A discourse concerning old-age tending to the instruction, caution and comfort of aged persons…

The First Grace most proper for Old age ¹is Knowledge. They have or might have a great measure of all kind of Knowledge, having read so much in the Book of Nature, and in the Book of Providence. But there is a nobler Object of their Knowledge, which is God himself, his Word and his Ways: Herein the Aged person hath been versed for a long time, 1 Joh. 2. 13. I write unto you, Fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. There is no Truth, Duty, Case, Sin, or Temptation, but they have either heard, or read something concerning it, and that often; and therefore must be supposed to have a more clear and distinct knowledge in all these things, ⟨p. 80⟩than younger people^d. Young people think that they know much, but Old people cannot choose but sigh and smile at their ignorance. They find that the more Knowledge they have, the more Ignorance they discover in themselves; and wherein they have been confident in their younger years, they see cause to alter their sentiments afterwards.

The First Grace most proper for Oldage ¹is Knowledge. They have or might have a great measure of all kind of Knowledge, having read so much in the Book of Nature, and in the Book of Providence. But there is a nobler Object of their Knowledge, which is God himself, his Word and his Ways: Herein the Aged person hath been versed for a long time, 1 Ioh. 2. 13. I write unto you, Fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning. There is no Truth, Duty, Case, Sin, or Temptation, but they have either heard, or read something concerning it, and that often; and therefore must be supposed to have a more clear and distinct knowledge in all these things, ⟨p. 80⟩than younger people^d