abhorrs himself by reason of it It meets him in every Imployment in every Prayer and vexeth him at the heart He is like a man who lives by a bad Neighbour or that is yoaked to a froward Wife that cannot live comfortably with them and cannot live possibly without them Hence he cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death Now the young person is in the midst of these Philistines the corruption of his Nature meeting as is said before with the temptations of the World is as tinder to the sparks too easily set on fire with lust anger gluttony and such like wherewith he must be either in continual and sharp conflict or else miserably ruin'd Now the Aged person hath gotten many victories in this spiritual warfare whereby his enemies are grown weaker and he bolder and stronger He knows this bickering will not last long and sees the reward of his victory and so pleaseth himself with his Condition This made the Apostle when Aged to say 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith and henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness And is not this a Priviledge would he accept a new lease to live over his life again not for the whole world Seneca could say if some God would indulge me so far as that I might return into my cradle again I would earnestly refuse it I would never yield when I have almost run my whole race to return quite back again And for the Sufferings in the World man whether he be born to an Estate or not yet is born unto troubles as the sparks flie upward We meet them in every stage of our Life we come into the world with Cries and go out with groans and a great part of the space between is replenisht with sighs and cares and troubles Some inflicted by the hand of God and some by the hand of Man. One while pain or sickness upon the body another while wants or losses in our estates sometimes wounded in our names and sometimes in the unhappy life or untimely death of our Relations yea if we escape these and have a perpetual Sun-shine yet the cares and troubles that attend Prosperity are not few nor small So that when God surveyed the world at first he pronounced all was good but when the wisest of men had made his survey of it since the Fall he pronounced all things in it to be vanity and vexation of spirit and the Aged man can conclude it by his own experience to be a sea of storms a sink of sins and a very prison to the soul. Indeed it is a Stage whereon we have opportunity to honour God and do some service to our fellow-creatures but otherwise the best Notion of it is only a convenient Inn for Pilgrims in their Iourney And upon this account we ought to be content while we are in it and and very well content to be released out of it For what wise man but is glad to part with the most convenient Inn to be going towards his own home Alas they who are Old have seen so much of the falseness of the world of the deceits of men of the divisions of the Church of the weakness of good men and of the wickedness of evil men that they are sick of this world and could not be hired with all it can give to abide in it one day after their work is done When a man hath found something above beyond and after this world he is weary of it So that the Priviledge of Aged persons who are even past the World is really great They have escaped those rocks and gulfs of which younger persons are yet in danger They may look back with pity on younger persons who are to grapple with the difficulties which they have overcome They have also attained that which all young men desire for these would live long and the Aged have lived long They have seen an end of all perfection and that is a poor perfection that hath an end and after all they find that this is not their rest because it is polluted Although they have been crucifying the world a long time yet they cannot make it wholsome enough to feed on without much caution and jealousie And finding it so dangerous a Master and so troublesome a Servant they are glad to be rid of it and glad that they are near parting So that he who hath tried the world and yet loves it is bewitcht by it As a man that hath surfeited on any thing his Stomach riseth against it so is it with the Aged they have too long surfeited on it and now their Hearts rise against it The World and they are easily parted for it cares little for them and they care less for it Farewell think they thou false and flattering World that promised me content and never performed it that pretended to be my good Friend and hast proved my constant Snare my deadly Enemy I am now going to a peaceable holy and endless World. Hence it was that when the Physicians once told holy Mr. Dod in a dangerous Sickness in his Old-age that they had good hopes of his Recovery he answered them that the news pleased him no better than if one should tell the weather-beaten Mariner that was putting into the haven that he must turn back to conflict with the Storms again No certainly they who are almost got safely through this dangerous World would be loth to venture into it again Indeed if a man have no portion but in this Life if he have no house but Hell to go to when he leaves the world it is no wonder if he be loth to part with it but they who are dead to this world and ripe for a better would not live here alway but rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave Job 3. 22. And this leads me to SECT VIII THE Eighth Priviledge of Old-Age which is that it is Nearer to Death than in the Course of Nature younger persons are and consequently if they be in Christ nearer to the Everlasting Life For though it is possible for the Young to dye soon yet it is impossible for the Aged to live long Their manifest Decayes are a certain presage of their approaching Dissolution and no Medicine hath yet bin found to cure Old-age The graves are ready for them and the Worms wait for their last repast upon them The moth of Mortality which is bred in our Nature will still be fretting the Garment of our Bodies till they be consumed Death is already got into the Aged persons Eye and Ear and in a short time will bring him unto the dust Now though this be an unwelcome Messenger to those that live at ease yet to an holy Old man and woman it is a blessed Priviledge for as looking backward
they see a tempting troublesome world so looking forward they see by Faith a state of perfect Holiness and Happiness prepared for them This Faith assures them that the end of their fight is the beginning of their Victory and as they part from their labours they take possession of their honours And doth not any Apprentice rejoyce when the time of his service is near its expiration I know Nature recoils at the approach of Death in the best but Faith is then of greatest need and use and the just may be said to dy as well as to live by his faith Thereby he sees Life and Immortality just before him and one only miry step to pass and then he is well Indeed the idle man desires not to go to bed but to all that take or suffer pain saith S. Chrysostome an end of it is sweet the traveller gladly beholds his Inne the hireling often computes when his year is out the husbandman greedily expects harvest the pregnant woman waits for her expected deliverance and the Aged person for his Writ of Ease One would wonder what shift even the Heathen made to render Death desirable who had such weak glimmerings of any other life And yet even they would thus argue Death either it annihilates us or else translates us Annihilation will but reduce me into the State wherein I was and if it translate me it will put me into better lodgings my Soul can be no where so pen'd up as here it is in the Body What boast would they have made of Death had they but firmly believed everlasting life For this it was which enabled the Apostle to make this expression Phil. 1. 23. Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better For where should the Spouse desire to be but with her husband or where the members but with the head And upon this account that good Lady Falkland would usually say when she was going to bed Now am I nearer Heaven by one day than ever I was The Aged person sees a wofull wilderness behind him and the blessed land of Promise before him and therefore no wonder that with Moses he longs to be in it And the nearer the holy Soul approacheth its perfection the more earnest and almost impatient it is to attain it And one great Advantage of the Aged lies in this that the Meditation of Death which is then in view is of great use to compose the Mind to keep us in the Fear of the Lord all the day long and our Consciences void of offence towards God and men to work in us a great contempt of the World and a singular freedom of spirit and of speech It will make us neither much to fear nor much to hope or desire any thing that the world can do for us or against us and finally doth greatly conduce to keep us steady and constant in faith and holiness And if some Ancient people do not make this use of their approaching dissolution what would they or others do if they did not grow Old at all what a careless worldly and vain life would men live if they had no certain Indications of their dying Surely the nearer to Heaven the more heavenly we should be as any man when he is come to the confines of another Countrey will frame himself to the guise thereof so he that hath this hope in him doth purifie himself as he is pure and will begin the Life below which he expects to live above And the other Priviledge herein contained is this that being weary they are near to their Journeys end They have bin long toss'd upon the Sea and now they see the Haven and rejoyce that they are ready to put into it This could make Cato in Tully to say My old-age is herein pleasant to me that by how much I approach nearer to death so much sooner do I as it were descry land and after long sailing am ready to enter the Port. Not that a good man should desire to dye for ease only to be freed from the troubles of life all the tribulations of that blessed Apostle Paul never made him cry out O wretched man that I am but his body of death forc'd him to it But whil'st we carry these earthly Tabernacles about us even the Sufferings of this present time will make us rejoyce in hope of the glory of God. Especially when we behold that innumerable company of Angels the general assembly and Church of the first born the spirits of just men made perfect yea God the Iudge of all and Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant amongst whom we are going to reside in perfect bliss then will our heart and our flesh cry out O when shall we come and appear before God! And this is the Priviledge of Old-age that there is but one feeble life between them and a Crown and you know that he who is shortly to be invested in some Dignity feasts himself with the hopes of it Yea this is the constant relief of the Aged man under all his bodily and other temporal afflictions that they will last but for a moment Hold out Faith and Patience the Iubilee is at hand Therefore it behoves all that are in years to lay up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life to get some unquestionable evidence of their right to the tree of life of their part in Paradise and then their thoughts of what 's beyond death will support them against all events on this side it or in it That Death is never to be dreaded saith an Heathen Poet which is followed with Immortality All your riches reputation or friends will then nothing comfort you like a lively sense of Christ in you the hope of glory He that hath liv'd to God will chearfully go to him and they who have run with difficulty will dye with ease And thus you have an account of some of the many Priviledges of Old-age for besides all these it is a Priviledge to attain to such an Age as that we may our selves see to the Education and Disposal of our Children and also to have the comfort of their piety and prosperity Thou shalt see thy childrens children and peace upon Israel Psal. last Hereupon it is recorded among and as the crown of the Blessings bestow'd upon Iob after his restoration that he lived an hundred and forty years and saw his sons and his sons sons even four generations Job 42. 16. From all which we may conclude that although every Age of mans life hath its peculiar bitterness and sweetness yet all things well weighed a quiet and honest Old-age is to be preferr'd before any other age It is the assertion of the learned Petrarch who thereupon breaks forth into the praises of it concluding them unworthy to arrive at it that are afraid of it and them unworthy to possess it that
or be hurt by it We must drink this Cup and therefore it is all the reason in the world that we should take some foretasts of it especially considering the sequele of it that it sets us on an everlasting shore It 's time for Old people to bethink them well sith a Crown or Flames are just before them When you sit trimming the fire ponder this whether you can indure the fire that is unquenchable when you lift up those dazled eyes towards Heaven consider what title you have to the blessed Mansions there What have you to do below your traffick now should be in Invisibles you have studied long enough how to live at length you should study how to dy These Meditations are certainly of great Excellence and of great Use. Better it is to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart Eccl. 7. 2. 'T is more pleasant indeed to go to the house of feasting how gladly do people go that way but it is better to go to the house of mourning for there we see what is the end of all men and so the living will lay something that 's useful to his heart These thoughts will quicken any rational man to do and get all the good he can while he is on this side the line of Eternity The less a poor Old creature can do about the affairs of this life the more he should endeavour to do about that better life These presentiating thoughts of Death will make us careful and conscionable in all our wayes as seeing that Change alwayes at hand I write this Letter saith Seneca with such a mind as if Death were to call me away before I have done and being ready to go the less I value Life the more comfortably I enjoy it For as the same Authour saith in another place Theirs is the most anxious life that forget what 's past neglect what 's present and are afraid of what 's to come For certainly they that forget their past sins and neglect their present duty have cause to fear their reckoning to come As on the the other side he that having an inlightned and sensible Conscience can think of Death without disturbance hath made a good progress in Religion And yet if Death were only the finishing of Life these Thoughts about it were not so necessary or considerable but we are assured of an Everlasting Life immediately following that the extremest happiness or misery commences thereupon which also never ends Now what Thoughts or cares can be so momentous as those about our endless Glory or Torment Sit down then compose your selves to this Meditation draw a Curtain over all this present World and your Concerns therein and open a window into Eternity and by Faith look steadily into it Look Upward first and survey those blessed Mansions that glorious Company the sweet Imployment the unconceivable Injoyment the transcendent Bliss of Body and Soul in the full Fruition of God to all Eternity And will not these Meditations nullifie all the faint and fading comforts of this Life will they not cause you to trample under foot the Pleasures of sin that are but for a season will they not easily wean you from your dearest Relations upon Earth will they not carry you with longing desires to injoy the beatifical Vision will you not cry out with Augustine Can no man see thy face and live O let me dy then to see thy face Again look Downward into that Bottomless Pit and by faith behold the desperate condition of the Damned lay your Ear to the Key-hole of Hell and hearken a while to the weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth there Consider the torments of a roaring Conscience the fury of exasperated Devils the unspeakable racks and tortures of wofull Bodies which must be as much beyond what the most cruel Malice can invent or act as the Almighty and just indignation of God exceeds the weak and finite wrath of Man And these to continue during the innumerable spaces of an unconceivable Eternity and the Aged man must conclude that there is no other way for him to take at Death but into one of these Receptacles and that he may justly expect by reason of his Age very shortly to determine this point that he is even at the door that he hangs over this Etenity by a slender twist which is now almost fretted through and that before a few weeks or days are come he must go the way whence he shall not return What agitations of heart would these Meditations produce in us what diligence in making our Calling and Election sure what contempt of all the World what detestation of the sweetest sins In short the Thoughts of Eternity would effectually disgrace the trifles of Time and prepare the Aged for the injoyment of it How comes it then to pass that we are so backward to the thoughts of Death and the World to come The truth is it is not gratefull to Flesh and Blood. Hence when thousands died in the Wilderness which should probably of it self have made impressions on the rest yet then Moses finds it needfull to beg of God Psal. 90. 12. So teach us to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom Alas we find that we can think on any Person in the world rather than of God and of any Thing in the world rather than of our Soul and of any part of our Lives rather than of Death and of any place in the world rather than of Heaven But should Flesh and Blood be gratified rather than our Maker our Redeemer our Comforter our own Souls God forbid How many unpleasant doses do we take to preserve or recover the health of the body But here the health and happiness both of body and soul are concerned I may boldly say that Death will prove a bitter Cup to those that live at ease and that will make no acquaintance with it before it seize upon them We are surpriz'd with any thing that is altogether new but frequent converse maketh the most fearfull Objects familiar Walk then into the place of Skulls make room for your Coffin in your Chambers or in your Minds and call before you all the solemn Circumstances of your own Funerals and step now and then into the other world by holy Meditation Your natural Eye growes dim open then the Eye of Faith and penetrate into things unseen You cannot work but you can think your sleeps are broken but then you may have golden hours When you have various discomforts below you may have hereby unspeakable comfort above yea this will inure you unto and begin that blessed life which you hope to live for ever He that thus travels often to Heaven while he lives will more certainly and comfortably be lodged there for ever when he dies SECT X. THE Tenth and last Work of Old-age
of Temperance and Sobriety And that both for Others sakes and for your Own. You should be examples O be not stumbling Blocks to younger people Your vices may propagate when your persons are past it and those that are Eye or Ear-witnesses of your follies may derive the practice of them to the Child that is yet unborn and altho you may recover by true Repentance yet they may stumble upon you and fall and never rise again Entail not a Curse upon your Posterity do not nourish in them that natural depravation which in equity you ought rather to cure And for your Own sake be sober be vigilant for you are upon the confines of the everlasting World a World wherein all sensual enjoyments will be for ever out of date endeavour to go off the Stage without a Blemish When some Courtiers were sent to S r Fr. Walsingham being sick and sad to make him merry God said he is serious in his Law Iesus Christ was serious in his Death the Holy Ghost is serious in his dealing with our Souls all in Heaven and Hell are serious and shall a Man that hath one Foot in the Grave Laugh and Iest Take warning by poor Noah One hours Drunkenness discovered that which Six hundred years Sobriety had concealed If his inexperience did in any degree excuse him you can make no such pretence If you have any regard to the Health and Vigour of your Bodies to the quiet and welfare of your Souls to the pleasing and honouring of God bridle your appetite and check the pleasures of your Senses In short there is as we observed before no better way to spin out your lives to make Old-age pleasant and Death easie than the exercise of this Vertue The instance of Cornaro a learned and rich Venetian is common that with a sparing and orderly Diet lived to a great Age with little inconvenience To deny a mans self is the way to please himself at length and by opposing the preternatural desires of the Body we contribute to the true happiness even of the Body it self And here comes in the use and exercise of Mortification wherein tho a wise man may make some steps yet the work cannot be done without the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. Implore therefore the aid of this good Spirit who can make you mortally to hate that which you now do ardently love and will pluck up the roots of that whereof Morality doth only shave the Hair. Set the Spectacle of Death oft before you and of that endless Estate to which you are such near Neighbours and think how unsuitable a vain life is to a serious Death Be much in Prayer and if need be add Fasting thereunto that your moderation may be known unto all men seeing undoubtedly to Old people The Lord is at hand SECT VII THE Seventh Grace proper for Old-age is Charity or Love. Not that sensual or carnal Love which is proper or rather common to Youth and which hath long since dropt off like Leaves in the Autumn of their Age but that Grace which disposeth the Heart to think the best the Tongue to speak the best and the whole man to promote the Welfare of Others The Seat or chief Mansion of this is the Heart which being filled with this Grace it is diffused every way and the whole man is tinctur'd with it It obligeth a man to Think the best of every man. Charity thinketh no evil believeth all things hopeth all things beareth all things By this we are ready to account the Certain good things in Others better than they are the certain Evils in others less than they are the good that is but doubtful in others certain and doubtful Evils none And it rests not in Opinion but works by Desire whereby the Heart doth unfeignedly desire the Temporal Spiritual and Eternal good of all men Neither doth it rest there but shews it self in Endeavour and that both by Word and Deed speaking To them Of them For them to God and man what may conduce thereunto in their Lips is the Law of kindness Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly is not easily provoked 1 Cor. 13. 5. Neither will Words satisfie it but doth actually help and cheerfully succour every Body as their occasion requires and his own ability extends And in this Grace doth every good Old Man and Woman excell This was the eminent Grace of the Evangelist Iohn in his Old-age for he lived longer than any of the Apostles and his Swan-like Song still was Love as is evident in all his Epistles yea some Church Historians affirm that when he could go no longer by reason of his Age into the Christian Assemblies yet he was instant to be led or carried there where the substance of what he was able to say was little Children love one another And you may find how pathetical was Paul the Aged in his tender charity to Onesimus Philem. 9. Being such a one as Paul the Aged for loves sake I beseech thee for my Son Onesimus And this Spirit did continue in the Ancient Christians in the Primitive times who loved as Tertullian tells us as Brethren and were ready to dye for one another We that did hate one another saith Iustin Martyr now do live familiarly together and do pray for our Enemies In all Ages as men have increased in Piety they have increased in Charity and come to relent of their rigour and keenness It was Age Experience and Consideration as well as a Prison that melted Bishop Ridley to accost his Brother Hooper in this manner However in some by-matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my Simplicity hath a little jarred yet now I sincerely love and imbrace you You know Rehoboams Old Counsellours were for lenity when the young were stern and furious It 's true the natural tempers or painful distempers may incline some Old people to too much Acrimony yet all Aged people that are considerate have taken more degrees in Charity than young people have It was an Old man in Gibeah that had more of this Grace than all the City besides Iudg. 19. 16. For besides the advantage they have had of Gods holy Ordinances the Scope whereof is to increase our Faith and Love they have found by experience that the Life and Soul of Religion lies not in these lesser matters that have caused the greatest noise in the World that every difference in Religion makes not a different Religion so that wheresoever they see any thing of Christ these they love Their Consciousness of their own mistakes and of their own imperfections hath forced them to more charitable thoughts of others They have observed that true Grace hath lived in the midst of great infirmities yea they have found this Flower in divers persons where they thought there had been nothing but
fourscore and four years yet departed not from the Temple but served God with fastings and prayers night and day Luk. 2. 37. So that all Aged persons are not precluded from spiritual exercises And though they should become unable to frequent the Publick Ordinances of God yet they may pray and sigh and meditate in their chambers and these proceeding from a sincere and sensible Soul are most acceptable unto God. As for the external Acts of Religion they avail nothing without faith and love which lodge in the heart The immanent Acts of the Soul which are to understand to meditate to will and to desire do most perfect the same And where the Deed cannot be done God doth accept the will for the Deed. The weakest and poorest Old man or woman may have high meditations under a low roof and a large heart within narrow walls No Aged person therefore should be discouraged by their Inability for Gods Service since He knoweth their frame he remembreth that they are but dust The Lord hath said When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them I the God of Israel will not forsake them I will open Rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys I will make the Wilderness a pool of water and the dry Land springs of water Isa. 41. 17 18. In the want of ordinary supplies I will provide them with extraordinary supports the wilderness shall produce a pool of water rather than any Child of God shall dy for thirst When they cannot wait upon God as before he will wait to be gracious to them he will come to them and teach and comfort them If indeed a man be inwardly pleased that his weakness excuseth him from his Devotions he hath cause to blame himself but if he hath the same desires and holy affections with others the old Law shall stand to wit he that stayes by the Stuffe shall part the Spoil with him that goes out to battel You have a trade going in every Ship an Interest in every holy Assembly in the World. SECT X. THE Tenth and last Inconvenience in Old-age is That they are Terrified with the approach of Death For Death is a word hard of digestion to any man. The Philosopher counted it of all dreadfull things the most Terrible And Mr. Latimer observes of Hezekiah that he was more afraid of Death than of all Senacheribs Army Now Old-age is a near neighbour to it and the aspect of it alwayes before them is not very pleasant Most men saith Seneca are miserably tost between the fear of Death and the miseries of Life are unwilling either to live or dy Especially they who have had their portion in this life and have made no provision for a better This made Lewis 11 th of France to charge all about him to forbear the mention of Death The strict Account which follows it and the long Eternity which follows that makes Death a most serious matter No wonder if the hand tremble when it is going to take that Cup which will mend or end them Now the Old man is at the door of this fatal place Though a Casualty may bring Death suddenly though a sickness may bring it probably yet Old-age brings it certainly Peradventure there are fifty weeks or dayes remaining in their life peradventure but forry five perhaps but forty but thirty yea but twenty as Abraham said of Sodom nay since it is dubious every moment and no mortal man knows at what Watâ—… of the Night he shall be called the 〈◊〉 person that is but a step from death must be through fear of Death in continual bondage But the Lyon is not so terrible as he is painted neither is Death so formidable as it is by many represented Though it be against the Desires of Nature yet it is not against the Series of Nature For if we consult this we find Autumn kindly after Summer and Winter after Autumn and Death is as natural after Old-age And the Light of Nature taught some of the Heathens to reckon the worthy men especially that are dead to be most truly alive in that while we live in this world the Soul is imprison'd in the body and is set at liberty by Death Thus Xenophon brings in Cyrus discoursing to his Children on his Death-bed Think not O my Sons that I leave you quite and am lost when I dye perhaps you will not see me neither do you now see the most Essential part of me nor never did only by my actions you believed it was in this body and that will live out of this body as well as in it And if Pagans set so light by Death what notion should we Christians have of it that can look more clearly beyond it It is styl'd a falling asleep and what 's more welcome to an Aged person than a sound sleep And from that Expression 1 Thess. 4. an Old Toletan Council ordained that the dead should be followed with Psalms of Praise to their Graves In short 1. All Aged People are not oppressed with the fear of Death Too few there are that think at all of it Men generally put far from them the evil day and it will be an evil day to such as put it far from them Most people can think of any place in the Parish rather than the Church-yard yea I doubt it be one of the Faults of the Aged to think seldom of Death and they who think little of it are in no danger of being frighted with its thoughts 2. The Young have the same reason to be concern'd about Dying as the Old. For Youth hath more wayes to Death than Age hath And far more dye in their Youth than that dye for Age. It 's true they hope to live longer but their hopes have no good ground at all They have neither Promise nor Experience to build their hopes upon And in Young Peoples Death they being in their strength Nature receives a more violent shock whereas the Aged are more quietly extinguished like a Candle in the Socket 3. No good man need be affrighted at the approach of Death For the power and sting of Death is utterly taken away by our Saviours Death and so it can do us no hurt A Child of God doth not so much as tast Death The true Believer now hath not to do with Death but with its shadow with a toothless Dog with a dead Lyon with a Wasp without a Sting with a conquer'd Enemy What man in his wits is afraid after a tempestuous Voyage that he is drawing nigh his Haven It was a sweet saying of S. Ambrose near his end I have not so lived that I am ashamed to live among you neither do I fear to dy going to so good a Master The unprepared and the ungodly may dread Death As Aristippus told the wicked Mariners trembling in a Storm You may well
had not beguiled us Hence comes Neglect of the means of Grace to which we may adde Drowsiness in the use of them Aged people are apt to satisfie themselves in the Omission of Reading Hearing Praying by their craziness and infirmities Indeed when we are inevitably hindred in these Means and are grieved for that hindrance God will supply those wants but if we be glad that we have an occasion comen in the way whereby we may without sin omit our duty it savours strongly of hypocrisie And Old people are more concern'd than others to be diligent herein for many of them have put off much of their greatest business to their Old-age and therefore their plea of Impotence will be overruled I have lost a World of time said the learned Salmasius on his death-bed If I had one year longer I would spend it in reading David's Psalms and in Paul's Epistles Neither imagine that you are too old to learn for the Fundamentals of Doctrine and Practice may easily and must necessarily be learned else he that made you will not save you and he that formed you will shew you no favour Isa. 27. 11. As weak as you are you could creep to the Assembly to be laden back again with Gold and a grain of grace is worth a world of riches When some outward sickness afflicts you find a man carried in a bed to Christ and the house untiled to let him down through the roof rather than continue under it Luk. 5. 18. and will you languish in your spiritual distempers and use no means for healing Be not deceived God is not mocked he never accepts the will for the deed if the deed can well be done nor chuses Mercy before sacrifice where both may be offered And though your Years may dispose you to Drowsiness in the service of God yet they will not wholly excuse you We read but of one person in the Bible that slept at Sermon and he was taken up dead thereby Act. 20. 9. It is a sin charged on them of old Isa. 64. 7. There is none that calleth on thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee You should use all possible means to shake off that drowsie distemper and set the holy God before you and remember that your own cause is still pleading or trying that the diligent hand makes rich in this world and the diligent heart rich for ever and that Grace and Comfort are like the Manna which was to be gather'd early or else it vanished they that loved their beds starved their bellies How much good might you do and get notwithstanding your years if you would shake off that slothful distemper that haunts you how many have lamented at their end their loss of time Nothing so much troubled that Excellent Preacher Dr. Robert Harris when he was on his death-bed as Loss of time Rouse up then your benumbed spirits your time of Action will last but a while Consider wherein you are capable to serve your generation by the will of God and up and be doing The Grave will be most irksome to the loyterer but most welcome to the labourer for there the weary and only they will be at rest 4. The Fourth Temptation which Aged persons are liable unto is Expectation still of longer life No man is so Old saith the Orator but thinks it very possible to weather it out a year longer and such men do upon the matter think they may live alwayes It hath been an old complaint that men eat and drink as though they must dye to morrow and yet buy and build as though they must live alwayes How usual is it with very Aged men and women to contrive and appoint affairs for a month or a year beforehand It is not only young persons that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your life it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Jam. 5. 13 14. But even Old persons are apt to think the same thing The most decrepit person fancies he shall abide here a little longer and when that time is expir'd still reckons to continue a little longer The folly and ungroundedness of this Imagination is obvious For what should induce one that is already dying to think that he shall not very quickly dy out and out Alas Death hath laid its cold hand already upon us Our Eyes our Ears our Hands our Legs our Lungs our very Vitals are death-struck already Death puts in for a share in every day we spend Have we taken any Lease of our lives for a determinate time Can we produce any Reason any one Reason to prove that we should live a year or a week longer I am sure the provoking Sins which are in our Souls and the unruly Humours which are in our Bodies render our speedy death more likely than a longer life besides the rage of Satan against us and the many Casualties incident to us Now when a man expects any thing and hath no reason for such his expectation it is lamentably ridiculous But what little Reason soever there is for such an Imagination there is some Cause of it And the cause seems to be a Lothness to dy Too few there are that are willing to part with things seen for things unseen They are loth to go out of this world of men and women into a world of Souls Death is like a cup that will either mend or end and such a dose is taken with a trembling hand And therefore the heart cryes out Let me alone this year also Thus men would put far from them the evil day and it will prove an evil day when it is thus deferr'd Alas it is not the duration of ones life but the goodness and comfort of it that is considerable This the dim eye of Nature saw and concluded that a wise man chuses to live as long as he ought not as long as he could I know it is a hard pluck to have a Soul and a body that have lived long together to part a-sunder but it is irrevocably appointed unto men to dye and when a thing is indispensably necessary it is the best course to consider what will best mitigate and render it either desirable or tolerable Wherein as right Reason may contribute much so Christian Religion much more whereby the holy Soul is assured of a far better house than the body and the body of a far better estate after it hath slept a while in the grave To Remedy therefore this Temptation Consider the Folly and ill Effects thereof That is a foolish Traveller who being quite spent with the fatigue of his journey would turn again and traveâ—… it over again when as nothing is more welcome to the weary than a quiet lodging Upon
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
Holy course doth contribute to this end 1. In a Natural way And that 1. By Mortifying and discarding those Sins which do more directly hurt the Body Such are those Passions and Excesses above-named such is Anger Envy Covetousness Ambition and many such like which like wind in the Intrails of the Earth do rend and shatter it I think there is no Sin whatsoever but it hath a malignant influence upon the Body either to disorder and inflame it or to macerate and dispirit it Now the Fear of God obliges a man not only to restrain but to pluck up all such by the Roots Those are the Weeds which both rob the sweet Flowers of their nourishment and also depauperate the soil where they grow which being cast out the whole man fares the better after them And 2. True Piety refresheth the Body with the Comforts of a good Conscience That Peace that Hope that Joy which result from a Conscience that is pacifi'd by the Blood and purified by the Spirit of Christ do most efficaciously cherish the whole man they daily feast him This is that merry Heart that is called a continual feast Prov. 15. 15. And that doth good like a Medicine Prov. 17. 22. There is that Intimacy between the Soul and the Body that whatsoever refresheth the one doth also cheer the other Whereupon the Learned have judged that Hope Love and Ioy are great prolongers of Life by the influence which these have upon the Humours and Spirits in the Body much more when these Affections have heavenly and eternal things for their Object and the Holy Scripture speaks that way when it saith Prov. 19. 23. The fear of the Lord tendeth to Life and he that hath it shall abide satisfied 3. True Piety is the best Preservative against Old-age in a Spiritual way to wit by Procuring the Blessing of God. For when the Body is consecrated to him and imployed for him we may expect it to be blessed by him it is under his peculiar care and Providence When it is united to Iesus Christ it will receive influence from Him for its good So that true Religiousness tho it more immediately tend to the recovery and felicity of the Soul yet it is really most friendly also to the Body He that feareth God and walketh in his ways shall see his Childrens Children Psal. 128. last And on the other hand all those destroying and life-shortning Diseases mention'd Deut. 28. 27. 61. even every sickness and every plague are denounced to the ungodly And fully Eccl. 8. 12 13. Tho a Sinner do Evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know it shall be well with them that fear God which fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shadow because he feareth not before God. Therefore you that would protract the time of your flourishing strength learn to love and fear God devote your selves to him bestow your Hearts upon him imploy your time and strength to please and honour him abide not in a State of ungodliness rest not with a form of Godliness but resolve upon that Real Holiness which will produce a long and happy life in this World and a longer and happier life in a better 2. The Second Preservative against Old-age which indeed is contained in the former is Temperance and Sobriety I mean that gracious Vertue which retains the Sensitive Appetite within the bounds of Reason and Religion whereby we keep a Mediocrity in the use of Meats both in respect to their Quantity neither loading nor pining the Stomack and in respect of their Quality neither debauching it by too much Variety nor injuring it by things noxious The same care in Drinks lest the Quality of them be pernicious or the Quantity of them prejudicial That the Marriage-bed be moderately used so that the vital Spirits be not exhausted Now mans sinful Nature above all other Creatures inclines to excess in all these and it is pleasant to the Flesh but it is the pleasure of poyson At last they bite like a Serpent and sting like an Adder Prov. 23. 32. not the Soul only but the Body They do insensibly but infallibly weaken nature disorder the Harmony of the parts breed the most fatal distempers and render him as we may daily observe old in infirmities that is but young in years So that if they who give themselves up to Gluttony Drunkenness or Lasciviousness did truly love their own Souls or yet their own Bodies they would bridle their unruly Appetites for their own sakes and not pay so dear for that which must be repented of And as a plain and even way is much more delectable than always to be going up Hill and down so certainly there is a thousand times more ease and sweetness in an even and temperate course than in the perpetual unevenness of intemperance How should that body hold out that is daily clogg'd and inflam'd with preternatural excesses The intemperate man is constantly feeding an Enemy whom it is charity to starve and deals with his Body as the Ape who is said to hugg her young to death Whereas a wise Sobriety is health to the Navel and marrow to the Bones by it the Humours the Blood the Spirits are all maintain'd in order and in vigour His meals are pleasant and his sleep is sweet and he is a Stranger to those crudities and consequent distempers which pester others Thus Plato by his careful temperance spun out his life tho a great Student till he attain'd above fourscore and Galen to above sevenscore years and Seneca concludes that there is no way to retard Old-age like a frugal Sobriety Let me then persuade all such as are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God or of their own Souls to have some pity on their poor Bodies O break off your destructive Course sow not the Seeds of consuming Maladies in your own Flesh. Be not among Wine-bibbers amongst riotous eaters of Flesh. Put a Knife to thy Throat if thou be a man given to Appetite Prov. 23. 1. 20. Give not your Strength unto Women nor your ways to that which destroyeth Kings Prov. 31. 3. Let not the Beast captivate the Man nor your Reason be enslav'd by Sense but recover a just dominion over your blind and brutish affections that your days may be long and lively in the Land which the Lord giveth you If it be here Objected that the most Religious and temperate persons grow old as soon as others It is Answered that tho in these external things all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked yet every wise man will take the likeliest course for the blessing he desires Tho some Children that have had no good Education nor good Example have afterward proved eminent men yet who but a desperate man will hereupon resolve I will take no care about the
up Riches as some of them have ingenuously acknowledged They also know that their weakness and infirmities do expose them to contempt and therefore endeavour to obviate that by their Wealth and so make themselves considerable by their Estates These are the â—…rutches which when weakness overtakes them they lean upon and support their fainting spirits withal And they want not variety of Pretences whereby to justifie their course as that they are only providing for a rainy day for troubles and Casualties that may besall them that they ought to lay up for their Children and Posterity or else they were worse than Infidels yea that they are gathering only to bestow it at their death on some pious or charitable use And Satan is not wanting to nurse this humour in them by suggesting to them expectations of a long life a distrust in the Providence of God and continual fears of want which is nursed by the coldness of their temper and by their consciousness of their inability to get much by their labour And these meeting with that inveterate Self-love which is inherent in them and consequently an uncharitable frame of mind towards others hardens them in their tenacious temper so that as they grow weaker this lust grows stronger until Divine grace doth open their eyes or else the Earth at last stop their mouths This bitter root spoils their Devotions interrupts their prayers renders the word of God tastless becramps them to all God Works this disturbs their Rest the thoughts and cares about these things do visit them last at night and meet them first in the morning and disquiet them the day throughout for where the treasure is there will the heart be also Oh the cares the fears the vexations that possess a covetous heart but only that we can digest any thing that we delight in though it be never so bitter else no man could endure the life of a covetous miser But it is the Old-mans recreation the best of his time and the strength of his spirits are consumed either about the keeping of what he hath or about getting more for as he hath no vent for his abundance so he observes no limits for his desires As the bladder the more it is filled with wind it stretches the more so the more his riches increase the more his heart is set upon them so that he seeth more beauty in his Money than in the Sun in the firmament No thoughts no discourse no design pleaseth them except it end in gain but when there is an opportunity of doing good the heart is cold and the hand is lame Nay some of them will not afford conveniences scarcely necessaries to their families or to themselves but run in debt to their own backs and bellies to their children and servants and foolishly choose to live poor that they may dy rich Now this Vice in it self it is plain Idolatry and the root of all evil leading men into temptation and a snare into many foolish and hurtful lusts which at last drown men in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9 10. For the worldly man gets and keeps his Estate with travel to his Body vexation to his Spirit scruple to his Conscience with danger to his Soul with envy of his neighbours with suits to his children and with a curse to his posterity Do but turn to Iob 20. 15. and read that chapter out But in no sort of men is Covetousness so unaccountable so very foolish as in Old people For what can be more absurd said a Heathen than to be so much concern'd for travelling Expences when we have so small a part of our way to travel Or as St. Augustine expresseth it to load our selves with the greatest Burdens when we are nearest the end of our Journey It is no doubt a plain infatuation and an instance of the power of the Prince of this World on mens minds and of the Corruption of our Nature to effect this that those who have seen the Vanity of all these things the uncertainty the unsatisfactoriness the vexatiousness of them should so dote upon them that they who not only know but even feel in themselves that they must shortly and may suddenly leave them all and perhaps have no thanks at all from them that enjoy them that yet these persons wise in other things should set their Hearts upon them and hunt after a World that is flying from them How much more comfortable were it to do all the good they can to feed the hungry cloath the naked to procure the Prayers of the distressed while they have opportunity to make Friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness to be esteemed of men to be loved and honoured of God! A good man sheweth favour and lendeth he will guide his affairs with discretion Surely he shall not be moved for ever the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance Psal. 112. 5 6. The Pleas which they produce for their Justification or Excuse are all insufficient Have you no other Recreation Surely there are more and better Diversions Natural Artificial and Spiritual than heaping up riches Instance but in the last of these Psal. 119. 14. 72. I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as much as in all Riches yea The Law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of Gold and Silver Again Do you think that these will defend you from Contempt True Piety and Charity is a far better way Psal. 112. 9. He hath despersed he hath given to the Poor his righteousness endureth for ever his Horn shall be exalted with Honour Think you that in your decays of Nature there be no better supports than your Riches Yes the favour of God the love of Christ the comforts of the Spirit the feast of a good Conscience and the joyful hopes of eternal Happiness are as much beyond them as the Sun iâ—… brighter thanâ—… Glow-worm Will providing for Contingencies excuse you Alas your Riches will be no certain refuge for you Prov. 18. 10 11. The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the Righteous runneth into it and is safe The Rich mans Wealth is his strong City and as an high wall but 't is only in his own conceit That bond Heb. 13. 5. sealed to us is worth all your Specialties and all your Estates He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Can you justifie your immoderate scraping by a just provision for your Children and Relations No no That 's but an excuse for they that have no Children are as sick of this Disease as others But if you have Children this course of yours is the way to undo them A moderate care for Posterity is a Duty wherein we may expect a Blessing but the Covetousness of the Parent doth but provide for the Luxury of the Child and so the Parents Soul is ruin'd in the getting and the Child 's in the spending of what is so gotten If your
some of the Philosophers under pain or losses but could never do it under disgrace But that Patience which is directed by the Example of Christ and strengthened by the Grace and Spirit of Christ keepeth the Soul from secret repining or open murmuring at any event saves from distraction at present and from ruine hereafter And herein Old-age doth or should excel They have met with many troubles in their pilgrimage and the Scripture tells us that tribulation worketh patience Rom. 5. 3. consequently the more troubles the greater patience They have bin taught to wait for some Mercies which they have desired for many years and so have bin taught Patience which when they have well learned then the Mercy hath been conferr'd They have been tryed with many Afflictions from the hand of God either upon their Bodies as Sickness Pain c. sometimes by acute sometimes by chronical Distempers and these have exercised and taught them Patience or upon their Souls as Desertions or other Impressions of divine Displeasure and thereby have learned quietly to wait for the Salvation of God or by the Death of their dear Consorts or Children all which by the blessing of God concurring therewith have like continual burdens on the shoulder inur'd and strengthened them in this Excellent Grace The Aged Person hath also had many provocations losses and injuries from Men which have both tried and tamed his mettle He hath been either uncomfortably Match't whereby his Patience hath been put to it every day or cross'd in his Children or fix't near some unquiet Neighbour or harrass'd by a costly and tedious suit of Law any of which have forced him to exercise this Grace Or else he hath been smitten in his Reputation or maim'd by some great loss or disappointment in his Estate where he hath had no Remedy but Patience I know these things do too often work the wrong way that is they produce fretfulness rage melancholy and other dismal effects but in the upright man they sortifie his Spirits they break the pride security and stubbornness of his Soul and make him by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory honour and immortality and so fit him for Eternal Life And the Aged do or should exceed those that are young herein For the tender shoulders of these cannot well bear these burdens As Ephraim once so they are like bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke which fret and fume and are gall'd under the aforesaid tryals Thô the Holy Ghost hath told us that it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth But commonly it is some tract of time before this yoke is quietly and evenly carried Old age doth most perfectly teach this lesson He that in his youth would quickly have answered the Lye with his Sword will then answer it with a smile The tears which in our youth we spent upon any trivial occasion we then reserve for better purposes and we come to learn manners to wait Gods time for the mercies we desire Time and trials have taught the Old-man to digest hard words and hard things rather than to fight it out Good David could better bear Shimei's Curse when he was grown into years than Nabal's Uncharitableness when he was younger Now it was nothing but kill and slay at least every Male in Nabal's house but afterwards so let him Curse because the Lord hath said unto him Curse David Who shall then say Wherefore hast thou done this 2 Sam. 16. 10. And those Disciples of our Saviour who in their younger years would have had Fire sent from Heaven to revenge the incivility of the Samaritans they in their riper years had learned when reviled to bless when persecuted to suffer it and to bear all indignities not only with much patience 2 Cor. 6. 4. but with all patience 2 Cor. 12. 12. Such is the effect of years and experience by the blessing of God. And you that are in years must be inexcusable if you be defective in this Grace because you have been for a long time Scholars under a Patient Master who hath lest us an Example that we should follow his steps who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not 1 Pet. 2. 21 23. You have also read and heard many convincing Discourses upon this Subject you have seen the folly and madness of Impatience and of Revenge in others and you have had so many Crosses of your own that it is the absurdest thing imaginable for you to be destitute hereof No great wonder to see an unback't Colt to winch and curvet at the spur or whip but if the old tryed Beast do so he is better fed than taught No you should be Patterns of Patience to others We may well feel things as Mortal men saith Mr. Hooper yet overcome them as Christian men Outward Afflictions may prick us but yet they should not pierce us The Old Soldier will not fret at hard Marches hard Weather hard Usage for he hath been beaten to them The Old Mariner repines not at the boisterous Winds or the threatning Waves You are too Nice my Brother saith Hierom if you grudge to be Tried below yet expect to be Crown'd above Labour therefore to get and increase your stock of Patience Let Patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing Jam. 1. 4. This Grace you will daily need and daily use For we have need of Patience that after we have done the Will of God we may receive the Promise Heb. 10. 36. It will be like a Buckler to save you harmless from the evil of Affliction Though you have Faith Vertue Knowledge Temperance yet ye must add unto these Patience that ye may never fall 2 Pet. 1. 6. This will not only bridle your Tongue but quiet your Mind and keep you when dispossest of all other things in possession of your own Souls For an impatient man whilst he is afflicted by another even then punishes himself and so is his own greatest tormenter Alas you must still expect a succession of troubles and unexpected crosses until your Course be finished and if you escape these from abroad yet you may find occasion enough for your Patience with your own Children and Servants and perhaps with nearer Relations and though you should miss of these yet your own Distempers will try your Patience when you can neither eat your meat nor live without it neither sleep with refreshment nor lye awake with ease neither endure company nor be contented alone when you will be weary of every place of every posture and without Patience weary of your self And therefore it greatly concerns you to store your selves with this needful this useful Grace And to that End Inure your selves unto it by degrees Strive to digest lesser wrongs provocations and losses which will prepare you to be quiet under greater Whilst others are endeavouring to out-wit or out-power their adversaries be you labouring to overcome
Soul. When it is lodg'd in a ruinous body it is stifled within it self for want of motion and move it cannot or but lamely for want of Organs It is like a traveller with a tired Horse he spurs and strains but his Horse is foundred so here the Soul would pray and meditate and flie upward but the dead weight of a crazy Body hinders so that both his flesh upon him hath pain and his Soul within him doth mourn Job 14. 22. But yet this Burden is not to be appropriated to Old-age as if they and they only were the subject of distempers and of pain For if we observe it we shall find Diseases more common yea and more dangerous among Young people than among Old In the Sacred Story you will meet with more young People brought to our Saviour for Cure than Old. There was Iairus daughter there was the Noblemans son there was the Syrophenicians daughter and then the Centurions servant with many others In contagious Diseases it 's evident that they are sooner infected and every Register will inform us that a far greater number of Infants and Young People are yearly carried to their long home than of Aged Persons And then for Casualties there are far more of young and middle-aged persons that are slain and taken captives than of the Old. Neither are all Aged people so laden with these pains and distempers many of them having a very convenient measure of health to their lives end Thus Tully brings in Cato at eighty four years of age declaring that notwithstanding these years he was well enough to appear in the Senate to defend his Client and to entertain his Friends And Masinissa King of Mauritania that at fourscore and ten years old he would not be perswaded to ride in his journeys or to be covered on his head in the hardest frost or sharpest storm And one of the old men mentioned in the first chapter made nothing of walking twenty miles to dine with a Relation when he was above an hundred years old Neither are these Diseases always the fruits of Old-age but rather of an heedless and intemperate youth This layes up such crudities surfeits and noxious humours which lurk in us till Old-age and then seize upon us and then we find fault with the Choler in our Stomack but forget the sweet meats which have caused it So that this Inconvenience doth neither befall all Old People nor only them nor only upon the account of their Old-age The best Supports however for the Aged under their Maladies are a deep Study on the Wisdom Power Goodness and Promises of God. His Wisdom whereby he knows what condition is best for us His Power whereby he hath all Diseases at his Command as the Centurion had his servants His Goodness whereby he pities us more than the tenderest Parent doth his weak Child who also knoweth our frame and remembers that we are but dust Psal. 103. 13 14. His Promises that he will not afflict without need Lam. 3. 33. that he will correct in measure Jer. 30. 11. that he will not leave us Psal. 23. 4. that all shall work for the best Rom. 8. 28. that he will cease when his good Ends are accomplished Lam. 3. 22. And then we should revolve the great Benefit and use of them For by our Distempers the Lord is pleased to shew us more effectually the frailty of our Condition the Evil of sin the Vanity of the World and many other Lessons that are not commonly learn'd otherwise It 's plain that these are fair warnings to us to provide a better house for the Soul that will endure In this Disease said Old Olevian I have learned to know aright what sin is and what the Majesty of God is Nay said that Learned Rivet near his death I have learned more Divinity in these Ten dayes of my Sickness than in Fifty years before it hath sent me home into my self And now who would not be Content with such useful Discipline To conclude try it who will there is no Condition of Life without some Inconvenience Marriage is desired they are S. Basil's words but how many troubles in it Children are long'd for but how many griefs with them rich People are counted happy but how many thorns are found there These are the tributes of Life which if a man know how to bear patiently his Soul will be bettered and his Vertues adorned Our business is to prepare for them beforehand to lay up a stock of Prayers of Patience of Promises of Faith of Evidences and when they come to possess our Souls in patience to resign up our selves to the holy will of God and if we cannot turn off this our Burden to carry it with all the ease and satisfaction we can and to keep a sound mind if we cannot have a sound body SECT VI. A Sixth Inconvenience in Old-age is that it is broken with Crosses and outward Troubles These though they meet us in every stage of our life yet a whole troop of them commonly fall upon us in Old-age Then doth Poverty often come as an armed man His getting dayes are gone now his spending time is come And if he have need of much and yet hath little in store he seems to be in a miserable Condition The Cynick Philosopher when he was asked what was the most calamitous Creature in the world confidently answered It was an indigent Old person Likewise every body is ready to injure and run down the Aged reckoning that they are least able to defend themselves For as to the weakest part of the body there is a confluence of all humours which settle there so very often it falls out that a combination of troubles seize upon Aged people Ioh. 21. 18. Verily verily I say unto thee when thou wast young thou girdedst thy self and walkedst whither thou wouldst but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not And of these Troubles the sharpest are from their Relations the Disobedience of some or the Death of others How doth the pride prodigality or wilfulness of Children or Grand-children provoke and grieve the hoary head And how many Aged persons see husband wife children and other dear Friends and Relations posted to the grave before them which do each of them as it were tear away a piece of him and leave him as a sparrow alone upon the house-top In short Old-age is recorded as the Sink of mans life into which run all the miseries incident to humane nature And that which makes this Burden more grievous is That these seize upon the persons when their strength is spent their spirits low and their bodily infirmities many They are within sight of the shore and yet in danger to be sunk and wrack'd with the storms which beat upon them When they had thought all their troubles had been blown over it frets them sore to meet them
serve their generation Some by the hand of God inflicting such Distempers on their Minds or Bodies as have made them useless in their places Some by the Procurement of Men by whom many in the prime of their time have been laid aside sometimes justly sometimes unjustly and all opportunity taken from them of doing good in the World. Neither are all Aged persons rendred useless For many there be of both Sexes that persevere in well-doing to the last Cato pleaded causes when he was past fourscore years and Isocrates wrote excellent things at fourscore and fourteen years of age And not only the Tongues but the Hands of very many Old people are found as nimble to good works as of younger Persons They that have been useful in their strength will scarce ever become useless in their weakness Plutarch observes that an industrious Bee never degenerates into a Drone in its Old-age Too many there be of every Age that live only to themselves that neither Serve God nor observe Man but in order to their own Interest or Appetite These are good for nothing young or old but they that understand and embrace the true Ends of life will be useful one way or other to their lives end And the great Service that the Ancient do perform is by their sage Advice When the Levites were at fifty releas'd from the labour of the Sanctuary they are said yet to be Iudges in their Cities So that although they cannot do that service which younger persons may yet they do greater For the greatest things are compassed not by strength but counsel They cannot be counted useless says Tully that prescribe to the more raw and ignorant their work Like as a Pilot who thô he run not up and down the Ship but sits at the helm yet is the most useful person in the ship So the Aged head is the most useful part in a family or Commonwealth though it be confined to the fire side Hence Homer brings in Agamemnon wishing rather for ten Nestor's an Aged wise man among the Greeks than so many Ajax's who was a man of Arms for the winning of Troy. And it is well known that the grand Magistrates both in Greece and Rome were the Ancients of their Cities and thereupon they were called Senators and the great Council of Rome The Senate being composed of Aged men Yea if they should by reason of their Age be wholly unserviceable yet their Example is useful To see a man or woman deprived of all outward comfort and respect and laden with heavy Distempers yet patient and thankful serious and devout it is a powerful Lecture to all the spectators and may teach them to be doing their own great work with all their might to be thankful to God for their present strength and ease to beware of slothfulness and selfishness That when they arrive at that decrepit estate they may have the pleasant prospect of a fruitful life behind them and the joyful prospect of a blessed life before them SECT IX THe Ninth Disadvantage of Old-age is That it is unfit for Religious Exercises When we are in years we are indisposed to Prayer and Fasting to Hearing or Reading and in general to all such Spiritual Imployments wherein the Soul and Body must concurr They need these Helps as much as Others and perhaps desire them as much as Others but the dead weight of a crazy body sinks down the towring of their precious Souls To will is present with them but how to perform the same they find not and no wonder having not only a law of sin within them but a body of death without them Their senses are grown weak their faculties weak their spirits weak How then should they wrestle with God in Prayer or continue instant therein Let the Rider be never so good a Horsman yet he must travel as his Horse will give him leave So let the Soul be never so active it can operate only as the organs of the body will permit it Instead of taking pains about their Souls they are forc'd to prop up their decrepit bodies Their weaknesses keep them in bed while the holy zeal of others is burning in Devotion And as the Old woman in Plautus being askt why she went no faster answer'd because she carried so great a load to wit of eighty four years on her back so the load on Old peoples back either hinders them from coming to holy Assemblies or else causes them to travel thither very slowly so that they are constrained to live in a mannet without God in the world Now this Affliction to an holy heart is a very heavy burden When a poor man is cut short in all his other Comforts and as it were besieged with all the Calamities of this life yet while he hath this River of Gods Ordinances free and open thereby he receives continual supplies from Heaven the streams thereof make glad the City of God But when this is stopt the Soul grows sad and dry and barren Hence holy David in his Exile never mentioning his temporal losses yet cries out Psal. 42. 4. When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me for I had gone with the multitude to the house of God. This went nearest to his heart For when a man is harras'd with cares and troubles all the week long yet he is relieved and refreshed in his approach unto God upon his own Day But with the decrepit Old man every day is alike and his Soul is left destitute of spiritual supplies in an ordinary way And this Affliction is saddest of all when by disuse of the means of Grace the Soul grows stupid and unconcern'd in the matter as without special Grace we shall be apt to be So that the misery is great in the want and greater when insensible of the want No great wonder therefore that when all these miseries meet together a man cry out with Iob I would not live always So that Tiberius Caesar had a saying as Plutarch tells us that it was a shameful thing for a man that was past sixty to stretch out his hand to a Physician reckoning that it was fit he should then be content to dye But yet if we weigh the matter well the Case of Ancient people is not so desperate as it seems For to proceed in our former Method it is evident that many others besides the Aged are cut short in the means of Grace some willingly in Factories beyond the Seas some willfully by their own Atheism and Ungodliness some unwillingly by Distempers and other hindrances And on the other side divers Ancient people have been capable to attend the Service of God even to their dying day Thus Ahijah though his Eyes were set for Age yet was enabled to prophecy to Ieroboam's wife And Iacob could worship God leaning on the top of his Staff. And St. Iohn was an Evangelist when he was an hundred years old And there was Anna a widdow of about
be afraid going to receive your just punishment but hoping for my reward in the other Life I am not amazed with this at all But now when a man hath set his House and Heart in order and finisht his work he may sing his Nunc dimittis with comfort and say as that holy Woman x I am one that neither wisheth Death nor feareth his might but as merry as one that 's bound for Heaven 4. There is much Folly in this slavish fear of Death A holy Care to prepare for it is far better than an unprofitable Fear For the passion of Fear is planted in us for the avoiding of things hurtful but there is no avoiding of this fate There is no man that hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit and there is no discharge in that War Eccles. 8. 8. That disquiet is therefore foolish that torments but profits not How can the mind be quiet at any time which is afraid of what is impendent at all times It is observed by Seneca that neither Children nor Idiots are afraid of Death and he infers that it is a base thing that Reason I add the Scripture should not work as much security in us as Folly doth in them Shall learned Old men fear that which foolish Young men do not O wretched Old man said Tully that in so long life hast not learn'd to despise Death I end this with the Observation of Iudicious Mr. Calvin He that cannot quiet his Heart in the holy contempt of Death hath profited but little in the Faith of Christ. Let it therefore be the business of each Aged person to be reconciled to Death to be dying daily by Mortifying your affections to all the vanities of this life and by meditating on the life to come Never fret at that Death which leads you to immortality Rather rejoyce that you are taking leave of a World of Sin and taking flight into a Land of uprightness O Father said an Officer to a noble Ancient Persian Minister that trembled at the approach of Death shut your Eyes but a little and you shall see God in Glory And thus I conclude this Particular that too many Old people never fear Death for they never spend thoughts about it that the young have as much reason to apprehend it as the Old that a slavish fear of it is folly in any and that no good man needs to be affrighted but rather comforted with it So that upon a just Survey of all the Inconveniences of Old-age all Aged persons may answer as Tully tells of one Gorgias who being 107 years old was asked why he was contented to live so long Why said he I have nothing whereof to accuse Old-age and the truth is it seems perverse and unreasonable that all people should desire to attain unto it and then when they have attain'd it to dislike it Difficulties and Disadvantages there are with it Whereof no Age or condition is free but they are Tolerable and Ordinable to the good of all that fear God. And so much may suffice for this fifth Point to be handled CHAP. VI. The Priviledges of Old-age SECT I. I Proceed now in the Sixth place to discourse the Priviledges and Comforts of Old-age That there is some peculiar Blessing and Dignity in Old-age is evident both by the Light of Scripture and the Light of Nature The First Commandment with promise is Honour thy Father and thy Mother that thy days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee The like Promise you will find Psal. 91. last With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my Salvation Which shews that Old-age whatever Inconveniences it is attended withall is in its self a special Blessing And on the Contrary it is threatned as an heavy Judgment unto Eli that God would cut off his Arm and the Arm of his Fathers House that is he would take away his might and the strength of his Family in that there should not be an Old man in his House 1 Sam. 2. 31. And in general that bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days Psal. 55. last Whereupon holy David prays Psal. 102. 24. O my God take me not away in the midst of my days Finally the Holy Ghost assures us that the Beauty of old men is the Gray Head Psal. 20. 29. By all which it plainly appears that Old-age is a desirable Mercy in the judgment of God himself Agreeable hereunto is the Ancient Hebrew Proverb in Ben Syra to this effect Senex in domo bonum signum in domo And if that be a real good thing which all men desire then certainly there is some peculiar Goodness in Old-age for that all men desire to attain it So also we mingle among our good wishes to others this of a long life When Kings and Grandees are saluted this is the common Acclamation that they may live long and if it were possible live for ever And Antiquity is so valuable a thing that not only Families and Cities but Nations have had long and sharp disputes about the Antiquity of their respective people as the Egyptians Phoenicians Scythians And the Athenians had this Character affixed upon them that they could discourse well but the Lacedemonians could do well because an aged person coming upon a time into a great Assembly at Athens had no Respect given him but at Sparta in the like Convention they all rose up to seat him So that it grew Proverbial That Old-age dwelt most like its self at Sparta So then as there are some Inconveniences in Old-age which yet as you have seen have divers things to mitigate them so it hath many Priviledges and Comforts which do over-ballance them God hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him There is only this difference that all our Troubles spring from below but all our Mercies drop from above The particular Priviledges and Comforts of Old-age are these following First Old-age is Greater in Authority than any other Age. There is an Authory resulting from the Law of Nature as well as that which is conferr'd by Civil Laws the former is that wherewith Old-age is invested God himself who is the Fountain of Honour hath given them a Patent for it so that their Authority hath something in it divine and they seem to have a kind of Natural Government over others Hereby the Sentence or Opinion of the Aged may well conclude as much as the Arguments of the younger and he must have a great deal of Wisdom or of Confidence that shall contradict what a wise Aged person hath asserted That there is a certain Authority in Old-age is plain from divers Scriptures As Isa. 9. 15. The Ancient and the Honourable he is the Head. Now we know that the Head is the Seat of Rule When Moses had occasion for some Coadjutors with
felicity in Heaven that no Sin lodgeth there and the Aged person is hastning thither and consequently strives to break this Yoke and fit himself for that Estate As the pleasures he hath had in these is gone so his desires after them are gone also He now finds that there is more Satisfaction in not desiring them than there is in enjoying of them and so is far from being grieved at his releasement from those Shackles He would not live over again his sinful life for all the world and he is concern'd not because they are past but because at any time they had dominion Yea he finds more real content in his Poenitential Tears than ever he had in his Youthful Frolicks with what contempt doth he behold the Debaucheries the Duels and the frothy Follies of the roaring Sparks which they triumph in as in an Heaven upon Earth But he hath fathom'd them and found them empty as vanity and filthy as the Mire He now believes what he had often heard that the pleasures of Sin are but like a golden dream which leave nothing but Pensiveness behind them till God upon his repentance restore unto him the joys of his Salvation Now the Varnish of his Sin is worn off he sees the filthy and ugly nature of it and wonders that any rational person should ever love it He is now frighted at the remembrance of those Pranks that he formerly committed without remorse and in short he is well pleased that he hath a weak body instead of his strong corruption and is ready with that excellent Philosopher to count his Old-age his flourishing age because he only finds his Vices and the fewel of them withered and that his mind began now to be freed from the Snares wherein it was held by the Body c. Let every Aged person labour to find these blessed Effects and so be content with the fall of that House which was continually haunted with such Furies But take heed of being only Passive in this parting these Fires should not only go out of themselves but should be quenched by true Mortification It is not sufficient that Sin be dead in you but you must be dead to it you must be Active in the Crucifixion of it or else the Corruption of one vice will be the Generation of another If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. SECT IV. THE Fourth Priviledge of Old-age is That it is Proner to Piety True and solid Piety is the Dominion of Gods Fear and Love in the Heart of Man and exerts its self in the constant Practice of all the Duties of Religion in a conscientious manner For in Religion there is a Body and a Soul. The Body of it consists in the Form of Godliness the Soul of it is that which animates all the outward Acts and is fitly called the Power of Godliness for that the Activity and force of any thing proceeds from the Soul or inward Principle Now the separating this form and power of Godliness like as that of the Soul and Body is the death of Godliness And therefore though we prefer the Soul or inside of Religion yet we divorce it not from the Body but do take Piety in it's just Latitude comprehending the Acts of Devotion from a right principle in a right manner and to a right end and expressing it self in a sober righteous and godly life And however the prophane Atheist may wickedly deride it on the one hand or the rotten Hypocrite falsly pretend it on the other yet there is a wonderful excellency in it and an absolute necessity of it even the Consciences of it's greatest Enemies first or last being Iudges To this serious Piety Old-age is more propense than any other age of man. Insomuch as we find divers in Scripture and other Stories bent for Heaven in their declining years who in the former parts of their lives minded nothing but the World and the Flesh. They whom no Perswasions no Ordinances no Afflictions could fully reduce to the obedience of Christ yet the lively sense and feeling of their own decay and of their approach to the eternal Judgment obligeth them to true repentance and to make their calling and election sure So that it hath pass'd for an Observation that they who are not fair at twenty strong at thirty wise at forty rich at fifty pious at sixty are never like to be fair or strong or wise or rich or religious When any man is warn'd out of the House he lives in laying aside all other unnecessary business he sets himself to provide another Habitation Now every decay of strength of sense every gray Hair or Wrinkle is a sensible warning out of the earthly House of his Tabernacle and he must be strangely stupid that buckles not in good earnest to provide for his Soul when not only it may suddenly but must shortly go either to Heaven or Hell. These kind of Sentiments caused that learned Grotius to profess when he approached Death that he would gladly exchange all his Learning and Honour for the plain integrity of one Iean Urick who was a devout poor man that spent eight hours of his time in Devotion eight in Labour and but eight in Sleep and all other Refreshments So also that great States-man S t Tho. Smith Secretary of State to Q. Elizabeth some time before he fell sick sent for Directions to two Bishops how he might live most piously and make his peace with God Besides all the unruly Passions being now cooled by time and years Reason obtains a fair hearing and the Spirit of God gets a compleat victory over the Heart that had resisted so long Even as a City which hath been long besieg'd and often summoned to surrender yet stands it out till provisions begin to fail and that the defender of it sees the Walls terribly shaken and then he finds it high time to capitulate and deliver it so Almighty God calls and cryes and knocks time after time at the sinners Heart but it is heedless of these calls it 's feasted and filled with the Vanities of this present life but when it finds all the Fabrick ready to fall upon it's Head and no provision made for a future and eternal State it is high time to be getting Oyl and laying up a good foundation for the time to come And for those who have been well disposed before yet Old-age is a great Incentive to greater holiness As a Man in sailing saith Mr. Bradford the nearer he comes to the Shore the nearer he would be so the nearer I am to God the nearer still I would be A person of years must needs have a more clear and comprehensive knowledge of the Doctrine and Duties of Christianity of the life of Faith of Mortification of the extent of the Divine Law of the Nature and Power of Godliness and having more leisure and being somewhat retired out of
When for the time ye ought to be teachers c. you have been long in Christs school you should be perfect in the Rules of Christian life They who had received Five talents will not be accepted unless they bring ten again If your figs be not good very good it is probable they will be bad very bad If an Aged person be not ripe for Heaven let him take heed he be not ripe for Hell. SECT VI. THE Sixth Priviledge of Old-age is That it is worthier of Respect than those of an inferiour Age. I mean hereby both an Inward Reverence and the External expression thereof and the former is and ought to be the foundation of the latter An Aged person even on that account though neither ricâ—… nor wise though neither noble nor pious yet deserves a respect for the Priority of his Being The Veneration dâ—… to them is founded on the Law of Nature Hence Plato appoints that everâ—… one should honour the Aged both in word and deed and this he often repeats And it was much observed in Three Indians once in Paris that kept strictly to the order of their Age in speaking without any Directour but the Law of Nature All the disputes abouâ—… the Antiquity and consequently the Dignity of Families or Cities is groundeâ—… on this foundation Why should Olâ—… Monuments Old Coins yea even Olâ—… Ruines be regarded and not Old men and Old women This is also directly injoyned in the Fifth Commandment where by Father and Mother that are to be honour'd Divines do rightly determine that such as are Elders by Age as well as those that are so by Relation and Office are intended And Honour in that Précept means an inward Esteem and Reverence in the heart and the same expressed by a suitable behaviour towards them in word and deed And this is expresly specified Levit. 19. 32. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honour the face of the old man and fear thy God I am the Lord. The Iews indeed had a Tradition hereupon that it was not only fit to rise when an Aged person was passing by us but that we should rise up when they were four cubits distance from us and then we should presently sit down again thereby to manifest that we rose up in honour to them But the plain scope of that Command is only that we ought to make all due expression of Respect to the Aged And the indefiniteness of the Precept shews that it is due to all that are Aged even that pale and wrinkled face challengeth a regard and the fear of God is joyned with it q. d. As you fear God honour the Aged and because the young the rich and the proud will be loth to stoop herein therefore he adds I am the Lord Whose Authority is unquestionable and whose Will is the highest Reason who will reward the keepers of this law and punish the breakers of it Agreeable to this is that Prov. 23. 22. Hearken unto thy father that begat thee and despise not thy mother when she is old Likewise 1 Tim. 5. 1 2. Rebuke not an Elder but intreat him as a father and the younger men as brethren the elder women as mothers Where you see the Apostle interpreting the Fifth Commandment as abovesaid elder men as fathers elder women as mothers Accordingly it is threatned as a sore Iudgment when the child shall behave himself proudly against the Ancient Isa. 3. 5. and so it was resented when it was executed Lam. 4. 12. When the faces of the Elders were not honoured And we have a Comment upon this in a heathen Poet who tells us that they held it for a wickedness worthy to be expiated by Death if one that was young did not rise to shew respect to one that was Old. Let those consider this who make no difficulty to take place of their elders meerly because themselves are somewhat richer And upon this very Principle the Eldest son is by a natural right concluded to be heir and I question whether he should be defeated of it for any defects or immoralities Upon all which it is apparent that there is a special Respect and Reverence due to Old-age Now let us consider what Priviledge there is herein If there were nothing in it but a matter of Preference or precedence it were no great attainment though many an Estate hath been spent and many a Life lost for the compassing of these But this Respect is chiefly valuable for its Use. For hereby the Aged person is fenced from Contempt unto which he is liable enough through his impotence poverty and infirmities and any ingenuous man had rather dye with comfort than live in contempt But principally they are hereby preserved in a capacity of doing some good their example their instructions their reproofs and their advice will become significant We generally value mens Iudgments and Determinations according to the persons that give them Great care they should have how they advise and a great deference should be given to their advice So the Apostle 1 Pet. 5. 5. Likewise ye younger submit your selves to the elder And hereupon I would exhort and charge all young people that shall cast their eyes on these papers to remember their place and duty to deny themselves their own humours and preconceits and to strike sail to their Seniors They were praying perhaps before you had a being they had done God and their Countrey good service before you had done one stroke of work Holy Paul laid something upon seniority in Grace Rom. 16. 7. Andronicus and Iunia who were in Christ before me and by the like reason it is some Dignity to be in the world before others Insomuch as when the Latines would express their esteem of any thing they use this word of Antiquity to express it by Away then with that unchristian yea unmanly and unmannerly pertness and disrespect too frequent every where towards Aged persons Instead whereof reckon it to your good Breeding yea charge it upon your Conscience to give Honour to whom honour is due SECT VII THE Seventh Priviledge of Old-age is That they are Further from the World than younger persons are These are in the midst of it and of all its troubles and temptations but those have travelled through them and are now almost past them There are Two things in the World that make it uneasie Sin and Suffering Sin that makes it uneasie to Good men Suffering that makes it uneasie to All men A good man hath contracted a deep hatred against sin and yet he cannot be rid of it He meets with it in every place among the looser sort of people it swarms he sees and hears that every day which vexeth his righteous soul and returning home he finds it in his own heart and that grieves him most He is chain'd to a body of death without any remedy and the more knowledge and grace he hath the more he hates it and
what is your pillow or rather your heart made of that you can sleep so long in a state of Condemnation To be born in sin is sad but to live and dye in sin will prove a thousand times worse Remember that the destroying Angels began at the Ancient men before the house Ezek. 9. 6. It s true late Repentance is seldom true but yet true Repentance is never too late O then lay all business aside and set your selves about the New creature Now or never now and ever If you turn the deaf ear unto God now beware lest he deny you either the space or the grace to repent hereafter lest he answer you Ubi consumpsisti farinam c. where thou hast spent the flour of thy life there bestow the bran of it Take warning by that Penitent in story who had often determined to begin his Amendment from somâ—… eminent time as the First day of the year or his Birth day that so his Repentance might have some Remarkable date but when that Time came he was ready to adjourn it till another time Who thereupon concluded that he would make that present Day though it were obscure in the Calender yet memorable to his Soul by his turning through divine assistance unto God. Do you not perceive how you are in danger to be trapann'd by Satan who suggested to you in the time of youth that Repentance was then too early and who will now perswade it is grown too late ye have deâ—…err'd this work long enough already now you must use double diligence about it It is said of the Mulberry tree that it casts out its buds latest but then thrusts them all out in a night You are late in the Vineyard you must work the harder The whole business of your life hitherto stands for nothing if you be not new born you will cease to be in this world before you begin to live if your last change get the start of this first change you will curse the day of your birth to all eternity Now for your Direction in this great Work your present business is to get a Competence of Knowledge in the Doctrine of Religion and then searching your own Hearts to compare them with the holy Law of God. For example look your face in the glass of that hundred and nineteenth Psalm or of the Fifth Sixth and Seventh of Matthew and then through Gods help you will presently find the dissimilitude yea the contrariety between them And then fix your mind upon the Wrath of God hanging over all persons in your Condition and upon the sufficient satisfaction made by Iesus Christ for all that believe and repent and apply all this to your selves Frequent the serious Preaching of Gods word and begin to pray in good earnest Turn thou me and I shall be turned and be assured that Spirit which inclines you to the use of these means will breath life into your dead and dry bones and make you new Creatures And in case you find your selves at a loss in this affair repair to some Able and faithful Minister of Christ and be not afraid or asham'd to lay open your Condition and follow his guidance therein For if men are not content in case of an Infirmity of body to hear the Physick Lectures or to read books of Receits but will state their own case to the Physician himself and will do the like to the Lawyer in weighty cases concerning their Estates how much more need have you of a Godly Divine to direct and assist you in an affair wherein body and Soul are at stake and that for Eternity And so much for that First and fundamental Repentance so absolutely necessary for such Ancient people as have spent their lives in the service of the world and the flesh and were never truly converted unto God. But besides these Repentance in the renewed Acts thereof is a proper and necessary work for All Old people whatsoever You have lived a long time and through Omissions and Commissions have contracted abundance of guilt Trace your selves therefore from place to place from one period of your life to another and strictly reckon with your selves Study the Ten Commandments in their true extent they are called Ten words but they command ten thousand Duties and forbid ten thousand Sins many whereof you have ten thousand times failed in and in divers of them with great aggravations and then sit down and cry out O that my head were a fountain and mine Eyes rivers of tears to bewail these offences against a gracious God Upon this account did holy Augustine in his Old-age write his Confessions wherein he makes no difficulty to shame himself that he might give glory to God. And the Book of Ecclesiastes is judged to be the Poenitenials of King Solomon in his Old-age wherein he plainly confesseth his Vanity in seeking for Happiness in a vain and vexatious World and warns all young men to beware of such like folly Alas if you had fallen but seven times a day yet in seventy years those Sins would have amounted unto almost Two hundred thousand offences and can you reflect upon this without amazement nay it is a wonder that we do not as Nectarius his Accuser of old weep out our Eyes for very grief When the leaves are fallen from the trees as is aptly observed by One the birds nests are easily seen which were invisible before so when through Age our frothy vanities are wither'd we may palpably discover the sallies of Pride Wantonneâ—…s and Folly yea those nest of vermine and vipers which replenished our youthful dayes It was the sober Advice of that Statesman Sir Thomas Randolph in his Old-age after he had been eighteen times Embassador in forreign parts to Sir Thomas Walsingham Secretary of State It is now time sayes he for us to leave the tricks of State and to imploy our time before Death in Repentance for the Sins of our Lives And Blessed be God that hath appointed this Remedy and the Blood of Christ without which all our tears could not wash out one Sin that poor Sinners have this after-game of Recovery when they have been undone by Sin when we have eaten so much of the forbidden fruit in our youth we have need of this worm-wood in our Old-age Renew therefore daily the Acts of unfaigned Repentance and take account duly of your selves as some of the very Heathens have done sith you must give account to God very shortly and he that daily reckons with himself will have but one day to reckon for when he comes to dye But be sure you mistake not the Nature of Repentanee For it is not only a Trouble an Anger a Sorrow but it is made up of Grief and Hatred Grief for the Offence to God and Hatred of the Sins we grieve for So that Repentance is a turning to God from all sin with grief for it and hatred of it And the best Proof you can
give of your Repentance for the Sins of your Youth is a watchful care against the Sins of your Old-age otherwise your Sins are not forsaken but changed Withal if your Repentance be sound it is attended with a will and endeavour to make Restitution wherein you have injur'd any in their Souls Bodies Names or Estates This will be as Letters Testimonial of the truth of your Repentance you must not nay you cannot be quiet if your Repentance be sound until you have seriously endeavour'd as far as in you lies to recover the Souls to restore the Bodies to heal the Reputations and to repair the Estates which you have injur'd without which there can be no true Repentance on Earth and without which there will be no Remission in Heaven SECT II. ANother work of Old-age is obtaining Assurance of Salvation I mean hereby not only a General Certainty that some good people shall be saved for the Devils believe this and rage at it which I think is the same with Objective Certainty nor that Assurance which may come by special and extraordinary Revelation sith we find few or no examples in Scripture of such a thing but rather that the Apostle Paul himself grounds his Assurance of the Crown upon the righteousness of God which he extends to all them that love Christs appearing 2 Tim. 4. 8. Neither do I mean a Conjectural Hope of Salvation which admits both of anxiety and of slavish fear fith the Scripture represents it by Faith and full assurance and produceth Earnests and Seals for confirmation Nor lastly is this Assurance confin'd to Grace at present but extends to final Salvation Thus the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed there is Assurance of his present State but was he certain of his Perseverance Yes that follows and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day That such Assurance hath been attained is clear enough from the Instances of Iob 19. 25 26. of David Psal. 16. 9 10. of Paul 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. and many others That it may be attained is as clear sith there is no intimation that these or the rest had any extraordinary Discovery thereof unto them but arriv'd thereat in the use of those means and by the consignation of that Spirit unto which we have access as well as they And the Apostle doth expresly comprehend the generality of Believers in this Priviledge 2 Cor. 5. 1. For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God c. That it ought to be endeavoured by all true Christians is most evident from the plain commands to that purpose 2 Pet. 1. 10. Wherefore the rather Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure c. That few do labour to attain it thinking it to be impossible or unnecessary is to be bewailed That many deceive themselves with a false perswasion of present Grace and future Glory is manifest by Scripture and daily Experience And that it is most proper and needful for Old people the thing it self speaks For you cannot deny but that you have Souls immortal Souls which being Spirits cannnot dye but must return to God that gave them and are these Souls of so small value to be left to a Hazard to an everlasting venture And it is as evident that this life is uncertain we may say as Isaac Gen. 27. 2. Behold now I am Old I know not the day of my Death and therefore it 's time for us to go about this work without delay Children desire the time of youth and youth longs to be at mans age and they then would live to be Old but Old-age hath no further Age to desire it hath none other to succeed it here and they are wholly uncertain how long it will last and therefore it is absolutely necessary that they should be on sure grounds for Eternity and then the day of death will be better than the day of their Birth You know how much of your life is already spent you can see the Sands that are run into the nether end of the Glass but the upper Part is covered with a Mantle you know not how few Sands are left there to run Nay you cannot but perceive that Death is approaching very near you You are filled with Wrinkles which is a Witness against you and your leanness rising up in you beareth witness to your Face as it is Job 16. 8. For as it is observed of All men that they are Mortales apt to dye and of all Good men that they are Mortificati dying to Sin so it is of all Old men that they are Morituri about to dye And for such to have Oyl to seek when they should have it to Use Evidences to procure when they should have them to produce is an unexcusable neglect Especially knowing that your last Breath wafts you into an unalterable Estate What Journeys and Presents were heretofore made to the Oracles to assure the Votaries concerning the Event of some temporal affairs and how many do now Hazard their Souls by seeking to Necromancers to know the success of their Marriages Voyages and such like and yet a miscarriage in these things is remediable there may be some alleviation in them there may be some end of them but you are lanching into the Ocean of Eternity and are at no certainty whether it be eternal Happiness or eternal Misery What an anxious and uncomfortable State must this be If you were not loose in your belief of future things you would be restless in this condition you owe your Ease to your Letâ—…argy if you were not half Infidels you would be more than half distracted Which brings to mind the course which some Eminent persons among the Heathens took they durst not dye sober but drank great Draughts oâ—… Wine saying That no voluptuous person can go in his Wits into an invisible Estate With what poor comfort must that man dye that must cry out with that Old Philosopher I dye in great doubt and know not whither I am going yet out the Soul must go ready or unready Then will the careless sinner gnash his Teeth for rage at his slothful and sinful life which he hath spent as a Tale that is told Then will he have time enough to curse all the worldly business or wicked Company that hath devoured his precious time and left his Soul to shift for it self for ever Do not we in all other cases strive to be at a point will May-be's and Peradventure's satisfie us in any material humane affairs The Tenant who is warned out of one House cannot enjoy himself until he be sure of another The Steward that was discharged of his Office Luk. 16. took present course to be provided of some other Subsistence The poorest man is uneasie when his old Suit of Cloaths is worn out till he have a
must have a stock of Observations and your Speech commonly is least impaired of all Faculties and it is best imployed in communicating your usefull Notions unto others The Vestal Virgins of old in the First part of their time learned the Mysteries of their Religion in the Second they produced them into Practice in the Third they taught them unto others One end of our learning any thing is that we may instruct others And the Heathens thought that the greatest part of our time should be devoted to the Common good Hide not therefore your Talent in a Napkin but produce your Stock and without impoverishing your selves inrich those that need it You have Opportunity you have your Children and Posterity about you you have some Authority with them let your words drop as the dew and let your lips feed many What profit have they by your longevity if you further them not in goodness In short our lives are little worth when they are not usefull and we cannot better bestow them than in making others better And here is a large field to walk in You should be able and ready to instruct the younger in the Word of God in the Doctrine of the Gospel in that great mystery of Godliness God manifest in the flesh The publick Explications hereof should be familiarly opened by you at home You should talk of them as you sit in your house as you walk by the way when you lye down and when you rise up Deut. 6. 7. Thus David Come ye children hearken unto me I will teach you the fear of the Lord Psal. 34. 11. So also Solomon at large Prov. 4. 1 2. Hear ye children the instruction of a father and attend to know understanding For I give you good doctrine c. Thus Timothy's mother yea and grandmother instructed him You are to instruct them also in the Works of God both of Creation and Providence wherein you may convey to them many things tending to the glory of youâ—… Maker and the benefit of their Souls You should acquaint them with such particular Instances of the Wisdom Righteousness Power and Goodness of God which you have read heard or seen That the generation to come might knoâ—… them even the children that should be born who should arise and declare them to theiâ—… children that they might set their hope iâ—… God and keep his Commandments Psal. 78 6 7. You can tell them also the Methods of Satan and the wicked devicâ—… whereby he beguileth poor Souls â—… Slave who hath been in Algier and iâ—… redeemed or rescued can discover the miserable bondage there and relate with pleasure the means of his Deliverance You can describe the intriegues of Sin and warn young people of the deceitfulness and folly thereof by your own experience They who have been almost mir'd in a puddle or quagmire can easily shew others the place and direct them to avoid it In Summe you should instruct the younger to know and serve and trust in God and whatsoever you have observed in the course of your lives conducive thereunto you should impart unto them That as ungodly men do wickedly communicate their sinful acts and practices and endeavour to propagate them unto posterity that each generation may be worse than other so all wise and good men especially when they are in years should transmit the knowledge and practice of Piety to their Successors that the next age may be better than this and that when we are dead and gone yet it may be truly said the world was the better for us Besides these Instructions in the excellent matters of Religion it lies in the power and way of many Ancient persons to direct and advise the younger in many useful Observations otherwise As concerning the Education of their Children and the disposing of them into Callings or Marriage concerning the preservation or recovery of their health And in case they have any peculiar Skill Receipt or Art useful for the good of Mankind they ought not to bury it in their graves but to assign it to Posterity And whatsoever you have learned or observed that may be beneficial or any way useful to the Church or Common-wealth to your Countrey Town or Family all these Notices you should communicate to those that are younger with all possible fidelity and exactness And if need be commit them to writing for the benefit at least of your own posterity And although your Instructions may not at present seem to be much regarded yet be not discouraged by this for the wise Counsels of the Ancient like the seed of the word of God seems to dye and to be lost and yet in process of time it revives and brings forth fruit Howbeit there is Wisdom to be used in the Instructing of young people For they too commonly are proud conceit ed and self-witted your Lessons therefore must be at such seasons and by such degrees as may render them most valuable and welcome and must be sweetned with that love and dearness and withal interlac'd with such pleasant Diversion that their Appetite may not be cloyed nor your grave Advices be distasted Thus the Emperor Augustus accosted his Hearers Audite Iuvenes senem quem senes juvenem audiverunt You that are young hearken to me that now am old whom Old men hearkened unto when I was yet but young Finally your Example should be a Continual Instruction to young people They that will not heed your good words yet seeing your good works will have a constant copy before them and be induced to write after it The objects of the Eye make deeper impression than those of the Ear When they see the constant practice of piety and charity prudence and patience they conclude that your Directions are in good earnest that they are practicable that they are necessary or else what the right hand of good Counsel builds up the left hand of a loose practice will pull down SECT V. THE Fifth Work of Old-age is Watchfulness against your special Temptations For besides the abovesaid Sins that are most usual in Old-age there are some particular Weaknesses to which they are rather tempted than overcome wherein if they be not watchful they will become miserable Such as 1. Discontentedness of mind This is a Distemper to which Old-age is very liable They want this and they want that which perhaps they have had heretofore and they cannot bear these wants One loss or cross befalls them and e're they have well digested this another comes One while this Disease or pain afflicts them and that no sooner over but they are smitten in another part so that they are prone to perpetual murmurings Never was any bodies life so miserable as theirs they are ready to quarrel at God at men at any thing at nothing They are neither content to live nor ready to dy but yet seem to be fallen out with life and to be in love with death whereupon their common note is I
occasion of this groundless Expectation in that rich man Luk. 12 our Saviour plainly calls him Thou fool For it is the rankest folly to expect when winter is coming that it will relent and retire again because we distast it No more will Death forbear us but when our Name is called we must go But this vain expectation of a longer life unfits us for Death it keeps the Soul secure and careless we deferr that till to morrow which should be done to day we lose the present time and dispose of the future which is not in our hands but in Gods This causes Men to procrastinate their Repentance to deferr the Good works which they have purposed to do yea the very making of their Last Will hath been protracted hereupon by many until they have bin uncapable to do it Let all Aged persons therefore be advised to set Death each morning between themselves and the ensuing night and every night make that reasonable supposition that it may arrest you before morning The messenger that you have so long looked for will not amaze you when he comes As the meeting of a stroke breaks the force of it so the Sting of death is in a great measure lost when we are first aware of it He that in this respect dyes daily will easily and happily dye at last SECT VI. THE Sixth Work of Old-age is Providence for Posterity Too many when they are going out of this World care not what becomes either Temporally or Eternally of those that shall come after them And accordingly will neither plant'a Tree nor repair an House nor do any thing for the benefit of Posterity They cry It will serve our time and so suffer all things to go to ruine because they are removing into another world themselves yea and commit or permit wilfull wast divers ways for somepresent small advantage leaving great inconveniences to their Successors whereas the very Heatheus had better principles and injoyned their Old men to plant trees c. which might be usefull to another Generation Thus a man may be benefiting others still after he is dead and gone and God may be praised for your care and kindness by them which succeed you And another sort there are that in stead of leaving any Blessing or benefit do lay up a Curse for their Posterity by leaving them Estates which they have got by Fraud and Injustice or some unconscionable course which is the ready way to melt away the rest how justly soever obtained You cannot invent a more compendious and infallible means to undoe all your Posterity than by transferring to them Goods or Estates indirectly gotten for God is righteous and will not prosper unrighteous dealings Those riches will perish by evil travel and he begetteth a Son and there is nothing in his hand Eccl. 5. 14. But if you have any care or concern for your Posterity lay up a stock of Prayers for them and leave them as is aforemention'd wholsome and good Rules concerning Piety Equity and Charity Leave them an Account of your own Experience in all things material that so if they have any brains they may cheaply learn what you have dearly bought And especially leave them a Copy of your own good Example which will be a constant Monitor and Check to them in the whole course of their conversation But these having bin touched before that which remains for the Peace Comfort and good of Posterity is a Prudent and seasonable Settling of your outward Estate It is strange to see the great backwardness of many Aged persons to this work as if making their Will would either lessen their Estates or shorten their Lives a gross and groundless Opinion whereas the neglecting of this affair hath a train of very ill consequences particularly many of the most tedious Suits of Law are occasion'd thereby mutual Love among Relations spoiled the poor overcome by the rich the simple by the cunning the Orphan by the Guardian and very often the whole Estate squandred away in trying for it What a folly is this to neglect that which would both quiet your own minds and preserve quiet among them that come after Ten lines discreetly written would prevent ten thousand lines when you are dead When the Lord therefore sent a Message of Death by the Prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah he commanded him to set his house in order Isa. 38. 1. as if that work must of right go before his death The Aged person then ought to present this Message daily to his Soul Man Woman set thy house in order For since it is uncertain in what place or in what moment Death waiteth for us it behoves us to wait for it in every place and every moment and consequently to set not only the heart but the house in Order And in the doing of this work let Reason and Iudgment over-rule Passion and Affection If need be advise in Law the neglect whereof renders the Testaments of many persons nothing but Bones of Contention and so the sparing of a small Fee at present proves the spending of many in a short time But however weigh your Purposes in a good Conscience and remember that you are only Deputies under God whose you are and your whole Estate that it be so Devised as may agree with his Revealed will Think with your selves what judgment wise and impartial persons will pass upon your Disposals when you are in the grave Pray therefore unto God on this occasion that he would first Direct and then Establish your Purposes which is the likeliest way to bring them to pass And dispatch this affair Timcusly while you are in health and strength For you can never do it as you would nor perhaps as you should when you are in the power of those that stand waiting for your Estate They who are so weak that they must be beholden to their Relations for every Refreshment they have need of cannot have the liberty or opportunity to order their affairs in an impartial manner What if upon the alteration of your circumstances you revise your Will and alter it every year Is it not much better to be at that trouble than either to deferr it till you can make none at all or such as must savour greatly of your present weakness Do not imagine that the Expedition of this will hasten your Death For what influence or efficacy can this have to procure any such effect It were easie to produce those that have never bin without a Will written and sealed for Thirty or Forty years together It affords a man great satisfaction in case any sudden sickness seize upon him that he hath nothing of any earthly affairs to trouble him nothing to do but to bear or to be relieved of his distemper For when our inward State is fixed and our outward State is settled yet we shall find it work enough to grapple with the disquiets of a disease and with the pangs of Death
the world and to the desire of Life When the Aged man hath made it his business to honour God to save his own soul and to serve his own generation he may with unconceivable comfort say with Old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace I have done with this life welcome be the grave welcome everlasting life SECT VIII THE Eighth Work of Old-age is Laying up a treasure in Heaven Where by Heaven I understand not only the Place but the Nature of the Treasures heavenly Treasures Some of these the Aged will have need of Before Death of some At Death of some After Death 1. You should lay up for your selves a Treasure of Prayers and Promises to support you before Death comes Of Prayer I have spoken before but there are Promises that are very comfortable and very necessary for Old people which they who are assured of Gods Veracity and their own Integrity may apply to themselves as if individually directed unto them The Apostle makes that inference from that excellent Promise which hath more value in it than all the Old mans baggs and bonds Heb. 13. 5. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee whence he inferrs vers 6. So that we even we may boldly say The Lord is my helper Another Promise there is most comfortable for Ancient people Isa. 46. 4. Even to your Old-age I am he and even to hoar hairs will I carry you I have made and I will bear even I will carry and will deliver you When our feeble legs will not carry us when the pillars of the house tremble and in effect cry out we can bear you no longer then will the power and goodness of God carry us up and deliver us yea when we approach to Death and fear presents it and the grave most formidably we may then apply what the Lord spake to Old Iacob concerning his going down into Egypt Gen. 46. 3. I am God the God of thy father fear not to go down into Egypt For I will go down with thee and will also surely bring thee up again So assuredly will the Lord go down with us to the grave and as surely bring us up again and how can we be afraid with such company and with such a promise Hoard on still there is another gracious Promise Psal. 23. 4. Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me More yet Psal. 48. last For this God is our God for ever and ever he will be our guide even unto death These and such like Promises left by him that cannot lye will support the sinking spirits of a poor Christian more than all the friends the cordials the extrinsick comforts in the whole world 2. At Death you will need a Treasure of Faith and Patience The reign of Sense is expired somewhat is necessary to support a dying man more than a living healthy man. What is it that makes Death terrible to a poor creature The withdrawing of all a mans outward comforts and the Appearance of all his Sins When one is dying they must leave husband wife children parents friends house all Now Faith will give us a real sight of the other world and one sight of that quite disgraces and annihilates all the comforts of this world Adieu poor house I see a far better ready for me adieu my dearest friends and relations I see those enjoyments before me that utterly eclypse you all And then when your Sins are mustered up before you their heinous nature and deserved punishment and that Satan bestirs him to represent them with the greatest Terror to the Aged dying person if Faith be dormant the poor soul is driven into the pit of despair But a lively Faith flies to Iesus Christ runs into his wounds lays hold on his everlasting righteousness and so bids defiance to Satan yea even to the law and all his sins with Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed It is related in an Epistle prefixed to Brentius's works that when a certain Senator in Suevia lay dying one like a Scribe came into his chamber with pen and paper calling to him to reckon up his sins for saith he I am sent from God to bring an account of them to his Tribunal Well saith the Sick man raising up himself as well as he could and perceiving that he had to do with his great Enemy the Devil write this down first The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head and thou mayst write all my sins under it Whereupon the Accuser of the brethren presently vanished and left the weak man in peace And you will have need of Patience also that after ye have done and suffered the will of God ye may receive the promise Heb. 10. 36. So acute or else tedious are some Distempers that they will strain all the nerves of the Soul to wrestle with them Lay up therefore by diligent reading hearing meditation and Prayer a stock of these Graces before the evil day come These are the true riches and which neither the fire can burn nor the plague infect nor time wast nor thieves purloyn 3. And lastly It behoves the Aged to lay up a Treasure which they may meet with After death to wit of Good works In this life is your seed time for these and they that scatter this precious seed shall doubtless mark doubtless they shall come again with rejoycing bringing their sheaves with them Psal. 126. 6. Faith and good works may well agree in a Christian and though they cannot cooperate to a mans Iustification for though both of them are Acts of a creature yet Faith derives not this influence from the Subject but from the Object it justifies as it apprehends and imbraces Christ notwithstanding both are necessary to Salvation Luk. 12. 33. Sell that ye have and give alms provide your selves baggs which wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no thief approacheth neither moth corrupteth i. e. This treasure is neither liable to intrinsick decay nor to extrinsick casualty What other treasure hath escaped danger but who can scale the Empyrean Heaven These the Apostle calls a good foundation 1 Tim. 6. 19. Charge the rich that they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Other riches you lay up for others yea perhaps for such as you know not but by doing all the good you can you lay up something in store for your selves What if the advantage be not at present visible men will lay out money upon a good Reversion though they never live to injoy it Here is a Reversion worth the having Eternal life Many useful things may be done in this life which cannot be done by
you when this life is ended Now you may feed the poor cloath the naked redeem the captive incourage learning promote Soul-saving Preaching c. Are you any other than Gods Stewards and poor Christians poor Tradesmen poor Scholars poor Ministers are Gods Assigns to whom he appoints you to do good out of his stock in your hand according to your ability and their necessity You do but draw Bills upon Almighty God by every good Work which he will most faithfully and fully pay in the Kingdom of Heaven I omit the Story of Synesius our blessed Saviour hath said enough to perswade us if we be not Infidels from that Parable of the unjust Steward Luk. 16. where he thus concludes ver 9. Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations Consider now before it be too late what a sad prospect it will be for you on your death-bed to review the book of a life wherein is nothing but Blots transgressions on the one side of the page and Blanks omissions of good on the other Bethink your selves therefore which way you may yet do some good in the world Do not live do not dye to your selves poor Christ in his members begs of you to remember him Oblige him here in the Countrey and he will befriend you at the Court. Whilst you have opportunity do good unto all especially to the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10. your opportunity will shortly be over and past yet you have something to give and some body to give unto but if you refuse or delay it shortly you will have nothing to give no body to relieve And remember Gods Counsel 2 Cor. 9. 6. He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully I urge you not to undoe your selves by doing good to others but that ye be ready willing and rich in good works according to the talents wherewith you are intrusted And this will be a good Proof that your Faith is sound when you can part with present and visible things upon the word and promise of an Invisible God for future things which are unseen And if the circumstances of your Estate will bear it let me prevail with you to make your own Eyes your Overseers and your own hands your Executors For though I would not discourage any one from making pious or charitable Bequests in their Wills by bewailing the uncertainty the abuse and loss of such intentions But the thing it self is no way so laudable or acceptable only to part with what we cannot keep it insinuates that if we could alwayes live we would never part with any thing whereby there is neither that Faith nor that Charity exercised which becomes a Christian. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due mark it is due to them when it is in the power of thine hand to do it Prov. 3. 27. You are just ready to travel into another Countrey take care to send something before you lest you lose both Earth and Heaven at once SECT IX THE Ninth Work of Old-age is Meditation of Death and Eternity Meditation in general is the application of our thoughts to some particular Subject which being imployed about things Holy becomes one of the parts of Inward Religion A most excellent and useful exercise and which greatly inriches the Soul It was a clear proof of the great sanctity of Davids heart that he was so frequent and familiar in this imployment sometimes on God sometimes on his Word sometimes on his Works both of Creation and of Providence c. O that we all had the Art of it the Heart of it for the heart is all Doubtless if our Love were stronger our meditation would be longer on these things for where the treasure is there the heart will dwell also I know some Constitutions of body are more capable of it than others but certainly the more the soul is sanctified that is mortified to things below and vivified to things above the more chearfully will it dwell upon spiritual things such as the Stomach is such food will it desire But among other useful Points The Aged is greatly concern'd to Meditate on Death and the endless Life after it which is to pencill out before the Eyes of his mind the time of his Departure the serious Circumstances and Consequences of it We should place our selves upon our Death-beds gasping there for breath our Friends ready to close our Eyes the dabbe of flegme ready to stop our breath and our Souls just forsaking the poor carkass When we look upon our hands and feet it should be attended with these thoughts that shortly they will be turn'd to rottenness that the worms will make furrows in our faces and feed upon our very hearts yea that we at present do breed and nourish the vermine that wait for to devour us that e're long we shall have nothing to do here our house and goods in the possession of those that would be affrighted to see us again that we must lodge a long time in the dark grave and the Soul must go into an unknown world and that unto all Eternity These are thoughts for Aged persons and not to be roving about things past to no purpose or contriving about things of this world to come This is in some sence to dy daily to wit by serious thoughts concerning our latter end The truth is this is a duty incumbent upon all Hence that saying Deut. 32. 29. O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end A Deaths-head is no unfit furniture for a young persons closet The serious apprehensions of the exceeding great change which Death will make would give a check to that wantonness worldliness and vain-glory which cleaves to us all by nature For Death observes not our humane order it is anomalous we are not called according to our Age it proceeds not according to our Registers Your considering of Death will not make you Older but Better But principally it concerns the Aged who live in the confines of the grave You should be acquainted with it for you are neighbour's to it It is one of the Spanish Proverbs That the Old mans Staff is the Rapper at Deaths-door When Cato would awaken the Roman Senate to level Carthage he brought in some green figs thence among them thereby to shew unto them how soon those their inveterate Enemies their distance being so small might be with a Fleet among them alas how small is the distance between an Old man and his grave Is it not reasonable therefore is it not necessary that we should be provided for this enemy and since we cannot escape it ought we not to be reconciled to it to be better acquainted with it yea and learn some way to overcome it And certainly the more we rightly think of it the less we shall fear it
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
Richer in Experience k Serus venit usus ab annis Ovid. Met. l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sophocl m Experience is a sedious bâ—…t a sure Master n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o Arist. l. 1. Met. Justin. lib. â—…1 p Ex multis memorâ—…is ejusdem rei conflatur experientia Palaeot §. 3. Freer from Sin. q Id ago senex ne videar velle quae puer volui Sen. Ep. 61. r Qui se libidinum vinculis laxatos noâ—… molesti â—…errent Cicer. s Non sentio in animo aetatis injuriam cùm sentiam in corpore tantum vitia vitiorum ministeria senuâ—…runt vigâ—…t animus gaudet non multum sibi cum corpore magnam partem oneris sui deposuit Exultat mihi facit controversiam de senectute hanc ait esse â—…orem suum credamus illi bono suo utatâ—…r Sen. Ep. 26. t One may desire the Death of this Body to be delivered from the Body of this death Mr. Caryll §. 4. Proner to Piety u Quid enim stolidius fieri posset si mens ad perfectionem non contendit quando totus corporis habitus senectute confectus ad interitum properat Cyprian w Dr. Loâ—…d Fair warning p. 162. x Haeâ—… aetas optimè facit ad studia jam despumavit jam vitia adolescentiae domita lassavit non multum superest ut extinguat si quis quaerat quando proderit quod in exitâ—… discitur aut in quam rem In hanc ut exeat melior Senec. Ep. 78. §. 5. Riper in Fruits y Senectus enim ipsa in bonis moribus dulcior in consiliis utilior ad constantiam subeundae mortis paratior ad reprimendas libidines firmior Ambros Hex l. 1. c. 8. z See Dr. Sheafe's Vindication of Old-age written by Him at 80. Dedicated to Dr. Chaderton who was 100. and published by Dr. Gouge at 65. A. D. 1639. Plutarch An. seni c. p. 519. a Ille ergo bene senescit qui bene senserit Ambr. §. 6. Worthier of Respect b Magna fuit capitis quondam reverentia cani Ovid. 5. Fast. c Credebant hoc grande nefas morte piandum Si Iuvenis vetulo non assurrexerat Juv. Sat. 13. d Nil habui antiquius §. 7. Further from the World. e Quod si quis Deus mihi largiatur ut ex hac aetate repuerascam in cunis vagiam valdè recusem nec vero velim quasi decurso spatio a calce ad carceres revocari Seneca f Nec me vixisse poenitet quoniam it a vixi ut frustra me natum non existimem ex vitâ istâ discedo tanquam ex hospitio non tanquam ex domo commoraâ—…di enim Natura diversorium nobis non habitandi dedit Senec. g Nihil de seculo desiderare potest qui seculo major est Tertul. h At senex est eò melior conditione quam adolescens cùm id quod sperat ille hic jam assecutus est Ille vult diu vivere hic diu vixit Cicero i Solenne in confinio mortis positis res humanas ex ignotâ quadam supernaturali causa fastidire P. Suav Histor Conc. Trident. â—… 8. Nearer to Death and Eternity †Of young men dy many Of old men scape not any k Pugnae finis est initium victoriae dum finiuntur labores accedunt honores Rivet de senbon l Chrysost. hom 49. in Matth. m Moâ—… quid est aut finis est aut transitus nec desinere timeo idem est enim quod non coepisse nec transire quia nusquam tam angustè ero Senec. Ep. 65. n Facilè contemnit omnia qui semper cogitat se esse moriturum Hieron ep ad Paul. o O preclaram diâ—… cum ad illud amicorum concilium coetumque profiâ—…iscar cum ex hac turbâ colluvione discedam Cicero p Ennius q Ante senectutem curavi ut benè viverem in senectute ut benè moriar benè autem mori est libenter mori Sen. ep 61. r O veneranda ante alias senectus O diu optata O nequicquam formidata mortalibus Et si nôsse coeperis faelix aetas Indignus est ad te pervenire qui te metuit Indignus pervenisse qui te accusat Petrarch lib. 8. ep â—…enil ep 2. Cap. 7. The Work of Old-age §. 1. Repentance of their Sins s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t I repent of all my life but that part I have spent in communion with God and in doing good Dr. Donnâ—… on his Death-bed u Quidam tunc vivere incipiunt cum desinenduâ—… est si hoc judiceâ—… mirum adjiciam quod magis admireris quidam ante vivere desierunt quam incipiunt Sen. Ep. 23. w Nonne tota vita ob commissa damnabilis vel ob omissa inutilis quid restat ô peccator nisi ut in tota vita deplores totam vitam Anselm x In quantum non peperceris tibi in tantum Deus crede parcet Tertul de poen c. 9. y O that this flesh had bin compos'd of Snow Instead of Earth â—… and bones of Ice that so Feeling the fervour of my sins and loathing The Fire I feel I might be thaw'd to nothing Quarles z Quid quoque die dixerim audiverim egerim commemoro vesperi Cato in Tully a An melius est damnatum latere quam palam absolvi Tertul de poenâ—… c. 10. §. 2. Obtaining of Assurance b August Ep. 110. c Câ—…rneades Chesilaâ—…s §. 3. Prayer and Praises d Rivet ep de bona senectute §. 4. Instruction of the Younger e Plutarch f Major pars aetatis certè melior Reipublicae data sit aliquid temporis tui sâ—…me etiam tibi Sen. de br vit c. 18. §. 5. Watchfulness against several Temptations g Omne pâ—…catum impatientiae ascribendum Tert de pat c. 6. h Vir fortis sapiens non fugere debet â—… vitâ sed exire Sen. ep 24. i Atsi inutile ministeriis est câ—…rpus quidni oportent educere animam laborantem fortasse antequam debet faciendum est ne cùm fieri debeat facere non posses Id. ep 58. k Conscientia benè actae vitae multorumque bene factorum recordatio jucundissima est Cicero l Tithonus being very old was say the Poets turn'd into a Grashopper m Ne pergas quaererè quiâ—… cor durum sit si non expavisti tuum est Bern. n Exigâ—…a pars est vitae quam nos vivimus non exiguum temporis habemus sed multum perdimus Re omnium pretiosissimâ luditur Sen. de â—…r vit o Animus fuit victor annorum as Bernard saith of Humbertus p Sempâ—…r enim in iis studiis laboribusque viventi non intelligitur quando obrepat sâ—…ectus Cicero q Nemo est tam senex quise annum non putet posse vivere Cicer. r Quotidiè morimur quotidiè mutamur tamen aeternos nos esse credimus
have lived too long O that I were in my grave But this Distemper argues great weakness of Grace yea a great weakness of Spirit Hence that Philosopher that sometimes resolved that a wise and couragious man should not flee from life how discommodious soever but fairly depart from it yet at other times advised to let the wearied Soul out of the useless body before its time A crime of the deepest tincture to snatch the Prerogative of our Soveraign Creatour out of his hands whose rightful priviledge alone it is to give life to men and to take it away And why should you be so uneasie under these momentany tryals Is it not the Lot which your heavenly Father hath in great wisdom set out for you It is better to be Old and crazy on earth than to have been sent young to hell You have your ailments and if you were privy to others mens you would be reconciled to your own It was Socrates his Observation that if every mans burden were laid on a common heap each man would be glad to take up his own again You should rather be thankful to God for the blessings of the former part of your life than murmur at the troubles of the present You think it the only happiness to have all the Comforts of this World but Others have thought it a greater to have a Mind above them You have or else the fault is your own the Company of a gracious God and a good Conscience when you are uncapable of other company You should imitate the Grashopper to whom the Old man by some is likened who is made the Emblem of Contentation because she only sucks the dew and sings and is content with that hoping for better One Crown will swallow up all your Crosses whereas Discontent makes your Condition most uneasie here and most unfit for Heaven hereafter 2. Another Temptation which you that are Old are in danger of is Hardness of Heart and Security You haâ—… sinned often and perhaps repented buâ—… seldom you have heard and read many convincing Sermons and made but slender application of them you have seen many swept away by the hand of God and you have escaped yea some of you peradventure have lived long in some sinful course are grown Old in adulteries Ezek. 23. 43. or in oppression or in some other Sin. These things you have done and the Lord hath kept Silence and now you are ready to think that He is such a one as your selves and to bless your selves in your woful wayes till your iniquity be found to be hateful The Aged person surely must have either a very tender heart or a very hard one If Gods Ordinances and Providences that is Mercies and Afflictions have made a due impression upon you your hearts must be very soft but otherwise you are in the greatest danger of a hard heart and a spirit of slumber Watch and pray therefore in the fear of God against this dangerous Temptation They are most guilty of this distemper that were never afraid of it Preserve a due tenderness in your Consciences suffer not any sin to ly upon them unrepented Endeavour to have daily a clearer sight of sin and a deeper sense of the evil of it Let the exemplary Judgments upon others startle you Know that if you sleep in sin your Preservation will be but a Reservation to some fearful issue Remember that though a Sinner do evil an hundred times and his dayes be prolonged yet it shall not be well with the wicked Eccl. 8. 12 13. The greatest Iudgment that can befall a man upon earth is to prosper in any sinful way There is a Natural hardness in All men there is an Habitual hardness in some men but there is a Iudicial hardness only in such as are ripe for hell And the First if it be not cured by Gods grace leads to the second and the second prepares for the third Of all sorts of men ye that are Old have least cause to be secure that have one foot already in the grave The green apple may be pluckt off but the ripe one is falling off already But it is not the approach of Death without the effectual influence of Gods Spirit that will soften an hardned sinner as is too evident in the Malefactors in Newgate that will be drunk and swear at a dreadful rate when they know that the Execution-day is certainly at hand Be instant therefore with the Lord to deliver you from hardness of heart from a spirit of slumber and from a reprobate sense 3. A Third Temptation which Old-age must watch against is Slothfulness of Spirit The decay of natural Spirits disposeth them hereunto and corrupt Nature joyns with the temptation It is an easie thing to be idle and flesh and blood is glad enough of excuses from pains and trouble Indeed where natural Parts or natural Strength are wasted much cannot be expected Iob 30. 2. Yea whereto might the strength of their hands profit me in whom old age was perished yet that which will release them in part will not do it altogether Time is so short so precious so irrevocable that it should not be slept or trifâ—…ed away if we can do any thing for the ends of life The Aged person must consider how much wast ground there hath been in the field of his life how many years are lost in Infancy and Childhood how much time at riper years in unnecessary sleep and recreations how much hath been consumed in doing nothing and how much in doing worse than nothing and that it is an easie thing to lose time that it is an hard thing to redeem time and that it is an impossible thing to recall time and therefore they who have lost so much time and can recall none of it had need to redeem and make the best of that which is left Few men will throw away their money but most men squander away their lives being most prodigal of that wherein we may most justly be covetous as the same Philosopher discourseth Let no Aged person imagine that they are to live to no purpose The Levites though at Fifty years of age they were discharged from the most laborious service of the Temple yet they were not left to be Idle but to do the work of the Lord in some more easie imployments Tully brings in Cato telling how he learned Greek in his Old-age and that even at those years no body came to see him but they found him imployed and he reports of Leontius Gorgias who was an hundred and seven years old and yet never was weary of his studies and labours The truth is sloth is a vice that accelerates Old-age as you heard before and abetts that languishment of the Spirits which furthers it We shall not feel it so sensibly while we are continually imployed How much knowledge and wisdom have we neglected which we might have obtained if our sloth
SECT VII THE Seventh Work of Old-age is Mortification And the Object hereof is double 1. That which is Evil in it self 2. That which is Lawful in it self The Religious Old person hath work in both these 1. One great work of Old-age is Dying to sin to all sin The time past of our life may suffice us to have walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine revellings banquettings c. 1 Pet. 4. 3. We have sinn'd enough already yea much more than enough it is high time to undo that which hath almost undone us We are dying it is necessary that our sins dy before us and that by Faith in the death of Christ and Repentance from dead works for want of which course our Evidences prove litigious and snarled with inextricable doubts It is not enough that we want strength or opportunity to sin but our wills and desires towards it must be dead also Sin is only asleep or benumbed in us if we have not used Gods means to crucify it It 's not sufficient that we leave it except we loath it Go through-stitch therefore with this work do it quickly do it sincerely it is Kill or be Kill'd and necessity makes the Coward resolute Dread not any Scriptural severities necessary in Mortification Some Devils are not cast out without Prayer and Fasting and Hippocrates observes that Old-age is the fittest for the use of Fasting The wounds that sin hath made must be searched to the bottom and doubtless it is never crucified no more than Christ was without pain How justly doth the Scripture still stigmatize sin with the name of Folly to weave a Webb that must be unrav'led and to make us spend our lives between sinfull joyes and painfull sorrowes And though Old-age doth not mortify sin by it self yet cooling our lusts and passions it proves helpfull in that work and provided we be truly thankful unto God for that advantage and that we use other necessary means to that end we may comfortably acquiesce in that blessed effect and rejoyce that the things which are displeasing to God are become unpleasant to us But we must not be content to be only passive in the decayes of sin we must be active in that work If ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. And as All sin must be the Object of Mortification so especially all Youthful sins For as Chrysostom says An Old man acting juvenile sins is far more ridiculous than young persons that commit those sins To have our hearts burn with Lust or Revenge when our veins are freezing with Age the soul rampant and the body dying is monstrous And yet we know how S. Hierom himself complains of scalding motions that were ready to invade his withered body And the Scripture gives us a sad Instance hereof even of Solomon the best and wisest of men alive that had done more for God and God for him than any man in the age he lived in that he when he was between Fifty and Sixty years of age should be so far inslaved to his strange wives as to be carried by them to worship strange gods For it came to pass when Soloman was Old that his wives turned away his heart c. 1 Kin. 11. 4. Whereby he set in such a cloud as hath drawn his very Salvation into question Let it be a warning to all Aged people to see that their Corruptions be not asleep but dead as far as is attainable in this life that the Old man as well as the outward man perish and which will be a good proof thereof that the inward man be renewed day by day That our Thoughts our Words our very Behaviour and Attire proclaim that Sin and we are parted never to meet again It was a good answer of a Lacedemonian to one that asked him why he wore his Beard so long Answ. It is to mind me that I do nothing unbeseeming my hoary hairs A light behaviour in a grave person is foolish and loathsome For as dead flies cause the ointment of the Apothecary to send forth a stinking saviour so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour Eccl. 10. 1. 2. The Other Object of Mortification proper for Old-age is The World and all the innocent but charming vanities thereof Not that they are bound actually to forsake the World either the needful cares or the lawful comforts of it But to wean and abate their desires of it their delights in it their cares about it This should be every Christians work but it should be the Aged persons care in a more eminent measure For they are ready to leave this world and ascend into another and every one takes off their mind from an house they are leaving The world also is forsaking them the pleasure they have formerly taken in meats apparel building is much decayed the things which did formerly ravish are now grown insipid and doth not this call aloud to them to real Mortification you should most readily consent to part with them and say Farewell my gold and all my gayeties I meant not to injoy but use you I can be happy without you It is the absurdest sight in the world to see one gaping and grasping after this world when he is going into another Let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand Phil. 4. 5. Your loyns should be always girded about and your lights burning and ye your selves like unto men that wait for your Lord Luk. 12. 35. I write unto you Fathers Love not the world neither the things that are in the world 1 Joh. 2. 14 15. Abate your love to things below and increase your love to things above Nothing can overcome love but Love love of earthly things but the Love of heavenly things as nothing can fetch out fire like fire O when we do love all these things for God we will willingly leave them all to go to God for whose sake only we valued them Otherwise you will find it an hard pluck to leave them even like the plucking the Skin off your hand whereas the heart that is mortified to them can part with them as easily as you can draw the glove off your hand How readiâ—… did 〈◊〉 gâ—… up into the mount and dye what little noise or dispute did Iacob or David or Paul make about leaving â—…he world They were dead to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that said I am ready to be offerâ—… had said before the world is crucified to me and I unto â—…he world So that the Aged person should be mortified to Life it self he should be very well content to dy It was a sad Confession of Caesar Borgia that ambitious Grandee when he was near his end that he was prepar'd for every occurrent but Death which was the only thing that he should have been most ready for But 't is Grace not years that makes us dead to