Remedies I sent you but I am sorry to hear you should be guilty of so great a Mistake as to think that no Observation of yours can render the use of Medicines subservient towards Health and long Life Sir I pray give me leave to assert the contrary and to prove that the practice of Piety and true Religion have a wonderful tendency towards long Life If you desire to wear a Crown of Glory in this World and the next also it may be obtained by gray Hairs found in the Way of Righteousness And you know it 's promised as a Blessing to the Good man that he shall come to his Grave in a full Age as a Shock of Corn comes in its season The beloved Disciple of our Lord survived the other Disciples and many of the Fathers of the Church were long-lived Which shews that the Blessing of long Life so often promised under the Law had less abatement after our Saviours dayes than other Blessings had Enoch and Elias never Dyed and became Examples that a spotless Life might possibly have been Immortal as it is probable that Man before his Fall was Yet had he never sinned perhaps he had not still remained here upon Earth though his Age might have been extended to some thousands of years and at length have been translated from hence to Heaven where he could neither have sinned nor dyed When our great and wise Creator made Man the Masterpiece of his Creation he was pleased as an expression of his Kindness to plant him in a Garden wherein he might have an opportunity at the same time both to Contemplate his Makers Goodness and to preserve his own Life being furnisht with supernatural Wisdom he could discern the particular Qualities of those Plants with which he conversed But Man being too familiar with the Tree of Knowledge forfeited his Right unto the Tree of Life and hath exposed himself unto the assaults of innumerable Diseases But such is the kindness of Heaven unto Man in his lapsed state that he is pleased to promise some of the Influences of this Symbolical Tree upon his Obedience unto the Divine Will So that by our Observance of the Eternal Laws of Evangelical Purity which are prescribed as the Christians Rule we may as it were transplant the Tree of Life into our own Gardens and sit under the shadow thereof with great Delight and its fruit may become sweet unto our taste There are certain practices which have a great tendency towards long Life and this the inspired Penman intimates when he saith Righteousness tendeth to life and there are frequent Promises of long Life made to the Obedient Caleb and Joshua survived all the Jews who came out of Egypt the rest were not suffered to see Canaan lest they should introduce Egyptian Innovations Nothing doth more conduce unto the preservation of our natural Health than our living the Divine Life but when our Expectations and Actions are wholly employed about the Gratifications of the Animal Life we do but prepare for the Messenger of the Grave The practice of serious Christianity is a great friend unto the Health of Humane Nature The circumstantial actions of Religion are very influential towards the lengthning mens Lives as the sweet sleep of temperate persons their freedom from violent and enraged Passions with the admirable Contentment that dwells in a holy Conscience also the great Moderation that 's exercised by such Persons There are attending the Divine Life leisurely Contemplations of Heavenly things Joyes refined from the Dregs of Sensuality Hopes of a noble and generous nature wholsom sweet and comfortable Fears and a universal Harmony in the Mind These things make the Lamp of Life burn bright and clear and from hence by the favour of Divine Clemency Health springeth forth speedily Plato's Observation is excellent That all the Pleasures of the Body proceed from the Joy of the Mind The breaking off our sins by Righteousness many times proves a lengthening of our temporal Tranquility The Jewish Doctors say That Adam felt no Cold notwithstanding he was naked because he had Communion with God but as soon as ever he had eaten the forbidden Fruit his Head aked Faith and Obedience like the Tree of Life in Paradise not only Sacramentally but really conduce unto Health and long Life so far as it is a Blessing and this it doth by impregnating our Food with the tincture of a Divine Benediction by meliorating our Constitutions and infusing wholsom Dispositions in the Air and Friendly Influences in the Host of Heaven The Jews came under a Promise of having their Bread and their Water blessed and Sickness removed if they obeyed the Divine Law And Solomon urgeth the consideration of our Health as a strong Argument to promote holy and Religious Fear telling us it should be health unto our Navels and marrow to our Bones And Godliness hath the promise of the Life that now is as well as of that which is to come If men love Life and desire many dayes and make it their request to obtain the Divine Wisdom the way prescribed is to desist from evil and to do good and then length of dayes and long life shall be added as the Wisest of men observed Yielding Subjection unto the Father of Spirits is as sure a way to obtain the Blessing of Health and long Life as Obedience unto our natural Parents for there is a Command with a Promise annexed unto both And we find Life in the Inventory of a Christians goods when drawn up by the great Apostle of the Gentiles And the inspired Pen-men frequently prescribe Religion as an Antidote against immature Death it being a direct Enemy unto Sin which brought in Sickness True goodness doth as well conduce to the prolongation of the Body in natural Life as to its Immortality in Eternal Life and the Body hath the perfection of Life viz. Health from the Soul as well as Life it self Dying unto sin is an excellent means to preserve Life if men would try the Experiment and endeavour to procure the Divine Providence to be their Life-Guard We live by the Word of Blessing out of the Mouth of God every Command if observed like Food and Physick tends unto the lengthening our Dayes Now although it be a known truth that of our selves we can do nothing yet it is as true that by the Grace of God we may do much in the practice of Religion and consequently may contribute towards the lengthening of our Dayes and rendering the use of Medicines effectual towards that great and noble end Moreover Religion secures Men from the Terrors of a guilty Conscience which many times makes Men wash their Hands in their own blood and it also preserves Men from the Condemnation of Humane Tribunals many being cut off by the Hand of Justice for their flagitious impieties as Murders Thefts and Rapines But Sir that the great Preserver of Men may so ballance the Humours in your Body that you may live to
be in the World If Alexander the Great had been strangled in the Cradle how could the Prophesies of Daniel have been fulfilled concerning him The Jews could not prejudice the Life of the Lord of Life until that hour which was appointed to be his last hour was come For as it is appointed once to Die so also when to Die and that you may enjoy a Long and Healthful Life and at last a happy Eternity is the prayer of Your humble Servant J. M. LETTER IV. SIR I Joyfully entertained the welcome News of the good success of your last Remedies but am sorry to find you attribute all to Necessity as if because the Period of Humane Life is appointed and the success of Medicines depends upon a Supernatural Concourse therefore to inferr we cannot be accessary towards the shortning of our own Dayes Sir it is a fond Opinion and a great mistake so to think for the Jews were wickedly instrumental in taking away the Life of the Lord of Life notwithstanding they did nothing but what Divine goodness had determined before to be done The Prophet told Amaziah he knew God had Determined to destroy him and yet he also tells him that he was instrumental towards his own Death in not hearkning unto the Voyce of the Lord. Eli's Sons disobedience pronounced the Sentence of Death against them and it is rendred as the reason why God had resolved to slay them The Date of the Old Worlds Duration was fixed to one Hundred and twenty Years Yet we find it not so long-liv'd by twenty Years their wickedness contracted that which seemed to be a determined period At what time soever the Almighty be but pleased to speak concerning a Nation People or Person to pluck up to pull down or to destroy if that Nation People or Person turn from their evil way he will Repent of the intended evil whether Sickness or Mortality The flight of that Arrow which procured King Ahabs Death was guided by a Divine Hand who aimed at his Mortal Wounds yet his rash going to Battel by the advice of his false Prophets rendred him instrumental towards his own Death The Evangelical Prophet tells us of a Consumption determined upon the whole Earth occasion'd by their great Provocations The Divine determination concerning our Lives should not lessen our care to preserve our Lives King David understood that the determination concerning the Childs Death was past yet he prayed and used means to restore it It 's a Turkish Principle to dream that because the manner and moments of Mens Deaths are appointed therefore to think it Vanity and Cowardice to arm our selves or Antidote our Bodies against the injuries of War and Assaults of Diseases A Man may live out all Gods time who wickedly shortens his own and may be permitted to do those forbidden Acts which inevitably tend to his own destruction and cut the Thred of his Dayes The Israelites Murmuring anticipated their Funerals and Buried them in the Wilderness notwithstanding their Promise of seeing Canaan The Impiety of the old World brought a Deluge which possibly might have been prevented had their Repentance been as visible as that of Ninive who were Reprieved from Execution after the Sentence of Death seemed Passed upon them their Reformation prevented Ruine and Destruction The addition of fifteen Years to Hezekias's Life was the result of the Divine Favour but not without signal demonstrations of Repentance The Rabins tell us of one going to gather his Remedies prescribed by King Solomon against his peculiar Distemper was met by an Apparition of Death in the shape of a Skeleton which told him with an audible Voice it was too late for he was struck by the Angel who kept the Key of the Grave The Moral is obvious enough to a wise man unto whom a word is enough And I pray Sir excuse this unravelling my Thoughts in such a ruffled manner from Your Healths Friend J. M. LETTER V. SIR THese Medicines the Doctor hath now Prescribed I have conveyed unto you according unto your desire the Directions are given with the particular Parcels and I am of Opinion that a firm belief that men may be many wayes accessary towards the shortning their own dayes may much conduce towards the good Success of Remedies by exciting greater care and circumspection and greater Piety and Prudence in the management of our selves Sin and Wickedness doth apparently shorten Life and multiply Diseases The Life of Man seems to be much pared away but it cannot be artributed unto any Decay in Nature and its universal Frame but rather unto the great Immorality and Imprudent extravagancy of Nations and Persons indulging effeminate luxurious and pernicious Customs Sin brought Death at first and as Sin increased so Death came nearer by five hundred years After the Flood men sinned still and built Castles in the Air and then Death came nearer by three hundred years And by Moses's time a great part of that remnant is pared away and threescore and ten is the period Had offended Justice gone on still to shorten mens dayes as men encreased in Sin our Life by this time had not been a Day long and therefore he no longer destroys the Kind but punisheth the Individuals and sets it down as a standing Rule That evil shal slay the Wicked and he shall not live out half his dayes We cannot now observe one in five hundred arrive at that Age unto which they might attain by the course of Nature but end their dayes in Sin and Folly From surfeiting proceeds dissolutions of Members relaxations of Nerves fractures of Bones Inflamations of Blood Crudities of the Stomack besides the uncleanly Consequences of Lust which like a Dart strikes through the Liver Our great Creator hath composed our Bodies like Lamps and to supply the Oyl consumed by the flame hath given us Appetites of Hunger and Thirst and Reason to guide our Appetites and the Revelation of his Will to guide our Reason but if men through the depravation of Nature and the predominancy of Temptation suffer their Appetites to dethrone their Reason and give way to Intemperance which extinguisheth Natures Lamp by corrupting the Oyl or spilling it or blowing out the flame men may then justly expect to be cut off in the midst of their dayes and to be made a Sacrifice unto their overmuch wickedness I'ts not improbable that Baalam's wish to dye the Death of the Righteous did not only include his being saved at last but also that he might come to his grave in a good old age with his Fathers in peace and might not be cut off like the Moabites and other Nations who were to perish in their wickedness before his eyes Since Man-kind Bruised himself with his Fall he hath corrupted his Blood and sowed the Seeds of innumerable Diseases We daily feel the smart of our first Sentence viz. Thou shalt dye the Death or In Dying thou shalt Dye or Thou shalt become exposed unto Sickness and Death Men
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
Again humbly to implore the help of that great Physician who was Typified by the Brazen Serpent would be a very effectual means to be cured both of the Sting and Pain of Sickness It well becomes the most holy Soul under Distempers to abound with an O Spare me that I may recover Strength When Men are like Moses commanded to go up into a Mount as it were of a Sick-Bed and Dye there the same Hand that Wounded must make whole many lose their Lives for want of asking it at his Hands who grants it if Invited to our Bed-sides by fervent Prayers joyned with Faith and Patience When the only wise God resolves to make Men sick with smiting them they ought to beware of Murmuring and Impatience which doth exasperate all Calamities it being far more advantageous towards recovery patiently to hope and quietly to wait for the Salvation of God for they that wait upon the Lord have a Promise they shall renew their Strength and be saved with a temporal as well as a spiritual Salvation if they continue in Faith and Patience with Sobriety The Poets have an excellent Fiction that the Image of the Goddess Augerine was with a Muffler at her Mouth placed at the Temple of Volupia signifying that Pleasure should be their Portion who bear Sicknesses with Patience Silence and Submission Good Men never question the Divine Favour so much at any time as under sickness because the Body discomposeth the Mind and hinders the free exercise of spiritual Reason besides they have not such express comfort from their Saviours Sufferings for we never read he was ever Sick yet he had Passions equivalent to Sickness as Hunger Thirst Weariness which afflicted his Body with Pain and therefore can be toucht with the feeling of our Infirmities The best way to obtain Cure is by the Power of a Divine Faith to shake off Diseases as St. Paul did the Viper from his Hand And Sir that the great Physician may make your Soul like his Body in the Gospel every whit whole shall be the Desire of Your true Friend and faithful Servant J. M. LETTER VIII SIR I Received yours dated the Second of this Month wherein you acknowledge your self a Convert unto the several Arguments of Discourse which have formerly passed between us but you seem very much to doubt whether humane Prudence Care and Art can any way contribute unto long Life And that they may be very subservient thereunto there is nothing more plain and evident Certainly King David's departing from Keylak diverted Sauls Rage and preserved his own Life for that time And our blessed Saviours own practice in preserving himself until the time he knew that his hour was come is recorded for our Imitation St. Pauls Mariners saved their Lives by abiding in the Ship who otherwise in all probability might have been Drowned The Wisdom of Joseph and Mary in observing the Angels advice and flying into Egypt with the blessed Babe in all humane probability it prevented his Death at Bethlehem The Centurion Importun'd our Saviour to cure his Servant which he would never have done if it had not conduced towards the prolongation of his Life 'T was not without cause that Naomi was foretold Obed should be a restorer of her Age. As fire dies for want of air and is extinguished when the flame is suffocated so doth our vital flame as our Spirits are repaired by Air so are our sanguine Humours by Aliments Much may be done by Art for the retarding the course of Nature as may be seen in many Insects and Animals and in Men restored from Consumptive pineing Sicknesses their flesh becoming like that of Children as in Naamans Case The efficacy of Remedies with some is so great that their Youth is as 't were renewed like the Eagle their natural strength not abating at a great Age Moreover it doth not seem probable that means should be used with good success to answer all other intentions in Nature and be used in vain in attaining that which is the most desirable thing in Nature and which renders a Man capable of perfection in all Arts and Sciences viz. Health And yet as none can speak of Death by experience because they who speak of it have not felt it and they who have felt it cannot speak of it the Case is much the same concerning Life For unless a Man live unto extream old Age he will not believe his Life hath been prolonged but rather that his hour was not yet come but yet it 's not inconsistent with reason to say that he who would Infallibly have Dyed of a Gangreen in his Leg hath had his Life prolonged when his Leg was Cured or to say that a Consumptive Body hath been saved from Death when restored to a healthful State by a Medicinal Diet which hath added Oyl to the Lamp of Life The Nectar and Ambrosia of the Poets which kept their gods from growing old seems to be an Emblem of the Tree of Life which was to have been a Restorer of Nature as well as a Symbal of future things Suppose we with Pithagoras that Life is a strait line and that the accidents which disturb it and at length bring Death constitute another Line and as these two lines incline less or more one towards another Death approaches sooner or later and consequently Life is longer or shorter yet may we not suppose that Divine Providence and humane Prudence may probably conduce towards the retarding the Neighbourhood of those lines Or suppose with the Aristotelians that Life consists in the union of Heat and Moisture and Death approacheth by the Predominance of the contrary Qualities viz. Cold and Dryness why may not such means as preserves the former and keeps back the latter have a natural tendency to prolong Life Or suppose with the Chymists that Life consists in a volatile Armoniack Salt why may we not suppose that Art improved may compose such fixed Alkali as may stop the wingy motions of the former Volatility The pleasing gratifications of Sense walk Hand in Hand with Death and pursueth Mortals as the Waves of the universal Deluge did the Posterity of Cain and though they went from one story to another higher and higher yet at last they were overflowed Though Temperance doth not alwayes prove an Antidote against Sickness yet it 's a likely means Sir I pray distribute my Service where you think it 's due for it is time to come to a full point and to tell you that in Truth I am Yours in all that Power and Will can manifest J. M. LETTER IX SIR I Received yours dated the 11th instant wherein you give me an account of the great Sickness and Mortality of your Town and Countrey now Languishing under this Epidemick Feaver which indeed rageth in the City also and carrieth hundreds if not thousands unto their long Homes You may easily believe that there are greater Languors Sicknesses Weaknesses and decayes of Nature now than in former Ages
though thanks be to God Pestilences have not been very fatal of late years and we observe from our weekly Bills of Mortality that the numbers of the deceased are greatly augmented for in the year 1604. there dyed 4323 and 895 of the Plague but in the year 1659. there dyed 14720 and 36 of the Plague and yet we observe near the same number of persons Born and Christned both years so that the Disproportion is near nine Thousand in a year in about sixty years distance We may observe in the space of sixty years so small a spot of ground as a Church-yard swallowes up a whole Parish I knew an old Sexton in London who told me he lived to Bury his Parish almost three times over As one Generation comes on the Stage another goeth off And very evident it is that more dye now in a state of Childhood than in former Ages We lick new bodies off our Trenchers once in seven years and the very fear of a Clymacterical Year hath Killed some who have not understood how groundless such a fear is In the dayes of Ancient times it was a strange thing to hear of the death of a young Child according unto the ordinary course of Nature Some of the Jewish Doctors tell us that there was not a Son dyed of a natural death before his Father for near three thousand years after the Creation but the course of Nature was observed and he that was born first dyed first untill Terah's time who was the first that taught the People to make Images of Clay and to corrupt Divine Worship with Idolatry and as a punishment of his Sin his son Haran was snatcht away before him and Moses observes that Haran dyed before his Father Terah in the Land of his Nativity And we find it was looked upon as a great Judgment that the Male Heir of Eli's Family as soon as born dyed for many Generations so that an Old man could not be seen of his Posterity And we find the good Woman expostulating passionately with the Prophet when she saith Art thou come to call my Sins to remembrance and to slay my Son Every Age hath its peculiar diseases In the state of Infancy Life is like a Spark in a pile of Wood the Candle is so newly lighted that every breath of Air or the least shaking puts it out and it dyes Childhood is so active and unwary so subject to run into dangers that unless a Messenger be sent from Heaven to stand Sentinel and watch its playing sleeping eating and drinking it 's exposed to death every minute The Middle age is apter to lend its helping hand to the use of Remedies but when we consider how many new distempers invade us and how many old ones intermingled with collateral complications and many Diseases are not fully understood as in time they may be and many Symptoms are often alike and sometimes there are none at all as in several Impostumes and some Diseases are lodged in remote parts of the Body that oftentimes no application can be made or at least the effects of Medicines cannot reach them untill after two or three Alterations and Concoctions which change the Species of Medicines And sometimes new Methods come upon the Stage and alter old Foundations Old Age hath Diseases incurable by nature The House must fall when the Foundation is decayed Old men in Scripture account are said to be as good as dead as Abraham was In some Diseases the Patient seems Bailable yet a distemper lyeth in ambush and sets upon him with full strength when the bitterness of death seemed to be past and some men live and dye like Fools pour in Drink and let out Life and so by inconsideration pull the Monumental Stone upon their own heads Men are like Water if the Sluces be opened it runs away apace if the Current be stopt it swells and grows troublesome and spills over if it stands still then it stinks and putrifies Some Sicknesses walk in darkness and destroying Angels are wrapt up in the Curtains of Immateriality whom we cannot see but feel in some Chronick distempers men walk about and hear Passing-bells ring for stronger men There is no age of Man but hath some Posterns and Out-lets to death out of which thousands pass into the Land of Forgetfulness Every breath of wind troubles our Faces and our little Cares wrinkle our Foreheads and trifling accidents dig our Graves In Feavors men ride post to the Chambers of death they prove a Beesome of Destruction to three parts of Adam's race If all the ages of all Mankind were put together it would scarce make One and twenty to each single person It 's more natural for Youth to dye than the Aged it being more common having more natural causes as being more subject to acute Diseases which surprize men suddenly and undiscernably but to dye of Age is a very rare Thing old Age is a young Death But to speak strictly all men dye before they come to be of age every man being within an inch of Death Like a Mariner at Sea we carry our Lives in our hands Many a man in a state of health hath a secret Enemy lying hid ready to surprize Either Gods Archers cleave our Reins in sunder with the Stone or Strangury or our feet are set in the Stocks by the Gout or our Breath is corrupt by the Ptysick or our Gaul is poured on the ground by the Dissentery or our Skin cleaves to our Bones by a Hectick The Clock hath struch Twelve this night therefore take it not ill that I abruptly style my self Yours whilest I am J. M. LETTER X. SIR I Received yours Dated the 7th instant wherein you speak very slightly of old Age as if you did not look upon it as so great a blessing and also seem to Question whether the Patriarchs lived so long as some imagine To which I answer you are certainly under a great mistake for nothing is more certain than that the Antediluvian Patriarchs were very long lived and particularly Father Adam who may well be accounted above a thousand years old if we compute that time whch he might have lived had he been born as Methusalem was we may judge him at his Creation as Perfect as one of the Ancients at two hundred They out-lived all their titles of Consanguinity and yet none of them lived a compleat Thousand years which possibly might be to accomplish the threatning unto Adam That the day he eat the forbidden Fruit he should Dye computing a day for a thousand years But a more probable reason may be to Demonstrate to Man the Vanity of Life when those who lived longest could not arrive to that Period which compared to Gods Eternity is but a day As there are at this day some who exceed a hundred so there are a hundred times as many who do not arrive at that Period Had men in all Ages and Places arrived at the age of the Patriarchs the Earth
see the accomplishment of all your good Wishes is the hearty Wish of him who hath no more time left at present than to tell you that he is and will be Yours in the most unreserved Respects J. M. LETTER III SIR THis comes to Kiss your Hand and to make an Inquiry after the happy Success of the last Remedies and also to encourage your Perseverance in their use although you do not presently find them answer your expectation for I hope you do not expect Medicines to Operate meerly by their natural Energy infused into them at their first Creation but also know that their efficacy doth depend primarily upon the Pleasure of the Divine Will who hath limited the periods of humane Life We Live not at an Adventure but the manner and Moments of our Life and Death come under a Divine appointment and the success of all Remedies depends upon the peculiar Blessing of Heaven The most Infallible way to have our Distempers removed is to endeavour to procure the concourse of that Divine Influence and to engage the Soveraign Power of that Almighty Healer unto whom belong the Issues from Death Though our Lord was not corporally present with Lazarus yet he knew without Creature Intelligence that he was Dead and told his Disciples so God also told Samuel that Moses was Dead It matters not who Plants or Waters if God denies to give the Increase The Divine Favour is the best Skreen to shelter men from the innumerable Accidents of Humane Life in which every Minute we are Surrounded with a Thousand Deaths and dangers When the great Preserver of Men withdraws his protection we are left exposed to the malignant Aspects of Planets to the fatal Contingencies of Wars and Battels and are indanger'd by every Accident the Dust of a Wheel the fall of a Tile the largeness of a Morsel the Lash of a Whip the unevenness of a Stone the Plenty of a Humour may stop our Breath It is a confest truth that every natural motion hath its beginning duration and period dependent on the pleasure of the first Mover now the Life of Man being a nutural motion our Nativity and Death are both ordered by that Omnipotent Agent in whom we live move and have our being The Disciples themselves could not cure Diseases at all times if they could St. Paul would not have left Trophimus Sick at Miletum nor have Sorrowed so much for Epaphroditus's Sickness The Life of Man consisting in a requisite Harmony of Qualities and in a due commixture of the natural Heat and radical moisture which Harmony is more or less according unto the more or less exquisite temperament of Body assigned unto each single Person by the free dispensation of the Divine Will it must follow that the continuance of every man in this natural Life depends upon the pleasure of him who hath determined our Days numbered our Months and set our Bounds which we cannot pass without his leave who gave us the durability of our temperaments and compassed our periods within the Circle of his special Providence To imagine the Life of Man fixt beyond the possibility of being prolonged or shortened by an Almighty pleasure seems highly unreasonable because he hath reserved a power in his own Hands to contract or prorogue as he pleaseth Sometimes Divine Wisdom best knowing his own Reasons doth resolve the Death of some Persons and then the most proper Remedies are used in vain either towards the removal of Sickness or the preservation of Health The universal Conserver of all things takes notice of the principal and subsequent Causes of things Governing Disposing and Ordering according unto his own free Will and yet his Government is void of any fatal Violence and comes to an efficiency from the ordination of various natural causes and humane elections which prove the occasions of supporting or destroying Life Divine goodness doth not abolish but Disposeth of future Contingencies without nulling the freedom of the Agent he moderates and governs Events according to his pleasure and yet suffers the Creature to exercise its own proper motions The rage of Men and Devils cannot accelerate the motions of Divine Providence A Sparrow doth not fall to the ground much less a man into the Grave without a Divine Permission The Manner and Moments of our death are not the effects of Contingency To God the Lord belongs the Issues from death or in the Original the Inlets to Death viz. Diseases Natural Remedies are but like Elijah's Staffe layd upon the dead Child they will not help unless a supernatural vertue concurs The Egyptians in their Temples had a remarkable Hieroglyphick A Young man an Old man and a Hawk in the middle Intimating the Beginning and Period of humane Life depends upon the Influence of divine Providence Josiah's death might seem the effect of Juvenile rashness in War but it conduced towards the accomplishment of Huldah's Prophecy The Advice of the Philistine Diviners is very observable When the People were smitten with Hemorrhoids they prescribed the offering up of golden Hemorroids thinking by that mystical Remedy to appease the Displeasure of Heaven and to intimate that they thought the best of their Substance not valuable to purchase Health but chiefly to represent their Belief that the Cure of Diseases depended upon a divine Influence Many smart the longer under the Rod of God because they eye not the Hand that moves it The Rabbins say when Jeroboam's Hand wither'd the false Prophets told him it came by Chance thereby to divert his reflections from the first Cause Some have observed that the best way to cure the Kings-Evil is by the Stroak of the Kings Hand and sure the best way to remove the smart of Distempers inflicted by the Hand of God is to consider that it is his Hand No man knows when Divine Providence who hath the Pen in his Hand and writes down the Days and Actions of our Lives will be pleased to set a Comma of Afflictions or a Period of Death The Weights and Plummets of Mans restless Impatience cannot make the Clock of Gods appointed time strike one Minute sooner than he hath set it And he only hath appointed how many tedious Dayes and wearisome Nights we shall have before the bright Morning of Eternity dawn upon us The reason why Natural Remedies do many times prove ineffectual is because there is a Determinate season wherein all Persons and things must have their final issue Thus we find Moses died the Year before the People entred into Canaan Daniel some few Years before the Foundation of the Temple And John the Baptist in the first Year of the Baptism of our blessed Saviour when the Gospel he began to preach was to be published in its Glory At their seasons they must go their wayes to rest and lie down until they receive their lot at the end of Dayes If God had not the Disposal of the Lives of Men in his own Hands what miserable confusions would there
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
that Obey yet he hath never Promised that he would not sometimes as it were borrow Mens natural Lives and make a happy exchange makeing good his Promise and answering other ends of his Providence by recompencing the loss of a Temporal with the grant of Eternal Life On the conrrary because sometimes wicked Men live long to infer Piety hath no Influence on Mens Health and Longaevity is as great a Mistake for a long and a wicked Life may be twisted together for Reasons best known to Omnipotence as the Posterity of Cain may be longer Liv'd than any of the Patriarchs being reserved to be punisht in the general Deluge and Manasseh Reigned longer than any of the Kings of Judah But no more of this at present only I beseech you take me as I am and ever must be Your real Friend and Servant J. M. LETTER XII SIR I Received Yours wherein you Write very contemptuously of the Art of Physick as if the use of Medicine were not an Ordinance of God and men were not oblig'd in Conscience to the application of Remedies But with your leave nothing is more plain and demonstrable than that Physick is a Divine Institution He who breathed into man the breath of Life and by an Eternal Law hath commanded him not to Kill but commanded him to Pray for his daily Bread with all the necessary supports of this Life hath thereby laid an Obligation upon him to use all means to preserve both his own and others Lives Many of the Inspired Pen-men were well Skilled in Medicine particularly St. Luke who was the Evangelical Amanuensis and Wrote a History of our Blessed Saviours Passion and Life he was called the beloved Physician and we find the great Doctor of the Gentiles prescribe Wine as a chearing Cordial unto his Timothy under his frequent Infirmities for his Healths sake nay the Blessed God is pleased to Style himself the Lord the Physitian and the Holy Jesus derives his Name from his healing Nature and tells us though the Whole need no Physitian yet the Sick do and the Holy Ghost assures us by the Psalmists Pencil that God hath given Medicines to heal Mens Sicknesses Every man is bound by the Law of God and Nature to endeavour to keep his clayey Tenement in reparation and if he neglect it and let it run to ruine he may be in danger of being Indicted at the Bar of Heaven for Dilapidations The holy Prophet ressecting upon the deplorable Condition of the Church with The whole Head sick and the whole Heart faint full of Wounds Bruises and Putrefactions being not bound up nor mollified with Oyntments plainly intimating how necessary he thought the natural as well as the spiritual Application of fit Remedies lamening there was no Balm in Gilead nor any Physitian there Jothams Parable may instruct the World that not only the Olive the Figg-tree and the Vine are usefull to chear the Heart of God and man but also the Bramble hath a healing Vertue in some Distempers Since the appearance of the second Adam we may eat of every Tree in the Garden asking no Question for Conscience sake for the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof The wonderful work of Providence is very apparent in preserving the Seminal Vertue of Plants in the Deluge when we read not of any Seed secured in the Ark the Innocent Dove shewing a Leaf to the new World Preacht a Sermon of Divine goodness The Utility of Physical Remedies is not only demonstrated by Christians but also by Jews and Pagans In the Temple of Aesculapius there was a Fountain of Oyl with a Golden Arch a perfect Symbol of Physick denoting its usefulness and Honour The design of Medicine is not to prevent Death but to render Life comfortable and to preserve Natures Lamp burning until there 's no more Oyl to feed it The Son of Syrack Counsels men to Honour the Physitian with the Honour due unto him telling us that God had created him and hath given Men Skill that he might be Honoured in his marvellous works with the Medicines that he hath Created out of the Earth to heal Men and take away their pains Apollo and Aesculapius amongst the Greeks were adored as gods for the excellency of their Invention in Physick and the knotty Staff the Serpent the Pine-Apple the Dragon the Dog and the Cock with which the pourtraicture of Aesculapius was Beautified were very significant Symbols Medicine hath by barbarous Nations been accounted Sacred The Priests of Memphis were bound to Write in the Temple of Isis such Remedies as were found effectual the same practice the Greeks practised at the Temple of Apollo Authorizing Medicine by Religion and Converting Remedies into Oracles The Jews tell us that at the Temple of Solomon there hung a long Catalogue of the Vertues of all Plants collected by Solomon himself so that if any were Smitten with any Disease he might go and gather his Remedy And the Holy Prophets in their Descriptions of the Holy Land represent the excellency thereof from its abounding with Trees whose Leaves are good for Medicine St. James placeth our Visiting the Sick amongst the parts of that pure Religion which is undefiled before God and our blessed Saviour numbers this Christian Duty amongst those good works according unto which we shall receive our final Sentence when he saith I was sick and ye Visited me As the Jews by their particular Laws were constrained to be at the Charge of Cure unto any whom they had hurt or Injured in their Health much more ought men to be concerned for their own Health and Recovery when Sick and Weak King Asa was not reprehended for advising with but for trusting to the Physitians making them his end when they were only the means which was Recorded to Instruct us that we should use means as if there were no Providence and yet trust Providence as if there were no Means When the Mariners in the Ship in which St. Paul Sailed were in danger of Drowning he told them they could not be safe unless they did abide in the Ship notwithstanding the Safety of their Lives was promised him When the Lives of the Jews were in danger Queen Esther not only appointed a Fast to Implore the Protection of Heaven but also prepared a Feast the better to prevail with the King The Prophet David not only Trusted in the Name of the Lord when he went against Goliah but also used his Stone and Sling So Jacob sent a Present to pacifie the Anger of his Brother as well as made Supplication to the great Peace-maker The Bodies of good Men are the Temples of the Holy Ghost and neglecting the same is reputed a part of Will-worship and strictly prohibited Baalam's Ass may Instruct the World that a merciful Man ought to be merciful to his Beast how much rather ought he like the Shunamite Woman take a Journey if the Case require it for the recovery of a Child from the Jaws of Death
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
Motion of the whole Engine Reason prompts men to consult the ablest Farriers when their Horses are sick and not take the Hostler who hath the Confidence to prescribe a Drench We have many amongst us nicknamed Doctors who are as unskilfull in Physick as the Athenians were in Religion dedicating their Medicines unto an unknown Disease Men who took their Degrees in a Drinking-School or did their Exercise in Fees affect the Title Doctor though they want the Participle Doctus Having no more Learning than what may serve to conceal their Ignorance To run to these men is as if a man to lance an Imposthume should run his Body against the poynt of a Sword in the hands of a mad man or as if to cure a Quinsie a man should desire the help of the common Executioner People ought to know that Diseases are cured by Method as well as by Medicine by Rules as well as by Receipts Multitudes amongst us may be said to dig their Graves with their thick Skulls and destroy their Bodies as well as their Souls by an implicit Faith in hearkening to such Fellows if a Cure succeeds it is more by accident than Art as a blind man hits the mark It 's madness to choose Physicians by the Commendations of the Vulgar they only talk like an Eccho because they hear a Voyce but know no reason why and it 's as imprudent to choose Physicians by their Garb because an Ass may have gilded Trappings Many of these men have more skill in mending Garments than Bodies that wear them and yet will pretend to cure all Diseases that ever Sin intailed on the Race of Adam Let me advise you as a prudential Observation tending to Health and Long Life to use the same discretion when your Health is in danger as when your Estate is not to depend on the advice of an Attorney but to fee a Counsellor And since you say you are deeply engaged unto me give me leave to prescribe the Recompence which is that you would believe me to be what I truly am Your constant Friend J. M. LETTER XVII SIR I Received yours Dated the 11th instant wherein you give me an account of the rare secret Medicine lately recommended to you as an infallible cure for your Distemper being recommended as a cure for all diseases Sir let me tell you I have often found those kind of Medicines but meer Cheats and Springes to catch Woodcocks and yet men will not learn Wisdom until the dust of the Grave that Powder of Experience be cast in their Eyes He that will venture his life with the use of such a Medicine will give the world cause to suspect he stands in need of a large dose of Hellebore Without doubt there is no Observation can conduce more towards the rendring Remedies effectual than to be well assured that they are safe known and experienced Medicines and faithfully prepared by the hand of an Artist whose Profession it is and exposed to the view of the world upon the Apothecaries file The design of keeping Medicines as Secrets being chiefly to conceal the ignorance of the recommender who could not write it in Latin or the same persons dishonesty who dare not publish so dangerous a Medicine or else his Covetousness in exacting in the price of a mean ordinary familiar Medicine which it appears to be when publisht If a Pill be but guilded over with the pretences of Rare and Excellent it is cryed up and swallowed down when it 's as common in the Shops as Salt and Pepper in a Kitchin and there are abundance of Poysonous Remedies abroad in the World that have nothing to kill them but Fasting Spittle and a smooth tongue their best corrective being such an ingredient as wants a Corrective but yet these Remedies must needs cure all diseases at one blow as Sampson did the Philistines But these by rash snuffing Natures Candle put it quite out That Medicine costs the Patient dear that costs him his Life yet many such there are that ride post daily making every Corner do penance in venomed sheets the Directions for the use of them being like Davids Letter to Uriah only giving Instructions for the Death and ruine of the Patient Is there any pleasure in being destroyed because we are not able to say what hurt us A Medicine may cure the disease and kill the Patient and a safe Medicine may do much hurt by occasioning the omission of more proper and effectual Remedies The world hath been much imposed upon by being made to believe that Chymistry is a distinct art from Pharmacy when the most excellent Rules for Chymical Preparations have been proposed to the World by Physicians and Apothecaries it being but a Modern way of preparing Medicines and doth peculiarly belong to that trade As much as for a Taylor to make a Garment in a new fashion as well as in an old Indeed such Medicines ought to be very prudently advised because a Child may do more mischief with a Knife of Steel than of Bone You shall many times have Death in the pot babtized with the name of the Elixir of Life and a Dram of it cryed up beyond a bushel of March Dust to Reinthrone the deposed Archeus and do no man knows what And at another time you shall have Alexipharmagons Pantimagogons and medicines of such conjuring names that if you understood their natures you would think them a kind of Tophet Potabile and fitter for Country Farmers to treat Rats with than to cure diseases in humane Bodies There is nothing hath more contributed to the Brevity of mens Lives and the languishments of humane Nature in this Age than the Multitude of secret private Medicines cryed up as Infallible which have laid the foundations for innumerable diseases and made work for able Physicians And that which is a strange Paradox to me is that when a known experienced Remedy is recommended every one must be advised with whether it may be used or no but if a Medicine which none understand nay not he that commends it yet down it must go without inquiry into it's nature until by the fatal consequences we repent the using it Sir I beseech you interpret these lines as the expressions of my tender respects and care for your Health one request more and I have done Put me into the number of those that you count your most faithful Friends For indeed I am And ever will be so c. J. M. LETTER XVIII SIR I Received yours Dated the Fifteenth instant wherein I perceive your great inconstancy and want of Regular Perseverance in the use of those proper Remedies the Physician last prescribed I should be glad I could say these things to your Ears as well as to your Eyes but London finds me too much Business to grant me so great a happiness therefore give my Pen leave to tell you that the Regularity of the Patient is as necessary in order unto the success of Remedies as the skill of
The Life is more worth than Meat and the Body than Raiment The Jews thought their Lives more worth than their Liberty for they told the King If they had been Sold for Bond-men they had held their Peace Life is the form of Gods own Oath Those Bodies which are the Members of Christ ought to have Care and Respect used towards them that they may be fit for the Service of the Soul That which was sick was not to be Offer'd in Sacrifice under the Law and they that are sick are not fit to Offer Sacrifices The Father of Lyes never spake a greater Truth than when he said Skin for Skin and all that a Man hath will he give for his Life It 's a grand Impiety under a pretence of Gods Power to be Disobedient to his Will in neglecting the means of Health that 's to try what he can do and yet to neglect what he Commands in not administring those things which are requisite and necessary for the Body King Solomon who had a Patent granted him from the King of Heaven to receive the greatest measure of Wisdom of any Man before or after him made it his business to search into the Nature of Vegetables from the tallest Cedar unto the Hyssop that grows out of the Wall and though his Gold was so plentiful as to pave his Palace and he had all the Delights of the Sons of Men yet he Condescended unto the Study and Improvement of Physick and tells us That there is a time to heal every Herb bearing Seed being prescribed for Food or Physick by our great Creator It 's not improbable but that the Sons of the Prophets had a Physical Intention in gathering the Herbs for their Pottage although they were mistaken in the particular Plant and gathered a deadly instead of a wholsome one Ahab understood the usefulness of a Garden of Herbs when he coveted Naboth's Vineyard to Convert it into the same The good Will of him that dwelt in the Bush is further declared unto Mankind by the Vertue that he hath planted in the Leaves and Fruit that grow thereon being usefull for the healing of the Nations in a Natural as well as in a Mystical Sence Those persons who cut up Mallows by the Roots in Holy Job's time could not but understand their Physical Vertue A Dinner of Herbs with Evangelical Charity is preferred by Solomon before a Costly Banquet and those Medicinal Herbs of Mint Annise and Cummin were so much in use amongst the Jews that they laid Tithes and Customary Impositions upon them It 's very probable that the bitter Herbs appointed to be eaten with the Paschal Lamb were not only Typical but Medicinal When the Church would make a metaphorical Description of the External and Internal Quallifications of her Beloved she compares him to those things which are most excellent and useful as Myrrhe Aloes Cassia and all the Chief Spices Joseph used Physitians of old and the Art of the Apothecary was Imployed not only to prepare Holy Oyntments for the Consecration of Kings and Priests but also to compound Medicines for the Restoration of Inferior Persons Sir I will Discourse no longer upon this Argument only conclude with good Wishes that your Sorrows may be short and your Joys long and all your Desires may end according to your own Heart I am Yours J. M. LETTER XIII SIR I Received your last which gave me an ample account of the great satisfaction you gained by my late Letter proving the Divine Original of Physical Remedies But you seem to question whether any Arguments may be brought from Scripture to prove That we are not only obliged to the use of means in general but also to the use of such as are most rational and such as have the fairest prospect of probability To me it seems very apparent that we are to use such as are most agreeable to Reason and Experience When the extraordinary means of understanding Tongues ceased men made use of rational and ordinary means by the study of Arts and Sciences So the Jews in the Wilderness were miraculously preserved with Quails and Manna but when they came into Canaan they were to plow and sow and reap and eat their Bread by their Toyl and Industry Though we live not by Bread alone but by the word of Blessing out of the Mouth of God yet that Blessing is promised to Bread not to Stones and he that shall expect to have Stones turned into Bread doth not trust but tempt his Maker it being not Faith but Fury to go down by a Precipice when Stairs are appointed And very remarkable it is that most of the Cures that we find recorded in Scripture though they were extraordinary and miraculous yet usually some physical Remedies were appointed which were not disagreeable to Reason and Experience to shew our Obligation not only to the use of Means but also to the use of such as are most proper and likely to succeed Indeed our blessed Saviour cured some by his Word alone and by seeming improbable means thereby to discover his extraordinary power in doing that which no mortal man could do with the same Materials viz. Restore Sight to the Blind who were born so yet his stupendious Wisdom was pleased to honour such a Remedy as had been used by Physicians of that Age most opthalmick Oyntments being composed of Terras Moreover his ordering the Blind man to wash in Siloam was agreeable enough with a physical intention In truth our Lords making use of Clay might seem an excellent Expedient to declare to the World his Divine power that being the fittest Ingredient to restore a defective part out of which by the same hand the whole was at first composed Moreover Naamans washing in Jordan was a natural Remedy though attended with supernatural success The Wine and Oyl poured into the wounds of the distressed Stranger by the good Samaritan were specifically appropriated although the success depended upon a supernatural Influx and the Plaister of Figs applyed unto Hezekiah's Plague-sore was a rational Remedy being proper to mollifie hard Tumours in the flesh and to ripen Imposthumes The extraordinary Pool of Bethesda was not without some natural Vertue being adjoyning unto the Slaughter-house of the Temple the blood of the sacrificed Beasts being mingled with it and that is by Naturalists said to be of a Healing nature Yet this doth not exclude the Necessity of a divine Angelick Influence to render it efficacious and perhaps several kinds of Meats prohibited under the Law might in a natural way be prejudicial to the Health of Mens Bodies and they might be forbidden upon a Moral as well as upon a Mystical account There was also a rational Conformity between the Leprous Contagion and the Law of Cleansing the Leprosie did putrifie the Skin opposite to that was Cedar Wood commended by Physitians against Putrefaction it was of an ill Scent contrary to that was the smell of Hyssop an excellent Aromatique Plant yet the Cure