recount with himself, why this or that malady, misery, this or that incurable disease is inflicted upon him; it may be for his good, [852]_sic expedit_ as Peter said of his daughter’s ague.  Bodily sickness is for his soul’s health, periisset nisi periisset, had he not been visited, he had utterly perished; for [853]"the Lord correcteth him whom he loveth, even as a father doth his child in whom he delighteth.”  If he be safe and sound on the other side, and free from all manner of infirmity; [854]_et cui_

       “Gratia, forma, valetudo contingat abunde
        Et mundus victus, non deficiente crumena.”

       “And that he have grace, beauty, favour, health,
        A cleanly diet, and abound in wealth.”

Yet in the midst of his prosperity, let him remember that caveat of Moses, [855]"Beware that he do not forget the Lord his God;” that he be not puffed up, but acknowledge them to be his good gifts and benefits, and [856]"the more he hath, to be more thankful,” (as Agapetianus adviseth) and use them aright.

Instrumental Causes of our Infirmities.] Now the instrumental causes of these our infirmities, are as diverse as the infirmities themselves; stars, heavens, elements, &c.  And all those creatures which God hath made, are armed against sinners.  They were indeed once good in themselves, and that they are now many of them pernicious unto us, is not in their nature, but our corruption, which hath caused it.  For from the fall of our first parent Adam, they have been changed, the earth accursed, the influence of stars, altered, the four elements, beasts, birds, plants, are now ready to offend us.  “The principal things for the use of man, are water, fire, iron, salt, meal, wheat, honey, milk, oil, wine, clothing, good to the godly, to the sinners turned to evil,” Ecclus. xxxix. 26.  “Fire, and hail, and famine, and dearth, all these are created for vengeance,” Ecclus. xxxix. 29.  The heavens threaten us with their comets, stars, planets, with their great conjunctions, eclipses, oppositions, quartiles, and such unfriendly aspects.  The air with his meteors, thunder and lightning, intemperate heat and cold, mighty winds, tempests, unseasonable weather; from which proceed dearth, famine, plague, and all sorts of epidemical diseases, consuming infinite myriads of men.  At Cairo in Egypt, every third year, (as it is related by [857]Boterus, and others) 300,000 die of the plague; and 200,000, in Constantinople, every fifth or seventh at the utmost.  How doth the earth terrify and oppress us with terrible earthquakes, which are most frequent in [858]China, Japan, and those eastern climes, swallowing up sometimes six cities at once?  How doth the water rage with his inundations, irruptions, flinging down towns, cities, villages, bridges, &c. besides shipwrecks; whole islands are sometimes suddenly overwhelmed with all their inhabitants in [859]Zealand, Holland, and many parts of the continent drowned,