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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12087	Vindiciæ senectutis, or, A plea for old-age which is senis cujusdam Cygnea cantio. And the severall points on parts of it, are laid downe at the end of the follovving introduction. By T.S. D.D.	Sheafe, Thomas, ca. 1559-1639.; Gouge, William, 1578-1653.	1639 (1639)	STC 22391.8; ESTC S114120	74,342	246

is not disabled for ACTION The Second answers the objections touching its uncapablenesse of pleasures The Third shewes that it is not so weake an age as is thought The Fourth and last Chapter makes answer to the imputation of its beeing neere to death Secondly I offer to consideration the dignity of this age in respect of sundry priviledges in the second Booke The First Priviledge is its being the store-house or treasury to receive and keepe whatsoever good in the afore-going ages hath beene brought in Chap. 1. The Second is opportunities and helps by a long time afforded for a greater measure of grace Chap. 2. The Third Honour above other ages Chap. 3. The Fourth Vacancy for private devotion Chap. 4. And Lastly you have the conclusion contayning an exhortation or admonition to the foure capable ages Chap 5. I trouble not my selfe nor my Reader with any further minsings or subdivisions because it is but a Discourse A Preface to the first Booke conteyning accusations and complaints against OLD-AGE TO complaine grudgingly or dis contentedly of the affl●…ctions and miseries o●… this life or to frame accusations against the time in which they befall us is the property of ignorant and wicked men of such as have no true knowledge either of God or of themselves and their owne condition When any querimonies of this kinde sound in our eares we may seeme to beare the voice of Cain repining against God and his just proceedings My punishment saith he is greater then I am able to beare Or of the Israelites murmuring in the wildernesse by acc●…sion of every want or distresse Cain should have complained of the sinne he had committed that is of himselfe who had so unnaturally so treacherously so wickedly slaine his righteous brother Abel And the Israelites should have knowne and considered that their wants and afflictions in the desart were from the hand of their gratious and loving God of whose love and care of them they had not long before so joyfull experience in their miraculous both deliverance out of Egypt and preservation at the red Sea all which had they not beene more then unthankfull would have beene fresh in their remembrance They should have considered likewise that those afflictions were not punishments so much as fatherly corrections by which they were to be schooled and nurtured being as yet a rebellious people unfit and unworthy to become inhabitants in that happy land of Canaan Both Cain I say and that people should have turned their complaints and accusations against themselves And so all men of what age soever when the infirmities of this miserable life lye heavy upon them should looke backe to the first punishment of the first transgression In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread c. And againe Dust thou art c. And also to their inbred corruption and manifold actuall sins they should have had an eye because they had deserved the afflictions of which they complained as they are punishments and did necessarily require them as fatherly chastisements And this one consideration might stop the mouthes of those complayners whether they be such as before they come to this age having studied for some exceptions against it fall into a base account of it or Old Men themselves unworthily so called which are ever whining and complaining of their onus Aetna gravius so they tearme it a burden forsooth tha lyes heavier then the hill Aetna upon their shoulders as if the multitude of yeares were the cause of al●… miseries But let them goe on both the one sort and th●… other and not spare any one of the imputation●… wherewith commonly they load this age which i●… the end or period o●… mans pilgrimage that 〈◊〉 we may see whether there be any soundness 〈◊〉 truth or reason in them Vindiciae Senectutis OR A PLEA FOR OLD-AGE BOOK I. CHAPTER I. Which conteynes the first imputation and the answer thereunto THey disable this age first for imployment in the necessary affaires of this life as if men farre growne in yeeres were altogether unprofitable both in respect of God and men And is it so are wee in Old-age quite worne out and good for nothing certainly when any fall into such a debaushnesse they may thanke their younger yeares for it For the proverb is true Erigere durum est qui cadit juvenis senem A hard thing it is to make him stand firme in Old-age that fell in youth Quis ullam spem ullius boni habebit in eo cujus primum tempus aetatis fuerit ad omnes libidines divulgatum Who saith one can have hope of any good in him whose first yeeres have beene spent in all manner of lusts and luxury Senes in melius mutari ab inolita vitiorum consuetudine difficilimum est sayes S. Bernard Hard it is Old-men after a long continued custome in viciousnesse to be reformed The young-mans intemperance must beare the blame of his deficiency when he is in yeeres His idlenesse in youth and wast of imployment then in honest and profitable courses is the cause of his inability for action when hee is aged I except here the deficiency that comes by sicknesse or any other accident which may and doth enfeeble the youngest and ablest body as we see by dayly experience But if it stand thus why is Old-age blamed for that which younger yeares bring upon it Howbeit wee here stand upon our deniall and doubt not to say that elder yeares are best fitted for the greatest and most important employments and that when the former ages are brought into comparison with this it may bee truly said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Eagles old-age is better then the youth of a Lark And to this purpose one saith more plainely multis juvenibus antestat senex cui mens adest generosa An Old-man of a generous disposition is to bee preferred before many young-men If wee should deny this experience in sundry examples would confute us The examples I say of not a few worthies who in extreame age either by their naturall constitution or by their sobriety and temperance in the former part of their life or by Gods hand and speciall working in them have beene fit and able to mannage great matters Moses lived to 120. and then his eye was not dimme nor his naturall strength abated and how wise valiant and industrious a captaine was he ●…o that people how faithfull also to God in a service so difficult that when he considered the weight of it and cast his eye from it to himselfe he drew back as wee know Who am I that I should goe to Pharoah c. Behold him in the 31 and 32. Chapters of Deutrenomie how hee carryes himselfe towards Ioshua in putting courage into him chap. ●…1 verse 7 8. and towards the Priests and Elders Ibid. v. 9 c. towards the whole people also throughout both

or later overcome by them During the time of mans innocency the great Creator so temper'd the contrary qualities of the elements of which his body consisted that they were not as since at strife among themselves but when man had sinned that way might be made to the execution of the sentence of death God drew backe his hand and left them to their naturall worke in seeking their mutuall destruction And by that meanes now as one saith vivere mor●… est our living is a dying While we live and by living we come every day neerer and neerer to our dissolution This is now the weake estate of our earthly tabernacle to which the art of Physicke in diet and medicines may be as a prop to a decayed and tottering house but comes farre short of restoring it to the originall perfection in the creation Physick sayes Galen is an art of repairing not of building No this certainely requires the same hand which made man at the first and the way which God the Creator and recreator will take in it he hath plainely expressed in his word It is by demolishing in his time this decayed and daily decaying house and setting up a new The earthly house of this our weake Tabernacle must first be destroyed that we may have a building given of God not made with handes but eternall in the Heavens As the seed that is cast into the ground first dies and then is quickned so our bodies at the resurrection This corruptible shall then put on incorruption and this mortall immortality Perfect health man had but by his sinne he lost it Perfect health he shall recover but the way to it is death and the way to death is sicknesse and as the sting of death is sinne so the evill of sicknesse is sinne likewise and that not onely as the meriting cause but also as the thing to be prevented by it Would we alwaies live in health We know not our selves God that is better acquainted with our estate and condition sees that of all afflictions this of sicknesse is most beneficiall unto us and most necessary The reasons to note some of them may bee these The first to make us looke backe to see from whence we are fallen and why Another because other afflictions are not so direct premonitions of death which should be the meditation of our whole life A third for that this correction doth not onely minde us of our sinnes past and upbraid us with them that wee may repent but serves also for a curb or restraint to hold us in from rushing into the world of enormities and sinnes to which our corrupt and unbridled nature otherwise would carry us head-long for by sicknesse the flesh which rebels against the spirit is weakened and more easily observes that precept of not suffering sinne to reigne in our mortall bodies Fourthly health of body is an occasion of many evills especially when the soule is sicke or ill affected No where saies one can the corrupt heart dwell worse or more dangerously then in a healthy body Fiftly when we see a man in his bed of sicknesse how much doe wee finde him changed if there bee any sparke of grace in him from that hee was before Hee hates his former disorderly course and himselfe for it Hee resolves though hap'ly with great weakenesse and sometimes after recovery inconstancy yet he resolves or at least professes a resolution for amendment and he binds himselfe to God for it by many promises and vowes in health with most men it is farre otherwise Againe the want of health may be borne the more patiently both by aged and younger folke because health is a thing common with us to inferiour creatures not peculiar to man as Psal. 36. ●…6 Lord thou preservest man and beast From which place S. Austine observes that we should not bee proud of health and we may from the same ground that there is no cause of our being much dejected for the want of it Well then were it granted that old-age is followed with more diseases then the other this notwithstanding would be no disgrace to it a benefit rather as hath beene proved But by the concurrent judgement of Physitians it appeares to be otherwise For they tell us that old-men are not so subject to sicknesse as the younger and that the reasons of it are these One their temperance above others by which say they the most depraved and corrupt nature of man is preserved and held in a healthy constitution Another because they are sensible of the least causes of sicknesse and thereby become wary and suffer not the diseases to take root in them And the last is their cold and dry temper which frees them from hot fevers inflammations and corrupt humors Whence it is saith Plime that they are lesse subject to the pestilence Hereunto wee may adde the common Proverbe A Physitian or a foole A Physitian by experience and many observations or a foole for want of them Now we know none hath so much experience as the Old-man whose many yeares afford him opportunity and meanes to be to himselfe an Emperike a kinde of Physitian The carelesnesse of former ages have happily bred diseases in him and hee by his skill and knowledge gotten by experience practiseth the cure The other ages are as violent winds and stormes that by often beating upon this house of clay or as bad inhabitants that by their neglect bring it out of reparations and OLD-AGE is as the Carpenter to repaire it The IIII. Chapter Containing the next and last disgrace cast upon OLD-AGE and the answer THe last imputation is this that to the OLD-MAN death is at hand and knockes at the doore as it were ready to come in and ceaze upon him And here now we are fallen upon a meditation of Death and I rejoyce at the occasion imploring Gods helpe that I may bee profitably sensible of what I deliver touching this point and may bring it home to my selfe for my better preparation In it I will endeavour to prove first that to be neare to death is not a misery but a happinesse rather Secondly that were it an affliction as it is deemed to be the other ages are as liable to it as this And lastly that the former part of mans life ill order'd is one and not the least cause of Old-ages hasting to the grave Touching the first What is there in Death that may make it a misery to a good Old-man Is it that which David Psalm 6. and other where pleaded for the lengthening of his life In death there is no remembrance of thee c. And Hezekias Isaiah 38. The grave cannot confesse thee That indeed should bee a principall motive to the desire of life and the shunning of death The end of it should be not so much that wee may longer enjoy this world and the comforts of it as that we

have professedly handled it and from one of them I take my aime yet with this maine difference that whereas the most learned among them doe ●…scribe all to the guidance of nature and the precepts of Philosophy which whosoever followes fares one shall be sure smoothly to passe thorow all the troubles of this life the Christian proceeds by a better and safer rule by that most sure Word of GOD to which we must take heed as to a light that shineth in a dark place to wit in that darknesse wherein all the Gentiles walked till the great light shone unto them GODS Law must direct us how to walke and his Promises in the Gospell what to beleeve if we will rightly judge of this or of any other part of our pilgrimage and take a sure course for the avoiding of the troubles and enjoying the comforts of every of them I make not the strangers from the covenants of promise our judges yet when they come in as witnesses to Divine truth the authentick testimonies of the Scriptures I reject them not But heere it will be necessary before we proceed any further for the stating of the matter in question to determine what we meane by OLD-AGE and then also whether our plea be for the age of Old-men or for their persons Touching the former In these our daies OLD-AGE is not to bee measured by the yeeres of the most ancient before the flood We are now in this respect but as dwarfs to them or as pigmies bipedales two foot-high or as the Psalmist speakes our life is but palmaris of a hands-breath in comparison Which made Iacob to confesse and complaine that his daies were few and that he had not attained to the yeeres of the life of his fathers in the daies of their pilgrimages Iob also to say Man that is borne of a woman is of few daies And it is certaine that we live now scar●…e the tenth part of their time Our life in this old-age of the world is short compared with the yeeres of many bruit-beasts if we may beleeve He●…iod who makes the Crow to live thrice so long as man the Hart foure ages of the Crow the Raven three of the Hart the Phenix nine of the Raven But Plinie by whom He●…ods conceit is reported and Aristotle himselfe who allowes no animal a longer life then man excepting the Elephant do account this an idle and vaine fiction Plinie writes of one that lived 150. of another which lived ten above that a third 200. another 300. and so he goes on to an incredible number of yeares But in the same place to make what he had said good and true he tells us that a yeere was not the same to them that reported these things which it is to us some among them determining one whole yeere by a Summer and another by a Winter some by three moneths as the Arcadians some by one moneth as the Aegyptians But these are uncertaine reckonings Hippocrates makes the extreamestage of man to be 89. Varro saith Annus octuage simus admonet me ut sarcinas c●…lligam antequam egrediore vita my yeere 80 saith he calls upon me to trusse up my fardles and to be ready for my departure To leave these also The Psalmist hath given us the truest direction as for our setting the bounds of a mans life ●…o likewise of OLD-AGE The time of our life is threescore yeeres and ten ordinarily he meanes and in a generality or with most men that come to this age for in the particulars the diversity of constitutions doth make a great difference and further he adds that if any man live to 80. that age is accompanied with many afflictions there expressed by labour and sorrow I am not ignorant that some Physitians make three parts or degrees of Old-age one from 50 to 60. another from 60 to 70 and the last and extreamest from 70 to the decrepit But I follow the Psalmist and from that place I gather that we may reckon him for old that is come to 60. sith the 70. is made the terminus or period of ma●…s life One saith well Senecta lassae non siactae aetatis nomen est the word Senecta imports a wearied not a broken age Now in the next place to the question whether men themselves that are in yeeres or the age be the subject of our defence I answer the age and not alwaies the person who may be old and yet not the OLD-MAN wee speake of There are many that in the former part of their life have wasted their ●…rationall powers in lewdnesse or at lest in idle extravagant courses These are not OLD-MEN rightly so called nor indeed men at all but as th' Apostle termes them evill beasts and slow bellies such having lived in pleasures were dead while they lived their Sun is gon downe at noone as the Prophet speakes their old-age is past before it comes They are the same S Iude mentions and calls corrupt trees twise dead and plucked up by the roots Honourable age saith the Wiseman is not that which stands in length of time nor that is measured by number of yeares but wisdome is the gray-haire to men and an answerable life is Old-Age S. Gregory tells us that the Scripture calls not them Old-men which are come to ripenesse by length of time but them which by gravity become such Non est quod quemquam propter canos rugas c. Thou seest not old-age saith Seneca whensoever thou beholdest gray-hayres and wrinckles he that has no more to proove him an old-man may be granted to have beene long but not to have lived long for the part of our life ill spent is time and not life Puer centum ann●…rum saith S Bernard maledictus est Hee that hath lived an 100. yeares and is still a child is of a cursed condition And the Poet to one unworthy to be called an old-man Nequi●…ia est quae ●…e non finit esse senem thou mightest be counted an old-man wert thou a good man The cause of such men therefore I undertake not but the age I would free from the wrong done to it and vindicate its right by prooving that in it a man may be though alwayes he is not soe more happy then in any of the other ages I doubt I shall be thought to stay too long if not to dwell in the porch of my house therefore I will now show you the whole frame of this my building and lead you into the severall roomes of it and then hold you a while if I may in the view of them First you shall have the frivolous complaints taken up many times by foolish Old-men themselves and the accusations brought in by others against this age with the answers thereunto in the first Booke which consists of foure severall Chapters The First prooves that Old-Age

It is this that yee must be so farre from the common sinne of casting a scornefull eye on Old-men as to thinke your selves never so well sorted as when yee are in their company And this counsell yee shall take not from me but from Saint Ierom Difficilibus ac morosis senibus aures libenter praebeto qui proverbiorum sententijs adolescentes ad recta studia cohortantur Lend thy attentive eare willingly to Old-men seeme they to you never so froward and hard to please for by their wise speeches and counsels young-men are brought into a right course of life And with him also agrees Saint Bernard Aequalium usu●… dulcior senum tutior hap'ly saith he thy converse with thy equalls who are ready to humour thee may bee more pleasing to thee but thy safest and most profitable way is to be conversant with thy betters and elders so much as thou maist Resolve therefore as one did Quoad possitis liceat a senis latere nunquam disced●…re never to depart from the side of the Old-man with whom thou maist have leave to converse And heere it may fitly be remembred that the young-men which gave Rehoboam bad counsell were such as had growne up with him 1 King 12. 8. Now to men of mature or middle-age thus much This is your Autumne the yeare of your life is whirl'd about and now come towards the period Have yee hitherto beene unthrifts hath your child-hood and youth brought in little or nothing O then how must you now bestirre you Yee have neglected the first spring of your yeere the latter is now come and that is your next season though not so hopefull as the other Yet now at last awake and begin to looke about you Repent you of your former failings and presse now hard towards the marke the harder because formerly ye have lost much time and that which remaines to you is but short On the contrary have yee thrived by your endeavours and Gods blessing upon them in times past are yee now increased both in outward and inward riches and become great among them with whom yee live O then let your neighbours bee the better for it Let there bee to them ali quid boni propter vicinum bonum Let not your greatnesse make others little either in themselves or in your esteeme Let not your wealth bee their woe and poverty your honour their disgrace and abasement Bee not like the tall Cedars that overtop the the lowly shrubs If yee be wise and know much let others light their candle at your lampes Know that whatsoever you have or are you have received it and not for your selves alone but that others may have from you as freely as you from the great DONOR Lastly to my selfe and my coetanei all that are farre gone in yeares Let us now being neere the end of our journey of our travaile towards the heavenly Canaan and having passed through the dangerous and trouble some wildernesse of our life imagine our selves to bee on some high mountaine on Pisgah the top of Nebo if you please where Moses was being of the age of 120 when he had finished his course and his many his 42. wearisome journeyes were at an end and from thence let us looke back to the sundry passages of our life past as hap'ly Moses did to his and the peoples wandring in the wildernesse though hee ascended the Mount to another end calling to mind how God hath dealt with us least wee fall into the unthankfullnesse of that people how God hath preserved and kept us continually in the wombe and in our comming into the world as forth of our prison in Egypt in our infancy childhood and riper age And on the other side that wee may see and acknowledge that Gods patience hath still gone along with his mercies and bounty towards us Let us cast up so neere as wee can all the particular failings and errors of our life How wee have wandred up and downe in the daies of our pilgrimage towards heaven How wee have as the Israelites in our journeyes gone crookedly sometimes forward otherwhile backward now neere to our Canaan anon further off never making straight steps to our feet And chiefly let our greatest sinnes stand ever before us as Davids did Psal. 51. 3. and be laid to heart and that now while it is a time accepted and the day of salvation While it is our day this certainely is ours whether the morrow will be our day we know not That which often deceives younger men the blind hope that they shall live yet many yeares and that therefore there is no hast of their repentance or amendment cannot have the least colour for our deferring Our very yeeres besides the sense of our frailty daily and hourely call upon us to prepare for death by making up our last account To conclude all because in the precedent Tract something hath beene said in the defence and praise of our despised age for admonition therefore least we should deceive our selves in our particulars let the following Distick bee ever remembred by us Qui laudat quasi jam facias quae non ●…acis ille Laudando wonet quae sac●…enda no●…at Art thou heere prais'd unworthily Then to be worthy learne thereby Imprimatur THO WYKES R P. Ep. Lond. Cap. Domest An Alphabeticall Table A ACtions nor all nor the best in bodily strength Page 23. Man casting up his Account a weighty worke Page 47. Old men fittest to cast up their Accounts Page 48. Afflictions are to weane us from pleasures Page 7●… Agamemnon preferred old Nestor before the Worthies of Greece Page 83. Age increaseth learning Page 26. Every Age hath proper imployments P. 53 God laies no more on any Age then what it is able to beare Page 53. All Ages subject to casualties Page 148. Every Age hath a more certaine period then Old-Age Page 150. Resemblances betwixt the seasons of the yeare and Ages of man Page 165. Agesilaus his hardinesse Page 15. Apostles most excellent in their elder yeares Page 174. B Bodies abilities common to wicked and beasts Page 20. Body not destroyed by death Page 131. C Casualties befall all Ages page 148. Cato Major learned the Grecke tongue in his Old-Age page 16. Child-hoods infirmities page 91. Childrens yoke page 92. Contemplation an Old-mans joy page 192. Contemplation commended page 186. Contemplation sweet pag. 190. Correction of children page 93. Children in what cases they may be put out to nurse page 152. Children happy if well seasoned page 196. Causes of death in Child-hood page 154. Complaints should be against ones selfe p. 8. Corporall pleasures See Pleasures Corruption the way to generation page 130. D Death what makes it most greevous to good men page 126. Mens rashnesse in speaking against Death page 127. Death wherein terrible page 128. Death remedy against it page 128. Death a blessing page 130. Death destroyes