Zenophon there are found to this purpose in question many worthy sayings Valerius Maximus in the eight booke of his Collection of auncient memorable acts and sayings doth set forth many notable examples of famous old men whereof some haue hitherto beene propounded by vs. It shall then be enough to adde yet some testimonies drawne and culled out of the hoard and treasurie of Stobeus in his hundred and sixteenth Discourse in fauour of old age The experience of old men can reueale and discouer more wisedome then the trauailes sweating endeuours tugging and striuing of young men It is true that the hands of young men are strong to execute but the braines of old men doe better seruice and preuaile and performe more For time is the father that begets varietie of wisedome and prudence Loue to commune and aduise with old men and abandon the foolish deuices and fond imaginations of young men wherein there is nothing appeares but vainenesse and fopperie So it is that the pleasure of a vitious and sinfull contentment doth not laste long Old age is not so neere the end of life as it is neere the threshold of the dore which opens to an assured happie life Hee that will take vpon him the wardship and tuition of some young man and to haue him well brought vp doth commit him to a wise old man euen as to qualifie strong fuming wines we doe brewe them with water Old men who are free and ridd of the so many euill lustes wherein young men doe furiously plunge themselues become like vnto God Also old men liue and die as if they were rather asleepe whereas the life and death of young men resembles boystrous tempestes and violent ship-wrackes It will be obiected against whatsoeuer I can all edge in fauour of old age that the heathens also haue spoken verie disgracefully and reprochfully of it witnes the hundred and seauenteenth discourse of Stobeus the scoffing taunts and quipps both of the Greeke and Latine comicall and Satyricall Poets in their Tractates And hee he may goe for a witnesse to who compares old age to Wine that is lowe and almost nothing but lees to a ware-house full of refuse and brayded wares whereof there is no reckoning to bee made to a sanctuarie or place of refuge whereunto all sortes of euilles seeme to retyre as to their garrison and hold to an eccho to a shadow to a vanishing dreame and to the dead time of Winter Horace in his art of Poetrie doth pensill and picture out an old man in this manner Many are the miseries of wretched man that is old Either because he hazards himselfe to get money and gold And when he hath got it his wretchednesse is such He dares not lay out a penny he loues it so much Or because in all things he takes in hand and goes about He is fearefull vnweldie full of suspition and doubt He puts off the day of death still his minde doth him giue And he verely hopes many a day longer to liue He lies lusking at home and loues to heare men relate All newes whatsoeuer yea the secrets of State He complaines of the times present is pensiue and sad And sayes his fore-fathers dayes were nothing so bad Iuuenal in his tenth Satyre describeth the infirmities of such old age But if wee heedfully consider the scoffing speeches of these Authors it will soone appeare that they speake either of the diseases of the body or of old age that is decrepit worne out quite spent and done not regarding the commodious helpes and vses of wise old men For otherwise to what dangers and disasters are young men exposed vnto And when should wee make an end if wee should take vpon vs to make a Catalogue of them The Heathens haue confessed that a young man was happy not in regard of his age but his vertue They haue affirmed as much of an old man adding further That an old man is already possessed of that which a young man expects and hopes for And what doe young men ayme at and hope after but to liue to a great age and to be old men They haue compared young men vnto men tossed vp and downe to and fro with the windes and waues in the middest of the Sea and old men to passengers which are neere their port and readie to caste Anchor Ought we to maruaile sayth Cicero if old men be sometimes feeble and decayed in strength seeing that young men cannot be exempt and priuilledged from consumptions or pynings away of the bodie There is no infirmitie whatsoeuer in old age which the wiser old men are not prepared and armed for and with greatnesse of courage and patience doe easily sustayne and endure Whereunto the verses of Horace doe fitly sort and agree who sayth If God to thee a time doe giue Wherein thou mayest full happie liue Most ioyfully this time embrace Doe not neglect too long a space The happie houre of thy Fate To enioy a life more fortunate But to the world proclaime throughout Thou art a voluntarie Souldier and stout And wilt not from thy coullors flie But stand thy ground couragiously And in another place he sayth Irkesome it is to be annoyde With euill a man cannot auoide But that which is past remedie Man beares at last contentedly When patience hath him vnder awe Yeelding obedience to her law Put case then that old age hath his opponents assaults and be exposed to diuers disasters and miseries so hath it also strong and fit weapons stratagemes directories and practised vertues to helpe at need Old mens mindes are still entire and sound so long as they are invred to studie and exercised Though their legges faile them their wittes doe not as Homer sayth bringing in Nestor speaking in this manner I will with my Counsell and Orations excite and pricke forward the youthes and young men This is the trade and practise of old men who haue more wisedome and iudgement then others and as Ovid affirmeth It is time that ripens experience The counsell and sawe of old men hath in it somewhat I know not what that is pleasing to heare gracefull and of venerable regard and well liking Euen as we see the Sunne at his decline With golden rayes more pleasingly to shine If Seneca the Tragedian bee heerein to be beleeued And it there be to bee found foolish impertinent and vnprofitable old men they are no other then fountaines without water forrests grubd vp and gladed trees without fruit starres without light and all their imperfections and defects proceed from ill education Remember saith Cicero that I commend that old age which hath had early good beginnings and beene well taught and trayned vp from childhood and youth For that old age is miserable that can plead nothing else for Atiquitie but the wrinckles of the face and the white haires Moreouer the more old age sees the time to approach of appearing before the tribunall of the Soueraigne Iudge the lesse it apprehends
had of some comfort after many sorrowes and afflictions yet may it be said that the world was then in his prime and best dayes At which time these good Patriarches were not booke learned but all the knowledge they had in naturall Philosophy or in the course of the Starres they got it by long obseruation and experience which from the grandfathers and fathers were deliuered ouer and taught to their children and to their childrens children as Iosephus witnesseth in his first booke of Antiquities and third Chapter Many wondering heereat haue mooued this question whether it be likely or probable that the Patriarched liued so long as nine hundred yeares and vpwards as our first father Adam Methusula and Noah did Some curious wits whose maner is to measure euery thing by the meat-wand and rule of their owne ouerweening pride who because they could not perswade themselues that the years of the Patriarches were composed of twelue moneths or of three hundred threescore fiue dayes euery day hauing foure and twenty houres and euery houre his ordinary minutes haue imagined as Saint Augustine reports in his 15. Booke De ciuitate Dei chap 10. 12. that the yeares of the first world were not reckoned according to our present computation and style but that one of our yeares now is as much in the ballance of account as tenne yeare then and they held their opinion for currant and to bee approoued for that the people of the old world doe still to this day differ about the calculation of the yeare For the AEgyptians had their yeare of foure moneths the Acarnans of sixe and the Lauinians of thirteene moneths Plinie the second hauing written that the Histories make mention of two whereof one liued one hundred fiftie and two yeares and the other liued two hundred yeares and of many that liued till they were eight hundred yeeres old addeth that the ignorance of the times gaue credit to such tales and reports because there were of the antienter men of those times that did shut vp and inclose the yeare within the seaesons thereof some of them reckoning the yeare by the summer season others did put the summer and winter season together and made two yeares of them both and some of them did reckon the interuall and space from the change of the Moone to the last day of the wayne for a whole yeere But besides that the history of the Deluge being heedfully looked into and examined according to his moneths and dayes doth confute this errour Saint Augustine declareth that such coniectures can haue no force or authoritie in this dispute and driueth these curious disputers into a manifest absurditie For if seuenty yeare 's then were but seuen of our yeares now Kenan when he was seuen yeares old begot his sonne Mahalaleel and Mahalaleel being onely fiue yeares old and a halfe should haue had Iered as Henoch also at the same age should haue begot his sonne Methusula But not to stand and relye vpon the vaine disputes of prophane people who being ignorant in the Art of Astronomy and Celestiall motions haue inuented yeares after their owne fancy and haue intricated themselues in infinite errours which time by the helpe and skill of learned Astronomers hath reformed and corrected Most sure and certaine it is that after the Deluge the whole earth by that fearefull punishment of the inundation of waters failed to yeeld his foison and strength as before and men being more luxurious and dissolute of life liued not so long as they did before as appeareth by the Genealogy of the sonnes of Sem in the 11. Chapter of Genesis Presently the yeares of the holy Patriarches did ebb and abate of their number and in processe of time men in their manners grew worse and worse so that at last in the time of Iacob the age of man did shrinke away and decay very much and afterward much more in the time of Moyses whereof wee may haue an instance and proofe in the nintie Psalme although the yeares there mentioned seeme to be abriged and cut off for an extraordinary rod of correction to them in the Desert Caius the lawyer giueth his iudgement that the houre-glasse of mans life euen of those that are of the ablest bodies and mindes cannot runne much longer then a hundred yeares In the bookes of Heathen Authors there are found notable and rare examples and perhaps fabulous of men that haue liued very old The yeares of Nestor are become a proueeb by reason that Homer gaue it out that he liued thee hundred yeares The Tragedian Poets broach it for a truth that one Tiresias liued sixe hundred yeares and Plinie in his 7. Booke Chap. 48. hath set downe a Catalogue of old men that liued to a very great age Sabellicus in his AEneades reporteth that in Arabia men liue till they bee foure hundred yeares full out Our French Historiographers doe celebrate the memory of one Iohn des temps who had an Esquires place vnder Charlemagne about the year 800. and liued vntill the yeare 1124. vnder the Emperour Conrad the third In our dayes there haue beene found in the East and West Indies old men that haue out liued two hundred yeares and in diuers parts of Europe chiefly in the temperate Clymates but especially in the mountaine countries there be found men aboue a hundred yeares old that are very voluble and fluent in talke and discourse But whether this bee so or no all wise men agree in this that although God by his speciall blessing for certaine great reasons hath drawne out the dayes of some of his children to a very great length and that oftentimes it falleth out that the wicked suddainly perish and haue their life taken away for their rebellion against him as the whole race of Cain was swallowed vp of the flood and not a man of them left aliue Yet this earth that beares vs vp and whereupon we tread is not the Land of the liuing as Basil declareth in his exposition vpon the 44. Psal For here before the soule goes out of the body we are often and long a dying feele many assaults of death who giues vs many a sore blowe deadly wound before he kil vs out-right first our infancy dies in vs next our childhood afterwards our youth or age of twentie or one and twentie yeares growth consequently our manly and middle age which is followed with old age which changeth both vs and our affections making vs to liue after another manner We shall then be in the land of the liuing when wee shall be the same men we seeme to bee vnchangeable without griefe of minde or sicknesse of body not subiect to any corruptions or defilements nor frowardly liuing in strife and debate While we liue in this tabernacle of the body as Saint Paul saith 2. Cor. 5. 4. Wee sigh and mourne being heauily burthened not that wee desire to be stripped or vnclothed but to be clothed againe that that which
good of their neighbour for that wise old men by their good counsells doe maintaine and support publique estates and their owne priuate estates be they great or small For he that is a prudent gouernour of a small family deserues great commendation As on the contrary if the followers and seruants of the mightiest and most eminent persons that may be imagined doe liue dissolutely it is a woefull shame And heereof wee must appeale to the iudgement of Salomon in the fourth Chapter of his Ecclesiastes 13. v. where hee sayth Better is a poore and wise childe then an old and foolish King that will no more be admonished And what is a wise old man in a counsell of State It is an incomparable treasure And what is a King Prince Lord that is old and wise It is a true and liuely image of God among men There are other fruits which old men themselues enioy who liuing discreetly rest in peace health and welfare reducing their course of life within the lists of pietie temperance where they spend their dayes in holy meditations and with ioy of heart passe their time in seeing Their vertuous children in comely showe About their table all on a rowe Like Oliue plants to stand and growe Then they reape the sweet and precious fruite of their labours past But to proceed who would dare to tearme wise old men idle persons who doe imploy themselues to the true and proper exercises of a man to wit to the actions of the minde Magnanimitie true fortitude is not inclosed in the muscles nor in the synewes but in the bearing and sustaining of grieuances in leuying all our powers and forces to fight against impatience carnall lusts against Sathan and the world The famous deedes of old men are wise counsells instructions good examples zealous prayers seruices to the Common-weale and State succours and helpes to friendes protection and maintenance to orphanes and children Plato Sophocles Isocrates and a number of Heathens more who in their old age began and perfected workes which are yet extant and vsefull were they doting old persons Basil Nazienzen Saint Augustine so many ancient and moderne Diuines who during the profound darkenesse of Atheistes and prophane persons wallowing like swine in all confusions dyed very old men and their tongues and pennes neuer lay still but were busie and mouing to edifie and instruct the Christian Churches are these old men which haue spent their time badly So many white beardes which yet to this day serue their soueraigne Lord of whom they expect a glorious reward are they to bee cast behinde the doore as vnprofitable vessels Is it wisely done of young men to reuile them in wordes and shamefully to spurne and tread on them But as Zenophon said Those men liue wisely who are carefull more and more to reforme themselues and they liue cheerefully who euery day feele themselues to profit in vertue which may be truely said of wise old men whose hearts are lifted vp to the Lord and who already haue a foot in Paradise Wherefore then doe we accuse nature and her impediments as we call them I meane old age and the infirmities thereof Seeing that the milde and meeke conuersation of old men is of better esteem and more gracious in them a pregnancie and dexteritie to counsell well is more eminent in them their constancie to suffer death more assured and stedfast and the temperance to bridle and restraine fond foolish lusts and desires is more potent and forcible in them Though their body be weake their minde is strong A wise old man is no more daunted at the approach of death then a labouring man who hauing vndergone the raine heat and cold of the day is not grieued to see the sunne set because it is a signe of his surcease and rest from his labour and of receiuing his promised wages And old man fearing God doth already feele the pleasures of Paradise and being ascended to the top and pynacle of true knowledge dispiseth the base deceiuing perishing to wit the woefull and corrupt riches of the world According as old men haue beene better or worser trained vp and instructed according also to the diuersitie of gifts which they haue receiued of God we see they yeeld diuers fruits and effects It is the incredulitie impatience vitiousnesse and leudnesse of life not old age which is the cause that many in stead of referring themselues and their actions and affaires to the prouidence of God of learning that whatsoeuer distasters and discommodities doe happen vnto vs abroad and at home in our bodies in our goods from our seruants and those of our family from our friendes from our enemies is a gracious chastisement vnto vs of our heauenly Father and an exercise and triall of our faith we still perceiuering in the sincere knowledge of him in our calling ioyned with a good conscience Doe woefully torment themselues childishly bewaile their condition if their proiectes and plors deuices and wishes haue not that speedy successe which they desire As that great Orator Cicero who forgetting what hee had written in his booke of Offices That no man can be iust which feareth exile paine or death being forlorne and in a desperate taking a few dayes before hee was slaine cowardly exclaimes in a letter of his to Octauius Beast that I am In vaine haue I beene taken and held for the man I am not My old age is most vnfortunate and disastrous My white haires after a miserable life stand vp fearefully staring and out of order There remaineth for conclusion of this Chapter to adde vnto the felicities of old age certaine excellent priuiledges which those that are learned in the ciuill law doe attribute vnto it I will giue you the cullings and choyce of fiftie or threescore and more quoated by sundry collectors Men that were auncient themselues did beare no lesse honour to very aged persons then they did to Magistrates The older a man is the more is his iudgement esteemed In consultations and in matters ambiguous and doubtfull to be decided the aduise of old men is preferred before the aduise of yong men Old men enioyed the priuiledges of noble men Old men are not sued nor scited to appeare in any Courts of iustice without the Pretors expresse permission and licence and particular information of the cause The auncientest men haue their names alwayes enrolled and set downe first Old men ought to haue the first places and seates and to sit at the vpper end of the Table The auncientest Counsellors in the absence of the President may appoynt and call a counsell If there be question touching the obseruing and keeping of common contractes and rates the auncientest men of a fraternitie or company haue the first voyce It is graunted and permitted to old men to censure and reforme their neighbours Many willing to accuse and beare witnesse against any one the testimonie of the oldest man is of most credit Old men are Magnificoes and
agoe spoken that we looke vpon death afarre off and still thinke him to bee a poore feeble impotent which marcheth with a slow pace and is yet fiue or sixe thousand dayes iourney behinde the weakest of our troupe not considering that death is on the threshold of our dores yea is our chamber-fellow a guest at our tables and our bed-fellow too Death hath alreadie trussed vp the fairest and best part of our life like a Sergeant which taking vs by the throate carries away vnder his arme our money-bagges our precious iewels and vpon his yeomens shoulders our curious houshold moueables Not to wonder hereat consider sayd S. Basile the changes and revolutions of ages Doe wee not obserue how in three weeks of yeares three are dead Childhood is passed away and all his fond and vaine wishes haue left vs As much may be said of other parts of our life The case being so then that the meditation of death belongeth to all persons and that nothing is so miserable as not to know to die and that to feare death is an euill more dreadfull then death it selfe seeing also that the proper force of faith consisteth in this not to be afraid of death It is meete now somewhat the more at large to treate of this poynt and to shew what other holy and prophane Authors doe say therein to our purpose to wit to remoue out of the heart especially of euery wise old man the too violent and raging apprehension of death and to strengthen and fortifie so well the minde that it bee neuer dismounted or throwne out of the seate of assurance wherein it is setled by the knowledge of the truth First We will shew that euery one especially our Vieillard ought continually to meditate vpon death and betimes to prouide and furnish himselfe with remedies against the affrightments and terros thereof Secondly what death is how many sortes there are what death it is ought to be feared Thirdly for what reasons the Heathens haue so manfully contemned death Fourthly of the extreamities which must be avoyded and of the meane that it is meete to keepe in all Fiftly the defences and comfortes against death the commodities of it and the great benefits which they reape by it who in young and old age make their recourse to Iesus Christ the food and drinke of eternall life The two first poynts shall be handled in this seauenteenth Chapter the other three in the Chapter following First It is reason that we should betimes thinke vpon death and meditating thereon we should castour eye vpon the freedome life immortalitie and other benefites which ensue it For he giueth death a ioyfull wellcome who before hand is prepared for it and who seeing him to come as at the beginning is no more moued and troubled thereat then the passenger which with a fauourable winde should in shorter time make an end of his sayling A certaine Auncient compared our life to him which is set in a sayling Ship be he sitting or standing he forwardes his way So wee euery moment make towardes death in our waking sleeping standing still or going But it is meete to settle and invre our mindes not to be too much affected and to doate vpon this present life not therein to lazie and house them as if it were their Countrie but rather to thinke that we are way faring persons from the Mansion and royall Pallace of our heauenly Father Let our minds then sigh and groane in this Tabernacle let them meditate vpon and wish for that happie life wherein all corruption shall bee swallowed vp least it happen to them as to those inconsiderate persons who being a long tyme growne lazie and idle in some incommodious rude and base Inne cannot bee haled out thence whatsoeuer remonstrance and counsell is giuen them But on the contrary let vs call to minde our originall and that wee are the sonnes of the euerlasting King that heauen is our countrey that for a while wee trot vp and downe in the earth as little children which are carryed out of cities into countrey villages there to bee nurssed vp till there fathers and mothers send to fetch them home Let vs remember that wee are poore passengers and that after much running vp and downe wee must returne home to our dwelling and settle our selues in some certaine place least our hearts make a stay and demurre at the things wee behold with our eyes and which haue some appearance to deceiue and detaine them Let vs take great heed of being desirous to dwell and to rott and stincke in the close and darke denne of our body and this present life which is nothing else but a horrid pryson of infinite temptations cares carckings and dangers where pleasure is vnpleasing where our ioy is vnsure where wee are tortured with feare scroched with lust and concupiscence wasted with sorrow and griefe Let our soule be daily couersant in heauen let our heart be where our treasure is By this meanes wee shall easily contemne all things that bee earthly transitory and perishing Whosoeuer doth daily thinke that hee is mortall and the Vieillard ought to thinke on it more then any other dispiseth that which hee sees present and makes hast to those happinesses which are future and to come I know no better meanes for our serious conuersion to God and to inioy perfect comfort then the remembrance of the end of our race in the world and the meditation of death This is a powerfull doctrine to draw vs out of the swallowes and gulfes of intemperance impatience and all riots and excesse Let vs remember our Creator in the dayes of our youth before old age and death intrappe and seize on vs Let the end of our actions and affayres bee before our eyes to containe vs in our obedience to God When death is betweene our teeth it is too late to prouide remedies against the terrours thereof He is vnaduised who thinkes to cast out his lading when his ship is all leakie takes in water on all sides It is no time to make prouision for a voyage when men are put forth and forward at Sea Hee deceiues himselfe who seekes preseruatiues when the pestilence is spread all ouer the body and hath seized the heart The foolish Virgines bethought themselues vnseasonably to seeke oyle for their Lampes when the spouse was entred and the gate shut But our Lord hath willed that the day of our death should be vnknowne vnto vs so much the more to dispose vs to waite for it following the example of those faithfull seruants who not knowing the houre of their masters returne stand vpon their guard carefully watching Such seruants are wise But the slothfull dissolute riotous who make spoyle and hauocke of all in the house without care of their master are mischeeuous and vnluckie Plato writeth in his first booke of his Common-weale That when any one is come to this point to thinke that he ought to die out of hand and
yet is so heedlesse that death doth surprize him hee suddenly falleth into griefes frightes dispaires horrors for not hauing in his life kept reckoning of those things which hee ought maturely and betimes to consider of Wee adde that this is wholly necessary by somuch the more as we are to render our account before the in euitable throne of the eternall Father of that great family which must appeare before him Verily the meditation of death is not irksome anxious perplexing nor ought we to deferre it from one yeare or age to another according to the sottish opinion of the vulgar But cleane contrary to thinke that nothing doth safeguard or assure vs so much in the middest of aduersities and dangers as such meditation It is that which makes vs sober in prosperitie prest ready and prepared in all euents Also as Saint Cyprian sayd to the people of Thibara wee weare not enrolled by Baptisme among Christian Souldiers to thinke that we ought to doe nothing else in the world then there to seeke and hunt after our pleasures and ease turning our backes to conflictes woundes death Saint Augustine writeth in the fifth Chapter of his thirteenth Booke De Ciuitate Dei That faith would vtterly bee weakened if presently after our Baptisme we should become immortall and should be crowned before we had fought 2. Let vs see in the second place what death is how many kindes there are and how it ought to bee feared and contemned Life and death according to Aristotle are common accidents to all liuing creatures for that the reason of originall and corruptible matter doth so beare mainetaine and require it Touching the condition of the first man and how hee had euer liued continuing in his obedience to God wee haue formerly spoken of it in the discourse of the tree of life Furthermore as the condition of man created after Gods image who kindly receiued him into his alliance was excellent By so much the more miserable dreadfull and terrible is the death into which hee fell after his reuolt then the death of other liuing creatures whose soule dyeth with the body and who after this annihilation feare no torment whatsoeuer But wee speake heere of the death of man which God caused not for hee also taketh no pleasure in the death of any but rather in the conuersion good and saluation of vs all This doth not impugne but that God is a iust Iudge punishing sinnes and suffering no misdeedes and transgressions vnpunished but bringing all things to their endes by miraculous meanes wherein his wisedome doth manifestly appeare although very often the instruments which hee vseth to execute his iust iudgements may haue foule crimes and grosse faults In this sence it is sayd That God woundeth killeth whetteth his sword that he bringeth to ruine that hee casteth the body and soule into hell and that hee sendeth the wicked into euerlasting fire So then God hath not made death but death is crept and entred into the world thorough the diuells enuy and malice and mans disobedience Saint Augustine in a certaine place sayth That if God had made death hee would not with teares haue bewayled dead Lazarus whom therefore hee raysed and restored to life that the diuell might see that it is but lost labour with such rage and fury to pursue the children of God to take them out of the world forasmuch as those whom we deeme vtterly lost and destroyed doe liue vnto God Touching their errour who held that Adam should haue dyed though he had not sinned Saint Augustine answereth That all Christians are to hold this point for firme and vndoubted that Adam and Eue were created such that if they had reiected the counsell of the seducer who spake by the Serpent continuing in the free liberty wherein they were they had enioyed eternall life and not dyed But making no reckoning of obeying God their Lord and abusing their free will prone and ready to yeeld to the suggestions of Sathan and their owne lustes and concupiscences so as they very soone felt the effect of the threatning denounced to them both In that day that thou shalt cate of the forbidden fruit thou shalt die the death Before his fall the first man was mortall as touching the condition of his body immortall by the good pleasure of his Creator before sinne hee could not dye But by the redemption of Christ Iesus the elect of God shall obtaine in the life eternall euen the same priuiledge that the holy Angells not to be able to fall from the state of grace nor to dye And as touching this point that our father Adam dyed not so soone as he had obeyed the voyce of Eue it doth derogate nothing from the truth of the sentence pronounced against him nor from the haynousnesse of his sinne For the sence and meaning of the threatning Thou shalt dye the death is as if God sayd certainely thou shalt be subiect to the first death which is a separation of the soule from the body and to the second death a fearefull punishment forasmuch as it is an euerlasting separation from God from the light of heauen from ioy vnspeakeable from the life which is blessed for euer If then it be demaunded how can it bee that Adam liued after his reuolt and falling away Gregorie the great doth sufficiently to the purpose make answere in his 145. Epistle of his fifth Booke that death in two kindes steps in and seizeth vpon vs eyther by the priuation and defection of life or by the quality of life In regard of the first kinde of death Adam dyed not so soone but rather as touching the second For presently after his disobedience being depriued of happinesse of the state of innocency of contentment of minde of a strong sound constitution of body hee felt himselfe couered with shame horrors sorrow with sundry miseries knew himselfe to be aliue in paine vnder the curse of his Soueraigne who was created by Gods fauour to liue in an excellent estate and perpetuall quiet and tranquility of minde Some thinke that wee meddle and goe too farre to say that man transgressing in time was pronounced guilty of temporall and eternall death The Iewes bewitched with the like errour doe dreame that they haue no need of a Messias to abolish and take away sinne and to deliuer from eternall death This errour did grow from the ignorance of the definition of sinne as also of the soueraigne and infinite Maiestie of God whom man had offended by his transgression For sin being a reuolt and falling away from God to ioyne and cleaue to the diuell and a transgression of the holy law in dispite of God man sinning could not escape eternall perdition and punishment but by the grace of his Redeemer as by obedience hee had kept his Creators fauour for euer Euen so then as it is not iniustice as Saint Augustine sayth in the 11. Booke De Ciuitate Dei Chap 11. If Magistrates capitally punishing many haynous
that at the houre of my departure I may follow thee with courage Let this be my meditation continually Let me be released from the vaine imployments and businesses of this world not setting my selfe to any thing but that which directly concernes my calling and behauing my selfe in such sort that both those which dwell neere me and those which are farre and remote from mee may from my behauiours and carriage take example of pietie iust dealing and holy manners Let mee bee an enemie to Atheisme and superstition and sincerely addicted to thy seruice according to the rules of thy word Graunt me I beseech thee this grace that I may carefully meditate on whatsoeuer I haue vnderstood or perceiued of thy wisedome power and mercie in the wayes of my life That I may euery day learne that whereof to be ignorant it would be both shamefull vnto me and dangerous Aboue all roote out of my heart all wicked guile and craft and graunt me the grace to walke before thee in a sincere and honest heart hating euill in my selfe more then in an other to bee a louer of plaine dealing of peace of equitie of meekenesse of puritie of innocencie of life Let these be the ornaments of mine age and let thy spirit so direct comfort and strengthen me that I may not be too much deiected though I become deafe blind weake lame Onely let me haue strength left and remaining to prayse and call vpon thee to the last gaspe so as the weakenesses and decayes of my bodie may be borne vp by the supply of thy graces in my soule which desires not to be and remaine in this prison but to blesse and prayse thee Suffer me not to conceite still on moneths and yeares but that at euery steppe and moment of tyme I may remember my departure out of this present life that my whole thought may be that I must once pay this debt least being suddainely taken I cast away my soule When then the appoynted tyme shall come graunt I beseech thee that I may ioyfully depart and with fervent desire lift vp my selfe to thee Let thy goodnesse O Lord my God cause me to imploy my last dayes to the studie and meditation hereof not fearing to leaue and resigne this life whereby I shall no more offend thee but shall glorifie thee continually The apprehension of so happie a day which shall be the birth day of my eternall and vnspeakeable blessed being let it make mee to reioyce before thee my Lord my God my heauenly Father thorough Iesus Christ thy sonne my redeemer Amen O Eternall God and almightie heauenly Father and mercifull which hast beene my hope from the first day of my life and during all the course of the same and vntill this great age hast by infinite wayes caused me to feele thy prouidence care and protection thou art he to whom I haue recourse as to my God my glorie my saluation My legges are feeble but I lift vp my selfe vpon the winges of my thoughts even vnto thee who art my strength in infirmitie my light in so great darknesse of my vnderstanding my life in death which compasseth me about beseeching thee to be pleased to forget the sinnes of my youth and to haue no more remembrance of my transgressions but remember thy faithfull promises to looke vpon the woundes and suffrings of thy sonne my pledge and Sauiour for whose loue be pleased to pardon mine iniquities Suffer mee not O my God for euer to cast thee off and forsake thee Be pleased to annoynt the eyes of my soule with the salue of thy spirit that I may continually behold thee and that acknowledging my selfe a poore way-faring man and a stranger in this world as all my fathers were I may earnestly aspire to thee and to the countrie where the blessed are and where thou hast prepared a place for all thine elect Graunt that I may see my selfe deliuered out of the waues and stormes of the dangerous Sea of this world O Lord teach mee to know mine end and the number of my dayes to the end that seeing that the flourishing state of this humaine life hath no abiding but is compassed with sorrowes and oppressed with labours and paines and then the more dangerous when we least feele them I may giue my selfe to the studie and exercise of that wisedome which doth teach me to renounce the world and my selfe and to meditate vpon the heauenly happinesse of thy kingdome to the end that my heart may be there where my treasure is the head and spouse of the Church and where thou hast prepared for them which loue thee incomprehensible joyes through IESVS CHRIST c. FINIS Errata PAge 5. Line 21. for be reade begun p. 12. l. 14. for from currant r. or currant p. 17. l. 16. for middest was r. nuddest whereof was l. 1. for and that r. but that l. 29. for sight r. scite p. 18. l. 12. for followeth r. floweth l. 23. for made r was p. 19 l. 21. for of dayes r. of our dayes p. 22. Chap. 4. l. 1. for fearefulnesse r. fearfull fall l. 7. for respectacle r. receptacle l. 22. for age a r. age is a p. 23. l. 13. for downe r. done l. 15. for crimes r. ruines p. 24. l. 12. for lineaments r. ligaments p. 27. l. 20. for spin at r spin out p. 30. l. 3. for a wonder r. no wonder p. 31 l. 5. for if this life r. of his life p. 36 l. 27. for to be proclaime r. to proclaime p. 10. l. 17. for porportiall r. proportionall p. 55. l. 3. for wh r. who p. 58. l. 23. for effect r affect p. 99. l. 20. for youyg r. young p. 107. l. 16. themselues r. themselues p. 120. l. 9. for wit-r witnes The benefit of death The miserable condition of life Physitians masters of their strength and wealth The time to doe good is in this world but men cannot finde it The common felicities of old age Delightfull good recreations are as fit for young persons as labour Old mens actions