goethunder the name of some other Authour but also in his divine discourses wherin he acts the part of a Preacher he declares to the world that these remedies must be applied for he saith there is a time to heal and that a medicine doth good if rightly used for he compares it to a chearful spirit or rather a good conscience which is a continual feast CHAP. XIII CErtainly Ahab would never have been so sinfully ambitious to abtain the vineyard of Naboth for a garden of herbs If he had not understood their virtue as well as delight Doubtless the good will of him that dwelt in the bush is further declar'd to man-kind by the fruit the leaves and the flowers growing theron which he hath impregnated with such virtues that they are good for the healing of the nations in a corporal as well as in a spiritual sence those contemptible persons Job speaks of who cut up mallows by the roots probably understood they were nutrative and medicinal as the experience of many ages demonstrate CHAP. XIV THe bitter herbs appointed to be eaten with the pascal Lamb were not only typical but medicinal if we may beleeve some of the antients Nay a Dinner of herbs with Evangelical charity is preferd by Solomon before a costly banquet Medicinal herbs as Mint Anniss Rhue and Cummin c. were so much in use amongst the Jews that they layed tithes and costomary impositions upon them CHAP. XV. WHen the Church would make a Metaphorical description of the external and internal qualifications of her beloved doth she not compare him to those things that are most excellent and usefull as Myrrhe Aloes Cassia and all the chief Spices Without controversie Physitians are not onely usefull for the Embalming of the Dead as Joseph used them but for the recovering of the dying as our Saviour intimates when he saith the whole have no need of the Physitian but they that be sick have Who can be so weak as to imagine that the Art of the Apothecary should be employed only to prepare the Holy Oyntments for the Consecration of Priests and Kings of old and not to prepare variety of Medecines for the restauration of virtuous and pious Souls who through the meritorious death of the Son are made Kings and Priests unto God the Father CHAP. XVI THe Evangelical Prophet Esay reflecting upon the deplorable condition of the Church with the whole head sick and heart faint full of wounds bruises and putrifying sores being not bound up nor mollified with oyntments doth plainly intimate how necessary he thought the natural as well as the spiritual application of fit remedies in such a case which must needs be sad indeed when there is no Balm in Gilead and no Physitian there Jothams Parable may be useful thus far to instruct the world that not onely the Olive the Fig-tree and the Vine are usefull to Honour and cheer the Heart of God and man but also the bramble may have an excellency and superiority in some distempers for although its thorns do tear the flesh yet of its leaves are made a healing application Such is the Beneficence of our great Creator that since the Appearance of the second Adam we may eat of every tree in the garden without any prejudice to us or our posterity asking no question for conscience sake for the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof It is wonderfull to observe the miraculous providence of God in preserving the seminal virtues of plants from perishing by the deluge when we read not of any seeds preserv'd in the Ark the innocent Dove shewing a leaf to the new world preached a Sermon of Divine goodness so that the Poet might well say Quaelibet herba Deum c. CHAP. XVII EZechiels vision through Gods goodness may be daily seen a tree whose fruit is good for food and leaves for medicine Our Saviour the Physitian of Souls was Physitian of bodies too and not only commended the good Samaritan but acted the part of one throughout his whole life Saint Luke the beloved Physian was the quill of the holy dove the Divine Amanuensis The Angelick Spirits think it not an office inferior to their natureto be instrumental in the healing of the sick as may be seen in the stirring the waters of Bethesda Although our Saviors restoring sight to the blind man was miraculous yet means was used although but clay and spittle Saint Paul himself prescribes wine to Timothy as a medicinal cordial to chear his spirits and to support him under his infirmities CHAP. XVIII ANd the utility of Physicall Remedies is not onely demonstrated from Scripture but it may be evinced from the use of it by the most knowing and intelligent part of mankind both Jews and Pagans In the Temple of Esculapius there was a fountain of oyle with a golden Arch a perfect symbole of Physick the one denoting its usefullness the other its honour Again it is founded upon reason and attended with the experience of many Ages Therefore the unsuccesfulnes of it cannot be from the nature of the thing but from the misusings of it CHAP. XIX THe Design of medicines being not to prevent death for it is the unalterable Decree of Heaven that men must dye but it is to make life comfortable and to preserve natures lamp so long until there is no more oyl left to feed it And if we rightly understand the excellency of natural life it being that space of time alloted us for the securing our eternal state it highly concerns us to use those means which may be most likely to preserve it Now there are several things absolutely needfull in order to the preservation or restoration of natural life and must be observed or we cannot rationally apply the remedies The ability of the Physitian in prescribing The faithfulness of the Apothecary in preparing The regularity of the Patient in observing The care of Nurses in attending The strength of Nature in Assisting The Providence of God in influencing CHAP. XXI Concerning the choise of an able Physitian which is the unum necessarium in sickness next to the imploring the Divine Benediction This I may say that there is no action of a mans life of greater consequence neither doth any discover more of wisdom or folly then a preposterous or prudent choise There 's no wife man but will choose a person of learning experience and known integrity If a mans horse be troubled with the glanders it is a point of prudence to apply himself to the ablest Farrier for advise and not to every Hostler that hath a confidence to prescribe a drench If my watch want mending I would choose to send it to the most ingenious Artist People seldom are so imprudent in other things as they send not their Bellows to a lookinglass maker to mend but their bodies shall be sent to any mungrel Physitian who can sooner cure all Diseases then one The curing of Diseases being like mending a watch if not
man may dye in a time when God forbids and yet dye when God permits and live out all Gods time who wickedly shortens his own The murmuring Isralites were buried in the wilderness notwithstanding their promise of seeing Canaan their infidelity anticipated their funerals The wages of sin is death and may as justly be payd in the morning as in the evening of our lives Indeed temperance doth not alwayes prove an Antidot against the Pestilence nor Abstinence a preservative against Famin nor innocence a security from the stroke of injustice but they are likely meanes The flagitious impiety of the old world sent a Deluge which possibly might have been prevented had their repentance been as visible as the Ninevites was who were repreived from execution after the sentence of death had passed upon them whereby omnipotence did demonstrate that he hath reserved a power in his own hands to length then or shorten the lives of men as he pleaseth and to make the sands in the glass of time run swift or slow according to his pleasure it is very observable how the Patriarks out-lived all their titles of consanguinity yet none lived to a compleat thousand years some indeed give this reason for it be cause God would make good his threatning to Adam that in the day he eat he should dye the death and so they would compute a day for a thousand years as St. Peter speaks but this is trifling and foolish A more probable reason may be to declare to the world the vanity of life when those who lived longest could not arrive to such a period which in comparison of Gods eternity is but a day CHAP. XXXVII SIn brought death at first and as sin increased death came near er by 500 years presently after the flood man sinned still and built Castles in the air and then it is reduced to 200 years and by Moses time half that remnant is taken away and threescore and ten is the period had God gone on still to shorten our dayes as we increased in sin our life by this time had not been a day long and therefore he no longer destroys the kind but punisheth the individual and sets it down for a rule viz. evil shall slay the wicked So that not one in 500 arrive at that state which they might attain unto by the course of nature but end their dayes in sin and folly and in a period appointed in anger we may easily observe how the blessing of health is contradicted by an impious life for from surfeting proceeds disolution of members relaxation of nervs fractures of bones inflamation of the liver crudities of the stomach which Solomon sums up besides the uncleanly consequences of lust which hunt for the pretious life and like a dart strike through the liver and the casual deaths caused by Jealousies and animosities thus providence intervenes and suffers not nature to take its course by reason of impieties CHAP. XXXVIII IT is observable that not a Son dyed a natural death before the Father for three thousand years untill Terahs time who was the first that taught the people to make Images of clay and corrupted the Worship of God his son Haron was snatched away by death before him The Jewish Rabbins do observe that during the standing of the second Temple there were 300 high priests but in the time of the first but 18 which stood within 10 years as long as the first which may be much attributed to their impieties It is thought by some of the antients that Balaam's wish to dye the death of the righteous was not only that he might be sav'd at last but also seeing what judgments God had purposed to bring upon the Moabites that he might come to his grave in a good old age with his father in peace we live by the word of blessing out of the mouth of God every command if observ'd like food and physick tends to the length of our natural as well as spiritual lives CHAP. XXXIX THe fear of God is the best Antidote against sickness as it is a direct enemy to sin which brought in death If sin destroy soul and body why should not piety preserve both If the sting of conscience torment body as well as soul doubtless peace of conscience releives both Why may not the soul as well conduce to the prolongation of the body as to the immortality of it Why may not the body have the perfection of life viz. health from the soul as life it self CHAP. XL. THe circumstantial actions of piety are influential towards the lengthening the lives of men as the sweet sleeps of temperate persons and their freedome from violent and inraged passions and the admirable contentment that dwells in a holy conscience these must necessarily conduce to a healthfull life Dying to sin is an excellent means to preserve life if men would try the experiment It is observed that the male heir of Ely's family dyed as soon as born for many generations according to a divine threatning until they set themselves unto a serious humiliation and solemn repentance We live not at an adventure but the manner and moments of our death come under a divine appointment the Jews could not prejudice our Saviours life untill his hour was come viz. that hour which by a special providence was appointed to be his last hour although St. Paul was in deaths often yet he dyed not before providence thought meet it is appointed to men once to dye that is it is once appointed to men to dye CHAP. XLI A Man may shorten his own dayes but he cannot shorten a Divine determination the date of Hezekia's life was lengthened with respect to himself but not in respect of Divine purpose that is the same be our time long or short CHAP. XLII Object But if Piety doe so prevaile with God to lengthen our lives how comes it to pass that many good and holy men dye whilst in the prime of their years Answer Those that reason thus doe not consider that the righteous may be taken away from the evil to come and by their deaths God may serve other ends of his Providence and yet make his promise good by recompensing Temporal with Eternal life Although God hath promised long life to them that obey yet he never promised that he would not borrow our natural lives as it were and make a glorious exchange CHAP. XLIII DEath may sometimes be a great mercy and life a great misery It is observed that from Adam to to the Flood by the Patriarks were eleven Generations but by Cains line eight they being shorter lived because God intending to bring a flood upon the World rescued the Elect from the fatall Deluge And the same reason is generally given in case Infants dye before the use of reason for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven Although Abijah came to his grave whilst young yet ther was some good thing found in him towards the Lord God of Israel
Many times providence may make use of those distempered humours which the child derived from its Parent to be the instruments of death a holy person may dye in battail and be surpriz'd by every accident all these things falling alike to all Yet these examples doe not contradict a general rule viz. that Piety and Faith in Christ is a good preservative of natural life Enoch and Elias never dyed and became examples that a spotless life might possibly have been immortall CHAP. XLIV SO that the best way to secure our health is to indeavour to procure the providence of God to be our life guard but when he withdraws his protection we are exposed to the aspect of a Star the contingencies of a battel and the accidents of a humor every day and every minute we escape a thousand deaths surrounding us it is as natural for a young person to dye as an old because that is most natural which is most common and hath most natural causes but to dye with age is a very rare thing but the sins of youth are the immediate instruments of death and although a man in a consumption be under the preparations for death yet one in health may be as near it upon more fatall and less discern'd accompts by a sudden Feaver or Apoplexy c. There are some vices that carry a knife in their hand and cut of man before his time every sinfull pleasure tops off a branch from our short life Although we fly from death yet it followeth us and we doe like the poor creatures in Noahs flood when one flour drowned go to the next and so higher and higher and more and more diffracted with the horror of death and when at the uppermost story yet drown'd at last so we run from one disease and another overtakes us and we are pursued untill destroyed at last by the king of Terrors CHAP. XLV DAvid indeavours to use all the means possible to secure his life notwithstanding he had been told by Samuel he should live to wear the Crown so that the Divine determinations concerning our lives should not lessen our care to preserve our lives In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death was Adams sentence the wicked and blood thirsty man shall not live out half his days as the Patridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his dayes The covetous rich man shall have his soul or life taken away and then whose are all his goods Sauls disobedience Ahaziahs evil consultations Jeroboams Idolatry Benhadads curiosity Ahabs cruelty Hananiahs false Prophesie Herods vainglory Saphyras perjury the Samaritan lords infidelity the forty two childrens calumny these impieties had a particular influence upon the contracting of their days as sacred writ demonstrates CHAP. XLVI MOreover the infirmities of virtuous good men may so far provoke the Almighty as to take away their natural lives although he reward them with Eternal life as in the example of Moses and Aaron and the good Israelites that murmured the good Prophet slain by the Lion Ely and Vzziah Somtimes God cuts off children for the sinfull miscarriage of Parents as in the case of Abijah the widows child Davids child Elies children Somtimes Subjects for the Ruâ—ers Impieties as Davids Subâ—ects CHAP. XLVII ANother thing that is necessary towards the procuring the fluence of a Divine blessing with the means is to endeavour to find out the cause of the distemper I mean the supernatural cause and to learn those lessons which providence intends to teach by sickness the Prophet's quaere wherefore doth the living man complain doth plainly intimate that there is a reason there is an Achan oâ— Babylonish garment or something that causeth the thorn in the flesh and this must be removed for the Almighty doth not afflict willingly the rod hath a voice there are many ends thaâ— God aims at in all afflictions Aâ— to correct for sinfull miscarriages our minds have diseases as weâ—… as our bodies the tympany oâ— pride the feaver of passion thâ— dropsie of covetousness anâ— therefore we are fed with thâ— bread of affliction and the water of adversity the plaguâ— of the heart is many times cureâ— with the plague of the body there is a root of bitterness from whence all our troubles spring As there is a vanity lyeth hid in the best worldly good so there is a blessing lyeth hid in the worst worldly evil we should imitate the Bee gather sweet fruit out of bitter flowers CHAP. XLVIII WE should not like Baalam strike the Ass look only upon the second cause of our sickness but behold the Angel that is the immediat instrument We are very prone to attribute too much to second causes but holy Job was of another minde when his children were killed by the fall of a house he saith The Lord took them away Sometimes the Almighty takes away a person by death in mercy to the person as Abijah and Josiah and others Sometimes he removes the child to exercise the parents faith as Jobs children and in the case of Isaac One reason why our distempers are no sooner removed is because the design of it is not answered CHAP. XLIX THere are many happy intentions that Divine providence aymes at in laying sicknesses and diseases upon the bodies of men One end that Divine Goodness aimes at is to demonstrate his own glory in healing and restoring so saith our blessed Lord concerning Lazarus this sickness shall not be unto death but for the glory of God and indeed deliverance from sickness is a singular mercy both to a mans self and others Epaphroditus was sick nye unto death but God had mercy on him and on me also saith holy Paul and therfore we should bless the Lord with our souls and all that is within us should praise his holy name and that upon this account because he healeth all our diseases CHAP. L. THis consideration ellivated the holy soul of Hezekias and transported him into a divine Doxology viz. the living the living they shall praise thee as I doe this day When men are miraculously delivered from death after they have received the sentence thereof in themselves it is given to this end that thanks may be many on their behalf When our souls are delivered from going down to the grave and our eyes are enlightned that we sleep not the sleep of death then â—hould we praise the Lord in the great congregation and our songs should be unto the God of our lives CHAP. LI. ANother design of providence in sickness is to prepare men for greater sufferings it prepares us for death St. Paul whose bodily presence was weak was ready to dye for the name of Christ why should he be afraid of them that kill the body they can do no more then an Ague or a Consumption the sick-bed is the attiring room of the grave in which we should be preparing
and the same word which signifieth to heal signifieth to Worship because after healing men should Worship yet the Physitian is worthy of a liberal fee the Abderites when they wrote to Hippocrates for the cure of Democrates whom they thought distracted because he alwayes laughed at the rediculousness of mâ—ns lives sent him word Quicquid auri apud nos est libenter persolvemus etiamsi tota urbs nostra aurum esset it is a great mercy to be in a condition to administer help to the sick in their distresse the generallity being like the Priest and Levite if they see a man wounded though to death pass on the other side of the way nay like Hazaels wet cloth prove deadly to their friends lives and healths Sickness saith one is officina virtutis morum disciplina the shop of virtue the school of manners the tide time of devotion King Alfred was wont to say I alwaies find my self best in soul when worst in body CHAP. LXXXIX BEnhadad the King of Syria an enemy to goodness in his health will send to Elisha with a large present and submissive expressions in his sickness a sick bed being the highway to the grave makes men serious The Rabbies say that when Adam eat the forbidden fruit his head aked 't is clear sin is the original of sickness when we are chastised with pain upon our beds and the multitude of our bones with strong pain then the Almighty seals up our instructions and the sick bed becomes a pulpit in which the Spirit of God preacheth to us many serious truths and convinceth us of our sin folly our Redeemer is said to bear our sicknesses because he bears our sin in his body on the tree yet so incorrigible are some under Divine corrections that having been smitten they have revolted yet more and more and like Jeroboam been worse after his hand was withered and will not acknowledge the soveraignty of God as Naaman did after his recovery that when ther are ten cleansed we may well say where are the nine that return thanks such is the power of infidellity and Ingratitude CPAP. XC A healthful life is a right hand blessing Prov. 3.16 Adam the first man lived near a thousand years after his creation 930 years being then a perfect man we may reckon him nearer a thousand years than Methusalah when he dyed There might be many reasons consigned for the long lives of the patriarchs as that mankind might be multiplied that Arts and sciences might be perfected and that men might be acquainted and skilled in the course of nature having no books from which to collect observations but alass the case is not so with us fewand evil are the dayes of our pilgrimage and we cannot arrive at the years of our Fathers in the dayes of their pilgrimage we are but of yesterday and know nothing comparatively to what we might know because our dayes upon earth are but as a shadow indeed Adam in his sinless state might possibly have been Imortal and his eating of the tree of life might have conduced to the supplying of his radical moysture as fast as it suffered depredation by his vital spirit Moreover the tree of life in Paradise might be of a Sacramental signification that perseverance in a state of Evangelical obedience unto the father by the son through the Spirit is the most effectual way to obtain a long and a healthful life in this world so far as it conduceth to the creatures good and the Creators glory and a blessed Immortallity in the next FINIS ERRATA'S Courteous Reader thou art desired to correct with thy pen these following Errata's or any other if thou observest them PAge 8. line 4. read pretious p. 9. l. 5. r. prejudicial p. 10. l. 12. r. thought p. 16. l. 7. r. nutritive p. 24. l. ul r. then p. 42 l. 21. r. paratur p. 50. l. 21. r. gluttony p. 75. l. 8. r. shalt p. 76. l. 11. r. errand p. 82. l. 8. r. for not read only p. 107. l. 14. r. all men are Abels vain
don by a skillfull Artist the rectifying of one spring may disorder the regular motion of the whole How many persons destroy themselves by imprudence in the choyce of Physitians more dying of soft places in their heads hen ulcers in their lungs and multitudes digging their graves with their thick sculls CHAP. XXII THe generallity of people if a person be but nick-named Doctor and took his degree in a drinking Schoole ascendit gradum sine gradibus It may be one who did his exercise in Fees and will be a Doctor although he wants the participle Doctus spels Physick with an F. and Chirurgion with an S. such a one shall serve turn Some called Doctors are as unskilfull in Physick as the Athenians were in Religion they dedicate their medicines to an unknown disease People had better fall into the hands of the common Executioner for then they will be put out out of their pain then into the hands of Illiterate Doctors or confident Quacks He deserves to be kill'd that runs against the point of a sword in the hand of a madman and little better are many who pretend to secrets or rare arcana's and kill men without making any noise like white Gunpowder that none shall know who hurt them Pretend privacy in the preparations of their medicines that the world may not see what poyson'd the Patient These imitate Evah or rather the Serpent pretend to give that which shall be pleasant to the tast and good for food and Physick but in the end beguile men of their health and few dayes after the Patient dyeth the death Like the Lyon that pretends to pull the thorne out of the Lambs foot and devours him like Gipsies tell you your fortune and pick your pockets These waterologers or rather piss Prophets will make a man believe they know every thing by the water even how many staires a man falls down when he bruises himself these are like mouse-traps when a man is in their hands their is no getting out but with the loss of life si populus vult decipi decipiatur CHAP. XXIII SOme goe altogether by books which are only a collection of conjectural experiments and never consider Age Constitution Sex Time of the disease never regard the rational intentions of cure lop the branches of the disease but never pluck up the root nor remove the cause but cry they are safe if they doe no good they can doe no hurt whereas they doe much hurt in omitting more effectual remedies while they use weak and insignificant ones Some blind Bayards there are who pretend to three or four universal remedies to cure all distempers and these will sometimes cure the disease and kill the Patient and like some Gardners pluck up the root of the plants and sow the seeds against the next year at the same time and snuff the candle so rashly as to put it quite out but so long as none but themselves know what the thing was that made the man breath his last all is well enough Whereas a learned experienced Physitian cares not who views his prescripts upon the file supposing the Patient dye it being nothing but what was safe what he would have taken himself and what would have certainly recovered the Patient if God would have had it so Some are so confident they will tell you they will be hanged if they don't cure you they can cure the Gout when the cause is removed and the Dropsie proceeding from neither wind nor water and pains in the head if not distemper'd in body and restore any man to health although never so crooked These will tell a woman she is with child when the course of nature hath been stopt half a year and no ill symtomes and that a mans liver grows too much on his right side and that there is water near his heart and such like things which every fool may doe if he please But none are so confident to talk and undertake as those that have least judgement it is therefore a great indiscretion in the vulgar to condemn the most learned and most experienced Physitians because they doe not preach over the water and enter into impertinent discourses with people as ignorant pretenders to Physick are apt to doe He that saith least and doth most is the best Physitian His business is to cure the Patients body not to inform his judgement to procure health not knowledge in Physick vulgar apprehensions are not capable of understanding either the terms or the notions of Physick Dogs may indeed lick mens sores and make them whole with their tongues Physitians must cure by reason and experience CHAP. XXIV INdeed illiterat Practitioners wil somtimes let fly such strange words that with a small addition being taken in the pap of an apple would give a man a purge that must needs be a simple composition in the cure of my distemper that hath more of words then deeds for its ingredients But frequently it happens that amongst such Doctors the most corrosive venemous Chimical medicine hath nothing to kill it but fasting spittle or a smooth tongue Beware of that medicine whose best corrective is a poyson though guilded over with never so plausible pretences their spirits generally prove evil spirits and such as cannot be cast out by natural means their powders are worse then Gunpowder for they blow up many good subjects and with so much privacy that none but he that did it can tell who hurt them CHAP. XXV ONe of these desperadoes may possibly be more talked on and admired by the vulgar then an able Physitian because never used but in desperate cases wherein they either kill or cure now if the Patient dye they are not blamed as others are because it is nothing but what was expected namely that the Patient should dye being given over by all but if the Patient recover then their skill is proclaimed but what a madness is it to run a sword in a mans bowels to cure him of an impostume because one was once cured so by accident It is no wonder to see such mens prodigious actions admired for doe we not gaze more upon a blazing Comet that infects the Aire and poysons men with pestilential vapours then on the regular motions of the glorious Sun whose cherishing beams yield light and health to humane nature Who hath more followers then the Prince of Darkness CHAP. XXVI GIve me the Physitian whose Prescriptions are safe and yet effectual who imitates nature and allures her into a healthful state and by plausible insinuations opens obstructions evacuates superfluities corrects crudities checks violent fermentations and in a mild and friendly way helps her to shake hands with the disease I desire no acquaintance with those malignant remedies who assault the disease with such imprudent rashness that they destroy the disease and kill the patient as Sampson did his enemies and himself It is good to use chimical remedies very warily a child is in more danger of doing mischief
with a knife of steele then of Bone We choose the ablest Carpenter for our buildings but indebted Trades-men disbanded Souldiers wandring Mountebanks wicked Jews the very scorn of the people serve for our bodies a Taylor shall as soon mend a stitch fallen in our bodies as a learned Physitian The Proverb is changed from all are fools or Phisitians to all fools are Physitians Tractent fabrilia fabri let every one handle his own tooles but men will not learn wisdom until the dust of the grave that powder of experience be cast in their eyes Many Patients become Martyrs to their Physitians ignorance Degrees and tryals of mens abilities are good political Shiboleths and very needfull The English people strangely betray their simplicity in affecting strangers and forrain Physitians he that came the last tyde from Gravesend hath but Englsh enough to write me cure all these Diseases par la grace of God having cured the Ala-mode distemper in himself is well studyed in Hypocras Gallon rather then Hippocrates and Galen is a rare Doctor Their practise being like countrey dance called hit or miss Possibly they may cure some old Distemper just taking its leave and through the energy of a former course thrust out of doors but they may as well promise a man success from thence as that a blind man shall hit the mark a second time because he did it once In an able Physitian there is required natural abilities advanced by study and confirmed by experience CHAP. XXVII TAke heed of dashing your health upon these Rocks least you shipwrack all when your body is in a storm call in the help of a skilfull Pilot I mean an able Physitian and in bleeding purging sweating vomitting and blistering depend not on the advise of any without an able Physitian for with the well advised is wisdom and in Councel there is safety men doe not depend upon the advise of an Attorney when their estate is in danger but fee a Councellor why should they dally with their health more then their estates There are many considerable motives may be urged to perswade to take the advice of able Physitians As our own safety Physitians being better acquaintanted with the nature of all remedies and with the Anatomy of the body of man understand the scituation of the parts and the circulations of the blood better then any Artist whatsoever Again for the satisfaction of the world that all may be convinced that the best means were used that could be I have known some that have been almost distracted after the death of relations because they advised not in time with some able Physitians Again Because we cannot rationally expect the concurrence of a Divine influence unless we make use of the most probable of second causes and the most likely means we must use our best indeavors if we would have them effectuall in the production of any end Again Because a person dying in the omission of the most proper and rational means may be in danger of an indictment for self murther which few consider CHAP. XXVIII MOreover it is very requisite that care should be used in the choyce of faithfull Persons to prepare and compound those remedies which learned and experienced Phisitians prescribe a business of so great consequence ought not to be committed to serving men who never served Apprentiship to any Imployment of that nature And therefore the wisdom of Authority hath established a Society of Apothecaries to be instructed imployed in that useful Art they have demonstrated to the world their care to prevent abuses in medicines by erecting a Publick Elaboratory for the preparation of Chymicall remedies in the most exact manner CHAP. XXIX ANother excellent Rule to be observed in order to the cure of distempers is that the Patient be very exact in observing the directions of the Physitian in his Dyet Aire Exercise Evacuations Sleep and Passions of the Mind there arc many Patients that will promise their Physitian fairly but as soon as their back is turned observe no rules yet be very ready to censure the Physitian if they do not recover They will not persevere until the distemper be removed If a man layeth a plaister to an ulcer and takes it off presently it can never heal If the Physitian throws water and the Patient throw on fuell how can the fire be extinguished What folly is it to blame our food for not satisfying our hunger when we eat but a bit Many Patients are like the Babel builders when the Physitian prescribes a trowel they will use a hammer when the distemper calls for sweats they will use none but cooling Juleps and consult more the antique picture in the Almonack then the stare increase and declination of the distemper If sleep be wanting then Syrup of Poppy must be had which translates the morbifick matter to the brain and causeth a frenzy or else such a sleep is procured which onely the last trumpet can awake And it is an endless thing to argue with some people to whom sense is a riddle and reason a Paradox If people would put on their considering caps they might sooner put off their sick caps Although some people may be called Patients because they exercise the Physitians Patience yet they are not so in using their own for they will not persevere in a regular course until the remedy can have its due operation if they are not cured of those distempers in a day which they have been contracting a year then leave the medecine and chop and change and run from one thing to another and be constant to nothing And one imprudent rib shall slay more persons then the Jaw-bone of an Ass And practice by book receipts where through the default of the printer a dram of Mercurius vitae shall be prescrib'd in stead of a few grains yet down it goeth because the judgement of the reader knows not the exact dose In Dyet they will not be confin'd but like Timothy to drink a little wine CHAP. XXX ANother rule to be observed in the restoring of health is the care of the attendance a good nurse is a good sign of recovery If the attendance are not carefull the abillities of the Physitian and the goodness of the medicine is but in vain Now the care of attendants is evident in giving the remedies which are prescribed and in hindring the Patient from those things which are hurtfull but the generality of attendance are like Eva instead of discouraging will tempt and invite to the eating forbidden fruit to the ruine of the patient and sometimes of the posterity CHAP. XXXI THE rule to be observed in the right use of remedies is to apply our selves to the use of proper means before nature is vasted delay in this case proves alwaies dangerous therefore the Poets rule is good Principiis obâ—sta sero medicina peratur People generally flatter themselves into their graves with the conceipts of colds and surfeits and so confounding
say to corruption thou art my father and to the worm thou art my mother and sister CHAP. LIV. ONe end of sickness it is to hide pride from man what a vain thing is humane power it will not avail in the day of sickness and death if God doe not withdraw his anger the proud helpers stoop under him men of high dègree are vanity although a man flourish like a green bay tree yet he shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither like the green herb Sickness teacheth us the vanity of strength though a mans bones be full of marrow yet when sickness coms his strength shall be dryed up like a potsherd How can our hands be strong in the day that God contends with us by sickness although a bow of steel hath been broken by our armes yet when sickness comes we are powred out like water and all our bones are out of joynt then the keepers of the house the arms will tremble and the strong men the limbs will bow themselves and we shall have reason to say verily every men at his best estate is all together vanity It may convince us of the vanity of children they are indeed mercies in themselves O that I were as in months past saith Job when my children were about me though the fare be but course yet it is the more pleasant to have these plants about the table but sickness eomes and then these sweet flowers like a posey wither that we must conclude childhood and youth are vanity An aking tooth will damp all the pleasures of the world CHAP. LXV HOw vain must the World be whose comforts are not valuable then whiles we have them not What will all the glittering nothings of the world be worth when God shall let fall great drops of burning wrath upon that part of our souls which is most tender when he shall with a heavy hand chafe our consciences with fire and brimstone when the worldling that wallows in thick clay shall behold that judge which Gold and Silver cannot bribe when the voluptuous will relish little pleasure in carnal delights God writing bitter things against him what a vain thing will musick be to him that hears nothing but the screeches of his own conscience what will cups avail him that must drink only a cup of Fury what are titles of honour to a man whose conscience calls him Reprobate CHAP. LXVI SUppose our tongues faultering our eye-strings broken our limbs trembling for fear of an arrest by this grim sergeant death mingle the best ingredients the world can afford it cannot make a cheering Cordial Honour is but a blast of Popular breath and like an eccho vanisheth into silence The misers Angils are all winged and fly away as an Eagle towards heaven Doth any man lye the safer because his bed posts are gilt doth our meal relish the better because served up in gold are our clothes more fit because more fashionable what is gold and silver but diversified earth and shining clay the entrails of the earth the place of its birth upbraid us for accounting them so precious the best perfumes are but the sweet of trees or the mucous excrement of a beast the softest silks are but the workings of a vile worm the most generous wines but puddle water straind through a vine and our choisest dellicacies are but dirt Cook'd up in various forms Why should we lay the foundation of our happiness upon such phantacies But sickness comes and gives us right notions of these things and it teacheth us the right conduct of our Passions to love these things as if we loved them not it is like wormwood to wean us from the breasts of the creature The most considerable design of sickness is to prepare us for Death and Judgement to make us listen to the strikings of the clock of time with the more attention to bring us to a more familiar acquaintance with that stinglesse Serpent and makes us apprehensive of our pilgrime state there is nothing in death to make it dreadfull to a good Christian many times our bitter cups are but as mornings draughts to eternity by sickness we knock at the gates of the grave every little accident stops our breath the roughness of a grape stone the reflections of a Sun beam the dust of a wheele the aspect of a star introduce death let us therefore with Joseph take a turn or two in our garden and visit our Sepulchre Old age is but a young death and a man may read the sentence of death in some mens foreheads written in the lines of a lingring disease CHAP. LXVIII ALthough we came into the world but one way we may go out a thousand Thus we see sickness hath many ends when it comes and unless these be answered we cannot expect its removal It is like a faithfull messenger it will not go without its message CHAP. LXIX ANother means to procure the influence of a Divine blessing is by imploring a Heavenly benediction by fixing our eyes upon Him who laid the sickness upon us We should look to the hills from whence cometh our help for our help cometh from the Lord that made heaven and earth it is he that wounds that must heal it is his hand that must make whole Hence David calleth the Pestilence a falling into the hands of God and when diseased he cryeth out Thy hand presseth me sore and I am consumed by the blow of thy heavy hand Diseases are called Gods arrows he shoots the arrow of a Consumption into the lungs of a man the arrow of a Fever into the heart of a man or the arrow of the Gout into the limbs of a man like a shot dear he walks and eats and sleeps yet the arrow sticks friends pull and Physitians pull but he may say Thy arrows stick fast in me If he give a commission to the small-Pox or any other disease then the wounds stink and are corrupt and the body is filled with a loathsome disease and there is burnings in stead of beauty Our times are in Gods hands he appoints the frequent returns of our distempers At the noise of his water spouts his waves and his billows pass over us He appoints how long the distemper shall last many continue in a languishing condition some years so that their lives hang in doubt as Moses expresseth it or as Heman saith of himself I am afflicted and ready to dye from my youth up and so Job complains I am made to possesse monthes of vanity and wearisom nights are appointed to me CHAP. LXXI SO may we observe men spitting their lives away notwithstanding their friends provide good dyet the Physitians prescribes good remedies the Minister puts up fervent prayers yet as Job speaks God is of one mind and who can turn him to restore health But when he speaks the word the man is healed I am the Lord that healeth thee is the name he gives himself and this is acknowledged by the
it out This is like the Jews Truly this is my grief and I must bear it as well as I can thus men put from them the evil day and talk as if they were but beginning to live when they are ready to dye and boast as if they made a covenant with death It highly provokes God that when his hand is lifted up they will not see it Frowardness exasperates our calamities Now there are several considerations that may move Christians to patience and a willing submission unto the hand of God in sickness as to consider That it is laid upon us by a loving and wise Father and this may compose our spirits Shall we not drink the cup which our Father hath given us to drink we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of Spirits and live they chastened us after their own pleasure but He for our profit CHAP. LXXVIII SIckness it is a pledg of our Adoption God afflicts in faithfulness He aims at our good thereby and in making sore he binds up faithful are the wounds of such a friend when the righteous God smites he doth us a kindness we are not in heaviness except need be let us not say We are sick so as to complain if sin be pardoned Again Consider how many years of health you have injoyed formerly this may compose the spirits And shall we receive good at the hand of God and not evil Again Consider that it might be worse It is a mercy we are not utterly consumed that we are out of hell that we are scourged with rods not with scorpions that our calamity is a natural infirmity not a wounded spirit for that is intolerable Again consider that if our sickness be never so painful we brought it upon our selvs We should therefore bear the indignation of the Lord because we have sinned against him CHAP LXXIX A Gain the best of men in all ages have been exposed to the same distempers of body Lazarus whom Christ loved was sick It is nothing but what is common to man and we may take the Prophets and Apostles for our examples in suffering affliction of the like kind and of patience Lastly look beyond all these sorrows and sickness the Time is short the Coming of the Lord draws nigh Heaven will make amends for all take a prospect of the Land of Promise where there shall be no more crying nor pain but sorrow sighing and sickness shall fly away And these Rules being observed in sickness would be an effectual way to procure the concurrence of a Divine blessing with the means that are used towards the preservation of natural life A serious contemplation of Heaven and a future State where these vile weak languishing bodies shall be made like the glorious body of Christ in spiritual agility and immortallity may exhilarate the spirits of a Christian when his flesh upon him is so in pain as to cause his soul with in him to mourn Spiritual peace is the best cordial to chear up the heart against bodily pains the inhabitants of Sion complain not of sickness if sin be but pardoned Our bodies are like Nebuchadnezzar's Image whose feet were of clay our foundations are in the dust and it is as natural for our bodies to be out of frame as for a Watch to be irregular in its motions nay far more natural besides our indispositions depend upon supernatural causes Sometimes sickness and divine wrath are concomitants as Solomon intimates and then its sad indeed and sometimes it comes to good purposes if Naaman had not been Leprous he would not have given the Prophet a visit Detrimenta Corporis incrementa virtutis Be mercifull unto me O Lord for I am weak and my bones are sore vexed saith holy David when Gods chastning was upon him The sickness of the body many times brings the body of sin into a Consumption and the holiness of the heart is many times promoted by the weakness of the body when Jacob's thoughts were in Heaven he minded not his Thigh being out of Joynt Surely it is a mercy that God hath abridged so much of the term of mans life in these last days wherein so much of Heaven is discovered that it would put a Saints patience to it to know so much of the upper worlds glory and yet to be kept so long from it as the Fathers in the first Ages were Such is the Saints state in this world that their very life and the pompous entertainments of it are but their cross because they detain them from their Crown CHAP. LXXX VVHen we seriously consider and reflect upon the nature of man in this State of mortality and observe the wonderful composure of our Bodies the Scituation of the Parts the circulations of the Blood the secret meanders of the Veines and Nerves and the curious distributions and digestions of our aliment into Blood and Flesh and take notice how small an obstruction in any part will discompose our health and stop the current of our ease how small an inflammation will transport us into an other world as if we went in a fiery Chariot how mean a putrifaction is able to crumble us into our first Original These things considered may not only compose our spirits under sickness but fill us with admiration that we live an hour in health and ease Did we but consider our frame and remember we are but dust how should we wonder that every blast of aire doth not blow us into our sick beds and graves We are as naturally exposed to trouble and sickness as the sparks are to fly upwards why then should we not be thankfull that pains and anguish are not our constant companions CHAP. LXXXI VVEre it possible for a man to stand upon one of the Battlements of Heaven and with one glance of his eye to behold all the wounds and Diseases and so hear all the groans and complaints of all the sick persons in the world how would the blessing of health be prized by such a one how uneasie a place is a sick bed when the man is full of tossing to and fro until the dawning of the day when it is day withing t were night and when it is night wishing for day imploying his time in telling the Clock and entertaining melancholy apprehensions of the blackness of the night Sick men as Seneca observes Aegrotantes mutationibus ut remediis utuntur use changes as if they were remedies How miserable in outward appearance is that mans case whose flesh is cloathed with worms as holy Jobs was Some Criticks do observe that the word translated flesh it springs from a root which signifieth to bring glad tidings and the Gospel is exprest by it Evangelium and they give this reason for it because there must be a taking off Flesh viz. the incarnation of Christ which would bring the best news the world ever heard of CHAP.