Pleasure will soon pass but the ill will stick as an indelible character the guilt and the stain will never off in this life no nor in the other bad deeds will haunt our Ghosts We are thy works and will follow thee But I will not spend time in comparing these together there is so visible a disparity and distance we need not weigh them every one who hath any Christian discretion can judge by the eye or the hand which is most weighty Bodily Outward Temporall Delights or a Good Name gained from Vertue Faith Godliness for so I take it for the Christians Good Name fundamentally grounded on true Desert not for the vain Applause of Men who as often call Evill Good as Goodness it self That shall suffice in brief to have touched upon the first comparison A Good Name namely the true and sound name of Faith and Holiness Now I come to the second betwixt being born or betwixt the state of this life and that which we are put into by Death The Day of Death is better than the Day of ones Birth And these words I take as depending upon and connected to the former that the sence may be this A good Name is better than Precious Oyntment and to him that hath obtained this Good Name deservedly for so we suppose it else it is not Radically Good the Day of his Death is better than the Day of his Birth The truth of the comparison appears therfore first in this relative sense although secondly it be absolutely true also That the Day of Death is better than the Day of Birth But first in relation to a Good Name and that first in regard of the time and season for the production of it Death is the proper season for a Good Name after life enters in nature after Birth the first thing we commonly think of is a Name to give a Name to him that is born so after Death the first thing men say or do is to give a Name to the Party deceased but that after birth was a Name of civill Distinction this a Name of Morall or Religious difference that was a Name and no more this a Name with an adjunct Good or Bad At Circumcision the Jewes at Baptisme the Christians give proper Names so after Death men obtain proper Names according to their deserts we call that their Christian Name but this indeed ought most properly so to be called if so deserved at Death we may know on whom most properly to fasten the Christian Name the Name of true Christian Israelite indeed Circumcision in the flesh followed Nativity and Christian Name as we call it by receiving into the outward bosome of the Church but after Death you many times discover there was Circumcision in the heart that he was a Christian by the inward Baptisme of the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of Men but of God Secondly as Death is the proper season for the essence of a Good Name so for the certainty of it Men may make a fair shew all their life and may deserve well but all is well that ends well Who can tell whether a bright day may not set in a Cloudy or Rainy Evening Mors sola fatetur Death only can tell the measure of a Good Name reach to the End of it all other things Opinions hopes Confidences may go a great way but they may come short nothing but Death puts out of doubt when that hath set the seal to a Good Name all is finished So that now you see the dependence of these two comparisons why King Solomon joyns these two together a Good Name Death Oyntment and Birth A Good Name is better than all outward Delights if Death gives the casting voyce set the seal to it and the Day of Death better than the Day of Birth because it gives the being and certainty to a Good Name a Name with an adjunct an Epithet or Title of Honour Life gives a bare name only and no more I could now by plentifull proofs shew you that the Day of Death in an absolute sence is better than the Day of ones Birth or the time of Life If I would set before you the infirmities which we bring into this world the frailties and dangers the diseases the miseries the sins that pursue us overtake us go along with us dwell with us in us whilst we have our dwelling in these houses of flesh these habitations of Clay Beloved though I be silent the tragicall times the fears even of worse the calamities of the Church of God in all places your own eyes and senses what you see at home what you hear abroad what this Coffin tels you what you feel within you what worse you may justly fear are sufficient witnesses that this life hath little of true worth and happiness to support it others may weep when we go out of the world ourselves have more reason and so they say Nature hath taught us to weep when we come in That then which relieves us that resques us from those enimies that surround us that takes away want finishes misery and ceases the raign of sin if we did not arrive at a positive happiness but if all were terminated in deliverance from these and then we had no more being at all but were to be wrapt up in our first nothing yet certainly this very deliverance from misery and torment might be a happiness and that accounted happy that brings it This at least the Day of Death brings forth it changeth us from a state of sin and wretohedness and in this very regard it 's to be preferr'd to a life which chains us up in both But that is not all it s not only privative but positive where it sees the seal of a Good Name set upon any it opens the Door it sets open the everlasting Gate of Happiness whosoever hath that Name engraven on his forehead that Good Name that New Name from his being a New Creature for being in Christ that hath such a Name as God vouchsafes to write in his Book the Book of Life the Day of Death to such an one is the morning of blessedness which never shall have an evening it is not possible to compare it it 's not proportionable to enter comparison here betwixt the Day of Naturall Birth and Death which is their Birth Day to Eternity Thus you have briefly seen what a Good Name is and whereon grounded and the weight of it Precious Oyntments also Pleasures and Delights the lightness of them in comparison You have seen that the Day of Death is a proper season when a Good Name buds forth flourishes and is ascertain'd and that therefore it is better for those who have that Name than the Day of their Naturall Birth likewise that the Day of Death is to be preferred to the Day of Birth because it puts an end to sin and misery which that begins and is the way to Happiness What now remains
A SERMON PREACHED AT WALDEN in ESSEX May 29th AT THE INTERRING of the Corps of the right HONORABLE SUSANNA Countesse of SUFFOLKE Being a modest and short Narration of some remarkable passages in the holy life and death of that memorable LADY Who dyed May 19th 1649. By EDW RAINBOWE D. D. Hier Ep ad Marcellam In optimis praedicandis bonorum ad virtutem Studia concitentur London Printed by W. Wilson for Gabriell Bedell M. M. and T. C. and are to be sold at their shop at the Middle Temple Gate 1649. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE JAMES Earle of SVFFOLKE My Lord THat I have not paid a more speedy obedience to your Lodships Commands and the admonitions of some of my worthiest friends in making publick these following conceptions proceeded from no other reason than that in my more deliberate review I thought it some injury to her high deserts to have expressed so little where with truth and evidence so much might have been asserted It had been a taske not lesse pleasing to my self and more satisfactory to all that knew her to have pend an History rather than a Sermon and if a happier pen had undertaken this subject the story of her life might prove a most perswasive Orator for goodnesse and piety the highest effects of Sermons But considering the place where I was no make this discourse I could not otherwise contrive but that what could be spoken in the praise of so incomperable a Lady must hold small proportion with what must be supprest in silence and because I would be true to the Title I have made no addition nor considerable alteration That the Image of her Virtues may finde a place in your Lordships memory and may live in your daily imitation and of all who shall see some glimpses of it in this unartificiall but faithfull representation to the glory of him whose Image she bore is the fervent prayer of Your Lordships most humbly devoted servant EDW RAINDOWE Audley-End Sept. 11. 1649. ECCLES 7. 1. A good name is better than Precious Oyntment and the Day of Death than the Day of ones Birth THe Text needs no preface the sad occasion of our present meeting our last duty to a deceased Lady in whose grave Honour Vertue Goodnesse Grace a rare measure of humane perfections seeme to be interred this sets a black and mournfull Preface before the Text. But comfort ye beloved the occasion indeed is a sad Preface to the Text but the Text may afford a comfortable theme and argument unto the occasion I come not here to afflict you altogether from the memory of your sinnes which now bid you weep over her grave but also to afford some comfort from the sence of her happiness and to desire you to take some pleasure in her fame and memory The text and the occasion mingled together make a chequer-worke a mixture of black and white mourning and joy when we present to your imaginations how Precious a Vessell of Oyntment is this day broken and that the Day of Death hath seized on her who can blame our griefe But if we will consider that by breaking this boxe of Spiknard her Good name which is better than precious oyntment is powred forth and makes a sweet fragrancy in the world and that to those who dye in the Lord and with such a Good Name the Day of Death is better than the Day of their Birth surely then we will not grieve as without Hope That I may therfore gain some alacrity from your Attentions and Vigour to mine own Spirit let me intreat you to take your eyes a while from the occasion from her Herse and look upon the text and the consolation which is afforded in it A Good Name c. The words contain a twofold comparison of two kinds of Blessings and he that pronounced the sentence was the fittest man that ever lived to be an Arbitrator Solomon the wise and the happy a King whos 's both hands God had filled with blessings of every kind and having a heart as large as the Sea-shore and wisedom to discern having gained abundance to his hearts desire and his knowledge being master over all things small and great low and tall from the Hysop which groweth upon the wall to the Highest Cedar he stands here in this text as it were with the scales in his hand and having before in the foregoing chapters thrown out of the Balance all that Dross and froth of the world Vain Desires Riches Pleasures Labours I say having found these to be vanity it selfe or lighter than vanity and cast them out of the comparison having by many negatives excluded what is not what cannot make up Happinass whatsoever the blind unequall world may judge he now comes to be positive and to let us see that there is a Happinesse belongs to Man and further proceedes to shew wherein it consists and in what degrees and first begins with the means to it the first of which he counts to be a Good name And here not changing the way and method of his arguing by way of comparison proving the excellency of that which hee commends by shewing that it weighs downe in the Balance and is better than those things wherin men are wont to place most excellency he thus argues A good name is good for it is better than Precious Oyntment and the Day of Death for that is better than the Day of ones Birth So that in the words you finde a twofold comparison the first betwixt a Good Name and Pretious Oyntment that is Riches and Delights the second betwixt Life and Death the coming into this world and by a Syllepsis the living in it and betwixt the departing from this world and the going out of it Solomon gives not the verdict as perchance the world would give it A Good name in his Balance weigh's downe Delights and Pleasures to shake hands with this temporall life in his esteeme is better than to imbrace it Before I weigh these together let me first shew you those commodities distinctly and severally after that we shall more clearly make good the difference and the excellency by comparing them together First let me shew you what a Good Name is and how weighty a blessing Secondly Precious Oyntment or costly delights how light they are Thirdly present them together to be weighed For the second comparison of Life and Death which I take chifely to be an explication of the former an addition of more weight to that scale of the Balance wherein a Good Name is placed I shall first speake of it so that is relatively as it serves to inhance a Good Name Secondly Absolutely as it is a true assertion in it selfe that the Day of Death is better than the Day of ones Birth or living in the world And then in the last place I shall endeavour to apply it to our selves and the present occasion For the first take notice that a Good Name although it be grounded upon some
what shall I say for application should I reprove those who erre in opinion and build their Good Name upon Greatness Glory Fame Naturall indowments Morall accomplishments Beauty Wit Mirth Friendship and the like or any thing not Christian Or should I stir you up to lay a sure foundation for a Good Name in Faith Holiness and Virtue Should I lessen the terrors of Death and hasten any of you in the desires of it which gives so fair a season to this Glorious Flower a Good Name which shuts the door on sin and misery and opens to eternall joyes in all these the text might be a copious theme and I can hardly refrain from inlarging But because Examples have a more lively force on the souls of men than simple Precepts and Practice is the only warrant that rules are Good and that it hath seemed Good to him who hath the issues of Life and Death in his hand to lay such a Pregnant Spectacle before our eyes as may give an exemplary testimony to the truth of this text I shall now take leave to set before your Christian attention some few such observations from and upon the Life and Death of this Eminent Personage whom the uncontrolable Will of the Almighty hath made the sad occasion of our present meeting as may in hance the price of a Good Name and make Death have its true comfort when we see it happen after a well-spent and well-ended life And now well remembring where I am and in whose dreadfull presence before that God of truth who can measure the Deeds and words of men and see what conformity they hold in a Congregation also amongst many of whom the light of her conversation did shine and could not be hid I shall in all sincerity indeavour to speak nothing for Favour Relation Flattery or to gain a Vain-glorious Name to her that is gon or him that speaks but to set forth such reall Virtues as shined in her life that we may all have occasion to glorifie God who was graciously pleased to instamp such lively Characters of his Image upon a poor corruptible Creature and to aspire after all that is praiseworthy in so precious an example that at our Death we all may have lively hopes to be also numbred amongst the living and to leave a Good Name fragrant and refreshing to all those who live after us And now where shall I begin and how shall I find an end both did seem alike difficult to my preparations whereon shall I lay the foundation to build a Precious Name and Memoriall for her who her self had purchased it so many wayes Shall I tell you of her naturall parts and indowments Shall I tell you how her Parents and her self had perfected those by carefull education art and industry Shall I let you know how those were made Gracefull by a meek pleasant and affable Deportment How they were adorned with the choysest Jewels which every Virtue could afford her or which is rarest that all these were consecrated by a Religious even frame and temper and lastly which is the highest Perfection attainable on Earth that she and they were sanctified by the visible operations of the Spirit of God whose Image sat bright and Glorious on her Soul and did shine through all her Conversation These are the solid sure foundations of a Good Name and all these crouded so into my thoughts at once that they were easily lost in the many fair paths and turnings through which look which way soever you would her Excellencies Parts Virtues Graces were ready to invite and draw my meditations But that this universality may not disorder your thoughts as they have done mine I must not seek such arguments for her Praise being dead as have no fast bottom for an Inward Good Name and for which she would not only dispraise but sharply censure me if she were living Namely for any thing she had by nature although from that too in this regard seeing whatsoever Nature had given her she made a Vessell to lay up some Grace or other in If I should tell you of the Sharpness of her Wit I could not better instance to prove it than that in Questions of Religion chiefly Cases of Conscience and difficult places of Scriptures she was most sudden at making Nice Doubts and extraordinary happy in resolving them at least to the satisfying of others although such was her Humility and low esteem of her own Gifts that she would earnestly labour for the resolution of others rather than trust to her own Her Judgment was most sound which might appear as by concurrence with the Wise and Learned in opinions about secular affairs private or publique so chiefly in the Controversies in Religion that amids all those differences and varieties of opinions to the Knowledge of which she was drawn by her carious Soul which had a mighty thirst after all kind of knowledge especially in matters which concerned God Religion and Eternity I say though she knew all Good and Evill yet she had a Discerning Judgment and Exercised Senses to chuse the Good and refuse the Evill not only in points simply necessary to Salvation in which we may believe the Spirit of God would not let her fall but in Speculative truths her opinions were not tainted nor her mind shaken with any of those plausible Errors wherewith the Times havenow so miserably infested and distracted the Church of God and ted Captive many well-meaning Souls but her knowing and well-grounded assent went along first with the Sure Rule the Written Word of God then with those who for sticking to that have been held the Soundest and most Classicall Wheresoever in cases she differd from the most-received opinions it was commonly in Practicall points and seldom but she inclined to the more strict her very Error if it were one deserving its own pardon Her Phancy was most Divine and although she fed it very much with Humane Authors delighting in Wit that was Pure and filled with ingenious and artificiall conceit Poetry especially in the apprehension of which she was very Dexterous and would ever set a Mark upon such expressions as were most emphaticall and quaint many times adding a Grace by her particular interpretation even beyond the intention of the Author but with exceeding fitness and significancy yet she most confined her Phancy to Gather Flowers in Paradise in Gods Garden in his Book and in such as exercised their wits in that Field especially in Divine Poetry in which kind she took an excessive delight to be conversant in Mr. Herberts Temple in which she found out such fit and significant elegancies that when she read or repeated them it was hard to determine whether the Author or she made the sence such innumerable descants would she make upon every single expression there And to shew what delight she took in that heavenly Wit I have heard her more than once seriously aver that if there were no more extent but her copy some
evening it was discovered that it was no living Child of which she labour'd but of that which in the Judgement of all about her must within a few hours or days at most make her a dead woman She soon apprehended their fears and earnestly beg'd now as she did at all times that she might be plainly dealt with concerning her condition for Life or Death which she would in no Case indure to be dissembled to her or concealed from her her friends did observe her desire and confessed their hopes of Life to be small or not any but desired her to submit to Gods will in her dissolution How would you now imagine she received the Sentence of Death with Frights or Fears or Sorrow and Grief to part with the world and her dear Relations in it Truly with a very contrary guise She sent for those who nearliest related to her and her Kindred and Friends and composing her coutenance and gesture to the most Majestick and undejected Gravity that I ever beheld She fell to taking leave bequeathing not her worldly affairs but spirituall Comforts her fervent Prayers Divine Blessings her Weighty Counsells and Admonitions fitted particularly and made proper to every one to whom she gave her heavenly Legacies especially to her Lord her Children her Allies and Servants and all were such as might tend to direct them in wayes of well-doing by which they might through Christs merits meet again in Glory But all this with such Affection such Zeal such Courage such Demonstration of Faith and Assurance of her going now from Pain and Misery to Joyes unspeakable that the image of that day and her aspect shall never depart out of the memory of some who beheld it If you had seen her on her then supposed death-bed you would have thought of Moses on Pisgah or Jacob on his death-bed dividing his blessings of dying Joshua or of David or the best composed Saints To see her dearest Pledges and Relations Friends and Servants standing by flowing with Tears and Lamentations and her self stedfast and unconcern'd Counselling Comforting Blessing them with her last breath as she and they believed it made an appearance as if all they had been the Parties which must dy and she only to give them Christian advice to susser death with Patience as if she had been in perfect health they in present danger of Death such was her Assurance and Joy from the Holy Ghost as if she had begun to tast Eternity and the happiness of that life in the very tidings of Death Her Legacy left to her two dear Children was her desire to her Lord that whatsoever provision he should make for their outward condition of which she was neither distrustfull nor yet solicitous but fervently she besought him that they might be brought up in the strictest way of Religion and Life even in that strictness of life which the world might count Puritanisme The strictest wayes were alwayes accounted best for her own self in her life and now at her Death she bore witness to them and commended them to the Dearest Pledges of her Love After she spent her time in declaring the Assiance she had on the Merits and the Assurance she had on the Love of Christ She did not conceal also how she had wrestled with Doubtings and did propound the greatest Scruple which lay upon her Conscience for the sincerity of her Repentance She spake of the Comfort she had at her last receiving the Sacrament she confest indeed that she might have soyld herself after but yet the last night she had also beg'd pardon and I was told by those that knew it that she had then been a whole houre in private upon her knees although at that time no danger of Death was feared and further professed that now nothing was a greater burthen than this that although she was Willing to Dye yet she found also a willingness in her heart to Live which she much blamed in her self Although that might proceed from the consideration of the good of those she was to Leave rather than that it was better for her to stay the same dispute which the Apostle had with himself Phil. 2. 23. To be with Christ was far better for her nevertheless to abide in the flesh was more needfull for us And so it seemed good to our heavenly Father She was born by accident six Weeks as they counted it before her time and had lived so many Moneths after her time might seem to have been expired Nature seem'd importunate to gain her into the world and as unwilling to let her depart out of it to lose one of her choycest Children It seemed good to Almighty God even to let the Sun of her Life go back some few Degrees after it seem'd to be in the very lowest point of Setting his marvellous providence pointing out such wayes and making all circumstances so concur even beyond hope whereof if any one had failed there could have been no possibility of recovery that she seem'd rather by a Divine Miracle raised from the Dead than by any humane help or hand restored from danger And indeed as the Apostle speaks Heb. 11. 35. Women received their dead raised to life again so did they then look upon this not as a Recovery but as a Resurrection And if you please reckon her Death from that very hour that she resign'd up her self to it so freely and if we look upon her walking since we may believe she was as one Dead to the world as one that was Risen with Christ and had her Conversation in Heaven intentionally her affection I am sure on things above not on things on Earth Account her now as Dead as one whose life was hid with Christ in God For shall I speak plainly she walked on Earth but she lived not after this as to her self to others indeed she did and to their especiall Comfort I have observed two or three things for which God in his providence might bestow this little time and lend her to her friends on Earth he might seem to spare her a little and give her space for these reasons The one was in mercy to her Father The other to her Dear Relations at home The third was to finish some work upon her own Soul for the good example of others her own work was done however in all these I may say she lived not to her self as in the world To her * The E. of Holland Father in his extreme affliction God made her an unexpressible Comfort I speak not in regard of any temporall things which God had determined as we now see to cut away wholy from him as to this life and all the Comforts of it which notwithstanding to procure What Pains Travail Watchings Fastings in that extreme cold season did she undergo even beyond what might be expected from her Sex but especially one of the tenderest breeding in it was very observable by all and satisfactory to him abundantly But to
precious vein in the Rich Mine of his Word This was the last continued act of Reason which she performed only when her strength was even spent she owned her Dear relations when they came unto her did let them understand she was now marryed to Christ joyn'd with most heedfull attentions in Prayer with one whom she then desired to doe that office gave signes of approbation and requested that he which poured it out on her behalf would not go out of the room after that within little more than an hour in a quiet kind of sleep the passages of life being stopped she yielded up her Spirit unto God that gave it leaving behind her the bitterest and loudest lamentations of her friends to whom she was the most desired Creature that God ever placed in their eyes and relations Thus dyed Susanna Countesse of Suffolke and thus she lived twenty two years a rare example of early and pregnant Graces And now if I have set her Image so fresh before your eyes that you make haste to meet her there with any of your tears let me as I began draw them to the Text that by the comfort of it they may be wiped away What think you now if we build her a good Name on this Foundation She hath left us all Materials What can be wanting Greatness Goodness Nature Grace Wit Memory a good Vnderstanding a gracious Heart unfeigned Faith look at the Apostles materials and see what is wanting Faith Vertue Knowledge Brotherly Kindness c. 2 Pet 1. 12. As David who had in his heart and purpose to build a Temple to God left all materials Silver and Gold and Precious Stones and the willing hearts of the People for Solomon to build a Temple out of Tryly she hath left us all the materials that may be to build a Temple of her good Name the bright Silver of her Naturall Parts and endowments the purer Gold of her Virtues and purchased habits and above all the shining Jewels of Gods Graces and Image her precious faith as the Apostle phrases it her burning Zeal fervent Charity pure Religion and undefiled She was all for Sanctuary-words Whilst she lived with those wise-hearted Women Exod. 38. that brought for the service of the Tabernacle their blue and purple and Skarlet and fine linnen and their looking-Glasses All her ornaments all her faculties and Phancies all her desires were to build up her self a Tabernacle a Temple for the service of the living God and besides blessed be God she hath left willing hearts behind her the greatest love and the greatest desire of her self that hath been heard of those that have been ready to weep out their eyes for her being dead would willingly have pluckt out their eyes as the Apostle saith to have kept her alive Seeing then Death hath broken this Alablaster Boxe of precious ointment to pour the liquor of it on her head to annoint her to her Burial and to leave a fragrancy which may fill the world with her sweet memoriall let us give her what is better than Precious ointment and what she hath deserved from us as being the gift of God to her A good Name which so often as it shall sound her memory in our ears let her virtues if their be any Virtue any Goodness any Praise come into our minds let the imitation of them be aspired after in one ardent desire that we may bless God who lent us so rich an example and may all laud and glorifie his name who hath give her such a glorious Name and us so clear an assurance that the Day of her Death was better to her than the Day of her Birth FINIS