Mr. Ashmole told me, that a woman made use of a spell to cure an ague, by the advice of Dr. Nepier; a minister came to her, and severely repremanded her, for making use of a diabolical help, and told her, she was in danger of damnation for it, and commanded her to burn it.  She did so, and her distemper returned severely; insomuch that she was importunate with the Doctor to use the same again; she used it, and had ease.  But the parson hearing of it, came to her again, and thundered hell and damnation, and frighted her so, that she burnt it again.  Whereupon she fell extremely ill, and would have had it a third time; but the Doctor refused, saying, that she had contemned and slighted the power and goodness of the blessed spirits (or Angels) and so she died.  The cause of the Lady Honywood’s Desparation was, that she had used a spell to cure her.

      “Jamblicus de Mysteriis de nominibus Divinis.”

“Porphyrius querit, cur Sacerdotes utantur nominibus quibusdam nihil significantibus ?  Jamblicus respondet, omnia ejusmodi nomina significare aliquid apud deos:  quamvis in quibusdam significata nobis sint ignota, esse tamen nota quaedam, quorum interpretationem divinitus accepimus, omnino vero modum ineis significandi ineffabilem esse.  Neque secundum imaginationes humanas, sed secundum intellectum qui in nobis est, divinus, vel potius simpliciore praestantiorieque modo secundum intellectum diis unitum.  Auferendum igitur omnes excogitationes & rationales discursus, atque assimulationes naturalis vocis ipsius congenitas, ad res positas innatum.  Et quemadmodum character symbolicus divinae similitudinis in se intellectualis est, atque divinus, ita hunc ipsum in omnibus supponnere, accipereque debemus, &c.”

      **Jamblicus, concerning the Mysteries relating to divine names.

Porphyrius asks the question why Priests make use of certain names which carry with them no known import or signification ?  Jamblicus replies, that all and every of those sort of names have their respective significations among the Gods, and that though the things signified by some of them remain to us unknown, yet there are some which have come to our knowledge, the interpretation of which we have received from above.  But that the manner of signifying by them, is altogether ineffable.  Not according to human imaginations, but according to that divine intellect which reigns within us, or rather according to an intellect that has an union with the Gods, in a more simple and excellent manner.  And whereas the symbolical character of the divine likeness is in it self intellectual and divine, so are we to take and suppose it to be, in all, &c.

      ** To cure an ague, Tertian or Quartan.

Gather Cinquefoil in a good aspect of {Jupiter} to the {Moon} and let the moon be in the Mid-Heaven, if you can, and take —–­ of the powder of it in white wine:  if it be not thus gathered according to the rules of astrology, it hath little or no virtue in it.  With this receipt —–­ one Bradley, a quaker at Kingston Wick upon Thames, (near the bridge end) hath cured above an hundred.