serve their generation Some by the hand of God inflicting such Distempers on their Minds or Bodies as have made them useless in their places Some by the Procurement of Men by whom many in the prime of their time have been laid aside sometimes justly sometimes unjustly and all opportunity taken from them of doing good in the World. Neither are all Aged persons rendred useless For many there be of both Sexes that persevere in well-doing to the last Cato pleaded causes when he was past fourscore years and Isocrates wrote excellent things at fourscore and fourteen years of age And not only the Tongues but the Hands of very many Old people are found as nimble to good works as of younger Persons They that have been useful in their strength will scarce ever become useless in their weakness Plutarch observes that an industrious Bee never degenerates into a Drone in its Old-age Too many there be of every Age that live only to themselves that neither Serve God nor observe Man but in order to their own Interest or Appetite These are good for nothing young or old but they that understand and embrace the true Ends of life will be useful one way or other to their lives end And the great Service that the Ancient do perform is by their sage Advice When the Levites were at fifty releas'd from the labour of the Sanctuary they are said yet to be Iudges in their Cities So that although they cannot do that service which younger persons may yet they do greater For the greatest things are compassed not by strength but counsel They cannot be counted useless says Tully that prescribe to the more raw and ignorant their work Like as a Pilot who thô he run not up and down the Ship but sits at the helm yet is the most useful person in the ship So the Aged head is the most useful part in a family or Commonwealth though it be confined to the fire side Hence Homer brings in Agamemnon wishing rather for ten Nestor's an Aged wise man among the Greeks than so many Ajax's who was a man of Arms for the winning of Troy. And it is well known that the grand Magistrates both in Greece and Rome were the Ancients of their Cities and thereupon they were called Senators and the great Council of Rome The Senate being composed of Aged men Yea if they should by reason of their Age be wholly unserviceable yet their Example is useful To see a man or woman deprived of all outward comfort and respect and laden with heavy Distempers yet patient and thankful serious and devout it is a powerful Lecture to all the spectators and may teach them to be doing their own great work with all their might to be thankful to God for their present strength and ease to beware of slothfulness and selfishness That when they arrive at that decrepit estate they may have the pleasant prospect of a fruitful life behind them and the joyful prospect of a blessed life before them SECT IX THe Ninth Disadvantage of Old-age is That it is unfit for Religious Exercises When we are in years we are indisposed to Prayer and Fasting to Hearing or Reading and in general to all such Spiritual Imployments wherein the Soul and Body must concurr They need these Helps as much as Others and perhaps desire them as much as Others but the dead weight of a crazy body sinks down the towring of their precious Souls To will is present with them but how to perform the same they find not and no wonder having not only a law of sin within them but a body of death without them Their senses are grown weak their faculties weak their spirits weak How then should they wrestle with God in Prayer or continue instant therein Let the Rider be never so good a Horsman yet he must travel as his Horse will give him leave So let the Soul be never so active it can operate only as the organs of the body will permit it Instead of taking pains about their Souls they are forc'd to prop up their decrepit bodies Their weaknesses keep them in bed while the holy zeal of others is burning in Devotion And as the Old woman in Plautus being askt why she went no faster answer'd because she carried so great a load to wit of eighty four years on her back so the load on Old peoples back either hinders them from coming to holy Assemblies or else causes them to travel thither very slowly so that they are constrained to live in a mannet without God in the world Now this Affliction to an holy heart is a very heavy burden When a poor man is cut short in all his other Comforts and as it were besieged with all the Calamities of this life yet while he hath this River of Gods Ordinances free and open thereby he receives continual supplies from Heaven the streams thereof make glad the City of God But when this is stopt the Soul grows sad and dry and barren Hence holy David in his Exile never mentioning his temporal losses yet cries out Psal. 42. 4. When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me for I had gone with the multitude to the house of God. This went nearest to his heart For when a man is harras'd with cares and troubles all the week long yet he is relieved and refreshed in his approach unto God upon his own Day But with the decrepit Old man every day is alike and his Soul is left destitute of spiritual supplies in an ordinary way And this Affliction is saddest of all when by disuse of the means of Grace the Soul grows stupid and unconcern'd in the matter as without special Grace we shall be apt to be So that the misery is great in the want and greater when insensible of the want No great wonder therefore that when all these miseries meet together a man cry out with Iob I would not live always So that Tiberius Caesar had a saying as Plutarch tells us that it was a shameful thing for a man that was past sixty to stretch out his hand to a Physician reckoning that it was fit he should then be content to dye But yet if we weigh the matter well the Case of Ancient people is not so desperate as it seems For to proceed in our former Method it is evident that many others besides the Aged are cut short in the means of Grace some willingly in Factories beyond the Seas some willfully by their own Atheism and Ungodliness some unwillingly by Distempers and other hindrances And on the other side divers Ancient people have been capable to attend the Service of God even to their dying day Thus Ahijah though his Eyes were set for Age yet was enabled to prophecy to Ieroboam's wife And Iacob could worship God leaning on the top of his Staff. And St. Iohn was an Evangelist when he was an hundred years old And there was Anna a widdow of about
up Riches as some of them have ingenuously acknowledged They also know that their weakness and infirmities do expose them to contempt and therefore endeavour to obviate that by their Wealth and so make themselves considerable by their Estates These are the â—…rutches which when weakness overtakes them they lean upon and support their fainting spirits withal And they want not variety of Pretences whereby to justifie their course as that they are only providing for a rainy day for troubles and Casualties that may besall them that they ought to lay up for their Children and Posterity or else they were worse than Infidels yea that they are gathering only to bestow it at their death on some pious or charitable use And Satan is not wanting to nurse this humour in them by suggesting to them expectations of a long life a distrust in the Providence of God and continual fears of want which is nursed by the coldness of their temper and by their consciousness of their inability to get much by their labour And these meeting with that inveterate Self-love which is inherent in them and consequently an uncharitable frame of mind towards others hardens them in their tenacious temper so that as they grow weaker this lust grows stronger until Divine grace doth open their eyes or else the Earth at last stop their mouths This bitter root spoils their Devotions interrupts their prayers renders the word of God tastless becramps them to all God Works this disturbs their Rest the thoughts and cares about these things do visit them last at night and meet them first in the morning and disquiet them the day throughout for where the treasure is there will the heart be also Oh the cares the fears the vexations that possess a covetous heart but only that we can digest any thing that we delight in though it be never so bitter else no man could endure the life of a covetous miser But it is the Old-mans recreation the best of his time and the strength of his spirits are consumed either about the keeping of what he hath or about getting more for as he hath no vent for his abundance so he observes no limits for his desires As the bladder the more it is filled with wind it stretches the more so the more his riches increase the more his heart is set upon them so that he seeth more beauty in his Money than in the Sun in the firmament No thoughts no discourse no design pleaseth them except it end in gain but when there is an opportunity of doing good the heart is cold and the hand is lame Nay some of them will not afford conveniences scarcely necessaries to their families or to themselves but run in debt to their own backs and bellies to their children and servants and foolishly choose to live poor that they may dy rich Now this Vice in it self it is plain Idolatry and the root of all evil leading men into temptation and a snare into many foolish and hurtful lusts which at last drown men in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9 10. For the worldly man gets and keeps his Estate with travel to his Body vexation to his Spirit scruple to his Conscience with danger to his Soul with envy of his neighbours with suits to his children and with a curse to his posterity Do but turn to Iob 20. 15. and read that chapter out But in no sort of men is Covetousness so unaccountable so very foolish as in Old people For what can be more absurd said a Heathen than to be so much concern'd for travelling Expences when we have so small a part of our way to travel Or as St. Augustine expresseth it to load our selves with the greatest Burdens when we are nearest the end of our Journey It is no doubt a plain infatuation and an instance of the power of the Prince of this World on mens minds and of the Corruption of our Nature to effect this that those who have seen the Vanity of all these things the uncertainty the unsatisfactoriness the vexatiousness of them should so dote upon them that they who not only know but even feel in themselves that they must shortly and may suddenly leave them all and perhaps have no thanks at all from them that enjoy them that yet these persons wise in other things should set their Hearts upon them and hunt after a World that is flying from them How much more comfortable were it to do all the good they can to feed the hungry cloath the naked to procure the Prayers of the distressed while they have opportunity to make Friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness to be esteemed of men to be loved and honoured of God! A good man sheweth favour and lendeth he will guide his affairs with discretion Surely he shall not be moved for ever the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance Psal. 112. 5 6. The Pleas which they produce for their Justification or Excuse are all insufficient Have you no other Recreation Surely there are more and better Diversions Natural Artificial and Spiritual than heaping up riches Instance but in the last of these Psal. 119. 14. 72. I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as much as in all Riches yea The Law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of Gold and Silver Again Do you think that these will defend you from Contempt True Piety and Charity is a far better way Psal. 112. 9. He hath despersed he hath given to the Poor his righteousness endureth for ever his Horn shall be exalted with Honour Think you that in your decays of Nature there be no better supports than your Riches Yes the favour of God the love of Christ the comforts of the Spirit the feast of a good Conscience and the joyful hopes of eternal Happiness are as much beyond them as the Sun iâ—… brighter thanâ—… Glow-worm Will providing for Contingencies excuse you Alas your Riches will be no certain refuge for you Prov. 18. 10 11. The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the Righteous runneth into it and is safe The Rich mans Wealth is his strong City and as an high wall but 't is only in his own conceit That bond Heb. 13. 5. sealed to us is worth all your Specialties and all your Estates He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Can you justifie your immoderate scraping by a just provision for your Children and Relations No no That 's but an excuse for they that have no Children are as sick of this Disease as others But if you have Children this course of yours is the way to undo them A moderate care for Posterity is a Duty wherein we may expect a Blessing but the Covetousness of the Parent doth but provide for the Luxury of the Child and so the Parents Soul is ruin'd in the getting and the Child 's in the spending of what is so gotten If your
Soul. When it is lodg'd in a ruinous body it is stifled within it self for want of motion and move it cannot or but lamely for want of Organs It is like a traveller with a tired Horse he spurs and strains but his Horse is foundred so here the Soul would pray and meditate and flie upward but the dead weight of a crazy Body hinders so that both his flesh upon him hath pain and his Soul within him doth mourn Job 14. 22. But yet this Burden is not to be appropriated to Old-age as if they and they only were the subject of distempers and of pain For if we observe it we shall find Diseases more common yea and more dangerous among Young people than among Old In the Sacred Story you will meet with more young People brought to our Saviour for Cure than Old. There was Iairus daughter there was the Noblemans son there was the Syrophenicians daughter and then the Centurions servant with many others In contagious Diseases it 's evident that they are sooner infected and every Register will inform us that a far greater number of Infants and Young People are yearly carried to their long home than of Aged Persons And then for Casualties there are far more of young and middle-aged persons that are slain and taken captives than of the Old. Neither are all Aged people so laden with these pains and distempers many of them having a very convenient measure of health to their lives end Thus Tully brings in Cato at eighty four years of age declaring that notwithstanding these years he was well enough to appear in the Senate to defend his Client and to entertain his Friends And Masinissa King of Mauritania that at fourscore and ten years old he would not be perswaded to ride in his journeys or to be covered on his head in the hardest frost or sharpest storm And one of the old men mentioned in the first chapter made nothing of walking twenty miles to dine with a Relation when he was above an hundred years old Neither are these Diseases always the fruits of Old-age but rather of an heedless and intemperate youth This layes up such crudities surfeits and noxious humours which lurk in us till Old-age and then seize upon us and then we find fault with the Choler in our Stomack but forget the sweet meats which have caused it So that this Inconvenience doth neither befall all Old People nor only them nor only upon the account of their Old-age The best Supports however for the Aged under their Maladies are a deep Study on the Wisdom Power Goodness and Promises of God. His Wisdom whereby he knows what condition is best for us His Power whereby he hath all Diseases at his Command as the Centurion had his servants His Goodness whereby he pities us more than the tenderest Parent doth his weak Child who also knoweth our frame and remembers that we are but dust Psal. 103. 13 14. His Promises that he will not afflict without need Lam. 3. 33. that he will correct in measure Jer. 30. 11. that he will not leave us Psal. 23. 4. that all shall work for the best Rom. 8. 28. that he will cease when his good Ends are accomplished Lam. 3. 22. And then we should revolve the great Benefit and use of them For by our Distempers the Lord is pleased to shew us more effectually the frailty of our Condition the Evil of sin the Vanity of the World and many other Lessons that are not commonly learn'd otherwise It 's plain that these are fair warnings to us to provide a better house for the Soul that will endure In this Disease said Old Olevian I have learned to know aright what sin is and what the Majesty of God is Nay said that Learned Rivet near his death I have learned more Divinity in these Ten dayes of my Sickness than in Fifty years before it hath sent me home into my self And now who would not be Content with such useful Discipline To conclude try it who will there is no Condition of Life without some Inconvenience Marriage is desired they are S. Basil's words but how many troubles in it Children are long'd for but how many griefs with them rich People are counted happy but how many thorns are found there These are the tributes of Life which if a man know how to bear patiently his Soul will be bettered and his Vertues adorned Our business is to prepare for them beforehand to lay up a stock of Prayers of Patience of Promises of Faith of Evidences and when they come to possess our Souls in patience to resign up our selves to the holy will of God and if we cannot turn off this our Burden to carry it with all the ease and satisfaction we can and to keep a sound mind if we cannot have a sound body SECT VI. A Sixth Inconvenience in Old-age is that it is broken with Crosses and outward Troubles These though they meet us in every stage of our life yet a whole troop of them commonly fall upon us in Old-age Then doth Poverty often come as an armed man His getting dayes are gone now his spending time is come And if he have need of much and yet hath little in store he seems to be in a miserable Condition The Cynick Philosopher when he was asked what was the most calamitous Creature in the world confidently answered It was an indigent Old person Likewise every body is ready to injure and run down the Aged reckoning that they are least able to defend themselves For as to the weakest part of the body there is a confluence of all humours which settle there so very often it falls out that a combination of troubles seize upon Aged people Ioh. 21. 18. Verily verily I say unto thee when thou wast young thou girdedst thy self and walkedst whither thou wouldst but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not And of these Troubles the sharpest are from their Relations the Disobedience of some or the Death of others How doth the pride prodigality or wilfulness of Children or Grand-children provoke and grieve the hoary head And how many Aged persons see husband wife children and other dear Friends and Relations posted to the grave before them which do each of them as it were tear away a piece of him and leave him as a sparrow alone upon the house-top In short Old-age is recorded as the Sink of mans life into which run all the miseries incident to humane nature And that which makes this Burden more grievous is That these seize upon the persons when their strength is spent their spirits low and their bodily infirmities many They are within sight of the shore and yet in danger to be sunk and wrack'd with the storms which beat upon them When they had thought all their troubles had been blown over it frets them sore to meet them
fourscore and four years yet departed not from the Temple but served God with fastings and prayers night and day Luk. 2. 37. So that all Aged persons are not precluded from spiritual exercises And though they should become unable to frequent the Publick Ordinances of God yet they may pray and sigh and meditate in their chambers and these proceeding from a sincere and sensible Soul are most acceptable unto God. As for the external Acts of Religion they avail nothing without faith and love which lodge in the heart The immanent Acts of the Soul which are to understand to meditate to will and to desire do most perfect the same And where the Deed cannot be done God doth accept the will for the Deed. The weakest and poorest Old man or woman may have high meditations under a low roof and a large heart within narrow walls No Aged person therefore should be discouraged by their Inability for Gods Service since He knoweth their frame he remembreth that they are but dust The Lord hath said When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them I the God of Israel will not forsake them I will open Rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys I will make the Wilderness a pool of water and the dry Land springs of water Isa. 41. 17 18. In the want of ordinary supplies I will provide them with extraordinary supports the wilderness shall produce a pool of water rather than any Child of God shall dy for thirst When they cannot wait upon God as before he will wait to be gracious to them he will come to them and teach and comfort them If indeed a man be inwardly pleased that his weakness excuseth him from his Devotions he hath cause to blame himself but if he hath the same desires and holy affections with others the old Law shall stand to wit he that stayes by the Stuffe shall part the Spoil with him that goes out to battel You have a trade going in every Ship an Interest in every holy Assembly in the World. SECT X. THE Tenth and last Inconvenience in Old-age is That they are Terrified with the approach of Death For Death is a word hard of digestion to any man. The Philosopher counted it of all dreadfull things the most Terrible And Mr. Latimer observes of Hezekiah that he was more afraid of Death than of all Senacheribs Army Now Old-age is a near neighbour to it and the aspect of it alwayes before them is not very pleasant Most men saith Seneca are miserably tost between the fear of Death and the miseries of Life are unwilling either to live or dy Especially they who have had their portion in this life and have made no provision for a better This made Lewis 11 th of France to charge all about him to forbear the mention of Death The strict Account which follows it and the long Eternity which follows that makes Death a most serious matter No wonder if the hand tremble when it is going to take that Cup which will mend or end them Now the Old man is at the door of this fatal place Though a Casualty may bring Death suddenly though a sickness may bring it probably yet Old-age brings it certainly Peradventure there are fifty weeks or dayes remaining in their life peradventure but forry five perhaps but forty but thirty yea but twenty as Abraham said of Sodom nay since it is dubious every moment and no mortal man knows at what Watâ—… of the Night he shall be called the 〈◊〉 person that is but a step from death must be through fear of Death in continual bondage But the Lyon is not so terrible as he is painted neither is Death so formidable as it is by many represented Though it be against the Desires of Nature yet it is not against the Series of Nature For if we consult this we find Autumn kindly after Summer and Winter after Autumn and Death is as natural after Old-age And the Light of Nature taught some of the Heathens to reckon the worthy men especially that are dead to be most truly alive in that while we live in this world the Soul is imprison'd in the body and is set at liberty by Death Thus Xenophon brings in Cyrus discoursing to his Children on his Death-bed Think not O my Sons that I leave you quite and am lost when I dye perhaps you will not see me neither do you now see the most Essential part of me nor never did only by my actions you believed it was in this body and that will live out of this body as well as in it And if Pagans set so light by Death what notion should we Christians have of it that can look more clearly beyond it It is styl'd a falling asleep and what 's more welcome to an Aged person than a sound sleep And from that Expression 1 Thess. 4. an Old Toletan Council ordained that the dead should be followed with Psalms of Praise to their Graves In short 1. All Aged People are not oppressed with the fear of Death Too few there are that think at all of it Men generally put far from them the evil day and it will be an evil day to such as put it far from them Most people can think of any place in the Parish rather than the Church-yard yea I doubt it be one of the Faults of the Aged to think seldom of Death and they who think little of it are in no danger of being frighted with its thoughts 2. The Young have the same reason to be concern'd about Dying as the Old. For Youth hath more wayes to Death than Age hath And far more dye in their Youth than that dye for Age. It 's true they hope to live longer but their hopes have no good ground at all They have neither Promise nor Experience to build their hopes upon And in Young Peoples Death they being in their strength Nature receives a more violent shock whereas the Aged are more quietly extinguished like a Candle in the Socket 3. No good man need be affrighted at the approach of Death For the power and sting of Death is utterly taken away by our Saviours Death and so it can do us no hurt A Child of God doth not so much as tast Death The true Believer now hath not to do with Death but with its shadow with a toothless Dog with a dead Lyon with a Wasp without a Sting with a conquer'd Enemy What man in his wits is afraid after a tempestuous Voyage that he is drawing nigh his Haven It was a sweet saying of S. Ambrose near his end I have not so lived that I am ashamed to live among you neither do I fear to dy going to so good a Master The unprepared and the ungodly may dread Death As Aristippus told the wicked Mariners trembling in a Storm You may well
words also for an Old Man do signifie one that hath lived long or one that looketh towards the Earth or whose vital moisture is dried away and nothing but an earthy matter left The Latine words for Old-age do signifie multitude of years or Decay of strength Or Precedence and Priority of Existence But the most usual and proper word for it denotes a Person who hath one Foot in the Grave that is half dead already tho some derive it from the Diminution of the Senses as if no body were old till they were decrepit and began to dote Our English word Old is of a German descent The High-Dutch calling an Aged person Alt-man The Saxons Eald or Olt-min the Low-Dutch Oud-man All which some derive from the Latines others from the Hebrews but none of them affording us any light concerning the proper Nature or distinct Time of Old-age tho in their native signification it is likely they in some sort did express the Thing in question It is clear that there are divers Periods in the life of Man which are like so many Stages in the Race which is set before us Herein we have some light in the Holy Scriptures In Levit. 27. 3 4 c. where One Interval of time is from a Month to Five years of Age a Second from Five years of Age to Twenty a Third from twenty to sixty and the last from sixty to the end of Life And mens Strength and Ability at least in those Times and Places may be collected from their Valuation which is there adjusted by God himself Humane Authors have variously divided the Life of Man. Some into Four parts answering the four parts of the Year Spring Summer Autumn and Winter Others into Seven assign ing each part of it to a different Planet and so Old-age to Saturn But Man's Age seems most fitly to be distributed into 1. His Growing 2. His Ripe or consistent and 3. His Decaying Age. As to the First of these we need not be so Critical as to begin it at his Conception or Quickning in the Womb tho he doth then begin to live and to grow sith the Holy Ghost in the Scripture above-said makes no reckoning of his Age until he be a Month old Leaving therefore that State of Non-age we may distinguish his Growing Age into Infancy Child-hood and Youth Infancy ends when we begin to go and speak Child-hood reacheth to the fourteenth or fifteenth year and Youth lasts to Twenty five Unto these years we usually increase in Strength or Stature Not but that some particular Persons or in some Countries do ripen sooner and also that Females are reckon'd to attain to the Second Stage of their Growing Age two years sooner and to the third Stage four years sooner than the Males yet still the foresaid Computation agrees with the nobler Sex and comprehends the Generality of them The Ripe Age of Man follows when the Parts of his Body and the Powers of his Soul are comeâ—… to some Consistence and therefore it may be called his Best Estate or as the Hebrew signifies in Psal. 39. 5. his setled Estate Verily every man at his setled or best Estate is altogether Vanity The former is the Spring this is the Summer of a mans life wherein they who are truly wise will be gathering both Temporal and Spiritual Provision for the Winter of Old-age Now this Rational Flower is in its prime As the Flower of the Field so he flourisheth Psal. 103. 15. Many indeed are cropt and gathered in their Youth and others are cut off in the midst of their days for when the Wind passeth over this Flower it is gone And it is observable that Enoch in the first World and Elijah in the second and our Dear Saviour in the last were called away in the midst of their days to warn us that this is not our Country but that even in the time of Youth and Strength it behoves us to prepare for another World. But if the Lord do still by his Power and Patience hold our Soul in life and that His visitation do preserve our Spirit this brings us to Old-age and this Ripe Age commonly lasts as long as our Growing Age and so we may assign unto it Twenty five years more SECT II. AND so we are comen to the Third and Last Stage of Life the Decaying Age or Old-age which is the Subject of the following Discourse which may be thus describ'd namely That Part of Mans life wherein through the Multitude of Years his Strength is decay'd For 1. It is not meerly such a number of Years without some Decay of Nature that can properly denominate Old-age sith in former times before the Flood when men usually lived eight or nine hundred years he that was an hundred years old was a very Young man and still we find that many are stronger at sixty than others are at fifty years of Age. Thus Athanasius testifies of Antony the Monk in Egypt that he had all his Teeth and his Eye-sight sound when he was an hundred and five years old Neither 2ly Doth the Decay of Strength alone determine a man Old sith Diseases and other Casualties may weaken and wither him who in respect of his Age hath not attain'd the Meridian of his Life Thus our Blessed Saviour was guess'd to be near fifty years old Ioh. 8. 57. when he was but little past Thirty being a man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief But when our Strength is decayed through the multitude of Years then Old-age commenceth From whence it followeth that neither Gray-hairs nor Wrinkles nor any such separable Adjunct can be a Demonstration of Old-age seeing Sickness or Cares or Fears or Grief may produce these Effects without any considerable Decay of strength or Number of years Prov. 12. 25. Heaviness in the Heart of man maketh it stoop Here the Heart stoops like an old man and that through heaviness And Psal. 6. 7. Mine Eye is consumed because of Grief it waxeth Old because of all mine Enemies here Grief brings Old-age into the Eye And Psal. 32. 3. When I kept silence my Bones waxed Old here Old age is ante-dated in the Bones by trouble of Mind Thus Authors tell us of those whose Hairs have become hoary by Sickness and have grown black again at the return of Health And the Story of the Dutch Captain is famous who being put into a Fright had his Hair turned Gray in the space of one Night But all these being preternatural and accidental do not constitute Old age at all Neither doth any occasional Eclypse upon the internal Faculties the Mind Memory or Phancy certainly declare Old-age for many Accidents may produce these Effects in the youngest persons whereas Old-age is not incident to the Soul. Its Organs may be weakned ormaimed either by natural Decays or by violent Accidents so that they cannot exert themselves but the Soul can never properly be said to
fail us our Skin to wrinkle and the pillars of the house to tremble we should mourn for that woful Disobedience and Ingratitude which was the Original cause of the decayes of Nature When your Eyes cannot do you service in Seeing let them do it in Weeping for this root of sin and misery Say not that you are unconcern'd in what was done by another time out of mind For certainly we should never feel the effects which we daily find to cur smart if we had no hand in the procuring cause of them They who would perswade you that no sin is inherent in you but that its only contracted by imiâ—…ation and custome must needs yield that the Decayes the â—…eebleness and the Dyscrasy even of the temperatest man in the world must proceed from some wound upon humane nature which the Creator would never have inflicted without a fault O therefore let us not only lament our Actual and daily offences but let us go up to the Spring and bewail that first rebellion which is the root of evil both of sin and punishment I say again when thy bones ake and when thy hand shakes let thy heart mourn for the Sin that hath poyson'd thy nature and made thee miserable The body which was the Instrument in the crime is justly the Subject in the punishment SECT II. THE Second which is the Immediate and Natural Cause of Old-age is the Dryness and Coldness of the Temperament of the Body There is according to the Old Philosophy a certain Native Heat and Radical Moisture ingenerated in all mankind at their Conception whereby Life is preserved The one is like the Flame the other like the Orl that feeds it Diseases and Disasters are like a Thief in the Candle that makes it wast the sooner but if no such thing happen yet the Lamp will consume and at last extinguish All the supplies of Food and Physick are not able to maintain nor repair that Heat nor that Moisture but a cold and dry temper grows upon the Body till it be quite exhaust and wasted It is true some there be who have derived to them from their Progenitors a greater measure of radical Heat and Moisture and therewith more lively and vigorous Spirits and these meeting with no external Inconveniences do continue longer in their strength as may be observed in some Families every where as some generous Wines will preserve themselves from decay much longer than others but at length they grow acid and spiritless so in tract of time that Moth of Mortality which lurks in all our Bodies will fret that Garment into Rags Things which are Compounded must dissolve contrary Qualities in the same Subject tho never so equally temper'd will work out one another No care or Art can preserve these Houses of Clay for as much as their foundation is in the Dust Job 4. 19. SECT III. THE Third sort of Causes which may be termed Preternatural and Adventitious that do accelerate or hasten Old-age some of them are such as these 1. Unwholsome Air. For the Air being the constant Food of the Vital parts must needs contribute much to the Repair or Decay of the Body and the more impure it is must consequently impair and weaken it Hence and from the Corruption of Food it is not improbable that the Age of Man after the Deluge became so much diminished insomuch as Arphaxad who was the first-born in the New World lived scarce half so long as those before the Flood as appears by comparing Gen. 5. 27. with Gen. 11. 13. the Air being now become more impure and unwholsome than it was before However it is most evident that people do commonly at this day grow weak crazy and impotent who live in those places which mourn under a malignant Air and others are fresh and lusty at the same years that injoy the blessing of a purer breathing 2. Secondly Diseases are another Cause that brings on Old-age For these must needs weaken that strength of Nature whereby our life is supported Psal. 39. 11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for Iniquity thou makest his Beauty to consume away like a Moth and not only his Beauty but his Strength and Spirits for the Hebrew runs there Thou makest that which is desirable in him to melt away And thus it was with holy Iob. Thou hast filled me with wrinkles which is a witness against me Job 16. 8. His grievous Distempers had made him old before his time Thus we daily see divers persons who in respect of the number of theiâ—… years have not pass'd the Meridian of their Age yet by reason of their Sicknesses and especially the Dregs which some kinds of them do leave behind them are old in their very Youth These are like Storms without which battering the best built House will the sooner bring it unto ruin Holy David said of himself Psal. 119. 83. I am become like a Bâ—…tle in the Smoak that is my natural moisture is dryed burnt up and withered And Hezekiah by reason of sickness complains Mine Age is departed and is removed from me as a Shepherds Tent Isa. 38. 12. Thus the Lord doth sometimes weaken a mans strength in the way and shortneth his days Psal. 102. 23. implying that a mans life is like a Iourney through this into a another World now by Diseases he weakens us in the way as we are travelling through the World causes us to commence Old per saltum and shortens our days so that by this means some have but a winters day of life while others injoy a longer 3. Thirdly Another Cause which hastens Old age is immoderate Care or Labour Each of these when they exceed a due proportion do exhaust the Spirits and produce early wrinkles whenas being moderately used they do us no hurt but good It is indeed a part of the Curse pronounced at the Fall on Adam and all his posterity Gen. 3. 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground and the carking Heart and sweating Face hastens man to the Ground One of these alone immoderate Care or immoderate Labour will do the work but when the mind within is eaten up by continual thoughtfulness and the Body without is harrast with extreme Labours no wonder that Weakness Languishment and Old-age hasten on a pace then doth our strength give place to labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away Psal 90. 10. Great indeed is mens folly thus to ruin themselves sith it is certain that neither our immoderate cares nor our immoderate labour do us any good at all less Care and more Prayer would avail us much more yea and they do us much hurt they disquiet the Mind they disturb the Body they provoke God to leave us to our selves and then we shall soon find that it is vain to rise early to sit up late and to eat the Bread of Sorrow whereas the blessing of
the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no Sorrow with it Prov. 10. 22. Assure your selves if moderate care and labour will not bring in Riches then they are not good for you and whatsoever is gained otherwise hath a Curse in it and will bring misery on the Body or on the Soul here or hereafter 4. A Fourth Cause which hastens Old-age is Intemperance that is excess in Eating or in Drinking or in lustful Embraces Any of these especially the last do bring Old-age into youthful years Sad it is that our Life being in its utmost extent so short and our Bodies by nature so frail we that have a desire to live and who for that end will be content to use the most irksome remedies should yet so commonly invite distempers by our Luxury and so shamefully dig our Graves with our Teeth and deprive our selves of the residue of our years In so much that altho in St. Hieroms time he affirmed that there were reckoned five thousand Martyrs for every day in the Year save one yet we may sadly conclude that Bacchus and Venus have had daily more Martyrs if we may so call them in one place or other of the World than Iesus Christ. In this sense doth Seneca truly say Non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus From whence come for the most part those pains of the Gout Stone Dropsy Convulsions and Apoplexies with such other Distempers but from Intemperance in some of the foresaid Objects A moderate use of Meat Drink and conjugal rights as it doth tend much to the alacrity of the mind so doth it no less to the Health of the Body but excess in any of them doth either suffocate Nature or else impoverish and exhaust it as it is observed of the more lecherous Creatures that they are short-liv'd in comparison of others If therefore you would arrive at a good Old-age good in respect of the comfort of the Mind or in respect of the welfare of the Body oppose and check your unruly Appetites resolve with the Grace of God Hitherto thou shalt come and no further conclude I am a Man yea a Christian and not a Brute and consequently am not to be guided by Sense but by Reason and Religion which teach me to use all these outward comforts so far as they will promote the Glory of my Maker and the present and future good of my Body and Soul. 5. Fifthly Inordinate Passions of the mind are another means to bring on Old-age such as Anger especially Sorrow For these do manifestly prey upon the Spirits and also produce such bodily Distempers as do hurry people into Old-age before their time Hence it was that Valentinian the Emperor by an excessive straining of his Voice in an angry reply against some Offenders fell into a grievous Fever which at length brought him to his End. And for Sorrow the wisest of men tells us Prov. 15. 13. A merry Heart maketh a chearful Countenance but by Sorrow of the Heart the Spirit is broken And when the Spirit is broken the Body must sensibly wast and decay For these Passions like a Torrent or Land flood break down and overthrow all before them you know a River while it proceeds with its usual stream passes harmlesly yea profitably through all the Fields and Meadows and makes no breaches on the Banks on either side but when a suddain and excessive Rain swells it up then it lays about it without mercy and tears up the Ground the Fences and Trees on every side And even so our Passions being moderate are innocent and useful but he that hath no rule over his own Spirit is like a Flood of Water broke loose or like a City that is broken down and without Walls Yea there have been Instances of such as by sudden Grief have grown Gray in a few days time and there be hundreds that carry the Badge of their great Sorrows on their Heads long before a due course of years would have brought them Let us not therefore suffer these Vultures to feed upon our Hearts nor yield our selves Slaves to these unruly Passions which war not only against the Soul but even against the Body and will ruin both except they be restrained and mortified by the Grace of God. Philosophy hath gone far in this work God forbid but that Christianity should go much further There are also other both Moral and Natural Causes of Old-age but these may suffice The curious may satisfie themselves elsewhere And by these Causes you may easily discern what are the best Preservatives against Old-age For tho no Art or Care can prevent the unavoidable access thereof yet effectual Means may be used to deferr it 'T is true Galen tells us of a Philosopher who affirm'd that there was a way to prevent it and wrote a Book of it when he was forty years old but the said Author takes notice that when he was arriv'd to eighty he was wasted to skin and bones and could not any way cure himself But the most effectual Preservatives are 1. Piety and 2. Sobriety SECT IV. FIrst serious Piety By which I mean a Course of life in the Faith and Fear of God and in holy Obedience unto him This is that Godliness which hath the promises of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. This is the best Antidote against that Poyson which hath originally infected our Nature and which makes it swarm with Distempers that hurry us to Old-age and Death at last This is certainly the best Means whereby to avoid that fatal Curse so early pronounc'd or else to turn it into a Blessing If thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my Satutes and Commandments then I will lengthen thy days 1 King. 3. 14. What man is he that desireth Life and loveth many days that he may see good Depart from evil and do good c. Psal. 34. 12 14. It is the observation of Hierom and of Origen before him that Abraham is the first person called Old in the Scripture tho Adam and Methuselah and many others were richer than he in years but not in Faith and Obedience I know that some of the worst of men have without this flourished long and some that have been most Religious have withered quickly and therefore do conclude that all such Outward blessings and afflictions are conditionally promis'd and threatned and yet it abides certain that the ordinary way to a vigorous Age and a long Life is the true fear of God and that which makes it short and miserable is Ungodliness And the Holy Scripture is express herein Prov. 10. 27. The fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned For doubtless our Lord God who is the giver of Life is also the Conserver of it and whose word we may rely upon as the best Prescription and Preservative in this case This
Holy course doth contribute to this end 1. In a Natural way And that 1. By Mortifying and discarding those Sins which do more directly hurt the Body Such are those Passions and Excesses above-named such is Anger Envy Covetousness Ambition and many such like which like wind in the Intrails of the Earth do rend and shatter it I think there is no Sin whatsoever but it hath a malignant influence upon the Body either to disorder and inflame it or to macerate and dispirit it Now the Fear of God obliges a man not only to restrain but to pluck up all such by the Roots Those are the Weeds which both rob the sweet Flowers of their nourishment and also depauperate the soil where they grow which being cast out the whole man fares the better after them And 2. True Piety refresheth the Body with the Comforts of a good Conscience That Peace that Hope that Joy which result from a Conscience that is pacifi'd by the Blood and purified by the Spirit of Christ do most efficaciously cherish the whole man they daily feast him This is that merry Heart that is called a continual feast Prov. 15. 15. And that doth good like a Medicine Prov. 17. 22. There is that Intimacy between the Soul and the Body that whatsoever refresheth the one doth also cheer the other Whereupon the Learned have judged that Hope Love and Ioy are great prolongers of Life by the influence which these have upon the Humours and Spirits in the Body much more when these Affections have heavenly and eternal things for their Object and the Holy Scripture speaks that way when it saith Prov. 19. 23. The fear of the Lord tendeth to Life and he that hath it shall abide satisfied 3. True Piety is the best Preservative against Old-age in a Spiritual way to wit by Procuring the Blessing of God. For when the Body is consecrated to him and imployed for him we may expect it to be blessed by him it is under his peculiar care and Providence When it is united to Iesus Christ it will receive influence from Him for its good So that true Religiousness tho it more immediately tend to the recovery and felicity of the Soul yet it is really most friendly also to the Body He that feareth God and walketh in his ways shall see his Childrens Children Psal. 128. last And on the other hand all those destroying and life-shortning Diseases mention'd Deut. 28. 27. 61. even every sickness and every plague are denounced to the ungodly And fully Eccl. 8. 12 13. Tho a Sinner do Evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know it shall be well with them that fear God which fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shadow because he feareth not before God. Therefore you that would protract the time of your flourishing strength learn to love and fear God devote your selves to him bestow your Hearts upon him imploy your time and strength to please and honour him abide not in a State of ungodliness rest not with a form of Godliness but resolve upon that Real Holiness which will produce a long and happy life in this World and a longer and happier life in a better 2. The Second Preservative against Old-age which indeed is contained in the former is Temperance and Sobriety I mean that gracious Vertue which retains the Sensitive Appetite within the bounds of Reason and Religion whereby we keep a Mediocrity in the use of Meats both in respect to their Quantity neither loading nor pining the Stomack and in respect of their Quality neither debauching it by too much Variety nor injuring it by things noxious The same care in Drinks lest the Quality of them be pernicious or the Quantity of them prejudicial That the Marriage-bed be moderately used so that the vital Spirits be not exhausted Now mans sinful Nature above all other Creatures inclines to excess in all these and it is pleasant to the Flesh but it is the pleasure of poyson At last they bite like a Serpent and sting like an Adder Prov. 23. 32. not the Soul only but the Body They do insensibly but infallibly weaken nature disorder the Harmony of the parts breed the most fatal distempers and render him as we may daily observe old in infirmities that is but young in years So that if they who give themselves up to Gluttony Drunkenness or Lasciviousness did truly love their own Souls or yet their own Bodies they would bridle their unruly Appetites for their own sakes and not pay so dear for that which must be repented of And as a plain and even way is much more delectable than always to be going up Hill and down so certainly there is a thousand times more ease and sweetness in an even and temperate course than in the perpetual unevenness of intemperance How should that body hold out that is daily clogg'd and inflam'd with preternatural excesses The intemperate man is constantly feeding an Enemy whom it is charity to starve and deals with his Body as the Ape who is said to hugg her young to death Whereas a wise Sobriety is health to the Navel and marrow to the Bones by it the Humours the Blood the Spirits are all maintain'd in order and in vigour His meals are pleasant and his sleep is sweet and he is a Stranger to those crudities and consequent distempers which pester others Thus Plato by his careful temperance spun out his life tho a great Student till he attain'd above fourscore and Galen to above sevenscore years and Seneca concludes that there is no way to retard Old-age like a frugal Sobriety Let me then persuade all such as are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God or of their own Souls to have some pity on their poor Bodies O break off your destructive Course sow not the Seeds of consuming Maladies in your own Flesh. Be not among Wine-bibbers amongst riotous eaters of Flesh. Put a Knife to thy Throat if thou be a man given to Appetite Prov. 23. 1. 20. Give not your Strength unto Women nor your ways to that which destroyeth Kings Prov. 31. 3. Let not the Beast captivate the Man nor your Reason be enslav'd by Sense but recover a just dominion over your blind and brutish affections that your days may be long and lively in the Land which the Lord giveth you If it be here Objected that the most Religious and temperate persons grow old as soon as others It is Answered that tho in these external things all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked yet every wise man will take the likeliest course for the blessing he desires Tho some Children that have had no good Education nor good Example have afterward proved eminent men yet who but a desperate man will hereupon resolve I will take no care about the
why should you grudge at those that do but come after you It is like as if the Southern Husbandman who hath inn'd his Harvest in Iuly should repine at them that live more Northerly whose Harvest is in September why the former had his Harvest as well as the Other and hath reason rather to be thankful to God than to envy them that follow him Besides would you have two Harvests What answer can you give to our Saviours questions Matth. 20. 15. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own is thine eye evil because I am good He that grudges at Gods gifts would make a miserable distribution of them among men if they were at his disposal No no younger people have their proportion of comeliness strength estate honour and parts and you have yours and they are distributed by a wise Hand who is ever righteous in all his wayes and holy all in his works And therefore labour with all your might to extinguish this cursed flame Remember that wrath killeth the foolish man and that envy slayeth the silly one Iob 5. 2. You envy others but you hurt your selves Few sins have a more malignant influence upon Mind and Body than this Sin of Envy On the other side if you bless the Lord for other mercies you have the comfort of them if you repine at them you lose the comfort of your own I know that the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy Jam. 4. 5. but to them that seek it God giveth more grace Be contented with such things as ye have 't is not said with such things as 1. you have had or such things as 2. others have or such things as 3. you would have but with such things as ye have because he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee If you have him you have enough if you have him not you have too much Let him who is infinitely wise have liberty to dispose his gifts as he pleaseth and instead of grudging at the excellencies of others labour you for something in your selves to ballance them Your Gravity will be as valuable as their Beauty your Wisdom as their Strength your Grace as their Wealth They do but surpass you in things that will fade as yours have done but you may excell them in things which are everlasting Besides you should consider that we are all fellow-members of the same body and so we should rejoyce in their welfare and in their comforts that 's the way to bring them to sympathize with us in our defects and they that pay respect to those above them shall most usually receive it from them below them whereas the Envious man takes pleasure only in punishing of himself SECT IV. THE Fourth Vice too common to Old-age is Arrogancy and Conceitedness An humour whereby they assume so much to themselves as if they had a Monopoly of Wisdom to themselves and that their word must be a law in all cases so that they can endure no contradiction It is likely enough that Iobs friends had a spice of this distemper for they were very aged Iob 32. 6. and we find them very wise in their own conceit And it is most true as before that Dayes should speak and that they are most likely to be in the right Happy had Rehoboam bin if he had acquiesced in the counsel of the Old men for which is abler to advise they who are only helped by some natural parts a working fancy and a fluent tongue or they who have read many men as well as many books and have weighed things as well as words and by experience are grown wise These persons may certainly expect that a great regard be given to their opinions But yet as Iob c. 32. 9. Great men are not alwayes wise neither do the aged understand Iudgment All aged people have not a Patent for Infallibility nor any at all times If old Nicodemus his notion of Regeneration must have pass'd for Orthodox what kind of Divinity should we have had he knew not what it was to be born again though he were a Teacher in Israel and I greatly fear he hath his fellows in all Ages and Places Sometimes Old men dream dreams and young men see visions as Ioel 2. 28. The Almighty will not confine his Gifts no more than he doth his Graces to any order of men and therefore no man should think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly as God hath dealt to every man Rom. 12. 3. And accordingly the Aged are exhorted Tit. 2. 2. in the first place to be Sober It becomes no man to abound alwayes in his own sence or to dictate in every company but rather according to that Levites method Iudg. 19. last Consider the matter take advice and then speak your minds The Spirit of God dwells not in a proud heart Pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth he hates Prov. 8. 13. Check therefore and mortifie this sinful Temper Mind the Apostles counsel Rom. 12. 16. Be not wise in your own conceits Let not your Determinations begg respect by the number of your years but command it by the weight of your Reasons so there will be more of God than of man in your Counsels Believe it neither great Age nor great Honour nor both together do infuse wisdom for Solomon hath said Better is a poor and a wise child than an Old and foolish King who will no more be admonished Eccl. 4. 13. Why should you therefore imagine that Wisdom must needs live and dye with you that your words must be alwayes Oracles O Labour for more Humility and be content with your proper measure Know for certain that all conceitedness comes from Pride which Sin cleaves to a man even to the grave Consider how the Scripture disgraces this humour of yours Prov. 26. 12. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool than of him Reflect sometimes how often you have bin mistaken even wherein you have been extreamly confident He must be omniscient that is alwayes infallible Let God be true but every man a lyar Young Elihu may sometimes out-strip Iob and his three friends and no meer man is wise at all times SECT V. THE Fifth and most Epidemick Sin of Old-age is Covetousness or Worldly-mindedness that is an inordinate love of Riches which is shown in an insatiable endeavour to procure them and in an unreasonable lothness to part with them Though this Vice be frequently found in young people as in that young man Matth. 19. 22. who was free from other gross Sins but infected with this yet it is a Disease more peculiar to Old-age They feel the decayes of Nature and think to support themselves by their abundance They must have some Recreation and are by reason of their Age incapable of other pleasures and so do place their delight in heaping
of Temperance and Sobriety And that both for Others sakes and for your Own. You should be examples O be not stumbling Blocks to younger people Your vices may propagate when your persons are past it and those that are Eye or Ear-witnesses of your follies may derive the practice of them to the Child that is yet unborn and altho you may recover by true Repentance yet they may stumble upon you and fall and never rise again Entail not a Curse upon your Posterity do not nourish in them that natural depravation which in equity you ought rather to cure And for your Own sake be sober be vigilant for you are upon the confines of the everlasting World a World wherein all sensual enjoyments will be for ever out of date endeavour to go off the Stage without a Blemish When some Courtiers were sent to S r Fr. Walsingham being sick and sad to make him merry God said he is serious in his Law Iesus Christ was serious in his Death the Holy Ghost is serious in his dealing with our Souls all in Heaven and Hell are serious and shall a Man that hath one Foot in the Grave Laugh and Iest Take warning by poor Noah One hours Drunkenness discovered that which Six hundred years Sobriety had concealed If his inexperience did in any degree excuse him you can make no such pretence If you have any regard to the Health and Vigour of your Bodies to the quiet and welfare of your Souls to the pleasing and honouring of God bridle your appetite and check the pleasures of your Senses In short there is as we observed before no better way to spin out your lives to make Old-age pleasant and Death easie than the exercise of this Vertue The instance of Cornaro a learned and rich Venetian is common that with a sparing and orderly Diet lived to a great Age with little inconvenience To deny a mans self is the way to please himself at length and by opposing the preternatural desires of the Body we contribute to the true happiness even of the Body it self And here comes in the use and exercise of Mortification wherein tho a wise man may make some steps yet the work cannot be done without the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. Implore therefore the aid of this good Spirit who can make you mortally to hate that which you now do ardently love and will pluck up the roots of that whereof Morality doth only shave the Hair. Set the Spectacle of Death oft before you and of that endless Estate to which you are such near Neighbours and think how unsuitable a vain life is to a serious Death Be much in Prayer and if need be add Fasting thereunto that your moderation may be known unto all men seeing undoubtedly to Old people The Lord is at hand SECT VII THE Seventh Grace proper for Old-age is Charity or Love. Not that sensual or carnal Love which is proper or rather common to Youth and which hath long since dropt off like Leaves in the Autumn of their Age but that Grace which disposeth the Heart to think the best the Tongue to speak the best and the whole man to promote the Welfare of Others The Seat or chief Mansion of this is the Heart which being filled with this Grace it is diffused every way and the whole man is tinctur'd with it It obligeth a man to Think the best of every man. Charity thinketh no evil believeth all things hopeth all things beareth all things By this we are ready to account the Certain good things in Others better than they are the certain Evils in others less than they are the good that is but doubtful in others certain and doubtful Evils none And it rests not in Opinion but works by Desire whereby the Heart doth unfeignedly desire the Temporal Spiritual and Eternal good of all men Neither doth it rest there but shews it self in Endeavour and that both by Word and Deed speaking To them Of them For them to God and man what may conduce thereunto in their Lips is the Law of kindness Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly is not easily provoked 1 Cor. 13. 5. Neither will Words satisfie it but doth actually help and cheerfully succour every Body as their occasion requires and his own ability extends And in this Grace doth every good Old Man and Woman excell This was the eminent Grace of the Evangelist Iohn in his Old-age for he lived longer than any of the Apostles and his Swan-like Song still was Love as is evident in all his Epistles yea some Church Historians affirm that when he could go no longer by reason of his Age into the Christian Assemblies yet he was instant to be led or carried there where the substance of what he was able to say was little Children love one another And you may find how pathetical was Paul the Aged in his tender charity to Onesimus Philem. 9. Being such a one as Paul the Aged for loves sake I beseech thee for my Son Onesimus And this Spirit did continue in the Ancient Christians in the Primitive times who loved as Tertullian tells us as Brethren and were ready to dye for one another We that did hate one another saith Iustin Martyr now do live familiarly together and do pray for our Enemies In all Ages as men have increased in Piety they have increased in Charity and come to relent of their rigour and keenness It was Age Experience and Consideration as well as a Prison that melted Bishop Ridley to accost his Brother Hooper in this manner However in some by-matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my Simplicity hath a little jarred yet now I sincerely love and imbrace you You know Rehoboams Old Counsellours were for lenity when the young were stern and furious It 's true the natural tempers or painful distempers may incline some Old people to too much Acrimony yet all Aged people that are considerate have taken more degrees in Charity than young people have It was an Old man in Gibeah that had more of this Grace than all the City besides Iudg. 19. 16. For besides the advantage they have had of Gods holy Ordinances the Scope whereof is to increase our Faith and Love they have found by experience that the Life and Soul of Religion lies not in these lesser matters that have caused the greatest noise in the World that every difference in Religion makes not a different Religion so that wheresoever they see any thing of Christ these they love Their Consciousness of their own mistakes and of their own imperfections hath forced them to more charitable thoughts of others They have observed that true Grace hath lived in the midst of great infirmities yea they have found this Flower in divers persons where they thought there had been nothing but
VVeeds Being conversant most at home in their own Souls they have in their long experience discovered so much Vanity and Iniquity there that they are are very charitable Iudges of all other persons They grow like the famous Pliny who so past by others offences as if himself had been the greatest offender and yet was so severe to himself as if he would pardon no body their Charity covers a multitude of Sins In short their Age and Afflictions have so happily humbled them that they are ready to esteem every one better than themselves and so they are far from that uncharitable Censoriousness which tears mens Names in pieces and keeps up a continual civil War among mankind And then for other Acts of Charity who should be more ready to Give a part than they that know they must shortly leave the whole who should be good in his Stewardship but he that is sure he must shortly be out of it But the noblest Charity is that which respects the Soul which consists in Counselling Perswading Reproving and Praying for Others And Old-age is evidently qualified for these above the young Their Wisdom and Authority gives them a great advantage herein and they have found by experience that sometimes a word of good Counsel and charitable Reproof fitly spoken hath been like Apples of Gold. And then for Prayer it is observed that the Charity of young persons therein doth begin and end at themselves whereas the Prayers of the Aged are much imployed for the good of others Few Children pray for their Parents as the Parents pray for their Children Yea they have learned to love and pray for their Enemies as well as for their Friends and for the ungodly as well as for the godly And the poorest Old Man or Woman may be rich in these acts of Charity Therefore as ye abound in every thing in faith in utterance and knowledge see that ye abound in this Grace of Charity also It is the Apostles Exhortation 2 Cor. 8. 7. We use to say that in Winter the natural heat retreats inward and there resides about the vital parts ye that are in the winter quarter of your life let this warm Grace dwell richly in your Hearts and then it will influence all your words and actions It is the Image of God for God is Love it is the fulfilling of the Law and it is the great command of the Gospel and tho you have Knowledge Faith Wisdom Riches c. yet if you have not Charity you are nothing You are going out of the World now is your time to exercise this Grace In the World where you are going there will be no infirmities to cover no poor to relieve no injuries to forgive no ignorant persons to instruct no miserable Creature to pray for and you have but a short time for these imployments Yea perhaps you are reprieved all this while for these Services and to be useful in these and such like ways is the greatest happiness on Earth it is the next step to eternal Glory Yea nothing should hire an Old person or make him content to live out of Heaven with such a Body of Sin about him but only that they may do God and Man that service which cannot be done in Heaven And for the obtaining this sweet Grace the Scripture tells us that it is a Fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. and there it is ranked in the first place It must be sought then in the Word of God which is the vehicle of the Spirit where it being carefully read and heard we shall find an account of the infinite love of God to us and of the stupendous love of Christ. There we shall discern how nearly we are related to all men especially to all Christians and how unnatural it is for one hand to be unkind to the other And in short we shall there find that Love and Charity is still the Character of good men and hatred and uncharitableness of the bad And you must beg this Grace of God that the Spirit of Love would plant this Grace of Love in your Hearts You will feel your hearts warming as you are praying and the Lord will fill you with this Charity which is the bond of perfectness And so I have done with the Vertues and Excellencies of Old-age Whereby you may perceive that all Old things are not to be cast away But as Old Wood is best to burn Old Wine best to drink Old Authors best to read and Old Friends best to trust so Old People if they have improved their Time aright are good for something yea are eminently good for their Knowledge for their Faith for their Wisdom for their Patience for their Stedfastness for their Temperance and for their Charity And so much for the Fourth Point concerning Old-age viz. The Graces most proper for it CHAP. V. The Inconveniences of Old-age I Am come now in the Fifth place to examine the Inconveniences and Disadvantages of Old-age adding withall somewhat towards the Mitigation thereof as I pass along Some here set themselves with immoderate vehemence to cry down Old-age and to load it with such intolerable Miseries as might affright one And to this purpose they muster all the Evils which are either the effect of mens Vices or other separable Accidents of their Age and put all these upon its score to inflame the reckoning Insomuch that some of the Old Philosophers took upon them to quarrel with Providence for giving man Life and thereby involving him in a continual state of misery And all this partly out of their Ignorance of mans Primitive happiness and woful fall and partly out of their dim-sightedness about his endless felicity about all which material points they lived in great uncertainty Others on the Contrary have been ready so to mince the matter as if there were nothing in Old-age but what is desirable guilding its hairs and smoothing all its wrinkles as if the Spiritual advantage did annihilate the corporal burdens The truth dwells as I conceive between these extremes And it must be granted that as the dreggs of the purest Wines are left in the bottom so Old-age hath many Inconveniences peculiar to it for which cause those dayes are called Evil dayes wherein the man hath no pleasure or with which he is greatly displeased Eccles. 12. 1. But yet the same Old-age hath divers Priviledges to ballance them and their pressures are not properly Miseries because there is abundance of Comfort and Benefit which mitigate them We have an Elegant Description of many of them in that Twelfth Chapter of Ecclesiastes vers 2 3 c. Then the Sun and the Light and the Moon and the Stars will be darkned that is all Outward Comfort or Prosperity whether by Day or by Night will be eclypsed and withdrawn from us And the clouds will return after the rain that is one bodily Distemper and outward Trouble will successively follow another Then
youth produces a loathsome Age. As the Thief in the Candle wasts it more than the Flame so any Intemperance or Incontinence doth wast the Strength and Beauty more than years Neither is Old-age alone subject to these Evils For one Weeks Sickness to which Youth is as lyable as Old-age will ruine your Strength and spoil your Beauty as much as twenty years time can do How many are crippled in their Youth how commonly doth the Small-pox disfigure their beauty David himself complains Psal. 102. 23. He weakened my strength in the way he shortned my dayes And he cries O my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes So that these Decayes must not be impropriated to Old-age any Age may be afflicted with them as well as that Neither is this Loss so insupportable if we consider the true Nature and Value of these Mercies They are but bodily accomplishments they are not the endowments of the Soul. Many Brutes surpass the youngest in Strength and many Flowers surpass them in Beauty Why should I saith Cato in Tully now more desire the strength of a Young man than I should when young desire the strength of a Bull or Lyon There is the like absurdity in both these desires Or as he saith in another place we may as reasonably in our Youth call back the State of Childhood which few will do as in Old-age to expect the Strength and Beauty of youth which is past and gone You have if it be not your own fault the Priviledges proper to your Age and according to the Old Observation it is far better to want the strength of Milo than the Wisdom of Pythagoras Every Age hath its peculiar Talent to have them in perfection is not to be expected upon Earth We should be Thankful for the Strength and Features we have had and bewail our abuse of them and conclude 'T is well that all our Comforts have not left us together But the great support under these defects is As the outward man perisheth to find the inward man renewed day by day what the River loseth on the one side it gaineth on the other and then all 's well enough the inward man is the better man. Let strength and beauty go sith they will not stay strive that you may be Strong in Grace and Beautiful within Those things may make you acceptable unto Men but these will render you lovely both unto God and to all wise men When you can say with him in the Poet tho my foot be slower yet my mind is swifter When Severus the Emperour was sick of the Gout at York he was asked by one of his Nobles how he being so Lame could rule so vast an Empire he told him that he rul'd the Empire with his Brain not with his Feet While the Head and Heart are strong it passeth less how it fares with the Arms and Legs Faith Hope and Charity are Beauties that will not fade and the decays of the Body do by the blessing of God further the true vigour of the Soul. For the Soul is a distinct Substance and as the House may be battered by a Tempest and yet the Inhabitant merry in 't all the while so an holy Soul may prosper very well tho the Body be lame and crazy And this Decrease of Strength and Beauty are very useful to awaken the Soul from that Lethargy which is natural to it they deprive us only of that which is the fewel of our Lusts and of our security Our strength hath not weaned us from the World God will try what feebleness will do Briskness and Beauty hath been a snare these being removed perhaps He may now speak with you and be heard When you have seen an end of all perfection then hee 'l shew you that his Commandments are exceeding broad Psal. 119. 96. SECT III. A Third Inconvenience upon Old people is That they are weakned in their Faculties Their Apprehensions dull their Phantasy barren their Memories broken and their Affections dry Formerly they could have penetrated into things they could have learn'd any thing now they are so clouded that they fumble at the plainest things They could have soar'd by their Fancy and coin'd variety of notions which they found to be a great help to their devotion and otherwise but their Invention now is grown poor and their Notions flat But the most sensible loss is of their Memory whereby formerly they could have produced things both new and old but now their Memory is so wofully shattered that this day forgets what yesterday said and did O the excellent things that they have heard and read and now they are like water spilt on the Ground no notices left that ever such things had been within Time was their Love and Zeal for God and their Hatred to Sin was strong as Death and ardent as the Coals of Fire which hath a most vehement flame many waters could not quench it Their holy Ioys and Sorrows were transcendent penitential Tears were frequent with them But now their Hearts are cold and their Eyes are dry These Wheels of the Soul are gone and thereby their motion is sadly interrupted Now this manifest stroke upon their Faculties is a very sensible Inconvenience The Decay of the Outward man might be someway tolerable but this inward Decay sinks their Spirits When holy David said Psal. 6. 2. My bones are vexed his distress was great but when he adds in the next verse my Soul also is sore vexed his case was more lamentable What comfort can a man have when his Apprehension is grown blunt What 's a Knife good for when the mettle is gone When a man can attain little and retain nothing The deficiency of these is a great impediment in all humane affairs but of greater consequence in Religious matters The Communion which the Soul hath with God is in the Word and Prayer How disconsolate must the Heart be when one can remember almost nothing of what he reads or hears When his affections flagg and his words freeze in Prayer Why he thinks he has lived long enough he feels himself more than half dead already The House is left standing but all the rich Furniture is gone and what can be said to mitigate this misery or to reconcile any body to Old-age To stop any further Impatience Consider 1. That this great Decay in the Faculties doth not befall every Aged person Divers there are and have been that retain the free use of their Faculties till they dye How many doth Tully name as Simonides Stesichorus Isocrates Hesiod Homer Pythagoras Democritus Socrates Plato c. who lived long and yet continued a course of Studies as long as their life And he tells us there particularly of Sophocles whose Sons accused him for a Dotard in his Old-age till he before the Iudges repeated the Tragedy of Oedipus which he had newly written and so was by them acquitted And Seneca tells of himself
felicity in Heaven that no Sin lodgeth there and the Aged person is hastning thither and consequently strives to break this Yoke and fit himself for that Estate As the pleasures he hath had in these is gone so his desires after them are gone also He now finds that there is more Satisfaction in not desiring them than there is in enjoying of them and so is far from being grieved at his releasement from those Shackles He would not live over again his sinful life for all the world and he is concern'd not because they are past but because at any time they had dominion Yea he finds more real content in his Poenitential Tears than ever he had in his Youthful Frolicks with what contempt doth he behold the Debaucheries the Duels and the frothy Follies of the roaring Sparks which they triumph in as in an Heaven upon Earth But he hath fathom'd them and found them empty as vanity and filthy as the Mire He now believes what he had often heard that the pleasures of Sin are but like a golden dream which leave nothing but Pensiveness behind them till God upon his repentance restore unto him the joys of his Salvation Now the Varnish of his Sin is worn off he sees the filthy and ugly nature of it and wonders that any rational person should ever love it He is now frighted at the remembrance of those Pranks that he formerly committed without remorse and in short he is well pleased that he hath a weak body instead of his strong corruption and is ready with that excellent Philosopher to count his Old-age his flourishing age because he only finds his Vices and the fewel of them withered and that his mind began now to be freed from the Snares wherein it was held by the Body c. Let every Aged person labour to find these blessed Effects and so be content with the fall of that House which was continually haunted with such Furies But take heed of being only Passive in this parting these Fires should not only go out of themselves but should be quenched by true Mortification It is not sufficient that Sin be dead in you but you must be dead to it you must be Active in the Crucifixion of it or else the Corruption of one vice will be the Generation of another If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. SECT IV. THE Fourth Priviledge of Old-age is That it is Proner to Piety True and solid Piety is the Dominion of Gods Fear and Love in the Heart of Man and exerts its self in the constant Practice of all the Duties of Religion in a conscientious manner For in Religion there is a Body and a Soul. The Body of it consists in the Form of Godliness the Soul of it is that which animates all the outward Acts and is fitly called the Power of Godliness for that the Activity and force of any thing proceeds from the Soul or inward Principle Now the separating this form and power of Godliness like as that of the Soul and Body is the death of Godliness And therefore though we prefer the Soul or inside of Religion yet we divorce it not from the Body but do take Piety in it's just Latitude comprehending the Acts of Devotion from a right principle in a right manner and to a right end and expressing it self in a sober righteous and godly life And however the prophane Atheist may wickedly deride it on the one hand or the rotten Hypocrite falsly pretend it on the other yet there is a wonderful excellency in it and an absolute necessity of it even the Consciences of it's greatest Enemies first or last being Iudges To this serious Piety Old-age is more propense than any other age of man. Insomuch as we find divers in Scripture and other Stories bent for Heaven in their declining years who in the former parts of their lives minded nothing but the World and the Flesh. They whom no Perswasions no Ordinances no Afflictions could fully reduce to the obedience of Christ yet the lively sense and feeling of their own decay and of their approach to the eternal Judgment obligeth them to true repentance and to make their calling and election sure So that it hath pass'd for an Observation that they who are not fair at twenty strong at thirty wise at forty rich at fifty pious at sixty are never like to be fair or strong or wise or rich or religious When any man is warn'd out of the House he lives in laying aside all other unnecessary business he sets himself to provide another Habitation Now every decay of strength of sense every gray Hair or Wrinkle is a sensible warning out of the earthly House of his Tabernacle and he must be strangely stupid that buckles not in good earnest to provide for his Soul when not only it may suddenly but must shortly go either to Heaven or Hell. These kind of Sentiments caused that learned Grotius to profess when he approached Death that he would gladly exchange all his Learning and Honour for the plain integrity of one Iean Urick who was a devout poor man that spent eight hours of his time in Devotion eight in Labour and but eight in Sleep and all other Refreshments So also that great States-man S t Tho. Smith Secretary of State to Q. Elizabeth some time before he fell sick sent for Directions to two Bishops how he might live most piously and make his peace with God Besides all the unruly Passions being now cooled by time and years Reason obtains a fair hearing and the Spirit of God gets a compleat victory over the Heart that had resisted so long Even as a City which hath been long besieg'd and often summoned to surrender yet stands it out till provisions begin to fail and that the defender of it sees the Walls terribly shaken and then he finds it high time to capitulate and deliver it so Almighty God calls and cryes and knocks time after time at the sinners Heart but it is heedless of these calls it 's feasted and filled with the Vanities of this present life but when it finds all the Fabrick ready to fall upon it's Head and no provision made for a future and eternal State it is high time to be getting Oyl and laying up a good foundation for the time to come And for those who have been well disposed before yet Old-age is a great Incentive to greater holiness As a Man in sailing saith Mr. Bradford the nearer he comes to the Shore the nearer he would be so the nearer I am to God the nearer still I would be A person of years must needs have a more clear and comprehensive knowledge of the Doctrine and Duties of Christianity of the life of Faith of Mortification of the extent of the Divine Law of the Nature and Power of Godliness and having more leisure and being somewhat retired out of