all the increase of his house should die in the slower of their age 1 Sam. 2. 32. So on the other side it is God's blessing if he increase the length of our dayes and we die with Job being old and full of dayes and go in our grave in a full age as a shock of corn cometh in in his season to the barn Job 42. 17. 5. 26. Therefore that Heathen Cic. Tusc. 1. was mistaken who said Optimum est non nasci proximum quam cito aboleri The best thing is never to be born and the second best to die assoon as we are born For though long life to some be as wearisome as death is fearful though old age in many be a disease not curable but by death yet these are but accidental life it self is a blessing and the longer we live the more experience we have of God's favour a greater loathing of the sins of our youth and a larger time of repentance as having space wherein to grow wiser and better and thereby to make this life a large preparative to Eternal life Health then and long life being now considered as blessings we will henceforth follow the means and leave the blessing to God CHAP. 1. The first means being to avoid Sin in general which is supernaturally an occasion of bodily Diseases and shortness of Life DIseases are the interests of Sin till Sin there were no such things For this cause in general many are weak and sick Let a Man take the best air he can and eat the best food he can let him eat and drink by Rule let him take never so many Antidotes Preservatives and Cordials yet Man by reason of Sin is but a crazy sickly thing for all this For as one saith all sicknesses of the body proceed from the Sin of the Soul I am not ignorant that the Lethargy ariseth from the coldness of the brain that the Dropsie floweth from waterish blood in an ill affected Liver that the Spleen is caused from melancholly wind gathered in the mid-riff but the cause of all these causes the fountain of all these fountains is the Sin of the Soul And this Truth from the Fountain of Sacred Writ will be clearly derived unto us Our Saviour said unto the Man that had been thirty-eight years diseased Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee John 5. 14. Jesus thus warning him by shewing him the cause of his infirmity which was Sin Those Physicians that derive all Diseases from natural causes only do not well understand that Text for it is Spiritually discerned All sickness is certainly the fruit of Sin and many Physicians will acknowledge it being induced thereunto by a consequence from an instance of a particular though Epidemical disease namely the Plague or Pestilence which is concluded not only from the Word of God Lev. 26. 25. but also from the confirmed constant and received opinion of all Ages to be Flagellum Dei pro peccatis Mundi The rod of God for the sins of the World The word Plague in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying no less for 't is so furious a disease as it disdains any general method of Cure when it is in its rage So that we must needs conclude that whatever be the natural causes of Diseases Sin is the supernatural and meritorious cause not only of this but also of all other Diseases Let me instance but one particular disease more the Palsy when our Saviour was about to cure a Man sick of that disease Mark 2. 5. he first pronounced forgiveness of Sins to him to shew that his Sins were the cause of his disease I confess diseases in the godly are many times God's love tokens and he doth not alwayes aim at the demonstrating of his justice in punishing sin when he layeth sickness upon Men for sometimes he layeth it upon his own Children for other ends as for the trial of their Faith and Patience c. as we see in Job's example yet it is true that God doth not chastise or punish those that are innocent but such as deserve it by their sins otherwise he should be supposed as unjust Sin then the Spiritual disease is the original and procuring cause of every natural disease so as if there were no sin there should be no sickness But here peradventure some may object and say how do this appear experimentally and exemplarily in some vicious Persons whose blood danceth in their veines and whose bones are moistned with marrow who are in health when he whom Christ loveth is sick John 11. 3. as 't was said of Lazarus To this I answer that the like matter bad almost stifled and amazed Job Job 21. and Asaph Psal. 73. but they soon understood a reason of the several dispensations of God's Providence One general reason might be this it may well stand with God's Providence as he is the Father of Mercies and the God of Justice as he shall see cause to let both his Mercy and his Justice meet together both upon the wicked and the Godly As for instance many times he conferreth benefits upon the wicked and suffereth them to go free from punishment there is his mercy though short and temporal but the evil that is in them he punisheth Eternally there is his Justice Again many times he punisheth the sins of his best Servants with temporal afflictions but their goodness he rewardeth with Eternal blessings there is his Justice in punishing temporally his Mercy in rewarding Eternally and in both these the wisdom of God's Providence is discovered So more particularly God doth sometime permit the wicked to have a sound body with a diseased Soul and the Godly a diseased body with a more sound Soul But yet for the most part in the revolution of experience we shall find that where sin reignes most there most diseases as hand-maids are attending upon her And though every general Rule in Grammar hath its exception yet take this as general without exception that Original and likewise Actual sins are the seeds of bodily diseases Though by Gods Mercy and Providence all things even the sharpest work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8. 28. Yea Sin is not only a Spiritual or supernatural cause of bodily diseases but also of shortness of life For as one saith through Sin our bodies are become nothing but the Pest-houses of diseases and death Sin hath corrupted Mans blood and rendered his body mortal and vile Before Sin our bodies were immortal for death and mortality came in by Sin but now Alas they must return to dust and 't is appointed to all Men once to die by Statute Law in Heaven and 't is well if they die but once and the second death hath no power over them they must see corruption and this is the wages that Sin allows to its Servants For the wages of Sin is death Rom. 6. 23. this is the largess or
and folly in Israel but also of their abettors the Benjamites who lost above twenty-five thousand Men in the slaughter through that occasion Thus the first voluntary lust of the Levite's Wife was most justly punished by a second rape amongst the lustful Gibeonites whose lust when it had conceived brought forth sin and sin when it was finished brought forth death Amnon one of the Sons of King David was so strongly enchanted with the love of his Sister Thamar that to the end to fulfil his lust he traiterously forced her to his will But Absalom her natural Brother hunting for opportunity of revenge for this indignity towards his Sister invited him two years after to a Banquet with his other Brethren and after the same caused his Men to murder him for a fare-well 2 Sam. 13. The same Absalom that slew Amnon for incest with his Sister committed himself incest with his Fathers Concubines moved thereto by the wicked counsel of Achitophel But it was the fore-runner and occasion of his overthrow and untimely death 2 Sam. 16 18 chap. Rodoaldw the eight King of Lumbardy being taken in Adultery even in the fact was slain without delay by the Husband of the Adulteresse Anno 659. in like sort John Maletesta slew his Wife and the Adulterer together when he took them amidst their embracements Chron. Phil. Melancton So did one Lodewick Steward of Normandy kill his Wife Carlotta and her Lover John Lavernus as they were in bed together At Naples it chanced in the King's Palace as young King Frederick Ferdinand's Son entered the privy Chamber of the Queen his Mother to salute her and the other Ladies of the Court that the Prince of Bissenio waiting in the outward Chamber for his return was slain by one of his own Servants that suddenly gave him with his sword three deadly strokes in the presence of many Spectators Which deed he confessed that he had watched three years to perform in regard of an injury done unto his Sister and in her to him whom he ravished against her will Bemb lib. 3. Hist. Venet. The Spaniards that first took the Isle Hispaniola were for their Whoredoms and rapes which they committed upon the Wives and Virgins all murdered by the Inhabitants Benzoni Milan Infinite are the Examples that might out of History be collected to this purpose But to avoid prolixity let it suffice only to add hereunto that for these and the like sins many thousands in the World in every Age have either by the rage of jealousie in the Persons wronged or by the revenging Sword of the Higher Powers punishing wrong suffered the condigne punishment of death Thirdly and lastly To summ up all further Addition that might be look'd upon as necessarily relating to this Chapter consider in few words that immoderate Anger Envie Hatred Malice Self-murder unlawful Duels Treason Murder of others Despair Rebellion Theft Ambition Covetousness immoderate Grief Atheisme Blasphemy Witchcraft and such like do either immediately by themselves or mediately by other sins accumulated and a succession of unprosperous events attending them prove accidental causes sometimes of Diseases but most commonly of an untimely death And so I proceed to the fourth Chapter as followeth CHAP. IV. Containing an Enumeration of sundry Sins as they are supernaturally occasions of bodily Diseases and shortness of Life THis Chapter may seem to have some relation to the First and so it hath in genere but in regard it differs from it in specie I have here placed it as one of the chief Corner-stones to adorn strengthen yea as a Top-stone to finish and complete the four-square building of this First Part of my Discourse But before I descend to particulars give me leave here to lay down somewhat in general terms as praeliminary to the present design Though God be the proper efficient and super-natural cause of Diseases yet as sin is the immediate cause of God's wrath and anger and a provocation of his vindictive Justice in this respect it may be termed a principal though not immediate cause or occasion of Diseases more especially of such as depend not upon the ordinary chain of second causes but being above the Sphaere of Nature are inflicted by the almighty and unlimited power of God And this the great Secretaries of Nature as Philosophers and Physicians should do well to observe according to the advice of Hippocrates who would have a Physician to take special notice whether the Disease came from a Divine super-natural cause or whether it follow the course of Nature How this place of Hippocrates is to be understood Paracelsus is of opinion that such Spiritual Diseases for so he calls them are spiritually to be cured and not otherwise But of this by the way in general I shall now descend to Particulars whereof I shall make demonstration de facto And First of the abuse of the Ordinances of God viz. the Word and Sacraments Theopompus a Philosopher being about to insert certain things out of the Writings of Moses into his prophane Works and so to abuse the sacred Word of God was striken with a Frensie and being warned of the cause thereof in a dream by prayers made unto God recovered his senses again Joseph Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 2. This Story is recorded by Josephus as also another of Theodectes a Poet that mingled his Tragedies with the Holy Scriptures and was therefore striken with blindness until he had recanted his impiety In a Town of Germany called Itszith there dwelt a certain Husband-man that was a monstrous despiser of the Word of God and his Sacraments He upon a time in the midst of his Cups railed in most bitter terms upon a Minister of God's Word after which going presently into the Fields to over-look his Sheep he never returned alive but was found there dead with his Body all scorched and burnt as black as a coal the Lord having given him over into the hands of the Devil to be thus used for his vile prophaness and abusing Holy things Dr. Justus Jonas in Luther's Conferences reporteth this to be true If you shall despise my Statutes saith the Lord or refuse to hearken unto my Law I will visit you with Consumptions and burning Agues and heaviness of heart Lev. 26. 15 16. Moses for neglecting the Sacrament of Circumcision which is much the same see Rom. 4. 11. Col. 2. 11. 12. in a Spiritual sense with that of Baptisme was struck immediately by the Lord and fell so sick by the way that it was thought he would have died And it came to pass by the way in the Inn that the Lord met him and sought to kill him Exod. 4. 24. Which words are by some Elucidators Bishop Hall c. thus understood viz. that the Lord appeared visibly unto him and sensibly afflicted him with some sudden and violent disease which he knew to be done in regard of his neglect of his Sons Circumcision Eutychus for sleeping at the Sermon fell down so
congiary that Sin gives to its Souldiers viz. death of all sorts this is the just hire of the least sin and this hire is seldom long detained from them that have deserv'd it most As the Lord for the wickedness of the World reduced Man's age from almost a thousand to an hundred and twenty years Gen. 6. 3. and afterward from that to Moses his Arithmetick three score years and ten Psal. 90. 10. So now for the same cause he hath reduced it to a very little pittance not only to 70. but to 7. for in Law no man's life is valued more so that the life of Man is but a span and the weavers shuttle is no more swift than it is Job 7. 6. Especially when many vices are woven into it for then God's justice soon cuts it off as a Weaver cuts off his web from the Loom sometimes before it be finished For every disorderly Person that hath shortned his dayes by his sins may say as Hezekiah did once I have cut off like a weaver my life Isai. 38. 12. i. e. as some Expositors render it I have shortned my life by my sins Thus Er and Onan in the 38th Chap. of Genesis by their sins contracted their lives into the wicked man's abridgment viz. into less than the moyety not living out half their dayes Yea so unquestio able is this truth that it was taken for granted in Job's dayes as appeareth by Job's interrogation How oft is the candle of the wicked putout and how oft cometh their destruction upon them Job 21. 17. What pleasure hath he in his house after him when the number of his moneths is cut off in the mid 〈…〉 21. And in Solomon's dayes it became a Proverb The years of the wicked shall be shortned Prov. 10. 27. A truth that is exemplified in most of the wicked Kings of Judah and of Israel First The Kings of Judah Abijam a wicked King reigned but three years 1 Kings 15. 2. Jehoram of whom it is recorded that he did evil in the sight of the Lord he reigned but twelve years four with his Father and eight alone 2 Kings 8. 17. Ahaziah a wicked King reigned but one year 2 Kings 8. 25. Athaliah a wicked Queen an Usurper she reigned but six years 2 Kings 11. 3. Ahaz a wicked King reigned but unto the 37 th year of his age 2 Kings 16. 2. Amon a wicked King reigned but two years and lived but twenty-four 2 Kings 21. 19. To be short several others of the same Line are Chronicled with short Periods Sin and a sudden death reigning in them successively Secondly We may instance in the Kings of Israel Nadab the Son of Jeroboam a wicked King reigned but two years 1 Kings 15. 25. Baasha indeed reigned twenty-four years but Elah his Son reigned but two years being slain in his drunken humour by his Servant Zimri 1 Kings 16. 8 9. Zimri a Conspirator reigned but seven dayes for burning the King's House over him with fire he died Now the cause is recorded 'T was for his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the Lord in walking in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he did to make Israel to sin 1 Kings 16. v. 15. to 20. Omri a superlative Sinner reigned but twelve years 1 Kin 16. 23. Ahaziah the Son of Ahab was an Idolatrous King and reigned but two years 1 Kings 22. 51. He being sick sent Messengers to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether he should recover of his disease but had his judgment by Elijah who said Thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up but shalt surely die which came to pass according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken 2 Kings 1. And now what shall I more say For the time would fail me to tell of Jehoram Zachariah Shallum Menahem Pekahiah Pekah and some others who through sin lost their lives with their Kingdoms being cut off by the hand of God's vengeance either before or in their middle age And although some of the wicked Kings of Judah and of Israel did reign many years by the permission of a long suffering God yet the instances are so few that they are much overballanced by the short lives of those already mentioned Much also of this truth might be observed in the short Periods of the wicked reigns of sundry Princes not only of this but of other Nations but thus much shall serve to have delineated and demonstrated sin to be in general a Spiritual or Moral cause of bodily diseases and shortness of life supernaturally effected CHAP. II. Shewing that many sins are Natural causes of bodily distempers and shortness of life Most sins are sins of the flesh which are so named because through our flesh to wit our seed or through Carnal generation sin is conveyed into the whole Man Soul and Body Also for that the flesh or body is the instrument to execute the lusts of our natural concupiscence Rom. 6. 13. Thus Piscator and Peter Martyr do judge Now these fleshly lusts we must understand have a powerful influence and operation in the production of fleshly or bodily diseases And this will appear by an examination of the numerous off-spring of excess and intemperance which in many places of Sacred Writs is deemed no less than the transgression of the bounds of God's Law Now the off-spring or fruits of intemperance are these First It brings upon us almost all diseases Secondly It takes part with diseases and makes them often incurable Thirdly It shortens our dayes and makes us die in Agonies From whence cometh soreness and weariness melancholy and heaviness of Spirits stiffness and pain of joints belchings crudities feavers distastings of meat loss of appetite and other tempestuous evils but from excess and intemperance These experimental effects who can deny since almost every Man carries about him and within him a convincing argument thereof Whence is the multitude of Physicians saith a modern Physician but from the frequency and multitude of diseases and whence that frequency and multitude but from excess This saith he is generally confessed but the practise still continued the understanding assents but the affections over-rule Now Intemperance in general may be thus described It is an inordinate and immoderate appetite or desire in our affections pleasures gifts and the use of the Creatures more particularly it is taken for an inordinate appetite and immoderate desire and use of meat and drink and this is when a due mean is exceeded in the too liberal and excessive use of them so that Gluttony and Drunkenness are the two main supporters of Intemperance which is the Mother of most diseases Democritus said that intemperate Men were Valetudinis suae proditores Betrayers of their own health and killers of themselves by their pleasures He spake it of intemperance in eating and drinking of which and also of other sorts of intemperance I shall
with the Sheep which is seldom to ten years and though he be a Creature more nimble and of somewhat a firmer flesh and so should be longer liv'd yet because he is much more lascivious that shortens his life How many Examples of Goatish short-liv'd Men could I extract out of History But being confined to brevity I must hasten to answer an Objection And it is this Some diseases are cured by Incontinency and Venereal evacuations as Anorexia viz. queasiness of Stomack Hysterical fits or suffocation of the womb Spermatick Feavers most vehement pains of the Head Priapismus Satyriasis Furor Uterinus c. Diseases felt and understood by such unmarried Persons whose blood is in its Meridian and as by this means such diseases are sometimes cured so consequently life is prolonged To which I may return a threefold Answer like a threefold cord which is not quickly broken Eccles. 4. 12. First Let all be supposed which is here objected yet surely it is but an ill Method to cure the Body by destroying the Soul or to endeavour the prolonging the Natural life by shortning of the Spiritual the life of grace We must not as I said before in respect of drunkenness do evil that good may come No necessity of health or life ought to persuade hereunto Ludovicus a King of France undertaking a long Pilgrimage and his Queen not being with him his health began to impair which his Physicians observing and knowing the reason of it perswaded him in the absence of the Queen to take unto him another Woman because his health safety required it which he did utterly refuse protesting he had rather die then have his Liie preserved by such an ungodly means Secondly Let the Objection still be enforced yet there is no necessity to make use of an unlawful cure when there is a lawful one provided for every one that will in that excellent and Divine Institution of Marriage which as it is intended a good prevention of all lustful and unlawful burnings 1 Cor. 7. 2. so by a more warrantable course it hath probably effected some Natural Cures upon the bodies of some and also by confining the Senses to one particular object far less exhausted the Spirits and so consequently seldomer occasioned diseases than a licentious indulgence and extravagant and insatiable Luxury hath done But because all this doth not directly meet the Objection or fully correspond to the design of my present undertaking therefore in the last place I would answer more pertinently that if any of the asore-mentioned diseases have been cured or prevented by such unlawful evacuations I verily believe as ill or worse have been introduced and nestled into their room or in stead of them So that still the stream runneth clear from the fountain viz. that sin more particularly the sin of Incontinency and Uncleanness is a cause of diseases and consequently of shortness of life as I have sufficiently demonstrated unto any whose reason doth not too much truckle under sense SECT IV. Of Idleness Sloth and Sluggishness IDleness was the sin of Sodom Ezeck 16. 49. a sin reproved by the Similitude of the Labourers in the Vineyard especially in those words Why stand ye here all the day idle Mat. 20. 6. The slothful and wicked Man join hands and go together as one in the Parable of the Talents Thou wicked and slothful Servant c. Mat. 25. 26. God puts no difference betwixt Nequaquam nequam An idle and an evil Servant The Sluggard or he that is slothful in his work were there no other respects is in this much the worse and that is in the condition of his estate as well as soul for and by reason of the non-improvement of his temporal Talent For as Solomon saith He is brother to him that is a great waster Pro. 18. 9. and therefore is he reproved by the Wise man and sent to School to the Ant Prov. 6. 6. 10. 12. to learn prudent industry and diligence I could shew you how the afore-named sins do frustrate the end of our Creation become the sinks of all mischief and evil and so odious and detestable that the very Devils in Hell are not guilty of them But my design is onely to point out sin briefly and then more largely to prove it to be an occasion of bodily diseases and shortness of life And of all sins Idleness Sloth and Sluggishness are not the least occasion being the sediment and collection of excremental superfluities For as standing waters soonest putrifie so do the humours of the body in stagno the Pool of Idleness The Lacedemonians would suffer none of their Subjects to spend their time in Sports or Idleness and when their Magistrates were told of some that used to walk abroad in the afternoons they sent to them requiring that leaving their Idleness they should betake themselves to honest labours and imployments For say they it becomes the Lacedemonians to procure health to their bodies by labour and exercise not to corrupt them by Sloth and Idleness Idleness saith a Modern Author not only stupifieth the mind but also groweth upon the body and blood and betrayeth them to discomplexion sickness and to many infirmities Yea search the Physicians Library and observe their Conclusions upon the six Non-naturals more particularly upon Motion and Rest and you may find the discommodities of this sin namely Crudities obstructions and a multiplication of excrementitious humours and so consequently a languishing loose slabby infirm body Hence it is that such Persons corrupted with this vice are unavoidably in continual Physick have need of Issues and other artificial helps for the evacuation and exiccation of those superfluous moistures contracted upon them by a sedentary and slothful life But especially those Women who have passed their youth undisciplin'd and have been bred up in such a delicacy that they know no other business but their pleasures I say those find sensibly the pernicious effects of an idle life in those diseases it particularly disposeth them too as Obstructions of the Liver Spleen Womb and Breast and in that grievous inconvenience it produteth viz. Long travail difficulty and danger in Childing as might easily be confirmed by reason but that probably a great part of this Sex is sooner convinced by an Argument drawn from sence and their own dear experience which is most commonly the Mistress of Fools I might add hereunto that they which â—ead sedentary lives bear weak and sickly Children and also demonstrate such VVomen to be injurious not only to themselves but also their Posterity But I must hasten to shew you another natural effect of Idleness even in both Sexes and that is a disease which is the leaven of diseases viz. Melancholly which proceedeth oft-times from this vice and excremental superfluities gathered together in the body For no greater cause of Melancholly than Idleness as Democritus Jun. in his Treatise of that subject doth largely shew in place thereof and most compendiously conclude in another
the Body and is like the Worm that breedeth in timber and consumeth it So true is that of the Son of Sirach Envie c. shorten the life Eccl. 30. 24. Hatred also produceth the like effects for what is said of Envie may as well relate unto Hatred and Malice Envie slayeth the silly one saith Job 5 ch 2 v. and so doth Hatred and Malice by causing ill humours in the body For according to the Modern Philosopher M. Des-Cartes in his Treatise of the Passions The pulse in Hatred is observed to be uneven and weaker and oftentimes faster than usual that a Man feels colds inter-mingled with sharp and pricking heat in the breast that the stomack ceases to do its office is enclined to vomit and reject the Meats it hath eaten or at least to corrupt them and convert them into ill humours All which considered Hatred can be profitable unto none For ill humours are the Springs of most Diseases Again Hatred cannot be so small but it hurts the Body because it is never without Sadness which brings me to the next Section SECT VII Of Worldly Sorrow and Immoderate Grief of mind BY those Epithetes Worldly and Immoderate the Sorrow to be now treated of is distinguished from Godly sorrow which worketh repentance to Salvation which is neither Wordly nor Immoderate and may be thus described Worldly sorrow causing death of Body and Soul is that which is immoderate and humbleth not the heart kindly but disquiets disturbs and distempers it whether it proceed from outward evils and losses or inward evils as most from melancholious humours and worst from an evil Conscience and this sorrow may be termed rather Attrition than Contrition the sorrow for our misery or punishment being called Attrition for our sault Contrition But to the Point in hand Worldly and Immoderate sorrow though it may be look'd upon as a punishment of sin rather then a sin it self yet doubtless it is little less than both being a plain aberration from the Rules of Christianity so long as 't is leavened with Avarice Despondency Distrust Despair Discontent Hence it is that the Apostle Paul interdicts excessive sorrow for the dead because it argues despair and want of hope But I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope 1 Thess. 4 13. Excess in sorrow makes it sinful in Christians And here also hath place the Caveat of the same Apostle Lest any be swallowed up with over-much sorrow 2 Cor. 2. 7. Upon which place a Modern Expositor Trapp of our own ventureth to say that sorrow for sin if it so far exceed as that thereby we are disabled for the discharge of our duties it is a sinful sorrow yea though it be for sin With much more confidence then may we term that a sinful sorrow which the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 7. 10. worketh death namely the sorrow of the world which by Expositors is understood to be that sorrow which is proper to Men of the World such as are not regenerated by the Spirit of God whose grief and sorrow is nothing but the bitter smart of their misery without any serious and sincere repentance Or by sorrow of the World is meant a sorrow only for the loss of worldly things or which is caused from the fear of God's Judgments in Unbelievers whereupon there followeth commonly hardness of heart and a reprobate sense and at length if not prevented by repentance despair and damnation which do not only bring a Spiritual and Eternal death but also by wasting the Body hasten a temporal death And this will appear in respect of the Body First by Natural Reason Secondly by Divine and Humane Testimony First By Natural Reason And here we must understand that in sorrow or sadness the heat and spirits retire and by their sudden surrounding and possession of the heart all at once as the Physicians observe do many times cause Suffocation they being likewise by uniting encreased do violently consume the moisture of the Body and so beget drought and leanness and through long continuance Consumptions Or as others thus in sorrow or sadness there is a gathering together of much melancholly blood about the heart which Collection extinguisheth the good Spirits or at least dulleth and dampeth them Besides the heart being possessed by such an humour cannot digest well the Blood and Spirits which ought to be dispersed thorow the whole Body but converteth them into melancholy the which humour being cold dry drieth the whole Body and maketh it wither away for cold extinguisheth heat and drieness moisture which two qualities principally concern Life Secondly By Divine and Humane Testimony it further appeareth For first Solomon saith A merry heart doth good like a medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones Prov. 17. 22. Also heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop Prov. 12. 25. It maketh it stoop because it wasteth the natural vital and animal Spirits Hence also is that prescription of the Son of Sirach Remove sorrow far from thee for sorrow hath killed many Eccl. 30. 23. And that of the same Author Of heaviness cometh death and the heaviness of the heart breaketh strength Eccl. 38. 18. These with the fore cited places out of St. Paul's 2d Epistle to the Corinthians might be thought sufficient to confirm this truth did not some Men require a further Illustration of it by Humane Testimony and this may be considered in the next place as useful to the same end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Euripides Sorrows to Men diseases bring Hence also and for this cause are those trite and vulgar sayings Sadness and Melancholy the path-way to sickness Too much sorrow maketh a Man to run mad Sorrow is good for nothing but sin Hence also is that Conclusion of Aquinas in his Summs 1. 2. q. 37. 4. o. Tristitiae magis corpori nocet quam aliae passiones cùm vitalem motum cordis impediat i. e. Sadness doth more hurt the Body then other passions of the mind because it hindereth the vital motion of the heart It likewise takes away appetite overheats the heart and lungs corrupts the nutritious juyce causeth Consumptions and other cold Diseases Out of which we may gather that this Affection especially if it be more vehement and inveterate than ordinary doth bring very many and those grievous damages unto the Body some part whereof may be evidenced in these ensuing Instances Plantius the Numidian at the sight of his dead Wife presently died Laertius Diodorus the Logician died for sorrow because he could not answer the question of Stilpo Homer died with sudden sorrow because he was not able to answer a Fishermans question Plut. Aristotle the Prince of Ancient Philosophers when he came to Chalcis and saw the ebbing and flowing of Euripus that narrow Sea near Boeotia seven times in the twenty-four houres because he could not find the cause he fell into an incurable
Knowledge These are the consequences of that Wisedom which is foolishness with God as the Spirit of God terms it 1 Cor. 3. 19. But again we will consider all the above-mentioned Enormities and irregularities in this Section as they cause shortness of Life The condensation of the Spirits as the Lord Verulam in his History of Life and Death p. 227. writeth is effectual to long life and therefore especial care must be taken that the Spirits be not too often resolved for attenuation goeth before resolution and the Spirit once attenuated doth not very easily retire or is condensed now resolution is caused by over-vehement Affections of the mind over-great Cares and carpings and anxious expectations Not without reason then is that Proverbial Sentence Care will kill a Cat though it be said to have nine lives or that observation of the Son of Sirach Carefulness bringeth age before the time Eccl. 30. 24. Cura facit canos Care brings gray hairs i. e. it antidates old Age and so consequently shorteneth life Hence it is that almost in every Village we shall find a Covetous Muck-worm drooping and at length dropping into his Grave not with pure old age but beaten down and overwhelmed with too much Sollicitude and carking Care before that he can arrive to that Maturity Also immoderate Study by its subtil acute and eager inquisition after humane learning shortens life for it tireth the Spirit and wasteth it Solomon hinteth as much to us in these words And further by these my son be admonished of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh Eccles. 12. 12. That is as Bishop Hall paraphraseth upon the place by these Divine words O my Son do thou content thy self to be admonished not roving in thy desires after multitude of other Volumes whereof there is no end in the compiling and reading of which there is much toil and weariness of the flesh and much expence of the Spirits Finally Many other irregularities and enormities there are but as most of them may be reduced to one or other of the above-mentioned Sections so the like consequential effects may be deduced from them And so I conclude the whole Chapter having largely shewed and demonstrated that Many sins are natural causes of bodily Diseases and shortness of Life CHAP. III. Containing an Enumeration of sundry Sins as they are accidental causes of bodily Diseases and especially of shortness of Life THat we may term an accidental cause which produceth its effect not naturally and immediately by it self but by accident or chance or fortune as the Logicians define it Now how many sad accidents do sometimes result from sundry sins which expose Men to divers Diseases and also to shortness of life may appear by this following accompt which the greater part thereof I must crave leave to draw from and illustrate by a Collection of several Instances in History First In relation to Gluttony and Drunkenness we find these following recorded and adapted to our present purpose Gregory of Tours reporteth of Childerick a Saxon that glutted himself so full of meat and drink over night that in the morning he was found choked in his bed Anacreon the Poet a grand Consumer of Wine and a notable Drunkard was choked with the husk of a grape Philostrates being in the Bathes of Sinvessa devoured so much Wine that he fell down the Stairs and almost broke his neck with the fall Martid lib. 11. Alexander the Son of Basilius and Brother of Leo the Emperour did so wallow and drown himself in the Gulf of pleasure and intemperance that one day after he had stuffed himself too full of Meat as he got upon his Horse he burst a vein within his Body whereat upwards and downwards issued such abundance of blood that his life and soul issued forth withal Melanct. lib. 4. Within few years of my own knowledge saith mine Author three not far from Huntington being overcome with drink perished by drowning when being not able to rule their Horses they were carried by them into the main stream from whence they never came out alive again but left behind them visible marks of God's justice for the terrour and example of others Beard 's Theater of God's Judgments Holofernes while he besotted his senses with excess of Wine and good chear Judeth found means to cut of his head Judeth 13. Yea woful experience doth make manifest almost every day in one corner or other of this Land that the Lord punisheth many with sudden death and destruction even in the midst of their drunken fits although some again to shew his delight is in Mercy and not in the sudden destruction of his Creatures he punisheth with some lingring distempers whereof this vice of Drunkenness is often an accidental cause by exposing such Persons to heats and colds the adventitious causes of most Diseases to falls bruises fractures dislocations wounds contusions combustions c. which are the occasions or accidental causes not only of many Organical Diseases but also Similar as might be made apparent if right reason or mature experience were consulted And therefore let that Proverbial Sentence Drunken folks seldom take harm be hereafter exploded by all sober Persons considering how harmful and prejudicial this enormity hath been declared to be both to Soul and Body And now because Vina parant animos Veneri Whoredom is usually ushered in by Drunkeness we will in the next place consider Lust Adultery Fornication Uncleanness c. as accidental causes of Diseases but especially of shortness of Life And here I might shew how all immoderate and unseasonable use of Venus doth impede Concoction and so consequently produce Diseases But I shall rather touch upon it as a contingent cause of Venereal Pox which as in the former Chapter we considered as a Natural effect in respect of the virulent Contagion communicated so in this we look upon it as contingent and accidental in respect of the Persons communicating in the above-mention'd sins But I shall choose rather to insist upon those sins as accidental causes or occasions of shortness of Life and to that end shall illustrate the Point by these ensuing Instances Shechem the Son of Hamor the Hivite ravished Dinah Jacob's Daughter for which cause Simeon and Levi her Brethren revenged the injury done unto their Sister by slaying Shechem and with him all the Males that were in the City Gen. 34. In the 19th and 20th Chapter of Judges we read that the Levite's Wife having forsaken her Husband to play the whore certain Moneths after he had again received her to be his Wife she was given over against her will to the villanous and monstrous lusts of the men of Gibeah who so abused her for the space of a whole night together that in the morning she was found dead upon the threshold Which thing turn'd to a great destruction and overthrow not only of those Children of Belial in Gibeah which committed such lewdness
their Habitation were smitten with blindness Gen. 18. 11. A just and proper punishment to stop up those lights that were the windows or inlets and outlets of such abominable lust and concupiscence Lastly what shall I more say to borrow the Apostle's Phrase Heb. 11. for the time would fail me to tell of Miriam who for sedition was punished with a Leprosie Num. 12. 10. Of Gehazi that for covetousness and dissimulation of King Azariah who for not removing the high Places 2 Kings 5. 27. 15. 4 5. and King Uzziah that for invading the Priest's Office 2 Chron. 26. 20. were smitten with the same virulent Disease And of Belshazzar who for rioting and revelling amongst his pots had the end of his life as well as Kingdom denounced against him by a bodiless hand-writing upon the wall the Lord's decree Dan. 5. and also of a Cloud of witnesses more in Divine and Humane Records portending a showr of wrath and vengeance from Heaven upon all impenitent Sinners even in this life by Corporal plagues and destruction I shall therefore add only thus much more to the summ and then give you the total viz. that as God is a supernatural Agent and his Power is not to be limitted to Natural means in regard it is evident by many instances that he can and sometimes doth work without means in the production of sundry Diseases and mortal Distempers a truth not much taken notice of by such as would comprehend all causes and effects within the Sphaere of Nature so likewise the Devil by God's permission for the punishment of some sins hath power to cause sickness and that supernaturally So he did afflict Saul with the vehemency of a frenzy and melancholy Distemper 1 Sam. 16. 23. So he did the Lunaticks Mark 9. and many Daemoniacal Persons with strange maladies Luke 13. yea and still doth act over his old part in these last dayes though not so frequently as in Christ's getting possession in many even in this Nation as History and our own experience can demonstrate And as he can perform this by himself so likewise by his Complices and Instruments as Witches and Magicians who by God's permission can cause most Diseases yea sometimes death it self to such as they bear malice as might more fully appear de facto by a Book intituled The Arraignement and Trial of witches at Lancaster and York But yet their power is so limited by an Higher that not all whom they spleen are subject to it but only or mostly such as will not be gathered under the wings of God's Providence and protection straying so far in sin as until they become a prey unto Satan and his Hellish Spies who will at least infest their Bodies with Diseases and sudden mortality though mercy perhaps may step in betimes to redeem their Souls And thus may we discern the truth of this Point that those sundry sins which I have mentioned in this Chapter are in a supernatural way principal occasions of bodily Diseases and shortness of Life A Corollary The Result of the whole preceding Discourse is that as the Body by a powerful influence works upon the affections of the Soul so the Soul works most effectually upon the qualities and temperature of the Body producing by her Passions and perturbations wonderful alterations as most Diseases and sometimes death it self For sin is the cause of that excess which is in the qualities of which our Bodies are made and consequently of the Diseases that proceed from thence which afterward bring death to the Body But this is not all for sometimes it comes to pass that when those effects are not produced by such natural means the mind being corrupted and viciated doth draw them down from Heaven being supernaturally wrought for the greater testimony of God's power and vengeance upon obstinate Offenders So then that is most true which Plato saith in his Charmides Omnia corporis mala ab animâ procedere All the mischiefs of the body proceed from the soul. And thus much shall suffice to have run over the First Part of this Undertaking which was to demonstrate by Natural Reason and also by Divine and Humane Testimony that vicious and irregular actions and affections prove often occasions of most bodily Diseases and of shortness of Life THE SECOND PART Demonstrating by Natural Reason and also Divine and Humane Testimony that vertuous and regular actions and affections do conduce to the preservation of Health and prolongation of Life CHAP. I. In a Transition from the First Part to the Second the terms vertuous and regular and explained and the method of the subsequent Discourse is declared THe cause of the Disease being known the Cure is the more readily wrought and in this respect I shall be the more brief in this my Second Part because Contraria contrariis illustrantur Contraries are illustrated by contraries and that in such a manner as the First Part being admitted for a truth the Second may Regulâ contrariorum By the Rule of contraries succeed as a necessary consequence But before I proceed to further illustration I shall explicate the terms By the term vertuous we may understand godliness honesty of life and good manners For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vertue according to the ordinary known notion of it signifieth probity of manners among Men as the generical word that contains all Moral and Christian vertues under it in which sense it is used by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there be any vertue Phil. 4. 8. And also by St. Peter 2 Pet. 1. 3. as you may take notice of by viewing the Original and the Annotations of the learned Dr. Hammond upon the same So by the word regular we understand such actions and affections as are squared according to the direction of God's Word which is a rule to go and work by As many saith the Apostle as walk according to this rule or Canon Gal. 6. 16. Hence the Scriptures are called Canonical because they contain and give a perfect rule of Faith and manners unto the Church which is bound to walk obediently according to this rule and to give testimony to it and not by her authority to over-rule it and the sense of it as many do without blushing Likewise by this term regular we may apprehend and comprehend whatsoever is according to the dictates or rules of right reason in the whole course and carriage of a Moral Prudent Christian and Religious conversation And this I might easily prove by shewing the great congruity that is between that light and the Laws that God hath placed in our Souls and the duties of Religion that by the expresness of his written Word he requires from us and demonstrate that reason teacheth all those excepting only the two positives Baptism and the Holy Eucharist as a learned modern Author hath said before me in his Sermon ad Clerum upon Rom. 12. and latter part of the first Vers. Which is your reasonable service
Lord omnipotent There is a time saith he when in their hands i. e. the Physicians there is good success For they shall also pray unto the Lord that he would prosper that which they give for ease and remedy to prolong life Ibidem v. 13 14. This excellent issue of devout Prayer is further declared in these following Instances Hezekiah being arrested by a violent and dangerous distemper for some arrears due to the great Landlord of Heaven and Earth was further afflicted by a sad message of being turn'd out of the tenement of his Body by death But by his humble supplication and mournful prayer unto his merciful Lord he had a Lease of his life granted him for 15. years subscribed with a promise according to God's own order and sealed with a miracle to confirm it further upon the dial of Ahaz as you may see more fully by a recourse to the sacred Text 2 Kings 20. 1 c. I have read that on a time there was a meeting appointed at Haganaw upon the Rhine where the Reformed Divines were to meet and in a friendly manner to debate differences But as Melancthon was going thitherward he fell sick at Vinaria Luther and Cruciger hearing of it by long journeys hasted to him and as soon as Luther saw how miserably he was wasted with his Disease with sighs and tears he brake out into this speech Alas how precious and profitable an instrument of the Church is miserably weakened and ready to perish And therewithal falling upon his knees he prayed most earnestly for his recovery And afterwards Melancthon confessed that if Luther had not come he had died Clark's Lives of the Fathers p. 247. Yea it is written of this Luther that by his prayers he could prevail with God at his pleasure Praying for the recovery of Myconius he let fall this transcendent rapture of daring Faith Fiat voluntas mea Let my will be done And then comes off sweetly Mea voluntas Domine quia tua My will Lord because thy will Beatus est qui habet quicquid vult nihil male vult Blessed is he that hath what he will and wills nothing but what he should Also I find recorded that the Lady Ann Henage lying sick of a violent feaver which her Physicians deemed to be mortal Mr. Fox was sent for to be present at her ending and when by instructions and prayer he had prepared her for death he told her that she had done well in thus fitting her self for her dissolution yet that she should not die of that sickness A Knight her Son-in-law being by told him in private that he had not done well in thus discomposing her mind with hopes of life To whom Mr. Fox answered That he said no more then what was commanded him for it seemed good to God that she should recover Which also came to pass as an effect of fervent prayer which prevailed when Natural means failed Idem 794. King Edward the Sixth as he was constant and fervent in his private prayer so was he as successful therein witness this Example Sir John Cheek his Schoolmaster fell desperately sick of whose condition the King carefully enquired every day At last his Physicians told him that there was no hope of his life and that he was given over by them for a dead Man Nay said the King he will not die at this time for this morning I begged his life of God in my prayers and obtained it Which accordingly came to pass and soon after Sir John beyond all expectation wonderfully recovered Ful. History of the Church p. 424. It is said of St. Augustin in a Relation of his life that he was alwayes powerful in prayer so that sometimes thereby he cast out devils and sometimes restored sick Men to their health It would perhaps be tedious to the Reader to annumerate any further instances to this purpose as by demonstrating what a wonderful decrease there hath been sometimes observed in the weekly Bills of mortality in several Places of this Kingdom graciously succeeding upon the humble and devout prayers of God's People And therefore I shall content my self to insist only upon St. James his Canon Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him annointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he hath committed sins they shall be forgiven him James 5. 14 15. By the Elders of the Church we may understand the Pastors or Ministers of the Church who are to be sent for by the sick that they may pray for him and with him And their faithful prayer shall be a means ordinarily to save that sick Person from the danger of his Disease and whereas sins are the cause of his sickness even those sins of his shall upon humble and devout prayers be done away and forgiven Now as concerning the Ceremony of anointing the sick Body with Oyl in the Name of the Lord this was an extraordinary thing communicated to those which had gifts of Miracles used by them as an outward Symbole and sign of the Spiritual healing and so we deny not but it was an extraordinary temporary Sacrament but now that Miracles are ceased in the Church still to retain the outward sign is a vain supertitious imitation although St. James his Oil and the Popish Ointment do much differ See Fulke on the Rhem. Test. Again this usage as a bare Ceremony was not instituted by Christ or any way commanded to be continued by the Apostles or their Successors in the Church even while the gifts of Healing did continue amongst them but was by the Apostles themselves very frequently omitted in their working of Cures as the learned Dr. Hammond hath observed in his Annotations Prayer then you see was the more yea the only effectual and substantial performance or means in the Cure and the Ceremony of annointing may now reasonably be omitted Obj. But against the use of prayer some may object the words of Job Job 7. 1. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his dayes also like the dayes of an hireling What need then of prayer when every Man's time upon Earth like the Sea is bounded so as hitherto shall it come but no further I answer only hereunto at present that this may be a general Objection against the use of all other means as well as Prayer in relation to the cure of Diseases and prolongation of life and therefore shall be answered in its proper place designed A 2d Object Against some lukewarm Christians may object further and say I have often prayed upon the account of health for my self and others in time of sickness but all my prayers have like Arrows shot up to Heaven returned upon my own head without doing their errand Solut. To this I answer Our prayers many times come short of Heaven because
performed as the instrument Whereunto are annexed about sixty Testimonials of several credible Persons most of them eminent and worthy of the chief matters of fact therein related Which printed Certificates being examined and compared with the Original Testimonials which were left in the hands of Mr. Starkey the Stationer to that end namely for a certain evidence to Mr. Boyle and for the full satisfaction of all those that are any wise scrupulous that they might see that they were verbatim the same In this respect I suppose it unreasonable to interrogate with Nicodemus How can these things be John 3. 9. seeing there is such a clear demonstration de facto of what was seen done I confess saith a learned modern Author of our own I cannot see any reason why God may not yet for the conviction if Insidels employ such a power of Miracles although there be not such necessity of it as there was in the first propagation of the Gospel Yet God may please saith he a little after out of his abundant provision for the satisfaction of the minds of men concerning the truth of Christian doctrine to imploy good men to do something which may manifest the power of Christ to be above the Devils Dr. Stillingfleet's Origines Sacrae pag. 270. To be short as our Saviour being in the flesh had power on Earth to cure incurable Diseases miraculously that is without Natural means so being in Heaven his power is no less but rather greater over all bodily Diseases to cure them with or without means whensoever he will So that this may comfort us in time of dangerous sickness though our Disease be incurable by Physick or any Natural means yet in this case we are to remember the absolute power of Christ Jesus our Lord who can heal us without means if he see it expedient for us And that his will doth in this case frequently concur with his power note further that Man's extremity is God's opportunity where Man's help faileth Christ's help beginneth Let us then seek to him by Prayer and rest on him by Faith not neglecting ordinary means by a too frequent dependance upon or expectation of miraculous Cures nor yet forgetting that if the means fail or cannot be had his power is not tied to means but is above them and can and doth sometimes recover us without them when he seeth it good for us I conclude the Point then thus that Gods blessing upon the Natural means and his blessing without means are each received most successfully and comfortably by the hand of Faith which is the extraordinary means conducing to the health of Body as the ordinary to the health of Soul Fourthly Repentance if true and sincere doth in the same extraordinary way conduce to the health of Body and prolongation of Life And this may be proved First in express terms and Secondly by consequence First In express terms by sundry Texts of sacred Writ Miriam by repentance was freed from the Leprosie Num. 12. 11. 21. 7. The Israelites repenting obtained a remedy against the fiery Serpents and thereby were delivered from imminent death David after the death of seventy thousand of his People by repentance prevented the destruction of Jerusalem 2 Sam. 24. 16 17. Rehoboam and the Princes repenting at the preaching of Shemaiah were delivered from destruction 2 Chr. 12. 7. Hezekiah having received a message of death upon his repentance had his life lengthened by a Lease from above two lives more in our Law Isay 38. v. 1. 10. 6. Secondly By consequence For sublatâ causâ tollitur effectus the cause which is sin being taken away the effect which is bodily sickness and shortness of Life as I have fully declared and evinced in the former part of this Treatise must needs cease and be removed or prevented and avoided And therefore Repentance as you see may rationally be concluded effectual for the health of the Body and the prolongation of a temporary Life as it was alwayes granted propitious to the health of the Soul in order to ever lasting Life To summ up all let us not think it incredible that these vertues and graces should in such an extraordinary manner conduce to the preservation of bodily health removal of sickness and prolongation of Life when we consider the power of God with whom all things are possible Mat. 19. 26. and the manifestation of that power not only in the sundry miraculous cures of bodily Diseases recorded in the Old and New Testament but also in some such cures or very like them taken notice of in our modern History and experience The miraculous Cures in both Testaments the Reader may take notice of at his leasure I shall instance now only in Humane Story and modern Evidence A late intelligent Author and faithful Relator telleth us that to the Kings of England quatenus Kings doth appertain one prerogative that may be stiled super-excellent if not Miraculous which was first enjoyed by that pious and good King Edward the Confessor that is to remove and to cure the Struma or Scrofula that stubborn Disease called The Kings Evil. Which manifest cure saith he is ascribed by some malignant Nonconformists to the power of Fancy and exalted Imagination but what can that contribute to small Infants whereof great numbers are cured every year Dr. Chamberlain in his present State of England The manner of the Cure is briefly thus related There is an appointed short Form of Divine Service wherein are read besides some short Prayers pertinent to the occasion two portions of Scripture taken out of the Gospel and at these words They shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover the King gently draws both his hands over the sore of the sick Person and those words are repeated at the touch of every one Again at these words That light was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world pertinently used if it be considered that that Light did never shine more comfortably if not more visibly than in the healing of so many leprous and sick Persons At those words the King putteth about the neck of each sick Person a piece of Gold called from the impression an Angel because in value about two thirds of a French Pistol Thus far He. Now the effect is clear de facta and from experience and cannot therefore be rationally denyed and 't is as clear that the cause must be super-natural in regard that neither the hands of the King not the piece of gold given by him have any natural or accidental power or tendency in themselves to effect or produce such a Cure especially in Infants whose imagination cannot be wrought upon and disposed for the furtherance of it by such outward applications as are then used Another Instance to our present purpose we may find in a modern Collection being true and faithful Relation of one Samuel Wallas who was restored to his perfect health after thirteen years sickness