When God appoints over us consumption or the chilling and burning ague, if it be not speedily removed, it will not only consume the eyes, but cause sorrow of heart. This is eminently the case with regard to all those which are termed nervous disorders. And faith does not overturn the course of nature: natural causes still produce natural effects. Faith no more hinders the sinking of the spirits (as it is called) in an hysteric illness, than the rising of the pulse in a fever.
3. * Again, when calamity cometh as a whirlwind, and poverty as an armed man, is this a little temptation? Is it strange, if it occasion sorrow and heaviness? Although this also may appear but a small thing, to those that stand at a distance, or who look and pass by on the other side, yet it is otherwise to them who feel it. Having food and raiment indeed (the latter word [Greek: skepasmata] implies lodging as well as apparel) we may, if the love of God is in our hearts, be therewith content. But what shall they do, who have none of these? Who as it were embrace the rock for a shelter? Who have only the earth to lie upon, and only the sky to cover them? Who have not a dry, or warm, much less a clean abode for themselves and their little ones? No, nor cloathing to keep themselves, or those they love next themselves, from pinching cold, either by day or night? I laugh at the stupid Heathen, crying out
Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se
Quam quod ridiculos homines facit!
