LETTERS TO A Sick Friend, CONTAINING SUCH OBSERVATIONS AS MAY Render the Use of Remedies Effectual towards The Removal of SICKNESS, AND PRESERVATION OF HEALTH.  
By J. M.  
LONDON, Printed by J. A. for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside, near Mercer's Chapel, 1682.   

The PUBLISHERS EPISTLE TO THE READER.  
THese ingenuous and excellent Letters being sent me at several times, and upon particular Occasions, from the City of London, into the Country, I thought them very well deserving to be exposed to public View, as containing most necessary Observations tending to Health and long Life, with the Way to render Remedies Effectual: A Theme I do not remember I ever saw in Print before. The Subject is Great and Noble, and the Style is smooth and pleasant, and accommodate to the Genius of this Age: And I am of Opinion, that if the Divine and Physical Intimations given in these Letters, were improved to Practice, the Use of Remedies would very seldom fail of success, and most men might arrive unto a very great Age, and their passage through this World would be much more Easy and Comfortable, than which nothing can be more desirable. I hearty wish they may be as Delightful and Useful to thee in Print, as they were to me and some others in Manuscript; and then I am recompensed for the Publication, and shall more easily obtain the Authors Pardon for thus Reading them aloud to the whole World.  
T. C.   

LETTERS TO A Sick Friend TENDING TO HEALTH.  

LETTER I.  
SIR,  
I Received yours dated the thirteenth instant, wherein you give me an account of the loss of your Health, and also request me to give you such prudential Observations as may tend towards your Recovery. Sir, you know my Service is always at your Beck; but I must take leave to tell you, that I cannot serve you better in such a deplorable Distemper as yours is, than to persuade you to take the Advice of your able and Learned Physician, whose Prescriptions have so often been attended with success. Need I use Arguments to persuade a wise man to endeavour to restore his Health? Sir, your Health is highly valuable upon a public as well as upon a private account, it being subservient unto the good of Communities as well as of particular persons. A whole Fleet hath been disabled for two Months by the Indisposition of the Admiral, and two Towns lost by the Governor falling ill in the time of the Sieges. Accidents of Health sometimes become Accidents of State; and the pulse of the Government sometimes beats high or low with that of the Governor. Health is that which makes all our Delights delightful. A sound Mind in a sound Body, consummates the perfection of Humane Nature. The Health of the Body conduceth unto the Harmony of the Soul, and the Harmony of the Soul preserves the Health of the Body: It preserves the Faculties of the Mind in strength and vigour, clears the Understanding, makes the Wit acute, and the Memory retentive. Without Health the most delicious Dainties 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 Object will not please the Eye, nor the softest Down ease the Bones. When men's flesh upon them is in pain, it makes their Souls within them to mourn. Health is that which is of most Comfortable Importance next unto the Salvation of the Souls of men; especially when we consider what a multitude of Distempers the mortal Bodies of men are exposed unto. Some Physicians have found two hundred in that small and tender part the Eye. Our bodies are like a Curious Instrument of a thousand strings; and it's very wonderful if one or more of those strings be not out of tune. It were a great favour, if it were the pleasure of Heaven, to give men a constant frame of Health during their pilgrimage, and might very deservedly be reckoned amongst the Catalogue of our Mercies, to have our bodies like the Jews bodies in the Wilderness, little worn or impaired by pining sicknesses. If the Woman in the Gospel had spent all her substance upon any thing but the inestimable Jewel of her Health, she had not gone out of our Saviour's presence without a Reprehension. If men did but consider 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 and Blood, they would then admire that every Obstruction did not stop their breath, and that the least Inflammation did not send them out of the World as in a fiery Chariot, and that the least Degree of putrefaction did not crumble them into their first Original; so that instead of wondering they live no more in health, they would think it strange they live one hour in ease. All our good things may be reduced into those of the Mind, of the Body, and of Fortune; which three if enjoyed, render a man as happy as Solomon in all his Glory. He that hath Health to enjoy his Riches, Grace to preserve his Health, and the hope of Glory to remunerate his Grace, needs no more. When a healthy Constitution and a holy Disposition join hand in hand, they complete our Happiness. Health without Religion is but like a Down Pillow to a Restless Head, which the best Chamberlain cannot make easy: And Riches without Health is but like Meat without a Stomach, which the best Cook cannot make relishing. Restauration to health is a Kind of Resurrection, and it's called by St. James a Raising up. When the Organs of our bodies are untuned, and our Spirits are wasted by Sickness, our Souls cannot act with Vivacity; our teeming Invention becomes barren, our soaring Fancy droops and hangs the wing, and the remembrance of things pass away as water through a Sieve; men's parts and abilities being according unto the number, activity and orderly motion of their Spirits; and they are more or less pure and regular, according unto the Healthy Complexion of the Blood and Humours.  
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, than the Sun and the Moon and the Stars will be darkened. 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, all the Groans and Complaints of Dying Mortals, how would Health and Ease be prized by such a one? But Health is never so much prized, as when it brings Letters of Recommendation from Sickness. But, Sir, that your Pulse may beat harmoniously, and your Blood circulate regularly to extreme old Age, is the Wish of  
Your entirely affectionate Friend, J. M.   

LETTER II.  
SIR,  
I Received yours, dated the tenth instant, wherein you give me an account of your reception of the last Remedies I sent you; but I am sorry to hear you should be guilty of so great a Mistake, as to think that no Observation of yours can render the use of Medicines subservient towards Health and long Life. Sir, I pray give me leave to assert the contrary, and to prove, that the practice of Piety and true Religion, have a wonderful tendency towards long Life. If you desire to wear a Crown of Glory in this World and the next also, it may be obtained by grey Hairs found in the Way of Righteousness: And you know it's promised as a Blessing to the Good man, that he shall come to his Grave in a full Age, as a Shock of Corn comes in its season. The beloved Disciple of our Lord survived the other Disciples; and many of the Fathers of the Church were long-lived: Which shows that the Blessing of long Life, so often promised under the Law, had less abatement after our Saviour's days than other Blessings had, Enoch and Elias never Died, and became Examples that a spotless Life might possibly have been Immortal, as it is probable that Man before his Fall was: Yet had he never sinned, perhaps he had not still remained here upon Earth; though his Age might have been extended to some thousands of years, and at length have been translated from hence to Heaven, where he could neither have sinned nor died.  
When our great and wise Creator made Man the Masterpiece of his Creation, he was pleased as an expression of his Kindness to plant him in a Garden, wherein he might have an opportunity at the same time both to Contemplate his Maker's Goodness, and to preserve his own Life; being furnished with supernatural Wisdom, he could discern the particular Qualities of those Plants with which he conversed: But Man being too familiar with the Tree of Knowledge, forfeited his Right unto the Tree of Life, and hath exposed himself unto the assaults of innumerable Diseases. But such is the kindness of Heaven unto Man in his lapsed state, that he is pleased to promise some of the Influences of this Symbolical Tree, upon his Obedience unto the Divine Will: So that by our Observance of the Eternal Laws of Evangelical Purity, which are prescribed as the Christians Rule, we may as it were transplant the Tree of Life into our own Gardens, and sit under the shadow thereof with great Delight, and its fruit may become sweet unto our taste: There are certain practices which have a great tendency towards long Life; and this the inspired Penman intimates when he saith, Righteousness tendeth to life; and there are frequent Promises of long Life made to the Obedient. Caleb and Joshua survived all the Jews who came out of Egypt, the rest were not suffered to see Canaan, lest they should introduce Egyptian Innovations. Nothing doth more conduce unto the preservation of our natural Health, than our living the Divine Life; but when our Expectations and Actions are wholly employed about the Gratifications of the Animal Life, we do but prepare for the Messenger of the Grave. The practice of serious Christianity is a great friend unto the Health of Humane Nature. The circumstantial actions of Religion are very influential towards the lengthening men's Lives; as the sweet sleep of temperate persons, their freedom from violent and enraged Passions, with the admirable Contentment that dwells in a holy Conscience; also the great Moderation that's exercised by such Persons. 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, and a universal Harmony in the Mind. These things make the Lamp of Life burn bright and clear; and from hence by the favour of Divine Clemency Health springeth forth speedily. Plato's Observation is excellent, That all the Pleasures of the Body proceed from the Joy of the Mind: The breaking off our sins by Righteousness, many times proves a lengthening of our temporal Tranquillity. The Jewish Doctors say, That Adam felt no Cold notwithstanding he was naked, because he had Communion with God; but as soon as ever he had eaten the forbidden Fruit, his Head ached. Faith and Obedience, like the Tree 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 Friendly Influences in the Host of Heaven. The Jews came under a Promise of having their Bread and their Water blessed, and Sickness removed, if they obeyed the Divine Law: And Solomon urgeth the consideration of our Health as a strong Argument to promote holy and Religious Fear; telling us it should be health unto our Navels, and marrow to our Bones: And Godliness 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 shall be added, as the Wisest of men observed. Yielding Subjection unto the Father of Spirits, is as sure a way to obtain the Blessing of Health and 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 a Christians goods, when drawn up by the great Apostle of the Gentiles. And the inspired Penmen frequently prescribe Religion as an Antidote against immature Death, it being a direct Enemy unto Sin which brought in Sickness. True goodness doth as well conduce to the prolongation of the Body in natural Life, as to 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 Lifeguard. We live by the Word of Blessing out of the Mouth of God; every Command, if observed, like Food and Physic tends unto the lengthening our Days: Now although it be a known truth, that of ourselves we can do nothing; yet it is as true, that by the Grace of God we may do much in the practice of Religion, and consequently may contribute towards the lengthening of our Days, and rendering the use of Medicines effectual towards that great and noble end. Moreover, Religion secures Men from the Terrors of a guilty Conscience, which many times makes Men wash their Hands in their own blood; and it also preserves Men from the Condemnation of Humane Tribunals, many being cut off by the Hand of Justice, for their flagitious impieties, as Murders, Thefts and Rapines. But Sir, that the great Preserver of Men may so balance the Humours in your Body, that you may live to see the accomplishment of all your good Wishes, is the hearty Wish of him who hath no more time left at present, than to tell you that he is and will be  
Yours in the most unreserved Respects. J. M.   

LETTER III  
SIR,  
THis comes to Kiss your Hand, and to make an Inquiry after the happy Success of the last Remedies, and also to encourage your Perseverance in their use, although you do not presently find them answer your expectation: for I hope you do not expect Medicines to Operate merely by their natural Energy infused into them at their first Creation, but also know that their efficacy doth depend primarily upon the Pleasure of the Divine Will, who hath limited the periods of humane Life: We Live not at an Adventure, but the manner and Moment's of our Life and Death come under a Divine appointment, and the success of all Remedies depends upon the peculiar Blessing of Heaven. The most Infallible way to have our Distempers removed, is to endeavour to procure the concourse of that Divine Influence, and to engage the Sovereign Power of that Almighty Healer, unto whom belong the Issues from Death. Though our Lord was not corporally present with Lazarus, yet he knew without Creature Intelligence that he was Dead, and told his Disciples so; God also told Samuel that Moses was Dead. It matters not who Plants or Waters, if God denies to give the Increase. The Divine Favour is the best Screen to shelter men from the innumerable Accidents of Humane Life, in which every Minute we are Surrounded with a Thousand Deaths and dangers. When the great Preserver of Men withdraws his protection, we are left exposed to the malignant Aspects of Planets, to the fatal Contingencies of Wars and Battles, and are endangered by every Accident; the Dust of a Wheel, the fall of a Tile, the largeness of a Morsel, the Lash of a Whip, the unevenness of a Stone, the Plenty of a Humour, may stop our Breath. It is a confessed truth, that every natural motion hath its beginning, duration and period, dependent on the pleasure of the first Mover: now the Life of Man being a nutural motion, our Nativity and Death are both ordered by that Omnipotent Agent, in whom we live, move, and have our being. The Disciples themselves could not cure Diseases at all times, if they could, St. Paul would not have left Trophimus Sick at Miletum, nor have Sorrowed so much for Epaphroditus' Sickness. The Life of Man consisting in a requisite Harmony of Qualities, and in a due commixture of the natural Heat and radical moisture, which Harmony is more or less, according unto the more or less exquisite temperament 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, numbered our Months, and set our Bounds, which we cannot pass without his leave who gave us the durability of our temperaments, and compassed our periods within the Circle of his special Providence. To imagine the Life of Man fixed beyond the possibility of being prolonged or shortened by an Almighty pleasure, seems highly unreasonable; because he hath reserved a power in his own Hands to contract or prorogue as he pleaseth; Sometimes Divine Wisdom best knowing his own Reasons, doth resolve the Death of some Persons, and then the most proper Remedies are used in vain, either towards the removal of Sickness, or the preservation of Health. The universal Conserver of all things, takes notice of the principal and subsequent Causes of things, Governing, Disposing and Ordering according unto his own free Will, and yet his Government is void of any fatal Violence, and comes to an efficiency from the ordination of various natural causes and humane elections, which prove the occasions of supporting or destroying Life. Divine goodness doth not abolish, but Disposeth of future Contingencies without nulling the freedom of the Agent; he moderates and governs Events according to his pleasure, and yet suffers the Creature to exercise its own proper motions. The rage of Men and Devils cannot accelerate the motions of Divine Providence. A Sparrow doth not fall to the ground, much less a man into the Grave, without a Divine Permission. The Manner and Moment's of our death are not the effects of Contingency: To God the Lord belongs the Issues from death, or in the Original, the Inlets to Death, viz. Diseases. Natural Remedies are but like Elijah's Staff laid upon the dead Child, they will not help unless a supernatural virtue concurs. The Egyptians in their Temples had a remarkable Hieroglyphic, A Young man, an Old man, and a Hawk in the middle: Intimating, the Beginning and Period of humane Life depends upon the Influence of divine Providence. Josiah's death might seem the effect of Juvenile rashness in War, but it conduced towards the accomplishment of Huldah's Prophecy. The Advice of the Philistine Diviners is very observable: When the People were smitten with Hemorrhoids, they prescribed the offering up of golden Hemorroids, thinking by that mystical Remedy to appease the Displeasure of Heaven; and to intimate, that they thought the best of their Substance not valuable, to purchase Health; but chief to represent their Belief that the Cure of Diseases depended upon a divine Influence.  
Many smart the longer under the Rod of God, because they eye not the Hand that moves it. The Rabbins say, when Jeroboam's Hand withered, the false Prophets told him it came by Chance, thereby to divert his reflections from the first Cause. Some have observed, that the best way to cure the Kings-Evil is by the Stroke of the King's Hand; and sure the best way to remove the smart of Distempers inflicted by the Hand of God, is to consider that it is his Hand: No man knows, when Divine Providence, who hath the Pen in his Hand, and writes down the Days and Actions of our Lives, will be pleased to set a Comma of Afflictions, or a Period of Death. The Weights and Plummets of Man's restless Impatience, cannot make the Clock of God's appointed time strike one Minute sooner than he hath set it: And he only hath appointed how many tedious Days and wearisome Nights we shall have, before the bright Morning of Eternity dawn upon us. The reason why Natural Remedies do many times prove ineffectual, is because there is a Determinate season wherein all Persons and things must have their final issue. Thus we find Moses died the Year before the People entered into Canaan: Daniel some few Years before the Foundation of the Temple: And John the Baptist in the first Year of the Baptism of our blessed Saviour, when the Gospel he began to preach, was to be published in its Glory: At their seasons they must go their ways to rest, and lie down until they receive their lot at the end of Days. If God had not the Disposal of the Lives of Men in his own Hands, what miserable confusions would there be in the World? If Alexander the Great had been strangled in the Cradle, how could the Prophecies of Daniel have been fulfilled concerning him? The Jews could not prejudice the Life of the Lord of Life, until that hour which was appointed to be his last hour was come: For, as it is appointed once to Die, so also when to Die: and that you may enjoy a Long and Healthful Life, and at last a happy Eternity, is the prayer of  
Your humble Servant, J. M.   

LETTER IU.  
SIR,  
I Joyfully entertained the welcome News of the good success of your last Remedies, but am sorry to find you attribute all to Necessity; as if because the Period of Humane Life is appointed, and the success of Medicines depends upon a Supernatural Concourse; therefore to infer, we cannot be accessary towards the shortening of our own Days. Sir, it is a fond Opinion, and a great mistake so to think: for the Jews were wickedly instrumental in taking away the Life of the Lord of Life, notwithstanding they did nothing but what Divine goodness had determined before to be done. The Prophet told Amaziah, he knew God had Determined to destroy him, and yet he also tells him, that he was instrumental towards his own Death, in not harkening unto the Voice of the lord 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 World's Duration was fixed to one Hundred and twenty Years; Yet we find it not so long-lived by twenty Years; their wickedness contracted that which seemed to be a determined period.  
At what time soever the Almighty be but pleased to speak concerning a Nation, People or Person, to pluck up, to pull down or to destroy, if that Nation, People or Person turn from their evil way, he will Repent of the intended evil, whether Sickness or Mortality. The flight of that Arrow which procured King Ahabs' Death, was guided by a Divine Hand, who aimed at his Mortal Wounds; yet his rash going to Battle by the advice of his false Prophets, rendered him instrumental towards his own Death. The Evangelical Prophet tells us of a Consumption determined upon the whole Earth, occasioned by their great Provocations: The Divine determination concerning our Lives should not lessen our care to preserve our Lives. King David understood that the determination concerning the Child's Death was past, yet he prayed and used means to restore it. It's a Turkish Principle, to dream that because the manner and moments of men's Deaths are appointed, therefore to think it Vanity and Cowardice to arm ourselves, or Antidote our Bodies against the injuries of War and Assaults of Diseases.  
A Man may live out all God's time, who wickedly shortens his own, and may be permitted to do those forbidden Acts which inevitably tend to his own destruction, and cut the Thread of his Days.  
The Israelites Murmuring anticipated their Funerals, and Buried them in the Wilderness, notwithstanding their Promise of seeing Canaan. The Impiety of the old World, brought a Deluge, which possibly might have been prevented, had their Repentance been as visible as that of Ninive, who were Reprieved from Execution, after the Sentence of Death seemed Passed upon them, their Reformation prevented Ruin and Destruction.  
The addition of fifteen Years to Hezekias' Life, was the result of the Divine Favour, but not without signal demonstrations of Repentance. The Rabins tell us of one going to gather his Remedies prescribed by King Solomon against his peculiar Distemper, was met by an Apparition of Death in the shape of a Skeleton, which 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 Moral is obvious enough to a wise man, unto whom a word is enough: And I pray Sir excuse this unravelling my Thoughts in such a ruffled manner from  
Your Health's Friend, J. M.   

LETTER V.  
SIR,  
THese Medicines the Doctor hath now Prescribed, I have conveyed unto you according unto your desire; the Directions are given with the particular Parcels: and I am of Opinion that a firm belief that men may be many ways accessary towards the shortening their own days, may much conduce towards the good Success of Remedies, by exciting greater care and circumspection, and greater Piety and Prudence in the management of ourselves. Sin and Wickedness doth apparently shorten Life and multiply Diseases. The Life of Man seems to be much pared away, but it cannot be artributed unto any Decay in Nature, and its universal Frame; but rather unto the great Immorality and Imprudent extravagancy of Nations and Persons indulging effeminate, luxurious and pernicious Customs. 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' 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 men's 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 Individuals, 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 now observe one in five hundred arrive at that Age unto which they might attain by the course of Nature, but end their days in Sin and Folly. From surfeiting proceeds dissolutions of Members, relaxations of Nerves, fractures of Bones, Inflammations of Blood, Crudities of the Stomach, besides the uncleanly Consequences of Lust, which like a Dart strikes through the Liver. Our great Creator hath composed our Bodies like Lamps, and to supply the Oil consumed by the flame, hath given us Appetites of Hunger and Thirst, and Reason to guide our Appetites, and the Revelation of his Will to guide our Reason; but if men through the depravation of Nature, and the predominancy of Temptation, suffer their Appetites to dethrone their Reason, and give way to Intemperance, which extinguisheth Nature's Lamp, by corrupting the Oil, or spilling it, or blowing out the flame; men may then justly expect to be cut off in the midst of their days, and to be made a Sacrifice unto their overmuch wickedness. I''s not improbable that 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 were to perish in their wickedness before his eyes. Since Mankind Bruised himself with his Fall, he hath corrupted his Blood, and sowed the Seeds of innumerable Diseases: We daily feel the smart of our first Sentence, viz. Thou shalt die the Death; or, In Dying thou shalt Die, or, Thou shalt become exposed unto Sickness and Death. Men may naturally be said to Die daily, mouldering away by piece-meal. The forbidden Fruit hath produced a Worm that eats our Lives away. The malicious Serpent hath bruised our heel, as is observed in the Jerusalem Targum, supposed to be said to the Serpent by Almighty God, viz. When the Children of the Woman shall forsake the Commandments of the Law, thou shalt be strong, and shalt strike them on the Heel, and inflict Diseases on them. We are like men going from Jerusalem to Jericho, half dead; the Sick and the Aged being but half alive, as some Critics observe, senex quasi seminex. With the same Motion of our Lungs we draw in Air, we throw away Breath. Some parcels of ourselves steam away continually, and we live a dying Life, or a living Death. Men have shortened their days by increasing their Vices. Some men do that by Intemperance which the very Devils desire to shun, viz. Torment themselves before their time: No impious Person was ever said in Scripture to be full of Days; none being full of time, but they that are prepared for Eternity. And we never Read in the Holy Book, of any impenitent person that was ever raised from the dead, to try a second time for a Crown: Lazarus, Tabytha and the Saints at Jerusalem, came into the World only to make a Visit and declare a Glory, and to them it happened literally to have their part in the first Resurrection, upon whom the Second death shall have no power. Julian's Motto may fit every Man, An Eagle shot through with a Dart feathered with a Quill from its own Wing. The Life of Man is swifter than a Weavers Shuttle, especially if wickedness be interwoven, then divine Justice cuts the thread; excellently shadowed by the Poet's Fiction of the three fatal Sisters: The one holding the Distaff, the other drawing the Thread, the third cutting it off. men's Impieties, like Hazaels' wet Cloth, prove fatal unto their Lives and Healths, in spite of the most proper Remedies. When Sin and Sickness is mingled together, no marvel to see men's Bodies moulder, being like the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's Image, made of Day. It's no wonder to see a strange punishment to happen unto the workers of Iniquity. The Jews are very often threatened with fore Sicknesses and wonderful Plagues, if they did not hearken unto the divine Law. That a wicked Life procures a short one, we find plainly exemplified in most of the Bad Kings of Judah and Israel, as A●ijam, Athaliah, Ahaziah, Nadab, Elah, Omri, and many others; who reigned but two, three or four years apiece; and the reasons are sometimes recorded, that it was for their sins which they sinned, they shortened their Lives with their Kingdoms; in them sin and a sudden death reigned together. When men's Lusts have conceived, they bring forth Sin, and Sin when it is finished, brings forth Death. Pharaoh's bloody Persecution drowned him in the Red Sea. Ahab's cruelty proved fatal to his own Life. The Samaritan Lords infidelity pressed his Soul out of his Body. Hananiah's false Prophecy did but predict his own death. Ahaziah's evil Consultation with the God of Ekron, to know whether he should recover of his Sickness, made his Disease prove incurable. The calumniating rage of the Children against the good old Prophet, excited the rage of Bears to devour their Bodies. Herod's vainglorious Ostentation brought such a Disease upon his Body, whereof he had no reason to boast. Saphira's Perjury summoned the feet of those who had carried her Husband to his Grave, to carry her unto the same place. Benhadad's Curiosity proved the fatal Messenger of his death, the Prophet returning Answer that he might recover, but should surely die. Jeroboam's Idolatry in praying unto false gods, provoked the true God to stop his breath. Saul's disobedience unto the King of Kings, brought the King of terrors. Belshazzer for his riotous Revelling, by a Handwriting on the Wall had the end of his Life and Kingdom denounced against him. Nadab and Abihu offering strange Fire, had a stranger fire sent to devour them. The Pride of the Daughters of Zion changed their sweet Smells into a Stink, and their well-set Hair into Baldness. The Candle of the Wicked is often put out, and the Number of his Months cut off in the Middle. But, Sir, that no Cloud may have power to discompose the Serenity of your days, but that you may enjoy a Spring of Happiness in the Winter of Age, and may want nothing but Want itself, shall never be left out of the Prayers and Wishes of  
Your true Friend, J. M.   

LETTER VI.  
SIR,  
I Received your dated the sixth instant, wherein you seem to wonder, that the Cause of your disease is not long since removed, and you restored unto a state of health. I beseech you give me leave to deal plainly, and to tell you that there are Moral as well as Natural Causes of diseases; and unless both be removed, Remedies very often prove ineffectual: And the sincere belief of this conduceh very much towards the success of Medicines. Many of the Church of Corinth were sick and weak, and lost their Lives, for their unworthy reception of the Holy Supper. If men contemn the Sacred Body of the Son of God, how can they expect the Almighty goodness should take care of their bodies? and if they neglect to commemorate his Death, they have little reason to expect he should regard their Lives, although precious in his sight is the Death of his Saints. Miriam's Sedition raised a tumultous disturbance in the harmony of her health: The dissimulation of Gehaza's Tongue procured the Leprosy upon his Skin: Uzziahs invadeing the Priest's office, and Burning Incense, caused the divine displeasure to smoke against him. Abimelech was restored to his health, when he restored Abraham's Wife, but not before: When our blessed Saviour cured the man sick of a Palsy, he forgave him his sins, to show him they were the cause of his sickness. We may observe in our Saviour's days, that Infidelity did as it were tie up the hands of Omnipotence, and set bounds to the operation of his mighty Works on men's bodies. St. Anselm observes, that the reason why diseases did so much abound in his time, was, because the holy Eucharist was irreverently received at Easter. Jezabel for her Impenitence is threatened 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 Prophets are frequently Menaced with Death and Sickness, that shall presume to speak without a Mission from Heaven. In vain are external Remedies applied, when the Cause is internal: The Fable of the Kite when sick, imploring help and recovery, but being denied by reason of her rapine and violence; it affords an excellent Moral. The sickness of the Body is sometimes designed to promote the Health of the Soul; and the Leprosy on Naaman's Flesh may conduce towards the whitening of his Mind: They are sent as trials of Grace, and are Declarative of Divine mercy. When the Question was asked our Saviour, Who sinned, this Man or his Parents, that be was born Blind? Our Lord Answered, Neither this Man nor his Parents; but it was for the Declaration of Divine Mercy, that the work of God might be made manifest in his wonderful Cure and Recovery: Also the sickness of Lazarus was designed for the Glory of God, and Honour of our Saviour, that he might have an opportunity to manifest his Divine Power. Hippocrates adviseth Physicians, to search if there be not something Divine in the Causes of 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 Babilonish Garment hath infected the Body with Leprosy, or some spiritual disease in the mind, that hath procured the thorn in the flesh, when the Rod of God utters its voice, and men are fed with the Bread of Affliction and with the Water of Adversity, in order to cure the tympany of Pride, the  of Passion, the Dropsy of Covetousness. The plague in the Body is sometimes sent to cure the Plague in the Heart: Sin is that root of bitterness from whence all our troubles in the flesh spring up. Men are like Baalam, when any thing pains or hurts their Bodies, are apt to Blame and strike the External Instrument, but never mind the Angel that stands in the way with a drawn Sword, and caused that instrument to hurt. There are many happy intentions Divine goodness aims at in laying diseases on men's bodies: 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. When men come to perceive that there is no soundness in their flesh, nor rest in their bones, because of their transgressions, and that it was their own wickedness that corrected them, and procured the Plagues, the Consumptions, the Inflammations and extreme burn, that attended as Pages upon their pride, wantonness, intemperance and carnality; and this produceth a strict commune with their hearts upon their sick beds, so that they make a Diligent search into the causes of their Distempers; then they find a rebuke given unto the disease. Sir, I pray excuse this great freedom, from one who I hope shall not stand in need of many words to persuade you, that he is  
Your inviolably affectionate Friend, J. M.   

LETTER VII.  
SIR,  
AMongst the many things which conduce towards the rendering the use of Remedies effectual, I think nothing can contribute more than our endeavour to use those Means which may be influential towards the procuring the divine Blessing: And amongst many others, I judge these that follow are very considerable: To begin with a serious Repentance for our former Miscarriages, which often proves very successful towards Health and Recovery. The Israelites Repentance proved a Sovereign Plaster against the Stings of the fiery Serpents: And King David's Remorse prevailed with the destroying Angel to sheathe his Sword, after the slaughter of Seventy thousand People. Rehoboams Repentance at the preaching of Shemaiah, prevented the destruction of himself and his Princes. When men's flesh is consumed, and they are afflicted with strong pains upon their Beds, than 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 to 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, than he shows them their work and their transgression, that they have exceeded: Then he opens their Ears to Discipline, and commands that they return from Iniquity; 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, for God preserveth not the Life of the wicked, as Elihu tells Job: The sick Bed is the attiring room of the Grave, in which Men should be preparing themselves for the Solemnities of their Funerals: by linger Distempers men are gradually putting off their Veil of Flesh, to be Clothed upon with their house which is from Heaven. When Sickness hath done its Errand, and accomplished the end for which it was sent, than it receives a Commission to departed; it's that which leads Men by the Hand unto their long homes, and gives them a Prospect of that House appointed for all Living: Diseases are sent to unravel humane Nature, but when the inward Man is renewed by the Decays of the outward, and men hold fast their Integrity, notwithstanding the Almighty toucheth their Bone and their Flesh, and bodily Pain give a prospect of endless Pleasure, than the Disease many times takes its leave. When Sickness makes Men sensible of the Vanity of Beauty and Strength, which a blast of Wind, or a lump of Phlegm may take from them, when it makes Men listen unto the Striking of the Clock of Time with greater Attention, and excites their endeavours to render Death a stingless Serpent, than the great part of the Cure is performed: when Men are as 'twere knocking at the gates of the Grave by Tortures and Agonies of Body, and the blow of God's heavy Hand presseth Men sore, so that a Man may read the Sentence of some men's Deaths written in their Foreheads, in the lines of a linger Disease, the difficult motion of their Lungs to draw in Air, being like a Passing-Bell always sounding in their Ears, yet upon their sincere Repentance many times comes a Reprieve. When the Arrows of the Almighty, viz. Diseases, fly thick in the world, and are shot sometimes into men's Lungs, and sometimes into their Joints and Hearts, and give denomination unto various Diseases; there they will stick until pulled out by an Omnipotent Hand, a firm belief of whose Divine Power, doth mightily conduce towards the procuring the Blessing of Heaven with the use of Remedies. The Power of our Blessed Lord is the same now in Heaven as when on Earth, his Hand from Heaven can reach all our Maladies, and cure, like the Weapon Salve, at a distance; if Men did but act a vigorous Faith and a holy Confidence in the Divine Providence, and as it were touch the Hem of their Saviour's Garment, they would quickly find a healing Virtue go forth towards their Cure. When Men are disquieted by Pains, and cast down by Sickness, their only way to Recovery, is to hope in him who is the Health of their Countenance, and in quietness and confidence they will find Strength. To humble ourselves under the mighty Hand of God, is the way to be exalted to Health in his due time. Acts of Faith are engaging, and the way to obtain the Divine Power, is to glorify it in our dependence. When Miracles were in their full force, the effect is always ascribed unto Faith; our Saviour told the Woman her Faith had made her whole. Again, humbly to implore the help of that great Physician who was Typified by the Brazen Serpent, would be a very effectual means to be cured both of the Sting and Pain of Sickness: It well becomes the most holy Soul under Distempers, to abound with an O Spare me, that I may recover Strength. When Men are like Moses, commanded to go up into a Mount, as it were, of a Sickbed, and Dye there, the same Hand that Wounded must make whole: many lose their Lives for want of ask it at his Hands, who grants it if Invited to our Bedsides by fervent Prayers, joined with Faith and Patience. When the only wise God resolves to make Men sick with smiting them, they ought to beware of Murmuring and Impatience, which doth exasperate all Calamities; 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 they shall renew their Strength, and be saved with a temporal as well as a spiritual Salvation, if they continue in Faith and Patience with Sobriety. The Poets have an excellent Fiction, that the Image of the Goddess Augerine was with a Muffler at her Mouth, placed at the Temple of Volupia; signifying that Pleasure should be their Portion who bear Sicknesses with Patience, Silence and Submission.  
Good Men never question the Divine Favour so much at any time as under sickness; because the Body discomposeth the Mind, and hinders the free exercise of spiritual Reason: besides, they have not such express comfort from their Saviour's Sufferings; for we never read he was ever Sick, yet he had Passions equivalent to Sickness, as Hunger, Thirst, Weariness, which afflicted his Body with Pain, and therefore can be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities: The best way to obtain Cure, is by the Power of a Divine Faith to shake off Diseases as St. Paul did the Viper from his Hand. And Sir, that the great Physician may make your Soul like his Body in the Gospel, every whit whole, shall be the Desire of  
Your true Friend and faithful Servant, J. M.   

LETTER VIII.  
SIR,  
I Received yours dated the Second of this Month, wherein you acknowledge yourself a Convert unto the several Arguments of Discourse which have formerly passed between us; but you seem very much to doubt whether humane Prudence, Care and Art can any way contribute unto long Life: And that they may be very subservient thereunto, there is nothing more plain and evident. Certainly King David's departing from Keylak diverted saul's Rage, and preserved his own Life for that time: And our blessed Saviour's own practice in preserving himself until the time he knew that his hour was come, is recorded for our Imitation. St. Paul's Mariners saved their Lives by abiding in the Ship, who otherwise in all probability might have been Drowned: The Wisdom of Joseph and Mary in observing the Angel's advice, and flying into Egypt with the blessed Babe, in all humane probability it prevented his Death at Bethlehem. The Centurion Importuned our Saviour to cure his Servant, which he would never have done, if it had not conduced towards the prolongation of his Life. 'Twas not without cause that Naomi was foretold Obed should be a restorer of her Age. As fire dies for want of air, and is extinguished when the flame is suffocated; so doth our vital flame: as our Spirits are repaired by Air, so are our sanguine Humours by Aliments. 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 Naaman's Case: The efficacy of Remedies with some is so great, that their Youth is as 'twere renewed like the Eagle, their natural strength not abating at a great Age: Moreover, it doth not seem probable that means should be used with good success to answer all other intentions in Nature, and be used in vain in attaining that which is the most desirable thing in Nature, and which renders a Man capable of perfection in all Arts and Sciences, viz. Health. And yet 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 his Life hath been prolonged, but rather that his hour was not yet come: but yet it's not inconsistent with reason to say, that he who would Infallibly have Died of a Gangreen in his Leg, hath had his Life prolonged, when his Leg was Cured; or to say, 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 an Emblem of the Tree of Life, which was to have been a Restorer of Nature, as well as a Symbal of future things. Suppose we with Pythagoras, that Life is a straight 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 humane Prudence may probably conduce towards the retarding the Neighbourhood of those lines? Or suppose with the Aristotelians, that Life consists in the union of Heat and Moisture, and Death approacheth by the Predominance of the contrary Qualities, viz. Cold and Dryness; why may not such means as preserves the former, and keeps back the latter, have a natural tendency to prolong Life? Or suppose with the Chemists, that Life consists in a volatile Armoniac Salt, why may we not suppose that Art improved, may compose such fixed Alkali, as may stop the wingy motions of the former Volatility?  
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 to another, higher and higher, yet at last they were overflowed. Though Temperance doth not always prove an Antidote against Sickness, yet it's a likely means. Sir, I pray distribute my Service where you think it's due, for it is time to come to a full point, and to tell you that in Truth I am  
Yours in all that Power and Will can manifest, J. M.   

LETTER IX.  
SIR,  
I Received yours dated the 11th instant, wherein you give me an account of the great Sickness and Mortality of your Town and Country, now Languishing under this Epidemic Fever, which indeed rageth in the City also, and carrieth hundreds, if not thousands unto their long Homes. You may easily believe that there are greater Languors, Sicknesses, Weaknesses and decays of Nature now than in former Ages; (though thanks be to God, Pestilences have not been very fatal of late years) and we observe from our weekly Bills of Mortality, that the numbers of the deceased are greatly augmented; for in the year 1604. there died 4323, and 895 of the Plague: but in the year 1659. there died 14720, and 36 of the Plague; and yet we observe near the same number of persons Born and Christened both years; so that the Disproportion is near nine Thousand in a year in about sixty years' distance. We may observe in the space of sixty years, so small a spot of ground as a Churchyard swallows up a whole Parish. I knew an old Sexton in London, who told me he lived to Bury his Parish almost three times over. As one Generation comes on the Stage, another goeth off: And very evident it is, that more die now in a state of Childhood than in former Ages. We lick new bodies off our Trenchers once in seven years; and the very fear of a Clymacterical Year hath Killed some, who have not understood how groundless such a fear is. In the days of Ancient times it was a strange thing to hear of the death of a young Child, according unto the ordinary course of Nature. Some of the Jewish Doctors tell us, that there was not a Son died of a natural death before his Father for near three thousand years after the Creation; but the course of Nature was observed, and he that was born first, died first; until Terah's time, who was the first that taught the People to make Images of Clay, and to corrupt Divine Worship with Idolatry; and as a punishment of his Sin, his son Haran was snatched away before him; and Moses observes, that Haran died before his Father Terah, in the Land of his Nativity: And we find it was looked upon as a great Judgement, that the Male Heir of Eli's Family as soon as born died for many Generations; so that an Old man could not be seen of his Posterity. And we find the good Woman expostulating passionately with the Prophet, when she saith, Art thou come to call my Sins to remembrance, and to slay my Son? Every Age hath its peculiar diseases: In the state of Infancy Life is like a Spark in a pile of Wood; the Candle is so newly lighted, that every breath of Air, or the least shaking puts it out, and it dies. Childhood is so active and unwary, so subject to run into dangers, that unless a Messenger be sent from Heaven, to stand Sentinel and watch its playing, sleeping, eating and drinking, it's exposed to death every minute. The Middle age is apt to lend its helping hand to the use of Remedies, but when we consider how many new distempers invade us, and how many old ones intermingled with collateral complications, and many Diseases are not fully understood as in time they may be; and many Symptoms are often alike, and sometimes there are none at all, as in several Impostumes; and some Diseases are lodged in remote parts of the Body, that oftentimes no application can be made, or at least the effects of Medicines cannot reach them until after two or three Alterations and Concoctions, which change the Species of Medicines: And sometimes new Methods come upon the Stage, and alter old Foundations. Old Age hath Diseases incurable by nature. The House must fall when the Foundation is decayed. Old men in Scripture account are said to be as good as dead, as Abraham was. In some Diseases the Patient seems Bailable, yet a distemper lieth in ambush, and sets upon him with full strength, when the bitterness of death seemed to be passed: and some men live and die like Fools, pour in Drink and let out Life, and so by inconsideration pull the Monumental Stone upon their own heads. Men are like Water, if the Sluices be opened it runs away apace, if the Current be stopped it swells and grows troublesome, and spills over; if it stands still, than it stinks and putrifies. Some Sicknesses walk in darkness, and destroying Angels are wrapped up in the Curtains of Immateriality, whom we cannot see but feel: in some Chronic distempers men walk about, and hear Passing-bells ring for stronger men. There is no age of Man but hath some Posterns and outlets to death, out of which thousands pass into the Land of Forgetfulness: Every breath of wind troubles our Faces, and our little Cares wrinkle our Foreheads, and trifling accidents dig our Graves. In Favours men ride post to the Chambers of death, they prove a Besom of Destruction to three parts of Adam's race. If all the ages of all Mankind were put together, it would scarce make One and twenty to each single person. It's more natural for Youth to die than the Aged, it being more common, having more natural causes, as being more subject to acute Diseases, which surprise men suddenly and undiscernably; but to die of Age, is a very rare Thing; old Age is a young Death. But to speak strictly, all men die before they come to be of age, every man being within an inch of Death. Like a Mariner at Sea, we carry our Lives in our hands. Many a man in a state of health hath a secret Enemy lying hid, ready to surprise: Either God's Archers cleave our Reins in sunder with the Stone or Strangury, or our feet are set in the Stocks by the Gout; or our Breath is corrupt by the Ptysick, or our Gaul is poured on the ground by the Dissentery, or our Skin cleaves to our Bones by a Hectic. The Clock hath struch Twelve this night, therefore take it not ill that I abruptly style myself  
Yours whilst I am J. M.   

LETTER X.  
SIR,  
I Received yours Dated the 7th instant, wherein you speak very slightly of old Age, as if you did not look upon it as so great a blessing; and also seem to Question whether the Patriarches lived so long as some imagine. To which I answer, you are certainly under a great mistake: for nothing is more certain than that the Antediluvian Patriarches were very long lived; and particularly Father Adam, who may well be accounted 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 at his Creation as Perfect as one of the Ancients at two hundred: They outlived all their titles of Consanguinity, and yet none of them 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 may be, to Demonstrate to Man the Vanity of Life, when those who lived longest, could not arrive to that Period, which compared to God's Eternity, is but a day. 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. Had men in all Ages and Places arrived at the age of the Patriarches, the Earth by this time had not been able to sustain the Inhabitants with Food. The Egyptians calculated the bounds of men's days from the weight of their Hearts; and judged a hundred years the utmost period, taking their estimate from the weight of their Hearts, which they say increaseth two Drachms every year under fifty, and then decreaseth two Drachms until a hundred: But this opinion seems questionable. The reason given by the Bishops of Rome for Contracting the year of Jubilee from one hundred to fifty, and from fifty to five and twenty, is grounded upon the Supposition that the age of man is contracted. To what causes to consign the long Lives of the Ancients, it need not be Difficult, if we consider how necessary it was so to be, for the propagation of Mankind, and peopling the World with Inhabitants; and also for the learning Arts and Sciences, wherein it was requisite Men should have the experience of former Ages: For as many Sensations breed an Experiment, so many Experiments breed a Science. The several motions of the Heavenly Bodies could not be known, without a long time to observe their Motions and Revolutions. It was an old complaint, that Art was long, and Life was short, and therefore Almighty God proportioned men's lives accordingly. We now account him wondrous Old who lives fourscore Summers, to see the Resurrection of the Year fourscore times. The length of men's age since Moses dwelled amongst us, seems considerably abbreviated, he computing Threescore and ten the ordinary period unto which men generally arrived in those times: Whereas now a third part of all that are born in populous Cities die under seven years old; and the greatest part of those that are alive, are between fifteen and five and thirty. Few Princes, either Jewish, Germane, Greek or Roman, arrived at Fourscore. Queen Elizabeth outlived all her Predecessors since the Conquest: And I think his Majesty our present Sovereign (whom God grant long to live) is the eldest Crowned Head in Christendom. And it's to me observable, that during the standing of the first Temple there were but eighteen High-priests, but three hundred while the second stood; and but ten years' difference between the standing of the former and the latter. Which plainly demonstrates, that men's Lives have been cut and pared away in several Ages. The Fathers in the primitive times had great Advantages for the Prolongation of their Lives, as they had conveyed to them the Nature of Life-preserving Remedies from Adam, who gave Names to all Creatures according to their particular Qualities: And wonderful was their skill in all the Secrets of Nature. Also the Air in the first Ages of the World might be more pure, and not corrupted with terrene Exhalations, as it was after the Flood had drenched it; and for aught we know, its Fruits might be more Nutritive. Moreover, 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 fuccession of Sicknesses, nor weakened with hereditary Diseases, but were armed to resist those few things contrary to their healths. The seminalities of Diseases were not so pregnantly conveyed from Parent to Child, their Infants were not so tenderly brought up; wasteful Riot was a stranger to them, and variety of Meats was to them unknown: their Nature was not oppressed with burdens, and forced to stagger with her load. We cannot with any show of Reason pretend to mistake in the manner of computing the years of the Patriarches; for if you suppose them to be only Lunar years, and that twelve of theirs made but one of ours, then gross absurdities must follow from thence; as that they were Prolifique at seven years of age, Enoch being no more when he begat Methusalem: At that rate the Date of their Lives must be reckoned shorter than many of ours. Moreover, the Scripture saith, that Abraham died in a good Old Age, and full of Days, being one hundred seventy and five years old; which Number, according to that computation was but seventeen years and a half; a very ridiculous old Age. But it is very manifest that Moses' computation of the year was the same with ours; for mention is made of the first, second and seventh Month, and mention is also made of the seventeenth day of the Month. We find but one Woman's Age recorded in Scripture, and that is Sarah: Some give this reason, Because a Woman first occasioned the Shortening the Lives of men, by listening to the Serpent. Old Age is doubtless a very great Blessing, being subservient to great and noble ends, namely, our better Preparation for a blessed Eternity: And there are some Privileges that holy Souls are capable of in this World, which they cannot partake of in the Regions of immortal Bliss, and they are the Opportunities of Doing good to others, and preparing them for the Eternal Mansions, and thereby brightening their own Diadems, and making their weight of Glory the Heavier by turning many to Righteousness. Which that you may do, is the Wish of  
Your Cordial Friend, J. M.   

LETTER XI.  
SIR,  
I Received yours dated the Second Instant, wherein you seem to question whether the Practice of Religion on have any tendency towards Health and long life; because sometimes good Men Dye sudden and Immature Deaths: But nothing is more plain and evident, than that the Carcases of good Israelites may fall in the Wilderness of this World, whose Souls may be entertained in the Heavenly Canaan. A good Prophet, for some single Act of Disobedience, may be made a Prey to a devouring Lion: If an Eli neglect to Chasten his Rebellious Children, he may be permitted to break his Neck: When Uzzth shall touch the Ark without a Commission, his Death shall immediately succeed his Rashness: When a Moses shall neglect to Circumcize his Child, an Angel shall threaten his Life with a drawn Sword: When a Ionas shall go contrary to a Divine Command, he shall be in danger of being swallowed up by Death, as well as by a Whale. Many times Judgement gins at the House of God, and he makes good Men the examples of his Severity in this Life: It's thought that King David's numbering the People, was the last Act he did, before he took his Bed. Evil Angels sometimes contend with good ones, about the Bodies of good Men: Samson lost his natural Strength by his Disobedience and violation of his Vow, rather than by the mere Cutting off his Hair, it being rather a Moral than a Natural Cause of his Weakness: 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 Father's House: And sometimes the Child may derive those Distempered Humours from the Parent, which may prove the occasion of its Death. Though God hath Promised long Life to them that Obey, yet he hath never Promised that he would not sometimes as it were borrow men's 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. On the conrrary, because sometimes wicked Men live long, to infer Piety hath no Influence on men's Health and Longaevity, is as great a Mistake; for a long and a wicked Life may be twisted together for Reasons best known to Omnipotence▪ as the Posterity of Cain may be longer Lived than any of the Patriarches, being reserved to be punished in the general Deluge; and Manasseh Reigned longer than any of the Kings of Judah. But no more of this at present, only I beseech you take me as I am, and ever must be  
Your real Friend and Servant, J. M.   

LETTER XII.  
SIR,  
I Received Yours, wherein you Writ very contemptuously of the Art of Physic, as if the use of Medicine were not an Ordinance of God, and men were not obliged in Conscience to the application of Remedies: But with your leave, nothing is more plain and demonstrable, than that Physic is a Divine Institution. He who breathed into man the breath of Life, and by an Eternal Law hath commanded him not to Kill, but commanded 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: Many of the Inspired Penmen were well Skilled in Medicine, particularly St. Luke, who was the Evangelical Amanuensis, and Wrote a History of our Blessed Saviour's Passion and Life, he was called the beloved Physician: and we find the great Doctor of the Gentiles prescribe Wine as a cheering Cordial unto his Timothy, under his frequent Infirmities for his Health's sake: nay, 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, though the Whole need no Physician, yet the Sick do: and the Holy Ghost assures us by the Psalmists Pencil, that God hath given Medicines to heal men's Sicknesses. Every man is bound by the Law of God and Nature to endeavour to keep his clayey Tenement in reparation, and if he neglect it and let it run to ruin, he may be in danger of being Indicted at the Bar of Heaven for Dilapidations. The holy Prophet ressecting upon the deplorable Condition of the Church, with The whole Head sick and the whole Heart faint, full of Wounds, Bruises and Putrefactions, being not Bound up nor mollified with Ointments; plainly intimating, how necessary he thought the natural as well as the spiritual Application of fit Remedies; lamening there was no Balm in Gilead, nor any Physician there. Jothams' Parable may instruct the World, that not only the Olive, the Figtree 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 Tree in the Garden, ask no Question for Conscience sake, for the Earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof: The wonderful work of Providence is very apparent in preserving the Seminal Virtue of Plants in the Deluge, when we read not of any Seed secured in the Ark; the Innocent Dove showing a Leaf to the new World, Preached a Sermon of Divine goodness. The Utility of Physical Remedies, is not only demonstrated by Christians, but also by Jews and Pagans: In the Temple of Aesculapius there was a Fountain of Oil, with a Golden Arch, a perfect Symbol of Physic, denoting its usefulness and Honour. The design of Medicine is not to prevent Death, but to render Life comfortable, and to preserve Nature's Lamp burning, until there's no more Oil to feed it. The Son of Syrack Counsels men to Honour the Physician with the Honour due unto him; telling us, that God had created him, and hath given Men Skill that he might be Honoured in his marvellous works, with the Medicines that 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; and the knotty Staff, the Serpent, the Pineapple, the Dragon, the Dog, and the Cock, with which the pourtraicture of Aesculapius was Beautified, were very significant Symbols. Medicine hath by barbarous Nations been accounted Sacred: The Priests of Memphis were bound to Write in the Temple of Isis such Remedies as were found effectual: the same practice the Greeks practised at the Temple of Apollo; Authorising Medicine by Religion, and Converting Remedies into Oracles: The Jews tell us, that at the Temple of Solomon, there hung a long Catalogue of the Virtues of all Plants, collected by Solomon himself; so that if any were Smitten with any Disease, he might go and gather his Remedy: And the Holy Prophets in their Descriptions of the Holy Land, represent the excellency thereof from its abounding with Trees, whose Leaves are good for Medicine. 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; when he saith, I was sick and ye Visited me: 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 Health, much more ought men to be concerned for their own Health and Recovery when Sick and Weak. King Asa was not reprehended for advising with, but for trusting to the Physicians, making them his end, when they were only the means; which was Recorded to Instruct us, that we should use means as if there were no Providence, and yet trust Providence as if there were no Means. When the Mariners in the Ship in which St. Paul Sailed, were in danger of Drowning, he told them they could not be safe unless they did abide in the Ship, notwithstanding the Safety of their Lives was promised him. When the Lives of the Jews were in danger, Queen Esther not only appointed a Fast to Implore the Protection of Heaven, but also prepared a Feast, the better to prevail with the King. The Prophet David not only Trusted in the Name of the Lord, when he went against Goliath, but also used his Stone and Sling: So Jacob sent a Present to pacify the Anger of his Brother, as well as made Supplication to the great Peacemaker. 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. Baalam's Ass may Instruct the World that a merciful Man ought to be merciful to his Beast; how much rather ought he like the Shunamite Woman, take a Journey if the Case require it, for the recovery of a Child from the Jaws of Death? The Life is more worth than Meat, and the Body than Raiment. The Jews thought their Lives more worth than their Liberty, for they told the King, If they had been Sold for Bondmen, they had held their Peace. Life is the form of Gods own Oath. Those Bodies which are the Members of Christ, aught to have Care and Respect used towards them, that they may be fit for the Service of the Soul. That which was sick was not to be Offered in Sacrifice under the Law, and they that are sick, are not fit to Offer Sacrifices: The Father of Lies never spoke 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 God's Power, to be Disobedient to his Will, in neglecting the means of Health; that's to try what he can do, and yet to neglect what he Commands, in not administering those things which are requisite and necessary for the Body. King Solomon, who had a Patent granted him from 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; and though 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, That there is a time to heal; every Herb bearing Seed, being prescribed for Food or Physic by our great Creator. It's not improbable but that the Sons of the Prophets had a Physical Intention in gathering the Herbs for their Pottage, although they were mistaken in the particular Plant, and gathered a deadly, instead of a wholesome one: Ahab understood the usefulness of a Garden of Herbs, when he coveted Naboth's 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 that 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 Mallows by the Roots in Holy Job's time, could not but understand their Physical Virtue: A Dinner of Herbs with Evangelical Charity, is preferred by Solomon, before a Costly Banquet; and those Medicinal Herbs of Mint, anise and Cummin, were so much in use amongst the Jews, that they laid Tithes and Customary Impositions upon them: It's very probable that the bitter Herbs appointed to be eaten with the Paschal Lamb, were not only Typical but Medicinal. When the Church would make a metaphorical Description of 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 Physicians of old, and the Art of the Apothecary was Employed, not only to prepare Holy Ointments for the Consecration of Kings and Priests, but also to compound Medicines for the Restoration of Inferior Persons. Sir, I will Discourse no longer upon this Argument, only conclude with good Wishes, that your Sorrows may be short, and your Joys long, and all your Desires may end according to your own Heart.  
I am Yours, J. M.   

LETTER XIII.  
SIR,  
I Received your last, which gave me an ample account of the great satisfaction you gained by my late Letter, proving the Divine Original of Physical Remedies: But you seem to question whether any Arguments may be brought from Scripture to prove, That we are not only obliged to the use of means in general, but also to the use of such as are most rational, and such as have the fairest prospect of probability. To me it seems very apparent, that we are to use such as are most agreeable to Reason and Experience: When the extraordinary means of understanding Tongues ceased, men made use of rational and ordinary means, by the study of Arts and Sciences: So the Jews in the Wilderness were miraculously preserved with Quails and Manna, but when they came into Canaan, they were to blow, and sow, and reap, and eat their Bread by their Toil and Industry. Though we live not by Bread alone, but by the word of Blessing out of the Mouth of God, yet that Blessing is promised to Bread, not to Stones; and he that shall expect to have 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: And very remarkable it is, that most of the Cures that we find recorded in Scripture, though they were extraordinary and miraculous, yet usually some physical Remedies were appointed, which were not disagreeable to Reason and Experience: to show our Obligation not only to the use of Means, but also to the use of such as are most proper, and likely to succeed: Indeed our blessed Saviour cured some by his Word alone, and by seeming improbable means, thereby to discover his extraordinary power, in doing that which no mortal man could do with the same Materials, viz. Restore Sight to the Blind, who were born so; yet his stupendious Wisdom was pleased to honour such a Remedy as had been used by Physicians of that Age, most opthalmick Ointments being composed of Terras: Moreover, his ordering the Blind man to wash in Siloam, was agreeable enough with a physical intention. In truth our Lords making use of Clay, might seem an excellent Expedient to declare to the World his Divine power; that being the fittest Ingredient to restore a defective part, out of which by the same hand the whole was at first composed. Moreover, naaman's washing in Jordan was a natural Remedy, though attended with supernatural success. The Wine and Oil poured into the wounds of the distressed Stranger by the good Samaritan, were specifically appropriated, although the success depended upon a supernatural Influx; and the Plaster of Figs applied unto Hezekiah's Plaguesore, was a rational Remedy, being proper to mollify hard tumors in the flesh, and to ripen Imposthumes. The extraordinary Pool of Bethesda was not without some natural Virtue, being adjoining unto the Slaughter-house of the Temple, the blood of the sacrificed Beasts being mingled with it; and that is by Naturalists said to be of a Healing nature: Yet this doth not exclude the Necessity of a divine Angelic Influence, to render it efficacious; and perhaps several kinds of Meats prohibited under the Law, might in a natural way be prejudicial to the Health of men's Bodies, and they might be forbidden upon a Moral as well as upon a Mystical account. There was also a rational Conformity between the Leprous Contagion and the Law of Cleansing; the Leprosy did putrify the Skin, opposite to that was Cedar Wood commended by Physicians against Putrefaction; it was of an ill Scent, contrary to that was the smell of Hyssop, an excellent Aromatic Plant, yet the Cure was wholly from a Divine Influence. The Jews observe, that though Leprosy be the Finger of God, yet the Hand of man must be used in the Cure; and therefore we find that the Leper whom our Saviour healed, was commanded to use the Method prescribed in the Law of Moses, to be sprinkled and washed. The Aromatic Oil used in extreme Unction in the Apostolical times, was a natural Remedy, though the Cure was attributed to the Prayer of Faith. Mary's supposition that the Presence of her Saviour would have kept her Brother from Dying, was not improbable, though she was under a Mistake with respect to that present Dispensation: Many under Distempers expect to be raised as Lazarus was, only by the Physician taking them by the Hand; or as Naaman, who expected the good Prophet to Cure him by only striking his Hand upon the Wall. But my Dear Friend, Farewell, and Pardon me I have made no more Scruple of exercising your Patience, and take the humble Subscription of  
Your Constant Friend, J. M.   

LETTER XIV.  
SIR,  
I Received yours of the Fifth Instant, together with the strange Relation of the Person thought to be afflicted with strange Diseases by the the Power of the Devil; and for that reason I observe the Cure is Despaired of, but I suppose without Cause; for should we grant that many Diseases are caused by a Diabolical Influence, it need not therefore follow that the Cure is impossible: Indeed it must be acknowledged, that there have been multitudes of Cheats and Impostures of this kind, but to say they are all Delusions, is very Imprudent: for sometimes divine Providence, for reasons best known to himself, may permit evil Angels to afflict the Bodies of men with distempers, vulgarly called Lying under an evil Tongue, or being Bewitched, as having no dependence upon the Chain of natural Causes. The Jews were threatened with some Diseases which should not be Cured by natural means, even wonderful Plagues and of long continuance. There are in Scripture many instances of Diseases Inflicted by supernatural Agents, as Angels and Spirits, who disturb the Humours, and raise Storms and Tempests in men's Bodies as well as in the Air: Evil Angels were sent to Afflict the Jews with divers Calamities; and many thousands in one Night were Slain by the destroying Sword of an Angel, in a Pestilential Contagion: An evil Angel visited Saul with Stupendious Melancholy; and 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 Distraction, as the Swine with Rage. The Excommunicate Corinthian being delivered up to Satan, for the Destruction of the Flesh, in order unto the Salvation of his Spirit, may as well be understood of his being Afflicted with some corporal Distemper, by the power of the Prince of Darkness, as be taken in any other Sense: As we know St. Paul's Thorn in the Flesh, the Messenger of Satan sent to Buffet him, hath by some Learned Men been Interpreted to our purpose: The Lascivious Persons seeking for Lot's House, to gratify their vile Intentions, were struck Blind by an Angel, and those Windows were stopped up that let in wanton Glances. And the several Persons possessed, whom our Blessed Lord delivered from the power of the Prince of the Air, were miserably Afflicted with Epilepsies, Lunacies, Convulsions, and other Direful Symptoms and Distractions, which threw them sometimes into the Fire, and sometimes into the Water. In the Primitive times, Corporal Inflictions and Subjection to a Satanical Power, was the sad consequence of Excommunication; proportionable unto the Execrations in the Jewish Cherem, which we find exemplified in Saul after his defection from God: And it is observable, that the Essens amongst the Jews, when expelled the Congregation, died of miserable Deaths: And Ecclesiastical Writers tell us, Heliodorus in his Sacrilegious attempts was Scourged by two Angels in the shape of young Men, and hardly came off with his Life. The Catechists in the Primitive times, that prepared Persons for Baptism and Admission into the Church, was wont to be called the Exorcist, that cast out Satan: for by the performance of our Baptismal Covenant we renounce the Devil and his Propriety, and thereby the better secure our Health as well as our Peace. The Jews observed, that after the destruction of the Sanctuary and Sanhedrim, there still continued amongst them four kinds of capital Punishments, instead of the four appointed by the Law of Moses; for he that deserved to be Stoned, either fell from a House, or was torn by Wild Beasts; he that deserved to be Burnt, either fell into the Fire, or was stung by a Serpent (therefore called fiery;) they that deserved to be Killed by the Sword, fell into the Hands of Thiefs, or of the King; they that deserved Suffocation or Hanging, were Drowned in the Water, or fell into Melancholy, and were strangled thereby, as Judas was. But Religion very much secures men from the power of the Evil Angels, and from all other misfortunes. But, Sir, to be sure you shall always be happy, if it lie in his power to make you so, who is  
Your entire Friend, J. M.   

LETTER XV.  
SIR,  
I Received your last Letter with wonder, to find you entertain so strange an Opinion, as to believe that Diseases are now cured in miraculous and extraordinary ways, as they were in the Apostolical times, without the use and application of Rational and experimental Remedies. To dream that Charms, Annulets, Spells, etc. are of any virtue in curing Diseases, is vain; and that because St. Paul's Handkerchief, St. Peter's Shadow, and the Him of our Saviour's Garment, miraculously cured some in the Primitive times, therefore we must use them now. The reason why those Miraculous ways of healing were used in those times, was for the Confirmation of the Gospel in its first Plantation: But that being now done, those ways of Cure are ceased. How can men expect the Divine Blessing with such means as have no natural virtue, as Words and Characters? For if one Text of Scripture carried in a man's Sleeve, will cure a Disease, surely the Bible in a man's Pocket must cure all Diseases. The Divine Oracles were given to guide our Faith, not to tickle our vain Imaginations. I once knew a fatal Event attend the use of such an accursed Medicine: A Gentlewoman having an Ague, a Beggar gave her a Charm to hang about her Neck, bid her not read it, but when she was cured, burn it: The Minister of the Parish being a sober, Learned and pious conformable Divine, came casually to visit her; she telling him the Medicine, and the Cure which had attended it, threw it into the fire in his presence; but he catching it, read it: The words were, Ague farewell, till you and I meet in Hell: Upon hearing of which, she fell into her Ague again, with greater violence than ever, and also into deep Melancholy, which occasioned her to lay Violent hands on herself. So dangerous it is to leave the Methods prescribed by Reason and Experience, to consult the Oracles of the Prince of Darkness. It's highly unreasonable to give heed to seducing Spirits, and Doctrines of Devils; enquiring of the god of Ekron, when there is a God in Israel. Some men's Curiosity in this kind has cost them dear, such practices being forbidden upon pain of Damnation. What wise and good man would so far violate his Baptismal Covenant, as to consult with Judicial Astrologers, Wizards, and such like Cunning persons, who by a Diabolical Confederacy will undertake to foretell the Events of Diseases, and Periods of men's days, and a multitude of other Accidents, known only to Omniscience; who knows the Effect because he knows the Cause: Suppose it were the Devil in Samuel's Mantle, that did foretell saul's death; it doth not prove the Certainty of the Devil's prediction, or the fatal Necessity of Saul's Death: It being easy from probable Conjecture to say what he did, there being all the forerunners of his approaching ruin visible to the World: For David was anointed King, and Saul grew worse and worse, the Battle drew near, and what else could be expected but Destruction? If it should be granted, that the Lying Spirit in the Mouth of a false Prophet should foretell a Man's Death; it may only proceed from the observation that he violates some divine Command, and thereby exposeth himself to ruin. Magician's indeed use Charms, and Signs, and Good words, the better to deceive the ignorant, herein being God's Ape, that as he hath made a Covenant with good men, and hath appointed Signs and Seals, upon the faithful use of which he is present to perform what he hath promised: So the Devil makes a Covenant with Astrological Wizards, upon which he hath given Signs and Tokens, that if they use the one, he will perform the other. And it's an Atheistical Dream, to imagine that the period of Man's days depends more on the malevolent influence of a Planet, than upon the Conduct of divine Providence: A Belief very contrary to the Articles of the Christian Faith, to suppose an Astrological Necessity imposed upon all sublunary Agents by the influence of Celestial Bodies, and that the Manner and Moment's of men's Deaths, depend upon these things. Many have descended into the Earth, for fear of using Remedies upon the ascension of a particular Star in the Heavens. The celestial Dog doth neither Bark nor By't in our Climate. The heavenly Bodies operate according unto the variety of the Matter with which they are conversant; as we may observe in the instance of Twins born under the same Planet; although they have the same seminal principles, Bed of Nature, and time of Birth, yet they differ in Sex, Complexion, Life and Death; as in the Example of Esau and Jacob. Can any man of Reason imagine, that all that are slain in the same Battle, were born under the same Ascendent? The proper reason why such a Child is strong, and such a one weak, is rather to be fetched from the Complexion of the Parent than the influence of the Stars; it's strength is rather to be attributed to the Mother's Milk, than the Via lactea: And the reason why such a one was shot to death, was not because his Roroscope was directed to Saturn, but because the Gun was directed to him. Besides, Education, Custom, Example, altar Nature; and our second Births divert the mischievous Effects of our first Nativity: Therefore not to use Remedies except such or such a Sign be searched into, is great folly, and a Sign men are led more by Indiscretion than prudence, to regard an Antique picture in the Almanacs, rather than Art and Reason. But though the World be guilty of many Errors, I shall be guilty of none in subscribing myself  
Your Devoted Servant, J. M.   

LETTER XVI.  
SIR,  
I Received yours, which gave an intimation of your intention to lay aside all Physicians, because you have been so unhappy as to fall into the hands of Quacks; whose advice hath not only proved unsuccesseful, but dangerous and almost deadly. Shall the Merchant never venture to Sea, because an unskilful Pilot once cast away his goods? that were absurd: There is no action of humane Life that discovers a wise man more, than the choice of an able, learned and experienced Physician, whose natural abilities are advanced by ingenuous Education, such being most fit to rectify the Disorders in men's Bodies; who by their inquiry into Anatomy understand the use of the parts, and taking notice of the Figures, Springs, and Wheels by which Nature moves, become the better able to regulate her disorderly motions: Besides, they best understand the nature of Animals, Minerals and Vegetables, and can the more dexterously apply fit Remedies according unto the several Indications of Distempers, and Circumstances of Patients. I pray what reason is there Physicians should be neglected? Is it because they are not Infallible? if they were, than they might alter the Statute Laws of Heaven, which were absurd to imagine: As in Religion the most Sacred Institutions are rendered insignificant unto the Souls of men, if not rightly administered, even so the most useful Remedies are rendered useless unto the Healths of men, if not prescribed by prudent Physicians. How can men expect the Blessing of Heaven, to concur with the advice of ignorant and unworthy pretenders to Physic? Broken Tradesmen, disbanded Soldiers, Bankrupt Merchants, and the very scum of the People, whose Receipts prove equally fatal with the Jawbone of an Ass: if one of these confident Fellows pretend to skill, though never so ignorant, yet some credulous Souls are as ready to proclaim it, as if they thought some good Angel, like Mahomet's Pigeon whispered it in their ears; when it proves like Gunpowder, only serves to blow up men's Health. Can men expect Preservation, when they suffer their brains to be beaten out with the Bills of Quacks and Mountebanks, in such a Nation as ours is, where there is such great variety of able and Legal Practisers? It's a shame such should be suffered, who can sooner cure all Diseases, than one; and like the Lion in the Fable, pretend to pull the Thorn out of the Lamb's foot, but in the end devour it▪ So that for aught I know, it may not be imprudent to add one Casualty more to our weekly Bills of Mortality, and to say, So many died Martyrs to their Physician's Ignorance. The folly of the World is more apt to gaze upon a Blazing Comet, that infects the Air, and poisons men with pestilential vapours, than on the glorious Sun, whose beams yield light and health to humane Nature. Quacks resemble the Serpent, pretend to give that which shall be good for Food and Physic, but in the end beguile men of their health, and a while after the Patient dies the Death. To consult the Ignorant, is to tempt our Maker; the curing Diseases being like the mending of a Watch, if not done by a skilful Artist, the rectifying one Spring may disorder the regular Motion of the whole Engine. Reason prompts men to consult the ablest Farriers when their Horses are sick, and not take the Ostler, who hath the Confidence to prescribe a Drench. We have many amongst us nicknamed Doctors, who are as unskilful in Physic as the Athenians were in Religion; dedicating their Medicines unto an unknown Disease: Men who took their Degrees in a Drinking-School, or did their Exercise in Fees, affect the Title Doctor, though they want the Participle Doctus: Having no more Learning than what may serve to conceal their Ignorance: To run to these men, is as if a man to launce an Imposthume should run his Body against the point of a Sword in the hands of a mad man; or as if to cure a Quinsy, a man should desire the help of the common Executioner. People ought to know that Diseases are cured by Method, as well as by Medicine, by Rules as well as by Receipts. Multitudes amongst us may be said to dig their Graves with their thick Skulls, and destroy their Bodies as well as their Souls by an implicit Faith, in harkening to such Fellows; if a Cure succeeds, it is more by accident, than Art, as a blind man hits the mark. It's madness to choose Physicians by the Commendations of the Vulgar; they only talk like an Echo, because they hear a Voice, but know no reason why: and it's as imprudent to choose Physicians by their Garb, because an Ass may have gilded Trappings: Many of these men have more skill in mending Garments, than Bodies that wear them, and yet will pretend to cure all Diseases that ever Sin entailed on the Race of Adam. Let me advise you, as a prudential Observation, tending to Health and Long Life, to use the same discretion when your Health is in danger, as when your Estate is, not to depend on the advice of an Attorney, but to fee a Counsellor: And since you say you are deeply engaged unto me, give me leave to prescribe the Recompense, which is, that you would believe me to be what I truly am,  
Your constant Friend, J. M.   

LETTER XVII.  
SIR,  
I Received yours Dated the 11th instant, wherein you give me an account of the rare secret Medicine lately recommended to you, as an infallible cure for your Distemper; being recommended as a cure for all diseases. Sir, let me tell you, I have often found those kind of Medicines but mere Cheats, and Springs to catch Woodcocks; and yet men will not learn Wisdom, until the dust of the Grave, that Powder of Experience, be cast in their Eyes. He that will venture his life with the use of such a Medicine, will give the world cause to suspect, he stands in need of a large dose of Hellebore: Without doubt, there is no Observation can conduce more towards the rendering Remedies effectual, than to be well assured that they are safe, known, and experienced Medicines, and faithfully prepared by the hand of an Artist, whose Profession it is, and exposed to the view of the world upon the Apothecary's file. The design of keeping Medicines as Secrets, being chief to conceal the ignorance of the recommender, who could not write it in Latin; or the same persons dishonesty, who dare not publish so dangerous a Medicine; or else his Covetousness in exacting, in the price of a mean, ordinary, familiar Medicine, which it appears to be when published: If a Pill be but guilded over with the pretences of Rare and Excellent, it is cried up, and swallowed down, when it's as common in the Shops as Salt and Pepper in a Kitchen: and there are abundance of Poisonous Remedies abroad in the World, that have nothing to kill them but Fasting Spittle and a smooth tongue, their best corrective being such an ingredient as wants a Corrective; but yet these Remedies must needs cure all diseases at one blow, as Samson did the Philistines: But these by rash snuffing Nature's Candle, put it quite out. That Medicine costs the Patiented dear, that costs him his Life: yet many such there are, that ride post daily, making every Corner do penance in venomed sheets; the Directions for the use of them being like David's Letter to Uriah, only giving Instructions for the Death and ruin of the Patient. Is there any pleasure in being destroyed, because we are not able to say what hurt us? A Medicine may cure the disease, and kill the Patient; and a safe Medicine may do much hurt, by occasioning the omission of more proper and effectual Remedies. The world hath been much imposed upon, by being made to believe that Chemistry is a distinct art from Pharmacy; when the most excellent Rules for Chemical Preparations have been proposed to the World by Physicians and Apothecaries; it being but a Modern way of preparing Medicines, and doth peculiarly belong to that trade: As much as for a Tailor to make a Garment in a new fashion as well as in an old: Indeed such Medicines ought to be very prudently advised; because a Child may do more mischief with a Knife of Steel, than of Bone: You shall many times have Death in the pot babtized with the name of the Elixir of Life, and a Dram of it cried up beyond a bushel of March Dust, to Reinthrone the deposed Archaeus, and do no man knows what: And at another time you shall have Alexipharmagons Pantimagogons, and medicines of such conjuring names, that if you understood their natures, you would think them a kind of Tophet Potabile, and fit for Country Farmers to treat Rats with, than to cure diseases in humane Bodies. There is nothing hath more contributed to the Brevity of men's Lives, and the languishments of humane Nature in this Age, than the Multitude of secret private Medicines, cried up as Infallible, which have laid the foundations for innumerable diseases, and made work for able Physicians: And that which is a strange Paradox to me, is, that when a known experienced Remedy is recommended, every one must be advised with whether it may be used or no; but if a Medicine which none understand, nay not he that commends it, yet down it must go, without inquiry into its nature, until by the fatal consequences we repent the using it. Sir, I beseech you interpret these lines as the expressions of my tender respects and care for your Health: one request more and I have done. Put me into the number of those that you count your most faithful Friends: For indeed I am,  
And ever will be so, etc. J. M.   

LETTER XVIII.  
SIR,  
I Received yours Dated the Fifteenth instant, wherein I perceive your great inconstancy and want of Regular Perseverance, in the use of those proper Remedies the Physician last prescribed. I should be glad I could say these things to your Ears as well as to your Eyes, but London finds me too much Business to grant me so great a happiness: therefore give my Pen leave to tell you, that the Regularity of the Patient is as necessary, in order unto the success of Remedies, as the skill of the Physician, or the Faithfulness of the Apothecary, which in my two former Letters I hinted to you: And the wisdom of the Patient is discernible, in taking advice in time, and in presevering in the use of the means until the distemper be removed: But on the contrary, many Patients are so imprudent as to follow directions by halves, and yet censure Physicians if their distempers be not removed in a week, which it may be have been contracting some months or years, slighting the use of good advice and proper Remedies, until Nature be spent, and the disease have taken considerable root. English People are usually sick too late, and well too soon, as the Proverb saith; and the Physician is frequently sent for, to try if he can work Miracles, rather than cure Diseases; the time for that being slipped, Nature being not able to lend its helping hand. Many unwary Patients flatter themselves into their graves with conceits of Colds and Surfeits, confounding diseases with their Symptoms, and mistaking Internal maladies for External causes; giving some common Denomination to their distempers, and supposing them to be no other than what they have known some recover from, neglect advice until it be too late; and then the Physician is sent for, to share with the Patient in the infamy of the miscarriage: the time for Purgation and Bleeding being over, nothing now remains but to toll the Bell: The usual discourse is, nothing but leaving off a Coat, or putting on a Damp Shift, or eating a Dish of meat that did not agree with the Stomach, or Drinking a Glass of Bad Wine, or over-walked, or a little frighted, or the like: when it may be all the time the Stomach is disordered with a Quagmire of corrupt humours, the Blood inflamed, the Liver obstructed, the Lungs perished, and all these not taken notice of: as if a man whose House is on fire, should omit timely Quenching it, because it only happened by a Boys throwing a Squib. Many sick Patients are like the Babel Builders, when the Physician prescribes a Trowel they'll bring a Hammer; when the Distemper requires Sweat, they'll bring cooling Juleps: and if the repetition of a Medicine be requisite, the Patient is presently weary: as if a wound could be cured immediately upon the Application of a Plaster, before it hath lain a quarter of an hour; or as if the Cook were to be blamed because a Morsel of Meat doth not allay hunger, when it may be a pound is requisite. If the Physician throw water to extinguish the fire of a Fever, and the Patient throws on more fuel, how can it be put out? In vain is Care used in the Physician's Study, and in the Apothecary's Shop, if Errors be committed in the Patient's Chamber. But Sir, your conduct is too great to be guilty of splitting your health upon such Rocks, especially after you have been warned of the Danger, by one who shall ever take it as a great favour of Divine Providence, to be placed in any capacity to serve you. I can say no more but what I must ever say, that  
I am Yours, J. M.   

LETTER XIX.  
SIR,  
I Received your last Letter, wherein you give me an account, that all the regular progress you had made towards the procuring your health, had like to have been lost, by the indiscretion of a friendly Visitant, who would needs put you out of conceit with your Physician, with an intention to make way for his own; and indeed it is a very great fault in the World, and that which is very prejudicial unto the lives and healths of men. And it may well be accounted one of the requisites in order to the success of Remedies, for Visitants to exercise great prudence, or else by their impertinent discourse they may put a sick Patient out of regular methods. What reason is there the retained Physician, while he is pursuing of rational intentions, and in the middle of his Cure, must be thrust out to make way for the Friends Doctor, who forsooth must by all means be the Best in the Town, because theirs? As if the sick Patient had not prudence enough to choose a Physician as well as the Visitant: especially when we consider, the retained Physician hath been long acquainted with the Patient's constitution and distempers, and hath often relieved him, when the other hath no acquaintance with the Patient, but must be recommended to recompense for their own ingratitude the last time they used him. Nay, it may be the indiscreet Visitant shall persuade to lay aside the able Legal and Learned Physician, to make room for an ignorant, but bold and confident Quack; who shall pretend to great skill in such or such a disease, and yet knows nothing but only how to kill people dexterously: If violent distempers surprise the brain and cause want of sleep, in comes a loving Friend and recommends Syrup of Poppies or else some other sleeping medicine, which Translates the Morbific humour to the Brain, causing a Frenzy, or such a sleep which only the last Trumpet can awake. Sense is a riddle, and Reason is a paradox to some people: I knew a Gentlewoman, who coming to visit a sick Friend, much blamed the Doctor's prescriptions, and persuaded the Patient to the use of a Pill, which she found commended in a printed Bill; he took it, and died that night: which so troubled the Gentlewoman's mind, for meddling without a just call, that it cost her Husband ten pounds to prevent her real distraction; she is not as yet fit to be left alone. I could name another imprudent Visitant, who being ambitious of being thought skilful in Physic, because a great reader of Culpepper, commended to a Friend a Dram of a Vomiting Medicine instead of a Scruple, because the Printer had made that mistake, and the Reader not having Judgement enough to correct it; but by a good Providence the dreadful consequences were prevented, by the Apothecaries refusing to let it go out of his Shop: The Electuary of Beef and the Julep of warm Broth, is the fittest Physic for a loving Friend to administer: thus they may cure the Colic coming from wind and emptiness; that Charity being better which sets the Poors teeth a going, than that which cures their aching. The most regular Charity to the Poor who are sick, is to gratify Physicians for their advice, and to be at the charge of their Medicines when prescribed by the Learned, as a Gentleman in this City doth, who alloweth his Physician a yearly Stipend to give his advice to any Poor people recommended to him; and his Apothecary the same, to let them have Medicines. I knew a Gentlewoman, who was constrained to hold up her hand at the Bar, for giving two Children a Mercurial medicine against worms, which sent them to the worms, and had almost sent her thither also. Such is the severity and excellency of the English Laws against such as have no Authority to practise Physic, that they are liable to an Indictment for Felony, if any Person die under their hands: and yet we frequently find friendly Visitants crying up such, when they might better spend their time in serious counsels and Christian advices to bear their visitations with patiented submission to the Divine Will, until they find ease and relief from the hand of Heaven; and also in timely intimations to set their Houses in order, and prudently dispose of their temporal concerns by making their Wills. In a sick Friends Chamber, Friends have an Excellent opportunity both to do and to receive good, by being put in mind of the Vanity of man in this mortal state, causing them to be more industrious in the faithful improvement of their own health, and in a Christian Preparation for Death. Now, Sir, that you may be strengthened upon your bed of languishing, and visited with the Divine saving health, that so your most mortal sickness may not be unto death Eternal, but for your Glory and passage into endless bliss, shall be the Prayer of  
Your True Friend, J. M.   

LETTER XX.  
SIR,  
I Am sorry you meet with so many cross Winds in your Voyage to the Haven of health; particularly, that the carelessness of an Attendant (I mean a Nurse) should blow you back again into the wide Ocean, and threaten a Shipwreck, when you seemed to be gotten within Ken of harbour. Great care ought to be used in choosing honest and careful Persons to attend sick Patients, whose Office it is to administer Remedies prescribed by the Physician, and prepared by the Apothecary: Every of these aught to know their peculiar province; for the skilful Nurse as well as the ignorant Physician makes a fat Churchyard; and we find that in many Distempers careful attendance is half the cure: But when the Ignorant Nurse shall usurp the Learned Physicians employment, and prescribe as well as administer, it's intolerable presumption: care and watchfulness are their most commendable qualities; but when they are Drowsic and careless, it's very prejudicial to the Patient: when like the first woman they tempt to that diet which is Destructive both to the Patient's health and the Physicians credit. Eating forbidden Fruit was at first our sin, when it was contrary to a Divine command; and it now causeth sickness, when it's contrary to the Physician's advice: I have sometimes known a Nurse persuade the Patient to eat that which she herself loved, when it was contrary to the patient's Distemper: and sometimes the Physician must be forbid to prescribe Gascoin Powder, because she hath known one to die after it; and sometimes the Physician's prescriptions must be all set behind the Window curtain, because she doth not approve of them; and in the mean time she gives her Diascaudle, and what call 'em Water. A Child once dying of the Smallpox, yet under the Care of an able Physician, the Nurse threw away all his Medicines privately, and when it could not sleep, sent to the Apothecary for Syrup of Lettuce; and when it was costive, for Syrup of Roses, which was discovered a while after in the Apothecary's Bills, who knew not what use it was put to, until she confessed it to her Shame and Ruin. Sir, I hope you will survive this unhappy accident of your Nurse, and live to see her repent. The smell of a Violet I hope will be restorative; and believe it, you shall never want health, if it be in my Power to contribute towards it, who am  
Your Loving Friend, J. M.   

LETTER XXI.  
SIR,  
I Understand by the Physician that your Distemper requires Bleeding, and I also perceive you have a very great aversation to it: Good Sir, I beseech you, why is it not better to part with your Blood than your Life? but you say the Blood is the Life; and I'll say, the Blood is the cause of Death also, when there's too much of it, or when it's naught, as I am persuaded yours is, because your learned Doctor judgeth so. Are not all Creatures relieved with bleeding? and is it not practised by all wise Nations? The French and Spaniards use it two or three times in a day; and our forefathers shed their Blood by pounds to save their Lives, and shall not we do it by Ounces? Indeed, Sir, you had better sleep with a healthful body, than in a whole skin. Some learned Jewish Doctors will tell you, that Circumcision was a means of health, as well as a Tipifick Institution: But Sir, if you do open a Vein, make use of a skilful Chirurgeon, that may not make you lame, to make you sound, and open a Door with a Lance to let out your Soul with your Blood; for some such there are in the World, that want both skill and care, and pour Gaul and Vinegar instead of Wine and Oil into their Patient's wounds. Choose a man of honesty and reputed skill in his profession, and one whose particular employment it is; venture not your Life in the hand of one whose covetousness prompts him to venture out of his own Calling; neither he nor you can so rationally expect the Divine Blessing upon your bleeding, which will promote the Circulation of the remaining mass of Blood, whereby it will the better purify itself; and the Blood being clarified, the Spirits will become more lively and vigorous to push off your Distemper; which good news will as it were kindle Bonfires of Joy in the Breasts of all your cordial Friends: In which catalogue you may safely number  
J. M.   

LETTER XXII.  
SIR,  
I Cannot but wonder, that you should wonder at the unsuccesfulness of the last Prescriptions, when I hear you perplex your Thoughts with melancholy Contemplations. A man may muse himself into his Grave, and think himself to Death. To be careful for nothing, but to please our Maker and to save our Souls, will very much promote the Health of our Bodies. The Effects of Love and Hope cherish the natural Heat and radical Moisture, beget gentle and vigorous Spirits, which makes the vital Powers more brisk and lively. On the contrary, tedious and perplexed Studies, restless Impatience, fretful Murmur, and discontented Thoughts, they stop the regular motion of the Blood, damp the Spirits, and hinder the faculties of the Mind. When the Briskness of the vital Heat is suffocated, and the Contraction of the Heart weakened, and the Blood grown thick and cold in the extremities of the Vessels, and is not able to thrust itself into the remoter branches of the Arteries and Fibres of the Veins, but stagnates in the narrow passages of the Body and Brain, from thence is laid a foundation for Pains, Palsies, and all Scorbutic Distempers; and then we sigh and groan, and live a dying Life or a living Death, which is very burdensome to humane Nature. Spiritual pleasure is an excellent Medicine against bodily pains, and true Piety is the best Cure of Melancholy in the whole World.  
When the Soul is filled with light and vigour, it infuseth a strange kind of Alacrity into the Humours by a physical Efficiency: Internal Joy, grounded upon the Reflections of a good Conscience, hath a mighty power both to correct and exalt a man's natural temper. Those Ardent Breathe wherewith the pious Soul is continually carried out towards God and Goodness, are to the Body like so much fresh Air and wholesome Exercise, they fan the Blood, and clarify the Spirits, and purge them from their feculency, which would otherwise cloud the Understanding, and make us dull and listless: Therefore, Sir, I beg of you, as you tender your Health, pair away all your superfluous thoughts; and let a lumpish Spirit be a Stranger to your Habitation, because it is a Scandal to Christianity: Who hath more cause to rejoice than they that have the Smiles of Heaven, and the foretastes of endless pleasure? Therefore suffer your Harp to hang no longer upon the Willows, but contemplate the Song of Moses and of the Lamb, which will elevate all the powers of Nature. When men give way to violent and unreasonable passions, and lay out more in expectation than the fruition will make amends for, they purchase Diseases at a dear rate. The passions of the Mind influence the Humours of the Body: Anxious Solicitudes about Events, and Murmuring at the Allotments of Providence, suspend the Influence of divine Blessing, and withdraw that holy protection who hath promised to care for us, if we cast all our care on him: Hope deferred will make the heart sick: Eager desires after terrene Enjoyments, as they drowned men's Souls in perdition, so they pierce men's Bodies with many sorrows: When swarms of perplexing Cares hive in men's Heads, they yield more Sting than Honey. There are many in the World who stab themselves with pining grief, and poison themselves with pensive Melancholy. Wrath kills the foolish man, and Envy slays the silly one: Nehemiahs grief changed his countenance; and we know that Fear hath torment: When the Mind is kept in an equal, calm, serene temper, the Body is sensible of the Conveniency: A cheerful spirit doth good like a Medicine; but on the contrary, a sorrowful spirit dries the Bones. The way to pull out the thorn in the Flesh, is to heal the wound in the Spirit. If men did sigh for nothing but Sin, and set their affections on him who best deserves their Love, and make use of the Remedy provided for all the evils of the World, viz. a Contented Mind; their healths would be better secured: but when any created good lies too near the Heart, or the Clouds of Melancholy eclipse the upper Region of the Mind, they hinder the vigorous Reflections of the vital Spirits, and render Medicines ineffectual. By melancholy, sad and gloomy thoughts, we expose ourselves to the power of the Prince of Darkness, who loves to inhabit sad Souls, who love Sunless days. Spend not your Life like a man possessed, amongst Groves and Tombs: by profound Sorrow and Melancholy, we give place to the Devil. That made St. Paul compassionate the excommunicate Corinthian, lest being too much cast down, Satan should get advantage of him. Too much sadness, like the Earth lying under water, makes it unfruitful. Therefore, Sir, let me beg of you to hoist the sails of your Soul, and to bid adieu to needless Thoughts. Forgive the haste that made these Blots, and believe that I am without spot of compliment,  
Your unreserved Friend, J. M.   

LETTER XXIII.  
SIR,  
I Am glad to hear you find your distemper abate, upon the use of the last Remedies: but let me tell you, I attribute very much of their success unto the temperate, exact and regular Diet I find you observe; and you will experiment that it will very much facilitate the Cure: for in some distempers a very slender Diet, and taking in little Drink, doth withdraw much of the fuel that increaseth the Disease. It ill becomes a sick man to dig his Grave with his teeth, make his Table a snare, and Dedicate meat and drink Offerings unto the god of his Belly: when men's hearts are overcharged with Surfeiting and Drunkenness, it not only causeth Diseases, but hinders their Cure: some patients lie continually like John Babtist's head in a Charger, and so oppress Nature with a greater load, when they should be making the Vessel lighter; more being killed by Meats then by Muskets: But though you do well to be very exact in observing a Physical Diet, yet so much aught to be taken as may support Nature, and make its burden tolerable. Sir, I must bid you good Night, and only take leave to tell you, that my best Endeavours are at your service, and remain  
Your Humble Servant, J. M.   

LETTER XXIV.  
SIR,  
I Received yours Dated the 10th instant, wherein you seem very inquisitive to know what may further contribute towards the Perfecting your Health, and render the means yet more effectual: Unto which I must answer, If you would exercise your Body, by Walking, Riding, Bowling, Pumping, or Shooting in the Longbow, or the like: for by Labour and Exercise we get both our bread and our health; and Adam's curse becomes a blessing unto a Christian, That in the sweat of his brows he should eat his bread. Idleness, one of Sodom sins becomes a great punishment. The running Stream is pure and clean, when standing water gathers mud: But on the contrary, you ought to be Cautious of violent motions, lest thereby you extinguish the flame of Nature's Candle: by walking too fast, you may make more haste than good speed, and leave your health behind you: Many people like the two Disciples, running not out of love, as they did, but out of rashness into a Sepulchre: But yet moderate Exercise is of great advantage, to warm the Blood, and open Obstructions, and excite the operation of Medicines, and render them much more effectual. In a Physical sense bodily Exercise profiteth more than a little. Sir, so often as your Pen gives me a taste of your Ease and recovery, I relish much happiness, who am  
Your Sympathising Friend, J. M.   

LETTER XXV.  
SIR,  
ONce more give me leave as a Friend to tell you, that I am confident the Air taken in a morning this pleasant month of May, wherein nature provides something to entertain all your Senses, would prove exceeding advantageous, and make your Diet-drink more prevalent: for there is a Nitre in the Air that contributes nourishment to all beings, especially to follow a Blow, and suck in the cherishing steams from the breasts of your Mother the Earth: and if you can, your native Soil, where you drew in your first breath. But on the other hand, have a care of that which we Vulgarly call taking Cold: for Death sometimes creeps into the body through the pores of the Skin; so that if at any time the alterations of the Air put a stop to the genuine operation of Medicines, do not unjustly blame the Physician or the Remedies: have a care of taking cold in your feet, lest you go wetshod to your Grave; or of leaving off a Garment, lest you put on a Winding-sheet. The humours in men's bodies are tossed in the Air, like waves in the Sea by the winds; and sometimes the blood grows as 'twere mouldy, for want of that Fan of Nature: Many men's bodies, and particularly yours, being like a Weatherglass, subject to the least alterations in the Air, and easily blown into their Graves by a sharp northern wind. Many by long looking out at a Window have espied the grim face of Death; The Air of an open Casement being sometimes like the blow of a Cross-bow. Sir, I pray take this advice, from one that hopes you may walk up many May hills in this World, and at last arrive at the holy Hill of Zion.  
Yours, J. M.   

LETTER XXVI.  
SIR,  
I Am very well pleased to hear that you are pleased with my last Advice; but I am also concerned, that you should continue an ill custom, so apparently injurious to your Health, as your taking so much Tobacco is like to prove: Indeed I am of opinion, there is no Plant that ever God made for the use of Man, that hath done more good and more harm than that hath done. It must be confessed, prudently used, it's a sovereign Medicine in many Distempers; but it proves no better than a Poison to many men, as it is so familiarly used and abused, being in our days more taken as Food than Physic: And there is no one practice wherein wise men more frequently play the Foll, than in the immoderate use of this Indian Weed, which may not improperly be called Man-bane. Men spend their days in Smoke, and shorten their days also by its too frequent use, smothering themselves into their graves, as we do Bees when we take and destroy the Hive. It was a tart Reflection of a Comical Wit, who being in a great Fog, said, The Prince of the Air was taking a Pipe of Tobacco. It's very strange to me, that such an unpleasant practice should prevail so much, to the apparent prejudice of so many thousands, who spit away their Lives, and drain away that sweet Moisture which would keep the Blood cool, and promote its regular motion. That practice which was scandalous amongst our Forefathers, is now become a piece of good Entertainment; and he that threatened to burn his Pipes, and to cut his Tobacco to pieces, was thought a great Reformer about Thirty years ago: but that which greatly excites our care lest we use it too freely, is its palpable enmity to the Brain and Nerves, disposing men to Apoplexies, Palsies, Convulsions and Vertigo's: Many great Physicians taking notice in their Observations, of many of their Patients, falling into apoplectic Fits with Pipes in their Mouths, it being a great Opiate. It is also greatly prejudicial to the Memory, and also ●●●…t● the Body of its due Nourishment, by its laxative Quality thrusting the A●●●… too soon out of the Stomach, before there is a perfect Concoction, especially if taken too soon after a Meal: if ever it be proper, it's towards Bedtime. He that can give a good reason for taking above three Pipes a Day, may very safely take more. I have known the Oil of Tobacco poison a Dog: And I dare affirm the Smoke of it hath poisoned many men. A Noble man in our time lost his Head by taking a Pipe of Tobacco; that is to lay, the being observed to burn Letters to light his Pipe, was the Cause of his Apprehension, and raised the suspicion of his being the Person sought for; whereupon he was taken, and condemned and executed: I wish it hath not separated many other men's Souls from their Bodies. Some make it a question, whether Guns or Pipes have Killed most. I am sure there's no Smoke, but there's some Fire. Doubtless, if men would take it at the other End, it would do less hurt, and it may be more good. I remember one of the wisest Princes of Europe said upon an occasion, It was good for nothing but to perfume a Hogsty: But in that I think he was a little too severe: for there are excellent uses may be made of it: And amongst many others, it may serve for Contemplation, to put men in mind that their Life is but a vapour, and that all things under the Moon vanish into Smoak: Except it be the Friendship of your faithful Servant, which can never evaporate whilst he is  
J. M.   

LETTER XXVII.  
SIR,  
I Received yours the 12th instant, wherein you complain exceedingly of the ill Effects of the Waters at Epsam this Summer: I beseech you inquire whether the Cause be not from your own irregular Use of them; and also take notice, whether you do not drink more Wine than Water: For those Symptoms you complain of, give a greater suspicion of the former, than the latter, being used; sure I am, the Doctor that recommended them to you, understood their fitness for your Constitution and Disease, therefore if you follow his Direction, in the use of them, I question not but they will have their desired Effect. I know there are more go thither to gratify Curiosity, than to serve the end of Health; and Pleasure is more frequently propounded than Ease. But let me tell you, those physical Waters by the preposterous use, often prove like the Waters of Jealousy, they make People's Bodies to swell, and their Thighs to rot, and lay the foundations for many distempers, as Dropsies, Agues, Gouts, and the like: Many long as much to drink them, as King David did to drink of the Water of the Well of Bethlehem, but men venture their Lives in so doing, as they did in that case, especially by the unreasonable quantities many men take. I have larely known one come home swelled with a Dropsy, another tinctured with a Jaundice, and a third shaking with an Ague. All immoderate Evacuations are very destructive to Nature: There are hundreds that Drowned themselves in Wells, that are never mentioned in the weekly Bills. Nature is destroyed by all Extremes, too much Food, or too long Fasting; too much Rest, or too much Motion; too much Sleep, or too much Watching; too much Joy, or too much Sorrow; too much Heat, or too much Cold; too much Wine, or too much Water Quantities shorten Life more than Qualities. Many who were only wantonly Sick, become really so; and that which was intended for a Cure, many times becomes a Surfeit. At those Water's men are served like the Impostor who feigned himself Blind, that the Arrian Bishop might work a Miracle in his Cure; and when he would have opened his Eyes, could not, but was ever after really Blind. People depending upon the cleansing Virtue of those Waters, and neglecting the use of proper Remedies to render them Effectual, do but like an improvident Laundress, who thinks to wash her Linen white and clean with Water without Soap. They should be chief used as Posset-drink to a Purge. Indiscrect Persons think to take off the Mischief of too great Quantities of Wine, by drinking plentiful Draughts of Water; but this is to run Nature out of one Extreme into another, and to render men's Bodies more subject to Diseases and Putrefaction; like Timber that lies sometimes in the wet, and sometimes in the Sun, more subject to Rot. There are thousands that purge their Souls out of their Bodies by immoderate Evacuations one way or other. Sir, I shall conclude this Discourse of Mineral Waters with a hearty wish, That you may ever find them successful, until you come to Drink of that Well of Life which makes glad the City of God: Where I hope you will be accompanied by  
Your true Friend, J. M.   

LETTER XXVIII.  
SIR,  
I Think there are few things requisite in order to the desirable success of a Course of Physic, but I judge you have had a friendly Intimation of, except it be this: That you would not too much indulge yourself in Sleep. Many shorten their days by sleeping in the Day, and as it were turning themselves into Dormice. To lie in Bed until the Sunbeams lash men for their Drowziness, is an injurious Custom. The first Man lost his Rib in his Sleep, and many of his Posterity lose their Health in it. Sir, I take this for an undoubted Truth, That if Rules of Religion, Moderation and Prudence were observed in the whole course of men's Lives, Grey hairs would be more in Fashion, Physicians would gain more credit by their Prescriptions, sick Patients would find Remedies more Effectual, and a Divine Influence would more infallibly attend them all. Sir, I must now conclude, and so may you, that  
I am a Respecter of you and your Health, J. M.  
FINIS.