse of the people which use to be most frequent in the Gates God gives not only leave but charge and 't is not only an allowable courtesie but a just debt and tribute due to virtuous persons to declare and celebrate their famous Acts. 'T is an Apostolical precept to the Philippians concerning Epaphroditus who for the work of Christ was near unto death hold him and not him only but such as he in reputation Phil. 2.29 Yea our Lord himself concerning Mary who anointed him and wrought a good work upon him Mat. 26.13 Praedicendo praecepit Verily I say unto you wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her And God will have the Virtues and the Victories of his Saints recorded to provoke our imitation of them and encourage our weakness to war against vice saith S. Gregory 3. It 's performed concerning her thou excellest them all 1 Cor. 14.12 we should labour to excel in Duty Seek that you may excel What do you more than others See that ye abound more and more so run out-run others that ye may obtain and praise shall be proportionable Thou excellest them all We find such Encomiums frequent in Scripture Thus of Hezekiah 2 King 18.5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him of all the kings of Israel nor any that was before him that is for strength of Faith So of Josiah 2 King 23.25 And like unto him there was no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to the Law of Moses neither after him arose any like him So God's testimony of Job Job 1.8 is That there was not a Man like him in all the earth So S. Paul testifies of Timothy Phil. 2.20 I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your estate Thus have I lightly shaken the principal Branches of this goodly Tree and the ripe and pleasant Fruit
born a Lady and a Virtuosa both Seventh Daughter of that eminently Honourable Richard the First Earl of Cork who being born a private Gentleman and younger Brother of a younger Brother to no other Heritage than is expressed in the Device and Motto which his humble Gratitude inscribed on all the Palaces he built God's Providence mine Inheritance By that Providence and his diligent and wise Industry raised such an Honour and Estate and left such a Family as never any Subject of these three Kingdoms did and that with so unspotted a reputation of integrity that the most invidious scrutiny could find no blot though it winnowed all the methods of his Rising most severely which our good Lady hath often told me with great content and satisfaction This Noble Lord by his prudent and pious Consort no less an Ornament and Honour to their Descendants than himself was blessed with five Sons of which he lived to see four Lords and Peers of the Kingdom of Ireland And a Fifth more than these Titles speak a Sovereign and Peerless in a larger Province that of universal nature subdued and made obsequious to his inquisitive mind And eight Daughters And that you may remark how all things were extraordinary in this great Personage it will I hope be neither unpleasant nor impertinent to add a short Story I had from our Lady 's own mouth Master Boyl who was then a Widdower came one Morning to wait upon Sir Jeoffry Fenton at that time a great Officer of State in the Kingdom of Ireland who being engaged in business and not knowing who it was who desired to speak with him a while delayed him access which time he spent pleasantly with his young Daughter in her Nurses Arms. But when Sir Jeoffrey came and saw whom he had made attend somewhat long he civilly excused it But Master Boyl replyed he had been very well entertained and spent his time much to his satisfactiou in courting his Daughter if he might obtain the Honour to be accepted for his Son-in-law At which Sir Jeoffrey smiling to hear one who had been formerly married move for a Wife carried in Arms and under two years old asked him if he would stay for her to which he frankly answered him he would and Sir Jeoffrey as generously promised him he should then have his full consent And they both kept their words honourably And by this virtuous Lady he had thirteen Children ten of which he lived to see honourably married and died a Grandfather by the youngest of them Nor did she derive less honour from the collateral than the descending Line being Sister by Soul and Genius as well as Blood to these great Personages whose illustrious unspotted and resplendent Honour and Virtue and whose useful Learning and accurate Pens may attone and expiate as well as shame the scandalous Blemishes of a debauched and the many impertinencies of a scribling Age. 1. Richard the truly Right Honourable Loyal Wise and Virtuous Earl of Burlington and Cork whose life is his fairest and most laudable Character 2. The Right Honourable Roger Earl of Orery that great Poet great States-man great Soldier and great Every-thing which merits the name of Great or Good 3. Francis Lord Shannon whose Pocket-Pistol as he stiles his Book may make as wide Breaches in the Walls of the Capital as many Canons 4. And that Honourable and well known name R. Boyl Esquire that profound Philosopher accomplished Humanist and excellent Divine I had almost said Lay-Bishop as one hath stiled Sir H. Savil whose Works alone may make a Library The Female Branches also if it be lawful so to call them whose Virtues were so masculine Souls knowing no difference of Sex by their Honours and Graces by mutual reflections gave and received lustre to and from her The Eldest of which the Lady Alice was married to the Lord Baramore The Second the Lady Sarah to the Lord Digby of Ireland The Third the Lady Laetitia to the eldest Son of the Lord Goring who died Earl of Norwich The Fourth the Lady Joan to the Earl of Kildare not only Primier Earl of Ireland but the ancientest House in Christendom of that degree the present Earl being the six and twentieth or seven and twentieth of Lineal Descent And as I have heard it was that great Antiquary King Charles the First his observation that the three anientest Families in Europe for Nobility were the Veres in England Earls of Oxford and the Fitz-Geralds in Ireland Earls of Kildare and Momorancy in France 'T is observable that the present young Earl of Kildare is a mixture of the Blood of Fitz-Geralds and Veres The Fifth the Lady Katharine who was married to the Lord Vicount Ranelaugh and Mother to the present generous Earl of Ranelaugh of which Family I could have added an eminent Remark I meet with in Fuller's Worthies This Lady's Character is so signalized by her known Merit among all Persons of Honour that as I need not so I dare not attempt beyond this one word She was our Lady's Friend-Sister The Sixth the Lady Dorothy Loftus The Seventh the number of Perfection which shut up and crown'd this noble Train for the Eighth the Lady Margaret died unmarried was our excellent Lady Mary married to Charles Earl of Warwick of whom if I should use the Language of my Text I should neither despair their pardon nor fear the reproach of rudeness Many Daughters all his Daughters did virtuously but thou She was Great by her Marriage into the Noble Neighbouring Family which yet received accession to its Grandure by the lustre of her Name and Virtues But she needed neither borrowed Shades nor reflexive Lights to set her off being personally great in all natural Endowments and Accomplishments of Soul and Body Wisdom Beauty Favour Virtue Great by her Tongue for never Woman used one better speaking so gracefully promptly discreetly pertinently holily that I have oft admired the edifying words that proceeded from her Mouth Great by her Pen as you may Ex pede Herculem discover by that little taste of it the world hath been happy in the hasty fruit of one or two interrupted hours after Supper which she professed to me with a little regret when she was surprised with it's sliding into the world without her knowledge or allowance and wholly beside her expectation Great by being the greatest Mistress and Promotress not to say the Foundress and Inventress of a new Science The Art of obliging in which she attain'd that Sovereign Perfection that she reigned over all their hearts with whom she did converse Great in her nobleness of Living and in her free and splendid Hospitality Great in the unparallel'd sincerity of constant faithful condescending Friendship and for that law of kindness which dwelt in her Lips and Heart Great in her dexterity of Management Great in her quickness to apprehend the difficulties of her Affairs and where the stress and pinch lay to untie the Knot and loose and ease them Great
fragments and broken meat but with liberal provision purposely made for them She was a great pitier yea a great lover of the poor and she built a convenient house on purpose for them at her London-Seat as they had one at Leez to shelter them from rain and heat while they received their dole and when she was at London with her Family had in her absence whilst no house was kept at Leez a kind of house kept for their sakes alone That is twice a week good Beef and Bread provided for the poor of four adjacent Parishes and hath taken order in her Will to have the same continued three months after her decease and by the same Will hath given an hundred pounds to be distributed to the Poor of Braintree Felsted Little-Leez and Much-Waltham at or shortly after her Funeral And though it cannot reasonably be expected from one who had no Lands of Inheritance to leave charitable foundations Yet I may without Hyperbole say that every year she lived after she came to be Mistress of the Estate she gave as much in charity as would have purchased Lands sufficient to have endowed an Alms-house or Free-school And that pious and liberal foundation of Rochford Alms-house which though founded legally by a Patent granted under the Broad Seal for its confirmation by the Ancestors of that Family of which she bore the Title was by the death of the Founder not endowed yet as all her predecessors had done She always paid the Alms-people their full designed Allowance and ordered by her last Will it should be so done for a year after her decease And I must here take leave to add to their great honour and the satisfaction of all that relate to that Family that those Right Honourable and worthy persons to whom the estate descends have agreed to continue the same plentiful allowance And if I were worthy to advise them I would earnestly perswade them to make Legal Settlement and endow it with Lands to the value of what they resolve to allow before they make the division of the Estate But methinks I hear it asked what had she no Spots no Scars no real nor imputed Blemishes how could she live in such an Age and not be corrupted or at least traduced neither scorched by the fire of infection nor blackned by the smoak of revengeful detraction for obraiding the guilty by her innocency This overdoing is undoing if you would make us believe she had no faults we shall sooner believe you have no truth And that all you have said hath more of Romance and what you fancy than Narrative of what she was or did I confess 't is next to a miracle to consider both how divine Grace enlarged her heart and established her goings and restrained the tongues of others from reproaching or shewing dislike of that in her for which they deride and hate not to say persecute others But I must implore that candour while I embalm her memory with the sweet Oyntment of her own good name you granted to her vertues which acquired it and made it so fragrant I therefore solemnly protest I have spoke the truth though the truth in love as I am allowed and requir'd Eph. 4.15 and have not knowingly disguised or falsified nor dipt my pen in flattering colours But since you are so inquisitive and seem to deny me the just and civil freedom to draw a veil of silence over her imperfections and your curiosity will be peeping under that sacred Pall which should secure and shroud the worst of men from being pryed into and the Vault and Grave that place of darkness and forgetfulness which should bury all defects and render them invisible must be ransack'd Draw back the Curtains let in the light survey its secretest recesses nor She nor I in her behalf fear the most piercing Eagle-eye or Scent Nor that I deny her to have been a Sinner while I adore that Grace that made her a Saint or that she was a Woman while I proclaim her a Terrestrial Angel But these three things I say and will adhere to First That she was not notoriously defective in any Grace or Vertue but as eminent in all as most have been for any single one She was not only aliquid in omnibus but omnis in singulis she did abound in every grace Which St. Gregory Naz. admires in Gorgonia and St. Jerom in Nepotian Ita in singulis virtutibus eminebat quasi caeteras non haberet Secondly She was never stained with any scandalous deformity another rare mercy For though she did humanum pati slip now and then or stumble if you will she fell not much less lay or wallowed to defile her Garments which I testifie not only from my own observation but her own Pen. After God had thus savingly I hope wrought upon me I went on constantly comfortably in my Christian course though I had many doubts and fears to contend with And did truly obey that Precept of working out my Salvation with fear and trembling yet God was pleased to carry me still onward And though I too often broke my good resolutions I never renounced them and though I too often tript in my Journey to Heaven yet I never forsook my purpose of going thither Thirdly Her very defects and failings were such as others might be proud of her Weeds would have been Flowers and her Thistles appeared Roses in another Garden For I never heard her blamed for more than two faults by the most curious observers and inspectors of her disposition or behaviour 1. Excess of Charity 2. Defect of Anger or what was reduceable to those two two goodly faults But even these admit Apology more easily than they need it 1. What was reputed the culpable excess of her Charity was her credulous easiness to believe most people good or at least better than they were I confess she did bend a little to this right hand error but if it were a bad effect it proceeded from a good cause For as 't is observed that as they who are conscious to themselves of some great evils scarce can esteem any less nocent than themselves so they that have clear and innocent hearts are ready to judge the like of others Charity thinketh no evil and she used this good opinion of others as an instrument to make them what she was so willing to signifie she thought them And though she would never despair of any man while she found them under the Awe of Gods Authority and Word for even those may receive some nourishment who eat against Stomach and the Seive under the Pump may be cleansed though it hold no water yet if she observed a person to scorn or deride the Scriptures despise Gods Ordinances and turn all that was sacred into ridicule She used as her Phrase was to set her mark upon that man And I must further add She was neither so often nor so much mistaken in her judgment of persons as some supposed she was
and satisfied her as with marrow and fatness he granted the requests of her lips and shut not out her prayer He gave her ability and time to discharge her trust and settle her worldly affairs with honour and satisfaction and he gave her opportunity space and an heart to recollect her self and redeem what a hurry of business had deprived her of and renew her evidences for Heaven He took out the sting of death before she died Intelligeres illam non emori sed emigrare mutare amicos non relinquene Hierom. and the pains of death when she died and with a kiss of his mouth sucked up her Soul to Heaven to be immersed in that fulness of joy and bathed in those rivers of pleasure which are at his right hand for evermore May we live like her may we die like her that we may live with her and with our common Lord for ever And for your noble Lordship who are now investing your self with her large and noble Mantle May Elijah's spirit rest upon you as well as his Mantle that you may rise up an Elisha in her place and stead That Leez may be Leez still the seat of Nobleness and Honour the Hospital of Bounty and Charity the Sanctuary of Religion and the fear of God That so you may live and may live longer and as much desired and when you die as die you must for Leez though a Paradise hath no Tree of Life you may die later and as much lamented as your Noble Predecessors A Copy of that Excellent and Pious Letter written to the Right Honourable George Lord Berkeley by the Right Honourable Mary late Countess Dowager of Warwick of which Intimation is given in the 48 page of the foregoing Discourse My Lord IN obedience to your Commands I have undertaken that which I know I am very unfit to perform which is to give your Lordship Rules for holy living Yet because your Lordships Friendship makes you so kind as to believe what is said by me will make a deeper impression than by others who have not so great a share in your Lordships esteem I have ventured upon it not to inform you as one I believe ignorant for I know your Lordship to be very much better able to instruct me but to put your Lordship in mind That not the knower of the Law but the doer of it shall be justified and that If you know these things happy are you if you do them For he that knows his masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes I will begin my first Rule of Advice to your Lordship with desiring you not to turn the day into night and by sleeping so long in the morning give your self only time in haste to put on your clothes and it may be sometimes with more haste say a short formal prayer to stop the mouth of a natural Conscience which for haste you hardly mind your self and therefore have little reason to expect God should Therefore I shall advise your Lordship to go to bed in so good an hour at night as that you may wake in so good time as you may not lose the morning which certainly is the best time for the Service of God And I would have you as soon as you wake fix your thoughts upon that God that gives you time to think and do as Holy David did who said As soon as I awake I am with thee Consider how your Bed might have been your Grave for many every night go down into the place of silence and there take their long and last sleep Consider also what a mercy sleep is and if we miss but a nights rest how burdensome and uneasie a man would be to himself therefore begin the morning with blessing God for it and then commune with your heart upon your bed and be still and consider what a mercy it is to have another day added to your life that you may make your peace with God before you go hence and be no more seen Think what many a poor dying Creature would give for a day to repent in and at what a high rate if it were to be purchased the damned Spirits would purchase a day to repent in Consider a day is a precious thing when Titus a Heathen could say when he had spent a day without doing good to his friends with great regret O my friends I have lost a day And another could say He was not worthy the name of a man who spent a whole day in worldly pleasures Remember this little moment of time is all we have given us to provide for Eternity in and therefore not to be spent and thrown away carelesly as if we had no God to serve nor no Soul to save Therefore have a care lest it be said of you as it was of Jesabel I gave her space to repent but she repented not When your Lordship has thus in the morning brought your heart into a serious frame then my second Advice is to leave your Bed and as soon as you are ready retire to your Closet and let none of the business of the World be first dispatched though the Devil be never so busie to perswade you to it but say to all your worldly imployments Stay here while I go yonder and worship and I will come to you again When you have shut your door and have shut out outward Company then have a care to shut out inward vain and distracting thoughts which will be very busie to steal away your heart Then I would advise you to begin your private devotions with reading the Word of God the Holy Scriptures for David says Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways even by taking heed thereunto according to thy Word And certainly these Divine Oracles of God are a most excellent means towards the mending of our lives Therefore I would have you begin every morning with reading some portion of it remembring it is that Word by which we must one day he judged When you have done this I would not advise you presently to clap down upon your knees but first to consider seriously what you are going about viz. That you are going about to speak to that God before whom the Angels and the Cherubins do cover their faces in token of reverence as not being able or worthy to behold so much glory and that Abraham the Father of the Faithful presented himself before him with so much humility as that he called himself dust and ashes Therefore do you prostrate your self before him with humility remembring that he has said that he will have respect unto the lowly And yet come with confidence as to a gracious Father who has promised That whosoever comes unto him he will in no wise cast out and that before we call he will answer and whilst we are yet speaking he will hear Remember that Prayer is the key of Heaven it is that by which you can pour out all your wants
soon be over-run and the most delicate neat House must be often swept or else there will be much dirt and dust in it Meditation is a most profitable Duty I would therefore have you meditate sometimes on the transitoriness and dissatisfyingness of all this Worlds glories Your Lordship your self has as young as you are seen such strange Revolutions as are sufficient to convince you that there is nothing certain in this life but that there is nothing so and that all is vanity and vexation of spirit God has in our Age cast contempt upon Princes and stained all the glory of humane Excellencies to make us cease to put confidence in man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of God hath famished all the gods of the Earth that he might be God alone and hath imbittered the Stream that we might come to the Fountain Therefore often meditate on this and it will keep you from over-loving any sublunary thing Next I would have you meditate sometimes upon the shortness of your life and the uncertainty of the time of your death On the black Abyssus of Eternity and on the great account you must give of all you have done in the flesh whether it be good or evil For we must all appear before the Judgement-seat of Christ to receive according to what we have doue in the flesh whether good or evil I would not keep you upon such melancholy thoughts as these too long and therefore I would have you think of the Joys of Heaven of that Rest that remains for the People of God of that better Country that is a heavenly one of that City that hath a foundation whose Maker and Builder is God and of those Joys which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it ever entred into the heart of man to conceive what God hath laid up for them that love him For Heaven will make us happy not as Philosophy pretends to do by the confining but by the fruition of our desires There we shall be past doing as well as past suffering ill There all tears shall be wiped from our eyes and we shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall fly away Those are unmixt blessings which are reserved for the other life We shall then enjoy health without sickness joy without sorrow and happiness to Eternity but that which is above all we shall be ever with the Lord and see him who shall be all in all to us yea we shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes Such Meditations as these I would have you frequent in that whilst you are musing the fire of Heavenly Devotion may burn and inflame your heart with love to God that so your Meditation of him may he sweet I would also recommend to you the frequenting of the publick Ordinances which are excellent helps to Devotion for Faith comes by hearing and God has promised that those who wait upon him shall renew their strength and that he will make them joyful in his House of Prayer I know your Lordship too well to say much to perswade you to works of Charity for I am not ignorant that your Lordship abounds in good Works only to encourage you to continue in the exercise thereof I would put you mind of some promises how that God hath said He that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that whosoever gives unto a Disciple in the name of a Disciple though but a cup of cold water shall in no wise lose his reward And now my Lord I fear I have tired you with my too tedious Rules and therefore I shall put an end to them when I have given you this one which is to conclude the day always with Prayer and not to give sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eye-lids till you have called your self to an account what mercies you have received that day that you may praise God for them and what sins you have committed that day that you may be humbled for them Remembring what the good Primate of Armagh said That the best man living did enough in the day to bring him upon his knees at night Therefore every night make your peace with God remembring that many have shut their eyes in a healthful sleep and yet waked in another World My Lord I have now done with my Rules which I should never have ventured upon had you not assured me that you are confident they would by Gods blessing do you good and also faithfully promised me that you would practise them Which promise I must beg your Lordship to perform and then I shall be much satisfied for I assure your Lordship I am so much your Friend as I cannot but with great earnstness desire the Salvation of your Soul and indeed all professions of friendship that are made are but empty professions if they do not aim and design all they can to make their Friends eternally happy which I beseech your Lordship to believe is the earnest desire of My Lord Your affectionate Friend and most humble Servant Occasional Meditations UPON SUNDRY SUBJECTS WITH Pious Reflections UPON SEVERAL SCRIPTURES By the Right Honourable Mary late Countess Dowager of Warwick LONDON Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1678. OCCASIONAL MEDITATIONS MEDITATION I. Vpon a Damm made to stop the Water THis Damm that is put up purposely by this person to keep to himself the water declares him to be no good natured man Because though he is supplyed by Neighbouring Springs with more water than he needs for his necessary uses yet stops the Current of it from his Neighbours who want it desiring to keep all for himself Turn this O my Soul into an Occasional Meditation which may be useful to thee By considering that this may not very improperly be compared to rich persons to whom God hath given with a liberal hand great plenty of this worlds wealth by which he designs that they should not only be watered themselves but water others also But they instead of distributing to the necessitous poor inclose to themselves all that God hath bestowed upon them to bestow it upon their excesses in rich Cloaths and Furniture with which they adorn their persons and walls which expences are the Damm which stops the current of their charity and keeps it back from the poor and indigent whose wants would be comfortably supplied by their superfluities O Lord I beseech thee to humble me exceedingly under the remembrance of my former guiltiness in this kind and make me for the future when thou art pleased to pour thy benefits upon me to consider thou designest I should be thy Almoner to conveigh as through a Conduit-Pipe thy Alms to thy necessitous poor and let me never more dare to stop and damm up what I ought with a liberal hand to sow for the refreshing of others O let me willingly starve a lust to feed a Saint And let me remember
cloathing is Silk and Purple which seems to intimate that it is not unlawful to wear Silk Scarlet and Purple and that the Silk-worm was not made only to spin for the proud Yet O Lord I do beseech thee let me never more yield to that pityful temptation of being drawn to esteem either others or my self upon the account of being set out with much bravery but let me value more others my Fellow Christians and prize more in my self the adorning of a sweet meek quiet contented spirit which is in thy sight of great value And if I be adorned with the Graces of thy Holy Spirit help me to consider they will make me beautiful to all eternity where as all my bodily adornments are pull'd of at night when I go to rest and must be all for ever parted with at the night of death by me O Lord therefore be pleased to make me often call to my remembrance the very great and sensible pleasure I have often experienced in cloathing naked Backs when thou hast let me have the honour of being thy Almoner and dispensedst thy charity through my hands to thy necessitous poor and let that make me rather to chuse to cloath naked Backs than to please idle eyes and rather to chuse to see many of my Fellow Creatures kept warm being covered with my Charity in plain but warm Apparel than to starve my Charity by putting upon my self one rich laced Gown which would if sold and distributed unto the Poor make many decent and convenient Gowns for several indigent persons MEDITAT XII Vpon desiring a friend to preserve safe for me some precious things which were kept for me till I needed them and then seasonably produced to help me HOw earnestly did I desire my Friend to lay up safe for me these things and how faithfully hath he preserved them and how seasonably hath he produced them for me at my need This may be useful to excite me to practice gratitude to my best and highest Friend to whom I have oft sent up the respirations of Soul that he would keep for me both those Truths I have learnt out of his Sacred Word and those experiences I have had of his Goodness and supports vouchfafed me under afflicting providences not daring to trust to my memory only these engaging mercies I have received lest his Word and benefits should slip out of my mind and I have petitioned him also that he would bring afresh into my mind those Truths when I most needed them O Lord I adore thee for bringing again afresh to my Memory those supporting promises to strengthen my weak Faith when I most needed them which thou did preserve for me till the times of my greatest exigencies and didst then comfort me by them And O Lord I do also thankfully acknowledge that when thou didst as a gracious Father chastise me by afflictions for my enormities and I was even ready to faint in taking that wholesome Soul Physick of thy prescribing that thou wert then pleased by my considering the benefits which had formerly accrued to my better part by sanctified afflictions to make me not only in some good measure patient under them but didst also make me to believe they would be for my spiritual good And thus thou madest my Memory a Cabinet to preserve my own experiences that they might be seasonably produc'd to keep me from doing as Issachar did crouch down under my burdens MEDITAT XIII Vpon my often waking in the night and presently falling asleep again HOw often have I awaked this Night and instantly fallen asleep again being so drowsie that I could not long keep my self from slumbring This may be useful to mind me of my Spiritual Condition having oft been in an awakened frame in which I have been put upon seeking after the great things of Eternal Concernment which have then been so realised unto me as to take deep impressions upon my heart and hath made my Soul to follow hard after God for Mercy and for power to serve him better but alas how soon have I by carnal security been drowsie and fallen asleep again and though in the Divine Records of Gods revealed Will unto us he hath bid us that we should not sleep as do others but that we should be watchful yet I have been apt to forget that Precept and to say to my self in a spiritual sense what was said of natural rest which is a shutting up of the Senses concerning Lazarus that if he slept he should do well though I slept it should be well with me But O Lord I do most humbly beseech thee do unto me as thou saidst thou wouldst do unto him come and awaken me out of my sleep O let me no longer be so unequal in my Devotions as to have my Goodness like a Morning Dew which soon passes away and so be sometimes awake and sometimes asleep But let me be kept watchful by the serious sense of my mortality and of the strict account I must give to thee of all that I have done in the flesh whether it be good or evil And when thou seest me falling again into my Spiritual Lethargy do thou say unto me as the Mariners in the storm did unto Jonah Arise thou sluggard and call upon thy God PIOUS REFLECTIONS UPON SEVERAL SCRIPTURES Pious Reflections On Several SCRIPTURES REFLECTION 1. LOrd when I read in thy Word of the man after thine own heart saying Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy commandments and yet consider that I am so far from imitating him that I can many times suffer sin to be upon my brother without so much as giving him reproof for it or advising him so much as to consider whom he offends by it Nay sometimes I am ready to make a mock of sin and to laugh at that which is a grief to thy Holy Spirit O Lord I beseech thee humble me under this consideration and make me for the time to come to imitate holy David in my charity towards my offending Brother And with thy servant Lot to have my soul vexed in hearing and seeing the filthy communication of the wicked O let me be so charitable as to weep over the Soul of my offending Brother and let me as much as in me lies help him out of the snare of sin and by my Prayers and holy Example help him towards Heaven REFLECT II. Jonah 4.9 Then said the Lord dost thou well to be angry for the gourd and he said I do well to be angry even unto death LOrd when I read of this peevish Prophet Jonah who because thou wast merciful unto the repenting Ninevites and didst not destroy them in forty days according to what he had proclaimed was so discontented that when thou expostulatedst with him and askedst him whether he did well to be angry he was so far from confessing his fault as that he seemed to dare to approve it even to thy very face by these words I do
him his own fault and hear him presently say As the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely dye This discovers to me my own iniquity who am many times ready with David to condemn my own actions in an other person and to be a severe censurer of the faults of others but to pass a very slight one upon my own and can easily discern the mote in my brothers eye but cannot perceive the beam that is in my own eye O Lord I beseech thee when I would censure make me to begin at home and to judge my self remembring that I have most reason to do so for I can see in my brother but a a life full of sin but I can see in my self an heart full of sin let me therefore in lowliness of mind esteem others better than my self and not judge another but judge my self that I may not be judged of the Lord. REFLECT VII Jos 23.15 But as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. LOrd when I read of thy servant Joshuah before his death reckoning up all the great engagements that the Children of Israel had to serve thee to provoke them to renew their Covenant with thee and to keep close to thy service and hear him taking his most happy resolution that whatever they did He and his house would serve the Lord. How desirous O Lord am I to follow this holy man's Example and to resolve that whatever the rest of the World doth I and my Family will serve the Lord let me not think it enough to serve thee my own self but make me to do as thou saidst thou knewst thy servant Abraham would to command my Children and my Houshold after me that they may keep thy Commandments to do Judgement and Justice And as holy David did let me say He that walketh uprightly he shall serve me mine eye shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with me He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight that it may be said of me as it was of Cornelius That I fear God and all my house REFLECT VIII Luke 16.25 And Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented LOrd when I read this sad answer of Abraham to the Rich-mans request Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things How sad a remembrance do I believe this must needs be to him to consider his former prosperity and to think that he was cleathed in Purple and sine Linnen and sared sumptuously every day and now wanted a drop of water to cool his tongue The remembrance of his former prosperity was now but an aggravation of his misery For what good did it do him to consider that in his life time he had it may be a great Retinue and many to wait upon him when in Hell his Attendance were only Divels and damned Spirits O Lord I beseech thee therefore let it never be said to me as it was to this miserable great one thou hast in thy life time had thy good things thou hast had thy consolation O Lord I beseech thee give me not my Portion in this Life nor let me have a short Heaven here upon Earth and an eternal Hell hereafter Let me not be satisfied with the blessings of thy Foot-stool without those of thy Throne nor with the fatness of the Earth without the dew of Heaven Let me not say to gold thou art my hope or to the fine gold thou art my confidence Let me not count these lower things my good things because these may stand with Reprobation and a Dives may have them and go to Hell But let me account those things my good things which cannot stand with Reprobation O visit me with the favour of thy chosen O let me not so much covet to be cloathed with purple and fine linnen as to be like the kings daughter all glorious within and be cloathed with the Righteousness of Christ and help me to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and to make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof REFLECT IX Mark 8.36 VVhat shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul LOrd when I read these words and see as it were my blessed Saviour putting the whole world into one Scale of a Ballance and the Soul of a poor Creature into the other and the Soul out-weighing all the World How really doth this convince me that whosoever shall exchange his immortal Soul to gain the whole World would make a sad bargain O Lord I beseech thee therefore let me not sell the Devil mine for a little scrap of it but remembering the preciousness of it by the price it cost For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ Therefore if the Devil should come to me as he did once to my Saviour and shew me all the Kingdoms of the World and all the glories of them and say all these will I give thee for thy soul I may say to him Get thee behind me Satan I 'll never make such a fools bargain REFLECT X. 1 Sam. 30.6 And David encouraged himself in the Lord his God LOrd when I read this Chapter and consider the sad condition of David who when he returned found Ziglag burnt and his two Wives carried Captives by the Amalekites and the people that were with him talking of stoning him that he was in so sad an out-side condition that he was sorely distressed yet the Text saith that David even then encouraged himself in the Lord his God O Lord how doth this make me cry out and say blessed are the people which are in such a case yea blessed are the people whose God is the Lord yea blessed are they who in their greatest tryals and distresses can encourage themselves in God that can trust in God at all times Lord those that know thy name will put their trust in thee and thou wilt keep them in perfect peace whose mind is staid on thee because they trust in thee O Lord I beseech thee let this make me follow holy David's Example in all my distresses to encourage my self in thee knowing it is better to put confidence in God than to put confidence in Princes REFLECT XI Gen. 22.9 Abraham bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on the wood V. 12. Lay not thy hand upon the lad neither do thou any thing unto him LOrd when I read with what ready obedience faithful Abraham complyed with that command which not only ran cross to his natural affection but eemingly would disappoint the Promise he so long waited for and at length received with so much joy and satisfaction that he named his Son Isaac Laughter as a Witness and Memorial of it And also how when he had stretched out his hand