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
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
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
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
had of some comfort after many sorrowes and afflictions yet may it be said that the world was then in his prime and best dayes At which time these good Patriarches were not booke learned but all the knowledge they had in naturall Philosophy or in the course of the Starres they got it by long obseruation and experience which from the grandfathers and fathers were deliuered ouer and taught to their children and to their childrens children as Iosephus witnesseth in his first booke of Antiquities and third Chapter Many wondering heereat haue mooued this question whether it be likely or probable that the Patriarched liued so long as nine hundred yeares and vpwards as our first father Adam Methusula and Noah did Some curious wits whose maner is to measure euery thing by the meat-wand and rule of their owne ouerweening pride who because they could not perswade themselues that the years of the Patriarches were composed of twelue moneths or of three hundred threescore fiue dayes euery day hauing foure and twenty houres and euery houre his ordinary minutes haue imagined as Saint Augustine reports in his 15. Booke De ciuitate Dei chap 10. 12. that the yeares of the first world were not reckoned according to our present computation and style but that one of our yeares now is as much in the ballance of account as tenne yeare then and they held their opinion for currant and to bee approoued for that the people of the old world doe still to this day differ about the calculation of the yeare For the AEgyptians had their yeare of foure moneths the Acarnans of sixe and the Lauinians of thirteene moneths Plinie the second hauing written that the Histories make mention of two whereof one liued one hundred fiftie and two yeares and the other liued two hundred yeares and of many that liued till they were eight hundred yeeres old addeth that the ignorance of the times gaue credit to such tales and reports because there were of the antienter men of those times that did shut vp and inclose the yeare within the seaesons thereof some of them reckoning the yeare by the summer season others did put the summer and winter season together and made two yeares of them both and some of them did reckon the interuall and space from the change of the Moone to the last day of the wayne for a whole yeere But besides that the history of the Deluge being heedfully looked into and examined according to his moneths and dayes doth confute this errour Saint Augustine declareth that such coniectures can haue no force or authoritie in this dispute and driueth these curious disputers into a manifest absurditie For if seuenty yeare 's then were but seuen of our yeares now Kenan when he was seuen yeares old begot his sonne Mahalaleel and Mahalaleel being onely fiue yeares old and a halfe should haue had Iered as Henoch also at the same age should haue begot his sonne Methusula But not to stand and relye vpon the vaine disputes of prophane people who being ignorant in the Art of Astronomy and Celestiall motions haue inuented yeares after their owne fancy and haue intricated themselues in infinite errours which time by the helpe and skill of learned Astronomers hath reformed and corrected Most sure and certaine it is that after the Deluge the whole earth by that fearefull punishment of the inundation of waters failed to yeeld his foison and strength as before and men being more luxurious and dissolute of life liued not so long as they did before as appeareth by the Genealogy of the sonnes of Sem in the 11. Chapter of Genesis Presently the yeares of the holy Patriarches did ebb and abate of their number and in processe of time men in their manners grew worse and worse so that at last in the time of Iacob the age of man did shrinke away and decay very much and afterward much more in the time of Moyses whereof wee may haue an instance and proofe in the nintie Psalme although the yeares there mentioned seeme to be abriged and cut off for an extraordinary rod of correction to them in the Desert Caius the lawyer giueth his iudgement that the houre-glasse of mans life euen of those that are of the ablest bodies and mindes cannot runne much longer then a hundred yeares In the bookes of Heathen Authors there are found notable and rare examples and perhaps fabulous of men that haue liued very old The yeares of Nestor are become a proueeb by reason that Homer gaue it out that he liued thee hundred yeares The Tragedian Poets broach it for a truth that one Tiresias liued sixe hundred yeares and Plinie in his 7. Booke Chap. 48. hath set downe a Catalogue of old men that liued to a very great age Sabellicus in his AEneades reporteth that in Arabia men liue till they bee foure hundred yeares full out Our French Historiographers doe celebrate the memory of one Iohn des temps who had an Esquires place vnder Charlemagne about the year 800. and liued vntill the yeare 1124. vnder the Emperour Conrad the third In our dayes there haue beene found in the East and West Indies old men that haue out liued two hundred yeares and in diuers parts of Europe chiefly in the temperate Clymates but especially in the mountaine countries there be found men aboue a hundred yeares old that are very voluble and fluent in talke and discourse But whether this bee so or no all wise men agree in this that although God by his speciall blessing for certaine great reasons hath drawne out the dayes of some of his children to a very great length and that oftentimes it falleth out that the wicked suddainly perish and haue their life taken away for their rebellion against him as the whole race of Cain was swallowed vp of the flood and not a man of them left aliue Yet this earth that beares vs vp and whereupon we tread is not the Land of the liuing as Basil declareth in his exposition vpon the 44. Psal For here before the soule goes out of the body we are often and long a dying feele many assaults of death who giues vs many a sore blowe deadly wound before he kil vs out-right first our infancy dies in vs next our childhood afterwards our youth or age of twentie or one and twentie yeares growth consequently our manly and middle age which is followed with old age which changeth both vs and our affections making vs to liue after another manner We shall then be in the land of the liuing when wee shall be the same men we seeme to bee vnchangeable without griefe of minde or sicknesse of body not subiect to any corruptions or defilements nor frowardly liuing in strife and debate While we liue in this tabernacle of the body as Saint Paul saith 2. Cor. 5. 4. Wee sigh and mourne being heauily burthened not that wee desire to be stripped or vnclothed but to be clothed againe that that which
made a representation of the Kingdome of heauen and to this latter signification our Lord seemes to referre when to the Theefe vpon the Crosse who repented acknowledged his Sauiour and made so excellent a confession of his faith as no Christian can make a better he said This day shalt thou bee with me in Paradise Luke 23. 43. Concerning the tree of Life Saint Augustine in his 26. Chapter of the fourth Booke De ciuitate Dei and other antient an moderne Diuines doe thinke that the tree of Life was so called not because the fruite of it sustained man in life as other fruits doe but that by a speciall blessing the fruit of it did maintaine Adam and Eue in life and strength of body that they were not troubled with any disease They gather their exposition on from this that Adam after his fall was by the commandement of God banished with his wife out of the garden of Eden to this end that he should not stretch forth his hand to gather and eat of the fruit of this tree whereby hee might liue for euer And from the Cherubins which with a wauing and flourishing sharpe edged sword were placed towards the East part of the garden to keepe him from comming that way to the tree of life Gen. 3. 22. 24. Some Diuines said that after Adams reuolt the passage way to the tree of life was barrocadoed and shut vp not that God feared that Adam after he had receiued his doome and iudgement to returne to the dust of the earth from whence hee was taken could by eating of the fruit of the tree of life recouer immortalitie but that he hauing made himselfe a mortall creature and lost his dignity should haue his scutchion of honour taken from him and trampled vnder feet and all the ornaments badges and markes of the fauour of God and immortality For otherwise to speake properly God alone is the head spring of life Psal 36. 10. Nay he is our life and the length of dayes Deut. 30. 20. And not any tree nor the fruit of a tree And wittily doth Aristotle scoffe at Hesiodus and his other fellow Poets who tooke vpon them to make a materiall bread and drinke for the liuing gods which they called Nectar and Ambrosia S. Augustine in his eight booke vpon Genesis seemeth out of the wordes of the text very fitly to resolue this point of doctrine when hee saith that all the fruits of other trees were giuen to man for the nourishment and food of his body but the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and euill were giuen him in the nature and quality of a Sacrament Other Diuines whose opion I reiect not doe hold that the tree of life was a figure of the Gospel and the tree of knowledge of good and euill was a figure of the Law that Adam and Eue by eating of the fruit of this latter tree might now come to know good and bad vertue and vice right and wrong iustice or iniustice or by their disobedience to God in doing that which he had forbidden them might learne to their owne confusion from what an excellent state they were fallen and into what an abisse and bottomlesse gulfe of confusion they had plunged themselues Many ancient learned men doe write that the tree of life did signifie wisedome planted in the middest of the garden that is ingraffed or infused into the heart of man which is in the middest of his body And for proofe hereof they alledge the place in the third chapter of the Prouerbes where it is said That wisedome is a tree of life to those that lay hold of it We thinke no lesse but that Salomon in that sentence doth allude to the tree of life in the garden of Eden which was to our first Parents a Sacrament of the life which they had receiued of God and which had beene perpetuated to them if they had not rebelled against him And that he doth also admonish vs that the meanes to recouer that happy life to enioy Gods fauour againe is to apply our selues to that study of wisdome which is taught vs chiefly in the Gospel of which S. Paul saith We speake not the wisdome of the world but the wisedome of God in a mystery which is a hid wisedome 1. Cor. 2. 6 7. And the same Iesus Christ which by God was made wisedome for vs is our resurrection and life Concerning the tree of knowledge of good euill many doe wonder that it was planted in the terrestriall and earthly Paradise seeing it was the occasion and materiall cause of the death of Adam and Eue. But Diuines and namely S. Basil and S. Augustine doe wisely make answere That God planted no tree that was euill neither made he death neither did he set or plant any such tree in the garden to be the occasion of mans ruine and destruction but to prooue his obedience and to beget in him an habite of abstinence and to weane him to sobrietie so that although this tree was pleasant to beholde yet was it not meete that Adam and Eue should climbe it to satisfie their greedy appetites but should abstaine and forbeare so to doe because God had for bidden them to gather and eate of the fruit thereof To conclude with S. Augustine The Lords will was that the reasonable creature should see that he was not to be at his owne caruing and appointment but as a creature to yeeld all obedience to his Creatour and in yeelding obedience should finde it to be best for his health and welfare Thus then Adams estate was excellent and aboue all things to be desired wherein hee abounded in all ioy integrity iustice and holinesse if hee had continued in this happy estate wherein God created him But after hee had eaten of the forbidden fruit of a man iust happy and immortall he became a sinner miserable and mortall These things being so wee the miserable posterity of Adam who haue tasted of the forbidden fruit transgressed in the thing forbidden and by our disobedience brought vpon vs the first and second death seperated and estranged our selues from God the author of our life and of our good being and welfare are exhorted and put in minde to haue our recourse in true faith vnto that Mediatour who by his death and resurrection hath opened vnto vs the celestiall Paradise who giueth vs to eate of the tree of life planted in the Paradise of God Apocal. 2. 7. not of a figuratiue and typicall tree but that we might haue a right and interest in Iesus Christ the true tree of life and in the heauenly Ierusalem which is euerlasting life Apocal. 22. 14. For in our Sauiour is the truth and the accomplishment of all types and figures and whosoeuer beleeueth in him shall not come to condemnation but shall goe from death to life Vpon this sentence S. Paul in the first Chapter of his Epistle to the Romanes 17. Verse doth ground this
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
yet is so heedlesse that death doth surprize him hee suddenly falleth into griefes frightes dispaires horrors for not hauing in his life kept reckoning of those things which hee ought maturely and betimes to consider of Wee adde that this is wholly necessary by somuch the more as we are to render our account before the in euitable throne of the eternall Father of that great family which must appeare before him Verily the meditation of death is not irksome anxious perplexing nor ought we to deferre it from one yeare or age to another according to the sottish opinion of the vulgar But cleane contrary to thinke that nothing doth safeguard or assure vs so much in the middest of aduersities and dangers as such meditation It is that which makes vs sober in prosperitie prest ready and prepared in all euents Also as Saint Cyprian sayd to the people of Thibara wee weare not enrolled by Baptisme among Christian Souldiers to thinke that we ought to doe nothing else in the world then there to seeke and hunt after our pleasures and ease turning our backes to conflictes woundes death Saint Augustine writeth in the fifth Chapter of his thirteenth Booke De Ciuitate Dei That faith would vtterly bee weakened if presently after our Baptisme we should become immortall and should be crowned before we had fought 2. Let vs see in the second place what death is how many kindes there are and how it ought to bee feared and contemned Life and death according to Aristotle are common accidents to all liuing creatures for that the reason of originall and corruptible matter doth so beare mainetaine and require it Touching the condition of the first man and how hee had euer liued continuing in his obedience to God wee haue formerly spoken of it in the discourse of the tree of life Furthermore as the condition of man created after Gods image who kindly receiued him into his alliance was excellent By so much the more miserable dreadfull and terrible is the death into which hee fell after his reuolt then the death of other liuing creatures whose soule dyeth with the body and who after this annihilation feare no torment whatsoeuer But wee speake heere of the death of man which God caused not for hee also taketh no pleasure in the death of any but rather in the conuersion good and saluation of vs all This doth not impugne but that God is a iust Iudge punishing sinnes and suffering no misdeedes and transgressions vnpunished but bringing all things to their endes by miraculous meanes wherein his wisedome doth manifestly appeare although very often the instruments which hee vseth to execute his iust iudgements may haue foule crimes and grosse faults In this sence it is sayd That God woundeth killeth whetteth his sword that he bringeth to ruine that hee casteth the body and soule into hell and that hee sendeth the wicked into euerlasting fire So then God hath not made death but death is crept and entred into the world thorough the diuells enuy and malice and mans disobedience Saint Augustine in a certaine place sayth That if God had made death hee would not with teares haue bewayled dead Lazarus whom therefore hee raysed and restored to life that the diuell might see that it is but lost labour with such rage and fury to pursue the children of God to take them out of the world forasmuch as those whom we deeme vtterly lost and destroyed doe liue vnto God Touching their errour who held that Adam should haue dyed though he had not sinned Saint Augustine answereth That all Christians are to hold this point for firme and vndoubted that Adam and Eue were created such that if they had reiected the counsell of the seducer who spake by the Serpent continuing in the free liberty wherein they were they had enioyed eternall life and not dyed But making no reckoning of obeying God their Lord and abusing their free will prone and ready to yeeld to the suggestions of Sathan and their owne lustes and concupiscences so as they very soone felt the effect of the threatning denounced to them both In that day that thou shalt cate of the forbidden fruit thou shalt die the death Before his fall the first man was mortall as touching the condition of his body immortall by the good pleasure of his Creator before sinne hee could not dye But by the redemption of Christ Iesus the elect of God shall obtaine in the life eternall euen the same priuiledge that the holy Angells not to be able to fall from the state of grace nor to dye And as touching this point that our father Adam dyed not so soone as he had obeyed the voyce of Eue it doth derogate nothing from the truth of the sentence pronounced against him nor from the haynousnesse of his sinne For the sence and meaning of the threatning Thou shalt dye the death is as if God sayd certainely thou shalt be subiect to the first death which is a separation of the soule from the body and to the second death a fearefull punishment forasmuch as it is an euerlasting separation from God from the light of heauen from ioy vnspeakeable from the life which is blessed for euer If then it be demaunded how can it bee that Adam liued after his reuolt and falling away Gregorie the great doth sufficiently to the purpose make answere in his 145. Epistle of his fifth Booke that death in two kindes steps in and seizeth vpon vs eyther by the priuation and defection of life or by the quality of life In regard of the first kinde of death Adam dyed not so soone but rather as touching the second For presently after his disobedience being depriued of happinesse of the state of innocency of contentment of minde of a strong sound constitution of body hee felt himselfe couered with shame horrors sorrow with sundry miseries knew himselfe to be aliue in paine vnder the curse of his Soueraigne who was created by Gods fauour to liue in an excellent estate and perpetuall quiet and tranquility of minde Some thinke that wee meddle and goe too farre to say that man transgressing in time was pronounced guilty of temporall and eternall death The Iewes bewitched with the like errour doe dreame that they haue no need of a Messias to abolish and take away sinne and to deliuer from eternall death This errour did grow from the ignorance of the definition of sinne as also of the soueraigne and infinite Maiestie of God whom man had offended by his transgression For sin being a reuolt and falling away from God to ioyne and cleaue to the diuell and a transgression of the holy law in dispite of God man sinning could not escape eternall perdition and punishment but by the grace of his Redeemer as by obedience hee had kept his Creators fauour for euer Euen so then as it is not iniustice as Saint Augustine sayth in the 11. Booke De Ciuitate Dei Chap 11. If Magistrates capitally punishing many haynous
kernells of so many seuerall seedes somewhat before or at the Spring doe grow shoot vp and become so great that they are Plants and young Trees in the Summer or in the Autumne following Shall wee say that the same God who hath giuen this vertue to seedes is not able to doe as much in the most noble of his creatures and made expresly for his glory Christ Iesus propoundeth this argument when hee sayth in the 12. Chapter of S. Iohn Verily verily I say vnto you if the wheat corne falling into the earth doe not dye it abideth alone but if it dye it bringeth forth much fruit And S. Paul in the fifteenth Chapter of the first to the Corinthians Vers 35. c. But some man will say How are the dead raised vp and with what bodies come they forth O foole that which thou sowest is not quickened except it dye and as for that which thou sowest thou sowest not that which shall come vp againe but bare corne as it falleth of wheat or of other graine But God giueth it a body as hee will and to euery seede his owne body The Patriarch Iob in his fourteenth Chapter describing the frailty of our life in earth prayeth God in these tearmes Turne from the man that is afflicted let him be at rest till hee come to the end of his life as a hireling Then he addeth For if a Tree be cut downe there is hope and it will yet sprout and his branches shall not fayle Although the root thereof waxe old in the earth and the stocke thereof be dead in the ground yet feeling water it will bud and bring forth bowes as a Tree newly planted But man dyeth and all his strength is gone yea man breatheth out his last gaspe then where is hee These are the complaints of Iob extreamely afflicted beholding in his condition the condition of such like himselfe not speaking precisely nor determinately much lesse after the manner and meaning of Epicures On the contrary both his wordes of the tree cut downe and growing greene againe and that which hee addeth presently after makes it plaine what sense and feeling hee had in his soule of the doctrine concerning the resurrection The waters saith he flow from the Sea and the Riuer decayes and is dryed so mans lies in the earth and riseth not to wake againe till the heauens be no more they shall not to wake and they shall not be awakened from their sleepe It is well said for our bodies being cut off and layd vpon the earth and in the earth in the day of death shall take root againe haue bud and fruit that is shall liue againe They shall indeed rest in the earth vntill the end of the world And as S. Peter declareth in the third Chapter of his second Epistle Verse 10. The day of the Lord shall come as a theefe in the night In that day the heauens shall passe away with a whizzing tempestuous noyse It is that which Iob denoteth by these words There shall be no more heauens and the Elements shall melt with heate and the earth and all the workes therein shall be quite burnt vp But moreouer the same Patriarch maketh a plaine confession of his faith vpon this Article in the 19. Chap. Vers 25. saying As for me I know that my Redeemer liueth and that he shall stand the last day on the earth and although after my skinne wormes destroy this body I shall see God in my flesh whom I my selfe shall see and mine eyes shall behold him and none forme So then it may bee demonstrated from the first testimony of the tree cut downe after growing greene againe that the resurrection of the flesh is not aboue nor beyond besides nor against nature Notwithstanding wee acknowledge that the mighty power of God shall then bee seene as it was when hee raysed vp Christ Iesus shut vp in the graue as the Apostle witnesseth Rom. 1. 4. Ephes 1. 19. 20. And in the third Chapter of the Philippians at the end From heauen sayth hee wee looke for the Sauiour and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned and made conformable to his glorious body according to the working and efficacy whereby hee is euen able to subdue all things to himselfe Among the ancient Theologians S. Basil doth propose and set out an image of the resurrection in those Insects which wee call Silke wormes Wherefore doe you wonder sayth he in his exposition of the six daies at the change which shall bee of our bodies at the day of the resurrection Seeing you see so many mutations and changes in the very insectes especially in the horned Indian worme It is first a Caterpiller which turnes to a Silke-worme Moreouer it keepes not this forme but is changed into a Butter-flye You those women who artificially winde vp your quilles and bobbins of silke and so cunningly and wittily twisted on your fine skaines and clues to make the most costly and curious garments that can be worne Remember you the diuersitie of this admirable worme to gather from it a cleere and certaine testimonie of the resurrection and beleeue that one day our bodies shall be otherwise then they be in this present life and in the graue Tertullian in the booke which he penned of the resurrection of the flesh confirmeth this Article of our faith by reasons worthy memory What difference is there at the first beginning to giue vs our life and after to restore it againe We cannot dispise the flesh of man except wee would also dispise the Lord and Creator of the same flesh The earth from whence the body of our flesh was taken is vile but that which is abiect and contemptible in his originall may bee excellent in regard of his very subsistence and matter Gold is but yellow earth and yet is much more precious then any other earth Doe we call the flesh vile wherein God hath infused the breath of his Spirit which the Sonne of God hath prised hath willed to be baptised and commanded to receiue the holy signes of the Sacrament with thankesgiuing True it is that the workes of the flesh that is of mans nature corrupted by sinne are condemned but not the flesh it selfe which the Sonne of God hath resumed and taken into the vnity of his person being God-man euerlastingly Moreouer the accomplishment of the last iudgement should bee imperfect if the whole man should not appeare there to the end that hee who hath suffered in his body for the confession of the truth may receiue remission and repose and that hee whosoeuer hath made the members of his body slaues to execute wickednesses may be punished Also it is meete that we should take vpon vs to spanne with our fingers and measure with our arme the miracles of God who alone as all people who are not altogether brutish doe auouch doth wonderfull workes of purpose that there might bee many choyce and rare