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.