The old person is oftentimes attended with the yearly returns of very painfull Distempers which give him perhaps some intermissions for a little while but 't is only to let him gain so much strength as to be able to endure and rub through the more returning fits of them He shall feel the smart of former Wounds and the Aches and Pains of old Bruises and the stiffness and weariness of former Labours Sickness confines him to his House or his Chamber and makes him a Prisoner at home Pain wearies out his days and makes him wish for the Night And when the Night has continued a while he wishes again for the Day He has no comfort in his Days nor rest in the Nights The remainder of comfort and pleasure which weakness and decay had left Sickness and Pain utterly lavish away Therefore 3. It must be mentioned as another Inconvenience of old Age that it is with many a time very destitute of Pleasure The old man has but a very weak and languid Sence at the most of all the pleasant things of this World The desire now fails as Solomon says verse 5. The Sences and Appetites grow dull and have less relish of these things The dim Eye is no more ravisht with beautifull Objects nor is the deaf Ear to be charmed with harmonious Sounds The Nose and Pallate are hardly sensible any longer of pleasing Tasts or Smells Can I discern between good and evil says old Barsillai to David Can thy servant tast what I eat or what I drink can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women 2 Sam. 19. 35. The Novelty of things which helped to transport him in younger years is now no more attending them he can meet with nothing new but is cloyed and sick with the dull repetitions of the same things 4 It is a great addition to the Evil of these days that if any affliction or inconvenience befalls us then it is usually more incurable than in our younger years it might have been Man is born to trouble as the Sparks fly upwards Affliction will haunt and molest us as long as we live in this mutable weak and exposed State and that condition of Life which renders our afflictions most incurable renders them also the most grievous and troublesome When our condition is hopeless as well as inconvenient this more than doubles the grief of that inconvenience and this is commonly the unhappy case of old Age If a man be then sickly he cannot expect ever to recover or enjoy a good State of Health again if one distemper be cured it turns into another He that is deprived of his Children then cannot hope to have more as poor Naomi complained If then he falls into poverty he must lie under it and bear all the sorrowfull attendants of that for he is now weak and uncapable of that Industry which should help him He wants more than he did in younger years and is less able to take pains to get it 5. Lastly that which further helps to make old Age an evil time is the certain approach and nearness of Death It is known then that this cannot be far off His miserable days will shortly end in dissolution from his sick Bed he must go ere long to his cold Grave and be a long Prisoner there His best days are irrecoverably gone and he shall never return to the health and vigour the mirth and jollity of Youth again The certainty of Death is the great and uncomfortable disparagement of the present Life In all our mirth it damps us to think of it It troubles our best days it chills our warmest blood it sours our sweetest delights to have a serious thought that we must die It affrights us to think I must ere long be cold and senceless I must be a gastly Object to those that have most delighted to see me Those I most love will hasten to bury me out of their sight they will commit me to worms and rottenness I must lie down in darkness and oblivion worms must feed on me and the winds ere long scatter my contemptible dust I must leave all the pleasant things I have here and go into a new an unknown World from whence none come back to tell what is there These are sad and very painfull thoughts to him that puts this Evil farthest from him But with how much the more force must these things strike and wound when they are certainly near And to the aged Person these things must be near They may indeed be as near to the youngest here present as to the oldest but it may also be said they may not be near such but it cannot be said they may not be near them that are aged Death with his fatal Dart is almost ready to strike them Their day is come to the Evening and therefore they cannot be far from Night their Glass is almost run and shall never be turn'd up again and therefore must soon be out This also then may make old Age an evil time And this is the time to which many men incline to put off their living well but whether they do wisely in this or no will be best determin'd after we have well considered what is to be said on the third Head of Discourse wherein I doubt not to make appear as was proposed that the best defence and preparation we can possibly make against these Evil days is to begin a religious and vertuous Course betimes and to continue in it all our days before this time This the Light of Nature taught a wise and thinking Heathen Cicero de Senect who speaks thus Aptissima omnino arma senectutis c. The best weapons and defences of old Age against the Inconveniences it is liable to are the Arts and the Exercises of Vertues Which being cultivated through every Age of Life before if we happen to live long will then bring forth wonderful Fruits Not only says he because they will never desert us no not to the extream point of Life though that be very considerable but also because the consciousness of a well spent Life and the remembrance of many good and vertuous Actions are highly pleasant to us Thanks be to God we can say this upon much better grounds than the Heathens could and then the Argument ought to have the more force upon us To make it appear that a religious and vertuous Life before is the best preparation and defence that we can possibly make against the Evils that attend old Age I shall insist upon these two particulars 1. This will in a great measure prevent some of the Evils to which that part of Life is liable 2. It will greatly alleviate those which it does not prevent and soften them with very effectual Consolations In the first place this will in a great measure prevent some of the Evils that old Age is liable to A vertuous and temperate Course of Life in our younger years gets a good
without this precipitant hast They drive away that which they would keep and which is going away of it self They make hast to put an end to that which above all things they dote upon that is sensual pleasure to disable themselves from enjoying it by diseases or an untimely death Intemperance and excess brings the infirmities and aches and defects of old Age upon Youth and kill men in the prime of their days almost as soon as they come to enjoy the world and know what it is to live Is this the wit of the world or rather a madness A wise man would use with care a frail and brittle thing especially if he does highly esteem and value it Is it reasonable to wish for a long enjoyment of the pleasures of this Life and to take a course at the same time to make it short to dote on pleasures and spoil them to place all our happiness in this life and make hast to end it to be prodigal of a small Stock and use ruggedly and carelesly a weak thing If this be Wit there is nothing can deserve the name of Folly 3. These disparaging properties of this present life should teach men to be humble in their greatest worldly prosperity It may and ought to serve to this purpose to consider Whatever I have now it is but a little while agoe that I receiv'd it Naked I came not long since into this world I have but a very little while been honour'd or rich or learned and ere long I must cease to be what I am I must goe out of this world quickly and go as naked at least of all outward advantages as I was when I came into it All that I have then here is but a transitory portion my best estate is Vanity which is built upon so slight a foundation as this feeble Life Alas I cannot have here a stable abiding felicity while my life is moving and passing away And if I can enjoy what I have till I die that is the longest I shall do so and that cannot be long Then the poor Begger will be as rich as the most wealthy And there will be as much beauty as much strength in his dust who was deform'd and weak as in that of those who are proud of beauty or strength no marks of Wisdom or Learning will remain about the Dead and corrupted Carkass All sorts are huddled together equall'd and canfounded in the Grave The man that is proud of his present advantages may assure himself that within a few days he may be as despicable on earth as any that he despises Yea in a little time he shall be more despicable and made inferiour to him if the other outlives him If the rich and honour'd dies first the poor man remains richer and more honourable than he As a living Dog is better than a dead Lion The one enjoys still his little the other is totally stript of his abundance Should I despise any man let me say when a little time may make so great a difference to his advantage When he whom I disdain perhaps to speak to may shortly tread upon me and have me under the dust of his feet Surely this frail and transitory life with all its advantages is too mean a thing to cause or allow a man to be proud of it 4. These conditions of our present Life may justly render us patient under all present Adversity May we not with great reason bear that Patiently which we cannot endure long especially when the more patient we are under grievous things the more easie and tolerable they be Let us consider then when any Affliction befalls us I cannot undergo a long affliction in a short life If poverty be my Lot I shall not long be expos'd to the inconveniences of that If I am condemned to a life of hard labour and toil I may comfort my self with this thought that I am hasting to a place where the weary are at rest If I am vex'd and afflicted by the Lusts and Passions of unreasonable and wicked men I may consider their Life is frail and transitory as well as mine and I am going to be where the wicked cease from troubling In all adversity this may comfort us my afflictions are fading and transitory as I am the evils as well as the good things of this Life can last no longer than my self and that will not be long Such as these are the Thoughts Dispositions and Resolutions relating to this World that these conditions of our present Life should excite in us The Apostle Paul urges such a use of these things 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. Brethren the time is short It remains that they which have Wives he as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not and they that use this world us not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away I proceed now to the last part of the Discourse with which I shall soon conclude that is to represent the due Behaviour relating to the other World which these disparagements of our present Life should teach and provoke us to And I cannot imagine but that every one will readily acknowledge these things should make us turn our thoughts towards the World to come and look into the reality and nature of a future State and earnestly endeavour to secure to our selves a happy condition there Since there is most certainly another World and a Life to come is it not our Wisdom to think of it and look before us especially when we are continually hasting to it When I am going apace from this World shall I not think at all whither I am going Is not this worth a thought Let us consider what the Scripture teaches us of the Future State That it assures our Souls to be immortal though our Bodies perish they shall never die and our perishing Bodies shall lie but a while in their dissolved State They shall certainly rise again from the dust to live hereafter in immortal Life That we shall be raised to receive the rewards of our doings here whether they have been good or evil That the Eternal world to come is divided into two different States the one perfectly happy for the reward of good men the other perfectly miserable for the punishment of the bad Since these things will certainly be let us certainly expect them and frequently think of them Let every one often tell himself this short Life is hasting to end in an endless Life I am going where I shall be happy or miserable for ever from transitory to abiding things from temporal to eternal Whatever puts an end to this frail Life which is so easily destroyed sends me into an unalterable State whatever sort it be of If a happy one it will ever be happy and perfectly so if miserable it will always be a perfectly miserable State And my condition there will be ordered according to
Further The very thought and assurance of the approach and nearness of Death may be a comfort to a good man against many of the Inconveniences of old Age. Death it self will not be very terrible to him whom a good Life has made ready for it who knows his Sins pardoned and his good Deeds accepted through the Mediatour who can say I have fought a good fight I have finisht my course I have kept the Faith and henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness It is pleasant instead of being terrible to a good man when he can say My work is almost done and I am now expecting my Reward My warfare is well nigh accomplished and the next thing that is to come is my Crown I am indeed near the time of parting with this World but I shall exchange it for a better I shall go to never fading pleasures to durable riches to unspeakable joy and felicity Can a man be troubled with the nearness and approach of his Death when he knows it will be a change that will be much to his advantage And he that knows this will be comforted most effectually under the Evils of his present condition When he can think if nothing else can cure them Death will and that very shortly it cannot be long ere I shall be free from them all Ere long my pains shall be at an end and I shall be at ease I shall be removed from among those that are wickedly a weary of me and willing to part with me to live with them that will be as willing to receive me And if his posterity are such as can deserve the Blessing of his Prayers he can comfortably commit them to the Providence of God and think that by his good and righteous and holy Life he has entailed a Blessing upon them which is a far better portion with a small provision than the greatest abundance of ill gotten goods And thus much I think may suffice to demonstrate that a good and vertuous Life makes the best preparation that can be against the Evils and Inconveniences of old Age. And this is certainly a very good Argument for our minding Religion in our Youth If we do so we are fit to die if it should not be our lot to live to old Age and as such a course is most likely to lengthen our lives so far so it will prevent or alleviate the Evils that commonly attend that time if we do live to it For a Conclusion of this Discourse and to strengthen the Argument I shall briefly compare this with the other ways of living that many betake themselves to When we are entering upon the World the most of us do dispose of our selves in one or other of these two ways Either we greedily follow the pleasures of the World and give our selves up to the pursuit and enjoyment of them Or we betake our selves to the eager pursuit of wealth or honours and to raise a fortune as we call it But alas neither of these two ways of living will be able to afford men that true comfort and satisfaction in their latter end which may be derived from Vertue and Religion these will rather end in Vexation and Trouble They that give themselves up to Pleasures treasure nothing but sorrow and shame for after-days What profit is there in these when they are gone what fruit do they leave behind them and how much pain and sorrow do they leave when they leave an impair'd Estate a sick distemper'd Body and a guilty Conscience And for a man to think I have amused and entertained my self with Vanities and for them have neglected and forsaken the most solid and durable Goods I have received all my good things here Alas how thin how empty a portion is it Yet this is all this is all I was born to enjoy These guilty pleasures cannot entitle me to better things therefore they are not earnests of such I have then received and spent all my portion of good and happiness These are very sad and grievous thoughts and such as these must the Sinners guilty frolicks end in Accordingly we may observe that none are so morose and melancholy and discontented in old Age as they who have licentiously followed their pleasure in the former part of their Life who are smarting now for their foolish frolicks and have the burden of their present Evils much the greater and the heavier for them Again let us consider those who have spent all their Life in heaping up of Wealth These do seem indeed to be somewhat the wiser persons of the two but there is not much difference between them He that most pursues Riches does not certainly gain them and while he is still drawn after them with hopes they perhaps like his shadow fly from him still and so he loses his labour and his life too He that gets Riches cannot be sure to keep them all his days or that he shall comfort his old Age with them And when that comes with the Evils and Pains and Distempers which all the wealth he has gotten cannot remove when it cannot reprieve him from the Grave nor set his Death a moment further from him when it will leave him at his going out of this World to all the Miseries of the next and this cannot purchase his peace with God nor redeem his Soul from Hell nor gain him admittance into the Courts of Heaven Then how does he disdain all his labour how is his sick mind fretted to think how he has lost his time how little comfort does all his labour in this kind afford him when the fruits of it are so useless to him Thus we see the ends of worldly men of those who minded nothing all their days but the pleasures and wealth of this World Their end is sad and gloomy their sweets turn bitter their abundance ends in poverty and wretched Nakedness their Mirth in sorrow and their short lived Pleasures in everlasting Pain and Torment But the good and vertuous Man closes up a troublesome Life with joy and gladness his Labours end in rest and his Pains in ease and felicity If he be encombred with any outward Evils his comfort is he is going away from them all If he has received any good things here he knows also that far better things are reserved for him in the World to come THE PRAYER ALmighty and most Wise and most gracious God Thou art Glorious in Holiness fearful in thy Praises doing Wonders all thy Works O Lord are done in Judgment thou art Righteous in all thy Ways and Holy in all thy Works We admire thee we praise we bless thee for thy worderful Works of Creation and for thy wonderful Works of Providence O Lord there is none to whom we may compare or liken thee there is no God besides thee And in particular we desire at this time to Praise thee for the Wisdom and Goodness thou hast shown in thy most excellent Law in
alleviate our present Pains and a sence of favour and reconcilement with God would conquer the fears of Death and make us ready and willing to appear before our Judge 3. But if a man has the warning of a lingring and slow Sickness to repent of his Sins and prepare for his Death 't is yet a very great Hazard whether he will repent under it or not If he has not such a Disease as will necessarily hinder this yet many other things may and often do so We do not seldom see men that deferred their Repentance till this time as far from performing it then as ever they were before A man may think while he is in health and engaged in the World and exposed to the Temptations of it that the danger of that time and the confinement and separation from the World will mightily help him to do this necessary work then and put him upon it but alas the contrary to this does very ordinarily come to pass With some the very pain and trouble of their Disease though it does not take away their Sences and the use of their Reason yet it is able to distract their minds and divert them from all Thoughts of Repentance and making their peace with God Does not daily experience teach us that a severe pain if it be but at a tooth and that even in a Person habitually pious and good is able to disturb the mind and unfit one for any exercise of Devotion and so detain the Thoughts that they can fix on nothing but that All that we are commonly sensible of in such a case is the present pain and all that we can be concern'd about is to get rid of the present importunate grievance And is it not much rather likely to be thus with a man under the pain and trouble of Sickness If so little an inconvenience can divert even a good man from fixed and good Thoughts how much more likely is it that greater pain and uneasiness will divert him from such who is habitually wicked who has lived all his Life an utter stranger to such Thoughts has never tasted the pleasure nor found the benefit of them Besides as the delaying Sinner has been wont to love his Body better than his Soul to contrive the satisfaction and convenience of that rather than the everlasting Happiness of this he must needs be apt in this distress to be still in the same disposition and to be so busied about the griefs and pains of his Body as to neglect his Soul still as he has done all his days before And if so what a madness is it for a man to expect and wait for the very worst disposition and state of his Body that he may then perform the greatest and most important business of his Soul Again the very fear and apprehension of dying quickly may happen to take away all thought or concern of preparing for Death This may seem unlikely but yet it does sometimes come to pass I knew a man says one who had been wont to visit sick and dying Persons and he not altogether a careless Liver neither who being at the point of Death when he was admonisht by a Minister to prepare himself for his departure was so possessed and overwhelmed with the Thought that he was in danger of speedy Death that he could think of nothing else but of sending for this and the other Physitian of taking this and the other Medicine and all the care and thought that he could be possest with was only how he might recover and escape the present and imminent danger and in the midst of such thoughts he breathed his last And thus it is very likely to be with many men he who has great affairs upon his hands and especially if they be a little entangled he who leaves a Family but ill provided for or likely to need his presence among them He who would fain see a Son or a Daughter well disposed of and setled as we call it will be apt to be wholly devoured with the same care Thus sure it is very likely to be with a great lover of the World with him that loves nothing but what is here that has no treasure in Heaven nor expectations of any thing comfortable in the other World When he apprehends himself in danger to leave all at once what he has here to leave it for ever and go he knows not where and he knows not to what but fears exceedingly a great deal of ill such a man must needs be liable to a great Consternation at the Summons of Death and to think of nothing but by what means he may avoid it for the present and gain some more time to make a better preparation for it than he has done And further it may be the sick man is not in danger of a speedy Death or perhaps if he be so he will not believe it as it is with a great many He hopes perhaps to recover this Sickness and promises himself after it many years of life when he has but a few moments to live And the Flatteries of Friends will be apt to encourage this conceit and the Physitian must give him it may be more hopes than himself has to support this sick mans Spirits and assist his own prescriptions And then though the concern to avoid Death does not put him by his Repentance yet the hopes of longer Life may do it he will think he needs not yet repent the dangerous period before which he purposes to do it is yet a great way off and thus he goes on to cheat himself into everlasting perdition And it is no wonder if a man who has been habitually wicked and lived many years in his Sins does take any encouragement to put off his Repentance still and can hardly find in his Heart even upon his Death-Bed to do this The custom of sinning is like a second Nature and is not but with the greatest difficulty and labour overcome It will hardly ever forsake a man Of the habitual Sinner is that for the most part true which is said Job 20. 11. His Bones are full of the Sins of his Youth which shall lie down with him in the Dust How unlikely indeed is it that a man should in a moment so fall out with his Sin as to hate it and throw it off for ever when he has many years loved and cherished it or that he should now all at once be possest with an hearty Love of God and Goodness which for many years he has neglected and hated Accordingly we often see Persons upon their Death-Bed still the very same that they were before as they lived so they die there is no change or alteration in the least appears in the state and disposition of their minds We find them exercising the beloved Sin in their Discourse when they cannot do it in their Actions it appears to have still a fast possession of the Soul even when the opportunities of
me die the Death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his He was not at all reconciled to their God who hindred him from getting those great Rewards which Balak offered him nor did incline to become a Proselyte to the Jew's Religion He had rather enjoy his Gain and Honour among the Heathens still like a false Prophet than embrace the Truth and become meaner among the Jews But yet he wishes for the happy end of the Jews He would willingly be reckoned among them when he should come to die that he might be a partaker in their felicity in the next World This was the sence of his Mind and herein he speaks also the mind of a great many others besides There are many in the World who would live the lives of licentious Sinners and yet at last would die the Death of Saints who would have the profits and pleasures of Sin here and hereafter the Rewards of Religion too And as a great many wish this so they think they have found out an expedient to obtain it and that is by a Death-Bed Repentance It shall be the whole Business of the present Discourse to demonstrate the Folly and Danger of relying upon a Death-Bed Repentance of wishing or expecting with this false Prophet to live a wicked Life and yet to Die the Death of the Righteous and to make an end like him And this I shall endeavour to set before you in the following particulars 1. There is no Man can possibly tell whether he shall have the space and warning of a lingering Sickness to repent in or no. Our fortunes and conditions are not at our own dispose but at the disposal of him whom we daily offend by our Wickedness Nor can we be any more sure before-hand of the Way than we can be of the Time of our going out of this World Many things may prevent us from having the space of a lingring Sickness to repent in and do we not greatly provoke the supream Disposer to prevent us of this by our delaying to repent How many ways are there of dying besides that on a sick Bed and which of them may be his fortune no Man can tell Should we then defer our Repentance to a sick Bed when 't is very uncertain and hazardous whether we shall die there or not But if we should die there the Sickness may be such as to give us no opportunity to repent there It may take away the use of reason may utterly hinder all composed thinking we may die in Convulsions in a stupid Lethargy or in the ravings of a Feaver or under such violent and racking pains as shall effectually hinder us from doing any thing towards a happy Departure Thus he who would not repent before is not able to do it now He wilfully lost all the time of repentance to the last Minutes of it and now he loses them too by his unfortunate Distemper But how unreasonable is it for a man to throw away all his time to the last Minutes when he does not know whether he shall be capable of using them to his advantage or not 2. Let us consider how great Inconvenience men put upon themselves at last who defer their Repentance to a sick and dying Bed They perhaps now think themselves very wise and that they do well to put off all their Sorrows to come together and to trouble them but once But alas when these do thus come together they will be forced to conclude they were very foolish in so doing when they find the Burden of all at once too heavy for them to bear Certainly a great load is much easier carried in several parcels than all at once and if the whole be too heavy for our strength it were our Wisdom to divide it When a man is under the pains and faintness of a Disease the grief of parting with all that he has in this World all his dear Relations his loved Enjoyments and the sweet Fruits of his own Labours When he is a Prisoner to his Bed is separated from all his Pleasures loaths the greatest Dainties has his Head aking his Heart faint his Limbs feeble and trembling these sure are very unfit Circumstances to put off the Trouble and Sorrows of Repentance too How wretched must he be who has at the same time Trouble without and Anguish within Pain in his Body and Distress in his Mind Who in this condition must have his Conscience accusing him for his ill Life calling to mind past and forgotten Follies and Extravagancies when he has the Pardon of them to seek And by consequence he must have the Flames of Hell as it were before him and be terrifyed with the apprehensions of being speedily carried before his offended Judge to be doomed to his eternal and unalterable State How sad is it to be told he must now suddenly leave this World and does at this very time deserve to be thrown into Hell Those that defer their Repentance to a Death-Bed do not rightly understand or else they do not consider the true Nature of it They think to pass it over with a Lord have mercy upon me with a general slight Confession that they have sinned and with a few Sighs and formal Resolutions that they will do so no more They do not consider that true Repentance is a very bitter thing that in great Sinners especially as these men are wont to be it must be attended with a very hearty Sorrow with great Anguish of Soul with earnest Indignation against themselves for their Sins with a sence of the terrible Deserts of them that they must judge and condemn themselves as unworthy to find favour with God and deserving the everlasting Punishments of Hell And these sure are very unhappy Thoughts to be joyned with the sad Circumstances of Sickness and Dying and these men put off the most uneasie and afflicting Thought to be born then when they are in the most feeble condition and the most unfit to bear them we shall we might think have trouble enough without them with the sad outward Circumstances of such a Case and might say sufficient for that day is the necessary and unavoidable Evil thereof and may easily see if we will that it is highly foolish to bring upon it more Evil and Trouble than it needs to have It is plainly our wisdom to provide before-hand against that time for the Comfort of it to lay up Supports and Consolations to allay and mitigate the Evils that will attend it And this we might do by practising our Repentance in the time of our Health by forsaking our Sins betimes and living a good and vertuous Life for some time before we come to die Then if we have Sorrow without we shall have Joy within if the Body be in pain we may be at ease in the Mind The Reflections upon a well-spent Life would comfort us in our Weakness the joyful Hopes and Expectations of entering into Rest and Happiness would