for we are not acquainted with the Babylonical Language where one understandeth not another Distances of Places or various Elevations of the Pole do not cause our Speech to differ for we can as familiarly converse with those of our own kind when removed a Thousand Leagues off as if we had still remained on Cotswold Hills or Salisbury Plain for we are not subject to the Tyranny of School-Masters or the Pedantry of Grammar nor troubled to spend seven years under the filthy punishment of the Rod or more cleanly Discipline of the Ferula merely to learn a few Gibberish Words but we bring into the world with us one simple and general Tone or Sound which we can vary and alter according to the degrees of our Spirits Affections and Passions When we call for our stray'd Lambs it is after one manner distinctly understood by those of our Kind and when we miss our Fellows 't is another but still to them intelligible that 't is to such a purpose and so when we call our Fellows into the Corn-fields or when we have need of Pasturage still we send forth peculiar Tones or Bleats Our Food and our Drink is all simple and natural and therefore we are seldom sick and if we are the chief cause thereof is our Shepherds and Guides who for Covetousness of Gain will half starve and founder us one half of the year and then afterwards in the declining part of the year when all Grass grows weak gross and full of Phlegm then they put us into fresh Corn-fields and other Pastures whereupon those Diseases which were contracted for want of proper food and by the unskilful management of our Guides do manifest themselves sometimes by breaking out with the Scab and various other Diseases And also when years happen very wet especially when store of Rain comes in August or September causes Land-floods then if our Guides be not skilful and very careful of us we suffer Epiaemick Diseases for those of our kind are so tender-natur'd and so equally temper'd that we cannot bear any Extreams without manifest prejudice to our Healths more especially excessive Moisture for we are Phlegmatick Sanguino by our Natures and a little inclined to Melancholy for this Reason very wet dripping Seasons especially in the Fall of the year prove dangerous to us and therefore at such times our Owners ought to keep us pretty long in our Folds and to feed us on the highest Grounds that so the sweet Influences of the Sun and Elements may dry and exhale that gross Moisture which the Night produces before we feed thereupon also they should then give us some Hay or Corn in our Folds which would not only dry up those moist Humours but strengthen our Spirits and enable us to withstand those malignant Dews But most of our Keepers are altogether ignorant of our Nature and so not only suffer us to fall but by their ill conduct precipitate us into many Inconveniences which if we were left to the dictates of our own Instinct by Nature we should avoid for we naturally delight on high ground as Mountains Downs and high Corn Fields and there we are very healthy never afflicted with the tortures of the Stone the trembling Palsie the meager Consumption the idle Gout or the lascivious POX we need not your Bagnio's or Hot-Houses we never are troubled with your horrid purging and vomiting Potions nor crammed with Bolus and Turpentine our Food and Drink is truly natural and innocent and suffer all Changes of the Elements and Seasons without complaining Our Love is as it were universal and War and Strife and Contention are strangers to our Folds Our Females are chaste our Males free from Iealousie and our young Ones are at once the Emblems of Innocency and harmless Sport and Recreation Cleanness and Simplicity dwell in the Root of our Lives and the fierce wrathful Nature terrifies and troubles our Spirits for which cause Wolves Dogs Foxes Bears Lions c. all Creatures in whose Radix the Wrath of God and Nature doth predominate are our sworn Enemies We are also very profitable to those that keep us for every Year we bring them a crop of fine soft Wool which covers the Nakedness of our Princes who oft-times become proud by our Spoils 't is from us a most advantageous Staple-Commodity is raised whereby whole Countries support themselves and by which Multitudes of Merchants grow rich nay our very Dung or Excrement is so rich that it causeth the Ground to bring forth abundance of Corn But notwithstanding all these obligations our unreasonable Task-Masters Men are not contented but after they have yearly plundered us both of our native Raiment and the Fruit of our Bodies our sportive young ones and made the most they can of us living assoon as our Females become super-annuated and not able every Spring to furnish their voluptuous Tables with a Lamb they call them Old Crones and esteem them little better than Dogs and Cats but if they imagine they can make Money of us they will for a small time Regale or flatteringly feast us with store of Pasture and when they think we are fat enough to gratifie their extravagant Desires and Appetites then are we sold driven abused and finally have our Throats cut and our Bodies quartered as if we had committed Treason Now tell us seriously Can there be any thing more ungrateful cruel and tyrannical Do such dealings look like Man in his first state Do not our innocent Cries and dying Groans under your merciless hands penetrate the very Heavens and awaken even the centre of Wrath For no Violence can be done but Wrath must have the chief hand in it and 't is also certain if Men did not live in the power of the wrathful Nature there would be no killing for it is contrary both to the humane and divine Nature to destroy and for this cause it is contrary to the Nature not only of our kind but to most other clean Beasts to eat Flesh or kill and prey upon any of their Fellow-Creatures But on the other side those Beasts that are unclean and whose predominant Quality stands in the wrathful Nature are all or the most of them led by a natural instinct and inclination to kill and prey upon some others of the Creation nay upon Man himself if they find him at an advantage because those bloody ravenous Dispositions are planted in the very Centre of their Lives but those of our kind are in their Radix of near affinity to the undepraved humane Nature And therefore we will be bold since we have obtained so much honour and liberty to plead our own innocent Cause and tell our Governours viz. Men this serious Truth That all Violence as beating hurrying hunting hacking baiting killing fighting rage and contention whatsoever be the occasion what it will does arise from the Fountain of Marah the Root of Wrath and Bitterness in Nature And if our Lord Man were so innocent wise and
comes to know somewhat of the operation of the Divine Principle he cannot be happy in this World nor in that which is to come This some of the Indian and Ethnick Philosophers seem to have been sensible of when they used all pains and diligence to bring those Savages from Cruelties and Inhumanities viz. from all Violence and killing the inferior Beasts of the Field and prohibiting them from eating their Flesh and Blood for Man being more highly graduated than any of the Beasts as being indued with divine and humane Wisdom and the Nature of all things viz. with the Treasures both of Time and Eternity ought not by any means enter with his Desires and Will into the savage Nature of wild Beasts neither should the depraved Property of Beasts be awakened in Man for whatsoever he joyns himself unto or communicates with whether it be Meats Drinks Employments or Communications that very thing be it what it will shall powerfully impose the true property of its Spirit on the Man by way of Simile Were not this so the wise Ancients would not have made such distinctions between clean and unclean Creatures neither would they so strictly have commanded that the Blood should be destroyed by Fire or buried in the Earth neither would the Apostle Paul have said That evil Communication corrupts good Manners that is evil Company or the evil Spirit in ill Men does awaken and strengthen its Likeness in the good Man and causes the divine Principle and Voice of Wisdom to withdraw or become captivated And it seems our Fore-Fathers even in this Nation have in some degree considered the great force and power of the wrathful savage Nature of the Beasts and that Men by accustomed violence towards them and their communication amongst slaughter'd Animals were rendered rash precipitate fierce and cruel and as it were destitute of Humanity and therefore by our ancient Laws and the immemorial Customs of this Realm Butchers and such People as are of Killing-Employments are not to be Iury men as being esteemed neither fit nor capable Judges of Life and Death And in the common Proverb if a man be fierce cruel and subjected to the Spirit of Violence we say Such a one is like a Butcher Nor can we but observe from daily experience that all sorts of People that are of rude robustick Employments and communicate much with fierce and strong Beasts as Bear-wards Hostlers Drovers and the like are generally headstrong rash fierce surly People and appear evidently to participate of the brutish Nature of those Animals with whom they converse And as the Sheep is one of the most innocent of Beasts so Shepherds have in all Ages been celebrated for the most harmless and best-humour'd of Men and therefore Governors both Temporal and Spiritual are recommended unto us under the Name of Pastors or Shepherds of the People 4. That killing and eating the Flesh and Blood of both clean and unclean Beasts was not in use from the beginning is clear from the Second Chapter of Genesis therefore we should consider when and by whom the same was introduced And first we must note That the first Beasts that were killed were not Cows and Sheep and the like useful Creatures whose Lives are far more profitable than their Deaths but wild savage Beasts and Birds of Prey the countenance of whose Lives was prejudicial unto Mankind and the rest of the Creatures nor were they hunted and slain to be eaten but to free Men and other Creatures from danger But after a little use and custom of Kiillng the Spirit of Wrath and Fierceness by the fierce Action in the Killer and the revengeful Spirits proceeding from the Creature killed both concurring was so powerfully stirred awakened and strengthened that Killing became as familiar as gathering of Fruit and the unclean brutish Nature encreasing they could not only kill without remorse but began to count it a delight and pleasure and then they could eat the Flesh and lap up the Blood of their Fellow-Creatures which they had slaughtered as freely and as greedily as Dogs and Lions or any other wild Beasts could do it for by continual use of Killing and Violence the very same savage wild Nature of those cruel Beasts of Prey were become predominant in Men so that now they could not only butcher and eat the Flesh of Beasts with pleasure and delight but they could also without remorse torture and slay those of their own kind and in some parts proceeded to eat them too as the Canibals who feed on Humane Flesh and will most savourly gnaw a Shoulder of a Man a Breast of a Woman or the Haunches of a Child and think it altogether as sweet and wholsome as my Lord does his Venison or my Lady her Partridge 5. It is to be noted That if Mankind had continued in its primitive State of Innocency and Unity there would have been no Hatred Strife Oppression Fighting or Killing one another no Slaughtering of Beasts Fish or Birds nor Eating their Flesh and Blood for that was not permitted until Man had immersed his Will into the warful savage unclean Nature of the worst of Beasts For there is no Creature in the World that has any desire to eat Flesh and Blood and tear the Creatures to pieces with violence except those in whom the fierce wrathful savage Nature does predominate And therefore after Man had awakened the Wrath and entred into the cruel Spirit of Killing the wise Prophets imposed special Commands not to eat the Flesh and Blood of such Creatures as Swine Dogs Bears Wolves c. But can we believe that Man was at first made like those savage unclean Beasts of Prey or indeed worse For so now he is and does exceed in Uncleanness and Cruelty the worst of Beasts as much as a Spar-Hawk exceeds a Titmouse for indeed Man is indued with all Properties and Qualities but the Wrath and evil unclean Nature ought not to have been manifested but the divine and humane Nature should have governed his Life but instead thereof the same are now as it were hid in Man and the cruel fierce Spirit does predominate which makes him so near affinity with all wild Beasts and Birds of Prey and to desire such Food as they do for that Nature that is chief in the government of any Creature 's Life be it either good or evil clean or unclean will stir up desires of Food suitable and correspondent therewith This is plain in several sorts of Beasts as those in whom the simple harmless clean Nature claims Dominion delight in a like clean and harmless Food and their Natures are satisfied therewith not but that there is an unclean Nature and fierce Quality in the cleanest and best of Beasts capable in some degree of being awakened for 't is not impossible by degrees and use to teach and bring Sheep Cows Horses and many other Creatures to eat Flesh and drink Wine and strong Drinks and after a little custom those
came to destroy For he preached Peace Love and good Will unto all Men and therefore his Doctrine is called The Evangele or Gospel that is to say Ioyful News or Glad Tidings Some there are that do say That if they should not kill and eat the Flesh of the Creatures they could not subsist or live which in a bad sense is true For should they cease from Violence and Killing then that cruel wrathful fierce Life in them could not subsist in such vigour and strength as it does but must of necessity become weak and as it were die that is it would no longer domineer in the Heart over the friendly Principle of God's Love But as to the Health of the Body which is that which I mean Herbs and Fruits will sustain Nature in every respect far beyond the best of Flesh. 16. It is said in Gen. 4. That Adam knew his Wife Eve and she conceived and bore Cain and said I have gotten a Man from the Lord that is from the strong Powers of the Wrath in Nature from whence all Lordliness Pride and Oppression in Government ariseth And she conceived again and bore his Brother Abel and Abel was a Keeper of Sheep that is a Keeper of and Dweller in Innocency But Cain was a Tiller of the harsh Earth which must be broken and torn up by Violence and hard Labour both of Man and Beast which was the Curse that the Lord laid upon Adam And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the Fruits of the Ground an Offering unto the Lord And Abel he also brought of the Firstlings of his Flock and the Lord had respect unto Abel and unto his Offering but unto Cain and his Offering he had no respect And Cain was very wroth and his Countenance fell and the Lord said unto Cain Why art thou wroth If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted and if not Sin lieth at thy Door and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him that is unto thee Cain shall be the Desire of my Kingdom of Love and Divine Light but if thou wilt not hearken unto its Counsel and be obedient to my Commandments then thou shalt rule over him that is over the Divine Power as it came to pass for Cain talked with Abel that is the Wrath contended with the Love and Divine Power and it came to pass when they were in the Field that is where the wild harsh Nature does predominate that Cain rose up against Abel his Brother and slew him Here the Wrath prevailed over the divine innocent Principle and destroyed it as it does at this day for those two Brothers did rightly and truly signifie the two grand Principles and the two Seeds that of the Woman and that of the Serpent And the Lord said unto Cain Where is thy Brother And he said I know not Am I my Brother's Keeper Here Cain viz. the Property of Wrath denied the Murther and pretended he had done him no Evil or knew nothing of him But the Lord answered and said What hast thou done The Voice of thy Brother's Blood crieth unto me from the ground and therefore the Lord cursed Cain and tells him he shall be a Fugitive and a Vagabond Then Cain bowed himself and said unto the Lord My Punishment is greater than I can bear Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the Earth and from thy face shall I be hid and it shall come to pass that every one that findeth me shall stay me This Confession and Submission did so pacifie the kindled Wrath that the Lord said Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain Vengeance shall be taken on him seven-fold and the Lord set a Mark on Cain lest any finding him should slay him This Mark was the Light of the Lord that enlightens every Man that cometh into the World and which does more or less mollifie and withstand the fierce wrathful Powers in Mankind for if this were not the Wrath of Cain would grow so powerful that the Children of Abel would not have any being in this World Then Cain went out from the Presence of the Lord and dwelt in the Land of Nod on the East-side of Eden that is he went into the outward Principle of this World and dwelt in the Land of Vanity at a distance from the divine Principle which is intimated by Eden in which Cain did not live but on one side of it viz. in the operation of both the good and evil Nature which most Men of this World do live in And it is also said That he built a City that is he became strong and powerful in the Property of this World and therefore Cain was an Oppressor and one that did domineer and Lord it over his Brethren and slay the divine Principle of God's Love and hence all Violences Contentions Killing and Works of Darkness for Cain does truly signifie the Fountain of God's Wrath and the original Properties of the Father's Nature and Abel does represent the eternal Principle of God's Love in the Son's Property Cain intimates the Fire and Abel the Light if the meek Spirit of Abel were not overcome and murthered by the fierce Wrath of Cain there would be Peace on Earth as in Heaven and as when Cain arose and contended with and slew Abel he made no resistance this was a true manifestation that the fierce Wrath had got the Victory but Abel's Blood cried unto the Lord. The very same is to be understood in all kind of Oppression both to Man and Beasts they all by a sweet sympathetical operation call for Vengeance for God is no respecter of Persons or Things but whensoever any Creature is oppressed the same doth from the awakened Wrath curse the Oppressor and send up Cries and terrible Complaints to Heaven which moves the Principle of God's Wrath whence so many Judgments fall upon the People nor is it possible it should be otherwise as long as the Spirit of Cain predominates in their Hearts tearing and destroying the Peace and Well-being of one another and of all the inferiour Creatures far worse than the wild Savages of the Desart for when their Bellies are full they do rest satisfied until they are hungry again but Men are become such Belly-gods and Slaves to their Lusts and Passions that they are never satisfied either full or fasting but always contriving Mischief and how they may betray not only those of their own kind but also all other Creatures insomuch that all the Elements mourn and are filled with the Cries Groans and mournful Complaints of their miserable Inhabitants True Religion doth consist in this as our Lord Jesus Christ taught both by Precept and Example that Mankind do no Violence but live in the power and operation of the Spirit of the humble meek Spirit of Abel for every violent Action and Oppression let it be little or much or offered unto whatsoever Creatures does as naturally and spiritually awaken
of them are much addicted to Superfluity and Inordinate living by reason of the strength of Nature and their strong Heats which do in many of them increase the desire to eat and drink beyond the power of the digestive faculty of the Stomach For in most People in whom the Fire doth predominate their attractive faculty and desire of eating and drinking is so very strong that it prolongs the pleasure of eating and drinking many degrees beyond the Necessity of the Stomach which does not only cause an heavy drowsy Indisposition to follow but sows Seed for many Diseases Therefore as this sort of People are generally the greatest Eaters by Inclination so ought they as much as in them lies restrain the Extravagancies of their Appetite and eat but sparingly especially of rich hot compounded spicy Food and strong Drinks as Wine Brandy Tobacco c. For they are all Enemies to this Complexion and very dangerous too if Temperance be wanting for every sort of Food hath its operation in the Body and on the Spirits by way of Simile Therefore all such Meats and Drinks in this sort of People if not sparingly taken do too powerfully awaken the Central Heat which ought not to be felt but when it is stirred up does sometimes cause either a Suffocation or Evaporation of the vital Spirits which will make all the external parts of the Body to burn like Fire whilst the Center becomes as it were chill and cold For when the pure Spirits are wounded by any violence done to them the Radical moisture consumed the Oyl of Life set on Fire which are Moderators and Qualifiers of the harsh Fires and Poysons in the Body what can be expected but Destruction For when the pure Spirits of Oyl are any way wounded by Intemperance then presently are awakened the fierce dark Fires in the Body the original of every Life which ought not to have been stirred for this Fire is of a churlish angry consuming Nature whence those terrible Fevers do proceed This Heat when it is kindled which is never done but when some great violence is offered to the pure Spirit and Oyl then the natural Life doth presently burn and is in danger to be destroyed for the heat of this Original Fire is like the heat of Charcoal whose pleasant Water and Moderator is destroyed in the making of it whence that pleasant gleam of Light and refreshing Quality in the Wood doth proceed so that in the Charcoal there does only remain the dark fierce Sulphurous Fire which does when burning send forth pernicious stupifying Fumes and Vapours of an ill scent burdensom to Nature for these Scents or Vapours do powerfully penetrate the Body by way of Simile and search out their likeness and incorporate therewith whence disorders arise especially in People of weak Nature and that have but few Spirits Even so it is in the Body if the pure Spirits and Radical Moisture be through superfluity or any other way disorder'd or weaken'd then presently the dark original Fire is kindled and manifesteth it self in its own form and burns fierce like Charcoal and then the Body falls into Distemperatures Not but this dark fierce Fire that doth so violently burn and discompose the Body and Mind did possess the body before for indeed it is the center of every Life but so long as the pure Spirits and Balsamick Body were strong and the Qualities of Nature had their operation in equality this fierce sulphurous fire lay hid or was captivated in the sweet Embraces of the Radical Moisture and pure Spirits and restrained by their virtue and power even as the pure Oyl and Balsamick Body in Wood doth moderate and qualifie the sulphurous Charcoal-heat so long as the Wood remains intire and no violence done to the sweet Oyl which is the true Life of the Wood but so soon as this sweet Oyl is wounded and becomes suffocated as is done in making of Charcoal then the fieree poysonous dark Fire of Saturn and Mars is awakened being of a furious devilish Nature and Operation The same is to be understood in every Vegetable Mineral and Animal be it what it will If the pure Radical Spirits and Oyl of Life be any ways hurt then the dark Wrath of Nature appears and if it be in the Human Nature then the Body falls into terrible distempers and cannot any way be recovered but by a powerful Medicine able to incorporate it self with the fading Oyl and pure Spirits and so reinforcing them with these foreign Auxiliaries enables them to withstand and qualifie the fierce poysonous operation of the awakened dark Fire and compel it to retreat to it s designed central obscurity This Cholerick Complexion ought in a most special manner to observe the Rules of Equality and Temperance for the Original Fire which we have been speaking of is very strong in them and most apt on any disorders to be kindled whence do proceed so many Violences done by this sort of People Also they generally love Arms and the Field and a little exercise and custom will make fighting and killing of Men as familiar to them as the killing of Sheep or Oxen is to Butchers Therefore they ought to be sober and accustom themselves to a mean in all things as Meats Drinks Exercises and especially in Communication or in their outward Converse in the World All sorts of Food and Drinks that are rather inclined to Coolness than Heat are most profitable to People of this Complexion and as in quality so also ought they to be careful that they do not exceed in quantity which they are apt to do more than any other Complexion as aforesaid Certainly Man being an Image of God and Nature in him containing the true nature of all things which the Ancients significantly called a Microcosm or little World 't is no absurdity to affirm that he hath power to change and alter his natural Complexion if he once come to know the Principles of himself and can but distinguish the Principles of his own Nature then may he preserve the pure essential Spirit from suffering violence and he can also by the same Eye of understanding preserve the essential Vertues of all other things according to that measure of Knowledge he hath of himself Likewise People that are dignified with this Cholerick Complexion are subject to acute Fevers their central Heat being great whence do proceed a powerful Life and abundance of Spirits For in all Creatures that have their central Heat strong the Balsamick Body and Radical Moisture is also powerful therefore such People can indure Labour beyond others The same is to be understood in Vegetables and other things according to their Natures where-ever the central Heat is powerful there also the Radical Moisture and sweet Oyl is strongest wherein the natural Life doth burn and shine An example we have in Wine and in all sweet Fruits especially in Sugar in which things the sweet Balsamick Body and pure Spirits are potent lively and
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
virtue thereof becomes of an equal friendly Temperament both in Body and Mind notwithstanding his Complexion may incline him to the contrary it being the sweet pleasant Life in all Creatures And the pure Balsamick Virtue and healing Quality in all Vegetables and Minerals hath its Birth and Original from this good Principle nor can there be any central Rest or true Satisfaction in man if this Principle of divine Light be not in some degree predominant for by its pleasant and sweet Influences all the fiery dark fierce Inclinations which often do arise from the Complexion are qualified made more Friendly and Sanguine if its counsel be regarded All true Religion doing as one would be done unto Offices of Love and Acts of self-denyal all Friendly and Courteous Deportment and whatsoever hath the Name and Nature of Virtue do universally spring up from this holy Principle of divine Love All men seek it because no man can have satisfaction without it some in a right Way others in a wrong and whosoever have wasted or suffocated the sweet Influences of this pure Spirit and Love of God become thereby a Charcoal Spirit whose sweet Water is destroyed viz. Twice dead and pluckt up as it were by the Roots as the Apostle phraseth it they growing of a fierce terrible fiery Nature seared up in the harsh dark original as Lot's Wife was because she looked back viz. into the Original and salt Spirit the Pillar of Salt signifying the great strength and power of God's Wrath which was then kindled by reason of Transgression The very same is to be understood of all Beasts of the Field and other things not so indeed as it is in man but according to the Nature of each For those Creatures that did in the Creation arise from and were chiefly compounded of the fierce harsh forms of Nature whose predominant Quality stands in the Saturnine and Martial Fire have but small portions of the Virtue and Light of this World for the pleasant Virtue and friendly Qualities which the Principle of this visible World gives unto all her Children do all proceed from the Internal Spiritual World and this outward Principle is an Image and Likeness of the Internal the Invisible Spirit and Powers are the Root of the Visible and whatsoever is manifested in this World in Figures Shapes and Forms the very same hath the Internal Spiritual Principle in Power and Virtue And according to the degrees of the Spirit and what property of Nature was predominant in the Radix of each Creature such a Shape Form Inclination Complexion and Disposition the Creature is endued with be it either Animal or Vegetable for the Body was formed by the virtue and power of the Spirit and there is both the nearest Affinity and Resemblance between them as is manifest by all Creatures in whom the dark Wrath of Saturn and Mars was predominant in their Radixes they are not only of an unclean fierce terrible Spirit but their Figures and Shapes are unpleasant and fierce as Lyons Tygars Wolves Swine and many others both in the Elements of Earth Air and Water that are unclean Devourers and Creatures of prey killing and feeding upon their fellow Creatures and as such Creatures are unclean in their Radixes whence their Inclinations and Desires to unclean Food do proceed as bearing the nearest Affinity with their Natures so their Figures Shapes and Forms with their suitable Inclinatious do clearly manifest what matter they proceeded from in their Creation This Root the great and illuminated Prophet Moses understood by a divine manifestation whence his Law proceeded wherein he prohibits his People the Iews from eating of unclean Food both Flesh and Fish with many other Circumstances tending to Cleanness for that great Prophet saw by a divine and natural understanding into the Essences and Original Qualities of every Creature and that each thing hath a secret Power to incorporate with its Likeness and to make that Quality strong which in the Radix was weak and lay as it were hid And on the contrary to hide and make that property weak which in the Radix was strong so great is the power of Nature and this is not only done in the Evil but also in the Good Therefore all men have power more or less to alter and change their Inclinations and Complexions either for the better or the worse as they give their Wills up to practise either Good or Evil. But if People abandon themselves to their natural Inclinations and live under the power and dominion of their Complexions and by degrees give way to Intemperance and Evil Communications such do oftentimes become of far worse Inclinations and Dispositions than their Complexions naturally tended unto And on the contrary some there are who by the power of their Wills rigorously pursuing the Paths of Vertue and Understanding become more Friendly and of better Tempers than their Complexions promise For the natural Inclinations and Influences of the Stars have not power to captivate the Soul in Evils if the Will gives it self up to be guided by the Holy Spirit of Iesus Christ which will lead a man into all Vertue and all Truth CHAP. II. Of the Excellency of Temperance the Knowledg of a Mans self and the mighty Benefits of Abstinence and Sobriety TEmperance is a divine Gift and whosoever obtaineth the perfect Government and Knowledg of himself is endued with the springhead of all Virtues The fear of the Lord being the first step to all true Wisdom both Spiritual and Natural The Root of all Knowledg that man is capable of is in himself Therefore if any will understand any thing truly he must first turn the Eye of his Mind inward not outward as the custom of most is for Man is an Image and Likeness of all things both Spiritual and Natural in him is contained the true Nature of all things and he that doth know and understand himself and the Principles and Operations of his own Nature both in Body and Mind and what Properties in the seven-fold Nature of this World are predominant in him and to what his Inclinations are most naturally propensive both as to Virtue and Vice he may thereby not only shun many Inconveniencies but also so much as he knows of himself he also knows of his Creator and of all other things And so on the contrary he that doth not know and distinguish the Principles of God and Nature in himself does neither see nor know any other thing as he ought Therefore all such who are ignorant of themselves are subject to be changed and altered out of one Opinion into another always leaning hard on the Shoulders of Custom supporting their Ignorance with the truth of Tradition having one of their Eyes if not both amongst the Multitude But all true sight in divine and natural things does arise and proceed from the unalterable divine Principle or Gift of God for the natural man as he is wholly blind as to things divine so
with the Body that it cannot discern things Coelestial but Sobriety and Purity of body and mind renders it the Temple of God wherein his blessed Spirit delights to dwell and communicate its Gifts and Graces Most men will in words confess that there is no blessing this World affords comparable to Health yet rarely do any of them value it as they ought to do till they feel the want of it To him that hath obtained this goodly Gift the meanest Food even Bread and Water is most pleasant and all sorts of Labour and Exercise delightful but the contrary makes all things nauseous and distasteful What are full-spread Tables Riches and Honours to him that is tormented with Distempers In such a condition men do desire nothing so much as Health but no sooner is that obtained but their thoughts are changed forgetting those solemn Promises and Resolutions they made to God and their own Souls going on in the old road of Gluttony taking little or no care to continue that which they so much desired when they were deprived of it Happy it were if men did but use the tenth part of that Care and Diligence to preserve their minds and bodies in Health as they do to procure Money and Riches which many never obtain and those that do it serves them chiefly to procure those Dainties and Superfluities which do generate Diseases and is the cause of committing many other Evils there being but few men that do know how to use Riches as they ought For there are not many of our wealthy Dons that ever consider that as little and mean Food and Drink will suffice and maintain a Lord in perfect Health as the poorest Peasant and render him more capable to enjoy the benefit of the Mind and pleasures of the Body far beyond all Dainties and Superfluities But alas the momentary Pleasures of the Throat Custom Vanity c. do insnare and intice most People to exceed the Bounds of Necessity or Convenience and many fail through a false Opinion or Mis-understanding of Nature childishly imagining that the richer the Food is and the more they can cram into their Bellies the more they shall be sterngthened thereby but experience shews to the contrary for are not such People as accustom themselves to the richest compounded Foods and most cordial Drinks generally the most Infirm and Diseased For all such things contain great store of Virtue and ought to be eaten between whiles according to Reason and Experience for when the Mouth of the Stomach is open the pleasant relish of such dainty Food does so intice and encrease the desire of eating and drinking beyond what is needful that a man may eat too much and yet give off with some little Appetite of which we may be sensible by that general dulness and Indisposition which we find in our selves for two or three Hours afterwards People are much mistaken in thinking That so long as the Appetite desires and the pleasure of eating continues strong they may eat on without damage to their Health But the truth is this is one of the chief Reasons why men are Gluttons and there is but little difficulty in Temperance save only in this particular it being somewhat hard for an healthy good stomach'd man to give off eating in the midst of the Pleasure he receives by it especially when Meats by Art are made on purpose not only to prolong the Pallate but also to delight it But to him that uses himself to simple Meats and Drinks the snare of provoking the Pallate beyond the necessity of Nature is removed for such cannot intice Nature out of her way nor awaken any other Properties or Appetites in the Stomach but its own Likeness whereas varieties of Food do stir up as many various Qualities in the Stomach so that there is still a fresh desire to each thing till Nature is over-cloy'd And therefore Varieties are always dangerous if great Care and Temperance be not observed But he that limits his Desire by Wisdom and has the understanding both of the Quality and Quantity may eat of sundry sorts of Food at one time but the ignorant and unwise very rarely do it without prejudice to their Health As the pleasure of Temperance and the many benefits that follow Sobriety cannot be imagined by those that live Riotous Lives so neither can the sweet influence thereof especially the first be enjoyed without some Trouble to Old Adam There must be Self-Denial in the case and a man must live in this World as if he were Alone for there is but little Company in the ways of Sobriety When a man comes once to espouse them in earnest presently most of his Friends and Acquaintance will suspect and condemn him as a Conceited Whimsical Capricious Fellow or a kind of Mad-man because he will not run with them to the same Excess and Riot For the Flesh and Spirit of this World have no Affinity with Sobriety and Temporance proceeding from Fountains whose Waters are of quite contrary Nature to others the one being clear and pure which purgeth and cleanseth preserving both the Body and Spirit in perfect Health the other being defiled with many Superfluities destroys the Health of both Therefore he that would enjoy the true Pleasures and flourish in the Virtues that attend Sobriety ought to be as strong as Sampson was in his innocent Life that he may be able to cut off all superfluity in the Bud For it is not that which goeth into a man as our Saviour Christ saith but that which proceeds out of him For all kinds of Intemperance are first conceived in the Heart and if such Imaginations are not cut off or overcome by Wisdom and Temperance then they grow strong and become as it were essential and when the Spirit and Understanding of a man is captivated then a man becomes a Tyrant to himself and a perfect Slave to Gluttony being defiled by every thing Meats Drinks Words and Works as the Wise man saith Even the plowing of the Land is Evil to the Wicked for all Uncleanness and Defilements that happen either to the Body or Soul do arise and proceed from Within And if such lewd Desires Opinions and Customs were cut off in the bud then neither Body nor Soul would be hurt by supurfluity of Meats Drinks or any other thing for every man that commits any Intemperance be it what it will acts it first Within and makes it substantial in the Spirit and then it becomes Corporeal for the Body is forced to obey the dictates of the Spirit whether good or evil for this cause Christ saith That nothing that went into a man defiled him for he pointed and had an Eye to the Root whence all Evils and Intemperances arise His Words are Spiritual and not otherwise to be understood for he makes no exception but saith NOTHING that goeth into a man defileth him Which words should they be taken in a Carnal ense then our dayly Experience shews the
Health are easily procurable of small Charge soon made ready and with very little Trouble they are in most places ready and familiar to be obtained with ease and pleasure without violating Justice or hazarding either your Conscience or your Liberty Furthermore Temperance is a strong Bullwark against that pernicious Enemy of Mankind viz. Despair or suspicion of the divine Hand of Providence against the Frowns and Causalties of this World What cares that man if he have not Money to buy Wine who by use finds Water no less pleasant and more wholsom Why should one bemoan not having half a score Dishes when one will serve him not only as well but better Sobriety makes a man Superior to those vain fearful repining Imaginations whereunto most or indeed all superfluous intemperate People are subject and when Poverty comes upon them they are doubly miserable because they had inur'd themselves to Unnecessaries before the absence of which more torments them than any real Wants that they lie under But he that gives the government of himself to Wisdom and has the true knowledg of Gods Love and the eternal Principle of Light in himself and admits it to have its Operation in the Soul and Body and who sees with an inward Eye the great Virtue and Fortitude there is in every simple Grain Fruit and Herb and who hath also bounded his desires to the necessities of Nature there is no such great reason that such a man should trouble his head with care and suspicion and tire his Body with over-labouring for Fruits Herbs Milk Bread and Water are easily procured And what sober man in the World is reduced to that extremity as to want such things except in universal Calamities Every man ought to understand that heavyness oppression of Nature and dulness proceed from the abundance of thick putrid Humours which stop up the Passages and cloy the Joynts filling them with gross moisture so that the course of the Spirits is hindered and they as it were suffocated which causes various Distempers in the Body that men would give all the World if they had it to be cured of but no Physick can help them unless the excellent Lady Sobriety be their Doctress for it must be a clean simple well-ordered Diet only that can fine the Blood by degrees out of which pure Spirits are generated in the goodnss of which all Health and the whole prosperity of the Body and Mind doth consist whereas surplusage of Nourishment destroys the Spirits and damnifies all the Senses as that of Seeing is hurt by gross Humours that obstruct the Optick Nerves And therefore those that are subject to weak Eyes ought to abstain from all such things as replenish the Head with Fumes such are all sorts of fat Meat Butter and the like taken in too great a quantity as also strong thick Drinks especially such wherein Wormwood or any strong bitter Herbs are infused for all such things are very hurtful to the Eyes as experience shews Likewise such superfluous matter offends the organs of Hearing and marrs the sense of Tasting by breeding Cholerick salt Humors so that those who accustom themselves to Excess generally have their Palates debaucht and cannot give a true judgment of the state of things Now the sorts of Food and Drinks that breed the best Blood and finest Spirits are Herbs Fruits and various kinds of Grains also Bread and sundry sorts of excellent Food made by different preparations of Milk and all dry Food out of which the Sun hath exhaled the gross Humidity by which all sorts of Pulses and Grains become of a firmer substance so likewise Oyl is an excellent thing in Nature more sublime and pure than Butter And if you do eat fat flesh let it be sparingly and not without good store of Bread and Herbs There are two things in the practise of Temperance chiefly to be regarded viz. QUANTITY and QUALITY the later ought to be considered by every one that is desirous to preserve Nature but Eror in the former does generally the most mischief For if Meats and Drinks be of a raw gross Nature and not so well prepared as they ought to be yet if a man eat and drink but sparingly with a perfect Appetite the Stomach Nature's Laboratory will make better Nourishment thereof than it can of the best Food when too great Quantities are cram'd into the Belly for the natural Heat of the Stomach is of a wonderful Nature when free from these burdensom gross Humours it can as it were digest and kill the poysonous Juices of unclean Food and by an innate power cast off the malignancy thereof if the Quantity be not too great In this case Abstinence hath been found by experience to cure most Diseases that have proceeded from Superfluity if not gon too far Therefore Quantity is more dangerous to destroy Health than Quality tho' they are both very bad and often meet together and then Health is destroyed with a winged speed which is the chief cause that there are so few either Men Women or Children in perfect Health Where can you find a Man or Woman among such as are Intemperate who have attained to the Age of forty Years that are in perfect Health The best of them being afflicted with windy and scorbutick Diseases which are bred by eating too much in quantity and of an evil unclean quality These windy Diseases are also much increased by the continual eating of their Food too hot that is before the sulpherous moist Vapours which are of a fierce and sharp Nature are evaporated for this sulpherous Heat which goes away in the moist steem or vapours does contain the Spirits of the Fire as also two Qualities viz. A windy moist dulling Nature and a fierce sharp fiery one the first of these is the cause of most windy Diseases and the second does generate in the Blood a hot sharp Humour which causeth an itching and breaking out in the flesh with spots of various colours as also a weariness and indisposedness through the whole Body this likewise is the grand cause of many Leprous and Mangy Diseases especially when the Food is gross and not well prepared and too much in Quantity which Maladies do often happen altogether All Food that is prepared by fire should not be eaten till those thick sulpherous and moist steems be evaporated herein many are mistaken and even Nature it self is little understood for the generality of People account hot Food best and most profitable for Health and the good Dame will be angry if her Servants delay to eat their Food whilst Hot. But the continual eating of Hot Food from the Womb has depraved their Stomachs and natural Heat so that if they eat their Food cold it will not give them satisfaction although hot Food is contrary to the pure simple Nature and the health of the Body nevertheless the continual use of such things have awakened their Similes in the Stomach and that requires their continuation and
the pure Spirits and Radical Moisture be by any disorders hurt or wounded whether it be before they are killed or after the Salt cannot incorporate therewith as aforesaid nor purge out and destroy the humid gross parts in the Flesh whence all Putrifaction arises whereas when the strong powerful and sweet Spirits in Salt which are the inward Life thereof do joyn with and embrace the essential spirituous parts it does tye or hold the corruptive parts of the Flesh captive that they cannot proceed to Putrifaction and for a season it will remain as a fixed Body till by length of time those pure Essential spirituous parts both in the Flesh and Salt become either suffocated or evaporated through the great store of gross humidity which Flesh does contain tending always to Putrifaction and when any Flesh does begin to putrify or stink a second salting nor any other Art cannot recover it to its first state of Sweetness but if the second Salting be whilst the Putrifaction is but yet in the Bud and not too far gone then such Flesh may continue a little longer In a word If this sort of Flesh be free from the afore-mentioned Disorders and their natural Uncleannesses being seasonably seasoned with Salt not keept too long and well prepared by the House-wife and moderately eaten it is as sound and healthy Food for strong and working People as any Flesh whatsoever none excepted Of Sheep their Complexions and Nature and of their Flesh. Sheep are Creatures of great use and benefit to the Sons of men their Nature and Complexion is Sanguine Phlegmatick with a little mixture of Melancholy but the Sanguine Nature does predominate over all the other Qualities They are dignified with a meek humble Nature mild and friendly and wherein all the Properties and Elements do seem to stand in equal accord whence doth proceed those harmless innocent Inclinations hardly any Creature in the World to be compared to them they have as it were a glance of the divine Light shining in them for if Equality and Concord had not abounded in them our Saviour Iesus Christ would not so often have compared good and holy men unto them but it was no doubt to shew their Meekness Innocence and desires of doing good For this Creature is not only to be esteemed for their Natural Vertues but also for the manifold Benefits which they afford unto mankind both living and dead The Flesh of Sheep viz. Mutton is of a clean simple Nature of easier Concoction than the Flesh of Oxen it generates a good clean nourishment their Fat is the whitest of all Flesh which proceeds from the equal temperament of their Body and Spirits and the predominancy of the sweet Quality and because the Spirits are pure and undefiled For the white clear bright Gleam in every Creature be they what they will does arise and proceed from the divine Principle which made all things and is the essential Vertue and Power that does sustain and radically dwell in every Creature and all things in this World in each according to its Nature and also according to what degree it is in each Creature they become of a more friendly gentle Nature or the contrary For in what Creature soever this Vertue or Gleam of Light is predominant that Creature is of a most sweet Composition or Nature be it either Animal Vegetable or Mineral for of the pure white Colour in all things the Root is the divine Principle its Radix is clean Therefore in former Ages when any would declare their Innocency they cloathed themselve in white Garments because it proceeded from the innocency in Nature Also the Saints and Prophets in several places of the Scriptures by way of Simile compare Whiteness with the divine Power and Virtue being that the Saints and Angels are said to be cloathed in White which was not spoken without a divine understanding of the Nature of things which I shall forbear to speak further of in this place though to the intelligent Reader it would be no unuseful Digression But to return to the present subject The Flesh of Sheep is made better or worse according to the Accidents that do attend them no Flesh to be preferred before this if they are free from Surfeits and Diseases which this Creature is much subject to by reason of their tender Nature for all Creatures in whom the four Humours and Elements of their Bodies and Spirits stand nearest Equality are soonest wounded if any Violence be offered For this Creature cannot endure any violent motion without manifest prejudice and little over-driving will put them into such Heats as they cannot recover under a considerable time and at last they will break out with a Mainge or Scab if they are folded a little too close it will fret and corrupt their Blood give them the Scab and hinder them from growing over-wet Weather will corrupt them and cause them to Rot in moist low Grounds and in the best and highest Pasturage hinder them from proving so well as they would otherwise the very driving of Sheep and Lambs from the Market to the Slaughter-Houses especially in London where they are much hurried by their unmerciful drivers and other Accidents that they meet with in the Streets will give them the Mainge or the Scab were they to be turn'd back to their Pastures Therefore there is required the greatest understanding and care to preserve this Creature sound and free from these Disorders and Accidents which nothing can do but a tender gentle usage and government which suits their Tempers and hath unity with their Natures Their Flesh is far better and more healthy in the Winter season than in the Summer especially when the Summer proves Wet for as nothing more destroys and corrupts their Flesh more than wet Weather so in great Heats their tender Spirits on every Accident are apt to be Evaporated also they are apt to sweat much whence proceeds a fainty Indisposition especially when the Sun and Year declines the Grass being then more gross and full of Phlegmatick Juices therefore the Flesh of Sheep and Lambs ought to be sparingly eaten all the Summer especially the latter part thereof for this and indeed most other sorts of Flesh is best in the Winter and Spring viz. from December to Iune or thereabouts for cold Weather causeth the natural Heat to be much stronger and also more Central sharpens the Appetites of both Men and Beasts causeth a good Digestion because then Nature is able to make a perfect separation of the Food whence is generated good Blood and pure Spirits which renders the Flesh hard and firm besides the Food of most sorts of Cattel is then dry viz. Hay which does always breed a better and firmer nourishment than Grass or any green Food If Sheep be killed with any of the before-mentioned Inconveniences upon them then their flesh thereby loseth its pure sweetness and good Relish becomes of a gross dull heavy Nature and Operation generates abundance
Stomach and generates burdensom Humours in the Body because the pure Vertue and Friendly Quality in Food so Prepared is in part destroyed if this was understood People would not be in love with such Preparations for through frequent Use and continual Custom of eating Food badly prepared the Pallate is adulterated and altho such be strong and fulsom which always comes'to pass when the pure Spirits are wounded in the Preparation nevertheless the Pallate is not capable to distinguish Tastes for the senses are easily made friendly by use and custom to the greatest part of things Do not all stinking Trades which at first are unpleasant to the sense of Smeling become after a little use and custom easie to be endured and such cannot well distinguish the Air of Tallow-Chandlers and Butchers Shops from sweet pleasant Airs If this were not so it would be impossible for Nature to endure those Adulterations and unnatural Preparations of Food Therefore we see what a wonderful Power there is in every thing to awaken and strengthen its Likeness in the human Nature for this very cause the most illuminated Prophet Moses commanded the People of Israel that they should not only abstain from eating Unclean Creatures but that they should also separate themselves from every unclean thing for he was sensible that Man was capable to be wrought on by all things because he has a Simile with all There is more in this than many imagin which every one ought to consider not only in Preparations of Food but in all other things CHAP. V. The Seasons of the Year in which all sorts of Flesh are most unclean and aptest to contract and breed Diseases and also the danger of eating much green Food And the Reasons why so many are sick and die more at one time than another THE Seasons of the Year which are most dangerous to contract Diseases in are from the middle of Iune to the last of October For 1st This season is hot which openeth the Pores causeth Sweating and as it were a continual Evaporation of the Spirits which causeth a kind of fainty Indisposition to possess the whole Body for all heat which exceeds the Medium whether it proceeds from Seasons Meats Drinks or Exercises doth gradually waste and consume the Spirits and natural Heat and dulls the edge of the Attractive Digestive and Retentive Faculties of the Stomach therefore in all hot Countries and Seasons mens Appetites are not so vigorous and quick as in cold Countries For this reason all Superfluity and Intemperance are far more dangerous and men are apter to contract Distempers in the one than in the other as experience manifests we see that the Natives in all hot Climates are more temperate in Meats Drinks and Exercises than they are in cold which is one main cause why English People and others that travel into the East and West-Indies are so unhealthy and so many have died Experience hath taught them that the grand cause has been Intemperance not only continuing the same Disorders there which they had been addicted to in their own Country but rather increasing them saying The hotter the Weather the stronger and hotter the Drink ought to be this Custom hath been practised by some idle sottish People that understood Nature no more than Swine Whereas if such who travel did take right measures in Meats Drinks and Exercises they would be as healthy as in their own Countries 2dly In this Season People make use of variety of green Food as Beans Pease Cabages Colly-flowers Artichoaks c. All which things do contain great store of Phlegmy matter especially in cold Countries where the Sun which is the central Life of all things has not that Power to prepare such food as in hot Also the Bodies of most People being accustom'd all the remaining part of the year to strong hot Food and Drinks and then on a sudden without gradual Progression beginning such a kind of Diet as does beget Crudities and Obstructions is very prejudicial to them for Experience does shew that all such things are full of Phlegm and have but few Spirits and they very impure comparatively to what they were in the Spring Therefore they ought to be eaten moderately or else all such things do swell the Body and fill it with gross Phlegmatick Humours whence doth arise those heavy dull Indispositions which do generally attend People in this Season 3dly It is likewise to be observed that a great part of that green Food before-mentioned does often lie a considerable time before they are eaten viz. two or three days or more after such things are cut or gathered especially in great Cities and Towns some of them lie heating together a day or two before they are spent as Beans and Pease c. by which means they lose their pure brisk lively Taste and Smell their natural Colour is changed into a dull Green mixed with a dusky Black they are dull on the Pallate lie heavy on the Stomach nothing so quick of Concoction as those that are boyled Fresh these things presently lose their fresh lively Spirits and Tinctures whence doth proceed the pleasant Taste with the most fragrant Smell and natural Colour if your Pallate be not too much adulterated it will easily distinguish the one from the other 4thly At this time of the year the Air which is the Life of the Spirit in all Cities and great Towns is thick and sulpherous full of gross Humidity which has its source from many Uncleannesses such places do plentifully afford more especially in this season which is inamicable to the pure Spirits of all such Food for all green Food is naturally subject to Putrifaction by reason of their Phlegmatick Body this makes them more unhealthful and dangerous than otherwise they would be if fresh and lively These Summer Fruits when they have been gathered long and exposed to the corrupt Air of the Cities and Towns the pure spirituous Vertues and digestive Faculty is in a manner destroyed these Fruits viz. Gooseberries Currains Plums Cherries Pears Apples c. are endued with a very tender Spirit and Life and being full of Phlegm and gross matter they quickly corrupt and turn to Putrifaction which all the eaters thereof ought to consider Likewise it may be noted that many of these Fruits are eaten on a full Stomach both at Meals and immediately after which must needs be very pernicious to Health because they obstruct the Stomach and Passages generating many crude Windy Humours whereby they suffocate the pure Spirits and turn the sweet Oyl of Life sower whence doth proceed griping Pains in the Bowels Fluxes Fevers besides Pains in the Ioynts causing Trembling Distempers like Agues according to the Constitution of each Man and the matter which is awakened in the Root But on the contrary if such Fruits are ripe and fresh gathered and eaten in order when the Stomach is clean and free from being cloyed with other Food then they are very Profitable being
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
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
to intreat our Friends to eat or drink beyond what is needful We have not forgot the great Affliction and torturing Distempers we endured whilst we were in Captivity and under the Government of Pharaoh's Task-masters viz. under the unequal Oppressions of the awakened Wrath and divided Forms of Nature where each Property endeavours to get the Mastery and therefore we do continually shun and arm our selves with the Armour of our Lord Jesus Christ viz. by taking up the Cross and denying our selves those Egyptian Vanities and Superfluities which the common Enemy of Mankind doth seek with all cunning Inventions to enslave us again in worldly Lusts that he may separate us from our sovereign Good but the Word of Truth is engraven in our Hearts by whose Power and Virtue we withstood his Temptations and beware of his Snares in time and count it our chief Good that the Lord hath in his Eternal Mercy delivered us out of Captivity therefore it behoveth us to live soberly in this present World We desire always and in all states to submit our selves to the good Pleasure of the Lord for we do not know what is good no farther than we are guided by his Holy Spirit it belongeth to him to determine what is most expedient for us and his own Glory We all hold this Maxim That all that have throughly profited themselves in the School of Christ do daily beat down or keep under the Elemental Body by denying themselves the Worldly Vanities within We do not give Names to our Children nor imitate the Philosophical Ancients like Apes without understanding the true Nature or Genius of the Child as to call them at a venture by such Names as do express a Deity whereas this Nature and Genius of the Child is quite contrary This is not to imitate our first Parents Adam gave Names to every Creature and Thing according to their Natures that is expressing their Natures and Properties He did not give Names to wild savage Beasts that did signifie Cleanness or friendly tractable Dispositions and Natures nor call Sheep Lions nor Lions Sheep The Prophet Isaiah saith Woe unto those that call Evil Good and Good Evil being ignorant of the true Nature of things and divine Mysteries they make no distinctions between Good and Evil. Adam called his First-born Cain Why did not he call him Abel No that would be to call a Devil a Saint and a Saint a Devil Cain doth sound forth and signifie the strong Might and Power of the Wrath and divided Forms of Nature which had Dominion in him and Abel doth as we have told you before signifie the eternal Principle of God's Love viz. Cain imitates the fierce devouring Fire and Abel the Light thereof The very same is to be understood of Ishmael and Isaac and Esau and Iacob the elder doth truly signifie the consuming Fire and the younger the Light thereof the first is the Father and the second is the Son The Ancients did not therefore gather together all the good Names which do express the holy divine Power and eternal Grace and Love of God in his second Principle or eternal Light and call their Children by them at a venture no this would have been great Impiety Would not every sober Man count it sordid and vain to call an Angel a Devil and a Devil by the Name of an Angel as most of the Men of Egypt do at this day They name and call their Children by Names expressing the divine Virtue and Power when as most of them do live under the Government of the evil unclean Nature and the Spirit that doth predominate in them is fierce and wrathful so that they call Good Evil and Evil Good which is far off from imitating the holy Men of the first Ages This doth more clearly appear by Abram which doth signifie the original Wrath and wild Nature of this World Why did not his Parents call him Abraham Emanuel Grace Hope Charity Abel Iacob or Isaac No those Names were too sublime but Abram did truly sound forth and signifie his inward and outward Nature But in process of time when the Light of God's Grace and Eternal Mercy appeared to him and that he believed in God which was accounted to him for Righteousness then the Lord said unto him Thy Name shall no more be called Abram but Abraham which doth truly comprehend and signifie both the first and second Tabernacle The Lord did not destroy or annihilate the Wrath and wild Nature no that must not be if there were no Fire then there would'be no Light as our Saviour Christ saith in another Case He came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it The Lord did reinforce Abraham's Soul and replenish it with his holy divine Principle of Love and Light and therefore his Name should no more be called Abram a Thorn or wild Thistle but Abraham the Father of the Faithful The same Order and changing of Names was continued till Christ was manifested in the humane Nature and afterward by all the divine Seers Did not Christ change St. Peter's Name because of his fixed Faith calling him Sephas which signifies a Stone or Rock And was not Saul called Paul after his Conversion The Ancients never changed Names but first their Natures were changed Christ called Herod a Fox which did truly signifie his inward Nature and what Spirit did govern in him The same is to be understood when the wise Ancients gave Names to their Children Places Cities and other things which Names did always truly signifie what Property or Quality did predominate in the Child or Thing so named This Knowledge is Angelical which Man hath lost by suffering his Desire and Will to enter into Vanity and as the Name of each Creature which Adam gave them doth express their Properties and Nature so the Name of each Angel doth express and signifie their Office The understanding each Name and what is signified thereby doth remain as a Mystery unto Mankind which is the original Language or the true Language of Nature the sound of each Word or Name doth declare what Property is predominant in it which original Language of Nature Birds and some other inferiour Creatures do retain to this time because they have not broken the Law of God in Nature but have lived in the Simplicity thereof and though they are not endued with that noble Faculty of Speech nevertheless they can by their general Tone and Cry as intelligibly communicate their Desires and various Passions as Love Hate Hunger Thirst and the like as Men can by their distinct Dialects viz. by altering and varying this one simple Tone or Cry as when they are hungry or want their Fellows or if one particular Bird doth know of some Food that his Fellows are ignorant of then he sends forth such a Tone or Sound as does as intelligibly acquaint all those of their own Kind as Men can by discoursing together for every Tone and Cry according to the various States Wants
simple-hearted as not to hurry kill and destroy those of our kind and others of the like nature then all Wars and Contention between those of his own kind would cease but so long as that terrible fierce wrathful Spirit predominates in Mankind there will be continual Wars Rumors of Wars Plots Conspiracies and horrid Murthers and Assassinations amongst themselves nor can we hope to escape their bloody hands but our Lives must be subject to all kind of Miseries and we must be contented to be led not only to the Shearer but also to the Slaughter-house in silence as well as Innocence and shall not lift up our Voice to repine or complain to them any more since they served that great and most holy Shepherd in the same manner even the Saviour of the World that was so far from Killing that he laid down his Life for his Sheep The Horses Complaint against their Masters Has not the Creator of all Beings endued us with great Spirits and strong Bodies excellent Shapes and delicate Forms not only pleasant to behold but of great use to Mankind bringing to them by our Labours a thousand daily Benefits By our Strength we tear and plow up the stubborn Earth and harrow her obdurate Clods We carry them through Dirt and Mire swim with them through the Waters and bear them over dangerous places and often hazard our Lives with willingness to save theirs We with great Toil and Labour draw their Luggage in Carts and Wains and their fat lazy Paunches in Chariots and Coaches In Cases of Expedition they ride us Post and by our help remove themselves above an hundred Miles in a very few Hours All this we do and are contented to do but what is reasonable and agreeable to our Natures will not satisfie the unreasonable Desires and Lusts of our Masters but through many Abuses and cruel Strains and immoderate Labours which they force us to even beyond the power and strength of our Nature they have so wounded our Spirits and destroyed our Natural Heat that although our Creator hath endued us with great Spirits and Bodies strong and healthful beyond most of our Fellow-Creatures yet we are now become liable to as many Diseases almost as our intemperate Masters are themselves To enumerate all the Grievances we suffer would be endless Some of our Tyrants will gallop us many Miles till we are all over in a Foam and Sweat and then tie us at an Ale-house-door in the cold Dirt whilst they are Carouzing and Huzzaing like mad Devils with their roaring Companions and never regard us who in the mean time become founder'd or catch the Fashions or some other Disease that perhaps hangs upon us as long as we live and when at Midnight they have finish'd their Revels up they get again on our Backs and switch and spur through Thick and Thin over Hedge and Ditch ready to break both our Necks and their own at every step as if the Devil drove them Others lead us with excessive Burthens and if we go not as fast as they would have us then they plow our Sides with their armed Heels and beat us without any Reason or Humanity Nay some of our Drivers are so possessed with a devilish violent Spirit that for getting the value of Six Pence they will whip and beat us like Furies and make us draw or carry such excessive Burthens that we strain our Eyes out of our Heads and break our very Backs and if we complain as oft-times we do by our unwillingness to go then they will not only belabour us with their Whips and their Cudgels but curse us with a thousand horrid Execrations and many devilish Wishes which sometimes do awaken the very Wrath of Nature in us and makes us sullen cross and stubborn and then they abuse us yet more Others make use of us to hunt our Fellow Creatures and riding us excessively destroy many of us in that Sport as they wickedly call it There are another sort of things called Idle Men or Gentlemen but nothing gentle do we find from them who finding some of us endued by God with great Celerity and Swiftness of Foot they put us upon Running of Races one with another for to gratifie their foolish Vanity Pride and Covetousness Likewise when Ambition Malice Revenge or some other wrathful Passions set Princes and Nations at variance or when Insurrections and Rebellions are raised and Wars are waged though we have neither hand in the Quarrel nor are like to get any share of Honour or Spoil by the Victory yet we are forced to do a great part of the Service and with the hazard of our Lives rush into the Battel and by being used to the Martial Sounds of Trumpets Drums and Guns we become as mad and outrageous as our Riders and seem to take delight in those Violences and Confusions and yet after all our Services sometimes our Riders in hard Sieges will kill and eat us And many times when we grow old we are knock'd on the Head and made Dogs-meat our Days shortned without any Consideration of our past Merits and our murther'd Carcases given to feed a Company of ravenous Hounds Is it not hard that we should be thus dealt with and be made to undergo such terrible Slavery as sometimes when former unreasonable Labours have drawn out our Eyes yet even then no Rest no Compassion is extended to us but blind as we are we are put into the Mill and there forced to drudge out the Remainder of our Life in a Circle of Misery Have we not just Reason to complain of such cruel Usage seeing we are the Delight and Pleasure of most Men and the Companions of Princes And if we that are their Favourites endure such Hardships from them what can other Creatures expect Nay for all they pretend to admire and love us yet they treat us worse than other Creatures The Sheep and the Cows live at ease and Sheepherds are much more compassionate tender-spirited People than those that have the Government of us for when their Lords are pleased to prepare them for the Slaughter they put them into a goodly Pasture where they have Rest and Plenty and when they are grown fat though they kill them yet they afford them an honourable Burial interring their Carcases in their own Paunches and mixing their dead Flesh with good Liquor and the precious Juice of the Grape and fragrant Spices But when we have spent all our youthful Days in over-hard Labour and continual Travel and suffered so many Inconveniences from Man and for his sake contracted many Diseases then to make us amends when we are almost ready to starve without ever cherishing us up they knock us on the Head an fling our Corps to the worst of Dogs viz. filthy ravenous bawling Hounds This is our Reward amongst the Sons of Men. But let Man know this for a certain Truth That the Groaning of that Creature that suffereth Wrong is the beginning of Pain and
Patriarchs in the first Ages of the World that they were Sick No there is not a word of their Sickness but that they lived to great Ages in perfect Health for ought we find and soundness of Mind and Body There was then no need of Universities where Men must spend ten or twenty Years meerly to read Receits over and to learn to write a Bill of Confusion to the Apothecaries or to put their own Eyes out that so they might see with other Mens nor to learn Canting words to deceive the Ignorant Their whole drift and design from the beginning to the end being to get Money to live in Wantonness Gluttony and Superfluity There was no occasion amongst the Ancients for this sort of People for every one was his own Physician for so long as Men studied the Knowledg of God and Nature in themselves there was no place for this External Babylonical Building or for the authorizing of Ignorant Pedantry for the sole Curing or rather Killing of their Neighbours Can any understand or read another Man's Book that cannot read one word in his own A Man's self is a Book in which is comprehended all kind of Learning both Humane and Divine the Radix of all Arts and Sciences For in this Little World Man was communicated unto the Wise Ancients the Virtues of all Herbs Seeds Granes Animals and Minerals for the Ancient Physicians had not Libraries of many Thousand Books nor did they spend their time in reading other Men's Works nor satisfied themselves with Traditions but were contented with one Book viz. The Knowledg of God and Nature in themselves and this Book they read with their own Eyes and not with the Counterfeit Spectacles of Aristotle or Galen If Men would but stand still from Self-hood then would they see the Salvation of the Lord. The Old Physicians and Naturalists when they were not well or any of their Neighbours were distemper'd did not content themselves with musty uncertain Receipts for they knew that the same Herb which has proved beneficial to the Cure of one mans Diseases might not do any good but rather harm to another even though their Diseases seemed to proceed from a like Cause And does not our daily Experience manifest the truth of this Therefore they in all difficult points applyed themselves to the Divine Oracle and Holy Light in themselves which did teach them some Herb Seed Grain or the like and also the manner how to use it which did perform wonderful Cures because there was an inward Virtue and the power of the Spirit went with them they did not keep any certain Method with all Patients alike as our Quacks do now-a-days for the same Herb or other thing that cured a Consumption in one they did not administer to another in the like Disease except they were pointed unto it by their Good Genius Herein consists the right Cure both of the Soul and Body when man does apply himself to the right Object with Faith in the Lord then will the Lord teach him in all particulars for the Spirit of the Divine Power can make every little and small thing work wonderful Effects 'T is true the Ancients did set down in writing many of those Herbs and other things which their Genius did teach them for the Cure of various Diseases but they did as little think that after-generations would make a great Trade of getting Money by their Receipts as the Prophets and holy illuminated men of God did That the men of the world would do the like by their Writings and yet alas what an Huckstering there is kept now-a-days with them both The worthy Sayings and Writings of the Ancients cannot be understood or applyed but only by the same Spirit that gave them forth either in things Divine or Natural But these things are not considered either by those that are called Divines and Physicians or by the People But so soon as any one finds himself disordered by Sickness they presently run to the Doctor and the Doctor to his Books and out of some one of them Scrawls a Receipt and if that won't do the poor Creature may die for him for neither the one nor the other so much as think to enquire of the true Physician viz. the never-failing Oracle in themselves which if hearkened unto in Humility would teach them what to do in all particulars as it did the Ancients for those Herbs and great Cures wrought by them were not set down and recorded that after Generations should imitate them like Apes without the true understanding of the Spirit but that men might see the wonderful Power and Efficacy of the Spirit of the Lord when men do apply themselves unto its Government If men would but stand still and not so eagerly pursue Tradition and the Inventions of men and Self-hood then the good Genius would be ready and prompt to shew and instruct them in any things belonging to their Preservation for in the way of God and Nature every little thing is made strong and powerful but when men have not the knowledge of God and Nature in themselves then all goes astray and the true Efficacy or Virtue is not known nor have the Applications of the best things any good effect By what hath been said appears the Reason why those Physical Herbs and Seeds which the Ancients have appropriated for the cure of such and such diseases do not cure those distempers nor have any such Effects for if every Herb could accomplish such Cures as are recorded thereby to have been done certainly there would none be sick but All would be made whole but Experience shews the contrary Nay are there not many living Testimonies at this day who waiting in Humility at the Internal Altar have been directed such an Herb or other thing and the manner of using it which being followed the Cure has been effected in a wonderful manner And yet the very same Persons at other times in the like Distresses and Disorders have not minded their good Genius but looked abroad amongst the Swine for Cure where there is neither Life Knowledge Power nor Virtue but only an Ignorant busie Imitating Ape cloathed with a Velvet Coat and as their Course hath been the success proved answerable he has perhaps purged their Purses to a Vacuum stuffed their Bodies with Slops filled their Chambers with Gally-Pots and Glasses weakened Nature and strengthened the Disease so that it carries away Life Captive at the Wheels of its Triumphant Chariot and all that Mr. Dunce-Doctor has to say for himself is That he proceeded secundum Artem and destroyed you after the exactest method in the World All Practice of Physick that is from Receipts and Tradition is uncertain and abominable to Nature more especially where there is a multitude of Ingredients mixed together for the most part of various Natures and contrary Qualities as though they would force Nature into obedience by the several sorts of Engines and Enemies of divers kinds which they
which proves not only chargeable but many times continues their ill Habits of Body and this is apt to make Men grumble fret and repine and thereunto the other Cross-accidents usually attending Married Persons as encrease of Charge the uncertain Gains and the certain Expences the hazards of Child-bearing the crying and noise of Children and their Death the Lamentation of a tender loving Wife refusing to be comforted for her Children because they are not or if there be no Children then the Discontents of Barrenness and Rachel's out-cry Give me Children or else I dye All these Troubles Inconveniences and many others too tedious to instance are apt to hover round the Marriage-Bed and therefore it ought to be well fortified with a fixed and unalterable Love founded on Virtue Piety and Iudgment for want of which Multitudes of both Sexes as soon as the Honey-Moon is past and the first fervours of their Passion glutted and slipt away as a Dream do become burthened and uneasy and spend in vain a thousand Wishes That they were single again For in truth Marriage does very rarely answer the Ends of those that chiefly propose Pleasure Money or the satisfaction of any particular Lust or Passion therefore none are happy or can answer the End for which Marriage was ordained but only those who chuse their Yoke-fellows in the fear of the Lord and from a well-composed Disposition and pure natural Affections not having an Eye to Money Honour Idleness Lusts or a petulant Abuse of the Creative Power of God for Man is the Image of God and his Son and Off-spring therefore they ought not to take unto themselves Wives of all that they like as the Sons of God are complained of to have done Gen. 6. They saw the Daughters of Men were fair and they chose unto themselves Wives of all that they liked not what the Lord liked nor in his fear but what themselves liked that is for Lust Honour Self-ends which was all contrary to God's Law and Commandment therefore the Lord was provoked to Wrath and they brought forth Gyants Monsters and Destroyers and the Lord cut short their days My Spirit shall not always strive with Man nevertheless his days shall be an hundred and twenty years Here you see Man's Life was abridged by reason of their unfit Marriages and the Corruption of their Conversation whereby Mankind became corrupted in the very Root whence proceeds not only fierce beastial Inclinations and Dispositions but a great number of Diseases which many bring into the World with them of which most are incurable 6. There are but very few Persons that do keep to or observe the Rules of Temperance in the use of the Marriage-Bed but are generally too indulgent and immoderate in the Pleasures of Venus which of all others are most inticing and seems more natural than any other Superfluity but it is also the most dangerous both to the health of the Body and Mind for when Men give themselves up thereunto it destroys the vigour of the Understanding make the mind poor base and effeminate and as to the Elements of the Body it weakens and consumes them and by degrees Contracts such Diseases as strike at and corrupt the very Root of Nature In a word nothing more Unmans a Man than this sort of Intemperance therefore the following Rules and Observations will be beneficial to all that shall observe them 1st Every one ought to be Temperate in Meats and Drinks and to eat those things as are naturally equal in their parts and to avoid all Rich Cordial Drinks and Spiced Compositions for such things over-heat the Blood and open all the Gates of the Venereal Property whence proceed irregular and vehement Inclinations which ought to be avoided Instead of such Excesses you will do well to entertain proper Labour and Exercise which will prevent the Generation of such Superfluous Matter and this will be the more effectual if sometimes you will be so kind as by Abstinence to give Nature time to Concoct her Crudities and Fast at the least eight or ten hours between your Meals For in truth were People but sensible what Benefits attend moderate Fasting there would not be so many secret Gluttons in the World and a great part of that Debauchery whereby so many Estates are swallowed so many Families dishonoured and so many Persons Bodies weakened and decayed would be prevented 2dly All young People ought to refrain the reading the Books of Romances Plays c. whose chief Subject is to treat of Wanton Love-stories and also to avoid idle Venereal Discourses and Lascivious Pictures which do secretly and insensibly stir up and strengthen the Venereal Qualities of Nature and cause Youth to think and do that which otherwise would never have fallen within their Imagination and having once got possession in the Soul they will soon wholly subdue and captivate it for when once a young Person of either Sex has bassled Modesty the Life-guard of Chastity or if once they have suffered the fort of their Virginity to be irregularly stormed tho they shall never so much repent of and resolve against such Folly for the future yet they will find it a very hard Task to obtain the Gift or Power of Continency again tho they seek it with Tears as Esau did his Birth-right 'T is easier to Prevent than Repent and not so hard for those who never violated their Integrity to perish therein as for those that have once trangressed to conduct the rest of their Lives according to the Prescripts of Chastity and Virtue for the latter are for the most part subjected by every Snare to all inferior Powers and the Vanities and Wantonness of the Flesh whereby they commit great Outrages against God's Law in Nature Add to this that Lasciviousness does much lessen that esteem which Men ought to have for Women and brings Contempt upon a Matrimonial Life and withal contracts many incurable Diseases and consumes the outward Substance 3dly As the first Errors in any kind are generally of fatal Consequence so most young People New-married inconsiderately lay a foundation for their future Discontents and Miseries like ill Horse-men they Whip and Spur so at their first setting out that 't is no wonder if they Tyre before they arrive at their Journies end contracting Surfeits Gouts general Weaknesses alteration of the Complexion Consumptions and other languishing Diseases as may appear by many young Men and Women especially Men who grow Pale and their Flesh wastes and their Joynts grow feeble and their Nerves tremble and an universal Indisposition seizes and spreads it self through the whole Body and then what can be expected but that their Children should become weakly and subject to Diseases Nay many times for this very reason they are radically tinctured with Infirmities and branded with Diseases even in the very Womb and thence by way of Rebound or Retaliation variety of Diseases result back again to their Mothers before they are yet disburthened or can imagine
with the Voices that it seemed but one Voice and when they lift up their Voices with the Trumpets and Cymbals and other Instruments of Musick the House of God was filled with a Cloud so that the Priests could not endure to minister by reason of the Cloud for the Majesty of the Lord filled the House Here the Mental Vocal and Instrumental Harmony of the People did by a secret attraction draw forth and incorporate its self with the inward and holy Harmony so that the Glory of the Lord appeared externally there was an inward Life Power and Agreement in the minds of the Musicians and whole Congregation all was done in the Unity of the Spirit and to the Glory of the Lord. But on the contrary as Amos has it Chap. 6. Those that sit on the Stool of Wilfulness and lie on the Beds of Ease and practise Wantonness upon their Couches and eat the best Lambs of the Flock and slaughter the fattest Calves of the Droves and that sing to the Lute and in playing on Instruments of Musick compare themselves to David and drink Wine in Bowls that is to superfluity and excess and anoint themselves Effeminately with Oyl and yet have no Bowels of Compassion nor Commiserate the Afflictions of Joseph that is the Miseries of their Brethren and fellow-Creatures but crucifie the Lord of Life that is the Divine Principle by their Discord Oppression and Intemperances shall be the first that shall be led away into Captivity For every Thought Word and Work follows the Principle from whence it proceeds and as every Man shall apply Musick or any other thing either to the glory of God or to his vain Glory Vanity or Lusts so it becomes either good or evil to him So that what is a Blessing to one Man proves a Curse to another and that which some honour the Lord withal others do dishonour him with And as in a well-tuned Instrument the Strings being struck or played upon will make the Strings of another Instrument tuned to the same Key to move shake or tremble The same and far greater Sympathy is to be understood in the humane Nature though in so secret and imperceptible a manner as to outward Sense that many Thousands are wounded or impressed with the Influences before they perceive or are aware of it He that has not the Fear of the Lord and the Knowledg of God in himself is liable to be hurt by most things not only in playing upon Instruments of Musick as Amos hath it but in and by all other things therefore as the Wise Man saith Even in Plowing of Land we ought not to make others Rules our Prescriptions so as to imitate them like Apes nor ought we to be froward and averse to it because many in former Ages or in the present have or may use Musick as a Companion of Debauchery or enticement to Evil to the dishonour of their Creator and the hurt of themselves But all men ought to be sober and use things to their right ends for which they were designed by God and Nature and then whatever they take in hand will prove good and profitable unto them Wherefore most convenient it is for every particular Man and Woman to search and examine themselves that they may come to understand what Spirit and Principle has dominion in and over them if it be the Divine Principle and Voice of Wisdom then it will lead them into the heavenly Harmony where all the various Properties and Qualities of Nature do in friendly manner embrace each other whence proceeds an eternal Peace and Consort But they that shall find the Spirit of Envy Strife Back-biting Jeering Scoffing Uncleanness Vanity Oppression Killing and the like to bear sway in their Minds and reign in their Hearts such cannot make any pleasant Harmony but altogether the contrary a most unpleasant Noise burthensome to themselves and the whole Creation But by the way it is to be further considered that there is no possibility that any should obtain that sublime State of Unity and Concord and to have Peace and Good-will for the whole Creation except there be a continual Self-denial no Observations or Medium tho they be agreeable seemingly to Scripture will do Men must not stand still in the Wilderness but press on towards Perfection in perseverance Many in this Age have been taught this by woful Experience At first when the Day did begin to dawn and the Star of God's Eternal Love to shine in them whereby they saw the Errors of their Ways whence did arise Self-denial and Scruples as to the Modes and Customs of Egypt and the vain Multitude If such had not stood still and fixed themselves in some outward Forms but followed like the Ancient Sages of the East the Conduct of that heavenly Star till they arrived at the place where the Child Iesus was born they might have travelled without stop or hindrance through the unequal ways of this World and the Heathenish Customs thereof and arrived at the Coelestial Canaan a Land flowing with Milk and Honey and entred into the ravishing Harmonies of the New Ierusalem But too many after a few Steps in this Holy Iourney having denied themselves the Superfluities and Vanities of the World as some would not eat Flesh because it could not be procured without breaking the Harmony and Unity of Nature and doing what one would not be done unto and refrained many sorts of Plays and Vain Exercises and Riding in Coaches and Chariots and unnecessarily on Horses for fear Pride should get the Dominion going on Foot being generally esteemed Poor and Base as tho the Creator had not given Man Feet and Legs for that use and also were wary of gratifying their sensual Appetites with various sorts of Meats and Drinks both in Quantity and Quality but because they did not persevere but looked back towards Sodom and AEgypt became Pillars of Salt and fell in the Wilderness And the Reason is they gave themselves liberty and so went back by degrees and before they were sensible were again ensnared and entangled in the Vanities of the World and so deprived of those blessed Talents which before they enjoyed A wise consciencious Scruple and Self-denial are always the fore-runners of true Wisdom if diligently pursued and improved being the ways by which the Spirit of God hath dealt with Man in all Ages thereby giving him a right Understanding and Distinction of what things are good wholsome and profitable and what not And this tenderness hath generally the greatest power and vigour in the beginning as all that have travelled in this way can witness but in process of time if there be not great Diligence used this Divine Seal becomes defaced and the Scruple grows less and less and a certain Freedom appears to the Understanding which is the only time of Trial and the hour of Temptation Most lose ground when they come to this state by purposing to themselves the using of those things moderately and
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
so long without corrupting as at other times of the Year but on the contrary in other seasons and when the Flesh is free from the afore-mentioned Inconveniences their Blood being thin and well tempered with brisk and lively Spirits such Flesh being salted as soon as it is cold the Salt will greedily Penetrate it and incorporate it self with the well-tempered Blood and pure Supirits so that it does hold the corrupt Phlegmy part of the Flesh captive that the humidity thereof cannot turn to Putrifaction untill those brisk lively Spirits both in Flesh and Salt be through length of time wasted or suffocated which comes to pass in six eight or twelve Months more or less according to the goodness of it and well ordering and other Accidents and then it will fall into corruption and there is no recovery for it but if the Salt had cleansed and purged the Flesh from its gross humid parts as some say it does then such Flesh would have kept a longer time as all other gross Bodies will when the Sun and Elements have dryed away and exhaled the Phlegmy gross parts and left remaining the more firm and Spirituous which will continue sound and good many Years as many sorts of Corn Fruits and Hay which are altogether as subject to Corruption as Flesh when green and full of Phlegmy Juices but their Putrifaction is not so loathsom nor so offensive to Nature neither will such things generate such pernicious Vermin as Flesh will the matter in Flesh being grosser It was not without great Reason Wisdom that the Ancients commanded that Flesh should be eaten sparingly that there should be a particular care not only taken about the good state of the Bodies of such Cattel but also in the killing and preparing of it the dressing and preparing of all other sorts of Food being left to every ones discretion But the learned Prophet Moses was sensible that the common and frequent eating of Flesh was very dangerous as to the health of the Body and also of the Mind if care and understanding be not used in the Preparation thereof therefore he gave Laws and particular Directions for the ordering and preparing of Flesh but no mention made of other Food therefore Flesh in its best state and otherwise well ordered if much eaten is apt to load the Body with gross Humours and evil Juices but much more in the fore-mentioned seasons 7thly In this season all men do find themselves more subject to Indispositions the Spirits dull and heavy apt to faintness and sooner wearied with Labour than at any other time the Appetite not so quick and lively therefore all sorts of People ought to have double the care as to their Health at this time both in Meats Drinks and Labours also in Quality and Quantity for Intemperances are not so dangerous in the Winter or Spring Nature being then strong and able to bear with less Prejudice This is the time of the Year in which also most sorts of Cattel are subject to Sickness as Sheep to the Rot and other Cattel to Murrains And do not almost the double Number of People sicken and die in this season And is not the flesh of all sorts of Fowls in hot weather lean and poor altho they have more plenty of Food than in Winter But it lies not in the Quantity of Food but in the season of the Year and the Weather for all Heat when it does exceed the Medium evaporates and spends the Spirits and then Nature does presently Languish and the sweet Oyl in the Body turns as it were sower so that there is a general weakness and fainty Indisposition in all Creatures and their Flesh is rendered thereby the more unwholsom and apt to breed Diseases in the Eaters thereof If Sobriety and Temperance were observed and other Circumstances belonging to Health a little Physick would serve But in this Age men may speak and write of Temperance until they are weary for there is not one of an hundred that is willing to observe and conform to its safe and healthful Rules though it cannot be denied but that It is one of the Principal things which puts a delectable sweetness on all our other Enjoyments But few in Health consider these things most being rather of an approving and admiring than a Practising Temper especially of those things they are not in Possession of many men also slight and have no esteem for those things they do or may enjoy letting go the substance and eagerly Pursuing after shadows But seeing that in this Intemperate Age most Persons do live irregular Lives few or none being willing to observe the Rules of Health in their Meats Drinks and Exercises therefore it is convenient for the continuation of Health to take Proper Purgative Medicines both at Spring and Fall tho they are not sensible of any manifest Indisposition by which means they may easily prevent the generation of matter for when Sickness and Distempers have invaded the Body then it will be a difficult point to get such Medicines as are suitable to the Disease and can by their Vertue cure them when the Spirits are wounded and the Distempers and Obstructions in the Body have gotten great power over Nature in such cases the best Medicines do often fail most Diseases being generated gradually as the Intemperances are committed for Nature ever hides the Evil Matter whence Distempers do Proceed as long as she is able but when once the Diseases do manifest themselves with any kind of Violence then there is danger at hand most People being mistaken in Nature for they generally attribute the cause of their Diseases to the least Intemperance or taking Cold or the like never considering how many Disorders and Intemperances they have formerly committed every Act of Intemperance does in some degree obstruct Nature and by degrees sows the seeds of future Diseases not but that outward Colds and the like do hurt Nature and oft-times awaken the matter which lies in the inward Parts and bring it to manifestation but on the contrary when the in-side is clean and free from Obstructions and other Evils the body doth then very rarely receive any injury by such outward Accidents for Nature still endeavours to overcome and withstand the evil matter in the Body and makes several Essays to throw such Disorders off but if Irregularities in Meats Drinks and Labours be continued the Evil at last grows so great that then Nature must bow and Distempers take place This is always to be noted that if any Member or Part of the Body be weakened either by inward Obstructions or outward Accidents as Falls Bruises broken Bones c. and the Person be guilty of any Intemperance or disorderly Living the weak or hurted part first feels it according to the old Proverb The Weakest goes to the Wall It will be convenient if any upon particular occasions be excessive in Meats and Drinks to observe the following Rules which they 'l find to