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bodily maladies. It is not without reason that Hosman, in his dissertation, "Des Moyens de Vivre Long-temps," insists on tranquillity of mind as the chief among the "means to promote longevity;" and says, that this is the meaning of that passage; "The fear of the Lord tendeth to life." They who have practised the "art of curing by expectation" have made experiments of what the mind will do towards the cure of the body: this may be also known by practising the "art of consolation." I propose then, that the physician endeavour to find out, by all possible ingenuity of conversation, what matter of anxiety there may have been upon the mind of the patient, that has rendered his life burdensome. Having discovered the burden, use all possible ways to take it off. Offer him such thoughts as may be the best anodynes for his distressed mind; especially the "right thoughts of the righteous," and the means of obtaining composure of mind upon religious principles. Give him a prospect, if you can, of some deliverance from his distresses, or some abatement of them. Excite in him as pleasing thoughts as possible scatter the clouds, and remove the loads with which his mind is perplexed especially by representing and magnifying the mercy of God in Christ to him. It is possible, Sir, that in this way also, you may find abundant opportunities of usefulness, by doing yourself, or by bringing others to do kindness to the miserable.

What should hinder you from considering the souls of your patients; their spiritual health; what they have done, and what they have to do, that they may be on good terms with Heaven! You may take occasion, from their natural disorders, to affect your own mind and theirs also, with a sense of our corresponding moral ones. You may make your conversation with them, a vehicle for conveying such admonitions of piety as may be most needful for them: that they may be found neither unprepared for death, nor unthankful and unfruitful, if their lives should be proienged. This you may do, without any intrusion on the office of the minister on the contrary, you may at the

same time do a very good office for the minister, as well as for the patient; and may inform the minister, when, where, and how he may be very serviceable among the miserable, with whose cases he might otherwise remain unacquainted. The art of healing" was, you know, first brought into a system, by men who had the "care of souls:" and I know not why they who profess that noble "art" should wholly cast off that "care." Perhaps you remember to have read of a king who was also a physician, (for other crowned heads, besides Mithridates, Hadrianus, and Constantinus Pogonatus have been so,) and who gave this reason why the Greeks had diseases among them which remained so much uncured; "Because they neglected their souls, the chief thing of all." For my part, I know not why the physician should wholly neglect the souls of his patients.

I will not detain you much longer. You are not ignorant, that medicine once was, and in many unevangelised parts of the world is still esteemed a thing horribly magical. Celsus relates, as a part of the Egyptian philosophy current in his time, that the body of man was divided into thirty-six parts, each of which was the peculiar allotment and possession of a demon; and this demon was invoked by the Magi to cure diseases of the part that belonged to him. Even in Galen's time we find Egyptian Legerdemain * practised he himself writes of it. From Egypt other countries became acquainted with this art: hence medicines were called pharmaca. The Oriental nations had their Teraphim for the cure of diseases: hence the same Greek word signifies both to worship and to cure; and the "cure of diseases" is reckoned by Eusebius as one main article of the Pagan theology. God used all proper means to prevent his people from having any thing to do with such sort of men or of means. He recommended to them the study of nature, and of natural remedies. Thus, after the example of Solomon, they studied botany, and had

*Prestigiaturas Egyptias.

+ Pharmacos, in Greek, being a sorcerer.

their apothecaries, who were to furnish them with materials for medicines. The princes of Judea had, as Pliny informs us, their medicinal gardens. Probably Naboth's vineyard might have such a one in it; and this might be the reason why Ahab so coveted it. Joram, the son of Ahab, repaired thither to be cured of his wounds. An excellent Physician, in a late composition with which he has favoured the public, supposes that the sin of Asa, when he "sought not unto the Lord, but unto the physicians," was both occasioned and aggravated by this circumstance, that there were at that time none but magical physicians. But others have thought that some of Asa's ancestors had been medically disposed, and were students in the art of healing. From hence might come the name of Asa, which in Chaldee, means physician. On this account the king might have the greater esteem for those who were skilled in medicine, and might put such a confidence in them as to neglect the glorious God, the only author and giver of health. What I aim at in this paragraph is, to encourage a conduct the reverse of all this; that my honourable Asa, (such the son of Sirach has taught me to call him) would himself continually go to God our Saviour, and as far as possible bring all his patients to him also.

Finally-an industrious and ingenious gentleman of your profession has a passage in his Pharmacopœia Buteana, which I will here insert, because very many of you can speak the same language; and by inserting it, I hope to increase the number.

"I know no poor creature that ever came to me, in the whole course of my practice, that once went from me, without my desired help, gratis. And I have accounted the restoration of such a poor and wretched creature, a greater blessing to me, than if I had procured the wealth of both the Indies. I cannot so well express myself concerning this matter, as I can conceive it; but I am sure I should have been more pleased, and had a greater satisfaction in seeing such a helpless creature restored to his desired health, than As I can if I had found a very valuable treasure.

never repent of the good which I have done this way, so I resolve to continue the same practice, for I certainly know that I have had the signal blessing of God attending my endeavours."

PROPOSALS TO RICH MEN.

"I WILL get me unto the RICH MEN, and will speak unto them," for they will know the ways to "do good," and will think what they shall be able to say A when they come into the judgment of their God. person of quality, quoting that passage, "The desire of a man is his kindness," invited me so to read it “The only desirable thing in a man is his goodness." How happy would the world be, if every person of quality were to become of this persuasion! It is an article in my commission, "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate." In pursuance thereof, I will remind rich men of the opportunities to "do good," with which God, who gives power to get wealth, has favoured and enriched them. It is a very good account that has "As to the been sometimes given of a good man; wealth of this world, he knew no good in it, but the who have doing of good with it." Yea, those men had very little goodness in them, yet in describing "the manners of the age," in which perhaps they themselves have had too deep a share, have seen occasion to subscribe and publish this prime dictate of reason; “We are none the better for any thing, barely for the propriety's sake; but it is the application of Whoever buries it that gives every thing its value.

his talent, betrays a sacred trust, and defrauds those who stand in need of it." Sirs, you cannot but acknowledge that it is the sovereign God who has bestowed upon you the riches which distinguish you. A devil himself, when he saw a rich man, could not but make this acknowledgment to the God of heaven; "Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land." It is also to be hoped, that you are not unmindful that the riches in your possession are some of the talents of which you

must give an account to the glorious Lord who has entrusted you with them; and that you will give your account with grief, and not with joy, if it should be found that all your property has been laid out to gratify the appetites of the flesh, and little or nothing of it consecrated to the service of God, and of his kingdom in the world. It was said to the priests of old, when the servants were assigned them; "Unto you they are given as a gift for the Lord." This may be said of all our estates: what God gives us is not given us for ourselves, but "for the Lord." "When God's gifts to us are multiplied, our obligations to give are multiplied."* Indeed there is hardly any professor of christianity so vicious that he will not confess that all his property is to be used for honest purposes, and part of it for pious ones. If any plead their poverty to excuse and exempt them from doing any thing this way: O thou poor widow with thy two mites, eternised in the history of the gospel, thou shalt "rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it ;" and let them also know, that they take a course to condemn and confine themselves to eternal poverty.

But the main question is, what proportion of a man's income is to be devoted to pious uses? And now, let it not seem a "hard saying," if I tell you that a tenth part is the least that you can bring under a more solemn dedication to the Lord; for whom, in one sense, we are to lay out our all. A farthing less would make an enlightened and considerate christian suspicious of his incurring the danger of sacrilege. By the pious uses for which your tenths are thus challenged, I do not intend only the maintenance of the evangelical ministry, but also the relief of the miserable, whom our merciful Saviour has made the receivers of his rents; together with all that is to be more directly done for the preserving and promoting of piety in the world. Since there is a part of every man's revenues due to the glorious Lord, and to purposes of piety, it is not fit that the de

* Cum crescunt dona, crescunt etiam rationes donorum.

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