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
they see a tempting troublesome world so looking forward they see by Faith a state of perfect Holiness and Happiness prepared for them This Faith assures them that the end of their fight is the beginning of their Victory and as they part from their labours they take possession of their honours And doth not any Apprentice rejoyce when the time of his service is near its expiration I know Nature recoils at the approach of Death in the best but Faith is then of greatest need and use and the just may be said to dy as well as to live by his faith Thereby he sees Life and Immortality just before him and one only miry step to pass and then he is well Indeed the idle man desires not to go to bed but to all that take or suffer pain saith S. Chrysostome an end of it is sweet the traveller gladly beholds his Inne the hireling often computes when his year is out the husbandman greedily expects harvest the pregnant woman waits for her expected deliverance and the Aged person for his Writ of Ease One would wonder what shift even the Heathen made to render Death desirable who had such weak glimmerings of any other life And yet even they would thus argue Death either it annihilates us or else translates us Annihilation will but reduce me into the State wherein I was and if it translate me it will put me into better lodgings my Soul can be no where so pen'd up as here it is in the Body What boast would they have made of Death had they but firmly believed everlasting life For this it was which enabled the Apostle to make this expression Phil. 1. 23. Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better For where should the Spouse desire to be but with her husband or where the members but with the head And upon this account that good Lady Falkland would usually say when she was going to bed Now am I nearer Heaven by one day than ever I was The Aged person sees a wofull wilderness behind him and the blessed land of Promise before him and therefore no wonder that with Moses he longs to be in it And the nearer the holy Soul approacheth its perfection the more earnest and almost impatient it is to attain it And one great Advantage of the Aged lies in this that the Meditation of Death which is then in view is of great use to compose the Mind to keep us in the Fear of the Lord all the day long and our Consciences void of offence towards God and men to work in us a great contempt of the World and a singular freedom of spirit and of speech It will make us neither much to fear nor much to hope or desire any thing that the world can do for us or against us and finally doth greatly conduce to keep us steady and constant in faith and holiness And if some Ancient people do not make this use of their approaching dissolution what would they or others do if they did not grow Old at all what a careless worldly and vain life would men live if they had no certain Indications of their dying Surely the nearer to Heaven the more heavenly we should be as any man when he is come to the confines of another Countrey will frame himself to the guise thereof so he that hath this hope in him doth purifie himself as he is pure and will begin the Life below which he expects to live above And the other Priviledge herein contained is this that being weary they are near to their Journeys end They have bin long toss'd upon the Sea and now they see the Haven and rejoyce that they are ready to put into it This could make Cato in Tully to say My old-age is herein pleasant to me that by how much I approach nearer to death so much sooner do I as it were descry land and after long sailing am ready to enter the Port. Not that a good man should desire to dye for ease only to be freed from the troubles of life all the tribulations of that blessed Apostle Paul never made him cry out O wretched man that I am but his body of death forc'd him to it But whil'st we carry these earthly Tabernacles about us even the Sufferings of this present time will make us rejoyce in hope of the glory of God. Especially when we behold that innumerable company of Angels the general assembly and Church of the first born the spirits of just men made perfect yea God the Iudge of all and Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant amongst whom we are going to reside in perfect bliss then will our heart and our flesh cry out O when shall we come and appear before God! And this is the Priviledge of Old-age that there is but one feeble life between them and a Crown and you know that he who is shortly to be invested in some Dignity feasts himself with the hopes of it Yea this is the constant relief of the Aged man under all his bodily and other temporal afflictions that they will last but for a moment Hold out Faith and Patience the Iubilee is at hand Therefore it behoves all that are in years to lay up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life to get some unquestionable evidence of their right to the tree of life of their part in Paradise and then their thoughts of what 's beyond death will support them against all events on this side it or in it That Death is never to be dreaded saith an Heathen Poet which is followed with Immortality All your riches reputation or friends will then nothing comfort you like a lively sense of Christ in you the hope of glory He that hath liv'd to God will chearfully go to him and they who have run with difficulty will dye with ease And thus you have an account of some of the many Priviledges of Old-age for besides all these it is a Priviledge to attain to such an Age as that we may our selves see to the Education and Disposal of our Children and also to have the comfort of their piety and prosperity Thou shalt see thy childrens children and peace upon Israel Psal. last Hereupon it is recorded among and as the crown of the Blessings bestow'd upon Iob after his restoration that he lived an hundred and forty years and saw his sons and his sons sons even four generations Job 42. 16. From all which we may conclude that although every Age of mans life hath its peculiar bitterness and sweetness yet all things well weighed a quiet and honest Old-age is to be preferr'd before any other age It is the assertion of the learned Petrarch who thereupon breaks forth into the praises of it concluding them unworthy to arrive at it that are afraid of it and them unworthy to possess it that
be afraid going to receive your just punishment but hoping for my reward in the other Life I am not amazed with this at all But now when a man hath set his House and Heart in order and finisht his work he may sing his Nunc dimittis with comfort and say as that holy Woman x I am one that neither wisheth Death nor feareth his might but as merry as one that 's bound for Heaven 4. There is much Folly in this slavish fear of Death A holy Care to prepare for it is far better than an unprofitable Fear For the passion of Fear is planted in us for the avoiding of things hurtful but there is no avoiding of this fate There is no man that hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit and there is no discharge in that War Eccles. 8. 8. That disquiet is therefore foolish that torments but profits not How can the mind be quiet at any time which is afraid of what is impendent at all times It is observed by Seneca that neither Children nor Idiots are afraid of Death and he infers that it is a base thing that Reason I add the Scripture should not work as much security in us as Folly doth in them Shall learned Old men fear that which foolish Young men do not O wretched Old man said Tully that in so long life hast not learn'd to despise Death I end this with the Observation of Iudicious Mr. Calvin He that cannot quiet his Heart in the holy contempt of Death hath profited but little in the Faith of Christ. Let it therefore be the business of each Aged person to be reconciled to Death to be dying daily by Mortifying your affections to all the vanities of this life and by meditating on the life to come Never fret at that Death which leads you to immortality Rather rejoyce that you are taking leave of a World of Sin and taking flight into a Land of uprightness O Father said an Officer to a noble Ancient Persian Minister that trembled at the approach of Death shut your Eyes but a little and you shall see God in Glory And thus I conclude this Particular that too many Old people never fear Death for they never spend thoughts about it that the young have as much reason to apprehend it as the Old that a slavish fear of it is folly in any and that no good man needs to be affrighted but rather comforted with it So that upon a just Survey of all the Inconveniences of Old-age all Aged persons may answer as Tully tells of one Gorgias who being 107 years old was asked why he was contented to live so long Why said he I have nothing whereof to accuse Old-age and the truth is it seems perverse and unreasonable that all people should desire to attain unto it and then when they have attain'd it to dislike it Difficulties and Disadvantages there are with it Whereof no Age or condition is free but they are Tolerable and Ordinable to the good of all that fear God. And so much may suffice for this fifth Point to be handled CHAP. VI. The Priviledges of Old-age SECT I. I Proceed now in the Sixth place to discourse the Priviledges and Comforts of Old-age That there is some peculiar Blessing and Dignity in Old-age is evident both by the Light of Scripture and the Light of Nature The First Commandment with promise is Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee The like Promise you will find Psal. 91. last With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my Salvation Which shews that Old-age whatever Inconveniences it is attended withall is in its self a special Blessing And on the Contrary it is threatned as an heavy Judgment unto Eli that God would cut off his Arm and the Arm of his Fathers House that is he would take away his might and the strength of his Family in that there should not be an Old man in his House 1 Sam. 2. 31. And in general that bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days Psal. 55. last Whereupon holy David prays Psal. 102. 24. O my God take me not away in the midst of my days Finally the Holy Ghost assures us that the Beauty of old men is the Gray Head Psal. 20. 29. By all which it plainly appears that Old-age is a desirable Mercy in the judgment of God himself Agreeable hereunto is the Ancient Hebrew Proverb in Ben Syra to this effect Senex in domo bonum signum in domo And if that be a real good thing which all men desire then certainly there is some peculiar Goodness in Old-age for that all men desire to attain it So also we mingle among our good wishes to others this of a long life When Kings and Grandees are saluted this is the common Acclamation that they may live long and if it were possible live for ever And Antiquity is so valuable a thing that not only Families and Cities but Nations have had long and sharp disputes about the Antiquity of their respective people as the Egyptians Phoenicians Scythians And the Athenians had this Character affixed upon them that they could discourse well but the Lacedemonians could do well because an aged person coming upon a time into a great Assembly at Athens had no Respect given him but at Sparta in the like Convention they all rose up to seat him So that it grew Proverbial That Old-age dwelt most like its self at Sparta So then as there are some Inconveniences in Old-age which yet as you have seen have divers things to mitigate them so it hath many Priviledges and Comforts which do over-ballance them God hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him There is only this difference that all our Troubles spring from below but all our Mercies drop from above The particular Priviledges and Comforts of Old-age are these following First Old-age is Greater in Authority than any other Age. There is an Authory resulting from the Law of Nature as well as that which is conferr'd by Civil Laws the former is that wherewith Old-age is invested God himself who is the Fountain of Honour hath given them a Patent for it so that their Authority hath something in it divine and they seem to have a kind of Natural Government over others Hereby the Sentence or Opinion of the Aged may well conclude as much as the Arguments of the younger and he must have a great deal of Wisdom or of Confidence that shall contradict what a wise Aged person hath asserted That there is a certain Authority in Old-age is plain from divers Scriptures As Isa. 9. 15. The Ancient and the Honourable he is the Head. Now we know that the Head is the Seat of Rule When Moses had occasion for some Coadjutors with
you will be followed with great distress and of long continuance and sore sickness and of long continuance as is threatned Deut. 28. 59. You cannot reasonably expect but that at least some bodily distemper will last as long as your life yea peradventure such painful diseases as will put all your patience to the rout if the Lord be not your helper but yet you must not murmur nay you must not grudge nor make hast but indure the Lords pleasure and wait the Lords leisure I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it The sight of the haven animates the weather-beaten mariner Hitherto the Lord hath helped you and as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him He that hath put that compassion into the heart of a father hath a surpassing infinite Ocean of it in himself and withal he knows our frame he remembers that we are but dust Psal. 103. 13 14. He that hath the wisdom and power of a God and the pity of a father will be sure to lay no more upon you than he will inable you to bear and to overcome And therefore the Aged must beware of the other Extream namely the Gulf of Despondence and Dejection of Spirit Their Sins are mustered up against them their outward strength is decayed their Spirits broken with a succession of cares and troubles their distempers and pains are heavy upon them their friends and relations seem to be weary of them and an unperswadable Enemy Death stands just before them And what flesh alive can bear up under such and so many weights together But besides what hath been offered before I adde that as all these Mortifications are needful to wean us from this world from the love whereof even these can hardly divorce us so all such Discomsorts should drive the Aged person no lower than his knees even unto God who hath said Be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness Isa. 41. 10. Have not all the Saints and Servants of God that have lived to Old-age pass'd these pikes before you have they not born these burdens that you sink under There is no temptation befaln you but what is common to men Where is the faith where are the prayers that you have been laying up for such a time O miserable Old-man said the Heathen Orator that in so long a life hast not yet learned to despise Death which is not at all to be feared if it extinguish the Soul and greatly to be desired if it convey the Soul into an everlasting good condition And then for the pain in Death the same Author tells us that if there be any sense of pain in dying it is but very short especially to Old people that have prevented it and tasted it by degrees And therefore never render your life or death unquiet as many do that even dye for fear of dying that create by their melancholy fancies greater torments to themselves than Death brings with it Behold it through the glass of Gods word which represents it only as a Dissolution to wit out of a prison to go to Christ Phil. 1. 23. Going to rest Isa. 57. 2. Finishing our course 2 Tim. 4. 8. Falling asleep in Iesus 1 Thes. 4. 14. and a stepping out of this world unto our father Joh. 13. 1. and why should the prospect hereof at all deject us Yea in case you should have the honour to be called to suffer Death for Christ and his Truth yet fear it not under its most terrible Aspect for the Supports and Comforts of that Tryal will ballance yea surmount the fears and pains thereof As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ 2 Cor. 1. 5. Strive therefore rather to adorn than to avoid the Cross considering that as it is a great honour for you in your Old-age to suffer for the Truth so it is a great shame that the Truth should suffer by you It was the worthy Resolution of Old Eleazar when he was urged to counterfeit the eating of Swines flesh to save his life No saith he it becometh not our Age in any wise to dissemble whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar being fourscore and ten were now gone to a strange Religion And so they through my hypocrisie and desire to live a little time should be deceived by me and I get a stain to my Old-age and make it abominable Wherefore now manfully changing this life I will shew my self such an one as mine Age requireth So Polycarp when he was tempted to deny Christ and to swear by the Fortune of Caesar answered Fourscore and six years have I served Christ and have found him a good Master and should I now deny him I have lived by him and I will live and dye to him Let us resolve by Gods grace to write after these Copies Doubtless if there be any going to Heaven on horse-back as Mr. Bradford styles it that is in Honour and State it is by Martyrdom Nay it is not enough that we be content and quiet under these discouragements that we who have received good at the hands of the Lord be content with evil also but we should triumph over them In all these things we should be more than conquerours through him that loved us Our rooted Faith our fixed Hope our long Experience should lift us up to surmount all these fears and troubles The veterane Soldier must not be scared with such Hydra's We are near the promised Land the news of these Anakims in our way should not affright us they are bread for us as Ioshua said When these things come upon you then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh Be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life Rev. 2. 10. And thus we are at length arrived at the end of the Aged persons Work which was the Seventh and Last thing to be treated of in this Subject The Practice of these things now only remains That we study to correct the Causes avoid the Sins obtain the Graces sustain the Inconveniences improve the Priviledges and dispatch the Work described before us Wherein we must earnestly implore the gracious Assistance of God who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure and who will not fail us therein unless we be wanting to our selves And O that all Younger people would learn Knowledge Temperance and Industry in their youth which will be the only means to attain to an Healthy Wealthy and Holy Old-age FINIS Books Printed for and sold by Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns at the lower end of Cheap-side near Mercers Chappel A Present for Teeming Women to be given to them by their Husbands or Friends By Iohn Oliver Minister of the Gospel In Octavo A
adolescentibus verecundia Bern. de ordin vitae m Temeritas est florentis aetatis prudentia senectutis Cicer. de senect n Senex plus prospicit meliùs consulit minus decipitur certiùs judicâ—…it Palaeol o M. Castritius Placentinus Carboni consuli Val Max. p Difficile est verba dare seni Proverb q Misera quippe est senectus quae praeter rugas canos nil senile habet Cicero r Senectus aetate fit doctior usu tritior processu temporis sapientior Hier. ad Nepotia Ut aequalium usus dulcior it a senex tutior est Amb. de offic c. 43. s Senectus nostra albescat canis sapientiae non marcescat carnis vetustate Aug in Ps. 112. t Consilia senum hastas juvenum esse u Infirmitas corporis est sobrietas mentis Ambros Hex lib 1. c. 8. â—… 4. Patience w Patientia est honestatis utilitatis causà rerum arduarum ac difficilium voluntaria diuturna perâ—… Cicero x Patientia servunt Domino dominum Deo commendat faeminar exornat virum approbat amatur in puero laudatur in juvene suspicitur in sene Tert. de pat c. 15. y Patientia iram temperat linguam fraenat mentem gubernat pacem custodit Cyprian § 5. Stedfastness z He dyed at 107 years having lived in nine Kings and Queens reigns a Pius esse nequit qui non est fortis Dr. Sanderson b Sola mens senescens juvenescit Plutarch †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian § 6. Temperance c Sobrietas corporis mentis Rivet Vinum lac senum Plato de legibus Dial. 2. d Habeo senectutis magnam gratiam quae mihi sermonis aviditatem auxit potionis cibi sustulit Cato in Cicerone e Amor in puero pudor in virgine rubor in fâ—…minâ furâ—…r in juvene ardor in sene risus Epictet § 7. Love. f Charitas dicit alioram bona certa mâ—…liora certa mala minora bona dubia certa dubia mala nulla g Occultis se notis noscunt amant mutuò penè antequam noverint Min. Fel. h Principium vitae fides finis charitas haec duo perficiunt Dei hominem Ignatius i Old Fish old Oil and an old Friend are best Ital. Proverb Cap. 5. The Inconveniences of Old-age k Malè a particulari ad universale argument antur nec distinguere volunt aut valent interea quae propriè senectuti conveniunt ea quae ei ex accidenti adveniunt quae omnibus vitae gradibus aut communia sunt aut non infrequentia Rivet desen bonâ l Senectus mare malorum Plaut m Extreme displicent Geier in loc n Miseria est copia tribulationis inopia consolationis §. 1. It is deprived of Pleasures o Magnum munus senectutis est quod id nobis aufert quod in adolescentia est vitiosissimum Cicer. p Nulla capitalior pestis est quam corporis voluptas Architas Tarent q Dii melipra libenter 〈◊〉 tanquam a Domino â—…urioso proâ—…ugi Cicer. de senect r Gentlemans Calling s Nihil autem molestum quod non desideramus Non caret is qui non desiderat Cicer. t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato § 2. Strength and Beauty decreased u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. miâ—… x Intemperans Adolescentia effaetum corpus tradit senectuti Cicer. y Ista ipsae defectio virium adolescentiae vitiis efficitur saepius quam senectuti Id. z Non sunt senibus vires nec postulantur vires à senectute Cicero a Euripides b Quid times ne te abjiciat in tempore senectutis cum defecerit virtus tuâ—… Immo tunc in te erit virtus ejus quando defecerit virtus tua Aug. in Psal. 70. § 3 Faculties weakned c In omnibus iis studiorum agitatio vitae aequalis fuit Cicer. §. 4. Senses decayed d Constant Visus Auditus nec quicquam in iis imminutum experior Guil. River aetatis 70. Nec dum caligant oculi eo usque ut perspicillis opus sit And. Rivet aetat 78. e Sozom. lib. 3. c. 14. Hieron ep ad Abigaum §. 5. Distemper and Pain Senectus incurabilis morbus f Dr. Harris his Sermon on Hezekiah's recovery g Faciliùs in morbos incidune adolescentes graviùs aegrotant tristiùs curantur Cicer h Hom. 11. in Hex §. 6. Broken with Crosses i Nihil infelicius mihi eo videtur cui nihil unquam evenit adversi Seneca k Chamier l Quod diu vivendo multa quae non vult videt R. Et multa fortasse quae vult Cicer. m Quo fortiter fortuita patiamur naturae consentiamus Senec. n Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis Deum quo auctore cuncta proveniunt sine murmuratione comitari malus miles est qui Imperatorem gemens sequitur Sen. §. 7. Attended with Contempt o Beatus juvenis qui benè vivit sed magis beatus est senex qui benè vixit quod enim juvenis sperat adeptus est senex Ambr. de Iacob vit beat c. 8. §. 8. Disabled from Service p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato q Nullane res seniles sunt quae vel infirmis corporibus animo tamen administrentur Cicer. §. 9. Unfit for Religious Exercises §. 10. Terrified with the approach of Death r Plerique inter mortis metum vitae tormenta miseri fluctuant vivere nolunt mori nesciunt Sen. Ep. 4. s Casus nunciat mortem latentem infirmitas apparentem senectus presentem Ex incertituditudine timor ex infirmitate dolor ex certitudine afflictio Palaeot ex Hug. de claustr anim t Every thing is good that is agreeable to Nature what more natural than for an old man to dy u The Godly in Death is alive Hebr. Prov. w Vita Christi instruxit nostram mors Christi destruxit nostram Bern. z Mrs. Ann Aiscough y Mortem timere dementis estquia certa expectantur dubia metuuntur Senec Ep. 30. z Nulli potest secura vita contingere qui de producenda nimis cogitat Id. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menecrates Valeant sâ—…olidi illi qui dum abest senectus eam optant dum adest accusant Cicer Cap. 6. The Priviledges of Old-age b Ad multos Annos c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proverb Lacedemone esse honestefri domi inline senectutis Cicero § 1. It is greater in Authority d Qui cum refugeret Apostolum se scrsbere senioremscripsit Ambros. in Psal. 37. e Arist. polit lib. 7. cap. 14. f Ut quisqaetate antecellit ita sententiae principatum tenet Ciâ—…r g Senibus Authoritas major 〈◊〉 quod plurâ—… nôsse vidisse creduntâ—…r Quintil lib. 1â—… c c 4. h Multum est quod à sapiente vel tacente proficias Senec i Non cani noâ—…rugae repentè authoritatem aferre possunt sâ—…d honestè acta superior aetas â—…ructus capit authoritatis extremos Cicero § 2.
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
will the keepers of the house tremble that is the arms and hands which defend the Body will by reason of their cold and dry temper shake and quiver And the strong men will bow themselves that is the thighs and leggs which have strongly born up the structure of the Body will be weak and need the support of a staff to assist them And the grinders will cease because they are few that is the Teeth which chew and grind our meat will break rot and fall out so that being reduced to a few they will be unable to do their office And those that look out of the windows will be darkened that is the Eye-sight will fail the Organs of the Eye through which as through a window the Soul looks out being dried up and weakned And the doors shall be shut in the streets that is the Lips and Mouth will be disabled from speaking or eating When the sound of the grinding is low that is Digestion which is furthered by chewing and perfected in Chylification Sanguification c. will be obstructed And he shall rise up at the voyce of the bird that is our Sleep will be so shallow that the least noise will awake us and so short that it will prevent the Cock-crowing And all the daughters of musick shall be brought low that is our Ears will grow dull so that as we cannot so we care not for the sweetest musick Also they shall be afraid of that which is high that is we shall by reason of weariness dizziness or short-windedness be afraid of mounting up to high places and attempting such high things as in youth we adventured upon And fears shall be in the way that is we shall be afraid of and in our Iourneying lest we dash our weak and weary foot against a stone And the almond-tree shall flourish that is our Head will grow hoary like the almond tree which soon ripens And the grashopper shall be a burden that is the least weight shall load our infirm Body yea we being then like enough to grashoppers will grow burdens to our selves and others And desire shall fail that is our Appetite to meat and our desire to Marriage-imbraces will be cooled and cease by degrees At length the silver cord will be loosed that is the Chine-bone with its marrow and the Nerves and Fibres thereunto belonging will be resolved and weakned And the golden bowl will be broken that is the vessel and membrane that contains the Brain which is aptly called golden both for its colour and value will at last be shattered And the pitcher will be broken at the fountain that is the Veins will cease from doing their office at the right Ventricle of the Heart which is the fountain of life and so our blood stagnating we are soon extinguished And the wheel will be broken at the cistern that is the great Artery which is knit to the left side of the Heart by which the Blood is derived into the parts ceases its action and the Pulse with it which are the immediate forerunners of Death And then the Dust returns to the Earth as it was and the spirit returns unto God who gave it Thus you see Mans Body like some curious Edifice first battered by various Storms at length the Roof and Walls decay and at last falls to the ground but our Blessed Redeemer hath provided for the Inhabitant an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens SECT I. AND now let us more distinctly survey the Inconveniences of Old-age the chief whereof are these following First The Aged are Deprived of many Pleasures They cannot divert themselves by Hunting Hawking Fishing They can neither well ride abroad nor walk about home They have done with Visits and Feasts and Musick All the recreations of sense are generally tastless to them Yea they have scarce any pleasure in their meat and drink and sleep So that their Condition seems to be sad and lamentable And we have the substance of all this confessed by an Old man himself namely Barzillai 2 Sam. 19. 35. I am this day fourscore years old and can thy servant tast what I eat or what I drink can I hear any more the voyce of singing men and singing women q. d. These things will signifie nothing to me they have forsaken me and I value them as little Here you have the Verdict which Barzillai brings in the Case Yea instead of Pleasure a constant Sadness takes place in their Countenance without and as may be judged in their Hearts within Sobs and sighs are the accent of their language and their complaints are frequently mixt with tears Their Condition then must needs be miserable when they have such constant heaviness within and no recreation without to alleviate it Company burdens them and Solitariness saddens them Yea they are loth that any body should be merry about them So that they seem to lead a dolorous life and to be estranged from all manner of Pleasure Now Pleasure is the life of Life What is Life without Delight why do men toyl to get Estates but for the pleasure they take in them why do others hunt for Applause and climb for Honour but to please their fancy and their humour even the Schollar would take leave of his Books if he had not Delight in them So that Pleasure acts all mankind and rules the world Now those years are lamentable wherein a man shall say I have no pleasure in them And this makes some Old People weary of their lives they reckon that a Life stript of joy and comfort is not worth the keeping Nevertheless Old-age may support it self very well under this Inconvenience Inasmuch as the Pleasures they are deprived of are in themselves and to their experience dangerous Injoyments For nothing is more apt to disorder and fully the Soul than carnal Pleasure Those very Recreations which may be harmless in themselves yet too commonly lead to Intemperance to Lasciviousness to Quarrels and other mischiefs Now if a Dish be never so palatable yet if there be but danger of Poyson in it no wise man will meddle with it Therefore Tully brings in Cato congratulating with himself that he was delivered from the slavery of Pleasure and concludes that it is a singular Priviledge of Old-age that it frees us from that which is most pernicious in youth And whatever regard weak men may have to these Vanities the wisest among the very Heathens have concluded that there is no plague so deadly to man as the pleasures of the body And that comes to pass through the depravation of our Natures whereby we can hardly enjoy them but we run mad upon them we exceed the limits and miss the ends which should be observed in the using of them Wherefore Cicero tells of Sophocles who being askâ—…d whether he did still converse with Womankind answered The Gods have done better for me I have willingly left that furious Master Indeed the greatest
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
accuse it So that though we commonly say That every thing is worse for its age yet a pious Old person is the better and therefore no man needs to be as too many are ashamed of their gray hairs Forasmuch as Old-age is Greater in Authority than any other age Richer in Experience Freer from sin Proner to Piety Riper in its Fruits Worthier of Respect Further from the World and Nearer to Eternity And so much for the Priviledges of Old-age which is the Sixth point to be handled CHAP. VII The Work of Old-age SECT I. AND so I come in the Seventh and Last place to treat concerning the Work and Business of Old-age What special and proper Imployment besides their necessary and ordinary affairs their Years obligeth them unto Their labouring and travelling dayes are done but yet they have much Work to do Sith they have not yet apprehended this One thing they must do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before they must press towards the mark There is no compleat rest for the body on this side the grave nor for the soul on this side Heaven They that were Idle in the eleventh hour were checkt with Why stand ye here idle all the day Matth. 20. 6. You have been busie a great while for Time it is but reasonable you should take some pains for Eternity The shadows of the Evening have overtaken you ye have but a little time to work in It was wise counsel of the Wise man Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest Eccles. 9. 10. Behold and see how fast the sands of your glass are running hearken how fast the Pendulum of your Clock hastens The Bills of Mortality besides other Diseases contain some weekly that dye for Age and which week your Name will be called you know not But when it is called you must go no Bail is taken by Serjeant Death Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh findeth so doing And therefore to use the Prophet Ioel's words Ioel 1. 2. Hear this ye Old men and give ear all the inhabitants of the land Suffer the word of Exhortation and buckle in sober sadness to these Imployments of Old-age The First Work of Old-age is Repentance of your sins This is a bitter Pill to flesh and blood but it must be swallowed here or hereafter When it is tasted here it is only bitter-sweet there is comfort in it there is comfort after it It is like the pains of an honest woman in travel the remembrance of the loving Father supports her at present and the birth of a comely child revives her after but if it be deferr'd and plac'd on the wrong side of Death then it will be bitter bitter there is no present no future comfort Then it will be like the gnawing pains of a woman with a Cancer though infinitely sharper and infinitely longer So that it is not referred to the Old-man or any man else whether he will Repent or not for it â—…annot be avoided but whether he will repent for a time or repent for ever whether he will repent with hope or repent with despair Now Repentance may be considered in a Double respect 1. Initially at the first Conversion of the Soul to God and 2. Secondarily at the Renewing of the acts thereof afterwards It concerns Ancient people to be acquainted respectively with both This needful message then is directed 1. To such Aged persons who are yet in the state of unrenewed Nature who have never past through the New-birth nor know any thing by experience of Regeneration which was the Case of Old Nicodemus though a Master in Israel Joh. 3. 9. Now that a Fundamental Repentance or Conversion call it how you will is necessary to all that shall be saved I should think is past dispute For it cannot be denyed that we come into the world in a sinful state And it is manifest that Baptism doth not cure the Soul of that Disease but that all people in general have a strong propensity either to the lusts of the flesh or to the lusts of the eyes or to pride of life until an inward Change be wrought in the heart which is the effectual Calling of a careless Sinner to turn to God and Godliness Now if an Aged person have been a stranger to this Grace though perhaps he hath led a sober industrious just yea a charitable life and also hath complied with the outward acts of devotion in use Yet except the tree have been made good by Regeneration it cannot have its fruit unto holiness nor the end everlasting life I would therefore conjure all such Unconverted Old people to apply themselves with all speed and seriousness to this First Repentance to be renewed in the spirit of your minds to make you new hearts and new spirits or else infallibly you must dye Say not with Nicodemus How can a man be born when he is old For the Work is possible and the Method is plain Harder it may be for an Old man to become a New man than for the younger hence the Proverb An old naught will never be ought That is rarely or difficulty according to the Greek saying For that the Faculties of the Soul are enfeebled and the Habits of Sin strengthened by continuance former guilt and negligence makes men to doubt of future assistance or acceptance But since God doth call Old people to Repent sith he hath spared you alive hitherto and to them that are joyned to the living there is hope sith there be innumerable instances of Old Converts In fine sith God looketh upon men and if any mark if Any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profiteth me not he will deliver him from going down to the pit Iob 33. 27 28. Never question the possibility but set about the work Set the Necessity against the Difficulty it is Turn in Time or Burn in Eternity for Truth hath said Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of heaven How can you imagine that a limb of the Devil should become a member of Christ a child of wrath become a child of God but by Regeneration Outward Reformation may shave the hair but this Leprosie must be cur'd inwardly O lay to heart the long time you have lived in sin and in enmity to God the short time you have to live in the world that Death makes no Converts and Sickness but a few Consider what mercies and deliverances you have received from this good God and how little true service you have done him and whether it be not now high time to turn unto him with your whole heart and not feignedly If that Holy man would not be in an unregenerate state but one hour for all the world left he should dye in that hour
give of your Repentance for the Sins of your Youth is a watchful care against the Sins of your Old-age otherwise your Sins are not forsaken but changed Withal if your Repentance be sound it is attended with a will and endeavour to make Restitution wherein you have injur'd any in their Souls Bodies Names or Estates This will be as Letters Testimonial of the truth of your Repentance you must not nay you cannot be quiet if your Repentance be sound until you have seriously endeavour'd as far as in you lies to recover the Souls to restore the Bodies to heal the Reputations and to repair the Estates which you have injur'd without which there can be no true Repentance on Earth and without which there will be no Remission in Heaven SECT II. ANother work of Old-age is obtaining Assurance of Salvation I mean hereby not only a General Certainty that some good people shall be saved for the Devils believe this and rage at it which I think is the same with Objective Certainty nor that Assurance which may come by special and extraordinary Revelation sith we find few or no examples in Scripture of such a thing but rather that the Apostle Paul himself grounds his Assurance of the Crown upon the righteousness of God which he extends to all them that love Christs appearing 2 Tim. 4. 8. Neither do I mean a Conjectural Hope of Salvation which admits both of anxiety and of slavish fear fith the Scripture represents it by Faith and full assurance and produceth Earnests and Seals for confirmation Nor lastly is this Assurance confin'd to Grace at present but extends to final Salvation Thus the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed there is Assurance of his present State but was he certain of his Perseverance Yes that follows and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day That such Assurance hath been attained is clear enough from the Instances of Iob 19. 25 26. of David Psal. 16. 9 10. of Paul 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. and many others That it may be attained is as clear sith there is no intimation that these or the rest had any extraordinary Discovery thereof unto them but arriv'd thereat in the use of those means and by the consignation of that Spirit unto which we have access as well as they And the Apostle doth expresly comprehend the generality of Believers in this Priviledge 2 Cor. 5. 1. For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God c. That it ought to be endeavoured by all true Christians is most evident from the plain commands to that purpose 2 Pet. 1. 10. Wherefore the rather Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure c. That few do labour to attain it thinking it to be impossible or unnecessary is to be bewailed That many deceive themselves with a false perswasion of present Grace and future Glory is manifest by Scripture and daily Experience And that it is most proper and needful for Old people the thing it self speaks For you cannot deny but that you have Souls immortal Souls which being Spirits cannnot dye but must return to God that gave them and are these Souls of so small value to be left to a Hazard to an everlasting venture And it is as evident that this life is uncertain we may say as Isaac Gen. 27. 2. Behold now I am Old I know not the day of my Death and therefore it 's time for us to go about this work without delay Children desire the time of youth and youth longs to be at mans age and they then would live to be Old but Old-age hath no further Age to desire it hath none other to succeed it here and they are wholly uncertain how long it will last and therefore it is absolutely necessary that they should be on sure grounds for Eternity and then the day of death will be better than the day of their Birth You know how much of your life is already spent you can see the Sands that are run into the nether end of the Glass but the upper Part is covered with a Mantle you know not how few Sands are left there to run Nay you cannot but perceive that Death is approaching very near you You are filled with Wrinkles which is a Witness against you and your leanness rising up in you beareth witness to your Face as it is Job 16. 8. For as it is observed of All men that they are Mortales apt to dye and of all Good men that they are Mortificati dying to Sin so it is of all Old men that they are Morituri about to dye And for such to have Oyl to seek when they should have it to Use Evidences to procure when they should have them to produce is an unexcusable neglect Especially knowing that your last Breath wafts you into an unalterable Estate What Journeys and Presents were heretofore made to the Oracles to assure the Votaries concerning the Event of some temporal affairs and how many do now Hazard their Souls by seeking to Necromancers to know the success of their Marriages Voyages and such like and yet a miscarriage in these things is remediable there may be some alleviation in them there may be some end of them but you are lanching into the Ocean of Eternity and are at no certainty whether it be eternal Happiness or eternal Misery What an anxious and uncomfortable State must this be If you were not loose in your belief of future things you would be restless in this condition you owe your Ease to your Letâ—…argy if you were not half Infidels you would be more than half distracted Which brings to mind the course which some Eminent persons among the Heathens took they durst not dye sober but drank great Draughts oâ—… Wine saying That no voluptuous person can go in his Wits into an invisible Estate With what poor comfort must that man dye that must cry out with that Old Philosopher I dye in great doubt and know not whither I am going yet out the Soul must go ready or unready Then will the careless sinner gnash his Teeth for rage at his slothful and sinful life which he hath spent as a Tale that is told Then will he have time enough to curse all the worldly business or wicked Company that hath devoured his precious time and left his Soul to shift for it self for ever Do not we in all other cases strive to be at a point will May-be's and Peradventure's satisfie us in any material humane affairs The Tenant who is warned out of one House cannot enjoy himself until he be sure of another The Steward that was discharged of his Office Luk. 16. took present course to be provided of some other Subsistence The poorest man is uneasie when his old Suit of Cloaths is worn out till he have a
must have a stock of Observations and your Speech commonly is least impaired of all Faculties and it is best imployed in communicating your usefull Notions unto others The Vestal Virgins of old in the First part of their time learned the Mysteries of their Religion in the Second they produced them into Practice in the Third they taught them unto others One end of our learning any thing is that we may instruct others And the Heathens thought that the greatest part of our time should be devoted to the Common good Hide not therefore your Talent in a Napkin but produce your Stock and without impoverishing your selves inrich those that need it You have Opportunity you have your Children and Posterity about you you have some Authority with them let your words drop as the dew and let your lips feed many What profit have they by your longevity if you further them not in goodness In short our lives are little worth when they are not usefull and we cannot better bestow them than in making others better And here is a large field to walk in You should be able and ready to instruct the younger in the Word of God in the Doctrine of the Gospel in that great mystery of Godliness God manifest in the flesh The publick Explications hereof should be familiarly opened by you at home You should talk of them as you sit in your house as you walk by the way when you lye down and when you rise up Deut. 6. 7. Thus David Come ye children hearken unto me I will teach you the fear of the Lord Psal. 34. 11. So also Solomon at large Prov. 4. 1 2. Hear ye children the instruction of a father and attend to know understanding For I give you good doctrine c. Thus Timothy's mother yea and grandmother instructed him You are to instruct them also in the Works of God both of Creation and Providence wherein you may convey to them many things tending to the glory of youâ—… Maker and the benefit of their Souls You should acquaint them with such particular Instances of the Wisdom Righteousness Power and Goodness of God which you have read heard or seen That the generation to come might knoâ—… them even the children that should be born who should arise and declare them to theiâ—… children that they might set their hope iâ—… God and keep his Commandments Psal. 78 6 7. You can tell them also the Methods of Satan and the wicked devicâ—… whereby he beguileth poor Souls â—… Slave who hath been in Algier and iâ—… redeemed or rescued can discover the miserable bondage there and relate with pleasure the means of his Deliverance You can describe the intriegues of Sin and warn young people of the deceitfulness and folly thereof by your own experience They who have been almost mir'd in a puddle or quagmire can easily shew others the place and direct them to avoid it In Summe you should instruct the younger to know and serve and trust in God and whatsoever you have observed in the course of your lives conducive thereunto you should impart unto them That as ungodly men do wickedly communicate their sinful acts and practices and endeavour to propagate them unto posterity that each generation may be worse than other so all wise and good men especially when they are in years should transmit the knowledge and practice of Piety to their Successors that the next age may be better than this and that when we are dead and gone yet it may be truly said the world was the better for us Besides these Instructions in the excellent matters of Religion it lies in the power and way of many Ancient persons to direct and advise the younger in many useful Observations otherwise As concerning the Education of their Children and the disposing of them into Callings or Marriage concerning the preservation or recovery of their health And in case they have any peculiar Skill Receipt or Art useful for the good of Mankind they ought not to bury it in their graves but to assign it to Posterity And whatsoever you have learned or observed that may be beneficial or any way useful to the Church or Common-wealth to your Countrey Town or Family all these Notices you should communicate to those that are younger with all possible fidelity and exactness And if need be commit them to writing for the benefit at least of your own posterity And although your Instructions may not at present seem to be much regarded yet be not discouraged by this for the wise Counsels of the Ancient like the seed of the word of God seems to dye and to be lost and yet in process of time it revives and brings forth fruit Howbeit there is Wisdom to be used in the Instructing of young people For they too commonly are proud conceit ed and self-witted your Lessons therefore must be at such seasons and by such degrees as may render them most valuable and welcome and must be sweetned with that love and dearness and withal interlac'd with such pleasant Diversion that their Appetite may not be cloyed nor your grave Advices be distasted Thus the Emperor Augustus accosted his Hearers Audite Iuvenes senem quem senes juvenem audiverunt You that are young hearken to me that now am old whom Old men hearkened unto when I was yet but young Finally your Example should be a Continual Instruction to young people They that will not heed your good words yet seeing your good works will have a constant copy before them and be induced to write after it The objects of the Eye make deeper impression than those of the Ear When they see the constant practice of piety and charity prudence and patience they conclude that your Directions are in good earnest that they are practicable that they are necessary or else what the right hand of good Counsel builds up the left hand of a loose practice will pull down SECT V. THE Fifth Work of Old-age is Watchfulness against your special Temptations For besides the abovesaid Sins that are most usual in Old-age there are some particular Weaknesses to which they are rather tempted than overcome wherein if they be not watchful they will become miserable Such as 1. Discontentedness of mind This is a Distemper to which Old-age is very liable They want this and they want that which perhaps they have had heretofore and they cannot bear these wants One loss or cross befalls them and e're they have well digested this another comes One while this Disease or pain afflicts them and that no sooner over but they are smitten in another part so that they are prone to perpetual murmurings Never was any bodies life so miserable as theirs they are ready to quarrel at God at men at any thing at nothing They are neither content to live nor ready to dy but yet seem to be fallen out with life and to be in love with death whereupon their common note is I
had not beguiled us Hence comes Neglect of the means of Grace to which we may adde Drowsiness in the use of them Aged people are apt to satisfie themselves in the Omission of Reading Hearing Praying by their craziness and infirmities Indeed when we are inevitably hindred in these Means and are grieved for that hindrance God will supply those wants but if we be glad that we have an occasion comen in the way whereby we may without sin omit our duty it savours strongly of hypocrisie And Old people are more concern'd than others to be diligent herein for many of them have put off much of their greatest business to their Old-age and therefore their plea of Impotence will be overruled I have lost a World of time said the learned Salmasius on his death-bed If I had one year longer I would spend it in reading David's Psalms and in Paul's Epistles Neither imagine that you are too old to learn for the Fundamentals of Doctrine and Practice may easily and must necessarily be learned else he that made you will not save you and he that formed you will shew you no favour Isa. 27. 11. As weak as you are you could creep to the Assembly to be laden back again with Gold and a grain of grace is worth a world of riches When some outward sickness afflicts you find a man carried in a bed to Christ and the house untiled to let him down through the roof rather than continue under it Luk. 5. 18. and will you languish in your spiritual distempers and use no means for healing Be not deceived God is not mocked he never accepts the will for the deed if the deed can well be done nor chuses Mercy before sacrifice where both may be offered And though your Years may dispose you to Drowsiness in the service of God yet they will not wholly excuse you We read but of one person in the Bible that slept at Sermon and he was taken up dead thereby Act. 20. 9. It is a sin charged on them of old Isa. 64. 7. There is none that calleth on thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee You should use all possible means to shake off that drowsie distemper and set the holy God before you and remember that your own cause is still pleading or trying that the diligent hand makes rich in this world and the diligent heart rich for ever and that Grace and Comfort are like the Manna which was to be gather'd early or else it vanished they that loved their beds starved their bellies How much good might you do and get notwithstanding your years if you would shake off that slothful distemper that haunts you how many have lamented at their end their loss of time Nothing so much troubled that Excellent Preacher Dr. Robert Harris when he was on his death-bed as Loss of time Rouse up then your benumbed spirits your time of Action will last but a while Consider wherein you are capable to serve your generation by the will of God and up and be doing The Grave will be most irksome to the loyterer but most welcome to the labourer for there the weary and only they will be at rest 4. The Fourth Temptation which Aged persons are liable unto is Expectation still of longer life No man is so Old saith the Orator but thinks it very possible to weather it out a year longer and such men do upon the matter think they may live alwayes It hath been an old complaint that men eat and drink as though they must dye to morrow and yet buy and build as though they must live alwayes How usual is it with very Aged men and women to contrive and appoint affairs for a month or a year beforehand It is not only young persons that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 5. 13 14. But even Old persons are apt to think the same thing The most decrepit person fancies he shall abide here a little longer and when that time is expir'd still reckons to continue a little longer The folly and ungroundedness of this Imagination is obvious For what should induce one that is already dying to think that he shall not very quickly dy out and out Alas Death hath laid its cold hand already upon us Our Eyes our Ears our Hands our Legs our Lungs our very Vitals are death-struck already Death puts in for a share in every day we spend Have we taken any Lease of our lives for a determinate time Can we produce any Reason any one Reason to prove that we should live a year or a week longer I am sure the provoking Sins which are in our Souls and the unruly Humours which are in our Bodies render our speedy death more likely than a longer life besides the rage of Satan against us and the many Casualties incident to us Now when a man expects any thing and hath no reason for such his expectation it is lamentably ridiculous But what little Reason soever there is for such an Imagination there is some Cause of it And the cause seems to be a Lothness to dy Too few there are that are willing to part with things seen for things unseen They are loth to go out of this world of men and women into a world of Souls Death is like a cup that will either mend or end and such a dose is taken with a trembling hand And therefore the heart cryes out Let me alone this year also Thus men would put far from them the evil day and it will prove an evil day when it is thus deferr'd Alas it is not the duration of ones life but the goodness and comfort of it that is considerable This the dim eye of Nature saw and concluded that a wise man chuses to live as long as he ought not as long as he could I know it is a hard pluck to have a Soul and a body that have lived long together to part a-sunder but it is irrevocably appointed unto men to dye and when a thing is indispensably necessary it is the best course to consider what will best mitigate and render it either desirable or tolerable Wherein as right Reason may contribute much so Christian Religion much more whereby the holy Soul is assured of a far better house than the body and the body of a far better estate after it hath slept a while in the grave To Remedy therefore this Temptation Consider the Folly and ill Effects thereof That is a foolish Traveller who being quite spent with the fatigue of his journey would turn again and traveâ—… it over again when as nothing is more welcome to the weary than a quiet lodging Upon
SECT VII THE Seventh Work of Old-age is Mortification And the Object hereof is double 1. That which is Evil in it self 2. That which is Lawful in it self The Religious Old person hath work in both these 1. One great work of Old-age is Dying to sin to all sin The time past of our life may suffice us to have walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine revellings banquettings c. 1 Pet. 4. 3. We have sinn'd enough already yea much more than enough it is high time to undo that which hath almost undone us We are dying it is necessary that our sins dy before us and that by Faith in the death of Christ and Repentance from dead works for want of which course our Evidences prove litigious and snarled with inextricable doubts It is not enough that we want strength or opportunity to sin but our wills and desires towards it must be dead also Sin is only asleep or benumbed in us if we have not used Gods means to crucify it It 's not sufficient that we leave it except we loath it Go through-stitch therefore with this work do it quickly do it sincerely it is Kill or be Kill'd and necessity makes the Coward resolute Dread not any Scriptural severities necessary in Mortification Some Devils are not cast out without Prayer and Fasting and Hippocrates observes that Old-age is the fittest for the use of Fasting The wounds that sin hath made must be searched to the bottom and doubtless it is never crucified no more than Christ was without pain How justly doth the Scripture still stigmatize sin with the name of Folly to weave a Webb that must be unrav'led and to make us spend our lives between sinfull joyes and painfull sorrowes And though Old-age doth not mortify sin by it self yet cooling our lusts and passions it proves helpfull in that work and provided we be truly thankful unto God for that advantage and that we use other necessary means to that end we may comfortably acquiesce in that blessed effect and rejoyce that the things which are displeasing to God are become unpleasant to us But we must not be content to be only passive in the decayes of sin we must be active in that work If ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. And as All sin must be the Object of Mortification so especially all Youthful sins For as Chrysostom says An Old man acting juvenile sins is far more ridiculous than young persons that commit those sins To have our hearts burn with Lust or Revenge when our veins are freezing with Age the soul rampant and the body dying is monstrous And yet we know how S. Hierom himself complains of scalding motions that were ready to invade his withered body And the Scripture gives us a sad Instance hereof even of Solomon the best and wisest of men alive that had done more for God and God for him than any man in the age he lived in that he when he was between Fifty and Sixty years of age should be so far inslaved to his strange wives as to be carried by them to worship strange gods For it came to pass when Soloman was Old that his wives turned away his heart c. 1 Kin. 11. 4. Whereby he set in such a cloud as hath drawn his very Salvation into question Let it be a warning to all Aged people to see that their Corruptions be not asleep but dead as far as is attainable in this life that the Old man as well as the outward man perish and which will be a good proof thereof that the inward man be renewed day by day That our Thoughts our Words our very Behaviour and Attire proclaim that Sin and we are parted never to meet again It was a good answer of a Lacedemonian to one that asked him why he wore his Beard so long Answ. It is to mind me that I do nothing unbeseeming my hoary hairs A light behaviour in a grave person is foolish and loathsome For as dead flies cause the ointment of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking saviour so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour Eccl. 10. 1. 2. The Other Object of Mortification proper for Old-age is The World and all the innocent but charming vanities thereof Not that they are bound actually to forsake the World either the needful cares or the lawful comforts of it But to wean and abate their desires of it their delights in it their cares about it This should be every Christians work but it should be the Aged persons care in a more eminent measure For they are ready to leave this world and ascend into another and every one takes off their mind from an house they are leaving The world also is forsaking them the pleasure they have formerly taken in meats apparel building is much decayed the things which did formerly ravish are now grown insipid and doth not this call aloud to them to real Mortification you should most readily consent to part with them and say Farewell my gold and all my gayeties I meant not to injoy but use you I can be happy without you It is the absurdest sight in the world to see one gaping and grasping after this world when he is going into another Let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand Phil. 4. 5. Your loyns should be always girded about and your lights burning and ye your selves like unto men that wait for your Lord Luk. 12. 35. I write unto you Fathers Love not the world neither the things that are in the world 1 Joh. 2. 14 15. Abate your love to things below and increase your love to things above Nothing can overcome love but Love love of earthly things but the Love of heavenly things as nothing can fetch out fire like fire O when we do love all these things for God we will willingly leave them all to go to God for whose sake only we valued them Otherwise you will find it an hard pluck to leave them even like the plucking the Skin off your hand whereas the heart that is mortified to them can part with them as easily as you can draw the glove off your hand How readiâ—… did 〈◊〉 gâ—… up into the mount and dye what little noise or dispute did Iacob or David or Paul make about leaving â—…he world They were dead to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that said I am ready to be offerâ—… had said before the world is crucified to me and I unto â—…he world So that the Aged person should be mortified to Life it self he should be very well content to dy It was a sad Confession of Caesar Borgia that ambitious Grandee when he was near his end that he was prepar'd for every occurrent but Death which was the only thing that he should have been most ready for But 't is Grace not years that makes us dead to
or be hurt by it We must drink this Cup and therefore it is all the reason in the world that we should take some foretasts of it especially considering the sequele of it that it sets us on an everlasting shore It 's time for Old people to bethink them well sith a Crown or Flames are just before them When you sit trimming the fire ponder this whether you can indure the fire that is unquenchable when you lift up those dazled eyes towards Heaven consider what title you have to the blessed Mansions there What have you to do below your traffick now should be in Invisibles you have studied long enough how to live at length you should study how to dy These Meditations are certainly of great Excellence and of great Use. Better it is to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Eccl. 7. 2. 'T is more pleasant indeed to go to the house of feasting how gladly do people go that way but it is better to go to the house of mourning for there we see what is the end of all men and so the living will lay something that 's useful to his heart These thoughts will quicken any rational man to do and get all the good he can while he is on this side the line of Eternity The less a poor Old creature can do about the affairs of this life the more he should endeavour to do about that better life These presentiating thoughts of Death will make us careful and conscionable in all our wayes as seeing that Change alwayes at hand I write this Letter saith Seneca with such a mind as if Death were to call me away before I have done and being ready to go the less I value Life the more comfortably I enjoy it For as the same Authour saith in another place Theirs is the most anxious life that forget what 's past neglect what 's present and are afraid of what 's to come For certainly they that forget their past sins and neglect their present duty have cause to fear their reckoning to come As on the the other side he that having an inlightned and sensible Conscience can think of Death without disturbance hath made a good progress in Religion And yet if Death were only the finishing of Life these Thoughts about it were not so necessary or considerable but we are assured of an Everlasting Life immediately following that the extremest happiness or misery commences thereupon which also never ends Now what Thoughts or cares can be so momentous as those about our endless Glory or Torment Sit down then compose your selves to this Meditation draw a Curtain over all this present World and your Concerns therein and open a window into Eternity and by Faith look steadily into it Look Upward first and survey those blessed Mansions that glorious Company the sweet Imployment the unconceivable Injoyment the transcendent Bliss of Body and Soul in the full Fruition of God to all Eternity And will not these Meditations nullifie all the faint and fading comforts of this Life will they not cause you to trample under foot the Pleasures of sin that are but for a season will they not easily wean you from your dearest Relations upon Earth will they not carry you with longing desires to injoy the beatifical Vision will you not cry out with Augustine Can no man see thy face and live O let me dy then to see thy face Again look Downward into that Bottomless Pit and by faith behold the desperate condition of the Damned lay your Ear to the Key-hole of Hell and hearken a while to the weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth there Consider the torments of a roaring Conscience the fury of exasperated Devils the unspeakable racks and tortures of wofull Bodies which must be as much beyond what the most cruel Malice can invent or act as the Almighty and just indignation of God exceeds the weak and finite wrath of Man And these to continue during the innumerable spaces of an unconceivable Eternity and the Aged man must conclude that there is no other way for him to take at Death but into one of these Receptacles and that he may justly expect by reason of his Age very shortly to determine this point that he is even at the door that he hangs over this Etenity by a slender twist which is now almost fretted through and that before a few weeks or days are come he must go the way whence he shall not return What agitations of heart would these Meditations produce in us what diligence in making our Calling and Election sure what contempt of all the World what detestation of the sweetest sins In short the Thoughts of Eternity would effectually disgrace the trifles of Time and prepare the Aged for the injoyment of it How comes it then to pass that we are so backward to the thoughts of Death and the World to come The truth is it is not gratefull to Flesh and Blood. Hence when thousands died in the Wilderness which should probably of it self have made impressions on the rest yet then Moses finds it needfull to beg of God Psal. 90. 12. So teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom Alas we find that we can think on any Person in the world rather than of God and of any Thing in the world rather than of our Soul and of any part of our Lives rather than of Death and of any place in the world rather than of Heaven But should Flesh and Blood be gratified rather than our Maker our Redeemer our Comforter our own Souls God forbid How many unpleasant doses do we take to preserve or recover the health of the body But here the health and happiness both of body and soul are concerned I may boldly say that Death will prove a bitter Cup to those that live at ease and that will make no acquaintance with it before it seize upon them We are surpriz'd with any thing that is altogether new but frequent converse maketh the most fearfull Objects familiar Walk then into the place of Skulls make room for your Coffin in your Chambers or in your Minds and call before you all the solemn Circumstances of your own Funerals and step now and then into the other world by holy Meditation Your natural Eye growes dim open then the Eye of Faith and penetrate into things unseen You cannot work but you can think your sleeps are broken but then you may have golden hours When you have various discomforts below you may have hereby unspeakable comfort above yea this will inure you unto and begin that blessed life which you hope to live for ever He that thus travels often to Heaven while he lives will more certainly and comfortably be lodged there for ever when he dies SECT X. THE Tenth and last Work of Old-age