this counsell As the people said to the blind man Arise he calleth thee Mark 10.49 so here God accepteth the first ripe fruits Micah 7.1 He taketh it then so kindly that he wil after pass by many backslidings Jer. 2.2 with ch 3 1 2 3. It is the ornament of youth of young men of maids Jer. 2.32 Means by which God useth to heale such First attention to the word Psal 119.9 Prov. 8.34 Secondly mourning for stubbornness and prayer for converting grace Jer. 31.18 19. Thirdly abandoning of bad company Psal 119.115 Fourthly Reforming known evils upon reproofe Prov. 1.23 Eccles 12. part of v. 1. While the evil dayes come not nor the yeers draw nigh wherein thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them THese words begin a description first of the wearisom evils of old age from the latter part of this verse to the end of the sixt Secondly of death v. 7. And both of them brought in as a double strong motive to urge young men in their youth to remember their Creator This former Reason is taken from the support and remedy which the remembrance of our Creator in the daies of our youth will give to the evils of old age v. 1 to 6. The latter from our dissolution and return to God in death v. 7. Doctr. The decayes of old age are evil and unpleasant times and old age it selfe will so acknowledge it 2 Sam. 19.35 and yet he was of the better sort of old men and very well provided of all helps v. 32. and as then but 80. yeers old Gen. 47.9 Psalm 90.10 The evils of old age are partly 1. Naturall First in the estate The losse of dearest friends and acquaintance Gen. 37.34 35. 42.36 And contempt of younger people Job 30.1 12 13. Secondly in the body Dimnesse and decay of all the senses 2 Sam. 19.34 35. And manifold pains and aches and diseases incident to that age 2. Morall first seeking wealth greedily yet loth to use it Secondly slow and cold in proceedings yea timorous and fearfull yet chasing at others backwardness Thirdly hard to be pleased himselfe and as hard to please others Fourthly complaining of present times but praising former daies of old which the old men of those daies as much complained of as he of these 3. Spirituall First Ignorance Secondly uncapablenesse ' and untractableness to be taught or admonished Eccles 4.13 Thirdly pride of spirit Fourthly deceitfulnesse Fifthly impenitency through custome and hardning in sinne and self-conceit Reason 1. From sins of youth Job 20.11 Reason 2. From the vanity of all creature-comforts which must fade Isai 40.6 Reason 3. From the necessity of ripening in that age either for hell or heaven Job 5.26 in the autumne of our age Reason of old mens acknowledgement of it From their querulous and discontented spirit Doctr. 3. The remembrance of God in the daies of youth is a comfortable Preservative against the evil and unplesant times of age For as an antidote against this evil Solomon prescribeth this Hence the age of Abraham and David are called a good old age Gen. 25.8 1 Chron. 20 28 Reason 1. From the blessing of good old age removing and healing the contrary evils 1. Naturall first in the estate Friends not lost but gone before and we haste after them A Crown of glory instead of contempt Prov. 16.31 Secondly in the body The power and life of faith to put strength in weaknesse health in sikness ease in pain Hebr. 11.34 Josh 14.10 The benefit of Gods feare Prov. 3.7 8. 2. Morall and spirituall Corruptions now more mortified then ever 2 Tim. 4.7 Grace more lively powerfull and fruitfull Psalm 92.14 2 Cor. 4.16 Heaven as an haven in view seasoning and sweetning all 2 Tim. 4.8 Reason 2. From the gracious and powerfull presence of God to support them in age whom he hath guided in youth Esay 46.3 4. Vse 1. To set on Solomons counsell upon young men to be the more mindfull of their Creator in the daies of their youth to finde the evils of old age either more fully removed or more easily borne If young men neglect this duty in their best times they will be far more indisposed in their evil daies Vse 2. To provoke such as are entring upon old age to be more sollicitous of remembring God and themselves seeing they are hasting fast into these evils It is a just reproofe to such as take no notice of decayes of nature See the simile Hos 7.9 Vse 3. To enforce carnall old men to redeem the opportunities that are lost The evil of the times Paul maketh a motive to this duty Ephes 5.15 16. Eccles 12.2 to 7. 2 While the sun or the light or the moon or the stars be not darkened nor the clouds return not after the rain 3 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 window be darkened 4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low ane he shall rise up at the voice of the bird and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low 5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high and feare shall be in the way and the almond tree shall flourish and the grashopper shall be a burden and desire shall faile because man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets 6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken or the Pitcher be broken at the fountain or the wheele broken at the cistern SOlomon having stiled old age an evil and unpleasant time v. 1. he now proceedeth to describe more particularly the decayes and infirmities of nature in old men which make their daies evil and unpleasant which are of three sorts First some such as befall the former part of old age whilst as yet they are able to goe abroad verse 2. to part of the fifth Secondly some of decrepit old age when death is very neer approaching and themselves drawing on fast to it Latter part of v. 5. with v. 6 7. Thirdly Death it selfe v. 7. The decayes and infirmities of old age whilst as yet they are able to walk abroad be First the darknesse of the lights about them whether naturall as Sunne light of the day when the Sunne is under a cloud Moon Stars or artificiall lights as Candles Torches c. This darkness commeth not from the decay of those lights but from the dimness of our sight whence need of spectacles I doe not understand this to be a description of adversity for though darknesse be often put for adversity and light for prosperity yet we read not of the Sunne Moon and Stars put together for prosperity nor the darknesse of them put for adversity Secondly The returning of the clouds after rain is an allusion to the winterly state of old age In Summer
out And yet whilest there is life in the body both water and sand passe through little veines into the bladder So by the like secret passages doth the Cisterne of the Stomacke convey phlegme to the Lungs even to the stifling of them And upon this stoppage of the Lungs with phlegme that the wheele cannot turne the Aire or breath up and downe in and out followeth rutling in the Throat breaking off the motion of the Lungs and so death suddenly followeth Doctr 1. The wisdome of God would have young men to take particular and special notice of the decayes and infirmities of old age and by all and every of them to be stirred up to the remembrance of their Creator in the dayes of their youth Solomon the eldest son of wisdome reckoneth up these infirmities of Age not to shew his skill but to teach us to discerne these and to provoke us by every one of them and much more by all together to remember our Creator early Reason 1. From our backwardnesse to take notice of these decayes in our selves much lesse in others and most of all in our young time when there are no cords in our death Hos 7.9 Reason 2. From the unlistinesse and undisposednesse of old age to attend spiritual duties in the midst of bodily infirmities As in Aaron in like bitternesse Levit. 10.19 And in the Israelites in anguish Exod. 6.9 Reason 3. From the unsupportable wearisomnesse of these evils unto old age when it is not eased and supported by grace Vse 1. To shew us the many bitter fruits of the sin of our first Parents even to our bodies 1. Death 2. Strong cords to Death Vse 2. To teach us both the lessons Solomon here calleth upon us to learne 1. The remembrance of these infirmities 2. The remembrance of our Creator by them and that in our youth before they befal us in age Object But what can these crosses and the remembrance of them doe to a kindly worke of conversion They are all but punishments of sin and so sanctions of the law and the law maketh nothing perfect Heb. 7.19 Answ First Yet no commandement of God is vaine when the spirit coworketh Secondly These infirmities as the law it selfe drive us to Christ Gal. 3.24 And he 1. Taketh away our sins John 1.29 2. Beareth our infirmities Matth. 8.17 Psal 103.3 and he supporteth us in them Isai 46.4 40 28. to 31. 3. He reneweth the inner man with proportionable strength and comfort 2 Cor. 4.16 Vse 3. To comfort godly old men in that God taketh particular notice of all our decayes and infirmities Eccles 12.7 7. Then shall the dust returne to the Earth as it was and the spirit shall returne unto God who gave it COherence see in verse 2. In these words are set forth First The first and last condition of the body in regard of its material cause Dust returneth to the Earth out of which it was taken Secondly The first and last condition of the soul in regard of the efficient cause and disposing hand The spitit returneth to God that gave it Meaning Dust By a Metonimy of the material cause for the effect Dust for mans body made of Dust Gen. 2.7 Returne to the Earth First By burial in the Earth after the manner of the Jewes Though in burning and drowning it finally returneth to Dust to Earth also Secondly By rotting in the Grave and dissolving to Earth at last Spirit Soule as being here opposed to the body Returturneth to God Not every soul to dwell with him for here the speech is of all men but to be disposed of by him for his final estate That gave it First By breathing it into his face at the first Creation Secondly By forming every soul of a sinful matter of the soules of the Parents or of the spirituous part of their seed Zach. 12.1 Doctr. 1. As our bodies being made of Dust doe in Death reture to Dust so our soules being given us of God returne againe to God Gen. 2.7 The body is made not of the heart of the Earth that is rich in mettals nor of the soyle of the Earth that is rich in fruits nor of the sand of the Earth which is profitable for Ballast for houre-glasses or for a Sea bound Jer. 5.22 but of the dust of the Earth which of all the rest is most unprofitable like unsavoury Salt Matth. 5.13 Stones are firme matter Clay tough but dust easily dislipated and scattered with every blast of winde Object But is not our body mixt of the foure Elements Answ Yes Reason 1. For all these are found in us our spirits are fiery our breath is airy our bloud and humours watery our flesh and bones muscles and sinewes have much Earthly matter in them Reason 2. We are nourished by all these Elements Reason 3 We are dissolved into all these Elements But yet God first tooke dust then wetted it and made Clay of it and fashioned it into the forme of humane body hence Job 4.19 The first foundation and matter was dust clay made of it and our bodies of clay Dust only is expressed as being first and predominant Vse 1. For instruction to all men First To behold Gods wonderful power wisdome and goodnesse who out of a dust-heap hath formed such a curious and glorious worke Psal 139.14 All the Divels in hell cannot suddenly make a Louse of dust Exod. 8.18 19. and Moses and Aaron did make but Lice of dust verse 17. Secondly To be lowly and humble-minded especially when we come in Gods presence Gen. 18.27 Isai 45.9 1 Kings 8.27 Secondly To be mindful of our mortality Gen. 3.19 every blast of Gods displeasure scattereth our dusty Tabernacle even of great men Isaiâ— 40.15 23 24. And therefore to remember our Creator and prepare for a change Eccles 12.1 7. Vse 2. For comfort to the godly First He will not deal with us after our sinnes Psal 103.13 14. Secondly To encourage us against the feare of men whom the moth shall chavel to dust Isai 51.7 8. To strengthen our faith in Gods power to raise us 1. Out of outward abasement 1 Sam. 2.8 2. Out of inward abasement Psal 119.25 And 3. out of the grave Dan. 12.2 Our bodies shall returne to dust that is they shall dye corrupt and returne to dust Gen. 3.19 hence Job 17.13 14 21 26 24 20. It so falleth out to great men Psal 82.7 and meane wise men and fooles Psal 49.10 rich men and poore Psal 49.10 16 17. good men and bad Psal 30.9 and all men Job 30 23. Isai 40.6 7. except onely Christ who saw no corruption and so no dust Acts 2 31. and such as remaine alive at the last day 1 Cor. 15.51 1 Thes 4.17 Reason 1. From the wages of sin Rom. 15.12 c. Reason 2. To root out the root of sin Rom. 6.7 Original sin is fitly compared by Epiphanius to a wilde Fig Tree rooted in the joynts of the stone-wall of
men have more means and poor men more vacancy to seek and get this knowledge how justly then are both reproved for wanting heart to it Prov. 17.16 Yea Schollers here are not to be excused who study onely some generall causes and properties of the creatures as the principles of naturall bodies their motion time place measure c. but neglect to apply their studies to the nature and use of all things under heaven Doctr. 2. Those businesses which God setteth us about we are to set our hearts and best endeavours upon them God laid this sore travel upon men and Solomon gave his heart to seek and search c. Reas 1. Gods wholy we are and therfore to employ our whole selves at his appointment Reas 2. His blessing is upon the Industrious his curse upon the negligent Prov. 10.4 Ier. 48.10 Reas 3. All the opportunity we have of taking paines to any profitable use is in this life Eccles 9 10. Time spendeth fast and should be redeemed Ephes 5.15 16. Vse To reprove slacknesse and idlenesse in any Calling whether the study of nature or other It is not for men to say they have nothing to doe or to stand idle because no man hath hired them Matth 20 6 7. Behold a world of creatures for thee to study upon If God lay a sore travaile upon the sonnes of men it is not for Kings to neglect it but even they to give their hearts this way Doctr. 3. Such as speak by experience speak with authority As Solomon here vers 14. Acts 4.20 Three things give authority to speech 1. Experience 2. A good calling from God Amos 7.10 to 17. 3. The Spirit of God and we speaking in the evidence of it 1 Cor. 2.4 Acts 8 13. Matth. 7.29 Vse 1. To teach young men who want experience to be the more modest in speech Job 32.6 7. Vse 2. To Teach Ministers especially to know by experience the power of the Gospel and grace of God in themselves and then teach it to others Doctr. 4. They that have best experience of the knowledge of the creature finde both the creatures and the knowledge of them vain and unprofitable to the attainment of happinesse yea tending rather to the vexation of the spirit vers 14. For the Philosophers by the wisdome gathered from the creatures knew not God in the wisdom of God that is in Christ in whom alone our happinesse is 1 Cor. 20.21 Unprofitable to happinesse but rather yielding vexation 1 Because they lead us not to happinesse 2 There lieth a curse upon the creature ever since the fall Gen. 3.17 Rom. 8.20 3 Because of the difficulty of the searching out of many secrets in nature as the cause of the Seas flowing the motion of the Moon the Loadstones drawing of Iron and looking towards the North-pole sundry Sympathies Antipathies of the creatures It is said by some to be the death of Aristotle that he could not comprehend the cause of Euripus seven times ebbing and flowing in a day Because I cannot comprehend thee saith he thou shalt comprehend me and so is said to have thrown himselfe into it 4 Because the study of nature healeth not the sinfull defects of nature in our own spirits which is the reason Solomon rendreth vers 15. Vse 1. To teach Scholers and other Students of nature so to study it as not to place felicity in the creatures or in the knowledge of them They are vain and vexing if used to that end Solomon doth not bring a causlesse evill report upon the world as the spies did upon Canaan Object But doe not many Schollers acknowledge they finde great contentment yea sweetnesse in the study and knowledge of the creatures Answ 1. True they may if they use the creatures and the knowledge of them not to finde happinesse in them but to those other ends for which God made them mentioned in Doct. 1. pag. 23. 2. Though many think themselves happy by such speculations it is because they cast not up their accounts as Solomon here doth to see what true Reformation of their own perversnesse or supply of their defects they have found thereby Vse 2. To teach all men neither to satisfie themselves in such things as reach not to the healing the crookednesse of their natures nor to the supplying of the defects thereof How vain then are they that see not the vanity of wealth honour pleasure all earthly things which are all of them short herein Doct. 5. The crooked perversenesse and sinfull defects of our nature are not healed by the knowledge of Gods works in nature A threefold crookednesse is in our nature 1. We act not from a right principle from God in Christ but from our selves 2. We act not by a right Rule Gods will and word 3. For a right end Gods honour but our own ends Defects also Innumerable First in gifts Secondly in Acts as in Thoughts Words and Works Hence the Philosophers themselves as vicious as others in pride and vainglory in wantonnesse in covetousnesse in flattery c. Yea they are more averse and backward to embrace the Gospel then the common sort Acts 17.18 32. 1 Naturall bodies cannot reach to the healing of our soules 2 The vertue of the creatures is finite as themselves be but it requireth an infinite power even a new creation to heale our crookednesse and to supply our defects Psalm 51.10 Vse 1. To shew us the depth of our corruption no creature is able to make our crooked spirits streight or to supply our defects which are innumerable Vse 2. To stir us up to the knowledge of Christ whom to know is eternall life John 17.3 He rectifies our crookednesse and supplies all our defects John 1.16 Eccles 1. v. 16 17 18. 16. I communed with mine own heart saying Loe I am come to great estate and have gotten more wisdom then all they that have been before me in Jerusalem yea my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge 17. And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madnesse and folly I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit 18. For in much wisdome is much griefe and he that encreaseth knowledge encreaseth sorrow SOlomon having taught us partly by the nature of the creatures themselves and partly by his own experience that happinesse is not to be found in the creatures He now proceedeth to enquire after happiness in making triall and use of those blessings which God had given him 1 Great Estate 2 Great Wisdom Which point he delivereth by declaring First His communing with himselfe what gifts he had received which were two 1 Great Wisdome 2 Great Estate Amplyfied 1 A Minore Greater then any before him in Hierusalem 2. By the confirmation of it by his experience vers 16. Secondly his making use of the benefit of both these gifts and that by a phrase frequent in Scripture I gave my heart to know wisdom to wit to know the worth of it by
after rain the clouds break up and fair weather followeth but in winter season after rain clouds still remain and return So though in youth after weeping and coughs and rheumes dried up the braine is clearer and drier yet in old age after colds and coughs and rheumes and Pozes there still remain and return clouds and vapors and sumes in the brain through the store of superfluous and excrementitious moisture of old bodies Thirdly When the keepers of the house tremble vers 3. Some take those keepers of the house to be the five senses which are indeed the keepers of the body but their decay is not fitly called trembling And besides of their decay he speaketh expresly in the sequel The keepers of the house are therfore the hands and arms which in young men are steady and strong and doe also keep both the body and house by repulsing annoyances and providing usefull things food rayment c. These tremble grow feeble and shake in old age Fourthly The strong men bow themselves when the thighs and legs which in young men went streight and strong now buckle and stoop that an old man standeth in need of a staffe to support him Fifthly The grinders cease because they are few when the teeth cease to chew meat many of them being worn out Teeth come not with us into the world and they commonly leave old men at least many of them before they leave the world Sixthly Those that look out at the windows are darkned when the eyes grow so dim that we cannot see well with spectacles which is a further degree of dimnesse of sight then was mentioned in vers 2. Seventhly The doors are shut without when or because the sound of the grinding is low vers 4. that is the lips which are the doores Psalm 141.3 are shut together when for want of teeth to grind the meat the meat is rolled and chavelled in the mouth and had need of shut lips to keep it from falling out of the mouth Eighthly He shall rise up at the sound of the hird the least noise of a Swallow or other bird will waken an old man through the naturall drinesse of his brain and through the wearinesse of any posture in the day time he is weary of sitting and soon goeth to bed with the Lamb in the night he is weary of lying and soon riseth with the Lark Ninthly The daughters of musick are abased when either Instruments of speech faile which make musick or Instruments of hearing faile which receive musick Speech and hearing both faile as in Barzillai 2 Sam. 19.35 Which is the more observable that old men whose hearing is so quick as to be wakened with the sound of a bird and yet the exquisiteness of the sense of hearing to delight in the sound of musick is quite gone Tenthly They shall be afraid of that which is high and feare shall be in the way verse 5. because old men are afraid of climbing in regard of the stiffenesse of their joynts and unweildinesse of their bodies They feare any stumbling stone in the way least it give them a fall or any thing that meeteth them least it throw them downe Eleventhly The Almond Tree flourisheth When his head groweth gray and hoary which is a floutishing Ornament Prov. 16.31 but an evident decay of due moysture to nourish the haire of the head and Beard The Almond Tree is the first that flourisheth in the spring Jer. 1.11 12. and hath his name from early blossoming it is here a resemblance of an hoary head yet with this difference 1. The Almond Tree flourisheth in the Spring the hoary head in the winter of our Age. 2. The Tree flourisheth before fruit but the head flourisheth after it And yet it may indeed be said that the hoary head is the flourishing of the old man in the spring of another world of Immortality Twelfthly The Grashopper or Locust shall be a burden Whether by his noise but of that before in the voyce of a Bird verse 4. or by an Hyperbole by his weight an old man cannot beare the lightest burden but most fitly his slownesse of digestion Though the locust be a cleane and wholsome food and much used in those Countreyes especially of the poorer sort Levit. 11.22 Matth. 3.4 yet it is heavy and burdensome to an old mans stomack Thirteenthly Desire faileth Or appetite either to meat or drinke or especially to marriage fellowship The latter sort of particular infirmities accompanying old Age are such decayes of nature in old men as are found in their decrepit Age when they are drawing on to death and mourners goe about the Streets for they are not called till death or till enterance into the gates of it First When man goeth to his long home That is to the house of his age the grave where he shall rest whilst the world standeth Job 14.12 Secondly The mourners goe about the Streets To wit the women skilful in mourning for the dead and that with such affection and gesture and lamentation as to stirre up mourning in a whole company Amos 5.16 Jer. 22.18 Thirdly Or ever the silver cord be loosed That is the marrow of the backe bone which runneth from the Braine through the necke to the bottome of the back through 24 joynts and takes in therewith all the sinewes whence followeth a shaking and trembling of all the joynts and utter feebleness to use any limbe without helpe v. 6. Or rather the sinewes well are the ligaments of all the members and loosned by cold humours and Palsey distempers Fourthly The Golden Boul is broken When the Scull is parted in the sutures or seames of it whence the Chaps fall the Almonds of the eares are stopped part lifting up againe For the Hebrew is the same with Golgotha which signifieth a Scull 2 Kings 9.35 Matth. 27.33 It is a Bowle because it is round and golden both for the colour and for the pretious use of it to containe and preserve the Braine Fourthly The Pitcher broken at the Spring That is the bladder is broken at the spring of water the Issuing forth of the water or the retentive faculty of the muscle at the neck of the bladder being broken so that water urine issueth from him insensibly without stay Fifthly The wheele broken at the Cisterne Is the Lungs broken off from their motion of inspiration and respiration by phlegme from the stomacke which is as the Cisterne from all the body The Lungs are as a wheele transmitting the Aire in and out up and downe But though there be no open passage between the Stomacke and the Lungs and therefore is no ordinary purging of the Lungs but upwards by spitting and coughing yet when the Stomacke is surcharged with phlegme it distilleth it into the Lungs and stoppeth them look as when a man or beast is dead there seemeth no way of enterance into the bladder for water no not for Aire for if you blow it full of winde none will issue