places many have are not great enough for their spirits and this is vanity 3. And as for pleasures they are vain things which perish in the using short sweets and oft bitter sweets all pleasures are bu t vanity and sinful pleasures are or one day will prove vexation of spirit Momentaneum est quod delectat aeternum quod cruciat what a hell is it to think that a moment hath swallowed up that pleasure which can never return and if not prevented of in time will inevitably bring eternal damnation 4. All these outward good things are vain there is no satisfying good in them happinesse is not to be found in these enjoyments Can a man gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles no more can we gather happinesse from the creatures These whilst enjoyed are not the souls good things He was a fool that thought so and this saying was his folly and whereever the Gospel shall be preached this his vanity and folly shall be remembred Luke 12. the soul cannot thrive on these husks not on the winde like Ephraim or on the air like the Chamelion The heart of the wicked which feeds on winde or air is little worth It was well said by a Reverend Divine that these things Dr. Wh. they are but halfprovision provision namely for the body only and that but for this state for this life after wards the body will have no use of them 5. Again these things they are for use rather then enjoyment even whilst we have them and the time of our using them is but short the time is but short faith the Scriptures God that wheels about the heavens and spins out time for thee as is excellently expressed by a reverend Author ere long will out the thread of thy time the thred of thy life which is for the most part spun out in a thred of vanity and at last will set fire on and burn the wheel it self yea time shall be no more And therefore as our life in relation to its comforts is vanity so in respect of its continuance also 't is a vapour a bubble a shadow a tale a dream Childhood and youth are vanity and old-age often proves vexation of spirit And thus we have shewed you hitherto how vain a thing is man absolutely considered in what he is his nature the faculties of his soul and the perfections of his body in what he doth in what he hath or can have of this world so vain a thing is man taken absolutely 2. We are to consider him in the next place comparatively with respect to his maker and so the whole masse and lump of mankinde they are lighter then vanity and lesse then nothing Esai 40 17. 3. Nor can the sons of men combine together by their relations to secure themselves from vanity Let them joyn hand in hand to build a Tower to reach to the skys to keep themselves from being overflown with the deluge of vanity alas this their attempt and fancy would prove a vanity of vanities there 's a vanity in being alone and there 's a vanity in company since sin came there there 's division now in our greatest union The relation betwixt friends hath this vanity oft attending it men will love tanquam aliquando osuri and the hatred wherewith they will hate afterwards shall be greater then the love where with they loved us In relation 'twixt man and wife there 's vanity and oftentimes vexation of spirit Yea in the society and communion of Saints whilst they are in the body there are disgusts and differences in judgment first and then in affection the society of the Saints I acknowledge is New Jerusalem come down from heaven yet not alway a city Uanity within it self is the best of all societies yet vanity will attend Saints where-ever they go till they are uncloathed of these bodyes whilst they are in the body vanity as a shadow waits on them 4. As man is vanity both considered absolutely in himself and comparatively to his maker and also relatively considered in his several stations so is he all vanity causally that is he is the cause or ground of that vanity which is seen in the inferiour creatures According to that Gen. 3 17 18. Cursed is the earth for thy sake c. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee c. And the like is implyed Rom. 8.19 20 21 22. But of this I shall say no more in this place because I have further occasion to say more of it in the third General And thus having so far explained the main aim of the text for further proof and amplification of the vanity in man and the creatures vanity unto man take but these 3 following De monstrations 1. Take the Judgement of God himself Esai 40.17 Hear what he saith there of all nations all nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him lesse then nothing and vanity yea the choicest pieces of the nations are no better v. 23. he bringeth the princes to nothing he maketh the Judges of the earth as vanity and ch 41 v. 29. Behold they are all vanity their works are nothing and so are their thoughts Psal 94.11 v. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity 2. Take the Judgment of good men great men and Prophets and wife men of David and Solomon we have the prophet Davids estimate the man after Gods own heart in the text and again v. 11. of this Psalm and a third time Psalm 62.9 Surely men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lye they are lighter then vanity And as for Solomon he is a witnesse beyond all exception one that had power and wealth and wit and will to extract the best spirits and the quintessence of all the good things in this world and did actually make experiment of all witnesse his Ecclesiastes and lastly he weighed all in Gods ballance tried all by Gods standard hath Gods Probatum est to his tryal and the Holy Ghosts Imprimatur to his book the sum of all which is briefly comprehended in this saying vanity of vanities saith the Preacher all is vanity and vexation of spirit King Solomon was the great critick-Alchymist of the world who spent many years to distil the world but could not extract a drop of happinesse out of it but seas of vanity boundlesse and bottomlesse wherein he had been drowned had not Jesus Christ lent him his hand had not he walked on this sea and trod under foot all these vanities and come to Jesus his Saviour 3. Study your own experiences reade over the book of your lives that book of four leaves childhood youth manhood old age 〈◊〉 you have lived so long and you 'l finde it written 〈◊〉 and without vanity of vanities all is vanity You may 〈◊〉 and reade 〈◊〉 if God give you grace to open the book and look thereon But if ye should altogether refuse to reade now
THE VANITY of MAN At his best Estate AND THE Vanity of Dives His Desire when at his Worst VIZ. To have a PREACHER sent from the Dead to his Fathers House Discoursed of In Two SERMONS the First before the University of Oxon the other at Ayno in Northamptonshire at the Anniversary for the Foundation of the Free-School there By T. H. B. D. Sometime Rector of Souldern in Oxfordshire July 17. Imprimatur G. Jane LONDON Printed by J.B. for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and 3 Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel and at the Bible on London-Bridge 1676. To the much Honoured Mrs MARY FANE Madam THe two following Sermons here humbly presented into your hands may have leave to beg if not pretend a Title to your Patronage The first having been made in a good measure long since upon occasion of the death of that excellent person Sir Roger Townshend Baronet your Vncle and now made seasonable by the late losse of your dear Husband that worthy and nobly descended Gentleman Mr Fane as also of your dear father Mr Cartwright a great losse both to his Family and Countrey your Husband deceasing in the morning and your Father about the Noon of his age The second Sermon may plead for your acceptance also upon this accompt that it was not long since preached at Ayno upon the Anniversary for the foundation of the Free-school there by your Grandmother and God-mother Mrs Mary Cartwright late Lady of that Manour Madam should I be censured for this Addresse to you your birth at Soulderne when I was Minister there my Obligations to your Husbands Family as also to your Father Mother and Grandfather Cartwright with other of your Relations shall be my Apology So with my hearty prayers to God for you that you may go on in the good ways of your educations and that although you are left Husbandless Fatherless and Motherless yet that neither you nor yours may ever be left Friendless helpless or comfortless but that he would please to be a comforter a Friend a Father a Husband to you and that you may be the blessed of the Lord and your off-spring with you I humbly take leave and remain Madam Your very humble servant Thomas Hodges June 27th 1676. A SERMON Concerning the Vanity of man even at his best estate Psalm 39.5 Verily every man at his best estate is altogether Vanitie Selah ' T Is usual and useful for Travellers to carry about them Maps or draughts of the Countries through which they travel We are all pilgrims and strangers here but travellers as all our fathers were For as they were so are we in this world Let me therefore commend unto you this Psalm to carry along with you in your bosomes to have often in your eyes It is a little map of the lesser world man and of the greater world what it is or can be to man 'T is a true perfect map drawn and coloured by the pen of the Royal prophet David as his hand was held and guided by the Holy Ghost 'T is possible that it may and my prayer is that it might prove of singular use and benefit to us in this world that we lose not our way that we lose not our selves in this forrein countrey Tâ—… text 't is the marrow and quintessence 't is the great lesson of this Psalm 't is the sum of the whole book of Ecclesiastes 'T 〈…〉 and prophesie of Solomons experience 'T is the 〈…〉 Prophets text upon which the son the King-Preaent Solomon made after wards that Sermon or Comment that excellent piece the book of Ecclesiastes Here 's magnum in parvo much in a little a description of two Wordls in two or three Words yea here 's the universe All as it were in Nothing all briefly comprehended in this one word Vanitie 'T is thought it was Absoloms conspiracy that occasioned Davids penning this Psalm David before this when the house of Saul was layd in the dust thought that surely his Mountain was so strong that it could never be moved but behold on a suddain a viper in his own bosome an Absalom that seeks the death of him that gave him life and after he had driven hâ—s father from his Royall palace and City consults to assemble together all Israel to whatsoever place or City wheresoever they could finde him even to bring ropes to that City and to draw it into the river untill there should not be one small stone found there 2. Sam. 17.12 13. And now the sweet singer of Israel changes his tune to this sad note in the text Verily every man at his most fined or setled estate is altogether Vanity Selah And although we should suppose or grant as some do that the prophet David uttered these words out of his impatience yet the words for the matter of them hold forth the same truth with many other Scriptures see Job 14.1 and 16.22 and 34.20 Eccles 9.12.1 Corinth 7.29 31. Psal 89.48 and ' Psa 90 10. and especially the 11th verse of this Psalm where the same prophet repeats the same thing for substance that he doth here saying again Surely every man is vanity Selah And if Kings and Princes and great gallants of the world should reply to the prophet some what like that of Festus to the Apostle Paul Acts. 26.24.25 David thou art beside thy self much affliction hath made thee mad the Prophet might return in the like manner as the Apostle there did I am not mad most noble Princes but speak forth the words of truth and sobernesse Surely man is vanity Adam is Enosh or Abel Abel Enosh Benoni are fit names for every son of Adam Every man is vanity high and low together Greek and Barbarian wise and unwise bond and free Further every man is altogether vanity Every man or all man is all vanity Man was a model and compendium of the worlds creation in its perfection and beauty so he is now too of it in its corruption and vanity Cum inanimis saith one subjacet mutationi corruptioni cum animatis alterationi morti cum sentientibus laetitiae moerori cum Angelis inconstantiae c. i. e. Man like the inanimate creatures or those creatures which are without life is subject to change and corruption like animate or living creatures he is subject to alteration and death like sensitive creatures he is subject to joy and sorrow and like the Angels namely those that left their first station he is subject to inconstancy and folly Lastly every man at his best estate at his most fixed most setled estate when living when most lively lusty healthy rich honourable when most happy parmanent for the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very diversly rendred by translators even then is he altogether vanity omni ex parte or quoad omnia or modis omnibus vanissimus est as some interpret Mens lives are uncertain their afflictions are unsatiable and disorderly their enjoyments transitory their beauty their greatness
widowhood lest desolation come upon thee suddenly which thou shalt not know Say not with Western Babylon that is Rome so Austin calls her I sit a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow Lest it be said Therefore shall thy plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine c. Revel 18.7 8. Trust not in uncertain riches but in the living God Set before your eyes always the vanity of this world and of your condition here be it never so flourishing Let not your thoughts be as their thoughts are Psal 49.11 of whom the Psalmist witnesseth their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever and their dwelling-places to all generations they call their land after their own names They think their family and name shall continue for ever Thus they think but they are but vain thoughts The Jews have a saying that Every King is the son of a beggar and every beggar is the son of a King Such mutability and vanity there is in humane affairs and in worldly greatness 'T is Gods work to humble high things and to raise low things He it is who sets up one and pulls down another who powrs contempt upon Princes and stains the pride of all their glory and again at the same time raiseth the poor from the dunghill to set him amongst the Princes of his people Oh then ye great men ye Grandees of the world ye Noblemen ye rich men whom God hath in these respects exalted above your Brethren be not high-minded but fear Let not your hearts be lifted up to Judge your selves therefore the only happy men and to despise others take heed your height make not your brethren below seem as dwarfs as little or as nothing in your eyes If the height you are in once make you dissie and giddie as we say you are like to fall presently and lay all your honour in the dust or dirt Do not ye Idolize your selves and let not the world deify you or do not ye deify your selves and let not the world Idolize you for both these are vanity To make you Gods to give you that honour which belongs to God is to make you Idols and to make you Idols is to make you vanities and lyes and nothing it is indeed quite to mar you to undo you This text well studyed would be a good antidote against the swelling of the poyson or against the tympany of pride in mighty men and a good Cordial against the pining-consumption of envy in mean men at the prosperity of others The fashion beauty glory of the world passeth away Every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Selab And here I shall back this lesson with these following considerations let high and low rich and poor together consider 1. That in Adam our common-Father we were all moulded out of the same red earth we grew all from one root we issued all from one fountain the higher we derive our pedegree the neerer we are all akin We are all lines from one center and the neerer we go to the center the neerer we are one to another God made of one blood all nations and familyes to dwell upon the earth Acts. 17.26 All bloud is of one colour and runs in the like channels and vessels and observes the same course and motion in all men We had all one father Adam and one maker God We are the sons and daughters of Adam who was the son of God 2. We all live upon our fellow-Creatures We all spend out of Gods treasury are maintained at his cost and charges Those who received and spend most of Gods bounty are like greater and larger poor mens boxes God of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named doth of his meer goodness feed and cloath and harbour us all We are all of us wholly beholden to him and live upon his alms or contribution altogether and the more delicious is our fair the finer our apparel the more stately our dwelling the greater our train the more are we indebted to his liberality The whole world is Gods Hospital or Almes-house where the greatest and gayest are indeed but his Eleemosynaryes his Almes-men 3. All men are alike for almost half their times viz. whilst both are asleep only it is the sleep of the labouring man ordinarily is the sweetest here in sleep as in death poor and rich meet together and here the servant is free from his master 4. That greatnesse is not alway not very often accompanied with goodnesse a man may be advanced to worldly honour and more greatnesse but not at all to be bettered thereby or therewith The same peice of money without any real change in the money may by the supreme power be advanced and made to passe at a higher rate even so is honour the raysing the rate or value of a man in the account of the world D. R. without changing the man in the least for the better on the other side poverty and outward meannesse do not make men ordinarily the worse Nay those who by the world are accounted as the scum and dung and filth of the world even they are Gods Jewels they are they of whom the world is not worthy It is well said by Dr. R. that mighty men and mean differ but like great and small letters in the same volume great letters take up more room make a braver shew It may be we are arrayed in scarlet and so better seen and more gazed on by vulgar eyes but they put no more matter or worth no more or better sense into the words which they compound 〈◊〉 the volumes thâ—… are in Great men make a more glorious show in the volume of this world but this great book of the Universe is not substantially the better for them 5. Whilst we live together here in this world there is no respect of persons with God God accepts no mans person or sacrifice for his greatnesse and in Christ Jesus 't is not his being a mighty man or mean man a rich man or poor man not bound or free which avayleth any thing but the being a good man a good Christian this is it which is accepted of him All true Christians rich and poor are fellow-members of the same body now as in the body natural one member doth not undervalue another because it is not set in so high a place in the body or is not so well cloathed as another so let Christians of high degree not contemn them of low degree and let not Christians of low degree envy or repine at them that are exalted they that are on high see a larger field of vanity then you that stand on a lower ground 6. We shall all dye alike no difference in the natural deaths of men because Princes or poor men mighty or mean Though some seem to have heads of gold like Nebuchadnezzars Image yet they all stand but upon feet of clay we must lye down in
cunota sumus umbra vanitas Et verbout absolvam nihil Vse 5. Let us all make that use of this doctrine which the Prophet David doth in this Psal v. 7. saying And now Lord what wait we for our hope is in thee Seeing Every man is so vain and seeing every thing is so unprofitable why should we in vain seek to be happy by any thing short of thee No no we do not that be for ever far from us so to do Our hearts were made by thee and they are never fully at rest till they come unto thee Thy favour and grace we prize above all earthly happiness Be thou our God let us be thy Sons and daughters and then we are sure thou hast begun already and wilt perfectly in thy own time redeem us from this bondage of corruption and vanity to which we are now subject As we are children of the first Adam so we are indeed bond-men to vanity but our hope is in the second Adam to be by him delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God Our present life is vanity but the gift of God is eternal life is immortallity All this world is a world of vanity but we look for the world to come wherein dwells blessedness and true felicity Vanity groweth up out of the earth we expect our happinesse to come from heaven We account all things here below but as dung and dross and vanity in comparison of Christ and the grace and glory of Christ those better things those things above all temporal good things are but as shadows but our substance is with thee substantia mea apud te est so some render the 7th verse All worldly hopes are but like the spiders web but our hope in God and Christ our Saviour is an Anchor firm and stedfast cast surely within the veyl so that we can never sink Our all is nothing compared to thee Lord thou art our all in all Whom have our souls in heaven but thee and whom have we on earth that we can desire in comparison of thee truly our lines are fallen in a pleasant place we have a goodly inheritance The Lord is our portion our exceeding great reward we will not be satisfied with any thing with all things besides thee not with things present nor things to come not with things in the height or depth visible or invisible temporal or eternal not with angels principalities or powers or earth or heaven we esteem all as shadows and vanities only this is our happinesse we are Christs and Christ is Gods We will no longer forsake our own mercies that is thee the God of our mercies to follow after lying vanities behold here is an answer to the last thing propounded in the begining viz. This is the way to be freed from vanity and we will walk in it Jesus Christ is our Captaine whom if we follow through the troublesome sea of this world as the Israelites did Moses through the Red-sea the waters shall stand as a wall on the right hand and on the left and the proud waters shall not overwhelm us shall not go over our souls Jesus Christ is our Ark into whom we will get by faith and by him be saved whilst the whole world that are out of Christ shall perish by this floud of vanity which comes upon all the earth Thus will we make sure of this one thing necessary that our faith and hope being in God shall not be in vain that we shall not live and dye in vain but that our Lord Jesus Christ may be to us both in life and death gain and advantage that when we shall part with our corporal lives which in times of sicknesse and war we carry dayly in our hands and are apt to lose and which in times of the greatest peace and prosperity we cannot long hold for at the best they are fleeting and fading and vanity we may be sure to lay fast hold on eternal life so that vanity may no more have dominion over us Amen An Epitaph on Sir Roger Townshend who dyed at Geneva in his travail towards Rome aged 19 years and a half in the year 1648. LOe here lyes dust and ashes Oar More prec'ous then the golden shoar One Jewel precious in this tomb Far more then all i' th Sea of Rome Geneva now a Saint may vye With Rome and with all Italy Loe there the Painters are divines In Colours and their Saints are shrines But here doth sleep are all Saint Here is no Sepulcher in paint Piemont to Townshend Pisgah was Nigh which to Canaan he doth passe And when men thought h 'had been at Rome To Heav'n the Traveller was come To England how should he return When all 's on fire and Seas do burn Had he seen Rome he knew 't would farn Then make a Saint him rather marr In peace had 's English home ' gain seen H 'had still a Ward and Pilgrim been Heav'n is a home which rest give can And under Twenty make him Man T. H. Another HEre aye Geneva Lake let weep Cause death a Gourt of Guard did keep Eccho ye Alps for aye alas ' Cause Travâ—llers have for death no pass Our tears let recompence the Lake And ever after full-sea make Let 's thus requite the hills let 's all Henceforth them Townshends Pyramids call On Occasion of the Narrative sent over by M. Diodati in which house he dyed ARe ye prevented Poets what too late His life and death to blazo'n Diodate Has don 't in Prose he that the Sacred Text First Commented upon his life is next And 't was a sacred story short it was Vpon the Bible cal 't a Paraplorase A Paraphrase Incarnate of the last And best edition much corrected was 't Reformed eve'ry way Translated so He now speaks seventy languages and moe H' Interprets Babel Pentecost and all And is translated to 's Original In this small work divinity is more Then in the great Tostatus half a score Yea now one Tome of this short volume man Contains more learning then the Vatican Set by Inspired Authors th' rest iâ—le call Compar'd to this one Ignoramus all Worms may devour th' book cover leaves may fade Though green and florid or with gold ore laid Worms can't corrupt the text and the Angel's blast Shall blow ' way worms and dust and death at last T. H. The Second Sermon Luke 16.30.31 And he said nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent And he said unto them if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead THe Relation concerning Dives and Lazarus from the 19th verse to the end of this Chapter some will have to be an History others a Parable I concur with the latter for what tongue could Dives have in hell whose body was in the grave And what finger could Lazarus have whose soul only was now in Paradise or heaven In