much better by any Creature or Corporeal Appearance than by her as a kind of visible Seraphim with the Devotion and the Countenance of an Angel having a Golden Censer Rev. 5.8.8.4 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
the Sun does Mists and Vapours and made it either fly before it or hide it self in Corners It could never be more truely said of any Good King or Queen than of her that she scattered away evil with her eyes Prov. 20.8 All taht were near her were forced either to leave their Vices or to dissemble them and either to be Vertuous or to seem so so that she put a stop in a great degree if not to Vice it self yet to the Impudence of it and made it look sneaking and contemptible and out of Countenance She brought Vertue into Credit and into Fashion and made it not only a Countrey or a Monastick but a Courtly Accomplishment She showed the World what an Honour this was to the Highest Quality what an Ornament to the Greatest Beauty what a Jewel to the Richest Crown How Amiable how Lovely how Glorious did it appear in her Who could do otherwise but Love Esteem and Admire it there even although they Practised it not themselves for it must necessarily gain their Hearts and prevail over their Reason though it could not overcome their Lusts and Inclinations Vertue is very Charming and Attractive in so great an Example and that if any thing would have cured the Debauchery and Lewdness and which is the Consequence of those the Atheisme and Infidelity which abounds among us It had I doubt not a great Efficacy while she lived and spread a Salutary Contagion all about Her and I hope it will Live and Operate after she is dead and be like a Perfume not only to Embalm her own Name but will keep its Vertue and be a strong Preservative to keep others from the Infection of Vice especially those of the best Quality and of her own Sex She taught them Vertue and she Practised it her self in a right manner and to the best advantage Not as a Sullen Melancholly Humour a piece of Peevishness and Moroseness or a Superstitious Restraint from the Innocent Freedoms and Pleasures of Life which has affrighted so many from it but as a Wise and Rational Government of all our Actions by the Rules of Reason Decency and Religion Not as a Monkish Discipline or a Cynical Severity but as the Wisest Genteelest and Pleasantest thing in the World what is as fit to dwell in a Palace as a Cottage and might be Practised as well by a Queen we saw if not much better than by an Hermit what is in truth the most proper Accomplishment for Persons of Breeding and Quality for Vertue is the greatest Decency of Behaviour to all others and Religion the best Manners to one above us so that Great Persons should look upon Vice and Irreligion as the greatest Rudeness and most Unbecoming Clownishness as well as the greatest Blot and Blemish to their Honours especially after having had such a Royal Pattern and Example to give such Measures to them She showed them how Consistent Vertue is with Greatness and how becoming it She gave them Patterns of Vertue not Uncouth or Fantastick Affected or Unnatural such as we meet with in the Legends but what are agreeable to Civil Life and to all the Stations of this World what Christianity and the plain Laws of God require of us and those things which they had not forbidden She did not think necessary to forbid her self The undue Rigours and Severities of some Indiscreet Persons have done great harm to Religion and Vertue by condemning those things as absolutely sinful which are so only by accident but in themselves Innocent such as Dancing Playing at Cards going to Plays and the like Our Admirable Queen could distinguish here between Duty and Prudence between Unlawful and Inexpedient She would not refuse those common Diversions nor use them too much She would not wholly keep from seeing Plays as if they were utterly unlawful but went very rarely to show she did not much approve them and that she thought her time much better spent another way and she spent indeed the greatest part of her leisure Hours which were free from Business in much better things in Reading Prayer and Meditation either Private or Publick Devotion in her Closet or in her Chappel Which brings me to the Last and Greatest of Her Excellencies and that which Crowned all the rest namely her Piety and Devotion Only I cannot but take notice of one way of her spending her leisure Hours not very usual in Women of Quality but surely much more commendable than in Idle Visits abroad or in their own Dressing Rooms at home and that was not at her Glass but at her Needle and in some Work becoming her Sex She would be wanting it seems in no Excellency of a Woman but would revive and call up the most Antiquated Vertues belonging to her Sex Vertues as old as the times of Solomon in the famous Character of his Vertuous Working Woman Prov. 31. and upon this and all other accounts I may safely I dare say apply to her the Commendation there given to the other Many Daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all ver 29. 4. But it was her fearing the Lord for which she shall chiefly be praised In the last Place Her Devotion and Piety was so Exemplary and so Constant that the Sun was not more Exact and Regular to his Rising and Setting than she to her Dayly Devotion and oftner I believe was he Eclipsed then that was intermitted She was a great while in her Closet Private with God and observed by none but him but in Publick with what most becoming Seriousness and Composedness did she behave her self not with any Affected Showes or Exstatick Transports or Unusual Commotions of Body as if Devotion had been a Disorder to her an Epileptick Fit or a Convulsive Distortion but as the Living Breath or Pulse of her Soul it moved with an Even Gentle Constant yet very Brisk and Lively Motion She was so far from any Pharasaical Ostentation and making too much appearance of her Devout Passions and Elevations of Soul at her Publick Prayers that she chose rather to hide and conceal them by covering her Face with her Fan but when that casually slipt aside her Raised Eyes and most Devout Air and Motion of Face and Lips shewed a most Raised and Intense inward Devotion of Heart as some who were near her have often observed with great pleasure I never saw the like Decent Devout Grave and Attentive Carriage and Behaviour both at Prayers and Sermons in any Person in my whole Life She was enough to inspire every one that beheld her with Devotion and Seriousness and to Correct by her Presence all Undecent Rudeness and Misbehaviour in Gods House There She appeared truly as an Angel and a Cherubim bowing before the Mercy Seat with her Face covered as was her Custom and if the Divine Presence had been to be represented or manifested under the Gospel to our Bodily Eyes as it was by the Shecinah under the Law it could not have been done
a better Book of the Vertues of Womankind from her alone and have out-done all his other Book of Lives I cannot but apply that Character and Commendation to Her which Heraclitus the Philosopher gave to his Daughter Athenaea when for that reason he Disinherited her and gave her little or no Portion Sufficient Chronicon Pascale Olymph 300. Socrat. Histor Eccles l. 7. c. 21. Evag. l. 1. c. 20. Nicephor l. 15. c. 23. said he to her are her Beauty Learning and Vertue in which she excells all her Sex Though this afterwards brought her to be an Empress and which was more a Christian by a Publick Controversie brought before the Judges concerning her Fathers Will whereby she became known to the Emperour Theodosius the Younger who thereupon Marryed her Our Queen had Personal Excellencies enough without her Crown and without all that Rich and High Estate and Worldly Greatness wherewith God had besides Endowed her to Entitle her every way to the Character of the Finest and Bravest Woman in the World the very Phaenix of her Sex nay even to that higher Title in my Text of God and Angel above most other Princes To give her Character in little She was certainly one of the best Women the best Wives the best Princesses and the best Christians that ever lived the Ornament and Glory of her Sex the Ornament of the Court of our Church of the Nation and of the Age. I am loth to leave this Glorious View of Her But I must come to the Dark and Melancholly Scene and draw the Cloud that has covered this our Sun at Noon-day that has Quenched and Eclipsed this Light of our Israel and Darkned all our Joy and Glory with Gloominess and Mourning Though she was a sort of Earthly God upon a better Account and more peculiar Reasons than most other Princes and had the most Divine and Angelick Properties yet alass to our grief she had not that of Immortality I have said ye are Gods but ye shall dye like men Neither the greatest Dignity or greatest Quality of Birth and Fortune no nor the greatest Personal Excellencies and Vertues can protect from Death and the Grave nor Exempt any one from the Common Fate of Mortality to which all the Sons and Daughters of Adam are subject by the Decree of Heaven by the Constitution and Frame of their Nature and by the Punishment of their Sins God and Nature have appointed a certain Period to Humane Life such general Bounds as it cannot pass so that the days of Men are determined the number of his months are with God Job 14.5 And we all carry the Seeds and Principles of our own Mortality within our selves We are of the Earth Earthy and our Earthly Tabernacles however we prop them up awhile will at last sink and decay fall and crumble into Dust so that we must all go down to the Grave the place of Darkness and Forgetfulness where we have seen our Fore-Fathers laid before us and no Man can be so Foolish or so Sceptical as to doubt any more whither he shall once dye then whither he was once born Though every one puts the Thoughts of Death far from him and thinks it is alwayes a great way off of him and though he come never so near it himself by Age yet he fancies 't is still like a Shadow flying as far from him and that at Forty or Fifty he has still a good Life to live and at Sixty or Seventy there are still Older Men than he and those who have lived much longer yet alass this is but a weak however comfortable Delusion Death will quickly meet us somewhere or other and come up to us and strike the Fatal Stroke very probably before we are aware of it It dogs and follows every one of us and may be much nearer us than we are aware and by silent and undiscerned Steps it is every day nearer approaching and making up more closely to us Mankind we see are every day burying of one another We stand wondering to see such and such drop by us and to hear of the unexpected Death as we call it of such of our Friends and Acquaintance who were as like to live as our selves till it comes to be our own turn at last and we drop likewise and are generally as much surprized with our own Death as we were at theirs We are Busie and Thoughtful about a great many Projects and Contrivances which are to take Effect perhaps many of them several Years hence but before half of those Years are gone our whole Life is and the Mighty Babel we were building to our selves of Worldly Happyness and Mighty Designs here is struck down with our Life and in that day all our thoughts perish We whose Blood is now warm our nerves strong and our Pulse beating the Nimble Stroke of Life we alass must have all these lively Motions stopt the whole Clock-work spoilt and we must quickly become only stiff and clammy cold numbed and senseless Carkasses lay'd out at first upon our once warm Beds lockt up in our Coffins put in our Graves lay'd in a Hole turned into heaps of Stench Rottenness and Putrifaction quickly mouldring into the common Dust of the Earth and as quite forgotten in a little while as if we had never been Lord How much is there in this Thought this one Thought the serious thinking of our own Mortality How would the wise and frequent thinking of this one thing if we did it with due and full Consideration and Application of Mind How would this Considering our latter End make us Wise and Religious How would this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Meditation of Death teach us the truest Wisdom and best Philosophy make us Wise in undervaluing this Life and all the Little and Vain and Momentany things that belong to it Wise in preferring the Great and Lasting and Eternal Things of another World Infinitely before it Wise not to be so much concerned for these sorry Bodies of ours and not make it so much our business to Cater and Provide for them which must quickly dye and perish but rather to take care of our Souls those more Precious Parts of us that make us truely Men and not to neglect those which are Immortal and will live for ever This was the Wisdom of our Excellent Queen Though she was encompassed with the highest Glories of this World and had all the Enjoyments of it set before her and the glitterings of an Earthly Crown to dazle her Eyes yet she looked beyond them all and fixt her Thoughts and desires upon that Heavenly Crown which She has now obtained and which she sought and desired and strove to gain a Thousand times more than she did that other Though she had the Noblest and the Finest Body built with all the Strength and Beauty and Elegance of Ornament as a Fit Temple for her more Noble and Divine Soul so that an Anthropomorphite would by that have took her for