Ver. 1. Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim.] Old age is of itself a disease, and the sink of all diseases. This Solomon sweetly sets forth (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7) by a continued allegory, Ubi quot lumina imo flumina orationis exerit saith one. In general, he calls it “the evil day, the years that have no pleasure in them.” In particular, the senses all fail; the hands tremble; the legs buckle; the teeth cannot do their office, as being either lost or loosened; “the silver cord,” that is, the marrow of their backs, is consumed; “the golden ewer,” that is, the brainpan, broke; “the pitcher at the well,” that is, the veins at the liver; “the wheel at the cistern,” that is, the head, which draws the power of life from the heart; all these worn weak, and wanting to their office. So that sleep faileth; “desire faileth”; neither spring nor summer (signified by the almond tree and grasshopper) shall affect with pleasure; “the daughters of music shall be brought low,” as they were in old Barzillai; “the sun, moon, and stars are darkened,” for any delight they take in their sweet shine; yea, “the clouds return after rain”; a continual succession of miseries, like April weather, as one shower is unburdened, another is brewed, and the sky is still overcast with clouds. Lo, such is old age. And is this a fit present for God? wilt thou give him the dregs, the bottom, the very last sands, thy dotage, which thyself and friends are weary of? “Offer it now to thy prince, will he be pleased with thee”? (Malachi 1:8) The Circassians, a kind of mongrel Christians, as they baptize not their children till the eighth year, so they enter not into the Church, the gentlemen specially, till the sixtieth year, but hear divine service standing outside the temple; that is to any, till through age they grow unable to continue their rapines and robberies, to which sin that nation is exceedingly addicted: so dividing their time between sin and devotion; dedicating their youth to rapine, and their old age to repentance. But God will not be so put off. He is “a great King,” and stands upon his seniority. (Malachi 1:14) In the Levitical law, there were three sorts of firstfruits: 1. Of the ears of corn, offered about the Passover; 2. Of the loaves, offered about Pentecost; 3. About the end of the year in Autumn. Now of the first two God had a part, but not of the last: to teach us, that he will accept of the services of our youth or middle-age: but for old age, vix aut ne vix quidem. Besides Abraham in the Old Testament, and Nicodemus in the New, I know not whether we read of any old man ever brought home to God. Sept., η καππαρις, quum et appetitum et Venerem irritat. Brerewood’s Enquiries, p. 135.
Ver. 2. I am old, I know not the day of my death.] No more doth any, though never so young. There be as many young skulls as old, in Golgotha. But, young men, we say, may die; old men must die. To the old, death is pro ianuis; to the young, in insidiis. Senex, quasi semi-nex. Old men have pedem in cymba Charontis, one foot in the grave already. Our decrepit age both expects death, and solicits it: it goes grovelling, as groaning for the grave. Whence Terence calls an old man Silicernium; and the Greeks γηροντα, πασα το εις γην οραν, of looking toward the ground, whither he is tending; or, as others will have it, of loving earth and earthly things; which old folk greedily grasp at, because they fear they shall not have to suffice them while alive, and to bring them honestly home, as they say, when they are dead; as Plutarch gives the reason, Vel quod curvus silices cernat; vel quod mox silentiqus umbris cernendus sit. -Ter, in Adelph. Τους θριψαντας, και τους θαψαντας.
Ver. 3. Take me some venison.] It is some blemish to holy Isaac, that he so favoured and loved Esau, and that because he did eat of his venison, or because venison was in his mouth. (Genesis 25:28) “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under of any thing”. (1 Corinthians 6:12) It is a shame to a saint, to be a slave to his appetite, that it should be said of him, as it was of Epicurus, Dum palato quid sit optimum iudicat, coeli palatium suspexit. Ennius
Ver. 4. That my soul may bless thee before I die.] The words of dying men are living oracles. It was the patriarch’s care, and must be ours, to leave a blessing behind us; to seek the salvation of our children while we live, and to say something to the same purpose when we die, that may stick by them. So when we are laid in our graves, our stock remains, goes forward, and shall do till the day of doom.
Ver. 5. Esau went to the field to hunt, &c.] But before he returned, the blessing was otherwise bestowed. “The hope of the hypocrite shall perish”. (Job 8:13) How many lie languishing at hope’s hospital, as he at the pool of Bethesda, and no help comes! They repair to the creatures, as to a lottery, with heads full of hopes, but return with hearts full of blanks. Or, if they draw nigh to God, they think they take hold of him; but it is but as the child that catcheth at the shadow or the wall, which he thinks he holds fast in his hand; but it vanisheth. The common hope is ill bottomed. “Hope unfailable,” (Romans 5:5) is founded upon “faith unfeigned”. (1 Timothy 1:5) Deo confisi nunquam confusi. He sneaketh sweetest comfort “to the heart, in the wilderness”. (Hosea 2:14)