THese Words are a full Pro­position, a clear Assertion, and although there lies un­der the terms some figura­tive meaning, as in all Pro­verbial or Parabolical Sen­tences there commonly doth (even throughout this Book called the Pro­verbs or Parables of Solomon) yet these words in the Text come in the plainest kind of Assertion, the most regular form of a Proposition, Categori­cal and simple, open and Affirmative, and with the most universal note of Comprehension. So that if there be any difficulty by reason of the fi­gurative sense, it may be cleared by the full scope of the Text, and the business of it dispatched, by answering two short questions:

• Who?
• and
• What?

• [Page 5]1. Who it is of whom the Assertion in the Text is verified? And,
• 2. What is the full scope of the Assertion?

Who, is the Subject in the Proposition. The wise Woman.

And What it is that is asserted? What, To build her House?

These being answered; Then the Copula, the Connexion of the parts, the truth of the Proposition in the literal sense, and also in the Figure will be manifest, and made easy to our Application, and suitable to the occa­sion of our present meeting: And so also the truth of the Proposition will be amplified by one great instance, an evident Example here before us; that both the Subject of my Meditations, and of your Contemplations (what we hear and see) may also be the Subject of what we read, the Propo­sition in the Text; a Woman, adorn'd with the Adjunct Wise; a wise Woman presented to your Memory. And being such, the Assertion that she built her House (in the Letter as well as in the Fi­gure) built her House, that is, did all things nece­ssary, decent and convenient for the building of it, brought the greatest blessings desirable to her House, shall be manifested by many instances.

I must first remind you that the manner of ex­pressing the great and important truths in this Text (as in this Book of the Proverbs) is for the most part Figurative, Synecdochical, Allegorical, by Parables, Proverbs and Similitudes.

[Page 6]Men of the greatest Wisdom and Spirit, even those who spake by the Holy Spirit, the Pen-men of the Holy Writ, have thought it fit to cloath such Truths, as of themselves are simple, and na­ked, with these kind of Rhetorical Ornaments; to draw mens more considerate attentions and re­searches, to fix the eyes of the mind more earnest­ly on them. By these Goads and Nails, as the Eccles. 12. 11. wise Preacher tells us, to rowse up dull Affections, and to fasten the things in our mind, least at any time we should let them slip. Thus Holy Job and the Prophets, thus Holy David, as well as his wise Son King Solomon, opened their Mouths in Parables; nay, a greater than Solomon here, our Blessed Saviour did open to the people his Wis­dom in Parables so frequently, that St. Mat. 13. 34. we are told, All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in Parables, and without a Parable spake he not unto them.

This Text then, short in Words, but full in Sense, hath no less than four Figurative expressi­ons, the Terms, and the other which bear any Em­phasis, or matter to make up the Proposition have somthing of Scheme or Figure in them.

1. The subject here, to whom this excellent work in the Text is ascribed, Woman, we must al­low to be so far figurative as, (to say no more) by a Synecdoche, under one to comprehend both Sexes (or the species;) For no doubt but what is assert­ed here of the Woman her Act, Vertue or Duty, be­longs even in the first place to the other Sex, Man, Building being more properly his, the Manswork; and it may be as truly said, Every wise man buildeth his House.

[Page 7]The Note or Enquiries here, then might be, why, here and in other places of the Holy Scrip­ture, in this Book of the Proverbs more especially, so many great sayings and deeds are attributed to, or have had their instances in Women, in the Fe­male, whereas the same might be exemplified or said much more of men.

It were needless to speak much of this, yet there might be some Reasons given, and on this occasion I shall briefly touch upon a few, Why great Acti­ons, and the procuring great blessings, have had designedly their instances in that Sex, and that the excellencies of Women have been so often and in all Ages recorded.

One Reason might have been to put an Honor on that weaker Sex, lest the proud, or more exalted nature of man should undervalue, look down up­on, and despise that Sex, as too much inferior to men.

For that in those things wherein mans greatest excellency consists, the Soul, and its Faculties, we are told by Scripture-philosophy, that all souls are equal, made so by God, all come out of the Hand of God with equal Faculties, and when they re­turn to God, shall in their degrees, be Crowned with equal Glory. All souls are of the same Kind and Order; Souls know no Sexes; when seperate, are [...] like to the Angels, Marry not, nor are given in Marriage; In Christ Jesus neither Male nor Female, all stand alike related to Christ, as they who hear and obey his Word are his Mother, and Bro­ther, and Sister, stand in equality of Relation in identity of Sex. Souls I say in Substance are alike perfect, 'tis accidental that other things come, In­fancy, [Page 8] 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, [Page 9] 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. [Page 10] 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 Ʋn­derstanding 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 [Page 11] 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 Ʋnderstanding, Knowledge, Prudence, Discretion, [Page 12] Sagacity, Sound Judgment and good Ʋnderstanding. 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.

[Page 13]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 [Page 14] 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; [Page 15] 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. [Page 16] 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.

[Page 17]Her Body was a faithful Servant to her 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; [Page 18] 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 [Page 19] 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, [Page 20] 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.

[Page 21]Thus Trajan, the best of the Emperours (while they were Heathen) was the greatest Builder, the most renowned, the best beloved. 'Tis 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 Princes in the World, the most famous of that kind since, being called Mausolaea.

But as in all Great Actions, so in this of Build­ing, the End is to be considered; which not being wisely done, many have erected buildings to their Folly, and their Houses (which they designed for Glory) have been called by that name for want of a Wise Master-Builder to foresee the End for which they built.

As most of the Pompous Builders of old, those vain Persons who built their Babel, and the proud King his Babylon, to get a Name, or a vain-glory; and therefore they did, as Tully terms it, struere insanas moles, amass together wild and confu­sed [Page 22] heaps, vast bulks, things of more admiration than use.

Let us therefore see what kind of Buildings this wise Woman erected, and for what end they were repaired, or built: And here we shall find, that Piety and Charity, Gratitude and Kindness, were her Inciters to this Work; that all her Buildings were for God, or for the Poor, or for the Honour of her Progenitors, or the Benefit of her Posterity: these were the ends which she propounded▪ to her self in building.

Indeed, one of the first things (as I was inform­ed) which she built, was (what Jacob had first done) a Pillar. She built a Pillar, a Monument which stands in the High-way, at the place where her endeared Mother and she last parted, and took their final farewel. And as Jacob did, she poured oyl upon this pillar, the oyl of Charity, pouring down then, and yearly since, (and that the Cruce of oyl may never fail, ordered to be always continued;) at a set day every year a sum of mony, that oyl to make glad the heart of the poor; and withall to be as a precious ointment to perfume her pious Mother's Memory, that her good name, and their mutual dearness of Affection might be engraven, and re­membred by their Posterity and the Poor to all generations.

A good omen of a happy Builder, whose foun­dations are Charity and Piety; the Sapphires and Agats mentioned, Esa. 54. 11.

But her Buildings for Charity were larger than a Pillar; such as gave Shelter and Maintenance to the Poor. Besides the repairs and restoring of an [Page 23] Alms-house, built and endowed by her pious Mo­ther, Margaret Countess of Cumberland, she built At Bearmky. an Alms-house in this Place, and made decent pro­vision Appleby. for thirteen poor women, a Mother and twelve Sisters, as she called them, to the perpetu­al relief of the poor and destitute; and that Alms and Devotion might not be separated, she gave al­lowance for the Prayers of the Church to be daily administred to them.

Indeed she might have an eye to Charity in all her Buildings, by which she did set the poor on work, thus curing their idleness, as well as supply­ing their indigency.

Secondly, Gratitude to her Ancestors was ano­ther End of her building, that she might with some cost hold up, what they with such vast expence had founded and built.

Six antient Castles, ample and magnificent, which her noble Ancestors had built, and sometimes held up with great honour to themselves, security to their Soveraigns, and hospitality to their Friends and Strangers; now, by the rage of War, or Time, or Accidents, pull'd or fallen down, or made un-in­habitable, scarce one of those six that shewed more than the Sceleton of an House; her reviving Spirit puts life into the work, made ( all these dry bones live) these scattered Stones come together; those Ruines forsake their Rubbish, and lift up their▪ Heads to their former height. A marvellous task it was which she undertook, to design the re-build­ing so many, and such great Fabricks; to rear up them, when the earthly house of her Tabernacle be­gan [Page 24] to stoop and decline; being about the sixtieth year of her Age when she began: who then could hope to finish? but when she did consider in her great mind, did think (as Psal. 102. 14.) upon the stones, and it pitied her to see them in the dust One had lain 140 years de­solate, after the Fire had consumed it. ( Brough-Castle the Timber burn'd, Anno 1521.) Another 320 years, after the invading Scots had wasted it. ( Pendragon-Castle, wasted by David King of Scots, Anno 1341.). Her Pru­dence (as with her hands) set on the work, rai­sed, cemented, finished; and where others might have thought it glory enough to have been the Restorer of any one, she laid the Top-stone on them all. These Houses, the End of her building them was, I say, Gratitude to her Ancestors: and also,

Thirdly, Kindness to her Posterity and Succes­sors, that they might find the blessing of Canaan, Houses which they built not, accommodations ready prepared for them.

But lastly, She could not forget the main End of her building, Piety to God, in re-building, or repairing his Houses, Churches, or Chappels. She re­built, or, by repairing, restored six Houses of her own, but of God's Houses seven Brougham, Nine-Kirks, Appleby, Bon­gate, Maller­stang, Barden, Skipton.. She had no dwelling for her self, where God had not a House to be worshipped publickly, besides private Ora­tories in her Houses.

If now I could set before your eyes, or before your Imaginations, six Castles, seven Churches or Chappels, besides the two Alms-houses, and other in­feriour subservient Buildings, which she made, or made useful; if I could represent all these before you in one Landskip or view, you would imagine you saw something greater than an Escurial: an [Page 25] eighth Wonder, or something more wonderful than the seven, which the Heathen World hath boasted of; at least more Beneficial to the world than they. Some of those Wonders were (possibly) but Poetical; built but by fancy; all of them (as I take it) these great and monstrous Buildings, were to no greater End than to make the name of the Builders Endless. But all this wise Woman's Buildings, as you see, were to some good End, were given either to Charity towards the Poor, Gratitude to her Ancestors, Kindness to her Posterity, or De­dicated to the Worship of God.

As that good Emperour Trajan was by his emu­lous Successor (finding his Name or Motto on so many Walls built by himself) called Parietaria, a Wall-flower, a flower (which seldom dyes, or easi­ly revives) with us, a flower fragrant, and of a sweet smell; so let the name of this Excellent Lady live, and grow, and be a fragrancy; be a sweet sa­vour to all those who shall possess or find Hospita­lity, or Charity, or the Service of God celebrated within these Walls, or any of them, which she hath thus erected or restored.

And thus much for this Wise Woman's building her material House.

Secondly, Her Family. The Allegory leads me to another House worth your viewing, and that is it which seems most aim'd at in the Text; and the building of which is a greater instance of a Wise Woman than any outward building can be. This is the Oeconomical House, the Building, that is to say, the well-ordering of a Family.

[Page 26]The doing of which is a piece of so great Skill and Wisdom, that Wise 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 Self­government.

But man being intended for Society, the first rank of that is a Family; 'tis 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 [Page 27] ( 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 ill­ordered 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 well­principled [Page 28] 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 [Page 29] 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 [Page 30] 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 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 [Page 31] 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.

[Page 32]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 [Page 33] 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 [Page 34] 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. She did not always consider what was great, or what might by value make the present worth acceptation, or how it suited to the condition of [Page 35] the Person; but what (as her pleasant fancy sug­gested) might make her memorable to the person who was to receive it.

Now for the Building, or Repairing, or Adorn­ing all these kinds of Houses, of which I have spo­ken; the Material, and Houses literally taken, or her Houshold, her Family of Children, Servants, Allyes, and the rest, she had a Providence and Fore-cast with her self, and also an After-cast, as you may call it, and casting up her expence, and consulting with her Officers. She well understood and followed the advice of our Wise King, Prov. 24. 27. Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thy self in the Field, and afterward build thine house. That is, be sure you have Materials in readiness for Building. Now the most material thing to be pre­pared, and in readiness, is that which provides all materials in every kind; that is, in plain English, Money; which the same Wise man tells in another place, Money answereth all things; all things useful to be prepared claim it, crave it, call for it; and, if it be present, it answers them all with satisfaction.

Before she began to build a Tower (to build in any kind) she first sat down and counted the cost, as our Saviour intimates wise Builders will do; she kept exact accounts weekly in Books of her own Method, and the Totals were duely signed with her own hand.

This way of strictness, indeed hath been slighted in this looser Age, as an impertinent piece of Pro­vidence, in persons of great Birth and Estate, but yet the total neglect of it hath not onely frustrated the designs of many, who had laid good Founda­tions [Page 36] for Building, and could get no higher; but hath let fall many well-built Houses, for want of Means to hold them up; and indeed hath been the occasion of ruin to many Noble Houses and Fami­lies; while making no reckoning of what they did or might spend, have brought themselves or their Successors to an easie and even reckoning; to have nothing left in remainder; or nothing pro­portionable to support and hold up the Honour of those Families and Houses which their Progenitors erected.

This was wisely fore-seen and prevented by this Noble Person, by which means she was able to hold up, and inlarge her Houses, and so left them and her Patrimony intire to her Posterity, which otherwise might have been wholly wasted and di­lapidated.

But yet we have not taken any view of the Chief of her Houses, the immaterial, inward House of her Soul, so termed by Hugo, so by Bede; the former speaks of building the Moral Fabrick by Virtue, the other the Spiritual House by Grace.

And here I must seriously profess my self to have been perplexed in my thoughts, where to begin, and how to make an end, and in what Method to proceed.

If I should say was well furnish'd with ma­terials of every kind, to build up this House of her Soul, that is, with all Virtues belonging to her Sex and Condition; if I should say these Virtues were perfected with Divine Graces, I believe I should have plenty of Witnesses who now hear me.

Virtues, Intellectual, Moral, Theological, they [Page 37] were conspicuous in her Sayings, in her Doings, in her Conversation, and the manner of her Life. As to her Self, in great Humility, Modesty, Tempe­rance, and Sobriety of Mind; as to the World, in Justice, Courtesie, and Beneficence; and to God, in Acts of Piety, Devotion, and Religion. These have so flowed, so crowded together, into my Medita­tions, that as they brake into my thoughts tumul­tuously, as it were, and without Order, so I must crave your pardon and leave, if I shall take them up as they came, and speak of some few of them, without that exactness of Order which might be thought requisite.

To have attain'd to the Title in the Text, to have been Wise, might (as I have intimated be­fore) comprehend all Intellectual, nay indeed, all Moral Virtues, and Divine Graces. Whoso is truly Wise, hath all these in some measure, or must use all diligence to have them; he must add to faith, 2 Pet. 1. 5, 6, 7. virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to pa­tience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly-kindness, and to brotherly-kindness, charity.

He that will build for Heaven, or as St. Peter there speaks, be partaker of the divine nature; or as our Saviour expresseth it, would take the Kingdom Mat. 11. 12. of Heaven by violence, he must ( addere Pelion Ossae) accumulate, add all those Virtues one to another; He that will build his hopes in Heaven, must be provided of all these materials reckon'd up by St. Peter; and when he hath cleared the ground from Bryers and Thorns, purged out Lust, got clear from the Corruptions which is in the World [Page 38] through Lust; he must lay the Foundation of Faith; and then must add Virtue, Knowledge, Temperance, Patience, &c. all kinds of Virtue and Grace.

I might first tell what advantages she had for intellectual Virtues, even from Nature it self, which had endowed her Soul with such excellent Abilities, as made her ready to build up her self in the knowledg of all things decent and praise-wor­thy in her Sex. She had great sharpness of Wit, a faithful Memory, and deep Judgment, so that by the help of these, much Reading, and Conversati­on with Persons eminent for Learning, she had early gain'd a knowledg, as of the best things, so an ability to discourse in all Commendable Arts and Sciences, as well as in those things which be­long to Persons of her Birth and Sex to know.

She could discourse with Virtuoso's, Travellers, Scholars, Merchants, Divines, States-men, and with Good Houswives in any kind.—Insomuch that a Prime and Elegant Wit, well seen in all humane Dr. Donne. Learning, and afterwards devoted to the study of Divinity (by the encouragement and command of a Learned King, and a rare Proficient in it) is report­ed to have said of this Lady, in her younger years, to this effect; That she knew well how to discourse of all things, from Predestination, to Slea-silk. Meaning, that although she was skilful in Houswifry, and in such things in which Women are conversant; yet her penetrating Wit soar'd up to pry into the high­est Mysteries; looking at the highest example of Female Wisdom, Prov. last. Although she knew Wool, and Flax, fine Linnen, and Silk, things apper­taining to the Spindle and the Distaff; yet ( ver. 26.) [Page 39] she could open her Mouth with Wisdom, knowledge of the best and highest things; and if this had not been most affected by her, Solid Wisdom, know­ledg of the best things, such as make wise unto sal­vation; if she had sought Fame rather than Wis­dom, possibly she might be ranked among those Wits and Learned of that Sex, of whom Pythago­ras, or Plutarch, or any of the Antients, have made such mention.

But she affected rather to study with those No­ble Bereans, Acts 17. 11, 12. and those honourable women (as St. Paul there stiles them) who searched the Scriptures daily; with Mary, she chose the better part, of Learning; the Doctrine of Christ.

Authors of several kinds of Learning, some of Con­troversies very abstruse, were not unknown unto her. She much commended one Book, William Barklay's Dispute with Bellarmine, both, as she knew, of the Popish perswasion, but the former less Papal; and who, she said, had well stated a main Point, and opposed that Learned Cardinal, for giving too much power, even in Temporals, to the Pope, over Kings and Secular Princes; which, she seem'd to think, the main thing aim'd at by the followers of that Court; to pretend a claim only to govern directly in Spirituals; but to intend chiefly (though indirectly) to hook in Temporals, and in them to gain Power, Dominion, and Tribute; Money and Rule being the Gods to which the Roman Courti­ers and their Partisans chiefly Sacrifice.

She was not ignorant of knowledg in any kind, which might make her Conversation not only use­ful and grave, but also pleasant and delightful; which [Page 40] that she might better do, she would frequently bring out of the rich Store-house of her Memory, things new and old, Sentences, or Sayings of remark, which she had read or learned out of Authors, and with these her Walls, her Bed, her Hangings, and Furniture must be adorned; causing her Ser­vants to write them in Papers, and her Maids to pin them up, that she, or they, in the time of their dressing, or as occasion served, might remember, and make their descants on them. So that, though she had not many Books in her Chamber, yet it was dressed up with the flowers of a Library.

Go now, and tell the Superfinical, who disdain the meanness of her Chamber and Apartments; who cannot dress themselves, but in well-dress'd and gorgeous Rooms; let them come hither and see the riches of her Furniture, better than Silver and Gold, if King Solomon (who had Silver be­yond weight, and Gold in abundance) may be Judge. The Sayings of Wisdom, which he deter­mines to be more precious than Rubies, these were strewed about her Chambers, these were instead of those rare Trinkets so much in use, Esa. 3. 20. So that you may safely tell, that her Furniture and Chambers were adorned with many precious Jewels, more eligible than all that glittering bravery which God threatned to take away from the haughty Daughters of Sion, Isa. 3. 18. I will not name them, but it were worth your considering the particulars set down in five or six verses of that Chapter, where the pride and vanity of those women of Sion, who sat at ease, and swam in plenty, is described, and exposed; so that the Great ones of these times, [Page 41] of either Sex, may compare, and see, with how ma­ny of those superfluities their Tiring-houses abound, of which this great and noble Lady had neither use nor esteem.

It was apparent that the virtue which this Lady most studied and practised was Humility. Those that will build high, must lay their foundation low, no fitter virtue than Humility for this work, for this Builder, and for that which she esteemed her greatest building, which was to build for Heaven.

This virtue of Humility shined through her whole Conversation, her easie Reception, her Affability, the Plainness, as I said, of her Chamber and Furni­ture, so of her Apparel, her Dress, her Garb; she was, as the Apostle advises, Cloathed with humility, 1 Pet. 5. 5. all over. Her greatest Ornaments were those of a meek and quiet spirit. She was (by the merit of her due Titles) in Honour three Countesses, but had a stranger seen her in her Chamber, he would not have thought he had seen one Lady, as Ladies now adays appear. Indeed you might have some­times seen her sitting in the Alms-house (which she built) among her twelve Sisters (as she called them) and, as if they had been her Sisters indeed, or her Children, she would sometimes eat her Din­ner with them, at their Alms-house; but you might find them often dining with her (at her Table) some of them every Week, all of them once a Month: and after meat, as freely and familiarly conversing with them in her Chamber, as if they had been her greatest Guests. And truly the great­est of her Guests, her noblest Children, could not please her, if they did not visit them, and pass their [Page 42] Salutes at her Alms-house, with those Sisters, and the Mother, sometimes, before they made their first Address to her self, their Mother; whose natural Affection was known to be great, but her Charity and Humility greater; and she commonly admo­nished her Children, coming from far to pay their Duty to her, that before they made their Address to her for her Blessing, they should take the Bles­sing of the poor, the Alms-women's blessing by the way.

Nevertheless, although the Nice and Delicate, who look only at things after the outward appear­ance, might think meanly of her Chamber, her Ac­coutrements, Company, and Bodily presence, yet of that plainness, (her choice, not necessity, compel­ling) the Sober and Wise had other thoughts. And indeed they might look at her Chamber, as a Temple, a Court, a Tribunal, an Almonary; a place where God was daily, nay, thrice a day, worship­ped; where almost every day some addresses were made from some of the chief of these parts, and strangers of the best Quality; a Tribunal, where all submitted to the Doom of her Judgment, even to the sentence of her lips, as to an Oracle; and it were not insignificant if I should call it a Royal Burse, or Exchequer, where variety of presents and money flowed, and was issued out daily to some or other Objects of her Charity, Kindness, or Bounty.

She had known greatness, as well as any other, being bred in the Courts, or in the Verges of the Courts, of three great Princes, who (reigning in Peace) had as much magnificence and glory as any that had swayed the Scepter of this Land.

[Page 43]But whether she lived in, or near it, she was one of the Ornaments of it, and knew, when time and occasion served, to shine in her Sphere, and to adorn her self with Ornaments, such as are pro­per for the Courts of Princes. But when her out­ward clothing was of wrought Gold, valuable in the sight of men; her inward clothing was humi­lity, a meek and quiet spirit, which God most va­lues; which is in the sight of God of great price. 1 Pet. 3. 4.

It was one great sign of Humility in her self, that she was not Censorious of others, and of the Liberty which they took, and might lawfully take, in those outward Garbs, to apparel themselves ac­cording to their Rank and Place; which she knew they might do without affectation of Pride and Vanity.

When of later times, and since the happy Resti­tution of the King to his Court, she sometimes be­held in Visitants of several Ranks, what others did perchance look at as affected and phantastical, she would only make such innocent and pleasant re­flections, as the parties themselves were rather de­lighted with the freedom, than troubled with any shew of Censure.

She was, I say, so unwilling to be Censorious, or to seem uneasie to any of those, who as she thought did necessarily pay an obedience to Fashion and Custom; which she knew was a kind of Ty­rant, and will Reign over the most, while we live under the Moon; That when a Neighbour, a La­dy, whom she used (as she commonly did all) with great Familiarity, expressing together with her their Joy, in discourse of His Majesties most [Page 44] glorious and happy return to his Kingdom, and Court at White-hall, & the Gallantry which at his en­trance attended that place; the Lady wished that she would once more go to London, and the Court, and glut her eyes with the sight of such happy Objects, and after that give up her self to her Country re­tirement: She suddenly, and pleasantly replyed, if I should go to those places, now so full of Gal­lantry and Glory, I ought to be used as they do ill-sighted, or unruly Horses, have Spectacles (or Blinkers) put before mine eyes, lest I should see and censure what I cannot competently judge of; be offended my self, or give offence to others; Her meaning was thought to be, that she, having taken leave of worldly glory, as to her self, now unfitted for it; ought to give leave to others, to whom such things, of course, and by the Places which they held, did belong, to enjoy their free­dom, without her Censure.

Her Conversation was indeed meek, affable, and gentle, her Words, according to the Circumstan­ces of Persons in her presence, pleasant, or grave, always season'd with salt, savoury, but never bitter. I had the honour to be often admitted to her Dis­course, but never heard (nor have been told by others) that she was invective, or censorious, or did use to speak ill, or censoriously of Persons, or Actions; but she was especially cautious in censu­ring Publick Persons, or Actions in matter of State. I was present when she was told of the certainty of the War with the Dutch, and of the great prepara­tions on all hands; on which Subject she only said, If their sins be greater than ours, they would have the worst.

[Page 45] Constancy was so known a virtue in Her, that it might vindicate the whole Sex, from the con­trary imputation.

She was observed to be very constant to all her determinations, and would not easily vary from what she had once declared to be her mind. She had that part of Prudence which some call [...], consultiveness, deliberating, and well-distinguishing what was fit, what indifferent, what was necessary; She used, as she said, to chew the Chud, ruminating of the next days business in her night wakings. When she had once weighed the Circumstances, and resolved; she did not like to have any after considerations, or be moved by them.

This made her constant to her resolutions, even in lesser matters, as, the times of her removals from one of her houses to another.

She had six Houses (as I have intimated) in each of which she used, at her prefixed times, to keep her residence.

None can call this an unsettledness, or humour of mutability; it was not onely, that she might the better hold up, and keep in repair those Hou­ses, which commonly in the Owner's absence (who is the Soul of the House) turn to Carcasses, ready to be dissolved, fall to ruine and dust; But she resolved by her presence to animate the Houses which she had built, and the Places where she li­ved; to dispence and disperse the influences of her Hospitality and Charity, in all the Places where her Patrimony lay, that many might be made Partakers of her comforts and kindness.

In her frequent removals, both going and co­ming, [Page 46] she strewed her Bounty all the way. And for this end it was, (as may be charitably conje­ctured) that she so often removed; and that not only in the Winter season, less fit for travelling; but also that she chose to pass those uncouth, and untrodden, those mountainous, and almost impas­sable ways; that she might make the poor people and Labourers her Pioneers, who were always well rewarded for their pains; let the season be never so bad, the places never so barren, yet we may say it, by way of allusion, Psal. 65. 11. She crowned the Season with her goodness, and her paths dropped fatness, even upon the pasture of the wilderness; the barren mountains. If she found not Mines in these Moun­tains, I am sure the Poor found Money in good plenty, whensoever she passed over them.

But that which I speak of this for an instance of her Constancy, is a known Story in these parts.

When about three years since she had appointed to remove from Appleby to Brougham-Castle (in January) the day being very cold; a frost, and misty; yet much company coming (as they usu­ally did) to attend her removals; she would needs hold her resolution, and in her passage out of her house she diverted into the Chappel (as at such times she commonly did) and there, at or near a window, sent up her private Prayers and Ejacula­tions; when immediately she fell into a Swoon, and could not be recovered, until she had been laid for some time upon a Bed, near a great fire. The Gentlemen and Neighbours who came to at­tend her, used much perswasion, that she would return to her Chamber, and not travel on so sharp [Page 47] and cold a day; but she having before fixed on that day, and so much company being come purposely to wait on her, she would go; and although assoon as she came to her Horse-litter, she swooned again, and was carried into a Chamber, as before, yet assoon as that Fit was over, she went; and was no sooner come to her Journeys end, (nine miles) but a swooning seized on her again; from which, being soon recovered, when some of her servants, and others represented to her, with repining, her undertaking such a Journey, fore-told by divers to be so extremely hazardous to her Life; she re­plied, she knew she must die, and it was the same thing to Her to die in the way, as in her House; in her Lit­ter, as in her Bed; declaring a courage no less than the great Roman General,— Necesse est ut eam, non ut vivam; She would not acknowledge any ne­cessity why she should Live, but believed it neces­sary to keep firm to her Resolution. She did in­deed discover by this, not only a Moral constancy, but a Christian Courage, against the fear of death; from whence might also be well supposed, a Soul ready and prepared to meet Death any where, knowing what the Apostle had taught her, 2 Cor. 5. 1. That if her earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved, she should have a Building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the Hea­vens.

That Death was but a removal from one house to another, from a worse house, to a better, an earth­ly house to an heavenly; flitting from an House built by Nature, a Tabernacle earthly and dissoluble, to an House, a firm Mansion, prepared by Christ, built [Page 48] by God, eternal in the Heavens; from a Tabernacle to a Temple.

And having mention'd her Courage, I might shew, that although it be a Virtue, not so often to be found, nor expected to be found in that Sex; yet, that she had it to an Heroick degree; I will set before you but one instance, which hath been brought to me by good Information.

It was in the late time of Rebellion and Usur­pation, when they threatned to level all degrees of men and women, and had no respect to Ho­nour, either in Titles or in real Worth and Digni­ty; but did studiously, and affectedly, seek to af­front, and pour contempt upon those, chiefly, who by their Birth and Place might challenge Honour, as due to them, as Propriety and Inheritance could Intitle any to whatsoever they possessed. Having cut down Honour in its great Emblem, the Royal Oak; intending that in this our Druina, no Loyal Oak should be left, none to give shelter to any of the Royal Branches, (although Providence confuted them literally) but as they could, and by degrees, to extirpate all the Loyal Nobility; I say, when they had dried up the Fountain of Honour in their King, it was too great an eye-sore to behold the lustre of it in his Subjects; to let any Noble, but especially Loyal Blood, run in the Streams, that de­rived their Honour from that Fountain.

It was even then, that this couragious Lady da­red to own her self Loyal; then, when they had filled her Castle with Souldiers, and those of fierce and phanatical spirits, and none more fierce than they.

[Page 49]The Head of those Locusts, like those in the Re­velation, 9. 7. armed and crowned; for then every fanatical Head fancied himself to have, or deserve, a Crown: They were the Saints, and they must Reign: Holiness, you know, gives great pretence to govern in Temporals, as well as in Spirituals. The Head of those who at that time oppressed this Noble Lady, was one, whom even his great Harrison. Master himself, looked upon as under a Dispensati­on, more terribly phanatical than any in his Host, terrible even to himself and his usurped Power. This dreadful man quartered himself under the Roof of this Noble Lady; had made suspitious in­quiries, or rather declared his presumptions, of Her sending Assistance privately, where he was consci­ous that Loyal Duty required, and her affection might wish it, if there had been means with safety to convey it; but being not able to make proof of that, he would needs know her opinion, and dispute her out of her Loyalty; at a time when she slept, and lived but at his mercy, giving her A­larms night and day when he listed.

If she had now shrunk, and seem'd to yield to his Opinion, she might pretend the Learned Phi­losopher's excuse, who, disputing with a great Ge­neral, and yielding up the truth of the Cause, pleaded (to those who upbraided him) that he had done wisely, to be confuted by him, who had so many Legions, such an Army to prove what he list, near, and at his Command. But this undaunt­ed Lady would not so easily yield, but would be superiour in the Dispute, having Truth and Loy­alty on her side, she would not betray them, at [Page 50] the peril of her Life and Fortune; but boldly as­serted, that she did love the King, that she would live and dye in her Loyal thoughts to the King; and so with her Courage dulled the edge of so sharp an Adversary, that by God's merciful restraint he did her no harm at that time.

Diligence was a noted Virtue in her; her active Soul filling up all the Gaps of Time, with some­thing useful or delightful to her self or others. But to undertake to describe this, and her other Virtues, that is, her Life, were endless▪ and not ne­cessary; none could describe it but her self that lived it; And, indeed, by her great diligence, she did describe much of it; but if I should tell you how much, possibly you would neither Credit me, nor Commend so much, as Admire, her. But she had such a desire to know, review, and reflect, upon all the occurrences, passages, and actions of her Life, as thinking it an especial mean to apply her heart to Wisdom, by so numbring her days, that none of them might be wholly lost.

That (as St. Bernard advised) her actions in pas­sing might not pass away; she did cast up the account of them, and see what every day had brought forth; she did set down what was of more remark, or di­ctated, and caused much of it to be set down in Writing, in some certain seasons, which she contri­ved to be vacant from Addresses; judging her time to be better spent thus, than in that ordinary Tattle, which Custom ha's taught many (of her Sex especially) who have no business, and know no greater duty of Life, than to see and be seen, in formal visits, and insignificant parly. As if it were [Page 51] a Game to play away Time, in which all parties cheat each other, yet never feel that they are Cou­zened of a Jewel most pretious and irreparable; which he that wins from another is sure to lose himself. Whatsoever kind of Censure others may pass of this exactness of Diary as too minute and trivial a Diligence; I think we may thence charita­tably conclude a serenity of Conscience, clear, at least, from foul and presumptuous sins, which durst bring all past actions of Life, to a Test, and Review. Who of a thousand is there that can produce a thousand witnesses (such is Conscience) of the innocency of their Life? that can, or dare tell, even themselves, all that they have done or said, and open their own Books to rise in Judgment for, or against themselves?

Oh, that we could do so! This were praejudicium summi illius Judicii, a fore-judging of our selves, that we might not be judged, (at least) not con­demned with the world.

I confess, I have been informed, that after some reviews, these were laid aside; and some parts of these Diaries were summed into Annals.

As she had been a most Critical Searcher into her own Life, so she had been a diligent Enquirer into the Lives, Fortunes, and Characters of many of her Ancestors for many years.

Some of them she hath left particularly descri­bed; and the exact Annals of divers passages, which were most remarkable in her own Life, ever since it was wholly at her own disposal; that is, since the Death of her last Lord and Husband, Philip Earl of Pembroke, which was for the [Page 52] space of six or seven and twenty years.

But this I will say, that as from this her great Diligence her Posterity may find contentment in reading these abstracts of Occurrences in her own Life; being added to her Heroick Father's, and Pi­ous Mother's Lives, dictated by her self; so, they may reap greater fruits of her Diligence, in find­ing the Honours, Descents, Pedigrees, Estates, and the Titles, and Claims of their Progenitors, to them; comprized Historically and Methodically in three Volumes of the larged size, and each of them three (or four) times fairly written over; which al­though they were said to have been collected and digested in some part, by one, Sir Matthew Hales, Lord Chief Justice. or more, Learned Heads, yet they were wholly directed by her self; and attested in the most parts by her own Hand.

But I will not spend more time in presenting be­fore you her Personal Moral Virtues; any one of which singly might have made some other Emi­nent; but in Her, all, or the most of such as might deserve praise or admiration (for their degree) might have been found.

Her whole Conversation was regular, a Rule (scarce subject to exception) strict, and strait­lac'd, as to her self; but benign, candid, and favou­rable, leaving others to their Liberty.

There might indeed seem in the opinion of some, many Paradoxes and Contradictions in her Life; She lived, and conversed, outwardly with the World, as easily as might be; yet her Guise inward and reflex'd, was quite as one of another World.

Of an humour pleasing to all; yet like to none; [Page 53] her Dress, not disliked by any, yet imitated by none. Those who fed by Her, might be full, if with Her, starv'd; to eat by the measures she took to her self. She was absolute Mistris of her Self, her Resolutions, Actions, and Time; and yet allow­ed a time for every purpose, for all Addresses, for any Persons; None had access but by leave, when she called; but none were rejected; none must stay longer than she would; yet none departed unsatisfied. Like him at the Stern, she seem'd to do little or nothing, but indeed turn'd and steer'd the whole course of her Affairs.

She seem'd (2 Cor. 6. 10.) as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things. She had many occasions of sorrow, but appear'd as if she sorrowed not, and again, rejoyced as if she re­joyced not. She had no visible Transports, she did use the World as not using, at least, as not abusing of it.

None disliked what she did, or was, because she was like her self in all things: sibi constans, semper eadem, the Great, Wise Queen's Motto, whose Fa­vour in Her first, and that Queen's last years, she was thought worthy of, and received, as her self hath expresly remembred. I say, she was to her self, her own Reason and Resolutions, constant, per­manent, knowing that the fashion of this world passeth away.

If she had been like the world, she could not have liked her self, nor have been so much appro­ved by the Judicious, and Wise. Great Examples, and those that give them, are things rare, and sel­dom seen; exempt and separate from the Ages they [Page 54] live in; gaz'd at while living, prais'd and admir'd when dead: Future Fame being wiser and kinder than the present Opinion or Judgment of Contempora­ries.

There are a Generation who think that none can be eminently Good, or in any degree Perfect in this world, until they go out of it; by volun­tary solitude, and sequestring themselves wholly from Converse with others in it, become secluse, shut up from common Society.

I have indeed found some Men and Women, eminent in Zeal, wholly devoted to the Church of England; who thought it would be of great ad­vantage, Religious, and Politick, if some kind of Protestant-Nunneries were allowed, and instituted amongst us; for which some have projected Mo­dels, and Rules very considerable, and some have well considered them; But I shall not interpose in that now.

But I find Women of high esteem, whom St. Hie­rom, St. Austin, and others of the Antients, have commended for their Holiness of Life, (seen in their Devotions, Abstinencies, Charity, &c.) who never were professed Votaries in that kind.

And when I call to mind this great Ladies exem­plary Regularities, without affectation, and con­stancy in them; not for some hours, or days, or years; but even all the time that she had the abso­lute Rule over her self: I cannot but reflect, that Virtue and Piety are more glorious, by how much they are more conspicuous; that it is not necessary that Piety should be less sincere and intense, by the extensiveness of it; but that it is far more use­ful [Page 55] for the Generation, that our light should shine be­fore men, to draw all eyes to the love and liking of Virtue, than which nothing can be more beau­tiful, (if an Heathen Philosopher may be Judge) if we had eyes to see it, or mind to understand it.

As it is more difficult, so it is more praise-wor­thy to be Good amongst the Society of the Bad; with Lot to remain pure in Sodom; with Joseph and Moses in Pharaoh's Court; with Noah to keep integrity, to be upright against the world, to be so in a crooked and perverse generation.

Certainly to overcome the World is more gene­rous than to fly from it. Temptations and dangers are not to be sought for, yet he only is to be crowned that overcomes, when necessarily ingaged in them; rather than he that quits his Post and Sta­tion to avoid them.

I may say in this case to you, as St. Paul said to 1 Cor. 5. 10. his Corinthians, That if you will altogether decline the company of fornicators, covetous, extortioners, or the Idolaters of this world, then must ye needs go out of the world; but he doth not advise them, (nor I you) to do so. But rather (as he advises Timo­thy) 1 Tim. 4. 12. to be examples in Word, in Conversation, in Charity, &c. that your good and chaste conversation (as St. Peter) may win, or shame, or convince, and possibly gain, those with whom we have con­verse or affinity. For what knowest thou, O man, or woman, (as he said a little after to Believers) but thou may'st save thy unbelieving Wife, Husband, Friend?

Surely, it had been great pity, great loss to the World, to the Church, that a Person of this La­dies [Page 56] Character, should have been a Recluse, shut up as a Monial; No; rather than confine her large Soul to one Cell; let her expatiate her self, and fill her six Houses, and her Patrimonial Country, with her charity, piety, bounty, and good conversation.

As Ep. 15. St. Hierome saith of the devout Asella, li­ving strictly in Rome; In Ʋrbe turbidâ, Eremum in­venerat; so she was a Nun in a Court; using the same, or greater Abstinencies, Hours, Devotions, Rea­ding, Praying, and all kind of decent Regularities, more strictly than they in their Cloysters. And had she been of a Church set upon seven hills, would she have been with outward pomp professed, and have adored him that exalts himself above all that is called God; she should have been mounted up to Hea­ven, Canonized (for another St. Anne) and perad­venture, more deservedly than the Saint with the Wheel, St. Bridget, whose Revelations so ill agree with S. Catharines, Madonna Teresa, or any of those, with whose Miracles and Praises, their old, or new Legends have so swell'd, and abused the Credu­lity of those, who walk not by Faith, but live by Trust.

She had built a truly Religious House, (if such may be deemed a Nunnery) and was a kind of Ab­bess over it, by awful over-sight, and conversation with the Sisters, 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.

[Page 57]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 [Page 58] 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 [Page 59] 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 [Page 60] 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 [Page 61] 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 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, [Page 62] (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 [Page 63] 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 [Page 64] 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 [Page 65] 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 Christian expressions, which soon after I did re­ceive from herself, and several times after, when she was pleased to renew the remembrance of it, with much admiration, and acknowledgment of the se­cret wayes of Gods Judgements, and Mercies; on which she could inlarge with many heavenly expressions.

But now Patience through all these experiences, [Page 66] began to draw its work to perfection; which it never doth, except it dye with them, whom it hath supported in Life.

A little before Her death, Patience, and Meek­ness, and low thoughts of Her self, which had been Her practice, were now Her Argument. Dis­coursing frequently, with one of her nearest At­tendants, and seeing her, and others, passionatly concern'd, and busie about her, she willed them not to take so much pains for her, who deserved less; expostulating, why any, her self especially, should at any time be angry; why any of these outward things should trouble her, who deserved so little, and had been blessed with so much? By which it might appear that she had brought into sub­jection all great thoughts, she had cast down imagi­nations, & every high thing, bringing into Captivity every high thought, and submitting the World and her Soul to the Obedience of Christ; her passions were mortified and dead before her: So that for three or four dayes of her last sickness, (for she in­dured no more) she lay as if she indured nothing; she called for her Psalms, which she could not now, as she usually had done, read her self (the greatest Symptome of her extremity) she caused them to be read unto her. But that Cordial of which I have spoken (kept, in Rom. 8. and in her heart) this her Memory held to the last, this she soon re­peated: No doubt to secure her Soul against all fear of Condemnation, being now wholly Christs, having served him in the spirit of her mind, and not loved to walk after the Flesh, having (as often as she affectionatly pronounced the words of this [Page 67] Chapter) called in the Testimony of the Spirit to bear her witness, that she desired to be delivered from this Bondage of Corruption; into the glori­ous liberty of the Children of God; and so to strengthen her Faith and Hope by other comfort­able Arguments, contein'd in the rest of that Chap­ter, being the last words of Continuance, which this dying Lady spoke.

The rest of the time, as if it had been spent in Ruminating, Digesting, and speaking inwardly to her Soul, what she had utter'd with broken words, she lay quiet, and without much sign of any Per­turbation; after a while in a gentle breath, scarce perceptible, she breathed out that Soul which God had breathed into her; rendring it even to that God which gave it. So breathed her last, and quietly slept, not to be awakened again, but by the Archangel's Trumpet, when it shall call her to the Resurrection of the Just.

Thus fell at last this goodly Building; Thus di­ed this great wise Woman; who while she lived was the Honour of her Sex and Age, fitter for an History than a Sermon.

Who having well considered that her last Re­move, (how soon she knew not) must be to the House of Death; she built her own Apartment there; the Tomb before your eyes; against this day, on which we are all now here met to give her Reliques Livery and Seizin, quiet possession.

And while her Dust lies silent in that Chamber of Death, the Monuments which she had built in the Hearts of all that knew her, shall speak loud in the ears of a profligate Generation; and tell, that in [Page 68] this general Corruption, lapsed times decay, and downfal of Vertue, The thrice Illustrious Anne Countess of Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery, stood immovable in her Integrity of Manners, Vertue, and Religion; was a well built Temple for Wisdom, and all her train of Vertues to reside in; is now removed and gone to inhabit a Building of God, an House not made with Hands, eternal in the Heavens. To which blessed Mansions let us all en­deavour to follow her, by treading in the steps of her Faith, Vertue and Patience: That having fought the good Fight, finished our Course, and kept the Faith, we may receive the Crown of Righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge shall give at that day to all that love his appearing.