DISEASES. There are many Diseases mentioned in Scripture. The Hebrews attributed the greatest part of their Diseases to the operation of the Devil. Concerning the Diseases of the Scripture, the Reader may consult Francis Vallesius, de Sacra Philosophia; Thomas Bartolinus, de Morbis Biblicis; William Adenus on the same subject; Christianus Warlizius, in his Treatise intitled, De morbis Biblicis, è prava diæta, animique affectibus resultantibus; lastly, our Dissertation on the Physick of the Hebrews, printed before our Comment upon the book of Ecclesiasticus. See hereafter the Article PHYSICIANS.
Diseases and Death are the consequences and effects of sin; this is the idea which we have of them from Scripture. The ancient Hebrews, who were very little versed in the study of natural Philosophy, and not much accustomed to recur to physical Causes, and consult Physicians, when they were sick, imputed them generally to evil Spirits, the executioners of divine vengeance. If their Infirmities appeared to be beyond what was usual, and the cause of them were not known to them, they did not fail to say, that it was a blow from the avenging hand of God; to him the wisest and most religious had recourse for 2 Chron. xvi. 12.cure; and King Asa is blamed for placing his confidence in Physicians, when he had a very painful fit of the gout in his feet, and not applying himself to the Lord: In his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. Job’s friends immediately ascribed all the distempers with which this holy man was afflicted, to God’s justice. Leprosies, which were so common among the Jews, were treated as Diseases sent by God; the Priests were the persons who judged of the nature and qualities of this evil, shut up the diseased, and declared that they were healed, or had their leprosy upon them; and after their recovery, they offered sacrifices as it were to expiate for their faults. Miriam, Gehazi, and King Uzziah were smitten suddenly with a leprosy; the first as a punishment for her detracting discourses; the second for his avarice; and the third for his presumption. The whole people of Israel were afflicted with the plague, in order to punish David’s vanity, and many examples of the like nature, fomented and increased the people’s prepossession in this particular.
In the Gospel, the cause of the generality of Diseases is attributed to the Devil. It is said there, that the Devil had bound the woman, who had been bent down for eighteeen years: Luke xiii. 16.Ought not this woman, who is a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo these eighteen years, to be loosed from this bond on the sabbath-day? The same person is mentioned as having a spirit of Infirmity. Mulier Luke xiii. 11.quæ habebat spiritum Infirmitatis. We are told there of a dumb Devil, and of another that could scarce speak; that is to say, which caused these Infirmities in those who were possessed by them: and whenever Jesus Christ or his Apostles had a mind to restore these indispos’d Persons to their health, they began with driving out the Devils, for the cure immediately followed.
In other cases our Saviour began with forgiving their sins, and then proceeded to cure them: Datur nobis intelligentia propter peccata plerasque evenire corporum debilitates; & idcirco forsan dimittuntur prius peccata, ut causis debilitatis ablatis, sanitas restituatur, Hieron. in Matth. ix. 4.says St. Jerom. St. Paul delivers up the incestuous Corinthian unto Satan for the destruction of his flesh, 1 Cor. v. 5. 1 Cor. xi. 30.ad interitum carnis, that the evil Spirit might torment him, and afflict him with Diseases. The same Apostle attributes the Death and Diseases of many to their Communicating unworthily: For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. The same Apostle ascribes the Infirmities wherewith he was afflicted to an evil Angel: Datus est mihi 2 Cor. xii. 7.stimulus carnis meæ, Angelus Sathanæ qui me colaphizet. It was an Angel of Death that destroy’d the first-born of the Egyptians; it was the destroying Angel which made such havock of Sennacherib’s army; it was the avenging Angel that drew his sword against the people, and smote them with the Pestilence, as a punishment for David’s sin. Saul fell into a fit of deep melancholy, and it is said that the Devil laid hold of him. No sooner had Abimelech, King of Gerar, taken Sarah forcibly away, the wife of Abraham, but he was threatned with death, (Gen. xx. 3, 4.) Er and Onan, the sons of Judah, were carried off by unknown Diseases, for having committed actions of an infamous and detestable nature. The Philistins were smitten with an ignominious Disease, for not treating the Ark with all the respect which it deserved. We should never have done, if we would collect all the examples of Diseases sent by God in the way of punishment for sins that have been committed.
Plin. l. 28. c. 1. Ægypti peculiare hoc malum Elephantiasis.The DISEASES of Egypt, from which God promised to defend his People. And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil Diseases of Egypt (which thou knowest) upon thee. These Diseases are either the Plagues with which God afflicted Egypt before the departure of the Israelites, or the Diseases which were most common in the Country, such as Blindness, Ulcers in the Legs, Consumptions, and the Leprosy, called Elephantiasis, which was peculiar to this Country. Travellers speak of these distempers. See the Sieur de Joinville, in his Life of St. Lewis. Thevenot, Voyage d’Orient. l. 2. c. 8. Juvenal. Satyr. 13. v. 92, &c.