Lord omnipotent There is a time saith he when in their hands i. e. the Physicians there is good success For they shall also pray unto the Lord that he would prosper that which they give for ease and remedy to prolong life Ibidem v. 13 14. This excellent issue of devout Prayer is further declared in these following Instances Hezekiah being arrested by a violent and dangerous distemper for some arrears due to the great Landlord of Heaven and Earth was further afflicted by a sad message of being turn'd out of the tenement of his Body by death But by his humble supplication and mournful prayer unto his merciful Lord he had a Lease of his life granted him for 15. years subscribed with a promise according to God's own order and sealed with a miracle to confirm it further upon the dial of Ahaz as you may see more fully by a recourse to the sacred Text 2 Kings 20. 1 c. I have read that on a time there was a meeting appointed at Haganaw upon the Rhine where the Reformed Divines were to meet and in a friendly manner to debate differences But as Melancthon was going thitherward he fell sick at Vinaria Luther and Cruciger hearing of it by long journeys hasted to him and as soon as Luther saw how miserably he was wasted with his Disease with sighs and tears he brake out into this speech Alas how precious and profitable an instrument of the Church is miserably weakened and ready to perish And therewithal falling upon his knees he prayed most earnestly for his recovery And afterwards Melancthon confessed that if Luther had not come he had died Clark's Lives of the Fathers p. 247. Yea it is written of this Luther that by his prayers he could prevail with God at his pleasure Praying for the recovery of Myconius he let fall this transcendent rapture of daring Faith Fiat voluntas mea Let my will be done And then comes off sweetly Mea voluntas Domine quia tua My will Lord because thy will Beatus est qui habet quicquid vult nihil male vult Blessed is he that hath what he will and wills nothing but what he should Also I find recorded that the Lady Ann Henage lying sick of a violent feaver which her Physicians deemed to be mortal Mr. Fox was sent for to be present at her ending and when by instructions and prayer he had prepared her for death he told her that she had done well in thus fitting her self for her dissolution yet that she should not die of that sickness A Knight her Son-in-law being by told him in private that he had not done well in thus discomposing her mind with hopes of life To whom Mr. Fox answered That he said no more then what was commanded him for it seemed good to God that she should recover Which also came to pass as an effect of fervent prayer which prevailed when Natural means failed Idem 794. King Edward the Sixth as he was constant and fervent in his private prayer so was he as successful therein witness this Example Sir John Cheek his Schoolmaster fell desperately sick of whose condition the King carefully enquired every day At last his Physicians told him that there was no hope of his life and that he was given over by them for a dead Man Nay said the King he will not die at this time for this morning I begged his life of God in my prayers and obtained it Which accordingly came to pass and soon after Sir John beyond all expectation wonderfully recovered Ful. History of the Church p. 424. It is said of St. Augustin in a Relation of his life that he was alwayes powerful in prayer so that sometimes thereby he cast out devils and sometimes restored sick Men to their health It would perhaps be tedious to the Reader to annumerate any further instances to this purpose as by demonstrating what a wonderful decrease there hath been sometimes observed in the weekly Bills of mortality in several Places of this Kingdom graciously succeeding upon the humble and devout prayers of God's People And therefore I shall content my self to insist only upon St. James his Canon Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him annointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord And the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he hath committed sins they shall be forgiven him James 5. 14 15. By the Elders of the Church we may understand the Pastors or Ministers of the Church who are to be sent for by the sick that they may pray for him and with him And their faithful prayer shall be a means ordinarily to save that sick Person from the danger of his Disease and whereas sins are the cause of his sickness even those sins of his shall upon humble and devout prayers be done away and forgiven Now as concerning the Ceremony of anointing the sick Body with Oyl in the Name of the Lord this was an extraordinary thing communicated to those which had gifts of Miracles used by them as an outward Symbole and sign of the Spiritual healing and so we deny not but it was an extraordinary temporary Sacrament but now that Miracles are ceased in the Church still to retain the outward sign is a vain supertitious imitation although St. James his Oil and the Popish Ointment do much differ See Fulke on the Rhem. Test. Again this usage as a bare Ceremony was not instituted by Christ or any way commanded to be continued by the Apostles or their Successors in the Church even while the gifts of Healing did continue amongst them but was by the Apostles themselves very frequently omitted in their working of Cures as the learned Dr. Hammond hath observed in his Annotations Prayer then you see was the more yea the only effectual and substantial performance or means in the Cure and the Ceremony of annointing may now reasonably be omitted Obj. But against the use of prayer some may object the words of Job Job 7. 1. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his dayes also like the dayes of an hireling What need then of prayer when every Man's time upon Earth like the Sea is bounded so as hitherto shall it come but no further I answer only hereunto at present that this may be a general Objection against the use of all other means as well as Prayer in relation to the cure of Diseases and prolongation of life and therefore shall be answered in its proper place designed A 2d Object Against some lukewarm Christians may object further and say I have often prayed upon the account of health for my self and others in time of sickness but all my prayers have like Arrows shot up to Heaven returned upon my own head without doing their errand Solut. To this I answer Our prayers many times come short of Heaven because
But I shall now proceed to something more proper and adaequate unto the present purpose and that is to lay down a Plat-form of the succeeding Argument In the next Chapter I shall demonstrate in general and particular that vertuous and regular actions and affections are in a super-natural sense conducing to the preservation of health and prolongation of life and in the third Chapter shall shew you that such actions and affections do in a Natural sense conduce to the same end of health and long life and in the fourth Chapter prove that the same means through the blessed influence of Divine Providence do become occasions of the same Natural effects and in the last Chapter shall answer some Objections briefly and then conclude the whole CHAP. II. Shewing in general and particular that vertuous regular actions affections are in a super-natural sense conducing to the preservation of health and prolongation of life IF we search the Scriptures we shall find a great Cloud of witnesses and testimonies ushering in this truth viz. that a life led in Religion vertue and the fear of God doth conduce much to the health of Body and also length of dayes As for instance it is written Ye shall serve the Lord your God and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee Exod. 23. 25. Also long life is promised as a blessing unto them that keep the Commandments in these ensuing words That he turn not aside from the Commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdom Deut. 17. 20. Also in these That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and that thou mayest obey his voice and that thou mayest cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy dayes Cap. 30. vers 20. Again health is promised upon like conditions Be not wise in thine own eyes saith Solomon fear the Lord and depart from evil It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones Pro. 3. 7 8. Thus Jesus Christ the grand Exemplar of innocency and integrity was without sin and therefore without sickness More particularly these blessings are held forth as temporal rewards of sundry Moral Civil and Religious acts and duties and this may appear both by Divine and Humane Authority First then in respect of obedience to Parents we find long life promised as a motive to it in the fifth Commandment Honour thy father and thy mother that thy dayes may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Exod. 20. 12. Which the Apostle calleth the First Commandment with promise Eph. 6. 1 2. viz. the first affirmative Commandment or the first in the second Table or the first of all the Ten with promise in particular to them that keep it Which promise sheweth that a more plentiful blessing in this kind followeth from our obedience to this than to the other Commandments And yet I confess obedience in general meets with the same blessing as the Psalmist doth denote unto us What man is he that desireth life and loveth many dayes that he may see good keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile Depart from evil and do good seek peace and pursue it Psal. 34. 12 c. However there lieth a special Emphasis upon the particular observance of the aforesaid Commandment by an express and particular promise of long life But doth this promise alwayes hold Yes surely it holdeth generally and for the most part in comparison of the wicked who do not live out half their dayes Psal. 55. 23. and if it fail it is but rarely and then in exchange for the better that as the Prophet saith The righteous may be taken away from the evil to come Isay 57. 1. I say but rarely it fails for to say otherwise were to make the promise of no effect and the tenor of the Commandment very ambiguous But do not the disobedient live long also truly they have no promise for it and commonly they are cut off by an untimely death or if some of them be reprived until old age they are but comparatively few being reserved only as so many examples of God's mercy and forbearance as the rest being many are soon cut off as examples of his justice Long life then is most commonly the reward of obedience and piety to Parents And it must needs be so when Divine Providence which is more then a Wall of brass to encircle and secure us taketh such especial care in the protection and preservation of such as are endued with that eminent vertue as appeareth by what Aristotle telleth us viz. how that from the Hill Aetna there ran down a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabout yet in the midst of those fearful flames God's especial care of the Godly and obedient shined most brightly For the River of fire parted it self and made a kind of lane for those who ventured to rescue their aged Parents and pluck them out of the jaws of death Ipse dixit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. de mundo cap. 6. If Providence then wrought so much in a miraculous way for the preservation of the lives of Heathens to reward their duty shewed towards their Parents surely Christians the Children of God whose obedience to Parents springeth originally from their obedience to their Heavenly Father may with much more confidence depend upon the same Providence for the like preservation and so by consequence the prolongation of their lives as a reward of the same duty Now though I have insisted upon the afore-mentioned Commandment in a literal sense yet by the rules of extension requisite for the interpretation thereof we are to understand there not only our Natural Parents but as Spiritual Fathers 1 Cor. 4. 15. as Ministers and political Fathers Gen. 45. 8. as Magistrates and oeconomical Fathers 2 Kings 2. 12. 5. 13. as Masters and matrimonial Fathers as Husbands Eph. 5. 22. to all which a respective obedience may I suppose claim a share or portion in the promise of long life In the Second place devout and zealous Prayer in a super-natural way procureth bodily health and so by consequence length of dayes to enjoy the same Sick Abimelech was sent to Abraham a Prophet to be healed by prayer Now therefore saith God restore the man his wife for he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee c. Gen. 20. 7. So Abraham prayed unto God and God healed Abimelech v. 17. So then Abimelech was healed by God as the supream and efficient cause by prayer as the instrumental Hence it is the Son of Sirach adviseth us My son in thy sickness be not negligent but pray unto the Lord and he will make thee whole Eccles. 38. 9. And also soon after sheweth us that the good success of Physicians depends upon something beyond the Sphaere of Natural means and that is prayer unto the Physician of Physicians the
performed as the instrument Whereunto are annexed about sixty Testimonials of several credible Persons most of them eminent and worthy of the chief matters of fact therein related Which printed Certificates being examined and compared with the Original Testimonials which were left in the hands of Mr. Starkey the Stationer to that end namely for a certain evidence to Mr. Boyle and for the full satisfaction of all those that are any wise scrupulous that they might see that they were verbatim the same In this respect I suppose it unreasonable to interrogate with Nicodemus How can these things be John 3. 9. seeing there is such a clear demonstration de facto of what was seen done I confess saith a learned modern Author of our own I cannot see any reason why God may not yet for the conviction if Insidels employ such a power of Miracles although there be not such necessity of it as there was in the first propagation of the Gospel Yet God may please saith he a little after out of his abundant provision for the satisfaction of the minds of men concerning the truth of Christian doctrine to imploy good men to do something which may manifest the power of Christ to be above the Devils Dr. Stillingfleet's Origines Sacrae pag. 270. To be short as our Saviour being in the flesh had power on Earth to cure incurable Diseases miraculously that is without Natural means so being in Heaven his power is no less but rather greater over all bodily Diseases to cure them with or without means whensoever he will So that this may comfort us in time of dangerous sickness though our Disease be incurable by Physick or any Natural means yet in this case we are to remember the absolute power of Christ Jesus our Lord who can heal us without means if he see it expedient for us And that his will doth in this case frequently concur with his power note further that Man's extremity is God's opportunity where Man's help faileth Christ's help beginneth Let us then seek to him by Prayer and rest on him by Faith not neglecting ordinary means by a too frequent dependance upon or expectation of miraculous Cures nor yet forgetting that if the means fail or cannot be had his power is not tied to means but is above them and can and doth sometimes recover us without them when he seeth it good for us I conclude the Point then thus that Gods blessing upon the Natural means and his blessing without means are each received most successfully and comfortably by the hand of Faith which is the extraordinary means conducing to the health of Body as the ordinary to the health of Soul Fourthly Repentance if true and sincere doth in the same extraordinary way conduce to the health of Body and prolongation of Life And this may be proved First in express terms and Secondly by consequence First In express terms by sundry Texts of sacred Writ Miriam by repentance was freed from the Leprosie Num. 12. 11. 21. 7. The Israelites repenting obtained a remedy against the fiery Serpents and thereby were delivered from imminent death David after the death of seventy thousand of his People by repentance prevented the destruction of Jerusalem 2 Sam. 24. 16 17. Rehoboam and the Princes repenting at the preaching of Shemaiah were delivered from destruction 2 Chr. 12. 7. Hezekiah having received a message of death upon his repentance had his life lengthened by a Lease from above two lives more in our Law Isay 38. v. 1. 10. 6. Secondly By consequence For sublatâ causâ tollitur effectus the cause which is sin being taken away the effect which is bodily sickness and shortness of Life as I have fully declared and evinced in the former part of this Treatise must needs cease and be removed or prevented and avoided And therefore Repentance as you see may rationally be concluded effectual for the health of the Body and the prolongation of a temporary Life as it was alwayes granted propitious to the health of the Soul in order to ever lasting Life To summ up all let us not think it incredible that these vertues and graces should in such an extraordinary manner conduce to the preservation of bodily health removal of sickness and prolongation of Life when we consider the power of God with whom all things are possible Mat. 19. 26. and the manifestation of that power not only in the sundry miraculous cures of bodily Diseases recorded in the Old and New Testament but also in some such cures or very like them taken notice of in our modern History and experience The miraculous Cures in both Testaments the Reader may take notice of at his leasure I shall instance now only in Humane Story and modern Evidence A late intelligent Author and faithful Relator telleth us that to the Kings of England quatenus Kings doth appertain one prerogative that may be stiled super-excellent if not Miraculous which was first enjoyed by that pious and good King Edward the Confessor that is to remove and to cure the Struma or Scrofula that stubborn Disease called The Kings Evil. Which manifest cure saith he is ascribed by some malignant Nonconformists to the power of Fancy and exalted Imagination but what can that contribute to small Infants whereof great numbers are cured every year Dr. Chamberlain in his present State of England The manner of the Cure is briefly thus related There is an appointed short Form of Divine Service wherein are read besides some short Prayers pertinent to the occasion two portions of Scripture taken out of the Gospel and at these words They shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover the King gently draws both his hands over the sore of the sick Person and those words are repeated at the touch of every one Again at these words That light was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world pertinently used if it be considered that that Light did never shine more comfortably if not more visibly than in the healing of so many leprous and sick Persons At those words the King putteth about the neck of each sick Person a piece of Gold called from the impression an Angel because in value about two thirds of a French Pistol Thus far He. Now the effect is clear de facta and from experience and cannot therefore be rationally denyed and 't is as clear that the cause must be super-natural in regard that neither the hands of the King not the piece of gold given by him have any natural or accidental power or tendency in themselves to effect or produce such a Cure especially in Infants whose imagination cannot be wrought upon and disposed for the furtherance of it by such outward applications as are then used Another Instance to our present purpose we may find in a modern Collection being true and faithful Relation of one Samuel Wallas who was restored to his perfect health after thirteen years sickness
as he had slept his last sleep Acts 20. 9. but that a merciful God by the hands of Paul did raise him up again to teach him and by him all Church-sleepers the future danger of such negligence and irreverence in his House His deadly fall not being so much accidental as a judgment from God And as concerning the unworthy receiving the Lord's Supper St. Paul telleth the Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep 1 Corinthians 11. 30. i. e. For these abuses of this Holy Sacrament the hand of God hath been upon many of you so as many of you are afflicted with divers kinds of Diseases and many of you are striken with a temporal death here called sleep Now from the Apostles declaring this to be the true cause of that sickness and mortality that was amongst them it is to be supposed that either they looked not after the cause at all but took it to come only as a thing of course or which is more probable that they mistook the cause imagined that to be the cause which was not A great mortality there was amongst them many died but that they thought might proceed from the distemperature of the Body or from the corruption of the Air or from want of exercise or from not observing a good diet or from immoderate labour Some they thought might die of one of these causes some of another But the Apostle passeth all these over and maketh known unto them that however these might be considerable as causes in their due places yet the true main and principal cause they were utterly ignorant of and that was their abusive and negligent receiving of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper For this cause many are weak c. A truth which had any less than an Apostle delivered he would have been esteemed a setter forth of new Doctrine Or had the Apostle delivered it in any dark and obscure Phrase flesh and blood would have found out twenty Interpretations before ever they would have thought of this But the Speaker is so Divine and the speech so plain that it cannot be mistaken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text For this cause because of your unworthy receiving the Body and Blood of Christ many are sick and many sleep Hence was that speech of Saint Anselme taken who saith that many Diseases that reign in the Summer though Physicians may impute them to other secondary causes proceed from Peoples irreverent receiving that Sacrament at Easter That de facto this is a truth see the 2d of the Chronicles and the 30th chap. v. 20. where you shall find that for some abuses and disorders committed in the Celebration of the Passover the Jews were smitten with some troublesom disease For 't is here said that upon Hezekiah's Prayer the Lord healed the People which implieth plainly that they were diseased and sick before and yet this default was only in the circumstantial Points of that Sacrament For 't is there also said that every one had prepared his heart for to seek God Some defect there was only in some Ceremonial Rite to be observed Now what we find applied to the Passover we may without fear apply to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper For however they differ in circumstances yet for substance they are the same Sickness we see was sent for the abuse of that and therefore the same punishment appointed for the abuse of this yea inflicted witness the Corinthians who for this cause were plagued with divers Diseases and sundry kinds of death And indeed it is not unlike that since these Corinthians there have been many thousands who for the very same cause have not as the Psalmist saith lived out half their dayes but have been swept away out of the Land of the living and gone down with sorrow into the Grave True then it is de facto God hath thus plagued the sinful neglect and abuse of his Sacrament I will now also demonstrate that de jure it must needs be so and this will appear if we consider the sin it self to be Camelinum peccatum A sin of a very large size burdened with those following aggravations namely that 't is a sin immediatly against Christ's own Person robbeth God of that which he is most tender of his honour and is in the judgment of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 11. 27. I suppose if will-fully committed no less than a spilling and shedding of the precious blood of Christ Heb. 6. 6. In a word that 't is a sin paramount like Saul higher then his Fellows And therefore let us judge in our selves whether the wages of such a sin unrepented of can be less than Corporal plagues and temporal death For if we contemn the sacred Body of Christ how can we think that God should take any care of ours If we make no reckoning of Christ's death 't is but just with God to disregard ours Oh then as we tender our health and our lives let us never dare to approach unto that dreadful Table without due reverence and a competent measure of preparation Secondly Concerning the Prophaning the Lord's day Sacriledge c. we read several Instances of God's wrath upon such declared in Corporal plagues and destruction A certain Godly Minister preaching and pressing the sanctification of the Sabbath and taking occasion herein to make mention of that Man who by the special command of God was stoned to death for gathering sticks upon the Sabbath day Hereupon one in the Congregation stood up and laughed and made all the haste he could out of the Church and went to gathering of sticks though he had no need of them But when the People came out from the Sermon they found this Man dead with the bundle of sticks in his arms lying in the Church Porch This is attested by a credible Author Yea if time would permit or this Enchiridion extend to it I could expatiate upon such Instances as might likewise demonstrate that not a few have upon the breach of the fourth Commandment been striken by the immediate hand of the Almighty with lameness and sore Diseases And for Sacriledge that hath been severely punished in like manner As in Antioches Epiphanes who fell sick with grief upon the remembrance of the evils he did at Jerusalem in taking away the Vessels of gold and silver that were therein confessing that for this cause his troubles came upon him and so suddenly died 1 Mach. chap. 6. Also it is recorded that wicked Alcimus for his violation of the Sanctuary and his sacrilegious enterprises was immediatly taken with a Palsie so that he could no more speak any thing but died suddenly with great torment 1 Mach. 9. cap. 54 55 56. v. Again Ananias and Sapphira his Wife for their Sacriledge cloaked with hypocrisie at Peter's rebuke fell down dead Acts 5. 5. 10. Thirdly Swearing Blasphemy and Perjury do sometimes in a supernatural manner occasion Diseases
they are not winged with zeal and importunity It is the importunate Beggar that getteth an Alms They that faint in their prayers have such a faint heart as never winneth a fair blessing And therefore as a Corroborative against such faintings let us consider how oft we use a Medicine for the Body before it can be whole how many stroaks on Oak must have before it will fall how over and over again we plough our Lands and delve our Gardens before we can have our expectation and also how frequently Earthly Kings must be attended upon before Suiters can obtain their suite Surerely favours and mercies even from the King of Kings would be slighted and undervalued if fetched with a faint word And therefore let us vis unita fortior join force to force prayer to prayer and so by a holy violence of zeal besiege the Kingdom of Heaven and in time it will surrender its self to our lawful desires and requests For saith the Apostle the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much James 5. 16. Indeed if our prayers be without life or come out of fained lips or be distracted with wild and wandring thoughts or if they be tainted with hypocrisie pride or incredulity we can look for no favourable audience from Heaven For God heareth not sinners but if a man doth his will him he heareth John 9. 31. God heareth not Sinners that is wilful presumptuous and impenitent Sinners But if a man doth his will by active and passive obedience him he heareth that is either explicitely by granting the individual or particular thing requested or interpretatively by granting that which is aequivalent or far better Now if a righteous Man prayeth for health and a prolongation of his temporary life and God still continueth him upon his Bed of sickness and within a short time by death giveth him Eternal life in exchange for his temporary herein is no severe repulse or denyal but a more favourable audience more satisfactory concession and more Princely donation But you will urge that this last way of granting Requests doth not fully answer the scope of the present Point Hereupon I must reply that though the return of our most faithful prayers must be determined and their success limited by the will of our Heavenly Father according to the words of Christ Jesus Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt Matth. 26. 39. yet we must understand that it is the will and usual favour of the Almighty to grant the very things we desire and stand in need of commonly by means and herein chiefly and principally by faithful prayer which without Natural means is often found more effectual then Natural means without it And to encourage us to make trial of such excellent means we have a promise from Truth its self I say unto you whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them Mark 11. 24. And this brings me to propose or prescribe In the Third place Faith as an excellent means conducing likewise to the health of Body and consequently prolongation of life and this in a super-natural way also There was a Woman vexed with an uncomfortable Disease twelve years She suffered many things of Physicians Mat. 9. 20. some torturing her with one Medicine some with another none did her good but much hurt She had spent all her living upon them Luke 8. 43. and herein saith Erasmus was Bis misera Her sickness brought her to weakness weakness to Physick Physick to beggary beggary to contempt Thus was she vexed in body mind and estate yet Faith healed her Her wealth was gone Physicians gave her over but her Faith did not forsake her Daughter be of good comfort thy faith hath made thee whole Mat. 9. 22. There was a Woman bowed down with the Spirit of infirmity eighteen years Luke 13. 11. yet loosed There was a Man bedrid eight and thirty years John 5. 5. 9. a long and miserable time when besides his Corporal distress he might perhaps conceive from that Eccl. 38. 15. He that sinneth before his Maker let him fall into the hand of the Physician that God had cast him away yet Christ restored him But may some say it is not mentioned that either of thâ—se two last were cured by Faith I answer that doubtless Christ saw the seed of Faith in them though it were but as a grain of mustard-seed and so rewarded them accordingly Again we may instance in the Samaritan whose Leprosie though hard to cure yet Faith was able to do it Thy faith hath made thee whole Luke 17. 19. But may some say it was not properly his Faith but Christ's vertue that cured him Why then doth not Christ say Mea virtus and not Tua sides My vertue not thy Faith hath made thee whole True it is his vertue only cures but this is apprehended by Man's Faith The miraculous Cure was attributed to Mans Faith not as to the efficient cause for that was Christ's Divine vertue but as to the instrumental cause or means by which he apprehended and applyed to himself that Divine power by which he was healed Thus in the afore-mentioned place or instance in the 9th of Math. it is written that the Woman which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years came behind Jesus and touched the hem of his garment For she said within her self if I may but touch his garment I shall be whole And in Mark 5. 30. we read that when that diseased Woman had touched him Jesus knew in himself that vertue had gone out of him and he turned him about in the press and said who touched my clothes Yet speaking to the Woman he mentioneth not his vertue but her Faith Daughter thy faith hath made thee whole Mark 5. 34. Object But here some may object that the gifts of Healing with other miraculous Gifts are ceased in the Church and so consequently Prayer and Faith must needs be ineffectual to the Cure of bodily Distempers without the conjunction of Natural means Answ. To which I answer 'T is true the Doctrine of the Gospel having been long since sealed and confirmed by so many Miracles in the Primitive Church there is now the less need of them more particularly of the gift of Healing and therefore I shall not urge those Miracles which the Church of Rome boasteth of as wrought of late times by some of her Sons or with her extend the promise of our Saviour Mark 16 17 18. to all future times and Ages of the Church yet thus much I may avouch that as God is still able to work Miracles so he hath sometimes even in this latter Age wrought miraculously for the convincing the present times of Atheism and the further confirmation of our Faith in the Gospel And this Mr. Valentine Greatraks in his Printed Letter to the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq maketh appear Wherein he giveth an Account of divers strange Cures by himself
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
Providence it was that this Boy should be by to detect and defeat their wicked counsel whereby Paul escaped as a Bird out of the snare Austin relates how by losing his way as he was travelling he thereby saved his life escaping an Ambush of the bloody Donatists who had way-laid him The Stories are well known how Moulin at the time of the Parisian Massacre was cherished for a fortnight by a Hen which came constantly and laid her eggs there where he lay hid And at Cales how an English-man who crept into a hole under a pair of stairs was there preserved by means of a Spider which had woven its web over the hole and so the Souldiers slighted the search in that place No less remarkable is the signal preservation of those vertuous and religious Potentates Queen Elizabeth King James and our now gracious Soveraign Charles the Second thorow an Ocean of dangers by that discreet Pilot Divine Providence All which Instances are a sufficient Comment upon this Text He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death Psal. 68. 20. And the result of the whole Point is this That as man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God Mat. 4. 4. that is to say as bread though ordinarily it hath a nourishing property inhaerent in it for the sustaining of man's life yet so only as that the operation of that and success of other means tending to the preservation of health and prolongation of life is guided by the power of God's Providence and appointment So the sweet influence of this Providence is chiefly and principally intended and extended to the Children of God in blessing the means used by them to that end and purpose Therefore are those sacred Texts prescribed as corroboratives to the Servants of God And ye shall serve the Lord your God and he shall bless thy bread and thy water and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee Exod. 23. 25. Also Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father Fear ye not therefore ye are of more value than many sparrows Mat. 10. 29 31. If then the eye of God's Providence be so watchful to defend and preserve the meanest of his Creatures that Sparrows which are so cheap and worthless and also such short-liv'd Birds as Naturalists observe shall not perish or die without the permission and concurring will of God in second causes then surely we must not asperse our Saviour's Logick by denying the inference from Sparrows to the Children of God seeing this is the scope of the Argument urged by our Saviour in that place namely that if the eye of Divine Providence be so careful and circumspect in the preservation of the meanest Creatures Much more is the eye of the Lord as David saith upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy To deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine Psal. 32. 18 19. And thus much shall serve briefly to have demonstrated in general that vertuous and regular actions and affections do through the blessed influence of Divine Providence upon means prove often occasions of bodily health and long Life CHAP. V. Some Objections briefly answered And the Conclusion of the whole Obj. 1. THe first Objection is of those who cry up an irresistible Decree a fatal necessity predetermining the bounds of Man's life and so consequently cry down the use of all means whether Spiritual or Natural as needless and frivolous in order to the preservation of health and prolongation of life And they bolster up their opinion with the forecited words of Job by them wrested Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not dis dayes also like the dayes of an hireling Job 7. 1. Doubtless an error herein hath been very prejudicial not only to the Physicians Practice but also the Patients health And lest it should likewise obstruct the good effect designed in this Treatise we will not let it pass uncontrolled For whosoever alloweth this error must of necessity disallow the Petition in the Lord's Prayer for our daily bread as also of all the Divine Prayers made for the prolongation of life and preservation from mortal danger or sudden death as likewise of the dispensation of the gift of Healing to the Physician whom God hath created and honoured to the same end and purpose and of all other means whatsoever tending to the temporal end and design of this Discourse Answ. Now in answer hereunto I shall endeavour to unfold those Texts of sacred Writ wherein the main strength of the Objection lieth as namely the forecited place and also that in the 14 th of Job v. 5 th Seeing his dayes are determined the number of his moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass Here then the words of Job concerning the end of life limited set and appointed are not to be referred unto causes of destiny but to the obedience and disobedience of God's Commandment Or we may more largely answer with some See Piscator upon Psal. 55. 23. Marianus upon Job 14. 5. that the term of Mans life is twofold 1. Super-natural 2. Natural 1. Super-natural As it is decreed from above in the fore-sight and determination of God which doth not alwayes agree with the Natural and thus as Marianus saith A primâ die pendet extrema in ortu sanxit quantum quisque victurus est The last day depends upon the first and at our birth yea before we were conceived God hath concluded how long every Man should live as he that fore-seeth as well the wayes that we would go as the end which those wayes would bring us to 2. Natural Which a Man may attain unto by his Natural strength unless he doth neglect the means or shorten his own dayes by some unlawful deeds and thus the Godly may be said to prolong their dayes when by their upright life they have the assistance of the Divine Clemency to produce them to the furthest period that their Natural strength could carry them So Abraham lived to a good old age Gen. 25 8. and so divers of God's Saints became old Men and full of years And on the contrary the wicked may be rightly said to shorten his dayes when for his impiety the Divine hand of Heaven doth abridge that ample time which he might have lived and when according as he determined from the beginning when he fore-saw his wayes he doth measure his life with a shorter line then the strength of Nature would have done So lascivious Zimri was cut off for his sins in the midst of his age so the Old world so the Sodomites so the Galileans so all those Sinners that do provoke the hand of God to use the Sword of Justice to cut them off for their
be drawn from the skill of Chiromancy or Palmistry which undertaketh by marks and lines in the hands especially by the line of Life to measure the extent of every Man's life with the time and degree of every dangerous Disease incident thereunto and so thereby maketh void the use of all means tending to the temporal end of this Discourse Solut. In the confutation of this error let the Testimony of a late Author suffice The lines in the hands saith he which are counted Nature's Manuscripts are but the folds of the skin when the hand bends inwardly neither proper to any who have their feet alwayes extended by the same reason we have not those now which we had in our infancy but by accidents Diseases and labour are changeable A Book fit for Justices to discover idleness Dr. Robinson in his Miscellanious Treatise Lastly Another Objection is from those that pretend Wizards and Witches c. the Oracles of the Devil can prophecy or predict the certain term of Man's life with the manner of his death and if so say they then how can vertue prorogue or vice abbreviate Man's life Solut. I answer briefly that Sathan though he can give a notable intelligence to some who are his Oracles yet his knowledge for the most part is but conjectural Indeed his experience as he is an old Serpent and his knowledge as he is an Angel are both very great He can quickly take cognizance of the position of matters how things are in their precedent causes both Natural and Moral Thus supposing that it was the Devil in Samuel's Mantle that did fore-tell the precise time of Saul's death 1 Sam. 28. 19. yet it doth not imply the absolute certainty of the Devil's prediction or the fatal necessity of Saul's death nor is it any wonder if the Devil speaks as he doth For David was anointed Saul grows worse and worse and now the top-stone sin was laid on namely his going to a Witch and a battel was at hand to be fought all the prodromi or fore-runners of his approaching ruine The Conclusion And now to conclude the Result of the whole is that of the Philosopher Ex sanitate in Anima sit sanitas in Corpore From health in the Soul ariseth health in the Body Arist. lib. 7. Meta. Or if you will taste the summ and substance of the whole Treatise in the words of an eminent Author T. H. R. E. Fellow of the Royal Society in his late Discourse of the Excellency of Theology p. 130. which just now saluted mine eye and gave me such a fair Prospect in parvo of my preceding Discourse as I will not let them pass but shall here insert them both for strength and ornament thereunto He who effectually teaches Men to subdue their Lusts and Passions saith he does as much as the Physician contribute to the preservation of their Bodies by exempting them from those vices whose no less usual than structive Effects are Wars and Duels and Rapines and Desolations and the Pox and Surfeits and all the train of other Diseases that attend Gluttony and Drunkenness Idleness and Lust which are not Enemies to Man's life and health barely upon a Physical account but upon a Moral one as they provoke God to punish them with emporal as well as Spiritual Judgments such as Plagues Wars Famines and other publick Calamities that sweep away a great part of Mankind And a little further he addeth Those Teachers that make Men Virtuous and Religious by making them temperate and chaste and inoffensive and calm and contented do help them to those Qualifications that by preserving the mind in a calm and cheerful temper as well as by affording the Body all that Temperance can confer do both lengthen their lives and sweeten them Thus He. Wherefore since Righteousness as the Wise man saith tendeth to life and he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death Prov. 11. 19. let our chiefest care be ut sit mens sana in corpore sano That a healthful mind be in a healthful Body that as by the soundness of the one we enjoy the sweetness of our Temporal life so by the soundness of the other we may have the happy fruition both of Temporal here and of Eternal life hereafter FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL INDEX A Dultery Fornication Uncleanness c. sins destructive to Soul and Body and an Objection for the use thereof answered 33 c. Ambition and the evils thereof in respect of Soul and Body 73 77. Anger and its discommodities when in excess 48 c. Astrology judicial the vanity thereof and that neither the certain time of sickness nor term of Man's life can be rationally predicted thereby 194 c. B. Blasphemy vide Swearing C. Care excessive and immoderate hurtful to Soul and Body 75 Covetousness Ibid. Chiromancy and the vanity thereof shewing that the time and degree of Diseases and the extent of life can not be infallibly or rationally predicted thereby 197. D. The Devil how far he can cause diseases 110. Diseases sometimes cured without Natural means 136 137. Diligence in our Calling vide Labour Drunkenness prejudicial to the health of Soul and Body and also long life 25 c. An Objection for the use thereof answered 31 c. E. Envie a cause of diseases and shortness of life 51. F. Faith a powerful means of bodily health and this in a super-natural way 138 c. Also in a natural way 149. Fear if slavish and excessive dangerous to Soul and Body 66 c. Fasting a religious duty and both preventive and curative Physick to the Body 166 to 174. G. Gluttony the evil effects thereof in Soul and Body 18 to 25. God when Natural means fail by his Almighty power can cure diseases without them 140 144. Grief if wordly and immoderate an enemy to health and long life 54 to 62. H. Hatred vide Envie Health its Encomium and the commodities thereof 2. It cometh from God and therefore thanks to be returned to him for it 147 148. Healing the gift thereof whether ceased in the Church 135 c. Hope very advantagious to health and long life 151 c. I. Idleness how injurious to health 42 c. Joy sensual and immoderate injurious to Soul and Body 63 to 66. Joy moderate and well-grounded a promoter of health 153. Imagination the power thereof in relation to health 150. Intemperance and the many discommodities thereof 17 c. K. Kings and Princes why commonly they arrive not to any great age 152. The Kings Evil miraculously cured and the manner thereof described 140 c. L. Labour the benefite thereof to the Body as well as Soul 154 to 158. Laughter vide Sensual Joy Learning vide Study Long life a great blessing 3. Whether the bounds of Life be predetermined with an Answer to an Objection 187 to 193. The Lord's day prophaned what judgments have ensued upon the Offenders 99. Love how it becomes advantagious to the health both of Body and Soul 153. M. Means natural means must not be neglected in the cure of diseases nor altogether relied upon 138 145. N. Nature in Man's Body under God the best Physician yet stands in need of outward assistances 163 164. O. The Ordinances as the Word of God and the holy Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper being contemned or abused what bodily plagues temporal destruction have followed 92 to 99. Obedience to Paronts rewarded with long life 117 118. And how the promise of long life is to be understood 119. Also what is meant by Obedience to Parents 121 122 P. Perjury vide Swearing The Physician learned and conscientious worthy of double honour and his skill to be made use of with good success but yet with a proviso 147. Prayer being devout and zealous a powerfulpromoter of bodily health and long life 122. Of annointing the sick Body as a Ceremony annexed to Prayer and the judgment of our Church concerning it 127 c. Some Objections against the use of Prayer answered 129 c. Pride punished with bodily plagues and destruction 104. Divine Providence the manner of its influence in procuring health and long life to the Godly 178. R. Repentance how it procures health and long life how it prevents diseases and destruction 138. Religion or a religious life how it becomes advantagious to health and long life 149. S. Sin in general an occasion of bodily diseases and shortness of life and this in a super-natural way 6. Also how it is a Natural cause of diseases 16 17 c. Item how an accidental cause 83. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper unworthily received how dangerous to Soul and Body vide The Ordinances Sacriledge the punishment of it declared in corporal plagues and destruction 100. Saints the long lives of many Prophets and Saints in Holy Scripture and the cause imputed 145. Sloth and Slugishness vide Idleness Society and good company how sometimes advantagious to health by consolatory discourses 177. Sorrow vide Grief The Soul and Bodies Sympathy and mutual concurrence in the production of diseases 111. Study if immoderate and unseasonable an enemy to health and long life 78. Swearing Blasphemy c. how punished 101. T. Teachers and Preachers how much they contribute by their wholesome Discourses towards the health and long life of their obedient Auditors 199 200. Temperance and the many commodities thereof in relation to the prevention and cure of diseases and to the proroguing of life 158 c. The bounds of Temperance 174. V. Vain-glory vide Pride Vertue and vertuous actions and affections explained 144. W. Witches and Magicians how they can sometimes cause diseases and death 110. They cannot predict the certain term of Man's life with the manner of his death 198. FINIS Fuller's Comment on 11 Chap. of 1 Cor. p. 79. H. Brook in his Conservatory of Health Hector Boeth History of Scotland H Brook's Conservatory of Health p. 187. 2d Part of the French Academy p. 262. D. Charton's Exercitationes Path. p. 112. Vid. Des-Cartes de Passionibus Artic. 106. Dr. Bernard upon his Life and Death in a Funeral Sermon p. 27 This is true when the sore is in the glandules of the neck but when it is elsewhere it is said by some that have been often touched that the King gently toucheth only the cheeks of the party grieved