John Trapp on Proverbs 16:31

Verſ. 31. The hoary head is a Crown of glory] Old age and Honour are of great affinity in the Greek Tongue. God gave order, that the aged ſhould bee honoured, Levit. 19.32. See the Note there.

Credebant hoc graude nefas, & morte piandum, Si juvenis vetulo non aſſurrexerat.

There is a certain plant (which our Herbaliſts call Herbam impiam, or wicked cud-weed) whoſe younger branches ſtill yeeld flowers to overtop the Elder. Such weeds grow too rife abroad. It is an ill ſoil that produceth them.

If it bee found in the way of righteouſneſſe] Canities tunc venorabilis eſt, quando eagerit quae cauitiem decent, &c. ſaith old Chryſoſtome. Hoarineſſe is then onely honourable, when it doth ſuch things as become ſuch an age; elſe it is mucor potius quàm canities, rather filthy mouldineſſe, than venerable hoar-headedneſſe. Manna, the longer it was kept againſt the command of God, the more it ſtank. What can bee more odious than an old Goat, an old fornicatour, &c? What more ridiculous than puer centum annorum, a childe of fourſcore or an hundred years old? Turgis & ridiculoſa res eſt elementarius ſenex, ſaith Seneca. Sen. Epiſt. 62. ad Lucil. An A B C-old-man is a ſhameful ſight. Nectarius, that ſucceeded Nazianzen at Antioch, had little elſe to commend him to the place, but a goodly gray beard, and a graceful countenance.Veneranda canities, & vultus ſacerdote dignus Baron. Whereas of Abraham it is reported that he went to his grave in a good old age, or as the Hebrew hath it, with a good gray head. Pluck out the gray hairs of vertues, and the gray head cannot ſhine with any great glory.