AN ESSAY OF MORAL RULES Observed in the use of Medicinal Remedies, in order unto their Success.  
Being a DISCOURSE of the Causes of the decay of Natural Health, and brevity of human Life in this present Age.  
By J. M.  
LONDON, Printed Tho. Cockeril, at the T●●e● Legs in the poultry, 1677.   

An Essay, representing those Moral Rules requisite to be observed in the use of Medicinal Remedies.  

WHen the Question was asked amongst the wise men of the World, What was the greatest Blessing Mortals were capable of enjoying? The Answer was as comprehensive when it was returned: Mens sana in corpore merely, A sound mind in a sound body. For nothing is more apparent, than that the health of the Body, preserves the harmony of the Soul; and the harmony of the Soul preserves the health of the Body.  
Health is the greatest of all temporal Blessings. Without it, the most delicious dainty will not please the palate, the most fragrant odours will not delight the smell, the most harmonious melodies will not gratify the ear, the most beautiful objects will not please the eyes, the softest down will not ease the bones: Health is that which makes our delights delightful; without which, we cannot solace ourselves in any temporal enjoyments, or worship a Deity in any spiritual performance. Our flesh upon us, being in pain, makes our Souls within us to mourn.  
Health; it preserves the faculties of the Mind in strength and vigour, makes the wit acute, the memory retentive, and understanding clear: Health is that which is of most comfortable im●●rtance unto men, next unto the Salvation of their Souls.  
Especially if we consider the many hundreds of Diseases which the mortal bodies of men are exposed unto; some reckoning up Four thousand in all: Above Two hundred seated in the eyes, that small and tender part.  
When a healthy constitution, and a holy disposition, join hand in hand; they consummate happiness. Riches without health, is but like meat without a stomach; which the best Cook cannot make relishing. And Health without Religion, is but like a Down Pillow to a restless Head; which the best Chamberlain cannot make easy.  
All our good things may be reduced to Three. The goods of the Body, of the Mind, and of Fortune; which Three if enjoyed, render a Man as happy as Solomon in all his Glory. He who hath Health to enjoy his Riches 〈◇〉 Grace to preserve his Health, and the hope of Glory to remunerate his Grace, wants no more.  
A long Life sweetened with a healthful, is a great blessing, and promised as such to the pious, viz to come to their Graves in a ful● age, as a Shock of Corn comes in its season.  
The Beloved Disciple of ou● Lord, survived the other Disciples; and many of the Fathers o● the Church were long lived which shows that the blessing o● long life, so often promised unde● the Law, had less abatement after our Saviours days, than other blessings had.  
It's a great mercy to pa●● through the wilderness of thi● World, with our Bodies like th● Jews Garments, little worn o● impaired by pining and languishing sicknesses.  
Who would not be desirous t● w●●● a Crown of Glory in th●● World, and in the next also? which can be done no other way, but by gray hairs, found in a way of righteousness.  
Enoch and Elias never dyed, and became examples, that a spotless ●… if might possibly have been immortal.  
Adam may well be reckoned above a Thousand years old, if we compute that time which he might have lived had he been born as Methusalem was. We may judge him as perfect at his creation, as one of the Ancients were at Two hundred: And his eating the fruit of the three of Life, might supply his radical moisture, as fast as his heat consumed it, if he had not sinned.  
But we are but of yesterday, ●… he day of our Pilgrimage being but as a shadow.  
When our great and wise Cre●… for made Man the Master-piece of his Creation, he was please●… as a demonstration of his kindness to confer a temporal happines●… upon him, and to plant him in 〈…〉 Garden; wherein he might hav●… an opportunity, both to contemplate his Creators goodness, and to preserve his own life: Being in a supernatural way furnished with wisdom to discern the particula●… qualities of those Plants with which he conversed: But being too familiar with the three o●… knowledge, he forfeited his righ●… to the three of Life; and hath exposed himself to the assaults of innumerable Diseases. But such i●… the kindness of Heaven to ma●… in his lapsed state, that he is pleased to promise some of the influences of this symbolical three upon his obedience to the Divin●… will: so that by our observanc●… of those Divine and Eternal Law of Evangelical purity, which ar●… ●… s●●●bed as the Christians Rule we may as it were transplant the three of Life into our own Gardens, and sit under the shadow thereof with great delight, and its fruit may become sweet to our taste.  
It is probable that man before his fall was immortal; yet had he not sinned, he had not still continued here upon earth, though his age might have been extended to some thousands of years; but might have at length been translated from hence to Heaven, where he could neither have sinned nor dyed.  
The Life of Man seems to be much pared away; but it cannot prudently be attributed to any decay in nature, and its universal frame; but rather to the immorality, and imprudent extravagancies of Nations and Persons, indulging effeminate, luxurious, and pernicious customs.  
Nor can we with any show o●… Reason, pretend to any mistake in the manner of computing the years of the patriarches. For if with some of the Ancients, we suppose them to be only Lunar years, and that Ten or Twelve of their years, made but one of ours: Then gross absurdities would follow from thence, as that they were Prolifique at Seven years of age. Enoch being no more when he begot Methusalem; the date of their lives must be reckoned shorter than many of ours at this day. Moreover the Scripture testifieth, that Abraham died in a good old age, full of days, being One hundred seventy and five years old; which number according to that computation, makes but Seventeen years and a half; a ridiculous old Age! It appears most manifest, that Moses computation of the year, was the same with ours: For mention is ●… ade of the first, second, and tenth Month; and lest any should imagine, as some have, that those Months lasted only Three days, we have mention made of the Seventeenth day of the second Month. The Reasons why the line of their lives was drawn to that length, may be referred to Divine wisdom, seeing it necessary so to be, for Reasons best known to himself. And indeed, wonderful was their skill in all the secrets of nature, which might prove very subservient towards the lengthening their lives.  
But how soon do we find the effects of sin, cutting their lives in halves, in three several Ages? And now we account him wondrous old, who hath seen Fourscore Summers.  
The Fathers in the primitive times, had great advantages for the prolongation of their lives, as they had satisfactorily conveyed into them the nature o●… life-preserving Remedies from Adam, who gave names unto all creatures from their particular qualities; and from Solomon, whose miraculous wisdom is not to be paralleled.  
And for the more commodious propagation of Arts and Sciences, it was requisite men should have the experience of former Ages: For as many sensations breed an experiment, so many experiments a Science.  
And moreover, the several motions of the heavenly bodies could not be known, without a long time to observe their Periods and Revolutions. It was the complaint of hippocrates, A●s longa vita brevis: and therefore the Almighty in his Wisdom, proportioned mens lives unto the length of Arts. Some Planets, as Saturn for one, not going its rounds in less than some hundreds of years, ●… old not have been known, if men had not lived longer than they do now.  
But yet we may observe, that the length of Mans age since Moses's time, seems considerably abbreviated: He reckoning Threescore years and ten, the ordinary course unto which men generally arrived in those times, whereas now, a third part of all that are born in populous Cities, die under Five years old; and the greatest part of those that are alive, are between Sixteen and Six and twenty: And not above Seven in a hundred live unto any considerable Age. We have nothing in Scripture of Solomon's age; only that when he was old, his Wives turned away his heart. It's thought he might be Threescore and ten. Few Princes, either Jewish, Roman, Greek, or German arrived at Fourscore. Queen Elizabeth out-lived all her predecessors since the Conquest  
The Ancients might probably be long lived, from natural as much as from providential Reasons: For Adam was the immediate work of God; and being come, as it were, newly from the Shop of his Creator, he could not be like a House built of rotten timber, but of a far stronger constitution than this weak age affords: Their bodies were not wasted with succession of sicknesses, nor weakened with hereditary diseases; but were armed to resist those few things then contrary unto their healths. The seminality of Diseases were not so pregnantly conveyed from the Parent unto the Child, their Infants were not so tenderly brought up, wasteful Riot was a stranger unto them, and variety of meats was then unknown: Their nature was not oppressed with burdens, and forced to stagger with her load.  
Moreover in the first ages of the World, the Air might be more pure, and not then so corrupted with terrene exhalations, such as after-times were pestered with, when once the flood had topped the earth, and drenched it with overflowings; and the fruits of the Earth were more nutrative before the Flood than afterwards, through the salt-waters of the great deep infeebling the Earth: We observe from our general accounts of Mortalities, that there is a great increase in our Bills; in the year 1604, there dyed but 4323, and 895 of the Plague; but in the year 1659, there dyed 14720, and 36 of the Plague: And yet we observe near the same number of persons Born and Christened both years; ●o that the disproportion is near Nine thousand in a year, in about Sixty years distance.  
The Reason given by the Bishops of Rome, for the contracting the year of Jubilee, from One hundred, to Fifty, and from Fifty unto Five and twenty, is grounded upon a supposition, that the Age of Man is contracted in comparison of former times.  
Had men in all places and in all ages, arrived unto the lives of the patriarches, the earth by this time had not been able to sustain them with food.  
The Egyptians calculated the bounds of mens days, from the weight of their hearts, and judged a hundred years the utmost Period, taking their estimate from the weight of the heart; which they affirm increaseth two Drachms every year until Fifty, and decreaseth two Drachms until a Hundred: But this opinion seems more curious than true.  
Sickness, like a Weaver, passeth the shuttle of many lives, and at last cu●s the thread. Excellently shadowed by the Poets fiction, telling us of Three fatal Sisters, the one holding the Distaff, the other drawing the Thread, the third cutting it off.  
It is a Question amongst some, whether the life of Man be capable of being prolonged by means? Unto which it may be answered, That the duration of a motion cannot be known, unless the measure thereof be known; nor can it be measured, unless it have known bounds: So that we cannot well know whether life may be prolonged, without knowing how long it lasts. Now its difficult to know this duration punctually.  
And yet as there are at this day some who exceed a Hundred, so there are a Hundred times as many who do not arrive at that Period. And as none can speak of Death by experience, because they who speak of it have not felt it, and they who have felt it, cannot speak of it. The case is much the same concerning Life; for unless a Man live unto extreme old age, he will not believe that his life hath been prolonged: But on the contrary, that his hour was not yet come.  
But yet it's not inconsistent with reason, to say, that he who would infallibly have dyed of a gangrene in his Leg, hath had his Life prolonged, when his Leg was cured.  
Or that a Consumptive Body hath been saved from death, when restored to a healthful state by a Medicinal diet, which hath added Oil to the lamp of Life.  
The Nectar and Ambrosia of the Poets, which kept their gods from growing old, seems to be a figure of the three of Life; which was a restorer of nature, as well as a Symbol of future things.  
If Life consists in the union of heat and moisture, and Death approcahes by the predominance of the contrary quality, viz. could and dryness; Why may not such means as preserves the former, and keeps back the latter, have a natural tendency to prolong Life? alway supposing the energy of all natural operations to depend upon a supernatural influence.  
Suppose we, with Pythagoras, That Life is a strait line, and that the accidents which disturb it, and at length bring Death, constitute another line; and as these two Lines incline less or more one towards another, Death approaches sooner or later; and consequently Life is longer or shorter. Yet, may we not suppose that Divine providence, and human prudence, may probably conduce towards the retarding the neighbourhood of these Lines?  
Or suppose with the chemists, That Life consists in a volatile Armoniack, Sal. Why may we not suppose that Art improved may compose such fixed Alkali as may stop the wingy motions of the former Volatile?  
It doth not seem probable, that means may be used with good success, to answer all other intentions in nature, and be used in vain in the attaining that which is the most desirable thing in nature, and which that renders a Man capable of perfection in all Arts and Sciences, viz. Health.  
As Fire dies for want of Air, and is extinguished when the flamme is suffocated; so doth our vital flamme.  
As our spirits are repaired by Air, so are our sanguine humours by Aliments.  
Surely 'twas not without reason, that Naom was foretold, ob should be restorer of her age.  
Physitians, they are the Instruments of the Divine Omnipotence, renewing the lives of men.  
Much may be done by Art for the retarding the course of nature, as may be seen in many infects and Animals, and in men restored from Consumptive pineing sicknesses, their flesh becoming like that of Children, as in Naamans case; the efficacy of Remedies with some, is so great, that their youth is as it were renewed as the Eagle; their natural strength not abating at a great Age.  
Certainly King David's departing from Keylat, diverted Sauls rage, and preserved his own Life for that time.  
Our blessed Saviours own practise, in preserving himself until the time he knew that his hour was come, is recorded for our imitation; and doth plainly prove that Life may be prolonged.  
Notwithstanding the lives o●… all the Mariners in the Ship were promised to be spared by that God who cannot lie; yet that promise was annexed unto their abiding in the Ship.  
The wisdom of Joseph and Mary, in observing the Angels advice, and flying into Egypt with the blessed Babe, in all human probability prevented his death at Bethlehem.  
It is thought that the prohibition of some kinds of meats under the Law, was not only upon a Moral, but partly upon a Physical account, yielding no good nutriment, but proving injurious unto the lives and healths of men●…  
The Centurion importuned our Saviour to cure his Servant●… which he would never have done●… had it not probably conduced toward the prolongation of hi●… Life.  
Another mistake, and certainly not a little destructive unto the ●… ives and healths of men, is, that Medicines operate by a natural energy infused into them in their first creation only, and have no dependence upon a Divine concurring influence, and especial blessing unto particular persons; whereas the contrary is most ap●… arent: And we find that many ●… imes the best Remedies are used, ●… he best advice taken, and most ●… xact circumstances observed, and ●… ll in vain. Whence should this ●… roceed, but from a suspension of 〈…〉 Divine concourse?  
Some of the Ancients tell us, ●… hat the Cures wrought at the ●… ool of Bethesda, were not ex●… raordinary, but natural; be ause the Pool adjoined unto the ●… laughter-house, and it did con●… st of the Blood of the sacrificed ●… easts, which by Naturalists is ●… id to be of a healing nature. ●… ut yet we may very well suppose the necessity of a Divine angelic influence to this, the Poo●… whereby became efficacious.  
Indeed our blessed Saviour curing the Blind-man with tempered day, may seem highly rational, that being the fittest ingredient to restore a defective part out of which the whole was a●… first composed: Yet that render the Cure no less miraculous.  
Naamans washing in Jordan Seven times, was a natural Remedy, though attended with supernatural success.  
And the Wine and Oil poure into the wounds of the distresse●… Stranger by the good Samaritan was specifically appropriated yet the success depended upon superior influx.  
A plaster of Figs applied unt●… Hezekiah's Plague-sore, was a rational Remedy, being proper t●… mollify hard tumours in the fles●… and to ripen Imposthumes.  
There was a very rational con●… ormity between the leprous con●… agion, and the law of cleansing. The Leprosy did putrifie the skin, ●… nd opposite unto that was Ce●… ar-wood, commended by Natu●… alists against Putrefaction. It was of an offensive colour, op●… osite unto that was the Colour of Scarlet; of an ill scent, contra●… y unto that was the smell of hyssop; it did usher in death, contrary thereunto was the Sparrow let loose, significant sign of recovery. Because sometimes impious men spin out the thread of their lives: Therefore to imagine it contradicts the observation, that Faith and piety prolong Life, is a great mistake. For sometimes a long and a wicked Life may be twisted together, for some reasons best known unto Divine Wisdom; as Manasseh reigned longest of any of the Kings of Judah: Sometimes the sinner may live to be a Hundred years old, and y●… be accursed: The Posterity 〈…〉 Cain were longer lived than a●… of the patriarches, being reserv●… to be punished in the general D●…luge.  
A fond opinion, and a gre●… mistake it is, of some, that Becau●… Divine Wisdom hath appoint●… the periods of our days, ther●…fore to suppose we cannot be i●…strumental either towards th●… lengthening or shortening of th●… same. The Jews were wickedl●… instrumental in taking away th●… life of the Lord of Life, notwithstanding they did nothing bu●… what Divine goodness had determined before to be done; ther●… was no fatal necessity imposed upon their wills.  
Sometimes Divine Wisdom bes●… knowing his own reasons, doth resolve the death of some persons, unless the moral Cause of the Distemper be removed, as well as the natural; and then the most ●… roper Remedies are used in vain, either towards the preservation of Health, or the removal of Sick●… ess.  
King David understood that ●… he determination concerning the Childs death was past; yet he ●… rayed, and probably used means ●… o prevent it.  
The Creator and Conserver of ●… ll things in the Universe, takes notice of the principal and subsequent causes of things; governing, disposing, and ordering, according unto his own free will: And yet all this Government seems to be voided of any fatal violence, and comes to an efficiency from the ordination of various natural causes; which by human elections in natural things, prove the occasions either of supporting or destroying Life.  
Divine goodness doth not abolish, but disposeth of future contingencies, without nulling the freedom of the Agent. The Creator is not obliged unto necessity, but moderateth things and events according unto his own pleasure; and yet suffereth them to exercise their own proper motions, electing what seems bes●…( especially in externals);& herein the cause answers unto the effects▪ if the effects be necessary, th●… causes are so likewise; and in thi●… sense, the Life of Man and its period, may be said to be determined: And yet Man may be instrumental towards the contracting his own days.  
Moreover there are certain Practices which have a natural tend●ney towards Life or Death; and this the inspired Pen-man intimates, when he tells us, That righteousness tendeth unto Life, and he that pursueth evil, pursueth it unto his own death; and although there are frequent promises of long Life made unto the obedient, it doth not infringe the verity of holy Jobs assertion, That our days are determined. When the Prophet  told Amaziah, he knew God had determined to destroy him, he tells him moreover, that he was instrumental towards his own death, in not hearkening unto the voice of the Lord.  
And Eli's Sons disobedience, pronounced the sentence of Death against them, and it is rendered as the reason why God had resolved to slay them.  
The date of the old Worlds duration was fixed unto One hundred and twenty years; yet we find it was not so long lived by Twenty years, their wickedness contracting that, which seemed a determined period: Therein declaring, that at what time Divine wisdom shall speak concerning a Nation, or People, to pluck up, or to destroy; if that Natio●… or People turn from their evil way, he will turn from intended evil.  
A great mistake it is, to imagine that the manner and moments o●… mens death, are the effects of contingency; whereas it is most certain they come under the disposal and appointment of a wise overruling providence.  
As a Sparrow doth not fall unto the ground, so a Man doth not, without a special permission. The flight of that Arrow which procured Ahabs death, was guided by a Divine hand, who aimed at his mortal wound; yet his rash going to battle, by the advice of his false Prophets, rendered, him instrumental towards his own death and ruin.  
The Evangelical Prophet tells us of a Consumption determined upon the whole earth, occasioned by their great provocations.  
We find Abimelech and his Family smitten with sickness, and ●… reatned with death, but not ●… ithout a moral cause.  
And very often are the Jews ●… alled upon to observe the Divine Laws, lest they die for prophane●… ng them.  
And the Prophets are frequent●… threatened with death, that ●… hall presume to speak without a ●… mission from Heaven.  
Manoahs Wife made a very pro●… able conjecture, That God did ●… ot design to slay her and her Husband, because of his gracious appearance unto them.  
The Jewish rabbis tell us of one going to gather his Remedy prescribed by Solomon, against his particular distemper, was met by an apparition of Death, in the shape of a Schelliton; and it  told him with an audible voice, it was too late, for he was struck by the Angel who kept the Key of the Grave. The meaning is obvious.  
Natural Remedies, they are bu●● like Elijahs staff laid upon the Child, they will not restore unto life and health, unless a supernatural virtue concur.  
Marys supposition that the presence of her Saviour would have kept her Brother from dying, was not altogether groundless, though she was under a mistake, with reference unto that present dispensation.  
The practise of true Piety, and serious Christianity, are great friends unto the health of nature.  
There are attending the Divine Life, leisurely contemplations of heavenly things, joys refined from the dregs of sensuality, hopes of a noble and generous nature, wholesome, sweet, and comfortable fears; an universal harmony in all the Passions: and from hence by the favour of Divine clemency, Health springeth forth speedily.  
The Fable of the Kite when sick, imploring help and recovery, and being denied, by reason of her rapine and mischief, it affords an excellent moral.  
The breaking off our sins by righteousness, many times proves a lengthening of our temporal Life and tranquillity.  
Plato's observation is excellently true, that all the mischiefs of the Body proceed from the Soul, and all its truest pleasures from the joy of the mind.  
We have a memorable modern relation of a Consumptive person cured after Four years languishment, by a prescription of an Angelical Apparition, joined with a moral duty, to fear God and serve him.  
The Jewish Doctors say, that Adam felt no could, notwithstanding he was naked, because he had communion with God; and as soon as ever he eat the forbidden fruit, his Head ached.  
Were it the Divine pleasure to give men a constant frame of Health during their Pilgrimage, it were a great favour; but our impieties, like Hazaels wet cloth, prove fatal unto us, and moulder on these bodies of ours, whose feet like Nebuchadnezzar's Image, are made of day; Man being but earth, as the Prophet tells us three times in one breath, when he saith, O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.  
Repentance, often proves an excellent Antidote against sickness and death.  
Jezabel is threatened for her impenitency to be cast into a Bed, and her Children to be killed with death. Good men may die, but they cannot be killed with death.  
The Israelites repentance proved a sovereign plaster against the stings of the fiery Serpents.  
And King Davids remorse, prevailed with the destroying Angel ●… o sheathe his Sword, after the ●… aughter of Seventy thousand ●… eople.  
Rehoboams penitence at the ●… reaching of Shemaiah, prevented ●… he destruction of himself and his Princes.  
When mens flesh is consumed, ●… nd they are afflicted with strong ●… ains upon their Beds, then the Almighty looks upon men, to see if any say they have sinned, and perverted that which is right, to deliver them from going down into the Pit, that their lives may see the Light.  
When the Divine hand binds men with fetters, and holds them in the cords of affliction, then he shows them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded; then he opens their ears unto discipline, and commands that they return from iniquity; and if they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasure; but if they obey not, they shall die in their youth without knowledge; for God preserveth not the Life of the wicked, as Elihu tells Job.  
Did men but consider the nature of Man in this state of mortality, and observe the wonderful composure of their Bodies, the situation of the parts, the circulation of the Blood, the several meanders of the veins and nerves, and the curious distribution of our aliment into flesh; they might easily perceive how small an obstruction would stop their breath, and how inconsiderable an inflammation would sand us into another World as in a fiery Chariot, and how little a putrefaction would crumble us into our first original, if we were not supported by an Omnipotent ●… nd; and instead of wondering we live no more in health, we should admire we live an hour in ease.  
As an exact observance of the eternal Laws of truth and goodness, are the best way to render Remedies effectual; so the contrary renders them unsuccesful towards Health, or long Life, as we find plainly exemplified in most of the wicked Kings of Judah and Israel, as Abijam, Athaliah, Ahaziah, Nadab, Elah, Omri, and many others, who reigned but Two, Three, or Four years a piece; and the Reasons are sometimes recorded, that it was for there sins which they sinned, they shortening their lives with their Kingdoms, in whom sin, and a sudden death, reigned together.  
He that profaned the Sabbath under the Levitical dispensation, occasioned the beating his Soul out of his Body.  
St. Anselm observes, that the Reason why Diseases abounded so much in the Summer, was because the Holy Eucharist was irreverently received at Easter in his time.  
When our Saviour cured the Man sick of a palsy, he forgave him his sins, to convince him that they were the cause of his sickness.  
The life of Man is swift as a Weavers Shuttle; especially if wickedness be interwoven, Divine Justice cuts the Web.  
Infidelity doth as it were tie up the hands of Omnipotence, and sets bounds unto the operations of his mighty works on mens Bodies.  
The Jews who came out of Egypt, except Caleb and Joshua, dyed before they came into Canaan, viz. that they might not introduce Egyptian innovations, and to chastise their rebellious murmurings; and very often ●… hey are threatened with sore sicknesses, and wonderful Plagues, if they did not harken to the Divine Law.  
It's no wonder to see a strange punishment happen unto the workers of iniquity; nothing doth more conduce toward the preservation of our natural health, than our living the Divine Life; but when our expectations and actions are wholly employed in the gratifications of the animal Life, we do but prepare for the messengers of the Grave.  
What Solomon observes of wealth and victory, may truly be said of Health and recovery, it depends not so much on natural as on Divine influences.  
The wantonness of the Levite's Wife, occasioned a second rape by the Gibeonites; so when their lust had conceived, it brought forth sin, and their sin bein●… finished brought forth death.  
Eutichus for sleeping at a Sermon, had by his fall almost step●… until awaked by the last Trumpet, had he not been miraculously raised by St. Paul.  
Many of the Church of Corinth were sick and weak, and lost their lives, for their unworthy receiving the Bread of Life; and if men contemn the sacred Body of Christ, how can they expect God should take care of their Bodies? and if they make no reckoning of Christs death, its just with God to disregard their lives.  
pharaoh was plagued exceedingly, for being too familiar with A●rahams Wife; when she was restored unto her Husband, he was restored to his Health.  
Miriams sedition raised a Tumultuous disturbance in the harmony of her health. The dissimulation of Gehaza's tongue, procured the Leprosy upon his skin; Uzziah's invading the Priests Office, and burning incense, caused the Divine displeasure to smoke against him, making his beauty to consume away like a Moth.  
Hananiah's false Prophets, did but predict his own destruction and death.  
Ahaziah's evil consultation with the God of Ekron, to know whether he should recover of his sickness, made his Disease prove incurable.  
Pharoah's persecution ended in his own destruction and drowning.  
Ahab by his cruelty, became cruel unto his own Life.  
The Samaritan Lords infidelity, pressed his Soul out of his Body.  
The calumniating rage of the Children against the good old Prophet, provoked the rage of the Bears to devouer their Bodies.  
Herod's vain-glorious ostentation, brought such a Disease upon his Body, of which he had no reason to boast.  
The pride of the Daughters of Zion, changed their sweet smell into a stink, and their well-set Hair into baldness.  
Sapphira's Perjury, summoned the feet of those who had carried her Husband to his Grave, to carry her to the same place.  
Benhadads curiosity, proved the fatal Messenger of his death; the Prophet returning answer, that he might recover, but should surely die.  
Jeroboam's Idolatry, and praying unto false gods, provoked the true God to stop his breath.  
Saul's disobedience unto his maker, crumbled him into dust.  
Belshazzar for his riotous reveling, by a bodyless handwrighting upon a wall, had the end of his Life and Kingdom denounced against him.  
When Nadab and Abibu offered strange fire, a stranger fire is sent to consume them.  
Because good-men immaturely die, to infer Piety hath no influence upon the prolongation of Life, is a great mistake.  
The carcases of good Israelites may fall in the wilderness of this World, and yet their Souls may be entertained in the Heavenly Canaan.  
A good Prophet for some single act of disobedience, may be made a prey unto a devouring lion, and yet his Soul be received into everlasting habitations.  
If an Eli neglect to chastise his rebellious Children, he may be permitted to break his neck, and yet may enter into Life neither maimed nor halt.  
When Uzzah shall touch th●… Ark without a commission, hi●… death shall immediately succee●… his rashness.  
When a Moses shall neglect to circumcise his Child, an Ange●… shall threaten his Life with a drawn Sword.  
Many times judgement begins at the House of God, and he makes good men examples of his severity in this Life.  
Evil Angels may contend with good ones, about the bodies of good men; but their Souls shall be kept free from danger.  
It is thought that King Davids numbering the people, was the best act he did, before he took his Bed.  
samson lost his natural strength by his disobedience and violation of his vow, rather than by his cutting of his Hair; it being rather a moral, than a natural cause of his weakness.  
The fretful, though holy Pro●… het Jonah, going contrary unto 〈…〉 Divine command, had almost ●… een swallowed up by death, as well as by the Whale.  
But sometimes the sickness of ●… he Body, may be sent to promote the health of the Soul; as the leprosy on Naamans flesh, may conduce towards the whitening of his mind.  
Sicknesses are sometimes Probatory as well as Punative, sometimes both; and they are sent as the trials of grace, and are declaratives of Divine Mercy.  
It was a remarkable question that was asked our Saviour, Who sinned, this Man or his Parents, that he was born blind? His answer we know was, It was for the declaration of Divine Mercy, rather than either of the former reasons, as the sickness of his friend Lazarus, was for the Glory of God, that the work of Divine Power might be manifest in his restauration.  
The Righteous may sometimes be taken away from the evil to come, as the good patriarches were before the Flood, and as Abijah was laid to sleep, before the calamity of his Fathers House; sometimes the Child may derive those distempered humours from its Parent, which may prove the occasion of its death: though God hath promised long Life unto them that obey, yet he hath never promised, that he would not sometimes, as it were, borrow good mens natural lives, and make a happy exchange, making good his promise, and answering other ends of his providence, by recompensing the loss of a Temporal, with the grant of Eternal Life.  
When the extraordinary means of understanding Tongues ceased, men made use of rational and ordinary methods, to become acquainted with Languages, viz. Schools of Literature, and industrious educations.  
Even so now the miraculous ways of curing Diseases are blocked up, Men are to apply themselves unto rational Methods, and such as have the most natural tendency towards the accomplishment of that end, and the fairest prospect of probability; and they are such as follow, viz. the advice and counsel of able, learned, and experienced Physitians, whose natural abilities are advanced by ingenious education, and their universal learning confirmed by experience; such being most fit to rectify the disorders in mens Bodies, who by their enquiry into Anatomy, understand the particular parts of the same; and taking notice of the situations, structures and figures of the springs and wheels by which nature moves, they are the bette●… enabled to regulate her disorderly motions: And they understanding the natures of Animals, Minerals and vegetables, can th●… more dexterously apply fit remedies, according unto the severa●… indications of distempers, an●… circumstances of Patients.  
Physitians best understanding the natures of Air, and Meats and Drinks; are best able to direct to such natural Rules as ar●… most conservative of Health.  
To suppose the art of Physic●… to be useless, because it is not infallible, is very unreasonable; fo●… were Physitians infallible, the●… might make men immortal, an●… so alter the statute-Laws of Heaven, by which the nature c●… man is subjected unto death.  
As in Divinity, the most sacred institutions are insignificant unt●… the Souls of men, if not rightl●… received and applied; even so i●… physic, the most wholesome Remedies are useless unto mens Bodies, if not used in a right manner; which chiefly consists in taking the Distemper in the beginning, before nature is wasted, and hath lost its helping-hand; and to persevere in a regular course, until the distemper be fully conquered.  
How can men expect the concourse of a Divine Blessing to attend the advice of ignorant and unworthy pretenders unto physic, or of secret hazardous and poisonous Medicines, which are exposed unto sale in every Corner? the directions for the use of them, being like King David's Letter by Uriah, to give instructions for the ruin of the Patient.  
The World is full of complaints, of the ineffectual application of Medicines; and the true cause thereof must arise from hence, That Men are so irregular and preposterous in the use o●… the same.  
Many there are in our Weekl●… Bills of Mortality, who sacrific●… their lives unto their credulity and destroy their Bodies, as wel●… as their Souls, by an implicit●… Faith.  
And whatever Medicine i●… gilded over with the pretences o●… rare and experienced, is cried up●… and swallowed down, when it'●… as common in the Shop, as Sal●… and Pepper in a Kitchen.  
Can Men expect preservation●… when they willingly suffer thei●… Brains to be beaten out with the Bills of Mountebanks?  
If any Man pretend unto a Secret, some are as ready to proclaim it, as if they thought some good Angel, like Mahomets Pigeon, whispered it in their ear; when it often proves like Gunpowder, and blows up their Healths.  
There are more die of soft places in their Heads, than of Ulcers in their Lungs; and multitudes dig their Graves with their thick Skulls.  
How can men pray for a blessing upon the means, when they take such mongrel Physitians advice, who can sooner cure all Diseases than one; especially in such a Nation as ours is, where there is such great variety of able, learned, experienced and conscientious Physitians? and by the wisdom of Authority, a Society of Apothecaries established, who have demonstrated unto the World their care to prevent abuses in Medicines, by erecting a public Elaboratory for the preparation of chemical Remedies in the most exact manner; and using all prudential Methods to prevent deceits in Medicines?  
There is nothing that denominates a wise Man more, then using the best and most probable means to accomplish his ends: and nothing is more subservient unto happy conclusions, than prudent Counsels; but such is the preposterous practise of many amongst us, that it may not be imprudent to make an addition of one casualty more in our Weekly accounts of Mortality, viz. so many dyed Martyrs unto their Physitians ignorance; they taking the advice of some broken Tradesman, Disbanded Soldier, Bankrupt Merchant, &c. the very scum of the People, whose Receipts prove equally fatal with the Jaw-bone of an Ass; such like Evah, or rather like the Serpent, pretending to give that which shall be good for Food and physic, but in the end beguiling Men of their Health, and few days after the Patient dyes the death: As the lion in the Fable, that pretended to pull the Thorn out of the Lambs foot, but in the end devoured it.   

The Prescripts of an able and safe physician upon the File, exposed unto the view of the World, are more likely to be attended with the Blessing of Heaven, than the pretended Arcana's of such mongrel practisers, who are glad to make use of privacy to conceal their ignorance, covetousness, and wickedness; and yet such is the folly of the vulgar, who are more apt to gaze upon a Blazing Comet that infects the Air, and poisons Men with pestilential vapours; than on the regular motion of the glorious Sun, whose cherishing beams, yield light and health unto human nature.  
Every Man is bound by the Law of God and Nature, to keep the clayey Cottage of his Body in reparation: we being Tenants at the will of our great Landlord in these Houses of Earth, we ought not to let them run to ruin through neglect, lest we expose ourselves unto an inditement at the Bar of Heaven, for Dilapidations.  
One of the most considerable Moral Rules to be observed, in order towards the procuring a Divine influence with natural Remedies, is rightly to understand the Divine and Sacred original, and primary institution of Medicine: Our Blessed Saviour, the physician of Souls, was a physician of Bodies, and not only commended the good Samaritan; but acted the part of one throughout his own Life, healing all manner of sickness and diseases.  
The angelic Spirits think it not inferior unto their Nature, to be instrumental to heal us mortals, by stirring the Pool of Bethesda.  
St. Luke, who was the Evangelical Amanuensis, and wrote a History of our Saviours Passion and Life, was a beloved Physititian; and the Doctor of the Gentiles prescribes Wine as a cheering Cordial unto his Timothy, under his frequent infirmities for his health sake.  
The holy Prophet reflecting upon the deplorable condition of the Church, with the whole Head sick, and heart faint, full of wounds, bruises, and putrefactions, being not bound up, nor mollified with Ointments; doth plainly intimate, how necessary he thought the natural, as well as the spiritual application of fit Remedies; lamenting there was no Balm in Gilead, nor no physician there.  
Jothans Parable may instruct the World, that not only the Olive, the Fig-tree and the Vine, are useful to cheer the heart of God and Man; but also the Bramble hath a healing virtue in some distempers.  
Since the appearance of the second Adam, we may eat of every three in the Garden, asking no question for Conscience sake, the earth being the Lords, and the fullness thereof.  
The wonderful work of providence is apparent, in preserving the Seminal virtues of Plants in the Deluge, when we red not of any Seed secured in the Ark: The innocent Dove showing a Leaf unto the new World, preached a Sermon of Divine goodness.  
The Utility of Physical Remedies, is not only demonstrated by Christians, but by Jews and Pagans. In the Temple of Asculapius, there was a Fountain of Oil, with a Golden Arch, a perfect Symbol of physic, denoting its usefulness and honour.  
The design of Medicines, is not to prevent death, but to render Life comfortable, and to preserve Natures lamp burning, until there is no more Oil left to feed it; that we may have the better opportunity to secure our eternal estate.  
Health is the prime outward blessing, it is the comfort of the Rich, and the riches of the Poor; if it had been to procure any thing else, that the Woman in the Gospel spent all her living, she might justly have been blamed.  
The Son of sirach counsels Men, to honour the physician with that honour due unto him; telling us, God hath created him, and hath given Men skill, that he might be honoured in his marvelous works, with the Medicines which he hath created out of the earth, to heal Men, and take away their pains.  
Apollo and Aesculapius, amongst the Greeks were adored as gods, for the excellency of their invention in physic.  
St. James placeth our visiting the sick, amongst the parts of that pure Religion which is undefiled before God.  
And our blessed Saviour, numbers this Christian Duty amongst those good works, according unto which, we shall receive our final sentence.  
The knotty staff, the Serpent, the Pine-Apple, the Dragon, the Dog and the Cock, with which the Portraiture of Aesculapius was beautified, were not insignificant Symbols.  
Medicine hath by Barbarous Nations, been accounted Sacred. The Priests of Memphis were bound to writ in the Temple of Isis, such Remedies as were found effectual.  
The same practise the Greeks used at the Temple of Apollo, authorizing Medicine, by Religion, and converting Remedies into Oracles.  
The Jewish Doctors tell us, That at the Gate of the Temple of Solomon, there hung a long Catalogue of the virtues of all Plants, collected by King Solomon himself; so that if any were smitten with any Disease, he might go and gather his Remedy.  
The holy Prophets in their descriptions of the Holy-Land, represent the excellency thereof, from its abounding with Trees whose Leaves are good for Medicines.  
He who breathed into Man the breath of Life, and by an eternal Law hath commanded him not to kill, but enjoined him to pray for his daily Bread, with all the necessary supports of this Life; hath thereby laid an obligation upon him, to use all means to preserve both his own and others lives.  
As the Jews by their particular Laws, were constrained to be at the charge of cure unto any whom they had hurt or injured in their bodily health; much more ought men to be concerned for their own Health.  
Although we live not by Bread alone, but by the word of blessing out of the mouth of God; yet the blessing is annexed unto Bread, not unto Stones: He that shall expect to h●●e Stones turned into Bread, doth not trust but tempt his Maker, it being not Faith but Fury, to go down by a precipice, when Stairs are appointed.  
King Asa was not reprehended for advising with, but for trusting unto his Physitians, and making them his end, who were but means; which was recorded to instruct us, that we should use means, as if there were no Pro●idence; and rely on Providence, as if there were no Means. When the Royal Prophet went against goliath, trusting in the name of the Lord; yet he made use of his Sling to wound his Adversary.  
Holy Jacob sent a present unto his Brother, to pacify his unreasonable anger, as well as made supplication unto the great Peacemaker.  
When Queen Hester appointed a Fast to implore the protection of the God of Heaven, in the behalf of the Jews lives; She neglected not to feast the King, that she might the more probably prevail.  
St. Pauls Mariners could not expect preservation( notwithstanding the safety of their lives was promised him) except they did continue in the Ship.  
The Bodies of good Men are the Temples of the Holy Ghost; and neglecting the same, is reputed a part of will-worship, and strictly prohibited.  
Balaams Ass doth instruct the World, that a merciful Man should be merciful unto his Beast; how much ought he rather like the Shunamite woman, to take a journey to request help for a Child, whom Death seemeth to triumph over?  
The Life is more worth than meat, and the Body than Raiment; nay, it's more worth than liberty; if the Jews had been sold for bondmen, they had held their peace, as they  told the King, when their necks had almost been cut off at a blow.  
The Father of lies never spake a greater truth, than when he said, Skin for skin, and all that a man hath, will he give for his life.  
It's a grand impiety, under a pretence of Gods Power, to be disobedient unto his Will, in neglecting means of Health; that's to try what he can do, and yet neglect what he commands, in not administering those things which are necessary for the Body.  
Those Bodies which are the Members of Christ, ought to have respect and care used towards them, that they may be more fit for the service of the Soul; as that which was sick was not to be offered in sacrifice under the Law, so those who are sick, are not fit to offer Sacrifices under the Gospel.  
The Soul sits uneasy in a diseased Body. When the Golden Bowl is broken, and the sound of the grinding is low, and the Pitcher is broken, at the Fountain, and the Wheel broken at the Cistern; then the Sun, and the Moon, and the Stars will be darkened.  
King Solomon, who had a Patent granted him by the King of Heaven, to receive the greatest measure of Wisdom of any Man before or after him, made it his business to search into the nature of Vegetables, from the tallest Cedar unto the hyssop that grows out of the Wall. Although his brow was encircled with a glittering Diadem, and his Gold was so plentiful as to pave his Palace, and he had all the delights of the Sons of Men, yet he condescended unto the study and improvement of physic, and tells us there is a time to heal.  
The Almighty Wisdom acts as it were the part of a good physician, and tells our Parent Adam, that every Herb bearing Seed, was good for food, being created for the service of Man.  
The Sons of the Prophets had a Physical intention in gathering their Herbs, although it was attended with a mistake in the nature of the Plant; and we find that the Waters of Marah, were ●… endered wholesome by the casting in medicinal ingredients.  
Ahab understood the usefulness of a Garden of Herbs, when he so greedily coveted Naboths Vineyard, to convert it into the same.  
The good will of him that dwelled in the Bush, is further declared unto mankind, by the virtue which he hath planted in the leaves and fruit that grow thereon; being useful for the healing of the Nations, in a natural, as well as in a mystical sense.  
Those persons who cut up meadows by the roots in holy Jobs time, could not but understand their Medicinal virtue.  
A Dinner of Herbs, with Evangelical charity, is preferred by Solomon before a costly Banquet; and those medicinal Herbs of Mint, Rhue, anise and Cummin, were so much in use amongst the Jews, that they laid Tithes and customary impositions upon them.  
It's probable that the bitter Herbs, appointed to be eaten with the Paschal Lamb, were not only Typical, but also Medicinal.  
When the Church would make a metaphorical description of all the external and internal qualifications of her Beloved, she compares him to those things which are most excellent and useful, as Myrrh, Aloes, Cassia, and all the chief spices.  
Joseph used Physitians of old, not only for the recovering of the sick, but for the embalming of the dead; and the Art of the Apothecary was employed, not only to prepare holy Ointments for the consecration of Kings and Priests, but to compound Medicines for the restoration of inferior persons.  
The blessed God is pleased to style himself, The Lord, the physician: and the Holy Jesus derives his name from his healing nature, and tells us, that the whole have no need of the physician; yet they that are sick have. And the Holy Ghost assures us by the Psalmists Pencil, that God hath given Medicines to heal mens sicknesses.  
The most infallible way to have our distempers removed, is to endeavour to procure the concourse of a Divine influence, and to engage the sovereign Power of that Almighty healer, unto whom belongs the issues from Death: And this is most likely to be done by the practise of true Religion, from such principles which are Divine and Spiritual. The Jews came under a promise of having their Bread and Water blessed, and their sickness removed, if they hearkened unto the Divine Statutes. Solomon urgeth the consideration of our Health, as a strong Argument to promote holy and religious fear, telling men, it shall be health unto their Navels, and M●rrow unto their Bones. Wisdom is a three of Life, if men do but eat the fruit of it by the practise of godliness, which hath the promise of the Life that now is, as well as of that which is to come.  
If men love life, and desire many days, and make it their request to obtain the Divine Wisdom; the way prescribed is to desist from evil, and to do good, and then length of days, and long life, and peace shall be added, as the wisest of men found by experience.  
Yielding subjection unto the father of Spirits, is as sure a way to obtain the blessing of long Life, as obedience unto our natural Parents; for there is a Command with a Promise annexed unto both: and we find Life in the Inventory of the Christians Goods, when it was drawn up by the great Doctor of the Gentiles.  
Piety secures men very often from the power of evil Angels, who many times receive commission to inflict corporal distempers; it defends from the stroke of human justice, by warning men of those flagitious impieties which expose them unto the penalties of human Laws; as Murders, Thefts and Rapine.  
Moreover, Religion preserves Men from the terrors of an evil Conscience, which makes them oftentimes wash their hands in their own Blood. And Virtue greatly preserves Life, as it teacheth temperance and moderation in the use of Meats and Drinks. The circumstantial actions of Piety, are very influential towards the lengthening the lives of Men. The sweet sleeps of temperate persons, and their freedom from violent and enraged passions, with the admirable contentment that dwells in a holy Conscience; these make the Lamp of Life burn clear and long.  
The Inspired Penman frequently prescribes Religion, as an Antidote against immature death, being a direct enemy unto sin, which brought in sickness at the first.  
And it is not difficult to understand, that as immorality destroys Soul and Body, and the stingings of a guilty mind torment both; so Piety and peace of mind, preserves and relieves both Soul and Body; for the Soul doth as well conduce unto the prolongation of the Body in natural Life, as unto its immortality in eternal Life; and the Body hath the perfection of Life, viz. Health, from the Soul, as well as Life itself.  
Dying unto sin, is an excellent means to preserve Life, if Men would try the experiment, and endeavour to procure the Divine Providence to be their Lifegard. We live by the word of blessing, out of the mouth of God, every command if observed, like food and physic, it tends unto the lengthening our natural lives, as well as our spiritual.  
When the great preserver of Men withdraws his protection, we are exposed unto the malignant Aspect of the Planets, and unto the fatal contingencies of Wars and Battels, and are endangered by every accident; The dust of a Wheel, the fall of a Tile, the largeness of a Morsel, the unevenness of a ston, the plenty of a Humour, may stop our breath.  
The Divine favour is the best Screen to shelter Men from the innumerable accidents of human Life, in which we are every minute surrounded with a Thousand deaths.  
And although we usually repute old age, a young death, because such are furrowed by the Plow of time, and seem to have as it were bespoke a grave; yet it is as natural for youth to die, as age, being more common, and having more natural causes, and being more near death, upon fatal and less discerned accounts, by a sudden Fever, or apoplexy: Indeed a Consumptive person seems to be marked out for the mortal wound; but one in health may be suddenly surprised by an acute distemper, which proves a Besom of destruction to Three parts of Adams Race; to die of age is a very rare thing, but the sins of youth are the immediate instruments of death: some vices carrying a Knife in their hand, cut off Man before his time, lopping of some branch from our short Life.  
The pleasing gratifications of sense, walk hand in hand with Death, and pursueth mortals, as the Waves of the Universal Deluge did the Posterity of Cain; and though they went from one Story unto another, higher and higher, yet at last they were overflowed: The wages of sin is death, and may as justly be paid in the Morning as in the Evening of our days.  
Although Temperance doth not always prove an Antidote against the Pestilence, nor Abstinence a preservative against Famine; yet they are likely means.  
We live not at an adventure, but the manner and moments of our Death came under a Divine appointment; the Jews could not prejudice the life of the Lord of Life, until his hour was come, viz. that hour which by Divine Wisdom, was appointed to be his last hour; as it is appointed to men once to die, so also when to die.  
But yet the over-ruling determinations concerning our lives should not lessen our care to preserve them. It's a Turkish principle, to dream, that because the manner& moment of Mens deaths are appointed, therefore it's vanity and folly to arm ourselves or Antidote our Bodies against the injuries of War, and assaults of Diseases.  
It must be a confessed verity, That every natural motion hath its beginning, duration, and Period, dependent on the will of the first Motor. Now the life o●… Man being a natural motion, our Nativity and Death, are both ordered by that Omnipotent Agent, in whom we live and move, and have our being.  
The Life of Man consisting in a requisite harmony of qualities, and in a proportionate commixture of the natural heat, and radical moisture; which harmony is more or less, according unto the more exquisite temperature of Body, assigned unto each single Person, by the free dispensation of the Divine will; it must follow, that the continuance of every Man in this natural life, depends upon the pleasure of him who hath determined our days, and numbered our Months, and set our bounds which we cannot pass without his leave; who gave us the durability of our temperaments, and are compassed by our Period, within the circled of his Providence.  
But to imagine the Life of Men fixed, beyond the possibility of being prolonged or shortened by an Almighty Pleasure, seems highly unreasonable, he having kept a power in his own hands to lengthen or shorten as he plea●… eth. A Man may live out all hi●… time, who wickedly shortens hi●… own; and may be permitted to do those forbidden acts, which inevitably tend unto his own destruction. The Israelites murmuring, anticipated their funerals, and butted them in the Wilderness, notwithstanding their promise of seeing Canaan.  
The impiety of the old World, sent a watery calamity, which possibly might have been prevented had their repentance been as visible as that of Nineveh was, who were reprieved from Execution, after the sentence of Death seemed past upon them, upon the expiration of Forty days.  
Sin brought Death at first; and as sin increased, so death came nearer by Five hundred years. After the flood, men sinned still, and built Castles in the Air, and then Death came nearer by Three hundred years; and by Moses's time a great part of that remnant is pared away, and Threescore and ten is the Period. Had offended Justice gone on still to shorten our days, as men increased in sin, our Life by this time had not been a day long; and therefore he no longer destroys the kind, but punisheth the individual; and sets it down as a standing rule, That evil shall slay the wicked, and he shall not live out half his days.  
We cannot observe one in Five hundred arrive at that age which they might attain unto by the course of nature, but end their days in folly, and in a period which seems to be appointed in anger; from Surfeiting proceeds desolation of Members, relaxations of Nerves, fractury of Bones, inflammations of the Blood, crudities of Stomach, besides the uncleanly consequence of Lust, which like a Dart strikes through the Liver, and hunts for the precious Life.  
The Supreme Architector, hath composed our Bodies like Lamps, and to supply the Oil consumed by the flamme, hath given us appetites of Hunger and Thirst, with the addition of Reason to guide our appetites, and the Revelation of his Will to direct our Reason: But if men through the depravation of nature, and the predominance of temptation, suffer their Appetites to dethrone their Reason, and give way unto intemperance and other immoralities, which have a tendency to extinguish natures Lamp, by corrupting the Oil, or spilling it, or blowing out the flamme; then they may justly expect to be cut off in the midst of their days, and to die before their time, being made a sacrifice unto their overmuch wickedness.  
On the contrary, we may take notice, That Faith and Obedience, like the three of Life in paradise, not only sacramentally, but really conduce unto Health and long Life, so far as it is a blessing; and this it doth by impregnating our food with the tincture of a Divine Benediction; by meliorating our constitutions, and infusing wholesome dispositions in the Air, and favourable influences in the host of Heaven.  
It is probable, that the Prophet Baalam's wish to die the death of the righteous, did not only include his being saved at last, but also that he might come to his Grave in a good old Age with his Fathers in peace, and might not be cut off like the Moabites, and other Nations, who perished in their wickedness before his eyes.  
Some of the Jewish rabbis observe, that not a Son dyed of a natural death before his Father for Three thousand years; but the course of Nature was observed, and he that was born first, dyed first, until Terah's time, who was the first that taught the People to make Images of day, and to corrupt Divine worship with Idolatry; and as a punishment of his sin, his Son Haran was snatched away before him.  
During the standing of the second Temple, there were Three hundred high Priests; but whilst the first stood, there were but Eighteen, which stood within Ten years as long as the second; their wickedness shortened their days: The Male Heir of Eli's Family, as soon as born, dyed for many generations; so that an old Man could not be seen of his Posterity, according unto a Divine sentence.  
The addition of Fifteen years unto Hezekia's days, was the result of Divine favour; but not without signal demonstrations of his repentance.  
The ancient patriarches indeed out-lived all their Titles of consanguinity; yet observable it is, that none lived a complete Thousand years, which possibly might be to accomplish the threatening unto Adam, That the day he eat the forbidden fruit he should die, computing a day for a Thousand years: But a more probable Reason seems to be, to demonstrate unto Man, The vanity of Life; when those who lived longest, could not arrive at that period, which compared with Gods eternity, is but a day. All things being considered, it may be esteemed a mercy, that so much of Mans Life is pared away in these last days, wherein so much of Heaven is discovered, that it would put a holy Souls patience hard to it, to know so much of the upper Worlds glory, and to be kept so long from it, as the Fathers in the Primitive times were; for the most pompous entertainments in this Life, are but the good Mans Crosses, because they detain him from his Crown.  
If M●n would have natural Remedies prove effectual, they ought to endeavour to find out the moral as well as the natural cause of Distempers. hippocrates adviseth Physitians to search if there be not something Divine in Diseases. The living Man seldom complains, without giving his Maker a cause to inflict punishment; for the righteous judge doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the Children of Men. There is some Babylonish Garment that hath infected the Body with leprosy, and caused the Thorn in the flesh.  
When the Rod utters its voice, it is to admonish Men to search into the distempers of their Minds as well as of their Bodies; and they are fed with the Bread of affliction, and with the Water of ●… dversity, to cure the Tympany ●… f Pride, the Fever of Passion, ●… nd the Dropsy of Covetousness. The Plague in the Body, is some●… imes sent to cure the Plague in ●… he Heart: Sin is that root of ●… itterness, from whence all our ●… roubles in the flesh spring up.  
Men, like Baalam, are apt to strike the Beast, the external instrument that hurts them; but never mind the Angel that stands in the way with a drawn Sword, which caused that instrument to hurt.  
There are many happy intentions Divine goodness aims at, in laying Diseases upon mens Bodies. Holy Job doth not attribute the loss of his Children unto external causes, but acquiesseth in the disposal of Divine Wisdom; knowing they might be removed to exercise his Patience. The sickness of Lazarus whom Christ loved, was not designed for his death only, but that Divine Mercy might have the honour of restoring him.  
The sickness of Epaphroditus, in which he was brought nigh unto death, occasioned the thanks of many to be returned in his behalf.  
Men have then great Reason to bless the Lord with their Souls, and with all that is within them, to praise his holy Name, when he healeth all their Diseases: This consideration elivated the holy soul of King Hezekia, and transported him into a Divine Doxology.  
When Men have received the sentence of Death in themselves, and are miraculously delivered from going down to the Grave, then have they cause to praise the Lord in the great Congregation, and to utter their Songs unto the God of their lives.  
The sick Bed is the attiring Room of the Grave, in which Men should be preparing themselves for the solemnities of their Funerals. By lingering distempers Men are gradually putting off their veil of flesh, to be clothed upon with that house which is from Heaven.  
Sickness is the Monitor of mortality, and makes Men learn to know their end, and gives them a sensible prospect of that House appointed for all living, leading Men by the hand unto their long homes.  
Diseases are sent to unravel human nature, causing Death to work in us, until it hath wrought our health, and strength, and ease, and life, and itself away.  
Divine strength is many times made perfect in corporal weaknesses; and one great design of the same, is to administer an opportunity of experience unto the pious soul, of internal succours and supports, strengthening upon the Bed of languishing, and making its Bed in its sickness.  
When the flesh and the heart is ready to fail, and the waves and billows of Diseases and pains pass over mens Bodies, so that they are even sinking with despair; then the visitation of Heaven preserves their spirits, and make them forget their pains, by giving a prospect of endless pleasures.  
Sometimes the sacrificing-knife is laid upon the neck of an Isaac, to try whether the indulgent Parent will prefer the life of his natural Son, before the Will of his Heavenly Father.  
And the immature death of a Child, is intended to call the Parents sins to remembrance; and sometimes to try the Parents patience, as might be exemplified from sacred Records.  
The way to have sickness removed is not only to use natural Remedies, but also Spiritual and Divine; by imploring the help of that great physician, who was Typified by the Brazen Serpent; which if Men did more frequently practise, they would sooner be healed, both of the sting and pain of sickness.  
It well becomes the most holy Soul, at the point of Death, to abound with an, O spare me, that I may recover strength, for the Hand of Omnipotence can reach Mens maladies from Heaven, and his Word can heal their sores.  
When Men are bidden to go up into the Mount, as it were of a sick Bed, and die; it highly concerns them to inquire, wherefore Divine goodness contends with them.  
When the inward man is renewed by the decay of the outward,& mens great provocations are abated, by their being smitten and touched in their Bone& their Flesh; then the Almighty returns and receives them, according unto the days, wherein they have been afflicted with pain and anguish.  
Sickness many times receives a commission, to continue until Mens eyes are open, to see it was their own wickedness that corrected them; and from thence to infer how evil and bitter a thing it is to forsake the Fountain of living water, and to seek out broken Cisterns.  
Complaining Mortals being sensible that there is no soundness in their flesh, nor rest in their Bones; and they observe the cause to spring from Divine anger, occasioned by their sinful miscarriages, and from thence come to receive correction▪ then the Distemper receives a Commission to depart.  
If languishing Patients cast a severe eye upon the Plagues, the Consumptions, the inflammations, and extreme burnings, that attend as Pages upon their Pride, Wantonness, Intemperance, and Carnality, and it produceth an aweful fear of offending the Divine Majesty, and a strict commune with their hearts upon their sick beds; so that their spirits make a diligent search into the causes of their distempers: Then they find a rebuk to attend their Diseases, and they are made whole.  
A great design of sickness it is, to wean the minds of Men from their fondness of temporary enjoyments, to take them off from laying the foundation of their happiness upon finite fantasies, and to convince them what inconsiderable things their Beauty, Honour and Strength are, which a lump of Phlegm, or a blast of Wind can take from them.  
When sickness makes men listen unto the striking of the Clock of time with greater attention, and excites their endeavours to render Death a stingless Serpent; then the great part of the cure is performed.  
Men being brought low by the manifold infirmities of human nature, and knocking as it were at the gates of the Grave, by tortures and agonies of Body: It becomes a principle of the highest prudence, to look up unto the everlasting Hills; from whence comes their help; it being the same hand that wounded, that must heal.  
The blow of the heavy hand of Heaven, pressing men sore; so that a Man might red the sentence of death in some mens foreheads, written in the lines of a lingering Disease: The difficult motion of their Lungs to suck in Air, being like a passing Bell, sounding continually in their ears; and the striking of their uneven Pulse, too much resembling the digging of their Graves: Yet in this disconsolate case, the fervent effectual Prayer of a righteous Man hath prevailed much.  
The Arrows of the Almighty, viz. Diseases, fly thick in the World, and are shot sometimes into our Lungs, and sometimes into our joints and Hearts, and do give denomination unto various Distempers; and they stick fast, until they are pulled out by an Omnipotent hand.  
When mens wounds stink and are corrupt, and they are made to possess months of vanity, wearisome nights being appointed unto them; and they seem, as it were, to be spitting away their lives, notwithstanding all Remedies have been used; yet at last upon an humble supplication unto the blessed Jesus, unto whom belong the issues from Death, and whose power is the same now in Heaven as when he was on Earth, there comes a Reprieve; many a Man losing Life, for want of asking it at his hands, who would grant it, if invited to our Bedside by fervent Prayers.  
The Reason why Remedies prove so often ineffectual, is, because men neglect to act faith and a holy confidence in a Divine power; which if they did but touch the very hem of its garment, their Faith would keep them from fainting.  
When men are cast down and disquieted by pains and sicknesses; then to hope in him who is the health of their countenance, and in quietness and confidence they will find their greatest strength.  
To humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, is the way to hasten our cure, and to be exalted to health in his due time.  
When God resolves to make men sick with smiting them, they ought to beware of murmuring, and impatience, which exasperates their calamity, it being far more advantageous towards recovery, patiently to hope, and quietly to wait for the salvation of God; for they that wait upon the Lord, have a promise that they shall renew their strengths, and be saved, if they continue in Faith and patience: a meek and quiet spirit under all chastisements, being a great ornament, and a great advantage towards recovery.  
The Image of the Goddess Angerina, was with a Muffler at her mouth, placed at the Temple of Volupia, signifying, that pleasure should be their portion who bare sicknesses with patience, silence, and submission.  
The way to be recovered from sickness, and to procure the Divine influence, is, to be thankful for the least mitigation of pain; like the single Leper, returning to give thanks, before there is a perfect recovery.  
But when Men instead of offering their gifts and sacrifice of praise unto the Divine Majesty upon their recovery, as the Jews were commanded to do under the Law; like Jeroboam, grow worse after his hand was withered: This is a speedy way to fall into a mortal relapse, and to have temporal pains usher in eternal torments.  
Were it possible for a Man to stand upon one of the Battlements of Heaven, and with one glance of his eye to behold all the wounds and Diseases, and to hear all the groans and complaints of dying and diseased mortals; How would the blessing of Health be prized by such a one?  
A sick Bed, is an uneasy place, when a Man is tossing to and fro, until the dawning of the day; and when it is night, wishing that it were day; and when it is day, that it were night; using mutation instead of Medicines, and employing time in telling the Clock, and entertaining melancholy Dreams, and sad apprehensions of the blackness of the night; but one way to be freed from these calamitous circumstances, is to use our Health for the ends for which it was given.  
A mistake which often proves very destructive unto the lives and healths of men, is a vulgar opinion, That Witches, Wizards, and other cunning persons, can by a Diabolical confederacy foretell the deaths and periods of mens lives; and if so, How can Virtue prorogue, or 'vice abbreviate mens days? Unto this it may be answered, That Satan may sometimes give intelligence unto some who are his Oracles; yet his knowledg●… is but conjectural, or at most h●… knows futurities only as they appear in their precedent Cause●… both natural and moral.  
Supposing it were the Devil i●… Samuel's Mantle, that did forete●… the precise time of Saul's death yet it doth not imply the absolute certainty of the Devils prediction, or the fatal necessity of Saul's death: It was easy to speak as h●… did, there being all the forerunners of his approaching ruin visible in the Causes; for Davi●… was anointed King, and Sau●… grew worse and worse, consulted with a Witch, and the Batte●… drew near, and what could be expected, but his overthrow and death?  
If it should be granted, tha●… the lying spirits in the mouth o●… Ahab's Prophets, did foreknow his Death; it might be only from their observation, that he went against a Divine command.  
Therefore i●s highly unreasonable, to give heed unto seducing spirits, and Doctrines of Devils, consulting with the god of Ekhron, when there is a God in Israel; some mens curiosities in this kind, hath cost them their lives, being forbidden such practices upon pain of damnation. What wise Man would so far violate his Baptismal Covenant( wherein he hath engaged to forsake the Devil) as to go unto the destroyer of mankind, or unto his instruments, for life-preserving Remedies?  
Such a one is guilty of the highest Idolatry, and falls down to worship the Devil, whom his Lord and Master rejected with the greatest indignation.  
Magicians indeed use charms, evil signs, and good words, the better to deceive the ignorant; and herein being Gods Ape, for as he hath made a Covenant with his, and hath appointed signs and scals, upon the faithful use o●… which, he is present to perform what he hath promised: So the Devil makes a covenant with Wizards, upon which he hath given signs and tokens, That i●… they use the one, he'l perform the other.  
Some credulous minds are so flexible, as to be possessed with transporting fears of the danger of their clymaterical year; as i●… the number Seven and Nine had in them something sacred, because Pythagoras and some philosophers dreamed so: But there is no solid foundation for such unreasonable fantasies; we Christians having a more sure word of prophesy; which indeed directs us to number our days, but not to compute our days by numbers, so as to fix their period at such a number. There may be as good Reason given for the observing the numbers, One, Three, Four, Six and Ten; so that should we have Reason to perplex our minds from hence, our fears would be numberless: For what although there were Seven wonders of the World, Seven Gates of Thebes, Seven Stars in Ursa mayor, Seven wise men of Greece, and Seven Circles in the Heavens; and are there not certain numbers of all things in nature? And what though Aristotle, Erasmus, Luther, Melancthon, Alexander, and many others dyed in their Clymacterical year? have not many more dyed in other years? Moses mentions a year of danger, differing from all these; and that is Ten times Seven, or Seventy; and that must needs be of greatest danger, which is the period of all the rest, and fewest safely pass over; which is set as a bound to human nature.  
It must be a confessed verity, That Seven years makes great alterations in human Bodies; and we may be said once in that space, to lick new Bodies off our Trenchers: But to give Numbers the Key of the Grave, is ridiculous.  
Our periods depend more on actions, than figures; and men contracted their lives into the wicked mans abridgement, by sins, not years.  
It was taken for granted in Job's days, That the Candle of the wicked is often put out, and the number of his Months cut off in the midst.  
Moreover, we may take notice of some, who dream that the period of their days, depends more upon the malevolent influence of a Planet, than upon any particular Providence: A belief very contrary to the Articles of the Christian Faith, To imagine an Astrological necessity imposed upon all sublunary Agents, by the influence of celestial Bodies; and that the manner and moment of our deaths, depends upon the Stars.  
It is a known truth, That the heavenly Bodies do operate, according to the variety of the matter upon which they are conversant; and we may observe in the experiment of Twins born under the same Planet, although they have the principle of seminality, Bed of nature, and time of birth; yet they differ in sex, complexion, wealth and death, as in the example of Esau and Jacob. It would be very strange, to imagine that all that are slain in the same battle, were born under the same Ascendent.  
So that the proper Reason, why such a Child is strong, and such a one weak, it's rather to be attributed to the complexion of the Parents, than the influence of the Heavens; to the Mothers Milk, than to the via lactea: and the Reason why such a one was shot to death, was not because his Horoscope was direct to Saturn, but because the Gun was directed to him: Besides, custom, education, example, alter nature; and our second births, divert the mischievous effects of our first nativities.  
It is strange to observe the groundless fears that some lie under, from Planetary influences, and Dog-stars, which neither bark nor bite in our climates; omitting seasonable Remedies, for fear of signs which are insignificant; more regarding an antic Picture in their almanacs, than the beginning, state, and declination of the Disease.  
To suppose Diseases to be merely the results of natural causes in Mens bodies, and not the inflictions of a Power, who sometimes acts above the sphere of Nature, is a great mistake; for there are some Diseases which seem to have no dependence upon the chain of second causes. The Jews were threatened with some Diseases, which should not be cured by natural means; even wonderful Plagues of long continuance; and many instances of Diseases inflicted by supernatural agents, as Angels and Spirits, who disturb the humours, and raise storms and tempests in Mens Bodies, as well as in the Air.  
An evil Angel afflicted Saul with stupendious melancholy, and holy Job with painful Boils, and bowed a Daughter of Abraham Eighteen years: When an Omnipotent power gives leave, the Devil can as easily possess the minds of Men with distractions, as of Swine with rage.  
The excommunicate Corinthian, being delivered up to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, in order unto the salvation of the spirit, may as possibly be understood of his being afflicted with a corporal distemper, by the power of the Devil, as in any other respect; and we know St. Pauls Thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan sent to buffet him, hath various explications; yet some understand it with relation unto the present purpose. The lascivious persons seeking for Lot's House, to gratify their vile intentions, were shot blind by an Angel; and those windows were stopped up, which let in wanton glances.  
Evil Angels were sent to afflict the Israelits with Divers calamities; and we red in sacred Records, of many thousands in one night slain by the destroying Sword of an Angel, by a Pestilential contagion.  
And the several possessed persons whom our blessed Lord delivered from the power of the Prince of Darkness, were miserable afflicted with Epilepsies, Lunacies, Convulsions, and other direful Symptoms.  
Moreover we have many, who from palmistry, and making observations from the lines in the Hand, especially the line of Life, will undertake to measure every Mans Life, and the manner and moments of their Deaths; and so make voided the use of means both natural and moral; whereas the Lines in the Hand, which are accounted natures Manuscripts, are but the fouldings of the skin when the hand bends inwards; and are not proper unto any of those creatures which have their feet always extended; Age, Labour and Diseases alter them, and sometime obliterate them. They are a Book fitter for Justices to discover idleness, than for to discover future events; their Predictions are the products of conjecture rather than Art; and they deserve rather to be made the examples of severity, than to receive credit in a Christian Nation.  
To dream that Amulet's Characters, Charms and spells, are of any virtue in curing Diseases, is vain. Because St. Paul's Handkerchief, St. Peter's shadow, and the Hem of our Saviours Garment miraculously cured some in the primitive time; therefore to think ourselves still obliged to the use of extreme Unction, and other such abolished ceremonies of healing, highly argueth a crasiness in Mens intellectuals. The Reasons why those miraculous ways of cure were used( namely the confirmation of the Gospel in its first plantation) being ceased, the way of cure must also cease, We cannot probably expect a Divine blessing, with such means as have no natural virtue, as Words, spells and Characters. If one Text of Scripture carried in the Sleeve, will cure an Ague, the Bible carried in the Pocket, might cure all Diseas●● But Divine Oracles were not given to trifle with, but to guide our Faith and Manners, and to direct until we come unto that place, where there will be no need of Medicines to ease pains, or moral Rules to render them effectual.   
FINIS.   

Books sold by Tho. Cockeril, at the Atlas in cornhill.  
THE Morning Exercise at Cripplegate, or several Cases of Conscience, practically resolved by sundry Ministers, in Quarto.  
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Precious Faith, considered i●… its nature, working and growth by Edward Polhill of Burwash i●… Sussex, Esq, in Large Octavo price bound 3 s 6 d.  
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