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

Now this is a heavy Trouble to a Good man, yea to any Ingenuous man. Such do know, that Usefulness is the End, and Happiness of Life: Take that away, and what is Life good for? A man is thenceforth but a Cypher, yea ⟨p. 178⟩and worse; for he eats, and drinks, and troubles the world, and no way helps the Inhabitants of it. Hereupon in a certain Country, its said, that the Old people, when they found themselves decrepit, went into an adjacent Climate, where by the quality of the Air they were soon extinguished: Which Remedy is not to be liked, though their sense of unserviceableness is to be remarked. For Plato ^pcould say, The more beneficial we can be to mankind, the liker we are to God. To become therefore disabled from Service, is Death to an active useful spirit. Besides, as Employment makes improvement, so on the other side Rest breeds Rust, and they that leave off the Acts, lose the Habits, and become more empty and insignificant, than ever they were before. Upon all which accounts this Disability is a most disconsolate Affliction, and sufficient of it self to sink their weak spirits with despair.

Now this is a heavy Trouble to a Good man, yea to any Ingenuous man. Such do know, that Usefulness is the End, and Happiness of Life: Take that away, and what is Life good for? A man is thenceforth but a Cypher, yea ⟨p. 178⟩and worse; for he eats, and drinks, and troubles the world, and no way helps the Inhabitants of it. Hereupon in a certain Countrey, its said, that the Old people, when they found themselves decrepit, went into an adjacent Climate, where by the quality of the Air they were soon extinguished: Which Remedy is not to be liked, though their sense of unserviceableness is to be remarked. For Plato ^pcould say, The more beneficial we can be to mankind, the liker we are to God. To become therefore disabled from Service, is Death to an active useful spirit. Besides, as Imployment makes improvement, so on the other side Rest breeds Rust, and they that leave off the Acts, lose the Habits, and become more empty and insignificant, than ever they were before. Upon all which accounts this Disability is a most disconsolate Affliction, and sufficient of it self to sink their weak spirits with despair.