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
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
was I have told you before Indeed the distracted condition of her affairs and the times did still force her to defer that order and setled way for duties in her Family which she had framed in her mind and seriously intended to perform if it had pleased God to give opportunity for setling but in the mean time she desired that all whom she had power over would supply such necessary defects which she often Grieved at with their particular care in their private service of God and their frequenting the publique Ordinances If I would pursue particulars it were hard to find any shore in the wide Ocean of her Praises and yet in describing her life I need not fear flattery for truly to set out only some part of her Worth and to keep back the rest or to draw her picture with my rude pencil is far beneath the true and genuine Beauty which was in her large Soul so no fear of excess But if any should be offended at these praises which I bring for the Dead I have found two Apologies in one Epistle of St. Hierom for his praises of Asella a godly deceased noble Matron Nemo reprehendat c. saith he let no man blame me for setting forth praises due to the Virtues of the Dead it may stir up the living to contend to attain to the like Virtues Another is that which I may peculiarly assume in this place I praise her being Dead saith he lest any should think those praises which I gave her when she was Alive should have proceeded from flattery not from truth Living and Dead she hath filld me justly with that argument But if any should say why nothing but praise had she no Errours no infirmities or sins truly yes she had and as if she had desired with the Apostle only to Glory in her Infirmities as if the world were not envious or not prying enough to find them out she hath left a Catalogue of them upon record under her own hand as hath been seen since her death amongst her papers as if she had rather wished this solemnity might have been spent in rehearsing them than any of her Virtues She had written down fourty six particulars which she used to bewail as faults or infirmities or wants And perchance some might now desire to hear of them such is our own corruption that we love like impure flyes to feed on other mens sores but should I name those secret faults which she impartially laid open betwixt God and her own Soul I should much disappoint and frustrate the expectation of those And it might perchance be taken for the greatest flattery when they shall hear her secret faults to be such as might indeed have been spoken in a Pulpit whilst she was alive and would have been thought done on purpose to gain her applause compared with what most of us know to be the Plague of our own hearts But her sins and infirmities so often her bewailed and buried in the grave of Christ I doubt not but your Christian Charity will think fit to be buried with her or in a deeper Grave the grave of Oblivion whilst her Virtues and Good Name due to them shall live and flourish and find a perpetuall monument in every one of our hearts She was as all Gods Children are sometimes under great sorrow and dejection of spirit and tryed by great Temptations under which some few years ago she lay for a time and it cost her many tears which God at the last regarded and heard her Prayers delivered her out of the snare and set her on an high and sure Rock by Faith And so I shall I have done with that part of practice wherein the course of her life was seen I desire to adde something of that which might seem to fit and prepare her for or at least to attend her at her Death Indeed her whole life was that which sound Philosophers or rather sound Christians would have it A constant Meditation or Preparation for Death She was never long unprepared for that the assurance of which how great a Comfort it has been to her surviving friends is not easily imaginable For it pleased God to let the violence of her disease seise upon her choycest and most exquisite part her Intellectualls although with some short and sweet returns for three or four days before she dyed From which I desire all Christians to observe Gods dealings with her with praise to his providence and caution to themselves It is the mercy of God to the living to admonish by examples of such whom he wholly disinables in time of sickness to prepare for their eternall condition whilst they have health leisure and undisturbedness of understanding To her Soul so constantly prepared and every day waiting when he would call or knock it was not sudden but if at this instant he should summon any of us in that kind I beseech you in the fear of God let us consider whether we have our souls in like readiness and if not delay no longer But to clear up all doubts concerning her let me tell you her Behaviour on her Death-Bed was the most sweet and the most comfortable and Christian that ever I heard of and to satisfie all your Scruples this last was not it or not only it She was Twice thrown down upon the Bed of Death she might say indeed she Dyed daily by renewed acts of mortification But in a true and proper sence before this last expiring she had totally resigned up her self and expected every moment when the Angels should fetch her Soul from her body once before The story is famously known to all that knew her about six moneths ago in the moneth of November last past she having reckon'd her self to be with child and finding unusuall Symptoms such as in that case she never had experience of she thought that God did now admonish to set her house in order and to set her Soul in order for it was very probable he might finish her dayes on earth at her bringing forth She wisely and frequently pondered this in her heart and was noted to double her guard her diligence at her duties and to be ready to answer at every Call The time past which she expected should be the hour of Deliverance and after it some weeks which caused great doubting of her condition whether she had conceived at all and sometimes Physitians and those about her concluded the Contrary but no doubt did she make of being Prepared for Death of which she often discoursed and what thoughts she had of its Nearness and because she had bodily strength and went abroad she took the opportuuity of gaining Spirituall Strength to her Faith and other Graces by partaking of the Holy Communion six dayes or there abouts after that a moneth after her time she fell into the Pangs of women in travell and when the Midwife had spent all the day and could give no help but totally despaired in the
shew that it was the service of his Soul that shee aim'd at as if her Soul had been held in life for that purpose that she might be an instrument to draw her Fathers with her to Eternity Let me tell you but this When all hopes of Life were past and after she with the rest of those who were dear to him had taken their finall leave that the rest of his hours might be spent with his spirituall Comfortors She could not give sleep to her eyes nor slumber to her eye-lids untill she had once more visited and discoursed with him but yet in matters relating wholy to Eternity And therefore coming betimes in the Morning first timorously into his chamber after she had watched all night in a room hard by for that purpose when he had with joy discernd and welcom'd her they presently fell into Conference in which she with an humble boldness did so question and answer rip up and stitch together again gently wound and then give balm in a word did so apply both Law and Gospel to him that being refreshed with these comforts he cryed out Happy I that I should from a Child of mine own receive such consolation And after that he told a Reverend Divine who came to administer the like consolation That he thanked God he had a Child there who though he said it before her face was able to be his Counsellour in all his doubts Also another Divine present heard her half an hour to admiration as he professed After her Fathers death none so nearly relating bore all with the like Christian patience as she acknowledging it the wise method of Almighty God thus to bestow mercy on a Soul which without so great a measure of affliction in health and in the Glory of his prosperity could not or would not ever have so humbly and sincerely sought it from the bed of sickness if death had taken him from that And amongst other expressions by which she mightily comforted her self and others in her clear assurance of his salvavation she often said that she could not if it were possible and lawfull with her heart and judgment wish him alive again although it were well known that never Parent lay deeper in the affections of a Child than he in hers But she durst not wish him so bad a change as to leave heaven for earth especially this earth as things now make it After she had thus acted her part with her Father although much weakned by watching and fasting having taken no sustenance for fourty eight hours together as I am informed nor come in bed notwithstanding the extremity of the season and her great toyl Then she applyed her self vigorously to the setling of all things which concerned the secular affairs of her Family that so she might totally and wholly be vacant to God and the busines of her Soul which having now finished and set all in exact method as to the very least particular she then with great resolution declared to one with whom she might be private that now she would settle as she had long intended and desired in the Countrey and there would never be at rest till she had made her Calling and Election sure indeed that she would confer with some one she named how she might if possibly arrive at an absolute assurance of Salvation To another she said that now if God would give her leave she would go into the Countrey and she had cast her Family-business into such a way that for her self she would have nothing to do but to be Ready to Dye And God took her at her word He put these holy Resolutions into her heart and because it was in her heart to do it it was the clear purpose of that He who searcheth the heart and bendeth the Will and having proved her heart to be upright before God He accepted it and took the will for the Deed don it was in his esteem the Task of her life was finished to her Father to her Family to her Soul For this let me note there was not a night in six moneths since her last recovery from her mortall sickness that she rose from off her knees from her prayers without tears running down her Cheeks as I am certainly informed by those who had reason to know it And now it was time for God to take to himself what he had so fitted for himself and this she presently foresaw and took the first approach of her disease to be the summons of Death and earnestly desired conference with one whom in her Souls affairs she had trusted She foresaw her journey and therefore had made provision for a Viaticum and intended the next Lords Day following and so had prepared her thoughts to have received the Sacrament and having conferrd before with him from whose hands she intended to receive that Holy Mystery she discovered her spirituall condition to him plainly and Clearly and Charged him to deal as severely and impartially and still would urge him again and again after this manner O but you deal more gently with me than you would with another I beseech you let me know the worst Her main Scruple at that time was as she was alwayes full of Scruples her Conscience being the tenderest part about her Indeed the last Lords Day she was troubled at her distractions at Church and was melancholy at it after she came home and asked if others used to be so but now her trouble arose from this That she could not discern but that her Love to God had too much relation to the reward She knew that his essentiall excellencies ought to draw all love towards him for himself but still Salvation and Glory and that in serving him there was great Reward this came as she thought too much into her mind and this she feared was too Mercenary and Servile and a Love not high enough to bestow on God She was at last well satisfied in this point how the love of God might well consist with an eye to the recompence of Reward and was quiet in her mind untill the distemper of her disease did disturb her understanding at the first seizing on her she did with some sudden shew of fear presage her Death but within a few hours she declared that she feared it not at all Although as I told you her disease got into her brain and bred some disturbance there yet it pleased God to afford her many clear and bright Glimpses One remarkable wherein she poured forth her Soul in a large prayer the words of which cannot be recollected but in effect it was of such most fervent melting moving passages as if she would out-wrestle God and rend from him his mercies by unresistable violence and take the Kingdome of Heaven by Force out of his hands especially as for laying before him his Name his Attributes his bowells his Christ all his Comfortable Promises which she fetch 't with most admirable skill choyce and Fluency from every