So when the boy was healed, Christiana asked Mr. Skill, saying, Sir, what will content you for your pains and care to, and of my child? And he said, You must pay the Master of the College of Physicians, according to rules made in that case and provided (Heb. 13:11-16).
CHRIST. But, Sir, said she, what is this pill good for else?
SKILL. It is an universal pill; it is good against all the diseases that Pilgrims are incident to; and when it is well prepared, it will keep good, time out of mind.
CHRIST. Pray, Sir, make me up twelve boxes of them; for if I can get these, I will never take other physic.[156]
SKILL. These pills are good to prevent diseases, as well as to cure when one is sick. Yea, I dare say it, and stand to it, that if a man will but use this physic as he should, it will make him live forever (John 6:50). But, good Christiana, thou must give these pills no other way but as I have prescribed; for, if you do, they will do no good.[157] So he gave unto Christiana physic for herself, and her boys, and for Mercy; and bid Matthew take heed how he eat any more green plums, and kissed them, and went his way.
It was told you before, that Prudence bid the boys, that if at any time they would, they should ask her some questions that might be profitable, and she would say something to them.
MATT. Then Matthew, who had been sick, asked her, Why, for the most part, physic should he bitter to our palates.
PRUD. To show how unwelcome the Word of God, and the effects thereof, are to a carnal heart.
MATT. Why does physic, if it does good, purge, and cause that we vomit?
PRUD. To show that the Word, when it works effectually, cleanseth the heart and mind. For look, what the one doth to the body, the other doth to the soul.[158]