serve their generation Some by the hand of God inflicting such Distempers on their Minds or Bodies as have made them useless in their places Some by the Procurement of Men by whom many in the prime of their time have been laid aside sometimes justly sometimes unjustly and all opportunity taken from them of doing good in the World. Neither are all Aged persons rendred useless For many there be of both Sexes that persevere in well-doing to the last Cato pleaded causes when he was past fourscore years and Isocrates wrote excellent things at fourscore and fourteen years of age And not only the Tongues but the Hands of very many Old people are found as nimble to good works as of younger Persons They that have been useful in their strength will scarce ever become useless in their weakness Plutarch observes that an industrious Bee never degenerates into a Drone in its Old-age Too many there be of every Age that live only to themselves that neither Serve God nor observe Man but in order to their own Interest or Appetite These are good for nothing young or old but they that understand and embrace the true Ends of life will be useful one way or other to their lives end And the great Service that the Ancient do perform is by their sage Advice When the Levites were at fifty releas'd from the labour of the Sanctuary they are said yet to be Iudges in their Cities So that although they cannot do that service which younger persons may yet they do greater For the greatest things are compassed not by strength but counsel They cannot be counted useless says Tully that prescribe to the more raw and ignorant their work Like as a Pilot who thô he run not up and down the Ship but sits at the helm yet is the most useful person in the ship So the Aged head is the most useful part in a family or Commonwealth though it be confined to the fire side Hence Homer brings in Agamemnon wishing rather for ten Nestor's an Aged wise man among the Greeks than so many Ajax's who was a man of Arms for the winning of Troy. And it is well known that the grand Magistrates both in Greece and Rome were the Ancients of their Cities and thereupon they were called Senators and the great Council of Rome The Senate being composed of Aged men Yea if they should by reason of their Age be wholly unserviceable yet their Example is useful To see a man or woman deprived of all outward comfort and respect and laden with heavy Distempers yet patient and thankful serious and devout it is a powerful Lecture to all the spectators and may teach them to be doing their own great work with all their might to be thankful to God for their present strength and ease to beware of slothfulness and selfishness That when they arrive at that decrepit estate they may have the pleasant prospect of a fruitful life behind them and the joyful prospect of a blessed life before them SECT IX THe Ninth Disadvantage of Old-age is That it is unfit for Religious Exercises When we are in years we are indisposed to Prayer and Fasting to Hearing or Reading and in general to all such Spiritual Imployments wherein the Soul and Body must concurr They need these Helps as much as Others and perhaps desire them as much as Others but the dead weight of a crazy body sinks down the towring of their precious Souls To will is present with them but how to perform the same they find not and no wonder having not only a law of sin within them but a body of death without them Their senses are grown weak their faculties weak their spirits weak How then should they wrestle with God in Prayer or continue instant therein Let the Rider be never so good a Horsman yet he must travel as his Horse will give him leave So let the Soul be never so active it can operate only as the organs of the body will permit it Instead of taking pains about their Souls they are forc'd to prop up their decrepit bodies Their weaknesses keep them in bed while the holy zeal of others is burning in Devotion And as the Old woman in Plautus being askt why she went no faster answer'd because she carried so great a load to wit of eighty four years on her back so the load on Old peoples back either hinders them from coming to holy Assemblies or else causes them to travel thither very slowly so that they are constrained to live in a mannet without God in the world Now this Affliction to an holy heart is a very heavy burden When a poor man is cut short in all his other Comforts and as it were besieged with all the Calamities of this life yet while he hath this River of Gods Ordinances free and open thereby he receives continual supplies from Heaven the streams thereof make glad the City of God But when this is stopt the Soul grows sad and dry and barren Hence holy David in his Exile never mentioning his temporal losses yet cries out Psal. 42. 4. When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me for I had gone with the multitude to the house of God. This went nearest to his heart For when a man is harras'd with cares and troubles all the week long yet he is relieved and refreshed in his approach unto God upon his own Day But with the decrepit Old man every day is alike and his Soul is left destitute of spiritual supplies in an ordinary way And this Affliction is saddest of all when by disuse of the means of Grace the Soul grows stupid and unconcern'd in the matter as without special Grace we shall be apt to be So that the misery is great in the want and greater when insensible of the want No great wonder therefore that when all these miseries meet together a man cry out with Iob I would not live always So that Tiberius Caesar had a saying as Plutarch tells us that it was a shameful thing for a man that was past sixty to stretch out his hand to a Physician reckoning that it was fit he should then be content to dye But yet if we weigh the matter well the Case of Ancient people is not so desperate as it seems For to proceed in our former Method it is evident that many others besides the Aged are cut short in the means of Grace some willingly in Factories beyond the Seas some willfully by their own Atheism and Ungodliness some unwillingly by Distempers and other hindrances And on the other side divers Ancient people have been capable to attend the Service of God even to their dying day Thus Ahijah though his Eyes were set for Age yet was enabled to prophecy to Ieroboam's wife And Iacob could worship God leaning on the top of his Staff. And St. Iohn was an Evangelist when he was an hundred years old And there was Anna a widdow of about
have lived too long O that I were in my grave But this Distemper argues great weakness of Grace yea a great weakness of Spirit Hence that Philosopher that sometimes resolved that a wise and couragious man should not flee from life how discommodious soever but fairly depart from it yet at other times advised to let the wearied Soul out of the useless body before its time A crime of the deepest tincture to snatch the Prerogative of our Soveraign Creatour out of his hands whose rightful priviledge alone it is to give life to men and to take it away And why should you be so uneasie under these momentany tryals Is it not the Lot which your heavenly Father hath in great wisdom set out for you It is better to be Old and crazy on earth than to have been sent young to hell You have your ailments and if you were privy to others mens you would be reconciled to your own It was Socrates his Observation that if every mans burden were laid on a common heap each man would be glad to take up his own again You should rather be thankful to God for the blessings of the former part of your life than murmur at the troubles of the present You think it the only happiness to have all the Comforts of this World but Others have thought it a greater to have a Mind above them You have or else the fault is your own the Company of a gracious God and a good Conscience when you are uncapable of other company You should imitate the Grashopper to whom the Old man by some is likened who is made the Emblem of Contentation because she only sucks the dew and sings and is content with that hoping for better One Crown will swallow up all your Crosses whereas Discontent makes your Condition most uneasie here and most unfit for Heaven hereafter 2. Another Temptation which you that are Old are in danger of is Hardness of Heart and Security You haâ—… sinned often and perhaps repented buâ—… seldom you have heard and read many convincing Sermons and made but slender application of them you have seen many swept away by the hand of God and you have escaped yea some of you peradventure have lived long in some sinful course are grown Old in adulteries Ezek. 23. 43. or in oppression or in some other Sin. These things you have done and the Lord hath kept Silence and now you are ready to think that He is such a one as your selves and to bless your selves in your woful wayes till your iniquity be found to be hateful The Aged person surely must have either a very tender heart or a very hard one If Gods Ordinances and Providences that is Mercies and Afflictions have made a due impression upon you your hearts must be very soft but otherwise you are in the greatest danger of a hard heart and a spirit of slumber Watch and pray therefore in the fear of God against this dangerous Temptation They are most guilty of this distemper that were never afraid of it Preserve a due tenderness in your Consciences suffer not any sin to ly upon them unrepented Endeavour to have daily a clearer sight of sin and a deeper sense of the evil of it Let the exemplary Judgments upon others startle you Know that if you sleep in sin your Preservation will be but a Reservation to some fearful issue Remember that though a Sinner do evil an hundred times and his dayes be prolonged yet it shall not be well with the wicked Eccl. 8. 12 13. The greatest Iudgment that can befall a man upon earth is to prosper in any sinful way There is a Natural hardness in All men there is an Habitual hardness in some men but there is a Iudicial hardness only in such as are ripe for hell And the First if it be not cured by Gods grace leads to the second and the second prepares for the third Of all sorts of men ye that are Old have least cause to be secure that have one foot already in the grave The green apple may be pluckt off but the ripe one is falling off already But it is not the approach of Death without the effectual influence of Gods Spirit that will soften an hardned sinner as is too evident in the Malefactors in Newgate that will be drunk and swear at a dreadful rate when they know that the Execution-day is certainly at hand Be instant therefore with the Lord to deliver you from hardness of heart from a spirit of slumber and from a reprobate sense 3. A Third Temptation which Old-age must watch against is Slothfulness of Spirit The decay of natural Spirits disposeth them hereunto and corrupt Nature joyns with the temptation It is an easie thing to be idle and flesh and blood is glad enough of excuses from pains and trouble Indeed where natural Parts or natural Strength are wasted much cannot be expected Iob 30. 2. Yea whereto might the strength of their hands profit me in whom old age was perished yet that which will release them in part will not do it altogether Time is so short so precious so irrevocable that it should not be slept or trifâ—…ed away if we can do any thing for the ends of life The Aged person must consider how much wast ground there hath been in the field of his life how many years are lost in Infancy and Childhood how much time at riper years in unnecessary sleep and recreations how much hath been consumed in doing nothing and how much in doing worse than nothing and that it is an easie thing to lose time that it is an hard thing to redeem time and that it is an impossible thing to recall time and therefore they who have lost so much time and can recall none of it had need to redeem and make the best of that which is left Few men will throw away their money but most men squander away their lives being most prodigal of that wherein we may most justly be covetous as the same Philosopher discourseth Let no Aged person imagine that they are to live to no purpose The Levites though at Fifty years of age they were discharged from the most laborious service of the Temple yet they were not left to be Idle but to do the work of the Lord in some more easie imployments Tully brings in Cato telling how he learned Greek in his Old-age and that even at those years no body came to see him but they found him imployed and he reports of Leontius Gorgias who was an hundred and seven years old and yet never was weary of his studies and labours The truth is sloth is a vice that accelerates Old-age as you heard before and abetts that languishment of the Spirits which furthers it We shall not feel it so sensibly while we are continually imployed How much knowledge and wisdom have we neglected which we might have obtained if our sloth
Holy course doth contribute to this end 1. In a Natural way And that 1. By Mortifying and discarding those Sins which do more directly hurt the Body Such are those Passions and Excesses above-named such is Anger Envy Covetousness Ambition and many such like which like wind in the Intrails of the Earth do rend and shatter it I think there is no Sin whatsoever but it hath a malignant influence upon the Body either to disorder and inflame it or to macerate and dispirit it Now the Fear of God obliges a man not only to restrain but to pluck up all such by the Roots Those are the Weeds which both rob the sweet Flowers of their nourishment and also depauperate the soil where they grow which being cast out the whole man fares the better after them And 2. True Piety refresheth the Body with the Comforts of a good Conscience That Peace that Hope that Joy which result from a Conscience that is pacifi'd by the Blood and purified by the Spirit of Christ do most efficaciously cherish the whole man they daily feast him This is that merry Heart that is called a continual feast Prov. 15. 15. And that doth good like a Medicine Prov. 17. 22. There is that Intimacy between the Soul and the Body that whatsoever refresheth the one doth also cheer the other Whereupon the Learned have judged that Hope Love and Ioy are great prolongers of Life by the influence which these have upon the Humours and Spirits in the Body much more when these Affections have heavenly and eternal things for their Object and the Holy Scripture speaks that way when it saith Prov. 19. 23. The fear of the Lord tendeth to Life and he that hath it shall abide satisfied 3. True Piety is the best Preservative against Old-age in a Spiritual way to wit by Procuring the Blessing of God. For when the Body is consecrated to him and imployed for him we may expect it to be blessed by him it is under his peculiar care and Providence When it is united to Iesus Christ it will receive influence from Him for its good So that true Religiousness tho it more immediately tend to the recovery and felicity of the Soul yet it is really most friendly also to the Body He that feareth God and walketh in his ways shall see his Childrens Children Psal. 128. last And on the other hand all those destroying and life-shortning Diseases mention'd Deut. 28. 27. 61. even every sickness and every plague are denounced to the ungodly And fully Eccl. 8. 12 13. Tho a Sinner do Evil an hundred times and his days be prolonged yet surely I know it shall be well with them that fear God which fear before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his days which are as a shadow because he feareth not before God. Therefore you that would protract the time of your flourishing strength learn to love and fear God devote your selves to him bestow your Hearts upon him imploy your time and strength to please and honour him abide not in a State of ungodliness rest not with a form of Godliness but resolve upon that Real Holiness which will produce a long and happy life in this World and a longer and happier life in a better 2. The Second Preservative against Old-age which indeed is contained in the former is Temperance and Sobriety I mean that gracious Vertue which retains the Sensitive Appetite within the bounds of Reason and Religion whereby we keep a Mediocrity in the use of Meats both in respect to their Quantity neither loading nor pining the Stomack and in respect of their Quality neither debauching it by too much Variety nor injuring it by things noxious The same care in Drinks lest the Quality of them be pernicious or the Quantity of them prejudicial That the Marriage-bed be moderately used so that the vital Spirits be not exhausted Now mans sinful Nature above all other Creatures inclines to excess in all these and it is pleasant to the Flesh but it is the pleasure of poyson At last they bite like a Serpent and sting like an Adder Prov. 23. 32. not the Soul only but the Body They do insensibly but infallibly weaken nature disorder the Harmony of the parts breed the most fatal distempers and render him as we may daily observe old in infirmities that is but young in years So that if they who give themselves up to Gluttony Drunkenness or Lasciviousness did truly love their own Souls or yet their own Bodies they would bridle their unruly Appetites for their own sakes and not pay so dear for that which must be repented of And as a plain and even way is much more delectable than always to be going up Hill and down so certainly there is a thousand times more ease and sweetness in an even and temperate course than in the perpetual unevenness of intemperance How should that body hold out that is daily clogg'd and inflam'd with preternatural excesses The intemperate man is constantly feeding an Enemy whom it is charity to starve and deals with his Body as the Ape who is said to hugg her young to death Whereas a wise Sobriety is health to the Navel and marrow to the Bones by it the Humours the Blood the Spirits are all maintain'd in order and in vigour His meals are pleasant and his sleep is sweet and he is a Stranger to those crudities and consequent distempers which pester others Thus Plato by his careful temperance spun out his life tho a great Student till he attain'd above fourscore and Galen to above sevenscore years and Seneca concludes that there is no way to retard Old-age like a frugal Sobriety Let me then persuade all such as are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God or of their own Souls to have some pity on their poor Bodies O break off your destructive Course sow not the Seeds of consuming Maladies in your own Flesh. Be not among Wine-bibbers amongst riotous eaters of Flesh. Put a Knife to thy Throat if thou be a man given to Appetite Prov. 23. 1. 20. Give not your Strength unto Women nor your ways to that which destroyeth Kings Prov. 31. 3. Let not the Beast captivate the Man nor your Reason be enslav'd by Sense but recover a just dominion over your blind and brutish affections that your days may be long and lively in the Land which the Lord giveth you If it be here Objected that the most Religious and temperate persons grow old as soon as others It is Answered that tho in these external things all things come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked yet every wise man will take the likeliest course for the blessing he desires Tho some Children that have had no good Education nor good Example have afterward proved eminent men yet who but a desperate man will hereupon resolve I will take no care about the
up Riches as some of them have ingenuously acknowledged They also know that their weakness and infirmities do expose them to contempt and therefore endeavour to obviate that by their Wealth and so make themselves considerable by their Estates These are the â—…rutches which when weakness overtakes them they lean upon and support their fainting spirits withal And they want not variety of Pretences whereby to justifie their course as that they are only providing for a rainy day for troubles and Casualties that may besall them that they ought to lay up for their Children and Posterity or else they were worse than Infidels yea that they are gathering only to bestow it at their death on some pious or charitable use And Satan is not wanting to nurse this humour in them by suggesting to them expectations of a long life a distrust in the Providence of God and continual fears of want which is nursed by the coldness of their temper and by their consciousness of their inability to get much by their labour And these meeting with that inveterate Self-love which is inherent in them and consequently an uncharitable frame of mind towards others hardens them in their tenacious temper so that as they grow weaker this lust grows stronger until Divine grace doth open their eyes or else the Earth at last stop their mouths This bitter root spoils their Devotions interrupts their prayers renders the word of God tastless becramps them to all God Works this disturbs their Rest the thoughts and cares about these things do visit them last at night and meet them first in the morning and disquiet them the day throughout for where the treasure is there will the heart be also Oh the cares the fears the vexations that possess a covetous heart but only that we can digest any thing that we delight in though it be never so bitter else no man could endure the life of a covetous miser But it is the Old-mans recreation the best of his time and the strength of his spirits are consumed either about the keeping of what he hath or about getting more for as he hath no vent for his abundance so he observes no limits for his desires As the bladder the more it is filled with wind it stretches the more so the more his riches increase the more his heart is set upon them so that he seeth more beauty in his Money than in the Sun in the firmament No thoughts no discourse no design pleaseth them except it end in gain but when there is an opportunity of doing good the heart is cold and the hand is lame Nay some of them will not afford conveniences scarcely necessaries to their families or to themselves but run in debt to their own backs and bellies to their children and servants and foolishly choose to live poor that they may dy rich Now this Vice in it self it is plain Idolatry and the root of all evil leading men into temptation and a snare into many foolish and hurtful lusts which at last drown men in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9 10. For the worldly man gets and keeps his Estate with travel to his Body vexation to his Spirit scruple to his Conscience with danger to his Soul with envy of his neighbours with suits to his children and with a curse to his posterity Do but turn to Iob 20. 15. and read that chapter out But in no sort of men is Covetousness so unaccountable so very foolish as in Old people For what can be more absurd said a Heathen than to be so much concern'd for travelling Expences when we have so small a part of our way to travel Or as St. Augustine expresseth it to load our selves with the greatest Burdens when we are nearest the end of our Journey It is no doubt a plain infatuation and an instance of the power of the Prince of this World on mens minds and of the Corruption of our Nature to effect this that those who have seen the Vanity of all these things the uncertainty the unsatisfactoriness the vexatiousness of them should so dote upon them that they who not only know but even feel in themselves that they must shortly and may suddenly leave them all and perhaps have no thanks at all from them that enjoy them that yet these persons wise in other things should set their Hearts upon them and hunt after a World that is flying from them How much more comfortable were it to do all the good they can to feed the hungry cloath the naked to procure the Prayers of the distressed while they have opportunity to make Friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness to be esteemed of men to be loved and honoured of God! A good man sheweth favour and lendeth he will guide his affairs with discretion Surely he shall not be moved for ever the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance Psal. 112. 5 6. The Pleas which they produce for their Justification or Excuse are all insufficient Have you no other Recreation Surely there are more and better Diversions Natural Artificial and Spiritual than heaping up riches Instance but in the last of these Psal. 119. 14. 72. I have rejoyced in the way of thy Testimonies as much as in all Riches yea The Law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of Gold and Silver Again Do you think that these will defend you from Contempt True Piety and Charity is a far better way Psal. 112. 9. He hath despersed he hath given to the Poor his righteousness endureth for ever his Horn shall be exalted with Honour Think you that in your decays of Nature there be no better supports than your Riches Yes the favour of God the love of Christ the comforts of the Spirit the feast of a good Conscience and the joyful hopes of eternal Happiness are as much beyond them as the Sun iâ—… brighter thanâ—… Glow-worm Will providing for Contingencies excuse you Alas your Riches will be no certain refuge for you Prov. 18. 10 11. The Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the Righteous runneth into it and is safe The Rich mans Wealth is his strong City and as an high wall but 't is only in his own conceit That bond Heb. 13. 5. sealed to us is worth all your Specialties and all your Estates He hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Can you justifie your immoderate scraping by a just provision for your Children and Relations No no That 's but an excuse for they that have no Children are as sick of this Disease as others But if you have Children this course of yours is the way to undo them A moderate care for Posterity is a Duty wherein we may expect a Blessing but the Covetousness of the Parent doth but provide for the Luxury of the Child and so the Parents Soul is ruin'd in the getting and the Child 's in the spending of what is so gotten If your
fail us our Skin to wrinkle and the pillars of the house to tremble we should mourn for that woful Disobedience and Ingratitude which was the Original cause of the decayes of Nature When your Eyes cannot do you service in Seeing let them do it in Weeping for this root of sin and misery Say not that you are unconcern'd in what was done by another time out of mind For certainly we should never feel the effects which we daily find to cur smart if we had no hand in the procuring cause of them They who would perswade you that no sin is inherent in you but that its only contracted by imiâ—…ation and custome must needs yield that the Decayes the â—…eebleness and the Dyscrasy even of the temperatest man in the world must proceed from some wound upon humane nature which the Creator would never have inflicted without a fault O therefore let us not only lament our Actual and daily offences but let us go up to the Spring and bewail that first rebellion which is the root of evil both of sin and punishment I say again when thy bones ake and when thy hand shakes let thy heart mourn for the Sin that hath poyson'd thy nature and made thee miserable The body which was the Instrument in the crime is justly the Subject in the punishment SECT II. THE Second which is the Immediate and Natural Cause of Old-age is the Dryness and Coldness of the Temperament of the Body There is according to the Old Philosophy a certain Native Heat and Radical Moisture ingenerated in all mankind at their Conception whereby Life is preserved The one is like the Flame the other like the Orl that feeds it Diseases and Disasters are like a Thief in the Candle that makes it wast the sooner but if no such thing happen yet the Lamp will consume and at last extinguish All the supplies of Food and Physick are not able to maintain nor repair that Heat nor that Moisture but a cold and dry temper grows upon the Body till it be quite exhaust and wasted It is true some there be who have derived to them from their Progenitors a greater measure of radical Heat and Moisture and therewith more lively and vigorous Spirits and these meeting with no external Inconveniences do continue longer in their strength as may be observed in some Families every where as some generous Wines will preserve themselves from decay much longer than others but at length they grow acid and spiritless so in tract of time that Moth of Mortality which lurks in all our Bodies will fret that Garment into Rags Things which are Compounded must dissolve contrary Qualities in the same Subject tho never so equally temper'd will work out one another No care or Art can preserve these Houses of Clay for as much as their foundation is in the Dust Job 4. 19. SECT III. THE Third sort of Causes which may be termed Preternatural and Adventitious that do accelerate or hasten Old-age some of them are such as these 1. Unwholsome Air. For the Air being the constant Food of the Vital parts must needs contribute much to the Repair or Decay of the Body and the more impure it is must consequently impair and weaken it Hence and from the Corruption of Food it is not improbable that the Age of Man after the Deluge became so much diminished insomuch as Arphaxad who was the first-born in the New World lived scarce half so long as those before the Flood as appears by comparing Gen. 5. 27. with Gen. 11. 13. the Air being now become more impure and unwholsome than it was before However it is most evident that people do commonly at this day grow weak crazy and impotent who live in those places which mourn under a malignant Air and others are fresh and lusty at the same years that injoy the blessing of a purer breathing 2. Secondly Diseases are another Cause that brings on Old-age For these must needs weaken that strength of Nature whereby our life is supported Psal. 39. 11. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for Iniquity thou makest his Beauty to consume away like a Moth and not only his Beauty but his Strength and Spirits for the Hebrew runs there Thou makest that which is desirable in him to melt away And thus it was with holy Iob. Thou hast filled me with wrinkles which is a witness against me Job 16. 8. His grievous Distempers had made him old before his time Thus we daily see divers persons who in respect of the number of theiâ—… years have not pass'd the Meridian of their Age yet by reason of their Sicknesses and especially the Dregs which some kinds of them do leave behind them are old in their very Youth These are like Storms without which battering the best built House will the sooner bring it unto ruin Holy David said of himself Psal. 119. 83. I am become like a Bâ—…tle in the Smoak that is my natural moisture is dryed burnt up and withered And Hezekiah by reason of sickness complains Mine Age is departed and is removed from me as a Shepherds Tent Isa. 38. 12. Thus the Lord doth sometimes weaken a mans strength in the way and shortneth his days Psal. 102. 23. implying that a mans life is like a Iourney through this into a another World now by Diseases he weakens us in the way as we are travelling through the World causes us to commence Old per saltum and shortens our days so that by this means some have but a winters day of life while others injoy a longer 3. Thirdly Another Cause which hastens Old age is immoderate Care or Labour Each of these when they exceed a due proportion do exhaust the Spirits and produce early wrinkles whenas being moderately used they do us no hurt but good It is indeed a part of the Curse pronounced at the Fall on Adam and all his posterity Gen. 3. 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground and the carking Heart and sweating Face hastens man to the Ground One of these alone immoderate Care or immoderate Labour will do the work but when the mind within is eaten up by continual thoughtfulness and the Body without is harrast with extreme Labours no wonder that Weakness Languishment and Old-age hasten on a pace then doth our strength give place to labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away Psal 90. 10. Great indeed is mens folly thus to ruin themselves sith it is certain that neither our immoderate cares nor our immoderate labour do us any good at all less Care and more Prayer would avail us much more yea and they do us much hurt they disquiet the Mind they disturb the Body they provoke God to leave us to our selves and then we shall soon find that it is vain to rise early to sit up late and to eat the Bread of Sorrow whereas the blessing of
the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no Sorrow with it Prov. 10. 22. Assure your selves if moderate care and labour will not bring in Riches then they are not good for you and whatsoever is gained otherwise hath a Curse in it and will bring misery on the Body or on the Soul here or hereafter 4. A Fourth Cause which hastens Old-age is Intemperance that is excess in Eating or in Drinking or in lustful Embraces Any of these especially the last do bring Old-age into youthful years Sad it is that our Life being in its utmost extent so short and our Bodies by nature so frail we that have a desire to live and who for that end will be content to use the most irksome remedies should yet so commonly invite distempers by our Luxury and so shamefully dig our Graves with our Teeth and deprive our selves of the residue of our years In so much that altho in St. Hieroms time he affirmed that there were reckoned five thousand Martyrs for every day in the Year save one yet we may sadly conclude that Bacchus and Venus have had daily more Martyrs if we may so call them in one place or other of the World than Iesus Christ. In this sense doth Seneca truly say Non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus From whence come for the most part those pains of the Gout Stone Dropsy Convulsions and Apoplexies with such other Distempers but from Intemperance in some of the foresaid Objects A moderate use of Meat Drink and conjugal rights as it doth tend much to the alacrity of the mind so doth it no less to the Health of the Body but excess in any of them doth either suffocate Nature or else impoverish and exhaust it as it is observed of the more lecherous Creatures that they are short-liv'd in comparison of others If therefore you would arrive at a good Old-age good in respect of the comfort of the Mind or in respect of the welfare of the Body oppose and check your unruly Appetites resolve with the Grace of God Hitherto thou shalt come and no further conclude I am a Man yea a Christian and not a Brute and consequently am not to be guided by Sense but by Reason and Religion which teach me to use all these outward comforts so far as they will promote the Glory of my Maker and the present and future good of my Body and Soul. 5. Fifthly Inordinate Passions of the mind are another means to bring on Old-age such as Anger especially Sorrow For these do manifestly prey upon the Spirits and also produce such bodily Distempers as do hurry people into Old-age before their time Hence it was that Valentinian the Emperor by an excessive straining of his Voice in an angry reply against some Offenders fell into a grievous Fever which at length brought him to his End. And for Sorrow the wisest of men tells us Prov. 15. 13. A merry Heart maketh a chearful Countenance but by Sorrow of the Heart the Spirit is broken And when the Spirit is broken the Body must sensibly wast and decay For these Passions like a Torrent or Land flood break down and overthrow all before them you know a River while it proceeds with its usual stream passes harmlesly yea profitably through all the Fields and Meadows and makes no breaches on the Banks on either side but when a suddain and excessive Rain swells it up then it lays about it without mercy and tears up the Ground the Fences and Trees on every side And even so our Passions being moderate are innocent and useful but he that hath no rule over his own Spirit is like a Flood of Water broke loose or like a City that is broken down and without Walls Yea there have been Instances of such as by sudden Grief have grown Gray in a few days time and there be hundreds that carry the Badge of their great Sorrows on their Heads long before a due course of years would have brought them Let us not therefore suffer these Vultures to feed upon our Hearts nor yield our selves Slaves to these unruly Passions which war not only against the Soul but even against the Body and will ruin both except they be restrained and mortified by the Grace of God. Philosophy hath gone far in this work God forbid but that Christianity should go much further There are also other both Moral and Natural Causes of Old-age but these may suffice The curious may satisfie themselves elsewhere And by these Causes you may easily discern what are the best Preservatives against Old-age For tho no Art or Care can prevent the unavoidable access thereof yet effectual Means may be used to deferr it 'T is true Galen tells us of a Philosopher who affirm'd that there was a way to prevent it and wrote a Book of it when he was forty years old but the said Author takes notice that when he was arriv'd to eighty he was wasted to skin and bones and could not any way cure himself But the most effectual Preservatives are 1. Piety and 2. Sobriety SECT IV. FIrst serious Piety By which I mean a Course of life in the Faith and Fear of God and in holy Obedience unto him This is that Godliness which hath the promises of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. This is the best Antidote against that Poyson which hath originally infected our Nature and which makes it swarm with Distempers that hurry us to Old-age and Death at last This is certainly the best Means whereby to avoid that fatal Curse so early pronounc'd or else to turn it into a Blessing If thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my Satutes and Commandments then I will lengthen thy days 1 King. 3. 14. What man is he that desireth Life and loveth many days that he may see good Depart from evil and do good c. Psal. 34. 12 14. It is the observation of Hierom and of Origen before him that Abraham is the first person called Old in the Scripture tho Adam and Methuselah and many others were richer than he in years but not in Faith and Obedience I know that some of the worst of men have without this flourished long and some that have been most Religious have withered quickly and therefore do conclude that all such Outward blessings and afflictions are conditionally promis'd and threatned and yet it abides certain that the ordinary way to a vigorous Age and a long Life is the true fear of God and that which makes it short and miserable is Ungodliness And the Holy Scripture is express herein Prov. 10. 27. The fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned For doubtless our Lord God who is the giver of Life is also the Conserver of it and whose word we may rely upon as the best Prescription and Preservative in this case This
why should you grudge at those that do but come after you It is like as if the Southern Husbandman who hath inn'd his Harvest in Iuly should repine at them that live more Northerly whose Harvest is in September why the former had his Harvest as well as the Other and hath reason rather to be thankful to God than to envy them that follow him Besides would you have two Harvests What answer can you give to our Saviours questions Matth. 20. 15. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own is thine eye evil because I am good He that grudges at Gods gifts would make a miserable distribution of them among men if they were at his disposal No no younger people have their proportion of comeliness strength estate honour and parts and you have yours and they are distributed by a wise Hand who is ever righteous in all his wayes and holy all in his works And therefore labour with all your might to extinguish this cursed flame Remember that wrath killeth the foolish man and that envy slayeth the silly one Iob 5. 2. You envy others but you hurt your selves Few sins have a more malignant influence upon Mind and Body than this Sin of Envy On the other side if you bless the Lord for other mercies you have the comfort of them if you repine at them you lose the comfort of your own I know that the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy Jam. 4. 5. but to them that seek it God giveth more grace Be contented with such things as ye have 't is not said with such things as 1. you have had or such things as 2. others have or such things as 3. you would have but with such things as ye have because he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee If you have him you have enough if you have him not you have too much Let him who is infinitely wise have liberty to dispose his gifts as he pleaseth and instead of grudging at the excellencies of others labour you for something in your selves to ballance them Your Gravity will be as valuable as their Beauty your Wisdom as their Strength your Grace as their Wealth They do but surpass you in things that will fade as yours have done but you may excell them in things which are everlasting Besides you should consider that we are all fellow-members of the same body and so we should rejoyce in their welfare and in their comforts that 's the way to bring them to sympathize with us in our defects and they that pay respect to those above them shall most usually receive it from them below them whereas the Envious man takes pleasure only in punishing of himself SECT IV. THE Fourth Vice too common to Old-age is Arrogancy and Conceitedness An humour whereby they assume so much to themselves as if they had a Monopoly of Wisdom to themselves and that their word must be a law in all cases so that they can endure no contradiction It is likely enough that Iobs friends had a spice of this distemper for they were very aged Iob 32. 6. and we find them very wise in their own conceit And it is most true as before that Dayes should speak and that they are most likely to be in the right Happy had Rehoboam bin if he had acquiesced in the counsel of the Old men for which is abler to advise they who are only helped by some natural parts a working fancy and a fluent tongue or they who have read many men as well as many books and have weighed things as well as words and by experience are grown wise These persons may certainly expect that a great regard be given to their opinions But yet as Iob c. 32. 9. Great men are not alwayes wise neither do the aged understand Iudgment All aged people have not a Patent for Infallibility nor any at all times If old Nicodemus his notion of Regeneration must have pass'd for Orthodox what kind of Divinity should we have had he knew not what it was to be born again though he were a Teacher in Israel and I greatly fear he hath his fellows in all Ages and Places Sometimes Old men dream dreams and young men see visions as Ioel 2. 28. The Almighty will not confine his Gifts no more than he doth his Graces to any order of men and therefore no man should think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly as God hath dealt to every man Rom. 12. 3. And accordingly the Aged are exhorted Tit. 2. 2. in the first place to be Sober It becomes no man to abound alwayes in his own sence or to dictate in every company but rather according to that Levites method Iudg. 19. last Consider the matter take advice and then speak your minds The Spirit of God dwells not in a proud heart Pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth he hates Prov. 8. 13. Check therefore and mortifie this sinful Temper Mind the Apostles counsel Rom. 12. 16. Be not wise in your own conceits Let not your Determinations begg respect by the number of your years but command it by the weight of your Reasons so there will be more of God than of man in your Counsels Believe it neither great Age nor great Honour nor both together do infuse wisdom for Solomon hath said Better is a poor and a wise child than an Old and foolish King who will no more be admonished Eccl. 4. 13. Why should you therefore imagine that Wisdom must needs live and dye with you that your words must be alwayes Oracles O Labour for more Humility and be content with your proper measure Know for certain that all conceitedness comes from Pride which Sin cleaves to a man even to the grave Consider how the Scripture disgraces this humour of yours Prov. 26. 12. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool than of him Reflect sometimes how often you have bin mistaken even wherein you have been extreamly confident He must be omniscient that is alwayes infallible Let God be true but every man a lyar Young Elihu may sometimes out-strip Iob and his three friends and no meer man is wise at all times SECT V. THE Fifth and most Epidemick Sin of Old-age is Covetousness or Worldly-mindedness that is an inordinate love of Riches which is shown in an insatiable endeavour to procure them and in an unreasonable lothness to part with them Though this Vice be frequently found in young people as in that young man Matth. 19. 22. who was free from other gross Sins but infected with this yet it is a Disease more peculiar to Old-age They feel the decayes of Nature and think to support themselves by their abundance They must have some Recreation and are by reason of their Age incapable of other pleasures and so do place their delight in heaping
have so often seen these Properties of his exemplified to others and to your selves so many wonders of Providence done in your remembrance that ye your selves must be the greatest wonder in case you do not believe and trust him When your Soul is cast down you may do as David did remember God from the Land of Iordan and of the Hermonites from the Hill Mizar that is you may review the help and comfort which you have had in this and the other place of your Pilgrimage and so hope still in God that the Help of his Countenance will be the Health of yours Psal. 42. 5 6 11. Learn therefore this life of Faith and endeavour as you grow weaker in body to grow stronger in Faith. 1. For Temporal mercies You may be tempted to fear want in your Old-age here 's now occasion for Faith whereby you are firmly to believe either that you shall want nothing or else no good thing Psal. 34. 9 10. That the Lord will either supply your wants or inrich you by your wants It was a memorable saying of an Ancient pious Woman I have made many a meal upon the Promises when I have wanted bread And Christ hath said it that Man lives not by bread only but by every word that cometh out of the mouth of God Matth. 4. 4. So that a child of God shall never want a livelihood so long as there is a Promise in the Book of God. But then he had need of Faith and the stronger the faith the chearfuller life he lives For as by it he injoyes God in all things in case of plenty so by it he injoyes all things in God in case of want 2. For Spiritual blessings it concerns you to live by Faith to wit for Pardon Grace and Comfort You have bin long conversant with the Promises of God for these mercies and have had often Experiences of the Grace and Mercy of God unto you and so may conclude with the Psalmist The Lord hath bin mindful of us be will bless us Psal. 115. 12. He that forgave you ten thousand talents upon your first Repentance will readily forgive an hundred pence upon your second And he that gave you good Desires when you were not worth a good thought will surely give you your Desires of more grace when your hearts are now fully set upon it And he that spoke Peace to your Consciences when you were younger will restore unto you the joy of his Salvation as soon and as far as is good for you now you are older though at present you walk in darkness and see no light For an old servant he never utterly casts off Cast not you away therefore your confidence which hath great recompence of reward the dimmer the eye of your sense grows the clearer let the eye of your Faith become by which you may see as Moses did on mount Pisgah into the promised Land and may Comfort your hearts with the foretasts of Glory By this Faith it was that Isaac when he was blind through Age blessed Iacob and Esau concerning things to come By this Faith Iacob when he was dying for Age blessed both the Sons of Ioseph and worshipped leaning upon the top of his Staff Heb. 11. 20 21. In short nothing is more needful for the Old person whose limbs are weak eye-sight weak memory all weak than a strong and lively Faith. And this you must labour for by earnest and frequent Prayer for every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh sindeth Cry out therefore with the Apostles Luk. 17. 5. Lord increase our faith and when you find it waver then cry again with the man Mark 9. 24. Lord I believe help mine unbelief Wee 'l relieve a poor Old man when we pass by the younger and he that hath planted that Compassion in us hath much more in himself And then consider often of the Truth and Faithfulness of God whose Word is as sure as Deed. For all his promises are Yea and Amen in Christ. Which Promises you ought to store up and study instead of counting over your Coyn or surveying your Bonds review the rich and precious promises of God and clear your Interest in them and they will beget new blood and spirits in your Souls so that your youth will be renewed as the Eagles And as long as ye are able attend upon the Preaching of Gods Word for as Faith comes so it comes on by hearing The same Texts the same Truths the same Promises which you have often read and heard will still afford new strength to your Faith and Hope as long as you live SECT III. THE Third Grace proper for Old-age is Wisdom which we take here in the largest and yet truest sence not once regarding that meer worldly wisdom which is not only earthly and selfish but wicked and devilish that is only skill'd in getting an Estate by hook or crook and in keeping it without respect to God or our Neighbour No this cannot in any tolerable sence be called Wisdom It 's absolute folly to lose yea to venture a Soul for what may be utterly lost to morrow But I speak here of true Wisdom in its latitude teaching men to live safely and comfortably here and happily hereafter as it fixes upon a right End and chuses and uses the proper Means to attain it This Grace directs a man to make choice of God for his Happiness and then diligently to apply himself to know love serve and enjoy him This also guides him in all his imployments in this world to attempt nothing but what is possible honest and useful to chuse the fittest means for the attainment of his just ends to place his words and actions in their proper circumstances not alwayes to take the next but the safest way to his desires and in short to order his affairs with discretion And this is the crown of Old-age Every Aged person is or should be truely wise multitude of years should teach wisdom Iob 32. 7. The crown of youth is their strength but the glory of Old-age is their wisdom And wisdom is better than strength Eccl. 9. 16. VVisdom strengtheneth the wise more than ten mighty men in a city Eccl. 7. 19. By this the Aged are better inabled to discharge their duties to Husbands Wives Children Servants and Neighbours than ordinarily younger people are to dispose Spiritual and Secular duties in their right places to temper and guide that zeal and affection which without it is foolish and dangerous The Rashness of young Counsels is evident in the case of Rehoboam 1 King. 12. who following the heady and fierce advice of his Young Courtiers lost ten Tribes in one day which the sage Counsel of his Old Counsellours had certainly preserved And it is known how often the Common-wealths of Athens and Rome were indangered by the folly and rashness of young heads had they not bin ballasted by the Sober and wary Interposition of graver persons Younger people
some of the Philosophers under pain or losses but could never do it under disgrace But that Patience which is directed by the Example of Christ and strengthened by the Grace and Spirit of Christ keepeth the Soul from secret repining or open murmuring at any event saves from distraction at present and from ruine hereafter And herein Old-age doth or should excel They have met with many troubles in their pilgrimage and the Scripture tells us that tribulation worketh patience Rom. 5. 3. consequently the more troubles the greater patience They have bin taught to wait for some Mercies which they have desired for many years and so have bin taught Patience which when they have well learned then the Mercy hath been conferr'd They have been tryed with many Afflictions from the hand of God either upon their Bodies as Sickness Pain c. sometimes by acute sometimes by chronical Distempers and these have exercised and taught them Patience or upon their Souls as Desertions or other Impressions of divine Displeasure and thereby have learned quietly to wait for the Salvation of God or by the Death of their dear Consorts or Children all which by the blessing of God concurring therewith have like continual burdens on the shoulder inur'd and strengthened them in this Excellent Grace The Aged Person hath also had many provocations losses and injuries from Men which have both tried and tamed his mettle He hath been either uncomfortably Match't whereby his Patience hath been put to it every day or cross'd in his Children or fix't near some unquiet Neighbour or harrass'd by a costly and tedious suit of Law any of which have forced him to exercise this Grace Or else he hath been smitten in his Reputation or maim'd by some great loss or disappointment in his Estate where he hath had no Remedy but Patience I know these things do too often work the wrong way that is they produce fretfulness rage melancholy and other dismal effects but in the upright man they sortifie his Spirits they break the pride security and stubbornness of his Soul and make him by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory honour and immortality and so fit him for Eternal Life And the Aged do or should exceed those that are young herein For the tender shoulders of these cannot well bear these burdens As Ephraim once so they are like bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke which fret and fume and are gall'd under the aforesaid tryals Thô the Holy Ghost hath told us that it is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth But commonly it is some tract of time before this yoke is quietly and evenly carried Old age doth most perfectly teach this lesson He that in his youth would quickly have answered the Lye with his Sword will then answer it with a smile The tears which in our youth we spent upon any trivial occasion we then reserve for better purposes and we come to learn manners to wait Gods time for the mercies we desire Time and trials have taught the Old-man to digest hard words and hard things rather than to fight it out Good David could better bear Shimei's Curse when he was grown into years than Nabal's Uncharitableness when he was younger Now it was nothing but kill and slay at least every Male in Nabal's house but afterwards so let him Curse because the Lord hath said unto him Curse David Who shall then say Wherefore hast thou done this 2 Sam. 16. 10. And those Disciples of our Saviour who in their younger years would have had Fire sent from Heaven to revenge the incivility of the Samaritans they in their riper years had learned when reviled to bless when persecuted to suffer it and to bear all indignities not only with much patience 2 Cor. 6. 4. but with all patience 2 Cor. 12. 12. Such is the effect of years and experience by the blessing of God. And you that are in years must be inexcusable if you be defective in this Grace because you have been for a long time Scholars under a Patient Master who hath lest us an Example that we should follow his steps who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not 1 Pet. 2. 21 23. You have also read and heard many convincing Discourses upon this Subject you have seen the folly and madness of Impatience and of Revenge in others and you have had so many Crosses of your own that it is the absurdest thing imaginable for you to be destitute hereof No great wonder to see an unback't Colt to winch and curvet at the spur or whip but if the old tryed Beast do so he is better fed than taught No you should be Patterns of Patience to others We may well feel things as Mortal men saith Mr. Hooper yet overcome them as Christian men Outward Afflictions may prick us but yet they should not pierce us The Old Soldier will not fret at hard Marches hard Weather hard Usage for he hath been beaten to them The Old Mariner repines not at the boisterous Winds or the threatning Waves You are too Nice my Brother saith Hierom if you grudge to be Tried below yet expect to be Crown'd above Labour therefore to get and increase your stock of Patience Let Patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and intire wanting nothing Jam. 1. 4. This Grace you will daily need and daily use For we have need of Patience that after we have done the Will of God we may receive the Promise Heb. 10. 36. It will be like a Buckler to save you harmless from the evil of Affliction Though you have Faith Vertue Knowledge Temperance yet ye must add unto these Patience that ye may never fall 2 Pet. 1. 6. This will not only bridle your Tongue but quiet your Mind and keep you when dispossest of all other things in possession of your own Souls For an impatient man whilst he is afflicted by another even then punishes himself and so is his own greatest tormenter Alas you must still expect a succession of troubles and unexpected crosses until your Course be finished and if you escape these from abroad yet you may find occasion enough for your Patience with your own Children and Servants and perhaps with nearer Relations and though you should miss of these yet your own Distempers will try your Patience when you can neither eat your meat nor live without it neither sleep with refreshment nor lye awake with ease neither endure company nor be contented alone when you will be weary of every place of every posture and without Patience weary of your self And therefore it greatly concerns you to store your selves with this needful this useful Grace And to that End Inure your selves unto it by degrees Strive to digest lesser wrongs provocations and losses which will prepare you to be quiet under greater Whilst others are endeavouring to out-wit or out-power their adversaries be you labouring to overcome
That 's the happy man either young or old who is like Athanasius Magnes Adamas of a temper and converse to attract Love and Respect and yet of Principles and Resolutions to withstand in a good cause all opposition The weakness of your Limbs and Senses should be compensated with stability and strength in your Spirit The Aged mind alone grows young We faint not saith the Apostle but as the outward man perisheth so should your inward man be renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4. 16. For this purpose you should weigh and examine your Principles well Those of Religion by the Rule of the Scriptures those of humane Life in the scales of Reason and having once well fixt them alter them not upon every Suggestion The manifest cause of most mens Unstedfastness both in Iudgment and Practice is their rash embracing of those Points that should have been well weighed at the first for what they have swallowed down by Wholesale they will Vomit up again by Retail in time of tryal My Lord Verulam's observation is very true He that begins in doubts will end in certainties and he that begins in certainties will end in doubts Add to this a conscionable Practice of your sound and honest Principles This will acquaint you with that comfort and sweetness which will stablish your mind in them more and more A rotten Heart is apt to produce a giddy Head whereas righteousness both directs and keeps him that is upright in the way Prov. 11. 5. with chap. 13. 6. All the parts and learning in the World will not fix the Head and Heart like Sincerity It is good that the Heart be established with Grace Heb. 13. 9. Experience in Religion will make you stedfast in Religion And lastly Pray earnestly unto God to make you stedfast See how emphatically the Apostle Paul mentions this 2 Thes. 2. 17. Now our Lord Iesus Christ himself and God even our Father stablish you For we are weak Creatures yea Knowledge and Grace are but Creatures but earnest Prayer will ingage the help and support of Almighty God who can and will stablish strengthen settle you 1 Pet. 5. 10. SECT VI. THE Sixth Grace wherein Old-age doth or snould excell is Temperance and Sobriety That 's the Injunction of the Apostle Tit. 2. 2. That the Aged men be sober grave temperate By this Temperance I understand that Fruit of the Spirit which bridleth our inordinate affections in all outward mercies or more strictly which observes a right mean in desiring and using the Pleasures of the Senses and so in respect of Meat it is Abstinence in respect of Drinking Sobriety in respect of other carnal pleasures Chastity All these the Temperate man curbs by holy Reason and by holy Force Hereby he stiâ—…es the inordinate Desire and restrains the Use within its due bounds he mortifies the unlawful and moderates the lawful pleasures and recreations of the Body He neither absolutely refuseth them nor inordinately desireth or useth them Now this Grace is very proper tho not peculiar to Old-age They especially do or ought to excell herein There is indeed a Proverbial saying that Wine is the Milk of Old-men some intemperate men there may be of every age but God forbid that this Proverb should be adaequate to Old-age True it is that where there be the decays of Nature there is more need of reparation and that the most reviving means are expedient for that end Whereupon Plato permits ancient persons to drink more liberally to alleviate their troubles and to soften their Spirits as Iron is softned by the Fire But commonly the Aged are by Gods Grace weaned from the excesses of Youth The Lusts of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life have too usually their distinct Seasons of rule or at least molestation in the Soul of man. And the First having had its course in the time of Youth its reign is expired and the Aged must now combate thâ—… other Two as well as he can The Decays of natural strength are great helps to the Old-mans Temperance he cannot if he would Eat and Drink and act his Lust as heretofore and altho this Inability doth not make him a Temperate man yet hereby the Discontinuance of the Acts weaken the Habit and his contentedness therewith and his hearty thankfulness for this reformation may be accounted real Temperance especially when he can reflect upon his former disorders with Grief Hatred and Shame Now they find by experience that a man may live more comfortably and healthfully with less Meat less Drink and less Sleep than young people indulge themselves withal and other carnal pleasures are indifferent to them because desire doth fail and it is much better and easier to want desires than to fulfill them as it is far better not to Itch than to have the pleasure of scratching where it itcheth But now the pious Old person hath really crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts His Sins did not leave him but he hath left them They have not heard and read the Scripture so long in vain which every where disgraceth and condemneth all excess and riot all Chambering and Wantonness and obligeth all Christians to deny themselves and to pluck out the right Eye that doth offend them They have found by experience that as true Vertue so true Satisfaction is only found in a Mediocrity and that all extremes and inordinacies are offensive both to the Mind and Body I said of Laughter it is mad and of Mirth what doth it Eccles. 2. 2. This was the Verdict which wise Solomon brought in his Old-age when he had not withheld his Heart from any joy c. yet then he concludes all was vanity and vexation of Spirit and there was no profit under the Sun Eccles. 2. 10. Besides they who have lived long have seen the woful Effects of Drunkenness Uncleanness and Luxury how many Bodies they have destroyed how many Estates and Families they have ruined and what small pity the miserable Spend-thrift meets with in those persons and places where he hath consumed his substance These and such like observations have contributed to the Aged mans Sobriety they have been Pillars of Salt to him So that any Licenciousness in a person of Years as it is most pernicious to him so it is intolerable to him It makes them the objects both of laughter scorn and detestation Every excess in them debilitates their Nature sullies their Reputation and shakes their Grace exceedingly When Old people fall they fall with a great weight and are crush'd more than younger people and perhaps they have more difficulty to rise again Far more excuses are found for the Lapses of young people than can be pretended by the Aged their faults are crimes and their crimes are prodigies As their Diseases so their Exorbitances are far more dangerous Let it therefore be your constant care to keep your selves within the bounds
of Temperance and Sobriety And that both for Others sakes and for your Own. You should be examples O be not stumbling Blocks to younger people Your vices may propagate when your persons are past it and those that are Eye or Ear-witnesses of your follies may derive the practice of them to the Child that is yet unborn and altho you may recover by true Repentance yet they may stumble upon you and fall and never rise again Entail not a Curse upon your Posterity do not nourish in them that natural depravation which in equity you ought rather to cure And for your Own sake be sober be vigilant for you are upon the confines of the everlasting World a World wherein all sensual enjoyments will be for ever out of date endeavour to go off the Stage without a Blemish When some Courtiers were sent to S r Fr. Walsingham being sick and sad to make him merry God said he is serious in his Law Iesus Christ was serious in his Death the Holy Ghost is serious in his dealing with our Souls all in Heaven and Hell are serious and shall a Man that hath one Foot in the Grave Laugh and Iest Take warning by poor Noah One hours Drunkenness discovered that which Six hundred years Sobriety had concealed If his inexperience did in any degree excuse him you can make no such pretence If you have any regard to the Health and Vigour of your Bodies to the quiet and welfare of your Souls to the pleasing and honouring of God bridle your appetite and check the pleasures of your Senses In short there is as we observed before no better way to spin out your lives to make Old-age pleasant and Death easie than the exercise of this Vertue The instance of Cornaro a learned and rich Venetian is common that with a sparing and orderly Diet lived to a great Age with little inconvenience To deny a mans self is the way to please himself at length and by opposing the preternatural desires of the Body we contribute to the true happiness even of the Body it self And here comes in the use and exercise of Mortification wherein tho a wise man may make some steps yet the work cannot be done without the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. Implore therefore the aid of this good Spirit who can make you mortally to hate that which you now do ardently love and will pluck up the roots of that whereof Morality doth only shave the Hair. Set the Spectacle of Death oft before you and of that endless Estate to which you are such near Neighbours and think how unsuitable a vain life is to a serious Death Be much in Prayer and if need be add Fasting thereunto that your moderation may be known unto all men seeing undoubtedly to Old people The Lord is at hand SECT VII THE Seventh Grace proper for Old-age is Charity or Love. Not that sensual or carnal Love which is proper or rather common to Youth and which hath long since dropt off like Leaves in the Autumn of their Age but that Grace which disposeth the Heart to think the best the Tongue to speak the best and the whole man to promote the Welfare of Others The Seat or chief Mansion of this is the Heart which being filled with this Grace it is diffused every way and the whole man is tinctur'd with it It obligeth a man to Think the best of every man. Charity thinketh no evil believeth all things hopeth all things beareth all things By this we are ready to account the Certain good things in Others better than they are the certain Evils in others less than they are the good that is but doubtful in others certain and doubtful Evils none And it rests not in Opinion but works by Desire whereby the Heart doth unfeignedly desire the Temporal Spiritual and Eternal good of all men Neither doth it rest there but shews it self in Endeavour and that both by Word and Deed speaking To them Of them For them to God and man what may conduce thereunto in their Lips is the Law of kindness Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up doth not behave it self unseemly is not easily provoked 1 Cor. 13. 5. Neither will Words satisfie it but doth actually help and cheerfully succour every Body as their occasion requires and his own ability extends And in this Grace doth every good Old Man and Woman excell This was the eminent Grace of the Evangelist Iohn in his Old-age for he lived longer than any of the Apostles and his Swan-like Song still was Love as is evident in all his Epistles yea some Church Historians affirm that when he could go no longer by reason of his Age into the Christian Assemblies yet he was instant to be led or carried there where the substance of what he was able to say was little Children love one another And you may find how pathetical was Paul the Aged in his tender charity to Onesimus Philem. 9. Being such a one as Paul the Aged for loves sake I beseech thee for my Son Onesimus And this Spirit did continue in the Ancient Christians in the Primitive times who loved as Tertullian tells us as Brethren and were ready to dye for one another We that did hate one another saith Iustin Martyr now do live familiarly together and do pray for our Enemies In all Ages as men have increased in Piety they have increased in Charity and come to relent of their rigour and keenness It was Age Experience and Consideration as well as a Prison that melted Bishop Ridley to accost his Brother Hooper in this manner However in some by-matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my Simplicity hath a little jarred yet now I sincerely love and imbrace you You know Rehoboams Old Counsellours were for lenity when the young were stern and furious It 's true the natural tempers or painful distempers may incline some Old people to too much Acrimony yet all Aged people that are considerate have taken more degrees in Charity than young people have It was an Old man in Gibeah that had more of this Grace than all the City besides Iudg. 19. 16. For besides the advantage they have had of Gods holy Ordinances the Scope whereof is to increase our Faith and Love they have found by experience that the Life and Soul of Religion lies not in these lesser matters that have caused the greatest noise in the World that every difference in Religion makes not a different Religion so that wheresoever they see any thing of Christ these they love Their Consciousness of their own mistakes and of their own imperfections hath forced them to more charitable thoughts of others They have observed that true Grace hath lived in the midst of great infirmities yea they have found this Flower in divers persons where they thought there had been nothing but
VVeeds Being conversant most at home in their own Souls they have in their long experience discovered so much Vanity and Iniquity there that they are are very charitable Iudges of all other persons They grow like the famous Pliny who so past by others offences as if himself had been the greatest offender and yet was so severe to himself as if he would pardon no body their Charity covers a multitude of Sins In short their Age and Afflictions have so happily humbled them that they are ready to esteem every one better than themselves and so they are far from that uncharitable Censoriousness which tears mens Names in pieces and keeps up a continual civil War among mankind And then for other Acts of Charity who should be more ready to Give a part than they that know they must shortly leave the whole who should be good in his Stewardship but he that is sure he must shortly be out of it But the noblest Charity is that which respects the Soul which consists in Counselling Perswading Reproving and Praying for Others And Old-age is evidently qualified for these above the young Their Wisdom and Authority gives them a great advantage herein and they have found by experience that sometimes a word of good Counsel and charitable Reproof fitly spoken hath been like Apples of Gold. And then for Prayer it is observed that the Charity of young persons therein doth begin and end at themselves whereas the Prayers of the Aged are much imployed for the good of others Few Children pray for their Parents as the Parents pray for their Children Yea they have learned to love and pray for their Enemies as well as for their Friends and for the ungodly as well as for the godly And the poorest Old Man or Woman may be rich in these acts of Charity Therefore as ye abound in every thing in faith in utterance and knowledge see that ye abound in this Grace of Charity also It is the Apostles Exhortation 2 Cor. 8. 7. We use to say that in Winter the natural heat retreats inward and there resides about the vital parts ye that are in the winter quarter of your life let this warm Grace dwell richly in your Hearts and then it will influence all your words and actions It is the Image of God for God is Love it is the fulfilling of the Law and it is the great command of the Gospel and tho you have Knowledge Faith Wisdom Riches c. yet if you have not Charity you are nothing You are going out of the World now is your time to exercise this Grace In the World where you are going there will be no infirmities to cover no poor to relieve no injuries to forgive no ignorant persons to instruct no miserable Creature to pray for and you have but a short time for these imployments Yea perhaps you are reprieved all this while for these Services and to be useful in these and such like ways is the greatest happiness on Earth it is the next step to eternal Glory Yea nothing should hire an Old person or make him content to live out of Heaven with such a Body of Sin about him but only that they may do God and Man that service which cannot be done in Heaven And for the obtaining this sweet Grace the Scripture tells us that it is a Fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22. and there it is ranked in the first place It must be sought then in the Word of God which is the vehicle of the Spirit where it being carefully read and heard we shall find an account of the infinite love of God to us and of the stupendous love of Christ. There we shall discern how nearly we are related to all men especially to all Christians and how unnatural it is for one hand to be unkind to the other And in short we shall there find that Love and Charity is still the Character of good men and hatred and uncharitableness of the bad And you must beg this Grace of God that the Spirit of Love would plant this Grace of Love in your Hearts You will feel your hearts warming as you are praying and the Lord will fill you with this Charity which is the bond of perfectness And so I have done with the Vertues and Excellencies of Old-age Whereby you may perceive that all Old things are not to be cast away But as Old Wood is best to burn Old Wine best to drink Old Authors best to read and Old Friends best to trust so Old People if they have improved their Time aright are good for something yea are eminently good for their Knowledge for their Faith for their Wisdom for their Patience for their Stedfastness for their Temperance and for their Charity And so much for the Fourth Point concerning Old-age viz. The Graces most proper for it CHAP. V. The Inconveniences of Old-age I Am come now in the Fifth place to examine the Inconveniences and Disadvantages of Old-age adding withall somewhat towards the Mitigation thereof as I pass along Some here set themselves with immoderate vehemence to cry down Old-age and to load it with such intolerable Miseries as might affright one And to this purpose they muster all the Evils which are either the effect of mens Vices or other separable Accidents of their Age and put all these upon its score to inflame the reckoning Insomuch that some of the Old Philosophers took upon them to quarrel with Providence for giving man Life and thereby involving him in a continual state of misery And all this partly out of their Ignorance of mans Primitive happiness and woful fall and partly out of their dim-sightedness about his endless felicity about all which material points they lived in great uncertainty Others on the Contrary have been ready so to mince the matter as if there were nothing in Old-age but what is desirable guilding its hairs and smoothing all its wrinkles as if the Spiritual advantage did annihilate the corporal burdens The truth dwells as I conceive between these extremes And it must be granted that as the dreggs of the purest Wines are left in the bottom so Old-age hath many Inconveniences peculiar to it for which cause those dayes are called Evil dayes wherein the man hath no pleasure or with which he is greatly displeased Eccles. 12. 1. But yet the same Old-age hath divers Priviledges to ballance them and their pressures are not properly Miseries because there is abundance of Comfort and Benefit which mitigate them We have an Elegant Description of many of them in that Twelfth Chapter of Ecclesiastes vers 2 3 c. Then the Sun and the Light and the Moon and the Stars will be darkned that is all Outward Comfort or Prosperity whether by Day or by Night will be eclypsed and withdrawn from us And the clouds will return after the rain that is one bodily Distemper and outward Trouble will successively follow another Then
youth produces a loathsome Age. As the Thief in the Candle wasts it more than the Flame so any Intemperance or Incontinence doth wast the Strength and Beauty more than years Neither is Old-age alone subject to these Evils For one Weeks Sickness to which Youth is as lyable as Old-age will ruine your Strength and spoil your Beauty as much as twenty years time can do How many are crippled in their Youth how commonly doth the Small-pox disfigure their beauty David himself complains Psal. 102. 23. He weakened my strength in the way he shortned my dayes And he cries O my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes So that these Decayes must not be impropriated to Old-age any Age may be afflicted with them as well as that Neither is this Loss so insupportable if we consider the true Nature and Value of these Mercies They are but bodily accomplishments they are not the endowments of the Soul. Many Brutes surpass the youngest in Strength and many Flowers surpass them in Beauty Why should I saith Cato in Tully now more desire the strength of a Young man than I should when young desire the strength of a Bull or Lyon There is the like absurdity in both these desires Or as he saith in another place we may as reasonably in our Youth call back the State of Childhood which few will do as in Old-age to expect the Strength and Beauty of youth which is past and gone You have if it be not your own fault the Priviledges proper to your Age and according to the Old Observation it is far better to want the strength of Milo than the Wisdom of Pythagoras Every Age hath its peculiar Talent to have them in perfection is not to be expected upon Earth We should be Thankful for the Strength and Features we have had and bewail our abuse of them and conclude 'T is well that all our Comforts have not left us together But the great support under these defects is As the outward man perisheth to find the inward man renewed day by day what the River loseth on the one side it gaineth on the other and then all 's well enough the inward man is the better man. Let strength and beauty go sith they will not stay strive that you may be Strong in Grace and Beautiful within Those things may make you acceptable unto Men but these will render you lovely both unto God and to all wise men When you can say with him in the Poet tho my foot be slower yet my mind is swifter When Severus the Emperour was sick of the Gout at York he was asked by one of his Nobles how he being so Lame could rule so vast an Empire he told him that he rul'd the Empire with his Brain not with his Feet While the Head and Heart are strong it passeth less how it fares with the Arms and Legs Faith Hope and Charity are Beauties that will not fade and the decays of the Body do by the blessing of God further the true vigour of the Soul. For the Soul is a distinct Substance and as the House may be battered by a Tempest and yet the Inhabitant merry in 't all the while so an holy Soul may prosper very well tho the Body be lame and crazy And this Decrease of Strength and Beauty are very useful to awaken the Soul from that Lethargy which is natural to it they deprive us only of that which is the fewel of our Lusts and of our security Our strength hath not weaned us from the World God will try what feebleness will do Briskness and Beauty hath been a snare these being removed perhaps He may now speak with you and be heard When you have seen an end of all perfection then hee 'l shew you that his Commandments are exceeding broad Psal. 119. 96. SECT III. A Third Inconvenience upon Old people is That they are weakned in their Faculties Their Apprehensions dull their Phantasy barren their Memories broken and their Affections dry Formerly they could have penetrated into things they could have learn'd any thing now they are so clouded that they fumble at the plainest things They could have soar'd by their Fancy and coin'd variety of notions which they found to be a great help to their devotion and otherwise but their Invention now is grown poor and their Notions flat But the most sensible loss is of their Memory whereby formerly they could have produced things both new and old but now their Memory is so wofully shattered that this day forgets what yesterday said and did O the excellent things that they have heard and read and now they are like water spilt on the Ground no notices left that ever such things had been within Time was their Love and Zeal for God and their Hatred to Sin was strong as Death and ardent as the Coals of Fire which hath a most vehement flame many waters could not quench it Their holy Ioys and Sorrows were transcendent penitential Tears were frequent with them But now their Hearts are cold and their Eyes are dry These Wheels of the Soul are gone and thereby their motion is sadly interrupted Now this manifest stroke upon their Faculties is a very sensible Inconvenience The Decay of the Outward man might be someway tolerable but this inward Decay sinks their Spirits When holy David said Psal. 6. 2. My bones are vexed his distress was great but when he adds in the next verse my Soul also is sore vexed his case was more lamentable What comfort can a man have when his Apprehension is grown blunt What 's a Knife good for when the mettle is gone When a man can attain little and retain nothing The deficiency of these is a great impediment in all humane affairs but of greater consequence in Religious matters The Communion which the Soul hath with God is in the Word and Prayer How disconsolate must the Heart be when one can remember almost nothing of what he reads or hears When his affections flagg and his words freeze in Prayer Why he thinks he has lived long enough he feels himself more than half dead already The House is left standing but all the rich Furniture is gone and what can be said to mitigate this misery or to reconcile any body to Old-age To stop any further Impatience Consider 1. That this great Decay in the Faculties doth not befall every Aged person Divers there are and have been that retain the free use of their Faculties till they dye How many doth Tully name as Simonides Stesichorus Isocrates Hesiod Homer Pythagoras Democritus Socrates Plato c. who lived long and yet continued a course of Studies as long as their life And he tells us there particularly of Sophocles whose Sons accused him for a Dotard in his Old-age till he before the Iudges repeated the Tragedy of Oedipus which he had newly written and so was by them acquitted And Seneca tells of himself
give of your Repentance for the Sins of your Youth is a watchful care against the Sins of your Old-age otherwise your Sins are not forsaken but changed Withal if your Repentance be sound it is attended with a will and endeavour to make Restitution wherein you have injur'd any in their Souls Bodies Names or Estates This will be as Letters Testimonial of the truth of your Repentance you must not nay you cannot be quiet if your Repentance be sound until you have seriously endeavour'd as far as in you lies to recover the Souls to restore the Bodies to heal the Reputations and to repair the Estates which you have injur'd without which there can be no true Repentance on Earth and without which there will be no Remission in Heaven SECT II. ANother work of Old-age is obtaining Assurance of Salvation I mean hereby not only a General Certainty that some good people shall be saved for the Devils believe this and rage at it which I think is the same with Objective Certainty nor that Assurance which may come by special and extraordinary Revelation sith we find few or no examples in Scripture of such a thing but rather that the Apostle Paul himself grounds his Assurance of the Crown upon the righteousness of God which he extends to all them that love Christs appearing 2 Tim. 4. 8. Neither do I mean a Conjectural Hope of Salvation which admits both of anxiety and of slavish fear fith the Scripture represents it by Faith and full assurance and produceth Earnests and Seals for confirmation Nor lastly is this Assurance confin'd to Grace at present but extends to final Salvation Thus the Apostle 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed there is Assurance of his present State but was he certain of his Perseverance Yes that follows and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day That such Assurance hath been attained is clear enough from the Instances of Iob 19. 25 26. of David Psal. 16. 9 10. of Paul 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. and many others That it may be attained is as clear sith there is no intimation that these or the rest had any extraordinary Discovery thereof unto them but arriv'd thereat in the use of those means and by the consignation of that Spirit unto which we have access as well as they And the Apostle doth expresly comprehend the generality of Believers in this Priviledge 2 Cor. 5. 1. For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God c. That it ought to be endeavoured by all true Christians is most evident from the plain commands to that purpose 2 Pet. 1. 10. Wherefore the rather Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure c. That few do labour to attain it thinking it to be impossible or unnecessary is to be bewailed That many deceive themselves with a false perswasion of present Grace and future Glory is manifest by Scripture and daily Experience And that it is most proper and needful for Old people the thing it self speaks For you cannot deny but that you have Souls immortal Souls which being Spirits cannnot dye but must return to God that gave them and are these Souls of so small value to be left to a Hazard to an everlasting venture And it is as evident that this life is uncertain we may say as Isaac Gen. 27. 2. Behold now I am Old I know not the day of my Death and therefore it 's time for us to go about this work without delay Children desire the time of youth and youth longs to be at mans age and they then would live to be Old but Old-age hath no further Age to desire it hath none other to succeed it here and they are wholly uncertain how long it will last and therefore it is absolutely necessary that they should be on sure grounds for Eternity and then the day of death will be better than the day of their Birth You know how much of your life is already spent you can see the Sands that are run into the nether end of the Glass but the upper Part is covered with a Mantle you know not how few Sands are left there to run Nay you cannot but perceive that Death is approaching very near you You are filled with Wrinkles which is a Witness against you and your leanness rising up in you beareth witness to your Face as it is Job 16. 8. For as it is observed of All men that they are Mortales apt to dye and of all Good men that they are Mortificati dying to Sin so it is of all Old men that they are Morituri about to dye And for such to have Oyl to seek when they should have it to Use Evidences to procure when they should have them to produce is an unexcusable neglect Especially knowing that your last Breath wafts you into an unalterable Estate What Journeys and Presents were heretofore made to the Oracles to assure the Votaries concerning the Event of some temporal affairs and how many do now Hazard their Souls by seeking to Necromancers to know the success of their Marriages Voyages and such like and yet a miscarriage in these things is remediable there may be some alleviation in them there may be some end of them but you are lanching into the Ocean of Eternity and are at no certainty whether it be eternal Happiness or eternal Misery What an anxious and uncomfortable State must this be If you were not loose in your belief of future things you would be restless in this condition you owe your Ease to your Letâ—…argy if you were not half Infidels you would be more than half distracted Which brings to mind the course which some Eminent persons among the Heathens took they durst not dye sober but drank great Draughts oâ—… Wine saying That no voluptuous person can go in his Wits into an invisible Estate With what poor comfort must that man dye that must cry out with that Old Philosopher I dye in great doubt and know not whither I am going yet out the Soul must go ready or unready Then will the careless sinner gnash his Teeth for rage at his slothful and sinful life which he hath spent as a Tale that is told Then will he have time enough to curse all the worldly business or wicked Company that hath devoured his precious time and left his Soul to shift for it self for ever Do not we in all other cases strive to be at a point will May-be's and Peradventure's satisfie us in any material humane affairs The Tenant who is warned out of one House cannot enjoy himself until he be sure of another The Steward that was discharged of his Office Luk. 16. took present course to be provided of some other Subsistence The poorest man is uneasie when his old Suit of Cloaths is worn out till he have a
new one what then are your Souls dreaming on which find the Garment of the Body quite worn out your earthly House ready to fall upon its Head and yet Sleep quiet only with some weak ungrounded hopes of endless happiness Have you left your outward Estates under no better Assurance your Conveyances your Fines and Recoveries will rise up in witness against you and you will be found at last to be wise in trifles and Fools in the things of moment Yea you will see when Friends and Relations will leave you your Estates and Pleasures leave you Life it self leave you that they who make not sure of Heaven are sure of Nothing Think not that your Outward Blessings are any certain Arguments of Gods love to you that because God hath done much for you in this World he will therefore Crown you in another or because ye have lived long here in the day of his Patience that you must live always with him in Heaven No no Iob 21. 7. 20. Even the wicked live become old yea and are mighty in power yet his Eyes shall see his Destruction and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty Many a man hath been strangely saved from Death that will not be saved at last from Hell and men do hold temporal mercies by one Tenure and Eternal by another Be advised therefore to set about this â—…eedful work with all possible speed â—…nd care And to that end chuse out â—…wo or three Scriptures which do most â—…vidently describe a Sanctified Heart â—…ch as Mat. 5. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Or â—…om 8. 1. 5. 9. and endeavour by the best hâ—…lps you have to know the true Genâ—…ine meaning thereof Then compare your own Hearts with them And whatsoever doubt you have of your Conformity thereunto examine it to the bottom and in case of any insuperable difficulty consult with some discreet Messenger of God. And when you have throughly sifted one Scripture go to another and another that in the Mouth of two or three witnesses your Assurance may be established And this done betake you to your Knees and spreading these tryed Evidences before God humbly beg the help of his Holy Spirit both to clear your understanding to guide your Conscience and to seal you up to the day of Redemption And then you must patiently wait in the use of all the means of Grace Sermons Prayers and Sacraments until His Spirit witness with your spirit that ye are the Children of God. SECT III. THE Third Work of Old-age is Prayers and Praises 1. For Prayers I do not here mean only the Ordinary Devotions which I presume every good Christian useth both Old and Young and whereby indeed the Soul Breaths for a true Believer lives by Faith and breaths by Prayer whereof that excellent Bishop Hall thus concludes I may truly say that man hath no Grace nor Goodness in him that Prays not by Himself and with his Family but also that they should be frequent in Prayer It is said of Luther that he spent daily at least Three hours in Prayer And holy David saith Psal. 55. 17. Evening and Morning and at Noon will I Pray and cry aloud yea in his Old-age we may conclude that he dyed with a Prayer in his Mouth from Psal. 72. last The Prayers and belike the life of David the Son of Iesse are ended together And therefore the Egyptian Hieroglyphick of an Aged person was a Swan whom they imagined to dye Singing for there is no Musick so sweet in the Ears of God as hearty Prayers and Praises And if you find your selves unable to hold out in the more stated and solemn Prayers you should be more frequent and fervent in shorter Addresses for it is not the length but the strength of a Prayer that carries it with God. And in case of the want of Ability or Opportunity for this frequency for every poor crazy Old Man or Woman hath them not you may and should abound in holy Ejaculations or short Elevations of the Soul to God sometimes by way of Confession sometimes by way of Admiration sometimes by way of Petition and sometimes by way of Thanksgiving of all which there are various Instances in Scripture And these you may dart upward as you sit by the fire as you lie in your beds as you put on and off your cloaths Thus ye may pray without ceasing as it is 1 Thes. 5. 17. And the Lord will accept of these coming from a sincere and holy heart and which in its present circumstances can do no better But still Prayer is the proper Province of the Aged person and both you and your Pictures will look best when they are as Paul the Hermites carkass was found in a praying posture For as was noted before your labouring and travelling dayes are done your Hands and Feet have done their work the best service you can now do is upon your knees There you may do much therein you may ingage Him who can do All nothing can stand before the prayer of Faith. And therefore when you reflect upon the slips and falls in the course of your Life so that your hearts begin to ake and faint for fear then enter into your Closet and pour out your hearts before God and that will revive you When that coward Satan sets upon an Aged man or woman with his Assault and Battery either to weaken their faith or to unravel their repentance or to cloud their comforts their only course is to run to God by Prayer God is a refuge for us When we feel the decayes of Nature and are almost overwhelmed with Distempers or Troubles then let us by Prayer cast our burden upon the Lord and he will sustain us Thus that learned and holy Rivet did every day in his Old-age repeat the seventeenth and eighteenth verses of the seventy first Psalm O God thou hast taught me from my youth and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works Now also when I am Old and gray-headed O God forsake me not untill I have shewed thy strength to this generation and thy power to every one that is to come And here the Aged shall do well not only to plead their own Cause with God but to lay up a stock for Posterity that the generations yet unborn may be the better for them Thus David in that Psal. 72. 1. Give thy Iudgments to the King O God and thy righteousness to the Kings Son c. What you are now sowing may be reaped by your Posterity hundreds of years afterwards And perhaps this will be the best Intail which you can make of your Estates for hitherto whatever Settlements the Will of men hath devised the Wit of men hath defeated but by faithfull Prayer God himself is made Trustee who only can establish your Purposes So also you should be instant with the Lord for his Church Truth and Gospel So was David Psal. 122. So was Paul alwayes in every Prayer of