coming early over New Market Heath it was light when he felt somewhat strike him on the back no body there he came home sickened and died they never looked to see if the mark of the blow might be seen in his flesh Doctor More lib. 3. cap. 2. of his Antidote against Atheisme saith That Mistris Dark of Westminster told him that her Husband very well went through some Streets in London and was strook on the thigh with an invisible hand he came home to Dinner was sick and dyed within three dayes being dead on the place he said the Spiritual hand struck him was clearly seen the Figure of a Mans hand with the four Fingers Thumb and Palm looking black and impressed deep in the Flesh. So Histories mention and Doctor More quotes them that Phillip Melanctons Kinswomans Husband being dead in a few dayes appeared to her being Solitary and grief-ful and took her by the hand and comforted her but her hand was black alwayes after The Barbers Boy about 1660. that was killed in Cambridge by a Spectral woman that haunted him sometimes alone and sometimes with a Man in Trunk Breeches adds to these He had the exact mark in his forehead being dead where that Spiritual Woman did hit him alive he came from the Isle of Ely on purpose to be forsaken by the Spectral woman several Scholars took Notes in writing thereof but we write all as short as may be so that some may object and except against the Concordance and Dependance of one thing with another The Devil upon some affront dashes out the Brains those that read conjuring Books or otherwayes call him to jeer him are sometimes so served Some that are hurt by Spirits look strangely their Hair stands upright Mouth or Cheek drawn awry or Eye-lid down to the Mouth as the Minister of a Neighbour Town lately told me of one of his Parish strook by a Spirit in the night upon no occasion given some are dumb some Rave and all almost differing but we shall not insist on these though we could bring many considerable Observations Of the Cause of Witchcraft THe first and movent Cause is the Witch some way offended and she doth ill by Revenging her self but sometimes their Imps force and perswade-them as Sarah Boatman of Mourden confessed We will first relate some ridiculous Ceremonies we have heard from learned men and other sober People of Witches confession and conviction about the way they bewitch men and cattel Some take a Beast Skin or Hide and stick it full of Thornes or Pins and call it such an ones Skin and that party is wonderfully pricked and pained in the Superficies of his Body but it is very like they mutter some Diabolical words in the doing it Some take a wooden bowl and a knife and dagg the knife point into the bottom of the bowl and it becomes full of blood and such an Horse as they name pisseth blood until he dyes or as they please with consent of the Devil and Limitation of God the first the greatest and the best to be praised for evermore Others to annoy Houses with Flies or to choak People take a Seive and put dust in it and sift it and throw up this dust with some Diabolical Sentences and it turns to Flies One bewitched her Neighbours Cows Bags to rankle and to be knorted and to gangrene she sent her Child into the Field for some Bryars and made like the form of a Cow and called it such an ones Cow and struck the Bagg diverse times with those Bryars and their Neighbours Cows Bagg swelled and rankled But it is the Devil that doth these things for such Ceremonies do nothing or at least most of them in other Peoples hands the Devil and they make a Bargain he to help them to Money or Revenge and they to give him their Souls at last to live in servitude and Vassalage eternally with him We read how Moses and the Egyptian Magicians did many preternatural things by that Magick that is called Rabdomantia or Rod-magick and the Ceremonies both used were much alike so did Ieremiah Ezekiel and Isaiah many Ceremonies or Similitudes as eating of Books setting on Pots making like Seige and Leaguers going barefoot and the like all Causes are Gods and are good but the Devil knows them and abuses them The blind man in Matthew cured with Clay and Spittle Ezekiah cured with Figgs of his dangerous Sickness Naaman washing in Iordan cured of his Leprosie were but Ceremonies but used in the Power of God which can effect all things Neither do all natural Causes produce onely natural Effects nor do all Preternatural Effects arise only from Preternatural Causes Natural Causes used by Spirits may produce effects above the Power merely of those natural Causes indeed Witches use such things but as Obsignatories Now let us see what Authors have set-down briefly how Witches cause sickness and bring death and what kinds of sickness I. First most chiefly and familiarly they use certain Ceremonies foolish Superstitions and senceless words sometimes calling on the Devil Duffus King of the Scots was pined away and wasted with a sweating sickness by fits he sweat hugely and languished by fits he was cooled and refreshed The Governour of Moravia his enemy set Witches to hurt him they made his Image of Wax and did roast it on a Spit and as that began to melt so the King melted removed from the fire the King was refreshed See Hector Boetius Histor. Scotorum lib. 11. I have heard such a thing by a waxen Image done in England both from a Physitian and Divine but much according to Hector Boetius his Story To take away virility and that a man and his wife should not copulate and though they had erection and provocation they could not eject Semen or if so not into their own Veins Witches use certain words which they mumble and tie a knot whiles the parties are married or take a Lock and assoon as the parties are married shoot it they tie this knot many wayes and sometimes hinder copulation sometimes give leave to copulation but hinder generation One was so bound by an earthen Pot threw by a Witch into his Well with some Ceremonies See of these things Tho. Barthol hist. Anatom the Book called Malleus Veneficarum cap. 7. pag. 2. also Bodinus lib. 2. cap. 1. Sometimes the Genitals are shrunk up and scarce to be found as Baptista Codronchius lib. 3. cap. 6. de morbis veneficis ac veneficijs and Bodinus testifie with others Wierus lib. 3. cap. 18. de Dam. Praestig shews more and Alexander Benedictus lib. 24. cap. 14. de medendis morbis hath an example of one made unable by a Charm in verse others by Characters A Woman of Onipontus wonderfully tortured was freed by taking away a waxen Image an hands length laid under the threshold of the door by a Witch the Image was bored through and two pins stuck in each side which so
for as these differ one from another so others from these how doth the ebbing and flowing of the Sea magnitudine et numero differ in diverse places and why should the Needle touched turn alwayes to the North-Pole the stony birth at Agendicum whole Towns and Armies turned Stone suddainly and secretly with the Air the birth of a Childe at Prague having all its interne Bowels hanging forth from its Mother seeing a Calf so exenterated three Months afore her delivery the force of Imagination the Causes of Sympathies and Antipathies are difficult to find out some swoond at Cheese and yet eat Cheese-Curd some sweat and are in an Agony when brought afore a roasted Pigg and yet love Pork some swoond at a Breast and yet eat a Shoulder of Mutton and some swoond at Cats and others at Eeles that are in the room with them though unseen and unknown whence is it that some long for Posies and Kisses and to eat mans Flesh and rotten Carcasses But we must passe by many to speak of many why do some Trees in America bring forth twelve times in a Year and Rice in Cochin China thrice when our Fruits and Grain come but once and why have our Women commonly but one at a Birth when those of Egypt have often three or four whence is it that many and huge Fishes that swallow many and huge things swallow with them no Water and we must it runs in by our Nostrils why is our meat other animals poyson and how come some to live as well under the torrid as others under the frozen Zone Thousands more of Natures Aenygma's Problems and Phaenomena's may be produced but we guesse by a peny how a shilling is coyned and these may confute the Pride and Presumption of those that will undertake to solve all by their Imaginary Reason and not only these but supernatural things too or else they will not believe them to be true These things neglected have been the cause of all falsness stubbornness and mistakes in Learning 1. The not making Experience which should be manifold as well as manifest the foundation of that that Reason is made the superstructure oâ— 2. The want of distinction betwixt likes 3. The binding Nature up to one Method and Rule and not allowing every thing its varieties of manner and degrees of measure 4. The making general Rules before particulars were truely and fully known 5. The too great confidence and idleness in judging all things we do not know by those we know 6. The mistake of things Casual for Ominous and Ominous for Casual 7. The too great Superstition men yield to and unquestioned belief they have in received Opinions Traditions of Ancestors and what ever is in popular applause defending their own belief not by their own Experience but others coniectures 8. The proving some things not to be true by proving others to be false as Mr. Scot c. about Witches and Spirits have done who think they have proved Witches Juglers by proving Juglers to do their tricks by slight of hand and deceptio visus 9. The judging all by one when as we should judge one by all one sheweth that another may be so but not proveth that all must be so 10. The want of the consideration of Gods consideration in making this world every thing was made for another nothing in vain Creatures had particular parts made for every particular office and wisdom given to all answerable to their parts made to be used every thing hath its extreams of little and much and mediocrity its Friends and Foes in the Creation every place must be filled and every office occupied somewhat was made for every Genius and some Genius's were made purposely to know and see the Mysteries and variety in the Creation these not well known and weighed are the maintainers of Ignorance and perperual Controversies to which we might add the putting the Cause for the Effects and the Effects for the Cause and the particular Phantasies of Men for the general Reason of Man Some critical distinctions needfully may follow neither are all Juglers Tumblers and Trick-shewers quatenus Juglers Tumblers c. Witches so that those that shew no such Tricks may be Witches and they that shew such Tricks may not nor are all that be Witches quantenus Witches Juglers Trick-shewers c. therefore those that deny the being of reality in Witchcraft because there is fraud and delusion in another thing prove things by mistaken and unnecessary consequents neither have all that have been condemned for Witches been Witches nor have all that were Witches been condemned for or reputed the same neither are all things that are reported true nor all things that are true are reported the proving one thing false doth not deny another to be true and the proving falsness in any one thing doth not prove there is onely falsness in that thing Shall we judge because there be some Hypocrites in Religion that there be none sincere or because one Man lyed therefore no Man may speak true for he lyed not quoad a Man but quoad untrue we must see where the distinction and stress of an Argument lies whether in the Thing or its Attribute and therein concerning Witchcraft many mistake themselves if we will go about to prove in any Profession that there be Impostors and Dissemblers we shall sufficiently prove thereby that there is truth in the thing from which these Impostors and Dissemblers do recede and deviate else they will be proved not to be Impostors and Dissemblers It doth not follow that because one Man lies awake with his eyes shut and another lies asleep with his eyes open that all men must do so Witches may do all that Juglers do but Juglers cannot do all that Witches can do and to condemn the fraud and impotence of the greater by the fraud and impotence of the lesse is an impertinent proof and also they differ more then quoad gradum et modum we must not prove by sleep that death is the same because it is like it Somnus est mortis imago omne simile non est idem Some believe concerning Witches and not concerning Spirits and some believe concerning Spirits and not concerning Witches and some believe both and some neither and as many men did commit that that was false to writing so many men did omit that that was true in writing and many things are written that are true that are not fully written as they are true But sometime there is more controversie and dispute about the word one speakes Witch as to its vulgar acceptation another as to its genuine signification and perhaps both may mean one thing I perceive many things we have writ in this Book are not so strange to most Londoners as to Country People and many things are more familiar to Country People then Londoners and the Vulgar do commonly judge all by that little Experience they have and I am confident ten thousand People in the
were in the Evangelists possessed were not alike possessed Different kinds and degrees of a thing shew it may but do not prove that it must be another thing It is best judging what may be by what hath been but Histories mention divers that have been so possessed therefore divers may be so possessed Some are thought to be bewitched that are not and some are thought not to be bewitched that are If Mary Hall is falsly possessed it doth not prove another not to be truly possessed or if Mary Hall be truly possessed it doth not prove that there are no such counterfeits Neither have the Imps or Inferiour D 〈…〉 the power and Knowledge of the Superiour to exercise nor 〈◊〉 the Superiour alwayes exercise the power and knowledge they have Neither are all Diseases natural cureable by Natural Remedies nor are all Diseases Supernatural incureable by Natural Remedies There is nothing in the Will of God that is not in his Power and if his Will did restrain Witchcraft it were in his power to do it But his Will is two-fold 1. Of Ordination 2. Of Permission He ordains Good and suffers Evil. It is lawful to use all the means ordained of God to cure VVitchcraft but all the means that are used to cure VVitchcraft are not ordained of God and cure only by his permission who brings good out of all evil Neither have the Daemons licence from God to hurt whom they please not have the VVitches licence from their Daemons to cure whom they will All that are bewitched are handled after some extream or strange way or both but all that are handled after some extream and strange way are not bewitched All that cause Preternatural Sickness through the power of the Devil be VVitches but not all the VVitches that be for some cause Diabolical Sicknesses and some cure them called White Witches and some both Spirits frequently work without but sometimes by but then commonly above the power of Natural Causes or means Those that deny any powers or influences to be here in or upon Natural things from any other then natural and common Causes deny any thing to be supernatural and consequently must conclude that God could make the order progress and nature of this World and its contents no otherwise then what it is and to go on act and alter by no other Causes Methods or VVayes then what we see commonly to be Therefore whatsoever Supernatural and Spiritual may be proved to arise from the common force and usual order of natural things is thereby proved to be Natural and whatsoever cannot be solved by the ordinary force and usual course of any Natural Causes is thereby proved Supernatural and Spiritual There was Printed last year about two sheets of Paper concerning two possessed or bewitched the one was Iames Barrow of Olaves Southwark whose condition was writ by his Father to whom did divers in witness accord He was almost two years possessed of five Evil Spirits and was at last dispossessed by constant prayer at which the Devils roared and were tormented so that they went out of him not in any visible shape but as it were with Belches and like Suffocation He was sometimes dumb for long time sometimes stark mad sometimes beat himself and endeavoured to make himself away strange noises were heard in him singing and cursing were sometimes present He said at first like a Rat came to him the Imp of the Witch or the VVitch her self might so transform her self And some imagine that Nebuchadnezzar was transformed into the shape of an Ox see Dan. 4. 33. 36. and that that saying He eat Grass like an Ox should be Translated He eat Grass being like an Ox or in the likeness of an Ox. The other Relation in that Paper of Hannah Crump of Warwick had nothing extraordinary but the Symptoms of madness yet might be bewitched They went to one in Winchester Park in Southwark to unbewitch her he asked Five pound for said he I am not sure to cure her and if I do if I cannot be strong enough for the Witch after I have taken the affliction from the Maid I must bear it my self but if I can be strong enough for the Witch she must bear it until she dispose of it to some other for none of her Familiars will bear it Doubtless Spirits are loth to go out of the possessed and the Evangelists shews some reason saying When the unclean Spirit goeth out of any man he wandreth up and down seeking rest and findeth none and then he taketh counsel of a greater number of foul Spirits and they possess the same party again or others more grievously VALE Non gens sed mens non genus sed genius virtus nobilitat Ratio homines a brutis inter se discriminat Symboli Aemiliani Claudij Imperatorum Deo Gloria Homini pax FINIS
DAIMONOMAGEIA A Small TREATISE OF Sicknesses and Diseases FROM Witchcraft AND Supernatural Causes Never before at least in this comprised Order and general Manner was the like published Being useful to others besides Physicians In that it Confutes Atheistical Sadducistical and Sceptical Principles and Imaginations LONDON Printed by I. Dover living in St. Bartholomews-Close 1665. DAIMONOMAGEIA A SMALL TREATISE OF Sicknesses and Diseases FROM Witchcraft DEFINITION A Disease of Witchcraft is a Sickness that arises from strange and preternatural Causes and from Diabolical Power in the use of strange and ridiculous Ceremonies by Witches or Necromancers afflicting with strange and unaccustomed Symptoms and commonly preternaturally violent very seldom or not at all curable by Ordinary and Natural Remedies SIGNS DIAGNOSTICAL I. If the Sick voids things that naturally cannot be bred in the Body nor put therein from without distrust Witchcraft If they void Rose-Bryars an hand length Sticks Thorns and Bones by Stool as Thomas Bromhall of strange Apparitions testifies page 122. If after and with violent and preternatural pains the Sick vomits gallons of Blood or the like goes by Urine and so continues day by day and void 1200 Worms at a time or several hundreds and so continues judge it Fascination That there have been such see Tho. Bartholin Historiae Anatomicae and Sebastianus Brand. A Physician of my Acquaintance told me he examined strictly Eye-Witnesses in one Town where he was and where it was a report that a Maid bewitched vomited Wool Hair Needles Pins c. and they assured him of the Truth that it was so and the like have I heard of some tried formerly at some Assizes of this Kingdom One vomited Thorns of the Sloe-Tree and Hooks as Christoph. Rumbaus in Obs. testifies Another vomited Cloth pieces of Iron Stones and Bones and a Maid voided downwards Pitch and Soap Stones and pieces of Bones which also she cast up by vomiting being much pained at Stomach and made very lean died at last Forestus Obs. Med. Lib. 18. Schol. ad Observ. 26. But One Swallow as the Proverb is makes no Summer Vis unita fortior quae non prosunt singula juncta juvant In the multitude of Witnesses there is sure Testimony specially they not allured by Gain or obliged by Interest or superstitionated by Education or forced by rigour of Authority but one writ in one place another in another one in one Country another in another one in one Age another in another one the Judge the other the Physician so that they held no confederacy to cheat future Ages but writ their clear Experience which Experience induced them to believe such things as indeed what can any man know truly but by Experience for else it is but Imagination Conceit or Phansie which onely casually and by chance is true And if our Country and Age did not witness to what Authors have writ in other Countries and Ages it might be suspected yet we have not one Witch to one hundred that be in other Countreys and fewer than formerly and therefore the fewer are bewitched But there are many bewitched which are not thought so and consequently not cured that otherwise might and there are divers thought so that are not but their Sickness is referable to natural Causes and found by the Scrutinous in the legitimate Order of Nature We will draw up all Observations to this first Diagnostick Sign briefly Those that vomit or void by stool with greater or less torments Knives Scissars Bryars whole Eggs Dogs Tails crooked Nails Pins Needles sometimes threaded and sometimes with Hair Bundles of Hair pieces of Wax pieces of Silk live Eels large pieces of Flesh Bones and Stones and pieces of Wood Hooks and pieces of Salpeter conclude they are bewitched and that such have been vomited or voided by stool and that from Witchcraft See Alexander Benedictus Lib. 7. Cap. 25. of his Practice Tho. Bartholinus in Histor. Anatomicis Antonius Benivenius Obs. Med. Cap. 8. Cardanus de varietate Rerum Lib. 15. Vierus de praestig Daemonum Nicolas Remigius de Daemonolatreia Forestus in Obs. Med. Lib. 18. Langius Lib. 1. Epist. 38. Cornelius Gemma Lib. 2. de Divinis Naturae Characterisimis Cap. 4. Laurentius Scholtzius in Epistolis Greg. Horstius in Epist. Iacobus Deidetius in Epistolis and others Witnesses enough and men of credit enough The Reader is here to be advertised that he mistake not He must inquire what went before what was eaten and if a suspected Witch was offended Secondly He must consider whether such might not be generated in the Body Thirdly He must see how many such strange things they vomit or egest none vomited all the aforesaid things and all vomited some of them commonly they vomited three or four kinds one vomited Glass Nails and Hair together another vomited often Gobbets of Flesh Brass Pins with Wax and Hair folded up together and crooked Nails Guess at the rest by these Some died and cold not get up nor down these things as Alexander Benedictus shews some were opened as Ulricus Newsesser as Iohannes Langius and Vierus affirm there were found in his Stomach four Iron Knives partly sharp and partly like Saws long and smooth pieces of Wood such as possibly could not be swallowed or vomited forth two rough Iron Tools each a span long and a bundle of Hair If Ulcers Boiles or Apostems have in them any of these preternatural things that were never swallowed if other things correspond therewith suspect Witchcraft See Ioh. Langius of a Woman of Bononia Epist. 38. Lib. 1. and Vierus Lib. 3. Cap. 12. Object There are those that go up and down that swallow Pebbles Coals Pieces of Iron Bones c. and these may by use so facilitate their Stomach that they may vomit them when they will and so be either admired or pittied and relieved Answ. Such have been But 1. Abundance of these things for their sharpness roughness and largeness could never be swallowed 2. The Persons that voided them and in whom such were found being dissected were silly Men Women and Maids and then they would not have been so sick and vomited them so difficultly and so long together and have lain so long miserably tormented yea and to die at last II. Strange and wonderful Convulsions indomitable and inexpressible Torments with other things preceding or supervening gives suspicion of Witchcraft One Iudith a religious Maid was bewitched as Vierus Lib. 3. Cap. 13. relates Her Jaws were contorted and clave together and sometimes her Gullet that she could not swallow and sometimes her Tongue was so convulsed that she could not speak A convulsion of the whole Body by intervals shaking of the Head pains in all the Joynts and Limbs most vehement stoppings of the Ears blaring out of the Tongue with hideous clamours adjoyned with noise therein like barking of Dogs supervened with vomiting of Chesnuts Balls of Hair large pieces of raw Flesh and Bones or like to this which Iacobus Seildelius in his Observations
famous Witch whom Dr. Henry More in his Antidote against Atheism mentions an Abbess in such estimation she was for her miracles she would sometimes in a pomp on a Festival Day be lift up several Cubits above ground so staying her self holding in her arms the Image of the Child Jesus her eyes pouring out tears and her mouth counterfeiting Devotion But some may object This shews not exactly that Witches can make others fly or subsist in the ambient Air. Dr. Henry More only mentions Mr. Phrockmortons Children nigh Huntington I suppose he meant as I have heard how they would fly and run up walls being bewitched Even as Elizabeth Day whom I well knew as her Kindred with whom she lived inform'd me did She would run up the walls with her feet laying no hand and on the Seiling with her head downwards which she could never do before nor since like a Mouse leap'd from her with a Suffumigation a Physician made and some Ceremonies The Boy of Northwich twelve years old that Mr. Bruen a pious man of Bruen Stapleford recorded would fly from Bed to Table and from Table to Window at a great distance and yet his legs grown up to his Buttocks The carrying of Mr. Silk from his Companion Mr. Marshall in the Fens on his Horse back in the Air diverse miles till he lighted into Sr. Oliver Cromwels Yard leaping over one wall and then another leaving here a Glove and there another and elsewhere his Hat could be no Delusion I had it from a sober Gentleman who took it from their mouths Doubtless some Witch did it I since heard the last Spring at New-Market a Noble Man's Horse ran away with a Lad leaped an immense way each step ran by steep Hill sides and then ran his head against a bank and killed himself The Spectators never saw Horse do so before And some say Stakes were to be set at each leap for commemoration So do Pigs and Hens when bewitched often leap and dance V. A fifth Sign of Witchcraft is If the Sick is twisten contorted and his Chin drawn to his Forehead and neck turned behind him or face rather though the common expression is the other and lye long as if dead and the like But these may more particularly be termed Possessed Of which anon VI. A great Sign is If any thing that comes from the Sick be burnt or harmed and the suspected Woman suffers in such manner or comes to the House or if after she is so served or scratch'd till blood comes or threatened the Sick is eased much and clearly suspect her for a Witch and the Disease to be from her Consideratis considerandis Besides the many Testimonies of our own Country Sprangerus and Nicol. Remigius in his Daemonalatry and Tho. Barthol in his Anatom Histories mention the same VII All Diseases that are caused by Nature may be caused by Witchcraft But all that are caused by Witchcraft cannot be caused by Nature Barrenness Lameness Madness Sterrility and Impotentia Coeundi Cholicks Fainting and Sweating c. we shall relate in the Description of Causes how Witches cause them DIFFERENCE Now here it remains that we make Distinction if any is to be made betwixt the obsessed or possessed with evil Spirits and the bewitched by Ceremonies Betwixt the extream of Greatness in one and the extream of Smalness in the other there is little difference even in all other Diseases also betwixt some kind of Obsession and some kind of Incantation is less difference then betwixt some Obsession and other Obsession or betwixt some Incantation or Witchcraft and other Incantation but the Causes betwixt Possession and Bewitching do commonly clearly differ in Manner and Nature the Witches using idle Similitudes foolish Ceremonies and sensless Words to Inchant the devilish Spirits to enter the Body in shape of a Fly yet sometimes the Witches send their Imps which do so and I question whether any Evil Spirit can enter any man without command from some man but with that not alwayes for God gives not leave but that is secret sometimes on a worse man they have no power and yet bewitch a better or possess the Religious These are more peculiar to Possession Flying Leaping at at huge distance Speaking the Tongue of the Sick being held and sometime they use his Tongue also speaking Blasphemy Raving and Lying and telling things done far off at the moment and what will be by Vaticination also the sick Roar like Bears Bark like Dogs Mew like Cats Grunt like Hogs c. They sometime lie as if dead stiff their Head wreathed backward Chin and Nose drawn together or whole Face drawn up like a Purse with foaming and frothing and raging most and tormenting the sick Party exceedingly when any pray or speak of God A young Gentlewoman told me at Ipswich she was in Prison with a Witch who was exhorted to repent and did endeavour it and then the Devil made her fume and sweat and stopped her breath almost and after half an hour she came to her self and being asked if the Devil did not possesse her to diverts her from Repenting she answered Yea. So Ramigius the Judge of Lotharingia observed that at the Bench or in Prison or at their Liberty as we have also heard Relations thereof the Devil would come and stop their Ears or almost choak them or anoy them like a swarm of Flies or throw them along when they had good Counsel given or intended to lay hold on God's Mercy whom they had at their Witch-making-covenant so solemnly renounced together with all Faith in him and Religion towards him See the Story of Ann Bodenham of the Maid she made a Witch that repented in Henry More his Antidote Concerning the Nature of Possession to be as we have writ see Master Clark in the second part of the Marrow of Ecclesiastical History and Life of Master Bruen a Pious Man it is his relation also the Observation of Felix Platerus a wise and sober Physitian which he saw and the Relation is to be seen in his Observations page 20. de mentis consternatione Also the Story of a Smiths Daughter in the Valley Ioachim possessed in 1559. by Iobus Fincelius lib. 3. de Micaculis See also Vierus lib. 3. cap. 10. de praestigiis Damonum Also Fornelius de abditis morborum causis lib. 2. DIFFERENCE Also we must make distinction betwixt those that are possessed and bewitched and those that are killed by evil spirits I know not but most kind of spirits that appear will harm us if we resist them and it is to be doubted that God will give them permission if we affront them on bad grounds A sober learned Man told me His father lying at an Inn heard some body in the Chamber though it a Thief and rose to resist the Spirit as it proved gave him a blow small but of force enough to cause Sickness and his death A sober and learned Esquire of Northampton-shire told me his man was