ticularly contribute to such a work as this. And furely, that which lies daily upon our trenchers, had need of many thorough grindings, that it may be really transubstantiated into our flesh; these in the body of man are by physicians called digestions, or concoctions, and are to be found almost in every part, as was said before; but I shall instance only in a few, and those well known to all those that have the least skill in natural things; and these few grindings, together with the voice of them, the doors and streets that lead to and from them, being well understood; those that are more accurate in the knowledge of all the alterations of the nourishment of man, may thence-from eafily attain the whole intent and purpose of the wife man in this part of the description of age. I shall only mention five: Three in respect of the individual; and two in respect of the species; and they are those common ones; chylification, fanguification, afsimilation, lactification, and spermification. ! The first of these, viz. chylification is thus performed; after the meat is sufficiently chewed in the mouth, it is committed to the stomach, where continually there lieth treasured up a certain acid juice, the relicts of the last concoction; which (as the leaven in the bread) doth presently infect the whole mass, and every part thereof; and doth so penetrate and search the parts, and fo divide and separate them one from from another, and join itself to every one of them, that at last the matter of nourishment is so perfectly ground, that it is brought to a new confiftence and colour, very like to the cream of barley, and is that physicians call the chyle; and is the first intrinsical grinding that the food receiveth, and is next of all to that of the mouth, and not altogether unlike to it; and therefore when mastication is but weakly performed, you heard before that it was helped by infufion of the food in a ventricle prepared for that purpose, whereby the parts were acted among themselves, and better comminuated, than if they had been never so long chewed in the mouth. The second of these, viz. fanguification is performed, when the chyle itself is ground over again, and receiving yet farther exaltations by a greater solution of the more noble, and active principles; it once again depofites its old colour, and consistence, and so at length becomes perfectly changed into that true liquor of life, which is called blood, Lev. xvii. 13, 14. and although it must always be acknowledged that the chyle doth receive many alterations, and exaltations before it come to the heart, almost in every part it paffeth thro', both in the guts themselves, in the mesentery, the glandules, and the milky vessels, both of one fort, and of another; and also in the veins; and after it hath passed through the heart, it must be once once or twice circulated through the body, and receive several defecations, as in the liver, the spleen, the kidneys, and the like; before it be compleatly accomplished for its ultimate ufe, all which exaltations, and defecations, are included in this text; yet it must still be remembred, that the principal and fupream exaltation of the blood, the most eminent and remarkable grinding towards sanguification, in comparison of which, all the others are little to be accounted of, is always performed in the heart, that fountain of life; for as foon as the vena cava hath committed the matter of nourishment into the right ventricle of the heart, the fermentum therein contained working suddenly and throughly upon it, sets the active principles at a greater freedom, and fo inducing new motion, and effervescence into the blood, doth happily impregnate it with vitality. And not only this new matter of nutrition, when it first attingeth, the heart is thereby enlivened; but the best blood itself, after that by various circulations, and imparting its power and life to the parts that are nourished by it, it becomes weak and much depauperated; is fain to return back again to the heart for a fresh impregnation. And fuch a vast difference there is between the blood in the arteries newly brisked in the fountain, and that in the veins lowered and impoverished with its journey, that the ancients took them for : for two several things, and knew not that they were the fame; like the men of Bethlehem, who knew not Naomi, Ruth i. 19, 20, 21. nor would acknowledge her the same person, because she went out full, and returned home again empty; and she herself was not unwilling to have changed her name: And he that shall call the rich blood going out in the arteries, aerial, jovial, spiritual; and the mean and poor blood returning home in the veins, earthly, faturnal, gross, shall make no schism at all in the unquestionable doctrine of circulation. The third of these, viz. afsimilation, is then performed, when the nutritive juice is sufficiently prepared in all things that are allotted to it, and by the impulse of the conveying vessels is brought near to the parts that are to be nourished, and then every one of the parts by a certain allective property of its own, doth draw that which is most agreeable to itself, and then falls to acting, searching, breaking it over again into most minute parts, and so those that are like to prove unconformable, are excommunicated to the pores; and the other are taken into joint fellowship and communion, and so made one with the part; and that which is most remarkable is, that according to the time of life, Gen. xviii. 10. wherein augmentation or encrease of stature is appointed to man, every one of the parts takes so much to itself as will answer its daily growth, and after that is accomplished, every part takes only so much to itself, as doth answer its daily decay. The children of Ifrael gathered manna in the wilderness, Some more, fome less, yet when they did mete it in an omer, he that gathered much, had nothing over; and he that gathered little, had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating, Exod. xvi, 17, 18. This is truly verified in the food of all mankind. Some there be that make greater preparations for the belly, othersome there be that make leffer, yet when this comes to the measure of God, I mean, to be put to that end which he hath appointed, he that made the greatest hath nothing over, and he that made the least hath no lack, every one according to his wasting. The princes superfluities, and the beggars penury, both of them make but equal reparation for the daily consumption of their own flesh. The fourth that I mentioned, was the making of the milk, which although it be peculiar to one sex only, yet I cannot but take notice of it among the rest, because a principal alteration of the nutritive juice is thereby made, and the wisdom and goodness of God is therein (as in the formation and birth of the infant) most eminently made appear. Thou art he (faith David) that took me out of the womb, thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts, Pfal. xxii. 9. Now, this is thus performed: The breasts by their attractive property, draw from F |