〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keep the Sabbath and the Lords Day as Holy-days that being dedicated to the remembrance of the Creation and this to that of the Redemption To which we shall adde this second Passage of the same Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let Servants work for five days but on the Sabbath and the Lords-day let them attend in the Church the Doctrine of Godliness To which purpose I remember the most Learned Grotius observes That the converted Emperor Constantine forbad the compelling Christians to appear before Tribunals on either of those Days as being their Festivals Nay and if Modern Travellers do not mis-inform me I finde that divers of the Eastern Churches particularly the Abyssine Christians to this day do as well sanctifie the sabbath-Sabbath-day in commemoration of Gods having created the World as the Lords-day to commemorate the Resurrection of Christ. And as for the Jews sense of the Fourth Commandment some of the Learnedst of their Criticks are pleas'd to distinguish betwixt the Words Zachôr and Smôr Remember and Keep imploy'd in the Command of solemnizing the Sabbath For the remembring of it they hold to be an act of Religion performable by all Man-kinde that are capable of it and acquainted with its having been commanded though the keeping of it Holy they suppose onely enjoyn'd to the Israelites On which occasion I remember I was one Sabbath-day entertain'd at his own Lodgings by a Learned Jew who taught me the Holy Language with Meat then newly dress'd to remove my wonder at which he told me That it was dress'd by Christians who being Gentiles were not oblig'd to the strict and legal observation of the Sabbath But whatever be to be thought of this Jewish Notion yet questionless if the Fourth Commandment do not at least divers other Passages of Scripture do much discountenance their severity who would fright Men from the indagation of Nature And he that shall duly consider divers Texts obvious enough in the Book of Job and the Psalms besides other parts of the Bible will not readily conclude that Natural Philosophy and Divinity are at such variance as the Divines we deal with would perswade us St Paul seems to inform us that the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and God-head So that they that were mention'd before are without excuse And though I ignore not that not onely several of the Socinians following their Master Socinus but some few Orthodox Writers are pleas'd to give a very differing Interpretation of that Text and make the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie those things of God that have been Invisible ever since the Creation of the World and referring the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to things not made as we Translate it but done as the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles yet I see no necessity why the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be taken in a sense exclusive of the Creation and not at least admitted to take in all the Ways and Methods imployed by God to manifest the invisible things there intimated unto Man And certainly however St Paul may be suppos'd to appear but darkly yet Job was clearly of a differing Opinion from theirs who teach That the study of Nature leads to Atheism For ask now the Beasts says he and they will teach thee and the Fowls of the Air and they shall tell thee or speak to the Earth and it shall teach thee and the Fishes of the Sea shall declare unto thee Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this And consonantly hereunto which 'twere not amiss for our Adversaries to take notice of we may observe That almost all the Writers of Natural Theology and the most also of those that have labored to demonstrate the Truth of Christian Religion divers of whom have been as well Profound Divines as otherwise Eminent Scholars have undertaken to evince by the consideration of the Universe both that there is a God and that he is the Author of it Which I the rather mention Pyrophilus because I would not be mistaken as if I disputed against Divines in general or were guilty of the least Irreverence towards a Faculty in whose Study I have thought my self oblig'd as a Christian to spend much of my time and especially I would not appear dis-respectful to Divines in England where they have already been but too much vilified though questionless for their Sins against God yet I fear not without the Sin of their Oppressors In the next place I consider That since Physiology is said to tempt to Atheism but by enabling Men to give an account of all the Phaenomena of Nature by the knowledge of Second Causes without taking in the First it will not be so easie a matter as many presume for the contemplation of Nature to turn a considering Man Atheist For we are yet for ought I can finde far enough from being able to explicate all the Phaenomena of Nature by any Principles whatsoever And even of the Atomical Philosophers whose Sect seems to have the most ingeniously attempted it some of the eminentest have themselves freely acknowledged to me their being unable to do it convincingly to others or so much as satisfactorily to themselves And indeed not onely the Generation of Animals is a Mystery which all that Naturalists have said to explain it hath been far enough from depriving of that Name but we see that to explicate all the various Phaenomena that belong to that single inâ—nimate and seemingly homogeneous Body Mercury so as not to make any Hypothesis assum'd to make out one of its Properties or Effects incongruous to any other Hypothesis requisite to the explanation of any of the rest hath been hitherto found so difficult that if our Posterity be not much happier Unriddlers then our Fore-Fathers or we have been it is like to prove a Task capable of defeating the Industry and Attempts I say not of more then one Philosopher but of more then one Age even our Chymical Tortures hitherto having from that deluding Proteus forc'd no Confessions that bring us not more Wonder then Satisfaction and do not Beget almost as many Scruples as they Resolve ESSAY IV. Containing a requisite Digression concerning those that would exclude the Deity from intermedling with Matter I Ignore not that not onely Leucippus Epicurus and other Atomists of old but of late some Persons for the most part Adorers of Aristotle's Writings have pretended to be able to explicate the first Beginning of Things and the World 's Phaenomena without taking in or acknowledging any Divine Author of it And therefore though we may elsewhere by the assistance of that Author have an opportunity to give You an Account of our unsatisfiedness with the Attempts made by some bold Wits in favor of such Pretensions Yet since the
very earnestly Labour to Disswade you from it For I that had much rather have Men not Philosophers then not Christans should be better content to see you ignore the Mysteries of Nature then deny the Author of it But though the Zeale of their Intentions keep Me from harbouring any unfavourable Opinion of the Persons of these Men yet the Prejudice that might redound from their Doctrine if generally received both to the Glory of God from the Creatures and to the Empire of Man over them forbids Me to leave their Opinion unanswer'd though I am Sorry that the Necessity of Vindicating the Study I recommend to You from so Heinous a Crime as they have accus'd it of will compel me to Theologize in a Philosophical Discours Which that I may do with as much Brevity as the Weight and Exigency of my Subject will permit I shall Content my selfe onely in the Explication of my own Thoughts to hint to you the grounds of Answering what is alledg'd against them And First Pyrophilus I must premise That though it may be a Presumption in Man who to use a Scripture Expression Is but of Yesterday and knows Nothing because his Dayes upon the Earth are but as a shadow precisely and peremptorily to define all the Ends and Aimes of the Omniscient God in His Great Work of the Creation Yet perhaps it will be no great venture to suppose that at least in the Creating of the Sublunary World and the more Conspicuous Stars two of God's Principal Ends were the Manifestation of His own Glory and the Good of Men. For the First of these The Lord hath made all things for himselfe saies the Preacher For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things saies the Apostle And Thou hast Created all things and for Thy Pleasure they are and were Created say the Twenty foure Prostrate Elders Representatives perhaps of the whole Church of both Testaments propagated by the Twelve Patriarchs and the like number of Apostles to their Creatour which Truth were it requisite might be further confirmed by several other Texts which to decline needlesse prolixity I here forbear to insist on Consonantly to this we hear the Psalmist Proclaiming that The Heavens Declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his Handy-Works To which purpose we may also observe that though Man were not Created till the close of the Sixt Day the Resident's Arrival being Obligingly Suspended till the Palace was made ready to entertain Him yet that none of God's works might want Intelligent Spectators and Admirers the Angels were Created the First Day as Divines generally infer from the Words of God in Job Where wast thou when I laid the Foundations of the Earth and a little after When the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for Joy Where by the Morning Stars and Sons of God are suppos'd to be meant the newly Created Angels one of whose earliest exercises was it seems to applaud the Creation and take thence occasion to sing Hymnes to the Almighty Author of it I should not Pyrophilus adde any thing further on this subject but that having since the writing of these thoughts met with a Discourse of Seneca's very consonant to some of them I suppose it may tend to your delight as well as to their advantage if I present you some of the Truths you have seen in my courser Languag drest up in his finer and happier Expressions Curiosum nobis saith he natura ingenium dedit artis sibi pulchritudinÃsque conscia spectatores nos tantis rerum spectaculis genuit perditura fructum sui si tam magna tam clara tam subtiliter ducta tam nitida non uno genere formosa solitudini ostenderet Ut scias illam spectari voluisse non tantum aspici vide quem locum nobis dedit nec erexit tantummodo hominem sed etiam ad contemplationem Viae facturum ut ab ortu sidera in occasum labentia prosequi posset vultum suum circumferre cum toto Sublime illi fecit caput collo flexibili imposuit Deinde sena per diem sena per noctem signa produxit nullam non partem sui explicuit ut per haec quae obtulerat ejus oculis cupiditatem faceret etiam caeterorum nec enim omnia nec tanta visimus quanta sunt sed acies nostra aperit sibi investigando viam fundamenta veri jacit ut inquisitio transeat ex apertis in obscura aliquid ipso Mundo inveniat Antiquius And least you might be offended at his mentioning of Nature and silence of God give me leave to informe you that about the close of the Chapter immediately preceding that whence the Passage you come from Reading is transcrib'd having spoken of the Enquiries of Philosophers into the Nature of the Universe he adds Haec qui contemplatur quid Deo praestat ne tanta ejus Opera sine teste sint And to proceed to that which we have formerly assign'd for the Second End of the Creation That much of this Visible World was made for the use of Mâ—n may appear not only from the time of his Creation already taken notice of and by the Commission given to the first Progenitors of Mankind to replenish the Earth and subdue it and to have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fouls of the Air and over all the Earth and over every living thing that creepeth or moveth on the Earth But also by God's making those noble and vast Luminaries and other Bodies that adorn'd the Skie to give light upon the Earth though inferiour to them in Dimensions and to divide between the Day and between the Night and to be for Signes and for Seasons and for Daies and for Years To this agrees that Passage in the Prophet Thus saith the Lord that Created the Heavens God himselfe that form'd the Earth and made it He hath estabâ—ished it He Created it not in Vaine He formed it to be Inhabited c. And the Inspired Poet speaks of Man's Dignity in very comprehensive Termes For thou saies he to his Maker hast made him little lower then the Angels and hast Crowned him with Glory and Honour Thou madest him to have Dominion over the Works of thy Hands thou hast put all things under his Feet The same truth may be confirm'd by divers other Texts which it might here prove tedious to insist on And therefore I shall rather observe that consonantly thereunto God was pleased to consider man so much more then the Creatures made for him that he made the Sun it selfe at one time to stand still and at another time to goe back and divers times made the parts of the Universe forget their Nature or Act contrary to it And ha's in summe vouchsafed to alter by Miracles the Course of Nature for the instruction or reliefe of Man As when the Fire suspended
incouraged him as I have others to make Tryal of it as the strange Effects I have observ'd of it hath divers times invited me to do The candid and learned Doctor not onely oppos'd not my Perswasions but added his own to them And my Friend taking two Doses of this Powder'd Bark though it were at the unhopefullest Season of the Year the Winter Solstice and though he scarce found any sensible operation unless a little by sweat of the Peruvian Medicine had by the first Dose his Fit very much lessen'd and by the second quite remov'd And though through some irregularities of Dyet to which that keen Appetite like that of recovering Persons which I have observ'd this Powder to be wont to produce tempted him he did as I then foretold him he would after missing eight or ten Fits relapse yet by the repeated use of the same Remedy he again recover'd and hath continu'd so ever since Having also lately perswaded the use of the same Medicine in the same Disease to one of the greatest Ladies in this Nation she told me the other day That it immediately and in unlikely weather freed her from those Fits from whence she despair'd to be deliver'd till the Spring Having likewise sent some of it to a couple of Gentlemen sick of the like Malady I had word brought me That the one had miss'd his Fits for a Moneth though in the midst of Winter and the other was by the first Dose cur'd and continues so And divers eminent Physitians to whom I have commended this Specifick have us'd it with such success that one of the severest of them though he had formerly despis'd it confess'd to me that in a short time he try'd it upon eight or nine several Persons without finding it to fail in any though one of them especially were before he was call'd judg'd irrecoverable the obstinate Quartan being complicated with other almost as dangerous Distempers And I confess I somewhat wonder that Men have not the Curiosity to try the efficacy of this powerful Bark in other Diseases then Agues It being highly probable That a Medicine capable to prevail so strongly against so obstinate a Disease as a Quartan wherein most commonly divers of the considerabler parts of the Body are much affected cannot be useless to several other Distempers I deny not that those that have taken this Powder have divers of them after having miss'd six or seven Fits relapsed into them as it likewise happen'd to one of the Gentlemen I sent it to yet as I have elsewhere told you it is much and more then any common Remedy does to stop the Fits so long Nor is it a small matter to be able to give the Patient so much breathing time and allow the Physitian the opportunity of imploying other Remedies And the Relapses we speak of are commonly cur'd by the same Powder And we have known them prevented when the Medicine hath been administred not by unskilful Persons but by a prudent Physitian who knows how to assist it by opening and gently purging Physick Wherefore that which I should the most gladly be satisfied of about this Remedy is whether or no it do indeed either proscribe the Morbifick Matter or so alter its Texture as to make it harmless or else whether it doth secretly leave such noxious Impressions upon the Spleen Guts or some other important Part as may shorten Life by producing in process of time either the Scurvy or the Dropsie or some other formidable Disease But because the Resolution of this Doubt must be a work of time we must at present refer it to future Observations And therefore shall now subjoyn that if the famous Riverius have not in his learned Observations flatter'd his own Febrifugum whatever be resolv'd touching this Indian Bark there will not want a safe Remedy which may allow Physitians to make more cheerful Predictions about the lastingness and event of Quartains then have hitherto been usual How painful and stubborn a Disease the Kings Evil is wont to prove is scarce more known then that 't is seldom cur'd without a tedious course of Physick And yet by the Herb mention'd in one of the former Essays the yong Gentleman there spoken of was cur'd in a short time and with little or no pain or trouble And that these are not the onely Diseases in which Observations tending to our present purpose may be made the following part of this Treatise will afford you opportunity to observe I might adde Pyrophilus that I was lately visited by an ancient Chymist ennobled by divers eminent cures who promises to me an Experiment of making very unusual and yet rational Predictions in some abstruse Diseases by a peculiar way of examining the Patients Urine But because some Chymists have written extravagantly enough upon a like subject and because I have not yet made or seen the Experiment of it my self I dare not yet give this new method of foretelling for an instance of the Usefulness of Natural Philosophy to the Semiotical part of Physick Though I dare not deny but by precipitations and some other ways not yet vulgarly practiced of examining the Urine made by the same Patient at several times before in and after some notable alteration in his Body divers things especially in Feavors and other acute Diseases relating to the state of it may be discover'd especially if thereto be added a skilful and seasonable Chymical Examen of the other Excrements and vitiated Substances of the Patients Body You will perchance expect Pyrophilus that on this occasion I should handle that controversie which is so hotly agitated betwixt the Paracelsians and their Adversaries concerning the curableness of all Diseases But for ought I can perceive the difference betwixt the more sober Men of both parties is more about Words then Things and might be reduced to a much less distance if Men could but calmly consider That 't is one thing to dispute Whether all Diseases by curable and another Whether all Persons be recoverable For a Disease may be call'd incurable either in its own Nature or by accident that is either because such a Disease is not to be cur'd in any Patient or that it is so circumstantiated in this or that Patient as not to be naturally curable in him Now this distinction duly consider'd may conduce much to reconcile the two Opinions if not the Parties that maintain them For neither would a sober Paracelsian affirm though Paracelsus himself doth somewhere seem to do so That every Disease is curable in every Patient there being some Palsies Gouts or Blindnesses or the like so obstinate that especiâ—lly if they are born with a Man or inherited from his Parents the tone of some necessary or considerable part of the Body being thereby rather abolished then barely vitiated it were a folly to promise recovery to such a Patient And on the other side a moderate Galenist that is not unacquainted with the Discoveries which these latter
much pain or any of the usual grievous Symptoms within four or five days so that to the stupendous Vertue he ascribes to this Stone both inwardly given and outwardly applyed in the form of a Poultis with onely beaten Geranium and Oyl of Roses or Olives he thinks fit to annex these words Quod incredibile videri posset nisi praeter me innumerabiles alii oculati idonei testes extarent And indeed these need good proof to make a wary Man believe so strange a thing since Chirurgions observe That Nature is wont to be forty days in producing a Callus to fasten together the pieces of a broken Bone But to make this the more credible by the testimony of Authors more Galenically inclin'd Matthiolus relates That in many the Bones having been very well set Which Circumstance he requires as necessary have had their broken Parts conglutinated within three or four days And not only that most experienced Chirurgion Fabricius Hildanus us'd it much in Fractures with onely a little Cinnamon and Suger to make it pleasant but the Learned Sennertus who somewhere calls its Vertue admirable thinks it requisite in his Chirurgery to give us this caution of it Verum in juvenibus iis qui boni sunt habitus callum nimis auget Quapropter caute non nisi in adultioribus exhibendus The warrantableness of which caution and consequently the strange efficacy of Osteocolla was I remember confiâ—m'd to me not long since by a skilful Physitian who hath particularly studyed its nature and related to me That some Years since his Mother having by a fall broken her Leg near the Knee had too suddenly by the over-much use of this Stone a Callus produced in the part much bigger then he expected or desired He that before the salivating Property of Mercury was discovered should have told Physitians of the â—espondent temper of these we are now discoursing with that besides the known ways of disburthening Nature namely by Vomit Siege Urine Sweat and insensible Transpiration there were a sort of Remedies that would make very large Evacuations by Spittle and thereby cure divers stubborn Diseases that had been found refractory to all ordinary Remedies would certainly have been more likely to be derided then believe by them since no known Remedy besides Mercury hath been that I remember observed to work regularly by Salivation for though Ceruss of Antimony have been observed to make Men of some Constitutions apt to spit much yet it works that way too languidly to deserve the name of a Salivating Remedy and probably oweth the quality it hath of enclining to spit to the Mercurial part of the Antimony wherewith the Regulus it is made of abounds and therefore the greater their experience of the Effects of Medicinal Operations should be supposed to be the greater indisposition it would give them to credit so unallyed a Truth And yet the reality of this Fluxing Property of Quick-silver is long since grown past question and hath been found so useful in the cure of the most radicated and obstâ—â—â—te Venereal Distempers that I somewhat wonder those Physitians that scruple not to employ as boisterous ways of Cure have not yet applyed it to the extirpation of some other Diseases as Ulcers of the Kidnies Consumptions and even Palsies c. wherein I am apt to think it may be as effectual as in those produced by Lust and much more effectual then vulgar Remedies provided that the exceeding troublesome way of working of salivating Medicines be better corrected then it is wont to be in the ordinary Medicines employed to produce Salivation which they do with such tormenting Symptomes that they are scarcely supportable But if purified Quick-silver be dexterously precipitated by a long and competent digestion with a due proportion of refined Gold Experience hath informed us that the salivating Operation of it may be performed with much less uneasiness to the Patient And that such Mercurial Medicines wherein the Quick-silver is well corrected by Gold may produce more then ordinary effects we have been enclined to believe by the tryals which we procured by Learned Physitians to be made in other then Venereal Diseases of a gently working precipitate of Gold and Mercury of which we may elsewhere set you down the Process And now I am upon the Discourse of the peculiar Operations of Mercury and of unusual ways of Evacuation I am tempted to subjoyn an odde Story which may afford notable hâ—nts to a speculative Man as it was related to me both in private and before Illustrious Witnesses by the formerly commended Chymist of the French King He told me then awhile since that there is yet living a Person of Quality by name Monsieur de Vatteville well known by the Command he hath or had of Regiment of Swissers in France who many Years ago following the Wars in the Low Countries fell into a violent Distemper of his Eyes which in spight of what Physitians and Chirurgions could do did in a few Moneths so increase that he lost the use of both his Eyes and languish'd long in a confirm'd Blindness which continued till he heard of a certain Emperick at Amsterdam commonly known by the name of Adrian Glasmaker for indeed he was a Glasier who being cry'd up for prodigious Cures he had done with a certain Powder this Colonel resorted to him and the Emperick having discours'd with him undertook his Recovery if he would undergo the torment of the Cure which the Colonel having undertaken to do the Chirurgion made him snuff up into each Nostril about a Grain of a certain Mercurial Powder which in a strangely violent manner quickly wrought with him almost all imaginable ways as by Vomit Siege Sweat Urine Spitting and Tears within ten or twelve hours that this Operation lasted making his Head also to swell very much But within three or four days after this single taking of the Drastick Medicine had done working he began to recover some degree of Sight and within a Fortnight attained to such a one that himself assur'd the Relater He never was so Sharp-sighted before his Blindness And the Relater assured me that he had taken pleasure to observe That this Gentleman who is his familiar Acquaintance would discern Objects farther and clearer then most other Men. He added That Monsieur de Vatteville told the Relater he had purchas'd the way of making this Powder of the Emperick and had given it to an eminent Chirurgion one Benoest an Acquaintance of the Relaters by whom he had been cured of a Musket-shot that had broken his Thigh-bone when the other Chirurgions would have proceeded to amputation and that this Benoest had with this Powder administred as before is related cur'd a Gentlewoman of a Cancer in the Breast All which and more was confirm'd to the Relater by the Chirurgion himself But in what other stubborn and deplorable Cases they use this Powder I do not particularly remember The Preparation of it which a Chymist
against the Erysipelas but even a Medicine for Corns where he tells us That they may be taken away by applying and daily renewing for ten days or a fortnight the middle Stalk that grows between the Blade and the Root for that I suppose he means by the unusual Word Thallum of Garlick bruis'd Nor is it without Examples though somewhat contrary to my Custom in my other Writings that in this and the four precedent Essays I have frequently enough alledged the Testimonies of others and divers times set down Processes or Receipts not of my own devising For even among professed and learned Physitians scarce any thing is more common then on Subjects far less of kin to Paradoxes then most of those I have been discoursing of to make use of the Testimonies and Observations of other approved Writers to confirm what they teach And not now to mention the voluminous Books of Schenkius and Scolzius that famous and experienc'd Practitioner Riverius himself hath not been ashamed to publish together a good number of Receipts given him by others under the very Title of Observationes communicatae And Henricus ab Heer hath among his Observationes oppido rarae divers Receipts that came from Mountebancks and even Gypsies And therefore I hope that you who know that it is not after every Body that I would so much as relate an Observation or mention a Medicine as thinking them probable will easily excuse one that hath much fewer Opportunities then a profess'd Physitian to try Remedies himself if treating of Subjects not so familiar I choose to countenance what I deliver by the Testimonies of skilful Men and if I scruple not to preserve in these Papers some not despicable Remedies as well of abler Men as of my own that otherwise would probably be lost But of this Practise I may elsewhere have occasion to give you a more full Apology by shewing how much it may conduce to the enriching and advancement of Physick an Art with whose praises I could long entertain You if I were at leisure and durst allow my self to exhaust common places And yet give me leave to tell you That Man is so noble a Creature and his Health to requisite to his being able to relish other goods and oftentimes also to the comfortable performance of what his Conscience his Country his Family his Necessities and perhaps his allowable Curiosiâ—â— challenge from him that I wonder not so much at those Antient Heathens that being Polytheists and Idolaters thought themselves oblig'd either to refer so useful an Art as that of Physick to the Gods or God-like Persons or to adde those that excell'd in so noble a Faculty to the number of those they worshipp'd For my part Pyrophilus a very tender and sickly Constitution of my own much impair'd by such unhappy Accidents as Falls Bruises c. hath besides as I hope better motives of Compassion given me so great a sense of the uneasinesses that are wont to attend Sickness that I confess if I study Chymistry 't is very much out of hope that it may be usefully imploy'd against stubborn Diseases and relieve some languishing Patients with less pain and trouble then otherwise they are like to undergoe for Recovery And really Pyrophilus unless we will too grosly flatter our selves we can scarce avoid both discerning and deploring the ineffectualness of our vulgar Medicines not onely Galenical but Chymical for an active Body may yet be but a languid Remedy For besides that many that recover upon the use of them endure more for Health then many that are justly reckon'd among Martyrs did for Religion Besides this I say we daily meet with but too many in the case of that bleeding Woman mention'd in the Gospel of whom 't is said That she had suffer'd many things of many Physitians and had spent all that she had and was nothing better'd but rather grew worse And therefore I reckon the investigation and divulging of useful Truths in Physick and the discovering and recommending of good Remedies among the greatest and most extensive Acts of Charity and such as by which a Man may really more oblige Man-kinde and relieve more distressed Persons then if he built an Hospital Which perhaps you will not think rashly said if you please but to consider how many the knowledge of the Salivating and other active Properties of Mercury and of its enmity to putrefaction and Distempers springing thence have cur'd of several Diseases and consequently how many more Patients then have recover'd in the greatest Hospital in the world are oblig'd to Carpus and those others who ever they were that were the first discoverers of the medical efficacy of Quick-silver And for my own particular Pyroph though my Youth and Condition forbid me the practice of Physick and though my unhappy Constitution of Body kept divers Remedies from doing me the same good they are wont to do others yet having more then once prepar'd and sometimes occasionally had opportunity to administer Medicines which God hath been so far pleas'd to bless on others as to make them Relieve several Patients and seem at least to have snatch'd some of them almost out of the jaws of death I esteem my self by those successes alone sufficiently recompenc'd for any toil and charge my Enquiries into Nature may have cost me And though I ignore not that 't is a much more fashionable and celebrated Practice in young Gentlemen to kill men then to cure them And that mistaken Mortalâ— think it the noblest Exercise of vertue to destroy the noblest Workmanship of Nature and indeed in some few cases the requisiteness and danger of â—estructive valour may make its Actions become a vertuous Patriot yet when I consider the Character given of our great Master and Exemplar in that Scripture which says That he went about doing good and Healing all manner â—f Sickness and all maner of Disease among the people I cannot but think such an Imployment worthy of the very noblâ—st of his Disciples And I confess that if it wâ—re allow'd me to envy creatures so much above us as are the Celestial Spirits I should much more envy that welcome Angels Charitable imployment who at set times diffus'd a healing vertue through the troubled waters of Bet esda then that dreadful Angels fatal imployment who in one night destroy'd above a hundred and fourscore thousand fighting men But of the Desireableness of the skill and willingness to cure the sick and relieve not only those that languish in Hospitals but those that are rich enough to build them having elsewhere purposely discoursed I must now trouble you no longer on this Theme but Implore Your much needed pardon for my having been beyond my fiâ—st intentions so troublesome to You already AN APPENDIX TO THE FIRST SECTION OF THE Second Part. Advertisements touching the following APPENDIX I Scarce doubt but it will be exspected that I should annex to the foregoing Treatise those Receipts and Processes which seem to