by this time had not been able to sustain the Inhabitants with Food The Egyptians calculated the bounds of mens dayes from the weight of their Hearts and judged a hundred years the utmost period taking their estimate from the weight of their Hearts which they say increaseth two Drachms every year under fifty and then decreaseth two Drachms untill a hundred But this opinion seems questionable The reason given by the Bishops of Rome for Contracting the year of Jubilee from one hundred to fifty and from fifty to five and twenty is grounded upon the Supposition that the age of man is contracted To what causes to consign the long Lives of the Ancients it need not be Difficult if we consider how necessary it was so to be for the propagation of Mankind and peopling the World with Inhabitants and also for the learning Arts and Sciences wherein it was requisite Men should have the experience of former Ages For as many Sensations breed an Experiment so many Experiments breed a Science The several motions of the Heavenly Bodies could not be known without a long time to observe their Motions and Revolutions It was an old complaint that Art was long and Life was short and therefore Almighty God proportioned mens lives accordingly We now account him wondrous Old who lives fourscore Summers to see the Resurrection of the Year fourscore times The length of mens age since Moses dwelt amongst us seems considerably abbreviated he computing Threescore and ten the ordinary period unto which men generally arrived in those times Whereas now a third part of all that are born in populous Cities dye under seven years old and the greatest part of those that are alive are between fifteen and five and thirty Few Princes either Jewish German Greek or Roman arrived at Fourscore Queen Elizabeth outlived all her Predecessors since the Conquest And I think his Majesty our present Sovereign whom God grant long to live is the eldest Crowned Head in Christendom And it 's to me observable that during the standing of the first Temple there were but eighteen High-priests but three hundred while the second stood and but ten years difference between the standing of the former and the latter Which plainly demonstrates that mens Lives have been cut and pared away in several Ages The Fathers in the primitive times had great Advantages for the Prolongation of their Lives as they had conveyed to them the Nature of Life-preserving Remedies from Adam who gave Names to all Creatures according to their particular Qualities And wonderful was their skill in all the Secrets of Nature Also the Air in the first Ages of the World might be more pure and not corrupted with terrene Exhalations as it was after the Flood had drencht it and for ought we know its Fruits might be more Nutritive Moreover Adam was the immediate Work of God and being come as it were newly from the Shop of his Creator he could not be like a House built of rotten Timber but of a far stronger Constitution than this weak Age affords Their Bodies were not wasted with fuccession of Sicknesses nor weaken'd with hereditary Diseases but were armed to resist those few things contrary to their healths The seminalities of Diseases were not so pregnantly conveyed from Parent to Child their Infants were not so tenderly brought up wastfull Ryot was a stranger to them and variety of Meats was to them unknown their Nature was not opprest with burthens and forced to stagger with her load We cannot with any shew of Reason pretend to mistake in the manner of computing the years of the Patriarchs for if you suppose them to be only Lunar years and that twelve of theirs made but one of ours then gross absurdities must follow from thence as that they were Prolifique at seven years of age Enoch being no more when he begat Methusalem At that rate the Date of their Lives must be reckoned shorter than many of ours Moreover the Scripture saith that Abraham dyed in a good Old Age and full of Dayes being one hundred seventy and five years old which Number according to that computation was but seventeen years and a half a very ridiculous old Age. But it is very manifest that Moses's computation of the year was the same with ours for mention is made of the first second and seventh Month and mention is also made of the seventeenth day of the Month. We find but one Womans Age recorded in Scripture and that is Sarah Some give this reason Because a Woman first occasioned the Shortning the Lives of men by listning to the Serpent Old Age is doubtless a very great Blessing being subservient to great and noble ends namely our better Preparation for a blessed Eternity And there are some Priviledges that holy Souls are capable of in this World which they cannot partake of in the Regions of immortal Bliss and they are the Opportunities of Doing good to others and preparing them for the Eternal Mansions and thereby Brightning their own Diadems and making their weight of Glory the Heavier by turning many to Righteousness Which that you may doe is the Wish of Your Cordial Friend J. M. LETTER XI SIR I Received yours dated the Second Instant wherein you seem to question whether the Practice of Religion on have any tendency towards Health and long life because sometimes good Men Dye suddain and Immature Deaths But nothing is more plain and evident than that the Carkasses of good Israelites may fall in the Wilderness of this World whose Souls may be entertained in the Heavenly Canaan A good Prophet for some single Act of Disobedience may be made a Prey to a devouring Lyon If an Eli neglect to Chasten his Rebellious Children he may be permitted to break his Neck When Uzzth shall touch the Ark without a Commission his Death shall immediately succeed his Rashness When a Moses shall neglect to Circumcize his Child an Angel shall threaten his Life with a drawn Sword When a Jonas shall go contrary to a Divine Command he shall be in danger of being swallowed up by Death as well as by a Whale Many times Judgment begins at the House of God and he makes good Men the examples of his Severity in this Life It 's thought that King David's numbering the People was the last Act he did before he took his Bed Evil Angels sometimes contend with good ones about the Bodies of good Men Sampson lost his natural Strength by his Disobedience and violation of his Vow rather than by the meer Cutting off his Hair it being rather a Moral than a Natural Cause of his Weakness The Righteous may sometimes be taken away from the evil to come as the good Patriarchs were before the Flood and as Abijah was laid to sleep before the Calamity of his Fathers House And sometimes the Child may derive those Distempered Humours from the Parent which may prove the occasion of its Death Though God hath Promised long Life to them
was wholly from a Divine Influence The Jews observe that though Leprosie be the Finger of God yet the Hand of man must be used in the Cure and therefore we find that the Leper whom our Saviour healed was commanded to use the Method prescribed in the Law of Moses to be sprinkled and washed The Aromatique Oyl used in extream Unction in the Apostolical times was a natural Remedy though the Cure was attributed to the Prayer of Faith Mary's supposition that the Presence of her Saviour would have kept her Brother from Dying was not improbable though she was under a Mistake with respect to that present Dispensation Many under Distempers expect to be raised as Lazarus was only by the Physitian taking them by the Hand or as Naaman who expected the good Prophet to Cure him by only striking his Hand upon the Wall But my Dear Friend Farewell and Pardon me I have made no more Scruple of exercising your Patience and take the humble Subscription of Your Constant Friend J. M. LETTER XIV SIR I Received yours of the Fifth Instant together with the strange Relation of the Person thought to be afflicted with strange Diseases by the the Power of the Devil and for that reason I observe the Cure is Despaired of but I suppose without Cause for should we grant that many Diseases are caused by a Diabolical Influence it need not therefore follow that the Cure is impossible Indeed it must be acknowledged that there have been multitudes of Cheats and Impostures of this kind but to say they are all Delusions is very Imprudent for sometimes divine Providence for reasons best known to himself may permit evil Angels to afflict the Bodies of men with distempers vulgarly called Lying under an evil Tongue or being Bewicht as having no dependance upon the Chain of natural Causes The Jews were threatned with some Diseases which should not be Cured by natural means even wonderful Plagues and of long continuance There are in Scripture many instances of Diseases Inflicted by supernatural Agents as Angels and Spirits who disturb the Humours and raise Storms and Tempests in Mens Bodies as well as in the Air Evil Angels were sent to Afflict the Jews with divers Calamities and many thousands in one Night were Slain by the destroying Sword of an Angel in a Pestilential Contagion An evil Angel visited Saul with Stupendious Melancholly and Job with painful Boils and Bowed a Daughter of Abraham eighteen Years When an Omnipotent Power gives leave the Devil can as easily possess the minds of Men with Distraction as the Swine with Rage The Excommunicate Corinthian being deliver'd up to Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh in order unto the Salvation of his Spirit may as well be understood of his being Afflicted with some corporal Distemper by the power of the Prince of Darkness as be taken in any other Sence As we know St. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan sent to Buffet him hath by some Learned Men been Interpreted to our purpose The Lascivious Persons seeking for Lot's House to gratifie their vile Intentions were struck Blind by an Angel and those Windows were stopt up that let in wanton Glances And the several Persons possessed whom our Blessed Lord deliver'd from the power of the Prince of the Air were miserably Afflicted with Epilepsies Lunacies Convulsions and other Direful Symptoms and Distractions which threw them sometimes into the Fire and sometimes into the Water In the Primitive times Corporal Inflictions and Subjection to a Satanical Power was the sad consequence of Excommunication proportionable unto the Execrations in the Jewish Cherem which we find exemplified in Saul after his defection from God And it is observable that the Essens amongst the Jews when expelled the Congregation dyed of miserable Deaths And Ecclesiastical Writers tell us Heliodorus in his Sacrilegious attempts was Scourged by two Angels in the shape of young Men and hardly came off with his Life The Catechists in the Primitive times that prepared Persons for Baptism and Admission into the Church was wont to be called the Exorcist that cast out Satan for by the performance of our Baptismal Covenant we renounce the Devil and his Propriety and thereby the better secure our Health as well as our Peace The Jews observed that after the destruction of the Sanctuary and Sanhedrim there still continued amongst them four kinds of capital Punishments instead of the four appointed by the Law of Moses for he that deserved to be Stoned either fell from a House or was torn by Wild Beasts he that deserved to be Burnt either fell into the Fire or was stung by a Serpent therefore called fiery they that deserved to be Killed by the Sword fell into the Hands of Thieves or of the King they that deserved Suffocation or Hanging were Drowned in the Water or fell into Melancholly and were strangled thereby as Judas was But Religion very much secures men from the power of the Evil Angels and from all other misfortunes But Sir to be sure you shall alwayes be happy if it lye in his power to make you so who is Your intire Friend J. M. LETTER XV. SIR I Received your last Letter with wonder to find you entertain so strange an Opinion as to believe that Diseases are now cured in miraculous and extraordinary wayes as they were in the Apostolical times without the use and application of Rational and experimental Remedies To dream that Charms Amulets Spells c. are of any vertue in curing Diseases is vain and that because St. Pauls Handkerchief St. Peter's Shadow and the Hem of our Saviours Garment miraculously cured some in the Primitive times therefore we must use them now The reason why those Miraculous wayes of healing were used in those times was for the Confirmation of the Gospel in its first Plantation But that being now done those wayes of Cure are ceased How can men expect the Divine Blessing with such means as have no natural vertue as Words and Characters For if one Text of Scripture carried in a mans Sleeve will cure a Disease surely the Bible in a mans Pocket must cure all Diseases The Divine Oracles were given to guide our Faith not to tickle our vain Imaginations I once knew a fatal Event attend the use of such an accursed Medicine A Gentlewoman having an Ague a Begger gave her a Charm to hang about her Neck bid her not read it but when she was cured burn it The Minister of the Parish being a sober Learned and pious conformable Divine came casually to visit her she telling him the Medicine and the Cure which had attended it threw it into the fire in his presence but he catching it read it The words were Ague farewell till you and I meet in Hell Upon hearing of which she fell into her Ague again with greater violence than ever and also into deep Melancholly which occasioned her to lay Violent hands on her self So dangerous it is to
Reflections of a good Conscience hath a mighty power both to correct and exalt a mans natural temper Those Ardent Breathings wherewith the pious Soul is continually carryed out towards God and Goodness are to the Body like so much fresh Air and wholsom Exercise they fan the Blood and clarifie the Spirits and purge them from their feculency which would otherwise cloud the Understanding and make us dull and listless Therefore Sir I beg of you as you tender your Health pare away all your superfluous thoughts and let a lumpish Spirit be a Stranger to your Habitation because it is a Scandal to Christianity Who hath more cause to rejoyce than they that have the Smiles of Heaven and the foretastes of endless pleasure Therefore suffer your Harp to hang no longer upon the Willows but contemplate the Song of Moses and of the Lamb which will elevate all the powers of Nature When men give way to violent and unreasonable passions and lay out more in expectation than the fruition will make amends for they purchase Diseases at a dear rate The passions of the Mind influence the Humours of the Body Anxious Solicitudes about Events and Murmuring at the Allotments of Providence suspend the Influence of divine Blessing and withdraw that holy protection who hath promised to care for us if we cast all our care on him Hope deferred will make the heart sick Eager desires after terrene Enjoyments as they drownd mens Souls in perdition so they pierce mens Bodies with many sorrows When swarms of perplexing Cares hive in mens Heads they yield more Sting than Honey There are many in the World who stab themselves with pining grief and poyson themselves with pensive Melancholly Wrath kills the foolish man and Envy slayes the silly one Nehemiah's grief changed his countenance and we know that Fear hath torment When the Mind is kept in an equal calm serene temper the Body is sensible of the Conveniency A chearfull spirit doth good like a Medicine but on the contrary a sorrowful spirit dryes the Bones The way to pull out the thorn in the Flesh is to heal the wound in the Spirit If men did sigh for nothing but Sin and set their affections on him who best deserves their Love and make use of the Remedy provided for all the evils of the World viz. a Contented Mind their healths would be better secured but when any created good lyes too near the Heart or the Clouds of Melancholly eclipse the upper Region of the Mind they hinder the vigorous Reflections of the vital Spirits and render Medicines ineffectual By melancholly sad and gloomy thoughts we expose our selves to the power of the Prince of Darkness who loves to inhabit sad Souls who love Sunless dayes Spend not your Life like a man possest amongst Groves and Tombs by profound Sorrow and Melancholly we give place to the Devil That made St. Paul compassionate the excommunicate Corinthian lest being too much cast down Satan should get advantage of him Too much sadness like the Earth lying under water makes it unfruitful Therefore Sir let me beg of you to hoise the sails of your Soul and to bid adieu to needless Thoughts Forgive the haste that made these Blots and believe that I am without spot of complement Your unreserved Friend J. M. LETTER XXIII SIR I Am glad to hear you find your distemper abate upon the use of the last Remedies but let me tell you I attribute very much of their success unto the temperate exact and regular Dyet I find you observe and you will experiment that it will very much facilitate the Cure for in some distempers a very slender Dyet and taking in little Drink doth withdraw much of the fewel that increaseth the Disease It ill becomes a sick man to dig his Grave with his teeth make his Table a snare and Dedicate meat and drink Offerings unto the god of his Belly when mens hearts are overcharged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness it not onely causeth Diseases but hinders their Cure some patients lye continually like John Babtist's head in a Charger and so oppress Nature with a greater load when they should be making the Vessel lighter more being killed by Meats then by Musquets But though you do well to be very exact in observing a Physical Dyet yet so much ought to be taken as may support Nature and make it's burthen tolerable Sir I must bid you good Night and only take leave to tell you that my best Endeavours are at your service and remain Your Humble Servant J. M. LETTER XXIV SIR I Received yours Dated the 10th instant wherein you seem very inquisitive to know what may further contribute towards the Perfecting your Health and render the means yet more effectual Unto which I must answer If you would exercise your Body by Walking Riding Bowling Pumping or Shooting in the Long-Bow or the like for by Labour and Exercise we get both our bread and our health and Adams curse becomes a blessing unto a Christian That in the sweat of his brows he should eat his bread Idleness one of Sodom sins becomes a great punishment The running Stream is pure and clean when standing water gathers mud But on the contrary you ought to be Cautious of violent motions lest thereby you extinguish the flame of Natures Candle by walking too fast you may make more hast than good speed and leave your health behind you Many people like the two Disciples running not out of love as they did but out of rashness into a Sepulchre But yet moderate Exercise is of great advantage to warm the Blood and open Obstructions and excite the operation of Medicines and render them much more effectual In a Physical sence bodily Exercise profiteth more than a little Sir so often as your Pen gives me a tast of your Ease and recovery I relish much happiness who am Your Sympathizing Friend J. M. LETTER XXV SIR ONce more give me leave as a Friend to tell you that I am confident the Air taken in a morning this pleasant month of May wherein nature provides something to entertain all your Senses would prove exceeding advantageous and make your Dyet-drink more prevalent for there is a Nitre in the Air that contributes nourishment to all beings especially to follow a Plow and suck in the cherishing steams from the breasts of your Mother the Earth and if you can your native Soyl where you drew in your first breath But on the other hand have a care of that which we Vulgarly call taking Cold for Death sometimes creeps into the body through the pores of the Skin so that if at any time the alterations of the Air put a stop to the genuine operation of Medicines do not unjustly blame the Physician or the Remedies have a care of taking cold in your feet lest you go wet-shod to your Grave or of leaving off a Garment lest you put on a Winding-sheet The humors in mens bodies are tost in the Air like