inftruments 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 fentence, and that which follows, which doth depend hereon, both of them belonging to the vital faculty, I must crave leave to premise fomething concerning the life of man, wherein it confists; and what thofe parts are, that do principally conduce to the production and preservation of it; for otherwife it is impoffible to understand these symptoms. For as the prophecies of Daniel and moft others of the latter times, are clofed up and fealed till the time of the end, Dan. xii. 9, when their known accomplishments shall demonstrate the truths contained in them: Juft thus hath it happened to the great mysterious truths contained in these two laft expreffions; forasmuch as the frame, action, and use of the heart, together with the true motion of the blood in man's body, hath lain hid from the time of Solomon throughout all generations, unto this laft wherein we now live; the words of this allegory that contain the fum of that doctrine, have all this while been an undiscoverable mystery, as a book fealed 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

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duftry only declared their own weakness and irrfufficiency for fuch a work; and defcribing at the best rate they could the mystery of Babylon, by their darkness and confufion, 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 enigmatical symptoms far more intricate than they found them; and of all thofe ancient commertators and criticks that I have feen 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 symptoms in this laft verfe, fubjoins as his comment these words, hæc quatuor ego non intelligo. Moft ingenuous Caftalio! had all interpreters been fo plain and honeft, I perfuade myself we had had leffer volumes, and yet far better underftanding of the fenfe of fcripture, than now we have.

Now, in order to the end proposed, we must know in the first place, that which the the scripture doth far above all other writings moft clearly declare, and that is, that the life of a man confifts in his blood. For it is the life of all flesh, the blood of it is for the life thereof; therefore I faid unto the children of Ifrael, ye fhall

1

fhall eat the blood of no manner of flesh, for the life of all flesh is in the blood thereof, Lev. xvii. 13, 14. And this most noble liquor of life hath a primary feat or fountain, where it is principally made, and from whence it is difpensed throughout the whole body; and this is none other than the heart; for out of it are the iffues of life, Prov. iv. 23. is a truth not only moral and spiritual, but natural alfe. This part continually iffueth forth abundance of blood, wherein is the life, to all the parts that are to be quickened thereby. Hence thofe medicines that are of a quickening and enlivening virtue, are not unfitly called cordials, because they help the heart in its work, and do that by art, unto which the heart is by nature appointed: And furely between them there is a very great refemblance, which makes the wife man fay, A merry heart doth good like a medicine, Prov. xvii. 22. This. wonderful part of man hath abundance of the wisdom of the creator fhewed in its formation, in so much that none is able fully to comprehend it, for it is exceeding deep, Pfal.

lxiv. 6.

And that which is faid of the king's heart, though in another fenfe, may as truly be faid of man's heart in general, The heart of man is unfearchable, Prov. xxv. 3. cannot but be observed by

Yet thus much all those that take

pleasure in fearching out this great work of

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God,

God, that it is the fountain of life, the firft 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, tho' at the extremeft diftance; which live or die, according as the beams and influences of this glorious fun of the body are communicated unto, or intercepted from them. It is faid of Nabal, his beart died within him, and immediately he became as a ftone, 1 Sam. xxv. 37. if the heart give not forth its vivifying virtue, the flesh doth immediately fail ; and there is no fear of the latter, if there be a continuation of the former, for a found heart is the life of the flesh, Prov. xiv. 13. My fon give me thy heart, faith Solomon, Prov. xxiii. 26, intimating that that was virtually a gift of the whole. The fovereignty and principality of the heart, above all the other members of the body, might be abundantly confirmed from fcripture, but what hath been faid may fuffice Yet there is one place relating more particularly to the action and ufe of the heart, that I would especially note; and that is in our English books, My heart is inditing a good matter, Pfal. xlv. 1. But here, as in many other places the tranflation comes very fhort of the original, and fo the whole ftrength of the metaphor is loft. T, the word is not elsewhere used in the bible, and therefore in this place greatly to be weighed; it hath two fignifi

fignifications, which joined together, make up the whole work of the heart.

The first is fervere, ebullire, præparare cibos ; the other is cum impetu protrudere, longè eruare five pulfare; 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 caft it forth, and pulfe it to all, even the extremeft parts, that are thereby to be enlivened. And this in the letter not having been understood by interpreters, makes them come far fhort alfo in the mystery; which is, that the doctrine of the kingdom of Chrift (for that is the good thing that his heart is here inditing) having not as yet had its full measure of ftrength and life in the world, and that which it formerly had, by reason of the revolution of time, and circulation of ages, being much weakened and enfeebled, is now again in David's heart, by the fpirit of the living God, impregnated with new vigour, and thence-from with great earneftness pulsed forth to the generations to come, even to the end, to fuftain and support them, 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 muft farther know for the explication of thefe fymptoms, that there are within the body of the heart, two firmly diftinct cavities, a right and a left, ufually call

ed