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

A Fourth Inconvenience incident to¹ Old-age, is the […] […] their Senses; and especially in •ose which are called Senses of Discipline, Seeing and Hearing, by which as through windows Light is derived into the Soul. For as in Natural things nothing is found in the Understanding, which was not before in the senses; so in Spiritual things, the Mysteries of Religion are not invented by our Minds, but conveyed to us by the sacred Oracles. And therefore it is very probable that Satan beareth a particular spite to these, as some have observed from the Persons possest by him, whom he so frequently struck deaf, and dumb, and blind. But it is evident, that as by these Doors sin entered into the Soul, so we find our Decays sooner in them, than in our other Senses. The Eye it grows dim, and the Ear it grows dull, and both grow worse ⟨p. 152⟩and worse, and that without hopes of Cure. This was the case of the Patriarch Isaac, Gen. 27. 1. And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old and his Eyes were dim, so that he could not see, &c. whereupon using his Hands for Eyes, he was mistaken in his own Sons. Indeed the Degrees of these Decays are different, in some less, in some greater: but as in Houses the Windows suffer first and most; so in our houses of Clay, the Organs of sight and hearing, do more or less, wax out of tune, before the Fabric fall.