And therefore thofe 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 bath not been told us, the wisdom of Solomon exceeding the fame which we have heard, 1 Kings x. 6, 7. For befide thefe fore doors, there are other extreme doors alfo, viz. the back doors, which ferve only for the carrying out of the excrements. And although the ears, the noftrils, and the eyes, and all the emunctories of the body may be here included, yet those which are principally intended, are those eminent posterns, which fo long as a man lives in ftrength are always ready for their work, which is to give pafs to those three feveral excrements which we daily avoid, either by the guts, the bladder, or the habit of the body; and therefore these doors are, Sphincteres ani, & veficæ, & pari cutis: For all these have a power of opening, and shutting, and confequently of keeping in, or letting out whatsoever comes unto them, and are often at convenient féafons retracted for the cleanfing of the body.. Thus far of the extreme doors, which are placed at the extremity of the body, and ferve only for inlets or outlets to the surface of the body, for all that which is either defired or rejected of nature. The intermediate doors are feated within the body, and are inlets and outlets only from one part of the body to another; like the doors within the house, which accord

ing to their fhutting or opening are stops or paffages from one room of the house to another. These may be faid 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 this; and of this fort there are very many in the body of man, and fome, I perfuade myself, that are not yet fufficiently difcovered. The first that the matter of nourishment meets with after it is chewed in the mouth, is the pharynx, or head of the afopha· gus, which, while it is kept close, keeps the meat in the mouth, till it be there fufficiently ground; and afterward by the retraction of the muscle of the throat, which for this very reafon is called sphincter gulæ, it is committed into the throat, which is the high way to the ftomach; but before it can come there, it meets again with another door, which is called the mouth, or fuperior orifice of the ftomach, which unless it be opened alfo, it cannot pafs. And this any man may perceive in himself in a morning, or after the mouth of the ftomach hath been long ~, and close shut, if he hastily swallow down folid 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 paffage out of the ftomach into the guts, and this is the inferior orifice of the ftomach; which is so wonderfully framed, that it gives eafy admittance for the

chyle

chyle from the ftomach to the guts, but back again from them to this, very difficult, or none at all; and it hath a power of dilating or contracting itself, making way, or stopping it, according as the neceffity 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 run, porta, and węźw, 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 paffage unto which it appertains. Befides thefe three, there are many others which I fhall only generally name; the capillaries of all the containing veffels in the body, the feveral ftops of all the veins and arteries, which are called valvula, especially those emiment ones about the heart, of which more hereafter, the porofity of all the inward parts of the body, the valvula coli, the annulus fibrofus of the bladder of gall, the feveral heads of the ureters, their wonderful infertion into the bladder, these, and whatsoever else in the body of man can by their conftriction ftop that which comes unto them, and by their dilatation give it convenient paffage, are in this place called, the doors of the streets.

The Streets are thofe open ways and paffages in the body of man, which the matter of nourishment paffeth along without lett or moleftation. Thou shalt make thy felf freets in

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Damafcus, faith Benhadad to Ahab, 1 Kings xx. 34. that is, thou fhalt pass through Damascus at thy pleasure, without interruption; there fhall always be a broad and an open way. Platea dicitur à nλúruç, latus; and in this place is, as much as, latitudo foranea patens & aperta: And of fuch there are divers found in our body the afophagus, or gullet, the fix feveral intestines or guts, as usually they are divided by anatomists; the milky veffels of one fort and of another; all the veins and arteries; the nerves and lymphæducts; the ductus cholidochi, pancreaticus, falivalis; the vasa præparantia & deferentia, tubuli lactiferi; the ureters & the urethra, in a word, all the communes ductus, or open paffages which are by nature appointed for the conveyance either of the aliment or excrements, are the streets here intended; for afmuch as they have reference to the grinding before mentioned, and are the common roads or highways to, and from, the places where the grinding is performed.

What remains now, but only that I briefly name unto you those symptoms of age which are fignified unto us by this claufe, The doors fhall be fout in the ftreets. What the doors are you have abundantly heard, the shutting of them is nothing elfe but their ceafing from their ufe, 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

of the grindings is very low, then fhall the doors, all the doors, both the doors, the doors of both kinds, the double doors, shall be shut in the streets; they fhall all have loft their opening faculty, fo that they fhall neither let in, nor let país, nor let out, what they ought to do, as they formerly did, fo long as the strength of man remained, and the voice of the grinding was high. Occlufio labiorum contra cibum; obferatio pharyngis, utriufque orificii ventriculi; deglutiendi difficultas, impotentia refarandi in omnibus, arteriarum & venarum, ima amnium internarum partium oftiis, & valvulis; pororum conftrictio; dyfuria, ftranguria, ischuria; akvi adftriétio, feu potius pigra tardaque depofitio. Thefe and the like fymptoms 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 natural faculty of man, both in reference to the prefervation 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 man's body, and know .all the wonderful alterations that are therein made, may eafily attain the knowledge of the full scope and intention of the wife man in this place.

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