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She was in her house a comfort to her dearest Lord, a guide to her children, a rule to her servants, an example to all.

But as she related to God in the offices of religion, she was even and constant, silent and devout, prudent and material; she loved what she now enjoys, and she feared what she never felt, and God did for her what she never did expect: her fears went beyond all her evil; and yet the good which she hath received, was, and is, and ever shall be, beyond all her hopes.

She lived as we all should live, and she died as I fain would die:

Cum mihi supremos Lachesis perneverit annos,
Non aliter cineres mando jacere meos P.

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I pray God I may feel those mercies on my death-bed that she felt, and that I may feel the same effect of my repentance, which she feels of the many degrees of her innocence. Such was her death, that she did not die too soon; and her life was so useful and excellent, that she could not have lived too long: "Nemo parum diu vixit, qui virtutis perfectæ perfecto functus est munere." And as now in the grave it shall not be inquired concerning her, how long she lived, but how well; so to us who live after her, to suffer a longer calamity,—it may be some ease to our sorrows, and some guide to our lives, and some security to our conditions, to consider that God hath brought the piety of a young lady to the early rewards of a never-ceasing and never-dying eternity of glory. And we also, if we live as she did, shall partake of the same glories; not only having the honour of a good name and a dear and honoured memory, but the glories of these glories, the end of all excellent labours, and all prudent counsels, and all holy religion, even the salvation of our souls, in that day when all the saints, and among them this excellent woman, shall be shewn to all the world to have done more, and more excellent things than we know of, or can describe. "Mors illos consecrat, quorum exitum, et qui timent, laudant:" death consecrates and makes sacred that person, whose excellency was such, that they that are not displeased at the death, cannot dispraise the life; but they that mourn sadly, think they can never commend sufficiently.'

p Mart. i. 89, 9.

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THE

MINISTER'S DUTY

IN

LIFE AND DOCTRINE:

IN

TWO SERMONS.

SERMON IX.

In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity ; Sound speech that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part, may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Tit. ii. 7, 8.

As God, in the creation of the world, first produced a mass of matter, having nothing in it but an obediential capacity and passivity; which God separating into classes of division, gave to every part a congruity to their respective forms, which, in their distinct orbs and stations, they did receive in order, and then were made beauteous by separations and a new economy; and out of these he appointed some for servants, and some for government; and some to eat, and some to be eaten; some above, and some below; some to be useful to all the rest, and all to minister to the good of man, whom he made the prince of the creation, and a minister of the Divine glory. So God hath also done, in the new creation; all the world was concluded under sin; it was a corrupt mass; all mankind had corrupted themselves;' but yet were capable of Divine influences, and of a nobler form, producible in the new birth: here then God's Spirit moves upon the waters of a Divine birth, and makes a separation of part from part, of corruption from corruption; and first chose some families to

whom he communicated the Divine influences and the breath of a nobler life; Seth and Enoch, Noah and Abraham, Job and Bildad, and these were the special repositories of the Divine grace, and prophets of righteousness to glorify God in themselves, and in their sermons unto others. But this was like enclosing of the sun; he that shuts him in, shuts him out; and God, who was, and is an infinite goodness, would not be circumscribed, and limited to a narrow circle: goodness is his nature, and infinite is his measure, and communication of that goodness is the motion of that eternal being : God, therefore, breaks forth as out of a cloud, and picks out a whole nation; the sons of Israel became his family, and that soon swelled into a nation, and that nation multiplied, till it became too big for their country, and by a necessary dispersion went, and did much good, and gained some servants to God out of other parts of mankind. But God was pleased to cast lots once more, and was like the sun already risen upon the earth, who spreads his rays to all the corners of the habitable world, that all that will open their eyes and draw their curtains, may see and rejoice in his light. Here God resolved to call all the world; he sent into the high ways and hedges, to the corners of the Gentiles, and the highways of the Jews, all might come that would; for the sound of the Gospel went out into all lands:' and God chose all that came, but all would not; and those that did, he gathered into a fold, marked them with his own mark, sent his son to be the great Shepherd and Bishop of their souls;' and they became a peculiar people unto God,' a little flock,' a new election.'

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And here is the first separation and singularity of the Gospel; all that hear the voice of Christ's first call, all that profess themselves his disciples, all that take his signature, they and their children are the church, an 'Exxλnoiu, called out from the rest of the world, the elect' and the chosen of God.'

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Now these being thus chosen out, culled and picked from the evil generations of the world, he separates them from others, to gather them to himself; he separates them and sanctifies them to become holy; to come out, not of the companies so much, as from the evil manners of the world: God chooses them unto holiness, they are τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον, 'put in the right order to eternal life.'

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