and likewise of Alms-Deeds in Particular As Mr. Hieron calleth her a discreet compassionate cheerfull and Simple-hearted Almoner I come now to the sad part of my Text and that is her sickness and death It may be you have heard me hitherto with delight if I now stirr up your grief I cannot avoid it But I must go as I am led by the Text and the occasion Who would not be ready to say it was pity that Dorcas so good a Woman should all any thing that she should be sick but much more that she should die But so it seemed good to Divine Providence For it came to passe in those days that she was sick and died And it came to passe Observ There is a providence in and to be observed in the Sicknesse and Death of Gods Saints Pretious in the sight of the Lord 116 Psal 15◠is the Life and also the Death of his Saints And if they be so pretious to God how can we think but that there should be a special providence in their Sicknesse and Death If the hairs of their Heads are numbred 10 Mat. 30. much more the days of their Sojourning and if one of their hairs cannot fall to the ground but by the providence of their Heavenly Father much lesse can their whole bodies There is a threefold Providence of God First General which he exerciseth over all his Creatures Secondly Special which he exerciseth over Man Thirdly Particular which he exerciseth over his own People Of this last the Psalmest speaks 56 Psal 7. Thou tellest my wandrings put thou my Tears into thy Bottle are they not all in thy Book God in his providence orders the time when his people shall be sick and Dye the place where the Disease of which with all other circumstances of that nature and which is above all he doth fashion their Hearts by the same providence to bear Sicknesse and so disposeth of things that they are not taken away by Death till they have finished their work and are fit to enter into Glory Well then let us see his providence and submit to it acknowledging the Justice Wisdom and Goodnesse of it We are apt oft times to wonder that God should cast his people into Sicknesse and take them away by Death at such a time that he casteth them into such places it may be where they are at a distance from their Habitation that they are taken away by such a sharp Disease and violently that he doth not spare them a little to recover their strength before they go hence and be no more seen 39 Psal 13. Now we must answer all such questions as these with a sic evenit so it came to passe by the most wise providence of God whose respect to his Children is such that if he had seen any thing better this had not been Observ It came to passe in those days that She was Sick Gods dearest Children are not exempted from Sicknesse no more than any other affliction Si amatur quomodo infirmatur it is said 11 Joh. 3. Behold he whom thou lovest is Sick Augustine asks if he were beloved how came he to be Sick But in outward accidents of this life God makes no difference Nay it is usual in providence that they who have Gods Heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feel Gods Hand most heavy It is a very pretty saying of Clemens Alexandrinus Gods Children are not neer him unlesse they be within the reach of his Rod. They sit as Augustus said he did when he sate between Virgil and Horace Inter suspicia lachrymas the one melancholly the other troubled with sore eyes between sighing and weeping All the day long have I been plagued and chastned every Morning saith David 73 Psal 14. When yet it is said of some wicked worldly Men 73 Psal 7. that they were not in trouble like other Men neither were they plagued like other Men. You have read it may be or heard the Story of the holy Hermite that having lived to a compleat Age though very piously yet made a question of Gods love to him because all that while he had not which he could remember felt one hours sicknesse It pleased God in some short time before he dyed to visit him with an Ague which he blessed God for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and received as a Love-token not scrupling that so much afterward which formerly had troubled him Paul had a racking pain which he expresseth by a Thorn in the flesh 2 Cor. 12. Mr. Manton A learned Man thinks that he alludes to such kind of punishment as Slaves or Men not free were put to for great offences They sharpned a Stake and pointed it with Iron and put it in at his Back till it came out at his Mouth and so with his Face upward he Dyed miserably And therefore by that expression the Apostle intendeth some grievous bodily distemper or racking pain 2 Coo. 12.5 Certainly he speaketh of such an infirmity wherein he would Glory and therefore it is not probable that it should be meant of Sin or some prevailing Lust as many expound it but rather of some extreme corporal pain Yet I have observed that Gods Children are not apt to question his Love so much as in Sicknesse For Satan takes the advantage of the solitude of a Sick person to tempt him more and makes use of the pain and distemper of the Body to disturb and disquiet the mind But however Gods people have no more cause to doubt of Gods love in Sicknesse than any other affliction That which troubles them most is that hereby they are rendred unserviceable but where God disenableth from duty he looks not for it but accepts of the desire for the deed Besides Sicknesse it not such an unserviceable Estate may not one serve God acceptably in suffring as well as doing As it is said in the Revelation 14 Revel 12. here now is the Faith and Patience of the Saints Therefore if God shall cast your Bodies into Sickness be not dejected cast not down your Spirits 38 Isa 1. 7 Job 3 4. 38 Psal 7. 2 Phil. 27. Gods dearest Saints have had experience of sore Sicknesses such as Hezekiah Job David and Epaphroditus The Children of God have Bodies of the same matter and making with other men They are but earthen vessels subject to knocks and cracks as others are only they have a more pretious Lamp shining in these earthen pitchers than others have I mean a more pretious Soul Therefore comfort your selves and remember that in Sickness all your desire is before God and your groaning is not hid from him 38 Psal 9. And though your bodily distemper indispose you for duty yet God accepted Hezekiahs prayer 38 Isa 5. though when he prayed he did but chatter like as a Crane or a Swallow 38 Isa 14. So much of Dorcas Sickness I come now to her Death It is very
he commeth in the Glory of his Father with the holy Angels For such of us as have begun to make a more than common profession of the Gospel let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and unto good works not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as we see the day approaching whether of judgement or of persecution as it is 10 Hebr. 23 2 4 25. Dorcas is called a Disciple here ad Documentum as for her honour so for our instruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Disciple is as much as a Schollar or Learner and the Christians in the primitive times were so called because they were brought up at the Apostles feet and for the acquiring of saving knowledge had their dependance upon the ordinary means of instruction the preaching or teaching of the word So then Dorcas a Discple that is as one observes a Schollar in the School of Christ and submitter of her self to the Ordinance of God for the saving of her Soul now if Christian and Disciple be aequivalent and convertible terms then it is easy to make the observation That he who is indeed a Christian is a Learner one that depends upon and submits himself to the means of instruction To this end were the Scriptures written namely for our learning 15 Rom. 4. and when Christ sent out his Disciples he bade them go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teach that is make Disciples 28 Math. 19. when Christ would shew what mark his sheep have He declares it to be an ear-mark 10 Joh. 27. my sheep hear my voice and therefore are Ministers of the Gospel called Teachers 30 Isa 20.4 Eph. 11. to note that they who hear them should be Learners Nor ought any of Christs Disciples to think it a disparagement to be Learners for if they look at the Person of whom they learn they are Christs Ministers 1 Cor 4.1 Christs Ambassadours 2 Cor. 5.20 they represent no meaner a person than the Lord of Life and Glory the great Prophet of the Church and Saviour of the World and how meanly soever they may be accounted of by men yet they are called the glory of Christ 2 Cor. 8.23 If they look at the things which they learn they are of an excellent nature and it will ennoble elevate and help much to the perfection of their understandings for we speak the wisdome of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the VVorld unto our Glory 1 Cor. 2.8 We Preach such things as the very Angels desire to look into 1 Pet. 1.12 We Preach Christ Crucifyed 1 Cor. 1.23 the knowledge of whom is so excellent that Paul counted all things but losse to gain it 3 Phil. 8. And as we preach concerning things of the greatest excellency so likewise of the greatest advantage for unto us is committed the Word of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 So that we are appointed to teach the lost Children of Adam the way to Paradice again how they may not only make their Peace with God but be restored to his favour friendship and familiarity so that they shall be admitted to eat of the Tree of Life and live for evermore Is it any disparagement for a man to be a learner of things that are so excellent and advantagious Lastly let the Disciples of Christ consider their Estate and it is no disparagement unto them to be learners for their State is a State of imperfection and the Ministry was set up for the perfecting of the Saints 4 Eph. 12. When Eunomius that proud Heretick boasted how he knew the Divinity Basil gravelled him in no lesse than one and twenty questions about the Body of an Aunt or Pismire Sure it is a Wise Man will hear and increase Learning 1 Prov 5. Give instruction to a Wise Man and he will be yet Wiser teach a Iust Man and he will increase in Learning 9 Prov. 9. Therefore let none think it a disgrace to them to sit in the Learners form till they be advanced to the University of Heaven to have Society with the Spirits of Just Men made perfect 12 Heb. 23. Si moribundus etiam aliquid didicisset Melch. Adam David Chytraens when he lay a dying lift up himself to hear the discourses of his Friends that sate by him and said that he should dye with better chear if he might dye learning something By this then let us make trial of the truth of our Profession We do confidently perswade our selves and professe unto others that we are the Disciples of Christ if we be so indeed then we are Learners that is such as hear instruction and grow Wise and refuse it not watching dayly at VVisdoms Gates 8 Prov. 33 34. It is the property of a Learner to be humble sensible of his ignorance and self-denying not proud self-conceited or wise in his own eyes The Rabbins have a saying that he who learneth of himself hath a Fool to his Master and Solomon tells us that there is more hope of a Fool than the man that is wise in his own conceit 20 Prov. 12. Therefore he that would be wise must be a Fool that he may be wise 1 Cor. 3.18 It is another property of a learner to reverence his teachers So are we commanded to know them that Labour amongst us and are over us in the Lord and admonish us and to esteem them more highly for their works sake 1 Thess 5.12 13. Heretofore they have accounted the very feet of them beautiful that brought glad tidings of Peace 10. Rom. 15. And Herod an Hypocrite did for a time not only rejoyce in hearing Johns Doctrine 6 Mark 20. but was also very observant of his Person Now if these be the characteristical Notes of a Disciple we may justly suspect that as there were many who said they were Jews but were not 3 Rev. 9. so there are many who call themselves Disciples that are not so indeed yea that would take it in scorn to be thought learners 2 Mala. 7. For though the Priests lips preserve knowledge and the people should seek the Law at his Mouth because he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hostes yet generally men are so conceited of themselvs and have such under-valuing conceits of their Teachers because their fellow-creatures and subject to like passions as they are 5 Iam. 17. that they judge this a very servile and therefore too submisse a course This makes me think as he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there were more Imitators than true Citizens so that in our days we have more Imitators than true Christians even amongst those that are more strictly so taken So I passe from Dorcas Profession to her Practice those two must not be seperated for the most glorious profession of Religion without good works is most grosse Hypocrisie and
death Cùm stellae caduâ—t venti sequentur Arist and others like her that they will be worse When such Stars fall it is a sign of storms about to arise The Lord in mercy prevent them She was Sick and Dyed Sicknesse is the summons to Death the time of Sicknesse is that which God in mercy vouchsafeth to his Children to fit them for Death Her Sickness was but short therefore you may say her time of preparation was not long There was no such need of it her whole life had been a preparation for Death and now she had little else to do but to render her Soul into Gods hands Her Disease was judged to be a Plurisie it began with a pain in her side and so increased It brings to my mind that which I read of Peter 12 Act. how the Angel smote him on his side saying arise up quickly and his Chains fell off from his hands So did the Lord smite her on her side and her Chains of Sin and Sicknesse and Mortality quickly fell off from her And now her Soul being unpinioned is mounted up above the Clouds till the day that she shall come with Christ in the Clouds to Judgement In her Sicknesse I apprehended her very patient yet she desired me that I would beg of God for her a greater measure of patience for though the Spirit was willing yet the flesh she said was weak 26 Mat. 41. She was Sick and Dyed So our Doâ—cas not inferiour to her in the Text though so holy a woman yet could not be exempted from paying her last debt to nature Some it may be will be inquisitive to know how she Dyed I answer first though she Dyed soon yet not suddenly I perceive she hath for a long time Dyed dayly in her expectation and hath frequently told her Friends that she might not stay long with them There are many events and second causes that help to hasten Death and beside the infirmities of her Bodie I believe the late losse of her most dear Husband might be a means to shorten her dayes Secondly She Dyed most comfortably Being asked of one about her the Morning before she Dyed how she did She said she was all peace peace within and peace without About two days before she Dyed when I asked her how it was with her Her answer was Sir I am very ill I have a great pain in my side and spit blood But I thank God I have passed the great Gulfe for I am assured and she went over with it again speaking more heartily than at other times Ey I am assured that God hath pardoned all my sins and then she fell into an admiration of Gods mercy to her but said she how unworthily have I walked off and unsutably to such great love and at the uttering of these words I know not whether she did refrain her self from weeping When I farther asked her whether she did not believe that God had pardoned this Sin to her as well as the rest She answered she doubted it not yet it could not but trouble her to think of it Thus she continued to her Death for any thing I heard to the contrary She knew she said her State was safe but she desired if God saw good that he would rebuke Satan that it might be comfortable so long as she lived To this purpose we prayed with her several times and it pleased God to grant her request So I have given you the Parallel between Dorcas and this worthy Gentlewoman deceased I am sure I have not represented things to you in such lively colours as they deserved but I have not set a false Glosse upon any thing What remains but as I have done this to excite you to follow her steps so that I exhort you in the words of the Apostle 6 Heb. 11 12. I desire that every one of you would shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end tint you be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises FINIS
probable that Dorcas had been Sick before but not unto Death but now She was Sick and Dyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not break forth into any Rhetorical Declamations against the cruelty of Death yet the Scripture calls it an Enemy and the last Enemy 1 Cor. 15. and it doth the worst it can even to Gods own people But it may be said of it as Socrates said of his Enemies they may kill me but they cannot hurt me For what Basil said of Martyrdome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is true of any kind of Death to Gods Children it is but a way to passe from a Temporal Life to an Eternal She Dyed The Holyest and most Religious persons are subject to Death The Apostle speaking of the Patriarches these all Dyed saith he 11 Heb. 13. Grace gives comfort in Death but not power against it It is one of the Statutes of Heaven which cannot be revoked Statutum est 9 Heb. 27. it is appointed for all Men once to die There is no man hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit neither hath he power in the day of death and there is no discharge in that Warr 8 Eccl. 8. no union unseperable but that between Christ and a believer Death will seperate the union between Husband and Wife between Children and Parents between David and Jonathan yea the union between Soul and Body for a time Privilegia singularia regulam non faciunt regulam non infringunt Personalis Actio moritur cum persona nec sunt amplianda privilegia but not the union between Christ and the Soul for when the people of God are dissolved then they go to be with Christ which is best of all If it be objected that Enoch and Elias never saw Death the Answer is that singular privileges neither make a Rule nor break a Rule these were personal privileges and a personal Action ever dies with the person Neither are privileges to be amplified for then they are no privileges Though Christ hath taken away the sting of Death that it cannot hurt us the strength of Death that it cannot always hold us yet hath he not as yet altogether destroyed it But the best men must dye that as Sin brought in Death so Death may again cast out Sin Death was first inflicted as the punishment of Sin now it is the end of it 2 Cor. 5.4 Therefore do the holyest men dye that their mortality may be swallowed up of life Again sometimes God takes away his dearest Children by Death 2 Chro. 34.28 â—7 Isa 1. as he did Josiah from the evil to come Lastly that of the Apostle is considerable speaking of the Martyrs he saith of whom the World was not worthy 11 Hebr. 38. The World is apt to deride revile maligne and cast aspersions upon good men they will not profit by their Admonitions and good Examples therefore the World is worthy no longer of their Societie and God takes them away He thinks that he hath let them live but too long to have no kinder usage and therefore he takes them up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Justin Martyr speaks to their heavenly kindred where they shall be more made of 5 Wisd 4. Hence we learn that as they are Fools who account the Godly mans life madness so are they that think their end to be without honour It is not the misery of good men that they die For he is not miserable that dyeth but once and for a moment that death may for ever be swallowed up of life But he is miserable that is ever dying and yet lives in torments infinitely worse then death Thus it is with the wicked in Hell who passing out of this life are immediately seised on by the second death but for the Godly the Scripture saith blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death shall have no power but they shall be Preists of God and of Christ Secondly the Godly are desirous of death 20 Revel 6. 1 Phil 23. for love is an affection of Union Now Christ is with the Saint here there is security in that but the Saint also would be with Christ for in that there is full foelicity Lastly though the holiest Persons die yet God suffers not Death to put in his Sickle before they be ripe There is no question what age soever Dorcas was of being so full of good works She could not but be fit for Heaven For this reason a Christian can never die out of season Paul saith that he was as one born out of season 1 Cor. 5.8 because he had not seen Christ on Earth but he could not die out of season because he was sure to see Christ in Heaven That Dorcas died the Text tells us but how she died it doth not tell us neither was it very necessary for we may be confident that She who lived so piously could not but die peaceably She that was so full of good works in her life we may probably think that she was not full of fears at her death The wise man tels us that the wicked is driven away in his wickednesse but the righteous hath hope in his death 14 Prov. 32 Dorcas being so righteous a woman could not but have hope in her death and it is very probable She had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The full assurance of hope 6 Heb. 11. It is likely She had that full assurance of hope that filled her with joy But to be sure She had that hope in her death 5 Rom 5. which would not make her ashamed at the day of Judgement I will only add this now Dorcas is gone her works we are sure have followed her long since and our praises can add nothing to her glory only they are an excitement to our selves To him that soweth righteousnesse there shall be a sure reward 11 Pro. 18. Which reward Dorcas now hath For God is not unrighteous that he should forget Dorcas works and labour of love which She shewed towards his name in that She ministred unto the Saints 6 Hebr. 10. That Dorcas Soul is blessed I can tell you But how blessed if I had the tongue of Men and Angels I could not tell you The Scripture hath left us but a Negative description of the Saints blessedness Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard c. 1 Cor. 2.9 Paul was translated out of himself to behold it 2 Cor 12. and being returned into himself could not express it Doe not envy Dorcas her happiness but imitate her holinesse 14 Rev. 13. 2 Pet. 1.13 25 Math. 4. She hath rested from her labours and received her Crown but left us still to sweat and toil in Gods Vine-yard Nor must we think to come to Heaven upon easier terms than Gods Saints have done before us Wherefore let us gird up the loyns of our minds let us every day be adding more Oil to our Lamps that
an entrance may be ministred unto us abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1 11. It is time now that I hasten to a conclusion I have spoken what I intend of Dorcas in the Text. Let us now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give me leave to parallel the Dorcas that is dead in our days 27 Pro. 9. with the Dorcas that was sick and dyed in those days And surely in water face cannot answer to face more adaequately than her conversation that is now dead did answer to Dorcas whilst she was alive But before I fall on this I beg leave to enter two Pleas in this Holy Court The one on the behalf of others the other on the behalf of my self First I profess that I was not desired either directly or obliquely by the Person deceased or any of her Relations or other to speak any thing of her Alas it needed not 11 Hebr. 4◠31 Prov. 31. for though dead she yet speaketh and her own good works whereof she was full were sufficient to praise her in the Gates The second Plea I enter on the behalf of my self and that is this if I had been desired yet I should not have said any thing of her had I not known her my self and took it for granted that many others knew her to be a person exemplary for Piety and so worthy to be commended as a pattern for our imitation Therefore what I do in an extraordinary case I do not intend to bring into an ordinary use or encourage others to do it And now having put in these two Pleas I set my self to the work I know Ne immittas pecus tuum in pratum ubi non est sepes I have matter enough if not more than I can Methodically dispose But I remember the councel of the Proverb Put not thy Cattel into a pasture where there is no hedg Therefore I will bound my self within the limits of the Text. First then it is said of Dorcas that she was a Disciple so was the Gentlewoman deceased and as it is said of Maason not only a Disciple but an old Disciple 21 Act. 16. and her Age rendred her Disciple-ship the more Honourable for the hoary Head is a Crown of Glory if it be found in the way of righteousnesse 16 Prov. 31. hoariness is then honourable Canities tunc venerabilis est quando ea gerit quae canitiem decent Chrys when it doth such things as becomes such an Age. So did she behave her self as Paul bids Titus direct the Aged Woman 2 Tit. 3. She was in behaviour as becommeth Holiness and a teacher of good things Her conversation was a dayly Sermon to the young women about her Now when I say that she was a Disciple my meaning is as in the entrance I explained it first that she was a professour of the Gospel and this she was not ashamed of but accounted her glory and therefore would not dissemble her profession in any place or amongst any company She was not like those effoeminate women Tertullian speaks of who were pudoris magis ne mores quà m salutis And though she did not as she did not expect to escape the scoffings and reproaches of wicked persons yet being conscious to her self of nothing whereof they might accuse her having the witness of a good Conscience she accounted her accusations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 .. her glory and thought that they did but according to the Attick phrase wash her fairer with such aspersions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have often observed it in her how she despised the shame which attended the profession of the Gospel She was a Disciple that is a Learner one that had her dependance upon the ordinary means of instruction She was not like those that having got a little knowledg by the Ministery come to be puffed up and afterwards contemn it herein dealing with us as Mules do with their Dams having sucked our Milk they kick us with their heels She was farr from the fancie of perfection either in knowledge or grace and therefore was she sensible of the necessity of the means 1 Pet. 2.2 3. She was converted by the Ministery of the word and so she desired the sincere Milk of it to grow thereby having once tasted how gracious the Lord is The Ministery she allwayes looked on as a Divine calling and the ordinance of preaching as the means 4 Eph. 11 12 13. whereby God would gather in and build up the Saints till the comming of Christ and though she had attained to a great measure both of understanding and holiness more than ordinary and had her aboad in a place where she enjoyed the best helps to increase them yet she despised not the weakest means Two Two things there were indeed which she disliked that men should take upon them the Ministery as a calling who had not a lawful calling to it 5 Heb. 4. The other was that very young experienced men should take upon them this weighty Office She thought them like young Children that would be feeding and serving themselvs before they knew with what hand to do it or were able to distinguish between the right hand and the left So do they take on them to feed not only themselves but others not only with Milk 5 Heb. 14. but strong Meat before they have their Sences exercised to put a difference between the right hand and the left between Truth and Errour She was sensible what advantage such Preachers give to Papists and Sectaries and therefore it was a desire of the credit of the Ministery together with the successe of it that made her wholly to dislike the one and in a great measure to dislike the other Dorcas was full of good works so was this our Dorcas Good works are two-fold either inhoerent wrought in us or transient wrought by us She was full of both First of good works inhoerent wrought in her that is of the graces of the Spirit 45 Psal 13. Like the Kings Daughter all glorious within And her adorning was chiefly of the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible for after this manner in the old time 1 Pet. 3.4 5. the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves She accounted Gods Image her greatest brightness and glory 3 Rom. 23. grace was her Jewel and her Soul was a Cabinet full of such Jewels The first means of her conversion unto grace I have heard her sometimes say was the ministery of one Mr. Rhodes a painful Preacher who at that time lived in or not farr distant from Hull Before that time she would say she was very vain ignorant and inconsiderate and yet it may be her vanity then was as good as that which passeth for great grace among many now I mean strict civility but being once spiritually illuminated with Paul she accounted that which the World esteems
three miles on foot in an afternoon to sermon not out of novelty but necessity for being forced from York in the beginning of these times she lived in Holdernes where the Minister preached but once a day she was his auditour so often as he preach'd yet could not satisfie her self with hearing but once as he did in preaching once and therefore though it was winter she would have gone so far often even on foot I suppose for the encouragement of her servants to sermon I have heard her frequently admire Gods great goodnesse to this sinfull Nation in vouchsafing unto it such abundant provision both for life and Godlinesse 1 Pet. 1.3 for said she brown bread with the Gospel is good fare and I am verily perswaded she could have lived on the coursest bread so she might but have had the water of life with it but however she could have been content to have lived with the Gospel yet she ever desired that they who labour in the word and doctrine might fare well To this purpose she would have opened her hand wide though a minister had a competency of temporal estate yet she would say that was nothing to them that lived under his ministry as he laboured among them so the Labourer was worthy of his hire 1◠Tim. 5.18 not only what might be necessary for subsistence but something for encouragement 19 Levit. 17. She was a woman that would not suffer sin to lye upon those that were her charge for want of seasonable reproof yet she alwayes tempered her reproofs with the spirit of meeknesse 6 Gal. ◠was wise to observe the fittest time and place together with the disposition of the person and having done this committed the successe to God by prayer If she saw that she did not reclaim one by her admonitions as she desired she would conclude her reproof and advice with that pathetical expression well 13 Jer. 17. if you will not hear my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and her sincerity appeared in this that she was as willing others should admonish her and would desire them to do it she would say to her daughters and others under her it may be you are afraid to anger me but I pray if you see any thing amisse in me tell me of it She was one of a very peaceable and courteous conversation dissention she hated and was grieved very much when any fell out in her family if that her self had taken an offence at any person in her house though most justly yet she could not have been satisfied till reconciled to them yea she would have condescended to have sought peace of her inferiour although she had been the party that had received the injurie She was sometimes troubled at the strangeness of friends but then she remembred a saying of Mr. Aiscough and would say oh that I could do as he prescribed the saying was this it may be thou art troubled for Gods people 's not loving of thee but do thou labour to love them and thou shalt never answer for their not loving of thee She was very frequent in meditation when she had been conferring with others then she used to go aside to commune with her own heart and discourse with her self 4 Psal 4. And though she was alone yet she was not alone for the Father was with her She often would mention a Speech of Mr. Birchalls with tears 16 Ioh. 32. Ah Soul if thou hadst meditated on God more thou hadst loved him more She was a woman whose Speech was seasoned with salt 4 Colos 6. 5 Eph. 29. 10 Prov. 20.21 ever ministring some good to the hearers Her Tongue was as choice silver and her Lips did feed many I have observed how ready she would be upon all occasions to administer matter of gracious discourse I have condemned my self and others of mine own calling for our sluggishnesse I considered that out of the abundance of the Heart the Mourh speaketh 12 Mat. 34. and concluded that she had a greater Treasure of good things in her than we had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At Meat-times she would especially move such conference the better to season the meat She thought according to the Greek saying A plentiful Table to feed the Body without good discourse to feed the Mind is little better than a Manger She was a woman of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7.13 4 Eph. 14. 13 Heb. 9. 2 Tim. 3.14 holding fast the form of sound words and not tossed about with every wind of Doctrine indeed she was so established with grace the best preservative against Errours and with Timothy so assured of the things that she had learn'd knowing of whom she had learned them that she was not easily removed This may serve as a tast to shew how full she was of good works I proceed Dorcas was full of Alms-deeds which she did 6 Mat. 3. so was our Dorcas How full I know not for I believe she did not let her left hand know what her right hand did 7 Mark 36. But I read in the Gospel how Christ when he had cured an infirm Man charged him that he should not publish it but the more he was charged to conceal it the more did he divulge it So I suppose though she charged those to whom she gave Almes that they should not divulge it yet they could not be kept secret I have heard that her House was a little Hospital not so much because the poor came thither for relief but because relief went from thence for the poor So that what Hierom said of Pammachius that he was munerarius pauperum et egentium candidatus The like may be said of her she was the candidate of the Poor as ambitious of their Prayers as others are of their praises accounting when she had given an Almes to have received rather than done a good turn Whilst her Husband was alive the poor had both Food and Physick And whatever he gave himself as his disposition was well enough known I do believe and not upon slender grounds that she kept a Stock of her own with her Husbands approbation for the poor and pious uses I have given you a brief account of the life of our Dorcas I come now to her Sicknesse and Death which because they were but short therefore I will not be long about them She was Sick and Dyed I told you there is a providence of God to be observed in the Sicknesse and Death of his Saints and so there was a remarkeable providence in the Sicknesse and Death of this Saint so well known and observed that I forbear to mention it And it came to passe in those days So it is come to passe in these days these calamitous and distracted days wherein the Church stood in great need of her Prayers that she was Sick and is Dead The times are bad already we have cause to fear because of her