Medical References in Sermons 18

André Mouraux, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>,
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In Volume 5 and Sermon 13 on Acts 16:31

By faith we receive the atonement and are led to acquiesce in that way of acceptance with God as full of wisdom, suited to our helpless and sinful condition. It is not enough that Christ died for us; we must receive his death, appropriate its benefits to ourselves and make an interest in it our own personal concern. It is not the medicine prepared, but applied that effects it.

Medical References in Sermons 15

National Library of Medicine - History of Medicine, No restrictions,
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In a sermon on Isaiah 65:20 The aged sinner he says

Many plunge themselves into the pleasures and pursuits of life so as not seriously to think of death or what is needful in order to it but they must die, whether they expect it or not and whether they be prepared for it or not. We may recover from many diseases and escape from many dangers but death is inevitable: the sentence is passed and life whether it be short or long is only a reprieve. Let then the worldling increase his wealth, the voluptuous his pleasures and the ambitious rise to honour and preferment, yet death will soon reduce them to a level with the common herd of mankind.

Medical References in Sermons 14

In a sermon on Psalm 81:10 Motives to enlarged prayer he says

This is strongly and beautifully expressed in Psalm cxix 131 I opened my mouth and panted for I longed for thy commandments This may allude to children when hungry, to persons in a burning fever or to dry and parched land in hot and sultry weather and expresses vehement and passionate desires, vigorous and forcible motions of the soul after God, as if it were so stretched out that it was ready to break; so indeed it is expressed in another part of this psalm My soul breaketh for the longing it hath to thy judgments at all times Of all desires those after spiritual blessings should be the strongest as being the most satisfying and lasting.

and

The groanings of a sick man are often the presages of death but those of the Christian are a sign that he is alive and shall live for ever The Spirit of God not only excites praying graces but also furnishes with praying expressions, not only inclines to prayer but gives liberty in prayer and when that is enjoyed the mouth may be said not only to be opened but opened wide.

Medical References in Sermons 13

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It is said that Beddome would often turn to the world of medicine for an apt illustration in his preaching.

Example 13

Consider what I say 2 Tim 2:3

We hearken to a physician when he prescribes for our health, and to a counsellor when he is to plead our cause; and shall we not much more hearken to the servants of the most high God, who shew unto us the way of salvation?

Medical References in Sermons 12

Sermon on Romans 8:28

All second causes are under the direction of the great first Cause, That which in itself might be pernicious when mixed with other ingredients becomes medicinal and salutary.

Medical References in Sermons 11

The Important Question John 9:29

Persons do not step immediately out of a state of quietness in sin into a state of salvation. They must have a fearful apprehension of wrath before they will fly from it a painful sense of their disease before they will apply to the physician and none will seek after life and righteousness from another till they have seen themselves in a state of guilt and condemnation. Nothing but absolute necessity will drive a soul to Christ.

Medical References in Sermons 10

The Impotent Man Acts 3:8

2. His poverty added to his distress. If help was to be obtained by medicine he had not the wherewithal to procure it. We read of a woman who had spent her whole substance upon physicians but it is probable that this man never had any substance to spend. It is evident that at this time he lived upon charity and perhaps had to beg his bread. And thus it is with sinners they are wretchedly poor yet very proud. So poor that like this man they are ready to starve yet so proud that they will not beg.

Also later in the sermon

2 It was speedy and instantaneous. Peter does not put him upon a long course of medicine giving him to hope that after trying this or the other method he might obtain relief but takes him by the hand and lifts him up when suddenly the disorder be it what it will left him and his limbs were restored to their proper use ....

And

Heal thou me says the prophet and I shall be healed. The cure will be wrought if thou undertake it, All others are mere empirics* they may skin over the wound but thou wilt heal it. They may palliate the disorder but thou wilt remove it. Oh bring your sick and polluted souls to Christ and say as the centurion of his servant Speak but the word and I shall be healed or as the leper concerning himself Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean.

*Persons who, in medicine or other sciences, rely solely on observation and experiment. Quack doctors.

Medical References in Sermons 09

Zechariah 9:12

1 Consider the relief provided by a stronghold. However, not any stronghold which we may fancy or prepare for ourselves though the imagination of man is very fruitful in inventions of this kind. When conscience is alarmed any thing is sought to that will afford a little present ease and lying vanities are as common now as lying wonders were in the dark days of popery. The physician of souls is neglected and physicians of no value are applied to. When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to king Jareb yet could he not heal you nor cure you of your wound. Such has been and still is the conduct of sinful men. They make any thing their refuge rather than Him who is as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Some overwhelmed with a sense of guilt and terrified with apprehensions of future wrath fly to the absolute and uncovenanted mercy of God. Some to their church privileges and others to their good works and religious performances. Some hope to conciliate the divine favour by their prayers and tears their amendments and reformations and ....

Medical References in Sermons 08

Self-examination Psalm 139:23

THIS excellent Psalm so descriptive of the greatness and majesty glory and excellency of God concludes with a pathetic address to him Search me oh God. Do it thoroughly, search into my actions and all their springs, into the temper of my mind and every crevice of my soul. Take full cognizance of me, examine me as an artist does his work to see whether there be any flaw or defect in it, as a physician does the pulse or a surgeon the wounds of his patient, as a merchant his book of accompts or a shopkeeper his stock in trade. Try me as we try gold in a balance or by the touchstone or as candidates for honour and preferment to see whether their talents be equal to the station they are designed to occupy.

Medical References in Sermons 07

The imperceptible diffusion of error and truth Luke 13:21

Where the word leaven is understood in a bad sense it seems to have more immediate reference to error, false doctrine Beware, says Christ, of the leaven the Pharisees and Sadducees, the former of whom depended upon their own imperfect services for justification in the sight of God and the latter denied the being of angels, spirits, a resurrection and future state of rewards and punishments. Now as it was then it is at present. The greatest errors have many advocates, the most erroneous teachers many followers and there will be Pharisees and Sadducees to the end of the world. Leaven is not only sour and disgusting but penetrating and diffusive and so is false doctrine. It eats, says the apostle, as doth a canker or, as the word might be rendered, a gangrene, which beginning in the extremities soon reaches the vitals carrying with it inevitable disorganization and destruction. Now had not this gangrene, this leaven hid by Antichrist and disguised by plausible appearances or mingled with some important truths at one time infected and corrupted the whole visible church till God raised up Huss, Jerome, Wickliffe, Luther, Calvin and the other reformers. Thus the apostle Peter speaks of persons bringing in damnable heresies and adds, many shall follow their pernicious ways. Thus some apply the words of my text to a general defection from the way of truth and righteousness.

Medical References in Sermons 06

In the case of the sermon Christ the physician of souls on Matthew 9:21, the whole sermon is marked by illustrations drawn from Beddome's medical background. The sermon begins

The Son of Man came not to be ministered to but to minister and as he travelled from place to place various were the applications made to him for relief and none of them unsuccessful. The woman spoken of in my text had been afflicted with a severe disease for twelve years which wasted her strength and exhausted her spirits. The person concerning whom she speaks was the blessed Jesus who had in innumerable instances displayed his wisdom grace and power in the case of the most obstinate and inveterate maladies with which mankind could be afflicted and he does so still, his agency should be no less acknowledged in the blessing a medicine to the restoration of health than in the working a miracle for that purpose and to him the relieved should ever ascribe the praise. Who healeth all my diseases says the Psalmist. Art thou in health, give the glory to him to whom it is due; art thou sick, apply to him who hath healed those whom other physicians have been unable to relieve. In another place it is said of this same woman that she had spent all her substance in seeking relief but could not obtain it. ....

Medical References in Sermons 05

Process print, 1931, after J. Lamsveld, c. 1700. CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>,
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It is said that Beddome would often turn to the world of medicine for an apt illustration in his preaching.

Example 5

God the supreme disposer of human affairs Psalm 31:15

Any singular appearances of God either in a way of wrath or mercy.

There is a time to wound and a time to heal a time to cast down and a time to build up. Thus David pleading with God for Zion's deliverance says, The time to favour her even the set time is come. As there is a decree goes forth for the sinner's destruction so also for the saint's deliverance and the one can no more be resisted than the other. The purpose promise and fulfilment exactly answer each other. Our times are in God's hand, our times of sickness and recovery, whether the one be short or long, moderate or severe or the other be sudden or gradual. Of this we have a remarkable instance in the case of Hezekiah.

Medical References in Sermons 04

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It is said that Beddome would often turn to the world of medicine for an apt illustration in his preaching.

Example 4

On the value of the soul Psalm 35:17

Having considered the soul and body in a comparative light he is convinced of the great superiority of the former to the latter. Christ speaking of the body tells us it is more than raiment and the apostle says, No man ever yet hated his own flesh but loveth and cherisheth it, and no wonder for though but an animated lump of clay it is fearfully and wonderfully made and its whole frame is so skilfully contrived and so exquisitely put together as to awaken universal curiosity and admiration but one soul hath more real worth and excellency in it than a thousand yea than ten thousand bodies. The body is liable to many diseases and will at length be turned to putrefaction and decay but the soul will outlive the wrecks of time and the ruins of the creation. The body is but the house or tabernacle, the soul the inhabitant and as the man is more noble than the house so is the soul than the body The body is but a vessel or casket and the soul a precious jewel lodged there for a time. Now if the cabinet is so curiously wrought what must we think of the treasure contained in it? Surely the rich and various embellishments of the former should excite in us admiring thoughts of the latter. Thus it was with David and thus as far as spiritual light is communicated and grace in exercise it will be with us.

Medical References in Sermons 03

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It is said that Beddome would often turn to the world of medicine for an apt illustration in his preaching.

Example 3

The happy fruits of repentance 2 Corinthians 2:2

As to the nature of the sorrow

1 It was not an habitual sorrow arising from a phlegmatic melancholy constitution or the want of a natural flow of spirits. The body has certainly a great influence upon the mind and when the former is oppressed with those elements of disease by which the due performance of the physical functions is obstructed the latter will be incapacitated for any considerable degree of cheerfulness. Then what is designed for comfort will sometimes prove an occasion of sorrow. As vinegar upon nitre says the royal preacher so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart. Such are apt to turn every thing to their disadvantage and rather than want a cross will make one. Perhaps Hannah might mean something of this nature when she says I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit, that is inclined to melancholy and overwhelmed with distress upon the slightest occasions.

(Melancholia (from Greek melaina chole "black bile", "blackness of the bile") is a condition characterised by extreme depression, bodily complaints and sometimes hallucinations and delusions.. Melancholia as a concept derived from ancient or pre-modern medicine, which regarded melancholy as one of the four temperaments matching the four humours. Until the 19th century, medical doctors regarded "melancholia" as having physical symptoms as well as mental ones, and medicine classified melancholic conditions as such by their perceived common cause - an excess of black bile. At times, received wisdom associated all forms of mental illness with the concept of misbalanced humours, with some mental disease deemed to be caused by a combination of excess black bile and a disorder of one of the other humours.)

Medical References in Sermons 02

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It is said that Beddome would often turn to the world of medicine for an apt illustration in his preaching.

Example 2

Despise not prophesyings 1 Thessalonians 5:20

Ministers have their peculiar gifts, one of improving the understanding, another of convicting the conscience and a third of moving the passions. One is a son of thunder and another of consolation one opens the wound and another applies the healing balm. One is learned, another eloquent, one is highly argumentative another gently persuasive but there is no faithful minister of the gospel from whom we may not reap some advantage, let his peculiar gifts be what they will. Those who hear with prejudice are never likely to hear with profit, let the preacher be who he may.

Medical References in Sermons 01

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It is said that Beddome would often turn to the world of medicine for an apt illustration in his preaching.

Example 1

The bitterness of sin Jeremiah 9:18

Is there so much bitterness in sin? then be contented to take the most bitter physic to purge it away. Care not how many afflictions you meet with how much pain and sorrow you pass through if it may be but a means of tearing you from the bondage of sin. Say, Lord afflict me, slay me, do what thou wilt with me but deliver me from the tyrannical power of sin in this world and the wrath due to it in the next.

(A purgative is a strong laxative or emetic. Such purgatives were popular in the eighteenth century and were used to induce vomiting or diarrhea. A popular purgative was calomel, which is mercurous chloride or protochloride of mercury, Hg2Cl2. This was a mercury-based medicine that came in two forms; blue pills which contained a mixture of mercury, liquorice, rose water, powdered rose, honey and sugar. Blue mass was a lump of mercurous chloride from which a doctors would pull a piece. Neither method provided for standardised or measured doses.)

Francis Labee d 1755

The suggestion that Francis Labee was raised a Baptist and that one of his apprentices was the Baptist minister and hymnwriter Benjamin Beddome can be found in William Dyer's Diary Bristol in 1762 here. Apparently Labee and his wife, who remarried following his death, were also close to the Wesleys from 1739 onwards. Dyer (d 1805), an apothecary himself, had bought Mrs Labbee’s old clock at auction for 4 guineas in 1758, and noted that ‘it continues good’ in 1801. The diary is edited by Professor Jonathan Barry.

Labee was a surgeon and man midwife, who was freed in 1726 and was described at his death in his house in Castle Street in 1755 as ‘an eminent surgeon of the city for 30 or more years’.

A letter of 1750 notes that Mr Labee had lent the (Bristol Methodist) society £50 but demanded its return: he was a surgeon in Bristol who had given hospitality to Howell Harris in 1746.

Surgeon Apothecary

We have noted that following his schooling in Bristol, Beddome was apprenticed to a surgeon apothecary and seems to have taken well to it.* He apparently never lost his love for things medical. Two of his sons trained in the same field and he himself, it seems, carried on some form of medical practice in Bourton. It is said that he would often turn to the world of medicine for an apt illustration in his preaching. (Remarks in Memoir, xi, which reveals that Bernard Foskett, like many a nonconformist minister at that time, also had a medical training).

It is perhaps worth noting, therefore, that the term apothecary, often used between the 1600s and 1800s, does not refer to a chemist or druggist but was used for individuals living in London who had passed the examinations of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London, founded in 1617 (a break away from the grocers company), or to their often less well qualified counterparts in the provinces. Although the apothecary's practice included a strong dispensing element, it was more all-encompassing than the handling of drugs and chemicals. Following a ruling in the Rose Case (1701-1703/4), apothecaries became legally ratified members of the medical profession, able to prescribe as well as dispense medicines.

In the 1700s apothecaries were some of the most common medical practitioners. In Bristol in 1775 there were 8 physicians, 56 surgeon-apothecaries and 3 druggists. Medical students could become a surgeon-apothecary without going to university (nonconformists were barred from Oxford and Cambridge until 1828 so it was an obvious route into medicine for them), and could earn a living from minor surgery and dispensing drugs. Until 1754, surgeons were allied with barbers in the barber-surgeons company. Under the Apothecaries Act of 1815, apothecaries who took a specified course of training with the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries could be licensed as general practitioners, and were called licentiates.

*We later discovered that this man's name was Francis Labee. Beddome's apprenticeship perhaps lasted from about 1730-1737.