so that then Nature is not so well able to perform her Kitchin-work in the Stomach by a perfect Concoction or Separation of the Meats and Drinks and so all the Senses are dulled and the Intellect stupified and not a few seeds of diseases are thereby sown throughout the Body Besides the long Mornings Work or Exercise has by that time pretty much wearied dulled or evaporated the brisk lively Spirits which are alwayes the main supports of Concoction and Digestion and so Nature is still rendred the more uncapable of doing her work with ease But in the Morning after Nocturnal Repose has recovered the wasted Spirits and made them Brisk Airy and full of Life the digestive faculty is fortified and rendred able to digest the same quantity of Food with much more ease and safety The same is to be understood in the Afternoon or towards Night for then the heat of the day being over and the Body becomes Cool Airy and full of Life and being a sufficient time before sleep as at Four or Five a Clock such Suppers will not Incommode Nature nor hinder Rest as late eating is apt to do especially in hot Countries and still the more in maturer Age or such as begin to be striken in years to whom such Meals are most injurious 5. Such as have due regard to their Health and Strength ought for the reasons aforesaid to Rest from Eleaven a Clock till Two in the Afternoon which will wonderfully recover their Spirits and render them much better able to go through with their Labour with a lively Vigour and to do more preparation of each of them together with the Nature and Operation of various drinks as most sorts of Wine Ale Beer Syder each spoken to distinctly by themselves c. 8. They ought to avoid the frequent eating and drinking of all Foods or Liquors in which the Sweet Quality is too highly predominant for sweet Foods are of far more dangerous consequence as to Health than most People imagin for all Sweet things when fermented in the Stomach do turn to the highest Sowerness viz. into a keen sharpness which does not only spoil the digestive faculty but infects the Blood with a Mangie Scorbutick Humour causing stoppages in all the external parts whence proceed Indispositions and akeing Loyns and feeble Joynts For the same cause it is that such as eat much Sugar or sweet food are extreamly troubled with rotten decay'd Teeth and Gumes for those dullified foods cause such a sour acid Quality as generates putrifaction which centers on the Teeth and between the Gumes and so destroys them And it were far better and more healthy for People if they would accustom themseves to Foods and Drinks in which the Bitter and Sower Qualities were more predominant especially in hot Climates where most sorts of Fruits are sweetish for the Root of all Motion Opening and Cleansing consists in the Bitter Quality for which reason the Sophys or Wise-men both of the Southern and Eastern Countries have taught the People to moderate all or most of their foods with Herbs and Fruits that are of a Bitterish Quality which does wonderfully support Nature and preserve Health whereby they attain to very great Ages as we noted before of those in Guinea and the same may be observed elsewhere for those Patriarchs whose Longevity we find Recorded did all of them live in very hot Countries But their Temperance supported Nature and so it will in a proportionable degree all that practice it And therefore if these Rules of Health be seriously regarded and followed those causeless scandals on the Climate the Heat c. of these happy Western Southern and Eastern Regions not inferior for Health or Pleasantness if rightly understood to any in the World will cease and the English Traders or Inhabitants may there extend their lives in Comfort to as good an old Age as they would have promised themselves in their Native Country But without Discretion and Temperance in Diet Drinks Exercises and Affections of the mind Diseases will certainly attend us wherever we reside and an immature Death be apt to seize us There is no Region so happy no Elevation of the Pole so temperate no Air so salubrious as to keep People in Health whether they will or no and those that obstinately violate Nature and wilfully persue courses absolutely destructive may justly be rank't amongst the number of Self-Murtherers for it matters not much whether a man kill himself all at once or by repeated Acts and degrees only the latter seems less excuseable since it has not the pretext of a sudden Temptation or Passion but seems a more deliberate design of destroying both his Body and Soul against all Cautions and Arguments from time to time offered to him both by Reason and Experience to the contrary Those therefore that would avoid the Brand of being Felo's-de-se let them before it be too late abandon Riot and Excess and embrace Temperance and Sobriety so shall they have Health of Body and Strength of mind and length of dayes here and a blissful Eternity hereafter A Caution LEt no sober well minded men nor any that profess the honourable name of Christianity be so frequent in those places of Debauchery viz Taverns and Ale-houses the first whereof being the only places of all manner of wickedness where all the high lofty state of Superfluity is practised being the haunts of evil Spirits and where their chief work is done Women are defloured and Estates spent the Soul made uncapable of Salvation the Health destroyed in a word the whole Macrocosmical man ruined and is â—he very Radix of devilish Fewds and cruel Murders Therefore let no good Christians dare to be seen in any such places for tell me I pray what pleasure or delight can a sober well-minded man take in being amongst such a devilish Croud where there is all kinds of wicked lewd Behaviour as Swearing Lying baudy Songs drunken Healths and roaring Huzza's where a man can hardly hear himself spake like the fiery unequal operations of the Elements or Sea-Tempests and Storms Now if Christian men scruple the wearing of needless O naments and Garments with other things of Gallantry and State wherefore should they not shun and avoid the greater Evils And although it be lawful to drink Wine in a Tavern and Ale in an Ale-house in cases of necessity as Travelling or the like yeâ— they ought in Cities and Towns to avoid drinking or frequenting such places whereby you will discountenance the Evils thereof and preserve your selves Harmless and Innocent 2. All sober People ought to refrain drinking between Meals especially all Gentlemen Merchants Shop-keepers c. who are the men that drink the brave noble exhilerating Liquors in Superfluity which a little custom would make most pleasant and easie besides it would free the Passages and disburthen the Stomach from all superfluous matter by which the Blood would become fine and cause it to circulate freely whence will proceed pure
Epitom of the four Worlds Intellectual Rational Elemental and Sensitive 'T is true we are not so ready at Words nor so nimble to express our Conceptions but we can more than guess at what is Just and Fit and Honest and Seemly and know what is agreeable to the dignity of humane Nature and what not though the Christians despise us by the Name of Heathens we must acknowledge that we are not so well acquainted with the wordy and notional matters of Religion nor do talk so much of it nor keep so much ado about it as many of the Christians do for we do not Wrangle nor Fight nor Backbite or Hate one another for or touching the Worship of God Nor do we Kill Burn or Imprison any for not agreeing with us or being of our Intellectual Complexions because God in his Wisdom has made all things to differ many there are whose Eyes are open see into the truth of these things As for our Faith touching God and Eternity we have not much to say neither do we ever use many Words For we have only one Book viz. Our selves in which is contained the true Nature and Property of all things both Internally and Externally and happy is he that can read but the Christ-Cross-Row in his own Book it is more profitable to him than a multitude of Books cry'd up and admired by the World And this we do know and acknowledge that there is a good and an evil Spirit or Principle within us one which prompts and invites and leads us to Good and the other drawing us to Evil and by the light of the good Principle we distinguish between what is Right and the contrary and whensoever we do Evil we are convinced and reproved for it by this good Genius whereby we are sensible that Lying Swearing Adultery Idleness Disobedience to our Masters Burning of Houses Murther and the like are Sins against God and when at any time we commit any such things we are accused and condemned for the same in our Hearts though our Masters nor any Creature else know thereof In short the main Differences between the Christians and us seem to be no more than these that they are White and we Black because they are born in one Climate and we in another they have Learning as Reading Writing speaking of various Languages and we have none of those Ornamental Advantages but they may please to remember that the more Paint Glass has upon it the more it keeps out the Light They are educated under certain Rights and Forms and taught divers Notions of Religion which we are not skill'd in But the grand point of Religion To do as we would be done by we understand as well as they and are sure they practise it less than we What then do they talk so much of the Leaves when we can see no Fruits let us feel their Christianity and see it as well as hear of it and no doubt then we shall be more in love with it These I say are the chief Differences for as to the natural â—roperties of the Body and Soul there is but very little setting aside Custom and Education For as I said before as to the Members of the Body and inward Faculties we are alike in all particulars neither is there any difference as to the Soul and Spirit they are as much subject to Passions Lusts and irregular Affections as we as also to Sicknesses Mortality and all other Misfortunes And as your Prophet hath said God whose wonderful Works we both equally are is no Respecter of Persons but every one tâ—at feareth his Name and worketh Righteousness according to the Measure and Gift he has endued every one with whether Bond or Free Jew or Gentile is accepted of him And it is not the Name that will justifie but a living in the Nature and Power of well-doing according as the Creator has dispensed his Gifts to each Person And let Christians know this as a certain truth that neither before nor at the great Day of Reckoning and when Accounts must be given good Words nor long formal Prayers will stand them in stead except they have lived in the Nature Power and Operation of the good Spirit which we pray and wish they would do and that they would Act what they Talk and then both they and we should find the Benefit to the Praise and Glory of God and our own Comfort For this is without dispute that since Christians do know more of God and of the heavenly Mysteries than we do then there is the more required of them and how they discharge themselves in their Practice we cannot see for surely they do very little or not at all live in and under the Christian Spirit for that leads all that are guided by it to love even their Enemies to take Compassion and do unto all as they would be done unto and also endues it Followers with the Virtues of Meekness Humility Self-denyal Temperance and Purity and to deny all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts. But instead of these dictates of thy most holy Religion O thou great Preserver of men they enslave and oppress thy poor unworthy Servants and are drunk with our Blood and Sweat We rise early and lie down late and labour beyond our strength whilst our luxurious Masters stretch themselves on their soft Beds and Couches they drink Wine in overflowing Bowls and set their Brains a-float without either Rudder or Compass in an Ocean of other strong and various Drinks even till they are Drunk and vomit up their Shame and Filthiness whilst we are allow'd nothing but Water and now and then a little Cowou They feast themselves with the fattest Lambs and variety of rich costly Foods and live in all Uncleanness and Gluttony They have their Men-Servants and their Maids their Coaches and Horses to wait on them whilst we groan under the over-grievous Burthens and excessive Labour which they impose upon us They wantonly consume the Encrease and Product of our heavy Pains in Riot and Voluptousness in Superfluity and all kind of extravagant Vitiousness their chief Study and Philosophy being to gratifie their liqourish Palates and insatiate Paunches and to enslave us with many intollerable Burthens so that their Lamps are ready to be extinguished by their Superfluity and Excess of Oyl whilst they make frequent and solemn Feasts that is offer Sacrifices and celebrate Festivals to their Idol Belly-God-Paunch the Divinity which they chiefly adore and invite our rich Masters and Dames and there they sit Eating and Drinking whether they have any Appetites or no in a formal way perhaps two or three Hours inticing each other to Gormandize and Guzzle down great Quantities and variety of rich Food and strong Cordial-Drinks not only beyond the Necessities but even the power of Nature and yet not therewith content when they have thus already exceeded all bounds of Temperance they yet proceed to gorge themselves with Wine various sorts of brave noble Fruits
therefore are not so good and profitable as those called Sevil which is a mean between the sowr and the sweet and therefore is best for sawce and far more acceptable to the Pallate but especially to the Stomach than either the sweet or the sowr which being full ripe fresh gathered do not only make the best Sawces to most sorts of Food as Herbs both raw and boyled Flesh c. far exceeding all Vinegars made with Wine or other Liquors but they also prove profitable in many Diseases especially to allay Drought in Feavers and prevent the putrifaction of the Humors for they cool and refresh the Stomach and are good moderately used in times of Health for Chollerick People but eat them not too frequently for they astringe or bind the belly and are not proper for Phlegmatick or Melancholly Complexions and as the moderate use of them for Sawce in food does excite and sharpen the Appitite so on the contrary the frequent custom of eating them is apt to hurt the digestive Faculty by their cold dry astringent Qualities they being Extreams in Nature and therefore cautiously to be used The Sweet Oranges are not good for Sawce for they naturally dull or subvert the Appetite nevertheless they being of a middle Nature or temperate Quality are good and very grateful to well-prepared Stomachs to be eaten alone or with some Bread or other dry food after them in time of Health especially for Young People and the Phlegmatick and Melancholly but still they ought to remember their sure friend Temperance else they will prove injurious and hinder Concoction Of Lemmons AS these are sharper and more sour then Oranges so they are colder more keen or piercing but they make a Sawce that does wonderfully cool and for the present stir up the Appetite comfort the Stomach and are good against Vomiting very grateful to such as have weak dull or flat Stomachs they cut and attenuate gross Humors allay Thirst and are refreshing to such as have hot Livers but on the other side if not very moderately used their astringent sharp or keen Quality will by simile awaken the Saturnal and Martial Fires in the Body and instead of allaying heat they inflame the Blood and irritate the natural Spirits which proves fatal as to Health for as all such Fruits are unequal in their parts so they by simpathy cause an unequal operation in the Humors which is the Radix of all Distemperatures Of Limes LImes are an Immature Fruit in which two extream Properties do predominate viz. the Saturnal and Martial Poysons because the Sun and Coelestial Influences have not had Power to raise or awaken the balsamick or friendly Vertues of Nature or bring the Properties into an equal operation as is done in other Fruits for these two fierce Qualities are so powerful as indeed being the very Radix of the Fruit that the friendly Property or good Vertue is wholly hid or captivated by them so that it cannot be tasted or felt hence the Juice of this fruit does contain as I have elsewhere declared a Saturnine churlish fire which is of an hard coagulating astringent or binding nature and operation like the raw cold saturnine Air of Winter which does congeal the Water and harden all things 2 dly A sharp keen Martial Property of a sour harsh fretting nature and operation Now these two Extreams meeting together do render it very hurtful to the genuine nature of the Stomach and generate bad Blood stir up the original Poysons by simile and the Saturnine Property does draw together and congeal the Excrements in the Bowels and the Martial Fires are forth-driving and cannot endure to be bounded from whence proceed various Diseases as Gripes Collicks Illiacal Passions or cruel Belly-Akes For this cause our English and others that use these Juices in their Voyages to the East-Indies and other parts are sorely vexed with many Diseases which they contract though they little think it from their Punch-Bowls rather than the disagreeableness of the Climate Moreover the sharp cold Juices of Oranges and Lemmons which in hot Countries they are greedy of and do eat too freely do prove very pernicious as to their Health for the truth is it is not the Climate whether hot or cold that causes so many Diseases but Peoples Intemperances and taking wrong Measures for the Natives both of the East South and West are as healthy and long liv'd as those of the North and these our frequent Distempers when we travel into those parts do but declare our Intemperances and that the Meats and Drinks we so much desire are not proper for our Bodies in such Climates where not our own irregular Fancies but the usages of the Natives of each Country ought to be our Guides and Examples both as to Meats Drinks and Exercises and then each Country would soon become as natural and wholsom to us as our own our Bodies being assimulated thereunto Of Pinpillow-Pears THis is a Fruit that is not much in use being some-what troublesom to procure by reason of their Martial Weapons or Prickles they are of a sharp brisk Taste their Juices quick and penetrating they cut Phlegm beget Appetite and help Conoction being of a cooling Nature they may be eaten with a little Sugar with safety but they are chiefly good for Chollerick and Sanguine People and are under Mars in Aries Of Pepper commonly called Guinea-Pepper OF this there are two sorts one great the other small but both are much of the same nature and operation only the smallest is rather the hottest They both contain three extream Qualities viz. 1. An astringent Sulpher or stupifying Poyson from Saturn 2. A fierce bitter keen sharpness from Mars And 3. An hot penetrating Poyson from Mercury In this Vegetation all friendliness and pure Vertues are captivated and the original forms of Nature do predominate there being in it no kind of Equality or Harmony but all is out of Tune and the four grand Qualities whence all Tastes proceed have here their operations in Discord and confusedly combate one another therefore whatever any may pretend the frequent eating of it must needs prove pernicious to Health for those forementioned fierce poysonous Qualities do by degrees as it were insensibly prey upon and violate the natural Heat and hinders the way of the Spirits as if men designed to mortifie their natural Legs on purpose to use Wooden ones or Crutches so they destroy the genuine innate heat of their Stomachs and vainly endeavour to procure a false and adventitious one that may better forsooth supply Nature The truth is this hot fiery Sawce does powerfully stir up or beget Appetite and warms the Stomach which does intice many to eat it with their common food but they never consider the mischiefs it brings unto Health being like Brandy a dram of which after a full Meal of heavy Victuals will help Concoction and ease the burthened Stomach but the frequent use of it will so destroy the natural Heat
salt-Fish for by its mild friendly Nature it allayes the harsh stubborn fierceness of such Flesh and the heat of the Salt which if frequently eaten without store of either Herbs or Roots to qualifie them proves very prejudicial to Health especially in hot Countries The truth is this is an excellent Herb and ought to be encreased and planted for general use for it ought to be held in greater estimation than either Mutton or Beef or indeed any other sort of Flesh it being an allayer of all immoderate heat It is under the Dominion of Iupiter in Pisces There are also a great Number of brave Herbs in the West-Indies which are transplanted from the more Northern Climates and thrive very well there viz. Sage Rosemary Thyme Winter and Summer Savory Mint Penny-royal Parsely Charvil Onnions Lettice Sorrel Beetes both white and Red Spinnage Cabadges or Colworts Comfry and many other gallant wholsome Herbs and they are all or most of them by the Coelestial influences and continual enlivening Beams of that Fountain of heat the Sun rendred far more fragrant and salutiferous than in colder Regions and so do make most excellent Sallads which being mixt with Oyl or Butter the Juice of Oranges and Salt warm the whole Body and more naturally and pleasantly exhillerate the Spirits than any sort of Wine drank in Moderation Some brief Directions for the Preservation of Health and Life in hot Climates IT is a very common conceit amongst the Europeans that of late are come to Inhabit in Plantations of America that by the Nature of the Climate or by reason of the unusual Heats People there are not so long-liv'd as in the more cold Northren parts of the World and for this they appeal to Experience Do not we see say they how men are cut off by Diseases in the prime of their Years and very few attain to old Age Whence 't is a common Proverb amongst them Soon Ripe Soon Rotten as if this were the very Nature of the Climate but this is all Mistake they blame the Climate when themselves are only to blame 'T is their own Intemperance not that of the Heavens which shortens their days The wise and merciful God hath ordered so providentially all parts of this habitable World that his Creature Man may thereon live comfortably if he please 'T was the Error of the Antients when they divided the Earthly Globe into five Zones to imagine two of them uninhabitable one of which they called the Frigid Zone through excessive Cold and the other Torrid Zone through extreamity of Heat But Experience has confuted their guessing Philosophy and shews us that both these are commodious enough to dwell in if Discretion and Sobriety be used Is one Region cold God has given its Inhabitants strong Constitutions great Stomachs gross suitable Food and Furze wherewith to defend them Is another very hot Here are refreshing Briezes constantly imployed by Nature to fan and divert them rare delicate Fruits easie of Digestion to supply all the necessities of Nature and support them in Strength and Health But such is the Perversity of men that being depraved by custom they pursue and take quite contrary measures to those that Nature dictates and in the hottest Climates gorge themselves with the grossest Foods various Dishes of Flesh Fish and Fowls whereof they daily eat to Gluttony and the strongest Liquors as Madera Wines Brandy and Punch so that where they need the least finest and lightest Meats and Drinks they cloy and oppress Nature with the grossest and strongest And is it any wonder that they are then afflicted with Diseases or cut off by immature Deaths If a man will turn the top of his Candle downwards and extinguish it by excess of Tallow how unjustly does such an one blame the Winds for putting out its light The sweet Influences of the Coelestials and especially the heat of Heaven's bright Eye the Sun does in hot Countries prepare all sorts of Vegetations and Fruits so as that they become more wholsom and proper for the Body than in colder Regions thereby pointing out which is the most natural food in such Climates of which the Natives though by us esteemed Barbarous are so wise as to take notice for they in most hot Countries do more incline to eat Herbs and Fruits though not so much as they ought nor do they prepare many of them so well as they should yet thereby and by being strangers to Riot and Intemperance they retain an undisturbed Health to very great Ages So in the East-Indies where the food is chiefly Herbs Fruits and Grains and their Drink only Water to meet with Persons of One Hundred Years of Age is common nay it is credibly reported that some of those called Brachmans who do wholly abstain from eating either Flesh or Fish do lengthen out their days to One Hundred and Twenty and One Hundred and Fifty Years And in Guinea tho' it be a very hot Country and generally the Constitution of the Air accounted very unwholsom yet you shall see the Ethiopians frequently live One Hundred and Twenty Years in great strength and vigour By all which it is plain that the fault is neither in the Soil nor the Climate but it is Intemperance both in Quantity and Quality is the main cause of the grievous Distempers and short Lives of our English that travel into hot Countries and also of the Weakness and untimely Death of so many of their Children For Prodigious in the Excess they commit such as cannot rationally be imagined of any that had not a mind willfully to destroy themselves for to omit their Extravagances in ordinary Diet the vast Quantities of Flesh and Fish which they unnecessarily devour I have heard it credibly related and affirmed That there has been the Quantity of One Thousand or One Thousand Two Hundred Bottles of Wine Madera and Claret consumed at one Feast made by a common Plantes of Barbadoes and that the like Superfluity as if they would vye for Luxury with the old Romans in the declining Age of their Empire is not infrequent in that and other Western Plantations Now let all the World judge if men will thus seek Death in the Errors of their Lives how is the Country to be complained of He that takes his share of three or four such Treats will have little reason to accuse the heat of the Weather for casting him into a Feaver If our English and others that travel to and live in those Westenr Eastern or Southern Regions would be but so obedient to Nature and kind to themselves as to observe a proper Order and right Method of Living they would not only live long but healthy And for their furtherance and benefit therein I mean such as have not absolutely forsworn hearkening to any Remonstrances of Reason nor betrothed themselves to Madness and ruinating Debauchery I shall here add a few general Rules or Directions for the Preservation of Health very necessary to be regarded by all