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greater and longer, than they were before. This is a most lively representation of the infirmities of the decrepit age of man; wherein as deep calls unto deep, Psal. xlii. 7. so one grief, pain, weakness upon another, until all the waves and billows thereof are gone over him.

Velut unda fupervenit undam.

And if nature shall be able at any time to gather up herself, and unite all her force, to give a glimmering light through the darkness that oppreffeth her; yet it it cannot long continue, but a greater darkness will presently fucceed, as it is in the light of a candle, which is almost consumed in its focket; fometime fome light appears, then presently it is darkened again, and some such interchanges may be for a season made, but it will grow darker and darker, until at length it be quite extinguished. And that wonderful redintegration of the fight and teeth of the old minister in Yorkshire (like all those lightenings before death) was but the laft and utmost endeavour of perishing nature, Et quafi mox emorituræ lucernæ fupremus fulgor. If old Jacob fhall be able to strengthen himself, and fit up in his bed, at the news of his son's approach to visit him, Gen. xlviii. 2. yet his weakness must return again, and he must lie down in his bed again, and again, until at length he lie down in the grave.

If art fhall be able to contribute any thing to the present allay of any of the miseries of this ftate, yet they will surely and unavoidably return again; if seeing delightful objects, or beloved friends, if hearing of news, or pleasant difcourfe, or melodious mufick; if the pratling of grandchildren may give any divertisement or refreshment to the mind: if a more suitable air, convenient bathings, unctions, or frictions; if an easier bed, if favoury meat, Gen. xxvii. 4. or delightful wine, or any thing else, outward, or inward, that art can find out, may give any ease or refreshment to the body, yet the comfort of them will be but for a small season, and the former troubles will certainly return again.

If a young virgin, lying in David's bofom, fhall cherish him a while, and administer that heat and comfort to him that cloaths could not do, 1 Kings i. 3. yet it must be but for a time, and David muft grow cold, and chill, and comfortless again, and that more and more, until he be taken into the house of all living. And this is the great mifery that attends all the miferies of this miferable ftate, that they are altogether incurable; and though fome refreshment may fometime feem to interpofe for a season; yet they will all most certainly return again, as the clouds after the rain.

VERSE

VERSE 3.

In the day when the keepers of the houfe fhall tremble, and the ftrong men fhall bow themselves, and the grinders shall cease, because they are few; and thofe that look out of the windows be darkened.

Having fufficiently before fhewed us, what

the infirmities of the mind are in this condition, he comes now to treat of those of the body; wherein the body is most aptly compared to a building, or an house going daily to decay, and that cannot be repaired. And this fimilitude of the body, whereby it is compared to an house, is moft fcriptural. David faith, Thy fatutes have been my fongs in the houfe of my pilgrimage, Pfal. cxix. 54. And Paul faith, If our earthly houfe of this tabernacle were diffolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, 1 Cor.

V. I.

Now the decays of this houfe in old age are many; four of which, viz. thofe in respect of the keepers of the houfe, the ftrong men, the grinders, and the lookers out of the windows, are mentioned in this verfe, in the explication of which I fhall be the briefer; becaufe what I understand by them all, in this verfe, hath been for the fubftance of them, formerly treated of by others. And here the current of

interpreters hath run much-what the fame way, and left behind them lefs obfcurity in these words, which are indeed in themselves the plainest that are contained in the whole allegory;

The keepers of the houfe fball tremble.

I could willingly confent to thofe, that by this expreffion would have the ribs to be meant, were the predicate as applicable as the subject; the thorax doth most safely keep, and excellently well defend the principal parts therein contained. And Job fpeaks of the fence of the bones, as of the finews: Thou haft fenced me with bones and with finews, Job x. 11. but how they shall be said to tremble, is not to be made appear; forafmuch as experience doth fufficiently confirm, that they stand as fixed in old as in young, and more fixed too. And indeed their articulation, both to the sternon, 'and also (and especially) to the vertebra of the back, is fuch, that they admit of very little and obfcure motion, but not at all of this trembling. And therefore we must find out fome other parts of the body which are the conftituted keepers of the house; and they certainly can be no other than the hands. Now the anatomical hand contains not only the carpus, metacarpus & phalanges digitorum, but the whole fuperior artus; all thofe higher parts of the limbs that are divided from the trunk of the body, and there

D

therefore it is well divided in brachium, cubitum, & extremam manum. And these are they which most properly are stiled the keepers or defenders of the house; and that which makes it the more unquestionable is, because they answer so directly to the ftrong men, as it follows in the next words. And these hands and arms do feveral ways keep and defend the house. And there is nothing more frequent in scripture than the expreffing of defence by the power of the hands and arms; when Jacob bleffed his fon Jofeph, he spake how he was defended from them that beset him, and faith, His bow abode in ftrength, the arms of his hands were made Strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, Gen. xlix. 24. And as if there were no other way of expreffing prefervation, defence, and deliverance, thefe members are almost always mentioned, and most frequently attributed to God himself; They got not the land into possession by their own fword, neither, did their own arm fave them; but thy right-hand, and thine arm, becaufe thou hadst a favour for them, Pfal. xliv. 3. And if there be any impotency in the hands and arms, a man is no longer able to defend himself; Job hath a moft remarkable expreffion to confirm this truth; if ever he used his defence and help to opprefs the fatherless, he wifheth that now he might be left altogether helpless, and that his defenders might be taken from him, or rendered wholly unferviceable to

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