102 • ConfusionAntidotes Spiritual and Material
When I wake up I thank God for preserving me the night past, then I gargle my
throat, wash my mouth, nostrils, temples, ears, and forehead with vinegar and
water.
—Dr. Thomas Cocke,Cautionary Rules and Directions( 1665 )Ask God for his blessing, Dr. Cocke affirmed, “without which neither
Master Paul nor Apollo, Galenist nor Chymist, Food nor Physick can do
anything.” The belief was common, especially for plague.^11
In 1664 , a son of Rev. Ralph Josselin fell gravely ill, passed through the
“crisis,” and recovered. Josselin gave God credit for the miracle of his child’s
recovery and was also grateful that a physician friend could stay with the
family through the ordeal. When Ralph fell ill himself and took to bed with
a fever, he again found relief from a physician’s hand. But most of all he re-
lied on prayer. His diary often began with prayer and then ended with thanks
to God. He inspected his own urine, read the odd medical book, and used
herbal concoctions made by his wife or a noble lady friend while also believ-
ing that, through God’s mercy, his wife’s prayers had saved the life of a village
woman. Faith healing was as natural to these villagers as breathing good
country air.
From his parsonage and farm on the outskirts of Earls Colne, Josselin
gazed at the flat fields broken by blue-black, gently rolling hills on the hori-
zon. The stifling air brought no signs of rain, and his crops were wilting. The
plague had been in Yarmouth for some time and was spreading like wildfire
around London. But more disturbing thoughts were on his mind. As the
holy days approached, he asked his congregation to search within themselves
for what might be displeasing to God and “rectify it [so that] His anger
might be averted.” He did not object to his parishioners or anyone else
reaching for medical potions; he did the same. But he pondered their limited
efficacy in healing. “God in mercy preserve us, and heal the city,” he wrote
in his journal concerning what he had heard about the response in London
to the pestilential taint. “Medicaments used, but no publique call to repent-
ance.”^12
Closer to London, Reverend Patrick’s old friend from his first parish set-
tled into her sister-in-law’s home outside Brentwood, Essex. Though she
missed her husband, Denis, who was continually on the move as head of the
Royal Navy’s victualing operation, Elizabeth Gauden was relieved to be away