may naturally be said to Die daily mouldering away by piece-meal The forbidden Fruit hath produced a Worm that eats our Lives away The malicious Serpent hath bruised our heel as is observed in the Jerusalem Targum supposed to be said to the Serpent by Almighty God viz. When the Children of the Woman shall forsake the Commandments of the Law thou shalt be strong and shalt strike them on the Heel and inflict Diseases on them We are like men going from Jerusalem to Jericho half dead the Sick and the Aged being but half alive as some Criticks observe senex quasi seminex With the same Motion of our Lungs we draw in Air we throw away Breath Some parcels of our selves steam away continually and we live a dying Life or a living Death Men have shortned their dayes by increasing their Vices Some men do that by Intemperance which the very Devils desire to shun viz. Torment themselves before their time No impious Person was ever said in Scripture to be full of Dayes none being full of time but they that are prepared for Eternity And we never Read in the Holy Book of any impenitent person that was ever raised from the dead to trye a second time for a Crown Lazarus Tabitha and the Saints at Jerusalem came into the World only to make a Visit and declare a Glory and to them it happened literally to have their part in the first Resurrection upon whom the Second death shall have no power Julian's Motto may fit every Man An Eagle shot through with a Dart feather'd with a Quill from its own Wing The Life of Man is swifter than a Weavers Shuttle especially if wickedness be interwoven then divine Justice cuts the thread excellently shadowed by the Poets Fiction of the three fatal Sisters The one holding the Distaff the other drawing the Thread the third cutting it off Mens Impieties like Hazaels wet Cloath prove fatal unto their Lives and Healths in spite of the most proper Remedies When Sin and Sickness is mingled together no marvel to see Mens Bodies moulder being like the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's Image made of Clay It 's no wonder to see a strange punishment to happen unto the workers of Iniquity The Jews are very often threatned with fore Sicknesses and wonderful Plagues if they did not hearken unto the divine Law That a wicked Life procures a short one we find plainly exemplified in most of the Bad Kings of Judah and Israel as Aâ—ijam Athaliah Ahaziah Nadab Elah Omri and many others who reigned but two three or four years apiece and the reasons are sometimes recorded that it was for their sins which they sinned they shortned their Lives with their Kingdoms in them sin and a sudden death reigned together When mens Lusts have conceived they bring forth Sin and Sin when it is finished brings forth Death Pharaoh's bloody Persecution drowned him in the Red Sea Ahab's cruelty proved fatal to his own Life The Samaritan Lords infidelity pressed his Soul out of his Body Hananiah's false Prophesie did but predict his own death Ahaziah's evil Consultation with the God of Ekron to know whether he should recover of his Sickness made his Disease prove incurable The calumniating rage of the Children against the good old Prophet excited the rage of Bears to devour their Bodies Herod's vain-glorious Ostentation brought such a Disease upon his Body whereof he had no reason to boast Saphira's Perjury summoned the feet of those who had carried her Husband to his Grave to carry her unto the same place Benhadad's Curiosity proved the fatal Messenger of his death the Prophet returning Answer that he might recover but should surely dye Jeroboam's Idolatry in praying unto false gods provoked the true God to stop his breath Saul's disobedience unto the King of Kings brought the King of terrors Belshazzer for his riotous Revelling by a Hand-writing on the Wall had the end of his Life and Kingdom denounced against him Nadab and Abihu offering strange Fire had a stranger fire sent to devour them The Pride of the Daughters of Sion changed their sweet Smells into a Stink and their well-set Hair into Baldness The Candle of the Wicked is often put out and the Number of his Months cut off in the Middle But Sir that no Cloud may have power to discompose the Serenity of your dayes but that you may enjoy a Spring of Happiness in the Winter of Age and may want nothing but Want it self shall never be left out of the Prayers and Wishes of Your true Friend J. M. LETTER VI. SIR I Received your dated the sixth instant wherein you seem to wonder that the Cause of your disease is not long since removed and you restored unto a state of health I beseech you give me leave to deal plainly and to tell you that there are Moral as well as Natural Causes of diseases and unless both be removed Remedies very often prove ineffectual And the sincere belief of this conduceh very much towards the success of Medicines Many of the Church of Corinth were sick and weak and lost their Lives for their unworthy reception of the Holy Supper If men contemn the Sacred Body of the Son of God how can they expect the Almighty goodness should take care of their bodies and if they neglect to commemorate his Death they have little reason to expect he should regard their Lives although precious in his sight is the Death of his Saints Miriam's Sedition raised a tumultous disturbance in the harmony of her health The dissimulation of Gehaza's Tongue procured the Leprosie upon his Skin Uzziah's invadeing the Priests office and Burning Incense caused the divine displeasure to smoke against him Abimelech was restored to his health when he restored Abrahams Wife but not before When our blessed Saviour cured the man sick of a Palsie he forgave him his sins to shew him they were the cause of his sickness We may observe in our Saviours dayes that Infidelity did as it were tye up the hands of Omnipotence and set bounds to the operation of his mighty Works on mens bodies St. Anselm observes that the reason why diseases did so much abound in his time was because the holy Eucharist was irreverently received at Easter Jezabel for her Impenitence is threatned to be cast into a bed and her Children to be killed with Death Good men may dye but they cannot be killed with Death The Prophets are frequently Menaced with Death and Sickness that shall presume to speak without a Mission from Heaven In vain are external Remedies applyed when the Cause is internal The Fable of the Kite when sick imploring help and recovery but being denyed by reason of her rapine and violence it affords an excellent Moral The sickness of the Body is sometimes designed to promote the Health of the Soul and the Leprosie on Naamans Flesh may conduce towards the whitening of his Mind They are sent as tryals of Grace and are Declarative of Divine mercy When
Remedies I sent you but I am sorry to hear you should be guilty of so great a Mistake as to think that no Observation of yours can render the use of Medicines subservient towards Health and long Life Sir I pray give me leave to assert the contrary and to prove that the practice of Piety and true Religion have a wonderful tendency towards long Life If you desire to wear a Crown of Glory in this World and the next also it may be obtained by gray Hairs found in the Way of Righteousness And you know it 's promised as a Blessing to the Good man that he shall come to his Grave in a full Age as a Shock of Corn comes in its season The beloved Disciple of our Lord survived the other Disciples and many of the Fathers of the Church were long-lived Which shews that the Blessing of long Life so often promised under the Law had less abatement after our Saviours dayes than other Blessings had Enoch and Elias never Dyed and became Examples that a spotless Life might possibly have been Immortal as it is probable that Man before his Fall was Yet had he never sinned perhaps he had not still remained here upon Earth though his Age might have been extended to some thousands of years and at length have been translated from hence to Heaven where he could neither have sinned nor dyed When our great and wise Creator made Man the Masterpiece of his Creation he was pleased as an expression of his Kindness to plant him in a Garden wherein he might have an opportunity at the same time both to Contemplate his Makers Goodness and to preserve his own Life being furnisht with supernatural Wisdom he could discern the particular Qualities of those Plants with which he conversed But Man being too familiar with the Tree of Knowledge forfeited his Right unto the Tree of Life and hath exposed himself unto the assaults of innumerable Diseases But such is the kindness of Heaven unto Man in his lapsed state that he is pleased to promise some of the Influences of this Symbolical Tree upon his Obedience unto the Divine Will So that by our Observance of the Eternal Laws of Evangelical Purity which are prescribed as the Christians Rule we may as it were transplant the Tree of Life into our own Gardens and sit under the shadow thereof with great Delight and its fruit may become sweet unto our taste There are certain practices which have a great tendency towards long Life and this the inspired Penman intimates when he saith Righteousness tendeth to life and there are frequent Promises of long Life made to the Obedient Caleb and Joshua survived all the Jews who came out of Egypt the rest were not suffered to see Canaan lest they should introduce Egyptian Innovations Nothing doth more conduce unto the preservation of our natural Health than our living the Divine Life but when our Expectations and Actions are wholly employed about the Gratifications of the Animal Life we do but prepare for the Messenger of the Grave The practice of serious Christianity is a great friend unto the Health of Humane Nature The circumstantial actions of Religion are very influential towards the lengthning mens Lives as the sweet sleep of temperate persons their freedom from violent and enraged Passions with the admirable Contentment that dwells in a holy Conscience also the great Moderation that 's exercised by such Persons There are attending the Divine Life leisurely Contemplations of Heavenly things Joyes refined from the Dregs of Sensuality Hopes of a noble and generous nature wholsom sweet and comfortable Fears and a universal Harmony in the Mind These things make the Lamp of Life burn bright and clear and from hence by the favour of Divine Clemency Health springeth forth speedily Plato's Observation is excellent That all the Pleasures of the Body proceed from the Joy of the Mind The breaking off our sins by Righteousness many times proves a lengthening of our temporal Tranquility The Jewish Doctors say That Adam felt no Cold notwithstanding he was naked because he had Communion with God but as soon as ever he had eaten the forbidden Fruit his Head aked Faith and Obedience like the Tree of Life in Paradise not only Sacramentally but really conduce unto Health and long Life so far as it is a Blessing and this it doth by impregnating our Food with the tincture of a Divine Benediction by meliorating our Constitutions and infusing wholsom Dispositions in the Air and Friendly Influences in the Host of Heaven The Jews came under a Promise of having their Bread and their Water blessed and Sickness removed if they obeyed the Divine Law And Solomon urgeth the consideration of our Health as a strong Argument to promote holy and Religious Fear telling us it should be health unto our Navels and marrow to our Bones And Godliness hath the promise of the Life that now is as well as of that which is to come If men love Life and desire many dayes and make it their request to obtain the Divine Wisdom the way prescribed is to desist from evil and to do good and then length of dayes and long life shall be added as the Wisest of men observed Yielding Subjection unto the Father of Spirits is as sure a way to obtain the Blessing of Health and long Life as Obedience unto our natural Parents for there is a Command with a Promise annexed unto both And we find Life in the Inventory of a Christians goods when drawn up by the great Apostle of the Gentiles And the inspired Pen-men frequently prescribe Religion as an Antidote against immature Death it being a direct Enemy unto Sin which brought in Sickness True goodness doth as well conduce to the prolongation of the Body in natural Life as to its Immortality in Eternal Life and the Body hath the perfection of Life viz. Health from the Soul as well as Life it self Dying unto sin is an excellent means to preserve Life if men would try the Experiment and endeavour to procure the Divine Providence to be their Life-Guard We live by the Word of Blessing out of the Mouth of God every Command if observed like Food and Physick tends unto the lengthening our Dayes Now although it be a known truth that of our selves we can do nothing yet it is as true that by the Grace of God we may do much in the practice of Religion and consequently may contribute towards the lengthening of our Dayes and rendering the use of Medicines effectual towards that great and noble end Moreover Religion secures Men from the Terrors of a guilty Conscience which many times makes Men wash their Hands in their own blood and it also preserves Men from the Condemnation of Humane Tribunals many being cut off by the Hand of Justice for their flagitious impieties as Murders Thefts and Rapines But Sir that the great Preserver of Men may so ballance the Humours in your Body that you may live to
be in the World If Alexander the Great had been strangled in the Cradle how could the Prophesies of Daniel have been fulfilled concerning him The Jews could not prejudice the Life of the Lord of Life until that hour which was appointed to be his last hour was come For as it is appointed once to Die so also when to Die and that you may enjoy a Long and Healthful Life and at last a happy Eternity is the prayer of Your humble Servant J. M. LETTER IV. SIR I Joyfully entertained the welcome News of the good success of your last Remedies but am sorry to find you attribute all to Necessity as if because the Period of Humane Life is appointed and the success of Medicines depends upon a Supernatural Concourse therefore to inferr we cannot be accessary towards the shortning of our own Dayes Sir it is a fond Opinion and a great mistake so to think for the Jews were wickedly instrumental in taking away the Life of the Lord of Life notwithstanding they did nothing but what Divine goodness had determined before to be done The Prophet told Amaziah he knew God had Determined to destroy him and yet he also tells him that he was instrumental towards his own Death in not hearkning unto the Voyce of the Lord. Eli's Sons disobedience pronounced the Sentence of Death against them and it is rendred as the reason why God had resolved to slay them The Date of the Old Worlds Duration was fixed to one Hundred and twenty Years Yet we find it not so long-liv'd by twenty Years their wickedness contracted that which seemed to be a determined period At what time soever the Almighty be but pleased to speak concerning a Nation People or Person to pluck up to pull down or to destroy if that Nation People or Person turn from their evil way he will Repent of the intended evil whether Sickness or Mortality The flight of that Arrow which procured King Ahabs Death was guided by a Divine Hand who aimed at his Mortal Wounds yet his rash going to Battel by the advice of his false Prophets rendred him instrumental towards his own Death The Evangelical Prophet tells us of a Consumption determined upon the whole Earth occasion'd by their great Provocations The Divine determination concerning our Lives should not lessen our care to preserve our Lives King David understood that the determination concerning the Childs Death was past yet he prayed and used means to restore it It 's a Turkish Principle to dream that because the manner and moments of Mens Deaths are appointed therefore to think it Vanity and Cowardice to arm our selves or Antidote our Bodies against the injuries of War and Assaults of Diseases A Man may live out all Gods time who wickedly shortens his own and may be permitted to do those forbidden Acts which inevitably tend to his own destruction and cut the Thred of his Dayes The Israelites Murmuring anticipated their Funerals and Buried them in the Wilderness notwithstanding their Promise of seeing Canaan The Impiety of the old World brought a Deluge which possibly might have been prevented had their Repentance been as visible as that of Ninive who were Reprieved from Execution after the Sentence of Death seemed Passed upon them their Reformation prevented Ruine and Destruction The addition of fifteen Years to Hezekias's Life was the result of the Divine Favour but not without signal demonstrations of Repentance The Rabins tell us of one going to gather his Remedies prescribed by King Solomon against his peculiar Distemper was met by an Apparition of Death in the shape of a Skeleton which told him with an audible Voice it was too late for he was struck by the Angel who kept the Key of the Grave The Moral is obvious enough to a wise man unto whom a word is enough And I pray Sir excuse this unravelling my Thoughts in such a ruffled manner from Your Healths Friend J. M. LETTER V. SIR THese Medicines the Doctor hath now Prescribed I have conveyed unto you according unto your desire the Directions are given with the particular Parcels and I am of Opinion that a firm belief that men may be many wayes accessary towards the shortning their own dayes may much conduce towards the good Success of Remedies by exciting greater care and circumspection and greater Piety and Prudence in the management of our selves Sin and Wickedness doth apparently shorten Life and multiply Diseases The Life of Man seems to be much pared away but it cannot be artributed unto any Decay in Nature and its universal Frame but rather unto the great Immorality and Imprudent extravagancy of Nations and Persons indulging effeminate luxurious and pernicious Customs Sin brought Death at first and as Sin increased so Death came nearer by five hundred years After the Flood men sinned still and built Castles in the Air and then Death came nearer by three hundred years And by Moses's time a great part of that remnant is pared away and threescore and ten is the period Had offended Justice gone on still to shorten mens dayes as men encreased in Sin our Life by this time had not been a Day long and therefore he no longer destroys the Kind but punisheth the Individuals and sets it down as a standing Rule That evil shal slay the Wicked and he shall not live out half his dayes We cannot now observe one in five hundred arrive at that Age unto which they might attain by the course of Nature but end their dayes in Sin and Folly From surfeiting proceeds dissolutions of Members relaxations of Nerves fractures of Bones Inflamations of Blood Crudities of the Stomack besides the uncleanly Consequences of Lust which like a Dart strikes through the Liver Our great Creator hath composed our Bodies like Lamps and to supply the Oyl consumed by the flame hath given us Appetites of Hunger and Thirst and Reason to guide our Appetites and the Revelation of his Will to guide our Reason but if men through the depravation of Nature and the predominancy of Temptation suffer their Appetites to dethrone their Reason and give way to Intemperance which extinguisheth Natures Lamp by corrupting the Oyl or spilling it or blowing out the flame men may then justly expect to be cut off in the midst of their dayes and to be made a Sacrifice unto their overmuch wickedness I'ts not improbable that Baalam's wish to dye the Death of the Righteous did not only include his being saved at last but also that he might come to his grave in a good old age with his Fathers in peace and might not be cut off like the Moabites and other Nations who were to perish in their wickedness before his eyes Since Man-kind Bruised himself with his Fall he hath corrupted his Blood and sowed the Seeds of innumerable Diseases We daily feel the smart of our first Sentence viz. Thou shalt dye the Death or In Dying thou shalt Dye or Thou shalt become exposed unto Sickness and Death Men
by this time had not been able to sustain the Inhabitants with Food The Egyptians calculated the bounds of mens dayes from the weight of their Hearts and judged a hundred years the utmost period taking their estimate from the weight of their Hearts which they say increaseth two Drachms every year under fifty and then decreaseth two Drachms untill a hundred But this opinion seems questionable The reason given by the Bishops of Rome for Contracting the year of Jubilee from one hundred to fifty and from fifty to five and twenty is grounded upon the Supposition that the age of man is contracted To what causes to consign the long Lives of the Ancients it need not be Difficult if we consider how necessary it was so to be for the propagation of Mankind and peopling the World with Inhabitants and also for the learning Arts and Sciences wherein it was requisite Men should have the experience of former Ages For as many Sensations breed an Experiment so many Experiments breed a Science The several motions of the Heavenly Bodies could not be known without a long time to observe their Motions and Revolutions It was an old complaint that Art was long and Life was short and therefore Almighty God proportioned mens lives accordingly We now account him wondrous Old who lives fourscore Summers to see the Resurrection of the Year fourscore times The length of mens age since Moses dwelt amongst us seems considerably abbreviated he computing Threescore and ten the ordinary period unto which men generally arrived in those times Whereas now a third part of all that are born in populous Cities dye under seven years old and the greatest part of those that are alive are between fifteen and five and thirty Few Princes either Jewish German Greek or Roman arrived at Fourscore Queen Elizabeth outlived all her Predecessors since the Conquest And I think his Majesty our present Sovereign whom God grant long to live is the eldest Crowned Head in Christendom And it 's to me observable that during the standing of the first Temple there were but eighteen High-priests but three hundred while the second stood and but ten years difference between the standing of the former and the latter Which plainly demonstrates that mens Lives have been cut and pared away in several Ages The Fathers in the primitive times had great Advantages for the Prolongation of their Lives as they had conveyed to them the Nature of Life-preserving Remedies from Adam who gave Names to all Creatures according to their particular Qualities And wonderful was their skill in all the Secrets of Nature Also the Air in the first Ages of the World might be more pure and not corrupted with terrene Exhalations as it was after the Flood had drencht it and for ought we know its Fruits might be more Nutritive Moreover Adam was the immediate Work of God and being come as it were newly from the Shop of his Creator he could not be like a House built of rotten Timber but of a far stronger Constitution than this weak Age affords Their Bodies were not wasted with fuccession of Sicknesses nor weaken'd with hereditary Diseases but were armed to resist those few things contrary to their healths The seminalities of Diseases were not so pregnantly conveyed from Parent to Child their Infants were not so tenderly brought up wastfull Ryot was a stranger to them and variety of Meats was to them unknown their Nature was not opprest with burthens and forced to stagger with her load We cannot with any shew of Reason pretend to mistake in the manner of computing the years of the Patriarchs for if you suppose them to be only Lunar years and that twelve of theirs made but one of ours then gross absurdities must follow from thence as that they were Prolifique at seven years of age Enoch being no more when he begat Methusalem At that rate the Date of their Lives must be reckoned shorter than many of ours Moreover the Scripture saith that Abraham dyed in a good Old Age and full of Dayes being one hundred seventy and five years old which Number according to that computation was but seventeen years and a half a very ridiculous old Age. But it is very manifest that Moses's computation of the year was the same with ours for mention is made of the first second and seventh Month and mention is also made of the seventeenth day of the Month. We find but one Womans Age recorded in Scripture and that is Sarah Some give this reason Because a Woman first occasioned the Shortning the Lives of men by listning to the Serpent Old Age is doubtless a very great Blessing being subservient to great and noble ends namely our better Preparation for a blessed Eternity And there are some Priviledges that holy Souls are capable of in this World which they cannot partake of in the Regions of immortal Bliss and they are the Opportunities of Doing good to others and preparing them for the Eternal Mansions and thereby Brightning their own Diadems and making their weight of Glory the Heavier by turning many to Righteousness Which that you may doe is the Wish of Your Cordial Friend J. M. LETTER XI SIR I Received yours dated the Second Instant wherein you seem to question whether the Practice of Religion on have any tendency towards Health and long life because sometimes good Men Dye suddain and Immature Deaths But nothing is more plain and evident than that the Carkasses of good Israelites may fall in the Wilderness of this World whose Souls may be entertained in the Heavenly Canaan A good Prophet for some single Act of Disobedience may be made a Prey to a devouring Lyon If an Eli neglect to Chasten his Rebellious Children he may be permitted to break his Neck When Uzzth shall touch the Ark without a Commission his Death shall immediately succeed his Rashness When a Moses shall neglect to Circumcize his Child an Angel shall threaten his Life with a drawn Sword When a Jonas shall go contrary to a Divine Command he shall be in danger of being swallowed up by Death as well as by a Whale Many times Judgment begins at the House of God and he makes good Men the examples of his Severity in this Life It 's thought that King David's numbering the People was the last Act he did before he took his Bed Evil Angels sometimes contend with good ones about the Bodies of good Men Sampson lost his natural Strength by his Disobedience and violation of his Vow rather than by the meer Cutting off his Hair it being rather a Moral than a Natural Cause of his Weakness The Righteous may sometimes be taken away from the evil to come as the good Patriarchs were before the Flood and as Abijah was laid to sleep before the Calamity of his Fathers House And sometimes the Child may derive those Distempered Humours from the Parent which may prove the occasion of its Death Though God hath Promised long Life to them
dye under their hands and yet we frequently find friendly Visitants crying up such when they might better spend their time in serious counsels and Christian advices to bear their visitations with patient submission to the Divine Will untill they find ease and relief from the hand of Heaven and also in timely intimations to set their Houses in order and prudently dispose of their temporal concerns by making their Wills In a sick Friends Chamber Friends have an Excellent opportunity both to do and to receive good by being put in mind of the Vanity of man in this mortal state causing them to be more industrious in the faithful improvement of their own health and in a Christian Preparation for Death Now Sir that you may be strengthen'd upon your bed of languishing and visited with the Divine saving health that so your most mortal sickness may not be unto death Eternal but for your Glory and passage into endless bliss shall be the Prayer of Your True Friend J. M. LETTER XX. SIR I Am sorry you meet with so many cross Winds in your Voyage to the Haven of health particularly that the carelesness of an Attendant I mean a Nurse should blow you back again into the wide Ocean and threaten a Shipwrack when you seemed to be gotten within Ken of harbour Great care ought to be used in choosing honest and careful Persons to attend sick Patients whose Office it is to administer Remedies prescribed by the Physitian and prepared by the Apothecary Every of these ought to know their peculiar province for the skilful Nurse as well as the ignorant Physitian makes a fat Church-yard and we find that in many Distempers careful attendance is half the cure But when the Ignorant Nurse shall usurp the Learned Physicians imployment and prescribe as well as administer it 's intollerable presumption care and watchfulness are their most commendable qualities but when they are Drowsic and careless it 's very prejudicial to the Patient when like the first woman they tempt to that dyet which is Destructive both to the Patients health and the Physicians credit Eating forbidden Fruit was at first our sin when it was contrary to a Divine command and it now causeth sickness when it 's contrary to the Physitians advice I have sometimes known a Nurse perswade the Patient to eat that which she her self loved when it was contrary to the patients Distemper and sometimes the Physitian must be forbid to prescribe Gascoin Powder because she hath known one to dye after it and sometimes the Physitians prescriptions must be all set behind the Window curtain because she doth not approve of them and in the mean time she gives her Diascaudle and what call 'um Water A Child once dying of the Small-Pox yet under the Care of an able Physitian the Nurse threw away all his Medicines privately and when it could not sleep sent to the Apothecary for Syrup of Lettuce and when it was costive for Syrup of Roses which was discovered a while after in the Apothecaries Bills who knew not what use it was put to untill she confest it to her Shame and Ruine Sir I hope you will survive this unhappy accident of your Nurse and live to see her repent The smell of a Violet I hope will be restorative and believe it you shall never want health if it be in my Power to contribute towards it who am Your Loving Friend J. M. LETTER XXI SIR I Understand by the Physician that your Distemper requires Bleeding and I also perceive you have a very great aversation to it Good Sir I beseech you why is it not better to part with your Blood than your Life but you say the Blood is the Life and I 'll say the Blood is the cause of Death also when there 's too much of it or when it 's naught as I am perswaded yours is because your learned Doctor judgeth so Are not all Creatures relieved with bleeding and is it not practised by all wise Nations The French and Spaniards use it two or three times in a day and our forefathers shed their Blood by pounds to save their Lives and shall not we do it by Ounces Indeed Sir you had better sleep with a healthful body than in a whole skin Some learned Jewish Doctors will tell you that Circumcision was a means of health as well as a Tipifick Institution But Sir if you do open a Vein make use of a skilful Chyrurgeon that may not make you lame to make you sound and open a Door with a Lance to let out your Soul with your Blood for some such there are in the World that want both skill and care and pour Gaul and Vinegar instead of Wine and Oyl into their Patients wounds Choose a man of honesty and reputed skill in his profession and one whose particular imployment it is venture not your Life in the hand of one whose covetousness prompts him to venture out of his own Calling neither he nor you can so rationally expect the Divine Blessing upon your bleeding which will promote the Circulation of the remaining mass of Blood whereby it will the better purifie it self and the Blood being clarified the Spirits will become more lively and vigorous to push off your Distemper which good news will as it were kindle Bonfires of Joy in the Breasts of all your cordial Friends In which catalogue you may safely number J. M. LETTER XXII SIR I Cannot but wonder that you should wonder at the unsuccesfulness of the last Prescriptions when I hear you perplex your Thoughts with melancholy Contemplations A man may muse himself into his Grave and think himself to Death To be careful for nothing but to please our Maker and to save our Souls will very much promote the Health of our Bodies The Effects of Love and Hope cherish the natural Heat and radical Moysture beget gentle and vigorous Spirits which makes the vital Powers more brisk and lively On the contrary tedious and perplext Studies restless Impatience fretful Murmurings and discontented Thoughts they stop the regular motion of the Blood damp the Spirits and hinder the faculties of the Mind When the Briskness of the vital Heat is suffocated and the Contraction of the Heart weakned and the Blood grown thick and cold in the extremities of the Vessels and is not able to thrust it self into the remoter branches of the Arteries and Fibres of the Veins but stagnates in the narrow passages of the Body and Brain from thence is laid a foundation for Pains Palsies and all Scorbutick Distempers and then we sigh and groan and live a dying Life or a living Death which is very burthensom to humane Nature Spiritual pleasure is an excellent Medicine against bodily pains and true Piety is the best Cure of Melancholly in the whole World When the Soul is filled with light and vigor it infuseth a strange kind of Alacrity into the Humors by a physical Efficiency Internal Joy grounded upon the
Again humbly to implore the help of that great Physician who was Typified by the Brazen Serpent would be a very effectual means to be cured both of the Sting and Pain of Sickness It well becomes the most holy Soul under Distempers to abound with an O Spare me that I may recover Strength When Men are like Moses commanded to go up into a Mount as it were of a Sick-Bed and Dye there the same Hand that Wounded must make whole many lose their Lives for want of asking it at his Hands who grants it if Invited to our Bed-sides by fervent Prayers joyned with Faith and Patience When the only wise God resolves to make Men sick with smiting them they ought to beware of Murmuring and Impatience which doth exasperate all Calamities it being far more advantageous towards recovery patiently to hope and quietly to wait for the Salvation of God for they that wait upon the Lord have a Promise they shall renew their Strength and be saved with a temporal as well as a spiritual Salvation if they continue in Faith and Patience with Sobriety The Poets have an excellent Fiction that the Image of the Goddess Augerine was with a Muffler at her Mouth placed at the Temple of Volupia signifying that Pleasure should be their Portion who bear Sicknesses with Patience Silence and Submission Good Men never question the Divine Favour so much at any time as under sickness because the Body discomposeth the Mind and hinders the free exercise of spiritual Reason besides they have not such express comfort from their Saviours Sufferings for we never read he was ever Sick yet he had Passions equivalent to Sickness as Hunger Thirst Weariness which afflicted his Body with Pain and therefore can be toucht with the feeling of our Infirmities The best way to obtain Cure is by the Power of a Divine Faith to shake off Diseases as St. Paul did the Viper from his Hand And Sir that the great Physician may make your Soul like his Body in the Gospel every whit whole shall be the Desire of Your true Friend and faithful Servant J. M. LETTER VIII SIR I Received yours dated the Second of this Month wherein you acknowledge your self a Convert unto the several Arguments of Discourse which have formerly passed between us but you seem very much to doubt whether humane Prudence Care and Art can any way contribute unto long Life And that they may be very subservient thereunto there is nothing more plain and evident Certainly King David's departing from Keylak diverted Sauls Rage and preserved his own Life for that time And our blessed Saviours own practice in preserving himself until the time he knew that his hour was come is recorded for our Imitation St. Pauls Mariners saved their Lives by abiding in the Ship who otherwise in all probability might have been Drowned The Wisdom of Joseph and Mary in observing the Angels advice and flying into Egypt with the blessed Babe in all humane probability it prevented his Death at Bethlehem The Centurion Importun'd our Saviour to cure his Servant which he would never have done if it had not conduced towards the prolongation of his Life 'T was not without cause that Naomi was foretold Obed should be a restorer of her Age. As fire dies for want of air and is extinguished when the flame is suffocated so doth our vital flame as our Spirits are repaired by Air so are our sanguine Humours by Aliments Much may be done by Art for the retarding the course of Nature as may be seen in many Insects and Animals and in Men restored from Consumptive pineing Sicknesses their flesh becoming like that of Children as in Naamans Case The efficacy of Remedies with some is so great that their Youth is as 't were renewed like the Eagle their natural strength not abating at a great Age Moreover it doth not seem probable that means should be used with good success to answer all other intentions in Nature and be used in vain in attaining that which is the most desirable thing in Nature and which renders a Man capable of perfection in all Arts and Sciences viz. Health And yet as none can speak of Death by experience because they who speak of it have not felt it and they who have felt it cannot speak of it the Case is much the same concerning Life For unless a Man live unto extream old Age he will not believe his Life hath been prolonged but rather that his hour was not yet come but yet it 's not inconsistent with reason to say that he who would Infallibly have Dyed of a Gangreen in his Leg hath had his Life prolonged when his Leg was Cured or to say that a Consumptive Body hath been saved from Death when restored to a healthful State by a Medicinal Diet which hath added Oyl to the Lamp of Life The Nectar and Ambrosia of the Poets which kept their gods from growing old seems to be an Emblem of the Tree of Life which was to have been a Restorer of Nature as well as a Symbal of future things Suppose we with Pithagoras that Life is a strait line and that the accidents which disturb it and at length bring Death constitute another Line and as these two lines incline less or more one towards another Death approaches sooner or later and consequently Life is longer or shorter yet may we not suppose that Divine Providence and humane Prudence may probably conduce towards the retarding the Neighbourhood of those lines Or suppose with the Aristotelians that Life consists in the union of Heat and Moisture and Death approacheth by the Predominance of the contrary Qualities viz. Cold and Dryness why may not such means as preserves the former and keeps back the latter have a natural tendency to prolong Life Or suppose with the Chymists that Life consists in a volatile Armoniack Salt why may we not suppose that Art improved may compose such fixed Alkali as may stop the wingy motions of the former Volatility The pleasing gratifications of Sense walk Hand in Hand with Death and pursueth Mortals as the Waves of the universal Deluge did the Posterity of Cain and though they went from one story to another higher and higher yet at last they were overflowed Though Temperance doth not alwayes prove an Antidote against Sickness yet it 's a likely means Sir I pray distribute my Service where you think it 's due for it is time to come to a full point and to tell you that in Truth I am Yours in all that Power and Will can manifest J. M. LETTER IX SIR I Received yours dated the 11th instant wherein you give me an account of the great Sickness and Mortality of your Town and Countrey now Languishing under this Epidemick Feaver which indeed rageth in the City also and carrieth hundreds if not thousands unto their long Homes You may easily believe that there are greater Languors Sicknesses Weaknesses and decayes of Nature now than in former Ages
though thanks be to God Pestilences have not been very fatal of late years and we observe from our weekly Bills of Mortality that the numbers of the deceased are greatly augmented for in the year 1604. there dyed 4323 and 895 of the Plague but in the year 1659. there dyed 14720 and 36 of the Plague and yet we observe near the same number of persons Born and Christned both years so that the Disproportion is near nine Thousand in a year in about sixty years distance We may observe in the space of sixty years so small a spot of ground as a Church-yard swallowes up a whole Parish I knew an old Sexton in London who told me he lived to Bury his Parish almost three times over As one Generation comes on the Stage another goeth off And very evident it is that more dye now in a state of Childhood than in former Ages We lick new bodies off our Trenchers once in seven years and the very fear of a Clymacterical Year hath Killed some who have not understood how groundless such a fear is In the dayes of Ancient times it was a strange thing to hear of the death of a young Child according unto the ordinary course of Nature Some of the Jewish Doctors tell us that there was not a Son dyed of a natural death before his Father for near three thousand years after the Creation but the course of Nature was observed and he that was born first dyed first untill Terah's time who was the first that taught the People to make Images of Clay and to corrupt Divine Worship with Idolatry and as a punishment of his Sin his son Haran was snatcht away before him and Moses observes that Haran dyed before his Father Terah in the Land of his Nativity And we find it was looked upon as a great Judgment that the Male Heir of Eli's Family as soon as born dyed for many Generations so that an Old man could not be seen of his Posterity And we find the good Woman expostulating passionately with the Prophet when she saith Art thou come to call my Sins to remembrance and to slay my Son Every Age hath its peculiar diseases In the state of Infancy Life is like a Spark in a pile of Wood the Candle is so newly lighted that every breath of Air or the least shaking puts it out and it dyes Childhood is so active and unwary so subject to run into dangers that unless a Messenger be sent from Heaven to stand Sentinel and watch its playing sleeping eating and drinking it 's exposed to death every minute The Middle age is apter to lend its helping hand to the use of Remedies but when we consider how many new distempers invade us and how many old ones intermingled with collateral complications and many Diseases are not fully understood as in time they may be and many Symptoms are often alike and sometimes there are none at all as in several Impostumes and some Diseases are lodged in remote parts of the Body that oftentimes no application can be made or at least the effects of Medicines cannot reach them untill after two or three Alterations and Concoctions which change the Species of Medicines And sometimes new Methods come upon the Stage and alter old Foundations Old Age hath Diseases incurable by nature The House must fall when the Foundation is decayed Old men in Scripture account are said to be as good as dead as Abraham was In some Diseases the Patient seems Bailable yet a distemper lyeth in ambush and sets upon him with full strength when the bitterness of death seemed to be past and some men live and dye like Fools pour in Drink and let out Life and so by inconsideration pull the Monumental Stone upon their own heads Men are like Water if the Sluces be opened it runs away apace if the Current be stopt it swells and grows troublesome and spills over if it stands still then it stinks and putrifies Some Sicknesses walk in darkness and destroying Angels are wrapt up in the Curtains of Immateriality whom we cannot see but feel in some Chronick distempers men walk about and hear Passing-bells ring for stronger men There is no age of Man but hath some Posterns and Out-lets to death out of which thousands pass into the Land of Forgetfulness Every breath of wind troubles our Faces and our little Cares wrinkle our Foreheads and trifling accidents dig our Graves In Feavors men ride post to the Chambers of death they prove a Beesome of Destruction to three parts of Adam's race If all the ages of all Mankind were put together it would scarce make One and twenty to each single person It 's more natural for Youth to dye than the Aged it being more common having more natural causes as being more subject to acute Diseases which surprize men suddenly and undiscernably but to dye of Age is a very rare Thing old Age is a young Death But to speak strictly all men dye before they come to be of age every man being within an inch of Death Like a Mariner at Sea we carry our Lives in our hands Many a man in a state of health hath a secret Enemy lying hid ready to surprize Either Gods Archers cleave our Reins in sunder with the Stone or Strangury or our feet are set in the Stocks by the Gout or our Breath is corrupt by the Ptysick or our Gaul is poured on the ground by the Dissentery or our Skin cleaves to our Bones by a Hectick The Clock hath struch Twelve this night therefore take it not ill that I abruptly style my self Yours whilest I am J. M. LETTER X. SIR I Received yours Dated the 7th instant wherein you speak very slightly of old Age as if you did not look upon it as so great a blessing and also seem to Question whether the Patriarchs lived so long as some imagine To which I answer you are certainly under a great mistake for nothing is more certain than that the Antediluvian Patriarchs were very long lived and particularly Father Adam who may well be accounted above a thousand years old if we compute that time whch he might have lived had he been born as Methusalem was we may judge him at his Creation as Perfect as one of the Ancients at two hundred They out-lived all their titles of Consanguinity and yet none of them lived a compleat Thousand years which possibly might be to accomplish the threatning unto Adam That the day he eat the forbidden Fruit he should Dye computing a day for a thousand years But a more probable reason may be to Demonstrate to Man the Vanity of Life when those who lived longest could not arrive to that Period which compared to Gods Eternity is but a day As there are at this day some who exceed a hundred so there are a hundred times as many who do not arrive at that Period Had men in all Ages and Places arrived at the age of the Patriarchs the Earth
leave the Methods prescribed by Reason and Experience to consult the Oracles of the Prince of Darkness It 's highly unreasonable to give heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils enquiring of the god of Ekron when there is a God in Israel Some mens Curiosity in this kind has cost them dear such practices being forbidden upon pain of Damnation What wise and good man would so far violate his Baptismal Covenant as to consult with Judicial Astrologers Wizards and such like Cunning persons who by a Diabolical Confederacy will undertake to foretell the Events of Diseases and Periods of Mens dayes and a multitude of other Accidents known only to Omniscience who knows the Effect because he knows the Cause Suppose it were the Devil in Samuel's Mantle that did foretell Sauls death it doth not prove the Certainty of the Devils prediction or the fatal Necessity of Saul's Death It being easie from probable Conjecture to say what he did there being all the forerunners of his approaching ruine visible to the World For David was anoynted King and Saul grew worse and worse the Battel drew near and what else could be expected but Destruction If it should be granted that the Lying Spirit in the Mouth of a false Prophet should foretell a Mans Death it may only proceed from the observation that he violates some divine Command and thereby exposeth himself to ruine Magicians indeed use Charms and Signs and Good words the better to deceive the ignorant herein being Gods Ape that as he hath made a Covenant with good men and hath appointed Signs and Seals upon the faithful use of which he is present to perform what he hath promised So the Devil makes a Covenant with Astrological Wizards upon which he hath given Signs and Tokens that if they use the one he will perform the other And it s an Atheistical Dream to imagine that the period of Mans dayes depends more on the malevolent influence of a Planet than upon the Conduct of divine Providence A Belief very contrary to the Articles of the Christian Faith to suppose an Astrological Necessity imposed upon all sublunary Agents by the influence of Celestial Bodies and that the Manner and Moments of mens Deaths depend upon these things Many have descended into the Earth for fear of using Remedies upon the ascension of a particular Star in the Heavens The celestial Dog doth neither Bark nor Bite in our Climate The heavenly Bodies operate according unto the variety of the Matter with which they are conversant as we may observe in the instance of Twins born under the same Planet although they have the same seminal principles Bed of Nature and time of Birth yet they differ in Sex Complexion Life and Death as in the Example of Esau and Jacob. Can any man of Reason imagine that all that are slain in the same Battel were born under the same Ascendent The proper reason why such a Child is strong and such a one weak is rather to be fetched from the Complexion of the Parent than the influence of the Stars it 's strength is rather to be attributed to the Mothers Milk than the Via lactea And the reason why such a one was shot to death was not because his Roroscope was directed to Saturn but because the Gun was directed to him Besides Education Custom Example alter Nature and our second Births divert the mischievous Effects of our first Nativity Therefore not to use Remedies except such or such a Sign be searcht into is great folly and a Sign men are led more by Indiscretion than prudence to regard an Antique picture in the Almanacks rather than Art and Reason But though the World be guilty of many Errors I shall be guilty of none in subscribing my self Your Devoted Servant J. M. LETTER XVI SIR I Received yours which gave an intimation of your intention to lay aside all Physicians because you have been so unhappy as to fall into the hands of Quacks whose advice hath not only proved unsuccesseful but dangerous and almost deadly Shall the Merchant never venture to Sea because an unskilfull Pilot once cast away his goods that were absurd There is no action of humane Life that discovers a wise man more than the choice of an able learned and experienced Physician whose natural abilities are advanced by ingenuous Education such being most fit to rectifie the Disorders in mens Bodyes who by their inquiry into Anatomy understand the use of the parts and taking notice of the Figures Springs and Wheels by which Nature moves become the better able to regulate her disorderly motions Besides they best understand the nature of Animals Minerals and Vegetables and can the more dexterously apply fit Remedies according unto the several Indications of Distempers and Circumstances of Patients I pray what reason is there Physicians should be neglected Is it because they are not Infallible if they were then they might alter the Statute Laws of Heaven which were absurd to imagin As in Religion the most Sacred Institutions are rendred insignificant unto the Souls of men if not rightly administred even so the most useful Remedies are rendred useless unto the Healths of men if not prescribed by prudent Physicians How can men expect the Blessing of Heaven to concurre with the advice of ignorant and unworthy pretenders to Physick Broken Tradesmen disbanded Souldiers Bankrupt Merchants and the very scum of the People whose Receipts prove equally fatal with the Jaw-bone of an Ass if one of these confident Fellows pretend to skill though never so ignorant yet some credulous Souls are as ready to proclaim it as if they thought some good Angel like Mahomets Pidgeon whisper'd it in their ears when it proves like Gunpowder only serves to blow up mens Health Can men expect Preservation when they suffer their brains to be beaten out with the Bills of Quacks and Mountebanks in such a Nation as ours is where there is such great variety of able and Legal Practicers It 's a shame such should be suffer'd who can sooner cure all Diseases than one and like the Lion in the Fable pretend to pull the Thorn out of the Lambs foot but in the end devour it So that for ought I know it may not be imprudent to adde one Casualty more to our weekly Bills of Mortality and to say So many dyed Martyrs to their Physicians Ignorance The folly of the World is more apt to gaze upon a Blazing Commet that infects the Air and poysons men with pestilential vapours than on the glorious Sun whose beams yield light and health to humane Nature Quacks resemble the Serpent pretend to give that which shall be good for Food and Physick but in the end beguile men of their health and a while after the Patient dyes the Death To consult the Ignorant is to tempt our Maker the curing Diseases being like the mending of a Watch if not done by a skilful Artist the rectifying one Spring may disorder the regular