fink into the head, the temples are pinched in, the ears become cold and contracted, and the fibres thereof inverted, the skin about the forehead hard, intenfe, and dry, and the colour of the whole face livid and black, and in all things perfectly representing, that ultimum vale, known among physicians by the name of facies hippocratica, and fo consequently the man doth immediately die apoplectical; according to that of Job, Thou changest his countenance, (and what followeth immediately thereupon,) Thou fendeft him away. So that the symptom hereby intended, is, Repentina omnium operationum cerebri; motus, viz. fenfus, & aliarum functionum animalium, tam principalium, quam minus principalium abolitio : cum facie hippocratica.

It cannot but here upon this occafion be remembred, that an apoplexy was mentioned before, in the explication of the second verse, and that as a disease of old age, which might furprize a man, and yet not immediately kill him, and of which there might poffibly be a removal, at least for a season, that there might fome space be given him to recover a little strength, before he go hence and be no more seen; how therefore comes it to pass, that it is here accounted as one of the immediate harbingers of death?

For answer hereunto, we must know, that an apoplexy falls under a double confideration; either as it is a disease, or as it is a symptom.

In the first consideration, it is morbus conformationis refpectu meatuum; when by reason of fome preternatural matter, in, or about the vessels, there becomes an obstruction, conftipation, or compreffion of them, so that either the vital. spirits cannot be received, or the animal spirits cannot be exercised or distributed as they ought. to be. This matter may sometimes possibly be discussed, or carried off for a season, or change its feat, and so the apoplexy degenerate into the palsy; however it is not an infallible fign of instant departure, and under this confideration it. was handled in the second verse. But in the second confideration it is fymptoma morbi, nempe. folutæ unitatis; when by reason of the breaking. of the golden bowl, and shrinking up into itself, there immediately follows a coalefcence of all: the vessels thereof, and a fubfidence of the brain itself, and confequently, a total abolition of all the actions of the animal faculty, from whence there is not so much as the least hopes of recovery; and under this confideration it is handled in this place. Or it may be, the distinction of the learned Nymmanus*, may be more fatisfactory to fome in answer to this objection.

Apoplexia eft vel vera vel notha. A true apoplexy is when the meatus and open passages of the brain are shut up and obstructed, and so the communication of the spirits is intercepted, the fubstance of the brain, and of all the parts appertaining

K 3

* Nymman. de Apopl. cap. 21.

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pertaining thereunto, remaining otherwise in good plight, as they ought to be, in their due place, with their wonted firmness of compofition: And this is like unto an house, whose entry or common passages are wholly filled up with rubbish, so that it becomes altogether useless, and this is the disease of old age beforementioned. But a bastard apoplexy is a far more dreadful thing, when the tone of the brain, and of all the parts within the compass of the pia mater, is wholly relaxed and destroyed, and by consequence only thereupon all animal functions do in a moment cease, in the manner of the true apoplexy, but yet with far more terrible and amazing symptoms, the pulse and respiration alfo being wholly taken away, and the countenance changed to that ghastly aspect before mentioned; which is an infallible fign of the duft immediately returning to the earth as it was, without any the least stop in its course; λύειν ἀποπλεξίαν ἰχυρὴν μὲν ἀδύνατον*. And this is like that house wherein the Philistines were gathered together to see Samson make sport, which came tumbling down, when the two foundation pillars thereof were violently torn from their place; Ut collapsa ruit domus, fubducta columnis; and this is the certain symptom of death, treated on in this verse. And thus much shall fuffice to have spoken for the explication of those symptoms of death, that belong to the

Hippo. 1. 2. Apho. 42.

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 sentence, and that which follows, which doth depend hereon, both of them belonging to the vital faculty, I must crave leave to premise something concerning the life of man, wherein it consists; and what those parts are, that do principally conduce to the production and prefervation of it; for otherwise it is impossible to understand these symptoms. For as the prophecies of Daniel and most others of the latter times, are clofed up and sealed till the time of the end, Dan. xii. 9, when their known accomplishments shall demonstrate the truths contained in them: Just thus hath it happened to the great mysterious truths contained in these two last expressions; 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 last wherein we now live; the words of this allegory that contain the sum 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 in

dustry only declared their own weakness and irfufficiency 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 fo 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 those ancient commerrtators and criticks that I have seen 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 fet down the four symptoms in this last verse, subjoins as his comment these words, hæc quatuor ego non intelligo. Most ingenuous Caftalio! had all interpreters been so plain and honest, I perfuade myself we had had leffer volumes, and yet far better understanding of the sense of scripture, than now we have.

Now, in order to the end proposed, we must know in the first place, that which the the fcripture doth far above all other writings most clearly declare, and that is, that the life of a man confists 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 shall