New to growing and have a Question regarding trying to sprout from old seeds.

This is my last post on this tosser account. So hopefully I can get some help. I'm trying to find out if the seeds I am trying to germinate are going to work. I put some seeds up a way while back when I stopped smoking due to work, but due to a serious medical issue I'm saying fuck it and gettin back to it. I have seeds that are 5 - 7 years old that have been stored in the dark in an airtight sealed glass container. I have tried getting them started by following several reputable youtube instruction. I have put 8 seeds in cup of water(filtered tap) for the maximum of 3 days, but none of them popped a root. So I've put them in a damp paper towel hoping they'll sprout. I am wondering if anyone out there has ever tried to start from seeds this old? I'm gonna give it one more try, maybe try boiling the water first and then letting it rest to room temp and then try the whole process again with some other seeds. I would love some advice if anyone out there could help. Thanks.

Update: Forgot to saran wrap the damp papertoweled seeds, so they dried out. Now that I have all your advice, I'm gonna give it another try. Thank you for all who helped. I really appreciate it.