hands, may also be said of those of the feet, I fhall chiefly refer you thither: However, because the word is here somewhat differently tranflated in our language, and we have no reafon to complain, forasmuch as it doth primarily fo fignify; fo that fome have tranflated it, pervertentur, others, curvabuntur, and the Septuagint, διατραφῶσιν I judge there is one grand fymptom of age that in this place, and upon these parts, is principally aimed at; and that is the perverfion, crookedness, abbreviation, and alteration of the pofition, of the feveral joints of these parts; and their inability of being reduced to a firm, ftraight, and tonick posture, wherein the ftrength of a man doth wholly confift. And it is wonderful well worth our obfervation, that if a man at his best and strongest eftate fhould be kept in that bending posture, which age neceffarily binds every man unto; he, in that condition, were scarce able to go, or stand, without the help of a staff; and the reafon of it is plain, because the centre or gravity is not equally poised 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 reft. And therefore it is faid of old men, membra levant baculis; when these members are perverted in their joints, and the tone of the mufcles is fo much relaxed, that they are unable to bring them to straightness again, there is great need of the support of a

staff;

ftaff; for without it, there is an utter inability of going steadily, and standing strongly, which is the principal symptom intimated by the strong mens bowing themselves.

The grinders ceafe because they are few.

That there may in man's body be other grinding than maftication, or chewing the meat in the mouth; and other grinders, than the jaws and teeth, the enfuing difcourfe (and that there can be no other in this place intended, this prefent difcourfe) 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 compreffion against the former, and by its motion, makes the grinding; so that to it, there is neceffary both these, viz. the firm ftander, and the ftrong mover; the upper, and the nether milftone; as we have them often mentioned in Scripture, Deut. xxiv. 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 feveral bones, which among themselves, and to thofe adjacent are joined either per futuram, or harmoniam, which admit of no motion at all, and therefore this ftands firmly in its place, and is that immoveable milftone upon which the grinding is made; the

nether

nether mandible is one fingle, hard, and strong bone, whose articulation is very loose, for the greater liberty of motion; and it hath two or three pair of mufcles, especially the temporal, which strongly bring it upward, for the clofer acting against the other mandible, and one wonderful pair of mufcles, called, the maffeters, and are derived from a double original, and beyond all others of the body whatsoever, have their feveral fibres fo croffing and interwoven one with another, that they are severally inferted into this lower mandible, and so are able to move it upward; to the right, to the left; forward, backward, and confequently round about, and fo performing that action which we call mastication or chewing, and therefore this is that other moveable milstone which makes. the grinding.

Now out of both thefe, equally proceed in the feafon of them a certain number of small bones which we call the teeth; which howfo→ ever they may be numbered among the bones; yet they have 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 firft is, they are naked, they have no covering or skin upon them, no not fo much as that common membrane, called, the Periafeon, which doth encompass all the bones of the body befide; and that is because they might

the

the better attinge one another's bodies, and in their attrition one against another they might feel no pain; but I muft needs here take notice that the words of Job feem to be against me, where he faith, I have escaped with the skin of my teeth, Job xix. 20; this is easily answered, if we confider the two parts of the teeth, viz. the bafis, and the radix; that, is the part which eminently appears white above the gums; this, is that part which is within the gums, and ftands fixed in the mandibles: Now by Job's fkin or covering of his teeth, it is apparent he meant the gums which cover the roots of the teeth; his fores, and his boyls were fo great and terrible upon him, from the fole of his foot to his crown, that there was no part of the skin of his body to be feen, but only about his teeth, which in all fuch cutaneous diseases doth for the most part wholly escape.

The second is, they have the vessels which convey life and fenfe 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 encreafing fo long as man lives, fo that what is worn away of them by their continual attrition and manducation, is daily repaired, otherwife they would grow fhorter and smoother, and not be fo able to perform their work; and this is a wonderful piece of the wifdom of God in nature, which art cannot poffibly reach unto;

and

and therefore because they cannot make their mills grow, as they daily decay by grinding; they are fain to fupply that want, by often pecking their mill-stones, 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 fuch a work as this. A mill-ftone is of all other ftones fuppofed to be the hardest, and therefore Job when he had expreffed the hardnefs of the heart of the Leviathan by a stone; as if he had not said enough, he farther adds one degree more, yea, faith he, As hard as a piece of the nether mill-flone. These short obfervations may suffice to teach us in the general, that the teeth alfo may be called the grinders. If we yet more particularly confider 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 firft are the broad fore-teeth; the fecond are the next round-teeth; which are usually called the eye-teeth; the last are the great double and hindermoft teeth; the first, bite or cut the food; the fecond, break or bruise the food; the last, chew or grind the food. And this distinction also may be found in fcripture, the first are alluded to, where it is faid, The prophets

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