The works of George Swinnock, M.A

Plutarch reports of Lucius Metellus high Priest of Rome, that though he lived to a great old age, his voice did not fail him, nor his hand shake in his sacrificing to the Gods. Its said of Moses when he was a hundred and twenty years old and dyed, that his natural sight did not fail him, neither was his heat abated; So it may be said of the Christian, that though he die old, his spiritual sight doth not fail him, nor his divine heat abate. As Caleb, he is as strong in regard of grace, his inward strength, when he is entering into the promised Canaan, as he was when he first went forth as a spy by faith, to search the land flowing with milk and honey. The Heathen counted him happy that dyed either in the midst of the goods of fortune, (hence they say, if ⟨p. 613⟩Priamus had died a little before the loss of his Town, he had died the greatest Prince in all Asia,) or in the exercise of their moral virtues; Hence they so highly extol Seneca and Socrates, who seemed to dare even death it self, out of resolution and fortitude; Though those seeming virtues were but as Austin terms them, Splendida Flagitia, Famous Vices, and their confidence arose not from any grounded knowledge of their good estates, but from their blindness and ignorance of their depraved, wicked, and woeful estates. He is the happy man indeed, that dieth in the faith, that sleepeth in Jesus, that goeth to his grave in the exercise of grace. The Master of Moral Philosophy, commendeth that Pilot whom a Ship-wrack swalloweth up at the Stern, with the Rudder in his hand. The most high God commendeth that person whom death seizeth, doing the work for which he was sent into the world. Even the blind Mole, if Naturalists may be credited, opens his eyes when he comes to dye; and the crooked Serpent stretcheth out her self straight, when she is going to fetch her last breath; and shall not the Saint be best at last?

Plutarch reports of Lucius Metellus high Priest of Rome, that though he lived to a great old age, his voice did not fail him, nor his hand shake in his sacrificing to the Gods. Its said of Moses when he was a hundred and twenty years old and dyed, that his natural sight did not fail him, neither was his heat abated; So it may be said of the Christian, that though he die old, his spiritual sight doth not fail him, nor his divine heat abate. As Caleb, he is as strong in regard of grace, his inward strength, when he is entering into the promised Canaan, as he was when he first went forth as a spie by faith, to search the land flowing with milk and honey. The Heathen counted him happy that dyed either in the midst of the goods of fortune, (hence they say, if