for two several things, and knew not that they were the fame; like the men of Bethlehem, who knew not Naomi, Ruthi 19, 20, 21. nor would acknowledge her the fame person, because she went out full, and returned home again empty; and the herself was not unwilling to have changed her name: And he that fhall call the rich blood going out in the arteries, aerial, jovial, spiritual; and the mean and poor blood returning home in the veins, earthly, faturnal, gros, fhall make no schism at all in the unquestionable doctrine of circulation.

The third of these, viz. affimilation, is then performed, when the nutritive juice is fufficiently prepared in all things that are allotted to it, and by the impulse of the conveying vessels is brought near to the parts that are to be nourished, and then every one of the parts by a certain allective property of its own, doth draw that which is most agreeable to itself, and then falls to acting, fearching, breaking it over again into most minute parts; and so those that are like to prove unconformable, are excommunicated to the pores; and the other are taken into joint fellowship and communion, and fo made one with the part; and that which is most remarkable is, that according to the time of life, Gen. xviii. 10. wherein augmentation or encrease of ftature is appointed to man, every one of the parts takes fo much to itself as will answer its daily growth, and after that

is accomplished, every part takes only fo much to itself, as doth answer its daily decay. The children of Ifrael gathered manna in the wilderness, fome more, fome lefs, yet when they did mete it in an omer, he that gathered much, had nothing over; and be that gathered little, had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating, Exod. xvi. 17, 18. This is truly verified in the food of all mankind. Some there be that make greater preparations for the belly, othersome there be that make leffer, yet when this comes to the measure of God, I mean, to be put to that end which he hath appointed, he that made the greatest hath nothing over, and he that made the least hath no lack, every one according to his wafting. The princes fuperfluities, and the beggars penury, both of them make but equal reparation for the daily confumption of their own flesh.

The fourth that I mentioned, was the making of the milk; which although it be peculiar to one fex only, yet I cannot but take notice of it among the rest, because a principal alteration of the nutritive juice is thereby made, and the wisdom and goodness of God is therein (as in the formation and birth of the infant) most eminently made appear. Thou art he (faith David) that took me out of the womb, thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts, Pfal. xxii. 9. Now, this is thus performed: The breafts by their attractive property, draw F from

from the arteries that blood, which is the least altered from chyle, as being most agreeable to their glandulous fubftance; and from the nerves, that juice which they convey for the nourishment of the spermatick parts, and by a specifick fermentum in themselves contained, do fubact, and comminuate, both these liquors, and by a perfect mixture of them, and a certain peculiar alteration, at length produce that white, fweet, pleasant, alimentary liquor which we call the milk, which containeth in it meet matter of nourishment for all the parts of the child, both fanguineous, and spermatical: and is the most proper food for it, and exactly agreeable to that, with which it was sustained in the womb.

The last of these we have named is, the production of feed, which because it is the highest, and moft wonderful of them all, it had need of greater preparations, and more alterations than all the reft; and therefore it is, that there are feveral veffels appointed for that purpose, and many admirable combinations, complications, and intertextures of them all, which are not elsewhere in the body to be found. The vafa præparantia, and deferentia, the vas varicofum, the epididymis, and paraftata, the veficula feminales alfo, and the proftate, do each of them add somewhat to the making of the feed meet for propagation; but it must always be acknowledged that the principal fermentum that doth

most of all exalt the feminary matter, and chiefly render it prolifick, is contained in the foft, fpungy, glandulous fubftance of the teftes; which therefore bear their name, because they give testimony of virility, and shew. that a man is perfect in his kind, and therefore able to produce his own image, Gen. v. 3. the spirituous and benign matter most apt for generation, being from all the parts of the body by the arteries and nerves conveyed to these parts; it is herein, by a mysterious faculty of their own, elaborated into that noble elixir; which from one man hath dilated the world to so many millions as of which it now confists; and doth continually from generation to generation make abundant reparation for the cruelties of the King of Terrors. For although in the space of an hundred years or thereabout, all the living upon the face of the earth are driven thencefrom by the ftroke of death, yet by the vertue of this divine extract, the earth is at all times fufficiently peopled, the inhabitants thereof perceive no lack. So that this doth in a manner perpetuate mortality, and caufe men to furvive the funerals of all mankind. Hence it is that the wisdom of God in fcripture doth always express posterity, and the generations that were yet to come, by the word feed, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy feed and her feed, Gen. iii. 15. And the Lord faid to Abraham, Look now

to

wards heaven, and tell the stars if thou be able to number them, fo fhall thy feed be, Gen. xv. 5.

And this is the last operation in man which I shall mention that is here intended by the word grinding; and this, viz. the preparation of feed (if not all the other) is eminently called grinding, in that place where it is faid, Let my wife also grind to another, and let others bow down upon her, Job xxxi. 10. and all the other alterations of the nutritive juice in man (if not this alfo) are eminently so called, in the story of Samfon; for although it be generally underftood that Samfon ground in a mill, and our later commentators (as if in a mill themselves) following the beaten tract, do all take it up from others, and leave it unto others as granted: yet in the text there is not once mention made of a mill, but there are many circumstances that do to me clearly evince the contrary; the words run thus, The philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison houfe, Judges xvi. 21. Wherein it is very obfervable, that it is not faid, they made him grind, or they forced him to grind, but he did grind in the prison house: And it is so much the more obfervable, because all the injuries done to him before named, are expreffed by a force put upon him; they took him, they put out his eyes, they brought him down to Gaza, they bound him with fetters; and if this laft,

had