A09461:50
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.
The second duty in this general preparation is, that every man must daily endeavour to take away from his own death the power and strength thereof. And I pray you mark this point. The Philistines saw by experience that Sampson was of great strength, & therefore they used means to know in what ⟨p. 69⟩part of his body it lay: & when they found it to be in the hair of his head, they ceased not until it was cut off. In like manner the time will come when we must encounter hand to hand with tyrannous and cruel death: the best therefore is, before-hand now while we have time to search where the strength of death lies, which being once known, we must with speed cut off his Samsons locks, and bereave him of his power, disarm him, & make him altogether unable to prevail against us. Now to find out this matter, we need not to use the counsel of any Delilah; for we have the word of God which teacheth us plainly where the strength of death consists, namely in our sins, as Paul saith, The sting of death is sin. Well then, we knowing certainly that ⟨p. 70⟩the power and force of every mans particular death lies in his own sins, must spend our time and study in using good means that our sins may be removed and pardoned. And therefore we must daily inure our selves in the practise of two duties. One is to humble our selves for all our sins past, partly confessing them against our selves, partly in prayer crying to heaven for the pardon of them. The other is for time to come to turn unto God, and to carry a purpose, resolution, & endeavour in all things to reform both hart & life according to gods word. These are the very principal & proper duties, whereby the power of death is much rebated, & he is made of a mighty & bloody enemy so far forth friendly and tractable, that we may with ⟨p. 71⟩comfort encounter with him & prevail too. Therefore I commend these duties to your christian considerations, & careful practise, desiring that ye would spend your days ever hereafter in doing of them. If a man were to deal with a mighty dragon or serpent hand to hand, in such wise as he must either kill or be killed, the best thing were to bereave him of his sting, or of that part of the body where his poison lies: now death it self is a serpent, dragon, or scorpion, & sin is the sting and poison whereby he wounds & kills us.