in age, these also pass their flower, they become humbled, and decline a ace towards ufeleffness and deformity. In age the feveral holes and cavities of the ears are stopped, the drum is unbraced, the hammer is weakened, the anvil is worn, the ftirrop is broken, and the inward air is mixed and defiled; the filaments are dulled, the nerve itself is obftructed; fo that there cannot but follow heavinefs of hearing, and at last deafness itself. And this is that imperfection which Barzillai complains of to King David, I am this day eighty years old, and can I difcern between good and evil? Can I hear any more the voice of finging mèn, and finging women, wherefore then fhould thy fervant be yet a burden to my lord the King? 2 Sam. xix. 35. And this certainly is the principal symptom here intended by these words, The daughters of mufick fhall be brought low. And therefore the vulgar Latin tranflates it only, obfurdefcent omnes filiæ carminis; but the word is of a far larger fignification, and might be translated many ways, as deprimentur, dejicientur, incurvabuntur; but cannot poffibly be better tranflated than it is already by the Seventy, ταπεινωθήσονται, humiliabuntur, brought low. And this still holds out the native latitude of the word; which I would by all means have preserved; that all the daughters of mufick, both active and paffive, and their infirmities in age may be here included; fo that all those fymptoms of the decrepit ftate of man, that belong to any of the organs before mentioned, whether of fpeaking or hearing, are to be understood by this last clause; All the daughters of musick sball be brought low; and fuch are these that follow: Dyspnoea five fpirandi difficultas, deftillationes iufim inferentes; αιαυδία αφωνία, five vocis abolitio, diminutio aut depravatio; exficcatio afpera arteria, induratio cartilaginum laryngis, fordes aurium, præcipuè autem barycoia five gravis auditus & furditas. VERSE 5. Alfo when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond-tree fhall flourish, and the grafhopper fhall be a burthen, and defire shall fail; becaufe man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. H Itherto age hath been described unto us, as it hath influence upon all the funЄtions and faculties of a man; fuperior and inferior; inward and outward; animal, vital, and natural. And the preacher hath exactly declared unto us, how far they are all weakened in this declining state; he now in this verse paffeth to another head of symptoms, which is ufually called, qualitates mutata, taking notice of the fimple affects, and those eminent and most remarkable alterations that attend men in this condition. And here again he doth moft elegantly run over all the parts of man, and give only one moft fignificant alteration in each of them. The compounding parts of man (as all men know, and as we have already heard) are the foul and the body. The principal affect of the mind in Age is that of fear, which is here expreffed in respect of a double object, a greater and a leffer; which confequently makes the paffion leffer or greater, according to the encrease of age; They shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way. The parts of the body are either inanimate, or animate: of the inanimate parts, the hair receiveth the greatest alteration in age, which is here fignified in these words: The almond tree fall flourish. The animate parts of the body, are also of two forts, either the hard, and crufty parts, or the foft and spongy parts; and these two are usually known by the names of the fpermatical and fanguineous parts. The change of the former of these in age is intimated unto us in those words: The grafhopper shall be a burden; the change of the latter in thofe, defire ball fail; as it followeth more clearly hereafter. After this most mysterious and hieroglyphical description of the symptoms of age, he doth in a plain and eafy tranfition pass from those general fymptoms that attend a man all along this ftate ftate of weakness, unto thofe particular ones, that do more immediately forerun his diffolution: For man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. They fhall be afraid of that which is high, and fears fhall be in the way. The powers and faculties of the mind, as they are weakened in age, are abundantly defcribed in the fecond verfe: In these words is notified unto us, that most remarkable change that is made upon the affects and paffions of the mind in the same condition. And this is only in refpect of fear, and thofe that are nearly related unto it. For as for those which are placed, iv т iTibuμntix, in appetitu concupifcente, fuch as love, hatred, defire, joy, and the like; they are in no wife exceffive in this weak ftate of age, forafmuch as a firm and a vigorous habit of body, quick and lively fenfes, both outward and inward, do moft promote them; fo that where there is a general defect in both these, and all defire doth fail, it is not to be supposed, there fhould be any predominancy of any of those paffions, that proceed from the concupifcible appetite; as for thole which are placed, ἐν τῷ θυμικῷ in appetitu irafcente; they all have for their object either good or evil; those which have good for their object, as hope, and fuch like, have little or no place in the time of age, for afmuch afmuch as it is an evil time, and there is no pleasure in it. Now all imminent evil is looked upon either as vincible, or invincible; if a man look upon an approaching evil, as that which he is able to overcome, it naturally produceth boldness in him, which is the contrary paffion to fear, and can in no respect agree to the same perfons. It remains therefore, that that diftrefs of the mind, which arifeth from the apprehenfion of fome approaching evil, that is either destructive or burdensome to our nature, and not easily refiftible by our ftrength, is the paffion that is moft incident to age. True it is, that anger and vexation, grief and fadness, and fuch like, as have for their object some present evil, and border hard upon this we are speaking of, may in fome measure be found in age; yet the true and proper, the most notorious trouble of the mind, is that dumpish, melancholy, destructive paffion of fear; which together with all its attendants and neceffary confequences, fuch as fufpicion, jealoufies, fuperstition, diflike, inconstancy, betraying the fuccours of reason, are too familiarly obferved in the best of men that are crooked with age; and by how much the more man declines, by fo much the more do these superfluities encrease, like misletoe, and some other excrefcencies of trees, that flourish not, till the stock decay from which they fpring. And the reason of it |