rm) might be seen at a glance.

ESTE.

* * * * *

DEATH ON THE FINGERS.

"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