THE WISE-VIEILLARD OR OLD MAN TRANSLATED OVT OF French into English by an obscure Englishman a friend and fauourer of all wise Old-Men ECCLVS 25. 4. 5. O how pleasant a thing is it when gray-headed men minister judgement and when the Elders can giue good counsell O how comely a thing is Wisedome vnto aged men c. PRO. 16. 31. Age is a crowne of glorie when it is found in the way of righteousnesse LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson 1621. TO THE RIGHT VVORSHIPFVLL VVORTHIE REVEREND AND LEARNED DIVINE Mr IOSEPH HALL Doctor of Diuinitie and Deane of Worcester the Author doth Dedicate this Translation as the first fruit and essay of his FRENCH Studies WORTHIE SIR This translation of the sage Vieillard being the fruit of certaine vacant and divorced houres I purposed to dedicate in a singular respect to a worshipfull Gentleman your good friend and neighbour Mr Henry Archer late of Thaydon Garnon in Essex who was well versed in the French language But his death disappoynted me of my purpose made my pen fall out of my hand lye still and stirre no further hauing then more then halfe finished the Booke The second yeare after whose death well weighing with my selfe that it was a Worke might yeeld some profit to my Countrie men of England I tooke vp my Pen againe and at starts and tymes finished it And then withall considering with my selfe that a good Booke in these dayes had need of a good man to Patronize it I called to mind that your worthy selfe hauing beene in Fraunce and other forraine partes might be a fit Maecenas to support my weake labours therein and so boldly adventured to Dedicate the Patronage thereof to your good Worship And I was the rather imboldened thereunto vpon hope that for your deceased good friend and neighbours sake to whom it should haue beene Dedicated you would not refuse it at least for the workes sake being a mixt Subiect of morall and diuine documents and instructions And further I hope that it will not be accompted presumption to dedicate a good Booke to the learned and vertuous Howsoeuer it is my dutie to craue pardon for presuming to dedicate it to your worship my selfe being a man of an obscure and humble condition And therefore I doe further craue your pardon that I may not make my selfe otherwise knowne vnto your worship then by the two Alphabeticall letters of my name here-vnder printed Yet haue I alwayes beene since I first knew you and still doe rest a man which doth vnfainedly reuerence you T. VV. ¶ To the Reader I AM loath to woce thee by styling thee courteous kinde gentle Reader but rather desire that the subiect matter of the Booke might allure thee to read it The French Author thereof hath intituled it TheWise Old Man by which title hee seemes to implie that all are not wise that are old which if it be so hee then seemes to glance at our English Prouerb No foole to the old foole Howsoeuer hee lessons both young and old what they should be As for my part I thinke it not fitting to preface the wholesome documents and instructions contained in it which as good Viandes are offered to thy taste least I should take away thine appetite to read it and make thee to surfeit before thou hast fed All that I haue to doe and lesse I cannot doe is to craue thy fauourable construction of that I haue done For I modestly confesse I haue beene too ouerweening and bold to take vpon me to translate so worthy a Worke of the worthy French Author thereof Monsieur Symon Goulart my selfe being no higher a graduate in learning then a common Grammarian and no better skilled in the French language then what mine owne practise and study hath enhabled mee to be But vpon the first reading of him I was so delighted that my fingers did euen itch to set pen to paper and to vnclaspe so good a Worke which was shut vp from thy vse and benefit vnder a strange tongue Make much I pray thee of him now because hee speakes to thee in English and if he speake it not well I craue thy pardon for I am in fault that haue taken vpon mee to make him speake our language before I well vnderstand his Yet I hope I haue hit of his meaning though I vary from his wordes as all Translators must doe And now I am a suiter for pardon I doe wooe thee by these Epithites of courteous kinde gentle Reader charitably to censure mee for taking vpon me to put into English so worthy a Worke with so weake a hand which fauour I hope I shall the rather obtaine at thy hands for that I haue done it out of a good will to thee and not out of any skill in mee which I doe disclaime and therefore I desire to hide mee from thee and not otherwise to be knowne vnto thee then I am to the worthy Gentleman to whom I haue beene hold to commend the patronage of this Worke. And so I leaue thee courteous Reader to God and wish thee to be with God when thy time is to goe to him and will still bee thy well wisher in all good things T. W. THE CONTENTS OF THE twentie Chapters of this Booke Chapter 1. OF long life and the desire men haue to liue long in the world Page 1. Chapter 2. Of such persons as haue liued long namely the Patriarches before the Flood Page 11. Chapter 3. Of the Tree of Life and of the Tree of Knowledge of good and euill Page 16. Chapter 4. What old age is and how many Species and kindes of old age there be Page 22. Chapter 5. The Spring-head of old age and the causes and occasions of it Page 28. Chapter 6. Of the Climactericall Yeares Page 41. Chapter 7. The complaints of the miseries of old age aduisedly discussed Page 44 Chapter 8. Foure causes propounded by Cicero of the miseries of old age reduced to two to wit the miseries of the bodie and of the minde Page 48. Chapter 9. A more speciall Catalogue or numbring vp of some miseries in old men in regard of their bodies Page 53. Chapter 10. The miseries of old men in regard of their mindes Page 63. Chapter 11. Of the causes that old age is burthensome and tedious to old men Page 82. Chapter 12. Of the benefit or good of old age Page 86. Chapter 13. Of the profit which wise old men may reape from the doctrine contained in the Writings of Philosophers and Heathen Authors Page 96. Chapter 14. Assured consolations against all infirmities of bodie and minde Page 107. Chapter 15. An aduise to wise old men containing the summarie and substance of their dutie vntill their last gasp Page 126. Chapter 16. Worthy meditations for all persons especially the wise Vieillard of what quality or condition soeuer he be Page 136 Chapter 17. Consolations against death and how it ought to be feared or not feared Page 145. Chapter 18.
and reckons of death the threatnings and rage of Tyrants As Solon who being demanded By what vertue hee did so braue the Tyrant Pisistratus answered His old age Touching the contempt of death and a resolution couragiously to apprehend and embrace it who will not maruell to heare the wordes which the great Cyrus King of Persia vttered to his sonnes a little before his death My dearely beloued sonnes said he when you shall see mee no more thinke not therefore I am quite annihilated and no where for when I was in your company you could not perceiue my soule but onely discusled it in your minde to be in my body by the deedes and actions you saw me to doe Beleeue then that the soule is still aliue and in being although you see my body no more Neuer could any man perswade mee that the soules of mortall men perish with their bodies nor that being departed out of our bodies past feeling and sense that they are without feeling and sense on the contrary seeing that the soul being at liberty and hauing nothing to doe with the body begins to become pure and wholy to see and behold it selfe I hold and maintaine that then it is in full perfection of knowledge and vnderstanding Furthermore the case standing thus that death is the dissolution of nature wee see whither all things tend to wit to their first matter whereof they were made the soule excepted which we see not how it comes into the body remaines there nor goes out You see that there is nothing so much resembles death as sleepe But the soules of those which sleepe shew their diuine nature in this point that being free from disturbance and at rest see and behold things a farre off and to come which plainely declares what they must bee after they are deliuered from the prison of the body This being so reuerence mee my sonnes as a thing diuine but if the soule be to perish with the body yet giue not you ouer to feare the gods which maintaine vphold gouerne this Principall master peece called Man And in this doing as good children you shall inuiolably preserue my name To this Oration which is bettered by Cicero in his Dialogue of old age reciting Socrates who in prison wisely and stoutly discourseth of the immortality of the soule Old Cato also addeth that seeing the soules of men are so prompt and apprehensiue to remember things past and of so wise foresight in things future and to come haue inuented so many trades arts sciences so many rare and notable things It is impossible that such natures capable of so great excellencies should bee mortall And seeing the soule is in continuall agitation and motion which shee originally hath not to wit from any extrinsecall cause and from other then her Creatour which Cicero forgetteth seeing shee mooues and stirres of her selfe it followes that shee shall euer haue such agitation and motion for shee will neuer leaue or abandon to bee her selfe Further that the soule in it owne nature being a substance simple pure vnmixt hauing no disagreeing qualities cannot be diuided and being indiuiduall it followes it is immortall which serues to prooue that men are capable and of vnderstanding before they bee borne seeing that children in learning the baser and more seruile and meaner trades arts and sciences doe on a suddaine comprehend and conceiue infinit things ere on would say they begin to apprehend and vnderstand what this or that is but onely their memories serue them to retaine and beare them away Cato afterward affirmeth further That if the soules of men were not immortall good men would not desire or aspire to a glory which is durable and ay-lasting What meanes this saying That euery wise man dieth most willingly and the wicked depart hence full fore against their will and with much griefe and vexation of minde Seemes it not vnto you that the soule which sees more cleerely and father off knowes she goes to a better place On the contrary hebere dull and sencelesse man is vncapable and ignorant heereof Verily I desire nothing more then to see your forefathers whom I haue made much on respected and honoured and besides I desire to be with those of whom I haue heard men to speake and discourse whose bookes I haue seene and perused and whose names I haue quoated and mentioned in mine owne writings Now that I am onward in my way and making hast to goe to them It would be a troublesome and hard matter to hale mee or make mee roule or goe backe as men would a ball or a bowle And if God had made me a grant to become a childe againe and to cry in a cradle I should stifly and with might and maine refuse such an offer for seeing I haue almost finished my course I will not bee recalled from my last end to my first state and condition Is there any commoditie in this life Is not this life painefull in all her reuolutions terminations periods and endes But put the case this life hath many commodities so it is that wee may be full gorged satiated and glutted with them and see and end of them too I will not for all that way wardly and testily fret fume storme and chaffe at this life as many learned men haue oftentimes done and I repent me not that I haue liued for I haue so spent my dayes that I account of my selfe as one that hath serued for some vse and for something in the world I goe out of this life as out of an Inne and not as one out of a house seeing that nature leaues vs here in this world a time to passe and walke vp and downe but not heere to settle abide and continue O happy the day when I shall goe to the holy company of blessed soules and shall leaue the base rabble and rascally route of the world See heere for certaine the worthy Treatises of men ignorant of the immortality of mans soule but as they did gropingly and blindely imagine Notwithstanding they were grounded vpon this imagination that nothing being so common nor of more price and account with man then the loue and preseruation of himselfe a care and regard ought especially to bee had of that part which properly may be called Man to wit the soule and that the way and meanes to liue well and happily consisteth in the knowledge and comtemplation of things diuine inciting and prouoking vs to good workes so as the tranquility of our mindes consisteth not properly in being freed from paine and griefe but rather in being deliuered from those raging and vnruly passions which hurry the wicked vp and downe For as Seneca sayth in his booke De Prouidentia those casuall miseries which our owne hands bring not vpon vs are sent for our good that our many vertues may the more gloriously shew and appeare and that as wee cut Vines to make them yeeld the more fruit so by the smart and wound of
made a representation of the Kingdome of heauen and to this latter signification our Lord seemes to referre when to the Theefe vpon the Crosse who repented acknowledged his Sauiour and made so excellent a confession of his faith as no Christian can make a better he said This day shalt thou bee with me in Paradise Luke 23. 43. Concerning the tree of Life Saint Augustine in his 26. Chapter of the fourth Booke De ciuitate Dei and other antient an moderne Diuines doe thinke that the tree of Life was so called not because the fruite of it sustained man in life as other fruits doe but that by a speciall blessing the fruit of it did maintaine Adam and Eue in life and strength of body that they were not troubled with any disease They gather their exposition on from this that Adam after his fall was by the commandement of God banished with his wife out of the garden of Eden to this end that he should not stretch forth his hand to gather and eat of the fruit of this tree whereby hee might liue for euer And from the Cherubins which with a wauing and flourishing sharpe edged sword were placed towards the East part of the garden to keepe him from comming that way to the tree of life Gen. 3. 22. 24. Some Diuines said that after Adams reuolt the passage way to the tree of life was barrocadoed and shut vp not that God feared that Adam after he had receiued his doome and iudgement to returne to the dust of the earth from whence hee was taken could by eating of the fruit of the tree of life recouer immortalitie but that he hauing made himselfe a mortall creature and lost his dignity should haue his scutchion of honour taken from him and trampled vnder feet and all the ornaments badges and markes of the fauour of God and immortality For otherwise to speake properly God alone is the head spring of life Psal 36. 10. Nay he is our life and the length of dayes Deut. 30. 20. And not any tree nor the fruit of a tree And wittily doth Aristotle scoffe at Hesiodus and his other fellow Poets who tooke vpon them to make a materiall bread and drinke for the liuing gods which they called Nectar and Ambrosia S. Augustine in his eight booke vpon Genesis seemeth out of the wordes of the text very fitly to resolue this point of doctrine when hee saith that all the fruits of other trees were giuen to man for the nourishment and food of his body but the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and euill were giuen him in the nature and quality of a Sacrament Other Diuines whose opion I reiect not doe hold that the tree of life was a figure of the Gospel and the tree of knowledge of good and euill was a figure of the Law that Adam and Eue by eating of the fruit of this latter tree might now come to know good and bad vertue and vice right and wrong iustice or iniustice or by their disobedience to God in doing that which he had forbidden them might learne to their owne confusion from what an excellent state they were fallen and into what an abisse and bottomlesse gulfe of confusion they had plunged themselues Many ancient learned men doe write that the tree of life did signifie wisedome planted in the middest of the garden that is ingraffed or infused into the heart of man which is in the middest of his body And for proofe hereof they alledge the place in the third chapter of the Prouerbes where it is said That wisedome is a tree of life to those that lay hold of it We thinke no lesse but that Salomon in that sentence doth allude to the tree of life in the garden of Eden which was to our first Parents a Sacrament of the life which they had receiued of God and which had beene perpetuated to them if they had not rebelled against him And that he doth also admonish vs that the meanes to recouer that happy life to enioy Gods fauour againe is to apply our selues to that study of wisdome which is taught vs chiefly in the Gospel of which S. Paul saith We speake not the wisdome of the world but the wisedome of God in a mystery which is a hid wisedome 1. Cor. 2. 6 7. And the same Iesus Christ which by God was made wisedome for vs is our resurrection and life Concerning the tree of knowledge of good euill many doe wonder that it was planted in the terrestriall and earthly Paradise seeing it was the occasion and materiall cause of the death of Adam and Eue. But Diuines and namely S. Basil and S. Augustine doe wisely make answere That God planted no tree that was euill neither made he death neither did he set or plant any such tree in the garden to be the occasion of mans ruine and destruction but to prooue his obedience and to beget in him an habite of abstinence and to weane him to sobrietie so that although this tree was pleasant to beholde yet was it not meete that Adam and Eue should climbe it to satisfie their greedy appetites but should abstaine and forbeare so to doe because God had for bidden them to gather and eate of the fruit thereof To conclude with S. Augustine The Lords will was that the reasonable creature should see that he was not to be at his owne caruing and appointment but as a creature to yeeld all obedience to his Creatour and in yeelding obedience should finde it to be best for his health and welfare Thus then Adams estate was excellent and aboue all things to be desired wherein hee abounded in all ioy integrity iustice and holinesse if hee had continued in this happy estate wherein God created him But after hee had eaten of the forbidden fruit of a man iust happy and immortall he became a sinner miserable and mortall These things being so wee the miserable posterity of Adam who haue tasted of the forbidden fruit transgressed in the thing forbidden and by our disobedience brought vpon vs the first and second death seperated and estranged our selues from God the author of our life and of our good being and welfare are exhorted and put in minde to haue our recourse in true faith vnto that Mediatour who by his death and resurrection hath opened vnto vs the celestiall Paradise who giueth vs to eate of the tree of life planted in the Paradise of God Apocal. 2. 7. not of a figuratiue and typicall tree but that we might haue a right and interest in Iesus Christ the true tree of life and in the heauenly Ierusalem which is euerlasting life Apocal. 22. 14. For in our Sauiour is the truth and the accomplishment of all types and figures and whosoeuer beleeueth in him shall not come to condemnation but shall goe from death to life Vpon this sentence S. Paul in the first Chapter of his Epistle to the Romanes 17. Verse doth ground this
afflictions wee are made the more fit for laudable actions And as Cicero sayth in his booke of Tusculane questions If at the exercise of wrastling the champions contemne bruises and hurts and their paines and tuggings in the presence of noble personages are easily borne set light by and not a whit blencht at why should we make any difficulty stoutly to thwarte and resist the dangers which in the wayes of vertue offer themselues What magnanimitie can be of more fame and note then that which is seene in the hazard of dangers and in bearing those euills which must be vndergone and cannot be auoided for so long as the heart keepes his hold vnmoued vndaunted not fainting not quayling all is well And this resolution is much more excellent then the possession of the treasures and goods of the world which a great minde commonly contemnes as things flitting transitory and vaine Againe by the testimony of Seneca vnintermitted and daily aduersitie and euill at least as we call it hath this good and commodity that those that are tempested vexed and exercised therewith are the more hardy to beare and endure But why should hee which knowes and takes himselfe to be a man and triumphes and glories to be called a man refuse to put vnder his shoulder and stoope to those ieopardies burthens and crosses which are incident and casuall to a man Moreouer the Heathens doe tell vs of other stayes and helpes to old age whereby to prolong it and make it more easefull as well in regard of the body as of the minde Cicero sayth We must make head and striue against old age carefully correct helpe and redresse her defaults and defects and neither more nor lesse resist it then wee would doe some disease Let vs haue then a care of our health let our bodily exercises be moderate let vs eat and drinke to restore and not to oppresse and ouerthrow that bodily strength which remaines Hee that is old cannot be young againe and death is ineuitable but it is possible to corroborate and strengthen old age by good gouernment and order of diet and to keepe the heart from fainting and dying on a suddaine Wise old men are taught and prescribed of learned and Christian Physicians reamedies outward and inward of good and sound health which they are carefull to obserue that so they might hold out and continue the longer to doe good in the sight of God to themselues and their neighbours For which cause as Cicero said besides the tendring and cherishing of their weake bodies which daily doe languish and pine away they are much more thoughtfull of their minde and intellectuall and memoratiue parts which by little and little decay if we doe not euen as a Lampe is with oyle maintaine and keepe them exercised Long trauell tyrings and toylefull labours make our bodies vnweldy sluggish and lither on the contrary continuall exercise and study doe recreate reuiue and cherish our mindes If old men be scoffed and mockt at in the Theaters and common assemblies as dolts mad fooles and dotardes it is onely meant of such as be credulous obliuious voluptuous and dissolute persons These are vices of young and old but not of all persons alike For the wise Vieillard hath alwayes his minde bent and intent vnto vertue All his desire is to keepe himselfe immaculate and pure before God well affectioned to his countrey carefull for the building of that spirituall temple which is called the Church gouerning and bringing vp his family in the loue of pietie righteousnesse holinesse verity shining by his graue counsells and sayings and by his worthy actions and deedes as a sun among men to the ioy of his friendes and well willers and to the astonishment at home and abroad of the enemies and enuiers of the splendour and eminency of those excellent gifts which the holy Ghost hath liberally communicated and conferred vnto him The wise Vieillard desirous to liue long in this estate for the good of many hath most noble and worthy thoughts and agreeing to his age though hee bee farre spent with yeares his heart is strong to doe wonderfull matters ere hee depart hence and yet the best of his life is in his inwardest part the soule But I know not what false opinion or wretched ignorance of the truth doth possesse vs that in stead of taking pleasure in our owne happinesses we cease not to torment vex our selues about euills which wee make much greater then they are so that almost ordinarily and without much thinking thereon wee voluntarily runne our selues headlong into voluntary carkings and fits and into continuall anxieties disquiets and troubles of minde making that part of our life extreamely miserable which should with glory crowne all that is past No whit remembring what wise Plato said That what things soeuer the outward senses desire or feare they are almost no other but stadowes and dreames CHAP. XIIII Assured consolations against all the infirmities of bodie and minde ALthough the Heathen Greeke and Latine Philosophers among others Plutarch and Seneca seeme to haue gloriously discoursed of all whatsoeuer concernes the tranquilitie and contentment of the minde thereby to make the troubles and discommodities of this present life more easily borne Yet must it be confessed as wee haue else where obserued vpon the foresaid Philosophers that their discourses are weake and insufficient yea altogether impertinent being compared to the doctrines of heauenly wisedome Notwithstanding let vs speake this word by the way touching the reading of such Authors who endeauour according to their poore skill to reclaime vs from vice wherein worldlings wallow and dabble ehemselues to their confusion to the end to settle and habituate vs in laudable thoughts and in noble exercises of vertue They are men guided by a darke light by which some glympses and glymmerings of truth are seene and appeare which doe not sufficiently direct and point out the way yet setue they to make knowne well enough to them that are wide and strangers to the true light that they are euery way miserable And such by schooles doe teach sober young and old men to redeeme the time and to make all hast to bee admitted betimes into the holy Academie there to bee fully resolued of the doubts and hard questions which humane wisedome cannot assoyle and discusse Ploto in his Philche is of the minde that the ancient Authors are to bee read which in his opinion are the neerer streames to the fountaine of truth and consequently the purer If this be so what shall we say of Moses Dauid Salomon the Prophets whose writing were before those of the Heathen with what eye of regard and how heedfully and accurately ought wee to read the holy Euangelistes and Apostles replenished and full of so many necessary and important doctrines for all sorts of persons Who dares contradict them but an Atheist and horrible monster condemned by the testimony of his conscience wherein hee beares the written doome and
of the company of sinners to be with the iust and in the heauenly Ierusalem to rest from our labours But as it is commended to old and young to haue their hearts where there treasure is which ought to be in heauen consequently not to be affectionated and inamoured of this present life which is indeed no life and is forbidden them to loue the world and the things in the world So must they not hate and abhorre this earthly life nor take occasion by the cumbers thereof to bee ingrate toward God much lesse to mutter and murmure against his iustice or to censure his prouidence Seeing that our life here though short painefull and miserable is an excellent gift yea an assured testimony of Gods loue and fauour to vs. Let vs then so vse it that whatsoeuer we shall abate if wee bee wise of the disordinate loue thereof may be added to a feruent and holy desire to be with the soonest receiued into heauen For wee should doe ill to wish death but to be with the Lord to glorifie him in the triumphant Church more compleately and fully then in the Church militant Let vs onely desire for this cause to liue on earth to prayse our Father which is in heauen and let vs stand and keepe sentinell to wit our vocation wherein our chiefetaine and soueraigne head hath placed vs till he call vs away which is by the call and hand of death True it is that old men are no lesse frighted and skared sometimes more then young men when we tell them of death But the desire to be with our Sauiour in heauen ought so to ouercome this frailty that faith may perswade vs deuoutly to wish that which nature is afraide of By what badges and collours should we be knowne to be Christians and beleeuers if wee should so much feare the day of death which brings vs to the true land of the liuing Should we not be more wretched then the beasts if wee should not leap and skip for ioy pronouncing these comfortable wordes I beleeue the remission of sinnes the resurrection of the flesh the life euerlasting Are not these the priuiledges of the holy vniuersall or Catholique Church and of the communion of Saints Then shall our miseries and infinite temptations bee abolished Then shall wee enioy vnspeakeable glory in heauen aboue all them when after this happy resurrection all our enemies shall be vanquished and God shall bee all in all to his elect But forasmuch as the way to heauen lies open vnto vs in earth it is requisite that Christians old and young know to vse well this present life and the meanes to support it because without this knowledge and skill there is nothing but perills mischances and distasters in our terrene and earthly pilgrimage which it is reason to ayde comfort and further not to hinder and let by vsing our meanes well as well by a supply to our necessities as by honest lawfull recreations and fitting to our ages and callings In both these respects two extreamities are to be shunned Too great austeritie on the one side dissolution and intemperance on the other Those which boast and glory before God and men of a certaine hypocriticall and dissembled abstinence and continence and moulded in their owne fancies or others like themselues are way wardly wise and Timons enemies of honest societie persons which haue but a vaine ridiculous shew and appearance who for the the most part commit in secret things reserued to the iust punishment of the Lord persons vnreasonable vnindifferent to themselues and others ignorant of the doctrine of holinesse true Christian liberty enemies to Iesus Christ his offices and benefits All the life of Gods children who in the Common weale Church and their owne families are profitable seruants and ministers condemneth these frantike wizards who haue made their vaunt and boast of a Moonkish lazie life who vnder player-like habits haue hatched the greatest pride and counterfeite confidence that may be imagined who haue insolently defied and spit at the lawfull recreations of good men and conuerted the graces of the Lord into vncouth and strange dissolutions But to stirre this filth no longer As those that are young and old indued with the feare of the Lord know that it is permitted them to vse the goods and things of thig life not onely for necessity but also for honest delight so it be to the glory of God the reliefe of their neighbour and the common edification of all and to bee for their owne particuler so much the more adapted and fitted to conuerse and keepe company So doe they not cease to condemne as much as their calling requires all dissolutions enormous and licentious liuing in fine all abuse of the things of this life Hereupon it is good to remember First that all the goods wee possesse were ordained that wee should duely acknowledge the Author and giuer of them magnifying with thanksgiuing his liberality to vs which intemperate and dissolute persons cannot doe Secondly that all these goods ought to bee abandoned yea accounted as nothing euen dispised as dung in comparison of the excellent knowledge of our saluation in Iesus Christ and of that glory which is reserued for vs in heauen which is quenched and dyeth when we are too much addicted and wedded to goods transitory and perishing For as much as wee excessiuely abuse them in prosperitie making them instruments of our ruine and hurt which are to procure helpe and further our good For that also we being depriued of them cease not to thinke and to say that all is lost and gone that we are miserable Indeed so wee are in carrying our selues thus but wee haue a good Lord who doth infinitely helpe and support vs but it is to binde and oblige vs so much the more to our dutie Thirdly that the holy Scripture for the ordering of our goods doth teach vs that they are giuen to vs vpon condition to yeeld account of them sooner or later yea by him that hath expresly forbidden the abuse of them whom also wee cannot deceiue or abuse Fourthly that to discerne the right vse from the abuse oâ—â—orldly goods God hath ordained that euery man in all the actions of this life cast his eyes and looke to his vocation and calling that he rashly vndertake nothing nor with a doubting and vnresolued conscience Whereupon it followes that infidels superstitious vniust dissolute prophane persons and Atheists are infinitly culpable and guilty before God because they outragiously and aboue measure abuse this present life and the good they possesse in it all things being polluted to them they themselues being polluted both in body and minde For conclusion of our counsell and aduice the wise Vieillard shall remember that the life of euery Christian young and old consisteth in these sixe Articles First That we haue a sincere affection to obey God Secondly That the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles contained in the Canonical Bookes of the old
and new Testament is the rule of his obedience Thirdly That he renounce himselfe to the end to yeeld and submit himselfe vnto God Fourthly That he patiently and cheerfully beare the crosse that is all kind of affliction that it shall please God to inflict vpon him Fifthly That in all his course of life hee meditate vpon that better life which is prepared in heauen Sixthly That the vse of transitory goods doe prouoke and incite him to goe forward more couragiously to the end of his high calling CHAP. XVI Worthy Meditations for all persons especially the wise Vieillard of what quality and condition soeuer he be WE propound further to the wise Vieillard that which followes to the end that in his owne particular for the dignity and honour of his age in the sight of God and good men he meditate thereon I say then thaâ—â—â—ery man especially he that is farre gone in yeares ought continually to haue Iesus Christ in his meditation and thought which he shall stay and settle vpon the considerations following As Iesus Christ after he was baptised was solemnly and with a loud voyce from heauen declared to be the beloued Sonne in whom the Father delighted So a Christian inwardly may know by the efficacy of the holy Spirit witnessing in and with his that he is the childe of God And when after his initiation and entry into the house of God sealed by the sacred signe of Baptisme it happeneth vnto him at many yeares end to bee led into the desart as his head was there to bee brought to extreame hunger to be pressed with sundry necessities and wants enuironed with the dangers persecutions miseries and aduersities of this world by meanes whereof Sathan assayeth to make him thinke as he assayled on the same side at first our Lord Iesus that he is out of the number of Gods children being destitute of all helpes and comforts and many wayes perplexed Thou oughtest not O wise Vieillard of what quality or condition soeuer thou be to resigne and yeeld vp the buckler of faith but opposing it against the fiery darts of that wicked one firmely beleeue that God is thy Father hath care of thee that all his visitations are full of loue doe proceed from his wisedome for his glory and thy saluation and welfare I know that this outragious one will perseuer and goe on in his calumny will say that thou shouldest make request vnto God if thou bee one of his children that these stones be turned into bread that is that these hard sharpe and violent aduersities which doe batter and split in peeces thy heart be changed into prosperitie But doe thou answere as thy Sauiour that the children of God are not sustayned and maintained by goodes and things transitorie and perishing but by God himselfe and by his rich and blessed promises If he charge and set vpon thee another way exclamining that if thou thinke thy selfe so priuiledged that thou shouldest cast thy selfe downe headlong from the top of the pinacle of the temple that is from the high degree of the spirituall politicall oeconomicall dignitie and iurisdiction wherin thou art promoted and aduanced far higher and aboue many others to tumble thy selfe into some stinking sinke of impietie iniustice defamatorie lewdnesse and villanie and he doe add withall that nothing shall follow of it which thou oughtest to feare that no body shall know ought of it that thou shalt haue a foule wide mouth and a brasen impudent face to deny all yea euen that God is much obliged to thee that his Angells haue a care of thee that thou alwayes haue at a pynch of need ready in thy sleeue a good peccaui that whatsoeuer happen if thou goe the way leading to hell it is notwithstanding the way to Paradise Make him this answere It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God but on the contrary seeing that of his so great benignity goodnesse and grace he hath made mee his I am so much the more obliged and bound to honour him thanke him and to study and indeuour to assure my calling Againe if the tempter set before thine eyes all the world and thereupon demaund of thee to doe him homage and worship thou feeling thy selfe by faith to bee the sonne of God and heyre of heauen disdaine and dispise these shadowes dreames smoakie vapours falling downe prostrate before the only true God thy hope life and saluation Who where-as thou wert by nature a childe of wrath a member of the first Adam a brance of a thorny bitter venomous corrupt and wilde plant hath cut and taken thee from it and graffed thee into Iesus Christ the stocke of life and the fruitfull pure oliue branch so that thou hast beene made a liuing member of him which requires that thou haue neyther strength or vigour nor motion or progresse whatsoeuer but as thou art mooued and directed by the Spirit of Iesus Christ dwelling in thee that thou oughtest not to thinke to will desire or doe any thing but by diuine inspiration and as much as is behoouefull for a liuing and spirituall member of the Lord. Vpon this thou art bound often to meditate especially when the case is so that thou art put to thy tryall and to stand to thy tackling And when thou doest any thing vnbeseeming and not agreeing to the dignity of a Christian of one adopted of God and of a brother and member of Christ be ashamed of thy selfe and deferre not to repent and amend But forasmuch as our Sauiour was crucified it followes that all his members ought to bee nayled to the crosse with him Which is first done by a feruent charity as it falles out to all those who being enflamed and changed by an intire loue to their Redeemer feele all his sufferings and are mortified with him in his crosse Secondly thou must yet in another manner bee crucfied with Iesus Christ to wit if thy feete will trample and trot vp and downe to and fro in the world to doe some euill nayle them to the crosse of the Lord with strong nayles of charity Does as much to thy hands if they enterprize and take vpon them to doe and commit some mischeeuous act and designe and with thy wanton lustfull eyes including and shutting vp in Christ thy intellect and vnderstanding with his cogitations the will with her desires and lustes and the soule with all her faculties and powers so that all the old Adam being crucified the saying of the Apostle may be verified in thee That those that are of Christ haue crucified their flesh with the lustes thereof Thirdly thou oughtest further to be fastened in another manner to the crosse of Christ that as when hee hanged on the crosse he was beheld naked forlorne emptied and destitute of all the fauour friendship respect and wisedome of men of all worldly riches pompes dignities and pleasures by reason whereof himselfe said That the Prince of the world found nothing of his in him