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Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt fay, I have no pleasure in them.

T

HIS chapter begins with an exhortation to

the most neceffary duty of man, which is preffed upon him by a double inconvenience that will certainly come upon him, and for the future render him uncapable to perform the fame. The last and the greatest is that of death, defcribed in the feventh verfe. And this is the night wherein no man can work: The other is that of age, described in these fix former verfes. And this is the evening or latter part of the day, wherein it is very ill working, and nothing can be done, in comparison of what might have been done before; let the neglect therefore of this duty for ever be annexed to a μὴ γίνοιτο, God forbid that any one fhould defer the remembrance of his Creator until he be not able to remember at all, or put off the work of the highest concern, until he be altogether unfit to perform aright any of the meaneft: But because it is my present defign only to meddle with the allegory wherein is the description of Age, I fhall not detain you in this most important entrance, but immediately fall upon my work. In this verse we have only a general defcription of

that

that infirm condition, which is more particularly treated of in the following verses.

Age though it naturally creeps upon all men, whatsoever their conftitutions and compofitions are, yet it is itself a disease. Senectus ipfa morbus. And it doth certainly induce fuch a cachexia, or ill habit, that it renders us inserviceable to our ends, and doth as it were set open the gates, that all that troop of enemies may enter in, which follow here in their order.

Here are two expreffions that intimate unto us the unavoidable approach of these decrepit years (i. e.) come and draw nigh; of which gemination, fignifying the same thing, I may well fay, as Jofeph did upon the doubling of Pharaoh's dream, Gen. xli. 32; It is because the thing is established by God, and God will fhortły bring it to pass. Whofoever we are, whatfoever we are doing, whitherfoever we are going, they are still coming on. Be we male or female, be we Jew or Gentile, be we bond or free, be we princes or fubjects, be we what can be imagined, they come, they come: While I write, while thou readeft, while we walk, while we fleep; while we abide at home, while we go abroad; while we eat, or drink, or sport; while we retire our felves, we pray or faft; while we neglect our felves, while we defend all we can against them, they draw nigh, they draw nigh. And that man who wrote a book,

*Gal. lib. de Maramac. 2.

de

de non fenefcendo, lived to his own difgrace, to fee his own errour confuted in himself.

Here are two words alfo to express the contention of this state so long as it fhall be, (i.e.) days and years; both these words fignify also the fame thing in the general, viz. how long this state shall remain: And thus Jacob ufeth them both, in giving an account unto Pharaoh how long his life had continued: The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years, few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage, Gen. xlvii. 9. But in particular, they intimate unto us a diversity of their continuation to divers perfons. Some men poft over this bad way, and remain but a very little while in it; others pass over it more flowly, and continue therein much longer. Some have but a few days of labour and forrow, others have them prolonged out to years. As the Lord only knows what perfon in the world (for there are but few in these last ages) shall be brought to this state; fo he only knows how long they shall remain in it. Whether this time shall be more or lefs, whether days or years fhall determine it, is to us uncertain, but this is moft certain concerning them both, that if they be at all, fo long as they are, they shall be evil, they shall be unpleasant.

Evil days.

I here take the word evil in a good fenfe, that is, not for the evil of fin, but the evil of misery, the fruit of fin. I know there be them that would have this word, if not the whole allegory, understood of fuch days and years as wicked men, by their giving themselves up to follow their own hearts luft with greediness, do voluntarily bring upon themselves; but it seems to me to be otherwise, and that chiefly from these two reafons: I. Because I find nothing in the allegory that is not competible to every particular person that lives to the time of this ftate, both to the good and bad, both to the righteous and the wicked; weakneffes, infirmities, diseases both of body and mind attend them all: Ifaac, Jacob, Eli, David, as well as those who led never fo contrary lives, muft bear the burthen of their age, if they live to the time. It is most certainly true, a courfe of wickedness doth wonderfully haften both old age, and death itself. The wicked man fhall not live out half his days, Pfal. Iv. 23; nor fhall he keep off decrepitness half the time; his honour shall be given away, and his years unto the cruel, Prov. v. 9. And befide the haftning of these evils, he doth infinitely augment them both for number and quality, he fhall have a thousand fold more, and a thousand fold greater: Every fore shall be a plague, and every ach shall be an hell unto him; but this

is not the condition in this text defcribed, but the declenfion of man's life as a man; and that from this fecond reason drawn from the context. When I look immediately before the description, I find youth mentioned, Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth; when I look im mediately after it, I find death defcribed, The duft shall return to the earth as it was, and the fpirit fball return to God that gave it. Now as youth and death are appointed for all living, without any difcrimination of him that sweareth, or him that feareth an oath, as terms à quo, and ad quem, of their pilgrimage; so this state alfo, as an intermediate stage, is as certainly appointed to them all, unless it please God before that conftituted time, to give them a deliverance by immature diffolution. It is faid of old age,

Expectata diu votifque optata fecundis,
Objicit innumeris corpus lacerabile morbis.

Aufonius.

Though this state be never so much defired of men, yet when it comes, it brings along with it abundance of all manner of evils, as the following discourse will fufficiently make appear, and therefore may well be called, an evil state.

But here I must needs meet with this moft obvious objection: Is not old age a great bleffing from God, Prov. xxii. 29, and are not gray hairs an honour, Gen. xv. 15, do not you call

that

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