This then premis’d (as I see no Reason why it should not) and that during all this Space they liv’d on Fruits and Sallets; ’tis little probable, that after their Transgression, and that they had forfeited their Dominion over the Creature (and were sentenc’d and exil’d to a Life of Sweat and Labour on a cursed and ungrateful Soil) the offended God should regale them with Pampering Flesh, or so much as suffer them to slay the more innocent Animal:  Or, that if at any time they had Permission, it was for any thing save Skins to cloath them, or in way of Adoration, or Holocaust for Expiation, of which nothing of the Flesh was to be eaten.  Nor did the Brutes themselves subsist by Prey (tho’ pleas’d perhaps with Hunting, without destroying their Fellow Creatures) as may be presum’d from their long Seclusion of the most Carnivorous among them in the Ark.

Thus then for two thousand Years, the Universal Food was Herbs and Plants; which abundantly recompens’d the Want of Flesh and other luxurious Meats, which shortened their Lives so many hundred Years; the [87][Greek:  makro-biote-a] of the Patriarchs, which was an Emblem of Eternity as it were (after the new Concession) beginning to dwindle to a little Span, a Nothing in Comparison.

On the other side, examine we the present Usages of several other Heathen Nations; particularly (bessides the aegyptian Priests of old) the Indian Bramins, Relicts of the ancient Gymnosophists to this Day, observing the Institutions of their Founder. Flesh, we know was banish’d the Platonic Tables, as well as from those of Pythagoras; (See [88]_Porphyry_ and their Disciples) tho’ on different Accounts.  Among others of the Philosophers, from Xenocrates, Polemon, &c. we hear of many.  The like we find in [89]_Clement Alexand._ [90]_Eusebius_ names more. Zeno, Archinomus, Phraartes, Chiron, and others, whom Laertius reckons up.  In short, so very many, especially of the Christian Profession, that some, even of the ancient [91]Fathers themselves, have almost thought that the Permission of eating Flesh to Noah and his Sons, was granted them no otherwise than Repudiation of Wives was to the Jews, namely, for the Hardness of their Hearts, and to satisfie a murmuring Generation that a little after loathed Manna it self, and Bread from Heaven.  So difficult a thing it is to subdue an unruly Appetite; which notwithstanding [92]_Seneca_ thinks not so hard a Task; where speaking of the Philosopher Sextius, and Socion’s (abhorring Cruelty and Intemperance) he celebrates the Advantages of the Herby and Sallet Diet, as Physical, and Natural Advancers of Health and other Blessings; whilst Abstinence from Flesh deprives Men of nothing but what Lions, Vultures, Beasts and birds of Prey, blood and gorge themselves withal, The whole Epistle deserves the Reading, for the excellent Advice he gives on this and other Subjects; and how from many troublesome and slavish Impertinencies, grown into Habit and Custom (old as he was) he had Emancipated and freed himself:  Be this apply’d to our present excessive Drinkers of Foreign and Exotic Liquors.  And now