A09461:35
A salve for a sick man. or, A treatiseA salve for a sicke man. or, A treatise
A salve for a sick man. or, A treatise containing the nature, differences, and kinds of death as also the right manner of dying well. And it may serve for spiritual instruction to 1. Mariners when they go to sea. 2. Soldiers when they go to battle. 3. Women when they travel of child.A salve for a sicke man. or, A treatise containing the nature, differences, and kindes of death as also the right manner of dying well. And it may serue for spirituall instruction to 1. Mariners when they goe to sea. 2. Souldiers when they goe to battell. 3. Women when they trauell of child.
London: printed by John Legat, 1611London: printed by Iohn Legat, 1611
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And though the body rot in the grave, or be eaten of worms, or of fishes in the sea, or burnt to ashes, yet that will not be unto us a matter of discomfort, if we do well consider the ground of all grace, namely our conjunction with Christ. It is indeed a spiritual, and yet a most real conjunction. And we must not imagine that our souls alone are joined to the body or soul of Christ, but the whole person of man both in body and soul is joined and united to whole Christ. And when we are once joined to Christ in this mortal life by the bond of the spirit, we shall remain & continue eternally joined with him: and this union once truly made, shall never be dissolved. Hence it follows, ⟨p. 44⟩that although the body be severed from the soul in death, yet neither body nor soul are severed from Christ, but the very body rotting in the grave, drowned in the sea, burned to ashes, abides still united to him, and is as truly a member of Christ then, as before. This point we must remember as the foundation of all our comfort, and hold it for ever as a truth. For look what was the condition of Christ in death, the same or the like is the condition of all his members. Now the condition of Christ was this, though his body and soul were severed each from other, as far as heaven & the grave, yet neither of them were severed from the godhead of the Son, but both did in death subsist in his person. And therefore though our bodies ⟨p. 45⟩and souls be pulled asunder by natural or violent death, yet neither of them, no not the body it self shall be severed & disjoined from Christ. It will be alleged, that if the body were then united to Christ, it should live and be quickened in the grave. Ans. Not so: when a mans arm or leg is taken with the dead palsy, it receives little or no heat, life, sense, or motion from the body: and yet notwithstanding it remains still a member of the body, because the flesh & the bone of it remain joined to the flesh and the bone of the body: even so may the body remain a member of Christ, though for some space of time it receive neither sense nor motion nor life from the soul or from the spirit of Christ.
And though the body rot in the graue, or be eatē of worms, or of fishes in the sea, or burnt to ashes, yet that will not be vnto vs a matter of discomfort, if we do well consider the ground of all grace, namely our coniunction with Christ. It is indeede a spirituall, and yet a most reall coniunction. And we must not imagine that our soules alone are ioyned to the body or soule of Christ, but the whole person of man both in body and soule is ioyned and vnited to whole Christ. And when we are once ioyned to Christ in this mortall life by the bond of the spirit, we shall remaine & continue eternally ioyned with him: and this vniō once truly made, shal neuer be dissolued. Hence it followes,