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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45640	The divine physician, prescribing rules for the prevention, and cure of most diseases, as well of the body, as the soul demonstrating by natural reason, and also divine and humane testimony, that, as vicious and irregular actions and affections prove often occasions of most bodily diseases, and shortness of life, so the contrary do conduce to the preservation of health, and prolongation of life : in two parts / by J.H ...	Harris, John, 1667?-1719.	1676 (1676)	Wing H848; ESTC R20051	75,699	228

and folly in Israel but also of their abettors the Benjamites who lost above twenty-five thousand Men in the slaughter through that occasion Thus the first voluntary lust of the Levite's Wife was most justly punished by a second rape amongst the lustful Gibeonites whose lust when it had conceived brought forth sin and sin when it was finished brought forth death Amnon one of the Sons of King David was so strongly enchanted with the love of his Sister Thamar that to the end to fulfil his lust he traiterously forced her to his will But Absalom her natural Brother hunting for opportunity of revenge for this indignity towards his Sister invited him two years after to a Banquet with his other Brethren and after the same caused his Men to murder him for a fare-well 2 Sam. 13. The same Absalom that slew Amnon for incest with his Sister committed himself incest with his Fathers Concubines moved thereto by the wicked counsel of Achitophel But it was the fore-runner and occasion of his overthrow and untimely death 2 Sam. 16 18 chap. Rodoaldw the eight King of Lumbardy being taken in Adultery even in the fact was slain without delay by the Husband of the Adulteresse Anno 659. in like sort John Maletesta slew his Wife and the Adulterer together when he took them amidst their embracements Chron. Phil. Melancton So did one Lodewick Steward of Normandy kill his Wife Carlotta and her Lover John Lavernus as they were in bed together At Naples it chanced in the King's Palace as young King Frederick Ferdinand's Son entered the privy Chamber of the Queen his Mother to salute her and the other Ladies of the Court that the Prince of Bissenio waiting in the outward Chamber for his return was slain by one of his own Servants that suddenly gave him with his sword three deadly strokes in the presence of many Spectators Which deed he confessed that he had watched three years to perform in regard of an injury done unto his Sister and in her to him whom he ravished against her will Bemb lib. 3. Hist. Venet. The Spaniards that first took the Isle Hispaniola were for their Whoredoms and rapes which they committed upon the Wives and Virgins all murdered by the Inhabitants Benzoni Milan Infinite are the Examples that might out of History be collected to this purpose But to avoid prolixity let it suffice only to add hereunto that for these and the like sins many thousands in the World in every Age have either by the rage of jealousie in the Persons wronged or by the revenging Sword of the Higher Powers punishing wrong suffered the condigne punishment of death Thirdly and lastly To summ up all further Addition that might be look'd upon as necessarily relating to this Chapter consider in few words that immoderate Anger Envie Hatred Malice Self-murder unlawful Duels Treason Murder of others Despair Rebellion Theft Ambition Covetousness immoderate Grief Atheisme Blasphemy Witchcraft and such like do either immediately by themselves or mediately by other sins accumulated and a succession of unprosperous events attending them prove accidental causes sometimes of Diseases but most commonly of an untimely death And so I proceed to the fourth Chapter as followeth CHAP. IV. Containing an Enumeration of sundry Sins as they are supernaturally occasions of bodily Diseases and shortness of Life THis Chapter may seem to have some relation to the First and so it hath in genere but in regard it differs from it in specie I have here placed it as one of the chief Corner-stones to adorn strengthen yea as a Top-stone to finish and complete the four-square building of this First Part of my Discourse But before I descend to particulars give me leave here to lay down somewhat in general terms as praeliminary to the present design Though God be the proper efficient and super-natural cause of Diseases yet as sin is the immediate cause of God's wrath and anger and a provocation of his vindictive Justice in this respect it may be termed a principal though not immediate cause or occasion of Diseases more especially of such as depend not upon the ordinary chain of second causes but being above the Sphaere of Nature are inflicted by the almighty and unlimited power of God And this the great Secretaries of Nature as Philosophers and Physicians should do well to observe according to the advice of Hippocrates who would have a Physician to take special notice whether the Disease came from a Divine super-natural cause or whether it follow the course of Nature How this place of Hippocrates is to be understood Paracelsus is of opinion that such Spiritual Diseases for so he calls them are spiritually to be cured and not otherwise But of this by the way in general I shall now descend to Particulars whereof I shall make demonstration de facto And First of the abuse of the Ordinances of God viz. the Word and Sacraments Theopompus a Philosopher being about to insert certain things out of the Writings of Moses into his prophane Works and so to abuse the sacred Word of God was striken with a Frensie and being warned of the cause thereof in a dream by prayers made unto God recovered his senses again Joseph Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 2. This Story is recorded by Josephus as also another of Theodectes a Poet that mingled his Tragedies with the Holy Scriptures and was therefore striken with blindness until he had recanted his impiety In a Town of Germany called Itszith there dwelt a certain Husband-man that was a monstrous despiser of the Word of God and his Sacraments He upon a time in the midst of his Cups railed in most bitter terms upon a Minister of God's Word after which going presently into the Fields to over-look his Sheep he never returned alive but was found there dead with his Body all scorched and burnt as black as a coal the Lord having given him over into the hands of the Devil to be thus used for his vile prophaness and abusing Holy things Dr. Justus Jonas in Luther's Conferences reporteth this to be true If you shall despise my Statutes saith the Lord or refuse to hearken unto my Law I will visit you with Consumptions and burning Agues and heaviness of heart Lev. 26. 15 16. Moses for neglecting the Sacrament of Circumcision which is much the same see Rom. 4. 11. Col. 2. 11. 12. in a Spiritual sense with that of Baptisme was struck immediately by the Lord and fell so sick by the way that it was thought he would have died And it came to pass by the way in the Inn that the Lord met him and sought to kill him Exod. 4. 24. Which words are by some Elucidators Bishop Hall c. thus understood viz. that the Lord appeared visibly unto him and sensibly afflicted him with some sudden and violent disease which he knew to be done in regard of his neglect of his Sons Circumcision Eutychus for sleeping at the Sermon fell down so

congiary that Sin gives to its Souldiers viz. death of all sorts this is the just hire of the least sin and this hire is seldom long detained from them that have deserv'd it most As the Lord for the wickedness of the World reduced Man's age from almost a thousand to an hundred and twenty years Gen. 6. 3. and afterward from that to Moses his Arithmetick three score years and ten Psal. 90. 10. So now for the same cause he hath reduced it to a very little pittance not only to 70. but to 7. for in Law no man's life is valued more so that the life of Man is but a span and the weavers shuttle is no more swift than it is Job 7. 6. Especially when many vices are woven into it for then God's justice soon cuts it off as a Weaver cuts off his web from the Loom sometimes before it be finished For every disorderly Person that hath shortned his dayes by his sins may say as Hezekiah did once I have cut off like a weaver my life Isai. 38. 12. i. e. as some Expositors render it I have shortned my life by my sins Thus Er and Onan in the 38th Chap. of Genesis by their sins contracted their lives into the wicked man's abridgment viz. into less than the moyety not living out half their dayes Yea so unquestio able is this truth that it was taken for granted in Job's dayes as appeareth by Job's interrogation How oft is the candle of the wicked putout and how oft cometh their destruction upon them Job 21. 17. What pleasure hath he in his house after him when the number of his moneths is cut off in the mid 〈…〉 21. And in Solomon's dayes it became a Proverb The years of the wicked shall be shortned Prov. 10. 27. A truth that is exemplified in most of the wicked Kings of Judah and of Israel First The Kings of Judah Abijam a wicked King reigned but three years 1 Kings 15. 2. Jehoram of whom it is recorded that he did evil in the sight of the Lord he reigned but twelve years four with his Father and eight alone 2 Kings 8. 17. Ahaziah a wicked King reigned but one year 2 Kings 8. 25. Athaliah a wicked Queen an Usurper she reigned but six years 2 Kings 11. 3. Ahaz a wicked King reigned but unto the 37 th year of his age 2 Kings 16. 2. Amon a wicked King reigned but two years and lived but twenty-four 2 Kings 21. 19. To be short several others of the same Line are Chronicled with short Periods Sin and a sudden death reigning in them successively Secondly We may instance in the Kings of Israel Nadab the Son of Jeroboam a wicked King reigned but two years 1 Kings 15. 25. Baasha indeed reigned twenty-four years but Elah his Son reigned but two years being slain in his drunken humour by his Servant Zimri 1 Kings 16. 8 9. Zimri a Conspirator reigned but seven dayes for burning the King's House over him with fire he died Now the cause is recorded 'T was for his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the Lord in walking in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he did to make Israel to sin 1 Kings 16. v. 15. to 20. Omri a superlative Sinner reigned but twelve years 1 Kin 16. 23. Ahaziah the Son of Ahab was an Idolatrous King and reigned but two years 1 Kings 22. 51. He being sick sent Messengers to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether he should recover of his disease but had his judgment by Elijah who said Thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up but shalt surely die which came to pass according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken 2 Kings 1. And now what shall I more say For the time would fail me to tell of Jehoram Zachariah Shallum Menahem Pekahiah Pekah and some others who through sin lost their lives with their Kingdoms being cut off by the hand of God's vengeance either before or in their middle age And although some of the wicked Kings of Judah and of Israel did reign many years by the permission of a long suffering God yet the instances are so few that they are much overballanced by the short lives of those already mentioned Much also of this truth might be observed in the short Periods of the wicked reigns of sundry Princes not only of this but of other Nations but thus much shall serve to have delineated and demonstrated sin to be in general a Spiritual or Moral cause of bodily diseases and shortness of life supernaturally effected CHAP. II. Shewing that many sins are Natural causes of bodily distempers and shortness of life Most sins are sins of the flesh which are so named because through our flesh to wit our seed or through Carnal generation sin is conveyed into the whole Man Soul and Body Also for that the flesh or body is the instrument to execute the lusts of our natural concupiscence Rom. 6. 13. Thus Piscator and Peter Martyr do judge Now these fleshly lusts we must understand have a powerful influence and operation in the production of fleshly or bodily diseases And this will appear by an examination of the numerous off-spring of excess and intemperance which in many places of Sacred Writs is deemed no less than the transgression of the bounds of God's Law Now the off-spring or fruits of intemperance are these First It brings upon us almost all diseases Secondly It takes part with diseases and makes them often incurable Thirdly It shortens our dayes and makes us die in Agonies From whence cometh soreness and weariness melancholy and heaviness of Spirits stiffness and pain of joints belchings crudities feavers distastings of meat loss of appetite and other tempestuous evils but from excess and intemperance These experimental effects who can deny since almost every Man carries about him and within him a convincing argument thereof Whence is the multitude of Physicians saith a modern Physician but from the frequency and multitude of diseases and whence that frequency and multitude but from excess This saith he is generally confessed but the practise still continued the understanding assents but the affections over-rule Now Intemperance in general may be thus described It is an inordinate and immoderate appetite or desire in our affections pleasures gifts and the use of the Creatures more particularly it is taken for an inordinate appetite and immoderate desire and use of meat and drink and this is when a due mean is exceeded in the too liberal and excessive use of them so that Gluttony and Drunkenness are the two main supporters of Intemperance which is the Mother of most diseases Democritus said that intemperate Men were Valetudinis suae proditores Betrayers of their own health and killers of themselves by their pleasures He spake it of intemperance in eating and drinking of which and also of other sorts of intemperance I shall

and shortness of Life Mr. Fox Acts Mon. p. 2101. telleth us of one named John Peter Son-in-Law to Alexander that cruel Keeper of Newgate who being a most horrible Swearer and Blasphemer used commonly to say If it be not true I pray God I may rot ere I die And not in vain for he rotted away indeed and so died in misery I read of a Perjuter that forswore himself to the end to deceive and prejudice another thereby But he had no sooner made an end of his false Oath but a grievous Apoplexy assailed him so that without speaking any one word he died within few dayes That Story in Eusebius is very remarkable concerning Narcissus a good Bishop of Jerusalem and three lewd Varlots his Accusers as it is recited by the above-named Mr. Fox Narcissus intending to accuse three notable Malefactors of their misdemeanors they thought to prevent his accusation by first laying a grievous Crime to his charge and to get credit thereunto each of them bound it with their severeral Oaths one wishing to be consumed with fire if it were not so another to die of some grievous disease the third to lose both his eyes Narcissus seeing three to one was odds gave place but what became of these perjured Fellows the first was consumed by a fire set in his House the second was taken with a strange Disease that over-spread his whole Body which brought him to a miserable end the third seeing God's judgments upon his Brethren in evil confessed the fault for which he continually shed such abundance of tears that he wept out his eyes becoming blind thereupon Euseb. lib. 6. p. 101. God who takes notice of Mens Oaths takes vengeance of their breach and violation Also we find recorded that in the Reign of the Emperour Anastatius there was a certain Arian Bishop whose name was Olympus who as he was washing himself in a Bath belched forth many blasphemous speeches against the blessed Trinity whereupon lightning fell down from Heaven upon him three times and he was burnt and consumed therewith Paul Diacon in the History of Anastatius There was also in the time of Alphonsus King of Arragon a certain Hermite called Antonius a monstrous blasphemer that belched out vile and injurious speeches against Christ Jesus and the Virgin Mary his Mother but he was striken with a most grievous Disease even to be eaten and gnawn in pieces of Worms until he died Aeneas Silvius of the Acts of Alphonsus Fourthly Pride Vain-glory Ambition Haughtiness do sometimes produce the like effects in the like manner as may appear in these following Instances Antiochus the same with the aforenamed Epiphanes p. 100. a notable Tyrant and Persecutor of the Jews in his pride and fume said That he would come to Jerusalem and make it a common burying place of the Jews But the Lord Almighty the God of Israel smote him with an incurable and invisible Plague For as soon as he had spoken these words a pain of the bowels that was remediless came upon him and sore torments of the inner parts 2 Mach. 9. Howbeit he nothing at all ceased from his bragging but still was filled with pride breathing out fire in his rage against the Jews But it came to pass that he fell down from his Chariot carried violently so that having a sore fall all the Members of his Body were much pained And soon after the Worms came out of his Body and while he lived in sorrow and pain his flesh fell away and the filthiness of his smell was noysom to all his Army And so the wrath of God ended this proud Man's miserable dayes The other is that of King Herod surnamed Agrippa which put James the Brother of John to death and imprisoned Peter with purpose to make him tast of the same cup Acts 12. This Man was puffed with Sacrilegious pride for being upon a time seated in his Throne of Judgment and arrayed in his Royal Robes shewing forth his greatness and magnificence in the presence of the Ambassadors of Tyre Sidon who desired to continue in Peace with him as he spake unto them the People shouted and cried that it was the voice of God and not of man Which titles of honour he disclaimed not and therefore the Angel of the Lord smote him immediately because he gave not God the glory and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost Acts 12. 23. Josephus relateth the Story how that Herod not reproving nor forbidding his pernicious Flatterers was presently taken with most grievous and horrible gripes in his bowels so that looking upon the People he uttered these words Behold here your goodly god whom you but now so highly honoured ready to die with extream pain Jewish Antiq. lib. 19. cap. 1. Thus did this miserable Man exemplarily verifie the Wise man's Proverb Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall Prov. 16. 18. Fifthly Adultery Fornication and the like are also sometimes supernaturally occasions of Diseases and shortness of Life as may appear de facto in the succeeding Instances Claudius of Asses Counsellor of the Parliament of Paris a Man very ill affected to the Professors of the Gospel committed villany with one of his waiting Maids in the very midst whereof he was taken with an Apoplexie which immediately after made an end of him Beard 's Theater of God's Judgments In Northamptonshire a Noble Man's Servant of good credit and place with his Master having familiarity with another Mans Wife as he was about to commit villany with her in a Chamber he fell down stark dead with his hose about his heels which being heard by reason of the noise his fall made of those which were in the lower room they all ran hastily up and easily perceived both the villany he went about and the horrible judgment of God upon him for the same Ibidem p. 372. Pliny telleth of Cornelius Gallus and Q. Elerius two Roman Knights that died in the very act of filthiness Plin. lib. 7. Pharaoh having taken Abram's Wife from him was plagued with great plagues by the Lord and thereby compelled to restore her Gen. 12. 17. Also Abimelech King of Gerar for taking away the same Woman even Sarai afterward Sarah from her Husband though the non-execution of Abimelech's intention might partly excuse him and the integrity of his heart and innocency of his hands might plead for him was yet notwithstanding forewarned and admonished by God in a dream saying unto him Behold thou art but a dead man for the woman which thou hast taken for she is a mans wife Gen. 20. 3. And a little after God saith unto him Now therefore restore the man his wife for he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live and if thou restore her not know thou that thou shalt surely die thou and all that are thine Vers. 7. Also the lustful Sodomites for that sin which deriveth its name from the wicked place of

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

disease Caelius Phinehas's Wife when she heard the sorrowful tidings of the taking of the Arck of God the death of her Father in Law and Husband she bowed her self being great with child was delivered and died through sorrow of heart 1 Sam. 4. 19 20. Queen Mary died as some supposed by her much sighing before her death of thought and sorrow of heart for the departure of King Philip or the loss of Calice Act. Mon. 1901. Now in all this Argument we may take notice what fearful effects immoderate sorrow doth produce upon our Bodies what a malign cold and dry Passion it is wasting the radical humour and by degrees quenching the natural heat of the body yea thrusting her poyson even unto the heart whose vigour she causeth to wither and consumes the forces by her bad influence whereof we may see the signs after death when as they come to open those that have been smothered with Melancholy For instead of a heart they find nothing but a dry skin like to the leaves in Autumn So that all things exactly considered we may say that there is not any Passion which doth so much shorten our life or make it so infirm and miserable as this in its excess Hitherto might be referred Despair an evil Conscience such as is neither quiet nor good and such like self tormenting sins which as they are sometimes causes of immoderate and excessive sorrow so by the like influence upon the Body do produce such a flow of diseases as suddenly ebb in death And here lest it should be judged that Godly sorrow which worketh repentance because it is sometimes very intense should produce the same Natural effects in the Body that immoderate and vicious doth you must understand that in true Godly sorrow though it be sometimes very intense vehement and zealous there are such intervals of Spiritual joy by reason of the cherishing hope of pardon that all excess with its Natural effects is diverted mitigated and in due season avoided Nocte pluit tot â redeunt Spectacula mane Which in a Metaphorical sence may be render'd thus Clouds showers of grief may endure a night But glympses of joy return at day-light Or as David thus Heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Psal. 30. 5. The acrimony then in Godly sorrow is so corrected by the sweet ingredient of inward Consolation that it never proves offensive or prejudicial to bodily health as wordly and immoderate sorrow hath been fully declared to do SECT VIII Of Sensual Joy and Laughter in excess SOlomon made trial of sensual joy mirth and pleasure thinking therein to find true content and Soul-satisfaction but in the conclusion found nothing but the husks of vanity wherewith he at first like a Prodigal Son would fain have satisfied himself but could not as appeareth by his own words I said in my heart Go to now I will prove thee with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity Eccl 2. 1 2. I said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doth it There is a woe denounced by Christ of whom St. Augustin noteth that 't is often read that he wept never that he laughed St. Aug. Serm. 35. de Sanctis against all such as rejoyce in riot revelling carousing luxury and other forbidden pleasures of this World in that comprehensive Phrase Wo unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep Luk 6. 25. All inordinate rejoycing or rejoycing in unlawful pleasures may justly have the Apostle's reprehension applied to it All such rejoycing is evil Jam. 4. 16. Now as it is evil in respect of the Soul so also in repect of the Body for that very oft swounding and sudden death hath befallen to sudden and immoderate joy and that because the Cordial blood and Vital Spirits are thereby so suddenly diffused to the exterior parts that Life goeth out therewith and returneth not as Fernelius noteth Or as Des-Cartes of this Passion in its excess thus observeth Opening extraordinarily the Orisices of the heart the blood of the veines doth so huddle in and in so abundant a quantity that it cannot there be rarified by the heat soon enough to list up the little skins that shut the entries of those veins by which means it smothers the fire which it used to feed when it came into the heart in fit proportion Des-Cartes of the Passions Artic. 122. Hence I suppose it is that the Lord Verulam saith in his History of Life and Death p. 221. Great joyes attenuate and diffuse the Spirits and shorten life Instances hereof are many in History let these few suffice Diagor as Rhodius had his three valiant Sons victors in one Olympiad who putting all their three Crowns upon their Fathers head through too much joy he presently died Gellius lib. 3. cap. 15. Xeuxis the Painter beholding the vive Picture of an old Wife which he so cunningly did paint burst forth so in laughter that he presently died Sophocles that worthy Poet and also Dionisius the Tyrant after a victory in a Tragedy at the whole People's congratulation through exceeding joy yielded up their life Plin. lib. 7. cap. 53. Chrysippus Philemon at the sight of an Ass eating Figs was so overcome with immoderate laughter that he died Valer. Maxim Chilo the famous Lacedaemonian Philosopher soon expired his last breath when as overjoyed he beheld his Son Conquerour in the Olympick games Ravis Philippides the Athenian an aged Comick overcoming the rest in Poesie and crowned for his great pains died for his present pleasure Cael. lib. 3. c. 15. With such like Instances I might further dilate upon this Point but lest an odd Humorist should laugh himself out of breath to think of them as improbable or the significant Caveats deduced from them as unseasonable in sad times I here desist SECT IX Of Servile Slavish and all Unlawful Fear in excess THere is as Divines distinguish a Divine fear a Filial fear a Dutiful fear a Wise fear and these are all lawful But then there is also a Slavish fear a False fear a Distrustful fear or a Natural fear joyned with diffidence and these are unlawful Servile or Slavish fear whereby Men do abstain from sin rather in respect of the punishments ensuing thereupon then out of an unfained hatred thereof or a fear which ariseth upon the apprehension of God's Justice and wrath against sin and the punishments and plagues for sin is to be avoided as irregular For we ought to serve God without this sort of fear Luke 1. 74. It is Carnal and such as doth no wise proceed from the working of the Spirit but is quite contrary to the same For God saith the Apostle hath not given us the Spirit of fear but of power of love c. 2 Tim. 1. 7. The reason hereof may be in that the perfect love of God in us excommunicates it Perfect love saith St. John caseth out fear 1 Ep. John 4.