Evil daies.

I here take the word evil in a good sense, that is, not for the evil of sin, but the evil of misery, the fruit of sin. I know there be them that would have this word, if not the whole Allegory, understood of such daies and years as wicked men, by [Page 16] their giving themselves up to follow their own hearts lusts with greediness, do vo­luntarily bring upon themselves; but it seems to me to be otherwise, and that chiefly from these two reasons: 1. Because I find nothing in the Allegory that is not competible to every particular person that lives to the time of this state, both to the good and bad, both to the righteous and the wicked; Weaknesses, infirmities, di­seases both of body and mind attend them all: Isaac, Jacob, Eli, David, as well as those who lead never so contrary lives, must bear the burden of their age, if they live to the time. It is most certainly true, a course of wickedness doth wonderfully ha­sten both old age, and death it self. The wicked man shall not live out half his daies; Psal. [...]5. 23. nor shall he keep off decrepitness half the time; Pro. 5. 9 his honour shall be given away, and his years unto the cruel. And be­side the hastening of these evils, he doth in­finitely augment them both for number & quality, he shall have a thousand fold more, and a thousand fold greater: Every sore shall be a Plague, and every ach shall be an hell unto him; but this is not the conditi­on in this Text described, but the declen­sion of mans life as a man; and that from this second reason drawn from the Context▪ [Page 17] when I look immediately before the de­scription I find youth, mentioned: Remem­ber thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth. when I look immediately after it, I find death, described, The dust shall return to the Earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God that gave it. Now as youth and death, are appointed for all living, without any discrimination of him that sweareth, or him that feareth an oath, as terms à quo, and ad quem, of their pilgrimage; so this state also, as an intermediate stage, is as certainly appointed to them all, unless it please God before that constituted time, to give them a deliverance by immature dis­solution. It is said of Old Age,

Though this state be never so much desired of men, yet when it comes, it brings along with it abundance of all manner of evils, as the following Discourse will sufficiently make appear, and therefore may well be called, an evil state.

But here I must needs meet with this most obvious objection: Prov [...]. Is not Old Age a great blessing from God, Gen. 15. 15. and are not gray hairs an honour, Gen. 25▪ 8 do not you call that evil, which [Page 18] God calls good? Judg. 8. 31. How often in Scripture is it said, 1 Chron. 29. 28. A good old age, and counted as a priviledge? I must needs therefore here distinguish of old age; and consider it in a threefold state. First, Crude, green, and while it is yet in the beginning, while men are able to do business, and go about their employments, and this is but one little remove from manhood, and doth imme­diately border upon it. The second is, full, mature, or ripe age; when men begin to leave off their employments, and betake themselves to retiredness; when God hath no more work for them, and they have no more strength for him; or lastly, extream sickly, decrepit, overgrown old age; in which it may be truly said, Job 30. 2. Old Age is perished; when their breath is corrupt, when their daies are extinct, and the grave is ready for them: Job 17. 1. And this only is the state the Wise man here so Rhetorically describes. And that age which is so often called good, I take to be the second be­fore mentioned state; and so much the ra­ther, because in most places where it is said, they dyed in a good old age, it is also added, and full of daies; by which I un­derstand, not a fulness of possibility, that they lived so long, as from the princi­ples of their Composition, they could not [Page 19] have lived any longer; but a fulness, as I may so say, of satiety; they had enough of living, they lived as long as living was good, they lived to a full, ripe, and ma­ture age; such an one as would force them, to be of the mind with him in the Fable, to refuse immortality in this present life; and earnestly to desire it in a better. Tithonus▪ There is an excellent illustration of this in the speech of Eliphaz, wherein he sets down the special Providences of God towards them that fear him, and are bette [...]ed by Correction; Job 5. 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like a shock of corn in its sea­son: Now if a shock of Corn stand very long in the field, it sheds, and is spoiled, and the season of it is as well lost, as if it had been taken in too green. Jacob, most certain it is, died in this good old age as well as others; yet he himself saith unto the King, a little before he died, that the dayes of his years were few, and he had not attained the dayes of the years of his Fathers in their pilgrimage. Gen. 47. 9.

Had St. 2 Tim. 4. 6, 7. Paul departed when he had fought the good fight, finished his course, & kept the faith, and was ready to be offered; he had surely dyed in a good old age, al­though his pulse had not then beaten above threescore years▪ Now, most certain it is, [Page 20] that the arriving at this state is one of the greatest outward blessings that man is ca­pable of in this life. Nor dare I say other­wise, if it should please the Lord to protract the life of man to the extreamest point it is capable of; If he should withhold his hand from pushing down the house which he hath made, and let it fall to decay upon its own principles, his forbearance would be the greater, its fall would be the lesser; however in the mean time, it would stand most ruinate, deformed, useless, and in­cumbred with infinite inconveniencies, that it was never lyable to before; ‘He [...] quam continuis, & quantis, longa senectus, plena malis.’ But this is not all, it is not only an evil age, but there is no pleasure in it; As there is no condition that frail mortality is capable of so good, that hath not a participation of evil; so there is scarce any condition so evil, that is not attempered with some good; but this seems to be excluded from such a mercy as this. Prov 31. 1 [...]. It is said of a good Companion, she will do a man good, and no harm all the daies of her life: But contrariwise, it may be inverted concerning this bad and morose Companion, she will do a man evil, and no [Page 21] good, so long as she continueth with him.

I have no pleasure in them.

I take pleasure here also in the best sense, not for any sinful content whatso­ever, not for the lusts of the flesh, 1 Joh. 2. 16. the lusts of the eyes, or the pride of life; but for those lawful pleasures and repasts both of body and mind, that the nature of man, while able, might comfortably have sola­ced her self in. The mind of man busi­ing it self, and taking contentment in the speculation of natural causes, the body of man in all its outward senses, in all its in­ternal appetites, sporting and refreshing it self in all proper and peculiar objects; but no such refreshments as these in old age; which is a principle so well known to be true, and so much rooted in the judgment of men; that the news to the contrary (though brought immeditely from God himself) did, at the first, startle, and put a very hard stress too, upon the faith both of the Mother, and Father of the Faithful. Plea­sure in old age, (and to such persons who were as good as dead, and with whom it had ceased to be after the manner of men and women) was such an incredible thing, as both Sarah and Abraham laughed at the [Page 22] news; which laughter, as it might proceed partly from a confident affiance upon the Word of God, and a contentation there­upon, Gen. 17. 15, 16, 17. (as is usually said,) so partly with­out all doubt, from that reluctancy they found in themselves, Gen. 18. 11. and those heart-ri­sings, and internal arguings against the re­ception of those joyful tydings; the spirit indeed was ready, but the flesh was weak. And this will sufficiently appear in the Text, from the grounds of their laughing, their reasoning thereupon, and from the Lords answer to them both, and what pains he takes, and what arguments he useth fur­ther to perswade them, that it should be so indeed as he had promised.

There is a learned Commentator saith upon the word [...] here translated plea­sure: Lorinus. Hebraea vox non modo voluptatem, sed etiam negotium quodlibet opusve significat; The original word, saith he, signifieth work and business, Eccl. 3. 1. as well as pleasure. And so indeed it doth, and may very well do in this place. When decrepit age is come, a mans work is at an end, he is able to do no more. Eccl. 9. 10 Solomon saith, there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou art going: Now o [...]d men are very near it; our English Proverb is, They have one foot in the grave; [Page 23] they have no more work to do, their course is finished, and their time of departure is at hand.

The Sun.

By the Sun, I understand here the most superiour power of the rational part of the soul of man, that primary light of the understanding, that doth at once both re­ceive the species as they are communicated from the Imagination, and also render them intelligible to the mind; that pure innate light of the mind, without which no man that comes into the world, can ei­ther apprehend what is from without trans­mitted to him, or actuate any of those phantasmes which are already impressed. This we may see illustrated by the light of the body, which is the eye: For in the eye [Page 32] there could be no perception of any out­ward object, unless there were an inward implanted light in the proper Organ, which doth both dispose it to receive the visible species, and render them proportionable to the Organ, giving them thereby actual re­presentation. Now that which this im­planted light of the eye doth in vision; the same doth this Sun of the soul in the understanding. Prov. 20. 27. This is that which in Scripture is so often called the Spirit, or the spirit of the mind. And sometime in a distinction from the soul, as where it is said, Eph. 4. 23 I pray God your whole spirit, soul and body may be preserved blameless to the com­ing of our Lord Jesus. 1 Thes. 5. 23. Now, because this is a difficult poynt, and hath gravelled most undertakers, I will give one Essay more, and that from Scripture-light, which hitherto may not have been taken notice of, to the present purpose; It is said, The Word of God is quick and powerful, Heb. 4. [...]2 and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joynts and the marrow. Among many other truths this place doth afford us this for one; That it is very diffi­cult to divide or distinguish between the soul and the spirit, because there is an in­timate Communion and Conjunction [Page 33] between them; such an one, as in some measure bears proportion with that, which is between the joynts and the marrow. Now because this latter of the parts of the body, (though hard in it self,) yet is far easier to be understood, then that former of the parts of the mind, let us well con­sider this, and possibly it may give us some light to the other. The joynts are the turning places of the body, upon which all the actions of the limbs are performed, and therefore they are articulated several waies, according as the position, alteration, motion of the adjacent parts do require; these are the most visible acting parts of the body; The marrow (by which we are to understand not the medulla ossium, the marrow of the bones; but the medulla spi­nalis, the marrow of the back; for this hath much more intimate communion and conjunction with the joynts than the other hath,) is the apprehending and instructing part of the body, that which carries the impressions of external objects to the in­ward sense, and reconveys the mandates thereof to the members of the body, to be put in execution upon the joynts. D. Willis, c. [...]9. Ejus munus est spirituum copias & motuum obe­undorum instinctus extra deferre, atque sensibilium impressiones intus convehere; this [Page 34] is the secret inward influencing part of the body. In like manner, the soul is the most apparent active part of the mind of man, whereupon all its operations, both specula­tive and practical, are turned and perform­ed; of which there is a particular account given in the explication of the following word: but the Spirit is a more mysterious, and hidden power, that doth most secret­ly, and undiscernably, both gather up those intimations that come from without; and also give forth an effectual influence upon the whole inward man, to put all its well regulated Commands in execution upon the soul: Both which offices of this Sun ( viz. both of reception from the outward senses, and actuation of the inward) is ve­ry clearly expressed in that speech of Zo­phar unto Job; I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my under­standing causeth me to answer. As if he had said, I have received through mine ears the sound of my reproach, and an answe­rable impression is made upon my spirit; and the same spirit also hath drawn forth my understanding into act, towards the formation and production of an answer. And this is the constant manner of the ope­ration of mans understanding; this is also that part of the mind, which Aristotle, and [Page 35] all his followers, meant by their Intellectus agens; this is that Candle of the Lord, or light within them, which the unsound Teachers of old, Pelagi [...] and those more innocent ones of late, would have to be a sufficient guide to everlasting life: But if it be so, it will be good hearkening to it, while it doth remain in its strength; for this Sun also, as years come on, doth certainly decline, and great must that declension be. For if the light of the body, Luk. 11. 34. which is the eye, be darkness, great must that darkness be; much more surely if the light of the soul, which is the Sun, be darkned, how ex­ceeding great must that darkness needs be: Indeed, there must be a defect in the whole understanding, when this primum mobile can scrace act any longer; and therefore it is, that the Apostle speaks concerning the spiritual understanding, alluding therein unto the natural; Eph. 4. 1 [...] Having their understand­ing darkned, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. When there is ignorance to receive, and blindness to guide, in this principal faculty, all those which are thereby acted, must certainly be weakned, as the next word doth clearly import.

The Light.

By the light therefore, I understand all those more inferiour powers of the rati­onal part of the soul of man, that are any way set on work by vertue of the principal Agent; which is an efflux from the before mentioned Sun; the Possible understand­ing also, in all its operations participates in like manner of this state of weakness. Now the operations of mans understand­ing are various, both ad extra, in respect of the Objects; and ad intra, in respect of the will.

The first, are speculative, the last, are practical. The first (whereby the under­standing is conversant about things as they have in their own nature a distinct being) are principally three. The first is percep­tion, or the simple apprehension of an ob­ject, from the immediate impression there­of by the ministry of the before-menti­oned Sun. The second is Composition, or Complexion, whereby we try, and weigh the particulars that we have before received, and compound, and divide, joyn, and separate one thing from another, as may be most convenient for the improve­ment of them, to their appointed ends. The third is, reason, or discourse, where­by [Page 37] we gather up to our selves somewhat farther than we understood before, and make our selves masters of a new and bet­ter knowledge, which the things themselves received, as in themselves, could not ad­minister.

The last (whereby the understanding is conversant about things as they are good or evil) may also be reduced to three. The first is Conscience, which is a reflection of the understanding upon a mans actions, to­gether with a sentencing them to be good or evil, according to those unquestionable principles which are already received. This is the search which the Candle of the Lord makes in the lower part of the belly. Prov 2 [...] ▪ 27. The second is direction, or judgment, whereby the understanding▪ doth propose an end to be desired and prosecuted, the execution of which, that is, the resting satisfied in, and desiring of that end, is that which Morallists ascribe to the will, and term [...]. The third is Consultati­on, or [...], the reasoning about the means to attain that end, together with an Inquisition and Collation of several means among themselves, and an election of those which are most proper, the embra­cing of which, and putting them in execu­tion, is that which they call [...].

[Page 38] Now these, and all the operations of the rational soul, however they may be distinguished, have in this state an answera­ble imbecillity. Be a man never so appre­hensive, be he never so ingenious, be he never so rational, be he never so conscien­cious, be he never so judicious, be he ne­ver so prudent; when his Sun begins to set, and his light to decline, he must be­come weak as another man, nay, weak as a child. And this the Author of our de­scription here, though he so well knew it, and foresaw it, yet was not able to prevent it in himself, but found his own words sad­ly verified in his own condition. For it came to pass when Solomon was old, that his Wives tu [...]ned aw ay his heart after other Gods; 1 Kings 11. [...]. he that for understanding surpassed all men, since God gave unto him wisdom more than to any man, before him, or since, to this very day; And for light of Conscience also, V. 5, 7. since the Lord had ap­peared to him twice, yet, when he was old, he fell to such irrational, [...]ottish, senseless abominations, and that only by the [...]e­duction of women, as nothing but the frail­ty of age could possibly have given way unto.

Now as the soul is, by reason of age, weakned in the directing part, which [Page 39] usually is called, the understanding; so also in the executing part, which usually is cal­led, the will. Old men when they do ap­prehend an end, and the means to attain it, they haesitate about prosecuting the man­dates of the mind, and stand for the most part timorously and child-like at, shall I, shall I. I find one Commentator upon the place say, Non fruitur libero arbitrio. Lorin [...]. There is not a ready embracing, nor a free acting towards the attainment of what is by the understanding first dictated. Farther yet, old men are very easily drawn off, and lead aside from their own intentions, every weak suggestion is too strong for them, and takes them Captive at pleasure; and as our Saviour said to Peter, though in ano­ther sense, so may it be said to every one who shall live to the time, When thou wast young, thou girdest thy self, Joh 2 [...]. 18. and walkedst whither thou wouldest, but when thou shalt be old, another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not: A man shall not then be master of his own actions, but be very liable to the seductions of whomso­ever shall beset him.

And thus by these two words, the Sun, and the Light, you perceive is meant, the whole rational soul, with all its powers and operations, as it may be found exercising [Page 40] it self both inwardly and outwardly. And though here be two words more signifi­cantly set down, for the fuller and clearer manifestation of what is here intended, yet it might have been expressed (though not so plainly) by one word only. And there­fore it is, that the Syriack Translation, and some followers of it, have only the Sun expressed: Antequam Sol obtenebrescetur: for the Sun may signifie, not only that light which is contained within its own bo­dy, but all those Emanations that illumi­nate whatsoever is thereby enlightned. And the womans Candle in the Gospel, by which she found her groat, might signifie, not only the light in the Candle it self, (which answereth here to the Sun,) but all the light in every part of the room also, (which answereth here to the light.) And thus we find the greater light, which rules the day of man, to be darkned; the lesser, which rules the night, is that which followeth.

The Moon.

By the Moon we must understand that other part of the soul of man, which is not in it self rational, [...], Aliquo tamen modo rationis particeps. I confess, reason may in man have some [Page 41] influence upon it, but in its own nature it is altogether devoid of it; it is that part of the soul which is usually called sensitive, and is common to all other animals as well as unto man; and in him is but the lesser light, and ruleth but the darker part only, and therefore may be most aptly ex­pressed by the Moon. It is conversant principally about those species which are communicated to it, from the outward senses; the operations about which are either simple, or compound: The simple operations are first to receive them as they are communicated from without, and then to retain them for so long time as it is ex­ercising it self about them. Secondly, To di­judicate them as they are in themselves, and to discern them as they differ from all other whatsoever. The Compound ope­rations are excellently described by a mo­dern Author of our own; who saith, Dr. Rey­nolds up­on the fa­culties, p. 24. that the liberty of the Imagination is threefold, Either Composition, or new mixing of ob­jects; Translation, or new placing of them; Creation, or new making them. Now all these, or whatsoever else may be com­prehended within the compass of the pure sensitive part of the soul, are but the ope­rations of one faculty, and therefore by one word, are most fitly here expressed. [Page 42] And though the Philosophers have usually distinguished them into more, as into the common sense, the Phansie, both Estima­tive, and Cogitative; yet really and truly they are but one: for as one superiour fa­culty in the superiour part of the soul, which is the understanding, could both re­ceive, compound, and collect, as you heard before; what hindereth but the same may be done in the same manner in the inferi­our? And we are not to multiply faculties without necessity: Beside the ground of their variety is not to be admitted. For they supposed the operations about their objects to be divers, attributing perception and discerning to the common sense only, dividing and compounding to the Phansie.

Now the phansie doth as well perceive and discern, nay, better too, than the common sense doth; and the common sense may be said to compound, and divide, as the phansie doth: Therefore some, more quick sighted of late, perceiving this ground not sufficient, that they might be sure to uphold Aristotles division of the inward senses, have found out another way, and say, that the common sense is conversant about a present object only, the Phansie about that which is absent; but this seems as [Page 43] weak as the former, and that according to the Peripatetick Doctrine; forasmuch as the Phansie is conversant about an object only while present with it; Indeed it can detain it a while, untill it have done its work about it; so can [...] common sense also; And it can receive it again after it is passed away, and [...] upon it anew, but for this it must be beholding to the me­mory, and can do nothing upon an object by its own strength, but while it hath it present with it. I argue this, only to shew that they are but one faculty, and there­fore by this one word, viz. the Moon, they are both represented: which (as the more superiour powers of the soul, and all the members of the body,) hath in this state of weakness its answerable declensi­on. I confess, with Aristotle, Arist. de anima, lib. 3. if an old man had a young mans eye, he would see as well as a young man; but I deny that, which I suppose he meant by it, that is, that he would perceive and discern as well as a young man, unless he had a young mans internal faculty also. It is one thing, to see, it is another thing, to know that a man sees, and to distinguish what colour, and what figure he sees. As age brings a weakness upon the outward sense, so that they can­not see, so also upon the inward, that they [Page 44] cannot discern could they see; And this is most significantly expressed by old Barzil­lai, when King David would have had him, to feed him at his own Table; I am this day, 2 Sam. 19. 35. saith he, fourscore years old, and can I discern between good and evil? Can thy servant taste what I eat, or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men, and singing women? He first expres­seth his inward decay, I cannot discern; and then his outward, I cannot taste, nor hear. It is proper to the outward sense, to taste and hear; but it appertains to the in­ward, to know whether the objects both of tasting and hearing, and of all the other outward senses, be good or evil. And thus old Isaac was imposed upon, not only in respect of the dulness of his outward senses, (all five of which are mentioned in that one Chapter, where his younger Son is said to come with subtilty, Gen. 27. and take away the blessing,) but chiefly in respect of the weakness of his inward sense, where­in he was most mistaken; for he discerned him not. Ver. 22. And thus you have the lesser light, that rules the night of man darkned, as well as the greater, that rules the day; that which is subservient to them both, is that which followeth.

The Stars.

By the Stars, I understand, [...], All those species whatsoever, either rational or Imaginary, that (like the Stars in their Orb) stand fixedly treasured up in the memory. Now the Stars do not pro­perly pertain either to day or night, but are distinct Luminaries from the Rulers of the day and night, and subservient to them both; and do communicate both day and night, to all inferiour bodies, of their in­fluences, and also of their light; for al­though the greater light of the Sun in the day time doth cause them to us to disap­pear, yet they are still shining, as is suffi­ciently demonstrated in the Eclipse of the Sun, when that greater light is darkned; or in the narrow and long contraction of the visible species, either by art, in glasses, or naturally, if a man stand at the bottom of a deep and narrow well; then will the Stars give their light apparently at noon day. In like manner, all the species and representations of things that are past, whe­ther they are the product of the day or night, that is, as you have heard, either of the understanding, or of the Phansie, are treasured up in one single faculty of the memory. And that the Stars have be­longed [Page 46] only to the night, hath not been a more common mistake among the Vulgar; then that the memory belongeth only to the Imagination, hath been among the Learned. And therefore they have much troubled themselves, and confounded others, in finding out another receptacle of the intelligible species, which they call Re­miniscency or Recordation; as though one and the same faculty were not able to re­tain the species that are of a dive [...]s nature; the ground of this mistake hath principally risen from this; that they have given more unto the memory, than properly doth be­long unto it, in that they have assigned un­to it three operations, viz. Reception, Retention, and Rendition; that this fa­culty doth not only keep, what is commit­ted to it, (which indeed it doth most faith­fully,) but that it doth also take into cu­stody, that which it keeps; and deliver it up again, when called for; hereby making the memory, both Candus, and Promus, of the things therein contained, and giving unto it such a power, as many Noble men to their Butlers, whereby they become more Masters of what is contained in their Cellars than they that made them. Now if we will divide aright, and give unto the memory that which is its; and unto the [Page 47] understanding and imagination that which is theirs; we shall soon understand how species of a divers nature, whether sensi­tive or intelligible; more or less spiritual­lized; and diversly circumstantiated, in respect of time, or place, or whatsoever else may alter them; may easily be con­tained within the same faculty without multiplication. Say we, that the under­standing and imagination as they make their several species, so also they take them, and they lay them up in the me­mory, as they are by them altered or cir­cumstantiated; and as they have occasion to make use of them, they look for them, and find them treasured up in the same na­ture, order, and manner, that they put them in; and from thence they themselves take them out again: The memory in the mean time doing nothing at all, towards either the receiving them, or delivering them up, but only exercising its passive power in the keeping of them; which keeping also is nothing else, but the du­ration of that impression (without any act, or endeavour, or knowledge, on the part of the memory) which the more su­periour faculties make; The Memory be­ing most truly that, which Philosophers have usually said of the Will, Caca pot [...]ntia; [Page 48] keeping those things committed to its charge, with no more knowledge, or action, than the Wax doth the Impression, or the Paper the writing theron made, or the Cof­fer the Treasure therein reposited: Which being so, it may easily contain things of a divers nature, and as much diversified in respect of circumstances, as the superiour faculties can possibly make them. The same Coffer may easily preserve the Gold of one man, and the Silver of another, till they each of them come, and take their own goods again. And thus we under­stand, that the power of this faculty in man is only passive, and its only work is to retain those things that are committed to its charge; which work it performs with great trust, so long as man abides in strength, but as he declines in age, so also doth this faculty in its use; not only un­faithfully and confusedly retaining the Ima­ges that are made upon it, but oftentimes letting them slip.

And as it is said, concerning the greater [Page 49] World, when it shall draw towards its end, The Sun shall be darkned, Mat. 24. 29. and the Moon shall not give her light, and the Star [...] shall fall from heaven, and all the powers of the hea­vens shall be shaken; so also may it as well be said in that Worlds Epitomy, Man: As he shall draw towards his end, his under­standing shall be darkned, his Imagination shall be weakned, and withhold its light, and those things that were fixed in the Memory shall fall from thence, and all the powers of the mind shall be broken; And this is that which to me seems the true meaning of this second Verse.

And hence we may gather how sad mans condition must needs be in this last age of his, in respect of his mind. The diseases and symptomes which do necessarily arise from the darkning of these Luminaries are these which follow. Mentis imbecillitas, hebetudo, stupiditas, fatuitas; [...], ( i.e.) stultitia, tarditas ingenii, judicii defectus; [...], ( i.e.) amentia, melancholia, desipi­entia, memoria imminuta, abolita. And these proceed from the darkning of the several and particular lights; there are others also incident to age that shake all the powers of the heavens at once, and they are Vertigo, Carus, and Apoplexia. And these are the miserable attendants of this [Page 50] feeble state, which is so much the more to be lamented, by how much the less it is to be helped. Sad are the infirmities before mentioned in any age, and most difficultly do they receive their cure; but in this they admit of none at all. Some means may be by Physicians used for the proroguing of them, and keeping them off for a time; and for the mitigation of their violent assaults, but for the total preventing, or the absolute curing, let no man living hope for.

And this the ensuing Proverb doth suf­ficiently confirm.

Nor the clouds return after the rain.

Having before shewed, that the prece­dent words do not signifie the infirmities of the eyes, I need say no more, to shew that these do not intimate the rheums or distillations from the eyes or head, falling upon any of the subjected parts. It will be enough plainly to declare, that these words signifie, that the miseries and infir­mities of old age, do uncessantly and una­voidably succeed one upon another, as the showers in April. And they are placed here in the midst between the descriptions of the infirmities of the mind which pre­ceded, [Page 51] and those of the body which im­mediately follow; as having reference to them both. Whereby we must under­stand, that all the infirmities that apper­tain to this state, whether they be those of the mind, or those of the body, do im­mediatly follow one upon another, and one Paroxysme upon another, and that without remedy. Nubes post imbrem, is a known Adagy, signifying, the speedy succession of miseries upon miseries; as on the contrary is signified joy and happiness, after afflicti­on, by that Proverb, Post nubila Phoebus. The infirmities in this Allegory mentio­ned, if they shall at any time fall upon a man in any other age, may possibly be eased: And if so, there is good hopes that they may be kept from redintegration, or ever returning more; but in this age no such hopes; if their violence may possibly be for a time remitted, yet they will as certainly return again, as the clouds after a rain in a rainy season. Now when the weather is (as we usually say) set in to rain, it is wonderful to see, how quick the clouds will rise and ride one after another, and every one, the smallest of them, pour down rain upon the earth beyond all expectation. And if there shall be any small interval between shower and shower, [Page 52] and the Sun at any time begin to peep out between the clouds, it is soon darkned again; and the clouds return thicker and blacker, and the showers greater and lon­ger, than they were before. This is a most lively representation of the infirmi­ties of the decrepit age of man; wherein as deep calls unto deep, Psal. 42. 7 so one grief, pain, weakness upon another, untill all the waves and billows thereof are gone over him.

And if nature shall be able at any time to gather up her self, and unite all her force, to give a glimmering light through the darkness that oppresseth her; yet it cannot long continue, but a greater dark­ness will presently succeed, as it is in the light of a Candle, which is almost consu­med in its socket; sometime some light appears, then presently it is darkned again, and some such interchanges may be for a season made, but it will grow darker and darker, until at length it be quite extin­guished. And that wonderful redintegra­tion of the sight and teeth of the old Mini­ster in Yorkshire (like all those lightnings before death,) was but the last and utmost [Page 53] endeavour of perishing nature, Et quasi m [...]x emoriturae lucernae supremus fulgor. If old Jacob shall be able to strengthen him­self, G [...]n 48. 2. and sit up in his bed, at the news of his Sons approach to visit him; yet his weakness must return again, and he must lye down in his bed again, and again, until at length he lye down in the grave.

If Art shall be able to contribute any thing to the present allay of any of the mi­series of this state, yet they will surely and unavoidably return again; if seeing de­lightful objects, or beloved friends, if hearing of news, or pleasant discourse, or melodious musick; if the pratling of Grandchildren may give any divertisement or refreshment to the mind: if a more su­table air, convenient bathings, unctions, or frictions; Gen. 2 4. if an easier bed, if savory meat, or delightful wine, or any thing else, outward, or inward, that Art can find out, may give any ease or refreshment to the body, yet the comfort of them will be but for a small season, and the former troubles will certainly return again.

If a young Virgin, lying in Davids bo­some, shall cherish him a while, and ad­minister that heat and comfort to him that Cloaths could not do, yet it must be but for a time, 1 Kin 3. and David must grow cold, and [Page 54] chill, and comfortless again, and that more and more, until he be taken into the house of all living. And this is the great misery that attends all the miseries of this misera­ble state, that they are altogether incurable; and though some refreshment may some­time seem to interpose for a season; yet they will all most certainly return again, as the clouds after the rain.

The keepers of the house shall tremble.

I could willingly consent to those, that by this expression would have the ribs to be meant, were the predicate as applicable as the subject; the Thorax doth most sa [...]e­ly keep, and excellently well defend the principal parts therein contained. And [Page 56] Job speaks of the fence of the bones, Job 10. 1 [...]. as of the sinews: Thou hast fenced me with bones and with sinews, but how they shall be said to tremble, is not to be made appear; for­asmuch as experience doth sufficiently confirm, that they stand as fixed in old as in young, and more fixed too. And in­deed their Articulation, both to the Ster­non, and also (and especially) to the Ver­tebrae of the back, is such, that they ad­mit of very little and obscure motion, but not at all of this trembling. And there­fore we must find out some other parts of the body which are the constituted keepers of the house; And they certainly can be no other than the hands. Now the anato­mical hand contains not only the Carpus, metacarpus & phalanges digitorum, but the whole superiour artus; all those higher parts of the limbs that are divided from the trunk of the body, and therefore it is well divided in brachium, cubitum, & extremam manum. And these are they which most properly are stiled the keepers or defen­ders of the house; and that which makes it the more unquestionable is, because they answer so directly to the strong men, as it follows in the next words. And these hands and arms do several waies keep and defend the house. And there is nothing [Page 57] more frequent in Scripture than the ex­pressing of defence by the power of the hands and arms; when Jacob blessed his Son Joseph, he spake how he was defen­ded from them that beset him, and saith, His bow abode in strength, the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. Gen. 49. 24. And as if there were no other way of expressing preserva­tion, defence, and deliverance, these mem­bers are almost alwaies mentioned, and most frequently attributed to God himself; They got not the Land into possession by their own sword, Psal. 44. 3 neither did their own arm save them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, because thou haddest a favour for them. And if there be any impotency in the hands and arms, a man is no longer able to defend himself; Job hath a most remarkable ex­pression to confirm this truth; If ever he used his defence and help to oppress the Fatherless, he wisheth that now he might be left altogether helpless, and that his de­fenders might be taken from him, or ren­dred wholly unserviceable to their ends; If I have lift up my hand against the father­less when I saw my help in the gate, Job 31. 21, 22. then let my arm fall from my shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone. Beside this, they may be said to keep the house, in that [Page 58] they provide for it, getting maintenance for the whole body, for by working they get bread. 2 Thes. 3. 10. Acts 20. 34. Paul saith, These hands have ministred to my necessities. And as they do defend the house, and provide for it; so also they do offend whomsoever would hurt it; they do not only get, but protect, and also keep off the adversary. And all this was done at once by the power of the hands of the Jews in their great necessity, when they were rebuilding the Temple, their hands were throughly filled, and em­ployed in a double defence; For they which builded on the wall, Neh. 4. 17 and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one, with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. Now such, through the wisdom of God, is the dexterity of the hand, that it can employ a weapon to be a better defence to a man, than whatsoever is naturally allotted to any creature beside. And that audacious Carper at the works of God (who complained that other Crea­tures had naturally a defence given, and man only left weaponless) was sufficiently silenced, when it was told him; Man had reason and hands, which together, can make a better defensive or offensive wea­pon for him, than all the horns, and hoofs, the tusks, and talens, or whatsoever nature [Page 59] hath more largely lent to other Creatures, can do for them. And if we throughly consider the fabrick of these parts, accord­ing unto what Anatomy doth give sufficient light unto, we shall yet farther be convin­ced of the truth of this matter. If we consider on the part of the bones, first the Scapula, and take notice that it is seated in the strong part of the back, with free­dom of motion in its place, in which it is contained by the Clavicle, and with great advantage of moving the arm which way soever it pleaseth; that it is formed with its basis, angles, [...]ibs, processes, Cavi­ties, for the better seat of the muscles, and command of them to their appointed Ser­vices; that it is articulated to the humerus per Arthrodiam, wherein the Cavity is im­proportionate to the head of the humerus, that the shoulder may thereby with greater facility and liberty admit of all manner of motion, which it could not possibly have done, had this articulation been any firmer and closer in it self. Now that this joynt may be kept from luxation, either from it self, or from any thing might fall upon it, to which it was very liable by reason of what was before said; It is sufficiently de­fended by a very thick, and nervous liga­ment; and by the broad Tendons of four [Page 60] great Muscles; which do so strictly com­pass about the joynt, that by its own mo­tion, though never so violent, it cannot be put out; and also by the Clavicle or ken­nel bone, which is so directly laid cross over it, that it defends it from all external violence whatsoever. Again, if we con­sider the humerus, its head, its neck, its pullyes, its Cavities, its Extuberances; If we consider the Cubitus, and the Ra­dius, and their divers articulation; the one being per ginglymum, which gives flection and extension with strength; the other per arthrodiam, which gives pronati­on and supination with ease. Lastly, if we consider the bones of the extream hand; and therein the eight bones of the Carpus, which are joyned to the Cubitus, and to the bones of the Metacarpus per arthrodi­am, among themselves per harmoniam, if we consider the four bones of the Meta­carpus, and their articulation to the fingers per Enarthrosin, the fifteen bones of the fingers, and their articulation among themselves, (for the firmer holding any thing in the hand,) per ginglymum. Now I cannot pass the thumb in the general name of the fingers, without a particular and special taking notice of it; forasmuch as that above all the rest both in its use, [Page 61] and also in its repute, may be said to con­tribute chiefly to the keeping of the house; for it is equivalent to all the fingers, and therefore in Latine is called, Pollex, à pol­lendo, being as it were an antagonist grasper to the whole hand, and doth as much to­wards the firm holding and dextrous using of a weapon as all the hand: And there­fore it is that idle persons, or effeminate men, or whosoever are unfit for service in war; are called polletrunci; as who should say, men that have not the use of their thumbs. And it was a Custome among the Nations, for the Conquerours to cut off the thumbs of the Conquered, thereby rendering them disgraced, and utterly un­able for future employments either at Sea or Land. And Scriptural Story also seems to confirm this in Adonibezek, who said, Threescore and ten Kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table, as I have done, so God hath requited me. Judg. 1. 7. Thus far on the part of the bones. Again, if we consider on the part of the Muscles; how they are variously shaped and formed according to their several uses, how they are perforated according to necessity, how they are seated to the best advantage, how they are to one another friends or antagonists, how they [Page 62] are derived from one part, and inserted into another, how much strength and vi­gour they have, how by their hormetick power and contraction into their own bo­dies, they can readily perform whatsoever motion the Organ is capable of; they can stir the limb inward, outward; forward, backward; upward, downward; they can perform adduction, abduction; flexion, extension; pronation, supination, the To­nick motion, circumgiration; and all these with so great expedition and agility, that they are much sooner done than said, yea, as soon done as thought on; the actions of the Muscles keeping pace, nay, many times out-stripping the volubility of the mind: If we yet further consider them in their Tendons, and the variety of them, how they are either solid, plain, round, broad, long, short, one, many; or of whatsoever form may render them most expeditious in their motions; how they are strengthned by several Ligaments, especially that an­nulary Ligament in the Wrist.

I say, if we consider these wonderful things, wherein man differs from all other Creatures, and many others, which good skill in the anatomy of these parts would easily furnish a man with, all which would be too large here to insert; It would en­force [Page 63] us to say, that these of all the parts of man do most properly defend him, and may justly be stiled, the keepers of the house.

Now, that these may be said to tremble, needs no words to make appear, forasmuch as the experience of every old man doth sufficiently confirm it. Which word doth comprehend within it self all the weaknes­ses, infirmities, inabilities of these parts in this condition: Whether they be out­ward, as stiffness, contraction, rugosity; or inward, as aches, pains, numness, pal­sies, cramps, tremblings; yet notwith­standing it hath, in a more especial manner, relation to that grand symptome, that doth most certainly attend this condition; which is called, Tremor artuum, the con­tinual and unavoydable trembling of the hands and arms. Now, forasmuch as the last age of man is eminently above all others he passeth, the cold and the dry; it must needs incline him, and at last most certainly cast him into this distemper.

For these two qualities, and, for ought I understand, these alone, are the natural fathers of this trembling child. If we remember how going abroad in a bitter cold morning, how drinking a great deal of cold water, or swimming in the water; if we know how the use of Poppies, Hen­bane, [Page 64] Opium, the cold fit of an Ague, and other cold things, will easily set us a shaking; if we consider that long fastings, great evacuations, especially Venerial, which do most dry the Nerves, violent heat in Feavers, fluxing by the use of Quicksilver, immoderate sweatings in hot houses, or elsehow; do cause the same di­stemper; we shall be induced chiefly to attribute this terrible symptome, to these two deadly enemies of a well tempered Constitution, coldness and dryness; which are so contrary to the instruments of vo­luntary motion, whose life and vigour con­sists in radical heat and moysture; that they take off their strength, and render them unable to perform their duties, ma­king them so weak, that even the weight of the member they are to move, is now their equall Antagonist; for they going about to move the member as they usually had done, are resisted with equal force by the weight of that member; which causeth as it were a continual combate between the strength of the mover, and the weight of the moved, so that the Limb is alwaies drawn one way by that, and another way by this, which causeth a perpetual trembling of the keepers of the house; which is reckoned here as the first, and indeed is one of the [Page 65] most remarkable symptomes upon the bo­dy of man in this decrepit state.

The strong men shall bow themselves.

Having before treated of the infirmities of the superiour Limbs, he comes now to those of the inferiour; the keepers of the house being the hands, the strong men can be no other than the feet; now as the hand was divided before, so also is the anatomi­cal foot, containing not only tarsum, meta­tarsum, and phalanges digitorum, but also femur, tibiam, and extremum pedem; and as before I shewed, the beginning of the hand was to be accounted from the Scapula, so here I must also tell you, that the be­ginning of the foot is from the Os Iliuns [...] And those Muscles which are inserted into the thigh, and have their use for the mo­tion thereof; notwithstanding their origi­nation may be either from the back, (in­wardly as the chief flector the Psoas, or outwardly as the first extendor, Gloutaeus major,) or from the [...] Ilium, (as most other movers of the thigh have,) ought all to be accounted into the number of the strong men. And if we well consider the true nature of progressive motion, and firm station on the ground, we shall soon conclude, that the instruments of them [Page 66] both (which are none other than those we are treating of) are the best demonstrators of humane strength, and may more aptly than any other parts of the body be called the strong men. And this we may also have confirmed in the holy Writings of God; the strength of the legs, as the in­struments of motion, seem to be expressed by the Prophet, Psal. 147. 10. when he saith, He deligh­teth not in the strength of the horse, he ta­keth not pleasure in the legs of a man; their strength, as they are the instruments of firm station, is excellently expressed by the Spouse, when she saith concerning her Beloved; Cant. 5. 15. His legs are as pillars of marble. And as they are the Instruments of both, you have them notified in the Story of Pe­ters curing the lame man; Acts 3. wherein (as if the use of legs (both for standing and walking) and strength were Convertible terms, signifying the same thing; we have his cure once expressed by these words; Immediately his feet and his ancle bones re­ceived strength, V. 7, 8. and he leaping up, stood and walked; and presently after only by the word strength; Ver. 16. His name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong. I shall give but one instance more, and that most remarkable, having in it the great wisdom of God to express this thing; and [Page 67] that is the touch of the hollow of Jacobs thigh; Gen. 32. 25. when God would intimate to Ja­cob, his own weaknesse, and his inability to wrestle, and to prevaile with God and man by his own strength; he smites him in the thigh. Thus he dealt also with Paul, 2 Cor.12. 3. who least he should be puffed up with his Visions and Revelations of the Lord, (having been taken up to the third hea­ven, and so much spiritualized, that it was hard to say, whether he was in the body, or out of the body,) he had such a direct contrary infirmity laid upon him, that it might sufficiently take off all other men, from admiring him, and himself, from be­ing lifted up beyond what he ought to be; Lest any man should think of me above what he seeth me to be, Ver 6, 7. and that he heareth of me, and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelation, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the mes­senger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure; all occasions of glo­rying in his spirituality, was abundantly taken away, when he had a continuall me­mento of his carnal weakness, a thorn in the flesh. And thus also may Jacob, and all Jacobs children, for ever, be taken off from boasting in their own strength from his prevailing with God and man; since [Page 68] ever after he bare that most certain symp­tome of humane weakness, halting on his thigh, for when this part is once rendred un­serviceable, there can be no more strength to contend.

And the perfect conquest that Sampson got over the Philistines, whereby they were unable any more to resist, is expres­sed, He smote them hip and thigh. Ju [...]g. 15. 8. Beside, the Counsel which is given to Joshuah is worth our observing to this purpose, whereby he is taught to make the horses of the many Kings he should suddenly subdue, for ever more unserviceable, and yet to save their lives; Josh. [...]1. 6. Thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their Charets with fire. Whereby we may understand, that if the back sinew of an horse hind leg (wherein the great strength of these parts lyeth) be cut in sunder, he is made altogether as un­fit for service in the war, as the Charets that are burnt. I might further yet con­firm this truth by an Anatomical Enarra­tion of the several compounding parts of these limbs, but forasmuch as I did that be­fore, in the treating of the superiour Artus, I may the better omit it here; be­cause there is a very great similitude be­tween these parts and those spoken of be­fore; and what was there said of them, as [Page 69] unto the parts, and also unto the diseases, may for the most part be translated hither, and said of these. And it is the principal argument that induceth me to believe that we are in the right in our Interpretation of these two symptomes, because of the like­ness of the parts we are speaking of, and also of the terms to express them. It is well known to all those that take delight to search into the wonders of God in the frame of mans body, that the Shoulders, Arms, and Hands; and the Thighs, Legs, and Feet are very much alike; so also are these two expressions, the keepers of the house, and the strong men. The diseases also of these parts in Age are much-what the same, and so also are the words that here express them. For although we tran­slate the latter word, Shall bow themselves; yet the Vulgar Latine translate it, Nuta­bunt, shall nod or shake; and doubtless, the original words are of very near significati­on, so that the Syriac Translation, and the Chaldee Paraphrase upon these words differ very little or nothing at all, but translate them both to trembling or shaking. How­ever give me leave to take notice briefly of one or two things wherein these mem­bers differ from those before spoken of, and Wherein their strength and use is principal­ly made appear.

[Page 70] The bone of the thigh, is of all other bones of the body the biggest and the longest; and is called in Latine, Femur, à ferendo, because as a strong man it doth sustain and bear the whole weight of the body. It hath in the head of it three emi­nent processes; The first is the great and the round head, which is inserted into the large Cavity of the Hip, per Enarthrosin, which admits of all manner of motion, and there is detained by a double Liga­ment; the first is common, broad, thick, membranous, that doth strongly compass the joynt about, and the other is a round, and Cartilagineous Ligament, which pro­ceedeth out of the very head of the Fe­mur, and being inserted strictly into the Cavity of the Os Iscii, doth firmly hold this bone in its place, that it cannot be moved. The other two processes are cal­led, the Trochanters, the lesser, and the greater; whereby the Tendons of the Muscles moving the thigh, are more con­veniently seated, that they may the better wheel about that Limb to whatsoever po­sition they please. It hath mo [...]eover at the upper end a more slender part, which is called the neck of the Femur, which is so framed for the more convenient lodging of the Muscles, and passing of the Vessels, [Page 71] ( viz. the Arteries, Veins, Nerves,) for the use and benefit of the subjected parts. Its form also is most remarkable, in that it is on the external or forepart, gibbous or bunching outward; on the internal or hind part, simous or bending inwards, which frame doth wonderfully conduce to the conveniency of sitting, to the firmness of standing, and to the dexterity of walk­ing.

Lastly, It is articulated to the Tibia, per laxum ginglymum, which adds very much to the expedition in motion, and is of such a frame, that on the back part it leaves a most convenient hollow place, which we call Poples, the ham, for the passing down of the Vessels; and on the fore part it is wonderfully defended by the Patella, or knee pan, as by a shield, the form, and name of which, this bone doth continually bear. And it is so much the more to be observed, in that no such bone is in the superiour Artus, nor in the whole body besides; for it is articulated to no bone at all, but is kept in its place by a double Li­gament, the one inward, which is that round, bloudy Ligament, which firmly annexeth it to the thigh; the other out­ward, which is the Conjunction of the Tendons of the four Muscles which extend [Page 72] the tibia, which together make a broad Ligament that doth encompass the whole knee, and strongly bind it in its place; wherein it exceedingly conduceth to the defending of the joynt, over which it is placed. For that Articulation being loose in it self (as was before said) would be very apt to luxation in sudden and great flexures of the knee, or in going down steep places; were it not by this shield bone abundantly strengthned, and sufficiently defended from all those inconveniencies.

Moreover, the Conjunction of the Fi­bula, being otherwise than that of the Radius, which answereth it in the arm; is well worth our observation to our present purpose; the Radius of the arm is Arti­culated (as you have heard before) per Arthrodiam to the Humerus, which renders it more expeditious as to several motions, and therefore more properly a keeper of the house; but the Fibula is not at all Ar­ticulated to the Femur, but is affixed to the external part of the Tibia, and doth stand as it were an underprop to that, whereby they may joyntly with greater strength support the whole body, and be the more justly called, the strong men. There is yet one observation more from the Anatomy of these parts, that doth with great delight [Page 73] and content demonstrate, that those are the keepers of the house, and these the strong men, and that is from the variety of their flexures; the hand in all its several joynts, is bended one and the same way; the shoulder is bended inward, or foreward, and extended outward or backward; so also is the Arm, the Hand, the Fingers, and this is for the better apprehending and comprehending any thing, and using any defence; and therefore they are the kee­pers of the house: The foot is bended in its several joynts, several waies; one, one way; and another, another; the thigh is bended forward, the leg is bended back­ward; and again, the foot is bended for­ward, and the toes are bended backward; and this is for the greater coveniency of going, and for the firmer standing, and therefore these are the strong men.

We might yet further and principally confirm this thing, by the several forms and uses of the Muscles of these parts; for it is not so much great bones, nor great veins, nor a great deal of bloud or fat, that makes a man strong; but great, and strong, and eminent Muscles, they are the true in­dicators of strength. Now these parts of the body have bigger, stronger, and more raised Muscles than any beside; and by [Page 74] how much the higher the Tendons of the Muscles are raised, with so much the grea­ter strength must they needs perform their Offices, and so much the more declare the strength of a man; and therefore we have an ordinary observation, and a probable one, to judge of a mans strength, or weakness, by the elevation or depression of the Calves of his legs. I might also add many more observations of the like kind; but I desist, forasmuch as a good Anatomist can furnish himself with enough; and he that is none at all, can scarce under­stand these, when he is told.

And because the great strength of a man lyeth in these parts, therefore in his infirm and weak condition these parts must be more eminently feeble.

A Child before strength comes on, and an old man after his strength is depar­ted, must have but little use of these mem­bers. As it was said of Asa, In the time of his age, 1 Kings 15. 23. he was diseased in his feet; so may it be said of all who shall live to that time. Now, forasmuch as what was said before of the infirmities of the hands, may also be said of those of the feet, I shall chiefly refer you thither: However, because the word is here somewhat diffe­rently translated in our Language, and we [Page 75] have no reason to complain, forasmuch as it doth primarily so signifie; so that some have translated it, Pervertentur, others, Curvabuntur, and the Septuagint, [...]; I judge there is one grand symptome of age that in this place, and upon these parts is principally aimed at; and that is the per­vertion, crookedness, abbreviation, and alteration of the position, of the several joynts of these parts; and their inability of being reduced to a firm, strait, and to­nick posture, wherein the strength of a man doth wholly consist. And it is won­derful well worth our observation, that if a man at his best and stongest estate, should be kept in that bending posture, which age necessarily 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 Center of gravity is not equally poysed 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 rest. And therefore it is said of old men: Membra levant baculis; when these members are perverted in their joynts, and the tone of the Muscles is so much relax­ed, that they are unable to bring them to straitness again, there is great need of the [Page 76] support of a staff; for without it, there is an utter inability of going steadily, and standing strongly, which is the principal symptome intimated by the strong mens bowing themselves.

The grinders cease because they are few.

That there may in mans body be other grinding, than mastication, 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 present Discourse, 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 strong Compression against the former, and by its motion, makes the grinding; so that to it, there is necessary both these, viz. the firm stander, and the strong mover; the upper, and the nether milstone, as we have them often menti­oned in Scripture; Deut. 24. 6. now answerable 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 several bones, which among themselves, and to those ad­jacent [Page 77] are joyned either per suturam, or harmoniam, which admit of no motion at all, and therefore this stands firmly in its place, and is that immovable milstone up­on which the grinding is made; the nether Mandible is one single, hard, and strong bone, whose Articulation is very loose, for the greater liberty of motion; and it hath two or three pair of Muscles, especially the Temporal, which strongly bring it up­ward, for the closer acting against the other Mandible, and one wonderful pair of Muscles, called, the Masseters, and are de­rived from a double original, and beyond all others of the body whatsoever, have their several Fibres so crossing and inter­woven one with another, that they are se­verally inserted into this lower Mandible, and so are able to move it upward; to the right, to the left; forward, backward, and consequently round about, and so per­forming that action which we call Mastica­tion or chewing, and therefore this is that other movable milstone which makes the grinding.

Now out of both these, equally pro­ceed in the season of them a certain num­ber of small bones which we call the Teeth; which howsoever they may be numbred among the bones, yet they have [Page 78] one or two especial 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 so much as that common Membrane, called, the Periostion, which doth encompass all the bones of the body beside; and that is because they might the better atting one anothers 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 saith, Job 19. 20. I have escaped with the skin of my teeth; This is easily answered, if we con­sider the two parts of the Teeth, viz. the Basis, and the Radix; that, is the part which eminently appears white above the Gums; this, is that part which is within the Gums, and stands fixed in the Mandi­bles: Now by Jobs skin or covering of his teeth, it is apparent he meant the gums which cover the roots of the teeth; his sores, and his boyls were so great and ter­rible upon him, from the sole of his foot to his Crown, that there was no part of the skin of his body to be seen, but only about his teeth, which in all such Cutaneous diseases doth for the most part wholly escape.

[Page 79] The second is, they have the vessels which convey life and sense 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 en­creasing so long as man lives, so that what is worn away of them by their continual attrition and manducation; is dayly re­paired, otherwise they would grow shorter and smoother, and not be so able to per­form their work; and this is a wonderful piece of the wisdom of God in nature, which Art cannot possibly reach unto; and therefore because they cannot make their mills grow, as they dayly decay by grinding; they are fain to supply that want, by often pecking their milstones, and at length changing them; and by those means as it were renew their teeth, with­out which they were able to do nothing at all.

The last I shall mention is, that the teeth of all the bones of the body are the har­dest, and will suffer the least from any other bodies whatsoever, and therefore are the fitter for such a work as this. A mil­stone is of all other stones supposed to be the hardest, and therefore Job when he had expressed the hardness of the heart of [Page 80] the Leviathan by a stone; as if he had not said enough, he farther adds one degree more, yea, saith he, As hard as a piece of the nether milstone. These short observa­tions may suffice to teach us in the general, that the teeth also may be called the grin­ders. If we yet more particularly consi­der them, and how they may be divided, we shall have a farther light into this mat­ter. The teeth are of three kinds, either Incisores, Canini, or Molares: The first are the broad fore-teeth; the second are the next round teeth, which are usually called the eye-teeth; the last are the great double and hindermost teeth; the first, bite or cut the food; the second, break or bruise the food; the last, chew or grind the food. And this distinction also may be found in Scripture, the first are alluded to, where it is said, The Prophets bite with their teeth. Mic. 3. 5. The second, where it is said, He hath the cheek teeth of a Lion: Joel 1. 6. And both these, where it is said, There is a ge­neration whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives. Prov 30: 14. The last is alluded to, where it is said, While the flesh was yet be­tween their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people. Num. 11. 33. They had bit the flesh of the Quails, and had passed it from the first [Page 81] teeth, to the last, which are the grin­ders, and there it stuck till they died. And thus at length we are fallen upon the true, proper, and strict instruments of grinding; we have hitherto been shewing the whole frame of the mill, and how several parts do wonderfully contribute towards this work, and now we are come to those parts, wherein the close pinch of grinding lieth, and that is in the great, broad, and hinder­most teeth, which from the day of the writing of this Allegory, to this present time, have ever among Anatomists retai­ned the name of grinders.

And that not without exceeding good reason, for the form and figure of these, above the rest doth abundantly shew that these are the fittest of them all for this work; for these are bigger, larger, broader every way; especially at the top, where their form is much-what like to that of a mill, where also they have eminent asperities, & protuberances, exactly answerable to the roughness of the Milstones; by which the grinding is far more easily and perfectly performed; beside, these are more firmly inclavated, and infixed into the jaw bones, by treble, or quadruble roots; whereas all the rest are but by single, or double at the most; and being more strongly rooted, [Page 82] they are the fitter for more eminent ser­vices; Lastly, and chiefly, the experience of every man doth sufficiently confirm that this is the proper use of these teeth; and that the more solid food which needs greater manducation, cannot be sufficient­ly comminuated for chyle, or ground low enough for the stomack, untill these teeth have done this work upon it. And thus it is plain, that the jaws, and teeth, and emi­nently these last mentioned, are appositely and elegantly called the grinders; which how much service they do to man while usable, and how much detriment and loss they bring upon him when they cease from their use, is well known to all men. Strong meat belongeth to men of full age, Heb. 5. 14 saith the Author to the Hebrews. It be­longs to them, and only to them, because they alone, have, as I may so say, their mill in tune, their mouth full of strong teeth, and set directly one against another, whereby they may bring the strongest meat into a meet consistence, and a due prepa­ration for easie digestion in the stomack. But it may here be said, there are many Creatures that are not thus strongly armed, and have not so many teeth, nor those they have so well set, as your position supposeth they should be, for the due [Page 83] preparation of the meat; And these are the Sheep, the Goat, the Cow, the Deer, and all other Creatures that have teeth only on the lower Jaw, and none at all on the upper. These have no antagonist grin­ders, nor contra-acting milstones, and yet these Creatures in their full age, eat as solid food, and as hard of digestion, and withall, do as well with it, as they that are better provided in this respect; to this I must needs answer, it is very true, so that from hence we may take occasion to admire the wisdom of God in the various forma­tion of several Creatures, tending not­withstanding to the use and benefit of them all. However this in these Creatures is a want, and must have stood for a want, had they not been abundantly supplyed in an­other kind. For all those Creatures that are thus deficient in their teeth, and only those; are they which chew the Cud, which is a reassuming the food into the mouth, and a grinding of it a fresh the se­cond time, so that they are fain to do that at twice, and to be three or four times as long about it, as those creatures whose grin­ders are better placed; neither would this suffice alone, for if they should be chewing their meat all the day long with the teeth that they have, it would never be suffici­ently [Page 84] prepared for nourishment, were there not yet a farther preparation in their bodies for that purpose; and that is, that those Creatures, and only those, have a peculiar vessel in their bodies assigned for this work, and that is that which Anatomists call, Oma [...]um, and our Butchers, the Read; wherein the meat must be macerated for a certain season, and by the fermentum there­in contained, brought to such a Consi­stence, that afterwards by a little chewing in the mouth again, it may be committed to the stomack with the same hopes of suc­cess, that in other Creatures that are toothed on both sides, it is committed at the first: Now, man being in the number of these last mentioned, must for the due preparation of all strong food, trust alone to his grinders; so that the time of ab­lactation of the child, and of alteration of the diet of the old man, is most cer­tainly indicated by the beginning and cea­sing of the use of the Teeth; milk is fit for babes, before their teeth come; and old men when their teeth decay, Heb. 13. 14. are again become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

Now by the ceasing of the teeth we must understand, all those infirmities that are incident to them by reason of age, whe­ther looseness, hollowness, rottenness, [Page 85] brokenness, blackness, foulness, stench, wormeatenness, excrescency, or whatso­ever else may be any impediment to them in their use. But the chief symptome here in­tended is, the falling out, and consequently, the paucity of the teeth; which is gathered from the reason here annexed, Because they are few; which is very well translated in our Language, following the Vulgar Latine; Otiosae erunt molentes in minuto numero. For although the Original word do primarily signifie no more than because they are diminished, yet it must of necessi­ty be understood, in respect of their num­ber; for otherwise they are not diminished, but do grow so long as they remain in the head, even to the extremity of old age. But as age comes on, the natural moysture at the root of the teeth is consumed, and a preternatural is distilled thither in its room, which doth by degrees relax them in their sockets, and at length quite expell them: And when some of them are thrust out, and but a few left in, it is easie to conceive from what hath been said, how the chew­ing in the mouth ceaseth; yea, it ceaseth more, when the teeth are few, than when they are none at all. For then the Gums might act one against another, and, foras­much as they grow harder in old age, might [Page 86] do something weakly towards the chewing of the meat; but when they are few, they hinder those from working in the least, and having no antagonists (were they firm in the head which they are not) are not able to work themselves, and so the whole grin­ding ceaseth; which is a very great and most certain symptome of this state of weakness, and yet is neglected by our great Master of natural knowledge in this kind, Hippo. l. 3. Apho. ult. in his best enumeration of the diseases of age.

And those that look out of the windows be darkned.

That by this clear expression the eyes and the infirmities of them in old age, is intimated unto us, was never yet, and I perswade my self never will be, in the least measure doubted or questioned.

Forasmuch as they are the only true, and proper Organs of seeing; however, it will be well worth our labour to consider, how the eyes may be called, the lookers out of the windows. One may be said to look out of a window in a double sense, either when he looks through the glass of the window, and through the pellucidity of that most refined body, discerneth those things which are without; or when [Page 87] he looks through the open Casement, or through some open hole of the window, wherein there is nothing at all interposeth between him and the object. Now in both these senses may our interpretation well be made. For the Explication of it in the first sense, we must take notice of all those transparent parts, through which the vi­sible species must of necessity pass before vision can be perfected: For as a man could see nothing through a window, were it not made of glass, or of some body alike Diaphanous: So neither could he perceive any thing with his eye, were not the parts thereof, through which passage is made, of the very same nature. Now, the parts of the eye, through whose bodies the vi­sible species must pass that they may be discerned, are either the humours, or the Tunicles; The Humours are three, the wa­try, the Crystalline, and the glassie hu­mour, so called by Anatomists; and you may perceive by their names that the sub­stance of them all is Diaphanous; all which, howsoever they wonderfully differ among themselves, and several waies con­tribute to the use and benefit of the eye, and consequently are made variously in­strumental unto vision, yet they all agree in this one thing, that they are transparent; [Page 88] and that they must of necessity do, foras­much as into their bodies, and through their bodies, must the visible species pass, before they can perfectly be discerned by any man. And if one opacous, or dark­some body interposeth, they can go no further, but there they must determine their course.

The Tunicles or Coats, through which the sight is made, are only two, for al­though there are other Tunicles of the eye, which conduce wonderfully to the sight, (as you shall hear beneath,) yet those through which the species pass, are only the Tunica Aranea, and the Cornea. The first is so called from the similitude of a Spiders Web, because it is most fine and subtile, and being derived from the Brain and Optick Nerve, it becomes a most te­nuous vestment for the humours; and is so pellucid, and transparent, that among the Learned it bears the name of Specu­lum. The other is called, Sclerotica, or Cornea; and that is, that hard and horny Membrane, which being derived from the dura mater, encompasseth the whole body of the eye, without any perforation; and on the back part, behind the sight of the eye, is more obscure and dark; but on the forepart, is far more plain, polite, and [Page 89] diaphanous, that the species may pass through its body most pure and unaltered. And now I am come to that part of the eye, that doth most aptly resemble the glass of the window, by reason of which a man may be truly said to look through a window, and an old man, 1 Cor. 13. 12. to see through a glass darkly, without the use of Spectacles, which some would fain have here to be un­derstood; of whose opinion I cannot per­swade my self to be, because it is uncer­tain to me, whether those helps of nature were then, and there, in use: And most certain it is, that they are without the compass of the Allegory, and are not part of that house or body of man, whose de­cay is here so lively represented. Beside, this Tunicle hath the same use to man, in his perfect state, that Spectacles have in his imperfect. And this be confident of, that there is nothing that Art hath found out to help man in his decayes, that hath not its footsteps first in Nature, and is not an imitation of those things in man, that were most compleatly in him in his perfe­ction. And here I must of necessity go one step farther, than our common Ocu­lists; who ascribe to this part but a low and a mean office, which is only to keep the humours [...] their place, or at the best, [Page 90] to defend the inward parts from external injuries; but without all question, it hath this farther, and more noble use, viz. so to dispose and order the visible species, that they may in the most convenient manner, make their impression upon the proper Or­gan of sight; and this their Crassitude or thickness, together with their Convexity or bending outward, doth sufficiently make appear. I here all along retain the term of the Ancients, viz. visible species, as be­ing most known, and that by which I may be better understood among most, to whom this Paraphrase may come, though it be not so proper, and the Conceptions which they had about them, are not to be admitted; for there is no new Entity, either material, or immaterial, cast off from the ob­ject, distinct from it, & from the light, which is the cause of vision in the eye; by the visible species therefore, I mean no more, than the several beams of light being so reflected from the object, as that they be­come fully fraught with the representation of it, (not only in respect of the proper object of sight, which we call colour, but of these common ones also, which we call situation, figure, distance, bigness, and the like,) and have a compleat power of impressing the same upon the Retina, which [Page 91] is the strict and proper Organ of sight, and is nothing else than the dilation of the Op­tick Nerve all about the bottom of the eye. For the better understanding of all which, we must know that the species pass along the medium in a Pyramidical figure, and as they are cast off from one point of the Superficies of the object in a Cone, so they must be reduced again in the same Co­nical figure upon one and the same point of the Organ; which reduction is performed by that collection, refraction, and directi­on, which hapneth to them in those seve­ral pellucide bodies through which they pass, and primarily (while the eye remains in its vigour) in the Tunica Cornea; but as age enfeebleth the eye, the form and fi­gure of it becomes more plane and depres­sed than it was before; and the Crystalline humour, which had a power of reducing it self, and consequently the whole body of the eye, to a more oblong and Convex shape, becomes dry, and altogether unable for such an end; so that now the Species cast off from the object at a convenient di­stance, cannot be brought to a Cone upon the Organ, which must needs breed a con­fusion in the fight: To avoid which consu­sion, old men hold the object that they look upon at a greater distance from the [Page 92] eye, because so, the present Constitution of the eye can better regulate the Species; and thus also Spectacles are placed before the eye to collect, refract, and guide the Species, that they may point together upon the Retina; which by how much the thicker, and more Convex they are, by so much the more powerfully do they do this work: And therefore as age encrea­seth, and the form of the Crystalline hu­mour, and of the whole eye is more de­pressed, so much the thicker, or so much the more Convex, or both, must the Spe­ctacles be made, that they may be answe­rable to the age. And this is done only in imitation of that, which is far more perfectly done while man abides in strength, by the hard Membrane we are now treating of; and this is the first sense in which the eyes may be called the lookers out of the windows.

The other is, that whereby they may be said to look through the holes of the win­dow, when there is an open passage, and nothing at all interposeth between them and the object. And this indeed is the most proper reading of the words. [...] signifieth in foraminibus, or as the Vul­gar Latine, per foramina; and the Seventy, [...]. Now there are several waies, [Page 93] whereby the eye may be said to look in, or through the holes.

The first is, in respect of their seat, or the form of that place, in which they are fixed in the head. And if we should strict­ly hold the word to that interpretation of in foraminibus, or the lookers in the holes, nothing could be so applicable as this; and hereunto to be sure the Chaldee Paraphrase hath reference, Qui vident per Cancellos Capitis tui, those that look in, or through the strong bounds of the head, which can be no other, than those firm holes, or arches, which are made in the fore-part of the head, for that very purpose, viz. to receive into their Cavities the whole body of the eye: And these are by Oculists cal­led Orbitae, and are each of them compoun­ded of six several bones, which, being most conveniently suturated among themselves, do make up those curious arched chambers in which these lookers or beholders dwell, in which, and from which, they may be aptly said to perform their offices. And to these allusion is had in the Plague where­with the Lord will smite those that fight against Jerusalem, Zach. 14. 12. Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes.

[Page 94] Secondly, They may be said to look in, or through the holes; in respect of the palpebrae or Eye-lids; for although the use of the eye-lids is to cover or close the eyes, so that they are called, Oculi ab oculendo, vel occultando, because they lye hid under their lids; yet whensoever the eye is exer­cised in seeing, they must depart one from another, and so leave an open hole through which the sight may be made. And thus every man discerns in himself that he can take away sight, or cause it at pleasure, by drawing, or withdrawing; by letting down, or pulling up, these shutters of the windows. And it is wonderful to consi­der how ready they are in this work, that they might be no impediment to vision, so that an instantaneous action is no way bet­ter expressed, than by the motion of the eye lids: 1 Cor. 15. 52. Behold I shew you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinckling of an eye. And when we look earnestly upon any thing, we steadfastly keep the windows open; and a shut eye, in Scripture phrase, signifieth imposibility of seeing; Isa. 6. 10. Shut their eyes lest they see; and an open eye signi­fieth power of looking or beholding; 2 King. 6. 20. Open the eyes of these men, saith Elisha, that they may see, and the Lord opened their eyes, [Page 95] and they saw, and behold they were in the midst of Samaria. And a Seer, and a man whose eyes are opened, are the same thing, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, Num. 24. 3, 4. and the man whose eyes are open hath said, he hath said, who heard the words of God, who saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open; And thus also may the eyes be said to look through the holes, and all those that have taken exact notice of the Foramina Cutis in the body of man, have been sure not to neglect these.

Thirdly, They may be said to look through the holes, in respect of that out­ward Membrane of the eye, which is cal­led Adnata, or Conjunctiva, and this is that which being divided from the Pericra­nium, is next of all to the Orbita, and firmly holdeth the eye in that Cavity, it encompasseth the eye round on the back part, and on the fore-part so far as the white of the eye goeth, and no further, and so leaveth the whole Iris, the rainbow, or party-coloured part of the eye, as an open hole, which the visible species may freely without interruption pass through; the truth of this any one may discern in the inflammation of the eyes, for that is a dis­ease for the most part seated in this part [Page 96] alone; then you may see the veins and the Arteries very red and swollen, so far as this Membrane or the white of the eye reacheth, and the Iris or darker part of the eye in the mean while wholly free.

Fourthly, The eyes may be said to look through the holes in respect of the Pupilla, or the apple of the eye, which is nothing else, but an open hole in one of the co­verings of the eye, as I may say, bored for that very purpose, that the lookers through the windows might have an open view; for that Covering which is called Tunica Uvea, is a thick, and a close, a dusky, and a dark Membrane, through which the vi­sible Species, or the light cannot easily make its way. And therefore on the back part its use is to preserve, and to keep to­gether the innate light of the eye, and also to give a stop to the visible species, so that they can pass no farther, but must there impress their Images; like the lead, or the steel, or whatsoever else is put on the backside of the Looking-glass, with­out which there can be no impression made; but on the fore-part it is most convenient­ly perforated, and at such a proportion, that the light or the species through it have freedom of access: which perforation is the apple of the eye, that wonderful part, [Page 97] which is so often noted in Scripture to be above all other parts of the body tendered and observed, Gen. 32. 10. Psal. 17. 8 Pro. 7. 2. and therefore here I would principally take notice of it; and of all the parts of the eyes, and of all the holes through which they look, let this be al­waies accounted the most observable. For it may be dilated or contracted as it may be conducible to a more perfect sight; if there be requisite thereunto, a greater or a lesser light; if the object we would look up­on, be farther off, or nearer to the eye; or if we do more carelesly or curiously look up­on it; this hole is presently made wider or narrower; that it may be the more service­able for the present occasion.

Lastly, They may be said to look through the holes in respect of the Optick Nerves, for these above all the other Nerves of the body are apparently perfo­rated; and although neither these, nor any other, doth so appear in a body that hath been long dead, yet doubtless they have open passages while the body is yet alive, forasmuch as they are the Conveyers of matter, though more pure and refined, from one part unto another, as the other Chanels of the body are. And here the Cavity and Porosity of the Optick nerves, ought as well to be reckoned among the, [Page 98] holes through which sight is made, as any other that are placed before the proper Or­gan, upon which the representation of out­ward objects is first made, and that be­cause there can be no perfect perception of any thing, unless the impression made up­on the Sensory be truly conveyed into the most inward recesses of the brain, where the soul makes its seat of judicature. For as all the things in a Chamber may have their firm representation in a glass that stands upon the Table, yet if any thing in­terpose between me and the glass, I di­scern nothing at all; and they are all as much hid from me, as if they had never been there represented. And thus we know a total obstruction of the Optick Nerve, which is called, Gutta Serena, makes as perfect a blindness, as an ob­struction of the humour Aqueus, which is called, a Cataract; And thus I have endea­voured to shew, and that I hope with some satisfaction, how the eyes may be called, the lookers through the windows. Now as age comes on and encreaseth, it is well known to all men how sight goeth away and decreaseth; the lookers out of the windows must assuredly be darkned, and by how much the more excellent these parts are, by so much the more apparent [Page 99] are their decayes. It is said of the heart, it is primum vivens, and ultimum moriens; but contrariwise it may very well be said of the eye, that it is ultimum vivens, and primum moriens. This most wonderful and tender part of man, in that it hath more curious and more various work in its formation, is the last that lives; and in that it hath need of more life and vigour, more firmness and purity in its operation, it is the first that dieth; and indeed the insensi­ble encroach of age, is no where so soon discovered, as in the eye; and men are loath to think themselves declining in age so soon as the eye gives warning thereof; and we have scarce any description of an old man by his infirmities, wherein those of the eye are not principally mentioned: When Isaac, Jacob, Eli, Gen. 27. 1 Gen. 48. 10. 1 Sam. 3. 2. and others are recorded as old, it is said of them, Their eyes were dim, and they could not see; for whatsoever may either incrassate the dia­phanous bodies before mentioned, and ren­der them less transparent; or stop the se­veral perforations, and so hinder that open view: must of necessity cause a diminuti­on, and in time a perfect abolition of the sight; and here give me leave to name one or two principal symptomes of vision that are the chief attendants of this declin­ing [Page 100] state; The first is Caligo, which is the obscurity of vision by reason of the Cras­situde or thickness of the Tunica Cornea; which by reason of the driness of age doth together with the nails of the fingers, Fernel. grow darker and thicker, and consequently lose dayly somewhat of its perspicuity: Ano­ther is Glaucoma, which is the change of the colour of the Crystalline humour, by reason of its dulness and thickness, where­by old men do look upon all things as it were through smoak, or a cloud, and so do but darkly discern them: Another is Zi­nifisis, which is a change of the figure of the whole eye, whereby it becomes more plain and depressed, and a driness in the Crystalline humour, whereby it is una­ble to reduce the eye to that form, which may be most advantagious to vision; so that they cannot perceive any thing at an equal distance, but must have their objects more remote from the eye, or the species first refracted and directed by the use of Spectacles; Another is Suffusio ex crudi­tate, or any interposition of any preter­natu [...]al matter between the sight and the Tunica Cornea: I might also add Corrugatio & relax [...]tio uveae tunica, the contraction or dilatation of the apple of the eye; or whatsoever else by obscuring the glass, [Page 101] or obstructing the holes; may be justly said to darken the lookers out of the windows.

The doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low.

For the right understanding of these words, we must be sure in the first place to take notice that all these words are but one Sentence, and confequently but one Clause of the description of age; the for­mer words, viz. The doors shall be shut in the streets, are not a distinct symptome of themselves, as most men have formerly said, but they have their reference to the ensuing words, viz. When the voice of the grinding is low. And the doors and streets here mentioned, are no other, than such as concern the grinding, and are as inlets and outlets, waies and passages unto that. And I perswade my self, that the hitherto miscarriage in the Interpretation of these [Page 103] words hath proceeded from neglect of this consideration. The doors shall be shut when the grinding is low, and only then; and the lowness of the grinding, is the cause of the shutting of the doors. In humilitate vocis molentis, saith the Vulgar Latine. Ob, per, vel propter depressionem vocis molentis, say others, and that very consonant to the Original, inasmuch as the grinding shall be low, or by reason of the lowness of the grinding, the doors shall be shut in the streets. Wherefore for the better clearing of the whole Sentence, we must first of all shew what is to be un­derstood by the grinding, and afterwards what the doors and the streets are, and what the sound of the grinding, will easily be made appear. The wisdome of Solo­mon is so 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 same thing twice in a breath; And I wonder with what face any Interpreters could put so great an absurdity upon the Wise man, as to make this grinding signifie no more than that just mentioned before. But for the clearing of this, we must know that grind­ing is of two sorts, either Per extra posi­tionem, [Page 104] or Per intra susceptionem, (as Phi­losophers use to distinguish of augmenta­tion,) there is an extrinsecal, or an intrin­secal 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 these is performed, when the parts of the same mass, by reason of the exaltation of some internal principle, or the addition of some fermentum, are so acted among themselves, that the whole mass, and every the least part thereof, is changed and brought into a new Consi­stence. And this Philosophy calls Fer­mentation, and is that of which the Wise­man speaks in this place; And it is there­fore called grinding, because it accompli­sheth the end thereof better than any mill can do. It will comminuate things of so hard a substance that no mill can break. I would fain know what Mill could have ground Aarons golden Calf, Exod. 32. 20. Deut. 9. 21. but by the help of fire, and possibly some specifick menstruum, as a proper key for that Solar Mineral, it was easily ground to powder. Again, it can divide the matter that is to be ground into smaller parts than any mill [Page 105] can do; it will not leave the most minute part unsearched, A little leaven, 1 Cor. 5. 6. Gal. 5 9. Mat. 13. 33. saith the Scripture, leaveneth the whole lump. And our Saviours expression of it, is yet more significant, The Kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was lea­vened, [...], till the whole of mass, and every one of the least parts thereof be leavened. No Mill can be set so 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 indivisible.

Now of this sort 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 per­son, or propagation of the kind, are the products of this intestine grinding. And there is scarce a part in man, especially an internal viscus, that doth not particularly contribute to such a work as this. And surely, that which lies daily upon our tren­chers, had need of many through grindings, that it may be really transubstantiated into our flesh; these in the body of man are by Physicians called digestions, or concocti­ons, and are to be found almost in every [Page 106] part, as was said before; but I shall in­stance only in a few, and those well known to all those that have the least skill in na­tural things; and these few grindings, to­gether with the voice of them, the doors and streets that lead to, and from them be­ing well understood; those that are more accurate in the knowledge of all the al­terations of the nourishment of man, may thence from easily attain the whole intent and purpose of the Wise man in this part of the description of age. I shall only mention five: Three in respect of the In­dividual; and two in respect of the Spe­cies; and they are those common ones; Chylification, Sanguification, Assimulation, Lactification, and Spermification.

The first of these, viz. Chylification is thus performed, after the meat is suffici­ently chewed in the mouth, it is committed to the stomack, where continually there lyeth treasured up a certain acide juyce, the relicts of the last Concoction; which (as the Leaven in the bread) doth presently infect the whole mass, and every part there­of; and doth so penetrate and search the parts, and so divide and separate them one from another, and joyn it self to every one of them, that at last the matter of nourish­ment is so perfectly ground, that it is [Page 107] brought to a new Consistence and colour, very like to the Cream of Barly, and is that Physicians call the Chyle; and this is the first intrinsecal grinding that the food receiveth, and is next of all to that of the mouth, and not altogether unlike to it; and therefore when mastication is but weakly performed, you heard before that it was helped by infusion 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 second of these, viz. Sanguifica­tion is performed, when the Chyle it self is ground over again, and receiving yet far­ther exaltations by a greater solution of the more noble, and active principles; it once again deposites its old colour, and consistence, and so at length becomes perfectly changed into that true li­quor of life, Lev. 17. 11, 14. which is called bloud; and although it must alwaies be acknowledged that the Chyle doth receive many alterati­ons, and exaltations before it come to the heart; almost in every part it passeth through, both in the guts themselves, in the Mesentery, the Glandules, and the milky vessels, both of one sort, and of [Page 106] [...] [Page 107] [...] [Page 108] another; and also in the veins; and after it hath passed through the heart, it must be once or twice circulated through the body, and receive several defaecations, as in the Liver, the Spleen, the Kidneys, and the like; before it be compleatly accompli­shed for its ultimate use, all which exalta­tions, and defaecations, are included in this Text; yet it must still be remembred, that the principal and supream exaltation of the bloud, the most eminent and re­markable grinding towards Sanguification, in comparison of which, all the others are little to be accounted of; is alwaies per­formed in the heart, that fountain of life; for as soon as the Vena Cava hath commit­ted the matter of nourishment into the right Ventricle of the heart, the fermen­tum therein contained working suddenly and throughly upon it, sets the active principles at a greater freedom, and so in­ducing new motion, and effervescence into the bloud, doth happily impraegnate it with vitality. And not only this new matter of nutrition, when it first attingeth, the heart is thereby enlivened; but the best bloud it self, 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 [Page 109] fain to return back again to the heart for a fresh impraegnation. And such a vast dif­ference there is between the bloud in the Arteries newly brisked in the fountain, and that in the Veins lowered and impoverished with its journey, that the Ancients took them for two several things, and knew not that they were the same; like the men of Bethlehem, Ruth 1. 19, 20, 21. who knew not Naomi, nor would acknowledge her the same person, because she went out full, and returned home again empty; and she her self was not unwilling to have changed her name: And he that shall call the rich bloud going out in the Arteries, Aerial, Jovial, Spi­ritual; and the mean and poor bloud re­turning home in the Veins, Earthly, Satur­nal, Gross, shall make no Schisme at all in the unquestionable doctrine of Circula­tion.

The third of these, viz. Assimulation, is then performed, when the nutritive juyce is sufficiently 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 it self, and then falls to acting, searching, breaking it over [Page 110] 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 joynt fellowship and communion, and so made one with the part; and that which is most remarkable is, Gen. 18. 10. that according to the time of life, where­in augmentation or encrease of stature is appointed to man, every one of the parts takes so much to it self, as will answer its dayly growth, and after that is accompli­shed, every part takes only so much to it self, as doth answer its dayly decay. Exod. 16. 17, 18. The Children of Israel gathered Manna in the wilderness, some more, some less, yet when they did mete it in an Omer, he that gathe­red much, had nothing over; and he that gathered little, had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating: 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 lesser, 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 wasting. The Princes superfluities, and the Beggars penury, both of them make but equal reparati­on [Page 111] for the dayly Consumption of their own flesh.

The fourth that I mentioned, was the making of the milk; which although it be peculiar to one Sex only, yet I cannot but take notice of it among the rest, because a principal alteration of the nutritive juyce 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. Psal. 22. 9. Thou art he (saith David) that took me out of the womb, thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mothers breasts. Now, this is thus performed: The Breasts by their attractive property, draw from the Arteries that bloud, which is the least altered from Chyle, as being most agreeable to their glandulous sub­stance; and from the Nerves, that juyce which they convey for the nourishment of the spermatick parts, and by a specifick Fermentum in themselves contained, do subact, and comminuate, both these li­quors, and by a perfect mixture of them, and a certain peculiar alteration, at length prod [...]e that white, sweet, pleasant, ali­mentory liquor which we call the milk, which containeth in it meet matter of nou­rishment for all the parts of the Child, both sanguineous, and spermatical: and [Page 112] 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 seed, which because it is the highest, and most wonderful of them all, it had need of greater preparations, and more alterations than all the rest; and therefore it is, that there are several vessels 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 Vasapraeparantia, and Deferentia, the Vas Varicosum, the Epididymis, and Para­statae, the Vesiculae seminales also, and the Prostatae, do each of them add somewhat to the making of the Seed meet for propa­gation; but it must alwa [...]es be acknow­ledged, that the principal Fermentum that doth most of all exalt the seminary matter, and chiefly render it prolifick, is contained in the soft, spungy, glandulous substance of the Testes; which therefore bear their name, because they give testimony of vi­rility, and shew that a man is perfec [...]n his kind, Gen 5. 3. and therefore able to produce his own Image; the spiritous & benign matter most apt for generation, being from all the parts of the body by the Arteries and Nerves [Page 113] 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 consists; and doth continually from generation to gene­ration make abundant reparation for the cruelties of the King of terrours. 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 stroak of death, yet by the vertue of this divine extract, the earth is at all times suf­ficiently peopled, and the Inhabitants thereof perceive no lack. So that this doth in a manner perpetuate mortality, and cause men to survive the funerals of all mankind. Hence it is that the wisdom of God in Scripture doth alwaies express Po­sterity, and the Generations that were yet to come, by the word Seed, Gen. 3. 15 I will put en­mity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. And the Lord said to Abraham, Gen. 15. 5 Look now towards heaven, and tell the Stars if thou be able to number them, so shall thy seed be.

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 seed (if not all the other) [Page 114] is eminently called grinding, in that place where it is said, Job 31. 10. Let my wife also grind to another, and let others how down upon her; and all the other alterations of the nutri­tive juyce in man (if not this also) are eminently so called, in the Story of Sam­son; for although it be generally under­stood that Samson 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, Judg. 16. 21. 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 house: Where­in it is very observable, that it is not said, 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 obser­vable, because all the injuries done to him before named, are expressed 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 last, had been a like injury and force unto him, it had been more congruous to have [Page 115] continued the same manner of expression, and to have said, They made him grind; but the violence is here left out, and his grind­ing made his own doing, He did grind in the prison house. Beside those Manicles put upon him were exceedingly inconvenient for a grinder in a Mill? And it is most im­probable, that for that small advantage or pleasure that should accrue to them by his grinding in a Mill, that they should at any time take off his setters, since they had had so many, and so sad experiences of his un­parallel strength. And if at any time they should loose him, then sure was the least danger, when the Lords of the Philistines, and three thousand of the people were ga­thered together to see him make sport; yet at that time he was kept (by his chains doubtless) at the disposure of a Lad; Ver. 26. For Samson said to the Lad that held him by the hand, suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. Moreover, the ancient Rabbies give us an Interpretation upon this place, which is not altogether improbable, and which is confirmed unto us by Hieron in his Commentary upon the second verse of the forty seventh Chapter of Isaiah, and that is, that this people being very desi­rous of Giants, and boasting much in their [Page 116] strength (as is well known by sacred Story) brought of their choicest, and lustiest wo­men to him in the Prison, that from this mighty Destroyer of their Country, they might have a Gigantick Race for its pre­servation: However in the main, I per­swade my self, his grinding was nothing else, but performing the offices of nature, his eating, and drinking, and being nou­rished there; his turning his food into chyle, his chyle into bloud, his bloud into flesh, and other the like natural operations, which is the true meaning of the word grinding in this place.

We now proceed to the sound of the grinding, which is nothing else but that, by which the grinding is known, some na­tural symptome significative of digestion; and all those indications that do demon­strate that the works of nature proceed aright, and according to their primitive in­stitution (whether it be the appetite of the parts, their action or excretion of their excrements, those subservient faculties which usually are called Attraction, Reten­tion, Expulsion, or whatsoever else may manifest Concoction) may truly and pro­perly be called the voice of the grinding. I shall instance in a few, whereby the rest may be easily discerned, and therein I shall [Page 117] observe my former method having refe­rence only to those five great works of na­ture before treated of. The voice of the first grinding, is the natural appetite of the stomack to meat and drink, and is usually called hunger and thirst; the strength and power of the stomack to retain its food; and the seasonable evacuation of well con­cocted excrements. The voice of the se­cond, is a free passage of the chyle with­out obstruction, a quick, strong, and a lively pulse; a due separation of gall, of urine, and the rest of the excrements of this Concoction. The voice of the third, is the proper tone of all the parts of the body, the fastness and fulness of the flesh, and convenient perspiration. The voice of the fourth, Gen. 31. 3 is the Custome of women, the stiffness, lively colour, and freshness of the nipples, the smoothness, fairness, ele­vation, and towring of the breasts, as it is called in Scripture, Cant. 8. 10. Her breasts are as towers. The voice of the last, is appetite, aptness, and ability for Copulation; In­flation, and Turgescency of the Seminary vessels both preparatory, and ejaculatory; commonly called, Fratration; a right tem­perament of the parts appointed for pro­pagation, strength, vigour, and liveliness of the whole body beside: These, and the [Page 118] like excellencies of nature are the voice of the several grindings while they remain in power; but as age enfeebleth a man the grindings are weaker, and the several voices of them more submiss; wherefore it doth necessarily follow, that in decrepit age, all the before mentioned indicatours of strength and perfect Concoction must be depraved, diminished, or abolished; which is the lowness of the sound of the grinding, and doth include the weakness of the na­tural faculties in man which stand in direct opposition to those excellent voices before treated of, and such are these that follow: Dejectus appetitus, imbecillitas stomachi, faeces alvi indebitae: obstructiones omnes, pulsus debilis, ra [...], tard [...]s; mala sangui­nis defaecatio quoad serum, bilem, &c. tonus partium vitiatus, Carnis ariditas, indebita perspiratio: Cessatio mensium, papillarum pendentia & lividitas, mammarum flacci­ditas & rugositas: impotentia & inappet en­tia Concubitus, vasorum spermaticorum im­becillitas & [...], Rom. 4. 19. testium & partium propagationi dicatarum Cachexia & refrige­ratio, totius corporis langu [...]r & marcescentia. These are the decaies of man intended in this part of the Allegory.

Now the grinding and the voice thereof being thus far explained, I question not [Page 119] but the doors and streets, that relate there­unto, are by this time understood; but because the word doors hath some peculia­rity in it, I cannot but take more notice of it: [...] this word being of the duall number, signifieth properly the two doors, or both the doors, or the double doors. And although I know no authority for the translating of it into Latine, otherwise than fores, or ostia; yet I submit it to the Learned to consider, whether the word Valvae or Valvulae will not as well, if not better, agree to the Text; the folding doors, or the doors that clap together, or that have a double use. For the better understanding it, therefore we must know that the doors that relate to the grinding before spoken of, are of two sorts; either the extream doors, or the intermediate doors. Again, the extream doors also, are of two sorts; either the fore doors, or the back doors; either the doors that first let in the matter of nourishment for the body, that it may therein be ground for its use; or the doors that last let out the relicts of the grindings, or that matter that upon the several grindings becomes altogether use­less. The fore doors, or the doors by which the food is first let into the body, are none other than the Lips, for by the [Page 120] shutting of them, the meat is kept out, and by the opening of them, it is let in, to the first grinding in the mouth. And as they are called doors in respect of words, forasmuch as they let them out; Psal. 41. 3 Keep the door of my lips, saith David. And again, Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosome. Mic 7. 5. So they may as aptly be called doors in respect of the meat; for they let that in.

And hence it is, that the Orbicular Muscles, which make the substance of the lips, (being therefore called the Calves of the Lips,) Hos. 14. 2 and have the power of the keys to shut and open them, are called Oris Pylori, the explication of which word (as being very conducible to what we are now about) you have hereafter. And therefore those former Interpreters that have applied these words to the Lips, have done ex­ceeding well; the report they have given hath been true; yet I may, with the Queen of Sheba, farther add, Behold the half hath not been told us, 1 King. 10 6, 7. the wisdom of Solomon exceeding the fame which we have heard. For beside these fore doors, there are other extream doors also, viz. the back doors, which serve only for the carrying out of the Excrements. And although the Ears, the Nostrils, and the [Page 121] Eyes, and all the Emunctories of the body may be here included, yet those which are principally intended, are those eminent Posterns, which so long as man lives in strength are alwaies ready for their work, which is to give pass to those three several Excrements which we dayly avoid, either by the guts, the bladder, or the habit of the body; and therefore these doors are, Sphincteres ani, & vesicae, & pori Cutis: For all these have a power of opening and shutting, and consequently of keeping in, or letting out, whatsoever comes unto them, and are often at convenient seasons retracted for the cleansing of the body. Thus far of the extream doors, which are placed at the extremity of the body, and serve only for inlets or outlets to the sur­face of the body, for all that which is either desired or rejected of nature. The intermediate doors are seated within the body, and are inlets and outlets only from one part of the body to another; like the doors within the house, which according to their shutting or opening are stops or passages from one Room of the house to another. These may be said to be double doors, because they relate to two parts, to that which is before, and to that which is behind; they let out of that, and into [Page 122] this; and of this sort there are very many in the body of man, and some, I perswade my self, that are not yet sufficiently discovered. The first that the matter of nourishment meets with after it is chewed in the mouth, is the Pharynx, or head of the oesophagus, which while it be kept close, keeps the meat in the mouth, till it be there sufficiently ground, and afterward by the retraction of the Muscle of the throat, which for this very reason is called Sphincter gulae, it is committed into the throat, which is the high way to the stomack; but before it can come there, it meets again with another door, which is called, the mouth, or superior Orifice of the stomack, which unless it be opened also it cannot pass. And this any man may perceive in himself in a morning, or after the mouth of the stomack hath been long and close shut, if he hastily swallow down solid food before he drink, it makes a stop there, and stands knocking as it were, with pain waiting for admittance. The third door that the chyle meets withal, is the passage out of the stomack into the guts, and this is the inferiour Orifice of the stomack; which is so wonderfully framed, that it gives easie admittance for the chyle from the stomack to the guts, but back [Page 123] again from them to this, very difficult, or none at all; and it hath a power of dilating or contracting it self, making way, or stopping it, according as the necessity of Nature requireth; from whence it is by Anatomists called Pylorus, which is a Greek word, as most of the Anatomical terms are, and is derived from [...] porta, and [...] curam gero: and is as much as Janitor, the Porter or door-keeper; and it doth faithfully, according to the dictates of nature, shut or open that passage unto which it appertains. Besides these three, there are many others which I shall only generally name; The Capillaries of all the containing vessels in the body, the feveral stops of all the Veins and Arteries, which are called valvulae, especially those eminent ones about the heart, of which more hereafter, the porosity of all the inward parts of the body, the Valvula Coli, the Annulus Fibrosus of the bladder of gall, the several heads of the Ureters, their wonderful insertion into the bladder, these, and whatsoever else in the body of man can by their constriction stop that which comes unto them, and by their dilatation give it convenient passage, are in this place called, the doors of the streets.

The streets are those open waies and [Page 124] passages in the body of man, which the matter of nourishment passeth along with­out let or molestation. 1 King. 2 [...], 34. Thou shalt make thy self streets in Damascus, saith Benhadad to Ahab; that is, thou shalt pass through Damascus at thy pleasure, without inter­ruption; there shall alwaies be a broad and an open way. Platea dicitur à [...], latus; and in this place is, as much as, Latitudo foranea patens & aperta. And of such there are divers found in our body; The oesophagus, or Gullet, the six several in­testines or guts, as usually they are divided by Anatomists; the milky vessels of one sort and of another; all the Veins and Arteries; the Nerves and Lymphaeducts; the ductus Cholidochi, Pancreaticus, Sali­valis; the Vasa praeparantia & deferentia, tubuli lactiferi; the Ureters and the Uretra, in a word, all the Communes ductus, or open passages which are by nature appoin­ted for the conveyance either of the Ali­ment or Excrements, are the streets here intended; forasmuch as they have refe­rence to the grinding before mentioned, and are the common roads or high waies to, and from, the places where the grinding is performed.

What remains now, but only that I briefly name unto you those symptomes of [Page 125] age which are signified unto us by this clause, The doors shall be shut in the streets. What the doors are you have abundantly heard, the shutting or them is nothing else but their ceasing from their use, or their not being exercised to that end unto which by nature they are appointed; when by reason of the extremity of age the voice of the grindings is very low, then shall the doors, all the doors, both the doors, the doors of both kinds, the double doors, shall be shut in the streets; they shall all have lost their opening faculty, so that they shall neither let in, nor let pass, nor let out, what they ought to do, as they formerly did, so long as the strength of man remai­ned, and the voice of the grinding was high. Occlusio labiorum contraum cibum; ob­seratio pharyng is, ulriusque orificii ventri­culi; deglutiendi difficultas, impotentia reserandi in omnibus, arteriarum & vena­rum, imo omnium internarum partium ostiis, & valvulis; pororum constrictio; dysuria, stranguria, iscuria; alvi adstri­ctio, sen potius pigra tardaque depositio. These and the like symptomes that arise from the inability of those parts that have in themselves a power of opening and shut­ting for the benefit of the body, are here­by indicated unto us. And thus far of the [Page 126] natural faculty of man, both in reference to the preservation of the Individual, and the propagation of the Species; from which short observations they that are bet­ter skilled in the hidden mystery of the frame of mans body and know all the won­derful alterations that are therin made may easily attain the knowledge of the full scope and intention of the Wise-man in this place.

He shall rise up at the voice of the bird.

This expression being in it self easier than the rest▪ and having been well under­stood by most that have considered this. Allegory, I shall not much insist upon it. I shall only tell you, that it is to be understood of those infirmities of age, whereby men are altogether unable to take that content and quietness, that sleep and nocturnal repose, which formerly they had used to be refreshed with, there are that earnestly contend to have the latter part translated. Ad vocem passeris; others would have it, Ad gallicantum; others are content with, Advocein volueris. For my own part I think it not worth the dispute what this bird is in particular: The gene­rall word pleaseth me best, and the Ori­ginal word, Omnem significat avem mane surgentem ad gurriendum; For the Radix [Page 127] is [...] and hath two eminent significations, one is, Alas habere sive evolare; and the other, Maturare sive mane surgere; and that which else where is translated the early morning, Ezek. 7. 10. is from the same root with this word in the Text, so that if we say, the early bird, or the bird that is warbling its accustomed note betime in the morning (without descending to particulars) we shall take in the whole latitude of the sig­nification of the word, and the full scope of this part of the description of age; which is nothing else but to shew how rest­less, and wakeful men are in their old age, so that that which is said of the abundance of the rich man, may as truly be said of the infirmity of the old man, Eccl. 5. 12 it will not suffer him to sleep. In the night time possibly he may have some unquiet drowsings, but when the morning approacheth, that time wherein man in his perfect state taketh the greatest refreshment, and the soundest sleep; then shall he be broad awake, and rising up; He shall rise up at the voice of the bird; that is, at that time when they utter their voices; not (as some have in­terpreted it,) Causâ vocis aviculae, by rea­son of the voice of any bird, as the crow­ing of the Cock, or the like, as if the voices of them, should wake them from [Page 128] their sleep; for it is not said, he shall wake at the voice of the bird, but he shall rise at the voice of the bird, presupposing his be­ing awake long before, it may be all the night: Beside the ensuing words, as you shall immediately hear, do demonstrate the deafness of old men, and therefore it is not to be thought that they should easily be startled, as it were, and awaked at the voice of any bird; therefore it must of ne­cessity be understood, as it is elsewhere phrased, Cant. 2. At the time when the singing of the birds is come. Now the time of the singing of the birds may be said to come, Annually, or Diurnally. The yearly coming of the singing of the birds is in the spring of the year; to which allusion is had in that place of Solomons Song: And the dayly coming of the singing of the birds is in the spring of the day, or very early in the morning; by which time the decrepit old man is very weary of his bed, having in it neither ease, nor sleep. The singing of the birds, and the sighing of old men, are early Contemporaries: These are as [...]oon weary of their lodgings, through the pains and wakefulness, that hath attended them in the night season; as they are lifting up their pleasant notes, after their refresh­ment. Anxiety and trouble of mind, was [Page 129] so grievous to Ahasuerus, Hest. 6. 1. that it is said, On that night could not the King sleep: Up­on the same occasion it is said concerning Darius, Dan. 6. 18. His sleep went from him: Pains and diseases of the body, were so trou­blesome to Job, that he complains, Job 7. 4. When I lye down I say when shall I arise, and the night be gone, and I am full of tossings too and fro, untill the dawning of the day: both these joyned together in age, together with that which is worse, namely, the na­tural dryness of the brain, and a Con­sumption of those benign vapours that overcome it in sleep; must needs produce the like, or more uncomfortable effects. So that the symptomes hereby indicated unto us are, Anxietates animi, inquietu­dines nocturnae, & dolores Corporis; and principally the product of them both, which is Vigiliae.

I should thus pass hence-from, were there not a grand objection lying hid in the body of this discourse, which upon this occasion doth more apparently discover its face. It may be here said, are there not some Contrarieties in this description of age, or at least in this Interpretation of it? Are there not some inconsistent sym­ptomes reckoned up, to make this misera­ble state yet far worse than it is? Was [Page 130] not Carus and Apoplexia diseases of over­much sleep, in the Exposition of the second verse numbred among the Symptomes of age: How therefore comes it to pass that Vigiliae, or over-much wakefulness can be an attendant upon the same condi­tion?

To this I must answer, Were this our fault, it were not ours alone; for so clear is the Case, and the truth of it by dayly experience so apparent, that whosoever hath at any time treated of the diseases of age hath constantly enumerated them both, Hippo. l. 3. Apho. ult. Galen l. 3 c. 6. de sa­nitate tu­enda. Ranchin. de mor­borum senum d [...]lis. as being not the least inconsistent one with another; and that is, because they are not of the same kind; Necesse est ut opposita sint sub eodemgenere. Now sleep, and the abstinence from it, may each of them be considered either in genere naturali, or in genere praeternaturali; there is a natural, there is a diseased or preternatural sleep. And between these there is a vast diffe­rence. Natural sleep, is a woing of the body and mind to quietness, whereby the benign vapours, by their amicable embra­ces of the brain, get power of it, for its refreshment: Preternatural sleep, is a com­mitting a rape upon the body and mind, whereby the offensive superfluities, by their violent assaults, force the brain to a [Page 131] benummedness for its destruction; the same Diametrical difference there is be­tween natural and preternatural wakeful­ness. Natural waking, is when the brain, by its own vigour and strength, doth, Samson like, Judg. 16. 20. arise and shake it self; Ca­sting off all those exhalations which, ha­ving spent their vertue for the refreshment of the body, are become altogether use­less; so that hence-from all the spirits of a man are enlivened, As a bridegroom com­ing out of his Chamber, Psal. [...]9. 5 and rejoycing as a strong man to run a race; but when the race is run, and the spirits are thereby tired, there is need of a recruit by sleep. So then, when there is in the nature of man a paucity of those pleasant vapours, and an ineptitude in the brain to receive those few that are, there must needs follow natural watching or wakefulness. Preternatural waking and watching, on the contrary, are, when there is an external force put upon the brain, either to raise it from sleep, or to keep it so. Now, to apply this di­stinction, we must know that sleep and the want thereof are directly contrary one to another, supposed alwaies they be in the same kind. Preternatural sleep, and pre­ternatural watching are altogether incon­sistent, and therefore an Apoplex and a [Page 132] Frenzy, are in no wise incident to the same person at the same time: So also natural sleep and natural watching are inconsistent one with another, and not competible to the same age; but are to be found in man at as great a distance as his life will give way for; Senibus naturale est vigilare, pueris dormire; but when they are one of one kind, and another of another, name­ly, preternatural sleep, and natural watch­ing, they may both of them without any incongruity at all, be reckoned up as the Symptomes of old age.

I make the more of this distinction, (though very common and ordinary,) and so I would have others do too, because of its universal use upon this occasion; for not only here, but in most of the other descriptions of age, it hath its place for the decision of Controversies; in the very last description, Pigra & tarda alvi depo­sitio was numbred as a symptome of age, because the Sphincter ani is hardly and seldome retracted for the natural evacua­tion of the Excrements of that kind; yet alvi humiditates are reckoned as an atten­dant on the same state, Hippo. l 3. [...] pho. ult. because without any opening of the door, there is a preter­natural flux that way. So also in their Urine, there is a continual stopping, and [Page 133] yet withall a continual dropping. The Teeth are relaxed by reason of driness, and yet moysture expels them their soc­kets. Siccity of the Eyes is their chiefest disease, and yet they run with a continual Rheume; Hardness and driness also is the temper of the brain, and yet it is alwaies distilling Coryza's and Catarrhes. In a word, this distinction will be found of most gene­ral use, forasmuch as there is such an intri­cate mixture of naturality and preternatu­rality in age, so that that plain and easie description which is usually given of it, seems to me ingenious and most significant. Senectus est morbus naturalis.

All the Daughters of Musick shall be brought low.

The Organs that have reference to Mu­sick in the body of man (beside which I would by no means seek an Interpretation) are of two sorts. They are either such as make musick themselves, or such as take and receive the Musick that is by others made; the first of these I call, the Active daughters of Musick, forasmuch as they are themselves musical, and every one of them bear their part in making of it; the other I call, the passive daughters of Musick, for­asmuch as they only receive it, taking [Page 134] delight in that, of which they have not the least share in making.

The Chaldee Paraphrase hath reference to the first of these, when it saith, Remit­tentur labia tua à dicend [...] Cantico. The Lips, and whatsoever other parts in man, are any way instrumental unto singing, may be very well signified unto us by the Cantatrices multeres, or female Choristers in the Text; and these are very many in our bodies. For beside those remote helpers, the Thorax, the Diaphragma, the Muscles, the Nerves, the Glandules, &c. There are three several kinds of Organs, that do more immediately, and yet di­stinctly and gradually conduce to the pro­duction of vocall Musick. The first, are those that prepare and administer the mat­ter for a sound; The second, are those that form that sound into a voice; The third, are those that modulate that voice unto Musick.

The first of these, are none other than the Lungs, which are the proper instru­ments of our breathing; which how ex­cellent it is in it self, and how necessary to our being, Gen 2. 7. Job 1 [...]. 10. the Scriptures of God do demonstrate without compare. The life of man in this world, runs parallel with his breath; Psal. 104. 19. All the while my breath is in me, [Page 135] and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils; Job 27 3. and the death of man is still signified by the departure of his breath; It is said of the widows child, He had no more breath left in him. 1 Kings 17. 17. Psal. 146. 4. Plainly throughout the whole Word of God, breath, and life, and soul, and spirit, are synonomous, and often made exegetical one of another. Among other excellencies of breathing, that where­by it is made instrumental to speech and harmony is not the least; in all wind Mu­sick, there must be first a gathering of the air into some Cavity to contain it, and af­terward a pressing of it forth into those pipes or holes, that are artificially made for the dividing it unto its appointed end; Now of this kind of Musick is the voice, and the Lungs being of a light, soft, spon­gy substance, are those parts, that do both draw in, contain, and press forth the air, the matter of the voice, according as there is occasion. And those Creatures that have no Lungs have consequently no voice, so that Fishes, which are herein deficient, are mute even to a Proverb. And man himself, if by reason of any preternatural matter stuffing the Lungs, or by reason of any violent motion, or long expiration, he becomes out of breath, he is not able to speak, much less to sing, till he have reco­vered it again.

[Page 136] The second sort of Organs that conduce to Musick, are such, as form the breath into a voice; And they by Logicians, un­der whose subject they do directly fall, are accounted nine, numbred up in this fol­lowing Distick.

And moreover, hence it is that the wisest of Grammarians, observing that the seve­ral words, by which man uttereth his voice, are formed against these several parts, sometime more against one, some­time more against another; have aptly di­vided their Letters, the first compounding parts of words into gutturales, linguales, palatina [...], dentales, & labiales, according as in their pronuntiation they bear them­selves the hardest against either of those parts.

That part which these two Artists have called guttur, Anatomists do more strictly and properly call, Trachaea sive aspera arte­ria; and since the word Artery is derived [...], this of all the parts of the body may primarily and most aptly bear that name: for this is the great Con­ [...]uit pipe of air in respiration; it gives pass [Page 137] unto it in inspiration, and in expiration (whereby the voice is framed) it gives a certain impression, which is the first alte­ration of it towards Articulation; which impression doth remain in the voice when perfected; so that if these parts do first dispose the voice to hoarsness or shrilness, or any other preternatural tone, the whole speech hath a tincture of the same imper­fection. And hence it is, that the Welsh pronunciation being performed by too hard a collision of the air against these parts, makes all their letters and words to become guttural.

The second Instrument of the voice is the tongue, and this, by reason of its fun­gous substance, and volubility, is so meet, and so principal an agent therein, that speech it self, and all the variety thereof, doth among all sorts of men go by the name of tongue; Acts 2. There were in the daics of the Apostles dwelling at Jerusalem de­vout men out of every Nation under heaven, and they all said, we do hear them speak, [...], in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God. Ver. 11. And this great miracle, both as unto hearing, and also unto speaking, is introduced by the appearance of Cloven tongues, Ver 3. to shew that the chiefest instrument of the voice, [Page 138] was to be acted by the Holy Ghost; Ver. 4. For they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Among the many expressions that the Word of God abounds with, for the confirmation of this truth I cannot but take special notice of that of David, Psa. 139. 4. where he saith, There is not a word in my tongue, but thou knowest it altogether. As if that member alone kept the power of words within it self, and ordered them all according to its own plea­sure; and where there is an inability of speaking, it is aptly said, such persons are tongue-tied, and when that faculty is again restored, Mar. 7. 35 it is said, the tongue is loosed; and so was it with Zacharias, concerning whom, after he had been dumb for a sea­son, it is said, Luk. 1. 64 his mouth was opened imme­diately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake and praised God.

The third Instrument towards the for­mation of the voice is the pallate of the mouth, for beside, that some particular Let­ters and words are formed more immediatly against this part, it doth also give strength & clearness to the whole voice, and to all the words that are pronounced in the mouth. And this it doth the better do, because the tenuous bone that makes the Pallate, is an arched roof, covered over with a [Page 139] nervous skin, corrugated with several asperities, for the better retaining and re­bounding the air in the voice. And all our places dedicated to divine service, are made of the same concamerated form on the top of them, (questionless in imitati­on hereof,) for the better sounding and echoing sorth both of vocal and instrumen­tal musick. And beside the bone which constitutes the Pallate, there is a little fleshy part, which is called the Uvula, that doth so much contribute to the voice, that it deservedly retains the name of plectrum vocis. Paulus Aegin [...]ta l 6. c. 51. That the Pallate or roof of the mouth is a great instrument in speaking, is sufficiently proved by the defect thereof, for if there be the least fault in this part, there presently succeeds a faltring in the Speech. So that a man may say to any Son of Venus, who hath followed her de­structive enticements to this imperfection, Thou also art one of them, thy speech be­wrayeth thee. This part, together with that last mentioned, is taken notice of, as serviceable unto speech, by Jo [...], when he saith, Job 29. 10. The Nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth. And God himself saith unto the Prophet, I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth that thou shalt be dumb. Ez [...]k. 3. 26.

[Page 140] Fourthly, The teeth, and especially the four fore-teeth, are very instrumental to our speech, Dentition and Locution are for the most part Contemporaries; toothing and speaking usually come, and go toge­ther; the Child cannot speak till he put forth his teeth, neither can he speak well, when he sheds them, nor leave his lisping till they come again. And the reason of it, is because there are many words that are pronounced by the dilatation of the tip of the tongue, and clapping of it against the teeth, which any man may easily ex­periment in himself, if he will but gently assay to pronounce any word that hath Th together in it; and all those Operators that live by setting in of Artificial teeth, do observe that they have more come to them upon the account of their speech, than for all other ends whatsoever; and indeed this ingenious help of Art, doth in no other defect of nature, make such com­pleat reparation.

The last Instruments of the voice are the Lips; even as the Aspera Arteria (as was said) gave the first Articulation, so these do give the ultimate Completion to our words; so that when they have once slipped this guard we can have no more power over them. Nescit vox missa, re­verti: [Page 141] that which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt perform, Deut. 23. 23. saith the Lord. How ex­ceedingly instrumental the lips are to speak­ing, the Scripture doth abundantly prove, He that will love life, and see good daies, 1 Pet. 3. 10. let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Hence is it, that as the words are, so the lips are often said to be: Psal. 12. 2. 17. 1. 31. 18. Isa. 6. 5. 28. 11. Heb. 13. 15. Isa. 57. 19. therefore we read of flattering, fained, lying, unclean, stammering lips, &c. And again, words are elsewhere called, the fruit of the lips; Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of the lips. And these are the second sort of Or­gans that conduce to vocal Musick, namely, those that form the sound unto a voice.

The third are those that modulate this voice into musick; and although it here must alwaies be acknowledged, that every one of the parts before mentioned, do also contribute something towards modulation; yet the more proper and peculiar instru­ments thereof, are the Cartilagineous parts of the Aspera Arteria, or the windpipe; and especially those which are termed, the Larynx and the glottis. The Larynx is the head of the windpipe, which although it be but a very little part, yet doth consist of more variety of compounding parts, [Page 142] than any other whatsoever; as little as it is, it hath thirteen Muscles belonging unto it, most of which are framed only for the mo­dulation of the voice; some shut the pipe, some open it, some dilate, some contract it, so that acting severally, or joyntly ac­cording as there is occasion; they do won­derfully conduce to the variation of the tone. It hath moreover five Cartilages, whose substance and consistence is most apt of all other whatsoever, for the dividing of a sound; some of them are movable, some immovable, some of one form, some of another, that they may the better con­tain the air; and alter and break the voice into melody. Beside it hath certain Glan­dules belong unto it, which by their viscous moysture do so irrigate, and as it were oyle the pipe, that it takes off the harshness that otherwise would be found, and adds much sweetness and pleasantness to the Musick. The glottis is reckoned among the Cartilages before mentioned, yet because it is the principal instrument of modulation, we cannot but take most spe­cial notice of it. And it therefore bears its name, because what eminency the tongue hath above the rest in reference to our speech, the same hath this part in re­ference to our singing; for the air being [Page 143] pressed forth from the Lungs, this part riseth up to meet it, embraceth it, plaies with it, and by a certain innate property of its own, without the help of Muscles, alters it, divides it, at its own pleasure, into all that diversity of amplifications and flourishes, that the Art of man can possibly reach unto. If a man make a pipe in the middle of a green reed, and leave the inward thin film as the tongue of the pipe, and then breath against it; he shall then find, that tongue to receive the breath, and so to modulate it; that it shall be a lively, though but a short resemblance, of what we are now speaking of. And indeed, whatsoever Art can do, must give way to the works of nature: And that one pipe in man, which hath the wisdom of God for its formation to the intent of mu­sick, can amplifie and divide a sound, to as much variety of musical accents, as Davids Instrument that had ten strings. Psa. 144. 9. For there is no Instrument howsoever formed, that can surpass the musick of the voice, which is performed by the several Organs we have here recited, which may therefore justly be called, the Active Daughters of Musick.

The Passive Daughters of Musick, are those which only receive the Musick that [Page 144] is by others made, and these are the Or­gans of hearing; which indeed may most properly be called, Filiae Carminis, or Filiae Cantici, and seem primarily to be intended in this place; for as a learned Commentator rendreth the reason of it exceeding well; Corne [...]. [...] L [...]p. Aures ad hoc unum factae sunt, ut voces & Carmina audiant, quare ex iis natae, [...]orumque filiae esse videntur. And again, Objectum delectabile efficit in auribus sensationem delectabilem, quare ejus quasi parens, & mater esse videtur. All the several graces and eligances of Musick, the soft and silky touches, the quick and pleasant relishes, the nimble transitions, and delicate closes, are far more exactly represented in the Instruments of hearing, than the Image of the Mother is in the Daughter; Ventrem sequitur partus, the birth is like the belly that bears it, but the Musick that is heard, is even the same with that which is made: For there is a continuation of the audible Species from the maker of them, to the last receiver; without any production of new. And that this may be the better done, there are several parts, both for the apprehending of the variety of sounds, as they pass up and down in the air, and also for the Com­modious conveying of them, that they [Page 145] may make a due impression upon the proper Organs of Hearing; plainly, there is the outward and the inward Ear.

The outward Ear is spread abroad like a net, that it may catch and gather into it self, Avecen. that vocalem, or sonantem undam, as it roles about the Ocean of the Air; which that it may the more conveniently do, the Cartilagineous part of it is divided into two winding Channels, called the Helices, or Elices, which draw and suck into them­selves the wave before mentioned, and pass it into the Auditory gulph. I know the word Helices, is mostly wrote with an H, and then it must be derived from [...] cum aspero, which signifieth Involvo, Cir­cumago, Circumvolvo. And thus prima­rily the word signifieth a certain sort of twining Ivy, and from thence then must the Metaphor be fetched, and that very appositely, relating to their form: But I rather incline to those who write it without an H, and then it must be derived from [...] cum tenui, which signifieth, Coarcto, Cogo, in angustum redigo, in arctum Con­grego, and thus the word signifieth pri­marily, little Channels that are made to draw the water from some great and bro [...]d over flowing sulci aquarii, water furro [...] [Page 146] or trenches to draw in the stream, and this relates to their use. And thus it is an ele­gant Metaphor from waters; for these parts do Elicere, allure and suck into their narrower Channels those sounds that wan­der more at liberty in the open air; and then they convey them to the meatus au­ditorius, which is sufficiently defended by the Tragus that is over it, and the Antitra­gus, that is near it, so that no violent noise can offend it, nor any preternatural matter fall into it, to obstruct it. This outward Ear is placed upon the Os p [...]trosum, on the side of the head, and at some distance from the head, and were it not pressed and bound down while it was tender, it would stand at a further distance, and consequent­ly more commodious for hearing; so that while our Mothers and Nurses study Or­nament, they injure us: Indeed, they do hereby make us more unlike to the beasts, but it is in such an excellency, that it were well for us if we surpassed them. And hence may the reason be given, why those that are thick of hearing, may find great benefit by laying their hand dilated behind their Ear, or using some Otaco [...]st [...]on, and placing the mouth of it towards the sound, that they may thereby the better appre­hend it; like unto those Animals, that list­ning [Page 147] after any noise, prick up their ears, as we say, and cast them forward, for the more expeditious receiving those motions of the air, that otherwise would pass by them more insensibly.

The inward Ear is a great secret, and such an one, that while the men of greatest knowledge have gone about to find-out and describe, they have every one of them sunk under his burden, and confest his own inability in some such expression, as the Psalmist concerning the general frame of mans body; Such knowledge is too won­derful for me, Psal. 139. 6. it is high, I cannot attain unto it. The first part we meet with is a thin, strong, pellucide Membrane, called, the Tympanum, which being placed trans­verse the hole of the Ear, doth divide be­tween the ou [...]ward and the inward Ear, as the Diaphragme doth between the breast and the belly; within this there are three Cavities, the Concha, Labyrinthus, Cochlea; there are also three little bones, the Mal­leolus, the Incus, and the Stapes; More­over, there is implanted in the Ear, a pure, subtill, and quiet air; which is called, aer innatus; And lastly, and chiefly, because the proper Organ of hearing, we may ob­serve the Filaments, or the utmost extre­mities of the softer part of the Auditory [Page 148] Nerve, as they are wonderfully disposed in the inward Cavity by the innate air; and then the whole Nerve it self; by the help of these several parts our hearing is thus performed. The motion of the air (as that of the water) is continued by certain circles and rings, till it be taken by the outward ear, and by the Elices is con­veyed upon the head of the Tympanum, where it makes the very same impression that it received from the body that made it; which impression, by reason of the Conjunction of the bones before menti­oned, is continued unto the innate air, which, because in its self most quiet and still, is easily moved according to the mo­tion of the Tympanum; so that the Fila­ments hereunto annexed must of necessity answer the foresaid motion, and so conse­quently gather into themselves the sound or musick, which they convey to the Au­ditory Nerve, that from thence it may be sent to be discerned and judged in the in­ward sense.

These are the Daughters of Musick, which, so long as man abides in strength, are exceeding lovely and flourish; but as he declines in age, these also pass their flower, they become humbled, and decline apace towards uselessness and deformity.

[Page 149] In Age the several holes and Cavities of the Ears are stopped, the Drum is unbra­ced, the Hammer is weakned, the Anvill is worn, the Stirrop is broken, and the inward Air is mixed and defiled, the Fila­ments are dulled, the Nerve it self is ob­structed; so that there cannot but follow heaviness of hearing, and at last, deafness it self. And this is that imperfection which Barzillai complains of to King David, 2 Sam. 19. 35. I am this day eighty years old, and can I discern between good and evil? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men, and singing women, wherefore then should thy servant be yet a burden to my Lord the King? And this certainly is the principal Sym­ptome here intended by these words, The Daughters of Musick shall be brought low. And therefore the Vulgar Latine translates it only, Obsurdescent omnes filiae Carminis; but the word [...] is of a far larger signi­fication, and might be translated many waies, as Deprimentur, Dejicientur, incur­vabuntur; but cannot possibly be better translated than it is already by the Seventy, [...], humiliabuntur, brought low. And this still holds out the native Latitude of the word; which I would by all means have preserved; that all the Daughters of Musick, both Active and Passive, and [Page 150] their infirmities in age may be here inclu­ded; so that all those symptomes of the decrepit state of man, that belong to any of the Organs before mentioned, whether of speaking or hearing, are to be under­stood by this last clause; All the Daughters of Musick shall be brought low; and such are these that follow: Dispnaea sive spiran­di difficult as, destillationes tussim inferen­tes; [...], sive vocis abolitio, di­minutio out depravatio; exsiccatio asperae arteriae, induratio Cartilaginum Laryngis, sordes aurium, praecipuè autem barycoia sive gravis auditus & surditas.

They shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way.

The powers and faculties of the mind, as they are weakened in age, are abun­dantly described in the second Verse: In these words is notified unto us, that most remarkable change that is made upon the affects and passions of the mind in the same condition. And this is only in re­spect of fear, and those that are nearly re­lated unto it. For as for those which are placed, [...], in appetitu Con­cupiscente, such as Love, Hatred, Desire, [Page 153] Joy, and the like; they are in no wise ex­cessive in this weak state of age, forasmuch as a firm and a vigorous habit of body, quick and lively senses, both outward and inward, do most promote them; So that where there is a general defect in both these, and all desire doth fail, it is not to be supposed, there should be any pre­dominancy of any of those passions, that proceed from the Concupiscible appetite; as for those which are placed, [...], in appetitu irascente; They all have for their object either good or evil; those which have good for their object, as Hope, and such like, have little or no place in the time of age, forasmuch as it is an evil time, and there is no pleasure in it. Now, all imminent evil is looked upon either as vincible, or invincible; if a man look up­on an approaching evil, as that which he is able to overcome, it naturally produceth boldness in him, which is the contrary passion to fear, and can in no respect agree to the same persons. It remains there­fore, that that distress of the mind, which ariseth from the apprehension of some approaching evil, that is either destructive or burdensome to our na­ture, and not easily resistible by our strength, is the passion that is most incident [Page 154] to Age. True it is, that anger and vexa­tion, grief and sadness, and such like, as have for their object some present evil, and border hard upon this we are speak­ing of; may in some measure be found in Age; yet the true and proper, the most notorious trouble of the mind, is that dumpish, melancholy, destructive passion of fear; which together with all its atten­dants and necessary consequences, such as suspition, jealousies, superstition, dislike, inconstancy, betraying the succours of reason, are too familiarly observed in the best of men that are crooked with age; And by how much the more man declines, by so much the more do these superfluities encrease, like Misletoe, and some other Excrescencies of trees, that flourish not, till the stock decay from which they spring. And the reason of it is, because the true Causes of this affection (namely, misap­prehensions of the things feared, and in­ability to resist them) are encreased toge­ther with age, and therefore must needs produce their answerable effects. The first of these Causes, proceeds from the weak­ness of the Imagination; the other, from the lowness of the spirits, and the imbe­cility of the outward Organs: The first, makes the Cause of fear to seem the [Page 155] greater; the other, to take the deeper impression. Imagination puts a double fallacy upon ancient men; first, it makes them undervalue themselves, and minorate their own abilities; and then it makes them overvalue the objects of [...]ear, and make them far greater than they are; like some Perspective glasses, that at both ends mis­represent the things seen, yet with a con­trary appearance, at one end making them appear lesser, and at a farther distance; and at the other end, greater, and nearer than they ought. And hence it is, that they are so timorous upon every the least occasion; that which is said of wicked men, may also be said of old men; They are in great fear where no fear is; Psal. 53. 5 Qu [...] finxêre, timent; the weakned Imagination creating objects of fear unto it self, or at least much falcifying them, and encreasing them, like the man in the Gospel, that had but an half and a broken sight, He saw men as big as trees walking. Again, the dulness and [...]eaviness of the spirits, and the impotency of the members, renders a man most obnoxious unto fear; the spirits being of a strong, quick, and subtile mo­tien, are the principal instruments of in­ [...]er course between the soul and the body, and do consequently bring in the greatest [Page 156] aid and assistance against this passion; but, in age they are benummed as it were, and congealed, so that they cease much what from their operation and motion, and can administer little, or no courage at all.

Nor is it thus onely with the Spirits, but the Organical parts also of the Body, are in this state made unfit for their Functions, and altogether unserviceable to resist the very appearance of danger; and stand (as I may so say) ready prepared for the enter­tainment of fear; The great consequences whereof, such as whiteness and stiffness of the hair, trembling of the joynts and heart, impotency of speech, failing of the eyes, and astonishment, paleness of the face, horrour, gnashing of the Teeth, invo­luntary Emission of Excrements, are very easily produced in this condition; nay, they are most of them already there to be found, without an object to effect them; therefore no wonder if those things which are [...] to the strong Man, prove [...] to the decr [...]pit.

These things were known to be true, without an Instance; yet, I cannot but take notice of Jacob, who, while young and strong, did exceed most Men we read of, for Courage and Boldness; with what au­dacity did he manage the two great Enter­prizes [Page 157] of obtaining both the Birth-right and the Blessing; and that while he was yet very young? with what Courage did he undertake, and go through with a long and lonesome journey, and hard and a deceitful Service? but when he was old he was of a more timorous spirit: it was fear let fall that passage, If I am bereaved, I am berea­ved. Gen. 43. 14. Such newes as one would have thought would have refreshed his heart, when he was old overcame it; for when it was said Joseph is yet alive, Gen. 45. 26. and he is Go­vernour over all the Land of Aegypt, Ja­cobs heart fainted: Fear was a passion so ready at the door, that it stept in first, and had almost over-born him, and left no place for joy to enter in. 1 Sam. 2. 22. God Eli when he was very old, was very fearful, he timorously reproves the outragious wickedness of his lewd Sons; and after this black and dread­ful enemy had once taken possession of him, it followed him continually, and dogg'd him till he died. When the Israelites and Philistines were about to joyn Battel, he sate in a fearful posture, and it is said, his beart trembled; and when the issue was told him, 1 Sam. 4. 13. he fell from off his seat backward, and his Neck brake that he died; and the reason is added, V. 1 [...]. for he was an old Man and heavy. I will not here be so bold as those [Page 158] that say (building their opinion upon the original word) his falling down backward and dying, was from a voluntary Principle; but I dare say, it was from an inward one: his Age had so enfeebled him, that he was not able to bear the newes of a defeat, es­pecially such an one, wherein the Ark of God was taken, but his darksome inward foe, taking advantage hereupon; strikes him surely, under the fifth rib, that he died.

The Objects of old Mens fears are here presented unto us under a double notion; First, those things which are high, Excelsa timebunt, aut de excelso; They shall be afraid of that which is high: Secondly those things which are lower, more plain and obvious, even in the way; Consternati in via, vel formidabunt in viis; Fears shall be in the may. Consternation and Fearfulness do not surprize Men, and overthrow them all at once; Nemo repente [...]it timidissimus; but they come on by degrees, and first those things that have more of dread in them, become the objects of their fear: High things; high, either in respect of place, as steep and emineut Wayes, Hills, and Mountains, Steeples and Towers, which formerly they could without fear ascend, and walk upon: or high, in respect of the [Page 159] Air, as Fiery Meteors, Strange Appariti­ons, Thunder and Lightning, and such like: or high, in respect of abstrusness, or mysteriousness, as the deep and subtile points in Divinity, about the Escence of God, and the duration of Eternity, about the Immortality of the Soul, and changes of the Body, and many other things, which while young they could better have born the Discourse of: or high, in respect of Hardship, or Difficult; those great Enter­prises, and hazardous Undertakings, which while strong they durst with boldness have ventered on, do now become a terror to them, even in the thought of them; but as Age comes on, and their feares increase upon them, not onely those things which are high, but even plain and easie things be­com the objects of their fear; Pavores in via: Mole-hills are now as dreadful, as Moun­tains were before; every thing that is near them, and about them; every thing that is plain and obvious; every matter that is fa­cile, and easily attainable, bears it self with terror towards them; they are afraid of every thing they are doing: they walk in fear, sometime least peradventure they should dash their foot against a Stone; sometime least that other People heedless­ly passing by, should rush upon them, and [Page 160] injure them: being conscious to themselves of their own impotency, it makes them most obnoxious to this terrible passion, which is the great change that is made up­on the Mind in the time of Age.

The Almond Tree shall flourish.

The Symptome last treated of was in reference to the great change that is made upon the Mind of Man; those which fol­low have reference to the Body. And that we may accurately observe the Wise Mans Method, we must premise one common di­stinction of the parts of the body; for we must know that these are not independent sayings, cast forth at a venture, but a most exact and methodical Treatise of the sym­ptomes of Age, as it influenceth and alter­eth all the parts of a Man: Now the parts of the Body (as the word is taken in the largest signification) are either Animate or Inanimate; either such as participate of the life of the whole, and are nourished by the intra-susception of enlivened ali­ment; or such as have no life at all from the Body, or in themselves, and are nouri­shed only by the juxta-position of an excre­ment: Of the first of these, there are very many in the Body of Man, which are treat­ed of in the following words: of the lat­ter [Page 161] of these there are very few, as the nails and the Hair; and of these the hair receiv­eth the most notorious alteration in Age, which is here signifyed unto us by these words; The Almond Tree shall flourish.

The word which is here translated an Almond Tree, is from the original word [...], advigilavit, to watch, or wake, as it is used in that place; Psal. 127. 1. The Watchman wa­keth but in vain: And by way of Analogy it is translated to signifie Amygdalus, the Almond Tree: Quae prima inter arbores evi­gilat; because this Tree before all others first waketh, and riseth from its Winters repose; it Flowers in the Moneth of Ja­nuary, and by March brings its Fruit to Maturity. Plin. lib. 16. c. 25. The forwardness of this fruit-bearing Tree is intimated unto us by the vision of Jeremy; for the World of the Lord came unto him, saying, Jeremy what see [...]t thou? and he said, I see a Rod of an Almond Tree: Then said the Lord unto him, Jer. 1. 11. 12. thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to fulfill it. The same word is in this Text used, both for the Almond Tree, and for ha­stening; Thou hast therefore well seen. Nothing could have better represented the speedy fulfilling of the Word of God, then that hastening, the Almond Tree. The manner that the Wise Man is pleased here [Page 162] to take, to express the great changes that happen to the Body of Man in the time of Age, is according to that intricate, and most mysterious, and aenigmatical way of the Aegyptians; whereby they are wont to ex­press their meaning of the things intended, by some other Creatures which do most resemble what they are speaking of. Now there is no change that befalleth Man that can be so lively represented by the bloom­ing of the Almond Tree, as that whereby the Hair of the Head becomes Hoary and White; and therefore florebit amygdalus, must needs signifie unto us, this great alte­ration; which bears resemblance unto that of the Almond Tree in several particulars, some of which follow hereafter.

First, They are both of them of the same colour, and represent themselves alike to the sight; the Blossomes of the Al­mond Tree are perfectly white, and so are the Hairs of the Old Man, and they are not onely nakedly of the same colour, but both of them so, by way of eminency; not on­ly white, but the whitest of all, none so white as they: Flores amygdali primi exi­stunt & maximi sunt albi prae caeteris arbori­bus. So also is it with Man in the time of Age, he is white, and no Creature, living to that time, so white as he: and hence it [Page 163] is that Logicians make Canescere to be pro­prium homini, tertio mo [...]o; quod convenit omni, soli, non semper. They will allow no Creatures at all to grow white when they are old, as Man doth: and although our Sense teacheth us, that almost all Creatures tend towards that colour, yet they very much vilifie it in comparison of a Man, and therefore give it a far more inferior, Gricesce­re. and an unhandsome Name.

Secondly, They do very much agree in their hastiness, and forwardness of putting forth; how early and quick the Almond Tree is in putting both its bloom and fruits hath been already [...]hewn; and might yet far­ther be confirmed in that great Mystery the Rod of Aaron, which although it was miraculously changed in one nights time, as a Token against the Rebels, to take away their Murmurings; yet it is to be no­ted, that it was done upon this for­ward Wood: Numb, 17. 8. And it came to pass that on the morrow, Moses went into the Tabernacle of Witnesse, and behold the Rod of Aaron for the House of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed Blossomes, and yeilded Almonds. But naturally also, this bloomes much sooner then other Trees; this is the true Erigeron, that ear­ly in the Spring-time bears the represen­tati [...]n [Page 164] of Old Age. Now it is better known to all Men how exceeding forward Gray-Hairs are.

There is no Symptome of Age puts forth its self sooner then this; and as the Almond Tree buds sooner by two or tree Moneths then most other Trees, so do these hasty buds of Age appear sometime twenty or thirty years before some others: Some Mens Hair begins to change when they are but thirty or forty years of Age, whereas many other symptoms appear not till they have passed sixty or seventy years. These steal upon Men suddenly, before they are aware, to which the Prophet doth allude in those ripe and unexpected Judg­ments that were falling upon Ephraim; Gray haires are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not. Hos. 7. 9.

Thirdly, They do agree in their emi­nency and remarkableness, they are both of them most signal things; Men stand still and admire if accidentally they cast their eyes upon the Almond Tree that stands all on the Blossome; and so they do if they behold a comely and honourable [Page 165] Head of Hair, that is as white as that: the Trees that blossome in March, or April, are little taken notice of, because then it is a common thing, neither have they that splendor upon them, that the Almond Tree hath, that advanceth its most comely top all alone, while all other sleep in their Win­ter Garments: In like manner the Almond Head is taken special notice of among a thousand, every one being very desirous to behold it, and that with great admiration and reverence; The glory of young Men is their strength, and the beauty and honour of old Men is the Gray-Head: Prov. 20. 29. And this ho­nour is put upon it by the special appoint­ment of God himself, Thou shalt rise up before the Hoary Head, and honour the face of the Old Man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord. Lev. 19. 32.

Fourthly, They are very much alike in their Indications, they are both of them most certain Diagnosticks of the thing they appertain to; if there are no other sings then they, yet may all Men be very well assured of the truth they bespeak; If there be no other Tree in all the Woods, or Or­chards, blossomed beside the Almond, yet know assuredly from thence, the Spring is come; if there be nothing at all besides that shews it: if no Flowers appear on the Earth, if the singing of the Birds be not [Page 166] come, if the voice of the Turtle be not heard in the Land, Cant. 2. 12, 13. if the Fig-Tree doth not yet put forth her green Figs, not the Vines with their tender Grape give a good smell; yet if the Almond Tree be blossomed, know of a truth, that the year is turned, and that the Sun is coming neerer towards us, and that the Sap stirs, though it be not elsehow perceived: The same certainty of demonstration also doth attend the Hoary Head; if no other symptome appear, yet if the Hair begin to change white, know from thence, that the Winter of Age hath already begun to shew it self; the evil dayes are coming on apace, though the Sun, or the Light, or the Moon, or the Stars be not darkned; though the keepers of the House, the strong Men, the Grinders, and the lookers out of the Windowes, be not yet enfeebled; though the Doors be open in the Street, and the voice of the Grind­ing, and the Daughters of Musick be as high as ever; yet if the Almond Tree flourish, if the Hair of the Head be chang­ed to White, it is an undoubted Indication of the weakness attending age: the habit of the Body is already changed, the innate heat begins to be suffocated, the radical moisture is consuming, the excrements (which constitute the Hair) are inconcoct­ed, [Page 167] and the temperament of Old age hath already seized the Man, although it be no other wayes to be discerned.

Lastly, They do also exceeding well agree in their Prognosticks; they are both of them most certain fore-runners and foretellers of what is to follow after them. If the Almond Tree be blossomed, it is a most certain sign that Fruit will come af­ter, and that it is not far behind; Aa­rons Rod budded (as you heard) and soon after it brought forth Almonds, the Flow­ers are in order to the Fruit that must suc­ceed.

And thus Gray Hairs the flowers of old age, do give a certain Prognostick, that death which is the Fruit thereof, is neer at hand. Jacob saith concerning his son Jo­seph, If mischief befall him by the way, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sor­row to the grave. Gen. 42. 38. A sad accident might have brought them down with sorrow to the grave; but they would have come as surely without. These are Church-yard [Page 168] flowers, which may serve to them that bear them, in stead of Passing-Bels, to give them certain notice, whither they are suddenly going. There are some Natura­lists who are yet bolder, and affirm, that the very thought and imagination of gray hairs, even in the dreams of them, though in a Person never so young, do portend the same thing: When they were Sacrificing in behalf of one of the Empe­rours of Rome, the hairs of a Boys Head, who did Administer to the Priests were all on a sudden changed to white; which the Soothsayers and Wise Men did presently interpret to the Change of the Empe­rour, and that an Old man should succeed, which accordingly fell out; for Nero, who was but one and thirty years old, was soon taken away, and Galba, who was seventy three, Reigned in his stead: There is far more certainty in the reality of the thing. It may thus fall out to young men, but it must thus fall out to old: Mors, senibus, in foribus est; juvenibus, in infidiis: Young men are taken away, but Old men goe away, in their own na­tural course; for Candidi are Candidati mortis, & per eam, immortalitatis. Those that are white are marked out in order unto death, and thereby unto immortali­ty. [Page 169] There might many other Particu­lars be assigned, wherein the Almond-Tree and the Hoary Head do exactly a­gree, but these few may suffice to shew us, that the change of no other part of the Body in age, can be hereby figured out unto us so properly as this we have been speaking of.

Beside Canities is a constant attendant on age, and is intimated unto us in no other part of this allegory: How often in Scripture are they mentioned both to­gether? I am now old and Gray Headed, saith Samuel: 1 Sam. 12. 2. and David Prayeth, When I am old and Gray-Headed O Lord forsake me not. Psal. 71. 18. Nay, I may say one thing of this Symptome, that is not to be said of any of the other; It is a plain and a full description of Age, without any addition at all; say a Gray-Headed man, and you say an Old man, without any farther Pe­riphrasis. The sword without, and ter­rour within, shall destroy both the young man, and the Virgin; the Suckling also, with the man of Gray Hairs. Deut. 32. 25.

The Grashopper shall be a burden; Or rather, Shall grow (or shew) big and burdensome.

In the interpretation of this sentence, and that which follows, which doth de­pend hereon, I must of necessity recede somewhat both from the common Transla­tion, and the usual interpretation of the place; wherein, if my opinion, together with its novelty, bring along with it any thing of satisfaction, I presume it will be never the worse accepted: For in these Theoretical notions, the danger is not so great, to deviate from the beaten road, and to be Heterodox to the general received opinion. For the subject of this Proposi­tion, without all controversie, it is the Locust or Grashopper, which differ very little, either in their nature or form, and may very well intend the same thing: The predicate is far more difficult, and there­fore hath given occasion to more variety of translations; that which is most usual is, Erit oneri, which our English exactly follows, The Grashopper shall be a burden; from whence most Interpreters do put this sense upon the place, viz. that the Gras­hopper, or any such small thing, is a great burden to old men; which although it [Page 171] may be a truth, yet it can in no wise be in­tended by these words. For then King Solomon would in this clause vary much from the general scope of all these verses, which is (as hath already been said) Alle­goricall, and from the particular mode of expressing himself in this verse, which is Hieroglyphical. Beside the words in no propriety of Grammer can possibly bear such a sense as this; and it hath been a great wonder to me how this Construction was first taken up, and how it hath gained so great credit among men: Nor can I yet give my self the least satisfaction herein, unless it be from the ambiguity of the La­tine Phrase, Erit oneri, which may very well be taken in a double sense; either Erit oneri seni, seu alteri; or Erit oneri sibi. The first of these must be taken for the carrying the words to the interpretati­on which hath been before mentioned; but how incongruous it is to the very Grammatical reading of the words, any one who is the least skilled in the Original can easily give an account. For what is here predicated is directly predicated of the Grashopper, and not in relation to any other person, or thing else whatsoever. And hence some have translated it, Onera­bitur, sive gravabitur; others, Onerabit, [Page 170] [...] [Page 171] [...] [Page 172] sive gravabit se; others, Crescet; the Vulgar Latine gives the Metaphor one re­move more, to those that are burdened with flesh or fat, rendring it, impinguabi­tur Locusta; but the Translation of the Septuagint upon this word is most remar­kable, and gives very great light to the understanding of the true meaning of the place, [...], Crassabitur, densabi­tur, vel pinguecset. Wherefore that the doubtfulness of speech, both in the Latine and English, (which hath misled most In­terpreters) may be for the future remo­ved, I judge it most convenient that the Translation of the Vulgar Latine take principal place, or that it be rendred in Latine, Locusta, onustam se reddet, or, praebebit; which the Conjugation doth mostly favour; and in English, the Gras­hopper shall grow (or shew) big and bur­densome. For the right understanding of which words, we must be sure to enquire, what parts of the body of man they are, that may be most aptly represented by the Grashopper, and what change that is, that is here denoted unto us: Which that we may the better do, we must also take no­tice of one special distinction of the parts of the body.

Of the parts of the body that are enlive­ned [Page 173] by the spirit of the whole (for of the other mention was made in the last) there be two sorts: Either the fluid, moyst, succulent, tender, and soft parts of the body; or the dry, solid, tensile, hard, and cru [...]y parts of the body. The first of these, seem to be intended in the follow­ing words, the last of these, in these that are before us. This distinction is usually termed, the distinction of the Philoso­phers, in opposition to all those manifold divisions of the parts of the body, that are to be found among Physicians; And in­deed it hath more of clearness and demon­stration in it, than any of the other; nei­ther that of Hippocrates in [...], & [...]; nor that of Galen, in spermati­cas & sanguineas; nor that generally re­ceived among most, In similares & organi­cas, is without its difficulties; It hath put very learned and ingenious men very hard to it, to make the best of these stand firm against its opposers: but this that we are now speaking of, is so plain and obvious to the sense, that no man ever yet disal­lowed of it, or hath at any time underta­ken to contradict it. Indeed, that distin­ction of the parts into spermatical and sanguineous, as usually it is applied, comes the nearest to what is here intended; but [Page 174] the terms are not so proper; and beside, they are built upon a false foundation, which is, that the several parts of the bo­dy have their origination from several and distinct principles of generation: viz. semen & sanguis menstruus; but the ingenuity of this later Age, hath justly exploded such a Doctrine as that, and hath brought all knowing men to confess, that all the parts of the body, both of one kind and of ano­ther, have their original equally from one and the same seminal matter. And yet the former distinction of the parts, in molle [...] & duras, may be found to have a just right, even from their first producer. For the seed it self, is not of so equal a substance and consistence, but that variety of parts, as to softness and hardness, may easily be discerned in it. And this Job (beyond all humane Writers whatsoever) doth plainly declare, when he saith, Job 10. 10. Thou hast poured me out like milk, and crudled me like Cheese. The very first matter of generation in this respect hath a double substance; there is a lacteous, and a case­ous part therein; there is a tenderer and a more fluid part; there is also a more Con­densed and Coagulated part; which are apt to produce afterward parts in the body of the like diversification; as the follow­ing [Page 175] verse doth plainly express; Thou hast covered me with skin, and with flesh; thou hast fenced me with bones and with sinews; bones and sinews, they proceed from the crudled part of the seed; flesh of all sorts, both Musculous, Parenchymous, and Glandulous, that proceeds from the fluid or milky part; and skin, that is the medium participationis of them both. Flesh and bones therefore seem to stand in the grea­test opposition one unto another in respect of this distinction of the parts; And all the other parts of the body to each other, as they have relation to one of these. Now which of these two the Grashopper doth best resemble, is very easie for any one to give an account.

The Locust and Grashopper are both of them hard, crusty, cragged, crumpling Creatures, differing from all others prin­cipally in the protuberance of their limbs, having their legs strangely crooked, and their joynts very closely inverted, and at a great distance from the trunk of their body. And this is the most remarkable thing in their frame, and that by which they are described in the Book of God; Lev. 1. 22. Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet to leap withal upon the [Page 176] earth; And afterward they are enumera­ted, The Locust after his kind, and the Grashopper after his kind. Ver. 23. This then be­ing the known form of these Creatures, they do most aptly represent the hard and solid parts of the body, the bones and their protuberances, and all those parts that are produced from the thicker part of the seminary matter. Osteologers have very well observed, that the parts apper­taining to the bones, which stand out at a distance from their bodies, are either the Adnate, or the Enate parts, either the Epiphyses, or the Apophyses of the bones. The first of these in Age grow harder and more compact and affixed to the bones themselves; the last of these in Age grow more apparent, and seem to be bigger, and stand at a farther distance, than they did before: And unto this it is that the Chal­dee Paraphrase doth directly point; Infla­buntur tali pedum tuorum. Now, the Tali are sometime taken for the Astralagi, the bones in the heel, and sometime for the Malleoli; the Apophyses, of those two bones which constitute the leg, namely, the Tibia, and the Fibula; all which, to­gether with them that answer them in the wrist, and all other bunching parts of the bones, (which would be needless particu­larly [Page 177] to name,) do in age appear far bigger, and at a greater distance from the body of the bone, than they did before. Yet I cannot but take more special notice of one sort of bones, whose Apophyses are more eminent, than any others; and may there­fore be more aptly resembled by the Gras­hoppers, and they are the Vertebrae of the Spine; every one of which, both in the neck, in the back, and in the loyns, have seven several prominencies, four oblique ones, namely, two ascending, and two descending: two transverse ones, and one acute, strait forward towards the skin. Now, when man by reason of age begins to stoop and bend forward, and withal those fleshy parts, that cover these processes, begin to shrink and decay, (as shall be shewed in the following symptome) it must necessarily follow, that all those Apophyses must appear a great deal plainer and bigger, than they were before, where­by they will so exactly resemble the several protuberances of the limbs of the Gras­hopper, that no words can sufficiently ex­press their likeness, and none but the dili­gent observer of them both, can possibly understand. And from this exact likeness, without all doubt, arose the Fable of Ti­thonus, that living to extream old age, he [Page 178] was at last turned into a Grashopper, and into it, it may be very well moralized again; For then the body of man is quite another thing than what it was in its prime, it is contracted, and becomes much less, and crumpled up together, and in the end is brought even to crawle upon the ground.

There remaineth yet one reason more that induceth me to believe, that the parts we have been speaking of, are principally here intended, and that is taken from the word which is here the predicate, whose root [...] signifieth primarily, to carry or bear burdens, Lam. 5. 7. Ezr [...] 6. 3. Nch. 4. 10 and in this sense it is mostly used. Now, the parts in man that may be called the Porters, and which bear the burdens that are carried, can be no othe [...] than the S [...]apula, and its A [...]r [...]mion, which is the part upon which the burden is pitched; and the back bone which is the part that gives the greatest strength to­wards the bearing of it, both which, when age hath much enfeebled a man, become [Page 179] unserviceable as unto those ends, these Porters do now become a porterage them­selves, and those parts that were wont to bear the greatest burdens, are now so great a burden themselves, that the man stoops under them, and is scarce able to bear them.

Now, as the bones are principally here intended, so also all the other solid parts of the body, that are made of the same cras­siment of seed, may be here included; and if we do but here recal the Translation of the LXX, we shall understand what change it is in age, that all these undergo; the Cartila­ges of the body, the Ligaments, the Mem­branes, the Fibres, the Veins, the Arte­ries, the Nerves, and Tendons, and the like, do all grow harder and drier in age, and tend more towards the nature of bones. The skin also being partly of this kind (as was before said) is to be numbred hereunto, which so long as man remains in strength is beautiful, plain, and polite; but as he declines, grows more crustly, and dry, and callous, and consequently falls in­to abundance of wrinckles.

[Page 180] And that learned Physician, Vallesius, de sacra Philos. c. 66. (who in his youth had wearied himself out with the un­certainty and confusion of prophane Au­thors, and therefore in his age betook himself to sacred Philosophy,) that he might more powerfully assign over this Hieroglyphical expression to the sense we have here delivered, saith; the Locust ought to be understood of the Sea-Locust, which is covered over with an hard, and a crusty and rugged shell: and whosoever shall so take it, cannot but conclude, that it doth decipher the parts, we have now treated of. However, I judge the Land-Locust, or Grashopper may very well signifie the same thing; beside, it is much better known to men, than the other is, and may be extended to some parts (that ought here to be included) which the other cannot so significantly denote; For by this Clause, the Grashopper shall be a burden, we are to understand the altera­tion of all the more hard and solid parts of the body, usually called the spermatical; Ductilium, viz. induratio, & incrustatio; & fragilium extantia, & prominentia.

Desire shall fail, Or rather. The Capers shall shrink.

The word [...] hath two remar­kable significations, the one primary and plain, whereby it signifieth, desiderium, concupiscentia, appetitus; desire, or appe­tite; the other, secondary or figurative, whereby it signifieth Capparis, Capers, or the fruit, or rather the flowers of the Ca­per shrub, or bush. And this word is translated from its first signification to this latter, because of the known use of Ca­pers, which is to excite the appetite; Cap­paris excitat orexin, & appetitum, cibi, & veneris: from whence it is, that some do not improbably derive the word from [...], ad luxuriam concito; and for these ends, especially that of the stomack, are they preserved in pickle, and so often used among us for sauce. Now, that the word in this place ought to be taken in this lat­ter, that is, in the figurative signification, these following reasons do induce me to believe, every one of which singly, seem to have a good perswasive power; but all of them joyntly, have doubtless a com­pulsive power, to any rational man to be of the same opinion. The first, is the ge­neral [Page 182] scope, that the wisdom of Solomon▪ proposeth to it self in this whole descripti­on of age, which is by way of Allegory all along. No wonder therefore if the same wisdom, where there be two signifi­cations of a word, shall rather prefer the Allegorical; the second, is the particular intent of this verse, which is to shew the sensible alterations that are made in man in old age, both in respect of his mind, and of the several parts of the body, and that symbolically, or by way of resemblance to other things: and not at all to relate to any of the faculties; and that which doth abundantly back this reason, is, that the weakned faculties were described before, and particularly it was shewn sufficiently, how the appetite both ad cibum and Coitum was weakned, in the last verse, in those words, the voice of the grinding is low: And therefore a learned Commentator upon this place, Cornel. a Lap. when he had said, Senum libido frigescit, further adds, (that which might better distinguish it from what went before,) & organa coitus dissipantur; which is indeed, the true purport of the words, though but in part. Again, the Contextural expressions are of the self­same nature, both those that follow in the Allegory, namely, the silver Cord, and [Page 183] the golden Bowl: and also those that im­mediately precede, namely, the Grashop­per, and the Almond tree: And as the word [...] was translated from its primary signification, which is, waking, (as was said,) to that figurative, of the Almond tree; so also would it be most congruous to deal with this word we are now about. Again, Authority is suffici­ent, yea, abundant for this way of tran­slating it: If any one please to consult all the variety of Interpreters, he shall find (that which is a great rarity) the most and the best to go together, this way; and since Hieron did but give favour hereunto, I find no Translatour vary hencefrom, but some few into Vulgar Tongues.

Lastly, By this way of translating on­ly, there will be a direct opposition, and a perfect Antithesis (which certainly there ought to be) betwixt this word and that which immediatly went before. The Grashoppers and Capers are in their form and fashion; their substance and con­sistence, clean contrary one to another; The one, being protuberous, rough, cru­sty, and hard: The other, round, smooth, spongy, and soft: And therefore may be very fit Emblems to represent the several contradistinct parts of the body, under the [Page 184] same variety of consistence. Wherefore, as the Grashopper did principally represent the bones, and secondarily, all those parts that proceed from the Crassiment of the seed; so also here, the Capers do as aptly represent principally the flesh, and seconda­rily, the other moyst and fluid parts of the body that proceed from the more tenuous part of the seminary matter: and that which doth farther confirm this reason, is, from the Antithesis that is also in the pre­dicate of these expressions: For as there, the Grashoppers are said to grow big, or burdensome; So here, the Capers are said to shrink or decay; for so the word [...] signifieth, and is usually transla­ted, dissipabitur, abolebitur, conteret, shall wast or consume, shall be spent, or worn out; and is a Metaphor taken from interbastation, patching or piecing, sewing or clapping close together, making faster or harder those things, that were more dilated, spongy, and flourishing before: So that what we are to understand by this Sentence, the Capers shall shrink, is the alteration of all the moyst and tender parts of the body, usually called, the sanguine­ous; Fluidarum, scil. depravatio & mino­ratio: & mollium ariditas & consumptio; I cannot exclude hencefrom that change [Page 185] that befalleth the bloud and natural hu­mours of the body in the time of age: For they become low and much depauperated, they are diminished, and far less in quantity than they were before.

Nor can I exclude that change that hap­neth to the fat and marrow; man in his full strength is described by Job to be such an one, Job 21. 23, 24. Whose breasts are full of milk, and his bones moystned with marrow: But when he is very old, there is scarce any milk, or fat, or marrow, or moysture left in all his body; a Consumption is determined concerning them all. But that alteration which is principally here intended, is that which befalleth those parts of the body that usually go under the name of flesh. Now, the flesh of the body is of three sorts, Parenchymous, Glandulous, or Muscu­lous; The flesh either of the bowels or entrails, or of the Glandules or kernels; or lastly, of the Muscles, or outward parts of the body that are the instruments of vo­luntary motion. It is without all question, that the entrails of man, as the Liver, the Spleen, the Heart, the Lungs, &c. do receive great alteration in age, they de­cline [Page 186] very much from their softness, spon­giness and porofity, and become far har­der and faster, and more Schirrous than they were before. The same also may be said concerning all the natural Glandules in the body of man, those that serve ei­ther to Excretion, to Reduction, or to Nutrition: They all of them vary much from their primitive tenderness and big­ness, and so become more durous, and are far more consumed than they were at first; and that which the Learned and most inge­nious Author of the late Tract De Glandu­lis, Dr. Wh [...]r­ton, c. 16. doth observe of the Thymus, by the time of middle age; may be also observed of most of the other Glandules in the time of extream age; that is, that they will bear very little proportion either in weight or substance, to what they did at first, but by experience they are found to shrivel and shrink away, and be consumed almost to nothing.

But of all the parts of the body, those lax and tender flakes of flesh, that lye over, and cover the bones, and are at both ends affixed to them, which from the form of some of them are usually called Muscles, do most properly deserve the name of flesh, and are consequently chiefly inten­ded in this place. These are in Scripture [Page 187] called the coverings of a man: Psa. 139. 13. Job 10. 11. Thou hast covered me, saith David, in my mothers womb. And again Job, Thou hast covered me with skin, and with flesh. Now, as man declines in years, so do these cove­rings wax old and shrink, so that at length they become shorter and narrower, than that a man can comelily be wrapped up in them: So that this, together with the for­mer Symptome, doth abundantly shew the great alteration and deformity that is easily discerned upon the external parts of the body, in the time of extream age. The body becomes more uncomly, crag­ged, and crumpled, the bones stare through the skin, the flesh that should cover them is wasted much away. And this conditi­on is lively described by Elihu, one of the friends of Job; who speaking of Gods dealing with men, sometime in reference to their body, (pointing therein at Jobs Consumption, which in this respect is ex­actly answerable to the Marasmus Senilis,) saith, His flesh is consumed away that it can­not be seen, and his bones that were not seen, stick out. Job 33. 21. I would have this expression be principally noted, and remembred, as be­ing a most perfect Comment upon these two last mentioned Symptomes of age. For the former words, viz. His flesh is [Page 188] consumed away that it cannot be seen, is the same that is said in these words, Dissipatur Capparis: and the latter words, viz. The bones which were not seen, stick out, is the same which is said in those, Impinguatur Locusta.

And thus much shall suffice to have spo­ken for the Explication of all those Sym­tomes that attend a man all along the time of his decrepit state.

For man goeth to his long home: and the mourners go about the streets.

These words being not at all figurative, but only a plain and easie transition from one part of the Allegory to another, namely, from those Symptomes that attend a man all along his decrepit state, unto those that do immediately forerun his Dissolution: It is beside my purpose to speak to them at all, for my intention hath been only to explain the difficult terms in the Allegory; And I would not willing­ly seem to any, 1 Pet. 4. 15. [...], to play the Bishop in anothers Diocess, or to meddle with those matters that are pecu­liarized to another Coat, yet because the words are now read, I cannot but take no­tice of two things in them, that is, first, the term of long home; and se­condly, [Page 189] the mourning at the funeral.

The word [...] which intimates unto us the state of death, and is here transla­ted Long: hath three eminent significati­ons, either of which may be very well ac­cepted in this place.

In the first place it signifieth, abditum, occultum; a secret and an hidden thing, and thus it is derived from the word [...] Latitavit, absconditum fuit, as it is very often used: Lev. 4. 13. 5. 2. If the whole Congregation of Israel sin through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly. And again, (not to cite many places to this purpose which were easie to do,) in the last Verse of this Chapter and Book of Ecclesiastes; For God will bring every work to judgment, with every secret thing; which is from the same original word used in this fifth verse for long home. And in­deed, that home that we are all hasting to, and know not how soon we may re­cover or come at; and aged persons are undoubtedly at the door of: is the true and proper hiding place for all living: For they shall all lye down alike together in the grave, Job 21. 26. and the worms shall cover them. 40. 13. Men are hid together in the dust, and their faces are there bound in secret. Death is a state of obscurity, and the [Page 190] Grave a place of secresie; and there­fore it is that Job, wishing for death, phraseth it; Job 4. 13. Oh that thou wouldest hide me in the Grave, that thou wouldest keep me in secret: But beside the bare sig­nification of secresie, this word doth for the most part carry along with it an intimation of duration or continu­ [...]nce; and therefore may very well be translated, Tempus eujus duratio est ab­scondita, an hidden duration, a time that no man knows how long; which is exactly answered by our English Law-phrase, time out of mind; and that both à parte, post; and à parte, ante; time either that is past, or that is to come; of which no man can give an account: Both which also are signified unto us by the Latine word Olim, which without all question came from the Hebrew word we are now speak­king of; Eccl. 1. 10. as both the sound and signi­fication will abundantly make appear: Now this duration at least is in the state of death, that no man knows how long it will continue: No one living can give an account how long it shall be before, the earth shall disclose her bloud and her bones, and shall no more cover her slain.

[Page 191] The second signification of the word is avum, seculum an age, a certain long space of time, that is, commensurate with the duration of the thing, that is spoken of▪ A perpetuity (as I may so say) that is cir­cumscribed; an everlastingness that lasts as long, as the thing of which it is affirm­ed: It is said of an Hebrew Servants refu­sing to go out free, Deut. 15. 17. Exod. 21. 6. His Master shall bore his Ear through with an Aul, and he shall serve him for ever. And again when Han­nah resolved to present her son Samuel to the Lord, she saith, I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide for ever: 1 Sam. 1. 22. 28. which Term for ever is af­terwards explained, when she doth bring him and present him; then she saith, I have lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth: 1 Sam. 27. ult. Now in this sense also may the word be taken in this place, so long as Death lives (and it is the last enemy that shall be de­stroyed) it will keep in its possession, all that it hath, or shall surprize: The Graves must be our homes, when once we come there, as long as there is any Dust to co­ver us, or Heavens to surround us. Men lieth down and riseth not, till the Heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be rai­sed out of their sleep. Job. 14: 12. Untill the grave shall not onely cease from craving, but from be­ing; [Page 192] and untill death be wholly swallowed up of victory, all those Bodies that are un­der their power, must there quietly re­main, as in their own unalterable habitati­ons.

The last signification of this word is du­ratio absolute infinita, aeternitas: A com­pleat and absolute perpetuity, eternity. And in this signification it is mostly used, and must alwayes be interpreted when it is applyed to God, or any of his Attributes, as often it is. When Nebuchadnezzars understanding was returned to him, he bles­sed the most high, Dan. 4. 37. and praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: Again it is said in Isaiah, Isa 45. 17. Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Now in this last sense also may the same word in this place be safely taken; in domum ater­nitatis suae. The state we arrive at, by Death, is an everlasting state, and we shall never return to this life again through all eternity. And hence it is that usually we find such Epitaphs; hanc aternam sedem sibi pos [...]it: and ‘Hac domus aeterna est, hic sum situs, hic ero semper.’

[Page 193] Nor is the Scripture without its testimo­ny hereunto; Ps. 39, 13. for David saith, Spare me a little that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more. And Job doth not only, say it, but argue upon it: There is hope of a Tree if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, Job 14. Ver. 7. Ver. 8. and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root there of wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground: Ver. 9. Yet through the sent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant; But Man dieth, Ver. 10. and wasteth away; yea Man giveth up the Ghost, and where is he? And that Interrogation, Ver. 14. If a Man die, shall he live again? which usually is interpreted ve­hemently to affirm; seems on the contrary to me, most earnestly to deny, and is as much as to say, if a Man die he shall never live more, no hopes of a return to this life again: And this

First the manner of proposing the que­stion seems chiefly to intend; for it is not negatively proposed; If a man die shall he not live again? but affirmatively, shall he live again? Now Negative Interrogati­ons do in all Languages, and in Scripture phrase too, more properly intend affirma­tive Propositions, as where it is said, Doth not each of you, Luke 13. 15, 16. on the sabbath day loose his Oxe, or his Ass, from the stall? and ought [Page 194] not this Woman also to be loosed? both of them most vehemently affirming: and a­gain, another Interrogation; How shall he not also with him give us all things? Rom. 8. 32. is as much as to say, he shall most surely do it. On the other hand, affirmative Interroga­tions do for the most part intend negative Propositions: Joseph saith, How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Gen. 39. [...]. and the Lord saith, How shall I give thee up O Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee Isra­el? Hos. 11. 8 9. how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? all of them in­tending the denying of the thing: Both these Interrogations, about the same sub­ject too, are together in one Verse of the Psalms, still intending their contrary Pro­positions; What Man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? Psal. 89. 48. shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? the first part of the Verse is negatively propo­sed, and therefore signifies the strong af­firming of the thing, he shall surely see death: and the latter part of the verse is affirmatively proposed, and therefore sig­nifieth the vehement negation of it; he shall in no wise deliver his soul from the hand of the Grave: The manner there­fore of proposing this question being with­out a negative, doth seem to carry the sense, [Page 195] that if a man be dead he shall never live again.

Secondly the inference that is hence made confirms the same thing; All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come; doth far more naturally and powerfully proceed from the denying of life again, then from the asserting it: as to the diligent observer will easily appear; if a man shall never live again in this world, it is of most high concern to prepare for that change that foreruns an everlasting state. There is no returning more from death, and therefore let every one wait upon his business, and finish it, before that time come: There is no work, nor devise, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither we are going: And since there is no returning thencefrom, how cogent will the argument be, for every one to wait all the dayes of his appointed time, till his change shall come. If the Tree fall to the south, Eccles. 9, 10. or to the north, in the place where the Tree falls, there it shall be: And therefore it is of the greatest concern to take care how the Tree fall. If a man at his depar­ture out of this life fall towards happiness, or towards misery, in the same condition he falls, shall he remain for ever; and there­fore it is a business of everlasting concern, to await our fall.

[Page 196] But lastly, that which makes it yet more clear, that this interrogation intends the negative, is the words in the latter end of this Chapter; where Job resuming the sub­ject, and summarily declaring what he had been before speaking of; he saith plainly, Thou prevailest for ever against him, Job 14. v. 20. and he passeth, thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. I speak not these things in the least to enervate that most comfor­table Christian Doctrine of the Resurrecti­on; and as Job was very carefull in the forecited Chapter, to keep his reserve as unto that; so that in the middest of the Chapter (that therefore it might have an aspect over the whole) he interposeth a sentence to that purpose; Vers. 12. Man lieth down and riseth not, till the Heavens be no more. So I would not have any one so far mistake this Doctrine, as to think the Body of Man shall be kept in everlasting Chaines of dark­ness: for, though it shall never return to this working state again, yet God hath ap­pointed a set time, Vers. 13. to remember it in: at which time it shall, by the Word of God, shake off its corruption, dishonour, and weakness; and by his gift shall be cloath­ed with spirituality, 1 Cor. 15. 41, 42. glory, and Immortali­ty. Herein no one can erre, who knowes the Scripture, and the Power of God, as [Page 197] our Saviour intimates; Mat. 22. v. 29. The Power of God reacheth us, that God can raise the dead; and the Scriptures teach us that he will; and what God can, and will do, must cer­tainly come to pass: But the Doctrine of the New Testament gives a far clearer light hereunto, therein there is a sufficient testimony given unto all Men, in raising Christ from the dead: 1 Cor. 15. 23. For he being the first Fruits of them that sleep, gives a certain demonstration, that all the other also must follow in their order. Act. 17. 18. [...] are so neerly related to each other, that they are Preached, and Believed, they are slight­ed, and contemned together: their foun­dation is so much the same, that they must necessarily stand and fall alike. I have ob­served that those late spreading Doctrines that have purposely obscured the History of Christ at Jerusalem, have, before they have been aware, wholly lost the Doctrine of the Resurrection: I shall not farther add hereunto; it may seem that I have too much digressed already; but I hope no far­ther, then for the necessary clearing of the words long home, and the reserving entire, that unquestionable Article of our Faith, the Resurrection of the Body.

The other remarkable thing is the Mourning at the Funeral; I shall not spend [Page 198] time in discoursing what kind of Mourn­ers these are; whether Children, Relati­ons, Friends, Neighbours, hired Persons, these, or any, or all of these; it is enough that there is a Publick Mourning expres­sed, at such a Funeral as this; I say it is enough, and methinks I hear some others say, it is too much; for if it be so, as hath been related, if Age be so miserable and comfortless a condition as hat been descri­bed; happy sure are they, that are gon, or going, off from it: If all manner of evills do attend those that are extreamly aged, and nothing that good or pleasurable is; when they change this State, for that which is perfectly happy (as we ought to believe concerning all our Christian Friends de­parted) in stead of Mourning, why should there not be Rejoycing? in stead of hang­ing down the Head and Weeping, Why should there not be lifting up the Head and Triumphing? at so great a bettering their condition, as such a Change must necessa­rily produce: To this I must needs answer, That, if we truly understood our selves, and were throughly possessed of what we do profess, in respect of the party Deceased, there were no cause of Mourning at all, but rather of Rejoycing; And this not onely in respect of Persons decrepit with [Page 199] Age, but of any other, in whatsoever flou­rishing condition of this Life; for the change would then be, but from a less mi­serable estate, to that which is most com­pleatly blessed: for Man, at his best estate, as he is altogether Vanity, so is he very miserable, and encompassed and perplexed with abundance of evil, which his last hap­py change gives him a deliverance from for ever. Isa. 57. 1. The righteous are taken away from the evil to come: and the state they are ta­ken to, is infinitely and unexpressibly hap­py. Most noble and excellent was that saying upon a Moral account; The self­same journey that thou hast taken from no being, unto being, and from a perexistent being, to this mortal life; thou mayest again take (with the same assurance of preferment) from this Life, by Death; to a Life that has Immortality in it: but the Believer in Christ Jesus onely, hath a true prospect of the advantages of his great Change: the Life of Christ, and the gain of death, are known and apprehended to­gether: Phil. 1. 21. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. He that hath lived unto the Lord knowes fullwell; 2 Cor. 5. 1. That when his earthly house of this Tabernacle shall be dissolved, he hath a building of God, an House not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens. He [Page 200] assuredly knowes from the prelibation of Eternal Life, which he hath had in this World, that then all tears shall be wiped away from his eyes, & he shall never know one evil more, and that he shall be put in­to immediate possession of all those good things, that he either Prayed, or hoped for in this life, into a perfect state of Bliss, infi­nite, at least, for the duration: And there­fore upon this account, there will be very little cause of Lamentation. And, who­soever he is, that Mournes meerly upon the account of the Party deceased, he doth necessarily redargue himself of unbelief, and plainly shew, that there is an haesitation in his Mind, concerning one of these two things; whether Heaven be such a place as hath been described unto us in the Book of God, or whether his Friend be assuredly gone to that place. So that Funeral Mourn­ings are, as Divines say of Funeral Ser­mons, more in respect of the Living then of the Dead. To go unlamented is no misery to the Dead; but a shame to the Living. There doth indeed lie a Duty upon all that are left behind, to bewail their own loss of their Godly Friend; Na­tural Affection, and the Fleshly part of Man ought something to be indulged in this respect; but the loss of a great and a [Page 201] long Example of Piety, whose presence hath been a continued blessing, both to persons and places; ought most seriously and sadly to affect the inward man; and therefore they are sharply reproved by the Prophet, Isa. 57. 1. who are negligent in this duty; The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; the merciful men are taken away, none considering, &c. And it is to be ob­served, that the Saints of God, though never so old, and brought never so low, through the miseries attending them; when they changed this life for a better, were still buried with great lamentation. Gen. 50. 11. Abel-mizraim was a place never to be for­got, 1 Sam. 2 [...]. 1. either by the Egyptians, Num. 20 19. or the Ca­naanites; and not Jacob only, but Moses, and Aaron, Deut. 34. 8. and Samuel were buried by the assembly of the people of Israel, and very great publick mournings was made for them all.

Or ever the silver Cord be loosed.

The first thing that we must here make enquiry into, is what we are to understand by the Cord; and we must be sure here also as in all other parts of the description, to keep within compass of the Allegory; and find out those parts of a man that are hereby represented. For he it is, that hath hitherto been described unto us, as an old house greatly decayed and ruinated, but yet standing, by all the foregoing Sym­ptomes; but now as an house falling down which must no longer remain, by this Sym­tome, and those three which immediately follow in this verse. And therefore these may very well be called, Cajetan. quatuor mortis Con­comitantia; the four attendants upon dying man.

The Scripture maketh mention of the Cords of a man, Hos. 11. 4. which although they are there to be taken in a Moral sense, and so excentricall to what we are now about, yet they are a Metaphor taken from the natu­ral cords of a man, and may give some light thereunto: for as love in all bodies politick (and consequently mystical) doth both draw and unite; so in all bodies na­tural, the self-same offices are performed [Page 205] by those parts of which we are about to speak; for we must know, that all the several parts of man, are not kept, and bound fast together by spels, nor are his several members moved several waies, as it were by Magick Art, the soul of man doth not by a bare jubeo, cause the repre­sentation of outward objects, or the varia­tion of the position of the several limbs, without the help of instruments, but by the apt frame of the whole body, and the pliableness of the several parts, and the convenient position of all the Cords and Pulleys towards their appointed ends, we perceive outward objects, and move our selves at pleasure so; as that an artificial man, could there be in it, the same organs, and the same disposition of them all, to­gether with an active power to put them in execution, would have a like sense and motion with our selves. The Chaldee Pa­raphrase doth interpret this Cord to the Ligula linguae, the string of the tongue; others interpret it to the Spinalis medulla, the marrow of the back; others, to the Nerves; others, to the outward Tunicle of the Nerves and marrow, which they have proper to themselves, for their own strength; beside the other two which they receive from the brain. All these have [Page 206] offered exceeding well, and without doubt have hit the truth, and being put together may seem to make the whole of what is here intended, which is the whole instru­ment of sense and motion, after it hath proceeded out of the Scull, and as it is di­stributed throughout the body; with all its Coats and Tunicles, with all its divisi­ons and separations. I mean, not only the spinal marrow is here to be understood, (as principally it ought to be,) but all the Nerves arising thence from, (both those seven pair, be they more or less, that pro­ceed from it, before it hath attained any of the spines; and those thirty pair, that proceed from the several Vertebrae of the neck, the back, the loyns, and the Os Sa­crum,) and also the Filaments, and Fi­bers, and Tendons, that proceed from all those Nerves. The Nerves and Fibers must in no wise be here left out, forasmuch as they do more apparently both unite and draw, than any other of the parts what­soever. Job 10. 11. Job saith, Thou hast fenced me with bones and with sinews. I compare these fences of a man, to those of an hedge; where the bones answer to the stakes in the hedge, making the substan­tial trunk of the body, unto which all the other parts are to be fastned: and the [Page 207] Sinews or Nerves to the binders of the hedge; which fasten and unite all the other parts to that trunke; and as for motion or drawing, it is well known that there is none in all the body performed, (whether vo­luntary or natural,) but by the influence of the animal spirits upon the Nerves and Fibers, and their contraction thereupon, in those several parts, into which they are inserted. Now, although all the several and innumerable Filaments are to be ac­counted hereunto, yet they are most aptly expressed in the singular number, by funi­culus argenteus, the silver Cord, because they are but the continuation of the same thing: The Fibers being nothing else but the Nerves divided and dispersed, and the Nerves nothing else but the marrow in like manner separated, as so many arms and branches of the same tree; they are all one in their original, the brain; they are all one in their continuation for a long time, in the spine; they are all one in their co­lour, white; they are all one in their form, long and round; they are all one in their Coats having each the same three Tunicles, they are all one in their use, to convey the animal spirits, and all this in an apt resem­blance to a Cord; to which also they are not unlike in their division, for then, they [Page 208] are but as so many wreaths, or wattles of the same Cord; and that which is most observable to our present purpose, is that by how much the more distant they are from their original, by so much the thin­ner, and finer, the harder, and more com­pact do they grow, like the several smal­ler, and better twisted ends of the same Cord.

It is called the silver Cord, first from its colour, for it appears to the eye, of a white, shining, resplendent, beauty, bright as silver; and thus it is even when it is taken out of the body, after it is dead; but how much more admirable and glori­ous must it needs be, while it remains in the body yet living, and actuated with abundance of most refined spirits, which continually ascend and descend thereupon. An Ancient and an admirable Anatomist, F [...]llobius upon consideration of the great lustre and perspicuity of it, compares it to the Cry­stalline humour of the eye, and farther affirms, that he never saw any thing in all his life, more beautiful than those two things.

Secondly, It may be called the silver Cord, from its place in which it is seated in the body: it is placed very deep, secret, and secure; Job 2 [...]. 1. Job saith, Surely there is a vein [Page 209] for the silver; that is, there is an intricate, hidden, and mysterious Cavity in the earth, in which this Lunar Mineral, doth more securely pass its branches; just thus the Cord of our body, as soon as ever it hath left its original, it is passed into the most inward, and secret Cavity of the Spine, which by reason of that admiration and reverence the Ancients had for it, they called, [...], the holy Pipe; and when in several places it passeth thence­from, it is conveyed all along with won­derful artifice, both for secresie and secu­rity, which is continued to the most mi­nute Filaments, for throughout the whole body, it lieth lower, and deeper, and safer, than the Veins, or Arteries, or any other common Conveyers in the body of man.

Lastly, and chiefly, It is called the sil­ver Cord, because of its excellency: For as Silver above all other Minerals what­soever (save only that most absolute and perfect one of Gold,) is, and ought to be most valued and esteemed; so is, and ought, this part we are now speaking of, next unto that most absolute and perfect part, the brain, which in the very next following Symptome is assimulated unto Gold. The ingenious Chymists take [Page 210] pleasure to liken the several Metals they find in the bowels of the earth, to the heavenly Luminaries, who after they have compared the most perfect, aptly to the Sun; they in the next place, liken this of Silver as aptly to the Moon, and there­fore decipher it also by the self-same Cha­racter; shewing us hereby, that as the Moon in Heaven, is far more glorious and excellent, than all other Coelestial Bodies whatsoever, (the Sun alone excepted,) so Silver in the earth, above all Terrestri­al Bodies whatsoever (Gold alone excep­ted) hath the same preheminence.

And this dignity hath the Spinal Mar­row with all its branches above all other parts of the body except the brain; it hath been in such esteem among Philoso­phers, Plato in Timaeo. Hippoc. that the best of them hath acknow­ledged it the foundation of life; and the great Master of Physicians hath dignified it with the name of [...], thereby clearly intimating, that if vitality be not chiefly therein placed, yet the highest and most noble operations thereof, are performed [Page 211] thereupon. And such an exact likeness there is between the Nerves and Silver, that they do by a mutual and reciprocal Metaphor, sutably express one another, in the two several Worlds.

For as the Nerves or Sinews are here said to be the Silver of the Microcosme, or little World, so is Silver as aptly said to be the Sinews of the Macrocosme, or greater World. There being nothing in the whole World that is vigorously carried on among Men, but by the help thereof: Silver is the Sinewes of War and of Peace, of Merchandize and of Tillage, nay I may farther add, of Learning, and of vertue too.

Now, as all the Works of the greater World soon come to nought, if the influ­ences of the Sinewes thereof be intercept­ed; so do all those of the Lesser World, if the Silver thereof perish and decay; and therefore the loosning of the Silver Cord is here given as an undoubted signe of in­stant Dissolution. For, as it was said of the Tabernacle, J [...]r. 10. 20. Isa. 33. 20 That it was spoiled, and neer its utter ruine, when the Cords thereof were bro­ken; [Page 212] so may it also be said of this earthly Tabernacle of our Bodies, when we shall be unstrung, and the Cords of our Bodies broken asunder; we must then expect sud­denly to be dissolved: The Word here is variously translated, rumpatur, elongetur, contrahatur, revertatur, dissolvatur; which variety may give very great light unto the several causes of the symptome here in­tended: but because such a narrow scruti­ny may make a digression from what is here intended, I shall for the present pass it by, and onely take notice of the symptome it self which is here aimed at; and, that the Latine word dissolvatur, and the English loosned, do directly point at, namely the so­lution of the Nerves or Marrow, called in Latine (from the Greeks and their Ra­dix [...], solvo) paralysis, and in English the Palsy: Sometime this solution hapneth on­ly to one part of the Silver Cord, which causeth paralysis particularis, and then the enlivening influence of the animal spirits is hindered onely from those parts of the Bo­dy, to which that doth immediately tend, and so those parts become wholly depri­ved both of sense and motion; Death hath already taken possession of a Leg, o [...] an Arm, or the half of that Man, that is so far paralytick, hardly or never more to be [Page 213] dispossessed; and therefore in our language it is well stiled the Dead Palsy. Some­time it hapneth to the head of the spinal Marrow, and so hindreth the influence of the spirits upon the whole Silver Cord, and consequently takes away all sense and motion from all the subjected parts; and this causeth Paralysis universalis, which at all times, and upon all occasions, gives a very probable Prognostick; but in the decrepit Age of Man, a most certain and infallible one, of immediate Death.

Or the Golden Bowl be broken.

The Symptome last treated of, had re­ference to the rivulets of animality; this we are now speaking of, relates to the fountain: For we must know that the Soul of Man, the Queen Regent of all his operations, makes the Head the Royal Pa­lace of her residence, from whence she gives forth all her Precepts, Edicts, and Com­mands, for the regulating and actuating all the subjected parts of the Body. Now the parts of the Head are of two sorts, either the containing, or the contained parts thereof: The last of these, namely the en­compassed, or contained parts, are the ce­rebrum, the cerebellum, and the medulla, with all those several smaller parts, which [Page 214] curious observers have found out, to belong to any of them, which I shall not so much as mention, because they are not so directly pointed at in this place: And I do here, as I have done all along, industriously avoid all things, especially all termes of Art, or second intentions, that do not immediate­ly conduce to the understanding of the symptome under hand: but we must not so exclude these parts as to judge them not all concerned in this expression; for upon the breaking of the Golden Bowl, the brain it self, with all the contained parts appertain­ing thereunto, doth immediately cease, from all its operations: And if we shall take the Original word in its plain signifi­cation, Cant 4. 12. and as it is often used in Scripture too; Judg. 1. 15. for f [...]ns, or scaturigo, a Fountain, or Spring; it would seem most properly and primarily to intend this most noble part, the first spring of animality, the original fountain of all sense and motion.

But because I find the word otherwise translated, and that upon very good grounds, by all that have undertaken that charge, I shall in no wise dissent from them; for indeed the Mystical and Metaphori­cal sense of Words ought still to be pre­ferred all along the Allegory: And I would not by any meanes break a firm, well set, [Page 215] and a lasting Hedge, if there be any the least reason for the standing of it. The root from which this word is derived is [...] volvit, circumvolvit, complicavit, circum­duxit: Sometime it is translated to rowl, or to rowl together, sometimes to rowl away, or to rowl back; sometime to rowl over, wrap up, or encompass; so that the word in the Text is sometime translated [...]ecythus, Zach. 4. 2, 3. a Pot, or Bowl, to hold any liquid substance in: sometime lenticula, a Chris­matory, or Cruet, or Vessel to contain Oyl; sometime orbis, 1 King 7. 7. 4 [...]. a Sphaerical Body encompassing others: The vulgar Latine removes the Metaphor once again, and brings it home to its own door; vitta au­rea, the Golden Headband, for vitta signi­fieth a Veil, a Coy [...]e, a Garland, or what­soever else may circle, or encompass the head: the LXX. hath it [...], the reposi­tory of the Braines; by all these we un­derstand, that Interpreters do uno ore, with full consent render the Word to the in­volving, circumscribing, encompassing, containing parts.

Which also are of two sorts, either the external containing parts of the head; or the internal: The external (beside those common Vestments that ap­pertain to other parts of the body also, as [Page 216] the Cuticula, Cutis, &c. which cannot be here understood) are only two, the Peri­eranium, and the Cranium it self; now al­though these are not chiefly intended in this place, yet surely they will put in for a share of this Elogie; for as much as these do environ, defend, and suspend all the in­ward parts, and do consequently exceed­ingly conduce towards all animal operati­ons. And the Chaldee Paraphrase doth di­rectly interpret this word hereunto, when it saith, Et ne sit Confractus vertex capitis tui. The Crown of thy head be not bro­ken: beside the Hebrew word for the scull (as it is used in that place with many others, where it is said, when they went to bury her, they found no more of her then the Scull, 2 King. 9. 30. and the Feet, and the Palmes of her Hands) is very neer a kin to the word here in the Text; Judg. 9. 53. they lie both together in a belly, and are derived from the same stock. And that famous word which is a medly of the Oriental Languages, being partly Syriac, partly Chaldee, and partly He­brew, is also neerly related hereunto; I mean the word Golgotha, that is to say the place of a Scull. Mat. 27. 33.

The internal containing parts are also two, those two Membranes, namely a thicker and an harder; a thinner and a fi­ner, [Page 217] that do yet more immediately encom­pass the brain, which to the Graecians are known by the name of [...], to the La­tines by the name of Matres, which title they took from the Arabians, intimating thereby unto us, not onely that they do give a being to all the other Membranes of the body, as unto their own natural off­spring, but chiefly, and that which is most to our present purpose, that they do Ma­ternâ curâ cerebro prospicere, Spigelius. With a Mo­therly care and tenderness over-see and over-rule all the actions of the brain: but yet more particularly, the most inward of these two, that doth by immediate con­tract encircle the very substance of the brain, doth seem to me to be [...], by way of eminence, the golden bowl here in­tended. This is that part which deeply insinuates it self into all the anfractuous passages of the brain; and, being firmly annexed thereunto, keeps every part there­of in its proper place, and due texture; so that whatsoever is performed within the whole compass of the brain, whether the making of the animal spirits, their exer­cise therein, or their distribution thence­from, is done principally by the help of this Membrane: Therefore the Ancients from that reverence they had for it, have justly [Page 218] honoured it with the name of Pia mater. And if we do but throughly consider the innumerable branches of the veines, but especially of the Arteries that are hereinto inserted, and their several wonderful in­terchasings and intermixtures, and inserti­ons, not onely one into another, but even among themselves (which is not found in any other part of the body) we shall surely be induced to believe, that the greatest de­pu [...]ation and defaecation, and consequently the highest exaltation of the blood and vi­tal spirits, is performed herein. And though it pleaseth the most worthy, and most learned Author of the Anatomy of the Brain, D. Willis. to give the honour of making the animal spirits, to the Substantia Corti­calis Cerebri; yet if you well weigh the Doctrine there delivered, you will find it clearly evinced, that the greater work is done before; And that the Substantia Cor­ticalis doth but Midwife that into the World, which the Pia Mater conceives in its own bowels.

Portio sanguinis subtilior (nempe talis facta in vasis hujus Membranae) hic (nempe in substantia Corticali) rude donata, in spi­ritus animales facessit. Now whether the purification and spiritualization; or the manu-mission or liberation, be the most [Page 219] noble work, I think it no hard matter to determine.

It is called the Golden Bowl, for the self-same reasons for which the other was cal­led the Silver Cord. First, In respect of the Colour, not only because that most precious, and deep coloured liquor of life, is abundantly contained in the Vessels of this Membrane, but chiefly because the Membrane it self is somewhat of a flavous Colour, and tends more, towards that of Gold, than any other part whatsoever. Again, as there is a place for Gold where they find it, so there is an hidden, secret, and well defended place, where this pre­cious part hath its natural residence; much industry must be used for the finding out, & yet much more, for the following of it, and tracing it, into all those secret Caverns, into which it doth most mysteriously dif­fuse its branches; but chiefly it is so called from its excellency, and its universal use. The instrument that doth depurate the best of bloud, and defaecate and exalt the vital spirits, and so prepare them for ani­mality; can be likened in this lower world, to nothing, but that most absolute, and perfect, that best concocted and most exalted Mineral of Gold. When the Lord God had made the whole Creation, [Page 220] he in the last place makes him, for whom all the rest were made, And he took man and put him in the Garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it: This place, of all the earth, was the meetest receptacle for so noble an Inhabitant, for it had in it a River, which was divided into four heads, Gen. 2. 10, 11. The name of the first is Pison, which encom­passeth the whole Land of Havilah, where there is Gold; and all the other are there reckoned up by their names: when the Lord God had made this noble Inhabitant of the dust of the earth, he in like manner in the last place breathed into him that more noble part of him, for which all the rest were made; And the soul of man, which is to rule and guide him, hath he placed in this most convenient seat, which is watered by a River, that is parted, and becomes four heads, which are all known by name, where also there is Gold. Arte­riarum quadriga ad quatuor distinct as [...], plagas evehitur; D. wills, is Anatom cerebri, Cap. 10. the two Carotidal, and the two Vertebral Ar­teries are this golden quaternion, whose streams make glad that City, wherein the breath of God hath its principal abode. There is yet another thing, wherein this part we are now treating of, and Gold, have a very great resemblance, and that is [Page 221] in the ductility of them both: Gold of all Metals is the most ductile, and may be drawn out at the greatest length; this on­ly makes good that Maxime in Philosophy: Quantitativum est divisibile in semper di­visibilia; No man can draw Gold so thin, but a better Artist, can yet make it thinner, it is the nature of this Solar Mineral to be endless in purity; how pure fine the Pia mater Cerebri is, none can express, and none but the diligent observer of it, (who hath often endeavoured its separation from the parts to which it is annexed,) can pos­sibly understand. This, as so much leaf-gold, drawn out to a very great thinness, doth securely, tenderly, and universally wrap up, all those little hills and valleys, those convex or concavous parts, that are within the compass of its own Cir­cumference.

This golden Bowl, so long as man re­mains in his strength, is firmly knit unto it self in all its parts, but in the extremity of extream old age, when he is just giving up the Ghost, it can no longer continue its continuity; but by reason either of its na­tural driness, shriveling into it self, or pre­ternatural moysture, imbibing excremen­titious humours, till it is over-full, it often snaps asunder, and so recurs into it self, as [Page 222] the word properly signifieth; from whence the brain must necessarily subside, and all the parts serving in any wise to animality, must be suddenly and irrecoverably smit­ten, and cease from their several uses; and moreover, immediately hereupon fol­loweth a change of the whole Counte­nance, the Nose appears very sharp, the eyes sink in the head, the Temples are pinched in, the ears become cold and con­tracted, and the Fibers thereof inverted, the skin about the forehead hard, intense, and dry, and the colour of the whole face livid and black, and in all things perfectly representing, that ultimum vaele, known among Physicians by the name of Facies Hippocratica, and so consequently the man doth immediately dye Apoplectical; ac­cording to that of Job, Thou changest his Countenance, (and what followeth imme­diately thereupon,) Thou sendest him away. So that the Symptome hereby intended, is, Repentina omnium operationum Cerebri; motus, viz. sensus, & aliarum functionum animalium, tam principalium, quam minus principalium abolitio: cum facie Hippo­cratica.

It cannot but here upon this occasion be remembred, that an Apoplex was men­tioned before, in the Explication of the [Page 223] second verse, and that as a disease of old age, which might surprize a man, and yet not immediately kill him, and of which there might possibly be a removal, at least for a season, that there might some space be given him to recover a little strength, before he go hence and be no more seen; how therefore comes it to pass, that it is here accounted as one of the immediate Harbingers of death?

For answer hereunto, we must know, that an Apoplex falls under a double con­sideration; either as it is a disease, or as it is a Symptome. In the first consideration, it is Morbus Conformationis respectu mea­tuum; when by reason of some preterna­tural matter, in, or about the Vessels, there become an obstruction, constipati­on, or compression of them, so that either the vital Spirits cannot be received, or the animal spirits cannot be exercised or distri­buted as they ought to be. This matter may sometime possibly be discussed, or carried off for a season, or change its seat, and so the Apoplex degenerate into the Palsie; however it is not an infallible sign of instant departure, and under this Con­sideration it was handled in the second verse. But in the second Consideration it is Symptoma morbi, nempe solutae unitatis, [Page 224] when by reason of the breaking of the Golden Bowl, and shrinking up into it self, there immediately follows a Coales­cense of all the Vessels thereof, and a Sub­sidence of the brain it self, and conse­quently, a total abolition of all the actions of the animal Faculty, from whence there is not so much as the least hopes of reco­very, and under this Consideration it is handled in this place. Or it may be, the distinction of the learned Nymmanus, Nymma. de Apopl. cap. 21. may be more satisfactory to some in answer to this Objection.

Apoplexia est vel vera vel notha. A true Apoplex is when the meatus and open passages of the brain are shut up and ob­structed, and so the Communication of the spirits is intercepted, the substance of the brain, and of all the parts appertaining thereunto, remaining otherwise in good plight, as they ought to be, in their due place, with their wonted firmness of Com­position: And this is like unto an house, whose entry or common passages are whol­ly filled up with rubbish, so that it be­comes altogether useless, and this is the disease of old age before-mentioned. But a bastard Apoplex is a far more dreadful thing, when the tone of the brain, and of all the parts within the compass of the [Page 225] Pia mater, is wholly relaxed and destroy­ed, and by consequence only thereupon, all animal functions do in a moment cease, in the manner of the true Apoplex, but yet with far more terrible and amazing Symptomes, the pulse and respiration also being wholly taken away, and the Coun­tenance changed to that gastly aspect before mentioned; which is an infallible sign of the dust immediately returning to the earth as it was, without any the least stop in its course; [...]. Hippo. l. 2. Apho. 42. And this is like that house wherein the Philistines were gathered together to see Sampson make sport, which came tumbling down, when the two foundation Pillars thereof were violently torn from their place; Ut Collapsa ruit domus, subducta columnis; and this is the certain Sym­ptome of death, treated on in this Verse. And thus much shall suffice to have spoken for the Explication of those Symptomes of death, that belong to the instruments of the animal Faculty, those two that re­main belong to the Vital.

Or the Pitcher be broken at the Fountain.

For the right understanding of this Sentence, and that which follows, which doth depend hereon, both of them be­longing [Page 226] to the vital Faculty, I must crave leave to premise something concerning the life of man, wherein it consists; and what those parts are, that do principally con­duce to the production and preservation of it; for otherwise it is impossible to un­derstand these Symptomes. For as the Prophesies of Daniel, and most others of the latter times, Dan. 12. 9. are closed up and sealed till the time of the end, when their known ac­complishments shall demonstrate the truths contained in them: Just thus hath it hap­ned to the great mysterious truths contai­ned in these two last expressions; foras­much as the frame, action, and use of the heart, together with the true motion of the bloud in mans body, hath lain hid from the time of Solomon throughout all gene­rations, unto this last wherein we now live; the words of this Allegory that contain the sum of that Doctrine, have all this while been an undiscoverable mystery, as a book sealed up, that none could read or understand. And as all those who have endeavoured to reveal the Revelations, that must remain unrevealed till the appointed time of their revelation; have by all their industry only declared their own weakness and insuffi­ciency for such a work; And describing at the best rate they could the mystery of [Page 227] Babylon, by their darkness and confusion, have only evinced that they themselves were a part thereof; even so all those that have undertaken the explication of what we are now about, before the Doctrine of Circulation was received among Men, and gave light to the World; have, with their utmost endeavours, only declared their own inability, and have left these two Ae­nigmatical symptomes far more intricate then they found them; And of all those ancient Commentators and Criticks that I have seen upon the place (which has not been a few) I never had the least content in any, but one; and that is he, who after he had set down the four symptomes in this last verse, he subjoynes as his comment these words, Haec quatuor ego non intelligo. Most ingenious Castalio, had all Interpre­ters been so plain and honest, I perswade my self we had had lesser volumes, and yet far better understanding of the sense of Scripture, then now we have.

Now, in order to the end proposed, we must know in the first place, that which the Scripture doth far above all other Writings most clearly declare, and that is, that the Life of a Man consists in his Blood. For it is the Life, of all Flesh, the blood of it is for the life thereof; Lev. 17. 1 [...]. 14. therefore I said unto [Page 228] the children of Israel, ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh, for the life of all flesh is in the blood thereof. And this most noble Liquor of Life hath a primary seat or foun­tain, where it is principally made, and from whence it is dispensed throughout the whole Body; and this is none other then the Heart; for out of it are the issues of life, Prov. 4. 23. is a truth not onely Moral and Spiri­tual, but Natural also. This part conti­nually issueth forth abundance of blood, wherein is the life, to all the parts that are to be quickned thereby. Hence those Me­dicines that are of a quickning and enli­vening vertue, are not unfitly called Cor­dialls, because they help the heart in its work, and do that by art, unto which the heart is by nature appointed: And surely between them there is a very great resem­blance, which makes the Wise Man say, A Merry Heart doth good like a Medicine. Prov. 17. 22. This wonderfull part of Man hath abun­dance of the wisdome of the Creatour shewed in its formation, in so much that none is able fully to comprehend it, for it is exceeding deep. Psal. 64. 6.

And that which is said of the Kings heart, though in another sense, may as tru­ly be said of Mans heart in general, The heart of Man is unsearchable. Prov. 25. 3▪ Yet thus much [Page 229] cannot but be observed by all those that take pleasure in searching out this great work of God, that it is the fountain of life, the first living, and the last dying part of Man, and that it doth communicate of its life and vigour to all the other parts of the Body, though at the extreamest distance; which live or die, according as the beames and influences of this glorious Sun of the Body, are communicated unto, or inter­cepted from them. It is said of Nabal, his heart dyed within him, and immediately he became as a stone; 1 Sam. 25. 37. If the heart give not forth its vivifying vertue, the flesh doth immediately fail; And there is no fear of the latter, if there be a continuation of the former, for a sound heart is the life of the flesh. Prov. 14. 13. My son give me thy heart, saith So­lomon, Prov. 23. 26. intimating that that was vertually a gift of the whole. The soveraignty and principallity of the Heart above all the other members of the body, might be abundantly confirmed from Scripture, but what hath been said may suffice: Yet there is one place relating more particularly to the action and use of the heart, that I would especially note; and that is in our English Bookes, My heart is inditing a good mat­ter: Psal. 45. 1. But here, as in many other places the Translation comes very short of the Ori­ginal, [Page 230] and so the whole strength of the Metaphor is lost. [...], the word is not elsewhere used in the Bible, and therefore in this place greatly to be weighed, it hath two significations, which joyned together, make up the whole work of the heart.

The first is fervere, ebullire, praeparare cibos; the other is cum impetu pr [...]trudere, longè eructare sive pulsare; the heart gives heat, and motion, and life unto that which is to be our nourishment; and after that it doth with a certain force and vehemency cast it forth, and pulse it to all, even the extreamest parts, that are thereby to be enlivened. And this in the Letter not having been understood by Interpreters, makes them come farr short also in the Mystery; which is that the Doctrine of the Kingdom of Christ (for that is the good thing that his heart is here inditing) having not as yet had its full measure of strength and life in the World, and that which it formerly had, by reason of the re­volution of time, and circulation of Ages, being much weakned and enfeebled, is now again in Davids heart by the Spirit of the living God, impraegnated with new vigour, and thencefrom with great earnestness pul­sed forth to the Generations to come, even to the end, to sustain and support them, [Page 231] and to quicken them all to their duty, and to a longing expectation of the Glorious Kingdom of their Lord. But to return to the Heart with the Blood: We must far­ther know for the explication of these sym­ptomes, that there are within the body of the heart, two firmly distinct cavities, a right and a left, usually called Ventricles: from which there arise, and unto which there are annexed certain peculiar vessels conducing to the ends hereafter specified. Out of the right ventricle of the heart, proceed the great vein called Vena Cava, which sends forth branches throughout the whole body, and hath at its entrance into the heart, certain portals, from their form called valvulae tricuspides; And also that Artery, anciently called vena arteriosa; in­serted into the lungs, unto whose original are annexed, the portals resembling the Greek Sigma, and are therefore called val­vulae sigmoideae, Out of the lest Ventri­cle proceed that vein anciently called ar­teria venosa; inserted in like manner into the lungs; and also the great Artery, cal­led Arteria aorta, which dispenseth its branches throughout the whole Body, both whose Cavities are defended with the like portals with the former. It remains onely that we shew how the blood and life is [Page 232] actuated in these parts, and howit passeth in, and through them, and in and through the whole habit of the Body; which is by way of Rotation, or running the round, going out from the fountain, and returning thi­ther again. Eccles. 1. Vers. 5. The Sun ariseth, and the Sun goeth down and hasteth to the place where he arose; The Wind goeth toward the South, and turneth about unto the North, Verse 6. it whirleth about continually, and the Wind returneth again according to its Circuits; Verse 7. All the Ri­vers run into the Sea, yet the Sea is not full; unto the place from whence the Rivers come, thither they return again. Thus it pleaseth the King to express the Circulations of the greater World; those of the lesser are no less remarkable. The Blood wherein is the Life of Man passeth about the Body continually, and returns according to its circuits; the streames thereof run into the fountain, which is never full, unto the place from whence they come, thither they re­turn again; which is by the Instruments before mentioned thus performed. The Vena Cava containing much blood in its cavity, neer the basis of the Heart, on the right side, doth gently pass it into the right Ventricle of the Heart, which is dilated in its Diastole for its reception, and immedi­ately thereupon contracting its self in its [Page 233] Systole (the three pointed Portals hinder­ing the passage back again into the Cava) it must necessarily thrust the blood through the open passage of the Vena Arteriosa (where the sigmoidal Portals hindering its return) it must pass through the Streiner of the Lungs, and so be received into the branches of the Arteria Venosa, and there­by brought into the left Ventricle of the Heart, where again it is with violence pul­sed forth into the Aorta (the Portals here as before alwayes hindering its regress) by the branches of which Artery it is carried to all the parts of the Body to enliven them, which work being done, what remaines is received into the Capillaries of the Veines in the several parts, whence it passeth of its own accord naturally towards its Center, from the lesser into the greater branches of the veines, and consequently at last into the great Trunk of the Cava, from whence it is recommitted into the right ventricle of the Heart, to be chased the Foyl. This is the true Doctrine of the excellency and motion of the blood, and of the use of the Heart, and the parts appertaining thereunto; all which were perfectly known to Solomon, as will a­bundantly appear anon, in the explication of the symptomes we are now about. Yet it pleased the Lord that this knowledge [Page 234] should with the possessor of it, sink into dust and darkness; where it lay buried for the space of 2500 years at the least, till it was retreived thence from by the wisdome and industry of that incomparable, and for ever to be renouned Dr. William Harvey, the greatest honour of our Nation, and of all Societies of which he was a Member, who stands, and ever will do, with the highest note of Honour in the Calenders both of Physicians and Philosophers, and it were but justice to put him with the same eminence into that of the Church, since he hath Contributed more to the understand­ing of this, and many other places of Scri­pture, then all that ever undertook that Charge.

These things being throughly weighed, and well understood, the two symptomes which remain to be spoken to, do open themselves into the same Doctrine without any more ado. By the Pitcher therefore we must understand the true and proper con­ceptacle of the Blood, namely the Veines, which throughout the whole body serve on­ly as a vessel, to contain that noble Liquor, and carry it back again to the Fountain. The Original word [...] signifieth sometime more generally any containing vessel, 1 King 17. 14. and so is taken for the Widows Barrel in which [Page 235] was the meal, Gen. 24. 6. Judg. 7. 1. but more especially that which is called a pitcher, and so more fre­quently it is used. This word both the Greeks and the Latines take unto them­selves, only varying the Termination as is most proper to each Language, and that in the very same signification. Now the pro­per containing Vessel for the bloud is the Veins, there the bloud is, as I may say, at home, in its own place; while it is in the heart, it is preparing, enlivening, and eno­bling; while it is in the Lungs, and all the other Parenchymous parts of the bowels, it is depurating and cleansing; while it is in the Arteries, it is by force journeying; while it is in the Porosities of the fleshy parts, it is communicating of life, and nourishing; but while it is in the Veins, it hath no force upon it at all, nor is it doing any thing of general use to the Body, only consulting its own good, and tending in its own natural course to its proper Center; as milk is in the breasts, and marrow in the bones, so is bloud in the veins, and there­fore these are the Pitcher here intended. This Pitcher also hath its Ear, which is usually called, Auricula Cordis; which (notwithstanding its name, as if it most properly appertained to the heart) yet we must know doth rather belong to the vein, [Page 236] and is indeed a part thereof, and not only a part, but the principal and primary part thereof, from whence all other parts and branches do arise, as from their original, and whereunto all the bloud of the body by the Compressive motion of the Veins, doth naturally tend, as to its ultimate hold; and whence-from it will in no wise depart but by force; and therefore this head-spring of the veins being dilated by the continual afflux of bloud, is necessita­ted to ease it self by Contraction, and so conveniently forceth out a due proportion of bloud into the Fountain, whereunto it is annexed.

Now the Fountain can be no other than the right Ventricle of the heart, for this is yet more strictly the fountain of life, and forge of the vital spirits, and it doth sensi­bly live before, and dye after, the other parts, even of the heart it self; Moreo­ver, here it is, that the matter of our nou­rishment receiveth its first enlivening, for our food being received from the stomack and guts into the common passage of Chyle, is thence-from carried directly in­to the subclavial branch of the Vena Cava, where being mixed with bloud, it yet re­mains lifeless and heartless, till being car­ried along that vein, it is at last brought [Page 237] into the right Ventricle of the heart; wherein the heat, motion, and ferment, set the active principles thereof at a perfect freedom, and so instantly endow it with plenty both of life and spirit. Thus richly fraught, doth the bloud pass out of its fountain, and, by the waies before de­scribed, it is brought to all the parts of the body, where parting with much of its la­ding for their sustentation, and being re­frigerated by the coldness of the extremi­ties, and the ambient air; it would soon be coagulated, and altogether barren, did it not return again to the right Ventricle of the heart, as unto its own fountain, to recover its former perfection. This part therefore, that doth at the first give life to that which enliveneth the whole man, and doth, as often as it returns thither, im­praegnate it anew with the same, must needs be the fountain here intended. And to this the Original word gives an extra­ordinary clearness; implying, not only the Signum, but the Signatum; not the Hieroglyphick only, but the part thereby deciphered: signifying in the first place, Fons, a Fountain; and secondarily, Sca­turigo Venarum, the spring or original from whence the Veins arise; and this is so clear, that made ancient Commentators [Page 238] interpret the Fountain here unto the Li­ver: Now, had they been right in their natural knowledge; that is, had they known that the Veins do not arise from the Liver, as from their first original, but from the right Ventricle of the heart, (as all knowing men now confess they do,) they had without all doubt, by the guidance of this most significant word, pitched upon the true meaning of the place.

These Vessels being throughly under­stood, we must farther know, that so long as man remains in perfect health and strength, they are uncellantly and care­fully performing all those offices unto which they are appointed; but this natu­ral Course doth not continue for ever, for this Pitcher is but an earthen Vessel, and doth not so often go to the Fountain, but at last it comes broken home. This break­ing of the Pitcher here (which is the Sym­ptome of old age just upon the point of death) is the failing of the Veins, their ceasing from their natural action and use, when they can no longer carry back, nor conveniently pass into the heart that liquor, which they properly contain. That little bloud that remains in the cold body of man near his end is soon Coagulated, and [Page 239] stagnating in the Veins, the motion and circulation thereof is hindered, and so it becomes thick, like unto the pith of Elder; And because it cannot return to the foun­tain, for a redintegration of its life and spirit; it dyeth in the veins, and so all the extream parts of the body become spirit­less and cold; which is the Symptome here intended. Frigiditas extremorum is acknowledged by all that have considered that subject, as one of the most certain signs of approaching death. And our great Master of Prognosticks, in that compleat and yet compendious book of his Apho­risms, doth once and again, not out of forgetfulness, but out of earnestness, that it may more especially be taken notice of; give us that famous Maxime, [...].

The wheel broken at the Cistern.

The Symptome last spoken of, had re­ference to the Instruments of the vital Faculty, which serve for importation, and reception of the bloud and spirits; this that we are now speaking to, hath refe­rence to those, which serve for exportation and rejection of the same.

The bloud (as was before observed) naturally, of its own accord, tends in the [Page 240] veins, unto the heart; but it returns not from the heart, into the parts of the body, but by force: Thus all the Rivers in the Land naturally ebb into the Sea, but they flow not thence-from, any farther, than the violence and impulse of the Sea ex­tends. The bloud, being once forced from the heart, is presently received into the Trunk of the great Artery, called the Aorta; and by the branches thereof is car­ried to all the parts of the body. This therefore being the chief and principal in­strument of Rotation, or Circulation of the bloud, is most aptly intimated unto us by a Wheel. For what is a Wheel, but an instrument of Circulation? And what can a Wheel be an Hieroglyphick of, but of something that goes, or makes the round? And this is so obvious to every one, that all that have ever Commented upon this place, have been still hammering at some such thing. Some therefore have interpreted this place to the life of man, which passeth as in a Ring, according to that saying, [...]. Others have interpreted it, to the death of man, when his compounding parts shall re­vert into the first beings.

‘Cedit enim retro, de terra quod fuit ante, In terram, &c.’ [Page 241] And so they make this expression explained at large in the following verse; The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God that gave it. Others interpret it to the reciprocal Communica­tions between the heart and the head; the heart continually sending to the head, bloud and vital spirits; and the head again returning them to the heart, sublimed in­struments of animality.

Lastly, There are that ingeniously in­terpret it to Respiration, which is perform­ed by a circular motion, Inspiration, and Expiration continually succeeding one an­other in their Courses. All these Archers have shot exceeding well, and have hit the But, (while many others have shot at Ro­vers,) yet these not being able to discern the White, have not touched that principal Mark. I mean, the grand Circulation in mans body, not being known to these an­cient Commentators, they have done the best that could be in the second place. What this grand Circulation is, and how performed, hath been already described; and those vessels that are inward bound, which bring home the noble Travellour, the encompassour of the little World, were described in the Explanation of the foregoing Symbole; but those which are [Page 242] outward bound, which carry him forth with all his wealth and substance to accom­plish his intended end, are here intimated unto us by the Wheel. That the great Artery, with all its branches throughout the whole body, is here principally pointed at, hath been already said; and may be farther confirmed; first, in that it an­swers so directly to the vein signified in the last Symptome, by the Pitcher. Second­ly, In that it is to us the most apparent Pulsor; we can feel the bloud to be forced along its Cavity, in the Wrists, the Tem­ples, and divers other parts of the body. Lastly, in that it is so appositely placed at the Cock of the Cistern, as you shall hear hereafter. Yet we must not so limit this Wheel to the Arteries, as to exclude the very substance and Parenchymous part of the heart it self: For upon whatsoever In­struments the pulsifick faculty is exercising it self, they are all here intended, by the Wheel; for they are they, and they only, that carry off the bloud from the fountain, and force it from the Center of the body, to the Circumference. Water may easily be conveyed in Trunks or Pipes, by its own natural tendency only, unto all those places that are beneath or level with the Spring from whence it first comes; but if [Page 243] you would have it of a farther use, to serve those places that are higher than the spring, you must then fetch it up with violence, by a Wheel, or some such Instrument of force, as is to be seen in our Water­houses, and all such ingenious Inventions of publick good. Thus all the bloud in mans body is, in certain Pipes and Trunks, by its own natural tendency only, brought home to the heart; but it will in no wise go farther, to be of a more general use to the whole body, till it have some Instru­ment of force to compel it thence-from; The Pulsifick faculty is the mover, and the Instruments of Pulsation the Wheel, that performs this work, that is of so pub­lick a concern to the whole.

The Cistern from whence this Wheel forceth that liquor which afterwards it con­veyeth throughout all the parts, is the left Ventricle of the heart, for hereunto it is, that the great Artery is annexed, and from hence it doth arise. A Cistern is a Vessel made on purpose to receive a due propor­tion of water, and to contain it till the time of use, and then conveniently to pass it into those other vessels, that are appointed to receive it thence-from. And thus the left Ventricle of the heart doth in its Diastole, receive that bloud that is [Page 244] brought unto it by the Arteria Venosa of the Lungs, and having retained it a little, it doth in its Systole, conveniently pass a due proportion thereof into the Aorta, to be dispensed as was spoken before; And this is the true and only use of the left Ventricle. For the bloud being eno­bled and enlivened in the right Ventricle, and refrigerated, and cleansed from its fu­liginous vapours in the Lungs, it is now in all things accomplished for its ultimate use, and remains only to be sent, into those se­veral parts it is to quicken, which it cannot conveniently be, unless it be first received into this Cistern, and afterwards by the Pulsifick Faculty and Instruments, be disposed of, to that appointed end; and we cannot but here remind, those portals that are placed, both at the entrance into, and passage from, the vessel we are now speaking of, namely, the Valvulae tricus­pides & sigmoideae, which as the Cocks to let in, and let out, do by their opening or shutting give convenient passage, or abso­lute stoppage to that liquor which conti­nually runs that way.

It cannot but by this time be acknow­ledged by all those that have gone along with us, and taken special notice of the aptness of these two expressions, viz. The [Page 245] Pitcher at the Fountain, and the Wheel at the Cistern, to symbolize unto us the cir­culation of the bloud, and the use and acti­on of the heart, and the parts belonging thereunto; that the Doctrine which is now justly called Harvaean, was at first So­lomonian. For as it pleased God in these latter daies to give in this certain and most useful knowledge, to the industrious and indefatigable endeavours of the Learned Dr. Harvey; so did he of old, give in the same, unto King Solomon in the lump, to­gether with all other natural knowledge, as a superabundant answer to his fervent and effectual Prayer; which great truth being confirmed by the powerful reasons and ocular demonstrations of the one, and by this divine testimony of the other, let it not be for the future in the least measure doubted or questioned; but let it be great­ly prized, and so much the rather, because (while many others of great importance, wherein these two Worthies doubtless agreed, have perished by the way,) this only from them both, hath escaped safe to our hands.

It remains now, that I only name unto you that Symptome of Old Age, at the time of death; that is here signified unto us, by the Wheel broken at the Cistern; [Page 246] which cannot but be understood, to be the ceasing of the Pulse; the Instruments of Pulsation decay, and can no longer perform that work, which must necessarily be con­tinued for the preservation of life; Exod. 14. 24, 25. It came to pass when the Lord had a purpose imme­diately to destroy the Host of the Aegyptians, that he looked upon them, and troubled them, and took off their Charet wheels, that they drave heavily. Whensoever it is the good pleasure of God to give that word of Command, that the Tabernacle of our bodies, should be as they were; his pur­pose is easily discerned before-hand by his looking upon us, and troubling us, and giving disturbance unto, and taking off, those Charet wheels, upon which our life is turned; but yet this is far more apparent in the time of Age, for then the Charet wheels are more sensibly hindered and re­moved, and so taken off by degrees. The old mans Pulse doth yearly and dayly de­cline, both in respect of the mover, the stroke and the intervall; so that it must needs beat more languidly, slower, and seldomer than it did before. The Faculty grows weaker, the use is not so urgent, nor the Instruments so vigorous, in age, wherefore all the Causes of a quick and a lively Pulse failing, the sad effect thereof [Page 247] must undoubtedly follow; nor will it ever cease declining, till it ceaseth beating, and then the man immediately ceaseth living; Pulsus, rarus, tardus, languidus & non­nunquam intermittens, is the true pulse of the old man, all the while he is in that condition, and is like unto the toling of a passing-bell, which may put him and all his friends in mind, that he is shortly going the way of all flesh, but Pulsus omnino abo­litus sive asphyxia, (which is the Sym­ptome here mentioned,) is the condition of the dying man, and is like the stinting of the Passing-bell, or rather the ringing out of the Knell, which gives notice unto all that he is gone, and may serve as a loud, and distinct invitation to the Fu­neral.

And thus I have as plainly, and as briefly as I could, run over all these mystical Sym­ptomes; both those that attend a man all the time of his declining age, and those that more immediately forerun, and foretell his last change. And now I judge it time for me to desist, when all sense and moti­on, both in the Rivulets and Fountain is quite taken away, when there is death in the face, when there is a coldness in the extre­mities, and an utter abolition of the Pulse, there is no more room for the Physician, or [Page 248] space given him to intermeddle any longer: Thus far I hope I have kept within my bounds, and given no offence to those jea­lous Overseers, to whom only the interpre­tation of Scripture is deemed to belong; this Subject hath been purely Physical, wherefore in the prosecution of it, I have not exceeded my own Last, nor made a breach upon that politick Rule:

It remains only that we review, and sum up, what hath been here spoken, and so gather close together that plentiful crop of mise­ries which this Earth we bear about us, na­turally produceth.

Feavers set aside, there is scarce any infir­mity incident to the body or mind of man, that is not predominant in Age; the Old man is beset with a troop of diseases, when he is not able to resist a single one, and therefore must be subject to them all, as hath been said, and is resumed in the fol­lowing Anacephalaeosis.