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
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
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
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
see the accomplishment of all your good Wishes is the hearty Wish of him who hath no more time left at present than to tell you that he is and will be Yours in the most unreserved Respects J. M. LETTER III SIR THis comes to Kiss your Hand and to make an Inquiry after the happy Success of the last Remedies and also to encourage your Perseverance in their use although you do not presently find them answer your expectation for I hope you do not expect Medicines to Operate meerly by their natural Energy infused into them at their first Creation but also know that their efficacy doth depend primarily upon the Pleasure of the Divine Will who hath limited the periods of humane Life We Live not at an Adventure but the manner and Moments of our Life and Death come under a Divine appointment and the success of all Remedies depends upon the peculiar Blessing of Heaven The most Infallible way to have our Distempers removed is to endeavour to procure the concourse of that Divine Influence and to engage the Soveraign Power of that Almighty Healer unto whom belong the Issues from Death Though our Lord was not corporally present with Lazarus yet he knew without Creature Intelligence that he was Dead and told his Disciples so God also told Samuel that Moses was Dead It matters not who Plants or Waters if God denies to give the Increase The Divine Favour is the best Skreen to shelter men from the innumerable Accidents of Humane Life in which every Minute we are Surrounded with a Thousand Deaths and dangers When the great Preserver of Men withdraws his protection we are left exposed to the malignant Aspects of Planets to the fatal Contingencies of Wars and Battels and are indanger'd by every Accident the Dust of a Wheel the fall of a Tile the largeness of a Morsel the Lash of a Whip the unevenness of a Stone the Plenty of a Humour may stop our Breath It is a confest truth that every natural motion hath its beginning duration and period dependent on the pleasure of the first Mover now the Life of Man being a nutural motion our Nativity and Death are both ordered by that Omnipotent Agent in whom we live move and have our being The Disciples themselves could not cure Diseases at all times if they could St. Paul would not have left Trophimus Sick at Miletum nor have Sorrowed so much for Epaphroditus's Sickness The Life of Man consisting in a requisite Harmony of Qualities and in a due commixture of the natural Heat and radical moisture which Harmony is more or less according unto the more or less exquisite temperament of Body assigned unto each single Person by the free dispensation of the Divine Will it must follow that the continuance of every man in this natural Life depends upon the pleasure of him who hath determined our Days numbered our Months and set our Bounds which we cannot pass without his leave who gave us the durability of our temperaments and compassed our periods within the Circle of his special Providence To imagine the Life of Man fixt beyond the possibility of being prolonged or shortened by an Almighty pleasure seems highly unreasonable because he hath reserved a power in his own Hands to contract or prorogue as he pleaseth Sometimes Divine Wisdom best knowing his own Reasons doth resolve the Death of some Persons and then the most proper Remedies are used in vain either towards the removal of Sickness or the preservation of Health The universal Conserver of all things takes notice of the principal and subsequent Causes of things Governing Disposing and Ordering according unto his own free Will and yet his Government is void of any fatal Violence and comes to an efficiency from the ordination of various natural causes and humane elections which prove the occasions of supporting or destroying Life Divine goodness doth not abolish but Disposeth of future Contingencies without nulling the freedom of the Agent he moderates and governs Events according to his pleasure and yet suffers the Creature to exercise its own proper motions The rage of Men and Devils cannot accelerate the motions of Divine Providence A Sparrow doth not fall to the ground much less a man into the Grave without a Divine Permission The Manner and Moments of our death are not the effects of Contingency To God the Lord belongs the Issues from death or in the Original the Inlets to Death viz. Diseases Natural Remedies are but like Elijah's Staffe layd upon the dead Child they will not help unless a supernatural vertue concurs The Egyptians in their Temples had a remarkable Hieroglyphick A Young man an Old man and a Hawk in the middle Intimating the Beginning and Period of humane Life depends upon the Influence of divine Providence Josiah's death might seem the effect of Juvenile rashness in War but it conduced towards the accomplishment of Huldah's Prophecy The Advice of the Philistine Diviners is very observable When the People were smitten with Hemorrhoids they prescribed the offering up of golden Hemorroids thinking by that mystical Remedy to appease the Displeasure of Heaven and to intimate that they thought the best of their Substance not valuable to purchase Health but chiefly to represent their Belief that the Cure of Diseases depended upon a divine Influence Many smart the longer under the Rod of God because they eye not the Hand that moves it The Rabbins say when Jeroboam's Hand wither'd the false Prophets told him it came by Chance thereby to divert his reflections from the first Cause Some have observed that the best way to cure the Kings-Evil is by the Stroak of the Kings Hand and sure the best way to remove the smart of Distempers inflicted by the Hand of God is to consider that it is his Hand No man knows when Divine Providence who hath the Pen in his Hand and writes down the Days and Actions of our Lives will be pleased to set a Comma of Afflictions or a Period of Death The Weights and Plummets of Mans restless Impatience cannot make the Clock of Gods appointed time strike one Minute sooner than he hath set it And he only hath appointed how many tedious Dayes and wearisome Nights we shall have before the bright Morning of Eternity dawn upon us The reason why Natural Remedies do many times prove ineffectual is because there is a Determinate season wherein all Persons and things must have their final issue Thus we find Moses died the Year before the People entred into Canaan Daniel some few Years before the Foundation of the Temple And John the Baptist in the first Year of the Baptism of our blessed Saviour when the Gospel he began to preach was to be published in its Glory At their seasons they must go their wayes to rest and lie down until they receive their lot at the end of Dayes If God had not the Disposal of the Lives of Men in his own Hands what miserable confusions would there
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
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
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
Motion of the whole Engine Reason prompts men to consult the ablest Farriers when their Horses are sick and not take the Hostler who hath the Confidence to prescribe a Drench We have many amongst us nicknamed Doctors who are as unskilfull in Physick as the Athenians were in Religion dedicating their Medicines unto an unknown Disease Men who took their Degrees in a Drinking-School or did their Exercise in Fees affect the Title Doctor though they want the Participle Doctus Having no more Learning than what may serve to conceal their Ignorance To run to these men is as if a man to lance an Imposthume should run his Body against the poynt of a Sword in the hands of a mad man or as if to cure a Quinsie a man should desire the help of the common Executioner People ought to know that Diseases are cured by Method as well as by Medicine by Rules as well as by Receipts Multitudes amongst us may be said to dig their Graves with their thick Skulls and destroy their Bodies as well as their Souls by an implicit Faith in hearkening to such Fellows if a Cure succeeds it is more by accident than Art as a blind man hits the mark It 's madness to choose Physicians by the Commendations of the Vulgar they only talk like an Eccho because they hear a Voyce but know no reason why and it 's as imprudent to choose Physicians by their Garb because an Ass may have gilded Trappings Many of these men have more skill in mending Garments than Bodies that wear them and yet will pretend to cure all Diseases that ever Sin intailed on the Race of Adam Let me advise you as a prudential Observation tending to Health and Long Life to use the same discretion when your Health is in danger as when your Estate is not to depend on the advice of an Attorney but to fee a Counsellor And since you say you are deeply engaged unto me give me leave to prescribe the Recompence which is that you would believe me to be what I truly am Your constant Friend J. M. LETTER XVII SIR I Received yours Dated the 11th instant wherein you give me an account of the rare secret Medicine lately recommended to you as an infallible cure for your Distemper being recommended as a cure for all diseases Sir let me tell you I have often found those kind of Medicines but meer Cheats and Springes to catch Woodcocks and yet men will not learn Wisdom until the dust of the Grave that Powder of Experience be cast in their Eyes He that will venture his life with the use of such a Medicine will give the world cause to suspect he stands in need of a large dose of Hellebore Without doubt there is no Observation can conduce more towards the rendring Remedies effectual than to be well assured that they are safe known and experienced Medicines and faithfully prepared by the hand of an Artist whose Profession it is and exposed to the view of the world upon the Apothecaries file The design of keeping Medicines as Secrets being chiefly to conceal the ignorance of the recommender who could not write it in Latin or the same persons dishonesty who dare not publish so dangerous a Medicine or else his Covetousness in exacting in the price of a mean ordinary familiar Medicine which it appears to be when publisht If a Pill be but guilded over with the pretences of Rare and Excellent it is cryed up and swallowed down when it 's as common in the Shops as Salt and Pepper in a Kitchin and there are abundance of Poysonous Remedies abroad in the World that have nothing to kill them but Fasting Spittle and a smooth tongue their best corrective being such an ingredient as wants a Corrective but yet these Remedies must needs cure all diseases at one blow as Sampson did the Philistines But these by rash snuffing Natures Candle put it quite out That Medicine costs the Patient dear that costs him his Life yet many such there are that ride post daily making every Corner do penance in venomed sheets the Directions for the use of them being like Davids Letter to Uriah only giving Instructions for the Death and ruine of the Patient Is there any pleasure in being destroyed because we are not able to say what hurt us A Medicine may cure the disease and kill the Patient and a safe Medicine may do much hurt by occasioning the omission of more proper and effectual Remedies The world hath been much imposed upon by being made to believe that Chymistry is a distinct art from Pharmacy when the most excellent Rules for Chymical Preparations have been proposed to the World by Physicians and Apothecaries it being but a Modern way of preparing Medicines and doth peculiarly belong to that trade As much as for a Taylor to make a Garment in a new fashion as well as in an old Indeed such Medicines ought to be very prudently advised because a Child may do more mischief with a Knife of Steel than of Bone You shall many times have Death in the pot babtized with the name of the Elixir of Life and a Dram of it cryed up beyond a bushel of March Dust to Reinthrone the deposed Archeus and do no man knows what And at another time you shall have Alexipharmagons Pantimagogons and medicines of such conjuring names that if you understood their natures you would think them a kind of Tophet Potabile and fitter for Country Farmers to treat Rats with than to cure diseases in humane Bodies There is nothing hath more contributed to the Brevity of mens Lives and the languishments of humane Nature in this Age than the Multitude of secret private Medicines cryed up as Infallible which have laid the foundations for innumerable diseases and made work for able Physicians And that which is a strange Paradox to me is that when a known experienced Remedy is recommended every one must be advised with whether it may be used or no but if a Medicine which none understand nay not he that commends it yet down it must go without inquiry into it's nature until by the fatal consequences we repent the using it Sir I beseech you interpret these lines as the expressions of my tender respects and care for your Health one request more and I have done Put me into the number of those that you count your most faithful Friends For indeed I am And ever will be so c. J. M. LETTER XVIII SIR I Received yours Dated the Fifteenth instant wherein I perceive your great inconstancy and want of Regular Perseverance in the use of those proper Remedies the Physician last prescribed I should be glad I could say these things to your Ears as well as to your Eyes but London finds me too much Business to grant me so great a happiness therefore give my Pen leave to tell you that the Regularity of the Patient is as necessary in order unto the success of Remedies as the skill of