At threescore and fiue yeares vntill fourescore or much about that age old men may be fit to be counsellours of estate and directours and gouernours of families After this age vntill their dying day old men are fit for nothing but to sit in a chaire in their chamber to haue their friends seruants and those of their house to visite them with reuerent and courteous salutations to haue their children and grand-children leaping about them making them pastime and sport to be entertained with talke and discourse fitting to their weake capacities And their part and duty is to returne them their blessing and well wishing and to offer vp daily prayers for them and all others wherein they must bee briefe and short expecting and looking euery minute when death will bee so kinde as to take them out of the world There is a kinde of old age ouerhastened ouermuch worne and broken with sore labour ouermuch paines taking watchings and surfettings in times past Those that by this meanes are become old shall yet at times for the most part haue perfect senses and vnderstanding and shall haue their blood moderately hote the luke-warme heate whereof they shall know by skill and cunning to cherish and maintaine But yet their surfeited bodies shal be tormented with sharpe diseases and aches in their bones which by fits at times shall put them to such griping paines and panges in their body that they shall be able no whit at all to helpe themselues and their neighbours for whose good and comfort they ought the more carefully to preserue and the better to see to and to order their life that so they may in peace of conscience yeeld the better account to God Briefly our life may be compared to the light of a Lampe which by little and little goes out as the oyle that maintaines it doth waste and consume or to the Moone which as it oftentimes shines forth and shewes it selfe so is it as often ecclipsed and vnder a cloud But we commonly see the most part of men sweated to death with hote burning feauers pestilences famines warres common diseases and diuers mischances sweepe them out of the world before they come neere by many a dayes iourney to the doore of old age What man would desire to see the fortith part of his age if when hee is come to be able to speake and to bee of some capacity and vnderstanding he should be shewed in a booke all the accidents and mischances which from and after his infancy is or may happen vnto him whereof as Cicero recounteth in his second booke De diuinatione Dicaearchus in times past wrote a large Volume But I suppose hee had great leasure and that all the world could not containe all that might be imagined to fall out in some mens liues in fiftie yeares space If a man fearing God will seriously examine what things haue passed in his owne life and make a Iournall or day booke of them whereby hee may bee brought to repent him of his follies and faults to amend his life to lay hold on the benefits of Iesus Christ to renounce the world and vnfainedly to meditate and thinke vpon a better life hee shall doe a worthy worke And I would gladly counsell all wise old men to stay themselues vpon such meditations while some young foppish and old doting persons spend their time in ridiculous and shamefull sports and delights or which doe by fowle crimes and misdeedes deadly wound their woefull consciences It is recorded by Lactantius in his second booke of Christian Institutions that the old Poets did circle and inclose the life of man within three terminations or periodes ouer which they appointed three fatall Ladies Atropos Lachesis Clocho the daughter of Iupiter and Themis to spin at the thread of mans life vnder which faigned names was couertly vayled and shadowed diuers considerations of our condition in this world in the first middle and last age of our life whereof we purpose not here to moralize or declare the meaning Aristotle in his booke of the world maketh mention that by these three daughters of Iupiter the ancient people of those times would represent time past time present and to come All things by them being tyed to a fatall necessitie which God hath decreed to bee against which the oldest strongest and youngest cannot resist or gainsay The name of Senators is deriued from the Latine word senes which signifies old men who are so styled in honour of their experience prudence and wisedome inseperable companions of such old men who are appointed to haue the superintendency and gouernment ouer others In the gouernment of all Churches there is an Ecclesiasticall Senate or conuocation of Elders who being assisted with the ministers of the word haue their eyes still prying into the manners of men to reforme and reclaime them from euill to good and if they be good to make them better These old men aboue all others ought to take heed that they doe not incurre the ancient reproach and scandall of bis pueri senes which is verified in those who are old in yeares and in their manners and actions shew themselues children But as it is a rare thing to see a yong man so well stayed as an old or to doe things so well and wisely as an antienter body so is it a lamentable thing to see old men to mocke make moes one at an other and to make a laughing stocke of those who are as old as themselues or to doe the vttermost they can to disgrace them onely to please and curry-fauour with young men Common faults in these dayes which the Ancient of dayes will redresse when it pleaseth him Let vs close vp this Section with a sentence of a Romane Stoicke who sayth That as he maketh not a long voyage who is tossed to and fro at sea with stormy and tempestuous windes and doth not proceed so ought we not to account that man to haue liued long who hath not ordered his life to make a happy end CHAP. V. The spring-head of old age and the cause or occasions of it MAny of the Heathen people haue shewed themselues rash vnaduised and arrogantly minded who haue taken vpon them boldly to accuse nature calling her an enuious and spitefull step-mother which hath been willing and giuen her consent that man who is worthy of very long life should remaine so short a time in the world and which is more that he should be compassed about and pressed to death with millions of euills Others haue imagined that man was purposely placed in the world to bee punished for his sinnes There were many of them that maintained that life was a scourge and plague to man and made great complaints against nature that shee had cast him into the middest of a raging and stormy sea ouerslowing with miseries These and the like discoursers haue resembled those who thinke the worse of good wines because of the lees in the bottome of
the Sea with Shipps This Monarch considering from the toppe of a hill many millions of men at his seruice in warres fell a weeping that at the end of a hundred yeares not one of them should be aliue And if we loue added he this advantage to be mounted vpon so high a watch Tower that from thence we may behold all the earth vnder our feete and so many kingdomes fallen to ruine also many liuing men some tortured others strangled and drowned on the one side festiualles on the other side funeralles some to be borne others to die To what straight and exigent should we be brought if wee were not assured that all these things are ordered by the just appoyntment of the All-mightie S. Ambrose in his exposition of the creation of the world sayth that all men are borne and die naked that there is no difference betweene the bodies of poore men and rich but that the bodies of rich-men being very pursie well fed and fat while they liue are more puant and stinking then the bodies of poore men Besides these helpes and supports against death which the Heathens haue collected from our condition to be borne and to die they haue from thence collected other causes which we are now to discusse and examine and whereof Ciceco speaketh in his Dialogue of old age as followeth We know how chearefully and manfully souldiers contemne death why then should wise old men feare it To haue our fill of all things causeth that we haue our fill and satietie of life Those who die well liue a life which alone deserueth the name but so long as we are locked vp in the prison of the bodie wee are as it were plunged deepe in the earth and exiled very farre from and beneath our heauenly Mansion Wherfore all wise men die willingly fooles on the contrarie leaue this world against their will mauger their teeth or in brutish ignorance Socrates the last day of his death discoursed of the immortalitie of the soule Cyrus a little before his death sayd to his sonnes Doe not thinke that after I shall be dead I am annihilated and brought to nothing If some god said Cato in the same Dialogue would permit me to returne from old age to childhood and to cry in a Cradle I should forbeare to accept such a condition nor would I for any thing returne to the beginning of my race hauing almost finished it For what commoditie is found in a life tossed to and fro with turmoyles and toyles as this present life is Notwithstanding I will not bewayle it nor doe I repent me to haue liued I which goe out of this world as out of an Inne not as out of a house seeing nature hath giuen vs a cabbin here of ingresse and egresse but not to stay and continue O how glorious will that day be wherein I shall be found in the holy assembly of soules and shall goe to heauen Certainely Old age is the end and Epilogue of our life even as of some Comedie or Interlude Loe here some sayings of Cicero in the fore-mentioned dialogue In the first Booke of his Tusculane questions wherein he expressely treateth of the contempt of death among other his sayinges and discourses we reade that among the old Latines whom the Poet Ennius calleth Cascj that it was a doctrine held from Father to Sonne that death did not abolish man so as it might be sayd he was vtterly perished The sages would not haue set out and adorned their funerals sepulchers and tombes with such ceremonies nor hallowed them with so many devotions if they had certainely held that death is an vtter destruction of the whole man on the contrarie they were in this poynt perswaded that it was a departure and change of life which brought worthie men and women to heauen Plato also bringeth in Socrates condemned to death saying to his judges I hope that good shall befall me to die For if all sense and feeling be abolished in death it bringeth a quiet and perpetuall rest but if that which is said of it be found true that it is a departure out of this world to goe into places where those that be dead are assembled together what contentment shall it be to me to talke and discourse with them It is further addeth Cicero a sound and solid Argument that nature it selfe proclaimes the soules of men to be immortall in this that all men haue a wondrous care what shall become of them and all thinges else after their death and die very willingly when life beginning to faile and to leaue them may stay and settle it selfe vpon a good conscience and a worthie euidence to it selfe In the second Booke of the Lawes these words following are read Our auncestors haue ordained that the dead should bee canonized and placed in the number of gods by certaine ceremonies which they did institute Ennius as of opinion that wee were not to weepe for the dead because their soules were immortall Plato sayd in the first Booke of his Common weale that a man which hath this good testimonie in himselfe to haue done no man wrong is alwayes vpheld with a greacious and stedfast hope the good nursse and supportresse of his old age And againe Cicero in his first Booke of Tusculane questions writeth these words You haue in sleepe the image of death wherein you are sheeted and wrapped vp euery night Are you in doubt then that there is no more sense in death seeing you know that in sleepe the soule of man is never at rest Moreouer banish farre from you those old wiues fables and comptes that it is a great miserie to die before the time And of what time Of Nature But nature hath lent vs life as siluer or coyne without setting vs a day of restitution but to restore it backe againe at her will and pleasure Why then doe you complaine if shee call for and demand her owne againe when it pleaseth her seeing you hold and haue it vpon this condition With what alacritie and chearefulnesse ought we to goe that way at which wayes end we shall be released and discharged of all carefull carkinges fascheries and anxieties of minde A woman of Sparta hauing sent her sonne to the warre and tydinges being brought her that hee was slaine in the battaile with great courage answered that shee did beare him to the end he should die for his Countrie Seneca an excellent Stoicke Philosopher hath verie worthie precepts in his morall Bookes touching death We could compile a great Booke of them but not to be too long too large it shall suffice vs to cull out some sentences of them which shall be able to giue the reader a taste and desire to see the rest I will beginne at the end of the thirteenth Epistle which speaketh to old men Among other euills folly hath yet this one that shee still begins to liue This poynt sheweth how bad and scurrilous the levitie and giddie humour of men
is mortall in vs may bee swallowed vp of life In heauen which indeed is the land of the liuing we shall be stripped of all that is vile contemptible mortall fraile and corruptible in vs and shall bee clothed with a robe of glory and blessed immortality In which countrey as Saint Augustine in some place saith we shall finde true and faithfull dealing and from whence all impostures errour and falshood is banished as there our ioy shal be a true ioy so there our life also shall bee a true life Now although the damned doerise againe yet to speake properly they shall not liue for their life shall bee in perpetuall torments and therefore are they stil kept aliue that their tortures should neuer haue end that their gnawing worme die not and that their fire of torment goe not out That life onely is to bee accounted a life which is both euerlasting and happy God hauing no purpose therefore that his elect children should mewe vp or confine their felicitie within the little narrow compasse of a brittle and perishing life but should seeke out and looke for another countrey where they may liue at more libertie and for euer hath beene contented to giue them a most assured testimony thereof before the law and before the flood in the person of the Patriarch Henoch then vnder the law in the middle age of the world in the person of his Prophet Eliah and in the last age of the world in the person of Iesus Christ Which three persons are now gone into heauen The first two as young schollers and disciples purposely trained vp and chosen to bee heires of eternall life that they might bee to all others worthy witnesses of euerlasting happinesse and that the men of their times might euidently see and bee assured by that which fell out in the liues of these two great persons whom Tertullian in his Booke of the resurrection of the flesh surnameth The white robed Saints of eternitie that there is another land of the liuing where wee shall one day meete together as well in body as in soule And as for Christ Iesus our Sauiour he as head of the Church and as a tryumphing conquerour of death and hell is ascended into heauen to prepare a place in his kingdome for those that be his to draw vnto him at the appointed time all the members of his mysticall body Then shall be fulfilled all the words of the Prophet mentioned in the end of the hundred and second Psalme Thou hast afore all times laid the foundation of the earth and the heauens are the worke of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure they shall waxe old as a garment thou shalt alter and change them as a garment and they shall be altered and changed But thou art alwayes the same thy yeares shall bee at a stay and neuer faile the children of thy seruants shal dwell in thy presence and their seed shall remaine and be established in thy sight CHAP. III. Of the tree of Life and of the tree of Knowledge of good and euill MOst happy was the state and condition of our father Adam before his fall in that excellent Garden where his Creator had placed him Where so long as he would doe that which God commanded him hee liued at pleasure and hearts ease was in fauour with God who created him good he wanted neither meat nor drinke conuenient nor any good thing The tree of Life was a strong guard to his person to defend him against the assaults of old age that it durst not come neere to approch or seize on him he needed not to feare sicknesse or any outward thing to hurt or annoy him hee had there perfect health of body and tranquilitie of minde This Saint Augustine affirmes of him in his 14. Booke De Ciuitate Des chap. 16. Let vs adde that which Damascene writes of him in the eleuenth Chapter of Orthodoxall faith in these words That Gods will and purpose being to create man after his owne image and to make him the prime Monarch ouer all the world hee prepared and built him a most stately and sumptuous Palace where hee might lead his life in all happinesse And this was the Garden of Eden a store house of all sorts of spices and of all things else which might giue him content and delight a place very temperate radiant and shining with a most cleere wholesome pure and fresh ayre strewed all ouer with greene hearbes and with most fragrant and sweet smelling flowers In the middest was planted the tree of Life and the tree of knowledge of good and euill to no other end but to prooue and exercise his obedience and that hee might see that Gods will was not that hee should be distracted with diuers and wandring imaginations and that his chiefest businesse should bee to prayse and blesse his Creator and to make it his solace and delight to sixe his thoughts and affections on him These testimonies of Saint Augustine and Damascene doe explaine the wordes of Moyses who saide that the earthly Paradise for so is the Garden of Eden commonly called was not an allegoricall and imaginary Garden or some Orchard hanging in the ayre and not really in nature but it was the sight of a goodly countrey surueyed by measure had his bounds and abuttments vpon a certaine angle of the world towards the East where Eue was framed and carued out of the side of Adam and where trees and fruits did naturally growe and was the foode by which they did liue And this Garden of Eden was not the whole continent of the earth for Adam and Eue after their fall were banished and driuen out of it to goe to seeke there dwelling elsewhere All Diuines doe affirme that in the History of Adams creation as things are penned and set downe by Moyses in the three first Chapters of Genesis there were many mysteries contained But it followes not as Saint Augustine in his eight Booke vpon Genesis according to the litterall text learnedly cleares the point that in the said History of Adams first estate there was nothing conteined but Allegories Idenes and things mysticall As it must not bee inferred vnder the collour and pretext that the pillar which followed the people in the Desert was Christ that there was not a materiall and naturall rocke out of which gushed out waters which did naturally quench the peoples thirst in the Desert If then a mysticall and typicall sense bee the matter in question Saint Ambrose in his fourth Volume and Tractat Saint Augustine in his second Booke vpon Genesis vrging the words of the text litterally against the Manichees and Damascene in the place before alledged doe also say that the Garden of Eden was a figure of the Paradise and felicity of the Church in the middest whereof was planted Christ the true tree and bread of life out of which followeth riuers of heauenly and euerlasting life As also that it signified and
nayles into our owne wounds nor to add as we say fewell to the fire but rather let vs daily pray to our heaunly Father who being our sole Creator is likewise soly he who can reforme and regenerate vs that by the vertue and efficacie of his spirit hee may represse all our corrupt and inordinate affections in such sort that as children of God nor of Sathan or of Cain we may be cloathed with the new man created according to God may be couteous one towardes another mercifull mutually forgiuing one another all offences as our Lord hath graciously pardoned all our sinnes in Iesus Christ But it is not requisite to proceede further in the discourse of anger or choller the turpitude and deformitie whereof is sufficiently knowne to wise old men who haue read the excellent Treatises which haue beene aunciently written of it especially in the Bookes of Seneca and Plutarch Afterward in our tyme by Iohn de L'Espine in his graue Discourses of the contentment of the minde Whosoeuer will adde to these that which Turtullian and Cyprian Doctors of the Church haue written of patience can require to know nothing further of this subiect vnlesse he may bee pleased to adde that which S. Basile and S. Chrysostome haue written in diuers Homilies against anger and the great desire of reuenge which is to be lamented in all men and beyond all measure to bee abhorred of a wise old man As for many late writers which in Latine Italian Almaigne or any other Language besides the French haue written of choller or anger and of the helpes and remedies against it which they haue called out of Bookes of Diuinitie naturall Philosophie and Phisicke We need not now to make a Catalogue of them they making nothing to our principall intention in this Discourse There remaineth to speake something of diffidence and distrust the mother of impatience and almost of all other vices Our Lord correcteth this euill in those that are his whom he calleth sometimes men of little faith shewing the remedies for it to bee contained in the consideration of the gracious power of our God If any men be bound to such contemplation wise old men are who seeing themselues at their iourneies end and feeling their strength to faile ought to profit in faith and in the meditation of the prouidence and mercie of God It is that whereunto S. Paul seemes to haue regard when he willeth old men to sober discreete aduised sound in the faith in charitie and patience Tit. 2. 2. What is the cause of the frowardnesse and impatience in old men Euen this that they forget so many great fauours and benefits which God hath bestowed vpon them hauing mercifully drawne them from their mothers belly tenderly brought them vp protected them from infinite dangers so that they haue great cause to prayse God at all times as Dauid exhorteth them by his example in diuers Psalmes especially in the 34. 71. and 118. Psalmes which all young and old men ought to know by rote and by heart As also we recommend vnto them the seuen and thirtith Psalme which may be called the shield against impatience because we may finde therein that which is able to settle and assure a conscience wauering and perplexed with the scandalls and offence to see the eminent prosperitie of Atheists and prophane persons Put the case that the skie fall that the earth melt into the deepes and that the elements of fire and water be mingled together shall we suffer therefore melancholie fretting and impatience to deuoure vs when on the contrarie our Sauiour exhorts vs at that very time to lift vp our heads to heauen because our deliuerance drawes neere and is at hand Luke 21. 28. Is there any heauinesse or anguish which the promised comforter who is more mightie then all the world may not abolish and take away Prouided we leaue the matter to him and banish and cast of all distrust and impatience Then to what vse should so many promises of the sonne of God serue and what should that charitable and ardent prayer availe which he made a little before his death described in the 17. Chapter of S. Iohn But if wee will conserue and keepe our soules in peace and in true ioy let vs carefully keepe faith and a good conscience and let vs endeuour with S. Paul and after his example to hope that the resurrection of the dead as well of the iust as of the vniust shall come and to haue our conscience vnblameable towardes men Act. 26. 15. 16. Thus doing wee shall alwayes haue ioy in God Phillip 4. 4. The heart which is glad and reioyceth in the Lord is a perpetuall banquet Pro. 15. 15. So the vncleane and froward spirit the horror of sinne the sense and feeling of the wrath of God shall vanish and depart from vs and wee shall sing in triumph with the Apostle these excellent sayings If God be on our side who shall be against vs He which hath not spared his sonne but gaue him for vs all to death shall not he bountifully giue vnto vs also all things with him I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angells nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature is able to seperate vs from the loue which he hath manifested vnto vs in Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 8. 30 c If sometimes we feele our faith to languish and droope and our soules to be heauy and pensiue let vs spurre and rouze vp our selues with the goad that Dauid vseth in the two and fortith Psalme 12. v. My soule why art thou cast downe and why art thou disquieted within me waite on God for I will yet giue him thankes hee is my present helpe and my God Let vs then discard and cast from vs the execrable suggestions of the flesh of Sathan and hearken to the counsell of the Sonne of God who doth dehort and diswade vs from the perplexed vnprofitable vaine and prophane cares of the world in the sixt chapter of Saint Matthew and doth encourage vs to all confidence and affiance and to an inuincible hope in him when hee saith You shall haue affliction in the world and peace with me but bee of good courage I haue ouer come the world Iohn 16. CHAP. XI Of the causes that old age is burthensome and tedious to many old man A Well framed minde reioyceth in prosperitie and is sensible of afflictions But the euill and mischiefe is that many men casting their eye awry vpon euils giue good things a shrewed vnhappie and wrong name speake sinisterly and ill of them or doe not iudge of them as they ought Whereupon it followes that old age is tedious and vnpleasing vnto them because they haue not learned wherof to reioyce and to complaine nor know not the felicities of old age what they are nor haue not saluted or congratulated them a farre off nor neere hand
bee driuen out of it although misery doth assayle and afflict them on euery side CHAP. XII Of the benefit or good of old age WE doe now speake of some commodities of old age and doe parcell out the benefits and good thereof Wee speake heere of a well framed and well ordered old age and of that age which is from fiftie fiue yeeres or there abouts vntill threescores and tenne or fourescore yeares Touching those casuall miseries as childish humours and doting manners paulsies faintnesse feeblenesse and the like infirmities either of minde or body these art not heere to be considered for all old men doe not bring forth commendable fruits and effects of their liues being become sots leud and men altogether rude and ill nurtured And who would thinke to goe to gather grapes of thornes figges of thistles and to finde hony in a gall Ancient men had a Prouerb as Dauid reports 1. Sam. 24. 14. That wickednesse doth proceed from the wicked But we doe maintaine that there are vertues not common which are to bee found in old men who are vertuous wise and fearing God who only are worthy and none else as Basil saith of the worthy name of old men although they haue faint and languishing bodies and lye bedred Speaking then of good we doe consider diuers sorts of good There is a naturall good a politique a supernaturall and a good which is opposed to that which is vitious and bad vnpleasing painefull vnprofitable hurtfull Wee doe take vpon vs to make it appeare that these diuers species and sorts of good doe all meete in old men And first to speake of the naturall good What thing is there so agreeable to nature as ripenesse of iudgement Now this is found properly and altogether in old men For pregnant and forward wittes are of an extraordinary last and doe seldome last long Men of ripe age doe vndoubtedly perceiue the ouerboyling blood and passions of youth to waxe luke-warme and to freeze in them they feele ordinarily many salt rheumes and Catarrhes to consume and dry vp in them they are macerated and leane and they know their iudgement decayes It is a naturall good to dye old for a man to bee carefull of himselfe and his health which is sounder in old men then in young who for the most part regard not the good gouernment of their bodies and liues Concerning the ciuill or politique good it chiefely consisteth in honour which being the Magnificent and Maiesticall reward of vertue hath beene the cause that wise old men haue alwayes iudged that there was no good so commodious as this The Spartanes and many other people did honour very much the ancients and elders who in the common-weale of Israel were superintendents and had the charge of publique and State affaires committed to them And Saint Paul 1. Timoth. 5. 17. willeth That the elders that rule well bee esteemed worthy of double honour All constitutions and ordinances doe decree that old men command and yong men obey The Athenians obseruing an ancient decree of Solon did honour old age in such sort that the ancientest men of the citie had the prime voyce and spake first in all their common counsells and assemblies and they esteemed it very expedient for the good of their state to respect the counsell of old men Young Plinie in the eight booke of his Epistles writeth that there was an ancient constitution to this effect That young men should learn of old men not only how to behaue themselues in their speeches and words but also in their carriage and gesture of body The father was tutor to the sonne and if the father dyed the ancientest man of the place where he dyed or of some other place was to haue the tuition and wardship of his sonne The Apostle sath to Timothy his scholler Rebuke not an elder but exhort him as a father and the elder women as mothers Concerning the goods of the minde which are morall as prudence temperance continency and those which are supernaturall and infused as the true wisedome the sincere knowledge of God the zealous inuocation of his name the discussion of Theologicall controuersies the dexterity and skill of managing and ordering Church discipline there was neuer no doubt made but it is agreed vpon of all men that old men haue a larger measure of knowledge heerein and without comparison more vnderstanding to direct then young men Certainely young men who are of sober and discreet conuersation and manners and plentiously furnished qualified with graue counsells as Timothy the Euangelist was doe deserue very great commendation and applause 1. Timoth. 4. 12. But Saint Paul doth not mynce and dissemble the matter but that such greene heads are often time in trauell and whurried about with intemperate lusts and desires and further will not admit that the Pastour and Minister of the Church should be a young scholler or fresh-man least being puffed vp with pride hee fall into the condemnation of the Arch Calumniator the Diuell 1. Tim. 3. 6. Hee forbiddeth the young widdowes to meddle in things set a part for the seruice of the Church 1. Timoth. 5. 12. It is euident what opinion old men in times past had of young men Homer in his Vlisses declares that young men vsually are inconsiderate and heedlesse Aristotle writeth That they are not very capable of morall knowledge for lacke of iudgement and experience which they could not attaine vnto but by succession of time Cicero propoundeth this sentence That young men are rash and heady and old men are aduised and stayed Besides many others haue shot forth the like bolts and censures whereof this is the totall summe and substance I neuer saw wisedoms and youth both together dwell Nor him a good commander that did neuer obey well I will heereunto adde further this Stanza of verses of the same quill Suddenly to resolue and rashly to beleeue all Not to discerne and friends voyce from a flatterers call Young headed counsell and new seruants put in trust Haue oftentimes laid high estates in the dust It is recorded in Histories that many Common-weales hauing beene disturbed turned topsie turuie and brought to ruine by the bold forwardnesse and rashnesse of young Counsellours haue beene reestablished and at length reduced to a good forme of gouernment by the counsell of old men The kingdome in the house of Dauid in the time of Rehoboam the Common-weale of Athens many times and of Rome in the conspiracie of Catiline are a proofe heereof So then the fruits which old age doth yeeld and bring forth are manifold whereof some redound to the glory of God as old men haue more deuotion and religion then other men their prayers are more powerfull and frequent they doe more vsually and daily extoll and magnifie the grace fauour prouidence of God whereof they haue many testimonies and experiences in their owne persons There are other fruits which old age doth yeeld which doe serue to the benefit and
principle The iust shall liue by faith CHAP. IIII. What old age is and how many species and kindes of old age there be THE disloyaltie and fearefulnesse of Adam and Eue was the violent downefall of themselues and their posteritie vnto death and vnto all the forerunners of death as consumption diseases and wanne and pale old age which is the respectacle center and sinke of all mans miseries To speake properly God onely is incorruptible immortall immutable alwayes the same and whose yeares alter not And although it be said that the soule of man is immortall as Saint Augustine affirmeth in his first booke De Trinitate yet the true immortality is a perfect immutability and vnchangeablenes which no creature hath In God onely there is no variablenesse nor shadow of change as saith Saint Iames Chap. 1. 17. Verse Contrariwise our liues are variable and subiect to suddaine reuolutions changes and chances and our faire outside and feature of body turnes to bee as a moth eaten garment Our dayes as the Patriarch Iacob said to the king of AEgypt are few and euill or wearisome vpon earth Galen knowing well that old age a naturall infirmity which could not be auoyded did iustly reproue a certaine Philosopher who braggingly gaue it out that hee had a receipt would preserue a man from growing old Although saith hee old age be naturall and ineuitable and withall further addeth that this Philosopher being growen to the age of fourescore yeares dyed of a hectique feauer At that time when Saint Cyprian liued the whole world was iudged to be very much weather-beaten to be growen old and that all her former good dayes were gone and past Behold what this couragious Martyr of Iesus Christ saith of the world in his tractate of death If the old walles of your house should stand totteringly if the battlement and roofe should shake if the maine building should leane awry and the rafters postes groundsells and principall timbers should bee weake and rotten all of them giuing you warning of the perill yee are in if yee tarry in it would yee stand to delay and pawse on the matter and not get yee gone in all hast The whole frame of the world doth totter and reele and being old and neere her end shee cryes out that shee stands vpon her last legges and is quite downe and you deferre to serue God to seeke your owne safety and good by preuenting those euils which with her crimes are ready to fall vpon you and may bee escaped if you timely giue ouer the world Many learned Astronomers haue prooued by firme and sure demonstrations that the celestiall Planets haue altered their course and motions and that the Sun is come neerer to the earth that by his warme neighbour-hood such is the speciall prouidence and will of God the Elements which are become weake in their influences might be the better relieued Most certaine it is that the world is growen old that Kingdomes Common-weales and Cities haue their flourishing times and times of decaie kindreds also and whole families are rooted out and not a man of them to bee seene aboue ground and all the creatures which serue to our vse and are subiect to vanitie doe after their manner groaningly desire and looke for an end as the Apostle saith Rom. 8. 20. But to returne to our Vieillard or old man who is the subiect of this discourse what other thing is old age then the road way to death For seeing that death is a suffocating and quenching of the naturall heate of the body old age makes way to him to enter and seize vpon the body the sooner The older men are the more weake and feeble they are in euery thing they doe and take in hand and this weakenesse of old age can in no sort be holpen and redressed though wee striue to doe it by keeping the heare from faintings and failings and in continuall motion For life and action end both at once it being impossible that the liuing creature should die so long as the heart receiues motion by the bodies action Moreouer old men who are of a dry and cold constitution are lesse fit to vndertake many actions exploites or imploiments They are not quicke enough of apprehension their senses fayling them by little and little the synewes lineaments and all the members of their body doe shrinke languish and decay their sight and hearing failes them they are chap-fallen and their teeth deny to champ and grinde the bread they must eat And as God hath appointed euery mans race of life how long it shall be and the stages hee must passe before he come to the end of it whereof old age is the last stage of all it is not euery mans desteny to goe so farre some waxe old sooner then others some beare their age very well some looke old and are not So that old age must not be iudged by the wrinkles in the fore-head by the white haires by the vnweldinesse or witherednesse of the body there being on the contrary some very old that haue a ruddy face and well coloured a sleeked and smooth skin and their haire of a cole-blacke or nutt-browne colour But it is fit rather to referre our selues to the wordes of the Psalmist in the nineteenth Psalme where mention is made of the yeares of mans life and of those things which often happen therein and of the many and manifold troubles and discommodities wherewith old men are besieged and compassed about Moreouer the Naturalists and Philosophers haue vsed to diuide old age as it were into certaine spaces paces or progresses The first pace and progresse is from fifty to threescore yeares at which age a man is yet lusty strong and youthfull especially those men who haue beene wise to liue abstinently and continently flying gluttony drunkennesse whooredome effeminacies excessiue paines taking and labours more hurtfull then necessary for the welfare and strength of the body ouermuch carking and caring and ouer violent passions of the minde which ouerwhelme the soule not suffering it to rest in quiet or making it to goe gadding and madding heere and there to and fro as it happeneth to the licentious ambitious couetous reuengefull irefull froward fearefull and such like persons who being tempested with disordered thoughts and vnruly passions are carried with the rage and fury of them so farre out of the way of reason and besides themselues that they can hardly hit the right way againe to the house and citie of God And though that after fifty yeares the strength of nature doth wane and by little and little doth abate and grow weake yet wee see that men at that age and after vntilll they bee threescore and fiue yeeres old and vpwardes are fit persons to bee imployed in publike places of charge and command as well for their counsell and wisedome to direct as for their ability and valour to execute and performe wherof we haue infinit examples in our owne Chronicles and moderne Histories
Ierusalem no more a childe of yeares nor an old man which shall not accomplish and fill vp his yeares for hee that shall bee a hundred yeares old shall bee a young man By which manner of speech the Prophet would giue vs to vnderstand that all the children of God shall come to that age and stature where of Saint Paul maketh mention in the fourth Chapter of his Epistle to the Ephesians in such sort that they shall be exempt from all infirmities wherewith children and old men are cumbred that is they shall not be children in vnderstanding nor poore silly dotardes and sots as those are that know not Iesus Christ but liue in perpetuall ignorance Idolatry and beastly impiety On the contrary life prolonged vnto the prophane shall bee but a presage and forerunner of their euerlasting accursed condition But to proceed the inherent and naturall causes of old age are not all of one sort and kinde For some of them are meerely naturall and sleepe in our bosomes and some of them be accidentall and forraine and further of from vs. Those we call meerely naturall and which sleep with vs which the Naturalists Physicians speake of to wit our coldnesse and drynesse of body because the more our radicall moysture dryes vp and our blood cooles the neerer is our sensitiue and naturall life to an end which hath beene the cause to moue some men to thinke that old men were called Senes which is as much to say as Semineces men halfe dead because old men especially those that are decrepit very much worne with age haue cold and dry bodies For although they abound with excrements and by this accident seeme to haue moist bodies for that their naturall heat being too much cooled and not able to cherish and warme them within the humour purgeth it selfe at the nose or mouth Yet this age is found indeed and in truth to be cold and dry And as death is a totall suffocation of the naturall heate so old age doth by little and little coole and abate it whereupon it also followes that all cold and dry bodies are quickly worne out and grow old On the contrary young men are of hoate and moyst constitutions But euen as it is to bee found in wines that some keepe collour long and drink briske and neate and some by and by loose collour and drinke eagre and flat So wee see some men waxe old and were out sooner then others And notwithstanding that man wheele about from this place to that shifting ayres and vsing all the wayes and means he can to cherish nature for a while yet his naturall heate and strength doth by little and little leaue him whereupon doth ensue to aged persons white haires loosenesse of teeth deafenesse of hearing weaknesse and decay of sight the shaking palsie in their hands and legges and the chilling and shrinking vp of all the whole body This naturall weaknenesse and drynesse which by succession of time doth inuade all bodies made of earth or other matter besides is seconded in many men with diuers diseases and with old age comming on which with greater paine doth hasten it forward and further it the more All these euils may be reduced to two heads which wee call the labours and toyles of the body distinctly or both together and intemperance Concerning labour it is expresly set downe in that sentence immediately after the sinne of Adam and Eue which Moyses doth propound in these words The earth shall bee accursed because of thee in sorrow shalt thou eate of the fruites thereof all the dayes of thy life in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eate bread c. Gen. 2. 17 19. And in the ninetith Psalme it is said That we flourish and wither away all at once Because as the Prophet saith there is no part of our life how strong and lusty soeuer it bee which is priuiledged and free from sorrow and labour These two are the parents of old age as euery man knowes and there hath beene in our time young men which being oppressed with extreame griefe haue become old in a night the toyles of the warres haue made some gray headed in the prime and flower of their yeares and it comes by kind to the men and women of some kindreds and families to be soone gray and old Plime in his seuenth booke and seuenth chapter writeth That in Albania some haue all the haire of their heads white from their infancy I my selfe haue seene in diuers places where I haue trauelled fiue or sixe yong men whereof the last I saw was in Dauphiné who had all the haire of their heads as white as a man of threescore and tenne yeares old Touching intemperance whereof there bee diuers kindes a vice to common in young men destitute of the feare of God and very vnseemely in old men being the harbinger of death and the Phisicians best friend It hath beene an old complaint seeing this present life is so short fraile and transitory that men doe so naturally desire to liue and to bee so carefull to recouer and preserue their health and to that end spare for no cost nor make any bones or difficulties to turne their tender stomackes into an Apothecaries shop of bitter and vnsauory druges how almost all men by their outragious riots and surfettings doe bring vpon themselues an irkesome old age doe before hand as much as in them lies with sharpe and violent diseases hasten their death are not wise till it bee too late and neuer condemne or finde fault with their shamefull luxuries and riots till the gout is in their knees or the dropsie doth painefully shingle them round or the stone doth torment them and till the excesses and disorders by them committed to the fearefull abuse of Gods patience haue deliuered vp their rotten and crazed bodies into the hands of a miserable old age They should before hand remember and bethinke themselues of the old excellent Prouerb If thou wilt bee a very old man bee old betime Which doth warne vs to bee carefull of our health in our youth flying all shamefull and vnruly passions and seeking by the wise gouernment of our selues to obtaine such an old age as may bee long strong and healthfull Verily it is a licentiousnesse not to be borne withall or tollerated that a man should giue his youth as a present to the vncleane spirit by abandoning it to impudent dissolutenesse pollutions and ribauld impurities promising to himselfe that all shall goe well with him at last and conceiting to himselfe rude and wilde peccauies which deceiue and misleade him It is a further euill and vtterly abominable in old men to see them so farre to haue abandoned God their honour their respect of others all remembrance of their wretched condition and of death which hangs ouer their heads that they would still weaue a webb of new yeares for Couerlets to hide the foule deedes they commit in horrible hypocrisie which at last
wherewith the iudge of the world can danton and keepe vnder the mighty and meane persons who neuer haue care of their consciences It sufficeth mee that they themselues are sensible witnesse of them or if they remaine for a time stupide and sencelesse that the Almighty hath sharpe roddes of fearefull vengeance in store wherewith he doth whip them at last though he spareth them a while Let vs speake a word of choller or anger which like a thunderbolt killes millions of young and old men with the sword or with suddained seases Histories declare that in former times Valentiaian the Emperour and of late in our time Mathias King of Hungarie giuing way and suffering themselues to bee ouercome with choler and anger dyed both of an Apoplexie It hath beene seen that many old men furiously transported with choler and anger haue fallen into soundings convulsions of the synewes and other incurable diseases Women of ripe age who are too much giuen to anger and fretting are commonly seene as a reward of their indiscretion punished with the suffocation of the mother the falling sicknesse and other such fearefull scourges Couetousnesse ambition and the loue of the world make many men so hide bound with anguish and griefe that it is impossible to cure or comfort them when they haue most need of helpe Soft handed sloth and idlenesse contrariwise excessiue labours and violent exercises and countries that are too cold marish and moyst doe all giue an helping hand to make vp an vnseasonable old age But I haue not taken vpon mee to score vp all the accidents and occasions to further old age Happy is hee that in his youth giueth not the bridle to the furious bounding and rising of his vnlawfull desires and in his generall and particular calling amuseth and applieth himselfe to all laudable exercises and sincere holy duties doing all good offices and seruice with a franke and free heart to God and to his neighbours and hauing a care to keepe himselfe temperate and vnspotted from the impure and rude manners of the world CHAP. VI. Of the Climactericall yeares SOmetimes as men meete together they fall in talke of the Climactericall years especially when occasion is offered to speake of mens ages and the dayes of their death Plinie in the seuenth booke of his Historie of Nature 49. Chap. And Censorinus in his booke of Natiuities doe treate of them at large These two namely Censorinus doe obserue that euery seuenth yeare notable changes haue fallen out in some mens liues and Physicians doe hold the seuenth yeare to bee Climactericall and fatall Those that doe calculate mens Natiuities doe hold that yeare fortie nine which is compounded of seuen times seuen and the yeare sixtie three compounded of nine times seuen is more perillous then any other and they haue shewed that at the periodes and ends of these yeares many worthy and great persons haue dyed Plato iudged the yeare eightie one which is compounded of nine times nine to be the Climactericall yeare which was most to bee feared which hee calleth the square number Censorinus doth not thinke the yeare sixtie three so dangerous and maketh mention of some men who haue dyed at the yeare of their age eightie one as also of others who haue liued longer whereof wee haue many examples in our dayes The iudiciarie Astrologers are full of vncertaintie and vanitie in their Art and profession besides considering the great and infinite deuersity of humane chances and casualties of mens constitutions of the iudgements of God they are to presumptuous to limit the life of man to certaine periodes and numbers of dayes which they call Climactericall The members of the body haue not efficacy or ability of themselues there is necessarily required a symmetry and proportion betweene the agent and the patient as betweene the body and the disease betweene the disease and the cure The number of seuen is otherwise iudged of in the holy Scriptures then in the Colledge of the Physicians who haue their criticall or iudiciary dayes And yet there are learned Physicians who differ in opinion about them by reason of the diuers costitutions of mens bodies of diseases whereof some are more some lesse violent of the different ayres of countries according to which men that liue in them are to gouerne themselues of the skill of Physicians wherein some haue better iudgement and better successe then others and other reasons whereby at this day is discouered that there are other dayes beside the seuenth day which appeare to be criticall The obseruations of Diuines vpon the seuenth day being grounded vpon the textes of Moyses are mysticall and not naturall nor Astrologicall For according to the obseruation of Basil and S. Augustine the number of seuen which is very often found in the bookes of the holy Prophets and Apostles sometimes indefinitely sometimes definitely doth in his definite sence whether wee take the number of seuen dayes or seuen yeares simply or multiplied signifie compleatnes or perfection liberty or rest The Lord rested the seuenth day The Iewes had their feasts which lasted seuen dayes In the seuenth yeare the ground was lay and vnploughed and bond slaues were set at libertie The Climactericall yeares of Iubile compounded of seuen times seuen were a figure of the perfect rest which the Church shall enjoy in heauen after her so many reuolutions and alterations vpon earth But that which we haue hitherto treated of old age doth teach wise old men to call to minde their dayes past and to thinke vpon the louing mercy of their Creator who hath so many wayes vpholden them to pray vnto him that the shortnesse of their dayes may cause them to conceiue and consider so much the more his louing patience toward them and to take occasion thereby to walke with greater reuerence and feare before his face and leaning vpon the staffe of repentance done in true faith to say vnto him in all humilitie O Lord my God let my mouth be filled euery day with thy prayse and glory cast me not off in the time of mine old age forsake mee not when my strength falleth mee for mine enemies haue spoken of me and those that lay waite for my soule take counsell together against me saying God hath forsaken him pursue and take him for their is none to deliuer him O God goe not farre from mee O my God hast thee to helpe mee Let them bee confounded and consumed that are against my soule let them be couered with reproach and shame that seeke my hurt But I will waite continually and will prayse thee more and more My mouth doth rehearse daily thy righteousnes and the deliuerance thou giuest to those that are thine although I know not the number of them I will march forward in the strength of the Lord who is euerlasting I will make mention of thy righteousnesse onely O God thou hast taught me from my youth and hitherto I haue declared thy wondrous workes and yet O God
euen to mine old age and gray head forsake mee not vntill I haue declared thine arme vnto this generation and thy power to all those which shall come heereafter These are the words of Dauid contained in the seuentie one Psalme Moreouer when the wise old man casteth the eye of his thought vpon the long life of the Patriarches hee thinketh not his condition the worse though he liue not threescore yeares or threescore and tenne yeares but thanketh the Ancient of dayes who in good time will crowne him with the gifts of a better life in his celestiall Palace He beholdeth standing in the middle Court of the heauenly Citie and on both sides of the pleasant riuer which there runneth the tree of life bearing and yeelding his fruit euery moneth in the yeare whereof he gathereth with the hands of a constant and charitable faith for his soules health and marcheth in the strength of the nourishment thereof vntill hee haue obtained to the full and perfect fruition of it As for old age and the causes and degrees thereof he knowes well that God holds the Sun-dyall of his life in his hand that he is his strength and the length of his dayes that all the yeares weeks houres of his life are Climacterical he cōtenteth himselfe reioyceth to march forward vnder the safe conduct fauour and blessing of his Sauiour And being neere to death he lifteth vp his voyce saying aloud I know in whom I haue beleeued put my trust and I am perswaded that he is able to keep euen to the last day whatsoeuer I haue giuen him to lay vp for me and committed to his trust That he will deliuer mee from euery euill worke and will be my saluation in his heauenly Kingdome To him be glory for euer and euer Amen CHAP. VII The complaintes of the miseries of old age aduisedly discussed WEE are now to speake of the inconueniences and miseries wherewith old age is reproched and of the priuiledges and aduantages old men haue and enioy Cicero sayth That many men wondred to see Cato so strong and lusty in his old age and that hee could so easily beare the burthen of it which is esteemed more heauy then huge high mountaines Not to meddle with the complaints made by prophane Authors against the miseries of our life all men agree in this point that old age is miserable being as it were the very sinke of all extreame miseries where they settle Horace writeth That old men are vnwilling to touch or handle things for feare to breake them or let them fall Aristotle noteth in his second booke of Politques Chap. 2. That the people of Sparta with whom old age was honourably esteemed and in great account held opinion that old men were not to continue long in any publique office charge because their strength of minde and iudgement did decay Besides their sight did faile which sense of all other is requisite in men that haue the administration of estates which requires a nimble quicke eye to see into all occurrences and persons There is alledged to this purpose the example of T. Manlius Torquatus out of Titus Likins in the second booke of the warres of Africke This man being chosen Consul refused the charge because of his weakenes of sight saying It was a shame and dishonour to the Generall or Captain of an Army to desire to haue infinite mens liues and estates committed to his trust and not bee able to see how to manage them but by the spectacles of other mens directions And although the first Band of Souldiers which had giuen their voyces would not alter what they had done yet Manlius procuring another cohort of ancienter Souldiers to sit in counsell about it was discharged of his Consulship The saying of that wise Cynicke Diogenes is notable who being demanded what was most miserable in the world stood still and before hee stirred his foot made this answer And old man that is in great need and penury The ancient Romanes had a very rude Prouerb to this effect That men of threescore yeares old were to be cast downe headlong from the top of a bridge to the bottome because they were dotardes and men past labour and vse and fit for nothing or because in times past the young men of Rome as Ouid thinketh in scorne would iustle old men as they mett them vpon narrow bridges that so by drowning them they might not stand in their way to crosse and oppose them or giue their aduice in their doings and counsells Some men thinke that if old age be to be borne withall and had in regard it is of such persons as are rich in great place of honour and haue plenty of all things in the world and in great aboundance But if wee reckon right as we ought we shall finde old age to be charged with many inconueniences and faults which are rather to bee imputed to our corrupt manners and nature Foolish persons accuse old age of crimes they are guiltie of themselues and where they should condemne and represse their owne peeuishnesse distrust impatience folly and auarice vices wherewith young men and men of middle age are tainted and besmeared they blame old men saying Old men looke scowling and are sullen suspicious froward childish couetous and haue forgotten that there is no part of our life but is blemished with some bad humour and with one ill qualitie or other as we see roses are not without thornes that there is nothing good but hath euill for a checkemate and the rich mans reuenewes are serued in with bitter sops and sobs to But a man that knowes in great patience to vse the traffiques and commodities of this life sees great gaines to grow by it and excellent ornaments of vertue when he considers that the miseries of this present life vnto the children of God are but exercises of patience humility charity temperance faith hope Commonly diseases in young men are more painefull and dangerous then in old and we see by daily experience that for an old man there dies ten children and young men All the histories of former times doe point out vnto vs that ambition enuy despaire doe disquiet and spurgall young men as well as old Young men for the most part spend their time badly and it is a rare sight to see wisedome and youth married together Young counsells haue battered downe the walles of great Monarchies and estates and laid them leuell with the ground witnesse that of Rehoboam and very many great kingdomes and estates since It is euident in the history of the Gospel that Iesus Christ healed more young then old persons whereof many instances might be alledged but the Centurions seruant the widdowes sonne of Naim the childe possessed with the diuell the daughter of Iairus and the Canaanitish woman are sufficient testimonies Who will dare to deny but that more young and lusty men doe die and are slaine in the warres then old The plague interres and
pregnant ready and great memory but long age had brought him to this passe that he durst not relye or presume vpon his memory in any thing he should engage himselfe to doe or to promise Plinie in his seuenth booke 14. chapter sayth That the memory is one of the principall house imployments and vtensiles of our life and that Simonides did professe to know the art thereof but withall that nothing is more fraile and brittle in man then memory which by sundry diseases and mischeeuous accidents is impaired and made weake so that by a small accident some haue forgotten the names of their neerest allyes some the names of their seruants and some their owne names as Messala Coruinus did But Cicero maintaineth that forgetfulnes is not a vice of old age but rather of a dull sluggish heauy age which had need to be stirred spurred to imitate the schollers of Pythagoras whose manner was euery night to repeat all they had learned said and done the whole day Wee doe not readily forget that which runneth most in our mind and which wee doe most effect As old men doe precisely remember all their seuerall debtors and their manner of dealing and all the coffers cabinets odd holes and corners where they haue laid vp and hid their iewels and gold They carry an exact inuentory of them in their heads It is good oftentimes to put many things out of our minde and to forget them that so wee may remember our Creatour and Redeemer and whosoeuer remembreth him may say He hath forgotten nothing Who because wee are of our owne nature subiect to tread vnder our feet the memory of good things hath instituted that in memory of him wee should often communicate in the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist Me thinketh that it were expedient here by all waies and means to remember the prouidence of our all good and merciful Father in heauen who foreseeing that the last age of our life should bee obnoxious and subiect to many euils and infirmities hath giuen vs many remedies for our ease and comfort which are to bee found in the bookes of learned Physicians whereof it is not conuenient for vs to make a scrowle or catalogue in this Section because wee present not a booke of receites for the body but of instructions necessary and fit for euery wise old man Onely we will say that the Creatour hath beene bountifull in giuing infinite meanes to those who delight not in shamefull and exorbitant luxuries and riots to maintaine themselues in a competent strength of body vntill they be threescore and ten yeares old Yea their old age euen as a tree With goodly fruits shall loaded be Whose branches steept in summers dewe Shall goelie be and greene of hewe Which being seene to euery eye Aloud to all doth testifie Gods goodnesse and integritie Who is my strength and my defence And keepes me by his prouidence That I doe liue without offence It is impossible in mine owne opinion that so great ingratitude should enter into the minde or soule of a wise old man to forget the innumerable blessings which God in fauour hath enlarged vnto him and to complaine more of the euills which he doth iustly suffer Iustly then did Cicero taxe and blame Cecilius who maintained that among other the miseries of old age this was one that liuing long we see many things which doe discontent and displease vs. For wee see also other things which doe giue vs all contentation pleasure and delight whereof we are altogether vnworthy if God would strictly examine our life But Cecilius addeth further that it is a misery and a death to bee contemned and to bee a burthen to others as it happeneth to those old men who for many yeares lie bedred of the gout and are a trouble to themselues and to all their seruants and family by reason their weake decrepit old age hath made them vnable to helpe themselues or to doe any thing but lie stil expecting to be laid in their graue I say that these are offences and discommodities which proceed from the frowardnesse or ingratitude of our seruants and those of our house or we our selues are the cause of them hauing liued so wretchedly and vntowardly that wee haue not gained the loue of any or our owne follies haue made vs to be had in contempt of euery one or we doe receiue the reward of our owne arrogant and insolent behauiour towardes our ancestors fathers mothers masters schoole-masters tutors whereby it commeth to passe thorough the iust iudgement of the Almighty that our children seruants or those of our family doe render the like vnto vs. Not to harpe vpon this string if old men bee odious despised and scorned it is of gracelesse villaines for whom the gallowes groans who neuer thinking on the frailty of man and that they themselues are as subiect to the vncough and strange accidents which in this life doe blast great and meane persons doe as proudly disdaine and vilifie the honour of old age as they doe the maistie of God which they blaspheme reuile and rend and teare it asunder How should such desperate wretched persons regard old men when they shew themselues so refractary and vntractable at the good admonitions and reproofes of euery man that grauely telles them of their follies and faults to haue them abhorre and detest them Reuerend old men are worthy of commiseration and to bee supported in their infirmities to bee honoured in their age and the wiser sort of persons doe so esteeme and regard them yea euen those old men against whom information is giuen and complaint is made that they are Dotardes whose number for the most part is but small Howsoeuer their case be these Dotardes these twice children these that are become childish againe doe leaue among good men an honourable memorie of themselues and haue no lesse at their seruice their holy Angells beholding the face of their Father and watching ouer them then heretofore those little children had of whom Iesus Christ speaketh in the 18. Chapter of S. Mathew This is spoken of wise old men as for those men who hauing not enough glutted themselues with the slipps and peccadills of their youth with the sinnes of their middle and manly age doe fill vp the measure of their iniquities with the vices of a shamelesse old age killing their bodies by foule excesses and surfeits of gluttony drunkennesse whoredomes adultries by madd bickerings and suddaine quarrells rising of choller and anger by vnlawfull practiques and vniust dealings proceeding of couetousnesse and by niggard-shipp and extreame parsimony on the one side by prodigalities profuse and inordinate expences to satiate their accursed lustes and appetites on the other side These men build themselues most noysome and nastie prisons where they are to be seene now and then to languish long and pyne vnder the vneasie yoake and in the stockes of sharpe diseases which doe torment and torture them in the sight of all the
downe the head will cry within himselfe O wretch that I am God hath made me by the gift of knowledge capable of infinite wonderfull secrets and mysteries and I seeke contentment in vanitie He hath created me Lord and commander of all things and I am the slaue of the Creatures I ought to serue God alone and I am in subiection to mine owne inordinate passions He hath created me vpright the more easily to behold and looke vp to the place of my felicitie but I am more brutish then a beast which lookes still downe to the ground Christ hath made mee a King and a Priest to God his Father and sensualitie doth tyrannize and domineer over me and I sacrifice to mine owne insolencies and lewdnesse O what misery Ought I not to be fruitfull and abound in all good workes being a tree of righteousnesse and a heauenly plant What doe I I draw no breath of life but from the world I bring forth nothing but iniquitie nothing but poyson for my selfe and others Am I created after the Image of God to be changed into a Beast What resteth more for me but to be like the image of God! Should I I then be a lyar a villaine a slanderer an enemy of godlinesse righteousnesse holinesse I am a little world a world of wounders shall I then become a bottomlesse gulfe of wickednesse I am the end and measure of things but I am like the mad man which killeth himselfe with his owne knife like the wicked rich man that damneth himselfe and by the winding stayres of his riches goes downe to hell I ought to be the benefit and well-fare of my house and familie of my neighbour-hood of a whole country to procure true peace and quietnesse to rule there and I trouble mine owne peace and rest and other mens too I that am the measure and rule of all things am my selfe out of all measure and order as much as can bee spoken and more The vessell appoynted to honour which will fill it selfe with stinking myre and filth The temple of the holy Ghost a most holy place wherein Christ onely ought to enter and lodge but so prophaned that I am ashamed to thinke on it Thou sayest thou art a Christian and thou makest no conscience to wallow in impurities and hypocrisies ioyning thy selfe with Sathan Antichrist and the world so little thou regardest God Iesus Christ and his Church Thou that art light art nothing but darkenesse Thou that art a sheepherd art become a wolfe Thou that art the salt of the earth art vnsauory and tastelesse Thou that art the glory and peace of the world thou sowest disgrace reproch and trouble therein Thou that art the brother friend and Table-guest of Christ doest thou betray him with a kisse Thou that art a member of Christ where are the motions that thou hast of the spirit Thou that art Christes Lieutenant in earth or in thy house or familie or over many houses or families wilt thou daily warre against thy Lord Christ is thy garment and thou puttest it off to cloath thee with shame ryot dissolutenesse disorder Thou art within three stepps within three fingers breadth of death and thou thinkest not on the true life and thinkest onely on the transitorie and perishing life But thinke on the blessinges and honours which God hath bestowed on thee on the dangers which he hath guarded and protected thee from of the true pleasures which he offers vnto thee and thou wilt bee ashamed of the false pleasures which vndoe thee thou wilt blush be apalled to liue and die as thou doest by a poore sorry fire Thou wilt repent and fly to the throne of grace to the end that hauing obtained it thou render him thankes for the same who in speciall regard of his patience sheweth himselfe wonderfull towardes vs and submitting thy selfe to obey his truth thou wilt goe on in silence to glorifie him to the end Loe here a little coppie and patterne of some sighinges and groanings for euery wise old man remembring himselfe and calling to minde Iesus Christ CHAP. XVII Consolations against death and how it ought to be feared or not feared WE present now some consolations to the wise Vieillard to strengthen him against death and doe shew him how he ought to feare or contemne it For in this point it is that wise men at last shew what they are He that hath not learned to die betimes can hardly die well and for one that doth it thousands lagg behinde where they perish Many according to the saying of Cicero thinke old age is miserable because it is so neere approching to death which among the most terrible things being terrible to the children of this world for that it destroyes the structure frame of this mortall bodie and endeth the life which wee keepe and maintaine with so much carking and caring We are not able to relate how great and many the terrors be which the apprehension of death causeth in most persons which liue in the world yea euen in those men and women which vnder the weight and burthen of extreame anguishes and griefes desire nothing more then to be gone hence This terror floweth from the sense and feeling of the wrath of God and a bad conscience with which when wicked ones come to feele themselues tormented they haue no rest nor can conceiue nothing else but euill for them in death Therefore we cannot too much allaude and commend the saying of Sineca in the Epistle 62. where he sayth before I grew old I endeuoured and studied to liue well In my old age I frame and dispose my selfe to die well It is well spoken For according to the counsell of Saint Augustine in his second booke of Christian doctrine he cannot die ill who hath liued well and hardly shall any man whosoeuer make a good end which hath lead a wicked life But they are grossely deceiued who thinke that old men and none else are lodged in deaths quarter and that they onely are prest and obliged resolutely to awaite and looke for him Seeing that in all places and at all tymes he lyeth in waite for persons of all ages and sexes and sayth vnto them Stand I take thee prisoner by the great Kinges commandement packe hence away come before thy Iudge Death respectes neither babe young nor old man nor woman rich nor poore high nor low strong nor weake The poore mans cottage built very low Death doth demolish and quite ouerthrow The rich mans Pallace high towring and strong He shiuers in peeces and layes it along Who knoweth not that warre and the pestilence doth sweepe away out of the world many more little children or strong able men then aged persons verely all the life of man is nothing else but a road way to death Wee came into the world vpon this condition to goe out of it In this wee greatly erre and beguile our selues as many most learned Philosophers and Diuines haue long
approach it Death doth not violently lay hands vpon vs but gently laies hold on vs. Wherefore a vertuous soule feeling it selfe called to the participation of a greater happinesse endeuoureth to carry and behaue it selfe honestly and wisely in this earthly Sentinell and Station accounting none of those things to be hers which doe hemme her in on euery side but serues her turne with them as with borrowed mooueables remembring her selfe that shee doth but goe a iourney and in post hast There are many other sentences of Seneca touching the benefit of death in his Consolations to Polybius and Marcia as also in his other Treatises But we will make this extract no longer least so wee trouble and offend with long reading impatient and froward old men 4. Fourthly wee speake now of the extreamities that must be auoyded when there is question of death to wit Too great confidence or rashnes or rather inhumane or barbarous stupidity and sencelesnesse then the too great apprehension feare and paine of death Of a truth our Creator and Soueraigne Lord hath honoured vs with this fauourable gift and graunt that our hearts are of flesh not of stone or iron to bee easily touched with the sence of our miseries and the miseries of others How should we apprehend the mercy of God if we had not an apprehension of our miseries And what feare of God and of his iudgements would there be in the world if we should not feare death and other punishments which he doth mitigate and vsually conuert into wholsome remedies to persons who mourne vnder the burthen of their sinnes and with a repentant heart craue and implore the grace of their heauenly Father Wee are not willing to approoue the practise of those too austere Thracian Elders who wept at the birth day of their children and made great cheere merrily banquetted at the funeral of them that died Much lesse doe we purpose to dispute of death as Hegesias of Cyrena whom the King of AEgypt prohibited to discourse any more of death because many who heard him killed themselues No more doe we approoue those mad men such as were in times past certaine surnamed Circamcellianes of the Sect of the Donatists who not rightly vnderstanding the sayings of the Scripture touching mortification of the flesh cast themselues downe headlong from the toppes of high mountaines and without looking or staying for any commandement to doe so resigned and gaue vp the place they held in this humane life It is not lawfull for any priuate person without expresse authority and order of the Magistrate to kill a guilty or condemned person And hee which killeth himselfe is not hee a murtherer Who hath giuen him power and authority to doe so We abhorre and iustly the facinourous fact of Iudas who by dispaire increased his detestable impiety Sathan is the author of such counsells as wee see in the fourth Chapter of S. Matthew where Christ Iesus being importuned by that malignant and mischieuous one to throw himselfe headlong from the top of the Temple answereth That we must not tempt the Lord. S. Augustine sayd in his first Booke De Ciuitate Dei Chap. 22. That those which kill themselues make a hazardous proofe of some kind of greatnesse of courage but indeed they are mad men Further they are not magnanimous seeing that being vnable to support and beare aduersity they discouer their impotency and pusillanimity not their fortitude and valour in casting themselues so into the gulfe and iawes of death But hee is truely magnanimous who chooseth rather to beare the burthen of a miserable life then rashly to rid himselfe and flye from it instead of standing and abiding in the place allotted and appointed vnto him It is said that Cleombrotus hauing read the Booke which Plato writ of the immortality of mans soule cast himselfe downe headlong from a high wall to passe to the other life which hee iudged to be better But it was an act of wretched folly for Plato taught no such thing although he discoursed of the immortality of the soule Therefore let vs turne our backes to the Stoickes so brutish and besotted in their pride that they thinke it lawfull to a man which cannot suffer an iniury to kill himselfe A man of courage and fearing God knowing indeed that life is not giuen him doth not violently rid himselfe of it but renders it into the hands of God not fearing the approaches of death but submitting himselfe to his Soueraigne Lord who hath imployed him in his seruice in the world to goe out of it when he shall commaund him It is alledged that a speedy death is better then a fastidious and tedious life and once to bee quiet for altogether then so long to languish and droope But to attempt to leaue this life before God giue vs leaue is to fall into another death which neuer hath end What then shall not a Souldier dare to goe out of the armie without his Captaines license and passe port but vpon hazard of his head and shall mortall man goe out of this present life without the auouchy and warrant of the immortall who hath placed him in it protected and blessed him What crowne can the impatient the furious the infidell expect who in dispite of his Lord cowardly resignes his charge his place his honour with the losse of his body soule goods and friends who forsakes those to whom hee is bound and beholden breakes all the bandes of diuine and humane society God giueth a happy issue to their temptations who feare him hee doth in fit time deliuer and helpe them It is they which are to hold out to the end in a full assurance of hope not to quaile and lose courage but to follow those who by a faithfull and humble patience haue obtained the promised inheritance Let vs then take heed and beware of the arrogancy of the Stoickes and of the vaine confidence of Epicures who neuer thinke on death but thinke they are in league and friendship with him perswade themselues that it shall be easie for them to put by his blowes and to pacifie him Moreouer let vs haue no part in their effeminacy and diffidence who tremble at the meere name of death not thinking that in death it selfe there is not so great euill as in the solicitudes carkings sorrowes and feares wherewith a thousand times a day they kill themslues without any ease to their vnbeleeuing heart Their apprehensions are ill ordered fond and vnprofitable seeing as witnesseth the Prophet in the Psalme 89. 90. there is no man liuing can boast himselfe not to see death and to be able to saue his life out of the hand of the graue Hereupon we will say to young and old that their duty requires that they beare and behaue themselues so toward God that their death may not be a mortall but a liuing death And that they so gently and wisely lay downe their load in the world that they may not be found vnder
things in the world and not to be paralleld whereof the reason is hid from vs though we see the things themselues But there is a great difference betweene the destruction or annihilation and the change of nature As we beleeue the resurrection of this our flesh so is it certaine that the nature of the same flesh shall subsist and remaine in the life eternall But the condition shall be changed in as much as this flesh vile and miserable shall be made glorious and happy These are some proofes brought by Tertullian Lactantius Firmianus in his Booke of the Heauenly Reward Chap. 23. obserueth That the Pagan Philosophers who desired to discourse of the last resurrection haue confounded and soyled this Article of our faith as al the Poets haue done Pythagoras maintained that the soule did transmigrate and passe out of one mans body into anothers and that he himselfe in the Troian warre was Euphorbus Chrysippus the Stoicke hath made a better answere who in his Booke De Prouidentia discoursing of the restauration of the world addeth This being so wee see that it is not impossible that after our death at the end of the reuolutions of some ages wee may bee restored againe into the state and condition wherein we are now But as Lactantius addeth the faith of Christians is much otherwise and their hope much more certaine For they vndoubtedly beleeue the resurrection of the flesh confirmed by most sacred and inuincible proofes of the holy Scripture by the promises of God and by the motions of the Spirit which raysed vp Christ Iesus from the dead as the Apostle declares it in the eight Chapter to the Romanes saying If the Spirit of him that raysed vp Iesus from the dead dwell in you hee that raysed vp Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortall bodies because of the Spirit dwelling in you True it is that the wicked shall rise againe in their bodies but this shall not bee for any communion they haue with the body of Christ Iesus nor with his Spirit but simply by the absolute power of God who shall giue them againe their being life and motion to suffer the second death being for euer damned in their bodies and soules So then such a resurrection cannot be counted grace nor called regeneration nor a resurrection to life but a repairing to condemnation whereof S. Iohn writes these wordes in the twentith Chapter of the Apocalips Verse eleuenth c. I saw a great white throne and one that sate on it from whose face fled away the earth and the heauen and their place was no more found I saw the dead great and small standing before God and the Bookes were opened and another Booke was opened which is the Booke of Life and the dead were iudged by the things which were written in the bookes according to their workes and the Sea gaue vp her dead which were in her and death and hell deliuered vp the dead which were ion them and they were iudged euery man according to their workes And the wicked were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death And whosoeuer was not found written in the Booke of Life was cast into the lake of fire Blessed then bee God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who by his great mercy hath regenerated vs into a liuely hope by the resurrection of Christ Iesus from the dead to obtain an incorruptible inheritance which cannot bee defiled nor fade away reserued in the heauens for vs who are kept by the power of God thorough faith to haue the saluation prepared to be reuealed at the last day wherein we reioyce being now made heauy by diuers temptations as it is meete to the end that the triall of our faith much more precious then gold which perisheth and yet is tried in the fire may turne to our prayse honour and glory when Iesus Christ shall be reuealed who speaketh thus vnto vs in the person of his Disciples in the beginning of the 14. Chapter of S. Iohn Let not your hearts bee troubled You beleeue in God beleeue also in me There are many dwelling places in my Fathers house I goe to prepare a place for you and when I shall be gone hence and shall haue prepared a place for you I will come againe and will receiue you to my selfe that where I am there may you be also Then shall be the true regeneration and restauration of Gods children when the soule emptied of all errour ignorance and malice shall be filled with new illumination perfect righteousnesse and holinesse when the body clothed with glory and immortalitie shall see death swallowed vp in victory In him there shall be no fainting decâ—ying drooping nor old age The bodies of the Saints sayth S. Augustine in the 19. chap. of his Manuel shal rise againe without blemish without deformity without corruption heauines or impediment This shall as easily be done as their felicity shall be consummated for which cause wee call them spirituall although their bodies ought still to remaine not to be changed into Ghosts and Spirits As for the corruption which now presseth downe the soule and the vices by whose meanes the flesh lusteth against the spirit such flesh shall cease to be because it could not be able to possesse the Kingdome of God In regard of the substance of the same flesh it shall not be abolished but still remaine but euerlastingly glorified For this cause S. Paul said That the body being sowen a fleshly body shall rise againe a spirituall body because there shall be so strong an vnion betweene the soule and the body that the soule making the body to liue without any supply of nourishment and hauing no more combate and striuing within vs betweene the spirit and the flesh all being then spirit we shall not feele any enemies assaults nor dangers whatsoeuer without nor within but shall be repleat compassed about saciated crowned with permanent glory Behold as touching this point of the resurrection of the flesh The beleefe of this Article encourageth all Christians but particularly wise old men patiently to beare their infirmities and maladies remembring the counsell of the Apostle S. Peter in the third Chapter of his second Epistle Seeing that so it is sayth he that the heauens and the earth must be dissolued what manner of persons ought wee to bee in holy couersation and holy workes looking for and hasting vnto the comming of the day of the Lord by whom the heauen being set on fire shall bee dissolued and the Elements shal melt with heate But according to his promise wee looke for new heauens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse Wherefore beloued seeing ye looke for such things be diligent that ye may bee found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse Let vs strengthen this Article of the resurrection by the notable sayings of S. Paul to the Corinthians Chap. 5. of the 2. Epistle We must all appeare before the iudgement
they imitate and act the foule enormities and scandalous manners of some wilfull impudent young men But if according to the opinion of Seneca there is nothing more wretched in the world then the man who hath neuer had any misfortune crosse or affliction Let vs deeme him happy which beareth his afflictions in such sort that hee is confident and assured quickely to haue a release and end of them to his credite and true contentment But to proceed old men are not without laudable exercises imployments and delightfull studies and meditations If their feet bee slow of pace their mindes are quicke enough and ready to conceiue and apprehend as Euripides saith If young men doe know how to vse the Stoccado the Punto reuerso and are expert and cunning in their weapon it is old men doe direct them how to mannage a quarrell and when to fight for their aduantage and honour if heerein wee will giue credit to Plutarch wh writes that it belongs to young men to beare Armes and for old men to consult and determine what is best and profitable for the good and welfare of the State Old men then are the heads of the politicke body and young men are the armes As for holy meditations wherewith the soule is rauished and transported aboue the clouds they require not great strength of body but on the contrary when the wise Vicillard or Old man cannot without great paine stirre hand and foote and lies bedred hee comforteth and cheeres vp himselfe with diuine meditations sitting to his age and while fooles and dissolute persons confound themselues in base shamefull pleasures hee is priuately conuersant and talking with God hearkens vnto him inwardly speaking to him not daring once to looke vp with his eyes doth question and expostulate with him humbly prayes and sues to him preuailes and obtaines fauour of him to grant him his humble request and desires Young men that are so forward and bold to prouoke old men to anger and displeasure feele now and then that old men haue strong and forcible resistances sharp swords and words to to daune and dismay the stoutest of them As in our time it hath chanced to many great and meane persons who in regard of their age weakenesse of body being esteemed as dead men haue made young men to tremble and quake who earst purposed to plucke their skin ouer their eares before they had beene laide in their beds asleepe S. Ierome glanceth at these things and toucheth them by the way in his letters to S. Augustine I pray you saith hee doe not challenge and dare one that hath been an old beaten Souldier both by sea and land to single combate and to hand blowes with you who are but a young nouice and fresh-water Souldier remember Dares and Entellus in Virgil c. Cicero writeth that Agamemnon the chiefe Generall of the Grecian Army was wont to wish for tenne Nestors that is eloquent and wise counsellours and not for ten Aiaxes or stout Captaines and bold daring warriours Valerius Maximus in his eight booke chap. 1. maketh mention of certaine old men who being deepely strooken in yeares would not giue ouer to doe seruice for their Countrie and to the State and had good successe in their enterprises Among others hee nameth Marcus Valerius Coruinus who liued a hundred yeares and was sixe times Consul Also Metellus who being a very aged man was notwithstanding chosen chiefe Pontifex and worthily discharged the place Lastly Appius surnamed the blinde who in his decrepit old age caused his Litter to be made ready wherein he was carried to the Senate house where hee gaue his negatiue voyce and crossed the treatie of a dishonourable peace with Pyrrhus that it went not forward Some doe obiect that old age is to be feared because it bleares mens eyes or puts them out quite But will you reproach Appius that he was blinde who gaue eyes to his weake sighted countrey to see what was honourable and behoouefull for it I solemnely affirme that losse of sight is a discommodity which doth diuersly sometimes blast and smite young men from their cradle either thorough some defect in nature or by accident Some see best a farre off others neerer hand some cannot indure to looke vpon the Sunne others are so weake sighted that the light of the day doth offend their eyes some are borne starke blinde and some purblinde Howsoeuer this may bee yet old men are not without the comfort which blinde Asclepiades had who pleasantly said That hee had this benefit by his blindnesse that before he went all alone by himselfe but since hee was blinde hee went not abroad any whether but hee had the company of him that did lead him The solace and comfort of a wise old man who is become starke blinde or sees but very little is that hee hath no more the ill hap to see so many dissolute lasciuious arrogant impudent mad-braine-sicke and lewd persons with whom the earth is ouerspread Hee can make the same answere which a good Father made to Iulian the Apostata who to mocke and scoffe so much the more at Christians reproched and hit him in the teeth with his imperfection of sight I prayse God said the good Father that he hath giuen mee the grace not to see so wicked a man as thou art Let vs adde that which the good Anthony heretofore liuing a Hermites life not farre from AEgypt said to Didymus the blinde man of Alexandria a very pious and religious person and of singular learning as Sozomene reports in his third booke chap. 14. Thou oughtest not friend Didymus to hold it grieuous or molestfull to haue lost thy sight which myce lynxes and other brute beasts haue very piercing and quicke but rather to be glad and to iudge thy condition happie that thou hast eyes like the eyes of the holy Angells by whose helpe thou beholdest the Lord and doest perfectly see and discerne the causes of his workes But what auayles it to haue eyes in our head if our vnderstanding bee sensuall and brutish if it bee clouded with the darkenesse of ignorance Briefly if in question and discourse of good things wee be beetle-blinde and see no more then a mole How great cause haue we then to begge of the Lord with Dauid 119. Psalme To open our eyes that wee may be able to behold the wonderfull mysteries of heauenly knowledge The soule as Basil said in his first booke against Eunomius is glad and reioyceth which inquiring into things that bee diuine hath so good eye sight that shee can penetrate and pry into things that are not to bee perceiued by sense and can contemplatiuely behold the Lord with whom she shall dwell for euer Some find fault with and complaine of their memory the infirmitie whereof Seneca the Oratour in the first booke of his controuersies doth number among the principall hazards of old age and sayth it doth first faile and decay that in times past hee had a very
noble men The counsells of old men are more regarded then the strength of young men In the common weale of Israel there was an expresse ordinance of God touching the honour due to old men which Moyses recites in these words Rise vp before the hoare-head honour the person of the aged man and feare thy God Leuit. 19. 32. Elihu in the two and thirtieth Chapter of Iob. 6. verse doth declare what reuerence was giuen in those dayes to aged persons And Salomon in his 16. Chapter of the Prouerbes ver 31. sayth Old age is a crowne of glorie when it is found in the way of righteousnesse The common-weale of Israel had a long time the auncientest of the people to the number of threescore and ten to gouerne it men of great age and experience who were very much respected men of great authoritie and represented the whole bodie of the people as all the holy historie doth verefie It is apparant that Rehoboam the sonne of Salomon for not giuing credit to the counsell of old men lost almost his whole kingdome 1 King 12. Young counsellors were authors of this confusion by which it appeareth how wise Dauid and Salomon had beene in their iust gouernment to haue still gray headed men about them and attending on their persons and what miserie doth ensue to Princes to despise and not regard wise old men The auncient Iewes had this saying that it is bonum omen a good signe to see an old man in a house This saying seemes to bee taken from the first of Samuel and second Chapter where the Lord threatning the high Priest Eli saith There shall neuer bee an old man of thine house all that descend of thine house shal dye in the flower of their age and when they be men growen The same Iewes had a saying also That those countries wherein there are no old men to be seene doe deserue to bee ouerrunne wasted and spoyled by enemies They haue an eye of regard to the sentence pronounced in the third Chapter of Isaiah where the Lord threatneth Ierusalem and Iuda to giue them young men for their gouernours and children should rule ouer them and further sayth That women are Lords ouer them In the booke of Ecclesiasticus there are many worthy wise sentences and sayings in the honour of old age It shall suffice to note two or three of them Dishonour not a man in his old age for they were as wee which are not old they haue beene taught of their fathers and of them thou shalt learne wisedome and to make an answere in time of need Chap. 8. And in the 25. Chapter he sayth That it is a pleasant thing to beholde gray headed men minister iudgement and for a man to haue his cause referred to the elders who can giue good counsell Also that experience is the crowne of old men and the feare of the Lord is their glory Cyrus in Zenophon reports that the Persians had a law enioyning all men to be silent when an Elder should speake to giue him the wall when they mett him in th◠streetes and to set open and cleare the passage wayes when he should goe any iourney or voyage Yea the auncient Grecians as Hesichius obserueth gaue titles of Maiestie to old men naming them Excellencies Kings Princes In the auncient Romaine Common weale great reuerence was done to old men as Callistratus the Lawyer witnesseth And the Poet Ovid in his third Booke treating of pride and haughtinesse of minde remembers that the auncient Romaines did greatly reuerence old age It is wonderfull what Plutarch in diuers places doth relate of the priuiledges of old age in the Common weale of Sparta which flourished many hundred yeares so long as the young men gaue care and credit to the counsell of old men And Zenophon in a Discourse of the Grecian state worthily sayth that Pharnabazus stood vp to speake because hee was the auncientest common counsell man Moreouer in the auncient Romaine or Latine tongue that is called Antiqué which is honest of credit and authoritie And Cicero sayth in one place Ne dubites quin quod honestius id mihi futurum sit antiquius And in another place At salus antiquior id est potior militum quam impedimentorum A manner of speech and phrase vsuall also among the Grecians as Plato mentioneth in his Sympose and Pollux in his second Booke of Synonimaes Let vs conclude this whole Discourse of the priuiledges of old age with that which the Apostle propoundeth in the 1 Timoth. 5. Where he forbiddeth Timothie his scholler all others rudely to rebuke Elders Vnlesse as S. Gregory sayth they be scandalous and an euill example to others For Chrysostome sayth that an old man of a youthfull and light behauiour is more ridiculous then lasciuious fond toying young men CHAP. XIII Of the profit which wise old men may reape from the Doctrine conteined in the writings of Philosophers and Heathen Authors SAint Augustine teacheth in the fourth Chapter of his second Booke of Christian doctrine that if heathen Philosophers haue had the happ to pen Documents and Instructions agreeable to the truth which we professe so farre beside the marke and vncouth is it that we should estrange and withdraw our selues from the vse of them that on the contrary wee must take out of their hands as from vniust possessors and conuert to our vse whatsoeuer they haue wisely written For if in the composition of Antidotes and counterpoysons Vipers flesh be mixed and incorporated in treacle Who shall let vs not to draw and extract from the doctrine of Gentiles and heathens many worthie remedies against vices we learning in other books the right knowledge of the true God Vndoubtedly we doe finde in Plato Aristotle Zenophon Isocrates Cicero Seneca Plutarch yea in the Greeke and auncient Latine Poets infinite lessons and instructions touching vices and vertues We doe read in the Histories penned by many learned heathens of wonderfull things which may be called the racke and billes of fearefull inditements against Christians before the iudgement seate of God We see in the Gospel that Iesus Christ doth propound the examples of the Queene of Saba of the Niniuites of the men of Tyre and Sidon to the end to strike a terrour in the Iewes Wherefore then should we make any scruple to alledge some testimonies of Heathens touching the happie estate and condition of old age It shall suffice to giue the wise Vieillard some taste of them leauing him to remember the rest or to learne them in the fore-named Authors and in others which hee shall remember I commend vnto him the lawes of Plutarch especially of the auncient Greeke and Romaine Captaines Also the Apophthegmes and wise sentences and particularly the whole Treatise of the same Author in his opuscula intituled Whether an old man ought to meddle with publique affaires and negotiations The Dialogue of old age in Cicero is excellent And in the Discourses of Socrates in Plato and
Zenophon there are found to this purpose in question many worthy sayings Valerius Maximus in the eight booke of his Collection of auncient memorable acts and sayings doth set forth many notable examples of famous old men whereof some haue hitherto beene propounded by vs. It shall then be enough to adde yet some testimonies drawne and culled out of the hoard and treasurie of Stobeus in his hundred and sixteenth Discourse in fauour of old age The experience of old men can reueale and discouer more wisedome then the trauailes sweating endeuours tugging and striuing of young men It is true that the hands of young men are strong to execute but the braines of old men doe better seruice and preuaile and performe more For time is the father that begets varietie of wisedome and prudence Loue to commune and aduise with old men and abandon the foolish deuices and fond imaginations of young men wherein there is nothing appeares but vainenesse and fopperie So it is that the pleasure of a vitious and sinfull contentment doth not laste long Old age is not so neere the end of life as it is neere the threshold of the dore which opens to an assured happie life Hee that will take vpon him the wardship and tuition of some young man and to haue him well brought vp doth commit him to a wise old man euen as to qualifie strong fuming wines we doe brewe them with water Old men who are free and ridd of the so many euill lustes wherein young men doe furiously plunge themselues become like vnto God Also old men liue and die as if they were rather asleepe whereas the life and death of young men resembles boystrous tempestes and violent ship-wrackes It will be obiected against whatsoeuer I can all edge in fauour of old age that the heathens also haue spoken verie disgracefully and reprochfully of it witnes the hundred and seauenteenth discourse of Stobeus the scoffing taunts and quipps both of the Greeke and Latine comicall and Satyricall Poets in their Tractates And hee he may goe for a witnesse to who compares old age to Wine that is lowe and almost nothing but lees to a ware-house full of refuse and brayded wares whereof there is no reckoning to bee made to a sanctuarie or place of refuge whereunto all sortes of euilles seeme to retyre as to their garrison and hold to an eccho to a shadow to a vanishing dreame and to the dead time of Winter Horace in his art of Poetrie doth pensill and picture out an old man in this manner Many are the miseries of wretched man that is old Either because he hazards himselfe to get money and gold And when he hath got it his wretchednesse is such He dares not lay out a penny he loues it so much Or because in all things he takes in hand and goes about He is fearefull vnweldie full of suspition and doubt He puts off the day of death still his minde doth him giue And he verely hopes many a day longer to liue He lies lusking at home and loues to heare men relate All newes whatsoeuer yea the secrets of State He complaines of the times present is pensiue and sad And sayes his fore-fathers dayes were nothing so bad Iuuenal in his tenth Satyre describeth the infirmities of such old age But if wee heedfully consider the scoffing speeches of these Authors it will soone appeare that they speake either of the diseases of the body or of old age that is decrepit worne out quite spent and done not regarding the commodious helpes and vses of wise old men For otherwise to what dangers and disasters are young men exposed vnto And when should wee make an end if wee should take vpon vs to make a Catalogue of them The Heathens haue confessed that a young man was happy not in regard of his age but his vertue They haue affirmed as much of an old man adding further That an old man is already possessed of that which a young man expects and hopes for And what doe young men ayme at and hope after but to liue to a great age and to be old men They haue compared young men vnto men tossed vp and downe to and fro with the windes and waues in the middest of the Sea and old men to passengers which are neere their port and readie to caste Anchor Ought we to maruaile sayth Cicero if old men be sometimes feeble and decayed in strength seeing that young men cannot be exempt and priuilledged from consumptions or pynings away of the bodie There is no infirmitie whatsoeuer in old age which the wiser old men are not prepared and armed for and with greatnesse of courage and patience doe easily sustayne and endure Whereunto the verses of Horace doe fitly sort and agree who sayth If God to thee a time doe giue Wherein thou mayest full happie liue Most ioyfully this time embrace Doe not neglect too long a space The happie houre of thy Fate To enioy a life more fortunate But to the world proclaime throughout Thou art a voluntarie Souldier and stout And wilt not from thy coullors flie But stand thy ground couragiously And in another place he sayth Irkesome it is to be annoyde With euill a man cannot auoide But that which is past remedie Man beares at last contentedly When patience hath him vnder awe Yeelding obedience to her law Put case then that old age hath his opponents assaults and be exposed to diuers disasters and miseries so hath it also strong and fit weapons stratagemes directories and practised vertues to helpe at need Old mens mindes are still entire and sound so long as they are invred to studie and exercised Though their legges faile them their wittes doe not as Homer sayth bringing in Nestor speaking in this manner I will with my Counsell and Orations excite and pricke forward the youthes and young men This is the trade and practise of old men who haue more wisedome and iudgement then others and as Ovid affirmeth It is time that ripens experience The counsell and sawe of old men hath in it somewhat I know not what that is pleasing to heare gracefull and of venerable regard and well liking Euen as we see the Sunne at his decline With golden rayes more pleasingly to shine If Seneca the Tragedian bee heerein to be beleeued And it there be to bee found foolish impertinent and vnprofitable old men they are no other then fountaines without water forrests grubd vp and gladed trees without fruit starres without light and all their imperfections and defects proceed from ill education Remember saith Cicero that I commend that old age which hath had early good beginnings and beene well taught and trayned vp from childhood and youth For that old age is miserable that can plead nothing else for Atiquitie but the wrinckles of the face and the white haires Moreouer the more old age sees the time to approach of appearing before the tribunall of the Soueraigne Iudge the lesse it apprehends