A57129:800
Annotations on the book of Ecclesiastes
London: printed by J. Streater, 1669
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Now from these Infirmities we may be instructed to take care, that amidst our own fears we may be guarded by Angels, and led in our way, and upheld by the Lords right hand, who hath promised to give his Angels a charge to keep us in our ways, and to make his way plain before our eyes, that we may ⟨p. 396⟩have plain paths for our feet to walk in, and every high thing may be taken down, Ps. 34.7. Gen. 48.16. Ps. 91.11. Ps. 37.24. Prov. 15.19. Ps. 27.11. Ps. 5.8. Heb. 12.13. Isa. 40.4. Luke 3.4, 5, 6. 2 Cor. 10.5. to be trees of Righteousness, and then we shall bring forth fruit, and flourish in old age, Ps. 92.12, 13, 14. When we can bear no burden our selves, If the Lord be ours, we may cast all our burdens on him who careth for us, and will sustain us, Ps. 55.22. And when All other desires fail, Let us labour to be in such a preparation for death, as that we may say with Old Simeon, Lord now letterest thou thy servant depart in peace; and with Paul, I desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is best of all, Phil. 1.23. And since the grave is our longest home, let our greatest care be to have that a House of Rest and of Hope unto us; Christ by his lying in it hath sweetened it unto Believers. Lastly, let us so live, as that we may dye without fear, and they who bewail us, may not mourn as they who have no Hope,
V. 6. Or ever the silver Cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the Cistern.] Some understand this verse literally. ⟨p. 397⟩1. Of the ornaments. 2. Of the more needful instruments of life, whether they be more obvious and easy to come by, as to draw water out of a Fountain with a pitcher; or more remote, which are not gotten without labour and cost, as the drawing of water out of a deep Well with a wheel and a chain. And so the meaning runs thus, Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth, before God strip thee of thine ornaments wherein thou now rejoicest, Thy plate, chains, rings, jewels, bracelets, which will then be too heavy for thee to wear, nec sufferre potes majoris pondera g•mmae: 2. Before he spoil thee of the other Helps and Commodities of life, and make both thine extraordinary ornaments, and thine ordinary utensils all useless unto thee: or haply in this sense the former clause may relate unto rich men, Let not thy silver and gold bewitch thee: the later unto meaner men, Let not thy pitcher and thy wheel take thee off from minding the things of another and a better life. Others carry on the Allegory, making these things figurative and elegant expressions of death, and of those evils which immediately forego it, to wit, the dissolution of those parts which are most vital: for death, as in the storming or battering of a ⟨p. 398⟩Garrison, doth first break and weaken the out-works, the bodily limbs, and outward senses, and and after that sets upon the in-works, and the Vitals. He here compareth Life unto a Fountain, or Well, out of which men draw water with a Cord, a bowl, or bucket, a pitcher, and a wheel. And as when these are broken we can draw water no more, so when the Vital parts are decayed, there is no hope longer to draw life into the body which is the Cistern. This Life he compares, for the preciousness of it, unto silver and gold, for the weakness and fragility of it, unto a pitcher, and for the in••ability and unsettledness of it, unto a wheel.
V. 6. Or ever the silver Cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the Cistern.] Some understand this verse literally. ⟨p. 397⟩
Now besides this general proportion between life and these things as the figures of it, Interpreters do make the particulars here mentioned to answer unto some particulars in the vital parts of the body.
1. By the silver Cord, they understand the marrow or pith of the back, continued from the brain as it were in a cord or string unto the bottom of the back-bones, and for the white colour of it, compared unto silver. It may also be applied unto all the other Sinews and Ligaments of the body, which from the head, ⟨p. 399⟩as the Fountain, convey sense and motion upon the other parts. Hereby also may not unfitly be understood the chain and sweet harmony of the Elements and humours in the body, which being preserved in its due proportion, the body doth receive life from the Soul which is the Spring thereof, but being once dissolved, life presently faileth.
1. By the silver Cord, they understand the marrow or pith of the back, continued from the brain as it were in a cord or string unto the bottom of the back-bones, and for the white colour of it, compared unto silver. It may also be applyed unto all the other Sinews and Ligaments of the body, which from the head, ⟨p. 399⟩as the Fountain, convey sense and motion upon the other parts. Hereby also may not unfitly be understood the chain and sweet harmony of the Elements and humors in the body, which being preserved in its due proportion, the body doth receive life from the Soul which is the Spring thereof, but being once dissolved, life presently faileth.
2. By the Golden bowl, they understand the Meninx or skin wherein the brain and vital powers thereof are contained as in a bowl. Others understand the blood which is in the heart, as in the precious Fountain of life. Schindler rendereth it, Scaturigo Auri or aurea, & would have us thereby to understand the Law of God, which is compared unto Gold: but the word is elsewhere used to signify a vessel, Zach. 4.2, 3.
2. By the Golden bowl, they understand the Meninx or skin wherein the brain and vital powers thereof are contained as in a bowl. Others understand the blood which is in the heart, as in the pretious Fountain of life. Schindler rendreth it, Scaturigo Auri or aurea, & would have us thereby to understand the Law of God, which is compared unto Gold: but the word is elsewhere used to signifie a vessel, Zach. 4.2, 3.
3. By the fountain, we may understand those principal parts from whence vital supplies are drawn into the body, as from the Head, Sense, and motion; from the Heart, spirits, and heat; from the liver, blood.
3. By the fountain, we may understand those principal parts from whence vital supplyes are drawn into the body, as from the Head, Sense, and motion; from the Heart, spirits, and heat; from the liver, blood.
4. By the pitcher, and the wheel, those Instrumental and subservient parts, which from these convey those supplies into the several ⟨p. 400⟩vessels of the body, as into a Cistern, as the veins blood from the Liver, the arteries spirits from the heart, the Sinews motion and sense from the brain. By all which we should learn to draw water of life out of the Wells of Salvation, that out of our belly may flow rivers of living water, through the continual supplies of the Spirit of grace, that all our springs may be in Christ, and our life hidden with him in God, Isa. 14.3. & 66.11, 12. Zach. 13. 1. John 4.14. & 7.38, 39.
4. By the pitch•r, and the wheel, those Instrumental and subservient parts, which from these convey those supplyes into the several ⟨p. 400⟩vessels of the body, as into a Cistern, as the veins blood from the Liver, the arteries spirits from the heart, the Sinews motion and sense from the brain. By all which we should learn to draw water of life out of the Wells of Salvation, that out of our belly may flow rivers of living water, through the continual supplyes of the Spirit of grace, that all our springs may be in Christ, and our life hidden with him in God, Isa. 14.3. & 66.11, 12. Zach. 13. 1. John 4.14. & 7.38, 39.
In the second Chapter Solomon had showed us, The many choice varieties of pleasure, riches, and other excellent outward blessings, in which he had sought for contentment: and in this Chapter he hath in a most elegant Allegory showed us how quickly old age doth break them all, and take away the comfort of them.
In the second Chapter Solomon had shewed us, The many choice varieties of pleasure, riches, and other excellent outward blessings, in which he had sought for contentment: and in this Chapter he hath in a most elegant Allegory shewed us how quickly old age doth break them all, and take away the comfort of them.
V. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth, as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.] The Dust, that is, The body, to show the Original of it, Gen. 2.7. The weakness of it, dust is the weakest part of earth, Ps. 103.14. The baseness and vileness of it, Job 4.19. Phil. 3.21. Gen. 18.17. Job 30.19. Our Original from the ⟨p. 401⟩dust, Our Return unto the dust, should humble us, and make us vile in our own eyes, and should warn us to make haste to secure a better life before this be ended, and not to put off the endeavours towards it unto old age, which haply we may never attain unto, and if we do, will bring it self work enough for us to do. Death is swift, and uncertain: Sin, the longer lived in, doth the more harden: Repentance is not in our Call or command when we please: and it is a work of the whole man, and the whole life: The work deferred vvill be greater, the time to do it in vvill be shorter, the strength to do it by vvill be less, bodily infirmities vvill disable spiritual actions. God vvill have less honour and service from us, and we shall have more sorrow, and less comfort. Therefore remember thy Creator, before the Dust return to the Earth whence it came.
V. 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth, as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.] The Dust, that is, The body, to shew the Original of it, Gen. 2.7. The weakness of it, dust is the weakest part of earth, Ps. 103.14. The baseness and vileness of it, Job 4.19. Phil. 3.21
shall return unto God that gave it] Ut stet Judicio ante Deum? That it may appear before his Tribunal to be judged: as the Chaldee well paraphraseth the place. As ⟨p. 402⟩certainly as the body goes unto the dust, so certainly the Soul returneth unto God to be judged. The godly are translated into Paradise, into Abraham's bosom, into the condition of Just men made perfect, Luke 16.22. and 23.34. Heb. 12.23. The wicked into the prison of disobedient spirits, reserved there in Hell unto the Judgement of the great day, Luke 16.23. 1 Pet. 3.19.
shall return unto God that gave it] Ut stet Iudicio ante Deum? That it may appear before his Tribunal to be judged: as the Chaldee well paraphraseth the place. As ⟨p. 402⟩certainly as the body goes unto the dust, so certainly the Soul returneth unto God to be judged. The godly are translated into Paradise, into Abrahams bosome, into the condition of Just men made perfect, Luke 16.22. and 23.34. Heb. 12.23. The wicked into the prison of disobedient spirits, reserved there in Hell unto the Judgement of the great day, Luke 16.23. 1 Pet. 3.19.
V. 8. Vanity of Vanities, saith the Preacher: All is Vanity.] As Mathematicians having made their demonstration, do then resume their principal conclusion with a quod erat demonstrandum: so here the Wise man having made a large and distinct demonstration, That the Happiness of man doth not stand in Any, or in All the Contents which the World can afford, both in regard of their disproportion unto him, and their discontinuance with him, He doth hereby conclude his discourse, 1. With a confident affirming what he had in the beginning undertaken to prove.
2. With a strong and solid vindication thereof from any Cavils which might yet arise in the minds of men against it.
3. With a positive Conclusion containing the sum of the whole Book, and the right ⟨p. 403⟩means unto true Happiness indeed.
V. 9. And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge: yea he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many Proverbs. V. 10. The Preacher sought to find out Acceptable words; and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.] Here Solomon commendeth the doctrine taught in this Book.
1. Because it was the doctrine of a penitent Convert: for Repentance is an excellent means to discern and acknowledge spiritual truth, 2 Tim. 2.25. James 1.21.