is now awake in Heaven wearing the Crown of Perseverance and singing with the triumphant Chorus of Angels and Saints glorified a joyful Song to the Lamb Christ Jesus sitting upon a golden glorious Throne who will at the great day raise up her body from it's long sleep by virtue of that Spirit which rais'd him from the dead Rom. 8.11 and dwelt by a full measure of Grace in the Soul of our deceased Saint who being dead yet speaketh as the Apostle attests of righteous Abel Heb. 11.4 and methinks bespeaks as now on Earth her survivers from Heaven in the words of St. Paul Let your conversation be as mine was in Heaven where I raign now in the Embraces and Glories of my Saviour and Be ye followers of me as I was of the Lord Jesus in Faith and Love in Humility Meekness Piety and Patience and suppose too that she bespeaks you all in the words of Gideon to his Souldiers and of Abimeleck to his Judg. 7.17 chap. 9.48 Look on me and do likewise what ye have seen me do and shall hear I have done even so do ye according to your abilities and several capacities ☞ Clothe the backs of the poor and feed the hungry bellies adorn God's Houses and contribute to the Rebuilding of decaied and by war and fire wasted Churches endow poor Vicaradges with Annual Accessions or Augmentations of large Salaries relieve poor Widows in Hospitals by yearly Pensions give good and competent Summes for the redemption of Christian Captives now chain'd up to slavery in the hands or under the power of Infidels and for placing out of poor Children or Orphans yearly to be Apprentices Honour your Ministers who are set over you in the Lord especially those who labour in the Word 1 Tim. 5.17 i. e. take great pains to dispense the lively Oracles of it and administer frequently the holy Sacraments for the edifying and saving of your Souls give what is due unto them and take nothing by fraud or violence from them and if they want an house to dwell in provide one for them All that has been said the Illustrious Dutchess did and gave to God the Glory of it who afforded Her by his blessing that good and plentiful seed which she liberally sowed and scatter'd in the fields of the poor and hath sprung in a rich and large crop of blessings which she now enjoys with God in the Coelestial Paradise Pauperum fundus est foecundissimus The poor man's field affords the largest Crop And though all cannot keep an even pace or go along with her in her Bounty and Magnificence yet follow her though at a distance by conforming your lives and actions to her Charity and goodness Thus if you do as her good deeds in a manner exhort you and declare the Sincerity or Truth of your Faith by your goods works Imitating Christ the King of Saints and this deceased Dutchess a Queen among her Sex for her rare exemplary Virtues and Graces you shall be for ever blessed as She is and Crown'd with Everlasting Glory and Happiness Trin-uni Deo Laus honor Gloria c. A Memorable and Exact CATALOGUE OF ALL THE RENOWNED DUTCHESS Her Good or Most Charitable Deeds AS to abound in Good Works is an Argument of a Lively Faith in Christ and a true mark of Christianty so to disperse the same upon a self-seeking Interest out of a design to gain praise and get glory by it is an infallible note or sign of Hypocrisie This Pharisaical vice never lodged in the Soul of our deceased Dutchess so Renown'd for her stupendous Charity the fire whereof burnt hot in her Religious brest but was cover'd over with the Ashes of Humilty She whilst living loved not to hear her just praises sounded in her Ear for well-doing but contented her self with God's approbation whilst she did all for His Glory that the poor releived by her bounty might have an occasion to say Blessed be the Lord for his merciful goodness that hath open'd the heart and hand of his servant to help and succour us in our want She was such a stranger to Pride which never enter's into a gracious Soul and so far from Ostentaion in her life that I am perswaded had any come to her before her death and mention'd the design of publishing the ensuing Catalogue after it she would not have consented to that motion but rather forbad it However now that her Grace is out of the reach of Flattery and cannot be suspected for the guilt of Vain-glory I shall blow the Trumpet of her praise by presenting to the World a list of her good deeds that those who peruse it may thereby be induced to follow her steps to conform their lives to the exemplary pattern of her bountiful goodness to abstain from superfluities in Apparel and Diet which murther Charity that what they spare or gain by abandoning all excess in needless expenses they may contribute the same to the relief and comfort of Christ's poor Members his necessitous pious Servants This was the practice of our Illustrious Dutchess and for this God has Crown'd her as he will all those that imitate her with everlasting glory and happiness A just Account of her good deeds in her life and little before her death taken out of our Churche's Register and specified in her last VVill and Testament 1. HER Charity began at the House of God which was first in her thoughts as it is usually the last or not at all in other's When the former Church here of S. Giles which was decay'd by Age lay as it were in Rubbish there being a Void space at the upper end of the Chancel which was stored with Lumber as the Boards of Coffins and Dead-mens Bones She being offended at that unhandsome prospect erected a decent Skreen to divide the said Chancel from the forenamed place and to hide it from the beholders eyes which could not but be troubled at it 2. When the foresaid Church was fallen It began to be built in the year 1623 and was finished with the wall about it Aâ—… 1631. with the fall whereof that Skreen was demolished God moved the hearts of the Parishioners to erect a new Church in the Room or place of the former which was in a few years effected and finished many hundreds of good Christians in other Parishes contributing to so good and glorious a work she most liberally as she had a magnificent large soul gave to the advance and finishing of it together with the Wall that encompasseth it many 100 l. of which her magnificent bounty the then grateful Parishioners erected a Monument which is placed over the great gate or the Northside of the Church The words engraven in a large square Stone are these QVOD FOELIX BONVMQVE SIT POSTERIS HOC TEMPLVM LOCO VETERIS EX ANNOSA VETVSTATE COLLAPSI MOLE ET SPLENDORE AVCTVM MVLTO PAROECORVM CHARITAS INSTAVRAVIT IN QVIBVS PIENTISSIMAE HEROINAE D. ALICIAE DUDDELEY
through which at so great a distance it can look into Heaven and apprehend in some measure the glories which are there prepared and reserv'd for those that love and serve the Lord Jesus But if we raise our Souls oft upon the same wing of Meditation and look upon God in our elevated thoughts as filling Heaven and Earth with his unbounded presence so that nothing can escape the Eye of his knowledge again if we look up and behold him not only as omnipresent but also omnipotent a God likewise of supereminent Mercy and Truth who can do what he will do and will do what he hath promised This Act of Contemplation will first embolden our Faith in Prayer it will make us believe that what he hath promis'd he will grant unto us it will secondly beget in us an holy Fear and awful Reverence of his Majesty so as to do nothing that shall be displeasing in his sight or distastful to his goodness It will thirdly settle in us an attention or collectedness of Spirit and free us from wandring thoughts in our Prayers whilst our Souls are fix'd as the Prophet David's was Psal 57.8 upon God by a settled Meditation of his forenamed Attributes viz. His All-seeing Providence His Almighty Power His Mercy Truth and Justice which if we propose to the eye of our Souls and ground our Faith upon them when we commence our requests to God in the name of Christ he will deny us nothing that he knows to be good for us Seeing then that without Meditation we cannot attain to a collected Attention of our Spirits in our Prayers without which Attention these as a Rabby tells us are dead vain and fruitless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like a body without a Soul for this and in regard of other great benefits which we reap or receive by it Let your conversation be in Heaven by a frequent contemplation both of it and of the great God who is our Almighty and most merciful Father and Lord of it Thirdly let your conversation be in Heaven By your eager affection or love to the things that are above or in it For if our Contemplative Meditations of Heaven draw after them our affections to it we may be said to have our abode in it even whilst we live here and move upon the Stage of this Earth A man may be truly said to be where his mind is and his mind where his heart by love is fixed Ubi jam sum ibi non sum where I am there I am not so said that fond lover in the Comedian because his body was in one place and his heart in another Not unlike to this expression is that of Origen concerning Mary Magdalen when she came to the Sepulchre of our Lord Jesus John 20. and found not his body there Maria ibi non erat ubi erat quia tota ibi erat ubi Dominus erat where she was there she was not because her love was firmly fix'd on Christ her Lord she was only where he was the place she knew not but to his Person her heart was joyn'd thus was she in her Soul present with him though in her body she was absent from Him Anima est ubi amat The soul is there where it loves Whence it will follow by a necessary induction or consequence that if a man divides his soul from his body by a voluntary separation or by setting his affection of love upon the things which are above as the Apostle exhorts Col. 3.29 he may be at the same time Accola terrae and Incola Coeli abide in this world and dwell in Heaven Now if you desire to know what the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what those things be which are above which may challenge as they deserve the prime of our affections our love and delight and desires They are first that Purity Secondly That sweet harmony of peace and concord Thirdly That Love and Amity Fourthly That Piety that Assiduity in God's Worship All which are the Jewels of Heaven wherewith the blessed Angels and the separate Souls of Saints are adorned and beautified Now he that hath set his affections on these things and withall desires to be releas'd from the Prison of this World which is an Hospital of diseases a nest of Profaneness and a cage of Impurities and warring dissensions where too hatred and malice with all kind of wickedness raign among us and now more than ever to our great reproach and shame after so many and great obtained mercies He that desires to be out of this Sodom and to be in Heaven with Christ not so much to be out of trouble and to live at ease as to be in the Company of His Saviour to be freed from the slavery of sin and to joyn with the Saints in their continued praises of the blessed and glorious Trinity He whose Soul is enflamed with these holy desires and looks upon all things here below as Pictures drawn in Sand or Snow as fading empty vexing vanities not worthy of our least affections briefly he that is thus dead to the world and alive to Christ because his whole heart is set upon him by love and leads a Divine Coelestial Life such for kind though not for it's degree in Virtue as Christ with his Saints do live in Heaven a life that is pure and peaceable full of Charity and good works also holy and pious such a one may truly say with S. Paul in my Text My conversation is in Heaven From whence his Saviour will come at the last day and rejoyn his body to his Soul by an happy Re-union and that because his Soul in this life was sever'd from his body and fix'd upon Christ by Love Which affection if pure and sincere is ever attended with a desire of union and fruition so as to be joyn'd to and enjoy the Person that is beloved Thus he that loves the Lord Jesus and woe will be to him that does not will desire his beatifical Presence which cannot be obtain'd but by Death he therefore does not fear but wish and wait for it As a full possession of glory in Soul and Body is not to be expected till that great day of Jubile the day of Judgment Therefore God's Saints his Servants are delighted w th the thought and remembrance of it as was our blessed Apostle S. Paul who in the name of all his fellow Saints protested saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ c. This is the second General part of my Text which I term'd S. Paul's and all good Christians joyful hope or expectation we look for the Saviour c. In which words we have these three particulars to be discussed First Qui expectantes who be the expectants or those that look for Christ Secondly Qualis expectatio what kind or manner of expectation this is Thirdly Quis expectatus who it is that is looked
the Mother of five gracious Daughters Alice Douglasse Frances wife of Sir Gilbert Kniueton Knight Anne wife of Sir Robert Holburne Late of Lincolnes Inne all these Deceased And Katherine the onely surviving Picture in Piety and goodness of her Lady Mother and Widow of Sir Richard Leveson Knight of the Bath The Town of Stonely in which our Illustrious Dutchess was born has more reason to glory in that She breath'd her first breath in it than the seven Cities had in Homer the Prince of Poets who by all of them was challenged all laying a claim or Title to his birth in them But as her Ladiships being born in the foresaid Stoneley will not add any inward virtue though it may an outward luster to it so Her being descended from and related to an Ancient Noble Family is the slenderest part or piece of her Character and Glory That she was born of God by Spiritual Regeneration and so His Daughter by Adoption and a Sister of Christ by love and likeness of Him this is her Chiefest glory the highest degree of her commendation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So said S. Chrysostome in a Panegyrical Oration The principal thing to be look'd at and commended in recounting a Genealogy is the Virtue of a man or woman If we consider the whole Series or course of her life we shall have a just occasion to say that in her person and by her actions she gave a stop or check in a way of answer to that doubtful Question of Solomon Prov. 31.10 Who can find a Virtuous Woman who can without God's special blessing obtained by Prayer unto Him and without God's Divine appointment and Ordination This sure was the wisemans meaning But to return to my purpose from this short digression The precious balme of Grace that was powred by God's blessed Spirit into the Soul of our Renowned Dutchess at her Baptism or in her Infancy being strengthned with the addition of a godly Education brake forth in such a sweet perfume even from her Childhood to Her riper years that she was look'd upon as an Earthly Saint an Angel clothed in Flesh a lawful Image of Her Maker and Redeemer a model of Heaven made up in Clay the living Temple of the Holy Ghost This was evidenced by these ensuing Graces First By Her Extraordinary Piety or Religion Her behaviour towards God was rare and admirable for being instructed in and perswaded of the truth of that Religion which we profess as distinct from that false one of the Church of Rome and being firmly grounded in those Fundamentals and saving Truths which our Religion teaches us viz. That God alone is to be prayed unto and worshipped not Saints nor Angels That by Christ only we can be saved by his merits and Gods mercy not by our own works she accordingly upon these grounds served God night and day as that good old Prophetess Anna did Luke 2.37 with fastings and prayers especially during the time of her Virgin-widowhood she was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 5.5 a widow indeed such as was that famous Paula and Marcella by S. Hierome in his Epistles so highly magnified She well knew that though second marriage is no sin yet as one says Iteratò nubere est signum Incontinentiae c. She therefore to preserve in her fame the honour and in her soul and body the joy and sweet content of Continency refused to marry declaring thereby that though many great persons wanted her or rather as the fashion of the world is her money yet she had no need of any to be joyn'd with her in a conjugal society An enlargement of her Estate she never designed nor desir'd by the addition of a Joynture but moving in the Sphear of her own fortune and contenting her self with the portion God had given her she clave close to God and was joyn'd to Him by Faith and Affiance and so she was espoused to God and the Lord of Heaven married to her being her Husband as he professes himself to have been to Israel Jer. 31.32 in regard of his Love Care and Providence to her Religious Person who spent as much time or more in reading of God's word and other godly books the extracts of it as others do in their Glasses by which they correct the defaults in their dresses and blemishes in their faces not regarding in the mean while the blots and spots the defilements and stains of sin that disfigure the native beauty of their Souls which are usually left naked and for want of prayer to God divested of Grace but clothed with the black mantle of Lascivious and Unclean thoughts Our pious Dutchess took into her prime care her righteous soul the spouse of God by Prayer and Meditation with which a soul is winged she sent it up in a flight to Heaven every morning and thus conversing with God in the mount of Devotion it return'd again into her bosome as Moses did from the Mount with it's face shining and lightsome with joy and inward Consolation The more familiar conference we have with God in prayer the more do we partake of him He that passes by the fire may have some gleams of heat but he that stands by it will have his Colour changed It is not possible a man should have any long conference with God in Prayer and Meditation but that his heart shine with inward illumination and being enflamed with the love of God partake of some Divine Inspiration And thus she acquainting her self daily and conversing with God in her Closet or Private and more publike family devotions which she never omitted was wonderfully beautified and strengthned in her soul by Grace which had taken up it's lodging in her and displayed it self outwardly in five special Saint-like Qualities which made her conversation amiable pleasant and Venerable to all her Equals and Inferiors The first was a winning and obliging way or disposition that sweetly scatters favours by this being a desire of doing good to all even to our very enemies we attract friendships and make friends even of those that hate us Thus did that good Dutchess The second is Affability this was eminently in her joyn'd with a becoming Grace and sweet behaviour and hath in it a power to charm Souls that are in any the least way or degree inclined to Honesty and Civility She was Courteous to all even the meanest person who might find her ear open to any just Request or Modest Petition When she bestowed any favour or gave an Alms She gave it cheerfully without grudging or any the least repining so the loaf which she gave was not Panis Lapidosus as Seneca speaks but pure and fine Manchet without any mixture of Gravel An Alms given with hard Language reproach or an harsh exprobration is gravel-bread and at once loses both it's thanks and commendation The third Prudence a gracious Quality of the Soul which is ever joyn'd with Wisdom as it 's inseparable Companion as appears by
of Sir Thomas Leigh of Stoneley in Warwick-shire Knight and Baronet so Her Mother was Katharina a most Virtuous Lady Daughter to Sir John Spencer of Worme Leighton Knight and great Grandfather to the Right Honourable now Earl of Sunderland c. The foresaid Sir Thomas had by His Lady Katharina Issue John Leigh Knight who was the Father of the Lord Leigh Baron of Stoneley now living in the County of Warwick Philip. 3.20 Our Conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ THERE is in Love so strange a piece of of Magick as to transform a man into the object of it and to translate the Soul into a place far remote from the body of the affectionate Lover S. Paul whose Soul was fired with a burning flame of Seraphick love was of this Divine and Holy Temper after his vision when he was rap'd up into the third Heaven where he heard and saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words and things which were inexpressible and doubtless beheld the glorious face of our Lord Christ Jesus the beauty of Heaven and the mirrour of Angels ever after he was yet with submission to God's will whether for life or death weary of the world which he look'd upon as a Shop of vanities a Sink of uncleanness and a Dungeon of miseries and by an holy transmigration of Spirit converst daily hourly with his God in Heaven and knowing that the only way or means to arrive at that place of Bliss that Mansion of pure delights and sublimate Joys is to follow Christ to imitate H m whose life is the most perfect Idea of all virtues the most exact rule of Holy Living he therefore in his Epistle to the Ephes 5.1 Exhorts them and with them us in these words Be ye followers of God as dear Children again 1 Cor. 11.1 Be ye followers of me as I also am of Christ S. Paul who press'd this duty to the Ephesians and Corinthians did know full well the nature of man whom an Apish and Fond imitation turns into the nature of beasts so it may be said of some men as it is Psal 49. the last verse They being in honour i. e. endu'd with reason wherewith they are honour'd by God above other Creatures for want of a right use of it to a discreet ordering of their lives may be compared to the beasts that perish When men do follow the bad examples of others and walk in crooked and by-paths which tend to destruction they may be compared to the silly sheep who will follow their leaders even into deep waters and down steep Praecipicies Non quà eundum sed quà itur Senec. Not minding where they should but where the others go There have been and are those who did and do count a defect or deformity a piece of graceful honour if by it they may be like their Superior Thus a wry neck in Nero's court was the Mode and esteem'd a piece of Gallantry as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to lisp in Julians and to limp in anothers because these defects were beheld in those Emperors But we Christians ought to be wise and prudent in our Imitations and by setting before our eyes the choicest patterns of goodness we should endeavour to heighten and advance our Souls to an evenness in Grace and virtue with the best Presidents amongst God's Saints To this end i. e. to raise their Souls to an high degree of Perfection S. Paul vers 17. of this Chap. exhorts the Philippians to propose him for a pattern to walk by Brethren be ye followers of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example To which exhortation he subjoyns a reason in the words of my Text. For our conversation is in Heaven c. The first word Conversation is in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the which admitting of divers Interpretations has caused a Variety of Constructions amongst Expositors They who with Tertullian and S. Hierome translate the same by Municipium which is the State or Condition of those who dwelling out of a City in some remote place or Country have yet the Priviledges of the same they being enfranchised belonging to them upon this account or for this reason they take this to be the meaning of the Words That although we be strangers and sojourners here on Earth however we are Municipes Freemen or Free-denyzens of Heaven and have the priviledge to be call'd and own'd by God as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Fellow-citizens of the Saints Ephes 2.17 With whom we shall at the great day of the world's Assizes Raign for ever in Heaven and partake of their Happiness But the word being of a larger acception or signication for that by it is understood many times in the Greek Fathers as Chrysostome Basil and others vitae ratio institutum a trade or manner of living which is agreeable Likewise to the Syriack Translation we may with Beza read the words thus Nos ut coelorum cives nosmet gerimus we behave our selves as Citizens of Heaven And this Paraphrastical gloss suits with that of Grotius who says that this clause Our conversation c. must borrow light for it's sense or meaning from the preceding words v. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who mind earthly things to which is oppos'd that which follows in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But our Conversation is in Heaven c. The words thus explain'd In them and those that follow are wrapt up these two General parts First Here is the Apostles protestation of his holiness in these words Our conversation is in Heaven c. Secondly His and all good Christians joyful hope or expectation From whence we expect the Lord Jesus Christ First For the Protestor S. Paul and his Protestation I remember that S. Chrysostome making mention of him says that he had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a large Soul a Soul as large as Heaven for that it was not shut up nor Imprison'd as the worldly mans is in his body nor chain'd in fetters of Earthly cares but dilated as ours should be in his love of Souls and spread in its ardent desires of Heaven or future happiness after which he panted as appears by his Cupio dissolvi Philip. 1.23 I desire to be dissolv'd and to be with Christ Thus his conversation or rather heart was in Heaven And this his Protestation in the Text of his Heavenly-mindedness did not proceed from Pride or a vain-glorious Ostentantion but only from an holy and earnest desire to draw our Souls upward by his Example to God that made them whilst we follow him in our practice by a Godly Imitation of his Virtues In the second Epistle to Tim. 3.10 The Apostle thus bespeaks him Thou hast fully known my doctrine manner of life purpose faith long-suffering charity patience to which we may add his Sobriety and Temperance of which we have a record 1 Cor. 9.27 As also his
unawares trading in sin or living in any kind of lewdness This waiting vigilancy is our sheild to keep off the fiery darts of Satan his evil suggestions and a Canopy to keep our Virtues pure from being sullied or spotted by any Vice It does that indeed which the Heathens thought their Goddess Pellonia did it drives and Chases all evil from us He that watches for Death conceives that it is ever at hand and not afar off and therefore he makes a daily provision for it He is of the same temper of the same frame of spirit as the Watchman was of Isaiah 21.8 my Lord says he there to the Prophet I stand continually upon my watch-tower in the day time and I am set in my ward whole nights In this Watchman's posture we should ever be There is specula meditationis a watch-tower of meditation which transports the soul from earth to Heaven and thus the good Christian is ever watching by meditating on the benefits that redound or come by Death to us it being only a releasing us from a nasty Prison no more is the body to the soul and an advancing us to a stately Palace of pure Delights a freeing us from our toilsome fetters of sin and sickness with other woful miseries and a possessing us of the Glorious liberties of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 This Meditation sweetens Death and makes it's approach less terrible Familiarity takes away fear and the Meditation of Death makes it familiar to us The daily constant Meditation of Death is likewise a great help or means to Cool the heat of Lusts to kill Pride and suppress Covetousness when we shall consider and believe that the day or hour of Death is approaching when a winding Sheet and a Napkin about our heads will be all the goods we shall carry hence with us a Grave all the land a Coffin the only house which we shall possess when worms shall be our sole companions a noisome stench instead of perfumes and instead of Robes and rich attire raggs of Rottenness He that seriously thinks on these things and digests in his soul or conscience the bitter Pills of these sad truths that man will not be proud lustful nor covetous Secondly there is specula Praeparationis a watch-tower of preparation and on this the good-man or devout Christian is ever standing his care is to do that hourly and daily which Carthusianus advises all to do and that is so to provide for the coming of Death ut nihil in mente resideat quod conscientiam mordeat cum quo mori timeat that no sin reside or remain in our brest which may wound and trouble the Conscience and with which we being guilty cannot die in peace and safety When sin is separated from thy Soul by a true and timely Repentance thou shalt not need to fear a dissolution or separation of thy soul from thy body by death Make thy peace with God in time if he be thy friend death wil be the same to thee not thy foe not thy enemy No unclean Person shall inherit the Kingdom of God Ephes 5.5 When therefore thy soul is cleansed thy conscience purged and purified that the guilt of no crying or raigning sin lies upon it then art thou fitted for Death then mayst thou with a cheerful confidence give a Christian-like invitation to it and say Come Death and wellcome Lord Jesus An holy temperate sober life an happy Death and comfort at the great day of Judgment these are close linked together they never part asunder Non potest malè moriqui vixit bene His death cannot be ill who lived well Aug. that feared God and perform'd his will by keeping his holy Commandments Therefore let your conversation be in Heaven whilst you live here upon earth and be diligent as S. Peter exhorts 2 Epist 3.14 that you may be found of Christ in peace without spot and blameless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the hour of your death Then may you be assur'd that at the last day he will be your friend you shall find him in effect what his Name Jesus imports a loving Saviour and not a severe Judge even so come Lord Jesus and when thou comest make good thy saving Name unto us Thus we pray to this end we Preach and this is every ones desire to be saved from Hells everlasting torments But let me tell you that though he be a common universal potential Saviour in respect of the Jews and Gentiles and in respect of all sorts and conditions of men yet to them only he will be effectually a Jesus who acknowledg him to be their Lord which Title is therefore prefix'd or set before that Name in the Text we look for the Lord Jesus to teach us that if we stoop to his Scepter and submit to his word if we obey his Commands and live according to his precepts wearing the Livery of His Holiness in our lives making that first Sermon of His Matt. 5. the rule of all our Actions and transcribing that fair Copy the rule of all perfection by our holy practice we may then look for him as Jesus and expect from him Salvation I look for the Lord my soul doth wait for him and in his word is my trust So said the Prophet David Psal 130.5 which words may be applied to Christ's coming in Judgment He look'd for the Lord whom he served to be his Saviour and his trust was in his word that word of Promise that he will not condemn a penitent humble sinner And whilst we look for the Lord let that promise be the comfort and stay of our souls 1 Cor. 11.31 If we judg our selves we shall not be judged by a judgment of condemnation That which the Apostle exhorts us to is that Judicium paenitentiale as Tertullian calls it the Penitential Judgment or the Judgment of Repentance when a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Chrys exhorts us to do sets up in his Soul a Tribunal or Seat of Justice and makes his Conscience both Judg and Witness and examining himself daily wherein he hath offended God after this examination passes a sentence against himself as deserving for his sins eternal damnation then appeales from himself to God's mercy and Christ's merits humbly begging for Christ's sake a pardon of all his transgressions and seals or ratifies his pardon to his Conscience by his amendment The man that doth these things shall never fall from his hope of happiness Christ will not condemn him who thus condemns himself and his sins by putting them to death or by living no longer in them Judicium paenitentiale evacuat Paenale saith Tertullian The Penitential Judgment whereby we condemn our selves doth evacuate the penal we shall not be punished for our sins He that is thus dead whilst he lives shall live in his Death and may say upon his sickbed as that devout man Myconius said to Luther his friend that came to visit him thy sickness is not unto Death but unto life for Death shall only give a release to his soul from the Prison of his body to a full and perfect State of liberty and when Christ shall appear at the latter day he will raise his body out of the Dust and place it at his right hand to triumph and reign with him in endless joy and unspeakable happiness This honour shall be conferr'd on all God's faithful Saints and dutiful Servants whose conversation is now in Heaven from whence we look for the Lord Jesus And that our conversation may be such even Heavenly as it becometh those who wait for the coming of their Lord. Let us pray O God most holy who delightest in those Souls which resemble thee in purity let thy blessed Spirit take full possession of our Souls and Spirits and by the power of it drive out of them the foul Spirit of envy and malice of pride and uncleanness that being cleans'd from these Impurities they may be fill'd with thy Divine Graces and our lives shine with the heavenly rays of Charity and Chastity of Humility and Meekness of Sobriety and Temperance which are the badge the Cognisance of thy Elect and the Lives of thy Saints And Lord wean our hearts from the love of this World's vanities which can neither content our Souls nor continue with us and fix them upon thy self who art the Joy of the Holy Angels and our only Stay Hope and comfort in all our distresses that when we leave this sinful World and all forsake us when death shall arrest our Bodies our Souls may not be forsaken of thee but admitted into those Joys which shall never end because they stream from Thee who art Everlasting Those Graces and this Glory we most humbly beg through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
is the Son of God will not murmure at any dispensation of his Providence should I lead your Meditations through all the Stages of her sufferings in the late bloody Rebellious times truly I might tire yours though they did not overcome Her Patience But she with a most Heroick Christianlike Courage and Spirit bore up against all the batteries and storms of plundering Persecutours of railing Shimei's and backbiting Rabshakes against whom her Innocency was no fence to keep of their approaches And as those lesser lights of Heaven shine brightest in the dark Winter nights and fire burns hottest in the cold frost so the Star of her profession shind most gloriously the fire of her Zeal to the Truth glowed with a greater heat under the rage of those who did persecute her with their hands robbing her of her goods because she would not be as they were bad rebels against the King and Church and blasting her reputation with their black Tongues not dreading to report she was a Papist or as one said before a Committee something like one and why Because she was loyal to her Soveraign a lover and Patroness of Orthodox Divines and abounded in good works If it were only Charity that did constitute a Papist I would not refuse or dislike to be so called but her soundness in her opinion and practice of the true Religion manifested to the World that she was a rare Christian a Christian indeed and not only in name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ign. One of a most exact conversation and fit to be proposed to this loose and sinful Age as a pattern of good living and as St. Augustine referr'd those that desired to profit in Virtue to the life and conversation of S. Paulinus Vade in Campaniam disce Paulinum Go to Campania and study Paulinus so would I say to any person that should desire to attain to some degree of perfection in Grace Goodness and Piety Vade ad Sancti Aegidii oppidum Disce Ducissam Dudleyam Have recourse to St. Giles's and enquire after the Life and manners of Dutchess Dudley conform your Life to Her Religious Conversation who hath left behind her there many Ladies much like unto her so may you prove a good proficient in Religion Her Patience likewise discovered it self highly all the time of her sickness which was long and tedious and in the midst of all her pains which were sharp and grievous her Soul was drowned in the Contemplation of that great Ocean of bliss in Heaven to which she was sailing through the narrow channel of this life She never complained with murmuring or bitter Lamentation as too many do in their sickness nor saying as Rebekah did Gen. 25.22 when the twins strugled in her womb If it be so why am I thus No she knew that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the gate is strait which leadeth into the City of bliss and that through many tribulations we must enter into heaven which she had learned out of Acts 13.22 and therefore embraced her Cross with cheerfulness and why should a living man complain a man for the punishment of his Sin Lam. 3.39 She in effect oft said what St. Hierome suggested to Paula concerning the death of Blaesilla Bonus est Dominus quodcunq â—ecerit bonus Deus non potest non esse boâ—… The Lord is good and whatsoever a good God doth cannot be bad To conclude this particular She look'd upon her troubles as the Lot of God's Children the Physick of the Soul the Pledge of Divine Love the Badge of her profession as a Christian the Incentive of her Devotion and a mark of her Conformity with Christ her Head and the Captain of our Salvation and therefore following him she bore all with Patience To whom that she might by a closer Union be joyned Now that her Soul was drawing towards Heaven having spent all the time of her sickness in Prayer and Repentance and heavenly Conferences of which I could give a large account She as she had done oft-times before desired to receive her last Viaticum that heavenly food which might as it did strengthen her Spirit in it's last conflict with Death and in it's long journey to eternity or everlasting life I mean that which is a Sacrament as of a thankful Commemoration of Christ crucified so of a blessed Confirmation for that it confirms our Faith that Christ is and will be in all respects to our Souls I had rather say to our Persons what the Bread and Wine is to our Bodies Had you been then present and seen with what flaming devotion with what burning affection and lowly Reverence upon her Knees when she could hardly stand upon her feeble legs she received that heavenly Food that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Ign. calls it which Physicks the Soul for Eternity the seal of her pardon and token of her Communion with Christ had you then beheld her devout deportment and heard the Divine expressions which immediatly fell from her gracious lips you would hence have concluded that she was a rare Saint Having thus got a firmer hold of Christ by Faith in the Merits of his Death and Passion and grasping her Saviour in the Arms of Her Love and Thankfulness She ever after chaunted out old Simeons Song Luke 2.29 Domine nunc dimittis c. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace She as St. Augstine says of Faith tore of Death's grim Vizard and beheld under it a comely smiling face so as whiles unto the enemies of God those that are not reconcil'd unto him by Faith in Christ and the amendment of their lives it is no other than a terrible executioner of Divine Vengeance it seemed to her an Herauld of Peace a messenger of Joy a plausible and sure Convoy unto Blessedness For this cause or upon these considerations she longed after her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her dissolution even as the weary Traveller after he hath measured many tedious miles as she had years and passed many dangers both by Sea and Land and felt the harsh entertainments of a stranger rejoyces to draw near in his return to a pleasant and Rich habitation Thus she desired earnestly to be released from Her Prison the body is such and no more to the Soul She often wished to be dissolved and to be admitted into a nearer familiarity or Communion with Christ a few days after the Lord in Mercy made her partaker of her holy wish and desire gave her an happy Release by Death and Grace to utter these last words of the Protomartyr Saint Stephen Act. 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit and when she had said this she after ninety years current spent in God's service fell asleep Death was no more to this Illustrious Dutchess then a sleep Her body after many vexatious Toils Troubles and Disquiets in this World shall sleep or rest for a while in it's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it 's Dormitory the Grave But her soul