Murders Robberies and the like and so the wanton Onans roaring Duellers Drunkards and all others that are loose in their lives and disorderly in their diets or behaviours may be said to be cut off each one of them In die non suo Before his day that is before that day Ad quem per naturam juxta hominum opinionem pervenire poterat To which nature in the judgment of all men might have brought him if he had not prevented the same by his unseasonable death Vel gladio vel morbo vel aliquâ aliâ causâ violentâ morte non sua Either by the sword or disease or some other violent cause as Mercerus saith Mercerus in Job 14. 5. Or if that Answer sufficeth not consider this following God Almighty who is the Creator and Conservator of all things in the Universe hath appointed to every created thing both a beginning and end or termination of subsisting and moving and doth take notice not only of principal but also of subsequent causes of things governing moderating disposing and ordering them according to his free will and yet all this government is void of fatal violence and most commonly cometh to effect mediately and from deputed causes which vulgarly are called second causes which the Divine Majesty doth employ as the instruments of his will so long as he doth so govern all things which he hath created as also himself may suffer them to exercise their proper motions for the will of Man by Divine ordination is the original of humane actions freely electing what seemeth best for it self especially in externalls and herein the causes so answer the effects as if the effects be necessary the causes are also necessary and if contingent the causes are contingent nor doth the praescience or fore-knowledge of God which is certain and not to be deceived abolish the contingency of Natural events but the future effect is disposed as it were by a Divine Providence necessarily or contingently nor doth it null the freedom of the agent nor is the Creator obliged to the necessity but moderateth all things freely according to his free will and pleasure and though his Omnipotency can dispose of causes and life with every kind of death at his own free pleasure yet it will not urge any Person to accept that term of life for a fatal determinination but for a Divine ordination of various causes which by the Election of the will that as Des-Cartes saith Can never be constrained prove occasions either of sustaining or destroying life In brief if still the curious Objector remains dissatified I wish him convinced Potius verberibus quam verbis Rather with stripes than stress of words and the indicative Story which I have read of may apologize for me in my Optative mood A discontented Gallant having drowned himself and being much lamented by the Spectators for youthful comliness amongst them was one of this erronious opinion who was pleased to read a lecture to them of the inevitable decree of the Almighty and not by him to be avoided nor by them lamented Hereupon a young Man of the contrary education gave her a great blow over the face which made her challenge him of base cowardise and as great incivility to the Feminine Sex Who returned her in answer that it was the inevitable will of God it should be so and a truth according to her own Doctrine which caused her to stagger in her opinion Let us not then scorn the means For as Solomon saith Judgments are prepared for scroners and stripes for the back of fools Prov. 19. 29. Obj. 2. Another Objection is of those whom we call Star-peepers Nativity-casters and Fortune-tellers who by Birth-stars that is by Stars which arise at every ones coming into the World pretend an infallible prediction of the certain time of their health sickness recovery what shall chaunce unto them and of the time and manner of their death and so thereby endeavour to overthrow the use of all means tending to the preservation of health and prolongation of life Solut. Indeed we deny not unto that noble Science which they name Natural Astrologie the knowledge of Nature's order and the motions of Heavenly Bodies But we utterly disallow their Superstition who professing judicial Astrology for with this great and glorious title they deck and garnish their superstition do measure and predict conjecturally every Man's fortune and success as touching sickness life and death by the hour of his birth For while these Nativity-casters and Fortune-tellers confess that recourse must be made from the time of bearing to the time of begetting what do they else but bewray their own vanity For it is not possible that they should hear and know for certain the very time of Conception So that though it be granted that the Stars have some influence and power upon our Bodies in respect of health and sickness life and death yet notwithstanding it may be rationally denyed that they can be certainly fore-told by any such judicial Astrological predictions Because amongst many other reasons of the uncertainty of the time of Conception or instant of begetting Let not Men then search into their Almanacks to calculate a Nativity and in the mean time neglect their Bibles which will never be out of date But let them as our Saviour adviseth Search the Scriptures John 5. 39. and they may read Judg. 8. 18. of many thousands dying a violent death nigh one and the same time And if an Astrologer had been consulted before that time it is likely that he would have fore-told the instanious deaths of an hundred and twenty thousand when most of them without question had divers and sundry Birth-stars Again had he read of Esau Jacob twins born would he judge them to have been of the same temper and constitution and to have died at the same instant of time It is like he might but surely not without error Yea it may be inferred and proved also by strict observation that other Children besides twins have been born at one instant of time who notwithstanding died at several times Furthermore if the time and kind of death depend upon the Stars then by consequence shall sins depend upon them too for these are the proper cause of that and the promises of God in respect of bodily health and long life be of no effect Which Consequences whoever grants as Conclusions without further examination of the Premisses I fear will scarce ever be directed to Christ by a Star I shall therefore direct the eyes of such to the reading of that sacred Irony in Isaiah Let now the Astrologers the Star-gazers the monthly Prognosticators stand up and save thee from the things that shall come upon thee Isay 47. 13. And also of that dehortatory Lesson in Jeremiah Thus saith the Lord Learn not the way of the Heathen and be not dismayed at the signs of Heaven for the Heathen are dismayed at them Jer. 10. 2. Object 3. A third Objection may
viz. the Epilogue this Prescription as an Antidote against that disease Be not idle be not solitary Burton's Melancholy Moreover there are many other disease that are the excrescences of this sin but let it suffice in general terms to denote it as a main occasion of bodily distempers brooding and hatching them by a sedentary life So true is that of the Poet Ovid Ignavum corrumpunt otia corpus Idelness corrupts wastes and destroys the body And the learned Galen saith as much Otium reddit imbecillas vires membrorum Com. 3. in lib. de Off. c. 32. Also in another place Otium liquefacit Com. 3. i◠lib. 6. Eped c. 2. And also Nature's great Explorator Lord Verulam in his History of Life and Death doth denote unto us That an idle life doth manifestly make the flesh soft and dissipable and so consequently an Enemy to long life Sluggishness is likewise much of the same Nature and property bringing many from the Couch to the Bed of sickness and from the Bed to the Coffin For if the old Rule be true Diluculo surgere saluberrimum est To arise betimes in the morning be the most wholesom thing in the world then surely Regulâ contrariorum by the Rule of Contraries to play the Sluggard and to exceed that convenient measure of rest which Nature alloweth must be if not the most unwholesom thing in the world yet one of the most And this will appear if we consider the Inconveniences of immoderate sleep as they are described by Physicians First In that the heat being thereby called into the Body it consumes the superfluous moistures and then the necessary and lastly the solid parts themselves and so extenuates dries and emaciates the Body And Secondly It fixes the Spirits and makes them stupid it hardens the excrements and makes the Body costive from whence follow many inconveniences Lastly The brain being therby filled with vapours the Head-ach is caused the natural motions of the humours are hindred and stopped crude phlegmatick juices and all manner of superfluous humours are heaped up and increased whence flows a notable Spring of distillations and such like cold and long continuing diseases I could add hereunto what the Patrons and Supporters of Ballance Physick write viz. By too much sleep the strength is suffocated concoction diminished perspiration hindred the head and bowels hurt c. D. Sanctor's and D. Cole's new Art of Physick But I must not forget my intended brevity SECT V. Of Immoderate Anger ANger when it is immoderate becomes sinful when the Sun goeth down upon it soon becomes a work of darkness and therefore the Apostle after a Concession Be angry addeth a Restriction And sin not let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Eph. 4. 26. In which Restriction sinful and remaining anger are connexed and prohibited Now as this remaining or immoderate anger is sinful so it is unhealthful for the incommodities thereof are many and evil as Feavers Phrensies and Madness Trembling Palsies Apoplexies decay of Appetite and want of Rest Paleness Collicks Plurisies Inflammations Cholerick Caeliack and Iliack Passions c. So that not without cause was the saying of Eliphaz Wrath killeth the foolish man Job 5. 2. And to this purpose I shall infer what I find recorded in humane Story The Emperour Nerva ended his life in a Feaver contracted by anger The Emperour Valentinian died by an irruption of blood through anger Cuspianus Chromerus l. 18. Vinceslaus King of Bohemia raging against his Cup-bearer fell presently into a Palsie whereof he died Also L. Sylla who in his anger had spilt the blood of many at last in his fury raging and crying out against one that had broken promise with him thereby brake a Veine within him vomiting out his blood soul and anger together Valer. Maxim l. 9. And Ajax through anger fell into a deadly fury Now from these Instances we may conclude the truth of that Sentence in Eccl. 30. 24. Wrath shortens the life And also of that old Medicinal Rule in Schold Salerni Si vis incolumem si te vis reddere sanum Irasci crede profanum If thou wilt live in health and free from sickness bane Then think thou choler in excess to be prophane We may add hereunto that anger in excess inflameth the blood and increaseth choler which is for the most part the cause of that acute and dangerous disease Cholerica passio or Choler which as the Physicians write is often so sharp and vehement that it doth deprive a Man of life within the space of a day or two even without a Feaver Moreover it is observed that Children most fretful are usually short-liv'd and that anger if it be inveterate causeth the Natural Spirit to feed upon the juyces of the Body which must consequently produce Consumptions and abbreviate Life SECT VI. Of Envie Hatred and Malice AMongst many other These as the Apostle saith Gal. 5. 20 21. are works of the flesh Envie is Cousen german to hatred and malice and so they are all three upon the account of a base and ignoble Race for the Devil is their Father and Concupiscence their Mother They are in the judgment of the Holy Ghost no less than mental Murder for Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer 1 Ep. John 3. 15. v. Now saith Christ the devil is the father of murderers John 8. 44. As then we may conclude Envie hatred and malice to be mortal sins to the Soul so I shall prove them to be mortal and destructive to the Body Envie saith the Lord Verulam in the History of Life and Death is the worst of all passions and feedeth upon the Spirits and they again upon the body and so much the more because it is perpetual and as is said keepeth no holy dayes It is a sin that doth fret and consume the Body and so is a means to hinder health and shorten life and of this the Wise Man took notice when he termed Envie the rottenness of the bones Prov. 14. 30. And justly it is called the rotting of the bones because like a Fever Hectick it doth consume a Man and bring him to his end as the rottenness of the marrow that lieth within the bones Envious Men cordis sui peste moriuntur They die by the plague of their own heart Gregor An envious Man is sui ipsius carnifex His own tormentor and Executioner The Grecians call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 homicidium slaughter because the envious Man killeth his own heart with this passion Or it may be derived from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corrumpo consumo because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Consumption Livor tabificus malis venenum Yea Envie to the heart is like rust to the Iron or blasting to the Corn like the Vultures eating up continually the heart of Prometheus or the foolish Bee that loseth the life with the sting it burneth the heart and wasteth
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
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
their joint influence and concurrence in the production either of Health or Diseases Therefore wee see that Joy which is an Affection of the Soul is as it were a Medicine to the Body and food to the Natural heat and moisture in which two qualities life chiefly consisteth And for this cause Physicians frequently advise their Patients to nourish that Affection in them and to avoide the contrary namely Sorrow and Sadness which last being cold and dry and so hindering the circulation of the Blood debilitating the Animal and Natural vertues and obstructing the distribution of due nourishment becometh an Enemy to life by the consequent Consumption of the Body Now upon this agreement and Sympathy between the Body and Soul the Current of this Discourse mainly though not only proceedeth In which you have the best and yet the cheapest Physick that can be prescribed brought unto you not from the Apothecaries Shop but the Treasury of the Scriptures the Closet of the Holy Ghost and all this not with a design of destroying the bodily Physician 's Practise for when all is done there will be still need of him at one time or other but of assisting him by a more Divine and expeditious Method in his Cures as well as preventing some unnecessary trouble and charge to the Patient And so I conclude desiring thee to cover the Imperfections and Errata's of this Work which may happen through the Author's inadvertency or the Printer's negligence with the mantle of Candour and Charity and to take that in good part which is so well intended by Thy well-wishing Friend J. H. To the ingenious Author Mr. J. H. Upon his DIVINE PHYSICIAN WHat in thy serious studies may we meet When even thy recreations are so sweet Thy Book is Grace and Nature bound together Take it which way you will it answers either So prettily so piously compact Divinity and Physick keep one Act. Strange Treatise I can reach down from my shelf Consists of Soul and Body like my self Thou shew'st thy self believ 't in thy Design A good Physician and a good Divine And that Physician to the Mark comes close That cures both Soul and Body with a Dose Go on and prosper fourth and fifth Edition Till John like Luke be the belov'd Physician M. S. The Author to his Book Go little Book and try thy fortune where More good thou may'st for least thou can'st do here Whil'st to a private shelf thou art confin'd Thou as to publick good art still behind Then venture forth and freely shew thy skill In curing such as shall thy Rules fulfil I would have sent thee in a better dress Before thou should'st have tumbled into Press But want of time and hast ' pon Life and Death May plead for thee when thou art out of breath Howe're termed Fool or a Physician As suits best with Carpers disposition Yet let thou Momus know a Fool in Print May sometime give to wiser Men a hint How dextrously to finish and compleat What e're in ruder draught is not so feat And to Accomplish what in thee 's design'd In brief A Body sound with a sound Mind THE DIVINE PHYSICIAN THE FIRST PART Demonstrating by Natural Reason and also Divine and Humane Testimony that vitious and irregular Actions and Affections do prove often occasions of most bodily Diseases and shortness of Life THE INTRODUCTION BEcause Method is Mater memoriae The Mother of memory and words must be placed as at a Feast and not as at an ordinary in this respect I shall observe some order in the following Tract First Then let us consider the excellencies and commodities of Health and long Life that so by their Encomiums we may be drawn and encouraged to follow after the best means in order to the attainment or enjoyment of them Health then in the first place is the greatest bodily blessing which God bestoweth upon any in this life though in regard of its commonness it be little regarded The benefit of this most sweet sause of all other goods is scarcely discerned by them that enjoy it till sickness come For then not only Orpheus his song but much more our own experience teacheth us that Nothing is available to men without health neither Riches nor Honour nor the greatest delights which Solomon's walk can afford Yea life it self which is so precious that skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for it Job 2. 4. as Sathan answered the Lord even that becomes uncomfortable without health Besides health is a special furtherance help to us in the service of God and in the performance of the duties of our Callings the want of it a great obstruction impediment to us therein For these reasons the beloved Apostle did earnestly wish his well-beloved Gaius prosperity and health Beloved I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health 3 Ep. John 2. This is that blessing which the Lord promiseth to the obedient The Lord will take away from thee all sickness that blessing which the Apostle Paul thought worthy to be preserved carefully as appeareth Acts 27. 34. likewise 1 Tim. 5. 23. In a word that blessing whose sweetness is so well experimented and relished after the bitterness of sickness that it were but to light a Candle before the Sun to bring forth any further testimony in the praise of it Secondly Long life may be accounted as another blessing which by its magnetick and attractive vertue may not only draw our affections as a Load-stone but also by its acuminating power set an edge upon our endeavours as a whetstone Long life is a blessing he that shall account it less doth not only forget his own natural desires but also God himself and his Commandment which promiseth length of dayes as a reward of dutifulness to Parents Natural Civil or Ecclesiastical It was a blessing of God upon Israel that being in the Wilderness forty years their garments did not wear as the garment of the Gibeonites So if in many years some Mens bodies which are as the garmentss of the Souls hold out longer than other mens as though with the Eagle he did renew their youth and God did add certain years unto their dayes as he did unto Hezekiah Isa. 37. 5. this is a great blessing For though we Christians as the Lord Verulam saith in his Epistle of the History of Life and Death do continually aspire and pant after the Land of Promise yet it will be a token of God's favour towards us in our journeyings thorow this worlds wilderness to have our shoes and garments I mean those of our frail bodies little worn or impaired Surely as it is a curse upon the wicked not to live out half his dayes Psal. 55. 23. A plague upon the ungodly that they die in their youth Job 36. 14. A punishment upon Eli and his Sons for their sins that there should not be an old man in his house for ever but
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
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
18. But most especially and most notably in that fearful Commination 1 Cor. 6. 10. where we are informed that Drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And yet something they shall inherit namely diseases not a few contracted upon them partly perhaps from their Parents voluptuousness but chiefly and most certainly from their own habituated disorders Drunkenness saith one dolores gignit in capite in stomacho in toto corpore acerrimos Breeds grievous diseases in the head in the stomack and in the whole body Now by Drunkenness we must understand all excess in drinking with its degrees as it is taken in Scripture Phrase For overcoming of or being overcome with strong drink Isai. 5. 22. Jer. 23. 9. which tend to the alienation of the mind dulling or clouding of the understanding inflaming the blood and confounding of health In these and the like respects Solomon makes this Interrogation who hath wo who hath sorrow who hath babling who hath wounds without cause who hath redness of eyes Prov. 23. 29. And 't is answered in the following Verse They that tarry long at the wine they that go to seek mixt wine More fully we may consider the effects of Drunkenness as they are described by Physicians to whose learning and experience we owe no small honour and credence And they are resolution of the Nerves Cramps and Palsies Inflation of the Belly and Dropsies Redness and Rheums in the Eyes tremblings in the hands and joynts inclination to Feavers and the Scurvy Sicknesses at Stomack and sower Belchings Pains of the Head and Teeth Crudities in the Stomack and weakness of the Stomack Pain in the Eyes or dimness of Sight trembling of the Heart weakness of the Liver Distillations the Cough a corrupt Breath Tumours Gouts These and many more are the bitter fruits that grow upon that unhappy Tree And as this vice produceth almost innumerable diseases and distempers so consequently it shorteneth life The Cup kills as many as the Canon and therefore those srothie Companions that pretend such kindness in a too free and frequent drinking their Friends health do prove miserably unkind to their own Bodies as well as Souls while they drink themselves out of health and life in the conclusion For this cause Drunkenness is said to oppress Nature and hasten death by consuming the natural moysture and also by its superfluous moysture drowning the natural heat And thence it is that Willows and such like whose natural place is the Rivers side and whose natural property is as it were to be alwayes drinking are of short continuance Hence it is that this vice by Matrobius is called Cita senectus A sudden old age because they that are often drunk soon grow old Or if some will say it is a preventer of old age it must be in its cutting Men off before they can attain to it Instances for the illustration of this truth are not few in History Alexander the Great in the flower of his age drunk himself to death and killed forty-one more by excessive drinking to get that Crown of one hundred and eighty Pounds weight which he had provided for him that drank most Plutarch Erasinus for the same cause hath called Eccius Jeccius For as he lived a shameful Drunkard so being non-plu'st at Ratisbon by Melancthon he drank more than was fit that night at the Bishop of Mundina's lodgings who had store of the best Italian Wines and so fell into a feaver whereof he died Jo. Man L. Com. pag. 89. The same Author Jo. Manlius tells us of three abominable Drunkards who drank so long till one of them fell down stark dead and the other two escaped not altogether free from distempers A Modern Author in his Book entitl'd The Mirrour of Examples setteth down two or three remarkable Stories to our present purpose At a Tavern in Bread-street certain Gentlemen drinking healths to the Lords on whom they had dependance one of them with an Oath drinks off a Pottle of Sack to his Lord after which he could neither rise up nor speak but falling into a sleep dyed within two hours after At a place near Mauldon five or six appointed a drinking Match laying in Beer for the purpose drank healths in a strange manner whereof all of them died within a few weeks after Also at the Plough in Barnwel near Cambridge a lusty young Man with two of his Neighbours and one Woman in their Company agreed to drink up a Barrel of strong Beer which accordingly they did but within twenty-four hours three of them died and the fourth hardly escaped after great danger and sickness Now the events of these Men's lives and their untimely ends are not to be accounted so much accidental as natural effects occasioned by their foul enormities and frequently attested by the experience of every age though not prevalent enough with the sensual and stupified Drunkard whom Austin brings in saying Malle se vitam quam vinum eripi He had rather lose his life than his liquor But did Men seriously while they are sober consider how injurious this sin is to the health of Body and Soul how it shormeth Men's lives lengthneth their punishment here and aggravates it hereafter how it fills Men brimful with diseases Spiritual and Corporal they should methinks respect their welfare better than to buy so small a pleasure at so dear a rate But in respect of bodily well-fare some may object that Avicenna Rhasis and Averrhoes advise the use of Wine Usque ad ebrietatem Even to drunkenness pretending it to be Physical as it is a Vomitory to evacuate these ill humours in the head and stomack which are the causes of most diseases and that Seneca indulgeth thus far Sen. de Tranquill. 15. Nonnunquan ad ebrietatem veniendum non ut mergat nos sed ut deprimat Eluit enim curas ab imo animum movet ut morbis quibusdam ita tristititiae medetur Now then we may drink more liberally even unto drunkenness its self not to overwhelm our parts but only to depress them a while For it washeth away cares exhilarates the mind and as it cureth certain diseases so likewise sadness To which this answer may be returned that herein many Men foolishly erre esteeming the cause of a hundred sicknesses to be the Medicine of one and the poison of the Soul to be good Physick for the Body no good Bodily Phisician will prescribe it no Spiritual Physician will allow it Cum turpis est Medicina sanari pudeat When the Medicine is so filthy and odious let us be ashamed to make use of it When it is so sinful let us be afraid to make trial whether the destruction of the Soul be the preservation of the Body Let us not do evil that good may come Rom. 3. 8. Much less when nothing but evil comes from thence as may be still made to appear in this vice in respect of bodily distempers For drunkenness is so far from
conferring any thing towards bodily health that it rather produceth sickness even by that which amongst some sottish Physicians is pretended as a cause of health namely vomiting which is a symptome of sickness and also sometimes a cause of dangerous distempers when it succeedeth a nauseous over-charging the stomack with drink So that whatever be the effects of an evacuation by other kind of vomits this by drunkenness is often a cause of many distempers seldom or never a cure of any unless it be of the present sickness of stomack which this vice first caused But how many other distempers and diseases doth it cause which it never cures So that you see drunkenness is a certain cause of many diseases and of shortness of life but seldom a cure unless it be by accident of any SECT III. Of Adultery Fornication Uncleanness c. THe works of the flesh saith the Apostle are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness Gal. 5. 19. And they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Verse 21. Now as these sins are very injurious to the Soul so also to the body Ezeck 16. 28. For Lust not satisfying such Persons as are tainted with it they soon fall into immoderation and excess which hath these damages attending it A dissolution of strength and spirits decay of sight tainture of the breath diseases of the nerves joynts as Palsies all kinds of Gouts weakness of the back involuntary flux of seed bloody Urine But then as a Modern Physician saith if to immoderation be added the base and sordid accompanying of Harlots and impure Women what follows but a Consumption of Lungs Liver and Brain a putrifaction and discolouration of the blood loss of colour and complexion a purulent and violent Gonorrhea an ulceration and rottenness of the Genitals noysom and malignant Knobs Swellings Ulcers and Fistulaes in the head face feet groin and other glandulous and extream parts of the body These and many more being the effects of that detestable sin when it meets with that detestable disease the Venereal Pox which by God's just judgment hath assailed Mankind not only in France but in most parts of the World as a scourge or punishment to restrain the too wanton and lascivious lusts of impure Persons causing them to receive in themselves that recompence of their errour which was meet as it is in the Apostle's Phrase Rom. 1. 27. though in a different sense To this purpose Mr. John Abrenethy in his pious and ingenious Treatise of Physick for the Soul thus writeth p. 369. This burning lust spendeth the Spirits and Balsom of life as the flame doth wast the Candle whereupon followeth corruption of humours rotting of the marrow the joints ache the nerves are resolved the head is pained the gout increaseth and oft-times as a most just punishment there insueth that miserable scourge of Harlots Lues-Venerea the French Pox. Also Carnal Love or fleshly lust in young Inamoratoes whose affections are stronger than their reason is a branch of wantonness that is fruitful in the production of such diseases and distempers as do extreamly afflict and weaken the Persons captivated as may appear in that Example of Amnon who was sick with love 2 Sam. 13. 1. 2. as the cause with a consumption as the effect being lean from day to day by reason of his fair Sister whom he loved And hence it is that in such Persons the heat abandons the parts and retiring into the brain leaves the whole body in great distemperature which corrupting consuming the blood makes the face grow pale and wan causeth the trembling of the heart breeds strange Convulsions and retires the spirits in such sort that they seem rather Images of death than living Creatures who are possessed with it Now for further illustration of this matter and to revive the mind of the Reader I shall briefly and compendiously recite these two instances The first is of King Perdiccas whom Hippocrates observing and finding him to be in a Chronical sickness which made his body to languish exceedingly after long inquiry perceived his pining away to flow from a Spiritual disease for the love he had to Phila his Fathers Concubine Saran in vita Perdic. The other is of Antiochus Son of King Seleucus who burning with an unspeakeable desire and lust for Stratonice his Stepmother and being mindful what dishonest fires he carried in his breast concealed his inward wound and smothered the flame so long till it reduced his body to the uttermost degree of a Consumption and thus lying in his bed like a dying Man his Father was presently cast down with grief as thinking onely of the death of his only Son and his own miserable condition in being made Childless Plutarch Now how these two Perdiccas and Antiochus were cured of their languishing distempers is inconsistent with my present purpose to declare Also Sodomy Polygamy and self-pollution are sins of uncleanness that by transgressing the rules of Temperance do prove frequently occasions of many distempers Yea likewise the immoderate and unseasonable use of the Marriage bed which is a breach of some Divine Precepts 1 Thes. 4. 4. Lev. 18. 19. is too fruitful in diseases not only in respect of those derived to Posterity but also of those propagated on the Parents themselves For according to the judgment of Laevinus Lemnius and other learned Physicians it can hardly be expressed what Contagîon and mischief comes thereupon when such immodest and impure conjunctions are indulged For where the right ends of Marriage are not observed there Persons of both Sex at last pay dearly for their unruly lust when their bodies are tormented with the Leprosie or Pox Gouts Aches or other distemperatures And therefore one adviseth That in the private acquaintance and use of Marriage there be a seasonable restraint with a moderation that so the pleasure therein be inter-mingled with some regard to the rules of health and long life To both which those fore-named sins of Wantonness and Uncleanness are foul Enemies Moreover these sins do shorten and contract life For those that are defiled and corrupted by them do very much sin against their own Bodies wasting their strength in pleasure as the flame consumeth the Candle and therefore are like Sparrows which Aristotle saith do therefore live but a short time because of their insatiable copulation And I read that the Romans were wont to have their Funerals at the gates of Venus Temple Plut. to signifie that lust was the Harbinger and hastener of death Yea the wisest of meer Men doth in his Proverbs teach us the praedatory and destructive power of all uncleanness in these words And thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed Prov. 5. 11. It is a fire saith Job that consumeth to destruction Job 31. 12. The Lord Verulam in his History of Life and Death p. 57. makes this observation That the Goat lives to the same age
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
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
as he had slept his last sleep Acts 20. 9. but that a merciful God by the hands of Paul did raise him up again to teach him and by him all Church-sleepers the future danger of such negligence and irreverence in his House His deadly fall not being so much accidental as a judgment from God And as concerning the unworthy receiving the Lord's Supper St. Paul telleth the Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep 1 Corinthians 11. 30. i. e. For these abuses of this Holy Sacrament the hand of God hath been upon many of you so as many of you are afflicted with divers kinds of Diseases and many of you are striken with a temporal death here called sleep Now from the Apostles declaring this to be the true cause of that sickness and mortality that was amongst them it is to be supposed that either they looked not after the cause at all but took it to come only as a thing of course or which is more probable that they mistook the cause imagined that to be the cause which was not A great mortality there was amongst them many died but that they thought might proceed from the distemperature of the Body or from the corruption of the Air or from want of exercise or from not observing a good diet or from immoderate labour Some they thought might die of one of these causes some of another But the Apostle passeth all these over and maketh known unto them that however these might be considerable as causes in their due places yet the true main and principal cause they were utterly ignorant of and that was their abusive and negligent receiving of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper For this cause many are weak c. A truth which had any less than an Apostle delivered he would have been esteemed a setter forth of new Doctrine Or had the Apostle delivered it in any dark and obscure Phrase flesh and blood would have found out twenty Interpretations before ever they would have thought of this But the Speaker is so Divine and the speech so plain that it cannot be mistaken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text For this cause because of your unworthy receiving the Body and Blood of Christ many are sick and many sleep Hence was that speech of Saint Anselme taken who saith that many Diseases that reign in the Summer though Physicians may impute them to other secondary causes proceed from Peoples irreverent receiving that Sacrament at Easter That de facto this is a truth see the 2d of the Chronicles and the 30th chap. v. 20. where you shall find that for some abuses and disorders committed in the Celebration of the Passover the Jews were smitten with some troublesom disease For 't is here said that upon Hezekiah's Prayer the Lord healed the People which implieth plainly that they were diseased and sick before and yet this default was only in the circumstantial Points of that Sacrament For 't is there also said that every one had prepared his heart for to seek God Some defect there was only in some Ceremonial Rite to be observed Now what we find applied to the Passover we may without fear apply to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper For however they differ in circumstances yet for substance they are the same Sickness we see was sent for the abuse of that and therefore the same punishment appointed for the abuse of this yea inflicted witness the Corinthians who for this cause were plagued with divers Diseases and sundry kinds of death And indeed it is not unlike that since these Corinthians there have been many thousands who for the very same cause have not as the Psalmist saith lived out half their dayes but have been swept away out of the Land of the living and gone down with sorrow into the Grave True then it is de facto God hath thus plagued the sinful neglect and abuse of his Sacrament I will now also demonstrate that de jure it must needs be so and this will appear if we consider the sin it self to be Camelinum peccatum A sin of a very large size burdened with those following aggravations namely that 't is a sin immediatly against Christ's own Person robbeth God of that which he is most tender of his honour and is in the judgment of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 11. 27. I suppose if will-fully committed no less than a spilling and shedding of the precious blood of Christ Heb. 6. 6. In a word that 't is a sin paramount like Saul higher then his Fellows And therefore let us judge in our selves whether the wages of such a sin unrepented of can be less than Corporal plagues and temporal death For if we contemn the sacred Body of Christ how can we think that God should take any care of ours If we make no reckoning of Christ's death 't is but just with God to disregard ours Oh then as we tender our health and our lives let us never dare to approach unto that dreadful Table without due reverence and a competent measure of preparation Secondly Concerning the Prophaning the Lord's day Sacriledge c. we read several Instances of God's wrath upon such declared in Corporal plagues and destruction A certain Godly Minister preaching and pressing the sanctification of the Sabbath and taking occasion herein to make mention of that Man who by the special command of God was stoned to death for gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day Hereupon one in the Congregation stood up and laughed and made all the haste he could out of the Church and went to gathering of sticks though he had no need of them But when the People came out from the Sermon they found this Man dead with the bundle of sticks in his arms lying in the Church Porch This is attested by a credible Author Yea if time would permit or this Enchiridion extend to it I could expatiate upon such Instances as might likewise demonstrate that not a few have upon the breach of the fourth Commandment been striken by the immediate hand of the Almighty with lameness and sore Diseases And for Sacriledge that hath been severely punished in like manner As in Antioches Epiphanes who fell sick with grief upon the remembrance of the evils he did at Jerusalem in taking away the Vessels of gold and silver that were therein confessing that for this cause his troubles came upon him and so suddenly died 1 Mach. chap. 6. Also it is recorded that wicked Alcimus for his violation of the Sanctuary and his sacrilegious enterprises was immediatly taken with a Palsie so that he could no more speak any thing but died suddenly with great torment 1 Mach. 9. cap. 54 55 56. v. Again Ananias and Sapphira his Wife for their Sacriledge cloaked with hypocrisie at Peter's rebuke fell down dead Acts 5. 5. 10. Thirdly Swearing Blasphemy and Perjury do sometimes in a supernatural manner occasion Diseases
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
Providence it was that this Boy should be by to detect and defeat their wicked counsel whereby Paul escaped as a Bird out of the snare Austin relates how by losing his way as he was travelling he thereby saved his life escaping an Ambush of the bloody Donatists who had way-laid him The Stories are well known how Moulin at the time of the Parisian Massacre was cherished for a fortnight by a Hen which came constantly and laid her eggs there where he lay hid And at Cales how an English-man who crept into a hole under a pair of stairs was there preserved by means of a Spider which had woven its web over the hole and so the Souldiers slighted the search in that place No less remarkable is the signal preservation of those vertuous and religious Potentates Queen Elizabeth King James and our now gracious Soveraign Charles the Second thorow an Ocean of dangers by that discreet Pilot Divine Providence All which Instances are a sufficient Comment upon this Text He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death Psal. 68. 20. And the result of the whole Point is this That as man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Mat. 4. 4. that is to say as bread though ordinarily it hath a nourishing property inhaerent in it for the sustaining of man's life yet so only as that the operation of that and success of other means tending to the preservation of health and prolongation of life is guided by the power of God's Providence and appointment So the sweet influence of this Providence is chiefly and principally intended and extended to the Children of God in blessing the means used by them to that end and purpose Therefore are those sacred Texts prescribed as corroboratives to the Servants of God And ye shall serve the Lord your God and he shall bless thy bread and thy water and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee Exod. 23. 25. Also Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father Fear ye not therefore ye are of more value than many sparrows Mat. 10. 29 31. If then the eye of God's Providence be so watchful to defend and preserve the meanest of his Creatures that Sparrows which are so cheap and worthless and also such short-liv'd Birds as Naturalists observe shall not perish or die without the permission and concurring will of God in second causes then surely we must not asperse our Saviour's Logick by denying the inference from Sparrows to the Children of God seeing this is the scope of the Argument urged by our Saviour in that place namely that if the eye of Divine Providence be so careful and circumspect in the preservation of the meanest Creatures Much more is the eye of the Lord as David saith upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine Psal. 32. 18 19. And thus much shall serve briefly to have demonstrated in general that vertuous and regular actions and affections do through the blessed influence of Divine Providence upon means prove often occasions of bodily health and long Life CHAP. V. Some Objections briefly answered And the Conclusion of the whole Obj. 1. THe first Objection is of those who cry up an irresistible Decree a fatal necessity predetermining the bounds of Man's life and so consequently cry down the use of all means whether Spiritual or Natural as needless and frivolous in order to the preservation of health and prolongation of life And they bolster up their opinion with the forecited words of Job by them wrested Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not dis dayes also like the dayes of an hireling Job 7. 1. Doubtless an error herein hath been very prejudicial not only to the Physicians Practice but also the Patients health And lest it should likewise obstruct the good effect designed in this Treatise we will not let it pass uncontrolled For whosoever alloweth this error must of necessity disallow the Petition in the Lord's Prayer for our daily bread as also of all the Divine Prayers made for the prolongation of life and preservation from mortal danger or sudden death as likewise of the dispensation of the gift of Healing to the Physician whom God hath created and honoured to the same end and purpose and of all other means whatsoever tending to the temporal end and design of this Discourse Answ. Now in answer hereunto I shall endeavour to unfold those Texts of sacred Writ wherein the main strength of the Objection lieth as namely the forecited place and also that in the 14 th of Job v. 5 th Seeing his dayes are determined the number of his moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass Here then the words of Job concerning the end of life limited set and appointed are not to be referred unto causes of destiny but to the obedience and disobedience of God's Commandment Or we may more largely answer with some See Piscator upon Psal. 55. 23. Marianus upon Job 14. 5. that the term of Mans life is twofold 1. Super-natural 2. Natural 1. Super-natural As it is decreed from above in the fore-sight and determination of God which doth not alwayes agree with the Natural and thus as Marianus saith A primâ die pendet extrema in ortu sanxit quantum quisque victurus est The last day depends upon the first and at our birth yea before we were conceived God hath concluded how long every Man should live as he that fore-seeth as well the wayes that we would go as the end which those wayes would bring us to 2. Natural Which a Man may attain unto by his Natural strength unless he doth neglect the means or shorten his own dayes by some unlawful deeds and thus the Godly may be said to prolong their dayes when by their upright life they have the assistance of the Divine Clemency to produce them to the furthest period that their Natural strength could carry them So Abraham lived to a good old age Gen. 25 8. and so divers of God's Saints became old Men and full of years And on the contrary the wicked may be rightly said to shorten his dayes when for his impiety the Divine hand of Heaven doth abridge that ample time which he might have lived and when according as he determined from the beginning when he fore-saw his wayes he doth measure his life with a shorter line then the strength of Nature would have done So lascivious Zimri was cut off for his sins in the midst of his age so the Old world so the Sodomites so the Galileans so all those Sinners that do provoke the hand of God to use the Sword of Justice to cut them off for their
be drawn from the skill of Chiromancy or Palmistry which undertaketh by marks and lines in the hands especially by the line of Life to measure the extent of every Man's life with the time and degree of every dangerous Disease incident thereunto and so thereby maketh void the use of all means tending to the temporal end of this Discourse Solut. In the confutation of this error let the Testimony of a late Author suffice The lines in the hands saith he which are counted Nature's Manuscripts are but the folds of the skin when the hand bends inwardly neither proper to any who have their feet alwayes extended by the same reason we have not those now which we had in our infancy but by accidents Diseases and labour are changeable A Book fit for Justices to discover idleness Dr. Robinson in his Miscellanious Treatise Lastly Another Objection is from those that pretend Wizards and Witches c. the Oracles of the Devil can prophecy or predict the certain term of Man's life with the manner of his death and if so say they then how can vertue prorogue or vice abbreviate Man's life Solut. I answer briefly that Sathan though he can give a notable intelligence to some who are his Oracles yet his knowledge for the most part is but conjectural Indeed his experience as he is an old Serpent and his knowledge as he is an Angel are both very great He can quickly take cognizance of the position of matters how things are in their precedent causes both Natural and Moral Thus supposing that it was the Devil in Samuel's Mantle that did fore-tell the precise time of Saul's death 1 Sam. 28. 19. yet it doth not imply the absolute certainty of the Devil's prediction or the fatal necessity of Saul's death nor is it any wonder if the Devil speaks as he doth For David was anointed Saul grows worse and worse and now the top-stone sin was laid on namely his going to a Witch and a battel was at hand to be fought all the prodromi or fore-runners of his approaching ruine The Conclusion And now to conclude the Result of the whole is that of the Philosopher Ex sanitate in Anima sit sanitas in Corpore From health in the Soul ariseth health in the Body Arist. lib. 7. Meta. Or if you will taste the summ and substance of the whole Treatise in the words of an eminent Author T. H. R. E. Fellow of the Royal Society in his late Discourse of the Excellency of Theology p. 130. which just now saluted mine eye and gave me such a fair Prospect in parvo of my preceding Discourse as I will not let them pass but shall here insert them both for strength and ornament thereunto He who effectually teaches Men to subdue their Lusts and Passions saith he does as much as the Physician contribute to the preservation of their Bodies by exempting them from those vices whose no less usual than structive Effects are Wars and Duels and Rapines and Desolations and the Pox and Surfeits and all the train of other Diseases that attend Gluttony and Drunkenness Idleness and Lust which are not Enemies to Man's life and health barely upon a Physical account but upon a Moral one as they provoke God to punish them with emporal as well as Spiritual Judgments such as Plagues Wars Famines and other publick Calamities that sweep away a great part of Mankind And a little further he addeth Those Teachers that make Men Virtuous and Religious by making them temperate and chaste and inoffensive and calm and contented do help them to those Qualifications that by preserving the mind in a calm and cheerful temper as well as by affording the Body all that Temperance can confer do both lengthen their lives and sweeten them Thus He. Wherefore since Righteousness as the Wise man saith tendeth to life and he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death Prov. 11. 19. let our chiefest care be ut sit mens sana in corpore sano That a healthful mind be in a healthful Body that as by the soundness of the one we enjoy the sweetness of our Temporal life so by the soundness of the other we may have the happy fruition both of Temporal here and of Eternal life hereafter FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL INDEX A Dultery Fornication Uncleanness c. sins destructive to Soul and Body and an Objection for the use thereof answered 33 c. Ambition and the evils thereof in respect of Soul and Body 73 77. Anger and its discommodities when in excess 48 c. Astrology judicial the vanity thereof and that neither the certain time of sickness nor term of Man's life can be rationally predicted thereby 194 c. B. Blasphemy vide Swearing C. Care excessive and immoderate hurtful to Soul and Body 75 Covetousness Ibid. Chiromancy and the vanity thereof shewing that the time and degree of Diseases and the extent of life can not be infallibly or rationally predicted thereby 197. D. The Devil how far he can cause diseases 110. Diseases sometimes cured without Natural means 136 137. Diligence in our Calling vide Labour Drunkenness prejudicial to the health of Soul and Body and also long life 25 c. An Objection for the use thereof answered 31 c. E. Envie a cause of diseases and shortness of life 51. F. Faith a powerful means of bodily health and this in a super-natural way 138 c. Also in a natural way 149. Fear if slavish and excessive dangerous to Soul and Body 66 c. Fasting a religious duty and both preventive and curative Physick to the Body 166 to 174. G. Gluttony the evil effects thereof in Soul and Body 18 to 25. God when Natural means fail by his Almighty power can cure diseases without them 140 144. Grief if wordly and immoderate an enemy to health and long life 54 to 62. H. Hatred vide Envie Health its Encomium and the commodities thereof 2. It cometh from God and therefore thanks to be returned to him for it 147 148. Healing the gift thereof whether ceased in the Church 135 c. Hope very advantagious to health and long life 151 c. I. Idleness how injurious to health 42 c. Joy sensual and immoderate injurious to Soul and Body 63 to 66. Joy moderate and well-grounded a promoter of health 153. Imagination the power thereof in relation to health 150. Intemperance and the many discommodities thereof 17 c. K. Kings and Princes why commonly they arrive not to any great age 152. The Kings Evil miraculously cured and the manner thereof described 140 c. L. Labour the benefite thereof to the Body as well as Soul 154 to 158. Laughter vide Sensual Joy Learning vide Study Long life a great blessing 3. Whether the bounds of Life be predetermined with an Answer to an Objection 187 to 193. The Lord's day prophaned what judgments have ensued upon the Offenders 99. Love how it becomes advantagious to the health both of Body and Soul 153. M. Means natural means must not be neglected in the cure of diseases nor altogether relied upon 138 145. N. Nature in Man's Body under God the best Physician yet stands in need of outward assistances 163 164. O. The Ordinances as the Word of God and the holy Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper being contemned or abused what bodily plagues temporal destruction have followed 92 to 99. Obedience to Paronts rewarded with long life 117 118. And how the promise of long life is to be understood 119. Also what is meant by Obedience to Parents 121 122 P. Perjury vide Swearing The Physician learned and conscientious worthy of double honour and his skill to be made use of with good success but yet with a proviso 147. Prayer being devout and zealous a powerfulpromoter of bodily health and long life 122. Of annointing the sick Body as a Ceremony annexed to Prayer and the judgment of our Church concerning it 127 c. Some Objections against the use of Prayer answered 129 c. Pride punished with bodily plagues and destruction 104. Divine Providence the manner of its influence in procuring health and long life to the Godly 178. R. Repentance how it procures health and long life how it prevents diseases and destruction 138. Religion or a religious life how it becomes advantagious to health and long life 149. S. Sin in general an occasion of bodily diseases and shortness of life and this in a super-natural way 6. Also how it is a Natural cause of diseases 16 17 c. Item how an accidental cause 83. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper unworthily received how dangerous to Soul and Body vide The Ordinances Sacriledge the punishment of it declared in corporal plagues and destruction 100. Saints the long lives of many Prophets and Saints in Holy Scripture and the cause imputed 145. Sloth and Slugishness vide Idleness Society and good company how sometimes advantagious to health by consolatory discourses 177. Sorrow vide Grief The Soul and Bodies Sympathy and mutual concurrence in the production of diseases 111. Study if immoderate and unseasonable an enemy to health and long life 78. Swearing Blasphemy c. how punished 101. T. Teachers and Preachers how much they contribute by their wholesome Discourses towards the health and long life of their obedient Auditors 199 200. Temperance and the many commodities thereof in relation to the prevention and cure of diseases and to the proroguing of life 158 c. The bounds of Temperance 174. V. Vain-glory vide Pride Vertue and vertuous actions and affections explained 144. W. Witches and Magicians how they can sometimes cause diseases and death 110. They cannot predict the certain term of Man's life with the manner of his death 198. FINIS Fuller's Comment on 11 Chap. of 1 Cor. p. 79. H. Brook in his Conservatory of Health Hector Boeth History of Scotland H Brook's Conservatory of Health p. 187. 2d Part of the French Academy p. 262. D. Charton's Exercitationes Path. p. 112. Vid. Des-Cartes de Passionibus Artic. 106. Dr. Bernard upon his Life and Death in a Funeral Sermon p. 27 This is true when the sore is in the glandules of the neck but when it is elsewhere it is said by some that have been often touched that the King gently toucheth only the cheeks of the party grieved