will that they should be short and miseerable which hee hath done to this end that we should with good Abraham hauing our fill full loade and backe burthen of dayes packe away and remoue from this life not as from a house of ease and delight but as from a base beggarly Inne making all the speed wee can to goe hence to enjoy that life which is free from all feare of death from sorrow errour and false dealing and is euerlasting O how blessed are they to whom God hath vouchsafed to reueale the way of life who by and through Iesus Christ haue obtained the fulnesse of ioy and those euerlasting pleasures which are in Gods right hand For although it be elsewhere promised that such persons being planted in the houshold and family of the Lord shall bring forth fruit aboundantly in their white old age shall bee in good case alwayes flourishing that their youth shall bee renewed as the Eagles yet is to be vnderstood rather of their spiritual vigour strength then of the strength of the body in which respect Lions Elephants Eagles doe farre surpasse vs. Whereupon the saying of the Prophet doth consent and agree that those which are the Lords followers and doe attend and wait vpon him doe renew their strength their wings doe spread and inlarge as the wings of an Eagle they runne and shal not be wearied they trauell and walke vp and downe and shall not bee tyred nor faint Isaiah 40. 31. The might and power of God doth so support and vphold them that they ouercome difficulties and hard vsage they can passe ouer and vndergoe all troubles whatsoeuer by the meanes of Iesus Christ who doth assist and strengthen them and doe at last happily end their dayes Neuerthelesse we grant and acknowledge that God doth sometimes set foorth vnto vs notable examples of hardy old men who for their strength of body and courage of minde may be wondred at Such a one was Moses of whom it is said Deut. 34. 7. that dying when hee was a hundred and twentie yeares old his sight was not dimme neither was his strength of body decayed Caleb also that valient chanpion and faithfull seruant of God who being fourescore and fiue yeares old said to Ioshua Chap. 14. I am as strong of body as I was when Moses sent mee for a Commander being more then fortie yeares since and I am as able to doe seruice in the warres and to march and trauerse my ground as I was then Saint Ierome writeth thus to Paul of Concorda Behold this is the hundred yeare compleate of thy life and yet thy sight is good thou marchest stoutly thou art quicke of hearing thy teeth are sound thou hast a shrill and eloquent voyce thy body is strong and lustly thy face ruddy and well coloured wherat thy white haires seeme to enuy and thy strength is such that thou art taken to bee younger then thou art thy blood which freezeth and is cooled doth not he betate and dull thy ready and quicke wit nor the wrinkles of thy forehead make thee looke strene and gastly We haue seen in our time many venerable old men there are to bee found many worthy Diuines that are threescore and tenne and fourescore yeares old whose age hath no whit diminished their strength of minde or sharpenesse of wit but that they are still to this day by their graue counsells godly communications and learned writings very helpefull to their Friends and doe good seruice to the Church to their Prince and Common weale and like Appius surnamed the blinde see more apparantly what is good and behoouefull for their countrey then those that sit neere the helme and gouernment of the State I affirme confidently of them that they are trees surely rooted and well grounded And that those verses of Virgill the Poet are wisely inuented where he saith The life of man at the best is as a vanishing dreame Old age doth furrow his forehead with sorrowes extreame And after many diseases and sore trauell without rest Death comes at last and lockes him vp in a chest Those that curiously search into the nature of things haue from time to time obserued that wee are no sooner borne but a certaine heat doth preserue our naturall and radicall moysture which at last especially in old age by extreame cold his contrary is cooled and quenched so as man hath not a iot of time left him to cherish his vitall powers or to maintaine the good temperature of his body wherein those of Pythagoras sect did hold life to consist But to conclude with experience and the saying of a wise man Although the Physitian vse as much art as he can to keepe vs aliue by purging our bodies of peccant humours and diseases yet at last he that is to day a King shall die to morrow Plato doth iudge That Common-weale miserable and not the best Where Physitians are sought to and are in request By whose account there is little regard to bee made of the chiefest townes and cities in Europe But let it be our dutie in all good manner to honour and adore the soueraigne Physitian who pardoneth all our iniquities the fountaines and causes of all our miseries and euills who healeth all our diseases who by the hope of a blessed resurrection doth secure our life from death who doth compasse vs with louing mercies and compassions Let vs pray vnto him to giue vs the true Aqua coelectis All those that haue their hope in him need not to complaine of the shortnesse or miseries of this present life seeing that such is the will of our Father in heauen that whosoeuer beleeueth in this soueraigne Physitian hath euerlasting life doth rise againe at the last day and aswell in body as in soule liueth and enioyeth eternall happinesse in the paradise of God CHAP. II. Of such persons as haue liued long namely the Patriarches before the flood IT is the saying of an ancient man that it is a thing indifferent and not against reason for a right good man to wish death or to desire to enjoy the life present in this world which to some is prolonged for their condemnation and to others as a speciall fauour of God so as wee bee alwayes ready according as it shall please God to yeeld vp our life or to keepe it still Life is to bee desired not so much for it selfe as for that we doe thereby attaine to the wisedome and knowledge of many and sundry things especially of things Diuine for the attainement whereof God who is Almightie and good bestowed vpon the first Patriarches the gift of long life The times before the vniuersall flood had herein a great priuiledge in regard of the off-springs and progeny of Seth. For though they were intangled and cumbred with many miseries as from the name Henoch is collected which signifies a man of misery and from the name of Noah whose father Lamech gaue him that name vpon the hope he
no tormentes nor tortures canne quell or dismay their stoute minde nor no Bug-beare or terror is gastly or horrid enough to fray and affright them The Lord hauing made a couenant with his Church which here on earth is compounded of all sorts of people hath giuen vnto it two strong propps of hope to wit his spirit and his true word This spirit is called the spirit of wisedome vnderstanding counsell power knowledge of sanctification veritie consolation life faith grace The word is called the word of life of saluation of the grace of God of our reconciliation with the father of Heauen A word testifying that all thinges were giuen vs necessary to life and pietie by the knowledge of him who hath called vs by his owne power and glorie by which are giuen vnto vs great and pretious promises that by them wee which are regenerated by the holy Ghost and the word should be made partakers of the diuine nature being deliuered and freed from the concupiscences and corruptions of the world Whosoeuer hath not this spirit of Iesus Christ and trusteth not in the promises of God a midd all his babble and prattle of the contempt of death and the benefit of old age is still in doubt hath feeble hands trembling and staggering knees haltes feedes himselfe with the winde and not with any assured consolation But the iust doe liue by faith are strengthened and vpheld by it which makes them reioyce all wayes in the Lord who sanctifies them preserues whole and entire their mind soule and bodie vnblameable vntill the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ CHAP. XV. An aduise to wise old men conteining the summarie and substance of their dutie vntill their last gaspe IT should remaine now to treat of death and the certaine remedies against it But before we enter therein we will propound to our wise Vieillard an aduise drawne and taken out of the volumes of sacred Philosophie to leade him more easily on to that whereunto he aspires But it behooueth those who are almost at their wayes end more heedfully to consider both the way they haue gone and are to goe for their further encouragement to their dutie Behold then what I pretend to remember to whomsoeuer being in old age will vouchsafe to hearken to him who is drawing neere vnto it It is reason that the grace of God witnessed in so many sortes so many yeares and sealed in our Baptisme at our first entrance into the world and into the Church when we haue rightly apprehended in whom we are dead and in whom quickned doe cause vs to wish a continuall sense and feeling of our adoption by his spirit speaking to vs by his word and witnessing with our spirit that we are the sonnes of God This sense and feeling doth engender or beget an excellent desire an earnest devotion a firme resolution to yeeld him obedience all our life long but more at the dissolution and end of our life then at the beginning which is devoide of knowledge conscience experience wisedome plunged and drowned the greater part of tyme in ignorance selfe opinion insolencie and ribauld and lasciuious impudencie Now then it behooues so soone as we feele the motions of this grace that our hearts be replenished with a sincere and liuely affection to obey God not according to our worldly sense but following the rule which he himselfe doth propose and set downe vnto vs. Touching this affection it is commended vnto vs by generall and speciall reasons The generall reasons are that our God is holy and that we his people cannot cleaue vnto him except we bee holy likewise then as members belonging to Iesus Christ our head and redeemer we ought to be made conformable to him imitating his life which is called the obedience to God his Father euen to the death of the crosse The speciall reasons are First that God is our Father Secondly that Christ hath washed vs by his precious bloud and incorporated vs into him Thirdly that this our head is ascended vp into heauen Fourthly that we are the temples of the holy Ghost Fiftly that our bodies be predestinated to the last resurrection and our soules to immortalitie both of them to euerlasting glorie Whereupon it followes that it is horrible ingratitude not to be willing to obey the will of our heauenly Father that it is madnesse to returne to the filthinesse from which we haue beene so dearely and preciously cleansed and purged that it is detestable iniquitie to wish and to will the members of Iesus Christ to bee ioyned to Sathan and to the world that is but reason for euer to burie all earthly affection to aspire to a better life to be by a liuely faith set in the heauenly places and to feele and taste of life and euerlasting glory that we must not grieue him which dwelleth in vs our counsellor guide and comforter That it is good reason to preserue our selues immaculate and pure euen vntill the day of our Lord. Hauing treated of our affection let vs speake of the rule thereof declared in such wise and so expressely in the law of God to make vs yet to see as the soule and mayne of all that his good pleasure hath beene to forme and fashion our manners by a most exact manner and order and which serues as a commentarie of all that is contayned in the sayd Law That is that wee should renounce our selues to the end to be fit to apply and frame our selues sincerely and wholly to serue God because we are not our owne but Gods Whereupon it followes that a Christian be he young or old and the old is more bound to this dutie then the yong because God hath vpheld and supported him long hath bestowed many blessings and benefites on him and a blessed life whereinto hee is nowe entring ought to search and learne out what God willeth and approueth briefely whatsoeuer serueth to the advancement of his glorie Those which are of an other minde are styled and tearmed by the voyce of truth vngracious hypocrites vngratefull reprobates All these licentious and inordinate humours S. Paul in his Epistle to Titus comprehendeth vnder the word Impietie To which hee opposeth the duties of Christians marshalled and ranged vnder the three excellent giftes of the holy Ghost in the regenerate to wit sobrietie iustice and pietie And in this sacred triangle is included the renouncing of our selues And the Apostle not without cause hath begun with temperance which especially concernes vs which moderates our lustes and desires banishing and driuing away sensuall carnall worldly and vncleane and filthie affections much more their detestable effortes and effectes It is shee which doth fashion and frame vs to a true square rulle and order as well in the moderation of our wishes and dreames of worldly houour and greatnesse as of our inordinate beastly concupiscences suggested by the vncleane spirit In the violent pursuite seeking and hunting after proud vsurping sacrilegious detayning and miserable possessing
is who euery day lay new foundations of their life and beginne to build and raise hopes when it behooues them to goe out of the world You shall see old men who runne themselues out of breath after honors profittes and transitorie goods But can there bee a more vnsightly and vnseemely thing seene then an old man to become a childe againe In the two and twentith Epistle Is it not a great shame to bee afraid when wee are to enter into a Pallace of assurance and safetie The reason is that we are dispossessed and turned out of all the goods after which we doe sigh and painefully toyle at the end of our life whereof not any portion or part remaines vnto vs all being gone and lost There is no man which takes care to liue well but to liue long yet all men may be able to attaine to this good to liue vertuously but no man can or ought to promise himselfe long life We doe adde And the old man which now hath no more to do with the things of this life that are common to all is so ill aduised that he thinketh not of the amendment of his life nor of the boxe and blowe which death shall suddenly giue him on the eare At the very end of the three and twentith Epistle There are some who begin to liue when they must dye and there are some who are dead before they haue begun to liue In the thirtith Epistle As little wise is hee who feareth death as the young man who feareth to bee old For as old age doth kicke and spurre young age in like sort doth death old age Hee which will not dye hath no will to liue because life was giuen with this exception That we must die Wee are in the way of death and who feareth it is out of his wits seeing we expect that which is certaine and feare that which is vncertaine At the end of the two and thirtith Epistle He is free and his owne man who liueth as if hee had no longer to liue And at the end of the sixe and thirtith Epistle Neither little infants nor young boyes nor madde men feare death it is then a great shame if reason doe not as much confirme and assure vs as stupiditie and sottishnesse doth them At the end of the threescore and seuenteenth Epistle It is with our life as with a Comedie it skils not how long it be so it bee well acted Take no care where the end of your race shall be make a stop and a stay where necessity enforceth you prouided you make a good end In the nintith three Epistle Let vs take order that as gold and other things of excellent price and worth so our life be not of a great length neuerthelesse that it weigh much Let vs not measure it by our time but by our worke Will you know a very good respite of yeares it is to liue till we be wise He that is come so farre though hee haue not attayned to a great number of yeares hath seene the greater and better part of them The nintith nine Epistle containeth sundry consolations in death which I will briefly set downe It is a fond and childish part to giue the reynes to sorrow and to make account of an vncertaine thing as our life is He doth ill who weepes vpon custome and seeing that sorrow doth make vs forget the blessings and benefits receiued of God wee must betimes shake off and rid our selues of it to the end to call to minde the vertue of our departed friends and to make our vse of it and of them as if they were present Wee ought to follow the example of those who haue shewed themselues vnmoued at the death of their friendes to thinke we shall follow the dead whom we haue not lost but giuen vp vnto God who are gone but a little before vs It is the way of the world our life doth so manifest it wee haue assurance of nothing vnder heauen but of death and our life is short though it containe many ages It is crossed and wounded with infinite miseries which end in death freeing it of malice and of errour and ignorance Consequently he which is accustomed to grieue much depriueth himselfe of comfort to remedy which and in stead of imitating the fond customes of the ignorant and vulgar hee must shew himselfe a man of courage in the most violent shockes and assaults of aduersitie setting before our eyes the worthy deportments and behauiours of those which goe before vs keeping a measure betweene sorrow and forgetfulnesse of those whom wee haue made much on and beene kind and friendly vnto in the world and whom we see no more and when they are at peace and rest we are to giue ouer to grieue and sorrow for them I reascend to the nintith one Epistle from whence I will deduce that which followes Doe not measure vs by our Tombes and Monuments which seeme to note some way differing betweene some and others The graue wherein our bodies are dissolued to dust makes vs all equall Wee are borne vnequall but death makes vs all equall The Soueraigne Law-giuer hath not differenced vs by our nobilitie linage blood and greatnesse but in this life but when death commeth hee sayth to this worldly greatnesse Begon I will that there bee the same law to all liuing things vpon earth Wee are all subiect to all sorts of euills One is no more frayle nor more assured to liue till to morrow then another In the hundreth and one Epistle There is no day nor houre which doth not point out vnto vs our vanity and which by some new experiment and tryall doth not remember vs of our frailty which we tread vnder our feet and which doth not compell euery one of vs who build and deuise endlesse plots and designes to haue an eye vnto death From the hundred and seuenth Epistle I will make this deduction It is good to beare that which we cannot remedy to follow without murmuring or complaining that great God by whose prouidence all things come to passe A bad Souldier is hee who followes his Captaine vnwillingly Let death finde vs prest forward and cheerefull The heat which doth resolutely consigne and yeeld it selfe into the hands of God is euery way great On the contrary he is a luske coward and basely bred fellow who spurnes kickes and winses who complaines of the gouernment of the world and who had rather censure God then himselfe In the hundred and twentith Epistle A man is neuer more heauenly minded then when he thinketh vpon his owne frailty and knowes and acknowledgeth that he is borne to dye Also that his body is not a house but an Inne and for a while It is a folly for vs to feare the last dayes of our life seeing our first dayes are tributarries and owe as much vnto death as our last The last day of our race makes vs to touch death all the other doe
much desired declareth by his wordes which breathed nothing but faith charitie consolation a stedfast hope that the seruants of God are in peace enioy a free rest being drawne out of the foaming and tempestuous waues of this world and landing at the port of safetie and eternall happinesse when after the abolishment of death we come to a glorious immortalitie For this is our peace our assured rest our assured and perpetuall safetie In this world we are continually grapling tugging and wrastling with Sathan and all our exercise is to repulse and repell his dartes We haue on our armes on our foreheads sides and backes avarice incontinencie anger ambition of necessitie wee must wrastle without ceasing against the lustes of the flesh and the baites and allurements of the world Toward the end of the same Treatise hee sayth further that we must not weepe for our brethren when it pleaseth God to call and deliuer them out of this world for well I know that they are not lost but gone before and haue the start of those who tarrie behinde Wee may desire and looke after them as men do for their friends who are going some voyage or who take shipping to sayle and goe to land in a good port But we must not bewayle them nor here weare black mourning habitts seeing they haue alreadie receiued white robes in heauen It becomes vs not to giue occasion to Heathens justly to tax and reproue vs if they see by an inordinate loue our countenance appalled and agast thinking them vtterly lost and annihilated whom we hold and maintaine to be aliue with God and if they perceiue it witnessed euidently enough by our minde that wee condemne the faith we professe with our mouthes In this case we ouer throw our faith and our hope which we could not say but to proceed of hypocrisie It is nothing to shew our selues hardie in wordes if we evert and destroy the truth with our doings and deedes It is tyme to conclude this Chapter We say then that the anxieties of minde maladies perplexities and apprehensions of so many deathes which doe spurne and kicke against vs doe silently and tacitely cry vnto vs and exhort vs with speed to lift vp our eyes to Christ Iesus the fountaine of life to the communion we haue with him also to the blessinges alreadie receiued of him and to those which the hope which makes vs not afraide doth assuredly expect And following the counsell of S. Basile in his Treatise that thankes must alwayes bee giuen to God Let vs not put our affiance and trust in man nor let vs say with the ignorant vulgar death hath taken from me all my succour and helpe my father my husband my sonne the comfort of my old age the prop and piller of my house Who hath commaunded you to moore your ancher of hope in such a little lump of dust as man is What age is priuiledged from the handes of death What a one is he who by couenant made with vs protesteth that he will be the God of their fathers and of their children to a thousand generations who loue feare him Shall we forget him who makes so kinde a proffer of himselfe to vs to imagine forge to our selues succours and helpes of straw and of wind Let the ancher of our sure and stedfast hope sincke into the vaile of heauen and let it bee sticking faste in the throne of God It shall there be a brasen bullwarke for vs a wall of fire Let Christ be our life in death in him let death be our gaine Let vs say with Ieremiah in the 17. Chapter Blessed be the man which trusteth in the Lord whose confidence the Lord is For he shall be as a tree planted by the water which spreadeth out her roots by a flowing riuer which shall not feele when the heate shall approach her leafe shall be greene and shall not wither in the yeare of drought and shall not cease to yeeld her fruit Let vs further amasse and gather some words from the same Prophet O Lord thou art the hope of thy Church those that forsake thee shall bee confounded for they haue forsaken the fountaine of liuing waters Heale those that are thine O Lord then shall they be in rest saue them and none shall bee able to hurt them Leaue them not forlorne and in a desperate plight thou which art their hope in the day of affliction Let their despayring and hopelesse enemies be confounded and let them rest in safetie vnder the shadow of thy wings CHAP. XIX Of the resurrection of the bodies and of the immortalitie of humane soules THE Apostle speake to very good purpose in the 15. chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians that if our hope should be in Christ Iesus in regard of this present life onely our condition should be more miserable then other mens seeing that true Christians are continually exposed to diuers afflictions and from time to time doe suffer great tortures troubles But what would it auaile to liue in the world and there to subsist and be a thousand yeares if it be in the fire of calamities and sundry oppressions There cannot then bee proposed vnto vs a more certaine refuge and helpe nor a more sweete comfort and support against the miseries and infirmities of this present life then the assured hope of the resurrection to a better life When we shall beare about vs no longer the image of the first earthly man but of the second who is the heavenly Adam and that this corruptible and mortall bodie shall put on incorruption and immortalitie The sure confidence of Christians is the resurrection from the dead wherein we shall haue a glorious bodie which shall be so revnited to the blessed soule and the soule againe to the bodie that we may be for euer with our head fully replenished with euerlasting ioy in the presence of God The Heathens enemies of Christian religion haue especially impugned this Article of the resurrection of the bodie And which is more many of their Philosophers haue spoken doubtfully of the immortalitie of the soule At this tyme to the end to confirme our faith our hope and assured consolation we will consider the groundes of these two Articles aswell by the nature of things and by certaine conceptions as by the sound resolutions rehearsed in the holy Scriptures Certainly as Gregory the great said in his Moralls That those who haue not learned from the Scripture the doctrine of the Resurrection ought to learne it of nature For what doe men daily obserue in the continuall medley and blending of the Elements whereof all visible things are composed but proofes of the resurrection of the dead Wee see by the vicissitude and reuolution of time the Plants and Trees to lose their greene leaues which wither and fall off when Winter comes after in the Spring to sprout forth againe and the earth to become greene gay as before If the smal
THE WISE-VIEILLARD OR OLD MAN TRANSLATED OVT OF French into English by an obscure Englishman a friend and fauourer of all wise Old-Men ECCLVS 25. 4. 5. O how pleasant a thing is it when gray-headed men minister judgement and when the Elders can giue good counsell O how comely a thing is Wisedome vnto aged men c. PRO. 16. 31. Age is a crowne of glorie when it is found in the way of righteousnesse LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson 1621. TO THE RIGHT VVORSHIPFVLL VVORTHIE REVEREND AND LEARNED DIVINE Mr IOSEPH HALL Doctor of Diuinitie and Deane of Worcester the Author doth Dedicate this Translation as the first fruit and essay of his FRENCH Studies WORTHIE SIR This translation of the sage Vieillard being the fruit of certaine vacant and divorced houres I purposed to dedicate in a singular respect to a worshipfull Gentleman your good friend and neighbour Mr Henry Archer late of Thaydon Garnon in Essex who was well versed in the French language But his death disappoynted me of my purpose made my pen fall out of my hand lye still and stirre no further hauing then more then halfe finished the Booke The second yeare after whose death well weighing with my selfe that it was a Worke might yeeld some profit to my Countrie men of England I tooke vp my Pen againe and at starts and tymes finished it And then withall considering with my selfe that a good Booke in these dayes had need of a good man to Patronize it I called to mind that your worthy selfe hauing beene in Fraunce and other forraine partes might be a fit Maecenas to support my weake labours therein and so boldly adventured to Dedicate the Patronage thereof to your good Worship And I was the rather imboldened thereunto vpon hope that for your deceased good friend and neighbours sake to whom it should haue beene Dedicated you would not refuse it at least for the workes sake being a mixt Subiect of morall and diuine documents and instructions And further I hope that it will not be accompted presumption to dedicate a good Booke to the learned and vertuous Howsoeuer it is my dutie to craue pardon for presuming to dedicate it to your worship my selfe being a man of an obscure and humble condition And therefore I doe further craue your pardon that I may not make my selfe otherwise knowne vnto your worship then by the two Alphabeticall letters of my name here-vnder printed Yet haue I alwayes beene since I first knew you and still doe rest a man which doth vnfainedly reuerence you T. VV. ¶ To the Reader I AM loath to woce thee by styling thee courteous kinde gentle Reader but rather desire that the subiect matter of the Booke might allure thee to read it The French Author thereof hath intituled it TheWise Old Man by which title hee seemes to implie that all are not wise that are old which if it be so hee then seemes to glance at our English Prouerb No foole to the old foole Howsoeuer hee lessons both young and old what they should be As for my part I thinke it not fitting to preface the wholesome documents and instructions contained in it which as good Viandes are offered to thy taste least I should take away thine appetite to read it and make thee to surfeit before thou hast fed All that I haue to doe and lesse I cannot doe is to craue thy fauourable construction of that I haue done For I modestly confesse I haue beene too ouerweening and bold to take vpon me to translate so worthy a Worke of the worthy French Author thereof Monsieur Symon Goulart my selfe being no higher a graduate in learning then a common Grammarian and no better skilled in the French language then what mine owne practise and study hath enhabled mee to be But vpon the first reading of him I was so delighted that my fingers did euen itch to set pen to paper and to vnclaspe so good a Worke which was shut vp from thy vse and benefit vnder a strange tongue Make much I pray thee of him now because hee speakes to thee in English and if he speake it not well I craue thy pardon for I am in fault that haue taken vpon mee to make him speake our language before I well vnderstand his Yet I hope I haue hit of his meaning though I vary from his wordes as all Translators must doe And now I am a suiter for pardon I doe wooe thee by these Epithites of courteous kinde gentle Reader charitably to censure mee for taking vpon me to put into English so worthy a Worke with so weake a hand which fauour I hope I shall the rather obtaine at thy hands for that I haue done it out of a good will to thee and not out of any skill in mee which I doe disclaime and therefore I desire to hide mee from thee and not otherwise to be knowne vnto thee then I am to the worthy Gentleman to whom I haue beene hold to commend the patronage of this Worke. And so I leaue thee courteous Reader to God and wish thee to be with God when thy time is to goe to him and will still bee thy well wisher in all good things T. W. THE CONTENTS OF THE twentie Chapters of this Booke Chapter 1. OF long life and the desire men haue to liue long in the world Page 1. Chapter 2. Of such persons as haue liued long namely the Patriarches before the Flood Page 11. Chapter 3. Of the Tree of Life and of the Tree of Knowledge of good and euill Page 16. Chapter 4. What old age is and how many Species and kindes of old age there be Page 22. Chapter 5. The Spring-head of old age and the causes and occasions of it Page 28. Chapter 6. Of the Climactericall Yeares Page 41. Chapter 7. The complaints of the miseries of old age aduisedly discussed Page 44 Chapter 8. Foure causes propounded by Cicero of the miseries of old age reduced to two to wit the miseries of the bodie and of the minde Page 48. Chapter 9. A more speciall Catalogue or numbring vp of some miseries in old men in regard of their bodies Page 53. Chapter 10. The miseries of old men in regard of their mindes Page 63. Chapter 11. Of the causes that old age is burthensome and tedious to old men Page 82. Chapter 12. Of the benefit or good of old age Page 86. Chapter 13. Of the profit which wise old men may reape from the doctrine contained in the Writings of Philosophers and Heathen Authors Page 96. Chapter 14. Assured consolations against all infirmities of bodie and minde Page 107. Chapter 15. An aduise to wise old men containing the summarie and substance of their dutie vntill their last gasp Page 126. Chapter 16. Worthy meditations for all persons especially the wise Vieillard of what quality or condition soeuer he be Page 136 Chapter 17. Consolations against death and how it ought to be feared or not feared Page 145. Chapter 18.
soone dye But that man knowes well what it is to liue whose care is not altogether for himselfe but how hee may liue to please God and to benefit and do good to his neighbours in whom Iesus Christ liueth who hath not so great a care of any one part of his life as he hath for his whole man and for euery part thereof Verity it is a strange thing and not much to be approoued or commended that we are so many wayes carefull for this present life and to pranke vp and mainetaine our selues in this world and make so small account of our better part which so much concernes vs to wit our soule the welfare and good health thereof Whereof Dauid seemeth to make high account as is euident in the 34. Psalme when he asketh this question Who is he that desireth long life and loueth long dayes to see good Keepe saith hee thy tongue from euill and thy lippes from lying talke and equiuocation turne aside from that which is euill and doe the thing that is good seeke peace and pursue it And when he speaketh of life hee vseth a word which according to the Idiom and propriety of the language wherein he spake may be translated liues to put vs in mind that we should not rest vpon and content our selues with that life which is common with vs and the Plants and beasts of the fielde but that our thoughts should bee eleuated higher to that other life which is guided by reason and is indeed worthy to be called life without which we should bee more wretched miserable then the beasts Verily the sensual seruile and brutish life is nothing worth and not greatly to be regarded What glory can it bee to vs or how should wee place our felicity in such a life wherein the beasts euery Idiot and Lourdaut may braue it aswel as wee and haue as great priuiledge and commoditie and much more Let vs carefully looke to and set our affections vpon that life by which our better part the soule hauing as it were sequestred and estranged herselfe from all transsitory things is lifted vp vnto God cleaueth fast vnto him and by his Spirit is nourished comforted and fed vnto the hope of eternall life This is the life that the Prophet willeth vs to be in loue withall and enamoured of to the possession and fruition whereof wee are regenerated by the incorruptible seed of his word who hath abolished death and by the Gospell brought into the world life and immortalitie For the case being thus decreed that all men must once die and euery one of vs hauing daily before our eyes foure assured witnesses that beare record of our mortality and that die we must our owne naturall frailty diuers accidents and mischances that may happen to vs many surfeitings and distemperatures and olde age at last how can we sufficiently aggrauate and display the misery and vanity of man who doth not raise himselfe higher then these earthly things and mindeth and thinketh vpon nothing so much as vpon this dying life or rather a liuing death That which me heathen Philosophers and Naturalists write of long life and the meanes to prolong it will helpe vs little or nothing at all and at no time can assure comfort the conscience Some of them thinke that men may liue longer in hote countries then in cold others are of opinion that the Northerne and colder climates are best to mainetaine health and long life and Galen is perswaded that the ayre of Asia Minor in the East parts is a more temperate countrey to liue in then any other But these wise men doe further obserue that besides a good ayre many other things are requisite as to keepe a good diet to vse rest and exercise at due houres to purge sometimes and to cuacuate the excrements and grosse humours of the body and sometimes to forbeare it to haue the mind merrily disposed and free from pertubations and passions But admit all these helpes should concurre which seldome happens what man is so simple and vnaduised be he neuer so young to assure himselfe in the morning when hee riseth to liue to goe to his bed at night What man is there by keeping a good diet and liuing temperately and by following the rules and prescriptions of Physicians is able to make himselfe continue and last so long as a Date or Cypresse tree or to liue so long as a Rauen a Stagg or a base creeping worme Many haue composed and set forth bookes wherein they treate how a man may preserue health and Galen reporteth of one Antiochus a Physician who contenting himselfe to eate sparingly three times a day a piece of bread spread with hony liued in wonderfull health and strength of body many yeares Plinie in his 22. Booke Chap. 24. maketh mention of one Pollio who liued more then a hundred yeares and being demanded by the Emperour Augustus how and by what meanes he preserued so long the good health of his body and vigour of minde made him this answere That hee vsed to supple his ioynts with oyle and to drinke the best wine hee could get In his 7. Booke and 50. Chap. hee propoundeth for an example thinking the like not to be found of one Xenophilus a Musician who liued a hundred and fiue yeares and was neuer in all that time sicke nor felt any ach or paine in his body Cicero also in his Dialogue of old age maketh mention of Arganthonius King of Gades who raigned fourescore yeares and liued a hundred and twenty But seeing all the time of our life which is not imployed in well doing and vertuous actions is to be accounted lost and that the greatest part of this present life vanisheth away in miseries which we are forced to see and suffer Good God how are they to be lamented and pittied that haue nothing where of they can boast nor whereon to rest and place their assurance but vpon a number of yeares and who commonly die when as yet they haue not beto take order to liue or when they haue no sooner begun to be wise but they are assoone dead I pray you doe we call that long which hath an end yea such an end as euery minute wee expect and looke for Euery man is desirous and willing to liue long and striueth with might and maine vsing his vttermost power studie and care to liue long although the time he runnes and moylingly trots vp and downe be it neuer so long compared to eternitie is but as a drop of water to the maine sea To bee briefe long life in this world is nothing else but a painefull progresse which makes it shorter and shorter and at last makes an end of it Let euery man then as Cicero counselleth hold himselfe contented with the time is appointed vnto him by him who hath the houre glasse of our life in his hand who hath stinted our dayes how long they shall runne and hath set downe this for his
which the imperfections of mad doting old men are bewrayed and discouered and wise old men are so much the more put in minde how they ought to beare and behaue themselues in the sight of God of his Church of their owne seruants and families of their friends which wish them well and of their enemies which wish them ill seeking to discredit disgrace and defame them It is lamentable to see some old men to idle out the time in potting tipling and swilling in drinke others to seeke after meats and provocatiue drugs to enflame and stirre vp their beastly lustes not regarding the commandement of the Apostle in the second Chapter of his Epistle to Titus second verse where he willeth auncient men to bee sober graue discreete and aduised Such persons doe yet lesse remember that which the Author of Ecclesiasticus sayth Chapter 25. verse 3. 4. There are three sorts of men whom my heart hateth and whose life I abhorre A poore man that is proud a rich man that is a lyer and an old adulterer which doteth or is without vnderstanding A wise man sayd that is an imputation to an old man to speake of vnchast courting and dalliance much more to be deuoted to it yea when it were fit to make him a comely withdrawing roome farre from the canopies of the world and the vncleane spirit then to wallow and bemyre himselfe in the perillous pleasures of the world is to neglect and dispise the wise admonitions of Salomons mother and little to consider the euils which happened to that wise Prince for not hauing considered it well when she left him this worthie instruction Giue not thy strength to women Pro. 31. 3. Our wise Vieillard will remember that if true wisedome lodge in his heart and the knowledge of truth delighteth his soule she will deliuer him from the strange woman which smootheth her words which forsaketh the guide of her youth and forgetteth the couenant of her God For her house leaneth vnto death and her pathes lead vnto the dead Not one of them which goe vnto her doe returne againe neither take they hold of the wayes of life Pro. 2. v. 10. 16. 17. c. Keepe thy way farre from her and come not neere the dore of her house least thou giue thine honour vnto others and thy yeares to the cruell least the stranger be filled with thy strength and thy labours be in the house of a stranger Pro. 5. v. 8. c. Salomon hauing in the same place propounded notable things to this purpose euen as a wise Father who with teares trickling a pace downe his cheekes would admonish his lewd stubborne sonne addeth why shouldest thou my sonne bee transported with the loue of a strange woman or embrace the bosome of a stranger seeing the wayes of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his pathes The same wise Salomon further sayth in the sixt Chapter The woman which lusteth hunteth after the precious life of a man Can a man put fire into his bosome and his cloathes not be burnt shall a man goe vpon hote coales and his feete not be burnt so he that goeth into his neighbours wife shall not bee innocent whosoeuer toucheth her Also he that committeth adulterie with a woman is destitute of vnderstanding hee that doth it destroyeth his owne soule In the chapter following hee describeth a shamelesse and impudent woman who by her crafts and subtile deuices brings those to destruction who for want of vnderstanding suffer themselues to be seduced by her enticing wordes comparing such idiots to Beastes that are led to the slaughter house to fooles that are layed and chayned vp in Prison to be corrected to Birds which willingly fall into pit-falles and snares Let our wise Vieillard remember that the author of all holinesse hath expressely condemned whoredome and adulterie not onely in the act but also in the affection In stead of beholding with an euill eye those women whose company he ought to shunne and avoyd let him read or cause to be read vnto him the places of holy Scripture which we goe about to quoate vnto him and which are the parts and points of the inditement according to which God will judge whore-mongers and adulterers Heb. 13. 4. The places are these Gen. 26. 3. Behold thou art dead because of the Woman which thou hast taken shee was onely taken and not defiled Gen. 26. 10. Abimelech sayd to Isaac who somewhat vnaduisedly behaued himselfe in the behalfe of his wife Rebecca it was a narrow hazzard that none of the people lay not with thy wife and that thou hast not beene the cause to haue the sin layd vnto vs. Exod. 20. 14. Thou shalt not commit adulterie Leuit. 18. 20. Thou shalt not lye with thy neighbours wife defiling thy selfe with her Leuit. 20. 10. Adulterers are condemned to death Deut. 22. 24. He that polluteth and defyleth a betrothed virgin is condemned to death with her if she hath consented to it Deut. 23. 17. There shall not be a whore among the daughters of Israell not a whore-keeper among the sonnes of Israel Our Lord Iesus condemneth him of adulterie in the heart which looketh vpon a woman to lust after her Saint Paul propoundeth diuers arguments against whore-mongers and adulterers Rom. 13. 13. and 1 Cor. 6. 15. 16. 18. and the 10. 8. and the 2 Cor. 12. 22. Galat. 5. 19. Ephes 5. 3. Coloss 3. 5. and the 2 Thes 4. 3. c. Heb. 13. 4. Which our wise Vieillard will examine then hee will ioyne thereunto the considerations of the terrible punishments of families defyled with such sinnes the fearefull judgements pronounced against sencelesse and obdurate consciences the lamentable changes and alterations in the familie of Dauid and Salomon and of many others since the strong and inuincible arguments of the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. Chapter to this effect briefely that whore-mongers and adulterers are shutt out of the kingdome of God Therefore that we may haue a part in the inheritance of the Saints who are sanctified and iustified in the name of the Lord Iesus and by the spirit of God we must remember first that our bodies are not for whoredome but for the Lord and the Lord for the bodie Secondly that seeing our bodies shall rise againe not to ignominie and pollution but to glory and holines it is reason we should keepe them pure and vnpolluted for so are they members of Christ and consequently it should be horrible sacriledge to make them members of a Harlot Thirdly that being members vnited vnto the Lord and made one spirit with him it is not meete in no sort to ioyne them to a Harlot with whom we are made one bodie Fourthly that whoredome ought to be detested aboue all other sinnes for whatsoeuer sinne a man committeth it is without the bodie but he which committeth adulterie sinneth against his owne bodie Fiftly that our bodies are temples of the holy Ghost which is in vs which
and reckons of death the threatnings and rage of Tyrants As Solon who being demanded By what vertue hee did so braue the Tyrant Pisistratus answered His old age Touching the contempt of death and a resolution couragiously to apprehend and embrace it who will not maruell to heare the wordes which the great Cyrus King of Persia vttered to his sonnes a little before his death My dearely beloued sonnes said he when you shall see mee no more thinke not therefore I am quite annihilated and no where for when I was in your company you could not perceiue my soule but onely discusled it in your minde to be in my body by the deedes and actions you saw me to doe Beleeue then that the soule is still aliue and in being although you see my body no more Neuer could any man perswade mee that the soules of mortall men perish with their bodies nor that being departed out of our bodies past feeling and sense that they are without feeling and sense on the contrary seeing that the soul being at liberty and hauing nothing to doe with the body begins to become pure and wholy to see and behold it selfe I hold and maintaine that then it is in full perfection of knowledge and vnderstanding Furthermore the case standing thus that death is the dissolution of nature wee see whither all things tend to wit to their first matter whereof they were made the soule excepted which we see not how it comes into the body remaines there nor goes out You see that there is nothing so much resembles death as sleepe But the soules of those which sleepe shew their diuine nature in this point that being free from disturbance and at rest see and behold things a farre off and to come which plainely declares what they must bee after they are deliuered from the prison of the body This being so reuerence mee my sonnes as a thing diuine but if the soule be to perish with the body yet giue not you ouer to feare the gods which maintaine vphold gouerne this Principall master peece called Man And in this doing as good children you shall inuiolably preserue my name To this Oration which is bettered by Cicero in his Dialogue of old age reciting Socrates who in prison wisely and stoutly discourseth of the immortality of the soule Old Cato also addeth that seeing the soules of men are so prompt and apprehensiue to remember things past and of so wise foresight in things future and to come haue inuented so many trades arts sciences so many rare and notable things It is impossible that such natures capable of so great excellencies should bee mortall And seeing the soule is in continuall agitation and motion which shee originally hath not to wit from any extrinsecall cause and from other then her Creatour which Cicero forgetteth seeing shee mooues and stirres of her selfe it followes that shee shall euer haue such agitation and motion for shee will neuer leaue or abandon to bee her selfe Further that the soule in it owne nature being a substance simple pure vnmixt hauing no disagreeing qualities cannot be diuided and being indiuiduall it followes it is immortall which serues to prooue that men are capable and of vnderstanding before they bee borne seeing that children in learning the baser and more seruile and meaner trades arts and sciences doe on a suddaine comprehend and conceiue infinit things ere on would say they begin to apprehend and vnderstand what this or that is but onely their memories serue them to retaine and beare them away Cato afterward affirmeth further That if the soules of men were not immortall good men would not desire or aspire to a glory which is durable and ay-lasting What meanes this saying That euery wise man dieth most willingly and the wicked depart hence full fore against their will and with much griefe and vexation of minde Seemes it not vnto you that the soule which sees more cleerely and father off knowes she goes to a better place On the contrary hebere dull and sencelesse man is vncapable and ignorant heereof Verily I desire nothing more then to see your forefathers whom I haue made much on respected and honoured and besides I desire to be with those of whom I haue heard men to speake and discourse whose bookes I haue seene and perused and whose names I haue quoated and mentioned in mine owne writings Now that I am onward in my way and making hast to goe to them It would be a troublesome and hard matter to hale mee or make mee roule or goe backe as men would a ball or a bowle And if God had made me a grant to become a childe againe and to cry in a cradle I should stifly and with might and maine refuse such an offer for seeing I haue almost finished my course I will not bee recalled from my last end to my first state and condition Is there any commoditie in this life Is not this life painefull in all her reuolutions terminations periods and endes But put the case this life hath many commodities so it is that wee may be full gorged satiated and glutted with them and see and end of them too I will not for all that way wardly and testily fret fume storme and chaffe at this life as many learned men haue oftentimes done and I repent me not that I haue liued for I haue so spent my dayes that I account of my selfe as one that hath serued for some vse and for something in the world I goe out of this life as out of an Inne and not as one out of a house seeing that nature leaues vs here in this world a time to passe and walke vp and downe but not heere to settle abide and continue O happy the day when I shall goe to the holy company of blessed soules and shall leaue the base rabble and rascally route of the world See heere for certaine the worthy Treatises of men ignorant of the immortality of mans soule but as they did gropingly and blindely imagine Notwithstanding they were grounded vpon this imagination that nothing being so common nor of more price and account with man then the loue and preseruation of himselfe a care and regard ought especially to bee had of that part which properly may be called Man to wit the soule and that the way and meanes to liue well and happily consisteth in the knowledge and comtemplation of things diuine inciting and prouoking vs to good workes so as the tranquility of our mindes consisteth not properly in being freed from paine and griefe but rather in being deliuered from those raging and vnruly passions which hurry the wicked vp and downe For as Seneca sayth in his booke De Prouidentia those casuall miseries which our owne hands bring not vpon vs are sent for our good that our many vertues may the more gloriously shew and appeare and that as wee cut Vines to make them yeeld the more fruit so by the smart and wound of
Daniel calles him The Ancient of dayes not that therefore it is lawfull to represent God in the shape of an old man with a great long white beard as many ignorant folke doe which neuer read Moses nor the Prophets and which are ignorant of the nature and essence of the true God But that wee should conceiue this incomprehensible Maiestie to bee nothing else but wisedome a venerable supremacy and greatnesse of estate and a perfect sanctitie Secondly wee are taught to reuerence old men to honour their persons to rise vp with great respect to these white heads and beards and to shew thereby that we acknowledge in this their old age the stampes and prints of God as Moses exhorts vs in the 19. Chap. Leuit. v. 32. which we recite to the same end and purpose as wee haue done other sayings and sentences before whereunto wee adde this of a wise Elder who writ Ecclesiasticus in the third Chapter of which booke hee sayth My sonne helpe thy father in his age and grieue him not so long as hee liueth when his vnderstanding faileth him haue patience and beare with him and dispise him not but honour him as much as thou canst For the good intreaty of thy father shall not bee forgotten but shall bee a fortresse for thee against thy sinnes The women of Bethlehem are friendly and kind to the good old Naomi for that her daughter in law Ruth had borne a sonne to Boaz. This say they may bring life againe to thee and lenghthen thy dayes and cherish and comfort thine old age Ruth 4. 15. God by his Prophet Isaiah reprochet the Babilonians that they were cruell and vnmerciful to the Iewes and laid a very heauy yoke vpon them Chap. 47. 6. Also these wicked people were as hammers which the iust Iudge of the world vsed to breake in peeces the old and the young as Ieremie speakes in the 52. Chapter Vers 22. whence proceeded those woes and alasses of the Prophet in his Lamentations 4. Chap Vers 16. They reuerenced not the face of the Priests nor had compassion of the Elders And in the fift Chapter following Vers 12. The Princes are hanged vp by the hands and they reuerence not the face of the Elders That which Ezechiel proposeth in the 9. chap. v. 6. is most feareful and it sufficeth vs to marke and obserue it that our wise Vicillard doe thereby take heed On the contrary in Zachariahs dayes there being a question and demurre concerning the reestablishment of the people and of the fauours that God was minded to bestow vpon them Zachariah declares in the 8. Chapter Vers 4. That the God of hostes sayd thus There shall old men and women dwell in the streetes of Ierufalem and euery man haue his staffe in his hand for very age But Isaiah in the third Chapter Vers 2. and 5. putteth for signes of the terrible iudgement of God to Ierusalem That the old men shall be taken away and destroyed that the childe shall exalt himselfe and presume against the auncient and the abiect and vile against the honourable If in these times there bee any presage of the decay and ruine of Churches and Common-weales it is that the number of wise old men is very smal that the age of the worthies and renowned men is vanished and past That those that are children in yeares and vnderstanding are percht vp and set vp in the places of the experienced valiant and learned An extreame misery which we cannot sufficiently describe and lament But as good fruit when it is ripest and mellow is most delicate and pleasant to the taste and as the last draught contenteth the thirstie person In like sort pleasure seemes to reserue her dainties to the last and for the last seruice and messe So likewise wee say that old age hath in it I know not what that is notable and more excellent then other ages and the sayings of the auncients as the singing of swannes are daily excellent monitors and admonitions to vs. If wee listen to the last wordes of the Patriarches Moses Ioshua Dauid and giue them the hearing wee shall in them finde an ample proofe heereof Such Histories are familiar to wise old men and it is much better to read them in themselues then heere to recite them What illumination of Gods spirit is reuealed and manifest in the sayings of infinite Martyrs especially of such as were old euen from the Apostles time till now It is matter for a greater booke then this small Tractat or Manuel In the second booke of the Maccabees Chap. 6. It is spoken of Eleazar one of the chiefe Scribes an aged man who being pressed and instantly solicited to feigne and make semblance to adhere and obey to the superstitions of the Heathens vpon an honest and vpright minde worthy his age the excellency of his yeares the honour of his gray hayres his good conuersation from his childhood and chiefly Gods holy law suddenly required that hee might bee led to the place of execution adding these words worthy of memory It becommeth not our age to dissemble least many yong persons diffident and wauering that Eleazar being fourscore and tenne yeares old was gone and yeelded to prophane ceremonies thorough mine hypocrisie and dissimulation for a smal moment of a caduque and transitory life might bee seduced and I bring a malediction and curse and a staine and reproach to mine old age for though I should bee deliuered from the torments of men yet could I not escape the hand of the Almightie neither aliue nor dead Wherefore manfully changing and giuing vp this life I shall shew my selfe such as mine age requireth and meriteth And I shall leaue a notable example for such as be young to die willingly and couragiously for the venerable and holy lawes To this worthy old man let vs ioyne the constant Martyr Polycarpus a Disciple of S. Iohn the Apostle and of the Church of Smyrna in Asia As he was brought to the torturing fire the Proconsul hauing most earnestly solicited him to recant and renounce his faith with promise of libertie I haue said this wise old man and constant Martyr these fourescore and sixe yeares serued Iesus Christ and all this time he did me no outrage nor hurt how should it then be possible to bring me to bee of the minde to blaspheme my Sauiour and King I will neuer doe it If you feigne and pretend you know not my qualitie I would haue you to know that I am a Christian Many other words of admirable constancie were then vttered by this reuerend old man who being armed with inuincible courage presently suffred death for the name of the Lord. These two examples shall suffice to shew that the neerer wise old men are vnto death be it easie or violent the greater is their courage the neerer are they to the kingdome of Heauen And still as their bodies growe weake the holy Ghost doth fortifie and strengthen them in such sorte that
So likewise is it requisite that thou being emptied and stripped of the world and the concupiscences and lustes thereof shouldest be wholly changed and deuoted to further and aduance the glory of God Whereupon the Apostle said That our old man is crucified that the body of sinne may be destroyed Our Lord hauing beene nayled to his crosse is there-dead and wee his members ought to die to the world and to our selues in such sort that as those which are dead we should make no more reckoning of the things of the world should be without sense or feeling of them and should haue neither synewe nor veyne stretching or tending that way To this purpose S. Paul said to the Colossians you are dead and your life is hidd in Christ Furthermore we must also be buried with the same Sauiour He that is dead hath no more care of the world yet before he be buryed the world hath care to winde him vp in a sheete to Coffyn him then to carry him to his graue where being interred all societie and dealing one with another is at an end In this sort many who thinke themselues to be dead to the world pretending and making semblance to haue renounced it are not yet buryed because the world makes great account of them doth reuerence and worship them But it behooueth vs to be dead and buryed to the world in such sorte as we haue as small accompt and esteeme of it as of a stinking carrion and that it esteeme so of vs. For it is an ill signe when the children of this world speake well of vs. It is then a thing requisite and necessary that we be buryed with Iesus Christ by Baptisme into his death And it is fit also that we descend as our head into hell that is that we haue a right knowledge and a liuely feeling of our sinnes which is done when wee feele in our hearts the loue of God our Father in Iesus Christ crucified For being convicted to haue offended him we must descend to confesse and earnestly to decest and abhorre our pride ignorance infidelitie malice obstinacie and other vices Seeing then that these pollutions and defilements haue so much and so greatly displeased God that to purge them out of the world he hath deliuered his owne sonne to death we are brought to this point in some sorte to know our misery and how much we our selues doe displease God Moreouer as the Sauiour is risen againe so his members ought to rise againe in newnesse of life in such sort that afterwardes they haue no motion or inclination whatsoeuer but to glorifie God walking as persons whose conuersation is alreadie in heauen Christ is risen againe therefore his members ought to rise againe not onely at the last day but hourely and continually in newnesse of life so that thence forward they haue no motion or disposition whatsoeuer but to glorifie God Christ is risen immortall for that hauing triumphed ouer death death hath no more dominion ouer him Thereupon S. Peter sayth to Christians seeing our Sauiour hath suffred for vs in the flesh it is reason that we be armed and resolued in mind that he which hath suffred in the flesh hath ceased from sinne willing and ready to say that Christ the head pledge and suretie for all Gods children comming to die consequently to satisfie fully and wholly the Iustice of God for them hath clearely discharged the debt for all his members who are obliged to him vnlesse they would crucifie him againe and hold the precious bloud of the euerlasting couenant for a prophane thing to cease and giue ouer to sinne For being dead to sinne buryed to the world risen againe to God they ought to sinne no more nor to die in sinne much lesse to remaine dead therein Sinne ought no more to raigne nor haue dominion in them they ought no longer to obey their euill lustes but to curbe and restraine them by the spirit which doth quicken guide and gouerne them Our Lord is ascended vp into heauen In like sort if we be liuing members of his mysticall body we ought zealously and with all our affections to be elevated and raised vp vnto God truely to say with S. Paul that our conuersation is in heauen The same S. Paul sayd to the Colossians Chapter 3. 1. If you be risen againe with Christ seeke the thinges which are aboue that is heauenly and diuine not earthly and sensuall Now as this good Sauiour soone after his ascension into heauen for a testimony of his infinite glory in that he is set at the right hand of God the Father Almightie sent his holy spirit in a visible forme vpon his twelue disciples So we likewise after we are raised vp to God shall feele our selues filled with this spirit and with feruent charitie which will then appeare when wee shall illuminate kindle and inflame our neighbours in the loue of God not onely with our wordes but especially with our doings and deedes by the good examples of a blamelesse life Iesus Christ ought to come to judge the quicke and the dead And if we be his members a liuely fayth will make vs to feele the sweetnesse of these wordes of our Sauiour Come yee blessed of my Father possesse the inheritance prepared for you before the foundation of the world Let vs adde that as the judge of all shall be judged of none so shall it be with all his true members in the great and last day And who should judge them seeing the Father iustifieth them in his son and by the mouth of his sonne pronounceth them just blessed and heires of the kingdome of heauen Wherefore Christ Iesus denounceth that he which heareth his word and beleeueth in him hath eternall life and shall not come to condemnation that is shall not be judged but is passed from death to life Ioh. 5. 24. This needes no further exposition And it were to blaspheme whosoeuer would call into question the certaintie of our saluation by Iesus Christ alone who is dead for our sinnes risen againe for our iustification that we might be the righteousnesse of God in him Let vs say further with S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 2. 3. Know yee not that the Saints shall judge the world Know yee not that wee shall judge the Angells But as after the last judgement Christ Iesus shall remaine in heauen in incomprehensible glorie so true Christians already risen againe by faith and sitting together in the heauenly habitations with their head hauing their conuersation in heauen shall there appeare and be found all perfect entire in their bodies and soules with their Sauiour who in raising them vp againe shall change their vile and contemptible bodies so as they shall bee made conformable to his glorious bodie according to the power and efficacie whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe If wise old men doe in a quiet and sober moode meditate and consider these thinges euery one of them hanging
cost but six Liards three halfe pence or thereabouts and there were burned with faggotts of reedes or brush wood which were set round about them Behold sayth he our equipage our munition and armour of victorie this is out triumphall Chariot Eusebius writeth in the fiftie booke of his Historie of a holy martyr burned aliue with certaine plates of iron made red hot and set to his naked bodie notwithstanding which tormentes hee made a constant profession of the Christian faith even to the last gaspe Eusebius addeth that this sheweth that nothing is terrible to him which feeles that God loueth him and that whosoeuer seekes the glory of Christ Iesus is guarded and saued harmelesse from euery painefull and terrible accident and casuall event As for the vncouth and strange diseases and kindes of hideous death whereunto to mans life is exposed as they are to be seene in the horrible convulsions of Epilepsies falling sicknesses in the violent fittes of Apoplexies in cruell and hot burning feavers these are pittifull cases to behold and incident to our fraile and sinnefull nature But they are also certaine monitors of a better life seeing that our health and happinesse consisteth not in a sound temperature of humours but in this that our names are written in heauen and that wee haue bin dedicated to Iesus Christ For the Lord God who knoweth our heartes who in his secret judgement exerciseth some more then others regardes and considers what he hath done for vs and what the holy Ghost who comforteth vs in such accidents and cases doth for vs by vnspeakeable groanings not the intemperature of our bodies nor the effectes of it For this is an assured thing that there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus and that nothing is able to seperate vs from the loue which the father of heauen beares vs for his sonnes sake yea that all things doe helpe together for the good of those whom according to his determinate counsell he hath called to the participation of his grace Therefore all Christians ought to remaine vndoubted and resolued in this poynt that there is no kinde of maladie torment or death which doth hurt Gods elect that there is no death happie ioyful peaceable to the wicked vnbeleeuers and miscreants whom God often times for a while doth vphold in this world to the end more heauily to punish them after hee hath dragged and haled them out of the earth Hereupon it will be demanded wherefore then so many great personages members of the Church of God and Christ Iesus himselfe the head thereof did feare death and prayed to be guarded and secured from it I answere that there was something of singular note in our Lord and which must be differenced and distinguished from others In that he not onely bore and felt a common death or seperation of the soule from the bodie but also vnder-went and sustayned the wrath of God and all the torments and agonies that may be imagined without sinne notwithstanding because hee was an hostage and pledge for vs Neuerthelesse in such sort that he did not yeeld nor shrinke vnder the burthen nor murmured a whit against God but voluntarily offred himselfe in sacrifice stood not demurring and shifting of death with natures delayes wholly submitted himselfe to the will of God his Father as it was foretold and figured by Dauid in the fortieth Psalme Here am I O God that I may doe thy will Behold as touching the head of the Church who had had no subiect of combat and victorie if he had not felt the tormentes and terrors of death without sinne or any offence and fault on his part In respect then we are his members let vs keepe and obserue this rule That wee cannot commend euery refusal or euery desire of death nor discommend all contempt of death Some wish death not so much for any desire they haue of a better life as for the despite and dislike they conceiue against their abode and stay in the world where they see miseries which their weake mindes cannot brooke and endure and which giue terrible shockes and assaults to the most resolued and stoutest hearts The Israelites wanting bread in the wildernesse wished death as also when newes was brought them that the Cananites were men of a very tall stature Iob in the depth of his panges and griefes desired to die as also the Prophet Eliah did during his escape in the Desert On the contrary Dauid Ezechias and other great personages very much feared death and instantly besought the Lord to guard and saue them from it But this was for a speciall consideration to wit in as much as they being afraide of the threatninges and judgements of God the approach of death appeared more terrible vnto them or because they wished to continue longer to aduance Gods glory and to yeeld their helpe and seruice to the edification of the Church Againe the same personages banished all feare from them looking vpon death according as now it is made vnto vs by the grace of God the rest from our labours the passage to a better life In this sense the Patriarch Iob spake in the 19. Chapter I know that my redeemer liueth and that I shall rise againe at the last day that I shall be againe cloathed with my skin and shall see the Lord in my flesh So Dauid did sing in the 16. Psalme For this cause my heart is glad my tongue reioyceth Moreouer my flesh resteth in assurance for thou wilt not leaue my soule in the graue And in the 23. Psalme Though I should walke in the shadow of death I will feare no euill because thou art with me CHAP. XVIII The sequele of the poynts propounded in the former Section concerning the resolutions and consolations against Death IF there be any men bound to meditate ordinarily vpon death to be armed with remedies against the alarumes of it to procure that their children friends and families doe liue as prest and readie to die wise old men are especially they whose true Philosophie is called the Meditation of death To draw them so much the more easily vnto it we will remember to euery one of them some sayings of wise Pagans and Heathens which will cause vs to say to all persons who vaunt themselues of the name of Christians At least doe not afflict and torment your selues more with the death of the your selues and yours then the silly Heathens who had no hope who so manfully contemned the approches of death who with so great constancie haue embraced it and striuen against it I speake thus considering the cowardize of some Christians who haue nothing so much in their mouthes and take so little to heart as death S. Ierome in the Epistle to Heliodorus shewing how we ought to be more resolute against the assaults of death and all accidents and casualties of humaine life then Infidells were maketh mention of Xerxes that mightie Monarch who ouerthrew mountaines and paved
the Sea with Shipps This Monarch considering from the toppe of a hill many millions of men at his seruice in warres fell a weeping that at the end of a hundred yeares not one of them should be aliue And if we loue added he this advantage to be mounted vpon so high a watch Tower that from thence we may behold all the earth vnder our feete and so many kingdomes fallen to ruine also many liuing men some tortured others strangled and drowned on the one side festiualles on the other side funeralles some to be borne others to die To what straight and exigent should we be brought if wee were not assured that all these things are ordered by the just appoyntment of the All-mightie S. Ambrose in his exposition of the creation of the world sayth that all men are borne and die naked that there is no difference betweene the bodies of poore men and rich but that the bodies of rich-men being very pursie well fed and fat while they liue are more puant and stinking then the bodies of poore men Besides these helpes and supports against death which the Heathens haue collected from our condition to be borne and to die they haue from thence collected other causes which we are now to discusse and examine and whereof Ciceco speaketh in his Dialogue of old age as followeth We know how chearefully and manfully souldiers contemne death why then should wise old men feare it To haue our fill of all things causeth that we haue our fill and satietie of life Those who die well liue a life which alone deserueth the name but so long as we are locked vp in the prison of the bodie wee are as it were plunged deepe in the earth and exiled very farre from and beneath our heauenly Mansion Wherfore all wise men die willingly fooles on the contrarie leaue this world against their will mauger their teeth or in brutish ignorance Socrates the last day of his death discoursed of the immortalitie of the soule Cyrus a little before his death sayd to his sonnes Doe not thinke that after I shall be dead I am annihilated and brought to nothing If some god said Cato in the same Dialogue would permit me to returne from old age to childhood and to cry in a Cradle I should forbeare to accept such a condition nor would I for any thing returne to the beginning of my race hauing almost finished it For what commoditie is found in a life tossed to and fro with turmoyles and toyles as this present life is Notwithstanding I will not bewayle it nor doe I repent me to haue liued I which goe out of this world as out of an Inne not as out of a house seeing nature hath giuen vs a cabbin here of ingresse and egresse but not to stay and continue O how glorious will that day be wherein I shall be found in the holy assembly of soules and shall goe to heauen Certainely Old age is the end and Epilogue of our life even as of some Comedie or Interlude Loe here some sayings of Cicero in the fore-mentioned dialogue In the first Booke of his Tusculane questions wherein he expressely treateth of the contempt of death among other his sayinges and discourses we reade that among the old Latines whom the Poet Ennius calleth Cascj that it was a doctrine held from Father to Sonne that death did not abolish man so as it might be sayd he was vtterly perished The sages would not haue set out and adorned their funerals sepulchers and tombes with such ceremonies nor hallowed them with so many devotions if they had certainely held that death is an vtter destruction of the whole man on the contrarie they were in this poynt perswaded that it was a departure and change of life which brought worthie men and women to heauen Plato also bringeth in Socrates condemned to death saying to his judges I hope that good shall befall me to die For if all sense and feeling be abolished in death it bringeth a quiet and perpetuall rest but if that which is said of it be found true that it is a departure out of this world to goe into places where those that be dead are assembled together what contentment shall it be to me to talke and discourse with them It is further addeth Cicero a sound and solid Argument that nature it selfe proclaimes the soules of men to be immortall in this that all men haue a wondrous care what shall become of them and all thinges else after their death and die very willingly when life beginning to faile and to leaue them may stay and settle it selfe vpon a good conscience and a worthie euidence to it selfe In the second Booke of the Lawes these words following are read Our auncestors haue ordained that the dead should bee canonized and placed in the number of gods by certaine ceremonies which they did institute Ennius as of opinion that wee were not to weepe for the dead because their soules were immortall Plato sayd in the first Booke of his Common weale that a man which hath this good testimonie in himselfe to haue done no man wrong is alwayes vpheld with a greacious and stedfast hope the good nursse and supportresse of his old age And againe Cicero in his first Booke of Tusculane questions writeth these words You haue in sleepe the image of death wherein you are sheeted and wrapped vp euery night Are you in doubt then that there is no more sense in death seeing you know that in sleepe the soule of man is never at rest Moreouer banish farre from you those old wiues fables and comptes that it is a great miserie to die before the time And of what time Of Nature But nature hath lent vs life as siluer or coyne without setting vs a day of restitution but to restore it backe againe at her will and pleasure Why then doe you complaine if shee call for and demand her owne againe when it pleaseth her seeing you hold and haue it vpon this condition With what alacritie and chearefulnesse ought we to goe that way at which wayes end we shall be released and discharged of all carefull carkinges fascheries and anxieties of minde A woman of Sparta hauing sent her sonne to the warre and tydinges being brought her that hee was slaine in the battaile with great courage answered that shee did beare him to the end he should die for his Countrie Seneca an excellent Stoicke Philosopher hath verie worthie precepts in his morall Bookes touching death We could compile a great Booke of them but not to be too long too large it shall suffice vs to cull out some sentences of them which shall be able to giue the reader a taste and desire to see the rest I will beginne at the end of the thirteenth Epistle which speaketh to old men Among other euills folly hath yet this one that shee still begins to liue This poynt sheweth how bad and scurrilous the levitie and giddie humour of men
this pardon by the gift and hand of a liuely faith doe wrastle against the image of death against a bruised Serpent a wourried torne Lyon against a stinglesse Waspe against a vanquished enemie Chrysostome censureth in good manner those wretches who feare death and feare not sinne wherein they are insnared and wrapped nor the vnquenchable fire of hell which gapes for them Thus sayth he as children are wayward and wrangle if their mothers come neere them with maskes on their faces but when a lighted Candle is brought neere vnto them they readily thrust their handes in it and are burned So those men feare death who know not what it is to liue Death snatcheth away a miserable and short life to make vs to enter into an eternall and perpetuall blessed life Death doth seperate vs from the heapes of Iewells the robes moueables coffers crammed with gold and siluer the sundrie immoueables which we must leaue But in heaven we haue vnseperable riches with the Angels death extrudes and thrustes vs out of the earth but to bring vs into paradize death kills the bodie but it shall rise againe to die no more but be conformable to the glorified bodie of Christ Iesus If any man fight with his owne shadow he hurtes no bodie so death doth but beate the ayre in bickering and jousting against the just It hath beene Gods will and pleasure so sayth Chrysostome that this present life should be painefull and miserable to the end that being buffetted on all sides with so many and manifold miseries we should eagerly aspire to the happinesses to come But seeing we are thus farre ill aduised to wallow and idle it so willingly in this present life where so many disasters and miseries doe surround and encompasse vs how would it be with vs if there were nothing but ioy peace and rest here Our most mercifull heauenly Father doth so mitigate and temper the afflictions of this life that as a Lute-player doth not winde vp too high his Lute strings for feare to breake them nor slacken them too much that so their sweete harmonie tunablenesse may be more distinctly perceiued So doth the wise maister of our life not leauing vs in continuall prosperitie nor too much oppressed He is faithfull who will not suffer vs to be tempted beyond and aboue our strength but will giue a good issue to our temptations and tryalls to the end we should be able to beare them We see men of warre desirous of honour and to attaine to some rancke and degree manfully to expose themselues to a thousand dangers The couetous Marchant to runne vpon all hazards and risques for a handfull of yellow earth The voluptuous person to disdaine and set light by infinite reprochfull and woefull dangers to satisfie his passions and humours And you wise old men will you slumber and sleepe in a corner will you still sit with your armes and legges a crosse not rouzing lifting vp your selues to the contemplation and diligent seeking after so many happinesses prepared for them which loue God Doe you feare death you which in the middest of the shadowe of death haue standing at your ell-bow the Prince and Author of life If you beare in your hearts that quickning spirit which raised vp Iesus Christ from the dead whence is it that you feare death Haue you blotted out of your remembrance him who hath the wordes of eternall life who is the way the truth the resurrection the life who dyed for our sinne and is risen againe for our iustification But soyle not this gracious remembrance with the myre and mudd of sordid and obscene pleasures Let not the perswasions of the vncleane and filthie flesh stoppe and hinder the motions of the spirit illuminated by sacred Philosophie Let the repetitions of his most sweete most certaine and most holy promises bee potent and powerfull in your hearts who was willing to participate of our flesh and bloud that in the same nature foyled by Sathan our Sauiour hath abolished it by his death as by a most sufficient ransome he which conquered death to wit the Deuill Giue me leaue to reforme and rectifie you by recitall of the excellent promises following of the Lord. Verely I say vnto you that whosoeuer heareth my word and beleeueth in him which sent mee hath eternall life and shall not come to condemnation but is passed from death to life Iohn 5. 24. This is the will of him which sent me that whosoeuer beholdeth the sonne and beleeueth in him hath eternall life and for this cause I will raise him vp againe at the last day Such perspection and contemplation of faith is not as prophane persons chatter and mutter a vaine imagination but is coupled and covnited with his effect and with the true apprehension and laying hold of Iesus Christ and his benefites This great Sauiour hath so often times and againe and againe recommended it and for confirmation of it hath prepared his holy Table to which we draw neere there to receiue the bread of life ordayned to the nourishment of our soules to eternall life not for our bellies to receiue which bread we hold vp the hands of faith to heauen and beleeuing in him doe eate it That bread I say which is giuen to the children of the house not to reprobates who sometimes eate the bread of the Lord but not the bread of life which is the Lord. He which is not reconciled to Christ Iesus eateth not his flesh and drinketh not his bloud although euery day hee receiue but to his condemnation the Sacrament or the holy signes of so excellent a thing But he which confirmes and establisheth vs in Christ and who hath annoynted vs is God who also hath sealed and giuen vnto vs the earnest of his spirit in our hearts It is this holy spirit of promise wherewith we haue beene sealed yea for the day of redemption without which spirit the visible signes in the Sacramentes are receiued to condemnation by which spirit faith taught by the word confirmed by the signes or seales of the righteousnesse of the same faith takes daily new growthes and growinges and is manifested by holy workes of which the summe and totall is that we liue and die to the Lord who is dead and risen againe to haue dominion as well over the liuing as the dead to gouerne and guide vs as the sheepe of his pasture and finally to draw vs out of the hideous deserts of this worldly life no life in deed to gather vs to himselfe his heauenly sheep folde If God be on our side who shall be against vs Who shall bee able to make vs afraide and dismay vs Iesus Christ who is dead is risen againe it is he who now being set at the right hand of God maketh request for vs. Let vs adde some worthie sayinges of S. Cyprian in his excellent Treatise of death Simeon the iust reioycing to hold in his armes the little babe Iesus whom he had so
the Beastes doe suour the earth and desire nothing but that which is earthie and of the earth Man on the contrary as the wisest of the Heathens especially Plato and Cicero in diuers passages of their writings doe obserue hath a diuine and heauenly soule which being enfranchised and deliuered out of the prison of the bodie returneth to the place of his originall And the more generous the mind of man is the more he lusteth after and desireth heauenly thinges meditating and looking for a better state and condition then he enioyeth in this present life From thence it commeth to passe that he despiseth losses and troubles calamities wounds and death it selfe holding it a great honour to yeeld vp his soule in some valiant and vertuous exployt and enterprise for the seruice and safetie of his Countrie to the end to goe to the other life where good men haue their reward Salust sayth that the vertuous effectes and suffringes of the minde are no lesse immortall then the soule it selfe which to vs is common with God but the body assimilateth and a greeth with the beastes Another reason hath strongly perswaded the auncient Philosophers to beleeue the immortality of mans soule That God should seeme otherwise vniust if he should suffer the vau-neantes treacherous dissolute to prosper in the world after to escape his vengeance and good men who are industrious and imploy themselues to preserue humane societie should vtterly perish in death without hope of rest at the end of their trauailes and of ioy after so many disquiets and griefes of minde and of a crowne at the end of so many thousand fought battailes and combatts Vndoubtedly prophane persons who are bold to thinke and affirme the soule of man to bee mortall doe abolish as much as in them lyes all pietie and religion they ouerthrow all vertuous and laudable actions and enterprises and as S. Ambrose very well sayth in his exposition of the worke of the six dayes they are madd-men Furthermore what is more avers preposterous and ill beseeming then to haue a straight body and a crooked soule alwayes groveling and stooping to the earth never lifting or rouzing vp it selfe toward heauen her true dwelling place But as God our creator hath plainly instructed vs in his word touching the originall end and soueraigne good of man It is also from the same word that wee must gather the infallible doctrines which we doe handle Mans soule was not composed of the elements nor fabricated or formed of the dust of the earth but the Lord God inspired it and endowed it with diuers gifts Little children doe obtaine even a soule of God their creator to wit a reasonable soule not of the seed of their fathers and mothers but by the singular fauour and benefit of him whom the Apostle Hebr. 12. calleth the Father of spirits and not without cause For although that he be the father of our bodies yet notwithstanding he created not our soules by corporall helpes but hath placed them in our bodies as excellent lampes and lights as Salomon speakes of them Prov. 20. 7. We call them immortall for two reasons first by reason of their essence which is spirituall and originarie or primarie from God the giuer of it Secondly in regard of the grace peculier to the children of God for so much as we haue communion with Iesus Christ the eternall Word of the Father the Prince and author of life This immortall and eternall life is the true happie life and so much to be desired so much recommended in the Scripture whereof Saint Paul sayth The just shall liue by faith Rom. 1. 17. Also who beleeueth in me hath eternall life Iohn 6. 47. And the Apostle sayth Iesus Christ hath abolished death and brought life and immortalie vnto light thorough the Gospell 2 Timoth. 1. 10. For although the soules of the wicked in regard of their essence sense and motion be immortall neuerthelesse they suffer death in as much as they are depriued of the iustice light beatitude and glorious life of God vpon which cause the wicked who triumph and braue it for a while in the world are called dead and after this present life it is sayd that they goe into condemnation and into eternall death because the state wherein they are then to be and remaine in perpetuall torments deserueth rather the name of death then life Prophane people talke they know not what in obiecting vnto vs that neuer any came from the other world as they babble and prattle to tell newes of them O the greatest fooles and idiots among people O silly sotts will they be still madde miserable and more brutish them beasts who beleeue nothing but what they see with their eyes and touch with their hands According to their babble they ought to giue ouer to beleeue that they doe participate of reason seeing they doe not see their soule Let them giue ouer to beleeue that our friends dwelling remote and farre from vs doe liue and are at their ease and content desiring to see vs againe and that because wee see them no more But to proceed it is not simply true that neuer any returned from the other life on the contrary the Histories of the Old and New Testament doe furnish vs with examples of men and women of young striplings and damsells raised againe from death The Prince of our faith the head of all Christians our Lord Iesus descending from heauen to assume our humaine nature in earth hath tould vs ample and gladsome newes of the state of heauen and of life eternall His ascension to heauen in bodie and soule is an assured pledge that we also shall ascend into heauen in our bodies and soules S. Paul caught vp into the third heauen where he was informed of the high and deepe mysteries and secrets of God from thence came to tell vs afterward many particularities of the Church Christ Iesus is in heauen and we shall liue there For although that death dissolue the bodie into dust from whence it was taken death cannot let the soule to returne to him that gaue it And when we die young and old let vs after the example of Christ Iesus and of Dauid recommend our soules to God rendring them into his hands as into the handes of a most faithfull keeper and gardian of them And let vs say with S. Stephen Lord Iesus receiue my soule being well assured that at the same houre when it shall be fit for vs to goe out of this present life we haue part in that gracious promise of the sonne of God made to the sinner conuerted Verely I say vnto thee that this day thou shalt be with me in Paradize This is the sweete voyce which still ought to be sounding in the heart of the wise Vieillard to the end that being at the poynt to leaue this world as his age plainely shewes him his conscience doe not smite and checke him to be a prophane person and a contemner