that profess the Religion of the Crucify'd Jesus I have heard her say That human Learning was worth nothing unless as a Handmaid it lead to the knowledge of Christ revealed in the Gospel as our only Jesus our Lord and Saviour And would Discourse very finely after this manner What availeth Solomons Skill in all the works of Nature if by them we be not brought to see the God of Nature What is it saith she to be so Skilful in Astronomy as that by the Motions of the Heavens we can foretel things here below if we never study by our Holy Practices to come thither What is it to be so Skilful in Arithmetick as that we can divide and sub divide to the smallest Fractions if as God hath revealed unto us in his Holy Word We do not so learn to number our days Psal 90.12 that we may apply our hearts unto Wisdom What is it says she for a Physician to be skilful in foreseeing and preventing the Diseases of the Body if as God hath revealed unto him he knoweth not where to find that Balm of Gilead Jerem. 46.11 the Wine and Oyl of that Samaritan the Lord Jesus to pour into the fester'd Wounds of his own Soul and Conscience Such as this was her frequent Discourse and will well enough lead me to the second Grace that did shine in her most brightly and that was her Piety And that as it branches it self out into these two known Duties Publick and Private As for the Publick she was a constant frequenter of the Word and Sacrament and the Prayers of the Church which call for our daily attendance She never miss'd unless hinder'd by some bodily Infirmity to which of late she had been too subject Her Private Piety and Devotion was no less by which she dieted her Soul and in her Chamber with holy David she communed with her own heart Psal 4.4 privately examining the State and Condition of her own Soul that she might stand in awe and not sin She greedily catch'd at all opportunities of Retirement that she might have the better entercourse with Heaven as knowing the surest way of overcoming the World and living above it was to sequester her self from in and the best Preparatory for Death was dying daily in holy Solitude and Privacy By which she had so dispos'd her Mind for the time of her Dissolution that it pleased God to give her some distant presages of it For it is two years since her Meditations leading her in her solitary Walks into this Church-yard and resting her self here in the Porch and no doubt ruminating on her Mortality which the place suggested to her a sudden Thought a strong Impulse broke in upon her Mind that in a short time she should die and be buried in this very Church-yard which was so far from casting any Horror or Melancholy upon her Spirits that on the contrary it made her in love with the place and did ever after desire to retire hither and did accordingly choose it for her Burial-place The third thing that I mention'd was her Charity which perhaps you will think under her Circumstances could not be very extraordinary as to the Sums yet was it so as to the Chearfulness and Constancy of her giving for what ever her Allowance was she duly laid aside a certain portion of it to charitable and pious uses Neither did her Charity rest here but raised it self to a higher degree of Spirituality and beyond the scene of this World She had a great love for the Souls of Men was heartily afflicted with the Errors Follies and Vices of this present Age to see that those who called themselves Christians should by bad Principles and worse Practice dishonour their Profession and not only hazard their own Salvation but that of their weak Brother too for whom Christ dy'd And this temper of mind made her not only importunate in her Intercessions for the good of the World but gave her Courage and Discretion above her Years or Sex to benefit the Souls of those she conversed with by friendly Reproof good Counsel or some learned or pious Discourse In the exercise of this Christian Love she liv'd in this she died and here that I may not be thought to flourish only in this matter be pleased to understand that she desir'd me on her Death-bed that I would exhort all young people to the study of Wisdom and Knowledge as the means to improve their Vertues and bring them to the truest Happiness And this I think I cannot do better than in the words which were taken from her own Mouth just upon her departure when her Soul was hovering upon her Lips ready to take the wing for that other World Her words were these which were faithfully Pen'd down and deliver'd into my hands I desire says she that all young People may be exhorted to the Practice of Vertue and to encrease their Knowledge by the study of Philosophy and mote especially to read the great Book of Nature wherein they may see the Wisdom and Power of the Great Creator in the Order of the Universe and in the Production and Preservation of things For Quaelibet herba Deum This was a Language which was very familiar to her and if you would know the English of it she would have you to understand thus much by it that the least Spire of Grass as well as the Lillies of the Field do demonstrate the Being of a God She proceeds It will fix in their Minds a Love to so much Perfection frame a Divine Idea and an awful regard of God which will highten Devotion and lower the Spirit of Pride and give a Habit and Disposition to his Service it will make us tremble at Folly and Profaneness and command Reverence and Prostration to his Great and Holy Name That Women says she are capable of such Improvements which will better their Judgments and Vnderstandings is past all doubt would they but set to 't in earnest and spend but half of that time in study and thinking which they do in Visits Vanity and Toys 'T would introduce a composure of Mind and lay a sound Basis and Ground-work for Wisdom and Knowledge by which they would be the better enabled to serve God and help their Neighbours Thus far this rare Young Woman And after such Rhetorical Lines as these such powerful Exhortations what can I add what can I subjoin but what will fall short very short of what this young Disciple has laid before you She joyns with Moses and the Prophets in what they have declar'd unto you and if you would have a Preacher from the dead why may not a dying Preacher prove as effectual especially to those of her own Sex to whom she does most passionately apply her self Let her words be as powerful upon you as if she did actually rise from the dead to your Conviction for otherwise since she has given you this Admonition she may one day rise up in judgement against you And here I could weep heartily if it were not to shew the Weakness of my Nature but I will lament the loss of so excellent a Creature so rare a Pattern of so much Vertue so much Goodness so much Piety And what shall I more say for the time would fail me to tell of her Meekness and Patience Temperance and Chastity Modesty and Humility these are moral Vertues and in the Practice of which she was very exact and this brings into my Mind what I heard from her when we were Discoursing of moral Vertues some few weeks before her Departure Morality says she is the Life of Religion but our moral Actions unless influenc'd by our Religion are of no use as judging no doubt according to the Opinion of St. Austin that our best Actions without Faith in Christ were but splendida peccata like the Apples of Sodom of more shew than Value Much more I might repeat to you to this Purpose excellent Sayings that proceeded out of her Mouth and worthy to be recorded from Generation to Generation The nearer she drew to her End she manifested to all that came to see her the great Contentment that she had in her approaching Death declaring that to her it did appear no other than the putting off her Clothes a Disrobing that this Mortal part might put on Immortality By all which it does appear that she has set before you a most excellent Example and that in an Age expos'd to the greatest Temptations And therefore we may well turn the words of the Text into a Lamentation and say Alas That there should be no more remembrance of t he Wise than of the Fool for ever That what now is in the days to come should be forgotten And that the wise Man and the wise Woman too should die even as the Fool. I conclude in the words of the same Author Prov. 31.29 Many Daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all God Almighty give us Grace to labour that we may excel in Wisdom and Vertue and true Piety and then however our Name or our Remembrance be lost here on Earth yet we shall have a Name written in Heaven for better than that of Sons and of Daughters which God of his infinite Mercy grant Amen FINIS
of Sullenness in a discontented Stoick who might disparage the World because he would have no share in its Enjoyments but the cool result of Wisdom in a King that could command the Blandishments of this World after he had given the greatest loose to his desires in the Enjoyment of them and who may consequently be the better believ'd in what he saith concerning them Having therefore in the former part of this Chapter found nothing but vanity in all the delights of the Sons of Men whether they were large Possessions or great Retinues whether they were beautiful Gardens or pleasant Fountains whether the mirth of Feasting and Banqueting or the melody of the sweetest Voices and Instruments of Musick he turns himself in the 12th ver as to his last refuge to reflect upon his Wisdom and to consider it as the only good of Man and here he tells us that he found the intellectual pleasures of Wisdom and Knowledge to as far exceed the Madness and folly of sensual Gratifications as the light of the Sun which cleares the eyes and displays the lovely Scene of Nature to our view does the darkness of the night which shuts up all in solitude and silence and exposes us to dangers the wise mans eyes are in his head i. e. he is circumspect and cautious whereby he escapes the Snares and Troubles which the careless and unwary Man does so easily fall into Happy therefore is the man that findeth Wisdom and the man that possesseth understanding Prov. 3.13 14 15. The merchandise thereof is better than the merchandise of Silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold She is more pretious than Rubies and all the things that can be desired are not to be compared unto her She is the off-spring of Heaven the excellency of Men and Angels and the Salt that seasons every state of life and makes it savoury And yet notwithstanding all this the share which the best of Men has of it is but poor and scanty and which is allay'd with much Ignorance and Error It s light is but weak and dim at the best just enough to discover our Miseries but unable of it self to guide us out of them In fine where it is not assissted from above it has its vanity as well as all other things here below it can neither exempt a Man from the Calamities that surround him nor secure him from Death and Oblivion For there is no remembrance of the Wise more than of the Fool for ever seeing that which now is in the days to come shall be forgotten and how dyeth the Wise Man as the Fool. The words represent to us these two things as Vanities incident to Wisdom I. The equal share of Misery and Death that is charged upon the wise Man as well as the Fool for there is one event to them both II. The fruitless Attempt to retrieve our selves from Death by a surviving Memory seeing the wise Man is as soon forgotten as the Fool. I. Then we say that notwithstanding the great Prerogative that Wisdom has above Folly the one can no more free us from Misery while we live nor from the hand of Death at last than the other The wisest Man in the world draws but a precarious Breath here being lodg'd in a Tenement of Clay a tottering and ruinous House subject to many Sicknesses and Infirmities and every moment threatning a Dissolution There is no distinction in his Origin from the Fool or the Beast that perisheth Notwithstanding his boast of Wisdom He is born but as the wild Asses Colt Job 11.12 He spends his Childhood in the same ignorance and vanity and when his knowledge comes to him the disadvantage in comparison seems to lye on his side For having a larger Prospect and nicer Sense than others his knowledge helps him only to discover more things that will vex him and make him sad Hence says our Preacher That the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow Eccles 7.4 and Sorrow dryeth the bones wastes the Flesh and hastens old Age. And as the natural strength wears away so doth the vigour of the Senses and as Life abates so does Wisdom gradually depait from us Death spoils our Tabernacles we lay our Heads down with the beasts of the Field and are crumbl'd into the same common Dust Let our Wisdom be what it will whether speculative or practical spiritual or temporal the Wisdom that is from above or the Wisdom of this world 't is a most certain and undeniable Truth that no Man's Parts or Learning can secure him from the Grave but there is one and the same Event to the Righteous and to the Wicked to the Wise and to the Unwise But here we must remember that we do not mistake the Preachers meaning as if he made no difference at all between the Wise Man and the Fool He only maintains that there was nothing perfect underneath the Sun that Wisdom it self the most excellent of the Gifts of God had its mixtures and allays and was attended with many Inconveniencies that it might not puff us up into Pride and Self-Admiration But in all other Respects Wisdom has been truly justify'd by this her Elder Son who being best acquainted with her has given her her due Praise and recommended her to Mankind And indeed she must be owned to be a Crown of Glory to all that lay hold on her And without her direction and guidance Man is the most forlorn and despicable Creature in the World both as to his moral and his political Capacity For as to the former it is from clouded Undâ—rstandings and wrong Conceptions of things that Men are so fond of their Vices had they but right apprehensions their Lusts would not look so alluring Who is the proud Man who is the Drunkard who is the Glutton who is the Covetous who is the Voluptuous who is the Profane who is the Adulterer But the Man that lacketh Wisdom And as to the latter how can a Man steer himself thro' the various Circumstances of his Life if he has not this Star and Compass to direct him What is wealth without knowledge but a dangerous Temptation and a sure Evil to the Owners thereof What is want without knowledge but an insupportable Vexation that can neither be born nor remedied What is Power without knowledge but a pompous Station which will either be lost or lessened What is Subjection without knowledge but a brutish drudgery that will neither be valued nor pityed What is Honour without Knowledge but an empty Title that will be either envyed or slighted And what is disgrace without Knowledge but an insulting Evil that can neither be warded nor yet weather'd For certain is it that by a due improvement of our Minds we are the better able to carry our selves thro' this Valley of Tears to moderate a prosperous fortune and to sustain an adverse one Neither would I have the
Atheist and Epicure inferr from Solomons saying The wise Man dies as the Fool and both of them as the beast that there is no difference of them afterwards and that it will be to all alike hereafter as if they had never been for this is a most certain and evident Proof to the contrary the little Discrimination that is made here does sufficiently make out that there shall be a greater hereafter That the Soul of a Wise and Holy Man who undergoes the same Trouble and Fatality in this World that the Fool and the Sinner doth and sometimes greater is a convincing Argument drawn from the Justice of God that there is a future State wherein the grand difference of Mankind shall be settl'd and establish'd No! Tho' the one inherits the same Corruption with the other in the Grave yet shall he see a more blessed Incorruption tho' he sets in Dishonour yet shall he rise again in Glory And therefore our Royal Preacher in another place tells us Wisd 5.1 2 4 5. That the righteous Man who is truly the wise Man shall one day stand in great Boldness before the Face of such as have afflicted him and made no account of his Labours that when they see it they shall be amazed at the strangeness of his Salvation so far beyond all that they looked for And again we Fools accounted his Life madness and his end to be without Honour but how is he numbred among the Children of God and his Lot is among the Saints It is no difficult Matter I must confess to Persons who live wholly to the Body and do not aim at any useful end of Life to imagine that they are nothing but Flesh and Blood and that when they die their Soul shall dissolve and vanish into the soft Air But to think that those who have lived above the Body have govern'd themselves by the Dictates of the highest Prudence have benefited the World by their rare Endowments have been adorn'd with all Divine Graces and Vertues and have been the Glory of the Age they liv'd in such as this young Gentlewoman whose remains are now before us a Person endow'd with excellent Gifts and Graces to think I say that she together with those other Worthys departed this Life in the Faith and fear of God to think by their confessing the same common Dust in their Dissolution that they were actuated by no higher Pirnciple that there were no spiritual Inhabitants in those Houses of Clay which being of heavenly extract performed all those noble things and are now removed to their native Countrey to receive the reward of them is a thought which to any serious thinking Man must needs be as absurd as 't is uncomfortable Methinks it were to be wish'd that those which have been such Lights to the World besides their immortal State in the other World might likewise have an immortal Memory in this to justifie the Power of Wisdom and to excite our Emulation But it hath pleased Almighty Wisdom to ordain but one immortality that we might be more intent in the pursuit of it and not vainly expect or rest in any other And this brings me to the II. Vanity incident to Wisdom which is tho' the Memory of the wise be so desirable a thing to themselves and beneficial to Posterity Yet there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever seeing that which now is in the days to come shall be forgotten Certain it is that there is a hankering in the minds of all Men to perpetuate their Memories whether it arises from the natural Thirst of the Soul after immortality or from a Diffidence of a future State and consequently an endeavour to recover what we can from the spoils of Death And how industrious has the Wit of Man been to prevent this Some by costly Unctions and Embalmings some by lasting Tombs and Pyramids some have obtained to be Registred among the Stars and others to have the Months of the year to be called by their Names What Dangers have Men encountred to get an immortal-Fame to be incerted in the Annals of the world or to be celebrated in the strains of some ingenious Poet How fond are most Men of surviving in their Off-spring and what an Unhappiness is it look'd upon to have no issue to keep up our name Thus do poor Mortals hunt after shadows and very Spectrums Thus do they disquiet themselves in vain to purchase a little popular breath which when they are gone they shall be insensible of or at least unconcerned for and in which Falshood has often as great a share as Truth and Vice as Vertue For the World is not so curious to hand down what is excellent as what is surprising and extraordinary Thus he that set the Temple of Ephesus on fire is remembred whilst he that built it is almost forgotten and that was a hopeless as well as mean desire in Cardan tho' the greatest Philosopher and Physician of his time that the Ages to come might know there was such a Man not caring whether they knew any more of him But let a man's fame be raised from never so solid a merit and rivetted in Brass and Marble yet Monuments themselves have their destiny Time eats through the most lasting Substance and Oblivion blots out the fairest Characters We cannot hope to live so long in our names as some have done in their persons and those who have or shall have the happiest and longest Commemoration shall by the flux of time have it dwindle into a point and at last vanish into nothing It being in this respect the same with Time as it is with Place that the greatest distance gives the least appearance so vain a thing is a restless inquietude for the diuturnity of our Memories For who knows whether there are not more remarkable Persons forgotten than that stand remembred in the known account of time and the best of Men at last must be content to be as though they had never been as to this World and to be found in the Register of God not in the Record of Man Indeed to have the common voice of Men for the testimony of a worthy Carriage in the constant tenour of a Man's life and conversation is a desireable thing and of singular use while we live our Preacher assuring us that a good name is better than pretious ointment Prov. 22.1 both for the refreshing and cheering our selves and scattering a delicious fragrancy to others i.e. The Reflection upon good Actions is the feast of a good Conscience and the Esteem which our Vertue creates in the Minds of others excites their Imitation and brings back with it their Friendship and Assistance It comforts us in all the stages of our life and at the hour of our departure hence it stands by us allays the Terror of Death and tells our departing Souls that we shall die desir'd and that our Memories shall be preserved sweet by all