high she got in Grace and Godliness She hath not drawn up the Ladder after her take her course tread in her steps and by Gods blessing though thou mayst not come to her pitch here yet thou shalt have far more than now thou hast She did not grow thus rich in Grace with idleness and sloth but by Gods blessing on her diligence in the use of means She did not become so eminent by proudly thinking her self so to be but by Humility and Poverty of Spirit Many had been better if they had not thought themselves to be better than they were Fourthly A word to you that had the priviledge to live in her Family For Gods sake look to your selves happy you if the holy Example you had in her and extraordinary means of Grace you enjoyed under her roof have had a kindly and powerful effect in you if they have produced a serious resolution for an holy life But wo be to you that shall bring a prophane and wicked Spirit out of such a Pious Family think seriously how sad it will be to live so near Heaven in this world as there you did and at last to miss of Heaven in the other Fifthly To those that are priviledged with Noble Birth or Gentile Extraction learn from this Lady the best way in the world to make the Tribute of Honour which is your due surely and chearfully to be payed you take but the same course that this Gracious Lady and Noble Lord her Husband did and I dare promise you shall obtain it Labour to be good and to do good be not afraid or ashamed to be Religious own God in his Holy Ways and Holy Ones and then you shall be Honoured of all but by those that refuse to Honour God himself And who would accept of Honour at their hands who rob God of his you have the Word of God for this Them that honour me I will honour 1 Sam. 2.30 By Humility and the fear of the Lord are Riches and Honour and Life Prov. 22.4 A place of Scripture which God fulfilled remarkably in the deceased Lady It fareth with Gentlemens Honours as it doth with Tradesmens Wares which while they are made true and good their price keeps up in the Market but when they are made with little care and of bad stuff then it falls and they hardly go off Oh defile not your Honours by any debaucheries Dignitas in indigno est ornamentum in Luto saith Salvian What pity is it a Scarlet Cloak should be sopt in a swill tub The corruption of the best is the worst I do not clear those of sin who do not give him the Honour due to his Title and Place that is unworthy of them but methinks that those whom God hath left so high in dignity above others should consider that it is their duty and wisdom also to shun all that may lead their Inferiours into this Temptation How can he be free to complain of others denying him his Honour who by his own prophaneness and wickedness casts more dishonour on himself than any other can do To be dishonourable is worse than to be dishonoured as much as a sin is worse than an affliction The Good and Pious are sometimes dishonoured by those that are wicked even for that which is their highest Honour but it is sin and wickedness that makes a person dishonourable as also it doth a Nation Prov. 14.35 But sin is a reproach to any People FINIS An Epitaph on the Right Honourable and Religious the Lady Vere Wife to the most Noble and Valiant Lord Horatio Vere Baron of Tilbury who dyed Decemb. 25. 1671. in the 90 Year of her Age. BEneath this Marble Stone doth lye Wonder of Age and Piety So Old so Good 't was hard to say Which striving in her won the day Or had most power to bow her down Her Age or her Devotion Her Piety made the World confess Old Age no bar to fruitfulness Her Age again so wondrous great Prov'd Piety never out of Date Well may she then a wonder go When as to prove her to be so The two grand Topicks do agree Both Scripture and Antiquity Thus was she like none ever more That Widow of above Fourscore Who serving God both day and night At last of Jesus gat a sight Nay still like her in Temple she Her Saviour waits once more to see On Her sleeping Three days together before she dyed Deaths Brother Sleep her Senses ty'd Three days and then she waking dy'd Sleep was the Essay of Death's Cup Which first she sipt then drank all up Thus Swimmers first with foot explore The Gelid stream then venture o're Thus Martyr for a Tryal first Into the fire his Finger thrust To snip a Pattern of the flame Then clothes his Body with the same Thus Spies to Canaans Land are sent To view the Countries e're they went Sleep was the Mask in which she saw The Promis'd Land Incognita Which done she only wak't to tell By-standers that she lik't it well Then Reader if thou wonder'st at Her Three days Sleep remember that Three days to view the Triple-Heaven One day spent in each Court makes even But Reader when thou think'st upon Her Third days Resurrection If thou' rt amaz'd wonder no more Her Saviour did so before On her dying just on the day of Christ's Nativity Long time she sleeping lay but could not dye Until the day of Christs Nativity No wonder then She slept and slumbered It was because the Bridegroom tarried On Her Nobility Noble herself more Noble ' cause so near To the Thrice Noble and Victorious Vere That Belgick Lyon whose loud fame did roar Heard from the German to the British shoar His Trophies she was Joyntur'd in so say The Lawyers Wives shine by their Husbands Ray. See therefore now how by his side she stands Triumphing midst the Graves those Netherlands Rather in Heaven Those only we confess Are truly call'd Th' Vnited Provinces Charles Darby Rector of Kediton in Suffolk Vpon the Death of the Right Honourable Lady Mary Vere WHat Marble Heart can chuse but drop a Tear At the sad Funeral of the Lady Vere Whose Death 's a publick loss Our spring is dry That many an empty Cistern did supply God deckt her Heaven-born Soul with Gems Divine Of various lustre which did make her shine That all that stood about her saw the light She made it day even in the darkest night Her bounteous Hand and truly noble Heart Did noble Gifts to multitudes impart She was a flowing Spring a Mine of Treasure To serve her Lord and do good was her pleasure Pattern of Goodness and a Pillar too A few such losses might the World undo She gave her self to Christ with heart and might And was with him in Spirit day and night And when his Festival began on Earth But kept in Heaven with purer joy and mirth She longed to be there which made her sing Her Nunc Dimittis and her Soul
not even as others which have no hope nor mourn so as to refuse to be comforted to take our own loss so to heart as not to rejoyce in their gain Is this thy kindness to thy Friends wouldst thou have them labour and never rest work and never receive their reward They could not have had these here but they have them where they are gone Oh be not unkind to them by being over-kind to your selves If ye loved me ye would rejoice saith our Saviour to his Disciples because I said I go to the Father Joh. 16.28 As if he had said to them you are indeed my Disciples too selvish You think what you shall lose if I depart hence but you do not consider what I should lose by my staying here You see the poor condition I live in here on Earth and know the Royalty and Glory I am going to be possessed of in Heaven and are you unwilling I should be advanced to my Throne there and that after I shall have finished the work of your Redemption here Truly you are unkind and shew but little love in this to me your dear Lord and Saviour Nor do we express much love to our deceased Friends of whose happy change we have no reason to doubt if their incomparable advantage doth not make us more rejoyce for them than our loss make us mourn for our selves If we be as they were sincere and faithful Christians our loss is but short ere long we shall recover it by being taken up to them they are not lost but gone a little before whither the rest of their Brethren ere long shall be called And while we are left here behind we have a God to live upon who cannot dye who will not leave us and whose presence is sufficient to compensate I trow the absence not of one but all our Friends Would Elkanah be thought better to his barren Wife than ten Sons May not God then look his Children when bereaved of any Creature Comforts should count the having him better yea infinitely better than them all Let therefore every Saint in this and all other bereavements solace himself with this of David Psalm 18.46 The Lord liveth and blessed be my rock and let the God of my Salvation be exalted It is expected I know that I should now speak something of that Noble and without offence I hope I may say Elect Lady the Solemnization of whose Funeral occasioned this our sorrowful meeting which should I not do without doubt I should send you all away very much dissatisfyed But far be it from me that I should by my silence put her light now she is dead under a Bushel which shined before all your eyes so radiently while she was alive even as a great Candle on an high Candlestick It was said of John Baptist all men counted John that he was a Prophet indeed And I am perswaded that all who knew her esteemed the Lady Vere a Christian indeed Truly if we may not think so of her we shall be at a great loss to find such Characters by which we may judge any at all to be so I shall begin to speak of her where she her self began to be her Birth I mean and Parentage from which she had her Extraction And this was High and Ancient on both sides For by her Mothers side she sprang from the chief of the Throg-mortons Family and by the Fathers side was extracted of the Ancient Family of the Tracies at Todington in Gloucester-shire She was the youngest of Fifteen Children born on the Eighteenth day of May Anno 1581. being the 23. of Queen Elizabeth Her Mother dyed three days after she was Born and her Father when she was but eight years old Thus soon was she an Orphan but indeed they only are Orphans who have no Father in Heaven When her Father and her Mother thus forsook her the Lord took her up The many Experiences she had all along her life of Gods most tender care over her occasioned her to chuse this for her Motto which is found written by her in the front of most of her Books in her Closet God will Provide She took much delight in speaking of one of her Ancestors as one of the greatest Honours to her Family William Tracy of Toddington Esquire mentioned by Mr. Fox in his Martyrology who in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth for the sound Profession of his Faith made by him in his last Will and Testament was after his Decease condemned to have his body taken out of the ground and burnt which Sentence accordingly was executed She was twice Married to Mr. William Hobby her first Husband at Nineteen Years of Age by whom she had two Sons which were Religiously Educated by her the happy fruit of this her care she reaped at their Pious Deaths for they both went young to Heaven the Younger dyed in the Fourteenth Year of his Age the Elder in his Three and Twentieth much admired for his Parts and loved for his Piety Her second Husband was Sir Horace Vere afterward Baron of Tilbury so Noble and Excellent a Person that I must not name him without some Honourable Reflection one whose Coat Armour made more Renowned than his Coat of Arms and his Personal Atchievements in the field ennobled more than the High Blood he borrowed from his Ancestors But his Piety gave him the highest Character of all by the other he got a great Name like unto the great Men that are in the Earth but by this he obtained a good Name And even Tacitus the Roman Historian prefers a praise from Goodness before that which is obtained by Greatness And therefore speaking of a Noble Roman saith he was inter claros potiùs quà m inter bonos censendus This Noble Lord was one who could wrestle with God as well as fight with Men and may be thought to have got his Victories upon his knees in his Closet before he drew his Sword in the Field And when he had overcome his Enemies he could overcome himself also being one of the humblest Souls in whom so much true worth lodged that I have heard of His good Lady would say she honoured him for his Valour but most for the Grace of God which shined in him Thus she did coruscare radiis Mariti shined by the Rays of her Husbands Excellencies but not only with these for she had radient Beams of her own by which she cast like Honour upon him as she received from him So happily was this Noble Couple suited us in the high Extraction of both their Births so also in the rest of their accomplishments that they mutually illustrated each the others Honour But passing by all her secular Prerogatives we shall now present her to you in some of her spiritual Excellencies These indeed give the intrinsick value to a person He that would take the true height of of a man must not measure him with the vantage-ground he stands on I may
work without this help 't is heavy indeed yea too heavy for him to stand under but Gods helping hand put to it makes this heavy work light The Ship which when lying on ground all the Teams in the Country could not draw off how easily is it set a float when the Tide comes in Thus the Heart which the Christian by no pains and industry of his own can raise out of its dullness and indisposition to Duty Oh how soon is it elevated and inspirited when God flows in with his secret Aspirations and Exuscitations of his Blessed Spirit and Grace he who confessed that he could do nothing of himself not so much as think a good thought tells us also he is able to do all things through Christ who strengthneth him now this help from the Lord is promised but it comes not till the Christians hand is put to the work let him be up and doing and then God will not fail to be with him 'T is cheap travelling we say for a Child in his Fathers company to be sure God will pay the charge the Christian is at in his whole journey to Heaven it is easie working while God holds our hand yea puts strength into it Art thou to pray his Spirit will lift with thee for so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies art thou tempted whilst thou art fighting in the Valley below Christs hands are lift up in Heaven above for thy Victory I have prayed that thy Faith fail not yea he doth not only pray above for thee but will be in the Field with thee and in thee by the secret succours of his Spirit My Grace is sufficient for thee which is not meant of Grace Inherent in us that indeed is unsufficient of it self but the auxiliary Grace which he sends in to assist and excite that in a time of need Thirdly Though Christianity be a labour and many troubles and perils attend it yet 't is not alike to all every Christian hath not Hemans Faith Jobs Patience or Pauls Courage neither shall all have Hemans Disertions Jobs Losses nor Pauls Persecutions the stoutest Souldiers are put upon the hottest service the heaviest burden upon the strongest back he knows every Saints ability and so he rates them he will not suffer any to be tempted above that they are able When the Israelites came first out of Egypt he knew they were raw Souldiers and therefore led them about that they might not be put to fight before he had hardned and heartned them more to bear such a work While Christ was upon Earth he interposed his own body between his weak Disciples and the fury of the wicked world but when he went to Heaven then he ventured them into the storm but careful first to re-inforce them with power from above before he let them take the Field Acts 1.4 Being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father Fourthly The merciful indulgence which the Lord gives them as to their failings hard work indeed God calls them to but the harder the work is the more his pity is expressed towards them in pardoning those invincible infirmities which notwithstanding their faithful endeavour will be found in their doing it It was hard for the Apostles to keep their eyes wakeful in the dead of the night Christ considereth this and Apologizeth for them even while he chides them the Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak It is hard when Afflictions are strong and long not to fall into some indecencies of speech and behaviour we have heard of Jobs Impatience as well as Patience yet the Lord was graciously pleased to to take his part against his accusing Friends ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath Job 42.7 It is hard to act Faith when sense and reason are non-plust the Lord therefore is pleased to overlook the weaknesses of his Childrens faith which in such deep plunges they bewray so they strive against them and be humbled for them in magnis tentasse aliquid non parvum in great and difficult enterprizes an essay and endeavour is not little Peter shewed great Faith in venturing to go upon the Sea but discovered infirmity when he began to sink therefore Christ pitieth and succoureth his weakness Davids strait was in a manner as great at Land as Peters was at Sea When at Gath amongst his Enemies whose Champion he had slain much fear and unbelief he borrowed in this his strait yet some secret actings of Faith were mingled with these his fears as appeared by the Prayer he then lift up to God and even this Prayer attended with so many distrustful fears found acceptance with God which made the good man bring this forth as an encouragement for others This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his Troubles Psalm 34.6 A poor man indeed he was at this time not only in his outward state but his inward poor and low in the actings of his Faith O what encouragement is here to come into the service of God hard work thou mayst meet with but not an hard Master do but thou thy best and God will forgive thy worst Beware of wickedness in not doing what thou canst and God will not reject thee for thy weakness Like as a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Psalm 103.13 I come now to the Second Part of the Text which presents us with the reward that attends the Christians labour it is not in vain in the Lord they shall not be put off with their labour for their pains no there is a reward laid up in Heaven which will abundantly compensate all the pain and pains they were put to on Earth but we must not understand this as if the Christian received no gain or advantage in this life from the service of God while he is labouring in it Godliness hath the promise of this life as well as the other There are promises of which payment is made here and though these be inferiour to what the Christian shall receive hereafter yet be they so pretious as prove Religion even in this life no hospes asymbolus No guest that lodgeth on free cost but such as pays well and that in present Coin for its entertainment It affords Bread to the eater as well as Seed to the sower there is fruit unto Holiness which the Christian may now feed on to his comfort as well as an hope of Eternal life to be received at the end of this The very vales which the Christian hath given him while at his work afford him enough for his present expence to maintain him in a port becoming his high hopes for afterwards First His conscionable labour in the Lords work will gain him more ability and holy skill to do his work still better by exercising of himself daily unto Godliness he becomes more
is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 And this Faith is called a Faith of the operation of God Colos 2.12 't is wrought in us not by us Not only the light of truth which the Christian sees is Divine but the eye of Faith by which he sees this light is Divine also how certain must that knowledge be which in the light of Gods Spirit beholds the light of Gods Truth now from this Word of God the Christian is assured of this reward many ways First He is assured of it by Jesus Christ who himself came from Heaven and makes report thereof In my Fathers house are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you John 14.2 As if he had said you may belief me for I speak it that cannot lye and who loves you too well to put a cheat upon you That there are such Countries as France and Holland you do not doubt though you never saw them because some that have assure you it is true and shall the Saint be blamed for relying on Christs own faithful Word who cometh from Heaven is above all and what he hath seen and heard that he testifyeth John 3.32 Secondly The Christian knows it by the purchase Christ hath made of Heaven for Believers Mans sin had shut Heaven door against him and opened Death and Hells door upon him now before God would or indeed could set open again this door of life to poor sinners it was necessary that his Glory should first be secured which to do this admirable expedient the Divine Wisdom contrived that Christ should dye for sinners by which both Death the punishment of mans sin might be abolished and life and immortality which man had lost might be restored and brought to light again 2 Tim. 1.10 Hence it is said It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons unto Glory to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings Heb. 2.10 Mark that it became him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was a condecency for God thus to do God never doth any thing that doth not become him in all his works he acts like himself every work declaring his Glory but not all alike Now God in the Redemption of the world intending to make the greatest manifestation of his Glory that ever he did It became him to pitch on such a means as was sutable to such an end and this of bringing his People to Glory by the abasement of his own Son to an ignominious and cursed death was the expedient he resolved upon as every way condecent to this design and indeed never did all the Divine Attributes appear in all their Glory so as they do here According therefore to this Eternal Council of Gods Will and Love in the fullness of time the Son of God was cloathed with our Flesh laid down his life took it up again and further to shew he had got a full triumph over death and had opened Heaven gates for Believers He opened the Graves of many of the dead Saints and raised them to life as a pledge that he would do the same in due time for the rest So that now to doubt whether there be an Eternal life for the Saints after death is to make the whole Gospel a fiction Thirdly They know it by the actual possession which Christ hath already taken of Heaven for them A Child thinks himself sure of an Estate when his Father not only purchaseth it but also taketh it up for him Thus did Christ ascend to Heaven not only to sit down on his own Throne but to take and keep possession of Heaven for the behoof and benefit of Believers Hence they are said to sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus that is in him as their head which is a certain pledge to them they shall one day sit with him there in their own persons Because I live saith Christ ye shall live also Indeed he lives there to make Intercession for them and will never leave praying till he hath prayed them up unto himself I may say to Believers as once Naomi to Ruth sit still for the man will not cease till he hath finished the thing Christ will not cease his Mediatory work till he hath finished his peoples happiness and got his betrothed Spouse home to him in his Fathers house 4 ly He knows the certainty of this happy estate by the many express Promises made to Believers of it I cannot number them they are so many neither need I name them there being no Child of God so little I hope acquainted with his Saviours Will and Testament as not to be able to turn on a sudden to many places where this Inheritance is setled on them The greatest Heir that lives is the Saint He is heir to both Worlds having Promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come But the grand promise of all is that which gives him title to his Heavenly Inheritance In one place they are called Heirs of Promise in another Heirs of Salvation because this is the Crowning Promise Heaven it is called their Hope till this comes he hath not his Portion all he hath here is the least of what is promised But when Heaven comes then all is paid the Bond then is delivered in Faith and Hopes work is done The Christian who on Earth believes and expects Promises shall in Heaven inherit Promises there Faith shall be turned into Vision and Hope swallowed up in Fruition Now though nothing can make Heaven more sure to the Believer than Gods Promise no not the Oath of God it self because it is as impossible for God to lye without an Oath as with it for being he can swear by no greater he sweareth only by himself and so the strength even of his Oath lyeth in his Veracity which is engaged in his Promise as well as Oath yet he is graciously pleased ex abundanti consulting therein with our frailty to superadd all those things to his Promise by which men in contracts amongst themselves do conceive a further confirmation and security to to be given for performance of their Promises one to another as witnesses Seal Oath and Earnest that having these Securities which are wont to satisfie us in Humane Promises the sin of distrusting Gods performance of his might appear the more unreasonable in us and injurious to him as indeed it is beyond all expression when those Securities will not assure our hearts concerning the performance of Gods Promises than which we cannot exact more from those men that are most unresponsable or deceitful Secondly The Saints reward is described by its Transcendency your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In the explication of which Phrase I shewed that there is more implyed than is exprest That the Christians labour shall be highly unspeakably rewarded the place where the reward is laid up proves the transcendency of it and that is
Heaven Heb. 10.34 Ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance and Heaven is a place so excellent as renders it uncapable of an hyperbole not so far above our heads as it is above our thoughts It hath not entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him One may as easily draw in all the Air of the world at a breath as express or conceive how great and glorious the Saints reward in Heaven is As it is praemium reconditum pro nobis so it is absconditum à nobis as it is laid up for Believers so it is hid from them We are now the Sons of God but we know not what we shall be The Apostle compares our apprehensions of Heaven here to the low apprehensions which little children have of mens affairs 1 Cor. 13.11 which you know is very low That Saint which knew least of Heaven while on Earth did the first moment he entred into that Glorious place understand more of it than all the Doctors of the Church ever did or could whilst on Earth The Scripture therefore presents it to us as an object of our admiration not comprehension O how great things hath God laid up for them that fear him Psalm 31. When Saint Paul had set forth the Saints Happiness in that Golden chain of Salvation whom he predestinated them he called whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified breaks forth like a man in an Extasie What shall we say to these things expressing thereby his inability to express the greatness and glory of them Yet so much the Saints know of this blessed state that waits for them as will not suffer them to admire any thing they see here below any more than he would the light of a Glow-worm who hath seen the Sun I shall content my self at this time in setting forth the Transcendency of that Happiness the Saints shall receive as their reward in Heaven after their labour is finished on Earth To consider First The Properties of that Blessed state to which they shall be advanced in Heaven Secondly To compare the Saints work and labour on Earth with this their reward in Heaven First of the first The Properties of that Blessed state with which their labour shall be rewarded in Heaven First It is a state purely Spiritual The Saints state on earth is partly Spiritual and partly Animal He ceaseth not to be a Mortal Creature when he becomes a new Creature his life is Spiritual as a Saint but Animal as a mortal Man and so his comforts and refreshings are Animal as well as Spiritual He eats he drinks he sleeps and all these acts of Nature have a pleasure and sweetness proper to their kind which is too low for that glorifyed state to which they shall there be exalted they shall need neither meat nor drink where there is no hunger nor thirst no time there lost in sleep where the Body shall never be weary nor drowsie but be as wakeful as the Soul no need of cloaths where there shall be no shame where the body it self shall out-shine the Sun in its noon-day glory And is it not more desireable to be without these than to need them and have them to have sound legs then to be lame and have crutches who had not rather have been with Moses beholding the face of God in the Mount though all that time without food than Feasting with the Israelites at the bottom of the Hill surely Spiritual Pleasures are more noble and sweet than bodily or else we might say that Sensual men have more joy and pleasure in their life than God hath in his Secondly It is an accumulative state wherein there is an aggregation and concentration of all those things which are requisite to make their happiness compleat it is not Esaus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Jacobs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not having much but having all will make man happy Are here all thy Children said Samuel unto Jesse and would not sit down to the Feast till David the only one wanting was come Thus mans Soul cannot sit down to its Feast and be satisfyed till it hath all that goeth to its Perfection the absence of any one Ingredient keeps it in motion looking and longing for it and that is inconsistent with compleat happiness which consists in rest arising from satisfaction Now in Heaven there is a confluence of all that the Saint even then when his faculties will be stretched out and enlarged to their utmost capacity can possibly desire He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God The glorifyed Saint hath above him the beatifying Vision of God himself and Jesus Christ the purchaser of all his Felicity whom he so loved on Earth and longed to see Within him he shall behold his own Soul made perfect in all its noble Powers satisfyed with the Image of God as full of Holiness as it can hold Upon him he shall see that body which was once so vile and corruptible made Immortal Spiritual and Glorious even like the Glorious body of Christ the exemplar cause after which it is fashioned about him he shall see an innumerable company of Holy Angels and glorifyed Saints his Brethren not one of them envying his happiness but all congratulating him for it and rejoycing in it Beneath him he shall see the Infernal Pit of Hell wherein so many millions of lost souls are to spend a miserable Eternity in unspeakable torment which must needs fill him with ineffable joy to think how near once he himself was falling into it but was happily prevented by the arms of free Grace seasonably interposing and â—atching him In a word he shall have joy without sorrow health without languour rest without labour and life without end Thirdly It is an entire state There is not only all Ingredients of Happiness in Heaven but the Saint enjoyeth all together here on Earth the Christian hath many pretious Promises sweet Refreshings and Comforts but he takes in the sweetness of them successively not all in one draught Indeed the largest Heart of the Holyest Saint on Earth is an house of too little receipt and roomth to entertain so many Guests together No now the Christian entertains himself first in the company of one then of another Promise God comes in a little at this and more at the next Sermon he hears He is as a leaky vessel under a runing cock filling but never full But in Heaven the Saint is filled and that all at once as a vessel thrown into the Sea full as soon as it is in This the Apostles expression seems to import that mortality might be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5.4 in a word the Christian here is like some great man that hath a vast estate but he neither seeth all his Land nor receives all his Rents together but in Heaven his whole felicity
is present not one imaginary point of time wherein he can be more or shall be less happy to all Eternity Fourthly It is a consistent and fixed state free from all changes and vicissitudes which in this life he is subject to here alas the Christian is sometimes well and sometimes sick now in Prosperity then in Adversity Rich and Poor in the same day In momento vertitur mare ubi luserunt navigia sorbentur In a moment a storm arising where the Ship even now danced it is wrackt He is like one that Travels in an April day whose Cloak is wet with the Rain and dryed again by the Sun and then wet again neither do these changes only befal the Saints outward state but his inward also both in point of Grace and Comfort Now his Heart is up and lively in the performance of a duty anon so dead and down as if he were not the same man Now the Christians Coat is on ready to attend and follow his Master anon it is off and he on his bed of sloth So in point of Comfort one while the Spouse hath her Beloved in her arms and is ravished with his company another while she is setting up her Si quis and enquiring if any can tell her tydings of him hora longa brevis mora The Christian waits long for the Comforter and when he comes he doth but look in and then withdraws again so that the joy which he hath at present is much interrupted from the fear of losing it for nemo fruitur solicito bono how much there is of fear so little is then of enjoyment in what we have Indeed what ever the Saints refreshings are here 't is but like a Travellers entertainment in an Inn the thoughts that he must to Horse again in the morning doth lessen the pleasure he takes in it But in Heaven the journey is at an end the Saint is at home his labour is gone and his rest is come he is in a Kingdom that cannot be moved Fifthly It is an Eternal state this is more than the former the property that crowns all the rest There are some in this life and those none of the best who meet with no changes and that for a long time who enjoy a continued Summers day their Sun of Prosperity goes not in and out but shines with a constant beam no black cloud of any great Affliction interposing to hide their joy from them but at last death chops in upon them and spoils all their mirth in a moment they go down to the pit and with them all their thoughts perish What joy remains to him that is in misery to remember the years of pleasure he hath had A past felicity is a present misery and to remember the pleasure we had doubles the sorrow we have This made Saint Bernard interpret that place of the Psalmist with long life will I satisfie him of Heaven because he thought nothing was long that had an end This indeed is the Emphasis of Heavens joy those Blessed Souls shall never sin never weep more they shall not only be with the Lord but ever with the Lord. This is the accent which is set on the Elogies given to Heaven in Scripture 'T is an Inheritance and that an incorruptible one that fadeth not away It is a Crown of Glory and that a weighty one yea an exceeding great and eternal weight of Glory When once it is on the Saints head it can never fall or be snatched off it is a Feast but such an one that hath a sitting down to it but no rising up from it The second way I propounded for seting forth the Saints reward was to compare the Saints work and labour with the reward For though the reward be great yet if the labour bear any considerable proportion to it so much of its greatness is taken away But the Christians labour here bears no proportion at all with his reward hereafter and therefore the Apostle saith It is not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed His labour is finite but his reward infinite and there is no proportion between finite and infinite There is but little proportion you will say betwixt a drop of water and the Sea yet there is some because though vastly greater yet not infinitely greater but betwixt these finite and infinite there is none at all The Christians reward is infinite First Intensive God himself is his reward as well as his rewarder who is infinite in all his Divine Perfections And what proportion between a poor nothing Creature and his nothing Service to the having this infinitely Glorious God his portion So far are these from bearing any proportion to God that compared with him they are denyed to be I am and there is none besides me saith God or to have any excellency he is the Holy one the only wise God Mans wisdom is no wisdom his holiness no holiness compared to God Secondly It is infinite extensivè or in duration Their reward is an everlasting life but their work and labour for the Lord how short how soon is it dispatched If there be no proportion between Time and Eternity then none between the Christians labour which is performed in so little a point of time and the reward which endures for ever and ever The Christian is a few hours in the Field at his work and then called into an everlasting rest in his Fathers house He carries a light cross a little way on his back which death at the furthest takes off and then an Eternal Crown of Glory is set on his Head It aggravated King Lysimachus his sorrow that he had lost so great a Kingdom for so little a matter as a draught of water How will it ravish the Saints Heart to receive so great a reward at the end of so short a labour Jonathan wondered that a little Honey should cost him so dear as death I did saith he but taste a little Honey with the end of the Rod that was in mine hand and lo I must dye How much more admiringly may the Saint say 't is but a little and that sorry service that I have done for my God on Earth and lo I must live yea live with God yea with God everlastingly in Glory Well may the Apostle say That Christ shall come to be admired in all them that believe 2 Thes 2.10 How can it but make them admire to see so infinite a Glory the reward of so poor a labour Object But why should not the Christians Holy labour and Faithful service bear the same proportion to his reward in Heaven as the wicked mans sin doth to his punishment in Hell this deserves that why not that this though the wicked mans sin be as little a time in committing as the Saints Holy service is in performing yet there is an infinite evil in his sin that is objective because committed against an infinite God And why should there not
And again Oh taste and see how good the Lord is once I confess in the Paroxism of a sore Temptation he spake like one of the foolish world I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency Psalm 73.13 But will ye believe what a man saith when his head is hot and light in the fit of a Fever rather than when he is in his true and right temper No sooner was this fit off but he befools and be beasts himself and blesseth himself in his approaching happiness Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me unto Glory verse 24. And from this hope takes faster hold of God and his Holy ways But it is good for me to draw near to God ver 28. And surely one affirmative testimony of a Saint in vindication of God and Religion is of more weight than a thousand negative testimonies of the wicked world to the contrary who speak evil of what they understand not condemn Religion before they have tryed it and disgrace that service they were never in Whereas the godly man hath served both Masters and speaks from his own experience where most is to be got professing that he hath nothing to shew of his gettings in the service of sin but shame But in the Lords service present fruit unto Holiness and a hope of Eternal life afterward In a word needs there any more to make this appear a false slander than to observe how these very wretches upon a sick-bed when they apprehend themselves on the marches of death do Court Religion which in their jollity they Cart and Scourge with their reviling Tongues Oh how glad would they then be to creep into a Saints cloaths and go by his name how desirous to dye the Righteous mans death and to have an end like his Oh how afraid to look into another world or to think of going hence as they are Doth not all this speak that they themselves secretly think there is more reality in Religion and the Eternal consequences of it than they will in their Prosperity confess The truth is God hath their Conscience on his side but their Lusts have their Hearts and these are they which gag their Conscience that it may not speak what it would but at last Conscience is even with them and revengeth the violence offered to it upon them And for stoping its mouth a while opens it the wider at last both in accusing them for this their past wickedness and terrifying them with the fearful expectation of the Dismal Tempest of Fire and Brimstone ready now to pour down upon them Thus as the hardest Frosts when they break leave the deepest slugs behind them so doth the greatest Dedolency and insensibility in an Irreligious life leave sinners when Conscience recovers its sense and feeling sticking fast in the deepest horror and desperation Secondly This convicts the carnal world of gross folly in refusing the service of God where the reward of their labour is so sure and incomprehensibly great and for misplacing their pains and labour for that which is neither sure to be obtained nor much worth the having if it be gotten and so in both respects labour in vain First the sinner labours for what he is not sure to obtain The world hath not to this day been able to give a certain rule whereby the covetous Worldling can be sure after all his toyl and drudgery that he shall be rich nor the ambitious that he shall get up the hill of honour and not catch a fall in climbing it the world is too like a Lottery where men know not whether they shall draw a Prize or Blank Though all come with heads full of hopes and projects into the world yet most go out with hearts full of shame and sorrow for their disappointments But in Religion there is such a certain rule laid down in the good Word of God that whoever walks by it Peace is upon him say ye to the Righteous it shall be well with him Mark the Perfect man and behold the Vpright for the end of that man is Peace Psalm 37.37 They that wait on the Lord shall not be ashamed because not disappointed of their hope but some carnal men will tell you whatever the world is to others yet they can say their labour is not in vain This worldling who hath prospered in his way can shew you his filled bags and tell you how many hundreds a year he puts up as clear gain into his Purse The Voluptuous person will tell you stories of the many merry Meetings he hath been at Months and Years of Pleasure he hath enjoyed saying with the carnal Jews These are the rewards our Lovers have given us Hosea 2.12 How then say you that we labour upon such uncertainties In the second place therefore the prize that sinners get by all their Labour it is not so much worth as to save them from losing their Labour For First What they have got will ere long leave them Secondly It will deceive them Thirdly It will damn them First It will leave them It is not in the power of mans wit to devise a way how the Ambitious man should keep his honour long except his preferment could change his Nature and make him immortal he is alas still of the same clay with other men as he was before The Rainbow is a common watry Cloud no more durable than the rest though painted for a time with gayer colours That which hath been is named already and it is known that it is man Eccles 6.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lump of red earth that must return ere long to his first dust As impossible it is for the Covetous man to make his estate sure to him his Riches will make wings to themselves though he doth not as the Prodigal make wings for them fly away they will and that toward Heaven also to accuse him and be a witness against him at the last day If he should not see them flown from him while he lives yet to be sure when Death's Gun goes off these and all the sinners joys will flye away at once And how near a step it is to Death the very Heathens can tell you by their Hyroglyphick of an open eye for life and an eye shut for death intimating that death may come ictu oculi mans life may be closed up as soon as an eye can be shut And is it not folly and madness to bestow all a mans Labour to raise the hopes of his Felicity on such loose ground where his building may fall as soon as it is up this made Solomon hate all his labour under the Sun Eccles 2.17 Because when he had done all he must leave all Secondly What Carnal men labour for will deceive them Satan and the World are both very free of their Promises to their Vassals and Servants All these things will I give thee said he if thou wilt fall down and
so the Christian should by his end First Therefore let this Glorious Reward thou seest before thee keep thee from accepting of the rewards of sin let them love the reward of iniquity that look not for a reward of Righteousness Abraham would not have it said the King of Sodom made him rich who had God for his exceeding great reward Moses who had respect unto the recompence of the reward despised the pleasures of sin for a season It dishonoreth the Prince when his Courtier accepts a Pension from a strange much more from an enemy Prince When we yield to any sin we do what Satan tempted Christ unto even worship and pay an homage to him I know no Argument to repel the Enemy more forcible nor more honourable than this I will not disgrace my Masters service the hopes I have from him to borrow a reward from his Enemy Some Nations are wont to sight in their richest Cloaths and Jewels to make them more valiant by considering how great their loss would be by falling into their Enemies hands Certainly Satan would not so easily foil thee Christian if thou didst wear the rich Bracelets of the Promises and by Faith put on that robe of Glory with which thou shalt ere long be clothed How would a glorified Saint scorn a motion to sin Visio beatifica impotentes facit Angelos sanctos ad peccandum What they sin the Sun might sooner be pull'd out of its Orb than they out of their Obedience What they leave the Fatness and Sweetness they are satiated with for any thing that is to be got by a base sinner Such a thought never did nor can enter into their Holy Heart And we should be more like them in our detestation of all sin had we more raised apprehensions of the greatness of the Heavenly reward and stronger hopes for our coming to it Secondly Let it make thee stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord. This is the improvement which our Apostle makes in this place of this very Point there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Religion much pressed by the Apostle upon Believers to walk as becomes the Gospel as becomes Saints to walk worthy of God worthy of our Holy Vocation Now this becomingness lies much in the sutableness of our present actings to the heighth of our future hopes When we endeavour that the properties of our actions may correspond and bear a resemblance to the reward expected by us As the impression on the Wax answereth to the Sculpture of the Seal or as the Port and Garb of a great Heir is to the vast Inheritance he shall have Now the Text for I go no further presents us with Two Properties of the Saints reward Certainty and Immensity And accordingly presses this double Duty Stedfastness or unmoveableness and abounding always in the work of the Lord as bearing a resemblance unto it First Therefore labour to be stedfast in thy profession of the Faith holding fast saith the Apostle the Faithful Word Titus 1.9 How unsutable to a Faithful Word is a Faithless Heart A wavering weak Faith to a sure Word 2 Pet. 1.19 A Sceptical judgment to a Doctrine that is indubitable and without controversie 1 Tim. 3.16 How unbecoming is it to be off and on hot and cold unstable and unconstant in an holy course when thou lookest for a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Secondly Let it make thee abounding in the work of the Lord. How unsutable is it to pinch God in thy service who is so magnificent in his reward How unbecoming to think any measure enough in thy duty when the reward promised is without all measure Nay do not only abound but be always abounding in the Lords work who will make thee always happy Alas what is our always in abounding here to the always of his rewarding hereafter the always of our service extendeth but to the end of a short life but the always of the reward to an endless Eternity Were there no reward at all hoped for yet we ought yea the Saint would for his new Nature inclines him thereunto serve his God We see even our Children do love and obey us their Parents though some of us have no Portion or Inheritance to leave them But it superadds a further Argument to a Rich mans Child to make him more abundantly dutiful and diligent to consider what a great estate his Father hath of all which he will make him Heir though he might not if he pleased have setled any thing on him at all Thus when a Saint considers that God who might have made a Law binding him to Obedience without making a Promise to reward the same It must needs much affect his heart to see God in his condescending Grace and immense Bounty thus to sweeten and facilitate his Obedience with a promise of no less reward than of the Heavenly Inheritance Think oh Christian how little the greatest service thou canst now do thy God will in a dying hour appear to thine own thoughts I have observed that the best of Saints whose eminency in Grace and serviceableness in their Generations others admired have yet themselves upon a sick and dying bed complained of their barrenness and unprofitableness Not bragged of their zeal but bewailed their coldness not applauded themselves for what they had done but mournfully confessed what they had left undone the sense of their deficiencies quite hiding from their eyes the sight of their eminent diligence As that famous Light in our British Church and laborious Servant of Christ Bishop Vsher on his dying bed thus Prayed Oh God forgive my sins of Omission Who yet was admired of all that knew him for his laborious diligence in the Pulpit and out of it also And one reason I humbly conceive why the best of Saints at such an hour are more than ever sensible of their deficiencies is because they then standing nearest to Eternity have higher and wider apprehensions of the Majesty of God and the immense Glory of Heaven which apprehensions must needs cause them to see the vility and nothingness of their own sanctity and all their services and consequently fill them with an holy blushing and shame that they have done so little for God who hath laid up so much for them that they have no more glorified him on Earth who hope so soon to be glorified with him in Heaven And if the highest measures of the most fruitful Saints which have done God more service than an hundred such as thy self shrink into nothing in their own eye at such a time and leave them full of shame and sorrow for their unsutable actings to their high and glorious hopes how much more will it afflict thee with unspeakable grief and sorrow in the like hour if thou hast a dram of Sincerity in thine Heart to remember thy more palpable negligence and barrenness Oh what then wilt thou say of thy past life which is so thin sown with Holy
say of this Gracious Lady what Nehemiah said of another Noble Person in his time She was a Faithful Woman and feared God above many Some are so prodigiously wicked that they seem to have wedded the Vices of many others But this good Lady may be said to have collected the Excellencies of many other Christians In her you might have seen these various Graces which grow to an eminency but severally in others met altogether in one knot I shall speak of a few First The fear of the Great God was very great in her wonderful tender she was of offending him She hath been often heard to say and that solemnly Oh I would not sin against my God She professed that she dreaded Hell most as a place where God was Blasphemed Oh pretious Saint to dread Hells sin more than Hells fire Secondly Her Zeal to the Worship of God was eminent First To the Publick this was evidenced many ways First By her Zeal to get able and faithful Ministers for those Livings she had in her dispose and by improving her utmost interest to procure the like for this Parish where she resided in its several vacancies And herein the Noble Patron did most kindly gratifie her with the choice deeply obliging not only her Honour but the whole Town thereby so that you in this place have lived in a Goshen of Gospel light for a long season and are able also to tell how comfortably she spake to those that taught the good Word of the Lord amongst you What countenance and real encouragement she gave them in the Lords Work without sparing her purse to do it Secondly By her constant attendance on the Publick Worship so long as the Lord vouchsafed her any health yea she did not only attend on it her self but was careful that her Family should do the same with her They that would not serve God with her were no Servants for her Thirdly She was no less devout in than constant at the Publick Worship She durst not trifle with Holy things which made one in this respect say of her That this Lady by her Solemn and Reverent Deportment in Divine Worship would make one believe that there is a God indeed As for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which is so dismally neglected by many her desires were most Ardent to partake of it frequently saying as the Minister of the place informed me that she durst not neglect no not any one opportunity that was offered for the enjoying this Sacred Ordinance And oh how intent was she in Preparation for it the whole preceding week was taken up by her for that work in which she would always have a private Fast with her Family or a secret one in her Closet Was not this one that meant to go to Heaven in good earnest Secondly The Private Worship of God Let us follow her from the Church to her own House and we shall find that she brought her Religion and Devotion home with her and did not leave them in her Pue behind her till she returned to it again the next Sabbath Some can complement God Almighty before their Neighbours on the Sabbath but care not to acquaint with God at home all the week after But if ever any privite dwelling might be called a Chappel or little Sanctuary her house was such There you might find her and her Family twice every day upon their knees solemnly Worshipping the Great God there you might see them humbly sitting at his feet to hear his most Holy Word read unto them concluding constantly their Evening Service with Singing one of Davids Psalms What Strangers soever were present there was no putting by or adjoyning the Worship of God to a more convenient season On the Lords day you might hear the Sermons Preached in Publick repeated to the Family the Servants called to give an account before her or what they remembred the high Praises of God sounded forth by the whole Family together After Supper again you might hear the Servants in their room exercising themselves in the same Heavenly Duty of Singing Psalms And no sooner did the good Lady hear them strike up but away she would go to joyn with them in that duty Follow her up the stairs there you should be sure to find her twice every day shut up some hours in her Closet which was excellently furnished with Pious Books of Practical Divinity Here she redeemed much pretious time in reading the holy Scriptures and other good Books that might give her further light into them and help to put more heat into that light she had obtained Here she poured out her devout Soul with such fervours of Spirit in Prayer as could not be hid sometimes from those her Maidens whose occasions drew them at any time near her Closet dore and yet are we not at an end of this good Ladies Devotions for every night she would her self pray with her Maidens before she went to bed And now is it any wonder she grew so rich in Grace who drove so great and constant a Trade in the means of Grace and had so many ways to bring her in Spiritual gains Thirdly Her Love to God besides what already hath been said did many ways make it self evident to be of an high degree First The mournful complaints she would make that she could love God no more the reason of which indeed was because she loved him so much Therefore she thought she loved him so little because she knew she could never love him enough The truth is she had such raised apprehensions of Gods Glorious Excellency as caused her to think her highest affections unworthy of him None indeed that have such high apprehensions of the Divine greatness and goodness can love him little or think their love when most to be great Secondly The vehement desires and longings she had to be gone hence that she might be with Christ She was one of those very few Christians which stood in need of old Mr. Dods use of Exhortation which I have heard he would make to the Saints in his Preaching That they would he content and patient though they were not taken up to Heaven so soon as they desired This good man who was one of the most Heavenly Souls that this Age knew finding to do this was something difficult in his own Soul thought it was ordinary for others to do the like whereas God knows most Christians are of a lower form in Christs School prone rather to linger too much here than to be too hasty of going hence so that they need rather Spur than Bridle and Ministers have more reason to take hold of them with the strongest Arguments they can find to draw them out of the love of this world as the Angels did Lot out of Sodom than to make them willing to continue here But this Gracious Lady knew so much of Heaven as made her stay here tedious to her the earnest option of her Soul was Come Lord Jesus come
quickly She found to her great grief that her imperfect state on Earth made it impossible to serve God here as she would and therefore did wonderfully complain she was unprofitable and unserviceable and this deep sence of her unserviceableness while others admired her fruitfulness and usefulness did still increase her desires to be where all these infirmities would be cured and where she knew her ability should fully correspond to the height of her desires she had to serve and glorifie her God Thirdly Her love to the Saints who are born of God and have his lively Image stamped upon them This in Scripture is made one of the fairest evidences for our love to God Every one that loveth the Father that begat loveth him that is begotten 1 John 5.1 A man may love the Child and not love his Father but he cannot love him because he is his Child and because he is like his Father but he must needs love his Father Yea love him first and most because his love to the Child springs from his love to the Father This Good Lady then was a great Lover doubtless of God himself because she had so dear an affection to his Children She did not praise the dead Saints and persecute the Living she did not pretend love to those that lived far from her but shewed kindness to them that lived near her She did not factiously love some of one Party and reproach those of another In a word she did not love the Saints in an equality with others from a Natural tenderness which disposeth some to be kind to all good and bad but her love was a Spiritual Cordial Special and Uniform Love to them Where-ever she saw any thing of God her Love was drawn out towards them and had the most love for those that discovered most of God she loved them so as to delight in converse and communion with them yea and the chief of her Charity was extended to them As for the Faithful Ministers of Christ whose Function lifts them above private Christians few ever exceeded her in loving and honouring of them yea she loved first the Ministry and then the Ministers professing seriously the great love and high esteem she had for them was for their dear Masters sake whose Embassadours they were So that what I have heard concerning her worthy Son-in-Law in Norfolk Sir Roger Townsend that for his Love to the Ministry he got the title of being called Deliciae Cleri The Ministers Delight may be truly given to her Fourthly Her works of Charity were remarkable upon manifold accounts First The largeness of her Charity so great indeed it was that it may well be admired how this Tree should not long ago have killed it self with over-bearing The Trees in our Orchards yield their Fruit but once a year taking so long a time to be put in heart for bearing again But her Charity was dropping Fruit all the year long Many ways it diffused it self she had Silver for the Moniless aliment for the Hungry Medicaments for the Sick Salves for the Wounded Abundance of good she did this way in Town and Country she did not only give but devised liberal things If her Servants knew of any that were in great need and did not tell her of it she would when by otherways she heard thereof be very angry with them It hapned that an honest poor Neighbour dyed before she knew he was sick for which being troubled she asked her Servant whether he had wanted in his Sickness saying with some earnestness I tell you I had rather part with my Gown from my back than the Poor should want Secondly In the prime objects of her Charity she cast her seed upon all sorts of ground but especially on Gods enclosure The Houshold of Faith had her fullest handfulls to such she never thought she gave enough Thirdly Her Secresie in giving When it might be she did not give her Charity as some throw their Money into a Basin at a Collection so that it rings again but it fell like Oyl into a vessel without noise Fourthly Her Self-denying Spirit in all this she was no Merit-monger good Lady she never thought to purchase Land in Heaven with the money she gave on Earth She was no Merchant to sell her Charity but a Faithful Steward acknowledging what she gave was not her own but her Lords money she was notwithstanding all her Charity carried out to a naked Christ desiring to be found alone in him and his Righteousness as earnestly as if she had not done one good work in all her life Hear this Oh ye Papists and be ashamed for your notorious slander who would make the world believe that Protestant Religion is too cold a Soil for Charity to thrive in Behold here a Protestant Dorcas full of good Works and Alms-deeds Though she had no opinion of Merit to cherish the root of her Charity from which much of yours comes had not hope of expiating some foul Crimes or conceit of meriting Heaven been at the bottom of the Charity of many in your Church it may be believed the first stone had this day been to be laid in some of your Goodly Hospitals and Churches also Fifthly Her Sincerity This was as her under Garment which she wore nearest to her and gave excellency to all her other Graces Many notable testimonies there were for this in her First The uniformity of her Holy Walking her Religion was not like a drift Snow which lyeth thick in one place and leaves the ground bare in another the Hypocrite hath some naked plot in his Conversation that renders him suspicious you may perswade him with Herod to do many things but never make him with Saint Paul willing in all things to live honestly But in this good Ladies Conversation one part corresponded admirably with another an happy Symmetry appeared in her whole course towards God and Man abroad and also at home among her Domestick Relations those that lived constantly with her who saw her as we are wont to say hot and cold in her night-cloaths as well as when dressed to go abroad Few I believe have had an higher testimony for Piety from those that have lived near and long with them than she hath from all that dwelt under her roof Secondly The great freedom she gave her Friends in speaking to her of what they saw amiss in her she was wont much to applaud the priviledge of having a Faithful Friend saying others might see more by us than we by our selves she would also say 'T is a great mercy to be convinced of any sin Thirdly Her Faith which was wont to be then strongest when death appeared nearest Like that great Souldier I have read of who would tremble every joynt whilst his Armour was putting on in his Tent but without all fear when he engaged in the Battel A little more than a Twelve-month since she fell into a long swound which lasted about half an hour without