there is nothing vnder the Cope of Heauen except the Soule of man which is not subiect to change and corruption Man cannot alwaies continue in one state but man groweth old It is dangerous to waxe old in sinne for the sinner that is an hundred yeeres old shall be accursed Esa 65.20 It shall not be well to the wicked Eccl. 8.13 Old age hath sufficient deformities of it selfe therefore they should not adde such as proceed from Vice As the labours of old men diminish so the exercises of the soule should increase Seeing no man knoweth what shall bee let men Vse 2 vse wel the present time whether it be youth or age If thou bee religious in thy youth old age will bee welcome to thee and the daies will not be euill the troubles weaknesses will seeme as nothing which accompanie old age Thou wilt be willing to die for Death will not carry thee to prison but to the Saincts feast Reuel 19.9 To the participation and fellowship with Christ in his heauenly ioyes and blisse when the Church his Spouse shall be fully blessed Death wil come to carry old religious men to Paradise a place full of pleasures As a man riding takes vp one behind him and carries him to this or that banquet so Death takes vp the religious old man behind him vpon the pale Horse and carries him to heauen Reuel 6.8 Worke therefore while it is day the night commeth when no man can worke Ioh. 9 4. All that thy hand shall find to doe doe it with all thy power for there is neither work nor inuention nor knowledge nor wisedome in the graue whither thou goest Eccl. 9.10 Paul saith Whiles we haue time we must doe good to all specially to those which are of the house-hold of Faith Gal. 6.10 Wee may not assigne the Lord in what place state condition or in what companie we would liue but as Strangers waite on him euen as the hand-maid on her Mistris for whatsoeuer he will allow vs we are readie most commonly to bee called away by death before we be fit or haue learned how to liue Looke what care conscience zeale loue and reuerent estimation of good things thou haddest when first thou embracedst the Gospel the same at last retaine and be sure thou keepest still afterwards The more knowledge that thou hast take heed thou be not more secure Wee shall not enioy the grace which we had at the first except we be as carefull now to keep it as we were then to come by it All our life ought to bee a prouiding for a good death and a keeping away of woe which cōmeth by sinne We cannot promise to our selues one day for Time is Gods and Times and Seasons he hath put in his owne power Act. 1.7 therefore euery day wee ought to prepare our hearts to seeke the Lord and keepe them fit and willing thereto Take heed Brethren lest at any time there be any of you an euill heart and vnfaithfull to depart away from the liuing God Heb. 3.12 Oh! that there were in them an heart to feare me and to keepe all my Commandements alway Deut. 5.29 Our Sauiour saith Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy heart Matth. 22.37 Euery day our thanks must be continued for benefits receiued they are renewed euery morning Lam. 3.23 Euery day we ought to watch and pray for stedfastnesse and constancie Euery day we must hold and keepe our peace with God and lie downe therein Psal 4.8 Text. And the yeeres approach of which thou wilt say I haue no pleasure in them Solomon meaneth before thou waxe old Old age of it selfe is a disease if no other disease beside happen What pleasure can old men take when strength faileth them when they are not able to helpe themselues Their life in this life is nothing else but a returning backe againe vnto death for whiles they are here they walke to the house of their graue Their dayes passe away in such a manner as if a man being a child should suddenly be made a man and after that should presently goe backe againe and bee a child The more men grow in strength and yeeres the neerer they draw to the place from whence they came Moses saith The strength of old men is labour and sorrow Psal 90.10 Their dayes are dayes of sorrow and their strength brings nothing vnto them but matter of labour and paine Doct. That the many discommodities and miseries of old age plainly testifie that there is no pleasure in it Such as are full of dayes as Iob was Iob 42.17 are full of miseries Man that is borne of woman is full of miserie or full of vexation Iob 14.1 The description of the last age is admirable and hath need of a good Anatomist to helpe the true vnderstanding of the same Then the Sunne is darke and the Light and the Moone and the Starres And the Clowdes returne after the Raine Eccl. 12.2 The Keepers of the house tremble the Strong men bow themselues the Grinders cease because they are few and they waxe darke that looke out by the windowes Eccl. 12.3 And the doores shall bee shut by the street with the base sound of the grinding and a Man shall stand vp at the voyce of the Bird and all the Daughters of Musick shall be brought low Eccl. 12.4 And men will dread euery high place and feare will be in the way and the Almond tree will flourish and the Grasse-hopper will bee a burthen to it selfe and all lust will be dissolued and a man goeth to his long home and Mourners goe about in the street Eccl. 12.5 The siluer Cord is loosed and the golden Ewer broken and the Pitcher burst at the Well and the Wheele broken at the Cisterne Eccl. 12.6 And dust returne to the Earth as it was and the Spirit returne to God that gaue it Eccl. 12.7 By the Sunne and Starres darkned is meant the dayes losing their light so that all things seeme darke vnto them euen the Sun it selfe And the Clowdes returne after the Raine that is after they haue wept a long time there passe before their eyes as it were clowdes being nothing else but grosse vapours which grow thicke and foggie The keepers of the House tremble that is the ribs and breast which keepe the inward parts and compasseth them about The strong men shall bow that is the knees and legges shall lose their strength which are the Pillars vpon the which the whole building is set The grinders shall cease they are few that is the Teeth the mouth being as a Mill old mens teeth are few in number and those that are weake and so the grinding ceaseth And they waxe darke that looke out by the Windowes that is the eye in the head like Windowes in a House like two louers which giue light in order And the doores shut without by the base sound of the grinding that is the Lips shall be shut because the
is aboue Their affections be in heauen though they be on earth their treasure is in heauen and therefore their hearts are where their treasure is and death to them is a passage to life They feare not death hauing a good measure of faith to warm them at the heart they change not their countenance nor haue their colour any whit abated but aâ— it is recorded of Mistris Ioyce Lewis at the stake sundrie other Christians euen of the fearfullest by nature sexe looked as fresh cheerly at the houre of death as at their mariage But if men which are aged do not feare God they wish to die to be freed from paines but they passe from litle paine to great from easelesse to endlesse from corporall to eternall Hell is Deaths Page Follower attending him where euer hee goes among the wicked sort It is miserable to see how boldly blindly such men venture on death Theramines wrote books in praise of Death as the end of all calamities Augustus dies iesting calling for a Plaudite Tiberius in dissimulation Diogenes hearing Antisthenes cry out in his pains who shall ease mee offers him a knife to dispatch himselfe withall Caninus called to execution bids this fellow remember hee had the best of the game The Earle of Kildare seeing his Writ of death brought in when hee was at shouel-boord throwes his cast with this in his mouth whatsoeuer that is this is for a huddle If such men idid know the follower of Death they would neuer iest so and vse such idle mirth Vse Hath old age many miseries which accompanie it so that there is no pleasure in it but euerie day is a day of wrath an euill day subiect to some iudgment or other this should make the children of God lift vp their hands and hearts desiring to enioy that life wherein neuer a day shal passe away in wrath but all in loue fauour and glorie and wherein the dayes of our life shall not be a returning to death but a going on from life to life and ioy to ioy when we shall liue to liue and the longer we shall liue the longer we shall haue to liue and that in happinesse and glorie which daies and times shal neuer waste If we had hearts to consider of things as they are there is neuer a day goes ouer our head but yeeldeth matter of sighing and groaning vnder some act of Gods wrath doe we the best we can If we had the greatest causes of comfort both for this world the world to come that the world can affoord or that euer any man had yet when he shall summe his accounts he shall find the daies he liues here are but daies of euill and he shall see more cause of sorrow mourning then of ioy Let the bitter of Gods wrath here make vs the more seeke after the daies of eternitie where there shall not be the least crosse nor affliction Mans life in this life is nothing else but a returning back againe vnto death Euery man whiles he is here walkes to the house of his graue and though he be a little longer in going backe vnto the earth then he was comming from it yet he doth nothing while he is here but goe back to it A tale is quickly told a word is soone spoken a thought is soone conceiued so the yeers and daies of man are quickly spent It may teach vs euerie day to meditate and thinke seriously of our death and the graue It is the place we are continually trauiling vnto Which way so euer our faces are we mooue thitherward Euery day we are going to the place of execution A Malefactor that is going to suffer death thinks no other thing but death were going to the place of execution wee should still mind death and euerie day prepare to die As Dauid said of Aphimaaz let him come and welcome c. 2. Sam. 18.27 so the faithful Christian wil say of death he is the messenger of Christ he is welcome he bringeth to me the ioyful newes of eternal life They are blessed which die in the Lord Reu. 14.13 And one day of a blessed death wil make an amends for all the sorrowes of a bitter life FINIS
to see good dayes let him refraine his tongue from euill 1. Pet. 3.10 What Man is he that desireth life and loueth long dayes for to see good Psal 34.12 And there are euill dayes not that dayes are euill in themselues but accidentally Doct. That old age is called euill because of the many euils it brings with it Dayes are called euill nor effectiuely making men euill nor essentially as if a day in its owne nature were euill but accidentally in regard of the euill actions and euents which happen to men in that day Euill dayes are times full of Sinnes and troubles or troublesome sinfull times The Apostle saith Redeeme the time for the dayes are euill Ephe. 5.16 Iacob said to Pharaoh few and euill haue the dayes of my life beene Gene. 47 9. Euill because they were full of troubles full of afflictions full of dangers Our Sauiour saith Sufficient for the day is the euill thereof Mat. 6.34 That is the day brings with it affliction griefe and hurts Many discommodities enuiron old men Old age is a continuall weaknesse and a daily disease Moses the man of God saith The dayes of our yeeres are seuentie yeeres and if by reason of strength they bee eightie yeeres yet is the strength then labour and sorrow for it is soone cut off and we flie away Psal 90.10 If the longest period of dayes that men ordinarily liue be so short a time and the longest time flieth so fast then well might the Prophet say that our daies passe away as a tale that is told Psal 90.9 The more labours men vndergoe in their youth the more matter of sorrow in old age The stronger a man hath beene and the more labours he hath endured the fuller of aches and paines will old age be Old age is but a death and Death comes flying In old age there is weaknesse of body and of mind for a man is twise a child and then commonly they are as children againe mewed vp and their children are either Parents or Lords ouer them vsing them as Innocents Old men are deafe of hearing and cannot heare good admonitions dim-sighted and cannot see to reade nor to goe to the House of Praier they haue feeble Knees so that they cannot goe weake Loines and faint Armes the Heart is afflicted the Head smitten the Spirits waxing faint the Breath smelling ill the Face wrinckled the Stature crooked the Eyes darke the Ioynts weake the Nose running the Haires falling the Teeth rotting and the Eares waxing deafe insomuch that old age may be called Euill dayes In old age the Memorie failes old men waxe dull deafe senselesse and speechlesse Reas 1 It brings many troubles sorrowes and grieues with it then men cannot helpe themselues nor guide themselues nor feed themselues they cannot reade to comfort themselues nor repent many of them to solace themselues they lie on their beds as on the Racke from morning to night crying out some of one griefe some of another then they feare to die and some wish for Death for whom they are not prouided Many aged people are inwardly vexed and perplexed in conscience so that they seeke Death as a present ease not considering how they leape out of the Smoake into the Flame out of the Flame into the Fire out of a cureable Disturbance into an irrecouerable Woe How blockish is the manner of dying of many a Nabal who strucken with the feare of Death and Hell become as insensate as stocks and stones Aged men feare Death but not Hell following Death they feare the Thunder cracke not the Bolt the report of the Peece and not the Bullet the Serjeants arrest and not the Gaolers imprisonment so labouring to escape Death which they cannot not Hell which they might Reas 2 If men learne to remember God in youth they will bee willing to die old age will bee a Crowne and comfort to them for after death they shall rest from their labours Reuel 14.13 They that laboured valiantly are at rest Iob 3.17 They learne in youth to know God they know that if they be once old they shall shortly die and then they can sinne no more Death to the godly is an entrance into ioy Michaela Caignoela a noble Matron seeing her Iudges looke out of the windowes said to her fellow Martyrs These stay to suffer the torment of their consciences and are reserued to iudgement but we are going to glorie and happinesse And two certaine poore women weeping and crying Oh Madame we shall neuer now haue more Almes yes hold you saith shee yet once more and plucked off her Slippers and such other of her apparell as shee could with modestie spare from the fire Death is to men as he comes attended to the rich Man he came followed with Deuills to carry his soule to hell Luk. 16.22 to Lazarus with troupes of Angels to conuey him to Abrahams bosome Death is the Atheists feare and the Christians desire Death is the irreligious rich mans Enemie but the religious poore mans Friend It shewes the strange folly of many men who Vse 1 spend most of their time in prophanenesse in pleasure in vanities and vices Insomuch that if the Lord shew not more then ordinarie mercy they will be no more fit in their old age to honour their Creator then so many dead men What madnesse is it then especially in those that haue passed the greatest time they can expect to haue no care of the houre of death and of the account they shall then make when their whole time is but short as a Tale that is told Men should so profit by the meanes of saluation affoorded them that in age they should giue good example to such as are young The elder men grow the better they should be Commonly Horses trauell best homeward or when they are almost come home Hounds follow the game fastest when they are neerest vnto it finding the sent hot they know the game is almost at an end They that runne in a Race striue most not at the beginning but at the end In naturall motions euery thing mooueth fastest when it is neerest his owne place The Swan singeth sweetest a little before her death so should it bee with old men they should then bee most holy bearning the best fruits doing the best works they should with old Simeon take Christ in their armes Luk. 2.28 and with Anna serue God with fastings and praiers night and day Luk. 2.87 It were to bee wished that old men could say as sometime Polycarpus did the Proconsull vrging him to denie Christ I haue serued him eightie sixe yeeres and hee hath not once hurt mee and shall I now denie him And with Hilarion Soule get thee out thou hast seuentie yeeres serued Christ and art thou now loth to die or afraid of death This is a generall and solemne Decree published throughout the World and pronounced by Nature her selfe that whatsoeuer hath a beginning so that it consist of Matter must also haue an end
for this time and when I haue conuenient time I will call for thee Act. 24.26 But Foelix was remooued Festus put in his roome and Paul continues bound still So young men say to goodnesse to grace and to God goe your wayes for a time and when wee are old and sickly then we will send for you but God will turne away Sathan will come in place and yong men wil be left in their sinnes First how knowest thou thou shalt liue till thou be old doe not many die in their youth And why not thou If thou dost what will become of thy soule Secondly if thou liue till thou be old how knowest thou whether then thou shalt remember God or no Is it in thy power Noe because men forget God being yong he forgets them and makes them forget him being olde Thirdly if thou doest remember him what great matter doest thou offer it to thy Prince will he accept it That which is vnfit for the World is it good enough for God Wilt thou offer him thy old age thy dote-age a bagge of drie bones Will not hee haue the first fruites of thy Corne and the fat of thy flocke and wilt thou giue the cleane corne of youth to the Deuill and the huskes and chaffe of old age to God wilt thou sacrifice the fat of thy Flock to the Deuils and the leane to God wilt thou forgiue thy enemies when thou canst hurt them no longer wilt thou giue thy goods to the poore when thou canst keepe it no longer wilt thou leaue sinne when sinne leaues thee and wilt thou serue God when it pleaseth thee is God at thy command is he bound to thee not thou to him It is a reproofe of those that are the Proctors and Vse 2 Patrons of sinnes of youth They say what shall youth doe shall they be mortified so young shall not youth be merrie and iouiall shall they bee sober aâ—d graue so young then you will haue no life in them belike Others say a young Saint an old Deuill A young Deuill may become an old Saint but a young Saint can neuer become an old Deuill Others say youth is youth and youth must haue a swinge Others of a ragged colt comes a good horse a knauish boy becomes a good man Either Solomon was not wise or they are starke fooles in so saying he saith Remember God in thy youth Let young men learne by Elies children how they were cut off ere age came To put off such things to old age is as if a carrier hauing many horses should put all his carriage on the weakest and poorest hauing many better Young men haue many better dayes and yeeres to repent in Delaying of repentance is dangerous deadly and damnable If a wound bee not cured before it rot it becomes oftentimes incurable If the fire be not quenched in time it becomes vnquenchable and if flesh be not salted before it stinck it becomes so vnsauorie that it cannot bee mended If a mote fall into the eye or a thorne sticke into the foot we take them out without delay but in things pertaining to the health of the soule delay is much more dangerous Satan seekes but a delay God craues present repentance It was offered by Moses to Pharaoh when shall I pray for thee and he answered to morrow Exod. 9.10 It is offered by the Lord to man when wilt thou that I haue mercie on thee many answere when wee are old Miserable was Pharaoh who delayed Moses but one day but more miserable are many men who delay the Lord for many yeeres Some will first burie their Fathers as the Disciple would Math. 8.21 Some will first go and kisse their Fathers that is delight yet a space in the pleasures of this life God will haue men now to turne God will haue the present time Bee wise now Psal 2.10 Now therefore feare the Lord and serue him Iosh 24.14 Therefore also now saith the Lord Ioel 1.12 Consider this now yee that forget God Psal 50.22 When Abraham was bid to circumcise his Familie he did not deferre it but circumcised them the same day Gen. 17.23 As soone as Cornelius was willed to send for Peter hee sent immediatly Act. 10.33 That thou wilt doe doe quickly in thy youth for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Pro. 27.1 Hee that is not now willing may hereafter bee more vnwilling I know no difference betweene the wise two Virgins and the foolish but that the one did it in time which the other would faine haue done out of time and could not The most prophane men of the world are forced in death to make their refuge to the Lord. Then the eye and the hand are lifted vp vnto him Then they crie for mercie and desire all others to pray for them If men were wise they would doe that in time which many would do and do at length when God sent laborers into his vineyard he that was bad goe in the morning did not deferre till noone hee that was called at noone did not deferre his comming till night Art thou called to day deferre not till too morrow to day if thou wilt heare his voice harden not thy heart Heb. 3.15 To day is Gods voice to morrow is the deuils giue God to day that is thy youth It is one of Satans pollicies to perswade men to repent when they are old till all the time bee past wherein Men should repent This brings many to damnation that where in their young yeares they will not repent in their olde age they cannot the affections through long custome of sinnes waxing strong euen then when the bodie is weake Marke Satans deceit and put not off thy remembring of God to thy old age for thy yeeres may bee shortned thy faith weakened Satan aduantaged thy heart hardned and it may be God in iustice and the deuill in malice will not suffer thee to remember thy Creator How fearefull a thing is it to fall into the hands of God who is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 As fire consumeth stubble so the most seuere God will consume and destroy the wicked contemners of his Word Thinke of it whiles there is hope you young men that forget your Creator heauen and hell least you misse the one and come into the other where there is no redemption no hope of ease or end which is that that makes hell hell indeed If all the paines of hell might haue an end were it after million and millions of yeeres as many as there bee Sands on the Sea-shoare it might nourish some miserable comfort of a release in the long ruine But this night hath no day this Ague no intermission this death no death to end it withall Text. Before the euill dayes come The dayes voide of all delight will come all ioy will faile and sorrow vpon sorrow befall There are good dayes that is a blessed and happie life wherein many good things befall vs. If any Man loue