SAint John heard a voice from Heaven , Rev. 14. 13. saying write ; to which when he replied , What shall I write ? the answer was , Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord , from henceforth , yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours , and their works do follow them . A phrase which implies not any motio● of works , but rather the promotion of the person that hath wrought , and remuneration for his or her work . This reward they have partly in Heaven , where Christ rewards his Saints though not for the merit of their works , yet according to them , Rev. 22. 12. both for nature and degree , and they partly have it upon the Rev. 22. 12. Earth , whiles the name of the wicked ●otts ; their memory is blessed , and wherever the Gospel is preached , what they have done is told in remembrance of them . The Widows , while they wept for Dorcas , shewed the Coats and Garments Acts 9. 39. she had made . Solomon commands that the Vertuous Woman should have the fruit of her hands , and that her own works should praise her in the Gates . This is my present task , and the last office I have to perform , to that great and noble person , whose death hath turned us into an house of mourning .

I shall begin with her cradle , and consider her in the threefold period of her life , while a Virgin , a Wife , and a Widow : but I shall lightly pass over the two former , knowing nothing but what I gathered from her Ladyships various , occasional discourses during the eighteen last years of her life , in which , I had the honour of a daily converse with her Ladyship , as to which I had the advantage of a stricter observation .

This noble Lady was born in London in the year 1603. being the eldest of eight daughters who all lived to marriageable years , with which it pleased God to bless the Right Honourable , John , ( late ) Earl of Bridgewater , Vicount Brack●●y , and Lord Elsmore , Lord President of Wales . By his noble Lady the Lady Frances daughter to the Right Honourable Ferdinando Earl of Derby .

Of this twice noble stock , this Excellent Lady was the First-fruit , a circumstance possibly not inconsiderable , for gaining credit to the following relation of her vertuous life : there being something of that in Horace true ,

It holds not indeed as to infused habits ; Justus non gignit justum , sed gignit hominem , ( said Augustine ) but as to Moral habits which have their seeds and rudiments in nature , there 's much in it . Splendid and noble actions , are much advantaged by this foundation , though education raiseth the building , and Grace at last layeth the Corner-stone , perfecting what thus is began in nature , and improved by instruction and education .

This Noble Lady had no sooner passed the hands of her Nurse , and began to use her tongue , but she was in her Fathers house betrusted to the tuition of a French Gentle-woman ( whom I have often heard her mention with a great deal of honour ) from her she learned to speak the French tongue , before she could distinctly speak English ; a faculty which she retained to her dying day : And having her Organs of speech so early formed to it , she so naturally accented it , that Natives of that Country would hardly believe her born in England .

The years of her Nonage were spent in learning things proper for that Age , and which might accomplish her for that noble station which she was ere long to take up in the World . Now she learned to handle her Lute , to sing , dance , &c. things in her maturer Age of which she made little or no use , and far less reckoning ; but they fitted her for the Court , which she was to be acquainted with , before she could be dismissed into the Ceuntry : Now she learned to read , to write , and cast account nimbly and exactly , and to use her Needle , and order the affairs of an houshold , things which were afterwards to her and her dear husband also of extraordinary advantage . Now partly by the diligence of her Governess , partly by the Care of one Mr. Moor ( her Fathers Chaplain ) partly by the superintendent care of my Lord her Father , she was fully instructed in the principles of Religion . As to which I have often heard her with honour mention her Governess , and her Noble Father . Her father for seasoning her against Arminian Principles , and once suspending her from the Sacrament upon his re-examination of her , after that his Chaplain had passed an hasty approbation of her . Her Governess , for the good stories she would tell her , the good counsel she would give her , and her care of her information as to Religion : She would alwayes say , that she learned of her to be a Calvinist in point of Doctrine , and a Presbyterian as to Discipline , for it seemeth she was both , flying her own Country for her Religion , or at least the Daughter of Parents who upon the massacre so fled ( for truly I do not well remember every particular in her Ladyships relations though I often heard them . ) I have often heard her discourse with a gratefull remembrance how exactly the hours of her dayes were distributed to these several kinds of instruction : So as no time was left her , unless a little proportion for exercise ; and what was assigned for her more private devotions ( as to which her Governess was her most faithfull monitor ) or for the more publick Religious Duties of the Family , her presence at which was as diligently required by my Lord her father .

The Evangelist recordeth concerning our Luk. 2. 15. Saviour , That he went down to Nazareth and dwelt with his Parents , and was subject to them . Indeed subjection to Parents , is the greatest vertue can adorn so tender an age ; the want of this in our Children , is often caused by our selves , God ordinarily securing the Parental Authority , till themselves prostitute it . This Rare Lady was bred up in this subjection : I have heard her say that till she was married she never more than once sate down in the presence of her Lady-mother : never was allowed to stay in a room with her when she received the visits of other Ladyes , &c. these and many other things of like severity I remember I have had in discourse from her which now have slipt my memory . She did not take a liberty like Denyal to go see the Daughters of the Land at her own pleasure . Her mother was like the cloud unto her , when she moved to Court the Daughter moved also , when she sate at home the daughter moved not at all . I have often heard her mention it to the great honour of her Mother , That she would require her constant attendance upon her self ; both going to the Court , and returning from it ; and she was to her mother as the Centurions servant unto him . If they said unto her Go she went , if they said Come , she came , if Do this , she did it . Having attained to riper years she frequently was at the Court of King James , and Queen Ann , and was in great favour with that Queen , and King Charles the first , then Prince of Wales . I do not remember any thing I have heard from her much momentous as to this part of her life , unless frequent sad reflexions upon her self , for mispending part of many Lords dayes , in masks , and other Court pastimes , according to the fashion of others in her circumstances . This she would often mention with bitterness , and honourably mention and prefer before her self one of her Noble Sisters , who in her youth had a just sense of that errour , and courage enough to resist the temptations to it . It was the only thing in which I ever heard her repent her obedience to , and attendance upon her Mother , whom yet she thought exceeding pious , and paid alwayes a just honour to her mention and memory ; which reverence she had also for her Noble Father . I remember the Passion she fell into when she heard of his death ( though I communicated it to her with as much advantage as I could to hinder sudden passions ) which made me as the Jews cry out , Behold , how she loved him ! The sequel of this discourse will evidence that it is not through want of more momentous matter , that I instance in these things of more minute consideration : But I have the rather mentioned them , to let my Readers see , how far we are degenerated from the ancient culture of youth , and that orderly Discipline , under which those male and female Worthies were educated , who have done famously in our Ephrata , and what probably is one great cause of that impudent licentiousness which dishonoureth the present generation .

The Generous Soul of this excellent Lady was ordained to higher things than Balls , and Masques , and Visits . It now grew time for a Plant bred under so rare a cultivation , to be removed into another place , That her God might have the glory , and her generation the fruit of such an education . Her native beauty , and the rare parts she began to discover , made many noble persons desire her in marriage , but to shew how early she was mortified to the vanities of youth , with the approbation of her Parents , she at last chose a Widower for her first , and only husband : Sir John Hobart of Blicklin in the County of Norfolk , Baronet ; he was the eldest Son of Sir Henry Hobart at that time Lord Chief Justice , and Chancellour to the Prince . A Person indeed ( as to title ) in the lowest order of the Nobility , but one whose Estate bare a full proportion to his quality , and whose noble spirit , and temper far better suited this excellent Lady than a greater title with another temper and spirit would have done . She was married to this worthy person in the year .

In her Conjugal Relation she was now more perspicuous , she was now planted upon an hill , where those rare seeds which had been sown in her ingenuous Soul during her Nonage began to spring up , and bring forth abundant fruit , in that triple capacity to which this relation ( in some little succession ) intituled her , that ( I mean ) of 1. a Wife to a worthy Husband . 2. A Parent to Children , and 3. a Governess to a numerous Family of Servants .

The Philosopher having rationally evinced the difference of vertues , with relation to their subjects , and shewn some more proper to those that Govern , and others to such as are governed ; for the Vertues of a good Wife reckons up , Chastity , Prudent ordering of the affairs of the houshold within doors . Reverence to her Husbands person , seen in a respective behaviour to him , a concealing his weaknesses , and obedience to his commands . Together with a just sympathy , and patient sharing with him the vicissitude of Providences under which he is exercised . All which ( being in themselves but morall vertues dictated by the light of Nature ) God in holy Writ , by several Precepts , and recommendations in the allowed examples of his Saints ( there canonized ) hath made the religious dutyes of the Christian Wife , in obedience to his superiour commands , and under the encouragement of many great , and precious promises , for the glorifying of his holy Name who first instituted this relation ( and therefore to him of right it belonged to give lawes to it ) who also in his Word hath superadded another duty of a good Wife , not understood by the Philosopher , ( viz. ) a due regard to the salvation of the Soul of her Husband , 1 Cor. 7. 16. What knowest thou O Wife , whether thou shalt save thy husband ?

For the first of these , this excellent Lady rated her self by Julius Caesars reckoning , not judging it enough for her to be thus vertuous , unless she also lived above the suspicion of the contrary . To let us know that she had not forgot the Law of her Mother , she would often mention a saying of hers : That temptations to the Violation of the honour of Ladyes in this particular , originally proceeded from some too light and familiar carriage first in themselves ; and that wanton was suffered to come too near who came to be denyed . Her constant behaviour therefore was tempered with that affability , and gravity which in conjunction best became a person of her Ladyships honour . And that she might shew the Church of Rome a Protestant Lady possessed of that threefold chastity which they make so meritorious , as she had managed her state of Virginity ( and that upon the most publick Theatre in our English World ) so as she would often bless God who had taught her so to behave her self that none ever durst offer any rudeness to her , and her conjugal relation , without the least stain upon her honour : So having lost the man of her bosom , and again reduced to a single condition , she grew to be something superstitious in this thing , not only resolving ( through Gods assistance ) to go to her Grave having been only the Wife of one Husband ; but almost looking upon it as a piece of her duty , and often reckoning it a piece of the honour of her fathers house , that none of her Noble Sisters ( left Widows ) had married a second time .

The Philosopher allots to the vertuous wife , the governance of the house within doors , and a wiser than he had before in the description of his Vertuous Woman told us , That she Prov. 31. 27. 11. looketh well to the affairs of her houshold , and the heart of her husband trusteth in her : She was not indeed under such circumstances , as she needed to lay her hands to the spindle , or to hold the distaff ( yet that was often her divertisement ) but it might truly be said of her , that she looked well to the affairs of her house , and that the heart of her Husband trusted in her . And that not only as to the affairs of her House within , in respect of which she was so vigilant as ( during the time that I waited on her ) it was no easie thing for any servant to impose upon her ) but also to those which were more extrinsecal , and ordinarily no womens imployment . Perceiving her dear Husband , ingaged in a great debt , she undertook the management of his whole estate , and auditing all his accounts , and that to so good a purpose , that in a few years , she had shortned his debt Six thousand pounds .