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
words also for an Old Man do signifie one that hath lived long or one that looketh towards the Earth or whose vital moisture is dried away and nothing but an earthy matter left The Latine words for Old-age do signifie multitude of years or Decay of strength Or Precedence and Priority of Existence But the most usual and proper word for it denotes a Person who hath one Foot in the Grave that is half dead already tho some derive it from the Diminution of the Senses as if no body were old till they were decrepit and began to dote Our English word Old is of a German descent The High-Dutch calling an Aged person Alt-man The Saxons Eald or Olt-min the Low-Dutch Oud-man All which some derive from the Latines others from the Hebrews but none of them affording us any light concerning the proper Nature or distinct Time of Old-age tho in their native signification it is likely they in some sort did express the Thing in question It is clear that there are divers Periods in the life of Man which are like so many Stages in the Race which is set before us Herein we have some light in the Holy Scriptures In Levit. 27. 3 4 c. where One Interval of time is from a Month to Five years of Age a Second from Five years of Age to Twenty a Third from twenty to sixty and the last from sixty to the end of Life And mens Strength and Ability at least in those Times and Places may be collected from their Valuation which is there adjusted by God himself Humane Authors have variously divided the Life of Man. Some into Four parts answering the four parts of the Year Spring Summer Autumn and Winter Others into Seven assign ing each part of it to a different Planet and so Old-age to Saturn But Man's Age seems most fitly to be distributed into 1. His Growing 2. His Ripe or consistent and 3. His Decaying Age. As to the First of these we need not be so Critical as to begin it at his Conception or Quickning in the Womb tho he doth then begin to live and to grow sith the Holy Ghost in the Scripture above-said makes no reckoning of his Age until he be a Month old Leaving therefore that State of Non-age we may distinguish his Growing Age into Infancy Child-hood and Youth Infancy ends when we begin to go and speak Child-hood reacheth to the fourteenth or fifteenth year and Youth lasts to Twenty five Unto these years we usually increase in Strength or Stature Not but that some particular Persons or in some Countries do ripen sooner and also that Females are reckon'd to attain to the Second Stage of their Growing Age two years sooner and to the third Stage four years sooner than the Males yet still the foresaid Computation agrees with the nobler Sex and comprehends the Generality of them The Ripe Age of Man follows when the Parts of his Body and the Powers of his Soul are comeâ—… to some Consistence and therefore it may be called his Best Estate or as the Hebrew signifies in Psal. 39. 5. his setled Estate Verily every man at his setled or best Estate is altogether Vanity The former is the Spring this is the Summer of a mans life wherein they who are truly wise will be gathering both Temporal and Spiritual Provision for the Winter of Old-age Now this Rational Flower is in its prime As the Flower of the Field so he flourisheth Psal. 103. 15. Many indeed are cropt and gathered in their Youth and others are cut off in the midst of their days for when the Wind passeth over this Flower it is gone And it is observable that Enoch in the first World and Elijah in the second and our Dear Saviour in the last were called away in the midst of their days to warn us that this is not our Country but that even in the time of Youth and Strength it behoves us to prepare for another World. But if the Lord do still by his Power and Patience hold our Soul in life and that His visitation do preserve our Spirit this brings us to Old-age and this Ripe Age commonly lasts as long as our Growing Age and so we may assign unto it Twenty five years more SECT II. AND so we are comen to the Third and Last Stage of Life the Decaying Age or Old-age which is the Subject of the following Discourse which may be thus describ'd namely That Part of Mans life wherein through the Multitude of Years his Strength is decay'd For 1. It is not meerly such a number of Years without some Decay of Nature that can properly denominate Old-age sith in former times before the Flood when men usually lived eight or nine hundred years he that was an hundred years old was a very Young man and still we find that many are stronger at sixty than others are at fifty years of Age. Thus Athanasius testifies of Antony the Monk in Egypt that he had all his Teeth and his Eye-sight sound when he was an hundred and five years old Neither 2ly Doth the Decay of Strength alone determine a man Old sith Diseases and other Casualties may weaken and wither him who in respect of his Age hath not attain'd the Meridian of his Life Thus our Blessed Saviour was guess'd to be near fifty years old Ioh. 8. 57. when he was but little past Thirty being a man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief But when our Strength is decayed through the multitude of Years then Old-age commenceth From whence it followeth that neither Gray-hairs nor Wrinkles nor any such separable Adjunct can be a Demonstration of Old-age seeing Sickness or Cares or Fears or Grief may produce these Effects without any considerable Decay of strength or Number of years Prov. 12. 25. Heaviness in the Heart of man maketh it stoop Here the Heart stoops like an old man and that through heaviness And Psal. 6. 7. Mine Eye is consumed because of Grief it waxeth Old because of all mine Enemies here Grief brings Old-age into the Eye And Psal. 32. 3. When I kept silence my Bones waxed Old here Old age is ante-dated in the Bones by trouble of Mind Thus Authors tell us of those whose Hairs have become hoary by Sickness and have grown black again at the return of Health And the Story of the Dutch Captain is famous who being put into a Fright had his Hair turned Gray in the space of one Night But all these being preternatural and accidental do not constitute Old age at all Neither doth any occasional Eclypse upon the internal Faculties the Mind Memory or Phancy certainly declare Old-age for many Accidents may produce these Effects in the youngest persons whereas Old-age is not incident to the Soul. Its Organs may be weakned ormaimed either by natural Decays or by violent Accidents so that they cannot exert themselves but the Soul can never properly be said to
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
serve their generation Some by the hand of God inflicting such Distempers on their Minds or Bodies as have made them useless in their places Some by the Procurement of Men by whom many in the prime of their time have been laid aside sometimes justly sometimes unjustly and all opportunity taken from them of doing good in the World. Neither are all Aged persons rendred useless For many there be of both Sexes that persevere in well-doing to the last Cato pleaded causes when he was past fourscore years and Isocrates wrote excellent things at fourscore and fourteen years of age And not only the Tongues but the Hands of very many Old people are found as nimble to good works as of younger Persons They that have been useful in their strength will scarce ever become useless in their weakness Plutarch observes that an industrious Bee never degenerates into a Drone in its Old-age Too many there be of every Age that live only to themselves that neither Serve God nor observe Man but in order to their own Interest or Appetite These are good for nothing young or old but they that understand and embrace the true Ends of life will be useful one way or other to their lives end And the great Service that the Ancient do perform is by their sage Advice When the Levites were at fifty releas'd from the labour of the Sanctuary they are said yet to be Iudges in their Cities So that although they cannot do that service which younger persons may yet they do greater For the greatest things are compassed not by strength but counsel They cannot be counted useless says Tully that prescribe to the more raw and ignorant their work Like as a Pilot who thô he run not up and down the Ship but sits at the helm yet is the most useful person in the ship So the Aged head is the most useful part in a family or Commonwealth though it be confined to the fire side Hence Homer brings in Agamemnon wishing rather for ten Nestor's an Aged wise man among the Greeks than so many Ajax's who was a man of Arms for the winning of Troy. And it is well known that the grand Magistrates both in Greece and Rome were the Ancients of their Cities and thereupon they were called Senators and the great Council of Rome The Senate being composed of Aged men Yea if they should by reason of their Age be wholly unserviceable yet their Example is useful To see a man or woman deprived of all outward comfort and respect and laden with heavy Distempers yet patient and thankful serious and devout it is a powerful Lecture to all the spectators and may teach them to be doing their own great work with all their might to be thankful to God for their present strength and ease to beware of slothfulness and selfishness That when they arrive at that decrepit estate they may have the pleasant prospect of a fruitful life behind them and the joyful prospect of a blessed life before them SECT IX THe Ninth Disadvantage of Old-age is That it is unfit for Religious Exercises When we are in years we are indisposed to Prayer and Fasting to Hearing or Reading and in general to all such Spiritual Imployments wherein the Soul and Body must concurr They need these Helps as much as Others and perhaps desire them as much as Others but the dead weight of a crazy body sinks down the towring of their precious Souls To will is present with them but how to perform the same they find not and no wonder having not only a law of sin within them but a body of death without them Their senses are grown weak their faculties weak their spirits weak How then should they wrestle with God in Prayer or continue instant therein Let the Rider be never so good a Horsman yet he must travel as his Horse will give him leave So let the Soul be never so active it can operate only as the organs of the body will permit it Instead of taking pains about their Souls they are forc'd to prop up their decrepit bodies Their weaknesses keep them in bed while the holy zeal of others is burning in Devotion And as the Old woman in Plautus being askt why she went no faster answer'd because she carried so great a load to wit of eighty four years on her back so the load on Old peoples back either hinders them from coming to holy Assemblies or else causes them to travel thither very slowly so that they are constrained to live in a mannet without God in the world Now this Affliction to an holy heart is a very heavy burden When a poor man is cut short in all his other Comforts and as it were besieged with all the Calamities of this life yet while he hath this River of Gods Ordinances free and open thereby he receives continual supplies from Heaven the streams thereof make glad the City of God But when this is stopt the Soul grows sad and dry and barren Hence holy David in his Exile never mentioning his temporal losses yet cries out Psal. 42. 4. When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me for I had gone with the multitude to the house of God. This went nearest to his heart For when a man is harras'd with cares and troubles all the week long yet he is relieved and refreshed in his approach unto God upon his own Day But with the decrepit Old man every day is alike and his Soul is left destitute of spiritual supplies in an ordinary way And this Affliction is saddest of all when by disuse of the means of Grace the Soul grows stupid and unconcern'd in the matter as without special Grace we shall be apt to be So that the misery is great in the want and greater when insensible of the want No great wonder therefore that when all these miseries meet together a man cry out with Iob I would not live always So that Tiberius Caesar had a saying as Plutarch tells us that it was a shameful thing for a man that was past sixty to stretch out his hand to a Physician reckoning that it was fit he should then be content to dye But yet if we weigh the matter well the Case of Ancient people is not so desperate as it seems For to proceed in our former Method it is evident that many others besides the Aged are cut short in the means of Grace some willingly in Factories beyond the Seas some willfully by their own Atheism and Ungodliness some unwillingly by Distempers and other hindrances And on the other side divers Ancient people have been capable to attend the Service of God even to their dying day Thus Ahijah though his Eyes were set for Age yet was enabled to prophecy to Ieroboam's wife And Iacob could worship God leaning on the top of his Staff. And St. Iohn was an Evangelist when he was an hundred years old And there was Anna a widdow of about
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
in their stead his hoary hairs returning by degrees to black again There have been also in our Age and Countrey many Instances of such as have attained to an extraordinary Age. In Northumberland an Old Minister of Gods Word called Mr. Michael Vivon who in the year of our Lord 1657. being then one hundred and ten years of age had within two years time before three young teeth sprung up and though for the space of forty years before he could not read the largest Print without Spectacles yet afterwards he could read the smallest without them having also new hair comeâ—… upon his head and had five children after that he was fourscore years old And it is but Ao 1635. that Thomas Parr died in London who had lived in the Countrey above one hundred and fifty years In all 152. years and nine months Yea there were two Brothers and a Sister Richard Green Philip Green and Alice who lived but a while ago not far from Marlborough that were alive together and each of them above an hundred years old the last of them which was Richard dying about Ao 1685. at an hundred and fifteen years of age And a modern Historian of our own tells us that Ao. 1588. one Iames Sands of Harbourn in Staffordshire died aged one hundred and forty his wife also being 120. And produces several others that lived to see their Grand-childrens Grand-children Yea even Women though the weaker Sex yet have sometimes survived unto a great Age. The Scripture relates that Sarah Abrahams wife lived 127. years Genes 23. 1. the onely woman whose Age is recorded in the Book of God. Pliny's Note of Terentia Cicero's wife that lived an hundred and three years or of Clodia that lived an hundred and fifteen is rendred inconsiderable by examples of our own For it is recorded of Dame Hester Temple of Stow in Bucking hamshire who having four Sons and nine Daughters lived to see seven hundred extracted from her own body And the instance of holy Mistris Honywood of Kent is well known who lived to see Three hundred of her offspring alive together and both these must needs be full of dayes Yea it was but about Ao 1670. that one Mrs. Pyfield died in Ireland who had lived one hundred thirty and six years But the R. H. the late Countess of Desmond exceeds all late examples in these Countries who when she was an hundred and forty years old had a set of young teeth and was able to walk many miles who died within our memories being as it is credibly affirmed an 184. years old In all which Instances as the strength of Nature was great so the Power and Goodness of the God of Nature was greater to the honour whereof I have Collected and mention'd them not that any of us should deferr our Repentance or any Good Work upon an expectation of arriving at the like term of Life sith an hundred thousand are dead and rotten for one that reach such Longevity CHAP. II. The Causes of Old-age and Preservatives SECT I. HAving thus Described Old-age and selected some of the most eminent Examples thereof I come now in the Second place to inquire into the true Causes of it and Preservatives against it For the Causes thereof First the Original meritorious Cause is Mans Sin and Defection from God. The truth is it may seem somewhat strange that Man being created at the first in the Image of the Immortal God placed but little lower than the Angels crowned with glory and honour and made Ruler over all other creatures should have his life burdened with so many sorrows and then so soon arrive at Old-age and Death And some of the Heathens did foolishly charge Nature with Envy and Cruelty towards Man in causing so noble a creature to tarry so short a time in the world and to grow old as soon as he begins to grow ripe And Others as wisely concluded that Men were sent into this world only for their Punishment for crimes committed in others Bodies before And indeed if you set the Scriptures aside which resolve the Case it is somewhat unaccountable to have so short an History of so noble a creature If a curious Architect should frame and rear up a firm and stately pile of Building and being compleatly furnished the same should presently shrink and in a short time decay and fall to the ground Passengers would be apt to call in question the sidelity or skill of him that made it or exceedingly wonder by what means it came to ruine till they come to know that the Inhabitant himself undermin'd pluck'd down or fir'd his own house So in the Case before us it is matter of grief and astonishment to see the most exquisite piece of Gods workmanship upon earth to become decrepit in so short a space and to be reduc'd so soon into dust and ashes We must know therefore that Man at his first Creation being made up of a Body and a Soul was neither in his own nature so unchangeable and immortal as the Angels nor so frail and weak as other creatures below Not so unchangeable I say in his own nature for having a body that was to be continually supplied with food that is repair'd it follows that that which needs repair is liable to decay but yet while the sweet harmony wherein it was first form'd was not disturb'd the frame might well have indured for a long time especially if the Tree of Life in Eden were intended as some of the Learned thought to support strengthen and perpetuate Life But the dismal Fall of our first Parents did so crush the Body and wound the Soul that neither of them can be recovered in this Life For immediately that Death which was threatned to him by degrees seized upon his Body and fear shame and sorrow entred into his Soul. And though the divine Providence permitted Him and divers of his posterity to live many hundreds of years that the naked world might be peopled and that Religion with all other useful knowledge might be procur'd preserv'd and propagated in the world yet we date his decaying and dying state from that word Gen. 3. 19. For dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return That righteous Sentence brings our hoary hairs upon us Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest Return ye children of men In the morning they are like grass which groweth up In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up in the evening it is cut down and withereth Psal. 90. 3 6. If you inquire therefore into the ruines of humane nature the answer will be that Sin is the moth which being bred therein hath fretted the garment withers the man and layes his honour in the dust Every decay therefore of our Strength should mind us of our Apostacy from God by the Fall and should renew our grief for the same Whether Adam wept as oft as he looked towards Paradise is uncertain but surely when we find our Eye-sight
the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no Sorrow with it Prov. 10. 22. Assure your selves if moderate care and labour will not bring in Riches then they are not good for you and whatsoever is gained otherwise hath a Curse in it and will bring misery on the Body or on the Soul here or hereafter 4. A Fourth Cause which hastens Old-age is Intemperance that is excess in Eating or in Drinking or in lustful Embraces Any of these especially the last do bring Old-age into youthful years Sad it is that our Life being in its utmost extent so short and our Bodies by nature so frail we that have a desire to live and who for that end will be content to use the most irksome remedies should yet so commonly invite distempers by our Luxury and so shamefully dig our Graves with our Teeth and deprive our selves of the residue of our years In so much that altho in St. Hieroms time he affirmed that there were reckoned five thousand Martyrs for every day in the Year save one yet we may sadly conclude that Bacchus and Venus have had daily more Martyrs if we may so call them in one place or other of the World than Iesus Christ. In this sense doth Seneca truly say Non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus From whence come for the most part those pains of the Gout Stone Dropsy Convulsions and Apoplexies with such other Distempers but from Intemperance in some of the foresaid Objects A moderate use of Meat Drink and conjugal rights as it doth tend much to the alacrity of the mind so doth it no less to the Health of the Body but excess in any of them doth either suffocate Nature or else impoverish and exhaust it as it is observed of the more lecherous Creatures that they are short-liv'd in comparison of others If therefore you would arrive at a good Old-age good in respect of the comfort of the Mind or in respect of the welfare of the Body oppose and check your unruly Appetites resolve with the Grace of God Hitherto thou shalt come and no further conclude I am a Man yea a Christian and not a Brute and consequently am not to be guided by Sense but by Reason and Religion which teach me to use all these outward comforts so far as they will promote the Glory of my Maker and the present and future good of my Body and Soul. 5. Fifthly Inordinate Passions of the mind are another means to bring on Old-age such as Anger especially Sorrow For these do manifestly prey upon the Spirits and also produce such bodily Distempers as do hurry people into Old-age before their time Hence it was that Valentinian the Emperor by an excessive straining of his Voice in an angry reply against some Offenders fell into a grievous Fever which at length brought him to his End. And for Sorrow the wisest of men tells us Prov. 15. 13. A merry Heart maketh a chearful Countenance but by Sorrow of the Heart the Spirit is broken And when the Spirit is broken the Body must sensibly wast and decay For these Passions like a Torrent or Land flood break down and overthrow all before them you know a River while it proceeds with its usual stream passes harmlesly yea profitably through all the Fields and Meadows and makes no breaches on the Banks on either side but when a suddain and excessive Rain swells it up then it lays about it without mercy and tears up the Ground the Fences and Trees on every side And even so our Passions being moderate are innocent and useful but he that hath no rule over his own Spirit is like a Flood of Water broke loose or like a City that is broken down and without Walls Yea there have been Instances of such as by sudden Grief have grown Gray in a few days time and there be hundreds that carry the Badge of their great Sorrows on their Heads long before a due course of years would have brought them Let us not therefore suffer these Vultures to feed upon our Hearts nor yield our selves Slaves to these unruly Passions which war not only against the Soul but even against the Body and will ruin both except they be restrained and mortified by the Grace of God. Philosophy hath gone far in this work God forbid but that Christianity should go much further There are also other both Moral and Natural Causes of Old-age but these may suffice The curious may satisfie themselves elsewhere And by these Causes you may easily discern what are the best Preservatives against Old-age For tho no Art or Care can prevent the unavoidable access thereof yet effectual Means may be used to deferr it 'T is true Galen tells us of a Philosopher who affirm'd that there was a way to prevent it and wrote a Book of it when he was forty years old but the said Author takes notice that when he was arriv'd to eighty he was wasted to skin and bones and could not any way cure himself But the most effectual Preservatives are 1. Piety and 2. Sobriety SECT IV. FIrst serious Piety By which I mean a Course of life in the Faith and Fear of God and in holy Obedience unto him This is that Godliness which hath the promises of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. This is the best Antidote against that Poyson which hath originally infected our Nature and which makes it swarm with Distempers that hurry us to Old-age and Death at last This is certainly the best Means whereby to avoid that fatal Curse so early pronounc'd or else to turn it into a Blessing If thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my Satutes and Commandments then I will lengthen thy days 1 King. 3. 14. What man is he that desireth Life and loveth many days that he may see good Depart from evil and do good c. Psal. 34. 12 14. It is the observation of Hierom and of Origen before him that Abraham is the first person called Old in the Scripture tho Adam and Methuselah and many others were richer than he in years but not in Faith and Obedience I know that some of the worst of men have without this flourished long and some that have been most Religious have withered quickly and therefore do conclude that all such Outward blessings and afflictions are conditionally promis'd and threatned and yet it abides certain that the ordinary way to a vigorous Age and a long Life is the true fear of God and that which makes it short and miserable is Ungodliness And the Holy Scripture is express herein Prov. 10. 27. The fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned For doubtless our Lord God who is the giver of Life is also the Conserver of it and whose word we may rely upon as the best Prescription and Preservative in this case This
instruction of my Children but the prudent Parent will conclude tho some of the best Education do miscarry and some with the worst do flourish yet I ought and will take the likeliest course to bring up my Children in the fear of God Even so in this case the Old-age and Death do seize upon divers pious and circumspect persons as soon or before they come upon others yet is it the Interest and Duty of all such as regard God or wish well to themselves to use the fittest means to preserve their strength and vigour until their time and work be done For it is certain that when the success answers not the means and that Distempers notwithstanding our Piety and Sobriety do overtake us then it is permitted and ordained by the Wisdom of God for the setting forth some way of His Glory and for the real Good of the party affected For an Holy and Good God never makes Exceptions to his General Rules but in Cases reserved for his greater honour and his Servants greater good For all the paths of the Lord tho never so cross and crooked are Mercy I say Mercy and Truth to those that keep his Covenant and his Testimonies Psal. 25. 10. And thus you have had some Account of the true Causes and the best Antidotes against Old-age which is the second Point to be handled CHAP. III. The Sins of Old-age SECT I. I Come in the Third place to treat of the Vices and Sins which are most incident to Old-age for the best Wine that is hath some Dregs And tho there be none of Old-folks Sins but they are found in some Young-folks breasts yet there are some particular vices which are more proper because more common to Aged pesons than to others Nevertheless as the work of Sanctification hath been deeper and the care in Education greater so far the less lyable shall the Aged persons be unto these Corruptions He that bears the Yoke in his youth will be happily fortified against them in his age I do not therefore charge every Old man or woman with the following Faults for many have better learned Christ and are as free from them as any other but for the most part Old people are propense to these Vices First Frowardness or peevishness whereby they are prone to be morose wayward and hard to be pleased easily angry often angry and sometimes angry without a cause Seldom are they pleased with others scarce with themselves no not with God himself yea they think as poor Ionah did that they do well to be angry Too apt they are to aggravate every fault to its utmost dimensions and so never want matter for unquietness Now this is both a Sinful and Miserable distemper It is displeasing to God and it is very uncomfortable both to themselves and to others It s true that Anger in it self is not evil our Blessed Saviour was once angry but it was at Sin and it was accompanied with Grief for the hardness of their Hearts Mark 3. 5. When we are angry at Sin we are angry without Sin. And it is also true that Old people by reason of their knowledge in matters do see more things amiss and blame-worthy more Sin and more evil in Sin than others do and having liberty by reason of their Age and Authority to speak their minds they are too prone to express that which others must digest with silence and withall their bodily distempers dispose them to more testiness than others whose continual health and ease makes their Conversation more smooth and quiet and lastly they discern themselves in some danger of being despis'd and therefore are tempted to preserve their Authority by frequent and keen reproofs and reflexions and so iniquum petunt ut justum ferant they require too much lest they should receive too little But tho these things may abate the faultiness of this Sin yet they are far from being sufficient to justifie the same Say that this froppishness is their Disease rather than their Sin yet the Disease is the effect of Sin and the cause of Sin and Sin it self The mind is distemper'd by it both your own and others the Body is disordered unjustifiable words are spoken the Soul unfitted for any serious devotion and the proper ends of reproof seldom attained for as the wrath of man never works the righteousness of God so it rarely cures the iniquities of men The plaister being too hot burns more than it heals and the frequency of finding fault tempts the faulty to heed it the less yea they are prone to harden themselves in evil by retorting your unquietness upon you as a Sin you live in without reformation Strive therefore against this infirmity pray earnestly unto God for a meek and quiet Spirit connive at smaller slips be not severe against involuntary faults expect not the same Wisdom or Circumspection in young people as you have in so long time attained bridle the first emotions of anger and weigh the nature and quality of a miscarriage before you let fly at it and do not kill a Flea upon the Forehead of your Child or Servant with a Beetle Learn of Plato an Heathen who being incensed at his Servant desir'd his Friend Xenocrates who then came in that he would correct him for now saith he my anger surmounts my reason Or rather go to School to your heavenly Master Christ Iesus who was meek and lowly who being reviled reviled not again and when he suffer'd threatned not Give place to any one rather than to the Devil Resolve if others cross you that yet you will not punish your self for frowardness hurts no body so much as ones self And mortifie Pride from whence for the most part these passions spring for we are apt to assume so much and value our selves so highly that we think every one should humour us and they that expect much will meet with many disappointments Say not that the cure is impossible for in all ages there have been Instances of victories in this case There was Patricius the father of St. Augustine and there was Mr. Calvin both of them naturally of hot and hasty spirits yet did so moderate their temper that an unbeseeming word was scarce ever heard to come from them yea divers of the Heathen were eminent herein and doubtless the Grace of God will not be wanting to you if you sincerely seek it which will of lions make you lambs SECT II. A Second Folly incident to Old-age is Loquacity or Talkativeness that is an exceeding proneness to speak much so that it hath pass'd into a Proverb Senex psittacus an old person is a Parrot Herein they are twice children whose faculty you know lies this way Speech is a most wonderful and excellent Faculty conferr'd only on humane nature and for their common good and it is great pity that it should be abused As our Reason begins to work so our Speech comes in
up Riches as some of them have ingenuously acknowledged They also know that their weakness and infirmities do expose them to contempt and therefore endeavour to obviate that by their Wealth and so make themselves considerable by their Estates These are the â—…rutches which when weakness overtakes them they lean upon and support their fainting spirits withal And they want not variety of Pretences whereby to justifie their course as that they are only providing for a rainy day for troubles and Casualties that may besall them that they ought to lay up for their Children and Posterity or else they were worse than Infidels yea that they are gathering only to bestow it at their death on some pious or charitable use And Satan is not wanting to nurse this humour in them by suggesting to them expectations of a long life a distrust in the Providence of God and continual fears of want which is nursed by the coldness of their temper and by their consciousness of their inability to get much by their labour And these meeting with that inveterate Self-love which is inherent in them and consequently an uncharitable frame of mind towards others hardens them in their tenacious temper so that as they grow weaker this lust grows stronger until Divine grace doth open their eyes or else the Earth at last stop their mouths This bitter root spoils their Devotions interrupts their prayers renders the word of God tastless becramps them to all God Works this disturbs their Rest the thoughts and cares about these things do visit them last at night and meet them first in the morning and disquiet them the day throughout for where the treasure is there will the heart be also Oh the cares the fears the vexations that possess a covetous heart but only that we can digest any thing that we delight in though it be never so bitter else no man could endure the life of a covetous miser But it is the Old-mans recreation the best of his time and the strength of his spirits are consumed either about the keeping of what he hath or about getting more for as he hath no vent for his abundance so he observes no limits for his desires As the bladder the more it is filled with wind it stretches the more so the more his riches increase the more his heart is set upon them so that he seeth more beauty in his Money than in the Sun in the firmament No thoughts no discourse no design pleaseth them except it end in gain but when there is an opportunity of doing good the heart is cold and the hand is lame Nay some of them will not afford conveniences scarcely necessaries to their families or to themselves but run in debt to their own backs and bellies to their children and servants and foolishly choose to live poor that they may dy rich Now this Vice in it self it is plain Idolatry and the root of all evil leading men into temptation and a snare into many foolish and hurtful lusts which at last drown men in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9 10. For the worldly man gets and keeps his Estate with travel to his Body vexation to his Spirit scruple to his Conscience with danger to his Soul with envy of his neighbours with suits to his children and with a curse to his posterity Do but turn to Iob 20. 15. and read that chapter out But in no sort of men is Covetousness so unaccountable so very foolish as in Old people For what can be more absurd said a Heathen than to be so much concern'd for travelling Expences when we have so small a part of our way to travel Or as St. Augustine expresseth it to load our selves with the greatest Burdens when we are nearest the end of our Journey It is no doubt a plain infatuation and an instance of the power of the Prince of this World on mens minds and of the Corruption of our Nature to effect this that those who have seen the Vanity of all these things the uncertainty the unsatisfactoriness the vexatiousness of them should so dote upon them that they who not only know but even feel in themselves that they must shortly and may suddenly leave them all and perhaps have no thanks at all from them that enjoy them that yet these persons wise in other things should set their Hearts upon them and hunt after a World that is flying from them How much more comfortable were it to do all the good they can to feed the hungry cloath the naked to procure the Prayers of the distressed while they have opportunity to make Friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness to be esteemed of men to be loved and honoured of God! A good man sheweth favour and lendeth he will guide his affairs with discretion Surely he shall not be moved for ever the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance Psal. 112. 5 6. The Pleas which they produce for their Justification or Excuse are all insufficient Have you no other Recreation Surely there are more and better Diversions Natural Artificial and Spiritual than heaping up riches Instance but in the last of these Psal. 119. 14. 72. I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as much as in all Riches yea The Law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of Gold and Silver Again Do you think that these will defend you from Contempt True Piety and Charity is a far better way Psal. 112. 9. He hath despersed he hath given to the Poor his righteousness endureth for ever his Horn shall be exalted with Honour Think you that in your decays of Nature there be no better supports than your Riches Yes the favour of God the love of Christ the comforts of the Spirit the feast of a good Conscience and the joyful hopes of eternal Happiness are as much beyond them as the Sun iâ—… brighter thanâ—… Glow-worm Will providing for Contingencies excuse you Alas your Riches will be no certain refuge for you Prov. 18. 10 11. The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the Righteous runneth into it and is safe The Rich mans Wealth is his strong City and as an high wall but 't is only in his own conceit That bond Heb. 13. 5. sealed to us is worth all your Specialties and all your Estates He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Can you justifie your immoderate scraping by a just provision for your Children and Relations No no That 's but an excuse for they that have no Children are as sick of this Disease as others But if you have Children this course of yours is the way to undo them A moderate care for Posterity is a Duty wherein we may expect a Blessing but the Covetousness of the Parent doth but provide for the Luxury of the Child and so the Parents Soul is ruin'd in the getting and the Child 's in the spending of what is so gotten If your
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
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
some of the Philosophers under pain or losses but could never do it under disgrace But that Patience which is directed by the Example of Christ and strengthened by the Grace and Spirit of Christ keepeth the Soul from secret repining or open murmuring at any event saves from distraction at present and from ruine hereafter And herein Old-age doth or should excel They have met with many troubles in their pilgrimage and the Scripture tells us that tribulation worketh patience Rom. 5. 3. consequently the more troubles the greater patience They have bin taught to wait for some Mercies which they have desired for many years and so have bin taught Patience which when they have well learned then the Mercy hath been conferr'd They have been tryed with many Afflictions from the hand of God either upon their Bodies as Sickness Pain c. sometimes by acute sometimes by chronical Distempers and these have exercised and taught them Patience or upon their Souls as Desertions or other Impressions of divine Displeasure and thereby have learned quietly to wait for the Salvation of God or by the Death of their dear Consorts or Children all which by the blessing of God concurring therewith have like continual burdens on the shoulder inur'd and strengthened them in this Excellent Grace The Aged Person hath also had many provocations losses and injuries from Men which have both tried and tamed his mettle He hath been either uncomfortably Match't whereby his Patience hath been put to it every day or cross'd in his Children or fix't near some unquiet Neighbour or harrass'd by a costly and tedious suit of Law any of which have forced him to exercise this Grace Or else he hath been smitten in his Reputation or maim'd by some great loss or disappointment in his Estate where he hath had no Remedy but Patience I know these things do too often work the wrong way that is they produce fretfulness rage melancholy and other dismal effects but in the upright man they sortifie his Spirits they break the pride security and stubbornness of his Soul and make him by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory honour and immortality and so fit him for Eternal Life And the Aged do or should exceed those that are young herein For the tender shoulders of these cannot well bear these burdens As Ephraim once so they are like bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke which fret and fume and are gall'd under the aforesaid tryals Thô the Holy Ghost hath told us that it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth But commonly it is some tract of time before this yoke is quietly and evenly carried Old age doth most perfectly teach this lesson He that in his youth would quickly have answered the Lye with his Sword will then answer it with a smile The tears which in our youth we spent upon any trivial occasion we then reserve for better purposes and we come to learn manners to wait Gods time for the mercies we desire Time and trials have taught the Old-man to digest hard words and hard things rather than to fight it out Good David could better bear Shimei's Curse when he was grown into years than Nabal's Uncharitableness when he was younger Now it was nothing but kill and slay at least every Male in Nabal's house but afterwards so let him Curse because the Lord hath said unto him Curse David Who shall then say Wherefore hast thou done this 2 Sam. 16. 10. And those Disciples of our Saviour who in their younger years would have had Fire sent from Heaven to revenge the incivility of the Samaritans they in their riper years had learned when reviled to bless when persecuted to suffer it and to bear all indignities not only with much patience 2 Cor. 6. 4. but with all patience 2 Cor. 12. 12. Such is the effect of years and experience by the blessing of God. And you that are in years must be inexcusable if you be defective in this Grace because you have been for a long time Scholars under a Patient Master who hath lest us an Example that we should follow his steps who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not 1 Pet. 2. 21 23. You have also read and heard many convincing Discourses upon this Subject you have seen the folly and madness of Impatience and of Revenge in others and you have had so many Crosses of your own that it is the absurdest thing imaginable for you to be destitute hereof No great wonder to see an unback't Colt to winch and curvet at the spur or whip but if the old tryed Beast do so he is better fed than taught No you should be Patterns of Patience to others We may well feel things as Mortal men saith Mr. Hooper yet overcome them as Christian men Outward Afflictions may prick us but yet they should not pierce us The Old Soldier will not fret at hard Marches hard Weather hard Usage for he hath been beaten to them The Old Mariner repines not at the boisterous Winds or the threatning Waves You are too Nice my Brother saith Hierom if you grudge to be Tried below yet expect to be Crown'd above Labour therefore to get and increase your stock of Patience Let Patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing Jam. 1. 4. This Grace you will daily need and daily use For we have need of Patience that after we have done the Will of God we may receive the Promise Heb. 10. 36. It will be like a Buckler to save you harmless from the evil of Affliction Though you have Faith Vertue Knowledge Temperance yet ye must add unto these Patience that ye may never fall 2 Pet. 1. 6. This will not only bridle your Tongue but quiet your Mind and keep you when dispossest of all other things in possession of your own Souls For an impatient man whilst he is afflicted by another even then punishes himself and so is his own greatest tormenter Alas you must still expect a succession of troubles and unexpected crosses until your Course be finished and if you escape these from abroad yet you may find occasion enough for your Patience with your own Children and Servants and perhaps with nearer Relations and though you should miss of these yet your own Distempers will try your Patience when you can neither eat your meat nor live without it neither sleep with refreshment nor lye awake with ease neither endure company nor be contented alone when you will be weary of every place of every posture and without Patience weary of your self And therefore it greatly concerns you to store your selves with this needful this useful Grace And to that End Inure your selves unto it by degrees Strive to digest lesser wrongs provocations and losses which will prepare you to be quiet under greater Whilst others are endeavouring to out-wit or out-power their adversaries be you labouring to overcome
your own resentments to conquer your selves And then set before you that mirrour of Patience the Lord Iesus Christ who alwayes had Right and Power on his side and yet patiently bore the anger of God the reproaches of Men and the rage of Devils It is reported of that noble Elziarius that he would set himself to think of the Injuries done to Christ 'till he was fully contented to digest his own For alas each of us deserves infinitely greater and yet we suffer infinitely less than He did And this prevailed with the Apostle Iames and other Martyrs to express such Patience at their Sufferings that even that convinced some of their very Persecutors to declare themselves Christians Above all Pray earnestly to him who is called Rom. 15. 5. the God of Patience for a sufficient portion of this Grace No Philosophical Arguments will compose the Mind like the Grace of God. I have read of a Learned Man it was Iustus Lipsius that being on his Death-bed One of his Friends told him it was needless to suggest arguments of Patience to him that was so well read in the Writings of the Stoicks thereupon instead of an answer turns him to God saying Da mihi Domine Iesu patientiam Christianam Lord Iesus bestow upon me the Christian Patience So will your Burdens be tolerable your Life amiable your Relations comfortable your Mind calm and your Body easie SECT V. THE Fifth Excellency that doth or should adorn Old-age is Stedfastness Which is a fixed settledness of the Soul influencing our Life and Actions and is oppos'd to that Levity and Inconstancy which is incident to young persons The Aged man is Stedfast in his Mind and Iudgment and not easily unhinged there he is Fixed in his Will and not easily charm'd or drawn from his well-chosen Objects In respect of God and the things of Religion a person in years is or should be like a Rock unmoveable not like the Ship that is tossed to and fro Having considered and weighed their Principles no worldly consideration no plausible harangues no loss or punishment will induce them easily to alter the same In respect of Others their Friendship being grounded upon a firm bottom is constant and they have learned to overlook ordinary failings and to put the best sense on the words and actions of a Friend So likewise their Conjugal Love though the frothy fondness of it be worn off yet the strength and substance of it is unquestionable and unalterable And then as to Themselves their Passions are by long endeavours so moderated and regulated that as their temper is far more even and uniform than once it was so also their Actions and course of life are more steady and consistent than in the dayes of their Vanity I will not contend that all Aged People excell in this Stedfastness especially when Dotage invades Old-age but that generally it is so and universally it should be so and particular exceptions do always confirm general conclusions Nor do I conclude that all young People are light and inconstant but it is too manifest to be denyed that Childhood and Youth have usually the large Sails but Old-age hath the solid Ballast and and therefore doth sail more steadily and more safely Every Wind will make impression on the Young Tree but the Old Oak stands firm against the Storms The young Horse may go more nimbly but the tried Beast goes more stedfastly and surely Youth is the unsettled age the Head unsettled the Heart unsettled and the Life unsettled When the Wise man exhorts to remember our Creator in the days of our Youth Eccles. 12. 1. that word Youth comes of a root signifying Choice which seems to imply that Youth is a time wherein Persons are undetermined they have their Religion their Relations their Vocation to choose but when a man is crown'd with years then he is in a settled estate Settled in Judgment settled in his Purposes settled in his Practice and commonly settled in his Comfort When the Apostle Paul was near his End then he could say 2 Tim. 1. 12 I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded c. For indeed the Constitution and Temper of the Aged disposeth them hereunto Their Sanguine and Mercurial days are done their Phlegm and Melancholy further their Stedfastness either in good or evil They have seen the World the vanities and varieties of men and things of opinions and practices they have tried all things and therefore are likelier to hold fast that which is good And as there is a wearisomness of the Body so there is a certain weariness of the Mind which makes it desirous to be fixt and to be at rest And having often heard read and pondered the things of Religion and also tasted the real comfort and sweetness in them they are not easily either flatter'd or frighted out of them Their approach to Death adds also to their Constancy why should they through fear recede from their Principles that in a short time must dye of necessity Hence that saying of Archbishop Whitgift Two things help men to be resolute in a good Cause namely Old-age and Want of Issue And it is recorded that when all the City of Athens yielded to the Tyranny of Pisistratus Solon only oppos'd him and being interrogated by him what made him have such Confidence he answer'd It was his Old-age He knew the Tyrant could not despise him of many years and he that cannot lose many years needs not fear other losses and so may well be stedfast and unmovable in his Duty Let it be your Care therefore to be rooted and grounded in the Principle and Practice of true Piety Be not like Children tossed too and fro with every wind of Doctrine It is an arrant shame for you that are Old to have your Religion to chuse or to change it every month It is not for you to follow fashions in Religion But you should be rooted and built up in Christ and stablished in the Faith as ye have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving Colos. 2. 7. Ability and Stability should be your peculiar honour Young Persons may have a land-flood of Devotion and Zeal You ought to pass like a still and constant River you should be constant in Prayer in Watchfulness in Charity c. While the goodness of many young People is as a morning cloud and as the early dew that passeth away your path should be as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day As the the motion of natural bodies when they approach their center is more swift so your motions should withal be more steady It was no honour to that Noble Marquess who being askt how he could maintain his standing in the reign of four Princes who also were of different Sentiments in Religion to return this Answer he perform'd it by imitating the twining Willow and not the sturdy Oak No it is impossible to be upright without Courage
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
vivacity in both those Senses the greater cause they have to be thankfull for the same But though it must not be denyed that for the most part Old-age is dim of sight and dull of hearing yet 't is as true that even these decayes are incident to younger persons How many young people may we meet with that are defective in one or other of them Some that are purblind others dim-sighted some from their birth some by casual accidents some by distempers nay it is one of the wonders of Gods Providence that considering the folly and rashness of Children any of us carry our Eyes untouched unto elder years so that neither is this affliction to be confined to Old-age Yea if we grant that these Defects should unavoydably befall Old people yet they do not alwayes make them useless and then all 's well enough Even Blind and Deaf persons have bin more serviceable in their places than multitudes of some people that have their eyes and ears Tully tells of divers that were wholly dark yet Ornaments to their Countrey In particular he relates of Appius that was old and blind yet retaining his Authority he governed a great Family with that dexterity that his Children feared him his Neighbours respected him and when a dishonourable Peace was likely to be made with Pyrrhus he caused himself to be carryed in his Chair to the Senate and there did effectually interpose to hinder it But that which should chiefly support a wise and good man under these Decayes of the Senses is The comfortable review of the right use he hath made of them that he hath not us'd them as Instruments of unrighteousness unto Sin but as the Instruments of righteousness unto God or an hearty Grief for his Abuse of them And the joyful Prospect of the Resurrection when all our Imperfections will be done away and our vile bodies made like Christs glorious body There 's no body much grieved at the want of repair in a House which he is leaving when he is ready to go to one that will need reparation no more Yea there is cause of Thankfulness that we have enjoyed the use of these Senses so long whereas we might have bin born blind and deaf and dumb but especially that God hath given us a spiritual Eye and an inward Ear. Let that Soul exceedingly rejoyce said Basil that hath an Eye to discern invisible things even to behold him with whom it shall dwell for ever And thus Antony the Hermite comforted Didymus You should not saith he take it heavily that you want such Eyes as Mice and other brute Animals enjoy but rather reckon your self a blessed man in having such eyes as Angels have whereby you may behold God himself And through the Goodness of God it often falls out that these outward Defects are more than compensated with greater measures of Understanding and of Memory He may well be contented to lose an Eye or Ear which must perish at last that in lieu thereof receives a greater portion of Faith Love Wisdom and Patience and so becomes the better man and the better Christian. It is also some alleviation of this Affliction to consider that all these Visible things are but Vanity yea vanity of vanities That the Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear filled with hearing Eccles. 1. 2. 8. And that whose wants his Sight or Hearing escapes many a Temptation which do frequently surprize the Soul through those Windows and that as at other times so especially in the Service of God. How often doth the Heart walk after the Eyes and so steal away from God How apt is every noise to disorder the Soul so that as we are deprived of the comfort of these Senses so we are freed from the snares that attend them And the Answer is not to be forgotten which Maris the Godly Bishop of Chalcedon gave to Iulian the Apostate who upbraided him that his God had not cured him of his Blindness which was That he praised his God with all his heart for his Blindness whereby he was kept from seeing such an ungracious face as his was And lastly let us that feel these Decayes greatly magnify the Lord who hath directed us to the use of Glasses and Spectacles whereby we have in a manner new Eyes put into our Heads and are inabled to read and write and work even to the very Sun-set of our Lives This is so great a Mercy that we should do well to take thankfull notice of it every time we use them to the Praise of God who is the Father of Lights and from whose holy Spirit comes the knowledge of witty Inventions SECT V. THE Fifth Inconvenience incident to Old-age is That it is burdened with Distemper and Pain Thus Asa 2 King. 15. 23. in the time of his Old-age was diseased in his feet Then Aches and Diseases take possession of every part Megrims and Dizziness seize on the Head Catarrhs Ptisick and Astma's on the Lungs Palsyes on the Nerves Weakness and Pain on the Back and Loins Gravell and Stone on the Reins and Bladder The Gout on the Ioynts The Hypochondriack Melancholy on the Spleen The Colick on the Gutts and lastly a Dropsy or an Hectick which carry the man away So that an Aged person is a very Hospital and Old-age is it self an incurable Disease and any other added to it makes the case desperate Some of them indeed speed better than others but usually if they escape Acute diseases some Chronical distemper attends them to their Graves Now this is a very sensible Inconvenience None of these afflictions are joyous but grievous with a witness They vex and torment the Body that a man hath no mind to live and yet no power to dye Hear Iob c. 7. 20. I am a burden to my self Job 10. 1. My soul is weary of my life The Old person cries out with him Iob 16. 12. I was at ease but he hath broken me asunder he hath taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces he cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare he poureth out my gall upon the ground He breaketh me with breach upon breach c. These Distempers and Pain imbitter all worldly comforts House goods Money Friends Relations they are all dead to a man that is sick and in pain They deprive a man of himself he hath Ears and Eyes but no comfortable use of them those things that used to refresh him now offend him his Meat Chair his Bed tires him his Friends their absence offends him and he is disturb'd with their presence poor wretch he is not well and nothing is well about him as to the giddy all things turn round These also waste his Estate what will not one spend for ease and health one Remedy is commended and used and then another one Physician employed and then another skin for skin all shall go for Life and Health Yea these have a sad influence upon the
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
Experience goes further in all these things than Learning For the Aged and Experienced person having seen such great mistakes in himself and others is cured of that vain Credulity which hath ruin'd young people and having met with so many disappointments in the World is well freed from that carnal Confidence which hath undone others And yet their great Experience of the power and faithfulness of God is a mighty Bulwark to their Faith. As they have heard so have they seen in the City of God what he hath done to vindicate his Attributes and to verify his Promises Hence holy David Psal. 37. 25. I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging Bread. This was the advantage he had by his Old-age to trace out the Providence of God towards the posterity of good men that walking in their Parents steps they were seldom or never reduced to want at least to common beggery or if so yet were never quite forsaken of God as himself found when though 1 Sam. 21. 3. and 25. 8. he was glad to ask supplies of men yet was he still supported and owned of God. The good Old man can say Thou art my King of old O God Psal. 74. 12. He can say I remembred thy judgments of old O Lord and have comforted my self Psal. 119. 52. And thus he may direct others I will guide thee with my Eye Psal. 32. 8. And thus a man may vindicate and honour God Concerning thy Testimonies I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever Psal. 119. 152. The unexperienced Newness of any case or trouble is apt to stagger the strongest faith or courage Such things assault a man by way of Surprize but when we have had an experience of them we are corroborated to grapple with them No doubt the first Night was a strange thing to them that had seen nothing but Light before but when when they found by Experience the return of the Light again they could brook it well enough So the Burden that did at first affright us by often carrying it we easily bear it Psal. 63. 7. Because thou hast been my help therefore in the shadow of thy Wings will I rejoyce And it is conceived that this caused David to speak so of Goliahs Sword 1 Sam. 21. 9. There is none like that give it me He might have found another Sword of equal mettle but he had Experience of the goodness of that and so there was none like that From this long Experience the Aged person not only contemns many things which others admire but grows able to give a great guess concerning future events both in publick and particular Cases So that such persons may well be resorted unto as to common Oracles if they have treasured up wisdom according to their years To conclude this there lies a double Duty upon Aged persons in reference hereunto the One is to take due Notice of all such passages of the Providence of God or the Improvidence of men that come within the sphere of their Cognizance and not heedlesly to neglect them another is to store up in their memories such Observations For experience is made up of divers Memories of the same things Psal. 143. 5. I remember the days of old I meditate on all thy works I muse on the work of thy hands And then to produce these in time and place convenient either for their own or others direction caution or consolation SECT III. THirdly another Priviledge of Old-age is That it is freer from Sin. The Corruption of Nature and the Fruits thereof are the great blot and woful plague upon mankind and the first thing which every person arrived at the use of Reason should seriously set about should be to be healed of it But instead of that most people meeting with temptations without them and finding Strength and Youth within them forget the care of their Hereditary Disease and pursue their iniquities with greediness Some are tickled with applause and so they hunt after an airy renown and an ungrounded reputation others let the reins loose to sensual delights and wallow in the pleasures of Sin for a Season Others setting aside all fear of God and love to their Neighbour are set upon Revenge and will run down every one that stands in their way and others hoping for that fatisfaction in Riches which they will never find set their minds to grasp after a plentiful Estate by hook or crook Now tho some young people do happily escape these snares as was the case of Obadiah and some Old people are unhappily intrapt in them as was the case of Solomon yet most commonly Youth by reason of it's inexperience and unmortifiedness is full of Sin. Iob could reflect on the Sins of his Youth and David saw cause to cry for the pardon of those offences Hence Aristotle would scarce admit them capable of Moral Lectures And indeed that ardour and vehemence which is almost inseparable from that age makes them an easie prey to many Temptations Now when Old-age takes possession the proud the furious and the wanton spirits are spent As Wine at first is mixt with dregs till by time it settles and is refined so the Passions of youth if they be not mortified by the Grace of God yet they are weakned and deaded by the age of men As Tully hath it when Pleasures have almost depraved both body and mind then age comes and cures that which VVisdom could not and it is an happiness to be rid of such unruly Guests any way But you will say though one sort of sins are gone yet others succed in their room and it is too evident by what hath been said before that Old-age hath it's sins as well as Youth The Objection must be answer'd with Tears No age in this World without it's temptations this Leprosy will not be fully cleansed until the House be taken down but yet as we find Children and Youth more apt to breed vermine than aged persons so there are fewer Enormities in this age than in that For Transgressions do generally proceed either from Ignorance which Old-age doth usually inform and heal or from the strength of Passions which are much rebated and represt in Old-age or from Malice now the wiser a man is grown the less likely he is to chuse evil the more divine Strokes and Iudgments one hath seen upon evil doers the more he should be afraid of tampering with it the nearer a man is to his end the more in all reason he will beware of clogging his Conscience so that dying lusts are fittest for a dying Body and an holy Heart for an hoary Head. And this is a great Priviledge for as much as Sin is the Disease of the Soul and the greatest Evil in the World so that that State of life which is freest from it must needs be the happiest For it is this that helps to compleat our
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
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
what is your pillow or rather your heart made of that you can sleep so long in a state of Condemnation To be born in sin is sad but to live and dye in sin will prove a thousand times worse Remember that the destroying Angels began at the Ancient men before the house Ezek. 9. 6. It s true late Repentance is seldom true but yet true Repentance is never too late O then lay all business aside and set your selves about the New creature Now or never now and ever If you turn the deaf ear unto God now beware lest he deny you either the space or the grace to repent hereafter lest he answer you Ubi consumpsisti farinam c. where thou hast spent the flour of thy life there bestow the bran of it Take warning by that Penitent in story who had often determined to begin his Amendment from somâ—… eminent time as the First day of the year or his Birth day that so his Repentance might have some Remarkable date but when that Time came he was ready to adjourn it till another time Who thereupon concluded that he would make that present Day though it were obscure in the Calender yet memorable to his Soul by his turning through divine assistance unto God. Do you not perceive how you are in danger to be trapann'd by Satan who suggested to you in the time of youth that Repentance was then too early and who will now perswade it is grown too late ye have deâ—…err'd this work long enough already now you must use double diligence about it It is said of the Mulberry tree that it casts out its buds latest but then thrusts them all out in a night You are late in the Vineyard you must work the harder The whole business of your life hitherto stands for nothing if you be not new born you will cease to be in this world before you begin to live if your last change get the start of this first change you will curse the day of your birth to all eternity Now for your Direction in this great Work your present business is to get a Competence of Knowledge in the Doctrine of Religion and then searching your own Hearts to compare them with the holy Law of God. For example look your face in the glass of that hundred and nineteenth Psalm or of the Fifth Sixth and Seventh of Matthew and then through Gods help you will presently find the dissimilitude yea the contrariety between them And then fix your mind upon the Wrath of God hanging over all persons in your Condition and upon the sufficient satisfaction made by Iesus Christ for all that believe and repent and apply all this to your selves Frequent the serious Preaching of Gods word and begin to pray in good earnest Turn thou me and I shall be turned and be assured that Spirit which inclines you to the use of these means will breath life into your dead and dry bones and make you new Creatures And in case you find your selves at a loss in this affair repair to some Able and faithful Minister of Christ and be not afraid or asham'd to lay open your Condition and follow his guidance therein For if men are not content in case of an Infirmity of body to hear the Physick Lectures or to read books of Receits but will state their own case to the Physician himself and will do the like to the Lawyer in weighty cases concerning their Estates how much more need have you of a Godly Divine to direct and assist you in an affair wherein body and Soul are at stake and that for Eternity And so much for that First and fundamental Repentance so absolutely necessary for such Ancient people as have spent their lives in the service of the world and the flesh and were never truly converted unto God. But besides these Repentance in the renewed Acts thereof is a proper and necessary work for All Old people whatsoever You have lived a long time and through Omissions and Commissions have contracted abundance of guilt Trace your selves therefore from place to place from one period of your life to another and strictly reckon with your selves Study the Ten Commandments in their true extent they are called Ten words but they command ten thousand Duties and forbid ten thousand Sins many whereof you have ten thousand times failed in and in divers of them with great aggravations and then sit down and cry out O that my head were a fountain and mine Eyes rivers of tears to bewail these offences against a gracious God Upon this account did holy Augustine in his Old-age write his Confessions wherein he makes no difficulty to shame himself that he might give glory to God. And the Book of Ecclesiastes is judged to be the Poenitenials of King Solomon in his Old-age wherein he plainly confesseth his Vanity in seeking for Happiness in a vain and vexatious World and warns all young men to beware of such like folly Alas if you had fallen but seven times a day yet in seventy years those Sins would have amounted unto almost Two hundred thousand offences and can you reflect upon this without amazement nay it is a wonder that we do not as Nectarius his Accuser of old weep out our Eyes for very grief When the leaves are fallen from the trees as is aptly observed by One the birds nests are easily seen which were invisible before so when through Age our frothy vanities are wither'd we may palpably discover the sallies of Pride Wantonneâ—…s and Folly yea those nest of vermine and vipers which replenished our youthful dayes It was the sober Advice of that Statesman Sir Thomas Randolph in his Old-age after he had been eighteen times Embassador in forreign parts to Sir Thomas Walsingham Secretary of State It is now time sayes he for us to leave the tricks of State and to imploy our time before Death in Repentance for the Sins of our Lives And Blessed be God that hath appointed this Remedy and the Blood of Christ without which all our tears could not wash out one Sin that poor Sinners have this after-game of Recovery when they have been undone by Sin when we have eaten so much of the forbidden fruit in our youth we have need of this worm-wood in our Old-age Renew therefore daily the Acts of unfaigned Repentance and take account duly of your selves as some of the very Heathens have done sith you must give account to God very shortly and he that daily reckons with himself will have but one day to reckon for when he comes to dye But be sure you mistake not the Nature of Repentanee For it is not only a Trouble an Anger a Sorrow but it is made up of Grief and Hatred Grief for the Offence to God and Hatred of the Sins we grieve for So that Repentance is a turning to God from all sin with grief for it and hatred of it And the best Proof you can
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
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