in their stead his hoary hairs returning by degrees to black again There have been also in our Age and Countrey many Instances of such as have attained to an extraordinary Age. In Northumberland an Old Minister of Gods Word called Mr. Michael Vivon who in the year of our Lord 1657. being then one hundred and ten years of age had within two years time before three young teeth sprung up and though for the space of forty years before he could not read the largest Print without Spectacles yet afterwards he could read the smallest without them having also new hair comeâ—… upon his head and had five children after that he was fourscore years old And it is but Ao 1635. that Thomas Parr died in London who had lived in the Countrey above one hundred and fifty years In all 152. years and nine months Yea there were two Brothers and a Sister Richard Green Philip Green and Alice who lived but a while ago not far from Marlborough that were alive together and each of them above an hundred years old the last of them which was Richard dying about Ao 1685. at an hundred and fifteen years of age And a modern Historian of our own tells us that Ao. 1588. one Iames Sands of Harbourn in Staffordshire died aged one hundred and forty his wife also being 120. And produces several others that lived to see their Grand-childrens Grand-children Yea even Women though the weaker Sex yet have sometimes survived unto a great Age. The Scripture relates that Sarah Abrahams wife lived 127. years Genes 23. 1. the onely woman whose Age is recorded in the Book of God. Pliny's Note of Terentia Cicero's wife that lived an hundred and three years or of Clodia that lived an hundred and fifteen is rendred inconsiderable by examples of our own For it is recorded of Dame Hester Temple of Stow in Bucking hamshire who having four Sons and nine Daughters lived to see seven hundred extracted from her own body And the instance of holy Mistris Honywood of Kent is well known who lived to see Three hundred of her offspring alive together and both these must needs be full of dayes Yea it was but about Ao 1670. that one Mrs. Pyfield died in Ireland who had lived one hundred thirty and six years But the R. H. the late Countess of Desmond exceeds all late examples in these Countries who when she was an hundred and forty years old had a set of young teeth and was able to walk many miles who died within our memories being as it is credibly affirmed an 184. years old In all which Instances as the strength of Nature was great so the Power and Goodness of the God of Nature was greater to the honour whereof I have Collected and mention'd them not that any of us should deferr our Repentance or any Good Work upon an expectation of arriving at the like term of Life sith an hundred thousand are dead and rotten for one that reach such Longevity CHAP. II. The Causes of Old-age and Preservatives SECT I. HAving thus Described Old-age and selected some of the most eminent Examples thereof I come now in the Second place to inquire into the true Causes of it and Preservatives against it For the Causes thereof First the Original meritorious Cause is Mans Sin and Defection from God. The truth is it may seem somewhat strange that Man being created at the first in the Image of the Immortal God placed but little lower than the Angels crowned with glory and honour and made Ruler over all other creatures should have his life burdened with so many sorrows and then so soon arrive at Old-age and Death And some of the Heathens did foolishly charge Nature with Envy and Cruelty towards Man in causing so noble a creature to tarry so short a time in the world and to grow old as soon as he begins to grow ripe And Others as wisely concluded that Men were sent into this world only for their Punishment for crimes committed in others Bodies before And indeed if you set the Scriptures aside which resolve the Case it is somewhat unaccountable to have so short an History of so noble a creature If a curious Architect should frame and rear up a firm and stately pile of Building and being compleatly furnished the same should presently shrink and in a short time decay and fall to the ground Passengers would be apt to call in question the sidelity or skill of him that made it or exceedingly wonder by what means it came to ruine till they come to know that the Inhabitant himself undermin'd pluck'd down or fir'd his own house So in the Case before us it is matter of grief and astonishment to see the most exquisite piece of Gods workmanship upon earth to become decrepit in so short a space and to be reduc'd so soon into dust and ashes We must know therefore that Man at his first Creation being made up of a Body and a Soul was neither in his own nature so unchangeable and immortal as the Angels nor so frail and weak as other creatures below Not so unchangeable I say in his own nature for having a body that was to be continually supplied with food that is repair'd it follows that that which needs repair is liable to decay but yet while the sweet harmony wherein it was first form'd was not disturb'd the frame might well have indured for a long time especially if the Tree of Life in Eden were intended as some of the Learned thought to support strengthen and perpetuate Life But the dismal Fall of our first Parents did so crush the Body and wound the Soul that neither of them can be recovered in this Life For immediately that Death which was threatned to him by degrees seized upon his Body and fear shame and sorrow entred into his Soul. And though the divine Providence permitted Him and divers of his posterity to live many hundreds of years that the naked world might be peopled and that Religion with all other useful knowledge might be procur'd preserv'd and propagated in the world yet we date his decaying and dying state from that word Gen. 3. 19. For dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return That righteous Sentence brings our hoary hairs upon us Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest Return ye children of men In the morning they are like grass which groweth up In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up in the evening it is cut down and withereth Psal. 90. 3 6. If you inquire therefore into the ruines of humane nature the answer will be that Sin is the moth which being bred therein hath fretted the garment withers the man and layes his honour in the dust Every decay therefore of our Strength should mind us of our Apostacy from God by the Fall and should renew our grief for the same Whether Adam wept as oft as he looked towards Paradise is uncertain but surely when we find our Eye-sight
fail us our Skin to wrinkle and the pillars of the house to tremble we should mourn for that woful Disobedience and Ingratitude which was the Original cause of the decayes of Nature When your Eyes cannot do you service in Seeing let them do it in Weeping for this root of sin and misery Say not that you are unconcern'd in what was done by another time out of mind For certainly we should never feel the effects which we daily find to cur smart if we had no hand in the procuring cause of them They who would perswade you that no sin is inherent in you but that its only contracted by imiâ—…ation and custome must needs yield that the Decayes the â—…eebleness and the Dyscrasy even of the temperatest man in the world must proceed from some wound upon humane nature which the Creator would never have inflicted without a fault O therefore let us not only lament our Actual and daily offences but let us go up to the Spring and bewail that first rebellion which is the root of evil both of sin and punishment I say again when thy bones ake and when thy hand shakes let thy heart mourn for the Sin that hath poyson'd thy nature and made thee miserable The body which was the Instrument in the crime is justly the Subject in the punishment SECT II. THE Second which is the Immediate and Natural Cause of Old-age is the Dryness and Coldness of the Temperament of the Body There is according to the Old Philosophy a certain Native Heat and Radical Moisture ingenerated in all mankind at their Conception whereby Life is preserved The one is like the Flame the other like the Orl that feeds it Diseases and Disasters are like a Thief in the Candle that makes it wast the sooner but if no such thing happen yet the Lamp will consume and at last extinguish All the supplies of Food and Physick are not able to maintain nor repair that Heat nor that Moisture but a cold and dry temper grows upon the Body till it be quite exhaust and wasted It is true some there be who have derived to them from their Progenitors a greater measure of radical Heat and Moisture and therewith more lively and vigorous Spirits and these meeting with no external Inconveniences do continue longer in their strength as may be observed in some Families every where as some generous Wines will preserve themselves from decay much longer than others but at length they grow acid and spiritless so in tract of time that Moth of Mortality which lurks in all our Bodies will fret that Garment into Rags Things which are Compounded must dissolve contrary Qualities in the same Subject tho never so equally temper'd will work out one another No care or Art can preserve these Houses of Clay for as much as their foundation is in the Dust Job 4. 19. SECT III. THE Third sort of Causes which may be termed Preternatural and Adventitious that do accelerate or hasten Old-age some of them are such as these 1. Unwholsome Air. For the Air being the constant Food of the Vital parts must needs contribute much to the Repair or Decay of the Body and the more impure it is must consequently impair and weaken it Hence and from the Corruption of Food it is not improbable that the Age of Man after the Deluge became so much diminished insomuch as Arphaxad who was the first-born in the New World lived scarce half so long as those before the Flood as appears by comparing Gen. 5. 27. with Gen. 11. 13. the Air being now become more impure and unwholsome than it was before However it is most evident that people do commonly at this day grow weak crazy and impotent who live in those places which mourn under a malignant Air and others are fresh and lusty at the same years that injoy the blessing of a purer breathing 2. Secondly Diseases are another Cause that brings on Old-age For these must needs weaken that strength of Nature whereby our life is supported Psal. 39. 11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for Iniquity thou makest his Beauty to consume away like a Moth and not only his Beauty but his Strength and Spirits for the Hebrew runs there Thou makest that which is desirable in him to melt away And thus it was with holy Iob. Thou hast filled me with wrinkles which is a witness against me Job 16. 8. His grievous Distempers had made him old before his time Thus we daily see divers persons who in respect of the number of theiâ—… years have not pass'd the Meridian of their Age yet by reason of their Sicknesses and especially the Dregs which some kinds of them do leave behind them are old in their very Youth These are like Storms without which battering the best built House will the sooner bring it unto ruin Holy David said of himself Psal. 119. 83. I am become like a Bâ—…tle in the Smoak that is my natural moisture is dryed burnt up and withered And Hezekiah by reason of sickness complains Mine Age is departed and is removed from me as a Shepherds Tent Isa. 38. 12. Thus the Lord doth sometimes weaken a mans strength in the way and shortneth his days Psal. 102. 23. implying that a mans life is like a Iourney through this into a another World now by Diseases he weakens us in the way as we are travelling through the World causes us to commence Old per saltum and shortens our days so that by this means some have but a winters day of life while others injoy a longer 3. Thirdly Another Cause which hastens Old age is immoderate Care or Labour Each of these when they exceed a due proportion do exhaust the Spirits and produce early wrinkles whenas being moderately used they do us no hurt but good It is indeed a part of the Curse pronounced at the Fall on Adam and all his posterity Gen. 3. 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground and the carking Heart and sweating Face hastens man to the Ground One of these alone immoderate Care or immoderate Labour will do the work but when the mind within is eaten up by continual thoughtfulness and the Body without is harrast with extreme Labours no wonder that Weakness Languishment and Old-age hasten on a pace then doth our strength give place to labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away Psal 90. 10. Great indeed is mens folly thus to ruin themselves sith it is certain that neither our immoderate cares nor our immoderate labour do us any good at all less Care and more Prayer would avail us much more yea and they do us much hurt they disquiet the Mind they disturb the Body they provoke God to leave us to our selves and then we shall soon find that it is vain to rise early to sit up late and to eat the Bread of Sorrow whereas the blessing of
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING Old-Age TENDING TO The Instruction Caution and Comfort of Aged Persons Tit. 2. 2 3. That the Aged men be sober grave temperate sound in Faith in Charity in Patience The aged Women likewise c. Ben Syra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost. in Psal. 50. By RICHARD STEELE M. A. Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed by I. Astwood for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns at the lower end of Cheap-side near Mercers-Chappel 1688. IMPRIMATUR R. M. Apr. 10. 1688. THE EPISTLE to the Readers Friendly Readers YOU have here a plain Discourse concerning Old-age The Design of it is to Instruct to Warn and to Comfort the Weaker sort of Ancient persons amongst whom I must place my self The Wiser and stronger may find divers things upon this Subject collected here together which they have met with asunder and which they know and practise better than I. But that which put me upon this Attempt was 1. Some years Experience of Old-age in my self 2. More Leisure by reason of my bodily Infirmities and other Restraints than I could have desired 3. An Observation that there was no full Treatise in our Tongue upon this Point 4. And lastly an unfained desire to be some way usefull in the World. These were the true Occasions of this Adventure Whatsoever in it tasts of the cask impute that to my weakness whatsoever is worthy ascribe it only to Godâ—… Goodness I know it is full of imperfections but when the Principle Matter and End of an action are honest Candid persons will interpret the rest in the best sence Such Ancient and Modern Authors I could meet with as have written upon this Subject I have perused and digested their Observations in their places But the Scriptures here produced are my great Vouchers and which I do most earnestly recommend to the Readers for they are worthy the highest Regard That the Lord would enable me and you to frame our Old-age according to these Instructions is the earnest Prayer of Your Servant for Iesus sake May 10 1688. Richard Steele THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Description of Old-age Sect. 1. OF the Names for Old-age Page 2 2. Of the Nature of it Page 6 3. Of the Beginning of it Page 9 4. Of the long lives of many persons Page 12 CHAP. II. The Causes of Old-age and Preservatives Sect. 1. The Original Cause Mans Sin. Page 18 2. The Natural Cause Driness and Coldness Page 23 3. The Preternatural Causes 1. Unwholsome Air. Page 24 2. Diseases Page 25 3. Immoderate Care and Labour Page 26 4. Intemperance Page 28 5. Inordinate Passions Page 29 4. Preservatives 1. Piety Page 32 2. Sobriety Page 36 CHAP. III. The Sins and Vices of Old-age Sect. 1. Frowardness Page 41 2. Loquacity Page 45 3. Envy Page 50 4. Arrogance Page 54 5. Covetousness Page 57 6. Also 1. Craftiness Page 69 2. Unteachableness Page 70 3. Implacableness Page 72 4. Speculative Wickedness Page 74 CHAP. IV. The Graces and Vertues of Old-age Sect. 1. Knowledge Page 79 2. Faith. Page 85 3. Wisdom Page 91 4. Patience Page 98 5. Stedfastness Page 106 6. Temperance Page 113 7. Love. Page 120 CHAP. V. The Inconveniences or Miseries of Old-age Generally out of Eccles. 12. Page 129 Particularly Sect. 1. It is deprived of Pleasures Page 133 2. Strength and Beauty decreased Page 139 3. Faculties weakned Page 145 4. Senses decayed Page 151 5. Distemper and Pain Page 158 6. Broken with Crosses Page 164 7. Attended with Contempt Page 171 8. Disabled from Service Page 176 9. Unfit for Religious Exercises Page 181 10. Terrified with the Approach of Death Page 186 CHAP. VI. The Priviledges and Comforts of Old-age Sect. 1. It is greater in Authority Page 196 2. Richer in Experience Page 200 3. Freer from Sin. Page 206 4. Proner to Piety Page 211 5. Riper in its Fruits Page 217 6. Worthier of Respect Page 221 7. Further from the World. Page 226 8. Nearer to Heaven Page 232 CHAP. VII The Work and Business of Old-age Sect. 1. Repentance of their Sins Page 241 2. Obtaining Assurance Page 251 3. Prayer and Praises Page 259 4. Instruction of the younger Page 267 5. Watchfulness against the temptations 1. Of Discontentedness of Mind Page 274 2. Of Hardness and Security of Heart Page 276 3. Of Slothfulness of Spirit Page 278 4. Of Expectation of long life Page 283 6. Providence for Posterity Page 287 7. Mortification 1. To Sin. Page 292 2. To the World. Page 296 8. Laying up a treasure in Heaven Page 299 9. Meditation on Death and Eternity Page 307 10. Perseverance 1. In Doing Page 316 2. In Suffering the Will of God. Page 322 ERRATA PAge 41. line 4. read persons p. 76. l. 2. r. pleased p. 77. marg r. laniant p. 80. l. 27. r. as if for unless p. 81. marg r. cernere corporis p. 95. marg r. senum p. 110. l. 4. r. deprive p. 117. l. 1. r. in for to p. 140. l. 18. r. let him be useless for make away with him p. 194. l. 20. r. Prov. p. 195. marg r. honestissimum domicilium senectutis p. 196. l. 4. r. Authority p. 202. marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 209. marg r. moleâ—…è p. 272. l. ult r. self-willed Other literal Mistakes are left to be rectified by the Candid Reader A DISCOURSE CONCERNING Old-Age INtending a Discourse concerning Old-Age I shall use that Method which I conceive will be most comprehensive and most commodious for my purpose which is 1. By making some Description thereof 2. By shewing the true Causes of it and the best Preservatives against it 3. The Sins or Vices which are most usual in it 4. The Graces and Vertues that are most proper for it 5. The Inconveniences and Miseries which attend it 6. The Priviledges and Comforts peculiar to it And Lastly the Work and Business that is most needful in it CHAP. I. The Description of Old-age SECT I. FOR the First we must come to a right Notion of Old-age partly by its Name The Words which are used for it in the Oriental Languages do only signifie Persons or Things â—…at are durable that have lasted long And some of them are us'd promiscuously for such as are dignified by Office as well as for such as have filled their Days And none of them do direct us in the Computation when it begins but do comprehend as well those Persons that are decrepit as those that are only decayed For in Gen. 18. 11. Abraham was an Old Man and in Gen. 24. 1. there he is called with the very same word but an Old Man tho he was then forty years older than before The Hebrew commonly calling an Old Man one full of days or stricken in Years tho sometimes they are distinguished the aged with him that is full of days Jerem. 6. 11. by which it should seem that Old-age comes somewhat short of fulness of days The Greek
instruction of my Children but the prudent Parent will conclude tho some of the best Education do miscarry and some with the worst do flourish yet I ought and will take the likeliest course to bring up my Children in the fear of God Even so in this case the Old-age and Death do seize upon divers pious and circumspect persons as soon or before they come upon others yet is it the Interest and Duty of all such as regard God or wish well to themselves to use the fittest means to preserve their strength and vigour until their time and work be done For it is certain that when the success answers not the means and that Distempers notwithstanding our Piety and Sobriety do overtake us then it is permitted and ordained by the Wisdom of God for the setting forth some way of His Glory and for the real Good of the party affected For an Holy and Good God never makes Exceptions to his General Rules but in Cases reserved for his greater honour and his Servants greater good For all the paths of the Lord tho never so cross and crooked are Mercy I say Mercy and Truth to those that keep his Covenant and his Testimonies Psal. 25. 10. And thus you have had some Account of the true Causes and the best Antidotes against Old-age which is the second Point to be handled CHAP. III. The Sins of Old-age SECT I. I Come in the Third place to treat of the Vices and Sins which are most incident to Old-age for the best Wine that is hath some Dregs And tho there be none of Old-folks Sins but they are found in some Young-folks breasts yet there are some particular vices which are more proper because more common to Aged pesons than to others Nevertheless as the work of Sanctification hath been deeper and the care in Education greater so far the less lyable shall the Aged persons be unto these Corruptions He that bears the Yoke in his youth will be happily fortified against them in his age I do not therefore charge every Old man or woman with the following Faults for many have better learned Christ and are as free from them as any other but for the most part Old people are propense to these Vices First Frowardness or peevishness whereby they are prone to be morose wayward and hard to be pleased easily angry often angry and sometimes angry without a cause Seldom are they pleased with others scarce with themselves no not with God himself yea they think as poor Ionah did that they do well to be angry Too apt they are to aggravate every fault to its utmost dimensions and so never want matter for unquietness Now this is both a Sinful and Miserable distemper It is displeasing to God and it is very uncomfortable both to themselves and to others It s true that Anger in it self is not evil our Blessed Saviour was once angry but it was at Sin and it was accompanied with Grief for the hardness of their Hearts Mark 3. 5. When we are angry at Sin we are angry without Sin. And it is also true that Old people by reason of their knowledge in matters do see more things amiss and blame-worthy more Sin and more evil in Sin than others do and having liberty by reason of their Age and Authority to speak their minds they are too prone to express that which others must digest with silence and withall their bodily distempers dispose them to more testiness than others whose continual health and ease makes their Conversation more smooth and quiet and lastly they discern themselves in some danger of being despis'd and therefore are tempted to preserve their Authority by frequent and keen reproofs and reflexions and so iniquum petunt ut justum ferant they require too much lest they should receive too little But tho these things may abate the faultiness of this Sin yet they are far from being sufficient to justifie the same Say that this froppishness is their Disease rather than their Sin yet the Disease is the effect of Sin and the cause of Sin and Sin it self The mind is distemper'd by it both your own and others the Body is disordered unjustifiable words are spoken the Soul unfitted for any serious devotion and the proper ends of reproof seldom attained for as the wrath of man never works the righteousness of God so it rarely cures the iniquities of men The plaister being too hot burns more than it heals and the frequency of finding fault tempts the faulty to heed it the less yea they are prone to harden themselves in evil by retorting your unquietness upon you as a Sin you live in without reformation Strive therefore against this infirmity pray earnestly unto God for a meek and quiet Spirit connive at smaller slips be not severe against involuntary faults expect not the same Wisdom or Circumspection in young people as you have in so long time attained bridle the first emotions of anger and weigh the nature and quality of a miscarriage before you let fly at it and do not kill a Flea upon the Forehead of your Child or Servant with a Beetle Learn of Plato an Heathen who being incensed at his Servant desir'd his Friend Xenocrates who then came in that he would correct him for now saith he my anger surmounts my reason Or rather go to School to your heavenly Master Christ Iesus who was meek and lowly who being reviled reviled not again and when he suffer'd threatned not Give place to any one rather than to the Devil Resolve if others cross you that yet you will not punish your self for frowardness hurts no body so much as ones self And mortifie Pride from whence for the most part these passions spring for we are apt to assume so much and value our selves so highly that we think every one should humour us and they that expect much will meet with many disappointments Say not that the cure is impossible for in all ages there have been Instances of victories in this case There was Patricius the father of St. Augustine and there was Mr. Calvin both of them naturally of hot and hasty spirits yet did so moderate their temper that an unbeseeming word was scarce ever heard to come from them yea divers of the Heathen were eminent herein and doubtless the Grace of God will not be wanting to you if you sincerely seek it which will of lions make you lambs SECT II. A Second Folly incident to Old-age is Loquacity or Talkativeness that is an exceeding proneness to speak much so that it hath pass'd into a Proverb Senex psittacus an old person is a Parrot Herein they are twice children whose faculty you know lies this way Speech is a most wonderful and excellent Faculty conferr'd only on humane nature and for their common good and it is great pity that it should be abused As our Reason begins to work so our Speech comes in
you will be followed with great distress and of long continuance and sore sickness and of long continuance as is threatned Deut. 28. 59. You cannot reasonably expect but that at least some bodily distemper will last as long as your life yea peradventure such painful diseases as will put all your patience to the rout if the Lord be not your helper but yet you must not murmur nay you must not grudge nor make hast but indure the Lords pleasure and wait the Lords leisure I was dumb I opened not my mouth because thou didst it The sight of the haven animates the weather-beaten mariner Hitherto the Lord hath helped you and as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him He that hath put that compassion into the heart of a father hath a surpassing infinite Ocean of it in himself and withal he knows our frame he remembers that we are but dust Psal. 103. 13 14. He that hath the wisdom and power of a God and the pity of a father will be sure to lay no more upon you than he will inable you to bear and to overcome And therefore the Aged must beware of the other Extream namely the Gulf of Despondence and Dejection of Spirit Their Sins are mustered up against them their outward strength is decayed their Spirits broken with a succession of cares and troubles their distempers and pains are heavy upon them their friends and relations seem to be weary of them and an unperswadable Enemy Death stands just before them And what flesh alive can bear up under such and so many weights together But besides what hath been offered before I adde that as all these Mortifications are needful to wean us from this world from the love whereof even these can hardly divorce us so all such Discomsorts should drive the Aged person no lower than his knees even unto God who hath said Be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness Isa. 41. 10. Have not all the Saints and Servants of God that have lived to Old-age pass'd these pikes before you have they not born these burdens that you sink under There is no temptation befaln you but what is common to men Where is the faith where are the prayers that you have been laying up for such a time O miserable Old-man said the Heathen Orator that in so long a life hast not yet learned to despise Death which is not at all to be feared if it extinguish the Soul and greatly to be desired if it convey the Soul into an everlasting good condition And then for the pain in Death the same Author tells us that if there be any sense of pain in dying it is but very short especially to Old people that have prevented it and tasted it by degrees And therefore never render your life or death unquiet as many do that even dye for fear of dying that create by their melancholy fancies greater torments to themselves than Death brings with it Behold it through the glass of Gods word which represents it only as a Dissolution to wit out of a prison to go to Christ Phil. 1. 23. Going to rest Isa. 57. 2. Finishing our course 2 Tim. 4. 8. Falling asleep in Iesus 1 Thes. 4. 14. and a stepping out of this world unto our father Joh. 13. 1. and why should the prospect hereof at all deject us Yea in case you should have the honour to be called to suffer Death for Christ and his Truth yet fear it not under its most terrible Aspect for the Supports and Comforts of that Tryal will ballance yea surmount the fears and pains thereof As the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ 2 Cor. 1. 5. Strive therefore rather to adorn than to avoid the Cross considering that as it is a great honour for you in your Old-age to suffer for the Truth so it is a great shame that the Truth should suffer by you It was the worthy Resolution of Old Eleazar when he was urged to counterfeit the eating of Swines flesh to save his life No saith he it becometh not our Age in any wise to dissemble whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar being fourscore and ten were now gone to a strange Religion And so they through my hypocrisie and desire to live a little time should be deceived by me and I get a stain to my Old-age and make it abominable Wherefore now manfully changing this life I will shew my self such an one as mine Age requireth So Polycarp when he was tempted to deny Christ and to swear by the Fortune of Caesar answered Fourscore and six years have I served Christ and have found him a good Master and should I now deny him I have lived by him and I will live and dye to him Let us resolve by Gods grace to write after these Copies Doubtless if there be any going to Heaven on horse-back as Mr. Bradford styles it that is in Honour and State it is by Martyrdom Nay it is not enough that we be content and quiet under these discouragements that we who have received good at the hands of the Lord be content with evil also but we should triumph over them In all these things we should be more than conquerours through him that loved us Our rooted Faith our fixed Hope our long Experience should lift us up to surmount all these fears and troubles The veterane Soldier must not be scared with such Hydra's We are near the promised Land the news of these Anakims in our way should not affright us they are bread for us as Ioshua said When these things come upon you then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh Be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life Rev. 2. 10. And thus we are at length arrived at the end of the Aged persons Work which was the Seventh and Last thing to be treated of in this Subject The Practice of these things now only remains That we study to correct the Causes avoid the Sins obtain the Graces sustain the Inconveniences improve the Priviledges and dispatch the Work described before us Wherein we must earnestly implore the gracious Assistance of God who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure and who will not fail us therein unless we be wanting to our selves And O that all Younger people would learn Knowledge Temperance and Industry in their youth which will be the only means to attain to an Healthy Wealthy and Holy Old-age FINIS Books Printed for and sold by Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and three Crowns at the lower end of Cheap-side near Mercers Chappel A Present for Teeming Women to be given to them by their Husbands or Friends By Iohn Oliver Minister of the Gospel In Octavo A