viz. the Epilogue this Prescription as an Antidote against that disease Be not idle be not solitary Burton's Melancholy Moreover there are many other disease that are the excrescences of this sin but let it suffice in general terms to denote it as a main occasion of bodily distempers brooding and hatching them by a sedentary life So true is that of the Poet Ovid Ignavum corrumpunt otia corpus Idelness corrupts wastes and destroys the body And the learned Galen saith as much Otium reddit imbecillas vires membrorum Com. 3. in lib. de Off. c. 32. Also in another place Otium liquefacit Com. 3. i◠lib. 6. Eped c. 2. And also Nature's great Explorator Lord Verulam in his History of Life and Death doth denote unto us That an idle life doth manifestly make the flesh soft and dissipable and so consequently an Enemy to long life Sluggishness is likewise much of the same Nature and property bringing many from the Couch to the Bed of sickness and from the Bed to the Coffin For if the old Rule be true Diluculo surgere saluberrimum est To arise betimes in the morning be the most wholesom thing in the world then surely Regulâ contrariorum by the Rule of Contraries to play the Sluggard and to exceed that convenient measure of rest which Nature alloweth must be if not the most unwholesom thing in the world yet one of the most And this will appear if we consider the Inconveniences of immoderate sleep as they are described by Physicians First In that the heat being thereby called into the Body it consumes the superfluous moistures and then the necessary and lastly the solid parts themselves and so extenuates dries and emaciates the Body And Secondly It fixes the Spirits and makes them stupid it hardens the excrements and makes the Body costive from whence follow many inconveniences Lastly The brain being therby filled with vapours the Head-ach is caused the natural motions of the humours are hindred and stopped crude phlegmatick juices and all manner of superfluous humours are heaped up and increased whence flows a notable Spring of distillations and such like cold and long continuing diseases I could add hereunto what the Patrons and Supporters of Ballance Physick write viz. By too much sleep the strength is suffocated concoction diminished perspiration hindred the head and bowels hurt c. D. Sanctor's and D. Cole's new Art of Physick But I must not forget my intended brevity SECT V. Of Immoderate Anger ANger when it is immoderate becomes sinful when the Sun goeth down upon it soon becomes a work of darkness and therefore the Apostle after a Concession Be angry addeth a Restriction And sin not let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Eph. 4. 26. In which Restriction sinful and remaining anger are connexed and prohibited Now as this remaining or immoderate anger is sinful so it is unhealthful for the incommodities thereof are many and evil as Feavers Phrensies and Madness Trembling Palsies Apoplexies decay of Appetite and want of Rest Paleness Collicks Plurisies Inflammations Cholerick Caeliack and Iliack Passions c. So that not without cause was the saying of Eliphaz Wrath killeth the foolish man Job 5. 2. And to this purpose I shall infer what I find recorded in humane Story The Emperour Nerva ended his life in a Feaver contracted by anger The Emperour Valentinian died by an irruption of blood through anger Cuspianus Chromerus l. 18. Vinceslaus King of Bohemia raging against his Cup-bearer fell presently into a Palsie whereof he died Also L. Sylla who in his anger had spilt the blood of many at last in his fury raging and crying out against one that had broken promise with him thereby brake a Veine within him vomiting out his blood soul and anger together Valer. Maxim l. 9. And Ajax through anger fell into a deadly fury Now from these Instances we may conclude the truth of that Sentence in Eccl. 30. 24. Wrath shortens the life And also of that old Medicinal Rule in Schold Salerni Si vis incolumem si te vis reddere sanum Irasci crede profanum If thou wilt live in health and free from sickness bane Then think thou choler in excess to be prophane We may add hereunto that anger in excess inflameth the blood and increaseth choler which is for the most part the cause of that acute and dangerous disease Cholerica passio or Choler which as the Physicians write is often so sharp and vehement that it doth deprive a Man of life within the space of a day or two even without a Feaver Moreover it is observed that Children most fretful are usually short-liv'd and that anger if it be inveterate causeth the Natural Spirit to feed upon the juyces of the Body which must consequently produce Consumptions and abbreviate Life SECT VI. Of Envie Hatred and Malice AMongst many other These as the Apostle saith Gal. 5. 20 21. are works of the flesh Envie is Cousen german to hatred and malice and so they are all three upon the account of a base and ignoble Race for the Devil is their Father and Concupiscence their Mother They are in the judgment of the Holy Ghost no less than mental Murder for Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer 1 Ep. John 3. 15. v. Now saith Christ the devil is the father of murderers John 8. 44. As then we may conclude Envie hatred and malice to be mortal sins to the Soul so I shall prove them to be mortal and destructive to the Body Envie saith the Lord Verulam in the History of Life and Death is the worst of all passions and feedeth upon the Spirits and they again upon the body and so much the more because it is perpetual and as is said keepeth no holy dayes It is a sin that doth fret and consume the Body and so is a means to hinder health and shorten life and of this the Wise Man took notice when he termed Envie the rottenness of the bones Prov. 14. 30. And justly it is called the rotting of the bones because like a Fever Hectick it doth consume a Man and bring him to his end as the rottenness of the marrow that lieth within the bones Envious Men cordis sui peste moriuntur They die by the plague of their own heart Gregor An envious Man is sui ipsius carnifex His own tormentor and Executioner The Grecians call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 homicidium slaughter because the envious Man killeth his own heart with this passion Or it may be derived from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corrumpo consumo because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Consumption Livor tabificus malis venenum Yea Envie to the heart is like rust to the Iron or blasting to the Corn like the Vultures eating up continually the heart of Prometheus or the foolish Bee that loseth the life with the sting it burneth the heart and wasteth
conferring any thing towards bodily health that it rather produceth sickness even by that which amongst some sottish Physicians is pretended as a cause of health namely vomiting which is a symptome of sickness and also sometimes a cause of dangerous distempers when it succeedeth a nauseous over-charging the stomack with drink So that whatever be the effects of an evacuation by other kind of vomits this by drunkenness is often a cause of many distempers seldom or never a cure of any unless it be of the present sickness of stomack which this vice first caused But how many other distempers and diseases doth it cause which it never cures So that you see drunkenness is a certain cause of many diseases and of shortness of life but seldom a cure unless it be by accident of any SECT III. Of Adultery Fornication Uncleanness c. THe works of the flesh saith the Apostle are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness Gal. 5. 19. And they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Verse 21. Now as these sins are very injurious to the Soul so also to the body Ezeck 16. 28. For Lust not satisfying such Persons as are tainted with it they soon fall into immoderation and excess which hath these damages attending it A dissolution of strength and spirits decay of sight tainture of the breath diseases of the nerves joynts as Palsies all kinds of Gouts weakness of the back involuntary flux of seed bloody Urine But then as a Modern Physician saith if to immoderation be added the base and sordid accompanying of Harlots and impure Women what follows but a Consumption of Lungs Liver and Brain a putrifaction and discolouration of the blood loss of colour and complexion a purulent and violent Gonorrhea an ulceration and rottenness of the Genitals noysom and malignant Knobs Swellings Ulcers and Fistulaes in the head face feet groin and other glandulous and extream parts of the body These and many more being the effects of that detestable sin when it meets with that detestable disease the Venereal Pox which by God's just judgment hath assailed Mankind not only in France but in most parts of the World as a scourge or punishment to restrain the too wanton and lascivious lusts of impure Persons causing them to receive in themselves that recompence of their errour which was meet as it is in the Apostle's Phrase Rom. 1. 27. though in a different sense To this purpose Mr. John Abrenethy in his pious and ingenious Treatise of Physick for the Soul thus writeth p. 369. This burning lust spendeth the Spirits and Balsom of life as the flame doth wast the Candle whereupon followeth corruption of humours rotting of the marrow the joints ache the nerves are resolved the head is pained the gout increaseth and oft-times as a most just punishment there insueth that miserable scourge of Harlots Lues-Venerea the French Pox. Also Carnal Love or fleshly lust in young Inamoratoes whose affections are stronger than their reason is a branch of wantonness that is fruitful in the production of such diseases and distempers as do extreamly afflict and weaken the Persons captivated as may appear in that Example of Amnon who was sick with love 2 Sam. 13. 1. 2. as the cause with a consumption as the effect being lean from day to day by reason of his fair Sister whom he loved And hence it is that in such Persons the heat abandons the parts and retiring into the brain leaves the whole body in great distemperature which corrupting consuming the blood makes the face grow pale and wan causeth the trembling of the heart breeds strange Convulsions and retires the spirits in such sort that they seem rather Images of death than living Creatures who are possessed with it Now for further illustration of this matter and to revive the mind of the Reader I shall briefly and compendiously recite these two instances The first is of King Perdiccas whom Hippocrates observing and finding him to be in a Chronical sickness which made his body to languish exceedingly after long inquiry perceived his pining away to flow from a Spiritual disease for the love he had to Phila his Fathers Concubine Saran in vita Perdic. The other is of Antiochus Son of King Seleucus who burning with an unspeakeable desire and lust for Stratonice his Stepmother and being mindful what dishonest fires he carried in his breast concealed his inward wound and smothered the flame so long till it reduced his body to the uttermost degree of a Consumption and thus lying in his bed like a dying Man his Father was presently cast down with grief as thinking onely of the death of his only Son and his own miserable condition in being made Childless Plutarch Now how these two Perdiccas and Antiochus were cured of their languishing distempers is inconsistent with my present purpose to declare Also Sodomy Polygamy and self-pollution are sins of uncleanness that by transgressing the rules of Temperance do prove frequently occasions of many distempers Yea likewise the immoderate and unseasonable use of the Marriage bed which is a breach of some Divine Precepts 1 Thes. 4. 4. Lev. 18. 19. is too fruitful in diseases not only in respect of those derived to Posterity but also of those propagated on the Parents themselves For according to the judgment of Laevinus Lemnius and other learned Physicians it can hardly be expressed what Contagîon and mischief comes thereupon when such immodest and impure conjunctions are indulged For where the right ends of Marriage are not observed there Persons of both Sex at last pay dearly for their unruly lust when their bodies are tormented with the Leprosie or Pox Gouts Aches or other distemperatures And therefore one adviseth That in the private acquaintance and use of Marriage there be a seasonable restraint with a moderation that so the pleasure therein be inter-mingled with some regard to the rules of health and long life To both which those fore-named sins of Wantonness and Uncleanness are foul Enemies Moreover these sins do shorten and contract life For those that are defiled and corrupted by them do very much sin against their own Bodies wasting their strength in pleasure as the flame consumeth the Candle and therefore are like Sparrows which Aristotle saith do therefore live but a short time because of their insatiable copulation And I read that the Romans were wont to have their Funerals at the gates of Venus Temple Plut. to signifie that lust was the Harbinger and hastener of death Yea the wisest of meer Men doth in his Proverbs teach us the praedatory and destructive power of all uncleanness in these words And thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed Prov. 5. 11. It is a fire saith Job that consumeth to destruction Job 31. 12. The Lord Verulam in his History of Life and Death p. 57. makes this observation That the Goat lives to the same age
the Body and is like the Worm that breedeth in timber and consumeth it So true is that of the Son of Sirach Envie c. shorten the life Eccl. 30. 24. Hatred also produceth the like effects for what is said of Envie may as well relate unto Hatred and Malice Envie slayeth the silly one saith Job 5 ch 2 v. and so doth Hatred and Malice by causing ill humours in the body For according to the Modern Philosopher M. Des-Cartes in his Treatise of the Passions The pulse in Hatred is observed to be uneven and weaker and oftentimes faster than usual that a Man feels colds inter-mingled with sharp and pricking heat in the breast that the stomack ceases to do its office is enclined to vomit and reject the Meats it hath eaten or at least to corrupt them and convert them into ill humours All which considered Hatred can be profitable unto none For ill humours are the Springs of most Diseases Again Hatred cannot be so small but it hurts the Body because it is never without Sadness which brings me to the next Section SECT VII Of Worldly Sorrow and Immoderate Grief of mind BY those Epithetes Worldly and Immoderate the Sorrow to be now treated of is distinguished from Godly sorrow which worketh repentance to Salvation which is neither Wordly nor Immoderate and may be thus described Worldly sorrow causing death of Body and Soul is that which is immoderate and humbleth not the heart kindly but disquiets disturbs and distempers it whether it proceed from outward evils and losses or inward evils as most from melancholious humours and worst from an evil Conscience and this sorrow may be termed rather Attrition than Contrition the sorrow for our misery or punishment being called Attrition for our sault Contrition But to the Point in hand Worldly and Immoderate sorrow though it may be look'd upon as a punishment of sin rather then a sin it self yet doubtless it is little less than both being a plain aberration from the Rules of Christianity so long as 't is leavened with Avarice Despondency Distrust Despair Discontent Hence it is that the Apostle Paul interdicts excessive sorrow for the dead because it argues despair and want of hope But I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope 1 Thess. 4 13. Excess in sorrow makes it sinful in Christians And here also hath place the Caveat of the same Apostle Lest any be swallowed up with over-much sorrow 2 Cor. 2. 7. Upon which place a Modern Expositor Trapp of our own ventureth to say that sorrow for sin if it so far exceed as that thereby we are disabled for the discharge of our duties it is a sinful sorrow yea though it be for sin With much more confidence then may we term that a sinful sorrow which the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 7. 10. worketh death namely the sorrow of the world which by Expositors is understood to be that sorrow which is proper to Men of the World such as are not regenerated by the Spirit of God whose grief and sorrow is nothing but the bitter smart of their misery without any serious and sincere repentance Or by sorrow of the World is meant a sorrow only for the loss of worldly things or which is caused from the fear of God's Judgments in Unbelievers whereupon there followeth commonly hardness of heart and a reprobate sense and at length if not prevented by repentance despair and damnation which do not only bring a Spiritual and Eternal death but also by wasting the Body hasten a temporal death And this will appear in respect of the Body First by Natural Reason Secondly by Divine and Humane Testimony First By Natural Reason And here we must understand that in sorrow or sadness the heat and spirits retire and by their sudden surrounding and possession of the heart all at once as the Physicians observe do many times cause Suffocation they being likewise by uniting encreased do violently consume the moisture of the Body and so beget drought and leanness and through long continuance Consumptions Or as others thus in sorrow or sadness there is a gathering together of much melancholly blood about the heart which Collection extinguisheth the good Spirits or at least dulleth and dampeth them Besides the heart being possessed by such an humour cannot digest well the Blood and Spirits which ought to be dispersed thorow the whole Body but converteth them into melancholy the which humour being cold dry drieth the whole Body and maketh it wither away for cold extinguisheth heat and drieness moisture which two qualities principally concern Life Secondly By Divine and Humane Testimony it further appeareth For first Solomon saith A merry heart doth good like a medicine but a broken spirit drieth the bones Prov. 17. 22. Also heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop Prov. 12. 25. It maketh it stoop because it wasteth the natural vital and animal Spirits Hence also is that prescription of the Son of Sirach Remove sorrow far from thee for sorrow hath killed many Eccl. 30. 23. And that of the same Author Of heaviness cometh death and the heaviness of the heart breaketh strength Eccl. 38. 18. These with the fore cited places out of St. Paul's 2d Epistle to the Corinthians might be thought sufficient to confirm this truth did not some Men require a further Illustration of it by Humane Testimony and this may be considered in the next place as useful to the same end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Euripides Sorrows to Men diseases bring Hence also and for this cause are those trite and vulgar sayings Sadness and Melancholy the path-way to sickness Too much sorrow maketh a Man to run mad Sorrow is good for nothing but sin Hence also is that Conclusion of Aquinas in his Summs 1. 2. q. 37. 4. o. Tristitiae magis corpori nocet quam aliae passiones cùm vitalem motum cordis impediat i. e. Sadness doth more hurt the Body then other passions of the mind because it hindereth the vital motion of the heart It likewise takes away appetite overheats the heart and lungs corrupts the nutritious juyce causeth Consumptions and other cold Diseases Out of which we may gather that this Affection especially if it be more vehement and inveterate than ordinary doth bring very many and those grievous damages unto the Body some part whereof may be evidenced in these ensuing Instances Plantius the Numidian at the sight of his dead Wife presently died Laertius Diodorus the Logician died for sorrow because he could not answer the question of Stilpo Homer died with sudden sorrow because he was not able to answer a Fishermans question Plut. Aristotle the Prince of Ancient Philosophers when he came to Chalcis and saw the ebbing and flowing of Euripus that narrow Sea near Boeotia seven times in the twenty-four houres because he could not find the cause he fell into an incurable
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.
are very powerful to long Life Unto which if we add that austere diet which hardneth the mass of the Body and humbleth the Spirits no marvel if an extraordinary length of life do follow such as was that of Paul the Hermite Simeon Stilita the Columna Anchorite and of many other Hermites and Anchorites Now hereunto I may add that by the same rule or reason that such a life doth conduce to long life it doth likewise become propitious to bodily health More particularly and plenarily these following graces and vertues Religious acts and dispositions are to be considered as effectual in some measure to the end designed First Faith as it is attended with a confidence of recovery hath naturally a powerful influence upon the Body For confidence as Galen saith doth more good then Physick And this it doth through the strength of imagination Now such is the force of imagination and a Man's conceit in working effects in the Body that Hippocrates exhorteth Physicians if two kinds of Meat were to be ministred to a Patient the one healthful and the other a little hurtful or not so good as the other that they should prefer this being much desired before that not so well liked And generally both Philosophers and Physicians maintain that the opinion and confidence of the Patient importech much for the cure of any maladie The reason is plain for the imagination herein though erroniously conceiving things better then indeed and really they are causeth a vehement passion of hope wherewith followeth an extraordinary pleasure in the things Which two passions awake or rouse up the purer Spirits and unite them together qualifying and refining them in the best manner which thus combined do most effectually co-operate with Nature and strengthen her in the performance of any Corporal action or vital operation in order to the mastery and expulsion of noxious humours Which brings me to say somewhat In the Second place of Hope which of all the passions is most advantagious for health and long life in regard the Spirits therein which corroborate and quicken all the parts are moderate she stops and keeps them back that they cannot dissipate nor make any vehement agitation for if the Spirits be too active and violent in their operations they may produce strong actions but it shortens our dayes because those Spirits easily scatter and so consume the Natural moisture which Hope useth not to do because I say it keeps the Spirits in a temperate motion and preserves them from wasting too fast Therefore as the afore-cited Lord Verulam saith they which fix propound to themselves some end as the mark and scope of their life and continually and by degrees go forward in the same are for the most part long-liv'd in so much that when they are come to the top of their hope and can go no higher therein they commonly droope and live not long after We may add hereunto that this may be one reason why Kings Soveraign Princes are not commonly so long-liv'd as others because they have fewer things to hope for and more things to fear Now if hope in general as it is a Passion of the Soul be so effectual in this kind much more is true Christian Hope which is at anchor upon more firm ground in as much as the Object thereof is more sure certain and more durably satisfactory and delightful cherishing and encouraging then can be fix'd upon in the alone expectation of any terrene temporal enjoyment Thirdly Love which is â—n the sense it may be understood a duty often inculcated in sacred Writ and is Custos utriusque tabulae The fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13. 10. is also by reason of that strict tye between the Soul and Body a great promoter of bodily health For it is observed by an eminent modern Philosopher That when this affection is alone that is when it is not accompanied with extream Joy Desire or Sadness the beating of the pulse is even and much greater and stronger than ordinary that a Man feels a gentle heat in his breast and quick digestion of meat so that this Passion is profitable for the health Mr. Des-Cartes in his Treatise of the Passion of the Soul Artic. 97. And now I proceed to another Passion which being managed with wisdom will alwayes be found in the track of vertue Fourthly Joy being regulated and moderated by its steers-man Reason and sanctified by the Holy Spirit is a gracious disposition alwayes seasonable in a Christian course Rejoyce evermore saith the Apostle 1 Thess. 5. 16. Yea alwayes seasonable because alwayes healtful to Soul and Body to the Body in this respect namely because by dilating and sending forth to the outward parts it enlivens them and keeps them fresh and active it beautifies the complexion preventeth Consumptions and some other Distempers by assisting the distribution of salubrious nourishment to every part From these considerations then we may understand that Christianity doth not teach us a Stoical Apathie or take away our Passions but only rectifies them and being thus rectified they conduce not only to the health of the Soul but also of the Body and its longaevity Fifthly Labour Industry and Diligence in a lawful calling is no less healthful to the Body then Soul For as by the old sanction we are taught to labour for our bread Gen. 3. 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread Yea as Paradise that was Man's Store-house was also his Work-house He was put into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it Gen. 2. 15. As also by the fourth Commandment it is implied as a duty That we should labour six dayes and do all that we have to do Lastly as a provident industrious and seasonable care and employment is so good and warrantable that in this very thing the Wise man prescribeth the Pismire Prov. 6. 6. for our imitation And in this the Apostle placeth not only necessity 2 Thess. 3. 10. but also Religion 1 Tim. 5. 8. so is the same very commendable in respect of bodily health it being the Salt of humane life which drieth up those crudities which otherwise would prove offensive and preserveth the humours from putrefaction Yea the commodities of moderate excerise are many principally these following 1. The increase of Natural heat and Spirit 2. It assists the distribution of our nourishment 3. It discusses vapours and fuliginous excrements by the Pores or Spiracles of the skin and adds colour and vivacity to the whole Body 4. It makes the juices of the Body hard and compact and so becomes propitious to length of life 5. and Lastly By consuming and exiccating superfluous moistures in the Body it preventeth most Diseases So that indigent People as one observeth have this recompence to their poverty that their necessitated labours keep them much in health and without the need trouble and charge of Physick I may add hereunto that active and industrious Persons be they poor or rich
further treat in the following Sections SECT I. Of Gluttony THis is such a sin as Christ gives us a strict Caution against it Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be over-charged with surfeiting c. And as it is a sin so a Mother-sin fruitful in the production of other sins Deut. 21 20. yea fruitful also in diseases of the body The Stoicks imputed all diseases to age but Erasistratus did not ill to ascribe all or most of them to excess in eating For if a Man feed too much as a Physician saith these discommodities arise thereof all Natural Spirits leave their several standings and run headlong to the stomack to perfit Concoction which if with all their forces they cannot perform then brain and body are over-mastered with heavy vapours and humours so that he is ever under the arrest of some disease or in danger of it Multos morbos fercula multa faciunt Many dishes bring or cause many diseases It was the observation of temperate Seneca and it is not without reason For Physicians do affirm that crudities the fruits of repletion are the nurseries of all those diseases wherewith Men are ordinarily vexed Now that which we call crudities is the imperfect Concoction of food for when the stomack either through the excess of Meat or for the variety taken at one meal or some other evil quality doth imperfectly digest what it hath received the juice of the Meat so taken is said to be crude that is to say raw or to have a cruditie in it which is the occasion of many inconveniences For in the first place they do fill the brain with many phlegmatick excrements and overheat the bowels whereupon many obstructions are bred in the narrow passages of them Moreover these cruduties do corrupt the temper of the whole body and stuff the veins with putrid humours from whence proceed many grievous diseases for when the first Chylus is crude and what we eat is malignantly concocted it is impossible to speak as to the less Modern opinion that any good blood can be bred in the second Chylus of the Liver for the second Concoction can never amend the first Again these crudities are the cause that the veins through the whole body are replenished with foul and with impure blood and mingled with many humour which do break forth into desperate Diseases And this may be more fully seen if we shall make make an inspection into a Treatise of Doctor Charlton's Exercitationes Pathologicae p. 70. wherein we may observe how and after what manner food becomes the cause or matter of diseases Or if a sum of what he more largely deliberates upon may be satisfactory take it thus From an ingurgitation of food beyond the strength of Nature ariseth a Repletion from a Repletion flow a Plethora or an Exuperance of good humours and when these by a continual motion have increased to corruption and putrifaction there soon follows a Cachochymia or a redundance of ill Humours and out of these two spring a most fruitful field of diseases Hence arise Feavers Inflammations Tumours Swellings Irruption of the Vessels bleeding at the Nose Apoplexies Cathexy or ill disposition of the Body when the nourishment is converted to ill humours Scabiness Leprosie and innumerable other diseases For saith he p. 71. quid mali precor est quod à corrupto sanguine non expectes ac time as What evil distemper I pray is there but may be both expected and feared to arise from a corrupt blood Thus you see Gluttony is a Nurse to innumerable diseases But this is not all it is a cut-throat to innumerable Persons according to the Proverb Intemperance is a cut-throat destroying Man's life frequently and suddenly according to that known saying By Suppers and Surfeits more have been killed than Galen ever cured Yea by surfeiting have many perished as saith the Son of Sirach Eccl. 37. 31. Thus Gluttons dig their graves with their teeth whil'st their Kitchin is their Shrine their Cook their Priest their Table their Altar and their Belly their God Hence also it is said That Meat kills as many as the Musket and that Pluaes pereunt crapulâ quam capulo lantibus quam lanteis The board kills more than the sword I have read that the Spartans to deter others from Luxurious feeding erected Statues to represent the fatal and fearsul end of those that were given to riot What Schollar hath not read in Herodotus of the Minstrel of Megara whose girdle in the wast was three yards and a half long or of Milo Crotoniates that great Pamphagus Athen. l. 10. c. 1. yet they died both very weak Men and young by oppressing Nature History records of the Scots that they punished their Belly-gods in this sort First they filled their bellies as full of good Meat as ever they could hold then they gagged them and threw them into the next River with their arms pinnion'd saying Now as thou hast eaten too much so drink too much But they should not have needed to punish them by such an artificial destruction for had they waited with a little patience they might have observed this sin to be its own natural punishment destroying more frequently and more generally than any other means For Life as one saith is a lamp excess in Meat doth shorten the one as too much Oyl extinguisheth the other The Glutton then turning that into an occasion of death which was given for preservation of life seldom or never lives long But as he is hateful unto God in idolizing his belly so he is hurtful to himself as a Felo de se in hastning his own death Now if any should here require some Rules of Temperance in eating whereby they may know how to limit themselves within due bounds that so they may not run out upon the borders of Intemperance I must suspend that enquiry with its full determination until I shall have positively treated of Temperance in general Only thus much may be inserted here which Doctor Muffet a famous Physician hath written in his Book of Health's Improvement Fools and Idiots saith he know you when your Horse and your Hawk and your Dog have enough and are you ignorant what measure to allow your selves Who will urge his Horse to eat too much or cram his Hawk till she be over-gorged or feed his Hound till his tail leave waving And shall Man the measurer of Heaven and Earth be ignorant how in Diet to measure the bigness or strength of his own stomack Knows he by signs when they are over-filled and is he ignorant of the signs of repletion in himself namely of satiety loathing drowsiness stiffness weakness weariness heaviness and belching But we will pass over this and treat of the other branch of Intemperance which follows SECT II. Of Drunkenness THat this is a sin and that of no mean degree we may plainly perceive by sundry Texts of sacred Writ Luke 21. 34. Gal. 5. 21. Eph. 5.
with the Sheep which is seldom to ten years and though he be a Creature more nimble and of somewhat a firmer flesh and so should be longer liv'd yet because he is much more lascivious that shortens his life How many Examples of Goatish short-liv'd Men could I extract out of History But being confined to brevity I must hasten to answer an Objection And it is this Some diseases are cured by Incontinency and Venereal evacuations as Anorexia viz. queasiness of Stomack Hysterical fits or suffocation of the womb Spermatick Feavers most vehement pains of the Head Priapismus Satyriasis Furor Uterinus c. Diseases felt and understood by such unmarried Persons whose blood is in its Meridian and as by this means such diseases are sometimes cured so consequently life is prolonged To which I may return a threefold Answer like a threefold cord which is not quickly broken Eccles. 4. 12. First Let all be supposed which is here objected yet surely it is but an ill Method to cure the Body by destroying the Soul or to endeavour the prolonging the Natural life by shortning of the Spiritual the life of grace We must not as I said before in respect of drunkenness do evil that good may come No necessity of health or life ought to persuade hereunto Ludovicus a King of France undertaking a long Pilgrimage and his Queen not being with him his health began to impair which his Physicians observing and knowing the reason of it perswaded him in the absence of the Queen to take unto him another Woman because his health safety required it which he did utterly refuse protesting he had rather die then have his Liie preserved by such an ungodly means Secondly Let the Objection still be enforced yet there is no necessity to make use of an unlawful cure when there is a lawful one provided for every one that will in that excellent and Divine Institution of Marriage which as it is intended a good prevention of all lustful and unlawful burnings 1 Cor. 7. 2. so by a more warrantable course it hath probably effected some Natural Cures upon the bodies of some and also by confining the Senses to one particular object far less exhausted the Spirits and so consequently seldomer occasioned diseases than a licentious indulgence and extravagant and insatiable Luxury hath done But because all this doth not directly meet the Objection or fully correspond to the design of my present undertaking therefore in the last place I would answer more pertinently that if any of the asore-mentioned diseases have been cured or prevented by such unlawful evacuations I verily believe as ill or worse have been introduced and nestled into their room or in stead of them So that still the stream runneth clear from the fountain viz. that sin more particularly the sin of Incontinency and Uncleanness is a cause of diseases and consequently of shortness of life as I have sufficiently demonstrated unto any whose reason doth not too much truckle under sense SECT IV. Of Idleness Sloth and Sluggishness IDleness was the sin of Sodom Ezeck 16. 49. a sin reproved by the Similitude of the Labourers in the Vineyard especially in those words Why stand ye here all the day idle Mat. 20. 6. The slothful and wicked Man join hands and go together as one in the Parable of the Talents Thou wicked and slothful Servant c. Mat. 25. 26. God puts no difference betwixt Nequaquam nequam An idle and an evil Servant The Sluggard or he that is slothful in his work were there no other respects is in this much the worse and that is in the condition of his estate as well as soul for and by reason of the non-improvement of his temporal Talent For as Solomon saith He is brother to him that is a great waster Pro. 18. 9. and therefore is he reproved by the Wise man and sent to School to the Ant Prov. 6. 6. 10. 12. to learn prudent industry and diligence I could shew you how the afore-named sins do frustrate the end of our Creation become the sinks of all mischief and evil and so odious and detestable that the very Devils in Hell are not guilty of them But my design is onely to point out sin briefly and then more largely to prove it to be an occasion of bodily diseases and shortness of life And of all sins Idleness Sloth and Sluggishness are not the least occasion being the sediment and collection of excremental superfluities For as standing waters soonest putrifie so do the humours of the body in stagno the Pool of Idleness The Lacedemonians would suffer none of their Subjects to spend their time in Sports or Idleness and when their Magistrates were told of some that used to walk abroad in the afternoons they sent to them requiring that leaving their Idleness they should betake themselves to honest labours and imployments For say they it becomes the Lacedemonians to procure health to their bodies by labour and exercise not to corrupt them by Sloth and Idleness Idleness saith a Modern Author not only stupifieth the mind but also groweth upon the body and blood and betrayeth them to discomplexion sickness and to many infirmities Yea search the Physicians Library and observe their Conclusions upon the six Non-naturals more particularly upon Motion and Rest and you may find the discommodities of this sin namely Crudities obstructions and a multiplication of excrementitious humours and so consequently a languishing loose slabby infirm body Hence it is that such Persons corrupted with this vice are unavoidably in continual Physick have need of Issues and other artificial helps for the evacuation and exiccation of those superfluous moistures contracted upon them by a sedentary and slothful life But especially those Women who have passed their youth undisciplin'd and have been bred up in such a delicacy that they know no other business but their pleasures I say those find sensibly the pernicious effects of an idle life in those diseases it particularly disposeth them too as Obstructions of the Liver Spleen Womb and Breast and in that grievous inconvenience it produteth viz. Long travail difficulty and danger in Childing as might easily be confirmed by reason but that probably a great part of this Sex is sooner convinced by an Argument drawn from sence and their own dear experience which is most commonly the Mistress of Fools I might add hereunto that they which â—ead sedentary lives bear weak and sickly Children and also demonstrate such VVomen to be injurious not only to themselves but also their Posterity But I must hasten to shew you another natural effect of Idleness even in both Sexes and that is a disease which is the leaven of diseases viz. Melancholly which proceedeth oft-times from this vice and excremental superfluities gathered together in the body For no greater cause of Melancholly than Idleness as Democritus Jun. in his Treatise of that subject doth largely shew in place thereof and most compendiously conclude in another
seeks greatness will stick at lying perjury murder or any thing will down with him if they seem to tend to his advancement And it is the more difficultly cured in regard it is as one calls it the shirt of the Soul viz. the last vice we put off In a word it is condemned by many Texts of Sacred Writ But I shall instance only upon the 9 th of St. Luke v. 46 47 48. where we find it lively reprehended both by the real Type or Example of humility in a young Child set in the midst of the Disciples and by the Doctrine which Christ urged to them upon that occasion Sollicitude and excessive Care is also frequently interdicted For though a provident care for the things of this life when it is moderate seasonable without distrust of God be warrantable and commendable yet if it be otherwise it is evil and forbidden Take saith our Saviour no thought for to morrow Mat. 6. 34. And in St. Luke 10. 41. we find Martha for her immoderate or at least unseasonable care reproved by Christ when even a well-meant courtesie to her Saviour rather then a love to her self was the ground and occasion of that care So Covetousness taken in the largest sense as it consisteth in an immoderate desire of filthy lucre or any thing above ones allotted portion is not undeservedly reproved when by the Apostle it is called Idolatry Col. 3. 5. For it is as he saith in another place the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. not only of the evil of sin but also of the evil of punishment and that punishment not only Eternal depriving a Man of an Heavenly inheritance 1 Cor. 6. 10. But also Temporal Piercing him thorow with many sorrows as the same Apostle saith in the forecited 1 Tim. 6. The Covetous Man saith one hath three Vultures alwayes feeding upon his heart Care in getting Fear in keeping Grief in spending and parting with that he hath So that he is as it were in the Suburbs of Hell aforehand But this is not all the evil that springs from the root of Covetousness for it pierceth not only the heart with sorrows but also the whole body with Diseases which effect may as well be applicable to Sollicitude excessive Cares Ambition and immoderate Desires So true is that in Schola Salerni Si te vis reddere sanum Curas tolle graves If thou wilt keep thy self in health Then banish carking cares for wealth And no less true are the words of a Modern Physician who largely and learnedly reasoneth upon this Point in Linguâ Latinâ but to avoid prolixity I shall as a Translator give you his sense only in Linguâ vulgari In desire by which the Soul is so out of measure run out and dilated upon a good sometime represented as it were to come as by reason of the delay of it 't is presently as 't were contracted this singular occurreth that it agitates the heart more violently and furnisheth the brain with more Spirits then any other of the Passions For as he noteth further out of a longing for the obtaining that which we ardently desire the Spirits from the brain are most speedily sent into all parts of the Body that may serve any wayes to actions requisite to that purpose but especially into the heart and blood contained in it that being dilated more than ordinarily and moved more swiftly it may send back again a greater plenty of Spirits to the brain as well to maintain and fortifie the Idaea of this Desire as to pass from thence into all the Organs of the Senses and all the Muscles which may be set on work to attain what one desires And from Sollicitude which is excited from the delay of enjoying the thing desired the same spirits are drawn back again to the brain whence it comes to pass that the more subtile blood being withdrawn together from the outward parts the heart is as 't were straightn'd up the circulation of the blood hindred and by consequence the whole Body rendred weak faint and sickly So that it ought not to seem a wonder to any that most of those Persons whom an Amorous Affection or Desire Ambition Avarice or any other more fervent longing hath a long time exercised should be brought through a long continuing Sollicitude into the deepest languishment of Body into a contumatious disposition of ill humours yea further into a Consumption and pining and withering away of the Body also into other cold Diseases Thus He. Immoderate Desire hath no rest 't is endless and a perpetual Rack The Ambitious Si appetitum explere non potest furore corripitur If he cannot satisfie his desire he runs mad with a Phrensie Hereunto may be referred over-much Study or an immoderate desire of humane Knowledge which as it was one sin which that Heluo Librorum unsatiable Reader Miracle of learning Dr. James usher Arch-Bishop of Armagh lamented in himself that he should be as glad of Munday to go to his Book as of the Lord's Day for his Service so it is no less unhealthful than sinful For we find in the History of his Life I mean the Arch-Bishop's that he contracted to himself the Sciatica by sitting up late in the Colledge Library of Dublin Ibidem p. 108. Overmuch Study as Machiavel holds weakens the Body and as Lemnius saith causeth Melancholy in that by reason of the immoderate agitation of the mind the native heat is extinguished and the Spirits both Animal and Vital being attenuated and weakned soon decay and perish by which it cometh to pass that the Natural moisture being exhausted the Body doth decline to a cold and dry habit Yea when Study is extended unto unseasonable hours as is usual with some Students it becomes very injurious to the Body according to that old Sentence in Grammar Nocturnae lucubrationes longe periculosissimae habentur Night studies are accounted exceeding dangerous They cause dryness of the brain Phrensie dotage emaciate the Body ' make the humours adust increase choler inflame the blood and as may be added out of Galen and Avicenna concerning immoderate watching Naturalem calorem dissipat laesà concoctione cruditates facit Overthrow the Natural heat and hurting concoction cause crudities Galen 3. de Sanitate tuenda Avicenna 3. 1. What shall I say more amongst many other Diseases it sometimes produceth Consumptions and sometimes Madness And in respect of this last Festus his proposition which was indiscreetly applied to Paul may truly enough be referred to many a hard Student Qui insanit cum ratione Thou art beside thy self much learning doth make thee mad Acts 26. 24. Immoderate bookishness seeking to fill the curious brain fills it and the whole Body with Crudities Rheums and other Maladies that at last the Scholler had need be bookish again and study how to rid himself of diseases These are the fruits that some Men reap by their immoderate desire after the Tree of
Knowledge These are the consequences of that Wisedom which is foolishness with God as the Spirit of God terms it 1 Cor. 3. 19. But again we will consider all the above-mentioned Enormities and irregularities in this Section as they cause shortness of Life The condensation of the Spirits as the Lord Verulam in his History of Life and Death p. 227. writeth is effectual to long life and therefore especial care must be taken that the Spirits be not too often resolved for attenuation goeth before resolution and the Spirit once attenuated doth not very easily retire or is condensed now resolution is caused by over-vehement Affections of the mind over-great Cares and carpings and anxious expectations Not without reason then is that Proverbial Sentence Care will kill a Cat though it be said to have nine lives or that observation of the Son of Sirach Carefulness bringeth age before the time Eccl. 30. 24. Cura facit canos Care brings gray hairs i. e. it antidates old Age and so consequently shorteneth life Hence it is that almost in every Village we shall find a Covetous Muck-worm drooping and at length dropping into his Grave not with pure old age but beaten down and overwhelmed with too much Sollicitude and carking Care before that he can arrive to that Maturity Also immoderate Study by its subtil acute and eager inquisition after humane learning shortens life for it tireth the Spirit and wasteth it Solomon hinteth as much to us in these words And further by these my son be admonished of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh Eccles. 12. 12. That is as Bishop Hall paraphraseth upon the place by these Divine words O my Son do thou content thy self to be admonished not roving in thy desires after multitude of other Volumes whereof there is no end in the compiling and reading of which there is much toil and weariness of the flesh and much expence of the Spirits Finally Many other irregularities and enormities there are but as most of them may be reduced to one or other of the above-mentioned Sections so the like consequential effects may be deduced from them And so I conclude the whole Chapter having largely shewed and demonstrated that Many sins are natural causes of bodily Diseases and shortness of Life CHAP. III. Containing an Enumeration of sundry Sins as they are accidental causes of bodily Diseases and especially of shortness of Life THat we may term an accidental cause which produceth its effect not naturally and immediately by it self but by accident or chance or fortune as the Logicians define it Now how many sad accidents do sometimes result from sundry sins which expose Men to divers Diseases and also to shortness of life may appear by this following accompt which the greater part thereof I must crave leave to draw from and illustrate by a Collection of several Instances in History First In relation to Gluttony and Drunkenness we find these following recorded and adapted to our present purpose Gregory of Tours reporteth of Childerick a Saxon that glutted himself so full of meat and drink over night that in the morning he was found choked in his bed Anacreon the Poet a grand Consumer of Wine and a notable Drunkard was choked with the husk of a grape Philostrates being in the Bathes of Sinvessa devoured so much Wine that he fell down the Stairs and almost broke his neck with the fall Martid lib. 11. Alexander the Son of Basilius and Brother of Leo the Emperour did so wallow and drown himself in the Gulf of pleasure and intemperance that one day after he had stuffed himself too full of Meat as he got upon his Horse he burst a vein within his Body whereat upwards and downwards issued such abundance of blood that his life and soul issued forth withal Melanct. lib. 4. Within few years of my own knowledge saith mine Author three not far from Huntington being overcome with drink perished by drowning when being not able to rule their Horses they were carried by them into the main stream from whence they never came out alive again but left behind them visible marks of God's justice for the terrour and example of others Beard 's Theater of God's Judgments Holofernes while he besotted his senses with excess of Wine and good chear Judeth found means to cut of his head Judeth 13. Yea woful experience doth make manifest almost every day in one corner or other of this Land that the Lord punisheth many with sudden death and destruction even in the midst of their drunken fits although some again to shew his delight is in Mercy and not in the sudden destruction of his Creatures he punisheth with some lingring distempers whereof this vice of Drunkenness is often an accidental cause by exposing such Persons to heats and colds the adventitious causes of most Diseases to falls bruises fractures dislocations wounds contusions combustions c. which are the occasions or accidental causes not only of many Organical Diseases but also Similar as might be made apparent if right reason or mature experience were consulted And therefore let that Proverbial Sentence Drunken folks seldom take harm be hereafter exploded by all sober Persons considering how harmful and prejudicial this enormity hath been declared to be both to Soul and Body And now because Vina parant animos Veneri Whoredom is usually ushered in by Drunkeness we will in the next place consider Lust Adultery Fornication Uncleanness c. as accidental causes of Diseases but especially of shortness of Life And here I might shew how all immoderate and unseasonable use of Venus doth impede Concoction and so consequently produce Diseases But I shall rather touch upon it as a contingent cause of Venereal Pox which as in the former Chapter we considered as a Natural effect in respect of the virulent Contagion communicated so in this we look upon it as contingent and accidental in respect of the Persons communicating in the above-mention'd sins But I shall choose rather to insist upon those sins as accidental causes or occasions of shortness of Life and to that end shall illustrate the Point by these ensuing Instances Shechem the Son of Hamor the Hivite ravished Dinah Jacob's Daughter for which cause Simeon and Levi her Brethren revenged the injury done unto their Sister by slaying Shechem and with him all the Males that were in the City Gen. 34. In the 19th and 20th Chapter of Judges we read that the Levite's Wife having forsaken her Husband to play the whore certain Moneths after he had again received her to be his Wife she was given over against her will to the villanous and monstrous lusts of the men of Gibeah who so abused her for the space of a whole night together that in the morning she was found dead upon the threshold Which thing turn'd to a great destruction and overthrow not only of those Children of Belial in Gibeah which committed such lewdness
and shortness of Life Mr. Fox Acts Mon. p. 2101. telleth us of one named John Peter Son-in-Law to Alexander that cruel Keeper of Newgate who being a most horrible Swearer and Blasphemer used commonly to say If it be not true I pray God I may rot ere I die And not in vain for he rotted away indeed and so died in misery I read of a Perjuter that forswore himself to the end to deceive and prejudice another thereby But he had no sooner made an end of his false Oath but a grievous Apoplexy assailed him so that without speaking any one word he died within few dayes That Story in Eusebius is very remarkable concerning Narcissus a good Bishop of Jerusalem and three lewd Varlots his Accusers as it is recited by the above-named Mr. Fox Narcissus intending to accuse three notable Malefactors of their misdemeanors they thought to prevent his accusation by first laying a grievous Crime to his charge and to get credit thereunto each of them bound it with their severeral Oaths one wishing to be consumed with fire if it were not so another to die of some grievous disease the third to lose both his eyes Narcissus seeing three to one was odds gave place but what became of these perjured Fellows the first was consumed by a fire set in his House the second was taken with a strange Disease that over-spread his whole Body which brought him to a miserable end the third seeing God's judgments upon his Brethren in evil confessed the fault for which he continually shed such abundance of tears that he wept out his eyes becoming blind thereupon Euseb. lib. 6. p. 101. God who takes notice of Mens Oaths takes vengeance of their breach and violation Also we find recorded that in the Reign of the Emperour Anastatius there was a certain Arian Bishop whose name was Olympus who as he was washing himself in a Bath belched forth many blasphemous speeches against the blessed Trinity whereupon lightning fell down from Heaven upon him three times and he was burnt and consumed therewith Paul Diacon in the History of Anastatius There was also in the time of Alphonsus King of Arragon a certain Hermite called Antonius a monstrous blasphemer that belched out vile and injurious speeches against Christ Jesus and the Virgin Mary his Mother but he was striken with a most grievous Disease even to be eaten and gnawn in pieces of Worms until he died Aeneas Silvius of the Acts of Alphonsus Fourthly Pride Vain-glory Ambition Haughtiness do sometimes produce the like effects in the like manner as may appear in these following Instances Antiochus the same with the aforenamed Epiphanes p. 100. a notable Tyrant and Persecutor of the Jews in his pride and fume said That he would come to Jerusalem and make it a common burying place of the Jews But the Lord Almighty the God of Israel smote him with an incurable and invisible Plague For as soon as he had spoken these words a pain of the bowels that was remediless came upon him and sore torments of the inner parts 2 Mach. 9. Howbeit he nothing at all ceased from his bragging but still was filled with pride breathing out fire in his rage against the Jews But it came to pass that he fell down from his Chariot carried violently so that having a sore fall all the Members of his Body were much pained And soon after the Worms came out of his Body and while he lived in sorrow and pain his flesh fell away and the filthiness of his smell was noysom to all his Army And so the wrath of God ended this proud Man's miserable dayes The other is that of King Herod surnamed Agrippa which put James the Brother of John to death and imprisoned Peter with purpose to make him tast of the same cup Acts 12. This Man was puffed with Sacrilegious pride for being upon a time seated in his Throne of Judgment and arrayed in his Royal Robes shewing forth his greatness and magnificence in the presence of the Ambassadors of Tyre Sidon who desired to continue in Peace with him as he spake unto them the People shouted and cried that it was the voice of God and not of man Which titles of honour he disclaimed not and therefore the Angel of the Lord smote him immediately because he gave not God the glory and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost Acts 12. 23. Josephus relateth the Story how that Herod not reproving nor forbidding his pernicious Flatterers was presently taken with most grievous and horrible gripes in his bowels so that looking upon the People he uttered these words Behold here your goodly god whom you but now so highly honoured ready to die with extream pain Jewish Antiq. lib. 19. cap. 1. Thus did this miserable Man exemplarily verifie the Wise man's Proverb Pride goeth before destruction and an haughty spirit before a fall Prov. 16. 18. Fifthly Adultery Fornication and the like are also sometimes supernaturally occasions of Diseases and shortness of Life as may appear de facto in the succeeding Instances Claudius of Asses Counsellor of the Parliament of Paris a Man very ill affected to the Professors of the Gospel committed villany with one of his waiting Maids in the very midst whereof he was taken with an Apoplexie which immediately after made an end of him Beard 's Theater of God's Judgments In Northamptonshire a Noble Man's Servant of good credit and place with his Master having familiarity with another Mans Wife as he was about to commit villany with her in a Chamber he fell down stark dead with his hose about his heels which being heard by reason of the noise his fall made of those which were in the lower room they all ran hastily up and easily perceived both the villany he went about and the horrible judgment of God upon him for the same Ibidem p. 372. Pliny telleth of Cornelius Gallus and Q. Elerius two Roman Knights that died in the very act of filthiness Plin. lib. 7. Pharaoh having taken Abram's Wife from him was plagued with great plagues by the Lord and thereby compelled to restore her Gen. 12. 17. Also Abimelech King of Gerar for taking away the same Woman even Sarai afterward Sarah from her Husband though the non-execution of Abimelech's intention might partly excuse him and the integrity of his heart and innocency of his hands might plead for him was yet notwithstanding forewarned and admonished by God in a dream saying unto him Behold thou art but a dead man for the woman which thou hast taken for she is a mans wife Gen. 20. 3. And a little after God saith unto him Now therefore restore the man his wife for he is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live and if thou restore her not know thou that thou shalt surely die thou and all that are thine Vers. 7. Also the lustful Sodomites for that sin which deriveth its name from the wicked place of
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
as they are longest free from Diseases so also most commonly from the long continuance of those Diseases the material cause thereof being consumed in such manner by former labour and exercise as there wants sufficient Iewel to maintain the Distemper which like the external fire soon dieth and is extinct for want of nourishment and thereby Nature in its Sphaere the greatest agent in bodily cures being exonerated of obnoxious humours is ever in a tendency to reduce the Body into its pristine and symmetrical Constitution Moreover it hath been observed that Epidemical Diseases as Pestilential Feavers Cathars Small Pox Flux c. do much easier seise upon such as by contracting an evil habit of Body through a sedentary and idle course of life have rendred themselves more obnoxious and disposed thereunto in whom likewise they are more difficultly cured And now before I conclude this Point I would in kindness admonish those of the foeminine and teeming Sex that they would accustome themselves to moderate exercise to diligence and industrie in some lawful and commendable employment thereby to preserve their health and facilitate their delivery For it is observed that those Women which are used to labour endure Child-bearing with far more ease and the Irish Women because of their stirring and active lives are quick in delivery and here in England also the industrious laborious Women in City and Country are very quick at their labours and allow themselves a very short retirement comparatively with others of a contrary inclination So that in this particular also the active and stirring life is of no small advantage I conclude with the wholesom advice of Syrach My son hear me and despise me not and at the last thou shalt find as I told thee in all thy works be quick so shall there no sickness come unto thee Eccl. 31. 22. Sixthly Temperanco a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5. 23. and a vertue here considerable only as it consisteth in the moderation or regulation of the appetite in eating and drinking according to the standard of Nature which is content with a little is of all vertues the most conducible to bodily health and long life That saying of the Wise man It is not good to eat much honey Prov. 25. 27. sheweth unto us that even the most wholesom and nourishing Meat of all other will prove dangerous and hurtful to our health if it be not soberly and measurably eaten Temperance as one saith being not only the Carver but also the Commander at our tables should alwayes have a room thereat Timotheus having supped with Plato and eaten contrary to his custom very moderately slept very quietly that night finding neither Cholick to awake him nor belchings in the morning to annoy him wherefore as soon as he awaked he brake forth into this exclamation with a loud voice How sweet how sweet are Plato's suppers which make us in the night time to sleep and in the morning to breath so sweetly Marsil Fic de Sanis slud tu Yea the benefits of Temperance are many 1. Freedom from almost all sicknesses 2. Length of life and death without much pain 3. A mitigation of incurable Diseases Instances of these or some of these there are not a few in History Socrates is said by sobriety to have had alwayes a strong Body and to have lived ever in health and that by the good order of his diet he escaped the Plague at Athens never avoiding the City nor the company of the infected though the greatest part of the City was consumed by it Aelian lib. 13. It is also reported of Galen that famous Physician that he lived one hundred and fourty years and that after he was twenty eight years old he was never grieved with any sickness except the grudge of a Feaver for one day His rule was not to eat or drink till he had an appetite nor to eat and drink till he had none This rule he observing was seldom sick and lived as Sipontinus writeth to the abovesaid age Cyprian relates that Maximinian the Emperour seldom used to drink betwixt Meals and therefore lived in health to the end of his life Queen Elizabeth was famous for this vertue King Edward the Sixth called her by no other name then his sweet Sister Temperance Cambd. Eliz. She did seldom eat but one sort of Meat rose ever with an appetite and lived about seventy years which is beyond the ordinary Period of Princes and Princesses who seldom attain to summ up experimentally Moses his Arithmetick in that Psalm Psal. 90. 10. appropriated to him We read that the Sect of the Esseans amongst the Jews did usually extend their lives to an hundred years Now that Sect used a single or abstenious diet after the Rule of Pythagoras Metaphrastes in the life of Saint John writes that he was so abstenious in the use of meats and drinks that he took no more then would suffice to maintain life He lived as ancient Record mentions ninety three years St. Paul the Hermite lived an hundred and thirteen years Now his diet was so slender and strict that it was thought almost impossible to support humane Nature therewith But most memorable is that of Cornarus the Venetian who being in his youth of a sickly Body began first to eat and drink by measure to a certain weight thereby to recover his health this cure turned by use into a diet that diet to an extraordinary long life even of an hundred years and better without any decay in his senses and with a constant enjoying of his health 'T is a common Proverb which were it commonly observed would make most Physicians sick and preserve their Patients a long time sound Use mederation and temperance and desie the Physician A saying that taken with a grain of allowance doth favour much of truth though little of Urbanity No less observable is that Proverbial Rithme Gulaepone metas ut sit longior tibi aetas Which may thus be Englished To thy appetite set some timely bounds For so the longer age to thee redounds That Intemperance is the Extinguisher and Temperance the Prolonger of the Candle of our life was long ago taken notice of by the Son of Sirach in these words Be not unsatiable in any dainty thing nor too greedy upon meats Eccles. 37. latter part For excess of meats bringeth sickness and surfetting will turn into choler By surfetting have many perished but he that taketh heed prolongeth his life Temperance then as may be gathered from the preceding Instances is not only instead of preventive but also curative Physick For as many by Intemperance have relapsed into their old Distempers so by Temperance some have dispossess'd their lingring maladies and recovered their former state of health And therefore the best Physicians do alwayes remember to prescribe to their Patients a temperate diet for the accomplishment of their Cures as knowing that Temperance alone proves commonly more effectual to that end than all their prescriptions
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