ecreations of my old age.

Whence it appears, that the life I lead is chearful, and not
gloomy, as some persons pretend, who know no better; to whom, in
order that it may appear what value I set on every other kind of
life, I must declare, that I would not exchange my manner of
living or my grey hairs with any of those young men, even of the
best constitution, who give way to their appetites; knowing, as I
do, that such are daily, nay hourly, subject, as I have observed,
to a thousand kind of ailments and deaths. This is, in fact, so
obvious, as to require no proof. Nay, I remember perfectly well,
how I used to behave at that time of life. I know how
inconsiderately that age is apt to act, and how foolhardy young men,
hurried on by the heat of their blood, are wont to be; how apt they
are to presume too much on their own strength in all their actions;
and how sanguine they are in their expectations; as well on account
of the little experience they have had for the the time past, as
by reason of the power they enjoy in their own imaginations over
the time to come. Hence they expose themselves rashly to every
kind of danger; and, banishing reason, and bowing their necks to
the yoke of concupiscence, endeavour to gratify all their appetites,
not minding, fools as they are, that they thereby hasten, as I have
several times observed, the approach of what they would most
willingly avoid, I mean sickness, and death. Of these two evils,
one is troublesome and painful, the other, above all things,
dreadful and insupportable; insupportable to every man, who has
given himself up to his sensual appetites, and to young men in
particular, to whom it appears a hardship to die an early death;
dreadful to those, who reflect on the errors, to which this mortal
life is subject, and on the vengeance, which the justice of God is
wont to take on sinners, by condemning them to everlasting
punishment. On the other hand, I, in my old age (praise to the
Almighty) am exempt from both these apprehensions; from the one,
because I am sure and certain, that I cannot fall sick, having
removed all the causes of illness by my divine medicine; from the
other, that of death, because from so many years experience I have
learned to obey reason; whence I not only think it a great piece
of folly to fear that, which cannot be avoided, but likewise
firmly expect some consolation, from the grace of Jesus Christ,
when I shall arrive at that period.

Bes