38 Funeral Sermon. nefs , and utteréd in the fear and pretence of God. I have in my time been with feveral dying perfons ; have teen "their piety, obferved their pati- ence, taken ef,ecial notice of their whole carriage and behaviour; yet never in all my life, djd I fee fuch an uniform Samplar of piety, nor a whiter Soil re, turn to its makkr. One thing was very notable , "and I befeech God to make us truly thankful to him for ir, as being a moft lignal inflance and evidence of his gc odnefs to her, and which indeed ( confidering thè condition of her di- feafe) may juflly deferve the name of a miraculous mercy. It was this : Though her ficknefs ( as I Paid before) was very painful, and grievous, yet it pleated God , for fome days before her death , to deliver her from any fence of pain at all, fo that the had her thoughts 'very free and at liberty , and made a moil Chriftián ufe and advantage of that freedom : Yea , when we, and her'felf too (by reafon of the little left which the took ) greatly feared that her ficknefs might at laft grow into fome kind of diflemper ; It pleated Almighty God to fecure her from that alto, fothat the enjoyedher underflanding andmemory, and -all herfenfes very quick and perfe& to the lati, even fo long as the had any occafron or need to make ufe of them. And thus have I at length given you the whole world in a Map, a brief account and hiftory of the holy Life and Death of our moil excellent Lady: See for all the world, at the Jived, fo ¡he died ; flit lived in peace, and The died in peace; her whole life here, war (as a man would fay) one continued aft of piety and good works ; and as for her death, that in like manner was a conclulion of moff heavenly fweetnefs and comfort. The Lord in mercy give us grace who turvive , fo to frame our lives according to the example of her piety, that when .it (hall come to our turns to dye, we alto may (hare in like feelings of comfort. All the farther application which I (hall now make hereof, is to you that are here prefenr, and particularly to thofe who were her dearefl rela- tions, Her right JVyble and Honourable Children; moll earneflly befeeching them to confider and call often to mind theft pious Parents of theirs, to endeavour to tread in their Reps, and to follow the example of their piety, and not give themfclves the liberto of committing thole fins, which they were fo careful to prevent, or lightly negle& any of chofe wholefom cufloms and prailifes (whither in their private Clofets,- or Families) which they made fuch a Confcience to obferve. Oh confider (Right Honoutabfe,)_ chat you are born of pious Parents ; Your father dy'd a Blefféd tAfar- tyr, and your Mother lived a Precious Saint 'upon earth, and you have great reafon to believe, that they do now both of them thine glorious Saints in heaven : Think now (I befeech you) what a leffening of their happinefs will ir; be there; to undetfland and know, that you (theirdear and natural Relations) which came out of their own bodies, Children of fo many Prayers and Tears, of fo much care and tendernefs , as you have ever been to them, That you (I fay,) after their deaths, thould in the leali meafure prevaricate and degenerate from the example of their piety. p They we're Ppleafant Vines, oh be not you Thorns and Thitles; They were a&ive Chriffians, oh be not you barren and unfruitful: Know that they that are born of pious Parents(as you all are) are born under the greatefl po(fcble obligations unto piety that may be : The bare example of their pious Parents ( which all have not) forcibly provoking and engaging them in like pious pra&ifes. Would you thine glorious Saints in heaven, as they now do? why then live Religious Saints upon earth as they here did : and then indeed, you will fare much the better for their Piety's fake; for every pious Parent, doth hoard and creature up a flock of bleflings for his children c but then it
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