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
World and that call themselves Noble had any peculiar Marks of Dignity given them by God or Nature inseparable from their Persons there might seem something for them to boast of and yet no real ground for it even in that case because still they would be God's Gifts As suppose they were bless'd with perpetual Health and long Life or if their Natures would not be glutted and distempered with continual eating or drinking or for want of exercise or if they could lengthen out the pleasure of any of the Senses without prejudice to Nature and breaking of God's Law But alas none of all this can be as little Meat and Drink will support an Emperor as the meanest of Men all sorts are as pleasurable and grateful to one as the other or if there be any advantage it lies on the poor Man's side There is a pleasant Story of King Henry the 8th in the first part of his Reign riding a hunting and being hungry he strayed from his Attendants and came all alone to a Monastery about Dinner-time where the fat lazy Abbot welcom'd him very kindly for hearing the King was in that County he concluded this to be one of his Guard At Dinner they had great Varieties and the King fed like a Farmer on a piece of Roast-Beef but the Abbot who daily crammed his Paunch with Delicacies could scarce relish a Bit of any thing before him and pleasantly said to the King Honest Friend I would give 500 l. I could but pick so heartily as you do on a piece of Beef The King returned him some small Complement and after Dinner took his leave about a Fortnight after sends a Messenger for this old fulsome Abbot and ordered him to be carried to rights to the Tower and that he should be there kept close Prisoner and allowed but so much Bread and small Beer a day and no other Food The Abbot could not imagine what he had done to occasion such an Imprisonment and being thus dieted he soon came to have a good Stomach and after about a Month the King ordered the Keeper to carry him in a good piece of hot Roast-Beef on which the Abbot fell with such violence as if he would have eaten it all at a Mouthful The King who was planted in a Room where he could see how he laid about him at last steps in and demands his 500 l. For says he you said you would give it and I have performed the Cure and got you a better Stomach than all the Doctors in England would have done And so upon Payment of 500 l. discharged him This Story is very pertinent to our Subject the Rich with Varieties destroy both their Appetites and Tastes the poorer sort enjoy the natural pleasure of both There are in all Men but five Senses and four Elements and the Creator hath made no distinction by giving more to the Noble than to the Poor but bestows them freely and equally on all and every man has a like benefit of them and the Nobles and Grandees cannot prolong the pleasure of their Senses by possessing much viz. by great and rich quantities of Food and Drinks sumptuous Furniture gaudy Garments great Houses many Servants c. All which if great Prudence and Moderation be not observed will rather destroy the true Delight and Pleasure of the Body and Mind and render such as use them altogether uncapable to enjoy the common Blessings the Lord has given unto all men but on the contrary every sort of simple Food and mean Drink to the wise man and well-prepared Stomach is like the Honey and the Honey-comb it makes all the Senses rejoyce in each other This being the greatest advantage and privilege any mortal man can naturally enjoy in this Life to give Nature both in quantity and quality what is needful for the support of Strength and Health which very small and mean Meats Drinks Cloathing Houses will perform and such as are easily procurable with little labour to the Body or Vexation to the Mind so that a Man need not hazard his Health nor bring his Soul into Perplexity to obtain those necessary things that serve for the sustaining and prolongation of his Health and Life But on the contrary all those Supersluities which do chiefly serve to gratifie Wantonness and evil Imaginations are for the most part not to be obtained without Trouble Oppression Violence and the hazarding the Health both of Body and Mind and when they are obtained most People spend them on their Lust in a base superfluous manner filling the Body with iucurable Diseases and much more infecting the Soul It must be confessed there are some Men really and intrinsecally much more Honourable and Noble than others viz. those that obey and keep the Commandments of the Lord and have not violated his Law in Nature nor spent the good Creatures of God on their Lusts and have denied themselves Superfluities and not done violence to nor oppressed Man or Beast but have lived temperately soberly and innocently putting all things to that use for which they were made this sort of People are truly Noble without being beholden to the Favour of Princes the Breath of the Vulgar or the Mercenary Paint of an Herald But still they must not boast of it or ascribe it to themselves and their own Wisdom on pain of Death for alas what have they which they have not received Every good and perfect Gift saith the Apostle cometh from the Lord and he alone and he always ought to have the Praise the Honour and the Glory Amen If Men had conducted their Lives in this manner and not suffered their Desires and Wills to enter into the various Powers of God's Wrath in Nature the whole World had been a Paradise of Peace and Love but now most People have precipitated themselves into the Nature of Bears Tigers and Foxes and some into Dogs Cats Swine Bulls c. Hence they seek and make it an honourable Employ to kill and destroy one another and he that proves most successful in this bloody Villany dubbs himself an Hero and his Race call themselves the Brave and the Noble and have but little regard for others in respect of themselves and like Senseless Sots account it their privilege and Right in Nature to Lord it over their Fellow-Creatures than which nothing can be either mere unjust or ridiculous There is no mark of distinction no eminent Token whereby to demonstrate their Nobility for the Lord has endued the poorest and meanest of men with all the Noble Faculties of Nature both Divine and Humane as liberally as the mightiest Potentates Has not the poor Man as great Pleasure in and Refreshment and Nourishment by eating and drinking as the most Noble Is not his Sight as clear and as perfect to behold the amazing Wonders of God's Creation Do not the melodious Harmonies and charming Airs of Musick delight the Pliantasie and chear the Soul of a poor Man as much as a KING
contrary many of the Sober and Temperate men have lived to great Ages and yet very free from Distempers with mean and spare Food whence does proceed a cool airy Pleasantness the sweet Influences of all the Elements freely courting the Body which renders the Spirits many in Quantity and fine in Quality and thence arises lightsomness to the Body and vigour to the Mind The truth of this men may experience if they will but give themselves the leisure to reflect and consider whether or no they do not before Meals ordinarily find themselves pleasant and lightsom in Body and Spirits but after they have indulged their Appetites with an overplenteous feeding the one is heavy and the other dull whereas had they but eaten temperately of simple Food it would not only have continued their strength but also refreshed their Spirits for the pure Spirit is the true Life Pleasure Delight and Beauty of every Creature according to the Nature of each and causeth the sweet Oyl to burn friendly and shine with a comfortable Ray if it be not wounded by disorders This Spirit being so Volatile and surpassing pure that it will not endure the least Violence for when any Injury is offered to it it either becomes evaporated or suffocated and then presently the Vigour and Beauty of that thing faileth be it either Animal or Vegetable Therefore those that do regard the Health of the Body and Mind ought to preserve the Spirit free and potent which must be done by Sobriety Gentleness and Temperance in Meats Drinks and Exercises The Prophet Daniel and his Companions were sensible of this when they were courted and also threatned with the displeasure of the King and his Servants if they would not eat of the various sorts of Flesh and Fish that came from the King's Table but Daniel intreated leave to continue that clean simple Food they had accustomed themselves unto viz. Herbs Grains and Fruits and pure Water for Drink Should not we in this Age be ready to count a man a Fool and out of his Senses that should refuse Royal Delicates from the King's Table and chuse to live upon such mean course Fare But Daniel did with a Divine Eye see into the Radix of all such things and understood their sympathetical Operations and therefore chose the most simple harmless Commons for by compounding many rich things together especially such as contain the Animal and Bestial Nature all such things lose their Simplicity and the true Life and pure Spirits of each become adulterated and changed and being destitute of its proper Virtues becomes of another operation which hath an evil Influence on our Bodies and Spirits whence proceed those frequent Infirmities in most that live in the height of Dainties the same being neither well-pleasing to God nor Nature But on the contrary was not the sober clean and abstemious Livers of the Rechabites well-pleasing to the Lord And did not the Prophet Ieremiah call them up into the House of the Lord as a Reproach to the Children of Israel for that they had faithfully kept the Commandments of their Father and observed the Rule of Moderation and contented themselves with pure Water for drink and with mean and simple Food and therefore he promises them That the Sons Jonadab should never want a man to stand before the Lord 'T is most certain the Lord hath been and is near all those that live in Temperance and Simplicity Therefore the Apostle saith Let your Moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand The Prophet Iohn contented himself with Locusts and wild Honey of whom our Saviour Christ saith That there was not a greater Prophet born of a Woman Also Iames the Brother of our Lord was eminent for his Abstinence as Eusebius reports insomuch that he eat no Flesh drank no Wine nor strong Drink and wore no Woollen Garment but Linnen which is of a cleaner Radix than the other for Woollens do retain the Bestial Nature as you may more manifestly perceive by the smell if you burn them no washing or other cleansings will purge them from that fulsom Quality which they send forth when burnt Now this stinking Nature so long as it continued entire was hidden or captived but the fire opens the gross body and manifests the Root for this cause the Prophets and holy men have so often said That the Saints and People of the Lord should be cloathed in white Linnen and the Priests of the Lord were to ware a Linnen Ephod for all Vegetives are indued with a simple innocent Nature and Operation and therefore they have been compared to the divine Nature because they bear some affinity unto it Those that would have their Spirits pure and potent must use clean Food which will extenuate the gross superfluous humours by which the Body becomes easily penetrable and he that doth not preserve his body clean the pure Spirit becomes as it were suffocated whence proceeds an heavy Dullness that is not only burdensom but hinders all Meditations and makes the Soul uncapable of every good Work but Abstinence and Temperance do dignifie a man and render him fit for the Exercise of Virtue and Piety and is the Root of strength and fortitude As the Mother of Sampson was commanded by the Angel of the Lord To abstain from Wine and strong Drink during the time of her being with Child so was Sampson her Son whom the Lord endued with wonderful strength but when he gave himself up to Wine and strong Drink and other Intemperances he lost all Power and Virtue and became weak both in Body and Mind and a prey to his Enemies And is it not so in our days Of most of the Miseries and Troubles man ensuares himself is not Superfluity a main cause Where-ever we see Vice there is also Intemperance and where we see Temperance and Abstinency we may justly expect other Virtues because no superfluous matter is bred that may dull or indispose the Fancy the Soul being watchful in Words and Works and also keeping the Body under which by the Power and Virtue of Temperance is subjected to the Influences of the Light and Love of God Temperance Cleanliness and Abstinence have greater power over the Soul and Body than most in our days imagine Did not our fore-Fathers live to wonderful Ages in perfect Health their Food in those days being chiefly Herbs Fruits and Grains and pure Wattr their Drink They did not make their Stomachs the Barial-places of dead Bodies but their Meat and Drink was innocent and simple by which they were able to check and regulate the extravagant motions of the Mind and insurrections of the Flesh Hence some of the Antients have delivered it as a Maxim That none could understand God and his Works and enjoy perfect Health and long Life but those that abstain from Flesh Wine and Vices bounding their Desires according to the Ends and Necessities of Nature For where Uncleanness and Intemperance reigns the Soul is subjected
with the Body that it cannot discern things Coelestial but Sobriety and Purity of body and mind renders it the Temple of God wherein his blessed Spirit delights to dwell and communicate its Gifts and Graces Most men will in words confess that there is no blessing this World affords comparable to Health yet rarely do any of them value it as they ought to do till they feel the want of it To him that hath obtained this goodly Gift the meanest Food even Bread and Water is most pleasant and all sorts of Labour and Exercise delightful but the contrary makes all things nauseous and distasteful What are full-spread Tables Riches and Honours to him that is tormented with Distempers In such a condition men do desire nothing so much as Health but no sooner is that obtained but their thoughts are changed forgetting those solemn Promises and Resolutions they made to God and their own Souls going on in the old road of Gluttony taking little or no care to continue that which they so much desired when they were deprived of it Happy it were if men did but use the tenth part of that Care and Diligence to preserve their minds and bodies in Health as they do to procure Money and Riches which many never obtain and those that do it serves them chiefly to procure those Dainties and Superfluities which do generate Diseases and is the cause of committing many other Evils there being but few men that do know how to use Riches as they ought For there are not many of our wealthy Dons that ever consider that as little and mean Food and Drink will suffice and maintain a Lord in perfect Health as the poorest Peasant and render him more capable to enjoy the benefit of the Mind and pleasures of the Body far beyond all Dainties and Superfluities But alas the momentary Pleasures of the Throat Custom Vanity c. do insnare and intice most People to exceed the Bounds of Necessity or Convenience and many fail through a false Opinion or Mis-understanding of Nature childishly imagining that the richer the Food is and the more they can cram into their Bellies the more they shall be sterngthened thereby but experience shews to the contrary for are not such People as accustom themselves to the richest compounded Foods and most cordial Drinks generally the most Infirm and Diseased For all such things contain great store of Virtue and ought to be eaten between whiles according to Reason and Experience for when the Mouth of the Stomach is open the pleasant relish of such dainty Food does so intice and encrease the desire of eating and drinking beyond what is needful that a man may eat too much and yet give off with some little Appetite of which we may be sensible by that general dulness and Indisposition which we find in our selves for two or three Hours afterwards People are much mistaken in thinking That so long as the Appetite desires and the pleasure of eating continues strong they may eat on without damage to their Health But the truth is this is one of the chief Reasons why men are Gluttons and there is but little difficulty in Temperance save only in this particular it being somewhat hard for an healthy good stomach'd man to give off eating in the midst of the Pleasure he receives by it especially when Meats by Art are made on purpose not only to prolong the Pallate but also to delight it But to him that uses himself to simple Meats and Drinks the snare of provoking the Pallate beyond the necessity of Nature is removed for such cannot intice Nature out of her way nor awaken any other Properties or Appetites in the Stomach but its own Likeness whereas varieties of Food do stir up as many various Qualities in the Stomach so that there is still a fresh desire to each thing till Nature is over-cloy'd And therefore Varieties are always dangerous if great Care and Temperance be not observed But he that limits his Desire by Wisdom and has the understanding both of the Quality and Quantity may eat of sundry sorts of Food at one time but the ignorant and unwise very rarely do it without prejudice to their Health As the pleasure of Temperance and the many benefits that follow Sobriety cannot be imagined by those that live Riotous Lives so neither can the sweet influence thereof especially the first be enjoyed without some Trouble to Old Adam There must be Self-Denial in the case and a man must live in this World as if he were Alone for there is but little Company in the ways of Sobriety When a man comes once to espouse them in earnest presently most of his Friends and Acquaintance will suspect and condemn him as a Conceited Whimsical Capricious Fellow or a kind of Mad-man because he will not run with them to the same Excess and Riot For the Flesh and Spirit of this World have no Affinity with Sobriety and Temporance proceeding from Fountains whose Waters are of quite contrary Nature to others the one being clear and pure which purgeth and cleanseth preserving both the Body and Spirit in perfect Health the other being defiled with many Superfluities destroys the Health of both Therefore he that would enjoy the true Pleasures and flourish in the Virtues that attend Sobriety ought to be as strong as Sampson was in his innocent Life that he may be able to cut off all superfluity in the Bud For it is not that which goeth into a man as our Saviour Christ saith but that which proceeds out of him For all kinds of Intemperance are first conceived in the Heart and if such Imaginations are not cut off or overcome by Wisdom and Temperance then they grow strong and become as it were essential and when the Spirit and Understanding of a man is captivated then a man becomes a Tyrant to himself and a perfect Slave to Gluttony being defiled by every thing Meats Drinks Words and Works as the Wise man saith Even the plowing of the Land is Evil to the Wicked for all Uncleanness and Defilements that happen either to the Body or Soul do arise and proceed from Within And if such lewd Desires Opinions and Customs were cut off in the bud then neither Body nor Soul would be hurt by supurfluity of Meats Drinks or any other thing for every man that commits any Intemperance be it what it will acts it first Within and makes it substantial in the Spirit and then it becomes Corporeal for the Body is forced to obey the dictates of the Spirit whether good or evil for this cause Christ saith That nothing that went into a man defiled him for he pointed and had an Eye to the Root whence all Evils and Intemperances arise His Words are Spiritual and not otherwise to be understood for he makes no exception but saith NOTHING that goeth into a man defileth him Which words should they be taken in a Carnal ense then our dayly Experience shews the
contrary for many thousands are destroyed both by Quantity and Quality of Meats and Drinks but they are first defiled in the Root of their Spirits But on the contrary no Meats or Drinks have power to hurt or defile that man whose Heart and Desires are governed and moderated by Wisdom and therefore saith the Apostle From whence proceed Wars and Fightings all Lusts false Imaginations and Intemperances Do they not all proceed from within For if a man be ignorant of the true Nature of things his Understanding and Soul darkened then he is subject to be defiled by every thing for if the Nature of things be not discerned nor distinguished by the Spirit such are always liable to be defiled by every sort of Food or Drink either in Quantity or Quality For where Ignorance governs the extravagant Desires are not bounded For first Every man is defiled by his desires and imaginations as our Saviour Christ saith in another case He that looketh on a Woman and lusteth is defiled thereby the very same is to be understood of all other Uncleannesses both of Body and Mind only the Evils and Defilements are greater when a man proceeds to put in practice those things which he first conceived within by Imaginations for no outward Uncleanness could ever hurt any man if the inside were kept clean If Understanding and the pure Spirit govern within then all unclean Desires and Imaginations are as it were cut off in the bud and not suffered to proceed to a substance and then a man is not desiled either by that which goes out nor by any sorts of Meats Drinks or other things that gointo the Body And so on the contrary when the evil corrupt Nature is awakened and has gotten the inward Government then all the Desires and Imaginations are formed and do proceed from the evil Principle which first defiles the Soul and then afterwards the Body This is the very Root and Foundation of all Uncleanness Superfluity and Intemperance for every property in Nature must be supported and fed on its own Food Hence all sorts of Animals whose predominant Quality and Ascendent chiefly proceeds from the wrathful and unclean Nature do desire a proportionable Food viz. raw flesh and Sordities But on the contrary those Animals whose Dignifications and chief Quality stands in and proceeds from the clean Nature such Creatures also do desire clean Food The same is to be understood in the humane Nature according to the Principle or Property that is awakened and most predominant so is the man either clean or unclean good or evil from thence are all his Desires and Imaginations framed Thus we see that Cleanness and Sobriety in Meats Drinks Exercises c. have a greater Virtue and Excellency in them than People think for their power proceeds from an inward Principle and they endow their Observers with the Riches both of Time and Eternity for Temperance makes all her Lovers truly sensible of God's blessings How sweet is every mean thing to the sober mind And how ready are such men to give the Lord Thanks and humble Acknowledgments for his Mercies They see feel and taste the most pleasant operation of the divine Hand in all things their Bodies are delighted with the meanest of Food their Minds satisfied their Beds easie and their sleep sound they are not subject to indispositions nor molested with Fevers their Heads are not dulled with Fumes nor their Stomachs oppressed with fainting Fits or windy griping Humours they rise as fresh as the Morning Sun and are fit for all Exercises both of the Body and Mind their Radical Moisture flows freely throw every part like a pleasant gale of Wind which moderates the central Fires that they burn not too violently But this excellent state it not obtainable without Self-denial and suffering now and then a little gentle Hunger which cleanseth the Stomach and Passages from all superfluous Matter frees the Spirits from all Imperfections prevents all Obstructions and preserves Health far better than any Physical Evacuations It hath a certain Occult Quality for the digestive Faculty and natural Heat is never idle therefore when the Stomach is not filled with superfluity of Food and often eating it draws away all the superfluous matter that furs and stops the Passages and which were apt to cause shortness of Breath send troublesom Fumes and Vapours to the Crown hinder the free Circulation of the Blood and make the spirits impure These Evils and many others Temperance and moderate Fastings do prevent the Stomach naturally drawing this phlegmy Substance out of all the Vessels and Passages when Meats and Drinks come not too quick and casts the lighter part thereof upwards and the more gross heavier parts downwarns into the Bowels for this reason when a man does fast a little longer than ordinary he will feel a kind of a gnawing or disorder in his Stomach for a little time and then it will cease and after some space do so again the occasion of which is this the natural Heat does very powerfully draw matter unto it self for Sustenance but finding no proper Nourishment makes a separation of the gross phlegmy substance that lodges in the Vessels of the Stomach and casts it forth both upwards and downwards and having done this craves afresh for more work and more proper matter of Aliment Nor should a little Trouble thwarting our Humours debaucht with ill Customs and Wantonness or some small Inconveniencies divert us from getting our selves possest of this Jewel Temperance the true Philosophers-Stone which turns all into the Golden Elixir of Health Content and Serenity since we see none of the little perishing Goods of this World are to be obtained without trouble and difficulty do not Youths serve seven years enduring hard Labour and many other Inconveniencies for a Trade whereby to get an outward Livelihood Do not Men Travel by Sea and Land through a thousand Miseries even to the hazarding of their Lives and Liberties for Meat Drink and a little Rayment And those few that do obtain their desired ends if Temperanee be wanting the enjoyment of them proves not only burdensom but so full of Snares that they had better been without them for Plenty has destroyed more than Necessity some say than the Sword the one having wherewithal to gratifie his superfluous desires and so destroy himself which the other has not What a deal of pains and charge are People at to please their Liquorish Pallates The Indies must be sent to for Rarities and the utmost parts of the Earth for Dainties such abundance such variety provided as if all the Beasts and Fowls in Noah's Ark with an addition of all the Fishes in the Waters and Vegetables of Earth were scarce enough to furnish one Luxurious Board And then what Curiosity in Sawces What fantastick Humors for Dressing The more extravagant and unnatural the more genteel and acceptable forsooth Whereas those things that are necessary to support and preserve the Body in perfect
in Men to awaken and attract their good or evil Nature as well as there is in the Coelestials to alter or change Mens Bodies and Minds This many of the Philosophical Ancients have consented to and most Astrologers are of the same Opinion The Calculators of Nativities find by their daily Experience that Vitiousness and Intemperance in the Natives Life not only cause a very malignant Configuration of the Coelestial Bodies to take place and have its Effects but also he that lives Intemperately is always in danger and subject to the male Aspects of the Superiors Whereas on the contrary it is most true that a Wise Man that is temperate just and circumspect may rule his own Stars But when Persons give themselves to Inordinate Living near or about such times as the Heavens threaten them with evil Aspects Transits or Directions then such disastrous Influences powerfully take place For this very reason Men are often insnared and drawn away to many Inconveniences before they are sensible of it for the wrathful unclean Nature having been by degrees awakened and strengthened by its simile either in Meats Drinks Imployments or Communications for every Property must have such Food as hath affinity therewith or else it cannot increase nor be brought into Manifestation but without it it languishes and becomes impotent in its Operation the Person so offending is thereby subjected to all the malignant Configurations of the Coelestial and Terrestrial Bodies Yet if such an one shall turn to the Lord by Prayer and abstain from the Evil Courses of this Life he presently destroys and weakens that threatning Malignity and this sober and temperate Life will by simpathy strengthen the Spirit of Wisdom and Undestanding If this were well understood there would be more Care and Diligence used both in particular and general as to outward and inward Cleanness than there is For in great Cities and Towns especially there are many Superfluities and Uncleannesses committed against God and Nature and therefore such places above others do suffer many Inconveniences The unclean Vapours and evil Spirits that do arise from Blood and other Excrements do not only awaken the Wrath in the Elements and Stars and draw down their evil Influences but incorporate with the common Air and defile it which being so corrupted nothing is more Injurious and Pernicious to the health of the Body and also to the Mind for outward Uncleannesses do naturally and powerfully attract the evil Power both Externally and Internally because all such pernicious Scents and Smells do arise and proceed from the poysonous Root and so bear a near affinity to the evil Angels and Spirits and do naturally attract them So when the Elements are disturbed by malignant Configurations and Aspects as in great Tempests of Thunder and Lightning and the like the evil Spirits and Angels are very busie and appear almost externally for by those malignant Configurations the Wrath in the outward Nature is violently excited and the same being predominant in the evil Angels they at such times become more apt and powerful to do mischief External Uncleanness does not only pollute the Body and Senses but also the Soul and Spirits for which cause some of the wise Ancients would not wear any Woolen Garments because they are made of the Excrements of Beasts And indeed all Hair and Wool does contain a gross fulsom impure Nature but it lies so hidden that it cannot be perceived unless it be set on Fire and then it manifests it self by its filthy offensive scent For the same Reason some of the Philosophers lived retired nay many of the Holy Men and Prophets of Old as the Scriptures testifie when the Spirit of the Lord was in a more than ordinary degree upon them and pleased to give them Visions and make known his Will unto them did with-draw themselves from Towns and Cities and from the Multitudes of People into the open clear Air in Fields Woods Mountains or by the most pleasant Rivers and Fountain of Water And our blessed Saviour Christ himself did often practise such Retreats when he made his earnest Supplication and Prayers to the Father Few do understand or imagin the manifold Benefits unfrequented places and clean pure Airs afford both to Body and Mind the Senses and Intellectuals of well disposed Men being free from those Uncleannesses Cities and Towns are subject to both External and Internal for in those loansom places the common Air is pure thin and clear free from those fulsom Vapours Scents and gross Smells which Cities are subject to and free from those varieties of Cursing Swearing and Multitudes of vain and impious Discourses which all places are liable unto where Rabbles reside and which wonderfully awakens the Internal Wrath and gives many Advantages to the evil Angels and Spirits to work their vile Purposes But on the contrary in open serene Airs as in Fields Mountains and by River-sides and Woods there is no such Tumults no stabbing of Heaven with dreadful Oathes horrid Curses and frightful Execrations no banishing of Temperance with drunken Healths and roaring Huzza's no fulsom fumes of Tobacco nor viler Steams of detestable Brothel-houses to infect the chaste Air no Plays or vain Games no Mistressing nor Revelling to spend precious time no clattering of Coaches Drums Fools Fidlers c. that make such a continual Din that a Man can hardly call his Ears his own But on the contrary all is sedate and serene still as the voice of good Spirits and quiet as the Birth of Flowers no noise to be heard but the ravishing Harmony of the Wood-Musitians and the innocent Lowings of Cows and Neighings of Horses and Bleating of the pretty Lambs or the like natural Tones wherein there is nothing of disturbance or danger because nothing of Evil but every thing praising the Creator according to the Capacity and Nature of each Here it was in these and the like places that the good Angels of the Lord appeared unto the Sons of Wisdom and taught them the true Knowledge of God and the Nature of things and shewed them what should come to pass in future times And whoever will obtain the true apprehension of God of Nature and of himself must be separated and chuse sometimes to sequester himself from the Tumults Confusions and Distractions of the publick World and Crowds of the chaffering and busling Rabble Besides all this Cities for the Reasons aforesaid are more liable to contagious Diseases And because the Nature of Infection and how it is spread and how to be avoided is very little or scarce at all understood we shall in the next place address our selves to discourse thereof CHAP. X. Of Infection or catching Diseases and how they are transferred from one to another and that all Diseases are Catching THE learned Moses whom the Lord inspired with divine and humane Wisdom commanded that none should sit on the Saddles lie on the Bed nor wear the Cloathes of the distempered which if any did they should
Qualities of even the worst of Beasts The holy Sages are wont to liken some Men to Dogs for their snarling and contention others to Wolves for their ravenous Cruelty others to Swine for their sottish Sensuality and our Saviour calls the Scribes and Pharisees a Generation of Vipers for their venomous Qualities Farthermore this Vision of Peter does declare That this evil bestial cruel unclean Nature that had gotten the dominion in Man should be destroyed through the divine Power for the Lord said Arise Peter kill and eat That is Mortifie the bestial Properties and let the unclean Thoughts Words and Works be cut off in the Bud by the Sword of the Spirit It was the poysonous Vermin and violent unclean Nature within which the Lord would have destroyed and killed not the Beasts without for Man's most deadly Enemies are those of his own Houshold inward not outward and accordingly the chief work of every good Man is internal and if the Heart and Soul be clean then the Thoughts Words Works Meats Drinks and all other things belonging to the whole Life are also clean for where the divine Principle has the Ascendent all the Thoughts and Desires are generated from the same and relish of their Original which does attract the pure Vertue out of all things because it has an Unity and Agreement with its own Nature 13. It is a grand Mistake of People in this Age to say or suppose That Flesh affords not only a stronger Nourishment but also more and better than Herbs Grains c. For the truth is it does yield more Nourishment but not of so firm a Substance nor so good as that which proceeds from the other Food for Flesh has more Matter for Corruption and nothing so soon turns to Putrifaction Now 't is certain such sorts of Food as are subject to putrifie before they are eaten are also liable to the same afterwards Besides Flesh is of soft moist gross phlegmy Quality and generates a Nourishment of a like Nature Also Flesh heats the Body and causeth a Drought Likewise Flesh does breed great store of noxious Humours And it must be considered that all sorts of Beasts and other living Creatures are subject to Diseases and many other Inconveniences and Uncleannesses Surfeits Over-driving Abuses of cruel Butchers c. Which renders their Flesh still more unwholsom But on the contrary all sorts of dry Foods as Bread Cheese Herbs and many Preparations of Milk Pulse Grains and Fruits as their Origiual is more clean so being of a sound firâ— nature they afford a more excellent nourishment and more easie of concoction so that if a Man should exceed in quantity the health wil not thereby be brought into such danger as by the superfluous eating of Flesh. Add to this That all kind of Vegetatives being well prepared and the Mixtures properly made are abundantly more pleasant and delightful to an undepraved Palate and also to the Stomach than Flesh as they are also much more pleasant to look upon What an ill and ungrateful sight is it to behold dead Carcasses and pieces of bloody raw Flesh It would undoubtedly appear dreadful and no Man but would abhor to think of putting it in his Mouth had not Use and Custom from Generation to Generation familiariz'd it to us which is so prevalent that we read in some Countries the Mode is to eat the Bodies of their dead Parents and Friends thinking they can no way afford them a more noble Sepulchre than their own Bowels and because 't is usual they do it with a little regret or nauceousness as others have when they fall aboard the Leg of a Rabbit or the Wing of a Lark Suppose a Person were bred up in place where it was not a Custom no kill and eat Flesh and should come into our Leaden-Hall-Market or view our Slaughter-houses and see the communication we have with dead Bodies and how blithe and merry we are at their Funerals and what honourable Sepulchres we bury the dead Carcasses of Beasts in nay their very Guts and Entrals Would he not be filled with astonishment and horror Would he not count us cruel Monsters and say That we were brutified and performed the part of Beasts of Prey to live thus on the Spoils of our Fellow-Creatures Thus Custom has awakened the inhumane fierce Nature which makes killing handling and feeding upon Flesh and Blood without distinction so easie and familiar unto Mankind And the same is to be understood of Men killing and oppressing those of their own kind For do we not see that a Souldier who is trained up in the Wars of bloody-minded Princes shall kill an hundred Men without any trouble or regret of Spirit and such who have given him no more offence than a Sheep has given the Butcher that cuts her Throat If Men have but Power and Custom on their side they think all is well whence one that was going to be a Soldier being ask'd What he was going to do nimbly answer'd I am going to break one of God's Commandments by the Authority of Custom and Law To such People Violence Oppression and Killing of Men and Beasts is as easie and inoffensive as plowing of the Land or gathering ripe Fruits so rarely does any consider whether it be right in the sight of God's Law in Nature and so sadly is Man depraved and Self deprived of the true Understanding of Wisdom and yet if some of these same Men happen in a private Quarrel or Contest to kill a Man although it were partly in their own defence or to have committed private Murthers their Minds and Consciences have been so loaded and troubled with a sense of Guilt that many times they have been forced to confess their Evil though they knew their own Death would be the consequence of that Discovery the chief cause of which is because Law and Custom do forbid them to kill men that way but if two Princes have ever so little difference or if there be none yet if one of them for his own Glory and to enlarge his Empire have a mind to make War against his Neighbour on pretences never so frivolous false or unjust yet at the Beat of Drum or Sound of Trumpet he shall have a great number of Men offer themselves and take delight to kill oppress burn and destroy Men Women and Children without any cause given or ever considering in themselves whether it be right in the sight of the Creator or his Law in Nature and without having any remorse or trouble of Conscience for the same but rather boast and think the better of themselves the more Murthers they have committed The very same is to be understood in most other things but more especially in Religion Shall we not see a Turk afflict himself for having tasted a drop of Wine and a Papist be mightily troubled for having eaten a Mouthful of Flesh on a Friday And yet the same Men at the word one of his Mufti and the other
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
and intimates the strite between the Properties of Nature but as touching the Third Angel the Scripture is silent for Three is an holy Number and signifies the heavenly Seed in which the Lord hath establish'd his Covenant of Grace and Mercy with Mankind It was therefore this holy Number that brought the glad Tidings unto Abraham and his Wife that she should bear a Son in her old age which is as much as to say That the divine Principle viz. The Love and Light should abide and manifest it self in Abraham's Line for the Word Abraham does signifie The original Properties and Strength of God in the Fire and his Wife the Love or Meekness from which Principle should be generated a Son of true Light For Isaac does intimate the divine Principle or Son of God who in the fulness of time was manifested in the humane Nature This holy Number Three or good Angel continued with Abraham that is the divine Principle and holy Power staid and made intercession for the Sodomites for so we find Abraham immediately intreating and petitioning the Lord to save the Cities of the Plain for the sake of such Righteous as might be therein but the Two fiery Angels hasted towards Sodom for the original Fire is fierce and quick in its motion and when any People have by their Transgressions kindled the Wrath of God then there does arise an Instrument out of the same Principle which does destroy and punish that People as is manifested in this outward World which is but a Figure of the inward for when a Prince and his People have by their Sins stirred up the Lord's indignation against them then a neighbouring Prince or Nation is excited to be their Scourge and Punisher though oftentimes the latter is as great an Evil-doer as the former for every Principle and Property both in the divine and humane Nature does always raise up Instruments from it self to perform its own work for look what Property or Principle is most predominant in either a particular Person or Nation good or evil just or unjust such an Angel they have given them or is attracted by Simile If the fierce Wrath bear sway then the evil Angel obtaineth the Government of that Person or People which does inwardly stir up Enmity in the hearts of Men one against another whence does arise all kinds of Oppression and Violence both of Man and Beasts Besides it is to be understood that the Angels both good and evil are prompt and always desirous to obey and attend all such as live in the power of their respective Principle as the Scripture takes notice That the evil Angel was ready and offered his service to be a Lying Spirit in the Mouth of Ahab's Prophets for the evil deeds and perverseness of Mankind to each other and their oppressing the rest of God's Creatures does as naturally awaken the fierce dark Powers and attract them as the Load-stone doth Iron whence doth proceed the Judgments and so many Calamities For no Extreams can continue long without alteration as we see if any particular Person give himself to Vanity and commits Evil with desire and greediness such an one cannot continue long without bringing destruction to Body and Soul For when any Property of Nature is so violently awakened it powerfully draws to it self all things that are capable or have a Simile with it viz. the evil Angels and also the Venom out of all things and so grows a devouring hungry Fire that is never satisfied till it hath consumed all the sweet Oyl and Radical Moisture and then the Body droops and languishes and dies On the contrary Virtue and the Fear of the Lord do with a powerful hand not only withstand and resist the baneful Influences of bad Angels and all other evil things but does also attract the Virtue out of all things to the increasing and strengthening its own Principle and innumerable good Angels are ready at all times to assist and defend the sober and upright in Heart as the Scripture saith He hath made his Angels ministring Spirits to administer to those that serve the Lord and are in necessity In another place the Lord saith Is there any Evil in the City that is in Man and am not I the Lord in the midst of it As much as to say I am in and through all and govern all things in my Love or in mine Anger and Man being his Image doth in his measure the same but the Evil should not have been awakened or manifested in Man therefore he was in the beginning forbidden it but after he had eaten this Fruit the Lord said The Man is become as one of us knowing Good and Evil. Then the Gates of Paradise were shut against him and it is said The Lord drove him out of the Garden into the Earth that is into the wild Nature to labour and dress it and the Lord set two Cherubims on the East-side of the Garden with flaming Swords that did turn every way to keep the Tree of Life lest Man should touch it and live for ever The East here does signifie in the Radix the open Gate or Eye that sees into the great Mysteries and working Powers of the Creator The Tree of Life does intimate the creating Power of God and the original Forms in Nature viz. the three grand Properties Salt Sulphur and Mercury from whence all the variety of Complexions Forms and Qualities do arise the Cherubims and Flaming Sword that defends this Tree of Life do signifie the original Fire and strong Forms of Nature in which the Lord calls himself an angry jealous God and a consuming Fire The Cherubims are the strong fiery Angels and great Powers of God in the working and government of all the Kingdoms of Nature which mighty Operations and my stick creating Powers Man was not fit to know after he had awakened the Wrath and came to know Good and Evil for if Man should once have touched this Tree of Life then would he have been capable to have wrought Wonders in the dark strong fiery original Property viz. the dark Magick and changing of one Form into another and the creating Power of God would have been known unto Man who then would have lived for ever in the hellish Qualities It may be noted That the Lord said nothing in the beginning to Adam of the Tree of Life but only of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil the Fruit of this latter Tree only he should not have eaten for Eating signifies to nourish and strengthen which Adam should not have suffered his Will and Desires to have longed after for if the fiery wrathful Principal had not been awakened in Adam then the Lord would not have drove him out of the Garden that is out of the Government of the divine Principle neither would there have been any danger of his touching of the Tree of Life that is of the original creating strong Powers of the Lord for if he had continued
the heavy fierce Fires of Saturn and Mars do carry the upper dominion in them But if the Gravity of Iupiter and Sweetness of Venus do interpose then all is made delightfully pleasant But as it is impossible for any Man to make good Harmony that has never learned Musick nor knows how to tune his Instrument because one String will be several Notes too high and others as many too flat or low from which can proceed no Melody but a rumbling jarring Noise of Discords So impossible it is that any Man should attain to the holy Harmony of God in the Kingdom of his Love and Light or to live in the power of Unity except he be born again and hath learned himself for the true knowledge of God in a Man's self is absolutely necessary for if a Man do not understand the Treasures and holy Virtues the Vices and Evils he always carries about him in his own Vessel how is he like to distinguish the Natures Properties and Operations of those things which he shall daily meet withal within him 20. This degeneration of the humane Nature is apparent from the Words of our Saviour Christ who saw into the very Roots of their Hearts and Spirits and yet made no scruple to call them Foxes Sons of Belial c. For such inwardly they were as appear'd by their Works But it had not been so from the beginning for if it had Man would not have been cloathed with such a compleat Angelical form and shape as he is for when the Creator moved himself by the production of all things each was cloathed with an external Body suitable to its Spirit and according to the degrees and nature of each Spirit such form it attained for each spiritual Substance had power to attract out of all things such corporeal Matter for a Covering or Body as had a Simile with its own Nature as appears most manifestly by the Shapes Forms Inclinations and Dispositions of each Creature And as the internal Property and Disposition of each Creature did vary so their outward Form and Shape did vary Thus where the fierce Wrath did predominate there sprung up wild Beasts and Birds of Prey but where the Qualities of Nature were more equally mixed there were formed more benign and friendly Creatures as Beasts and Birds humane tame and tractable called by the wise Men clean Beasts and Birds and where the Spirit was more noble and great so the Body and Form was accordingly And as Man was in the Spirit and primitive Properties and Qualities greater and more noble than any other of the Creatures visible so the Lord gave him a proportionable Body above all the rest of the lower Creation for we never read that any of the Holy Angels of the Lord appeared in any other than Humane Form But when God has at any time permitted evil Angels to assume Shapes and Forms they have always been hideous monstrous and frightful as Dragons Lions Cats Swine and the like which may demonstrate what Principle and Kingdom they belong unto and which would have been Man's Condition had he not fallen into the humane Nature which has not only been the chief Means to preserve Man's Angelical Form but to raise him to a Supernatural Dignity by the Lord Christ's assuming an humane Body and making all them Sons and Coheirs that believe in him and are incorporated with him For though Man through Sin and Transgression hath lost his Heavenly Angelical Understanding and Wisdom which yet shall be again restored to all those that obey the Counsel of the holy Seed and divine Light yet he did not bereave himself of his first Shape or Angelical Form because he fell into the Humane Nature where every Body has the Seed in it self to produce its like Species in all respects But as for the Spirits or Souls of most Men they have through the desire of Vanity Oppression Violence Killing both Men and Beasts wanton Superfluity Pride Vain-glory c. precipitated themselves into the divided Forms and harsh fierce Wrath of God and into Bestiality and the savage Nature so that they have lost the humane Property are grown hard-hearted cruel and sordid having no Compassion Fellow-feeling or Mercy and all that do live and die in this savage brutish state shall in the Resurrection when every Soul shall be re-invested with a new Body attract such Matter out of all things as their Spirits are capable of and have a Simile with and so appear in Forms hideous frightful and loathsome as their Natures require for such Seed as Men do sow such a Body may be expected for so the illuminate Apostle speaks of the Resurrection God giveth to every Seed it s own Body and therefore if Men sow hellish Seeds in their Lives no wonder if they be cloathed with suitable shapes in the next World But on the contrary those that in their earthly Pilgrimage have retained Humanity and introduced their Wills and Desires into the divine Principle of eternal Light and Love and been guided by the counsel thereof shall in that day arise in a more perfect beautiful and glorious humane Shape and Form of whom Christ Jesus was the first for after his Resurrection he appeared in the same Shape Form and Body as he had before his Death 21. Consider how unpleasing it would be to most People to behold the dead Carkasses of Beasts cut into pieces and mangled and all over bloody And how nauseous and frightful a thing it would be to think of putting those begored Gobbits into our Mouths and feeding our selves thereon did not continual Use and Custom make it familiar And how difficult a Task would it be for many People who do for the most part live under the power and operation of the tender compassionate Principle of God's Love to kill the Beasts for their own Food until a little Action of that kind and custom hardens them therein How quickly also will the dead Carkasses putrefie and stink defiling the Elements both Earth and Air How offensive are the Places where Flesh is killed and sold How rude cruel fierce and violent are most of those who are employed therein In a word there is nothing that is pleasant or friendly in the whole business nor any one Circumstance that is grateful to the innocent Principle in Man nay the Taste of most sorts of Flesh is strong fulsome and smells of the original Cruelty to all those that have for any time separated themselves from the eating thereof or having communication with it And indeed none are or can be sensible how it is nor be competent Judges of what is said here but only such as have made Trial. Is there any comparison to be made between an Herb-Market and a Flesh-Market In one there is a thousand pieces of the dead Carkasses of various Creatures lie stinking the Chanels running with Blood and all the Places full of Excrements Ordure Garbage Grease and Filthiness sending forth dismal poysonous Scents enough
to corrupt the very Air In the other you have delicate Fruits of most excellent Tastes wholesome Medicinal Herbs savoury Grains and most beautiful fragrant Flowers whose various Scents Colours c. make at once a Banquet to all the Senses and nourish the purer Spirits and refresh the very Souls of such who pass through them and perfume all the circumambient Air with redolent Exhalations This was the Place and Food ordained for Mankind in the beginning The Lord planted a Garden for him replenish'd with all manner of ravishing Fruits and Herbs There was no Flesh-Markets nor Shambles talk'd of in the primitive times But every green Herb Fruit and Seed shall be for Food to Man saith the Creator Which if it had been still observed Man had not contracted so many Diseases in his Body and cruel Vices in his Soul by making his Throat an open Sepulchre wherein to entomb the dead Bodies of Beasts nor should the Noble Image of the Deity have been thus shamefully defiled with Brutalities Creatures of Sea and Land we slay And in our Maws do bury And worse by half than Beasts of Prey Are at their Fun'rals merry How shall they but Bestial grow That thus to feed on Beasts are willing Or why should they a long Life know Who daily practise KILLING 22. There remains yet one Question which I have been often ask'd viz. If all People should live on Fruits Herbs and the like what should we do with the Beasts and what would become of them They would grow so numerous that they would be prejudicial to Mankind c. To all which I answer 1. That these are rather Suppositions than Arguments meer Fancies weak and unconcluding because unexperienced There is and pity it is that there is but little likelihood of the generality of Peoples forsaking this ill and harmful but too long continued devouring of Flesh and consequently there is no great force in this Objection yet still it may not be amiss to warn the Lovers of Virtue and Piety to abstain for the many Reasons aforesaid but these are but a few and the Multitude will still pursue and ingulf themselves in their accustomed Cruelties and Superfluities 2. Should any Nation or great number of People through the divine sight and true Wisdom scruple Violence Oppression Killing and Eating the Flesh of their Fellow-Creatures of an inferiour Rank the same Wisdom would teach them what to do with and how to order the Beasts 3. There are abundance of several sorts of these Creatures in the World that Men do not kill and eat and yet there are no more of them than are useful or not so many as to occasion any such prejudice to Mankind as this Objection supposes but find room enough in their proper Elements and the almighty Providence liberally sustains them To instance in one most common and useful Species viz. Horses they are not any where that I know of usually killed to be eaten and yet I never heard of any Country in the World that complained of being over-stock'd with them It may perhaps be alledged That the hard usage and tyranny which Men inflict upon them do destroy great Numbers of them I confess this is too true but yet if there were no such Exorbitances committed there would not be too many nor would their Troops be burthensome unto Mankind For are there not various sorts of Birds many of them not fit to be eaten and others that for the most part escape the Stratagems and Snares of the Fowler and yet we do not find too many of them nor indeed shall you but very seldom find any of them dead though they cannot hide their dead since their Feathers would betray them The Raven as unfit for Food because of its rapacious preying on dead Carcases and the pretty Robin-red-breast for its Innocency are very seldom killed and yet they do not become offensive to Men. 4. How many sorts of Beasts and Birds both wild and tame are there in other Countries that are rarely killed by Men and yet there is a natural consumption of them nay there are divers kinds whom to kill or injure is to this day accounted ominous or foreboding Mischief to those that meddle with them for which cause most People forbear to offer violence to them unless by accident and yet there are no more extant in the World than of others whom Men make it their Business and Interest and Diversion to destroy 5. If People had not occasion for so many Sheep for their Wool or Cows for their Milk c. they might as easily lessen the Numbers of them as increase them which every Husbandman might be sensible of by keeping the Males from the Females and not suffering them to generate too young whereby such Beasts would he larger stronger and more healthy whereas now so many Cattel are industriously bred up in many places that when a Scarcity happens of Grass Hay or Corn multitudes of them perish for Cattel being now become a grand Commodity and as it were a Manufacture Husbandmen for the most part living at rack'd Rents are forced to raise as many of them as possibly they can and to keep them on improper and unhealthy Pasturages and to over-labour both themselves and their Beasts merely to raise Rents for their idle extravagant Landlords who only aim to satisfie their Pride and Superfluity 6. 'T is certain that God and Nature who do nothing in vain never created or made more Creatures in any of the four Worlds or Elements whether visible or invisible than the same would nourish and maintain as in the Element of Water if there were never any killed by Men their Mother-Element that brought them forth would be sufficient to nurse them up and maintain them The like is to be said of the Fowls of the Air and Beasts of the Earth for do we not see even in Desarts and Wildernesses all Nature's Productions are liberally provided for and fewer there of every Species than in those we call Civilized Regions So gross an Error 't is to imagine That if Men should not kill them the Earth would be over-run and that there would be so many of them as would not be sustained but that they would be injurious to Mankind For in truth nothing would or could hurt or injure Man if he lived in Innocency and did not first outrage them for as Innocency hurts nothing so nothing can hurt it 23. Now it is farther to be considered That if any Nation or People should leave off or scruple killing Men and the inferiour Creatures and eating their Flesh and Blood from a true understanding of God's Law in Nature and in obedience to the friendly and innocent Principle of God's Love and Light then all Oppression Violence Controversies and Killing would cease and that excellent Saying of the Prophet would take place viz. That every Man would be taught of the Lord All outward Enquiries would have an end then would not Men build outward
behind them a disorder'd Body and a perplexed Soul the Memory of which calls for Repentance and do ingender in the Mind Sottishness and insolency and a Forgetfulness of all Good making the Body an House of Sorrow and the Soul a Den of Thieves Intemperance never goes alone having many other Evils and perverse Companions attending her but at her first appearance doth court her Lovers with a curious painted smiling Countenance which doth allure and draw after her a great Train of young Gallants by her counterfeit Beauties but we through the good Favour of the Lord know her Snares and that she is that Woman the wise Man saith Sits in the Corners of the Streets of Man's City alluring and inviting the foolish Ones by her fading Delights and Pleasures therefore we warn our Citizens to beware of her Charms But Vertue who is our Captain though at first she do appear to us with a dismay'd Face and in modest plain Garments and neither decked with feigned Speeches nor with fading Beauties but with other most sublime and durable Riches as Temperance Cleanness Separation Self-denial which is a little austere and burthensome at first to old Adam and to those that have spent most of their days in the Intemperances and Oppressions of Egypt nevertheless a little Use Custom and Self-denial makes them most friendly both to the Body and Mind for she freeth them both from Ignorance vain Opinions Self-conceitedness and all other Snares and Troubles and crowns the Soul with eternal Felicity If our Children are gluttonous idle or disobedient to Parents our Law and Custom constrains them to make retaliation by Servitude in our publick Houses and Places provided for that purpose We do not enslave our Bodies by Labours nor put our more noble Parts on the Rack by carking Cares to maintain our Wives and Children because we observe order and count that unlawful that is not needful a little serves and supports the necessity of Nature where Superfluity is laid aside The more Children we have the richer we do esteem our selves we do not pray and wish that we may have no more Children and at the same time continue the Means neither do we hinder Conception for fear of Disgrace Trouble or that we shall have more Children than we can maintain all those things we esteem to be Sins against God and his Law in Nature We are contented and highly gratified with the most pleasant Fruits of the Gardens and desire as much as we can to imitate our first state of Innocency counting every green Herb and Seed our principal Food having a Simile with the friendly Principle in Man We fear all Inclinations after Flesh and Blood they smell of the Original Sin and of the awakened fierce Wrath of God which renders man fitter to live in a Flesh-Market and Butcher's Shambles than in a Garden there being no more affinity between Slaughter-houses Shambles Butchers-Shops and Sheep than there is between a pleasant Garden and the Fruits that grow therein and Dogs Lions Bears and the like wild Beasts of Prey We do not complain and say If we should not eat Flesh and Blood we should die as some will meaning the death of the Body this none need to fear but the main thing lies occult they are not willing to kill and destroy the Government of the violent wrathful Spirit and ravenous Nature which most Men love to practise all such things that support and keep that Spirit in motion which would quickly be weakned if Man did not supply it with its proper Food and Aliment If Violence nor Oppression did not come into the noble Tents of Men then Man would be like a pleasant Field in May where there grow various sorts of fragrant Herbs Fruits Grains and Seeds of different Forms Shapes Colours Beauties Odours and Natures but they have but one Mother whence they have and receieve Virtue Life and Power standing all in quietness and silence suffering all sorts of Winds to blow on them they complain not neither do they grutch or envy each other because they are not all alike or that one is more beautiful and fairer than another no they all thrust forth their Virtues in quietness to God's Praise and Glory even so it would be with Man if he did fear the Lord as he ought and lay aside Violence and live in Innocency then the Tempter would lose his labour 2. If any amongst us be idle gluttonous or commit any evil and will not amend his Life and become sober at the first second or third Reproof then they are committed to Houses and Places appointed for several sorts of Work and there they are put to such Labour Arts or Trades as they shall be capable of being well furnished with Meat Drink Cloathing sweet wholesome Chambers and Beds there to continue until they have made retaliation their greatest Punishment is they are confined to work double the time that is allotted for others viz. twelve hours in a day for we do not oppress our selves nor Servants with labour it being not lawful among us to work above six hours in a day which doth bountifully support us with plenty of all things where Superfluity is not there needs not much labour neither to Man nor Beast the remaining time is set apart for Prayer Meditations and Contemplations of the divine and natural Mysteries of God as Arts and Sciences and all lawful innocent Recreation We do account none capable to know the hidden Mysteries of God and the Creation but those that become even as Nature her self viz. true simple constant patient and pious no ways hurtful to any thing viz. a regenerated Man none else are fit for the search and speculation of divine Mysteries but those that are thus qualified when by an innocent pious Life we have made God our Friend then the Heavens the Earth Elements and all the Terrene and Celestial Influences are constrained to come to our help We draw Peace Love and Vertue out of all things for every Likeness doth forcibly draw proper Aliment out of all things for the increase and support of its own Body both in good and evil and for this same purpose we do often meet together for our outward occasions do not hinder us where we do speak and discourse freely like so many Children keeping nothing back or hidden whether it be good or evil but manifesting the inward secrets of our Hearts and the Mystical Operations of the various Properties of our own Nature and of the Force Power Vertue and Vice of each Quality and of their rising and continual contest amongst themselves for Mastery and also the manner and way the divine Principle of God in us doth open the seven Seals and call the Soul back out of Egypt viz. out of Discord and Inequality into Concord and Harmony We do not admit of any Discourse that is not filled with Vertue and Experience either of divine or natural Wisdom by which the low mean Capacities are rais'd by
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
amongst us if any of us by the enticement of our liquorish Palates or other Accidents commit any Intemperance in Meats Drinks or otherwise we in all Particulars make it publick at our Meetings and such do of their own free choice appoint unto themselves a certain time of Abstinence and Separation according to the nature of the Offence viz. Days Weeks Months or Years whereby our Bodies are cleansed and purged from superfluous Matters which are the Seeds of Diseases by which we are preserved in health and our Souls are freed from the Chains of that Offence and our Minds and Spirits strengthened by the Spirits of our Friends Penance and Separation keep the Evil fresh in our Minds with a continual Spur to call on the Lord for Mercy This many of the Prophets and holy Men practised We do account it unlawful to innoble the Carcases of slaughtered Beasts by intombing them in our Bodies The Flesh of Beasts is too near a-kin unto us therefore the humane Nature ought not to join or incorporate it self with the Bestiality The Wood-Musicians do freely communicate with us because we do not hurt them All things are friendly unto us because we are like unto them also the holy Scriptures do testifie the Truth of this viz. The Lord hath made his Angels ministring Spirits to minister to them that fear him and live in his Love Abstinence Cleanness and Separation do fortifie us and support our Spirits which do by a secret and natural Attraction even as the Loadstone doth Iron attract the Celestial Powers by which the good Angels become prompt and do readily serve us and communicate to every one according to his Merits and Capacity But on the contrary those that have introduced their Wills and Desires into the central Wrath and live under the divided Forms and evil Properties do thereby subject themselves not only to all the inferiour bestial Properties but are always liable to be tempted and give great Advantages to the evil Genius and to the malignant Configurations of the Celestials which forcibly attract unto them the evil Angels which draw many into great Errors as Gluttony Drunkenness Adulteries Theft and Murders as also unto all vain Sports and violent Exercises as Bear-baitings Bull-baitings Fencing Fighting with Dogs and Cats Swearing Lying and Fighting with one another as also Playing at Cards Dice Nine pins and many other evil robust Egyptian Sports which are the Inventions of the evil Genius and Angels and do all proceed from the fierce Wrath of God in Nature It is farther to be noted that all those that are Spectators and love to see those violent Exercises and vain Pleasures and take delight to be in the presence of them are all led and governed by the same evil Genius and with their Wills do confent to those Villanies O ye Multitude stand still and consider what fire it is that is kindled in you and what Fewel it is that doth keep it burning and from what Centre it takes its Birth and then you will find it to be the hellish Fire which proceeds from God's fierce Wrath which can no ways be quenched but by your ceasing from Evil and standing still and the Lord will by his Power part the Red Sea and conduct you safe through his Wrath and drown the Man of Sin but preserve his Camp by his holy Angel 3. But in our Country we have none of the aforementioned Sports nor Egyptian Pastimes We do not use Cruelty or do Violence neither to Man nor Beast for fear we should become worse than Savages as the People of Egypt and those of the Land of Nod are for no Man can do Violence and not awaken the Wrath and violent Spirit for all Inclinations to Violence do proceed from the same Spirit and all that take delight and pleasure therein are precipitated into it and then this hellish Quality gets dominion and crucifies the Son of God viz. the friendly Principle of Light and Love afresh as the Scripture saith For these Reasons our Philosophers will not admit any Violence to be done either to Man or Beast because all Oppressions and Violences whether they be little or great have but one Root or Fountain the same is to be understood of Vertue and as Use and Custom do encrease Vertue and make it impregnable so doth the practice of Evil make the fierce Wrath strong and powerful Therefore we have no Bear-baitings to gather the rude violent Multitude together and to torment the Creatures of God who bear his Image either in his Love or Anger neither have we Bull-baitings to make and force one Beast contrary to their Inclinations cruelly to tear another to pieces whilst a company of People look on that in their nature are tenfold worse than Beasts neither have we any Cock-fightings nor no Festival Days that serve chiefly to call the violent Rabble together nor no Whitson-Ale or Morris-dancing all our Dancing and Fencing-Masters since we came out of Egypt have given off their Trade and applied themselves to the Study of Wisdom and many of them are become excellent Proficients therein All our Ale-houses and Taverns are put to honest uses viz. to entertain Strangers and the Instruments of Musick which were used in them during Pharaoh's Reign we have caused to be burned as a Sacrifice or Retaliation because the Egyptians had profaned the Lord in the use of them We have no fatted Swine fatted Oxen or Punchanelloes amongst us neither have we any of Pharaoh's lean Kine We wear no Swords by our Sides but all our Weapons of War are inward and we never use them for any other Occasion but to defend our Souls from Viciousness We join not Harmony Swearing and vain Discourses together as the Egyptian Masters of Musick do Our Men do not rob Women of their principal Ornament neither living nor dead nor adorn their Heads with theirs which shews in those that do a base depraved effeminate Nature Most of this sort of People belong to Pharaoh's Troops that are or may expect to be swallowed up in the Sea of Wrath. Our Women do not gather themselves into Companies in the Streets and there spend Time in evil Communication neither do they stand idling at their Doors in painted counterfeit Dresses to allure the wanton Eyes of the Passers by We have no Play-houses neither dare we use Consorts of Musick in any such places We do not suffer our Children to go to any of the publick Shews and Games of Sodom for fear they should look back and so become Monuments of God's Wrath as Lot's Wife was We do not allow or suffer our young Men to run nor ride for Wagers neither do we suffer our Women to use robust Employments for fear they should become rude and immodest as the Egyptian Women are for the whole preservation of Mankind doth chiefly depend on their well Conduct and Temperance We turn our Backs on all idle Discourses which serve only to invite Men to Folly and spend precious
Chymical Liquors are at the end of Nature and therefore they will not admit of another Motion Hence it follows that all sorts of Spirits as of Scurvey-Grass of Salt and many others of like Nature that are prepared by Fire whereby the Radical Moisture or sweet Balsamick Quality the Volatile Spirit and Vegitative Vertue or middle Quality are alâ— destroyed have no such physical Virtues 〈◊〉 their Authors appropriate unto them And we do affirm that such as have the Disease called the Scurvey in their Blood shall be as soon and as well cured by taking every morning so many Drops of strong Spirit of Wine as they shall by taking this sort of Spirit of Scurvey-Grass and so of the Spirit of Salt and others For the harsh sulpherous Fires in Stills where the friendly Element of Air is hindred from having its Influence does totally destroy the pure Virtues and opening cleansing Qualities and there does run off only a fierce keen harsh fiery astringent bitter furious Spirit which is very pernicious to Nature and to all the friendly Virtues in the Body nor was it ever known that any such Spirits have given help or cured any of those Diseases which the Lying Authors do so much boast of You may try whether this be true if you take any opening cleansing or purging Herbs Seeds or the like and put them into any kind of Liquor viz. Water Beer Ale Wine or Brandy the last of which those great Physicians and Masters of Art do use to draw their Spirits of Scurvey-grass in when you have put your Ingredients into your Liquor let them lie in it two or three days more or less as you please then put the Herbs and Seeds with the Liquor into your Still or Limbeck and draw it off and you shall only have an harsh strong fiery tart Spirit void of all the Purging Opening and Cleansing Qualities such Herbs or Seeds were naturally endued withal The very same or other as great Evils are in many other of the Physicians and Apothecaries Preparations which ought to be considered and their blind Traditionary senseless Ways and Methods to be abandoned as destructive to the Health and Well-being of Nature It is further to be noted that none ought to apply themselves to the â—â—actice of Physick but such only as the Lord hath in their Radixes endued with proper Gifts and natural Parts for 't is not sufficient for them to read other mens Works and vapour with their Receipts like the proud Iack-daw in the Fable with the fine Feathers stolen from other Birds but they ought to know the true Principles Nature and Operation of every Herb Plant Animal or Mineral that they make use of and for what it is good and the contrary in themselves and also what Simples are proper to be Compounded and what not For he that has no true Knowledge in himself of the Nature of things but follows Tradition blind-fold and trusts to other peoples Say-so's must needs make strange work and instead of Curing often-times Kill and when he does Cure 't is by meer chance Whereas Physicians ought not to administer any Medicine without true Knowledge both of his Patients Disease and what he gives to remove it all things especially where mens Lives are concerned ought to be done with sight and judgment and not without Faith and Prayer to God the Creator of all things who is the inward Virtue Power and Life of every thing For Faith and Prayer do Wonders opening the inward Virtue and Centre of every mean and simple Medicine or thing even Clay and Spittle with it shall cure the Blind this all Physicians ought to be inwardly sensible of and not put so much trust in their Authors for many of them have been very vain and extravagant in their Writings telling us that such and such Herbs and other things were indued with such wonderful Virtues and would cure such Diseases when in truth there were no such things and also invented many improper Compositions even any thing they fancied and most of their Sayings are meer Stories and as contrary to Truth as Light to Darkness Now on such a tottering Foundation what Structure of safety can be expected to be built Our Modern Physicians are much like our Lawyers if a man is like to lose part of his Estate and will vindicate his Cause by Law 't is twenty to one but he spends the other partto secure that and after abundance of charge and trouble loseth the whole Just so if a man through Disorder and Intemperance hath in part destroyed his Health he may be sure to destroy the other part also if he keep close and follow the Physicians Prescriptions and take good store of their adulterated Medicines We must also note that every Patient ought to turn the Eyes of his Mind inward and wait at the Altar of the Lord for an answer and not to do or take any Medicines without some Assurance or Faith in the Lord of his Blessing nor ought any to think himself too mean or simple because he is unlearned for do but read the Scriptures and you may be satisfied that the Lord in all Ages has plentifully given his Gifts and Graces both Divine and Natural to the Simple and Unlearned And as to the Learning of this World did not our Lord Christ himself give his Father the Author of all Beings thanks That he had hid the Mysteries of Salvation both of Soul and Body from the Wise and Letter-learned of this World and revealed them unto Babes poor mean and unlearned People Peter the Fisher-man Paul the Tent-maker c. For indeed the Rich and Learned have shut and double-bar'd the Windows of their Souls against the simple Light of Truth they have cloathed themselves with Vanity and Self-hood being contented with Tradition and a Worldly puffing-up Knowledge which serves them to swagger with but not to do any good with either to themselves or others so that there is no room for the operation of the friendly Love and Light of God they are so full of swelling proud Spirits and noise and boasting Hence it comes to pass that these Admirers of Tradition and Pocket-Learning and the ways of the Multitude are always apt to despise the Simplicity of the Divine Power and Voice of Wisdom not only in themselves but all others and therefore the Lord chuseth to unfold his holy and natural Mysteries unto the Poor and Needy and such who are not wise in their own Eyes and whose Eye-lids are not lifted up For nothing obstructs the Work of the Lord and the Revelations of his Holy Spirit in men more than Inward-Riches Self-conceitedness and the Babylonical-Learning of the Schools of this World which like a too Luxuriant and not well Cultivated Soil produce such abundance of Rank-weeds as overtop and choak the good Seed that it cannot attain to any maturity in the Government of a mans Life the same is to be understood of all outward Fulness and Intemperances
and Minerals The Salnitral and Seminary Virtues of the Earth varying also in the predominant Qualities from ours there being a concurrence in all Countries and Climates between the Influences and Operations of the heavenly Bodies and the earthy whence it comes to pass that the people of the South are black and the Northern white their Countrey generates Gold and ours Lead Tin and Iron the East-Indies yielding precious Stones which is a Degree higher than Gold and the West-Indies Silver which proceeds from the powerful Influences of the Sun and Venus but especially of the Sun its warming Beams continuing there all the year without much variation and therefore their Nights and Days are more equal than in the North where the cold harsh Properties of Saturn and Mars do bear sway Therefore the Herbs Drugs and Fruits that are brought forth in those remoter Regions are not Homogenial to our Bodies as Experience might teach us by the great numbers of new Diseases that have of late been cantracted by the superfluous Mixtures of the East and West-Indian Ingredients with our common Food as Spices Fruits Sugars as also Tobacco c. which have strangely wasted the Healths of many For the All-wise Creator of all Beings has endued both the Heavenly and Earthly bodies with an inward Virtue Power and Nature in every Climate and Country so as all places do plentifully bring forth all manner of Herbs Fruits Seeds Drugs and Grains suitable and proper for the Sustenance of both Men and Beasts of that place and also for Medicine there being a Sympathetical agreement in the Radixes between the Animals of each Country and the Vegetations thereof both being brought forth under the same Influence Do not our own Herbs Fruits and Grains growing in our own Country maintain the numerous Troops of brave Animals amongst us viz. Cows Sheep Horses and many others in plentiful healthy state without the help of Foreign Vegetatives And are there not a great number of Medicinables likewise of our own growth proper for the cure of those Diseases that are generated in our Elevation and had it not been the great happiness of England if men had known no more of Outlandish-wines Spices Sugars c. either for Food or Physick than our Beasts do which would have rendred us more healthy and sounder both in Body and mind For in the Beginning the Divine Word of the Lord that as the Scriptures testifie made all things moved it self in all Places and Climates and formed framed and figured all Bodies according to the Degrees of the Innate instant Qualities of each Place and as the property of the Seven-fold Nature and Constellation did there predominate and as the Salnitral Properties and Spirits were internally strong or weak good or evil such was the Nature Inclinations Forms and Shapes of the Creatures in each Climate for every Creature was clothed with a Body according to the Nature and Degrees of the Spirit which is the Life of all things having an innate Power to attract proper matter for a Body of a proportionable Nature And as the Internal Powers and Qualities are infinitely various so are the External forms every thing both in the Animal Mineral and Vegetative Kingdoms varying in Shape Virtue and Vice And where the Property of the Wrath did predominate in the Salnitral Quality in any Country there did arise and were made fierce wrathful wild Beasts of Prey as Bears Lyons Tygers c. On the contrary where the sweet Water and friendly Nature had Dominion there were generated Tame Mild Creatures as Sheep Cows c. the same is to be understood in the Vegetative and Mineral Kingdoms and the outward Body or Signature does in all particulars manifest and shew the inward Nature of each thing to the enlightned understanding and sagacious Naturalist whom God and Nature have made capable of such sublime Learning It is very Improbable if I had said Impossible I had not much over-shot the Truth that one Herb should have specifick virtue and power to cure so many various Diseases and Defects of Nature as the Ancients do appropriate except such an Herb Fruit Seed or the like be endued with and have the Universal Tinctures compleat which hath never been known nor is it possible that any gross Herb should have that Divine Efficacy to cure so many Different Distempers and in various Complexions except there be a Living Faith in the Patients and also in the Physician which then can make Water Wine and Clay and Spittle an Eye-Salve and as Christ saith remove Mountains as also witness the Woman that had the Bloody Issue she believed in her heart That if she could but touch the Hem of Christ's Garment she should be whole which enabled her to press through the Throng and Multitude to touch his Garment where 't is to be noted that this Woman did first press in her self by Faith through the Wrath of God and Multitude of Evil Properties and Inclinations into the Divine Power and Virtue of the Son of God which by a sympathetical Attraction and Divine Power awakened the Balsamick Virtue and friendly Nature first in her self and afterwards in our Lord for then he enquired Who had touched him At which his Disciples marvelled because of the Multitude that pressed him but Christ was sensible of the Inward Kindlings and of the secret Attractions and Influences the Wowan's Faith had in a powerful Degree awakened and as it were drawn forth and united or joyned it self with the friendly Divine Principle of the Light and Love of God in Iesus Christ which healing Virtues her earnest Faith did draw forth and so miraculously her Cure was immediately effected for Christ saith Thy FAITH hath made thee whole The truth is there is but One Way for the right Cure of all Diseases both Corporeal and Incorporeal whether they proceed from the Body or the Mind which is by the Virtue and Power of the Good Quality and friendly Nature which the Creator hath endued every Herb and other thing with for as the Sickness of the Soul or Mind is nothing else but the Deprivation of the Divine Vision viz. man's being departed from the Government and Council of the good Light and Love of God which cannot be remedied nor the Soul restored unto its first state of Health Strength and Unity with God but only by Faith and elevating the Soul to the Divine Principles which will reinforce all the good Powers and Virtues of God's Love and not only render a man sound and healthy but the same Grace-being obeyed will maintain the Soul and Spirit in serenity so the very same is to be understood of all kind of Sicknesses of the Body and Elements of the Outward Nature Diseases being nothing else but an unequal Motion or Contrarieties of the Properties and Qualities of Nature which comes to pass through various Intemperances and concurring Influences of the Elements and Coelestial Bodies which wound the pure Volatile Spirit and then presently
and he healed me So Gen. 20. 17. Abraham prayed unto the Lord and be healed Abimelech and his Wife Also Moses cryed unto the Lord that he would heal Miriam of her Leprosie and the Lord commanded That she should be shut out of the Camp seven days and then she was received in again whole Num. 12. 13. And Deut. 32. 39. God speaks thus See now I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my hands And Matt. 10. 18. Christ gives his Servants power to heal the sick cleanse the Lepers and raise the dead In a word Multitudes of Examples we have in the Scriptures of Truth that all the Prophets and Holy men of God who were guided and directed by his Spirit of Wisdom in all their Troubles whether they were Diseases of the Body or the Mind always made their Application unto the Lord and he healed them and taught them what means to use that always proved effectual though seeming never so mean and simple Therefore let every one address to this Grand Physician whose Arm is not shortened nor his Mercy and Goodness diminished But if Men will give themselves up to the Spirit of Error Ignorance and Blindness and live in all Intemperance Gluttony and Superfluity which brings on them a multitude of Diseases and then enquire and run after the False Prophets and Necromancers whose Practice is meerly for Money Honour Pride and Estimation studying how to deceive the people by canting Words Plush Coats guilded Coaches great Houses c. which do amuse the Rabble and make them have great Thoughts of them though most that have tryed their Medicines might know that they are worse than the Diseases they are prescribed against I say If you follow these Courses 't is no wonder if your Lives become burthensome unto you and complicated Diseases torment you and an untimely Death cut you off For you may take a Cart Load of gross unseparated Herbs and Juices as our Physicians use with a Tun of their sick Decoctions and a whole Apothecaries Shop of their Confused Compositions and be further off from a Cure than at first Therefore the safest Course I can direct my fellow-Mortals is To fear the Lord live sober and temperate both in the Quantity and Quality of Meats Drinks and Imployments And if Diseases do at any time invade the Body by any Accidents or through the Male-Configurations of the Constellations or the like then humbly to apply themselves by Prayer to the Lord and to the Oracle of God in a man's self and then as the Mother of our Lord said unto the Servants that waited at the Marriage where he wrought his first Miracle Whatever he bids you do that do ye that is whatsoever the Divine Light or Holy Spirit of the Lord directs you to or bids you do that be you sure in all particulars to observe For the Reason Wit Skill and all Knowledge of the outward man ought to be as Waiters Tenders or Servitors to execute and obey the Commands of the Spirit of the Lord. Men ought to stand still from reasoning and Imaginations and wait at the Altar of the Lord and hear what he will teach which Directions man ought to follow and to act as this blessed Light and friendly Principle of God does excite him for in its power and virtue consists the right Cure of Body and Soul and in it is safe to move and abide Amen CHAP. XVII Of BUGS and from what Matter and Aliment they do proceed and how to prevent their Generations Of the Excellency of clean sweet Beds and perniciousness of old stinking Feather-Beds Also several Receipts how to kill Bugs and Fleas CLeanness in Houses especially in Beds is a great preserver of Health Now Beds for the most part stand in Corners of Chambers and being ponderous close Substances the refreshing Influences of the Air have no power to penetrate or destroy the gross Humidity that all such places contract where the Air hath not its free egress and regress In these shady dull places Beds are continued for many years and hardly see the Sun or Elements Besides Beds suck in and receive all sorts of pernicious Excrements that are breathed forth by the sweating of various sorts of people which have Leprous and Languishing Diseases which lie and die on them The Beds I say receive all these several Vapours and Spirits and the same Beds are often continued for several Generations without changing the Feathers until the Ticks be rotten Besides we have many Feathers that are imported from several Countries which are the Drivings of old Beds the uncleanness whereof is not considered As to the Nature of Feathers they are of a strong hot sulsome Quality for Fowls of all Creatures are for the most part the hottest and their Feathers contain the same Nature Therefore the constant lying on soft Feather-Beds does not only over-heat the Back and Reins weakening the Joynts and Nerves but they have power also not only to receive but retain all evil Vapours and Excrements that proceed from and are breathed forth by various Diseased people Hence it comes to pass that sundry Distempers are transferred from one to another by lying upon or in such Beds which Distempers do secretly steal on a man by degrees so that he cannot imagine whence the Disorder proceeds or what the cause thereof should be But I would not have the Reader mistake me all people are not subject to get Diseases this way There are some whose Constitutions are strong and their Natural Heat and Spirits are vigorous and lively by the Power and Virtue whereof they withstand and repel all such evil Vapours and Scents as do proceed from such Beds when a man is hot and sweats in them that they have no power to seize the Spirit But on the contrary when such people shall lie on such Beds whose Natural Heat is weak their Spirits few and whose central heat is not able to withstand or repel those Vapours and Scents which such Beds send forth when a man is hot in them this last sort of people are subject to receive Injuries and contract Diseases for those evil Vapours do powerfully penetrate the whole Body and if they are not withstood by the central heat and power of the Spirits then these evil Vapours do seise the Spirits and incorporate themselves with their likenesses for every particular thing does sensibly and powerfully seek out its likeness and wheresoever it finds its simile it hath power to incorporate and become essential These are the chief Reasons why one man gets Diseases by lying with Diseased Persons and in unclean Beds and others not It is a general custom when men go abroad or travel to desire clean Sheets imagining them to be a sufficient bulwark to defend them from the pernicious Fumes and Vapours of old stale Beds but it is too short For it
of Stars and the various Species in the four Worlds or what doth more ravishingly declare the Greatness Goodness and eternal Wisdom of the immense Creator This is a Book we study in which the grand Charter of Nature and the Holy Mysteries of God are recorded and we think we do not err in preferring it before the endless and contentious thwarting Volumes of the Talkative Philosophers and Wrangling Schoolmen French-man I have been told and you seem to own it That you will not Kill any of the inferior Creatures nor eat their Flesh but I pray hath not Man power to do as he pleaseth with those Creatures and were not they made for that very purpose Heathen God hath made all Creatures inferior to Man who hath freedom to use and do unto them all as he pleaseth having free will to chuse either Good or Evil but he that follows the better and leaveth the worse chuseth the better part and is made God's Friend and in Amity with all the Creation for man is a likeness of all things and contains their true Natures and Properties and therefore whatever he giveth himself unto the same becomes strong in him be it Virtue or Vice For which cause our well-advised Fathers commanded us our Wives and Children to abstain from all kinds of Violence and Oppression especially to those of our own Species that thereby our Souls might be preserved from being precipitated into wrath and so retain Humanity and the more noble Faculties of our Souls unspotted as well as our Bodies rendred wholsome clean and fit to be Temples for the Divine Spirit esteeming Abstinence Cleanness and Separation to be the true paths that lead to all external and eternal bliss it being in our opinion an unfit and altogether unworthy thing that the great noble and immortal Soul of man should so much degenerate from its high and illustrious Birth as to joyn or suffer it self to be incorporated with the low and savage Nature of Beasts Nor do we think it lawful for us to heat our Veins and distemper our blood with Wine since Water more kindly quencheth our Thirst the innocent and fragrant Herbs and Fruits of our Gardens afford us ample satisfaction and we should be ashamed to make our Bodies the Graves of the Inferiour Creatures And tho our Princes are sometimes harsh and severe to us yet we pacifie them with meek submissive and humble Behaviour And since as little as possibly we can we hurt not any thing therefore nothing hurts us but we live in perfect Unity and Amity with all the numberless Inhabitants of the four Worlds doing by them as we would be done unto whereby we dis-arm their Rage and their Fury finds no place against us French-man But pray tell me how long you have led this kind of Life and whether your Sons and Daughters do follow your Religion and Example for amongst the Europeans nothing is more common than for Youth to degenerate and wander after the Multitude and abandon their Fathers Rules especially if they should be but half so singular as you are Heathen As for the Antiquity of our Course of Life I think for the greater part I may date it from the World 's Original Your own Doctors teach that Adam the first Man was placed in a Garden and that the green Herb. and Tree bearing Fruit was to be to him for Meat and do generally agree that afterwards at least during the Old World viz. to the time of the Flood which was in the Year of the World 1656. eating of Flesh was not allowed or practised and though afterwards it was practised yet 't is probable it did not obtain with all But there is reason to believe that still the better and more reserved sort did abstain For about the Year of the World 3300. near the time that your holy Records mention Ierusalem to be besieged by Nebuchadnezzar we find the famous Philosopher Pythagoras flourishing who expresly taught his Followers which by reason of his Parts and Virtues were not a few not to eat any Flesh but content themselves altogether with Vegetables and this great Man travelling for the acquest and diffusion of Knowledge into divers parts left not our India unvisited and there planted this wholsome Doctrine which ever since hath not wanted Observers derived down by a continual Succession to our Times 'T is true our Ancestors have obliged us to some things which may seem frivolous and vain as not to kill any kind of Vermin which are very offensive to the Life of Man But indeed these Prohibitions well regarded shew their more deep Wisdom and Fore-sight for they did consider that their Philosophy would not only be embraced by Wise Men but also by a great number of Fools as the most part of all Men are in one thing or other and if they should have permitted them to have killed any kind of Creatures the Foolish would have concluded they might by the same Rule as well kill others and so by degrees come to kill men as most other Nations do Besides not only our cleanly regular temperate Lives free us from many of those Vermin wherewith others are troubled but we take it for a Rule that such as would live an abstemious separated Life from Evil and Violence must refrain from some things that are lawful as well as from those that are unlawful as one of your Prophets says excellently All things are lawful but not expedient Touching our Sons and Daughters they all constantly follow our Foot-steps and it hath very rarely been known that any of them have forsaken the Percepts of their Fathers being descended from a Root of Temperance and Equality they are naturally Sober and Temperate for they use not Tippling-Houses nor spend their Patrimony in drinking Wine Gaming Debauchery and Gluttony so that the more Children we have the Richer we esteem our selves they proving no more chargeable to us than Lambs do to Sheep They all marry Wives of our own Tribe and Religion and there is no Dispute about either Portion or Joynture Their greatest Pleasure and chief Recreation is to contemplate the Heavens and their glorious Furniture the Sun Moon and Stars in their Various Motions and Configurations as also the pleasant Gardens Groves and Fountains and to free the Inhabitants thereof from the Tyranny and Bondage of men as much as in them lies And so through the whole course of our Lives abstaining from all that tendeth to Evil and promoting what we can the good of the whole Creation we endeavour to imitate the adorable Maker and Conserver of the Universe whose Off-spring we are and in whom we live and move and have our Beeing French-man You have not only gratified my Curiosity but in several things informed my Understanding And I heartily wish that your Virtue and Morality were crowned with true Christianity and our Christianity embellish'd with the real practice of your Virtue Temperance and Moderation And so bid you Farewell To shew that the recommending Abstinence from Flesh is no new Upstart Conceit I shall here add those notable Verses of the ingenious Poet Ovid written above 1600 Years ago in his Metamorphosis as I find them translated by Sandys where he brings in the famous Philosopher Pythagoras from whom the Indian Bannians derive their Doctrine thus discoursing FOrbear your selves O Mortals to Pollute With wicked Food Corn is the generous Fruit. Apples oppress their Boughs plump Grapes the Vine Thousand sweet Herbs and savoury Roots combine With beauteous Flowers of most fragrant scent Your nice and liquorish Pallates to content The prodigal Earth abounds with gentle Food Affording Conquest without Death or Blood But Beasts with Flesh their ravenous Hunger cloy And yet not all Horses in Pastures joy So Flocks and Herds But those whom Nature hath Endu'd with Cruelty and savage Wrath Wolves Bears Armenian Tygers Lyons in Hot Blood delight How horrible a Sin That Intrails bleeding Intrails should Entomb That greedy Flesh with Flesh should fat become Whilst by the Livers Death the Living Lives Of all which Earth our bounteous Mother gives Can nothing please except thy Teeth in Blood And Wounds and Stygian Fury be imbrew'd Nought satiate the wild variety Of thy rude Paunch unless another dye That good Old Age that Innocent Estate Which we the Golden call was fortunate In Herbs and Fruits her Lips with Blood undy'd Then Fowls through th' Air their Wings in safety ply'd The Hare then fearless wandred o're the Plain Nor Fish by their Credulity were slain Nor taught was Man that fawning Treachery All liv'd secure till he that did Envy What Daemon e're it was those harmless Cates And cramb'd his Guts with Flesh set ope the Gates To cruel Crimes But first these slaughtering harms A fire of Zeal at Holy Altars warms Enjoyning Sacrifices with the Blood Of Savage Beasts which made our Lives their Food Thus the Wild Boar for rooting up the Corn And leaving painful Plough-mens hopes forlorn Was thought to merit Death Vine-brouzing Goats Do next to angry Bacchus yield their Throats What harm have poor Sheep done whose Udders swell And yield of Nectar a perpetual Well Supplying Man with their soft Wooll and are Alive than Dead more profitable far Or what the Ox a Creature without Guile Inur'd to Patience and continual Toil He most ungrateful is deserving ill The gift of Corn that can Unyoke then Kill The Husband-man that Neck with Ax to wound Is too severe that plow'd his stubborn Ground So oft till'd so many Crops brought in Yet not content therewith ascribes the Sin To guiltless Gods as if the Powers on high In Death of labouring Innocence could joy Whence springs so dire an Appetite in Man To interdicted Food O Mortals can Or dare you feed on Flesh Henceforth forbear I you intreat and to my words give ear When Limbs of slaughtered Beasts become your Meat Then think and know that you your Servants Eat FINIS Numb 11. 4 18 22.