d
in Quantity, as a choice Ingredient of their luxurious Preparations
and _Apician_ Tables.

But this, and all the rest will, I fear, seem but _Oleribus verba
facere_, and (as the Proverb goes) be Labour-in-vain to think of
preaching down _Hogs-Puddings_, and usurp the Chair of _Rabby-Busy_: And
therefore what is advanc'd in Countenance of the _Antediluvian_ Diet,
we leave to be ventilated by the Learned, and such as _Curcellaeus_, who
has borrow'd of all the Ancient Fathers, from _Tertullian, Hierom, S.
Chrysostom_, &c. to the later Doctors and Divines, _Lyra_, _Tostatus_,
_Dionysius Carthusianus_, _Pererius_, amongst the _Pontificians_; of
_Peter Martyr_, _Zanchy_, _Aretius_, _Jac. Capellus_, _Hiddiger_,
_Cocceius_, _Bochartus_, &c. amongst the _Protestants_; and _instar
omnium_, by _Salmasius_, _Grotius_, _Vossius_, _Blundel_: In a Word, by
the Learn'd of both Persuasions, favourable enough to these Opinions,
_Cajetan_ and _Calvin_ only excepted, who hold, that as to _Abstinence_
from _Flesh_, there was no positive Command or Imposition concerning
it; but that the Use of _Herbs_ and _Fruit_ was recommended rather for
Temperance sake, and the Prolongation of Life: Upon which score I am
inclin'd to believe that the ancient [Greek: theraoentai], and other
devout and contemplative Sects, distinguish'd themselves; whose Course
of Life we have at large describ'd in [100]_Philo_ (who liv'd and taught
much in Gardens) with others of the Abstemious _Christians_; among whom,
_Clemens_ brings in St. _Mark_ the _Evangelist_ himself, _James_ our
Lord's Brother. St. _John_, &c. and with several of the devout Sex, the
famous _Diaconesse Olympias_, mention'd by _Palladius_ (not to name
the rest) who abstaining from Flesh, betook themselves to _Herbs_ and
_Sallets_ upon the Account of Temperance, and the Vertues accompanying
it; and concerning which the incomparable _Grotius_ declares ingenuously
his Opinion to be far from censuring, not only those who forbear the
eating _Flesh_ and Blood, _Experimenti Causa_, and for Discipline sake;
but such as forbear _ex Opinione_, and (because it has been the ancient
Custom) provided they blam'd none who freely us'd their Liberty; and I
think he's in the right.

But leaving this Controversie (_ne nimium extra oleas_) it has often
been objected, that _Fruit_, and _Plants_, and all other things, may
since the Beginning, and as the World grows older, have universally
become _Effoete_, impair'd an