Two Consolatory LETTERS Written to the RIGHT HONORABLE THE COUNTESS OF Westmorland The first upon occasion of the death of Sr ROGER TOWNSHEND Baronet The Second upon the death of Mrs ANNE CARTWRIGHT Her Honour's Children by Sir ROGER TOWNSHEND Baronet her former Husband LONDON Printed by A. Maxwel for SAMVEL GELLIBRAND at the Golden Ball in St. Paul's Church yard 1669. TO THE Right Honourable Lady THE LADY MARY COUNTESS OF WESTMORLAND MADAM THE Doctrine of the vanity of the lesser World Man and of the greater World unto Man here presented unto your Ladiships hands hath been from Heaven with sound of Drum and Trumpet preached yea proclaimed in your ears and the ears of this whole Nation now for above seven years together And if Warr that Boanerges or Thundering Preacher at your very door had not spoken loud enough to be heard God hath by a sad hand of his Providence written the same Lesson in very legible Characters to your Ladiship from beyond the Seas Fear not Madam I beseech you to read on the design of this Epistle is not to renew your grief but to promote or perpetuate your joy rather You have had the delight of your eyes the joy of your heart the Heir and Glory of your House your dearly beloved Son Sir Roger Townshend whose memory is and shall be precious about his best Estate and in the very Spring and Flower of his Age cropt off by the hand of Death in a strange Land of whom I had almost said alluding to that of the Apostle Paul Phil. 3.4.5 That if any man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh to say wherefore he should not be made subject unto Vanity but be priviledged from the Arrest of Death He more A Gentleman nobly descended of a large Estate very good Parts much Ingenuity and remarkable Piety And here I shall not take upon me the Office of an Herauld to blazon his Coat and tell who he was among the Great Men of the World but of a Divine rather in some measure to Anatomize his heart and shew what he was amongst good men and towards God Madam The Days the Years of Mourning for your deceased Son are past and God hath since given you many Sons in place of him whom He took And therefore I hope the mentioning of his death shall not revive your former sorrows to endanger your life When he was in France I remember your Ladiship took pleasure in having his Picture by you which was sent you from thence Now that he is gone to Heaven give me leave I pray you to endeavour to describe what manner of Man he was as to his better part his Soul I mean even when he was here upon Earth The Picture of his Piety will I humbly conceive be no small honour to your Ladiship a great Ornament to the House and an excellent Pattern and Copy to the whole Family Wherefore without further Preface As Joseph's Brethren said to their Father Jacob Gen. 37.32 This have we found know now whether it be thy Sons Coat or no. So say I This have I found looking in my Memory Know now whether it be your Son's Picture or no. I begin with his Religion there where usually Religion begins He was a careful observer of the Lord's Day or Christian Sabbath attending diligently upon the publike Ordinances sometimes hearing Three but constantly Two Sermons in a Day and often taking Notes A practise before his time but somewhat rare in Cambridg among Students of his Rank Nor did his Sabbath end with the publike solemn Service He was devout at home as well as at Church He was one of the chief Instruments to set up and countenance that good Custom in the Colledg of meeting together on the Lord's-day-night after Supper to pray sing and repeat the Sermon in their Chambers and this at a time when it was so strange and unwelcome to some profane spirits thereabouts that I remember once there was a Brick-bat thrown in at the Window amongst them where and whilst they were at Prayers together He kept a watch over the door of his lips on that day lest his words should be either of worldly businesses or recreations and for this reason he would then often take his Commons in his Chamber rather than in the Colledg-Hall lest there in a mixt company he should be put upon Discourses or Questions unsuitable for that Day His manner was to approach the Lord's Table not without solemn preparation for which work he did not only allot himself but allow his Servants also convenient time on the Week-days And besides the examination of his own Conscience he submitted himself to be examined by Mr. Calamy before his first admission to the Sacrament with his Congregation and having once a door opened to that Ordinance he would afterwards so cast his Journeys to London if it might be as to be there on the day of their Monthly Sacrament to be a Guest at the Lord's Table at which times when he could not be with your Ladiship he would chuse such Lodgings as where he thought he might enjoy God his Sabbaths and Ordinances best Nor was all his Devotion confined to the Weekly-Sabbath only He was also a Religious observer of Days of publike Fasts or Humiliation and of publike Feasts or Rejoycing which some call Sabbaths extraordinary I remember that when once upon a Day of Thanksgiving he was desired to go to Bowls he did out of Conscience refuse it though it were if I mistake not after the Ordinances were done in publike and though thereunto desired by a Noble Friend and in very civil company Besides these publike solemn times of Worship both ordinary and extraordinary he would sometimes keep a private Fast by himself in his Chamber I remember he kept one once at Cambridg for to humble his soul for the sins of his Thoughts and particularly of his Dreams Hitherto I have shewed you Madam your Son's Picture one way only as it respects God looking upward Will you see it another way as it looks downward towards man Come and see He was a lover of good men of those he chose his Intimates A lover particularly of Good Ministers to those he gave hopes of being a good Friend and Patron now in a time when they have many great Enemies and but few real and powerful Friends How willing was he to have trod in those good steps of his deceased Father To have given the Impropriate Tythes of Rudham to make a considerable maintenance for a good Minister He was charitable not to say bountiful to them that stood in need I remember once at Raynham he gave ten shillings to a poor old man of the Town that came to see him And when he left the University he gave a Pension or Allowance of ten or twelve pounds per annum to a poor Scholar who had waited on him there of which charitable act as well as of his Lands his loving Brother
honoured or rejoyce all the Members rejoyce with it If your Son so considerable a part of your self come to honour why do you not acknowledg it Why do you not rejoyce together with him I find Gen. 31.27 that Laban chides Jacob his Son-in-law for stealing and carrying away his Daughters as Captives saying he would have sent him away with mirth and with Songs and with Tabrel and with Harps when he was returning home to the Earthly Canaan Madam Let your Son go to the Heavenly Canaan Let his soul return home to his own Countrey and his Father's House send him not away with bitter cryes and tears but rather with mirth and songs with Tabrel and Harp What joy musick and dancing do we read of at the return of the Prodigal who had been spiritually dead namely in his sins and trespasses but was now alive because he had part in the first Resurrection We read of no such joy no such musick and dancing at the raising up of Lazarus out of the Grave Let this teach you that your joy for your Son 's having part in the first Resurrection and thereby having passed from death to life so that the second death on him can have no power should moderate your sorrow for his going thorough the valley of the shadow of death in such Company too as that you need fear none evil for God is with him Psal 23. If there was joy in Heaven among the holy Angels at his first conversion from being a Sinner to a Saint as sure there was let not there be immoderate sorrow upon Earth at his translation from amongst Sinners to Saints and Angels to rejoice together with them yea into his Master's Joy Could the Saints in Heaven sympathize with their Friends sorrows on Earth the Mother's Grief would eclipse the Son's Joy All tears would never be wiped from his Eyes so long as there were any in yours His Joy would not be full so long as your Sorrows overflow Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord is a true and faithful saying in the most Golden Age and most Halcyon days in the World How blessed is he then that dyed in the Lord and in peace on his bed in an Iron Age in times of War and Blood In such times of publike Calamity there is a Wo denounced in Scripture to them that are with Child or give suck in those days but no where do we read of any wo to them whose Children God takes to himself from the evil to come in those days It may be you say in your heart Had he dyed in his own Countrey at home then you could have born it but this doth imbitter your grief That he dyed in his travel and in a strange Land Madam He had done so if he had returned hither and dyed at home if in his own Land in his own House and upon his own Bed he had been but a stranger and pilgrim as all his fathers were Had he returned to England where would he have had meet Companions of his Age and Piety Had he gone to Rome I believe he would scarce have found one like himself In Heaven he was matched as soon as ever he came thither and that of his Countrey-men There 's the good King Edward the sixth and the good Lord Harrington young men famous for Vertue and Piety in their generation Again Your Son had as short and safe a passage to Heaven from Geneva as he could have had from his own House at Raynham And though his Corps came not to the Sepulchers of his Fathers yet he lies interr'd and intomb'd with honour near the Noble and Pious Marquess of Vico and not far from the Holy and Renowned Calvin He dyed far absent from his dear Mother and many of his Noble Friends yet he dyed in the House of the Reverend Mr. Diodate In the presence of his very loving and only Brother was brought to his Grave with very great solemnity and honour and lieth intombed in Geneva a City for Religion and Liberty one of the most famous throughout the World Thus far I have endeavoured to comfort your Ladiship but to deal plainly with you If the days and years of your mourning should not be past I must as the Prophet Isaiah sometimes in another case did wax very bold and chide you It is very observable how God takes up Samuel though a Prophet a man of God for his excessive mourning for the casting off of Saul saying to him How long wilt thou mourn for Saul seeing I have rejected him And may not I in like manner say to you sorrowing for your Son advanced to an Eternal Kingdom surely you may believe God doth How long wilt thou mourn for thy Son seeing I have received him What should I say more I wish I have not said too much already namely that which may trouble you whilst it was mine endeavour to comfort you Pray Madam be comforted Pray Madam comfort your self Take the same course to comfort your self now he is gone home which I suppose you did when he was in his Travels abroad Read over his Letters Discourses Meditations or any thing of his by you In these as it is said of Abel he being dead yet speaketh And thus you may converse with him still and as long as you live And if your Ladiship please pray sometimes at your leisure look upon this Epistle it is though not a Letter from him yet a kind of Letter of or concerning him or if you will herein you have his Image and Superscription here you have his Picture to the life what manner of man he was when at Cambridg And Madam this Letter tells you or here you may read your Son is well your Son liveth he is happie and his memorie is blessed and I wish all the Friends of Sir Roger Townshend when they die may be as this young man is And for your Ladiship especially my Prayer is That the consolations of the Almighty may not seem small unto you and that the God and Father of all consolations would fill you with everlasting consolation and good hope through grace and fill you with all joy and peace in believing that since he may not come to you while you live you may go to him when you dye And now if any should blame me for commemorating the dead so as I have done in this Epistle saying the valley of the shadow of death is and ought to be in the Land of forgetfulness I appeal to the parallel practise of holy men of God recorded in the Sacred Scripture for my justification There I find David a man after Gods own heart making honourable mention of Saul and of Jonathan presently after their death 2 Sam. 1.17 And if some of the Learned judg aright upon v. 18. taking order to perpetuate their memory to succeeding generations There I meet with the commemoration of Moses Aaron and Samuel Psal 99.26 and of Noah and Job a good while after
they were dead And lastly there 's a solemn commemoration of Josiab of his goodness to after-ages 2 Chron. 35 25 26. But if on the other side any Friend should be offended at my remembring him whom they could never forget saying at my pouring out of this Box of precious Ointment of his good Name on him Wherefore is this loss My answer to such is That those devout Women who prepared Spices and Odours to perfume our Saviour's dead body which it was decreed should not see corruption as well as she that poured on him a Box of costly Ointment whilst alive have all their Piety recorded to their praise in the Gospel to this day I hope the good name and blessed memory of Sir Roger Townshend shall never see corruption for the name of the wicked shall rot but the righteous shall be bad in everlasting remembrance yet I deem it a friendly office and such a practice as maybe pardoned for one that had once the honour of such a Pupil at least to perfume your Ladiships Closet with your Son 's sweet Name and gracious odoriferous qualities sent you in this Paper And again I say I have done it for his burial that is I humbly present your Ladiship with this Piece as a Funeral-Sermon for your Son Sir Roger Townshend for so the manner of the English is to bury What pity is it that the light of his good example should be put under a bushel or put out in obscurity by his death and not rather be set up in a Candlestick to give light to all that are in the house Truly my desire is by this means if the will of God be so to provoke to emulation chiefly all young Gentlemen especially those of his Kindred Friends and Acquaintance and to save some yea all of them But I shall leave praising of the dead and betake my self to my prayers for the living And for this cause I bow my knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named That he would grant that that unfeigned faith which dwelt first in his Grandmother the Lady Vere and in your Ladiship his dear Mother in you still growing up to a full Assurance and I am perswaded in him also in whom it is already changed into Vision and Fruition may be intailed and doubled upon his rightful Heir and only Brother * Now Lord Townshend Sir Horatio Townshend and all of that Race and Family their Noble Kindred and Allies and that there may not want a man of the House of the Townshends to stand for and before the Lord for ever So prayeth MADAM Your Honour 's very humble Servant in and for the Lord Thomas Hedges TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE COUNTESSE OF WESTMORLAND MADAM FOrasmuch as Womens Names are swallowed up in the Names of their Husbands whilst they live whence amongst the Hebrews Women have a Name signifying Forgetfulness and forasmuch as your deceased Daughter Mrs. Cartwright hath left two Children behind her so young that 't is impossible they should ever remember their dear Mother's Face Give me leave to endeavour to preserve some memories of her and to set them before the eyes at least of those little ones in time to come that they may learn to write after her Copy and be known to be her Children by imitation of her Vertues as well as by participating of her Likeness Your Ladiship may be pleased to remember I endeavoured the like Representation of your dear Son her Brother my Pupil Sir Roger Townshend of blessed memory many years since and now my humble request is That your Ladiship would favour my present Essay for your lately deceased Daughter Mrs. Cartwright my Neighbour that I may not separate the Brother and Sister dead who as they were one in a holy life so now after their death they are not divided She her self was pleased with the reading of the Lives of others though strangers to her and therefore I hope your Ladiship will not be displeased at my writing something of hers your so near a Relation I know she was a Woman subject to like passions with other Women breeding Women and perhaps more than many others yet she knew it and I am informed prayed against it and had got ground of it Yet this I can say and say truly of her That though she lost Eight Children and four of them Sons yet I do not remember that ever I heard her though often grieve and sometimes groan yet never to grumble against the Divine Majesty and yet I must say of her Her love to her Children was wonderfully passing the love of most Women I have heard her say I had rather have Children without Land than Land without Children 'T is true she had a great spirit and a good spirit also for she would be hot and zealous for God his Glory Worship People and Interest in the world as well as in her own Cause and Concernment and that at a time when others who had been scalding hot proved luke-warm if not key-cold in Religion In the ninth Chapter of the Acts of the Holy Apostles we read it an Argument or Evidence of that chosen Vessel of our Lord the Apostle Paul his Conversion Behold he prayeth and let me say Behold a Daughter of Abraham behold a Servant an Handmaid of the Lord for behold she prayed she had learned to cry daily Abba Father and sometimes to offer up strong cries with prayers and tears to him that was able to sanctifie and save her Pray she could and did both in the Church in the Family in her Closet she served God alone and with others she was not above Forms nor under them but could join in prayer either with or without a Book as occasion served She was a Friend to extraordinary times of Prayer as well as ordinary Once before her Lying-in she sent a Letter and a Messenger a Minister to crave the Bishops leave to have a Fast in her House to beg Gods blessing in her extremitie and though she could pray well her self and did use to do so with her Maids and Children on the Lord's Day yet she did not disdain to desire the assistance of other Womens prayers though her Inferiors with her and for her and as the Angel said to Cornelius so may I say of her That her Prayers and her Alms were come up before God As she was one that did ask Mercy of God so she was one that did shew Mercy to the Poor She made constant provision twice a week of Meat Bread and Broath for the Poor of the Town where she lived She would visit the Poor when sick and would afford them her Counsel and Cordials too for their recovery She would desire that the Poor might have the help both of the Minister and Doctor the Soul and Body-Physician both When there was occasion as often there was to send for Doctors from Oxford for her Children she
estate and had it been as much in her Power as it was in her Will there should no Friend have stood in need of any other but her self She was Generous and Noble and loved Hospitality and Bounty She kept an House for ordinaries and extraordinaries all things considered far beyond many her Equals and Superiors in Estate and yet did not undo her self or Husband It was a declared Maxim of hers which she experimented in part her self That good House-keeping undoes no body She was used to reward well those who did ought for her and she was charitable to and beyond her power to those who could do nothing but pray for her If it had pleased God she had come to that great Estate to which she was I may say contracted by her marriage to the Heir of it she had a Principle which put in practice as 't is not to be doubted but it would of making Conscience to reward old Servants I remember her alledging that place in discourse to that purpose Thou shalt not send him away empty Deut. 15.12 13. The desire of her soul was towards God and the remembrance of his Holiness She desired to fear God's Name and delighted in them that feared him Her great design and aim was to serve God and save her soul and though she had her weaknesses and failings as the Moon hath her spots yet her desire and endeavour was Not to remain alway under the power of them She her self would not take the righteousness of the righteous from him for one failing but would still have a charity and good word for good people even when they had disobliged her God and men judg of men and women not as they are sometime in a Paroxism or a transport of passion but according as the pulse of their souls beats constantly towards God and Goodness We read in the Book of Job Will the Hypocrite pray always That is He will not pray always And again The hope of the hypocrite is like the spiders web and like the giving up of the Ghost but the righteous hath hope in his death We may conclude hence then That your Daughter had hope in her death and that your Ladiship is not to mourn for her as one without hope When her Father-in-law coming to visit her the day before she dyed said Daughter I hope all will be well meaning a safe delivery from the pains of Child-birth she replied It will be best or better for me if I dye And if it be considered how she offered up strong cryes and prayers with tears in her extremity to him that was able to pardon and save her we need not doubt but conclude That as she lived God's Servant so she dyed his Servant and not a jot the less for her judging and condemning her self for a grievous sinner and with the Apostle Paul for the worst of sinners having in the constant course of her life for many years approved her self none of the least of Saints We have better evidence of her being saved than that she dyed in Child-bed nor again is it any evidence that she wanted saving-faith because she dyed in Child-bed for we read in Scripture but of two Women who dyed in Child-bearing and they were both godly Women viz. Rachel the beloved Wife of the Patriarch Jacob and the Wife of Phineas the Priest 1 Sam. 4.19 Nor had she only the Graces of a good Woman but I may say of her as a Noble Lord said many years since of her dear Sister now also with God That she had three good properties of a good Wife She was fruitful and frugal and loving to her Husband She was so good and kind a Mother to her Children that many thought her too good Sure I am That it could not be charged upon her as it is upon some Parents That they are without natural affection or that her heart was hardened toward her young I rather suppose that if all young women had been like her the Apostle Paul would hardly have given it in charge to Timothy to lesson old women to teach the young ones to love their Children To conclude her Character as to her Verues and Graces I may say of her She pondered God's Word with the blessed Virgin Mary Believed with the Woman of Canaan was Charitable and Pious with Mary Magdalen Attending to Preaching with Lydia and to come to her own Family let me say She had the Courage and Piety of her Grandfather the Lord Horatio Vere Baron of Tilbury the Charity and Bounty of her Father Sir Roger Townshend the Zeal of her Brother Sir Roger for God good men and good Ministers And now Madam with your Favour let me tell them that never saw her face if this Paper ever come to their hands That her Soul dwelt in a decent habitation and that her Picture if she would have been prevailed with to have sate as was desired by her Father-in-law and Husband a little before her lying in would have been a good Picture and some comfort though a shadow in comparison to her Friends and Children It is the observation of an ingenuous person That though in the Old Testament express notice be taken of the Beauty of many Women as of Sarah Rebecca Rachel c. yet in the New-Testament no mention is made of the fairness of any Woman not because they wanted saith my Author but because Grace is the Gospel-beauty And so Madam let me conclude her Character She was a Gentlewoman of great Parts of a very quick Wit of a ready Tongue and Pen few Women to my knowledg equalled her and I knew not any in these things that excelled her She was a Gentlewoman of Person sufficiently fair amiable and comely but yet her greatest perfection beauty and excellency was more than a skin-deep Fairness And thus Madam I have adventured or essayed at least to give your Ladiship a Character of your Daughter Mrs. Cartwright and therein I hope no small ground of comfort for your great loss because the greater is your loss the greater is her gain And further Let it be some alleviation to your Ladiship 's sorrow That as she lived not undesired so she dyed not unlamented Your Honour hath many in divers Orbs that sympathize with you in this Loss Whilst she was in her Pains she had the Cares Prayers and Tears of her Husband Father Friends and Servants about her and after her death hath been lamented by her Relations at home and Acquaintance and Strangers abroad Madam It is likely a matter of sorrow and grief to your Ladiship to think how her Sun set at Noon that she dyed in the midst of her days that the Pains of Child birth ended in the Pangs of Death and that the Childs entrance into the World was so near accompanied with the Mothers exit or going out of it Again That she left the World without leaving a Son behind her and the rather too because she had four Sons gone to