Daniel calles him The Ancient of dayes not that therefore it is lawfull to represent God in the shape of an old man with a great long white beard as many ignorant folke doe which neuer read Moses nor the Prophets and which are ignorant of the nature and essence of the true God But that wee should conceiue this incomprehensible Maiestie to bee nothing else but wisedome a venerable supremacy and greatnesse of estate and a perfect sanctitie Secondly wee are taught to reuerence old men to honour their persons to rise vp with great respect to these white heads and beards and to shew thereby that we acknowledge in this their old age the stampes and prints of God as Moses exhorts vs in the 19. Chap. Leuit. v. 32. which we recite to the same end and purpose as wee haue done other sayings and sentences before whereunto wee adde this of a wise Elder who writ Ecclesiasticus in the third Chapter of which booke hee sayth My sonne helpe thy father in his age and grieue him not so long as hee liueth when his vnderstanding faileth him haue patience and beare with him and dispise him not but honour him as much as thou canst For the good intreaty of thy father shall not bee forgotten but shall bee a fortresse for thee against thy sinnes The women of Bethlehem are friendly and kind to the good old Naomi for that her daughter in law Ruth had borne a sonne to Boaz. This say they may bring life againe to thee and lenghthen thy dayes and cherish and comfort thine old age Ruth 4. 15. God by his Prophet Isaiah reprochet the Babilonians that they were cruell and vnmerciful to the Iewes and laid a very heauy yoke vpon them Chap. 47. 6. Also these wicked people were as hammers which the iust Iudge of the world vsed to breake in peeces the old and the young as Ieremie speakes in the 52. Chapter Vers 22. whence proceeded those woes and alasses of the Prophet in his Lamentations 4. Chap Vers 16. They reuerenced not the face of the Priests nor had compassion of the Elders And in the fift Chapter following Vers 12. The Princes are hanged vp by the hands and they reuerence not the face of the Elders That which Ezechiel proposeth in the 9. chap. v. 6. is most feareful and it sufficeth vs to marke and obserue it that our wise Vicillard doe thereby take heed On the contrary in Zachariahs dayes there being a question and demurre concerning the reestablishment of the people and of the fauours that God was minded to bestow vpon them Zachariah declares in the 8. Chapter Vers 4. That the God of hostes sayd thus There shall old men and women dwell in the streetes of Ierufalem and euery man haue his staffe in his hand for very age But Isaiah in the third Chapter Vers 2. and 5. putteth for signes of the terrible iudgement of God to Ierusalem That the old men shall be taken away and destroyed that the childe shall exalt himselfe and presume against the auncient and the abiect and vile against the honourable If in these times there bee any presage of the decay and ruine of Churches and Common-weales it is that the number of wise old men is very smal that the age of the worthies and renowned men is vanished and past That those that are children in yeares and vnderstanding are percht vp and set vp in the places of the experienced valiant and learned An extreame misery which we cannot sufficiently describe and lament But as good fruit when it is ripest and mellow is most delicate and pleasant to the taste and as the last draught contenteth the thirstie person In like sort pleasure seemes to reserue her dainties to the last and for the last seruice and messe So likewise wee say that old age hath in it I know not what that is notable and more excellent then other ages and the sayings of the auncients as the singing of swannes are daily excellent monitors and admonitions to vs. If wee listen to the last wordes of the Patriarches Moses Ioshua Dauid and giue them the hearing wee shall in them finde an ample proofe heereof Such Histories are familiar to wise old men and it is much better to read them in themselues then heere to recite them What illumination of Gods spirit is reuealed and manifest in the sayings of infinite Martyrs especially of such as were old euen from the Apostles time till now It is matter for a greater booke then this small Tractat or Manuel In the second booke of the Maccabees Chap. 6. It is spoken of Eleazar one of the chiefe Scribes an aged man who being pressed and instantly solicited to feigne and make semblance to adhere and obey to the superstitions of the Heathens vpon an honest and vpright minde worthy his age the excellency of his yeares the honour of his gray hayres his good conuersation from his childhood and chiefly Gods holy law suddenly required that hee might bee led to the place of execution adding these words worthy of memory It becommeth not our age to dissemble least many yong persons diffident and wauering that Eleazar being fourscore and tenne yeares old was gone and yeelded to prophane ceremonies thorough mine hypocrisie and dissimulation for a smal moment of a caduque and transitory life might bee seduced and I bring a malediction and curse and a staine and reproach to mine old age for though I should bee deliuered from the torments of men yet could I not escape the hand of the Almightie neither aliue nor dead Wherefore manfully changing and giuing vp this life I shall shew my selfe such as mine age requireth and meriteth And I shall leaue a notable example for such as be young to die willingly and couragiously for the venerable and holy lawes To this worthy old man let vs ioyne the constant Martyr Polycarpus a Disciple of S. Iohn the Apostle and of the Church of Smyrna in Asia As he was brought to the torturing fire the Proconsul hauing most earnestly solicited him to recant and renounce his faith with promise of libertie I haue said this wise old man and constant Martyr these fourescore and sixe yeares serued Iesus Christ and all this time he did me no outrage nor hurt how should it then be possible to bring me to bee of the minde to blaspheme my Sauiour and King I will neuer doe it If you feigne and pretend you know not my qualitie I would haue you to know that I am a Christian Many other words of admirable constancie were then vttered by this reuerend old man who being armed with inuincible courage presently suffred death for the name of the Lord. These two examples shall suffice to shew that the neerer wise old men are vnto death be it easie or violent the greater is their courage the neerer are they to the kingdome of Heauen And still as their bodies growe weake the holy Ghost doth fortifie and strengthen them in such sorte that
of the company of sinners to be with the iust and in the heauenly Ierusalem to rest from our labours But as it is commended to old and young to haue their hearts where there treasure is which ought to be in heauen consequently not to be affectionated and inamoured of this present life which is indeed no life and is forbidden them to loue the world and the things in the world So must they not hate and abhorre this earthly life nor take occasion by the cumbers thereof to bee ingrate toward God much lesse to mutter and murmure against his iustice or to censure his prouidence Seeing that our life here though short painefull and miserable is an excellent gift yea an assured testimony of Gods loue and fauour to vs. Let vs then so vse it that whatsoeuer we shall abate if wee bee wise of the disordinate loue thereof may be added to a feruent and holy desire to be with the soonest receiued into heauen For wee should doe ill to wish death but to be with the Lord to glorifie him in the triumphant Church more compleately and fully then in the Church militant Let vs onely desire for this cause to liue on earth to prayse our Father which is in heauen and let vs stand and keepe sentinell to wit our vocation wherein our chiefetaine and soueraigne head hath placed vs till he call vs away which is by the call and hand of death True it is that old men are no lesse frighted and skared sometimes more then young men when we tell them of death But the desire to be with our Sauiour in heauen ought so to ouercome this frailty that faith may perswade vs deuoutly to wish that which nature is afraide of By what badges and collours should we be knowne to be Christians and beleeuers if wee should so much feare the day of death which brings vs to the true land of the liuing Should we not be more wretched then the beasts if wee should not leap and skip for ioy pronouncing these comfortable wordes I beleeue the remission of sinnes the resurrection of the flesh the life euerlasting Are not these the priuiledges of the holy vniuersall or Catholique Church and of the communion of Saints Then shall our miseries and infinite temptations bee abolished Then shall wee enioy vnspeakeable glory in heauen aboue all them when after this happy resurrection all our enemies shall be vanquished and God shall bee all in all to his elect But forasmuch as the way to heauen lies open vnto vs in earth it is requisite that Christians old and young know to vse well this present life and the meanes to support it because without this knowledge and skill there is nothing but perills mischances and distasters in our terrene and earthly pilgrimage which it is reason to ayde comfort and further not to hinder and let by vsing our meanes well as well by a supply to our necessities as by honest lawfull recreations and fitting to our ages and callings In both these respects two extreamities are to be shunned Too great austeritie on the one side dissolution and intemperance on the other Those which boast and glory before God and men of a certaine hypocriticall and dissembled abstinence and continence and moulded in their owne fancies or others like themselues are way wardly wise and Timons enemies of honest societie persons which haue but a vaine ridiculous shew and appearance who for the the most part commit in secret things reserued to the iust punishment of the Lord persons vnreasonable vnindifferent to themselues and others ignorant of the doctrine of holinesse true Christian liberty enemies to Iesus Christ his offices and benefits All the life of Gods children who in the Common weale Church and their owne families are profitable seruants and ministers condemneth these frantike wizards who haue made their vaunt and boast of a Moonkish lazie life who vnder player-like habits haue hatched the greatest pride and counterfeite confidence that may be imagined who haue insolently defied and spit at the lawfull recreations of good men and conuerted the graces of the Lord into vncouth and strange dissolutions But to stirre this filth no longer As those that are young and old indued with the feare of the Lord know that it is permitted them to vse the goods and things of thig life not onely for necessity but also for honest delight so it be to the glory of God the reliefe of their neighbour and the common edification of all and to bee for their owne particuler so much the more adapted and fitted to conuerse and keepe company So doe they not cease to condemne as much as their calling requires all dissolutions enormous and licentious liuing in fine all abuse of the things of this life Hereupon it is good to remember First that all the goods wee possesse were ordained that wee should duely acknowledge the Author and giuer of them magnifying with thanksgiuing his liberality to vs which intemperate and dissolute persons cannot doe Secondly that all these goods ought to bee abandoned yea accounted as nothing euen dispised as dung in comparison of the excellent knowledge of our saluation in Iesus Christ and of that glory which is reserued for vs in heauen which is quenched and dyeth when we are too much addicted and wedded to goods transitory and perishing For as much as wee excessiuely abuse them in prosperitie making them instruments of our ruine and hurt which are to procure helpe and further our good For that also we being depriued of them cease not to thinke and to say that all is lost and gone that we are miserable Indeed so wee are in carrying our selues thus but wee haue a good Lord who doth infinitely helpe and support vs but it is to binde and oblige vs so much the more to our dutie Thirdly that the holy Scripture for the ordering of our goods doth teach vs that they are giuen to vs vpon condition to yeeld account of them sooner or later yea by him that hath expresly forbidden the abuse of them whom also wee cannot deceiue or abuse Fourthly that to discerne the right vse from the abuse oâ—â—orldly goods God hath ordained that euery man in all the actions of this life cast his eyes and looke to his vocation and calling that he rashly vndertake nothing nor with a doubting and vnresolued conscience Whereupon it followes that infidels superstitious vniust dissolute prophane persons and Atheists are infinitly culpable and guilty before God because they outragiously and aboue measure abuse this present life and the good they possesse in it all things being polluted to them they themselues being polluted both in body and minde For conclusion of our counsell and aduice the wise Vieillard shall remember that the life of euery Christian young and old consisteth in these sixe Articles First That we haue a sincere affection to obey God Secondly That the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles contained in the Canonical Bookes of the old
with a deuout zeale and courage But let vs yet come neerer and according to our proiect and purpose let vs see what helpe and comfort Philosophie and faith doe yeeld and afford vs against our naturall frailtie While we are in this world wee cannot haue freedome and ease from all our affections perturbations and passions nor from all sense of our miserie Then seeing it is so let vs at least take a course to moderate them and with patience to beare our condition which we shall easily doe if we call to minde what our sinnes doe deserue and how great the wisedome and goodnesse of God is in turning our aduersities and troubles to be profitable and wholesome medicines and helpes vnto vs. Let vs then first acknowledge in our originall and naturall frailtie that which is remarkable and to be obserued in all the children of Adam S. Bernard sayth in one of his Sermons vpon the Canticles Man being aduanced and raised to honour is become as a brute Beast he dwelt in a garden and had a pleasant dwelling and very delightfull was not pressed with any care or annoyances wanted nothing was surrounded with sweet smelling flowers with fruits pleasing to the taste was crowned with glory and honour was supervisor and Lord ouer all the workes which his Creator had made But his chiefest excellency consisted in this that he was created after the Image of God was a companion with the Angelles and with all the companies of the hoste of Heauen But hee hath changed this glorie and is become like to the Beastes O lamentable and woefull change That man a trimmer of a garden of pleasure Lord of the earth a cittizen of Heauen a domestique of the Lord God of hostes an heire of heauenly happinesse by a suddaine change is become naked miserable poore like to the beastes which with a bridle we awe and keepe vnder Now as man is come naked out of his mothers belly so shall hee returne to the earth carrying nothing with him of all his labour and trauayle For to draw some comfort from that which hath beene spoken let vs now and then ponder and weigh with our selues that it is our fault and misdoinges hath brought these euils and miseries and others much more grieuous and heauie vpon vs that we must not blame God but our owne disobedience Then let vs consider in God such a mercie as doth easily swallow vp all the miseries of this present life in as much as he turneth and changeth them to medicines profitable to vs. To which purpose S. Augustine said vpon the exposition of the Psalme 22. Man knows that God is a Phisitian that affliction is a remedie procuring his saluation and not a punishment effectuating his damnation When a remedie is sought for the Phisitian brings a searing iron and fire thou cryest thy Phisitian heares well enough thy roarings and clamours but he heares not to doe as thou wouldest haue him to doe but to heale thee Behold according to S. Paul in the fift Chapter of the Epistle to the Romaines how the Phisicke workes Tribulation brings forth patience and patience experience and experience hope Let vs then haue before our eyes this molehill of earth whereof the bodie is kneaded and made and the grace of the holy Ghost proceeding out of the most hidden treasures of Gods loue whose will it hath bin that this vile masse of earth should bee a vessell of his glory Let vs make reckoning of it in as much as our bodies so sayth the Apostle 1 Cor. haue beene made members of Iesus Christ temples of the holy Ghost Let vs not be lesse considerate and ingrate then the incredulous and prophane Gentiles who haue so deepely considered the frailtie viletie miserie of our originall as Lactantius in the second booke of his Institutions Chap. 12. collects out of the first booke of Ciceroes lawes that they haue acknowledged that this wretched poore liuing creature in whom is seene such wisedome prudence wit memory a large and deepe vnderstanding and reason was created of the high God to be eleuated and aduanced to an excellent state and condition Although then other liuing creatures devoid of reason seeme better prouided and armed touching the bodie then man Some being very swift of foote as Hares Does and Stagges others armed with sharpe clawes and hornes as Lyons and Bulles others dight trimmed and sheltered with feathers and wings as Birds and Fowles yet notwithstanding this is done by the exquisite prouidence of God as Chrysostome notes well That all the power and strength of man should be in the soule and that man should be so much the more strong in God as he is more weake and naked without This mystery and secret long agoe was acknowledged by Dauid and all wise old men to teach the younger ought to remember it Thou hast sayth he speaking to God put thy strength in the mouth of little children and sucking babes Surely in this first age sustained gouerned guarded and protected by a speciall wisedome and admirable power of the Creator he seemes to lay as the first foundations of his power and might to make them manifest to them that haue any vnderstanding thereby to quell and confound with shame the enemies of his name Atheists and prophane persons which dare contest and contend against him In the Psalme 22. the Prophet strengthened by his owne experience sayth assuredly O God thou art hee which drewest me out of my mothers belly thou gauest me assurance and safetie at my nurses brest I haue been in thy custodie tuition and charge from the wombe thou art my strong God from my conception And in the Psalme 139. Thou hast possessed my reines from the time that I was lapped vp and couered in my mothers wombe I will celebrate and prayse thee for that I was made in so strange and wonderfull a manner Thy workes are wonderfull and my soule knowes it right well The good proportion and setting in order of my bones was not hid from thee when I was made in a secret place and curiously fashioned beneath in the earth Thine eyes did see me when I was as a formelesse embryon all these things were written in thy booke before they were O mighty God how precious then vnto me are the considerations of thy workes and how great is the number of them will I take vpon mee to count them they are more in number then the smallest sands These are the holy meditations of Dauid So then casting our eyes to the ground vpon this little heape of earth whereof our bodies are formed wee learne to hang downe the head and bowe downe the crest and to abate more then three parts of our pride and selfe conceit On the contrary lifting vp our eyes to heauen from whence our soules tooke their beginning and where the great Father of spirits dwelles we haue cause giuen vs to reioyce and occasion with all alacritie and readinesse to trample vnder our feete all
afflictions wee are made the more fit for laudable actions And as Cicero sayth in his booke of Tusculane questions If at the exercise of wrastling the champions contemne bruises and hurts and their paines and tuggings in the presence of noble personages are easily borne set light by and not a whit blencht at why should we make any difficulty stoutly to thwarte and resist the dangers which in the wayes of vertue offer themselues What magnanimitie can be of more fame and note then that which is seene in the hazard of dangers and in bearing those euills which must be vndergone and cannot be auoided for so long as the heart keepes his hold vnmoued vndaunted not fainting not quayling all is well And this resolution is much more excellent then the possession of the treasures and goods of the world which a great minde commonly contemnes as things flitting transitory and vaine Againe by the testimony of Seneca vnintermitted and daily aduersitie and euill at least as we call it hath this good and commodity that those that are tempested vexed and exercised therewith are the more hardy to beare and endure But why should hee which knowes and takes himselfe to be a man and triumphes and glories to be called a man refuse to put vnder his shoulder and stoope to those ieopardies burthens and crosses which are incident and casuall to a man Moreouer the Heathens doe tell vs of other stayes and helpes to old age whereby to prolong it and make it more easefull as well in regard of the body as of the minde Cicero sayth We must make head and striue against old age carefully correct helpe and redresse her defaults and defects and neither more nor lesse resist it then wee would doe some disease Let vs haue then a care of our health let our bodily exercises be moderate let vs eat and drinke to restore and not to oppresse and ouerthrow that bodily strength which remaines Hee that is old cannot be young againe and death is ineuitable but it is possible to corroborate and strengthen old age by good gouernment and order of diet and to keepe the heart from fainting and dying on a suddaine Wise old men are taught and prescribed of learned and Christian Physicians reamedies outward and inward of good and sound health which they are carefull to obserue that so they might hold out and continue the longer to doe good in the sight of God to themselues and their neighbours For which cause as Cicero said besides the tendring and cherishing of their weake bodies which daily doe languish and pine away they are much more thoughtfull of their minde and intellectuall and memoratiue parts which by little and little decay if we doe not euen as a Lampe is with oyle maintaine and keepe them exercised Long trauell tyrings and toylefull labours make our bodies vnweldy sluggish and lither on the contrary continuall exercise and study doe recreate reuiue and cherish our mindes If old men be scoffed and mockt at in the Theaters and common assemblies as dolts mad fooles and dotardes it is onely meant of such as be credulous obliuious voluptuous and dissolute persons These are vices of young and old but not of all persons alike For the wise Vieillard hath alwayes his minde bent and intent vnto vertue All his desire is to keepe himselfe immaculate and pure before God well affectioned to his countrey carefull for the building of that spirituall temple which is called the Church gouerning and bringing vp his family in the loue of pietie righteousnesse holinesse verity shining by his graue counsells and sayings and by his worthy actions and deedes as a sun among men to the ioy of his friendes and well willers and to the astonishment at home and abroad of the enemies and enuiers of the splendour and eminency of those excellent gifts which the holy Ghost hath liberally communicated and conferred vnto him The wise Vieillard desirous to liue long in this estate for the good of many hath most noble and worthy thoughts and agreeing to his age though hee bee farre spent with yeares his heart is strong to doe wonderfull matters ere hee depart hence and yet the best of his life is in his inwardest part the soule But I know not what false opinion or wretched ignorance of the truth doth possesse vs that in stead of taking pleasure in our owne happinesses we cease not to torment vex our selues about euills which wee make much greater then they are so that almost ordinarily and without much thinking thereon wee voluntarily runne our selues headlong into voluntary carkings and fits and into continuall anxieties disquiets and troubles of minde making that part of our life extreamely miserable which should with glory crowne all that is past No whit remembring what wise Plato said That what things soeuer the outward senses desire or feare they are almost no other but stadowes and dreames CHAP. XIIII Assured consolations against all the infirmities of bodie and minde ALthough the Heathen Greeke and Latine Philosophers among others Plutarch and Seneca seeme to haue gloriously discoursed of all whatsoeuer concernes the tranquilitie and contentment of the minde thereby to make the troubles and discommodities of this present life more easily borne Yet must it be confessed as wee haue else where obserued vpon the foresaid Philosophers that their discourses are weake and insufficient yea altogether impertinent being compared to the doctrines of heauenly wisedome Notwithstanding let vs speake this word by the way touching the reading of such Authors who endeauour according to their poore skill to reclaime vs from vice wherein worldlings wallow and dabble ehemselues to their confusion to the end to settle and habituate vs in laudable thoughts and in noble exercises of vertue They are men guided by a darke light by which some glympses and glymmerings of truth are seene and appeare which doe not sufficiently direct and point out the way yet setue they to make knowne well enough to them that are wide and strangers to the true light that they are euery way miserable And such by schooles doe teach sober young and old men to redeeme the time and to make all hast to bee admitted betimes into the holy Academie there to bee fully resolued of the doubts and hard questions which humane wisedome cannot assoyle and discusse Ploto in his Philche is of the minde that the ancient Authors are to bee read which in his opinion are the neerer streames to the fountaine of truth and consequently the purer If this be so what shall we say of Moses Dauid Salomon the Prophets whose writing were before those of the Heathen with what eye of regard and how heedfully and accurately ought wee to read the holy Euangelistes and Apostles replenished and full of so many necessary and important doctrines for all sorts of persons Who dares contradict them but an Atheist and horrible monster condemned by the testimony of his conscience wherein hee beares the written doome and
sentence of his owne damnation Such holy bookes are the true springs and fountaines of liuing water which the Author of life and euerlasting consolation causeth to flow into our soules by the efficacy and vertue of his Spirit which for the saluation of those that in humilitie come and draw neere vnto them purgeth and clenseth those filthy frothie waters and puddles making them quicke running streames to eternall life Wee read in the second Booke of the Tusculane questions a franke and open confession of Cicero the Author touching the imbicilitie and weakenesse of humane reason There are sayth hee certaine seedes of vertue springing in our hearts which if wee would suffer them to grow and sprout out nature by their meanes would guide vs to a happy life But wee are no sooner borne but behold wee are plunged into all corruption and into a gulfe of errors and aberrations which wee seeme to sucke with the milke of our Nurses Then are we afterward put forth to maisters and tutors which staine and corrupt vs with so many false and monstrous opinions that veritie giues way and place to vanitie and nature being preoccupied and forestalled with strange imaginations suffers it selfe by them to be out of measure transported and lead awry As then we draw out of the fountaines of Israel that is out of the word of God conteined in the holy Books of the Prophets and Apostles most certaine and assured documents and doctrines of the nature and essence of God of his prouidence of his loue towards vs of the soueraigne good and of a happie and euerlasting life So wise old men and all good Christians nurtured and instructed in the wordes of truth of faith charitie hope temperance pietie are not daunted and terrified with humaine brittlenesse and frailtie neyther thinke their maladies incurable nor their paines and sorrowes vnsupportable but by the helpe of the Doctrine recorded in this holy Schoole doe enioy a stedfast and assured consolation and doe say with Dauid in the Psalme 94. O how happie is the man O Lord whom thou reprouest and instructest by thy law to set him in a sure habitation and refuge in the dayes of aduersities that while and as often as sharpe heauie and grieuous thoughts and perplexities of mind doe wound and peirce their soules they may euer be cured holped and cheared with heauenly consolations But when we see many old men which call themselues Christians more faint-hearted more effeminate more impatient and froward then many poore silly miscreants and infidells haue beene And Christians likewise which make so great a sound of their name and haue high swelling words in their mouthes and base and euill manners who thinke one thing and say and doe another are farre indeed from the stayednesse and constancie of the auncient Stoickes We can doe no other then blame these vauâ—neantes vaine vitious persons who like bad stubborne souldiers when tryall and need is throw downe their weapons scoffe and mocke at the exhortations and incouragements giuen them to learne to handle and weild their spirituall weapons in the hall of Fence which standes open for them in the Mansion house of truth briefely please themselues in abiuring and renouncing all parts and poynts of any good and laudable dutie and seruice in the army of the liuing God Verily the life of a Christian so long as he soiourneth here in earth is affronted with carkings and carings annoyances and tedious disquiets It is a continuall warre wherein we are daily to cope grapse and striue against the enemie as well within as without to wit Sathan the world and our owne corrupt nature There is much worke markt and cut out But as the suffrings of Christ abound in vs so our consolation aboundeth thorough Christ Vndoubtedly a Christian hath an Arsenall or Armory repleate with whatsoeuer is necessary for him wherein he findeth all manner of weapons wherewith God himselfe from heauen doth array and furnish him so long as he will lift vp his eyes toward the promise and assistance of his Lord turne away his sight from whatsoeuer may hinder lett inwrapp and intangle him That these weapons are strong sure and of proofe not fained and vaine wee learne of two most braue Warriours who long agoe and a long tyme to encountred perils and dangers were in many skirmishes and battailes wherein they fought valiantly Men who for their magnanimitie valour long experience hold the prime and chiefe places of honour and rancke in the Armie of the supreame and soueraigne chiefetaine commander and head of the militant Church which is Iesus Christ One of them is called Dauid the Bethlemite the other Paul of Tarsus Dauid singes in the Psalme 39. Euery man at his best is vanitie doubtlesse man walketh in a shadowe and now Lord what haue I waited for my hope is euen in thee harken vnto my request bow downe thine eare vnto my cry bee not deafe at my teares for I am a stranger with thee and a soiourner as all my Fathers were In the Psalme 40. Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust and regardeth not the proud nor such as turne a side to lies O Lord my God thou hast made thy wonderfull workes and none can count in order to thee thy thoughts toward vs they are so many will I take vpon me to declare and speake of them they are moe then I can recount and expresse Then at the end he addeth Let all them which seeke thee reioyce and be glad in thee and let all them that loue the saluation thou giuest to those that are thine say alwayes the Lord be praysed and magnified Verely I am poore and needie but the Lord thinkes and hath care on me my God thou art my helpe and deliuerer The same great warriour singes in the Psalme 46. in the name of all the Church God is my fortresse strength and succour in troubles and distresse very readie to bee found therefore wee will not feare though the Earth tremble and be moued and the Mountaines fall and be ouer whelmed in the middest of the Sea Let vs heare the Apostle of the Gentiles Although saith he we be daily deliuered ouer to death for Iesus sake yet wee haue the spirit of faith which preserues vs that wee perish not But although our outward man perish yet the inward man is daily quickened and renewed For our light affliction which is but for a moment causeth vnto vs a farre more excellent and eternall weight of glory while we looke not on the things which are seene for the things which are seene are temporall but the things which are not seene are eternall In another place to wit in the sixt Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians he leadeth his souldiers into the spirituall Arsenall and Armourie and sayth vnto them Finally my bretheren be valiant and strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Put on the whole Armour of God that yee may be able
and new Testament is the rule of his obedience Thirdly That he renounce himselfe to the end to yeeld and submit himselfe vnto God Fourthly That he patiently and cheerfully beare the crosse that is all kind of affliction that it shall please God to inflict vpon him Fifthly That in all his course of life hee meditate vpon that better life which is prepared in heauen Sixthly That the vse of transitory goods doe prouoke and incite him to goe forward more couragiously to the end of his high calling CHAP. XVI Worthy Meditations for all persons especially the wise Vieillard of what quality and condition soeuer he be WE propound further to the wise Vieillard that which followes to the end that in his owne particular for the dignity and honour of his age in the sight of God and good men he meditate thereon I say then thaâ—â—â—ery man especially he that is farre gone in yeares ought continually to haue Iesus Christ in his meditation and thought which he shall stay and settle vpon the considerations following As Iesus Christ after he was baptised was solemnly and with a loud voyce from heauen declared to be the beloued Sonne in whom the Father delighted So a Christian inwardly may know by the efficacy of the holy Spirit witnessing in and with his that he is the childe of God And when after his initiation and entry into the house of God sealed by the sacred signe of Baptisme it happeneth vnto him at many yeares end to bee led into the desart as his head was there to bee brought to extreame hunger to be pressed with sundry necessities and wants enuironed with the dangers persecutions miseries and aduersities of this world by meanes whereof Sathan assayeth to make him thinke as he assayled on the same side at first our Lord Iesus that he is out of the number of Gods children being destitute of all helpes and comforts and many wayes perplexed Thou oughtest not O wise Vieillard of what quality or condition soeuer thou be to resigne and yeeld vp the buckler of faith but opposing it against the fiery darts of that wicked one firmely beleeue that God is thy Father hath care of thee that all his visitations are full of loue doe proceed from his wisedome for his glory and thy saluation and welfare I know that this outragious one will perseuer and goe on in his calumny will say that thou shouldest make request vnto God if thou bee one of his children that these stones be turned into bread that is that these hard sharpe and violent aduersities which doe batter and split in peeces thy heart be changed into prosperitie But doe thou answere as thy Sauiour that the children of God are not sustayned and maintained by goodes and things transitorie and perishing but by God himselfe and by his rich and blessed promises If he charge and set vpon thee another way exclamining that if thou thinke thy selfe so priuiledged that thou shouldest cast thy selfe downe headlong from the top of the pinacle of the temple that is from the high degree of the spirituall politicall oeconomicall dignitie and iurisdiction wherin thou art promoted and aduanced far higher and aboue many others to tumble thy selfe into some stinking sinke of impietie iniustice defamatorie lewdnesse and villanie and he doe add withall that nothing shall follow of it which thou oughtest to feare that no body shall know ought of it that thou shalt haue a foule wide mouth and a brasen impudent face to deny all yea euen that God is much obliged to thee that his Angells haue a care of thee that thou alwayes haue at a pynch of need ready in thy sleeue a good peccaui that whatsoeuer happen if thou goe the way leading to hell it is notwithstanding the way to Paradise Make him this answere It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God but on the contrary seeing that of his so great benignity goodnesse and grace he hath made mee his I am so much the more obliged and bound to honour him thanke him and to study and indeuour to assure my calling Againe if the tempter set before thine eyes all the world and thereupon demaund of thee to doe him homage and worship thou feeling thy selfe by faith to bee the sonne of God and heyre of heauen disdaine and dispise these shadowes dreames smoakie vapours falling downe prostrate before the only true God thy hope life and saluation Who where-as thou wert by nature a childe of wrath a member of the first Adam a brance of a thorny bitter venomous corrupt and wilde plant hath cut and taken thee from it and graffed thee into Iesus Christ the stocke of life and the fruitfull pure oliue branch so that thou hast beene made a liuing member of him which requires that thou haue neyther strength or vigour nor motion or progresse whatsoeuer but as thou art mooued and directed by the Spirit of Iesus Christ dwelling in thee that thou oughtest not to thinke to will desire or doe any thing but by diuine inspiration and as much as is behoouefull for a liuing and spirituall member of the Lord. Vpon this thou art bound often to meditate especially when the case is so that thou art put to thy tryall and to stand to thy tackling And when thou doest any thing vnbeseeming and not agreeing to the dignity of a Christian of one adopted of God and of a brother and member of Christ be ashamed of thy selfe and deferre not to repent and amend But forasmuch as our Sauiour was crucified it followes that all his members ought to bee nayled to the crosse with him Which is first done by a feruent charity as it falles out to all those who being enflamed and changed by an intire loue to their Redeemer feele all his sufferings and are mortified with him in his crosse Secondly thou must yet in another manner bee crucfied with Iesus Christ to wit if thy feete will trample and trot vp and downe to and fro in the world to doe some euill nayle them to the crosse of the Lord with strong nayles of charity Does as much to thy hands if they enterprize and take vpon them to doe and commit some mischeeuous act and designe and with thy wanton lustfull eyes including and shutting vp in Christ thy intellect and vnderstanding with his cogitations the will with her desires and lustes and the soule with all her faculties and powers so that all the old Adam being crucified the saying of the Apostle may be verified in thee That those that are of Christ haue crucified their flesh with the lustes thereof Thirdly thou oughtest further to be fastened in another manner to the crosse of Christ that as when hee hanged on the crosse he was beheld naked forlorne emptied and destitute of all the fauour friendship respect and wisedome of men of all worldly riches pompes dignities and pleasures by reason whereof himselfe said That the Prince of the world found nothing of his in him