the venerable goodness that is visible in him shall retain honour To attempt any labourious Proof of so clear a Truth as this were needless do but consult the universal practice of Mankind and read it there What Rules do the Philosophers prescribe to render our lives most satisfactory to our selves and most commendable to others with what Colours do the Oratours paint those persons they intend to Celebrate what Images do the Poets form when they design an Heroe are they any other than the Rules and Colours and Images of moral Goodness Do not Hypocrites to court the esteem of the Vulgar personate the Saint and Politians to make the People honour them pretend to Religion and why do they both put on this disguise but because they know that Wickedness bare-fac'd is in the eyes of all men most detestable and that the names of Saint and of Religion are creditable in the World Shew me that profligate Wretch who in his cool thoughts or on his Death-bed does not decline all his loose Companions and seeks out for men truly good and consciencious to whom he may intrust his Estate his Children and all that is dearest to him even his own Soul too for which he then begs their ghostly counsel What man is there so wicked who on his death-bed does not wish that he may die the death of the Righteous and that his latter end may be like his Look into the Histories and customs of Ages past see how greedily coveted how dearly purchast and how highly valued the Statues and all the little remains of Good Men have been The Heathens to express their great esteem of Goodness built Temples to Vertue and Honour and join'd these Temples together and made the former the only passage into the latter they thought Praise to Good men as just a Tribute as Sacrifice to their Gods and one of the Wisest of them wonderfully pleas'd himself in fansying how lovely and venerable how divine and transporting an Idea he should see could he but look into the breast of a Good man We have then the practice and the judgment of the whole World to confirm this truth that Vertue has always had a great and a general esteem that the gracious Person retains honour On the contrary is there not a natural shame a sense of turpitude or a confusion of face in vicious and unclean actions why else are men afraid to commit them before the most inconsiderable Spectatour and chuse darkness for a thick Mantle to cover them why else do they blush to own them wish a thousand times they had never been done and reflect on them with dissatisfaction and horrour why else do their own Consciences lash and upbraid them whereas if we will but take the pains to make up an Induction of all Christian graces we shall easily se that there is none whose friendship is more ambitiously sought none with whom men would sooner change Persons none who are accounted of more substantial worth or more generally rever'd or more influential to the good of Mankind or sooner wanted in the World or who make a nobler figure in Story than the Devout the Humble the Just the Meek the Temperate the Charitable or to express all in one word the gracious Person who therefore shall always retain honour I need not reckon up the numerous places of Holy Scripture where Goodness and Honour are link'd together how the Wise are said to inherit glory the humble and meek to be exalted how we are commanded to keep our Vessels in sanctification and honour and how God has promis'd to honour those who honour him I need not mention the primitive Dypticks or how the Church Catholick has celebrated the Festivals and honour'd the memories of the Saints and of the Martyrs I need not suggest that obvious Conclusion That if gracious Persons can draw even wicked Men to a reverential love of their Vertue much more will they engage the friendship of all that are Holy and not only of holy Men but of holy Angels too who being all ministring Spritis deputed by God to attend them the more heavenly they see any committed to their charge does grow the more respectfull attendance in all probabâ—lity they give him And there is the highest reason in the World why there should be so honourable a loveliness in a gracious Person if we consider the likeness he bears to that great God whom we Adore For as there are on all men innate impressions of God's Existence so there are also of his Attributâ—s and none ever yet in earnest believed there was a God but he also believed that God was a Being Infinite in all Perfections in Wisedom and Power Justice and Mercy Purity and Holiness Veracity and Beneficence and as these excite our Love and our Adoration to God so where ever we see any though but imperfect resemblances of his imitable perfections in the Saints here on earth where ever we see men in any measure Holy and Pure Just and Mercifull Faithfull and Beneficent we there see the image of God himself and cannot but pay them a suitable honour Thus as Goodness and Adorableness are co-eternal in God so are Sanctity and Venerableness coeval in gracious Persons Nor are we only by Grace made like to God but he is also pleas'd actually to dwell in us and to consecrate our Souls to be his Temples and as God commanded the Iews to reverence his Sanctuary the place of his residence among them where he sat between the Cherubims and a glorious Light that shin'd on the Propitiâ—toâ—y was the Symbol of his Presence So when in gracious Souls we discover all the fruits of the Spirit a kind of glory brightning their Conversation and a sacred Amiablenâ—ss breath'd on them from Heaven we are sure that God inhabits there and cannot but reverence his Temples Such Honour have all God's Saints from even wicked men from all holy persons and from the good Angels and infinitely above all thâ—se from God himself who honours them with his Image after which they are renew'd and with his Presence of which they are possest Such Honour I say have all his Saints even in this life which if we did but seriously Contemplate would stir us up to a generous emulation would encourage us to implore the Divine Grace that we may bewail all our past sins cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and of Spirit which produce nothing in the end but Shame and Horrour and daily grow more conformable to his Likeness which is the only way to assert the dignity of our Nature and to retain honour But when once our Souls shall be divorc'd from our bodies when the name of the wicked shall rot and stink sooner than his carcase leaving no memorials bâ—hind unless it be of his sin his infamy his madness or his folly Precious then in the sight of the Lord shall be the death of his Saints
blessâ—d shall be their memories They shall be had in everlasting remembrance and their good Names being Registred in the book of Life shall flourish to immortality All this while I have not done Justice to my Subject by affirming only in general that Goodness is honourable I must therefore be more particular and enquire why Solomon does here instance in the Woman rather than in the Man A gracious Woman retains honour And the reason seems to me to be either this that as Vice is more odious and more detested so on the other hand Vertue is more attractive and looks more lovely in Women than it usually does in Men insomuch that the gracious Woman shall be sure to purchase and to retain honour Or it is because Men have more advantages of aspiring to honour in all publick stations of the Church the Court the Camp the Bar and the City than Women have and the only way for a Woman to gain honour is an exemplary Holiness This makes her Children rise up and call her blessed her Husband and her own works to praise her in the gate the sole glory then of that Sex is to be good for 't is a gracious Woman only who retains honour Or it is because Women are made of a temper more soft and frail are more endanger'd by snares and temptations less able to control their passions and more inclinable to extremes of good or bad than Men and generally speaking Goodness is a tenderer thing more hazardous and brittle in the former than in the latter and consequently a firm and steady Vertue is more to be valued in the weaker Sex than in the stronger So that a gracious Woman is most worthy to receive and to retain honour Or it is because Women in all Ages have given many Heroick examples of Sanctity besides those recorded in the Old Testament many of them are named with great honour in the New For their Assiduity and Zeal in following our Saviour and their Charity in ministring to him of their substance they accompanied him to Mount Calvary lamented his Sufferings waited on the Cross attended the Sepulchre prepared Spices and Oyntments and regardless either of the Insolence of the rude Souldiers or of the Malice of the Iews with a love that cast out all fear they came on the first day of the Week before the morning light to Embalm him and God was pleas'd to honour these holy Women accordingly for they first saw the Angel who told them the joyfull news that he was risen and as if an Angel had not been a Messenger honourable enough Iesus himself first appear'd to the Women the Women first saw and ador'd him and it was these very gracious Women whom our Lord sent to his Disciples that Women might be the first Publishers of his Resurrection as Angels had been of his Nativity Our Saviour himself has erected an everlasting Monument in the Gospel for the penitent Woman that anointed him and God Incarnate honour'd the Sex to the highest degree imaginable in being born of a Woman in becoming the Son of a Virgin Mother whom all Generations shall call Blessed and I know not how to call it but there is a meltingness of Disposition an affectionateness of Devotion an easie Sensibility an industrious Alacrity a languishing Ardour in Piety peculiar to the Sex which naturally renders them Subjects more pliable to the Divine Grace than Men commonly are So that Solomon had reason to bestow the Epithete Gracious particularly on them and to say that a gracious Woman retains honour I am well aware that if we consult the sensual and debaucht rank of Men 't is not the Gracious or the Chast Woman they esteem but only the Fair or the Lascivious Esteem did I say Men may court an idle or a wanton Beauty for their Lust but they can only esteem a Gracious and a Chast one and when all is done she only deserves the name of Beautifull As for the Lascivious and the Prostitute against whom Solomon so often and so pathetically warns the Young man She is so utterly impure that I will not so much as name her in the same discourse with a gracious Woman I will then make the Comparison between mere outward Beauty only and Grace and you will soon perceive the difference For Beauty if it be Natural is from a Womans birth 't is her chance and not her merit if it be Artificial it makes her no other than a painted Sepulchre Gaudy without and that has nothing but Rottenness and Stanch within But Grace is the free gift of God and our own free choice in a happy conjunction 't is no other than a God-like loveliness imprest on our Spirit Beauty is often incident to starke Fools and to the Profane and Irreligious But Grace is peculiar to holy Persons who like the King's Daughter are all glorious within Beauty is prone to admire its self and to swell with Pride Grace instills a just sense of our own vileness and teaches Humility That is apt to invite Temptation This is a Preservative against it The former spends her morning hours at her glass The latter at her Prayers That most delights her self in new fashions and fine cloaths in plaiting the hair and wearing of Gold This puts on the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price Beauty has been often to the best and wisest of Men witness Solomon himself destructive and fatal for which reason holy Iob made a Covenant with his eyes and our Saviour commands us not to look on a Woman to lust after her and the fairer she is the greater is the danger But Grace secures our Innocence awes men into Sobriety looks them into Chastity and the more intense it grows its influence is the more sovereign and efficacious Beauty gratifies only our outward sense 't is a mixture of Colour and Figure and Feature and Parts all in a due Proportion and Symmetry or indeed 't is a well shap'd Frame of dust and ashes belov'd by fond Men only who like the most stupid of Idolaters worship the bare Statue without regard to the Deity there enshrin'd But Grace is a confluence of all Attractives which approves it self to our own most dâ—liberate judgments and is belov'd by God Do but imagine you were in the Spouse's Garden where when the South-wind blows the several Spices and Gumms the Spikenard and the Cinamon the Frankincense and the Myrrhe send forth their various smells which meeting together and mixing in the Air make a compounded Odour Such a composition of all Vertues such an universal and uniform Agreeableness is there in a gracious Soul which in a manner whether we will or no engages our affections Beauty is vain and Favour is deceitfull says the Wise man it soon evaporates and cheats our expectation in a little time it decays by cares or Child-bearing or Sickness
tenderness of His compassion he sent her as preparatives of her last conflict and as earnests of Heaven whither he intended the day following to translate her How she behav'd her self in her sickness I cannot better express than by saying that she pray'd continually and when the Prayers of the Church were read by her or when the hour of her own private Prayer came though she was not able to stand or to help her self she would yet be plac't on her Knees and when her Knees were no longer able to support her she would be put into the humblest posture she could possibly endure not being satisfied unless she gave God his entire oblation and glorify'd him in her body as well as in her spirit which were both God's own by purchase here and were both to be united in bliss hereafter On Whit-sunday she received her viaticum the most holy Body and Bloud of her Saviour and had received it again had not her death surpris'd us yet in the strength of that immortal food she was enabled to go out her journy and seem'd to have had a new transfusion of Grace from it insomuch that though her Limbs were all convulst her Pains great and without intermission her strength quite exhausted and her Head disturbed with a perpetual drousiness yet above and beyond all seeming possibility she would use force to her self to keep her self waking to offer to God her customary Sacrifice to the full to recollect her thoughts and to lodge them in Heaven where her Heart and her Treasure was as if she had already taken possession of her mansion there or as if she was teaching her Soul to act independently from the Body and practising before-hand the state of separation into which having receiv'd absolution she in a short time happily lancht for all the bands of Union being untied her Soul was set at liberty and on the wings of Angels took a direct and vigorous flight to its native Country Heaven from whence it first flew down There then we must leave her in the bosom of her heavenly Bridegroom where how radiant her Crown is how ecstatick her Joy how high exalted she is in degrees of glory is impossible to be described for neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor has it enter'd into the heart of man to be conceiv'd the good things which God hath prepared for those that love him of all which she is now partaker We have nothing then to doe but to congratulate this Gracious Woman her eternal and unchangeable honour and as she always and in all things gave God the Glory here so that his praise was continually in her mouth for all the multitude of his Mercies and of his loving-Kindnesses towards her and is now praising him in Heaven Let us also offer up a Sacrifice of Praise for her great example her light has long shin'd before us we have seen her good works Let us therefore glorifie the father of Lights at whose beams her Soul was first lighted Blessed then for ever be the infinite goodness of God who was so liberal of his Graces to this humble Saint who made her so lively a picture of his own perfections so gracious and so honourable blessed be his merey for indulging her to us so long for taking her in his good time to himself and for that happiness she has now in Heaven To God be the glory of all that honour her graciousness did here acquire for to him onely it is due let therefore his most holy name have all the praise To our Thanksgiving let us add our Prayers also that God would vouchsafe us all his holy Spirit so to assist and sanctify and guide us that every one of our Souls may be gracious like hers that our life may be like hers our latter end like hers and our portion in Heaven like hers which God of his infinite mercy grant for the sake of his most belov'd Son To whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be all honour and glory adoration and obedience now and for ever Amen THE END Matt. 12. 24. Isa. 53. 3. Luke 7. 16 4 22. Mark 7. 16. Iohn 6 15 18 38. Luke 23. 47. 1 Pet. 2. 17 18. 1 Tim. 6. 2. Rom. 13. 1. 2 Pet. 1. 4. Prov. 3. 35. Luke 1. 52. 1 Thess. 4. 4. 1 Sam. 2. 30. Heb. 1. 14. 1 Cor. 3. 16. Lev. 19. 30. Gal. 5. 22. Prov. 10. 7. Psa. 116. 15. Psa. 112. 6. Prov. 31. 28 31. Luke 8. 3. Matt. 27. 55. Luke 23. 27. Matt. 28. 5. Matt. 26. 13. Psa. 45. 13. 1 Pet. 3. 3. Iob 31. 1. Matt. 5. 28. Cant. 4. 16 Prov. 31. 30. Prov. 11. 22. Prov. 12. 4. 1 Cor. 11. 5. Prov. 31. 10. Prov. 31. 29. Ier. 16. 4. Iohn 11. 35. 1. Thess 4. 13. 1 James 27. 1 Pet. 3. 15. Prov. 4. 18. Prov. 31. 26. 1 Cor. 7. 32. Prov. 19. 14. Luke 10. 41 42. Eph. 6. 9. Exod. 34. 29. 1 Cor. 6. 20. Luke 16. 22. 1 Cor. 2. 9.