She was, for patience and cheerfulness under her long lingering weak- ness, as exemplary as any that ever I was acquainted with, James i. 2-4 ; v. 10, J 1. If at any time she groaned, yet she blessed God, as she used to say, that she did not grumble. Oh how quiet, how like a lamb was she under all her trials ! Oh how well would she speak of God ! Oh how sweetly did she carry it towards God ! Oh how much was she taken up in justifying of God throughout her pining, wasting sicknesses !
Time and strength would fail me should I but tell you what I could concerning her faith, her love to God, to Christ, to his ways, to his people, whether poor or rich, weak or strong ; and of her humility, low- liness, meekness, wherein she hath left few fellows behind her. She was very high in spiritual worth, and as low in heart ; she was clothed with humility as with a royal robe, and with ' the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price/ 1 Pet. v. .">. iii. 4. But I must hasten to rny text, for I see time slides away.
If Ezekiel can commend Daniel, and match him with Noah and Job for his power in prayer, and Peter highly praise Paul, and if the ancient church had her diptychs or public tables, wherein the persons most noted for piety were recorded ; nay, if Plato called Aristotle the intel- ligent reader, and Aristotle set up an altar in honour of Plato, then 1 hope you will not impute it to me as a transgression that I have pre- sented to you the shining virtues of this glorified saint for your imi- tation.
What eyes thou read'st with, reader, know I wot, Mine were not dry when I this story wrote.
Upon the death of the virtuous, his dear and never-to-be-forgotten friend, Mrs Mary Blake.
If that affection could but make a poet,
Could grief and sorrow help, sure I should do it;
Mary is dead, a woman whom truth and fame,
With virtue, ever shall embalm her name;
A Mary for love, a Mary for weeping,
A Mary for choice, a Mary for seeking.
1 Duties trusted to will undo you; when trusted to, they prove but a smooth, a silken way to hell.
A STRING OF PEARLS. 407
With Mary she had chosen the better part ; With Mary she did lay Christ near'st her heart. Such were her parts, her piety, Her youth it was a full maturity. Grave although young ; who in her heart did prize Grace, truth, and Christ her only sacrifice ; Gracious, religious, and sincere was she, Courteous, without all court-hypocrisy.
Christ was her study, his glory was her aim ;
It was her heaven for to advance the same.
Within the holy treasury of her mind
Were the choice virtues of all womankind ;
A knowing woman, and an humble too,
Which joyed all Christians who had with her to do.
A praying woman and believing too,
Which did the praises of other saints renew :
A holy woman, and a harmless too.
In saying this, I give her but her due.
A lively Christian and thriving in grace ;
Few towards heaven did ever hold her pace.
The word and ways of God were her delight,
And in the same she had a great insight.
A fixed woman, when others staggering were,
Which was the fruit of holy pains and care ;
A tried Christian, whose trials were not small,
Yet faith and patience overcame them all ;
She lived the sermons which on earth she heard,
And now receives the crown whieh was for her prepared ;
A woman which had more than common worth ;
I want a tongue, enough to set it forth.
Her latest precious breathings had respect
To nothing more than divine dialect ;
Which she committed to her mourning friends,
In exhortations to their better ends.
Could prayers, tears, and sighs have kept her here,
She had not died, you need it not to fear ;
She lives, though dead, in th' memory of those,
Who knew her life, and saw its holy close.
No golden letters half so long as we,
Shall keep her precious worth in memory ;
No costly marble need on her be spent,
Her deathless worth is her own monument
Now, shall I let you know what you have lost ?
She was a temple of the Holy Ghost.
This we'll apply, that though we lose her here,
Her soul doth shine in a celestial sphere.
Mary is to the celestial Canaan gone,
Where as a star she shines in perfection.
Mary hath chosen sure the better part,
Mary with angels sure doth now partake.
But stay, needs she encomiums ? Reader, know,
She joys above, while we here wail below.
But now, dear friends, let's mourn in hope and weep,
Believing this blest saint in Christ doth sleep.
Hark, don't you hear her sweet delightful voice ?
Saying, Friends, weep not, but see that ye rejoice
For me, for now I am perfectly free,
From sorrow, sin, death, and mortality ;
Surely you cannot doubt my happiness,
Who have beheld my faith and stedfastness ;
Oh then from sorrow see that now ye cease,
To interrupt my joy and your own peace ;
Surely our loss to her was greatest gain,
For crowned in heaven she ever shall remain ;
408 A STRING OF PEARLS.
No sighs, no groans, now from her do come, But everlasting joys are in their room. She now without control, no question, sings Eternal praises to the King of kings ; She now enjoys that ever blessed face, In hopes whereof she run a happy race : She now hath chang'd her crosses for a crown, Her bed of weakness for a royal throne.
Farewell! blessed saint, farewell! to thee we'll haste, For till we meet in heaven we cannot rest.
Thomas Brooks, Of Margaret's, New-Fish-street.
A Word to the Reader.
Now, Reader, if you please to cast a look, Or spend some spare-time on this little book, And in it anything that's good do view, Then challenge it, for it belongs to you ; What's weak or worthless in it, that decline And pass it by, I challenge that for mine.
THE BEST THINGS RESERVED TILL LAST.
To an inheritance incorruptible, and undejiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. — 1 Peter I. 4.
Beloved, — I have chosen this text upon a double ground.
1. To make a diversion of immoderate sorrow and grief from my own spirit and yours, who are most nearly concerned in this sad loss. And,
2. Because it will afford us matter most suitable to the blessed state and condition of this glorified saint, at whose funeral we are here met.
In the inscription, verses 1, 2, you have first a holy salutation, shew- ing first by whom this epistle was written, viz. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ ; secondly, to whom it was written. Now they are de- scribed two ways : first, by their outward condition, ' strangers, scat- tered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.' There are divers opinions about these strangers, but the most common and received opinion among the learned is, that Peter wrote this epistle to the converted Jews, scattered through the provinces in Asia, who met with much opposition and affliction for the gospel's sake.1 Secondly, they are described by their spiritual and inward condition, which is set forth,
(1.) By the fundamental cause of it, to wit, election of God.