all the increase of his house should die in the slower of their age 1 Sam. 2. 32. So on the other side it is God's blessing if he increase the length of our dayes and we die with Job being old and full of dayes and go in our grave in a full age as a shock of corn cometh in in his season to the barn Job 42. 17. 5. 26. Therefore that Heathen Cic. Tusc. 1. was mistaken who said Optimum est non nasci proximum quam cito aboleri The best thing is never to be born and the second best to die assoon as we are born For though long life to some be as wearisome as death is fearful though old age in many be a disease not curable but by death yet these are but accidental life it self is a blessing and the longer we live the more experience we have of God's favour a greater loathing of the sins of our youth and a larger time of repentance as having space wherein to grow wiser and better and thereby to make this life a large preparative to Eternal life Health then and long life being now considered as blessings we will henceforth follow the means and leave the blessing to God CHAP. 1. The first means being to avoid Sin in general which is supernaturally an occasion of bodily Diseases and shortness of Life DIseases are the interests of Sin till Sin there were no such things For this cause in general many are weak and sick Let a Man take the best air he can and eat the best food he can let him eat and drink by Rule let him take never so many Antidotes Preservatives and Cordials yet Man by reason of Sin is but a crazy sickly thing for all this For as one saith all sicknesses of the body proceed from the Sin of the Soul I am not ignorant that the Lethargy ariseth from the coldness of the brain that the Dropsie floweth from waterish blood in an ill affected Liver that the Spleen is caused from melancholly wind gathered in the mid-riff but the cause of all these causes the fountain of all these fountains is the Sin of the Soul And this Truth from the Fountain of Sacred Writ will be clearly derived unto us Our Saviour said unto the Man that had been thirty-eight years diseased Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee John 5. 14. Jesus thus warning him by shewing him the cause of his infirmity which was Sin Those Physicians that derive all Diseases from natural causes only do not well understand that Text for it is Spiritually discerned All sickness is certainly the fruit of Sin and many Physicians will acknowledge it being induced thereunto by a consequence from an instance of a particular though Epidemical disease namely the Plague or Pestilence which is concluded not only from the Word of God Lev. 26. 25. but also from the confirmed constant and received opinion of all Ages to be Flagellum Dei pro peccatis Mundi The rod of God for the sins of the World The word Plague in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying no less for 't is so furious a disease as it disdains any general method of Cure when it is in its rage So that we must needs conclude that whatever be the natural causes of Diseases Sin is the supernatural and meritorious cause not only of this but also of all other Diseases Let me instance but one particular disease more the Palsy when our Saviour was about to cure a Man sick of that disease Mark 2. 5. he first pronounced forgiveness of Sins to him to shew that his Sins were the cause of his disease I confess diseases in the godly are many times God's love tokens and he doth not alwayes aim at the demonstrating of his justice in punishing sin when he layeth sickness upon Men for sometimes he layeth it upon his own Children for other ends as for the trial of their Faith and Patience c. as we see in Job's example yet it is true that God doth not chastise or punish those that are innocent but such as deserve it by their sins otherwise he should be supposed as unjust Sin then the Spiritual disease is the original and procuring cause of every natural disease so as if there were no sin there should be no sickness But here peradventure some may object and say how do this appear experimentally and exemplarily in some vicious Persons whose blood danceth in their veines and whose bones are moistned with marrow who are in health when he whom Christ loveth is sick John 11. 3. as 't was said of Lazarus To this I answer that the like matter bad almost stifled and amazed Job Job 21. and Asaph Psal. 73. but they soon understood a reason of the several dispensations of God's Providence One general reason might be this it may well stand with God's Providence as he is the Father of Mercies and the God of Justice as he shall see cause to let both his Mercy and his Justice meet together both upon the wicked and the Godly As for instance many times he conferreth benefits upon the wicked and suffereth them to go free from punishment there is his mercy though short and temporal but the evil that is in them he punisheth Eternally there is his Justice Again many times he punisheth the sins of his best Servants with temporal afflictions but their goodness he rewardeth with Eternal blessings there is his Justice in punishing temporally his Mercy in rewarding Eternally and in both these the wisdom of God's Providence is discovered So more particularly God doth sometime permit the wicked to have a sound body with a diseased Soul and the Godly a diseased body with a more sound Soul But yet for the most part in the revolution of experience we shall find that where sin reignes most there most diseases as hand-maids are attending upon her And though every general Rule in Grammar hath its exception yet take this as general without exception that Original and likewise Actual sins are the seeds of bodily diseases Though by Gods Mercy and Providence all things even the sharpest work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8. 28. Yea Sin is not only a Spiritual or supernatural cause of bodily diseases but also of shortness of life For as one saith through Sin our bodies are become nothing but the Pest-houses of diseases and death Sin hath corrupted Mans blood and rendered his body mortal and vile Before Sin our bodies were immortal for death and mortality came in by Sin but now Alas they must return to dust and 't is appointed to all Men once to die by Statute Law in Heaven and 't is well if they die but once and the second death hath no power over them they must see corruption and this is the wages that Sin allows to its Servants For the wages of Sin is death Rom. 6. 23. this is the largess or
18. And as touching False fear though it be rather a fruit of weakness and a punishment of sin for so 't is threatned as a punishment by the Lord Lev. 26. 17 36. then a sin in it self yet as it is irregular it is concluded within the scope of this Discourse and as it is frequent or excessive may justly deserve reproof Distrustful fear is straitly prohibited by those Apostles Peter 1 Pet. 3. 14. and John Rev. 2. 10. Yea all Natural fear when it is joined with distrust and diffidence or excess is to be avoided as unwarrantable in Sacred Writ Num. 14. 9. 2 Kings 6. 16. And was therefore by Nehemiah resisted Nehem. c. 6. v. 11. Now as all unlawful and immoderate fear is to be avoided in regard of the Soul so also in regard of the Body For it is often the cause of Diseases as first of that called in Latin Tremor in English Trembling or shaking of the Members Metus dejicit vires ac proinde tremorem inducit saith the learned Galen Com. 1. in lib. 3. Epid. cap. 4. Fear brings down the strength and so causeth trembling His meaning more largely might be thus viz. that the heat which resides in the Blood and Spirits being that which supports and fortifies the members of Man those members being destitute thereof can hardly support themselves but tremble and shake in that manner and whereas the hands and lips shew greater signs of alteration then the rest the reason is for that those parts have a more strict bond with the heart and have less blood then the rest and therefore cold doth more easily make an impression upon them Also it is sometimes the cause of that disease called Cordis Palpitatio Panting of the heart Deut. 28. 65. or at least of the like Symptoms and those as dangerous especially when they precede a Syncope or Swounding which is as proper an effect and Catastrophe of this Passion as of that disease Moreover it is sometimes the extimulating promoting cause of the Lask or Diarrhaea for as the Author of a certain Natural History saith if the Natural heat leave the heart and go downward the fear is not only encreased but it bringeth withal a loosness of the belly Therefore it is written saith he in the Book of Job where it is spoken of the fear that Leviathan bringeth upon Men That the mighty are afraid by reason of breakings they purifie or purge themselves Job 41. 25. i. e. for fear of him Neither is this all but experience teacheth us at a dear rate that in immoderate fear through the strength of fantasie and imagination sundry contagious Diseases as the Small Pox Measles c. are frequently imprinted in the blood when guilt makes Men fearful of deserved punishment according to that of the Wise man The fear of the wicked it shall come upon him Prov. 10. 24. And as it causeth Diseases so consequently shortness of life Oft-times present death hath followed upon it through suffocation of the Vital Spirits It was almost present death unto the Churle Nabal he lived not many dayes after that he had been striken with it It came to pass in the morning when the wine was gone out of Nabal and his wife had told him these things that his heart died within him and he became as a stone 1 Sam. 25. 37 38. And in the next Verse we find that he died about ten dayes after It put the Watch at Christ's Sepulcher into such a shaking fit by an Earth-quake under them Mat. 28. 4. and another within their hearts that but for God's Mercy it had shaked them into their Graves when they became as dead Men. It seemeth to be a notable contraction of life by its sudden introduction of the blossoms of old age viz. gray hairs which by the extremity of this Passion have been strangely effected in the space of a week or two as 't is storied of one Mr. Baynings of London Yea even in one night as appeareth by Record of a memorable example during the Reign of the Emperour Charles the Fifth For one Francis Gonzague having caused a young Man of his house to be comitted to Prison for that he suspected he had conspired against him this miserable young Man was so terrified with his affliction as the same night he was cast into Prison his hair grew all white But more fully to the matter we find the sad and pernicious effect of immoderate fear in this following Narration Anno 1568. there was in Breda one Peter Coulogue a Godly Man who by his Popish Adversaries was cast into Prison and his Maid-servant daily brought him his food confirming and comforting him out of the Word of God as well as she was able for which they imprisoned her also Not long after Peter was put to the torment which he endured patiently After him the Maid was fetched to be tormented Whereupon she said My Masters wherefore will ye put me to this torture seeing I have no way offended you If it be for my Faith-sake ye need not torment me For as I was never ashamed to make a Confession thereof no more will I now be at this present before you But will if you please freely shew you my mind therein Vide Clark's Martyrol p. 305. Yet for all this they would have her to the Rack Whereupon she again said If I must needs suffer this pain pray give me leave to call upon my God first This they assented to And whilst she was fervently pouring out her prayers to God one of the Commissioners was surprised with such fear and terrour that he fell into a swound out of which he could never be recovered Many such like Instances might be heap'd up were it not in vain to evince this Point Per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora By many words which may be done by few And therefore I shall conclude it with the Sentence of that Atlas of Experimental Knowledge Lord Bacon in his translated History of Life and Death pag. 222. Great fears shorten the life for saith he in fear by reason of the cares taken for the remedy and hopes inter-mixed there is a turmoil and vexing of the Spirits And so much shall serve for this Section SECT X. Of Immoderate Desires Ambition excessive Cares Sollicitude Covetousness c. OMne nimium vertitur in vitium All extremes become vicious and those Epithites Immoderate and Excessive signifie as much in relation to Desires Ambition Cares Sollicitude c. and therefore the less shall need to be inferred for the arraignement of them Know then briefly that the above-named are all Diseases of the Soul Ambition which is an immoderate desire or thirst after Honour and Worldly glory is a Spiritual Dropsie that is not easily cured not only a great sin in it self but puts Men upon many others There is nothing saith one the Author of the whole Duty of Man p. 151. so horrid which a Man that eagerly
Murders Robberies and the like and so the wanton Onans roaring Duellers Drunkards and all others that are loose in their lives and disorderly in their diets or behaviours may be said to be cut off each one of them In die non suo Before his day that is before that day Ad quem per naturam juxta hominum opinionem pervenire poterat To which nature in the judgment of all men might have brought him if he had not prevented the same by his unseasonable death Vel gladio vel morbo vel aliquâ aliâ causâ violentâ morte non sua Either by the sword or disease or some other violent cause as Mercerus saith Mercerus in Job 14. 5. Or if that Answer sufficeth not consider this following God Almighty who is the Creator and Conservator of all things in the Universe hath appointed to every created thing both a beginning and end or termination of subsisting and moving and doth take notice not only of principal but also of subsequent causes of things governing moderating disposing and ordering them according to his free will and yet all this government is void of fatal violence and most commonly cometh to effect mediately and from deputed causes which vulgarly are called second causes which the Divine Majesty doth employ as the instruments of his will so long as he doth so govern all things which he hath created as also himself may suffer them to exercise their proper motions for the will of Man by Divine ordination is the original of humane actions freely electing what seemeth best for it self especially in externalls and herein the causes so answer the effects as if the effects be necessary the causes are also necessary and if contingent the causes are contingent nor doth the praescience or fore-knowledge of God which is certain and not to be deceived abolish the contingency of Natural events but the future effect is disposed as it were by a Divine Providence necessarily or contingently nor doth it null the freedom of the agent nor is the Creator obliged to the necessity but moderateth all things freely according to his free will and pleasure and though his Omnipotency can dispose of causes and life with every kind of death at his own free pleasure yet it will not urge any Person to accept that term of life for a fatal determinination but for a Divine ordination of various causes which by the Election of the will that as Des-Cartes saith Can never be constrained prove occasions either of sustaining or destroying life In brief if still the curious Objector remains dissatified I wish him convinced Potius verberibus quam verbis Rather with stripes than stress of words and the indicative Story which I have read of may apologize for me in my Optative mood A discontented Gallant having drowned himself and being much lamented by the Spectators for youthful comliness amongst them was one of this erronious opinion who was pleased to read a lecture to them of the inevitable decree of the Almighty and not by him to be avoided nor by them lamented Hereupon a young Man of the contrary education gave her a great blow over the face which made her challenge him of base cowardise and as great incivility to the Feminine Sex Who returned her in answer that it was the inevitable will of God it should be so and a truth according to her own Doctrine which caused her to stagger in her opinion Let us not then scorn the means For as Solomon saith Judgments are prepared for scroners and stripes for the back of fools Prov. 19. 29. Obj. 2. Another Objection is of those whom we call Star-peepers Nativity-casters and Fortune-tellers who by Birth-stars that is by Stars which arise at every ones coming into the World pretend an infallible prediction of the certain time of their health sickness recovery what shall chaunce unto them and of the time and manner of their death and so thereby endeavour to overthrow the use of all means tending to the preservation of health and prolongation of life Solut. Indeed we deny not unto that noble Science which they name Natural Astrologie the knowledge of Nature's order and the motions of Heavenly Bodies But we utterly disallow their Superstition who professing judicial Astrology for with this great and glorious title they deck and garnish their superstition do measure and predict conjecturally every Man's fortune and success as touching sickness life and death by the hour of his birth For while these Nativity-casters and Fortune-tellers confess that recourse must be made from the time of bearing to the time of begetting what do they else but bewray their own vanity For it is not possible that they should hear and know for certain the very time of Conception So that though it be granted that the Stars have some influence and power upon our Bodies in respect of health and sickness life and death yet notwithstanding it may be rationally denyed that they can be certainly fore-told by any such judicial Astrological predictions Because amongst many other reasons of the uncertainty of the time of Conception or instant of begetting Let not Men then search into their Almanacks to calculate a Nativity and in the mean time neglect their Bibles which will never be out of date But let them as our Saviour adviseth Search the Scriptures John 5. 39. and they may read Judg. 8. 18. of many thousands dying a violent death nigh one and the same time And if an Astrologer had been consulted before that time it is likely that he would have fore-told the instanious deaths of an hundred and twenty thousand when most of them without question had divers and sundry Birth-stars Again had he read of Esau Jacob twins born would he judge them to have been of the same temper and constitution and to have died at the same instant of time It is like he might but surely not without error Yea it may be inferred and proved also by strict observation that other Children besides twins have been born at one instant of time who notwithstanding died at several times Furthermore if the time and kind of death depend upon the Stars then by consequence shall sins depend upon them too for these are the proper cause of that and the promises of God in respect of bodily health and long life be of no effect Which Consequences whoever grants as Conclusions without further examination of the Premisses I fear will scarce ever be directed to Christ by a Star I shall therefore direct the eyes of such to the reading of that sacred Irony in Isaiah Let now the Astrologers the Star-gazers the monthly Prognosticators stand up and save thee from the things that shall come upon thee Isay 47. 13. And also of that dehortatory Lesson in Jeremiah Thus saith the Lord Learn not the way of the Heathen and be not dismayed at the signs of Heaven for the Heathen are dismayed at them Jer. 10. 2. Object 3. A third Objection may
further treat in the following Sections SECT I. Of Gluttony THis is such a sin as Christ gives us a strict Caution against it Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting c. And as it is a sin so a Mother-sin fruitful in the production of other sins Deut. 21 20. yea fruitful also in diseases of the body The Stoicks imputed all diseases to age but Erasistratus did not ill to ascribe all or most of them to excess in eating For if a Man feed too much as a Physician saith these discommodities arise thereof all Natural Spirits leave their several standings and run headlong to the stomack to perfit Concoction which if with all their forces they cannot perform then brain and body are over-mastered with heavy vapours and humours so that he is ever under the arrest of some disease or in danger of it Multos morbos fercula multa faciunt Many dishes bring or cause many diseases It was the observation of temperate Seneca and it is not without reason For Physicians do affirm that crudities the fruits of repletion are the nurseries of all those diseases wherewith Men are ordinarily vexed Now that which we call crudities is the imperfect Concoction of food for when the stomack either through the excess of Meat or for the variety taken at one meal or some other evil quality doth imperfectly digest what it hath received the juice of the Meat so taken is said to be crude that is to say raw or to have a cruditie in it which is the occasion of many inconveniences For in the first place they do fill the brain with many phlegmatick excrements and overheat the bowels whereupon many obstructions are bred in the narrow passages of them Moreover these cruduties do corrupt the temper of the whole body and stuff the veins with putrid humours from whence proceed many grievous diseases for when the first Chylus is crude and what we eat is malignantly concocted it is impossible to speak as to the less Modern opinion that any good blood can be bred in the second Chylus of the Liver for the second Concoction can never amend the first Again these crudities are the cause that the veins through the whole body are replenished with foul and with impure blood and mingled with many humour which do break forth into desperate Diseases And this may be more fully seen if we shall make make an inspection into a Treatise of Doctor Charlton's Exercitationes Pathologicae p. 70. wherein we may observe how and after what manner food becomes the cause or matter of diseases Or if a sum of what he more largely deliberates upon may be satisfactory take it thus From an ingurgitation of food beyond the strength of Nature ariseth a Repletion from a Repletion flow a Plethora or an Exuperance of good humours and when these by a continual motion have increased to corruption and putrifaction there soon follows a Cachochymia or a redundance of ill Humours and out of these two spring a most fruitful field of diseases Hence arise Feavers Inflammations Tumours Swellings Irruption of the Vessels bleeding at the Nose Apoplexies Cathexy or ill disposition of the Body when the nourishment is converted to ill humours Scabiness Leprosie and innumerable other diseases For saith he p. 71. quid mali precor est quod à corrupto sanguine non expectes ac time as What evil distemper I pray is there but may be both expected and feared to arise from a corrupt blood Thus you see Gluttony is a Nurse to innumerable diseases But this is not all it is a cut-throat to innumerable Persons according to the Proverb Intemperance is a cut-throat destroying Man's life frequently and suddenly according to that known saying By Suppers and Surfeits more have been killed than Galen ever cured Yea by surfeiting have many perished as saith the Son of Sirach Eccl. 37. 31. Thus Gluttons dig their graves with their teeth whil'st their Kitchin is their Shrine their Cook their Priest their Table their Altar and their Belly their God Hence also it is said That Meat kills as many as the Musket and that Pluaes pereunt crapulâ quam capulo lantibus quam lanteis The board kills more than the sword I have read that the Spartans to deter others from Luxurious feeding erected Statues to represent the fatal and fearsul end of those that were given to riot What Schollar hath not read in Herodotus of the Minstrel of Megara whose girdle in the wast was three yards and a half long or of Milo Crotoniates that great Pamphagus Athen. l. 10. c. 1. yet they died both very weak Men and young by oppressing Nature History records of the Scots that they punished their Belly-gods in this sort First they filled their bellies as full of good Meat as ever they could hold then they gagged them and threw them into the next River with their arms pinnion'd saying Now as thou hast eaten too much so drink too much But they should not have needed to punish them by such an artificial destruction for had they waited with a little patience they might have observed this sin to be its own natural punishment destroying more frequently and more generally than any other means For Life as one saith is a lamp excess in Meat doth shorten the one as too much Oyl extinguisheth the other The Glutton then turning that into an occasion of death which was given for preservation of life seldom or never lives long But as he is hateful unto God in idolizing his belly so he is hurtful to himself as a Felo de se in hastning his own death Now if any should here require some Rules of Temperance in eating whereby they may know how to limit themselves within due bounds that so they may not run out upon the borders of Intemperance I must suspend that enquiry with its full determination until I shall have positively treated of Temperance in general Only thus much may be inserted here which Doctor Muffet a famous Physician hath written in his Book of Health's Improvement Fools and Idiots saith he know you when your Horse and your Hawk and your Dog have enough and are you ignorant what measure to allow your selves Who will urge his Horse to eat too much or cram his Hawk till she be over-gorged or feed his Hound till his tail leave waving And shall Man the measurer of Heaven and Earth be ignorant how in Diet to measure the bigness or strength of his own stomack Knows he by signs when they are over-filled and is he ignorant of the signs of repletion in himself namely of satiety loathing drowsiness stiffness weakness weariness heaviness and belching But we will pass over this and treat of the other branch of Intemperance which follows SECT II. Of Drunkenness THat this is a sin and that of no mean degree we may plainly perceive by sundry Texts of sacred Writ Luke 21. 34. Gal. 5. 21. Eph. 5.
18. But most especially and most notably in that fearful Commination 1 Cor. 6. 10. where we are informed that Drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And yet something they shall inherit namely diseases not a few contracted upon them partly perhaps from their Parents voluptuousness but chiefly and most certainly from their own habituated disorders Drunkenness saith one dolores gignit in capite in stomacho in toto corpore acerrimos Breeds grievous diseases in the head in the stomack and in the whole body Now by Drunkenness we must understand all excess in drinking with its degrees as it is taken in Scripture Phrase For overcoming of or being overcome with strong drink Isai. 5. 22. Jer. 23. 9. which tend to the alienation of the mind dulling or clouding of the understanding inflaming the blood and confounding of health In these and the like respects Solomon makes this Interrogation who hath wo who hath sorrow who hath babling who hath wounds without cause who hath redness of eyes Prov. 23. 29. And 't is answered in the following Verse They that tarry long at the wine they that go to seek mixt wine More fully we may consider the effects of Drunkenness as they are described by Physicians to whose learning and experience we owe no small honour and credence And they are resolution of the Nerves Cramps and Palsies Inflation of the Belly and Dropsies Redness and Rheums in the Eyes tremblings in the hands and joynts inclination to Feavers and the Scurvy Sicknesses at Stomack and sower Belchings Pains of the Head and Teeth Crudities in the Stomack and weakness of the Stomack Pain in the Eyes or dimness of Sight trembling of the Heart weakness of the Liver Distillations the Cough a corrupt Breath Tumours Gouts These and many more are the bitter fruits that grow upon that unhappy Tree And as this vice produceth almost innumerable diseases and distempers so consequently it shorteneth life The Cup kills as many as the Canon and therefore those srothie Companions that pretend such kindness in a too free and frequent drinking their Friends health do prove miserably unkind to their own Bodies as well as Souls while they drink themselves out of health and life in the conclusion For this cause Drunkenness is said to oppress Nature and hasten death by consuming the natural moysture and also by its superfluous moysture drowning the natural heat And thence it is that Willows and such like whose natural place is the Rivers side and whose natural property is as it were to be alwayes drinking are of short continuance Hence it is that this vice by Matrobius is called Cita senectus A sudden old age because they that are often drunk soon grow old Or if some will say it is a preventer of old age it must be in its cutting Men off before they can attain to it Instances for the illustration of this truth are not few in History Alexander the Great in the flower of his age drunk himself to death and killed forty-one more by excessive drinking to get that Crown of one hundred and eighty Pounds weight which he had provided for him that drank most Plutarch Erasinus for the same cause hath called Eccius Jeccius For as he lived a shameful Drunkard so being non-plu'st at Ratisbon by Melancthon he drank more than was fit that night at the Bishop of Mundina's lodgings who had store of the best Italian Wines and so fell into a feaver whereof he died Jo. Man L. Com. pag. 89. The same Author Jo. Manlius tells us of three abominable Drunkards who drank so long till one of them fell down stark dead and the other two escaped not altogether free from distempers A Modern Author in his Book entitl'd The Mirrour of Examples setteth down two or three remarkable Stories to our present purpose At a Tavern in Bread-street certain Gentlemen drinking healths to the Lords on whom they had dependance one of them with an Oath drinks off a Pottle of Sack to his Lord after which he could neither rise up nor speak but falling into a sleep dyed within two hours after At a place near Mauldon five or six appointed a drinking Match laying in Beer for the purpose drank healths in a strange manner whereof all of them died within a few weeks after Also at the Plough in Barnwel near Cambridge a lusty young Man with two of his Neighbours and one Woman in their Company agreed to drink up a Barrel of strong Beer which accordingly they did but within twenty-four hours three of them died and the fourth hardly escaped after great danger and sickness Now the events of these Men's lives and their untimely ends are not to be accounted so much accidental as natural effects occasioned by their foul enormities and frequently attested by the experience of every age though not prevalent enough with the sensual and stupified Drunkard whom Austin brings in saying Malle se vitam quam vinum eripi He had rather lose his life than his liquor But did Men seriously while they are sober consider how injurious this sin is to the health of Body and Soul how it shormeth Men's lives lengthneth their punishment here and aggravates it hereafter how it fills Men brimful with diseases Spiritual and Corporal they should methinks respect their welfare better than to buy so small a pleasure at so dear a rate But in respect of bodily well-fare some may object that Avicenna Rhasis and Averrhoes advise the use of Wine Usque ad ebrietatem Even to drunkenness pretending it to be Physical as it is a Vomitory to evacuate these ill humours in the head and stomack which are the causes of most diseases and that Seneca indulgeth thus far Sen. de Tranquill. 15. Nonnunquan ad ebrietatem veniendum non ut mergat nos sed ut deprimat Eluit enim curas ab imo animum movet ut morbis quibusdam ita tristititiae medetur Now then we may drink more liberally even unto drunkenness its self not to overwhelm our parts but only to depress them a while For it washeth away cares exhilarates the mind and as it cureth certain diseases so likewise sadness To which this answer may be returned that herein many Men foolishly erre esteeming the cause of a hundred sicknesses to be the Medicine of one and the poison of the Soul to be good Physick for the Body no good Bodily Phisician will prescribe it no Spiritual Physician will allow it Cum turpis est Medicina sanari pudeat When the Medicine is so filthy and odious let us be ashamed to make use of it When it is so sinful let us be afraid to make trial whether the destruction of the Soul be the preservation of the Body Let us not do evil that good may come Rom. 3. 8. Much less when nothing but evil comes from thence as may be still made to appear in this vice in respect of bodily distempers For drunkenness is so far from
conferring any thing towards bodily health that it rather produceth sickness even by that which amongst some sottish Physicians is pretended as a cause of health namely vomiting which is a symptome of sickness and also sometimes a cause of dangerous distempers when it succeedeth a nauseous over-charging the stomack with drink So that whatever be the effects of an evacuation by other kind of vomits this by drunkenness is often a cause of many distempers seldom or never a cure of any unless it be of the present sickness of stomack which this vice first caused But how many other distempers and diseases doth it cause which it never cures So that you see drunkenness is a certain cause of many diseases and of shortness of life but seldom a cure unless it be by accident of any SECT III. Of Adultery Fornication Uncleanness c. THe works of the flesh saith the Apostle are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness Gal. 5. 19. And they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Verse 21. Now as these sins are very injurious to the Soul so also to the body Ezeck 16. 28. For Lust not satisfying such Persons as are tainted with it they soon fall into immoderation and excess which hath these damages attending it A dissolution of strength and spirits decay of sight tainture of the breath diseases of the nerves joynts as Palsies all kinds of Gouts weakness of the back involuntary flux of seed bloody Urine But then as a Modern Physician saith if to immoderation be added the base and sordid accompanying of Harlots and impure Women what follows but a Consumption of Lungs Liver and Brain a putrifaction and discolouration of the blood loss of colour and complexion a purulent and violent Gonorrhea an ulceration and rottenness of the Genitals noysom and malignant Knobs Swellings Ulcers and Fistulaes in the head face feet groin and other glandulous and extream parts of the body These and many more being the effects of that detestable sin when it meets with that detestable disease the Venereal Pox which by God's just judgment hath assailed Mankind not only in France but in most parts of the World as a scourge or punishment to restrain the too wanton and lascivious lusts of impure Persons causing them to receive in themselves that recompence of their errour which was meet as it is in the Apostle's Phrase Rom. 1. 27. though in a different sense To this purpose Mr. John Abrenethy in his pious and ingenious Treatise of Physick for the Soul thus writeth p. 369. This burning lust spendeth the Spirits and Balsom of life as the flame doth wast the Candle whereupon followeth corruption of humours rotting of the marrow the joints ache the nerves are resolved the head is pained the gout increaseth and oft-times as a most just punishment there insueth that miserable scourge of Harlots Lues-Venerea the French Pox. Also Carnal Love or fleshly lust in young Inamoratoes whose affections are stronger than their reason is a branch of wantonness that is fruitful in the production of such diseases and distempers as do extreamly afflict and weaken the Persons captivated as may appear in that Example of Amnon who was sick with love 2 Sam. 13. 1. 2. as the cause with a consumption as the effect being lean from day to day by reason of his fair Sister whom he loved And hence it is that in such Persons the heat abandons the parts and retiring into the brain leaves the whole body in great distemperature which corrupting consuming the blood makes the face grow pale and wan causeth the trembling of the heart breeds strange Convulsions and retires the spirits in such sort that they seem rather Images of death than living Creatures who are possessed with it Now for further illustration of this matter and to revive the mind of the Reader I shall briefly and compendiously recite these two instances The first is of King Perdiccas whom Hippocrates observing and finding him to be in a Chronical sickness which made his body to languish exceedingly after long inquiry perceived his pining away to flow from a Spiritual disease for the love he had to Phila his Fathers Concubine Saran in vita Perdic. The other is of Antiochus Son of King Seleucus who burning with an unspeakeable desire and lust for Stratonice his Stepmother and being mindful what dishonest fires he carried in his breast concealed his inward wound and smothered the flame so long till it reduced his body to the uttermost degree of a Consumption and thus lying in his bed like a dying Man his Father was presently cast down with grief as thinking onely of the death of his only Son and his own miserable condition in being made Childless Plutarch Now how these two Perdiccas and Antiochus were cured of their languishing distempers is inconsistent with my present purpose to declare Also Sodomy Polygamy and self-pollution are sins of uncleanness that by transgressing the rules of Temperance do prove frequently occasions of many distempers Yea likewise the immoderate and unseasonable use of the Marriage bed which is a breach of some Divine Precepts 1 Thes. 4. 4. Lev. 18. 19. is too fruitful in diseases not only in respect of those derived to Posterity but also of those propagated on the Parents themselves For according to the judgment of Laevinus Lemnius and other learned Physicians it can hardly be expressed what Contagîon and mischief comes thereupon when such immodest and impure conjunctions are indulged For where the right ends of Marriage are not observed there Persons of both Sex at last pay dearly for their unruly lust when their bodies are tormented with the Leprosie or Pox Gouts Aches or other distemperatures And therefore one adviseth That in the private acquaintance and use of Marriage there be a seasonable restraint with a moderation that so the pleasure therein be inter-mingled with some regard to the rules of health and long life To both which those fore-named sins of Wantonness and Uncleanness are foul Enemies Moreover these sins do shorten and contract life For those that are defiled and corrupted by them do very much sin against their own Bodies wasting their strength in pleasure as the flame consumeth the Candle and therefore are like Sparrows which Aristotle saith do therefore live but a short time because of their insatiable copulation And I read that the Romans were wont to have their Funerals at the gates of Venus Temple Plut. to signifie that lust was the Harbinger and hastener of death Yea the wisest of meer Men doth in his Proverbs teach us the praedatory and destructive power of all uncleanness in these words And thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed Prov. 5. 11. It is a fire saith Job that consumeth to destruction Job 31. 12. The Lord Verulam in his History of Life and Death p. 57. makes this observation That the Goat lives to the same age
as he had slept his last sleep Acts 20. 9. but that a merciful God by the hands of Paul did raise him up again to teach him and by him all Church-sleepers the future danger of such negligence and irreverence in his House His deadly fall not being so much accidental as a judgment from God And as concerning the unworthy receiving the Lord's Supper St. Paul telleth the Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep 1 Corinthians 11. 30. i. e. For these abuses of this Holy Sacrament the hand of God hath been upon many of you so as many of you are afflicted with divers kinds of Diseases and many of you are striken with a temporal death here called sleep Now from the Apostles declaring this to be the true cause of that sickness and mortality that was amongst them it is to be supposed that either they looked not after the cause at all but took it to come only as a thing of course or which is more probable that they mistook the cause imagined that to be the cause which was not A great mortality there was amongst them many died but that they thought might proceed from the distemperature of the Body or from the corruption of the Air or from want of exercise or from not observing a good diet or from immoderate labour Some they thought might die of one of these causes some of another But the Apostle passeth all these over and maketh known unto them that however these might be considerable as causes in their due places yet the true main and principal cause they were utterly ignorant of and that was their abusive and negligent receiving of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper For this cause many are weak c. A truth which had any less than an Apostle delivered he would have been esteemed a setter forth of new Doctrine Or had the Apostle delivered it in any dark and obscure Phrase flesh and blood would have found out twenty Interpretations before ever they would have thought of this But the Speaker is so Divine and the speech so plain that it cannot be mistaken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text For this cause because of your unworthy receiving the Body and Blood of Christ many are sick and many sleep Hence was that speech of Saint Anselme taken who saith that many Diseases that reign in the Summer though Physicians may impute them to other secondary causes proceed from Peoples irreverent receiving that Sacrament at Easter That de facto this is a truth see the 2d of the Chronicles and the 30th chap. v. 20. where you shall find that for some abuses and disorders committed in the Celebration of the Passover the Jews were smitten with some troublesom disease For 't is here said that upon Hezekiah's Prayer the Lord healed the People which implieth plainly that they were diseased and sick before and yet this default was only in the circumstantial Points of that Sacrament For 't is there also said that every one had prepared his heart for to seek God Some defect there was only in some Ceremonial Rite to be observed Now what we find applied to the Passover we may without fear apply to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper For however they differ in circumstances yet for substance they are the same Sickness we see was sent for the abuse of that and therefore the same punishment appointed for the abuse of this yea inflicted witness the Corinthians who for this cause were plagued with divers Diseases and sundry kinds of death And indeed it is not unlike that since these Corinthians there have been many thousands who for the very same cause have not as the Psalmist saith lived out half their dayes but have been swept away out of the Land of the living and gone down with sorrow into the Grave True then it is de facto God hath thus plagued the sinful neglect and abuse of his Sacrament I will now also demonstrate that de jure it must needs be so and this will appear if we consider the sin it self to be Camelinum peccatum A sin of a very large size burdened with those following aggravations namely that 't is a sin immediatly against Christ's own Person robbeth God of that which he is most tender of his honour and is in the judgment of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 11. 27. I suppose if will-fully committed no less than a spilling and shedding of the precious blood of Christ Heb. 6. 6. In a word that 't is a sin paramount like Saul higher then his Fellows And therefore let us judge in our selves whether the wages of such a sin unrepented of can be less than Corporal plagues and temporal death For if we contemn the sacred Body of Christ how can we think that God should take any care of ours If we make no reckoning of Christ's death 't is but just with God to disregard ours Oh then as we tender our health and our lives let us never dare to approach unto that dreadful Table without due reverence and a competent measure of preparation Secondly Concerning the Prophaning the Lord's day Sacriledge c. we read several Instances of God's wrath upon such declared in Corporal plagues and destruction A certain Godly Minister preaching and pressing the sanctification of the Sabbath and taking occasion herein to make mention of that Man who by the special command of God was stoned to death for gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day Hereupon one in the Congregation stood up and laughed and made all the haste he could out of the Church and went to gathering of sticks though he had no need of them But when the People came out from the Sermon they found this Man dead with the bundle of sticks in his arms lying in the Church Porch This is attested by a credible Author Yea if time would permit or this Enchiridion extend to it I could expatiate upon such Instances as might likewise demonstrate that not a few have upon the breach of the fourth Commandment been striken by the immediate hand of the Almighty with lameness and sore Diseases And for Sacriledge that hath been severely punished in like manner As in Antioches Epiphanes who fell sick with grief upon the remembrance of the evils he did at Jerusalem in taking away the Vessels of gold and silver that were therein confessing that for this cause his troubles came upon him and so suddenly died 1 Mach. chap. 6. Also it is recorded that wicked Alcimus for his violation of the Sanctuary and his sacrilegious enterprises was immediatly taken with a Palsie so that he could no more speak any thing but died suddenly with great torment 1 Mach. 9. cap. 54 55 56. v. Again Ananias and Sapphira his Wife for their Sacriledge cloaked with hypocrisie at Peter's rebuke fell down dead Acts 5. 5. 10. Thirdly Swearing Blasphemy and Perjury do sometimes in a supernatural manner occasion Diseases
as they are longest free from Diseases so also most commonly from the long continuance of those Diseases the material cause thereof being consumed in such manner by former labour and exercise as there wants sufficient Iewel to maintain the Distemper which like the external fire soon dieth and is extinct for want of nourishment and thereby Nature in its Sphaere the greatest agent in bodily cures being exonerated of obnoxious humours is ever in a tendency to reduce the Body into its pristine and symmetrical Constitution Moreover it hath been observed that Epidemical Diseases as Pestilential Feavers Cathars Small Pox Flux c. do much easier seise upon such as by contracting an evil habit of Body through a sedentary and idle course of life have rendred themselves more obnoxious and disposed thereunto in whom likewise they are more difficultly cured And now before I conclude this Point I would in kindness admonish those of the foeminine and teeming Sex that they would accustome themselves to moderate exercise to diligence and industrie in some lawful and commendable employment thereby to preserve their health and facilitate their delivery For it is observed that those Women which are used to labour endure Child-bearing with far more ease and the Irish Women because of their stirring and active lives are quick in delivery and here in England also the industrious laborious Women in City and Country are very quick at their labours and allow themselves a very short retirement comparatively with others of a contrary inclination So that in this particular also the active and stirring life is of no small advantage I conclude with the wholesom advice of Syrach My son hear me and despise me not and at the last thou shalt find as I told thee in all thy works be quick so shall there no sickness come unto thee Eccl. 31. 22. Sixthly Temperanco a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5. 23. and a vertue here considerable only as it consisteth in the moderation or regulation of the appetite in eating and drinking according to the standard of Nature which is content with a little is of all vertues the most conducible to bodily health and long life That saying of the Wise man It is not good to eat much honey Prov. 25. 27. sheweth unto us that even the most wholesom and nourishing Meat of all other will prove dangerous and hurtful to our health if it be not soberly and measurably eaten Temperance as one saith being not only the Carver but also the Commander at our tables should alwayes have a room thereat Timotheus having supped with Plato and eaten contrary to his custom very moderately slept very quietly that night finding neither Cholick to awake him nor belchings in the morning to annoy him wherefore as soon as he awaked he brake forth into this exclamation with a loud voice How sweet how sweet are Plato's suppers which make us in the night time to sleep and in the morning to breath so sweetly Marsil Fic de Sanis slud tu Yea the benefits of Temperance are many 1. Freedom from almost all sicknesses 2. Length of life and death without much pain 3. A mitigation of incurable Diseases Instances of these or some of these there are not a few in History Socrates is said by sobriety to have had alwayes a strong Body and to have lived ever in health and that by the good order of his diet he escaped the Plague at Athens never avoiding the City nor the company of the infected though the greatest part of the City was consumed by it Aelian lib. 13. It is also reported of Galen that famous Physician that he lived one hundred and fourty years and that after he was twenty eight years old he was never grieved with any sickness except the grudge of a Feaver for one day His rule was not to eat or drink till he had an appetite nor to eat and drink till he had none This rule he observing was seldom sick and lived as Sipontinus writeth to the abovesaid age Cyprian relates that Maximinian the Emperour seldom used to drink betwixt Meals and therefore lived in health to the end of his life Queen Elizabeth was famous for this vertue King Edward the Sixth called her by no other name then his sweet Sister Temperance Cambd. Eliz. She did seldom eat but one sort of Meat rose ever with an appetite and lived about seventy years which is beyond the ordinary Period of Princes and Princesses who seldom attain to summ up experimentally Moses his Arithmetick in that Psalm Psal. 90. 10. appropriated to him We read that the Sect of the Esseans amongst the Jews did usually extend their lives to an hundred years Now that Sect used a single or abstenious diet after the Rule of Pythagoras Metaphrastes in the life of Saint John writes that he was so abstenious in the use of meats and drinks that he took no more then would suffice to maintain life He lived as ancient Record mentions ninety three years St. Paul the Hermite lived an hundred and thirteen years Now his diet was so slender and strict that it was thought almost impossible to support humane Nature therewith But most memorable is that of Cornarus the Venetian who being in his youth of a sickly Body began first to eat and drink by measure to a certain weight thereby to recover his health this cure turned by use into a diet that diet to an extraordinary long life even of an hundred years and better without any decay in his senses and with a constant enjoying of his health 'T is a common Proverb which were it commonly observed would make most Physicians sick and preserve their Patients a long time sound Use mederation and temperance and desie the Physician A saying that taken with a grain of allowance doth favour much of truth though little of Urbanity No less observable is that Proverbial Rithme Gulaepone metas ut sit longior tibi aetas Which may thus be Englished To thy appetite set some timely bounds For so the longer age to thee redounds That Intemperance is the Extinguisher and Temperance the Prolonger of the Candle of our life was long ago taken notice of by the Son of Sirach in these words Be not unsatiable in any dainty thing nor too greedy upon meats Eccles. 37. latter part For excess of meats bringeth sickness and surfetting will turn into choler By surfetting have many perished but he that taketh heed prolongeth his life Temperance then as may be gathered from the preceding Instances is not only instead of preventive but also curative Physick For as many by Intemperance have relapsed into their old Distempers so by Temperance some have dispossess'd their lingring maladies and recovered their former state of health And therefore the best Physicians do alwayes remember to prescribe to their Patients a temperate diet for the accomplishment of their Cures as knowing that Temperance alone proves commonly more effectual to that end than all their prescriptions
Providence it was that this Boy should be by to detect and defeat their wicked counsel whereby Paul escaped as a Bird out of the snare Austin relates how by losing his way as he was travelling he thereby saved his life escaping an Ambush of the bloody Donatists who had way-laid him The Stories are well known how Moulin at the time of the Parisian Massacre was cherished for a fortnight by a Hen which came constantly and laid her eggs there where he lay hid And at Cales how an English-man who crept into a hole under a pair of stairs was there preserved by means of a Spider which had woven its web over the hole and so the Souldiers slighted the search in that place No less remarkable is the signal preservation of those vertuous and religious Potentates Queen Elizabeth King James and our now gracious Soveraign Charles the Second thorow an Ocean of dangers by that discreet Pilot Divine Providence All which Instances are a sufficient Comment upon this Text He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death Psal. 68. 20. And the result of the whole Point is this That as man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Mat. 4. 4. that is to say as bread though ordinarily it hath a nourishing property inhaerent in it for the sustaining of man's life yet so only as that the operation of that and success of other means tending to the preservation of health and prolongation of life is guided by the power of God's Providence and appointment So the sweet influence of this Providence is chiefly and principally intended and extended to the Children of God in blessing the means used by them to that end and purpose Therefore are those sacred Texts prescribed as corroboratives to the Servants of God And ye shall serve the Lord your God and he shall bless thy bread and thy water and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee Exod. 23. 25. Also Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father Fear ye not therefore ye are of more value than many sparrows Mat. 10. 29 31. If then the eye of God's Providence be so watchful to defend and preserve the meanest of his Creatures that Sparrows which are so cheap and worthless and also such short-liv'd Birds as Naturalists observe shall not perish or die without the permission and concurring will of God in second causes then surely we must not asperse our Saviour's Logick by denying the inference from Sparrows to the Children of God seeing this is the scope of the Argument urged by our Saviour in that place namely that if the eye of Divine Providence be so careful and circumspect in the preservation of the meanest Creatures Much more is the eye of the Lord as David saith upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine Psal. 32. 18 19. And thus much shall serve briefly to have demonstrated in general that vertuous and regular actions and affections do through the blessed influence of Divine Providence upon means prove often occasions of bodily health and long Life CHAP. V. Some Objections briefly answered And the Conclusion of the whole Obj. 1. THe first Objection is of those who cry up an irresistible Decree a fatal necessity predetermining the bounds of Man's life and so consequently cry down the use of all means whether Spiritual or Natural as needless and frivolous in order to the preservation of health and prolongation of life And they bolster up their opinion with the forecited words of Job by them wrested Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not dis dayes also like the dayes of an hireling Job 7. 1. Doubtless an error herein hath been very prejudicial not only to the Physicians Practice but also the Patients health And lest it should likewise obstruct the good effect designed in this Treatise we will not let it pass uncontrolled For whosoever alloweth this error must of necessity disallow the Petition in the Lord's Prayer for our daily bread as also of all the Divine Prayers made for the prolongation of life and preservation from mortal danger or sudden death as likewise of the dispensation of the gift of Healing to the Physician whom God hath created and honoured to the same end and purpose and of all other means whatsoever tending to the temporal end and design of this Discourse Answ. Now in answer hereunto I shall endeavour to unfold those Texts of sacred Writ wherein the main strength of the Objection lieth as namely the forecited place and also that in the 14 th of Job v. 5 th Seeing his dayes are determined the number of his moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass Here then the words of Job concerning the end of life limited set and appointed are not to be referred unto causes of destiny but to the obedience and disobedience of God's Commandment Or we may more largely answer with some See Piscator upon Psal. 55. 23. Marianus upon Job 14. 5. that the term of Mans life is twofold 1. Super-natural 2. Natural 1. Super-natural As it is decreed from above in the fore-sight and determination of God which doth not alwayes agree with the Natural and thus as Marianus saith A primâ die pendet extrema in ortu sanxit quantum quisque victurus est The last day depends upon the first and at our birth yea before we were conceived God hath concluded how long every Man should live as he that fore-seeth as well the wayes that we would go as the end which those wayes would bring us to 2. Natural Which a Man may attain unto by his Natural strength unless he doth neglect the means or shorten his own dayes by some unlawful deeds and thus the Godly may be said to prolong their dayes when by their upright life they have the assistance of the Divine Clemency to produce them to the furthest period that their Natural strength could carry them So Abraham lived to a good old age Gen. 25 8. and so divers of God's Saints became old Men and full of years And on the contrary the wicked may be rightly said to shorten his dayes when for his impiety the Divine hand of Heaven doth abridge that ample time which he might have lived and when according as he determined from the beginning when he fore-saw his wayes he doth measure his life with a shorter line then the strength of Nature would have done So lascivious Zimri was cut off for his sins in the midst of his age so the Old world so the Sodomites so the Galileans so all those Sinners that do provoke the hand of God to use the Sword of Justice to cut them off for their