A word to the aged. By Mr. Will. Bridge, sometime fellow of Emmanuel College…

3. Though you be very aged, yet you may be very good, was not Eli very good? Yet very aged: ⟨p. 6⟩was not David very good? yet he was very old when he said, Lord, now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace: was not Anna very good? Yet she was very aged: who doth not know what a good man Paul was? Yet, saith he, Paul the aged, good John was aged John. Possibly, then you may be very good, though you be very aged, labouring under much infirmity.

4. And though your flesh be weak, yet the Spirit may be willing, the flesh indeed is weak said Christ, when his Disciples slept through natural infirmity, for it was late at night, and they were full of grief, but the Spirit is willing, said he also, and where the Spirit is willing he will pass by the weakness of the flesh, and accept the willingness of the Spirit.

5. These infirmities of old age are such, as are not the fruit of our own sin (the more any infirmity is caused by sin, the more afflictive it is; for sin is the sting of death) I confess indeed they may be sometimes; for the sins of youth do sometimes bite sore in age. I eat so much of the forbidden fruit (said a good man) when I was young, that God was fain to give much wormseed to kill the worm. But the infirmities of old age are generally the decays of nature, not of grace.

5. These infirmities of old age are such, as are not the fruit of our own sin (the more any infirmity is caused by sin, the more afflictive it is; for sin is the sting of death) I confess indeed they may be sometimes; for the sins of youth do sometimes bite sore in age. I eat so much of the forbidden fruit (said a good man) when I was young, that God was sain to give much wormseed to kill the worm. But the infirmities of old age are generally the decays of nature, not of grace.