ed ventricles: from which there arife, and unto which there are annexed, certain peculiar veffels conducing to the ends hereafter specified. Out of the right ventricle of the heart, proceeds the great vein called vena cava, which fends forth branches throughout the whole body, and hath at its entrance into the heart, certain portals, from their form called valvulæ tricuspides; and alfo that artery, anciently called vena arteriofa; inferted into the lungs, unto whofe orginal are annexed the portals resembling the Greek figma, and and therefore called valvulæ figmoidea. Out of the left ventricle proceeds that vein anciently called arteria venofa, inferted in like manner into the lungs; and also the great artery, called arteria aorta, which dispenseth its branches, throughout the whole body; both whofe cavities are defended with the like portals with the former. It remains only that we fhew how the blood and life is actuated in thefe parts, and how it paffeth in, and thro' 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, The fun arifeth, and the fun goeth down and hafteth to the place where he arofe; the wind goeth toward the fouth, and turneth about unto the north, it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to its circuits; all the ri

vers run into the fea, yet the fea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again, Ecclef. i. 5, 6, 7. Thus it pleaseth the king to express the circulations of the greater world; thofe of the leffer are no lefs remarkable. The blood, wherein is the life of man, paffeth about the body continually, and returns according to its circuits; the ftreams thereof run into the fountain, which is never full; unto the place from whence they come, thither they return again; which is by the inftruments before mentioned thus performed. The vena cava containing much blood in its cavity, near the basis of the heart, on the right-fide, doth gently pass it into the right ventricle of the heart, which is dilated in its diaftole, for its reception; and immediately thereupon contracting itself in its fyftole (the three pointed portals hindering the paffage back again into the cava) it must neceffarily thruft the blood through the open paffage of the vena arteriofa (where the figmoidal portals hindering its return) it must pass through the ftrainer of the lungs, and fo be received into the branches of the arteria venofa, and thereby brought into the left ventricle of the heart, where again it is with violence pulfed forth into the aorta (the portals here as before always hindering its regrefs), by the branches of which artery it is carried to all the parts of the body to enliven them; which work be

ing done, what remains is received into the capillaries of the veins in the feveral parts, whence it paffeth of its own accord naturally towards its center, from the leffer into the greater branches of the veins, 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 chafed the foil. 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 fymptoms we are now about, Yet it pleafed the Lord that this knowledge fhould, with the poffeffor of it, fink into dust and darkness; where it lay buried for the fpace of 2500 years at the leaft, till it was retrieved thence-from by the wisdom and induftry of that incomparable, and for ever to be renowned Dr. William Harvey, the greatest honour of our nation, and of all foeieties of which he was a member ; who ftands, and ever will do, with the highest note of honour in the calenders both of phyficians and philofophers; and it were but juftice to put him with the fame eminence into that of the church, fince he hath contributed more to the understanding of this, and many other places of fcripture, than all that ever undertook that charge.

Thefe

These things being throughly weighed, and well understood, the two symptoms which remain to be spoken to, do open themselves into the fame doctrine without any more ado. By the pitcher therefore we must understand the true and proper conceptacle of the blood, namely, the veins, which throughout the whole body ferve only as a veffel, to contain that noble liquor, and carry it back again to the fountain. The original word

fignifieth fometimes more generally any containing veffel, and fo is taken for the widow's barrel in which was the meal, 1 Kings xvii. 14. but more especially that which is called a pitcher, Gen. xxiv. 16. Judges vii. 1. and fo more frequently it is ufed. This word both the Greeks and the Latins take unto themselves, only varying the termination as is most proper to each language, and that in the very fame fignification. Now the proper containing veffel for the blood is the veins; there the blood is, as I may fay, 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 parenchimous 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 porofities 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 do

ing any thing of general use to the body, only confulting its own good, and tending in its own natural course to its proper center; as milk is in the breafts, and marrow in the bones, fo is blood in the veins; and therefore thefe are the pitcher here intended. This pitcher alfo hath its ear, which is usually called auricula cordis; which (notwithstanding its name, is, as if it moft properly appertained to the heart) yet we must know doth rather belong to the vein, 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 arife, as from their original, and whereunto all the blood of the body, by the compreffive motion of the veins, doth naturally tend, as to its ultimate hold, and whence-from it will in no wife depart but by force; and therefore this head-spring of the veins, being dilated by the continual afflux of blood, is neceffitated to ease itself by. contraction, and fo conveniently forceth out a due proportion of blood 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 fpirits, and it doth fenfibly live before, and die after the other parts, even of the heart itself; moreover here it is, that the matter of our nourishment receiveth its first

en