Page 29 - Book of quintessence

the quintessence of gold and of pearl, and he shall be delivered thereof
and be whole.

The fifteenth medicine, to make a man that is a coward, hardy and
strong, and put away all manner of cowardice and dread. I say you
forsooth that no thing may tell all the miraculous virtues that God has
made in our quintessence, and not all only in it, but also in his mother,
that is to say fine burning water. For to cure this sickness, take a little
quantity of our quintessence and put thereto double so much of burning
water, and a little quantity of the juice of herb Peony and of saffron
distilled together, and a little of quintessence of gold and of pearl, and
give it him to drink. And after suddenly, as it were by miracle, the
coward man shall lose all manner dread and faintness of heart. And he
shall recover strength that is lost by dread, and take to him hardiness.
And he shall despise death, he shall dread no perils, and passingly he
shall be made hardy. This is true, for it has oftentimes by old
philosophers been proved. Therefore it were a great wisdom that
christian Princes in battles against heathen men had with them in tons
burning water that they might take to every fighting man half a right little
cupful thereof to drink in the beginning of the battle. And this secret
ought to be hid from all enemies of the church, and also Princes and
Lords ministering these things should not tell what it is.

The sixteenth medicine against the fever pestilential, and the mastery
to cure it. Forsooth Holy Scripture says that sometimes our Lord God
sends pestilence to slay some manner of people, as it is said in
Deuteronomy 28 in this manner “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt
hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to
do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord
thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these
blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken
unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and
blessed shalt thou be in the field.” And later “The Lord shall make the
pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the
land, whither thou goest to possess it. The Lord shall smite thee with a
consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an
extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with
mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.” And again later,
“The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods,
and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.

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