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
may naturally be said to Die daily mouldering away by piece-meal The forbidden Fruit hath produced a Worm that eats our Lives away The malicious Serpent hath bruised our heel as is observed in the Jerusalem Targum supposed to be said to the Serpent by Almighty God viz. When the Children of the Woman shall forsake the Commandments of the Law thou shalt be strong and shalt strike them on the Heel and inflict Diseases on them We are like men going from Jerusalem to Jericho half dead the Sick and the Aged being but half alive as some Criticks observe senex quasi seminex With the same Motion of our Lungs we draw in Air we throw away Breath Some parcels of our selves steam away continually and we live a dying Life or a living Death Men have shortned their dayes by increasing their Vices Some men do that by Intemperance which the very Devils desire to shun viz. Torment themselves before their time No impious Person was ever said in Scripture to be full of Dayes none being full of time but they that are prepared for Eternity And we never Read in the Holy Book of any impenitent person that was ever raised from the dead to trye a second time for a Crown Lazarus Tabitha and the Saints at Jerusalem came into the World only to make a Visit and declare a Glory and to them it happened literally to have their part in the first Resurrection upon whom the Second death shall have no power Julian's Motto may fit every Man An Eagle shot through with a Dart feather'd with a Quill from its own Wing The Life of Man is swifter than a Weavers Shuttle especially if wickedness be interwoven then divine Justice cuts the thread excellently shadowed by the Poets Fiction of the three fatal Sisters The one holding the Distaff the other drawing the Thread the third cutting it off Mens Impieties like Hazaels wet Cloath prove fatal unto their Lives and Healths in spite of the most proper Remedies When Sin and Sickness is mingled together no marvel to see Mens Bodies moulder being like the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's Image made of Clay It 's no wonder to see a strange punishment to happen unto the workers of Iniquity The Jews are very often threatned with fore Sicknesses and wonderful Plagues if they did not hearken unto the divine Law That a wicked Life procures a short one we find plainly exemplified in most of the Bad Kings of Judah and Israel as Aâ—ijam Athaliah Ahaziah Nadab Elah Omri and many others who reigned but two three or four years apiece and the reasons are sometimes recorded that it was for their sins which they sinned they shortned their Lives with their Kingdoms in them sin and a sudden death reigned together When mens Lusts have conceived they bring forth Sin and Sin when it is finished brings forth Death Pharaoh's bloody Persecution drowned him in the Red Sea Ahab's cruelty proved fatal to his own Life The Samaritan Lords infidelity pressed his Soul out of his Body Hananiah's false Prophesie did but predict his own death Ahaziah's evil Consultation with the God of Ekron to know whether he should recover of his Sickness made his Disease prove incurable The calumniating rage of the Children against the good old Prophet excited the rage of Bears to devour their Bodies Herod's vain-glorious Ostentation brought such a Disease upon his Body whereof he had no reason to boast Saphira's Perjury summoned the feet of those who had carried her Husband to his Grave to carry her unto the same place Benhadad's Curiosity proved the fatal Messenger of his death the Prophet returning Answer that he might recover but should surely dye Jeroboam's Idolatry in praying unto false gods provoked the true God to stop his breath Saul's disobedience unto the King of Kings brought the King of terrors Belshazzer for his riotous Revelling by a Hand-writing on the Wall had the end of his Life and Kingdom denounced against him Nadab and Abihu offering strange Fire had a stranger fire sent to devour them The Pride of the Daughters of Sion changed their sweet Smells into a Stink and their well-set Hair into Baldness The Candle of the Wicked is often put out and the Number of his Months cut off in the Middle But Sir that no Cloud may have power to discompose the Serenity of your dayes but that you may enjoy a Spring of Happiness in the Winter of Age and may want nothing but Want it self shall never be left out of the Prayers and Wishes of Your true Friend J. M. LETTER VI. SIR I Received your dated the sixth instant wherein you seem to wonder that the Cause of your disease is not long since removed and you restored unto a state of health I beseech you give me leave to deal plainly and to tell you that there are Moral as well as Natural Causes of diseases and unless both be removed Remedies very often prove ineffectual And the sincere belief of this conduceh very much towards the success of Medicines Many of the Church of Corinth were sick and weak and lost their Lives for their unworthy reception of the Holy Supper If men contemn the Sacred Body of the Son of God how can they expect the Almighty goodness should take care of their bodies and if they neglect to commemorate his Death they have little reason to expect he should regard their Lives although precious in his sight is the Death of his Saints Miriam's Sedition raised a tumultous disturbance in the harmony of her health The dissimulation of Gehaza's Tongue procured the Leprosie upon his Skin Uzziah's invadeing the Priests office and Burning Incense caused the divine displeasure to smoke against him Abimelech was restored to his health when he restored Abrahams Wife but not before When our blessed Saviour cured the man sick of a Palsie he forgave him his sins to shew him they were the cause of his sickness We may observe in our Saviours dayes that Infidelity did as it were tye up the hands of Omnipotence and set bounds to the operation of his mighty Works on mens bodies St. Anselm observes that the reason why diseases did so much abound in his time was because the holy Eucharist was irreverently received at Easter Jezabel for her Impenitence is threatned to be cast into a bed and her Children to be killed with Death Good men may dye but they cannot be killed with Death The Prophets are frequently Menaced with Death and Sickness that shall presume to speak without a Mission from Heaven In vain are external Remedies applyed when the Cause is internal The Fable of the Kite when sick imploring help and recovery but being denyed by reason of her rapine and violence it affords an excellent Moral The sickness of the Body is sometimes designed to promote the Health of the Soul and the Leprosie on Naamans Flesh may conduce towards the whitening of his Mind They are sent as tryals of Grace and are Declarative of Divine mercy When
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