their joint influence and concurrence in the production either of Health or Diseases Therefore wee see that Joy which is an Affection of the Soul is as it were a Medicine to the Body and food to the Natural heat and moisture in which two qualities life chiefly consisteth And for this cause Physicians frequently advise their Patients to nourish that Affection in them and to avoide the contrary namely Sorrow and Sadness which last being cold and dry and so hindering the circulation of the Blood debilitating the Animal and Natural vertues and obstructing the distribution of due nourishment becometh an Enemy to life by the consequent Consumption of the Body Now upon this agreement and Sympathy between the Body and Soul the Current of this Discourse mainly though not only proceedeth In which you have the best and yet the cheapest Physick that can be prescribed brought unto you not from the Apothecaries Shop but the Treasury of the Scriptures the Closet of the Holy Ghost and all this not with a design of destroying the bodily Physician 's Practise for when all is done there will be still need of him at one time or other but of assisting him by a more Divine and expeditious Method in his Cures as well as preventing some unnecessary trouble and charge to the Patient And so I conclude desiring thee to cover the Imperfections and Errata's of this Work which may happen through the Author's inadvertency or the Printer's negligence with the mantle of Candour and Charity and to take that in good part which is so well intended by Thy well-wishing Friend J. H. To the ingenious Author Mr. J. H. Upon his DIVINE PHYSICIAN WHat in thy serious studies may we meet When even thy recreations are so sweet Thy Book is Grace and Nature bound together Take it which way you will it answers either So prettily so piously compact Divinity and Physick keep one Act. Strange Treatise I can reach down from my shelf Consists of Soul and Body like my self Thou shew'st thy self believ 't in thy Design A good Physician and a good Divine And that Physician to the Mark comes close That cures both Soul and Body with a Dose Go on and prosper fourth and fifth Edition Till John like Luke be the belov'd Physician M. S. The Author to his Book Go little Book and try thy fortune where More good thou may'st for least thou can'st do here Whil'st to a private shelf thou art confin'd Thou as to publick good art still behind Then venture forth and freely shew thy skill In curing such as shall thy Rules fulfil I would have sent thee in a better dress Before thou should'st have tumbled into Press But want of time and hast ' pon Life and Death May plead for thee when thou art out of breath Howe're termed Fool or a Physician As suits best with Carpers disposition Yet let thou Momus know a Fool in Print May sometime give to wiser Men a hint How dextrously to finish and compleat What e're in ruder draught is not so feat And to Accomplish what in thee 's design'd In brief A Body sound with a sound Mind THE DIVINE PHYSICIAN THE FIRST PART Demonstrating by Natural Reason and also Divine and Humane Testimony that vitious and irregular Actions and Affections do prove often occasions of most bodily Diseases and shortness of Life THE INTRODUCTION BEcause Method is Mater memoriae The Mother of memory and words must be placed as at a Feast and not as at an ordinary in this respect I shall observe some order in the following Tract First Then let us consider the excellencies and commodities of Health and long Life that so by their Encomiums we may be drawn and encouraged to follow after the best means in order to the attainment or enjoyment of them Health then in the first place is the greatest bodily blessing which God bestoweth upon any in this life though in regard of its commonness it be little regarded The benefit of this most sweet sause of all other goods is scarcely discerned by them that enjoy it till sickness come For then not only Orpheus his song but much more our own experience teacheth us that Nothing is available to men without health neither Riches nor Honour nor the greatest delights which Solomon's walk can afford Yea life it self which is so precious that skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he give for it Job 2. 4. as Sathan answered the Lord even that becomes uncomfortable without health Besides health is a special furtherance help to us in the service of God and in the performance of the duties of our Callings the want of it a great obstruction impediment to us therein For these reasons the beloved Apostle did earnestly wish his well-beloved Gaius prosperity and health Beloved I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health 3 Ep. John 2. This is that blessing which the Lord promiseth to the obedient The Lord will take away from thee all sickness that blessing which the Apostle Paul thought worthy to be preserved carefully as appeareth Acts 27. 34. likewise 1 Tim. 5. 23. In a word that blessing whose sweetness is so well experimented and relished after the bitterness of sickness that it were but to light a Candle before the Sun to bring forth any further testimony in the praise of it Secondly Long life may be accounted as another blessing which by its magnetick and attractive vertue may not only draw our affections as a Load-stone but also by its acuminating power set an edge upon our endeavours as a whetstone Long life is a blessing he that shall account it less doth not only forget his own natural desires but also God himself and his Commandment which promiseth length of dayes as a reward of dutifulness to Parents Natural Civil or Ecclesiastical It was a blessing of God upon Israel that being in the Wilderness forty years their garments did not wear as the garment of the Gibeonites So if in many years some Mens bodies which are as the garmentss of the Souls hold out longer than other mens as though with the Eagle he did renew their youth and God did add certain years unto their dayes as he did unto Hezekiah Isa. 37. 5. this is a great blessing For though we Christians as the Lord Verulam saith in his Epistle of the History of Life and Death do continually aspire and pant after the Land of Promise yet it will be a token of God's favour towards us in our journeyings thorow this worlds wilderness to have our shoes and garments I mean those of our frail bodies little worn or impaired Surely as it is a curse upon the wicked not to live out half his dayes Psal. 55. 23. A plague upon the ungodly that they die in their youth Job 36. 14. A punishment upon Eli and his Sons for their sins that there should not be an old man in his house for ever but
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
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
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.
be drawn from the skill of Chiromancy or Palmistry which undertaketh by marks and lines in the hands especially by the line of Life to measure the extent of every Man's life with the time and degree of every dangerous Disease incident thereunto and so thereby maketh void the use of all means tending to the temporal end of this Discourse Solut. In the confutation of this error let the Testimony of a late Author suffice The lines in the hands saith he which are counted Nature's Manuscripts are but the folds of the skin when the hand bends inwardly neither proper to any who have their feet alwayes extended by the same reason we have not those now which we had in our infancy but by accidents Diseases and labour are changeable A Book fit for Justices to discover idleness Dr. Robinson in his Miscellanious Treatise Lastly Another Objection is from those that pretend Wizards and Witches c. the Oracles of the Devil can prophecy or predict the certain term of Man's life with the manner of his death and if so say they then how can vertue prorogue or vice abbreviate Man's life Solut. I answer briefly that Sathan though he can give a notable intelligence to some who are his Oracles yet his knowledge for the most part is but conjectural Indeed his experience as he is an old Serpent and his knowledge as he is an Angel are both very great He can quickly take cognizance of the position of matters how things are in their precedent causes both Natural and Moral Thus supposing that it was the Devil in Samuel's Mantle that did fore-tell the precise time of Saul's death 1 Sam. 28. 19. yet it doth not imply the absolute certainty of the Devil's prediction or the fatal necessity of Saul's death nor is it any wonder if the Devil speaks as he doth For David was anointed Saul grows worse and worse and now the top-stone sin was laid on namely his going to a Witch and a battel was at hand to be fought all the prodromi or fore-runners of his approaching ruine The Conclusion And now to conclude the Result of the whole is that of the Philosopher Ex sanitate in Anima sit sanitas in Corpore From health in the Soul ariseth health in the Body Arist. lib. 7. Meta. Or if you will taste the summ and substance of the whole Treatise in the words of an eminent Author T. H. R. E. Fellow of the Royal Society in his late Discourse of the Excellency of Theology p. 130. which just now saluted mine eye and gave me such a fair Prospect in parvo of my preceding Discourse as I will not let them pass but shall here insert them both for strength and ornament thereunto He who effectually teaches Men to subdue their Lusts and Passions saith he does as much as the Physician contribute to the preservation of their Bodies by exempting them from those vices whose no less usual than structive Effects are Wars and Duels and Rapines and Desolations and the Pox and Surfeits and all the train of other Diseases that attend Gluttony and Drunkenness Idleness and Lust which are not Enemies to Man's life and health barely upon a Physical account but upon a Moral one as they provoke God to punish them with emporal as well as Spiritual Judgments such as Plagues Wars Famines and other publick Calamities that sweep away a great part of Mankind And a little further he addeth Those Teachers that make Men Virtuous and Religious by making them temperate and chaste and inoffensive and calm and contented do help them to those Qualifications that by preserving the mind in a calm and cheerful temper as well as by affording the Body all that Temperance can confer do both lengthen their lives and sweeten them Thus He. Wherefore since Righteousness as the Wise man saith tendeth to life and he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death Prov. 11. 19. let our chiefest care be ut sit mens sana in corpore sano That a healthful mind be in a healthful Body that as by the soundness of the one we enjoy the sweetness of our Temporal life so by the soundness of the other we may have the happy fruition both of Temporal here and of Eternal life hereafter FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL INDEX A Dultery Fornication Uncleanness c. sins destructive to Soul and Body and an Objection for the use thereof answered 33 c. Ambition and the evils thereof in respect of Soul and Body 73 77. Anger and its discommodities when in excess 48 c. Astrology judicial the vanity thereof and that neither the certain time of sickness nor term of Man's life can be rationally predicted thereby 194 c. B. Blasphemy vide Swearing C. Care excessive and immoderate hurtful to Soul and Body 75 Covetousness Ibid. Chiromancy and the vanity thereof shewing that the time and degree of Diseases and the extent of life can not be infallibly or rationally predicted thereby 197. D. The Devil how far he can cause diseases 110. Diseases sometimes cured without Natural means 136 137. Diligence in our Calling vide Labour Drunkenness prejudicial to the health of Soul and Body and also long life 25 c. An Objection for the use thereof answered 31 c. E. Envie a cause of diseases and shortness of life 51. F. Faith a powerful means of bodily health and this in a super-natural way 138 c. Also in a natural way 149. Fear if slavish and excessive dangerous to Soul and Body 66 c. Fasting a religious duty and both preventive and curative Physick to the Body 166 to 174. G. Gluttony the evil effects thereof in Soul and Body 18 to 25. God when Natural means fail by his Almighty power can cure diseases without them 140 144. Grief if wordly and immoderate an enemy to health and long life 54 to 62. H. Hatred vide Envie Health its Encomium and the commodities thereof 2. It cometh from God and therefore thanks to be returned to him for it 147 148. Healing the gift thereof whether ceased in the Church 135 c. Hope very advantagious to health and long life 151 c. I. Idleness how injurious to health 42 c. Joy sensual and immoderate injurious to Soul and Body 63 to 66. Joy moderate and well-grounded a promoter of health 153. Imagination the power thereof in relation to health 150. Intemperance and the many discommodities thereof 17 c. K. Kings and Princes why commonly they arrive not to any great age 152. The Kings Evil miraculously cured and the manner thereof described 140 c. L. Labour the benefite thereof to the Body as well as Soul 154 to 158. Laughter vide Sensual Joy Learning vide Study Long life a great blessing 3. Whether the bounds of Life be predetermined with an Answer to an Objection 187 to 193. The Lord's day prophaned what judgments have ensued upon the Offenders 99. Love how it becomes advantagious to the health both of Body and Soul 153. M. Means natural means must not be neglected in the cure of diseases nor altogether relied upon 138 145. N. Nature in Man's Body under God the best Physician yet stands in need of outward assistances 163 164. O. The Ordinances as the Word of God and the holy Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper being contemned or abused what bodily plagues temporal destruction have followed 92 to 99. Obedience to Paronts rewarded with long life 117 118. And how the promise of long life is to be understood 119. Also what is meant by Obedience to Parents 121 122 P. Perjury vide Swearing The Physician learned and conscientious worthy of double honour and his skill to be made use of with good success but yet with a proviso 147. Prayer being devout and zealous a powerfulpromoter of bodily health and long life 122. Of annointing the sick Body as a Ceremony annexed to Prayer and the judgment of our Church concerning it 127 c. Some Objections against the use of Prayer answered 129 c. Pride punished with bodily plagues and destruction 104. Divine Providence the manner of its influence in procuring health and long life to the Godly 178. R. Repentance how it procures health and long life how it prevents diseases and destruction 138. Religion or a religious life how it becomes advantagious to health and long life 149. S. Sin in general an occasion of bodily diseases and shortness of life and this in a super-natural way 6. Also how it is a Natural cause of diseases 16 17 c. Item how an accidental cause 83. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper unworthily received how dangerous to Soul and Body vide The Ordinances Sacriledge the punishment of it declared in corporal plagues and destruction 100. Saints the long lives of many Prophets and Saints in Holy Scripture and the cause imputed 145. Sloth and Slugishness vide Idleness Society and good company how sometimes advantagious to health by consolatory discourses 177. Sorrow vide Grief The Soul and Bodies Sympathy and mutual concurrence in the production of diseases 111. Study if immoderate and unseasonable an enemy to health and long life 78. Swearing Blasphemy c. how punished 101. T. Teachers and Preachers how much they contribute by their wholesome Discourses towards the health and long life of their obedient Auditors 199 200. Temperance and the many commodities thereof in relation to the prevention and cure of diseases and to the proroguing of life 158 c. The bounds of Temperance 174. V. Vain-glory vide Pride Vertue and vertuous actions and affections explained 144. W. Witches and Magicians how they can sometimes cause diseases and death 110. They cannot predict the certain term of Man's life with the manner of his death 198. FINIS Fuller's Comment on 11 Chap. of 1 Cor. p. 79. H. Brook in his Conservatory of Health Hector Boeth History of Scotland H Brook's Conservatory of Health p. 187. 2d Part of the French Academy p. 262. D. Charton's Exercitationes Path. p. 112. Vid. Des-Cartes de Passionibus Artic. 106. Dr. Bernard upon his Life and Death in a Funeral Sermon p. 27 This is true when the sore is in the glandules of the neck but when it is elsewhere it is said by some that have been often touched that the King gently toucheth only the cheeks of the party grieved
18. And as touching False fear though it be rather a fruit of weakness and a punishment of sin for so 't is threatned as a punishment by the Lord Lev. 26. 17 36. then a sin in it self yet as it is irregular it is concluded within the scope of this Discourse and as it is frequent or excessive may justly deserve reproof Distrustful fear is straitly prohibited by those Apostles Peter 1 Pet. 3. 14. and John Rev. 2. 10. Yea all Natural fear when it is joined with distrust and diffidence or excess is to be avoided as unwarrantable in Sacred Writ Num. 14. 9. 2 Kings 6. 16. And was therefore by Nehemiah resisted Nehem. c. 6. v. 11. Now as all unlawful and immoderate fear is to be avoided in regard of the Soul so also in regard of the Body For it is often the cause of Diseases as first of that called in Latin Tremor in English Trembling or shaking of the Members Metus dejicit vires ac proinde tremorem inducit saith the learned Galen Com. 1. in lib. 3. Epid. cap. 4. Fear brings down the strength and so causeth trembling His meaning more largely might be thus viz. that the heat which resides in the Blood and Spirits being that which supports and fortifies the members of Man those members being destitute thereof can hardly support themselves but tremble and shake in that manner and whereas the hands and lips shew greater signs of alteration then the rest the reason is for that those parts have a more strict bond with the heart and have less blood then the rest and therefore cold doth more easily make an impression upon them Also it is sometimes the cause of that disease called Cordis Palpitatio Panting of the heart Deut. 28. 65. or at least of the like Symptoms and those as dangerous especially when they precede a Syncope or Swounding which is as proper an effect and Catastrophe of this Passion as of that disease Moreover it is sometimes the extimulating promoting cause of the Lask or Diarrhaea for as the Author of a certain Natural History saith if the Natural heat leave the heart and go downward the fear is not only encreased but it bringeth withal a loosness of the belly Therefore it is written saith he in the Book of Job where it is spoken of the fear that Leviathan bringeth upon Men That the mighty are afraid by reason of breakings they purifie or purge themselves Job 41. 25. i. e. for fear of him Neither is this all but experience teacheth us at a dear rate that in immoderate fear through the strength of fantasie and imagination sundry contagious Diseases as the Small Pox Measles c. are frequently imprinted in the blood when guilt makes Men fearful of deserved punishment according to that of the Wise man The fear of the wicked it shall come upon him Prov. 10. 24. And as it causeth Diseases so consequently shortness of life Oft-times present death hath followed upon it through suffocation of the Vital Spirits It was almost present death unto the Churle Nabal he lived not many dayes after that he had been striken with it It came to pass in the morning when the wine was gone out of Nabal and his wife had told him these things that his heart died within him and he became as a stone 1 Sam. 25. 37 38. And in the next Verse we find that he died about ten dayes after It put the Watch at Christ's Sepulcher into such a shaking fit by an Earth-quake under them Mat. 28. 4. and another within their hearts that but for God's Mercy it had shaked them into their Graves when they became as dead Men. It seemeth to be a notable contraction of life by its sudden introduction of the blossoms of old age viz. gray hairs which by the extremity of this Passion have been strangely effected in the space of a week or two as 't is storied of one Mr. Baynings of London Yea even in one night as appeareth by Record of a memorable example during the Reign of the Emperour Charles the Fifth For one Francis Gonzague having caused a young Man of his house to be comitted to Prison for that he suspected he had conspired against him this miserable young Man was so terrified with his affliction as the same night he was cast into Prison his hair grew all white But more fully to the matter we find the sad and pernicious effect of immoderate fear in this following Narration Anno 1568. there was in Breda one Peter Coulogue a Godly Man who by his Popish Adversaries was cast into Prison and his Maid-servant daily brought him his food confirming and comforting him out of the Word of God as well as she was able for which they imprisoned her also Not long after Peter was put to the torment which he endured patiently After him the Maid was fetched to be tormented Whereupon she said My Masters wherefore will ye put me to this torture seeing I have no way offended you If it be for my Faith-sake ye need not torment me For as I was never ashamed to make a Confession thereof no more will I now be at this present before you But will if you please freely shew you my mind therein Vide Clark's Martyrol p. 305. Yet for all this they would have her to the Rack Whereupon she again said If I must needs suffer this pain pray give me leave to call upon my God first This they assented to And whilst she was fervently pouring out her prayers to God one of the Commissioners was surprised with such fear and terrour that he fell into a swound out of which he could never be recovered Many such like Instances might be heap'd up were it not in vain to evince this Point Per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora By many words which may be done by few And therefore I shall conclude it with the Sentence of that Atlas of Experimental Knowledge Lord Bacon in his translated History of Life and Death pag. 222. Great fears shorten the life for saith he in fear by reason of the cares taken for the remedy and hopes inter-mixed there is a turmoil and vexing of the Spirits And so much shall serve for this Section SECT X. Of Immoderate Desires Ambition excessive Cares Sollicitude Covetousness c. OMne nimium vertitur in vitium All extremes become vicious and those Epithites Immoderate and Excessive signifie as much in relation to Desires Ambition Cares Sollicitude c. and therefore the less shall need to be inferred for the arraignement of them Know then briefly that the above-named are all Diseases of the Soul Ambition which is an immoderate desire or thirst after Honour and Worldly glory is a Spiritual Dropsie that is not easily cured not only a great sin in it self but puts Men upon many others There is nothing saith one the Author of the whole Duty of Man p. 151. so horrid which a Man that eagerly
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
their Habitation were smitten with blindness Gen. 18. 11. A just and proper punishment to stop up those lights that were the windows or inlets and outlets of such abominable lust and concupiscence Lastly what shall I more say to borrow the Apostle's Phrase Heb. 11. for the time would fail me to tell of Miriam who for sedition was punished with a Leprosie Num. 12. 10. Of Gehazi that for covetousness and dissimulation of King Azariah who for not removing the high Places 2 Kings 5. 27. 15. 4 5. and King Uzziah that for invading the Priest's Office 2 Chron. 26. 20. were smitten with the same virulent Disease And of Belshazzar who for rioting and revelling amongst his pots had the end of his life as well as Kingdom denounced against him by a bodiless hand-writing upon the wall the Lord's decree Dan. 5. and also of a Cloud of witnesses more in Divine and Humane Records portending a showr of wrath and vengeance from Heaven upon all impenitent Sinners even in this life by Corporal plagues and destruction I shall therefore add only thus much more to the summ and then give you the total viz. that as God is a supernatural Agent and his Power is not to be limitted to Natural means in regard it is evident by many instances that he can and sometimes doth work without means in the production of sundry Diseases and mortal Distempers a truth not much taken notice of by such as would comprehend all causes and effects within the Sphaere of Nature so likewise the Devil by God's permission for the punishment of some sins hath power to cause sickness and that supernaturally So he did afflict Saul with the vehemency of a frenzy and melancholy Distemper 1 Sam. 16. 23. So he did the Lunaticks Mark 9. and many Daemoniacal Persons with strange maladies Luke 13. yea and still doth act over his old part in these last dayes though not so frequently as in Christ's getting possession in many even in this Nation as History and our own experience can demonstrate And as he can perform this by himself so likewise by his Complices and Instruments as Witches and Magicians who by God's permission can cause most Diseases yea sometimes death it self to such as they bear malice as might more fully appear de facto by a Book intituled The Arraignement and Trial of witches at Lancaster and York But yet their power is so limited by an Higher that not all whom they spleen are subject to it but only or mostly such as will not be gathered under the wings of God's Providence and protection straying so far in sin as until they become a prey unto Satan and his Hellish Spies who will at least infest their Bodies with Diseases and sudden mortality though mercy perhaps may step in betimes to redeem their Souls And thus may we discern the truth of this Point that those sundry sins which I have mentioned in this Chapter are in a supernatural way principal occasions of bodily Diseases and shortness of Life A Corollary The Result of the whole preceding Discourse is that as the Body by a powerful influence works upon the affections of the Soul so the Soul works most effectually upon the qualities and temperature of the Body producing by her Passions and perturbations wonderful alterations as most Diseases and sometimes death it self For sin is the cause of that excess which is in the qualities of which our Bodies are made and consequently of the Diseases that proceed from thence which afterward bring death to the Body But this is not all for sometimes it comes to pass that when those effects are not produced by such natural means the mind being corrupted and viciated doth draw them down from Heaven being supernaturally wrought for the greater testimony of God's power and vengeance upon obstinate Offenders So then that is most true which Plato saith in his Charmides Omnia corporis mala ab animâ procedere All the mischiefs of the body proceed from the soul. And thus much shall suffice to have run over the First Part of this Undertaking which was to demonstrate by Natural Reason and also by Divine and Humane Testimony that vicious and irregular actions and affections prove often occasions of most bodily Diseases and of shortness of Life THE SECOND PART Demonstrating by Natural Reason and also Divine and Humane Testimony that vertuous and regular actions and affections do conduce to the preservation of Health and prolongation of Life CHAP. I. In a Transition from the First Part to the Second the terms vertuous and regular and explained and the method of the subsequent Discourse is declared THe cause of the Disease being known the Cure is the more readily wrought and in this respect I shall be the more brief in this my Second Part because Contraria contrariis illustrantur Contraries are illustrated by contraries and that in such a manner as the First Part being admitted for a truth the Second may Regulâ contrariorum By the Rule of contraries succeed as a necessary consequence But before I proceed to further illustration I shall explicate the terms By the term vertuous we may understand godliness honesty of life and good manners For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vertue according to the ordinary known notion of it signifieth probity of manners among Men as the generical word that contains all Moral and Christian vertues under it in which sense it is used by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If there be any vertue Phil. 4. 8. And also by St. Peter 2 Pet. 1. 3. as you may take notice of by viewing the Original and the Annotations of the learned Dr. Hammond upon the same So by the word regular we understand such actions and affections as are squared according to the direction of God's Word which is a rule to go and work by As many saith the Apostle as walk according to this rule or Canon Gal. 6. 16. Hence the Scriptures are called Canonical because they contain and give a perfect rule of Faith and manners unto the Church which is bound to walk obediently according to this rule and to give testimony to it and not by her authority to over-rule it and the sense of it as many do without blushing Likewise by this term regular we may apprehend and comprehend whatsoever is according to the dictates or rules of right reason in the whole course and carriage of a Moral Prudent Christian and Religious conversation And this I might easily prove by shewing the great congruity that is between that light and the Laws that God hath placed in our Souls and the duties of Religion that by the expresness of his written Word he requires from us and demonstrate that reason teacheth all those excepting only the two positives Baptism and the Holy Eucharist as a learned modern Author hath said before me in his Sermon ad Clerum upon Rom. 12. and latter part of the first Vers. Which is your reasonable service
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