to him and face it very boldly at the Mouth of a Canon or point of a Sword now it has found out a way to be too hard for him and to Revenge it self too cruelly upon his Fearless and Undaunted Temper It has found out his Weakness and wounded him in his softest and tenderest part it has wounded him to the very heart He was invulnerable every where else but in his Queen and there his tenderness prevailed over his Courage and the Husband over the Soldier and he has thereby shown that he had a great deal of that Goodness and Benignity of Temper which was in her and that this is not a Womanish but a truely Masculine Vertue accompanied as it was in Her with the Noblest Courage and Bravery of Mind 2. The next Divine Vertue in our Excellent Queen was her Inclination to do good to all Persons and upon all Occasions to the utmost of her Power Which though a Branch or an Effect of the Benignity of her Nature that fruitful Soil or rather Root of a great many Christian Vertues yet is it so considerable in it self and was so remarkable in her that it ought to be distinctly taken notice of as it will be by the great Judge at the last day She fed a great many hungry and cloathed a great many naked both French and Irish who had fled for their Religion and could bring nothing over with them but a good Conscience She gave very largely and bountifully to their Necessities out of Her Privy Purse and her Royal Heart was larger and more open than her Purse could alwayes be The Poor Widows and Orphans of Seamen and Soldiers tasted very largely of her Bounty and had the best Provision made for them She was able and She was Contriving and Designing Hospitals and Places of Refreshment for their Relief and Comfort and for the better Reception of the Sick and Wounded who had ventured their Lives and lost their Limbs for their Countrey I have heard of very large Sums given by her and a great many were given very Secretly and can be called to no account but that of God who has Rewarded her for them Even some of her Enemies I believe when they hungred and thirsted had according to the Apostles Rule Bread and Drink given to them Rom. 12.20 even those very Mouths that were sometimes opened against her There were many hard Cases and Instances of Pitty occasioned by the Revolution and the War not only at home but out of Ireland and Scotland whom She tenderly considered and charitably Relieved as they were offered and represented to her Pity and Compassion is a most generous Vertue and a sign of a Noble Spirit and it was so much hers that as she never did a hard thing to any so she did many kind ones where she was blamed and was merciful in the Opinion of others even to a fault though she was alwayes willing to Err on the right side if on any and could hardly be brought to do her self Justice upon her Enemies till their folly and her absolute necessity compelled her to it even against her Will But besides her Charity and her Mercy she had a great many other wayes of doing good to others especially to all her Dependants and those about her but above all by taking great care to make them Vertuous and Religious which was a kindness exceeding all others It was her hearty Endeavour and she had a great Zeal to spread and propagate Religion and she did all she could to do it both by her Example and by her Encouragement She had no By-Ends no Mean and Low Designs to serve but only the ends of Goodness and the Glory of God these were her only Scope and Aim her chief Pleasure and Delight the very Bent and Tendency of her Mind the Inclination of her Will the Complexion of her Soul was to every thing that was good Whatever things were true whatever things were honest whatever things were just whatsoever things were pure whatsoever things were lovely whatsoever things were of good report if there was any Vertue if there was any Praise She thought on minded and loved and delighted and was pleased with all those things She was a Woman indeed after God's own Heart That Character I doubt not belonged as well if not much better to Her than to King David himself She had all his Goodness and Piety without any of his faults She had as much Love to Gods House and as good Designs for it as he He was not more pleased with his Contrivances about Building a Temple than she in hers about St. Pauls and in Building up and Repairing the whole Church of England and making it like Mount Sion the joy of the whole Earth improving its Worship ordering its Discipline amending its Defects in making up its Breaches and bringing all Sober Protestants to one Communion which would have been the greatest Blow to Popery and Service to Religion in general She had a great many such Excellent Designs for the good of Religion of the Church and Nation which her own Thoughts and our late Excellent Primate had suggested to her and had she out-lived the present Troublesome and Expensive War we should have seen a great many more Instances of her doing good in all kinds than we yet know or have heard of for what Mighty things would such an Active Mind such a Power joyned with such an Inclination to do good have produced had it been set free from all hindrances and encumbrances but God thought not us of this sinful Nation worthy of such a Blessing nor the World worthy of such a Woman but rather thought her worthy of a sooner Reward for the extraordinary good Deeds she had done already according to Plutarchs Remark upon Biton and Cleobis two Graecian Youths who for an extraordinary Act of Piety done by them for which their Mother prayed they might receive the best thing could be given to Mortals were that Night found dead in Juno's Temple whither they had drawn their Mothers Chariot the Goddess as he supposes rewarding their signal Piety and good Deed with a sudden Death Plut. Cousol ad Apollon 3. I come next to consider her Universal Vertue Innocence and Purity of Life in which she was so Angelical and so confirmed as no Devil ever dared to Tempt or which is more to Slander her Her whole Life was the Brightest the most Charming the most Lovely and Complete Example of all manner of Vertue through all the parts of it it broke forth very Early and appeared in the very Morning of her Age and gave very promising hopes of what she proved afterwards a most Excellent Princess it rose Higher and shone Brighter and Brighter even to a perfect Day and as all admired its Lustre so not a few felt its Influence it scattered and dispersed Vice where-ever it came as the Sun does Mists and Vapours and made it either fly before it or hide it self
visible Seraphim with the Devotion and the Countenance of an Angel Rev. 5.8.8.4 having a Golden Censer and Vials full of the Incense of Prayers to be offered up to the Throne of Heaven both for her self and others And no doubt we owe a great many of those Blessings which God has vouchsafed of late to this Sinful and Unworthy Nation to the Prevalence and Availing Power of her Righteous Prayers These were a Guard to her Royal Consort abroad and a Protection to him in all those dangers where Providence so wonderfully preserved him for they followed him every where and he owed his Success and Victory perhaps more to them than either to his Fleet or Army for this depended more upon God and the Blessing of Heaven than any Second Causes and whilst her Hands were so Devoutly lifted up thither he prevailed God grant that we may not want her help now and that we of this Nation may not find how much we owed our Safety to her Religion and Devotion whilst she stood in the Gap to Save us Ezek. 22.30 and Keep us from being destroyed May she with our other Friends and Members of the Church Triumphant in Heaven still afford us the benefit of their Prayers and may they Powerfully Intercede with God for this poor Church and Nation While she was upon Earth Devotion was her great Delight and the Church of God was the Place she loved to be in above all others There she kept up the Solemnity of Publick Worship with the greatest Decency and did so Worship God in the Beauty of Holyness without either the Garish Dress of too many Ceremonies or the Naked and Sordid Undress of none as made both Religion and our Church appear very Beautiful and Comely to all even to the Enemies of both She understood Religion very well for she had a great Judgment and discerning Sagacity in every thing she medled with but Religion was the great Business of her Life that she studied that she minded that she delighted in that she truely understood and though she had a great Dexterity in managing other things yet she was a True Mary who chose that better part that one thing necessary above them all Her Ministers of State admired her for her Skill and Dispatch in Business for her Judgment in the Cabinet and the Council as if she had minded nothing else but those State-Affairs Her Ministers of Religion thought she was wholly theirs and minded nothing but Religion and the Ladies at the same time thought she minded only the Perfections and Accomplishments of their Sex so perfect was she in All as if she had been singular only in one of those Excellencies and not had them all together But Religion run through them all and was the Golden String upon which they all hung or rather the Mighty Pearl of Price the most Valuable of all her other Excellencies and that which gave Value to all the rest Her Religion lay not in Affected Singularities in Pharisaical Showes and Pretences in an unnecessary Restraint and Abstinence from things Lawful and Innocent or in any Bigotry and Immoderate Zeal for little and indifferent things of no Value or Importance in Religion but it lay in Solid and Substantial in Wise and Regular and Decent Piety and Devotion in a great Sense of God and Zeal for his Glory and an hearty Endeavour to promote Piety Vertue and Goodness in others in being very strict in her own way and very Charitable to others in theirs being very Conformable in her Practice and very Moderate in her Thoughts in being sincerely Devout her self and judging others tobe so who differed from her And she was not only a good Christian but likewise a good Divine too she had a well furnished Library especially of Divinity Books which she very much Read and Studied and had Judgment enough to find more Sense and Witt and Entertainment in them than in Empty Romances and Frothy Plays where the Froth is often not only Thin but Poysonous too She never was better pleased than either in Reading or Hearing Religious Discourses both in Private and Publick which best suited both with her Excellent Understanding and her Pious Inclinations Therefore she doubled the Sun day Sermons at White-Hall and was every way for Increasing and Advancing Religion all she could I well remember the first Afternoon Sermon there that perhaps was ever in England before a King or Queen having the honour to Preach it my self before her Octob. 20th 1689. Her Receiving the Sacrament was very Constant and very Devout with as much Humility as if she had been the greatest Sinner and with the Love and Ardour of the highest Saint The most Penitent Mary Magdalen could not treat her Saviour with more Signs and Expressions of her Hearty Affection and be more Hungry and Thirsty for the Heavenly Food of his Body and Blood and yet I believe she was one of those Just Persons of whom our Saviour speaks Luke 15.7 who needed no Repentance Her Innocent Soul formed early to Vertue and Religion by a good Education never lost its Virgin Purity and her Pure Life was never stained or spotted with any wilful sin that should put her into a Bad State I cannot say she was an Angel that never fell to our Comfort and to our Honour she was as we are the Off-spring of fallen Adam and brought into the World no doubt without the Miracle of an Immaculate Conception but had I any Inclination to some Mens Principles I should be apt to think her one of the Greatest Instances of a Particular Election and of a Special and Irresistible Divine Grace Her Religion Vertue and Piety will both Make and Prove Her a Choice Vessel of Grace and Election one of the most Choice and Excellent Christians that ever were She Equalled if not Out-did the Helena's the Placilla's the Eudocia's those Empresses famous for Piety and Religion the Marcella's the Gorgonia's and the like Celebrated Women in former Christian Ages only she wants an Eusebius a Gregory or an Hierome to set her out But I hope there will be some Religious Pens in our Age that in this will as much out-doe those Excellent Writers as our Great Subject does theirs The Custom of Panegyrics upon such occasions is very Antient and very Christian and has greater Leaders than those at home who thought it served the ends of Vertue and Christianity as no doubt it does to commend very highly where the Example was very Singular and fairly to Illustrate those Vertues which they would invite others first to look upon and then to imitate Had Plutarch that Excellent Heathen who tells us 't was a Law among the Greeks to have the Vertues of Great Persons thus Recited and Commended had such an Instance or Example before him of all Vertue as our Extraordinary Queen he might have furnisht the World with another and a better Book of the Vertues of Womankind from her alone and have out-done all
in common with other Princes That though it Raised Her above the Common Pitch of Ordinary Vertue and Ennobled Her Mind with an higher Senfe of Honour Greatness and Generosity of Spirit and made her Vertues like Diamonds well Set the more Resplendent yet this was Owing to Her Birth and Fortune which She made not her Self And of those She might have said Vix ea nostra voco though to Improve all that Greatness and Worldly prosperity to the Advantages of Vertue which are the Common and almost Unavoidable Temptations in others to a great many Vices is no small Commendation of her Vertue She could make a Court that Corrupts so many others a School of Vertue and even a Religious House for Her House was alwayes a House of Religion a very Temple and like God's House a House of Prayer But Her Office and Sovereign Power is Charged upon Her as Her Fault And the only Thing in Her that needs an Apology with Her Greatest Enemies is this that She took her Fathers Crown To which I make this short Return Who should have took it else but She and Her Husband when her Father left it For otherwise he must have had it again upon his own Terms which would have been a great deal worse than the first Reasons of his not keeping it and no less in the Issue than the Kingdoms utter Ruine and Destruction I must therefore beg some Mens leave to Commend Her even for that which they count Her Great but Her Only Crime If it was so it has done us so much Good and preserved us from so much Evil which we all saw coming Inevitably upon us a few Years ago that we Protestants at least ought to forgive Her Would any such have had Her Left our Poor Church and Nation as a Prey to be swallowed up by Popish Councils and the most Mischievous Designs of its Enemies at that time Then She had been guilty of a great fault I doubt not both to her Countrey and Her Religion and Her Husband To all whom Her Obligations of Conscience were much stronger than to Her Father Her Natural Tenderness and Affections to him which She has shown I doubt not as many wayes as She could with Her Love to Her Religion and Her Countrey these might a while struggle with Her Reason but England and Europe have reason to be thankful they did not overcome it and though these made the thing a Difficulty and Her Crown more a Burden than ordinary yet She took it as all Princes ought to do more to Please and do good to others than to Her Self And as She had alwayes a satisfied Conscience in it both Living and Dying so She showed a true Judgment therein that could reach beyond one obvious thought which the weakness of a great many especially of Her own Sex cannot get over and that She had a much larger compass of Understanding to Determine and Settle Her Mind in a nice practical Case than is common to them That with Her Love to Her Countrey and Religion which are such Sacred Tyes and Obligations as supercede all other more private ones to any particular Person made Her our Queen sooner than She desired to be and it would be a strange and hard Case if Religion and every thing even the whole Legal Constitution in Church and State must be sacrificed and given up to its worst Enemies for the sake of an unhappy and misled Father who had ventured both his own Fathers Curse and his Grandfathers too to Embrace and Serve Popery Our Bigots I suppose forget that who tell us so often of the Fifth Commandment who are so zealous for that as to have no care of the First or Second if of any other and the most Conscientious of them I doubt not would not scruple to kill another in their own necessary Defence notwithstanding the Sixth but let plain Reason either Interpret or Dispense with a Divine Law in one Case and why not then in another And yet many of them who are for keeping none of the Commandments will talk here as confidently of Judgments as if they were the Counsellors and Secretaries of Heaven and had countersigned its Warrants and will judge others very rashly and unchristianly for hidden things when they judge not themselves for plain ones I will readily own the Queens Death to be a Judgment and that a very severe one as Heaven could well Inflict but not to Her Self but to us and the whole Nation to whom the Loss is inexpressible But She is a Gainer by it and is gone to that God and to those Angels above whom She was like here and so much Resembled upon Earth upon the Four accounts I named and now proceed to 1. The Goodness and Benignity of Her Nature This in Infinite Perfection is what makes God Neither Infinite Power nor Infinite Wisdom without this would Constitute such a Being as we mean by God but one quite different and contrary to him 't is the best Definition therefore of God which St. John gives 1 Epist 4.8 God is Love the most Benign most Gracious most Kind and Good Being which makes him the Object of our Love and Affection more than of our Fear and Dread and bends not only our Knees but our Hearts to him This Benignity and Goodness and Sweetness of Temper was most remarkably in our Gracious Queen She showed it in Her Looks where Majesty was alwayes tempered with Sweetness and Chearfulness in Her Carriage where was a Noble Greatness with a most Taking and Obliging Courteousness in her Conversation where Pleasantness and Good Humour were alwayes joyned with the strictest Decency and Wisdom All these Vertues met in her that do not alwayes go together in others Great Openness and appearing Freedom with great Caution and Wise Reservedness great Shrewdness and Sagacity with great Sincerity very good Understanding without any Guile and very good Nature without any Softness She was easie to Her Self and all about Her generally Merry alwayes Pleased Mirth like Oyl swam at the Top Prudence and Vertue were alwayes underneath She was very Serious and very Pleasant often Thoughtful never out of Humour obliging to all Unkind to none She had such a happy Constitution as made Her above any other Deliciae humani generis None ever went sorrowful from Her Presence and none could be so in it She filled every Place with such an Air of Livelyness and Cheerfulness that like the Spring or the Sun She gave Life to every thing below Her and spread Light and Vigour all around Her and now She is gone there is Darkness and Disconsolateness in those very Places She was the very Soul of the Court and one would think even of Her Royal Consort who was alwayes thought to have a very great Soul of his own till he lost her Death never disordered or affrighted much less overcame him before he could look upon it without any Concern and brave and defye it however it appeared