A09461:74
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 meditations which serve for this purpose are innumerable▪ but I will touch only those which are the most principal and the grounds of the rest: and they are four in number. The first is borrowed from the special providence of God; namely that the death of every man, much more of every child of God, is not only foreseen, but also foreappointed of God; yea the death of every man deserved and procured by his sins, is laid upon him by God, who in that respect may be said to be the cause of every mans death, So saith Anna, 1The Lord killeth and maketh alive. The Church of Jerusalem confessed that nothing came to pass in the ⟨p. 114⟩death of Christ, but that which the foreknowledge and eternal counsel of God had appointed.2 And therefore the death also of every member of Christ is foreseen and ordained by the special decree and providence of God. I add further, that the very circumstances of death, as the time when, the place where, the manner how, the beginning of sickness, the continuance & the end, every▪ fit in the sickness, & the pangs of death are particularly set down in the counsel of God. The very hairs of our heads are numbered (saith our Saviour Christ:) and a sparrow lights not on the ground without the will of our heavenly father. David faith excellently.3 My bones are not hid from thee, though I was made in a secret place, and fashioned beneath in the earth: thine eyes did ⟨p. 115⟩see me when I was without form, for in thy book were all things written, which in continuance were fashioned, when there was nine of them before. And he prays to God to put his tears into his bottle. 4Now if this be true, that God hath bottles for the very tears of his servants, much more hath he bottles for their blood, & much more doth he respect and regard their pains and miseries with all the circumstances of sickness and death. The careful meditation of this one point is a notable means to arm us against fear and distrust, & impatience in the time of death; as some examples in this case will easily manifest, I held my tongue & said nothing, saith David: