Constitution and Disposition compels them to it But most Beasts Birds and Fish their Rest and Sleep is nothing but a continual waking in comparison of Man's deep and dead Sleep The principal cause why the Creatures are not so drowned in this drowsy Death is they have not broken God's Law but live more intire and according to their Original their Meats and Drinks being more suitable to their Original Natures whether they be clean or unclean for to Unclean Creatures unclean Food is suitable and agreeable to its Qualifications and to the Clean clean Foods are in proportion suitable and therefore all the Beasts are not only more wakeful and less subject to the Sleep of Death than Man having all their Senses more ready lively brisk and at all times more at command for they rarely gratify the four Head Senses to disturb and torment the Sense of Feeling and therefore are not so terribly pestered with such a number of cruel Diseases as Man therefore it is most clear that all the great Powers called Senses are dull heavy and as it were half Dead when sleeping but when waking are brisk and lively all according to the Meats Drinks Employments Communications and Exercises for Mankind by rapacious unclean Meats and Drinks makes himself of another Complexion and his Constitution is another thing than originally it was nothing being so deplorable and so great an Evil as to act and live in a contrary Method to its own Creation and this is the greatest Curse that can fall upon any Creature this is Man's greatest Fall and Misfortune which can never be cured except he again enter into Resignation or Self-denial viz. Into Equality or Union that is into Temperance and Cleanness and live according to his Original State and Constitution But so long as he oppresses the Creatures and violates their Well-being and Quiet he can never have reason to expect to be freed from far greater than the inferiours and therefore this Feeling Power is rarely free from Trouble and Perplexity as being subject to all kinds of irregular Courses both of the Body and Mind there is no Disorder or Intemperance but does fall on it as all our Labour Care Love Hate Hope Fear Hunger Cold Heat evil Communications and all Words and Works this Sense is the Centre or House both of Joy and Sorrow both in Time and Eternity For this cause Mankind ought to be on his Guard at all times and Seasons being beset on all sides both within and without with a great number of Temptations and evil Customs the Degeneration of Man is such that all things he meddles with is a Share to him being deprived of the true use of the Powers Qualities and Principles of himself and being in the Dark he uses all his Senses to a wrong purpose so that all those high and noble Intelligences are sullyed and made subject to the gross inferiour unclean Powers which doth continually load and lay as it were intollerable Burthens on this universal Sense every Action and Motion of Life Inclination and Disposition doth influence that it being the Touch-stone which doth demonstrate from what Principle or Root each Action and Motion of Life doth proceed and take their Birth whether from the Evil or Good Now this Sense is the Judge both of the Body and all its Actions and also of the Desires and Inclinations so that Man hath no occasion to look abroad for Councellors or for a Judge they all dwell in himself he is the Thing viz. The great Mystery wherein all the Treasures both of Time and Eternity are to be understood and therefore the Apostles might well say that whatsoever could be understood or known of our Great Creator and of his great Powers in Nature was manifested in Man and as clear to be seen as the Sun at Noon but who can see the Sun if he be Blind Is it not a most miserable and deplorable Condition Mankind hath fallen and sunk himself into that he hath lost the Understanding and distinguishing Power of his own Composition and of his own Senses and that he hath not the use of them to that degree as the Beasts have as we shall demonstrate when we treat of the Common Animals for it is not possible for any Man to understand the whole if the parts of the Things or Qualities it is compounded of be not distinguished this is most clear and manifest in all Sciences Arts and Trades which do all arise and take their Birth from Man and the Mystery contained in his Microcosm for if all Sciences Arts and Trades yea a thousand Mysteries and rare Inventions that have are and will be found out and brought to light had not been originally Essential in the very Centre of Man then it had been impossible to have brought them to light What great Pity and Lamentation is it that Man who is endued with so many great noble and worthy Faculties and in whom is contained all the great Mysteries of Time and Eternity and made to live in and under the Operation of the United and Illuminated Powers of God's Law should suffer his Will and Desires to enter into the dark Magick of Discord Fierceness Wrath Violence Intemperance Uncleanness and Oppression of all the innocent Inhabitants of the Earth and at the same time to plague and to torment himself for the Groaning of those Creatures that suffer Pain never fail to procure Misery to the Actors thereof It is farther to be noted that that thing which is Pleasure to the Sense of Tasting and a Delight to the Sense of Seeing doth often prove a torment to the Sense of Feeling as in Gluttony and Drunkenness which do frequently distemper the Body and perplex the Mind The like the Sense of Seeing doth bring on this Sense by presenting curious Objects to the Intellects whicâ—… puts Man on the Rack till he hath obtained his desires and wheâ—… that is done there is no more satisfaction than before for iâ—… Wisdom be obliterated then there is nothing can give satisfaction for such do all things by Custom Tradition and President asking no question Now if Mankind hath lost the use of those grosser Powers how can he then be capable of the more Intellectual and Divine Operations of Gods eternal Law and Holy Light The first foundation of this Stupidity Blindness and Erroâ—… was gross Eating Drinking and Uncleanness for nothing hath so much Power and Authority on the Body and Mind 〈◊〉 Meats and Drinks which do sustain and support both Body aâ—… Spirits and according to their respective Virtues or Vices they nourish and incline to this or the other thing so that nothinâ—… hath so great power to preserve the intrinsick Vertues and gooâ—… Properties in Man as Sobriety Temperance and Cleanness and on the other side nothing doth so much fully the worthy and iâ—… telligible Faculties as Intemperance Disorder and Uncleanness This is clearly manifest in that noble Sense the Smelling whicâ—… is as we have said an
Center which by a Sympathetical Agreement reinforces all the material Motions causing a powerful and lively Circulation both of the Blood Spirits and all the Aliments from whence doth arise and proceed a lively brisk Motion Strength Agility and strong sharp Appetite for the more free and open the Trade and Commerce is between the outward and inward Elements or between the Microcosm and Macrocosm the better is the state and condition of Health both of the Body and Mind For this cause the oftner and more any Person doth expose his Body to the open Air and Elements the stronger the Appetite and Digestive Faculties of the Stomach are and such Persons are more strong and lively likewise they are more hardy and more free from Colds and Obstructions which are nothing else but a Condensation or a stoppage of the porous Passages from whence cruel Colds and a thousand Diseases proceed therefore it is not good to Cloath the Body too Warm but of the two Cold is to be preferred to heat provided it be not too much and that it be born with pleasure or without pain For the inward Virtues of the Elements of Air and Water are curious living Powers which do sustain and preserve all the wonderful Beings in this great World but in what Creature or Thing soever these living Powers and the thin penetrating moist Spirits and Vapours become stagnated or thickened then that Creature or Thing becomes dull heavy and full of Indispositions and Crudities Now when in any Creature the fore-mentioned central Fires Burn too violently attracting and drawing all the moist Spirituous Vapours both of the Air and Water consuming and destroying as is before mentioned then immediately the Pores are in a manner stopt and the Forms and Properties do press and as it were rub against each other by which the Fire Burns more intense and fierce like two sticks rubbed hard against each other the Internal central heat is thereby stirred up and awakened and so fiercely kindled that this Fire which lay hid and captivated in the very Center doth by this agitation and fierce motion burn up and destroy the whole Body in a moments time the Fire being the Original of Motion and the true pleasure of all the other Elements when it burns easie or gentle but when it loses its power in any Creature or Thing all becomes cold dull heavy congealed and as it were frozen in that Creature or Thing in which the Fire is impotent and that thing stands near the House of Death and the Melancholly Regions And though this Noble Element the Fire be as it were the Life and Original of all lively Motion and the Well-being of every Creature and when it incorporates or equally mixes with the other Elements burning gently notwithstanding its Excellency wonderful and various uses yet most of the Distempers of the publick State and also the Diseases incident to Mankind are as it were Originally occasioned by this Element and also most of the Outrages that are committed in the great World from Man to Man and likewise the greater part of the Diseases that so terribly torment and afflict Mankind which if Man observe with a clear Eye and Understanding he will then see and find that this great Evil hath fallen upon him for his great and deep Degeneration and Separation from the Unity of Gods Holy Powers and his not knowing and distinguishing the Powers and Principles of God in himself Now Man having lost his way and being sunk into Darkness and Ignorance he takes hold and uses the gross fiery sulphurous and Brimstone Spirit which Governs in Man as he stands in Self-fulness and separated from the Divine Fountain of Benignity or Holy Union not being mixed incorporated or allayed with the sweet Water of Eternal Life in Jesus Christ. This Spirit or Fire before mentioned as it stands divided from the Union is a high lofty exalted Power the Original of all Pride and a domineering Spirit and in what Creature soever it obtains the Government that Creature becomes proud and of an insulting Nature Now the chief and principal cause or reason is that this proud fiery domineering and as it were consuming Spirit of Fire hath obtained and gotten such an Ascendant in the Hearts and very Souls of Mankind and also that the exalted and predominating power in most Diseases is this fiery brimstone or sulphurous quality of Fire Now as any Form or Property obtains the chief Government in the Heart immediately this very quality doth Sign or Stamp its Character and as it were lay its Commands on the imaginative Power and so Signs the Inclinations Dispositions Words and Works from the Government of this lofty fiery Power and Spirit from whence proceeds all Vain-Glory Pride high and lofty Imaginatioâ—… Inclinations and Desires after base slavish violent oppressive Employments as also ardent and longing Desires after unclean gross Foods and high lofty strong Drinks for every Mouth will be fed with agreeable Food the Attraction Desires and Inclinations do always arise and proceed from the ruling Quality and Man being divided from the Union of God and his own Composition into Disunion the fiery envious spiteful Powers exalting themselves cause a direful Appetite in Man And from these very Qualities the violent oppressive Trade of Killing one another and Eating the flesh of the Undergraduates or Beasts having taken their Original Birth for every Spirit Principle and Power doth desire and is supported and maintained by its Similie so that it is most clear nothing being more manifest than from those high exalted fiery Spirits and Powers in Man have sprung such violent and direful Appetites and strong Inclinations after the Blood of their own Kind and to eat the Flesh and Blood of the Beasts likewise to drink hot fiery exalted Liquors so that there is a Concatenation between the Imaginations Inclinations Natural Spirits Dispositions Words and Works Communications Employments and the Diseases Man is most subject unto Now as all the fore-mentioned qualifications do arise and proceed from a fiery ground which do with great power and strong vigour attract proportionable Foods and Drinks therefore most of our Diseases cannot but be Signed with the Character of Fire for every Principle Form or Quality whensoever it hath gotten or attained the Ascendant in any Man it goes on in a streight regular constant Method to do its own Work viz. to nourish support and encrease its own Spirit and Power whether it be in the Good or in the Evil. Hence it is no wonder that Mankind is so frequently seized wounded and destroyed by so many sorts of fiery Diseases viz. Fevers when any thinking Person considers what Powers Principles and Qualities rule and govern in his Heart and Soul there being a Sympathetical Agreement and Inclination between the governing qualities in Mens Minds and their Meats and Drinks and likewise their Diseases all follow one another in a direct Method or Line Now the power and influence Meats and Drinks
of Candle which doth make a Sick and Dying Bed still more uneasy and burthensom more especially when the Sick Person shall think and consider of the Methods of his Life great Agonies do arise and spring up in the Soul feeling its self almost naked or uncloathed of all the Pleasures of Life most of which Perplexities are Originalliy occasioned by the vain Educations and wicked Customs of Natons more especially among the Christians What vain empty frivolous Discourses do all Mothers Nurses and Maids use to their Children the first 6 or 7 years of their Age always discoursing between Jest and Earnest great part thereof Childish Banter with a hundred odd Tricks and Postures which doth take such deep root awakening their Similies so that those Vices become essential that neither Time nor Correction is ever able to obliterate them Is it not common where 5 or 6 Children are with a Mother Nurse and Maid the whole House is filled with a great noisom Crying others Laughing their Governesses Whipping and Threatning of them and it is but little amended when they come to 18 or 20 years of Age when 6 or 8 of these meet what a strange variety of Notes are heard as loud Obesence Laughter Jesting Lying and Jeering one another each endeavouring in vain talking to move that vain and ridiculous posture of Laughing nay our Gray-Hair'd Senators are not free from these Vanities it being common for ancient People to please and delight themselves in telling long Stories of their Youthful Wickedness and Follies and that too in the hearing of young People and in the presence of their own Children for Histories tell us that Christ never Laughed whilst he was Cloathed with the Humane Nature and to this day it is esteemed a very odd thing for any Person to Laugh in the Eastern Countreys Nowthese things considered no marvel that most Men on Dying Beds are under such perplexity and horror of Mind which doth occasion thousands to make Solemn promises to the Lord to amend and redeem their times if he pleases to continue their Lives for a very little season longer which very few do perform for those grafted evil Methods do quickly get head and there the evil Powers become strong and potent which doth verify that Proverb That which is bred in the Bone will never out of the Flesh Few or none ever consider that those Childish Evils or Venoms most suck in their Childhood and Youth do naturally improve in riper years even to old-Age as all Trades Sciences and other Learning do so that most or all Man's days are worse than trifled away The truth of this appears by the general Conversation of Mankind go amongst a hundred sorts of People of all Pretences and Religions and observe their Converse and Discourse their Nature and Tendency and upon the whole a Man shall not hear one word among many that is edifying useful and proper or that tends to the benefit of Mankind neither in the observation of that which makes them Men and is the support of the Body Soul and Spirit or the knowledge of God first in our selves and then in all other Creatures or how Mankind may render himself capable of discharging that great duty to his Maker viz. to govern himself and all the undergraduated Creatures in Good-will Love and Harmony which is the true method of doing unto all Gods Creatures as a Man would be done unto no no not a word of any such necessary Truths but most or all frothy vain and fantastick Now if Mankind spends all his Childhood in sucking in and learning Vanity and their strength of years in the practice of those Evils and Intemperances which often cuts Man off betimes when these things are considered it is then no marvel that the Dying or Sick Bed becomes so uneasy there being hardly any sort of People in the World that their Disciples do Dye with that great trouble or pain of the Mind and Body as the Christians more especially that part called the Reformed which comes to pass for the reasons before mentioned The Eastern People in General Live and Dye peaceably and easy more especially the People called Bannians who perhaps are some of the strictest Observers of Gods Law viz. doing unto those of their own kind and to all inferior Animals and Creatures as they would be done unto having a severe and particular regard to maintain Unity and Humanity that they may in the Resurrection or next World when New Bodies shall be given them arise in Humane Forms and Shapes for it is their undoubted Faith that if Man lives in Gods Law and leads an innocent harmless Life shewing Mercy Love and Compassion to all the sensible Creation that then they shall not only obtain an Angelical form of Body but have an Eternal Blessed Unity to live with God and his Holy Angels in the spangled Regions of Eternity But on the contrary those that live in the practice of Violence Oppression and Killing whose Minds Spirits and Souls are precipitated into those furious fierce Principles they shall be Cloathed in Eternity with suitable Bodies for without the Unity or Holy City of Innocency are Dogs Bears Lyons and the like Beasts of Prey saith St. Iohn in the Revelations there being nothing more true and certain he that breaks the Unity both in himself and in all other Creatures doth immediately divide himself from God and breaks forth into Discord Perplexity and Trouble let his Religion Custom and Laws of his Countrey be what it will And on the other side that Person that keeps the Unity in himself unviolated by living in innocent harmless methods has Peace both in his Living and Dying It is a Proverb amongst the Eastern Philosophers and Bannians that nothing makes the Life of Man pleasurable and the Dying-bed easy but an innocent Life and to imitate God who is the Creator of all Beings and the Preserver of all his Works This they say is the true Worship of God and joins them to the Fountain of Benignity Innocency hurts nothing nor nothing that those Eastern Sages or Philosophers have great Veneration for Silence is one of the most necessary and useful Vertues because most Men know but very little and therefore they ought to talk or discourse in proportion to their Understanding for this cause where there is much talk there is a like proportion of Ignorance and Folly uttered as the Wiseman saith A Fool is known by his much talking Therefore Pythagoras and many other Eastern Philosophers taught their Disciples and Scholars Silence as the first and principlest Precepts which the People of those Countreys do observe to this day time and practice hath made it easy and natural to them so that amongst them when several Ages are together viz. Children Young Men and Women middle Age and Old Age there is not any noise as talking altogether but all stand silent and sedate each Age speaking in their turn according to their Degrees which doth not
Operation altogether contrary to the former and of but little Use and Virtue except in some particular Medicines But when any such Drinks are weak and the sweet Quality has but a small share or government in them they aâ—…ter they have attained to the highest Degree and Ripeness for drinking which they do in a shorter time than those Liquors wherein the sweet Quality is strong very frequently fall into a Flatness which is called dead Beer whereas where this great sweet Quality is prevalent the original Salts are in proportion and consequently the principle of Heat and Fire is powerful which appears as soon as the Bodies of such Fruits are opened or put into Motion by the Art of Fermentation But to confine my self as nigh as may be to the two main Things I mean Sugar and Brandies intended by this Letter give me leave to tell you Sir all sorts of Sugar are so highly graduated both by Nature and Art that the same is become the greatest Preserver and the best Cordial in the World there being nothing found that will so long preserve Crude or raw Fruits Herbs Liquors and many other things as Sugar more especially the first and second sort Sal Nitre or common Salt coming short thereof so that it seems to have obtained the Ascendenâ—… over all other things in the Vegetable Kingdom And as to its Sweetness or Operations in many sorts of Foods it is endued with many charming Properties whereby it mollifies and as it were unites all the unequal Motions and predominate Powers of the other three-domineering Qualities I mean the Asâ—…ringent or Saltish Bitter and Sour and melts them down unto a degree of Equality so that by the help hereof many Crude raw Fruits and others otherwise in a manner useless become beneficial of which there are made many brave wholsom exhileratings Foods and Liquors too tho' by the by I am to observe that such Foods wherein Sugar is mixed or compounded ought not to be frequently eaten more especially not by Children or young People since it never fails to operate and act like it self I mean to heat and warm the Blood generating many powerful brisk Sprits that for the most part prove of no small prejudice to them whereas on the contrary to most that are of advanced years the proper Mixture of Sugar in some part of their Food especially spoon Meat mightily inspires them with a chearing warming Quality giving as it were a youthful Life and Vigour to aged drooping Natures and heavy dull Spirits and are to be preferred before all spirituous Cordials and strong Drinks whatever which most aged People affect and which seldom fails to pinch and heat the Ureters to obstruct the Passages as also the free Circulation of the Blood by drying up and consuming the thin moist Vapours and dewy Qualities which old Age generally wants in a great proportion the Preservation and Support of which depends most upon spoon Meats which sweetned as already â—…entioned 〈◊〉 more suitable and homogeneal than any of those Liquors taken for that purpose And as Sugar used in Meats and Preserves is thus so very excellent the Spirits or Brandies made thereof are no 〈◊〉 so and must have the first place allowed it of all others in a manner upon all accounts tho' I must say all Brandies are useful and have as it were a kind of Operation which is an hot fiery warming restoring reviving and penetrating the whole Body with its powerful and rapid Motion which is the innate and unnatural Disposition thereof These Liquors being as it were spiritual Powers by Art divested from their natural Cloathing or crude phlegmy Bodies and therefore at the very first intermission of them into the Body penetrate to the very Center of all the Principles and Powers of Nature and joining and incorporating with the original Fire and natural Spirits makes the Person the same moment he drinks to feel a brisk lively Fire to kindle which upon some occasions proves of great Benefit as in fainting Fits Swoundding over Dulness of the natural Spirits also after hard Labour and so forth and here give me leave to note that those Brandies that are thin and less Cordial such as are distill'd from thin small Wines and old clean Cyder are more penetrating and digesting as proceeding from a meaner thinner and weaker Original and therefore their Operations are good and may be taken on Foulness and Surfeits to as good purpose as that made of Sugar but the Sugar or Treacle Brandy is more Substantial fuller and more Cordial and therefore the drinking thereof does not so soon wound and decay the Drinkers of it nor cause them to dwindle into Consumptions as the drinking of French Brandy does and this has been observed ever since both sorts have been become a common Drink for Enterment especially in the Sugar Islands and other Parts of the West Indies That when any one took to the drinking of French Brandy his Friends and Acquaintance condemned him to a short Life of Course whereas if any took to the drinking of that made of the Spirit of Molosses or Juices of Sugar-Cane they would cry he would hold out For tho' the common drinking of one or the other be a sin against God yet 't is certain the sipping of that made of Sugar does not so soon wound and destroy the radical Moisture and Digestion of the Stomach as the other does which comes from France whose thin hungry Leanness is manifested by putting a raw Piece of Flesh into it and another the like Piece into Sugar-Brandy where you will find the former as it were eaten to pieces and destroyed much sooner than that in the latter than which nothing can better set out the Eagerness Thinness and Acidity thereof For by how much the more eager thin and hungry any Liquor is the less Cordal Sweetness its Body possessed with the more it seeks after Matter breathing as it were violently with open Mouth to devour all Substances that come within its Circle or Province And further to illustrate this with an Example if you put Eggs or any other the like thing into Ale Beer Cyder Wine or Vinegar you will find that put into Ale to have the first place of keeping that of the Beer if mild next and so on so that that which is sharpest you see devours or eats up the thing first whereas the mildest fullest and most Corpial Body or that wherein the four Qualities are most equal will preserve the thing so put into it longest because all its parts are more equal But Sugar Treacle or Molosses are not useful only in the forementioned ways but also upon many other Accounts too long to be inserted And I hope Sir you are satisfyed by this time of their Natures Distinctions and different Operations and the preferrence due to Sugar both to Foods Drinks and otherwise whereunto Molosses cannot pretend to arrive For having passed thro' the several Fluxes and Operations of the Refiners and