A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lady Margaret Mainard AT Little EASTON in ESSEX On the 30th of June 1682. By the Right Reverend Father in God Thomas Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells The Third Edition LONDON Printed for Charles Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Paul's Church-yard and William Clarke Bookseller in Winchester MDCLXXXVIII TO The Right Honourable WILLIAM Lord Mainard BARON of EASTAINS My LORD THough I am unwilling to decline any Service which Your Lordship expects from me yet when you enjoyn'd me the Printing of this Sermon I could not obey Your Command without disputing it For I consider'd that in such an Age as this where an Exemplary Holiness is very rare I shall be thought guilty of most gross Flattery in the Character I have given of Your Incomparable Lady now in Heaven But knowing I have so many unexceptionable Witnesses to attest every line I have said especially Your Self who best understood her value and are most sensible of her loss and being Conscious to my self that I have spoken no other throughout than the words of Truth I soon broke through all the discouragements I had either from the just Censures the World would fix on the meanness of the Discourse or from the unjust ones it might pass on my Insincerity and resolv'd to do all that little Honour I could to her Memory and to give God the glory of her Example And I humbly beseech the Divine Goodness that what I now offer to the Publick may not be wholly unprofitable to those who read it However I am sure it will not be unacceptable to Your Lordship or to those who were so happy to know her which will be satisfaction enough to My Good LORD Your Lordships most Humble and Faithful Servant Thomas Bath and Wells A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL Of the Right Honourable The LADY MARGARET MAINARD On Prov. II. XVI A gracious Woman retaineth honour THE World was never yet so bad but the good Man though his life was a continued Satyr to the Age he lived in did always either find or extort a Veneration from it So true is it of both Sexes which Solomon here affirms of Woman only that gracious Persons they who are in the Grace and Favour of God and are strengthned by his gracious assistances they who by the covenant of Grace are enrolled in his service and in whose hearts there is a conspiration of all the Graces of his Holy Spirit all which particulars are included in the word Grace and do all concur to make up a gracious Soul Such persons I say as these shall from the generality of Men gain an inward esteem and a great Opinion and for the most part an outward and a suitable respect or as the Wise man words it shall retain honour I must confess that there are many instances even in our own perverse generation wherein Vertue has rather been contemn'd and ridicul'd than Honour'd but I will mention no other than the most signal of all God Incarnate whose example though it was as perfect and unblameable as the fulness of the Godhead could render it yet his most divine Person was so far from being honoured by many of the Jews that he lay under the utmost imputations of Slander and Blasphemy which words could express and as glorious as all his Miracles were they were ascribed to no other than Beelzebub the Prince of the very Devils But though it be true that our blessed Lord in regard to his state of Humiliation seemed to have no form no comeliness in him yet all his Conversation had so many irradiations of Divinity in it which did abundantly evince his heavenly Extraction and it is no wonder he should suffer such contradictions of sinners it being usual for an Heroick Virtue which is singly to encounter whole Legions to contend with inveterate Errours or reigning Vices to reprove and reform the World as our Saviour was to be loaded with most diabolical reproaches But Goodness has an inseparable splendour which can never suffer a total eclipse and when it is most revil'd and persecuted it then shines brightest out of Cloud So that all who are not wilfully blind who will but make use of their eyes to see must acknowledge the force of its Rays This did the very Jews themselves as many as had any relicks of common ingenuity left The Multitude own'd our Saviour for a great Prophet wonder'd at his gracious words confest he had done all things well insomuch that they would have exalted him to the throne and have made him their King Pilate could find no fault in him at all and the Centurion a Heathen even when he saw him hanging on the Cross as a Malefactour cried out Certainly this was a Righteous Man. So that a gracious Person under the most extreme degree of Infamy and Slander shall yet retain honour shall from all that are in their right minds have at least an inward Veneration If this be verifi'd of a publique Vertue there can be less doubt of it in a private one which not being on such a stage as may provoke and affront the angry World by openly contradicting or upbraiding or chastising it passes along with a less assaulted and less envied reputation and more undisturb'dly retains honour than the former There is I know an honour which is due to all men as they are God's workmanship and have some lines of his Image in them but especially to Kings and to Magistrates whom it is our duty to honour whether they be gracious Persons or no this we are to render to the Froward and Pagan as well as to gentle and believing Masters to Princes that are Infidels and Persecutors as well as to Christian and nursing Fathers But then this honour is not paid them out of respect to any real Goodness in them but only to their Authority as they are God's ordinance as we depend on their Protection and as our Obedience is enforc'd by Laws and Penalties But the honour we give to a gracious Person is purely in reference to his moral excellencies which are legible in the whole conduct of his life The former is merely civil the latter may in some sort be styl'd Religious Empire is honour'd as it resembles God's power abstracted from his Holiness and therefore it is compatible with an ungracious Person it is confin'd only to this World and reaches no farther But Graciousness is honour'd as a participation of the divine Nature appropriate to no other than Saints and which has its prospect only on Heaven The former is like Thunder and Lightning and works on our Fear the latter is like the appearance of a good Angel arraid in Beams awful but kind which do not afflict but chear the sight and raise in us a mixt passion of Love and Veneration together and in this sense it is that the gracious Person for the venerable
goodness that is visible in him shall retain honour To attempt any laborious Proof of so clear a Truth as this were needless do but consult the universal practice of Mankind and read it there What Rules do the Philosophers prescribe to render our lives most satisfactory to our selves and most commendable to others with what Colours do the Oratours paint those persons they intend to Celebrate what Images do the Poets form when they design an Heroe are they any other than the Rules and Colours and Images of moral Goodness Do not Hypocrites to court the esteem of the Vulgar personate the Saint and Politicians to make the People honour them pretend to Religion and why do they both put on this disguise but because they know that Wickedness bare-fac'd is in the eyes of all men most detestable and that the names of Saint and of Religion are creditable in the World Shew me that profligate Wretch who in his cool thoughts or on his Death-bed does not decline all his loose Companions and seeks out for men truly good and consciencious to whom he may intrust his Estate his Children and all that is dearest to him even his own Soul too for which he then begs their ghostly counsel What man is there so wicked who on his death-bed does not wish that he may die the death of the Righteous and that his latter end may be like his Look into the Histories and customs of Ages past see how greedily coveted how dearly purchast and how highly valued the Statues and all the little remains of Good Men have been The Heathens to express their great esteem of Goodness built Temples to Vertue and Honour and join'd these Temples together and made the former the only passage into the latter they thought Praise to Good men as just a Tribute as Sacrifice to their Gods and one of the Wisest of them wonderfully pleas'd himself in fancying how lovely and venerable how divine and transporting an Idea he should see could he but look into the breast of a Good-man We have then the practice and the judgment of the whole World to confirm this truth that Vertue has always had a great and a general esteem that the gracious Person retains honour On the contrary is there not a natural shame a sense of turpitude or a confusion of face in vicious and unclean actions why else are men afraid to commit them before the most inconsiderable Spectatour and chuse darkness for a thick Mantle to cover them why else do they blush to own them wish a thousand times they had never been done and reflect on them with dissatisfaction and horrour why else do their own Consciences lash and upbraid them whereas if we will but take the pains to make up an Induction of all Christian graces we shall easily see that there is none whose friendship is more ambitiously sought none with whom men would sooner change Persons none who are accounted of more substantial worth or more generally rever'd or more influential to the good of Mankind or sooner wanted in the World or who make a nobler figure in Story than the Devout the Humble the Just the Meek the Temperate the Charitable or to express all in one word the gracious Person who therefore shall always retain honour I need not reckon up the numerous places of Holy Scripture where Goodness and Honour are link'd together how the Wise are said to inherit glory the humble and meek to be exalted how we are commanded to keep our Vessels in sanctification and honour and how God has promis'd to honour those who honour him I need not mention the primitive Diptycks or how the Church Catholick has celebrated the Festivals and honour'd the memories of the Saints and of the Martyrs I need not suggest that obvious Conclusion That if gracious Persons can draw even wicked Men to a reverential love of their Vertue much more will they engage the friendship of all that are Holy and not only of holy Men but of holy Angels too who being all ministring Spirits deputed by God to attend them the more heavenly they see any committed to their charge does grow the more respectful attendance in all probability they give him And there is the highest reason in the World why there should be so honourable a loveliness in a gracious Person if we consider the likeness he bears to that great God whom we Adore For as there are on all men innate impressions of God's Existence so there are also of his Attributes and none ever yet in earnest believed there was a God but he also believed that God was a Being Infinite in all Perfections in Wisdom and Power Justice and Mercy Purity and Holiness Veracity and Beneficence and as these excite our Love and our Adoration to God so where ever we see any though but imperfect resemblances of his imitable perfections in the Saints here on earth where ever we see men in any measure Holy and Pure Just and Merciful Faithful and Beneficent we there see the image of God himself and cannot but pay them a suitable honour Thus as Goodness and Adorableness are co-eternal in God so are Sanctity and Venerableness co-eval in gracious Persons Nor are we only by Grace made like to God but he is also pleas'd actually to dwell in us and to consecrate our Souls to be his Temples and as God commanded the Jews to reverence his Sanctuary the place of his residence among them where he sat between the Cherubims and a glorious Light that shin'd on the Propitiatory was the Symbol of his Presence So when in gracious Souls we discover all the fruits of the Spirit a kind of glory brightning their Conversation and a sacred Amiableness breath'd on them from Heaven we are sure that God inhabits there and cannot but reverence his Temples Such Honour have all Gods Saints from even wicked men from all holy persons and from the good Angels and infinitely above all these from God himself who honours them with his Image after which they are renew'd and with his Presence of which they are possest Such Honour I say have all his Saints even in this life which if we did but seriously Contemplate would stir us up to a generous emulation would encourage us to implore the Divine Grace that we may bewail all our past sins cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and of Spirit which produce nothing in the end but Shame and Horrour and daily grow more conformable to his Likeness which is the only way to assert the dignity of our Nature and to retain honour But when once our Souls shall be divorc'd from our bodies when the name of the wicked shall rot and stink sooner than his Carcase leaving no memorial behind unless it be of his Sin his Infamy his Madness or his Folly Precious then in the sight of the Lord shall be the death of his Saints blessed shall be
their memories They shall be had in everlasting remembrance and their good Names being Registred in the book of Life shall flourish to Immortality All this while I have not done Justice to my Subject by affirming only in general that Goodness is honourable I must therefore be more particular and enquire why Solomon does here instance in the Woman rather than in the Man A gracious Woman retains honour And the reason seems to me to be either this that as Vice is more odious and more detested so on the other hand Vertue is more attractive and looks more lovely in Women than it usually does in Men insomuch that the gracious Woman shall be sure to purchase and to retain honour Or it is because Men have more advantages of aspiring to honour in all publick stations of the Church the Court the Camp the Bar and the City than Women have and the only way for a Woman to gain honour is an exemplary Holiness This makes her Children rise up and call her blessed her Husband and her own works to praise her in the gate the sole glory then of that Sex is to be good for 't is a gracious Woman only who retains honour Or it is because Women are made of a temper more soft and frail are more endanger'd by snares and temptations less able to control their passions and more inclinable to extreams of good or bad than Men and generally speaking Goodness is a tenderer thing more hazardous and brittle in the former than in the latter and consequently a firm and steady Vertue is more to be valued in the weaker Sex than in the stronger So that a gracious Woman is most worthy to recieve and to retain honour Or it is because Women in all Ages have given many Heroick examples of Sanctity besides those recorded in the Old Testament many of them are named with great honour in the New. For their Assiduity and Zeal in following our Saviour and their Charity in Ministring to him of their substance they accompanied him to Mount Calvary lamented his Sufferings waited on the Cross attended the Sepulchre prepared Spices and Oyntments and regardless either of the Insolence of the rude Souldiers or of the Malice of the Jews with a love that cast out all fear they came on the first day of the Week before the morning light to Embalm him and God was pleas'd to honour these Holy Women accordingly for they first saw the Angel who told them the joyful news that he was risen and as if an Angel had not been a Messenger honourable enough Jesus himself first appear'd to the Women the Women first saw and ador'd him and it was these very gracious Women whom our Lord sent to his Disciples that Women might be the first Publishers of his Resurrection as Angels had been of his Nativity Our Saviour himself has erected an everlasting Monument in the Gospel for the penitent Woman that anointed him and God Incarnate honour'd the Sex to the highest degree imaginable in being born of a Woman in becoming the Son of a Virgin Mother whom all Generations shall call Blessed and I know not how to call it but there is a meltingness of Disposition and affectionateness of Devotion an easie Sensibility an industrious Alacrity a languishing Ardour in Piety peculiar to the Sex which naturally renders them Subjects more pliable to the Divine Grace than Men commonly are So that Solomon had reason to bestow the Epithete Gracious particularly on them and to say that a gracious Woman retains honour I am well aware that if we consult the sensual and debaucht rank of men 't is not the Gracious or the Chast Woman they esteem but only the Fair or the Lascivious Esteem did I say Men may court an idle or a wanton Beauty for their Lust but they can only esteem a Gracious and a Chast one and when all is done she only deserves the name of Beautiful As for the Lascivious and the Prostitute against whom Solomon so often and so pathetically warns the Young man She is so utterly impure that I will not so much as name her in the same discourse with a gracious Woman I will then make the Comparison between meer Beauty only and Grace and you will soon perceive the difference For Beauty if it be Natural is from a Womans birth 't is her chance and not her merit if it be Artificial it makes her no other than a painted Sepulchre Gaudy without and that has nothing but Rottenness and Stanch within But Grace is the free gift of God and our own free choice in a happy conjunction 't is no other than a God-like loveliness imprest on our Spirit Beauty is often incident to stark Fools and to the Profane and Irreligious But Grace is peculiar to holy Persons who like the Kings-Daughter are all glorious within Beauty is prone to admire its self and to swell with Pride Grace instills a just sense of our own vileness and teaches Humility That is apt to invite Temptation This is a Preservative against it The former spends her morning hours at her glass The latter at her Prayers That most delights her self in new fashions and fine cloaths in plaiting the hair and wearing of Gold This puts on the ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which is in the sight of God of great price Beauty has been often to the best and wisest of Men witness Solomon himself destructive and fatal for which reason holy Job made a Covenant with his eyes and our Saviour commands us not to look on a Woman to lust after her and the fairer she is the greater is the danger But Grace secures our Innocence awes men into Sobriety looks them into Chastity and the more intense it grows its influence is the more soveraign and efficacious Beauty gratifies only our outward sense 't is a mixture of Colour and Figure and Feature and Parts all in a due Proportion and Symmetry or indeed 't is a well shap'd Frame of dust and ashes belov'd by fond men only who like the most stupid of Idolaters worship the bare Statue without regard to the Deity there enshrin'd But Grace is a confluence of all Attractives which approves it self to our own most deliberate judgments and is belov'd by God Do but imagine you were in the Spouse's Garden where when the South-wind blows the several Spices and Gumms the Spikenard and the Cinamon the Frankincense and the Myrrhe send forth their various smells which meeting together and mixing in the Air make a compounded Odour Such a composition of all Vertues such an universal and uniform Agreeableness is there in a gracious Soul which in a manner whether we will or no engages our affections Beauty is vain and Favour is deceitful says the Wise man it soon evaporates and cheats our expectation in a little time it decays by cares or Child-bearing or Sickness or a thousand other accidents Men no