the world a publick Testimony of the honour I owe to both the Families to which this Excellent Personage concerne in them stood Related both tha whence she was Descended an that whereinto she was by marriage Engraffed And being thus betwixt importunity and inclination prevailed withal to run this risqu◠I hope I have in the reasons 〈◊〉 both given a general account 〈◊〉 the fitness of my entituling you to the Patronage of them But withal Right Honourable there is something also of peculiar in the claim which on your Honours behalf may be made unto them For you Madam as you blessed the world with the Subject of the Narrative from your Womb so you furnished me also with the Argument of the Sermon from your mouth in a Text which among other expressions savouring of a well seasoned spirit dropped from your lips at the arrival of the sad tidings of your dear Daughters departure And I the rather chose to make it the Subject of my Discourse upon that sad Occasion because your noble Example in the often practise of the Lesson contained in it accommodated me with a notable Instance of its practicableness Q. sextius habet quod ostendat tibi beatae vitae magnitudinem desparationem ejus non faciet Ep. 64. it being a great advantage to the ingratiating of any Duty when we can by some great example deliver it as Seneca speaks in another case from the suspicion of being impossible I have formerly admired at the Temper of that noble and learned Roman Lady Cornelia Nunquam ' ego me felicem non dixerim quae Gracchos pepererim Cicero de Consol the Daughter of the great Scipio and Mother of the Gracchi of whom Tully reports that when she had lost her Son Caius a very hopeful Gentleman in his very prime and in him her twelfth Child she brake out into this gallant Expression that she would nevertheless alwaies esteem her self an happy woman in that she had had the honour to be the Mother of such Children But I have of late learned to lessen this wonder having seen her herein out-shined by one no less noble and learned than she and that is your self who in much a parallel case have demeaned your self with a far greater because a truly Christian Fortitude And indeed Madam if ever any Mother had reason to take Comfort from such a Consideration you have in that though you have survived divers of your Children yet have you withal had the happiness to see them all signally vertuous even beyond their years and consequently also the Argument of an ample Assurance of their eternal felicity in their early maturity and fitness for it In which respect how can it indeed be other than an infinite satisfaction to you that in sending so many Children to the place of happiness before you you are as it were glorified by piece meal and instead of planting Families from your bowels on earth have contributed towards the planting of Colonies in Heaven instead of recruiting the Forces of the Church Militant have furnished the Trophies of the Church Triumphant and according to the judgment of some Divines of Note supplied the vacant seats of so many of the Apostate Angels with Saints descendant from you The usual distasts taken at this kind of Providence whether from the uncomely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is thought to make in nature which seems according to the Proverb to design the wearing out of the eldest first or from the disappointment of the common expectation that our liberi shall be posteri our Children live to shut our eies and receive our last breath and dying commands and keep up our Names and inherit our Estates and Honours when we are gone a kind of supplemental and subsidiary immortality which propagation in all species of Creatures seems to aim at and in a sort promise as part of amends for the Death of Individuals and whatever it is of the like nature which heightens vulgar passions are all such low and pitiful excuses of impatience and implicite blasphemies against the great Soveraign of the World that I cannot suspect the Heroical generosity of your spirit needs the assistance of any Considerations which yet both Morality and Christianity afford in great plenty to be suggested by me for the removal of them For you have made it sufficiently evident to all that know you that you are a person who do as the Philosopher saith fortius amare love your dearest temporal comforts more valiantly than so as experimenting the sweet only and not the soft impressions of that most powerful Affection And therefore without enlarging this Epistle into another Lecture of Christian submission to and Acquiescence in Divine Providence I only tender that of the following Sermon to your hands not so much in the nature of a Perswasive to your Duty as the Product of your Example And you My Lord by the dear affection which you have born to all the surviving Branches of that Noble Family and to this excellent Lady in particular ever since the decease of your noble Brother and their Father the late Earl of Huntingdon have rendred your self so much more than an Uncle to them that I fear I had not done you right had I not given your Name the very place that the Natural Father's had he lived might have claimed in this Dedication And I am withal the more hardened to this adventure which otherwise the little acquaintance I have with your Lordship might render presumptuous by the remembrance that when your Lordship rendred your self the principal attendant of these sacred Reliques to their Dormitory though the great hast of your affairs then enforced you to call for the Sermon before the day appointed and necessitated the delivery of it with some disadvantage by the surprize yet your goodness was pleased to give an ample testimony of your acceptance of my endeavours therein as having not only in some proportion discharged my Duty to the Living but also done something of Justice to the Dead And therefore I hope that what was then honoured with your acceptance when in that discomposure it had no higher ambition than to obtain your pardon may now having gained by a review something of more orderly composure though it yet fall much beneath the excellency of the Subject aspire to your Patronage also To conclude I shall ease both your Honours of the trouble this tedious Epistle hath given you when I have offered up a short Prayer on the behalf of all the surviving Relations of this excellent Lady viz. That God will enable them by his Grace to improve this sad Providence to their utmost advantage which will be best done by copying out her Vertues in their own practise considering That Domestical examples of eminent Goodness as they reflect an honourable lustre upon the Families from which they are extracted Saints adding a greater glory to any Pedigree than Princes so ought they into them especially who are
Rivers to their Fountains which Heathen Antiquity alwaies honoured with a kind of Divinity for blessing the world with so plentiful and lasting a succession of beneficial streams The descent therefore of this precious Lady was from an eminently noble Family the House of Huntingdon the Earldom whereof hath continued so long in the name of HASTINGS that by meer Age it hath worn out most of those that preceded in the Catalogue of English Earls and now in the Person of her hopeful Brother sets its foot upon the seaventh Round from the very Top of that scale of Honour And yet this humble Lady whiles she lived made so little reckoning thereof that she was never known either in word or carriage to shew any elation of spirit upon that account which would have tempted many others to divers disdainful and insolent extravagancies Nor was she ever observed discontentedly to behold her self exceeded by the affected pomps of Equipage and Retinue of divers inferiour to her in Quality as desiring not to contend with any in so extravagant a vanity as that which besides its offensiveness to others would be needlesly burdensome to her Husband Yea when her Husband sometimes modestly excused the tenuity of the condition she had espoused by marrying where she found an Heir in being to a great part of the Estate in comparison of what she descended from she would interrupt that discourse with professing the high satisfaction she took to find her self in such a state of life wherein she had both liberty and assistance to all works of severe Piety and withall the addition of an honourable and comfortable worldly competency The consideration whereof hath prevailed with me to pass over this head with so slight a touch And yet I could not but touch it partly for the lasting honour of that noble Family to which it may be some accession to have yielded the world so eminent an example of all manner of vertue and partly that in so notable an Instance this dreggy age of ours base enough indeed of it self but withal too much sowred into a contempt of nobility by the scandalous debaucheries of too many nobilia portenta as Valerius Maximus calls the degenerous Issue of the famous old Romans whose noble extractions serve for nothing else but to make their vices more notable may be convinced that at least some noble ones are called 1 Cor. 1. 26. and that vertue and grace may be grafted on a stock of Honour the same person being as St. Austin said of Demetrias both nobilis genere Epist ad Prob. Julian and nobilior sanctitate ennobled by the first birth but more by the second having both that nobility that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that bloud in the veins which is extracted from many noble and Princely Families and that grace in the heart which is no less than semen Dei the seed of God received from the regeneration of the Holy Ghost Her Education under which I comprise the greatest part of her time for she was not much above a year a Wife was in a School or rather Academy of Learning and Nursery of Vertue I mean the constant inspection and converse of her watchful Mother the now Countess of Huntingdon from whose great Parts and Graces she received in her soul that vis plastica which formed her into so eminent a both Woman and Christian Under ber she enjoyed an education for the most part in a religious retiredness which she hath often blessed God for as that which not only secured her from the knowledge of any vice by domestical example no such Citius nos corrumpunt vitiorum exempla domesticae Juv. Sat. thing daring to shew it self under that noble Ladies Government but also removed her from the very news of what evils were acted abroad so that she had the happiness Neque Pelopidarum facta neque nomen audire to be ignorant of the viciousness of other great personages even by hearsay And as for those Principles that might qualify her for a vertuous life as she had the opportunity of learning them from the practises of those she conversed withall so also and chiefly thence from the grave instructions of her said Lady-Mother who that the whole compass of her duty might be the more firmly impressed into memory took the pains to digest all the parts of it into Verse whereby she both consecrated an excellent vein of Poetry of her own and in the most facile manner insinuated them into the hearts and heads of both her and her Lady-Sisters Whence it is the less to be wondred at that she found her comfort in all of them to grow with their years but especially in this Lady who had a Soul so pliable and ductile to receive the impressions of so excellent a stamp as appeared by the proportionable improvements which she attained in every stage of her Life as we come now to relate And first For her Child-hood though I know Tully is reported to have said that it is the most difficult Est res diffieilis laudare puerum c. In fragm undertaking in all Oratory to commend a child because the most that can be said in such a case is rather spes than res matter of future expectation than present existence yet I shall tell you those realities even of that tender Age as had something of rare excellency in them besides the presage of what they promised for the future It is noted as a rare thing in young Timothy by Saint Paul himself that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a very suckling he had known the holy Scriptures 2 Tim. 3. 15. and from that precocious piety it is no wonder if we hear of certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prophetical predections that ushered him into the worlds observation as he grew up 1 Tim. 1. 18. ghesses it is likely what so pregnant a Child would grow to in time Nor was it less noted in this excellent Lady how early the seeds of true piety and devotion put forth not only into blade but blossom also and fruit insomuch that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too such impressions of the fear of God possessed her heart as made her a diligent performer of Religious Duties and a strict observer of the Lords Day to a degree of exactness beyond most persons and yet not beyond the Rule Is 58. 13. insomuch that she would neither discourse nor willingly hear others discoursing of any common or ordinary matters on that day And as she grew into more capacity so to this negative strictness she added a positive conformity to the rules of severest godliness in this particular not only hearing the word preached but digesting it by meditation and conference into her daily conversation being no less studious on that day especially to learn the mysteries of practical godliness than in those of the rest of the week to furnish her self with what other knowledge tended
and Good Noble and Humble met Learned and Modest Wit without Deceit That skil in Scriptures and in Tongues she got Made her a living Bible Polyglot These did not puff her up she did descend To the kind Offices of Wife and Friend Mother and Sister as if Ethicks were Not so much taught her as transcrib'd from her Oh what a glorious Creature and how rare A Saint 't would be that had what she could spare Where hath she left her Equals now in fame But in the Noble House from whence she came Too small alas where Vertues sacred Fire Retires in Embers Oh may 't ne're expire Dark Lanthorn of the most resplendent Light There is the Goshen all the rest is Night Alas our Pharos is blown out of late By which we did prosperously Navigate And trade both Indies for more precious wealth A nobler Traffique with Heav'n and her self But whilst we did expect so rich a Cargo Death on the sudden made this sad Imbargo We only expect a restitution there Where Saints shall be reveal'd th' Revelation clear William Langham An Elegy Upon the RIGHT HONOURABLE And MOST INCOMPARABLE LADY The Lady ELIZABETH LANGHAM Who departed this life March 28. 1664. COme sacred Muse assist my Quill With somewhat of your learned Skill Inspire my Fancy from on high Who to Parnassus ne'r came nigh Fear not the spleen of Criticks eie For Momus censure I defie Egg'd on with Duty Love and Zeal My unpractiz'd Muse I will reveal Look not for much from a small store She that gives all can give no more Proclaim I do our own sad Fate By what has faln out of late The Sun which makes a perfect Day Its influence took from her bright Ray Who while she here did make her stay Each minute had more worth than Day Belov'd admir'd ador'd by all No equal had since Adam's fall Descended of a Noble Line A Vertuosa most Divine The Royal blood ran in her veins And guiltless did admit no stains Her Fame was great and of Renown She to her Husband was a Crown No sand of time did e're slip by Without its action sweet as high Improving all the cost was spent On her Large souls ennoblement Of such a body as might vye With glorious ones in purity When she her eie-lids did display The Sun asham'd made hast away And we might see the Day-star rise Within the circuit of her eies Alone she stood in her bright sphear Not to be matched far or near All Beauties which might bless the sight Mixt with transparent Vertues light At once producing love and awe Her souls perfection had no flaw Discerning thoughts but a calm breast Most apt to pardon needing least Strict mild and humble great and good As all her Friends well understood Most pious in her life and death A Pattern to her latest breath Heav'n could not brook the earth should share A Pearl of such a Price so rare So good so wise so chast so blest Angels alone can speak the rest God took her hence betimes lest we Should fall to flat Idolatrie Anne Lumley Upon The much Lamented Death Of That most vertuous and Incomparable LADY ELIZABETH Daughter of the RIGHT HONOURABLE FERDINANDO Lord HASTINGS Earl of HUNTINGDON And Wife to the RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Sr. JAMES LANGHAM PAss not but wonder and amazed stand At this sad Tomb for here inclosed lie Such rare perfections that no tongue or hand Can speak them or pourtray them to the eie Such was her body such her soul divine Which hence ascended here hath left this shrine To tell her Princely birth and high descent And what by noble Huntingdon is meant Transcends the Heralds Art beyond the rules Of Ore or Argent Azure or of Gules To that Nobility her Birth had given A second added was deriv'd from Heaven Thence her habitual goodness solid worth Her piety her vertues blazon forth Her for a pattern unto after ages To be admir'd by all exprest by sages Who whilst they write of her will sadly sorrow That she did not survive to see their morrow So good in all Relations so sweet A Daughter such a loving Wife discreet A Mother though not hers not partial She lov'd as if they had been natural To the Earl and Ladies she a sister rare A Friend where she profest beyond compare Her hours were all precisely kept and spent In her devotions and her studies meant To share some for her languages which she In Latine French Italian happilie Advanced in with pleasure what do I Recount her parts her Memory speaks more Than what can be or hath bin said before It asks a Volume rather than a Verse Which is confined only to her Herse But now blest Soul She is arriv'd at Heaven Where with a Crown of life to her is given A new transcendent Name to th' world unknown Not writ in marble but the Saints white Stone Inthron'd above the stars with glory crown'd Enstal'd with bliss and Hallelujah's sound Bathshua Makin On the MEMORY Of the RIGHT HONOURABLE And VERTUOUS LADY The Lady ELIZABETH Late Wife to the worthy Sr. JAMES LANGHAM KNIGHT HIghly descended born of noblest bloud Yet one who Great was not more Great than good Skill'd in the Languages and in the Arts Acquired learning added to good parts Humble Grave modest and of temper sweet Wise to keep silence when as it was meet And knowing how as well to speak in season And then to guide her tongue with grace reason In place of a good Lady dead to come And so well to fill up the Vacuum By acting so the Wife and so the Mother One would have thought she had not bin another Acting both so as if the very same Mother and Wife deceas'd were come again So full of all the tend'rest love and care To two sweet Children which another bare To Husband so obsequious and so sweet In carriage that an help more meet He could not have And as to each Relation Wondrous obliging in her Conversation The meanest person That would not contemn That rashly would not any one condemn Who alwaies would interpret in best sense What others use to rack with violence Easie to pardon other's faults and yet Severe in those laws which t' her self she set One to the poor that did draw forth her soul So much their pinching wants she would condole What time some of her Rank do set a part To Cards and Plays who spent to search her heart To read and pray and to converse with God With whom she hop'd once for a blest abode The Sun did not more duly set and Rise Than she kept constant to this Exercise The Lords Day was her joy his word her meat Which she not only Read and Heard but Eat But where 's the Subject unto which this throng Of Epithets and Adjuncts doth belong Is she i' th' Land of Living Alas No She might have been seen here some months ago She was How sad a word 's this
Was woes me This blessed Lady Elizabeth was she Hasting to Heaven she touch't by the way At Crosby-House where we hop'd she would stay But fondly Of a suddain she took flight Heav'n ward and 's gone she 's quite gone out of sight Into the World she came it 's vanity She saw contemn'd and withdrew presently T. B. In Obitum Illustrissimae Heroinae Dominae ELIZABETHAE LANGHAM Epicedium ERgone foeminei laus victoriasexus Et desiderii meta suprema jacet Vna bonis animi generisque corporis aucta Quae data sunt aliis singula cuncta tulit Nobilis a proavis origine magna Parentum Nempe Hunting doniae splendida gemma domus Invidia haud pietas est hanc deflere Beatam Cui data coelesti est clara corona polo. Marmora mitte igitur celebrare aut carmine laudes Huic immortali quid moritura struis Namque loquendo satis dignè laudaverit unquam Nemo nisihic maerens qui stupet atque silet An Epitaph STay read her name lest thou pass traveller Hence irreligiously without a tear Say didst thou know her then thy loss resent If not at least thy ignorance lament Here lyes interred one by whose decease Heav'n hath one Saint the more and earth one less Where Grace and Nature truly did present A compleat draught of what was excellent In whom dwelt virtue with Nobility Great parts with yet greater Humility Her well replenisht mind did like a vein Of Earth a Rich and plenteous ore contain Strictness zeal mercy meekness patience Combin'd to take up here their residence Her out-side spoke it as if design'd to tell How pure and large a soul within did dwell How in her Face and carriage might You see Bright Honour shadowed with modesty Her Gravity with sweetnesse mixt did shew That distance was not her desire but due Too soon snatcht hence to prove that she was here Not an Inhabitant but Sojourner Sleep then in silence quietly her dust Till the Resurrection of the just When Body and Soul shall re-united be And each enjoy their Immortality I. S. To the RIGHT WORSHIPFUL And Worthy of Honour Sir JAMES LANGHAM A Memorial of His Most Dear and Excellent Wife THE RIGHT HONOURABLE The LADY ELIZABETH A great pattern of true Honour and Piety WHat Man can write that 's not Enthusiast I mean not what thou art but what thou wast Can Man breath living Words and realize Thy Worth and not be thought to Poetize But thy great Name and far greater Merit Will clear my Verse from a lying Spirit Similitudes from Sun Stars Meteors Dwelling in Clay are but low Metaphors All were Mine own and nothing like to Thine If I should speak of Thee less than Divine I have seen David's Harp but not his Heart On Buckrom dawb'd the Noble inward Part. Was too subtile to come to Painters view 'T is my hard task to shew a Saint to You. Once it was said the Gods came down like Men I miss a Godly one gone hence agen If here I rob'd a Tomb and there a Stone And shap'd her like to some Phantastick One And set up Her Pillar like goodly Saul Higher than those in Westminster and Paul Or for a louder strain ran to some Poet Her Reverend Ghost would chide me for it Out of the truly Noble Maunch she came The Badge of Honour that 's known by her Name From Kingly Lyons and the Flowers De Lice You may discern Her yet far higher rice Her Family thrice mix'd with Royal Blood She knew and yet as though not understood She spake not on 't as if she never knew The large and Noble Stem on which she grew Or yet as if that Elevating Blood Was like Rich Drops lost in a Richer Flood That precious Blood that Her did cleanse from sin The only Blood was that she glory'd in She did esteem the second Birth the better The first was High Below the other greater If we do higher look This high born Mind Enrich'd with Parts soar'd higher still to find That hidden Life secrets of Piety Pure Love unfeigned Faith true Charity Her Life and actions a good Comment was Upon Gods Law in which as in a Glass She dress'd Her inward and Her outward part Her humble Carriage spake an humble Heart She learn'd the Law both to observe and love it From None but me unto Thou shalt not covet She was o th' good Elizabethan Sect That blameless bear to all Gods laws respect But yet no Pharisaic Legalist Her Works were Fruits of living Faith in Christ She 'gan the day with God with him it ended 'Scapes mark'd to day were all to morrow mended From God in Closet Church warm and devout No waste-time pastimes ever turn'd her out Her Husband 's soul and Hers you 'd think were twin'd Rare Parts rare Hearts matched into a mind But Death consenting not to such rare Matches Away from him his right half soon dispatches Is there no way to break a Match and not Undo the suff'ring part to whose hard Lot Surviving fall's But this hath alwayes been Since Man and Wife op'ned the door to Sin His Children Hers became whose curious care Was to compleat and Saint that hopeful Pair Her Servants were the Flock she duely fed With Milk and the Portions of that Bread Which from Her Fathers house she carri'd home And did impart to all about her some In all Relations home and abroad She liv'd like such an one as would please God Her Face was Wisdom's Front and Her Demeanour Observ'd the Laws of Meekness and of Honour Her Speech her Looks her Person so array'd Spake that she look'd to God to Heav'n and pray'd Her senses Servants were Reason was Lord Fruitful she was in Deeds sparing in Word I cannot pass by what she ne're look'd o're Gods great Receivers miserable poor She felt their cold and wants as well as they She was the saddest when they went away She made them Rich they made her Spirit poor They spent her Alms she of their moans made store She was no Legend but a Scripture Saint Her piety no Hypocritick paint I will not speak what she was not for Nots Are in a Character but comely blots If she had lived in those darker Times When Legends went about with Monkish Rhimes She had at least been canoniz'd at Rome And hither crouding multitudes would come To see the Reliques which nor lead nor stones Could guard those Ashes and those Sacred Bones But in this brighter day she was a light Her Morn was Noon but ah her Noon prov'd night Night like that Cloud in which the Sun doth ride We have the Cloud she 's on the sunny side Her Life drop'd in the Flow'r Grace grew Mature Grace seldom dwelt with a better Nature O happy she would all of us were there And yet if so we wish why stay we here Earth was no bait Heav'n was so much prefer'd That first she dy'd before she was interr'd Coelestial mind she
's fled unto her Crown Here was not Earth enough to weigh her down But that there is none perfect here I know I should go nigh to say that she was so Sir shall I write or must I here forbear Least every line I write cost You a Tear I have of Her great Deeds collected some The Margent of whose Life would fill a Tome Edward Pierce AN ELEGY On that Right Honourable And Right Pious LADY The Let Herauldry display her Progeny Aggrandiz'd both with Age and Majesty Death Royal Lions conquers Lillies blasts Yonder 's that glorious Piety that last's Ev'n when time 's teeth shall have disgrac'd the world Laying all level and it self be hurl'd Into the gulf of vast Eternity She had a mind most humble yet as high A spiring Saint who Earth a foot-stool made But Prayer's mount the vantage ground whose aid Enabl'd her to step into the Throne That her ambition was and That alone How sparing of her words more of her time Leaving this matchless praise behind no Crime A blemish left on any word or deed No not for many years Such exact heed Govern'd both tongue and feet O glorious hight Her bended knees made her walk so upright As for her Honour 't was supported by Most orient vertues which her memory Now do embalm In sickness patience Obtain'd the garland with preeminence Whilst in that fornace try'd She Jesus spy'd Her Joy loosing the bonds which burnt she dy'd At our black midnight dawn'd her brightest day Presently wip't from her's all tears away Pouring them into our lamenting eies Ye clouds dissolve gush forth ye springs Arise But here that Painter's Rhetorick a Vail Signifies most when tears and pencils fail Silence grief's Oratour and wonder 's tongue Uttereth best those sighs and thoughts that throng Sticking astonish't within sorrw's womb God's word her worth our grief bid make us dumb To the RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Sir JAMES LANGHAM Upon the Exaltation of his second Lady c. Honoured Sir WHen first you encircl'd in your happy Arms That Center of perfections and charms My Muse rejoyc'd that though your * 10 Stars were born by his former Lady in her paternal Coat Stars were set Mufling you in a two years darkness yet A Sun was ris'n whose most illustrious raies Mingling with yours at once would shew praise Kind vertues Darlings and withal advance Joy the ascendant in your countenance As if that former splendent Piety Improv'd and gilded with Divinity Into your lap once more were stowred down From Heav'n whence marriages have birth crown But oh so dark it was when she went hence That groping we our faith and patience Could hardly find and stumbling at her Urn Had almost fall'n a murmuring to turn Loss into sin But Sir thus take the plot God join'd your hearts in that true Lovers knot That when his Angels that blest Soul away Should carry home to bliss you might obey The doubl'd force of this attractive cord Start up and say my Wives my God and Lord Stand above beckning on that heav'nly mount Whilst the slow minutes with my sighs I count I 'l speak no lowder least your griefs awake But wipe your eies look run and overtake And shine in triumphs having rais'd a name As great as hers who came pray'd overcame Sam May. In obitum Honoratissimae Dominae Dominae ELISABETHAE LANGHAM Illustrissimorum Ferdinandi Luciae Comitum Huntingdoniae Filiae natu maximae Et insignissimi viri Domini Jacobi Langham Equitis aurati Conjugis semper desideratissimae Heroniae incomparabilis immortalitate dignae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defunciae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive Epicedium SIste parum Lector monitum te convenit illis Ne fidens oculis decipiare tuis Quicquid enim cernis non est quod cernis illud Cernere quod poter as cernere posse negas Effusis nimium lachrymis vitiantur ocelli Intempestivis fletibus ora cadunt Expect as scio sat tumulum gelidumque Sepulchrum Ossa urnam cineres anticipare soles Sed minus attentè si quaeris talia cedo Non sunt haec isto conspicienda loco Quem spectas non est tumulus sed lectus urna Quam credis non est urna sed arca Dei Non pulvis sed pulvinar non ossa sed ata Scilicet è saxis concumulata sacris Equibus haec si fortè roges Virtutibus istis Praesto est hinc animum figere velle tuum Quae tantam Dominam solitae sunt cingere vivam Nec modo de functam deperiisse sinunt Quos ego si cuperem Lapides distinguere junctos Perque suas gemmas enumerare vices Ne possim cumulo vereor succumbere toto Ignarusque mali mole perinde premi Attamen experiar quid enim non audet amoris Impetus votis haud satianda sitis Quid negat officii ratio aut reverentia mentis Quae nescit stimulos dissimulare suos O Sanctam in Coelis Animam Coelestibus auctam Te quibus Auspiciis amplificare queam Nolo quidem stirpem tot Regum stemmate claram Ant Genus aut Proavos commemorare tuos Quanquam si vellem digito te pingere possem Summis Principibus Nobilitate parem Te Pietas te sancta Fides te propria Virtus Contemptus mundi ac Relligionis amor Tran smittent seclo nunquam moritura futuro Pignora aeterni Marmoris instar erunt Conjugis Affectus retinebat viscera Prolis Deliciae Matris Deliciaeque Viri Accedunt Fratris lachrymae gemitusque Sororum Affines sociae congemuere piae Rara animi Comitas blandique placentia vultus Sed majestatis non aliena modis Felici Ingenio juncta est Prudentia nexu Divitis ac animi Lingua diserta comes Anglica Romanam suscepit Gallica Graecam Nec minus Italicos est imitata sonos Sedula Divini praeibat lectio Verbi Audita est grata Concio sacra mora Mox pia Colloquiis cessit meditatio crebris Singula praemissa sanctificata prece Chara Homini dilecta Deo sed mortua mundo Perpetuas meriti tot Monumenta tui Tho. Horton S. T. D. To the Eminently Learned and Religious Sir JAMES LANGHAM Knight In pious memory of his Most Excellent CONSORT The Lady ELISABETH LANGHAM Daughter of the Right Honourable FERDINANDO Earl of HVNTINGDON Most honoured Sir PReaching hath spoil'd my Poetry and I Instead of writing Elegies Learn to die But if I should Ambitious be to use A Fairer Nobler and Diviner Muse Than all the Nine That Phoenix of high prize Could only from your Ladies Ashes rise Able with Life wit's Carcase to inspire And warm the coldest Brain with Heav'nly fire Yet then no sooner would that Flame appear But your sad Loss would quench it with a tear For never was all Good in One so met Like Diamonds and Pearls in pure Gold set Her High-born Bloud flow'd from the Royal spring To which great Birth Grace did a Greater bring So that in Her
nearest of Relation to insinuate the most ardent and affectionate desires of Imitation as those which through proximity of bloud have the assistance of something of natural to endear them to the Affections the help of frequent and familiar converse to imprint them in the memory and lastly the Evidence gathered from constant observation to justifie to the Judgment the reality of that Beauty which appears in them in all Dresses against the suspicions of Auxiliary tinctures wherewith our uncharitableness usually burdens the most resplendent vertues of those that are meer Strangers to us And for a close may the God of all Grace so bless them with an increase of all gracious qualities that they may all rise up into the like reputation of singulat Instances and Examples of Christian Perfection with Her that is gone before them and yet manage their growth so thriftily for us that by a precocious maturity they may not precipitate their removal from us that this profligate Age may be the longer blessed with such living Convictions and Reproofs of its desperate viciousness and themselves enjoy the more ample opportunity of advancing the Comfort of their Friends and their own Reward These Requests as there is none who prefers them on your hehalf with more zealous affection so I dare confidently affirm there is none that shall find himself more obliged to be thankful for the Answer of them than Right Honourable Your most humble servant in the work of the Lord Jesus Simon Ford. Northampton Oct. 20. 1664. ΗΣΥΧΙΑ ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑÎΟΥ OR A CHRISTIAN'S ACQUIESCENCE In all the Products of DIVINE PROVIDENCE c. Acts 21. 14. And when he would not be perswaded we ceased saying The will of the Lord be done THis Text as it relates to The Coherence of the Text. the History whereof it is parcel contains the reception given by the Christians at Caesarea to that peremptory denial which they received from St. Paul to their importunate disswasion of him from going to Jerusalem where one Agabus a Prophet the same in likelihood whose true Prediction of a Famine in the daies of Claudius Caesar is mentioned Acts 11. 28. had foretold that he should run an hazard of his Liberty at least if not of his Life also consequently seeing so eminent a Propagator and Propugner of Christianity as he being once in his Enemies hands could not probably expect less from them than utmost extremities This denial you have recorded v. 13. He answered what mean ye to weep and break my heart for I am ready not only to be bound but to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus His Answer speaks him Man and Christian As a Man he shews himself moved with their Affections but as a Christian he declares himself not to be removed from his Resolutions He hath an heart so much flesh as to be affected tenderly with their kindness but so much flint or steel rather as to receive no impression from their Counsel For the first words of my Text tell you that he would not be perswaded And herefore seeing he would not the Brethren as passionate as they were in their importunities had grace enough to conquer nature and perswade themselves to cease their suit as apprehending an intimation of Gods will to the contrary of what they so earnestly desired from the impregnableness of that heart which they saw held out with so noble a resolution against the batteries of so many united prayers and tears They are loath to contest any farther where they see God and Grace of a Party against them and therefore they raise the siege cease their sollicitations and unanimously say The will of the Lord be done A short Text beloved but that A brief Descant on the Text. which contains a long Lesson to be studied and practised the longest day of your lives an easie Text but comprehending an hard Task one of the hardest in all the compass of Christianity viz. the most high and heroical duty of a full absolute and perpetual resignation of our selves and all our concernments to the soveraign pleasure of Almighty God Indeed every word in the Text iscite habere n corde quod nis homo habet in linâ— Quod vult us hoc agat Ipsa lingua popularis est leâ—umque sed doctrina salutatis In Ps 32. is practically hard but one and that is saying which is so easie that St. Austin told his people long since that these Forms The Will of the Lord be done and let the Lord do his pleasure c. are lingua popularis common discourse wherefore he adviseth them to learn to get this lesson by heart which every one was able to say by rote and then they should find Doctrina salutaris an wholsom and saving Doctrine contained in it 1. And first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an hard word to be cordially pronounced by sinful flesh and blood Man in his lapsed estate is loath to own any Lord over him Psal 12. 4. what they conceit they are Jer. 2. 31. every one would fain be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Lord to himself independent even upon God himself so as to need to come no more at him as there the Phrase is And that this Lesson is of no mean difficulty appears in that God near eighty times in the Scripture tells men he will be at extraordinary pains to learn it them sometimes by mercies and otherwhiles by Judgments in this common Phrase Yee shall know that I am the Lord. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Will of this Lord is yet an harder word to be practically conned Generally men are enemies to Arbitrary Power and Government by will even in God himself Let him rule by known Laws and Presidents only provided that withal he be responsible to the High Court of humane Reason for what he doth and admit every mans particular Reason to be of the Quorum and sit as Judge in the Court upon these conditions it may be he may be received as a Titular Lord among the Sons of Men. But so to own him as a Lord as to leave him free to do what he pleaseth in Heaven and Earth and in all deep places even in Hell it self Psal 135. 6. to have all the world at his sole beck without suffering any one to reply against him Rom. 9. 20. to have as absolute an unaccountable power over all things as the Potter hath over the clay v. 21. this is an had saying as they say in another case John 6. 60. and who can endure to hear it 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let this absolute will be done is not one jot easier for mans heart to utter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may possibly go down with us Gods will when it is done and no man can help it necessity will enfore men to swallow after a Fashion because it is in vain to attempt to re-call yesterday to render factum infectum what is done not to have been done But Friends