Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A44071
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The hoary head crowned a sermon preached at Brackley at the funerall of Fran. Walbank, a very aged and religious matron / by Thomas Hodges ...
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Hodges, Thomas, d. 1688.
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1652
(1652)
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Wing H2320; ESTC R14545
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20,718
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34
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into the world to save sinners of which I am Chiefe and again How shall I escape If I neglect such great salvation God forbid but that this goodnesse of God should lead me to repentance Thus reason or commune with thy own soul before it be too late Loe I have given the devill God's and my soul's enemie the most generous refined wine my young and sprightly dayes and will God now accept can God find in his heart to accept of dregs of my old age The devill has had the the finest flower and will God be contented with the bran the devill and my sins have had a full harvest and will God to whom first fruits and all is due be satisfied with gleanings the devill has had the first-lings the best and fattest of the flock and will God accept of the halt the lame and the blind in sacrifice Oh the height and depth and bredth of the mercy of God! Oh my soul my soul thou Shulamite return return I beseech thee by these mercies of God that henceforth thou give up thy self a holy and living sacrifice unto God which is but reasonable service that thou redeem the time and doe much for God in a little time And now oh that my age might he renewed like the Eagles that God would add unto my dayes many years that the Sunne of my life might stand still and not hast to goe down for many years till I might be avenged on my lusts the Enimies of my God and of my soul till I that have done God a great deale of disservice and dishonour might doe him a great deale of service and honour Till I have been as Eminent for holynesse as ever I have been notorious for Prophanesse And now oh all ye that passe by tell me tell me what such an old sinner as I should doe to be saved To this question I answer that old men must be saved the same way that young men are saved and that is by beleeving on the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord our righteousnesse Whosoever beleeves on the Lord Jesus Christ although he be never so old a sinner shall certainly be saved shall in no wise perish but have everlasting life Doest thou see thy self lost in old Adam doest see thy self as thou art growing up out of that old stock out of that root of bitternesse fit fewell for Hell-fire doest see a necessity of being born again now thou art old or else thou must dye eternally Art weary of the body of sinne and death that old man of originall sinne which thou carriest about with thee Wouldest with all thy heart have this old man with his deeds crucified together with Christ doth it repent thee withall thy heart that thou hast lived so long to so little purpose that thou art ready to goe out of the world before thou hast done almost any thing of the work for which thou camest hither Can'st find in thy heart to come to Christ for salvation from the hell that is in sin as well as from the hell that sin deserves before thou goest out of the world Darest venture thy soule upon this crucified Jesus and know it is no venture Is there none in heaven or earth no other Saviour none that thy soul desires in comparison of him Art resolved in the strength of Christ to live in him whil'st thou livest and to dye in Christ or for Christ when thou dyest Doest desire in the matter of Justification to be found not having on thy own righteousnesse but the righteousnesse of Christ and thereby to appear righteous before God and for the glory of God and to the Justification of thy Faith before men doest resolve to endeavour that thy hoary head may be found in the way of holynesse and righteousnesse If these things and such holy motions resolutions and qualifications as these be in thee and abound Blessed art thou that ever thou wa'st borne thou shalt not dye but live this day I assure thee salvation is come unto thy soul Jesus Christ hath given thee life a new life in thy old age Men it may be think it almost impossible that a valley of dry bones should live and say as 't is Ezek 37. can these dry bones live who would ever have said that such an old sinner should ever have proved a young convert But God that quickneth the dead he saith to his Prophets Prophesie upon these bones and say unto them oh ye dry bones hear the word of the Lord and who knows but that some of these dry bones may live Truely my prayer for these old men shall be to the God of my life and theirs that they might all live in his sight that they might all live for ever And for you all that hear me this day oh that God would bind up all your souls in the bundle of life oh that ye might have part in the first resurrection that on you the second death might have no power oh that ye might be changed from nature to grace before your change by death come that your change may be for the better and not for the worse But least any from the possibility of the salvation of the oldest and chiefest sinners take heart to put off their repentance to old age least any suck poyson from so sweet a flower take by way of Caution or Antidote these two or three Observations 1. That old sinners who have all their time enjoyed the means of grace have rarely been known to return and repent in their age when there is but a step betwixt them and death so betwixt them and hell 2. That those labourers in the Parable who came into the vineyard to work at the eleventh hour were not cald untill the eleventh hour Math 20. The Question was put by an old Indian Sagamore or governour in New England to one of the English Ministers Whether our God and Saviour would receive an old sinner such as he was The Minister answered doubtlesse he would considering this old man had never heard of Christ ' til his old age and came in when called 3. That there was a time when wisedome stop'd her eares at their crie who refufed to hear when she called Prov 1.24 Let not young sinners goe on in their sins thinking to return when they are old for that is the way never to live to be old or if they doe they rarely repent in age Yet let not old sinners despaire whoever comes unto Christ he will in no wise cast out And as for you old men whose hoarie heads are found in the way of righteousnesse Goe on and prosper and the Lord be with you Be as Noah was Preachers of righteousnesse in your generation See that ye shine as lights in the midst of a crooked generation Be examples of holinesse to younger ones call upon them to remember their Creatour betimes in the dayes of their youth teach them the way they should goe that they may not forsake it when they are old And especially ye who are fathers and mothers let the soules of your children be precious in your eyes doe not offer your sons and daughters unto devills and bring them forth and up to the great Abaddon or murtherer of soules for want of religious education Be earnest with God night and day with teares and Prayers and with your children by instruction reprehension correction exhortation that so your children may rise up and call you blessed may blesse God for you and with you Oh what a joy and rejoycing ye pious fathers and mothers will it be to you to meet Jesus Christ at the great day with such like words as he used to his father Loe here are we and the children thou hast given us of all thou hast given us have we lost none there 's never a son or daughter of perdition amongst them thine they were thou gavest them us and they have kept thy word To conclude all men brethren and fathers I beseech you to suffer the word of exhortation I speak unto you Young men and exhort saying Be ye righteous that ye may be old this will be your crown and the length of your dayes I speak unto you old men and exhort saying Oh be ye righteous and religious this will be your crown and glory better then that of a hoarie head be holy and ye shall be happy live well and live for ever And ye that have been young and religious and old religious too young Saints old Saints Oh be not weary faint not hold out ye are not far from the kingdome of heaven you are near the Goal your labour and travaile is almost at an end you shall have crown for crown for this corruptible crown of glory of old age you shall have a crown of glory which is reserved in heaven for you which is incorruptible your old bodyes shall be new cast in the grave as in a new mould and all the wrinkles cracks and flawes shall be mended and whereas you have now a crown of glory upon your head in your old age you shall then have a body all glorified and all glorious you shall be made like unto the glorious body of Christ that is you shall shine as the Sunne in the kingdome of your Father Instead of long life on earth you shall have eternall life in heaven You shall sit down with the holy Patriarcks Abraham Isaack and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven Yea thus blessed and glorious shall ye all be both young and old who are found living and dying in the way of righteousnesse FINIS
THE HOARY HEAD CROWNED A Sermon Preached at BRACKLEY at the Funerall of FRAN WALBANK A Very Aged and Religious MATRON BY Thomas Hodges B. D. Rector of Souldern and lately one of the Sen Fellows of St Johns Coll. Cambridge OXFORD Printed by LEON LICHFIELD Printer to the Vniversity for THO. ROBINSON Anno Dom. 1652. TO HIS VERY AGED AND MUCH HONOVRED Grand-father JOHN MORLEY Sir GOD having multiplied your dayes to Fourescore yeares and upwards and your Seed to above an hundred and in both respects honored you Give me leave I pray you who under God had my being from you at first and many blessings since according to my bounden duty to Endeavour so far as I am able to honour You before the people The truth is this Text I designed to have preached upon to your ears but that purpose miscarrying I am bold to present it here into your hands And because through distance of place and other Impediments I cannot hope to Preach often to you or speak with you face to face I shall not content my selfe with the bare tender of one single Sermon to your eyes But shall take upon me with your favour to direct you how to Preach to your selfe dayly when other preachers are absent or silent or cannot through your age be heard And how to Commune with your own heart and speak to your self when you have none else with whom you may converse or when your self may be speechlesse To this purpose that the Preacher in your bosome your own conscience may never want a seasonable Text and matter for a soul-saving Sermon let me Commend to your most serious study and dayly meditation especially three Scripture-Dialogues or Conferences two precious promises The Conferences are these 1. That which you read in the 2. of Samuel 19 34 35 36. which was betwixt King David and Barzillai wherein you may see the vanity of all earthly delights especially in old age 2. That of Christ Nicodemus a master in Israel Iohn 3.4 5 6 7. vers Wherein is taught the necessity of regeneration to all old and young before they can enter into the Kingdome of heaven and where is made good that other saying which is written 2. Corinth 5.17 If any man whether young or old be in Christ he is a new creature 3. That betwixt our Saviour and Martha concerning her brother Lazarus Iohn 11 21 22 23 24 25 26 27. where we find that beleeving in the Lord Iesus which in Ioh 7 37 38. is expounded to be a coming unto him is the only way to attain to life in and after death even to attain to the resurrection of the dead The Promises are First that which is recorded Esaiah 46 4 5. which although it be propounded to the house of Iacob in generall yet it truly and particularly belongs to every one that is an Israelite indeed Hearken unto me O house of Iacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel which are born by me from the belly which are carried from the womb and even to your old age I am he and even to hoarie haires will I carry you I have made and I will bear even I will carrie and I will deliver you The other is written Hos 13.14 I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from death O death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction I know 't is true that it is appointed to men once to dye Heb. 9.27 Notwithstanding this promise Yet the blessed Apostle Paul assures us that at last This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality and that the time will come whē shal be brought to passe the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory 1 Cor. 15.53 54. These two promises laid hold on by faith may serve as two staves and both of them staves of beauty wherewith to support your old age and to stay you when you walk through the valley of the shaddow of death and near the mouth of the pit that you fall not I shall no further preach to you but leave the application to the Preacher within you above mentioned Yet I shall not let you goe till I pray for you and blesse you 'T is more usuall for Parents to lay up prayers and blessings for their Children then Children for their Parents Yet I remember that Melchizedech the Preist of the High-God blessed Abraham the father of the faithfull And consider that it is one part of the Preists office to blesse the people And therefore I hope that being a preacher descended from your own loynes and having in this Epistle and Sermon thus taken upon me to preach to you I shall not be offensive if herein I come unto you too as a minister in the fulnesse of the blessings of the Gospel of Christ if I blesse you also O my father The Lord convince you more and more of the need of a Saviour of the worth of Jesus The Lord help you to roll your self living and dying upon the mercies of God the merits of Christ You have a double Crown already that of a hoary head and that of a Grand-father for Childrens Children are the Crown of old men Prov 17 6. But both these are Corruptible Oh that you may have a Crown of righteousnesse that Crown of Glory which fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you May your Gray haires never come with sorrow to the grave but that after God hath added to your dayes if it be his will many more years your good old age in which Solomon saith we shall say we have no pleasure may be swallowed up in a happy and blessed Eternity And that you may for ever there in joy God our and your first and last father and live with him In whose presence is fulnesse of Ioy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore So prayeth Your most Dutifull and Affectionate Sonne Thomas Hodges Novemb. 23 1652. Prov. 16.31 The Hoary Head is a crowne of Glory if it be found in the way of Righteousnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE Text is the old mans Patent of Honour The hoary head that is old age or the old man is a crowne of glory that is is honourable and glorious is to be reverenced and honoured by us As we reverence those upon whose heads men set crownes and Diadems of silver and gold so especially ought we to honour those men whom the God of heaven the first fountaine of all Honour doth crown with a Hoary head or white haires by reason of age The latter part of the verse is diversly translated some have it thus it is found or shall be found in the way of righteousnesse and then the sense is this honorable old age is to be attained in the way of righteousnesse or to live well is the way to live long Our last translators have put in the word if which is not in