Health is a Blessing so necessary to our Well-being in this World, that without it we cannot enjoy any thing else, no not our own selves: And therefore the common salutation among us at every meeting of Neighbour or Friends is this, How do you? that is, are you in Health or no? And the Answer Well, or Ill; that is, in health, or not: As if Health were the chief or only good thing worth the enquiring after, in the presence or enjoyment whereof we could not be miserable whatever else we wanted: Nor in the absence, happy or well, whatever besides we possessed. Indeed there is no taste or relish, no comfort or delight in any worldly good, where health is wanting; and therefore it is by all Men highly valued and purchased at the dearest rate, as Bishop Wilkins well observes.
Health is such a just temper and constitution of all the parts of the Body, both solid and fluid, as may inable the several Members and Faculties duly to perform their natural Functions, from whence proceeds not only an indolency or freedom from Pain and Sickness, but also vigor and activity, alacrity and light-heartedness, a pleasant and delicious sympathy in the Soul. To this head I refer freedom from Bodily Pain, the extremity whereof is altogether inconsistent with Happiness: St. Augustine confesses, That he was compelled to consent to Cornelius Celsus, who affirmed Bodily Pain to be the greatest Evil. Neither (saith he) did his Reason seem to me absurd, viz. That Man being compounded of two parts, Soul and Body, of which the first is the better, the latter the worser; the greatest good must be the best thing belonging to the better part; that is, Wisdom: And the greatest Evil the worst thing belonging to the worser part; that is, Pain. Whether this Reason be solid and conclusive, let others judge; but I fully agree with him in the Assertion, That of all Evils we are sensible of in this World, Bodily Pain is the sorest; It drowning, as I may so say, and taking away the sense of all other Evils, and wholly possessing the Soul. It is such an afflictive and tormenting Passion, such a Vultur or Tyger, tearing and gnawing upon the Soul, so abhorrent to Humane Nature, that an excessive degree of it must needs make a Man miserable and unhappy; unless we can reconcile and unite extremes, the greatest Evil that Man is capable of suffering, with the greatest good he can enjoy. Hence the Torments of Hell are every where in Scripture set forth by consuming Fire, unquenchable Fire, everlasting Burnings; and Hell it self called a Lake of Fire, a Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone; because Fire produceth the greatest Bodily Pain; than which nothing is more terrible to Humane Nature, and more likely to affright Men from Sin. On the contrary, St John in his Revelation considering the absolute inconsistency of Pain and Happiness, tells us, That in the New Jerusalem there shall be no sorrow, nor any more Pain.
There is indeed a degree of Bodily Pain, which may be said to be κατ᾽ ἄνθρωπον, not exceeding the measure of Man’s Patience; and there is a degree which we are not able to bear, which takes up the whole Mind, not suffering it to divert its thoughts one Minute to any other Object.
Away then with the foolish vaunts of the proud Stoicks, who boast that their Wise Man is happy in Phalaris his Bull; whom1St. Augustine thus smartly and ingeniously checks and confutes, If Life may be happy in extreme bodily torment, why do they advise a man afflicted with the most grievous Pains to depart out of it? Why does not their Wiseman rather continue in it, that he may enjoy the happiness of it? Is a happy life to be forsaken and fled from? But if such a Life be really miserable, what else but pride hinders them from confessing it to be so?
You will say, Did not the holy Martyrs endure the greatest Bodily Torments with invincible patience, yea some of them with joy and exultation?
I answer, ‘Tis true indeed they did so; but then I suppose, that as their Temptations and Sufferings were extraordinary, so they were extraordinarily supported under them; and that God (as the Apostle saith) did not suffer them to be tempted above what he enabled them to bear. It seems to me most likely, that he did quite take away, or very much mitigate the sense of pain; possibly by obstructing those Nerves which convey that motion to the Brain, which excites such a sense, or how else it seemed best to his Divine Wisdom.
I proceed now to prove, that this Blessing is the portion of those who lead a godly Life, who keep God’s Commandments, and abide in his Love: And that, 1. From the Promises of God: 2. From the natural consequence of several Vertues commanded by him. Such are, 1. Temperance and Sobriety. 2. Labor and Industry. 3. A due government and moderation of our Passions.