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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45640	The divine physician, prescribing rules for the prevention, and cure of most diseases, as well of the body, as the soul demonstrating by natural reason, and also divine and humane testimony, that, as vicious and irregular actions and affections prove often occasions of most bodily diseases, and shortness of life, so the contrary do conduce to the preservation of health, and prolongation of life : in two parts / by J.H ...	Harris, John, 1667?-1719.	1676 (1676)	Wing H848; ESTC R20051	75,699	228

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

congiary that Sin gives to its Souldiers viz. death of all sorts this is the just hire of the least sin and this hire is seldom long detained from them that have deserv'd it most As the Lord for the wickedness of the World reduced Man's age from almost a thousand to an hundred and twenty years Gen. 6. 3. and afterward from that to Moses his Arithmetick three score years and ten Psal. 90. 10. So now for the same cause he hath reduced it to a very little pittance not only to 70. but to 7. for in Law no man's life is valued more so that the life of Man is but a span and the weavers shuttle is no more swift than it is Job 7. 6. Especially when many vices are woven into it for then God's justice soon cuts it off as a Weaver cuts off his web from the Loom sometimes before it be finished For every disorderly Person that hath shortned his dayes by his sins may say as Hezekiah did once I have cut off like a weaver my life Isai. 38. 12. i. e. as some Expositors render it I have shortned my life by my sins Thus Er and Onan in the 38th Chap. of Genesis by their sins contracted their lives into the wicked man's abridgment viz. into less than the moyety not living out half their dayes Yea so unquestio able is this truth that it was taken for granted in Job's dayes as appeareth by Job's interrogation How oft is the candle of the wicked putout and how oft cometh their destruction upon them Job 21. 17. What pleasure hath he in his house after him when the number of his moneths is cut off in the mid 〈…〉 21. And in Solomon's dayes it became a Proverb The years of the wicked shall be shortned Prov. 10. 27. A truth that is exemplified in most of the wicked Kings of Judah and of Israel First The Kings of Judah Abijam a wicked King reigned but three years 1 Kings 15. 2. Jehoram of whom it is recorded that he did evil in the sight of the Lord he reigned but twelve years four with his Father and eight alone 2 Kings 8. 17. Ahaziah a wicked King reigned but one year 2 Kings 8. 25. Athaliah a wicked Queen an Usurper she reigned but six years 2 Kings 11. 3. Ahaz a wicked King reigned but unto the 37 th year of his age 2 Kings 16. 2. Amon a wicked King reigned but two years and lived but twenty-four 2 Kings 21. 19. To be short several others of the same Line are Chronicled with short Periods Sin and a sudden death reigning in them successively Secondly We may instance in the Kings of Israel Nadab the Son of Jeroboam a wicked King reigned but two years 1 Kings 15. 25. Baasha indeed reigned twenty-four years but Elah his Son reigned but two years being slain in his drunken humour by his Servant Zimri 1 Kings 16. 8 9. Zimri a Conspirator reigned but seven dayes for burning the King's House over him with fire he died Now the cause is recorded 'T was for his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the Lord in walking in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he did to make Israel to sin 1 Kings 16. v. 15. to 20. Omri a superlative Sinner reigned but twelve years 1 Kin 16. 23. Ahaziah the Son of Ahab was an Idolatrous King and reigned but two years 1 Kings 22. 51. He being sick sent Messengers to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether he should recover of his disease but had his judgment by Elijah who said Thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up but shalt surely die which came to pass according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken 2 Kings 1. And now what shall I more say For the time would fail me to tell of Jehoram Zachariah Shallum Menahem Pekahiah Pekah and some others who through sin lost their lives with their Kingdoms being cut off by the hand of God's vengeance either before or in their middle age And although some of the wicked Kings of Judah and of Israel did reign many years by the permission of a long suffering God yet the instances are so few that they are much overballanced by the short lives of those already mentioned Much also of this truth might be observed in the short Periods of the wicked reigns of sundry Princes not only of this but of other Nations but thus much shall serve to have delineated and demonstrated sin to be in general a Spiritual or Moral cause of bodily diseases and shortness of life supernaturally effected CHAP. II. Shewing that many sins are Natural causes of bodily distempers and shortness of life Most sins are sins of the flesh which are so named because through our flesh to wit our seed or through Carnal generation sin is conveyed into the whole Man Soul and Body Also for that the flesh or body is the instrument to execute the lusts of our natural concupiscence Rom. 6. 13. Thus Piscator and Peter Martyr do judge Now these fleshly lusts we must understand have a powerful influence and operation in the production of fleshly or bodily diseases And this will appear by an examination of the numerous off-spring of excess and intemperance which in many places of Sacred Writs is deemed no less than the transgression of the bounds of God's Law Now the off-spring or fruits of intemperance are these First It brings upon us almost all diseases Secondly It takes part with diseases and makes them often incurable Thirdly It shortens our dayes and makes us die in Agonies From whence cometh soreness and weariness melancholy and heaviness of Spirits stiffness and pain of joints belchings crudities feavers distastings of meat loss of appetite and other tempestuous evils but from excess and intemperance These experimental effects who can deny since almost every Man carries about him and within him a convincing argument thereof Whence is the multitude of Physicians saith a modern Physician but from the frequency and multitude of diseases and whence that frequency and multitude but from excess This saith he is generally confessed but the practise still continued the understanding assents but the affections over-rule Now Intemperance in general may be thus described It is an inordinate and immoderate appetite or desire in our affections pleasures gifts and the use of the Creatures more particularly it is taken for an inordinate appetite and immoderate desire and use of meat and drink and this is when a due mean is exceeded in the too liberal and excessive use of them so that Gluttony and Drunkenness are the two main supporters of Intemperance which is the Mother of most diseases Democritus said that intemperate Men were Valetudinis suae proditores Betrayers of their own health and killers of themselves by their pleasures He spake it of intemperance in eating and drinking of which and also of other sorts of intemperance I shall

disease Caelius Phinehas's Wife when she heard the sorrowful tidings of the taking of the Arck of God the death of her Father in Law and Husband she bowed her self being great with child was delivered and died through sorrow of heart 1 Sam. 4. 19 20. Queen Mary died as some supposed by her much sighing before her death of thought and sorrow of heart for the departure of King Philip or the loss of Calice Act. Mon. 1901. Now in all this Argument we may take notice what fearful effects immoderate sorrow doth produce upon our Bodies what a malign cold and dry Passion it is wasting the radical humour and by degrees quenching the natural heat of the body yea thrusting her poyson even unto the heart whose vigour she causeth to wither and consumes the forces by her bad influence whereof we may see the signs after death when as they come to open those that have been smothered with Melancholy For instead of a heart they find nothing but a dry skin like to the leaves in Autumn So that all things exactly considered we may say that there is not any Passion which doth so much shorten our life or make it so infirm and miserable as this in its excess Hitherto might be referred Despair an evil Conscience such as is neither quiet nor good and such like self tormenting sins which as they are sometimes causes of immoderate and excessive sorrow so by the like influence upon the Body do produce such a flow of diseases as suddenly ebb in death And here lest it should be judged that Godly sorrow which worketh repentance because it is sometimes very intense should produce the same Natural effects in the Body that immoderate and vicious doth you must understand that in true Godly sorrow though it be sometimes very intense vehement and zealous there are such intervals of Spiritual joy by reason of the cherishing hope of pardon that all excess with its Natural effects is diverted mitigated and in due season avoided Nocte pluit tot â redeunt Spectacula mane Which in a Metaphorical sence may be render'd thus Clouds showers of grief may endure a night But glympses of joy return at day-light Or as David thus Heaviness may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Psal. 30. 5. The acrimony then in Godly sorrow is so corrected by the sweet ingredient of inward Consolation that it never proves offensive or prejudicial to bodily health as wordly and immoderate sorrow hath been fully declared to do SECT VIII Of Sensual Joy and Laughter in excess SOlomon made trial of sensual joy mirth and pleasure thinking therein to find true content and Soul-satisfaction but in the conclusion found nothing but the husks of vanity wherewith he at first like a Prodigal Son would fain have satisfied himself but could not as appeareth by his own words I said in my heart Go to now I will prove thee with mirth therefore enjoy pleasure and behold this also is vanity Eccl 2. 1 2. I said of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doth it There is a woe denounced by Christ of whom St. Augustin noteth that 't is often read that he wept never that he laughed St. Aug. Serm. 35. de Sanctis against all such as rejoyce in riot revelling carousing luxury and other forbidden pleasures of this World in that comprehensive Phrase Wo unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep Luk 6. 25. All inordinate rejoycing or rejoycing in unlawful pleasures may justly have the Apostle's reprehension applied to it All such rejoycing is evil Jam. 4. 16. Now as it is evil in respect of the Soul so also in repect of the Body for that very oft swounding and sudden death hath befallen to sudden and immoderate joy and that because the Cordial blood and Vital Spirits are thereby so suddenly diffused to the exterior parts that Life goeth out therewith and returneth not as Fernelius noteth Or as Des-Cartes of this Passion in its excess thus observeth Opening extraordinarily the Orisices of the heart the blood of the veines doth so huddle in and in so abundant a quantity that it cannot there be rarified by the heat soon enough to list up the little skins that shut the entries of those veins by which means it smothers the fire which it used to feed when it came into the heart in fit proportion Des-Cartes of the Passions Artic. 122. Hence I suppose it is that the Lord Verulam saith in his History of Life and Death p. 221. Great joyes attenuate and diffuse the Spirits and shorten life Instances hereof are many in History let these few suffice Diagor as Rhodius had his three valiant Sons victors in one Olympiad who putting all their three Crowns upon their Fathers head through too much joy he presently died Gellius lib. 3. cap. 15. Xeuxis the Painter beholding the vive Picture of an old Wife which he so cunningly did paint burst forth so in laughter that he presently died Sophocles that worthy Poet and also Dionisius the Tyrant after a victory in a Tragedy at the whole People's congratulation through exceeding joy yielded up their life Plin. lib. 7. cap. 53. Chrysippus Philemon at the sight of an Ass eating Figs was so overcome with immoderate laughter that he died Valer. Maxim Chilo the famous Lacedaemonian Philosopher soon expired his last breath when as overjoyed he beheld his Son Conquerour in the Olympick games Ravis Philippides the Athenian an aged Comick overcoming the rest in Poesie and crowned for his great pains died for his present pleasure Cael. lib. 3. c. 15. With such like Instances I might further dilate upon this Point but lest an odd Humorist should laugh himself out of breath to think of them as improbable or the significant Caveats deduced from them as unseasonable in sad times I here desist SECT IX Of Servile Slavish and all Unlawful Fear in excess THere is as Divines distinguish a Divine fear a Filial fear a Dutiful fear a Wise fear and these are all lawful But then there is also a Slavish fear a False fear a Distrustful fear or a Natural fear joyned with diffidence and these are unlawful Servile or Slavish fear whereby Men do abstain from sin rather in respect of the punishments ensuing thereupon then out of an unfained hatred thereof or a fear which ariseth upon the apprehension of God's Justice and wrath against sin and the punishments and plagues for sin is to be avoided as irregular For we ought to serve God without this sort of fear Luke 1. 74. It is Carnal and such as doth no wise proceed from the working of the Spirit but is quite contrary to the same For God saith the Apostle hath not given us the Spirit of fear but of power of love c. 2 Tim. 1. 7. The reason hereof may be in that the perfect love of God in us excommunicates it Perfect love saith St. John caseth out fear 1 Ep. John 4.

and folly in Israel but also of their abettors the Benjamites who lost above twenty-five thousand Men in the slaughter through that occasion Thus the first voluntary lust of the Levite's Wife was most justly punished by a second rape amongst the lustful Gibeonites whose lust when it had conceived brought forth sin and sin when it was finished brought forth death Amnon one of the Sons of King David was so strongly enchanted with the love of his Sister Thamar that to the end to fulfil his lust he traiterously forced her to his will But Absalom her natural Brother hunting for opportunity of revenge for this indignity towards his Sister invited him two years after to a Banquet with his other Brethren and after the same caused his Men to murder him for a fare-well 2 Sam. 13. The same Absalom that slew Amnon for incest with his Sister committed himself incest with his Fathers Concubines moved thereto by the wicked counsel of Achitophel But it was the fore-runner and occasion of his overthrow and untimely death 2 Sam. 16 18 chap. Rodoaldw the eight King of Lumbardy being taken in Adultery even in the fact was slain without delay by the Husband of the Adulteresse Anno 659. in like sort John Maletesta slew his Wife and the Adulterer together when he took them amidst their embracements Chron. Phil. Melancton So did one Lodewick Steward of Normandy kill his Wife Carlotta and her Lover John Lavernus as they were in bed together At Naples it chanced in the King's Palace as young King Frederick Ferdinand's Son entered the privy Chamber of the Queen his Mother to salute her and the other Ladies of the Court that the Prince of Bissenio waiting in the outward Chamber for his return was slain by one of his own Servants that suddenly gave him with his sword three deadly strokes in the presence of many Spectators Which deed he confessed that he had watched three years to perform in regard of an injury done unto his Sister and in her to him whom he ravished against her will Bemb lib. 3. Hist. Venet. The Spaniards that first took the Isle Hispaniola were for their Whoredoms and rapes which they committed upon the Wives and Virgins all murdered by the Inhabitants Benzoni Milan Infinite are the Examples that might out of History be collected to this purpose But to avoid prolixity let it suffice only to add hereunto that for these and the like sins many thousands in the World in every Age have either by the rage of jealousie in the Persons wronged or by the revenging Sword of the Higher Powers punishing wrong suffered the condigne punishment of death Thirdly and lastly To summ up all further Addition that might be look'd upon as necessarily relating to this Chapter consider in few words that immoderate Anger Envie Hatred Malice Self-murder unlawful Duels Treason Murder of others Despair Rebellion Theft Ambition Covetousness immoderate Grief Atheisme Blasphemy Witchcraft and such like do either immediately by themselves or mediately by other sins accumulated and a succession of unprosperous events attending them prove accidental causes sometimes of Diseases but most commonly of an untimely death And so I proceed to the fourth Chapter as followeth CHAP. IV. Containing an Enumeration of sundry Sins as they are supernaturally occasions of bodily Diseases and shortness of Life THis Chapter may seem to have some relation to the First and so it hath in genere but in regard it differs from it in specie I have here placed it as one of the chief Corner-stones to adorn strengthen yea as a Top-stone to finish and complete the four-square building of this First Part of my Discourse But before I descend to particulars give me leave here to lay down somewhat in general terms as praeliminary to the present design Though God be the proper efficient and super-natural cause of Diseases yet as sin is the immediate cause of God's wrath and anger and a provocation of his vindictive Justice in this respect it may be termed a principal though not immediate cause or occasion of Diseases more especially of such as depend not upon the ordinary chain of second causes but being above the Sphaere of Nature are inflicted by the almighty and unlimited power of God And this the great Secretaries of Nature as Philosophers and Physicians should do well to observe according to the advice of Hippocrates who would have a Physician to take special notice whether the Disease came from a Divine super-natural cause or whether it follow the course of Nature How this place of Hippocrates is to be understood Paracelsus is of opinion that such Spiritual Diseases for so he calls them are spiritually to be cured and not otherwise But of this by the way in general I shall now descend to Particulars whereof I shall make demonstration de facto And First of the abuse of the Ordinances of God viz. the Word and Sacraments Theopompus a Philosopher being about to insert certain things out of the Writings of Moses into his prophane Works and so to abuse the sacred Word of God was striken with a Frensie and being warned of the cause thereof in a dream by prayers made unto God recovered his senses again Joseph Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 2. This Story is recorded by Josephus as also another of Theodectes a Poet that mingled his Tragedies with the Holy Scriptures and was therefore striken with blindness until he had recanted his impiety In a Town of Germany called Itszith there dwelt a certain Husband-man that was a monstrous despiser of the Word of God and his Sacraments He upon a time in the midst of his Cups railed in most bitter terms upon a Minister of God's Word after which going presently into the Fields to over-look his Sheep he never returned alive but was found there dead with his Body all scorched and burnt as black as a coal the Lord having given him over into the hands of the Devil to be thus used for his vile prophaness and abusing Holy things Dr. Justus Jonas in Luther's Conferences reporteth this to be true If you shall despise my Statutes saith the Lord or refuse to hearken unto my Law I will visit you with Consumptions and burning Agues and heaviness of heart Lev. 26. 15 16. Moses for neglecting the Sacrament of Circumcision which is much the same see Rom. 4. 11. Col. 2. 11. 12. in a Spiritual sense with that of Baptisme was struck immediately by the Lord and fell so sick by the way that it was thought he would have died And it came to pass by the way in the Inn that the Lord met him and sought to kill him Exod. 4. 24. Which words are by some Elucidators Bishop Hall c. thus understood viz. that the Lord appeared visibly unto him and sensibly afflicted him with some sudden and violent disease which he knew to be done in regard of his neglect of his Sons Circumcision Eutychus for sleeping at the Sermon fell down so

and applications without it For it is to be understood that the perfect cuting of the diseased Body requireth not only the external but also the internal Physician The internal Physician vulgarly is called Nature but more properly it is that Interna Mumia seu Balsamum internum Our native liquor of life and inbred balm of vital spirit This in all Men is the best and greatest Physician without the which no Medicine can avail no malady can be cured This is that which doth digest concoct maturate deopilate purge corroborate expel emitigate restore avert and dispatch all sort of bodily griefs unless it be over-burdened by Intemperance or extreamly debilitated by any other impediment or defect The outward or external Physician with all his Art Method Simples Compounds Antidotes Catharticks Minoratives Diaphoreticks Corroboratives Anodynes c. is only but a Servant and all his endeavours but service unto the internal Physician viz. Nature As then in curative Physick the principal method of wise Physicians whose Canon is Cito tuto Suddenly and safely consists in purgation and corroboration thereby first disburdening and then strengthening Nature which in its operations hath a constant tendency to the more benigne constitution so long as it is able to resist the morbifick humour So Temperance which consisteth in the use of a temperate diet no way burdening Nature which not over-burden'd will in time work out the noxious and superfluous humours but gradually strengthening it may worthily be esteemed a great promoter of health though not so expeditious as when it is conjoined with the assistance of external means By Temperance alone then it may seem probable to effect a Cure and experience hath put it out of doubt that many who have been unwilling or unable to undergo the trouble and charge of Physick have yet by the strength of Nature and a temperate diet in a reasonable time safely recovered their former health Aurelianus is said to have cured all excess by abstinence and therefore to have had no Physicians And I read of the Indians and other barbarous People who wanting or at least neglecting the means of Physick have yet many of them by Temperance giving Nature its free course recovered of dangerous Diseases and also attained to a great age Yea legimus quosdam sayes an ancient Father St. Hierome morbo articulari podagrae humoribus laborantes proscriptione bonorum ad simplicem mensam pauperes cibos redactos convaluisse We have read of some saith he who being sick of the Gout through abundance of humours did recover their health being forced to a poor and slender diet by consiscation of their goods Not that hereby I would derogate from the honour due unto the judicious Physician or detract from the use of Medicines which the Lord hath created out of the Earth For he that is wise will not abhor them saith the Son of Sirach Eccl. 38. 4. but at present my design is only to enhance the price and esteem of Temperance which doubtless is the Mother of health though it often stands in need of the Midwisery of Natural means to assist it in its productions To Temperance may be referred Fasting which when it is Religious is thus desined Jejunium religiosum est voluntaria abstinentia à cibo potu religionis causà Hommius Disput. i. e. Religious Fasting is a voluntary abstinence from meat and drink for a Religious end And thus understood our Saviour Christ supposed it as a duty sometimes to be performed when he gave directions to avoid vain-glory in it Mat. 6. 17 18. and also assured us that if it be performed as it ought not to please Men but God it will surely be rewarded by him This duty he taught us by his own example as well as doctrine For not to mention Divine Record so well known to most Philo saith of him that he seemed to transform his flesh into the nature of his Spirit by fasting and watching And in imitation of Christ's act in fasting we read elsewhere that the Christians of the Primitive times were generally very frequent in the practise of it Now though this Religious Fasting differeth from that which is Moral in respect of the ends Moral fasting being nothing else but temperance and moderation in eating drinking yet in respect of the natural effect produced in the Body they are the same and do equally conduce to bodily health and consequently length of life not only as preventive but also curative Physick First as preventive and this will appear by this following Demonstration deducted from the observation of the most judicious Physicians The deflux of an humour from the brain is called a Rheume which is the Mother of most Diseases For sometimes it taketh course to the eyes and thereof cometh a dropping and inflamation of the eyes and a dimness and loss of sight sometimes it taketh course by the nose and is called the pose sometimes to the mouth and causeth great expuition and spitting and the falling of the Uvula and tooth-ach sometimes to the wind-pipe and thereof cometh raucedo the hoarsness sometimes to the lungs and causeth exulceration or putrifaction or some great obstruction which bringeth a difficulty of breathing and strangulation sometimes it taketh course by the stomack and causeth lack of appetite and ill digestion and if to the guts then falleth out the flux of the belly called a lask sometime it setleth in the brain and groweth into a gross and thick substance either in the fore part as in the nerves optick which are the conducts whereby the power of seeing doth come unto the eyes and causeth either dimness or loss of sight or in the conducts that convey the power of hearing unto the ears and there causeth a dulness of hearing or deafness Also if it settle in the fore-part obstructing the cells or ventricle● of the brains three ill Diseases do grow thereupon called three of the dead sleeps Caros coma apoplexia Also if this gross Rheumatick matter do settle in the hinder part it causeth the Lethargy another of the dead sleeps and the Palsy and the Falling-sickness and the Convulsion and Oblivion or loss of memory And if it come down backward into the neck it causeth a kind of Convulsion called teranos when as the neck cannot turn to nor fro but it standeth stiff and stark without motion If it flow down to the back it causeth another kind of Convulsion called Opisthotonos wherein the head and the heels are made to meet backward If it flow forward into the muscles of the breast another Convulsion is caused called Emprosthotonos wherein the head and the feet are drawn together forward If it go to the joynts it is Morbus articularis the joynt-gout if to the hands and fingers it is Chiragra the finger-gout if to the knees it is Gonagra the knee-gout if to the feet and toes it is Podagra the feet-gout Also if it fall upon the kidnies then the