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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	death_n	lazarus_n	sleep_n	764	5	10.4793	5	false

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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

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

in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death This is the first thing implied in this metaphorical expression But this is not all 2. There is a difference between watching and bare waking Watching is a voluntary industrious action whereby a man striveth to keep himself awake at such a time when he is inclined to sleep for the heeding of something in a more special manner To watch therefore in a spiritual sense implieth to labour strive and use all means and diligence to obtain the likeness of God not only to eschew evil but to do good Thus watching for Gods likeness includeth praying hearing performance of all holy duties lead● g●an holy life and conversation that which the Psalmist calleth ordering our conversation aright that we may see the salvation of God And this is as the duty of a child of God at all times so more especially in his hours of desertion and darkness you shall find this eminently exemplified in the Spouse Cant. 3. 1 c. By night on my bed I Cant. 3. 1 2 3. sought him whom my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not I will rise now and go about the City in the streets and in the broad waies I will seek him whom my soul loveth c. v. 3. The watchmen that goe about the City found me to whom I said Saw ye him whom my soul loveth This is a second thing A child of God under a des●rtion is not to sit still and mourn and be wail it self but to be up and doing watching unto prayer to all 1 Pet. 4. 7. religious duties to all parts of an holy and religious life to be at such a time especially much in close and diligent communion with God for the recovery of its lost peace and comfort 3. Lastly The watchman is to look out for the morning and with patience to wait for it This is also the duty of him that walketh in spiritual darkness I mean the want of sensible consolations My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning saith holy David Psal 130. 6. I say Psa 130. 6. more than they that watch for the morning Thus the Church Isa 8. 17. I will wait upon Isa 8. 17. him that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will look for him Thus Habakkuk for the answer of his prayer on the behalf Hab. 2. 1 2 3. of the Church I will stand upon my watch and set me upon my Tower I will watch to see what he will say unto me The vision is yet for an appointed time but in the end it shall speak it shall not lye though it tarry wait for it Thus now I have opened this duty to you and shewn you what this is to watch for God to watch for his likeness Now that this is a Christians duty in his hours of darkness appears 1. From the Precept of God obliging you to it The will of God revealed is that which makes a Christians duty God hath bidden us watch and wait and order our conversation aright 2. From the Examples of the Children of God recorded in Scripture wherein they have done well they are lights unto us and oblige us to do likewise Look upon Job David the Church of God all those of whom you have record in holy Writ see them in their dark hours observe their practice you shall find them all fearful of sinning resolved against it full of prayer and other religious duties and striving and resolving to order their conversation aright 3. This will appear to be your duty if you consider the several parts of it as means prescribed by God in order to so good and blessed an end The promise of seeing God is made to such as order their conversation aright Psal 50. Psal 27. 14. Wait upon the Lord Psa 50. 23. Psa 17. 14. and he shall strengthen your heart They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength like the Eagle Isa 40. 31. It is made to such Isa 40. 31. as ask and seek and knock Ask and you shall have seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened to you 4. Lastly Whoso considereth God in that freedom which belongs unto him as to the manifestations of himself to his peoples souls or whoso considereth his own distance from and subjection unto God and how little he deserveth of any such dispensation from him will confess that it is not equal that we should forsake God or abate in our zeal for and duty to God because he forsaketh us and withdraw our duty from God because he withdraweth the light of his countenance from us God is a free agent and as the wind bloweth where it listeth so his Spirit moveth and as it is free in all its motions and influences so it is most free as to consolatory manifestations being not of the necessaries to our eternal salvation but such influences as God without breach of Covenant may in whole or in part for what time and in what degree he pleaseth to with-hold from those most in convenant with him To which might be added that whatsoever the Lord hath is the product of infinite Justice Wisdom and Goodness God in it is just and doth no more than he may do he is infinitely wise and whatsoever he doth is for wise and righteous ends and he is infinitely good and would not do it were it not for his peoples good Besides this this watching against sin unto prayer and to other duties of an holy life are the moral and perpetual duties of Christians from which nothing of Gods dealing with us can exempt us but I shall add no more to my discourse upon the third thing implied in the Doctrine The fourth follows which is founded upon the phrase according to our translation of it When I awake that is as I formerly opened it when I shall awake in the resurrection when I shall awake from the sleep of death where is implied Though the Children of God shall in death fall 4 Prop. asleep yet they shall awake in a resurrection Death in Scripture is ordinarily expressed under the notion of sleep David slept with his 1 King 2. 10 11 43. Mat. 9. 24. Joh. 11. 11. Fathers so did Solomon Jeroboam Rehoboam In the New Testament the Maid sleepeth saith our Saviour and again Our friend Lazarus sleepeth Great is the Analogy betwixt death and sleep if I had time or that were the business of my present discourse to shew you Death is a sleep common to the children of God as well as others The Apostle to the Hebrews saith It is appointed for all men once Heb. 9. 27. to die and after to come to Judgement Your Fathers where are they And do the Prophets live for ever Zech. 1. 5. Who is he that lives Zech. 1. 5. Psal 87. 48. and shall not see death For saith the wise man

in Eccles 7. 2. Death is the end of all Eccles 7. 2. and the living shall lay it to heart The wise man dieth as the fool Eccles 2. 16. This ceasing of godly men and failing of the faithful put David to his Help Lord Psal 12. 1. and made the Prophet of old complain that no man would consid●r it The Apostle asserts it and also gives the reason of it Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin I take the words to have an Analogy in them and the sense to be The body shall die because of sin But although the great curse so far falls upon the best of men who are made alive by the second Adam although the decree of Heaven touching them as well as others and their house of clay be such as must be dissolved as well as others and they must undergo the common fate of flesh and blood and having been wearied with the labours of this life it is but reasonable they should a while rest in their beds in the grave yet they shall not be like those mentioned by the Prophet who shall sleep a perpetual sleep Though they Jer. 51. 39. sleep they shall awake though they fall they shall arise therefore their enemy death hath no cause to triumph over them Our friend Lazarus sleeps but I go saith Christ Joh. 11. 11. 23 24. that I may awake him out of sleep Thy Brother shall rise again saith Christ to Martha she assents to it I know that he shall rise again at the resurrection in the last day As death is called a sleep so the resurrection from the dead is called an awaking out of sleep Thus in Daniel Many that sleep in the dust shall awake Dan. 12. 2. Awake and sing you that dwell in the dust saith the Apostle That there shall be a resurrection is an article of our faith and so momentous aone that it is one of the pillars upon which Religion stands If the dead rise not then is not Christ risen saith the Apostle and if Christ be not risen then is our preaching in vain and your faith is also in vain and the Apostles are found false 1 Cor. 15. 13 14 15 16 17. witnesses for God because they have testified of God that he hath raised up Christ whom he raised not up if the dead rise not And if Christ be not risen your faith is yet in vain you are dead in your sins and they also who are fallen asleep in Christ are perished By this and a far greater plenty of arguments the Apostle confirms a necessity of a Resurrection It is true the Resurrection belongs to wicked men as well as to the children of God they also shall rise they shall come to judgement but the resurrection shall be so much to the damage and detriment of sinners that we shall find in Scripture the Resurrection mentioned as if it were the special priviledge of Gods people Phil. 3. 11. If by any means I Phil. 3. 11. might attain to the resurrection of the dead they are called the children of the resurrection Luke 20. 36. But I shall forbear any further Luk. 20. 36. discourse upon this Proposition remembring that I am in a Congregation of Christians of whose Religion this is one of the fundamental Doctrines Heb. 6. 2. I come to the last of Heb. 6. 2. these Propositions I told you were implied viz That in the Resurrection Believers shall be Prop. 5. satisfied with the Lords likeness By the likeness of God here I mean the beatifical vision the manifestation of God to his Saints in Heaven when they shall be satisfied with seeing him as he is and beholding him face to face I observed before to you the emphasis of the term satisfied I told you that it implieth two things 1. They shall be filled 2. They shall be so filled that themselves shall judge they have enough A man may be filled and not satisfied the glutton may be filled with meat the drunkard with wine and strong drink yet neither of them satisfied the voluptuous man may have a fulness of pleasure and yet not be satisfied the covetous man is filled with silver yet not satisfied The wise man saith There are four things that say not it is enough and there are three things that are never satisfied Many more might be added the ambitious man is never satisfied with honour the covetous man is never satisfied with gold and silver the voluptuous man is never satisfied with pleasure and the objects of his lust No sinner saies he hath of sin enough No Saint saith he hath enough of grace but especially as to all creature comforts this is a vanity which ordinarily doth attend them they fill but do not satisfie but are like the grass upon the house top which is got with a great d●●l of danger and difficulty and with which the mower filleth not his arm nor be that gathereth sheaves his bosom The child of God while he lives here is ordinarily not satisfied with grace he knows in part and he prophecieth in part he is not holy enough he cannot so perfect holiness as he desireth nor ordinarily hath he those clear and constant incomes of divine love and visions of peace as he wisheth for But in the Resurrection he shall be filled he shall be satisfied 1. He shall be plenteously filled 2. He shall be perfectly filled 1. He shall be plenteo●sly filled Here we are fed with morsels as we are able to digest and accordingly as our wise Father seeth best for us as the Israelites were fed with Manna when we shall come in the heavenly Canaan● we shall be fed with milk and hony and with a flow of it 2. Secondly He shall be perfectly filled When our corruptible shall have put on incorruption and our mortal shall have put on immortality we shall yet be but finite Beings and shall not be capacious enough to receive the fulness of divine light and glory The Schoolmen though they agree the immediate passage of the soul to God when it departeth from the body yet will not allow it to be perfectly blessed before the Resurrection because they say there will remain in the soul in its state of separation a desire to a second union and while one desire of the soul remaineth unsatisfied there cannot be a perfection of blessedness but in that day that which is in part shall be done away that which is perfect being come 1. The whole man shall then be satisfied with the likeness of God Here the soul sometimes beholdeth God by spiritual contemplation by the vision of faith by spiritual reflection when God is pleased so far to indulge his child but here the eye of the body sees nothing of him in the resurrection we shall see him with these eyes in our flesh saith Job After the dissolution of our bodies the soul indeed shall with open face behold the glory

men fetch their breath shorter and shorter till at last it quite fails them so are the presumptuous hopes of hypocrites the nearer they come to death the shorter they fetch the breath of their hopes till at last they quite fail them and they die either stupid or despairing God makes a great trial of his Saints faith when he calls them to die in the strength of it 3. God may have a design in it to honour his Word If we wholly lived upon sight the Word of God would not be so precious to us the Promises would not be so dear to us Though I consess it is a very suspicious comfort which the Word brings not into our souls but yet consolatory dispensations are the more special and extraordinary manifestations of the Spirit in a more than ordinary improvement of the Word Gods Word appeareth and is made very precious to the soul when it hangs its whole weight upon it being not at all advantaged from sensible reflexions I had perished saith Psal 119. 92. David in my affliction if they Word had not been my delight What an honour there did holy David put upon the Word of God acknowledging that the whole weight of his perishing soul hung upon it and it sustained him Indeed there is a secret powerful influence of the Holy Ghost tcaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply this Word But in faith of adhere●●e though the Spirit be the great Author and Finisher of it teaching and inabling the soul to lay hold upon and to apply the Promise yet it is by a more secret and insensible act and the Word appeareth most in maintaining that Oh! faith the soul had it not been for such a Word such a Promise such a good word of God is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation In the reflex act of Faith which giveth the soul a plerophorous evidence or a full perswasion of its evidence in God the work of the Spirit appeareth more extraordinary and glorious the vertue of the Word doth not so much shew it self Now the Lord will sometimes honour his Word in the fight of his children letting them see that it is enough to support bear up and to uphold a soul though it should never see the face of God till it come in Heaven yet the Word is enough securely to carry it thither 4. God in such a dispensation may have a design to teach his people that salvation doth not depend upon sensible consolatory manifestations Not upon the sweet application of the Promises to the soul an act wherein we have no share it being the Lords work alone and marvelous in our eyes but upon the strong and steddy application of our souls to the Promise This latter is justifying faith the other is the faith of one already actually justified We are too prone to lay too much upon sensible comforts Some there are who will acknowledge no other notion of faith but a full perswasion of the love of God and so indeed confound faith and sight which the Apostle seemed so warily to distinguish when he told us We live by faith and not by fight And again that hope which is seen is no hope and indeed cut the throat of many a poor Christians comfort who it may be all his life cannot come to such a sensible evidence Indeed the most judicious Christians are prone to lay too much stress upon these consolatory manifestations and to think all nothing if they want them Now this is a great error which the Lord may aim at the correction of in his people by such dispensations letting the soul see there is vertue enough in his Word to bear it up through the deepest waters of affliction without the bladders of sensible manifestations Enough in that and the souls application of it self to that though until it come in Heaven it never sees the face of God It is believing that carries the soul to Heaven i. e. an hungring and relying upon Christ and his righteousness alone not that joy and peace which is the consequent of believing and that too inconsistent and uncertain And indeed I do not know any one truth that needs more rooting and confirmation in a gracious heart The life of sense is the life of the Saint triumphant The life of faith is the life of the militant Christian Though God sometimes condescends in such manifestations to the infirmities and desires of his people and is pleased to give them a glimpse of glory as the earnest penny of a future greater reward which he intendeth them yet these must not be lookt upon as the necessaries of a Christian but what God gives ●s ex abundanti a pledge of future glory Sometimes God gives his children to go to Heaven in the sight of Heaven As Stephen went to it seeing the Heavens opened and Christ Jesus stanidng at the right hand of God pleading for him and ready to receive him into the glorious mansions provided for him But as this is a note of singular and extraordinary favour which God is not bound to any particular soul by promise for so God will sometimes single out a child of his unto death that shall go to Heaven without this seal that living Christians may not run away with an erroneous apprehension that these influences are necessary to salvation and upon the death of such a child of God the Lord proclaims See here my friends you of little of faith here 's a child of mine coming alone to me without the staff of sense trusting me upon the credit of my bare word Here 's one that hath not seen and yet hath believed that hath dared to take my word for Heaven Now be not faithless but believing 5. Lastly I do not know but God may sometimes do it in Justice when one who hath been made partaker of Gods distinguishing love hath apostatized in his profession or run into some degrees of looseness of life by which Gods Name hath been dishonoured the Lord may thus far chastize his Apostacy I told you before that the Covenant runs with a notwithstanding sin as to eternal salvation the unfaithfulness of man cannot make God unfaithful he cannot alter the thing gone out Psal 89. 33. of his lips But the comforts of Gods people may fail and they may for ought I know dy although not despairingly yet doubting with an a king heart and with broken bones Divines question whether holy David though stiled the man after Gods own heart ever after his fall into those two great sins of murther and adultery recovered the fulness of his comfort again It is plain by all his penitential Psalms that he lost them and especially by that petition Psal 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Though the Scripture plainly evidenceth that he died strong in the faith yet it speaketh nothing of sensible consolations You have his last words 2 Sam. 23. 1. These be the last words of

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

my car I a little admired at her sudden joy and what she had to say inclining my head to her when she perceived her noble Sister had turned her back and was with the rest of the company out of hearing she tells me I think I may tell it you you will not speak of it I believe I am very near my Fathers house I resolved to keep her counsel till I saw the issue and the rather because she seemed to us further from death than at any time for some weeks before in this temper she continued the remaining part of that day it was the day when I was to preach my weekly Lecture so that I returned not to her until the evening when I found her as before very chearful and able to discourse with me about a private business as to which on the behalf of her friend she had improved her interest in a worthy Gentleman she had that night received a Latter from him letting her know it was dispatched and took her leave of me desiring me to draw up a Letter of thanks to him which she would as she told me the next day subscribe that it might be sent by the next Post But it so pleased God that by an inexpected turn of Providence before morning her spirits failed her and she in a great measure lost her speech and after spake very few words only made signs to us to pray for her Once she said I fear and by and by I hope I hope and so quietly without suffering any pain so sar as we could discern she yielded up her soul to God upon the 25th day of March 1652. about nine of the clock Thus she fought the good fight and kept the faith and hath now put on the Crown of Glory being entred into the actual possession and beatifical vision of those things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive even the things which God hath prepared for them that love him She was buried at Blicklin in the County of Norfolk March 27. 1652. With this Epitaph upon her grave-stone Here lyes one nobly born once blest With all the Riches of the East Then stript of all and in the place Receiv'd of God riches of grace These made her couetous to see The Mine whence came such Treasury Her soul for haste there to appear Clogg'd with the body dropt it here Engaging to it in the morn Of th' Resurrection to return And reassume its Vnion Reader weigh this and then pass on A Postscript THese Notes with this memorial of this excellent Lady were within some few months after her death drawn up and several Copies transcribed and presented to her noble relations the same for substance Reader as thou hast them here though they may be a little altered as to some words or phrases Nor had I any thoughts of makeing them publick till Anno 1664. God taking away her noble Sister whom I had the honour eighteen years to wait upon I thought it my duty to raise her up a monume●t according to my ability though her honourable name needed no such little advantage as this Having taken up this resolution I resolved also to joyn these notes with them and accordingly sent them to a Stationer in whose hands they were Anno 1665. when the Plague hindered the printing of them and Anno 1666. till the Dreadful Fire consumed them I was for some times after divided in my thoughts whether to revive them or no but at last finding accidentally amongst my notes an imperfect Copy of them I set to the work and through Gods affistance have once more brought it to an issue and I cannot but in it something confider the Providence of God retarding my hand to an opportunity of doing a piece of service to the last mentioned Lady which I never thought her honourable name for Religion would have stood in need of Within these six months last past to justifie if it were possible the tremendous Apostacy of another I hear it commonly reported amongst the Papists that both this noble Lady and her Husband died Papists and that her only Son is also one For Mr. Courten he was wholly unknown to me I never saw his face it was his unhappiness to die in a Papish Country which might give an advantage to such a fiction But his Son William Courten Esquire yet living is a sufficient testimony against this fabulous report who both visited the place since his Fathers death and received the testimony from a friend which his dying Father left of his perseverance in the communion of the Protestant Church and abhorrence of the visits and superstitious vanities with which those Votaries use to trouble dying persons as also had a real testimony from the unhallowed burying place which alone the Papists would allow him This and much more I have had from his worthy Son which I have forgot as not thinking I should ever have had any cause of such a repetition But that worthy Gentleman yet lives and if any be unsatisfied and will take the pains to inquire of him he can satisfie them both that his Father died no Papist and that himself is none according to another part of their sabulous report who are pleased in making lyes their refuge he hath seen too much of the exceeding fondness the folly and superstitious vanities of that Pageantry in Religion to be ever proselited to it and is I think satisfied that it is justly to be abhorred by a sober person were it only for the little influence it hath upon the lives of those where it is most practised and the dispensation it gives to all manner of Luxury But he is of age and abilities sufficient to speak for himself For this Excellent Lady none living is a more competent witness than my self who had the opportunities of daily converse with her till the moment of her dissolution nor can there be a better testimony than these Papers containing the substance of her discourses with me to her very last gasp They understand little of the Popis● Faith that upon the reading of these discourses will not conclude that her Ladiship was at a sufficient distance from it and that these were not discourses formed for such a design as her Vindication There are four or five Honourable Persons in England her near relations can testifie who have had these notes fourteen years at least if not fifteen or sixteen by them the same as to the substance of them though possibly as I said before some phrases may be altered upon more mature deliberation These discourses do not sound like the language of one who believed the Doctrines of Popery about remission of sins assurance merit prayers to Saints and Augels c. But indeed a person is not ordinarily to be sound upon whom that tribe could with more disadvantage sasten such an imputation than upon upon this Excellent Lady Who so wisely c●sts their eye upon