Cant. 5. the Urine whose Stream he fansies resembles a silver Thred which is then broken when it distils by drops as it frequently doth in Old men But the best of the Hebrew Writers by this Cord understand the Spinal Marrow that is the Pith of the Back-bone others the Nerves others the outward Coats of the Nerves c. And there is little reason to doubt but the Marrow down the Back continued from the Brain as it were in a String or Cord unto the very bottom of it together with the Nerves arising from it and the Filaments Fibers and Tendons that proceed from them are the thing here intended Which Melancthon saw long ago the Nerves saith he and Ligaments are here meant which have literally the power of Cords both to unite and tie together and also draw But no Body that I know of hath explained this so well as our Dr. Smith in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who hath also solved that doubt why they are expressed in the Singular Number because though there be many of them yet they are the continuation of one and 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 space in the Spine all one in their use to convey the Animal Spirits and to be the Instruments of motion This Cord is called Silver because of its colour being not only white but also shinning bright and resplendent and that when it is taken out of the Body after Death I omit other Reasons It is loosned shrunk up or contracted or removed as others translate it when it is no longer full of Spirits and so the Body becomes void of sense and motion either in part or in whole The second step to a dissolution is by breaking the golden Bowl and as the former related to the Rivulets as one may say of sense and motion so this to the Fountain viz. the Head and all contained in it The Membranes for instance especially that which the Ancients from the great esteem and reverence they had for it call Pia Mater Which is that part which deeply insinuating it self into all the anfractuous passages of the Brain as Doctor Smith speaks 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 Animal Spirits their exercise therein or their distribution therefrom is principally done by the help of this Membrane Which therefore may well be called gullath that part of the Head which is the Spring of all the motion that comes from thence And so we translate the Plural of this Word XV. Josh 19. and both Forsterus and Avenarius understand the Singular here And it is called golden Bowl like that IV. Zachar. 2 3. from whence the Oil was conveyed by Pipes unto the Lamps for such Reasons as gave the other the name of silver Cord. For instance in respect of the colour not only because that most precious and deep-coloured Liquor of life is abundantly contained in the Vessels of this Membrance but chiefly because the Membrane it self is somewhat of a yellowish colour and tends more towards that of Gold than any other part whatsoever doth But especially in respect of its excellency and universal use for it being the instrument that doth depurate the best of Blood clarifies and exalts the Vital Spirits and so prepares them for animality as they speak to what should it be likened but to that most perfect best-concocted and most exalted Mineral of Gold Now the breaking of this Bowl is its losing its use not being able to retain its Liquors as a Bowl is useless when it is broken or as Dr. Smith explains it in the extremity of extreme Old Age it can no longer continue its continuity but by reason either of its natural dryness shriveling into it self or of preternatural moisture imbibing excrementitious humours till it be over-full it oft-times snaps asunder and so recurrs i. e. runs back as the Hebrew Word signifies into it self from whence the Brain must necessarily subside and all the Part serving unto Animal motion be suddenly and irrecoverably dasht in pieces So Avenarius judiciously translates this Passage That yellow Membrane which contains the Brain be trodden down The third step is the breaking of the Pitcher at the Fountain Which is variously interpreted some understanding hereby the inability of the Bladder to retain the Urine others by Fountain understand the Liver and by the Pitcher the Bladder of Gall or the Veins which is the most common Opinion But Dr. Smith rather takes it for the heart which is indeed the Fountain of Life and hath two distinct Cavities the right and the left out of which proceed those Veins and those Arteries which carry the Blood through the whole Body and bring it back again to the heart in a perpetual Circulation And if by Pitcher we understand the Veins which are the receptacle of the Blood and the Hebrew Word signifies any containing Vessel particularly the Widows Barrel in which was her Meal 1 King XVII 14 16. as well as a Barrel of Water in the next Chapter XVIII 33. then by the Fountain must be peculiarly understood the right Ventricle of the heart which is the Original from whence the Veins have their rise For so the Hebrew Word signifies not only a Fountain but a Spring from which Waters bubble up and burst forth as we translate it XXXV Isai 7. XLIX 10. in a running Stream and therefore is so to be translated here the Spring or Original viz. of the Veins which proceed from thence Which induced Commentators to take the Fountain here for the Liver which they would not have done had they understood as we do now that the Veins do not arise from thence as their first Original but from the right Ventricle of the Heart And they are spoken of in the Singular Number as the Nerves were before because they are all of one and the same nature original and use Now the breaking of this Pitcher into shivers as the Hebrew Word signifies is the utter failing of the Veins their ceasing quite from their natural action and use When they can no longer carry back nor conveniently convey unto the heart that Liquor which they properly contain but the little Blood which remains in the cold Body of man near his end is congealed and stagnates in his Veins And so I proceed to the last thing the Wheel broken at the Cistern Where by the Wheel some understand the Lungs which by their continual motion do thrust out the Breath from them and draw it in again to them resembling the Wheel of a Well now drawing up the Bucket to it self anon letting it down again
weight of it having lost their power to support him his teeth likewise so rotten or worn away or fallen out that they cannot thew his Meat and the sight of his eyes which were wont to show him things at a great distance now so failing him that he cannot know one man from another though they stand hard by him See Annot. c. 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 4. Is this the time to gain acceptance with God when he is despised by men and excluded the publick Assemblies because his voice is so low that no Body can hear him Nay his Lips look as if they were closed and fall so inward that he can but mumble by reason of the loss of his Teeth the weakness of his Lungs and the defect of other Instruments of Speech Nor can he recruit himself as he was wont by rest for sound sleep departs from his eyes and he wakes as early as the Birds but is not pleased at all with their Songs his hearing being so dull and flat that he is not moved by the best Musick in the World though he listen and incline his ears unto it with never so much diligence See Annot. d 5. 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 burden and desire shall fail because man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets 5. For joy and all such pleasant passions being fled away melancholy fear alone remains which makes him scarce dare to tread in the High-way much less his head is so giddy to go up a Pair of Stairs nay he thinks himself unsafe in the strongest Fortress Such is the feebleness of Old Age which looks venerably by its Grey Hairs but they are an early sign of approaching death and are made contemptible by his crumpled Shoulders Hips and Back which as they are of themselves a sufficient Load so are relieved and supported by no bodily pleasures the very desires of which now fail him for there is but a very short step between him and his Grave unto which if he be carried with the usual Solemnities it is all his Friends can do for him See Annot. e 6. 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 6. Remember therefore thy Creator while the noble Faculties of sense and motion remain intire and are strong and lively for the time will come and that will be very unfit for this or indeed any other business when they will be totally disabled the Nerves for instance will shrink up and be dispirited the Brain it self and all those precious Vessels wherein it is contained be of no use at all unto thee For the very Fountain of Life the Heart will fail and the Veins and Arteries no longer carry the Blood round the Body but the motion will cease by the decay of that power which now thrusts it forward in a contitinual Circulation See Annot. f 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it 7. And then what remains but that the Soul and Body being parted they go to their several Originals The Body tho' now so fair a Fabrick to the Earth out of which it was taken according to that ancient Doom passed upon it Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return but the Soul unto God to be judged by him according to what it hath done in the Body since He sent it thither See Annot. g 8. ¶ Vanity of vanities saith the preacher all is vanity 8. And if this be the Conclusion of all our labours I have reason to conclude this Book as I began it and listen I beseech you again to him who proclaims nothing to you but what he hath proved in this Discourse that there is no solid satisfaction to be found in any thing here below where all things are both full of care and trouble as well as uncertain and perishing and therefore it is the height of folly to take great thought for this present life and to lay up nothing for the life to come See Annot. h 9. And moreover because the preacher was wise he still taught the people knowledge yea he gave good heed and sought out and set in order many proverbs 9. Perhaps you may still think otherwise and therefore I have this now to add and so shall summ up all I have said that I am as likely to judge aright as another man being indued with Wisdom from above by an extraordinary gift of God 1 Kings III. 12. IV. 30 c. whose Goodness also I have imitated in communicating my knowledge freely unto others Nay knowing that by sloth or envy the greatest Wisdom may be lost the more I understood the more diligent I was in informing others Nor did Divine illuminations make me either neglect my own Studies or other mens inventions but I listned unto all from whom I might hope to learn any thing and both weighed what they said and also made an exact search into things my self of which that not only the present Age but Posterity also might reap the benefit I have gathered together and aptly disposed and fitted to all capacities abundance of excellent pithy Sentences for instruction in Wisdom and Vertue 1 Kings IV. 32. See Annot. i 10. The preacher sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written was upright even words of truth 10. Thus I that preach these things have employed my pains in seeking with no less diligence than covetous men do for money both the most pleasant and the most useful and most certain Knowledge and having found what I sought I may safely affirm that Nothing is said by me but what ought to be most acceptable being apt to give the greatest contentment and delight Nothing written by me but what I found in the Divine Writings or is so exactly agreeable thereunto that it is a straight and faithful Rule of life there is nothing frivolous or doubtful in them but they contain the most solid Wisdom as sure and true as truth it self See Annot. k 11. The words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastned by the masters of assemblies which are given from one shepherd 11. And there is the same power in them as there is wont to be in all the acute Sayings of those that are wise and good to excite and stir up the minds of slothful men to the practice of Vertue that there is in a Goad to prick the dull Oxe forward to draw the Plow Nor do they only sting and move the mind for the present but are apt to stick as
have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured and wherein I have shewed my self wise under the sun This is also vanity 19. Or if my Son succeed me in the possession of them there is no man can assure me whether he will wisely preserve and improve what I have gotten or foolishly squander all away in short whether he will prove a worthy or an unworthy Inheritor of my labours And yet such as he is he must have an absolute power over all that I leave to dispose of it as he pleaseth and sottishly perhaps to waste in a little time what I with prudent care and diligence have been heaping up all my life long This is a great addition to humane misery and renders even the Study of Wisdom very vain which cannot find a remedy for these evils 20. Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun 20. Which are so great that instead of pursuing my designs for this World I turned my thoughts the quite contrary way and like one perfectly tired I concluded it best to leave off all further cares about any thing here despairing to reap any satisfaction from all my labours particularly to attain any certainty what kind of mun he will be who shall inherit them 21. For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom and in knowledge and in equity yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion This also is vanity and a great evil 21. For what hath happened to others may to me who have observed a man no way defective either in wise contrivance or prudent management or upright dealing but as eminent for honesty as he was for diligence whose Estate fell to the share of an idle person nay of an ignorant silly unjust and ungrateful wretch who prodigally consumed upon his lusts that which cost him no pains not so much as a thought to acquire This likewise it cannot be denied is not only a dissatisfaction but a torment nay a great torment to the mind of man 22. For what hath man of all his labour and of the vexation of his heart wherein he hath laboured under the sun 22. Who may well say To what purpose is all this toil of my Body and these solicitous thoughts and anguish of my mind For all that a man can enjoy himself of the anxious labours wherein he spends his days amounts to little or nothing and what comfort hath he in thinking who shall enjoy the fruit of them hereafter 23. For all his days are sorrows and his travel grief yea his heart taketh not rest in the night This is also vanity 23. And yet such is our folly there is no end of our cares for we see many a man whose life is nothing but a mere drudgery who never is at leisure to enjoy any thing that he hath but still engaged in one troublesome employment or other to get more which he follows so eagerly as if it were his business to disquiet and vex himself and make his life uneasie to him being not content with his daily toils unless he rack his mind also with cares in the night which invites him to take some rest This is so void of all reason that nothing can be imagined more vain and foolish 24. ¶ There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour This also I saw that it was from the hand of God 24. Nor can any man reap the benefit of his labours but by studying first to free his mind from overmuch care and anxious thoughts and then instead of heaping up perpetually for his Heirs by allowing himself a moderate and decent use of all that he hath gotten by his honest labours cheerfully communicating them with his friends and neighbours and lastly in order to these by being truly and devoutly religious acknowledging God to be the Donor of all good things from whose bountiful hand proceeds even this power both to enjoy all a man hath with a quiet peaceable and well-pleased mind in the midst of all the troubles of this life and in conclusion to leave all with the like mind unto those that shall come after him 25. For who can eat or who else can hasten hereunto more than I 25. For the truth of which you may rely upon my experience who when I could have hoarded up as much as any other man chose rather freely to enjoy the fruit of my labours and was as forward to spend as ever I was to get but must acknowledge this to be the singular Grace of God to me who preserved me from that great folly of neglecting my self for the sake of I knew not whom 26. For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy but to the sinner he giveth travel to gather and to heap up that he may give to him that is good before God This also is vanity and vexation of spirit 26. For this is a Blessing which God reserves for him whom he loves whose sincere piety he rewards with Wisdom to judge when and with Knowledge to understand how he should enjoy and take the comfort of all he hath especially with inward joy satisfaction of heart and tranquillity of mind in this favour of God to him whereby the troublesome affairs of this life are tempered and seasoned But he delivers up him that regards not God to the most cruel Tormenters which are his own unsatiable desires and anxious cares with busie labours and incessant pains to encrease his Estate without end and to heap up vast Treasures which God disposes afterward to those who approve themselves to Him in a pious just and charitable life with contented minds Now what a vanity and vexation is this also to a Sinner to get Riches for those to whom he never designed them Nay it is a sad thought to a good man that if his Son be not vertuous the Estate he leaves is not likely to prosper with him See Annot. o ANNOTATIONS a V. 1. Thus Themistocles Lucullus and others as Melancthon observes being wearied in their attendance upon publick affairs by many unprofitable contentions nay by the ingratitude of the people delivered up themselves unto pleasures as better than their ill bestowed pains b V. 2. Laughter The censure he passes upon this makes it necessary to expound it of such dissolute and frantick mirth as I have mentioned in the Paraphrase c V. 3. gave my self The word in the Hebrew as the Margin of our Translation informs the Reader imports something of extension as in other places of Scripture Psal XXXVI 10. because when men indulge themselves very liberally in eating and drinking the Blood boils and rises the Veins swell and the Skin of the whole Body is distended Lay hold on The word signifies not simply to apprehend but to keep
into the Well Melancthon by Cistern understanding the Stomach the Word signifying saith he a profound Cavity takes the Wheel for the Guts adjoining thereunto which are wrapt about one another in a kind of Circular form and make the Mesentery look like a Wheel Which Grotius seems also to have had in his mind But taking it for granted that a Wheel being an Instrument of Circulation is the Hieroglyphick of something that goes and makes a round in us I think Dr. Smith's conjecture is most probable that hereby is meant the great Artery with all its Branches which is the great instrument of rotation or circulation in the Body of man and so evidently thrusts the Blood forward that we perceive its Pulses forcing the Blood along its Cavity in the Wrists the Temples and other Parts of the Body Without which Instrument to compel it the Blood that naturally tends home to the heart would go no further And then the Cistern from whence this Wheel forces the Liquor and conveys it through all the Parts is the left Ventricle of the Heart to which this great Artery is annexed and from whence it ariseth For a Cistern is a Vessel made on purpose to receive a due proportion of Water and to keep it till the time of use and then conveniently to pass it into Vessels that are prepared to receive it from thence And such is the left Ventricle of the Heart which in its Diastole as they call it receives the Blood that is brought into it from the Lungs and then keeping it there a little doth in its Systole pass due proportions thereof into the great Artery to be dispensed as was said before And for this end there are little Valves or Falling doors placed at the entrance and at the going out of this Cistern which are like Cocks to let in and to let out and by their opening or shutting give convenient passage or stoppage to the Liquor which continually runs that way And so the breaking or shaking in pieces as Forsterus translates the Word of this Wheel is the ceasing of the Pulse so he in another place translates it trodden down i. e. suppressed by the decay of the instruments of Pulsations which can no longer perform that work Which being absolutely necessary for the preservation of life the ceasing of it is death g V. 7. And so the Body made of a mouldering substance being no longer a fit habitation for the Spirit and therefore deserted by it which held the parts of it together shall crumble again into the Earth out of which it originally came according to that Sentence passed upon Adam in the beginning Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return III. Gen. 19. This Body was no better in its first Principles and though now we are very fond of it as if it were some goodly thing yet when the Spirit leaves it it will appear to be indeed but Dust But the Spirit the nobler part of man being of an higher Original shall return to God who sent it into the Body to be disposed of by Him according to the Sentence that he should pass upon it For the Chaldee Paraphrase's Explication of the latter part of this Verse is very apposite It shall return that it may stand in judgment before God For Elohim the Word here for God in the Hebrew Language signifies a Judge As in the place above-mentioned 1 Sam. XXVIII 9. There is a Sentence not much unlike to this I have observed in Plutarch's Consolatory Discourse to Apollonius upon the death of his Son where he alledges amongst a great many other this Saying of Epicharmus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h V. 8. And now having thus demonstrated his first Proposition he elegantly repeats the Exordium or entrance of his Book as is here observed by St. Hierom whose Words are so significant that I cannot but translate them as an excellent Gloss upon this Verse For since all the labour of mortal man of which Solomon hath disputed in this whole Book amounts to this That the Dust returns to its Earth and the Soul returns thither from whence it was taken it is an excess of vanity to labour for this world and to gather nothing for the future where he is to live for ever and to be judged according to his behaviour here This only may be added That here he enters upon the Conclusion of his Discourse and divides it into two Parts as he had done the foregoing Book First He summs up what he had said in the six first Chapters concerning the false ways men take to happiness in this Verse which he backs by several serious Considerations in those that fol ow unto Verse 13. Where secondly he summs up what he hath said from Chap. VII to this place concerning the true way to happiness which lies only in a due regard to God and his Commandments i V. 9. The first Word of this Verse is variously translated and the whole Verse applied by Interpreters either to confirm what was said before concerning the false methods men take to happiness as if he had said I have done when I have told you that you may believe me who am sufficiently able to inform you and not think to meet with better information from other mens Writings or from your own experience or as an introduction to what he intends to say ver 13 14. concerning the right method to be happy Which he prepares the Reader to attend unto and receive into his mind first by asserting his own great Authority in this Verse who the wiser he was the more desirous he was both to teach and to learn And then the weighty Doctrine which he taught v. 10. And the great usefulness of it v. 11. The like to which they would find no where else v. 12. It is not very material which of these ways we take but I have had respect to both in my Paraphrase where I have expressed the sense so fully that I cannot think fit to enlarge any further upon this Verse But only note that Luther and he alone I think expounds the first Words thus not absurdly nor disagreeing with the Hebrew Text There remained nothing to the Preacher but that he was wise c. He understood and taught aright and took a great deal of pains which was a great satisfaction to himself but he saw little or no success of it in others who would not be governed by his Advice c. k V. 10. This Verse runs thus word for word in the Hebrew The Preacher carefully sought to meet with desirable words and the writing of uprightness and the words of truth Where writing may refer both to what he read in others whether Divine or Humane Authors and to what he wrote himself and so I have expounded it in the Paraphrase which he commends from three Heads pleasure or delight usefulness and certainty Some fansie that Solomon wrote a Book called Catub Jascher the Writing of Uprightness or Jascher