hope of legacies may gaine to him regard and love while hee lives from them who are apt enough to despise his gray-haires Molestus est inter juvenes senex sayes one OLD-AGE is troublesome and unpleasing to youth Many Old-men that have outed themselves of all or neare all while they lived have after it continued alive long enough to repent when it was too late Besides it is certaine that though this man of yeeres by help of his even temper is able to use the wealth he hath with greater benefit and lesse hurt to himselfe and others then younger men who hardly observe a meane in any thing yet being weaned from the pleasures of this world to which his riches might be the fuell or materials no marvell if he abstaine from a much delightfull use of them While his mind feedes on better food his body and mind both are contented to want the use of the worser strange it were if such contentednes and moderation should breed reproach But S. Austen may seeme to stand against us in this point He tels us that in Old-age all other vices decaying covetousnesse juvenescit encreaseth and groweth daily I answer first it is unlikely that this his censure was generall because hee knew well how farre himselfe in his elder yeares was from it and doubtlesse if he wrote it while he was young when he was growne old he would have retracted it from his experience in himselfe had he meant it of all Probable it is that he said it either according to the common tenent of the disgracers of this age or because some Old-men of the worser sort are such and in that case it is morum vitium non senectutis to be ascribed not to the age but to the viciousnesse of the former part of mans life whence the habit of covetousnesse might grow up It is absurd saies the Patron of this age that an Old-man should as an Old-man he meanes bee covetous no lesse absurd then for one to vex himselfe with getting still more and more provision for his journey when he is come neare the end of it Certainely that which it is absurd for a man to doe and incredible that he will do it it is as absurd to thinke he is culpable in it or to accuse him of it Lastly it may be answered that were the Old-man faulty herein somewhat might be said for him by way of excuse viz. that it is caused by an incident infirmity which is feare of want arising partly from the coldnesse of his temper and in part from his inability now to get any thing by his labours or indeavours which may seeme to free him from the scraping covetousnesse though it put him hap'ly upon parsimony or warinesse in spending One being asked what was in vita calamitosissimum the heaviest calamity in this life answer'd well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the estate of a poore needy Old-man So then the calamity of want being greater to this age then to the other to be sparing in it is skarse any fault at all For nature it selfe gives every creature a kind of care and desire to preserve it selfe Further It is said that the Old-man doth all things with feare coldly and slowly Warily as I conceive it having observed in his long experience the innumerable mischiefes into which the rashnesse and unadvised hastinesse of young men doth carry them The Philosopher gives this very reason why youth is bold and age fearefull It is saith he because youth wasts knowledge for who so bold as the blind and age sees the danger of being over-hasty It is added that hee desires and longs for better times True because he hath seene much evill in the world and is wearied with greeving at it No man can fault him for this Againe he is hard to please This may arise from his dislike of mens evill manners with which no man should be pleased He is said to be a prayser of former times Not without cause sith the world growes daily more and more out of frame and wicked He cannot winke at the vices of disordered young-men but sharpely reprooves them Who may more justly take to him this so necessary an office or execute it with so much gravity so great authority so mature wisedome discretion and moderation as the Old-man of whose well-meriting love and indeavours for the common good all men have had long experience and triall By this which hath beene said it is plaine and evident first that all the ages of mans life are infirme Secondly that each hath its proper defects and lastly that the infirmities of Old-age are not so great as of the rest all things duely weighed and consider'd Now they are to be compared likewise in the point of sicknesse But this part of my taske I am willing to cast upon the Physitian both in regard of his farre greater knowledge this way and to avoid the blame of putting my sickle into an other mans harvest and leaping out of mine element Fearing to be Piscis in arido mâ—…nachus in forâ—… Yet something of it out of mine owne profession Health is indeed a blessing upon blessings one that seasons and sweetens all the rest But the perfection of it was onely in Paradice For immediately after the fall came the curse first upon man that had sinned In the very same day saith St. Austin began Adam and Eve to dye in which they received the law of death After the curse fell for man and his transgression upon the earth and the other bordering elements and on all the creatures conteined in them While man was faithfull in serving his Creator the creatures served him as their second Lord but presently upon his fall from his God they all fell from him and shaking off the yoke of their allegiance turned enemies and rebells against him Before man had the meanes of health and life and immortality to which he was created laid up for him in those creatures then all good But since through the curse they are become the instruments to inflict on him that punishment the bodily death or rather so many Sergeants to arrest him And the infinite number of diseases bred by the earths curse are likewise busy tormentors to waite on him for the execution of that punishment which the transgression had justly deserved Dust now wee are and to dust wee shall returne dead-men we are and to death the creatures are appointed to bring us In the sweat 〈◊〉 our faces we eat our bread Our daily labours in our callings are now not as Adams in Eden but sweating labours which make way to sicknesse and consequently to death drying up sensim sine sensu by little and little unperceivably the radicall moysture and wasting the naturall heate and withall enfeebling the body and so farre disabling it to beare the distempers as that it is sooner
generatio alterius the dying of the seed is the life of the corne that springs from it Thou foole saith th' Apostle that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die Thus we see there is still happinesse in death The grave may be likened to the Gold-smiths Forge in it our bodies are refined and polished by Gods Almighty hand and by the power of Christs Resurrection and they are made of corruptible incorruptible and of mortall immortall and so that comes to passe which we have Rom. 8. 28. That all things worke together for good to them that love God it is true of afflictions which are the fore-runners of death and true of death it selfe and therefore the Apostle tells us that whether it bee life or death things present or things to come all are ours and well saith Saint Bernard Bona mors quae vitam non aufert sed transfert in melius O happy death that deprives us not of life but changes this for a farre better Dies mortis saith Seneca quem tanquam extremum formidas aeterni natalis est How art thou deceived in thy thoughts of death the day of thy death which thou so much fearest as thy last day to thee is the Birth day of eternity and Euripides answerably vivere mori est mori autem vivere to live is to die and to die is to live viz. eternally But now another block lies in our way another Objection which must also bee answered How blessed by that may some man say which is a curse and punishment for sinne that which God hath armed against us as was said before for the execution of that doome In the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death To this I say first that the Apostle answers it 1 Cor. 15. 54 55. the most hurtfull creatures if once they bee disarmed and weakned cannot hurt us much lesse when they are overcome and slaine for us and to our hand as we say so is death Christ hath taken away the sting of it and conquer'd it and all adverse power that might stop our passage to Heaven And as when Goliah was overcome by David this victory made all the people of Israel for whom hee fought Conquerours and freed them from the power of the enemie so our David having overcome and conquered death we are safe being all more then Conquerours by and in him Now the second point followes which I proposed for the answering of this last accusation that Old-age is a neere neighbour to death viz. that other ages are as liable to it as this and many times as neere It is observed by one that there are three messengers of death casuality sicknesse and Old-age Casualities and the unhappy accidents that doe befall men and shorten their lives are indeed many somewhere whole Cities have beene overthrowne by earthquakes others burnt up by lightnings some by fire whole regions swallowedup by the earths gaping for them many men and places destroyed by the inundations of the sea and many other casualities happen daily a haire drunke in milke a stone in a grape a small bone in a fish have beene meanes of choaking some have dyed with suddaine joy Warres and the Pestilence how many thousands doe they devoure a multitude of such accidents there are but no age is more free from these messengers then this we speake of and that for these reasons First because this is an age of the best temper and greatest moderation and circumspection whereby divers of those dangers are avoided Secondly because it is not so much in bodily action as the rest Thirdly for that it mooves lesse stirres lesse abroad giving it selfe to retirednesse Fourthly it is not prest to the warres where death compasses men about and is daily and hourely expected Besides it is free from quarrells and lesse subject to surfettings to breaking and disjoynting of limbs or to deadly wounds c. Touching the second messenger of death Bodily diseases they are in other ages moe more sharpe and more incurable every man will grant it If it be said that though these two messengers should passe by Old-men yet their age it selfe will stand ready every houre to arrest them I answer that neither is that so for the Schooleman tells us that OLD-AGE sometimes equals all the other in yeeres and durance and whereas of the rest there is a certaine set period and end of this there is none for no man knowes when an Old-man shall die and cease to be an Old-man Saint Ierome tells us that Nemotam fractis viribus decrepitae senectutis est quin non se putet unum adhuc annum esse victurum that there is not any in strength so decayed and in age so decrepit as not to thinke he shall live yet one yeere longer Further we know that the yongest hath no lease no certainty of the number of his daies and therefore must still be in expectation of death as well as the aged for it behooves him that hath no set day for his debt to be at all times solvendo ready for payment Socrates was wont to say that to Old-men death stands before them continually in their sight but to young men hee lurks behind that unawares he may come upon them as an enemy that lies in ambush The third part of my answer remaines which retorts the fault if it be one of Old-ages being so neere to death upon the true cause of it viz. mens intemperance and disorder in the former part of their life I will briefly passe through the particular foregoing ages In Infancy many times the milke in the nursing or food when it hath left the brest is unholsome whereby an ill foundation is laid for the bodily constitution And heere by the way I cannot but blame the indiscreet peremptorinesse of some who doubt not to make this a generall rule or Maxim that God never makes the wombe fruitfull and the brest barren and thereupon stick not to conclude that no woman may put forth her childe to nurse true not of nicenesse and to shunne the paines and trouble of it Yet it cannot be denied that there are many cases in which the mother not onely may refuse this office which in it selfe is most naturall I confesse and lies neerely upon her but is a cruell mother to her child to say nothing of her selfe if shee doe otherwise for what weaknesse and how many deseases may bee derived from a mother in some cases I say and of some constitutions to the child to its utter overthrow and undoing and besides it is not true that the mothers breasts are never dry nor that there can be no other thing that may justly excuse her refusing to be a nurse But I leave the digression having but occasionally and by the way fallen upon it And now further I say that often through want of attendance the poore infant falls into many
when it lookes into the vale of teares And so proper is this cry to its birth that the Law supposes it dead-borne or as the common word is still-borne if then it cry not if it be still at the birth and doe not testifie by this one and onely voice or meanes it hath to expresse it selfe and call for life and preservation how weake it is These are the lamentable beginnings of this miserable life in the Infant And as it begins so it continues to the end of this miserably-weake age finding no great alteration or amendment it is still apt to give notice of its paine and feeblenesse But see further how this weak guest is afterwards entertained in this troublesome tempestuous world Immediately after the birth it is taken and hands are layed on it as if it had highly trespassed by breach of prison and comming forth of the wombe and then presently it is bound hand and foot which is so grievous unto it that it doth not so much as smile if wee will beleeve Plinie before the fortieth day Of this age therefore we may truly say that it is weakenesse and misery in the abstract It is reported of the men of Thracia that when a child was borne the neighbours sitting round about it were wont with great lamentation and mourning to reckon up the many miseries with which it was to enter into this world and on the contrary when any dyed to carry the corps foorth with no lesse joy and rejoycing commemorating the calamities from which it was delivered The Preacher also tels us that the day of death is better then the day that one is borne The next age is Child-hood which saies the Poet begins when there is ability to speake and to goe How fares it with the child during this age Is it not also weake so weake and tender that it requires for divers yeares continuall attendance being as yet but a gristle as it were of no strength no nor of wit to avoid the danger it may fall into After when it is come to more growth so infirme is it both in body and mind that there is no hope of its avoiding infinite mischiefes have it not the help of others Were it not so what neede would there be of the yoke which children beare under their Governours Parents Schoole-masters Tutors c Why else doe they passe thorow infinite affrighting feares in regard of necessary severity under that government Were it otherwise it would bee needlesse and no better then cruelty to put them to the grievous paines which they undergoe with no small reluctancy and which are to them almost intolerable their weake nature not brooking it The truth is the scales fall not from the eyes of their mindes neither can their hearts though tender bee new moulded without much adoe without their great paines both in doing and suffering Multa tulit fecitque puer sudavit c. To what end else were restraint from childrens desires set upon sports and pleasures Were they not weake correction would not bee of so necessary use to them which Salomon saith Who so spareth hates his sonne Certainely chastisement and good breeding is of greater use to this age then bodily sustenance For Foolishnesse is bound up in the heart of the child and no way is there to drive it from him but by the rod of correction When this rod is neglected as too often it is what 's the danger What will come of it Of this also Salomon resolves us Smiting with the rod saith he delivers a soule from Hell Is correction so needfull to keepe the child out of this bottomelesse pit Then is hee of an infirme and weake estate If Child-hood were not an age of great infirmity the mother that lookes on her sonne with a tender eye and in the bowells of love and compassion sighing to remember how lamentably he came into the world and how dearely she hath bought him with what care also and paines she hath nurst him and brought him up to this age would never dispense with her naturall affection and suffer him to be under so hard a discipline much lesse her selfe be the executor of it but would say as many doe a If I smite him with the rod hee will dye for greefe hee will waste and pine away Jn a word the child is a young tender plant that with much care and diligence must be defended from hurt and propped up that it may grow straite infirme therfore and weake I come now to the young-man he stands upon his reputation and makes account that of all men he is freest from the infirmities and calamities of this life ready to stabb all gaine-sayers yet is hee in the greatest danger and most subject to infinite evills This weake and humorous disposition is described by the same Poet in sundry particulars and from him J willingly take it least I might seeme to have a stitch to this age and to be an over hard and harsh censurer of it First he is overjoy'd at his liberty and freedome from the yoke which lately he had borne at his being now his owne man as we say at his having the reines loose so as now he may like the untamed horse newly broken from his rider shise it abroad and runne the wilde-goose-race without controle up and downe in the world delighting himselfe and feeding his distempered desire and unbridled affections sometimes with one vanity sinne rather sometimes with another â—…ill he hath run himselfe out of breath as it were Secondly he is easily seduced and carried away by evill perswasions which bewrayes greater lightnesse and weaknesse in him Thirdly if any give him better counsell and reproove him for his evill course he will not abide it but flings out and counts his best friends his enemies which makes him incapable of amendment Fourthly as he is improvident and carelesse in providing necessaries so is he wastefull and prodigall in spending Fiftly he is lofty and highly conceited Quod vult valdè vult most violent in his desires Lastly he changes as the wind never long in love with any thing now of one mind anon of another I wish I were able to set forth the weakenesse and vanity of youth in its proper colours that it might appeare in how unfit a Cabinet the ornaments of this age are laid up Mistake me not I note the vices onely to which this age is subject to youth it selfe I have no quarrell Yet in regard of infirmity I can no better compare it then to a Ship on the Sea that is fraught with variety of costly wares but wants a skilfull Pilot to guide it and keep it in safety when stormes arise whereby often it comes to passe that it reaches not the haven but ship wares and all sinke in the deepe Ocean Put into this Ship that is grant there is in
of great joy and a multitude of the heavenly host joyned with him in a joyfull praising of God Glory be to God on high c. then Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seene thy Salvation After againe when Iohn Baptist had prepared the way and wone Disciples to Christ how rejoyced they at the sight of the Lamb of God Andrew to his brother Simon we have found the Messias and Philip to Nathaniel we have found him of whom Moses and the Prophets did write Both Iohn and Christ himselfe for the increase of their joy that heard them made this the summe of their preaching Repent for the Kingdome of God is at hand yet to bring it now home to our purpose all this was but the Kingdome of grace and if when that was at hand there was cause of so great joy as indeed there was then how much greater cause is there when the Kingdome of GLORIE is at hand and even come unto us how great joy and happinesse must there needs bee The truth is every mans death is suiting to his life if he be blessed in his life he is more so in his death which followes a good life In a word if thou shrink and draw back at the thought of thy death which is a common infirmity Tantam habet vim carnis animae dulce consortium of so great force in the sweet society betweene the body and the soule in case it be thus with thee it is because death comes not into thy frequent cogitations because thou diest not daily because thou receivest not the sentence of death in thy selfe Mortem effice familiarem saith Seneca ut si ita sors tulerit possis illi obviam ire be well acquainted with death that when he comes thou maist meet him as a friend and entertaine him with joy Facilè contemnit omnia qui semper cogitat se esse moriturum saith S. Ierom hee that continually thinkes of death easily tramples upon whatsoever may dismay him Or it is for that thou hast not yet learned of Saint Chrysostome Offeramus Deo promunere quod pro debito tenemur reddere be free in offering up thy selfe to God as a gift which wee are bound to yeeld to him as a debt Or because thy life hath beene vitious Mala mors putanda non est saith Saint Austin quam bona vita preces sit that death may not be counted evill which is foregon by a good life Thou art loth to die wherefore thou hast lived ill and so art unprepared for death know that the reason of this want of preparation is because thou art not throughly perswaded and resolved that thou shalt die nor dost truly beleeve it hap'ly thou canst say from a generall swimming thought of death that we are all mortall or the like but a firme and constant beleefe of it is farre from thee for otherwise thou wouldest live in continuall expectation of thy dissolution and prepare thy selfe for that day that houre knowing that then instantly thou art brought to judgement If newes be brought to a City that the enemie is comming against it and ready to besiege it shall we thinke they beleeve it when they make no preparation for defence Quotidiè morimur quotidie mutamur tamen aeternos nos esse credimus saith Saint Ierom we die daily and every day are we changed and yet we dreame of eternity even here in this life Or hap'ly the reason of thy feare of death is thou art fast glued to thy earthly portion thy riches thy pleasures thy honours thy friends Shake hand at least in contentment with these and all will bee well forsake them now while thou livest and then thou canst not in regard of them thinke death thine enemie or that it takes either thee from them or them from thee if thou have thy treasure in Heaven there thy heart will be and from thy heart and treasure thou wilt not be contentedly but wilt love and embrace the messenger and guide which conducts thee to them namely thy death But will some man say how can there bee happinesse in that which all men yea all the other creatures doe shunne for they all naturally desire to preserve their estate of being what they are and by all meanes avoid their being dissolved I answer first Death and dissolution is two waies to be considered either simply as it is an abolishing of a present estate or as it is a passage to a future better condition as it is the former naturally it is abhor'd but as it tends to perfection it is both in it selfe desirable and by the creatures desired and longed for before it comes and when it presents it selfe right welcome and embraced so was it by th' Apostle Phil. 1. 23 he desired to depart or as some translate it to be dissolved Why not in respect of death it selfe but because by this death he should passe to a better life he should live with Christ hee should bee deliver'd from his claiey house as that word dissolved imports or dismissed as Beza reads it and our newest translation that is set free from imprisonment in the body and from the miseries of this life and hence it is that the Apostle there professes that he shall gaine by death ver 21. he shall gaine Christ by it enjoy him fully and with him glory even the crowne which he aspires unto 2 Tim. 4. hence it is also that death is longed for and earnestly groned after as 2 Cor. 5. neither is this true which hath beene said onely of the faithfull among men but of the other creatures also with earnest expectation they grone and travaile in paine for the day of their renovation Rom. 8. 19 22. So then it is plaine that death though it be not simply and in it selfe good and desirable yet for that which commeth of it it is And this may be further manifested by similitudes with which the same Apostle doth furnish us First in the place afore-named 2 Cor. 5. 1. the body our earthly mansion is compared to a tabercacle a weake and moveable house or dwelling our heavenly habitation to a firme building not made with hands but eternall in the heavens and 1 Cor. 15. our interred bodies are likened to the seed which is cast into the ground and is there corrupted and dies I will apply these comparisons to our present purpose True indeed an old weake decayed house is not in this happy that it is taken downe better to be in that meane estate in which it was before then not at all to be but herein consists the happinesse of its demolishment that thereby it becomes a new faire building farre more glorious in it selfe and more profitable for use then before So againe the seed is not in that happy that it is corrupted and rotted in the earth but that corruptio unius is
justly observed that the defects which befall OLD-AGE are occasioned for the most part if not altogether by the disorder of younger yeares Yea the distemper of younger yeares is to speake according to the course of nature an especiall cause that so few even of those who grow bearded attaine an hoary head which as the Wise-man hath well observed is a crowne of glory if it be found in the way of righteousnesse He therefore that wrote much in commendation of OLD-AGE put in this proviso Remember that I praise that OLD-AGE which is setled upon the foundations of youth meaning that youth which hath beene well passed over For as an ancient Father long since said and that upon his owne experience The OLD-AGE of them who have furnished their youth with sciences is made by continuance the more learned by use the more ready by processe of time the more prudent and reapeth the most sweet fruits of former studies It much resteth in men by well ordering their tender and flexible age yea and their more stable and setled yeares following thereupon both to attaine unto OLD-AGE and also to make that OLD-AGE whereunto they attaine more joyous and glorious It is said of a wicked man Iob. 21. 21. The number of his daies is cut off in the midst And to like purpose Psal. 55. 23. Bloody and deceitfull men shall not live out halfe their daies For some by gluttony drunkennesse whoredome and such kinde of distempers bring mortall diseases upon themselves and thereby hasten death others doe the like by immoderate passions as love griefe feare and such like others by too much carking watching fasting paines-taking and other such excesses destroy nature others by quarrells and duells cause themselves to be cut off before their time others by casting themselves upon desperate attempts shorten their daies others by capitall crimes bring themselves under the Magistrates sword which cuts them off others by laying violent hands upon themselves prevent the time which otherwise they might have lived others by notorious sinnes provoke the Divine Justice to take them away by an extraordinary judgement In these and other like respects wicked men may be said dimidiare dies suos to cut off their time in the midst or not to live halfe their daies namely which they might otherwise have lived according to the course of nature if they had not fallen into such exorbitant courses Thus many keepe themselves from OLD-AGE Yet it cannot be denied but that sundry wicked ones attaine thereto Experience demonstrates as much For howsoever OLD-AGE be promised as a blessing onely to the Righteous yet it is permitted to wicked ones but as a curse through their abuse thereof A curse I say both to others and to themselves To others in that the longer they live the more mischiefe they doe To themselves in this world and in the world to come In this world every day they multiply and aggravate sinne and so make themselves the more odious to God Angells and good men whence it commeth to passe that their name rots it is like a rotten puâ—…rified carrion the longer it lieth above ground the more noisome and stinking â—…avour it sendeth forth In the world to come their torment shall be increased according to the multitude and hainousnesse of their sinnes Old wicked ones after their heardnesse and impenitent heart treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath Such Old-Men are like to the old Serpent OLD-AGE as spoken of in the ensuing Treatise is proper to the Righteous It is the observation of sundry of the ancient Fathers that Abraham the father of the faithfuil is the first that in sacred Scripture is called an Old-Man To him it was promised as a blessing Gen. 15. 15. and in that respect his OLD-AGE is stiled a good Old-Age Gen. 25. 8. Thus to take OLD-AGE seperated from the accidentall imperfections thereof such as arise not simply from OLD-AGE but from the former and present wickednesse of evill old-men OLD-AGE is one of the pillars wherewith politiâ—…s are supported Who knowes not that a Senate or Counsell of State is a principall stay of a State Now a Senat useth to consist for the most part of Old-Men who by reason of their age and place are called Seniores Elders In the Law we reade that Levites having served in the house of God till they were fiftie yeares old at which time OLD AGE beginneth were to goe to their Cities there to dwell as Iudges The Jewes had their Senat or Counsell whereunto Christ alludeth Mat. 5. 22. in this phrase shall be in danger of the Counsell This Counsell consisted of Old-Men called Elders of whome some were Priests some Levits some Nobles most of them if not all of them Old-Men So the Romans and others had their Senate of such Hereupon the Oratour makes this inference If counsell reason and judgement were not in Old-Men our Ancestours would not have called the highest counsell a Senate Yet further to prove that the Ancient are a staffe and stay to a State the Prophet Isa. 1. 2. putteth them into the ranke of such staies as in judgement are taken away and upon the taking away of whom a state falls to ruine as a Tent falls slat downe if the pole by which it is supported be taken away See the difference betwixt the counsell of Old-Men and Young-men in Rehoboams case Not without cause therefore is it said that one hearty Old-Man is of better use then many Young-men For as another Poet said of an Old-Man He knoweth many and those ancient things too On this and other like grounds OLD-AGE hath in all ages beene much honoured So it was among the Heathen so much more ought it to be among Gods people The Lord himselfe giveth this charge Lev. 19. 32. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary-head and honour the face of the Old-Man and feare thy God This last clause and feare thy God sheweth that our feare of God who is invisible is testified by our reverence to those that visibly beare his Image as Old-Men doe For God himselfe is stiled Dan. 7. 9. the Ancient of daies and the haire of his head is said to be like pure wooll that is white not spotted not stained not soiled such as the haire of Old-men useth to be In allusion hereunto S. Hierom saith that the haire of the Ancient of daies is described to bee white that length of daies may be declared thereby So pithily and plentifully hath the Author of this Treatise here presented to thee handled this point both Vindicatively in freeing OLD-AGE from all undue imputations against it and also Encomiastically by setting out the comelinesse and excellency thereof as to speake any more thereabout would bee actum agere to preach over the same Sermon againe yea as it is in the proverb to set â—…ole-worts twice soâ—… before you
the young-man what you will or can imagine him to be endowed with bodily strength agility freshnesse of wit firmenesse of memory as much learning and knovvledge as his tender yeares by the helpes he hath had can furnish him withall and whatsoever else selfe conceipt possesses him of his violent disorderly affection like a blast of wind many times sinks all to the bottome of perdition So vaine a thing is bodily strength to youth that not onely it steades it not but contrariwise being the breeder of a groundlesse confidence it puts it upon infinite dangers yea it is the instrument or meanes by which corrupt nature doth worke its overthrow What security and carelessenesse is there in most young-men that enjoy health and strength what hardnesse of heartâ—… how â—…arre are many of them from any thought of repentance and all because they put farre from them the last day of account presuming that for them there vvill be time enough hereafter Things that are farre off seeme lesse to us then they are as the starres in the firmament So because young-men behold death in a great distance they neglect both it and what it brings as things not worthy their minding So was it with Salomons young-man whom hee tooke to taske Eccle. 11. 9. and therefore Bernard tells us that strength is hurtfull when it tends to disobedience and onely then profitable when it is joyned with humility of heart and another counsels us to use bodily strength and health that it may further the health of the soule I could willingly stay yet longer in my discourse of youth for that it stands most in opposition to the age I treate of and lookes at it commonly with an eye full of scorne and contempt repining at its length of daies and oftentimes thinking it long ere it succeeds the Old-man in his offices lands or goods So did that proud and ambitious Absolon when he thirsted after his fathers Crowne Filius ante diem patrios inquirit in annos This one thing here I may not pretermit that both David and Salomon single out this age as that which hath most need of reformation as Psal. 119. VVhere withall shall a young-man cleanse his wayes And Ecclesi 11. 9. Rejoyce O young man in thy Youth c. but know c. and Cap. 12. 1. Remember therefore thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth And Prov. 4. he makes the simple man and the young-man to draw in one yoke and equally to want instruction These two so skilfull Physitians of the soule would not have chosen this subject to worke on or lighted on the young man for their patient had they not thorowly viewed his state and found that in his understanding will and affections he is for the most part exceeding infirme and weake and much every way out of frame That which hath beene said J take to be sufficient to cleare this point that the young-mans strength and flourishing estate when it is at the highest pitch ordinarily makes him no whit the better nor more happy but much more miserable every way so weake and infirme an age it is The next in order is mature or ripe age in Latine aetas virilis mans-age From which denomination wee may conceave that till then a man is not a man not the infant without question not the child no nor the youth though he strut it out and thinke there is no man-hood to be found but in himselfe This aetas virilis is an age I confesse more staid then the former and lesse hot and violent in affections but yet more stiffe in every thing and so whatsoever is evill in it is more permanent and unmooveable and consequently more hurtfull The child as I shewed before is as a tender twig newly planted and easily brought out of frame yet flexible Youth the flower of mans life is like a tree in the spring-time beautifull in blossomes which gives hope of fruit and though these blossoms many times are blasted and so the tree becomes unfruitfull yet is it of a more yeelding disposition and vice being not yet habituall in it or deepely rooted is more easily nipped in the head But this age of which wee now enquire though it be for its season apt to yeeld fruit yet many times for grapes it brings forth wild grapes neither will it by the dresser of the Vine so easily be wrought upon for better fruit But what is it that the heart in this age is commonly and in most men set upon Our Author tels us that too Men here labour for riches that they may be setled in a great estate they procure the friendship of great ones so to be backt in whatsoever they doe be it right or wrong they aspire to honour and labour to be great and all this many times that they may be the onely commanders in the places where they live and may without controle overtop and oppresse the under-shrubs the poore weake underlings among the people and so they fall from one extreame to another They shunne the improvidence and prodigality of their youth and light upon the contrary covetousnesse the root of all evill They will no longer bee rash simple and unadvised as in their younger yeares and to avoid that they study to bee subtile and crafty and fall to plodding and plotting for their private not alwayes good ends They seeme ashamed of the facility and tractablenesse of youth and become as a brasen wall standing unmooveable against whatsoever crosses their whatsoever resolutions To avoide levity they become obstinate and so in the rest and how great then is the weakenesse of such mens minds though this bee the most stable and the most commendable and in the common account of all the ages The Poet our Author forgets not the Old-man he feeles his pulse also and notes his condition and properties but they are such as bring no disparagement but a grace and commendation to this age But what are they he seekes riches and makes no use of them to himselfe true he is contented to be poore and in a sense miserable himselfe that others may be rich and happy when he is gone wil not the child the young-man the man of ripe-age will they not all that is all men commend him for this For them he gets for them he keepes what hee spends not that they may enjoy it after him and praise both him and his abstinency and bounty in the joyfull use of it They are his heires to them he leaves his plus viatici the greater part of his provision quibus plus viae restat because they have in likely-hood a farre longer journey to goe This sure is providence and care of posterity not covetousnesse The eldest man alive is not so stupid and senselesse as to thinke hee shall carry his goods with him to his grave and may not this be another end of his sparing that the
elder yeares disable not for publique service either in Church or Common-weale Now trie we whether the like may be made good touching private businesses They are domesticall or personall First of affaires in the family We may not thinke that the house thrives and prospers onely or chiefely by the toyling labours of such as in it have stronger bodies and doe more servile works The Masters knowledge for ordering every businesse his eye for oversight his authority for holding every one to his taske his wisedome and discretion in governing all that are under him his assiduity in prayer for a blessing upon all their indeavours and lastly his instructing them according to his measure of knowledge that they may understand themselves and doe what is required in their severall places first in obedience to God their great master that hath called them thereunto and then also to him whom God hath set over them that they may doe their worke not with eye-service but in singlenesse of heart as unto Christ and as the servants of Christ. These things are cheefely conducing to the welfare and prosperity of a family When these duties of the Pater-familias are omitted God is excluded from building the house and so that house hath a miserable downe-fall they all labour in vaine that build it And contrariwise these thinges duly performed are the most necessary and strongest pillars to uphold the family Now for these Old-age is ever the fittest in regard of its endowments afore mentioned And heere because as one saith it is adull and livelesse discourse that wants examples for proofe of what is said let us see how this point may be exemplified Abraham was 140. yeares old when hee tooke that wise and religious course for the placing of his sonne Isaack in marriage the most important businesse of a family which wrought on Rebeckah that holy passion expressed Gen. 27. 46. I am weary of my life for the daughters of Heth If Iacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth like these of the daughters of the land what availeth it mee that I live In like manner Isaack when hee was old and his eyes dimme with age provided in this kinde for that his sonne Iacob In Iacob the father of 12. sonnes wee shall see a worthy example of an able Pater-familias even then when yeares were multiplied upon him if wee behold him Gen. 48. and 49. Chapters how when his sonne Ioseph was come to doe the duty of an obedient and gracious sonne to his sicke and now dying father hee rouses himselfe up in his bed takes strength both of body and minde and in that strength as a Prophet foretells what would be the lot or condition of every one of his children even to the comming of Christ transferring the right of the first borne both touching the inheriting the double portion in Canaan otherwise due to his eldest sonne Ruben Deut. 21. The cause whereof is exprest Chap. 49. v. 14. to the two sons of Ioseph Ephraim and Manasses and also concerning the dignity the other part of the first-bornes right to Iuda in whose tribe the authority and power for governement was constantly to remaine to the comming of Shiloh so of the rest as in these two Chapters David is another example he was old and a dying man when hee gave order for the setling of Salomon in the kingdome a most important businesse not politicke onely but domesticke mannaged by him with great wisedome and courage as we may observe in every circumstance of it his age was no let One example more Appius Claudius caecus being of a great age and blind also most carefully and wisely governed a numerous family consisting of 4. sonnes and 5. daughters and many servants having also not a few clients belonging to him And now what shall we say to mens personall affaires are Old-men unable to manage them I passe by other particulars of lesse importance What thinke we of that greatest and weightiest worke that any man can take in hand in this life our often or rather daily casting up our account and making our peace with God that unum necessarium the thing that chalengeth our most earnest and most attentive thoughts and studies the thing to which our whole life is destined the businesse which who so neglects all his labours under the sunne will profit him nothing at all shall we can we thinkethat the servants of God for of such Old-men we speake all this while when they are growne in yeares and have served him long doe waxe worse and worse by their long continuance in their faithfull service they in whom the graces of Gods Spirit have had their increase yeare after yeare for a long space that they after all this shall be the weakest and most insufficient for this worke of their account doth God cast off an old servant that hath beene faithfull unto him or extinguish that fire of grace which hath beene so long in kindling and increasing No no to such an one he will say well done good servant and faithfull c. certainely whom God once loves he loves to the end and his gifts are without repentance For this David prayes Psal. 71. with faith and assurance of obtaining v. 9. Cast mee not off in the time of old age forsake mee not when my strength faileth and after v. 18. Now also when I am gray-headed forsake me not Againe touching our apprehension of Gods promises which concerne our salvation is it not most eager and ardent most hungring and thirsting in elder yeares when the good fight is fought and the race neere runne yes certainely Wee may have an eye before to the promised inheritance and to the recompence of reward with Moses but then in Old-age obuijs ulâ—…is with reached forth armes we embrace it Then Come Lord Iesu then our hand is on it as it were then we say with aged St. Paul Now hence forth is layed up for mee c. Then we earnestly endeavour to that which is before us and more neere us pressing hard towards the marke then with old Simeon we resigne our selves to God Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart c. The motion of each body is according to the quality of it things that are heavy we know are carried downewards that which is light soares upwards so the unregenerate the naturall man being earthly and of a lumpish quality sinkes downe still lower and lower even towards hell till he is converted and altered in his condition and inclination and the neerer he is to his owne place the faster hee moves if grace prevent it not So on the contrary the man that is spirituall being also heavenly moves towards heaven and therefore the neerer he approaches to that his place as in Old-age the stronger will his motion be An Old-man knowes that he is at the end of the day for which he is hired to
worke in Gods vineyard and therefore the time of his worke being neere upon expiring he will bestirre him least death as the night overtake him and put an end to his day or life before his worke be at an end hee will be carefull to observe that wise and necessary precept Whatsoever thy hand shall finde to doe doe it with all thy power for there is neither worke nor invention nor knowledge nor wisedome in the grave whither thou goest He will labour as the Apostle exhorts to redeeme the pretious time formerly neglected and lost as who loses not much and thus his age is so farre from disabling him for this work as that it is to him a speciall premonitor that doth aurem vellere and call upon him to be prepared for his dissolution and who then would complaine of so helpfull acompanion or be weary of him or accuse him of inability And heere now this also must be considered that every age or part of mans life hath as gifts different from the rest so likewise a different calling and employment or taske There is one of childhood another of youth a third of ripe age and Old-age differs from them all It were unreasonable to expect that of a child which is required of young-men or that of young-men which belongs to a greater growth so neither must every thing that any of the former should doe be required of Old-men To grow towards a conclusion of this point I say further if we grant that some inability for action is to be found in this age yet it will thence receive no disgrace nor hath any man in yeares cause to complaine in that behalfe For God is not to us as Pharaoh to the Israelites he is no exactor hee laies no more upon any man or age then he inables him to beare except it be in case of his disabling himselfe by loosing his talent God was so indulgent to the Levites as that their corporall and painefull service about the Tabernacle should determine and be no more required after the age of 50. When Moses was old Ioshua was appointed to be for him When Eli grew aged and weake God provided that Samuel should supply his defects St. Austin when he was in yeares gave over his Bishoprick to Evadius It was a law among the Romanes that after 50. none should be pressed to the warres whence was that verse s Miles depositis annosus secubat armis Neither might any be forced to be of the Senate of Rome after 60. Solve scnescentem maturè sanus equum ne Peccet ad extremum ridendus ilia ducat was the Poets suit to his Mecenas and his reason for it If in youth and ripe age wee have beene diligent and painefull there is not much left or in our hand to be done when wee are old If there be much behind let us blame the former part of our life not old-age A common too common a thing it is for men to spend their strength as one saith nihil agendo or aliud agendo or malè agendo in doing nothing at all or things impertinent or things that are evill These things men suffer sayes the same Author to weare out their life they divide it among them Not so saith he in their goods or lands they are prodigall of their time in which onely covetousnesse is lawfull because time is pretious but in other things where it is forbidden they are extreamely covetous If then Old-men be dispensed with they may rejoyce at it and comfort themselves in their manumission and sit downe well contented that being now emeritis stipendijs rude donati they are freèd from such labours and burdens as are too heavy for them Why should they be displeased at this so good a lot Senectut is sors est otium quies It is the lot of old-age saith one that he hath leave to live quietly and be at rest Mans life is a pilgrimage and will not the Pilgrim be glad of rest when he is weary Amens viator est qui labore viae exhaustus velit ad initium remeare It were madnesse in the Traveller that is spent with the labour of his journey to desire to be where at the first he was Our life is also a race and how doth he that runnes it rejoyce when he is at the end of it A wonder it is that any man should complaine of ease or blame his age for freeing him of the toiles of this life And as for its being an occasion of contempt in the eyes of younger folk let them know that one houre lost or ill spent by them while they are in their full strength and not dispensed with for the workes of their callings as none are is more disgrace to them and shall also have a heavier account then divers yeares of rest in Old-age when men may truely say DEVS nobis haec otia fecit God hath given us leave to be at rest The II. Chapter Conteining the second supposed disgrace cast upon OLD-AGE viz. Vncapablenesse of pleasures and the answer FOr the full understanding of what shall be said in answer to this imputation something is to be premised concerning the nature and divers kindes of pleasure First therefore to lay downe a generall and breefe description of it It is defined to be a lifting up of the minde by the presence or hope of some good that is come unto us or may befall us an elevating I say of the mind for as when any evill betides us or is towards us the minde is dejected and discomforted so when the contrary it is contrarily affected The object of pleasure is some good that accrewes unto us and according to the difference of things tearmed good must pleasures be differenced and distinguished for either they are falsely or they are truely so called Falsely divers wayes First when they are good in shew onely and opinion and then it is false pleasure that arises from them not unlike to that which was in Thrasilaus who thought all the ships that arrived at the haven to be his and received them with great pleasure and rejoycing that all likewise which set forth were his which he dismissed with a joyfull expectation of a gainefull returne all the while counting himselfe an happy man that was the owner of so great substance if any of the ships miscarried he enquired not after them if they returned safe hee rejoyced Thus was it with him in his frensy and when he came to himselfe he professed that he never lived more sweetely then when he was in that error for hee had much pleasure though false and no care or trouble at all Secondly things may not rightly be called good when they are not so good as they are esteemed And they also yeeld a pleasure at least in part deceitfull Lastly things may be thought good and alas nothing more common when they are