again And especially if they have had plenty and prosperity in the course of their lives their straits losses and troubles now aggravate their affliction Now to Mitigate these Pressures we must know 1. That these Crosses are common to all As they do not infallibly attend all Aged persons for many have fair weather all their journey long so they befall all mankind indifferently in every part of life If these be Miseries there 's no mortal man without his Misery We are in this World as Israel was in the Wilderness who had no day without a Cloud but then they had no night without a glympse of light Where dwells the man or of what Cloth is his coat made who hath not met with straits and with vexations that hath not buried many of his Relations and Friends so that we must quarrel with every age as well as Old-age yea with the Providence of God by this argument 2. These Crosses and Losses are absolutely Hurtful to none They are not properly and intirely Evils Criminal evils are real Evils poenal Evils are not so These fluunt a summo bono are inflicted by Him that is eminently Good ducunt ad summum bonum they guide and help us towards the greatest Good erant in summo Bono they were upon him who was intirely Good. Prosperity hath but Adversity hath never hurt a good man. Yea some of the Heathens have been bold to judge those men miserable that have never met with any troubles They are our Physick which may disturb us but Sin is our Poyson which will destroy us The bitterest Physick is better than the sweetest Poyson 3. They are Useful to those that are good Though they be briars thorns and thistles in themselves yet by the blessing of God they prove sweet-bryars and holy-thistles to holy men How many things do we count Evil that are most wholsom for us They Exercise our Faith our Wisdom our Patience and the tryal of these is more precious than of fine gold They teach us as was said of Diseases many lessons more effectually than the Word it self without them can do The Chyrurgeon and the Executioner do both bind men but to different Ends the one doth it to bereave of life the other to preserve it When the good man is bound in fetters and holden in cords of affliction Then the Lord sheweth them their work and their transgressions that they have exceeded He openeth also their ears to discipline Job 36. 8 9. 4. These Crosses and Afflictions are most fit for Old men They are or should be â—…ost strong to bear them they have 〈◊〉 a long Summer to lay up for a sharp Winter If they have not stored up a great deal of Faith and Patience they have slept in harvest They also have been trained and inur'd to them before this time of day by long experience They have received much good at the hands of the Lord and therefore may the better receive evil As Cato in Tully answers Caecilius who objected this against Old-age that living long a man sees many displeasing and uncomfortable events Yea said he and perhaps many comfortable things also But the true and only Remedy against this Inconvenience is Faith and Patience which the wise God hath largely prescribed in the 11th and 12th Chapters of the Hebrews By these a sound Christian shall not only bear these Onsets but overcome them and adorn the hoary head with trophies We cannot saith a Foreigner to Christianity change the course of things but we can take a good heart a masculine spirit to bear sad accidents with substantial courage and to be reconciled to Providence And presently again It is our best way to abide what we cannot amend and to attend God without murmuring from whom all ailments come for it is an ill Soldier that follows his Commander grumbling But we have a more sure word of prophecy Rom. 8. 28. All things mark it all things work together for good to them that love God that are called according to his purpose Which blessed word if it be understood believed and considered and our love to God and effectual calling evinced is alone able Gods spirit accompanying it to settle quiet and comfort our hearts under all troubles whatsoever Let it therefore be the chief care of all Aged Persons to make their calling and election sure to strengthen their Faith in God and by their hope to travel into the other World for then only will our afflictions feel light while we look not at things seen but at things unseen The thoughts of the grave will mortifie us to things seen and the thoughts of the Countrey beyond the grave will realize the unseen World and then our troubles will be easie and our crosses blessings The sight of the approaching shore will make an Aged Person bear the present storms with chearfulness knowing that he shall shortly be well either under Heaven or in Heaven None of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self so that I may finish my course with joy Act. 20. 24. SECT VII THE Seventh Inconvenience that is charged on Old-age is That it is attended with Contempt Old People commonly are despis'd especially when they are not supported with good Estates Most People avoid them and treat them as superfluous Creatures For the generality of men do value others not for their Wisdom or real Vertue but either for some likeness of disposition or some usefulness Now the Ancient are not by the disparity of their years so complaisant nor by their disability so helpful as heretofore and thereupon they are contemned by younger people Especially also when they are grown decrepit and confin'd to their chairs or chambers then are they an eye-sore to their successors who secretly wish them well in Heaven or any where out of their way upon Earth It is too evident how unpleasing their groans their coughing and their other weaknesses are They that can brook the peevishness and the uncleanliness of their Children cannot bear with it in their Parents All their former parts and pains are forgotten and they are beheld as last years Almanacks wholly out of date Now this is a sore Affliction and touches man or woman to the quick For such as have been regarded and reverenced to be neglected and despised grates even the most ingenuous spirits Iob 29. 30. Unto me men gave ear and waited and kept silence at my counsel but now they that are younger than I have me in derision they abhor me they flee from me c. Miserrimum est fuisse felicem The respects and honour that one hath formerly had makes his present contempt more intolerable Not but that a good man is satisfied with himself but he is aware that hereby he is rendred unuseful to others For when the Person is despised his Example nor his Counsel let them be never so profitable will be regardable or useful He passes for
Holy course doth contribute to this end 1. In a Natural way And that 1. By Mortifying and discarding those Sins which do more directly hurt the Body Such are those Passions and Excesses above-named such is Anger Envy Covetousness Ambition and many such like which like wind in the Intrails of the Earth do rend and shatter it I think there is no Sin whatsoever but it hath a malignant influence upon the Body either to disorder and inflame it or to macerate and dispirit it Now the Fear of God obliges a man not only to restrain but to pluck up all such by the Roots Those are the Weeds which both rob the sweet Flowers of their nourishment and also depauperate the soil where they grow which being cast out the whole man fares the better after them And 2. True Piety refresheth the Body with the Comforts of a good Conscience That Peace that Hope that Joy which result from a Conscience that is pacifi'd by the Blood and purified by the Spirit of Christ do most efficaciously cherish the whole man they daily feast him This is that merry Heart that is called a continual feast Prov. 15. 15. And that doth good like a Medicine Prov. 17. 22. There is that Intimacy between the Soul and the Body that whatsoever refresheth the one doth also cheer the other Whereupon the Learned have judged that Hope Love and Ioy are great prolongers of Life by the influence which these have upon the Humours and Spirits in the Body much more when these Affections have heavenly and eternal things for their Object and the Holy Scripture speaks that way when it saith Prov. 19. 23. The fear of the Lord tendeth to Life and he that hath it shall abide satisfied 3. True Piety is the best Preservative against Old-age in a Spiritual way to wit by Procuring the Blessing of God. For when the Body is consecrated to him and imployed for him we may expect it to be blessed by him it is under his peculiar care and Providence When it is united to Iesus Christ it will receive influence from Him for its good So that true Religiousness tho it more immediately tend to the recovery and felicity of the Soul yet it is really most friendly also to the Body He that feareth God and walketh in his ways shall see his Childrens Children Psal. 128. last And on the other hand all those destroying and life-shortning Diseases mention'd Deut. 28. 27. 61. even every sickness and every plague are denounced to the ungodly And fully Eccl. 8. 12 13. Tho a Sinner do Evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know it shall be well with them that fear God which fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shadow because he feareth not before God. Therefore you that would protract the time of your flourishing strength learn to love and fear God devote your selves to him bestow your Hearts upon him imploy your time and strength to please and honour him abide not in a State of ungodliness rest not with a form of Godliness but resolve upon that Real Holiness which will produce a long and happy life in this World and a longer and happier life in a better 2. The Second Preservative against Old-age which indeed is contained in the former is Temperance and Sobriety I mean that gracious Vertue which retains the Sensitive Appetite within the bounds of Reason and Religion whereby we keep a Mediocrity in the use of Meats both in respect to their Quantity neither loading nor pining the Stomack and in respect of their Quality neither debauching it by too much Variety nor injuring it by things noxious The same care in Drinks lest the Quality of them be pernicious or the Quantity of them prejudicial That the Marriage-bed be moderately used so that the vital Spirits be not exhausted Now mans sinful Nature above all other Creatures inclines to excess in all these and it is pleasant to the Flesh but it is the pleasure of poyson At last they bite like a Serpent and sting like an Adder Prov. 23. 32. not the Soul only but the Body They do insensibly but infallibly weaken nature disorder the Harmony of the parts breed the most fatal distempers and render him as we may daily observe old in infirmities that is but young in years So that if they who give themselves up to Gluttony Drunkenness or Lasciviousness did truly love their own Souls or yet their own Bodies they would bridle their unruly Appetites for their own sakes and not pay so dear for that which must be repented of And as a plain and even way is much more delectable than always to be going up Hill and down so certainly there is a thousand times more ease and sweetness in an even and temperate course than in the perpetual unevenness of intemperance How should that body hold out that is daily clogg'd and inflam'd with preternatural excesses The intemperate man is constantly feeding an Enemy whom it is charity to starve and deals with his Body as the Ape who is said to hugg her young to death Whereas a wise Sobriety is health to the Navel and marrow to the Bones by it the Humours the Blood the Spirits are all maintain'd in order and in vigour His meals are pleasant and his sleep is sweet and he is a Stranger to those crudities and consequent distempers which pester others Thus Plato by his careful temperance spun out his life tho a great Student till he attain'd above fourscore and Galen to above sevenscore years and Seneca concludes that there is no way to retard Old-age like a frugal Sobriety Let me then persuade all such as are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God or of their own Souls to have some pity on their poor Bodies O break off your destructive Course sow not the Seeds of consuming Maladies in your own Flesh. Be not among Wine-bibbers amongst riotous eaters of Flesh. Put a Knife to thy Throat if thou be a man given to Appetite Prov. 23. 1. 20. Give not your Strength unto Women nor your ways to that which destroyeth Kings Prov. 31. 3. Let not the Beast captivate the Man nor your Reason be enslav'd by Sense but recover a just dominion over your blind and brutish affections that your days may be long and lively in the Land which the Lord giveth you If it be here Objected that the most Religious and temperate persons grow old as soon as others It is Answered that tho in these external things all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked yet every wise man will take the likeliest course for the blessing he desires Tho some Children that have had no good Education nor good Example have afterward proved eminent men yet who but a desperate man will hereupon resolve I will take no care about the
of Temperance and Sobriety And that both for Others sakes and for your Own. You should be examples O be not stumbling Blocks to younger people Your vices may propagate when your persons are past it and those that are Eye or Ear-witnesses of your follies may derive the practice of them to the Child that is yet unborn and altho you may recover by true Repentance yet they may stumble upon you and fall and never rise again Entail not a Curse upon your Posterity do not nourish in them that natural depravation which in equity you ought rather to cure And for your Own sake be sober be vigilant for you are upon the confines of the everlasting World a World wherein all sensual enjoyments will be for ever out of date endeavour to go off the Stage without a Blemish When some Courtiers were sent to S r Fr. Walsingham being sick and sad to make him merry God said he is serious in his Law Iesus Christ was serious in his Death the Holy Ghost is serious in his dealing with our Souls all in Heaven and Hell are serious and shall a Man that hath one Foot in the Grave Laugh and Iest Take warning by poor Noah One hours Drunkenness discovered that which Six hundred years Sobriety had concealed If his inexperience did in any degree excuse him you can make no such pretence If you have any regard to the Health and Vigour of your Bodies to the quiet and welfare of your Souls to the pleasing and honouring of God bridle your appetite and check the pleasures of your Senses In short there is as we observed before no better way to spin out your lives to make Old-age pleasant and Death easie than the exercise of this Vertue The instance of Cornaro a learned and rich Venetian is common that with a sparing and orderly Diet lived to a great Age with little inconvenience To deny a mans self is the way to please himself at length and by opposing the preternatural desires of the Body we contribute to the true happiness even of the Body it self And here comes in the use and exercise of Mortification wherein tho a wise man may make some steps yet the work cannot be done without the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. Implore therefore the aid of this good Spirit who can make you mortally to hate that which you now do ardently love and will pluck up the roots of that whereof Morality doth only shave the Hair. Set the Spectacle of Death oft before you and of that endless Estate to which you are such near Neighbours and think how unsuitable a vain life is to a serious Death Be much in Prayer and if need be add Fasting thereunto that your moderation may be known unto all men seeing undoubtedly to Old people The Lord is at hand SECT VII THE Seventh Grace proper for Old-age is Charity or Love. Not that sensual or carnal Love which is proper or rather common to Youth and which hath long since dropt off like Leaves in the Autumn of their Age but that Grace which disposeth the Heart to think the best the Tongue to speak the best and the whole man to promote the Welfare of Others The Seat or chief Mansion of this is the Heart which being filled with this Grace it is diffused every way and the whole man is tinctur'd with it It obligeth a man to Think the best of every man. Charity thinketh no evil believeth all things hopeth all things beareth all things By this we are ready to account the Certain good things in Others better than they are the certain Evils in others less than they are the good that is but doubtful in others certain and doubtful Evils none And it rests not in Opinion but works by Desire whereby the Heart doth unfeignedly desire the Temporal Spiritual and Eternal good of all men Neither doth it rest there but shews it self in Endeavour and that both by Word and Deed speaking To them Of them For them to God and man what may conduce thereunto in their Lips is the Law of kindness Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly is not easily provoked 1 Cor. 13. 5. Neither will Words satisfie it but doth actually help and cheerfully succour every Body as their occasion requires and his own ability extends And in this Grace doth every good Old Man and Woman excell This was the eminent Grace of the Evangelist Iohn in his Old-age for he lived longer than any of the Apostles and his Swan-like Song still was Love as is evident in all his Epistles yea some Church Historians affirm that when he could go no longer by reason of his Age into the Christian Assemblies yet he was instant to be led or carried there where the substance of what he was able to say was little Children love one another And you may find how pathetical was Paul the Aged in his tender charity to Onesimus Philem. 9. Being such a one as Paul the Aged for loves sake I beseech thee for my Son Onesimus And this Spirit did continue in the Ancient Christians in the Primitive times who loved as Tertullian tells us as Brethren and were ready to dye for one another We that did hate one another saith Iustin Martyr now do live familiarly together and do pray for our Enemies In all Ages as men have increased in Piety they have increased in Charity and come to relent of their rigour and keenness It was Age Experience and Consideration as well as a Prison that melted Bishop Ridley to accost his Brother Hooper in this manner However in some by-matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my Simplicity hath a little jarred yet now I sincerely love and imbrace you You know Rehoboams Old Counsellours were for lenity when the young were stern and furious It 's true the natural tempers or painful distempers may incline some Old people to too much Acrimony yet all Aged people that are considerate have taken more degrees in Charity than young people have It was an Old man in Gibeah that had more of this Grace than all the City besides Iudg. 19. 16. For besides the advantage they have had of Gods holy Ordinances the Scope whereof is to increase our Faith and Love they have found by experience that the Life and Soul of Religion lies not in these lesser matters that have caused the greatest noise in the World that every difference in Religion makes not a different Religion so that wheresoever they see any thing of Christ these they love Their Consciousness of their own mistakes and of their own imperfections hath forced them to more charitable thoughts of others They have observed that true Grace hath lived in the midst of great infirmities yea they have found this Flower in divers persons where they thought there had been nothing but
VVeeds Being conversant most at home in their own Souls they have in their long experience discovered so much Vanity and Iniquity there that they are are very charitable Iudges of all other persons They grow like the famous Pliny who so past by others offences as if himself had been the greatest offender and yet was so severe to himself as if he would pardon no body their Charity covers a multitude of Sins In short their Age and Afflictions have so happily humbled them that they are ready to esteem every one better than themselves and so they are far from that uncharitable Censoriousness which tears mens Names in pieces and keeps up a continual civil War among mankind And then for other Acts of Charity who should be more ready to Give a part than they that know they must shortly leave the whole who should be good in his Stewardship but he that is sure he must shortly be out of it But the noblest Charity is that which respects the Soul which consists in Counselling Perswading Reproving and Praying for Others And Old-age is evidently qualified for these above the young Their Wisdom and Authority gives them a great advantage herein and they have found by experience that sometimes a word of good Counsel and charitable Reproof fitly spoken hath been like Apples of Gold. And then for Prayer it is observed that the Charity of young persons therein doth begin and end at themselves whereas the Prayers of the Aged are much imployed for the good of others Few Children pray for their Parents as the Parents pray for their Children Yea they have learned to love and pray for their Enemies as well as for their Friends and for the ungodly as well as for the godly And the poorest Old Man or Woman may be rich in these acts of Charity Therefore as ye abound in every thing in faith in utterance and knowledge see that ye abound in this Grace of Charity also It is the Apostles Exhortation 2 Cor. 8. 7. We use to say that in Winter the natural heat retreats inward and there resides about the vital parts ye that are in the winter quarter of your life let this warm Grace dwell richly in your Hearts and then it will influence all your words and actions It is the Image of God for God is Love it is the fulfilling of the Law and it is the great command of the Gospel and tho you have Knowledge Faith Wisdom Riches c. yet if you have not Charity you are nothing You are going out of the World now is your time to exercise this Grace In the World where you are going there will be no infirmities to cover no poor to relieve no injuries to forgive no ignorant persons to instruct no miserable Creature to pray for and you have but a short time for these imployments Yea perhaps you are reprieved all this while for these Services and to be useful in these and such like ways is the greatest happiness on Earth it is the next step to eternal Glory Yea nothing should hire an Old person or make him content to live out of Heaven with such a Body of Sin about him but only that they may do God and Man that service which cannot be done in Heaven And for the obtaining this sweet Grace the Scripture tells us that it is a Fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. and there it is ranked in the first place It must be sought then in the Word of God which is the vehicle of the Spirit where it being carefully read and heard we shall find an account of the infinite love of God to us and of the stupendous love of Christ. There we shall discern how nearly we are related to all men especially to all Christians and how unnatural it is for one hand to be unkind to the other And in short we shall there find that Love and Charity is still the Character of good men and hatred and uncharitableness of the bad And you must beg this Grace of God that the Spirit of Love would plant this Grace of Love in your Hearts You will feel your hearts warming as you are praying and the Lord will fill you with this Charity which is the bond of perfectness And so I have done with the Vertues and Excellencies of Old-age Whereby you may perceive that all Old things are not to be cast away But as Old Wood is best to burn Old Wine best to drink Old Authors best to read and Old Friends best to trust so Old People if they have improved their Time aright are good for something yea are eminently good for their Knowledge for their Faith for their Wisdom for their Patience for their Stedfastness for their Temperance and for their Charity And so much for the Fourth Point concerning Old-age viz. The Graces most proper for it CHAP. V. The Inconveniences of Old-age I Am come now in the Fifth place to examine the Inconveniences and Disadvantages of Old-age adding withall somewhat towards the Mitigation thereof as I pass along Some here set themselves with immoderate vehemence to cry down Old-age and to load it with such intolerable Miseries as might affright one And to this purpose they muster all the Evils which are either the effect of mens Vices or other separable Accidents of their Age and put all these upon its score to inflame the reckoning Insomuch that some of the Old Philosophers took upon them to quarrel with Providence for giving man Life and thereby involving him in a continual state of misery And all this partly out of their Ignorance of mans Primitive happiness and woful fall and partly out of their dim-sightedness about his endless felicity about all which material points they lived in great uncertainty Others on the Contrary have been ready so to mince the matter as if there were nothing in Old-age but what is desirable guilding its hairs and smoothing all its wrinkles as if the Spiritual advantage did annihilate the corporal burdens The truth dwells as I conceive between these extremes And it must be granted that as the dreggs of the purest Wines are left in the bottom so Old-age hath many Inconveniences peculiar to it for which cause those dayes are called Evil dayes wherein the man hath no pleasure or with which he is greatly displeased Eccles. 12. 1. But yet the same Old-age hath divers Priviledges to ballance them and their pressures are not properly Miseries because there is abundance of Comfort and Benefit which mitigate them We have an Elegant Description of many of them in that Twelfth Chapter of Ecclesiastes vers 2 3 c. Then the Sun and the Light and the Moon and the Stars will be darkned that is all Outward Comfort or Prosperity whether by Day or by Night will be eclypsed and withdrawn from us And the clouds will return after the rain that is one bodily Distemper and outward Trouble will successively follow another Then
youth produces a loathsome Age. As the Thief in the Candle wasts it more than the Flame so any Intemperance or Incontinence doth wast the Strength and Beauty more than years Neither is Old-age alone subject to these Evils For one Weeks Sickness to which Youth is as lyable as Old-age will ruine your Strength and spoil your Beauty as much as twenty years time can do How many are crippled in their Youth how commonly doth the Small-pox disfigure their beauty David himself complains Psal. 102. 23. He weakened my strength in the way he shortned my dayes And he cries O my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes So that these Decayes must not be impropriated to Old-age any Age may be afflicted with them as well as that Neither is this Loss so insupportable if we consider the true Nature and Value of these Mercies They are but bodily accomplishments they are not the endowments of the Soul. Many Brutes surpass the youngest in Strength and many Flowers surpass them in Beauty Why should I saith Cato in Tully now more desire the strength of a Young man than I should when young desire the strength of a Bull or Lyon There is the like absurdity in both these desires Or as he saith in another place we may as reasonably in our Youth call back the State of Childhood which few will do as in Old-age to expect the Strength and Beauty of youth which is past and gone You have if it be not your own fault the Priviledges proper to your Age and according to the Old Observation it is far better to want the strength of Milo than the Wisdom of Pythagoras Every Age hath its peculiar Talent to have them in perfection is not to be expected upon Earth We should be Thankful for the Strength and Features we have had and bewail our abuse of them and conclude 'T is well that all our Comforts have not left us together But the great support under these defects is As the outward man perisheth to find the inward man renewed day by day what the River loseth on the one side it gaineth on the other and then all 's well enough the inward man is the better man. Let strength and beauty go sith they will not stay strive that you may be Strong in Grace and Beautiful within Those things may make you acceptable unto Men but these will render you lovely both unto God and to all wise men When you can say with him in the Poet tho my foot be slower yet my mind is swifter When Severus the Emperour was sick of the Gout at York he was asked by one of his Nobles how he being so Lame could rule so vast an Empire he told him that he rul'd the Empire with his Brain not with his Feet While the Head and Heart are strong it passeth less how it fares with the Arms and Legs Faith Hope and Charity are Beauties that will not fade and the decays of the Body do by the blessing of God further the true vigour of the Soul. For the Soul is a distinct Substance and as the House may be battered by a Tempest and yet the Inhabitant merry in 't all the while so an holy Soul may prosper very well tho the Body be lame and crazy And this Decrease of Strength and Beauty are very useful to awaken the Soul from that Lethargy which is natural to it they deprive us only of that which is the fewel of our Lusts and of our security Our strength hath not weaned us from the World God will try what feebleness will do Briskness and Beauty hath been a snare these being removed perhaps He may now speak with you and be heard When you have seen an end of all perfection then hee 'l shew you that his Commandments are exceeding broad Psal. 119. 96. SECT III. A Third Inconvenience upon Old people is That they are weakned in their Faculties Their Apprehensions dull their Phantasy barren their Memories broken and their Affections dry Formerly they could have penetrated into things they could have learn'd any thing now they are so clouded that they fumble at the plainest things They could have soar'd by their Fancy and coin'd variety of notions which they found to be a great help to their devotion and otherwise but their Invention now is grown poor and their Notions flat But the most sensible loss is of their Memory whereby formerly they could have produced things both new and old but now their Memory is so wofully shattered that this day forgets what yesterday said and did O the excellent things that they have heard and read and now they are like water spilt on the Ground no notices left that ever such things had been within Time was their Love and Zeal for God and their Hatred to Sin was strong as Death and ardent as the Coals of Fire which hath a most vehement flame many waters could not quench it Their holy Ioys and Sorrows were transcendent penitential Tears were frequent with them But now their Hearts are cold and their Eyes are dry These Wheels of the Soul are gone and thereby their motion is sadly interrupted Now this manifest stroke upon their Faculties is a very sensible Inconvenience The Decay of the Outward man might be someway tolerable but this inward Decay sinks their Spirits When holy David said Psal. 6. 2. My bones are vexed his distress was great but when he adds in the next verse my Soul also is sore vexed his case was more lamentable What comfort can a man have when his Apprehension is grown blunt What 's a Knife good for when the mettle is gone When a man can attain little and retain nothing The deficiency of these is a great impediment in all humane affairs but of greater consequence in Religious matters The Communion which the Soul hath with God is in the Word and Prayer How disconsolate must the Heart be when one can remember almost nothing of what he reads or hears When his affections flagg and his words freeze in Prayer Why he thinks he has lived long enough he feels himself more than half dead already The House is left standing but all the rich Furniture is gone and what can be said to mitigate this misery or to reconcile any body to Old-age To stop any further Impatience Consider 1. That this great Decay in the Faculties doth not befall every Aged person Divers there are and have been that retain the free use of their Faculties till they dye How many doth Tully name as Simonides Stesichorus Isocrates Hesiod Homer Pythagoras Democritus Socrates Plato c. who lived long and yet continued a course of Studies as long as their life And he tells us there particularly of Sophocles whose Sons accused him for a Dotard in his Old-age till he before the Iudges repeated the Tragedy of Oedipus which he had newly written and so was by them acquitted And Seneca tells of himself
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
felicity in Heaven that no Sin lodgeth there and the Aged person is hastning thither and consequently strives to break this Yoke and fit himself for that Estate As the pleasures he hath had in these is gone so his desires after them are gone also He now finds that there is more Satisfaction in not desiring them than there is in enjoying of them and so is far from being grieved at his releasement from those Shackles He would not live over again his sinful life for all the world and he is concern'd not because they are past but because at any time they had dominion Yea he finds more real content in his Poenitential Tears than ever he had in his Youthful Frolicks with what contempt doth he behold the Debaucheries the Duels and the frothy Follies of the roaring Sparks which they triumph in as in an Heaven upon Earth But he hath fathom'd them and found them empty as vanity and filthy as the Mire He now believes what he had often heard that the pleasures of Sin are but like a golden dream which leave nothing but Pensiveness behind them till God upon his repentance restore unto him the joys of his Salvation Now the Varnish of his Sin is worn off he sees the filthy and ugly nature of it and wonders that any rational person should ever love it He is now frighted at the remembrance of those Pranks that he formerly committed without remorse and in short he is well pleased that he hath a weak body instead of his strong corruption and is ready with that excellent Philosopher to count his Old-age his flourishing age because he only finds his Vices and the fewel of them withered and that his mind began now to be freed from the Snares wherein it was held by the Body c. Let every Aged person labour to find these blessed Effects and so be content with the fall of that House which was continually haunted with such Furies But take heed of being only Passive in this parting these Fires should not only go out of themselves but should be quenched by true Mortification It is not sufficient that Sin be dead in you but you must be dead to it you must be Active in the Crucifixion of it or else the Corruption of one vice will be the Generation of another If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. SECT IV. THE Fourth Priviledge of Old-age is That it is Proner to Piety True and solid Piety is the Dominion of Gods Fear and Love in the Heart of Man and exerts its self in the constant Practice of all the Duties of Religion in a conscientious manner For in Religion there is a Body and a Soul. The Body of it consists in the Form of Godliness the Soul of it is that which animates all the outward Acts and is fitly called the Power of Godliness for that the Activity and force of any thing proceeds from the Soul or inward Principle Now the separating this form and power of Godliness like as that of the Soul and Body is the death of Godliness And therefore though we prefer the Soul or inside of Religion yet we divorce it not from the Body but do take Piety in it's just Latitude comprehending the Acts of Devotion from a right principle in a right manner and to a right end and expressing it self in a sober righteous and godly life And however the prophane Atheist may wickedly deride it on the one hand or the rotten Hypocrite falsly pretend it on the other yet there is a wonderful excellency in it and an absolute necessity of it even the Consciences of it's greatest Enemies first or last being Iudges To this serious Piety Old-age is more propense than any other age of man. Insomuch as we find divers in Scripture and other Stories bent for Heaven in their declining years who in the former parts of their lives minded nothing but the World and the Flesh. They whom no Perswasions no Ordinances no Afflictions could fully reduce to the obedience of Christ yet the lively sense and feeling of their own decay and of their approach to the eternal Judgment obligeth them to true repentance and to make their calling and election sure So that it hath pass'd for an Observation that they who are not fair at twenty strong at thirty wise at forty rich at fifty pious at sixty are never like to be fair or strong or wise or rich or religious When any man is warn'd out of the House he lives in laying aside all other unnecessary business he sets himself to provide another Habitation Now every decay of strength of sense every gray Hair or Wrinkle is a sensible warning out of the earthly House of his Tabernacle and he must be strangely stupid that buckles not in good earnest to provide for his Soul when not only it may suddenly but must shortly go either to Heaven or Hell. These kind of Sentiments caused that learned Grotius to profess when he approached Death that he would gladly exchange all his Learning and Honour for the plain integrity of one Iean Urick who was a devout poor man that spent eight hours of his time in Devotion eight in Labour and but eight in Sleep and all other Refreshments So also that great States-man S t Tho. Smith Secretary of State to Q. Elizabeth some time before he fell sick sent for Directions to two Bishops how he might live most piously and make his peace with God Besides all the unruly Passions being now cooled by time and years Reason obtains a fair hearing and the Spirit of God gets a compleat victory over the Heart that had resisted so long Even as a City which hath been long besieg'd and often summoned to surrender yet stands it out till provisions begin to fail and that the defender of it sees the Walls terribly shaken and then he finds it high time to capitulate and deliver it so Almighty God calls and cryes and knocks time after time at the sinners Heart but it is heedless of these calls it 's feasted and filled with the Vanities of this present life but when it finds all the Fabrick ready to fall upon it's Head and no provision made for a future and eternal State it is high time to be getting Oyl and laying up a good foundation for the time to come And for those who have been well disposed before yet Old-age is a great Incentive to greater holiness As a Man in sailing saith Mr. Bradford the nearer he comes to the Shore the nearer he would be so the nearer I am to God the nearer still I would be A person of years must needs have a more clear and comprehensive knowledge of the Doctrine and Duties of Christianity of the life of Faith of Mortification of the extent of the Divine Law of the Nature and Power of Godliness and having more leisure and being somewhat retired out of
you when this life is ended Now you may feed the poor cloath the naked redeem the captive incourage learning promote Soul-saving Preaching c. Are you any other than Gods Stewards and poor Christians poor Tradesmen poor Scholars poor Ministers are Gods Assigns to whom he appoints you to do good out of his stock in your hand according to your ability and their necessity You do but draw Bills upon Almighty God by every good Work which he will most faithfully and fully pay in the Kingdom of Heaven I omit the Story of Synesius our blessed Saviour hath said enough to perswade us if we be not Infidels from that Parable of the unjust Steward Luk. 16. where he thus concludes ver 9. Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Consider now before it be too late what a sad prospect it will be for you on your death-bed to review the book of a life wherein is nothing but Blots transgressions on the one side of the page and Blanks omissions of good on the other Bethink your selves therefore which way you may yet do some good in the world Do not live do not dye to your selves poor Christ in his members begs of you to remember him Oblige him here in the Countrey and he will befriend you at the Court. Whilst you have opportunity do good unto all especially to the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10. your opportunity will shortly be over and past yet you have something to give and some body to give unto but if you refuse or delay it shortly you will have nothing to give no body to relieve And remember Gods Counsel 2 Cor. 9. 6. He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully I urge you not to undoe your selves by doing good to others but that ye be ready willing and rich in good works according to the talents wherewith you are intrusted And this will be a good Proof that your Faith is sound when you can part with present and visible things upon the word and promise of an Invisible God for future things which are unseen And if the circumstances of your Estate will bear it let me prevail with you to make your own Eyes your Overseers and your own hands your Executors For though I would not discourage any one from making pious or charitable Bequests in their Wills by bewailing the uncertainty the abuse and loss of such intentions But the thing it self is no way so laudable or acceptable only to part with what we cannot keep it insinuates that if we could alwayes live we would never part with any thing whereby there is neither that Faith nor that Charity exercised which becomes a Christian. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due mark it is due to them when it is in the power of thine hand to do it Prov. 3. 27. You are just ready to travel into another Countrey take care to send something before you lest you lose both Earth and Heaven at once SECT IX THE Ninth Work of Old-age is Meditation of Death and Eternity Meditation in general is the application of our thoughts to some particular Subject which being imployed about things Holy becomes one of the parts of Inward Religion A most excellent and useful exercise and which greatly inriches the Soul It was a clear proof of the great sanctity of Davids heart that he was so frequent and familiar in this imployment sometimes on God sometimes on his Word sometimes on his Works both of Creation and of Providence c. O that we all had the Art of it the Heart of it for the heart is all Doubtless if our Love were stronger our meditation would be longer on these things for where the treasure is there the heart will dwell also I know some Constitutions of body are more capable of it than others but certainly the more the soul is sanctified that is mortified to things below and vivified to things above the more chearfully will it dwell upon spiritual things such as the Stomach is such food will it desire But among other useful Points The Aged is greatly concern'd to Meditate on Death and the endless Life after it which is to pencill out before the Eyes of his mind the time of his Departure the serious Circumstances and Consequences of it We should place our selves upon our Death-beds gasping there for breath our Friends ready to close our Eyes the dabbe of flegme ready to stop our breath and our Souls just forsaking the poor carkass When we look upon our hands and feet it should be attended with these thoughts that shortly they will be turn'd to rottenness that the worms will make furrows in our faces and feed upon our very hearts yea that we at present do breed and nourish the vermine that wait for to devour us that e're long we shall have nothing to do here our house and goods in the possession of those that would be affrighted to see us again that we must lodge a long time in the dark grave and the Soul must go into an unknown world and that unto all Eternity These are thoughts for Aged persons and not to be roving about things past to no purpose or contriving about things of this world to come This is in some sence to dy daily to wit by serious thoughts concerning our latter end The truth is this is a duty incumbent upon all Hence that saying Deut. 32. 29. O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end A Deaths-head is no unfit furniture for a young persons closet The serious apprehensions of the exceeding great change which Death will make would give a check to that wantonness worldliness and vain-glory which cleaves to us all by nature For Death observes not our humane order it is anomalous we are not called according to our Age it proceeds not according to our Registers Your considering of Death will not make you Older but Better But principally it concerns the Aged who live in the confines of the grave You should be acquainted with it for you are neighbour's to it It is one of the Spanish Proverbs That the Old mans Staff is the Rapper at Deaths-door When Cato would awaken the Roman Senate to level Carthage he brought in some green figs thence among them thereby to shew unto them how soon those their inveterate Enemies their distance being so small might be with a Fleet among them alas how small is the distance between an Old man and his grave Is it not reasonable therefore is it not necessary that we should be provided for this enemy and since we cannot escape it ought we not to be reconciled to it to be better acquainted with it yea and learn some way to overcome it And certainly the more we rightly think of it the less we shall fear it