A funeral sermon for Mrs. Esther Sampson, the late wife of Henry Sampson, Dr. of Physick, who died Nov. 24. M.DCLxxxix / by John Howe ... Published principally for the use of such as languish under painful and chronical diseases.

  • Howe, John, 1630-1705.
Date:
1690
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A funeral sermon for Mrs. Esther Sampson, the late wife of Henry Sampson, Dr. of Physick, who died Nov. 24. M.DCLxxxix / by John Howe ... Published principally for the use of such as languish under painful and chronical diseases. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    16] guration and motion of parts and particles whei’eof it Is made up j inafimuch as the Devil is called the Prince of the pomr of the Air, we know nothing to the contrary, but that he may frequently fomodifie that, as that it fliall have moft pernicious influences up¬ on the Bodies of Men, and upon thofe efpecially, fo far as God permits, that he has any greater malice againft. 6. And again, (fuppofing this) it is not a ftranger thing that God (hould permit him to amid the Bodies of them that belong to him, than to difturb their minds. Sure their Bodies are not more Sacred. If we fliould fuppofe that he may fome way or ' other pernicioufly agitate the humours in humane Bodies, ’tis no harder a fuppofition than that he fliould fo varioufly form the images in the fancy, by which he tempts: for herein furely he comes nearer us, and is more inward to us. yly. Nor is it lefs fuppqfable that God foould , in fome inftanccs. permit the Devils to follow their inclinations in affliding his people, than wicked men to follow theirs, which, in the general, carry them to the fame thing; when he knows how to turn the one to after-advantage, as well as the other. But we have no ground to think, notwithftanding all this, that the wifdom and goodnefs of Providence will ordinarily permit that this Agency of the Devil, in the mentioned cafes, fliould be altogether in a contra-natural way; but only, by fo moving and ading with natural caufes, that he may be alfo obviated, through the ordinary bleffing of God, by natural means, and caufes too. Much lefs is it reafonable that difeafes foould be themfelves reckon’d very Devils, as was the opinion of the Gno- fticks of old, wherein they much concurred with the Mankhees, and whom, together with them, the more honeft-minded Pagan Plotinus fo copioufly confutes; (though that that was more an¬ ciently a common Opinion, the Septmtgms rendring the word that fignifies PUguehytht word in fcveral places of Scrip¬ ture feems to intimate. But the commonnefi of fuch an Opinion in z darkjime, fignifies nothing to fway ours this way or that.} But whatfoever hand the Devil may be fuppofed to have in their afflidions, or fickneffes that belong to God, we are in the ad. place fore. That our Lord Jefos has a moft kind hand f: whenfoever it is) in their releafe, which diougli it were here in