what is to be understood by the grinding; and afterwards what the doors and the streets are, and what the found of the grinding, will eatily be made appear. The wisdom of Solomon is fo famous throughout all regions and ages, that I need not here apologize for it. It would be unBecoming an ordinary writer, much more the penman of this allegory, to deliver the fame thing twice in a breath; and I wonder with what face any interpreters could put so great an abfurdity upon the wife man, as to make this grinding fignify no more than that just mentioned before. But for the clearing of this, we muft know that grinding is of two forts, either Per extra pofitionem, or Per intra fufceptionem, (as philofophers use to distinguish of augmentation,) there is an extrinsical, or an intrinfical grinding; the former of these is performed when two hard bodies, acting against each other, do break and bruise into small parts that which is put between them. And this is the grinding as in a mill, of which you heard before. The latter of thefe is performed, when the parts of the fame mafs, by reafon of the exaltation of fome internal principle, or the addition of fome fermentum, are so acted among themselves, that the whole mafs, and every the least part thereof, is changed and brought into a new confiftence. And this, philofophy calls fermentation, and is that of which the wife man speaks in this place; and it is therefore called grinding, be

caufe

caufe it accomplisheth the end thereof better than any mill can do. It will comminuate things of fo hard a substance that no mill can break. I would fain know what mill could have ground Aaron's golden calf? but by the help of fire, and poffibly fome specific menftruum, as a proper key for that folar mineral, it was eafily ground to powder, Exod. xxxii. 20, Deut. ix. 21. Again, it can divide the matter that is to be ground into smaller parts than any mill can do; it will not leave the most minute part unfearched, A little leaven, faith the fcripture, leaveneth the whole lump, 1 Cor. v. 6, Gal. v. 9. And our Saviour's expreffion of it, is yet more fignificant, The Kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three meafures of meal till the whole was leavened, Mat. xiii. 33, ἕως δ' ἐζυμώθη όλο», till the whole of the mass, and every one of the leaft parts thereof be leavened. No mill can be fet fo low, as to grind every corn, and every part of every corn; but leaven leaves none untouched, but divides (beyond what Philosophy gives way for) into parts indivifible.

Now of this fort of grinding there is very much to be found in the body of man: And indeed all the natural alterations that tend either to the preservation of the perfon, or propagation of the kind, are the products of this intestine grinding. And there is fcarce a part in man, especially an internal vifcus, that doth not par

ticularly

ticularly contribute to fuch a work as this. And furely, that which lies daily upon our trenchers, had need of many thorough grindings, that it may be really tranfubftantiated into our flesh; thefe in the body of man are by physicians called digeftions, or concoctions, and are to be found almost in every part, as was said before; but I fhall inftance only in a few, and those well known to all thofe that have the least skill in natural things; and these few grindings, together with the voice of them, the doors and Atreets that lead to and from them, being well understood; thofe that are more accurate in the knowledge of all the alterations of the nourishment of man, may thence-from eafily attain the whole intent and purpose of the wife man in this part of the description of age. I shall only mention five: Three in respect of the individual; and two in refpect of the fpecies; and they are thofe common ones; chylification, fanguification, affimilation, la&tification, and spermification.

The first of thefe, viz. chylification is thus performed; after the meat is fufficiently chewed in the mouth, it is committed to the ftomach, where continually there lieth treasured up a certain acid juice, the relicts of the last concoction; which (as the leaven in the bread) doth presently infect the whole mafs, and every part thereof; and doth fo penetrate and search the parts, and fo divide and separate them one

from

from another, and join itself to every one of them, that at last the matter of nourishment is so perfectly ground, that it is brought to a new consistence and colour, very like to the cream of barley, and is that physicians call the chyle; and is the firft intrinsical grinding that the food receiveth, and is next of all to that of the mouth, and not altogether unlike to it; and therefore when maftication is but weakly performed, you heard before that it was helped by infufion of the food in a ventricle prepared for that purpose, whereby the parts were acted among themselves, and better comminuated, than if they had been never so long chewed in the mouth.

The fecond of these, viz. fanguification is performed, when the chyle itself is ground over again, and receiving yet farther exaltations by a greater solution of the more noble, and active principles; it once again depofites its old colour, and confiftence, and fo at length becomes perfectly changed into that true liquor of life, which is called blood, Lev. xvii. 13, 14. and although it must always be acknowledged that the chyle doth receive many alterations, and exaltations before it come to the heart, almost in every part it paffeth thro', both in the guts themselves, in the mefentery, the glandules, and the milky veffels, both of one fort, and of another; and also in the veins; and after it hath paffed through the heart, it must be

once

once or twice circulated through the body, and receive feveral defecations, as in the liver, the spleen, the kidneys, and the like; before it be compleatly accomplished for its ultimate ufe, all which exaltations, and defecations, are included in this text; yet it must still be remembred, that the principal and fupream exaltation of the blood, the most eminent and remarkable grinding towards fanguification, in comparison of which, all the others are little to be accounted of, is always performed in the heart, that fountain of life; for as foon as the vena cava hath committed the matter of nourishment into the right ventricle of the heart, the fermentum therein contained working fuddenly and throughly upon it, fets the active principles at a greater freedom, and fo inducing new motion, and effervescence into the blood, doth happily impregnate it with vitality. And not only this new matter of nutrition, when it firft attingeth, the heart is thereby enlivened; but the best blood itself, after that by various circulations, and imparting its power and life to the parts that are nourished by it, it becomes weak and much depauperated; is fain to return back again to the heart for a fresh impregnation. And fuch a vaft difference there is between the blood in the arteries newly brifked in the fountain, and that in the veins lowered and impoverished with its journey, that the ancients took them