N00296:281
An essay for the recording of illustrious providences
An essay for the recording of illustrious providences: wherein, an account is given of many remarkable and very memorable events, which have happened in this last age; especially in New-England. / By Increase Mather, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Six lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by Samuel Green, 1684
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
A Man in Boston gave to one a Sealed Paper, as an effectual remedy against the Tooth-ache, wherein were drawn several confused Characters, and these words written, IN Nomine Patris Filii, & Spiritus Sancti, Preserve thy Servant, such an one. (Bodinus and others write of a convicted Witch, whose Name was Barbary Door, that confessed she had often cured Diseases, by using the like words unto those mentioned.) Not long since a Man left with another in this Town, as a rare secret a Cure for the Ague, which was this, five Letters, viz. z, a, &c. were to be written successively on pieces of Bread and given to the Patient, on one piece he must write the word Kalendant, and so on another the next day, and in five days (if he did believe) he should not fail of cure. These considerations have made me the more willing a little to enlarge upon the Argument in hand.
A Man in Boston gave to one a Sealed Paper, as an effectual remedy against the Tooth-ach, wherein were drawn several confused Characters, and these words written, IN Nomine Patris Filii, & Spiritus Sancti, Preserve thy Servant, such an one. (Bodinus and others write of a convicted Witch, whose Name was Barbary Dore, that confessed she had often cured Diseases, by using the like words unto those mentioned.) Not long since a Man left with another in this Town, as a rare secret a Cure for the Ague, which was this, five Letters, viz. z, a, &c. were to be written successively on pieces of Bread and given to the Patient, on one piece he must write the word Kalendant, and so on another the next day, and in five dayes (if he did believe) he should not fail of cure. These considerations have made me the more willing a little to inlarge upon the Argument in hand.
But before I proceed to handle the next ⟨p. 262⟩Case, it may not be amiss to Answer that which seems the most considerable Allegation against the Arguments thus far insisted on. It is then by some objected that Music driveth away Evil Spirits. For when David took an Harp and played with his hand, the Evil Spirit departed from Saul,