time is diffusive of holinesse full of good works serves his generation and hath done his work before he fals a sleep hath his Dorcasses coats to be seen after his death it is only our doing good that makes us called good we are not called good men for the good which we have within us but for the good that is performed by us that blessed Hilarion died in a good age in a full age who having served Jesus Christ seventy years when he came to die said Go forth O foul In this sence Elijah saith according to some it is enough Isai 65.20 Unlike to others who are infants of dayes that have not filled their dayes which are like emptie white paper having nothing written in them Thirdly when a person is satisfied and contented with that time and age which God hath already given him and is as the Scripture oft expresseth it full of dayes having lived as long as himself desired or as heart could wish accounting as Elijah speaks that he hath lived enough Thus Abraham Gen. 25.8 Isaac Gen. 35.29 David 1 Chro. 23.1 Job chap. 42.17 Jehoiada 2 Chro. 24.15 are all said to be full of dayes Rarus qui exacto contentus tempore vitae cedat uti conuiua satur Hor. sat 1. Omnino rerum sum satur praesentium to them there was not so much an irksome tediousnesse as a fulnesse and satiety of life they were as willing to leave this world as men are wont to be to rise from the table when they have eaten their fill It was an expression sutable to a godly man when he said Lord I am cloyd with these present enjoyments for indeed they cloy us but they do not satisfie us there is the second a fulnesse of age in regard of a Religious fulnesse Thirdly 3. Maturitas Naturalis there is a fulnesse of age in regard of a naturall fulnesse which is the fulnesse here principally intended though the other be not excluded and this naturall fulnesse of age is twofold First here is intended senectus sera a late long ripe age Senectus sera in respect of the great number of its years he shall not be taken away by an immature untimely death when he hath lived out but half his dayes the candle of his life shall not be blown out no this lamp shall not be put but go out all the oyl shall be spent his vital moisture shal be dried up gone In a word He shall not be taken away in the midst of his dayes There is a prediction Psalm 55.23 that the wicked shall not Dimidiare dies half their dayes juxta editionem vulgata i. e. live out half those dayes which according to the course of nature they might reach unto But Eliphaz here intends that Job shall go though surely yet slowly to heaven and shall not be as the corn upon the house top that wiâ—hers before it be grown up but shall come to his full measure of yeers and live as long as according to the course of nature could be expected 2. In this natural fulnesse is contained Senectus sana Senectus sana vegeta an hail youthful old-age sound strong vigorous and that both in respect of body and minde 1. Of body When men are free for the most part from such bodily infirmities and annoiances as old age is wont to be infested withal and are without though not such weaknesse as necessarily accompnaies the decay of nature yet such pains aches and diseases as are wont to annoy that age Health is a mercy at all times even such wherin others are wont usually to enjoy it but especially is it a blessing to enjoy it in that age wherein men most commonly want it Health in infectious times is a singular mercy and so is it in old-age which is subject to so many diseases It is not so much the decay of bodily strength as pains and diseases which make old age burdensome How choice a priviledge is it to be fat and flourishing even in old age as it is spoken in another regard Psalm 92.14 not altogether unlike to Moses who being an hundred and twenty yeers old when he died his eye was not dim nor his natural strength abated Deut. 34.7 Or Caleb who Josh 14.11 saith of himself that he was as strong as eighty five yeers as he was at fourty for war Here was a Spring in Autumn a good healthful old age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not an old age sick diseased squalid the bones here are not full of the sins of youth in regard whereof there are some men older at thirty then others are at sixty they are old when they are young in regard of the diseases they have brought upon themselves by their intemperance 2. Of minde When men are not though old in yeers crazy in their intellectuals but the parts of their minde are green and youthful they being not as some twice children a great blessing it is for young men to have the parts of old men in regard of prudence and for old men to retain their youthful and pregnant abilities of knowledge fancy memory apprehension and the eyes of their minde not to grow dim and dark with old age Thus this season of coming of the grave is set forth properly in a full age 2. 2 2. Branch of the 2. Part of the Text opened Secondly it is described metaphorically in these words Like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season These words A shock of corn may as well be rendred A heap of corn the word signifies both either corn before or after its threshing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This corn is said to come in The word in the Original imports to ascend and corn may be said to ascend by bringing carrying laying of it up and it comes in in its season when it comes in in its full maturity and perfect ripenesse and so a Saint shall come to his grave in a mature age like unto a shock of corn in its season and ripenesse But why is a full age compared unto the fully mature and ripened corn In sundry respects 1. First in reagard of the variety of seasons that ripened corn must go through before it be ripe There must be storms blustering windes nipping frosts sun-shine rain go over it before it come to maturity and the frost is as good to kill the worms as the sun is needfull to quicken its growth and who is there hath-hath lived to a full ripe age that is not as ripe corn in this respect witnesse Jacob Joseph David Paul c. When man of yeers but hath been a man of variety of conditions in the world but hath met with his stormes and windes with his unkinde usage and a troublesome state here below And its good it should be so we should not be willing to be cut down by the sickle of death nor long to be taken into the barn laid up in
under a self-debasing tongue And I have heard of some who put their prayses to usury they dispraising themselves for a while Robinsons Observations that so they may receive their praise again with advantage Touching my self therefore I shall onely say that the dear respect which I owe and bear to the memory of this excellent man Saint Minister Doctor William Gouge hath made me break through the deep resentment of my own insufficiency to go through this work and yet withal that against this inability of mine I have these three things which relieve me and these I should not mention to the inlarging of a Preface which is best when least did they not tend to the honouring of this servant of Christ which is one end of our meeting this day 1. First I look upon that as my and not my least encouragement to this service which most may think my greatest discouragement from undertaking it and that is the eminent worth of this Excellent Man whose Funeral this day we celebrate were I either to commend some prophane person or some professor whose worth and unworthinesse did hang in aequilibrio and appear so evenly ballanc'd that none could tell which of them outweigh'd the other I might wound my conscience blast my reputation or at least torture my invention either to finde out matter of commendation or a fit manner of expressing thereof But Brethren I think I have as little cause as ever had any who preached in this place upon the like occasion either to fear reproofs from my own heart or my many hearers for giving a large testimony to the worth of this Excellent Man or to study solicitously for matter of praise which is as it were Myrrha Libera Myrrhe which drops freely of its own accord without any squeezing or constraint 2. Lachrymae auditorum laudes ministrorum It is likewise my encouragement that you my Auditors bear a share with me in this Funeral and following commendation As the tears of a people are a Ministers praise when he himself preacheth in his life-time so is their sorrow for him no small commendation to him when another is preaching of him after his death I doubt not but very many in this great Assembly come hither not to gaze to see and be seen but to mourn for the death of this eminent servant of Christ and to sprinkle some tears upon his Funeral Herse Confident I am that could you turn your sorrowful insides outward like that people who were wont to shew their funeral mourning onely by turning the inside of their apparel outward that mournfullest expressions would be as common among you as true mourning is suitable to you and that Sable would as well cover the People as it doth the Pulpit If the Angels were so forward to attend upon a Lazarus when he dyed as to carry him to his place of rest what readinesse should there be among Lazarusses full of the sores of sin and misery to respect the Funeral of this dead Angel I call him Angel for so he was in his life time in regard of his Office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as an Angel now after his death I doubt not but he is in Heaven 3. My third encouragement is this I am call'd this day to perform a greater Work then to praise him I am to preach the Word to you God who hath called me unto the greater to speak from himself to you I trust will enable me to perform the lesser I mean the speaking concerning this Reverend Man to you I know you long to hear what I shall say of him and haply some do so because they would give vent to their sorrows though by their Eyes I shall gratifie your desire when I have first delivered my Errand from God to you the sum whereof you shall finde written in The 5th Chapter of Job Vers 26. In these words Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age like as a shock of Corn cometh in in his season THe words were spoken by Eliphaz to inforce that dehortation given to Job Vers 17. Despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty that is Cast it not off with a wearisome aversness and loathing nor reject it either as unprofitable and unuseful or as disgraceful and dishonourable to thee nor slight it as a thing of which no notice is taken c. This counsel he backs with an argument drawn from the benefit that should accrue unto him by a submissivenesse under the afflicting hand of God Eliphaz shews that at length the mercy of God shall appear for his good and that both First by preservation from evils Vers 19. He shall deliver thee from six troubles yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee and also Secondly by the bestowing of blessings Vers 23 24 25. Thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace c. Yea he declares that Job shall not onely be happy in his life-time but also even at and after his death in the words of my Text Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season In which words you have this two parts considerable 1. A godly mans arival at his Port or terme Thou shalt come to thy grave 2. The seasonablenesse of this arival in a full age like as c. In the former I take notice of two particulars 1. What that place or Port is the grave 2. What that kind of passage to it is which here is promised Thou shalt come to it The Later the seasonablenesse of the arival is set out two wayes 1. Properly in a full age 2. Metaphorically or by way of resemblance like as a shock of corn cometh in his season 1. I begin with the former part and therein with the first particular the Port or place it self to which even the godly must arive The grave This hath been the place where the holiest men have met Obser and to which the dearest Saints the Jobs of God have come The grave I say is their term their Center Gen. 25.8 1 Kings 2.1 Zech. 1.5 The holy Patriarchs of old Abraham the friend of God The godly Kings David went the way of all flesh The Prophets live not for ever The Apostles died and thus it is In regard of 1. Themselves 2. Others 1. Themselves as they are 1. Men. 2. Sinfull men 3. Good men 1. They are men Their bodies consist of corruptible principles and are earthen vessels and Cottage Every day they daub them over as it were with food and labour to keep them in reparations and to make them tenantable for the soul but alas all will not do they cannot long be shord up down they will at last and crumble to dust Even the props wherewith they are kept up are but rotten meats are corruptible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isid Pelus l. 1. ep 65. bread is cald that which perisheth How can such structures then
stand long the truth is their falling begins as Isidore of Pelusium speaks with their very building and being men they are subject also to the same accidents and casualties with others 2. Sinfull men T is true sin is in them and not in them in them not as their love but their load and vexation And death doth befall them and doth not befall Doth befall them as afflictive to sense as a cure of their woes as a consequent of sin but not as a curse or a wrathfull punishment but yet this repeated addition and he dyed subjoyned to the relation of the long lives of the ancient Patriarchs shewed the immoveable certainty of that threatning of death against Adams sin notwithstanding the deceitfull promise of the devil 3. They are holy men And to the grave they must come First For a resiing place Here is not their rest Rom. 7.24 Rom. 6.7 2 Cor. 5.6.8 1 Thes 4.16 their works at length follow them and they shall not follow their work any more Secondly They must be perfectly freed from sin which till death they cannot be Thirdly They must have their Crown of life and Fourthly Shall for ever be with the Lord who loves his children so well that he will not alwayes suffer them to be abroad and absent from him 2. In regard of others they must come to the grave First Some are unkind and cruel to them and haply they hurry them to the Port of the grave with a blustering storm and tempest of persecution The Saints especially Ministers of Christ are set in the forlorn hope and commonly the bullet soonest hits them Secondly Some idolize them deifie them how many when adored hath God grownde to pouder as Moses did the Israelites Calf and removed them from men when we have made them equall with God It s the great sin of the times either to deifie or nullifie men God loves neither Thirdly The living must prize them and get much good by them in a little time He who hath a book lent him but for a little while makes the more hast to read it over the Prophets and Saints of God live not ever nor are given us to use as long as we please they are but lent us and we must improve them speedily God hath held the candle of a Saints Life and a Ministers Doctrine to many idle professors many a year and he oft puts out this light to punish them for their negligence Since then even the best must come to the grave let them study to do much for God while they live The grave is a place of silence and rest Use 1 The living the living they praise and are employed for God Short seasons require speedy services The nearnesse of death should put us upon holy serviceablenesse during life as for the preserving of a sweet and precious remembrance of our selves in that generation which follows so especially for the transmitting by our examples holiness to Posterity that so a seed of Saints may be continued in the World when we are dead and gone And truely as otherwise we shall die while we live so hereby we shall live when we are dead and be like civet which when t is taken out of the box leaves a sweet savour behind it 2. Let not any settle themselves securely in this World he is a mad man that will go about to build a house upon a quaking quag-mire upon a rotten foundation The longest lived of those long-lived Patriarchs lived not a thousand years God hereby shewing that the longest life of any of the sons of men is not able to reach to that space which in respect of Gods Eternity is not a day Expect not Eternity in this life Vid Rivet in Gen. Let us live as if we were alwayes dying and yet as such as are ever to live Set not up your hopes your expectations here the grave will rub off all our worldly grandeur as a narrow hole sweepes off all the apples that the foolish hedge-hog loads her prickles withall Labour to be taken off from the world before you are taken out of it 3. Thirdly if Saints must come to the grave 3. Joh. 9.4 12.35 get good by them while they live Walk and work by the light while you have it with you Neglect not to get good by the godly in hope to enjoy them longer with you Thou mayst bewail thy over-slipt opportunities when t is too late I will not let thee go except thou blesse me you know it was the speech of Jacob to God O Lord say thou let not not such a Saint go such a Minister die till thou hast blessed me by his meanes let not his light be put out till he hath shewed me the way to heaven better 4. Fourthly if Saints must die you that live stand up in their stead if God take away pillars be not you as reeds Supply their departure by your piety and usefulnesse 5. Lastly must Saints die here is comfort in many respects they shall come to the grave they shall die but their souls shall never die the second death hath no power over them they shall die but secondly the Church shall never die they shall die but thirdly their works shall never die these shall follow them they shall die but fourthly their God shall never die the Prophets of God Do they live for ever but the God of the Prophets lives for ever Lastly they dye and therefore why should not we be willing to dye to fare as they fare Not onely the wicked but Saints dye A godly man was the first who dyed If death were not advantagious it should never be the lot of Gods beloved 2. 2. Branch of the first part This Port or place of the Saints the Grave affords us somewhat more for meditation It is a mercy not only to have a house to hide the head of the living in but to have a sepulchre in which to hide the head of the dead Obs 2 It is a mercy to have a grave Great was Abrahams provident care to purchase a burying-place for his dead God himself buried Moses his dear servant nor was the contention of the Angel about the body of Moses to hinder its burial but onely to forbid the Devil to be present at it When the Kings of Judah are recorded their burials are also frequently mentioned and those of the highest merit were buried in the upper part of the sepulchres of the sons of David 2 Chron. 32.33 Nor was it a small judgement of God inflicted upon Baasha and Jezabel to be buried in the bellies of Dogs Ier. 22 19. Or upon Jehoiakim that he should be buried with the burial of an Asse contemptibly cast into a ditch Or upon the king of Babylon Isai 14.20 that he should not be joyned with the kings in burial Neither was that a slight imprecation Psal 63.11 Let them be a portion for Foxes Nor a small threatning Jer. 14.16 That the
people should be cast out into the streets and have none to bury them and that the bones of the kings priests and prophets Jer. 8.2 should be taken out of the grave and laid open to the sun and moon Nor a small complaint that the enemies of the Church had given the dead bodies of Gods saints to be meat to the fowls of the heaven and their flesh unto the beasts of the earth Want of burial is so hateful that some have been more restrained from sin by the fear of not being buried then of dying And David commends the burial of a dead Saul nay Jehu commands the burial of the remains of a cursed Jezabel The practise therefore of giving the body decent burial is very commendable Sutable it is that the body Vse 1 a piece of Gods workmanship so curiously wrought Psal 139. should not be carelesly thrown away Yea it hath been repair'd redeem'd as well as made by God It is partner in redemption with the soul and bought with the precious blood of Christ The body is also sanctified for the spirits temple The ointment of sanctification rests not onely on the head the soul but runs down alrests not onely on the head the soul but runs down also upon the skirts the body The chair where the King of glory hath sate should not be abused With the bodies of our deceased friends we lately had sweet commerce haply they were very beneficial to us The body of a faithful Minister was an earthen Conduit-pipe whereby God conveighed spiritual comforts to our souls The body was once a partner with the soul in all her actions it was the souls brother-twin what could the soul do without it whatever was in the understanding was conveighed by the sence The soul sees by its eyes hears by its ears works by its hands yea which is more there is an indissoluble union between the dust in the grave and the glorious soul Church-yards are but sleeping-places and as they were called among the Jews houses of the living A great Heir is regarded though he be for the present in rags and which is more our very bodies are the members of Christ and of that lump whereof he was the First-fruits Hence is discovered Vse 2 the more then heathenish Barbarousnesse of the Papists both in denying and recalling burial digging up the dead again as they dealt with the bodies of Paulus Fagius and Peter Martyrs wife Heathens themselves have shewen greater humanity witnesse that of Alexander in allowing enterment to the dead body of Darius Hanibal to Marcellus's Caesar to Pompey's The comfort of Saints is that God keeps every one of their bones and that as he left not one out of his book when he made them at first so that neither shall one be missing when he will remake them Nor is the superstitious folly of Papists about the bodies of the dead lesse reproveable then their inhumane cruelty I mean their religious reverencing of the reliques of the deceased Though the Devil could not obtain a license for this sin according to some from Michael yet hath he obtained a command for it from the Pope To name this practise is to confute it It s idolatry derogation from the merits of Christ ridiculousnesse for Popish Historians tell us that the bones of the worship'd have afterward proved to be the reliques of theeves and murderers to such a proportion are they increased that they are rather the objects of derision then adoration Yea lastly its injuriousnesse to the saints who in pretence are honoured whose bodies hereby have insepultam sepulturam are kept from their honour of rest and brought into a condition threatned as a curse are more then enough to procure our abhorrence of it To conclude this Vse 3 the care yet of a dead body should not be comparable to that of the living ever-living soul what profit is it for the body to be embalmed and entombed richly and the soul to be tormented eternally As great a folly is the respecting of the vile body joyn'd with the neglecting of the precious soul as for a frantick mother onely to lament the losse of the coat of her drowned childe never laying to heart the losse of the childe it self Chiefly look after thy soul and God will take care of thy body it shall be embalmed to eternity though it should be eaten up with the beasts of the earth This for the first the Saints Port or Place The second particular in the first part of the Text. the Grave But secondly what kinde of passage shall he have thither Eliphaz saith He shall come to the grave And this notes that his passage to the grave shall be willing and uninforced He shall get thither by coming he shall go as it were upon his own feet he shall not be hailed and dragged and pulled thither against his own minde Obs 3 It shall be his portion to be willing to dye his soul shall not be required of him taken from him by force against his wil as his was Luke 12.20 No he shall be one that is pleased with the thoughts of his departure and desires with Paul to be dissolved 1 Kings 19.4 One that may say as Elijah Lord take away my soul and with Simeon Lord Luke 2.29 now lettest thou thy servant depart He will open the door cheerfully when his master shall but send his Sergeant Death to knock he will meet Death as it were half way Death shall be his priviledge as well as his task with Peter and John he running to the sepulchre not being urged drag'd to it Necessitatis Vinculo by the bond of necessity but making toward it Voluntatis Obsequio with the holy forwardnesse of his will Thou shalt come By death Saints are freed from the reach of as well as hurt by Satans temptations From the evil company of the ungodly from divine desertion from the burden of sin and corruption from the painful and laborious employments of their places from all bodily infirmities and diseases death is the best physick from all Gods fatherlike chastisements Minus pie vivis si minus persecutionem pertuleris Gr. ep 27. l. 6. from an unkinde persecuting unquiet world that bed of thorns they love not the world and therefore they linger not in it They are in love with heaven where they shall have the consummation of grace and glory and enjoy the sweet soul-ravishing society of their Friend Husband Saviour Head and therefore as their better portion Christ so their better part their heart is there already He hath perfumed the grave for them and made that narrow noisome place a place of ease and sweetnesse Ever since Christ trod and walk'd upon the sea of death they may say as Peter to Christ Lord if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water Christ by his death hath laboured and they when they dye do but enter into his labours In a word Sin the strength and
only weapon which Death can use is by the merit and spirit of Christ taken away so that death is now become a stinglesse Serpent and a toothlesse Lion a tame disarmed enemy or rather the bare name and notion of an enemy The unwillingnesse of Gods people to dye is not because they judge that death is not good for them but because they think not themselves good enough for death How unlike to Christians Vse 1 do they then shew themselves who are so loath to dye that they will not come but must be drag'd to the grave yea to the very thoughts thereof who though they cannot live without misery yet neither can they be content with that which as they cannot avoid so will put an end to all misery Oh how unsuitable is this distemper to those who both profess they desire that Gods will may be done that they are pilgrims and strangers upon earth and that heaven is their countrey their fathers house 2. How excellent is the grace of Faith Vse 2 which makes a beleever cheerfully to come to that to which another must be drawn and dragd I mean the grave To a beleever when his faith is on the wing life as Paul speaks of his is not dear and death as he speaks of his is desired Acts 20.24 Phil. 1.22.23 It was as hard to make Paul patient when he thought of living as to make another patient when he expected dying Faith is the alone mantle which divides the waters of death so as that a beleever sees he may go through them dry-shod That grace which throwes the Crosse of Christ into these waters of marah and thereby makes them not onely wholsome but pleasant It s our duty to labour for such a spirit Vse 3 as to be willing to die to Come to the grave If it was Christs desire to die for us should it not be our longing to live with him To this end First clear up thy interest in Christs death the death of thy death the blood of Christ makes pale death look beautifully He was a curse and death is thereby a blessing this horn of salvation dipt into the waters of death makes them not onely poisonless but wholsome death hath left its sting in the sides of Christ He that beleeveth in him shall never die Secondly In looking toward death look likewise beyond it even as far as the benefits which follow it view that blessednesse which is invisible Consider not death as it shews it self to an eye of sence but as its manifest to an eye of Faith not as an enemie to man but as changed by Christ into a friend yea the best friend next Christ himself Thirdly Oft meditate of death let it not surprize thee unawares let it be an acquaintance not a a stranger die before thou diest death onely seems a great businesse to those who are to go through it all at once Fourthly Hate sin the love of sin makes men fear death and he who hates sin must needs love death because thereby sin shall be wholly abolisht The love of sin is the arming of death and an armed enemy must needs be formidable Fifthly Wean thy self from the world Omnia ista nobis accedant ut sine ulla nostra laceratione discedant Sen. ep 74. an empty traveller will sing when he meets with the thief he who looks upon himself as possessing nothing in the world fears not a stripping by death let not the world cleave to thee as a shirt which sticks to an ulcerous body and so pulls skin and flesh away withall The loose tooth comes out with ease but when it stands fast in the head it s drawn out with much pain If the world and our affections be fastned the parting will not be without much difficulty I come to the second part of the text 2. Generall part of the Text. and that is the seasonableness of a Saints coming to the grave and First it is set out properly In a full age Tremelius renders it cum senio with old age Pagnine in maturitate in ripenesse Vatablus in senio The uulgar latine in abundantia in abundance which some expound of abundance of honours and riches others of abundance of years and long life and indeed the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies old age or a full age which stands in the abundance of years and therefore I know no reason why we should by giving other interpretations raise a dust to obscure the sence But yet withall here is imported a happy blessed old age such an old age as is a promise and is in scripture frequently cal'd a good old age and therefore this full age may include a threefold fulnesse to name no more 1. Maturitas civilis Gen. 15.15 1 Chro. 29.28 First a Civill fulnesse or maturity and so a full age is an age full of honour peace and riches so it is said that David died in a good old age full of dayes riches and honour this civil fulnesse being not onely considered actively when men have set their houses in order setled their Estates when they are ripe and fit for death in regard they have made their will and fitly disposed of their goods the neglect whereof for fear of death being a childish folly for death is never awhit the nearer because we place it before our eyes nor the further off because we will not see it but passively also when God hath bestowed upon men a full estate and especially a good name when they go not out in a snuff of disgrace and the sun of their life sets not in a cloud but they are buried with honour and leave a sweetly perfumed memoriall behind them their name living when their bodies are dead In this respect Jeroboams son died in a full age being honoured with the lamentations of Israel and Jehojada who was buried honourably in the chief of the Sepulchers of the Kings of Judah Secondly here may be recomprehended a Religious fulnesse 2. Maturitas spiritualis and that in three respects First when a person is born again hath gotten grace into his soul and an interest in Jesus Christ of whose fulnesse he hath received and grace for grace John 1.16 whereby he hath a meekness to die and thus yong ones may be of full age even before they are one and twenty they may be old young-men as on the contrary old sinners or sinners though of an hundred year old may be cal'd young or childish old-men young Josiah had his full age Aetas immatura pijs matura◠est et plus illis est annos decem vixisse quam inpijs centum inercer in loc in this respect before he died and as Mercer well notes on the text a green age is to the godly a ripe age and they live more in ten years then the wicked in an hundred Secondly when a person not onely hath grace but also is beneficial usefull doth much good in his
Note then in the first place The difference between godly and wicked men The godly mans age is a full age to him he is fill'd with age and hath a satiety of life It s far otherwise with the wicked I read not of any one of them in Scripture of whom it s said that he was full of dayes none can be full of Time but he who hath had a taste of Eternity the wicked never think they have enough either of the wealth or life of this World By their good will they would never die The miseries and calamities of this world sometimes indeed may make them impatiently weary of their lives But the godly in the midst of all their worldly solaces and enjoyments health honour wealth c. are fill'd with dayes Gen 46.30 Jacob said now let me die when he was in the midst of his greatest worldly rejoycing by the unexpected mercy of seeing both Joseph and his sons David was full of dayes when he was also full of riches and honour The wicked may be angry with the troubles of this but a Saint is enamoured with the Beauty of the next life a wicked man may be weary of life but a Saint is also desirous of death I observe Vse 2 the â—nfulness of shortning our lives a full age is a blessing promised yea a choice blessing first then those cowards are hence worthily reproved who shorten their lives by Duels the greatest cowards in the World who being pursu'd with a disgrace will run as far as hell before they look back Secondly those that shorten their lives by intemperance that dig their graves with their teeth that are felons of themselves Lascivis brevis est aetas rara senectus that swallow not only their estates and lively-hoods but their lives also down their throats these I say unkindly prevent this kinde and sweet enjoyment here promised a full age they being grown old by diseases before their time making their tumors rheums and other distempers to prevent their old age to be sure the vigour and vivacity of it These do that against themselves which the very Devils desired to shun they tormenting themselves before their time Luxury is the greatest enemy of health and hinderance of old age How many by being cast away in the surges of riot and drunkenness fall short of the Port of a full age 3. Vse 3 Thirdly great is the sin of deriding at old age and contempt of old men in their full age as when men voice them twice children silly men Dotards these scoffers imitating those children that called the Propeht bald-pate I remember a smart and fit answer which an old man once gave to a scoffing youngster the young man telling the old that his memory grew weak and frail well replyed the old man though my memory be now fâ—ail yet know that I have forgotten more then ever thou didst remember If he that mocketh the poor certainly he that despiseth the aged reproach th his Maker The aged must be both honourable Prov. 17.5 Lev. 19.2 and honoured before whom thou must rise up They who will not honour old Fathers seldom find their dayes to be long in the land which God gives them 4. Fourthly Vse 4 I note from hence That all the creatures should not onely be improved spiritually but particularly improved even to the putting of us in minde of death even the shocks of ripe corn the ripe wheat that is in the field should make thee consider that as that same corn must shortly be carried into the Barn so thou must be tumbled into the grave thy sleep should make thee think of the sleep of death the Autumn should put thee in minde of the day of thy fading falling leaf the setting of the Sun should make thee forecast the setting of the sun of thy life the harvest should make thee think of deaths reaping sickle the dead creatures upon which thou daily feedest should convince thee that the feeder cannot live alwayes the putting off thy clothes from thy body should instruct thee of putting off shortly the clothes of thy body The blood of the grape that thou drinkest was pressed and shed before thou couldst come to the sweetnesse of it The skins which clothe us were the cast sutes of dead beasts When thou puttest on thy clothes in the morning thou shouldst think of being clothed with new robes of the resurrection Oh could you do thus you would not onely think of but expect death in all places as death expects you every where Death may lie under your trencher may be at the bottom of every cup. The delights of the creature should not extinguish the suggestions which they give us of mortality The Ancients had their sepulchres in their places of pleasure their Gardens and of old some were wont to roll a dead-mans skil upon their table after their greatest feasts 5. Vse 5 Fifthly note that old age is a blessing 1. A full age like unto the ripe corn is here promised as an encouragement to duty and the contrary is threatned as a curse God foretels that there should not be an old man in the house of Eli. Gen. 15.15 1 Sam 2.32 Psal 55.22 It s the curse threatned against the wicked that they shall not live out half their dayes and be like the corn on the house top which withers before it be grown 2. Secondly it is laboured and contended for as a great blessing they that despise it yet desire it and would count it a mercy All thy food is taken but to patch up thy cottage that so thou mayest live till thou art an old man Physicians are but Pilots to conduct to the haven of old age All the physick that the Apothecary prepares all the Physitians prescriptions are but helps to old age beyond old age thou canst not go to old age thou wouldst fain go 3. Grace is not onely an honour to old age as it is indeed to every age But old age is a great honour also to grace they cast a mutual lustre upon one another The oldest presons most commend grace in having because in keeping it grace beautifies the youngest but it is not beautified so much by any as by the oldest These shew that after all the solicitations of sin and vanity grace is yet the best and their best beloved and that though they have served Jesus Christ so many scores of yeers yet that they esteem him the best master and are not weary of his service but that they account it impossible to change it for the best of temporals unlesse to losse O how glorious is it when there is the silver crown of gray hairs and the golden crown of grace upon one head How amiable a conjunction are the golden apples of grace in the silver picture of the hoary head 4. Fourthly it s an age of the greatest growth and perfection of grace the bringing of our graces to the greatest fulnesse in this world