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

And when this lisping stammering tongue,
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler sweeter song,
I’ll sing thy power to save.

Hence Solomon exhorts to these things in your favourite chapter, which I glanced at in my last letter. He reminds us of the solemn period to which we are all hastening, when the doors shall be shut in the street; the sound of the grinding be low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the Daughters of Music shall be brought low.

I believe I have already intimated that Solomon, was well versed in the science of Anatomy; that he well understood the human frame, and perhaps much better than any before him. He had in the former verse spoken of the Animal System; in this fourth verse he proceeds to notice the Natural Faculties, inward and outward. A great writer says these words form but one sentence: The doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low. This Grinding is supposed to relate to almost every part in man, which is preserved, kept up, and supported by food, and respects the alteration which that food undergoes, that it may be really transubstantiated into our flesh. These are by Physicians called digestion or concoction. By the sound of the Grinding is meant some natural symptoms which are expressive of digestion, and prove that all things are right in the bodily frame, which a want of digestion would prove to the contrary. The voice of the Grinding is the natural appetite of the stomach to meat and drink, and is what we call hunger and thirst after food, with the strength and power of the stomach to retain what it receives, and nourishes the whole body. This Grinding and its voice takes in at once all the excellencies of nature, while they are in power; but, as age comes on, all the indicators of strength and concoction must be depraved, diminished, and abolished. Loss of appetite, with all its attendants, is the lowness of the voice of this Grinding; the doors of course are shut in the streets. When this is the case with a sickly, feeble, aged body, the mouth, the throat, in speaking, and the stomach in receiving food; the nostrils, and the eyes, which are called doors, these are all affected and must weaken as nature ceaseth to perform its original offices. Thus these doors are shut in the street when the Grinding is low. The Streets are the several passages of the body, which the matter of nourishment passeth through, and are the roads and highways to and from the places where the Grinding is performed. May not this expression likewise refer to the inability of the sick, feeble, and aged, to encounter with the noise and bustle of business; and to the doors and shutters shut, as a signal of the departure of some of the family; and the voice of singing, even of common cheerfulness is altered.

Solomon gives us another intimation of the weakness of the human body—listlessness of repose, easily awakened. He shall rise up at the voice of the Bird. His age, or sickness, is like the wealth of the rich man, it will not suffer him to sleep; in the night he may have some unquiet drowsiness, but the approach of morn, when healthy young people sleep sound, he shall be broad awake, and at the crowing of the cock, or the singing of a Bird, he shall be rising up from his sleepless bed. Hence the saying, The singing of Birds and the sighing of old Men are generally contemporaries—these are as soon weary of their lodgings, through the pains and wakefulness in the night season, as the Birds are for lifting up their pleasant notes.

The last remark in this verse is, The Daughters of Music shall be brought low. These Daughters are considered by those skilled in Anatomy, to be both active and passive, such as make Music and such as receive Music; the active make a Music themselves, or bear a part in it; the other delights in that of which they have not the least share in making. There are three several kind of organs that do more immediately, yet distinctly and gradually, conduce to the production of vocal Music; the first is the Lungs, which are the proper instruments of our breathing; the second sort of organs that conduce to music, are such as form the Breath into the Voice, or Respiration, the Tongue, the Palate of the Mouth, the Teeth, especially the four Front Teeth, and, lastly, the Lips: these form the sound into a Voice; the others that modulate this Voice into Music, are the cartilaginous parts of the Wind-Pipe; the head of the Wind-Pipe is very small, yet it has thirteen Muscles belonging to it, most of which are framed only for the modulation of the Voice. Some shut the Pipe, some open it, some dilate, some contract it, so that acting severally or jointly, according as there is occasion, they do wonderfully conduce to the variation of sound. This also has got five Cartilages some are moveable, some immoveable, some of one form, others of anther, that they may better contain the air and break the Voice into Melody. This is the Pipe to sing the high praises of God with, and which infinitely excels all the Instruments of Music: these are the active Daughters of Music which are brought low through age; the passive Daughters of Music are the organs of hearing; these are inward and outward; the outward Ear is spread abroad like a net, that it may gather and catch the sound as it rolls about the ocean of the air; the inward ear is a great secret, that no one can possibly understand—all have confessed their ignorance of this great matter; the first part we meet with is a thin strong membrane, which being placed over the Hole of the Ear, transversely, divides between the inward and the outward Ear; within this there are three Cavities, and three little Bones. So likewise there is implanted in the Ear a pure, subtil, and quiet air, with the filaments of the auditory Nerve; and then the whole Nerve itself. By the help of those several parts our hearing is thus performed; in age the several holes and Cavities of the Ears are stopped; the drum is unbraced; the hammer is weakened, the anvil is worn, the stirrup is broken, and the inward air is mixed and defiled; the filaments are dulled, the nerve itself is obstructed, so that there cannot but follow heaviness of hearing. Hence old Barzillai complains to David, 2 Samuel, xix, 35, I am this day eighty years old, and can I discern between good and evil? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? Wherefore should thy servant be yet a burden to my lord the king? Thus the habit and taste for Music is brought low. This appears to be the literal sense of this passage, and some of those unpleasant days which many of our fallen race see with grief; all must lament it as creatures, but yet Believers must rejoice, as new creature, that all their musical days are not at an end—no, but that they are only beginning, as son as they enter upon their Father’s house above, and in the resurrection morn their harps, their powers, will be sweetly tuned to the praise of electing grace and eternal love. Permit me here to insert those lines from the hymn just quoted.

Lord I believe thou hast prepar’d,
Unworthy tho’ I be,
For me a Blood-bought, free reward,
A golden harp for me.
’Tis tun’d and strung for endless years,
And form’d by power divine,
To sound in God the Father’s ears,
No other name but thine.

In once more looking over this verse, my mind is impressed with other ideas, which I must commit to paper and send to my dear friend. We read in sacred Writ of the Door of the Heart, and of the Door of the Lips, and of the Conscience: these Doors are all opened by the finger of God. The conscience is quickened to feel the native guilt of our sins; the heart, the mind, all the faculties of the soul are opened by the operations of the eternal Spirit; the Understanding is enlightened to perceive the glories of the Saviour; the Will is bowed down to chuse Jesus, the Affections are set upon him, the Thoughts love to retain him; thus the Door of the Heart is open. Hence the Spouse says, He put in his finger by the hole of the Door, and my bowels were moved for him, I rose up to open to my beloved. The Door, here, may signify Faith in her heart; the Hole of the Door, a principle of love, though not wide open, free, and at sweet liberty, yet, as a principle, it was there. The Lord Jesus putting forth his powerful grace in the heart afresh, stirred her up, opened all the faculties, and afresh quickened the Conscience, she was led forth in soul after him. This is opening the Door. Hence he addresses the Laodicean Church; Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come into him. This text has been awfully perverted by the Arminians and Modern Calvinists of the day: they tell us that the Deity is knocking at the door of every man’s heart, begging to come in—waiting till the creature will open the door, and receive salvation! Alas! what a most miserable perversion of the text. The passage has nothing to do with the World, it is an address to the Church in a backsliding state, as the 5 Chapter of Songs shews. The Church knew her Beloved’s voice, which is the Gospel. Every enlightened, quickened soul, understands the truth, whether it is drowsy or not; the soul is again made willing to receive Jesus, to seek most ardently the best of friends: this is opening the door, as we are made willing in the day, the time, the moment he puts forth his power. This is what the Church means by the Beloved putting forth his hand by the Hole of the Door. The heart moved after him, the door of the lips is opened, in prayer, in entreaty, and when admittance is gained, they are opened in praise, and in speaking good of his name. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom. Thus the doors are opened for the King of Glory to come in. These are everlasting doors and will never be fully shut against Christ, nor will his doors ever be shut against his Church. He manifests himself to us, and we entertain him with the fruits of his own Spirit. The Grinders cease in the best of senses. The worst oppressors we ever meet with is a broken Law and a tempting Devil, and accusing conscience, this is the trouble of the Spirit. Hence that fine passage, They shall cry to the Lord because of the oppressors. He shall send them a Saviour, a great one, and he shall deliver them. The manifestation of pardon eases the conscience; the testimony of the Spirit that we are complete in Christ’s righteousness, silences the Law, and the Saviour’s great Work, pleaded by himself as an Advocate with the Father, drives off the Devil. Thus these oppressors cease, because they are few. A Believer can bear and endure any thing while all is right within, between God and the soul; not that he is rid of the inbeing of his sins, or the temptation of Satan, these will often oppress him; nor will they fully cease till he lays down his poor body in the grave.

Another sweet priviledge, He shall rise up at the voice of the Bird. This is a most blessed truth in our experience, for the gospel attended with power stirs up all our faculties, and we follow hard after God. This voice as used by the ministers of the word, is called The time of the singing of Birds. The Gospel Dispensation is called a spring time, and when the love of Jesus is felt casting out fear, when the storms of sin cease, by the voice of pardoning mercy, this sweet text is well understood: My beloved spake, and said unto me, rise up my fair one, and come away, for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the time of the singing of Birds is come. The Lord Jesus, and the blessed Spirit of all Grace, are called Birds, and their voice is heard, known, and felt. My Sheep hear my voice, and follow me. These leave all when Jesus speaks by the Spirit to their souls; while every kind promise, every sweet invitation, and every precious declaration, form the sweet voice of Jesus, in the word and in the souls of them that believe. The Ministers of the Gospel are called Birds, and when they are understood and the power of their message is felt, the soul yields the obedience of faith. Conscience, approving and taking part with the man, as his experience is genuine, is a Bird, and is called by Solomon, a Bird of the air; this accuses or approves as God the Spirit influences it.

Thus, in the best of senses, we read this text; but, alas! we must take another view of it, as alluding to some evil days the soul may experience in passing through this valley of Bochim, or Weeping. We find the saints of old at times had the Doors of their Hearts and Lips shut as well as open.—One said, I am shut up, I cannot come forth.—Another, I go bound in the Spirit: Another, I was dumb, and opened not my mouth. Ezekiel was dumb for seven days before the people, as a Preacher, and in the streets of Zion, that is among the inhabitants of Gospel Zion. This has been often experienced to their grief, shut up in prayer, either reluctantly going to the exercise, or else finding but little access there; hurrying through the act. Hence the charge against one of old, Thou restrainest prayer before God. Job did not say such did not pray, but they were not open, free, familiar, or staid at the throne till liberty was felt; but the act was performed merely to quiet conscience. At times in company, dumb almost about the things; and though the voice, the lips, the tongue, the lungs, were sweetly exercised before, yet these Daughters of Music are brought low, for they neither sound with prayer or praise, or godly conversation, or reproof, or comfort, to any other! Thus these Doors are shut in the streets. Conscience is, however still awake, and the poor Believer is alarmed; is startled at the voice of that Bird, when listening to its accusation of sin committed, of duty neglected, of a worldly spirit of levity or covetousness, or of some corruption given way to, or permitted to lie on the conscience. Thus the voice of the Bird is heard, and it is well to listen to it, lest another day it should fill the soul with horror and sorrow. This is what David felt after a long series of months, with guilt on his conscience, till Nathan came with his Parable; but not knowing what it meant, he vows vengeance against the man that did it, That he should surely die. This was indeed true, for it was David’s wayfaring man, the man of sin, that came to steal the ewe Lamb; but David rose up at the voice of this Bird, and life went with the word to David’s soul, Thou art the man. He felt it, conscience was afresh awakened, and it is our mercy to have the life of God in the Conscience; for the main difference between the Christian and the mere nominal Professor, lays in this; the one has got all his religion in his Head, and if that was cut off, he would have none; the others lays in his Conscience, as pardoned by blood, and quickened by the Holy Spirit.

Another evil day we may find in this dark state, when so sadly shut up, is the fewness of them that preach all the truth as it is in Jesus: Hence the Church in her sad state ran to some who did not know her case; of course we find they ceased to give advice. She ran to others; they only rebuked her, and added affliction to her bonds, doubted her interest in the garments of Salvation. Hence she says, The watchmen found me; to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? Then again in the 5th Chapter, The watchmen met me, they wounded me; they smote me; they took away my veil from me: and sure I am that nothing can be more trying than for a soul in such intricate paths not to be able to find one to suit its case; and if they do, the word not being attended with power, they get neither light nor life. These are called Teeth in scripture, as they prepare food, break the bread of life, make all things plain, easy, and intelligible to the people; fixed in their Covenant Head, harmonize and agree in sentiment, at least in the main points, and engaged in the same work. These may cease by death—the Prophets, do they live for ever?—by removals in providence far from the abode of such a soul as I have been describing; or they may not be blest much to tried souls. They may be few in number, and those cease, as it respects their usefulness to some; so that, though they were once as a lovely song, and as one who could play well on an instrument, yet they may get dry, barren, and lifeless; at least, apparently so for any use they may be to a soul in the above circumstances. The make us mourn, nor can the Daughters of Music make melody again till he shines. We are compared Instruments of Music, set in tune by the Spirit, but can make no Music till he touches the chords of the heart; then upon the instruments of ten strings, he gets praise. The Doors of his Heart, his House, his Table, and his Throne, will never shut against you, any of his children. The days of your Mourning will soon end, the voice of Jesus will call you at the glorious resurrection of the just, when you will rise up at that voice, and sigh and sin no more.—Hallelujah.