46 Chap, 52. An Expoftion upon the Eoak,of J o *. Verf. 7 and feene many dayes,let them fpeak; theywho have livedmolt dayes onearth, are yet indeed (as Eildad told Sob, Chap.8.9. ) but of yeflerday, and fo have lived, as it were,but aday ; yet, ac- cording to colrtmonaccount, fome men are fo very old, that you may call them dayes, and to themwe may well lay, let'Dayer fpeak; We read of one who wascalled J'óhnof Times, becaufe he had lived (if the Records fpake true) three hundred yeares and more. Anold man isa man of dayes; and thus Elihu might fay, let dayes, thatis, oldmen fpeak; But Children can fpeak, why then Both he fay , dayes fhould fpeak;? I anf%ver.; There is a twofold fpeaking; Firft, natural!, thus Children, as footle as they are out of their fwadling-bands, . learne to ípeak ; fuch fpeaking is but a natural! as ; Secondly, There is a fpeaking which is an artificial) or (+tidied a& ; thus O- rators and men of eloquence fpeake ; fuch fpeaking Elihu in- tendedwhenhe fayd, dayes fhould fpeak; He looked they fhould fpeak,te purpofe, fpeak by rule, even the quinteffence of reafon ; he prefumed theywouldhave brought forth fomewhat worthy of their yeares, and that he fhould have received fuch inftru Lion 'from them, as they had learned from old age it felfe ; I fayd ,dogesfhould fpeak. Childrencan fpeak words, but old men fhould fpeak things, every word fhould have its weight ; their tongues fhould drop as the honey- combe, and be a tree of life to feed and refrefh many. Ir is molt truly Paid of the word of God in Scripture , Every tittleof it hath a mountain offence, amighty weight of truth in it And furely the words of old men fhould 'be weightyand convincing ; They fhould fpeak truth with fuch evidence both of re(+imony and reafon as mayput to filence all thole who fpeak againff or befides either truthor realen. As,elay unto day ( faith' David, Pfal. rg. 2. )utrerethfpeech, that is, eve- ry day fpeakes fomewhat ; fo men of dayes fhould fpeak much both for inffru&ion and convi&ion. Ifaid dayes fhouldfpeak, Hence note. That's not to be efleerued as doneat till, which is not well done, or not done to pnepofe. An old man doth not fpeak unlefïe he fpeaks wifely, edifying- ly, and to the poynt. The.aged fpeak like children, when they fpeak foolifhly, or unfrüitfully. He only is a good fpeaker, who fpeaks '7ohannes de Temporibus. i
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