Mind had served it fourscore and six Years and was useful in all the dispatches of her Will she had accustomed her Body to the Yoke she had train'd it up so well in all Vertuous Exercises by her admirable Temperance that she had it perfectly at her Command and wholly at the Discretion of her Soul A thing not very observable in this Age of the World amongst Men or Women The Body the will of the Flesh commonly governs the Man The Soul in most is drudge to the Body imploys its Wit and all its Faculties to serve the Interests and Needs of the Body To make Provision for the Flesh a Delicate and Luxurious Master So that truly if some Vertuoso's had not been convinced of an extraordinary and sublime Spirit in Man scarce intelligible by old Philosophy and some gripes of Conscience had not whispered that it is immortal capable of Eternal Bliss or Pain some of their Epicurean Wits would hardly have believed there is such a thing as a Soul in the Vulgar notion of Divines But if they could well dress had Salt to relish could feed and satisfie the Cravings of the Body they then did bene sapere were wise and happy enough as happy as Soul could wish Indeed when we observe what care some of this Sex nay of either Sex do take about their Body making it their whole days work first to adorn then to glut then to recreate their Body then to lay it asleep not allowing one of twenty-four hours to speak with or pray for their Soul much less to take it to task and imploy it in Religious and Vertuous Exercises the Meat and Drink as necessary to preserve Life in the Soul as those are in the Body I say this Carnality might make the Vulgar believe that although Preachers and some Women talk of Souls yet in truth there is no such thing This excellent Lady then who neglected or spent so little Time or Pains about her Body except it were to make it serviceable to her Soul which she adorned with her chief care and diligence may serve for a glass or Mirrour for others of that Quality or Sex to dress themselves by her Example So that although nature framed her but as the Subject of this Text a Woman yet she having a Body so well ordered as well as built a Soul endued by nature with such acute Faculties we need not doubt to give her the Adjunct which is given to the Woman here in the Text to call her Wise to say that in Her the World had found and has lost a wise a vertuous Woman For that 's it Vertue which only makes and denominates a Woman wise wise and vertuous are almost Terms reciprocal every wise woman is vertuous and all the virtuous are Wise It was a strange Question for King Solomon to ask Prov. 31. 10. having had seven hundred wives Who can find a vertuous woman And it was as strange that he should answer that Question when he was become a Preacher Eccles 7. 27. Behold this have I found saith the Preacher counting one by one to find out the account And what was the sum total when he had cast up his Account Why it is come to one and none one man among a thousand have I found but a woman a vertuous woman he means among all these have I not found and He had the full number of a thousand seven hundred Wives three hundred Concubines The meaning is that a truly Vertuous Woman was a rarity in his time even while King Solomon was a Preacher But I hope the World is better since better for his Preaching but especially for the Preaching of the Gospel and although the number of the wise and virtuous men and women be not so great as were to be desired yet God be thanked we want not Examples more plentiful in this looser Age of either Sex and here we have one Eminent before us a Woman who deserved the Title of Virtuous and therefore of Wise a wise and virtuous Woman Therefore to demonstrate this rarely ennobled Woman to have deserved this greatest mark of Honour to have been truly Wise I will not stray from my Text in the proof of it but set forth her Wisdom from the great Effect of Wisdom set down in this Text under the Allegory of Building her House taking the liberty which the Scheme of the Text allows to extend it to all which so copious a Figure comprehends but still having regard to the scope and chief intent of the Text That by building the House we may intend the deriving of blessings most noble most useful most necessary to her Family to her Allyes and to the Generation wherein she lived for which that and many other Generrtions may call her blessed I did put you in mind before of several Houses which the Allegory comprehends viz. the Artificial or material House the Oeconomical House the Family the Moral House whose materials are Virtues and the Spiritual House built by Grace In all these she hath made it to appear that she was a great Builder Now first that this wise Woman declared her wisdom in building her House in a literal sense the material House I can call you all to witness who have seen so many Houses of her famous Ancestors which Time had ruin'd War or sad Accidents demolished re-built by her raised out of their Rubbish or decays to their former greatness and beauty To have been a great Builder if wisdom and discretion were overseers of the Work was in all Ages accounted an Heroick thing sufficient to commend the Fame and praise of such Builders to all Posterity To build importing a design of a great mind studying to be beneficial to Posterity whom Builders commonly intend to accommodate and gratifie Thereby Princes and the greatest of Men have gained to themselves the greatest Renown Certainly none had greater Fame upon Earth than King Solomon nor was his name exalted higher for any thing which his Wisdom enabled him to perform than for his Building the Temple and his Houses Thus Trajan the best of the Emperours while they were Heathen was the greatest Builder the most renowned the best beloved 'T is made a signal blessing Isa 58. 12. To be a builder of the old waste places to raise up the Foundations of many generations to be called the repairer of the breaches the restorer of paths to dwell in But because I am recounting the praise of a Woman the first as I take it that is extolled for this in Story was a Woman the Babylonian Semiramis to whom for that and her famous Acts * Berosus a Prime Historian tells us that no Man could ever be compar'd And it was a Woman also who gave the Pattern to the greatest Princes how to build their Monuments with most Magnificence That Monument which She called after her Husband Mausolus his name had the honour to give the name to the noblest Monuments of Emperours and the greatest
their preferment It was indeed observable that although she clothed her self in humble and mean attire yet like the wise and vertuous Woman Prov. 31. 21. She clothed her houshold with scarlet her allowance and gifts were so bountiful and so frequent to them that they might afford to clothe themselves in such Garb as best became the servants of so great and so good a Mistris And some of the Wise have thought it a great Errour and against the Rules of Oeconomics to be niggardly to good Servants to grow richer by such a thrift as makes the Servant 's back bare or belly empty to fill the Master's Purse But although in this she did follow the pattern given to all the Wise Prov. 31. 15. Give meat to her houshold and in such a plenty that Hospitality and Charity might have their portion with them while she her self was contented with any pittance little in quantity but enough to keep life and Soul together as we say Viands not costly or rare not far fetch'd and dear bought but such as were at hand parable and cheap Yet here I may be bold to tell you something to wonder at That she much neglected and treated very harshly one Servant and a very Antient one who served her from her Cradle from her Birth very faithfully according to her mind which ill usage therefore her Menial Servants as well as her Friends and Children much repined at And who this Servant was I have named before It was her body who as I said was a Servant most obsequious to her Mind and served her fourscore and six years It will be held scarce credible to say but it is a truth to averr that the Mistris of this Family was dieted more sparingly and I believe many times more homely and clad more coursly and cheaply than most of the Servants in her House her Austerity and Humility was seen in nothing more than if I may so allude to Coloss 2. 23. in neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the Flesh Whether it were by long custom to prove with how little Nature may be content and that if the Appetite can be satisfied the Body may be fed with what is most common and cheap She taught us that Hunger and Health seek not Delicacies nor Fulness O that those who think they cannot live except they fare deliciously every day would but make trial one year how they may preserve their own health and save their poor brethren from starving by hunger or nakedness out of those superfluities and surfeits by which they destroy themselves That those who clothe themselves in Purple beyond what their station or estate requires would inquire into more particulars than I can yet inform them of this great Ladies Abstinencies and humble Attire and how successful they were to her long Life with Health and Reputation Some Texts out of this Book of the Proverbs the Parable of Dives and even this Ladies Example might supply the defective Application of a Sermon reform or shame Gluttony cause vain Gallantry to impose sumptuary Laws to it self sit content with home-bred fare home-growing and home-spun manufacture and not run to France or Persia to fetch form or matter for their Pride This opulent Lady might if she had pleased have fetched from far and at the dearest rates provisions for the flesh the Back or Belly but her greatest appetite was after Wisdom and she knew as well as Seneca that Corpora in sagina animae in mane Ep. 88. that in a fatted Body commonly dwells a lean and starved Soul and had heard of St. Gregorie's Aphorism Wisdom is seldom found in terra suaviter viventium it will not thrive so kindly in those territories where men delight to fare deliciously every day We may conclude that this great Matron who had such Command over her self knew how to Deny her self had learned our Saviour's lesson of Self-denial and St. Paul's Affirmation 1 Cor. 9. 27. might be hers Contundo corpus meum I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection These Abridgments were in this Lady a Mortification which Humility and Modesty concealed but which Wisdom and Resolution did put in practise I should now have done with that part of Oeconomy which respects her Servants but that she had another way of Building as to them namely building them up in the most holy Faith and also giving them their meat in due season that meat which our Saviour told his followers would not perish but indure to everlasting life this he told them of in the sixth Chapter of S. John when they made such haste to find him soon after he had fed them with the loaves and by this Meat in opposition to the perishing some Interpreters tell us he meant his Body in the Holy Sacrament the meat that would nourish them to everlasting life This spiritual meat this Lady wisely took care that it might be provided for all her houshold in due season that is at the three Seasons in the year when the Church requires it and once more in the year at the least besides those three great Festivals she made one Festival more for all that were fit to be invited or compelled as in the Gospel to come to that Supper And that all might be Fitted and well-prepared she took care that several Books of Devotion and Piety might be provided four times in the year that every one might take their choice of such Book as they had not before by which means those that had lived in her house long and she seldom turn'd any away might be furnish'd with Books of Religion and Devotion in every kind By these and more instances which it were easie to produce it appeared that this Religiously Wise Lady had deliberately put on Joshuah's holy resolution Josh 24. 15. I and my house will serve the Lord and might have the Eulogy which that memorable Queen pronounced of the best ordered Family in the World 1 Kin. 10. 8. Happy are thy men happy are these thy Servants which stand continually before thee But yet House and Family in this copious Allegory may comprehend more than I have named Besides Children and Servants Allyes Relations and even Friends were in some sort of her Family and Clientele The House of Saul and the House of David is taken for all that adhered to either House Indeed the whole Country considering the freedom of her Hospitality was in this sense her House nay even all of Quality that did pass through the Country It was held uncouth and almost an incivility if they did not visit this Lady and her House which stood conspicuous and open to all Commers and her Ladiship known to be easie of access to all addresses in that kind And seldom did any come under her roof who did not carry some mark and memorial of her House some Badge of her Friendship and Kindness she having always in store such things as she thought fit to present
some holy Ejaculations The Psalms for the day of the Moneth were never omitted to be read by her self or when under some indisposition read to her by her Attendants She much delighted in that holy Book it was her Companion and when persons or their affections cannot so well be known by themselves they may be guessed at by their Companions No greater Testimony of a Soul having her Conversation in Heaven then by being conversant in that Heavenly Book which as holy Athanasius hath well demonstrated is fitted for all persons suited for all occasions To receive comfort express sorrow to cast down or lift up the Soul with joy to praise God to expostulate with him to strengthen Faith to nourish Hope to stir up Holy affection to allay Passion to teach Patience to await Gods leisure So that indeed we may apply to this one parcel of Scripture what St. Paul makes the scope of the inspired Books that it is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God and not only so but that every Godly man or woman may be perfect throughly furnished to every good work It is scarce possible for any to be bad that frequently reads and meditates on this Book with desire to be good He that reads and digests shall be transformed into the image of it be acted by the spirit which breaths in it No doubt the Compilers of our Liturgy had all this in their eye when they made the reading a part of the Psalms of David so great a portion of the Morning and Evening Service Besides this which she did commonly read her self she usually heard a large portion of Scripture read every day as much as one of the Gospels read every week So that let her Body be fed never so sparingly her Soul was nourished with sound words the words of Faith which must needs give her a growth in Grace and make a sincere heart She took a particular delight in one Chapter which she used to repeat every Lord's day in the year and never failed to do it it was the eighth of the Romans which she had by heart in the best sense had laid it up in her heart and truly she could hardly find a better Cordial in any one Chapter in all the Holy Scriptures Which how comfortable how pertinent how useful it may be to any Christian in any Condition who desires with Meditation and Reflection to peruse it it may be sufficient to refer them to the serious reading of it and I doubt not but they will approve this Ladie 's Wisdom and Piety in her choice and frequent application of it to her self and she did so when Death look'd her in the face repeating it the first day when her Sickness which proved mortal seized on her As this might excite many Graces Faith Hope so especially what is the proper effect of those while we are on earth Patience and on Earth only these three Plants grow Faith Hope Patience though they send their fruit to Heaven yet their Root is only on Earth Faith is perfected by Vision Hope consummated by Fruition and at Heaven's gates the Patience of the Saints leaves them no more sufferings pain or grief all tears are wiped from their eyes at the first glimpse of the Beatifical Vision But I say in that selected Chapter Rom 8. the greatest Emphasis in it is to teach Patience either in inward afflictions of the Soul or outward pressures on the Body securing the Soul against the fear of damnation though under sinful infirmities and susteining the Body and outward man though under the Cross and greatest afflictions assuring that where Patience hath endured to the utmost when Patience shall have perfected its work it shall have its reward a Crown at the last I might inlarge by particular instances of her Patience in bearing and even Taking up submissively the Crosses which she met withall as it cannot be imagined but one who lived so long in a perverse and crooked generation must meet with many crosses in several kinds both in regard of Publick revolutions and Private cross-accidents Indeed she saw and felt great varieties and mixture of better and worse in both She spun out almost the measure of one whole Age and the Age wherein she lived might give her experience of the greatest misery and also felicity in the late revolutions in these three Nations that any one Age had ever seen Wherein the greatest Students and Searchers into the Methods of Providence could never extricate or clear the doubts which first arose from seeing these Nations from the top of earthly and heavenly blessings thrown into the abyss of misery and hellish slavery and then again by a powerful but gentle hand of Providence restored and raised up to its former prosperity and glory Herein this Lady as many less aged Had something like the fate of Noah saw the times before the Flood which Sin brought down weather'd out with Patience the time under the Floods of War and Misery Faith and Providence building her an Ark she lived to see the deluge of Blood and War dried up God in his never to be forgotten Mercy clearing the Skies and making the Sun and Starrs shine upon us again Those were times to exercise her Patience in a joynt-stock with others under publick Sufferings But she had and it may be seen that she well remembred then many private trials of her Patience not only those which in Common Providence happen to all mankind especially to the long lived who must needs see the Funerals of Parents and hear of the Deaths Misfortunes or Miscarriages of Husbands Children and Friends in all these there might be work for Patience although I acknowledg that true Christian-Patience looks upon such as Corrections and Chastisements and that they are more often the Indulgences of a Father then the severity of a Judge Corrections not Judgments And it is one of the safest ways for any to assure himself that he is the Child of God when he can willingly submit to his stroak as to the Correction of a Father Amongst the tryals of this kind I was able to observe one great work of Patience wrought out by this pious Lady When the astonishing news was brought her about three years since from the Isle of Garnsey of the strange and disasterous death of one of her dear Grand-Children with a Lady of great Piety and Honour and divers others by a terrible blast by Gunpowder the relation of which amazed the Court and all that heard of it although she first received the news with a sorrow supprest by a silence and wonder yet after when she heard that the Noble Lord her Grand-son who had also Lord Hatton been blown up out of his Chamber and by a wonderful Providence being thrown upon an high Wall that he and two of her Grand-children escaped without any harm she discovered a patient Submission to the Will of God in many
things come Infancy Childhood Age Infirmities Souls know nor feel such things from their own pure principles these flow from Union with the Body the Crasis and Temperaments of the Elements otherwise I say souls would not Pati Senium souls of men and women are alike immortal 3. Women have been the Instruments to convey great blessings to their Generations nay by a woman was conveyed the Greatest Blessing to mankind our Blessed Saviour for whom all Generations Shall call her Blessed As God made the first Adam the Father of all mankind without the help of a woman and by taking woman out of mans flesh peopled the World so God took the second Adam out of woman without the help of a man from whence hath issued the Holy Seed which hath replenished the Church 4. Women have given as great examples of Vertue in every kind and in some kinds of Learning as men have done It were endless to instance or compare we find Women to have been adorned with as great Eulogies in Histories Sacred or Profane as men have been Hence we find them memorable in so many Addresses to them by Epistles and Panegyrics while they were living Celebrated by Elegies Funeral Orations and Epitaphs when they were dead Canonized placed in the highest degrees of happiness which Opinion Fame or Faith could give them after their death I need not bring to witness the most Learned of the Heathen Writers Tully Seneca Plutarch especially who has written a Book purposely of the Vertuous deeds of Women Greg. Nazianzen sets out the great praise of Gorgonia Basil of Matrina St. Ambrose of Marcellina St. Hierom of Eustochium Marcella Asella c. He and St. Austin directs many Epistles and some of their Books or Treatises to Eustochium Paulina Proba and others women pious and exercised in the learning which the Holy Scripture teaches Nay the beloved Apostle Evangelist and Divine St. John directs his Epistle to a Lady either to a particular Eminent Woman as the most averr or if to the Church Catholick as some would conjecture yet under the Scheme of a Lady a Woman What Honourable and frequent mention do we find in the Old and New Testament of Women Eminent for Prudence Constancy Courage Piety and all Graces as if the Female Spirit had had the ascendant and had been productive of the highest and most memorable Atchievements and Effects Most Languages and those who have set out the greatest things have commonly shadowed and represented them under the Hieroglyphics Figure and Scheme of a Woman The Earth it self the four parts of it Great Monarchies and Commonwealths as a Great Queen or Lady So the Scriprure frequently speaks of great Cities Daughter of Babylon of Tyre Danghter of Hierusalem of Zion Nay further thus the Church the Synagogue and Jewish thus the Church of Christ is expressed and represented a Spotless Virgin the Spouse of Christ the King's Daughter The Woman Rev. 12. 1. The wonder in Heaven cloathed with the Sun the Moon under her Feet with a Crown of Stars on her Head this a representation of the Church Jewish by some Christian by others Lastly all the Virtues Intellectual Moral Prudence Justice Nay even the Theological Faith Hope and Charity in the import of their names the Properties and things ascribed to them are represented under the Schemes and Figures of Women Even this Wisdom it self is so set out through this whole Book of the Proverbs Wisdom calls she lifts up her voice invites by sweet yet Powerful Arguments the simple and those that lack Understanding to be her Proselytes Say unto Wisdom thou art my Sister and call Vnderstanding Prov. 7. 4. thy Kinswoman And therefore this great Action and Blessing in this Text figuratively express'd by building the House is fitly here attributed to a wise Woman as the same thing had been before Chap. 9. 1. of Wisdom it self under the Figure of some magnificent Queen or Lady erecting some stately Fabric Wisdom hath builded her House she hath hewen out her seven Pillars i. e. she hath built as all the wise do with Symetry with Strength Beauty and Order That shews her a wise builder And that is the Epithet or Adjunct to the VVoman building in the Text wise every wise Woman Wise The word rendred from the Original literally is the wise of Women and so as Grammarians note admits some Figure here but we need not recede from our own Translation Wise the Subject is so denominated from the Habit Wisdom which is demonstrated by Arts suitable to it and gives the Title of Wise But neither this nor the Habit of Wisdom is to be taken in so strict a sense as Philosophers commonly do making it only one of those which they call the Intellectual Habits and to be only Speculative and so define it by knowledge of all things Divine and Humane from whence those who studied and sought after such Knowledge or Wisdom gain'd the Title of Philosophers Lovers and Searchers after Wisdom To omit what others restrain it unto who define Wisdom to be the knowledge of the highest things and their Causes It may suffice in this place to take wisdom in that large sense which this wise Author of the Book of the Proverbs doth throughout this Book chiefly in the beginning of it where he discovers the Heavenly root of the knowledge from whence the true wisdom grows namely the fear of the Lord. And this imports a knowledge of God such as hath always a religious and awful fear of him joyned with it and an endeavour to know and practise all things which conduce to his Worship and Glory and to mans happiness Plainly it is to be wise to Salvation Therefore this wisdom cannot be a single nor only a speculative Habit nor destitute of any of the other Intellectual or Moral Habits but they all minister unto it as means to attain the highest end God and Happiness but in the first place it may intimate those habits which more immediately perfect the Vnderstanding Knowledge Prudence Discretion Sagacity Sound Judgment and good Vnderstanding These are Wisdom's Companions or rather Handmaids always attending upon her and after these all moral Virtues will vinculo sororio as they say willingly follow Whoso is wise will seek after all these all Vertue these constitute a wise Man or Woman This is the wise Woman in the Text. This may answer the first Question Who Both why a Woman is here the instance and who is this wise Woman The Subject in the Proposition on which is founded this Assertion in the Text. That she buildeth her House And that brings in the second Query What is meant by building her House The Design of King Solomon in this Text being to set out the praise of a wise Woman or rather of Wisdom under the Scheme and Figure of a Woman He instances in that part of Wisdom or of Philosophy which is esteemed by all Philosophers to be most proper to that Sex namely the
Oeconomical or what appertains to the House the well ordering of that which although it be an equal Duty where the Family is complete and mixt of man and wife belonging to the Man as well as to the Woman yet in regard the Man's imployment is commonly more abroad and without doors the well ordering of the House seems to be more particularly the Womans Office who therefore in our English is properly called the House-wife and if she perform that part well Good Housewifery is her praise And where even the chief Government of the Family is in the Woman singly yet her part will be most within the House The House is the Womans Province her Sphear wherein she is to Act while she is abroad she is out of her Territories she is as a Ruler out of his Jurisdiction And therefore our wise King Solomon makes it not only a Brand of a bad House-wife but of an ill-woman Prov. 7. 11. That her seet abide not in her house And St. Paul makes it a Character of idle House-wives 1 Tim. 5. 13. That they learntobe idle wandring about from house to house And he gives charge in the next verse Let the Woman guide the house and Tit 2. 5. That they be as Discreet and Chast so Keepers at home A good Housewife seems wedded to her House as well as to her Husband Thus King Solomon may intimate in the first place the Oeconomy in General of a Wise Woman But the principal thing and the great Honour in Oeconomy is to be the Founder and Builder of the House He who hath Builded the house hath more honor then the house Heb. 3. 3. or then any belonging to the house So that by this manner of expressing the chief thing that belongs to the House the very Building of it is here attributed to the Wise Woman made her part and praise in this Text. Therefore both these Terms House and Building being as I did premise before Figurative and Metaphorical the plain sense and meaning of them will be that a wise and vertuous Woman performs the principal the greatest and most necessary thing as Building is to the House that is to the Family to the Children to the Servants and to whomsoever or whatsoever may be comprehended under this Metonymy the Notion of House chiefly viva domus the Houshold as Prov. 31. 27. She looketh well to the Houshold or as Joshua 24. 15. I and my House that is all persons belonging to my House will serve the Lord. And this is farther extended and comprehends all the Descents Relates or Clientels as they say of Families these are belonging to the House As the Honse of David the House of Saul All these are contain'd under that Metonymy of the House So that the Sum of what may thus be collected is That the wise Womans building her House is doing all things which belongs to good Oeconomy the well ordering of a Family as Aristotle in his Treatise of that Science tells us that the wise Matron or Mother of the Family is to the House as the Soul to the Body and moves all under her in their several Stations orders all things and persons within the House and takes care for them and all this as by an Art as by written Laws and Rules of Oeconomy or good Housewifery And in this Text this is comprehensively the wise Womans building the House well ordering of all within her House belonging to her Family in the largest sense There is I confess noted by some Interpreters another sense of the word House that which they call a Tropological or some a Moral sense when the Figure is carried inwardly to the Soul and the manners so that as House may signifie first an Artificial and Material House and then by the Metonymy the Oeconomical House the Family so in the Trope they tell us of a Moral House whose materials are Vertue a Spiritual House which is made up of Grace but this I shall pass by here intending to resume it briefly when I shall come to apply the Text to the present occasion Thus you have seen both the Questions answered Who is the wise Woman the Subject of the Assertion and What is asserted in saying She buildeth her House Now remains the Copula or Connexion of the Terms the truth of the Assertion to be proved And that as I told you by one great Instance waving briefly the ordinary Method of Logical Proofs by Arguments Topical or Apodictical I say this shall be represented in the Instance here laid before you the Remains of a great Personage in whom may be comprehended all that hath been said of a Woman a wise Woman applying her Wisdom to this great End and Effect in all the Senses which the Letter or Figure will bear of building her House So that for Method's sake the words as they stand in their Natural and Proper together with their Parabolical and Figurative sense shall be the Clew which shall lead me through all the Labyrinths the Passages and Rooms of this great House while I shall apply the Letter of the Text by a Figure to the Subject before us on this occasion 1. At the first then we see a Woman which might lead us to consider only what is Natural either in the Original from what Stock she came or the Portions wherewith Nature endued her But as to the former I need not be her Herauld Her Blood flowed from the Veins of three anciently enobled Families Cliffords Viponts Vesseys Lords and Barons in the North and she added to her Escotcheons Pembroke Dorset and Montgomery the Titles of three great Earldoms in the South But as St. Hierom professed when speaking upon a like Argument the praises of Marcella a noble Roman Lady and of high Descent Nihil in illa laudabo nisi quod proprium he would not praise her for any thing but what was purely her own So for me let this deserving Lady be praised only by her own Atchievements The Additions of Honour wherewith her self adorn'd her Ancestors Prov. 31. 31. The Fruits of her Hands her own Works these shall praise her in the Gate 2. You look at a Woman but one of those whom Nature had blessed with her best Dowries Mens sana in corpore sano is the sum of Nature's gifts She had a clear Soul shining through a Vivid Body her Body Durable and Healthful her Soul Sprightful of great Understanding and Judgment faithful Memory ready Wit These are great Advantages for Wisdom and Vertue and without these without the aids of a healthful well-constituted Body fitted to serve the Commands of a great Mind seldom any Great and Heroick Actions can be produced Wisdom if it be not well seated has not fit space and room nor well disposed Organs cannot exert or lay out it self without Tools the best Artificer cannot finish any Work nor bring it to Perfection although never so well projected and begun Her Body was a faithful Servant to her
men Philosophers and Moralists Aristotle himself has given it a place and name of a particular Science amongst those which are the Prudential Oeconomy directing in it by as good Rules and Precepts as in any other in any part of Moral Philosophy And it is indeed as necessary that the World should be well instructed in this as in any other Science in the whole Circle For Mankind which is made up of single Persons could not have been supported if they had been to live always separate and single and not formed themselves into Society which supposes Government made up of Order and that supposes subordination It is true every particular man hath a government in himself is a King in Plato's sense hath a Body and Soul Passions and Members Words and Thoughts under his Power and Government Ethics Moral Philosophy teaches this Art of Self-government But man being intended for Society the first rank of that is a Family 't is the Science of Oeconomy teaches to rule that well to Order the house Now in this House the Subordinate in it are chiefly the Children Servants and Retainers And to continue the Allegory the Building of this House is the Governing the Providing for the Nourishing and Maintaining the Ordering and Well-disciplining of these by certain Rules of which Wise men have said much in their Books and of which we find much in the Book of God this Book of the Proverbs most copiously So also in the New Testament Ephes 5. ch 6. Coll. 3. 4. Tit. 2. and dispersedly in several other Places And certainly good Oeconomy or right ordering of a Family is a noble and profitable Art to be learned by much prudent thinking and consideration Although the World think little of it and few study this Art deeming themselves naturally wise enough or inspired with the knowledg of this if they have means and conveniencies to set up a Family they govern it by rote not by Rule if they be rich enough to support it they mind not to govern morally otherwise than by Had-I-wist hand over head as things fall out contingently I mean as to the Moral or Religious part of governing live like Nomades or Tartars those that live at random Now this neglect of Government in a Family breeds the greatest mischief in the World spreads disorder over the face of the Earth Families ill-ordered will make ill-governed Cities and these mis-govern'd will fill the whole Common-wealth and Kingdom with disorder and confusion Families being the first Principles of Bodies publick the Seminaries which stock Cities out of which Kingdoms and Common-wealths do grow There is no greater cause of decay to the Common-wealth nor bane to the Church than want of Discipline and good Order in Families especially as to one branch of them mis-governing and ill-educating of Children who are the first Elements of Cities and Kingdoms Undisciplined and bad Children will hardly make good men nor honest Common-wealths-men nor well-principled Subjects of which a Kingdom consists Train up a child then in the fear of the Lord season a new Vessel with wholsom Liquor if they at first are not season'd with good or if bad principles be infus'd into them they will without extraordinary Grace do renew them carry a tang and ill savour to old age Mis-government in this part of the Family vitious humours in Children like a fault in the first concoction breeds an exuberancy of habits seldom to be corrected and purged out Now this part of Family-Government chiefly belongs to Women who when mens occasions call them out are commonly fix'd to the House as Intelligences to their Sphear who although the man as the primum mobile directs the general motion of all yet the particular and regular inclinations in the Children are commonly formed by the Woman and if she be indeed intelligent and Wise none can do it better Children well instituted in Gynaeceo as plants well ordered in the Nursery will thrive and prosper and fill the World with good fruit Now this House the Family and the well-governing of it in all the members which is indeed the building of it this Wise Woman did perform with greatest Providence and Prudence Her Children which were but two * Lady Margaret Countess of Thanet and Isabella Countess of Northhampton that grew up to perfect age she built them up in the nurture and fear of the Lord season'd them with sound Principles of Religion as was sufficiently evident to those who have known them and their constancy to the true Religion in which they were trained up teaching their Children the same Principles which they had sucked with their Mothers milk This excellent Lady had I say but two to build on but God did so bless them even in the sight of their Mother that she saw them arrive at the pitch and praise of Wise Women And by their issue they gave her Pregnant hopes that they would build up or keep up the House of her Ennobled Family like Rachel and Leah which two did build the house of Israel So that her Children and her Childrens Children and their Children did spring up crave and receive her Blessing and shall always call her Blessed who hath intayled such Blessings upon them by her Affection Piety and Providence Prov. 13. 22. Next As to her Servants domestick she well knew that they were pars domûs and how necessary a part of the House the Servants are and therefore to be kept tight sustain'd and carefully to be held up if in decay repaired and therefore this part of her House she was always building or repairing by the hand of her bounty as well as by good and Religious Order in her Family Indeed she looked on some and possibly on some of the meaner sort of her trusty Servants whose Offices might occasion their nearer attendance to be such as Seneca allows them to be humiles amici Good Servants are humble Friends As Friends in no ill nor insignificant complement style themselves humble Servants to their Friend true Friends being willing to stoop to the meanest offices of Servants when their Friends need requires it Therefore as many great and wise Governours of Families have been observed to do in certain seasons to condescend let down themselves and their state by taking up their discreeter Servants into some degree of Familiarity with them so I say this Heroick Lady would besides the necessary discoursing with them about her Affairs divert her self by familiar conversation with her servants in which they were sure besides other gains from her bountiful hands to gain from the words of her mouth something of Remarque whether pleasant or profitable yet very memorable for some or other occasion of life So well did she observe the Wise man's Caution Eccesiasticus 4. 30. Be not a Lion in thy house intimating that some are always in rage and brawl and fright their Family from their presence her Pleasantness and Affability made their very addresses a great part of
and keeping them to Religious Orders and Observances such were her Rules for more than three and twenty years for so long these twelve Sisters and a Mother had been her Eleemosynaries after her own hands had laid the foundation of the House and led the whole number at first into it and placed them in their several Rooms I have hitherto spoken of her bulding by her Virtues but I am not yet come to her main Building her Temple that is her Religion and the Worship of God at which she daily wrought serving of God night and day framing fitly both the outward Porches and the Body of it composing her Body and Soul to constant and reverent Addresses to God and by inward Acts of Piety and Grace ceased not until she had finished the Sanctum Sanctorum in her Soul had as to some good degree perfected holiness in the fear of God I have mentioned before her outward building or repairing the Houses of God a good sign of inward Devotion that she affected not a cheap Religion was not willing it should cost her nought she thought it not decent to repair her own Houses and let God's House lye waste But it is her inward building of her Spiritual House which we now speak of her Faith Patience Mortification Devotion and Holiness of Life For her Religion and professing of the true Faith she did boldly upon all occasions acknowledge what it was but especially upon one remarkable occasion and it was this About the same time when the Sword-men usurped Dominion over the Persons and Estates of all the Loyal in the Land they permitted their Spiritual Emissaries to exercise Dominion over their Faith and they were busy in Catechising but whom not Children in the Church no more than they cared to Baptize them there But they must Catechise Men and Women of all Ages and Ranks whatsoever in their Houses or where they appointed them to appear Well this great Lady was not more dreaded for her Loyalty than suspected for her Religion and therefore as they had brought her to the Touch-stone for the one they must bring her to the Test and Tryal for the other Whether it were a Committee with a Club of their Divines Lay-elders and Superintendents over all that were appointed I have not been informed but to gain countenance they drew in with them some Ministers of better temper and came to her Castle which had a Garrison no good Guests to her but sure Friends to them They bring her to be examined what their Questions were I have not particularly learned onely by her Answer I may suppose one in general to have been What Faith and Religion she professed One might well have thought in a Person of her Quality Age and Spirit Disdain at such Insolency should have kept her from answering or saying any thing except in reproaching their Arrogancy and proud Hypocrisy But she having learned another Lesson 1 Pet. 3. 15. To be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear her readiness and meekness made her willing to give a reason of her Hope Hope which is built upon Faith and she told them to this or like Effect That her Faith was built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles that is upon the Holy Scriptures the Word of God as delivered and Expounded by the Church of England whose Doctrine Discipline and Worship as by Law established she was bred in and had imbraced and by God's Grace would persist in it to her Lives end This general with other more explicit Answer was so apposite delivered with such firmness of mind that some Ministers whom they had drawn in with them to give a colour to their presumption observing that this well-taught Lady had purchased a good degree of boldness in the Faith observing I say the stedfastness and tryal of her Faith more precious than Gold that perisheth they knew that Gold she would easily let go upon all occasions very liberally but saw she would hold fast the Faith once delivered to her they left her one of them going out weeping amazed and confounded to find such Knowledg Constancy and Courage in a Woman her Faith so sound and laudable and mixed with so much Christian meekness and Condescention The rest also being no doubt astonished at her Understanding and Answers left her a glorious Confessor willing enough no doubt to have been a Martyr and to have sealed to the truth by undergoing any more fiery tryal And she was after this so resolute to stick to the Order of the Church in the main point of Practice partaking of the holy Eucharist that when there was a kind of Interdict on the Land a forbidding to administer the Sacraments according to the Common-Prayer She would not what danger soever might happen communicate any other way sticking close to the Rules and Forms of sound words prescribed by the Rubrick to which she had always been accustomed and had approved it by her own Judgment having suck'd also as it were with her Mothers Milk wholsom Institutions who train'd her up as an obedient daughter of the Church of England Her self being also observant of those Rules and that Ladies great Piety is not only mentioned often in the Annals which this her affectionate Daughter dictated but also taken notice of by the Learned and Godly Mr. Perkins who dedicates one of his Practical Treatises to Margaret Countess of Cumberland the Mother of this Lady which I the rather note that some may take notice who so readily follow him in doubtful Disputations and yet scruple to walk with him in his practice of Conformity to the Rules of the Church She was I say devoted to the Church of England notwithstanding that she was compassionate and charitable to some Dissenters She would tell that Her Family had furnished this Diocess with one Vipont Bishop and that by her assistance an Eminent Prelate now living was made a Christian of which B. of W. and of whom she would often make mention with great contentment For her Devotion some thought less of it because she had no Domestick Chaplain and it was an Objection which I knew not how to answer until I was assured that although she had no Chaplain Menial in her House yet she had six Houshold Chaplains at every one of her Houses the Parochial Ministers did Officiate to her Family as well as at their Cures and they wanted not all due encouragements from so good a Patroness Indeed when Age had deprived her of the benefit of her Limbs her hearing also being much decayed her Chamber as I intimated was her Oratory a house of Prayer not that the Morning and Evening Service were performed daily there especially of late when her Hearing failed But she seldom ommitted Morning and Evening and at Noon to offer up her private Devotions to God and in whatsoever Posture she was to send up