Page:Of the Gout - Stukeley - 1734.djvu/28

Rh had been a publick enemy to mankind when he recommended nothing but what he us'd first himself. Tho' instances appear'd daily before their eyes, of its good effects; yet those were detorted and misrepresented as much as possible. And they would rather believe the most irrational thing whatever, than attribute any good effect to the medicin. And those that had been wonderfully reliev'd by it, were suborn'd to deny it. And after all, when the most: extraordinary success attended the use of it every where, those very persons who had been the opposers of the oyls pretended to imitate them, but vain.

What the antients call'd our Fate, the sors vitæ, we Christians are taught rightly to call the direction of Providence. As in great societys of men, states, kingdoms, empires; so in the conduct of every private man's life, this over-rules all accidental or acquired inclinations,and turns them as best suit his own purposes and infinite wisdom. When I reflect upon several remarkable coincidences in my own fortune; I seem to discern a superior direction in this affair before us, without which in all probability, this extraordinary remedy would have been lost to the world. This no doubt has often happened in like cases, where they have not been properly notify'd to