Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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B04461
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Phármaka ouranóthen, the shadow of the tree of life: Or A discourse of the divine institution and most effectual application of medicinal remedies. In order to the preservation, and restauration of health. / By J.M.
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Marlow, John, 1648-1695.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing M45; ESTC R214747
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33,243
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133
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it out This is like the Jews Truly this is my grief and I must bear it as well as I can thus men put from them the evil day and talk as if they were but beginning to live when they are ready to dye and boast as if they made a covenant with death It highly provokes God that when his hand is lifted up they will not see it Frowardness exasperates our calamities Now there are several considerations that may move Christians to patience and a willing submission unto the hand of God in sickness as to consider That it is laid upon us by a loving and wise Father and this may compose our spirits Shall we not drink the cup which our Father hath given us to drink we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of Spirits and live they chastened us after their own pleasure but He for our profit CHAP. LXXVIII SIckness it is a pledg of our Adoption God afflicts in faithfulness He aims at our good thereby and in making sore he binds up faithful are the wounds of such a friend when the righteous God smites he doth us a kindness we are not in heaviness except need be let us not say We are sick so as to complain if sin be pardoned Again Consider how many years of health you have injoyed formerly this may compose the spirits And shall we receive good at the hand of God and not evil Again Consider that it might be worse It is a mercy we are not utterly consumed that we are out of hell that we are scourged with rods not with scorpions that our calamity is a natural infirmity not a wounded spirit for that is intolerable Again consider that if our sickness be never so painful we brought it upon our selvs We should therefore bear the indignation of the Lord because we have sinned against him CHAP LXXIX A Gain the best of men in all ages have been exposed to the same distempers of body Lazarus whom Christ loved was sick It is nothing but what is common to man and we may take the Prophets and Apostles for our examples in suffering affliction of the like kind and of patience Lastly look beyond all these sorrows and sickness the Time is short the Coming of the Lord draws nigh Heaven will make amends for all take a prospect of the Land of Promise where there shall be no more crying nor pain but sorrow sighing and sickness shall fly away And these Rules being observed in sickness would be an effectual way to procure the concurrence of a Divine blessing with the means that are used towards the preservation of natural life A serious contemplation of Heaven and a future State where these vile weak languishing bodies shall be made like the glorious body of Christ in spiritual agility and immortallity may exhilarate the spirits of a Christian when his flesh upon him is so in pain as to cause his soul with in him to mourn Spiritual peace is the best cordial to chear up the heart against bodily pains the inhabitants of Sion complain not of sickness if sin be but pardoned Our bodies are like Nebuchadnezzar's Image whose feet were of clay our foundations are in the dust and it is as natural for our bodies to be out of frame as for a Watch to be irregular in its motions nay far more natural besides our indispositions depend upon supernatural causes Sometimes sickness and divine wrath are concomitants as Solomon intimates and then its sad indeed and sometimes it comes to good purposes if Naaman had not been Leprous he would not have given the Prophet a visit Detrimenta Corporis incrementa virtutis Be mercifull unto me O Lord for I am weak and my bones are sore vexed saith holy David when Gods chastning was upon him The sickness of the body many times brings the body of sin into a Consumption and the holiness of the heart is many times promoted by the weakness of the body when Jacob's thoughts were in Heaven he minded not his Thigh being out of Joynt Surely it is a mercy that God hath abridged so much of the term of mans life in these last days wherein so much of Heaven is discovered that it would put a Saints patience to it to know so much of the upper worlds glory and yet to be kept so long from it as the Fathers in the first Ages were Such is the Saints state in this world that their very life and the pompous entertainments of it are but their cross because they detain them from their Crown CHAP. LXXX VVHen we seriously consider and reflect upon the nature of man in this State of mortality and observe the wonderful composure of our Bodies the Scituation of the Parts the circulations of the Blood the secret meanders of the Veines and Nerves and the curious distributions and digestions of our aliment into Blood and Flesh and take notice how small an obstruction in any part will discompose our health and stop the current of our ease how small an inflammation will transport us into an other world as if we went in a fiery Chariot how mean a putrifaction is able to crumble us into our first Original These things considered may not only compose our spirits under sickness but fill us with admiration that we live an hour in health and ease Did we but consider our frame and remember we are but dust how should we wonder that every blast of aire doth not blow us into our sick beds and graves We are as naturally exposed to trouble and sickness as the sparks are to fly upwards why then should we not be thankfull that pains and anguish are not our constant companions CHAP. LXXXI VVEre it possible for a man to stand upon one of the Battlements of Heaven and with one glance of his eye to behold all the wounds and Diseases and so hear all the groans and complaints of all the sick persons in the world how would the blessing of health be prized by such a one how uneasie a place is a sick bed when the man is full of tossing to and fro until the dawning of the day when it is day withing t were night and when it is night wishing for day imploying his time in telling the Clock and entertaining melancholy apprehensions of the blackness of the night Sick men as Seneca observes Aegrotantes mutationibus ut remediis utuntur use changes as if they were remedies How miserable in outward appearance is that mans case whose flesh is cloathed with worms as holy Jobs was Some Criticks do observe that the word translated flesh it springs from a root which signifieth to bring glad tidings and the Gospel is exprest by it Evangelium and they give this reason for it because there must be a taking off Flesh viz. the incarnation of Christ which would bring the best news the world ever heard of CHAP.
those means which may preserve them in health and vigor King Asa was not condemned for using but for trusting to the Physitians CHAP. VI. IT is a great sin upon the pretence of Gods power to be disobedient to his will in despising Physick which God hath ordained to be the means to restore us to health this is to try what God can doe and yet neglect what he commands in not adminstering those things which are necessary for the body c. The miraculous cures which the Apostles effected by their Handkerchiffs and by Oyntment and laying on their hands these wholly ceased according to that rule cessante causa cessat effectus the cause of that miraculous power being only to confirm their Doctrine in its first preaching that being done that miraculous way ceaseth and therefore now men must use more ordinary means found out by reason and experience as the extraordinary way of understanding tongues is ceased we must doe it by humane industry and natural study The life is more then meat and the body then rayment and therfore queen Hester preferred life before liberty and importuned the King to grant the life of the Jews and told him if they had been sold for bondmen and bond-women she had held her peace CHAP. VII THe father of lyes never spake a greater truth then when he said skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life It is a precious Jewel and Solomon saith the Adulteress hunts for the precious life That which was sick was not to be offer'd in Sacrifice why should we not therefore indeavour to present our bodies a healthfull as well as a holy Sacrifice which is but reasonable service When the body is in a weak and languishing condition it is not fit for holy service and therefore one part of the happiness of heaven consists in a freedom from sickness and distempers there Leah shall not be blear eyed nor Mephibosheth halt Saint John prayeth for Gaius that his body might prosper and be in health even as his soul was And Saint James bids us pray for one another that we may be healed Now if it be our duty to pray for one anothers health much more ought we to indeavor to preserve our own CHAP. VIII THe soul sits uneasie in a diseased body The body it is the sheath of the soul as Daniel calls it if the sheath be defective or impaired it is prejuditial to the blade so when the Golden bowl is broken and the sound of the grinding is low and the strong men bow themselves then the Sun and the Moon and the Stars will be darkned That is all the faculties of the Soul will be clouded and not so fit to perform their several offices the understanding the memory and the fancy will not be so clear strong and lively and desire it self must needs fail Barzillai took small delight in the pleasures of the Court when his sight and his tast fail him Our bodies are members of Christ therfore we ought to have a respect for them neglecting of the body is by St. Paul reckoned as a peece of will Worship The best way to keep the body under is by a virtuous mind CHAP. IX THe cure of the Leprous persons under the Law was appointed to be managed by the Priest rather then by the Physitian because it concern'd him to keep back men who were Leprous from the Sanctuary although it is probably though he might have the advice of the Physician for their profession was ancient as we may observe in the 50 of Genesis It is very remarkable the conformity between the Leprous contagion and the Law of cleansing the Leprosie did putrifie the skin and opposite to that was Cedar-wood commended against putrefaction it was of an offensive colour opposite to that was the colour of scarlet of an ill sent contrary to that was the sweetness of Hysop it did consume the flesh and bring death there was the sparrow let loose a significant sign of recovery and continuance of life It is probably thought that the prohibition of many sorts of meats in the 11 of Leviticus was not only upon a moral but also upon a physical account because they yield no good nourishment but are unwholsome CHAP. X. THe world is very full of complaints of the ineffectual application of Medicines in order to the procuring of Health when it is lost or the preservation of it when enjoyed and doubtlesse the the cause of these complaints must arise from the imprudent and preposterous use of so excellent an ordinance of God for the good of mankinde for who but a person whose reason is unhinged and whose intellectuals are Eclipsed with the fogs of ignorance or prejudice can reflect any deficiency in those remedies themselves which are designed by the God of nature to be good for food and physick even every herb bearing seed therefore he that dare to say in his heart ther is no God who hath given every herb for the service of man his folly is manifest to all men doubtless that profession which hath received a pattent from the King of Kings and the great preserver of men must needs be of great utillity transcendent excellency Shal the Almighty himl f prescribe an Emolient Cataplasme for the plague-sore of Hezekias in order to the addition of 15 years to his life and shall any condemn so noble a faculty as physick is in it self if rightly applyed CHAP. XI HOw many singular examples of physical applications do the inspired penmen of holy writ exhibit to us and whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning Were not the waters of Mara made salutiferous by the casting in of medicinal ingredients Without doubt the sons of the prophets had a physical intention in the composition of ther Broth with physicall herbs although it was attended with a mistake as to the nature of the simple CHAP. XII KIng Solomon who had the priviledge granted him from the only wise God to be the only wise man made it his business to enquire into the nature of vigetables from the tallest Cedar to the contemptible Hysop and shall we cast the Imputation of folly upon him whom the spirit of God hath recorded for the most eminent example of Wisdom and imagine that he spent his time in such a study as was not likely to be profitable to human nature shall he whose brow was incircled with a glittering Diadem whose Gold was so plentious as to pave his palace whose orchards were replenisht with delicious fruits whose eares were entertain'd with the most harmonious melodies and had all the delights of the sons of men shall he I say condescend to the study and improovement of physick and yet Contemptible fooles despise it The wiseman doth not onely tell us with what remedies the Almighty heales men and takes away their pains in his discription of the variety of plants a book which possibly the world hath lost or else