A61390:255
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.
2. The Young have the same reason to be concerned about Dying as the Old. For Youth hath more ways to Death than Age hath. And far more dye in their Youth, than that dye for Age. It's true, they hope to live longer, but their hopes have no good ground at all. They have neither Promise nor Experience to build their hopes upon. And in Young Peoples Death, they being in their strength, ⟨p. 190⟩Nature receives a more violent shock, whereas the Aged are more quietly extinguished, like a Candle in the Socket.
2. The Young have the same reason to be concern'd about Dying as the Old. For Youth hath more wayes to Death than Age hath. And far more dye in their Youth, than that dye for Age. It's true, they hope to live longer, but their hopes have no good ground at all. They have neither Promise nor Experience to build their hopes upon. And in Young Peoples Death, they being in their strength, ⟨p. 190⟩Nature receives a more violent shock, whereas the Aged are more quietly extinguished, like a Candle in the Socket.
3. No good man need be affrighted at the approach of Death. For the power and sting of Death is utterly taken away by our Saviours Death, and so it can do us no hurtw. A Child of God doth not so much as taste Death. The true Believer now hath not to do with Death, but with its shadow, with a toothless Dog, with a dead Lyon, with a Wasp without a Sting, with a conquered Enemy. What man in his wits is afraid after a tempestuous Voyage, that he is drawing nigh his Haven. It was a sweet saying of S. Ambrose, near his end: I have not so lived, that I am ashamed to live among you, neither do I fear to die, going to so good a Master. The unprepared and the ungodly may dread Death. As Aristippus told the wicked Mariners trembling in a Storm; You may well be afraid, going to receive your just punishment, but hoping for my reward in the other Life, I am not amazed with this at all. But now when a man hath set his House and Heart in order, and finished his work, he may sing his Nunc dimittis with comfort,