see the accomplishment of all your good Wishes is the hearty Wish of him who hath no more time left at present than to tell you that he is and will be Yours in the most unreserved Respects J. M. LETTER III SIR THis comes to Kiss your Hand and to make an Inquiry after the happy Success of the last Remedies and also to encourage your Perseverance in their use although you do not presently find them answer your expectation for I hope you do not expect Medicines to Operate meerly by their natural Energy infused into them at their first Creation but also know that their efficacy doth depend primarily upon the Pleasure of the Divine Will who hath limited the periods of humane Life We Live not at an Adventure but the manner and Moments of our Life and Death come under a Divine appointment and the success of all Remedies depends upon the peculiar Blessing of Heaven The most Infallible way to have our Distempers removed is to endeavour to procure the concourse of that Divine Influence and to engage the Soveraign Power of that Almighty Healer unto whom belong the Issues from Death Though our Lord was not corporally present with Lazarus yet he knew without Creature Intelligence that he was Dead and told his Disciples so God also told Samuel that Moses was Dead It matters not who Plants or Waters if God denies to give the Increase The Divine Favour is the best Skreen to shelter men from the innumerable Accidents of Humane Life in which every Minute we are Surrounded with a Thousand Deaths and dangers When the great Preserver of Men withdraws his protection we are left exposed to the malignant Aspects of Planets to the fatal Contingencies of Wars and Battels and are indanger'd by every Accident the Dust of a Wheel the fall of a Tile the largeness of a Morsel the Lash of a Whip the unevenness of a Stone the Plenty of a Humour may stop our Breath It is a confest truth that every natural motion hath its beginning duration and period dependent on the pleasure of the first Mover now the Life of Man being a nutural motion our Nativity and Death are both ordered by that Omnipotent Agent in whom we live move and have our being The Disciples themselves could not cure Diseases at all times if they could St. Paul would not have left Trophimus Sick at Miletum nor have Sorrowed so much for Epaphroditus's Sickness The Life of Man consisting in a requisite Harmony of Qualities and in a due commixture of the natural Heat and radical moisture which Harmony is more or less according unto the more or less exquisite temperament of Body assigned unto each single Person by the free dispensation of the Divine Will it must follow that the continuance of every man in this natural Life depends upon the pleasure of him who hath determined our Days numbered our Months and set our Bounds which we cannot pass without his leave who gave us the durability of our temperaments and compassed our periods within the Circle of his special Providence To imagine the Life of Man fixt beyond the possibility of being prolonged or shortened by an Almighty pleasure seems highly unreasonable because he hath reserved a power in his own Hands to contract or prorogue as he pleaseth Sometimes Divine Wisdom best knowing his own Reasons doth resolve the Death of some Persons and then the most proper Remedies are used in vain either towards the removal of Sickness or the preservation of Health The universal Conserver of all things takes notice of the principal and subsequent Causes of things Governing Disposing and Ordering according unto his own free Will and yet his Government is void of any fatal Violence and comes to an efficiency from the ordination of various natural causes and humane elections which prove the occasions of supporting or destroying Life Divine goodness doth not abolish but Disposeth of future Contingencies without nulling the freedom of the Agent he moderates and governs Events according to his pleasure and yet suffers the Creature to exercise its own proper motions The rage of Men and Devils cannot accelerate the motions of Divine Providence A Sparrow doth not fall to the ground much less a man into the Grave without a Divine Permission The Manner and Moments of our death are not the effects of Contingency To God the Lord belongs the Issues from death or in the Original the Inlets to Death viz. Diseases Natural Remedies are but like Elijah's Staffe layd upon the dead Child they will not help unless a supernatural vertue concurs The Egyptians in their Temples had a remarkable Hieroglyphick A Young man an Old man and a Hawk in the middle Intimating the Beginning and Period of humane Life depends upon the Influence of divine Providence Josiah's death might seem the effect of Juvenile rashness in War but it conduced towards the accomplishment of Huldah's Prophecy The Advice of the Philistine Diviners is very observable When the People were smitten with Hemorrhoids they prescribed the offering up of golden Hemorroids thinking by that mystical Remedy to appease the Displeasure of Heaven and to intimate that they thought the best of their Substance not valuable to purchase Health but chiefly to represent their Belief that the Cure of Diseases depended upon a divine Influence Many smart the longer under the Rod of God because they eye not the Hand that moves it The Rabbins say when Jeroboam's Hand wither'd the false Prophets told him it came by Chance thereby to divert his reflections from the first Cause Some have observed that the best way to cure the Kings-Evil is by the Stroak of the Kings Hand and sure the best way to remove the smart of Distempers inflicted by the Hand of God is to consider that it is his Hand No man knows when Divine Providence who hath the Pen in his Hand and writes down the Days and Actions of our Lives will be pleased to set a Comma of Afflictions or a Period of Death The Weights and Plummets of Mans restless Impatience cannot make the Clock of Gods appointed time strike one Minute sooner than he hath set it And he only hath appointed how many tedious Dayes and wearisome Nights we shall have before the bright Morning of Eternity dawn upon us The reason why Natural Remedies do many times prove ineffectual is because there is a Determinate season wherein all Persons and things must have their final issue Thus we find Moses died the Year before the People entred into Canaan Daniel some few Years before the Foundation of the Temple And John the Baptist in the first Year of the Baptism of our blessed Saviour when the Gospel he began to preach was to be published in its Glory At their seasons they must go their wayes to rest and lie down until they receive their lot at the end of Dayes If God had not the Disposal of the Lives of Men in his own Hands what miserable confusions would there
be in the World If Alexander the Great had been strangled in the Cradle how could the Prophesies of Daniel have been fulfilled concerning him The Jews could not prejudice the Life of the Lord of Life until that hour which was appointed to be his last hour was come For as it is appointed once to Die so also when to Die and that you may enjoy a Long and Healthful Life and at last a happy Eternity is the prayer of Your humble Servant J. M. LETTER IV. SIR I Joyfully entertained the welcome News of the good success of your last Remedies but am sorry to find you attribute all to Necessity as if because the Period of Humane Life is appointed and the success of Medicines depends upon a Supernatural Concourse therefore to inferr we cannot be accessary towards the shortning of our own Dayes Sir it is a fond Opinion and a great mistake so to think for the Jews were wickedly instrumental in taking away the Life of the Lord of Life notwithstanding they did nothing but what Divine goodness had determined before to be done The Prophet told Amaziah he knew God had Determined to destroy him and yet he also tells him that he was instrumental towards his own Death in not hearkning unto the Voyce of the Lord. Eli's Sons disobedience pronounced the Sentence of Death against them and it is rendred as the reason why God had resolved to slay them The Date of the Old Worlds Duration was fixed to one Hundred and twenty Years Yet we find it not so long-liv'd by twenty Years their wickedness contracted that which seemed to be a determined period At what time soever the Almighty be but pleased to speak concerning a Nation People or Person to pluck up to pull down or to destroy if that Nation People or Person turn from their evil way he will Repent of the intended evil whether Sickness or Mortality The flight of that Arrow which procured King Ahabs Death was guided by a Divine Hand who aimed at his Mortal Wounds yet his rash going to Battel by the advice of his false Prophets rendred him instrumental towards his own Death The Evangelical Prophet tells us of a Consumption determined upon the whole Earth occasion'd by their great Provocations The Divine determination concerning our Lives should not lessen our care to preserve our Lives King David understood that the determination concerning the Childs Death was past yet he prayed and used means to restore it It 's a Turkish Principle to dream that because the manner and moments of Mens Deaths are appointed therefore to think it Vanity and Cowardice to arm our selves or Antidote our Bodies against the injuries of War and Assaults of Diseases A Man may live out all Gods time who wickedly shortens his own and may be permitted to do those forbidden Acts which inevitably tend to his own destruction and cut the Thred of his Dayes The Israelites Murmuring anticipated their Funerals and Buried them in the Wilderness notwithstanding their Promise of seeing Canaan The Impiety of the old World brought a Deluge which possibly might have been prevented had their Repentance been as visible as that of Ninive who were Reprieved from Execution after the Sentence of Death seemed Passed upon them their Reformation prevented Ruine and Destruction The addition of fifteen Years to Hezekias's Life was the result of the Divine Favour but not without signal demonstrations of Repentance The Rabins tell us of one going to gather his Remedies prescribed by King Solomon against his peculiar Distemper was met by an Apparition of Death in the shape of a Skeleton which told him with an audible Voice it was too late for he was struck by the Angel who kept the Key of the Grave The Moral is obvious enough to a wise man unto whom a word is enough And I pray Sir excuse this unravelling my Thoughts in such a ruffled manner from Your Healths Friend J. M. LETTER V. SIR THese Medicines the Doctor hath now Prescribed I have conveyed unto you according unto your desire the Directions are given with the particular Parcels and I am of Opinion that a firm belief that men may be many wayes accessary towards the shortning their own dayes may much conduce towards the good Success of Remedies by exciting greater care and circumspection and greater Piety and Prudence in the management of our selves Sin and Wickedness doth apparently shorten Life and multiply Diseases The Life of Man seems to be much pared away but it cannot be artributed unto any Decay in Nature and its universal Frame but rather unto the great Immorality and Imprudent extravagancy of Nations and Persons indulging effeminate luxurious and pernicious Customs Sin brought Death at first and as Sin increased so Death came nearer by five hundred years After the Flood men sinned still and built Castles in the Air and then Death came nearer by three hundred years And by Moses's time a great part of that remnant is pared away and threescore and ten is the period Had offended Justice gone on still to shorten mens dayes as men encreased in Sin our Life by this time had not been a Day long and therefore he no longer destroys the Kind but punisheth the Individuals and sets it down as a standing Rule That evil shal slay the Wicked and he shall not live out half his dayes We cannot now observe one in five hundred arrive at that Age unto which they might attain by the course of Nature but end their dayes in Sin and Folly From surfeiting proceeds dissolutions of Members relaxations of Nerves fractures of Bones Inflamations of Blood Crudities of the Stomack besides the uncleanly Consequences of Lust which like a Dart strikes through the Liver Our great Creator hath composed our Bodies like Lamps and to supply the Oyl consumed by the flame hath given us Appetites of Hunger and Thirst and Reason to guide our Appetites and the Revelation of his Will to guide our Reason but if men through the depravation of Nature and the predominancy of Temptation suffer their Appetites to dethrone their Reason and give way to Intemperance which extinguisheth Natures Lamp by corrupting the Oyl or spilling it or blowing out the flame men may then justly expect to be cut off in the midst of their dayes and to be made a Sacrifice unto their overmuch wickedness I'ts not improbable that Baalam's wish to dye the Death of the Righteous did not only include his being saved at last but also that he might come to his grave in a good old age with his Fathers in peace and might not be cut off like the Moabites and other Nations who were to perish in their wickedness before his eyes Since Man-kind Bruised himself with his Fall he hath corrupted his Blood and sowed the Seeds of innumerable Diseases We daily feel the smart of our first Sentence viz. Thou shalt dye the Death or In Dying thou shalt Dye or Thou shalt become exposed unto Sickness and Death Men
though thanks be to God Pestilences have not been very fatal of late years and we observe from our weekly Bills of Mortality that the numbers of the deceased are greatly augmented for in the year 1604. there dyed 4323 and 895 of the Plague but in the year 1659. there dyed 14720 and 36 of the Plague and yet we observe near the same number of persons Born and Christned both years so that the Disproportion is near nine Thousand in a year in about sixty years distance We may observe in the space of sixty years so small a spot of ground as a Church-yard swallowes up a whole Parish I knew an old Sexton in London who told me he lived to Bury his Parish almost three times over As one Generation comes on the Stage another goeth off And very evident it is that more dye now in a state of Childhood than in former Ages We lick new bodies off our Trenchers once in seven years and the very fear of a Clymacterical Year hath Killed some who have not understood how groundless such a fear is In the dayes of Ancient times it was a strange thing to hear of the death of a young Child according unto the ordinary course of Nature Some of the Jewish Doctors tell us that there was not a Son dyed of a natural death before his Father for near three thousand years after the Creation but the course of Nature was observed and he that was born first dyed first untill Terah's time who was the first that taught the People to make Images of Clay and to corrupt Divine Worship with Idolatry and as a punishment of his Sin his son Haran was snatcht away before him and Moses observes that Haran dyed before his Father Terah in the Land of his Nativity And we find it was looked upon as a great Judgment that the Male Heir of Eli's Family as soon as born dyed for many Generations so that an Old man could not be seen of his Posterity And we find the good Woman expostulating passionately with the Prophet when she saith Art thou come to call my Sins to remembrance and to slay my Son Every Age hath its peculiar diseases In the state of Infancy Life is like a Spark in a pile of Wood the Candle is so newly lighted that every breath of Air or the least shaking puts it out and it dyes Childhood is so active and unwary so subject to run into dangers that unless a Messenger be sent from Heaven to stand Sentinel and watch its playing sleeping eating and drinking it 's exposed to death every minute The Middle age is apter to lend its helping hand to the use of Remedies but when we consider how many new distempers invade us and how many old ones intermingled with collateral complications and many Diseases are not fully understood as in time they may be and many Symptoms are often alike and sometimes there are none at all as in several Impostumes and some Diseases are lodged in remote parts of the Body that oftentimes no application can be made or at least the effects of Medicines cannot reach them untill after two or three Alterations and Concoctions which change the Species of Medicines And sometimes new Methods come upon the Stage and alter old Foundations Old Age hath Diseases incurable by nature The House must fall when the Foundation is decayed Old men in Scripture account are said to be as good as dead as Abraham was In some Diseases the Patient seems Bailable yet a distemper lyeth in ambush and sets upon him with full strength when the bitterness of death seemed to be past and some men live and dye like Fools pour in Drink and let out Life and so by inconsideration pull the Monumental Stone upon their own heads Men are like Water if the Sluces be opened it runs away apace if the Current be stopt it swells and grows troublesome and spills over if it stands still then it stinks and putrifies Some Sicknesses walk in darkness and destroying Angels are wrapt up in the Curtains of Immateriality whom we cannot see but feel in some Chronick distempers men walk about and hear Passing-bells ring for stronger men There is no age of Man but hath some Posterns and Out-lets to death out of which thousands pass into the Land of Forgetfulness Every breath of wind troubles our Faces and our little Cares wrinkle our Foreheads and trifling accidents dig our Graves In Feavors men ride post to the Chambers of death they prove a Beesome of Destruction to three parts of Adam's race If all the ages of all Mankind were put together it would scarce make One and twenty to each single person It 's more natural for Youth to dye than the Aged it being more common having more natural causes as being more subject to acute Diseases which surprize men suddenly and undiscernably but to dye of Age is a very rare Thing old Age is a young Death But to speak strictly all men dye before they come to be of age every man being within an inch of Death Like a Mariner at Sea we carry our Lives in our hands Many a man in a state of health hath a secret Enemy lying hid ready to surprize Either Gods Archers cleave our Reins in sunder with the Stone or Strangury or our feet are set in the Stocks by the Gout or our Breath is corrupt by the Ptysick or our Gaul is poured on the ground by the Dissentery or our Skin cleaves to our Bones by a Hectick The Clock hath struch Twelve this night therefore take it not ill that I abruptly style my self Yours whilest I am J. M. LETTER X. SIR I Received yours Dated the 7th instant wherein you speak very slightly of old Age as if you did not look upon it as so great a blessing and also seem to Question whether the Patriarchs lived so long as some imagine To which I answer you are certainly under a great mistake for nothing is more certain than that the Antediluvian Patriarchs were very long lived and particularly Father Adam who may well be accounted above a thousand years old if we compute that time whch he might have lived had he been born as Methusalem was we may judge him at his Creation as Perfect as one of the Ancients at two hundred They out-lived all their titles of Consanguinity and yet none of them lived a compleat Thousand years which possibly might be to accomplish the threatning unto Adam That the day he eat the forbidden Fruit he should Dye computing a day for a thousand years But a more probable reason may be to Demonstrate to Man the Vanity of Life when those who lived longest could not arrive to that Period which compared to Gods Eternity is but a day As there are at this day some who exceed a hundred so there are a hundred times as many who do not arrive at that Period Had men in all Ages and Places arrived at the age of the Patriarchs the Earth
leave the Methods prescribed by Reason and Experience to consult the Oracles of the Prince of Darkness It 's highly unreasonable to give heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils enquiring of the god of Ekron when there is a God in Israel Some mens Curiosity in this kind has cost them dear such practices being forbidden upon pain of Damnation What wise and good man would so far violate his Baptismal Covenant as to consult with Judicial Astrologers Wizards and such like Cunning persons who by a Diabolical Confederacy will undertake to foretell the Events of Diseases and Periods of Mens dayes and a multitude of other Accidents known only to Omniscience who knows the Effect because he knows the Cause Suppose it were the Devil in Samuel's Mantle that did foretell Sauls death it doth not prove the Certainty of the Devils prediction or the fatal Necessity of Saul's Death It being easie from probable Conjecture to say what he did there being all the forerunners of his approaching ruine visible to the World For David was anoynted King and Saul grew worse and worse the Battel drew near and what else could be expected but Destruction If it should be granted that the Lying Spirit in the Mouth of a false Prophet should foretell a Mans Death it may only proceed from the observation that he violates some divine Command and thereby exposeth himself to ruine Magicians indeed use Charms and Signs and Good words the better to deceive the ignorant herein being Gods Ape that as he hath made a Covenant with good men and hath appointed Signs and Seals upon the faithful use of which he is present to perform what he hath promised So the Devil makes a Covenant with Astrological Wizards upon which he hath given Signs and Tokens that if they use the one he will perform the other And it s an Atheistical Dream to imagine that the period of Mans dayes depends more on the malevolent influence of a Planet than upon the Conduct of divine Providence A Belief very contrary to the Articles of the Christian Faith to suppose an Astrological Necessity imposed upon all sublunary Agents by the influence of Celestial Bodies and that the Manner and Moments of mens Deaths depend upon these things Many have descended into the Earth for fear of using Remedies upon the ascension of a particular Star in the Heavens The celestial Dog doth neither Bark nor Bite in our Climate The heavenly Bodies operate according unto the variety of the Matter with which they are conversant as we may observe in the instance of Twins born under the same Planet although they have the same seminal principles Bed of Nature and time of Birth yet they differ in Sex Complexion Life and Death as in the Example of Esau and Jacob. Can any man of Reason imagine that all that are slain in the same Battel were born under the same Ascendent The proper reason why such a Child is strong and such a one weak is rather to be fetched from the Complexion of the Parent than the influence of the Stars it 's strength is rather to be attributed to the Mothers Milk than the Via lactea And the reason why such a one was shot to death was not because his Roroscope was directed to Saturn but because the Gun was directed to him Besides Education Custom Example alter Nature and our second Births divert the mischievous Effects of our first Nativity Therefore not to use Remedies except such or such a Sign be searcht into is great folly and a Sign men are led more by Indiscretion than prudence to regard an Antique picture in the Almanacks rather than Art and Reason But though the World be guilty of many Errors I shall be guilty of none in subscribing my self Your Devoted Servant J. M. LETTER XVI SIR I Received yours which gave an intimation of your intention to lay aside all Physicians because you have been so unhappy as to fall into the hands of Quacks whose advice hath not only proved unsuccesseful but dangerous and almost deadly Shall the Merchant never venture to Sea because an unskilfull Pilot once cast away his goods that were absurd There is no action of humane Life that discovers a wise man more than the choice of an able learned and experienced Physician whose natural abilities are advanced by ingenuous Education such being most fit to rectifie the Disorders in mens Bodyes who by their inquiry into Anatomy understand the use of the parts and taking notice of the Figures Springs and Wheels by which Nature moves become the better able to regulate her disorderly motions Besides they best understand the nature of Animals Minerals and Vegetables and can the more dexterously apply fit Remedies according unto the several Indications of Distempers and Circumstances of Patients I pray what reason is there Physicians should be neglected Is it because they are not Infallible if they were then they might alter the Statute Laws of Heaven which were absurd to imagin As in Religion the most Sacred Institutions are rendred insignificant unto the Souls of men if not rightly administred even so the most useful Remedies are rendred useless unto the Healths of men if not prescribed by prudent Physicians How can men expect the Blessing of Heaven to concurre with the advice of ignorant and unworthy pretenders to Physick Broken Tradesmen disbanded Souldiers Bankrupt Merchants and the very scum of the People whose Receipts prove equally fatal with the Jaw-bone of an Ass if one of these confident Fellows pretend to skill though never so ignorant yet some credulous Souls are as ready to proclaim it as if they thought some good Angel like Mahomets Pidgeon whisper'd it in their ears when it proves like Gunpowder only serves to blow up mens Health Can men expect Preservation when they suffer their brains to be beaten out with the Bills of Quacks and Mountebanks in such a Nation as ours is where there is such great variety of able and Legal Practicers It 's a shame such should be suffer'd who can sooner cure all Diseases than one and like the Lion in the Fable pretend to pull the Thorn out of the Lambs foot but in the end devour it So that for ought I know it may not be imprudent to adde one Casualty more to our weekly Bills of Mortality and to say So many dyed Martyrs to their Physicians Ignorance The folly of the World is more apt to gaze upon a Blazing Commet that infects the Air and poysons men with pestilential vapours than on the glorious Sun whose beams yield light and health to humane Nature Quacks resemble the Serpent pretend to give that which shall be good for Food and Physick but in the end beguile men of their health and a while after the Patient dyes the Death To consult the Ignorant is to tempt our Maker the curing Diseases being like the mending of a Watch if not done by a skilful Artist the rectifying one Spring may disorder the regular