necessary, unadvisedly and at Adventure, it might chance to expose him
to Excess, and by that means he might do 'himself an Injury unawares;
whereupon he concluded it the safest way to set Bounds to himself, which
he resolv'd not to pass; both as to the Kind of Meat which he was to
eat, and the Quantity and Quality of it, and the Times of returning to
it.

§ 76. And first he consider'd the several Kinds of those things which
were fit to eat; and found that there were three sorts, _viz_. either
such Plants as were not yet come to their full Growth, nor attained to
Perfection, such as are several sorts of green Herbs which are fit to
eat: Or _secondly,_ the Fruits of Trees which were fully ripe, and had
Seed fit for the Production of more of the same Kind (and such were the
kinds of Fruits that were newly gathered and dry): Or _lastly_, Living
Creatures, both Fish and Flesh. Now he knew very well, that all these
things were created by that _necessarily self-existent Being_, in
approaching to whom he was assur'd that his Happiness did consist, and
in desiring to resemble him. Now the eating of these things must needs
hinder their attaining to their Perfection, and deprive them of that End
for which they were design'd; and this would be an Opposition to the
working of the Supream Agent, and such an Opposition would hinder that
Nearness and Conformity to him, which he so much desir'd. Upon this he
thought it the best way to abstain from eating altogether, if possible;
but when he saw that this would not do, and that such an Abstinence
tended to the Dissolution of his Body, which was so much a greater
Opposition to the _Agent_ than the former, by how much he was of a more
excellent Nature than those things, whose Destruction was the Cause of
his Preservation: Of two Evils he resolved to chuse the least, and do
that which contain'd in it the least Opposition to the Creator; and
resolved to partake of any of these sorts, if those he had most mind to