THE MOVRNERS Memorial IN TWO SERMONS On the Death of the Truly Pious Mris. SUSANNA SOAME Late Wife of Bartholomew Soame of Thurlow Esq Who Deceased Febru 14. 1691 2. With some Account of Her LIFE DEATH By Timothy Wright Robert Fleming Ministers of the Gospel London Printed for John Salusbury at the Rising-Sun in Cornhil and John Harris at the Harrow in the Poultry MDCXCII To the much Honoured BARTHOLOMEW SOAME of Little Thurlow Esq Honoured Sir THat Relation which these Discourses have to One who a few days ago stood in the nearest upon earth to your self rendering them peculiarly Yours doth intitle them to your Patronage And considering that upon the same account they may be acceptable to many others unto whom her Memory is precious tho' as they are Ours we have little reason to expect they should be so to any We do with the greater readiness in Obedience to your Commands here humbly present them to your Hand in that plain Countrey-dress in which they were lately directed to your Ear among many others to whom they were in that respect the more suitable as well as to the solemnity of the Occasion Hopeing that as through the Divine Grace they found some Access unto your Heart when they first visited your Ear so they may be of some further use by the blessing of God to renew or rather fix and settle the impressions which were then made being now again presented to your Eye Sir As there is none more deeply sensible of the greatness of the loss which You and Yours have sustained by the Death of so near and dear and every way useful a Relative so there is none more sincerely desirous than We are to the utmost of our power to be assistant both to You and them in bearing your present Burdens as far as Christianity doth oblige and Capacitate us to be mutually helpful to one another in fulfilling that part of the Law of Christ And surely it cannot choose but be a very relieving thought to you to consider what a vast disproportion there is between your Temporal loss and her Eternal gain by her happy Exchange of a frail Tottering Earthly Tabernacle for an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens It may very well be a comfortable Alleviation to your Grief and Sorrow under the present afflictive dispensation when you first look backward and reflect upon the many wearisome and painful Exercises which One whom you so Dearly loved and then so heartily pityed did for so long a time undergo in a distempered body and then look forward and consider that She is now Eternally freed from all being happily arrived at that Everlasting Rest where there is not only perfect ease but fulness of joy to make it the more compleat complacential and delightful That Eternal weight of Glory which she is now in the possession of doth infinitely preponderate both her former sufferings in a mortal body and your present heavy affliction and sorrow upon her going out of it And therefore You have greater reason to rejoyce than to weep for her in as much as she is now gone unto her Heavenly Father And tho' it cannot be denyed but we have all reason to weep for our selves as indeed the state of this wretched World in general as well as of particular Families is sadly to be lamented when Persons of Eminent endowments and singular usefulness in their respective stations are in so great numbers as they have been of late translated out of it as being no longer worthy of such excellent Inhabitants and so few in many places springing up in their room Yet even in this respect we have no reason to sorrow as those that have no hope For As there are in your Family many pleasant and hopeful young Plants upon which the Blessing of Gen. 17. v. 7. Abraham is continually descending to make them yet more and more fruitful in every good work that it may still retain the beautiful Complexion of a Watered Garden and all that see Isa 58. v. 11. cap. 61. v. â— them may acknowledge that they are the Seed which the Lord hath blessed So with respect to the poor adjacent Countrey who also have sustained a great loss of which they are very sensible in the Decease of One who by your kind assistance and chearful Concurrence was more immediately instrumental in procuring for them such plain wholesome food for their Souls as they had a grateful relish of notwithstanding what in that kind they do otherwise enjoy We are greatly encouraged to hope that the Father of Spirits will in his wise and good Providence make up this loss also to them by continuing your Affairs here in such a posture that you may yet further pursue your own beneficent and charitable inclination towards your Neighbours and Country-men in affording them the like additional helps still for their spiritual improvement And in so doing We doubt not but You will find the Blessings of Heaven still multiplied upon your Family and abundance of peace and satisfaction in your own Spirit in persisting in and reflecting upon such a charitable piece of Service to the Souls of men In order whereunto both You and Yours of whose numerous favours to each of us we shall ever retain a most grateful sense are with no less sincerity than constancy recommended daily to the Compassionate Care of the Father of Mercys and the God of all Grace and Consolation by Honoured Sir Your greatly obliged faithful and humble Servants in Christ Timothy Wright Robert Fleming Thurlow-Hall March 7th 1691 2. A Funeral Sermon By Timothy Wright Chaplain in the Family Rom. 2. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life Which words as connected with v. 6. are thus Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life IT having pleased Almighty God the Soveraign disposer of all things in whose hands all our times are to remove from us and take unto himself our deservedly Honoured Dear and useful Friend who as you all know was in her life-time not without the condescending and chearful Concurrence of Her surviving Head very instrumental for the propagating the True knowledge of Christ Jesus among you by the Preaching of the Gospel in this place It is now the commendable and pious desire and appointment of her nearest surviving Relatives that we should this day here pay our last solemn and publick Respects together unto her Memory in a Sermon or two dedicated unto it And my Station in the Family laying me under a peculiar Obligation to bear my part in this solemn service tho' otherwise unworthy of it it was not long after I began more closely to apply my thoughts to the making some slender preparation for it that this Text presented it self to my mind as a proper subject for our
most serious meditation on this sorrowful occasion To them who by patient continuance in well-doing c. A Scripture that was eminently Exemplified in her Life and is now more fully accomplished and made good to her in her death and upon both accounts I hope so much the more adapted for our present instruction in Conjunction with that awakening and teaching Providence which gave the occasion to this Discourse upon it Which is designed both for an instructive lesson to the living and a solemn Memorial of the dead and therefore I shall endeavour by the Divine assistance to cast it into such a Method and form as may be in some measure accommodate to both parts of that design but to the latter in subserviency to the former as that which is principally to be regarded in such sacred discourses In the Words we have two things more generally offered to our serious consideration 1. The descriptive Character of the Heirs of future blessedness they are such who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality 2. The final Happiness unto which they shall at last be advanced by the gracious designation and appointment of their Heavenly Father And this is briefly sum'd up in those two comprehensive words Eternal life which indeed are both too big for our thoughts in this dark imperfect state and are only throughly understood where what is signified by them is fully enjoyed The Character of the Persons here spoken of is full extensive the felicity that awaits them at the end of their course is great and glorious and the Connection that is between them is firm and certain resulting from that divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is spoken of in the preceding part of the Context that righteous Judgment of God whereby he makes a true Estimate of Persons and actions according to the proper Rules of Judgment and will therefore render to every one according to his deeds And so with little variation we may summe up the sense of the Words in this Doctrinal Conclusion viz. Doct. That all they who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality shall at last obtain the full possession of what they seek after in Eternal life This is a Conclusion of that indubitable certainty that the Truth of it cannot be call'd in question without denying at once the divine veracity and remunerative justice for as much as the written word of God according to which his final distribution of Eternal Rewards and punishments shall be made at the last day hath expresly declared that it shall be thus And that in many other places of Scripture as well as in the Text And therefore looking upon it as altogether needless to insist upon the direct proof or Confirmation of this Truth amongst those that do acknowledge the divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures and believe them to be the Word of God All that I shall do further in speaking to it shall be first to explain and then to apply it to our selves on this sorrowful occasion In the Explication there are three things to be distinctly considered and spoken to viz. 1. The Extensive import of the Character by which the Heirs of future blessedness are here described 2. The nature and Excellency of that final happiness which doth by the divine Ordination and appointment belong to them as their everlasting inheritance 3. What kind of connection there is between the one and the other i. e. between the qualifications imported in this Character and that felicity to which all that bear it shall at last be advanced 1. That which doth most fitly come under our consideration in the first place is the extensive import of their Excellent Character who are here spoken of And as in the general we see they are described by the Spiritual and Heavenly Tendency and scope of their desires and aims which are too high to be confined to this lower World or to take up their Rest in any thing that is measured by Time So more particularly there are three things in this Character to be distinctly explained 1. The great and Noble Object of their earnest desire and constant aim expressed here by Glory Honour and Immortality 2. Their Souls Actual Motion towards this Object here express'd by their seeking after 〈◊〉 3. The regular Way and right Line in which their desires move and their aims are directed towards this blessed Mark and that is a patient continuance in well-doing First We may understand somewhat of the Excellency of the Character here given us of the Heirs of future Blessedness by considering the Object of their earnest Desire and steady Aim which indeed is great and noble well-beseeming the dignity of an heaven-born Soul even Glory and Honour and Immortality or as it is in the Greek incorruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three words that carry a great deal in them the two first expressing the substance of what they seek after Glory and Honour and the third subjoyned partly to set forth the perpetuity and everlasting duration of both and partly to denote their own endless existence and continuance in the full possession and enjoyment of them when once they shall have reached the Mark at which they aim I Shall neither trouble my self nor you with a needless enquiry into the more nice and critical distinctions that some may conceive to be between these two words as to the proper import of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glory and Honour Thus much being sufficiently evident not only from the third word that is subjoyned to them but also from the manifest scope of the Text that they are principally designed both together to denote that everlasting happiness in another World which is in the close of the verse summ'd up in those other two words Eternal life intimating that to be the great thing which all the faithful servants of God and Disciples of Christ do in subordination to the Glory of their great Lord and Master chiefly seek after Yet so as not to exclude from being a part of the Object of their Desire and Aim whatsoever in this life is necessary as preparative and introductory to the Glory and Happiness of another Much less excluding whatsoever else there may be in that future blessedness it self which cannot so aptly be conceived of under the notions of Glory and Honour especially if more strictly and properly understood such as that eternal satisfaction that inexpressible Joy and that inconceivable delight which will undoubtedly accompany the glory and honour of that immortal state Nothing short of that Crown of Glory 1 Pet. 5. 4. that fadeth not away can indeed ultimately terminate the Desires or fully answer the Aims of the Persons of that singular and noble Character which we are now considering It is not any worldly honour or greatness tho' they should be advanced never so high in those secular dignities which many are so ambitious to climb
up unto that can content them that seek the honour which cometh Joh. 5. v. 44. from God only even that which he who is the fountain of honour and glory doth finally conser upon all his children when they are grown up to full age and are put into the possession of that inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 1. v. 4. that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for them And therefore these are here expresly mentioned in the Description the Apostle gives us of them as being what they do chiefly and above all other things seek after But tho' these be the supreme and ultimate objects of their Heavenly desires and aims there are also other things to be considered as intermediate objects thereof which they must be supposed likewise to seek after in a due subordination to the former And indeed they are in great part but lower degrees of the same things For as there must be some fainter Rays of an Heavenly divine Glory impress'd upon those Souls in this life by the sanctifying operations of the Spirit and Grace of God which are to be more intirely glorified in that which is to come So in proportion to the degree wherein they partake of this glory there is an heavenly-heavenly-honour put upon all those here who shall be advanced to eternal honour hereaftēr Wheresoever the Divine Image which was defaced by sin comes to be restored by Grace there is an heavenly glory put upon that Soul which is therefore in Scripture called a Divine 2 Pet. 1. v. 4. Nature And they that partake of it are said to be born of God and born from above John 1. v. 13. cap. 3. 3. 1 Joh. 5. v. 1. And as there is a real internal glory stamp'd upon the Soul when the divine Image comes to be re-impress'd upon it so surely it is to be reckoned a great honour to a Man to be related to God as his Heavenly Father to be his Son not only faederally by the grace of Adoption but really by Regeneration And these lower degrees of Glory and Honour lead to higher and so on to the highest of all and consequently are to be sought after in subordination thereunto And whosoever is regardless of the former tho' his presumptuous pretences be never so high cannot regularly seek the latter And therefore we are by no means to separate the one from the other in considering the great Object of the sincere Christian's earnest desire and constant aim Which was the first thing to be considered in this descriptive Character of the Heirs of future blessedness And so Secondly That which comes in the next place to be spoken to is their Souls actual Motion towards this great and noble Object of their Desire and Aim as it is here express'd by their * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est summo studio quaerere seeking after it And here it will be necessary to shew more particularly what this seeking doth import as it hath respect to this Glory and Honour and Immortality as the object of it And this will lead us one step further towards the right understanding the excellent and comprehensive Character of the happy persons that are here spoken of And it is easy for us to apprehend that there are some things necessarily supposed and other things more directly imply'd in this seeking for glory and honour and incorruption which ought to be considered distinctly and therefore I shall give you a brief account of both First There are some things to be considered which it doth necessarily suppose and they are such as these 1. It doth suppose a competent measure of knowledge and understanding of what is revealed in the Gospel concerning these great things and the way in which they are to be sought after Together with some hope that they may in that way be attained For as there can be no Rational desire after that which we have Ignotinulla cupido no knowledge of So a Man will seek but very faintly if at all after that which he hath little or no hope to obtain 2. It doth further suppose a Mind and Heart so far abstracted and drawn off from the World and its perishing vanities as to be at the greater liberty and leisure to pursue these better and more deserving Objects For it is not to be thought that a Soul that is so far carnalized and sunk down into the Earth as to be either drowned and dissolved in sensual pleasures or swallowed up and buryed alive in worldly cares will with any serious earnestness seek after spiritual and heavenly things And therefore the Apostle speaks of a Christians seeking those things which are above as a thing subsequent unto as well as evidential of his being spiritually risen with Christ And therefore Col. 3. 1. 3. It doth also suppose the divine efficacious grace to have been at work upon the Soul in some measure enlightening the Mind renewing the Will and spiritualizing the Affections whereby the main bent of the Soul comes to be turned towards God whereas its depraved inclination did before carry it quite another way For as it is not to be imagined that the Soul should with any seriousness seek for glory and honour and immortality before such a Change is wrought in it So it is certain that it could never work it in it self without the powerful supervening operation and assistance of the Spirit and Grace of God And as these things are supposed So Secondly There are other things more directly implyed in this seeking for glory and honour and immortality As 1. It doth imply a deliberate Judgment passed in the understanding upon sufficient conviction concerning the preferableness of these great things to all this World's Enjoyments and an atual preferring and choosing the one before the other accordingly For all that are engaged in a serious and diligent prosecution of those things that conduce or pertain to their eternal happiness and Salvation in another World have been taught by the Wisdom that is from above truly to reckon with themselves that all those other things upon which the minds of most men are so busily intent are but mean and contemptible Trifles compared with these The loving kindness of the Lord is to them better than life it self and therefore this is sought after and prized by them above any of the comforts of life To live in peace and sweet communion with God in Christ here with the lively hope of being ever with the Lord hereafter is to them far more eligible than to have the greatest affluence and abundance of this Worlds enjoyments And therefore while others in the anxiety of their hearts are crying out Who will shew us any good They pray with the devout Psalmist Lord lift Psal 4. v. 6. thou up the light of thy countenance upon us 2. It doth further imply an habitual heavenly-mindedness whereby the main stream of the thoughts and affections is
carryed in a steady current for the most part towards those things that are above which therefore are the Subject of their daily meditation As there is nothing more natural to us than to be thinking much and often upon that which is the great Object of our desire and aim And so they have their conversation in Phil. 3. v. 20. Heaven even while their commoration and stay is yet upon earth 3. It doth further imply a strong emotion of ardent desires and earnest longings of Soul after those great and glorious enjoyments which constitute the happiness of the future state and after whatsoever is antecedently necessary in order to their attainment of a gracious Title unto and meetness for them Desire is that Affection of the Soul whereby it moves towards that which is the Object of its Choice and Love as it rests in Delight when it hath attained to the full possession of it And therefore the heavenly minded Christian in this imperfect state not having yet attained is Phil. 3. v. 13 14. earnestly reaching forth and pressing forward toward the Mark that is before him And so there is nothing in which those Noble Souls that are seriously engaged in seeking for Glory and Honour and Immortality do more frequently or intensely exercise themselves than in constant humble Addresses unto God by fervent Prayer for his Grace in Christ Jesus to fit them for and conduct them through present duty and service unto eternal Glory and Happiness And then 4. It doth in the last place imply a serious diligence and Conscientious care in the use of all divinely-prescribed and appointed means for the improvement of their Spirits in all the excellent habits of Grace and Holiness here in order to their being meetly prepared and qualified in due time for the eternal enjoyment of Glory and Happiness hereafter together with an humble dependance upon the divine Grace implored by earnest Prayer for the making all such means effectually conducive to their proper end Thirdly That which we are to consider in the next place respecting the excellent Character of these happy Persons is the regular Way or right Line in which their Desires move and their Aims are directed towards this blessed Mark and that is a patient continuance in well-doing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Vulgar Latine renders thus secundum patientiam boni operis according to the patience of a good work or to bring it nearer to the words of our Translation by patience in well-doing Arias Montanus renders it secundum permanentiam by perseverance in well-doing and Beza Translates it secundum patientem expect ationem by patient expectation But I think our own Translation is the most full and emphatical of them all putting that together which is severally express'd in them Reading it thus by patient continuance in well-doing therefore I shall adhere to that and so much the rather because I find the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth in Scripture stile signifie both patience and perseverance And I think the Emphasis of it here cannot be better expressed than by putting them both together and so understanding it to signifie patient continuance or perseverance with patience in well-doing Nor do I see any thing in the more immediate context or in the scope of the Text it self to incline me to prefer any other Translation of these words that I have seen before this which we have in our English Bibles And therefore I shall follow in giving you a brief account of the way wherein the Heirs of future blessedness do seek for glory and honour and immortality as it is here described namely by patient continuance in well-doing In which description of it we may easily perceive these three gradations in it by well-doing by continuance or perseverance in well-doing and by patient continuance in well-doing All which I shall speak distinctly to in a few words beginning with the lowest degree first viz. 1. All that do regularly seek for glory and honour and immortality seek them in the way of well-doing which expression being indefinite is to be understood in a very large extent reaching to all the Duties incumbent upon a Christian in this present state For as this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or well-doing doth in the very formal notion of it carry a reference to some Rule by which what is done is to be measured and to which so far as it is well done it doth accord So it must be understood here to have a special reference unto the Gospel or the Law of Faith as the rule and measure of it And therefore this well-doing doth plainly import a steady conformity in a Man's Actions as to the main bent and course of his conversation unto the holy precepts of Christ Jesus lay'd down in the Gospel as the rule and standard of a Christians deportment And so that which is manifestly intended in this general expression is no less than an heedful attendance to all the duties of Christianity or a serious care studious endeavour throughout the whole course of a Mans life to yield obedience to the Laws of Christ and so to walk worthy Col. 1. 10 of the Lord unto all pleasing And being so understood it is so far from excluding that Faith in Christ whereby a sinner doth embrace and receive him according to the Offer of the Gospel as the way to obtain Salvation by him that it doth necessarily include it Forasmuch as this believing is an essential part of that well-doing by which all serious Christians do seek for glory and honour and immortality And therefore our Lord himself doth emphatically call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of God It is by well-doing in John 6. v. 29. this comprehensive sense as it takes in both Faith and Good Works in conformity to the Precepts of the Gospel that we must seek for eternal glory and happiness if ever we would obtain it And whosoever they be that seek it any other way either separating the one of these from the other or carelesly neglecting and disregarding both they will find at last that they did herein miserably deceive themselves and put a destructive Cheat upon their own Souls For the Lord Jesus Christ is the Author Heb. 5. v. 9. of Eternal Salvation not promiscuously unto all but only to all those that obey him And therefore he himself also tells us that not every one that saith unto him Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doeth the Will of Mat. 7. v. 21. his Father which is in Heaven 2. A further gradation express'd in this discription of the only regular way of seeking for future glory and blessedness is that it is to be done by continuance in well-doing or by perseverance therein unto the end And this is no less necessary than the former For if any man draw back it will be to his own perdition because God hath declared he will
of happiness a fulness of Glory both subjective and objective glory shining in them and glory shining upon and round about yea into them transfusing its bright beams through them a fulness of honour infinitely transcending all those fading Titles which advance one man so high above another in this lower World and a fulness of joy satisfaction and delight even those pure refined pleasures that are at Gods right Psal 16. v. 11. hand for evermore All this and a great deal more that neither our words nor thoughts can reach is summarily comprehended in that Eternal Life which all they shall certainly attain at the end of their course who by patient continuance in well-doing do seek for glory and honour and immortality Which will more plainly appear to us by considering that which follows in the next place in order namely III. That which remains in the last place to be spoken to is the connection between the qualifications imported in the foregoing Character and that glorious felicity unto which all that bear it shall at last be advanced between a Christians course and his crown between his seeking for glory and honour and immortality in the way here described and that eternal life in which he shall finally enjoy all that he sought for That there is a connection between them is sufficiently evident inasmuch as the one is attainable no other way but by the other And of what kind this connection is I am now to shew And in short It is easie forus to apprehend that this connection is not natural and necessary but ordinate not such as doth necessarily result from the nature of the things themselves that are here connected but such as hath its foundation in the gracious ordination and appointment of God For it is sufficiently evident to any one that doth attentively and seriously consider it That there is no just and adequate proportion between the most diligent and industrious Christians present service and his future eternal reward And so it is no less obvious for us to conceive that the connection that is between them is not founded in Merit but in Free Grace For when we have done all we must say we Luk. 17. v. 10. are unprofitable Servants we have done only that which was our duty to do And it is most absurd for any one to think to merit any thing by the payment of a just Debt And therefore the Scripture speaks of eternal life under the notion of a Gift as obtained only by the free donation of God and not as a possession accruing to us by any desert of our own whereas on the other hand that eternal death which is the just punishment of Sin is called Wages as being no more than what it doth most iustly deserve Rom. 6. 23. For the Wages of Sin is death But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so the Reward of the eternal inheritance is several times in Scripture under the Title of Mercy As the Apostle prayed for Onesiphorus 2 Tim. 1. 18. The Lord grant unto him that he may find Mercy of the Lord at that day And so we are exhorted to keep our selves in the love of God looking for the Mercy of our Jude v. 21. Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life And therefore it is manifest that the connection that is between the Christians service and reward his Course and his Crown is not founded in merit but in the free Grace and undeserved Love of God in Christ to which alone that gracious Promise or Covenant is intirely owing whereby he hath been pleased to establish an immutable order between them so as that the one shall be infallibly consequent upon the other But the connection is never the less firm or certain for being so founded as it is but rather the more so For the Covenant of Grace which is the more immediate ground and foundation of it is an everlasting Covenant a covenant not 2 Sam. 23 v. 5. only ordered in all things but also sure Forasmuch as the divine eternal veracity is engaged to make good every Article of it to as many as have regularly laid hold upon it and by an hearty compliance with its conditions come to have a real interest in it For altho' God was unlimitedly free before he made the promise and established his Gracious Covenant with us yet that being once done he is obliged for the honour of his Truth and Righteousness to make it good And so though in strictness he can owe nothing to us he is a Debter to his own Promise And at the last day he will be glorified not only as the free and magnificent Donor of all the Treasures of Heaven but also as the God of Truth in fulfilling all the exceeding great and precious Promises that he 2 Pet. 1. v. 4. hath made unto his faithful Servants And therefore Vnto them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality he will not fail to render eternal Life And having thus with as much brevity as the Subject could well admit finished what I proposed to speak doctrinally from this Text of Scripture All that now remains is to make some application of what hath been said unto our selves And 1. From hence we learn with what magnanimity and nobleness of Spirit true living Christianity doth inspire those in whom it takes place elevating and raising their minds and hearts above this perishing World and all its fading transitory enjoyments Steadily inclining them to seek those things that are above Col. 3. v. 1. insomuch that nothing lower than heavenly glory and immortal honour can now content them or compose their Desires into a complacential Rest and satisfaction While others that are acted by the forbid abject and base Spirit of this World lie groveling in the dust of this earth drudging and toyling for what is only accommodate unto their mortal part the living Christian being made alive to God through Rom. 6. v. 11. Jesus Christ his Lord and having received not the Spirit of this World but the Spirit that is from God is continually 1 Cor. 2. v. 12. aspiring upwards in heavenly thoughts desires and aims ever seeking for glory and honour and immortality till he comes to the actual fruition of all in eternal life 2. What hath been said may serve also to discover to us the preposterous folly of their presumptuous hopes who think at last to obtain eternal life tho' they take no care to seek it in that way which the Gospel doth prescribe and in which only it is to be found even by a patient continuance in well-doing Heaven and eternal happiness are promised to none as an absolute irrespective Gift but as a Reward consequent upon service And therefore whosoever are careless and unconcerned about the duty and service of the present state will be sure to sall short of the glory and felicity of the future
And then the higher their presumptuous and groundless hopes have been raised the greater will their shame and disappointment be when they and their hopes shall perish together 3. The firm and certain connection which the gracious Promise and Covenant of God hath made and settled between a patient continuance in well-doing here and the enjoyment of eternal life hereafter may further serve for the comfort and encouragement of all his sincere and faithful Servants under all the difficulties and hardships afflictions and sorrows exercises and Tryals which they undergo here in the course of their obedience He that hath obtained a clear prospect by faith of the invisible World and of the glory honour and incorruption which are to be eternally enjoyed there by all that regularly seek after them here and is withal conscious to himself that he is one of that happy number can easily see through the darkest cloud and discern a comfortable end of all his present troubles And therefore his Faith mightily animating his Hope and his Hope proportionably strengthening his Patience he doth not faint in the day of Adversity nor is he weary of well-doing Prov. 24. v. 10. because he is sufficiently assured that the time is short and so that it will be but yet a little while before all Tears shall be wiped away from his eyes and all Isa 25. v. 8. grief and sorrow banished from his heart and endless Joyes succeed in their Rev. 7. v. 17. room 4. The same consideration may serve as a sweet and comfortable allay to the sorrows of such as are mourning for the death of such of their near and dear Relatives or Friends who in their life-time gave sufficient proof of their exemplary care and diligence to persevere in such a steady course of duty and obedience as hath eternal life and glory connected with it It is indeed very selfish and unbecoming our Christian hope with immoderate and unallayed grief and sorrow to lament the death of such For asmuch as altho' their absence and departure from us be very sensibly our great loss their presence with the Lord is in an infinitely higher degree their gain And therefore methinks even natural affection which makes us wish well to our dear Relatives especially when sanctified by Grace and assisted by faith should give some check to our immoderate grief for the Removal of such of them from us by the stroke of death concerning whom we have such comfortable and well-grounded hopes For why should we grieve at or regret their happy advancement unto that immortal glory and honour which they had been long seeking for but could never reach before 5. What we have heard may serve both for our direction and excitation unto such a regular and steady course of obedience here that we may all obtain eternal life hereafter Let us endeavour therefore to have that Truth which hath been this day suggested to us out of the Word of God so deeply impress'd upon our very hearts that the thoughts of it may continually dwell with us and have a constant influence upon us by the grace of God for the engageing us to the most strenuous diligence and constancy in prosecuting our present duty as that which hath by the divine ordination and appointment a direct tendency to our future eternal felicity Let us never forget that the only way to glory and honour and a blessed immortality is a patient continuance in well doing And so let none of us any longer indulge our selves in the neglect of that upon which our eternal welfare doth so evidently depend but let the time past suffice us to have wrought the Wills of the Flesh and to have misemployed the active strength and vigour of our Souls in minding only earthly things And now let us resolve by the grace of God to call off our hearts and affections from this lower World and all its perishing vanities and so set our selves in good earnest to seek those things that are above Minding the great Duties of Christianity with a more serious care than ever we have hitherto exercised about them Making True practical Religion more our business as it is what will turn to the best accompt unto us at last O let none of us be guilty of such preposterous folly in the great concernments of our immortal Souls as we would be ashamed of in the management of our secular affairs separating the Way from the End as if the one might be attained without a serious and due attendance to the other The Way in which we must seek for future glory and happiness if ever we would have it is plainly delineated to us in the Text And all those that are gone before us and have actually received the Reward of the eternal inheritance both sought and obtained it in this way and no other even by a patient continuance in well-doing It doth therefore concern us to tread in their steps that we also may in due time and in our appointed order come to the fruition of the same happiness with them And so my earnest exhortation to you is in the words of the Apostle Heb. 6. 11 12. That every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises And here for your further excitation I shall now on this solemn occasion set before you the illustrious and worthy Example of our deservedly honoured and lately deceased Friend whose immortal part is now with Christ For She was indeed One upon whose Heart and Life the divine Spirit and Grace had in most conspicuous and shining lineaments drawn that excellent and noble Character by which the Heirs of Blessedness are described in the Text And to that in the several parts of it I shall principally confine my self in the following Account that I shall give you of her Wherein my more immediate design and aim is to shew you how eminently this Text of Scripture was exemplified in her that you may thence be the more confirmed in your comfortable and well-grounded assurance of her being now happily possessed of that Eternal Life which by the divine designation and appointment belongs to all that bear that Character And therefore not to say any thing of her natural endowments either intellectual or moral altho they were such as made the Grace of God to shine with the greater lustre in her discreet and well-ordered conversation I shall speak only to those that were manifestly divine and supernatural And for as much as my happy acquaintance with her did commence too late to capacitate me to give you any particular account of the more early impressions of the Divine Grace upon her Soul or the more distant Passages of her pious Life and that I may keep my self as remote as may be from all suspition of flattery and falsehood in the payment of this my last solemn
saw meet to lay upon her Yea in the very midst of her weariness and pain when her eyes have been held waking and her sleep hath fled from her she would often express the grateful sense which she had of the singular Mercy of God towards her in the many instances wherein it pleased him to intermix it with her Affliction Considering how much better it was with her under her severest exercises than with many others of Gods dear Children who by reason of their mean Circumstances in the World could not be furnish'd with those external helps accomodations which by the distinguishing Goodness of God she enjoyed Which she would often speak of with great compassion to others and no less thankfulness to God upon her own account and especially in the late cold and pinching season wherein such were exposed to very great hardship as had sickness added to poverty And thus the excellent Character that the Apostle gives us of the Heirs of Heaven in the Text was in every part of it eminently found in her who was indeed One who by patient continuance in well-doing sought for glory and honour and immortality And then I may add That 5. Agreeably hereunto her Faith and Hope were for the most part strong and lively except at such times as she was under clouds of Melancholly arising from bodily distemper which made all things look dark unto her while it prevailed But most perceptibly did she improve in their strength and vigour for some months before the expiration of her Time whereby she did not only obtain a comfortable victory in a great degree over the Fear of Death which had formerly been a very grievous exercise unto her but was also greatly supported and encouraged under her continued remaining Troubles of Life For as there were many comfortable Words in the Holy Scriptures whereon God had caused her to hope so by strengthening and encreasing her Faith he enabled her more closely to apply them to her self and so to take the comfort of them when she needed it most As under one of the last Returns of her Distempers she did very frequently revolve in her mind those words of afflicted but believing Job Chap. 23. v. 10. When he hath tryed me I shall come forth as gold And God inabling her to mix that word with faith made it both at that time and afterwards very useful to her And so in her last sickness even the night before her death after she had been exercised with grievous pain the whole night and day preceding having a short interval of â—ase for a few moments while I was with her I observed her to repeat unto her self several times with great complacency as I apprehended from the pleasant tone of her voice tho' but low those encouraging words of the devout Psalmist Psal 42. 8. The Lord will command his loving kindness in the day-time and in the night his Song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my life Adding in the close Lord thou art the God of my life natural life spiritual life yea eternal life and therefore my prayer is unto thee After which her pain and sickness again returning she grew more and more apprehensive of her near approaching dissolution and after a short space said to me as I stood by her bed-side I have a dark valley to pass through Whereupon encouraging her to hope in God I said to her The Father of lights will be with you there and he will enlighten your darkness to which she very sweetly replyed and turn the shadow of Death into the morning And not long after she spake to me in these or the like words I bless God I do not at all doubt my eternal Interest but it is some trouble to me that I have yet so little of the Joy of Gods Salvation As at another time which whether it were before or after the former I do not exactly remember she said with some apparent Concern to a dear Friend standing by What! Come so near to the confines of a glorious eternity and yet have no clearer prospect of the glory of it But altho' that unspeakable and glorious Joy which doth sometimes attend the lively exercises of Faith in the children of God in their last hours was as you may perceive by these hints withheld from her She was not without Solid and great peace in believing which of the two the more substantial tho' not the more delectable enjoyment And I make no question but that now she hath the other also in a better way as well as in a greater proportion than ever any had it in this World even fulness of Joy in the divine presence and pleasures for evermore For faith and patience having both had their perfect work in her she is now gone to inherit the promises in Eternal Life And now my Christian Friends the greatest honour and respect that we can pay to her blessed Memory which I hope will yet live among us is to follow her Worthy Example every one seeking for glory and honour and immortality in that way wherein she sought and hath now obtained all Let me therefore earnestly recommend this unto you all as I desire also to charge it upon my self And more especially to you her nearest surviving Relatives who had a greater advantage than any others by your nearness to her most exemplary course of life as an excellent pattern for you to imitate And therefore as she hath done worthily in serving God and her Generation according to his Will and now Rev. 14. v. 13. Heb. 4. v. 9. rests from her labours in that everlasting Sabbatism which remaineth for the People of God into which she entred on the close of that day of the week which is not unfitly called by us the Christian Sabbath Let it be your care every one to do likewise And more particularly let me address my self unto you her hopeful Off-spring her dear Children for whom she put up many a Prayer to God that he would make you all his Children And let me earnestly exhort you never to forget what a Mother you had what excellent instruction and wholesome counsel she often gave you and what a teaching Example she set before you by which being now dead she yet speaks to you And surely it is your great Concern as you love your souls to hearken to the Voice to understand the Language of it There are some things which Actions do speak out louder than any Verbal Expressions and certainly if you have the heart attentively to consider and understand it you cannot be unapprehensive that your Mothers Example calls aloud upon you all to mind the great Concernments of your Souls with serious care and diligence as she did to get your thoughts and affections abstracted and drawn off from this World and fixedly set upon things above as hers were to be diligent and industrious in the careful and conscientious performance of all Christian Duties
Preaching the Everlasting Gospel And would not this make us both more servicable in our several stations and capacities to glorifie God which is the great end of our Lives and I hope the great desire of our Souls And therefore I know nothing more worthy of our most earnest wrestlings and greatest importunities For since I hope God hath given us an interest in himself thorow his dear Son and our great Mediator and so hath accepted our Persous in Justification thorow the imputed righteousness of Christ I think the next work we have to do is to be dayly interceding for the Influences of the Spirit in order to carry on the great business of sanctification that so we may grow in a fitness for every duty and a meetness for the future state that we are hastning into It were long to produce all or many of the Expressions of this nature that might be given And therefore I shall only add one more in a Letter to a Friend upon a Reprieve from Death that she had providentially got beyond expectation for a time and which she was apprehensive he had some hand in with others as a Return of Prayer Now methinks says she I have been saying to you whom I believe to have been instrumental in this matter is this your kindness to your Friend When I seem'd to have got so near to the harbour of an hoped for rest to use all your force and strength to bring me back again into this stormy and troublesome Sea where I must expect to be tossed with new Tempests before I get to shore of which I have now a much clearer Prospect than of any service I can do here in this world Did I ever desire you to pray for Life Or was it not rather that I might be carried thorow the dark valley of the shadow of Death But I must submit since I know you think you have acted Duty in this and since all things of this nature are ordered by a wise and gracious God for good to us And this does abundantly satisfie me in this and I hope in all other dispensations concerning me And now from these few Expressions as well as from what hints have been besides given of this pious Person we may easily perceive what Spirit she was of and what her great work and Business in the world was She wisely chose the Better part which none could take from her The whole of her Life being one continued declaration that she sought a better Country as knowing that we have no continuing City or place of abode here Thorow a patient continuance in well-doing she sought for honour and glory and immortality both in Health and Sickness And tho' an universal Decay of Spirits in Gods wise determination did incapacitate her in the hour of Deaths approach from having that sensible joy and ravishment which somtimes the Saints then have from the prospect of the nearness of Glory yet that Faith and Affiance that Reverence and Love and that Resignation and full satisfaction which she then expressed were such clear Evidences of her Grace and such happy Prognosticks of that Happiness she was entering upon the Possession of that we may justly admire Gods Mercy in all this both to Her and Us. And now my Friends obey the Instruction and imitate the Pattern that I have at this time set before you Which that we may do let us fervently implore the divine Grace and seriously improve the Gospel-Means And then I question not but we shall come in due time to find this Doctrine verified in our own Experience That better is the Day of Death than the Day of Birth Amen TO THE MEMORY of the Truly Religious Mrs. Susanna Soame WHO Departed this Life at Thurlow in Suffolk Feb. 14. An. Dom. 169 1 2. ART thou then gone thou sweet and humble Mind Leaving thy Friends thus sorrowing behind And can our Thoughts within our breasts be pent Since sorrows double are that have no vent No! No! My weeping Muse shall drop a Verse And offer at thy much lamented Hearse Thy Piety and Worth deserve no less And if my Lines be in an humble Dress It yet may Mourners suit since 't is requir'd That such in Black not Gold should be attir'd Had I a Pen drop't from an Angels Wing Or could I hear the Anthems thou dost sing Since thou art joyn'd unto the Quire above And swallow'd up in Raptures high of Love My Thoughts might then 't is like my Pen inspire with such like Notes as mov'd Wise Sol'mons Lyre When he did sing the Mystick Loves between Heav'ns Glorious Darling and his Purchas'd Queen For now that Song thou lov'dst so here is known To thee since thou hast reach'd the Heavenly Throne Yet when I think how Holy Paul before Tho' thus rapt up to Heaven could do no more But only tell he saw Things Glorious Which he nor could nor durst express to us I 'me therefore left in silence to adore That Hand which casts a Veil such things before And wills us to believe they are too great For this Imperfect State where we await Until we also from our Corps remove And mount all Earthly Dust and Shades above Wherefore I 'm left to muse on what is past And on thy by-gone-Lise some Thoughts to cast And here methinks as present still to day I see thy Face and hear thee thus to say An Acrostical Character of her Life S oar fain I would above each earthly thing V nto my Lord of all my Joy the Spring S uch is my study but alas I find A ll my Attempts too weak too dark my Mind N ow Clouds bemist me Grief o're-pow'rs my Soul N ow Fears alternate like the Waves do rowl A nd all my Comforts Joy and Hope controul S weet Glances from my God yet now and then O blidge my Soul from Sorrow to refrain A nd blast my Griefs and cause my Fears to fly M y Case thus changeth too and fro whilst I E ach day for Heaven long yet fear to dye Yet tho' all is but Folly that is said By Living Mortals of th' Immortal Dead Yet since we justly do conclude thou' rt blest And now from Pains and Sorrows all at rest Methinks I hear thy Voice from Heaven high Drop silent to my Ear thus through the Sky An Acrostical Character of her Death Soar now I do above each earthly thing Vnto my Lord of all my Joy the Spring Such was my Aim below but then did find All my Attempts too weak too dark my Mind No Cloud bemists me now and on my Soul No Grief or Fear alternately doth rowl As an Allay my Comforts to controul Sweet Sights of God and Christ I do obtain O sweet my Life Sweet Place where I remain Angels and Saints are now my Company My Friends below I 'd pity did not I Expect to see them to Eternity The Epitaph UNderneath this Stone doth lye Dust precious for the Memory Of a sweet Saint who once did dwell In such a fadeing Mortal Cell Who having got Gods Pass took wing Upwards to Heaven to live and sing Triumphant Hallelujahs there And breath more free in Sweeter Air. An Acrostical Memorial Since Vpwards Soar'd All Notions New Attend Seen Objects Ancient Molestations End. As the last Expression of Friendship on Earth These Lines are Offered by R. F. BOOKS Printed for John Harris at the Harrow against the Church in the Poultrey and John Salusbury at the Rising Sun over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1. ANgliae Metropolis Or The Present State of London with Memorials comprehending a full and succienct Account of the Antient and Modern State thereof First Written by the late Ingenious Tho. De Laune Gent. and continued to this present Year by a careful Hand 2. The Life and Death of that Old Disciple of Jesus Christ and Eminent Minister of the Gospel Mr. Hanserd Knollys who dyed in the Ninety Third Year of his Age. These Two Printed for J. Harris 3. The Certainly of the Worlds of Spirits Fully evinced by unquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witchcrafts Operations Voices c. Proving the Immortality of Souls the Malice and Miseries of the Devils and the Damned and the Blessedness of the Justified By R. Baxter 4. An End of Doctrinal Controversies which have lately Troubled the Churches by Reconciling Explication without much Disputing By R. Baxter These Two Printed for J. Salusbury CORRIGENDA SErm 1. pag. 7. lin 20 after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insert and. p. 17. l. 20. after follow insert that p. 28. l. 10. after Scripture insert expressed p. 45. l. 1. for she read they p. 47. l. 14. after which insert is p. 48. l. 8. after her insert to observe her Serm. 2. p. 55. l. ult after must insert not p. 72. l. 7. for Eph. read Ep.
Heb. 10. v. 38. have no pleasure in him He that would so run as to obtain must not think it enough to set out right to begin well but he must hold on till he comes to the end of the prescribed course or else he looseth all As he must be careful to run the very race that is set before him keeping his feet in the direct path that is delineared for him by the divine Precepts without turning aside to any crooked way either on the right hand or on the left So he must be sure to run to the end of it not desisting till he arrive there or else he will run in vain 3. The last and highest gradation in this account that the Text gives of the way and manner of seeking regularly for glory and honour and immortality is made by the addition of patience unto this perseverance in well-doing And this Patience hath respect both to present evils endured and to future good expected in the way of our duty For patience is exercised by the Children of God in this state of their minority imperfection both these ways viz. in enduring and in waiting indeed in both respects they have need of patience that after they have done the Heb. 10. v. 36. Will of God they may receive the promise First All the Heirs of Glory during the time of their minority do stand in need of patience as it is to be exercised in enduring the many afflictive evils that they meet with in the course of their obedience and continuance in well-doing For as Gods ancient People Israel passed through a troublesome and howling Wilderness into the promised Land So all True Christians must expect through much Acts 14. v. 22. tribulation to enter into the Kingdom of God And therefore our Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples that in the John 16. v. 33. World they should have tribulation And indeed there is such a great variety of troubles to which the best of men are exposed here in this life as may sufficiently convince them that here is not Mich. 2. v. 10. their rest But all these are quietly and patiently undergone with a silent humble and meek submission to the divine Soveraign disposing hand that orders all by such as have eternal glory in their eye and aim in somuch that they do not only persevere in doing good with unwearied diligence but also hold out in suffering evils with invincible patience Col. 1. v. 11. being strengthened thereunto according to the glorious power of the divine grace Secondly They do exercise patience in waiting as well as in enduring For as the Apostle speaks they hope for Rom. 8. v. 25. that which yet they see not and therefore do with patience wait for it And this is that kind of patience which the Apostle James exhorts unto Jam. 5. 7 8. Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and the latter rain Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draws nigh And the right Seekers after Glory and happiness are no strangers to the exercise of this kind of patience And therefore they are not weary in well-doing because they know that in due season they shall Gal. 6. v. 9. reap if they faint not and that every thing is most pleasant as well as most beautiful Eccl. 3. v. 11. in its season And thus have I shewn you at large the extensive import of the Character by which the Heirs of future blessedness are here described And so I come more briefly II. To consider in the next place the nature and excellency of that final happiness which doth by the divine ordination and appointment belong to them as their everlasting inheritance as it is here summ'd up in those two comprehensive words Eternal Life Which contain more in them than all the united eloquence of men and Angels is able to express and set forth It is a phrase more frequently than any other made use of in Scripture summarily to express the great felicity to which the glorified Saints are advanced in the heavenly Mansions And it doth very aptly serve to lead our Minds into some more general Conceptions of the greatness and glory of it tho' indeed all that can be said or thought falls infinitely short of being commensurate unto it Life is the sweetest of all enjoyments and therefore that is the last thing that any man will part with so long as he is able to retain it and Eternal life is the highest Job 2. ver 4. and most noble kind of life of which the nature of Man when in the utmost elevation is susceptive of And the excellency of it will more clearly appear to us if we consider it more distinctly first with respect to what is more directly imported in it and then with respect to what it doth necessarily connote when understood in that latitude in which the phrase is most frequently if not always used in Scripture 1. If we consider it in the more direct import of it so it appears to have a very radiant excellency in it that doth far out-shine the brightest part of this Worlds glory For it must be understood to singifie somewhat more than a bare immortality or a meer living for ever for that belongs also to the wicked that are turned into Hell and hath no happiness in it if abstractly considered even a glorious ineffable and everlasting union with God the fountain of life whereby the Spirits of just men made perfect dwelling in God the all-comprehending Spirit do so far as the finite capacity of a creature will admit everlastingly possess a perfect plenitude of life And this is elsewhere in Scripture express'd by being ever with the Lord. And this 1 Thes 4. v. 17. we are to conceive the Souls of the Saints to enter upon immediately after death altho' their bodies are not to be advanced to a participation in it until the resurrection when they also shall be made immortal and fashioned like unto Christs glorious Body according to the Phil. 3. v. 21. working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself 2. If we consider this Eternal life with respect to what it doth necessarily connote so it will appear to be still more excellent and glorious For as that God in whom the glorified Saints have most intimately their everlasting residence is in himself the fountain of life or the living God So he is also the fountain of blessedness And therefore as by being for ever with the Lord they do everlastingly possess a perfect plenitude of life in 2 Cor. 5. v. 4. which every thing of mortality shall at last be swallowed up So they must needs also enjoy together therewith a perfect fulness of whatsoever can be conceived of under the notion
Respect unto her Memory I shall only speak of what I have had the peculiar advantage of observing my self for the space of almost seven years that I have in two distinct periods lived in her Family And I must have been very inobservant indeed if in all that time I had not taken notice of what was so visible both in her habitual Temper and constant carriage exactly answering to every part of that descriptive Character of the true Christain which I have been this day unfolding to you of which I shall give you a distinct and impartial account in the following Particulars And 1. Her habitual heavenly-mindedness was such a shining Excellency in her as could not be hid under that Vaile of Humility and Modesty which was her constant ornament but did discover it self in an holy contempt of this lower World and all its perishing Enjoyments in a steady Aim directed unto higher and more noble Objects and in a continual aspiration after glory and honour and immortality The divine Grace had inspired her with that true magnanimity and nobleness of Spirit that her Desires and Hopes could by no means be confined within the narrow limits of Time nor be long together held down to sublunary and terrene objects And therefore her Soul would be often mounting upward upon the Wings of Faith into the bright Regions of light and glory above to contemplate the eternal and glorious Objects that are there And more especially toward the end of her Time having been observed for some months before her Death to have her thoughts much exercised about the State and Enjoyments of Heaven And particularly about separate Souls mutual knowledge of and converse with one another taking occasion very frequently to discourse upon that sublime Subject when in company with such as she apprehended might be assistant to her in her endeavours to attain more distinct and clear notions about it Of which she now understands more than any one here could tell her 2. The earnestness of her desires after heavenly glory and felicity was no less conspicuous than the steadiness of her Aims principally directed that way She did not only set this glory honour and immortality before her as the great Mark at which she aimed but was continually pressing forwards toward it seeking after these things with the most close and strenuous application of mind And that more espeically in fervent prayer wherein she was wont to breath out her very Soul to God every day For as her natural Temper inclined her to the love of Solitude so Grace had taught her to make the best improvement of her Solitary hours which she was careful to employ not only in diligent reading and devout meditation but especially in secret prayer whereby she maintained and kept up a continual commerce with Heaven which many a time brought her in very rich Returns in divine communications and manifestations Nor was she content to seek alone for such great things as Grace and Glory are and therefore would often with earnest importunity be-speak the joint-assistance of her more intimate Christian-friends and especially of such Ministers of her acquaintance as she could be most free with in managing this work that so her Addresses to God might be the more solemn by others assisting her therein and Dedicating several hours together unto that sacred service as hath been frequently done at her Request and principally upon her account in her own house 3. She was no less careful about the regular way of seeking for glory and honour and immortality than she was earnest and zealous in the work it self For she was better instructed in the great Doctrines and Duties of Christinity and in the Method of obtaining Salvation by Jesus Christ as it is revealed in the Gospel than to separate the Way from the End or foolishly to think of attaining the one without an heedful walking in the other And therefore it was her daily Study and sincere Endeavour in every thing to walk by rule not abusing the Grace of the Gospel as an encouragement to licentiousness but learning from it to deny all ungodliness and wordly lusts and to live Tit. 2. v. 11 12. 13. soberly righteously and godly in this present World so looking for that blessed hope c. Labouring to have her conversation such in all respects as might Phil. 1. v. 27. become the Gospel and her behaviour answerable to her hope And therefore it was her conscientious care and earnest endeavour to be seriously diligent and constant in performing all the Duties of a Christian both in her personal and relative capacities And whereas in the latter she sometimes found some difficulties under such concurrent circumstances as need not be mentioned which did unavoidably discover such of her Infirmities as otherwise might have been hid I have this to add from certain knowledge that they were by none more deeply resented or more sadly bewailed than by her self For when at any time upon some slender provocation the natural quickness of her Temper did on a suddain betray and hurry her into some more hasty passionate or indecent expressions they were soon followed with such an indignation against her self as did more than bear proportion thereunto and therefore might very justly as I doubt not but it did in a great measure make atonement for them unto such as were most nearly and sensibly touched by them All which I should have passed over in silence had I not considered that what I have mentioned on the one part might perhaps have been observed by many unto whom what is said on the other in her just vindication may be altogether unknown And what I have thus impartially hinted amounting to sufficient evidence that her Infirmities of this kind were no other than were very well consistent with sincerity and a good conscience both toward God and toward Man I must after all in justice to her Memory give her this general Character which all that knew her more intimately will say she justly deserved That she was a loving discreet and prudent Wife a careful affectionate and tender-hearted Mother a faithful compassionate and beneficent friend and in all these respects and many more a most exemplary Christian And then 4. To complete the Character her Patience and Perseverance were no less eminent than her care and diligence in well-doing She was not only unweariedly active and constant in doing but eminently submissive and patient in suffering the Will of her heavenly Father And therefore under all her painful and frequently renewed Exercises and Tryals which indeed were very grievous especially for the last twelve Months of her Life she did with unrepining submission and as much chearfulness as was consistent with her acute pains bow to the Soveraign disposing hand of God resigning her Will to his so as never to have been heard all the time to charge him foolishly in any the least murmuring complaint against him under what in his paternal wisdom he