our Affairs by our Flatteries amongst which we must reckon treacherous Guides whom we have our selves chosen to mislead us and in fine by our false Penitencies which are followed by nothing of our Manners he shall come upon us on a sudden at the last day The Sentence shall come from above The end is come the end is come Finis venit Ezek. 7.2 venit finis The end is come upon us Nunc finis super te Every thing will be at an end as to you in that moment Ezek. 7.23 Cut down make an end fac conclusionem Strike the unfruitful Tree which is good for nothing but the fire Dan. 4.11 Cut down the tree pluck off its branches shake off its leaves beat down its fruit Then shall arise deadly fears and gnashings of teeth Preludes of those of Hell Ah Brethren let us not tarry till this terrible Blow comes The Sword which has cut off the days of the Queen is still lifted up over our heads our sins have sharpened the fatal edge of it Ezek. 21.9 10 The sword which I hold in my hand says the Lord our God is sharpened and polished it is sharpened that it may pierce it is filed and polished that it may glister All the Universe sees the dazling brightness of it Sword of the Lord what a stroak do you now come from giving all the Earth is astonisht at it But what signifies this shining which astonishes us if we prevent not the Stroak which cuts Let us prevent it Christians by Repentance Who cannot be moved at this Spectacle But these Emotions of a day what do they effect a final Hardness Are we affected with the Miseries of Hungary and Austria Their Inhabitants are put to the Sword and these are happie in comparison of others whom Captivitie draws into miseries in relation to both Soul and Bodie These desolate Inhabitants are they not Christians are they not Catholicks our Brethren our own Members Children of the same Family the Church and fed at the same Table with the Bread of Life God is as good as his Word Judgment begins at his house 1 Pet. 4.17 and the rest of the House does not tremble Christians let your selves be moved to repent appease God by your Tears Hear the pious Queen who speaks louder than all the Preachers in the World hear ner Princes hear her People hear her my Lord â—â—â—ecially she tells you by my Mouth and by a Voice which you are used to That Greatness is a Dream Joy a Folly Youth a Flower which soon sades and Health a deceitful Nothing Treasure up then such Riches as cannot be taken away Hearken to the grave discourse which S. Gregory of Nazianzen offered to Princes and to the then Royal Family Look said he upon your Purple Orat. 23. look upon your Power which comes from God and employ it onely for good Consider what you have been intrusted with and the great Mystery which God accomplishes in you He reserves alone to himself the things above he shares with you the things which are below Shew your selves Gods to the people under you in imitating the Divine Bountie and Munificencie And this my Lord is what the crowding and perpetual Acclamations and Looks of the People which follow you require Ask of God with Solomon Wisdom which will make you worthy of the Peoples Love and of the Throne of your Ancestors And when you retire to think of your Dutie fail not to consider whereunto the immortal Actions of Lewis the Great and the incomparable Pietie of Mary Terese do oblige you FINIS ADVERTISEMENT ☞ Britannia Languens or a Discourse of Trade Shewing the Grounds and Reasons of the Increase and decay of Land-Rents National Wealth and Strength With Application to the late and present State and Condition of England France and the Vnited Provinces Printed for Sam. Crouch in Popes-head-Alley near the Royal Exchange in Cornhil
A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF MARY TERESE of Austria INFANTA of SPAIN QUEEN OF France Navarre At St. DENIS Sept. 1. 1683. By Monsieur James Benigne Bossuet Bishop of Meaux Counsellor to the King in his Council Late Preceptor to the Dauphin And Chief Almoner to Madam the Dauphiness Printed at Paris by the King 's special Command Reprinted at London by J. C. and F C. for H. I and sold by Samuel Crouch in Cornhil MDCLXXXIV CHAP. 14 Revelat. v. 5. For they are without fault before the Throne of God My Lord WHat an Assembly does the Apostle St. John shew us This great Prophet opens Heaven to us and our Faith discovers on the Holy Mountain of Sion in the highest part of the blessed Jerusalem the Lamb which takes away the Sins of the World attended by a company worthy of him They are those of whom 't is Written in the beginning of the Revelations Thou hast a few names even in Sardis Rev. 3.4 which have not defiled their Garments those rich Vestments wherewith Baptism furnish'd them Vestments which are nothing less than Jesus Christ himself according to that of the Apostle Gal. 3.27 For as many of you as have been Baptised into Christ have put on Christ. This little number beloved of God for its innocency and remarkable for the rarity of so exquisit a gift has known how to preserve this precious Vestment and the Grace of Baptism And what shall be the recompence of so rare a Fidelity Hear what the Just and Holy one says Rev. 3.4 They shall walk with me in white for they are worthy worthy through their Innocency to carry into Eternity the Livery of the Lamb who is without Spot and walk always with him seeing they have never left him since he took them into his company pure and innocent Souls Virgins as St. John calls them Rev. 14.4 2. Cor. 11.2 in the same sense as St. Paul says to the faithful of Corinthia I have espoused you to one Husband even Christ The true chastity of the Soul the true Christian pudor is to blush at Sin to have no eyes nor love but for our Saviour Christ and to keep our Senses free from the corruptions of the World It is in this Innocent and Chast company wherein the Queen is placed her dread of Sin has purchased her this Honour Faith which pierces even the Heavens now shews us her placed in this happy Company Methinks I see that Modesty that Peaceable temper of Soul that humble Gesture of Body before the Altar which inspired the beholders with Devotion to God and respect for her God retribute these holy dispositions with the transports of Celestial joys Death has onely changed a mortal and fading Beauty for an Immortal one That delicate whiteness the Symbol of her Innocency and Candour of her Soul has onely if a man may so speak withdrawn it self to appear more illustrated by a Divine light Rev. 3.4 she walks with the Lamb for she is worthy The uprightness of her Heart without dissimulation ranks her in the number of those of whom St. John speaks the words which precede those of my Text ibid. 14.5 that Lying is not found in their Mouth nor any disguise in their Conversation and therefore are they without Spot before the Throne of God In effect she is without reproach before God and Men. Calumny could not attack any part of her Life from her Childhood to her Death and an Honour so unspotted is a precious perfume which recreates both Heaven and Earth My Lord Behold this great spectacle can I better comfort you and the Princes which attend you than by shewing you in the midst of this resplendent company and in this glorious state a Mother so beloved and regretted Lewis himself whose constancy cannot vanquish his just grief will find it more appeasable by this consideration But that which ought to be your only comfort ought My Lord likewise to be your Example and ravisht with the Immortal Splendor of so regular and irreprochable a life 't is your duty to transmit the Excellency of it into your own How rare is it Christians how it is rare again I say to find this Purity amongst men but especially amongst the great ones Revel 7.13 14. Those whom you see cloathed with a white garment those says St. John came from great affliction to inform us that this Divine whiteness is commonly form'd under the Cross and seldom under the tempting state of worldly greatness And yet Gentlemen it is true that God by his miraculous Grace has been pleased to choose these innocent Souls amongst Kings Such was St. Lewis ever pure and holy from his Childhood and Mary Terese his Daughter has receiv'd this excellent-inheritance from him Let us enter Gentlemen into the Designs of Providence and admire the bounty of God bestowed on us and all people in the election of this Princess God has raised her up on the pinacle of worldly greatness to make the purity and regularity of her Life the more conspicuous and exemplary Thus her Life and Death equally full of Grace and Holiness become an instruction to all Mankind Our age cannot expect a more perfect example for there cannot be the like Purity in so high an estate Here 's in short what I have to say of the most Pious of Queens she had nothing but what was August in her Person nothing but what was Pure in her Life Come hither all ye people of the earth come and behold in the chiefest rank the rare and Majestick Beauty of a Vertue ever constant In so regular a life it matter'd not the Princess where death strook there appeared no weak part whereby she might fear a surprize always watchful always attentive on God and her Salvation her so suddain and mournful death to us had nothing dangerous in respect of her So that her high state will serve only to shew the Universe this important truth That there is nothing solid or truly great among men but to avoid sin and that the only precaution against the attacks of death is innocency of life This is Gentlemen the admonition which the most High most Excellent most Mighty and most Christian Princess Mary Terese of Austria Infanta of Spain Queen of France and Navarre offers us in this Tomb or rather from the highest Heaven I need not tell you that great Birth Allyance and Posterity are from God Gen. 17.6 2 Kings 7.2 Acts 17.24.26 't was he that told Abraham Kings shall come out of you and made his Prophet tell David The Lord will make you a house God who of one man formed all Mankind as speaks St. Paul and from this common spring fills the whole earth has foreseen and predestinated from all Eternity both Allyances and Divisions marking the time adds he and setting bounds to the habitations of the world 'T was God then who exalted the Queen by her great Birth to an
could damn the rich man in the Gospel for having been too much indulged in And who knows the degree whereunto they must amount to make this deadly poyson And is not this one of the reasons which makes David cry out Delicta quis intelligit who knoweth his sins Let me abhor then thy vain science and wicked subtilty daring Wretch that so boldly pronounces This sin which I commit without fear is venial The innocent Soul knows no such distinctions Two things will shew you the eminent degree of the Queens Vertue She has often been heard to say with that blessed simplicity of Soul which was common to all the Saints That she could not comprehend how one could wilfully commit one onely sin how little soever it were She did not say then It is venial She said It is a sin and her innocent heart rose against it If there happened any ill Accident to her Person to her Family to the State she alone accused her self of it But what Misfortunes you 'll say could happen in this rais'd Condition and in so long a course of Prosperity You believe then that Vexations hide not themselves under Purple or that a Kingdom is an universal Remedy to all Evils a Balm that heals 'um a Charm that enchants them Whereas that by a Council of Divine Providence which can give a counterpoise to the highest conditions this Grandeur which we admire so much at a distance as if â—t were something above man less pleases when one is born to it or confounds it self in its abundance All Humane Greatness has this Evil peculiar to it self that its disappointments are more vexatious than those which are met with in a low condition the blow being so much the more intolerable for a mans being less prepared for it 'T is certain men do not so much perceive this unhappy tenderness in vertuous Souls We believe 'em insensible because that not onely they know how to be silent but also to sacrifice their secret Troubles But the heavenly Father delighteth to behold them in secret and as he knows how to prepare them their Crosses so he deals out to 'um also their Rewards Do you believe the Queen could be at case in those famous Champaigns which furnish'd us dayly with such surprizing Accidents No Gentlemen she was always in fear because she saw always that precious Life on which her own depended too desperately hazarded You have beheld her Fears shall I mention her Losses the death of her dear Children They have all of 'um rent her heart Remember we that young Prince whom the very Graces themselves seem'd to have fashion'd with their own hands Pardon me these Expressions Methinks I see still that Flower falling Being then a sorrowful Messenger of so dismal an Event I was also the Witness in seeing the King and Queen afflicted beyond measure But I saw likewise their Faith equally victorious I beheld the agreeable Sacrifice of an humbled Soul under the hand of God and two Royal Victims offer by joynâ— consent their own heart May I now look back on the terrible threatning of provoked Heaven when it seem'd for so long time to strike the Dauphin our precious Hope Pardon me Gentlemen pray pardon me if I renew your Fears we ought to do it though we are unwilling seeing we cannot without such a remembrance consider the constancie of the Queen We saw then in this Princess in the midst of the Alarms of a Mother the Faith of a Christian we saw an Abraham ready to offer up an Isaac and some resemblances oâ— a Mary when she offered her Son Christ Let us not be afraid to say it seeing that a God became man to give Examples to all Conditions The Queen full of Faith proposed not to her self a less Example than Mary God restores her also her onely Son which she offers him with a mournful heart but submissive and will have us owe to her the restauration of so great a Benefit We are not mistaken Christians when we attribute all things to Prayer God which puts it into our hearts can refuse it nothing A King says David Psal 32.16 cannot save himself by his host nor the mighty by his valour Neither must we attribute fortunate Successes to Humane Prudence There arises Prov. 19.21 says the Wise man several thoughts in the heart of man Here we have the agitation and uncertain determinations of Humane Counsels But adds he the counsel of the Lord stands firm and whilst men deliberate they execute onely what he resolves upon The terrible the Almighty which takes away the judgments of Princes leaves them sometimes to follow the imagination of their own hearts to confound them the more and to take them in their own craftiness For there is no prudence there is no wisdom there is no counsel Job 5.15 1 Cor. 3.19 Prov. 23.30 2 Mach. 15.25 against the Lord. The Machabees were valiant men and yet 't is written they fought more by their Prayers than by their Arms Per orationes congressi sunt made confident by the Example of Moses whose hands lifted up to God overcame more than those that struck When every thing yielded to Lewis and that we thought the time of Miracles again was come wherein the Walls fell at the found of a Tru mpet All people cast their eyes on the Queen and thought they saw coming out from her Oratory the Tempest which overthrew so many Cities If God grants to Prayers temporal Prosperity how much more does he give to 'um the true Goods that is to say spiritual Benefits They are the natural Fruit of a Soul united to God by Prayer Prayer which obtains Vertues for us learns us to practise them not onely as necessary James 1.17 but also as received from the Father of lights whence comes every good and perfect gift And this is the pitch of Perfection because 't is the foundation of Humilitie Thus did Mary Terese draw down by her Prayers all manner of Vertues into her Soul In her tender years she was in the Traverses of a Court then turbulent enough the Consolation and onely Stay of the infirm age of the King her Father The Queen her Mother-in-Law notwithstanding that odious name found in her not onely a respect but also a tenderness which neither time nor distance of place could alter Therefore does she weep beyond measure and will not be comforted What Affection what Respect what Deference has she not yielded at all times to the King always alive to this great Prince ever jealous of his Glory always sollicitous for the interest of his State indefatigable in her Voyages and ever happy provided she was in his company A Wife in short in whom St. Paul might have seen the Church of Jesus Christ united wholly to his Will by an ever-during Complacencie If we might ask this great Prince who here so piously pays his last Dutie what a Mother he has lost he would answer by his Groans
could not communicate often enough to her desire yet she ceased not to complain humbly and modestly of frequent Communions which were enjoyned her But who could refuse the Eucharist to innocency it self and Jesus Christ to so lively and pure a Faith The rule which St. Augustine gives is to moderate the use of the Communion when it 's frequent reception abates the excellency of its tast In her we saw always a new zeal and devotion spring up and this excellent custom of searching in the Communion the best preparation as being the most perfect action of thankfulness for the Communion it self By these admirable practices this Princess arrived to her last hour without needing any other preparation than that of her holy Life and men who are always bold to judge of others without sparing their Soveraigns for people are wont to spare only themselves in their censures I say persons of all conditions have seen the Queen carried away with such precipitation in the vigor of her age without the least doubts of and inquietude for her Salvation Learn then Christians and especially you who cannot accustom your selves to think of death learn to disarm it in another manner than by forgetting it and let your holy Life be your armour against the fear of it France has seen within a few years two Queens more united by their Piety than by their Blood whose deaths equally precious before God although with different circumstances has been of singular edification to the Church You know I mean Anne of Austria's and that of her dear Niece or rather of her dear Daughter Mary Terese Anne in an age well advanced and Mary Terese in her prime but both of 'um so happy a constitution that it seem'd to promise us the enjoyment of 'um a long time but they are taken away from us contrary to our hopes one by a long sickness and the other by an unforeseen stroak Anne warn'd long ago by a Distemper as cruel as remediless beheld death advancing towards her with slow paces and under the figure which alway appeared to her most dismal Mary Terese no sooner strook but you was seen in the arms of death alive as it were and entire without so much as seeing him first At this fatal warning Anne full of Faith gathers all her strength which the full exercise of Piety had acquired her and beholds without any trouble all the approaches of death Humbled under the hand of God she gives him thanks for this his warning she doubles her Charity which was always great she encreases her Devotions which were always assiduous she more solicitously enquires into the state of her Conscience with what newness of Faith and zeal did we see her receive the holy viaticum In like actions Mary Terese needed only her ordinary fervor not needing death to stir up her Piety her Piety excited enough it self and gained by its own force a continual encrease What shall we say Christians of these two Queens by one God teaches us how we must profit by the time and the other has shewed us that the true Christian life has no need of it 'T is below a Christian spirit to arm it self against Death just only at that moment wherein he comes to attack us A good Soul is ever ready to fight her passions for such a one does with the Apostle dye daily 1 Cor. 15.31 Quotidie morior A true Christian is here alive on Earth because he is always in a State of Mortification Do we live Christians do we live This Age which we reckon upon and wherein all the Reckoning does not belong to us is this a Life and can we not perceive what we continually lose with the years Are not Rest and Nourishment weak Remedies against the perpetual Sickness which grows upon us And that which we call the Last what is it else but but a Reduplication and as it were the last access of evil which we bring into the World with us What Health can secure us from the Death which the Queen carried in her bosome How quickly was the threatning follow'd by the Blow And where had that Queen been with all that Majestie which on all sides shone about her had she been otherwise prepared Immediately we saw happen that fatal hour wherein the Earth had nothing for her but Tears What could so many faithful Domesticks do about her The King himself what could he do He Gentlemen that gave place himself to sorrow for all his Power and Courage All that came about this Prince increased his trouble Monsieur and Madam came to share with him in his Grief and augmented it by their own And you my Lord what could you do but pierce his heart with your sighs He had it pierced enough by the tender remembrance of a Kindness which he found still the same after twentie three years usage We sigh we groan and this is all we can do for a Queen so beloved I am mistaken we have also Prayers we have this holy Sacrifice refreshment to our Pains and an expiation of our Ignorances But let us know that this Sacrifice of an infinite value wherein all the Cross of Jesus is included this Sacrifice would be useless to the Queen had she not merited by her good life that the effect of it might redound to her Otherwise says St. Austin what does such a Sacrifice signifie No Help to the Dead a feeble Consolation for the Living So that all our safetie comes from this life whose hastâ—â—â—light always deceives us I come Rev. 3.3.16.15 says Jesus Christ as a thief He has done according to his Word he came and surprized the Queen in a time when we thought her the most healthful in a time wherein she saw herself most happie But 't is thus he acts he finds for us so many Temptations and such a malignitie in all Pleasures that he comes and troubles the most innocent in his Elect. But he comes says he as a thief always unawares and undiscernible in his steps And he does himself glorie in this in all that the Scripture speaks Like a thief you 'll say an unworthie Comparison 'T is no matter if it be so provided it has its due effect on us that it frights us and in affrighting save us Let us tremble then Christians let us tremble before him every moment for who can shun him where he appears or discover him when he hides himself They eat says he they drank they bought they planted Luke 17.26 they built they married in the days of Noab and those of Lot and a sudden Ruine came and overwhelmed them They eat they drank they married These were innocent Occupations What shall we say when in satisfying our lustful Desires in gratifying our Revenge and secret Jealousies in heaping up treasures of Iniquitie in our Cossers without caring to separate our own from that of others deceived by our Pleasures by our Sports by our Health by the prosperous success of