The Hoary Head Crowned, Title page – Dedication
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 Ʋniverſity, 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 'tis 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. 'Tis 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.