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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33971	Par nobile two treatises, the one concerning the excellent woman, evincing a person fearing the Lord to be the most excellent person, discoursed more privately upon occasion of the death of the Right Honourable the Lady Frances Hobart late of Norwich, from Pro. 31, 29, 30, 31 : the other discovering a fountain of comfort and satisfaction to persons walking with God, yet living and dying without sensible consolations , discovered from Psal. 17, 15 at the funerals of the Right Honourable the Lady Katherine Courten, preached at Blicklin in the county of Norfolk, March 27, 1652 : with the narratives of the holy lives and deaths of those two noble sisters / by J.C.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.; Collinges, John, 1623-1690. Excellent woman.; Collinges, John, 1623-1690. Light in darkness.	1669 (1669)	Wing C5329; ESTC R26441	164,919	320

destroyed her That her dulness was no more to holy duties than to any thing else and as I conceived wholly occasioned through these natural causes 4. Lastly I told her it was manifest that God had not wholly withdrawn his quickening grace from her from her sense of her present distemperature and the quickening of her soul to the duty though she did not find such quickening in the duty as she desired she might truly say I sleep but my heart waketh Her heart was awake to a sense of her infirmity though she slept in respect of so full an ability to perform the duty with that life and chearfulness which she desired and had formerly experienced I further told her that Gods dearest servants under sad afflictions or partial desertions had wanted degrees of quickening grace How often doth David cry out Lord quicken me Psal 119. 25 88 154 107. Psal 143 11 c. It was some time before she could be convinced of this that it was an evidence of quickening grace for her soul under its heaviness to be kept awake with the sense of her duty and labour under the burthen of its infirmity but at last she was as to this also in some measure satisfied And now her adversary was inforced in a great measure to quit all his strong holds Some of these temptations returned but her judgement was established her faith strengthened and she was never after kept long in bondage to any of them for an hour or two or for a night she might be in captivity to some of them but one might easily discern from her adversaries shifting from one temptation to another that his strength was tired and he about to leave her soul 7 Tempt Yet after this could one have thought that her adversary should have offered any suggestion to her to have destroyed her self But as to this temptation to which her spiritual adversary had a great advantage from the inexpressible torturing pains which she felt she was not with more advantage violence and subtilty moved than through grace strengthened in the resisting and repelling of it she was not wont to parley with her adversary not affected to keep his counsels once and again she was thus solicited But as God inabled her with indignation to say Get thee behind me Satan so he g●ve her wisdom to discover it to her dearest friends and he quickly gave over this temptation For some time before the Lord translated this servant of his he had prepared her for her dissolution by creating in her strong desires to be dissolved that she might be with Christ She was much prone to suspect her own sincerity and would tell me That she sometimes feared lest she should desire death only to be freed from her pain but she hoped she did not desire it upon that account For some weeks before she died she had many fainting and Convulsion fits in every one almost of which we expected her change when she recovered out of any of them she would be almost angry at her souls recovery and usally her first word was Must I yet live longer I remember above six months before her death I being in Essex wrote a censolatory Letter to her Ladiship in which I had this passage amongst others Madam if ever we come in Heaven possibly we have many months or years Journey thither through this wilderness your Ladiship probably may be there in twelve months to that purpose when I returned her Ladiship thank● me for my Letter and told me it much refreshed her but she was troubled that I should think she had yet twelie months Journey to Heaven she chearsully told me she hoped she had a shorter voyage When the adversary of her salvation perceived he could not baffle her hope nor make the hand of her faith to shake but still she was resolved to keep her hold on Christ and that her soul was willing yea desirous to be dissolved and to be with Christ 8 Tempt He once more attempts to spoil her comfort and molests her with extreme fears of a bitter death and that her saith would then fail and her courage abate This I think was his last assault discerned by us her Ladiship was pleased to impart her fears to me I humbly besought her Honour that now she had prevailed against Satans horsemen she would not suffer her self to be trampled by his footmen I told her Ladiship 1. That it was probable that God would give her whom he had made a combatant with so long and sharp an affliction at last to depart in peace 2. That it was not probable that her dying pangs would be more sharp and violent than what she had already indured and was yet induring 3. That she had no reason to distrust that God who had strengthened her in so many hours and nights and daies of torturing pain for his assistance in the last hour which if it had more of weight and bitterness yet would have less in length 4. That he in whom she had trusted the Lord Jesus Christ had taken away the bitterness of death and payed a price for his Saints perseverance in it so that never any held out to the end who at last was left and failed in it 5. I defired her Ladiship to digest that text Heb. 2. 14 15. For as much as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he also took part with them of the same that through death be might destroy him that had the power of death even the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-me subject to bondage Soon after this her distemperature yet heightened her pains grew exceeding great and so continued for some daies till about 4 daies before her death which yet it pleased God to inable her to endure with an admirable patience still she kept her hold fast in God professing to me even in her highest fits of distemper that the Lord was her hope and she had an hold on him and would not let it go let God do what he pleased with her and Satan suggest what he could unto her Some sour daies before her death it pleased God that her pains were in some degrees abated and now by this experience of Gods supportation of her in her last sad r●turn of pain she grew confident that she should be able to stand in the hour of death The day before she died was to her a day of great reviving she had not of many weeks before been so chearful and free from pain At noon coming in as I was wont to pray with her I found her even ravished with the apprehensions of Gods goodness to her giving her some relaxation from pain and I hope I shall not forget how earnest she was in pressing me to praise the Lord with her and for her After prayer she continued very chearful yet on the sudden she laid hold on my hand and drew me to her so as I perceived she would whisper something in

Par Nobile TWO TREATISES The one concerning The EXCELLENT WOMAN Evincing a person Fearing the Lord to be the most Excellent Person Discoursed more privately upon occasion of the Death of the Right Honourable the Lady Frances Hobart late of Norwich from Pro. 31. 29 30 31. The other Discovering a Fountain of Comfort and Satisfaction to persons walking with God yet living and dying without sensible Consolations discovered from Psal 17. 15. at the Funerals of the Right Honourable the Lady Katharine Courten preached at Blicklin in the County of Norfolk March 27. 1652. With the Narratives of the holy Lives and Deaths of those two Noble Sisters By J. C. D. D. late Minister of the Gospel in Norwich Prima gratia est timor Domini Bernardus in Serm. de donis Sp. Sancti Sine hâc gratiâ primâ gratiarum quae totius Religionis exordium est nullum bonum pullulare ve● manare potest LONDON Printed in the Year 1669. THE Excellent WOMAN Discoursed more privately from Proverbs 31. 29 30 31. Upon occasion of the Death OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE The Lady FRANCES HOBART By J. C. D. D. Connexa sunt timor Religio nec manere potest altera sine altero Bernardus LONDON Printed in the Year 1669. TO THE Right Honourable THE Lady ELIZABETH COUNTESSE Dowager of Exeter Madam THat noble person to whose memory these sheets are devoted and my relation to her were so well known to your Ladiship that I am sure you will find no difficulty to conclude that something of this nature is but a debt to her memory and especially from my self upon whom she laid so many obligations that if I should hold my peace the very stones would speak Nor Madam can I think discourses of this nature useless being though of no significancy in subsidia mortuorum to advantage the dead yet not insignificant both in solatium and ad exemplum vivorum for the comfort and example of those who are alive that others may learn the steps of holiness by which she ascended that blessed Mansion into which we believe her entred and by which she mounted to that pinacle of honour in the Church of God upon which we lately saw her and which her memory yet possesseth This Madam being determined I had no difficulty to find out to whom I should inscribe them Both the subject matter of the discourses and your Ladiship 's near relation to her Ladiship challenged that at my hands The design of the sheets Madam introductive to the sequent Narrative of her Ladiship 's life is to evince a great truth to the world concerning which the practical errours which we daily see in it give us reason to believe it not sufficiently perswaded viz. That the person fearing the Lord is the most excellent person Were the world better convinced of this most demonstrable Proposition those persons would not find it so difficult to reconcile the world unto them and to gain a quiet room in the latitude of it wherein to pass the time of their so journing here with fear only leading such a conversation as might comport with the fear of God according to the degrees of light they have received Those Madam who know the value of persons fearing Jehovah must from principles of reason have a kindness for every one whom they see afraid to sin against that great and glorious Name though that timoration makes them recede from them in some practices wherein they could desire them to be like themselves But Madam how unreasonable soever the more peevish world sheweth it self in their judgement of and behaviour to such persons Your Ladiship hath for many years declared your self to have a juster apprehension and testified it both by your own choice of the right waies of the Lord and your exemplary kindness to those whom you have found walking therein These Papers Madam will justifie your Ladyship's judgement and may possibly help to confirm what your Honour hath so long believed To the latter part of these sheets your Ladiship is entituled by your near relation to that Honourable person whom they concern and the intireness of affection which you mutually bare each to other She seldom mentioned your Ladiship in your absence but the form of her mention was My dear Sister of Exeter With your Ladiship it was that she consulted in her difficulties refreshed her self in her dark and sad hours to whom therefore doth her Picture more of right belong than unto your self It might indeed have deserved a better hand but as it is I dare say your Ladiship will see many a line in her countenance which you will remember and say Sic vultus sic illa manus sic ora ferebat that it is exceeding like your Ladiships noble Sister If your Ladiship asketh why it cometh so late after her Funerals I must answer Madam that your Honour is not altogether ignorant what hath happened to me since that time notwithstanding which the Copy of these sheets were in the Stationers hands more than two years since and unhappily through his slowness perished in your dreadful Burning since which I have indeed had time enough to have revived them but have been distracted with so much business of other natures as before this time I have not been able to finish what long since I intended and had begun They now come forth not in so good a dress as I could wish but as imperfectly as works use to do finished in so many parts as I have been inforced to finish them in and by Such as they are I most humbly offer them to your Honour as a small oblation to the memory of her to whom your Ladiship knows I owed much more and as a poor acknowledgement of the many obligations which it hath pleased your Ladiship to lay upon me who have no way but such as this and my fervent prayers to approve my self Your Honours most humbly obliged Servant J. C. To the MEMORY OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lady FRANCES HOBART late of Norwich YOu who think Honours dispensations be From the severer acts of Piety Who judge your selves too great for to be good And that Religion would but stain your blood That Kneeling wears out cloths too fast and Prayer Is but Fanaticks beating of the Air Who at a Sermon think an hour an age And five hours but a moment on a Stage To whom to live is nothing but to cat And drink and sleep and dress and play and prate And make some visits that your friends may see What fine gay nothings of mankind you be Whose sensual lives might justly raise disputes Whether your souls be Rationals or Brutes Turn here your wanton eyes here you may spy A true Exemplar of Nobility One who judg'd to be eminently good The best improvement of her noble blood Who sacrific'd th' advantage of her birth And whatsoever else she had from earth To credit waies of Piety and show The world that Godliness is not below The highest

inclined to some excess in passion and in the vanity of his youth had contracted an habit of swearing of the evil of which being convinced he found it yet difficult wholly to leave it and as a means in order to it injoyned his Lady privily to pinch his Arm when she heard any Oath slip from him to which reproof he would ordinarily with a great deal of kindness reply I thank thee my dear Saint and by this means was at length able wholly to abstain from that vice and to fear an Oath unweariedly to desire and to be present at private Fasts and other Religious duties severely to reprove others especially his servants and admonish his friends of those errors which had formerly been too much his own pleasure and delight In short by the blessing of God upon the publick Ministry of the Word upon which he now diligently attended and the more private means of this Excellent Lady This worthy person before he died was brought to such a good hope through grace for several moneths without perturbations to look upon death every day making its nearer approaches to him and at last not without testimony of a true hope in God quietly to commit his Soul into the hands of his blessed Redeemer A person who did remarkably serve his generation and doubtless he had been an eminent instrument if it had pleased God to have granted him a longer life being one who might erre through prejudice or misapprehension but of that nobleness of temper height of courage and spirit that he never valued cost nor wanted an heart to go through with any thing of the goodness and justice of which he was once convinced and to whom excepting Academical learning which his younger years were not patient of nothing was wanting which could constitute adorn and accomplish a brave and ga●ant man But I am digressed and must return we have hitherto only viewed this noble Lady in her Conjugal capacity as she stood concerned in her husband We must now view her in her Parental relation for God had not given her a barren womb nor dry breasts though indeed for the further triall of her faith and patience he made her ordinarily to bring forth to the grave● ●he was the Mother of Nine Children of which only one that a daughter lived to marriageable years the rest died all either in their infancy or before they had arrived to their years of Puberty The young Lady who was the only Coal God had left her alive was afterwards married to an Honourable and worthy person Sir John Hobart Baronet the heir of her Fathers honour and Family by whom it pleased God after some years to give her a Son after which this young and noble Lady did not long survive being immaturely taken away by the Small-pox many years before the death of our Noble Lady nor did her only Childe long survive its mother so that she lived to see her wise God stripping her of every branch that had sprang out of her root to let her know he had a better name for her than that of Sons and Daughters Concerning her deportment to her other Children whiles she enjoyed them I can say nothing having not had the advantage of knowing her till some years had past after God had deprived her of them Only may rationally presume it not unlike to what she shewed to the only surviver For her I could say much if while she had a being with us by her pious disposition affable and ingenuous temper and most vertuous conversation in short by whatsoever accomplishments could perfect and adorn a young and Vertuous Lady she had not both approved her self to all to whom she was known and also commended her betwixt whose knees she was educated to such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of feminine perfection The instruction of her Father which she heard and the Law of her Mother which she did not forsake proved an Ornament of grace unto her head and as chains of Gold and Orient Pearls about her neck And indeed as there was nothing wanting in nature to accomplish that young and excellent Lady so her vertuous Mother had resolved that nothing should be wanting which either her own care or the Art of others could help her to Nor did this Rare Lady shew more of a Mother to her while she lived than of a Christian Mother when it pleased God to extinguish this light of her eyes and quench this only coal which he had left her taking her death with that due sense which became so tender and indulgent a mother and yet with that patience and fortitude which became on t only her rational soul who considered she had brought forth a mortall Daughter but also a submissive Christian who had learned not to repine against Heaven but in a great measure to melt down her own into the divine will If we once more turn and consider this Noble person in the relation of a Mistresse to a numerous family of Servants we shall finde her there conversant with the same honour which discovered it self in all her other capacities Though Aristotle was a stranger to her yet she had learned this rule So to behave her self towards her Servants as that her carriage would neither allow them to be proud or malapert nor yet did discourage them into any baseness of spirit After that the choice of her servants came intirely to her self her great care in the first place was to procure persons fearing God to be nigh unto her The number of these being few in this great licentiousness of Youth she preferred vertuous and sober persons she might indeed as to such be once and again deceived but none ever abode in her house when she had once discovered them to be Drunkards Vnclean persons Profane Swearers or Cursers Enemies to Religion and Godliness or any other way scandalous and her eye was so much about her house her care so much for the discipline of it as it was not easie for any such person to be long concealed but he was discerned either by her Ladyships own eye or by her Steward's She alwayes gave noble messes of meat to her servants and portions to her maidens and she also took more than ordinary care for the better Concerns of their immortal Souls In short there is none ever served her who will not praise her in the gates none who ever waited upon her but will rise up and call her blessed 3. But my Pen hasteneth to the consideration of this Honourable person in the third and last period of her life when she was again reduced to a single state In this she was indeed best known unto me having had the happiness to wait upon her during this whole time and for some little time before about seven or eight moneths from whence I shall begin my story It was in September 1646. that I was invited by Sir John Hobart at that time alive to take my Chamber in his house whiles

betraies your intellectuals as want of judgement in things that differ and your judgement cannot but be erroneous where it is contrary to the judgement of God and of holy men who spake in Scripture as they were inspired by God 2. Let what you have heard bespeak a due value in you both of the fear of the Lord as the best thing● and persons fearing the Lord as the most excellent persons Certainly it is but reasonable that we should judge of persons and things as God judgeth of them as Solomon and David and those great Worthies we find recorded in Scripture have judged David Psal 16. calleth the people of God The excellent of the Earth Solomon tells you here that Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain but a woman fearing the Lord she shall be praised Though many Daughters have done vertuously yet she hath ascended above them all Oh let us thus iudge Regard not what vain men talk of people fearing God they speak after their Father whose works they do they do but disgorge the prophaneness filth and malice of their own hearts They have hated Christ and no wonder if they hate all those who bear any thing of the Image and superscription Let not the railings of these men let not their hard speeches and bitter censures and more bitter dealings guide your judgement You will one day find that the men whom they thus abuse are no Reprobates Men in power and authority one day will know that these are not these evil doers to whom they should be a terrour Ministers will know that they have abused their texts to turn the drift of them against persons fearing the Lord under the disguise of Schismaticks Fanaticks c. terms which many use in these daies not understanding what they mean If it be some mens worldly interest to do these things yet my Brethren take you heed of treading their steps Let who will revile and curse and blaspheme God hath blessed the persons that fear him and you shall one day see they shall be blessed Behold the Lord cometh saith the Apostle Jude with ten thousand Jude v. 13. of his Saints to execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly amongst them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Lastly Are persons fearing the Lord the most excellent persons give them then the fruit of their hands and let their own works praise them in the gates It is Solomons improvement of this notion in the words following my text Certainly there is nothing more reasonable than this is if it were give such persons as these the fruit of your hands it were but according to the manner of men who use to give Presents to Princes Favourites It were but to make friends of your Mammon of unrighteousness that when these things fail you may be received into everlasting habitations But I say no more than give them the fruit of their hands do not defraud abuse them give them that honour that room in the world which they deserve which they labour for and let their own works praise them in the gates Envy them not the praise of their own labours the honour which their own works purchase for them This brings me ●o my last part of my work that I may fulfil my text upon this Noble person for whom we are all mourners But I shall reserve that to a more full and particular discourse LIGHT IN DARKNESS OR A twofold Fountain of Comfort and Satisfaction to those who walking with God yet live and may die unsatisfied as to the sensible manifestations of DIVINE LOVE Discovered In a Discourse first Preached at the Funerals of the Right Honourable the Lady Catharine Courten late Wife to William Courten Esq and since inlarged for more publick profit By John Collinges late Preacher of the Gospel in Norwich Isaiah 50. 20. Who is amongst you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant that walketh in darkness and seeth no light let him trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon his God LONDON Printed in the year 1669. To His Worthy and Honoured Friend WILLIAM COURTEN Esq Sir WHen I had once resolved to joyn these Sheets long since drawn up and in the hands of some of your noble friends in one Book with those relating to your Noble Aunt I had no great dispute with my self to whom according to the usual custom I should inscribe them You are the only Male Branch of this excellent Root the Heir of her Religion Vertue and Honour you were while she lived next to your dear Father the great object of her Love Care and Pious Sollitude For you it was that she so often so passionately even in her greatest Agonies begg'd our prayers she had you only and your sister to pour out sighs and tears to God for that you might be found constant and walking in the truth You alone can lay a just claim to her picture and these other Papers devoted to a memorial of her You are fittest to undertake the Patronage of her Honourable and Precious Name against such as to justifie others would fasten a Debauchery in Religion upon her Urn after fifteen or sixteen years rest in which since her death it might prescribe for the Faith in which she not only truly died but in so eminent a Profession and such particular Declarations of it as are not ordinary Alas Dear Sir for the sad occasion of this so late an impudent a slander but the judgements of God are a great deep You Sir since her death have been visiting the seat of iniquity the Country of the great Whore which hath made so many drunk and is yet by parcels intoxicating souls with her superstitious and idolatrous abominations you went not out of curiosity but upon a just call and to pay a duty to your Fathers Sepulchre Had your rare Mother lived till you took that Journey she would have cryed out with another kind of Devotion than Horace for his friend Virgil. Sic te cunctipotens Dues Sic pelagi Dominus Ventorumque regat Pater Obstrictis aliis praeter Naves quae tibi creditum Debes finibus Italis Reddas incolumem precor Et serves animae dimidium meae But it pleased God by death seven years before to deliver her from those fears in which your two years absence would have kept her and though she lived not so long as to attend you with her fervent prayers yet Sir I can tell you she had treasured up a large stock of prayers for you and she had begg'd a moving stock which was working for you when she ceased to be and by the infinite goodness of God hearing those prayers you were preserved both in your going and coming in the perils you ran by Land and by Sea Yea and preserved also free from those sensual and superstitious tinctures which too too many bring home with

We translate it when I shall awake there 's no material difference I will begin with the first which is something different from our English I shall be satisfied in watching or while I watch for thy likeness Thus this very word is translated Ezek. 7. 6. An end is come it watcheth for thee I confess I am loth to exclude this sense of the words I' shall be satisfied in watching for thy likeness Watching is but an empty hungry action and gives the soul no satisfaction but here 's the difference betwixt watching for the world and watching for God As to worldly things Hope deferred makes the heart sick as to God it is not so A watching and waiting for God brings a proportionable satisfaction It ought in a great measure to satisfie a gracious soul in his hours of darkness if he doth but find God inabling him to watch for his likeness 2. But the word is otherwise translated and properly enough in waking or when I shall awake or be made to awake Thus the word is often translated in Scripture Psal 3. 6. and in many other texts Psal 3. 6. 1. Some apply this to God as if it should be when thou awakest Indeed the Hebrew is no more than in awaking or in being made to awake When thy faithfulness shall awake V. Vicars ad locum say they I shall be satisfied with thy likeness Indeed when God seemeth to us not to take care and regard his people he is said to sleep by a figure for he neither slumbereth nor sleepeth and the holy Psalmist calleth to him as to one asleep Awake why Psa 44. 23. sleepest thou O Lord God is said to sleep when according to humane sense and apprehension he carrieth himself toward his people like a man that is asleep and in a conformity of phrase when he turns his hand and appears for his people then he is said to awake and when God thus awakes his people use to be satisfied with his appearances for them But though there be a truth in this yet I do not think it the sense of the text 2. Others as I noted before making the words to be the words of Christ understand them of his Resurrection Our Saviour knew that when he by death had satisfied Divine Justice by the accursed death and born the brunt of his Fathers wrath he should awake the third day by a glorious Resurrection and having conquered death and satisfied justice he should again behold his Fathers face clear from all clouds and frowns ascending up on high and sitting on the right hand of God This is Hierom's notion of the text but doubtless the text is not to be so restrained 3. I agree therefore with those who make these words the words of holy David promising himself satisfaction with the image or likeness of God when he should awake 1. By his awaking I find some understanding his recovery and deliverance from that afflicted state in which at present he was Indeed the time of affliction is a time of night and often in Scripture is expressed under the notion of darkness which gives advantage to this interpretation which both Calvin and Mollerus favour thinking it by others applied to the Resurrection argutè magis quàm propriè more subtilly than properly According to them the sense is this At present it is night with me and I am as it were asleep and in a bed of trial and affliction but I know that this shall not be to me a dead sleep Though I am fallen yet I shall rise again though I be asleep I shall awake again and when Gods time cometh I shall be satisfied with the manifestations of his love and the evidences of his favour to me But with all due respect to those Interpreters whom this sense pleaseth I rather incline to those who interpret this awaking of the Resurrection To make it clear 1. It is plain it is a figurative expression Waking you know hath a reserence to sleeping Now sleep in Scripture is taken literally so it signifieth the locking or binding up of the exteriour senses and waking is the freeing of the senses in which sense it cannot be taken here though I meet with some who think that David here speaketh as a Prophet expecting the visions of the morning 2. Or else it is taken figuratively so it is very often used to express death Our friend Lazarus sleepeth Joh. 11. 11. The Maid saith our Saviour is not dead but sleepeth And when Stephen died it is said he fell asleep I find this very word used to express an awaking from the sleep of death 2 King 4. 31. The child is not awaked meaning that it was dead Isa 26. 19. Awake and sing you that dwell in the dust But further yet the awaking here spoken of relates to David Now hearken what the Scripture saith of Davids sleeping Acts 13. 36. After that he had Act. 13. 36. according to the will of God served he fell V. Piscal Ames Engl. Annot. Diodate Ainsworth ad loc asleep What 's the meaning of that is it not that he died Now what is the awaking related to this sleep but the Resurrection and in this sense I find many eminent Expositors agreed The Learned de Mui● hath another interpretation in which I find none going along with him When I awake that is saith he when I shall dye while the soul is in the body it sleeps when it leaves the body it awakes Quum expergefactia fuerit anima mea De Muis ad locum de corpore in quo velut sepulta jacet evolaverit anima mea ad imaginem tuam creata To justifie this his notion he quoteth Jer. 51. 30. where the souls of the wicked are said to sleep a perpetual sleep In opposition to this he saith the souls of the Saints when they die are said to awake Indeed if we con●●der sleep as it is the binding up of the exteriour senses and an hinderance to them in their operations and then reflect upon the soul while tied to the body how much it is hindered in the freedom of its communion with God There is some analogy betwixt the case of a soul in a state of conjunction with the body and sleep And it is true that in death the soul is restored to a greater freedom for communion with God But I do not think this the sense nor is this the usage of the metaphor I think to be justified by parallel Scriptures One thing I must further observe as to the form of the Hebrew word Grammarians observe that the conjugation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hiphil in which the word is found adds facio to the original signisication of a verb which if it hath place here it properly sigfies in being made to watch or being made to awake denoting to us the necessity of a divine influence both to uphold our souls in watching and waiting for God when we do not

earned hath he not given you the penny you contracted with him for why are you angry then why discontented why lift you up your voice against Heaven 2. Again How many thousands are there in the world who have as creatures as much claim to God as you for whom the Lord hath not done so much for as he hath done for you He hath given them portions in this life and hath sent them away they have pleasure riches honours c. but no faith no hope nothing of grace no interest in Christ they are dead in trespasses and sins perishing to all eternity You only want a spiritual banquet the most want spiritual bread yet creatures under the same natural capacity that you are 3. Though in one sense you be not sealed yet in another sense you are sealed You read in Scripture of the sealing of the Spirit Ephes 1. 13. chap. 4. 30. 2 Cor. 1. 22. Eph. 1. 13. 4. 30. 2 Cor. 1. 22. We usually interpret those texts of Assurance because seals are used for confirmation But possibly there is another sense as agreeable to the mind of the Holy Ghost A seal you know leaveth the signature or impression of it upon the wax the wax hath the image of the seal upon it The Lords renewing and stamping his Image upon the soul is a sealing of it to the day of Adoption There is a seal of Regeneration and Sanctification as well as a seal of Assurance and though the latter sealing be infinitely sweet and pleasant to the soul yet the former is that which fitteth us for the Kingdom of Heaven Without holiness no man can see God Is there not as much think you of the operation of the Spirit seen in sanctifying quickening strengthening a soul as in comforting it and assuring it of salvation Is it our great mistake that we will look upon nothing as the fruit of the Spirit but joy and peace certainly the renewing and sanctifying of the soul is as much the operation of the Spirit and the strengthening and quickening of the soul in the performance of duty or in the resistance of corruption is as much the fruit of the Spirit in the soul as comforting and refreshing the soul is 4. If God hath thus far inabled you viz. to behold his face in righteousness and to watch for his likeness he hath given you the necessaries of salvation the things which accompany salvation What you want is only what a soul may want and yet get to Heaven Faith and Holiness they are the necessaries to salvation a soul may go to Heaven without Joy and Peace without Faith and Holiness there is no salvation When God hath given you the bread of life have you not reason to be satisfied Though you want that banquet with which he sometimes is pleased to entertain the souls of his people The Example of this rare and eminent servant of God might have at once as to this thing have instructed and reproved many unthankful discontented and repining Christians It had pleased the Lord to strip her naked of most of her creature comforts he had sent such messengers as he sent to Job to her one after another till at last death came to assure her all as to this life was gone she was under a sad and inexpressible trial of affliction It is true in this sad and afflicted state as to her outward concerns she had her lived intervals some glimmerings of divine light sometimes Joy came over night but sorrow came again in the morning the clouds returned after rain That word Col. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of Glory often refreshed her but her adversary was busie her comforts inconstant her assurance little yet she lived in hope and blessed God and was thankful she endured violent pains and in her suffering acted a strong saith and in the saddest distempers would cry out Oh Sir Satan would have me let go my hold on Christ but I will trust in God till I die Though he kills me yet I will trust in him tell me I pray Sir may I not She died in hope her very last words were I hope I hope to make good that of the wise man that the righteous man hath hope in his death and by hope I doubt not but she is saved and now seeing what she hoped and with so great patience waited for Heark and be ashamed thou murmuring and unthankful Christian that art not so much as she disadvantaged from the providence of God yet canst not tell how to be silent because thou wantest consolatory manifestations Vse 3. In the third place What you have heard in this discourse may be useful to us for Consolation 1. On our own behalf 2. On the behalf of others 1. As to our selves concerning our dark hours The people of God are ordinarily very jeolous of their Saviours love and very suspicious of their own sincerity they know not how to trust as the one nor be confident as to the other without the incouragement of comfortable reflections nor how to believe they shall go to Heaven if they go not to it in the fight of it The wise man saith a man knoweth not love nor hatred by all that is before him in this life so that none ought to determine of himself in this case from any external dispensatious of providence A Christian may be poor and afflicted and yet a favourite of God and as he ought not to judge himself from these more external dispensations so neither ought he to judge himself from the want of sensible manifestations to his inward man The child of God may walk in darkness Job David Heman Asaph all had their dark hours if therefore that be our lot yet this is no ground of discouragement to us no ground for any sad conclusion against our souls as to their best interests 2. Again what we have heard affords us a great comfort against the fear of death The Scripture calleth death The King of terrours Job 18. 14. And the Apostle saith that even Gods people through the fear of it are all their life time Heb. 2. 14. subject to bondage It is the common portion of all the Sons of men It is appointed for all men once to die and it is our great interest to arm our selves against the fears of it you have heard from the former discourse 1. That death is but a sleep 2. That it is not a perpetual sleep but a sleep from which we shall awake 3. That at our awaking out of that sleep we shall be satisfied with Gods likeness 1. I say first death is but a sleep It is not an annihilation of a man that misapprehensions of it make it terrible to a man in his natural capacity It is not to the child of God the securing of a person to the Judgement of the great day In this notion unbelievers have reason to consider it what is it then It is but a sleep This gentle notion

of death should take the terrour of it off our spirits no man is afraid to go to sleep why should we be more afraid to die but for unbelief and a reproving conscience 2. Were it indeed a perpetual sleep there would be less of relief in it but there shall be an awaking out of this sleep though the night be long there shall be a morning This doctrine of the Resurrection is indeed the great argument of comfort against death The Apostle having mentioned it to the Thessalonians to relieve them as to their sorrow for their friends asleep in the Lord concludes wherefore comfort your solves with these words 3. But yet the feast to which we shall awake in the Resurrection is of a further consequence to relieve us under disturbances of this nature This was that which cleared the Martyr that although he had an ill Supper he should have a good breakfast The sleep of death is not like the sleep the Prophet speaks of When a man dreams he is at a feast and when he awaketh behold he is an hungry Indeed there is no dreaming in this sleep but when the child of God awaketh from it in the resurrection he shall awake to a feast not an imaginary but a real feast where he shall be filled with the likeness of God to all eternity 3. Branch Lastly What we have heard administers great consolation to such as mourn for their friends fallen asleep in the Lord. Have we had any friends who have made it their business to behold the face of the Lord in righteousness and to watch for the Lords likeness who herein have exercised themselves to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men and possibly have had their sad hours for a long time sitting in darkness and seeing no light and whose Candle possibly hath at last gone out in obscurity as to visions of peace They have indeed died breathing and thirsting after God hoping and trusting in God and quietly committing their selves unto him but not being able to say Lo this is my God I have waited for him this is my God I have waited for him I will rejoyce and be glad in his salvation I say have we known any so have we had at any time any such friends under such circumstances possibly we have been troubled and have had sad thoughts for them but there is no reason what though they have fallen asleep they shall awake what though they fell asleep not satisfied they shall be satisfied with the Lords likeness when they awake they shall be satisfied There are thousands that die without any such troubled thoughts Some it may be with bold and groundless confidences who will awake with terrour and trembling There be many that shall in that day say Lord Lord open unto us have we not prayed in thy name and prophecied in thy name and in thy name cast out Devils to whom the Lord shall say Matth. 7. Depart from me I know you not you workers of iniquity But there is no soul who hath truly believed in the Lord Jesus Christ who hath walked strictly and closely with God and made it his or her business to serve the Lord in truth to mortifie his or her lusts and corruptions but though it may live in the dark and it may be die in some dissatisfactions but that soul shall awake in a glorious resurrection and so awaking shall be satisfied and filled with the consolations of God Mourn for loose walking Professors who have lived here without any fear of God or any care to please God and yet when they die have talkt of full perswasions and been full of presumptuous confidences but be not troubled for holy and gracious souls whose lives have been full of faith and holiness though it may be they have had their fears while they lived and a dark hour when they died hath clouded them yet doubt not of them mourn not for them those persons have not died without hope do not you mourn as those without hope their salvation is certain whether it hath been ascertained to them or no hoping in God committing their souls unto God trusting in him walking with him they shall not be ashamed trouble not your selves for them though they fall they shall rise though they sleep they shall awake though through a too much love-jealousie or through the wise dispensation of God when they fell asleep they were unsatisfied yet when in the resurrection they shall awake they shall be satisfied inessably plenteously abundantly satisfied with the Lords likeness and in the joy of that glorious day they shall forget all their former sorrows Vse 4. What you have heard may be applied by way of Caution 1. To all ungodly impenitent sinners such as never beheld the face of God in righteousness nor at all watch for his likeness yet live without any fears it may be with strong confidences and doubt not of being satisfied with the Lords likeness in the resurrection of the just Oh! the presumptuous groundless hopes of an infinite number of Hypocrites they make no question of salvation and think it great uncharitableness for any to doubt of their eternal welfare yet whoso observeth their lives seeth them neither exercising a good conscience towards God nor man instead of walking in righteousness they live in all manner of wickedness yet they will tell you they hope to be saved by Jesus Christ they are of the number of those whom the Apostle speaks of who are dead in trespasses and sins who still have their conversation in the world according to the power of the Prince of the Air who lives and works in the children of disobedience and walk fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and the desires of the mind without Christ and his righteousness strangers to the Covenant of Promise having no true ground of hope living without a God in the world in all neglect of duty towards God and man yet these men hope to be saved these men hope in the resurrection that they also shall be filled with the likeness of God I shall but offer one text of Scripture to such bold presumptuous sinners it is that in Deut. Deut. 29. 18 19 20. 29. 18 19 20. Lest there should be amongst you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of these Nations lest there should be amongst you a root that beareth gall and wormwood And it cometh to pass that when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoak against that man and all the curses that are written in this Book shall be upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under Heaven and the

greater priviledge than this is It is the happiness of Heaven to behold him as he is to see him face to face and is this no ingagement to lay upon you to seek righteousness to tell you that if you get into a state of righteousness you shall be some of them who shall see the face of God another day in glory who shall be heirs of glory and joynt-heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ Are your lusts more worth than Heaven and your carnal pleasures more valuable than the pleasures of beholding God and being satisfied with his likeness 2 Branch Lastly What you have heard may be of use to perswade you that fear the Lord to your duties under the ecclipses of divine love It is the great business of a Christian to study and know and practise what is his duty in every estate You have heard that it is the lot of Gods people sometimes to walk in the dark and see no light what their duty is under such a dispensation I have at large shewed you I beseech you that you would be consciencious in the performance of it 1. Do not murmure or repine against God he doth you no wrong 2. Do not you leave beholding God though it pleaseth not God to look upon you with such a kind aspect as possibly you d●sire Do not give over your waiting upon him in prayer and in all his Ordinances But on the contrary 1. Appear often before him in the righteousness of Christ and plead that with him 2. Walk close with God perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. 3. Keep your watch take heed of spiritual sleep giving way to temptation or to your own corruptions 4. Believe for that which you do not see hope for him whom you cannot yet behold and with patience wait for the Lord Never yet was a waiting soul ashamed nor a believing soul confounded never yet did an holy soul perish Do this and satisfie your self with holy David That when you awake in the Resurrection of the Just you shall be abundantly satisfied with the Lords likeness and Comfort your selves with these words A Narrative of the holy Life and Death of the Lady Katharine Courten Some useful Observations upon the latter part of the Life and the Righteous Death of the Right Honourable the Lady Katharine Courten one of the younger Daughters of the Right Honourable John late Earl of Bridgewater and late wife of Will. Courten Esq I Shall not undertake the pourtraiture of this excellent Lady from head to foot partly because the circumstances of her birth breeding and education were much the same with her elder Sisters whose Copy I have given more fully so as I should but repeat the same things again partly because indeed till the latter two years of her life she was not at all known to me and partly because that part of her life was it alone wherein she made not her self known to the world It was about the first day of April anno 1650. that her Lap having received an invitation from her noble Sister whom we have formerly in this treatise discoursed of came to spend the retired part of her life with her at Chaplifield-house in Norwich Her time of health with us was about three quarters of a year the other was her dying time I will suppose that none who knew her derived from Adam will think she was not subject to like passions and infirmities with others of the same blood but as these were not such but were consistent enough with eminent degrees of grace so neither were they her pleasure but her burthen And the Apostle tells us that we have an High Heb. 4. 16. Priest who can have compassion upon our infirmities being touched with a feeling of them having been in all points tempted like as we are only without sin I shall only copy out this excellent servant of God so far as the abundant grace of God appeared in her for our consolation and our imitation of her example Six things I observed in her in the daies of her health speaking much of the grace of God bestowed on her 1. The first was her chearful quiet thankful submission to Divine Providence I have not known hardly read of any Job alone excepted whom the Lord was pleased to blow upon with a series of sharper providences than he did upon this eminent Lady he had even made her a mark for all his arrows I have often thought her afflicted condition much parallel to that of Job he had great substance dear relations an healthful body and in a moment lost the comfort of them all This noble Lady was removed from the great plenty of her Fathers house by marriage to William Courten Son and her of Sir William Courten with whom she enjoyed a plenteous estate inferiour to few subjects of England Silver was with her as dust and as the stones of the field He gave her an Husband who was to her the man of her bosom the delight of her eyes and as the breath of her nostrils he blessed them both with a numerous off spring Thus he had made her mountain to stand strong and in this height of her prosperity she began to say I shall never be moved But it was not long before the Lord hid the face of his providence from her and she was troubled First he strips off her branches taking away one child after another until only one Son and one Daughter were left unto her Then he causeth an East-wind to blow upon her estate scattering and breaking the ships that went for treasures to the Indies every year bringing some sad tydings or other of this nature until the Lord had stript her naked and her dearest Husband was not only ruined as to his whole estate but involved in an irrecoverable debt and this noble Lady who lately equalized her greatest friends in an affluence of the good things of this life became into a condition of dependance upon them and through the violence of men is separated from her dearest relation who was now constrained in a remote Land to seek himself a City of Refuge and to secure her self from the snare of an oath which she judged unnatural it was that she retired to her noble Sister at Norwich yet in all this she charged not God foolishly The Lord had given and the Lord had taken and she blessed the Name of the Lord with a meek and quiet spirit humbly kissing the Rod of God that was upon her and holding her peace because it was the Lords doing who she freely acknowledged might do with her and hers what he pleased and she could not say unto him what dost thou Yea not only so but taken up with the admiration of the goodness of God to her seen in the readiness of her noble friends to shew kindness to her and her remaining children in their afflicted state and much more affected with this than with any trouble for Gods severer dispensations to her I