Page:Of the Gout - Stukeley - 1734.djvu/37

Rh burnt in a funeral pile, as was the Roman custom afterward. It can't be doubted that this distemper was the gout, and coming upon him, when in years, soon put a period to his life. "In I. Kings XV. 23. we read it, in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet." I don't suppose Asa was the first that had this distemper, but is the first recorded in history, and this is near 200 years before the foundation of Rome. Tho' he was a very good man, yet he fail'd of his duty to his maker, in this instance, that in so great a distemper, he did not consult the Lord, but the physicians. In those times of the first temple, there was a visible shechinah or glory, constantly resident upon the mercy-seat that covered the ark, between the wings of the cherubim in the adytum of Solomon's temple. The pecu1iar deity of this people, the Jehovah was personally present there, and answer'd in an audible voice, when acceptably consulted. And affairs of health were frequently the subject matter of consultation. Ego Jehovah sanans te, says God, Exod. XV. 26. whence the ancients made their Æsculapius. Tacitus hints well IV. hist. "many call Æsculapius God, because he heals the sick. Some hold him for Osiris the most ancient deity, most make him Jupiter the omnipotent, very many Dis pater."