applied O how is the Mighty fallen 2 Sam. 1.19 how lovely and pleasant was She in her Life and yet she is fallen as if she had not been anointed with Oil. And indeed nothing in the whole World could have more convincingly assured us of this Truth that all Flesh is Grass than her Fall hath done But I hasten to what yet remains There are two Duties that seem specially and necessarily to be incumbent upon us at this time First What we are to do to sanctify or at least how we are to demean our selves that God may sanctify this great Loss to us Secondly What we are to do to lessen it so as it may not prove fatal to us First How we are to improve this so as to have it sanctified to us This is certain by such Dispensations as these the Death of his Servants God doth forewarn us of future Judgments especially if they be such as are great and eminent whether in Church or State We have now lost the Greatest in both and this is a fearful Sign that some heavy Judgment attends the Remnant of the People This is that whereof our Prophet speaks Behold the Lord the Lord of Hosts Isa 3.1 2 3. doth take away from Jerusalem the mighty Man and the Man of War the Judg and the Prophet and the Prudent and the Antient the Captain of Fifty and the honourable Man and the Counsellor and all this threatned as the Fore-runner of heavy Judgments such as the having Children for their Princes Ver. 4 5. their oppressing one another Ver. 8. and no less than the Ruin of Jerusalem and the Fall of Judah And the same Prophet elsewhere tells us That the Righteous perisheth Isa 57.1 and no Man layeth it to Heart and merciful Men are taken away none considering that they are taken from the Evil to come Thus was that good King Josiah dealt with not long after whose Death followed the Captivity of Babel In the Grave wherein he was interr'd the Liberty Glory and Peace of Jewry lay also buried I would not willingly be the Prophet of our Wo but whatever we may think or however we may flatter our selves God never withdraws such great Lights out of the World but at the approach of some black and dreadful Tempest which if we humble not our selves under his mighty Hand and prepare to meet him in the Way of his Judgments will certainly overtake us And therefore while it is called to Day let us not harden our Hearts but look to the Things that concern our Peace Let us search and try our Ways and turn again unto the Lord. We cannot think he hath made this great Breach only to open a Passage to our Sorrow much less to furnish us with new Matter of Discourse No he designs that we should glorify him in our Hearts and Lives more than formerly we have done and therefore let it be our Wisdom and our Care to hear the Rod and who hath appointed it to turn every Man from the Evil of his Way before the Lord's Wrath be further kindled and to repent and relent for all our Transgressions that so Iniquity may not be our Ruin Secondly Let us see how we may lessen this great Loss at least so far as to prevent its being fatal to us And I conceive the best Course we can take in order to this is to place a double Value upon Him whom God in his Mercy yet spares to us our Gracious King Let this heavy Stroke render his Life more dear to us Let us pray more constantly and more fervently for his Health his Safety his Happiness and his Success We may be induced strongly to this upon these Grounds First We are to do this for her Sake that is gone Secondly For his own Sake Thirdly And especially upon the Account of our selves First For her Sake that 's gone While She lived She loved honoured and admired Him She knew his Worth beyond what we do and besides His many other Accomplishments which His very Enemies admire in Him She knew that in His greatest Undertaking His chiefest Aim was the Interest and Good of Europe and especially that part of it which needed most his Help and to which He was in all Respects most obliged to give it Great Britain and Ireland In a word She best knew Him and therefore justly valued Him And surely if the Saints departed have any knowledg of what passes here below we cannot perform a more grateful Service to her Memory than to value Him to love honour and admire Him too Secondly For his own sake Remember he is a Prince that has yet got nothing by us but Trouble and Care and Travel and Toil and Danger A Prince who when we were in the extreamest Danger upon the Brink of being ruined and undone staked his Life his Fortune his All to save us in which Attempt considering the Season and the powerful Army there was to oppose Him with the other Difficulties he had to struggle with the Discouragements were so many that none but a Courage great like His could have encountred them And indeed the Undertaking was so great and the Means to carry it on in Proportion so little that we need not think it an Hyperbole in Him who concludes there was a Power more than Humane in bringing it to pass and the Issue seems to confirm it Insomuch that France her self that laugh'd at the Attempt was yet amaz'd at the Success and well she might it being the likeliest step that was ever made towards her Ruin But to return Remember He is a Prince who after many Years Effeminacy Luxury Ease and Softness wherein the English Valour so samed heretofore lay withering and fading unactive and rusting hath renewed to us the Memory of those great Kings who headed English Armies abroad and hath done more in his own Person than all the Crowned Heads of this or for ought I know any other Age. What Prince ever so oft exposed to the Dangers of the Sea as well as to the Plots of Assassines and the Arms of the Enemy by Land as He has been A Prince that as always so lately and especially in the Reduction of Ireland hath made good the Character of his Illustrious Family in being the Deliverer of oppressed Nations In a word a Prince who hath every way performed his Part how much soever his Affairs hath been clogged at Home by the unnatural Treachery of some who like the true Seed of Nero can rake with delight in the Bowels of their Mother and betray the native Interests of their Country to its most inveterate Enemies not only holding a Correspondence with them but offering up Vows and Prayers for their Success and discovering a cursed kind of Laughter and Satisfaction at the Losses and Misfortunes of their own Nation an Indignity which no Government in the World deserves less than this and none upon Earth would perhaps bear but this But Mercy is a God-like
A SERMON Preach'd at the Chappel Royal in the TOWER Upon the DEATH Of her Sacred Majesty Our Late Gracious Queen MARY By a true Lover of the Church the King and his Country London Printed by J. D. for R. Mount and sold by John Whitlock near Stationers-Hall 1695. TO THE READER THE following Sermon was preach'd soon after the fatal Death which occasion'd it and at the Importunity of some whom the Author could not in Gratitude disoblige it was also printed but not thinking it worthy of a more publick View there were no more Books run off than what were presented to those who were desirous to see it except a very few to some particular Friends by which he has drawn this Inconvenience upon himself that a greater number of his Friends remain disgusted than he hath had the opportunity of obliging by it For which Reason as also because he is by no incompetent Judges inform'd that it may be of use at this Juncture but especially to do himself and it Right there having happen'd several Mistakes and Oversights in the first Impression he is prevail'd with to suffer it to go abroad but under the same Defects of Stile and Method as before hoping it may not by those it is designed for be lik'd the worse because of the Plainness of its Dress ISAIAH XL. 6 7 8. The Voice said Cry And he said What shall I cry All Flesh is Grass and all the Goodliness thereof is as the Flower of the Field The Grass withereth the Flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it surely the People is Grass The Grass withereth the Flower fadeth but the Word of our God shall stand for ever I Question not but upon the reading of the Text you easily observ'd it to suite but too well with the sad and bewailed occasion of this Solemnity which hath given us beyond any thing to us known a doleful Instance of its Truth and all I can say will come infinitely short of the sad but clear Comment which the Breath of our Nostrils She of whom we said Lam. 4.20 Nations shall rest under her Shadow hath given us upon it who being dead yet speaks yea cries in a louder than the Prophet's Voice All Flesh is Grass c. All Flesh It pleased the great Creator of all things to make at first three sorts of living Creatures Angels he made pure Spirits without Flesh and therefore only for Heaven not to dwell on Earth Brutes he made Flesh without Immortal Souls and therefore only for Earth not to pretend to Heaven Man is of a middle Nature partaking both of Flesh and Spirit and therefore made both for Heaven and Earth But as his Flesh is but to minister and serve his Spirit so he was made for Earth but as his passage and way to Heaven not that this should be his Home or Happiness But how wofully have we perverted this Order whose incessant Cares for the Things of this Life sufficiently declare that we believe our selves here at home One Man eagerly pursuing Sensual Pleasures as if he had nothing to mind or hope for but what the Beasts enjoy Another Riches and that with so much Earnestness as if he were to enjoy the same for ever tho the Fool knows not but this very Night he must part from them A third hunting after Honour and Dominion so as to stick at nothing that may compass it and yet little knows how soon his Honour may be laid in the Dust A fourth after Popular Applause which is nothing but a Blast nothing more vain and uncertain than it is Whereas if we did but rightly understand our State and Condition here and seriously consider that all Flesh is Grass we would little value these things and at best use the World as if we used it not Use it no otherwise than a Traveller doth his Inn and how is that when he comes there tho he finds every thing ready a Room well furnished and all things therein not only convenient but delightful too yet he is not so silly as to set his Heart upon them because he knows on the Morrow he is to leave them and be gone And there 's no Man that travels homeward that would multiply Businesses on himself unnecessarily in the Way When he is at Home in his House he may find sundry Imployments to busy himself about but in the Inn he cares for nothing but Rest and Refreshment So Men that are thoughtful or wise 1 Pet. 2.11 know themselves to be but Strangers and Pilgrims here and therefore look for a Country and City to come and so think it no Wisdom to intermeddle too much in the Affairs of that Country through which only they are to pass but as Citizens of Heaven send up their Hearts Desire where they profess their Treasure is This Lesson our Saviour teacheth when he tells us Mat. 6.32 33. After all these things below do the Gentiles seek but seek ye the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness of it And St. Paul assures us 1 Cor. 7.31 the Fashion of this World passeth away and wisheth us not to fashion our selves to it Could a Traveller justly seize all the valuable things that occur in his way and convey them to his Home so as to be of advantage to him there his endeavouring it might be the more excusable And so in our Case could a Man carry the World to Hell to bribe the Flames or corrupt his Tormentors there were something to be said for our Fondness of it but the Psalmist has already assur'd us of the contrary His Glory shall not descend after him Psal 49.17 Or could he tho at the Expence of all his Worldly Enjoyments buy out his Pardon or procure his Peace before he come there this might well excuse our grasping at it but that 's not to be done neither Ver. 8. for the Redemption of the Soul is precious and ceaseth for ever And what shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul Mat. 16.26 For what material thing can equalize a Spirit Many things may be had more precious and fine than the Body but all of them have no proportion to a Spiritual Being St. Paul we know counts all things but Dung Phil. 3.8 and can we think that God will take Dung in Exchange for a Soul O! how dreadful will it be at last to think that for a little of the World for the Satisfaction of a Lust for a few drossy Pleasures and sensual Delights which have been here not without the mixture of much Sorrow and Allay enjoyed you have lost your Souls and forfeited your Interest in those Mansions that are above where there are Pleasures for evermore And all this in a great measure because we believe not at least mind not this Voice in the Text All Flesh is Grass Man has many Excellences and Advantages which give him a due Preference above all other living Creatures but
Edward III. in right of his Mother claimed the Kingdom of France that they made their Salick Law which could however bar only for the future and not for the time past and therefore the King invaded France and was very successful in all the Battels he sought but by reason of several Diversions at home this Success was not pursued by his immediate Successors yet Henry V. a Prince of a Warlike Temper coming to the Crown and considering that not only Normandy Guien Aquitain and Aâ—jâ—u were the rightful Inheritances of the Kings of England but also his just Title to the whole Kingdom of France derived from Isabella aforesaid after he had first by Ambassadors set forth and demanded his Right he with an English Army invades France and having won several Battels was at last married to Katherine Daughter of Charles VI. and thereupon declared and crowned King of France in Reversion Charles and Isabella his Queen to reign during their Lives and Isabella surviving Charles at her Death made a Will declaring her Son-in-Law Henry V. Heir to all her Goods and to the Crown which gives the Kings of England a farther Right to the Kingdom of France And I am perswaded if the French King had half so much Right to England as the King of England hath to France we should be pestered with his Manifesto's and Scribles alledging his just Pretensions as he calls all that he makes conquered by us and has had such fatal Proofs of the English Valour that she would be sure to take care never more to stand in fear of her Antient Enemies And upon these Grounds we are to expect no Mercy at her Hands but the worst of an Hostile Fury and nothing less perhaps than our total Subversion would serve their turn Nay when we consider how barbarously they use the People whom they subdue tho of their own Religion without regard to Churches or Religious Houses or the very Sepulchres of the Dead tho of Princes themselves we may believe our English Papists hower they may flatter themselves would meet with no better Quarter than others But for those Protestants who tho at ease in their Fortunes and enjoying all the Privileges of their Fellow-Subjects are yet restless and dissatisfied and weary of a Government that 's the only Security of their Religion and Estates surely as they will be the easiest so they will be the most despised Prey of their Enemies who if they have any Manhood or any thing that 's great in them will shew more Favour to the brave Defenders of their Country than to those who have so basely and treacherously deserted and betrayed it But I know if I should discourse at this rate out of this place or where I might expect an Answer I should presently be told that I had used a great many words to little purpose and had run on all along upon a false Ground for that the great King of France hath nothing of Self in all this nor is he further concerned than out of a Principle of Honour and Generosity to espouse an Oppressed and to restore an Exil'd Prince That he was neither opprest nor banished is plain enough and on whose side the Oppression lay we all know and yet we will allow them that that Monarch may seemingly with much Gallantry espouse his Cause till he see a fair opportunity of setting up his Own but to be sure no longer Or suppose he should not do this can we however think that he would not demand so great a Charge as the whole Wealth of the Nation would be too little to answer And were it not better Policy in us tho we had no other Inducement to supply him even to a Moiety of what we have who will preserve the rest by keeping such Enemies out and by cherishing and protecting us in our Religion and other Rights To be sparing in a case of such Necessity is to be wanting and indeed cruel to our selves and our Posterity like the fatal Parsimony of the People of Constantinople who refused to supply their own Emperor tho by way of Loan with a thirtieth part of that Money which the Turkish Emperor depriv'd them of together with the Lives of the Wealthiest of them Whereas by that seasonable Supply they might in all likelihood have preserved their City and their Lives too 'T were easy to shew what a poor thing Money is in respect of our Religion our Lives our Laws and our Liberties and it 's not yet seven Years since all considerate Men and good Protestants amongst us would have given more than this War will cost us to have been under the Circumstances we now are But God be thanked there 's no need to insist upon this Those worthy Patriots who so freely and chearfully find out Ways and Means to support the War are highly sensible of it And all I have to offer upon their Accounts is to pray as David when the People even beyond what he expected offer'd so willingly towards a Publick Good O Lord God of Abraham of Isaac and of Israel our Fathers 2 Chron. 29.18 keep this for ever in the Imagination of the Thoughts of the Heart of thy People But to return that I may leave nothing unsaid to open the Eyes of those who are not wilfully blind I will for their satisfaction suppose that this extravagantly ambitious King upon whom they so much depend had no private Design but would only clear the Way to the Throne and then fairly draw off without any other Consideration than the Satisfaction of his own haughty and ambitious Humour Let us I say suppose this tho indeed it's next to impossible yet even in this Case might not the Prince whom he left repossest I only presume to ask the Question justly write himself James the Conqueror And tho I am not to determine how mercifully he might use us if left to his own Conduct tho we must believe him more than a Saint to forget what is past yet considering how he has been influenced and considering his Princicles how he still must be if ever Divine Judgment as a Punishment for our Sins should suffer this to come to pass The very Thoughts of what we might expect are so full of Horror that I chuse rather to draw a Vail over it and pass it in silence than go about to display it and if any Man be so weak or so short-sighted as to wish or desire it I am perswaded that a short Change with a Subject of France would very effectually cure him of his Malady and Folly too And yet our Case might be much more desperate than some of theirs and no better to be sure than that of the Protestant Subjects under that Crown and how it should be worse is not easy to imagine And now Since those very Men amongst us who seem most fond of the late King's Return do yet pretend they would by no means have him come with a French Power as being aware
as to his Flesh there is nothing extraordinary in it It 's of the same Substance and Form says one with the Creatures we feed upon altogether inclined to corruption and nothing but Frailty and Vanity it self And we need go no further than the Expression in the Text to evince it All Flesh is Grass All that we see all that we admire all the most tempting Objects we gaze and dote upon yea the whole World and all that is therein is all but Flesh and all Flesh is Grass But is this a Truth so Universal that it admits of no Exception tho it may hold good as to the generality of Men yet are not the Princes and Monarchs and Heroes of the World exempted Have not they something in them that may privilege them against the Insults at least of the King of Terrors something that they may upon occasion plead against the common Fate The Prophet seems to agree to all this and in the very Text makes some difference between a mean and a great Person between a Subject and a Prince but what is it No other than is between green Grass and a Flower which tho more beautiful to the Eye more sweet and pleasing to the Sense is yet every whit as fading as perishing and as subject to be trod under Foot or to be scorch'd and wither'd by the Sun as the Grass is As they grow together in the same Field so they are equally liable to be cut down by the edg of the same Sythe and therefore it is that the Prophet after the Voice had cried All Flesh is Grass adds and all the Goodliness of it is as the Flower of the Field By the Goodliness of the Flesh he means its Youth its Health its Strength its Beauty its Vigour or whatever in it is most Valuable and Pleasing By it we may understand the state and condition of a Man that wants nothing nay that abounds in all things the World can afford As Riches Honour and Pleasure Flesh saith the Prophet in all the Glory of it in the free and full injoyment of all things on the highest Pinnacle of Honour seated on a Throne crowned with Diadems and incircled with all the Badges of Royalty and Grandeur yet in the midst of all this Pomp and Splendor it 's still but Flesh and liable to such damping thoughts as these May not God this very Night take me away like the Fool in the Gospel from all these things or these from me May I not nay must I not within these few Years it may be within these few Weeks or Days instead of my Honour be laid in the Dust instead of my Purple and Scarlet be clothed with Rottenness instead of my Luxuries and Delicacies become my self the Food of Worms Is not the poor Soul in my Bosom an Immortal Soul Must it not have a Being so long as there 's a God who is able to support it And will not all I toil and moil for here all I covet and doat upon all my beloved Bags and superfluous Titles my sweetest Pleasures and my highest Preferments my very Learning and my natural Endowments and every thing save my Sins which I must then reckon for forsake me when I enter into that Immortality I say when a Man shall take himself thus to task and his Conscience summons him to such serious thoughts as these How will he be startl'd and amaz'd under the Sense of his own Frailty and his little hopes of a better State And how dreadful will it be for his Immortal Soul to have nothing between it and Eternal Misery but that which will crumble and moulder into Dust and leave the poor Soul that trusted to it to sink into bottomless Calamities Nor do our earthly Injoyments always continue with us even to the last but often leave us before we our selves go off Riches make themselves Wings Honour is fading Prov. 23.5 Wit Beauty and Strength fail all created Delights will quickly have an End and the Casualties that attend their very Enjoyment doth sufficiently discover their Vanity and the little Stress that 's to be laid upon them One Rich to day and Poor to morrow in Health Sound and Strong to day to morrow Languishing and Expiring on a sick Bed now advanc'd to the highest Pinnacle of Honour anon deprest and expos'd to Infamy and Disgrace attended by trains of Parasites and Flatterers to day to morrow deserted slighted and forsaken by all And as it is with Men so it is with Things Cities Towns and Villages Flourishing and Beautiful Rich and Opulent to day to morrow laid in Ashes and levell'd with the Ground So that there 's no Flower more fading no Bubble more vanishing no Dream more deluding nothing more Vain nothing more uncertain than the World is It 's all but Grass or at best but as the Flower of the Field the Grass withereth the Flower fadeth But in the midst of all this Misery Vanity and Uncertainty the Prophet adds what may stay and support us But the Word of our God shall stand for ever All that 's in the World all the Happiness that that Flesh which is but Grass can pretend to in its Passage here is full of Vanity Uncertainty and Disappointments and then usually fail a Man most when he most of all relies on them which must needs be one of the greatest Defeats that can be For those things wherein Men fear Miscarriage or expect Disappointment they prepare such a disposition of Mind as may be fit to bear it but when a Man is surpriz'd with Evil when that happens which he least expected the Novelty increaseth the Trouble And the Scripture expresseth the greatness of a Judgment by the unexpectedness of it Isa 6.3 4. When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for Their not looking for it rendred the Judgment so much the more Terrible A Breach in an instant a momentary a sudden Destruction a swift Damnation a flying Roll a winged Woman are all Expressions to denote a severe Judgment Now Men are too too apt to promise themselves much Contentment and Satisfaction in the Fruition of worldly Things and to be herein disappointed as they usually are must needs be a great Surprize and occasion no small Vexation But the Word of God is an abiding Word as founded on the Immutability of God's own Truth he that makes it his Refuge relies on the Omnipotency of God himself and has all the Strength of the Almighty ingag'd to help him Asa was safe while he depended upon God in his Promises 2 Chron. 16.7 8 9. against the huge Hosts of the Ethiopians and Lubims but when he turned aside to other Aids and trusted too much in the Arm of Flesh he purchased to himself nothing but perpetual Wars And this was that which established the Throne of Jehoshaphat and caused the Fear of the Lord to fall on all the Kingdoms of the Land that were round about him 2 Chron. 17.9 11.
because he honour'd the Word of God and caused it to be taught to his People When Israel and Judah did at any time forget to lean upon God's Word and betook themselves to correspondence with Idolatrous People or other the like Helps they found themselves always bereft of Succour and all their Hopes deceived and blasted Which should teach us not to rest upon our own Wisdom nor lean upon our own Strength nor build our Hopes and Assurances upon Human Foundations but in all conditions lay hold upon God's Word which shall stand for ever and support us in any Extremity Psal 23.4 and carry us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death it self And thus I have done with what I design'd to offer from the Text but to apply it to the Occasion I know neither how to begin nor where to end The Voice cries so loud and the Blow tho for our Sins justly inflicted is every way so amazing that the very Thoughts of it were enough to make a Man lose all Method though he had studied it never so carefully And therefore that I may neither confound you nor lose my self I shall only glance at some few things that may satisfy us what great Advantages we might have reapt from her Life had it pleased the wise Disposer of all things to have continued it And this will naturally tend First To give us a due Sense of our Loss Secondly To quicken us to such Duties whereby since 't is impossible to improve it to our Temporal Advantage we may yet make the best of it that our Misfortune as well as our other Circumstances will admit The Loss of a good tho private Person is at all Times especially in bad Times a just ground of deep Sorrow What then must be the loss of a good Queen who is a common Stock in which Millions have a Share A burning Lamp which shin'd and imparted its Light to three great Kingdoms No wonder if the exhausting of such a Store the quenching of such a Lamp should be Matter of doleful Complaint And here I could willingly indulge both yours and my own Passion that we might sit down a while in Silence and only by the Language of our Tears speak our Sense of this heavy this irreparable Loss But all Passions especially that of Grief need rather a Bridle than a Spur and we have something else to do upon such an extraordinary Occasion than to bewail our Loss after the common rate tho that 's allowed us too A bright Star is removed nay our Sun is set Well may Darkness over-spread our Horizon Zech. 11.2 A Cedar is fallen well may the Fir-trees howl A Cedar which had God so pleased might have stood and flourished much longer But we often see the loftiest Cedar cut down before the useless Shrub And they frequently fall says one who while they stood not only graced the Forest but gave Shade and Shelter to others too And oh that we had not now the Occasion to bewail the Fall of the most flourishing Plant that grac'd our own or any other Soil verifying that of St. Paul 1 Cor. 7.31 The Fashion of this World passeth away and we together with it The Throne leaves some and others leave it Heb. 12.28 and as there is but one Kingdom which cannot be shaken Eternal in the Heavens so there is but one King who is the Immortal King of Ages God over all blessed for ever All the rest are but Flesh and all Flesh is Grass After such a Voice what can warrant any of you that you shall be alive while to Morrow Who can be Security for his own Life one Moment beyond the present You 'll say my Youth my Strength my Temperance and my Vigour these will secure me But was there ever any more healthy more lively more temperate or more vigorous than the Queen How sprightly how fair how hail how charming was she but this Day three Weeks and almost a Week after And yet the King of Terrors stole upon her before her Self or at least her Friends suspected being even after some Days illness look'd upon as Safe and past all Danger on Tuesday and yet beyond all Expectation given over and the Sentence of Death pronounc'd by her Physicians before Noon on Wednesday So vain a Thing is Man But this can be no surprize to those whole usual Exercise it is to die daily and as St. Ambrose conceived of Valentinian the Emperor so may we of her Majesty The Evidences past in her Health are fair Proofs of that Disposition her Soul was in in her Sickness But more of this anon for tho all her earthly Advantages are now become the Spoils of Mortality yet She 's not to be laid in the Dust like common Mold nor deposited in the Shades with silence It 's true in the blessed State to which she is now arriv'd crowned with an incorruptible Diadem in the Company of Angels and Saints and all her Triumphant Ancestors She needs no Praises of ours but yet that which every good Man may claim is much more justly her Due Commendation after Death being a just Tribute to a Religious Life Consult the Scriptures and you shall scarce find one Godly Man laid in his Grave without an Epitaph of Honour view the Fathers and you shall observe it their Practice to honour the Death of the Good especially if Princes and if this had never been done before it might be now allowed to Her who was as well the Best as the greatest among Women As to the latter 't were easy to shew it in the Instances of her Illustrious Birth being descended from a Royal Race of Kings as well the greatest as of the longest and most uninterrupted Succession now in the Christian World in her sutable Education in her natural and acquired Accomplishments which rendred Her the Darling of the Age as well as the Glory of her Sex But we must leave these and many other Advantages with all Her great Actions to fill up Chronicles and they will better become the History and Annals of the Time than the Nook of a Sermon The sweetness of her Temper her Beauty Wit and Charms of Conversation which made Her like Vespasian Deliciae humani generis and rendred her Amiable and Dear to all that had the Honour to know Her tho they were Gifts from Above yet must they now be past over in silence as being Praeda Mortis a Spoil unto Death and the Grave Which Consideration should cure the undue Esteem which too many Christians seem to put upon them being more ambitious to outvy others in every thing rather than real Holiness which after all 's done is the only Ornament that Death cannot spoil us of Nor were the Endowments of her Mind any whit inferiour to those of her great Birth and other Personal Advantages her Apprehension more quick and lively her Judgment more penetrating and solid her Elocution more fluent graceful and every