Selected quad for the lemma: state_n
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A43723
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A sermon preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable Julian Vicountess Camden at Camden Jan. 12, 1680/1
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Hicks, Henry, d. 1692.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing H1918B; ESTC R40987
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14,992
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36
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recusare oblectamenta quam nunquam tentare It is no less victory to despise the pleasures which they have known then never to have known the pleasures which they despise When the great Famine was at Samaria in the days of Ahab Almighty God did not send his Prophet to Queens or Empresses or any great Ladies but unto a Widow of Sarepta poor perhaps in state but rich in faith and as apt to increase in grace by the love of the Lord as the meal in the barrel or the oyl in the cruse by the Miracle of the Lord. The first woman that receiv'd Christ in the Temple was the Prophetess Anna a Widow of Fourscore and four years old yet fuller of zeal then years for she was fixt to the Temple as the Stars to their Orbs and never forsook it night or day And this most Honourable Lady that we come now to Entomb or rather to Enshrine may well be lookt upon as her liveliest parallel if not in the years yet in the devotions of her Widowhood For though she honoured and frequented the publick house of God with as publick and frequent zeal as any of the most Primitive and Apostolical Widowhood yet was she of such a Sanctuary conversation as well without as within the sacred Cloisters that she made all places holy ground wherever she came Her Table was a Temple her Chamber a Chappel A Lady of so great a fortune and such rare accomplishments could not without question in her first years of Widowhood but meet with some solicitations to change her condition but she stood resolved against all Presumers God might change her life the whole world could not change her mind She might put off in their season her mourning weeds and forsake her first garments but never her first Love The Apostle speaks of some he calls Widows indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Widows in the work and not only in the name of widowhood Such an one he requires to be truly honored as she is really honourable and sets down her description 1 Tim. 5.10 If she have brought up children if she have been hospitable if she have washed the feet of the Saints if she have relieved the afflicted if she have diligently followed every good work All these religious Characters were written in letters of Gold upon the Soul of our most noble and pious Lady now with the Lord. She was eyes to the blind and feat to the lame a mother to the fatherless If any in the Neighbourhood were sick or sore or languishing she was a Healer as well as a Reliever Rich in Physical as well as Christian graces Her Closet was a Treasury of the choicest Receits Cordials Electuaries which were always as free as they were excellent deriving vertue and efficacy not only from their Ingredients but also and that more too from their Donour 5. She was a most obedient Daughter to her tender Mother the Church of England and a Loyal Subject to the Defendour of her Faith and Father of her Country She maintained that faith which was once delivered to the Saints and so did she constantly worship the God of her fathers So constantly that no Mountebanks of the last age could cheat her none of those furious Transports and schismatical Innovations though wrapt up in the specious gilt of a solemn Covenant could abate her Zeal or devide her Devotion but still she professed preserved and practised her obedience to the true Church and true Sovereign constantly adoring God in the one and owning all due Loyalty to the other worshipping her Maker publickly in most exact conformity to the Law so as she both glorified Him the Lord of Heaven and gave an eminent example of true Piety to all her neighbours 6. Look upon her as a Christian and you 'l find her as much as possible avoiding the very shadows and appearances of Evil desiring to be found in holiness as well as to abide in Christ endeavouring to walk as he also walked to transcribe his great and excellent copy in his faith and patience in his meekness and humility and in all the whole Constellation of graces In all her religion she kept the vertuous medium between Faction and Superstition between the abominations of Amsterdam and those of Rome looking upon a Conventicle and a Mass as equally Apochryphal and which is no small honour still making the Law of the Church and the Peace of Jerusalem the touchstone of her obedience She stood unshaken in the midst of a Prâ—fligate age and was true to her Vertue and Heaven even then when it 't was both a reputed Crime and assured Danger so to do And whilst others lived as if they had been sent into the world only to eat and drink and rise up to play her great care and design was to pass through and behave her self amongst the contingencies of a fleeting world that she might not miss the haven of an eternal rest And whereas some we see sordidly besotted with vain pleasures and their souls in a tame compassion for quietness sake content to connive at folly this Honourable Lady was so ambitious of the strictest commands of the most Holy God that as they say Heaven is anima visibilis so her whole body seemed to be converted into soul all zeal and delight in his service and so constantly conversing with God in his word that as St. Hierom speaks of Paulina vertus ferebat Bibliothecam Christi she had transcribed the Bible in her heart Nor must I forget to tell you how duly the sacrifice of Prayer and Praise was offered to God in her Family every day three times in publick twice in that excellent form of our Church She constantly attending when able in her own person and expressing admirable and almost Seraphical devotion endeavouring to manage her worship in such manner as became God who received it and her self who presented it And a third time in a short form at an early hour proper for Servants before they go to any wordly business or their daily work that the first fruits of their time being offered to God might Consecrate the rest of the day Besides her Publick she was constantly in her Closet devotion the way of the closest-communion with God where Heaven it self came down to receive her pious Ejaculations and Prayers These are the things Right Honourable that not only Men but God applaudes and those that intend to purchase Honour to themselves as we are all ambitious must tread the same path and if we would be Happy as she is and that 's the desire of us all we must be Holy as she was and that 's the duty of us all Indeed she was great and excellent that is her Self in every action lived as God required of his people did justly loved mercy and walk'd humbly with her God so that graces and vertues seem to have been the very Elements of her Constitution And were he that said vertue was only an empty name now amongst