A commentary or, exposition upon the divine second epistle general, writtenA commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written

Now seeing I am fallen upon the point of old-age, let me consider two things: the miseries by nature incident, and the comforts by grace accident to it.

The miseries are many, partly mental, partly corporal. Mental are the worst: Sordities, ira, nummorum copia mira: His natura senis tribus est infecta venenis. They will covet, as if they were to begin a new race of four-score yeares. Quo minùs via restat, eo plus viatici quaerunt; The less journey they have to go, the greater provision they make. Plautus quoteth it as a wonder, to see an old man bountiful: Benignitas hujus sicut adolescentuli est. ¹Multa senem circumveniunt incommoda; vel quid Quaerit, & inventis miser abstinet, ac timet uti. Many miseries wait upon old men: first, they greedily seek, and then they miserably forbear, what they have found. Ignorance and Arrogance meet in unsanctified old age. For Ignorance, Hosea 7.9. Grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet •e knoweth not. Senescit, being cut into two words, is quasi Se nescit, or nescit see: as if Senescere, were all one with See nescire. For Arrogance; it takes away wisdom from the young, and all true knowledge, as if they were waifs and strays, proper only to it self, as Lord of the soil; and conjures all learning into the circle of its own night-cap. This is the first and the worst misery of old age; when a man is just come back again to a child. When he is only Laudator temporis acti, see puero; praising the ancient times so vehemently, as if he would sell them, and forgetting the present days to use them.

The miseries are many, partly mentall, partly corporall. Mentall are the worst: Sordities, ira, nummorum copia mira: His natura senis tribus est infecta venenis. They will covet, as if they were to begin a new race of foure-score yeares. Quo minùs via restat, eo plus viatici quaerunt; The lesse journey they have to goe, the greater provision they make. Plautus quoteth it as a wonder, to see an old man bountifull: Benignitas hujus sicut adolescentuli est.