a heauy and vnsupportable burthen whose weight doth suppresse them and cause them to tumble into euerlasting perdition 5. Fifthly let vs now adde some assured consolations against death and first we will draw from certaine places of the holy Scripture the faire termes and names which it giueth to death to sweeten vnto vs the apprehension of it By whose testimony to dye is to bee gathered to his people as it is said of Abraham Gen. 25. 8. It is to goe the way of all the earth 1. Kings 2. 2. It is to be bound vp in the bundle of life 1. Sam. 25. 29. It is to be taken away from euill to enter into peace and rest in our beds Esaiah 57. 1 2. It is to be in the shadow and at rest as the hireling which hath ended his dayes worke Iob 7. 1. 2. It is to sleepe Iohn 11. 11. 1. Thess 4. 13. To rest from his labours Apocalips 14. 13. It is to goe out of the world to goe to God our Father Iohn 13. 1. It is to goe to our Fathers house where there are many dwelling places Iohn 14. 1. It is to returne to our home and countrey after a long painefull and perillous voyage 2. Cor. 5. 6. It is to be vnshackled and deliuered out of a galley or prison to bee with Christ Iesus Philip. 1. 23. It is to goe hence out of a poore beggarly tabernacle 2 Peter 1. 14. It is to be clothed in heauen with glory and immortality 2. Cor. 5. 1. 2. It is to finish our course and our fight to receiue a crowne 2. Timoth. 4. 7. 8. It is to goe to the Nuptialls of the Lambe and his Bride in the Celestiall Ierusalem in the City of God all garnished with gold and precious stones that is adorned with incomprehensible glory and eternall happinesse Apocalips 21. 1. c. It is to liue with Iesus Christ a thousand yeares to wit for euer Apocalips 20. 4. This life and glorious immortality is manifested vnto vs in the Gospel by Christ Iesus who by his appearing hath abolished death 2. Timothie 1. 10. Wherefore then should a wise man feare to goe to his Fathers and would haue a way by himselfe Is it well done not to will and desire to be gathered with the true liuing from so many euills without within aboue belowe behinde before and round about vs After so many battailes so many conflicts skirmishes and wounds especially in the soule to refuse peace to rest out of the short and danger of the weapons teares alarmes vacarmes gurboyles and stirres of the world of our owne heart of the corruption of the wicked and of the powers of Sathan our capitall aduersary O strange case Wee runne after peace and rest and flye from it when it offers it selfe Trauailes and labours weigh vs downe and oppresse vs and we are agaste and abashed to bee ridde of them There is no bed in the world so soft as that where the bodies doe rest when the soules are separated from them notwithstanding not to lie in it we would be contented to bee condemned to goe wooll ward in sackcloth and haire cloth in totters and ragges and to lye on the hard ground or vpon thornes Had we rather dwell with Vipers then with our Father in his heauenly Mansion Those euerlasting Mansions so much to be desired are in lesse account and esteeme with vs then the vncleane and nastie stables of Beastes The earth doth more infinitely please vs then heauen This galley of our life where we tugg both day and night at the oare of ambition auarice cruell lustes debauched pleasures These darke dennes of innumerable sinnes are the resting places that we make much on and wherein we bristle vp our selues and outragiously curse whatsoeuer sacred Philosophie doth propose and set forth vnto vs of the blessed estate of the triumphant Church with her head in heauen What old men are we who grow young in our vices who had rather renounce our sweete Countrie and trott vp and downe in the hideous desertes of the world full of scorpions and Basilisques of horrid ghostes and hob goblins and so many kindes of Deuills then to set one steppe in the right way of repentant faith of charitable hope and patient humilitie Men of wit where is our wit when our bodies are of more price vnto vs then our soules and we are willing to forgoe and loose our armes to saue our sleeues Who preferre a garment before eternall glory a handfull of crownes before most durable treasures a fond idle wicked damnable pleasure before euerlasting ioyes Who still desire to runne on in the way of perdition who fight and striue against nothing but pietie righteousnesse holinesse to conclude who purchase a buryall place for vertue to cause vice to raigne and triumph When will it be that the invitation to the solemne feast of the Sonne of God with his Church will please and be well-come vnto vs When will we prouide our costly rich robes to appeare in this holy assembly Will we still deferre to cleanse our selues from the filth of sinne which makes vs holds downe the head to blush to looke pale and wan to be halfe dead or in a traunce not to dare once to lift vp the eyes of our minde but in hypocrisie and a very strange stupiditie to him which calleth vs to him to the gates of the Pallace whereunto we are so neere Wise old men awaken and rouze vp your selues and more deepely yet consider and meditate vpon the consolations insinuated and inserted in the termes and names which diuine wisedome giueth and ascribeth to death It is demanded seeing Christ Iesus hath abolished death and that by him we are reconciled to God to obtaine eternall life how comes it to passe that we are still subiect to death S. Augustine answereth that heretofore death came and was by sin haled into the world but now death takes away our temporall life to the end we should cease from sinne and that the remembrance of death doe keepe and conteme vs in our dutie So by the vnspeakeable mercie of God the punishment of our sinnes was changed into an armour or shield against sinnes And although that the death of the flesh proceedeth originally from sinne so is it that the good aspect and face of death hath made many excellent Martyrs And although death and all the euils trauailes and turmoyles vexations and sorrowes of this present life proceed from the desert of our sinnes and that after hauing obtained pardon these euills remaine still it is to the end we should haue aduersaries to wrastle against and to exercise vs to make knowne and sensible to vs how strong the power of the Lord is in our weakenes And that so the new man may grow vp and bee fitted and prepared in this world for the world to come looking for the perfect and compleat happinesse of all Gods children Therefore repentant Christians whose sins are pardoned and who accept
had of some comfort after many sorrowes and afflictions yet may it be said that the world was then in his prime and best dayes At which time these good Patriarches were not booke learned but all the knowledge they had in naturall Philosophy or in the course of the Starres they got it by long obseruation and experience which from the grandfathers and fathers were deliuered ouer and taught to their children and to their childrens children as Iosephus witnesseth in his first booke of Antiquities and third Chapter Many wondering heereat haue mooued this question whether it be likely or probable that the Patriarched liued so long as nine hundred yeares and vpwards as our first father Adam Methusula and Noah did Some curious wits whose maner is to measure euery thing by the meat-wand and rule of their owne ouerweening pride who because they could not perswade themselues that the years of the Patriarches were composed of twelue moneths or of three hundred threescore fiue dayes euery day hauing foure and twenty houres and euery houre his ordinary minutes haue imagined as Saint Augustine reports in his 15. Booke De ciuitate Dei chap 10. 12. that the yeares of the first world were not reckoned according to our present computation and style but that one of our yeares now is as much in the ballance of account as tenne yeare then and they held their opinion for currant and to bee approoued for that the people of the old world doe still to this day differ about the calculation of the yeare For the AEgyptians had their yeare of foure moneths the Acarnans of sixe and the Lauinians of thirteene moneths Plinie the second hauing written that the Histories make mention of two whereof one liued one hundred fiftie and two yeares and the other liued two hundred yeares and of many that liued till they were eight hundred yeeres old addeth that the ignorance of the times gaue credit to such tales and reports because there were of the antienter men of those times that did shut vp and inclose the yeare within the seaesons thereof some of them reckoning the yeare by the summer season others did put the summer and winter season together and made two yeares of them both and some of them did reckon the interuall and space from the change of the Moone to the last day of the wayne for a whole yeere But besides that the history of the Deluge being heedfully looked into and examined according to his moneths and dayes doth confute this errour Saint Augustine declareth that such coniectures can haue no force or authoritie in this dispute and driueth these curious disputers into a manifest absurditie For if seuenty yeare 's then were but seuen of our yeares now Kenan when he was seuen yeares old begot his sonne Mahalaleel and Mahalaleel being onely fiue yeares old and a halfe should haue had Iered as Henoch also at the same age should haue begot his sonne Methusula But not to stand and relye vpon the vaine disputes of prophane people who being ignorant in the Art of Astronomy and Celestiall motions haue inuented yeares after their owne fancy and haue intricated themselues in infinite errours which time by the helpe and skill of learned Astronomers hath reformed and corrected Most sure and certaine it is that after the Deluge the whole earth by that fearefull punishment of the inundation of waters failed to yeeld his foison and strength as before and men being more luxurious and dissolute of life liued not so long as they did before as appeareth by the Genealogy of the sonnes of Sem in the 11. Chapter of Genesis Presently the yeares of the holy Patriarches did ebb and abate of their number and in processe of time men in their manners grew worse and worse so that at last in the time of Iacob the age of man did shrinke away and decay very much and afterward much more in the time of Moyses whereof wee may haue an instance and proofe in the nintie Psalme although the yeares there mentioned seeme to be abriged and cut off for an extraordinary rod of correction to them in the Desert Caius the lawyer giueth his iudgement that the houre-glasse of mans life euen of those that are of the ablest bodies and mindes cannot runne much longer then a hundred yeares In the bookes of Heathen Authors there are found notable and rare examples and perhaps fabulous of men that haue liued very old The yeares of Nestor are become a proueeb by reason that Homer gaue it out that he liued thee hundred yeares The Tragedian Poets broach it for a truth that one Tiresias liued sixe hundred yeares and Plinie in his 7. Booke Chap. 48. hath set downe a Catalogue of old men that liued to a very great age Sabellicus in his AEneades reporteth that in Arabia men liue till they bee foure hundred yeares full out Our French Historiographers doe celebrate the memory of one Iohn des temps who had an Esquires place vnder Charlemagne about the year 800. and liued vntill the yeare 1124. vnder the Emperour Conrad the third In our dayes there haue beene found in the East and West Indies old men that haue out liued two hundred yeares and in diuers parts of Europe chiefly in the temperate Clymates but especially in the mountaine countries there be found men aboue a hundred yeares old that are very voluble and fluent in talke and discourse But whether this bee so or no all wise men agree in this that although God by his speciall blessing for certaine great reasons hath drawne out the dayes of some of his children to a very great length and that oftentimes it falleth out that the wicked suddainly perish and haue their life taken away for their rebellion against him as the whole race of Cain was swallowed vp of the flood and not a man of them left aliue Yet this earth that beares vs vp and whereupon we tread is not the Land of the liuing as Basil declareth in his exposition vpon the 44. Psal For here before the soule goes out of the body we are often and long a dying feele many assaults of death who giues vs many a sore blowe deadly wound before he kil vs out-right first our infancy dies in vs next our childhood afterwards our youth or age of twentie or one and twentie yeares growth consequently our manly and middle age which is followed with old age which changeth both vs and our affections making vs to liue after another manner We shall then be in the land of the liuing when wee shall be the same men we seeme to bee vnchangeable without griefe of minde or sicknesse of body not subiect to any corruptions or defilements nor frowardly liuing in strife and debate While we liue in this tabernacle of the body as Saint Paul saith 2. Cor. 5. 4. Wee sigh and mourne being heauily burthened not that wee desire to be stripped or vnclothed but to be clothed againe that that which
principle The iust shall liue by faith CHAP. IIII. What old age is and how many species and kindes of old age there be THE disloyaltie and fearefulnesse of Adam and Eue was the violent downefall of themselues and their posteritie vnto death and vnto all the forerunners of death as consumption diseases and wanne and pale old age which is the respectacle center and sinke of all mans miseries To speake properly God onely is incorruptible immortall immutable alwayes the same and whose yeares alter not And although it be said that the soule of man is immortall as Saint Augustine affirmeth in his first booke De Trinitate yet the true immortality is a perfect immutability and vnchangeablenes which no creature hath In God onely there is no variablenesse nor shadow of change as saith Saint Iames Chap. 1. 17. Verse Contrariwise our liues are variable and subiect to suddaine reuolutions changes and chances and our faire outside and feature of body turnes to bee as a moth eaten garment Our dayes as the Patriarch Iacob said to the king of AEgypt are few and euill or wearisome vpon earth Galen knowing well that old age a naturall infirmity which could not be auoyded did iustly reproue a certaine Philosopher who braggingly gaue it out that hee had a receipt would preserue a man from growing old Although saith hee old age be naturall and ineuitable and withall further addeth that this Philosopher being growen to the age of fourescore yeares dyed of a hectique feauer At that time when Saint Cyprian liued the whole world was iudged to be very much weather-beaten to be growen old and that all her former good dayes were gone and past Behold what this couragious Martyr of Iesus Christ saith of the world in his tractate of death If the old walles of your house should stand totteringly if the battlement and roofe should shake if the maine building should leane awry and the rafters postes groundsells and principall timbers should bee weake and rotten all of them giuing you warning of the perill yee are in if yee tarry in it would yee stand to delay and pawse on the matter and not get yee gone in all hast The whole frame of the world doth totter and reele and being old and neere her end shee cryes out that shee stands vpon her last legges and is quite downe and you deferre to serue God to seeke your owne safety and good by preuenting those euils which with her crimes are ready to fall vpon you and may bee escaped if you timely giue ouer the world Many learned Astronomers haue prooued by firme and sure demonstrations that the celestiall Planets haue altered their course and motions and that the Sun is come neerer to the earth that by his warme neighbour-hood such is the speciall prouidence and will of God the Elements which are become weake in their influences might be the better relieued Most certaine it is that the world is growen old that Kingdomes Common-weales and Cities haue their flourishing times and times of decaie kindreds also and whole families are rooted out and not a man of them to bee seene aboue ground and all the creatures which serue to our vse and are subiect to vanitie doe after their manner groaningly desire and looke for an end as the Apostle saith Rom. 8. 20. But to returne to our Vieillard or old man who is the subiect of this discourse what other thing is old age then the road way to death For seeing that death is a suffocating and quenching of the naturall heate of the body old age makes way to him to enter and seize vpon the body the sooner The older men are the more weake and feeble they are in euery thing they doe and take in hand and this weakenesse of old age can in no sort be holpen and redressed though wee striue to doe it by keeping the heare from faintings and failings and in continuall motion For life and action end both at once it being impossible that the liuing creature should die so long as the heart receiues motion by the bodies action Moreouer old men who are of a dry and cold constitution are lesse fit to vndertake many actions exploites or imploiments They are not quicke enough of apprehension their senses fayling them by little and little the synewes lineaments and all the members of their body doe shrinke languish and decay their sight and hearing failes them they are chap-fallen and their teeth deny to champ and grinde the bread they must eat And as God hath appointed euery mans race of life how long it shall be and the stages hee must passe before he come to the end of it whereof old age is the last stage of all it is not euery mans desteny to goe so farre some waxe old sooner then others some beare their age very well some looke old and are not So that old age must not be iudged by the wrinkles in the fore-head by the white haires by the vnweldinesse or witherednesse of the body there being on the contrary some very old that haue a ruddy face and well coloured a sleeked and smooth skin and their haire of a cole-blacke or nutt-browne colour But it is fit rather to referre our selues to the wordes of the Psalmist in the nineteenth Psalme where mention is made of the yeares of mans life and of those things which often happen therein and of the many and manifold troubles and discommodities wherewith old men are besieged and compassed about Moreouer the Naturalists and Philosophers haue vsed to diuide old age as it were into certaine spaces paces or progresses The first pace and progresse is from fifty to threescore yeares at which age a man is yet lusty strong and youthfull especially those men who haue beene wise to liue abstinently and continently flying gluttony drunkennesse whooredome effeminacies excessiue paines taking and labours more hurtfull then necessary for the welfare and strength of the body ouermuch carking and caring and ouer violent passions of the minde which ouerwhelme the soule not suffering it to rest in quiet or making it to goe gadding and madding heere and there to and fro as it happeneth to the licentious ambitious couetous reuengefull irefull froward fearefull and such like persons who being tempested with disordered thoughts and vnruly passions are carried with the rage and fury of them so farre out of the way of reason and besides themselues that they can hardly hit the right way againe to the house and citie of God And though that after fifty yeares the strength of nature doth wane and by little and little doth abate and grow weake yet wee see that men at that age and after vntilll they bee threescore and fiue yeeres old and vpwardes are fit persons to bee imployed in publike places of charge and command as well for their counsell and wisedome to direct as for their ability and valour to execute and performe wherof we haue infinit examples in our owne Chronicles and moderne Histories
At threescore and fiue yeares vntill fourescore or much about that age old men may be fit to be counsellours of estate and directours and gouernours of families After this age vntill their dying day old men are fit for nothing but to sit in a chaire in their chamber to haue their friends seruants and those of their house to visite them with reuerent and courteous salutations to haue their children and grand-children leaping about them making them pastime and sport to be entertained with talke and discourse fitting to their weake capacities And their part and duty is to returne them their blessing and well wishing and to offer vp daily prayers for them and all others wherein they must bee briefe and short expecting and looking euery minute when death will bee so kinde as to take them out of the world There is a kinde of old age ouerhastened ouermuch worne and broken with sore labour ouermuch paines taking watchings and surfettings in times past Those that by this meanes are become old shall yet at times for the most part haue perfect senses and vnderstanding and shall haue their blood moderately hote the luke-warme heate whereof they shall know by skill and cunning to cherish and maintaine But yet their surfeited bodies shal be tormented with sharpe diseases and aches in their bones which by fits at times shall put them to such griping paines and panges in their body that they shall be able no whit at all to helpe themselues and their neighbours for whose good and comfort they ought the more carefully to preserue and the better to see to and to order their life that so they may in peace of conscience yeeld the better account to God Briefly our life may be compared to the light of a Lampe which by little and little goes out as the oyle that maintaines it doth waste and consume or to the Moone which as it oftentimes shines forth and shewes it selfe so is it as often ecclipsed and vnder a cloud But we commonly see the most part of men sweated to death with hote burning feauers pestilences famines warres common diseases and diuers mischances sweepe them out of the world before they come neere by many a dayes iourney to the doore of old age What man would desire to see the fortith part of his age if when hee is come to be able to speake and to bee of some capacity and vnderstanding he should be shewed in a booke all the accidents and mischances which from and after his infancy is or may happen vnto him whereof as Cicero recounteth in his second booke De diuinatione Dicaearchus in times past wrote a large Volume But I suppose hee had great leasure and that all the world could not containe all that might be imagined to fall out in some mens liues in fiftie yeares space If a man fearing God will seriously examine what things haue passed in his owne life and make a Iournall or day booke of them whereby hee may bee brought to repent him of his follies and faults to amend his life to lay hold on the benefits of Iesus Christ to renounce the world and vnfainedly to meditate and thinke vpon a better life hee shall doe a worthy worke And I would gladly counsell all wise old men to stay themselues vpon such meditations while some young foppish and old doting persons spend their time in ridiculous and shamefull sports and delights or which doe by fowle crimes and misdeedes deadly wound their woefull consciences It is recorded by Lactantius in his second booke of Christian Institutions that the old Poets did circle and inclose the life of man within three terminations or periodes ouer which they appointed three fatall Ladies Atropos Lachesis Clocho the daughter of Iupiter and Themis to spin at the thread of mans life vnder which faigned names was couertly vayled and shadowed diuers considerations of our condition in this world in the first middle and last age of our life whereof we purpose not here to moralize or declare the meaning Aristotle in his booke of the world maketh mention that by these three daughters of Iupiter the ancient people of those times would represent time past time present and to come All things by them being tyed to a fatall necessitie which God hath decreed to bee against which the oldest strongest and youngest cannot resist or gainsay The name of Senators is deriued from the Latine word senes which signifies old men who are so styled in honour of their experience prudence and wisedome inseperable companions of such old men who are appointed to haue the superintendency and gouernment ouer others In the gouernment of all Churches there is an Ecclesiasticall Senate or conuocation of Elders who being assisted with the ministers of the word haue their eyes still prying into the manners of men to reforme and reclaime them from euill to good and if they be good to make them better These old men aboue all others ought to take heed that they doe not incurre the ancient reproach and scandall of bis pueri senes which is verified in those who are old in yeares and in their manners and actions shew themselues children But as it is a rare thing to see a yong man so well stayed as an old or to doe things so well and wisely as an antienter body so is it a lamentable thing to see old men to mocke make moes one at an other and to make a laughing stocke of those who are as old as themselues or to doe the vttermost they can to disgrace them onely to please and curry-fauour with young men Common faults in these dayes which the Ancient of dayes will redresse when it pleaseth him Let vs close vp this Section with a sentence of a Romane Stoicke who sayth That as he maketh not a long voyage who is tossed to and fro at sea with stormy and tempestuous windes and doth not proceed so ought we not to account that man to haue liued long who hath not ordered his life to make a happy end CHAP. V. The spring-head of old age and the cause or occasions of it MAny of the Heathen people haue shewed themselues rash vnaduised and arrogantly minded who haue taken vpon them boldly to accuse nature calling her an enuious and spitefull step-mother which hath been willing and giuen her consent that man who is worthy of very long life should remaine so short a time in the world and which is more that he should be compassed about and pressed to death with millions of euills Others haue imagined that man was purposely placed in the world to bee punished for his sinnes There were many of them that maintained that life was a scourge and plague to man and made great complaints against nature that shee had cast him into the middest of a raging and stormy sea ouerslowing with miseries These and the like discoursers haue resembled those who thinke the worse of good wines because of the lees in the bottome of
I doe not reckon nor rest vpon those common felicities to haue the Hatt put off to them to be men of countenance and respect to haue seruants to attend them to be sought vnto for their counsell and aduise felicities which doe not happen to all old men But I haue a regard to the true felicities whereof our next Chapter shall treate In so much that it was wisely spoken that old age doth resemble the Images called Silenes which a farre off and without appeared to bee grossely carued and very ill fauouredly made but neere hand were of excellent workemanship and seemed to haue in them I know not what that was more then humaine Such is properly old age if the life past hath beene wisely ordered and if old men doe truely know their state and condition But in mine opinion there are foure Reasons wherefore many old men doe impatiently beare the burthen of old age The first is that by their fretfull impatience they doe aggrauate their inevitable miseries a great deale more then is fitting or there is cause giue out in speech that they are worse then they be and being too sensible of them regarding altogether the present paines and euils which they feele and suffer doe not comfort themselues with the remembrance of their felicities past nor with the hope of the felicities of come The second is an euill education which is so preuailing potent and powerfull that custome is almost a nature and habit doth vtterly depraue mens manners and wholly corrupt them Therefore the saying of a wise auncient man is of a authoritie that it is fit betimes to trayne vp young men to take delight or paines in such things wherein it is meete for them to recreate themselues or to bee busied or take paines Euen as it is good to make them fit for honest trades or occupations and to envre them to good imployments seruices and to well-doing which no age ought to refuse For if wee should draw the shoulder from vnder the yoke and shunne all studie and industrie we should make no reckoning of vertue whereunto we doe not attaine but by the way that is narrow vneasie and painefull to clyme whereunto hauing attained our care is that we be not carryed beyond our bounds and misled by the vices which we hate and avoyde It is sayd that good house-keepers make vse of any thing be it neuer so small a rag and why shall not wise old men haue the wisedome and skill to drawe and distill good out of the euils which they suffer Phisitians finde infinite remedies and wonderfull medicinall properties in plants herbes and fruits which wee would neuer thinke to haue such excellent vertues if daily experience did not make it manifest and probat vnto vs. Shall it then be forbidden to those whom so many years haue enabled to be wise to extract from the time and from the sundry accidents and occurrences of their life past some remedie and refuge against the miseries which doe assaile and besiege them All things are mutually helpfull and ayding to the good of those that loue God And what ought then wise old men to hope for and expect if betimes they haue learned some documents and lessons touching their true office and dutie The third cause of impatience is that we who make profession of Iesus Christ and speake highly of the Church of Religion of the seruice of God of faith of good workes and say there is nothing so true as the Gospel haue but a weake faith and beliefe in the Gospell or in the assured promises of him who cannot deceiue nor be deceiued From this source and fountaine doe issue and flow all those euils which our fore-fathers and we haue seene What euils doth incredulitie and hardnesse of beliefe in gender and beget How often doth our Lord finde fault with his Disciples for it whom hee sawe so dull and slow to comprehend and vnderstand what hee taught them Old men doe torment and vexe themselues when they feele their sensitiue and carnall life to shorten and melt away but as for the life eternall Angelicall blessed the neerer it approacheth to them the lesse they apprehend and perceiue it If a man of honour or credite did promise you this or that this promise should passe for ready pay and for money told on the nayle and a hard matter it should be to make you in the least manner to thinke that his purpose should bee to falsifie or breake his word with you Beholde God doth tell you and when you are ready to depart out of the world promiseth that you shall liue for euer and your minde wauers and floates vpon the waues of doubt and hardnesse of beleefe This is not to know that there is a God nor who hee is this is by the sin of incredulity grieuously to offend Iesus Christ the Lord and master of all them which beleeue this is to imagine a Christian dwelling in the house of faith a man without faith without hope The fourth cause of our impatience is that old men know not what the oyle of saluation is the oyle of ioy the oyle whose flaming light neuer goes out or if they doe in some small measure know it they care not for it nor haue any minde or fancy to seeke it and begge it of the Lord. This oyle is the vnction of the holy Ghost wherewith Christians being inwardly annoynted are made strong not onely to resist death but the gates of hell also The ancient manner was to annoynt wrastlers with oyle and old men which are to combate and fight against the terrours of death haue very great need of this oyle and spirituall vnction Let them take heed then that they quench not the spirit 1. Thess 5. 19. But to vse another comparison let them bee carefull to kindle the gift of God in them by a daily supply of this oyle crauing with a zealous affection the increase thereof as King Dauid did with a loud voyce in the one and fiftith Psalme O God cast me not off from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me Restore to me the ioy of thy saluation and let thy free Spirit sustaine and establish mee This Spirit doth renew vs to the end wee like Eagles which soare directly aloft in the ayre to the Sunne might flye vp to heauen there to see our selues pluckt and stripped of the vaine light feathers of corruption couetousnesse anger impatience distrust and of many wordly lusts and desires which like lymetwigges doe stay and detaine foolish old men euen as it were pyles of wood rammed into the earth where their hearts are buryed hauing their soules more vntowardly crooked then their heads and shoulders so that they consume their dayes in sighes waylings and torments being wholly vnprouided of fit remedies to temper and sweeten the woes and sorrowes of this life nor hauing the power of themselues to leaue and forsake this world but as they must perforce
and reckons of death the threatnings and rage of Tyrants As Solon who being demanded By what vertue hee did so braue the Tyrant Pisistratus answered His old age Touching the contempt of death and a resolution couragiously to apprehend and embrace it who will not maruell to heare the wordes which the great Cyrus King of Persia vttered to his sonnes a little before his death My dearely beloued sonnes said he when you shall see mee no more thinke not therefore I am quite annihilated and no where for when I was in your company you could not perceiue my soule but onely discusled it in your minde to be in my body by the deedes and actions you saw me to doe Beleeue then that the soule is still aliue and in being although you see my body no more Neuer could any man perswade mee that the soules of mortall men perish with their bodies nor that being departed out of our bodies past feeling and sense that they are without feeling and sense on the contrary seeing that the soul being at liberty and hauing nothing to doe with the body begins to become pure and wholy to see and behold it selfe I hold and maintaine that then it is in full perfection of knowledge and vnderstanding Furthermore the case standing thus that death is the dissolution of nature wee see whither all things tend to wit to their first matter whereof they were made the soule excepted which we see not how it comes into the body remaines there nor goes out You see that there is nothing so much resembles death as sleepe But the soules of those which sleepe shew their diuine nature in this point that being free from disturbance and at rest see and behold things a farre off and to come which plainely declares what they must bee after they are deliuered from the prison of the body This being so reuerence mee my sonnes as a thing diuine but if the soule be to perish with the body yet giue not you ouer to feare the gods which maintaine vphold gouerne this Principall master peece called Man And in this doing as good children you shall inuiolably preserue my name To this Oration which is bettered by Cicero in his Dialogue of old age reciting Socrates who in prison wisely and stoutly discourseth of the immortality of the soule Old Cato also addeth that seeing the soules of men are so prompt and apprehensiue to remember things past and of so wise foresight in things future and to come haue inuented so many trades arts sciences so many rare and notable things It is impossible that such natures capable of so great excellencies should bee mortall And seeing the soule is in continuall agitation and motion which shee originally hath not to wit from any extrinsecall cause and from other then her Creatour which Cicero forgetteth seeing shee mooues and stirres of her selfe it followes that shee shall euer haue such agitation and motion for shee will neuer leaue or abandon to bee her selfe Further that the soule in it owne nature being a substance simple pure vnmixt hauing no disagreeing qualities cannot be diuided and being indiuiduall it followes it is immortall which serues to prooue that men are capable and of vnderstanding before they bee borne seeing that children in learning the baser and more seruile and meaner trades arts and sciences doe on a suddaine comprehend and conceiue infinit things ere on would say they begin to apprehend and vnderstand what this or that is but onely their memories serue them to retaine and beare them away Cato afterward affirmeth further That if the soules of men were not immortall good men would not desire or aspire to a glory which is durable and ay-lasting What meanes this saying That euery wise man dieth most willingly and the wicked depart hence full fore against their will and with much griefe and vexation of minde Seemes it not vnto you that the soule which sees more cleerely and father off knowes she goes to a better place On the contrary hebere dull and sencelesse man is vncapable and ignorant heereof Verily I desire nothing more then to see your forefathers whom I haue made much on respected and honoured and besides I desire to be with those of whom I haue heard men to speake and discourse whose bookes I haue seene and perused and whose names I haue quoated and mentioned in mine owne writings Now that I am onward in my way and making hast to goe to them It would be a troublesome and hard matter to hale mee or make mee roule or goe backe as men would a ball or a bowle And if God had made me a grant to become a childe againe and to cry in a cradle I should stifly and with might and maine refuse such an offer for seeing I haue almost finished my course I will not bee recalled from my last end to my first state and condition Is there any commoditie in this life Is not this life painefull in all her reuolutions terminations periods and endes But put the case this life hath many commodities so it is that wee may be full gorged satiated and glutted with them and see and end of them too I will not for all that way wardly and testily fret fume storme and chaffe at this life as many learned men haue oftentimes done and I repent me not that I haue liued for I haue so spent my dayes that I account of my selfe as one that hath serued for some vse and for something in the world I goe out of this life as out of an Inne and not as one out of a house seeing that nature leaues vs here in this world a time to passe and walke vp and downe but not heere to settle abide and continue O happy the day when I shall goe to the holy company of blessed soules and shall leaue the base rabble and rascally route of the world See heere for certaine the worthy Treatises of men ignorant of the immortality of mans soule but as they did gropingly and blindely imagine Notwithstanding they were grounded vpon this imagination that nothing being so common nor of more price and account with man then the loue and preseruation of himselfe a care and regard ought especially to bee had of that part which properly may be called Man to wit the soule and that the way and meanes to liue well and happily consisteth in the knowledge and comtemplation of things diuine inciting and prouoking vs to good workes so as the tranquility of our mindes consisteth not properly in being freed from paine and griefe but rather in being deliuered from those raging and vnruly passions which hurry the wicked vp and downe For as Seneca sayth in his booke De Prouidentia those casuall miseries which our owne hands bring not vpon vs are sent for our good that our many vertues may the more gloriously shew and appeare and that as wee cut Vines to make them yeeld the more fruit so by the smart and wound of
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
those earthly and transitory things which nature it selfe teacheth vs to dispise And an instruction also to lodge and harbour our meditations and thoughts in that Palace of infinite glory wherein wee are assured that all those that are righteous and sanctified to God by Iesus Christ shall bee assembled to blesse and prayse him for euer If on our birth day wee are extruded and come forth into the world crying and weeping Let vs also remember that presently we receiue the visible signe in Baptisme of our admittance into the Church and habitation of the liuing God that wee put on Iesus Christ that wee are consecrated to God that wee receiue the Hostage and pledge of that happy life to which the Sonne of God hath regenerated and begotten vs by his precious blood That it is hee that wipes away our teares which giues vs good hope and eternall consolation which he sufficiently ratified then when he so louingly caused the little children to bee brought vnto him layd his hands on them saying to his Disciples Suffer little children to come vnto me and forbid them not for to such is the kingdome of heauen So much touching the first beginnings of our life I come now to other afflictions and crosses which seeme to assayle and to lay neere siege to aged persons These opponents are so mighty and many in number which Salomon considering hath oftentimes sayd in his Ecclesiastes That all that is wrought vnder the sunne is very vanity That man reapes no profit of his labour and trauell and that all his dayes he feeles affliction and vexation of spirit Hauing shewed that all the soueraigne good dreamed on in outward and transitorie things is a meere imagination hee wisely concludes That this good consisteth in the feare of God and keeping his Commandements declaring that all mans good consisteth heerein Wee cannot more briefly and certainly cleere this point For whosoeuer knowes not God to reuerence and stand in awe of him with a pure heart and to subscribe and submit himselfe to all his Statutes and Lawes walketh not in veritie but vanity Wherefore it behooues vs euer to come to this point That there is nothing more miserable then the man which vnderstands not loues not nor seekes after nor knowes any thing but the things vnder the sunne and which happen many times without trauell or paines taking to the wicked and succeed quite crosse and contrary to the godly and good But happy is the man which earnestly lookes vp to God walking in his presence and beleeues that all things shall further the helpe together for his good Light shineth to him in darkenesse hee stands fast and is neuer mooued he feares no euill tidings trusting assuredly in the Lord. If he want the necessary things of this life his riches are in Gods hand and keeping who giueth him contentation and contentment Hath he a costly leud wife and bad dissolute children It is the proofe of his patience and the exercise of his faith as it was in Iob and Dauid of whom one had a very spitefull shrewd wife and the other children wholly giuen to lewdnesse and mischiefe wit Ammon and Absolon Is hee seized with maladies hee calleth to minde what Basil writes vpon the Psalme 45. Oftentimes sayth he sickenesse and maladies serue to tame and reclaime vs On the contrary sanitie and health often hurteth enough in that it helpes and furnisheth many with occasions and instruments to doe euill and mischiefe Againe in the 124. Epistle hee sayth Make account that a maladie or sickenesse serues for a schoolemaster wherewith to attaine to this good that making no reckoning of the body you also dispise whatsoeuer is fraile or transitory troublesome and past hope or recouery to be placed in the heauenly company and to liue in this world as if already you were in Paradise Pondering these things in your minde all your life will bee a day of feasting and ioy and it will bee ioyfull vnto you to impart your ioy to many others But why should we finde it euill or strange to see our body hardly handled and kept vnder which feeling it selfe fat and well fed pampred and at too much ease will worke the wracke and ruine of the soule and as a hote furious horse boundeth and reares vp aloft and seekes how to cast his rider and to lay him on the ground Vndoubtedly mans proper strength is an inward vigour of minde held vp by and depending vpon God whose power and strength is principally seen and discouered in our weakenesse For which cause S. Paul writeth Being weake I am strong 2. Cor. 12. 10. Dauid was of the same minde in his greatest agonies and sorrowes I am sayth he in the Psalme 38. weakned and sore broken I roared for the great griefe and terrour of my heart O Lord my desire is before thee my sighing is not hid from thee my heart is tossed to and fro my strength fayleth mee and the light of mine eyes yea they are no more vnto mee But seeing I waite on thee O Lord thou wilt answere O my God Forsake mee not be not thou farre from mee my God Hast thee to helpe mee O Lord which art my saluation So many excellent promises dispersed throughout the whole Bible shall they not haue the efficacy to reclayme and encourage vs Let vs haue a heed full eye I pray you to the reiterated protestations of Gods loue towardes his of that fier of loue which all the waters of the world cannot quench To which purpose Salomon spake in his last Chapter of the Canticles Set mee as a seale on thy heart and as a signet vpon thine arme for loue is strong as death and iealousie is cruell as the graue the coales thereof are fiery coales and a very vehement flame Many waters cannot quench this loue and the floodes cannot drowne it If a man would giue for it all the substance of his house it would be contemned The Prophet Isaiah also sayth in the Chapter 44. Thus hath the Lord sayd that made thee and formed thee from the wombe and which helpeth thee Feare not O Iacob my seruant the righteous whom I haue chosen for I will powre water vpon him which is thirstly and floodes vpon the dry land I will powre my Spirit vpon thy seed and my blessing vpon those which proceed out of thy loynes And in the Chapter 46. O house of Iacob and all that remaine of the house of Israel whom I haue borne from the wombe and brought vp from the birth I will doe the the same to your old age yea I will beare you vntill your hoare white age I haue made you I will beare you and I will carry you I will rescue and deliuer you As touching old men I speake to those that are wise they shall finde in the Scriptures forcible and fitting arguments of comfort For first although the life of God be blissefull and vnchangeable yet for the honour and maiesty of his eternity
downe the head will cry within himselfe O wretch that I am God hath made me by the gift of knowledge capable of infinite wonderfull secrets and mysteries and I seeke contentment in vanitie He hath created me Lord and commander of all things and I am the slaue of the Creatures I ought to serue God alone and I am in subiection to mine owne inordinate passions He hath created me vpright the more easily to behold and looke vp to the place of my felicitie but I am more brutish then a beast which lookes still downe to the ground Christ hath made mee a King and a Priest to God his Father and sensualitie doth tyrannize and domineer over me and I sacrifice to mine owne insolencies and lewdnesse O what misery Ought I not to be fruitfull and abound in all good workes being a tree of righteousnesse and a heauenly plant What doe I I draw no breath of life but from the world I bring forth nothing but iniquitie nothing but poyson for my selfe and others Am I created after the Image of God to be changed into a Beast What resteth more for me but to be like the image of God! Should I I then be a lyar a villaine a slanderer an enemy of godlinesse righteousnesse holinesse I am a little world a world of wounders shall I then become a bottomlesse gulfe of wickednesse I am the end and measure of things but I am like the mad man which killeth himselfe with his owne knife like the wicked rich man that damneth himselfe and by the winding stayres of his riches goes downe to hell I ought to be the benefit and well-fare of my house and familie of my neighbour-hood of a whole country to procure true peace and quietnesse to rule there and I trouble mine owne peace and rest and other mens too I that am the measure and rule of all things am my selfe out of all measure and order as much as can bee spoken and more The vessell appoynted to honour which will fill it selfe with stinking myre and filth The temple of the holy Ghost a most holy place wherein Christ onely ought to enter and lodge but so prophaned that I am ashamed to thinke on it Thou sayest thou art a Christian and thou makest no conscience to wallow in impurities and hypocrisies ioyning thy selfe with Sathan Antichrist and the world so little thou regardest God Iesus Christ and his Church Thou that art light art nothing but darkenesse Thou that art a sheepherd art become a wolfe Thou that art the salt of the earth art vnsauory and tastelesse Thou that art the glory and peace of the world thou sowest disgrace reproch and trouble therein Thou that art the brother friend and Table-guest of Christ doest thou betray him with a kisse Thou that art a member of Christ where are the motions that thou hast of the spirit Thou that art Christes Lieutenant in earth or in thy house or familie or over many houses or families wilt thou daily warre against thy Lord Christ is thy garment and thou puttest it off to cloath thee with shame ryot dissolutenesse disorder Thou art within three stepps within three fingers breadth of death and thou thinkest not on the true life and thinkest onely on the transitorie and perishing life But thinke on the blessinges and honours which God hath bestowed on thee on the dangers which he hath guarded and protected thee from of the true pleasures which he offers vnto thee and thou wilt bee ashamed of the false pleasures which vndoe thee thou wilt blush be apalled to liue and die as thou doest by a poore sorry fire Thou wilt repent and fly to the throne of grace to the end that hauing obtained it thou render him thankes for the same who in speciall regard of his patience sheweth himselfe wonderfull towardes vs and submitting thy selfe to obey his truth thou wilt goe on in silence to glorifie him to the end Loe here a little coppie and patterne of some sighinges and groanings for euery wise old man remembring himselfe and calling to minde Iesus Christ CHAP. XVII Consolations against death and how it ought to be feared or not feared WE present now some consolations to the wise Vieillard to strengthen him against death and doe shew him how he ought to feare or contemne it For in this point it is that wise men at last shew what they are He that hath not learned to die betimes can hardly die well and for one that doth it thousands lagg behinde where they perish Many according to the saying of Cicero thinke old age is miserable because it is so neere approching to death which among the most terrible things being terrible to the children of this world for that it destroyes the structure frame of this mortall bodie and endeth the life which wee keepe and maintaine with so much carking and caring We are not able to relate how great and many the terrors be which the apprehension of death causeth in most persons which liue in the world yea euen in those men and women which vnder the weight and burthen of extreame anguishes and griefes desire nothing more then to be gone hence This terror floweth from the sense and feeling of the wrath of God and a bad conscience with which when wicked ones come to feele themselues tormented they haue no rest nor can conceiue nothing else but euill for them in death Therefore we cannot too much allaude and commend the saying of Sineca in the Epistle 62. where he sayth before I grew old I endeuoured and studied to liue well In my old age I frame and dispose my selfe to die well It is well spoken For according to the counsell of Saint Augustine in his second booke of Christian doctrine he cannot die ill who hath liued well and hardly shall any man whosoeuer make a good end which hath lead a wicked life But they are grossely deceiued who thinke that old men and none else are lodged in deaths quarter and that they onely are prest and obliged resolutely to awaite and looke for him Seeing that in all places and at all tymes he lyeth in waite for persons of all ages and sexes and sayth vnto them Stand I take thee prisoner by the great Kinges commandement packe hence away come before thy Iudge Death respectes neither babe young nor old man nor woman rich nor poore high nor low strong nor weake The poore mans cottage built very low Death doth demolish and quite ouerthrow The rich mans Pallace high towring and strong He shiuers in peeces and layes it along Who knoweth not that warre and the pestilence doth sweepe away out of the world many more little children or strong able men then aged persons verely all the life of man is nothing else but a road way to death Wee came into the world vpon this condition to goe out of it In this wee greatly erre and beguile our selues as many most learned Philosophers and Diuines haue long
is who euery day lay new foundations of their life and beginne to build and raise hopes when it behooues them to goe out of the world You shall see old men who runne themselues out of breath after honors profittes and transitorie goods But can there bee a more vnsightly and vnseemely thing seene then an old man to become a childe againe In the two and twentith Epistle Is it not a great shame to bee afraid when wee are to enter into a Pallace of assurance and safetie The reason is that we are dispossessed and turned out of all the goods after which we doe sigh and painefully toyle at the end of our life whereof not any portion or part remaines vnto vs all being gone and lost There is no man which takes care to liue well but to liue long yet all men may be able to attaine to this good to liue vertuously but no man can or ought to promise himselfe long life We doe adde And the old man which now hath no more to do with the things of this life that are common to all is so ill aduised that he thinketh not of the amendment of his life nor of the boxe and blowe which death shall suddenly giue him on the eare At the very end of the three and twentith Epistle There are some who begin to liue when they must dye and there are some who are dead before they haue begun to liue In the thirtith Epistle As little wise is hee who feareth death as the young man who feareth to bee old For as old age doth kicke and spurre young age in like sort doth death old age Hee which will not dye hath no will to liue because life was giuen with this exception That we must die Wee are in the way of death and who feareth it is out of his wits seeing we expect that which is certaine and feare that which is vncertaine At the end of the two and thirtith Epistle He is free and his owne man who liueth as if hee had no longer to liue And at the end of the sixe and thirtith Epistle Neither little infants nor young boyes nor madde men feare death it is then a great shame if reason doe not as much confirme and assure vs as stupiditie and sottishnesse doth them At the end of the threescore and seuenteenth Epistle It is with our life as with a Comedie it skils not how long it be so it bee well acted Take no care where the end of your race shall be make a stop and a stay where necessity enforceth you prouided you make a good end In the nintith three Epistle Let vs take order that as gold and other things of excellent price and worth so our life be not of a great length neuerthelesse that it weigh much Let vs not measure it by our time but by our worke Will you know a very good respite of yeares it is to liue till we be wise He that is come so farre though hee haue not attayned to a great number of yeares hath seene the greater and better part of them The nintith nine Epistle containeth sundry consolations in death which I will briefly set downe It is a fond and childish part to giue the reynes to sorrow and to make account of an vncertaine thing as our life is He doth ill who weepes vpon custome and seeing that sorrow doth make vs forget the blessings and benefits receiued of God wee must betimes shake off and rid our selues of it to the end to call to minde the vertue of our departed friends and to make our vse of it and of them as if they were present Wee ought to follow the example of those who haue shewed themselues vnmoued at the death of their friendes to thinke we shall follow the dead whom we haue not lost but giuen vp vnto God who are gone but a little before vs It is the way of the world our life doth so manifest it wee haue assurance of nothing vnder heauen but of death and our life is short though it containe many ages It is crossed and wounded with infinite miseries which end in death freeing it of malice and of errour and ignorance Consequently he which is accustomed to grieue much depriueth himselfe of comfort to remedy which and in stead of imitating the fond customes of the ignorant and vulgar hee must shew himselfe a man of courage in the most violent shockes and assaults of aduersitie setting before our eyes the worthy deportments and behauiours of those which goe before vs keeping a measure betweene sorrow and forgetfulnesse of those whom wee haue made much on and beene kind and friendly vnto in the world and whom we see no more and when they are at peace and rest we are to giue ouer to grieue and sorrow for them I reascend to the nintith one Epistle from whence I will deduce that which followes Doe not measure vs by our Tombes and Monuments which seeme to note some way differing betweene some and others The graue wherein our bodies are dissolued to dust makes vs all equall Wee are borne vnequall but death makes vs all equall The Soueraigne Law-giuer hath not differenced vs by our nobilitie linage blood and greatnesse but in this life but when death commeth hee sayth to this worldly greatnesse Begon I will that there bee the same law to all liuing things vpon earth Wee are all subiect to all sorts of euills One is no more frayle nor more assured to liue till to morrow then another In the hundreth and one Epistle There is no day nor houre which doth not point out vnto vs our vanity and which by some new experiment and tryall doth not remember vs of our frailty which we tread vnder our feet and which doth not compell euery one of vs who build and deuise endlesse plots and designes to haue an eye vnto death From the hundred and seuenth Epistle I will make this deduction It is good to beare that which we cannot remedy to follow without murmuring or complaining that great God by whose prouidence all things come to passe A bad Souldier is hee who followes his Captaine vnwillingly Let death finde vs prest forward and cheerefull The heat which doth resolutely consigne and yeeld it selfe into the hands of God is euery way great On the contrary he is a luske coward and basely bred fellow who spurnes kickes and winses who complaines of the gouernment of the world and who had rather censure God then himselfe In the hundred and twentith Epistle A man is neuer more heauenly minded then when he thinketh vpon his owne frailty and knowes and acknowledgeth that he is borne to dye Also that his body is not a house but an Inne and for a while It is a folly for vs to feare the last dayes of our life seeing our first dayes are tributarries and owe as much vnto death as our last The last day of our race makes vs to touch death all the other doe
kernells of so many seuerall seedes somewhat before or at the Spring doe grow shoot vp and become so great that they are Plants and young Trees in the Summer or in the Autumne following Shall wee say that the same God who hath giuen this vertue to seedes is not able to doe as much in the most noble of his creatures and made expresly for his glory Christ Iesus propoundeth this argument when hee sayth in the 12. Chapter of S. Iohn Verily verily I say vnto you if the wheat corne falling into the earth doe not dye it abideth alone but if it dye it bringeth forth much fruit And S. Paul in the fifteenth Chapter of the first to the Corinthians Vers 35. c. But some man will say How are the dead raised vp and with what bodies come they forth O foole that which thou sowest is not quickened except it dye and as for that which thou sowest thou sowest not that which shall come vp againe but bare corne as it falleth of wheat or of other graine But God giueth it a body as hee will and to euery seede his owne body The Patriarch Iob in his fourteenth Chapter describing the frailty of our life in earth prayeth God in these tearmes Turne from the man that is afflicted let him be at rest till hee come to the end of his life as a hireling Then he addeth For if a Tree be cut downe there is hope and it will yet sprout and his branches shall not fayle Although the root thereof waxe old in the earth and the stocke thereof be dead in the ground yet feeling water it will bud and bring forth bowes as a Tree newly planted But man dyeth and all his strength is gone yea man breatheth out his last gaspe then where is hee These are the complaints of Iob extreamely afflicted beholding in his condition the condition of such like himselfe not speaking precisely nor determinately much lesse after the manner and meaning of Epicures On the contrary both his wordes of the tree cut downe and growing greene againe and that which hee addeth presently after makes it plaine what sense and feeling hee had in his soule of the doctrine concerning the resurrection The waters saith he flow from the Sea and the Riuer decayes and is dryed so mans lies in the earth and riseth not to wake againe till the heauens be no more they shall not to wake and they shall not be awakened from their sleepe It is well said for our bodies being cut off and layd vpon the earth and in the earth in the day of death shall take root againe haue bud and fruit that is shall liue againe They shall indeed rest in the earth vntill the end of the world And as S. Peter declareth in the third Chapter of his second Epistle Verse 10. The day of the Lord shall come as a theefe in the night In that day the heauens shall passe away with a whizzing tempestuous noyse It is that which Iob denoteth by these words There shall be no more heauens and the Elements shall melt with heate and the earth and all the workes therein shall be quite burnt vp But moreouer the same Patriarch maketh a plaine confession of his faith vpon this Article in the 19. Chap. Vers 25. saying As for me I know that my Redeemer liueth and that he shall stand the last day on the earth and although after my skinne wormes destroy this body I shall see God in my flesh whom I my selfe shall see and mine eyes shall behold him and none forme So then it may bee demonstrated from the first testimony of the tree cut downe after growing greene againe that the resurrection of the flesh is not aboue nor beyond besides nor against nature Notwithstanding wee acknowledge that the mighty power of God shall then bee seene as it was when hee raysed vp Christ Iesus shut vp in the graue as the Apostle witnesseth Rom. 1. 4. Ephes 1. 19. 20. And in the third Chapter of the Philippians at the end From heauen sayth hee wee looke for the Sauiour and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned and made conformable to his glorious body according to the working and efficacy whereby hee is euen able to subdue all things to himselfe Among the ancient Theologians S. Basil doth propose and set out an image of the resurrection in those Insects which wee call Silke wormes Wherefore doe you wonder sayth he in his exposition of the six daies at the change which shall bee of our bodies at the day of the resurrection Seeing you see so many mutations and changes in the very insectes especially in the horned Indian worme It is first a Caterpiller which turnes to a Silke-worme Moreouer it keepes not this forme but is changed into a Butter-flye You those women who artificially winde vp your quilles and bobbins of silke and so cunningly and wittily twisted on your fine skaines and clues to make the most costly and curious garments that can be worne Remember you the diuersitie of this admirable worme to gather from it a cleere and certaine testimonie of the resurrection and beleeue that one day our bodies shall be otherwise then they be in this present life and in the graue Tertullian in the booke which he penned of the resurrection of the flesh confirmeth this Article of our faith by reasons worthy memory What difference is there at the first beginning to giue vs our life and after to restore it againe We cannot dispise the flesh of man except wee would also dispise the Lord and Creator of the same flesh The earth from whence the body of our flesh was taken is vile but that which is abiect and contemptible in his originall may bee excellent in regard of his very subsistence and matter Gold is but yellow earth and yet is much more precious then any other earth Doe we call the flesh vile wherein God hath infused the breath of his Spirit which the Sonne of God hath prised hath willed to be baptised and commanded to receiue the holy signes of the Sacrament with thankesgiuing True it is that the workes of the flesh that is of mans nature corrupted by sinne are condemned but not the flesh it selfe which the Sonne of God hath resumed and taken into the vnity of his person being God-man euerlastingly Moreouer the accomplishment of the last iudgement should bee imperfect if the whole man should not appeare there to the end that hee who hath suffered in his body for the confession of the truth may receiue remission and repose and that hee whosoeuer hath made the members of his body slaues to execute wickednesses may be punished Also it is meete that we should take vpon vs to spanne with our fingers and measure with our arme the miracles of God who alone as all people who are not altogether brutish doe auouch doth wonderfull workes of purpose that there might bee many choyce and rare
the Beastes doe suour the earth and desire nothing but that which is earthie and of the earth Man on the contrary as the wisest of the Heathens especially Plato and Cicero in diuers passages of their writings doe obserue hath a diuine and heauenly soule which being enfranchised and deliuered out of the prison of the bodie returneth to the place of his originall And the more generous the mind of man is the more he lusteth after and desireth heauenly thinges meditating and looking for a better state and condition then he enioyeth in this present life From thence it commeth to passe that he despiseth losses and troubles calamities wounds and death it selfe holding it a great honour to yeeld vp his soule in some valiant and vertuous exployt and enterprise for the seruice and safetie of his Countrie to the end to goe to the other life where good men haue their reward Salust sayth that the vertuous effectes and suffringes of the minde are no lesse immortall then the soule it selfe which to vs is common with God but the body assimilateth and a greeth with the beastes Another reason hath strongly perswaded the auncient Philosophers to beleeue the immortality of mans soule That God should seeme otherwise vniust if he should suffer the vau-neantes treacherous dissolute to prosper in the world after to escape his vengeance and good men who are industrious and imploy themselues to preserue humane societie should vtterly perish in death without hope of rest at the end of their trauailes and of ioy after so many disquiets and griefes of minde and of a crowne at the end of so many thousand fought battailes and combatts Vndoubtedly prophane persons who are bold to thinke and affirme the soule of man to bee mortall doe abolish as much as in them lyes all pietie and religion they ouerthrow all vertuous and laudable actions and enterprises and as S. Ambrose very well sayth in his exposition of the worke of the six dayes they are madd-men Furthermore what is more avers preposterous and ill beseeming then to haue a straight body and a crooked soule alwayes groveling and stooping to the earth never lifting or rouzing vp it selfe toward heauen her true dwelling place But as God our creator hath plainly instructed vs in his word touching the originall end and soueraigne good of man It is also from the same word that wee must gather the infallible doctrines which we doe handle Mans soule was not composed of the elements nor fabricated or formed of the dust of the earth but the Lord God inspired it and endowed it with diuers gifts Little children doe obtaine even a soule of God their creator to wit a reasonable soule not of the seed of their fathers and mothers but by the singular fauour and benefit of him whom the Apostle Hebr. 12. calleth the Father of spirits and not without cause For although that he be the father of our bodies yet notwithstanding he created not our soules by corporall helpes but hath placed them in our bodies as excellent lampes and lights as Salomon speakes of them Prov. 20. 7. We call them immortall for two reasons first by reason of their essence which is spirituall and originarie or primarie from God the giuer of it Secondly in regard of the grace peculier to the children of God for so much as we haue communion with Iesus Christ the eternall Word of the Father the Prince and author of life This immortall and eternall life is the true happie life and so much to be desired so much recommended in the Scripture whereof Saint Paul sayth The just shall liue by faith Rom. 1. 17. Also who beleeueth in me hath eternall life Iohn 6. 47. And the Apostle sayth Iesus Christ hath abolished death and brought life and immortalie vnto light thorough the Gospell 2 Timoth. 1. 10. For although the soules of the wicked in regard of their essence sense and motion be immortall neuerthelesse they suffer death in as much as they are depriued of the iustice light beatitude and glorious life of God vpon which cause the wicked who triumph and braue it for a while in the world are called dead and after this present life it is sayd that they goe into condemnation and into eternall death because the state wherein they are then to be and remaine in perpetuall torments deserueth rather the name of death then life Prophane people talke they know not what in obiecting vnto vs that neuer any came from the other world as they babble and prattle to tell newes of them O the greatest fooles and idiots among people O silly sotts will they be still madde miserable and more brutish them beasts who beleeue nothing but what they see with their eyes and touch with their hands According to their babble they ought to giue ouer to beleeue that they doe participate of reason seeing they doe not see their soule Let them giue ouer to beleeue that our friends dwelling remote and farre from vs doe liue and are at their ease and content desiring to see vs againe and that because wee see them no more But to proceed it is not simply true that neuer any returned from the other life on the contrary the Histories of the Old and New Testament doe furnish vs with examples of men and women of young striplings and damsells raised againe from death The Prince of our faith the head of all Christians our Lord Iesus descending from heauen to assume our humaine nature in earth hath tould vs ample and gladsome newes of the state of heauen and of life eternall His ascension to heauen in bodie and soule is an assured pledge that we also shall ascend into heauen in our bodies and soules S. Paul caught vp into the third heauen where he was informed of the high and deepe mysteries and secrets of God from thence came to tell vs afterward many particularities of the Church Christ Iesus is in heauen and we shall liue there For although that death dissolue the bodie into dust from whence it was taken death cannot let the soule to returne to him that gaue it And when we die young and old let vs after the example of Christ Iesus and of Dauid recommend our soules to God rendring them into his hands as into the handes of a most faithfull keeper and gardian of them And let vs say with S. Stephen Lord Iesus receiue my soule being well assured that at the same houre when it shall be fit for vs to goe out of this present life we haue part in that gracious promise of the sonne of God made to the sinner conuerted Verely I say vnto thee that this day thou shalt be with me in Paradize This is the sweete voyce which still ought to be sounding in the heart of the wise Vieillard to the end that being at the poynt to leaue this world as his age plainely shewes him his conscience doe not smite and checke him to be a prophane person and a contemner