A Treatise on Afflictions
A Treatise on Afflictions

Author: Thomas Case

Publisher: Digital Puritan Press

Published:

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1105188337

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In A Treatise on Afflictions, Thomas Case (1598–1682) generously applies a soothing salve to the wounds of God’s suffering saints. He begins by compassionately illustrating twenty lessons God teaches his children in affliction. He then proceeds to show the advantages wrought by affliction in the lives of languishing believers. He shows why deliverance from suffering should not necessarily be the believer’s primary goal when dark days come, and explains why suffering may sometimes seem to last longer than it should. The author shows from Scripture how affliction and instruction go hand-in-hand in the life of the child of God. This work rings true to the suffering reader because it was written while the author was imprisoned in the Tower of London alongside Thomas Watson, Christopher Love (who was beheaded), and others. Originally titled Correction, Instruction or The Rod and the Word, this classic treatise has been carefully prepared for the benefit of a new generation of Christian readers. It includes a biographical preface by James Reid, and has Scripture references from the English Standard Version (ESV®) embedded in the text as hyperlinks—no wireless connection is needed.

Misery to Mirth
Misery to Mirth

Author: Hannah Newton

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-05-31

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 0191084646

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This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. The history of early modern medicine often makes for depressing reading. It implies that people fell ill, took ineffective remedies, and died. Misery to Mirth seeks to rebalance and brighten our overall picture of early modern health by focusing on the neglected subject of recovery from illness in England, c.1580-1720. Drawing on an array of archival and printed materials, Misery to Mirth shows that recovery did exist conceptually at this time, and that it was a widely reported phenomenon. The book takes three main perspectives: the first is physiological or medical, asking what doctors and laypeople meant by recovery, and how they thought it occurred. This includes a discussion of convalescent care, a special branch of medicine designed to restore strength to the fragile body after illness. Secondly, the book adopts the viewpoint of patients themselves: it investigates how they reacted to escape from death, the abatement of pain and suffering, and the return to normal life and work. The third perspective concerns the patient's loved ones; it shows that family and friends usually shared the feelings of patients, undergoing a dramatic transformation from anguish to elation. Through these discussions, the volume shines a light on some of the most profound, as well as the more prosaic, aspects of early modern existence, from attitudes to life and death, to details of what convalescents ate for supper and wore in bed.