of the animal spirits is hindered onely from those parts of the Body to which that doth immediately tend and so those parts become wholly deprived both of sense and motion Death hath already taken possession of a Leg oâ— an Arm or the half of that Man that is so far paralytick hardly or never more to be dispossessed and therefore in our language it is well stiled the Dead Palsy Sometime it hapneth to the head of the spinal Marrow and so hindreth the influence of the spirits upon the whole Silver Cord and consequently takes away all sense and motion from all the subjected parts and this causeth Paralysis universalis which at all times and upon all occasions gives a very probable Prognostick but in the decrepit Age of Man a most certain and infallible one of immediate Death Or the Golden Bowl be broken The Symptome last treated of had reference to the rivulets of animality this we are now speaking of relates to the fountain For we must know that the Soul of Man the Queen Regent of all his operations makes the Head the Royal Palace of her residence from whence she gives forth all her Precepts Edicts and Commands for the regulating and actuating all the subjected parts of the Body Now the parts of the Head are of two sorts either the containing or the contained parts thereof The last of these namely the encompassed or contained parts are the cerebrum the cerebellum and the medulla with all those several smaller parts which curious observers have found out to belong to any of them which I shall not so much as mention because they are not so directly pointed at in this place And I do here as I have done all along industriously avoid all things especially all termes of Art or second intentions that do not immediately conduce to the understanding of the symptome under hand but we must not so exclude these parts as to judge them not all concerned in this expression for upon the breaking of the Golden Bowl the brain it self with all the contained parts appertaining thereunto doth immediately cease from all its operations And if we shall take the Original word in its plain signification and as it is often used in Scripture too for fâ—ns or scaturigo a Fountain or Spring it would seem most properly and primarily to intend this most noble part the first spring of animality the original fountain of all sense and motion But because I find the word otherwise translated and that upon very good grounds by all that have undertaken that charge I shall in no wise dissent from them for indeed the Mystical and Metaphorical sense of Words ought still to be preferred all along the Allegory And I would not by any meanes break a firm well set and a lasting Hedge if there be any the least reason for the standing of it The root from which this word is derived is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 volvit circumvolvit complicavit circumduxit Sometime it is translated to rowl or to rowl together sometimes to rowl away or to rowl back sometime to rowl over wrap up or encompass so that the word in the Text is sometime translated â—ecythus a Pot or Bowl to hold any liquid substance in sometime lenticula a Chrismatory or Cruet or Vessel to contain Oyl sometime orbis a Sphaerical Body encompassing others The vulgar Latine removes the Metaphor once again and brings it home to its own door vitta aurea the Golden Headband for vitta signifieth a Veil a Coyâ—e a Garland or whatsoever else may circle or encompass the head the LXX hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the repository of the Braines by all these we understand that Interpreters do uno ore with full consent render the Word to the involving circumscribing encompassing containing parts Which also are of two sorts either the external containing parts of the head or the internal The external beside those common Vestments that appertain to other parts of the body also as the Cuticula Cutis c. which cannot be here understood are only two the Perieranium and the Cranium it self now although these are not chiefly intended in this place yet surely they will put in for a share of this Elogie for as much as these do environ defend and suspend all the inward parts and do consequently exceedingly conduce towards all animal operations And the Chaldee Paraphrase doth directly interpret this word hereunto when it saith Et ne sit Confractus vertex capitis tui The Crown of thy head be not broken beside the Hebrew word for the scull as it is used in that place with many others where it is said when they went to bury her they found no more of her then the Scull and the Feet and the Palmes of her Hands is very neer a kin to the word here in the Text they lie both together in a belly and are derived from the same stock And that famous word which is a medly of the Oriental Languages being partly Syriac partly Chaldee and partly Hebrew is also neerly related hereunto I mean the word Golgotha that is to say the place of a Scull The internal containing parts are also two those two Membranes namely a thicker and an harder a thinner and a finer that do yet more immediately encompass the brain which to the Graecians are known by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Latines by the name of Matres which title they took from the Arabians intimating thereby unto us not onely that they do give a being to all the other Membranes of the body as unto their own natural off-spring but chiefly and that which is most to our present purpose that they do Maternâ curâ cerebro prospicere With a Motherly care and tenderness over-see and over-rule all the actions of the brain but yet more particularly the most inward of these two that doth by immediate contract encircle the very substance of the brain doth seem to me to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of eminence the golden bowl here intended This is that part which deeply insinuates it self into all the anfractuous passages of the brain and being firmly annexed thereunto keeps every part thereof in its proper place and due texture so that whatsoever is performed within the whole compass of the brain whether the making of the animal spirits their exercise therein or their distribution thencefrom is done principally by the help of this Membrane Therefore the Ancients from that reverence they had for it have justly honoured it with the name of Pia mater And if we do but throughly consider the innumerable branches of the veines but especially of the Arteries that are hereinto inserted and their several wonderful interchasings and intermixtures and insertions not onely one into another but even among themselves which is not found in any other part of the body we shall surely be induced to believe that the greatest
a state of obscurity and the Grave a place of secresie and therefore it is that Job wishing for death phraseth it Oh that thou wouldest hide me in the Grave that thou wouldest keep me in secret But beside the bare signification of secresie this word doth for the most part carry along with it an intimation of duration or continuâ—nce and therefore may very well be translated Tempus eujus duratio est abscondita an hidden duration a time that no man knows how long which is exactly answered by our English Law-phrase time out of mind and that both à parte post and à parte ante time either that is past or that is to come of which no man can give an account Both which also are signified unto us by the Latine word Olim which without all question came from the Hebrew word we are now speakking of as both the sound and signification will abundantly make appear Now this duration at least is in the state of death that no man knows how long it will continue No one living can give an account how long it shall be before the earth shall disclose her bloud and her bones and shall no more cover her slain The second signification of the word is avum seculum an age a certain long space of time that is commensurate with the duration of the thing that is spoken of A perpetuity as I may so say that is circumscribed an everlastingness that lasts as long as the thing of which it is affirmed It is said of an Hebrew Servants refusing to go out free His Master shall bore his Ear through with an Aul and he shall serve him for ever And again when Hannah resolved to present her son Samuel to the Lord she saith I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and there abide for ever which Term for ever is afterwards explained when she doth bring him and present him then she saith I have lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth Now in this sense also may the word be taken in this place so long as Death lives and it is the last enemy that shall be destroyed it will keep in its possession all that it hath or shall surprize The Graves must be our homes when once we come there as long as there is any Dust to cover us or Heavens to surround us Men lieth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep Untill the grave shall not onely cease from craving but from being and untill death be wholly swallowed up of victory all those Bodies that are under their power must there quietly remain as in their own unalterable habitations The last signification of this word is duratio absolute infinita aeternitas A compleat and absolute perpetuity eternity And in this signification it is mostly used and must alwayes be interpreted when it is applyed to God or any of his Attributes as often it is When Nebuchadnezzars understanding was returned to him he blessed the most high and praised and honoured him that liveth for ever whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation Again it is said in Isaiah Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation Now in this last sense also may the same word in this place be safely taken in domum aternitatis suae The state we arrive at by Death is an everlasting state and we shall never return to this life again through all eternity And hence it is that usually we find such Epitaphs hanc aternam sedem sibi posâ—it and Hac domus aeterna est hic sum situs hic ero semper Nor is the Scripture without its testimony hereunto for David saith Spare me a little that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more And Job doth not only say it but argue upon it There is hope of a Tree if it be cut down that it will sprout again and that the tender branch thereof will not cease Though the root there of wax old in the earth and the stock thereof die in the ground Yet through the sent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant But Man dieth and wasteth away yea Man giveth up the Ghost and where is he And that Interrogation If a Man die shall he live again which usually is interpreted vehemently to affirm seems on the contrary to me most earnestly to deny and is as much as to say if a Man die he shall never live more no hopes of a return to this life again And this First the manner of proposing the question seems chiefly to intend for it is not negatively proposed If a man die shall he not live again but affirmatively shall he live again Now Negative Interrogations do in all Languages and in Scripture phrase too more properly intend affirmative Propositions as where it is said Doth not each of you on the sabbath day loose his Oxe or his Ass from the stall and ought not this Woman also to be loosed both of them most vehemently affirming and again another Interrogation How shall he not also with him give us all things is as much as to say he shall most surely do it On the other hand affirmative Interrogations do for the most part intend negative Propositions Joseph saith How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God and the Lord saith How shall I give thee up O Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim all of them intending the denying of the thing Both these Interrogations about the same subject too are together in one Verse of the Psalms still intending their contrary Propositions What Man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave the first part of the Verse is negatively proposed and therefore signifies the strong affirming of the thing he shall surely see death and the latter part of the verse is affirmatively proposed and therefore signifieth the vehement negation of it he shall in no wise deliver his soul from the hand of the Grave The manner therefore of proposing this question being without a negative doth seem to carry the sense that if a man be dead he shall never live again Secondly the inference that is hence made confirms the same thing All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come doth far more naturally and powerfully proceed from the denying of life again then from the asserting it as to the diligent observer will easily appear if a man shall never live again in this world it is of most high concern to prepare for that change that foreruns an everlasting state There is no returning more from death and therefore let every
Symboles which are here all along the Description brought to express them do abundantly declare his most exquisite and exact knowledge in them all Not only such a knowledge as was then attained in the World or as should in after Ages be attained by any but such an one as was attainable or as the Humane Nature was able to Comprehend and whatsoever certain Inventions in Anatomy have crowned the ingenious Inquirers of succeeding time lie couched in some one or other Expression of this Allegory Among many other things it is here clearly demonstrated that Solomon perfectly knew and as plainly as his Figurative Method would give leave described the Circular Motion of the Bloud the best and most useful Invention of this Latter Age. And as for the Subject which is directly here intended viz. the Description of the Infirmities of Age though it be Compendiously handled by him yet it is Compleatly done in all things appertaining thereunto both Moral Natural and Divine And indeed what can the man say that comes after the King The most knowing and ingenious Persons in the best enlightned Generations can add no more hereunto than they can unto their own stature It only remains that some such give us the full Interpretation of what is here delivered since it pleased the King to leave it to after Ages inveloped with a Canopy of the same wisdom that indited it And if this weak Essay may excite any such for the future lovingly to Correct what is here amiss and to supply what is here deficient it will be a most acceptable work but if for the present Courteous Reader it may be of any use toâ— thee as a Man as a Schollar as a Philosopher as a Physician as a Christian follow the intimation that is here given thee and I will follow thee with a good wish which I am sure shall be accomplished for thee and for all those that honestly labour in Gods Word and Work I mean I bid thee God speed J. S. Errata PAge 24 line 13. read Hypallagen p. 97. l. 22. r. do so appear p. 156. l. 24 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 159. l. 5. r. Essence p. 161. l. 29. r. hasting p. 172. l. 10. r. pinguescet p. 199. l. 16. r. praeexistent p. 246. l. 12. r. Tabernacles King Solomon's Portraiture of Old Age. Eccles 12. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth while the evil daies come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them While the Sun or the Light or the Moon or the Stars be not darkned nor the clouds return after the rain In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong men shall bow themselves and the grinders cease because they are few and those that look out of the windows be darkned And the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high and fears shall be in the way and the Almond tree shall flourish and the Grashopper shall be a burthen and desire shall fail because man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets Or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken or the pitcher be broken at the fountain or the wheel broken at the Cistern THE Oracles of God are given forth that the men of God may be made wise unto salvation and all those that through faith have themselves exercised therein shall through grace the Spirit of God moving upon the waters obtain that most desired end but this main happiness is not the only that may be acquired by searching the Scripture for there are many natural things the knowledge whereof may be better gained in one line of them than in whole Volumes of confused Naturalists Wherefore he that in the true fear of God shall apply himself to them may think not only to have eternal life but by the way also to obtain the true knowledge of most things that appertain to this Seek first the Kingdom of God and all other things shall be added unto thee Solomon sought after nothing but wisdom but see what a gracious answer he received I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart I have also given that which thou hast not asked both riches and honour and I will lengthen thy daies Thus it pleaseth God to deal with those who are sincere not only to give them their hearts desire but to superadd somewhat they were not aware of that may be beneficial to them in their course of life Looking after the duty of man which is compleatly set down in ver 13. of this Chapter I find before I come there an Anatomical Enumeration of the sad Symptomes of extream Old Age And such an one as I dare be bold to say is not elsewhere to be found When the wisdom of the omniscient God through his Servant Solomon shall describe it why should I search any further Aenâ—gmatical I confess it and exceeding difficult wherefore I have the more diligently applyed my self to the Interpretation of it And so much the rather because I find various senses put upon the words and scarce any one hath without interruption carried the Allegory clean through the whole six verses as I judge it ought to be And because a mistake in the parts of man may cause a mistake in the literal iuterpretation I whose study it hath been to be more versed in those than usual Interpreters do take the liberty to endeavour explication wherein if beside my own satisfaction and content I shall add any thing to others knowledge I shall therein have a second reward I am not ignorant of all nor do I despise any of those several interpretations both Literal and Mystical that several learned and good men have been exercising themselves in There are that expound all this Allegory or at least some part of it to a state of wickedness to a state of poverty â—o a state of spiritual desertion to a famine of bread or of the Word of God to the several dispersions and Captivities of the Jews to the destruction of both the Temples and of Jerusalem to the obstinacy of the Jews to the unprofitableness of the Gentiles under their Ministry to the Apostacy of the latter times to the end of the world and to the day of Judgment I know God doth at sundry times and in divers manners speak unto the World by his Servants And knowing this first that no Prophesie of the Scripture is of any private interpretation I know this from thence that no private Interpreter whatsoever is to bind up others to the measure of his own understanding Now as I am against no other so there is no other against me in this that
himself he must go from state to state from age to age and never stay till he come to these evil daies and unpleasant years mentioned in the Text. There was it is probable within the compass of the Creation that which had a natural property in it to preserve mortal yea sinful man without alteration Now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life and eat and live for ever Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken And when the Creatures shall be delivered from the bondage uâ—der which they now groan this Panacea may again be restored to its Primitive use Then shall the leaves of the Tree of Life be for the healing of the Nations but for the present this is kept from us by a flaming Sword and therefore not to be attained unto And I never knew any one touch but the foot of that Mount I mean attempt any thing that is but analogous thereunto but his work if not himself was destroyed thereby And as our Case now is he that made us he can save us he that made the Sun can cause it to stand still or go back at pleasure and he that made man can uphold him without those changes which otherwise unavoydably attend him And in the daies of wonder when Shooes and Garments kept equal duration with mens flesh so he did his Servant Moses concerning whom it is said when he was one hundred and twenty years old his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated But this is his own Prerogative when he pleaseth In his ordinary Providence as he hath set certain bounds that a man cannot pass so he hath set certain other that he must Man that is born of a woman cometh forth as a flower he fleeth as a shadow he fleeth from Infancy to Childhood from thence to Youth from thence to Strength from thence to Full Age from thence to Declension from thence to the State we are upon And thus some interpret the second verse While the Sun is not darkned i. e. the prime of youth be not spent the light of that Sun is the full age the Moon is declining age and the Stars are the beginning of Old Age but this I judge not so primarily and properly the meaning of the place as you will hear in this ensuing Explication Verse I. Remember now thy Creator in the daies of thy youth while the evil daies come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them THis Chapter begins with an Exhortation to the most necessary duty of man which is pressed upon him by a double inconvenience that will certainly come upon him and for the future render him uncapable to perform the same The last and the greatest is that of death described in the seventh verse And this is the night wherein no man can work The other is that of age described in these sixformer verses And this is the Evening or latter part of the day wherein it is very ill working and nothing can be done in comparison of what might have been done before let the neglect therefore of this duty for ever be annexed to a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God forbid that any one should defer the remembrance of his Creator untill he be not able to remember at all or put off the work of the highest concern until he be altogether unfit to perform aright any of the meanest But because it is my present design only to meddle with the Allegory wherein is the description of Age I shall not detain you in this most important entrance but immediately fall upon my work In this verse we have only a general description of that infirm condition which is more particularly treated of in the following verses Age though it naturally creeps upon all men whatsoever their Constitutions and Compositions are yet it is it self a disease Senectus ipsa morbus And it doth certainly induce such a Cachexia or ill habit that it renders us inserviceable to our ends and doth as it were set open the gates that all that troop of enemies may enter in which follow here in their order Here are two expressions that intimate unto us the unavoydable approach of these decrepit years i. e. come and draw nigh of which gemination signifying the same thing I may well say as Joseph did upon the doubling of Pharaohs dream It is because the thing is established by God and God will shortly bring it to pass Whosoever we are whatsoever we are doing whithersoever we are going they are still coming on Be we Male or Female be we Jew or Gentile be we bond or free be we Princes or Subjects be we what can be imagined they come they come While I write while thou readest while we wake while we sleep while we abide at home while we go abroad while we eat or drink or sport while we retire our selves we pray or fast while we neglect our selves while we defend all we can against them they draw nigh they draw nigh And that man who wrote a book de non senescendo lived to his own disgrace to see his own errour confuted in himself Here are two words also to express the continuation of this state so long as it shall be i. e. daies and years both these words signifie also the same thing in the general viz. how long this state shall remain And thus Jacob useth them both in giving an account unto Pharaoh how long his life had continued The daies of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years few and evil have the daies of the years of my life been and have not attained unto the daies of the years of the life of my Fathers in the daies of their pilgrimage But in particular they intimate unto us a diversity of their continuation to divers persons Some men post over this bad way and remain but a very little while in it others pass over it more slowly and continue therein much longer Some have but a few daies of labour and sorrow others have them prolonged out to years As the Lord only knows what person in the world for there are but few in these last Ages shall be brought to this state so he only knows how long they shall remain in it Whether this time shall be more or less whether daies or years shall determine it is to us uncertain but this is most certain concerning them both that if they be at all so long as they are they shall be evil they shall be unpleasant Evil daies I here take the word evil in a good sense that is not for the evil of sin but the evil of misery the fruit of sin I know there be them that would have this word if not the whole Allegory understood of such daies and years as wicked men by their giving themselves up
that from Scripture-light which hitherto may not have been taken notice of to the present purpose It is said The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and the marrow Among many other truths this place doth afford us this for one That it is very difficult to divide or distinguish between the soul and the spirit because there is an intimate Communion and Conjunction between them such an one as in some measure bears proportion with that which is between the joynts and the marrow Now because this latter of the parts of the body though hard in it self yet is far easier to be understood then that former of the parts of the mind let us well consider this and possibly it may give us some light to the other The joynts are the turning places of the body upon which all the actions of the limbs are performed and therefore they are articulated several waies according as the position alteration motion of the adjacent parts do require these are the most visible acting parts of the body The marrow by which we are to understand not the medulla ossium the marrow of the bones but the medulla spinalis the marrow of the back for this hath much more intimate communion and conjunction with the joynts than the other hath is the apprehending and instructing part of the body that which carries the impressions of external objects to the inward sense and reconveys the mandates thereof to the members of the body to be put in execution upon the joynts Ejus munus est spirituum copias motuum obeundorum instinctus extra deferre atque sensibilium impressiones intus convehere this is the secret inward influencing part of the body In like manner the soul is the most apparent active part of the mind of man whereupon all its operations both speculative and practical are turned and performed of which there is a particular account given in the explication of the following word but the Spirit is a more mysterious and hidden power that doth most secretly and undiscernably both gather up those intimations that come from without and also give forth an effectual influence upon the whole inward man to put all it s well regulated Commands in execution upon the soul Both which offices of this Sun viz. both of reception from the outward senses and actuation of the inward is very clearly expressed in that speech of Zophar unto Job I have heard the check of my reproach and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer As if he had said I have received through mine ears the sound of my reproach and an answerable impression is made upon my spirit and the same spirit also hath drawn forth my understanding into act towards the formation and production of an answer And this is the constant manner of the operation of mans understanding this is also that part of the mind which Aristotle and all his followers meant by their Intellectus agens this is that Candle of the Lord or light within them which the unsound Teachers of old and those more innocent ones of late would have to be a sufficient guide to everlasting life But if it be so it will be good hearkening to it while it doth remain in its strength for this Sun also as years come on doth certainly decline and great must that declension be For if the light of the body which is the eye be darkness great must that darkness be much more surely if the light of the soul which is the Sun be darkned how exceeding great must that darkness needs be Indeed there must be a defect in the whole understanding when this primum mobile can scrace act any longer and therefore it is that the Apostle speaks concerning the spiritual understanding alluding therein unto the natural Having their understanding darkned through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart When there is ignorance to receive and blindness to guide in this principal faculty all those which are thereby acted must certainly be weakned as the next word doth clearly import The Light By the light therefore I understand all those more inferiour powers of the rational part of the soul of man that are any way set on work by vertue of the principal Agent which is an efflux from the before mentioned Sun the Possible understanding also in all its operations participates in like manner of this state of weakness Now the operations of mans understanding are various both ad extra in respect of the Objects and ad intra in respect of the will The first are speculative the last are practical The first whereby the understanding is conversant about things as they have in their own nature a distinct being are principally three The first is perception or the simple apprehension of an object from the immediate impression thereof by the ministry of the before-mentioned Sun The second is Composition or Complexion whereby we try and weigh the particulars that we have before received and compound and divide joyn and separate one thing from another as may be most convenient for the improvement of them to their appointed ends The third is reason or discourse whereby we gather up to our selves somewhat farther than we understood before and make our selves masters of a new and better knowledge which the things themselves received as in themselves could not administer The last whereby the understanding is conversant about things as they are good or evil may also be reduced to three The first is Conscience which is a reflection of the understanding upon a mans actions together with a sentencing them to be good or evil according to those unquestionable principles which are already received This is the search which the Candle of the Lord makes in the lower part of the belly The second is direction or judgment whereby the understanding doth propose an end to be desired and prosecuted the execution of which that is the resting satisfied in and desiring of that end is that which Morallists ascribe to the will and term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The third is Consultation or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reasoning about the means to attain that end together with an Inquisition and Collation of several means among themselves and an election of those which are most proper the embracing of which and putting them in execution is that which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now these and all the operations of the rational soul however they may be distinguished have in this state an answerable imbecillity Be a man never so apprehensive be he never so ingenious be he never so rational be he never so consciencious be he never so judicious be he never so prudent when his Sun begins to set and his light to decline he must become weak as another man nay weak
as a child And this the Author of our description here though he so well knew it and foresaw it yet was not able to prevent it in himself but found his own words sadly verified in his own condition For it came to pass when Solomon was old that his Wives tuâ—ned aw ay his heart after other Gods he that for understanding surpassed all men since God gave unto him wisdom more than to any man before him or since to this very day And for light of Conscience also since the Lord had appeared to him twice yet when he was old he fell to such irrational â—ottish senseless abominations and that only by the â—eduction of women as nothing but the frailty of age could possibly have given way unto Now as the soul is by reason of age weakned in the directing part which usually is called the understanding so also in the executing part which usually is called the will Old men when they do apprehend an end and the means to attain it they haesitate about prosecuting the mandates of the mind and stand for the most part timorously and child-like at shall I shall I. I find one Commentator upon the place say Non fruitur libero arbitrio There is not a ready embracing nor a free acting towards the attainment of what is by the understanding first dictated Farther yet old men are very easily drawn off and lead aside from their own intentions every weak suggestion is too strong for them and takes them Captive at pleasure and as our Saviour said to Peter though in another sense so may it be said to every one who shall live to the time When thou wast young thou girdest thy self and walkedst whither thou wouldest but when thou shalt be old another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not A man shall not then be master of his own actions but be very liable to the seductions of whomsoever shall beset him And thus by these two words the Sun and the Light you perceive is meant the whole rational soul with all its powers and operations as it may be found exercising it self both inwardly and outwardly And though here be two words more significantly set down for the fuller and clearer manifestation of what is here intended yet it might have been expressed though not so plainly by one word only And therefore it is that the Syriack Translation and some followers of it have only the Sun expressed Antequam Sol obtenebrescetur for the Sun may signifie not only that light which is contained within its own body but all those Emanations that illuminate whatsoever is thereby enlightned And the womans Candle in the Gospel by which she found her groat might signifie not only the light in the Candle it self which answereth here to the Sun but all the light in every part of the room also which answereth here to the light And thus we find the greater light which rules the day of man to be darkned the lesser which rules the night is that which followeth The Moon By the Moon we must understand that other part of the soul of man which is not in it self rational 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aliquo tamen modo rationis particeps I confess reason may in man have some influence upon it but in its own nature it is altogether devoid of it it is that part of the soul which is usually called sensitive and is common to all other animals as well as unto man and in him is but the lesser light and ruleth but the darker part only and therefore may be most aptly expressed by the Moon It is conversant principally about those species which are communicated to it from the outward senses the operations about which are either simple or compound The simple operations are first to receive them as they are communicated from without and then to retain them for so long time as it is exercising it self about them Secondly To dijudicate them as they are in themselves and to discern them as they differ from all other whatsoever The Compound operations are excellently described by a modern Author of our own who saith that the liberty of the Imagination is threefold Either Composition or new mixing of objects Translation or new placing of them Creation or new making them Now all these or whatsoever else may be comprehended within the compass of the pure sensitive part of the soul are but the operations of one faculty and therefore by one word are most fitly here expressed And though the Philosophers have usually distinguished them into more as into the common sense the Phansie both Estimative and Cogitative yet really and truly they are but one for as one superiour faculty in the superiour part of the soul which is the understanding could both receive compound and collect as you heard before what hindereth but the same may be done in the same manner in the inferiour And we are not to multiply faculties without necessity Beside the ground of their variety is not to be admitted For they supposed the operations about their objects to be divers attributing perception and discerning to the common sense only dividing and compounding to the Phansie Now the phansie doth as well perceive and discern nay better too than the common sense doth and the common sense may be said to compound and divide as the phansie doth Therefore some more quick sighted of late perceiving this ground not sufficient that they might be sure to uphold Aristotles division of the inward senses have found out another way and say that the common sense is conversant about a present object only the Phansie about that which is absent but this seems as weak as the former and that according to the Peripatetick Doctrine forasmuch as the Phansie is conversant about an object only while present with it Indeed it can detain it a while untill it have done its work about it so can 〈◊〉 common sense also And it can receive it again after it is passed away and 〈◊〉 upon it anew but for this it must be beholding to the memory and can do nothing upon an object by its own strength but while it hath it present with it I argue this only to shew that they are but one faculty and therefore by this one word viz. the Moon they are both represented which as the more superiour powers of the soul and all the members of the body hath in this state of weakness its answerable declension I confess with Aristotle if an old man had a young mans eye he would see as well as a young man but I deny that which I suppose he meant by it that is that he would perceive and discern as well as a young man unless he had a young mans internal faculty also It is one thing to see it is another thing to know that a man sees and to distinguish what colour and what figure he sees As age brings a weakness upon the
howsoever they may be numbred among the bones yet they have one or two especial properties which are competible to no other bones of the body at least in that measure whereby they are principally adapted for the grinding The first is they are naked they have no covering or skin upon them no not so much as that common Membrane called the Periostion which doth encompass all the bones of the body beside and that is because they might the better atting one anothers bodies and in their attrition one against another they might feel no pain but I must needs here take notice that the words of Job seem to be against me where he saith I have escaped with the skin of my teeth This is easily answered if we consider the two parts of the Teeth viz. the Basis and the Radix that is the part which eminently appears white above the Gums this is that part which is within the Gums and stands fixed in the Mandibles Now by Jobs skin or covering of his teeth it is apparent he meant the gums which cover the roots of the teeth his sores and his boyls were so great and terrible upon him from the sole of his foot to his Crown that there was no part of the skin of his body to be seen but only about his teeth which in all such Cutaneous diseases doth for the most part wholly escape The second is they have the vessels which convey life and sense unto them contained only in the inward parts that the outward parts may be freer and better to grind The third is that they are growing or encreasing so long as man lives so that what is worn away of them by their continual attrition and manducation is dayly repaired otherwise they would grow shorter and smoother and not be so able to perform their work and this is a wonderful piece of the wisdom of God in nature which Art cannot possibly reach unto and therefore because they cannot make their mills grow as they dayly decay by grinding they are fain to supply that want by often pecking their milstones and at length changing them and by those means as it were renew their teeth without which they were able to do nothing at all The last I shall mention is that the teeth of all the bones of the body are the hardest and will suffer the least from any other bodies whatsoever and therefore are the fitter for such a work as this A milstone is of all other stones supposed to be the hardest and therefore Job when he had expressed the hardness of the heart of the Leviathan by a stone as if he had not said enough he farther adds one degree more yea saith he As hard as a piece of the nether milstone These short observations may suffice to teach us in the general that the teeth also may be called the grinders If we yet more particularly consider them and how they may be divided we shall have a farther light into this matter The teeth are of three kinds either Incisores Canini or Molares The first are the broad fore-teeth the second are the next round teeth which are usually called the eye-teeth the last are the great double and hindermost teeth the first bite or cut the food the second break or bruise the food the last chew or grind the food And this distinction also may be found in Scripture the first are alluded to where it is said The Prophets bite with their teeth The second where it is said He hath the cheek teeth of a Lion And both these where it is said There is a generation whose teeth are as swords and their jaw teeth as knives The last is alluded to where it is said While the flesh was yet between their teeth ere it was chewed the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people They had bit the flesh of the Quails and had passed it from the first teeth to the last which are the grinders and there it stuck till they died And thus at length we are fallen upon the true proper and strict instruments of grinding we have hitherto been shewing the whole frame of the mill and how several parts do wonderfully contribute towards this work and now we are come to those parts wherein the close pinch of grinding lieth and that is in the great broad and hindermost teeth which from the day of the writing of this Allegory to this present time have ever among Anatomists retained the name of grinders And that not without exceeding good reason for the form and figure of these above the rest doth abundantly shew that these are the fittest of them all for this work for these are bigger larger broader every way especially at the top where their form is much-what like to that of a mill where also they have eminent asperities protuberances exactly answerable to the roughness of the Milstones by which the grinding is far more easily and perfectly performed beside these are more firmly inclavated and infixed into the jaw bones by treble or quadruble roots whereas all the rest are but by single or double at the most and being more strongly rooted they are the fitter for more eminent services Lastly and chiefly the experience of every man doth sufficiently confirm that this is the proper use of these teeth and that the more solid food which needs greater manducation cannot be sufficiently comminuated for chyle or ground low enough for the stomack untill these teeth have done this work upon it And thus it is plain that the jaws and teeth and eminently these last mentioned are appositely and elegantly called the grinders which how much service they do to man while usable and how much detriment and loss they bring upon him when they cease from their use is well known to all men Strong meat belongeth to men of full age saith the Author to the Hebrews It belongs to them and only to them because they alone have as I may so say their mill in tune their mouth full of strong teeth and set directly one against another whereby they may bring the strongest meat into a meet consistence and a due preparation for easie digestion in the stomack But it may here be said there are many Creatures that are not thus strongly armed and have not so many teeth nor those they have so well set as your position supposeth they should be for the due preparation of the meat And these are the Sheep the Goat the Cow the Deer and all other Creatures that have teeth only on the lower Jaw and none at all on the upper These have no antagonist grinders nor contra-acting milstones and yet these Creatures in their full age eat as solid food and as hard of digestion and withall do as well with it as they that are better provided in this respect to this I must needs answer it is very true so that from hence we may take occasion to admire the wisdom of God
so hinder that open view must of necessity cause a diminution and in time a perfect abolition of the sight and here give me leave to name one or two principal symptomes of vision that are the chief attendants of this declining state The first is Caligo which is the obscurity of vision by reason of the Crassitude or thickness of the Tunica Cornea which by reason of the driness of age doth together with the nails of the fingers grow darker and thicker and consequently lose dayly somewhat of its perspicuity Another is Glaucoma which is the change of the colour of the Crystalline humour by reason of its dulness and thickness whereby old men do look upon all things as it were through smoak or a cloud and so do but darkly discern them Another is Zinifisis which is a change of the figure of the whole eye whereby it becomes more plain and depressed and a driness in the Crystalline humour whereby it is unable to reduce the eye to that form which may be most advantagious to vision so that they cannot perceive any thing at an equal distance but must have their objects more remote from the eye or the species first refracted and directed by the use of Spectacles Another is Suffusio ex cruditate or any interposition of any preternatuâ—al matter between the sight and the Tunica Cornea I might also add Corrugatio relaxâ—tio uveae tunica the contraction or dilatation of the apple of the eye or whatsoever else by obscuring the glass or obstructing the holes may be justly said to darken the lookers out of the windows Verse 4. And the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird and all the Daughters of musick shall be brought low THus far the Preacher hath been treating of all those faculties which are termed Animal and their decaies in the time of age he passeth in this verse to those other which are called natural of which he treateth in the beginning of this verse and then to those that are mixed in the latter end and that in a double respect first those that are mixed of the faculties inward and outward and that is expressed in the want of sleep in those words He shall rise up at the voice of the bird forasmuch as sleep if perfect and sound is the ligation of all the senses both inward and outward for the refreshment both of the mind and body The other mixture of faculties is of vital and Animal in the last words All the daughters of musick shall be brought low For the passive daughters of Musick belong to the Animal faculty being the Instruments of an outward sense viz. hearing And the active daughters of Musick belong to the vital being the instruments of respiration as you shall hear hereafter Now to the understanding of this verse especially the former part of it I hope to let in some glimmering of light which formerly hath lain undiscovered The doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low For the right understanding of these words we must be sure in the first place to take notice that all these words are but one Sentence and confequently but one Clause of the description of age the former words viz. The doors shall be shut in the streets are not a distinct symptome of themselves as most men have formerly said but they have their reference to the ensuing words viz. When the voice of the grinding is low And the doors and streets here mentioned are no other than such as concern the grinding and are as inlets and outlets waies and passages unto that And I perswade my self that the hitherto miscarriage in the Interpretation of these words hath proceeded from neglect of this consideration The doors shall be shut when the grinding is low and only then and the lowness of the grinding is the cause of the shutting of the doors In humilitate vocis molentis saith the Vulgar Latine Ob per vel propter depressionem vocis molentis say others and that very consonant to the Original inasmuch as the grinding shall be low or by reason of the lowness of the grinding the doors shall be shut in the streets Wherefore for the better clearing of the whole Sentence we must first of all shew what is to be understood by the grinding and afterwards what the doors and the streets are and what the sound of the grinding will easily be made appear The wisdome of Solomon is so famous throughout all Regions and Ages that I need not here Apologize for it It would be unbecoming an ordinary Writer much more the Penman of this Allegory to deliver the same thing twice in a breath And I wonder with what face any Interpreters could put so great an absurdity upon the Wise man as to make this grinding signifie no more than that just mentioned before But for the clearing of this we must know that grinding is of two sorts either Per extra positionem or Per intra susceptionem as Philosophers use to distinguish of augmentation there is an extrinsecal or an intrinsecal grinding the former of these is performed when two hard bodies acting against each other do break and bruise into small parts that which is put between them And this is the grinding as in a Mill of which you heard before The latter of these is performed when the parts of the same mass by reason of the exaltation of some internal principle or the addition of some fermentum are so acted among themselves that the whole mass and every the least part thereof is changed and brought into a new Consistence And this Philosophy calls Fermentation and is that of which the Wiseman speaks in this place And it is therefore called grinding because it accomplisheth the end thereof better than any mill can do It will comminuate things of so hard a substance that no mill can break I would fain know what Mill could have ground Aarons golden Calf but by the help of fire and possibly some specifick menstruum as a proper key for that Solar Mineral it was easily ground to powder Again it can divide the matter that is to be ground into smaller parts than any mill can do it will not leave the most minute part unsearched A little leaven saith the Scripture leaveneth the whole lump And our Saviours expression of it is yet more significant The Kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till the whole of mass and every one of the least parts thereof be leavened No Mill can be set so low as to grind every Corn and every part of every Corn but Leaven leaves none untouched but divides beyond what Philosophy gives way for into parts indivisible Now of this sort of grinding there is very much to
changed to White it is an undoubted Indication of the weakness attending age the habit of the Body is already changed the innate heat begins to be suffocated the radical moisture is consuming the excrements which constitute the Hair are inconcocted and the temperament of Old age hath already seized the Man although it be no other wayes to be discerned Lastly They do also exceeding well agree in their Prognosticks they are both of them most certain fore-runners and foretellers of what is to follow after them If the Almond Tree be blossomed it is a most certain sign that Fruit will come after and that it is not far behind Aarons Rod budded as you heard and soon after it brought forth Almonds the Flowers are in order to the Fruit that must succeed Cum se nux plurima sylvis Induet in florem ramos curvabit olentes Si superant faetus pariter frumenta sequentur And thus Gray Hairs the flowers of old age do give a certain Prognostick that death which is the Fruit thereof is neer at hand Jacob saith concerning his son Joseph If mischief befall him by the way then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave A sad accident might have brought them down with sorrow to the grave but they would have come as surely without These are Church-yard flowers which may serve to them that bear them in stead of Passing-Bels to give them certain notice whither they are suddenly going There are some Naturalists who are yet bolder and affirm that the very thought and imagination of gray hairs even in the dreams of them though in a Person never so young do portend the same thing When they were Sacrificing in behalf of one of the Emperours of Rome the hairs of a Boys Head who did Administer to the Priests were all on a sudden changed to white which the Soothsayers and Wise Men did presently interpret to the Change of the Emperour and that an Old man should succeed which accordingly fell out for Nero who was but one and thirty years old was soon taken away and Galba who was seventy three Reigned in his stead There is far more certainty in the reality of the thing It may thus fall out to young men but it must thus fall out to old Mors senibus in foribus est juvenibus in infidiis Young men are taken away but Old men goe away in their own natural course for Candidi are Candidati mortis per eam immortalitatis Those that are white are marked out in order unto death and thereby unto immortality There might many other Particulars be assigned wherein the Almond-Tree and the Hoary Head do exactly agree but these few may suffice to shew us that the change of no other part of the Body in age can be hereby figured out unto us so properly as this we have been speaking of Beside Canities is a constant attendant on age and is intimated unto us in no other part of this allegory How often in Scripture are they mentioned both together I am now old and Gray Headed saith Samuel and David Prayeth When I am old and Gray-Headed O Lord forsake me not Nay I may say one thing of this Symptome that is not to be said of any of the other It is a plain and a full description of Age without any addition at all say a Gray-Headed man and you say an Old man without any farther Periphrasis The sword without and terrour within shall destroy both the young man and the Virgin the Suckling also with the man of Gray Hairs The Grashopper shall be a burden Or rather Shall grow or shew big and burdensome In the interpretation of this sentence and that which follows which doth depend hereon I must of necessity recede somewhat both from the common Translation and the usual interpretation of the place wherein if my opinion together with its novelty bring along with it any thing of satisfaction I presume it will be never the worse accepted For in these Theoretical notions the danger is not so great to deviate from the beaten road and to be Heterodox to the general received opinion For the subject of this Proposition without all controversie it is the Locust or Grashopper which differ very little either in their nature or form and may very well intend the same thing The predicate is far more difficult and therefore hath given occasion to more variety of translations that which is most usual is Erit oneri which our English exactly follows The Grashopper shall be a burden from whence most Interpreters do put this sense upon the place viz. that the Grashopper or any such small thing is a great burden to old men which although it may be a truth yet it can in no wise be intended by these words For then King Solomon would in this clause vary much from the general scope of all these verses which is as hath already been said Allegoricall and from the particular mode of expressing himself in this verse which is Hieroglyphical Beside the words in no propriety of Grammer can possibly bear such a sense as this and it hath been a great wonder to me how this Construction was first taken up and how it hath gained so great credit among men Nor can I yet give my self the least satisfaction herein unless it be from the ambiguity of the Latine Phrase Erit oneri which may very well be taken in a double sense either Erit oneri seni seu alteri or Erit oneri sibi The first of these must be taken for the carrying the words to the interpretation which hath been before mentioned but how incongruous it is to the very Grammatical reading of the words any one who is the least skilled in the Original can easily give an account For what is here predicated is directly predicated of the Grashopper and not in relation to any other person or thing else whatsoever And hence some have translated it Onerabitur sive gravabitur others Onerabit sive gravabit se others Crescet the Vulgar Latine gives the Metaphor one remove more to those that are burdened with flesh or fat rendring it impinguabitur Locusta but the Translation of the Septuagint upon this word is most remarkable and gives very great light to the understanding of the true meaning of the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crassabitur densabitur vel pinguecset Wherefore that the doubtfulness of speech both in the Latine and English which hath misled most Interpreters may be for the future removed I judge it most convenient that the Translation of the Vulgar Latine take principal place or that it be rendred in Latine Locusta onustam se reddet or praebebit which the Conjugation doth mostly favour and in English the Grashopper shall grow or shew big and burdensome For the right understanding of which words we must be sure to enquire what parts of the body of man they are that may be
Fitque tripes prorsus quadrupesque ut parvulus Et per sordentem fâ—â—bile serpit humum There remaineth yet one reason more that induceth me to believe that the parts we have been speaking of are principally here intended and that is taken from the word which is here the predicate whose root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth primarily to carry or bear burdens and in this sense it is mostly used Now the parts in man that may be called the Porters and which bear the burdens that are carried can be no otheâ— than the Sâ—apula and its Aâ—râ—mion which is the part upon which the burden is pitched and the back bone which is the part that gives the greatest strength towards the bearing of it both which when age hath much enfeebled a man become unserviceable as unto those ends these Porters do now become a porterage themselves and those parts that were wont to bear the greatest burdens are now so great a burden themselves that the man stoops under them and is scarce able to bear them Now as the bones are principally here intended so also all the other solid parts of the body that are made of the same crassiment of seed may be here included and if we do but here recal the Translation of the LXX we shall understand what change it is in age that all these undergo the Cartilages of the body the Ligaments the Membranes the Fibres the Veins the Arteries the Nerves and Tendons and the like do all grow harder and drier in age and tend more towards the nature of bones The skin also being partly of this kind as was before said is to be numbred hereunto which so long as man remains in strength is beautiful plain and polite but as he declines grows more crustly and dry and callous and consequently falls into abundance of wrinckles Plurima sunt juvenum discrimina pulchrior ille Hoc atque ille alio Una senum facies And that learned Physician who in his youth had wearied himself out with the uncertainty and confusion of prophane Authors and therefore in his age betook himself to sacred Philosophy that he might more powerfully assign over this Hieroglyphical expression to the sense we have here delivered saith the Locust ought to be understood of the Sea-Locust which is covered over with an hard and a crusty and rugged shell and whosoever shall so take it cannot but conclude that it doth decipher the parts we have now treated of However I judge the Land-Locust or Grashopper may very well signifie the same thing beside it is much better known to men than the other is and may be extended to some parts that ought here to be included which the other cannot so significantly denote For by this Clause the Grashopper shall be a burden we are to understand the alteration of all the more hard and solid parts of the body usually called the spermatical Ductilium viz. induratio incrustatio fragilium extantia prominentia Desire shall fail Or rather The Capers shall shrink The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath two remarkable significations the one primary and plain whereby it signifieth desiderium concupiscentia appetitus desire or appetite the other secondary or figurative whereby it signifieth Capparis Capers or the fruit or rather the flowers of the Caper shrub or bush And this word is translated from its first signification to this latter because of the known use of Capers which is to excite the appetite Capparis excitat orexin appetitum cibi veneris from whence it is that some do not improbably derive the word from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad luxuriam concito and for these ends especially that of the stomack are they preserved in pickle and so often used among us for sauce Now that the word in this place ought to be taken in this latter that is in the figurative signification these following reasons do induce me to believe every one of which singly seem to have a good perswasive power but all of them joyntly have doubtless a compulsive power to any rational man to be of the same opinion The first is the general scope that the wisdom of Solomon proposeth to it self in this whole description of age which is by way of Allegory all along No wonder therefore if the same wisdom where there be two significations of a word shall rather prefer the Allegorical the second is the particular intent of this verse which is to shew the sensible alterations that are made in man in old age both in respect of his mind and of the several parts of the body and that symbolically or by way of resemblance to other things and not at all to relate to any of the faculties and that which doth abundantly back this reason is that the weakned faculties were described before and particularly it was shewn sufficiently how the appetite both ad cibum and Coitum was weakned in the last verse in those words the voice of the grinding is low And therefore a learned Commentator upon this place when he had said Senum libido frigescit further adds that which might better distinguish it from what went before organa coitus dissipantur which is indeed the true purport of the words though but in part Again the Contextural expressions are of the self-same nature both those that follow in the Allegory namely the silver Cord and the golden Bowl and also those that immediately precede namely the Grashopper and the Almond tree And as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was translated from its primary signification which is waking as was said to that figurative of the Almond tree so also would it be most congruous to deal with this word we are now about Again Authority is sufficient yea abundant for this way of translating it If any one please to consult all the variety of Interpreters he shall find that which is a great rarity the most and the best to go together this way and since Hieron did but give favour hereunto I find no Translatour vary hencefrom but some few into Vulgar Tongues Lastly By this way of translating only there will be a direct opposition and a perfect Antithesis which certainly there ought to be betwixt this word and that which immediatly went before The Grashoppers and Capers are in their form and fashion their substance and consistence clean contrary one to another The one being protuberous rough crusty and hard The other round smooth spongy and soft And therefore may be very fit Emblems to represent the several contradistinct parts of the body under the same variety of consistence Wherefore as the Grashopper did principally represent the bones and secondarily all those parts that proceed from the Crassiment of the seed so also here the Capers do as aptly represent principally the flesh and secondarily the other moyst and fluid parts of the body that proceed from the more tenuous part of the seminary matter
by reason of the breaking of the Golden Bowl and shrinking up into it self there immediately follows a Coalescense of all the Vessels thereof and a Subsidence of the brain it self and consequently a total abolition of all the actions of the animal Faculty from whence there is not so much as the least hopes of recovery and under this Consideration it is handled in this place Or it may be the distinction of the learned Nymmanus may be more satisfactory to some in answer to this Objection Apoplexia est vel vera vel notha A true Apoplex is when the meatus and open passages of the brain are shut up and obstructed and so the Communication of the spirits is intercepted the substance of the brain and of all the parts appertaining thereunto remaining otherwise in good plight as they ought to be in their due place with their wonted firmness of Composition And this is like unto an house whose entry or common passages are wholly filled up with rubbish so that it becomes altogether useless and this is the disease of old age before-mentioned But a bastard Apoplex is a far more dreadful thing when the tone of the brain and of all the parts within the compass of the Pia mater is wholly relaxed and destroyed and by consequence only thereupon all animal functions do in a moment cease in the manner of the true Apoplex but yet with far more terrible and amazing Symptomes the pulse and respiration also being wholly taken away and the Countenance changed to that gastly aspect before mentioned which is an infallible sign of the dust immediately returning to the earth as it was without any the least stop in its course 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this is like that house wherein the Philistines were gathered together to see Sampson make sport which came tumbling down when the two foundation Pillars thereof were violently torn from their place Ut Collapsa ruit domus subducta columnis and this is the certain Symptome of death treated on in this Verse And thus much shall suffice to have spoken for the Explication of those Symptomes of death that belong to the instruments of the animal Faculty those two that remain belong to the Vital Or the Pitcher be broken at the Fountain For the right understanding of this Sentence and that which follows which doth depend hereon both of them belonging to the vital Faculty I must crave leave to premise something concerning the life of man wherein it consists and what those parts are that do principally conduce to the production and preservation of it for otherwise it is impossible to understand these Symptomes For as the Prophesies of Daniel and most others of the latter times are closed up and sealed till the time of the end when their known accomplishments shall demonstrate the truths contained in them Just thus hath it hapned to the great mysterious truths contained in these two last expressions forasmuch as the frame action and use of the heart together with the true motion of the bloud in mans body hath lain hid from the time of Solomon throughout all generations unto this last wherein we now live the words of this Allegory that contain the sum of that Doctrine have all this while been an undiscoverable mystery as a book sealed up that none could read or understand And as all those who have endeavoured to reveal the Revelations that must remain unrevealed till the appointed time of their revelation have by all their industry only declared their own weakness and insufficiency for such a work And describing at the best rate they could the mystery of Babylon by their darkness and confusion have only evinced that they themselves were a part thereof even so all those that have undertaken the explication of what we are now about before the Doctrine of Circulation was received among Men and gave light to the World have with their utmost endeavours only declared their own inability and have left these two Aenigmatical symptomes far more intricate then they found them And of all those ancient Commentators and Criticks that I have seen upon the place which has not been a few I never had the least content in any but one and that is he who after he had set down the four symptomes in this last verse he subjoynes as his comment these words Haec quatuor ego non intelligo Most ingenious Castalio had all Interpreters been so plain and honest I perswade my self we had had lesser volumes and yet far better understanding of the sense of Scripture then now we have Now in order to the end proposed we must know in the first place that which the Scripture doth far above all other Writings most clearly declare and that is that the Life of a Man consists in his Blood For it is the Life of all Flesh the blood of it is for the life thereof therefore I said unto the children of Israel ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh for the life of all flesh is in the blood thereof And this most noble Liquor of Life hath a primary seat or fountain where it is principally made and from whence it is dispensed throughout the whole Body and this is none other then the Heart for out of it are the issues of life is a truth not onely Moral and Spiritual but Natural also This part continually issueth forth abundance of blood wherein is the life to all the parts that are to be quickned thereby Hence those Medicines that are of a quickning and enlivening vertue are not unfitly called Cordialls because they help the heart in its work and do that by art unto which the heart is by nature appointed And surely between them there is a very great resemblance which makes the Wise Man say A Merry Heart doth good like a Medicine This wonderfull part of Man hath abundance of the wisdome of the Creatour shewed in its formation in so much that none is able fully to comprehend it for it is exceeding deep And that which is said of the Kings heart though in another sense may as truly be said of Mans heart in general The heart of Man is unsearchable Yet thus much cannot but be observed by all those that take pleasure in searching out this great work of God that it is the fountain of life the first living and the last dying part of Man and that it doth communicate of its life and vigour to all the other parts of the Body though at the extreamest distance which live or die according as the beames and influences of this glorious Sun of the Body are communicated unto or intercepted from them It is said of Nabal his heart dyed within him and immediately he became as a stone If the heart give not forth its vivifying vertue the flesh doth immediately fail And there is no fear of the latter if there be a continuation of the former for a
trunk of the body unto which all the other parts are to be fastned and the Sinews or Nerves to the binders of the hedge which fasten and unite all the other parts to that trunke and as for motion or drawing it is well known that there is none in all the body performed whether voluntary or natural but by the influence of the animal spirits upon the Nerves and Fibers and their contraction thereupon in those several parts into which they are inserted Now although all the several and innumerable Filaments are to be accounted hereunto yet they are most aptly expressed in the singular number by funiculus argenteus the silver Cord because they are but the continuation of the same thing The Fibers being nothing else but the Nerves divided and dispersed and the Nerves nothing else but the marrow in like manner separated as so many arms and branches of the same tree they are all one in their original the brain they are all one in their continuation for a long time in the spine they are all one in their colour white they are all one in their form long and round they are all one in their Coats having each the same three Tunicles they are all one in their use to convey the animal spirits and all this in an apt resemblance to a Cord to which also they are not unlike in their division for then they are but as so many wreaths or wattles of the same Cord and that which is most observable to our present purpose is that by how much the more distant they are from their original by so much the thinner and finer the harder and more compact do they grow like the several smaller and better twisted ends of the same Cord. It is called the silver Cord first from its colour for it appears to the eye of a white shining resplendent beauty bright as silver and thus it is even when it is taken out of the body after it is dead but how much more admirable and glorious must it needs be while it remains in the body yet living and actuated with abundance of most refined spirits which continually ascend and descend thereupon An Ancient and an admirable Anatomist upon consideration of the great lustre and perspicuity of it compares it to the Crystalline humour of the eye and farther affirms that he never saw any thing in all his life more beautiful than those two things Secondly It may be called the silver Cord from its place in which it is seated in the body it is placed very deep secret and secure Job saith Surely there is a vein for the silver that is there is an intricate hidden and mysterious Cavity in the earth in which this Lunar Mineral doth more securely pass its branches just thus the Cord of our body as soon as ever it hath left its original it is passed into the most inward and secret Cavity of the Spine which by reason of that admiration and reverence the Ancients had for it they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy Pipe and when in several places it passeth thencefrom it is conveyed all along with wonderful artifice both for secresie and security which is continued to the most minute Filaments for throughout the whole body it lieth lower and deeper and safer than the Veins or Arteries or any other common Conveyers in the body of man Lastly and chiefly It is called the silver Cord because of its excellency For as Silver above all other Minerals whatsoever save only that most absolute and perfect one of Gold is and ought to be most valued and esteemed so is and ought this part we are now speaking of next unto that most absolute and perfect part the brain which in the very next following Symptome is assimulated unto Gold The ingenious Chymists take pleasure to liken the several Metals they find in the bowels of the earth to the heavenly Luminaries who after they have compared the most perfect aptly to the Sun they in the next place liken this of Silver as aptly to the Moon and therefore decipher it also by the self-same Character shewing us hereby that as the Moon in Heaven is far more glorious and excellent than all other Coelestial Bodies whatsoever the Sun alone excepted so Silver in the earth above all Terrestrial Bodies whatsoever Gold alone excepted hath the same preheminence Micat inter omnes Velut inter ignes Luna minores And this dignity hath the Spinal Marrow with all its branches above all other parts of the body except the brain it hath been in such esteem among Philosophers that the best of them hath acknowledged it the foundation of life and the great Master of Physicians hath dignified it with the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereby clearly intimating that if vitality be not chiefly therein placed yet the highest and most noble operations thereof are performed thereupon And such an exact likeness there is between the Nerves and Silver that they do by a mutual and reciprocal Metaphor sutably express one another in the two several Worlds For as the Nerves or Sinews are here said to be the Silver of the Microcosme or little World so is Silver as aptly said to be the Sinews of the Macrocosme or greater World There being nothing in the whole World that is vigorously carried on among Men but by the help thereof Silver is the Sinewes of War and of Peace of Merchandize and of Tillage nay I may farther add of Learning and of vertue too Quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam Praemia si tollas Now as all the Works of the greater World soon come to nought if the influences of the Sinewes thereof be intercepted so do all those of the Lesser World if the Silver thereof perish and decay and therefore the loosning of the Silver Cord is here given as an undoubted signe of instant Dissolution For as it was said of the Tabernacle That it was spoiled and neer its utter ruine when the Cords thereof were broken so may it also be said of this earthly Tabernacle of our Bodies when we shall be unstrung and the Cords of our Bodies broken asunder we must then expect suddenly to be dissolved The Word here is variously translated rumpatur elongetur contrahatur revertatur dissolvatur which variety may give very great light unto the several causes of the symptome here intended but because such a narrow scrutiny may make a digression from what is here intended I shall for the present pass it by and onely take notice of the symptome it self which is here aimed at and that the Latine word dissolvatur and the English loosned do directly point at namely the solution of the Nerves or Marrow called in Latine from the Greeks and their Radix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solvo paralysis and in English the Palsy Sometime this solution hapneth only to one part of the Silver Cord which causeth paralysis particularis and then the enlivening influence