V. 23. because he prided himself in their **A9 blafphemous Flattery *, and gave not God in dane the Glory; and being eaten up of Worms, he gave be τω δόξαν up the Ghoft. God convincing him hereby τῷ Θεῷ. of his Folly and Madness, in arrogating to

himself the Perfections of God, who could

not preferve himself from being a Prey to fuch mean Infects as the Worms that arose Out of his own Body.

AND to fhew (Fifthly) how natural a Connexion there is between this Sin, and this Punishment; the Prophet Jeremiah, Chap. 9. threatning the Jews with dreadful Defolations by the means of a Pestilence (as it appears plain to me, notwithftanding what Grotius and others have faid to the contrary; compare v. 10, 12, 21, 22. of which more hereafter. For the Mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the Inhabitants of the Wilderness a Lamentation, because they are burnt up, fo that none can pafs through them, neither can Men hear the Voice of the Cattel, both the Fowl of the Heavens, and the Beaft are fled, they are gone. V. 12. Who is the wife Man that may understand this, and who is be to whom the Mouth of the Lord has Spoken, that he may declare it, for what the Land perifbeth, and is burnt up like a Wilderness

that

none paffeth through? And v. 21. Death is come up into our Windows, and is entered into our Palaces, to cut off the Children from without, and the young Men from the Streets. V. 22. Speak, thus Jaith the Lord, even the Carcaffes of Men fhall fall as Dung upon the open Fields, and as the bandful after the Harvest-man, and none shall gather them.) The Prophet, I fay,

after

after he had threatned them with the dreadful Effects of this Peftilence, he comes, v. 23, and 24. as it were to point out the Caufe of it, and to fhew them how they fhould escape it. Thus faith the Lord, let not the wife Man glory in his Wisdom, nor let the mighty Man glory in his Might, let not the rich Man glory in his Riches. But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, &c. Plainly intimating, that as their exceffive Pride and Self-love had brought thofe Calamities upon them, fo there was no ways to escape them, but by Repentance, Self-denial, and Humility.

§ 6. THE Reader will, I hope, pardon The matemy dwelling longer than ordinary upon the rial or innext Head, confidering that the prefent frumental commonnefs of the Distemper, may juftifie thefe DiCauses of my being more particular upon the com-fempers. mon and ordinary Caufes of all infectious and peftilential Diseases; which may, in general, be reduced to these two: 1. The evil Influences of the heavenly Bodies, and the Irregularities of Seafons. 2. Noxious

and hurtful Exhalations from the Body of the Earth. The former fort were called by the Greeks Νόσοι Επιδημικοί, as being of a more universal Contagion than the other; as we may conceive the Influences darted from thofe Bodies (fpecially when their Pofitions are fo, as that many of them concur in the fame Influences and Operations) to be of a greater and more extensive Force, than any Halitus, or Vapours, arifing from the Earth; because the Heat of these heavenly Bodies, which is the Medium whereby

they

1

they are generally supposed to act, muft affect our Air and Atmosphere much more powerfully by its direct darting upon us, than thofe Exhalations which arife from the Earth, and which a very moderate degree of Heat will eafily extract; and that too, after it is weakened by Reflexion, can be fuppofed to do: Suppofing ftill, that there is not generally a Concurrence of both these Caufes; which, notwithstanding what has been faid to justifie this Diftinction, I am very inclinable to believe. The fecond fort were called fimply, Morbi Lethales and Peftes; as being, tho' fatal to the Perfons infected, yet not accounted fo univerfally Contagious as the other.

(1.) As to the First of these Causes, viz. The Influences of the heavenly Bodies, that they do act upon us, is indifputable; but what particular Bodies these are that have this Power, and by what Virtues or Qualities, or thro' what Mediums they act, is not so easy to determine: Whether it be fome fecret innate Power; or, as the Ari ftotelians call it, by their substantial Forms: Whether they act by Effluviums, or fome more fubtil and powerful Energy; or, whe ther they vary their Influences with their Afpects and Pofitions (as the Crisis of fome Diftempers depends upon the Change or Full of the Moon.) Or, 2ly, Whether they do not act fimply by their Heat, which may at fometimes be more Intenfe, by a more ftrong and vigorous Fomentation of the fubtile Fire of which they are compofed, which may alfo depend upon other fecret

and

1

and unknown Caufes, Natural or Supernatural. Thefe (I fay) are Questions that cannot be fully answered, till this Vail of Darkness, that feparates betwixt us and pure Nature, fhall be fully taken away. But the most common and plaufible Opinion is, that of the Planets, only fome have this Power, which they never exert, but in fome particular Pofitions or Conjunctions; and that Comets alfo (which, contrary to the common Opinion, are fuppofed to be folid fiery Bodies in an excentrick Motion, not Exhalations only) have this Power in a more eminent Degree; as also fiery Meteors of all forts: That all these act by fubtil Effluviums, which first of all affect our Air, and thereby corrupt not only our Bodies immediately, but also all thofe Plants and Bodies that we feed upon; which Particles, or Effluviums, are fuppofed to be hot in fuch a Degree, as to deftroy the natural Temperature of our Bodies. Thus Oedipus in Seneca, lamenting the fad Peftilence that was at Thebes.

With many other places to the fame Purpofe in that Tragedy. Thefe Influences of the Heavenly Bodies, as producing Diseases and Diftempers upon Mankind, are largely attefted both by the Ancients and Moderns. Hippo

V.39,50.

Hippocrates, de Flatibus, p. 197. Edit. Foc obferves, that most of the Diftempers in cident to Mankind, did arife' from the Ar we breath; and that therefore all fudden and violent Changes in it were dangerous Upon which Account the latter Phyficians acknowledge, that the Solftices, fpecially the Summer; and the Aquinoctials, fpeci ally the Autumnal, were very dangerous Seafons. And the Great Sydenham himself, Præfat. ad Opera, Edit. Lond. 1685. confeffe that Quartan Agues are almoft peculiar to the latter. That great Man owns further, that Epidemical Diftempers, and the Pe ftilence it felf, do proceed from a corrupt and poyfonous Difpofition of the Air, but fuch as is fecret and unaccountable; ac knowledging, that they are very different in their Nature and Properties, according to the different Conftitution of Air; and that befides those which manifeftly depend upón the Qualities of the Year, there are fome whofe Caufe is perfectly hidden and unknown; and others that are perfectly re gular and returning every Year. Many and excellent Reasons may be feen at large in Dr. Goad's Aftro-meteorologia Sana, Cap. de Morb. Epidem. p. 133, 4, 5. 6. built upon the Authority of Aristotle, Hippocrates, Ptolomy, Kepler, &c. fhewing alfo what Pofitions of the Heavenly Bodies they are that produce Ray-thefe peftilential Difpofitions. And an mundus à Eminent Physician, who wrote an hiftori

vinario.

cal Account of Four feveral Peftilences that had been in his time, obferves, that juft before the firit, which happened in the

Year