by this time had not been able to sustain the Inhabitants with Food The Egyptians calculated the bounds of mens dayes from the weight of their Hearts and judged a hundred years the utmost period taking their estimate from the weight of their Hearts which they say increaseth two Drachms every year under fifty and then decreaseth two Drachms untill a hundred But this opinion seems questionable The reason given by the Bishops of Rome for Contracting the year of Jubilee from one hundred to fifty and from fifty to five and twenty is grounded upon the Supposition that the age of man is contracted To what causes to consign the long Lives of the Ancients it need not be Difficult if we consider how necessary it was so to be for the propagation of Mankind and peopling the World with Inhabitants and also for the learning Arts and Sciences wherein it was requisite Men should have the experience of former Ages For as many Sensations breed an Experiment so many Experiments breed a Science The several motions of the Heavenly Bodies could not be known without a long time to observe their Motions and Revolutions It was an old complaint that Art was long and Life was short and therefore Almighty God proportioned mens lives accordingly We now account him wondrous Old who lives fourscore Summers to see the Resurrection of the Year fourscore times The length of mens age since Moses dwelt amongst us seems considerably abbreviated he computing Threescore and ten the ordinary period unto which men generally arrived in those times Whereas now a third part of all that are born in populous Cities dye under seven years old and the greatest part of those that are alive are between fifteen and five and thirty Few Princes either Jewish German Greek or Roman arrived at Fourscore Queen Elizabeth outlived all her Predecessors since the Conquest And I think his Majesty our present Sovereign whom God grant long to live is the eldest Crowned Head in Christendom And it 's to me observable that during the standing of the first Temple there were but eighteen High-priests but three hundred while the second stood and but ten years difference between the standing of the former and the latter Which plainly demonstrates that mens Lives have been cut and pared away in several Ages The Fathers in the primitive times had great Advantages for the Prolongation of their Lives as they had conveyed to them the Nature of Life-preserving Remedies from Adam who gave Names to all Creatures according to their particular Qualities And wonderful was their skill in all the Secrets of Nature Also the Air in the first Ages of the World might be more pure and not corrupted with terrene Exhalations as it was after the Flood had drencht it and for ought we know its Fruits might be more Nutritive Moreover Adam was the immediate Work of God and being come as it were newly from the Shop of his Creator he could not be like a House built of rotten Timber but of a far stronger Constitution than this weak Age affords Their Bodies were not wasted with fuccession of Sicknesses nor weaken'd with hereditary Diseases but were armed to resist those few things contrary to their healths The seminalities of Diseases were not so pregnantly conveyed from Parent to Child their Infants were not so tenderly brought up wastfull Ryot was a stranger to them and variety of Meats was to them unknown their Nature was not opprest with burthens and forced to stagger with her load We cannot with any shew of Reason pretend to mistake in the manner of computing the years of the Patriarchs for if you suppose them to be only Lunar years and that twelve of theirs made but one of ours then gross absurdities must follow from thence as that they were Prolifique at seven years of age Enoch being no more when he begat Methusalem At that rate the Date of their Lives must be reckoned shorter than many of ours Moreover the Scripture saith that Abraham dyed in a good Old Age and full of Dayes being one hundred seventy and five years old which Number according to that computation was but seventeen years and a half a very ridiculous old Age. But it is very manifest that Moses's computation of the year was the same with ours for mention is made of the first second and seventh Month and mention is also made of the seventeenth day of the Month. We find but one Womans Age recorded in Scripture and that is Sarah Some give this reason Because a Woman first occasioned the Shortning the Lives of men by listning to the Serpent Old Age is doubtless a very great Blessing being subservient to great and noble ends namely our better Preparation for a blessed Eternity And there are some Priviledges that holy Souls are capable of in this World which they cannot partake of in the Regions of immortal Bliss and they are the Opportunities of Doing good to others and preparing them for the Eternal Mansions and thereby Brightning their own Diadems and making their weight of Glory the Heavier by turning many to Righteousness Which that you may doe is the Wish of Your Cordial Friend J. M. LETTER XI SIR I Received yours dated the Second Instant wherein you seem to question whether the Practice of Religion on have any tendency towards Health and long life because sometimes good Men Dye suddain and Immature Deaths But nothing is more plain and evident than that the Carkasses of good Israelites may fall in the Wilderness of this World whose Souls may be entertained in the Heavenly Canaan A good Prophet for some single Act of Disobedience may be made a Prey to a devouring Lyon If an Eli neglect to Chasten his Rebellious Children he may be permitted to break his Neck When Uzzth shall touch the Ark without a Commission his Death shall immediately succeed his Rashness When a Moses shall neglect to Circumcize his Child an Angel shall threaten his Life with a drawn Sword When a Jonas shall go contrary to a Divine Command he shall be in danger of being swallowed up by Death as well as by a Whale Many times Judgment begins at the House of God and he makes good Men the examples of his Severity in this Life It 's thought that King David's numbering the People was the last Act he did before he took his Bed Evil Angels sometimes contend with good ones about the Bodies of good Men Sampson lost his natural Strength by his Disobedience and violation of his Vow rather than by the meer Cutting off his Hair it being rather a Moral than a Natural Cause of his Weakness The Righteous may sometimes be taken away from the evil to come as the good Patriarchs were before the Flood and as Abijah was laid to sleep before the Calamity of his Fathers House And sometimes the Child may derive those Distempered Humours from the Parent which may prove the occasion of its Death Though God hath Promised long Life to them
the Question was asked our Saviour Who sinned this Man or his Parents that be was born Blind Our Lord Answered Neither this Man nor his Parents but it was for the Declaration of Divine Mercy that the work of God might be made manifest in his wonderful Cure and Recovery Also the sickness of Lazarus was designed for the Glory of God and Honour of our Saviour that he might have an opportunity to manifest his Divine Power Hyppocrates adviseth Physitians to search if there be not something Divine in the Causes of Diseases The Living man seldom complains without giving his maker a cause to inflict punishment for the righteous Judge doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the Children of Men There is some Babilonish Garment hath infected the Body with Leprosie or some spiritual disease in the mind that hath procured the thorn in the flesh when the Rod of God utters it's voice and men are fed with the Bread of Affliction and with the Water of Adversity in order to cure the tympany of Pride the Feavour of Passion the Dropsie of Covetousness The plague in the Body is sometimes sent to cure the Plague in the Heart Sin is that root of bitterness from whence all our troubles in the flesh spring up Men are like Baalam when any thing pains or hurts their Bodies are apt to Blame and strike the External Instrument but never mind the Angel that stands in the way with a drawn Sword and caused that instrument to hurt There are many happy intentions Divine goodness aims at in laying diseases on mens bodies Sometimes the sacrificing Knife is laid upon the neck of an Isaac to try whether the indulgent Parent will prefer the life of his natural Son before the Will of his heavenly Father When men come to perceive that there is no soundness in their flesh nor rest in their bones because of their transgressions and that it was their own wickedness that corrected them and procured the Plagues the Consumptions the Inflamations and extream burnings that attended as Pages upon their pride wantonness intemperance and carnality and this produceth a strict commune with their hearts upon their sick beds so that they make a Diligent search into the causes of their Distempers then they find a rebuke given unto the disease Sir I pray excuse this great freedom from one who I hope shall not stand in need of many words to perswade you that he is Your inviolably affectionate Friend J. M. LETTER VII SIR AMongst the many things which conduce towards the rendring the use of Remedies effectual I think nothing can contribute more than our endeavour to use those Means which may be influential towards the procuring the divine Blessing And amongst many others I judge these that follow are very considerable To begin with a serious Repentance for our former Miscarriages which often proves very successeful towards Health and Recovery The Israelites Repentance proved a Soveraign Plaister against the Stings of the fiery Serpents And King Davids Remorse prevailed with the destroying Angel to sheathe his Sword after the slaughter of Seventy thousand People Rehoboams Repentance at the preaching of Shemaiah prevented the destruction of himself and his Princes When mens flesh is consumed and they are afflicted with strong pains upon their Beds then the Almighty looks upon Men to see if any say they have sinned and perverted that which is right to deliver them from going down to the pit that their Lives may see the light When the Divine hand binds men with Fetters and holds them in the Cords of Affliction then he shews them their work and their transgression that they have exceeded Then he opens their Ears to Discipline and commands that they return from Iniquity If they obey and serve him they shall spend their Dayes in Prosperity and their Years in Pleasure But if they obey not they shall Dye in their Youth for God preserveth not the Life of the wicked as Elihu tells Job The sick Bed is the attiring room of the Grave in which Men should be preparing themselves for the Solemnities of their Funerals by lingering Distempers men are gradually putting off their Vail of Flesh to be Cloathed upon with their house which is from Heaven When Sickness hath done its Errand and accomplished the end for which it was sent then it receives a Commission to depart it s that which leads Men by the Hand unto their long homes and gives them a Prospect of that House appointed for all Living Diseases are sent to unravel humane Nature but when the inward Man is renewed by the Decayes of the outward and men hold fast their Integrity notwithstanding the Almighty toucheth their Bone and their Flesh and bodily Pain give a prospect of endless Pleasure then the Disease many times takes its leave When Sickness makes Men sensible of the Vanity of Beauty and Strength which a blast of Wind or a lump of Phlegme may take from them when it makes Men listen unto the Striking of the Clock of Time with greater Attention and excites their endeavours to render Death a stingless Serpent then the great part of the Cure is performed when Men are as 't were knocking at the gates of the Grave by Tortures and Agonies of Body and the blow of Gods heavy Hand presseth Men sore so that a Man may read the Sentence of some Mens Deaths written in their Foreheads in the lines of a lingering Disease the difficult motion of their Lungs to draw in Air being like a Passing-Bell alwayes sounding in their Ears yet upon their sincere Repentance many times comes a Reprieve When the Arrows of the Almighty viz. Diseases fly thick in the world and are shot sometimes into Mens Lungs and sometimes into their Joynts and Hearts and give denomination unto various Diseases there they will stick untill pulled out by an Omnipotent Hand a firm belief of whose Divine Power doth mightily conduce towards the procuring the Blessing of Heaven with the use of Remedies The Power of our Blessed Lord is the same now in Heaven as when on Earth his Hand from Heaven can reach all our Maladies and cure like the Weapon Salve at a distance if Men did but act a vigorous Faith and a holy Confidence in the Divine Providence and as it were touch the Hem of their Saviours Garment they would quickly find a healing Virtue go forth towards their Cure When Men are disquieted by Pains and cast down by Sickness their only way to Recovery is to hope in him who is the Health of their Countenance and in quietness and confidence they will find Strength To humble our selves under the mighty Hand of God is the way to be exalted to Health in his due time Acts of Faith are engaging and the way to obtain the Divine Power is to glorifie it in our dependance When Miracles were in their full force the effect is alwaies ascribed unto Faith our Saviour told the Woman her Faith had made her whole
was wholly from a Divine Influence The Jews observe that though Leprosie be the Finger of God yet the Hand of man must be used in the Cure and therefore we find that the Leper whom our Saviour healed was commanded to use the Method prescribed in the Law of Moses to be sprinkled and washed The Aromatique Oyl used in extream Unction in the Apostolical times was a natural Remedy though the Cure was attributed to the Prayer of Faith Mary's supposition that the Presence of her Saviour would have kept her Brother from Dying was not improbable though she was under a Mistake with respect to that present Dispensation Many under Distempers expect to be raised as Lazarus was only by the Physitian taking them by the Hand or as Naaman who expected the good Prophet to Cure him by only striking his Hand upon the Wall But my Dear Friend Farewell and Pardon me I have made no more Scruple of exercising your Patience and take the humble Subscription of Your Constant Friend J. M. LETTER XIV SIR I Received yours of the Fifth Instant together with the strange Relation of the Person thought to be afflicted with strange Diseases by the the Power of the Devil and for that reason I observe the Cure is Despaired of but I suppose without Cause for should we grant that many Diseases are caused by a Diabolical Influence it need not therefore follow that the Cure is impossible Indeed it must be acknowledged that there have been multitudes of Cheats and Impostures of this kind but to say they are all Delusions is very Imprudent for sometimes divine Providence for reasons best known to himself may permit evil Angels to afflict the Bodies of men with distempers vulgarly called Lying under an evil Tongue or being Bewicht as having no dependance upon the Chain of natural Causes The Jews were threatned with some Diseases which should not be Cured by natural means even wonderful Plagues and of long continuance There are in Scripture many instances of Diseases Inflicted by supernatural Agents as Angels and Spirits who disturb the Humours and raise Storms and Tempests in Mens Bodies as well as in the Air Evil Angels were sent to Afflict the Jews with divers Calamities and many thousands in one Night were Slain by the destroying Sword of an Angel in a Pestilential Contagion An evil Angel visited Saul with Stupendious Melancholly and Job with painful Boils and Bowed a Daughter of Abraham eighteen Years When an Omnipotent Power gives leave the Devil can as easily possess the minds of Men with Distraction as the Swine with Rage The Excommunicate Corinthian being deliver'd up to Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh in order unto the Salvation of his Spirit may as well be understood of his being Afflicted with some corporal Distemper by the power of the Prince of Darkness as be taken in any other Sence As we know St. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan sent to Buffet him hath by some Learned Men been Interpreted to our purpose The Lascivious Persons seeking for Lot's House to gratifie their vile Intentions were struck Blind by an Angel and those Windows were stopt up that let in wanton Glances And the several Persons possessed whom our Blessed Lord deliver'd from the power of the Prince of the Air were miserably Afflicted with Epilepsies Lunacies Convulsions and other Direful Symptoms and Distractions which threw them sometimes into the Fire and sometimes into the Water In the Primitive times Corporal Inflictions and Subjection to a Satanical Power was the sad consequence of Excommunication proportionable unto the Execrations in the Jewish Cherem which we find exemplified in Saul after his defection from God And it is observable that the Essens amongst the Jews when expelled the Congregation dyed of miserable Deaths And Ecclesiastical Writers tell us Heliodorus in his Sacrilegious attempts was Scourged by two Angels in the shape of young Men and hardly came off with his Life The Catechists in the Primitive times that prepared Persons for Baptism and Admission into the Church was wont to be called the Exorcist that cast out Satan for by the performance of our Baptismal Covenant we renounce the Devil and his Propriety and thereby the better secure our Health as well as our Peace The Jews observed that after the destruction of the Sanctuary and Sanhedrim there still continued amongst them four kinds of capital Punishments instead of the four appointed by the Law of Moses for he that deserved to be Stoned either fell from a House or was torn by Wild Beasts he that deserved to be Burnt either fell into the Fire or was stung by a Serpent therefore called fiery they that deserved to be Killed by the Sword fell into the Hands of Thieves or of the King they that deserved Suffocation or Hanging were Drowned in the Water or fell into Melancholly and were strangled thereby as Judas was But Religion very much secures men from the power of the Evil Angels and from all other misfortunes But Sir to be sure you shall alwayes be happy if it lye in his power to make you so who is Your intire Friend J. M. LETTER XV. SIR I Received your last Letter with wonder to find you entertain so strange an Opinion as to believe that Diseases are now cured in miraculous and extraordinary wayes as they were in the Apostolical times without the use and application of Rational and experimental Remedies To dream that Charms Amulets Spells c. are of any vertue in curing Diseases is vain and that because St. Pauls Handkerchief St. Peter's Shadow and the Hem of our Saviours Garment miraculously cured some in the Primitive times therefore we must use them now The reason why those Miraculous wayes of healing were used in those times was for the Confirmation of the Gospel in its first Plantation But that being now done those wayes of Cure are ceased How can men expect the Divine Blessing with such means as have no natural vertue as Words and Characters For if one Text of Scripture carried in a mans Sleeve will cure a Disease surely the Bible in a mans Pocket must cure all Diseases The Divine Oracles were given to guide our Faith not to tickle our vain Imaginations I once knew a fatal Event attend the use of such an accursed Medicine A Gentlewoman having an Ague a Begger gave her a Charm to hang about her Neck bid her not read it but when she was cured burn it The Minister of the Parish being a sober Learned and pious conformable Divine came casually to visit her she telling him the Medicine and the Cure which had attended it threw it into the fire in his presence but he catching it read it The words were Ague farewell till you and I meet in Hell Upon hearing of which she fell into her Ague again with greater violence than ever and also into deep Melancholly which occasioned her to lay Violent hands on her self So dangerous it is to
waves in the Sea by the winds and sometimes the blood grows as 't were mouldy for want of that Fan of Nature Many mens bodies and particularly yours being like a Weather-glass subject to the least alterations in the Air and easily blown into their Graves by a sharp northern wind Many by long looking out at a Window have espied the grim face of Death The Air of an open Casement being sometimes like the blow of a Cross-bow Sir I pray take this advice from one that hopes you may walk up many May hills in this World and at last arrive at the holy Hill of Sion Yours J. M. LETTER XXVI SIR I Am very well pleased to hear that you are pleased with my last Advice but I am also concerned that you should continue an ill custom so apparently injurious to your Health as your taking so much Tabacco is like to prove Indeed I am of opinion there is no Plant that ever God made for the use of Man that hath done more good and more harm than that hath done It must be confest prudently used it 's a soveraign Medicine in many Distempers but it proves no better than a Poyson to many men as it is so familiarly used and abused being in our dayes more taken as Food than Physick And there is no one practice wherein wise men more frequently play the Foll than in the immoderate use of this Indian Weed which may not improperly be called Man-bane Men spend their dayes in Smoak and shorten their dayes also by its too frequent use smothering themselves into their graves as we do Bees when we take and destroy the Hive It was a tart Reflection of a Comical Wit who being in a great Fogg said The Prince of the Air was taking a Pipe of Tabacco It 's very strange to me that such an unpleasant practice should prevail so much to the apparent prejudice of so many thousands who spit away their Lives and drein away that sweet Moysture which would keep the Blood cool and promote its regular motion That practice which was scandalous amongst our Forefathers is now become a piece of good Entertainment and he that threatned to burn his Pipes and to cut his Tabacco to pieces was thought a great Reformer about Thirty years ago but that which greatly excites our care lest we use it too freely is its palpable enmity to the Brain and Nerves disposing men to Apoplexies Palsies Convulsions and Vertigo's Many great Physicians taking notice in their Observations of many of their Patients falling into apoplectick Fits with Pipes in their Mouths it being a great Opiate It is also greatly prejudicial to the Memory and also â—â—â—…tâ— the Body of its due Nourishment by its laxative Quality thrusting the Aâ—â—â—… too soon out of the Stomach before there is a perfect Concoction especially if taken too soon after a Meal if ever it be proper it 's towards Bed-time He that can give a good reason for taking above three Pipes a Day may very safely take more I have known the Oyl of Tabacco poyson a Dog And I dare affirm the Smoak of it hath poysoned many men A Noble man in our time lost his Head by taking a Pipe of Tabacco that is to lay the being observed to burn Letters to light his Pipe was the Cause of his Apprehension and raised the suspition of his being the Person sought for whereupon he was taken and condemned and executed I wish it hath not separated many other mens Souls from their Bodies Some make it a question whether Guns or Pipes have Killed most I am sure there 's no Smoak but there 's some Fire Doubtless if men would take it at the other End it would do less hurt and it may be more good I remember one of the wisest Princes of Europe said upon an occasion It was good for nothing but to perfume a Hog-stye But in that I think he was a little too severe for there are excellent uses may be made of it And amongst many others it may serve for Contemplation to put men in mind that their Life is but a vapor and that all things under the Moon vanish into Smoak Except it be the Friendship of your faithful Servant which can never evaporate whilest he is J. M. LETTER XXVII SIR I Received yours the 12th instant wherein you complain exceedingly of the ill Effects of the Waters at Epsam this Summer I beseech you inquire whether the Cause be not from your own irregular Use of them and also take notice whether you do not drink more Wine than Water For those Symptoms you complain of give a greater suspicion of the former than the latter being used sure I am the Doctor that recommended them to you understood their fitness for your Constitution and Disease therefore if you follow his Direction in the use of them I question not but they will have their desired Effect I know there are more go thither to gratifie Curiosity than to serve the end of Health and Pleasure is more frequently propounded than Ease But let me tell you those physical Waters by the preposterous use often prove like the Waters of Jealousie they make Peoples Bodies to swell and their Thighs to rot and lay the foundations for many distempers as Dropsies Agues Gouts and the like Many long as much to drink them as King David did to drink of the Water of the Well of Bethlehem but men venture their Lives in so doing as they did in that case especially by the unreasonable quantities many men take I have larely known one come home swelled with a Dropsie another tinctured with a Jaundice and a third shaking with an Ague All immoderate Evacuations are very destructive to Nature There are hundreds that Drowned themselves in Wells that are never mentioned in the weekly Bills Nature is destroyed by all Extreams too much Food or too long Fasting too much Rest or too much Motion too much Sleep or too much Watching too much Joy or too much Sorrow too much Heat or too much Cold too much Wine or too much Water Quantities shorten Life more than Qualities Many who were only wantonly Sick become really so and that which was intended for a Cure many times becomes a Surfeit At those Waters men are served like the Impostor who fained himself Blind that the Arrian Bishop might work a Miracle in his Cure and when he would have opened his Eyes could not but was ever after really Blind People depending upon the cleansing Vertue of those Waters and neglecting the use of proper Remedies to render them Effectual do but like an improvident Laundress who thinks to wash her Linnen white and clean with Water without Soap They should be chiefly used as Posset-drink to a Purge Indiscrect Persons think to take off the Mischief of too great Quantities of Wine by drinking plentiful Draughts of Water but this is to run Nature out of one Extream into another and to render mens Bodies more subject to Diseases and Putrefaction like Timber that lyes sometimes in the wet and sometimes in the Sun more subject to Rot. There are thousands that purge their Souls out of their Bodies by immoderate Evacuations one way or other Sir I shall conclude this Discourse of Mineral Waters with a hearty wish That you may ever find them successeful untill you come to Drink of that Well of Life which makes glad the City of God Where I hope you will be accompanyed by Your true Friend J. M. LETTER XXVIII SIR I Think there are few things requisite in order to the desirable success of a Course of Physick but I judge you have had a friendly Intimation of except it be this That you would not too much indulge your self in Sleep Many shorten their dayes by sleeping in the Day and as it were turning themselves into Dormice To lye in Bed untill the Sun-beams lash men for their Drowziness is an injurious Custom The first Man lost his Rib in his Sleep and many of his Posterity lose their Health in it Sir I take this for an undoubted Truth That if Rules of Religion Moderation and Prudence were observed in the whole course of Mens Lives Gray hairs would be more in Fashion Physicians would gain more credit by their Prescriptions sick Patients would find Remedies more Effectual and a Divine Influence would more infallibly attend them all Sir I must now conclude and so may you that I am a Respecter of you and your Health J. M. FINIS