A SERMON On the Occasion of The Death OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ELIZABETH Lady CUTTS.  
CONTAINING An Account of her most Pious LIFE and Lamented DEATH.  
By JOHN PROVOSTE, A. M.  
In the Savoy, Printed by E. J. for S. Lowndes, over against Exeter-Exchange in the Strand, MDCXCVIII.   

To the Right Honourable JOHN Lord CUTTS, Baron of Gouran, etc.  
My LORD,  
I Have now done the thing which I received Your Lordship's command for, and I hope that which was a Reason to me for the doing it, will be one as much to the World for the accepting it. Indeed there is nothing worthy to he Published but the Obedience; for however the Work deserves not to be read, yet Your Lordship does to be obeyed; and so whereas the unwillingness is often the Excuse upon such Occasions, My Readiness is to be mine. As the Discourse has nothing to recommend it but the Subject, so the Publishing may have little to excuse it but the paying a Duty to one so nearly related to the Subject of it; indeed here a Duty is paid to both. It has been always a Maxim to me, that they who seem to suffer grievous things from Providence were to have all the soft Treatment from Men, and were not to suffer there again, that from them there should be Balsom and Healing Alloy, and nothing should be easily denied to those in Distress; and in this of Your Lordship the Loss of the Dead should have at least that faint Supply from the Services of the Living: Therefore was this one of the Melancholy Cries of Job, Have Pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my Friends, for the hand of God hath touched me; and then follows his Wish, very like this Command of Your Lordship, Oh that my Words were now written! Oh that they were Printed in a Book! But, My Lord, there is yet an higher Reason, and that is the Hearty desire of some good to be done, though by such weak hands as mine, upon the Souls of Men, and first upon Your Lordship's, as you gave the Command and so the first Occasion for it: There is another right to the first Fruits of the Good where the Evil itself began, as we endeavour to quench a Fire at the first House which it appeared in: Where this Evil began, it dwells there still in a larger share, and so much in the most pressing weight, that there is this new reason for its dwelling there, being so heavy it cannot easily be removed. The Sons of the Patriarch carried a Present to the Egyptian Nobleman of Balm, and that was much used by the Egyptians upon Dead Bodies: But there is another use of Balm not only in Death, but in the Wounds before it, and thus I would present some to Your Lordship, seeing Peace itself as well as War does expose You to them. Your Lordship almost seemed to covet Wounds as much as others avoid them, and if there were that Desire, it has been largely answered in all the Costly and the Dangerous Honours of War, in all the Painful and terrible Marks of Courage; You have been always ready to spare your Conquered Enemies, but not Yourself, and Your repeated Victories, which You wished to be dry and unbloody to them, seldom were so to Your Lordship. The Stroke is now in the most Sensible Part, and it is now more painful, when through the sides of another, then when first directed against Yourself; It was before in other Parts, now in the Heart, and a Pious management of this stroke will make it not to be a Fatal one. It is not in the Field of Honour, but of Love, and in the usual place of security, in Your own House; as one in the Prophet was said to be wounded in the house of his Friends. Death has often met You, when both that and Your Lordship were attended by an Army, and it could not conquer You; and therefore it came up to You face to face, and engaged You in a Personal Attack, and it has gained its design, as the Fortune of Nations has been determined by a single Combat between two Champions, when the Dispute could never be brought to an Issue by Armies. Your Lordship has born an Heroic Part in two famous Sieges of this Age, at Buda and Namur; But You were lately besieged Yourself within a fair and goodly Town (this the first surrendered by Your Lordship.) You thought Yourself safe and happy there, and it had all things within its Walls, but it was not, alas! so strong as we could have desired: Let the Surrender become very Honourable in being very Religious, when Resignation is as much the Duty of a Christian as the Keeping of Cities and not resigning is that of a Soldier. No Order of Men seems to shine more in History, none of the two great Nations, the Grecian and Roman, are read with more glory to themselves, and more satisfaction to us, than Warriors, whose Conduct in their Life was equal to that in their Armies, and their Piety to their Courage: Some of that Profession we find upon Record too in the History of the Church, and there signalised with Marks of Honour greater than those which they received in the Field. I would not read a Lecture of War to Your Lordship, as the Philosopher did to Hannibal, but I would offer things to be considered in the calmer Thought and the silent Retreat of Peace, and in the gloomy Shade of Mourning, and I would have said, in the pensive Leisure too of Solitude, if that Company, the want whereof, makes this Solitude, would have hindered, would not much rather have promoted the best Reflections.  
Upon this great Reason my Obedience, I frankly own, My Lord, was as ready as if I had been under the Martial Discipline and Authority of Your Lordship, as a General Officer. I was no less easily ordered to the Press, than a Soldier is to his Post; as one of the Warlike Character, the Centurion in the Gospel declared, I say to this Man, Go, and he goeth, to another, Do this, and he doth it. We see, there is no Joy unmixed nor without its End, no Expectation steady nor without its Disappointment; no hope so great, but much rather, because so big, it may burst asunder, and into that air, which before it swelled with. Your Lordship expected in Your Return from the Campagne all the wealthy spoils at home, and things yet more glorious than the Macedonian Conquerors seized in the Persian Tents, or ever the Germans (under whose Eagle you have fought) in the Turkish Camp. You designed a Triumph within Your own Gates, and You there found a Defeat. We now may learn to confide no more in the Weak and Sickly, and (we find) Dying Enjoyments of the World, to enter no more into close Allyances with Life, and with Goods of an Earthly Growth, and we may resolve that we will no more be Disappointed. We see again, as Solomon says, There is no Discharge in that War, the Best are to die as well as others, and we now live only to be warned and to take the warning, to consider that we are determined to death by God's Decree, and we should be fitted for it by our Holiness; and so our Death, like that of the Best, may seem to be only a Debt of Nature, the Payment whereof makes us Free and Easie, and a sudden one, which is to them a Favour, may not be to us a Punishment. I would not, My Lord, so much condole Your Calamity, as congratulate Your Improvement of it: I would not speak so much to Your Lordship upon the Loss, because (instead of Your being swallowed up, in St. Paul's Phrase, with intemperate Grief) I would have that swallowed up the best way, and sunk in the Advantage, by the Blessing of him who said, I will heal him, I will lead him, and will restore comforts to him and to his Mourners.  
In the mean time I am to tell the World Your Loss (which Your Lordship is too sensible of to want the being told of it Yourself) and my own Imperfections in the following Pages, wherein the Excellent Lady has herself a Loss, and, as you were always Partners in the Goods and Evils of Life, Your Lordship too suffers here, not only by the Death, but by the Description of it in this Unworthy and Artless Discourse: For all the Injuries whereof Pardon now it asked from Your Lordship, and from that truly Pious Memory, which now we Celebrate, by  
My Lord, Your Lordship's Most Obedient and Most Humble Servant, JOHN PROVOSTE.   

A SERMON On the DEATH of the RIGHT HONOURABLE ELIZABETH Lady CUTTS.  Psal. 37.37. 
Mark the perfect Man, and behold the upright, for the end of that Man is Peace.  
THis Psalm and the 73d. speak more together in one continued Discourse than any other part of Scripture upon that great and lofty Subject, The Justice of Providence in the Sufferings of the Righteous, and the Goodness of it in the advantages of their better Condition, which follows and Crowns their Sufferings. The end is indeed a full satisfaction for all the hardships, this a large reward to him who bears them, this a decisive Answer to the Questions rising from them: And so God's Providence will not suffer in our Thoughts, when the Righteous do from his Hands; the Goodness explains the Justice, and the Event enlightens the Mystery, that which is so bright spreads a Light over this which is so gloomy. The Honourable, the Pious, and I had almost said, the never too much lamented Person, of whom every thing around us here does give us mournful notices, for whom we now perform much more than a Ceremony of Mourning, had Peace for her End, and not a train of Sufferings to conduct her to it: we alone now seem to suffer, and more in the end of her Life, than in the misfortunes of our own, and O let all our Evils become the Sufferings of the Righteous, when they are ours. Indeed she was Righteous without them, as if there had been no place for severer methods upon a Spirit so gentle in its Frame, and so good in its Inclination; and thus a Father does never use the Discipline of Force upon the ingenuous and willing Child, where he cannot be too kind, and where the kindness cannot be abused. Give me leave to remember her, who must not, who cannot be forgotten, and who is so much rather to be remembered now, when we are performing that Worship to God, which she made as much her pleasure, as God made it her Duty. And surely that always Devout and now Blessed Soul (if I may so say) would at this time hasten in all the swiftest Motions of a Spirit, would come down presently to join in Worship with us, were she not engaged already in another Communion with them, who fall down before him that sits on the Throne, and worship him who liveth for ever and ever, 
Rev. 4.10.11.  and cast their Crowns before the Throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive Glory, and Honour, and Power. I would set before you an Image of her, or a part of that Image, for it can only be a part at last: where the Work is not skilful, yet the Figure must be comely, (or it can have no relation to her) and then it is such as should only please and charm, not fright and disturb you. So much I shall speak upon Conviction, that whereas a Pagan might say, he had built a Temple, and offered a Sacrifice to Virtue, a Christian may Declare, that he thinks himself to erect a Statue, or build a Monument to it, if there were so far a Death of it among us, as to want a Monument, or if any thing I can do could deserve the being called its Statue. The Integrity of the Speaker, upon such occasions, is asserted by the choice of the Subject, where this surmounts the praise, as high as it seems to be, and still as it rises higher, this appears much above it; and again, by the knowledge of those to whom we speak, as you think it almost your misfortune that once you knew, and perhaps too well, and too much, but not too long: The Veracity is yet more secured by the knowledge of him that speaks; as I had the honour to know from Childhood; and now to have the large and delightful prospect before my Eyes, of such a Glorious course of Goodness, I could wish as much the recalling of her past Years, as some do that of their own.  
It has been always a part of my Caution, to speak little, seldom any thing, of the Dead, in Funeral Discourses; and as they, according to David, Praise not the Lord, so I have thought, they were scarce to be praised themselves, and we were rather to be silent upon those, who (as he at the same time says) Go down into silence. But still I distinguished, and it was always no less my Rule, that Men, eminent in Quality, and more in good Actions, were not to go out of the World, without something like that splendour they appeared in there, and that speaking then, in Justice to them, and for encouragement to others of the same exalted Rank, and for Example to All, was one part of the needful Decencies of their Funeral. And this, which was ever my Rule, I think, I have a Lawful and a great occasion for the Practice of. I know the Disadvantages to which these Praises are liable in the present opinion of Mankind, and therefore my first business shall be this, to defend them whenever there is so much reason as I am sure now I have.  
I shall consider these Three things in my Discourse.  

1. That we are to mark and behold the Perfect and Upright in this Sense, when they die in the Lord we are to remember them in their Works which follow them.  
2. That we now have one Perfect and Upright to mark thus and to behold.  
3. That her End was Peace.   
1. That we are to Mark and Behold the Perfect and Upright in this Sense, When they die we are to remember them in their Works which follow them. These at the same time follow them, and are not gone from us, not in their Effects, and so not in our Remembrances; and the Men who performed them are still to live, not only in their own Souls, but in ours, in all the grateful Thoughts, and all the tender Passions thereof.  
Saul (though none of the Best of Men) and Jonathan, when Dead, had Praise from David in a Funeral Song; and however the Friendship with one of them might engage it for the Son, the Kindness of the other to David did not claim it for the Father, and yet he gave it; and the giving it was indeed so Great and Generous, that the Praise of Saul became his own, when the Hatred of this Prince had been as wonderful, as he declared, 
2 Sa. 1.26.  the Love of Jonathan had been to him,  
He who had nothing like Vanity or Flattery in himself, and was far from encouraging either in Mankind, said, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be Preached, in the whole World, 
Mat. 27.13.  there shall also this that this Wom●n hath don●, be told for a Memorial of her. And should this Holy Person have nothing told? Must she want her Memorial, when if she had seen her Redeemer upon Earth, as she now does in Heaven, she too would have brought her Box of precious Ointment, 
Luke 7.38, 47.  would have stood at his Feet behind him weeping, would have washed them with her tears, wiped them with the hairs of her Head, would have kissed them, and anointed them? But now alas! we only are to bring our Ointment, that of the smoothest and softest praise, to her Burial, as Mary did hers to Christ's, And this good name is better than precious Ointment; she had not the evil Spirits of Mary, nor yet her sins; to her so much was not forgiven, and yet she loved much. The Author to the Hebrews writes a Chapter of praise upon the Elders, who died in Faith, and as he there says more than once, obtained through it a good report, who were stoned, were sawn asunder, 
H●b. 11.13, 35, 37.  were slain with the Sword, not accepting Deliverance, that they might obtain a better Resurrection.  
And now what Dav d did for Saul and Jonathan, What this Author did for the Elders, and moreover, What Jeremiah did, and the whole Jewish Church for Josiah, 2 Chron. 35.25, 26. we may do for others. What St. Peter allowed the weeping Widows to do for Dorcas, 
A●ts 9.36.  a woman full of good Works, we may do for this other, who was so like her, they shown the Coats and the Garments which Dorcas had made; we may show the Good Works which she has performed, and we have only this new Cause of Sorrow, that here is not, as there was, one Saint to raise another from the Dead. You may perhaps expect that before I enter upon this Subject, I should do right to another, that of my Text, that of Scripture, which was so much her Subject, her great Business, her great Delight. But I cannot speak too little of my Text, in the general Design, because I cannot speak too much of her in the particular Accomplishments, who claims as large a share in our Grief, as my Text at another time would demand in our Discourse: I can scarce begin too soon, and when I have begun, I can scarce end too late; I speak of her, and of my Text, of both in one, for she Confirms and Improves it, she Illustrates and Explains it.  
This will appear in the Second thing, That we have now One Perfect and Upright to mark thus, and to behold. Surely she was most Perfect, surely she was most Upright, and this is our only trouble, that we cannot now behold, in the same manner, as we did, the Upright: As for her being Perfect, may I now attempt to prove the thing whereof she gave before much better proof in her Actions, as 'tis said of Wisdom, that she shall praise h●r self, and glory in the midst of her people, 
Ecclus. 24.11.  in the Congregation of the most High, she shall open her mouth, and triumph before his power! I cannot choose but describe those Virtues now, which we admired before, some of the many Virtues which shined in her, and which have left such a Light behind them, however she is not, alas she is not here; as the Sun under a Cloud leaves a Daylight to us, though he himself is not seen. If the adorning of Women is not to be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, 
1 Pet. 3. ●, 4.  and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but it is to be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price, then certainly none was better dressed, none more gaudily adorned than she was; and after this manner, says St. Peter, in the old time the old Women also who trusted in God, 
v. 5.  adorned themselves. Severe she was to none but to herself, her Actions were directed by a continual and awful Care, and only that she might accuse herself, for surely none besides was apt, or had reason to accuse her. A Meekness she had to bear any Evil, but that of Sin, and any Loss, but that of Time; and she who had a Fountain of overflowing satisfaction within her, was only thus dissatisfied. Her Dressing was one of those things which, as the Philosopher advised, were not to be done in earnest, not to be made a Business; it was in this Sense most careless, and the careless Dress was never more comely, so every one thought besides herself. Her time of Dressing was little, by a design, and as little as it was it must not be lost, for she thought Time a greater Jewel than any of those which are seen upon her Sex, and such of which the least grain is to be preserved: That there might be the most fruitful improvement of it, that (as we read of the Great Men of former Ages) she might do more things together, and yet every thing as well as if she did but one; in those easier Minutes (for that part of her Time was no more) she gave the best Instructions for the best purposes to those about her. Whereas Caesar, with his large capacious Soul, did at the same time dictate several Letters, which were to be sent into several parts of the Empire, and of the World, she in the midst of her other Exercises dictated her Maxims of Virtue to those within her Empire, who therefore only were Subjects to her Government, that they might be happy in her Care. May we not say of her, as the Queen of Sheba did of Solomon, Happy were those thy Servants, who stood continually before thee, 
2 Chron. 9.7.  and heard thy Wisdom? Her Counsel was such, that one would almost desire to want it no less than she did to give it, as some kinds of Physic are so agreeable, that we could be willing to have a pretence for using them. Her Reproofs were as soft as the Praises of others, they were not like those which are said not to be com●ly, 
Ecclus. 20.1.  but were so prudent in the manner, and so wholesome in the ends, that one would do any thing but commit a fault in order to the having a title to them: Her Reproofs were such, we might rather wish than fear them, as David said, Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness, 
Ps. 141.5.  and let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent Oil, which shall not break my head. Thus in an higher Sense than Solomon's Woman, whose Excellence was yet so great, She gave meat to her Household, 
Prov. 31.15, 26.  and a portion to her Maidens, she opened her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue was the law of kindness. Her Appointments of Prayer were as fixed as they were Devout, and those evil Spirits of the World, which too often disturb the Holy performance, made no breach upon them, not Business, for this she esteemed still a greater, not Pleasure, for in her Thoughts none was equal to this, not Company, for this gave her the best and the noblest, The general Assembly of the First Born, 
Heb. 12. 32, 23.  the innumerable company of Angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect. The Tidé returns nor with a more certain course and a fiercer stream, than her Devotions did; and these we may suppose had their Waters too, their Tears, which, like her Money, flowed abroad in Charity; when she had less occasion for them herself, she disbursed them upon the necessities, and for the sins of others. Her Affections were swifter than the Hours, were always more than ready to meet the Hours of Prayer, and they met them with Joy, when they came, as they waited for them with eagerness before, and she was only then impatient. In the praying Seasons what Transports, what Elevations and Flights of Soul there were, who can describe? What Violence did she use, who was not acquainted with any other, and so she took the Kingdom of Heaven by Force? How Divine the Thoughts, How warm the Desires, How enlarged the Hopes, How lively the Assurances, who can tell, and yet who would not give himself that nobler Entertainment to imagine? Can we indeed raise our Apprehensions high enough to take any measures of the Height to which those of the Kneeling Saint then were carried? If her Frame of Spirit in the Act of Prayer were not yet more Secret, than her Praying was to that God who saw in Secret; if it could be known, and if that Knowledge could be conveyed, by Words, to others, the Description would reclaim the Profane, and Atheism would bow down before it: The Libertines would be Converts to her Devotion, as they were Objects of her Pity, and their Sin, of her Abhorrence, she in this Sense would heap coals of fire not only upon their head, but their heart, and in this Sense overcome Evil with Good.  
Her private Devotion was so great; and yet there was more than this. Her steady resorting to Public Worship, (which began in her Childhood) was as Visible as that to Private was not, and seen it was, because it could not be otherwise, to very good purpose in her Deportment, as an Example to those who would learn to behave themselves most Religiously, and a Reproach to those who did not, in the Place where all are to show the fairest side of their Behaviour. With all that Reverence she seemed there to cover her head, as the Apostle taught her, 
1 Cor. 1●. 15.  to cover it so as not to see or think of any Earthly Object, and for the same reason which he offers, Because of the Angels, 
v. 10.  because of their presence, whom she had so near an alliance to, so free a Correspondence with, a Friendship, which as that betwixt Men, was founded upon a likeness of Manners, and a Love, which began, as that between Kings and Queens, without Sight. The Presence of GOD did always strike her with awful Resentments; and her own, in the time of Worship, gave awful Thoughts to others: She had all the Impressions of Holy Reverence; and every thing which was to make them, found her a Subject easy to be wrought on, the stroke was gentle, and the effect of it in an instant. Solomon said, 
Prov. 14.13.  Even in laughter the Heart is sorrowful; Her Heart was in the midst of it very Wise and Thoughtful. Speech and Laughter, whereof the one is said to be the Property of Reason, and the other to be the Interpreter of it, were in her the considered issues of Reason, they were things which she would not do out of season any where, and so were things which she could not do in the Sacred Times and Places: St. Paul said, Have you not Houses to eat and drink in, she was ready to say, 
1 Co● 1●. 22.  Have you not Houses to discourse and to converse in, but despise you the Church of God? She had not only a Native Modesty, which was so happy as scarce to have known the Thing, called Evil, and to startle at the Name, but a most Generous one which resolved not to know it, and then it became more a Virtue, as it was more a Principle, and Nature was advanced by Choice. Others do not with so industrious a Disguise cover their Vices, as she did her Virtues; she cast a Veil over them, as she would have done over her Beauty, though, like this, they glittered through that Veil, and she seemed almost to blush, when they did so, as if she had been herself surprised at and dazzled with the Discovery, and she had scarce trusted herself with the Knowledge of them, and in this respect too Her left hand had not known what her right hand did. 
Mat. 6.3.  A Sincerity she had which was as Natural as her Modesty, and, like that, was improved; she had no Art but to conceal all appearances of Art, and there was indeed little reason for it, because Nature was perfect in itself, and did not want it, as the Innocence of the first State of Mankind did no more desire than need a Covering. She who was so courteous and easy in her Conversation was nice and reserved only in her Accomplishments. The Faculties of her Understanding were refined at first, and they had a second refinement from Reading and Thought, and (which is more) a true turn and bias to Virtue and Religion; to Virtue which is the Perfection of Knowledge, and to Religion which is the height of Virtue. Ready she was to comply with all (as the Wisest and the Best always are) and not ready to give Laws to any, but her Conduct, wherever she came, was a Law, without her giving it as such, and her Practice was a Rule, without prescribing or imposing. To herself she gave Laws; and these indeed were such, as any one else would choose to be governed by, she seemed to have a form and solemn Design of being and of making good: Each look was a Precept, and each action was a Moral Rule to all that beheld her, as Plato said, if Truth were in a Body, and could be seen, it would invite, and would prevail.  
That there might be more hands than one to finish a Piece so Perfect, and those of the best kind too, there was God's Grace, there was her own well directed Inclination, and there was all the prudent Industry of a Pious 
* In my great esteem for her, and for this Religious Care I name her, the late Lady Pickering of Cambridgeshire. Prov. 22.6.  Grandmother, whose Memory is now to continue with hers, as before her Care was always with her; So the unfeigned Faith that was in Timothy dwelled first in his Grandmother Lois. 2 Tim. 1.5.  
Thus was the Child trained up in the way that she was to go in, and which, if her Age had been of the same extended length as our desires, when she had been old she would not have departed from. I have been often pleased with that saying of the Heathen, wherein he prays to his Gods for Blessings, for easy Earth and fragrant Flowers, and a perpetual Spring upon the Tombs of those who placed a Teacher and a Father upon the same rank and level. What Blessings then and Rewards are due, and much more due to those who teach Religion, who have that branch of Education for their Care. No Part of Mankind are more useful than they are, and none to be more esteemed by all the rest; They surely are to have Brass and Marble, even before they die; They are to have all the Honourable Acknowledgements and Public Monuments from the State. No Nation had ever a more nice Esteem for the Service of those who performed any to their Country, nor shown it in higher and more nice Rewards than the Romans: The Benefactors we speak of deserve Crowns much better than such as the Romans gave, and deserve them much more than those to whom they gave them, for they do far greater Service to their Country, and so much the rather, because they do the greatest to their Religion.  
The Regard which we should allow to the Goodness of this Saint, and which she would never challenge for her own, is not to be the less, because there was so much Pious Care and Wise Instruction from the Goodness of another, as a Picture does not want its praise, though it be not an Original, when it is very like one.  
All that endeavour was returned with Interest, was answered with all the Care and Wisdom in herself, as one of our Queens is not said to have had less skill, because her Council had so much, in the Art of Government, and she in following the Measures of their Wisdom shown her own. There is not less value for a Building, because it was the Work of Labour and Art, when a goodly Frame at last is raised, to deserve all the cost. Indeed here was a Receiving, but then there was a fruitful Improving of what was received, as the Servant had no abatements to his reward, 
Mat. 25.20.  when five Talents were delivered to him and he made them ten.  
That she might be extraordinary in every Capacity, she was like her Prov. 12. a Crown to her Husbund, 
Prov. 12.4.  she was one of the Best Wives, and so of the Best Women, for the worth of that Sex is never placed in a better Light, never is more displayed, nor is more glorious then in Marriage: Piety and Prudence, agreeable Disposition and Experience qualify any one for the filling that Sphere to great advantage; She had the three first in high degree, and, as for the last, her Mind was so large and comprehensive in its out-going, as to take in all that at a single View, which others reach only by the careful toil and the repeated efforts of long Experience The being a good Wife was as easy to her, as it was delightful to him who had the advantage of her being such, it had no labour nor force, no study nor affectation, for Love of every sort was Natural to her, first Divine, and then each other of the Noblest kind. She was as good in that Relation as the two great things, Religion and Affection could make her, and such she coveted to be so much rather, because she had read good Wives, as Sarah, etc. praised in Scripture, and she was resolved to add another to the number, and to be, in St Peter's phrase, 
1 Pet. 3.6  a Daughter of Sarah.  
She spoke not evil of others, because she was apt to suppose them as good as she wished them to be, and if they were not, she thought her evil speaking would not make them good, nor herself the better. If her desires could have prevailed, there should have been no such thing as Wickedness in the World: But seeing there would be such a Thing, and that overgrown Monster would live in spite of Virtue, and in defiance to it, whatever she wished, and whatever she was, reprove she would, but she would not censure, not misspend or carry off any part of that Zeal in a fruitless Chase and false Pursuit of the Persons, which should have been directed all against the Vices. She was so little acquainted with Vice, that the Stranger so deformed must be very disagreeable to her, when it came into her presence, and it came without ask her leave, who would not easily have granted it: She saw it so seldom at home, she could not be reconciled to it abroad, the ill-looked as well as unusual Figure must Surprise and Fright her when she was forced to see it.  
She paid a most high Regard, as to all Holy things, so to Holy times, and her Charity was contented to wonder only that others seemed not to do so, she rejoiced in the approach of the Lord's-Day, because God's Worship was the whole Business of it, which she wished to be the only Business of every other day: She rejoiced at the return of that Feast, which the remembrance of the Creation has a part in, as in the Creation itself, 
Job 38 7.  The Morning Stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy. She did not choose to make Visits, nor covet to receive them on that Day, and she who was obliging to all seemed only in this respect less kind to her Friends, that they must live one Day in the Week without her Company, without it any where but in the Place of Religious Communion: She would thus teach Religion, by the gentle conveyance of a silent Insinuation, or as some do Language, by Practice, and in this as well as every other Sense she would do to others as she would have them do to her. There was all the Diligence in Worship, but no Rigour, none there was in that, as none in any thing, it had been a Penance and mortifying Hardship only to have forborn it, and not to have denied herself any thing for that had been the only Self-denial: Her resorting to Public as well as her retiring to Private Worship was not as to a Task, but a Diversion, and it was at the same time to do right to her Maker in the Homage, and to herself in the Satisfaction.  
She had not only a just and a cool Esteem, but a passion for Goodness in all Persons but one, and all the World besides had as great a regard for it in that one. She was too busy in advancing the perfections of others, to be at leisure for the considering her own, as some behold so much the defects of others, that they forget those in themselves. Her own Accomplishments she made less, and so little, that she scarce could see them, as sometimes the Object is so near, that therefore it is not seen; those of others she made greater, First, by her generous Charity, in her high Opinion of them, and then by her Zeal in all the methods of Advice and Improvement. Her Charity did not begin at home, and it was so much abroad, and went out so far, that it scarce knew its way home, or ever came back again. Her worth was seen as a Jewel in the dark; and like other darkness, that which she sought made the thing more awful, as the Eastern Princes raise a Veneration to themselves, in the Thoughts of their Subjects, by the not appearing often in their view.  
Every thing within was, like massy Gold, of the most Firm and Solid, as well as the most Bright and Glorious Substance; and so the Queen is said to stand on the King's right hand in Gold of Ophir, Psal. 45.9. Vanity seemed to be something which could not come near, much less enter into, or have any room in her Breast, for this was filled already with the noblest Images, with such as that could not furnish out in its wand'ring about the World, nor upon its return bring in with it. She could not dwell upon Shadows, but in a free unbounded course must go on to Substances; she could not live upon Appearances, but would be satisfied only with things themselves, and these chosen too with the best skill, and the best of these. Her Mind was too steady to be deceived by Words, in her judgement upon this present State, as she was too sincere to deceive or impose on Persons; and it was not, like the little Understandings, to be abused with Names. She was not to be laid asleep, like Children, with Sounds, nor to be pleased with Trifles, and things gay and worthless, as they are, and are appeased by them, when unquiet; Her Mind was unquiet with them, only then, if ever, restless.  
Her Nature almost fixed her in her being good, as that of a Star determines it to shine, and so she would endeavour to forestall the State she now possesses, that of Glorified Spirits, who (though once Angels fell) are at the same time Holy by a Choice, and almost by a Necessity, the Choice most joyful, and the Necessity a most happy one. When the Historian speaks of his Roman, whom he seems to be transported with the thought of, and would have others to be transported too, whom he would set up for a Pattern of Honour and Probity, and describe for a Masterpiece of all the worthiest and the greatest things, he tells us that he was good, as for many other Reasons, so for this, that he could not be otherwise: And so the Original Constitution of her Soul was good, and then every thing afterwards must be such, as when that of the Body is sound, every thing must be healthful. Her Soul was none of those in Plato's Philosophy, which had offended in a former State, but it was one of them which resolve to offend as little as may be in this. The Bow was always bend, in Religious things, but never so as to break, and the Arrows that went out from it seldom failed to reach their Mark, the Glory of Him who intended and qualified her for the promoting of it.  
With all her Quickness of Apprehension, and all her Tenderness of Impressions as to other things, she seemed very insensible to Splendour and Show, to Greatness and Pleasure; Splendour was so far from dazzling her Eyes, that she scarce saw it, or took notice of it, and too Great she was in her Mind, to value the being Great in Condition. When others scorn things below them, she placed her disdain upon the highest things, and scorned nothing upon Earth but that part of it which others are so much in love with. The World which is said to have been made for all Mankind seemed to be something not made for her, and therefore only not for her, because when she deserved the best things it had to give, she at the same time aspired to better things than she here could find. She lived in a Region far above the Pleasures of the World, too far to be touched by them, or affected by any influence from them, they did not move her but when she saw others too much moved, too eager admirers of them: Or she only looked upon them, as Spectators do on something which appears extraordinary, they stand by unconcerned themselves, and bear no part in the Show. Her Humility all who saw her could not choose but know, and all who knew could not choose but admire. And would not any one have coveted for a time a mean Appearance, that he might give the occasion for the exercise of her greater Humility, and might have the Satisfaction of its being exercised upon himself? Would not any one almost be the the lowest Person in Condition, when she seemed to counterfeit the being so in the lowest Condescension, who affected or pretended to be nothing else she was not? All the while her Greatness was seen through her Humility, and she had new advantage from the Disguise itself, if she could have wanted any, as the Roman who refused the Statue had much more honour than those who accepted it. It was said of some Emperors, that they would then only have deserved the Empire, if they had never possessed it, so much better they were before then afterwards: If she had never been great, she would have deserved to be so upon a better Reason, because she once was great to very good purpose, and the after-act was so far from debasing, that it enhanced the Merit.  
She ruled her Family, as Deborah governed Israel, and with a Justice and a Wisdom like to hers. Was she not truly a Sister to the Virtuous Woman, of whom Solomon said, Who can find her? We may say, we have found her; 
Prov. 31.10.14.27, 28.  and we hope we may not say, we have lost her again, when there are so many like her; some by whose example she was made so good, and others made such by her own. Her price was far above rubies, she was like the Merchant's ships (that are laden with Treasure) she looked well to the ways of her Household, and O that she had reached the latter Part of the Description, as she went beyond it in the other Parts, that her Children had risen up, and (as every one besides always did) had call●d her blessed!  
Her praying had an influence of Piety on those who knew it, and another of advantage on those who knew it not, that is, all Mankind, she prayed for all; they felt the Virtue, as we often do from good Angels, without being instructed from whence it came: And thus, as in other respects, she loved to surprise the World, to do good, without being named or declared to do it. We may still hope for continued and new advantages from her former Devotions, from those on Earth, though we expect not any known and particular and express Benefit from those in Heaven; as many hundred years after the Death of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of David, God for their sakes was kind to Israel, He loved, and He forgave. When she was not seen by others, she was useful to them in her Prayers; when they saw her, she was so in her actions; for would not others choose to put on the Garb which they saw she wore, and which appeared so graceful upon her, and so she would turn the Virtue into a Fashion? They had often met with Temptations to Evil, and too often gone along with them when they met them: But now the allurement and the inviting part is placed on the better side, because they had this new Argument for their being good, that, till they were so, they were not fitted for her Company, which was as well a Delight as an Honour to those she gave it to, and was as much their Interest to covet, as it would be their Pleasure to enjoy. Every thing but Vice had the best treatment from her, and Vice had the best which Virtue could allow it, which her Zeal for Reformation could give it, and which her Prudence could think necessary for her to pay, and for that to receive. It was always a Force upon her, not to appear obliging; It was another, to be so to any thing which was not Innocent and like herself, unless when she had that delight, which was to her a great one, the Opportunity and the Hope of making it what it was not; and then this latter Force was less than the other, because here the Good was greater than the Evil, the Delight she was caressed with, than the Violence which she suffered.  
All her Merit, as described before, and all her Conduct in her Family, and every where, could be unknown to few, but were more within the Knowledge of, and had a just Value from the Master of that Family, as the Heavenly Bodies have an influence upon those on Earth at the greatest Distance; but only they who live nearer to the Heat have the more peculiar effects in Fruits and Jewels, and all the Glories of Wealth and Pleasure. Her Lord was ready to resign to her the Government of the House, not only as the Assyrian King did that of his People to his Queen, for three days, but for ever; the Length of the Government would have enlarged his satisfaction in resigning it, if it could have been as long as it would have been Wise and Good. He saw with Pleasure the several Wheels of his Affairs going round in their true, and calm, and regular Motion, and with so much more pleasure, because he saw the goodly Hand which touched those Wheels and moved them. The Heart of her Husband, says Solomon, 
Prov. 31.11.  does safely trust in her; His Heart not only had a Reliance placed upon her prudent Faithfulness, but its passions of the better sort upon all her Perfections: These were by him daily seen, and not made cheap upon their being so, nor contemned because familiar; indeed the value for them could not be the less, when new treasures daily were discovered. But I must not pretend to draw all those kinder motions of Soul, and all the softer Inclinations of two united Minds, if they may be called two, in the Conjugal State: thrice happy they who have them, few so happy as to be capable of representing them: They want Language themselves for those Passions, however their own, and the repining Lovers complain of the Narrowness of Expression, and they have only this Relief, that their Thoughts are almost understood by one another, and Words are supplied by Thoughts: Others then may well be contented to want Expression, and to be silent, to have the Pleasure of beholding what they have not the Faculty of describing.  
A King of Judah was to set his house in order, but then he had sickness, and he had a Prophet to give him warning, Thus saith the Lord, thou shalt die, and not live. 
Isa. 38.1.  Without any warning, but what she had always in her Mind, she had set her house in order, all things to that time were adjusted, and sorry we are, the Parallel between this King and her cannot be advanced so far, that years should be added to her Life, as there were to his; and there would have been the Prayers and Tears of others for the Enlargement of her time, as there were his for the Renewing of his own.  
I have now done the thing, which she did herself much better, who had the best way of doing every thing, I have given her of the Fruit of her hands, 
Prov. 31.31.  though her own works praised her in the gates, not only in those of her own House, but in the Gates of the Court and of the City. I would not consider Beauty; to do so might seem a Distrust, as if I had not enough to fill up the Character without it; where it is considered, it scarce fills up there, it may be thrown in, and yet make no addition, Beauty in one Sex, like Wealth in the other, may be a Convenience, but is no Perfection, it is far from being that Perfection which my Text proposes to us. I would not here name it otherwise then as it shown us what there was within, or as that seemed to be a graceful Curtain drawn before it; Thus was the King's Daughter all glorious within, 
Ps. 45.13.  and her clothing too, her outside was of wrought gold. So much the less would I speak of Beauty, because it gives us too moving a Remembrance of her Body, and the Frailty of it, we would forget her Frailty, and remember only our own: I have all this time represented her Mind alone, and the Describing of that entertains us with a cheerful Scene, for that is an immortal Part, and now it lives more than ever. The Picture is languid and pale, the Strokes are Weak, and the Colours faint; this Likeness of her Soul too much resembles the present Condition of her Body: Or rather it is not so much like her, as something like a Picture of her, and we may have Comfort, if not Pleasure, when we cast our Eye upon it; as some who have been curious to trace up things to their first beginnings and original Reasons, affirm, that Painting was invented to deceive the Grief and the kind Desires of Men, to restore Friends and Heroes to us after Death, that they who excelled in Virtue and reigned in the Affections of Mankind, by a delightful Mistake, may seem to be alive, and we to behold them.  
She who is so much in our Thoughts, and so much deserves to be in one of the best places there, appeared (whether she would or no) highly Good in her Life, but still more did she appear so at her Death, in her Papers left behind her, as the Riches of some wealthy Men are discovered, when they die, to be so much greater than we did imagine. But alas! how dear bought was this our Knowledge! We could have been contented to have known no more of her Piety than what we saw in her Life, when that Piety was so great, and that Life so valuable. Was there need of her Death, like that of a Martyr, for the propagating of Religion, as once the Blood of the best Christians was the seed of the Church? Was she to bequeath her Piety to others in Writing, and as it were by Will? These Papers, (like those of a late Noble Lady, and directed, as a Letter from the other World, to her Lord,) were far more valuable than such as are often left by the Learned, to amuse the World afterwards with Posth●mous Books. The reading of the Psalms, and other parts of Scripture, which was the daily Exercise of Primitive Saints, was to her a daily Duty, and the performing of this Duty was the last composed Action of her Life, as Religion was the first thing and the last in her Thoughts: And so she went forth from her Closet, as a Great General goes out from his Tent to Fight, she went forth to begin her encounter with Death, when she first had taken not only St. Paul's Shield of Faith, and Helmet of Salvation, but his Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. How suitable were the Psalms for this Day, for this her Great Day of Trial! As at the time of the Death of King Charles the First, the Second Lesson for the Morning Service was an History of the Crucifying of Christ, and read before the King; he asked the Bishop, who attended him in his last Hours, whether he had chosen that too suitable Lesson for that too sad occasion; the Bishop answered, It was no choice, but the Day of the Month, and the Order of the Liturgy had presented it. Another Excellent Person, and not less so for being nearly related to that good Prince, whose Piety was as great as his Misfortunes, heard the last Sermon upon that Text, Heb. 12.1. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses, etc. That is, of such, whom, as in the Chapter before, The world was not worthy of, and who all died in Faith, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the Earth. The First Psalm of the other fatal Day we speak of, the 139th, gins with a lively Acknowledgement of that which Governed her, that which she seemed to think of always in her Actions, God's Presence in every place, and His Knowledge of every thing; O Lo d, thou hast searched me, and known me, Thou knowest my down-sitting, th●u understandest my Thoughts afar off, Thou compassest my path, and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. In the same Psalm there is afterwards a praising of God for our Birth, as every one besides herself had cause to praise God for hers; I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth: And then alas, her Substance thus curiously form was soon to be dissolved. In the next Psalm, the 140th. she read these words and her condition made them her own, O God the Lord, the strength of my Salvation, thou hast cov red my head in the day of Battle; That was indeed to her the Day of Battle: And, Surely the righteous shall give thanks to thy N●me, and the up ight shall dwell in thy presence; Then was she ready to go into, and dwell in the Presence of God, and to have that new occasion of giving Thanks unto his Name. In the other Psalm, the 141st. she found something very grateful, because very agreeable to her own eager Devotion L●rd I cry unto th●e, make haste un●o me, than would there be need for her crying, and for God's making haste to her, Give ear unto my voice wh●n I cry un●o thee, let my prayer be s●t forth before thee as Incense, and the lifting up of my Hands as the Evening Sacrifice: She never failed to offer that Incense, and that Sacrifice too, not only the Evening, but the Morning one. Had she indeed offered so much, that she at last had nothing left to offer, but herself, and so she became herself a Sacrifice? An Evening Sacrifice, for than was the Night coming upon her, in which no man can work. Her Prayer was truly Incense, for never was any thing more sweet, it was made up of the Breathe of her Soul, never had any thing a more Sovereign and Refreshing Smell; Warm it was, like that burning at the Altars, and as Incense, it was diffusive, and spread all around her, in the Virtue of it, this (as the other things she did) was an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God. 
Phil. 4.18.  In the same Psalm, says David afterwards, Our bones lie scattered at the Graves mouth, but mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord, in thee is my trust, leave not my Soul destitute: She was concerned for her Soul, her Body which every one else thought worthy of Care, had little from her, and when it was at the Graves Mouth, she would scarce have opened her own, for its deliverance, if she were to have considered, as she seldom did, herself alone. The Lesson she read was 1 Thess. 4. which thus gins, Furthermore than we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of us, how you ought to walk, and to please God, so you would abound more and more: v. 1. She had walked, and had pleased God, and she had abounded more and more, but she was not to do so any longer here, she was to make her advances in higher Degrees, and with more ease and security, in the state of abundance and infinite Perfection. The latter part of the Chapter speaks of Death, and of Sorrow for it; And was she to departed in peace, upon the reading of that Word, as Simeon did upon the fulfilling of another? The Heathen coveted Death, when he had read Plato's Book of the Immortality of the Soul; and so did the suffering Christians, the Noble Army of Martyrs, when they had heard God speaking to them from the Scriptures, as in ancient History, the Soldiers are said to do upon the encouraging Orations of their Leaders; They died upon the strength of God's Word, as they before had acted by the directions of it, and therefore the demanding of their Bible was to them the worst sort of persecution, as the delivering of it was a worse degree of Apostasy, they were ready to surrender their neglected Lives, but never would resign their Sacred Books. The abovesaid Chapter goes on thus, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others who have no hope.  
She had all the hope for herself, should then others grieve as if they had none? For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again for us, even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him, v. 14. And v. 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. These were the last words she read in her beloved Book, that of Scripture, and they were, you hear, words of Comfort, but they were directed to others, she had less need of comfort herself then others, and we are to comfort one another with these words. I would not imagine that, as some have thought upon the opening of a Page in H●mer and Virgil, there were any presages Divine and Extraordinary in the thing; but there may be intimations of comfort in the Accident, and so however there was only Chance, it was at least a good one.  
Thus her End was Peace; It's being so, is the Third thing to be considered.  
It was this Peace which spoke those Words, Nothing has frighted me, nothing troubles me, I trust in God, I do, I do, and these words spoke again and declared this Peace; the gracious words which proceeded out of her mouth, and very few afterwards proceeded out of it, which yet could not speak too many, nor could we be too much hearers of them.  
Her End must be Peace, when every thing before was so, her Life was Peace with herself, in the Innocence and Calmness of her Mind, with God, in the Purity and Sincerity of her Actions, with Mankind, in all the lovely Meekness of her Behaviour. Peace must be the End, where living as She lived was the Business. So Prudent she was in the Management of the Things of this World, that she had therefore a new Title to the Bliss of another, as he who shows all the Conduct in a Lower Office deserves the Advancement to an Higher one. 
Luke 16.10, 11.  So He who was faithful in that which is least was to be faithful also in much, and the true Riches were committed only to his trust, who had been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon. And, Mat. 25. The mighty Lord of the Family professed to him who had improved the fewer Talents by the Skill and the Industry of the Use, Well done, thou good and faithful Servant, thou hast been faithful over few things, 
v. 21.  I will make thee ruler over many things, enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord. That the Perfect and Upright Person for whom we mourn, for whom we cannot indeed do otherwise, should keep Accounts so even and strict with Men, was in her a Part of Religion as well as of Wisdom; at the same time a lower Resemblance and a true Effect of her keeping all things even and strict with God in the Impartial Account of her daily Actions: To be Just was but a mean Thing to her, whom Sweetness of Soul joined to the Tenderness of Religion disposed so much to be Charitable; and how much in her the Best Principles of Nature and the Highest of Religion prevailed, her Charity was an Evidence, and the Poor are Witnesses. Her wise Government of her Family prepared her for that Heaven, where all things are done in Order, and according to the Methods of true Reason and steady judgement, and her Government of herself within (that of the Mildest Spirit) prepared her for the Place above, the Scat of Love and Music, Her so Pious keeping of the Day, which at this time we keep, for the enjoying of the Rest which remains to the people of God, and for the Celebrating of the Sabbath which she has now begun, and which shall never end. Her being Innocent, Unspotted and White, made her fit to converse with the Elders who are clothed in white Robes, 
Rev. 7.9  with the Virgins in whose mouth is found no guile, 
Rev. 14.5. Eph. 5.27.  and with that glorious Church which has not spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. Her Zeal, her Constancy in Worship disposed her to be of one Choir with them, 
Rev. 7.15.  who are before the Throne of God, and serve him day and night in his Temple. As no Priest can be more dedicated to God by his Order, than she was by her Inclination, so her daily reading of one part of the Office of the Church, and being thus a Priest to herself recommended her to a Place with them, 
Rev 5. & 9, 10.  who sing a new Song, saying, Thou hast made us to our God Kings and Priests, and they have every one of them Harps, and golden Vials full of Odours, which are the Prayers of the Saints I might thus go on, and at the same time show, what her Actions were, and what in a natural Course they tended to, and that was Heaven, 
Ps. 5.8.  and so, in David's Phrase, Her way thither was made straight before her face: This attempt may well be a Part of my Undertaking, because I cannot think of a Person eminently righteous, when Dead, but I must in that instant think of Heaven, as when I remember one that is absent, whom I have great regard for, I cannot but think of the Place which has the Presence that I want and sigh for. Indeed Heaven was to be the end of her Actions, which was the Object of her Thoughts, for Actions rife from Thoughts, and then must have a likeness to them, as waters have to the Fountain from whence they flow, and how good must her Actions be, which flowed from such Thoughts as those of her Mind always were. She was not to have the Pleasure of Knowing before that she was to die, it was enough to have that of enjoying afterwards what should follow Death; She must not have the Pleasure, that others might not have the trouble, the lengthened pain of the notice, and she was not apt to think herself happy in any thing which others thought troublesome to themselves. She was not otherwise surprised with Death, then as we often are with something Joyful and Great, which is not less welcome, because less expected. She was not to leave a Child behind her, in pity to us, that we who had so many other occasions might not have this to bleed anew in our wounds, to remember the First Self in the Second; There was less need of any Child from her, who has left Pledges of herself yet more Noble, a whole race of multiplied Virtues, and there was more glory to her, that in this as in other respects she might be now more like the Angels of God in Heaven (where she is) who have no Offspring, 
Mat. 22.30.  and are Immortal in themselves without the help of Children to make them so. The Writer of the Book of Wisdom speaks of a Woman Righteous and Childless, 
Wis. 3.13, 14, 15.  She shall have fruit in the Visitation of Souls, and of such a Man, To him shall be given the special Gift of Faith, and an Inheritance in the Temple of the Lord more acceptable to his Mind, for glorious is the Fruit of good labours, and the Root of Wisdom shall never fall away. Better it is to have no Children, and to have Virtue, 
Wis. 4.1, 2.  for the memorial thereof is immortal, because it is known with God and with Men; when it is present, men take example from it, and when it is gone they desire it, it weareth a Crown, and triumpheth for ever, having gotten the victory, striving for undefiled rewards.  
The private Peace, which was at all times within her Breast, was lately so much more, because there was a Public one; that she at her Death, as the Angels at Christ's Birth, she at her going up to Heaven, as they at their coming down from thence, might praise God, and say, 
Luke 2.13, 14.  Glory to God in the Highest, and in Earth Peace, Good will towards men. But was she to be offered upon the return from War, as the Daughter of Jephthah was, 
Jud. 11.31.38.40  the mighty Man of valour, who had declared, Whatsoever cometh forth of the Doors of my house to meet me, when I return in Peace from the Children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lords? She offered herself to God, when Living; must she, when Dying, be made an Offering too, like the Lambs and Turtles under the Law? The Daughter of Jephthah had two Months allowed her to bewail her fate upon the Mountains, there were not two Days here: The Daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the Daughters of Jephthah four days in a Year; the Daughters and the Sons of Israel lament in the case before us, and not four days only, not in an Yearly, but a Daily course of Mourning.  
And now perhaps my Hearers will say, With all those Perfections, wherein you have pronounced her Perfect and Upright, there was one thing too Imperfect, that was her Life, that too short; Young she was, and Young she died, alas as Young as Good; Eighteen Years and Eighteen Days; How narrow a Space for something of so Great a Compass to be contracted, bound up, and restrained to! This should be no more a grievous thing, than it is, that any one should run a Race in a little time, and win the Prize, when the very running in less time does win it; So run that you may obtain, and then you may be concerned no farther, not for yourselves, not for others. She was the more a Wonder, that she thus soon should become thus Excellent, and such Excellence was a particular Mark of God's Favour, as it was the peculiar Gift thereof: She must receive it from Him alone, when there was not the usual course of Time and long method of Discipline for the attainment of it, as Miracles are not wrought by slow, by natural and common ways. Therefore you read, 
v. 7. to 18.  Wisdom 4 Though the righteous be prevented with Death, yet shall he be in rest, for Honourable Age is not that which standeth in length of Time, nor that is measured by number of Years, but Wisdom is the Grey Hair unto Men, and unspotted Life is Old Age, (And then how Old was she, of whose short Life we so much complain!) Yea speedily was Enoch taken away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding, and dece●t beguile his Soul, He being made perfect in a short tim●, fulfilled a long time, This the people saw, and under stood it not, neither laid they up this in their Minds, That God's Grace and Mercy is with His Saints, and that he hath respect to His chosen. Thus the righteous who is dead shall condemn the ungodly who are living, and youth which is soon perfected, the many years and old age of the unrighteous; for they shall see the end of the wise, and shall not understand what God in his Counsel hath decreed for him, and to what end the Lord hath set him in safety. And Ecclus. 41. Fear not the sentence of death, 
Ecclus. 41 3, 4.  remember them who h●ve been before thee, and who come after, for this is the Sentence of the Lord over all flesh, And why art tho● against the pleasure of the most High? for there is no inquisition in the grave, whether thou hast lived t●n, or an hundred, or a thousand years. Indeed the hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of Righteousness, 
v. 31.  Prov. 16. But Righteousness at any time is a Crown of Glory, it is to the head which is not hoary, so much more to this, when the Righteousness has not, like that of Old Age, the sins of Youth to deface it, not the necessities of approaching Death to lessen it, and has only the Graces and Charms of Virtue to recommend it, not the Experiments and Evils of Vice to force it. Here was a Bloom of Age, but then here was a Ripeness of the two best Fruits which grew in the Garden of Eden, and now in the Wilderness of the World, Virtue and Wisdom, as in some hotter Countries a Blossom is seen upon one part of the Tree, and ripe Fruit upon the other. And so in this Sense too, Isaiah's Prophecy is fulfilled, The Child shall die an hundred years old; 
Isa. 65.20.  and his Question is answered, Who hath heard such a thing,? Who hath seen such things? 
Isa. 66.8.  Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day, or shall a Nation be born at once? He who in few days made all the World, might well in few years make her that which He would accept, and He would love, and here too, as after the Creation, He in a pleasing Review, saw that which He hide wade, 
Gen. 1.41  and behold it was very good. Gen. 1.12. She had all the Grandeur and comely Gravity of the Roman Matrons, when she had the Youth of their Daughters, her Age we could much rather have desired to have been that of the Mothers. How beautiful should we have thought Old Age in her, if we could have seen it there! How charming had wrinkles been in her Face, and each deeper Line upon her Cheek had given us a fairer Prospect than the most fruitful Valleys! We could indeed have wished her Life, and when once we had entered upon the wish, we know not when and where we should have ceased, nor how we could have disengaged ourselves again from a Thought so entertaining; As there is a Great Prince near the Empire of Moscovy, for whom his Subjects have so high a Veneration, that they are not willing to believe him Mortal, but please themselves with an extravagant Notion, that he has been the same from many Ages, and will be so to many more, and there shall be no other Change upon him, than such as follows that of the Moon; in the Full Moon, they say, he appears an Old Man, in the New again a Young one in the Public Temple, and in the view of all his People.  
As there was little Time allowed to her Life, so you may think, there was too little to her Death. But then her Death, which may seem surprising, was no more an Evil, than that Change shall be, the sudden Change of those who shall be living upon Earth when Christ comes to Judgement, and who shall be changed in a moment, in th● twinkling of an ●ye, 
1 Cor. 15.51, 52.  at the last Trumpet And, as in that very Chapter, which was the last read by her, who had read so many, They who are alive and remain, shall be caught up in the Clouds to me●t the Lord in the air, 
1 Thess. 4, 17.  and so shall they ever be with tin Lord. Nor is there any Evil supposed in being caught up thus, and snatched away, for St. Paul presently says, 
v. 18.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words, and he is willing himself to be of the same number, and in the same condition, he speaks twice as of himself, Then we (as if he were to be included) We who are alive, etc. There is not Anger or Punishment, 
v. 15, 17.  but Favour and Blessing in the Death of the Righteous which has not long Solemnity, and so much Ceremony; as Princes often come to tyre Houses of Favourites in a private manner, without Pomp and Train. So Wisdom 4.14. Enoch's Soul pleased the Lord, therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked. Love is eager as well as Wrath, and there is a Kindness as well as a Fury, which hastens, and which does the thing without Delays and Forms. The Righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, the merciful men are taken away, 
Isa. 57 ●.  none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evil to come (From the snares of Life, from the calamities and from the sins of the World) He shall enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds. And can we enter into peace too soon? Does any one think it a misfortune, that, when he is weary, he should hasten to his Bed? The Prophet calls our Graves by a Name so very soft as that of Beds; And yet our Notion of them is to outdo that Name, they are yet more soft than these, for a Bed may have Feverish Nights and raging Pains, broken Sleeps and unpleasant Dreams, but there will be case in the Grave, there will be nothing to disturb it. Indeed I never read the Funeral Service with more passionate resentments, than over the Tomb, and the Remains of this wonderful Lady; with what Regret did we all leave them behind us, seeing every thing besides had left us, and there was nothing of her upon Earth but these, as the Mantle fell from Elijah, when he went up to Heaven by the hasty conveyance of a whirlwind, and in the glaring pomp of a flaming Chariot? And yet in the same Service, and at the same time, we gave God hearty Thanks, because it had pleased Him to deliver this our Sister out of the miseries of this sinful World; the sinfulness of it was to her the greatest of its miseries, that seemed to her a Disease, but it was not a contagious one, she was not infected with the Evil, though she was discomposed upon the view. Our complaining is to be less, that she who was always Honoured, and is now desired by all, should die so very soon, than our Rejoicing, that once she lived, as when a new Star is seen, and then seen no more, the Philosopher does not repine that it is no longer visible, but with all the nicest pleasure he inquires into the Light and Influence, and Motion, and all the Properries of it, which could be observed while it it did appear.  
I want no Warrant from any one for the giving all this Praise, I should have wanted Pardon from myself, if I had not given it, and the only evil, I know, is this, that there should be now occasion, as there was always reason, 
Prov. 31.30.  for it. Can I have need of a Warrant, Solomon himself has one ready for me, The woman that feareth the Lord shall he praised: And the wise Son of Syrach has another, when he seems to summon all those who have any worth of their own, or who love it, and have had any advantage by it in others, to a Consort of Praise; Let us now praise Famous Men, 
Ecclus 44 12. 34.7, 8.15.  The Lord hath wrought great glory by them, through his great power from the beginning, Such as gave counsel by their understanding, Were leaders of the people by their Counsels, wise and eloquent in their instructions, All these were honoured in their Gen●rations, and were the Glory of their Times, They have left a Name behind them, that their praises might be reported, The people will tell of their wisdom, and the Congregation will show forth their praise. Indeed we are safe in the praises we give, and others in those they hear, without danger of imposing on them in the believing, and on ourselves in the Action, when we do not; as the ancient Panegyrists, teach the Persons praised what they should be, but others what they are, and what they themselves ought to be. The defects of him who performs forms the Office, and in his manner of performing it, suppose not any defect in nor bring any disadvantage upon the Person for whom it is performed, because we are to imagine a greater and more commanding Worth, where the Dignity of the Matter does raise the lowest Genius to the unequal attempt, and where, to give just Praise to another, a Man will generously forfeit his own, as, to pay a great Debt to another, we sometimes leave nothing to ourselves.  
Thus died, as you have heard, the Devout and the Good, the Worthy and the Honourable, after a Life full of Merit, though not of Years, a Life which deserves far greater things than you yet have heard. And how could we so much as say, she is Dead, much less bear the painful Reflection upon her being so, if there were not an allay to the thought of the Evil from this manner of it? Did I call it an Evil? If Death be any, may we suppose it to be that so much less, since she passed through the Iron Gates and all the gloomy Solemnities of it, as wherever she came she used to leave something of advantage to those who should come after her, and every thing was always the better for her? To die standing was the great Roman's desire; It Would have been hers to have died rather Kneeling, not only in her preferring the last of her many Prayers on Earth to her God, 
Acts 7.59, 60.  as St. Stephen fell asleep calling upon God, but in the lowest Submission to the Stroke, as her Saviour bowed his head, and gave up the Ghost. 
Joh. 19.30.  She died (if that be a Thing so pleasant, as to be repeated) and then her Soul went upwards, and took its boundless slight, not, as that of the Emperor from the Funeral Pile, on the Wings of an Eagle, but on those of Angels: And we may well imagine, there was joy in Heaven, when she came, 
Luke 1.5, 7.  though, like the ninety and nine just persons, she had before less need of repentance.  
May we not pass now from her, who was never before an unpleasant Subject? And yet why must she now begin to be so? Why should the Subject, when She is named, be Unpleasant now, seeing the Condition which she is installed in, is Glorious for ever? And then should we shed our tears over her, and not over ourselves alone, who are not in the same blissful State which she in, and yet envy it not to her who wishes it to us, to all? As our dying, Lord declared to the relenting Sex, 
Luke 23.28.  Ye Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves; He, from whom the Dead have all their Bliss, and from whom alone we are to expect it. That we may be fitted and in a just Capacity for it, We will pass from her to ourselves.  
1. Seeing we are to Mark and Behold her as Perfect and Upright, I would by the pleasing View of this Beautiful Pattern raise a Spirit of Piety in others who want it, and raise it higher in those who have it; And seeing Life, in the Best, is a thing so uncertain and so short, I would have that glorious hope of moving those who are not good to consider with what hazard they are not, and those who are to remember with what present advantage they are such, in their having longer time for all the most enlarged improvements. The Lamp which the Philosopher used in his Studies, the effects whereof had been so great in his Writings, was purchased, after his Death, at the highest price: But now there is the same Light for others, without Price and Expense, to read and to walk by, which this Holy Person used to read good Books by in her Closet, and to direct all her motions in the World; there is more Light than she had, a new one, for there is that of her Example, and, if they do not use it, their guilt is greater, it began to be so from the day that they had such an Example. this I am unwilling to say, for it is a much more pleasing Office, not only to him to whom it is done, but to him who does it, to congratulate a Reformation, than to reprove a Fault, as it is more delightful to see the recovery from a danger, than to give notice of it; there is no such matter of Joy in representing the Fault greater by its aggravations, as in the Sinner's making it less by his change. When the Jewish Writer had bewailed the end of an unhappy and vicious Woman (for such there were among the Jews) he comes at last to this practical Conclusion, and then directs it to all who survived her, They who remain shall know that there is nothing better than the fear of the Lord, 
Ecclus. 23 27.  and that there is nothing sweeter than to take heed to the Commandment of the Lord. May not we make use of the same Conclusion, and with the same Address, but with greater satisfaction, because upon the death of one who was the Reverse of that careless daughter of Zion, who was severely and bravely good in the midst of all the disadvantages, indeed, of things which seldom have so ill a name as that, and should never deserve it, I mean Youth and Beauty, Wit and Honour, and that Enchanting. Prospect of a very wealthy Fortune, which being in our view, does often so fill out Eye, that we see nothing besides it?  
2. Seeing her End was Peace, shall we then bewail it with that excess which is to be reserved for those alone, whose End is not such? When her Death was Peace, Shall our Life be otherwise? Her End was Peace, and her Condition will be so for ever: We have joyful Reasons, in the midst of all this Grief, for that assurance. You have heard the last Chapter she read, (Sorry I am, that I must call any thing she did, the last) and you know the instructions thereof: But was she indeed to resign her unstained and lovely Soul, that there might be a present want of this Relief to our own, that we might thus (not so much at her cost, as ours) begin the too early execution of the advice which that Chapter gives us?  
3. Let Peace not only be her End in possession, but ours in Reversion: Let our Life be perfect and upright, that our going out of it, may be joyful and assured, and that in the mean time our Prayer may be so too; And then we may pray (as in the Funeral Office) that we with all those who are departed in the true Faith of God's Holy Name may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and Soul, in his everlasting Glory. Let us all pray, as the once living Saint always did, most devoutly, and (as in the Prayer, which now presently follows in the Service of the Church) being reconciled at last to our Loss, and bowing down to the black Decrees of Providence, let us, in a change of Language and of Passions, Bless God's Holy Name for all his Servants departed this Life in his Faith and Fear, beseeching Him to give us Grace so to follow their good Examples, that with them we may be partakers of His Heavenly Kingdom; Grant this, O Father, for Jesus Christ's sake our only Mediator and Advocate.  
Now the God of Peace, 
Heb. 13.20, 21.  who brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the Sheep, through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant, make you perfect in every good Work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom (with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost) be Glory for ever And ever, Amen.  
FINIS.