Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
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A61390
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A discourse concerning old-age tending to the instruction, caution and comfort of aged persons / by Richard Steele ...
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Steele, Richard, 1629-1692.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing S5386; ESTC R34600
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148,176
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338
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days of her Youth wherein she had plaid the Harlot in the Land of Egypt Yea perhaps this guilt will be found in some respects greater than the first because it 's likely that then there was less knowledge and more temptation than now there is This contemplative wickedness nails on the former guilt and contracts more this demonstrates that the man would be always sinning if he could and that he is a meer stranger to true Repentance I deny not but that the first sudden glance of the memory upon former Vanities may be pleased but 't is only a surprize every pious Soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in it Thus Holy Augustine in his Confessions reflects upon his Robbing an Orchard in his younger days with all the heart-breaking Aggravations imaginable Thus Holy David cryes out Psal. 25. 7. Remember not the Sins of my Youth nor my Transgressions Labour you to write after their Copies let the remembrance of your former follies be always bitter never dwell upon the thoughts of them but with a Sigh O what a Fool what a Beast have I been O what have I done I am asham'd yea even confounded because I bear the reproach of my Youth Jerem. 31. 19. Make not the Wound to bleed again by rubbing it afresh lest it fester and grow incurable at length Let it appear some way that it is not want of power but want of will that makes you Sober A diligent care to avoid the Sins of your present Age and State will be a good proof that you would not commit the faults that are past if you were to live over your life again A better Life is the best Repentance And so much shall suffice upon this unpleasant but necessary Subject concerning the Sins of Old-age which as they should be matter of our hearty Grief so they should be the subject of our holy Iealousy and continual Caution For tho perhaps we may not be guilty in them all yet it is as unlikely that we are clear in all So that whereinsoever the Spirit of God hath in these Papers or otherwise found us out it is our indispensable duty to watch and pray with all seriousness and constancy against the same and tho they be rooted never so deep we must mortify and pluck them up tho we should they are grave Seneca's words pluck our very Hearts up with them For as one Disease is sufficient to kill the Body so any one Sin unmortified is able to send Body and Soul into Hell. On the other hand it will be one special token that we are upright before God when we keep our selves from our own Iniquity Psal. 18. 23. And yet this is but the one half of our bounden Duty For if you pluck up all the Weeds out of your Garden it will be but a desart place unless you procure some Herbs and Flowers therein so tho we should clear our Hearts of these Vices we shall have but naked and empty Souls unless we be furnished with such Graces as are proper for us which is the next point now to be treated of CHAP. IV. The Graces of Old-age SECT I. FOrasmuch as Old-age is liable to so many vicious Habits it greatly concerns all that are in Years to excell in some eminent Qualifications which may praeponderate the other or else Old-age would be a Miserable Age indeed Now tho we may well hope that they having been so long in Christs School have throughly learned Christ that they are indued with every Grace and instructed to every good work yet there be some Peculiar Graces wherein the Aged do or should excell Not that any of them is confined to Gray Hairs alone for as all the Sins above-mentioned may be found in those that are young so also the following Graces do apparently shine in many of them whereby they promise a plentiful Harvest in after-time if they hold on or mend For alas to speak the plain truth too few possess them all and too many are strangers to them all And therefore where I describe them with the following Excellencies understand it rather by way of Instruction in what they should be than by way of Assertion of what they are and you must remember also that the Denomination is à parte potiori the better sort have them and all should endeavour after them for since they are actually possessed by some they may be certainly obtained by all The First Grace most proper for Old-age is Knowledge They have or might have a great measure of all kind of Knowledge having read so much in the Book of Nature and in the Book of Providence But there is a nobler Object of their Knowledge which is God himself his Word and his Ways Herein the Aged person hath been versed for a long time 1 Ioh. 2. 13. I write unto you Fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning There is no Truth Duty Case Sin or Temptation but they have either heard or read something concerning it and that often and therefore must be supposed to have a more clear and distinct knowledge in all these things than younger people Young people think that they know much but Old people cannot chuse but sigh and smile at their ignorance They find that the more Knowledge they have the more Ignorance they discover in themselves and wherein they have been confident in their younger years they see cause to alter their sentiments afterwards For Knowledge is either Infused or Acquired by Study Reading and Converse In these the Aged must needs out-strip the Young as having been much longer conversant in the use of them and for the former the Holy Ghost doth commonly impart these Habits in the use of means and so every way the Old man hath the advantage in this accomplishment Now Knowledge is that wherein the Image of God partly consists it is the glory of Angels and it is the honour of Man. Those therefore were a strange sort of Friars in Italy that Luther writes of call'd Fratres Ignorantiae that took a solemn Oath that they would know nothing at all but answer to all questions with Nescio unless men were resolved to renounce both Divinity and Humanity at once No doubtless saving Knowledge is to the Soul as the Eye to the Body of great excellency and of great use 'T is this that Crowns the hoary head and conveys Beauty unto wrinkles Prov. 14. 18. The prudent are crowned with knowledge It s true many there are who have tasted of the Tree of Knowledge that have never tasted of the Tree of Life and knowledge of it self puffeth up so that a man may have all knowledge and yet no Charity 1 Cor. 13. 2. Yet as it is true there may be much knowledge without a grain of Grace so it is certain there cannot be one spark of Grace without Knowledge For how shall a Man know Sin unless he understand the Law of
posterity fear God they shall want no good thing they shall have enough but if they do not they will have too much God will be dishonoured and themselves undone for ever Neither will religious purposes of doing some Good with your Estates excuse your present penuriousness for that is to do evil that good may come of it Hear what God himself saith to this Isa. 61. 8. For I the Lord love judgment I hate robbery for a burnt Offering They that will part with nothing while they live nothing will be accepted from them when they dye Plead not your unspotted Justice Honesty and Equity against this charge as if a Man could not be covetous that meddles only with his own For tho fraud injustice and oppression be sometimes the Effects yet the Nature of covetousness stands in over-loving the World and so you may be damnably guilty of this Sin tho you keep you within the limits of your Estate For as a man may be guilty of uncleanness with his own Wife and be drunk with his own drink so a man may be covetous with his own Riches We do not find that the rich Fool Luk. 12. nor that the rich Glutton Luk. 16. did other folks wrong nor those on the left hand of Christ Mat. 25. that they robb'd the poor or wrong'd the needy but yet all guilty of this accursed vice Strive therefore to break this snare And to this end 1. Consider these few things namely The absolute Vanity of all these worldly things that is they are not able to satisfie the Mind or to cure the Body or to imbelish your Name or to lengthen the Life or to save the Soul and all this hath been prov'd and concluded by Solomon a King of vast knowledge and experience And their Vanity is yet further seen in their uncertainty there being an hundred ways to rend them from you and as many ways to rend you away from them And are they not vain then And why wilt thou set thine Eyes upon that which is not For riches certainly make themselves Wings they fly away as an Eagle toâ—…ards Heaven Prov. 23. 5. Consider again the End for which these things are bestowed upon you which is that you should imploy them and use them for him God doth hereby try you whether you will deny your self whether you will glorify him whether you will lay out your Talent or lay it up He makes some persons poor that he may exercise their patience and humility and others Rich to exercise their bounty and their charity In short Riches were never given to any man to spend upon his Lusts or to hoard them up without just cause but to do good withal first to your selves then to your Families and Relations and then to others when they are not thus imploy'd you utterly pervert the End for which you are intrusted with them Consider also that you are but Stewards in your Estates and you must give a just account of them to him All that you possess is His Stock only in your Hands it is not your own The Earth is the Lords and the fulness of it If you really believed this you would never pinch or grudge to your self or others that which is convenient For what is it to a Steward when his Lord and Master shall order him to abate so much to his Tenant or pay so much to another poor man He sticks not at it he knows it will pass in his account and there 's an end And why cannot you who are only Stewards to the God of Heaven and Earth of that Estate which is in your hand when you can discern that he requires it I say why cannot you give forgive lend lay out freely for none of it is your own and whether will it pass better in your accounts so much left in Bags or Bonds or to a prodigal Heir or so much of it spent in hospitality so much in well-plac'd bounty and so much in prudent charity And lastly consider the plain Command and blessed Promise of God in that foresaid Heb. 13. 5. Let your Conversation be without Covetousness For he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee q. d. Thou shalt have that which is sufficient or thou shalt have him that is All-sufficient 2. Pray earnestly against this Sin. Let your Eyes be ever towards the Lord to pluck your Feet out of this Net. Without his divine Grace this snare will be too strong for you There are Medicines to purge choler and such Humours which feed our Corruptions but none to purge Covetousness No this Lust is rooted only in the Soul the bodily Complexion is very little concern'd and therefore you have the more need to cry earnestly to God with David Psal. 119. 36. Incline my Heart unto thy Testimonies and not to Covetousness 3. Labour for Faith. To believe what God hath revealed and to rely upon what he hath promised I have read of a certain Person that in a change of times after some debate about what was then impos'd swore by his Faith he must live but another of the same Cloth answered that he would learn to live by his Faith so when you plead for your selfish penurious course that you must live I counsel you to learn the life of Faith for if you did believe the Revelation which God hath made of his Nature and Covenant if you did believe the Iudgment to come and the everlasting World after it if you did believe the Promises or the Threatnings which referr to this affair you would readily despise all the things of this World and set your affections on things above you would as you ought be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up in store for your selves a good foundation against the time to come that sith this life is slipping from under your feet you may lay hold on eternal Life 1 Tim. 6. 18 19. SECT VI. AND these are the most proper Sins of Old-age some other there are which because they are neither so common to all ancient people nor yet peculiar to them and yet are more often found in them than in others I shall not wholly conceal them but rather more briefly handle them Which are 1. Craftiness which is Prudence degenerate Old people have had much dealing in the World and have seen yea perhaps felt the effects of other mens sinister Carriage and being too much devoted to a selfish interest do thereupon too often strain a point of equity and integrity to compass their own ends If this subtilty were only imployed for their own security it were less culpable but when it is an Engine to insnare or to over-reach their Brother it is inexcusable When a Crafty old Miser hath a young Prodigal in his Tallons what work doth he make with him What cunning arts what tricks and stratagems hath he to distill his Estate into his own Coffers But this is a baseness unbecoming a Moral