TO MRS. D—.
Peckham, September 30, 1814.
my dear friend in Christ Jesus.
I have been just reflecting a little on that glorious Title and Office of our most blessed Lord, a Surety: the longer I live the more I feel the need of him as such; the bondage, sin, and misery I am daily and hourly experiencing, except a few sweet seasons of liberty in prayer, preaching, writing, and conversing about the precious things of God. It is well he became one with us, in the eye of the law, that he kindly undertook for us, and infallibly secured the payment of that obedience it demanded of us. This whole debt he took upon himself, and crossed our name from the bond, and addressed his divine Father for us, Whatsoever my people owe thee, put that to my account. The Father graciously accepted this, and has declared himself well pleased with it. Every blessed view of this gives me hope, peace, and rest. I am truly miserable but when this is shewed me, then I feel a sweet serenity of mind. O! precious Surety, O! glorious Redeemer, thy Person, thy Name, and thy Work, is very dear to my heart:
No other stay have I beside,
If these should alter I must fall.
I need this to support me now, I shall need it as much when my heart and flesh fail. When the Silver Cord is loosed, when the Golden Bowl is broken at the Cistern, when the Pitcher is broken at the Fountain, and the Wheel broken at the Cistern, this glorious Saviour will then carry my regenerated spirit to God who gave it me, and this is as sure to my soul as that God has begun the good Work in it. He begins it with a view to carry it on, and he will perfect that which concerneth me, for his mercy endureth for ever.
I will now drop you a few thoughts on the sixth verse, with which I must close these letters, which I trust you will candidly read, and where I err, attribute that to me, but receive the truth as from that God whose I am, and whom I serve. Here are four symptoms of approaching dissolution; the first is the loosing the Silver Cord. By this is most probably meant the Spinal Marrow, and all the Nerves arising therefrom; with all the Filaments, Fibres, and Tendons that proceed from those Nerves; as there can be no motion or drawing performed in all the Body without these; and through the influence of the animal Spirits upon them; and although these belong to the spinal Marrow, and all draw together as it were, yet Solomon expresses it in one word, the Silver Cord, because the rest are but a continuation of the same thing. This is called the Silver Cord from its colour, for it appears to the eye a white, bright as silver; it is seated deep in the body; it lays lower and deeper, and safer than the Veins or Arteries, or other common conveyers in the Body, and it is reckoned the most excellent of all, so that some Philosophers have termed it the Foundation of Life. The loosing of this Cord, is an undoubted sign of death; sometimes this is only affected in one part, and is the cause of Paralytics, but when it happens to the head of the spinal Marrow, it hinders the influence of the spirits upon the whole Silver Cord, and consequently takes away all sense and motion from all the subjected parts, and gives a sure prognostic of death, especially in aged people. Thus the Silver Cord is loosed.
The next object worthy notice is, the Golden Bowl broken, by which some think is meant the Scull pan; or, as the Seventy translate it, the Repository of the Brain. The celebrated Dr. Smith (to whom I am indebted for many of his ideas on Anatomy) says, there are two Membranes within the Skull, a thicker and harder, and a thinner and finer, which does more immediately encompass the Brain, and by an immediate contact, encircles the very Substance of it, which seems to me to be the Golden Bowl, so called, by way of eminence, which is broken. This is called Golden, for the same reason that the other is called the Silver Cord, in its colour. The Membrane is of a flavious colour, nearer to that of Gold; it is hidden, secret, and well defended; and requires much wisdom and time to find our all its secret caverns and mysterious branches, and also for its ductility; above all, it may be compared to Gold, for excellency and use. Now as long as man remains in his strength, this Golden Bowl is knit unto itself in all its parts, but in the event of extreme old age, when he is just giving up the ghost, it can no longer retain itself, by reason of its natural dryness, shrivelling into itself, or preternatural moisture, imbibing excrementitious humours, till it is over full, it often snaps asunder, and so recurs into itself, from whence the Brain must naturally subside, and all the parts cease from their several uses; upon this we perceive a change of the whole countenance; the nose appears very sharp, the eyes sunk into the head, the temples are pinched in, with all the other symptoms of approaching dissolution. This brings the house down indeed, when the animal faculty is so deeply affected. I think there is something very interesting in the idea of the body compared to a Golden Bowl, not China, Earthenware, or Tin, but Gold, to shew how precious our bodies are in his sight who redeemed them; that he will take special care of them, collect all the various pieces together, and raise them up a glorious body by and by.
The third point worthy our consideration, is, The Pitcher broken at the Fountain. This must refer to something belonging to the vital faculty; it appears in sacred Scriptures, that the life of man consists in his blood; 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 through the whole Body, and this Fountain is the Heart, for out of it are the issues of life. This part continually issueth out abundance of Blood, wherein is the life, to all the parts of the body.—This is a deep Fountain, it is the Fountain of Life, the first living, and last dying Part of Man. Within the Body of the Heart there are two firmly-divided Cavities, a right and left, called Ventricles; from these are certain vessels. Out of the right Ventricle, of the Heart, proceeds the great Vein, which sends forth Branches throughout the whole, and hath, at its entrance into the Heart, certain Portals, and also an Artery. Out of the left Ventricle proceeds a Vein, inserted into the Lungs, and also the great Artery, which disperseth its Branches throughout the whole Body, both whose Cavities are defended with the like Portals. How the blood passeth in and through these passages I have not time to describe, I wish I had. By the Pitcher, therefore, we must understand the true and proper concepticle of the Blood, namely, the Veins, which throughout the whole body, serve only as vessels to contain that noble liquor, and carry it back again to the Fountain. This is the Pitcher here intended. The Fountain is the right Ventricle of the Heart. But neither the Fountain nor Pitcher continues for ever; the Pitcher does not go so often to the Fountain but at last it comes home broken. The breaking of it in old age, is the failing of the Veins, their ceasing from their natural action and use; when they can no longer carry back, nor conveniently pass into the Heart that liquor, the blood they contain, it stops, it is stagnated, it dies in the Veins. This is breaking the Pitcher at the Fountain.
Finally, The Wheel broken at the Cistern. The Cistern is the left Ventricle of the Heart, as the Fountain is represented as the right; for the Blood being enlivened and ennobled in the right Ventricle, it remains only to be dispersed into these several parts it is to quicken, which it cannot consequently do, except it be received into this Cistern. The Wheel is that round, or circulation of the Blood which flows from the left Ventricle of the Heart. Take this part of the symptom of Death, the chasing of the Pulse; the instruments of pulsation decay, and can no longer perform that work which must necessarily be continued for the preservation of life; when that ceases to beat, the man ceaseth to live; thus the Wheel, which till now, run its constant round, is broken at the Cistern, heart and flesh now fail. O! that when this is your case and mine, we may have nothing to do but to depart and be with Christ. May our Spirits return to God who gave them, while the poor tabernacle returns to its original dust. Solemn thought!—But the Gospel opens to my wondering, pleasing view, the Resurrection of this Body, formed and fashioned like the glorious Body of my Jesus, who appeared on Mount Tabor, or Mount Lebanon, as perhaps we shall appear when he comes in glory. May this be your felicity and mine, Amen.