"Isaac saith, I am old, and I know not the day of my death (_Gen._
xxvii. 2.); no more doth any, though never so young. As soon (saith the
proverb) goes the _lamb's_ skin to the market as that of the _old
sheep_; and the Hebrew saying is, There be as many _young_ skulls in
Golgotha as _old_; young men _may_ die (for none have or can make any
agreement with the grave, or any covenant with death, _Isa._ xxviii.
15. 18.), but old men _must_ die. 'Tis the grant statute of heaven
(_Heb._ ix. 27.). _Senex quasi seminex_, an old man is half dead; yea,
now, at fifty years old, we are accounted three parts dead; this lesson
we may learn from our fingers' ends, the dimensions whereof demonstrate
this to us, beginning at the end of the little finger, representing our
childhood, rising up to a little higher at the end of the ring-finger,
which betokens our youth; from it to the top of the middle finger,
which is the highest point of our elevated hand, and so most aptly
represents our middle age, when we come to our [Greek: akme], or height
of stature and strength; then begins our declining age, from thence to
the end of our forefinger which amounts to a little fall, but from
thence to the end of the thumb there is a great fall, to show, when man
goes down (in his old age) he falls fast and far, and breaks (as we
say) with a witness. Now, if our very fingers' end do read us such a
divine lecture of mortality, oh, that we could take it out, and have it
perfect (as we say) on our fingers' end, &c.
"To old men death is _prae januis_, stands before their door, &c. Old
men have (_pedem in cymba Charonis_) one foot in the grave already; and
the Greek word [Greek: geron] (an old man) is derived from [Greek: para
to eis gen oran], which signifies a looking towards the ground;
decrepit age goes stooping and grovelling, as groaning to the grave. It
doth not only expect death, but oft solicits it."--Christ. Ness's
_Compleat History and Mystery of the Old and New Test._, fol. Lond.
1690, chap. xii. p. 227.
From _The Barren Tree_, a sermon on Luke xiii. 7., preached at Paul's
Cross, Oct. 26, 1623, by Thos. Adams:
"Our bells ring, our chimneis smoake, our fields rejoice, our children
dance, ourselues sing and play, _Jovis omnia plena_. But when
righteousnesse hath sowne and comes to reape, here is no haruest;
[Greek: ouk eurisko], I finde none. And as there was neuer lesse
wisdome in Greece then in time of the Seven Wise Men, so neuer lesse
pietie among vs, then now, when vpon good cause most is expected. When
the sunne is brightest the stars be darkest: so the cleerer our light,
the more gloomy our life with the deeds of darkness. The Cimerians,
that live in a perpetuall mist, though they deny a sunne, are not
condemned of impietie; but Anaxogoras, that saw the sunne and yet
denied it, is not condemned of ignorance, but of impietie. Former times
were like Leah, bleare-eyed, but fruitful; the present, like Rachel,
faire, but barren. We give such acclamation to the Gospell, that we
quite forget to observe the law. As vpon some solenne festivall, the
bells are rung in all steeples, but then the clocks are tyed vp: there
is a great vntun'd confusion and clangor, but no man knowes how the
time passeth. So in this vniuersall allowance of libertie by the
Gospell (which indeed rejoyceth our hearts, had we the grace of sober
vsage), the clocks that tel vs how the time passes, Truth and
Conscience, that show the bounded vse and decent forme of things, are
tyed vp, and cannot be heard. Still _Fructum non invenio_, I finde no
fruits. I am sorry to passe the fig-tree in this plight: but as I finde
it, so I must leave it, till the Lord mend it."--Pp. 39, 40., 4to.
Lond. 1623.