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

SECT. II.

AND so we are comen to the Third ¹and Last Stage of Life, the Decaying Age or Old-age; which is the Subject of the following Discourse; which may be thus described, namely, That Part of Mans life, wherein through the Multitude ⟨p. 7⟩of Years his Strength is decayed^h. For, 1. It is not merely such a number of Years without some Decay of Nature, that can properly denominate Old-age; sith in former times before the Flood, when men usually lived eight or nine hundred years, he that was an hundred years old, was a very Young man; and still we find that many are stronger at sixty, than others are at fifty years of Age. Thus Athanasius testifies of Antony the Monk in Egypt, that he had all his Teeth, and his Eyesight sound, when he was an hundred and five years old. Neither, 2ly. Doth the Decay of Strength alone, determine a man Old; sith Diseases and other Casualties may weaken and wither him, who in respect of his Age, hath not attained the Meridian of his Life. Thus our Blessed Saviour was guessed to be near fifty years old, Joh. 8. 57. when he was but little past Thirty, being a man of Sorrows, and acquainted with Grief. But when our Strength is decayedⁱ through the multitude of Years, then Old-age commenceth.

AND so we are comen to the Third ¹