MEMOIRS

OF

EMINENTLY PIOUS WOMEN.

THE COUNTESS OF CARBERY.

THE COUNTESS OF CARBERY, who died in the prime of life in the year 1650, was the lady of Richard, Earl of Carbery. The following character is extracted from a sermon preached at her funeral by the pious, learned, and eloquent Dr. Jeremy Taylor, and published in a collection of his discourses in folio:

"I have now done with my text, but am yet to make you another sermon. I have told you the

necessity and the state of death; it may be too largely for such a sad story; I shall, therefore, now, with a better compendium, teach you how to live, by telling you a plain narrative of a life, which if you imitate and write after the copy, it will make, that death shall not be an evil, but a thing to be desired, and to be reckoned amongst the purchases and advantages of your fortune. When Martha and Mary went to weep over the grave of their brother, Christ met them there, and preached a funeral sermon; discoursing of the resurrection, and applying to the purposes of faith, and confession of Christ, and glorification of God: we have no other, we can have no better precedent to follow; and now

VOL. II.

B

that we are come to weep over the grave of our dear sister, this rare personage, we cannot choose but have many virtues to learn, many to imitate, and some to exercise.

"I choose not to declare her extraction and genealogy; it was, indeed, fair and honourable; but, having the blessing to be descended from worthy and honoured ancestors, and herself to be adopted and ingrafted into a more noble family, yet, she felt such outward appendages to be none of hers, because not of her choice, but the purchase of the virtues of others, which although they did engage her to do noble things, yet, they would upbraid all degenerate and less honourable lives than were those which began and increased the honour of the families. Accordingly, myself have been a witness of it, how this excellent lady would, by an act of humility and Christian abstraction, strip herself of all that fair appendage of exterior honour which decked her person and her fortune; and desired to be owned by nothing but what was her own, that she might only be esteemed honourable according to that which is the honour of a Christian and a wise person.

"She had a strict and severe education, and it was one of God's graces and favours to her. For, being the heiress of a great fortune, and living amongst the throng of persons in the sight of vanities and empty temptations, that is, in that part of the kingdom where greatness is too often expressed in great follies and great vices, God had provided a severe education to chastise the forwardnesses of a young spirit and a fair fortune; and intending to secure this soul to himself, would not suffer the follies of the world to seize upon her by of too near a trial, or busy temptation.

way

She was married young; in passing through which line of providence, she had the art to secure her eternal interest, by turning her condition into

duty, and expressing her duty in the greatest eminency of a virtuous, prudent, and rare affection; which I note in her as that which I would have exemplar to all ladies and to all women: and although this was a great enamel to the beauty of her soul, yet, it might in some degrees be also a reward to the virtue of her lord; for she would often discourse it to them that conversed with her, that he would improve that interest which he had in her affection to the advantages of God and of religion; and she would delight to say, that he called her to her devotions, he encouraged her good inclinations, he directed her piety, he invited her with good books; and then she loved religion, which she saw was not only pleasing to God, and an act or state of duty, but pleasing to her lord, and an act also of affection and conjugal obedience. "As she was a rare wife, so, she was an excellent mother; for in so tender a constitution of spirit as hers was, and in so great a kindness towards her children, there hath seldom been seen a stricter and more curious care of their persons, their deportment, their nature, their disposition, their learning, and their customs; and if ever kindness and care did contest and make parties in her, yet, her care and her severity were ever victorious; and she knew not how to do an ill turn to their severer part, by her more tender and forward kindness.

"But, if we examine how she demeaned herself towards God, there also you will find her not of a common, but of an exemplary piety. She was a great reader of Scripture, confining herself to great portions every day; which she read, not to the purposes of vanity and impertinent curiosity, not to seem knowing or to become talking, not to expound and rule, but to teach her all her duty, to instruct her in the knowledge and love of God and of her neighbours, to make her more humble, and to teach

her to despise the world and all its gilded vanities; and that she might entertain passions wholly in design and order to heaven. I have seen a female religion that wholly dwelt upon the face and tongue; that like a wanton and undressed tree, spends all its juice in suckers and irregular branches, in leaves and gum; and after all such goodly outsides, you shall never eat of the fruit, or be delighted with the beauties or the perfumes of a hopeful blossom. But the religion of this excellent lady was of another constitution; it took root downward in humility, and brought forth fruit upward in the substantial graces of a Christian, in charity and justice, in chastity and modesty, in fair friendships and sweetness of society. She had not very much of the forms and outsides of godliness, but she was singularly careful for the power of it, for the moral, essential, and useful parts; such as would make her be, not seem to be, religious.

"She was a very constant person at her prayers, and spent all her time, which nature did permit to her choice, in her devotions, and reading and meditating, and the necessary offices of household government, every one of which is an action of religion, some by nature, some by adoption. To these also God gave her a very great love to hear the word of God preached; in which, because I had sometimes the honour to minister to her, I can give this certain testimony, that she was a diligent, watchful, and attentive hearer; and to this had so excellent a judgment, that if ever I saw a woman whose judgment was to be revered, it was hers alone. But her appetite was not soon satisfied with what was useful to her soul; she was also a constant reader of sermons, and seldom missed to read one every day; and that she might be full of instruction and holy principles, she had lately designed to have a large book, in which she purposed to have a stock of

religion transcribed in such assistances as she would choose, that she might be readily furnished and instructed to every good work. But God prevented. that, and hath filled her desires not out of cisterns and little aqueducts, but hath carried her to the fountain, where she drinks of the pleasures of the river,' and is full of God.

"She always lived a life of much innocence, free from the violences of great sins. Her person, her breeding, her modesty, her honour, her religion, her early marriage, the guide of her soul, and the guide of her youth, were so many fountains of restraining grace to her, to keep her from the dishonours of a crime. It is good to bear the yoke of the Lord from our youth; and though she did so, being guarded by a mighty providence, and a great favour and grace of God, from staining her fair soul with the spots of hell, yet, she had strange fears and early cares upon her. But these were not only for herself, but in order to others, to her nearest relatives. And because she knew that the sins of parents descend upon children, she endeavoured by justice and religion, by charity and honour, to secure that her channel should convey nothing but health and a fair example and a blessing.

"And though her accounts to God were made up of nothing but small parcels, little passions, and angry words, and trifling discontents, which are the allays of the piety of the most holy persons, yet, she was early at her repentance; and toward the latter end of her days grew so fast in religion, as if she had had a revelation of her approaching end, and therefore that she must go a great way in a little time: her discourses were more full of religion, her prayers more frequent, her charity increasing, her forgiveness more forward, her friendships more communicative, her passions more under discipline; and so she trimmed her lamp, not thinking her night was