also of Beasts and Herbs and to what Virtues Vices and Diseases each of them are most subject and what food is most agreeable to Persons of every Constitution page 1. Of the Bitter Quality p. 3. Of the Sweet Quality p. 6. Of the Sour Quality p. 7. Of the Astringent or Saltish Quality p. 8. Of the Cholerick Complexion p. 11. Of the Phlegmatick Complexion p. 15. Of the Sanguine Complexion p. 19. Of the Melancholy Complexion p. 24. Chap. II. Of the excellency of Temperance the Knowledge of a Mans self and the mighty Benefits of Abstinence and Sobriety p. 33. which prepare the Body to be the Temple of the Lord 36 37. Of the Prophet Daniel's refusing the dainties that came from the King's Table p. 38. The Abstemious lives of the Rechabites a reproach to the Israelites Also of Sampson's drinking Wine c. p. 39. The cause of Leprous and Maingy Diseases c. p. 52. The cause of catching Cold p. 54. Of Fevers p. 56. Chap. III. A Discourse of the several sorts of Flesh viz. Of the Nature and Complexion of Oxen and Cows p. 59 60. Of their Flesh p. 63. The excellency of Butter Cheese and Milk-Pottage p. 62. Of Sheep their Complexions and Nature and of their Flesh p. 64. How to know whether the Mutton be perfectly good or not p. 68. Of Lamb. p. 69. Of the Flesh of Calves or Veal p. 71 72. Of the Flesh of Swine and their Nature and Complexion p. 72. Of the Flesh of Fowls p. 75. Chap. IV. The Proper and most Natural way of preparing viz Boyling Roasting Baking Stewing Frying and Broyling of Flesh and other Food from p. 78. to 89. Chap. V. The seasons of the year in which most People are liable to Diseases and Mortality and the Reasons why so many are sick and die more at one time than another Also what Food is best to preserve health at that time shewing also the Seasons of the year in which most sorts of Flesh are unclean and aptest to contract Diseases and what times Men may eat Flesh with least danger to their Health And of the Nature of Summer Fruits how they are good and the contrary from p. 94. to 106. Chap. VI. Of Waters Ale Beer and Tobacco To which is added the consideration of Clothing Houses and Beds and what great benefits arise from Moderation and Temperance in those things p. 106. Of Water in general both internal and external p. 108 109. Of Rain-Water and its Nature p. 110. Of River-Water and the Reasons why Vallies are so fruitful and Hills so barren p. 112. Of Spring or Fountain-Water p. 113. Of Pump or Well-Water p. 114. Of Ponds or standing Waters p. 115. Of Ale and its nature and operation as also of Beer and the most proper and natural way to Brew p. 116 117. How to extract the vertue of Hops p. 122. Of Tobacco its nature and operation p. 124 125. Of Clothing Bedding c. p. 133 134. Of particular Trades as Carpenters Joyners and particularly of Sea-men c. p. 142. The evil effects of the Liquor called Punch p. 144. Chap. VII Of Grains Herbs and Fruits viz. Of Wheat p. 145. Of Barley p. 149. Of Rye p. 150. Of Pease and Beans p. 151. Of Kidney or French Beans p. 153. Of Herbs raw and boyled p. ibid Of Colworts Cabbage and Collyflowers p. 156. Of Turnips p. 158. Of Carrots and Parsnips p. 159. That the Fruits Herbs and Grains which our own Climate produceth are more natural and proper to maintain Strength and preserve Health than those that come from other Countries p. 160. The Nature and Property of Spices Nutmegs Cloves Mace Cinnamon Pepper Ginger c. p. 162. The ill consequence of their being mixed among Childrens Food p. 164. Of Fish p. 168. Chap. VIII The Mischief of Variety of Meats and Drinks and the inconveniences of improper Mixtures and on the other side what Foods are fit to be compounded p. 169. A Digitation of the seven perfect Colours shewing how there being mixed two three or four of them together produce their several Complexions contrary to their own Colours p. 170 c. Of Plum-cakes which are composed of about ten disagreeing Ingredients p. 173. Of Bread-Puddings p. 174. Of Broth or Pottages that are heat a second time p. 175. The Reasons why boyled Water will not keep so well as Water newly taken from the Spring p. 177. Of Syrups p. 178. The fatal consequence sick People are confined to p. 179. Of Mince-Pyes c. p. 180. Several sorts of Food that are proper to be compounded as bearing a simile with each other p. 182. Chap. IX The Reasons in Nature why Cities and great Towns are subject to the Pestilence and other Diseases more than Country Villages The excellency of Solitude and Advantages of a retired country-Country-Life p. 184. That Mens Actions awaken the like Property in the Coelestial Bodies whether they be good or evil Shewing also what Violences they be that cause Wars Famine Pestilential Poysons Botches Byles Veneral Diseases Fevers Plagues Scabs Leprosies Spots in the Flesh Tumults Burning of Towns and Cities c. p. 186 c. The excellency of a retired Country Life p. 190. Chap. X. Of Infection or Catching-Diseases and how they are transferred from one to another p. 193. Chap. XI Of Women their Natures Complexions and Intemperances c. p. 200. The original cause of Vapours or Wind and Agues p. 201. The Evils that attend Wantonness in Women p. 202. The ill consequences of putting Women to hard robustick Labores and Cares p. 205. Particular Directions for Meats and Drinks that are proper and natural for Women p. 206 207. What causes the Scurvy p. 209. The cause of Fevers and Convulsions p. 211. What makes Travail in Child bearing burdensom p. 212. The Inconveniences of Men and Women lying always together p. 215 216. The Evils of hard swathing and binding their Children p. 217. 218. Food proper for Children p. 219. To prevent Convulsions and griping pains in the Stomachs of Children Also of Water-Pap p. 220. Of Melted-Butter p. 221. Of the Quantity of Childrens Food p. 222. Chap. XII The cause of Surfeits and how to prevent them and keep the Body in Health p. 226. The danger of Drinking after superfluous Meals p. 229. Of Suppers and what sort of People may use them without prejudice to their health p. 233 Chap. XIII Of Windy Diseases the Reasons thereof in Nature and why English People especially Women are so much troubled there-with c. p. 237. The Evils of eating and drinking Food too hot p. 238. The Mischief of eating and drinking between Meals p. 241. Of Fatness and what sort of People are subject thereto as also how to prevent Fatness p. 246. Chap. XIV Of FLESH and its operation on the Body and Mind That the common eating thereof does awaken the wrathful Nature in Mankind c. p. 249. Of the Children of Israels eating flesh in the Wilderness p. 251. A
brisk and they do not only afford a greater quantity of Spirits when separated but much stronger and fiercer than any other Vegetables that are of a lean Hungry Nature Therefore People of this Complexion tho' they are strong and brisk yet if they commit Intemperances that are beyond the power of the natural heat to throw off then they are in far greater danger than those that are of a much weaker Nature and Complexion for the Reason before assigned which daily Examples do confirm as when such healthy People fall into Diseases what terrible sharp Fevers do attend most of them which destroy the Life in a few days Therefore the strongest natur'd People ought to be sober and not lay heavier Burthens than Nature can bear for he that hath the healthiest and strongest Constitution may easily oppress it neither is it safe to put too much Confidence in their strength nor to boast of it or commit such out-rages against their own Natures as many young People do in the way of Pride to out-do their Fellows and then glory in it For the strongest Castle will quickly yield by continual Batteries Of the Phlegmatick Complexion Those in whom this Complexion is predominant are not so quick and active either in the doing or apprehending of things as the Cholerick but more slow and of a fofter Nature their central Heats are but weak in comparison of the former and if they incline to inordinate living either in Meats or Drinks or Idleness they are apt to grow Fat and their Bodies swell with gross phlegmatick Humours because their natural heat is but weak and the digestive faculty of the Stomach cannot make so perfect a Concoction as the Cholerick Complexion so that great part of their Food is turned into gross Juices which fret the Body and make it heavy and dull All sorts of strong spirituous Drinks do agree better with this Complexion than with the Cholerick and if they do not exceed in quantity will not so soon precipitate them into Fevers but if they drink much it will swell their Bodies and Members to a wonderful bigness as we see some both Men and Women are which great drinking doth destroy the edge of the Appetite and increases their desire to drink for their natural Heats and Stomachs are not able to make any profitable Concoction nor separation of such quantities of Drink as they swallow down whence are generated abundance of raw Humors that do not only swell the Body as aforesaid but load the Joynts with windy and watry Diseases and also obstruct the passage of the Breast for all fat People have narrower passages than those that are lean and spare and fetch their Breath with more difficulty because the Vessels of the Stomach and Breast are contracted thro' the drinking of too much strong Drink and eating too little Food and what they do eat too rich in Quality Yet is it very easie for this Complexion and all others to prevent Fatness and heavy Dropsical Humors which many of this sort of People are subject to if Order and Temperance be but observed with regard to both quality and quantity of Meats and Drinks with proper exercise especially in the open Air and walking by River-sides and running Waters which do wonderfully open the Passages and beget and sharpen Appetite and cause good Digestion For tho' one Complexion is more apt to grow Fat than others yet Experience teaches that it is Idleness and Superfluity that is the grand cause thereof look amongst ordinary working-people in Country-Towns and you shall very rarely see any of the Husband-men or Field-workers very Fat though in such places are People of all Complexions but Cities and great Towns are the Nurseries of fat Punchinello's where there is good store of Strong Drink and Wine rich Food with ease and idleness I am not ignorant that fat People have an Apology for themselves viz. That they eat and drink less than many lean Folks This is true but lean spare rawbon'd People have for the most part great Heats which do digest and throw off all superfluous matter their Appetites are sharp and piercing also they are generally of active Spirits given to Labour and Action which destroys all matter for Fatness But most that are inclinable to the Phlegmatick Complexion are of contrary and colder Nature as aforesaid their Appetite not so sharp nor digestive faculty so strong and if discretion care and order with proper exercise be not observed great part of their Food and Drinks for want of heat is turned into gross raw Humours which cause an heaviness on the Spirit the Oyl from whence their Light of Life does shine becomes of a watrish Nature therefore such People ought to have understanding in the ordering of their Lives for want whereof many do by various sorts of Intemperances destroy their Healths Also many will take and follow the Paths and Examples of others which they ought not to do for what may be good Food for one may be the contrary for another therefore every one ought to learn the degrees and power of his own Nature For the differences of mens Constitutions are such and their Natures so contrary that 't is impossible to give any particular rule to fit every ones Conveniency so that there isa necessity for every one to see with his own Eyes and in this respect the Proverb is punctual truth Every man to himself is either a Fool or a Physician A man may speak somewhat that may be useful in a general way and helpful to many if minded but the power of doing is in a man's self and if one do but in any tolerable degree know his own composition and the power of his own nature he may very easily help himself for man's Will is free and if he be well informed and his Faith his own and he do not make the ways of the Multitude to be his Rule and their Faith his as many do then he may and hath power by wisdom to alter his Complexion for the better One of the chief causes why so many run themselves into Error and Diseases and Death it self is because they never look into themselves nor observe the operations of their own Nature but look what others do that do they and take the advice of every fool especially if he be a learned Fool without any examination whether it be proper or not Meats and Drinks good for this Complexion are all sorts of drying warming things as Bread eaten with Oyl let Butter be eaten sparingly Cheese is good not new but old also all Gruels and Pottage that are made with quick Fires and not too much boyled but thin brisk and lively for such things are easie to be concocted and quick on the Stomach likewise all spicy Herbs both boyled and raw in their Seasons that is betimes in the Spring and again after Michaelmas viz. in October and November but Flesh they ought to eat sparingly especially from Iune to the last of
Fruits Grains or Seeds would answer the ravenous Appetite thereof and therefore it required Blood which is the highest Life in the humane Nature and cannot be procured but by Violence and has the nearest Affinity to the Wrath of any thing in the whole Creation whence it is said Blood requires Blood And this may be illustrated in every particular Man when he does suffer the fierce Wrath and Fire to burn in him he becomes like a raging Bedlam nothing can calm or satisfie him except he doth some Mischief kill and oppress for in such a Fit Blood and Revenge is sweet unto him and assoon as he has glutted himself with Blood that wrathful Property is satisfied And as it is thus in the little World the same is to be understood by way of Analogy in the great For this cause the Lord declared That whoever did kill a Man his Blood he would require at his Hands The Reason and Equity of which Law comprehends all Creatures and therefore it is said That Beast that shall shed Blood or kill any other Beast should be slain So that 't is without doubt the original cause of killing of Beasts and offering them in Sacrifice was to see whether it would have satisfied that fierce poysonous Wrath which Man had so terribly awakened by his Violence and corrupting the whole whence the Deluge proceeded But after the Flood which had so swept away all Mankind except eight Persons to prevent the like dreadful Judgment for the future Sacrifices and the Blood of Beasts was used to assuage the Wrath and to make atonement for the Sins of Men because the Blood of Beasts has both the nearest affinity to the original Properties of Man's Life and also to the awakened Wrath as well within as without him for Men cannot kindle the Wrath within themselves but they must do it without them also But â—â—ill the Scripture saith That the Blood of Bulls and the like would not satisfie the Justice and awakened Wrath of God nor make a perfect Atonement for the Sins of Mankind and therefore besides their daily Sacrifices the High Priest was once every Year to go into the second Tabernacle but not without Blood which he offered for himself and for the People Also it is said that the way into the Holiest Tabernacle of all was not made manifest whilst the first Tabernacle was yet standing whence it appears that all the Sacrifices and other Circumstances of Worship in the time of the Law did proceed from the Wrath especially Sacrifices and Killing which cannot flow from the divine Principle for that holy Principle of Love and Light was not manifest whilst the first Tabernacle did stand that is so long as the first Principle of God's fierce Wrath did predominate But all Sacrifices Violences and Killing do cease in all those whom the Lord doth appear to in the power of his Son Jesus Christ but so long as Men are captivated in the first Tabernacle of Wrath the Holiest of all is not manifest that is the holy and good Love of God in his Son is not known or manifested in them and therefore it is said Sacrifices and Offerings for sin thou didst refuse that is the divine Principle had no pleasure in Violence in the Blood of Beasts and Groanings of the Creation but then steps in the Holy Principle of Love and saith Lo I come to do thy Will O God! That is to destroy the Works of the Devil and establish everlasting Righteousness and he taketh away the first that is the kindled Wrath Violence and Oppression and establisheth the second that is his eternal Light and Love in Jesus Christ in whom alone he is well pleased which brings glad Tidings unto all Mankind and to the whole Creation especially if Men become the Sâ—â—s of God for then all the inferiour Creatures would be delivered into glorious Liberty It does appear by what the Apostle saith That all Sacrifices Killing and Blood of Beasts could not sufficiently appease God's Wrath nor reconcile Man unto God otherwise than as if one Man kill another the Blood of him that is slain doth call for Vengeance on the Slayer but all this while the Principle of God's fierce Wrath is by their violence and oppression increased and strengthened even so it was in all Sacrifices Men by their Violences had corrupted the Earth and awakened God's Wrath which called for Vengeance even as the Blood of a particular Man doth on a Beast for all kind of Violence be it either little or much doth call for vengeance and retaliation if not confessed repented of and by the power of the divine Love of God forsaken which holy Principle of God's eternal Love and Light in his Son was not manifest unto them as the Apostle saith because the first Tabernacle or Principle of God's Wrath had through their Cruelties and Evils gotten the Ascendent over them so that the divine Principle could not have its operation in them so long as they continued in their sins committing those Violences and Oppressions for the first Tabernacle or Wrath in Man must be done away before the second can take place that is before the holy Light of the Son of God can reign and rule in our hearts for nothing can allay overcome or make the stern fierce Wrath of the Father to bow or satiate its fiery hunger in Mankind but only the eternal Fountain of his meek Love in Christ from whom as the Scripture saith there does flow Rivers of living Waters which alone can allay the fiery Wrath and reconcile Men to the God of Peace and bring to nought the lofty proud violent Desires and vain Thoughts and Inclinations in Man and by its operation gives them an Eye of discerning to distinguish of God's Love and Anger in himself and makes the fierce harsh Fire of Wrath to burn more gentle so that instead of its raging Fierceness it becomes a meek and cherishing Fire which is the pleasant motion in every Life that tunes a Man up to an intellectual Harmony causing all the Properties and Qualities to kiss and incorporate with each other whence arises a most pleasant Crasis or Euphony of Temper Thoughts and Operations A Similitude whereof we have in a Musical Instrument that is skilfully tuned and plaid upon where there are various Strings and Notes whence proceed different Sounds but all conspiring to make up most ravishing and delightful Harmony the dull melancholy harsh jarring Notes of Saturn and Mars being made pleasant by the incorporating of the melodious Sounds of Venus Iupiter the Sun and Mercury Do not the Foundations of all Harmony both in Men and all other things arise from the Basis viz. from the first Principle or Tabernacle for if there were no Fire there would be no Light so if there were no Basis there could be no Trebbles or if there were yet there could be no Harmony if one were without the other What Harmony do Men make to themselves or others when
he knows that Hay so dried and made would starve his Cattel and that that proves the best Hay which is made when the Sun shines clear and in a fresh gale of Wind For'tis the pure thin Spirituous Vapours of the Air that penetrate all Bodies and keep the Spirits of each thing living in all Preparations A Man would think it almost impossible for those that make it their whole business to prepare Medicines to be so sottishly Ignorant of the Nature of things and the Knowledg of themselves What a clutter do they keep with their vast Volumes of Pharmacy and musty old Rules And yet when all is done one may modestly avow that an ordinary Husband-man has abundantly more understanding in the proper and natural way of preparing the Food for his Cattel than these Worshipful Rabbies have either in the Preparations of their own or Patients Food or Physick and the Common People seeing what these Men of reputed Learning do follow them like Apes never questioning whether it be good or bad so verifying the Proverb where The Blind leads the Blind c. Tell me I pray what Virtue or true Life hath Carduus Wormwood Centaury Winter-Cherries and many other sorts of Physical Herbs when dried in the Saturnine Shades and then exposed to the dull thick Airs of Shops Cellars Garrets and Herb-womens Stalls and other close sulpherous Places more fit for the Generation of Vermin and Insects than any thing else 'T is confessed a Man may use some of the before-mentioned Martial Herbs as coursly as he will nevertheless they will retain the strong fulsom bitter Taste and Qualities of Mars and Saturn because it is the Original and very Center of their Life and therefore cannot be destroyed except such Herbs be annihilated but the pure Essential Virtues and Balsamick Body are wholly destroyed Therefore Medicines made of any Herbs prepared as most Physitians and Apothecaries do are loathsome to Nature and the Stomach and they have no power to assist Nature or cure those Diseases which the wise Anclents have appropriated them unto Now if Physicians and Apothecaries do not understand these things that are so plain and evident to every Shepherd and Husband-man they may well be suspected in their Compositions for if the first Preparation be wrong and the true and living Virtues destroyed let the wisest of them all use what Art they will they can never obtain the lost Virtue nor make a good Medicine thereof indeed such Herbs and Things may serve their turn to make up their confused Compositions which do consist of as many Ingredients as there are Weeks in the Year most of which are of as disagreeing Natures as Light to Darkness or Summer to Winter for this cause most of their Medicines prove ineffectual for the Physical Virtues of most of the Simples are destroyed for want of Care and Understanding either whilst they remain intire or else by such an undue Composition where things of quite different Natures confound each other For if two things of contrary Natures he added together they make a degree of Variation and produce a Juice or Virtue of a third Nature but then if you add a third Ingredient whose predominant Quality is contrary both to the first and second then such a Composition or Medicine does make three degrees of variation and produceth a Juice or Vertue of a contrary Nature and Operation to both the first and second Ingredients which I have particularly demonstrated from the Arts of Dying and Painting in the Chapter Of mixtures of Food so that when ten or twenty several things are added together they make such a Confusion and as it were strife in Nature that such Physick or Food has not the true Nature nor Operation of any one of them and being unnatural the Stomach and whole Nature of Man doth loath them for in such Mixtures things not Homogenial or agreeable to each other being jumbled together there thence ariseth an inward and secret strife for Mastery and so that Quality becomes strong which before their incorporating was weak and so contra making that Property appear which lay hid and hides that which before was most manifest so great is the power of the Sympathy and Antipathy of things For this Cause the Ancients did forbid those Varieties of Mixtures both in Food and Physick for they saw from an inward eye of understanding the great danger of compounded Dishes or Medicines and that the common use of them did generate compounded Diseases which no Medicine hath Power or any Physician Skill to Cure Therefore the generality of Men in former Ages and also those in this who live on simple Meats and Drinks and observe the Rules of Sobriety are free from those torturing Diseases that the Superfluous and Intemperate are subject unto such as use due Labour and Exercises and live on Bread Butter and ordinary Cheese Milk-Pottage Gruels and the like and drink small Beer and observe the Rules of Chastity and lie on hard Beds few of this sort of People are troubled with the Gout Dropsy Stone Palsy Consumption windy Diseases or the like nothing being a greater Evil to Nature than those improper and unnatural Mixtures both of Food and Physick the first being the very Radix of Diseases and the second does increase and prolong them Physicians may pretend and boast as much as they will of the Excellency of their Dispensatory-Ware 't is certain that such Diseases as are generated by degrees by the frequent use and eating of compounded Foods which generally consist of disagreeing Ingredients as aforesaid and made meerly to prolong the pleasure of the Throat are not to be routed by all their Regiments of Compounded Recompounded Decompounded and Surrecompounded Medicines as daily Experience shews Therefore let no Man have Faith or repose Confidence in such adulterated confused Nauseities but fear the Lord and learn to know the Power of Temperance before it be too late for when once Diseases have invaded the Body and wasted the Spirits then 't is a difficult matter to root out such Disorders either by Temperance or Medicine but still the first has the greater Power to give Relief there being far greater Danger in rich compounded Foods and Cordial Drinks and compounded Potions of Physick than most imagine or can be sensible of except they separate and enter into Self-denial and observe both Quality and Quantity of Meats and Drinks and then their Eyes will be opened and see the Errors of those things which formerly they practiced It is not for nothing that Mankind is so miserably afflicted with such a number of Torturing Diseases nor is it through any Natural Defect as some vainly suppose for Mankind in his Radix is the most compleat soundest and healthiest of all Creatures endued with the greatest and strongest natural Spirits and had he not depraved himself by Disorders and Superfluities would have exceeded all other Animals as to health Do we ever read of any of the Prophets or
For of all sorts of Food People ought to have the greatest care of FLESH not only in the well ordering it before it be killed but also in seasoning of it with Salt and in the preparing or dressing Flesh being more unclean in its own Nature than either Herbs Fruits or Grains which I suppose most People will confess and that they are far more agreeable and friendly to Nature and not so dangerous to Health nay give me leave to add that they are also more pleasant for its chiefly the continual custom of eating Flesh and the conceit of the great Nourishment it contains beyond other things that makes men so much desire it which Opinion is false most sorts of Flesh indeed are endued with much matter but great part thereof is of a gross Phlegmy nature which quickly will cause the whole to fall into Putrifaction if the strong sharp fierce power of the Salt be wanting And when it is salted the matter for Putrifaction is so great that the Salt cannot continue it long sweet but so soon as the pure Radical Spirits in the Flesh through time are either evaporated or suffocated then the Salt hath no longer power to preserve it from Corruption A man may as well say that green Corn or Grass breeds better nourishment in Cattle than either Hay or dry Corn for indeed it generateth and fills the body fuller of gross Phlegmatick matter and makes such Cattle heavy and dull and great Bellies apt to faintyness and Diseases but Hay and dry Corn generate a firmer Flesh and more brisker spirits makes them drink well appear with moderate Bellies but clean strong Limbs able to endure hard Labour without prejudice to their Health The very same is to be understood of Flesh if compar'd with Fruits Herbs and Grains and Food made of them which do as far transcend Flesh in virtue and good sound clean Nourishment and to preserve Health and Strength as Hay and dry Corn do exceed either green Corn or Grass in the preservation of Strength and Health in working Cattle All sorts of Food either for Man or Beast from which the Sun and Elements have exhaled or dryed away the gross phlegmatick Body are not only cleanner but fuller of Spirit and Life not subject to Corruptions but breed a firmer Nourishment as all Husband-men and Shep-herds will tell you Therefore Bread Butter Cheese and all sorts of Food made of Flour and dried Fruits are strong healthy Diet. Of the Melancholy Complexion People of this Complexion that have their Significator in their Radix weak are slow and of dull heavy Dispositions subject to be surprized with fear and suspicions apt to be froward full of mental Reserves seldom forgetting Injuries hollow hearted giving fair Words when their Thoughts are quite contrary addicted to Witchcraft or fore-speaking of things which sometimes do take place when they have low poor Spirits to deal with whose predominant Quality in Nature is weaker and under the Dominion of their Spirits otherwise not For the awaken'd Evil and dark Wrath in this sort of People viz. their vehement wishes or evilwords do carry the power of that Principle whence they were conceived and enter the same Principle in those to whom they are directed And if those wrathful Spirits be not either through the strength of the predominant Quality in the Complexion or through the power and virtue of the Holy Spirit and Faith in God withstood and overcome which often is done then these Evil Rapes viz. such Wishes and Words will take place whether it be in Man or Beast for this evil revengeful dark Spirit not being so withstood enters into the dark Centre and Poysons in the Body and by simile incorporates there-with awakening and strengthening them and then the Body and all the Senses fall into Distress and most terrible Diseases according to what Poysons and Salts were kindled This is called Witchcraft and indeed is one sort of it there is another which is not fit for this place and this sort of People are called Unlucky-Tongued But on the contrary if those People of the Melancholy Complexion be well dignified in their Radixes then the fore-mentioned evil significations are abated nevertheless they are ponderous and slow in learning and conceiving of any thing but when once obtain'd they make it their own and improve it they are capable of great Learning but they must have Time for this cause all You ths born under such Constellations are very dull in the beginning of their Studies but if continued under good Masters will in time exceed either Mercurial or Venerial Boys for they have greater and stronger Spirits both to retain whatever they learn and to endure more Pains and Labour to obtain any Science besides they are not so apt to run out of one thing into another being more fixt in the Root of their Natures They are generally slow of Speech and Action naturally pensive and covetous by reason that the Sanguine Nature which proceeds from Venus Sol and Mercury is in this Complexion as it were hid or lockt up under the harsh Forms of Saturn and Mars under whom such as are born are apt to be Hard-hearted full of Revenge Covetous c. not but that they are endued with the Sanguine Nature as well as those born under Venus Mercury or the Sun but the same is Captivated as aforesaid under the harsh Forms which is the chief cause People do so much differ in their Tempers But if you can unlock this Saturnine Cabinet and set the Spirit at Liberty as the Maulster does in his Saturnine Grain viz. Barley enfranchizing the pure Balsamick Spirits that sweeten the whole Body you will find it debonair and jovial and of a very agreeable Conversation The Truth is Strong Beer Ale Wine or any spirituous Drinks freely taken will melt down this sullen Saturnine Gravity into Mirth and Gaity for we daily see how free and merry such People will be if at any time they have tipled a little extraordinarily during the time of the Operation of their Liquor For strong Drinks make all sorts of People more free and to forget sorrow because they open the gross Body and cause the Spirits to have their free Operation the said Drinks being Spirituous incorporate with its simile viz. with the spirit and makes it for the present more powerful but when the Operation of such spirituous Liquors are over then both the Saturnine and other People return to their Natural Dispositions but with fewer Spirits which causeth a dull heaviness to attend most after such Drinkings because the Internal heat and spirits are too violently awakened and stirred up which caused them to evaporate and thence proceed Indispositions and Disorder Great Drinkings are injurious to the Health of most that use that Trade only this Saturnine People may sometimes drink a Cherping Glass or two without any danger to their Health especially when they come to forty years of Age for before all sorts of strong
Drink ought to be drank sparingly by such as regard their Health It is also to be noted that not only strong Drinks but all other things have an Operation on the Spirits and Bodies of Men whether Meats Drinks Air Exercise or Communication were it not so Man could not be altered within for better or worse But what a sensible change do we find in our selves many times between a dull heavy Day and a brisk clear Sun-shiny Morning Every thing be it what it will has a power of influencing and varying us which the Apostle seems to take notice of when he saith Evil Communication corrupts good manners and the Psalmist where he affirms With the Froward thou shalt learn Frowardness The Original of all good or evil Tempers and natural Inclinations are according to the Nature of that form and property that did predominate at the Conception and Birth and are made either better or worse according to the good or ill Custom of the Place and People they communicate with or the Imployments they are put to and the Meats Drinks Exercises and Air they are used to Take two Youths one of the Sanguine Complexion the other of the Cholerick put the first to a Butcher Car-man Waterman or any such robustick Trade the second to a Shop-keeper Merchant or some such neat Profession and in a little time the Sanguine Lad will become more Cholorick and the Cholerick more Sanguine But note there is a two-fold possibility of altering and changing either for the better or the worse First Natural as the free Will shall consent to either Evil or Good one being as near to man as the other who being a compleat Image or Epitome of all things their true Natures being contained in him therefore he is both capable and liable to be influenced and wrought upon by every thing it meddles or communicates with as is seen in Soldiers most of them when raw and at tâ— first Fight are timerous and very apprehensive o 〈…〉 ger but after they are once flesht in Blood and Slaughter they become unconcerned and remorsless and can kill men with as little trouble or regret of Mind as a Butcher does Sheep and Oxen without having any particular Quarrel or Enmity but even in cold Blood so great is the Power of Imployment For as Fighting and Killing of men is the work of the fierce Wrath of God in men and so soon as you consent with your Will to enter upon this wrathful Imployment the center of the dark strong Wrath is awakened and by a little custom and use it becomes ten-fold stronger than at first then all doing as one would be done unto and Tenderness and Compassion are laid aside as if never any such Notion or Principle had been planted in Man The very same happens in other Imployments that Quality which therein predominates awakens and strengthens its Simile for which reason in former Ages some that have written Romances and Love-stories in a passionate and pleasing Style and lively Representation have been banisht for their labour their Works proving of very evil and fatal Consequence to Young and Amorous Minds for all Books be they what they will do bear the Image and Figure of the Spirit of him that wrote them and so much the more as the Imagination of the Author is more strong which in this sort of Writers and Poets c. use to exceed and if such Books be read with attention and inclination then they awaken and strengthen such a like Propensity in the Reader as was in the Writer be it either good or evil Therefore the perusal of all Play-Books Romances and Love-stories have and do prove very injurious to such as mis-spend their time therein it is like playing with Edge-Tools at first they are innocent and think no harm that look into them but after a while if it take with their Affections the case is altered they make a real change in the whole Bodâ—â— â—nd Mind the Thoughts are all taken up with tho◠〈…〉 itching Idea's and thay prove leading Cards to many real Evils and Temptations The Son must needs fall in Love with and Marry the Chamber-maid and the young Lady run away with the Coach-man or the more impertinent Chaplain only to act over some of those fine Intrigues which they admired with such delight in Sidney's Arcadia or the grand Cyrus 'T is sottish Ignorance that makes some say What hurt can these external things or Food Communication c. do unto us For they never consider that every thing has power to open its own Principle the understanding of which ground was the Original cause of Moses's Law of Cleanness and Separation and the occasion of the Abstinence of all the wise Men in former Ages from this or the other sort of Food Drinks Habits and Communications for they saw the inward Power and Sympathetick Drawings of every thing and therefore wise Pythagoras the better to draw the wild barbarous Nations to the practice of this profound Philosophy insinuated into them the belief of a Transmigration or shifting of the Souls of Men when they dyed into other Creatures as Cows Horses or the like with which Opinion being once possest they would neither oppress nor kill any sort of Beasts or living Creatures for then they believed they should do Violence to their departed Friends viz. Fathers Mothers Children c. Through which Conceit and Custom they were not only much brought off from their former Cruelty and Barbarity but betook themselves to the more wholsom eating of Fruits Herbs and Grains so that this wild savage People became Merciful and full of Humanity And some of this sort of People do continue this Custom and Law unviolated to this day in some parts of the East-Indies 2dly The Grace holy Light and Love of God of which the Lord hath given a measure or portion to every individual Person as St. John saith The Word of God which made all things and without it nothing was made this same Word is the LIGHT OF MEN and doth enlighten every man that cometh into the World This pure Spirit of Life hath power to tincture and change all evil Inclinations and harsh Tempers which do arise from the malignant Configurations of the predominant Constellations and Complexions if man gives up his Will and is guided by its Counsel This holy Light and Word is the Essential Life and Living Power of all things the Eye of the Mind by which man is able to distinguish the Good from the Evil in himself and also in all other things according to the measure he hath thereof and the knowledg he hath of himself It is also the true Balsamick Virtue from whence all Friendlyness doth proceed not only in Man but in all other things according to their respective Degrees and Natures is likewise the Moderator and Qualifier of the fierce fiery harsh Brimstone Spirit and in what Complexion soever this pure Life and Power does predominate that Person by
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
most of them of an opening and cleansinn Nature for they gently cleanse and purge the Passages and Bowels But all these Summer Fruits are best and safest Prepared being mixt with things of a drying and warming Quality or rather made into Drinks and when such Juices have passed through Fermentation the Phlegmy Body is digested and the spirituous Parts set at Liberty which do tincture the gross Body so that the Spirit and true Life is made thereby Predominant over the body of Phlegm such Drinks being drunk moderately prove very friendly to Nature especially to such as are Aged People which do most need spirituous Drinks Green Food is not capable either in Man or Beasts to generate so good Nourishment nor so firm as dry neither are the Spirits so brisk and lively the gross Juices of such Food do as it were suffocate the pure Spirits and turn the Balsamick Body sower as it farther appears by all sorts of Animals that live on green Food in this season are they not apt to faint and to be subject to many Diseases their Flesh and Fat being soft and greasy but those that live on dry Food their Bodies are freer from gross Phlegmatick matter their Fat and Flesh is of a firmer substance and their Spirits stronger and livelier and more capable they are to endure Labour without Prejudice to their Health it is also manifested by all Grains Seeds and other Fruits that are cut or gathered before the Sun and Elements have dryed away or exhaled the gross Phlegmy moisture all such things will presently Putrifie and Stink being loaded with so great store of Humidity but if they be gathered the Sun and Elements having dryed away the Humid Parts then all such things will keep sound and good for several Years for this cause all sorts of Food in which Phlegm does abound are very dangerous in this season if Temperance be wanting as our daily experience teaches 5thly In this Season the Sun also declines in strength and vigour which being the central Power and Life of all things they likewise do proportionably decline as appears in Herbage as for Example If you cut Grass in September which is then the Food of most sorts of Cattel the Hay made thereof is of a weak fading Nature and Vertue in comparison of that Hay which was made in Iune or Iuly which is of a lively brik strong substance and vertue for the Earth which is the Mother of all things in this Season is weak and impotent because she hath already put forth her strength and manifested her lively Vertues in the first spring or rising of the Sun for the Winter is the Rest and Sabbath of the Earth in which time she recovers strength-and vertue because she does then as it were cease from all her Labours and the Vegetative Quality stands as it were still and the more Frost and Snow and the drier the Winter is the more strength and vigour the Earth obtains such dry Weather cloaseth up the Pores by which the strength and vertue is prevented from having any Evacuations which is manifested by the goodness and great Increase of all Herbs Fruits and Grains being all filled with a Powerful Lively brisk Spirit and Vertue therefore in the first spring and rising of the Sun every thing rejoyceth and becomes very fragrant by vertue of the sweet Influences of this Coelestial Body and the Power of the Earth so that at this time all things seem to strive with a most lively motion to manifest their most inward Vertues this is the time for People to eat Herbs both Boyl'd and Raw Sallets and Pottages made thereof such Food at the Rising of the Sun are endued with a brisk lively Vertue and Strength and of an opening and cleansing Nature Purging the Blood and are good against all kind of Obstructions Also all sorts of Diseases are by vertue of Sobriety and Temperance and the use of good Medicines then easier cured than at any other of the Year it is also the Briskest and Healthiest Season and the same Intemperances and Disorders which may be the occasion of generating Diseases in the latter part of the Summer in this time will hardly be felt for now all things rejoyce and seem to concur for the Preservation of Nature 6thly In this Season viz. from the middle of Iune to the last of September most sorts of Cattel breed many Diseases First from the continual Heat and gross humid Air which in this season is more sulpherous the Pleasant Influences and Spirits of the Air are dull and thick which causes a dull and fainty Indisposition to possess the Bodies and Spirits of all Creatures Men themselves can witness the Truth of this Moreover all Creatures are more subject to sweat by which the Spirits do evaporate likewise the Food of most Creatures is Grass which is of a gross Phlegmatick Nature and generates not only an unfirm Nourishment but also fills the Body full of evil Juices the Fat and Flesh being of a soft greasy Nature having but few Spirits and those that are very impure the Blood of most Cattel being thick and gross which is the cause their Flesh will not take Salt as at other seasons also about this time most sorts of Cattel especially those that come from remote parts of great Cities are more or less Heated and Surfeited by Driving and other Accidents they being not formerly used to Driving the Weather being Hot and Fainty the Air thick and humid and they being loaded with much gross Flesh and Fat all these things concurring makes their Flesh unwholsom and subject to Corruption especially Sheep and Lambs whose Spirits and Lives are so tender that they cannot endure any kind of violent motion without manifest danger to their Health It is very rare that any Mutton or Lamb is good in this Season they not being free from the aforesaid Accidents you may easily distinguish by the Taste Smell and Colour of that which is killed off the Common without driving and other Accidents and that which is killed in London with driving the Bodies of all Creatures being in this season full of Phlegmy matter that every little Accident will wound the Spirit then presently the Body suffers many Inconveniencies and if such Cattel be kill'd before they have time to recover such Injuries their flesh is of a dull heavy Phlegmatick Nature the Spirits are few and those that are are impure for these reasons it will not take salt nor eat sweet as others will which are free from such Inconveniencies for salt has no Power to Preserve such Flesh from Putrifaction because as is mentioned before the Spirits are impure for those gross Bodies are Preserved by the Vertue and Power of the Spirit and in such flesh where the spirits are few and impure and the Flesh gross and full of Phlegmy matter the salt cannot incorporate therefore in this season use what Art you can in salting your Flesh it will not eat so sweet nor keep
be very profitable First After full Meals and excessive Draughts see that they fast longer than their usual time is this gives great advantage to the natural Heat by which the digestive Faculty of the Stomach does by its secret attractive Power draw unto it self all superfluity and evil Juices that have been bred through Intemperance digesting and throwing off all such matter which might otherwise occasion Diseases for the action and natural heat of the Stomach is never idle but has always its continual motion and secret attraction and Hunger is so powerful that it will draw the very Flesh off the Bones Therefore fasting after immoderate eating and drinking is a sure Remedy to prevent Diseases and Surfeits drinking good store of Water-Gruel made thin and boyl'd quick the following day without any Ingredients in it will cleanse the Stomach and help to carry off the gross matter and evil Juices which do proceed from Repletion If these Rules were observed by those that abound in Meats and Drinks there would not be so many afflicted with the Gout in the Joynts and Pains in the Limbs Swelling and Breaking-out with so many Mangy and Leprous Diseases which are chiefly occasioned through Intemperance and want of Exercises Likewise all Rich compounded Foods which are often of disagreeing Natures do not only destroy the Health but do dull the edge of the Appetite taking away the true Taste and Pleasure which good Stomachs and sharp Appetites enjoy It may be truly said That the Intemperate Person is deprived of all true and natural Pleasure for those that are continually accustomed to rich Compounded Foods and strong Cordial Drinks as Wine c. by the frequent use of them they become rather burdensom than pleasant the same is to be understood of those that live an idle soft Life their whole body is as it were indisposed their Members and Limbs often ake for want of Exercise because they are weak also their Passages are fur'd and stopped so that the Blood becomes thick and gross and the natural Spirits impure such People are on every occasion apt to sweat being also subject to internal Heats which do much disorder the whole Body but the ordinary sort of People who are constrained to live on mean simple Food and small Drink and to labour hard do imagine that the greatest happiness in this World is to live an idle Life and to have their Tables daily furnished with variety of rich Food and strong Drinks few of them considering that the true pleasure of eating and drinking is in having a perfect Appetite and that without Labour no man can be brisk and lively either in Body or Spirit which Superfluity of rich Food strong Drink and Idleness doth destroy because most of such things are unequal in their parts and so beget Inequality also they are endued with too great Vertue whence doth proceed too much Nourishment which is the Foundation of most Diseases for this cause mean and simple Meats and Drinks are not only most greateful to Nature but do best support the Body in perfect Health and Strength far beyond all the richest compounded Flesh Fish and strong Drinks though all such things are and may be very useful now and then being moderately used for â—he necessity of Nature as the Scripture saith all Gods Creatures are good being received with Thanks-giving Most Meats and Drinks in their own Nature are simple and innocent it is generally Compositions that make Meats and Drinks not only too Rich but also Improper CHAP. VI. Of Waters Ale Beer and Tobacco to which is added the consideration of Cloathing Houses and Beds and what great Benefits arise from Moderation and Temperance in those things THE Element of Water is not inferior to any other of the Elements neither is Nature wanting to work wonderfully thereby there is so great a Necessity of Water that without it no Animal can live nor any Herb or Plant bring forth for in it is the Seminary Vertue of all things especially of Animals whose Seed is manifestly Watrish The Seeds also of all Herbs and Plants although they are Earthy must notwithstanding be rooted in moisture before they can be fruitful The great and illuminated Prophet Moses tells us that before the Creation when the Earth was without Form the Spirit of the Lord moved on the Face of the Waters and in another place that the Plants did not grow because God had not caused it to Rain upon the Earth Nay so great is the Efficacy of this cleansing Element that the spiritual Regeneration cannot be performed without it as our Saviour Christ himself testified to Nicomedus and very great have the Vertues of it been in Religious Worship in former Ages among the Prophets and Wise Men in Expiations and Purifications Innumerable are the Benefits and so various the Uses thereof both in the Generation Nourishment and Increase of things that some of the Wise Men have concluded that Water was the beginning of all things and first of all Elements and the most Potent because it hath the mastery over all the rest for it swalloweth up the Earth extinguishes Flames ascends on high and by a most wonderful divine Hand and the stretching forth of the Clouds challengeth the Heavens for its Throne whence falling down in gentle Showers and refreshing Dews as from Natures choicest Limbeck impregnated with Coelestial Vertues it becomes the cause of all things that grow in the Earth Nor is there scarce any part of Nature more full of Wonders than these liquid Regions Iosephus tells us of a River near Sina which runneth with a full Channel all theS abbath-Day and then on a sudden it ceaseth as if the Spring were stopped and all the six days you may pass over it dry-shod but again on the seventh-day no Man knowing the reason of it the Waters return in abundance as before wherefore the Inhabitants therabouts call it the Sabbath-days River The Gospel testifies of a Sheep-Pool into which whosoever stepped first after the Waters were troubled by the Angel was made whole of whatsoever Disease he had Many secret and admirable Vertues the Creator hath endued this Element with as in all Ages hath been manifested for it being pure and clear in its own Nature it is the only and alone thing by which all external things are purified purged and cleansed But if it be adulterated or incorporated with any other Liquor or Juice then it becomes less pure and will not so well perform its Office yet it may make them better and more useful Though it be a vulgar Proverb As weak as Water Yet I must tell you Water is more strong and sublime than most imagine for it contains a most ravishing and excellent Spirituous Balsamick Vertue whence proceeds that pure sweet refreshing Quality whereby it hath Power by its innate Vertue to digest and purifie all sorts of Food Also in all Preparations it is so Innocent and Friendly that it dissipates the gross phlegmy Bodies
and preserves the more essential Parts and Vertues and keeps the Spirituous Parts living It is not only the most plentiful and truly pleasant of all Drinks but it supplies Nature with its friendly Moisture and relieves Thirst beyond all other Liquors or Juices It is so Simple and endued with such Equality that it insinuates its Vertue into all parts of the Body in an insensible way it makes no Noise nor causes any Tumults in the Brain nor awakens any in equality in the Body but imparts its meek Life as it were in silence And as Bread hath the first place of all Food and may justly be called Concord or a thing which God and his Hand made Nature hath befriended with all the united good Vertues both of the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms and therefore no sort of Food is comparable thereunto nor will gratifie Nature to that degree as it ought without the help and mixture of Bread though yet it is not the strongest of all Foods nor hath the greatest Nourishment but it is the most equal in its parts and stands nearest the Unity for which cause it is so much desired and justly esteemed the Staff of Life and we are taught to Pray for all outward Accommodations needful for our Bodies under that significant denomination of Our daily Bread it being besides its own nutritive faculty a proper Ingredient to qualifie the Inequality of most other sorts of Food and is the Foundation to all good Nourishment The like is to be understood of Water that being the Radix of all moist Nourishment which mixt or incorporated with any kind of Juices renders them fit and profitable for Mankind Nay if we may fly our Contemplations to an higher pitch there is a Sympathetical agreement or some Analogy between this External Water and that Internal of which our Saviour Christ told the Woman of Samaria that if she did drink she should never thirst This Internal Super essential Water sustaineth every Being and is the Radix and Life of the outward Water which contains some Shadows of the secret Influences of the Water Internal for which reason the Prophets and good Men of old have frequently compared the one with the other and expressed the one by the other and also have made use of Water in Religious Mysteries as a sign of Cleansing and Purifying the Soul from Sins and for curing Diseases c. as the Scriptures do testifie Thus much I thought fit to say of Water in general to stir up men to praise and admire the Goodness and Wisdom of the All-Creator for the manifold Uses Vertues and Benefits wherewith he hath endued this Element But now let us consider the several sorts of Water Of Rain-Water and its Nature I name this Water first because for several Reasons it is the best of all if not defiled by Accidents as by Tiles of Houses or the Vessels 't is kept in For 1st It is a light pure thin Water 2dly It is drawn up into the Clouds by the power and vertue of the sweet Influences of the Sun Beams 3dly Being carried to and fro with the Clouds by Gods divine power it hath thereby had the greater benefit of Motion 4thly 'T is endued with wonderful Vertue from the Element of Air and the sweet Influences of the Coelestial Bodies whereby it is made more Spirituous than other Waters and of a fat unctious Quality of a light friendly mild Nature and Operation Thus it mollifies the harsh Earth making it light and tender and causes all Plants to multiply and grow far better than any Artificial Watrings can do Rain-Water being among its other Vertues like Afferment or Leaven that makes the hard compacted Earth more spirituous and penetrable giving Life and Motion to all the Vegetable Kingdom 5thly Rain-Water is not only exhaled by the Beams of Heaven from the most clear and subtle Fountains and impregnated with the Coelestial Influences but also is as it were strained with the Airy Motions and Winds which fill it with a Saline and Balsamick Vertue when it descends like the Tears of a repenting Sinner in gentle reviving Showers that give Vertue and Power to all Vegetables and restore the gasping parched Earth and languishing Nature to the briskness of the Spring and joys of Autumn 6thly This is the lightest of all Waters it cools and heats quickly it oppresses not the Stomach or any other part of the Body but passeth suddenly into the Ureters having neither in Colour Smell nor Taste any manifest Quality it bindeth not the Belly as some other Waters do and is the best to be used in all Physical Operations if it be well received and afterwards kept from defilement 7thly It is to be preferred before all other Waters in House-wifery for it Boyls all sorts of Meats better and sooner and makes them easier of Concoction as likewise it Brews and Washes to greater advantage than others Of River Water This is next in Goodness whose Original is Fountain or Spring-Water and yet there is rarely any Spring-Water so good for common and general use at the Fountain-Head as in the River For 1st Rivers or running Waters have great advantages by passing through various Soils and sorts of Earth from whence it drains or sucks in a certain Unctious Vertue or Saline Fatness which the surface of the Earth does plentifully contain and from which Vegetation does chiefly proceed 2dly This sort of Water has the benefit of Motion with the benevolent Influences of the Sun and the Element of the Air which purge it from its harsh earthy Qualities and as it were open its Body enduing it with a pure Spirituous Airy and Balsamick Vertue of a warming friendly Nature and Operation This is the chief reason why River-Water is of a softer milder Nature and will perform all Preparations in House-wifery to more advantages than Spring-Water taken from the Fountain Head for there most Waters retain a Saturnine earthy Quality which the Influences of the Sun and Air with the help of Motion do destroy 3dly The New-River that supplies London is some of the best Water in England except Thumes Water it being a cut or made River that runs on the Surface of the Earth for above twenty Miles and is not fed or increased by hungry Springs as many other Rivers are that run through Vallies which is their own Natural way but Land-Floods sometimes fall into it which augment its Vertue and Goodness for they are the richest of Waters draining and sucking into themselves the fat Saline Vertue of the Earth For this reason most Vallies that lie between the Hills are so fruitful for the Waters that run off the Hills do wash or carry away the Salintral Vertue into them and there it centers and thus Hills come not to be so fruitful as Valleys or Plains by reason of such disadvantages Whereas on the contray do not Land-Floods and the overflowing of Rivers make Meadows fruitful from the same causes For when the Waters retire
of Vermin and Insects which is caused through the Contraction of gross thick fulsom Matter for want of Motion all which running Waters are not subject to But although Water be Natures common drink for Man as well as Beasts yet since now a-days Men generally betake themselves to other Liquors we shall briefly treat of them likewise Of Ale and its Nature and Operation as also of Beer Ale hath the first place of all Drinks made with Malt and is of greatest Antiquity That Ale is best that is made after this manner 1st That the Liquor or Water that you put to your Malt be made boiling-hot but not boyl and then put it into your Mash-Tub or Vessel and let it stand a little while before you put your Malt to it which will somewhat moderate the fierce heat of the Water thereby rendring it more capable to receive the Vertues and sweet Quality of the Malt which violent hot Water will not do so well for it doth not only hurt the pure Spirituous Parts of the Malt but will six or harden the Malt so that the Sweetness and good Vertues will not so easily give it self forth into the Water also if you put the Malt into the Water very hot then it will Tinge or cause the Wort to become of a red Martial Colour but on the contrary the cooler the Water is when you put in the Malt the Paler or more Venerial will the Colour of your Wort be which is the best Colour of the two for all Ale that does look Clear and White is to be preferred before that which hath a high Martial Red Colour And in some parts of England there is such Ale made which is much liked but this commendable White Colour depends also upon the well making of the Malt viz. in the Fewel and degrees of the Fire they dry or fix it with for if the Heat be too strong or fierce or if the egress or regress of the Air be hindred or any other Accident happen of the like nature then such Malt will make Ale and Beer to look of a Reddish Martial Colour which is not to be commended though some ignorantly cry it up For the predominant Quality in all sorts of Corn stands in the White and all the pure Water and sweet Body of it proceeds from the predominant Quality of Venus therefore the more gentle mild and natural the Preparation is from the beginning to the end the more wholsom and Balsamick will the Ale be If the Malt be dryed with too hot or fierce a Fire whence the Colour happens to the Ale it shews Violence done to the essential Spirits which also happens in Brewing when the Malt is put to the Water too hot or by overmuch boyling of the Wort which is not commendable in Ale for good Ale may be made with little or no boyling and indeed there is not much reason for the much boyling of any sort of Drink made of Malt except you design to keep it a great while For the boyling of Ale doth cause a too great Evaporation of the Volatile Spirit and Balsamick Vertues which will not endure the harsh Fire for this cause strong Wort will wast and evaporate as much in quantity in one Hour as Small shall in three and more Besides boyling these Liquors destroys their mild gentle cleansing Qualities and fixes them making them hotter and fiercer in Operation for the more you evaporate or destroy the sweet Body of any thing the stronger and fiercer the Original Qualities become and appear more external but so long as the pure Volatile Spirit and sweet Balsamick Body predominates the strong fiery Original Spirit of Saturn and Mars lies as it were hid and seeing all the friendly and wholsom Vertues of Ale reside in the sweet Body you ought not to destroy That by over-much boyling Nay I will add that the best and most wholsom Ale may be made and not boyled at all as some in this Nation do which does but wast it in Quantity and make it worse in Quality so that it becomes hotter in Operation and a friend to the generation of the Stone Every one knows or may know by experience that Beer heats the Body more than Ale the reason is the Balsamick Vertues in Beer are in part destroyed by boyling so that it becomes more like a Spirit and therefore it will keep longer and because of its lasting most People imagin it the best which is a great mistake for they might as well say that the best Sack drawn off by Distillation into a Spirit is better to drink than the Sack was whereas I think the contrary is known to every body of common sense The nearer you bring any thing to its Original by destroying the balsamick Vertues and middle Qualities or vegetative Vertue the longer that thing will keep sound this is manifest in all Spirits drawn from any Wines or other balsamick Liquors for this reason Beer that is boyled most will longest keep from turning sour or flat but still this is no Argument that it is therefore the best and wholsomest for the predominant Quality in all strong Beer especially if it be kept to be â—tale is of a fierce harsh Martial and Saturnine Heat of a hard greedy Nature which infects the blood with fretting eating Humours very prejudicial to Health also it generates the Stone not so much from the Hops which many accuse as the chief cause but for that the pure sweet body is in so great a measure destroyed in the boyling it to such an height that it might keep not but that the Hops do help to heat the body and cause the Stone and other Diseases but not purely and meerly as they are Hops but this comes to pass from the Preparation For Hops in their own Nature have no such operation to cause the Stone but altogether the contrary for Hops are of an opening cleansing Nature and they powerfully purge by Urine and make excellent Medicines against the Stone Dropsical Diseases but all their natural medicinal Vertues are destroyed in their being boyled in the Beer and then there remains in them chiefly the Martial harsh fiery Property which helps to preserve the Beer from growing flat or eager but it augments its heat and makes it of a harsher operation And as the boyling of Ale destroys the sweet cleansing purging Quality and causes it to evaporate just so it does by Hops and so much the more because in them the volatile Spirit stands as it were external for the Sun and Elements have exhaled the gross Phlegmy substance and thereby sets the spirituous at liberty only being close stuffed into bags preserves them from evaporating whilst there they continue but as soon as they come into the fierce boyling Liquor or Wort these essential Vertues and good Qualities are destroyed and flee away but still there remains the original strong bitter Quality which cannot be destroyed by boyling except they be annhilated for it is
no Drink made of Malt so wholsom pleasant and proper to preserve Health as that It is a great Custom and general Fashion now-a-days to bottle Ale but the same was never invented by any true Naturalist that understood the in-side of things For tho' Ale be never so well wrought or fermented in the Barrel yet the Botling of it puts it on a new motion and fermentation which wounds the pure Spirits and Balsamick Body therefore such Ale out of Bottles will drink more cold and brisk but not so sweet and mild as the same Ale out of a Cask that is of a proper Age Besides the Bottle tinges or gives it a cold hard Quality which is the nature of Glass and Stone and being the Quantity is so small the cold Saturnine Nature of the Bottle has the greater Power to tincture the Liquor with its Quality Furthermore all such Bottle Drinks are infected with a yeasty furious foaming matter which no Barrel-Ale is guilty of This is chiefly caused by the second motion or fermentation and this yeasty substance being then excited and finding no vent as it hath in Barrels which are always open at bungs when the Drink works but here being confined and without any evacuation it grows mad and furious so that presently it awakens the internal keen harsh Properties of Nature which keep it as it were in a continual motion and fermentation and those cold keen original Qualities do in some degree devour the sweet balsamick Body and cause it to become more cold sharp and hungry than the same Ale in Barrels and also indue it with a more flatuous Windy Nature for which Reasons Bottle-Ale or Beer is not so good nor wholsom as that drawn out of the Barrel or Hogshead and the chief thing that can be said for Bottle-Ale or Beer is that it will keep longer than that in Barrels which is caused by its being kept as it were in continual motion or fermentation Of Tobacco Tobacco is an Herb of Mars and Saturn from the first it derives its hot tart Quality and owes its strong fulsom poysonous Nature to the latter It makes a most excellent Oyntment and is much safer being applied outwardly than inwardly taken 'T is one of Nature's Extreams and there is no way known or Preparation found out that can destroy its poysonous Qualities or reconcile and make it friendly to mans Nature but only the continual use and custom of taking it for this cause at the first taking it disagrees with all sorts of Complexions with some more and others less according to the degree of Antipathy it bears to each mans peculiar Nature having a nearer affinity to some than others It being extream hot in Operation 't is therefore good taken in Pipes against all cold windy and phlegmatick Humours but the constant and common whiffling it does not only destroy and render invalid all its Physical Vertues but heats and drys up Nature and powerfully consumes the Radical Moisture causing most that use it to spit up the moist matter which ought not to be drawn out of the Stomach by such forcible Attractions it being a general mistake for People to think that the more thin phlegmy matter they spit up the better 't is for them when in truth 't is altogether the contrary for if the healthiest and soundest of men take Tobacco it will cause as great Evacuations and spittings in them as in the most unhealthy for this cause the much taking of it dulls the Stomach and takes away the edge of the Appetite whatever matter is superfluous in the Stomach Nature will expel by vertue and power of the inward Heat if Temperance be observed but the constant taking of Tobacco is nothing else but the constuat taking of Physick though through Custom and Use the same as likewise the highest Poysons may be made familiar to Nature For Man as we have already told you is a little World and in him are contained all the Properties and Qualities of the great World as well of Poysons as of Vertues The nature of Man hath Affinity more or less with all things else Custom could never cause such poysonous things to become agreeable yet ought not any to imagin the common use of such extreams to be the more proper or profitable unto their Health because by violence to Nature at first and continual practice afterwards they can better endure them and they seem more agreeable than they did at first I doubt not but some may find benefit by taking Tobacco in Pipes but then there must not be a constant taking of it for then the Physical Vertue will not continue for by habit and use such things become like common Food in the Stomach Most People that smoke Tobacco in the beginning forced Nature and made her bow to their Inclinations not for any Distemper but of a vain wanton Humour because of late 't is grown the fashion and many Thousands have strained and hurt their Health and brought many Inconveniences upon themselves meerly to follow this bruitish Mode Some others there are who first learnt to take it for some manifest Distemper which have so far been excusable tho yet not one of an hundred of this sort have found it a Remedy for tho Tobacco hath been of so universal an use yet 't is no Universal Medicine Indeed it hath and is indued with its particular Physical Vertues as all other Herbs are and when 't is properly apply'd and meets with such Diseases then it proves effectual otherwise not there is as much reason that any other Physical Herb should be made universal as this but few men hearken to Reason for most like Brutes are carried away by Custom and look on the Multitude and make their uncircumcised ways their Rules childishly saying Sure if there were not many excellent Vertues and Benefits to be found in the use of such things as the common taking of Tobacco viz. five six ten or twenty Pipes a day and as much strong Drink in one day as might well sustain five or six men a week such abundance of Wise and Learned Men would never practise the same for say they we see our Physitians and Apothecaries and the best of our Gentry such as have been bred in the Universities and Inns of Court. But it had been much better they had been of that most excellent Imployment Iacob's Sons wereof tho now despised Nay some of our Reverend Divines themseves will smoke as intemperately as any of the Vulgar But all this is still but a fools Argument to do a thing because he sees others to do it tho Reason and Experience tells him 't is prejudicial It is not above sixty or seventy years ago since that only Gentlemen and but a few of those took Tobacco and then so moderately that one Pipe would serve four or five for they handed it from one to another and it seems were then so honest as not to fear infecting one another with any French
the digestive Faculty of the Stomach dulls the edg and sharpness of the Appetite causes Sweating and a general weariness in the whole Body and disables it to perform all its Labours and Exercises The cause of so great Inconveniencies proceeds from warm Clothes c. which hinder the most friendly Element of the Air from penetrating the body whereby the Spirits become weak and fainty For as nothing hurts the Body more than hot sulpherous Airs so there can be nothing that does more cheer and refresh the Spirits than cold pleasant Airs which is known by every mans Experience 3dly Warm and close Houses c. are attended with these evil Effects the Air which is the Life of the Spirit is hindred from having its free egress and regress by the close drawing of the Window-Shutters Hangings and Curtains which suffocates the pure volatile spirit of the Air benums and stupifies the Senses and causes an Indisposition from external heat to possess the whole Body besides it is pernicious to the vital Spirits dulls the Appetite weakens the Stomach and depraves the senses of Tasting and the digestive Faculty 4thly Soft and Warm Beds with Curtains drawn before the Windows and about the Beds produce these following bad Consequences both to the body and mind the Air being as it were pen'd up becomes hot and sulpherous because the pure thin vapours and spirits thereof are suffocated and so consequently must needs be very injurous to them that lie thus in their Beds Moreover the Air cannot penetrate the Body and so being destitute of Motion the Stomach and natural Heat is deprived of its free operation and this is the Reason that Suppers are not so well digested but oftimes become Noxious causing an unnatural kind of Sleep creating an Aptitude in the external parts to glow with a burning and unnatural kind of Heat this ill custom is too frequently used by those who are sick but especially those that lie in Child-bed to whom often the consequence is more dangerous The Chambers of most sick People are kept so very close that it will disorder a Healthy Person to continue there three or four hours and if so what detriment then do you think must of necessity attend the sick by reason of such hot sulpherous Airs And indeed considering how low and weak their Spirits are nothing can be more hurtful to them than this is under these Circumstances For these pure thin vapours and spirits being destroyed by those sulpherous ones the poysonous and deadly Vapours are stirred up which have a powerful influence upon the Body by way of simile and wound the pure Spirits in the Body causing an unnatural Heat in all the external parts with a fainty kind of weakness This becomes as offensive as the Heat and Air which proceeds from Charcoal and is of the same nature and operation for in the making of Charcoal the pure Spirits in the Wood which is its true Life or that sweet Water or Oyl whence the Light hath its bright shining Quality is suffocated and in a manner destroyed for the Spirits are the Life of the Oyl and the Oyl is the house and pleasant habitation of the Spirits and in all Preparations where the one is destroyed the other dieth as in this of making of Wood into Charcoal where both the pleasant Qualities are destroyed the free Influences of the Air being hindered the Spirits and Oyl which are of a friendly nature and operation become thereby suffocated The fire that Wood sends forth has a bright shining Light its heat is friendly and refreshing but Charcoal tho it has the same Foundation and is Wood in the original yet these two friendly Qualities being destroyed and suffocated in the making thereof it comes to be of another nature and operation as if it had not been Wood. For these Reasons Charcoal will not flame nor give a bright light but its flames are of a sulpherous Colour for having lost its Moderator or friendly Life the original Poysons take place and its Fire becomes much stronger than that of Wood and the heat and fumes thereof burdensom to the pure Spirits of those that are near such Fires the dark wrathful Vapours do awaken their simile in the Body If this were rightly understood by a delicate sort of People in the World I am perswaded they would not fear every small blast of wind neither would they deprive themselves of the most pleasant and benign Influences of the Air which keeps the essential Spirits living in every Creature and is indeed the excellent support of the whole nature of all Beings giving to them Life and Vigour And therefore you dainty Dames that are so nice that you will not endure this pleasant Element to blow upon you unless it be in a hot and sulpherous day in which it has not half that power and vertue that it has in cooler Weather you I say who are so Curious do but consider a little seriously what is said and your own experience may convince you that there is nothing better than pure and clear Airs to cheer and comfort Nature and to make the Spirits brisk and lively Are there any more healthy than those whose Imployments and Exercises are in the open Air Are there any who can endure Labour with less Prejudice Are there any who are generally more Robust Any that have better and sharper Appetites than they Likewise those that use the Country-Air much enjoy in a great measure the abovementioned advantages It will be very convenient then to use a Medium in reference to Clothes Houses and Beds and of the two Coolness is much safer from ones Birth to the Grave than Heat both inwardly and outwardly Pleasant and gentle Airs shut the Pores that the Radical Moisture and Spirits cannot evaporate they strengthen Nature give an edg to the Appetite the thinner and meaner a man's Clothes are the stronger and brisker he is and his natural Heat and digestive faculty is also the stronger besides thin Clothing except in cold Weather makes People fitter for Labour and less burdensome preserves the natural Heat and keeps it more Central Therefore it is that all Creatures that are born and bred in cold Climates are stronger and better able to endure Hardship and toilsom Labour than those that live in hot Climates and are greater Eaters and Drinkers of Strong Food and Drinks for this cause most People in cold Countries are inclined to the Intemperances of Gluttony and Drunkenness more than in hot so great is the power and operation of open cold Air it does wonderfully strengthen Nature and nothing can be a greater injury to Health than for People to accustom themselves to Tenderness the more they do wear the more they may so that at last they may have need to carry their Beds on their backs for by degrees it weakens the Body and causes so great a tenderness that they find it very troublesom to have the fresh cool Air to blow upon
ill Customs willingly deprive themselves of its singular benefits therefore those that regard their Healths ought not to make strong Bulwarks and Fences from the free visits of so good a friend but rather court its Familiarity by motion in the open Fields airy Houses c. I know it is a Custom in many places of the Country to plant Trees before their Houses but I am of opinion that they are not convenient nor profitable in respect of Health for it hinders the fresh breezing Gales of Wind to enter into and sweeten their Houses also Trees Woody places and Vallies do by simile attract the Clouds and moist Vapours which are injurious to some Constitutions of men It is likewise convenient that all sorts of People do not accustom themselves to sit by Fires especially those made of Cole or any other of the like Nature because they do as it were by a natural simile dry up a Radical Moisture exhale and suffocate the Spirits and with too great violence open the Pores of the whole Body and as it were chill the whole-Body making it thereby incapable to endure the Air without trouble and danger of taking cold it also dulls the edge of the Appetite and sends dark thick Fumes into the Head weakens the Eyes and causes a general indisposition through the whole body Besides that heat and warmth which is procured by Fires heavy Clothes c. is very troublesom in comparison of that pleasant natural Heat that is awakened by Motion and Action in airy and open places and there is as much difference both in the Appetite and the whole state of the Body and Spirits between the one and the other as there is between Light and Darkness the one being lightsom airy pleasant strong and lively with a sharp and perfect Appetite the other being unpleasant cold on one side and hot on the other dull and heavy of little Appetite and that not good and so the body being feeble and tender the man knows not what to eat nor what to drink nor what to wear he finds every Room too cold for him he is indisposed therefore he must have this and the other dainty Bit and this and the other Cordial Drink but all to little purpose so long as they drive their old Trade of Superfluities in the above mentioned things A Cup of cold Water or small Drink and a piece of brown Bread to a well-prepared Stomach is above all Dainties Therefore it is a very uncomfortable thing for a man to be ignorant of himself for such never use things that are friendly to Nature and the good Health both of Body and Mind but on the contrary are diligent to procure such things as are inimical and hurtful to it Wisdom which is certainly great Riches teaches a man to put an high Estimation upon mean and simple Things and to use them all with a thankful Heart to the Glory of God Of particular Trades and particularly of Seamen The last Consideration of the great Benefit of the open Air leads us to observe what Callings and Imployments may be esteemed the most wholsom or best accommodated for the preservation of Health touching which we are in the first place to note that all sorts of Trades that work in Wood as Carpenters Ioyners and other Trades of the like Nature are all of them wholsom Imployments as well because their Labour consists of sundry motions of the Body as for that the various sorts of Woods they work in send forth most pleasant and fragrant Smells which must needs be very refreshing to Nature and if those men were Temperate and Careful of themselves not to lift pieces of Timber beyond their strength c. they might enjoy their Health and Strength even to a good old Age. Also those Trades and Imployments that belong to the Water such as Sea-men and Barge-men Skullers c. are healthful Imployments for the pleasant and wholsom Vapours which the Water always sends forth being mixed with the friendly and gentle Breezes of the sweet Air does powerfully penetrate all the parts of the Body and cleanses all the passages of the Breast makes the Lungs sound sharpens the Stomach giving it a good Appetite and an easie Concoction it makes men lively and hardy and the Bones and Nerves strong for they being still in the fresh Air it is no wonder that they find such good Effects of it I know no Imployment men could spend their time about with more Vigour Health and Pleasure than This if the Rules of Sobriety were strictly observed But they are a fort of People whom no bounds of Sobriety can limit such as use no Medium or Equality in their Meats Drinks and Exercises for the greater part they are excessive drinkers of strong Drinks such as Brandy and other adulterated Spirits which not only weaken the Natural Heat but awaken the Original Fires and fierce Poysons in Nature which does cause fiery Passions and Head-strong Humors in the Mind and indeed they living on salt Flesh and Fish can hardly be free from doing Violence to Nature because the Spirituous Parts and Balsamick Body is almost destroyed in that kind of Food and the Quality which is predominant is of a hot sharp and fierce Nature and this Nourishment being commonly taken does heat and dry up the Radical Moisture and cools the refreshing Vapours which proceed from the Elements of Air and Water from whence also proceeds unnatural Droughts and the Generation of the Disease called the Scurvy and innumerable other Distempers But these friendly Elements the Water and the Air give them often great Relief for otherwise they could not as they do eat and drink to such an Excess Many men of this imploy ruin their Health by indulging too much their Appetites for they eating and drinking beyond measure and without exception when they come into hot Climates viz. the East and West-Indies where the Beams of the Sun are so powerful that their Pores are opened and they sweat continually and their pure Spirits and Radical Moisture so much exhaled and evaporated that they presently feel an inward Weakness and a Decay in the Natural Heat and in the Stomach accompanied with cloudy Fumes in the Head causing an Indisposition and Weariness through the whole Body and rendring Nature incapable to bear such a burthen of Intemperances as they lay upon her without manifest Prejudice Their eating I say of salt Flesh and Fish and their drinking of hot and inflaming Liquors and observing of no fit Season nor due proportion of time for taking of Rest which in hot Countries should be from twelve of the Clock to three in the Afternoon These and other Extravagances bring upon them Fluxes griping Pains of the Bowels and Acute Fevers their drinking of that Liquor called Punch is also very Inimical to Health For the Lime-Iuice which is one of the Ingredients they commonly use in it is in its Nature fierce sharp and Astringent apt to create griping Pains
Oates which opens unstops and cleanses the Passages from all kind of Obstructions This is further confirmed if we look into the Country where the Peasant that has no better than course Bread and other hard and mean fare is healthier stronger and more agile and sprightful than the City-Cormorant whose bruitish Appetite cannot be satisfied with any other thing than the costliest and richest Varieties that Nature can afford These latter sort of People accustoming themselves to the highest and finest Preparations of Food and Cordial Drinks are certainly the most unhealthful Men in the World because this sort of Food being in its own nature too Spirituous does prey upon the natural Heat causing either a suffocation or evaporation of the Spirits and contracting the Vessels of the Stomach whereby the whole body seems to languish Every sort of Food has its various operations upon the body and spirit of a Man and that by way of simile Therefore all Meats and Drinks ought to be equally compounded of a body and spirit as most things are in themselves before the Artist makes the separation the Food as the Man should be compounded both of body and spirit And to conclude I know of no separation that should be made of the one from the other but what is done inwardly by the act of the Stomach and natural Heat Of Pease and Beans Beans and Pease are Mars's Grains being drier and courser than the former Pease of the two are the finest and easiest of Concoction they are both of a Windy Quality yet being eaten when they are dryed are not only wholsomer than the Green but also afford a better and finer Nourishment not so apt to generate Crudities in the Body when they are boyled in plenty of Water the Winter-season is the most proper time for eating of them for then the natural Heat being more central the Stomach is much the stronger they are a good Food for young healthy People But Green-Pease and Beans are indued with a gross Phlegmatick Nature and being frequently eaten generate many gross raw Humours in the Body but in the declining part of the year when the Sun and Elements have consumed and dryed away the gross humid parts they thereby become firmer and wholsomer Food and will continue good and sound for several years but if they be cut down before the Sun has acted its part in extracting the gross Juices they will presently corrupt Therefore the frequent eating of such green Pease is of evil Consequence and detrimental to the Health they afford not only unfirm Nourishment but also cause Obstructions Fevers and Pains in the Bowels with Fluxes and a great many other Maladies That this kind of Nourishment is not good will further appear by giving you an Example from Cattle which when they are fed with green Food as Grass or the like their flesh and fat is soft greasy and full of phlegmy gross Matter neither will it take Salt nor keep half the time as that which is fed with Hay Corn and the like nay they are fainter and weaker and more apt to tire in their Labour and to take Surfeits than those that feed with Hay c. I do not say but green Pease may be eaten now and then for they are in their Nature opening and slippery which is caused by the great Quantity of Phlegmy Matter that is in them Yet these Rules should be observed in the dressing of them boyl them in good store of River-Water let your Fire be quick and your Pot open all the time of their boyling and they are to be put in when the Water begins to seeth and not before By this way of Preparation they are made wholsomer than otherwise they would be There is a sort of Bean called by the French English Bean but we commonly call them Kidney or French Beans they run upon sticks like Hops these are mostly eaten when Green they are of an opening and cleansing Nature purge by Urine and help Concoction the usual way of dressing them is to boyl them in the Shells and to eat them together They far exceed and are much better than other Pulses that are eaten green being in their nature and operation more mild and gentle Of Herbs Raw and Boyled The best raw Sallets are made of Spinage Parsley Sorrel Sage Pepper-grass with a small quantity of the Tops of Penny-Royal and Mint for all these have a chearing and warming Quality but Lettice and Onions should be sparingly put in because they are endowed with a gross thick Juice and are of a poysonous Nature sending Fumes into the Head whence proceeds a dull kind of Drowsiness and propensity to sleep which is offensive to the Eyes and Brain There are other Herbs made use of in Raw Sallets but the fore-mentioned are the best and most material Ingredients The proper season for eating them is from the beginning of February to the middle of Iune the earlier in the Spring so much the better and the more frequently they are eaten at this season so much the wholsomer for they are opening and cleansing powerfully the Blood is purified the natural Heat is tempered and encreased the Spirits are made brisk and lively the Appetite is quickned and Concoction facilitated Raw Herbs are a sublime kind of Food and are to be preferred before that which is boyled for the pure Volatile Spirit in the Herbs whence the Animals fragrancy proceeds cannot endure the violence of the fire but in boyling a great part of it is evaporated for this cause boyled Herbs lie heavier and colder in the Stomach than Raw which is scarcely credited by any for they that love boyled Herbs do generally eat much Flesh with them and so cannot discern the operation they have The strength and comforting Quality of every thing consists principally in the spirituous parts which are lost in the boyling and so they become just of another Nature that lively Tincture and spirituous part which it had whilst raw can never be retriv'd by all the Ingredients Nature or Ar 〈…〉 can afford Do not all Creatures eat their Herbs raw and are they not sustained by them to admiration They are powerful Preservers of Life and Health far beyond all the contriv'd Preparations of other Food In most Countries of this World the Inhabitants thereof do eat England excepted their Herbs Raw both in hot and cold Climates This kind of Food is preferrable to the great Quantities of Flesh Butter Cheese c. which are too often eaten among us these latter not only affording too great store of Nourishment but being naturally hot they over-heat the Blood and are heavy to be digested by reason of the oyly fat matter all such things do plentifully contain they dull the Appetite and obstruct and as it were fur the Passages Besides the Vertues we have ascribed to Raw Herbs God Almighty has created them for the use of Man and they were the first Food which was allotted him after the Fall where he
their Children as keeping them over-warm especially at night and feeding of them too often and too plentifully insomuch that their Stomachs are always fouled and furred with gross and Phlegmy Matter their Food being too much in Quantity and too rich in Quality which makes the Children uneasie apt to cry and froward and puts their Nurses to abundance of trouble which would be in a great measure prevented if Temperance was observed and Women would be content to give their Children that kind of Food that were proper for their Ages and Constitutions and which does grow under and by the Vertue of our own Constellations for every Country or Climate does furnish the Natives thereof with all things both for Food and Physick proper to preserve Nature having more agreement and unity with our Constitutions Is there any sort of thing brought from the West or East-Indies from Spain or any other Country that is to be compared to our Bread Cheese or Butter Have we not a great multitude of excellent Herbs and Roots which make good wholsom Food And have we not also excellent Water which is not only the best of Drinks it self but by the help of our own Grains and Fruits makes various sorts of Drinks as strong as Wine And do we not make excellent Drink of Apples more proper for our Bodies and more suitable to our Nature than any of the Spanish Wines What is it that English People want either for the Belly or the Back if Wantonness or superfluity was set aside Are not all the sorts of Food that are of our own Growth more suitable and friendly to our Natures than those that come from other Countries Are not those that live in the most remote parts of England and far from Cities and Sea-Ports where Mony is scarce and such things dear that the common People cannot buy them most healthful and freest from Diseases But now those Out-landish Ingredients begin to be so much admired that the good Dame viz. the Farmers Wife will sell her Eggs Butter Cheese and Wheat to buy Sugar Spice and Tobacco which stand them in no stead only to increase Intemperance and Distempers The very Plough-men and Shepherds defile their most pleasant Air with the fulsom Fumes of Tobacco Likewise the common use of these things have made way for various Trades and Employments so that a great part of the People are imployed to bring them over and to distribute them here so that there is small hopes of leaving off these Superfluities they are become as it were Essential to the Nature of the Users but the chief Happiness of English People is that their own Country does abound with all things that are needful for the support and preservation of Nature and that every one is left to his free choice Therefore a Wise Man may in the midst of those various Superfluities live soberly and temperately to his own comfort and the praise of his Creator 2. It is to be observed that most of the Fruits and Spices that come from those hot Countries are not only disagreeable to our Natures but even the Natives of those places do very moderately and sparingly use them esteeming them not fit to mix with their common Food the same is likewise true of their Moderation in the use of Wines for they do not drink it as we do in that abundance but sparingly and mixed with Water besides the frequent use of the fore-mentioned Ingredients do make English men too Effeminate and do in no wise agree with their Constitutions for cold Countries do make hardy strong and Martial People as also Food of that Nature does by its simile maintain and preserve the Health of the Body and Mind far beyond what is brought from those hot Climates But if the Natives of those Countries should eat and drink those Spices and Wines in that Quantity as we do it would as it were destroy the very Radix of Health which is one main cause why our English are so unhealthy when they travel and live in such hot Countries for they continuing the same Intemperances which they accustom'd themselves unto in their own Countries which those places will not admit of their Bodies and Natures do much alter and change when they alter the Climate and not only our Bodies but also our Dispositions and Inclinations are thereby much changed Therefore all People ought strictly to observe such degrees of Temperance in such places as are most suitable and profitable to preserve Health for not only all sorts of their Fruits and Food but their Drinks also do much differ from ours the predominant Quality whereof standing chiefly in the Nature of Sol and Venus and if such Fruits and Wines be not taken sparingly they will quickly awaken their Centers and Natures in the Body and cause the pure subtle Spirits to evaporate as most do find after drinking plentifully of Wine or strong Drink and eating Food in which those Rich Fruits are compounded how indisposed will Nature be how heavy and dull the senses and as it were stupified And this is caused not only by overcharging of Nature with the Quantity but with the Quality also of the Food which doth so violently open the Solar and Venerial Properties of the Body by a sympathetical operation and does evaporate the pure Spirits and consumes the sweet Oyl whence the pleasant Life burns after such Intemperance in eating and drinking you find great alterations in the state of your Body Some think That the stronger the Liquor and the Richer their Food is the more Vertue and Strength is in it but the contrary is too apparent for nothing is more hurtful to Nature than that which contains much Nourishment for this cause many People are out of order their natural strength decaying by degrees and occasioning many Diseases to reign which had no being in former Ages when the use of such things were not known In remote parts where such Fruits and Wines cannot be procured they are happily freed from many grievous Distempers with which we are afflicted But all that I can say will not convince such as are Wise in their own Conceits nor prevent them from boyling two Quarts of Ale to one with good store of Oatmealand Spice and then sweetning it well with Sugar give two or three Quarts a day hot to Child-bed-Women Of Fish Fish generally are cold and moist of them some are easie others hard of Digestion The frequent and plentiful eating of this begets Phlegm and a kind of cold moist matter in the Body likewise we are to account some of them unclean and unwholsom others clean and wholsom the first sort are such that are bred in muddy stinking Waters as Ponds c. where the Water has no motion or in Rivers which receive the Excrements of Cities or Towns such Fish produce bad Nourishment corrupt the Blood and cause Obstructions Scabs Leprous Diseases c. If People were sensible of the hurt they do they would no more
And especially most burthensom to weak Natures are such Syrups when mixt with improper Ingredients and Liquors as with cold distilled Waters of various Herbs of disagreeing Natures and then to add as most do that which they call Epidemick Water which makes a Cordial sicker than the Patient that takes it I would have any moderate Person consider and judge whether a man in good Health can without great violence to his Stomach and disorder sup off such Cordials and other compounded Slip-slops as the Sick are forced continually to swallow down And if so what a deplorable condition are the Sick in when most of the things both for Food and Physick that are ordered and prescribed by Physicians and Apothecaries are generally nauseats to Nature So that when we would describe a filthy abominable Taste we say it tastes like Physick or like a Medicine 'T is enough in all Conscience to make a well Person Heart-sick to be confined but two or three Weeks to the Circumstances a sick Body is subjected unto by these Men of Method and their Tutor'd Creatures the Nurses For First he must have all his Drink boyled forsooth with a Crust of Bread in it This too he must drink as hot as may be endured and Mistress Nurse for pure Laziness will make at Once as much fulsom slip-slop as will serve a whole Day and Night and so the poor languishing Creature must take it heated again and again Then Gaffer Doctor enjoyns him every two hours a quantity of his sick Cordial and to compleat the Tragedy of his Martyrdom there must be a rouzing Fire in the Room tho' it be at Midsummer the Curtains must be drawn close and a Cloth before the Windows so that there can scarce come the least Breeze of Wind or pure Air into the Room whence the imprisoned Air therein becomes sulpherous and so noxious that such Chambers send forth such strong fulsom Scents and Fumes as will disorder the most healthy if they continue there but a while These are some of the abominable I had almost said Murderous courses the poor sick are confined unto which is much to be pitied and deserves to be remedied And therefore tho' this Discourse may seem a Digression I am confident the Judicious will pardon it 8. Another very improper Mixture is when People eat several sorts of Flesh and Fish at one and the same Meal for these two Creatures are of different Radixes therefore being eaten together make an unwholsom Nourishment in the Body of a contrary Nature to them both especially when the various sorts of Sawces and Ingredients of that kind are intermingled There are some foolish Epicures that stow so many various Kinds and Natures in their Paunches as if they would eat up all the fraight of Noah's Ark at a Mouthful and cannot Dine without as many different Ingredients as an Apothecary puts into the Composition of Mithridate which is said to consist of about Two Hundred But so far were the Wise Antients from this extravagant Gluttony and Uncleanness that such of them as did admit the eating of clean Flesh and Fish would not use the same Vessels is preparing the one as they did with the other but had distinct Kettles and Platters for each to keep them apart 9. There is another sort of Food much eaten by the English and more than by any other Nation viz. Pies which are many times compounded of Ten or Twenty several Ingredients many of them of contrary Natures and Radixes as first there is the finest Wheat-flour the course or branny part which contains the most opening cleansing digestive faculty being unhappily taken away and so curiously separated that the fine Flour thereby becomes of a stopping glutinating or glewing Nature 2dly There is good store of Butter mixt with it And 3dly Flesh and several sorts of Spices and Spanish Fruits and many other things which are all baked together and there they boyl in the deadly sulphurous Airs of the Ovens without the Influences of pure Air and without sufficient Liquor to help the Digestion or cleanse and purifie the grossness of such things but they lie suffocated in their own Juices the Good and Evil all jumbled together whence the whole becomes Naught the Nourishment such Food yields is neither proper nor wholsom for the Inequality of the Ingredients have destroyed all the simple Vertues of each so that there is Confusion and Discord awakened which in the Body irritate their Likenesses and thence Diseases and Disorders follow Therefore the more Wise and well-minded Persons in all Ages whose desire was to know and fear the Lord and assist his Hand-maid Nature have always chose the most simple innocent Meats and Drinks knowing that such had near Affinity to Harmony and had not power to beget or excite any quality or property in Nature but what was like themselves Peaceable and Harmless for the nearer the Equality and Concord any sort of Food or Drink is the greater Power it has to preserve the Body and Mind in the like sweet Temper and Unity which cuts off all Diseases in the Bud and prevents their very Seeds For this cause Water throughout the World in Primitive Times and in most Countries to this very day has been and is esteemed the best Drink for that it gives to such as drink it a full satisfaction whereas all other sorts of Drinks especially those that exceed in any particular quality do leave some desire behind after a man has drank them to drink more though perhaps already he hath exceeded in Quantity the very same is in superfluous Food only men cannot eat so long nor so much as they can Drink because Food is heavy and hard of Concoction and requires time to digest whereas drink is thin and Spirituous and therefore it quickly makes separation and finds many ways to pass away which Food cannot do Therefore over-charged Meals of sumptuous Food do often prove more dangerous to the Health of the Body than a debauch of Drinking tho both are worse than bruitish and very hazardous But on the contrary those that accustom themselves to simple Meats and Drinks do not only highly satisfie and gratifie Nature and preserve themselves in perfect Health which is the reward the Lord has ordained for the Temperate but they cut off all Superfluities the Seminaries of Diseases in the very Bud whereas the Gluttonous and Intemperate are liable to a thousand Snares and Inconveniencies which makes their Bodies unhealthful and unserviceable and beclouds their Minds and Intellectuals so that they can neither know themselves nor their Creator in any other thing as they ought But still there are some sorts of Food that may be properly Compounded as bearing a Simile with each other As 1. Bread Butter and Herbs either Boyled or Raw as also several sorts of Roots 2. Bread and several sorts of Fruits 3. Bread and Milk or Milk and Flour boyled together with some Water and Oat-meal and Milk and Water
Temperature and procures quieter Rest and makes People more lively and brisk preventing many Diseases and burthensom Inconveniencies But here I must be silent lest the Ladies be offended However if good Council may procure my Pardon I doubt not but to recover their good Opinion as soon as they shall have read over the following Chapter CHAP. XI Of WOMEN their Natures Complexions and Intemperatures as also of their Children Together with an account of the Generation of all Windy Diseases THe Nature and Complexion of Women doth differ and vary even as Mens some being more Sanguin others more Cholerick c. But generally they are more Sanguin than Men of weaker Heats and fewer Spirits therefore cannot endure any Inequality or Intemperances without great danger to their Health whether it be in Meats Drinks Exercises or Passions of the Mind Their predominant Quality doth stand in and proceed from the Element of Water therefore are of a finer softer yielding Temper than Men and their Love doth exceed that of the other Sex and indeed all kind of Passions do both sooner and deeper wound their Spirits Therefore all sudden surprizes of Love or Hate Ioy or Sorrow are apter to destroy the Health of Women and suffocate their Spirits stopping the Circulation of the Blood and causing the Body to swell and then abundance of Wind is generated which stops all the Passages so that People in this condition can hardly breathe Now the Original of all such Diseases which are called Vapours or Wind come thro' the weakness of the natural Heat and because the Spirits of most Women are so Volatile that every sudden Accident or Inequality doth either evaporate or suffocate them during which time the whole Operation and Circulation both of the Blood and Spirits is hindered and so the Life seems to be in danger which causeth a Commotion of the inward parts as if they did arise out of their natural places which is nothing else but certain Stoppages and Swellings of the Vessels that the Breath or Air cannot pass and then the Body is in a kind of Agony and trembles during the Fit which is never long for if it were the Life could not continue But thro' this agonous condition and strugling strife of the Properties of Nature the Element of Fire is awakned which is of a quick powerful active Quality and doth penetrate all parts of the Body and breaks open all the Passages which sets Nature into a great Heat throughout all the Body like a Fever and then this taciturn Contraction and suffocation of the Spirits does begin to cease but great dry Ardors do remain a considerable time after and by their violence do awaken the Element of Water which causes a breathing Sweat to succeed that is very beneficial to Nature and gives ease and so the worst seems to be over for the present Now all those Diseases that cause Nature to shake and tremble as Agues Vapours and the like are caused thro' the suffocation of the Spirits which does first awaken the Original Quality viz. the astringent taciturn twitching Property that does forcibly draw and contract all the inward parts and particularly the Vessels of the Stomach and in a moment stops all the Passages which Nature cannot endure and live and therefore uses her utmost efforts to get rid of those Chains by which contention the bitter Quality is awakned for that Quality above all others cannot brook Confinement but breaks open all the barricado'd Passages with its fiery and rapid Motion and awakens the hot Property which presently sets Nature into such a Flame as should it continue would soon consume her but these Heats do so violently hunger after and draw the Airy Quality as its true Life that it rouzes the Watry Element and thereby quenches that Combustion whereby Nature receives Relief and Refreshment But the Original Cause of all at the first is the wounding the Volatile Spirit which in Women is quickly done but Men are very rarely troubled with this Distemper of Vapours and the like because their Nature stands in and proceeds from the Root of the Fire and the Properties of Saturn and Mars are more predominant in them and therefore their natural or central Heats are greater and stronger than Womens and consequently are of better Judgments and Abilities both for the doing and the governing of all things For Man was made first and hath in himself the strong might and tincture of the Fire which is furious and forth driving very desirous to manifest it self But the Tincture of the Female is from the Water viz. from Venus Therefore the Males of all sorts of Creatures are far hotter and of stronger and greater Spirits and more desirous of Copulation or more unchast than the Females not subject to those Uncleannesses but fit for Generation at all Times and Seasons which Women are not And hence it is and always was accounted a greater Sin and Shame for a Woman to be unchaste than for a Man though it is not excusable in either And for the same Reason Women were never allowed those Priviledges of Polygamy as Men among the Ancients For the unchastity of Women destroys the Generation of Mankind in the Root and brings Confusion and Desolation to Families so that Wantonness in Women is a Sin against God and against Nature For the Creator in the beginning hath implanted Modesty and given the Bridg of Chastity unto Women and indeed unto the Females of all Creatures by enduing them with a cold meek Temper derived from the Element of Water which doth allay and cool them and therefore they are naturally more moderate and not so hot and desirous of Copulation as Men and when once they have Conceived are satisfied till such time as they have brought forth setting aside the Consequences proceeding from a debauched Imagination or the wanton Provocations that happen between Men and Women which force and strain Nature but as for pure natural Inclinations they cease and are as free from them as Sheep or the Females of any other Creatures These are the wonderful Works of the great Creator for if it were not so all Generation would be destroyed and corrupted even in the very Root as sometimes it comes to pass among Lascivious and Petulent Men and Women through various sorts of Uncleannesses which are against God's Law and the Right of Nature Do not all the Beasts of the Field observe their Times and Seasons And after Conception do they not strictly withstand their Males and not suffer them to touch them till after they have brought forth and also brought up their young Ones and made them capable to shift for themselves All which time they remain without Inclination because the end of Nature is answered and this is according to the first Law of God which all Creatures have kept especially the Females unviolated EXCEPT WOMEN But though I said that Womans natural Inclinations to the Sports of Venus do cease after Conception yet it
such places like standing Water in a Pond in the heat of Summer corrupts and becomes thick and humid which dulls the edg of the Appetite weakens the natural Heat and the Functions of the Stomach besides much sitting by Fires and in hot Rooms draws forth and destroys the pure thin moist Vapours and Volatile Spirits opens the Pores and makes all the Body tender so that such People do not only become uneasie and indisposed but subject to the Inconveniencies of catching Colds if they do but step into the open Air. Likewise moderate Cloathing is very commendable as to Health for much or thick Cloaths are apt to heat and tire Nature and either hinder Exercises or make them burthensom put the external parts into an unpleasant Heat and hinder the cool refreshing Vapours from penetrating into and relieving the Body Therefore those that use themselves to a mean in Cloathing have better Appetites and longer Breath'd stronger and not so apt to recieve Injuries by every small accident as those that inure themselves to very warm Cloathes hot Houses an idle soft Life and the like Effeminacies 8. Women ought not to lie too long in Bed as most of them that are of any Quality or Ability do their Beds being for the most part of Feathers which are soft hot and sulpherous with Curtains drawn close before the Windows and about the Bed whereby the imprisoned Air hindred from its free Circulation stagnates or corrupts and this too is very Prejudicial to their young Children whose Heats are weak and Spirits tender often causing Fevers and Convulsions especially when other Intemperances concur Besides this soaking so long in your Bed weakens all the Members especially the Back which is a principal part and the Body being kept hot and lying long without Motion hinders the Actions of the Stomach impairing so much its due Heat that Nature wants Fire for Kitchinwork I mean is not able to make a profitable concoction or separation of the Food so that great part of it turns to gross phlegmatick Juices for which very cause many Women are stupid weak feeble and presently tired and out of Breath if they do but use any kind of Exercises and hereby their Travel in Child-bearing is ten-fold more burthensom than otherwise it would be witness many ordinary Country People who have nothing the trouble at such times as our fine lazy sluggabed-Dames Besides as I have already observed elsewhere Feather-Beds are ponderous close Substances in their own Nature unclean and lying several Years in Corners or the closest parts of Rooms seldom exposed to the open Air they contract abundance of gross humidity and the various diseased People which lie and sometimes dye on them leave behind contagious Effluviums and venomous Particles lurking perhaps for an Age and not drawn forth till a Person happens to lie on them whose Similes awaken them For Beds are continued from Generation to Generation and not throughly cleansed once in twenty or thirty Years and so become very prejudicial to all sorts of People but especially to Women who spend two thirds of their time in them and also to their Children whose Natures are weak and tender and consequently apt to receive every evil Scent and Vapour which such Beds do plentifully send forth which in many Constitutions by way of the Fores penetrate all parts and wound the Spirits and by degrees weaken and destroy the Health If Women were sensible of the Mischiefs attending their indulging themselves thus in their stinking Nests every day almost till Noon they would surely be ashamed of and detest their own Sloth and Folly therein 9. Women in time of their Month or Lying-in are for the most part through hard Travail and many natural Weaknesses and other Diseases brought very low and their Spirits weak and but few Now in this low condition their Nurses do as it were force such great quantities of sweet strong Suppings on them even against Nature or more than Nature can bear for the Nurse and Mistress do both foolishly imagin that there is no other way for Nature to be restored but by great quantities of strong virtuous Food never remembring the Rule That Nature ought always to be stronger than the Food and not the Food stronger than Nature Also they make them drink and eat such Foods as hot as possible they can crying Mistress if you do not eat it whilst 't is hot 't will be worth nothing When in truth she gives it her so hot that 't is worse than nothing Also many of them will boyl Ale or Beer with Oat-meal and Spice till it becomes thick and then add store of Sugar which ought not to be because no fermented Liquor will endure a second preparation without a total destruction to the pure Spirits and balsamick Vertues as I have demonstrated at large in another place Therefore the Oat-meal and Water ought to be boyled first and briskly not too long and then add a like quantity of Beer Ale or Wine as you please and set it on the Fire and let it be made boyling-hot but not boyl and then take it off the Fire and scum the gross phlegmy part off which swims on the top and let it stand till it be about as warm as your Blood and then you may drink it with safety but always remember that the quantity be not too great nor the quality too strong for Nature your best time to put in your Spice is with your Ale Beer or Wine but let it be bruised and make but a little at a time so that you may have it fresh and fresh for heating such Foods and most others a second or third time does destroy the brisk lively spirituous parts and renders them dull heavy hard of Concoction and not so pleasant to the Pallat. 10. Most Women that have where-withal do inrich their Food and Drinks with so many forreign Ingredients as do not only make them too rich and consequently generate too much Nourishment but also intice the Pallat to receive more than is needful whereby the natural Heat and Stomach is over-charged and the Vessels stretcht beyond their proper and natural Proportions so the Body swells and becomes uneasie and Wind in abundance generated Nor do such after eating and drinking find themselves Refreshed which is the Intention of Food but on the contrary are more disordered through fullness than they were before with hunger Therefore it concerns all especially such as have but weak Spirits and Heats not to exceed either in quantity or quality but administer proportionable Food that the natural Heat and Stomach be not put to any difficulty to digest and concoct it so the pure Spirits shall thereby be preserved free from Oppressions For all Health and Joy consist in the goodness of the natural Spirits it being a grand Mistake in most who think to recover lost strength by over-rich Food strong Cordial Drinks and great quantities for they but add a second charge and inconveniency to
should they be forced to Sleep as the Custom of some is but to go to sleep as Nature inclines them Also they must not sit or lie too long without Motion for 't is that gives Spirit and Life to all young Creatures It is to be noted also that Womens Distempers as to Windiness and many other Weaknesses are much encreased by their straight Garments and Lacings which do press and wound the strength of that part it being one main Reason of their shortness of Breath contracting the Passages and Vessels of the Stomach which causeth also Sickness with pricking pains in the sides and often sends Fumes into the Head nothing being more Injurious to them than those Bodice and Stays which are as stiff and hard as Boards which makes the Stomach Waste and Back so feeble that many when they leave them off they feel themselves so weak that they are forced to continue them neither can they hardly turn themselves in their Beds but seem as if they were unjoynted which causeth many other Inconveniences as growing deformed and makes Labour and Exercises burthensom If these Rules be followed and observed by any they will find great benefit thereby and be eas'd of much Trouble and prevent a great Number of Diseases and lay Foundations for an healthy sound Generation CHAP. XII The Cause of SURFEITS and how to prevent them and keep the Body in Health As also of large Drinking after Meals and of eating of Suppers WHen any one finds himself much wearied or very hot through some violent action or fainty through Labour or long fasting or any other Accidents of the like Nature which may have wasted the Radical Moisture and spent the pure Spirits whereby the whole Body becomes heavy dull and indisposed Then to recover Nature and the Spirits and yet at the same time prevent the Diseases called Surfeits these following Rules are absolutely necessary for every one to observe 1. Before eating or drinking you ought to rest by sitting still and silent or taking a small nap of sleep or if conveniency will permit go to Bed and keep your self warm for an hour or two or three according to the greatness of the occasion which will recover the Spirits and strengthen the natural Heat and sharpen the Appetite refreshing the whole Body and chearing all the Senses so that you shall not only eat and drink with tenfold more pleasure and delight but with much more safety as to Health For no Meats or Drinks though of the highest Preparation have such Power to recover and restore the Spirits and make the sweet Oyl in the Body burn clear as Rest hath for which cause a man can fast longer from Food and with less prejudice to his Health than from Rest or Sleep Nevertheless in some of these times of Weariness there is necessity of present eating or drinking but then it ought to be done sparingly and such Food as is easie of Digestion as thin brisk Gruels Pottages and the like and that in a small Quantity for when the Spirits are spent by any of the forementioned Accidents the natural Heat of the Stomach is so weakned that it cannot bear any great Quantity of Meats or Drinks nor such Foods as are too strong in Quality without manifest danger to the Health All Inequality in this state is very perilous for when the Radical Moisture is wasted the natural Spirits are dull and impure which cannot be restored but only by Rest for the quickness and sharpness of the Stomach and digestive Faculty does chiefly consist in the Goodness and Quantity of the Radical Moisture and pure Spirits And for this cause those that are tired with Labour a less Quantity of strong Drink or Food will overcome them Also those that are endued with strong Spirits and whose Radical Moistures are pure and free from Obstructions have good and sharp Appetites and can eat and drink greater Quantities without prejudice to their Health but on the contrary such as have but weak Heats and few Spirits have but little Stomachs and faint desires to eat their Stomachs being full before their Bellies and the same is to be understood when the Spirits and Natural Heat are impared and made impotent by Accidents Therefore Rest after any kind of Weariness be it what it will is a most safe means to preserve Health and prevent the generation of Diseases 2. It is to be noted that Surfeits and Obstructions are not as many suppose contracted at the first or second Inconveniency except the Accident or Disorder be very great but by degrees every Excess sows some seeds for Diseases which would be prevented if care were taken and Nature not overcharged especially at the forementioned times viz. when the Spirits are weakned or spent for then the sweet Oyl and Radical Moisture immediately turns sourish and then follows an unnatural Heat and Disorder through the whole Body with a dizziness in the Head for the Volatile Spirit is the true Life and Being of every thing Many lively Instances might be given to demonstrate this as we see in all the Vegetations of the Earth if the spirituous parts be any way destroyed or suffocated that Herb Seed or Grain decays and becomes of no use or vertue which is likewise manifest in all Spirituous Liquors as Beer Ale Syder Wine c. if by long keeping or other accidents the spirituous parts be wasted or evaporated immediately the sweet Quality as it were dieth and then the bitter sour astringent Properties predominate and appear in their own Forms which whilst the spirituous and sweet Qualities were strong and not violated did lie hid being therein incorporated So that were it possible for Man by any Art to retain the Volatile Spirit in any Liquors or other things then such things would continue firm and good in all their parts forever The same is to be conceived in the Humane Nature and therefore all People ought to consider the danger the Spirit is in on all Disorders and Superfluities for presently the Appetite is dulled and the Pallate cannot taste or distinguish the pure Relish of any sort of Food For where the Spirits are weak all the Properties of Nature become unequal in their operation and rise up with a kind of violence or hunger after the sweet Oyl with eagerness to devour it which is the true Life Pleasure and Moderator of all the other Properties and Qualities and therefore when once the same is wounded the whole System of Nature is disordered and all her Oeconomy disturbed And this is really the very Root of all Distemperatures both of the Body and Mind which if every one did understand and take care that Nature were not overcharged might easily be prevented But though Nature doth frequently complain sigh groan and languish under many such Inconveniences and burdens yet few there be that ever think or consider the cause from whence such Indispositions proceed but for the most part through Ignorance take wrong measures for if
Medicines have such Power either to prevent or remedy these Disorders in the Body as Temperance Cleanness and good Order for they have an inward Power and certain Efficacy for that purpose and if Temperance be continued it will augment the Radical Moisture and pure Spirits and by degrees strengthens the natural Heat of the Stomach which only hath the Power to draw all such windy gross sharp matter from all parts of the body and so cast it out if thro' length of time it be not become too central for the natural Heat hath a magnetick Vertue that forcibly attracts all such matter as burdens Natures even from the most inward Cavities and furthest Ciroumference unto it self and there digests and throws it off both upwards downwards if a proper degree of Temperance be observed both in quantity quality fresh supplies of Food Drink come not too often For so powerful is this attractive Faculty of the Stomach that it will draw the very Flesh off the Bones as is most manifest both by men beasts if the Stomach be not supplied with convenient quantities of Meats and Drinks for this Heat which serves for concoction separation is never idle but always continues its motion action so long as the Spirits are lively that there doth remain any Oyl in the Lamp For this cause moderate Fasting hath been commended by all wise men a clean well prepared Diet hath great Power not only to prevent Diseases both of the Body Mind but also to root them out especially when the cause of such Diseases as generally it happens have arisen from over-charging of Nature with too great quantities of Flesh Fish the more because People make no distinction between Clean Unclean nor of the Seasons of the Year of the Surfeits or Diseases the Cattle are subject unto whose Flesh they eat nor regard the improper Mixtures of such Food c. 2. The second cause of Windy Diseases I assign to be the frequent eating and drinking of Hot Foods I do not mean such as are hot in their own nature operation but such as having been prepared by Fire are eaten before those fiery sulpherous Steems are evaporated for they are of a very pernicions venomous quality and altogether of a contrary Nature to the genuine Heat of Nature particularly of the Stomach also for this fiery heat will no longer incorporate it self with such Foods Broths c. than it is forced by the constant heat of the fire for as soon as they are taken from thence this sulpherous Steem or humid Vapour will hastily separate of its own accord which does manifest that this Heat is an Alien that Nature casts it out as an Enemy for indeed it contains three venomous qualities that are absolutely pernicious to Health viz. 1st The first is an harsh Fire of a Saturnine Martial Nature of a keen sharp fretting operation which dulls the pure Spirits infects the Blood with a Maingy itching Humour 2dly It contains a gross deadly poysonous Water or humid quality that does incorporate it self with the grossest parts of the Air fly away in a steem or vapour if Food be eaten before those fiery evil vapours be separated evaporated it swells the body hurts the natural Heat of the Stomach insensibly but certainly generates both Windy Watery Diseases filling the inward Vessels of the Body with evil venomous Juices sending Fumes into the Head disordering the whole body this more especially in Women Children who as we have shewed you before are by Nature much more liable to Windy Diseases than men 3dly If this furious Steem be by any Vessel that covers the Meat after 't is taken out of the Pot or off from the Spit so that it cannot fly away but is stopt turned back or confined to stay with such Food after 't is prepared then will it re enter into it and make it flat and heavy alter the Taste of it so that it will be strong gross on the Pallat heavy on the Stomach It is also to be noted that the common eating of Hot Foods does possess the Blood with a salt sharp fretting Humour like a Mainge if Children were not accustomed to such things from their Mothers Breast it would more sensibly break out upon them in that kind For this very Reason in Dogs and many other Creatures if such hot Broths or Food be given them it will cause the Mainge in their Blood the very same it occcasions in the human Nature but not externally so manifest because rendered more familiar by use 3. The Third Cause not only of Windy Diseases but of many others is Peoples eating and drinking too often Nothing more burdens Nature or generates more crude sharp Humors for when fresh Food is thrust into the Stomach before the former is digested it mixeth with the half-concocted Food which does surprize Nature and disturb her Work and fouls the Stomach causeth sower Belchings makes the Vessels to swell and in some Constitutions is attended with griping Pains and Indispositions through the whole Body c. for the natural heat is so oppressed with these continual supplies of Food before it calls or is ready for them that it cannot make any perfect Separation which is a main cause of Windy Diseases filling the Vessels with unconcocted Juices which powerfully obstruct the due Functions of Nature and hinders the Circulation of the Blood and Spirits which is the reason that when such People do travel or labour and oft-times only upon the Change of Weather they are indisposed and presently tired and out of Breath and troubled with an inward heat and drought continually calling for Supplies of Drink which does but promote Disorder and swell the Body and make the Exercise more burthensom For indeed drinking between Meals is very injurious to all sorts of People except to those that labour hard and sweat much for such may drink but very moderately or else they may quickly out-do Nature but for others that live easie Lives and do not sweat to be sipping or rather pouring down strong Drink and Wine between Meals does prove of very evil Consequence for it destroys the edge of the Appetite and makes the Stomach disordered always seeming as if it wanted something and in some Constitutions an hot heavy dulness for all strong Drinks received in a greater quantity than the Stomach can conveniently master leave a sowr heavy stinking Matter behind them in the Body which furrs the Passages with a slimy Substance and which causeth loss of Appetite shortness of Breath Rheums with sharp tickling Matter that first ascends into the Head and offends it and then falls back again into the Breast and upon the Lungs whence Coughs and Consumptions proceed Also in some People it begets a kind of unnatural hunger or craving in the Stomach or a sharp gnawing Pain which causeth many to eat
unclean fierce Qualities will grow so powerful that they will not only eat and drink such things but also desire them for all Creatures have one only foundation and each Particular contains the true Nature of the whole only the Qualities and Properties of Nature do differ so in one one Quality is strong in another the contrary which makes that great Variation which we see and admire amongst the Creatures as to their Dispositions Shapes Forms Tones Sounds c. And hence proceeds the possibility of altering changing strengthening and awakening of Dispositions Inclinations and Qualities in each Creature This was the grand cause in the beginning why Man was prohibited the eating of Flesh and Killing and why Moses in the Wilderness did not permit the Children of Israel to kill and eat Flesh during their forty years Travel for the Wilderness represents this World which all must pass through and deny themselves the Vanities oppression and Violences thereof or else they cannot enter the Holy Land but must fall in the Wilderness for those that have through the divine Power of the Lord escaped the hands of the Egyptians and are got clear of the Land of Bondage and have left Pharaoh and his Host swallowed up in the Red Sea ought not to long or lust after the Violences and Flesh Pots of the Land of Vanity but to continue in the Spirit of Meekness Love Humanity Self-denial and to do unto all Creatures as a man would be done unto himself which is the true Path of the New Life that leads into the right-hand-way and goes to the heavenly City For those wise Philosophical Seers into the divine and humane Mysteries were sensible of the manifold Evils that attended Mankind by his joyning himself with the unclean Beasts and by killing and eating their Flesh which did so powerfully-awaken and strengthen the inhumane Properties in Man that he by degrees became delighted in all kind of violent cruel bloody Actions not only to the inferiour Creatures but also to those of his own kind whence Cruelties and Murthers have been so mightily encouraged that scarce any have been counted of Noble Birth and Blood but such as have been famous Man slayers and destroyed many of their own Species Some of the Eastern-Sages from a true understanding of the Law of God in Nature declared against these Inhumanities and sanguinary Customs as Pythagoras and his Followers to this day in some Parts of the East-Indies who by their good Examples and innocent Lives do draw off many of the Savage People from the same to a more pure and peaceable course of Life For First They taught them the ill Consequences of Oppression Violences Killing and Eating the Flesh of their Inferiours and making themselves the Sepulchres of the dead Bodies of Beasts And when they had done this then it followed that they would not strike harm oppress or kill those of their own kind for he that does scruple to use violence unto or kill a Sheep or Cow will to be sure be far from hurting or murthering a Man And thus for many Ages have they led peaceable and harmless Lives in Unity and Amity with the whole Creation shewing all kind of Friendship and Equality not only to those of their own Species but to all other Creatures hurting or enslaving none but allowing them all those Privileges and Freedoms that the Creator had given to all the Inhabitants of the World nor cutting off the Thred of their Lives before their appointed time And it has been observed that these Men sinde their time of Love and Clemency to the Creatures have not only been bless'd with the Goods of this World and Dew of Heaven far above their wild savage Neighbours but also were never known to contend oppress fight kill or commit Man slaughter but have lived these many hundred Years in Peace and Concord with all the Creation whereas before they were convinced that it was an Evil to destroy and eat the Flesh and Blood of Beasts they made no more of killing and oppressing Men than a Wolf doth of devouing a Sheep or one of our Butchers of knocking down a Cow The very same and far greater Advantages would come to pass amongst Christians if they would cease from Contention Oppression and what tends and disposes them thereunto the killing of Beasts and eating their Flesh and Blood and in a short time humane murthers and devilish seuds and cruelties among each other would abate and perhaps scarce have a being amongst them For Separation has greater power than most imagine whether it be from evil or good for whatsoever any man separates himself from that Property in him is presently weakned As suppose a man separate himself from any kind of Intemperance Violence or Uncleanness and joyn himself to Vertue then presently the wrathful unclean Nature is weakned and grows faint for want of its proper Food but on the contrary the humane and divine Principle grows strong Likewise Separation does wonderfully dispel the dark Clouds of Ignorance and makes the Understanding able to distinguish between the good and evil Principles first in himself and then in all other things proportionably but so long as men live under the power of all kind of Uncleanness Violence and Oppression they cannot see any Evil therein because the humane and divine Principles are so weak feeble and as it were dead because their Counsels are continually disobey'd and instead thereof the Spirit of Errour is followed For this cause those that do not separate themselves from Uncleanness Oppression and the like Evils but are contented to follow the Multitude in the Left-hand way and resolve to continue the Religion of their Forefathers though thereby they do but mean Custom the greatest of Tyrants 'T is I say impossible for such People ever to understand or know any thing truly either of divine or humane Mysteries nor can any man penetrate thereinto except he first separate himself from all evil and unclean Ways of the Multitude and their Customs for 't is the departing from Evil and the practice of Good that crowns a Man with Wisdom Vertue and Understanding and renders him capable to put the right intrinsick Value upon things and reckon them at their true price for it is generally acknowledged amongst men the highest Folly to judge of those things which they have never known nor been experienced in Who would ask an honest Tarpawlin-Seaman's Advice in a Law-Case expect a Plough man should relish the Delicacies of an excellent Lesson of Musick or think a Cobler fit to value some curious Master-piece of Vandike or Lilly's Painting So improbable it is that men should have judgment in any Science Art or common Trade if they had not separated themselves from other Matters and applied themselves some time to such Crafts or Sciences And yet so vain are most men as to suppose themselves capable to judge of divine and humane Mysteries tho' they are still hurried with the Violences and wallow in
how the thing is in it self they themselves are as blind as Bats and the Reason is they are like the Old Hagg that Seneca somewhere mentions who never put her Eyes into her Head but when she went abroad Thus some of our silly Travellers will tell you forty Stories of France Spain and Italy but of the Rarities the Commodities the Manufactures the Laws and Privileges of England their Native Country they are utterly ignorant What a Madness is it for me with toil and hazard to ramble to the Ends of the Earth to dig in the Mines of Potosi or pick up the glittering Dirt of Guinea when God hath furnish'd me at home with a Soil that yields me precious Oar much more noble and useful Now that these Hear-say-Men or Book-Philosophers called The Learned are as ignorant as any nay commonly more than any others of the true knowledge of God in themselves appears undeniably by their walking contrary to the Ways of Vertue by their compelling and forcing others to their Self-invented Belly-Forms that are utterly destitute of the Life of Truth who do commit the greatest Outrages against God and against his People but chiefly the Learned It is they that set the Rabble on to torment the innocent and simple-hearted and all such as are of contraÌ„ry Forms to themselves All which are the Effects of the awakened fierce Wrath and does declare that the Devil and Hellish Powers do predominate in their hearts and that Love Mercy Meckness and doing as a Man would be done unto have no being in them and it will be so as long as Men prefer Vanity Tradition and their Belly before the Man that told the Woman of Samaria all things that ever she did which is Iesus Christ the true Light that enlightneth every Man that cometh into the World It was not therefore without deep Understanding that the more prudent in all Ages did esteem the knowledge of themselves before all other Attainments and recommended it as a thing principally necessary to every Man for all that do know the Power of God in themselves and are guided by the Voice of Wisdom and live in the friendly Love of God have abandoned and utterly exiled all Hatred Pride Malice Back-biting Fighting Killing Violence and Oppression whatsoever either of Man or Beast and in them meek innocent Dispositions and Inclinations do reign using and doing unto all Creatures as one would be used and done unto for Violence and all kind of Cruelty and Oppression is as contrary to such Natures as Darkness to Light And we may affirm That never any Men have harmed oppressed killed or used any kind of violence to any innocent Creature from the excitement or power of this Divine Principle Therefore let every one consider this they that find Hatred Envy the Spirit of Oppression and Violence to dwell in them may certainly conclude themselves in the fierce wrath of God for all such Dispositions and Inclinations do proceed from that dark Root of Bitterness which is all contrary to the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Great is the whole Mystery of Godliness but especially Christ manifest in the Flesh viz. That the eternal Love and Light of God should dwell essentially in man for after Man suffered his Will and Desires to enter into Vanity and Bestiality the Lord said It is not good nor safe for Man to be alone but promised him the Seed of the Woman the holy Principle of divine Light and Love which will bruise the head of the Serpent in all that adhere to and follow its Counsel that is it will destroy the works of the Devil and then all Violence and Oppression departs from that Man and that Saying is fulfilled The Lord is my Strength my Safeguard and Portion And every Man thus qualified is taught of God Iehovah is his Tutor and his Guide the mighty Counsellor so that he will no longer run after other Gods nor contend for any thing but Truth and Righteousness and to live a sober harmless innocent Life in the sight of God and Man and doing unto all as he would be done unto And such purified Souls amidst all the Hurries the Storms and Agitations of the World round about them do securely ride at Anchor in a blissful Calm and are satisfied with their Portions and know their Centre and to them all Contention ceaseth and there is Peace on Earth as in Heaven 9. There is no necessity for Mankind to oppress burry and kill the Beasts and eat their Flesh and Blood as many ignorantly affiâ—m crying out What shall we do with them They will over run us and eat us up if we do not kill and eat them But I answer That there is no sort of Cattel but is otherwise of use besides to be eaten and Horses are not eaten and yet what Nation complains of having too many of them But some will say Many of them are killed by Violence and Oppression which is confessed But if there were no Horses destroyed that way but used moderately and gently yet there would be no fear of having too many of them the like may be said of other innocent Creatures 10. The eating of Flesh and killing of Creatures for that purpose was never begun nor is now continued for want or necessity or for the Maintenance of Health but chiefly because the high lofty Spirit of Wrath and Sensuality had gotten the Dominion in Man over the meek Love and innocent harmless Nature and being so rampant could not be satisfied except it had a proportionable Food and of all others Flesh has the greatest affinity as is mentioned before And if all Men would refrain eating of Flesh there would be no cause for them to complain for want of Food for the Almighty has in all particulars been gracious and bountiful unto all Creatures but more especially unto Mankind for whom he hath spread a plentiful Table furnishing the whole Earth with a great multitude of variety of Herbs Fruits Grains and Seeds fit for Food which do afford a Nourishment of a most excellent Substance and far beyond Flesh as it doth appear by all that have applied themselves to such harmless innocent Foods especially in decayed Natures and sick as all with one voice consent as well the Learned as they call them as the Simple For when People are ill and Nature weakned with Distempers they all advise them to Pottages Grewels and various sorts of Foods made of Herbs Fruits and Grains but no Flesh must come near them during their Weakness Now if these Vegetables and Fruits do afford such an excellent nourishment and have such a natural and secret Power to help and recover Nature and restore lost Health and Srength how much more then shall they maintain and preserve it when it is restored But Flesh was never desired because Men found any defect in the nourishment of Vegetables and the like but because it hath a Simile with that unclean Nature and fierce Wrath that now became predominant
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
And if we may descend to grosser Pleasures have not the meanest of Men as great content and satisfaction with his poor Russet-Coated Wife as the greatest Prince with his Gayest Bride Whence the Poets always feign LOVE the noblest of the Passions to be bred amongst the Villagers and a Companion of Rusticks and Shepherdesses Nay to go higher has not the great All Wise Creator given the most friendly Element the Air in Gavil-kind to all the Sons of Men every one enjoying an equal Portion And are not the greatest of Men subject to all the Injuries of the Elements and Necessities and Accidents of Natural Life viz. Heat Cold Hunger Thirst Diseases and even Death it self as much and as frequently and as certainly as the Poor And yet still men are so foolish and so vain as to vaunt of their Great Birth and their Noble Blood Can any thing be mote extravagantly ridiculous True it is all that are Governors Magistrates and Officers of the People ought to be honoured and respected in their Places according to their respective Dignities and so much the more if they govern according to the Law of God and Nature doing every man Justice and Right and being a Terror unto evil doers and a Praise unto them that do well But this real Honour contracted on Political Considerations of Office and Vertue is nothing to that Fantastick Glory derived meerly from Ancestors and the brave Feats done by our Great-Grandsires Grand-Fathers so much boasted of by those who please themselves in being Great rather by their Mother's Labours than their own 14. It is to be noted that most sorts of Flesh and Fish as to their operations on the Body and Senses are not so innocent brisk aery and lively as Herbs Seeds Grains Fruits and various sorts of excellent Food made of them though many of our English Belly-Gods suppose Flesh to be most mighty in its operation but they are grosly mistaken and no wonder since their Brains Wits and Understandings are through Intemperance Superfluity and Gluttony sunk into their Bellies for Flesh is of a gross substance dull and heavy in its operation fills the Body with abundance of slimy corrupt Juices bad Blood and in many Constitutions too great a quantity and causeth the Animal Spirits to be very impure whence arise Boils Scabs King's-Evils Leprosies and sometimes clotted Blood like pieces of Flesh which lie in some of the Vessels of the Stomach till being gathered into hard Lumps they sorely oppress Nature and cause Distempers which are the Death of Multitudes Flesh and Blood is too near of kin to the Animal Life in Man to be a proper Food for him 't is like the Marrying of Brothers and Sisters Therefore the Ancients were curious in forbidding especially the eating of the Flesh of any of those Beasts that would naturally eat the Flesh of their Fellow-Creatures and we need go no farther than every Man's experience to know that all such Flesh and also Fish have a rank strong fulsome Taste and affords a like Nourishment Nor has Flesh and Blood grown into great reputation from the excellency of its Taste or Nourishment but chiefly as we have elsewhere observed from the near affinity it has with the awaken'd Wrath and bestial Nature which in most men predominates Hence when once Men have tasted Flesh with the Blood the Bestial Qualities are presently irritated and so pleased that nothing else will afford them such satisfaction because of its great affinity with the Bestial and Animal Life the hunger grows so strong in many that they will eat Flesh or Fish that stinks and is half putrified if they cannot have other rather than feed upon Bread Butter Cheese or the like which is an bundred-fold beyond it both as to Taste Nourishment and Vertue The same is to be understood of all sorts of unclean Birds and Beastss of Prey As for example If a Dog chance to suck the Blood and eat the raw Flesh of any Creature it does so violently open the gate of the fierce Quality that the Hunger grows so great that he becomes ten-fold more eager revenous and fierce than before This every one almost doth know and if they consider it well shall find the very same Effects in Bodies humane as each man may feel in himself if he be a diligent observer of his own Nature If this had not been so Moses and many wise men in most Ages had never made such strict Laws against eating of Flesh without distinction and that such Flesh as was allowed to be eaten should be throughly cleansed from the Blood c. Which rendered such Flesh far wholsomer and to afford a better nourishment but not so much as our way of Killing and Dressing which in truth in most Creatures as Cows Oxen c. is next door to strangling whereby the natural Spirits are suffocated and causes the Blood and fierce wrathful Spirits to centre and lodge themselves in all parts of the Body and hinders them that they pass not so freely away where the wound is made This the Apostles understood very well We have no other Commandment to lay on you but that you abstain from Blood Fornications things offered to Idols and things strangled there being more Evil in all sorts of Flesh and Fish that is so killed than most do imagine for when there is no Wound made the animal bestial wrathful fierce original poysonous Spirits become suffocated and Death's stroke brings the whole Nature into such amazing frightful Agonies as few Men or Killers of Beasts are sensible of or endued with so much humanity to consider for if they did suffer Compassion to arise in them their leud Trade of killing would not be so easie to them I say the central Poysons being awakened by the stroke of Death and finding no Passage they seize the pure Spirits whose Habitation is the Blood and then presently the sweet Oyl or Balsamick Property turns sower strong and fulsome as is manifest every where both in Animals and Vegetables whensoever the pure spirituous parts are by any improper preparation or other Accidents wounded suffocated or evaporated then in a moment's time the sweet balsamick Property is depraved and turns eager and unwholesome Hence it is that the Flesh of those Creatures that are strangled does neither look so well nor eat so sweet nor is so healthy as other Flesh for when any Creature perceives its Life in danger there is such a strugling and horror within as none can imagine but such only as have been near dead by the like means it being the very same in a Beast as in Men. This being better understood by the Ancients than now-a-days it was therefore amongst them not lawful to kill any Creature that was to be eaten without making a Wound by which means the Blood did pass freely away and with it the fierce and wrathful Spirits and Poysons and so the Flesh was purged and freed from many sorts of Uncleanness and even this
to fear to oppress or do unto any Creature that which he would not have done unto himself for Oppression Killing wrathful Words and Works do belong to the Egyptians and not to those that travel towards the Land of Canaan An Instance of which we have in St. Iude who said That when Michael the Arch-Angel disputed about the Body of Moses with the Devil he did not dare to bring any railing Accusation not but that the good Angel might as to Justice have done it but he did not dare do it because he must first have entred with his Will into the wrathful fierce Principle or hellish nature and awakened it in himself therefore he only said The Lord rebuke thee And for the same Reason our Saviour Christ commands Men not to be angry nor call their Brethren Racha or Fools that is any Name of Wrath Malice or Contempt If this were rightly understood and regarded Men would not dare to abandon themselves to such Heats Passions and Furies as every day we behold they would not make it a Trade a Sport a Pastime to kill murther and use all kind of Violence We read in Genesis of Lot's Wife that she looked back towards Sodom for which she was turned into a Pillar of Salt she entred into the fierce Anger and Wrath of God and Nature which she was forewarned of so that she was precipitated into and comprehended in the grand Fountain of Wrath that is the original Forms of Nature of which Salt is one and therefore the Prophets and all those whom the Lord enlightned with divine and humane Understanding and whose chief business was to reclaim men from the Snares and Evils of Oppression and Violence and teach them the Ways of Mercy Clemency and Love often threatned them with the same Judgment which befel Lot's Wife it being the portion of all that live and die in the Spirit of Oppression Nay was not that great Man Moses prevented from entring into the Holy Land because he was wrath with the Children of Israel when they murmured and complained for want of Water saying Ye Rebels must we fetch Water out of this Rock for you Whereupon saith the Lord to him and his Brother Aaron Because ye believed me not to sanctifie me in the Eyes of the Children of Israel therefore shall you not bring this Congregation into the Land which I have given them Here Moses and Aaron had suffered their Desires and Wills to enter into the Wrathful Centre and Self-hood whence the Word Rebel was formed for the very Sound thereof demonstrates from what Principle it does proceed And hence probably it may be that the evil Angel did so dispute about or claim a property to the Body of Moses This therefore is a principal Point in Religion for every one to understand and distinguish in himself from what Principle every Thought and Word does proceed for otherwise Men may and do precipitate themselves into the wrath and fierce original of the hellish Nature which if once it get to reign in the Heart it quickly blisters out its Venom at the Tongue in such leud Words as Rebels Rogue Dog Devil and horrid Oaths Curses and Execrations the very sound of which is enough to declare whence they proceed whereas from the divine and truly humane Nature do arise and slow Words of Comfort and Consolation those soft Answers that turn away Wrath and all those delightful sociable obliging Charms of friendly Conversation wherein consists one of the greatest Felicities of this mortal Life and which for ought I know will be one main occasion to our Happiness in Heaven And wheresoever such Words are entertained they strengthen and increase their own Principle both in those that speak them and in those that hear them Of that great Man King David who is sometimes stiled A Man after God's own Heart the Scripture saith That the Lord did not admit him to build the outward Temple which was a true Figure of the internal and spiritual Temple And what was the Reason Because he had been a Man of Violence and Blood which had so awakened the Principle of Wrath and Fierceness as did very much impede the divine work And this it will do not only in David but all others in whom it is kindled No Man can do the Work of Wrath and not awaken and strengthen the Principle which leads to such Acts as is farther manifested by all those that are of violent Trades and killing Employments although such People do not kill the Beasts in Anger or in a way of Revenge for any Injuries pretended formerly to be done but do it meerly as it is their Occupation whereby to get a Livelihood yet nevertheless insensibly and unknown to their Reason and Intention they do by degrees irritate and corroborate the fierce Properties of Nature and become rash fierce hot and cruel No wonder then if most of the holy Men and Prophets who by a divine Eye and Understanding did pry into the hidden Mysteries of God and Nature were strict Abstainers and separated themselves from the Uncleannesses Oppressions and Violences that the superfluous worldly Belly gods do subject themselves unto whose chief care is to procure such Meats and Drinks as will gratifie their Palates and Appetites for pleasing of which they regard not whom they oppress be they Men or Beasts some of them spending as much in one day as an hundred Men can get by their hard Labour and all to please the wanton Lust and momentary Pleasure of the Throat they having but only the meer Forms and Shapes of Men and being really void both of Humanity and Christianity From this ground doth proceed all violent Courses and Contentions both publick and private which Evils will never be remedied except Men take up the Cross and deny themselves and follow the Counsel of the divine Principle and hearken unto the Voice of Wisdom which continually cries in the Gate of every Man's City and happy is he that hearkens unto her for she is a sufficient Guide to lead every one into the pure simple Way of Truth and teach us from what we ought to separate our selves whereby we may acquire Health to the Soul and Body and the Treasures both of Time and Eternity But none are or can be sensible of those Advantages but such alone as are got through thé Red Sea and the Howling Wilderness and have entred into the Land of Canaan for it seems too mean a thing and the Ways that lead to those holy Virtues are too plain for the great People of this World But our Lord and Saviour Christ saith My Kingdom is not of this World and therefore when Peter in the most just and pious Cause that can be imagined viz. to preserve his innocent Master from unjust violence drew his Sword our Lord calmly bid him put it up for the Sword cannot be drawn but by and through the Power of God's Wrath which does predominate in most Men's Hearts and this Christ
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
time Our Friends Abstinence Temperance and Cleanness do continually shew us the vanity of such things and spur us on and hasten us towards the Land of Peace We do not look back for fear we should awaken the Centre the original Poisons and then our sweet Water would be in danger of being dried up as it came to pass in Lucifer and his Legions there being but nine Figures or degrees of Wisdom attainable by mortal Men the tenth Number viz. o is the highest and those that have gradually passed through the Nines must stand still in silence and leave off all numbering and suffer God's Holy Spirit to work the Will and the Deed in him as he pleaseth We have no Butchers Fowlers nor any that belong to the Trade of Killing Violence or Oppression amongst us most of them revolted and join'd themselves to Pharaoh before they came out of Egypt and were destroyed with his Troops in the Sea of Blood or Wrath and those of them that passed through the Red Sea were cut off in the Wilderness for finding their Trade very bad and low and the nearer they came to the Land of Peace the worse it grew so they began to tumult and complain and murmur against the Lord that he dealt so hardly with them Which awaken'd the Centre of Wrath and destroyed them so that none of this sort of People enter'd the holy Land that flows with Milk and Honey and not with the Blood of the humane nor bestial Nature Neither have we any Billings-gates all that sort of People are our Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water And but very few Inns of Court-Gentlemen or Templers all of them that escaped the Egyptian Plagues were destroyed with Corah Dathan and Abiram in the wild Nature of this World or Wilderness Neither have we many Churches and yet have a great number of Temples in which we worship the Lord but there be no Bells in them that are compounded of imperfect Metals therefore we have no need of those robustick Musicians viz. Ringers to call the People to worship such Musick is too Saturnine and Martial for us No every one of us hath his own Bell and none can ring or make Musick of it but himself which being skilfully handled makes a more sweet soft and pleasing Harmony than the Egyptian Bells who are loud harsh and penetrating and all the Ringers are rude cruel and inhumane Our young People do not learn to ring any Bells but their own which when well learned calls them to the Worship of God in the proper Times and Seasons even as the good Spirit of God shall teach them as the Scripture saith The holy Men of God taught and spoke as the Holy Spirit moved in them We do not admit any to be Magistrates or Governours over us but only those that by Industry Prayer and Meditation have attained to a more excellent Understanding of God Nature and Themselves than their Neighbours which doth render them fit to govern We account none capable to govern others that have not first learned in all particulars to govern themselves It is contrary to our Philosophy to mix or compound our Food with things of disagreeing natures We use no double Preparations the more simple our Food is the more agreeable it is to our Nature and best sustains our Healths It is not a Custom for our Women to give or suffer their Children to drink any kind of Beer or Syder whilst their Food is chiefly Milk there being nothing more contrary to Milk than such sharp Liquors Milk being of a sweet gentle mild friendly Nature and Operation having no manifest Quality that doth too violently predominate there being a certain Harmony between the Properties of Nature in Milk and therefore it hath always been found by Experience to be the best Food for Children and all young People administring proper Nourishment in Equality to all Parts But on the contrary all sorts of Beer Syder and other fermented Drinks are of a sowr keen or sharp Quality and for this cause being mixed with Milk it turns or separates the wheyish part from the thick the same is to be understood if Children or others drink after eating of Milk if they do not forbear a convenient time till the Stomach hath made separation and alter'd the Property of it Besides the constant drinking of such Liquors do sowre the Stomach and generate a keen or sharp Quality which is apt to turn the Milk into an hard tough substance and thereby puts Nature to great difficulty to concoct or make Separation Doth not our daily Experience shew us that all Curd of Milk is hard of Concoction and burthensome to the Stomach For this Cause many having used themselves to drink plentifully of strong Drinks and to the eating of compounded Food which have so sowr'd the Stomach and alter'd it from its simplicity that the eating of this friendly harmless Food becomes offensive to them and disagreeing especially to some particular People whose Stomachs are as it were naturally inclined to generate a sowre Matter For this cause if any shall drink immediately after eating of Milk it will cause them to puke up the thin wheyish parts whilst the hard substance remains in the Stomach which doth foul and hinder Concoction For these Reasons it is much better for all Children and young People whose Food is chiefly Milk to drink Water it being the most like Milk of any Drink of a mild gentle friendly Nature and Operation which is farther manifested by its being mixed with Milk they mix or incorporate themselves as one entire Body making no variation or separation as other Liquors will and therefore it hath been found by Experience in all Ages to be the best and most natural Drink for all People but more especially for Women and Children who are endued with tender Spirits and gentle Heats and if their Meats and Drinks have not a near Affinity both in quality and quantity to their Natures it will quickly put them out of Tune and cause them to fall into Diseases and then Nature will become unequal in her Operations Every like doth with highest diligence endeavour to beget its Simile both in the Body and Mind Water being in its own nature so clean simple and innocent that it doth not only wash and cleanse the Mouth throughly and all the Vessels of the Stomach from such gross thick Matter that doth stick and furr them but it doth distil its moist Nourishment into all parts of the Body without making any noise or causing an unequal Motion cooling and refreshing Nature strengthens Concoction thins the Blood causing it to circulate freely makes the natural parts brisk and lively For this cause those Women and Children that do constantly drink Water are not subject to so many Diseases as others whose practice is to drink strong Liquors We have but one sort of Bread which is neither coarse nor fine We never change the Fashions of our Garments nor deck them
their Mault to be put in too hot when your Water is thus hot then take it off the Fire and put what Herbs Seeds or other Ingredients you please and let them lie in it about an hour and then strain your Liquor from the Herbs c. and let it stand until it be throughly cold then add to it either Ale Beer White or Rhenish-wine or any other Wine you shall think most convenient for your particular use so as to make it either strong or weak as you please and then sweeten it with good Sugar but if you would sweeten it with Spanish Fruits then you are to add the Fruit bruised at the same time as you put the Herbs into the Liquor and let them infuse together and it will do very well and when it is strained and cold add your Wine as aforesaid and put it into Bottles for your use and it will keep 2 3 4 5 6 7 or 8 weeks or more as you make it in strength and drink very pleasant and delightful being endued with all the good Virtues of the Ingredients Physical Decoctions made after this manner will be as welcome to the Pallates and Stomachs of the Sick as good Wine Beer or Ale for there will be no sick fainty gross strong taste nor smell in them as there always is in those made after the common way for all sorts of Beer Ale and Wines have already passed through Fermentation and Digestions which have opened the gross Body of Phlegm whereby the spirituous parts are set at liberty or become Volatile and External so that such Liquors or fermented Drinks will not admit of any other or further Preparation especially by Fire for so soon as they approach it the said Volatile Spirits become either evaporated or suffocated and then presently the sweet Balsamick Body dieth and turneth of an evil sower heavy taste and smell and of a dead heavy Nature and Operation having in it neither true Virtue nor Power therefore the Learned have no reason to oppose me in this Particular for let us both appeal to Experience Take you the best Beer Ale or Wine and warm or boyl it and let it stand till 't is cold and then tell me what 't is good for Verily for as much as Salt is when it hath lost its Savour Nay will not the very standing of such fermental Liquors open to the Air cause the spirituous parts to evaporate and the sweet Body to die and become sower and eager It is therefore no Paradox but a Natural Truth that the boyling of Herbs Seeds c. in Beer Ale or Wine does totally destroy both their Natural and Physical Vertues and such Decoctions are a meer loathing to Nature a Death instead of Life In making of Posset-drink you are to observe when your Milk boyls to turn it with Ale Beer or Wine then strain it and set it again upon the Fire and make it boyling hot but let it not boyl then take it off and add what Herbs Seeds or Flowers you please but if Seeds they must be bruised and let them infuse half a quarter of an hour or thereabouts and then strain it and your Posset-drink will taste and smell and retain the pure essential Virtues and lively Tinctures which the Herbs Seeds or other Ingredients were endued with and be an hundred times more pleasant to the Pallate and agreeable to the Stomach and also much more beneficial against the Disease such Ingredients are appropriated unto than those commonly made wherein the Ingredients are boyled Try and then judge It is to be noted That all sorts of Cordials that are compounded with various sorts of Distilled-waters and Syrups or with Strong-Water as that they call Epidemick-water are an abomination to Nature even in perfect Health when the Pallate and Stomach are strong sharp and powerful and what are they then to weak sick People and Languishing Natures For first the Natural Physical Vertues are destroyed by ill management and unnatural Preparation of each Ingredient before they are mixt And secondly the jumbling together such various things most of which are of contrary and disagreeing Natures is sufficient to destroy the good Virtues of the best of things and therefore 't is certain such Medicines and Cordials have not power to help or cure the least of Distempers not but many thousands after taking great quantities of their Slops may recover and then many people slander the Doctor with a Cure and ascribe to his Medicines mighty Virtues whereof indeed neither the one nor the other was ever guilty They have just cause rather to acknowledge the divine hand of God and his Hand-maid Nature and thereunto attribute the Recovery of their Health and not to those sick fainty Medicaments which generally do abundance more hurt than good Likewise their Epidemick-water is in its own Nature of a fierce hot Quality and Operation and tho it be made of the best of Wine viz. Sack yet the Limbeck does totally destroy its pure volatile spirits and balsamick virtues and also the Opening Cleansing Quality of all the Herbs or Drugs that are distilled with such Liquors or Wine so that there does remain or run off only a strong sulpherous brandish Spirit that has no other Operation than Common-Brandy or Spirit of Wine 'T is true they do allay this hot fiery Nature and Quality by adding to it Sugar or the like which renders it more tolerable to the Pallate and Stomach but the Operation is the very same as Brandy sweetned or any other Spirits If a strong healthy person should be confined to the Cordials Iulips daubing Electuaries and great number of sick Potions boyled Drinks and variety of sweet Slops and nothing more hurts and obstructs the Stomach than sweet things to the close Rooms lusty Fires drawn Curtains and other torturing Circumstances wherewith Doctors and Nurses torment those whose Nature is already wounded and languishing it would no doubt in a very short time destroy the Health of the strongest of men Therefore I would have every Intelligible Person consider the same and the Reasons of things and not be led away by Ignorant Sots who are meer Pretenders and not Physicians for Physicians ought 1st to be born with a Natural Genius and suitable Gifts rendring them capable of understanding natural things 2ly They ought to apply themselves to the Knowledge of God Nature and Themselves 3ly They ought to apply themselves to the Oracle of God in themselves to be taught by the Voice of Wisdom which crys in the Gates of every mans City For he that has not Eyes of his own and Understanding of his own tho he be the greatest of Scholars in outward Learning can never distinguish between Good and Evil but is always uncertain and all his Administrations as vain and presumptuous as a blind mans Judgment is of Colours 4ly They ought to have the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom always before their Eyes and not make Money and
from what Cause those Disturbances arise Thus many that were brave healthy Virgins are no sooner Married and become Child-bearers but they grow weak feeble and full of Diseases and Disorders which is the more remarkeable since the same or the like is not to be instanced in any other Creature This should teach Men to behave themselves friendly and with as Even and Pleasant a Temper as possible they can to their young Wives because nothing does so much Injury to Women especially when Pregnant or great-with-Child as a cross surly Carriage from those from whom they expect Indulgence and a pleasant Humour For let us complain never so much of Shrews and Scolds yet I must do Truth that Justice as to avow That the Crosness and Ill-carriage of the Wives has not the hundredth part of that power to hurt and wound the Healths of Men as the unkindness and ill deportment of Husbands have to prejudice the Women for that Sex being of a weak tender Nature their Fires burn but weak and their predominant Quality stands in the meek Element of Water so that every little Affront from those they Love wounds them to the very Heart and does very often awaken even the very Central Spirits whereby Nature is put into an agonious trembling Condition whence proceed Suffocations of the Spirits and Stoppages of the due Circulations and thence variety of Diseases Futhermore Married People ought not by any kind of Arts of compounding or preparing of Meats or Drinks endeavour to heighten and strain Nature whereby they may be the better able to gratify their Lusts and Extravagant Wantonness for all such things are an Affront to Nature and force her out of her simple way and tho for the present by such Arts the Party seems more vigorous yet he shall soon find that the same decays and renders him much more weak and impotent than if he had never medled with such Abominations Nor ought any to suffer their Imaginations Wills or Desires to enter too violently into the Venereal Properties for the Imagination of Mankind is so strong and powerful that it can kindle and awaken all the Central Properties whereby many particular Persons tho by their Constitutions cold and but weakly do yet through Imagination and strong Desires stir up Nature to a great height even to the ruin of their Healths for Nature never ought to be spurred or strained but suffered gently to go on in her own Pace and her own Way The lawful use of the Marriage-Bed is never hurtful to mature Age if Nature be not stimulated on by some unnatural Course or Superfluity either of Imagination Meat Drinks Idleness or the like but rather makes People more lightsome and pleasant as being a thing purely Natural but if raised or forced on by Art then there is no Intemperance or Superfluity does so soon wound the Health or bring so many Inconveniences on both Body and Mind 4thly The most proper Age for Men to Marry at is from Twenty six Years of Age to Thirty or thereaabouts for then Nature has attained to the highest degree of Maturity so that the moderate use of Lawful Sheets will not hurt besides at those years it is to be supposed Persons will if ever be come to some degrees of Discretion Understanding Staidness and Moderation to know their Duties and how to behave themselves to their Wives and Families There is nothing more injurious to the Health of the Body than a too early Acquaintance with Venus or immoderate use of her in Youth whilst Nature is a growing it does in some Constitutions weaken the Spermatick Vessels and the retentive Faculty so that Nature is never able to out-grow it For the Female Sex from Eighteen to Twenty six is a very proper time to alter their Condition and of Virgins commence Women 'T is a very ill custom People have got to Match their Daghters almost as soon as they are out of their Hanging-Sleeves and I know no excuse for it but the Licentiousness of the Age which is such that if Parents do not provide Husbands for their Daughters at Fourteen they are ready to provide them themselves or do worse The Proverb is certainly true and in more Senses than one He that Marries a Girl marrs a Woman it spoils their Growth hastens on Diseases causes a breed of small sickly puling Children makes her a Mistress before she understands her self whence ill management of the Family and forty other Mischiefs too tedious to enumerate 5thly As Nature Reason and the Law of God require Women to separate themselves when their Uncleanness or Monthly Visits are upon them for Conception at such times is unnatural and fails not to intail Leprous and Filthy Diseases on the Children then begot as Boils Botches Kings-Evil c. so it will be also convenient for Men sometimes to lye alone for the lying of Man and Wife together always in the same Bed is apt to decrease Love and make it cold and also destroys the Health and Courage of Man whereas their separating provided it be done freely and prudently and not in discontent or sullenness and lying alone sometimes for a season encreaseth the strength of the Body and makes the mind more vigorous and renders their coming together again more desirable and pleasant it being an hard thing for many Men to have such esteem as they ought to have for those things they over-tharge themselves withal tho they be the best of Enjoyments And this lying alone is the rather to be urged because Women have no natural Inclination to Venereal Actions after Conception setting aside their depraved Desires and Imaginations arising from the provocations Men may use which do kindle and violently stir up the hidden or sleeping Properties of Venus and strain and force Nature out of her Way and Operation therefore no Woman ought to know her Husband after known Conception till after they be delivered and well again All the Creatures of the Field even the whole Creation may be Examples either to teach or upbraid Mankind in this particular yet few there be that are sensible of the greatness of this Sin nor of the evil Consequences that attend Mankind by the Practice thereof Indeed Custom makes the greatest Evils easy and familiar and even excusable in the Eyes of most People but not in the sight of God and Nature For this cause Mankind is afflicted with many and great Perturbations and Distempers which no other Creatures are subject unto because Men break the good Law of God in Nature and turn the natural use of things into Wantonness which cannot pass unretaliated for the Divine Eye and Providence takes notice of all the Good and Evil Works of Mankind and Rewards every one according to its Intrinsick Nature which we ought to regard and not esteem a thing Good or Lawful meerly because Customary and because the multitude do it but rather for that very Reason we ought to suspect it for there is scarce a
worse Guide than the Crowd Few there be that ever in their whole Lives consider or so much as imagine that they can be guilty of any Sin with their own Wives tho they commit all kinds of Folly Wantonness and Uncleanness with them Whereas in truth since thereby they violate the Law of God and course of undepraved Nature there is but very little difference as to the Intrinsick Evil between him that Marries an Old Woman or him that commands his Wife at unfit seasons as in the time of Pregnancy or her Lunar Visits and him that goes to Common-Harlots only the former is not so Scandalous because allowed by Law or Custom which forbid the latter but in the sight of God and Nature they are both grand Evils 6thly Intemperance is so great an Enemy to Mankind that it corrupts both Root and Branch as when Men overcharge themselves with Meats and Drinks which heat the Blood and so violently inflame and swell the Spermatick Vessels whence proceed wanton Desires and loose Imaginations that vehemently impress and incorporate themselves in and with the Venerial Properties even as the Imagination and Desires of a Woman with Child do impress the Image of the thing longed for on the Fruit or Child The Seed does contain all the true Properties and the whole state of the Mind and Sensual Powers whether it be Good or Evil at the time of Conception and accordingly the Fruit is endued with good or evil Dispositions and Inclinations and the Face or Complexion of each Child is figured or framed according as the Posture and Aspects of the Parents Faces are at the very juncture or time of Conception viz. whether they look Soberly or Merry Languishing or with Wide Mouths Eyes distorted sullen sleepy or heavy and dull or lively and brisk or any other Fashion or Form the very same will the Imagination impress on the Fruit or Child for Nature has a secret Power of conveyance by Virtue of the Phantasy and Spirits which is unperceivable to the Parents Therefore all Fathers and Mothers ought at all times to be Sober and keep themselves cool and low that the Spirit of Understanding may have its Operation For every Thing or Quality whether it be Evil or Good has a Key in it self to open its own Principle and hath a Seed to beget its own Likeness in all Particulars For this cause a simple mean Life in which the Power of God and Nature have their Operation in equal weight and measure is to be preferred before the Grandeur and State of this World Sobriety and the Fear of the Lord being the Foundation of all Virtue for all Health Strength and Vigour both of the Body and Mind do consist in the Unity of the Parts and a just Temperament or Equality As on the other side Contrariety is the Root and Parent of all Diseases both Internal and External Therefore let every one apply himself to Wisdom which will teach the Knowledg of God in a Man's self which Knowledg and Eye of Wisdom will lead and conduct every one that is an obedient Student into the Life of Uniformity where every property of Nature does impress and reign in each other sending forth Hymns and Hallelujahs and Everlasting Songs of Praises unto the God of Unity and Order Lastly It is to be noted That the Lord and Great Creator of all Beings has subjected all Creatures unto his unalterable Law of Nature and therefore they keep and observe their proper Times and Seasons for Generation and consequently are more healthy and sound than Mankind but Man being made greater than any other Creature visible viz. God's Image and endued with Divine and Humane Wisdom and a free uncontroulable Will which he can immerse either into Evil or Good the Lord for this cause saith I have set Life and Death before you chuse ye Now most Men inclining to the left-hand-way are thereby precipitated into all Uncleanness Unchastity and Intemperance and in all Evil do as much exceed most sorts of Beasts as Men do excel Beasts in Wisdom for the Lord endued Man with the Spirit of Understanding by which he might be a Guide and Law unto himself but he has degenerated and withstood the good Counsel of Wisdom and chosen the left-hand-way which leads into all kind of Evil and Superfluity Whereas if this had not come to pass but instead thereof if men had chosen the right way and lived in the Power and Operation of God's Law then there would have been no need of Outward Laws and Magistrates but every Man would have done what was Right and Just in the sight of the Lord from an innate power and virtue in himself and not for fear of external Laws neither would he have leaned on the shoulders of the Multitude nor complyed with Tradition and Custom against the Dictates of Nature and Reason The Beasts of the Field bieng under the driving and impulse of God's Natural Law they are wholly acted by it so that when Nature stirs and prompts them on then they move and when Nature stands still they are quiet This is the Way of God and his unalterable Law in the course of natural things but Man has so greatly depraved himself through the power of his Free-will always inclining to Evil that he forceth Nature out of her simple Way violating the Law of God to the great hurt of his Soul and Body But few there be that are sensible of the sublime Virtues and Benefits that accompany Sobriety and Chastity tho the Pleasures that attend them are so many and great and most easily attainable if we will hearken to the Voice of Wisdom which is the best Physician and the best Law-giver and the only Theology in a word The opener of all Seals and Mysteries both Divine and Humane and Happy yea thrice Blessed are all they that are acquainted with and obey it CHAP. XX. How to cure Wounds Cuts Pricks of Thorns and other Accidents without Salves Oyntments or Plaisters Also if any part of the Body or Flesh be Poysoned it is a certain Remedy MANY persons happening to Cut or Prick with Thorns or Splinters some Parts of their Bodies or being troubled with Ring-worms Tettors Fellons on their Hands or Fingers or with Common Bruises or any the like Accidents running presently to Chyrurgions who for gain put them to much pain and misery or otherwise tampering therwith so far encrease those Maladies that many times they grow to Gangreens and Mortifications and their Fingers Arms Legs are often forced to be cut off and not a few have their Lives thereby shortened To prevent which Mischiefs I think my self obliged in Charity ty my Countrey-men to recommend to them an easie ready Course of Remedy without any Charge Trouble or Hazard which as has been proved by manifold Experience will not fail to heal and cure all such Defects and let none slight it for its plainness and meanness for all the ways of God and Nature are so