The Morning of Spiritual Youth Improved, in the Prospect of Old Age and Its Infirmities / Being a Literal and Spiritual Paraphrase on the Twelfth Chapter of Ecclesiastes. In a Series of Letters.

by J. Church

I shall add no more, but my prayers for you, as I trust I have your’s for me.

LETTER VII.

TO MRS. D—.

Peckham, July 11, 1814.

MY DEAR FRIEND.

MAY the Father of Mercies and God of all consolation be with you, as your all in all, the foundation of your soul, the shield of your faith, the helmet of your hope, the length of your days, the joy of your mind, the strength of your heart, and your portion for ever.

I think, a few months ago you requested, and I promised you, a few remarks on the 12th of Ecclesiastes. Having repeated it in the Pulpit in a Sermon, I will how endeavour to give you my opinion in the most literal and spiritual manner I can, with all due deference to superior judgments; and humbly submit my sentiments to the whole Church of Christ, which is the pillar and the ground of the truth.

It has been asserted that Solomon was the wisest of all men; here I beg leave to differ, I humbly conceive he was not so wise as Adam, before the fell; nor perhaps so wise as the Apostle Paul: but when it is said he was the wisest of men, it must be considered merely in a political point of view; as God blest him with much natural wisdom, so that he was able to manage the affairs of the Nation without a Parliament, and to try all causes without a Bench of Judges; this was indeed a great work, and the Lord fitted him for it, by a spirit of wisdom and understanding, which he requested of the Lord. He was the wisest man, therefore, in natural things, that perhaps ever lived since the fall.—He collected and framed three thousand Proverbs, and a thousand and five spiritual Songs. He was well versed in, and well explained the nature of Herbs and Animals of every kind. Solomon had several books to study, the Book of the Ceremonial Law, which is often alluded to in the Proverbs, the Book of the Moral Law, out of which he was taught his need of a Mediator, and a better righteousness than his own, to justify him before God, the Book of all the scriptures that were then extant. Into these he was deeply led. He had the book of nature, and appeared to be a Master of all the Sciences of natural and spiritual Philosophy. He was well skilled in Astronomy, in Botany, and Anatomy; the last he shews his skill in, as this last chapter of the Preacher shews. This book was probably written in his old age, after his recovery from his fall, and God had healed his broken bones. Age and sorrow coming on him, he felt the decline of mortality, urges the necessity of spiritual knowledge and practice, while health lasts and God furnishes a man with opportunities, knowing that the mental faculties would soon decay, however bright they might have been. These are set forth in three verses. He then notices the decay of the human frame—its weakness, and how every limb and joint, every power and passion, every member and faculty is affected, either by age, sickness, or trouble. The Lord, indeed, sometimes sends for his dear people, suddenly. He snatches them away from the power of enemies, and the evil to come; but others are gently gathered, not hastily plucked. God takes down our tabernacle a pin at a time, and loosens the cords just as we are able to bear it; gives kind warnings, and then appears like a cloud of the latter rain. This gradual decay Solomon pays a particular attention to, he had noticed it in others, perhaps began to feel it himself; and having called the Body an House, he describes its timbers, its strong beams, its supporters; in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong men bow themselves. The almost universally received opinion of these Strong men, the keepers of the house, is, that they signify the Hands and Feet, which include the Shoulders, the Arms, and Hands, the Thighs, the Legs, and the Feet.—These Hands and Arms are the keepers of the house, for when the scripture speaks of preserving, defence, and deliverance, the Hands and Arms are generally mentioned, besides, they keep the house by providing for it, getting maintenance for the whole body. These Hands, says Paul, have ministered to my necessities: these protect the house, and also keep off an adversary; these tremble through age or infirmities, as experience shews; and this includes all weakness and inactivity of those parts in this condition, whether they are outward, as stiffness and contraction, or inward, as aches, pains, numbness, palsies, cramps, and tremblings. Thus the Keepers tremble. The wise Man then descends to notice the inferior, the Feet, containing these parts in connection, the Thighs, Legs, Ancles, and Feet. These are the strong men; sometimes they are called the Strength of a man; and the Spouse is setting forth the majesty and glory of her beloved, in his strength, by this text, His legs are as pillars of marble; and because the great strength of a Man lays in these parts, therefore in his infirm and weak condition, these parts must become more eminently weak. As the diseases which affect the superior part, also affect the inferior, as the rheumatism, gout, and such like, the keepers and the strong men are subject to a similarity of diseases; and the learned say they are in the original exprest nearly alike—The keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men shall nod, or shake.

The next part of this shakey house the Wise Man observes, is the Grinders; these cease, because they are few. Grinding, all men know to be performed by two hard bodies, the one immovable, on which the Grinding is made, the other movable; which by strong compression against the former, and by its motion, makes the grinding. The upper and the nether millstone, as the scripture calls them, the firm stander, and the strong mover. Now, similar unto these in a mill, there are for that grinding which is performed in the mouth, two jaw-bones, the upper and lower; the upper admits no movement at all, the lower is movable, and so both perform that act called mastication, or chewing. Out of these jaw-bones proceed a certain number of small bones, we call Teeth—these are the proper strict instruments of grinding. By the ceasing of the Teeth, we must understand all those infirmities that are incident to them by reason of age, whether looseness, hollowness, rottenness, brokenness, blackness, or whatever else may be an impediment to them in their use; for as age comes on, the natural moisture at the root of the teeth is consumed, and a preternatural is distilled in its room: thus as the teeth drop out, and very few are left in it, the chewing in the mouth ceaseth, more so than when there is none at all, for then the gums might act one against another. But when the grinders are few, they hinder those from working, and having no antagonists they are not able to work themselves, and so the whole grinding ceaseth, which is a great symptom of the decay of life, at least of a state of weakness.