2 lines
1.5 KiB
HTML
2 lines
1.5 KiB
HTML
<p>Note, 1. It is healthful to be cheerful. The Lord is for the body, and has provided for it, not only meat, but medicine, and has here told us that the best medicine is <i>a merry heart</i>, not a heart addicted to vain, carnal, sensual mirth; Solomon himself said of that mirth, It is not medicine, but madness; it is not food, but poison; <i>what doth it</i>? But he means a heart rejoicing in God, and serving him with gladness, and then taking the comfort of outward enjoyments and particularly that of pleasant conversation. It is a great mercy that God gives us leave to be cheerful and cause to be cheerful, especially if by his grace he gives us hearts to be cheerful. This <i>does good to a medicine</i> (so some read it); it will make physic more efficient. Or <i>it does good as a medicine</i> to the body, making it easy and fit for business. But, if mirth be a medicine (understand it of diversion and recreation), it must be used sparingly, only when there is occasion, not turned into food, and it must be used medicinally, <i>sub regimine—as a prescribed regimen</i>, and by rule. 2. The sorrows of the mind often contribute very much to the sickliness of the body: <i>A broken spirit</i>, sunk by the burden of afflictions, and especially a conscience wounded with the sense of guilt and fear of wrath, <i>dries the bones</i>, wastes the radical moisture, exhausts the very marrow, and makes the body a mere skeleton. We should therefore watch and pray against all melancholy dispositions, for they lead us into trouble as well as into temptation.</p>
|