Tricoenivm Christi in nocte proditionis suæ The threefold svpper of Christ in the night that he vvas betrayed / explained by Edvvard Kellett.

PAR. 11.

BVt happy is he who keepeth the middesse; first for meate, what need a Christian solicitously provide for that which makes his ordure? Secondly, for sauce, S. Bernard alloweth no sauce, but salt; a stomacke dieted to a continuall appetite, is the best sauceb 1.1 Clemens Alexandrinns saith, they doe effeminate bread, who sift a∣way the branne; I am sure the one-way bread, the second bread, groweth not mouldy so soone, and is both heartier and passeth speedyer through the body. As for drinke, water was the onely drinke, till the flood, 2000. yeares or thereabouts: Vino vis adhibetur sapientiae, Wine offereth violence to wisdome: Ʋt Venus in vi∣nis, ignis in igne furit: Fire joyn'd to fire is not more mad, then lust, if store of wine't hath had; which is almost all one with that in Valerius Maximus, proxi∣mus a Libero patre intemper antiae gradus ad inconcessam Venerem esse consuevit: Wine in the immoderate use is Sanguis Gigantum, the blood of the Giants; Fel draconum the gall of the Dragons; fel Principum tenebrarum, the gall of the Princes of darke∣nesse: So the Manichees over-bitterly condemned wine wholly, though it be to the intemperate, Ʋenenum terrae, the very poyson springing from the earth; yet moderately and physically taken, it is the blood of the grape,c 1.2 Eccle. 50.15. and cheareth God and Man,d 1.3 Iudg. 9.13. To age especially and some sicke people.

Aquavita, or strong water, in the abuse is, Aqua mortis, the bayliffe of death, the

executioner, leading men to destruction. Tobacco is good for few; the hourely, day∣ly use is good for no complexion: oh that we would use these no otherwise then Physicke! It is not an 140. yeares since Sacke was sold onely in Apothecaries shops. A little contents Nature; the eye is greater then the belly: Summa mede∣cinae, abstinentia, the abbreviation of all Physicke is abstinence: youth groweth taller with slender fare, then with cramming: diseased foule bodies, the higher fed, the more unhealthy they are; Convivia Ʋeneris sunt praeludia, said Accursius; Feasts make way for lasciviousnesse; Venter vino plenus despumat in libidinem: Bac∣chus is a Pander unto Venus; the gut pampereth the groyne; gula est vestibulum luxuri••; You goe into the house of Luxury, by, and over the threshold of Glut∣tony: but, se non satiare cibis, studium est sanitatis; to eate sparingly is to study health; qui multum vult comedere, comedat parum, as Ludovicus Cornarus both di∣rected and practised; a slender dyet brings one to a good stomacke: a chearefull healthfull life, a painelesse old age. If thy appetite enlarge it selfe, put thy knife to thy throate, saith Solomon,a 1.4 Pro. 23.2. that is, Teach thy selfe temperance. I deny not but we may eate of the fat, and drinke of the sweete, Neh. 8.10. and make great joy, ver. 12. and refresh our selves at feasts in a higher degree, then at our or∣dinary food; otherwise there is no difference (post sacra peracta) betweene ordina∣ry, and extraordinary refection.

Notes

• b 1.1

  Clem. Alex∣and••. paeda. 2.1.
• c 1.2

  Eccle. 50.15
• d 1.3

  Iudg. 9.13.
• a 1.4

  Pro. 23.2.