Secondly, As death will free the christian from ignominy in his name; so likewise from infirmities in his body: Diseases cause death, but death will cure all diseases: In this life Job had his botches, Hezekiah his boil, David his wounds and sores, the poor widow her issue of blood; one man wasteth away with a consumption, like a candle, till all the matter is spent: Another laboureth under a continual ache, that like the importunate widow will give him no rest day nor night: this man spends his days in pain, that man hath wearisome nights appointed to him: In some the bridle is taken off the fire, and they burn with a Fever; in others the flood-gate is taken up from the water, and they are like to be drowned with a dropsy. The patient man complaineth, my breath is corrupt, my days ⟨p. 32⟩are extinct, the grave is ready for me, Job 17.1. the upright man crieth out, My wounds stink, and are corrupt, my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: In one, the keepers of the house tremble with a palsy or lameness. In a second, the sound of grinders is low, through weakness. In a third, those that look out of the windows are darkened through blindness. In a fourth, the daughters of Music are brought down with deafness: O what an army, not only of moral, but natural adversaries, hath every man in his own bowels, constantly set in array against him, marching up, sometimes one,1 sometime another, as the Lord of hosts giveth the word of command. So that indeed mans body is a spittle or an hospital for diseases. But death will help all this; as the blind man told the lame, when they met at the stake; Brother, you may cast away your staff, death will cure us both: the Physician of souls will by death heal all the diseases of the Saints bodies; there are some diseases which are called opprobria medici, because they cannot cure them; but none are opprobria Christi, he healeth all whom he undertaketh. If the higher an house standeth on earth, it be esteemed the ⟨p. 33⟩healthier; surely then the highest heavens must be a pure air, and all health, Revel. 20.4. there shall be no more death, nor any more pain, for the former things are past away: So that every christian that dieth in the faith, how diseased soever he were before, shall then immediately (as in the Gospel) be made every whit whole, John 7.23.
Secondly, As death will free the christian from ignominy in his name; so likewise from infirmities in his body: Diseases cause death, but death will cure all diseases: In this life Job had his botches, Hezekiah his boil, David his wounds and sores, the poor widdow her issue of blood; one man wasteth away with a consumption, like a candle, till all the matter is spent: Another laboureth under a continual ach, that like the importunate widdow will give him no rest day nor night: this man spends his dayes in pain, that man hath wearisome nights appointed to him: In some the bridle is taken off the fire, and they burn with a Feaver; in others the flood-gate is taken up from the water, and they are like to be drowned with a dropsie. The patient man complaineth, my breath is corrupt, my days ⟨p. 32⟩are extinct, the grave is ready for me, Job 17.1. the upright man cryeth out, My wounds stink, and are corrupt, my loines are filled with a loathsome disease: In one, the keepers of the house tremble with a palsie or lamenesse. In a second, the sound of grinders is low, through weaknesse. In a third, those that look out of the windows are darkned through blindnesse. In a fourth, the daughters of Musick are brought down with deafnesse: O what an army, not only of moral, but natural adversaries, hath every man in his own bowels, constantly set in array against him, marching up, sometimes one,1 sometime another, as the Lord of hosts giveth the word of command. So that indeed mans body is a spittle or an hospital for diseases. But death will help all this; as the blind man told the lame, when they met at the stake; Brother, you may cast away your staffe, death will cure us both: the Physician of souls will by death heal all the diseases of the Saints bodies; there are some diseases which are called opprobria medici, because they cannot cure them; but none are opprobria Christi, he healeth all whom he undertaketh. If the higher an house standeth on earth, it be esteemed the ⟨p. 33⟩healthier; surely then the highest heavens must be a pure air, and all health, Revel. 20.4. there shall be no more death, nor any more pain, for the former things are past away: So that every christian that dieth in the faith, how diseased soever he were before, shall then immediately (as in the Gospel) be made every whit whole, John 7.23.
- 1Physicians tell us, that 2000 diseases annoy mans body, whereof 200 affect the eyes.
