had been a like injury and force unto him, it had been more congruous to have continued the fame manner of expreffion, and to have faid, 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. Befide 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 fetters, fince they had had fo many, and fo fad experiences of his unparallell'd ftrength. And if at any time they should loose him, then fure was the leaft danger, when the lords of the Philistines, and three thoufand of the people were gathered together to see him make fport; yet at that time he was kept (by his chains doubtless) at the difpofure of a lad; For Samfon faid to the lad that held him by the hand, fuffer me that I may feel the pillars whereon the houfe ftandeth, that I may lean upon them, ver. 26. 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 fecond verfe of the forty-feventh chapter of Ifaiah, and that is, that this people being very defirous of giants, and boafting much in their ftrength (as is well known by facred ftory) brought of their choiceft, and luftieft women

to him in the prison, that from this mighty detroyer of their country, they might have a gigantick race for its prefervation: However in the main, I persuade myself, his grinding was ́nothing elfe, but performing the offices of nature, his eating, and drinking, and being nourifhed there; his turning his food into chyle, his chyle into blood, his blood 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 found of the grinding, which is nothing else but that, by which thẹ grinding is known, fome natural symptom fignificative of digestion; and all those indications that do demonstrate that the works of nature proceed aright, and according to their primitive inftitution (whether it be the appetite of the parts, their action or excretion of their excrements, those fubfervient faculties which ufually are called attraction, retention, expulfios, or whatsoever elfe may manifeft concoction) may truly and properly be called the voice of the grinding. I fhall inftance in a few, whereby the reft may be easily difcerned, and therein I fhall obferve my former method, having reference only to those five great works of nature before treated of. The voice of the firft grinding, is the natural appetite of the ftomach to meat and drink, and is usually called hunger and thirft; the ftrength and power of the ftomach

ftomach to retain its food; and the seasonable evacuation of well concocted excrements. The voice of the fecond, is a free paffage of the chyle without obftruction; a quick, ftrong, and a lively pulse; a due feparation 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 faftnefs and fulness of the flesh; and convenient perspiration. The voice of the fourth, Gen. xxxi. 3. is the custom of women; the ftiffness, lively colour, and freshness of the nipples; the smoothness, fairness, elevation, and towering of the breafts, as it is called in fcripture, Her breafts are as towers, Cant. viii. 10. The voice of the laft, is appetite, aptness, and ability for copulation; inflation, and -turgescency of the feminary vessels both preparatory, and ejaculatory, commonly called frø-tration; a right temperament of the parts appointed for propagation, ftrength, vigour, and liveliness of the whole body befide. These, and the like excellencies of nature are the voice of the feveral grindings while they remain in power; but as age enfeebleth a man, the grindings are weaker, and the feveral voices of them more fubmifs; wherefore it doth neceffarily follow, that in decrepit age, all the before mentioned indicators of strength and perfect concoction must be depraved, diminished, or abolished; which is the lowness of the found

of the grinding, and doth include the weaknefs of the natural faculties in man which stand in direct oppofition to thofe excellent voices before treated of, and fuch are these that follow: dejectus appetitus, imbecillitas ftomachi, fæces alvi indebita: obftructiones omnes, pulfus debilis, rarus, tardus; mala fanguinis defecatio quo ad ferum, bilem, &c. tonus partium vitiatus, carnis ariditas, indebita perfpiratio: ceffatio menfium, papillarum pendentia & lividitas, mammarum flacciditas rugofitas: impotentia & inappetentia concubitus, vaforum spermaticorum imbecillitas & véngwors, teftium & partium propagationi dicatarum cachexia & refrigeratio, totius corporis lan guormarcefcentia, Rom. iv. 19. These are the decays of a man intended in this part of the allegory.

Now the grinding and the voice thereof be ing thus far explained, I queftion not 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 dual number, fignifieth properly the two doors, or both the doors, or the double doors. And although I know no authority for the tranflating of it into Latin, otherwife than fores, or oftia; yet I submit it to the learned to confider, whether the word valve or valvula will not as well, if not better, agree to the text; the folding doors, or the doors that clap

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together, or that have a double use. For the better understanding it, therefore, we muft know that the doors that relate to the grind, ing before spoken of, are of two forts; either the extreme doors, or the intermediate doors. Again, the extreme doors alfo, are of two forts; 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 ufe or the doors that laft let out the relicts of the grindings, or that matter that upon the feveral grindings becomes al together 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 shutting of them, the meat is kept out, and by the opening of them, it is let in, to the first grind ing in the mouth. And as they are called doors in respect of words, forafmuch as they let them out; Keep the door of my lips, faith David, Pfal. xli. 3. And again, Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bofam, Mic. vii. 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 fubftance of the lips, (being therefore called the calves of the lips, Hof, xiv. 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.