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
is mortall in vs may bee swallowed vp of life In heauen which indeed is the land of the liuing we shall be stripped of all that is vile contemptible mortall fraile and corruptible in vs and shall bee clothed with a robe of glory and blessed immortality In which countrey as Saint Augustine in some place saith we shall finde true and faithfull dealing and from whence all impostures errour and falshood is banished as there our ioy shal be a true ioy so there our life also shall bee a true life Now although the damned doerise againe yet to speake properly they shall not liue for their life shall bee in perpetuall torments and therefore are they stil kept aliue that their tortures should neuer haue end that their gnawing worme die not and that their fire of torment goe not out That life onely is to bee accounted a life which is both euerlasting and happy God hauing no purpose therefore that his elect children should mewe vp or confine their felicitie within the little narrow compasse of a brittle and perishing life but should seeke out and looke for another countrey where they may liue at more libertie and for euer hath beene contented to giue them a most assured testimony thereof before the law and before the flood in the person of the Patriarch Henoch then vnder the law in the middle age of the world in the person of his Prophet Eliah and in the last age of the world in the person of Iesus Christ Which three persons are now gone into heauen The first two as young schollers and disciples purposely trained vp and chosen to bee heires of eternall life that they might bee to all others worthy witnesses of euerlasting happinesse and that the men of their times might euidently see and bee assured by that which fell out in the liues of these two great persons whom Tertullian in his Booke of the resurrection of the flesh surnameth The white robed Saints of eternitie that there is another land of the liuing where wee shall one day meete together as well in body as in soule And as for Christ Iesus our Sauiour he as head of the Church and as a tryumphing conquerour of death and hell is ascended into heauen to prepare a place in his kingdome for those that be his to draw vnto him at the appointed time all the members of his mysticall body Then shall be fulfilled all the words of the Prophet mentioned in the end of the hundred and second Psalme Thou hast afore all times laid the foundation of the earth and the heauens are the worke of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure they shall waxe old as a garment thou shalt alter and change them as a garment and they shall be altered and changed But thou art alwayes the same thy yeares shall bee at a stay and neuer faile the children of thy seruants shal dwell in thy presence and their seed shall remaine and be established in thy sight CHAP. III. Of the tree of Life and of the tree of Knowledge of good and euill MOst happy was the state and condition of our father Adam before his fall in that excellent Garden where his Creator had placed him Where so long as he would doe that which God commanded him hee liued at pleasure and hearts ease was in fauour with God who created him good he wanted neither meat nor drinke conuenient nor any good thing The tree of Life was a strong guard to his person to defend him against the assaults of old age that it durst not come neere to approch or seize on him he needed not to feare sicknesse or any outward thing to hurt or annoy him hee had there perfect health of body and tranquilitie of minde This Saint Augustine affirmes of him in his 14. Booke De Ciuitate Des chap. 16. Let vs adde that which Damascene writes of him in the eleuenth Chapter of Orthodoxall faith in these words That Gods will and purpose being to create man after his owne image and to make him the prime Monarch ouer all the world hee prepared and built him a most stately and sumptuous Palace where hee might lead his life in all happinesse And this was the Garden of Eden a store house of all sorts of spices and of all things else which might giue him content and delight a place very temperate radiant and shining with a most cleere wholesome pure and fresh ayre strewed all ouer with greene hearbes and with most fragrant and sweet smelling flowers In the middest was planted the tree of Life and the tree of knowledge of good and euill to no other end but to prooue and exercise his obedience and that hee might see that Gods will was not that hee should be distracted with diuers and wandring imaginations and that his chiefest businesse should bee to prayse and blesse his Creator and to make it his solace and delight to sixe his thoughts and affections on him These testimonies of Saint Augustine and Damascene doe explaine the wordes of Moyses who saide that the earthly Paradise for so is the Garden of Eden commonly called was not an allegoricall and imaginary Garden or some Orchard hanging in the ayre and not really in nature but it was the sight of a goodly countrey surueyed by measure had his bounds and abuttments vpon a certaine angle of the world towards the East where Eue was framed and carued out of the side of Adam and where trees and fruits did naturally growe and was the foode by which they did liue And this Garden of Eden was not the whole continent of the earth for Adam and Eue after their fall were banished and driuen out of it to goe to seeke there dwelling elsewhere All Diuines doe affirme that in the History of Adams creation as things are penned and set downe by Moyses in the three first Chapters of Genesis there were many mysteries contained But it followes not as Saint Augustine in his eight Booke vpon Genesis according to the litterall text learnedly cleares the point that in the said History of Adams first estate there was nothing conteined but Allegories Idenes and things mysticall As it must not bee inferred vnder the collour and pretext that the pillar which followed the people in the Desert was Christ that there was not a materiall and naturall rocke out of which gushed out waters which did naturally quench the peoples thirst in the Desert If then a mysticall and typicall sense bee the matter in question Saint Ambrose in his fourth Volume and Tractat Saint Augustine in his second Booke vpon Genesis vrging the words of the text litterally against the Manichees and Damascene in the place before alledged doe also say that the Garden of Eden was a figure of the Paradise and felicity of the Church in the middest whereof was planted Christ the true tree and bread of life out of which followeth riuers of heauenly and euerlasting life As also that it signified and
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
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