A salve for a sick man. or, A treatiseA salve for a sicke man. or, A treatise

And he shall find by gods word, that sickness comes ordinarily and usually of sin.¹ Wherefore is the ⟨p. 96⟩living man sorrowful? man suffereth for his sin. It is true indeed, there be other causes of the wants of the body, & of sickness, beside sin; and though they be not known to us, yet they are known to the Lord. Hereupon Christ when he saw a certain blind man, and was demanded what was the cause of the blindness, answered, neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be showed on him, ²Yet we for our parts, who are to go not by the secret, but by the revealed will of God, must make this use of our sickness, that it is sent unto us for our sins. When Christ healed the man sick of the palsy, he saith, Be of good comfort, ³thy sins are forgiven thee: and when he had healed the man by the pool of Bethesda, that had bin sick 38. ⟨p. 97⟩years,⁴ he bids him sin no more least a worse thing happen unto him: giving them both to understand that their sickness came by reason of their sins. And thus should every sick man resolve himself. Now when we have proceeded thus far, & have as it were laid our finger upon the right and proper cause of our sickness, three things concerning our sins must be performed of us in sickness. First, we must make a new examination of our hearts and lives, & say as the Israelites said in affliction,⁵ Let us search & try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Secondly, we must make a new confession to God of our new & particular sins, as God sends new corrections and chastisement.⁶ When David had the hand of God very heavy upon him for his sins, so as his ⟨p. 98⟩