preferred a messe of pottage before his birth-right While the euill dayes come not c. An argument of confirmation drawne from the instable state of yong age which passeth away as a shadow in the diall and as the day and summer passeth away and the winter and night draweth on Moreouer the force of the argument lieth iâ— the consideration of olde age as a meanes to cause the yoâ—g to remember the duties of charitie and pietie in the stre gth of his yeares while he hath time while the day serueth and summer lasteth The day is for labour as Dauid saith Man goeth forth vnto his worke vntill the euening the night is for rest Our Sauiour Christ saith Ioh. 12. 35 Walke while ye haue the light lest darknesse come vpon you Worke out your saluation with feare and trembling saith the Apostle Now the day is for worke and as well the morning as the euening and rather Why stand ye idle saith Christ get you into my vineyard The haruest is great the labourers are few The workes of charitie and pietie are great and many we are but fraile and weâ—ke Let vs recompence our weaknesse with willingnesse our short time with sedulitie and diligence If there be first willing mind God accepteth according to that which a man hath Let vs carefully husband our talent while we haue time and strength The Spring produceth all things out of the earth that were buried in Winter euen so what lyeth buried in childhood sheweth forth it selfe in youth Corruption must not shew it selfe forth now but the practise of instructions and godly informations formerly taught euen grace wrought in childhood by these good meanes The Summer ripeneth what the Spring brought forth let middle age bring to maturitie and perfection that which hath bene taught vs in our yong age The old in euill dieth in euill a thousand to one Now that the consideration of old age may take the déeper impression in the heart of the yong he depainteth it out by an allegoricall hypotyposis or liuely description first generally in these words and after particularly in the next six verses While the euill dayes come not By euill dayes in generall is meant pouertie weaknesse sicknesse lamenesse blindnes and other afflictions of body and state whereby a man is disabled from the actuall performance of such duties as hee is called vnto Whatsoeuer abilitie or gift a man hath that is his talent And in all affaires and workes of this life men take the appointed sea on and vse the time with diligence night letteth raine letteth winde and tempest letteth these lets men redeeme with diligence and some with double diligence and reserue some workes for letting dayes that euery moment of time may be supplied so they will neuer be idle that meane to be wealthy So it must be with vs in our Christian calling We must worke with the Oare while we haue strength and after sit at the sterne Let euery man do good while he is able Let him take grace when it is offered and vse it wheÌ„ he is bidden The Law saith yea the heart and whole drift of the Law is this Loue the Lord thy God with all thy heart minde soule strength soule and body superiour and inferiour powers euen while thou hast an heart which first liueth and last dieth while thou hast a minde and a memory while thou hast strength while thou hast health while thou hast wealth Suffer no gift to be vnfruitfull Euery talent must fructifie Secondly by euill dayes more specially is meant the disease of olde age For olde age is a disease it is the consumption of the whole body whereby a man is disabled from doing any thing It is grieuous and wearisome The lame is past labour and the sicke past study These words the euill dayes as I thinke haue relation to the body and the next to the mind Nor the yeares draw nigh wherein thou shalt say I haue no pleasure in them An amplification figured by a Prosopopeia whereby hee setteth the future age person words of the yong man before himselfe Men draw forth as liuely as they can the pictures of their yong age that in old age they may see their youth before their eyes this is but a vanitie yet may good vse be made hereof So contrarily Solomon draweth out the picture of olde age that men in time of youth may see and looke vpon and remember their olde age and death which followeth and their account which followeth that This is an instigation to workes of charitie and pietie Better it is for a yong man to haue the picture of death before him then for an old man to haue the picture of youth in his eyes An old dotard is odious and an old babbler hatefull I haue no pleasure in them These words haue reference to the minde of the olde man when the body is pained the minde is grieued When the bones are full of achâ— it is past worke and suffereth not the mind to be exercised in study meditation counsell aduice direction c. Euery thing is tedious and irksome to the wearie he delighteth in nothing but in â—esting sleepe is sweete to him and so is death to the aged The marriner speaketh of the windes the shepheard of his flocke the plow-man of his grounds and cattell and the old man of his diseases infirmities aches His relations of things past are concise independent confuse he cannot manage and vse his experiments and obseruations to profit withal yea his former practises are but speculations to himselfe much more to another therefore he hath no list to speake all things are quite altered the world is new it surpasseth his skill And thus it is with euery old man throughout all generations of the world insomuch that if they which haue bene long dead should rise againe as but out of an hundred yeares sleepe they could not know the world nor the way of it and might as well cause the Sunne to go backward as to reduce it to the former state and though it should be the same and continue like it selfe yet should a man be vnlike himselfe and so should the world one and the same in it selfe appeare in new and strange formes to him As for example All things are full of vanitie misery and griefe to the afflicted and to him vpon whom God turneth his backe whereas contrarily at the same time it is a paradise of pleasure to an other It is now an heauen but if God instantly forsake a man vtterly it is an hell And as Diues desired to be out of hell so would he desire to be out of the world whatsoeuer his estate should be heereafter he had rather stand to the hazard then liue If health strength wealth honor could at an instant be put vpon the poore sicke lame blind beggar the world should be a new world and such a world as hee neuer imagined the other dayes world should be passed as in a
foolishnesse and he that is foolish is farthest from happinesse though he be a Monarch Yea hee is neerest to greatest misery as Iehoâ—akim Saul Zedekiah c. Samuel was better then Heli and Dauid then Saul And through the like folly were ten tribes rent from Rehoboam The highest estate or dignitie that a man can attaine to and which men commonly count the happiest is the state of a king For a king hauing all other in subiection and vnder command is in that worldly respect the neerest vnto God whose immediate vicegerent he is And therefore in respect of supremacy in the execution of Iustice and iudgement Kings are tearmed comparatiuely Gods But notwithstanding that high place and supreame power if hee want discretion and wisedome to sway the scepter in Iustice and iudgement according to the law of the highest he is worse than a poore subiect or inferiour that hath wisedome to order his priuate and particular state aright Yea though he be old and rich yet is he worse then one that is yong and euen a childe and poore because this hath wisedome that is is capable teachable tractable and so is in possibility and hope But contrarily the other being old and by reason of age and long experience should be of a wise and vnderstanding heart to discerne truth and equity but yet is foolish and carryed with the sway of wandring and fruitlesse lusts as children commonly are neither yet through wilfulnesse will be admonished that is will not heare nor yeeld to the aduice and counsell of sage and prudent counsellers but like Rehoboam Zedekiah Ahab Nebuchadnezzer setleth himselfe vpon his lees the other I say is better then hee All this comparison is figured by a Synecdoche of the Speciall For by king is meant all men of any externall power place wealth kindred beauty strength age or any prerogatiue Contrarily by the poore childe is meant any one that wanteth these prerogatiues and is the most inferiour Verse 14. For out of prison hee commeth to raigne whereas also he that is borne in his kingdome becommeth poore A Confirmation of the Antithesis or contrariety by the contrary effects of wisedome and folly in them both For out of prison he commeth to raigne That is though he be a captiue and kept in hold vnder chaines as Ioseph was yet by wisedome he commeth not onely to obtaine liberty but also riseth by degrees to the scepter So that he which was a bondman is now become a King contrarily he that is borne in the kingdome becommeth poore as if he should say the other was a made bondman but borne a king this made a king but borne poore because that the other was in his birth and bondage of a kingly heart and disposition as was Dauid though of meane parentage but this in his kingly birth and royall preheminence is of a declining and degenerating heart and disposition as was Iehoiakim and Comah Ier. 22. Whereby it commeth to passe that he looseth the reuerend and awefull regard of his subiects as did Sardanapalus c. By folly and wilfulnesse are great houses and kingdomes ouerthrowne and translated to others whereof the Scriptures affoord diuers examples By prison-house is meant any of meane estate or low degree as Dauid was and as Ioseph was according to the Psalme 113. 7. 8. and specially Psalme 106. 17. 18. 19. 20. By borne King is meant any of higher estate degree or preheminence in outward things by the figure Synecdoche Such like were Zedekiah Iehoiakim Coniah Verse 15. I considered all the liuing which walke vnder the Sun with the second child that shall stand vp in his stead THis third example of vanity and vexation belonging to royall state is figured by the preuention of an obiection thus What though sometimes it fall out that Kings are led aside either through their owne folly or deceits of wicked Counsellours as the flattering Princes corrupted Ioash 2 Chron. 24. 17. that argueth not that wise Princes behauing themselues prudently in all their wayes should be subiect to vanity that is depriued of happy contentation as other inferiour degrees are I answer that vanity and vexation in royall state is not onely increased by their owne folly or produced by an inward cause but also it proceedeth from an outward cause to wit occasioned if he were guarded from all other euils and discontentments by the vnconstancy and the instability of the passionate people his subiects For they are fickle and restlesse carried to and â—ro as euery blast of discontentment and idle fancies tosse their humours and are oft times like the Sea that maketh a noyse when no winde is stirring when they haue no cause but onely disquieted with an itch affectation of nouelties changes though it be for the worse as the Israelites being weary of Iudge ordained of God would be gouerned by Kings as other Nations were 1 Sam. 8. 6. 7. As they that being weaâ—y of rest must be exercised with labour verse 11. to 18. that they may be brought to know their happy estate which through fickle and wanton discontent they are ignorant of like to children that hauing too much of their owne will cry for the roode for nothing else will quiet them Deliciousnesse and fulnesse in euery thing groweth loathsome Howsoeuer men know not or are forgetfull of their owne good This then is a griefe and vexation to a King that the people rest not contented in him and if they doe yet when he is old they begin for the most part to turne their hearts towards the second euen the child or heire that shall reigne after him And this is not one of the least griefes of old age the contempt or neglect of the younger when as they see themselues growing out of request their names account and memoriall decaying by little and little with their bodies and with death vanishing quite away As this is to others so to Kings also a vexation to see already the common aspect of their people bent vpon another obiect before the time Old age is iealous and suspitious of the contempt of youth Verse 16. There is no end of all the people euen of all that haue bâ—â—ne before them they also that come after shall not reioyce in him surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit A Reason why people are with the second child that shall stand vp in the Kings stead namely their vnconstancy There is no end of all the people that haue beene before them End hath not relation to time or perpetuall succession of generations but signifieth a fixed resolution and resistfull contentation or ioyfull complacence which is not to be found in the people which are wauering as the Sea and variable as the Moone For former people little regarded the present Kings Grand-father being old and in their desires turned after his Father being young whom againe now being old the present people are weary of and are all for his sonne and that for sinister respects
mercifull and libetall in time of trouble and plenteously rewardeth the proude doer Verse 7. Truely the light is sweete and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sunne THE second part of the chapter or anascoue maintaining the former precepts by a confutation or destruction of the corrupt and lustfull imaginations of mans worldly heart It is figured by a double Prolepsis the former whereof is generall The obiection is figured by a Prosopopeia which is figured againe by an Allegorie in this verse The answer is giuen in the next Truely the light is sweete c. By Light is meant worldly prosperitie Esay 58. 8. Then shall thy light breake foorth as the morning By the Sunne is meant an happy outward estate excelling all other splendide and pompous whereof the worldly heart is enamoured as the onely felicitie Iob 31. 26. If I beheld the Sunne when it shined or the Moone walking in her brightnesle That is if mine heart was enamoured on my flourishing estate if I blessed my selfe for my wealth power and honour To proceed wheras Solomon hath before recalled men from coueting earthly things and selfe-loue to charitie and good workes that he might more firmely settle this grace in their hearts hee now rooteth vp the weedes of fleshly pleasures and worldly delights by bringing in the careall man objecting or replying against him for himselfe or rather vpon his good admonitions to retract him closely clinging to his dirty god Mammon as Crabbes cleaue to the rocke and one to an other when they are pulled away Ah! but for all that a goodly inheritance is a sweeto thing it is a pleasant thing to be well seated in a fertile soile in an wholesome aire neare to the riuer not farre from the citie or market to be free from all troubles and cares that pouertie bringeth What an heauenly life it is when a man need do nothing but walke about his grounds for his pleasure ouersee his workmen looke on his cattell c. as the couetous rich man did Luk 12. when hee is prouided of the best housholdstuffe and lodgings and withall able to make his friend welcome to entertaine a gentleman to keepe gentlemen companie to keepe a couple of men and a good gelding to ride with credit and to change the fashion with the better sort and to haue mony alwayes in his purse to be able to pleasure a friend or a gentleman at his request in his need to be able to maintaine his wife in the gentlewomans fashion and to bring vp his children in learning for greater preferment Ah this is a louely and desireable estate aboue all things say what they will I will go labour and spare all that I can and cast about euery way that I may haue as such a one hath and liue as he doth or might do if he were wise Ah what good could I doe if I had as he hath or had bene so well left He dwelleth in a sweete seate what goodly and sweete grounds hath he adioyning to his house what sweete fields of wheate what goodly pastures what a goodly roote of wood what pleasant groues some say it will be solde ere long He prospereth not he is indebted who but a foole and a beast would make away such a goodly thing Ah would to God I had money to buy it I would neuer part from it well I will haue mony if I liue I will make all cracke else I shall liue in pleasure and comfort hereafter when I am old and my sonne shall be a fine yong gentleman of good account among gentlemens sonnes well accepted of the best sort and shall easily attaine to greater dignitie as I meane to bring him vp and place him in mariage What a zealous man is this how his bowels yerne with pitie on the poore and poore Minister how he first of all seeketh the kingdome of God and his righteousnesse He meaneth to be first a couetous beast to rake mony together by all meanes quo iure quaque iniuria from Church and poore and to leaue his substance to his heire but when the diuels fetch him away and his heire roguishly wasteth all and is at last hanged then shall his folly and madnesse appeare In the meane time nothing plagueth him but precise Preachers they are his tomentors Verse 8. But if a man liue many yeares and reioyce in them all yet let him remember the dayes of darknesse for they shall be many All that commeth is vanitie AN answer to the reply proponnded by way of admonition The argument is drawne from the contrary adiunct Youth and prosperitie are subiect to age and death which beginneth in age and formeth him from the graue Whereupon he inferreth the common conclusion to take away this and all other replies All that commeth is vanitie But if a man liue many yeares c. Put the case Dato non concesso that a man enioyed that conceited happinesse confisting in a free worldly prosperitie that earthly men so dreame of and aime at in all their courses Say that he liue long which is a thing desired of all men chiefly the rich and that he reioyce as freely as it is possible for a man to do in this confused and disordered world yet let him remember that which he cannot alway forget nor altogether forget in his freest iollitie namely that he is mortall that his flower fadeth his leafe withereth his verdure vanisheth testie and tedious old age hasteneth light shall be turned into darknesse pleasure into paine delights into wearisomnesse and the darke dayes of olde age and death exceed in number the lightsome dayes of life I say the darke dayes of old age and death because old age is the infancie or childhood of death as the sun setting to vs is the sun rising to the Antipodes For these pleasant sunshine dayes wherewith thou art so rauished are but a worme gleame and momentanie glance but contrarily the dayes wherein the body must lie in the darke graue are many These last words are a meiosis or liptote which are a kinde of hyperbole to wit of defect Many is put for innumerable endlesse eternall It may also be a synecdoche of the speciall Let a man remember all this and it will abate his lustfull courage it will take downe the pride of his flesh it will mitigate the eagernesse of his desires and the lushiousnesse lothsomnesse of his worldly zeale and make him more out of loue with his tender darling his body it will gather home his wilde dispersed fancies and his rouing thoughts into their hold and hang them on their right hinge and bring backe the prodigall vagabond home lastly it will recouer his wits and restore him to his right mind Therefore be satisfied with this be admonished hereby to contentation in things present striue not for an imaginary happinesse but exercise thy selfe in workes of charitie rather doe good which bringeth the true good then seeke for it in goods
dreame and as but a dreame And so doth olde age wonder at the change of the world hee longeth after the former generation and desires to be dead All is vanity vexation and wearinesse But the yong generation thinketh not so Their endeuors expectations and hopes are strong and possible but the aged despaireth and sorroweth and is vexed to see vanities and foolish presumptions To conclude that which to his youth was a pleasure is to his age a paine that which was a delight is a wearinesse and anger and the Pallace is but a prison house Verse 2. While the Sunne or the Light or the Moone or the Starres be not darkened nor the Cloudes returne after the raine HEere hee beginneth the particular description of olde age drawing it out in liuely shape and colours to represent it to the eyes of the young men that being now young hee may see himselfe olde before his eyes And this he doth allegorically by manifold similitudes drawne from common and vsuall things continually obuious to the eies and eares the more firmely to fixe it in the memorie to the end that considering the shortnesse of time and weakenesse of age and certainty of death hee might the more diligently and carefully bâ—stirre him to his worke and in his worke euen doing good while time serueth to finish his worke before Sune-set to inne his fruits before winter While the Sunne or the Light c. quasi dicat before the sight of thine eyes be dimme through the weaknesse of the spirites drinesse of the sinewes and humour of the eyes and through vapours which arising out of the body into the head through coldnesse of the braine are clouded into rheume which trickleth downe the nose and eyes and being done away quickely returneth agayne as cloudes after raine in a moist season and waters into an emptyed fountaine which causeth olde age to weare his napkin at his girdle to keepe his head and feete warme that colde strike not vp into his head and being there may not congeale but euaporate forth through the poares and seames of the head and for the same purpose to weare a cloth about his necke to keepe the poares open that the vapours may there breake forth quâ— data porta ruant to preuent head-ach tooth-ach joynt-ach rheume in the eyes nose c. The ayre to aged eyes seemeth duskie and mistie and the Sunne wadeth as the Moone in a foggie euening and the Starres are out of sight Let the ouer-shadowing cloudes drisling miâ—â—es thicke fogges watrish ayre dewing moisture dropping of trees in a mist the dullnesse of the darke day the sluggishnesse of the rainie day the dropping of the eaues the siping through of waters into the house put vs in minde of the irkesomnesse and annoyances of olde age and to doe our dueties while wee haue the vse of our sight which once failing wee are disabled from innumerable things wherein we might be profitable to man gainfull to God and furtherers of our saluation Verse 3. In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselues and the grinders cease because they are few and those that looke out of the windowes be darkened By the Keepers of the house are meant the hands The hand sayth Aristotle is the organ of organes or instrument of instruments For whereas other members haue their seuerall offices the office of the hand is manifold and generall seruing all the rest The body is an house or city or kingdome in it selfe the king or chiefe ruler is the head the hands are the keepers or guard Euery creature hath his weapons for defence man hath his hands his hands are all weapons euen as he is a little world What all particular creatures can doe with their weapons that can hee doe with his hands yea what suttleties or meanes of getting foode is in them all is in him humano more When the keepers of the house shall tremble that is with the palsie caused of cold binding or of heate consuming or of humors stopping the sinewes And the strong men shall bow themselues When the thighs shal be weake standing loose in the bases or sockets of the knees the spirit languishing the sinews withring the bloud setling and thickning in the veines as riuers in the drought of summer For strength is attributed to the bones thighs or legges Psal 147. 10. He delighteth not in the strength of an horse he taketh not pleasure in the legges of a man Old mens knees buckle or bend forward like an elbowe through the weakenesse of their joynts and sinewes as drunkards goe staggeringly when they are top-heauy nimio solutus Iaccho and their sinewes dissolued and heat euaporated with loud talking vehement contending and much drinke And the grinders cease that is when the tâ—eth are worme-eaten or moskered or mildered away or stand wedshodde in slimie humour standing like weather-beate stakes and mosâ—e begrowne rootes hollow and stumpie falling out one after another as the cogges of a mill worne thinne and narrow at the toppe or else rotten in the roote which partly are troublesome to the aged and partly they are afraid to break those odde straglers remayning And those that looke out at the windowes be darkened That is the eyes which are as ones head looking out at an hole or window the body is an house or tower the eye-holes are windowes through which the soule looketh out into the Cittie of the world The eyes of the aged are like an olde dustie window Verse 4. And the doores shall be shut in the streetes when the sound of the grinding is low and hee shall rise vp at the voice of the bird and all the daughters of musicke shall be brought low BY doores is meant the lips The wind-pipe is the entry the mouth is the doore-gate the lips are the two-leafed doore of the heart or soule as our Sauiour saith Out of the aboundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Euill thoughts come out of the heart passing by the entry of the throate through the doore The lips of old people are often pendulons and tremulous they keep them shut to stay the daily distillation of rheume neither haue they what to speake among strong men because their vnderstanding and memory faileth them they are testie morose cholericke and passionate their voice is weake and breath short and the state of all things is so altered since they were yong that they cannot tell what to thinke or say Children and olde men are neither Counsellours nor Actors the one committeth both these to the elder 1. King 3. 7. 9. the other to the yonger 2. Sam. 19. 35. 37. The strength of the one is to come the other is gone When the sound of the grinding is low because the teeth stand thin or loose or moskerd at the roote or that they are fallen out and he cheweth with his gummes and the grinding cannot be heard And he shall rise vp at the noise of