conferring any thing towards bodily health that it rather produceth sickness even by that which amongst some sottish Physicians is pretended as a cause of health namely vomiting which is a symptome of sickness and also sometimes a cause of dangerous distempers when it succeedeth a nauseous over-charging the stomack with drink So that whatever be the effects of an evacuation by other kind of vomits this by drunkenness is often a cause of many distempers seldom or never a cure of any unless it be of the present sickness of stomack which this vice first caused But how many other distempers and diseases doth it cause which it never cures So that you see drunkenness is a certain cause of many diseases and of shortness of life but seldom a cure unless it be by accident of any SECT III. Of Adultery Fornication Uncleanness c. THe works of the flesh saith the Apostle are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness Gal. 5. 19. And they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Verse 21. Now as these sins are very injurious to the Soul so also to the body Ezeck 16. 28. For Lust not satisfying such Persons as are tainted with it they soon fall into immoderation and excess which hath these damages attending it A dissolution of strength and spirits decay of sight tainture of the breath diseases of the nerves joynts as Palsies all kinds of Gouts weakness of the back involuntary flux of seed bloody Urine But then as a Modern Physician saith if to immoderation be added the base and sordid accompanying of Harlots and impure Women what follows but a Consumption of Lungs Liver and Brain a putrifaction and discolouration of the blood loss of colour and complexion a purulent and violent Gonorrhea an ulceration and rottenness of the Genitals noysom and malignant Knobs Swellings Ulcers and Fistulaes in the head face feet groin and other glandulous and extream parts of the body These and many more being the effects of that detestable sin when it meets with that detestable disease the Venereal Pox which by God's just judgment hath assailed Mankind not only in France but in most parts of the World as a scourge or punishment to restrain the too wanton and lascivious lusts of impure Persons causing them to receive in themselves that recompence of their errour which was meet as it is in the Apostle's Phrase Rom. 1. 27. though in a different sense To this purpose Mr. John Abrenethy in his pious and ingenious Treatise of Physick for the Soul thus writeth p. 369. This burning lust spendeth the Spirits and Balsom of life as the flame doth wast the Candle whereupon followeth corruption of humours rotting of the marrow the joints ache the nerves are resolved the head is pained the gout increaseth and oft-times as a most just punishment there insueth that miserable scourge of Harlots Lues-Venerea the French Pox. Also Carnal Love or fleshly lust in young Inamoratoes whose affections are stronger than their reason is a branch of wantonness that is fruitful in the production of such diseases and distempers as do extreamly afflict and weaken the Persons captivated as may appear in that Example of Amnon who was sick with love 2 Sam. 13. 1. 2. as the cause with a consumption as the effect being lean from day to day by reason of his fair Sister whom he loved And hence it is that in such Persons the heat abandons the parts and retiring into the brain leaves the whole body in great distemperature which corrupting consuming the blood makes the face grow pale and wan causeth the trembling of the heart breeds strange Convulsions and retires the spirits in such sort that they seem rather Images of death than living Creatures who are possessed with it Now for further illustration of this matter and to revive the mind of the Reader I shall briefly and compendiously recite these two instances The first is of King Perdiccas whom Hippocrates observing and finding him to be in a Chronical sickness which made his body to languish exceedingly after long inquiry perceived his pining away to flow from a Spiritual disease for the love he had to Phila his Fathers Concubine Saran in vita Perdic. The other is of Antiochus Son of King Seleucus who burning with an unspeakeable desire and lust for Stratonice his Stepmother and being mindful what dishonest fires he carried in his breast concealed his inward wound and smothered the flame so long till it reduced his body to the uttermost degree of a Consumption and thus lying in his bed like a dying Man his Father was presently cast down with grief as thinking onely of the death of his only Son and his own miserable condition in being made Childless Plutarch Now how these two Perdiccas and Antiochus were cured of their languishing distempers is inconsistent with my present purpose to declare Also Sodomy Polygamy and self-pollution are sins of uncleanness that by transgressing the rules of Temperance do prove frequently occasions of many distempers Yea likewise the immoderate and unseasonable use of the Marriage bed which is a breach of some Divine Precepts 1 Thes. 4. 4. Lev. 18. 19. is too fruitful in diseases not only in respect of those derived to Posterity but also of those propagated on the Parents themselves For according to the judgment of Laevinus Lemnius and other learned Physicians it can hardly be expressed what Contagîon and mischief comes thereupon when such immodest and impure conjunctions are indulged For where the right ends of Marriage are not observed there Persons of both Sex at last pay dearly for their unruly lust when their bodies are tormented with the Leprosie or Pox Gouts Aches or other distemperatures And therefore one adviseth That in the private acquaintance and use of Marriage there be a seasonable restraint with a moderation that so the pleasure therein be inter-mingled with some regard to the rules of health and long life To both which those fore-named sins of Wantonness and Uncleanness are foul Enemies Moreover these sins do shorten and contract life For those that are defiled and corrupted by them do very much sin against their own Bodies wasting their strength in pleasure as the flame consumeth the Candle and therefore are like Sparrows which Aristotle saith do therefore live but a short time because of their insatiable copulation And I read that the Romans were wont to have their Funerals at the gates of Venus Temple Plut. to signifie that lust was the Harbinger and hastener of death Yea the wisest of meer Men doth in his Proverbs teach us the praedatory and destructive power of all uncleanness in these words And thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed Prov. 5. 11. It is a fire saith Job that consumeth to destruction Job 31. 12. The Lord Verulam in his History of Life and Death p. 57. makes this observation That the Goat lives to the same age
disease Caelius Phinehas's Wife when she heard the sorrowful tidings of the taking of the Arck of God the death of her Father in Law and Husband she bowed her self being great with child was delivered and died through sorrow of heart 1 Sam. 4. 19 20. Queen Mary died as some supposed by her much sighing before her death of thought and sorrow of heart for the departure of King Philip or the loss of Calice Act. Mon. 1901. Now in all this Argument we may take notice what fearful effects immoderate sorrow doth produce upon our Bodies what a malign cold and dry Passion it is wasting the radical humour and by degrees quenching the natural heat of the body yea thrusting her poyson even unto the heart whose vigour she causeth to wither and consumes the forces by her bad influence whereof we may see the signs after death when as they come to open those that have been smothered with Melancholy For instead of a heart they find nothing but a dry skin like to the leaves in Autumn So that all things exactly considered we may say that there is not any Passion which doth so much shorten our life or make it so infirm and miserable as this in its excess Hitherto might be referred Despair an evil Conscience such as is neither quiet nor good and such like self tormenting sins which as they are sometimes causes of immoderate and excessive sorrow so by the like influence upon the Body do produce such a flow of diseases as suddenly ebb in death And here lest it should be judged that Godly sorrow which worketh repentance because it is sometimes very intense should produce the same Natural effects in the Body that immoderate and vicious doth you must understand that in true Godly sorrow though it be sometimes very intense vehement and zealous there are such intervals of Spiritual joy by reason of the cherishing hope of pardon that all excess with its Natural effects is diverted mitigated and in due season avoided Nocte pluit tot â redeunt Spectacula mane Which in a Metaphorical sence may be render'd thus Clouds showers of grief may endure a night But glympses of joy return at day-light Or as David thus Heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Psal. 30. 5. The acrimony then in Godly sorrow is so corrected by the sweet ingredient of inward Consolation that it never proves offensive or prejudicial to bodily health as wordly and immoderate sorrow hath been fully declared to do SECT VIII Of Sensual Joy and Laughter in excess SOlomon made trial of sensual joy mirth and pleasure thinking therein to find true content and Soul-satisfaction but in the conclusion found nothing but the husks of vanity wherewith he at first like a Prodigal Son would fain have satisfied himself but could not as appeareth by his own words I said in my heart Go to now I will prove thee with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity Eccl 2. 1 2. I said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doth it There is a woe denounced by Christ of whom St. Augustin noteth that 't is often read that he wept never that he laughed St. Aug. Serm. 35. de Sanctis against all such as rejoyce in riot revelling carousing luxury and other forbidden pleasures of this World in that comprehensive Phrase Wo unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep Luk 6. 25. All inordinate rejoycing or rejoycing in unlawful pleasures may justly have the Apostle's reprehension applied to it All such rejoycing is evil Jam. 4. 16. Now as it is evil in respect of the Soul so also in repect of the Body for that very oft swounding and sudden death hath befallen to sudden and immoderate joy and that because the Cordial blood and Vital Spirits are thereby so suddenly diffused to the exterior parts that Life goeth out therewith and returneth not as Fernelius noteth Or as Des-Cartes of this Passion in its excess thus observeth Opening extraordinarily the Orisices of the heart the blood of the veines doth so huddle in and in so abundant a quantity that it cannot there be rarified by the heat soon enough to list up the little skins that shut the entries of those veins by which means it smothers the fire which it used to feed when it came into the heart in fit proportion Des-Cartes of the Passions Artic. 122. Hence I suppose it is that the Lord Verulam saith in his History of Life and Death p. 221. Great joyes attenuate and diffuse the Spirits and shorten life Instances hereof are many in History let these few suffice Diagor as Rhodius had his three valiant Sons victors in one Olympiad who putting all their three Crowns upon their Fathers head through too much joy he presently died Gellius lib. 3. cap. 15. Xeuxis the Painter beholding the vive Picture of an old Wife which he so cunningly did paint burst forth so in laughter that he presently died Sophocles that worthy Poet and also Dionisius the Tyrant after a victory in a Tragedy at the whole People's congratulation through exceeding joy yielded up their life Plin. lib. 7. cap. 53. Chrysippus Philemon at the sight of an Ass eating Figs was so overcome with immoderate laughter that he died Valer. Maxim Chilo the famous Lacedaemonian Philosopher soon expired his last breath when as overjoyed he beheld his Son Conquerour in the Olympick games Ravis Philippides the Athenian an aged Comick overcoming the rest in Poesie and crowned for his great pains died for his present pleasure Cael. lib. 3. c. 15. With such like Instances I might further dilate upon this Point but lest an odd Humorist should laugh himself out of breath to think of them as improbable or the significant Caveats deduced from them as unseasonable in sad times I here desist SECT IX Of Servile Slavish and all Unlawful Fear in excess THere is as Divines distinguish a Divine fear a Filial fear a Dutiful fear a Wise fear and these are all lawful But then there is also a Slavish fear a False fear a Distrustful fear or a Natural fear joyned with diffidence and these are unlawful Servile or Slavish fear whereby Men do abstain from sin rather in respect of the punishments ensuing thereupon then out of an unfained hatred thereof or a fear which ariseth upon the apprehension of God's Justice and wrath against sin and the punishments and plagues for sin is to be avoided as irregular For we ought to serve God without this sort of fear Luke 1. 74. It is Carnal and such as doth no wise proceed from the working of the Spirit but is quite contrary to the same For God saith the Apostle hath not given us the Spirit of fear but of power of love c. 2 Tim. 1. 7. The reason hereof may be in that the perfect love of God in us excommunicates it Perfect love saith St. John caseth out fear 1 Ep. John 4.
18. And as touching False fear though it be rather a fruit of weakness and a punishment of sin for so 't is threatned as a punishment by the Lord Lev. 26. 17 36. then a sin in it self yet as it is irregular it is concluded within the scope of this Discourse and as it is frequent or excessive may justly deserve reproof Distrustful fear is straitly prohibited by those Apostles Peter 1 Pet. 3. 14. and John Rev. 2. 10. Yea all Natural fear when it is joined with distrust and diffidence or excess is to be avoided as unwarrantable in Sacred Writ Num. 14. 9. 2 Kings 6. 16. And was therefore by Nehemiah resisted Nehem. c. 6. v. 11. Now as all unlawful and immoderate fear is to be avoided in regard of the Soul so also in regard of the Body For it is often the cause of Diseases as first of that called in Latin Tremor in English Trembling or shaking of the Members Metus dejicit vires ac proinde tremorem inducit saith the learned Galen Com. 1. in lib. 3. Epid. cap. 4. Fear brings down the strength and so causeth trembling His meaning more largely might be thus viz. that the heat which resides in the Blood and Spirits being that which supports and fortifies the members of Man those members being destitute thereof can hardly support themselves but tremble and shake in that manner and whereas the hands and lips shew greater signs of alteration then the rest the reason is for that those parts have a more strict bond with the heart and have less blood then the rest and therefore cold doth more easily make an impression upon them Also it is sometimes the cause of that disease called Cordis Palpitatio Panting of the heart Deut. 28. 65. or at least of the like Symptoms and those as dangerous especially when they precede a Syncope or Swounding which is as proper an effect and Catastrophe of this Passion as of that disease Moreover it is sometimes the extimulating promoting cause of the Lask or Diarrhaea for as the Author of a certain Natural History saith if the Natural heat leave the heart and go downward the fear is not only encreased but it bringeth withal a loosness of the belly Therefore it is written saith he in the Book of Job where it is spoken of the fear that Leviathan bringeth upon Men That the mighty are afraid by reason of breakings they purifie or purge themselves Job 41. 25. i. e. for fear of him Neither is this all but experience teacheth us at a dear rate that in immoderate fear through the strength of fantasie and imagination sundry contagious Diseases as the Small Pox Measles c. are frequently imprinted in the blood when guilt makes Men fearful of deserved punishment according to that of the Wise man The fear of the wicked it shall come upon him Prov. 10. 24. And as it causeth Diseases so consequently shortness of life Oft-times present death hath followed upon it through suffocation of the Vital Spirits It was almost present death unto the Churle Nabal he lived not many dayes after that he had been striken with it It came to pass in the morning when the wine was gone out of Nabal and his wife had told him these things that his heart died within him and he became as a stone 1 Sam. 25. 37 38. And in the next Verse we find that he died about ten dayes after It put the Watch at Christ's Sepulcher into such a shaking fit by an Earth-quake under them Mat. 28. 4. and another within their hearts that but for God's Mercy it had shaked them into their Graves when they became as dead Men. It seemeth to be a notable contraction of life by its sudden introduction of the blossoms of old age viz. gray hairs which by the extremity of this Passion have been strangely effected in the space of a week or two as 't is storied of one Mr. Baynings of London Yea even in one night as appeareth by Record of a memorable example during the Reign of the Emperour Charles the Fifth For one Francis Gonzague having caused a young Man of his house to be comitted to Prison for that he suspected he had conspired against him this miserable young Man was so terrified with his affliction as the same night he was cast into Prison his hair grew all white But more fully to the matter we find the sad and pernicious effect of immoderate fear in this following Narration Anno 1568. there was in Breda one Peter Coulogue a Godly Man who by his Popish Adversaries was cast into Prison and his Maid-servant daily brought him his food confirming and comforting him out of the Word of God as well as she was able for which they imprisoned her also Not long after Peter was put to the torment which he endured patiently After him the Maid was fetched to be tormented Whereupon she said My Masters wherefore will ye put me to this torture seeing I have no way offended you If it be for my Faith-sake ye need not torment me For as I was never ashamed to make a Confession thereof no more will I now be at this present before you But will if you please freely shew you my mind therein Vide Clark's Martyrol p. 305. Yet for all this they would have her to the Rack Whereupon she again said If I must needs suffer this pain pray give me leave to call upon my God first This they assented to And whilst she was fervently pouring out her prayers to God one of the Commissioners was surprised with such fear and terrour that he fell into a swound out of which he could never be recovered Many such like Instances might be heap'd up were it not in vain to evince this Point Per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora By many words which may be done by few And therefore I shall conclude it with the Sentence of that Atlas of Experimental Knowledge Lord Bacon in his translated History of Life and Death pag. 222. Great fears shorten the life for saith he in fear by reason of the cares taken for the remedy and hopes inter-mixed there is a turmoil and vexing of the Spirits And so much shall serve for this Section SECT X. Of Immoderate Desires Ambition excessive Cares Sollicitude Covetousness c. OMne nimium vertitur in vitium All extremes become vicious and those Epithites Immoderate and Excessive signifie as much in relation to Desires Ambition Cares Sollicitude c. and therefore the less shall need to be inferred for the arraignement of them Know then briefly that the above-named are all Diseases of the Soul Ambition which is an immoderate desire or thirst after Honour and Worldly glory is a Spiritual Dropsie that is not easily cured not only a great sin in it self but puts Men upon many others There is nothing saith one the Author of the whole Duty of Man p. 151. so horrid which a Man that eagerly
Knowledge These are the consequences of that Wisedom which is foolishness with God as the Spirit of God terms it 1 Cor. 3. 19. But again we will consider all the above-mentioned Enormities and irregularities in this Section as they cause shortness of Life The condensation of the Spirits as the Lord Verulam in his History of Life and Death p. 227. writeth is effectual to long life and therefore especial care must be taken that the Spirits be not too often resolved for attenuation goeth before resolution and the Spirit once attenuated doth not very easily retire or is condensed now resolution is caused by over-vehement Affections of the mind over-great Cares and carpings and anxious expectations Not without reason then is that Proverbial Sentence Care will kill a Cat though it be said to have nine lives or that observation of the Son of Sirach Carefulness bringeth age before the time Eccl. 30. 24. Cura facit canos Care brings gray hairs i. e. it antidates old Age and so consequently shorteneth life Hence it is that almost in every Village we shall find a Covetous Muck-worm drooping and at length dropping into his Grave not with pure old age but beaten down and overwhelmed with too much Sollicitude and carking Care before that he can arrive to that Maturity Also immoderate Study by its subtil acute and eager inquisition after humane learning shortens life for it tireth the Spirit and wasteth it Solomon hinteth as much to us in these words And further by these my son be admonished of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh Eccles. 12. 12. That is as Bishop Hall paraphraseth upon the place by these Divine words O my Son do thou content thy self to be admonished not roving in thy desires after multitude of other Volumes whereof there is no end in the compiling and reading of which there is much toil and weariness of the flesh and much expence of the Spirits Finally Many other irregularities and enormities there are but as most of them may be reduced to one or other of the above-mentioned Sections so the like consequential effects may be deduced from them And so I conclude the whole Chapter having largely shewed and demonstrated that Many sins are natural causes of bodily Diseases and shortness of Life CHAP. III. Containing an Enumeration of sundry Sins as they are accidental causes of bodily Diseases and especially of shortness of Life THat we may term an accidental cause which produceth its effect not naturally and immediately by it self but by accident or chance or fortune as the Logicians define it Now how many sad accidents do sometimes result from sundry sins which expose Men to divers Diseases and also to shortness of life may appear by this following accompt which the greater part thereof I must crave leave to draw from and illustrate by a Collection of several Instances in History First In relation to Gluttony and Drunkenness we find these following recorded and adapted to our present purpose Gregory of Tours reporteth of Childerick a Saxon that glutted himself so full of meat and drink over night that in the morning he was found choked in his bed Anacreon the Poet a grand Consumer of Wine and a notable Drunkard was choked with the husk of a grape Philostrates being in the Bathes of Sinvessa devoured so much Wine that he fell down the Stairs and almost broke his neck with the fall Martid lib. 11. Alexander the Son of Basilius and Brother of Leo the Emperour did so wallow and drown himself in the Gulf of pleasure and intemperance that one day after he had stuffed himself too full of Meat as he got upon his Horse he burst a vein within his Body whereat upwards and downwards issued such abundance of blood that his life and soul issued forth withal Melanct. lib. 4. Within few years of my own knowledge saith mine Author three not far from Huntington being overcome with drink perished by drowning when being not able to rule their Horses they were carried by them into the main stream from whence they never came out alive again but left behind them visible marks of God's justice for the terrour and example of others Beard 's Theater of God's Judgments Holofernes while he besotted his senses with excess of Wine and good chear Judeth found means to cut of his head Judeth 13. Yea woful experience doth make manifest almost every day in one corner or other of this Land that the Lord punisheth many with sudden death and destruction even in the midst of their drunken fits although some again to shew his delight is in Mercy and not in the sudden destruction of his Creatures he punisheth with some lingring distempers whereof this vice of Drunkenness is often an accidental cause by exposing such Persons to heats and colds the adventitious causes of most Diseases to falls bruises fractures dislocations wounds contusions combustions c. which are the occasions or accidental causes not only of many Organical Diseases but also Similar as might be made apparent if right reason or mature experience were consulted And therefore let that Proverbial Sentence Drunken folks seldom take harm be hereafter exploded by all sober Persons considering how harmful and prejudicial this enormity hath been declared to be both to Soul and Body And now because Vina parant animos Veneri Whoredom is usually ushered in by Drunkeness we will in the next place consider Lust Adultery Fornication Uncleanness c. as accidental causes of Diseases but especially of shortness of Life And here I might shew how all immoderate and unseasonable use of Venus doth impede Concoction and so consequently produce Diseases But I shall rather touch upon it as a contingent cause of Venereal Pox which as in the former Chapter we considered as a Natural effect in respect of the virulent Contagion communicated so in this we look upon it as contingent and accidental in respect of the Persons communicating in the above-mention'd sins But I shall choose rather to insist upon those sins as accidental causes or occasions of shortness of Life and to that end shall illustrate the Point by these ensuing Instances Shechem the Son of Hamor the Hivite ravished Dinah Jacob's Daughter for which cause Simeon and Levi her Brethren revenged the injury done unto their Sister by slaying Shechem and with him all the Males that were in the City Gen. 34. In the 19th and 20th Chapter of Judges we read that the Levite's Wife having forsaken her Husband to play the whore certain Moneths after he had again received her to be his Wife she was given over against her will to the villanous and monstrous lusts of the men of Gibeah who so abused her for the space of a whole night together that in the morning she was found dead upon the threshold Which thing turn'd to a great destruction and overthrow not only of those Children of Belial in Gibeah which committed such lewdness
with the Sheep which is seldom to ten years and though he be a Creature more nimble and of somewhat a firmer flesh and so should be longer liv'd yet because he is much more lascivious that shortens his life How many Examples of Goatish short-liv'd Men could I extract out of History But being confined to brevity I must hasten to answer an Objection And it is this Some diseases are cured by Incontinency and Venereal evacuations as Anorexia viz. queasiness of Stomack Hysterical fits or suffocation of the womb Spermatick Feavers most vehement pains of the Head Priapismus Satyriasis Furor Uterinus c. Diseases felt and understood by such unmarried Persons whose blood is in its Meridian and as by this means such diseases are sometimes cured so consequently life is prolonged To which I may return a threefold Answer like a threefold cord which is not quickly broken Eccles. 4. 12. First Let all be supposed which is here objected yet surely it is but an ill Method to cure the Body by destroying the Soul or to endeavour the prolonging the Natural life by shortning of the Spiritual the life of grace We must not as I said before in respect of drunkenness do evil that good may come No necessity of health or life ought to persuade hereunto Ludovicus a King of France undertaking a long Pilgrimage and his Queen not being with him his health began to impair which his Physicians observing and knowing the reason of it perswaded him in the absence of the Queen to take unto him another Woman because his health safety required it which he did utterly refuse protesting he had rather die then have his Liie preserved by such an ungodly means Secondly Let the Objection still be enforced yet there is no necessity to make use of an unlawful cure when there is a lawful one provided for every one that will in that excellent and Divine Institution of Marriage which as it is intended a good prevention of all lustful and unlawful burnings 1 Cor. 7. 2. so by a more warrantable course it hath probably effected some Natural Cures upon the bodies of some and also by confining the Senses to one particular object far less exhausted the Spirits and so consequently seldomer occasioned diseases than a licentious indulgence and extravagant and insatiable Luxury hath done But because all this doth not directly meet the Objection or fully correspond to the design of my present undertaking therefore in the last place I would answer more pertinently that if any of the asore-mentioned diseases have been cured or prevented by such unlawful evacuations I verily believe as ill or worse have been introduced and nestled into their room or in stead of them So that still the stream runneth clear from the fountain viz. that sin more particularly the sin of Incontinency and Uncleanness is a cause of diseases and consequently of shortness of life as I have sufficiently demonstrated unto any whose reason doth not too much truckle under sense SECT IV. Of Idleness Sloth and Sluggishness IDleness was the sin of Sodom Ezeck 16. 49. a sin reproved by the Similitude of the Labourers in the Vineyard especially in those words Why stand ye here all the day idle Mat. 20. 6. The slothful and wicked Man join hands and go together as one in the Parable of the Talents Thou wicked and slothful Servant c. Mat. 25. 26. God puts no difference betwixt Nequaquam nequam An idle and an evil Servant The Sluggard or he that is slothful in his work were there no other respects is in this much the worse and that is in the condition of his estate as well as soul for and by reason of the non-improvement of his temporal Talent For as Solomon saith He is brother to him that is a great waster Pro. 18. 9. and therefore is he reproved by the Wise man and sent to School to the Ant Prov. 6. 6. 10. 12. to learn prudent industry and diligence I could shew you how the afore-named sins do frustrate the end of our Creation become the sinks of all mischief and evil and so odious and detestable that the very Devils in Hell are not guilty of them But my design is onely to point out sin briefly and then more largely to prove it to be an occasion of bodily diseases and shortness of life And of all sins Idleness Sloth and Sluggishness are not the least occasion being the sediment and collection of excremental superfluities For as standing waters soonest putrifie so do the humours of the body in stagno the Pool of Idleness The Lacedemonians would suffer none of their Subjects to spend their time in Sports or Idleness and when their Magistrates were told of some that used to walk abroad in the afternoons they sent to them requiring that leaving their Idleness they should betake themselves to honest labours and imployments For say they it becomes the Lacedemonians to procure health to their bodies by labour and exercise not to corrupt them by Sloth and Idleness Idleness saith a Modern Author not only stupifieth the mind but also groweth upon the body and blood and betrayeth them to discomplexion sickness and to many infirmities Yea search the Physicians Library and observe their Conclusions upon the six Non-naturals more particularly upon Motion and Rest and you may find the discommodities of this sin namely Crudities obstructions and a multiplication of excrementitious humours and so consequently a languishing loose slabby infirm body Hence it is that such Persons corrupted with this vice are unavoidably in continual Physick have need of Issues and other artificial helps for the evacuation and exiccation of those superfluous moistures contracted upon them by a sedentary and slothful life But especially those Women who have passed their youth undisciplin'd and have been bred up in such a delicacy that they know no other business but their pleasures I say those find sensibly the pernicious effects of an idle life in those diseases it particularly disposeth them too as Obstructions of the Liver Spleen Womb and Breast and in that grievous inconvenience it produteth viz. Long travail difficulty and danger in Childing as might easily be confirmed by reason but that probably a great part of this Sex is sooner convinced by an Argument drawn from sence and their own dear experience which is most commonly the Mistress of Fools I might add hereunto that they which â—ead sedentary lives bear weak and sickly Children and also demonstrate such VVomen to be injurious not only to themselves but also their Posterity But I must hasten to shew you another natural effect of Idleness even in both Sexes and that is a disease which is the leaven of diseases viz. Melancholly which proceedeth oft-times from this vice and excremental superfluities gathered together in the body For no greater cause of Melancholly than Idleness as Democritus Jun. in his Treatise of that subject doth largely shew in place thereof and most compendiously conclude in another
viz. the Epilogue this Prescription as an Antidote against that disease Be not idle be not solitary Burton's Melancholy Moreover there are many other disease that are the excrescences of this sin but let it suffice in general terms to denote it as a main occasion of bodily distempers brooding and hatching them by a sedentary life So true is that of the Poet Ovid Ignavum corrumpunt otia corpus Idelness corrupts wastes and destroys the body And the learned Galen saith as much Otium reddit imbecillas vires membrorum Com. 3. in lib. de Off. c. 32. Also in another place Otium liquefacit Com. 3. i◠lib. 6. Eped c. 2. And also Nature's great Explorator Lord Verulam in his History of Life and Death doth denote unto us That an idle life doth manifestly make the flesh soft and dissipable and so consequently an Enemy to long life Sluggishness is likewise much of the same Nature and property bringing many from the Couch to the Bed of sickness and from the Bed to the Coffin For if the old Rule be true Diluculo surgere saluberrimum est To arise betimes in the morning be the most wholesom thing in the world then surely Regulâ contrariorum by the Rule of Contraries to play the Sluggard and to exceed that convenient measure of rest which Nature alloweth must be if not the most unwholesom thing in the world yet one of the most And this will appear if we consider the Inconveniences of immoderate sleep as they are described by Physicians First In that the heat being thereby called into the Body it consumes the superfluous moistures and then the necessary and lastly the solid parts themselves and so extenuates dries and emaciates the Body And Secondly It fixes the Spirits and makes them stupid it hardens the excrements and makes the Body costive from whence follow many inconveniences Lastly The brain being therby filled with vapours the Head-ach is caused the natural motions of the humours are hindred and stopped crude phlegmatick juices and all manner of superfluous humours are heaped up and increased whence flows a notable Spring of distillations and such like cold and long continuing diseases I could add hereunto what the Patrons and Supporters of Ballance Physick write viz. By too much sleep the strength is suffocated concoction diminished perspiration hindred the head and bowels hurt c. D. Sanctor's and D. Cole's new Art of Physick But I must not forget my intended brevity SECT V. Of Immoderate Anger ANger when it is immoderate becomes sinful when the Sun goeth down upon it soon becomes a work of darkness and therefore the Apostle after a Concession Be angry addeth a Restriction And sin not let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Eph. 4. 26. In which Restriction sinful and remaining anger are connexed and prohibited Now as this remaining or immoderate anger is sinful so it is unhealthful for the incommodities thereof are many and evil as Feavers Phrensies and Madness Trembling Palsies Apoplexies decay of Appetite and want of Rest Paleness Collicks Plurisies Inflammations Cholerick Caeliack and Iliack Passions c. So that not without cause was the saying of Eliphaz Wrath killeth the foolish man Job 5. 2. And to this purpose I shall infer what I find recorded in humane Story The Emperour Nerva ended his life in a Feaver contracted by anger The Emperour Valentinian died by an irruption of blood through anger Cuspianus Chromerus l. 18. Vinceslaus King of Bohemia raging against his Cup-bearer fell presently into a Palsie whereof he died Also L. Sylla who in his anger had spilt the blood of many at last in his fury raging and crying out against one that had broken promise with him thereby brake a Veine within him vomiting out his blood soul and anger together Valer. Maxim l. 9. And Ajax through anger fell into a deadly fury Now from these Instances we may conclude the truth of that Sentence in Eccl. 30. 24. Wrath shortens the life And also of that old Medicinal Rule in Schold Salerni Si vis incolumem si te vis reddere sanum Irasci crede profanum If thou wilt live in health and free from sickness bane Then think thou choler in excess to be prophane We may add hereunto that anger in excess inflameth the blood and increaseth choler which is for the most part the cause of that acute and dangerous disease Cholerica passio or Choler which as the Physicians write is often so sharp and vehement that it doth deprive a Man of life within the space of a day or two even without a Feaver Moreover it is observed that Children most fretful are usually short-liv'd and that anger if it be inveterate causeth the Natural Spirit to feed upon the juyces of the Body which must consequently produce Consumptions and abbreviate Life SECT VI. Of Envie Hatred and Malice AMongst many other These as the Apostle saith Gal. 5. 20 21. are works of the flesh Envie is Cousen german to hatred and malice and so they are all three upon the account of a base and ignoble Race for the Devil is their Father and Concupiscence their Mother They are in the judgment of the Holy Ghost no less than mental Murder for Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer 1 Ep. John 3. 15. v. Now saith Christ the devil is the father of murderers John 8. 44. As then we may conclude Envie hatred and malice to be mortal sins to the Soul so I shall prove them to be mortal and destructive to the Body Envie saith the Lord Verulam in the History of Life and Death is the worst of all passions and feedeth upon the Spirits and they again upon the body and so much the more because it is perpetual and as is said keepeth no holy dayes It is a sin that doth fret and consume the Body and so is a means to hinder health and shorten life and of this the Wise Man took notice when he termed Envie the rottenness of the bones Prov. 14. 30. And justly it is called the rotting of the bones because like a Fever Hectick it doth consume a Man and bring him to his end as the rottenness of the marrow that lieth within the bones Envious Men cordis sui peste moriuntur They die by the plague of their own heart Gregor An envious Man is sui ipsius carnifex His own tormentor and Executioner The Grecians call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 homicidium slaughter because the envious Man killeth his own heart with this passion Or it may be derived from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corrumpo consumo because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Consumption Livor tabificus malis venenum Yea Envie to the heart is like rust to the Iron or blasting to the Corn like the Vultures eating up continually the heart of Prometheus or the foolish Bee that loseth the life with the sting it burneth the heart and wasteth
the Body and is like the Worm that breedeth in timber and consumeth it So true is that of the Son of Sirach Envie c. shorten the life Eccl. 30. 24. Hatred also produceth the like effects for what is said of Envie may as well relate unto Hatred and Malice Envie slayeth the silly one saith Job 5 ch 2 v. and so doth Hatred and Malice by causing ill humours in the body For according to the Modern Philosopher M. Des-Cartes in his Treatise of the Passions The pulse in Hatred is observed to be uneven and weaker and oftentimes faster than usual that a Man feels colds inter-mingled with sharp and pricking heat in the breast that the stomack ceases to do its office is enclined to vomit and reject the Meats it hath eaten or at least to corrupt them and convert them into ill humours All which considered Hatred can be profitable unto none For ill humours are the Springs of most Diseases Again Hatred cannot be so small but it hurts the Body because it is never without Sadness which brings me to the next Section SECT VII Of Worldly Sorrow and Immoderate Grief of mind BY those Epithetes Worldly and Immoderate the Sorrow to be now treated of is distinguished from Godly sorrow which worketh repentance to Salvation which is neither Wordly nor Immoderate and may be thus described Worldly sorrow causing death of Body and Soul is that which is immoderate and humbleth not the heart kindly but disquiets disturbs and distempers it whether it proceed from outward evils and losses or inward evils as most from melancholious humours and worst from an evil Conscience and this sorrow may be termed rather Attrition than Contrition the sorrow for our misery or punishment being called Attrition for our sault Contrition But to the Point in hand Worldly and Immoderate sorrow though it may be look'd upon as a punishment of sin rather then a sin it self yet doubtless it is little less than both being a plain aberration from the Rules of Christianity so long as 't is leavened with Avarice Despondency Distrust Despair Discontent Hence it is that the Apostle Paul interdicts excessive sorrow for the dead because it argues despair and want of hope But I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope 1 Thess. 4 13. Excess in sorrow makes it sinful in Christians And here also hath place the Caveat of the same Apostle Lest any be swallowed up with over-much sorrow 2 Cor. 2. 7. Upon which place a Modern Expositor Trapp of our own ventureth to say that sorrow for sin if it so far exceed as that thereby we are disabled for the discharge of our duties it is a sinful sorrow yea though it be for sin With much more confidence then may we term that a sinful sorrow which the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 7. 10. worketh death namely the sorrow of the world which by Expositors is understood to be that sorrow which is proper to Men of the World such as are not regenerated by the Spirit of God whose grief and sorrow is nothing but the bitter smart of their misery without any serious and sincere repentance Or by sorrow of the World is meant a sorrow only for the loss of worldly things or which is caused from the fear of God's Judgments in Unbelievers whereupon there followeth commonly hardness of heart and a reprobate sense and at length if not prevented by repentance despair and damnation which do not only bring a Spiritual and Eternal death but also by wasting the Body hasten a temporal death And this will appear in respect of the Body First by Natural Reason Secondly by Divine and Humane Testimony First By Natural Reason And here we must understand that in sorrow or sadness the heat and spirits retire and by their sudden surrounding and possession of the heart all at once as the Physicians observe do many times cause Suffocation they being likewise by uniting encreased do violently consume the moisture of the Body and so beget drought and leanness and through long continuance Consumptions Or as others thus in sorrow or sadness there is a gathering together of much melancholly blood about the heart which Collection extinguisheth the good Spirits or at least dulleth and dampeth them Besides the heart being possessed by such an humour cannot digest well the Blood and Spirits which ought to be dispersed thorow the whole Body but converteth them into melancholy the which humour being cold dry drieth the whole Body and maketh it wither away for cold extinguisheth heat and drieness moisture which two qualities principally concern Life Secondly By Divine and Humane Testimony it further appeareth For first Solomon saith A merry heart doth good like a medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones Prov. 17. 22. Also heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop Prov. 12. 25. It maketh it stoop because it wasteth the natural vital and animal Spirits Hence also is that prescription of the Son of Sirach Remove sorrow far from thee for sorrow hath killed many Eccl. 30. 23. And that of the same Author Of heaviness cometh death and the heaviness of the heart breaketh strength Eccl. 38. 18. These with the fore cited places out of St. Paul's 2d Epistle to the Corinthians might be thought sufficient to confirm this truth did not some Men require a further Illustration of it by Humane Testimony and this may be considered in the next place as useful to the same end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Euripides Sorrows to Men diseases bring Hence also and for this cause are those trite and vulgar sayings Sadness and Melancholy the path-way to sickness Too much sorrow maketh a Man to run mad Sorrow is good for nothing but sin Hence also is that Conclusion of Aquinas in his Summs 1. 2. q. 37. 4. o. Tristitiae magis corpori nocet quam aliae passiones cùm vitalem motum cordis impediat i. e. Sadness doth more hurt the Body then other passions of the mind because it hindereth the vital motion of the heart It likewise takes away appetite overheats the heart and lungs corrupts the nutritious juyce causeth Consumptions and other cold Diseases Out of which we may gather that this Affection especially if it be more vehement and inveterate than ordinary doth bring very many and those grievous damages unto the Body some part whereof may be evidenced in these ensuing Instances Plantius the Numidian at the sight of his dead Wife presently died Laertius Diodorus the Logician died for sorrow because he could not answer the question of Stilpo Homer died with sudden sorrow because he was not able to answer a Fishermans question Plut. Aristotle the Prince of Ancient Philosophers when he came to Chalcis and saw the ebbing and flowing of Euripus that narrow Sea near Boeotia seven times in the twenty-four houres because he could not find the cause he fell into an incurable
and shortness of Life Mr. Fox Acts Mon. p. 2101. telleth us of one named John Peter Son-in-Law to Alexander that cruel Keeper of Newgate who being a most horrible Swearer and Blasphemer used commonly to say If it be not true I pray God I may rot ere I die And not in vain for he rotted away indeed and so died in misery I read of a Perjuter that forswore himself to the end to deceive and prejudice another thereby But he had no sooner made an end of his false Oath but a grievous Apoplexy assailed him so that without speaking any one word he died within few dayes That Story in Eusebius is very remarkable concerning Narcissus a good Bishop of Jerusalem and three lewd Varlots his Accusers as it is recited by the above-named Mr. Fox Narcissus intending to accuse three notable Malefactors of their misdemeanors they thought to prevent his accusation by first laying a grievous Crime to his charge and to get credit thereunto each of them bound it with their severeral Oaths one wishing to be consumed with fire if it were not so another to die of some grievous disease the third to lose both his eyes Narcissus seeing three to one was odds gave place but what became of these perjured Fellows the first was consumed by a fire set in his House the second was taken with a strange Disease that over-spread his whole Body which brought him to a miserable end the third seeing God's judgments upon his Brethren in evil confessed the fault for which he continually shed such abundance of tears that he wept out his eyes becoming blind thereupon Euseb. lib. 6. p. 101. God who takes notice of Mens Oaths takes vengeance of their breach and violation Also we find recorded that in the Reign of the Emperour Anastatius there was a certain Arian Bishop whose name was Olympus who as he was washing himself in a Bath belched forth many blasphemous speeches against the blessed Trinity whereupon lightning fell down from Heaven upon him three times and he was burnt and consumed therewith Paul Diacon in the History of Anastatius There was also in the time of Alphonsus King of Arragon a certain Hermite called Antonius a monstrous blasphemer that belched out vile and injurious speeches against Christ Jesus and the Virgin Mary his Mother but he was striken with a most grievous Disease even to be eaten and gnawn in pieces of Worms until he died Aeneas Silvius of the Acts of Alphonsus Fourthly Pride Vain-glory Ambition Haughtiness do sometimes produce the like effects in the like manner as may appear in these following Instances Antiochus the same with the aforenamed Epiphanes p. 100. a notable Tyrant and Persecutor of the Jews in his pride and fume said That he would come to Jerusalem and make it a common burying place of the Jews But the Lord Almighty the God of Israel smote him with an incurable and invisible Plague For as soon as he had spoken these words a pain of the bowels that was remediless came upon him and sore torments of the inner parts 2 Mach. 9. Howbeit he nothing at all ceased from his bragging but still was filled with pride breathing out fire in his rage against the Jews But it came to pass that he fell down from his Chariot carried violently so that having a sore fall all the Members of his Body were much pained And soon after the Worms came out of his Body and while he lived in sorrow and pain his flesh fell away and the filthiness of his smell was noysom to all his Army And so the wrath of God ended this proud Man's miserable dayes The other is that of King Herod surnamed Agrippa which put James the Brother of John to death and imprisoned Peter with purpose to make him tast of the same cup Acts 12. This Man was puffed with Sacrilegious pride for being upon a time seated in his Throne of Judgment and arrayed in his Royal Robes shewing forth his greatness and magnificence in the presence of the Ambassadors of Tyre Sidon who desired to continue in Peace with him as he spake unto them the People shouted and cried that it was the voice of God and not of man Which titles of honour he disclaimed not and therefore the Angel of the Lord smote him immediately because he gave not God the glory and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost Acts 12. 23. Josephus relateth the Story how that Herod not reproving nor forbidding his pernicious Flatterers was presently taken with most grievous and horrible gripes in his bowels so that looking upon the People he uttered these words Behold here your goodly god whom you but now so highly honoured ready to die with extream pain Jewish Antiq. lib. 19. cap. 1. Thus did this miserable Man exemplarily verifie the Wise man's Proverb Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall Prov. 16. 18. Fifthly Adultery Fornication and the like are also sometimes supernaturally occasions of Diseases and shortness of Life as may appear de facto in the succeeding Instances Claudius of Asses Counsellor of the Parliament of Paris a Man very ill affected to the Professors of the Gospel committed villany with one of his waiting Maids in the very midst whereof he was taken with an Apoplexie which immediately after made an end of him Beard 's Theater of God's Judgments In Northamptonshire a Noble Man's Servant of good credit and place with his Master having familiarity with another Mans Wife as he was about to commit villany with her in a Chamber he fell down stark dead with his hose about his heels which being heard by reason of the noise his fall made of those which were in the lower room they all ran hastily up and easily perceived both the villany he went about and the horrible judgment of God upon him for the same Ibidem p. 372. Pliny telleth of Cornelius Gallus and Q. Elerius two Roman Knights that died in the very act of filthiness Plin. lib. 7. Pharaoh having taken Abram's Wife from him was plagued with great plagues by the Lord and thereby compelled to restore her Gen. 12. 17. Also Abimelech King of Gerar for taking away the same Woman even Sarai afterward Sarah from her Husband though the non-execution of Abimelech's intention might partly excuse him and the integrity of his heart and innocency of his hands might plead for him was yet notwithstanding forewarned and admonished by God in a dream saying unto him Behold thou art but a dead man for the woman which thou hast taken for she is a mans wife Gen. 20. 3. And a little after God saith unto him Now therefore restore the man his wife for he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live and if thou restore her not know thou that thou shalt surely die thou and all that are thine Vers. 7. Also the lustful Sodomites for that sin which deriveth its name from the wicked place of