A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF Mrs Mary Dawes, AT Great Bardfield in Essex, January 15. 1690.  
By THOMAS PRITCHARD, M. A. and late Rector of West-Tilbury in Essex.  
Imprimatur. C. Alston. Nou. 16. 1692.  
LONDON: Printed for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1693.   

TO THE Lady Dawes.  
MADAM,  
THOUGH such was the modesty of the Author, and so mean the Opinion which he had of all his own Performances, as would not suffer him consent to the Publication of this Discourse. Yet ●e great Usefulness of the Subject, and the extraornary Virtue and Piety of the Person herein described, ●hose example may influence others to an imitation of 〈◊〉 Goodness and Perfections. The consideration I say, 〈◊〉 these things, has at length prevailed with those, to ●ose disposal this Discourse was committed, to send it ●●rth into the World, though in a plain and unartificial ●ress.  
I must beg your Pardon, Madam, if hereby I contribute any thing to the renewing of your Ladyship's ●●ief, for the loss of so excellent a Daughter, whom, though I never had the honour to know, yet I have hea● my dear Friend Mr. Pritchard, speak so often 〈◊〉 so great Things of her, that (considering his sincerity and great aversion to Flattery,) I am confident the Character here given of her, is true. I shall 〈◊〉 presume to make any addition to it, though perhaps it mig●● be said, that she as far exceeded the Character, 〈◊〉 others fall short of it.  
All that I shall further add, is to let the World kno● how much they are obliged to your Ladyship, who 〈◊〉 your own good Example, and wise Instructions, and car●ful Education of your Daughter, in the ways of Religi●● and Virtue, has furnished them with so excellent a P●●tern, so worthy of their Imitation; may they all follow here, and be happy hereafter.  
I am, MADAM, Your Ladyship's most Humble, And most obedient Serva●● T. 〈◊〉   

A Funeral Sermon.  Heb. xiii. 14. 
For here have we no continuing City, but we seek one to come.  
THE Great and Allwise God, who is Righteous in all his Ways, and Holy in all his Works, ordereth and disposeth all Things here below as he pleaseth, directing all his providential Occurrences, how harsh or grievous soever they may seem to us, to very gracious and wise Ends and Purposes. Whence it is our Duty not to murmur or complain of what God doth, but to bear all Adversities whatever befall us here, all losses, of what kind soever, even those of our nearest Relations and dearest Friends calmly and patiently, entirely resigning our Wills to God's Acquiescing in, and submitting to the severest Dispensations of his Providence, firmly believing that they all proceed from an infinitely holy, just, and righteous God. 'Tis this consideration alone, that can restrain us from breaking out into immoderate and excessive Grief, on so mournful an occasion as this, the Death of this most excellent and pious Lady, who was deservedly dear, justly admired and highly honoured and esteemed, by all that were so happy as to know her. All the usual Attractives of Love and Esteem were in her in the highest Degree, as being complete Mistress of all those gentile Accomplishments which make up what the World calls a fine Woman; a great Fortune; handsome and ingenious; modest and humble; cheerful and pleasant; courteous and obliging; a most entire, faithful, and fast Friend; of a most incomparably sweet and singularly good Humour; her Conversation very pleasing and charming: in a word, strictly Virtuous, smcerely Pious. Under this then so heavy a Stroke, under this (to us) so sad a Providence, nothing is able to support us, but this consideration only, that it is God's doing. We must therefore, as David was, be Dumb, and not open our Mouths to complain. God hath taken her from us to himself; to our great Loss indeed, but to her inexpressible Advantage, she being now with him whom she loved with all her Heart and with all her Soul, whom she ever duly and constantly served, even with that God in whose presence is Fullness of Joy, and at whose Right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore. God was pleased to allot her but a short time here upon Earth; (the greater is our nuhappiness) her life was scarce a Span long, yet she lived a great deal in this little, suffering none of her time to run waist, but was always busied in some Employment or other suitable to her Quality and most ingenious Mind. She spent a great part of her time in reading the holy Scriptures, and other good Books, which might furnish her with the most necessary and useful Knowledge, esteeming the Knowledge of God and Religionto be such, chief endeavouring after this, which she attained to in a very great Degree; and made the best and truest Use of her Knowledge in Religion, by reducing it to good Practice, which is the Life of Religion, without which the Knowledge of it is not only vain and useless, but dangerous and hurtful; For he that knoweth his master's will, and doth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. 'Tis not the bare Knowledge of our Duty, but the Practice of it that maketh us happy; If ye know these things, then happy are ye if ye do them. Thus by a conscientious Practice of religious Duties, and by her daily Walking with God, by a Life (though short), yet very holy and good, she did excellently provide for her future eternal Welfare, which was the main Care of her Life. She was very sensible of her uncertain State and Condition in this World; knew very well that this World was not her home, that she had here no continuing City, and therefore made it the great Business of her Life, to seek one to come; which made me choose these Words to Discourse of at this time; which I must do very briefly, that I may have some time to say more of her, who is the sad Occasion of our now meeting here.  
In the Words that I have read to you, I shall observe these Two Parts.  
I. The State and Condition of all Men in this Life; here we have no continuing City.  
II. Our Hopes and Expectations as to another; we seek one to come.  
Was a Christians Hope terminate in this Life, did he expect nothing beyond the Grave, we might then justly conclude with the Apostle, that Christians were of all men the most miserable: But, (blessed be our gracious God,) we have a most sure Word of Prophecy informing us, and giving us the highest Assurances, and the most convincing Testimonies, that thenature of the Subject is possibly capable of; That there shall be a Future State, a Life after this, where we shall, afterthe few short and uncertain days of this our Pilgrimage is ended, find an abiding and continuing City.  
I. The present State and Condition of all Men in this World; we have here no continuing City.  
Man, in this Life, is in an unquiet and troublesome State, in a wand'ring and unsettled Condition, but a Pilgrim and a Traveller, a Stranger and a Sojourner in a foreign Land; a Truth as old as Adam's Fall, who by his Sin disposessed himself and all his Posterity, and made us at best but Tenants at Will, when we might have been Inhabitants; and 'tis well he did, since at the same time he brought a Curse upon the Country, and from a Garden of Pleasures, converted it into one of Briers and Thorns, and so left us to eat our Bread in the sweat of our Brows, till we return to the Dust from whence we were taken. God indeed was pleased (whether as a Favour or a Punishment, I shall not say,) to grant to him and the succeeding Patriarches a longer Lease of Tilling the Ground, than he doth  to us; they had a longer Passage and Pilgrimage, and by consequence a more tedious one, before they came unto the Country they sought for; but still they had no continuing City here, they were not immortalised upon Earth, nor exempted from the tasting of Death, or from the many Miseries and Calamities incident to Life, but were enured to hardship and labour, evils and afflictions; and the longest Life of them all, before the Flood, was concluded within less than a Thousand Years; after the Flood, as Sin increased, which first shortened our abode, so the days of man's Life were contracted, though the evils of it were enlarged; so that Jacob confesseth, as his days were full of evil, so they had been few in in respect of his Forefathers, as he told Pharaoh, Gen. 47.9. the days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years, few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage; but in the time of Moses, for he is generally thought to be the Author of the, 90th. Psalms, the account of man's Life was much shorter, much the same with what it now is, Threescore and Ten or Fourscore Years; but yet such as was attended with Sorrow and Labour, as he tells us ver. 10. of that Psalm. But now how many Thousands end their Pilgrimage in a far shorter time; how many now are cut off long before they come at that Age? do we not daily almost see or hear of many suddenly snatched away in the very midst and prime of their days? how infinite are the numbers of those whose days are so far from being a Span long, that they will scarce admit of any measure at all, though never so little? how many are carried from the Womb to the Grave? So short, so uncertain is man's stay in this World, which the Holy Scriptures do fitly represent to us, telling us, that we are as wind, that passeth away and cometh not again, that we come forth like a flower and are soon cut down, flee away, and continue not; that man even in his best estate is altogether Vanity, man is like a thing of nought, his time passeth away like a Shadow, as for man his days are as Grass as a Flower of the field so he flourisheth, all Flesh is Grass, and all the Goodliness thereof is as a Flower of the field, the Grass withereth, the Flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it, surely the People is Grass. We are often in Scripture said to be Strangers and Sojourners in this World, thus the Author of this Epistle saith of all those whom he had reckoned up, Chap. 11. verse 13. that they were strangers and pilgrims upon earth; and this he doth also say of all men in the Text; and the same did David acknowledge, 1. Chron. 29.15. for we are strangers before thee and sojourners as all our fathers were, our days on earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. This is the common Fate of all Mankind, after a few days are past and gone, we must go to the Place from whence we shall not return, we must leave this World and go to our long home, we must part with all that we have here possession of, Friends, Riches, Honours, all must be left; we must take our last Leave, and bid a final Adieu to all our nearest and dearest Relations, exchange the stateliest Palaces, the goodliest Mansions, the pleasantest Seats, as well as the poorest and homeliest Cottages, for a dark cold Grave. Knowing then what our present Condition in this World is, that we are Strangers and Pilgrims here; let us behave ourselves as such, since such we are in this World; here we have no fixed or settled Habitation, we are but Sojourners, live at another's Table, lodge under another's Roof, and may be dispossessed at his Pleasure. The Years that we have here to continue are at best but few and short; that man that lived longest, lived but Nine Hundred Years and upwards, and though this may seem a long time to us, yet how few are these if compared with those many Millions of Ages which he shall live in another state, nay indeed there can be no Comparison between them, no more than between a Moment and Eternity; this World is but an Inn to receive and lodge us for a while, and that at best but in Booths and Tabernacles, pitched up only for a time, passing through this vale of Misery, we are to use it as a Well, (saith the Psalmist), only draw a little Water for our refreshment in our Journey, but not think to make our abode here, alas! we have another and farther Journey to take, we are to seek another and better Country, a Christian is bound for no less than Heaven, thither he must hasten and steer his Course, if he would find a place of Rest and Safety, if he would find an abiding City, for it will be but in vain and lost labour to seek it any where else, there and there only, after all his Labours, he may find a Building of God, a House not made with Hands, eternal in the Heavens, where he may dwell for ever. Being then but Sojourners upon Earth, let us as the Apostle exhorts, pass the time of our sojourning here in this world in fear; let us be careful to live well that little time we have to stay here, being assured; that upon our present Demeanour depends our future Condition either of eternal Happiness or Misery; let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, striving to arrive at the same happy Country where those ancient Pilgrims who are gone before us, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are, that we may sit down with them in the same blessed heavenly Kingdom; let us, like the Israelites, who eat the Passover with their Loins girt, and Staffs in their Hands, to signify their readiness to departed out of Egypt, where they were Strangers, let us like them be prepared too in Heart and Mind to leave this foreign Country where the people are ill affected towards us, for we are all here what our Forefathers were, Strangers and Sojourners, and absent from our Country. This is the present State and Condition of all Men in this World, we have here no continuing City.  
I come now to the second Thing, which I observed in the Words.  
II. Our Hopes an Expectations as to another, we seek one to come.  
That there shall be a continuing City, that we shall, after this Life is ended, enter upon an eternal State, where good Men shall be unspeakably Happy, and wicked Men unspeakably Miserable, I shall not doubt ye so little Christians as to stand to prove, Life everlasting being an Article of our Creed, which we all profess to believe; taking therefore that for granted which Christianity commands you to believe, and which the time now forbids me to insist on the Proof of, I shall only deduce this one practical Inference.  
Since we have here no continuing City, but look for an abiding City, an eternal State hereafter, let us prepare for it, and to quicken our diligence in this so important an Affair, consider that this Life, as short and as uncertain as it is, is the only time we have to seek this abiding City which we look for; 'tis here alone we must seek this City, 'tis here we must secure to ourselves an happy Eternity or no where; when this life ends, when we are in the Grave, it will be too late: there, as Solomon assureth us, is no work, counsel nor device in the grave, whither we are going; that, as Job describeth it, is a land of darkness itself, and of the shadow of death without any order, and where the light is as darkness. No delay therefore is to be admitted; sure I am, there is nothing so well deserveth our Care as this, this is our main Concern, the chief Business of our Lives, and shall we then neglect it? shall we drudge, toil and labour, to make Provision for a short frail Life? And shall we do nothing at all, take no care for a long eternal one? shall we mind Time and disregard Eternity? This one would think is such egregious Folly, as no rational Creature could possibly be guilty of: but alas we see how busy Men generally are about the things of this Life, and how they scarce trouble their Heads with the Thoughts of another; how vainly do most Men deceive themselves with the Hopes of a long Life, thinking they shall have time enough hereafter to seek this abiding City? But to cure if possible such men's fond Presumption, let them consider what I before said of the uncertainty of our State in this World, let 'em consider how short, how frail a thing Life is; What is your Life, saith S. James, it is a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth, quickly doth it pass away, soon is it gone: wherefore so weighty an Affair as this ought not to be put off to so uncertain a thing: flatter not then thyself, O vain Man, that because thou art now Young and Lusty, in perfect Health and Soundness, that therefore thou hast yet many years to live, and that it will be time enough in thy old Age, when thy Strength is decayed and thy Days are almost expired, to seek this City; for thou seest many as Young and as likely to live in the World as thyself, suddenly snatched away, and carried into the other World in the very midst and prime of their Days; and how knowest thou O presumptuous Man! what assurance hast thou, it may not be thy own Condition? When thou seest or hearest daily of Thousands that fall besides thee, and Ten Thousands at thy Right Hand; what security hast thou that the Arrows of Death shall not come nigh thee to strike thee? What Seal hast thou upon thy Door, that the destroying Angel should pass by thy Habitation, as he did those of the Israelites of old, and destroy thee not? Neglect nor then so great a Concern, hazard not thine eternal State at so great an uncertainty; thou knowest not but that this frail life of thine may end, before this Work be done; and then with what Dread and Horror wilt thou leave this World, having nothing to comfort thee at thy dying Hour, no hope of any Happiness in another Life, but dreadful Apprehensions of those grievous Torments which thou must there suffer for ever? how wilt thou then bewail thy Folly, and when it is too late, wish that thou hadst taken care to have provided for thy eternal State? Now them; while thou hast time take care of this great Concern, and prevent what will otherwise undoubtedly be thy dismal Fate; none of us all but must be sensible that our time passeth away apace, that the Day of our Death hastens; it then greatly concerneth us all to prepare for that Eternity which is drawing nigh; how soon we may launch forth into that vast Ocean we know not, ere long we are sure we must; let us not then delay our preparing for it, but what we do let us do quickly and with all our Might.  
I have done with the Text; and come now as may most justly be expected, to speak of this most highly deserving Lady, to whom we are now paying our last Respects; who is now quickly to be laid in her Bed of Dust, there to repose till that great Day cometh, when all that sleep in the Dust of the Earth shall be awakened and called forth, when all the Dead shall be brought to Life again; then shall she be raised from thence, and her Body being made immortal, incorruptible and glorious, shall be reunited to her Soul, never to be separated from it any more, but to continue together both Body and Soul, in unspeakable Felicity and Glory.  
I have ever declared myself no friend to Funeral Encomiums, nor should any thing have prevailed with me to give one now, but the extraordinary Merit of this deceased Lady, to whom I should be highly injurious should I refuse it. I know very well how difficult a thing it is to give a Character of any Person which some or other will not be displeased with, but this must not discourage me. I shall say nothing but what I myself knew to be true, or have had from very credible Hands.  
This Lady was descended, as is known to many in this Auditory, from very worthy Parents, her Father Sir Jonathan Dawes, a wealthy Merchant, an eminent and well known Citizen, her Mother one of the Daughters of Sir Thomas Bendish, a very ancient Baronet in this Neighbourhood. Her Education was suitable to her Extraction, which her pious Mother (her Father dying when she was very young) took great care of, educating her gently and virtuously, in all those fine Accomplishments which became her Sex, which she improved to the utmost; but that which I chief remark, is, her being betimes acquainted with God, her being early instructed in Religion which grew up with her, which being happily accustomed to, she made it her daily Employment, finding a great deal of Pleasure, Satisfaction, and Sweetness in it; experiencing, that all its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths peace, being trained up when a Child in the way she should go, she did not departed from it: and this was it which did exceedingly Adorn and Beautify her far beyond what the finest Accomplishments could do, though she had them in as great a degree as any, Religion giving her a greater Grace and Lustre than all things else besides. She was blessed with great Endowments of Mind; she was a Lady of very great and extraordinary Parts, highly Ingenious, of quick Apprehension, of firm Memory, and of most solid Judgement; she had a most curious and fine way both of Speaking and Writing, the one all know that ever had the Honour to Converse with her, and she hath left lasting Monuments of her great Abilities in the other; she was a most obedient and dutiful Daughter, she was of a very generous and charitable Disposition, which she expressed upon all fit Occasions, and particularly at her Death, by that liberal and considerable Legacy which she gave to the Poor: All which joined with her great Piety, made her an Ornament to her Sex, and a Pattern most worthy of Imitation.  
I should be tedious if I should but barely mention all those things that were Commendable in her, but I must contract, and what I have farther to add, I shall comprise under these Three Heads.  
Modesty, Humility, Piety, every one of which she was very eminent for.  
First, Modesty. This is a great and becoming Virtue, very commendable in all of both Sexes, but more especially so in the fair Sex, whom it maketh very amiable and , being highly prized by all sober Persons; with which Virtue this Lady was most eminently adorned, being extremely Modest; having a perfect abhorrence, and utter aversion to any thing that might but seem to trespass upon it; never being able, without the greatest Detestation, to hear any Discourse that had the least tendency to Levity or Wantonness, which Virtue is the greater in this lose and dissolute Age, when too many have laid it aside, as a very unnecessary and troublesome thing. All her Discourses, all her Behaviour, all her Actions were guided by the strictest Rules of Modesty. Such was her Modesty.  
Secondly, Humility. A most excellent Christian Grace which procureth to the Person that hath it favour both from God and Man; the humble God beareth an especial Regard to, and hath a particular Care of; though (saith the Psalmist) the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the proud, he knoweth afar off; and saith the Prophet, Isa. 57.15. Thus saith the high and lofty One, he that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of an humble spirit; of which especial Favour we we have reason to believe this truly humble Soul did partake; who, though none was more deserving, yet none had a lower opinion of themselves than she; she always thought meanly of herself, yet was she free from that abject Meanness of Spirit which some miscall Humility, none could have more to puff them up than she had, but she very well knew how great a Folly it is to be proud of any thing, since all that we have we receive from God; and why then should we boast as though we had not received? Her care was to improve well the Talents God entrusted her with to his Glory, from whom she thankfully acknowledged, she received whatever good Thing she had; in this, following the great Pattern of Humility, our Blessed Saviour, who, when by the mighty Works he had wrought, he had gained the Applause and Admiration of the People, he did what he could to avoid them, ascribing to God the Father the Power by which he wrought them, saying, the Father that dwelleth in me, he doth the works. So would this humble Soul, not to take to herself the praise of any thing, but ascribe all to the Grace of God. There is nothing more peculiar to, or more becoming a Christian, than Humility; it was this Lesson which our Blessed Lord singled out from all others, and which he calls upon us to learn of him; learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: which Lesson she had perfectly learned; she was, to use the Apostle's Phrase, clothed with Humility, the humble Disciple of an humble Saviour, the same Mind; that is, the same lowly Frame and Temper of Spirit which was in Christ Jesus, was, as the Apostle requireth should be in us, in her also. Such was her Humility.  
Lastly, Piety. This is that which the Apostle tells us hath the Promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come, intitling men to the happiness of both Worlds; and though God for very good Reasons, may sometimes give but little of this world's Happiness to some that are truly Pious, (God's Promises of temporal Felicity being conditional only), yet they shall be sure to be abundantly compensated in the other World for what they come short of here in this; there they shall be sure not to lose their Reward. Oh how great things (saith the Psalmist) are those which thou hast prepared for them that fear thee! such they are as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive. A fair and sufficient encouragement to Piety, which this Lady did in a most exemplary manner practise; whose Piety was of the right Stamp, not formal, but real, not by Fits and Starts only, but constant and uninterrupted, not partial, picking and choosing some of God's Commandments, and disregarding the rest, but universally having Respect to all God's Commandments. She daily set apart a portion of her time for the service of God, which she spent in Prayer, reading the holy Scriptures and other good Books, Meditation, etc. and if she was at any time prevented by Company, or Diversions, (which were always harmless and innocent,) or by any other unavoidable Accident, she would be sure to make it up at another, and would not rob God and her Soul of the time set apart for them: And well were it if all Persons of Quality, the Plentifulness of whose Estates freeing them from those mean Employments, which Persons of lower Rank are busied in, and so having more leisure and time to spare, would devote a greater share of their time to God and their Souls, as certainly if they consider it they must acknowledge they ought to do, for the more liberal and bountiful God hath been to them, the more thankful they ought to be unto him. Besides, her private Devotions, which I believe she never omitted, she never failed to be at the Prayers of the Family; unless she was hindered by Sickness, or was abroad, which she seldom was at Prayer time, so that I can scarce remember that ever she was absent, behaving herself very devoutly and reverently with all imaginable Fervency, and the most profound Humility, putting up her Prayers to God, presenting them at the Throne of Grace in such a decent Manner, in such a lowly Posture of Body as becometh Supplicants, and as the infinite Majesty of that God to whom we pray doth require: and as frequent was she at the Public Prayers of the Church, which she continually attended, nay would often go when her Health would ill admit of it, being desirous to omit no opportunity of serving God in his own House, his House of Prayer, where she was wholly intent on the Duty she was about, joining with the greatest Devotion and Earnestness; and at Sermon time, as I have observed when I have occasionally Preached here, she was a very diligent, serious and attentive Hearer; and as she was thus constant at the Public Prayers of the Church and Sermon, so was she also at the Holy Communion, which to the end of her Life she frequented, having received the Holy Sacrament at Church on Christmas day, the last opportunity she had of receiving those blessed Viands; which Duty she never went about Heedlessly or Inconsiderately, but used the greatest Care and Diligence possible to fit herself for it, always setting apart some time for Preparation, practising the Apostles Advice, examining herself, and that strictly too, before she would presume to eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup, which she did with a Devotion and Reverence suitable to that great and holy Duty. Such was her Piety.  
Which is the more commendable because it was an early one, she remembered her Creator betimes in the Days of her Youth, devoting the best and prime of her Days to his Service; a juvenile Piety is most acceptable unto God, I love those that love me, saith God, and they that seek me early shall find me; the truth of which gracious Promise, I believe this Pious Soul doth now experience: the Comfort which the remembrance of her well-spent Life gave her, supported her under all her Sickness, which made her not only not afraid to Die, but if it were Gods Will to desire that she might die; which she desired, not out of any Impatience for what she suffered, or out of any Discontent or Dissatisfaction, but as she herself assured me when I visited her in her Sickness, out of a firm Hope she had, that God would pardon her Sins through the Merits of Christ, by whose alone Merits she hoped for it; and that God, of whose Favour she had a well-grounded Assurance, would bestow upon her those great and unconceivable Felicities of the other World, which she steadfastly believed, and hoped through the Mercy of God, and Merits of Christ to partake of: it was this which made her desire to be Dissolved, that she might be with God and Christ, which is best of all; or to give it you in her own Words, from a Letter which she left to comfort a dear Relation under this so great a Loss, having spoke in that with some certainty of her future Happiness, she thus saith, I speak not with this Confidence of my future Felicity, through any opinion of my own Virtue and Goodness; alas! no, I am deeply sensible of my Deficiency in both, and that I deserve nothing but eternal Punishment, but all my Dependence is on the Merits of my Saviour, who, I hope will never cast off a Soul to whom he hath given the Grace to trust in him; this is the ground of my Assurance, which (though perhaps attended with some Fears,) is still maintained, by meditating on the boundless Clemency of my Creator and Redeemer. These are her own Words; it was this which made her so willing to die, having that to cheer her, which is the greatest Comfort we can have when we come to die, that she was exchanging this short troublesome Life, for a blessed Eternal one.  
It pleased God to visit her with a long and tedious Sickness, (so God often treats his most faithful Servants, whom I love, I rebuke and chasten, and whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.) though her Sickness was severe and long, though she endured much Pain, and had many weary and restless Nights, yet did no one ever hear a murmuring and complaining Word from her, but looking up to God, and considering that it was he that afflicted her, she quietly and patiently submitted herself to his correcting Hand: God having thus made trial of her Graces, which in her Sickness she had an opportunity of exercising, she having now finished her Course, having faithfully served God, and secured her eternal State, God finding her ripe for Glory, would no longer delay her Happiness, but took her unto himself, from Earth to Heaven, from Pain, Misery and Trouble, to Rest, Immortality and Glory: her Life ended with the Year, and she began the New one in the other better World, where is no Pain, nor Sorrow, nor Sickness, nor Diseases, nor Death, where she shall die no more but live in the greatest Happiness for ever. And now having such just cause to hope, that her Spirit is with God that gave it, that she is in an eternally happy State, why should we weep? weep for her we must not, but for ourselves who only are the Loser's; yet considering that our Loss is her Gain, let us moderate our Grief, and dry up our Tears, and sorrow not, as men without hope for her that sleepeth in Jesus, whom God at the last day will undoubtedly bring with him; it will be an ill expression of our Kindness to her, immoderately to bewail her Death, which to her is but a passage into a glorious Eternity; it will look as if we envied her that Happiness she is is now possessed of; to use her own consolatory Words, let not her Joy be the cause of our Sorrow, since as she saith, she took no Delight in this World; we ought to esteem it a Mercy rather than a Judgement, that God hath taken her to a better, even to that Worldon which her Affections were wholly placed, where she frequently was while she was here upon Earth, by her holy Thoughts and devout Meditations; by these she had her Conversation in Heaven.  
And now that these Remains of her are immediately to be laid into the Earth, and hid from our Eyes for ever; though she be thus wholly taken from us, yet let her Memory, as deservedly it aught, be ever precious unto us, let her Name be always mentioned with Honour and Respect, let us imitate her holy and pious Life, let us follow her as she followed Christ, that so at that great Day when we shall all be raised out of our Graves and called to Judgement, we may meet together again, and take no more sorrowful Farewells of one another, but dwell for ever without parting any more, spending an Eternity together in singing hallelujahs and Songs of Praise, to our gracious Creator and Redeemer, who hath brought us to the possession of such unspeakable and endless Felicities.  
FINIS.