_Peckham_, _July_ 11, 1814.
_MY DEAR FRIEND_.
MAY the Father of Mercies and God of all consolation be with you, as your
all in all, the foundation of your soul, the shield of your faith, the
helmet of your hope, the length of your days, the joy of your mind, the
strength of your heart, and your portion for ever.
I think, a few months ago you requested, and I promised you, a few
remarks on the 12th of Ecclesiastes. Having repeated it in the Pulpit in
a Sermon, I will how endeavour to give you my opinion in the most literal
and spiritual manner I can, with all due deference to superior judgments;
and humbly submit my sentiments to the whole Church of Christ, which is
the pillar and the ground of the truth.
It has been asserted that Solomon was the wisest of all men; here I beg
leave to differ, I humbly conceive he was not so wise as Adam, before the
fell; nor perhaps so wise as the Apostle Paul: but when it is said he was
the wisest of men, it must be considered merely in a political point of
view; as God blest him with much natural wisdom, so that he was able to
manage the affairs of the Nation without a Parliament, and to try all
causes without a Bench of Judges; this was indeed a great work, and the
Lord fitted him for it, by a spirit of wisdom and understanding, which he
requested of the Lord. He was the wisest man, therefore, in natural
things, that perhaps ever lived since the fall.—He collected and framed
three thousand Proverbs, and a thousand and five spiritual Songs. He was
well versed in, and well explained the nature of Herbs and Animals of
every kind. Solomon had several books to study, the Book of the
Ceremonial Law, which is often alluded to in the Proverbs, the Book of
the Moral Law, out of which he was taught his need of a Mediator, and a
better righteousness than his own, to justify him before God, the Book of
all the scriptures that were then extant. Into these he was deeply led.
He had the book of nature, and appeared to be a Master of all the
Sciences of natural and spiritual Philosophy. He was well skilled in
Astronomy, in Botany, and Anatomy; the last he shews his skill in, as
this last chapter of the Preacher shews. This book was probably written
in his old age, after his recovery from his fall, and God had healed his
broken bones. Age and sorrow coming on him, he felt the decline of
mortality, urges the necessity of spiritual knowledge and practice, while
health lasts and God furnishes a man with opportunities, knowing that the
mental faculties would soon decay, however bright they might have been.
These are set forth in three verses. He then notices the decay of the
human frame—its weakness, and how every limb and joint, every power and
passion, every member and faculty is affected, either by age, sickness,
or trouble. The Lord, indeed, sometimes sends for his dear people,
suddenly. He snatches them away from the power of enemies, and the evil
to come; but others are gently gathered, not hastily plucked. God takes
down our tabernacle a pin at a time, and loosens the cords just as we are
able to bear it; gives kind warnings, and then appears like a cloud of
the latter rain. This gradual decay Solomon pays a particular attention
to, he had noticed it in others, perhaps began to feel it himself; and
having called the Body an House, he describes its timbers, its strong
beams, its supporters; _in the day when the keepers of the house shall
tremble __and the strong men bow themselves_. The almost universally
received opinion of these _Strong men_, _the keepers of the house_, is,
that they signify the _Hands_ and _Feet_, which include the _Shoulders_,
the _Arms_, and _Hands_, the _Thighs_, the _Legs_, and the _Feet_.—These
Hands and Arms are the keepers of the house, for when the scripture
speaks of preserving, defence, and deliverance, the Hands and Arms are
generally mentioned, besides, they keep the house by providing for it,
getting maintenance for the whole body. _These Hands_, says Paul, _have
ministered to my necessities_: these protect the house, and also keep off
an adversary; these tremble through age or infirmities, as experience
shews; and this includes all weakness and inactivity of those parts in
this condition, whether they are outward, as stiffness and contraction,
or inward, as aches, pains, numbness, palsies, cramps, and tremblings.
Thus the Keepers tremble. The wise Man then descends to notice the
inferior, the _Feet_, containing these parts in connection, the Thighs,
Legs, Ancles, and Feet. These are the strong men; sometimes they are
called the Strength of a man; and the Spouse is setting forth the majesty
and glory of her beloved, in his strength, by this text, _His legs are as
pillars of marble_; and because the great strength of a Man lays in these
parts, therefore in his infirm and weak condition, these parts must
become more eminently weak. As the diseases which affect the superior
part, also affect the inferior, as the rheumatism, gout, and such like,
the keepers and the strong men are subject to a similarity of diseases;
and the learned say they are in the original exprest nearly alike—_The
keepers of the house tremble_, _and the strong men shall nod_, _or
shake_.
The next part of this shakey house the Wise Man observes, is the
_Grinders_; these cease, because they are few. Grinding, all men know to
be performed by two hard bodies, the one immovable, on which the Grinding
is made, the other movable; which by strong compression against the
former, and by its motion, makes the grinding. The upper and the nether
millstone, as the scripture calls them, the firm stander, and the strong
mover. Now, similar unto these in a mill, there are for that grinding
which is performed in the mouth, two jaw-bones, the upper and lower; the
upper admits no movement at all, the lower is movable, and so both
perform that act called mastication, or chewing. Out of these jaw-bones
proceed a certain number of small bones, we call _Teeth_—these are the
proper _strict_ instruments of grinding. By the ceasing of the Teeth, we
must understand all those infirmities that are incident to them by reason
of age, whether looseness, hollowness, rottenness, brokenness, blackness,
or whatever else may be an impediment to them in their use; for as age
comes on, the natural moisture at the root of the teeth is consumed, and
a preternatural is distilled in its room: thus as the teeth drop out, and
very few are left in it, the chewing in the mouth ceaseth, more so than
when there is none at all, for then the gums might act one against
another. But when the grinders are few, they hinder those from working,
and having no antagonists they are not able to work themselves, and so
the whole grinding ceaseth, which is a great symptom of the decay of
life, at least of a state of weakness.
The next great object which we are called to observe, is, the _Decay_ of
_Sight—Those that look out of the windows_, _are darkened_. I believe
none has ever questioned but this means the eyes, and the infirmities of
them in old age. One may be said to look out of a window, when he looks
through the glass of the window, or when he looks through the open
casement. Now a man could not look through a window, if it was not made
of glass, or something of the kind, neither could he perceive any thing
with his eye were not the parts thereof which the passage is made of, the
very same substance. The parts of the eye through whose bodies the
visible _species_ must pass, that they may be discerned, are either the
humours, or the tunicles; the humours are three, the watery, the
chrystalline, and glossy humour, so Anatomists call them; and however
they differ, yet they are all instrumental to vision. The tunicles or
coats, through which the sight is made, are only two, though there are
others which conduce to the sight, yet there are but two through which
the beams of light pass; the first is as fine and curious as a Spider’s
web, and being derived from the Brain and optic Nerve, it becomes a
vestment for the humors, and is pellucid and transparent. The other is
an hard and horny membrane, and encompasseth the whole body of the eye,
without perforation, and on the back part, behind the sight of the eye is
more obscure and dark, but on the fore part is far more plain and clear.
Solomon observes these _lookers out of the windows to become dark_, that
is, as age enfeebleth the eye the form and figure becomes more plane and
depressed than it was before, and the chrystalline humor, which had a
power of reducing itself, now becomes dry and altogether unfit for such
an end, which must breed a confusion in the sight. As age comes on, and
increaseth, it is well known the sight goeth away, the lookers out of the
windows must be darkened. We have scarce any description in scripture of
an old man and his infirmities, but the decrease of sight is mentioned,
their eyes were dim, and they could not see.
I hope you will pardon this very short description of the eye, as it is a
very large subject, and a vast deal may be said open it, which I
reluctantly omit, lest I should swell this letter to a volume.—Thus my
dear friend, our poor bodies in sickness and age, are compared to an old
house, with its teams, pillars, and windows, terribly shattered;
condemned by the Parish to come down. But I cannot let this letter pass
without the promise of another. May your confidence increase, and abound
more and more in this blessed truth, _If this earthly house of our
tabernacle is dissolved_, _we have a building of God_, _an house not made
with hands_, _eternal in the heavens_—there may we meet.—Amen.