od
Intention I've had for the Publick; yet I shall demand that Justice of the
World, and with =Horace=,_

Quod Verum atque decens, curo, & rogo, & omnis in hoc sum.

_Medicina Flagellata_:
OR, The Doctor Scarify'd.

It is most certain that all Nations, even the most barbarous, have in all
Ages made use of Medicines, to ease their Pains, to regain or preserve
Health, the greatest among earthly Felicities; in the Absence whereof, we
cannot relish any of those numerous Enjoyments, which the bountiful
Creator hath plentifully bestow'd on us; so that the most sublime ancient
Philosophers who excluded all other external Good from being necessary, to
the well being of Man, placing Happiness only in the things whereof we
cannot be depriv'd; yet out of them they excepted Health, knowing there
was so near a Connexion between the Soul and Body, that the one could not
be disorder'd in its Functions, but the other would be disturb'd in its
Operations. Hence it is that no Part of human Knowledge can be of greater
Moment than what directs to Remedies, and Means of Relief under those
Infirmities to which the whole Race of Man is Heir to; so that even
amongst the wisest, that Science or Art whereby those Defects we call
Diseases were repair'd, was always accounted Divine; for that God is the
first and chief Physician, hath been the constant Faith of all Ages, and
that Physicians were accounted the Sons of Gods, was commendably asserted
by _Galen_, and therefore it was truly spoken, that Medicines were the
Hand of God, there meriting only such Names, as related to their divine
Original; thus a certain Antidote was called [Greek: Isytheo], equal to
God, another [Greek: Theodotos], given by God, another divine; several
Compositions had the Inscription [Greek: Iera], or Sacred; and 'twas the
common Belief among the Heathens, that so great a Knowledge in Physick
came by Inspiration: And St. _Austin_ is of the same Opinion in his _Civi.
Dei_, who saith, _Corporis Medicina (si altius rerum origines repetas) non
invenitur unde ad homines manare potuerit, nisi a Deo_. It cannot be
conceived whence Physick should come to Man but from God himself.

It is well known how great a Name _Hippocrates_ obtain'd, not only in
_Greece_ (which he deliver'd from the greatest Plague) but in remote
Parts; so that the greatest Monarchs of the _East_, and their Vice-Roys,
were Suitors to him, to free their Country from that devouring Disease,