Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A46365
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A pastoral letter written on the occasion of the death of the late Queen of England, of blessed memory with reflections on the greatness of that loss to Europe / by Peter Jurieu ...
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Jurieu, Pierre, 1637-1713.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing J1206; ESTC R36214
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14,400
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32
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two Souls were unexpressibly strong And at the same time it is a clear Proof of the Heroical Vertue of both They lov'd each other almost to excess because they knew one another to be perfectly vertuous and worthy to be lov'd For the Love of God and of his Glory was the source of their Conjugal Love And upon this Occasion give me leave to represent to you the greatness of our Obligation to these two Illustrious Lovers They were link'd together by the closest Ties they were passionately enamour'd of each other and yet suffer'd themselves to be separated every Year by a voluntary Exile of Six Months The King sacrific'd His dearest Delights to the Publick Good and to the Glory of God And the Loving QUEEN during these tedious Campaigns sacrific'd that Dear Husband and expos'd Him to the Faithlesness of the Sea to that more terrible treachery of Men and to the Dangers of Battels in which His Courage engag'd Him every moment And all for the Publick Good for the Quiet of Europe and for the Glory of Her God Nor was the End of this Princess unsuitable to Her Beginning Young and Fair as She was a QUEEN and a Happy QUEEN ador'd by Her own Subjects and by Strangers She welcom'd Death like one that had reason to be weary of the World and as if the World had been weary of Her Being inform'd on the second day of Her Sickness that Her Disease was the Small Pox and of a very dangerous Kind because they did not come out She addrest Her self to God in a most devout Prayer and resign'd Her self to his Hands When She was advertis'd of the fatal Approaches of Death She receiv'd the news with a great deal of Firmness and without the least Disturbance She made Her Peace with God and receiv'd the stroke of Death bowing down Her Head and lifting up Her Soul towards Heaven like and Innocent Lamb or a pure Victim that offers up it self to its God in a voluntary Oblation Think what Advantages the World receiv'd and might have receiv'd from such a Queen And indeed it may be said that never any Person of her Sex that had a King and a Husband alive was so useful to Mankind Private Persons may speak of this from their own Experience What a vast multitude of Alms of Pious and Charitable Works are now with Her before God She was sensibly touch'd with the Affliction of the People of God She maintain'd every where a great Number of Women of Quality who had left their Estates and Country She contributed large Sums for the Entertainment of so many indigent Persons who being driven from their own Habitations had without Her assistance led a most wretched and languishing Life She had the Blessings of the Widow and the Orphan and Her only Grief was that She could not provide for all their Necessities These Advantages which we receiv'd were indeed very precious in the fight of God But there were others that shin'd brighter in the Eyes of Men. Who can enough admire her Wisdom Prudence and Courage in sharing the burthen of Government with Her Illustrious Husband By Her that Great King could be present in several Places at once By Her He extended his Empire beyond the Sea While He commanded Armies on our Frontiers and set bounds to that ambitious Grandeur that would have swallow'd up all the World The Queen supply'd his place on the Throne She assisted at Her Council four or five hours together answer'd all Proposals with an admirable Presence of Mind and with a piercing clearness of Judgment unfolded the most knotty difficulties And in what Time did She rule so successfully In the most difficult Times that England ever saw in the midst of a thousand Conspirators who cover'd their pernicious Designs with the specious pretext of a tender Conscience and Allegiance to their Sovereign The Enemies Fleet appear'd on the Coasts under the formidable Name of an injur'd King and an incens'd Father within Cabals were form'd to introduce the Enemy The King was absent busy'd in defending the Frontiers of His Allies The Queen watches labours night and day takes Her measures prevents the Conspirators sees that Fleet disperst which came to put Her in Chains and like a Rock remains unmov'd in the midst of so furious a Tempest Every Campaign renew'd Her Labours and still She was attended with the same glorious success When the King return'd She return'd to Her Rest She retir'd peaceably to Her Works and Gardens as if She had been capable of nothing else Just like those Heroes of ancient Rome who left their Countrey Labours to command Armies and having routed the Enemies and secur'd the Commonwealth return'd again to their little Employments We have already seen what a Queen we have lost let us now hearken to the Instructions that are offer'd to us by the Illustrious Deceas'd In the first place She gives us a Lesson concerning the Vanity of the World which ought to have a great influence upon us 'T is true we see daily Examples of it but they are so many that they cannot make a lasting Impression upon us We are so accustom'd to them that we must have remarkable Examples set before us from time to time to rouse us out of that Stupidity in which we are buried The common People Citizens and Tradesmen perish before our eyes but these are unpriviledg'd Heads which fall in heaps and dye unregarded A thousand Funerals pass along our Streets and are no sooner past than forgotten They tell us of Princes and Kings that died some Ages ago which now are only so many vain Names in History The Preachers draw these Goblins out of their Sepulchres to affright us but they lose their labour Death seizes on as many Crown'd Heads in this as in any former Age for a Crown has no more power now to bestow Immortality upon him that wears it than it had a thousand years ago But we have always some pretext ready to excuse our want of attention and to elude the force of such Examples That Prince was old and 't was time for him to be going This Princess was tender and could not live long Another had done a great deal of mischief and 't was just that he should go to receive the Punishments that he deserv'd One was hated by his Subjects and therefore Death was a Blessing to him And another 't is true did little harm but less good and therefore the World was well rid of him Come my dear Brethren and Fellow Mourners come and see Behold an Instance that cuts off all such pretexts Behold a Young Person who had receiv'd from Nature all imaginable Favours see a Great Princess in the flower of her Age of a sound Constitution which promised a long Life behold a Charitable Soul an inexhausted Source of Good Works and the Delight of all the World Behold in this Instance the Vanity of the World unvail'd the meanness of the most shining Creatures the weakness
of Humane Confidence and the disappointment of all the Hopes of Man Learn to ralse your Minds to more solid Enjoyments which Death cannot rob you of And You who abuse your Beauty to serve your criminal Designs instead of making a right use of it as this Great Princess did of Hers come and see in this great Mirrour what e're long you shall likewise be Palaces Guards well man'd Walls Ornaments rich Furniture delicious Tables numerous Trains of Servants and the magnificent Pomp of your guilty Pleasures all these things shall not save you from the insults of Death For if those things be done in a green Tree what shall be done in the dry Weep saith that Great Princess weep for your selves and not for Me. Let us weep for our own Vanity For She is crown'd with Glory in the Heavens where She is now receiving the Recompence of Her Good Works But we are left in a World which rouls like a furious Torrent where Young and Old are carried headlong to the Abyss of Death You Great Persons who abuse your Power behold this Example and remember that you shall be quickly summon'd to receive the Sentence of Death from that Judge who has lately rewarded our Queen with a new and glorious Crown I proceed to a second Lesson which is no less important than the former The Queen's Death by discovering to us the Vanity of the World teaches us how to Live And the Piety and Resignation with which She receiv'd Her Death instructs us how to Dye After the second Day of Her Sickness they did not conceal from her the Nature of her Distemper and she receiv'd the News with an extraordinary strength of Mind and with a perfect Submission Yet there were still some hopes left till the sixth day of Her Disease But then the Combination of several deadly Symptoms the Small-pox the Measles Erisypelas Purple Fever oppression at Her Breast and loss of Blood took away all hope of Life My Lord Archbishop of Canterbury who never left Her deliver'd the dismal Message to Her 〈◊〉 the whole Court and City were in despair all Persons were cover'd with Tears there was nothing to be heard but Sighs and Groans the King lost all his Courage and both He and She were equally bewail'd The Queen alone receiv'd the fatal Tidings without trouble She answer'd that She was ready to render to God that Soul which She had receiv'd from him She address'd her self to him with a most ardent Devotion to obtain his Mercy She resign'd Her self to His Will She begg'd forgiveness in the Name and through the Blood of Her Saviour Jesus Christ and recommended to Him that which was dearest to Her in the World the King Her Husband The rest of Wednesday and Thursday even to Her Death She past in a perfect freedom of Mind and in the Transports and Raptures of a Soul that was wholly devoted to God She comforted Her Comforter and edifi'd all Her Assistants She receiv'd the Sacrament devoutly and at last yielded up Her Soul to God without suffering it to be forc'd from Her My Brethren the most wretched Creatures are not willing to die they have oftentimes no reason to desire to live yet they will not be perswaded to a religious Preparation for Death Let us hearken to this Example which sets before us a Queen Young Fair Happy Lov'd and Ador'd Ty'd to the World by the firmest Bonds yet all these Ties were broken by the hands of Her Piety as if they had been made of Chaff O Death said a certain Wise man how bitter is the remembrance of thee to one that lives peaceably in his own House but how much more bitter might it have been to Her who liv'd gloriously in a magnificent Palace Let us labour then my Brethren to cover our selves with a holy Confusion Let us learn to die in our Meanness in our Baseness in our Poverty in our Cottages as this Young Queen hath done in the midst of all Her Grandeur and of all Her Glory These are truly great Lessons but I have sound out others that are both higher and more Mysterious First I admire the depth of the Providence and Judgements of God Who knows whether we have not occasion'd the death of our dear Princess by our excessive Love of Her If you have studied the History of Providence you ought to have learn'd there that God takes pleasure to break our Idols Of these Idols some are vain such as were those of the Gentiles and these God breaks to pieces in his indignation and in the Fury of his Jealousie Others are good and worthy to be lov'd but they cause us to learn too much to the Creature which is alwayes displeasing to God and therefore he breaks these Idols in his Mercy and for our Salvation Sometimes he produces those Master-pieces of his Goodness he sets them before us and leaves them with us so long as 't is necessary to make us know them and love them and then he withdraws his Work and his Image from us and takes them to himself least we should run to an Excess by loving those Excellent Persons too much with respect to Themselves and too little with regard to Hâ—m who is Author of all their Grandeur and Perfections Secondly Here we may see the Condemnation of the rash and unwarrantable judgments of some who say that God in his Justice shortens the days of those who make a bad use of them If ever Person made a right use of her Time and of her Life it was certainly our Great and pious Queen But why then did not God prolong Her dayes These are the depths of God and the Abyss of his Wisdom into which we must not search No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them there is one event to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not There is a Just Man that perisheth in his Righteousness and there is a Wicked Man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness saith the Wise man The Wicked descends to the Grave with a hoary head and he whom God loveth is withdrawn from the Evil that is to come Nor have the Godly any Reason to complain of their Lot they shall receive Crowns in Heaven more valuable than those which they may have lost on Earth Indeed we who are left here are wont to complain but unjustly God takes from us Persons of whom the World was not worthy and why did not we render our selves worthy to enjoy them Thirdly Let us learn from hence silently to adore the unsearchable Judgments of God God leaves in the World an infinite number of Persons that are like Blemishes on a fair Face Clouds they are without Water carried about of Winds Raging Waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame Spots in our Feasts of Charity And without reckoning the Wicked how many useless Persons are there in the World If we consult our own false Wisdom we may perhaps break forth