A61390:113
A discourse concerning old-age tending to the instruction, caution and comfort of aged persons…
A discourse concerning old-age tending to the instruction, caution and comfort of aged persons / by Richard Steele ...
London: printed by J. Astwood for Tho. Parkhurst, 1688
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
SECT. VI.
AND these are the most proper Sins 1of Old-age: some other there are, which because they are neither so common to all ancient people, nor yet peculiar ⟨p. 69⟩to them, and yet are more often found in them than in others, I shall not wholly conceal them, but rather more briefly handle them. Which are,
- 1§ 6. Other Vices of Old-age.
1. Craftiness, which is Prudence degenerate. Old people have had much dealing in the World, and have seen, yea, perhaps felt the effects of other mens sinister Carriage; and being too much devoted to a selfish interest, do thereupon too often strain a point of equity and integrity, to compass their own ends. If this subtlety were only employed for their own security, it were less culpable; but when it is an Engine to ensnare, or to over-reach their Brother, it is inexcusable. When a Crafty old Miser, hath a young Prodigal in his Talons, what work doth he make with him? What cunning arts, what tricks and stratagems hath he to distil his Estate into his own Coffers? But this is a baseness unbecoming a Moral Heathen, who would put himself into another's case, and deal with him as he would be used by him: how enormous then is it for a Christian, that ought by no means to live to himself, that should remember he is but a Stranger in this Earth, and is seeking a better Country, that is a professor of self-denial and sincerity!