done by others so that there is no boubt to be made of the matter of fact The very same sympathetical Power have all other things though in some it be more Occult. What man in the World would believe the attractive Inclination which the Loadstone has upon Iron if it did not appear to his sight All or most men of Reason believe that the Constellations Signs and Elements have a particular and also a general Influence on all Inferior Earthly Bodies which is apparent to all our Senses varying Times and Seasons Night and Day making the Earth fruitful and the contrary and do not our Bodies alter as the Elements do And as the Influences of the Sun vary so do all things under Heaven How verdent and sprightly does our Mother Earth appear in fresh and rich Emdroideries and all the Trees in new Perriwigs and Flowers springing and wanton Birds with inimitable Harmony seem to welcom the approach of that great Eye of the World when he begins to renew his Visits to us in the Spring and all Creatures look blyth and jolly and the Blood capers in Youthful Veins and nothing appears in Natures universal Face but Smiles and Gallantry On the contrary when he with draws his vivifying Beams and retreats to the Chambers of the South how dull and dejected does every thing become and Fields and Trees stript of their Ornament and Beauty languish like forsaken Lovers and appear forlorn as hopeless Prisoners and Melancholy as old Age Nay if under the Protection of Truth we might Alarum lazy Tradition with a bold Paradox without dreading Excommunication from the Vertuoso for advancing Heresies in Philosophy I would add that Inferiors counter-act on Superiors as well as Superiors on them that all things in this lower World have the like Influences on the Coelestial Bodies and Elements as the Coelestials have on Sublunaries and Terrestrials and that this mutual Influx they have one upon the other by a certain natural Attraction and sympathetical Inclination Thus the wonderful and wise Creator has endued every thing with an Attractive and Influential Vertue and hence it often comes to pass that the Sons of Men by their Unclean Conversations do awaken and stir up the Wrath of the Coelestial Bodies and by a secret and yet powerful Attraction draws down the malignant Configurations which sometimes cause Epidemical Diseases at other times Wars Famine c. all according to the Nature of the Evils or Property of Nature that was awakened As for Example If the People of any Town or City give way to Uncleannesses in Meats Drinks c. and addicted to the Impurities of Venus as most such places are then by mutual Inclination the like Property in the Coelestial Bodies and Elements are excited and by degrees contaminate the whole Atmosphere or parts of the Air next the Earth with Pestilential Poysons causing Botches Boils Venerial Diseases Fevers and Plagues all according to the degree of the awakened Wrath and the length or shortness of the time of its operation for all Plagues and Pestilential Airs caused by Uncleanness do by degrees corrupt the pure Spirits or venerial Properties in the Body for whensoever this sweet Quality is violated the Distempers thence arising will for the most part manifest themselves in Botches Boils Scabs or Leprosies and Spots in the Flesh often accompanied with general Weakness and a decay of the Radical Moisture But if the Properties of Saturn and Mars be so violently stirred up or awakned and the fierce Storms of Nature do predominate in the Hearts and Souls of Men then follow Tumults Wars Burning of Towns and Cities and such like Calamities and Devastations For Mens evil Words and Works and Unmerciful Cruelties certainly awaken the Wrath of God in the Stars and Elements and hasten on Judgments No Man or Nation can escape the great Law of Retaliation which the Creator ordained in the beginning for Moses's Law was the greatest and most excellent of all Laws because it was built and had its Root in Nature therefore whensoever the Iews observed it they were sure of being blessed for Those that were obedient thereunto did preserve the Camp of the Lord from being defiled The Camp of the Lord is Man and if Man keep himself from being defiled he will not awaken the Wrath of God in the Stars and Elements but as he keeps himself clean and from doing Violence and obeys the Voice of Wisdom and follows the friendly Counsels of the divine Principle of God's eternal Love and Light then 't is most certain that by a secret power he will awaken the benevolent Properties of the Coelestial Bodies and Elements and attract their propitious Influences For the Lord promised to such as were obedient the Dew of Heaven but when they became Rebellious Unclean and Intemperate then the Lord permitted the Evil Configurations and Influences of the Coelestial Bodies to take place and many sore Evils and Calamities they endured This the Scriptures of Truth do testifie and indeed it cannot be otherwise for it is the Eternal Law of God in Nature That whatsoever Property or Principle Men do awaken and enter into with their free-will whether it be good or evil the same grows strong and he is comprehended by it and swallowed up in it and made a subject unto that Kingdom and this both in the particular and in general as Experience teaches for whensoever any particular Man gives way to any particular Evil that is a sin against God and his Law in Nature and shall continue in the same without Repentance 't is certain he will pull down the Judgments upon himself but as Mens Sins and Transgressions are not alike so neither their Rewards or Punishments This is further manifested by Mens Words and Works doth not every word carry the Power of its Principle whence it had its birth For that Property that was predominate in the Word Sound or Tone the same or the like Quality it does stir up and awaken in those to whom the Words or Discourses are directed whether it be good or evil if the Words are formed by the Saturnine Property then they awaken Envy Contention and a Morose Dogged Humour If they proceed from Mars then the fierce wrathful Fires are excited and so of the rest For if it were not so an Angry Word would not have any power to move them to Anger to whom it is directed nor would Loving Speeches beget Love nor a Meek Answer according to Solomons Observation Turn away Wrath But as one Man has power to stir up and awaken Love or Anger in another by his Words and Works the same is to be understood in all other things for there is a proportionate similitude between Men and the Coelestial Bodies and Elements Man being not only an Image and Likeness of God and Nature but the Horizon of both Worlds in which the Superiour and Inferiour Natures are conjoyned and the Son of the Stars and Elements so that there is a power
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
Contagion but now every Plow-man has his Pipe to himself In former days Canary was chiefly sold by the Apothecaries and perhaps then when Adulteration was not so much in fashion might be the best Cordial in their Shop The name and use of Brandy was not known till of late but now the excess of all these things is become almost general amongst all sorts of People even amongst those that count themselves most sober and Religious and who should set Examples of Temperance to others it not being esteemed any sin to smoke two three or four Pipes of Tobacco at a sitting and Carrouze strong Drink Brandy Wine and the like in perfect Health and when need or nature doth not require such things and yet think all 's well if they can but follow their outward Occasions and keep themselves from being Drunk they never regard it tho one of them do destroy of Gods good Creatures as much in one day both in Value Quantity and Quality as would suffice five or six Still I say all this is not reconed any sin amongst many thousands of those counted sober People the common custom and frequent use of these Intemperances hides the Evil of them which few consider or if they do yet they are ashamed to follow the pure dictates of Wisdom for fear of displeasing or being hooted at by the frantick Rabble who gaze laugh and rail at all that will not run with them to the same Excess of Riot There is scarce any thing in the World that has so much depraved and deprived man of his understanding and led him aside from the simple innocent ways of God and Nature since his original fall as Custom and the Example of the Crowd As in the government and ordering of Families if the good man of the House say to his Wife It will be best to order the Affairs of our House so and so Yes presently she answers it is true but then what will People say of us How strangely will they talk And what a base Report we shall give occasion to be raised of us If we do only those things that are proper and necessary to preserve the Health of our Bodies and Minds How many stingy sneaking Names will they call us c And by this learned Lecture the silly man is over-perswaded to continue on his old rode of Excess and Superfluity to the Displeasure of God Injury of Nature Prejudice of his Families Health bad Example to his Children and imparing of his Estate and all this meerly to avoid the Chat and censorious Tattle of a few Gossips the wagging of whose tongues is no more to be valued by any Wise Man than the Chattering of Mag-pies or the buz of Flies in Autumn Nothing is more manifest than that there is not one of many Thousands that is guided by his own Mind Wisdom or Reason but the common Custom carries the day few ever stand to dispute whether it be good or bad Is it a Custom the Fashion all the Mode If it be there is no scruple to be made The unlawful use of Tobacco Brandy Wine c. and the Intemperance therein is cloaked over by the wicked Custom of the Multitude Would not any indifferent body wote it a sin and a high shame for a Man or a Woman to sit sotting and smoaking ten or twenty Pipes of Tobacco in a day making the whole House stink an hundred fold worse than the Saturnine Smoke of Chimnies and spitting spawling as though he had taken a fluxing Potion and continually spitting it up again as if his Chaps had found the perpetual Motion Would not I say all this seem most Abominable and be counted a very great Evil and Intemperance if it were not a Custom The very same is to be understood in many other things Which evil Customs and Habits all sober well-minded People ought to refrain and cast from them and look upon them no otherwise than as Inventions and Snares laid by evil Angels to inthrall and insnare mankind that he may keep them in Darkness and that by such their following those evil Customs they may be always rendred uncapable of understanding God or his own Nature How much precious time do Men spend in smoaking Tobacco dosing and stupifying their Senses And how many through such neglect of time and the Expences which this smoaking generally draws with it have half starved their poor Families and involved themselves in many Mischiefs and Inconveniences But to proceed to particulars Tobacco does generally disagree most with the Cholerick and Sanguine Complexion'd People being an utter Enemy to their Nature the taking of it in Pipes doth over-heat their Bodies the Fumes and Smoke thereof do too violently penetrate and awaken the Center which always sets Nature into an unequal motion for the sulpherous Fumes penetrate too furiously which does powerfully stir up and awaken the Element of Water the attractive and poysonous hot Qualities of Saturn and Mars being so strong in Tobacco that rarely any can take it without much Spitting which is Injurious to most sorts of People except some cold Melancholy or gross Phlegmatick Complexions who through cold windy Distempers and watry gross Humours want Evacuations to such it oft-times proves profitable if not taken too frequently but as it were in a Physical way But for others that are in perfect Health and especially for the Sanguine or Cholerick Complexions it very rarely if ever proves beneficial for it dries up and exhales that most pleasant moist Liquor and forcibly draws it from all parts of the Body and casts it forth by its poysonous Fumes and so the Body being deprived of what should keep it in Temperature and cool all the inward parts and Vessels and sharpen the Appetite becomes all over hot and dry the Appetite dull the Stomach out of tone and great drought or desire to drink follows and hence it is that the Pot and the Pipe are inseparable Companions and still the strongest Drinks are desired by all Smoakers for Small will not make Nature restitntion for her losses for every Extream begets its Likeness and after too great Evacuations there must be Supplies I dare from Reason and the Testimony of Experience affirm that 't is absurd and against Nature for either young People or any others that are in perfect Health to practise the common smoaking of Tobacco it being an Herb endued with extream Qualities and all such things ought to be cautiously taken into the Body I would have every one consider the possibility of Nature in all such unequal things especially those whose predominant Quality stands in the high Poysons and to observe the Nature and Operation of each thing and then they will certainly find the truth of what is mentioned before Let us take an Example in strong Drinks and Wine The predominant Quality there is a certain Spiritual Heat and as soon as a Man hath drunk them he presently feels his Internal Heat or Spirits to be raised
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
the heavy fierce Fires of Saturn and Mars do carry the upper dominion in them But if the Gravity of Iupiter and Sweetness of Venus do interpose then all is made delightfully pleasant But as it is impossible for any Man to make good Harmony that has never learned Musick nor knows how to tune his Instrument because one String will be several Notes too high and others as many too flat or low from which can proceed no Melody but a rumbling jarring Noise of Discords So impossible it is that any Man should attain to the holy Harmony of God in the Kingdom of his Love and Light or to live in the power of Unity except he be born again and hath learned himself for the true knowledge of God in a Man's self is absolutely necessary for if a Man do not understand the Treasures and holy Virtues the Vices and Evils he always carries about him in his own Vessel how is he like to distinguish the Natures Properties and Operations of those things which he shall daily meet withal within him 20. This degeneration of the humane Nature is apparent from the Words of our Saviour Christ who saw into the very Roots of their Hearts and Spirits and yet made no scruple to call them Foxes Sons of Belial c. For such inwardly they were as appear'd by their Works But it had not been so from the beginning for if it had Man would not have been cloathed with such a compleat Angelical form and shape as he is for when the Creator moved himself by the production of all things each was cloathed with an external Body suitable to its Spirit and according to the degrees and nature of each Spirit such form it attained for each spiritual Substance had power to attract out of all things such corporeal Matter for a Covering or Body as had a Simile with its own Nature as appears most manifestly by the Shapes Forms Inclinations and Dispositions of each Creature And as the internal Property and Disposition of each Creature did vary so their outward Form and Shape did vary Thus where the fierce Wrath did predominate there sprung up wild Beasts and Birds of Prey but where the Qualities of Nature were more equally mixed there were formed more benign and friendly Creatures as Beasts and Birds humane tame and tractable called by the wise Men clean Beasts and Birds and where the Spirit was more noble and great so the Body and Form was accordingly And as Man was in the Spirit and primitive Properties and Qualities greater and more noble than any other of the Creatures visible so the Lord gave him a proportionable Body above all the rest of the lower Creation for we never read that any of the Holy Angels of the Lord appeared in any other than Humane Form But when God has at any time permitted evil Angels to assume Shapes and Forms they have always been hideous monstrous and frightful as Dragons Lions Cats Swine and the like which may demonstrate what Principle and Kingdom they belong unto and which would have been Man's Condition had he not fallen into the humane Nature which has not only been the chief Means to preserve Man's Angelical Form but to raise him to a Supernatural Dignity by the Lord Christ's assuming an humane Body and making all them Sons and Coheirs that believe in him and are incorporated with him For though Man through Sin and Transgression hath lost his Heavenly Angelical Understanding and Wisdom which yet shall be again restored to all those that obey the Counsel of the holy Seed and divine Light yet he did not bereave himself of his first Shape or Angelical Form because he fell into the Humane Nature where every Body has the Seed in it self to produce its like Species in all respects But as for the Spirits or Souls of most Men they have through the desire of Vanity Oppression Violence Killing both Men and Beasts wanton Superfluity Pride Vain-glory c. precipitated themselves into the divided Forms and harsh fierce Wrath of God and into Bestiality and the savage Nature so that they have lost the humane Property are grown hard-hearted cruel and sordid having no Compassion Fellow-feeling or Mercy and all that do live and die in this savage brutish state shall in the Resurrection when every Soul shall be re-invested with a new Body attract such Matter out of all things as their Spirits are capable of and have a Simile with and so appear in Forms hideous frightful and loathsome as their Natures require for such Seed as Men do sow such a Body may be expected for so the illuminate Apostle speaks of the Resurrection God giveth to every Seed it s own Body and therefore if Men sow hellish Seeds in their Lives no wonder if they be cloathed with suitable shapes in the next World But on the contrary those that in their earthly Pilgrimage have retained Humanity and introduced their Wills and Desires into the divine Principle of eternal Light and Love and been guided by the counsel thereof shall in that day arise in a more perfect beautiful and glorious humane Shape and Form of whom Christ Jesus was the first for after his Resurrection he appeared in the same Shape Form and Body as he had before his Death 21. Consider how unpleasing it would be to most People to behold the dead Carkasses of Beasts cut into pieces and mangled and all over bloody And how nauseous and frightful a thing it would be to think of putting those begored Gobbits into our Mouths and feeding our selves thereon did not continual Use and Custom make it familiar And how difficult a Task would it be for many People who do for the most part live under the power and operation of the tender compassionate Principle of God's Love to kill the Beasts for their own Food until a little Action of that kind and custom hardens them therein How quickly also will the dead Carkasses putrefie and stink defiling the Elements both Earth and Air How offensive are the Places where Flesh is killed and sold How rude cruel fierce and violent are most of those who are employed therein In a word there is nothing that is pleasant or friendly in the whole business nor any one Circumstance that is grateful to the innocent Principle in Man nay the Taste of most sorts of Flesh is strong fulsome and smells of the original Cruelty to all those that have for any time separated themselves from the eating thereof or having communication with it And indeed none are or can be sensible how it is nor be competent Judges of what is said here but only such as have made Trial. Is there any comparison to be made between an Herb-Market and a Flesh-Market In one there is a thousand pieces of the dead Carkasses of various Creatures lie stinking the Chanels running with Blood and all the Places full of Excrements Ordure Garbage Grease and Filthiness sending forth dismal poysonous Scents enough
only for all Uses in Housewifery and the Preservation of Health but the Saints and Holy Men of God have highly esteemed this Element by using it in the exteriour Acts of Divine Worship as having a Simile with the Eternal Water of Life that does purify and cleanse the Soul from Sin CHAP. XIX Of Marriagē and the Inconveniencies of unequal Matches SInce the main Scope of this whole Treatise is but to set before my Fellow-Mortals the means and courses whereby they may obtain Health both of the Body and Mind and shew them from whence the grievous Diseases of the one and tormenting Passions of the other do proceed And since there is nothing that more frequently brings Grief Affliction and Distraction on the Minds of People and many times lamentable Diseases in their Bodies too than inconsiderate and unfit Marriages I could not but think it necessary to add a few words on a subject so general and important THis sacred tye of Marriage was instituted by God in Paradise that the Woman might be an help-meet to the Man and each party a Comfort and Solace to each other and so propogate their Kind in Love and Peace but by Peoples corrupt manners and abuses of that holy Institution it is now to many become the greatest Plague of human Life where two unsociable Creatures are yoked together to each others torment yet cannot be separated but are forced with struggling and goring and kicking each other to drudge on a most uncomfortable days work of Misery till Death unharness them But I shall not spend time on general Complaints which are bootless but come to particulars 1. Of all sorts of Marriages the worst and most unequal'st is for Young Men to Marry Women who are through years past Child-bearing which as it is seldom if ever done but for some base hellish sordid self-ends on the Man's side and bruitish unnatural stimulations of Lust on the Womans so it very rarely fails to be attended with its own Punishment even in this Life there being few sins that people are guilty of that do more openly and shamefully contradict the Laws of God and Nature and that too which renders it ten times the worse under colour of an holy Institution of God In the Beginning after the Lord created Male and Female he said unto them Increase multiply and replenish the Earth This was the Command of the Creator which all Mankind are obliged unto and whosoever breaks this Law for any particular self-ends as Money Gluttony Honour Idleness or the like Vanities does draw upon himself the indignation of God because he has on purpose withstood the most Natural influences and Operations of Nature and turned them into Wantonness These kinds of Marriages do also contradict the whole course and progress of Nature and seems to threaten all things with a period and hereby man shews himself a hundred-fold worse and more depraved than the basest and most savagest of Beasts who will neither touch their Females when they are with Young nor after they are Old and past Breeding Which might be an Example unto us if Pride devilish Lusts and Intemperances did not possess peoples Souls All Creatures in this World even the very Vegetables do strive with highest diligence to produce its Seed wherein is contained all the Properties of the Body and then the old Body dieth This is the Bond of Nature which preserves all things and all Creatures do vehemently desire to bring forth their Likenesses which God's Law in Nature doth by an inward impulse constrain them unto and in the performance thereof all sensitive Creatures have the greatest pleasure and satisfaction Every Man and Woman in the World except some few who have depraved themselves has a Natural Desire to raise up unto themselves Posterity for without it Nature cannot be satisfied but something seems always wanting they have not discharged one great end of their Beeing and will die extreamly in the Worlds Debt how rich soever they may be accounted When Young and Old intermarry there is an inward natural and therefore unappeasable contrariety loathing and dislike between them whence ariseth Aversion Hatred Jealousie and Irreconcilable Discords and causeth the Young Man to long after forbidden and unlawful Beds It takes away all the true Natural Delight and Pleasure and renders the Mind uncapable of all Spiritual Duty polluting the Soul and Body whence doth proceed both Ruin and Destruction to the Health and also to the ill-gotten Estate for if a Young Man could attain a Young Virgin with the same outward Advantages viz. Money Honour Idleness c. as he can have with an Old Woman this latter sort might go without their Young Gallants But how base a thing it is and how unnaturally it looks that men should value Money more than the Law of God and the satisfaction of Nature and the raising up of Seed unto themselves which is a thing of so great moment that the Lord commanded That the Brother of him that died Childless should Marry the Wife of his deceased Brother that he might raise up Seed unto him for he that dies Childless seems to have lived to no purpose and not to have answered that End for which he was made Nor have we any Example in the Scriptures of Truth that ever any such Unnatural Marriages were celebrated Furthermore Children do encrease Love and makes the Affections more warm between men and their Wives encouraging lawful Care and Diligence both in the Father and the Mother Nor is there any thing can make a Marriage-State tolerable but True Natural Love and Affection not to be altered with Troubles when Sickness and the like Accidents happen there being few Married People but meet with many Troubles and Crosses which true Love to Wife and Children makes more easie and encourageth each Sex to go through them with cheerfulness of Spirit But on the Contrary when Men meet with Disappointments and Crosses Abroad and their Love is Cold at Home then all 's out of Tune and the Phantasie is set on wandering after Vanity which gives occasion for the Wife to do the like And thus there is caused an Unequal Disharmonious Life and is the Fruit of the Tree of Wrath which Mankind has stirred up through their Unnatural Lusts and Passions which cannot escape the Divine Hand of Retaliation for if all the Hairs of our Head be numbred and that a Sparrow cannot fall without Divine Providence how then should those great Sins which are absolutely against God's Divine and Natural Law and against the Right of Nature must they not be taken notice of by his Divine Hand For every Principle both in the Evil and the Good doth comprehend its own Children and also their works and if men by superfluity of Naughtiness and Devllish wantonness have kindled the fierce Wrath then they must not receive their Reward from another Principle But sew there be that are truly sensible or do consider how great a sin it is for men