〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE SHADOW OF THE Tree of Life: Or a Discourse of the Divine Institution and most effectual Application of Medicinal Remedies. In order to the Preservation, and Restauration of Health.  
By J. M.  
LONDON. Printed for John Wilkins, and are to be sold at his shop in Exchange-Alley, by the Exchange-Coffee-House, 1673.   

Courteous Reader,  
WHen we reflect upon the erroneous Principles, and impertinent Practices of men in the Application of Medicines, and observe how many destroy themselves thereby, some possessed with Turkish Principles, think to palliate all omissions in this kind, by reflecting upon a Divine determination abstracted from the concurrence of second causes.  
Others looking not upon it as a Divine Institution, but only as a Politic trick to maintain a Society of men, though grofly mistaken. And some whose ignorance hath betrayed them into the hands of the unskilful, and not finding the event answer their expectation, they make bold to condemn the whole Faculty for an Imposture: As if because a man went to Sea with an unskilful Pilot, who runs his Vessel upon a Rock, and lost all his Goods, therefore the Art of Navigation must be condemned for unprofitable and vain.  
Nay some are so fantastical, as to think extreme Unction sufficient, to answer all intentions of Physical applycations.  
And many other such evil conceits may be seen under the Sun, whereby men cheat themselves of their lives.  
It being in Physic as in Divinity, for the most sacred institutions, are insignificant unto the Souls of men, if not rightly received and applied.  
So the most wholesome remedies, are unprofitable unto the bodies of men, if not used in a due manner.  
Now the design of the Author of this small Treatise is only to take notice of the bounty of our great Creator, in his provision of necessaries, conducing to the health of natural life; and also to direct to those proper Rules, requisite to be observed in the right administration of natural remedies, here are no private receipts to amuse the vulgar, and it may be the more useful because discourses of this nature are seldom seen in public.  
Therefore read and improve to the best advantage, viz. the preservation of health, which is the greatest temporal Blessing we can enjoy. Without it 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 objects, will not please the eye; the softest down, will not ease the bones: It is that which makes all our delights delightful, without which we can solace ourselves in no temporal enjoyments.  
Health is that which renders the body serviceable to the soul; for when our flesh upon us is in pain, our souls within us do usually mourn: and we are unfit for holy services.  
Health is that which renders us fit for the enjoyment of humane Society; it preserves the faculties of the mind in strength and vigour, makes the wit acute, and the memory retentive.  
Seeing then that Health is a blessing, attended with so many privileges, and men are subject to dash upon so many quick sands, in the pursuit of it, surely it cannot be unprofitable to humane nature to direct to those means which may be most likely to preserve, or restore it; but rather of the greatest, and most comfortable Importance, next to the salvation of our Souls.  
Yours, J. M.   
THE SHADOW OF THE Tree of Life. Or a Discourse of the Excellency and Divine Institution of Medicinal Remedies.  

Chap. I.  
THat every man is bound by the Law of God and Nature to keep the clayey Cottage of his Body in reparation, and to use all possible means to preserve his natural life in health and vigour; none can question: we being tenants at the will of our Great Landlord in these houses of Earth, it ought to be our concern to take care lest they run to ruin through neglect, and so we expose ourselves to an Indictment at the bar of Heaven for Dilapidations; he that is no life preserver is a self murderer, a felo de se in the sight of God: that command thou shalt not kill, doth strictly oblige us to preserve life, both our own and others.   

CHAP. II.  
THe Jews were to be at the charge of any man's cure, whom they had hurt, or any way prejudiced in their bodily health, so as to expose them to expense or danger, much more ought we to take care of our own cure, if Divine providence lay any distemper upon us.  
He who breathed into man the breath of Life, at first, and in whom we still live and move and have our being; hath commanded us to pray for our daily bread, viz. the necessary supports of this life, and if we must pray for them, certainly we must use them.   

Chap. III.  
ALthough we live not by bread alone, but by the word of blessing, which proceeds out of the mouth of God, yet the blessing is annexed to bread, not to stones; that man will not trust God, but tempt him who shall expect to have stones turned into bread; if God have appointed stairs it's not faith but fury to go down by a Precipiece.  
Holy David, trusting in the Name of the Lord, made him not throw away his sling, when he went against Goliath: Jacob's supplicating of God made him not neglect to send a present to his Brother; the fast of Hester, made her not forget to feast the King; second causes are to be used in obedience to God's order, not in confidence of there own help.  
Faith should cause us to be so diligent in the use of means, as if God did nothing for us; and yet so draw us from trusting in the means, as if God were to do all for us.   

CHAP. IU.  
Saint Paul's Mariners could not expect preservation, unless they did abide in the Ship, notwithstanding they had a promise of their lives.  
Balaams' Ass may instruct men, that a merciful man, should be merciful to his Beast, much more to himself.  
Our blessed Saviour makes it a great piece of Religion to visit the Sick, and one of those actions according to which our final sentence will be determined.  
The Shunamite woman took a journey, and importuned the Prophet to use the best means he could to cure her Son.   

CHAP. V.  
NAman was commanded to wash seven times in Jordain, for the cure of his Leprosy, although he would have had the Prophet only prayed for him.  
If the Centurion were importunate with our Saviour to cure his servant, when sick of a Palsy; certainly all pious men ought to be concerned for the cure and ease of there servants, and themselves, when laid upon the bed of sickness, and to apply themselves to the most proper remedies.  
If the body of the Priest under the Law, were to be without natural blemishes and distempers, who were to offer Sacrifices in the material Temple, why should not Christians under the Gospel, whose bodies are the temples of the holy Ghost, be careful to use those means which may preserve them in health and vigour.  
King Asa was not condemned for using, but for trusting to the Physicians.   

CHAP. VI  
IT is a great sin upon the pretence of God's power to be disobedient to his will, in despising Physic, which God hath ordained to be the means to restore us to health; this is to try what God can do, and yet neglect what he commands, in not adminstering those things which are necessary for the body, etc.  
The miraculous cures which the Apostles effected by their Handkerchiefs, and by Ointment, and laying on their hands, these wholly ceased, according to that rule, cessante causa cessat effectus: the cause of that miraculous power being only to confirm their Doctrine in its first preaching; that being done, that miraculous way ceaseth, and therefore now men must use more ordinary means, found out by reason and experience: as the extraordinary way of understanding tongues is ceased, we must do it by humane industry and natural study.  
The life is more than meat, and the body than raiment, and therefore queen Hester preferred life before liberty, and importuned the King to grant the life of the Jews; and told him if they had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen she had held her peace.   

CHAP. VII.  
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 is a precious Jewel, and Solomon saith the Adulteress hunts for the precious life. That which was sick was not to be offered in Sacrifice, why should we not therefore endeavour to present our bodies a healthful, as well as a holy Sacrifice; which is but reasonable service.  
When the body is in a weak and languishing condition, it is not fit for holy service, and therefore one part of the happiness of heaven consists in a freedom from sickness and distempers; there Leah shall not be blear eyed nor Mephibosheth halt.  
Saint John prayeth for Gaius that his body might prosper and be in health even as his soul was. And Saint James bids us pray for one another that we may be healed  
Now if it be our duty to pray for one another's health, much more ought we to endeavour to preserve our own.   

CHAP. VIII.  
THe soul sits uneasy in a diseased body. The body it is the sheath of the soul, as Daniel calls it; if the sheath be defective, or impaired, it is prejuditial to the blade, so when the Golden bowl is broken, and the sound of the grinding is low, and the strong men bow themselves, than the Sun and the Moon and the Stars will be darkened. That is, all the faculties of the Soul will be clouded, and not so fit to perform their several offices, the understanding, the memory, and the fancy, will not be so clear, strong and lively, and desire itself must needs fail.  
Barzillai took small delight in the pleasures of the Court when his sight and his taste fail him.  
Our bodies are members of Christ therefore we ought to have a respect for them, neglecting of the body is by St. Paul reckoned as a piece of will Worship.  
The best way to keep the body under is by a virtuous mind.   

CHAP. IX.  
THe cure of the Leprous persons under the Law was appointed to be managed by the Priest, rather than by the Physician, because it concerned him to keep back men, who were Leprous from the Sanctuary, although it is probably though he might have the advice of the Physician, for their profession was ancient, as we may observe in the 50 of Genesis. It is very remarkable, the conformity between the Leprous contagion, and the Law of cleansing: the Leprosy did putrify the skin, and opposite to that was Cedar-wood, commended against putrefaction; it was of an offensive colour, opposite to that, was the colour of scarlet; of an ill sent, contrary to that was the sweetness of Hyssop; it did consume the flesh and bring death, there was the sparrow let lose, a significant sign of recovery and continuance of life.  
It is probably thought that the prohibition of many sorts of meats in the 11 of Leviticus, was not only upon a moral but also upon a physical account, because they yield no good nourishment, but are unwholesome.   

CHAP. X.  
THe world is very full of complaints of the ineffectual application of Medicines in order to the procuring of Health, when it is lost or the preservation of it when enjoyed, and doubtless the the cause of these complaints must arise from the imprudent and preposterous use of so excellent an ordinance of God, for the good of mankind, for who but a person whose reason is unhinged, and whose intellectuals are Eclipsed with the fogs of ignorance or prejudice can reflect any deficiency in those remedies themselves, which are designed, by the God of nature, to be good for food, and physic even every herb bearing seed, therefore he that dare to say in his heart there is no God, who hath given, every herb for the service of man, his folly is manifest to all men, doubtless that profession which hath received a patent from the King of Kings and the great preserver of men, must needs be of great utility & transcendent excellency. Shall the Almighty himl f prescribe an Emolient Cataplasm, for the plague-sore of Hezekias in order to the addition of 15 years to his life, and shall any condemn so noble a faculty as physic is in itself, if rightly applied.   

CHAP. XI.  
HOw many singular examples of physical applications do the inspired penmen of holy writ exhibit to us, and whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning.  
Were not the waters of Mara made salutiferous by the casting in of medicinal ingredients.  
Without doubt the sons of the prophets had a physical intention in the composition of their Broth, with physical herbs, although it was attended with a mistake, as to the nature of the simple.   

CHAP. XII.  
KIng Solomon who had the privilege granted him from the only wise God, to be the only wise man, made it his business to inquire into the nature of vegetables from the tallest Cedar to the contemptible Hyssop, and shall we cast the Imputation of folly upon him whom the spirit of God, hath recorded, for the most eminent example of Wisdom, and imagine that he spent his time in such a study, as was not likely to be profitable to human nature, shall he whose brow was encircled with a glittering Diadem, whose Gold was so plenteous as to pave his palace, whose orchards were replenished with delicious fruits, whose ears were entertained with the most harmonious melodies, and had all the delights of the sons of men, shall he I say condescend to the study and improovement of physic, and yet Contemptible fools despise it. The wiseman doth not only tell us, with what remedies the Almighty heals men, and takes away their pains in his description of the variety of plants, a book which possibly the world hath lost, or else goethunder the name of some other Author, but also in his divine discourses wherein he acts the part of a Preacher, he declares to the world that these remedies must be applied, for he saith there is a time to heal, and that a medicine doth good if rightly used, for he compares it to a cheerful spirit, or rather a good conscience which is a continual feast.   

CHAP. XIII.  
CErtainly Ahab would never have been so sinfully ambitious to abtain the vineyard of Naboth for a garden of herbs, If he had not understood their virtue as well as delight.  
Doubtless the good will of him that dwelled in the bush is further declared to mankind, by the fruit the leaves and the flowers growing thereon, which he hath impregnated with such virtues that they are good for the healing of the nations, in a corporal, as well as in a spiritual sense, those contemptible persons Job speaks of, who cut up mallows by the roots, probably understood they were nutrative and medicinal as the experience of many ages demonstrate.   

CHAP. XIV.  
THe bitter herbs appointed to be eaten with the pascal Lamb, were not only typical but medicinal if we may believe some of the ancients.  
Nay, a Dinner of herbs with Evangelical charity, is preferred by Solomon before a costly banquet. Medicinal herbs as Mint, Anniss, Rhue, and Cummin, etc. were so much in use amongst the Jews, that they laid tithes and costomary impositions upon them.   

CHAP. XV.  
WHen the Church would make a Metaphorical description, of the external and internal qualifications of her beloved; doth she not compare him to those things that are most excellent and useful; as Myrrh, Aloes, Cassia, and all the chief Spices?  
Without controversy Physicians are not only useful for the Embalming of the Dead, as Joseph used them; but for the recovering of the dying, as our Saviour intimates, when he saith the whole have no need of the Physician, but they that be sick have.  
Who can be so weak as to imagine that the Art of the Apothecary should be employed only to prepare the Holy Ointments, for the Consecration of Priests and Kings of old; and not to prepare variety of Medecines for the restauration of virtuous and pious Souls who through, the meritorious death of the Son, are made Kings and Priests unto God the Father?   

CHAP. XVI.  
THe Evangelical Prophet Esay, reflecting upon the deplorable condition of the Church, with the whole head sick, and heart faint; full of wounds, bruises, and putrifying sores, being not bound up nor mollified with ointments; doth plainly intimate how necessary he thought, the natural as well as the spiritual application of fit remedies, in such a case; which must needs be sad indeed, when there is no Balm in Gilead, and no Physician there.  
Jothams' Parable may be useful thus far, to instruct the world, that not only the Olive, the Figtree, and the Vine are useful to Honour and cheer the Heart of God and man but also the bramble may have an excellency, and superiority in some distempers: for although its thorns do tear the flesh, yet of its leaves are made a healing application.  
Such is the Beneficence of our great Creator, that since the Appearance of the second Adam, we may eat of every tree in the garden, without any prejudice to us or our posterity, ask no question for conscience sake, for the Earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof.  
It is wonderful to observe the miraculous providence of God, in preserving the seminal virtues of plants, from perishing by the deluge, when we read not of any seeds preserved in the Ark; the innocent Dove showing a leaf to the new world, preached a Sermon of Divine goodness, so that the Poet might well say, Quaelibet herba Deum, etc.   

CHAP. XVII.  
ezechiel's vision through God's goodness may be daily seen, a tree whose fruit is good for food; and leaves for medicine.  
Our Saviour the Physician of Souls, was Physician of bodies too, and not only commended the good Samaritan, but acted the part of one throughout his whole life.  
Saint Luke, the beloved Physian, was the quill of the holy dove, the Divine Amanuensis.  
The Angelic Spirits think it not an office inferior to their natureto be instrumental in the healing of the sick, as may be seen in the stirring the waters of Bethesda.  
Although our Saviors restoring sight to the blind man was miraculous, yet means was used although but clay and spittle.  
Saint Paul himself prescribes wine to Timothy as a medicinal cordial to cheer his spirits, and to support him under his infirmities.   

CHAP. XVIII.  
ANd the utility of Physical Remedies, is not only demonstrated from Scripture, but it may be evinced from the use of it, by the most knowing and intelligent part of mankind; both Jews and Pagans.  
In the Temple of Esculapius, there was a fountain of oil, with a golden Arch, a perfect symbol of Physic; the one denoting its usefulness, the other its honour.  
Again it is founded upon reason, and attended with the experience of many Ages. Therefore the unsuccesfulnes of it cannot be from the nature of the thing, but from the misusing of it.   

CHAP. XIX.  
THe Design of medicines being not to prevent death, for it is the unalterable Decree of Heaven that men must die, but it is to make life comfortable, and to preserve nature's lamp, so long until there is no more oil left to feed it.  
And if we rightly understand the excellency of natural life, it being that space of time allotted us for the securing our eternal state; it highly concerns us to use those means which may be most likely to preserve it. Now there are several things absolutely needful, in order to the preservation, or restoration of natural life; and must be observed, or we cannot rationally apply the remedies.  

The ability of the Physician in prescribing.  
The faithfulness of the Apothecary in preparing.  
The regularity of the Patient in observing.  
The care of Nurses in attending.  
The strength of Nature in Assisting.  
The Providence of God in influencing.    

CHAP. XXI.  
Concerning the choice of an able Physician, which is the unum necessarium in sickness, next to the imploring the Divine Benediction; This I may say, that there is no action of a man's life of greater consequence, neither doth any, discover more of wisdom or folly, than a preposterous or prudent choice. There's no wife man, but will choose a person of learning, experience, and known integrity; If a man's horse be troubled with the glanders, it is a point of prudence to apply himself to the ablest Farrier for advise, and not to every Ostler that hath a confidence to prescribe a drench.  
If my watch want mending, I would choose to send it to the most ingenious Artist.  
People seldom are so imprudent in other things; as they send not their Bellows to a lookinglass maker to mend, but their bodies shall be sent to any mongrel Physician; who can sooner cure all Diseases then one  
The curing of Diseases being like mending a watch, if not done by a skilful Artist, the rectifying of one spring may disorder the regular motion of the whole.  
How many persons destroy themselves by imprudence, in the choice of Physicians; more dying of soft places in their heads hen ulcers in their lungs; and multitudes digging their graves with their thick sculls.   

CHAP. XXII.  
THe generality of people, if a person be but nicknamed Doctor, and took his degree in a drinking School, & ascendit gradum sine gradibus. It may be one, who did his exercise in Fees, and will be a Doctor although he wants the participle Doctus, spells Physic with an F. and Chirurgeon with an S. such a one shall serve turn.  
Some called Doctors, are as unskilful in Physic as the Athenians were in Religion; they dedicate their medicines to an unknown disease. People had better fall into the hands of the common Executioner; for than they will be put out out of their pain; then into the hands of Illiterate Doctors, or confident Quacks. He deserves to be killed that runs against the point of a sword in the hand of a madman; and little better are many, who pretend to secrets or rare arcana's, and kill men without making any noise; like white Gunpowder, that none shall know who hurt them. Pretend privacy in the preparations of their medicines, that the world may not see what poisoned the Patient.  
These imitate Evah, or rather the Serpent, pretend to give that which shall be pleasant to the taste, and good for food and Physic, but in the end, beguile men of their health, and few days after the Patient dyeth the death. Like the Lion, that pretends to pull the thorn out of the Lamb's foot, and devours him; like Gipsies tell you your fortune, and pick your pockets.  
These waterologers, or rather piss Prophets, will make a man believe they know every thing by the water, even how many stairs a man falls down when he bruises himself; these are like mousetraps, when a man is in their hands; their is no getting out but with the loss of life; si populus vult decipi, decipiatur.   

CHAP. XXIII.  
SOme go altogether by books, which are only a collection of conjectural experiments, and never consider Age, Constitution, Sex, Time of the disease; never regard the rational intentions of cure, lop the branches of the disease, but never pluck up the root, nor remove the cause, but cry they are safe, if they do no good they can do no hurt, whereas they do much hurt in omitting more effectual remedies, while they use weak and insignificant ones.  
Some blind Bayards there are, who pretend to three or four universal remedies to cure all distempers, and these will sometimes cure the disease, and kill the Patient, and like some Gardeners pluck up the root of the plants and sow the seeds against the next year at the same time, and snuff the candle so rashly, as to put it quite out; but so long as none but themselves know what the thing was, that made the man breath his last, all is well enough. Whereas a learned experienced Physician cares not who views his prescripts upon the file, supposing the Patient die, it being nothing but what was safe, what he would have taken himself, and what would have certainly recovered the Patient, if God would have had it so.  
Some are so confident they will tell you they will be hanged if they don't cure you: they can cure the Gout when the cause is removed; and the Dropsy proceeding from neither wind nor water, and pains in the head if not distempered in body; and restore any man to health, although never so crooked.  
These will tell a woman she is with child, when the course of nature hath been stopped half a year, and no ill symptoms, and that a man's liver grows too much on his right side, and that there is water near his heart, and such like things which every fool may do if he please.  
But none are so confident to talk and undertake, as those that have least judgement; it is therefore a great indiscretion in the vulgar, to condemn the most learned and most experienced Physicians, because they do not preach over the water, and enter into impertinent discourses with people, as ignorant pretenders to Physic are apt to do.  
He that saith least and doth most, is the best Physician. His business is to cure the Patient's body not to inform his judgement; to procure health, not knowledge in Physic; vulgar apprehensions are not capable of understanding, either the terms or the notions of Physic.  
Dog's may indeed lick men's sores and make them whole with their tongues; Physicians must cure by reason and experience.   

CHAP. XXIV.  
INdeed illiterate Practitioners will sometimes let fly such strange words that with a small addition, being taken in the pap of an apple, would give a man a purge; that must needs be a simple composition in the cure of my distemper, that hath more of words than deeds for its ingredients. But frequently it happens that amongst such Doctors, the most corrosive, venomous Chemical medicine, hath nothing to kill it, but fasting spittle or a smooth tongue.  
Beware of that medicine, whose best corrective is a poison, though guilded over with never so plausible pretences, their spirits generally prove evil spirits, and such as cannot be cast out by natural means, their powders are worse than Gunpowder, for they blow up many good subjects, and with so much privacy, that none but he that did it can tell who hurt them.   

CHAP. XXV.  
ONe of these desperadoes may possibly be more talked on, and admired by the vulgar than an able Physician, because never used but in desperate cases, wherein they either kill or cure: now if the Patient die, they are not blamed as others are, because it is nothing but what was expected, namely that the Patient should die, being given over by all, but if the Patient recover, than their skill is proclaimed, but what a madness is it to run a sword in a man's bowels, to cure him of an imposthume, because one was once cured so by accident.  
It is no wonder to see such men's prodigious actions admired; for do we not gaze more upon a blazing Comet that infects the Air, and poisons men with pestilential vapours: then on the regular motions of the glorious Sun, whose cherishing beams yield light and health to humane nature?  
Who hath more followers than the Prince of Darkness?   

CHAP. XXVI.  
GIve me the Physician whose Prescriptions are safe, and yet effectual, who imitates nature, and allures her into a healthful state, and by plausible insinuations opens obstructions, evacuates superfluities, corrects crudities, checks violent fermentations, and in a mild and friendly way helps her to shake hands with the disease.  
I desire no acquaintance with those malignant remedies, who assault the disease with such imprudent rashness, that they destroy the disease, and kill the patiented; as Samson did his enemies and himself.  
It is good to use chemical remedies very warily, a child is in more danger of doing mischief with a knife of steel then of Bone.  
We choose the ablest Carpenter for our buildings: but indebted Tradesmen, disbanded Soldiers, wand'ring Mountebanks, wicked Jews; the very scorn of the people, serve for our bodies: a Tailor shall as soon mend a stitch fallen in our bodies as a learned Physician. The Proverb is changed, from all are fools or Physicians, to all fools are Physicians. Tractent fabrilia fabri; let every one handle his own tools, but men will not learn wisdom until the dust of the grave, that powder of experience be cast in their eyes. Many Patients become Martyrs to their Physician's ignorance.  
Degrees and trials of men's abilities, are good political Shiboleths and very needful.  
The English people strangely betray their simplicity in affecting strangers and foreign Physicians; he that came the last tide from Gravesend, hath but Englsh enough to write, me cure all these Diseases par la grace of God; having cured the Alamode distemper in himself, is well studied in Hippocras & Gallon, rather than Hypocrates and Galen, is a rare Doctor. Their practice being like country dance called hit or miss. Possibly they may cure some old Distemper just taking its leave, and through the energy of a former course thrust out of doors; but they may as well promise a man success from thence as that a blind man shall hit the mark a second time because he did it once.  
In an able Physician there is required natural abilities, advanced by study, and confirmed by experience.   

CHAP. XXVII.  
TAke heed of dashing your health upon these Rocks, lest you shipwreck all, when your body is in a storm, call in the help of a skilful Pilot, I mean an able Physician; and in bleeding, purging, sweeting, vomiting and blistering, depend not on the advise of any, without an able Physician; for with the well advised is wisdom and in Council there is safety: men do not depend upon the advice of an Attorney when their estate is in danger, but fee a Councillor; why should they dally with their health more than their estates? There are many considerable motives may be urged to persuade, to take the advice of able Physicians.  
As our own safety, Physicians being better acquaintanted with the nature of all remedies, and with the Anatomy of the body of man, understand the situation of the parts, and the circulations of the blood, better than any Artist whatsoever.  
Again, for the satisfaction of the world, that all may be convinced that the best means were used that could be: I have known some that have been almost distracted after the death of relations because they advised not in time with some able Physicians.  
Again, Because we cannot rationally expect the concurrence of a Divine influence, unless we make use of the most probable of second causes, and the most likely means; we must use our best endeavours, if we would have them effectual in the production of any end.  
Again, Because a person dying in the omission of the most proper and rational means, may be in danger of an indictment for self murder, which few consider.   

CHAP. XXVIII.  
MOreover it is very requisite that care should be used in the choice of faithful Persons, to prepare and compound, those remedies which learned and experienced Physicians prescribe: a business of so great consequence ought not to be committed to serving men, who never served Apprenticeship to any Employment of that nature. And therefore the wisdom of Authority hath established a Society of Apothecaries to be instructed & employed in that useful Art, & they have demonstrated to the world their care to prevent abuses in medicines, by erecting a Public Elaboratory for the preparation of Chemical remedies, in the most exact manner.   

CHAP. XXIX.  
ANother excellent Rule to be observed in order to the cure of distempers is, that the Patient be very exact in observing the directions of the Physician in his Diet, Air, Exercise, Evacuations, Sleep and Passions of the Mind: there are many Patients that will promise their Physician fairly, but as soon as their back is turned observe no rules, yet be very ready to censure the Physician, if they do not recover. They will not persevere until the distemper be removed. If a man layeth a plaster to an ulcer and takes it off presently, it can never heal.  
If the Physician throws water, and the Patient throw on fuel, how can the fire be extinguished?  
What folly is it to blame our food for not satisfying our hunger, when we eat but a bit?  
Many Patients are like the Babel bvilders, when the Physician prescribes a trowel they will use a hammer, when the distemper calls for sweats they will use none but cooling Juleps; and consult more the antique picture in the Almonack, than the stare, increase, and declination of the distemper.  
If sleep be wanting, than Syrup of Poppy must be had, which translates the morbific matter to the brain, and causeth a frenzy, or else such a sleep is procured, which only the last trumpet can awake. And it is an endless thing to argue with some people to whom sense is a riddle, and reason a Paradox.  
If people would put on their considering caps they might sooner put off their sick caps.  
Although some people may be called Patients, because they exercise the Physician's Patience; yet they are not so in using their own, for they will not persevere in a regular course, until the remedy can have its due operation, if they are not cured of those distempers in a day which they have been contracting a year; then leave the medicine, and chop and change, and run from one thing to another, and be constant to nothing.  
And one imprudent rib shall slay more persons than the Jawbone of an Ass. And practice by book receipts, where through the default of the printer, a dram of Mercurius vitae shall be prescribed in stead of a few grains, yet down it goeth because the judgement of the reader knows not the exact dose. In Diet they will not be confined but like Timothy to drink a little wine.   

CHAP. XXX.  
ANother rule to be observed in the restoring of health, is the care of the attendance; a good nurse is a good sign of recovery. If the attendance are not careful, the abilities of the Physician, and the goodness of the medicine is but in vain. Now the care of attendants is evident in giving the remedies which are prescribed, and in hindering the Patient from those things which are hurtful; but the generality of attendance are like Eva, instead of discouraging will tempt and invite to the eating forbidden fruit, to the ruin of the patiented, and sometimes of the posterity.   

CHAP. XXXI.  
THE rule to be observed in the right use of remedies is, to apply ourselves to the use of proper means before nature is vasted: delay in this case proves always dangerous, therefore the Poet's rule is good: Principiis ob●sta sero medicina peratur.  
People generally flatter themselves into their graves, with the conceits of colds and surfeits, and so confounding diseases, with their symptoms, and nicknamed distempers, and giving them some common denomination, and apprehending that it being nothing else but what they have known some recover of, they neglect the properest remedies until it be too late; or until the distemper be complicated, and hath taken deep root. It costs many a man his life, whilst he eyeth only the external causes of distempers. It is usual to discourse thus; I have left off a coat, or put on a damp shift, or eaten something that did not agree with my stomach, or drank cold beer when hot, or over walked myself, or have been frighted or grieved, or the like; when at the same time the stomach is disordered by a load of corrupt humours, and a mere Quagmire; the Blood inflamed; the Liver and Spleen obstructed, and the Lungs perished, and this is not taken notice of; as if a man when his house is on fire should not mind it, so as to quench it, but satisfy himself with this consideration, that it came only by a boy throwing a squib, etc. And many times they will depend upon the advice of some friend, or apish Doctor, until cold sweats affright, and then the learned Physician is sent for, when the time for purgation and bleeding is let ship, and so the Physician shares with the Patient in the infamy of miscarriage; and he is sent for, not to cure, (that he cannot, because nature is spent) but to try whether he can antedate resurrections. Nothing destroys more Persons, then imprudent harkening to the advice of persons, of other professions, and neglecting learned Physicians, until it be too late;   

CHAP. XXXII.  
A Nother effectual ingredient in the cure of distempers, and that which is most necessary, is the concurring influence of a divine blessing: unto God the Lord belong the issues from death, and therefore it concerns us so to behave ourselves, that we may procure a divine Benediction.  
The best way to procure a divine influence to cooperate with the means, is by a Holy and a pious life: so saith God Almighty to the Jews, If you obey my statutes, and hearken to my Judgements, I will bless your bread and your water, & remove sickness from the midst of you. Solomon urgeth the consideration of our health as a very strong argument to promote divine fear, It shall be health our Navel and marrow to our bones. Wisdom is a Tree of life to them that lay hold upon, it, what man is he that loveth life, and many days, let him departed from evil and do good.  
Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come  
Solomon's ask of wisdom was attended with the addition of long life.  
If the obedience of our natural Parents hath the promise of long life annexed to it, much more the service of our spiritual parent, especially so far as life is good; life is yours saith the Apostle. because you are Christ's.   

CHAP. XXXIII.  
PIety it secures men from the power of evil Angels, who have a great influence in the procuring of distempers, by a Divine permission, as in the case of the excommunicated Corinthian, and the incestuous persons, about Lot's House struck blind, Herod destroyed by an Angel, and the evil angels sent amongst the Israelites, and several other examples of the like nature, and the Demoniacs in the Gospel. Again Piety it usually secures men from the stroke of Humane Justice, as it guards them from those flagitious impieties which expose them to the penalties of humane laws, as murders, thefts and rapine.  
And it also preserves men from the terrors of an evil conscience, which makes men many times wash their hands in their own blood as Judas did.  
Again, Piety preserves life, as it teacheth men temperance and moderation in the use of those means that preserve life.  
We find in Sacred Oracles, that immature death is threatened as the penalty of disobedience; and that the Penmen of Holy writ do often inculcate the benefit of the fear of God, as it is attended with the promise of longaevity.  
So that to imagine the life of man to be fixed beyond the possibility of the Almighty's abbreviation or prolongation, is vain and inconsistent with scripture and reason.   

CHAP. XXXIV.  
THe Turks dream that the manner and moment of every man's death, is prefixed by the Immutable laws of fate, and that his lot is written in invisible Characters in his forehead, that they account it vanity and cowardice to arm themselves against the blows of war by defensive weapons, but it is to be hoped that Christians have learned better. It being a confessed verity that every natural motion, hath its beginning, duration, and period, dependent on the will of the first motive, now the life of man being a natural motion, our nativity and death, are both ordered by divine providence, for in him we live and move and have our being.  
The natural life of man consisting in a requisite harmony of the first qualities, and in a proportionate comixture of the natural heat and radical moisture, which harmony is more or less, according to the more or less, exquisite temperament of body, assigned to each single person by the free dispensation of the divine will. It followeth that the continuance of every individual, in this natural life, dependeth upon the pleasure of the first cause, as Holy Job intimates when he saith, our days are determined and the number of our Months are with him, who hath set bounds to humane nature, so that no man can live beyond the durability of his specifical temperament, the principles of his vitality and permissions of providence.   

CHAP. XXXV.  
THe only wise God hath composed our bodies like a lamp of heat and moisture, hath given appetites of hunger and thirst to feed this lamp, and so supply the expenses of the moisture by the heat, he hath given us reason and understanding to govern our appetites, and the revelation of his will to guide our reason; now if we through the depravation of our natures, and the predominancy of temptation, do suffer our appetite to dethrone our reason, and give way to Ebriety, Gluttoners' salacity, & other immoralities which have a natural tendency to extinguish, the lamp of life, we may justly expect to be cut off in the midst of our days, and to die before our time, by being wicked over much as Solomon expresseth it.  
Whereas piety and obedience like the Tree of life in paradise, not only sacramentally but really conduceth to health and long life, so far as it is a blessing: and this it doth by impregnating our elements with the tincture of a divine benediction, by meliorating our temperaments and constitutions, by infusing salutiferous dispositions in the air, & propitious influences in the host of heaven, which many times impress the seminalities of diseases upon the blood and spirits, so that the period of our days, and all the second causes conducing thereunto, are circumscribed within the circle of a divine prenotion and limitation.   

CHAP. XXXVI.  
A man may die in a time when God forbids, and yet die when God permits, and live out all God's time, who wickedly shortens his own.  
The murmuring Isralites were buried in the wilderness notwithstanding, their promise of seeing Canaan, their infidelity anticipated their funerals.  
The wages of sin is death, and may as justly be paid in the morning as in the evening of our lives. Indeed temperance doth not always prove an Antidote against the Pestilence, nor Abstinence a preservative against Famine, nor innocence a security from the stroke of injustice, but they are likely means.  
The flagitious impiety of the old world sent a Deluge, which possibly might have been prevented had their repentance been as visible as the Ninevites was, who were repreived from execution after the sentence of death had passed upon them, whereby omnipotence did demonstrate that he hath reserved a power in his own hands to length then or shorten the lives of men as he pleaseth, and to make the sands in the glass of time run swift or slow according to his pleasure, it is very observable how the Patriarches outlived all their titles of consanguinity, yet none lived to a complete thousand years, some indeed give this reason for it, be cause God would make good his threatening to Adam, that in the day he eat he should die the death, and so they would compute, a day for a thousand years as St. Peter speaks, but this is trifling and foolish.  
A more probable reason may be to declare to the world the vanity of life, when those who lived longest could not arrive to such a period, which in comparison of God's eternity is but a day.   

CHAP. XXXVII.  
SIn brought death at first, and as sin increased, death came near ere by 500 years, presently after the flood; man sinned still and built Castles in the air, and then it is reduced to 200 years, and by Moses time half that remnant is taken away, and threescore and ten is the period, had God gone on still to shorten our days as we increased in sin, our life by this time had not been a day long, and therefore he no longer destroys the kind, but punisheth the individual, and sets it down for a rule viz. evil shall slay the wicked.  
So that not one in 500 arrive at that state, which they might attain unto by the course of nature but end their days in sin and folly, and in a period appointed in anger: we may easily observe how the blessing of health is contradicted by an impious life, for from surfeiting proceeds dissolution of members, relaxation of nervs, fractures of bones, inflammation of the liver, & crudities of the stomach, which Solomon sums up, besides the uncleanly consequences of lust, which hunt for the precious life, and like a dart strike through the liver; and the casual deaths caused by Jealousies and animosities: thus providence intervenes, and suffers not nature to take its course by reason of impieties.   

CHAP. XXXVIII  
IT is observable that not a Son died a natural death before the Father for three thousand years until Terahs' time who was the first that taught the people to make Images of clay, and corrupted the Worship of God, his son Haron was snatched away by death before him.  
The Jewish Rabbins do observe that during the standing of the second Temple there were 300 high priests, but in the time of the first but 18, which stood within 10 years as long as the first, which may be much attributed to their impieties.  
It is thought by some of the ancients, that Balaam's wish to die the death of the righteous, was not only that he might be saved at last, but also seeing what judgements God had purposed to bring upon the Moabites, that he might come to his grave in a good old age, with his father in peace: we live by the word of blessing out of the mouth of God every command if observed, like food and physic tends to the length of our natural as well as spiritual lives.   

CHAP. XXXIX.  
THe fear of God is the best Antidote against sickness, as it is a direct enemy to sin which brought in death. If sin destroy soul and body, why should not piety preserve both? If the sting of conscience torment body as well as soul, doubtless peace of conscience relieves both.  
Why may not the soul as well conduce to the prolongation of the body, as to the immortality of it?  
Why may not the body have the perfection of life (viz. health) from the soul, as life itself?   

CHAP. XL.  
THe circumstantial actions of piety are influential towards the lengthening the lives of men, as the sweet sleeps of temperate persons, and their freedom from violent and enraged passions, and the admirable contentment that dwells in a holy conscience, these must necessarily conduce to a healthful life.  
Dying to sin is an excellent means to preserve life, if men would try the experiment.  
It is observed that the male heir of Ely's family died as soon as born, for many generations, according to a divine threatening, until they set themselves unto a serious humiliation and solemn repentance.  
We live not at an adventure, but the manner and moments of our death, come under a divine appointment; the Jews could not prejudice our Saviour's life until his hour was come, viz. that hour which by a special providence was appointed to be his last hour, although St. Paul was in deaths often, yet he died not before providence thought meet: it is appointed to men once to die, that is, it is once appointed to men to die.   

CHAP. XLI.  
A Man may shorten his own days, but he cannot shorten a Divine determination: the date of Hezekia's life was lengthened with respect to himself, but not in respect of Divine purpose; that is the same, be our time long or short.   

CHAP. XLII.  
Object. But if Piety do so prevail with God to lengthen our lives, how comes it to pass that many good and holy men die, whilst in the prime of their years?  
Answer, Those that reason thus do not consider that the righteous may be taken away from the evil to come; and by their death's God may serve other ends of his Providence, and yet make his promise good, by recompensing Temporal with Eternal life. Although God hath promised long life to them that obey, yet he never promised that he would not borrow our natural lives as it were, and make a glorious exchange.   

CHAP. XLIII.  
DEath may sometimes be a great mercy, and life a great misery.  
It is observed that from Adam to to the Flood by the Patriarches, were eleven Generations, but by cain's line eight, they being shorter lived, because God intending to bring a flood upon the World, rescued the Elect from the fatal Deluge. And the same reason is generally given in case Infants die before the use of reason, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. Although Abijah came to his grave whilst young, yet there was some good thing found in him towards the Lord God of Israel.  
Many times providence may make use of those distempered humours which the child derived from its Parent, to be the instruments of death; a holy person may die in battle, and be surprised by every accident; all these things falling alike to all.  
Yet these examples do not contradict a general rule, viz. that Piety, and Faith in Christ; is a good preservative of natural life. Enoch and Elias never died, and became examples that a spotless life might possibly have been immortal.   

CHAP. XLIV.  
SO that the best way to secure our health, is to endeavour to procure the providence of God to be our life guard; but when he withdraws his protection we are exposed to the aspect of a Star, the contingencies of a battle, and the accidents of a humour: every day, and every minute we escape a thousand deaths surrounding us, it is as natural for a young person to die as an old, because that is most natural which is most common, and hath most natural causes; but to die with age is a very rare thing; but the sins of youth are the immediate instruments of death; and although a man in a consumption be under the preparations for death, yet one in health may be as near it, upon more fatal and less discerned accounts, by a sudden Fever or Apoplexy, etc. There are some vices that carry a knife in their hand, and cut of man before his time; every sinful pleasure tops off a branch from our short life.  
Although we fly from death, yet it followeth us, and we do like the poor creatures in Noah's flood, when one flour drowned, go to the next, and so higher and higher, and more and more diffracted with the horror of death, and when at the uppermost story, yet drowned at last; so we run from one disease, and another overtakes us, and we are pursued until destroyed at last by the king of Terrors.   

CHAP. XLV.  
DAvid endeavours to use all the means possible to secure his life, notwithstanding he had been told by Samuel he should live to wear the Crown, so that the Divine determinations concerning our lives should not lessen our care to preserve our lives. In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death, was Adam's sentence; the wicked and blood thirsty man shall not live out half his days; as the Partridge sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days. The covetous rich man shall have his soul or life taken away, and then whose are all his goods? saul's disobedience, Ahaziahs' evil consultations, Jeroboams Idolatry, Benhadad's curiosity, Ahabs cruelty, Hananiahs' false Prophecy, Herod's vainglory, Saphyras perjury, the Samaritan lords infidelity, the forty two children's calumny; these impieties had a particular influence upon the contracting of their days, as sacred writ demonstrates.   

CHAP. XLVI.  
MOreover, the infirmities of virtuous & good men, may so far provoke the Almighty, as to take away their natural lives, although he reward them with Eternal life; as in the example of Moses and Aaron, and the good Israelites that murmured; the good Prophet slain by the Lion, Ely and Vzziah. Sometimes God cuts off children for the sinful miscarriage of Parents, as in the case of Abijah, the widow's child, David's child, Elies children. Sometimes Subjects for the Ru●ers Impieties, as David's Subjects.   

CHAP. XLVII.  
ANother thing that is necessary towards the procuring the fluence of a Divine blessing with the means, is to endeavour to find out the cause of the distemper, I mean the supernatural cause; and to learn those lessons which providence intends to teach by sickness; the Prophet's quaere, wherefore doth the living man complain? doth plainly intimate that there is a reason; there is an Achan o● Babylonish garment, or something that causeth the thorn in the flesh, and this must be removed, for the Almighty doth not afflict willingly; the rod hath a voice; there are many ends tha● God aims at in all afflictions: A● to correct for sinful miscarriages▪ our minds have diseases as we●… as our bodies; the tympany o● pride, the fever of passion, th● dropsy of covetousness; an● therefore we are fed with th● bread of affliction, and the water of adversity; the plagu● of the heart, is many times cure● with the plague of the body▪ there is a root of bitterness, from whence all our troubles spring: As there is a vanity lieth hid in the best worldly good, so there is a blessing lieth hid in the worst worldly evil; we should imitate the Bee, gather sweet fruit out of bitter flowers.   

CHAP. XLVIII.  
WE should not like Baalam strike the Ass, look only upon the second cause of our sickness; but behold the Angel, that is the immediate instrument. We are very prone to attribute too much to second causes: but holy Job was of another mind, when his children were killed by the fall of a house, he saith, The Lord took them away.  
Sometimes the Almighty takes away a person by death in mercy to the person, as Abijah and Josiah and others.  
Sometimes he removes the child to exercise the parent's faith, as Jobs children, and in the case of Isaac. One reason why our distempers are no sooner removed, is because the design of it is not answered.   

CHAP. XLIX.  
THere are many happy intentions that Divine providence aims at in laying sicknesses and diseases upon the bodies of men.  
One end that Divine Goodness aims at, is to demonstrate his own glory, in healing and restoring, so saith our blessed Lord concerning Lazarus; this sickness shall not be unto death, but for the glory of God; and indeed deliverance from sickness is a singular mercy both to a man's self and others. Epaphroditus was sick nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him, and on me also saith holy Paul, and therefore we should bless the Lord with our souls, and all that is within us should praise his holy name, and that upon this account, because he healeth all our diseases.   

CHAP. L.  
THis consideration ellivated the holy soul of Hezekias, and transported him into a divine Doxology, viz. the living, the living, they shall praise thee, as I do this day.  
When men are miraculously delivered from death, after they have received the sentence thereof in themselves, it is given to this end that thanks may be many on their behalf.  
When our souls are delivered from going down to the grave, and our eyes are enlightened that we sleep not the sleep of death, then ●hould we praise the Lord in the great congregation, and our songs should be unto the God of our lives.   

CHAP. LI.  
ANother design of providence in sickness is to prepare men for greater sufferings, it prepares us for death. St. Paul whose bodily presence was weak, was ready to die for the name of Christ, why should he be afraid of them that kill the body, they can do no more than an Ague, or a Consumption, the sickbed is the attiring room of the grave, in which we should be preparing ourselves for the solemnities of our funerals: sickness it is a gradual putting of this vail of flesh, that we may be clothed upon, with our house, which is from heaven, it is the the harbinger of death; that we may say with that holy man when sickness comes, death worketh in us: death works apace, it works away our health, it works away our strength, it works away our ease, and works us into our graves.   

CHAP. LII.  
LOrd make me to know my end, was the sickbed prayer of holy David.  
When patiented Job was almost suffocated with the violence of his distemper, he concludes thus, I know, thou wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living.   

CHAP. LIII.  
ANother design of God in sickness is to communicate experience of his power and goodness in strengthening and supporting under it. Then is his strength made perfect in weakness, then hath the pious soul experience of Divine power strengthening him upon his bed of languishing and making all its bed in its sickness, when flesh and heart fails then God demonstrates to the soul, that he is the strength of its heart and portion for ever  
Thus sickness is sometimes laid upon us, is that we may experience the excellency of divine visits, that in the end we may say thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.   

CHAP. LIV.  
SOmetimes sickness is laid upon us to make us sympathise with others in the same condition, David speaking of his very enemies, when they were sick, sackcloth was his clothing, how much more should we sympathise with the members of our spiritual head, and be sensible of the afflictions of Joseph.   

CHAP. LV.  
ANother end of sickness is to teach us to pray when our bodies are the sinks of filthy humours, our souls should be vials of precious Odours, Hezekias turned his face to the wall and prayed when his life was like to be cut off with pining sickness, when our natural beauty doth consume away like a moth than we begin with an O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be seen no more. And we begin to pour out a prayer when heavens chastising hand is upon us.   

CHAP. LVI.  
SIckness is many times sent to try whether we will resign ourselves and Relations up by Death, as Job did his children, and as holy Ely said, It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good. Sometimes the knife of sickness is ready to slay an Isaac, to try whether we will be willing to sacrifice him to the will of God. If he will have our friends to eternity, who can give a randsom for them?  
We are apt to cry after them as Elisha did when Elijah was taken to heaven, My Father, my Father, but he stopped not to answer him. O Absolom, my Son, my Son, (cryeth the affectionate parent) would God I had died for thee?  
Why should we mourn and weep for our dying Relations when all tears are wiped from their eyes, and they are singing Hallelujahs, with harps in their hands, to him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever.  
The more lovely and excellent the friend was we parted with, the more admirable was our obedience.   

CHAP. LVII.  
SIckness sometime comes to try whether we are willing to leave this world and to come to glory.  
We should live so as to be ready at an hours-warning to leave all and to go to eternity, Thou shall call me out of this life and I will answer thee, said the holy man.  
Sometimes a Fever, or a consumption stands at the bedside and cries, Husband come away from thy wife, Parent come away from thy child: now how ready should we be to be offered, and how willing that the time of our departure be at hand that upon the least intimation we may readily go up to mount Nebo and die?   

CHAP. LVIII.  
MAny times divine providence bids us go into a distemper and die and go into a sick bed and die, and certainly did we but with an eye of faith see whether our diseases would carry us, it would be a thousand times harder duty to be content to live then to be willing to die if sincere Christians.   

CHAP. LIX.  
ANother arrant, that sickness comes upon, it is to try whether we will hold fast our integrity, when the hand of Heaven toucheth our bone, and our flesh, he that can trust God although he kill him, the trial of that man's faith is more precious than Gold, and will conduce to his praise honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.   

CHAP. LX.  
ANother end it is to conform us more & more to the divine Image, one great part of sick bed chastisements, is to make us partakers of God's holiness, although the outward man decay, the inward man is thereby renewed day by day, after the image of him that created it; outward pains often procure inward peace. The loadstone of mercy draws us not so nearly unto the likeness of God as the cords of affliction.   

CHAP. LXI.  
ANother arrant sickness comes upon, it is to turn men from the ways of sin and iniquity, unto virtue and obedience; hence God complains of the Jews, I have sent amongst you the pestilence, yet have you not returned many times a fit of sickness, it doth more good than an hundred Sermons. Sickness it comes to convince of sin, which is the meritorious cause of all diseases.  
When our own wickedness doth correct us, we should then know and see, that it is an evil thing and a bitter, to forsake the Lord: in all our weaknesses God looks upon us, to see if any say, I have sinned and it profiteth me not. This was the effect of holy David's sickness, for he cryeth out, There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.   

CHAP. LXII.  
IF we did but behold the plagues the Consumptions, the inflammations, and the extreme burn that attends as page● upon our pride, wantonness, carnality and intemperance, we should stand in awe and sin not, but common with our own hearts upon our sick beds, and our spirits would make a more diligent search into the causes of our distempers.   

CHAP. LXIII.  
ANother errand of sickness is to convince us of the vanity of the creature; what a vain treasure is that which a lump of phlegm may take from us; a dead corpse is a poor thing, it must return naked as it came into the world. If we could but view ourselves, as we lie in our Graves and Coffins, what a poor thing would the World be in our eyes.  
When a man looks upon his stately buildings, and sees the sweet situation, the wholesome air, the convenient rooms; oh what golden dreams a man is involved in; but did, we see Death coming up into our windows, what pleasure then hath a man in his house after him, when the number of his months are cut of in the midst.  
How vain are Noble Pedigrees, and generous extractions, and ancient Families, when we must say to corruption thou art my father, and to the worm, thou art my mother and sister.   

CHAP. LIV.  
ONe end of sickness it is to hid pride from man; what a vain thing is humane power? it will not avail in the day of sickness and death; if God do not withdraw his anger the proud helpers stoop under him, men of high dègree are vanity; although a man flourish like a green bay tree, yet he shall soon be cut down like the grass, and whither like the green herb.  
Sickness teacheth us the vanity of strength: though a man's bones be full of marrow, yet when sickness comes his strength, shall be dried up like a potsherd.  
How can our hands be strong in the day that God contends with us by sickness, although a bow of steel hath been broken by our arms, yet when sickness comes we are poured out like water and all our bones are out of joint, than the keepers of the house, the arms will tremble and the strong men, the limbs will bow themselves, and we shall have reason to say verily every men, at his best estate is all together vanity.  
It may convince us of the vanity of children, they are indeed mercies in themselves. O that I were as in months past saith Job, when my children were about me, though the far be but course yet it is the more pleasant to have these plants about the table, but sickness eomes and then these sweet flowers like a posy whither that we must conclude childhood and youth are vanity.  
An aching tooth will damp all the pleasures of the world.   

CHAP. LXV.  
HOw vain must the World be whose comforts are not valuable then whiles we have them not.  
What will all the glittering nothings of the world be worth, when God shall let fall great drops of burning wrath upon that part of our souls which is most tender when he shall with a heavy hand chafe our consciences with fire and brimstone, when the worldling that wallows in thick clay shall behold that judge which Gold and Silver cannot bribe, when the voluptuous will relish little pleasure in carnal delights, God writing bitter things against him: what a vain thing will music be to him that hears nothing but the screeches of his own conscience? what will cups avail him that must drink only a cup of Fury? what are titles of honour to a man whose conscience calls him Reprobate?   

CHAP. LXVI.  
SUppose our tongues faltering, our eyestrings broken, our limbs trembling, for fear of an arrest by this grim sergeant death; mingle the best ingredients the world can afford, it cannot make a cheering Cordial.  
Honour is but a blast of Popular breath, and, like an echo, vanisheth into silence.  
The miser's Angils are all winged, and fly away as an Eagle towards heaven.  
Doth any man lie the safer because his bed posts are gilded, doth our meal relish the better because served up in gold? are our clothes more fit because more fashionable? what is gold and silver but diversified earth and shining clay? the entrails of the earth, the place of its birth, upbraid us for accounting them so precious; the best perfumes are but the sweet of trees, or the mucous excrement of a beast, the softest silks are but the workings of a vile worm, the most generous wines but puddle water strained through a vine; and our choicest dellicacies are but dirt Cooked up in various forms. Why should we lay the foundation of our happiness upon such phantacies? But sickness comes and gives us right notions of these things: and it teacheth us the right conduct of our Passions, to love these things as if we loved them not, it is like wormwood, to wean us from the breasts of the creature. The most considerable design of sickness, is to prepare us for Death and Judgement; to make us listen to the strikings of the clock of time with the more attention, to bring us to a more familiar acquaintance with that stingless Serpent, and makes us apprehensive of our pilgrim state: there is nothing in death to make it dreadful to a good Christian; many times our bitter cups are but as morning's draughts to eternity; by sickness we knock at the gates of the grave, every little accident stops our breath, the roughness of a grape stone, the reflections of a Sun beam, the dust of a wheel, the aspect of a star introduce death; let us therefore with Joseph take a turn or two in our garden, and visit our Sepulchre.  
Old age is but a young death, and a man may read the sentence of death in some men's foreheads written in the lines of a lingering disease.   

CHAP. LXVIII.  
ALthough we came into the world but one way, we may go out a thousand.  
Thus we see, sickness hath many ends when it comes, and unless these be answered we cannot expect its removal. It is like a faithful messenger, it will not go without its message.   

CHAP. LXIX.  
ANother means to procure the influence of a Divine blessing, is, by imploring a Heavenly benediction, by fixing our eyes upon Him who laid the sickness upon us.  
We should look to the hills from whence cometh our help, for our help cometh from the Lord that made heaven and earth; it is he that wounds that must heal; it is his hand that must make whole. Hence David calleth the Pestilence a falling into the hands of God, and when diseased, he cryeth out, Thy hand presseth me sore, and I am consumed by the blow of thy heavy hand. Diseases are called Gods arrows: he shoots the arrow of a Consumption into the lungs of a man; the arrow of a Fever into the heart of a man; or the arrow of the Gout into the limbs of a man & like a shot dear, he walks and eats and sleeps, yet the arrow sticks; friends pull, and Physicians pull, but he may say, Thy arrows stick fast in me. If he give a commission to the small-Pox, or any other disease, than the wounds stink, and are corrupt, and the body is filled with a loathsome disease, and there is burn in stead of beauty.  
Our times are in God's hands, he appoints the frequent returns of our distempers, At the noise of his water spouts, his waves and his billows pass over us. He appoints how long the distemper shall last, many continue in a languishing condition some years, so that their lives hang in doubt, as Moses expresseth it, or as Heman saith of himself, I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up; and so Job complains, I am made to possess months of vanity and wearisome nights are appointed to me.   

CHAP. LXXI.  
SO may we observe men spitting their lives away, notwithstanding their friends provide good diet; the Physicians prescribes good remedies; the Minister puts up fervent prayers; yet, as Job speaks, God is of one mind, and who can turn him to restore health? But, when he speaks the word, the man is healed; I am the Lord that healeth thee, is the name he gives himself: and this is acknowledged by the Leper; Lord if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole; and Christ did it, I will, Be thou clean. Thou art my King, command deliverances for Jacob, said David, when the water-spouts came pouring upon him. Unto God the Lord belong the issues from Death.   

CHAP. LXXII.  
WHat a great impiety is it to go to Witches or Wizzards, or such as have familiar Spirits, nay to the Devils for cure? A thing absolutely forbidden in Scripture.  
A sad thing for a man to procure the Devil's blessing with God's curse; It is called Idolatry and Whoredom. It is a violation of our Baptismal Covenant. Shall not a Nation seek to their God in Covenant? Our Saviour abhorred to worship them, and shall his members do it? They use good words the better to deceive the ignorant. They use charms, circles, spells, words, and other signs, which have no natural virtue; nor can we with any ground pray for a blessing upon these. The Devil being herein God's Ape: for, As God hath made a Covenant with his people; 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 Witches, upon which he hath given signs and tokens that if they use the one, he will perform the other. Let such as are guilty in this kind repent, and pray that the thoughts of their hearts may be forgiven them, as the Apostle counselled Simon Magus.  
The power of Christ is the same now in Heaven as when on earth; in his hand our breath is, and all our ways; in him we live and move and have our being; we live not by bread alone, but by the word of blessing out of his mouth. Many a man loseth his life for want of ask it.  
We are apt to blame this means and that accident, but seldom say as she did; Lord, if thou hadst been here, My Brother or Sister had not died: the means alone, are but like Elijahs staff, it will not do unless he come himself.  
By fervent prayers we should invite Omnipotence to our beds sides; And call for the Elders of the Church to pray for us.  
All second causes are but the instruments in God's hand to lengthen or shorten, as He pleaseth.   

CHAP. LXXIII.  
THere are three general second causes of the death of all men, assigned in 1 Sam. 26.10.  
As, some inward corrupt Humour or Disease, that smites the vitals, & extinguisheth Nature's lamp; as a Lamp goeth out when the oil it putrefied or corrupt; as Asa's Gout, Jehoram's bloodyflux, the plague of Leprosy, the woman's child's Headache; and those diseases mentioned in the 28. of Deuteronomy.  
Another second cause, is some external accident, as a Lamp is putout by the Wind; so the unbelieving lord killed in a crowd, Ahab slain with an arrow; the Captain of fifty with Lightning, Jobs children with the fall of a house; the good Prophet by a Lion; Absolom hanged in a tree by the hair; Sodem by fire; the fifty two children by the Bears; The old world by water; the Rebels against Moses, the earth swallows up.   

CHAP. LXXIV.  
ANother second cause is when the natural heat and radical moisture is consumed, as in old age as Jacob: when a man comes to his grave in a full age, as a shock of corn comes in its season; as a Lamp must go out when there is no more oil to feed it.  
Yet, Providence hath a hand in all these second causes: so that men provoke God by their impieties to cut the thread of their their lives: and by Piety and Obedience they may prevail with Him to lengthen their days, if he see good.   

CHAP. LXXV.  
ANother means towards the procuring the concurrence of a Divine blessing with the means, is, To act faith and a holy confidence in God, with the use of proper means; one touch of faith will cure, our faith will make us whole, therefore trust in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. I had failed unless I had believed, said David. Faith is the best cordial; in quietness and confidence lieth our greatest strength; why should we be cast down, let us hope in him who is the health of our countenance? What time we are afraid we should trust in God, and beware of slavish fear and carnal confidence; former experience is a good ground of confidence, He hath delivered, and in him we trust he will deliver us. Stand still and see the salvation of God is good counsel towards recoery of health: it is a sign of carnal confidence in the means, when we are continually trying new experiments, and run from one thing to another, and leave rational and experimental remedies.   

CHAP. LXXVI.  
REpentance and humiliation, is another means towards recovery from sickness; if we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, he will exalt us in due time; the way to hasten the cure is to hasten repentance; our desire of life should be in order to our preparations for death; if we break off our sins by righteousness, it may be a lengthening of our tranquillity: Ninevehs repentance spared their lives: if men will not reform, than God resolves to make them sick with smiting them: as the Prophet speaks.  
The last means to procure a Divine blessing, it is a patiented waiting the good pleasure of God without murmuring and repining, They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: God hath his times for deliverance. It is goad for a man to hope, and quietly to wait for the salvation of God, and not to say, This evil is of the Lord, why should I wait for him any longer? God hath his time to an hour, as our Saviour intimates, Father, save me from this hour.  
The Promise is, that Women shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and patience; and it is of force in all other dangerous distempers. A meek and a quiet spirit under all Divine chastisements, is a very great ornament.  
Some make Afflictions seem amiable by a pious and a patiented Deportment.   

CHAP. LXXVII.  
MUrmuring is a dangerous sin; we have the Jews for an example, who were destroyed thereby. A dreadful thing, when a man's body is so weak that he cannot rise up in his bed, yet his corruptions are so strong, as to rise into an uproar against God's will and Authority.  
It may be, some in Sickness may let fly their discontented spirits against their children or relations; but they may answer as Moses to the Israelites; What are we? your murmur, are not against us, but against the Lord. Some men practise what Jobs wife attempted, viz. curse God and die.  
Murmurers shall be judged at the last day as ungodly men, as Judas speaks.  
Some in sickness howl upon their beds, when they should be blessing God.  
In all sickness we should say with Naomi, Truly the hand of the Lord is against me, and not in a stupid senseless way cry out, Indeed I am not well, but I shall shake it off; it is only a flight distemper, I will work it out. This is like the Jews, Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it as well as I can; thus men put from them the evil day, and talk as if they were but beginning to live when they are ready to die, and boast as if they made a covenant with death. It highly provokes God, that when his hand is lifted up, they will not see it. Frowardness exasperates our calamities. Now there are several considerations that may move Christians to patience and a willing submission unto the hand of God in sickness, as to consider, That it is laid upon us by a loving and wise Father, and this may compose our spirits. Shall we not drink the cup which our Father hath given us to drink? we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence, shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of Spirits and live? they chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit.   

CHAP. LXXVIII.  
SIckness it is a pledge of our Adoption: God afflicts in faithfulness, He aims at our good thereby; and in making sore, he binds up; faithful are the wounds of such a friend; when the righteous God smites, he doth us a kindness; we are not in heaviness except need be; let us not say, We are sick, so as to complain, if sin be pardoned.  
Again, Consider how many years of health you have enjoyed formerly, this may compose the spirits; And shall we receive good at the hand of God, and not evil?  
Again, Consider that it might be worse: It is a mercy we are not utterly consumed, that we are out of hell, that we are scourged with rods not with scorpions, that our calamity is a natural infirmity, not a wounded spirit, for that is intolerable.  
Again consider, that if our sickness be never so painful, we brought it upon our selus, We should therefore bear the indignation of the Lord because we have sinned against him.   

CHAP, LXXIX.  
A Gain, the best of men, in all ages, have been exposed to the same distempers of body; Lazarus whom Christ loved, was sick. It is nothing but what is common to man, and we may take the Prophets and Apostles for our examples in suffering affliction of the like kind, and of patience.  
Lastly, look beyond all these sorrows and sickness, the Time is short, the Coming of the Lord draws nigh, Heaven will make amends for all; take a prospect of the Land of Promise, where there shall be no more crying nor pain, but sorrow, sighing, and sickness shall fly away.  
And these Rules being observed in sickness would be an effectual way to procure the concurrence of a Divine blessing, with the means that are used towards the preservation of natural life.  
A serious contemplation of Heaven, and a future State where these vile weak languishing bodies, shall be made like the glorious body of Christ, in spiritual agility and immortality, may exhilarate the spirits of a Christian, when his flesh upon him is so in pain, as to cause his soul with in him to mourn. Spiritual peace is the best cordial to cheer up the heart against bodily pains: the inhabitants of Zion complain not of sickness, if sin be but pardoned. Our bodies are like Nebuchadnezzar's Image, whose feet were of clay: our foundations are in the dust, and it is as natural, for our bodies to be out of frame, as for a Watch to be irregular in its motions, nay far more natural; besides, our indispositions depend upon supernatural causes. Sometimes sickness and divine wrath, are concomitants, as Solomon intimates, and then its sad indeed; and sometimes it comes to good purposes; if Naaman had not been Leprous, he would not have given the Prophet a visit. Detrimenta Corporis, incrementa virtutis; Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I am weak, and my bones are sore vexed, saith holy David, when Gods chastening was upon him.  
The sickness of the body many times brings the body of sin into a Consumption, and the holiness of the heart is many times promoted by the weakness of the body; when Jacob's thoughts were in Heaven, he minded not his Thigh being out of Joint. Surely it is a mercy that God hath abridged so much of the term of man's life, in these last days, wherein so much of Heaven is discovered, that it would put a Saints patience to it, to know so much of the upper world's glory, and yet to be kept so long from it, as the Fathers in the first Ages were. Such is the Saints state in this world, that their very life, and the pompous entertainments of it, are but their cross, because they detain them from their Crown.   

CHAP. LXXX.  
When we seriously consider and reflect upon the nature of man in this State of mortality, and observe the wonderful composure of our Bodies; the Situation of the Parts; the circulations of the Blood; the secret meanders of the Veins and Nerves, and the curious distributions and digestions of our aliment into Blood and Flesh, and take notice how small an obstruction in any part will discompose our health, and stop the current of our ease; how small an inflammation will transport us into an other world, as if we went in a fiery Chariot; how mean a putrefaction is able to crumble us into our first Original; These things considered, may not only compose our spirits under sickness, but fill us with admiration, that we live an hour in health and ease.  
Did we but consider our frame and remember we are but dust, how should we wonder that every blast of air doth not blow us into our sick beds, and graves?  
We are as naturally exposed to trouble and sickness, as the sparks are to fly upwards, why then should we not be thankful, that pains and anguish are not our constant companions?   

CHAP. LXXXI.  
Were it possible for a man to stand upon one of the Battlements of Heaven, and with one glance of his eye, to behold all the wounds and Diseases; and so hear all the groans and complaints of all the sick persons in the world, how would the blessing of health be prized by such a one? how uneasy a place is a sick bed, when the man is full of tossing to and fro, until the dawning of the day; & when it is day within 'ttwere night, and when it is night wishing for day, employing his time in telling the Clock, and entertaining melancholy apprehensions of the blackness of the night? Sick men as Seneca observes; Aegrotantes mutationibus ut remediis utuntur, use changes as if they were remedies. How miserable in outward appearance is that man's case whose flesh is clothed with worms, as holy Jobs was: Some Critics do observe, that the word translated flesh, it springs from a root, which signifieth, to bring glad tidings, and the Gospel is expressed by it Evangelium, and they give this reason for it, because there must be a taking off Flesh, viz. the incarnation of Christ; which would bring the best news the world ever heard of.   

CHAP. LXXXII.  
OUr Bodies as they come out of the hands of sin are vile Bodies; and before they can be made like unto Christ's glorious Body, This corruption must put on incorruption. As they are the works of God they are wonderfully made, and all our parts are exactly and curiously wrought, 
Os homini sublime de dit, etc.  saith the Poet.  
But yet sickness comes as a weavor; and cuts off our thread of life, as Hezekiah upon his sickbed expresseth it; nights and days pass the shuttle of our lives backwards and forwards, but time quickly wears off the thread of life.  
The Poets had a fiction, answering this allusion of the Holy Ghost, they tell us of three Sisters, whereof one held the Distaff; the second drew the Thread; the third cut it off; in this they shadow the State of man's life.   

CHAP. LXXXIII.  
WE may take notice of the vanity of our lives, by our frequent returns of sicknesses and distempers. It is a good observation of Pineda, Abel viventium Omnium typus & representatio, Adam called his Son Abel, which signifieth vanity, Psalm 144, there is an allusion unto those names, we translate it, Man is like to vanity, but in the Hebrew it is, Adam is as Abel, Adam being a common name to all men, are: Abel's vain. Moreover saith he, the word Abel, is translated Idol in Deut. 32.31. and the Apostle tells us that an Idol is nothing, and such is our life.  
A mere man is but mere earth; the Prophet tells him so three times over with one breath, Jer. 22. O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord; He is earthly in the constitution of his Body, and earthly in the corruption of his mind; why then should the living man complain and think it strange to meet with sickbed trials? Sin is the mother that breedeth all our Benonies, or sons of sorrow and sickness; man had never tasted these sour herbs if he had not eaten the forbidden fruit: yet we may like Samson fetch meat out of this Eater, and take this sickness which is so unpleasing to our flesh, for the advantage of our spirit. If bodily health help us to relish our outward comforts, surely saving health will sweeten the bitterest cup. One of the Ancients tells us, that the image of the goddess Angerona was with a muffler at her mouth, placed at the Altar of Volupia, to signify that pleasure shall be their portion who bear sicknesses with patiented silence, and submission.  
When Pompey was sick, his subjects wore garlands and triumphed, they apprehending it to conduce much to his advantage.   

CHAP. LXXXIV.  
A great Statesman of ours observes that we English are best when we are in black. Anglica gens est optima flens, in the days of Edward the Sixth, when the sweeting sickness raged in England, than the Churches were thronged, and the Ministers were sent to, to come to such a Lord and such a Lady, to pray with them, and a bag of Money sent to give away to the poor, as a good Historian observes.  
Sometimes God doth with his rod of correction, as Moses with his rod in Egypt, viz. work wonders, although the Christian hath been pressed by sickness out of measure above strength insomuch that he hath despaired even of life, and hath been ready to cry out, Master save me or I perish .. Yet he hath lived to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living, so efficatious hath the divine blessing been, that hath attended the means of restauration, the concurrence of which Benediction is a thing too much neglected, and the generality look upon the successes of remedies to depend altogether upon second causes.   

CHAP. LXXXV.  
HIppocrates gave this Council to Physicians, when they they went to visit their Patients, to consider whether there were not. Divinum aliquod in morbo.  
And Galen saith in medicina nihil exiguum: O how great a blessing is health, vita non est vivere sed valere.  
And doubtless the means to procure it must be both Honourable and profitable and must be acknowledged, to be so by every one, that is, sanae mentis, and doth not want hellibore, so saith the wiseman honour the Physician with that honour due unto him, for God hath created him, he hath given men skill that he might be honoured in his marvellous Works; God hath created Medicines out of the earth with which he heals men, and takes away their pains, of which the Apothecaries make a confection Ecclesiasticus   

CHAP. LXXXVI.  
THe Heathen, did so highly value there Pharmacia, that Apollo and Aesculapius (esteemed by some) the first founders of physic, were adored as Gods, for the excellency of their invention, and Hypocrates amongst the Grecians and Cornelius Celsus amongst the Latins, are highly commended for there improvements therein. Homer, doth Heroically trumpet the Physician's praise. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Were it the divine pleasure to give men a constant frame of health, during there pilgrimage, it were a wonderful favour, for Misere vivit qui medice vivit. But it can not be, nature must be upheld by Art: as Hypocrates in his first Aphorism, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Our bodies like standing waters will gather mud and collect ill humours, so that as Hypocrates observes, ultimus sanitatis gradus est morbo proximus. Never was there a greater piece of folly committed by the Romans, then when they banished their learned Physicians.   

CHAP. LXXXVII.  
THe Blessed God is pleased to style himself Jehovah Rophe, the Lord the Physician Exodus the 15, and the holy Jesus hath his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sano (though chief in a spiritual sense) from his healing nature.  
It is observable that those words in the 147 Psal. 3. in our old English translation are expressed thus viz. He giveth medicine to heal their sicknesses.  
Health is the Prince of outward blessings, the widow in the Gospel disesteemed her substance in comparison of this jewel. The Physician is therefore called manus dei to hand it to us.   

CHAP. LXXXVIII.  
SOme indeed there are may be called manus Diaboli, both for their ignorance and baseness, like that French man, who gave these verses in writing to all his Patients, for the cure of their diseases. 
Sivis curari de morbo nescio Quali  
Accipias herbam, sed Qualem nescio nec Quam.  
Ponas nescio Quo, curabere nescio Quando.  English thus, 
Your pain I know not what, do not foreslow  
To cure with herbs, but what I do not know  
Place them well bruised, I know not where and then.  
You shall be perfect, whole. I know not when.   
It is a great privilege to have one who will cure by friendship as well as by Physic, as Seneca, huic ego non tanquam medico sed tanquam amico obligatus sum, although we ought in the first place to acknowledge our gratitude to the great Physician for our recovery, as the Lepers under the Law, after they were cleansed, were to offer their gifts to the divine Majesty, and the same word which signifieth to heal signifieth to Worship because after healing men should Worship, yet the Physician is worthy of a liberal fee, the Abderites when they wrote to Hypocrates for the cure of Democrates (whom they thought distracted because he always laughed, at the rediculousness, of m●ns lives) sent him word. Quicquid auri apud nos est libenter, persolvemus etiamsi; tota urbs nostra aurum esset, it is a great mercy to be in a condition, to administer help to the sick in their distress, the generality being like the Priest and Levite, if they see a man wounded though to death, pass on the other side of the way, nay like Hazaels' wet cloth, prove deadly to their friends lives and healths.  
Sickness saith one is, officina virtutis, morum disciplina, the shop of virtue, the school of manners; the tide time of devotion.  
King Alfred was wont to say I always find myself best in soul when worst in body.   

CHAP. LXXXIX.  
BEnhadad the King of Syria an enemy to goodness in his health, will send to Elisha with a large present, and submissive expressions in his sickness; a sick bed, being the highway to the grave makes men serious.  
The Rabbis say that when Adam eat the forbidden fruit his head ached, 'tis clear, sin is the original of sickness, when we are chastised with pain upon our beds, and the multitude of our bones with strong pain, than the Almighty seals up our instructions and the sick bed becomes a pulpit in which the Spirit of God preacheth to us, many serious truths, and convinceth us of our sin & folly: our Redeemer is said to bear our sicknesses, because he bears our sin in his body on the tree, yet, so incorrigible are some under Divine corrections, that having been smitten, they have revolted yet more and more, and like Jeroboam, been worse after his hand was withered, and will not acknowledge the sovereignty of God, as Naaman did after his recovery, that when there are ten cleansed we may well say where are the nine, that return thanks, such is the power of infidelity, and Ingratitude.   

CPAP. XC.  
A healthful life is a right hand blessing, Prov. 3.16, Adam the first man, lived near a thousand years, after his creation 930 years, being then a perfect man, we may reckon him nearer a thousand years than Methusalah when he died. There might be many reasons consigned for the long lives of the patriarches, as that mankind might be multiplied, that Arts and sciences might be perfected, and that men might be acquainted and skilled in the course of nature, having no books, from which to collect observations, but alas the case is not so with us, fewand evil are the days of our pilgrimage, and we cannot arrive at the years of our Fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage we are but of yesterday and know nothing; (comparatively to what we might know,) because our days upon earth are but as a shadow: indeed Adam in his sinless state, might possibly have been Imortal, and his eating of the tree of life, might have conduced to the supplying of his radical moisture as fast as it suffered depredation, by his vital spirit: Moreover the tree of life in Paradise might be of a Sacramental signification, that perseverance in a state of Evangelical obedience unto the father, by the son through the Spirit, is the most effectual way to obtain a long and a healthful life in this world, (so far as it conduceth to the creatures good and the Creator's glory,) and a blessed Immortality in the next.   
FINIS.  

ERRATAS.  
Courteous Reader, thou art desired to correct with thy pen, these following Erratas, or any other if thou observest them.  
PAge. 8. line. 4. read precious, p. 9 l. 5. r. prejudicial, p. 10. l. 12. r. thought, p. 16. l. 7. r. nutritive, p. 24. l. ul. r. then, p. 42 l. 21. r. paratur, p. 50. l. 21. r. gluttony p. 75. l. 8. r. shalt, p. 76. l. 11. r. errand, p. 82. l. 8. r. for not read only, p. 107. l. 14. r. all men are Abel's, vain.