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hands, may also be said of those of the feet, I fhall chiefly refer you thither: However, becaufe the word is here fomewhat differently tranflated in our language, and we have no reafon to complain, forafmuch as it doth primarily fo fignify; fo that some have tranflated it, pervertentur, others, curvabuntur, and the Septuagint, διατραφώσιν I judge there is one grand fymptom of age that in this place, and upon these parts, is principally aimed at; and that is the perverfion, crookedness, abbreviation, and alteration of the pofition, of the feveral joints of these parts; and their inability of being reduced to a firm, straight, and tonick posture, wherein the ftrength of a man doth wholly confift. And it is wonderful well worth our obfervation, that if a man at his best and strongest eftate fhould be kept in that bending posture, which age neceffarily binds every man unto; he, in that condition,, were scarce able to go, or stand, without the help of a staff; and the reason of it is plain, because the centre or gravity is not equally poised upon the basis of the feet; but hangeth as a weight behind, and therefore had need of another fulciment, upon which it might the more firmly reft. And therefore it is faid of old men, membra levant baculis; when these members are perverted in their joints, and 'the tone of the muscles is fo much relaxed, that they are unable to bring them to straightness again, there is great need of the support of a

ftaff;

ftaff; for without it, there is an utter inability of going steadily, and standing strongly, which is the principal symptom intimated by the strong mens bowing themselves.

The grinders ceafe because they are few.

That there may in man's body be other grinding than maftication, or chewing the meat in the mouth; and other grinders, than the jaws and teeth, the ensuing discourse (and that there can be no other in this place intended, this prefent difcourfe) I hope, will make appear. Grinding all men know to be performed by two hard bodies, the one immoveable, upon which the grinding is made; the other moveable, which by ftrong compreffion against the former, and by its motion, makes the grinding; fo that to it, there is neceffary both thefe, viz. the firm ftander, and the ftrong mover; the upper, and the nether milftone; as we have them often mentioned in Scripture, Deut. xxiv. 6; now anfwerable unto these in the mill, there are for that grinding which is performed in the mouth, two jaw bones, which are called the upper and nether mandible. The upper mandible, is compounded of eleven. feveral bones, which among themselves, and to thofe adjacent are joined either per futuram, or harmoniam, which admit of no motion at all, and therefore this stands firmly in its place, and is that immoveable milstone upon which the grinding is made; the

nether.

nether mandible is one fingle, hard, and strong bone, whofe articulation is very loose, for the greater liberty of motion; and it hath two or three pair of mufcles, efpecially the temporal, which strongly bring it upward, for the closer acting against the other mandible, and one wonderful pair of mufcles, called, the maffeters, and are derived from a double original, and beyond all others of the body whatsoever, have their several fibres fo croffing and interwoven one with another, that they are feverally inferted into this lower mandible, and so are able to move it upward; to the right, to the left; forward, backward, and confequently round about, and fo performing that action which we call mastication or chewing, and therefore this is that other moveable milftone which makes the grinding.

Now out of both thefe, equally proceed in the feafon of them a certain number of fmall bones, which we call the teeth; which howfoever they may be numbered among the bones, yet they have one or two efpecial properties which are competible to no other bones of the body, (at least in that measure,) whereby they are principally adapted for the grinding.

The first is, they are naked, they have no covering or skin upon them, no not fo much as that common membrane, called, the Periafteon, which doth encompass all the bones of the body befide; and that is because they might

the

the better attinge one another's bodies, and in their attrition one against another they might feel no pain; but I must needs here take notice that the words of Job seem to be against me, where he faith, I have escaped with the skin of my teeth, Job xix. 20; this is easily answered, if we confider the two parts of the teeth, viz. the bafts, and the radix; that, is the part which eminently appears white above the gums; this, is that part which is within the gums, and ftands fixed in the mandibles: Now by Job's skin or covering of his teeth, it is apparent he meant the gums which cover the roots of the teeth 'his fores, and his boyls were fo great and ter rible upon him, from the fole of his foot to his. crown, that there was no part of the skin of his body to be feen, but only about his teeth, which in all fuch cutaneous difeafes doth for the most part wholly escape.

;

The fecond is, they have the veffels which convey life and fenfe unto them, contained only in the inward parts, that the outward parts may be freer and better to grind.

The third is, that they are growing or en→ creasing so long as man lives, fox that what is worn away of them by their continual attri tion and manducation, is daily repaired, otherwife they would grow fhorter and smoother, and not be fo able to perform their work; and: this is a wonderful piece of the wifdom of God: in nature, which art cannot poffibly reach unto;

and

and therefore because they cannot make their mills grow, as they daily decay by grinding; they are fain to fupply that want, by often pecking their mill-stones, and at length changing 'them; and by thofe means, as it were, renew their teeth, without which they were able to do nothing at all.

The laft I fhall mention is, that the teeth, of all the bones of the body are the hardest, and will fuffer the leaft from any other bodies whatsoever, and therefore are the fitter for fuch a work as this. A mill-ftone is of all other ftones fuppofed to be the hardest, and therefore Job when he had expreffed the hardness of the heart of the Leviathan by a stone; as if he had not faid enough, he farther adds one degree more, yea, faith he, As hard as a piece of the nether mill-ftone. These short observations may fuffice to teach us in the general, that the teeth also may be called the grinders. If we yet more particularly confider them, and how they may be divided, we fhall have a farther light into this matter. The teeth are of three kinds, either Incifores, Canini, or Molares: The first are the broad fore-teeth; the fecond are the next round-teeth; which are ufually called the eye-teeth; the last are the great double and hindermoft teeth; the first, bite or cut the food; the fecond, break or bruife the food; the laft, chew or grind the food. And this distinction also may be found in scripture, the first are alluded to, where it is faid, The

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prophets

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