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MEMB. 2. Lawfull Cures, first from God.
Being so clearly evinced, as it is, all unlawfull cures are to be refused, it remaines to treat of such as are to be admitted, and those are commonly such which God hath appointed, by vertue of stones, hearbs, plants, meats, &c. and the like, which are prepared and applied to our use, by art and industry of physicians, who are the dispensers of such treasures for our good, and to be honoured for necessities sake, Gods intermediate ministers, to whom in our infirmities we are to seek for help.
Yet not so that we rely too much, or wholy upon them: A Jove principium, we must first begin with prayer, and then use physick; not one without the other, but both together.
To pray alone, and reject ordinary meanes, is to do like him in Æsop, that when his cart was stalled, lay on his back, and cried aloud, Help Hercules, but that was to little purpose, except as his friend advised him, rotis tute ipse annitaris, he whipt his horses withall, and put his shoulder to the wheel. God workes by meanes, as Christ cured the blind man with clay and spitle:
Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.
As we must pray for health of body & minde, so we must use our utmost endeavors to preserve & continue it. Some kind of devils are not cast out but by fasting & prayer, & both necessarily required, not one without the other. For all the physick we can use, art, excellent industry, is to no purpose without calling upon God, Nil juvat immensos Cratero promittere montes: It is in vain to seek for help, run, ride, except God blesse us.
——non Siculi dapes Dulcem elaborabunt saporem, Non animum cytheræve cantus.
Non domus & fundus, non æris acervus & auri Ægroto possunt domino deducere febres.
With house, with land, with money, and with gold, The masters fever will not be control’d.
We must use prayer and Physick both together: and so no doubt but our prayers will be available, & our Physick take effect. ’Tis that Hezekiah practised. 2. King. 20. Luke the Evangelist, and which we are enjoyned, Coloss. 4. not the patient only, but the Physician himself. Hippocrates an heathen, required this in a good practitioner, and so did Galen. lib. de Plat. & Hipp. dog. lib. 9. cap. 15. and in that tract of his, an mores sequantur temp. cor. ca. 11. ’tis that which he doth inculcate. and many others.
Hyperius in his first book de sacr. script. lect. speaking of that happiness and good success, which all Physicians desire & hope for in their cures, tells them, that it is not to be expected, except with a true faith they call upon God, and teach their patients to do the like. The Councel of Lateran, Canone 22. decreed they should do so; the Fathers of the Church have still advised as much:
Whatsoever thou takest in hand (saith Gregory) let God be of thy counsel, consult with him; That healeth those that are broken in heart Psal. 147.3, and bindeth up their sores. Otherwise as the Prophet Jeremie, cap. 46.11. denounced to Ægypt, In vain shalt thou use many medicines, for thou shalt have no health.
It is the same counsel which Cominæus that politick historiographer gives to all christian princes, upon occasion of that unhappy overthrow of Charles Duke of burgundy, by meanes of which he was extremely melancholy, and sick to death: insomuch that neither Physick, nor perswasion could do him any good, perceiving his preposterous error belike, adviseth all great men in such cases, to pray first to God with all submission and penitency, to confess their sins, and then to use physick.
The very same fault it was, which the Prophet reprehends in Asa king of Juda, that he relyed more on Physick then on God, and by all means would have him to amend it. And ’tis a fit caution to be observed of all other sorts of men. The Prophet David was so observant of this precept, that in his greatest misery and vexation of mind, he put this rule first in practice.
Psal. 77.3. When I am in heaviness, I will think on God. Psal. 86.4. Comfort the soul of thy servant, for unto thee I lift up my soul: and vers. 7. In the day of trouble will I call upon thee, for thou hearest me. Psal. 54.1. Save me O God, by thy name, &c. Psal. 82. Psal. 20. And ’tis the common practice of all good men, Ps. 107.13. when their heart was humbled with heaviness, they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
And they have found good success in so doing, as David confesseth Ps. 30.12. Thou hast turned my mourning into joy, thou hast loosed my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness. Therefore he adviseth all others to do the like, Psal. 31.24. All ye that trust in the Lord, be strong, and he shall establish your heart.
It is reported by Suidas, speaking of Hezekiah, that there was a great book of old, of King Salomons writing, which contained medicines for all manner of diseases, and lay open still as they came into the Temple: but Hezekiah king of Jerusalem, caused it to be taken away, because it made the people secure, to neglect their duty in calling and relying upon God, out of a confidence on those remedies.
Minutius that worthy Consull of Rome in an oration he made to his souldiers, was so much offended with them, and taxed their ignorance, that in their misery they called more on him then upon God. A generall fault it is all over the world, and Minutius his speech concerns us all, we rely more on physick, and seek oftner to Physicians, then to God himself.
As much faulty are they that prescribe, as they that ask, respecting wholy their gain, and trusting more to their ordinary receipts and medicines many times, then to him that made them. I would wish all patients in this behalf, in the midst of their melancholy, to remember that of Siracides, Ecc. 1.12. and 12. The fear of the Lord is glory and gladness, and rejoycing. The fear of the Lord maketh a merry heart, and giveth gladness, and joy, and long life.
And all such as prescribe Physick, to begin in nomine Dei, as Messue did, to imitate Lælius a Fonte Eugubinus, that in all his consultations, still concludes with a prayer for the good success of his business; and to remember that of Crato one of their predecessors, fuge avaritiam, & sine oratione & invocatione Dei nihil facias, avoid covetousness, and do nothing without invocation upon God.