Edmund Grindal on the evil affection of expecting a long life

[Reformed Covenanter]

Among many evil, & naughty affections which follow the nature of man, corrupted by sin (right honourable and beloved in Christ) few or none bring greater inconveniences with them, then doth the inordinate hope and expectation of long life. And this affection is so much the more hurtful and perilous, for that it is grounded so deeply, and sticketh so firmly in our nature, that it cannot easily be remedied or removed: which thing, beside common experience, hath of old time been noted, by divers and sundry proverbs, as this for one. Nemo est tam senex, qui non putet annum se posse viuere. There is no man so old, but that be thinketh he may live yet one year longer, and when that is done, yet an other, and an other yet after that, and so in infinitum, until all years & days be clean past and expired.

The like hope of long life is expressed by this proverb, Aegroto anima dum est, spes est. The sick man, as long as he hath life & breath, so long hath he hope: signifying that even in the greatest & most dangerous diseases, the sick parties ever hope to live, and to escape, so that neither old age, which by natural course foresheweth death at hand, neither yet extremity of sickness, be it never so grievous, can remove from us this inordinate expectation, and vain hope of long life, so long as this body hath any breath abiding or life left in it. ...

For more, see Edmund Grindal on the evil affection of expecting a long life.

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

P.S. Does anyone else think that Edmund Grindal looks like one of the characters out of the Narnia films (Prince Caspian is the one that comes to mind)?