of goods not goods but perishing and transitorie and which doe not enlarge the straight boundes of this present life where wee are confined and this is our happinesse comfort tranquilitie to deliuer vp and resigne our persons goods our affaires briefely all that we loue into the handes of our heauenly Father humbly beseeching him euery houre to subdue guide and gouerne our heartes by his grace and power Whereupon it followes that it ill becomes all Christians much more wise old men to be voluptuous ambitious or couetous Also that in all the accidents and chances of our life we ought quietly to submit and yeeld to the will of God Touching the word Iustice which respecteth our dutie toward our neighbours it requireth two thinges The one is that wee rightly examining and considering what we our selues are wee should preferre others before vs the other that our studie and endeuour tend to this end faithfully to procure their benefit and good In this behalfe it is wholly requisite that we be furnished with humilitie patience a frank and liberall mind least we fall into the neglect and contempt as well of those that are of the houshold of faith as of those which seeme not to be not shrowding our selues vnder this vaine subterfuge shift and coullor that our neighbour is a stranger one we know not contemptuous base vile vngrateful an enemie vnto vs. For to all this the law of humanitie charitie the image of God his honour mercie and goodnesse makes a suyply Moreouer euery good doing and deede ought to proceed from a well informed conscience a sincere affection of heart without which our workes are soyled and tainted with damnable hypocrisie with peruerse confidence vaine arrogancie infamous reproch fond opinions As that God is our debtor to repay and requite vs that our neighbours are exceedingly bounden and obliged vnto vs yea that hauing performed some small dutie in this or in that wee are freed and discharged euen in the sight of him of whom we hold all that we haue to whom we owe all that we haue without whom we are nothing of our selues without whom we can doe nothing of our selues of whom onely wee ought to glorie in whom alone it behooues vs to put our affiance and trust from all other duties of charity whereof we willingly make our selues ignorant or basely refuse neither louing God nor our neighbours nor ourselues and liuing one with another as brute beastes before the eyes of our iust Iudge But it is requisite that our wise Vieillard mount vp yet higher though the way bee narrow rugged vneuen steepe and headlong to wit that he bee continually readie and prepared to beare the crosse which God layes vpon him that is to be exercised within and without by diuerse temptations and afflictions all the remainder and rest of his dayes If from his youth he hath borne the yoke hath not bin brought vp in the shade but hath endured stormes cold and extreame parching heate his travaile toward the euening of his life will be lesse tedious seeing the houre of his rest is neere and at hand Hereupon he will call to minde that his heauenly Father who from the cratch did handle in like manner his owne and onely beloued sonne will also that his members be made conformable to their head and hath predestinated them thereunto whereof this most excellent comfort doth follow that being vnder the crosse we partake of the afflictions and suffrings of our Lord. Furthermore for diuers reasons afflictions are necessary for Christians more particularly to old men First the vaine assurance of their flesh the opinion of their sufficiencie their obstinate selfe-willd conceipt their arrogancie require such a correctiue Secondly they haue need to be kept in humilitie and in a reuerend awe of God to the end so much the more heartily to seeke and sue for his grace without which it would be impossible for them to stand vnder the burthen much lesse to sauour and relish well how sweete and wonderfull the Lord is in their bodily and spirituall deliuerances Thirdly It is necessary also that their patience and obedience may more euidently appeare it being vnpossible for them to stoppe vnto God if hee doe not awe and reclaime them by afflictions Fourthly Their life past is had in remembrance to the end that being chastised in this world by the rod of a Father they may bee kept in order in their maisters seruice who scourging their bodies comforteth and saueth their soules in the hope of the last resurrection briefely hee chastiseth those that are his in this world that they may not perish with the world Now among the sundry sortes of crosses and afflictions one among others carries with it singular contentment as when wee shall suffer for righteousnesse for Christs name sake for the maintenance and defence of Gods word and truth Christians willingly lay downe their neckes vnder the light yoke of the Lord and reioyce at it not with a stupid or hastie mad braine-sicke or fond toying ioy their reioycing is spirituall accompanied with that magnanimous resolution which appeared in the Apostles after they had receiued the holy Ghost and in all their true Disciples This doth not vanquish nor abolish true patience cōsisting in this that Christians doe not faint altogether vnder the burthen that presseth them But in the anguish and bitternesse of their heartes feele the sweetnesse of the consolations of the holy Ghost which comforteth and strengtheneth them vnto the end so as the loue of God vanquisheth the vanitie which cumbers them in the world In this appeareth wherein the Philosophers patience differs from the Christians One sayth that it is an vnresistible necessitie or doing of that which must bee done and counselleth to beare what is vnavoidable But the other telles vs that wee ought so to depend vpon the consideration of the iust wise and good will of God that wee acknowledge that our sufferings in the world are equall agreeable honourable profitable that therefore wee ought to bee couragious and resolute in them glorying in the constancie that our God giueth vs and will alwayes giue vs at need The principall fruit which the wise Vieillard may gather from the tree of affliction is that by the taste thereof he should be enured to contemne this present life which would beguile and bewitch him if all things succeeded according to his sensuall appetite and lust Afterward this fruit makes him by faith to relish and taste the sweetnesse and pleasure of the happy life which is reserued for vs in heauen For if in youth and old age We see nothing but troubles and dangers in our course heere on earth if our delights bee mingled with griefes our hony with gall our pleasures bee steeped and drenched in distastes and discontentments our mirth end in teares to what purpose should wee start backe and retire And why should wee bee sorrie to goe out of prison to goe into the Palace of libertie out
The sequele of the points propounded in the former Section concerning the resolutions and consolations against death Page 160. Chapter 19. Of the resurrection of the bodies and of the immortalitie of mens soules Page 180. Chapter 20. The conclusion of the Worke with a serious exhortation to old and young Also two Prayers for wise old men Page 196. Ay mee I lacke but life to make my will If thou hadst life it would be vnmade still Il y a esperance on vn bien faict Le plustost est le meilleur Hee that to doe nor good nor harme hath no deuotion Differs not from a Picture but in motion Dum Scribo Morior THE WISE VIEILLARD OR OLD MAN CHAP. 1. Of long life and the desire men haue to liue long in the world WE labour and essay in this Discourse that the aged person may haue his thoughts and affections somewhat more stayed and setled then those of younger yeares to the end to make him truely wise by expecting and longing vntill hee may bee perfectly euerlastingly wise in heauen By the wisdome which we wish vnto him no other thing is meant then that he should meditate and exercise himselfe in pietie iustice or vpright dealing charity or brotherly loue duties beseeming and requirable in the ancienter sort of persons in euery thing they doe so long as they soiourne and make their abode here on earth It is a thing very vsuall and common vnto vs all our life long which is but short to cast imagine continually with our selues the many difficulties and dangers are in it and it is a wonder to see how ingenious and witty we are to vexe and afflict our selues for triffles and things of no value There is nothing somuch doth trouble vs and makes old age terrible vnto vs as the feare to depart hence and to leaue this withering and transitory life whereof old age is the Catastrophe and last concluding act making an end of vs speedily and may be called the sunne set of our dayes Consider the ancienter sort of persons and you shall obserue almost no one humour so much predominant and raigning in them as a feruent desire to auoide all surfeitings and excesse and to keepe a good diet to the end to maintaine a little strength and to hold our life be it but for an houre and to perswade themselues they may liue one yeare longer at the lest Would you gladly please or flatter them doe but make them younger in yeares then they are by telling them they are not so old as they reckon and take themselues to be and that there is no cause or likelihood but they may liue many a yeare longer then others and forget not in words to extoll their experience sufficiency prudence and wisedome to contriue and wade thorough great matters you are by and by their onely man who but you none more made on It is a point of vndoubted truth that God created Adam and Eue not onely to enioy a life for some hundred of yeares but to liue for euer whereupon there was fixed and imprinted in their heartt a feruent desire to liue and not to see death For although that masse and lumpe of dust whereof the first mans body was formed and made did inuest him with mortalitie yet in regard of the likenesse and similitude which hee had with God death had neuer seized on him but Adam all his posteritie had subsisted and continued long vpon earth in a large and pleasant plot of ground purposely ordained for them to dwell in the whole world before sin entred being wonderfully beautifull vntill such time as he and all his posteritie without feeling griefe of minde or paine of body had beene by God translated into heauen if they had remained in the first estate wherein they were created But Adam and Eue hauing wilfully suffered Sathan to efface and deface the image of God in them they both and all their naturall off-spring long of them were made subiect vnto death became strangers to the life of God and were called Flesh an appellation and name very fit for them Howsoeuer this bee so yet by the speciall blessing of the Father of heauen through the meanes and fauour of his beloued Sonne who was ordained to be the Sauiour of all mankinde this present life how miserable soeuer it be by reason of sinne is no small Donation or pettie Legacy but a most excellent gift of God vnto his children I speake of long life promised to them which shall beare and behaue themselues as they ought to doe toward God and toward their neighbours as is recorded in the second and fifth commandement of the morall law where the promises are set downe whereunto that which is further added in the end of the 91. Psalme is referred and hath relation That hee which vnfainedly loueth the Lord shall be satisfied with long life But this longitude and length of life must not cause vs to forget especiall in all our troubles and trialls that by death wee haue rest and case from our toylings and labours and that this life of ours is a paineful pilgrimage a Sea-voyage full of danger and perill a mercilesse war sparing none making hauocke of all deseruing by reason of the euills that wee suffer and indure in it to bee tearmed rather a death then a life Vpon the consideration whereof a certaine graue ancient Father cried out O death how welcome and pleasing is thy doome and sentence to him that is in want to the man whose strength faileth him to him that is waxen very old and is afflicted on all sides hauing no part of him free from paine to the man that is at defiance and out of loue with himselfe and to him that hath cast off patience and is growne desperate What thing is there that may bee more desired then speedily to shake off and rid vs of these chaines to get out of the prison and darke and fearefull dungeons and deserts wherein wee are confined fast tied and bound that so wee may recouer the precious libertie to goe to our home to dwell in the house of the Lord and in his Palace of glory to triumph and reioyce What doth long life bring with it but a Chaos and infinite number of euills It hath beene said many yeares agoe This grieuous penalty vpon old men is set All the day long at home to grieue and to fret With sorrowes and woes they are compast about Still one paine or other they are neuer without They consume and weare old as they goe mourning in blacke And so at last with griefes heauy load away hence doe packe But he that hath liued well although he die when he is but twentie yeares old ought to haue his tombe erected and placed with the oldest and wisest and with great ioy and applause to haue this for his Epitaph I haue liued long enough and am content here to lye Because nature is pleas'd I should so
doth transforme them into prophane persons and desperate Atheistes If the exhortation was necessary which the wise man hath giuen to euery young man in the twelfth Chapter and third Verse of Ecclesiastes To remember his Creatour in the dayes of his youth before the euill dayes doe approach what is to be said to old men vpon whom those dayes and painefull to passe and vndergoe because of the miseries that doe accompany them are already come more then halfe gone and past and almost at an end What a shame were it to old men to be reproached and iustly that they play at leap frog vse fond courtings and make foolish toyes and brauadoes and gadde vp and downe whethersoeuer their affections lead them and the lusts of their eyes It were well done to proclaime and cry out with a loud voyce Know that for all thy euill wayes God will bring thee to iudgement O hypocrite where art thou canst thou hide thee from others from thy selfe from God thy Soueraigne thou hast one foot in the graue and thou wilt fetch gambols and friskes and caper aloft that the world may see thou art still one of her minions and a fauourite of her vanities But let vs consider the disorder and licentiousnesse of youth which soone enough procure a miserable old age which besmeare and rudely handle the sinner and lewd liuer The first disorder and licentiousnesse as Philosophers Physicians and Diuines say is found in whooredome adultery and such like abominable sins of the flesh Aristotle in his Tractate of the length and shortnesse of life saith That the males of all creatures which bill often with the females are quickely old and doe waste and consume their bodily strength Galen said that Venus which doth coole the blood too much and weaken the body is the capitall enemy of old men and of hote complections Long before him the holy Ghost hath giuen a good and wholesome caueate and precept thereof by the instruction of Bethsaba to King Salomon her sonne for whom shee made so many vowes Giue not thy strength to women following the way which is the destruction of Kings If such infamous disorders and licentiousnesse bee insupportable and perilous in young men how much more in old men who are obliged and bound to remember the holy statutes and ordinances of their Soueraigne who in his inuiolable law ratified vnder great paines and penalties cryes out Thou shalt not be a fornicatour Thou shalt not commit adultery God will iudge whooremongers and adulterers and such persons shall not inherite the kingdome of heauen Wise old men tremble at the words of their great Prince who telles them in plaine tearmes That whosoeuer lookes vpon a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart Matth. 5. 28. They mourne and lament when this interrogatory is ministred vnto them by the Apostle Know yee not that our bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ to make them the members of an harlot God forbid Also he sayth Fly fornication for euery sinne which a man committeth is without the body but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his owne body Know yee not that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost which yee haue of God and yee are not your owne men 1. Cor. 6. 15. c. The reason which he giues doth ouerthrow and cut off all pretexts that young and old men which despise the truth can alledge or take hold of to excuse themselues in accusing themselues You haue sayth hee beene bought with a price glorifie then God in your body and in your soule Let vs without producing further allegations and proofes in this case end it with the words of the same Aduocate of holinesse and truth This is sayth he the will of God and your sanctification that yee should abstaine from fornication and that euery one of you should know how to possesse his vessell in holinesse and honour and not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles doe which know not God 1. Thessal 4. 3. c. The Prouerb is That when the belly is full the bones desire rest or we are apt for wanton delights Delicious fare gluttony drunkennesse cause young men and old to liue so dissolutely and licenciously as before is mentioned And whereas the heathen people sought to finde veritie in wine the Apostle saith to the Ephesians That in wine there is found vanitie dissolutenesse disorder and all misgouernment and misrule Bacchus and Ceres as a heathen man said are the fewellers and fier-makers to Venus Wine and belly cheare dull the vnderstanding and bereaue a man of his senses And it is the onely time for old men to remember the notable sayings of Salomon to this purpose when they are at their great feasts and iunketting bankets I will content my selfe with repetition of those sentences which are contained in the end of the three and twentith Chapter of the Prouerbes where both the vices are set downe together close one by another My sonne sayth the wise man giue me thine heart and let thine eyes be watchfull and looke to my wayes For a whoore is a deepe ditch and the strange woman is a narrow pit Also shee lieth in waite as for a prey and will make the trecherous rebellious and transgressours among men to bee many in number To whom is woe is mee to whom is sorrow and alas to whom are vproares to whom are murmurings to whom are strifes and quarrels without cause to whom are redde eyes To those that sit long at the wine and which goe to seeke mixt wine Looke not vpon the wine when it is redde when it showes his collour in the cup and goes downe plesantly It biteth in the end like a serpent and stingeth like a cockatrice Then thine eyes will looke vpon strange women and thine heart will speake lewd things Thou shalt bee as one that sleepeth in the middest of the sea and as hee that sleepeth in the top mast of a ship They haue buffetted me thou wilt say and haue giuen me many cruell blowes but I was so past sense I felt not when I did awake I will yet goe seeke after new wine To these elegant sayings heere described I will adde the precept of our Sauiour who saith Take heed to your selues least your hearts be oppressed with gluttony drunkennesse and the cares of this life and the last day come vpon you vnawares Luke 21. 34. Saint Peter saith Be sober and watch because your aduersary the diuell goes about you like a roaring Lion seeking whom hee may deuoure 1. Peter 5. 8. And lastly Saint Paul hath this sentence That fornicators adulterers effeminate wantons drunkardes and other wicked persons who are dead asleepe and hardened in their sinnes shall not inherite the kingdome of God 1. Cor. 6. 10. I forbeare to speake of the diseases which proceed of the disorders and licenciousnesse formerly specified or of the extraordinary plagues
sentence of his owne damnation Such holy bookes are the true springs and fountaines of liuing water which the Author of life and euerlasting consolation causeth to flow into our soules by the efficacy and vertue of his Spirit which for the saluation of those that in humilitie come and draw neere vnto them purgeth and clenseth those filthy frothie waters and puddles making them quicke running streames to eternall life Wee read in the second Booke of the Tusculane questions a franke and open confession of Cicero the Author touching the imbicilitie and weakenesse of humane reason There are sayth hee certaine seedes of vertue springing in our hearts which if wee would suffer them to grow and sprout out nature by their meanes would guide vs to a happy life But wee are no sooner borne but behold wee are plunged into all corruption and into a gulfe of errors and aberrations which wee seeme to sucke with the milke of our Nurses Then are we afterward put forth to maisters and tutors which staine and corrupt vs with so many false and monstrous opinions that veritie giues way and place to vanitie and nature being preoccupied and forestalled with strange imaginations suffers it selfe by them to be out of measure transported and lead awry As then we draw out of the fountaines of Israel that is out of the word of God conteined in the holy Books of the Prophets and Apostles most certaine and assured documents and doctrines of the nature and essence of God of his prouidence of his loue towards vs of the soueraigne good and of a happie and euerlasting life So wise old men and all good Christians nurtured and instructed in the wordes of truth of faith charitie hope temperance pietie are not daunted and terrified with humaine brittlenesse and frailtie neyther thinke their maladies incurable nor their paines and sorrowes vnsupportable but by the helpe of the Doctrine recorded in this holy Schoole doe enioy a stedfast and assured consolation and doe say with Dauid in the Psalme 94. O how happie is the man O Lord whom thou reprouest and instructest by thy law to set him in a sure habitation and refuge in the dayes of aduersities that while and as often as sharpe heauie and grieuous thoughts and perplexities of mind doe wound and peirce their soules they may euer be cured holped and cheared with heauenly consolations But when we see many old men which call themselues Christians more faint-hearted more effeminate more impatient and froward then many poore silly miscreants and infidells haue beene And Christians likewise which make so great a sound of their name and haue high swelling words in their mouthes and base and euill manners who thinke one thing and say and doe another are farre indeed from the stayednesse and constancie of the auncient Stoickes We can doe no other then blame these vauâ—neantes vaine vitious persons who like bad stubborne souldiers when tryall and need is throw downe their weapons scoffe and mocke at the exhortations and incouragements giuen them to learne to handle and weild their spirituall weapons in the hall of Fence which standes open for them in the Mansion house of truth briefely please themselues in abiuring and renouncing all parts and poynts of any good and laudable dutie and seruice in the army of the liuing God Verily the life of a Christian so long as he soiourneth here in earth is affronted with carkings and carings annoyances and tedious disquiets It is a continuall warre wherein we are daily to cope grapse and striue against the enemie as well within as without to wit Sathan the world and our owne corrupt nature There is much worke markt and cut out But as the suffrings of Christ abound in vs so our consolation aboundeth thorough Christ Vndoubtedly a Christian hath an Arsenall or Armory repleate with whatsoeuer is necessary for him wherein he findeth all manner of weapons wherewith God himselfe from heauen doth array and furnish him so long as he will lift vp his eyes toward the promise and assistance of his Lord turne away his sight from whatsoeuer may hinder lett inwrapp and intangle him That these weapons are strong sure and of proofe not fained and vaine wee learne of two most braue Warriours who long agoe and a long tyme to encountred perils and dangers were in many skirmishes and battailes wherein they fought valiantly Men who for their magnanimitie valour long experience hold the prime and chiefe places of honour and rancke in the Armie of the supreame and soueraigne chiefetaine commander and head of the militant Church which is Iesus Christ One of them is called Dauid the Bethlemite the other Paul of Tarsus Dauid singes in the Psalme 39. Euery man at his best is vanitie doubtlesse man walketh in a shadowe and now Lord what haue I waited for my hope is euen in thee harken vnto my request bow downe thine eare vnto my cry bee not deafe at my teares for I am a stranger with thee and a soiourner as all my Fathers were In the Psalme 40. Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust and regardeth not the proud nor such as turne a side to lies O Lord my God thou hast made thy wonderfull workes and none can count in order to thee thy thoughts toward vs they are so many will I take vpon me to declare and speake of them they are moe then I can recount and expresse Then at the end he addeth Let all them which seeke thee reioyce and be glad in thee and let all them that loue the saluation thou giuest to those that are thine say alwayes the Lord be praysed and magnified Verely I am poore and needie but the Lord thinkes and hath care on me my God thou art my helpe and deliuerer The same great warriour singes in the Psalme 46. in the name of all the Church God is my fortresse strength and succour in troubles and distresse very readie to bee found therefore wee will not feare though the Earth tremble and be moued and the Mountaines fall and be ouer whelmed in the middest of the Sea Let vs heare the Apostle of the Gentiles Although saith he we be daily deliuered ouer to death for Iesus sake yet wee haue the spirit of faith which preserues vs that wee perish not But although our outward man perish yet the inward man is daily quickened and renewed For our light affliction which is but for a moment causeth vnto vs a farre more excellent and eternall weight of glory while we looke not on the things which are seene for the things which are seene are temporall but the things which are not seene are eternall In another place to wit in the sixt Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians he leadeth his souldiers into the spirituall Arsenall and Armourie and sayth vnto them Finally my bretheren be valiant and strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Put on the whole Armour of God that yee may be able
to ouercome and stand against the slights and assaults of the Deuill and hauing ouercome all things stand fast Stand fast then hauing your loynes girded about with veritie hauing on the brest-plate of righteousnesse and your feete shod with the preparation of peace Aboue all laying hold on the shield of faith wherewith you may quench all the fierie darts of the wicked one Take also the helmet of saluation and the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God Praying alwayes with all manner of prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseuerance These are the words of the Apostle But because it is not enough to name and shew weapons to a man if he know not how rightly to vse and to handle them We are more particularly to enquire after and to discourse and set forth the practise of this military Art as much as the consolation which we purpose to propose to wise old men doth require Saint Ambrose in his commentary vpon the sixt Chapter to the Ephesians speakes well to the purpose that although the Apostle names many specialties and partes of Armour yet faith it is that makes vs keepe to our tackling and to stand fast and whereof principally we haue need in this spirituall combat In deed what auailes it to read much to heare many Sermons of the prouidence grace and mercy of God if faith be not added to his Word And what auailes it to beleeue this word to be true if you tremble not when it soundes lowder in your eares then vsually it hath done if you stedfastly settle not your ioy and assurance in the promises of saluation which it propoundeth vnto you if you doe not in humilitie revere and honour your heauenly Father if you dread not his wrath indignation more then ten thousand deathes if you bee not wholly resolued that God speakes to condemne you if you perseuere and goe on to prouoke him and to offer you grace if you amend your liues and beleeue in the Gospell To what purpose serue so many Sermons touching Iesus Christ his obedience his merit his miracles his loue to saue his elect And what are so many exhortations good for if this Sauiour dwell not in your hearts by faith if he doe not rule amend and reforme them if by his spirit of sanctification and adoption he seale them not vp in them if he doe not stampe and engraue his loue and truth in them The Apostle S. Iohn speaking of the speciall graces of God who is Almighty and good to his children wisely and necessarily ioynes these two together To wit that he hath giuen vs eternall life that this life is in his Sonne so that whosoeuer hath the Sonne consequently hath an assured guard of defence against death and all the temptations which goe before and precede it Afterward that God hath giuen vs knowledge and vnderstanding to the end we may know him and be certainely assured that hee herein is true in this Author of all good which is Christ The same Apostle doth vpon good right call this assurance our victorie that is our warlike furniture and armour wherewith we ouercome the world and throw downe to the ground all her strong holdes For this cause according to the example of the Apostles wee ought deuoutly to pray to God to giue vs faith and daily to increase it in our hearts What dastardes and cowardes were the Disciples of our Lord What a hard harsh diffused noyse was it and not to be endured to heare of their Maisters death before the vertue and efficacie of a liuely faith did actuate and enlarge it selfe in them Wee may see what the Euangelistes sayde of them Saint Matthewe Chapter 16. verse 23. Saint Luke 18. 34. Saint Iohn 16. 6. The eleauenth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrewes contaynes a great number of worthie examples by which we may learne how great the efficacie and power of a true and liuely faith is in all manner of afflictions Wee reade the same in the auncient and moderne Historie of the Church where wee see a great number of men and women of diuerse and differing Ages of young boyes and girles that made proofe of an inuincible Faith as well in the fierie Furnace of persecutions as in the deepe dungeon and prison of all sortes of troubles and calamities and had the victorie and now are crowned with prayse and immortall glorie in the Pallace of GOD in his triumphant Church So wee must conclude with the Prophet in the Psalme 73. that God is good to Israell yea to all those which serue him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of their life although on the contrary the flesh the world and Sathan doe grumble gnash their teeth and snarle at it And in another place Psalme 66. the Prophet sayth O inhabitants of the earth blesse our God and sound aloud his prayse It is he that hath reestablished our soule in life and hath not suffered our feete to slip For thou O God hast prooued vs thou hast tryed and purified vs as siluer is tryed and purified As if he did say iustly thou mightest consume vs and thou art content to try vs cleansing vs from the filth of so many scandâ—lls and imputations wherewith we haue beene disgraced and diffamed Wee are fallen into the fire of afflictions which should burne and waste vs to nothing and are vp to the eares in the water of extreame anguish and agonie of bodie and minde where if we had our deserts we should be stifled and strangled but thou hast enlarged and set vs at ease The peace and holy libertie which we enioy by thy free gift is as a Mansion or dwelling in a large pleasant country to all those that desire to liue and without ceasing to prayse thee Behold how faith doth accommodate it selfe is willing and readie sweening and mitigating all the paines griefes and discommodities of this present life quenching also all the fierie dartes of Sathan especially despaire and distrust It is shee which hath the custodie and charge of all the Armour of God which shrowdes vs vnder the helmet of saluation with the strong shield of affiance hath the sword of the word of truth in her hand is well shod with the preparation of the Gospell of peace doth crosse and resist all impediments and letts and bestirres her selfe on euery side in the enemies campe If then as S. Cyprian sayth writing to those of Thibara men practise and learne to fence and to fight pell mell not sparing life nor lymme making great reckoning of a corruptible Crowne which is set vpon their heads in the presence of the Emperour how much more excellent and glorious is the combat whereof God is the Emperour and soueraigne and his Angels are not onely spectators but moderators and Iudges and propound to vs a Crowne of glorie Let vs then arme our selues sayth he with a simple and pure vnderstanding a sound and sincere faith and
this pardon by the gift and hand of a liuely faith doe wrastle against the image of death against a bruised Serpent a wourried torne Lyon against a stinglesse Waspe against a vanquished enemie Chrysostome censureth in good manner those wretches who feare death and feare not sinne wherein they are insnared and wrapped nor the vnquenchable fire of hell which gapes for them Thus sayth he as children are wayward and wrangle if their mothers come neere them with maskes on their faces but when a lighted Candle is brought neere vnto them they readily thrust their handes in it and are burned So those men feare death who know not what it is to liue Death snatcheth away a miserable and short life to make vs to enter into an eternall and perpetuall blessed life Death doth seperate vs from the heapes of Iewells the robes moueables coffers crammed with gold and siluer the sundrie immoueables which we must leaue But in heaven we haue vnseperable riches with the Angels death extrudes and thrustes vs out of the earth but to bring vs into paradize death kills the bodie but it shall rise againe to die no more but be conformable to the glorified bodie of Christ Iesus If any man fight with his owne shadow he hurtes no bodie so death doth but beate the ayre in bickering and jousting against the just It hath beene Gods will and pleasure so sayth Chrysostome that this present life should be painefull and miserable to the end that being buffetted on all sides with so many and manifold miseries we should eagerly aspire to the happinesses to come But seeing we are thus farre ill aduised to wallow and idle it so willingly in this present life where so many disasters and miseries doe surround and encompasse vs how would it be with vs if there were nothing but ioy peace and rest here Our most mercifull heauenly Father doth so mitigate and temper the afflictions of this life that as a Lute-player doth not winde vp too high his Lute strings for feare to breake them nor slacken them too much that so their sweete harmonie tunablenesse may be more distinctly perceiued So doth the wise maister of our life not leauing vs in continuall prosperitie nor too much oppressed He is faithfull who will not suffer vs to be tempted beyond and aboue our strength but will giue a good issue to our temptations and tryalls to the end we should be able to beare them We see men of warre desirous of honour and to attaine to some rancke and degree manfully to expose themselues to a thousand dangers The couetous Marchant to runne vpon all hazards and risques for a handfull of yellow earth The voluptuous person to disdaine and set light by infinite reprochfull and woefull dangers to satisfie his passions and humours And you wise old men will you slumber and sleepe in a corner will you still sit with your armes and legges a crosse not rouzing lifting vp your selues to the contemplation and diligent seeking after so many happinesses prepared for them which loue God Doe you feare death you which in the middest of the shadowe of death haue standing at your ell-bow the Prince and Author of life If you beare in your hearts that quickning spirit which raised vp Iesus Christ from the dead whence is it that you feare death Haue you blotted out of your remembrance him who hath the wordes of eternall life who is the way the truth the resurrection the life who dyed for our sinne and is risen againe for our iustification But soyle not this gracious remembrance with the myre and mudd of sordid and obscene pleasures Let not the perswasions of the vncleane and filthie flesh stoppe and hinder the motions of the spirit illuminated by sacred Philosophie Let the repetitions of his most sweete most certaine and most holy promises bee potent and powerfull in your hearts who was willing to participate of our flesh and bloud that in the same nature foyled by Sathan our Sauiour hath abolished it by his death as by a most sufficient ransome he which conquered death to wit the Deuill Giue me leaue to reforme and rectifie you by recitall of the excellent promises following of the Lord. Verely I say vnto you that whosoeuer heareth my word and beleeueth in him which sent mee hath eternall life and shall not come to condemnation but is passed from death to life Iohn 5. 24. This is the will of him which sent me that whosoeuer beholdeth the sonne and beleeueth in him hath eternall life and for this cause I will raise him vp againe at the last day Such perspection and contemplation of faith is not as prophane persons chatter and mutter a vaine imagination but is coupled and covnited with his effect and with the true apprehension and laying hold of Iesus Christ and his benefites This great Sauiour hath so often times and againe and againe recommended it and for confirmation of it hath prepared his holy Table to which we draw neere there to receiue the bread of life ordayned to the nourishment of our soules to eternall life not for our bellies to receiue which bread we hold vp the hands of faith to heauen and beleeuing in him doe eate it That bread I say which is giuen to the children of the house not to reprobates who sometimes eate the bread of the Lord but not the bread of life which is the Lord. He which is not reconciled to Christ Iesus eateth not his flesh and drinketh not his bloud although euery day hee receiue but to his condemnation the Sacrament or the holy signes of so excellent a thing But he which confirmes and establisheth vs in Christ and who hath annoynted vs is God who also hath sealed and giuen vnto vs the earnest of his spirit in our hearts It is this holy spirit of promise wherewith we haue beene sealed yea for the day of redemption without which spirit the visible signes in the Sacramentes are receiued to condemnation by which spirit faith taught by the word confirmed by the signes or seales of the righteousnesse of the same faith takes daily new growthes and growinges and is manifested by holy workes of which the summe and totall is that we liue and die to the Lord who is dead and risen againe to haue dominion as well over the liuing as the dead to gouerne and guide vs as the sheepe of his pasture and finally to draw vs out of the hideous deserts of this worldly life no life in deed to gather vs to himselfe his heauenly sheep folde If God be on our side who shall be against vs Who shall bee able to make vs afraide and dismay vs Iesus Christ who is dead is risen againe it is he who now being set at the right hand of God maketh request for vs. Let vs adde some worthie sayinges of S. Cyprian in his excellent Treatise of death Simeon the iust reioycing to hold in his armes the little babe Iesus whom he had so
much desired declareth by his wordes which breathed nothing but faith charitie consolation a stedfast hope that the seruants of God are in peace enioy a free rest being drawne out of the foaming and tempestuous waues of this world and landing at the port of safetie and eternall happinesse when after the abolishment of death we come to a glorious immortalitie For this is our peace our assured rest our assured and perpetuall safetie In this world we are continually grapling tugging and wrastling with Sathan and all our exercise is to repulse and repell his dartes We haue on our armes on our foreheads sides and backes avarice incontinencie anger ambition of necessitie wee must wrastle without ceasing against the lustes of the flesh and the baites and allurements of the world Toward the end of the same Treatise hee sayth further that we must not weepe for our brethren when it pleaseth God to call and deliuer them out of this world for well I know that they are not lost but gone before and haue the start of those who tarrie behinde Wee may desire and looke after them as men do for their friends who are going some voyage or who take shipping to sayle and goe to land in a good port But we must not bewayle them nor here weare black mourning habitts seeing they haue alreadie receiued white robes in heauen It becomes vs not to giue occasion to Heathens justly to tax and reproue vs if they see by an inordinate loue our countenance appalled and agast thinking them vtterly lost and annihilated whom we hold and maintaine to be aliue with God and if they perceiue it witnessed euidently enough by our minde that wee condemne the faith we professe with our mouthes In this case we ouer throw our faith and our hope which we could not say but to proceed of hypocrisie It is nothing to shew our selues hardie in wordes if we evert and destroy the truth with our doings and deedes It is tyme to conclude this Chapter We say then that the anxieties of minde maladies perplexities and apprehensions of so many deathes which doe spurne and kicke against vs doe silently and tacitely cry vnto vs and exhort vs with speed to lift vp our eyes to Christ Iesus the fountaine of life to the communion we haue with him also to the blessinges alreadie receiued of him and to those which the hope which makes vs not afraide doth assuredly expect And following the counsell of S. Basile in his Treatise that thankes must alwayes bee giuen to God Let vs not put our affiance and trust in man nor let vs say with the ignorant vulgar death hath taken from me all my succour and helpe my father my husband my sonne the comfort of my old age the prop and piller of my house Who hath commaunded you to moore your ancher of hope in such a little lump of dust as man is What age is priuiledged from the handes of death What a one is he who by couenant made with vs protesteth that he will be the God of their fathers and of their children to a thousand generations who loue feare him Shall we forget him who makes so kinde a proffer of himselfe to vs to imagine forge to our selues succours and helpes of straw and of wind Let the ancher of our sure and stedfast hope sincke into the vaile of heauen and let it bee sticking faste in the throne of God It shall there be a brasen bullwarke for vs a wall of fire Let Christ be our life in death in him let death be our gaine Let vs say with Ieremiah in the 17. Chapter Blessed be the man which trusteth in the Lord whose confidence the Lord is For he shall be as a tree planted by the water which spreadeth out her roots by a flowing riuer which shall not feele when the heate shall approach her leafe shall be greene and shall not wither in the yeare of drought and shall not cease to yeeld her fruit Let vs further amasse and gather some words from the same Prophet O Lord thou art the hope of thy Church those that forsake thee shall bee confounded for they haue forsaken the fountaine of liuing waters Heale those that are thine O Lord then shall they be in rest saue them and none shall bee able to hurt them Leaue them not forlorne and in a desperate plight thou which art their hope in the day of affliction Let their despayring and hopelesse enemies be confounded and let them rest in safetie vnder the shadow of thy wings CHAP. XIX Of the resurrection of the bodies and of the immortalitie of humane soules THE Apostle speake to very good purpose in the 15. chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians that if our hope should be in Christ Iesus in regard of this present life onely our condition should be more miserable then other mens seeing that true Christians are continually exposed to diuers afflictions and from time to time doe suffer great tortures troubles But what would it auaile to liue in the world and there to subsist and be a thousand yeares if it be in the fire of calamities and sundry oppressions There cannot then bee proposed vnto vs a more certaine refuge and helpe nor a more sweete comfort and support against the miseries and infirmities of this present life then the assured hope of the resurrection to a better life When we shall beare about vs no longer the image of the first earthly man but of the second who is the heavenly Adam and that this corruptible and mortall bodie shall put on incorruption and immortalitie The sure confidence of Christians is the resurrection from the dead wherein we shall haue a glorious bodie which shall be so revnited to the blessed soule and the soule againe to the bodie that we may be for euer with our head fully replenished with euerlasting ioy in the presence of God The Heathens enemies of Christian religion haue especially impugned this Article of the resurrection of the bodie And which is more many of their Philosophers haue spoken doubtfully of the immortalitie of the soule At this tyme to the end to confirme our faith our hope and assured consolation we will consider the groundes of these two Articles aswell by the nature of things and by certaine conceptions as by the sound resolutions rehearsed in the holy Scriptures Certainly as Gregory the great said in his Moralls That those who haue not learned from the Scripture the doctrine of the Resurrection ought to learne it of nature For what doe men daily obserue in the continuall medley and blending of the Elements whereof all visible things are composed but proofes of the resurrection of the dead Wee see by the vicissitude and reuolution of time the Plants and Trees to lose their greene leaues which wither and fall off when Winter comes after in the Spring to sprout forth againe and the earth to become greene gay as before If the smal