and Communication for they saw the inconveniences and dangers that all such things brought on man but in this Dark Gluttonous and Drunken Age there is no regard had to such things every man does imagin himself to have greater Understanding than the Ancients and Prophets so that there is little or no distinction made accounting all things as it were of a like nature and operation whence doth proceed innumerable Disorders and Diseases for the total Preservation of mans Health both of Body and Mind does consist in the Quantity and Qality of Meats Drinks Exercises Communications Customs and the good or ill Properties of Food all things have a secret Power in themselves to alter and change Nature either for better or worse or to Vertue or Vice according to the Natures and Degrees either of Evil or Good in each thing Of the Flesh of Fowls There are various sorts of Fowls most of which men eat some Wild others Tame of the two the Wild are the wholsomest for Food their Nature is more airy and cleaner and of a dryer substance affording a better and firmer Nourishment better Blood and purer Spirits than the Tame the cause of this is the Cleanness of their Food great Motion and their continual being in the open pure Air next in Goodness to these are those Fowls that have free Egress and Regress and are chiefly fed with Corn such do also afford a good clean Nourishment But all such Fowls that are kept up and fatted and crambed in Coops being hindred both from Action and Motion their Flesh is of a grosser substance than the former not so wholsom hard of Concoction of a stronger Taste and Smell generates a thick gross Nourishment as indeed all other Creatures that are fed or made fat after that manner are much the Unwholsomer not being so Healthy if frequently eaten as those Creatures that are at their own Liberty for Motion and Action are absolutely necessary for to preserve Nature from Diseases and other evils not only in Men but also in all other things for it Purges and cleanses the Body from all such superfluous matter which is contracted by Meats and Drinks and other Accidents that happen to most Creatures it causeth the Blood to have its free Circulation and generates pure brisk lively Spirits as daily Experience doth teach Therefore all such unnatural ways and inventions of fatting any Creature after such a manner ought not to be if People have regard to their Health For all sorts of Flesh is in its own nature not only more Unclean but it is of a grosser substance affording more matter for the generation of Diseases than either Herbs Fruits or Grains neither is there any Art found whereby to exhale or destroy the gross Phlegmatick part of Flesh as there is in Fruits and Grains Therefore Flesh will sooner fall into Putrifaction than other things whose Humidity is exhaled by the vertue and power of the Sun and Elements It being a general mistake for to imagine that those Fowls and other Creatures that are hastily fatted by being penned up close and having superfluity of Food should have the best and most Nourishment Indeed they are fuller of gross Juices and Matter but good Nonrishment and pure Spirits and Blood do not proceed from the gross Phlegmatick body in any Creature but from the lively spirituous Parts and the more gross and phlegmy any Body is the fewer and duller are the Spirits of that thing if this were not so then Horses fed with Grass would be stronger and livelier than those that are fed with Hay and Corn. Are not all Creatures when their Bodies are fraighted with much matter disabled thereby to go through with their Labour or Exercise their Spirits quickly evaporated or spent and soon out of Breath faint and weak Which comes to pass through the super-abounding phlegmy matter which suffocates the Spirits and stops the Passages weakening the natural Heat and Action of the Stomach Therefore both Men and all other Creatures that do feed on Food that is of a dry Nature and Substance the gross Phlegm being destroyed as in Corn Hay Fruits and many other things and are inclined rather to Leanness than fulness are not only stronger and abler to endure Labour but they have far greater and more Lively Spirits are of quicker Apprehensions and fitter for Exercises both of the Body and Mind which does also further appear in all such Flesh that is so fatted it is not so sweet nor will it so readily take Salt nor keep so long without falling into Putrifaction Likewise the fat of all such flesh when salted will in a little time waste and consume the phlegmy gross part which is so strong that the pure essential spirituous parts thereof are destroyed whereas the very same Creatures being fed with Corn or dry Food having their Egress and Regress in the open Air being killed in their season and Salted will continue much longer than the former being much wholsomer and more pleasant breeding good Nâ—urishment better Blood and Spirits CHAP. IV. The Proper and most Natural way of Boyling Roasting Frying Baking c. of Flesh and other Food THE proper and natural way to Boyl Flesh and other Food that the Spirits and Life of it may be preserved is fiirst To put your Flesh into a Pot or Vessel that is large and can hold good store of Water For this Element of Water being of it self sweet and pleasant does cleanse and sweeten all things especially Flesh which is full of gross matter but you are to note that your Flesh is not to be put into your Pot or Vessel unless it first Boyl for if it lie in the Water and receives Heat but Gradually it dulls and makes flat the spirituous part thereof Likewise when your Flesh is put into your Vessel let your fire be increased that it may not lie long in the Water before it boyl and as soon as it boyls you are to uncover your Vessel and to keep it boyling quick without intermission till it is ready for eating The Pot or Vessel is not to be Covered any time of the boyling for thereby the sweet and refreshing Influences of the Air are hindered that they cannot have their free Egress and Regress which does as it were suffocate and destroy the pure and Volatile Spirits in the food for the Air is the Life and preserver of the Spirit and the Spirit is also the Life and preserver of the Balsamick Body in every thing and in what thing soever the Spirits suffer violence the sweet Body and Oyl turneth Sower as is most manifest in all fermented Liquors if such Liquors be exposed to the open Air the Spirits will evaporate and then the sweet Body turneth Sower and becomes of a heavy dull Nature and Operation but in the preparation of all gross phlegmy Bodies the free Influences of the Air keep the Spirit Living till such Bodies are digested and the Spirits set at Liberty then if
if a man does leave them at the first Nature seems to want them the like effect is produced by other unnatural Customs as in taking Tobacco it being a strong Martial and Saturnine Herb of a loathsom poysonous Nature and Operation whose predominant Quality is of a contrary Nature to the Stomach and natural Heat therefore the first taking of it in Pipes is both difficult and troublesom to Nature and there is no Preparations known that will make this Herb friendly or familiar to Nature but only the continual Custom of taking it which does awaken and strengthen its own Quality in the Stomach which in the beginning was weak but by custom is become strong so great is the power of every thing in increasing its likeness and it becomes as though it were natural and there is as much difficulty to leave the use of such things if not more as there was at first to make them familiar the like is true in Brandy c. for the more unnatural and greater the extream is the more troublesom it is to leave it As for those who are used to eat hot Food and are not satisfied to eat cold a little custom will bring them to a liking of it for man being a compleat Image of the whole Nature of this World and being endued with the true nature of all Elemental things therefore Custom will make every thing whether good or evil familiar to his Nature As for my own part I have not been troubled with windy Diseases since I left eating of hot Food which formerly I was afflicted with likewise the same Quantity of any sort of Food eaten Cold when a man is a little used to it will be much easier and pleasanter to the Stomach than Hot for this swells the Body sends Fumes into the head and causeth a heavy indisposedness through the whole Body but there is such a sottishness and ignorance possesses most People that they will not go out of their old Path following their false Prophets Custom and Tradition esteeming themselves to be sufficient Judges in these things Now these windy Diseases and fiery thin salt Humours that are occasioned by the afore mentioned Intemperances are very rarely or seldom ever cured for what Medicines have power to cure when the same Superfluities are continued which were the Original of the Diseases Pray where is the Medicine that will cure the French Disease if the Person infected goes on in his old way of Wantonness The very same is to be understood in all other Distempers therefore Temperance and Sobriety are Vertues that are absolutely necessary not only to help and cure Diseases when they have invaded the Body but also to prevent the Generation of them for most Distempers with a little help of Physick might be mitigated if a sober temperate Life were observed so that by degrees little or no inconveniency would be felt but what hopes are there so long as People prefer Supersluity and the pleasure of the Taste beyond Health eating and drinking of various sorts of rich Food and cordial Drinks to the full satisfaction of their Appetites which break the bounds of Temperance the Stomach not being able to make a perfect Concoctiion so that every such Meal sows the seeds of some gross Matter and evil Juice which by degrees stops the Passages obstructs the Veins corrupts the Blood and from thence flows various indispositions according to the nature of each mans Constitution and the degree of matter There are but few that think that those Oppressions and Diseases proceed from a disordered Life and a too great Quantity of Nourishment but most will be apt to believe themselves alledging That they got Cold by leaving off a Coat or by Accidental Sweating or some other act of carelesness Which must be a mistake for such things have little or no power to hurt the Health if there be not matter before-hand for you may be sure if leaving off a Coat do occasion a Cold or any kind of stoppage there was some part obstructed before and the radical Spirits of that part were weakened by some disorder or else outward Colds would not have had any power to seize that part of the Body You may also observe that if any Member or part of the Body be weakened by any accident that part will first complain when either Cold seizes it or when there is any change of Weather from whence you may conclude that the Root of all or most Diseases is first some inward Contraction of matter caused by Superfluity or other Disorder which have weakened the pure essential Spirits and the Balsamick Oyl and Virtues in that part become as it were sower or sharp wich infects the Blood and then presently ariseth a loathing and the Palate cannot distinguish the pure Relish nor taste the goodness of any Food the Attractive Quality and also the Natural Heat of the Stomach lose their strength and power then also the Reâ—â—ntive and Digestive Faculties do cease from their natural Operations for when there does happen any Violence to the pure Volatile Spirit and Balsamick Body then presently the action of the Stomach ceases and there begins a loathing and the original Poysons and central Heats are awakened which set the whole Body into a flame which poysonous Fire lay as it were hid so long as the pure Spirit and Balsamick Body were strong and this continual fiery or brimstony Spirit was only a cause of motion giving strength and vigour to the Oyl of Life which Oyl does mix and incorporate with this sulpherous fierce Fire and makes it more gentle and friendly for this Oyl is generated from this sulpherous poysonous Spirit and is as it were its Sun and shines back thereinto and does cause it to burn more gently but if this pure Spirit and Oyl be by any kind of Intemperance wounded or suffocated by overcharging Nature then the Original Poysons and sulpherous Fires do manifest themselves in their own Forms which were captivated and moderated so long as the pure Spirits and essential Oyl were strong for this essential Oyl is the true Life of Nature and the Moderator of the original Fire even as it is in the Fire of Wood so long as the Wood remains intire and no Violence done to the pure Spirits and essential Oyl this Fire gives a most pleasant and friendly refreshing heat and light it sends forth a bright shine and wholsom smell very ageeable to the Pure Spirits of those that are near it but you will find the contrary if you offer any violence to the Pure Spirits and essential Oyl whence the bright shine and friendly nature of Wood Fire does proceed as is done in making of Wood Fire into Charcoal for these pure Spirits and sweet Water or Oyl are suffocated in all Charcoal For this cause the Fire of Chorcoal is not only stronger than the Fire of Wood but it sends forth Sulpherous Fumes which will stupifie and suffocate the pure Spirits and dull
unclean fierce Qualities will grow so powerful that they will not only eat and drink such things but also desire them for all Creatures have one only foundation and each Particular contains the true Nature of the whole only the Qualities and Properties of Nature do differ so in one one Quality is strong in another the contrary which makes that great Variation which we see and admire amongst the Creatures as to their Dispositions Shapes Forms Tones Sounds c. And hence proceeds the possibility of altering changing strengthening and awakening of Dispositions Inclinations and Qualities in each Creature This was the grand cause in the beginning why Man was prohibited the eating of Flesh and Killing and why Moses in the Wilderness did not permit the Children of Israel to kill and eat Flesh during their forty years Travel for the Wilderness represents this World which all must pass through and deny themselves the Vanities oppression and Violences thereof or else they cannot enter the Holy Land but must fall in the Wilderness for those that have through the divine Power of the Lord escaped the hands of the Egyptians and are got clear of the Land of Bondage and have left Pharaoh and his Host swallowed up in the Red Sea ought not to long or lust after the Violences and Flesh Pots of the Land of Vanity but to continue in the Spirit of Meekness Love Humanity Self-denial and to do unto all Creatures as a man would be done unto himself which is the true Path of the New Life that leads into the right-hand-way and goes to the heavenly City For those wise Philosophical Seers into the divine and humane Mysteries were sensible of the manifold Evils that attended Mankind by his joyning himself with the unclean Beasts and by killing and eating their Flesh which did so powerfully-awaken and strengthen the inhumane Properties in Man that he by degrees became delighted in all kind of violent cruel bloody Actions not only to the inferiour Creatures but also to those of his own kind whence Cruelties and Murthers have been so mightily encouraged that scarce any have been counted of Noble Birth and Blood but such as have been famous Man slayers and destroyed many of their own Species Some of the Eastern-Sages from a true understanding of the Law of God in Nature declared against these Inhumanities and sanguinary Customs as Pythagoras and his Followers to this day in some Parts of the East-Indies who by their good Examples and innocent Lives do draw off many of the Savage People from the same to a more pure and peaceable course of Life For First They taught them the ill Consequences of Oppression Violences Killing and Eating the Flesh of their Inferiours and making themselves the Sepulchres of the dead Bodies of Beasts And when they had done this then it followed that they would not strike harm oppress or kill those of their own kind for he that does scruple to use violence unto or kill a Sheep or Cow will to be sure be far from hurting or murthering a Man And thus for many Ages have they led peaceable and harmless Lives in Unity and Amity with the whole Creation shewing all kind of Friendship and Equality not only to those of their own Species but to all other Creatures hurting or enslaving none but allowing them all those Privileges and Freedoms that the Creator had given to all the Inhabitants of the World nor cutting off the Thred of their Lives before their appointed time And it has been observed that these Men sinde their time of Love and Clemency to the Creatures have not only been bless'd with the Goods of this World and Dew of Heaven far above their wild savage Neighbours but also were never known to contend oppress fight kill or commit Man slaughter but have lived these many hundred Years in Peace and Concord with all the Creation whereas before they were convinced that it was an Evil to destroy and eat the Flesh and Blood of Beasts they made no more of killing and oppressing Men than a Wolf doth of devouing a Sheep or one of our Butchers of knocking down a Cow The very same and far greater Advantages would come to pass amongst Christians if they would cease from Contention Oppression and what tends and disposes them thereunto the killing of Beasts and eating their Flesh and Blood and in a short time humane murthers and devilish seuds and cruelties among each other would abate and perhaps scarce have a being amongst them For Separation has greater power than most imagine whether it be from evil or good for whatsoever any man separates himself from that Property in him is presently weakned As suppose a man separate himself from any kind of Intemperance Violence or Uncleanness and joyn himself to Vertue then presently the wrathful unclean Nature is weakned and grows faint for want of its proper Food but on the contrary the humane and divine Principle grows strong Likewise Separation does wonderfully dispel the dark Clouds of Ignorance and makes the Understanding able to distinguish between the good and evil Principles first in himself and then in all other things proportionably but so long as men live under the power of all kind of Uncleanness Violence and Oppression they cannot see any Evil therein because the humane and divine Principles are so weak feeble and as it were dead because their Counsels are continually disobey'd and instead thereof the Spirit of Errour is followed For this cause those that do not separate themselves from Uncleanness Oppression and the like Evils but are contented to follow the Multitude in the Left-hand way and resolve to continue the Religion of their Forefathers though thereby they do but mean Custom the greatest of Tyrants 'T is I say impossible for such People ever to understand or know any thing truly either of divine or humane Mysteries nor can any man penetrate thereinto except he first separate himself from all evil and unclean Ways of the Multitude and their Customs for 't is the departing from Evil and the practice of Good that crowns a Man with Wisdom Vertue and Understanding and renders him capable to put the right intrinsick Value upon things and reckon them at their true price for it is generally acknowledged amongst men the highest Folly to judge of those things which they have never known nor been experienced in Who would ask an honest Tarpawlin-Seaman's Advice in a Law-Case expect a Plough man should relish the Delicacies of an excellent Lesson of Musick or think a Cobler fit to value some curious Master-piece of Vandike or Lilly's Painting So improbable it is that men should have judgment in any Science Art or common Trade if they had not separated themselves from other Matters and applied themselves some time to such Crafts or Sciences And yet so vain are most men as to suppose themselves capable to judge of divine and humane Mysteries tho' they are still hurried with the Violences and wallow in
October yet they may eat it more freely and with less danger from December to the end of May because in that time Cattel are generally fed with dry Food which generates a firm Flesh and Fat freer from slimy matter Besides the season being then cold the natural heat is strong and more central so that all Cattle do make a more perfect digestion and their Stomachs are able to throw off all superfluous matter which renders their Flesh far wholsomer than at any other time of the Year Then also all Peoples Heats and Stomachs are more powerful than in Summer which does in some degree cut off even in the Bud all superfluous matter For Drinks let the Person that is Phlegmatick use such as are of a warming nature good sound well-brewed Beer is better than Ale except the Ale be thin clear and free from that Yeasty quality that most Ale in Cities especially in London is subject unto Wine allay'd with Water and sometimes a glass of Wine alone will do no hurt also moderate Exercises and especially Field-Labours near Fountains and Rivers are profitable but over-long-lying a Bed is Injurious to this sort of People as also soft Beds do weaken and make their Natures more tender hard Beds as Quilts and the like are very useful for all Peoples Health if they could be perswaded to it but especially to the Phlegmatick Complexion nor should they as is too commonly used prevent the free Influences of the Air by Window shutters and Curtains to their Beds for the fresh clear Air is wonderful friendly and healthy to Persons of this Constitution Of the Sanguine Complexion Those that have the happiness to be of the Sanguine Complexion are generally of affable sweet Temper moderately quick in the doing and apprehending of any thing of good understandings but some-what inferior to the Cholerick apt to take Affronts at small matters for they being of good even Humours themselves expect the same treatment from others hating all sordid Actions and Oppressions either of Man or Beast it being contrary to their Natures to deny the serving of their Neighbours tho' it be against their own Interest they are quickly moved to Compassion and many who are strongly dignified with this Sanguine disposition are of such yielding tempers and so great haters of Controversie that they chuse rather to lose their Right than contend being great lovers of Unity and Friendship and very rarely the first breakers thereof they love to retaliate Kindnesses and hate any should think they are of a churlish nature But for the most part this Complexion is mixed either with the Cholerick Phlegmatick or Melancholick whereby much of the goodness and virtue is abated and so on the contrary when this Sanguine Complexion is mixed with any of the other it doth much abate the evil harsh Inclinations thereof People of this Complexion have antipathy to all things that tend to inequality or discord the very thoughts of trouble will make some of them sick they are so tender and delicate and for the same reason much Business is troublesom to them and they quickly grow weary of it being naturally of a cheerful disposition Blood is apt to abound in them and a little Intemperance either in Meats Drinks or Labour will disorder them therefore they ought above all People to observe and keep themselves within the bounds of Sobriety because their Natures cannot bear overcharging so well as other Complexions They are to forbear all sorts of Meats and Drinks in which is advanc'd too highly any quality either in Virtue or Vice for all Extreams endanger their Health and do not only over-heat their Blood but generate too great a quantity of nourishment The frequent drinking of Wine or other strong drinks as Brandy Spirits and stale strong Beer and the common eating of Food compounded with store of Spice and Sugars and all fat Flesh and the like these People ought to refrain or use very sparingly for the Elements either of their Bodies or Minds will not admit of Inequality Meats and Drinks that are good not only to preserve Health but also to maintain Strength are all things in which there is no manifest Quality that doth too violently predominate for all such things being frequently eaten or drank do beget their own Complexion that is do awaken their Simile and cause an unequal Operation in both Body and Spirits which is the undoubted Root of most Diseases This ought to be considered by all sorts of Complexions and if care were taken in this particular it would cut off many Distempers for Health is only maintained and continued by those things that are Equal in their parts because every particular thing has a secret Power when either eaten or drunk to incorporate its self with its Likeness in the Body and to awaken and strengthen it whence doth arise both Harmony and Discord according to the Equality or Inequality of the Meats and Drinks received This our daily Experience doth testifie and no Wise Man can deny for all Meats or Drinks in which any particular Quality is too highly advanced whether it be in Virtue or Vice if frequently taken prove prejudicial to the Health most People being in this particular mistaken thinking That if it doth exceed in Virtue so much the better but that Opinion arises from want of understanding the Elements and Principles of their own Nature for as to be too much in the Sun or too much in the Shade doth beget Complexions so most Diseases are generated by the common eating and drinking those things that do contain too much Virtue causing not only a surplusage of Nourishment but setting Nature into an unequal Operation which People of all Complexions ought as much as in them lies to prevent but more especially the Sanguine Food good for this sort of People are all things of a simple Nature wherein Bread hath the first place Milk and various Dishes made thereof sundry sorts of Herbs in their seasons being well and naturally prepared also Gruels and Pottage made of Oatmeal being made thin and quick boyled are of an excellent Nature cleansing and opening the Passages they beget Appetite and help Concoction For Oatmeal is to be accounted the best of all Flour by reason of its preparation the body of the Grain being open'd and the inward Spirit as it were set at Liberty and made more Volatile as is done also in Malt but more artificially for the body of the Barley is opened to an higher degree and therefore will give forth its spirit or Balsamick Body when committed to Water sooner than Oatmeal which is done but by halfs in comparison of the other There are likewise various sorts of Flesh and Fish that are of clean Nature easy of Concoction if well ordered and free from Surfeits and other Uncleannesses which most Beasts are subject to but few there be that consider it which are proper enough for Sanguine People to eat moderately of provided the same be well prepared
Drink ought to be drank sparingly by such as regard their Health It is also to be noted that not only strong Drinks but all other things have an Operation on the Spirits and Bodies of Men whether Meats Drinks Air Exercise or Communication were it not so Man could not be altered within for better or worse But what a sensible change do we find in our selves many times between a dull heavy Day and a brisk clear Sun-shiny Morning Every thing be it what it will has a power of influencing and varying us which the Apostle seems to take notice of when he saith Evil Communication corrupts good manners and the Psalmist where he affirms With the Froward thou shalt learn Frowardness The Original of all good or evil Tempers and natural Inclinations are according to the Nature of that form and property that did predominate at the Conception and Birth and are made either better or worse according to the good or ill Custom of the Place and People they communicate with or the Imployments they are put to and the Meats Drinks Exercises and Air they are used to Take two Youths one of the Sanguine Complexion the other of the Cholerick put the first to a Butcher Car-man Waterman or any such robustick Trade the second to a Shop-keeper Merchant or some such neat Profession and in a little time the Sanguine Lad will become more Cholorick and the Cholerick more Sanguine But note there is a two-fold possibility of altering and changing either for the better or the worse First Natural as the free Will shall consent to either Evil or Good one being as near to man as the other who being a compleat Image or Epitome of all things their true Natures being contained in him therefore he is both capable and liable to be influenced and wrought upon by every thing it meddles or communicates with as is seen in Soldiers most of them when raw and at tâ— first Fight are timerous and very apprehensive o 〈…〉 ger but after they are once flesht in Blood and Slaughter they become unconcerned and remorsless and can kill men with as little trouble or regret of Mind as a Butcher does Sheep and Oxen without having any particular Quarrel or Enmity but even in cold Blood so great is the Power of Imployment For as Fighting and Killing of men is the work of the fierce Wrath of God in men and so soon as you consent with your Will to enter upon this wrathful Imployment the center of the dark strong Wrath is awakened and by a little custom and use it becomes ten-fold stronger than at first then all doing as one would be done unto and Tenderness and Compassion are laid aside as if never any such Notion or Principle had been planted in Man The very same happens in other Imployments that Quality which therein predominates awakens and strengthens its Simile for which reason in former Ages some that have written Romances and Love-stories in a passionate and pleasing Style and lively Representation have been banisht for their labour their Works proving of very evil and fatal Consequence to Young and Amorous Minds for all Books be they what they will do bear the Image and Figure of the Spirit of him that wrote them and so much the more as the Imagination of the Author is more strong which in this sort of Writers and Poets c. use to exceed and if such Books be read with attention and inclination then they awaken and strengthen such a like Propensity in the Reader as was in the Writer be it either good or evil Therefore the perusal of all Play-Books Romances and Love-stories have and do prove very injurious to such as mis-spend their time therein it is like playing with Edge-Tools at first they are innocent and think no harm that look into them but after a while if it take with their Affections the case is altered they make a real change in the whole Bodâ—â— â—nd Mind the Thoughts are all taken up with tho◠〈…〉 itching Idea's and thay prove leading Cards to many real Evils and Temptations The Son must needs fall in Love with and Marry the Chamber-maid and the young Lady run away with the Coach-man or the more impertinent Chaplain only to act over some of those fine Intrigues which they admired with such delight in Sidney's Arcadia or the grand Cyrus 'T is sottish Ignorance that makes some say What hurt can these external things or Food Communication c. do unto us For they never consider that every thing has power to open its own Principle the understanding of which ground was the Original cause of Moses's Law of Cleanness and Separation and the occasion of the Abstinence of all the wise Men in former Ages from this or the other sort of Food Drinks Habits and Communications for they saw the inward Power and Sympathetick Drawings of every thing and therefore wise Pythagoras the better to draw the wild barbarous Nations to the practice of this profound Philosophy insinuated into them the belief of a Transmigration or shifting of the Souls of Men when they dyed into other Creatures as Cows Horses or the like with which Opinion being once possest they would neither oppress nor kill any sort of Beasts or living Creatures for then they believed they should do Violence to their departed Friends viz. Fathers Mothers Children c. Through which Conceit and Custom they were not only much brought off from their former Cruelty and Barbarity but betook themselves to the more wholsom eating of Fruits Herbs and Grains so that this wild savage People became Merciful and full of Humanity And some of this sort of People do continue this Custom and Law unviolated to this day in some parts of the East-Indies 2dly The Grace holy Light and Love of God of which the Lord hath given a measure or portion to every individual Person as St. John saith The Word of God which made all things and without it nothing was made this same Word is the LIGHT OF MEN and doth enlighten every man that cometh into the World This pure Spirit of Life hath power to tincture and change all evil Inclinations and harsh Tempers which do arise from the malignant Configurations of the predominant Constellations and Complexions if man gives up his Will and is guided by its Counsel This holy Light and Word is the Essential Life and Living Power of all things the Eye of the Mind by which man is able to distinguish the Good from the Evil in himself and also in all other things according to the measure he hath thereof and the knowledg he hath of himself It is also the true Balsamick Virtue from whence all Friendlyness doth proceed not only in Man but in all other things according to their respective Degrees and Natures is likewise the Moderator and Qualifier of the fierce fiery harsh Brimstone Spirit and in what Complexion soever this pure Life and Power does predominate that Person by
most of them of an opening and cleansinn Nature for they gently cleanse and purge the Passages and Bowels But all these Summer Fruits are best and safest Prepared being mixt with things of a drying and warming Quality or rather made into Drinks and when such Juices have passed through Fermentation the Phlegmy Body is digested and the spirituous Parts set at Liberty which do tincture the gross Body so that the Spirit and true Life is made thereby Predominant over the body of Phlegm such Drinks being drunk moderately prove very friendly to Nature especially to such as are Aged People which do most need spirituous Drinks Green Food is not capable either in Man or Beasts to generate so good Nourishment nor so firm as dry neither are the Spirits so brisk and lively the gross Juices of such Food do as it were suffocate the pure Spirits and turn the Balsamick Body sower as it farther appears by all sorts of Animals that live on green Food in this season are they not apt to faint and to be subject to many Diseases their Flesh and Fat being soft and greasy but those that live on dry Food their Bodies are freer from gross Phlegmatick matter their Fat and Flesh is of a firmer substance and their Spirits stronger and livelier and more capable they are to endure Labour without Prejudice to their Health it is also manifested by all Grains Seeds and other Fruits that are cut or gathered before the Sun and Elements have dryed away or exhaled the gross Phlegmy moisture all such things will presently Putrifie and Stink being loaded with so great store of Humidity but if they be gathered the Sun and Elements having dryed away the Humid Parts then all such things will keep sound and good for several Years for this cause all sorts of Food in which Phlegm does abound are very dangerous in this season if Temperance be wanting as our daily experience teaches 5thly In this Season the Sun also declines in strength and vigour which being the central Power and Life of all things they likewise do proportionably decline as appears in Herbage as for Example If you cut Grass in September which is then the Food of most sorts of Cattel the Hay made thereof is of a weak fading Nature and Vertue in comparison of that Hay which was made in Iune or Iuly which is of a lively brik strong substance and vertue for the Earth which is the Mother of all things in this Season is weak and impotent because she hath already put forth her strength and manifested her lively Vertues in the first spring or rising of the Sun for the Winter is the Rest and Sabbath of the Earth in which time she recovers strength-and vertue because she does then as it were cease from all her Labours and the Vegetative Quality stands as it were still and the more Frost and Snow and the drier the Winter is the more strength and vigour the Earth obtains such dry Weather cloaseth up the Pores by which the strength and vertue is prevented from having any Evacuations which is manifested by the goodness and great Increase of all Herbs Fruits and Grains being all filled with a Powerful Lively brisk Spirit and Vertue therefore in the first spring and rising of the Sun every thing rejoyceth and becomes very fragrant by vertue of the sweet Influences of this Coelestial Body and the Power of the Earth so that at this time all things seem to strive with a most lively motion to manifest their most inward Vertues this is the time for People to eat Herbs both Boyl'd and Raw Sallets and Pottages made thereof such Food at the Rising of the Sun are endued with a brisk lively Vertue and Strength and of an opening and cleansing Nature Purging the Blood and are good against all kind of Obstructions Also all sorts of Diseases are by vertue of Sobriety and Temperance and the use of good Medicines then easier cured than at any other of the Year it is also the Briskest and Healthiest Season and the same Intemperances and Disorders which may be the occasion of generating Diseases in the latter part of the Summer in this time will hardly be felt for now all things rejoyce and seem to concur for the Preservation of Nature 6thly In this Season viz. from the middle of Iune to the last of September most sorts of Cattel breed many Diseases First from the continual Heat and gross humid Air which in this season is more sulpherous the Pleasant Influences and Spirits of the Air are dull and thick which causes a dull and fainty Indisposition to possess the Bodies and Spirits of all Creatures Men themselves can witness the Truth of this Moreover all Creatures are more subject to sweat by which the Spirits do evaporate likewise the Food of most Creatures is Grass which is of a gross Phlegmatick Nature and generates not only an unfirm Nourishment but also fills the Body full of evil Juices the Fat and Flesh being of a soft greasy Nature having but few Spirits and those that are very impure the Blood of most Cattel being thick and gross which is the cause their Flesh will not take Salt as at other seasons also about this time most sorts of Cattel especially those that come from remote parts of great Cities are more or less Heated and Surfeited by Driving and other Accidents they being not formerly used to Driving the Weather being Hot and Fainty the Air thick and humid and they being loaded with much gross Flesh and Fat all these things concurring makes their Flesh unwholsom and subject to Corruption especially Sheep and Lambs whose Spirits and Lives are so tender that they cannot endure any kind of violent motion without manifest danger to their Health It is very rare that any Mutton or Lamb is good in this Season they not being free from the aforesaid Accidents you may easily distinguish by the Taste Smell and Colour of that which is killed off the Common without driving and other Accidents and that which is killed in London with driving the Bodies of all Creatures being in this season full of Phlegmy matter that every little Accident will wound the Spirit then presently the Body suffers many Inconveniencies and if such Cattel be kill'd before they have time to recover such Injuries their flesh is of a dull heavy Phlegmatick Nature the Spirits are few and those that are are impure for these reasons it will not take salt nor eat sweet as others will which are free from such Inconveniencies for salt has no Power to Preserve such Flesh from Putrifaction because as is mentioned before the Spirits are impure for those gross Bodies are Preserved by the Vertue and Power of the Spirit and in such flesh where the spirits are few and impure and the Flesh gross and full of Phlegmy matter the salt cannot incorporate therefore in this season use what Art you can in salting your Flesh it will not eat so sweet nor keep
of Vermin and Insects which is caused through the Contraction of gross thick fulsom Matter for want of Motion all which running Waters are not subject to But although Water be Natures common drink for Man as well as Beasts yet since now a-days Men generally betake themselves to other Liquors we shall briefly treat of them likewise Of Ale and its Nature and Operation as also of Beer Ale hath the first place of all Drinks made with Malt and is of greatest Antiquity That Ale is best that is made after this manner 1st That the Liquor or Water that you put to your Malt be made boiling-hot but not boyl and then put it into your Mash-Tub or Vessel and let it stand a little while before you put your Malt to it which will somewhat moderate the fierce heat of the Water thereby rendring it more capable to receive the Vertues and sweet Quality of the Malt which violent hot Water will not do so well for it doth not only hurt the pure Spirituous Parts of the Malt but will six or harden the Malt so that the Sweetness and good Vertues will not so easily give it self forth into the Water also if you put the Malt into the Water very hot then it will Tinge or cause the Wort to become of a red Martial Colour but on the contrary the cooler the Water is when you put in the Malt the Paler or more Venerial will the Colour of your Wort be which is the best Colour of the two for all Ale that does look Clear and White is to be preferred before that which hath a high Martial Red Colour And in some parts of England there is such Ale made which is much liked but this commendable White Colour depends also upon the well making of the Malt viz. in the Fewel and degrees of the Fire they dry or fix it with for if the Heat be too strong or fierce or if the egress or regress of the Air be hindred or any other Accident happen of the like nature then such Malt will make Ale and Beer to look of a Reddish Martial Colour which is not to be commended though some ignorantly cry it up For the predominant Quality in all sorts of Corn stands in the White and all the pure Water and sweet Body of it proceeds from the predominant Quality of Venus therefore the more gentle mild and natural the Preparation is from the beginning to the end the more wholsom and Balsamick will the Ale be If the Malt be dryed with too hot or fierce a Fire whence the Colour happens to the Ale it shews Violence done to the essential Spirits which also happens in Brewing when the Malt is put to the Water too hot or by overmuch boyling of the Wort which is not commendable in Ale for good Ale may be made with little or no boyling and indeed there is not much reason for the much boyling of any sort of Drink made of Malt except you design to keep it a great while For the boyling of Ale doth cause a too great Evaporation of the Volatile Spirit and Balsamick Vertues which will not endure the harsh Fire for this cause strong Wort will wast and evaporate as much in quantity in one Hour as Small shall in three and more Besides boyling these Liquors destroys their mild gentle cleansing Qualities and fixes them making them hotter and fiercer in Operation for the more you evaporate or destroy the sweet Body of any thing the stronger and fiercer the Original Qualities become and appear more external but so long as the pure Volatile Spirit and sweet Balsamick Body predominates the strong fiery Original Spirit of Saturn and Mars lies as it were hid and seeing all the friendly and wholsom Vertues of Ale reside in the sweet Body you ought not to destroy That by over-much boyling Nay I will add that the best and most wholsom Ale may be made and not boyled at all as some in this Nation do which does but wast it in Quantity and make it worse in Quality so that it becomes hotter in Operation and a friend to the generation of the Stone Every one knows or may know by experience that Beer heats the Body more than Ale the reason is the Balsamick Vertues in Beer are in part destroyed by boyling so that it becomes more like a Spirit and therefore it will keep longer and because of its lasting most People imagin it the best which is a great mistake for they might as well say that the best Sack drawn off by Distillation into a Spirit is better to drink than the Sack was whereas I think the contrary is known to every body of common sense The nearer you bring any thing to its Original by destroying the balsamick Vertues and middle Qualities or vegetative Vertue the longer that thing will keep sound this is manifest in all Spirits drawn from any Wines or other balsamick Liquors for this reason Beer that is boyled most will longest keep from turning sour or flat but still this is no Argument that it is therefore the best and wholsomest for the predominant Quality in all strong Beer especially if it be kept to be â—tale is of a fierce harsh Martial and Saturnine Heat of a hard greedy Nature which infects the blood with fretting eating Humours very prejudicial to Health also it generates the Stone not so much from the Hops which many accuse as the chief cause but for that the pure sweet body is in so great a measure destroyed in the boyling it to such an height that it might keep not but that the Hops do help to heat the body and cause the Stone and other Diseases but not purely and meerly as they are Hops but this comes to pass from the Preparation For Hops in their own Nature have no such operation to cause the Stone but altogether the contrary for Hops are of an opening cleansing Nature and they powerfully purge by Urine and make excellent Medicines against the Stone Dropsical Diseases but all their natural medicinal Vertues are destroyed in their being boyled in the Beer and then there remains in them chiefly the Martial harsh fiery Property which helps to preserve the Beer from growing flat or eager but it augments its heat and makes it of a harsher operation And as the boyling of Ale destroys the sweet cleansing purging Quality and causes it to evaporate just so it does by Hops and so much the more because in them the volatile Spirit stands as it were external for the Sun and Elements have exhaled the gross Phlegmy substance and thereby sets the spirituous at liberty only being close stuffed into bags preserves them from evaporating whilst there they continue but as soon as they come into the fierce boyling Liquor or Wort these essential Vertues and good Qualities are destroyed and flee away but still there remains the original strong bitter Quality which cannot be destroyed by boyling except they be annhilated for it is
boyled 4. Bread and Butter Bread and Cheese 5. Milk and ripe Fruits as Milk and Apples c. 6. Butter and several kinds of Pulses boyled 7. Bread with all sorts of Flesh fit to be eaten 8. Herbs and Flesh. 9. Roots and Flesh. 10. Bread and Eggs but Butter is but an improper Ingredient with Eggs. 11. Bread and Fish 12. Oyl and Fish for Butter is not so good Also Fish is wholsomer boyled in Water than prepared any other way I could nominate many more Mixtures but these are the most natural and agreeable to each other and most of them have mutual and friendly Aspects from their Radixes so that what variation these Ingredients do make 't is for the better they advancing each others Vertues If People could be perswaded to be moderate in Quantity and prefer such simple Viands and proper Mixtures in their food and drink and observe to prepare their Meat according to the Rules before specified most of those cruel Diseases now reigning and raging would be prevented There is abundance more in the observation of these things than the generality of People understand or imagin All that I desire of the Reader is that he would be so friendly to himself to make Tryal for no man can be truly sensible of the Evil of any thing except he separate himself from his Errors and tries the contrary Butchers Tallow-Chandlors Poulterers and many other offensive Trades perceive not those filthy Stinks and Fumes which Slaughter-houses Melting-houses c. send forth except they separate themselves for a while into a more pure and cleaner Air and then they become capable of distinguishing one from the other For the like Reason those that have accustomed themselves to unnatural and improper mixtures of Food or bad Preparations their Pallates and Stomachs are become One with such things and they can as little distinguish the pure natural Taste and Scents of Food from the contrary as the Trades-men afore-said can the noisom fumes of their own Shops and Work-houses There are many Thousands of brave finical Dames in this Nation that are so curious in their Houses and in whitening their Linnen that they themselves can hardly tell what will please them and yet after all they lie on Beds that do really stink worse than Common Houses of Office tho being used to them they do not smell it neither can they so great is the power of the Evil Nature and Custom And in these stinking Dunghills these delicate Madams spend two Thirds of their time and surely then 't is no marvel if they are afflicted with so many Diseases and Weaknesses for if they did commit no other Disorders or Intemperances this alone were sufficient to destroy their Health as I have at large demonstrated in my Discourse of the Generation of that pernicious Vermin called Buggs CHAP. IX The Reasons in Nature why Cities and great Towns are subject to the Pestilence and other Diseases more than Country-Villages The Excellency of Solitude and Advantages of a retir'd Country-Life THe Reasons are 1. That the Air which is the Essential Life of all material Beings is defiled by the Congregating of such Troops of People together whose very Breath is enough to make the Air thick hot and sulpherous 2. The Closeness of the Streets and Houses whereby the pleasant Influences and Salutiferous Breezes of Wind are obstructed which does condense the Air and render it thick and humid 3. The abundance of Smoke that the multitude of Chimnies send forth which is of a keen sharp sulpherous Quality that incorporating it self with the Air encreases its dullness and fills it more full of gross Humidity whence proceeds Stoppages and many Obstructions and Diseases of the Breast and the Blood becomes tainted with a sharp salt Humour that causes the Scurvey and a wearisom Indisposition throughout the whole Body 4. The great Number of Houses of Easement that breath and send forth their putrid Smells and Scents into the Air together with the various Uncleannesses that otherwise proceed from both Healthy and Diseased People together with the Washings and Cleansings of Houses and the fulsom Liquors Flesh and Fish have been boyled in mixed with other loathsom and filthy Excrements all which are continually exposed in the open Air and do wonderfully defile it not forgetting the Smoke Dust and Ashes of Sea-Coal where the same is used which is of a pernicious Nature 5. The vast Number of various sorts of Beasts and other Creatures that are by Droves daily slaughtered and no care taken but their Blood is exposed to the open Air and runs through the Kennels as if it were clean Water and no more notice taken of it whereas the same does not only send forth deadly Smells and pernicious Vapours but fills the Air with Revengeful Spirits which are inhal'd into the Bodies of Men and there stir up Smilies Add to this the great Numbers of stinking Trades which are in such places as Tallow-Chandlers Tanners Dressers of Leather Soap-Boylers c. All these gross Scents Fumes and evil Vapours that Cities are subject to especially great Cities and populous such as Lodon Paris c. their Nature being Saturnine and Martial proceeding from the gross fierce wrathful matter as deriv'd from things wherein the pure Spirituous parts and Balsamick Vertues are destroyed and totally suffocated so that there does remain nothing but the gross phlegmatick Body and poysonous Spirits whose Fumes incorporate themselves with their Similies in the Air and all the Elements and Stars where by a secret and sympathetical power they awaken by degrees the wrathful and poysonous Properties for every particular Quality in Nature has a Key in its self to open the Gates of its own Principle whence proceed Pestilential Airs according to the degree of the awakened Poysons and Wrath there being a certain sympathy between the Terrestrial Bodies and the Coelestial for all things both in Heaven and in Earth have but one only ground and flow from the two grand Principles viz. Good and Evil. For this cause when the original Poysons in Nature and wrathful Spirits are by the occasions before mentioned or any others stirred up that they overcome the pure Vertues they powerfully penetrate all Elements and Bodies and wheresoever they find matter capable or disposed to receive them incorporate themselves and with highest diligence endeavour to destroy the good Vertues and thence arise evil Airs and various Diseases which suddenly seize the Bodies of Men. And this Nature doth not only in the Evil but also in the Good but not in a sensible way but in a Natural by Likenesses where things agree in Number Weight and Measure there they powerfully incorporate and rejoyce and cast out their Contraries A pregnant Example of this we have in Sounds if two Instruments of one sort be turned to an equal pitch strike one of the Strings and the same String on the other Instrument will shake or tremble this I have done my self and also seen it
weak that they are not able to make a perfect Concoction or Separation for such Food is apt to fur the Passages and breed abundance of evil Juices which fills the whole with gross Phlegmatick Humours that makes it dull heavy and indisposed 5. Women ought not to drink Wine or strong Drink which are bad for Men but an hundred fold worse for Women especially Brandy and all distilled Liquors and Spirits for all such Drinks do not only destroy the natural Heat causing the Stomach to become cold and attended with a sick qualmishness but also send Fumes into the Head weaken the whole Body and giveoccasion for the Generation of Windy Diseases and Vapours and indeed all strong Drinks if not very sparingly taken destroy the Health of the Female Sex being contrary to their Tempers for their Heats being weak in comparison of Mens and their Spirits few therefore every inequality is harmful to them and their Children Besides they are subject to various Diseases which cannot happen to Men and of all these strong Liquor is an especial promoter and therefore the Philosophical Ancients alotted only Water for Womens drink And if our Women were but sensible of the ill Consequences of their frequent Sipping of strong Drinks they would be as far from doing it as those in other Countries there being hardly any Women in the known World that are such great Drinkers and lovers of strong Liquors as the English neither are any so turbulent fiery and Masculine Spirited as accordingly they are troubled with various Diseases to which the Women in other Countries are strangers Furthermore strong Drinks if not sparingly taken heat the Blood causing sharp salt Humours to possess it which also makes their Milk hot and windy very prejudicial to Children for whatever Inconveniences the Mother suffers the Child partakes thereof both in the time of Pregnancy or breeding and whilst it sucks Therefore Moderation and Temperance both in quantity and quality is highly necessary for them because the whole preservation of mankind does in an especial manner depend on their prudent living 6. If Women have regard to their own Health and the Preservation of their Children they ought not to eat any Food hotter than their Blood but after their Food is prepared let it stand open that the fiery sulpherous Vapours may freely pass and fly away for those Steems are very prejudicial to all Peoples Heath but more especially to the Females And this ought to be observed in Flesh above all other Food and also in Puddings and the like things that are of a gross strong Quality and so have the greater power to retain those fiery Steams which are of an hot griping windy Nature and causing a Mank or Scurvy in the Blood and makes the Milk windy and sharp which violently gripes the poor young tender Babe that sucks it 'T is true Use not only Familiarizes the most unnatural things but renders them as it were Natural and in some respects almost Necessary witness Tobacco-smoaking to such as are besotted to it so that often times the leaving off those ill Habits do prove very hard and difficult nay sometimes the abrupt leaving them is as dangerous as the Evils that flow from the constant use of them so easily is Nature depraved and turn'd out of her simple way Thus such as have long used themselves to hot Foods if at any time they miss them and are forc'd to make shift with cold then their Stomach seems empty and unsatisfied only because 't is depraved and for want of a little Custom of eating cold Hence many believe that there is good Nourishment and Vertue in hot Food viz. better than in the same Food cold or as warm as the Blood nay many are so fond of this fiery sulpherous Steam or pernicious Vapour that the good Dame will be angry with her Maid if by any neglect she let this precious Steam fly away calling all the Family to come quickly lest the Meat be cold and as she calls it gâ—â—d for nothing Whereas in truth it will be then much the more wholsom for those pernicious sulpherous Fumes ought to be separated from the Meat before it be received into the Body And a little use of eating cold Food would remove all such ill Habits and make cold Meats and Drinks more friendly and satisfactory to Nature and help to prevent the Generation of all windy Diseases Furthermore as cold Food does sharpen the Appetite so neither will the same quantity thereof swell the Body or indispose Nature so much as the like quantity of hot Victuals will and the Body will feel it self more airy and lightsomer 'T is true hot Food will heat the Body especially all the external parts but then it is an unnatural heat which is more burthensom than pleasant for the fiery sulpherous Steems that remain in Food after 't is prepared are of the very same Nature and Operation as the heat of Charcoal and so Experience will teach you that 't is very unwholsom to hold ones Head over the Steems that proceed either from boyld or baked Foods or over Furnaces or Pots or which proceed from Ovens for they take away the Complexion and make People look Pale and Weakly now if their Operations externally have such a visible ill effect how much more Prejudicial will they be when internally received and with the Food swallowed into the Body Possibly in some strong Constitutions those Inconveniences may not be felt till Age comes on but few then are free from them tho insensibly from what causes they proceed Also it is to be noted that this fiery heat Food does retain after 't is prepared is contrary unto the natural Heat both of the Food and the Stomach too and will no longer remain than whilst 't is forced by the constant heat of the Fire and then of its own accord will separate and fly away as soon as 't is removed from the Fire in an humid Vapour which Fumes if they be stopt by covering such Foods so that they cannot separate and fly away then they will re-enter and â—â—use the Meat to eat strong and fulsom In a word 't is nothing but Custom that makes hot Foods easie and agreeable but all the Custom in the World can never make them so natural and friendly as Cold after a little use 7. They ought to accustom themselves to moderate Exercises in open Airs which is profitable for all People but especially for those of the fair Sex for it hardens and strengthens Nature begets a good Appetite prevents Obstructions breeds good Blood and pure Spirits which renders the whole Body lightsom and pleasant nothing next Temperance in Meats and Drinks being more profitable than moderate Motion and Airy Houses and Rooms and not to pen up themselves as many do in close hot Rooms with great Fires which prevents the most pleasant and friendly Element the Air that it cannot have its free Influencies and so what Air does remain in
such places like standing Water in a Pond in the heat of Summer corrupts and becomes thick and humid which dulls the edg of the Appetite weakens the natural Heat and the Functions of the Stomach besides much sitting by Fires and in hot Rooms draws forth and destroys the pure thin moist Vapours and Volatile Spirits opens the Pores and makes all the Body tender so that such People do not only become uneasie and indisposed but subject to the Inconveniencies of catching Colds if they do but step into the open Air. Likewise moderate Cloathing is very commendable as to Health for much or thick Cloaths are apt to heat and tire Nature and either hinder Exercises or make them burthensom put the external parts into an unpleasant Heat and hinder the cool refreshing Vapours from penetrating into and relieving the Body Therefore those that use themselves to a mean in Cloathing have better Appetites and longer Breath'd stronger and not so apt to recieve Injuries by every small accident as those that inure themselves to very warm Cloathes hot Houses an idle soft Life and the like Effeminacies 8. Women ought not to lie too long in Bed as most of them that are of any Quality or Ability do their Beds being for the most part of Feathers which are soft hot and sulpherous with Curtains drawn close before the Windows and about the Bed whereby the imprisoned Air hindred from its free Circulation stagnates or corrupts and this too is very Prejudicial to their young Children whose Heats are weak and Spirits tender often causing Fevers and Convulsions especially when other Intemperances concur Besides this soaking so long in your Bed weakens all the Members especially the Back which is a principal part and the Body being kept hot and lying long without Motion hinders the Actions of the Stomach impairing so much its due Heat that Nature wants Fire for Kitchinwork I mean is not able to make a profitable concoction or separation of the Food so that great part of it turns to gross phlegmatick Juices for which very cause many Women are stupid weak feeble and presently tired and out of Breath if they do but use any kind of Exercises and hereby their Travel in Child-bearing is ten-fold more burthensom than otherwise it would be witness many ordinary Country People who have nothing the trouble at such times as our fine lazy sluggabed-Dames Besides as I have already observed elsewhere Feather-Beds are ponderous close Substances in their own Nature unclean and lying several Years in Corners or the closest parts of Rooms seldom exposed to the open Air they contract abundance of gross humidity and the various diseased People which lie and sometimes dye on them leave behind contagious Effluviums and venomous Particles lurking perhaps for an Age and not drawn forth till a Person happens to lie on them whose Similes awaken them For Beds are continued from Generation to Generation and not throughly cleansed once in twenty or thirty Years and so become very prejudicial to all sorts of People but especially to Women who spend two thirds of their time in them and also to their Children whose Natures are weak and tender and consequently apt to receive every evil Scent and Vapour which such Beds do plentifully send forth which in many Constitutions by way of the Fores penetrate all parts and wound the Spirits and by degrees weaken and destroy the Health If Women were sensible of the Mischiefs attending their indulging themselves thus in their stinking Nests every day almost till Noon they would surely be ashamed of and detest their own Sloth and Folly therein 9. Women in time of their Month or Lying-in are for the most part through hard Travail and many natural Weaknesses and other Diseases brought very low and their Spirits weak and but few Now in this low condition their Nurses do as it were force such great quantities of sweet strong Suppings on them even against Nature or more than Nature can bear for the Nurse and Mistress do both foolishly imagin that there is no other way for Nature to be restored but by great quantities of strong virtuous Food never remembring the Rule That Nature ought always to be stronger than the Food and not the Food stronger than Nature Also they make them drink and eat such Foods as hot as possible they can crying Mistress if you do not eat it whilst 't is hot 't will be worth nothing When in truth she gives it her so hot that 't is worse than nothing Also many of them will boyl Ale or Beer with Oat-meal and Spice till it becomes thick and then add store of Sugar which ought not to be because no fermented Liquor will endure a second preparation without a total destruction to the pure Spirits and balsamick Vertues as I have demonstrated at large in another place Therefore the Oat-meal and Water ought to be boyled first and briskly not too long and then add a like quantity of Beer Ale or Wine as you please and set it on the Fire and let it be made boyling-hot but not boyl and then take it off the Fire and scum the gross phlegmy part off which swims on the top and let it stand till it be about as warm as your Blood and then you may drink it with safety but always remember that the quantity be not too great nor the quality too strong for Nature your best time to put in your Spice is with your Ale Beer or Wine but let it be bruised and make but a little at a time so that you may have it fresh and fresh for heating such Foods and most others a second or third time does destroy the brisk lively spirituous parts and renders them dull heavy hard of Concoction and not so pleasant to the Pallat. 10. Most Women that have where-withal do inrich their Food and Drinks with so many forreign Ingredients as do not only make them too rich and consequently generate too much Nourishment but also intice the Pallat to receive more than is needful whereby the natural Heat and Stomach is over-charged and the Vessels stretcht beyond their proper and natural Proportions so the Body swells and becomes uneasie and Wind in abundance generated Nor do such after eating and drinking find themselves Refreshed which is the Intention of Food but on the contrary are more disordered through fullness than they were before with hunger Therefore it concerns all especially such as have but weak Spirits and Heats not to exceed either in quantity or quality but administer proportionable Food that the natural Heat and Stomach be not put to any difficulty to digest and concoct it so the pure Spirits shall thereby be preserved free from Oppressions For all Health and Joy consist in the goodness of the natural Spirits it being a grand Mistake in most who think to recover lost strength by over-rich Food strong Cordial Drinks and great quantities for they but add a second charge and inconveniency to
of their Blood obstructed which occasions many Infirmities as loss of Appetite stoppages of the Breast and Generation of that universal Disease the Wind which is a mortal Enemy to Children Also this hard binding does often deform the Body and destroy the Proportions of the Limbs and Joynts which are easily forced out of due place in those tender Years which brings a great deal of uneasiness and torture to them and proves of very evil consequence as to Health as many of our fine-Citizens Wives and others may know by woful Experience Indeed these preposterous ways are so contrary and disagreeing to Nature that thereby is destroyed the chief pleasure and delight of young Children but to make them amends for such their hard Usage and Deformities if they happen with difficulty to out-live Childhood their Parents being much concerned at the crookedness and disproportions of their Children which themselves have chiefly occasioned must needs send for the Iron or Steel-Bodice-maker which rarely doth any good but generally the contrary putting Youth to unspeakable Misery to no purpose and this conceited Remedy proves of as dangerous consequence to many as the first Original Evil Therefore these Courses ought to be avoided for they bring many Distempers on the Body which Nature is never able to out-grow especially in weak Constitutions for they infeeble the whole Body cause the Contusion of the Breast lay Foundations for Consumptions and cause many to have pale thin Complexions weak Joynts c. Of Food fit for Children and the contrary Also of Quantity and Quality The best Food for young Children next their Mothers Milk is good Cows Milk raw with some crumbs of Bread in it always observing that it first stand till it be cold after 't is milkt before you give it them For 't is a great Error in Physicians and others to advise consumptive People to drink Milk hot from the Cow for that Heat is of a Windy Quality that swells the Body and sends Fumes into the Head and is harder of concoction than the same Milk is when 't is cold Touching which I desire not that any Body should take my bare Word in opposition to the Learned but it being so easie and familiar a thing let them try and then they shall know by Experience Therefore I say in Summer your Children may eat it Cold but in the Winter you may warm it as hot as your Blood or if you have a desire to alter it the best way is to boyl it adding some Water to it with a little Flour and sometimes Oat-meal but remember that it do not boyl too long nor too thick for that makes it of a grosser Nature and harder of Digestion and breeds thicker Blood which is of ill consequence to Children I know Mistress Nurse will be offended that I talk of giving Children Raw Milk But I must tell her that properly the same ought not to be called Raw because it hath passed through several Digestions and Fermentations even to the highest degree so that it is not inferior to Womens Milk and much better than most of theirs because of their Infirmities and improper Foods and Drinks And Womens Milk may as properly be counted Raw as the Cows to whom I know no Creature comparable for Sweetness Cleanness and Wholsomness their breathing is an excellent Perfume and their very Excrement is little less and yet our good Dames would think it a sad business if they should give their Children unboyled Milk whereas the boyling thereof destroys the wheyey part of it and fixes it and makes it thicker and harder of Concoction but on the contrary Raw Milk as they call it that is unboyled is of a cleansing Quality easie of Digestion carries away downwards all windy matter out of the Stomach and Vessels and causeth it to pass away freely there being no sort of Food or Physick like it so that 't is an excellent Remedy to prevent all Convulsions and griping Pains of the Stomach attending windy Diseases in Children And when Children begin to be capable to eat harder Food then Bread and Butter and Bread and Cheese will be good Food for them provided that the Cheese be not too old nor too stale and strong for such Cheese is very injurious to Children heating the Blood and causing too great a Drought But most Foods that are in use in this wanton superfluous Age are improper for Children one of which is much in use among the richest sort and indeed most People now-a-days feed their Children with it viz. Water-Pap that is Bread and Water supposing that sort of Food to be light of Concoction which is a great mistake for Bread the chief Ingredient therein has already passed through the highest Preparation it is capable of for the first preparation in all sorts of Food does digest and destroy the crude Body of Phlegm and sets the spirituous parts at liberty which by a second Preparation must be destroyed and then such Foods and Drinks become dull and heavy and lie hard upon the Stomach yielding but a bad Nourishment breeding thick gross Blood whence proceed Stoppages and many Infirmities of the Breast and are so contrary to Nature that those that do prepare any sort of Food a second time are forced to add some predominating strong Ingredients that are rich as Sugar Spice and Spanish Fruits to hide the Qualities of the first and grand Ingredients for who could indure to eat Bread and Water boyled together alone or Bread and Ale or Bread and Wine And yet all these in themselves and without any alteration are very pleasant and wholsom Furthermore all fat Flesh is very hurtful to Children for it furs and oyls the Stomach and Passages and in some Children whose retentive and digestive Faculties are weak and the Expulsive strong it quickly slips out of the Stomach into the Bowels and loosens the Belly too violently causing griping Pains especially when Flesh is not good and at some certain seasons of the Year Likewise all kinds of strong Drinks are Abomination unto the Natures of Children it drys and heats them infects the Blood with sharp mangy Humours and Diseases evaporates the pure volatile Spirits c. But of all sorts of Drinks the most fit and proper for Children is Water the next is small Beer that is well brewed All kind of melted Butter and fryed Food be they what they will are hurtful to the Health of all People if not very sparingly taken but more especially to Children for Butter has passed through several Digestions and Fermentations that have opened the gross body and made the spirituous parts flying or volatile and therefore if Butter stand open a little while in the Air it destroys the goodness and pure brisk taste of it but if it be committed to the Fire then the pure Vertue is immediately suffocated or evaporated and then it turns into a gross strong Oyl which is very offensive to Nature but many to prevent its running into Oyl will
any find themselves weak fainty weary and the like they presently think to supply this defect of Nature by giving her good store of rich Food and Cordial Drinks which for the most part do but add a second burthen to her and proves of a more hazardous consequence to the Health than the first Disorder since these Indispositions generally come not for want of Nourishment but rather the contrary and for want of due Rest after too violent Actions or over-long continuance at them and for lack of giving Nature proportionable Meats and Drinks whereby the Spirits and Radical Moisture are wasted as aforesaid tho' it must be confessed That Health and Strength cannot be maintained but by a constant supply of Meats and Drinks yet the main thing is in the due and proper Timing thereof Therefore weak-natur'd People at all times and others whenever by Labour Travel or Fasting they are brought into a weak and fainty state should then be more than ordinarily careful that their Meats and Drinks be not too strong nor too much in quantity nor of a contrary quality but proportionable to the present strength of their Natural Heat 3. Great drinking of Wine and strong Drinks after full Meals of Flesh and Fish most of them being of disagreeing Natures one to the other do often wound the health and that constitution is rarely known that they do not prove of evil and dangerous consequence unto which many of the richest sort of People in this Nation might know by woful experience especially in London who do yearly spend many hundreds I think I may say thousands of Pounds on their ungodly Paunches Many of whom may save themselves that charge and trouble they are usually at in learning of Monsieur Nimble heels the Dancing-Master how to go upright for their Bellies are swelled up to their Chins which forces them to behold the Skie but not for Contemplation-sake you may be sure but out of pure necessity and without any more Impressions of Reverence towards the Almighty All-wise Creator than their Fellow Bruits for their Brains are sunk into their Bellies Injection and Ejection is the business of their Life and all their precious hours are spent between the Platter and the Glass and the Close-stool and Piss-pot Are not these fine Fellows to call themselves Christians and Right Worshipfuls The natural Heat being overcharg'd by too great a Quantity of rich Food that contains overmuch Nourishment stops the Passages arrests the Spirits and makes the Stomach violently attract unto it self from all parts of the Body the pleasant moist Vapours to help and assist her to overcome and digest that load of Victuals which they have ingorged that often puts Nature very hard to it in her internal Laboratory causing a kind of suffocation of the pure Spirits drying and consuming the Radical Moisture and thin refreshing Vapours Therefore after such Epicurean Meals there is always an Indisposition through the whole Body with dulling Fumes in the Head and drouziness that generally continues four five or six hours more or less according to the strength of each mans Constitution and the quantity of Food During which time the Passages of the Spirits are obstructed the Pores stopt so that the thin pleasant Vapours of the Air from without cannot penetrate and thence the Blood is heated and its Circulation hindred and all this by gross phlegmatick Juices arising from Superfluities which impede the Passages and free Course of Nature But after some hours when Nature hath strugled with these Besiegers and flung off their Chains and overcome her Enemy and forced her way and made a separation then the Road of the Spirits is again laid open and the Pores are unlockt to let in the refreshing Breezes and the Man grows brisk and lively and fit for business And so indeed he might have been all this while if to pamper a liquorish Pallate and gratifie an extravagant Humour and Custom he had not wilfully Ingurgitated so much Food as thus oppressed Nature for the present and tho' he think now all 's over and is ready the very next day to attack her again with a like Debauch yet he shall shortly find the Dregs remain there is a Morbifick matter left and continually encreased which at length being ripened into Act by some proper Aspect of the Heavens or similary Accident on Earth breaks forth into a most grievous Surfeit or violent Fever and the Man is all on sire and sighs and languishes and dies And who shall pity him since if he would in time have hearkened to the Voice of Reason or Experience either of them would have told him That the sole Intention of Nature in eating and drinking is purely to support and refresh her and not burden her and therefore he ought to have chosen simple Food and the quantity not too great for the natural Heat and then he should have found after such eating and drinking a certain pleasant and refreshing and chearing Joy spread through the whole Body from the Center to the Circumference being more brisk lively active and useful than before But still many there are that be not content to Overcram Nature with too great a quantity of Food but they will needs drown her too with a deluge of Drink pouring in such vast Quantities of Wine and strong Liquors into their foolish Hogsheads as if they designed to make their Souls immediately swim out of their Bodies This second Charge especially when it comes immediately upon or soon after the first wounds Dame Nature to the very Heart and sets her on fire consuming the sweet Oyl and Radical Moisture by whole-sale suffocates the purer Spirits and puts the Blood their limpid and natural Habitation all into a combustion and the first and greatest Sufferer in this Hurliburly is the pure Volatile Spirit Balsamick Body and pure Oyl which is of a friendly Nature so meek and gentle that it cannot without manifest danger to the Health endure any such harsh Fires or churlish Motions And whenever Violence is offered to this benign quality Nature falls into a languishing which makes the Functions of the Stomach to cease and the Salt's spirit looseth its savour if the Disorder happen near the Center of Life But if only the pure Spirits and sweet Oyl of any Member be hurt then it often falls out that the Evil and Defect remains only in that Member and the Stomach and Center continue well and in such cases the Life is seldom in danger But many Physitians mistaken in Nature do conclude That the cause of such Defects proceed from some ill-habit or vitiated Tone of the Stomach and more Central parts and therefore they will give strong Potions of harsh Medicines both Purging and Vomiting which for the most part hurt Nature weaken the Center help to weaken and destroy the Balsamick Vertues and the Limb or Member afflicted grows worse for when in any Member the wrathful Saturnal and Mercurial Poysons and sulpherous Heats of Mars
of his Pope or the command or instigation of some bloody sottish Belly-God devilish Priest be ready nay zealous to kill burn and destroy the Innocent and lay waste whole Countries all which is contrary to all kinds of Friendliness and Humanity and also to God's Law in Nature and to the Law of God recorded in th Scriptures Which shews that Men are gone from and do trample under their feet the divine friendly Love and Light of God and all natural Affection and Humanity and have immersedtheir Wills and their whole Hearts and Souls and precipitated them into the fiery stern Wrath of God having no humane clemency but acted by the cruel fierce nature of Dogs Lions Swine c And as those savage Beasts do delight to kill hurry oppress tear and eat the Blood of their Fellow Creatures so most men place their chief delight and pleasure in hunting killing oppressing and devouring not only those of their own kind which is contrary to most of the worst of Beasts for few of them will prey upon or worry those of their own Species but all other Creatures None of the Elements are free from his Snares and Cruelties the Earth the Air the Sea cannot preserve their innocent Inhabitants from his pursuits and outrages but he rifles the whole Creation and yet still all is too little to satisfie his insatiate Mind and ungodly devouring Paunch so great a Tyrant and Devil is he become to all the rest of his Fellow-Citizens of the World 'T is this proud and troublesome Thing called Man that fills the Earth with Blood and the Air with mutherous Minerals and Sulphur no wonder then if the very sight of a Man be more dreadful to most Creatures than that of a Bear or Lion and they will flie from him as fast Those Beasts that are called clean are such as do refuse all kind of unclean Food for the predominate Quality in them consists in the friendly Nature or their Properties are nearer the Equality Therefore such Creatures as they are more clean so also are they more gentle and friendly in Inclinations and Dispositions it being contrary to their Natures to worry oppress or seek the Lives of their Fellow-Creatures but are contented with their innocent and natural Food they are the only useful and beneficial Creatures unto Man his perpetual Friends by vertue of their Fruits his Life is sustained but for the multitude of their Benefits he rewards them with Oppression and Death nor will content himself with the good things they produce for his Sustenance as Milk Butter Cheese Eggs c. but must also kill them and eat their Blood and dead Carcasses Now if Man had not suffered the Hellish Devilish Nature to have been awakened in him he then would not have desired nor longed after the Oppressions and Flesh-pots of Egypt but would have rested content with innocent harmless Food of the Land of Canaan but the wrathful Fire being so greatly moved and predominating in the Hearts and Souls of Mankind above and over the divine friendly Love of God no Food will give satisfaction unto nor answer the hunger and desires of that awakened wrathful Property so well as Flesh and Blood because it is the highest Life and hath a nearer Affinity to that predominating Quality that so bears sway in most Men's Hearts I look upon it as a great Mistake for a Man to say and believe That all these good Creatures were made to be killed and eaten and that Men's Lives should be sustain'd thereby The Lord made all Creatures for his honour and glory and for the reasonable service and use of Mankind whom he ordered to have dominion over all Creatures which Man has lost by suffering his Desires to enter into the wrathful fierce bestial nature which the Humanity ought not to have touch'd for Man is higher graduated and ought not to have bowed himself to those inferiour Powers nor suffered their low bestial Spirits to enter him for God made Man in his own Image the Horizon of both Worlds the Epitome of the whole Creation so that he is liable to be wrought upon by all inferiour things If this were not so there would not be any such danger of infecting the humane Nature by Communications oppressing killing and eating the Flesh of the Beasts for where nothing is there nothing can be awakened as our Saviour Christ said If your Children ask you for Bread will you give them a Stone There being no affinity between the Stomach and a Stone but on the contrary there is agreement between Bread and the Stomach Whatsoever Man gives way or joyns himself unto the same through a little custom and practice will have power to impose its own Property and captivate the Soul Hence it comes to pass that Butchers Souldiers and all Men that are of robustick slavish Employments are for the most part cruel inhumane subject to all the savage Bestiality that the wild Beasts and Birds of Prey are and oft-times far worse for Beasts do only live in the wrath of the outward Nature but Man does both partake and live in the operation of the outward and also of the hellish Nature Therefore 't is no fit comparison to liken some sorts of cruel Men to savage Beasts for thereby the poor dumb Creatures are abused They do according to their kind but Man was made for another Life viz. to live in the power and operation of the divine Principle of God's eternal Light and Love but he has degenerated from his first state of Innocency and many Men by giving way to Cruelty and Violence are become so bad that they cannot be compared to any Creature in Nature but merely to Devils O! how abominable and wicked a thing it is in the sight of the Lord and his friendly Love in Iesus Christ for Men to take his holy Name in vain by their Swearing Lying Stealing Cheating Circumventing each other Fighting Killing counting it no Evil to hurry oppress worry both Man and Beast spending their precious time in Wantonness and all kind of Superfluity of Naughtiness and Intemperance making it a Sport and Pastime Good-Fellowship and Civil Neighbourhood to be drunk to eat to Gluttony and to keep Tables filled with Superfluities is counted Hospitality and a Thing of State On the contrary to eat and drik only for ends and necessities of Nature of ready simple harmless Meats and Drinks is held poor base and beggarly and derided by most that have wherewithal to do otherwise making the Creator as it were the cause of their Wantonness saying Has not God given us those Creatures freely for our use May we not do what we will with them Are they not cur own These are the common Excuses of these wretched Belly-Slaves not considering that most or all those good Creatures which they spend on their Lusts and to gratifie their wicked Inclinations are gotten by their oppressing both Man and Beast eating and drinking the Blood of the poor and the
whole Creation doth groan because of their Violence and Oppression If a Man have Ten Thousand Pounds per Annum it is still as great an Evil for him to spend any part of it in Superfluity and Wantonness or to gratifie his Passions or Lusts and to live a soft effeminate idle Life as it is for a mean Person that works for his Bread for Superfluity Gluttony and Idleness are equal Evlls unto all Men to the Noble and Rich as well as the Poor and Ignoble it being the effect of a base low depraved wicked Opinion amongst Men to say I have wherewithal I will therefore indulge my self eat to Gluttony and drink to Drunkenness lie a-bed the best part of my Life and rise to be Idle I will have my Horses and my Coaches ready steep my Brains in Wine make my Guts a Magazine of Dainties and stretch my lazy Limbs on Beds of Roses and Couches of Ivory And in this heat of Lusts and Wantonness they get Children and bring them up in all kind of Superfluities Luxury and Idleness so that every succeeding Generation is more corrupt than the former sowing hellish Dispositions and entailing them on their Posterity such as the Tree is such is the Fruit an ill Bird a worse Egg for the Seed does contain the true Properties Dispositions and Inclinations and Children being begotten from such Matter and Essences those cruel and hellish Affections grow up with them and become essential Besides Children seeing the Oppressions and Excesses of their Parents do endeavour to imitate and follow their Examples so that the young idle Ones will cry What should I work for Have I not an Estate Have not I enough to keep me without taking any Pains or Care for any thing Many of this sort of Lubbers deserve to be served as Alexander the Great served a King he conquered who loved Money excessively and therefore had a Chapel which he had filled with Gold and Silver and therein placed his whole delight and Happiness which Alexander understanding put him in amongst his Money and shut him up with it bidding him eat it and so the miserable Man starved to death upon his Treasure Suppose a Man had ten Thousand Acres of the best Land in England he may starve as this Prince did if this Land be not manured by Labour and Industry All the Land in England will not afford one Bit of Bread unless pains be taken with it But here some will object and say We are of Noble Birth and Blood our Progenitors and Fathers have been great Lords Nimrods mighty Hunters they have ventured their Lives and oppressed the Poor and Weak deflowred Virgins taken away Men's Wives by force killed the Aged and carried captive the Young laid waste Cities brought desolation upon flourishing Kingdoms and killed starved ruined and undone many Thousands of People From these and the like Heroick Acts of Hellish Cruelty our Coats of Arms are derived wherein to shew our Nature and wherein our Glory consists we bear the Pictures of the most savage useless and rapacious Beasts and Birds that can be thought on as Lions Bears Wolves Tigers Eagles c. These are our Badges of Honour and hence our Noble Birth and High Blood have proceeded this being the true Foundation of most of that Gentility and Nobility which the World so much admires and that serves their Posterity to boast of But tell me I pray you Noble Gallants if ever you are at leisure to entertain one wise or serious thought tell me I say Is there not one only God that made all things Did not he make one Man out of the Clay or Dirt of the Earth and breath into him a living Soul and make him his Vice-Roy and allot him dominion over all things not one man to worry kill and destroy the Well-being and Peace of another and of all other Creatures Are not those Millions of Men and Women scattered over the Face of the whole Earth descended from this one Man As well the Caesars and the Grand Signiors the Things cloathed in Cloth of Gold and Tissue as the vilest Beggars and the poor tattered Boy that stands barefoot in Frost and Snow shivering at the foot of some Welsh Mountain Are we not then all own Couzens Our Pedigree the same and equally ancient Hath not the Lord also endued this one Man's Off-spring with equal Parts Senses and Members as to the Elements of their Bodies A fair Grecian Woman being at a Banquet and at the Sport called Questions and Commands with many others of her Sex whom she perceived to bave heightned their Complexions by Painting when it came to her Turn commanded them all to do as she did and immediately called for Water and soundly wash'd her Face which they doing lost all the artificial Roses of their Cheeks and appeared in their natural deformity which shewed that their Beauty was but adulterate hers real Just so shall we find this boasted Nobility to be nothing but Art Fancy Ostentation and Vanity if we put it to the Test. Let every man be stripp'd and left destitute of those Excrements of Beasts and inferiour Creatures which he is such a Fool to be proud of and appear in his own natural Hue and see then who can distinguish the Noble from the Ignoble my Lord frrm his Foot-man the Rich from the Poor In such a light as well as in the dark Ioan would be as good as my Lady and perhaps better because wholsomer I have enquired of Chirurgions and Chymists and they have told me they cannot find any difference in the colour nor any other excellency in the Blood of Peers above that of Peasants where then lies this famous Generosity of the red circling Iuice so cunningly close that no body can find it Besides I pray tell me Hath the Noble any more Privileges by Nature's Charter than others Has he any more Senses than his Neighbours Has he as many Palates as he has Palaces No no God hath made no more difference between the Noble as they call them and the Ignoble than there is between the poor Man's Cow and the rich Man's the latter may probably be somewhat the fatter the meanest Farmer has altogether as large a Stomach though not so large an House as his Landlord Now for certain if the Lord had made difference and created one Noble and Great and another the contrary then he would also have endued them with some peculiar Benefits and Marks of distinction by which one might be known from the other but it is not so there is no other Mark of distinction between them but as is before mentioned Oppression and Violence both to Men and Beasts killing slaughtering destroying and the like devilish Actions by which many have got Riches Renown and Authority this being the common Rule he that hath done most bloody wicked Acts and got the most Money is most Noble and the best Gentleman But if those that are possessed of the Goods of this
And if we may descend to grosser Pleasures have not the meanest of Men as great content and satisfaction with his poor Russet-Coated Wife as the greatest Prince with his Gayest Bride Whence the Poets always feign LOVE the noblest of the Passions to be bred amongst the Villagers and a Companion of Rusticks and Shepherdesses Nay to go higher has not the great All Wise Creator given the most friendly Element the Air in Gavil-kind to all the Sons of Men every one enjoying an equal Portion And are not the greatest of Men subject to all the Injuries of the Elements and Necessities and Accidents of Natural Life viz. Heat Cold Hunger Thirst Diseases and even Death it self as much and as frequently and as certainly as the Poor And yet still men are so foolish and so vain as to vaunt of their Great Birth and their Noble Blood Can any thing be mote extravagantly ridiculous True it is all that are Governors Magistrates and Officers of the People ought to be honoured and respected in their Places according to their respective Dignities and so much the more if they govern according to the Law of God and Nature doing every man Justice and Right and being a Terror unto evil doers and a Praise unto them that do well But this real Honour contracted on Political Considerations of Office and Vertue is nothing to that Fantastick Glory derived meerly from Ancestors and the brave Feats done by our Great-Grandsires Grand-Fathers so much boasted of by those who please themselves in being Great rather by their Mother's Labours than their own 14. It is to be noted that most sorts of Flesh and Fish as to their operations on the Body and Senses are not so innocent brisk aery and lively as Herbs Seeds Grains Fruits and various sorts of excellent Food made of them though many of our English Belly-Gods suppose Flesh to be most mighty in its operation but they are grosly mistaken and no wonder since their Brains Wits and Understandings are through Intemperance Superfluity and Gluttony sunk into their Bellies for Flesh is of a gross substance dull and heavy in its operation fills the Body with abundance of slimy corrupt Juices bad Blood and in many Constitutions too great a quantity and causeth the Animal Spirits to be very impure whence arise Boils Scabs King's-Evils Leprosies and sometimes clotted Blood like pieces of Flesh which lie in some of the Vessels of the Stomach till being gathered into hard Lumps they sorely oppress Nature and cause Distempers which are the Death of Multitudes Flesh and Blood is too near of kin to the Animal Life in Man to be a proper Food for him 't is like the Marrying of Brothers and Sisters Therefore the Ancients were curious in forbidding especially the eating of the Flesh of any of those Beasts that would naturally eat the Flesh of their Fellow-Creatures and we need go no farther than every Man's experience to know that all such Flesh and also Fish have a rank strong fulsome Taste and affords a like Nourishment Nor has Flesh and Blood grown into great reputation from the excellency of its Taste or Nourishment but chiefly as we have elsewhere observed from the near affinity it has with the awaken'd Wrath and bestial Nature which in most men predominates Hence when once Men have tasted Flesh with the Blood the Bestial Qualities are presently irritated and so pleased that nothing else will afford them such satisfaction because of its great affinity with the Bestial and Animal Life the hunger grows so strong in many that they will eat Flesh or Fish that stinks and is half putrified if they cannot have other rather than feed upon Bread Butter Cheese or the like which is an bundred-fold beyond it both as to Taste Nourishment and Vertue The same is to be understood of all sorts of unclean Birds and Beastss of Prey As for example If a Dog chance to suck the Blood and eat the raw Flesh of any Creature it does so violently open the gate of the fierce Quality that the Hunger grows so great that he becomes ten-fold more eager revenous and fierce than before This every one almost doth know and if they consider it well shall find the very same Effects in Bodies humane as each man may feel in himself if he be a diligent observer of his own Nature If this had not been so Moses and many wise men in most Ages had never made such strict Laws against eating of Flesh without distinction and that such Flesh as was allowed to be eaten should be throughly cleansed from the Blood c. Which rendered such Flesh far wholsomer and to afford a better nourishment but not so much as our way of Killing and Dressing which in truth in most Creatures as Cows Oxen c. is next door to strangling whereby the natural Spirits are suffocated and causes the Blood and fierce wrathful Spirits to centre and lodge themselves in all parts of the Body and hinders them that they pass not so freely away where the wound is made This the Apostles understood very well We have no other Commandment to lay on you but that you abstain from Blood Fornications things offered to Idols and things strangled there being more Evil in all sorts of Flesh and Fish that is so killed than most do imagine for when there is no Wound made the animal bestial wrathful fierce original poysonous Spirits become suffocated and Death's stroke brings the whole Nature into such amazing frightful Agonies as few Men or Killers of Beasts are sensible of or endued with so much humanity to consider for if they did suffer Compassion to arise in them their leud Trade of killing would not be so easie to them I say the central Poysons being awakened by the stroke of Death and finding no Passage they seize the pure Spirits whose Habitation is the Blood and then presently the sweet Oyl or Balsamick Property turns sower strong and fulsome as is manifest every where both in Animals and Vegetables whensoever the pure spirituous parts are by any improper preparation or other Accidents wounded suffocated or evaporated then in a moment's time the sweet balsamick Property is depraved and turns eager and unwholesome Hence it is that the Flesh of those Creatures that are strangled does neither look so well nor eat so sweet nor is so healthy as other Flesh for when any Creature perceives its Life in danger there is such a strugling and horror within as none can imagine but such only as have been near dead by the like means it being the very same in a Beast as in Men. This being better understood by the Ancients than now-a-days it was therefore amongst them not lawful to kill any Creature that was to be eaten without making a Wound by which means the Blood did pass freely away and with it the fierce and wrathful Spirits and Poysons and so the Flesh was purged and freed from many sorts of Uncleanness and even this
Blood so let forth was to be buried in the ground or burned and so the bestial Spirits prevented from Evaporations or incorporating themselves with the Air and consequently from entring into and infecting the humane Nature with their wrathful Effluviums and dreadful Species that the Blood of all Creatures are full of when killed in their health and perfect strength The greatest Excellency and common Virtue of men's eating much Flesh and Fish is that it makes them surly robustick sordid and of cruel inhumane Dispositions and Inclinations it being the most proper for Soldiers Hunters Moss-Troopers and all such as would have the bestial savage Nature strengthened and encreased and have a mind to be Lions and Devils not only to their own kind but all other Creatures and so long as People give their Wills up unto the fierce proud wrathful poysonous Nature we may not expect any other Trade to be driven amongst us whence we sind that the meek friendly Principle is trodden under foot Compassion has little or no place in Man farther than it is a Custom and he seems wholly given up to Rapine Oppression and Wickedness Whereas on the contrary Herbs Fruits Grains and many other the like innocent sorts of Food are more pleasant to the Eye of a better Scent and Smell afford a more grateful Taste to the Palate Nourishment finer and of better Substance to the Stomach they are of an easier Concoction breed better Blood are much more readily procured the Creation groans not or sighs there 's no Pain Violence or Cruelty committed in the Use of them they generate purer Spirits and make the Body lightsome and pleasant free the Mind from Dulness Care and Heaviness quicken all the Senses make a good Understanding preserve Innocency increase Compassion Love Humility and Charity give the Spirit of distinction between Good and Evil Clean and Unclean and help us with many opportunities for the study of all true Wisdom both of God Nature and our selves In a word the Virtues both Divine and Natural that follow Abstinence and Cleanness are not to be numbred many of them I know by experience through the mercy and good favour of the Lord It makes a man hate all rude vain talkative Company and the many Inconveniences that attend such a course of Life it also makes the observers thereof capable at all Seasons to speak the Words of Wisdom either divine or humane being but like large Glass-Windows to an House it lets in the pleasant light Air by giving opportunities to all the noble Faculties of man's Soul to exercise their Functions it tunes the Properties of Nature whence proceeds most excellent Harmony and whoever shall try it shall certainly find much more satisfaction and advantages than is here related or indeed than can be expressed in Words 15. It is farther to be noted that all kind of Inventions and Arts that encourage Violence and Oppression have proceeded from the fierce harsh wrath of God and the uneven properties of Saturn and Mars as Gun-powder Guns Drums and all Warlike Instruments of Musick There is nothing that does more manifest this than Gun-powder where the pure spirituous Parts and balsamick Vertues in all the Ingredients are suffocated and destroyed so that it becomes a meer composition of Wrath and Fierceness for every Property of Nature becomes fierce and terrible or strong fulsome and poysonous if the virtue and light thereofbe destroyed or separated from it for every particular Creature or Substance both Vegetable Mineral and Animal does consist of Fire and Light Love and Anger Ioy and Sorrow Good and Evil These are the Radixes of each Subject throughout all the three Kingdoms of Nature and if in any thing you violate the lovely light part then the angry Properties appear in their own Forms an Instance whereof we have before mentioned in Charcoal which is one Ingredient towards Gun-powder and all the rest are alike being of a terrible rending tearing devilish fierce nature and in it is a true Figure of the Wrath of God in the outward nature So likewise the sound of Drums and all Weapons of War and Violence proceed from the same Root of Wrath and accordingly the use of all such things do much encourage and strengthen the wrathful Properties in Mankind who if they had not or did not suffer their Wills and Desires to enter into the Wrath and fierce Properties of Nature in themselves and were not acted and influenced by it there would never have been any of those Hellish Inventions as Swords Guns Powder Drums Bows Arrows and other murthering Engines nor any thoughts of Killing Oppressing and Destroying those of their own Kind nor any other Creatures but Man should have kept that Dominion over the Creatures wherewith the Creator invested him in the beginning and no Creature should have had power to have influenced him or imposed their Properties upon him Hence then touching all Fighting Oppressing and Killing let it be little or much and the pretence what it will we affirm from a true light and ground That the same do arise and proceed from the fierce wrath of God and from that devilish hellish nature in Man which is as contrary to the friendly Love and Light of God in Jesus Christ as the Night is to the Day for if in man or any other Creature the evil Property do predominate and is most manifest there the good Qualities and friendly Light is overcome and so on the contrary For every Property and Principle does manifest and bring forth its own fruit as our Saviour Christ says Every Tree is known by its Fruits a good Tree cannot bring forth evil Fruit nor an evil Tree good Fruit. According to what Property does rule in the Heart of any Man such are his Thoughts Words and Actions where the divine Principle of God's eternal Love and Light doth predominate such Persons bring forth those good and precious Fruits of Love Mercy Compassion courteous Speeches Works of Charity and doing unto all men as they would be done unto but those in whom the hellish Principle bears sway their Fruits are worse than Briars and Thorns such as Back-biting Hatred Oppression Killing not only inferiour Creatures but even those of their own Kind and working all sorts of Impiety with greediness Therefore 't is of unspeakable moment to be able to distinguish in our selves the Two Principles and their respective Fruits and to be careful to deny and root out the Evil and cherish and follow the Counsel of the holy Light which if obeyed is sufficient to destroy all the mischievous Works of Self-hood and the Devil for as the more men habituate themselves to Cruelty Oppression Unmercifulness Killing and the like the stronger the hellish Principle of Wrath does grow and the worse and more cruel they become So in the practice of Vertue every Property and Principle grows strong by Use and Exercise and he that enters into the narrow Path of Regeneration and Self-denial ought always
came to destroy For he preached Peace Love and good Will unto all Men and therefore his Doctrine is called The Evangele or Gospel that is to say Ioyful News or Glad Tidings Some there are that do say That if they should not kill and eat the Flesh of the Creatures they could not subsist or live which in a bad sense is true For should they cease from Violence and Killing then that cruel wrathful fierce Life in them could not subsist in such vigour and strength as it does but must of necessity become weak and as it were die that is it would no longer domineer in the Heart over the friendly Principle of God's Love But as to the Health of the Body which is that which I mean Herbs and Fruits will sustain Nature in every respect far beyond the best of Flesh. 16. It is said in Gen. 4. That Adam knew his Wife Eve and she conceived and bore Cain and said I have gotten a Man from the Lord that is from the strong Powers of the Wrath in Nature from whence all Lordliness Pride and Oppression in Government ariseth And she conceived again and bore his Brother Abel and Abel was a Keeper of Sheep that is a Keeper of and Dweller in Innocency But Cain was a Tiller of the harsh Earth which must be broken and torn up by Violence and hard Labour both of Man and Beast which was the Curse that the Lord laid upon Adam And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the Fruits of the Ground an Offering unto the Lord And Abel he also brought of the Firstlings of his Flock and the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his Offering but unto Cain and his Offering he had no respect And Cain was very wroth and his Countenance fell and the Lord said unto Cain Why art thou wroth If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted and if not Sin lieth at thy Door and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him that is unto thee Cain shall be the Desire of my Kingdom of Love and Divine Light but if thou wilt not hearken unto its Counsel and be obedient to my Commandments then thou shalt rule over him that is over the Divine Power as it came to pass for Cain talked with Abel that is the Wrath contended with the Love and Divine Power and it came to pass when they were in the Field that is where the wild harsh Nature does predominate that Cain rose up against Abel his Brother and slew him Here the Wrath prevailed over the divine innocent Principle and destroyed it as it does at this day for those two Brothers did rightly and truly signifie the two grand Principles and the two Seeds that of the Woman and that of the Serpent And the Lord said unto Cain Where is thy Brother And he said I know not Am I my Brother's Keeper Here Cain viz. the Property of Wrath denied the Murther and pretended he had done him no Evil or knew nothing of him But the Lord answered and said What hast thou done The Voice of thy Brother's Blood crieth unto me from the ground and therefore the Lord cursed Cain and tells him he shall be a Fugitive and a Vagabond Then Cain bowed himself and said unto the Lord My Punishment is greater than I can bear Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the Earth and from thy face shall I be hid and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall stay me This Confession and Submission did so pacifie the kindled Wrath that the Lord said Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain Vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold and the Lord set a Mark on Cain lest any finding him should slay him This Mark was the Light of the Lord that enlightens every Man that cometh into the World and which does more or less mollifie and withstand the fierce wrathful Powers in Mankind for if this were not the Wrath of Cain would grow so powerful that the Children of Abel would not have any being in this World Then Cain went out from the Presence of the Lord and dwelt in the Land of Nod on the East-side of Eden that is he went into the outward Principle of this World and dwelt in the Land of Vanity at a distance from the divine Principle which is intimated by Eden in which Cain did not live but on one side of it viz. in the operation of both the good and evil Nature which most Men of this World do live in And it is also said That he built a City that is he became strong and powerful in the Property of this World and therefore Cain was an Oppressor and one that did domineer and Lord it over his Brethren and slay the divine Principle of God's Love and hence all Violences Contentions Killing and Works of Darkness for Cain does truly signifie the Fountain of God's Wrath and the original Properties of the Father's Nature and Abel does represent the eternal Principle of God's Love in the Son's Property Cain intimates the Fire and Abel the Light if the meek Spirit of Abel were not overcome and murthered by the fierce Wrath of Cain there would be Peace on Earth as in Heaven and as when Cain arose and contended with and slew Abel he made no resistance this was a true manifestation that the fierce Wrath had got the Victory but Abel's Blood cried unto the Lord. The very same is to be understood in all kind of Oppression both to Man and Beasts they all by a sweet sympathetical operation call for Vengeance for God is no respecter of Persons or Things but whensoever any Creature is oppressed the same doth from the awakened Wrath curse the Oppressor and send up Cries and terrible Complaints to Heaven which moves the Principle of God's Wrath whence so many Judgments fall upon the People nor is it possible it should be otherwise as long as the Spirit of Cain predominates in their Hearts tearing and destroying the Peace and Well-being of one another and of all the inferiour Creatures far worse than the wild Savages of the Desart for when their Bellies are full they do rest satisfied until they are hungry again but Men are become such Belly-gods and Slaves to their Lusts and Passions that they are never satisfied either full or fasting but always contriving Mischief and how they may betray not only those of their own kind but also all other Creatures insomuch that all the Elements mourn and are filled with the Cries Groans and mournful Complaints of their miserable Inhabitants True Religion doth consist in this as our Lord Jesus Christ taught both by Precept and Example that Mankind do no Violence but live in the power and operation of the Spirit of the humble meek Spirit of Abel for every violent Action and Oppression let it be little or much or offered unto whatsoever Creatures does as naturally and spiritually awaken
in them and without them the fierce Wrath of God and Nature as the Blood of innocent Abel did cry awaken the Lord whence Cain's Judgment proceeded And withal we are to remember that the Offerings of such as live the in power and operation of the Spirit of Cain are not accepted of the Lord because they are tainted with the Spirit of Violence and Oppression for every Principle is moved by a sympathetical operation and therefore when Men live and act in the power of God's Love and Light in Jesus Christ the Offerings of such are most grateful and powerfully attract the sweet Influences of God and Nature but where the wrathful Principle reigns without the Love and Light of God it is a meer Devil and does attract Venom and Poyson out of every thing to the encreasing and strengthening of it self The holy Ancients have in many other places of the Scriptures deciphered and endeavoured to describe these two grand Fountains or Principles under the Allegory or Figure of two Brothers But it is to be noted that the younger always obtained the Blessing as the case of Iacob Esau and Isaac and Ishmael which doth contain many great Mysteries for Ishmael is the Son of the Bond-woman where the Forms and Properties of Nature are at strife and contention the same is said of Esau that he was a rough man and a Hunter which Names in the Radix do signifie strong men in the Wrath and Principle of the wild Nature into which most men are fallen nor doth any Religion or Form of Godliness bring profit to the Soul but that only that is void of violence and therefore the Offerings of Cain Ishmael and Esau and many others were not accepted of by the Lord for the fierce Wrath and violent Spirit did reign in them and thence their Offerings proceeded and so could not awaken or open any other Principle but only what was like and from the same Root and Centre If this were well considered so many persons would not content themselves in Religious Forms and giving God long Prayers whilst all this while their hearts are full of Envy Back-biting Contention Oppression Hurrying and Killing Men and Beasts most of them counting it their Right to domineer over the meek humble Spirit of Abel but the Blood of Abel doth cry unto the Lord for Vengeance for this is the great Law of God in Nature that there can be no Evil Violence or unjust Action done be it either to the superiour or inferiour Creatures but there must be retaliation made for the Groans of the oppressed have a natural Force and powerful Inclination to open the Gate of God's Wrath and draw down the Judgments of the Lord because all things were made by one therefore they have but one only Root and Foundation proceeding from that one Lord and Creator they all live and move in him and by his Power and Spirit and are all sustained by his divine hand of Providence which does not respect one and neglect another there being in him no variation or shadow of Change or Passion but equally distributes his Blessings to all his according to the Nature of each one having given every thing it s well being in its self and allotted thereto a certain number of days and ordained proper Food for every Creature therefore whensoever Men shall violate these Laws of God in Nature and work contrary unto them by oppressing the Creatures then the Wrath of the Creator is kindled for every Creature when it is in danger of being hurt or pursued for its Life does as naturally and powerfully cry to the Creator for help in their own natural Language as Men do and tend and fly to that Fountain of Being and Protection for their Lives are as sweet and their Desires to continue it are as strong as Man's 17. Here 't is like I shall be complained of and condemned by the wise Men of this World who count it their right in Nature as Cain did to domineer and Lord it over all Creatures who will say The Creator hath no respect or regard to the preservation or well-being of inferiour Animals but only unto Men and that his Will is that Men should destroy and live upon them and use them as they please Were they not made for that purpose and if we should not destroy them they would destroy us c. Thus they object but the Truth tells every one That there are no Creatures that will hurt or be injurious unto Mankind but only Dogs Bears Foxes and other of the like Nature who are Beasts of Prey and fierce by kind few or none of which are eaten But this Allegation I shall more particularly consider in its proper place Others more materially will urge the Authority of the holy Scriptures to prove that killing and eating of Flesh was according to the Will of God which is true in a certain Sense but from the beginning it was not so but only after Man had disobeyed the Lord his Maker and broken his pure Law and imbarked his corrupt Will and tainted Desires in the fierce Spirit of Oppression and suffered the bestial savage Nature to predominate in him over the divine Principle of God's Love and holy Light as the Scripture doth testifie Gen. 6. The Lord looked down from Heaven and behold every imagination of Man's Heart was evil altogether evil and that continually Also the Lord said The Earth is filled with violence it repenteth me that I have made Man and the Earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence for all Flesh had corrupted his way upon the Earth c Here it appears Man had with his Will and Desires entred into the violent Spirit which had corrupted the Earth and all things therein whence the desire of killing and eating of Flesh and Blood of Beasts did proceed and for this reason the Lord was so provoked to Anger that he said My Spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he is Flesh yet his days shall be an Hundred and Twenty Here the Lord shortned the Days of Mankind as David saith in another place The Wicked shall not live out half his days If Man had not thus entred into the violent Spirit of wrath the Lord had not destroyed Mankind but being thus incensed he commanded Noah to build an Ark which signifies a place of Safety Peace and Mercy and to take the clean Beasts by Sevens which is a holy Number in Nature comprehending all Mysteries but the unclean by Pairs or Two's which is a Number of Contention as being the first that separates from Unity He was likewise required to take all sorts of Food both for himself and for the Beasts but there was no mention made of Flesh and all the Creatures both clean and unclean that he took with him into the Ark he delivered out again after the wrath of God was assuaged there was no Oppression Violence nor Killing in all that time for if there
Fruits Grains or Seeds would answer the ravenous Appetite thereof and therefore it required Blood which is the highest Life in the humane Nature and cannot be procured but by Violence and has the nearest Affinity to the Wrath of any thing in the whole Creation whence it is said Blood requires Blood And this may be illustrated in every particular Man when he does suffer the fierce Wrath and Fire to burn in him he becomes like a raging Bedlam nothing can calm or satisfie him except he doth some Mischief kill and oppress for in such a Fit Blood and Revenge is sweet unto him and assoon as he has glutted himself with Blood that wrathful Property is satisfied And as it is thus in the little World the same is to be understood by way of Analogy in the great For this cause the Lord declared That whoever did kill a Man his Blood he would require at his Hands The Reason and Equity of which Law comprehends all Creatures and therefore it is said That Beast that shall shed Blood or kill any other Beast should be slain So that 't is without doubt the original cause of killing of Beasts and offering them in Sacrifice was to see whether it would have satisfied that fierce poysonous Wrath which Man had so terribly awakened by his Violence and corrupting the whole whence the Deluge proceeded But after the Flood which had so swept away all Mankind except eight Persons to prevent the like dreadful Judgment for the future Sacrifices and the Blood of Beasts was used to assuage the Wrath and to make atonement for the Sins of Men because the Blood of Beasts has both the nearest affinity to the original Properties of Man's Life and also to the awakened Wrath as well within as without him for Men cannot kindle the Wrath within themselves but they must do it without them also But â—â—ill the Scripture saith That the Blood of Bulls and the like would not satisfie the Justice and awakened Wrath of God nor make a perfect Atonement for the Sins of Mankind and therefore besides their daily Sacrifices the High Priest was once every Year to go into the second Tabernacle but not without Blood which he offered for himself and for the People Also it is said that the way into the Holiest Tabernacle of all was not made manifest whilst the first Tabernacle was yet standing whence it appears that all the Sacrifices and other Circumstances of Worship in the time of the Law did proceed from the Wrath especially Sacrifices and Killing which cannot flow from the divine Principle for that holy Principle of Love and Light was not manifest whilst the first Tabernacle did stand that is so long as the first Principle of God's fierce Wrath did predominate But all Sacrifices Violences and Killing do cease in all those whom the Lord doth appear to in the power of his Son Jesus Christ but so long as Men are captivated in the first Tabernacle of Wrath the Holiest of all is not manifest that is the holy and good Love of God in his Son is not known or manifested in them and therefore it is said Sacrifices and Offerings for sin thou didst refuse that is the divine Principle had no pleasure in Violence in the Blood of Beasts and Groanings of the Creation but then steps in the Holy Principle of Love and saith Lo I come to do thy Will O God! That is to destroy the Works of the Devil and establish everlasting Righteousness and he taketh away the first that is the kindled Wrath Violence and Oppression and establisheth the second that is his eternal Light and Love in Jesus Christ in whom alone he is well pleased which brings glad Tidings unto all Mankind and to the whole Creation especially if Men become the Sâ—â—s of God for then all the inferiour Creatures would be delivered into glorious Liberty It does appear by what the Apostle saith That all Sacrifices Killing and Blood of Beasts could not sufficiently appease God's Wrath nor reconcile Man unto God otherwise than as if one Man kill another the Blood of him that is slain doth call for Vengeance on the Slayer but all this while the Principle of God's fierce Wrath is by their violence and oppression increased and strengthened even so it was in all Sacrifices Men by their Violences had corrupted the Earth and awakened God's Wrath which called for Vengeance even as the Blood of a particular Man doth on a Beast for all kind of Violence be it either little or much doth call for vengeance and retaliation if not confessed repented of and by the power of the divine Love of God forsaken which holy Principle of God's eternal Love and Light in his Son was not manifest unto them as the Apostle saith because the first Tabernacle or Principle of God's Wrath had through their Cruelties and Evils gotten the Ascendent over them so that the divine Principle could not have its operation in them so long as they continued in their sins committing those Violences and Oppressions for the first Tabernacle or Wrath in Man must be done away before the second can take place that is before the holy Light of the Son of God can reign and rule in our hearts for nothing can allay overcome or make the stern fierce Wrath of the Father to bow or satiate its fiery hunger in Mankind but only the eternal Fountain of his meek Love in Christ from whom as the Scripture saith there does flow Rivers of living Waters which alone can allay the fiery Wrath and reconcile Men to the God of Peace and bring to nought the lofty proud violent Desires and vain Thoughts and Inclinations in Man and by its operation gives them an Eye of discerning to distinguish of God's Love and Anger in himself and makes the fierce harsh Fire of Wrath to burn more gentle so that instead of its raging Fierceness it becomes a meek and cherishing Fire which is the pleasant motion in every Life that tunes a Man up to an intellectual Harmony causing all the Properties and Qualities to kiss and incorporate with each other whence arises a most pleasant Crasis or Euphony of Temper Thoughts and Operations A Similitude whereof we have in a Musical Instrument that is skilfully tuned and plaid upon where there are various Strings and Notes whence proceed different Sounds but all conspiring to make up most ravishing and delightful Harmony the dull melancholy harsh jarring Notes of Saturn and Mars being made pleasant by the incorporating of the melodious Sounds of Venus Iupiter the Sun and Mercury Do not the Foundations of all Harmony both in Men and all other things arise from the Basis viz. from the first Principle or Tabernacle for if there were no Fire there would be no Light so if there were no Basis there could be no Trebbles or if there were yet there could be no Harmony if one were without the other What Harmony do Men make to themselves or others when
Vine viz. under the Government of the divine Principle of God's Eternal Love Here all Contention ceaseth no hideous Cries nor mournful Groans are heard neither of Man nor Beast no Chanels running with the Blood of slaughter'd Beasts no stinking Shambles nor bloody Butchers no roaring of Canons nor firing of Towns no loathsome stinking Prisons nor Iron Grates to keep Men from enjoying Wife Children and the pleasant Air nor no crying for want of Food and Cloths no Rioting nor wanton Inventions to destroy as much in one day as a Thousand can get by their hard Labour and Travel no swearing nor stabbing Heaven with dreadful Execrations no galloping Horses up Hills without any consideration or fellow-feeling of the Creatures pains and burthens no deflouring of Virgins and then expose both them and their own Seed to all the Miserie 's imaginable nor no Letting Lands and Farms so dear that the Farmer must be forced to oppress himself Servants and Cattle almost to death and all too little to pay his Rent no Disobedience of the Inferiour nor Oppression of the Superiour but the first knows how to obey and the last how to govern neither is there any Want because there is no Superfluity nor Gluttony No Noise nor Cries of wounded Men no need of Chirurgeons to cut Bullets out of their Flesh nor no cutting off Hands broken Legs and Arms no roaring nor crying out with the torturing pains of the Gout nor other painful Diseases as Leporous and Consumptive Distempers except through Age and the Relicks of some Strains they got whilst they lived in intemperate Egypt neither are their Children afflicted with such a great number of Diseases but are as free from Distempers as Lambs Calves or the young ones of any of the Beasts who are preserved sound and healthful because they have not outraged God's Law in Nature the breaking of which is the Foundation of most or all cruel Diseases that afflict Mankind there being nothing that makes the difference between Man and Beasts as to Health but only Superfluity and Intemperance both in Quality and Quantity Man in his first state was made the soundest healthiest of the greatest Spirit and the longest life'd as witness the Antients in the first Ages of the World But when Man enter'd with his Will into Violence Oppression and Cruelty then the Lord said That Man had corrupted the Earth and filled it with Violence that is the Elements and Properties of the Humane Nature was corrupted and become unequal in their Operation every particular Quality did endeavour to get the upper hand Here the Harmony was broken and Discord took place here was the Strife Then the Lord shortned Man's Life but not before he became intemperate and did Violence not only unto himself but to all other Creatures therefore they do groan to be delivered into that first State and glorious Liberty Man was created in which if he had continued in Obedience and lived under the Government of the innocent Principle of God's Light and Love all the inferiour Creatures would have enjoyed all the Privileges and Liberty which were ordained for them according to their Capacity For this Cause whensoever any of the inferiour Creatures are oppressed hurt or killed they do by a natural Disposition and Inclination cry unto the Fountain whence they proceeded and groan for Deliverance which will never be until Men with their Wills and Desires enter into the innocent Principle of God's Love and holy Light whence doth arise no Disposition of Hatred Violence or Oppression it being as contrary to it as Light is to Darkness All Cruelty and Blood-shedding do proceed from another Fountain as different in Nature and Operation as the common consuming Fire doth differ from the Light thereof which is of a most friendly pleasant Quality and benevolent Operation but the Fire is fierce and altogether the contrary yet nevertheless the harsh Fire is the cause of the Light and if there were no Fire there would be no Light The Fire is the Father and the Light is the Son and they are Emblems of the Father and Son or of the internal Fire and Light The Light of this internal Fire is a most pleasant chearing Quality of Life but the Fire in its own Nature is a strong harsh sulphurous Property a devouring lofty proud Spirit who endeavours to consume all things and the internal dark Fire is its Root and the Scripture saith Who can dwell with everlasting Burnings God is a Consuming Fire to all that are not cloathed with the Son's Wedding-Garment of Light Love and Innocency therefore the scrupling Violence and Oppression both to Man and Beast and denying our selves of other Vanities and Superfluities is of great moment and the only Path that leads Men to the holy Land preserving both the Body and Soul in health For this Cause in the Beginning the Lord put Man into a Garden which doth truly signifie Innocency and gave him a great number of fragrant Herbs Seeds Fruits and Grains which are all endued with an innocent Nature and Operation but when he had precipitated his Will and Desires into the Principle of Wrath then presently the Earth was filled with Violence and the Element of his Body and Soul was corrupted then Distemperatures took place in him and his Life was shortned but not before Therefore the Eating of Herbs Seeds Grains and Fruits is of far greater consequence than most imagine and they may justly be esteemed the Food of good Angels for their Innocency excellent Virtues Fragrancies and Odours and therefore they were the Food ordain'd for Man whilst he remained in his Angelical State and if he had continued in Innocency he would never have desired any other Food but when by Desire he awaken'd the fierce Wrath and lived under the Power and Government of its Nature then he could not be satisfied without doing Violence and Killing for innocent Herbs and Fruits had no Simile with that Nature that had gotten the upper Dominion in him for every Property as I have told you before must have its own Food or else it cannot subsist then it was and not before that the Lord permitted Men to kill and eat the Flesh and Blood of Beasts which would never have been had Man continued in Innocency And therefore great are the Benefits and manifold Privileges that now do accompany all those that have attained to that state of Purity and Innocency which our first Parents were cloathed with their Minds being freed from Snares and their Bodies from superfluous Labours therefore can say We have no need of Lawyers Honesty Justice and Prudence makes their Trade nothing worth and but a few Physicians and none of them keep neither Coaches nor Chariots they are not clothed with Gold Silver nor Plush Coats our Temperance keeps them poor The true Knowledge of God and Nature in our selves destroys the Trade of divining for Money Our Superiours are not proud nor ambitious neither do they spend the choicest and
Simile Use and Custom to some degree of Wisdom Silence being in much esteem amongst us counting it a very difficult thing to hear the Voice of Wisdom if the Ears are not first made good by Silence for he that cannot distinguish Sounds cannot tune his Instrument and consequently he can make no Harmony the like is to be understood of the various Voices in Man if he do not understand by the Sound of each Voice and from what Centre it had its Birth and what Property doth predominate in each Voice then such an one cannot rightly and properly distinguish the Voice of Wisdom from others for this cause many do take the one for the other We do not admire any Study so much as the knowledge of our selves esteeming that to be only profitable both to the Body and Soul We have but few Merchants amongst us and those that are are ready to break for their Wares have but little Credit with us We do not need Wine Sugar Spices Fruits Drugs nor indeed none of the Novelties brought from the West and East-Indies accounting them not proper nor agreeable to our Natures We know that the Herbs Fruits Grains Seeds and Drugs that grow under the elevation of our own Pole are more Homogeneal We are of the Kingly Prophet David's Mind counting all those needless Dainties the price of Blood for the most part procured by great hazard trouble and labour And if David counted Water which was procured by hazard of a Man's Life the price of Blood it being a most necessary thing for the support of the Life and he at that time in great need of it how much more then must we esteem those needless things the price of Blood that are procured by the loss of Life and Health Our married Men and Women are not like the Moon the farther she is distant from the Sun the clearer and greater light she gives but when she draws nearer her light is lessened Our Women do not spend most of their time in superfluous Dressing and decking themselves like painted or gilded Looking-glasses which present a false Face We love and marry them for Vertue more than for Money Honour or Beauty because none of these things make them so Praise-worthy as Sobriety Modesty Obedience and good Works They are so friendly to us as not to charge us or put us to that unnecessary Labour and Trouble of rich Attire or other Superfluities their modest Looks and honest Behaviours do not only engage us to love them but leads all that cast their Eyes on them to Continency and Chastity We do not know the Expences of either Apothecaries Doctors or Doctresses they prevent that by good living neither do they teach or train their Children from their Breasts to Gluttony but supply them with proper Meats and Drinks both in Quantity and Quality which makes them strong lusty brisk and healthy of clean sweet Tempers not apt to cry or be disordered but play like Lambs neither are they so subject to immature Deaths of good Genius's apt to all sorts of Learning not subject to the Ioint-Aches King's-Evil Leprous Diseases which do proceed from our well-Tillage and Manuring of our Ground in the beginning also we take care to keep it clean from Weeds and to sow good Seed in the proper times and seasons We do make it our business to understand the Nature and Quality of each Soil for some Men's Transgression the Earth is naturally subject to bring forth evil Fruit or Vegetation not so profitable for use and if there be not special care taken and industry used the good Fruit will be over-run and much weakned by the Thorns and Briars and hinder the good Seed from taking Root and so become corrupted in the Bud We do also esteem that Country most miserable that doth neglect the proper Tillage and Education of Children it being the grand Fountain of all Superfluity Gluttony Seditions and Murthers and a contempt of God's Law written in the Heart Scriptures and Book of Nature for this cause the Learned Moses commanded That the drunken gluttonous disobedient sons should be stoned to Death Therefore we have Laws and Customs that do compel all Fathers to instruct their Children in all Modesty Honesty Cleanness Sobriety and Silence before their Elders and we trust not the education of them to others for if we will not take pains with them our selves how can we believe that others will We account it more profitable for them to be educated and instructed in the Precepts of Wisdom and Knowledge of Nature than for us to spend our Time wear our Health out and perplex our Minds to get Riches and Money which for the most part are the very Seeds of Oppressions and Intemperances We do not admit the importing of Wine or any strong Drinks to be made that is capable to make Men drunk not that we do esteem those brave noble Creatures unlawful but because the young Men and simple low-spirited People have not government to use it as it ought or to the best advantage of Nature but altogether the contrary Therefore the Wise amongst us do refrain it and prohibit themselves for their sakes We had rather the excellent Fruit of the Vine should be lost than our People destroyed in the use of it therefore if any amongst us do make or invent any sort of Drink that will make Men drunk they are punished with perpetual Servitude and the Drinkers thereof with little less Drunkenness being the leading-Card to all Evils We have not forgot the many Burdens Miseries cruel Slaveries and Oppressions we endured whilst we remained in intemperate Egypt though the Foolish Ones have And if we should give liberty again to Drunkenness Gluttony and the like Vanities we may justly expect the same measure and to have no more Mercy than Pharaoh and his Troops had for wheresoever Superfluity and Gluttony is there you may be sure Oppression doth reign which doth powerfully stir up the Wrath therefore the first step towards the Land of Peace is for Men to abstain from all Uncleanness and Violence which the Prophets and Holy Men of God proclaim'd in all Ages We know that to be lawful that is needful and sutable to Nature's wants being sensible that every Extreme begets its Simile both in the Body and also in the Mind whether it be Meats Drinks Words Exercises or Communications We cannot do Violence or oppress any thing but first we must be strong in the fierce Wrath whence the Violence doth proceed neither can we do any thing whether in the Evil or Good but first we must be strong in that Principle whence the Good or Evil doth proceed therefore it may be truly said Wrath and Fierceness hurts all things and all things hurt that but on the contrary Innocency hurts nothing and nothing hurts that it being an irrepugnable Tower against all Evil and Violence Living well is the best defence against Men's inward and outward Enemies It is also a custom
to every one It hath never been known that this troublesome Vermin was ever seen in Warehouses Kitchins Parlours Dining-rooms or any places where Beds have never been except they have by accident been brought into such Rooms or Warehouses by Furniture of Chambers that have been troubled with them tho all such places have the same Furniture as Chambers except Beds 5. From the same Substance or Matter whence Bugs are bred is also occasioned the generation of many nasty Diseases in the Blood so that the destruction of the Matter that breeds them is of greater Consequence than most people are sensible of And if these following Rules be observed I dare affirm That the Generation of Bugs will cease and also many other Inconveniences and Distempers that are got by this sort of Uncleanness will be avoided First You are to destroy all Press-Bedsteads which stand in Corners of Rooms being made up with Boards so close that the Air cannot penetrate or dry up and consume the moist sulpherous Vapours that are contracted These Sorts of Beds that stand so are apt to have them more than others Also you are to set your other Sorts of Beds as near as you can in the most airy places of your Rooms exposing them to the Air the most part of the Day with your Chamber-windows open that the Air may freely pass which is the most excellent Element that does sweeten all things and prevents Putrefaction In the Night also you ought not to have your Window-Curtains drawn nor your Curtains that are about your Beds for it hinders the sweet refreshing Influences of the Air so that the Air of all close places becomes of a hot sulpherous Nature and Operation the thin pure Vapours which do wonderfully refresh Nature are as it were suffocated And this preventing the Influenees of the Air is in an especial manner observable when people are sick or out of order as tho the sweet pleasant Air had been the cause of their Disease such Rooms being so very close with great Fires in them that if a Healthy Person do but continue three or four Hours in them the fulsome Steams and thick Vapours will much disorder him and take away the edge of his Appetite And if so what will the Operation be on those whose Spirits are weak and disordered with Distempers What is more pleasant and healthful than good Air It chears and comforts the Spirits it opens the Passages of the Joynts and Nerves it purifies the Blood creates an Appetite increasing Strength and Vigour But on the contrary hot thick sulpherous Airs do not only obstruct the Passages of the Spirits but suffocate them loading the Joynts and Nerves with evil Juices whereby the Limbs and Members become full of pain causing a general Tenderness to possess the whole Body and destroying the Appetite and the power of the digestive Faculty in the Stomach Also do not all Houses and Places grow Musty and contract too great store of Moisture if the Air be any way prevented by Window-shutters or the like that it cannot have its free egress and regress Therefore moderate Cloathing hard Beds Houses that stand so as that the pleasant Briezes of Wind may air and refresh them and also Houses that are full of Wâ—â—â—ows are to be preferr'd For where the Air hath not its free Influences the Spirit becomes dull and heavy this being the true Life of the Spirit in every thing 7. Now the certain means and way not only to prevent the Generation of this Vermin but also to preserve Health and Strength is Straw or rather Chaff-Beds with Ticks of Canvas and Quilts made of Wooll or Flocks to lay on them which certainly is the most easy and pleasant Lodging that can be invented and a little Custom will make it appear friendly to Nature and in every respect far beyond the softest Feather-beds on which when a Man lies down he sinks into them as into an Hole with Banks rising on each side of him especially if two lye together when first they go to Bed they lye close and after a little time when they begin to be hot or sweat they are generally willing to lye a little further off that they may cool themselves but cannot do it without great difficulty and trouble by reason of the softness of the Bed and those Banks that rise on each side Besides such soft Feather-Beds do over-heat the Reins and Back making all the parts tender and causing Sweating and many other Inconveniences to attend the Body Feather-Beds also are nothing so easy as Quilts after a little time being accustomed to them they are also extream fulsome and by their Heat they do powerfully dry up the Radical Moisture causing a general Faintiness to attend the whole Body But on the contrary hard even Beds that lye smooth are not only easy through Custom as is mentioned before but a Man may turn freely both Sleeping and Waking They harden and strengthen the whole Body especially the Back and Reins make the Nerves and Sinews strong preventing the immoderate Evacuations by Sweating and keeping the Body in a temperate Heat Besides such Beds may be often changed with but little Trouble and less Cost they send forth no stinking Fumes or â—â—eams as Feather-beds do but are sweat and clean Certainly nothing is more healthy next to Temperance in Meat and Drink than clean hard Beds 8. All sorts of Beds especially Feather-beds ought to be changed driven or washed at the least three or four times in a year or else it is impossible to keep them sweet and clean and to prevent the Generation of Vermin or the other Inconveniences before-mentioned Would not every one condemn a Man if he should wear a Shirt a year and lye in one pair of Sheets seven years Which if any should do it would not so much endanger his Health nor bring half the Inconveniencies on his Body as old stinking Feather-beds do which possibly stunk before ever they were lain on by reason of the fulsom Excrements that the Quills of the Feathers contain Also Feathers do certainly contain an unclean putrified Matter that hath a near affinity with the Nature of Bugs and therefore Feather-beds are more apt to breed them than Wooll or Flocks tho both will do it if the fore-mentioned Rules be not observed But if you are not willing or so lowly-minded as to have Straw or Chaff-beds under your Quilts then you may have Flock-beds with Canvas-Tickings which may be both aired and washed as often as you please with little Trouble and Charge If any shall question the Truth of what I have alledged concerning Beds I desire they would please but to try the Experiment by filling a Bed with the freshest and cleanest Straw or Chaff which will smell very pleasant and having so done let them lye on it half a year in a corner of a Room as Beds generally stand and then smell to it and instead of sending forth a Pleasant Scent as it did