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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	die_v	sin_n	sin_v	13,883	5	9.2456	4	true

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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

all the increase of his house should die in the slower of their age 1 Sam. 2. 32. So on the other side it is God's blessing if he increase the length of our dayes and we die with Job being old and full of dayes and go in our grave in a full age as a shock of corn cometh in in his season to the barn Job 42. 17. 5. 26. Therefore that Heathen Cic. Tusc. 1. was mistaken who said Optimum est non nasci proximum quam cito aboleri The best thing is never to be born and the second best to die assoon as we are born For though long life to some be as wearisome as death is fearful though old age in many be a disease not curable but by death yet these are but accidental life it self is a blessing and the longer we live the more experience we have of God's favour a greater loathing of the sins of our youth and a larger time of repentance as having space wherein to grow wiser and better and thereby to make this life a large preparative to Eternal life Health then and long life being now considered as blessings we will henceforth follow the means and leave the blessing to God CHAP. 1. The first means being to avoid Sin in general which is supernaturally an occasion of bodily Diseases and shortness of Life DIseases are the interests of Sin till Sin there were no such things For this cause in general many are weak and sick Let a Man take the best air he can and eat the best food he can let him eat and drink by Rule let him take never so many Antidotes Preservatives and Cordials yet Man by reason of Sin is but a crazy sickly thing for all this For as one saith all sicknesses of the body proceed from the Sin of the Soul I am not ignorant that the Lethargy ariseth from the coldness of the brain that the Dropsie floweth from waterish blood in an ill affected Liver that the Spleen is caused from melancholly wind gathered in the mid-riff but the cause of all these causes the fountain of all these fountains is the Sin of the Soul And this Truth from the Fountain of Sacred Writ will be clearly derived unto us Our Saviour said unto the Man that had been thirty-eight years diseased Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee John 5. 14. Jesus thus warning him by shewing him the cause of his infirmity which was Sin Those Physicians that derive all Diseases from natural causes only do not well understand that Text for it is Spiritually discerned All sickness is certainly the fruit of Sin and many Physicians will acknowledge it being induced thereunto by a consequence from an instance of a particular though Epidemical disease namely the Plague or Pestilence which is concluded not only from the Word of God Lev. 26. 25. but also from the confirmed constant and received opinion of all Ages to be Flagellum Dei pro peccatis Mundi The rod of God for the sins of the World The word Plague in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying no less for 't is so furious a disease as it disdains any general method of Cure when it is in its rage So that we must needs conclude that whatever be the natural causes of Diseases Sin is the supernatural and meritorious cause not only of this but also of all other Diseases Let me instance but one particular disease more the Palsy when our Saviour was about to cure a Man sick of that disease Mark 2. 5. he first pronounced forgiveness of Sins to him to shew that his Sins were the cause of his disease I confess diseases in the godly are many times God's love tokens and he doth not alwayes aim at the demonstrating of his justice in punishing sin when he layeth sickness upon Men for sometimes he layeth it upon his own Children for other ends as for the trial of their Faith and Patience c. as we see in Job's example yet it is true that God doth not chastise or punish those that are innocent but such as deserve it by their sins otherwise he should be supposed as unjust Sin then the Spiritual disease is the original and procuring cause of every natural disease so as if there were no sin there should be no sickness But here peradventure some may object and say how do this appear experimentally and exemplarily in some vicious Persons whose blood danceth in their veines and whose bones are moistned with marrow who are in health when he whom Christ loveth is sick John 11. 3. as 't was said of Lazarus To this I answer that the like matter bad almost stifled and amazed Job Job 21. and Asaph Psal. 73. but they soon understood a reason of the several dispensations of God's Providence One general reason might be this it may well stand with God's Providence as he is the Father of Mercies and the God of Justice as he shall see cause to let both his Mercy and his Justice meet together both upon the wicked and the Godly As for instance many times he conferreth benefits upon the wicked and suffereth them to go free from punishment there is his mercy though short and temporal but the evil that is in them he punisheth Eternally there is his Justice Again many times he punisheth the sins of his best Servants with temporal afflictions but their goodness he rewardeth with Eternal blessings there is his Justice in punishing temporally his Mercy in rewarding Eternally and in both these the wisdom of God's Providence is discovered So more particularly God doth sometime permit the wicked to have a sound body with a diseased Soul and the Godly a diseased body with a more sound Soul But yet for the most part in the revolution of experience we shall find that where sin reignes most there most diseases as hand-maids are attending upon her And though every general Rule in Grammar hath its exception yet take this as general without exception that Original and likewise Actual sins are the seeds of bodily diseases Though by Gods Mercy and Providence all things even the sharpest work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8. 28. Yea Sin is not only a Spiritual or supernatural cause of bodily diseases but also of shortness of life For as one saith through Sin our bodies are become nothing but the Pest-houses of diseases and death Sin hath corrupted Mans blood and rendered his body mortal and vile Before Sin our bodies were immortal for death and mortality came in by Sin but now Alas they must return to dust and 't is appointed to all Men once to die by Statute Law in Heaven and 't is well if they die but once and the second death hath no power over them they must see corruption and this is the wages that Sin allows to its Servants For the wages of Sin is death Rom. 6. 23. this is the largess or

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.

of a Consumption taken from his own mouth who for the last four years lay bed-rid and so weak that he could not turn himself therein without help By which Distemper his Body was so parched and dried that he was almost like a Sceleton but upon this Cure he recovered his former health and strength whereby he was enabled to follow his Trade being a Shoomaker and living at Stamford in Lincolnshire whereof he gave a large account to which I must refer you for further satisfaction with much affection and sensibleness of the Lord's mercy and goodness to him upon April 7th 1659. Now the Story as it is at large being much noised abroad divers Ministers met together at Stamford to consider and consult about it and for many reasons were induced to believe that the cure was wrought by the Ministry of a good Angel Clark's Mirror vol. 1. p. 18. More such Instances as these might be inferred and exhibited to the Reader but I suppose those already mention'd are a full demonstration of God's omnipotent power that he can work without means and also of his distinguishing mercy that he sometimes doth so for the benefit welfare and encouragement of the Godly who are made either Administrators or Receivers of this gift of bodily health And this may more fully appear if we consider that Edward the Confessor as Dr. Peter Heylin's Cosmog noteth was a man of that holiness in his life that he received power from above to cure many Diseases besides the Kings Evil and that Samuel Wallas was cured chiefly by observing the supposed Angel's injunction in these words But above all whatsoever thou doest fear God and serve him as it is recorded in the afore-mention'd Story to which I referred The consideration of which Instances doth assure us that God's Children have in a super-natural manner been sometimes agents and sometimes Patients in bodily Cures and by consequence may be so still And as touching longaevity the time would fail me to tell of Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph Moses Aaron Phineas grandchild of Aaron Joshua Job Elizeus the Prophet Isaiah the Prophet Tobias the elder and Tobias the younger old Simeon Anna the Prophetess St. John the Evangelist Simeon the Son of Cleoph as called the Brother of our Lord and Bishop of Hierusalem Polycarpus Disciple unto the Apostles and Bishop of Smyrna Dionisius Areopagita contemporary unto the Apostle St. Paul Aquila and Priscilla first St. Paul the Apostle's Hosts afterward his Fellow-helpers and some others whom I could name who by ancient Record appear all severally excepting Simeon that was the Prophet Luke 2. and St. John the Evangelist to have survived an hundred years and this not so much through strength of nature as the extraordinary grace of God thus rewarding their Moral and Christian vertues Now to conclude this Chapter though we are not to depend wholly upon Spiritual means and super-natural assistances for bodily health and length of dayes yet we must principally and chiefly respect them being as hinges upon which Almighty God doth frequently turn the course of Nature For in him as the Apostle citeth it out of Aratus the Poet we live and move and have our being Acts 17. 28. And Job testifieth as much when he saith I have sinned what shall I do unto thee O thou preserver of men Job 7. 20. Job knew as well as Paul that the wages of sin was death and having sinned how should he avoid that death but by addressing himself to God who is the preserver of Men without him there is no Balm in Gilead sufficient Jer. 8. 2. no Physician there that is able to recover the health of the People Which is true as well in a natural as in a metaphorical sense Hezekiah's lump of Figs may be a soveraign Plaister but the prolonging of his life came from God the waters of Bethesda were in themselves likewise very soveraign but it was after they were moved by the Angel from Heaven We may yea we must use all honest and good means to preserve this our Tabernacle of clay from ruin and dilapidation I say we must thankfully embrace the good means which nature or art can minister unto us for the preservation or recovery of health The skill and experience of the judicious Physician may be made use of And though it were Job's complaint that there were many Physicians of no value Job 13. 4. And though such as these be mention'd with ignominy in the Gospel that instead of taking away the poor Womans superfluous blood they had sucked away her necessary maintenance She had spent all that she had and was nothing bettered but rather grew worse Mark 5. 26. I say though such unskilful Empiricks be mention'd with infamy as deserving reverence or reward from none but a Sexton who finds most of his employment from such Physicians desperate unskilfulness yet those of skill and experience and of conscience are worthy of a double honour of reward maintenance Luke the able and beloved Physician deserves a remembrance in St. Paul's Catalogue Col. 4. 14. And such a Physicians skill may be made use of with good success But yet in the use of secondary means this proviso must go along we must ascribe the main honour to God For it is from him that health springeth forth speedily as is hinted to us by the Prophet Isa. 58. 8. Let them therefore who want health together with an honest use of the means address themselves with Hezekiah unto God who is the Fountain of health and he will hear their prayers see their tears and grant them either that which they desire or that which he knoweth in his alwise Providence to be better for them And for us that do enjoy the blessing of health let us return our humble thanks unto God The living the living they shall praise thee as we do this day the father to the children shall make known thy truth Isa. 38. 19. And we cannot praise him better then in the words of our Church To thee O God who hast redeemed our souls from the jaws of death we offer unto thy Fatherly goodness our selves our souls and bodies which thou hast delivered to be a living Sacrifice unto thee to thee which doest restore the voice of joy and health into our dwellings we offer the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving lauding and magnifying thy glorious Name for such thy preservation providence over us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Vid. the two last Forms of Thanksgiving CHAP. III. Shewing that vertuous and regular actions and affections do naturally conduce to the health of Body and length of Life A Life led in Religion as the Lord Verulam in his History of Life and Death noteth seemeth to conduce to long Life There are in this kind of life these things leisure admiration contemplation of Heavenly things joyes not sensual noble hopes wholesom fears sweet sorrows lastly continual renovations by observances penances expiations all which saith he

Murders Robberies and the like and so the wanton Onans roaring Duellers Drunkards and all others that are loose in their lives and disorderly in their diets or behaviours may be said to be cut off each one of them In die non suo Before his day that is before that day Ad quem per naturam juxta hominum opinionem pervenire poterat To which nature in the judgment of all men might have brought him if he had not prevented the same by his unseasonable death Vel gladio vel morbo vel aliquâ aliâ causâ violentâ morte non sua Either by the sword or disease or some other violent cause as Mercerus saith Mercerus in Job 14. 5. Or if that Answer sufficeth not consider this following God Almighty who is the Creator and Conservator of all things in the Universe hath appointed to every created thing both a beginning and end or termination of subsisting and moving and doth take notice not only of principal but also of subsequent causes of things governing moderating disposing and ordering them according to his free will and yet all this government is void of fatal violence and most commonly cometh to effect mediately and from deputed causes which vulgarly are called second causes which the Divine Majesty doth employ as the instruments of his will so long as he doth so govern all things which he hath created as also himself may suffer them to exercise their proper motions for the will of Man by Divine ordination is the original of humane actions freely electing what seemeth best for it self especially in externalls and herein the causes so answer the effects as if the effects be necessary the causes are also necessary and if contingent the causes are contingent nor doth the praescience or fore-knowledge of God which is certain and not to be deceived abolish the contingency of Natural events but the future effect is disposed as it were by a Divine Providence necessarily or contingently nor doth it null the freedom of the agent nor is the Creator obliged to the necessity but moderateth all things freely according to his free will and pleasure and though his Omnipotency can dispose of causes and life with every kind of death at his own free pleasure yet it will not urge any Person to accept that term of life for a fatal determinination but for a Divine ordination of various causes which by the Election of the will that as Des-Cartes saith Can never be constrained prove occasions either of sustaining or destroying life In brief if still the curious Objector remains dissatified I wish him convinced Potius verberibus quam verbis Rather with stripes than stress of words and the indicative Story which I have read of may apologize for me in my Optative mood A discontented Gallant having drowned himself and being much lamented by the Spectators for youthful comliness amongst them was one of this erronious opinion who was pleased to read a lecture to them of the inevitable decree of the Almighty and not by him to be avoided nor by them lamented Hereupon a young Man of the contrary education gave her a great blow over the face which made her challenge him of base cowardise and as great incivility to the Feminine Sex Who returned her in answer that it was the inevitable will of God it should be so and a truth according to her own Doctrine which caused her to stagger in her opinion Let us not then scorn the means For as Solomon saith Judgments are prepared for scroners and stripes for the back of fools Prov. 19. 29. Obj. 2. Another Objection is of those whom we call Star-peepers Nativity-casters and Fortune-tellers who by Birth-stars that is by Stars which arise at every ones coming into the World pretend an infallible prediction of the certain time of their health sickness recovery what shall chaunce unto them and of the time and manner of their death and so thereby endeavour to overthrow the use of all means tending to the preservation of health and prolongation of life Solut. Indeed we deny not unto that noble Science which they name Natural Astrologie the knowledge of Nature's order and the motions of Heavenly Bodies But we utterly disallow their Superstition who professing judicial Astrology for with this great and glorious title they deck and garnish their superstition do measure and predict conjecturally every Man's fortune and success as touching sickness life and death by the hour of his birth For while these Nativity-casters and Fortune-tellers confess that recourse must be made from the time of bearing to the time of begetting what do they else but bewray their own vanity For it is not possible that they should hear and know for certain the very time of Conception So that though it be granted that the Stars have some influence and power upon our Bodies in respect of health and sickness life and death yet notwithstanding it may be rationally denyed that they can be certainly fore-told by any such judicial Astrological predictions Because amongst many other reasons of the uncertainty of the time of Conception or instant of begetting Let not Men then search into their Almanacks to calculate a Nativity and in the mean time neglect their Bibles which will never be out of date But let them as our Saviour adviseth Search the Scriptures John 5. 39. and they may read Judg. 8. 18. of many thousands dying a violent death nigh one and the same time And if an Astrologer had been consulted before that time it is likely that he would have fore-told the instanious deaths of an hundred and twenty thousand when most of them without question had divers and sundry Birth-stars Again had he read of Esau Jacob twins born would he judge them to have been of the same temper and constitution and to have died at the same instant of time It is like he might but surely not without error Yea it may be inferred and proved also by strict observation that other Children besides twins have been born at one instant of time who notwithstanding died at several times Furthermore if the time and kind of death depend upon the Stars then by consequence shall sins depend upon them too for these are the proper cause of that and the promises of God in respect of bodily health and long life be of no effect Which Consequences whoever grants as Conclusions without further examination of the Premisses I fear will scarce ever be directed to Christ by a Star I shall therefore direct the eyes of such to the reading of that sacred Irony in Isaiah Let now the Astrologers the Star-gazers the monthly Prognosticators stand up and save thee from the things that shall come upon thee Isay 47. 13. And also of that dehortatory Lesson in Jeremiah Thus saith the Lord Learn not the way of the Heathen and be not dismayed at the signs of Heaven for the Heathen are dismayed at them Jer. 10. 2. Object 3. A third Objection may

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