his body doth not sleep doth not cease to be It would be happy for Atheists Epicures Gluttons Drunkards Blasphemers and unclean persons for oppressors for covetous and unmerciful Dives's if there was no life no world after this but that as they have lived like beasts or worse then beasts so they may die like beasts also But if there had been neither Moses nor the prophets to testify the contrary yet needed not any to come from the dead to do it heathen poets and phylosophers have had knowledge of a future estate witnesse their Elisian fields a kinde of paradise for the vertuous and their Phlegethons a river of fire a kinde of hell for the wicked But 2dly If a Ghost should appear to us we should be apt to think that we should die shortly and that the Ghost of a dead man did come to call or summon us to the state and place of separate souls such an apparition would be like the Messenger to Hezekiah set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and probably would put us into Bellshazzars posture when he saw the hand-writing upon the Wall would make our countenance change would make the joynts of our loyns to be loosed and our knees to smite one against another And one would think that such a fear terror and consternation might reasonably minde us of what we had done namely to undo our selves and what we should do to escape the wrath to come or the damnation of hell And 3dly All this probably might prove more effectuall if that one that came from the dead should be Lazarus a good man whose soul came from the bosome of Abraham Lazarus one who likely might be known to Dives his brethren to have been a poor miserable and contemptible person whilst he lived in this world when they should see him come from heaven from one of the highest places there from Abrahams bosome and probably in a glorious manner make his appearance this might teach them and minde them that 't is possible that poor men may be happy in the other world and besides when he should tell them as he might be well able to do how happy he was there though he had been never so poor here and how miserable Dives their brother was in hell not withstanding all his great riches in this world this one would think should be an effectual means to warn to perswade and to bring them to repentance I say when he should tell them that poor Lazarus was comforted and rich Dives was tormented how he was advanced to heaven and their brother Dives thrown down to hell when he should tell them the glorious visions and fruitions of heaven and that there was no comparison betwixt earth and heaven betwixt the fading riches of this world and the durable riches of the other 'twixt sensible pleasures and heavenly joys 'twixt the honour from men here and the glory that is to be had from God hereafter 'twixt the company of men though never so great and rich here and the society of God and his holy Angels in heaven And that Dives his palace was but a dungeon or dunghill to the palace of the great king of heaven and earth that riches either horded up or Epicurean-like laid out upon our selves our back and our belly would not avail in the day of wrath and would only be able to aggravate our misery and to encrease our torment there further when he should tell them that money though it answers all things here yet in the other world it is of no use at all Saints and Angels above slight it as much as worldlings overvalue it below behold in the other world Dives and all his riches were weighed and sound too light that Dives his greatness Riches and Honours and delicates were momentary and all vanished and that in place and room thereof how he is tormented How that he saw him in hell torments instead of delicious fare and delightful musick behold weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Instead of purple and fine linnen behold fire and Brimstone and the smoak of the Bottomless pitt compassing him as a garment And on the other side for his own part he had no cause at all to repent him of all his poverty hardship and misery he went through or underwent in this life for that now heaven makes amends for all That his light afflictions which were but for a moment are now recompensed with a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory And if after all this and a great deal more which he might say he should tell them that if they did continue in their sins and die in them they should have their portion in hell with their brother Dives yea with the Devil and his angels for ever but if they would now forsake their fins if they would break off their sins by repentance and their iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if they would cease to do evil and learn to do well if they would be open hearted and open-handed to their poor brethren when they dyed God would send his Angels to carry their souls into the bosome of Abraham from whence he came out sent by their father Abraham and at the request of their brother Dives If all this had been said and done one would be ready to think that here had been enough and more then enough to have perswaded the worst and most hard-hearted sinner to repentance But so is it that a great deal more effectual means then all this prove insufficient to turn sinners from the errours of their ways 1. The Jews had Moses and the prophets amongst them who being dead yet spake unto them in their writings They received the law by the disposition of Angels yea God himself preached unto them in thunder and lightnings and flames of fire at Sinai the Jews had more signes wonders and miracles wrought amongst them or for them then the whole world besides they had three raised from the dead under the Old Testament-dispensation our Saviour when he came he raised three from the dead one newly dead Jairus his daughter one carried out to be buried as the widdow of Naim her son and one that lay four days in the grave viz. Lazarus and yet the Jews the body of the nation were ofttimes hard-hearted and impenitent sinners even when Christ came in the flesh and manifested forth his glory amongst them in working more miracles then Moses and the prophets that went before him yet they would not repent that they might believe that Jesus was the Christ the Messiah and that believing they might have life through his name yea they sought to put Lazarus to death whom Christ raised from the dead and at last put Christ himself to death who brought him from the dead so far were they from being wrought upon to repent once unto life by this miracle 2. Yea Christ himself afterward raised himself from the dead and confirmed his doctrine and his mission
that he was sent of God that he came out of the bosome of God the father the God of Abraham Isaack and Jacob that he came to preach repentance and forgivenesse of sins and yet the grosse of the Jewish Nation would not be perswaded to repent and believe on him behold one greater then Moses and all the prophets and therefore one greater then Lazarus and he too from the dead his soul from paradise and his body was raised out of the grave and he was one who could tell them of the joys of heaven and of the torments of hell more and better then Lazarus he could tell them that for to procure pardon to sinners he himself had suffered the pain of sence in the garden when he said his soul was exceeding sorrowful unto the death and when he sweat great drops of blood trickling down to the ground and the pain of loss when he hung on the Crosse and cryed out my God my God why hast thou for saken me he could tell them that for their sakes he had endured the pains of hell to the end that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all nations beginning at Jerusalem yet how few in comparison amongst the Jews believed on him 3. 'T is observable what we reade of Herod that he heard John Baptist gladly and did many things at his preaching though John wrought no miracles and when he heard of the same of Jesus Christ and the mighty works done by him and imagined that it was John the Baptist or some old prophets risen from the dead but for all that did not repent and amend his life that ever was heard of 4. There are to be found many too too many amongst us that call themselves Christians D. All. and professe to believe in Christ crucified dead and buried descended into hell that he arose from the dead the third day ascended into heaven and from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead and for all this are impenitent and unbelieving 5. Passe we to the Church of Rome and see whether it be better there they tell us of the obambulation of spirits of the apparitions of dead men whose souls have come out of the fire of purgatory a temporary hell and yet how few amongst them are brought to true repentance and amendment of life 6. How often do men come from the beds of dying men and women from the last words perhaps of good men and women telling them they are as full of joy as they can hold that they desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ or from the beds and last words of wicked men who would if it was possible call time again or desire to live though it was but the life of a toad rather then dye and yet how few are thereby wrought upon to repentance unto life to a repentance never to be repented of 7. Come we to our selves and as a Reverend and learned Author observes D. Allest we diverse of us have been in our own apprehension at deaths door and have had the prospect of the other world before our eyes as it were and God hath said to us at such a time by his providence return return thou shalt not dye and then our good purposes and resolutions of dying to our former sins die presently and we mend into and live unto our old fins again And how then should another mans coming from the dead make us repent when we our selves have come as it were from the dead and have not repented Are these things so let 's learn then to attend to Moses and the Prophets i. e. to the holy Scriptures and that they are more likely and effectuall means to bring sinners to repentance then if one came unto them from the dead and that now we are not to expect Messengers or preachers to be sent unto us from the dead nor any signes wonders or Miracles to be wrought to bring or perswade us to repent or to warn us to fly from the wrath to come Let none be found amongst you that asketh counsel of the dead for all that do such things are an abomination to the Lord Deuter. 1811. To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this Rule it is because there is no light in them men must not seek or ask counsel for the living of the dead Isa 8 19.20 When King Saul in his distresse went to the witch of Endor to raise up Samuel from the dead to enquire of him the devil appeared to him in Samuels mantle and sad was the issue of that enquiry and should we desire and have an apparition from the dead how should we be assured that it was not a cheat put upon us by the devil and that it was not the devil appeared to us in the likenesse of our friend or of the party we had a minde to consult withall Angels even evil Angels can assume bodies for a time and move them or else make to themselves aerial bodies and move them though not inform them as the soul the body We reade that Satan can transform himself into an Angel of light if so then surely into the likenesse of a dead man yea of a dead saint Again we might probably be more affrighted then edified by such an apparition and when the fright was over we might question whether there was any such thing or no whether it was not a dream of our own brain or a cheat or trick put upon us by others or whether there was not some mist cast before our eyes and some juggle or trick used to make us think we saw what we did not see Further the holy Scriptures teach us that God hath magnified his word above all his name above his creatures and the works of his creation above his providences ordinary and extraordinary in plain english above miracles signes and wonders Here in this parable we are taught rather to attend to the holy Scriptures then to one that should come to us from the dead In the first Chapter of the 2d Epist of Peter 17 18 19. verses the holy Apostle teaches us to attend unto the word of prophesy as more sure then a voice from heaven from the excellent glory when our blessed Saviour was transfigured upon the holy mount and had conference with Moses from the dead and with Elijah from heaven concerning his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or departure out of this world and truly this is the only instance in all the Scriptures of the matter of the discourse of any one that arose from the dead our blessed Saviour himself excepted if God had ever intended that we should be taught by men from the dead surely we should have had some directions or instructions from those whom the prophets our Saviour or the holy Apostles raised from the dead but behold Altum Silentium not a word to this purpose And this deep silence in this
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
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