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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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coming as to pass the time of their sojourning here in fear To all those who shall so wait for the appearance of our Saviour as the Scripture in other places phrases it as to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly righteously and godly in this present evil and wicked world I had proceeded to have inforc'd this great duty upon you by more Arguments had not I been sensible that Examples speak louder and more forcible then Precepts and insinuate themselves even into the heart and soul And here I most humbly desire this honourable Auditory to assist my Meditations and enrich their own by the great and holy Example of that honorable Person whose Obsequies have this day called us together of that person one of the greatest examples of Faith and Godliness Grace and Goodness Piety and Purity and all other great and illustrious Ornaments flowing from a holy and noble Spirit as ever our Nation hath produced in this latter Age. Of that Person whose heavenly Conversation and Religious Constancy bespeak your Imitation as well as Praises which she did not represent to us in faint Semblances and Speculation but in a lively Operation and Activity through all the course of a long and blessed age And now perhaps you expect her Character but truly the Object is so Illustrious that it dazels but yet so Eminent and Copious that it would make any man commence Oratour Be pleased then to look upon her in her first Rise and you will find her the eldest Daughter of that Right Honorable Baptist Hicks Vicount Bampden by Elizabeth May his Lady and religious Consort Persons not to be named without Honor and Veneration whose bounties in devoting to God and the Poor each of them their 10000 for Pious and Charitable uses stand upon Record as Monuments of everlasting Praise Their Honors were not acquired by a slavish prostitution of Conscience and Honesty but by Wisdom and Vertue Integrity and Prudence the best foundation of a lasting Greatness The very attributes of their Honor might be digested into an Alphabet to register the Eternal Fame of this Ladies most worthy Progenitors And how well and exactly she declared her self descended from such by building upon that foundation is so universally known as need not be insisted upon She did not diminish but add to the glory of her Progenitors she did not live as a monument to tell the world that They had been but what They were And though they religiously devoted such vast summs to Pious and charitable designs that they will always be recorded as lasting and perpetual monuments of their Praise as before was mentioned yet did this Honorable Lady Blazon their piety with a more excellent Heraldry whilst her graces and vertues which were so conspicuously Eminent were built upon that excellent Education and Examples with which they had seasoned her tenderest age which she did so constantly improve that they shined more and more to a perfect glory Look upon her Personal Endowments and you 'll find a quick Apprehension a sound Judgment a solid Wisdom and a sprightful undaunted Courage lodged in a graceful Body qualified with an excellent Mein and a winning Aspect with a condescending courteous affable and truly Christian Deportment which demonstrated that She valued her self not upon the Grandures and Titles that attend her Fortune but that she had laid her Foundation lower stronger in making it more solid and lasting by building upon Vertue and Piety She was indeed a Constellation of Eminencies every one like a Star of the first Magnitude shining gloriously in its single Lustre and all in Combination like the Sun in its Zenith enough to dazle the eyes of our inferiour Capacities and forbid me to say any more because I can never say enough Look upon her as a Wife Mother Widow Neighbour Subject Christian and you 'll find her most Eminent in all capacities 1. She was a most vertuous loving faithful and obliging Wife though of a vast and noble fortune which swells too many into Pride and Forgetfulness and makes them rather Tyrannical than Endearing But in this Lady nothing was wanting of Humility and Pleasantness of Wisdom and Subjection of Wealth and Beauty of Chastity or Affection to the making her a Principal and a Precedent to the best of wives in the world 2. She was a most indulgent tender and careful Mother which extended beyond the days of her Marriage even to her death embracing all her Off-spring with the caresses of Nature and Religion instructing and governing both Children and Grand-children in the fear of God and loyalty to their Prince with such Gravity and Authority tempered with winning Meekness and more then ordinary Prudence as might reduce all Vicious Inclinations and incourage every thing that is good So considerately kind as not to neglect the welfare of their Souls in providing for their bodies but principally taking care of that as knowing that to live splendid in the world without living unto God was to die whilst we live and live and die miserably The numerous and noble Stemns which sprung from this noble Line being genuine Heirs of vertues and goodness blest in descending from her Loyn but more in ascending to her Graces 3. Consider her as a Neighbour and you will find her Charitable Courteous Prudent and Engageing Her Doors without any tall Porters Her Tables richly spread twice a day so furnisht that they were to others what her Conscience was to her self a Continual feast Neighbours and Strangers might with greatest freedom partake of her liberal Provisions and find a Cheerful as well as Plentiful reception These her entertainments were not Cleopatra's Revels nor Sempronia's Luxury whose feastings were always as great in Sin as Abundance and savoured more of Wickedness then Pomp. But whilst others feast their equals their peers expecting returns and circular Retreatments as if they did not make but trade Banquets She fed such Pensioners as brought with them their wants God that provided her Plenty provided her Guests and what She gave to Hunger She gave to Heaven Therefore if the Poor do not extol her if they do not cry out the Stones will so do her works praise her in the Gates Seldom indeed if ever did a wise a large Heart and a plentiful Fortune so lovingly embrance and kiss each other If you 'll take a view of Her in her Family you cannot but say that She deserves Solomon's Character of a wise Woman for she was one that look'd well to the ways of her own house In the prudent managery whereof she seem'd to covet all in her liberal dole she seemed to desire nothing 4. Look upon her as a Widow out of this cloud also will a great light shine to her eternal praise and honour The Fathers counted it no Paradox to parallel the state of pious and religious Widowhood with that of the most cloistered and sacred Virginity St. Ambrose speaks to this purpose non minus est tentata conjugii
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