Proverbs Practises Occupations and Conversations of the Vulgar Lord how many are the sorcerous superstitions of the Many As they are too too notorious in observing of seasons for lucky or unlucky in foretelling of Fortunes and destinies in marking of Contingences and Casualties in casting of Lots in regarding of dreams in making of meales in using of sports in securing of feares in promoting of hopes in curing of diseases in making of Marriages in taking of Journeys and the like All which in truth are grand superstitions or petty kinds of witchcrafts Yet are not to bee neglected neither for without Gods good Grace and great mercie they easily grow to a higher measure or degree of that kind of malignity 2. The Consummation and Completion of witch-craft is in the Witches absolute Pact and reall Fact whereby it is covenanted consented to work not by God not by nature not by Art not by reason but by diabolicall delusions alone Likewise of reall and absolute Witches there are several degrees to bee considered according to severall kindes of them As the good Witch is to bee judged and esteemed worse then the bad the Idolatrously pacted worse then the Cunningly Arted the pernitiously operative worse then the fondly speculative the mischievously Active worse then the abused Passive For if among very Divels one may be found worse then another Lu. 11. 26. how much more among Witches nay even among Witches of the same kind there are also considerable degrees or aggravations to guide a Conscience either as touching private Estimation or publike Censure viz. 1. From the Time as the inveterate Witch is to bee thought worse then the Novice 2. Place As a Witch at Court is worse then a Witch in the Countrey and a Witch in the Church worse then a Witch in her own Cell 3. Sexe As the Male witch is worse then the Female For though she may be more envious and malicious yet he has abused the Abler and Nobler Sexe 4. Degree or Quality as Jezabel was worse then the Witch of Endor 5. Profession As the Christian Witch is worse then the Pagan 6. Office As the Clericall is worse then the Layicke Witch 7. Object As to practise witch-craft on Men is worse then if on Beasts only 8. Malicious intent As to have made one Witch is worse then to have bewitched many 4. Case What it is that makes a Witch to be a Witch and one that may justly be so called and accounted IT is safe to believe that there are Witches and that those also are of severall kindes and degrees But very unsafe to pronounce peremptorily upon such and such for Witches and that upon false grounds as vulgar report bare suspition suspected Ancestors decrepit age froward affection an ill tongue or any casual accident or Event Right effects are only censured with a safe Conscience by those that are able to discerne them in their proper Causes Now therfore 4. Causes are to be observed al concurring to the making up of an absolute Witch viz. God utterly deserting the Devill delusively invading speciall sins hereunto disposing and the Compact throughly Compleating 1. God the deficient Cause His desertion was enough to make an Angell become a Devill how much more then for a man to become a Witch Yet all this is no adding to the Creatures malice but onely to give it up to its owne power that it may be knowne how evill it is if his goodnesse bee once substracted Nay God is here not only a permissive but a directive cause For what forbids that God should not as justly and wisely concur in this Act as in all other evills of sinne Yea great Reasons are to bee given both for his permission and direction herein As 1. for the manifestation of his owne Glory As hee did the first Witches we read of Exod. 7. 12. and 8. 18 19. 2. For the tryall of the faith patience of his Saints and Servants Deu. 13. 1 2 3. 3. For the hardning of the wicked in their wilfull delusions Exod. 7. 22. 2. Thes. 2. 9. 11. 4. For to make the Witches themselves examples of his justice both here and hereafter Exo. 9. 12. Isa. 19. 3 4. 44. 25. Act. 13. 11. Revel. 21. 8. 5. For the more confusion of the Devill himselfe both in his frustration and ejection Isa. 44. 25. Mic. 3. 6 7. Matth. 12. 28 29. 1 Ioh. 3. 8. Acts 16. 18. 2. The principall Efficient of a Witch is the Devill who indeed is the father of all such and they his chiefely begotten Children I meane it not by way of Incubus which I cannot believe to be other then the height of all phantasticall Delusions though the Patrons of it never so earnestly instance in those hairy ones or shaggy ones for so the word sounds being either way pronounced Lev. 17. 7. Isa. 13. 21. By which are to bee understood not devills Brats but Devills themselves that appeared to Witches in such shapes when they worshipped them Or in the Fawnes Satyrs Sylvaries or Syrens that the Poets sing of Or in the Legendary Stories of our Merlin or their Magdalen Or in the Plebeian-traditions of Fairies Elfes and Changelings Or in the old or latter Stories of such like Indian races All these are not enough to move my beliefe and so much the lesse because they have impudently blasphemed Divum Lutherum to be one of this brood But when I say the Devill is the Father of Witches I meane it after no other manner then as hee is of all the wicked John 8. 44. by the seduction of sinne not any production of nature Yet I grant them his Children by a more speciall and mutuall adoption and of all others most bearing his Image and similitude And thus he goes about his worke in their forming framing All Witcherafts for their Originall Invention Operation and use being primarlly in the Devill as the Issues of his depraved knowledge onely he perceives that hee wants fit instruments for their execution And therefore finding a faithlesse heart a froward nature a feeble Sex an impotent age an illiterate Education a melancholy constitution and a discontented condition hee now workes further and for his speciall purpose to blinde the understanding more and more to deprave the will to inordinate the affections to perturb the passions to possesse the interiour and delude the exteriour senses and so infusing execrable suggestions of murmuring against God and desire of Revenge against Man he thus though not absolutely inforces them yet efficaciously inclines them to become Witches And it is further to be observed that the fittest subject or matter for him here to worke upon are women commonly And therefore in Hebrew a Witch is for the most part rendred in the Foeminine gender and there are many proverbs like that of the Rabines More women more Witches The reason hereof is rendred variously from the Sexes Infirmity Ignorance Impotence of passions and Affections melancholy solitarinesse timorousnesse credulity
inconstancy c. But let not the Male bee boasting or secure of their Sexes Exemption or lesse disposition For wee read of Pharaohs Magitians Nebuchadnezzar's Astrologers Manassehs Wizzards of Balaam Simon Magus Elymas the Sorcerer c. As well as of Jezabel the Witch of Endor the Pythonisse c. And those the more notorious and malignantly operative Witches of the two 3. The moving or provoking Causes are divers sins that more eminently dispose to witchcraft such as are 1. Idolatry therefore are these two Idolatry witchcraft conjoined so frequently Lev. 20. 5 6. 2 King 21. 5 6. and 23 24. Gal. 5. 20. 2. Superstition as is said before 3. Swearing and blaspheming Mal. 3. 5. 2 Thes. 4. 9. 4. Imprecation or cursing and therefore to curse is as much as to bewitch Num. 22. 6. 5. Inordinate vagrant lusts 2 Kings 9. 22. Nahum 3. 4. 6. Curiosity this makes the Magicall Witch Acts 19. 19. 7. Envy hatred malice desire of revenge Gal. 5. 20. 8. Depraved and indulged Melancholy which notably disposes the matter to the introducing of such a forme Isa. 13. 21. 34. 13 14. 9. Covetousness poverty c. Mic. 3. 11. Nah. 3. 4. That all these are provocations to Witchcraft wee have it abundantly in story even from Witches owne Confessions And this use are wee to make of it that as we would not bee given over to Witchcraft so should wee not give our selves over to those sinnes that so proximately dispose incline us thereunto 4. The formall cause of a Witch is the Covenant Compact Contract Confoederation League societie familiarity with the Devill Which hidden mystery of iniquitie is more generally consented to that it is then exactly disclosed what it is All are ready to take the Witches Compact for granted yet few for ought I see can well tell us what it is Nay the Learnedst are readyer to distinguish it then to define it So that hereupon it hath been somewhat dissented and that moreover in regard of Satans prestigious delusion herein Iudibrious convention prodigious profession impious stipulation perfidious intention ridiculous obsignation c. And in very truth but to Discusse this said solemn Pact or League according to probabilitie or possibilitie as it is meerely related touching the formality or solemnity of it were enough to settle a judicious mans faith upon the vanity of it if not upon the nullity altogether For thus Fryarly Authors together with the Tradition of the vulgar make it up like a Tale or Legend viz. How that the Convention for such a solemne Initiation being proclamed by some Herald Imp to some others of the Confederation on the Lords day or some great Holy day or chief Festivall they meete in some Church neer the Font or high Altar that either very Early before the Consecrated bel hath tolld or the least sprinkling of holy water or else very late after all services are past and over Where the party in some Vesture for that purpose is presented by some Confederate or familiar to the Prince of Devills sitting now in a Throne of Infernall Majesty appearing in the form of a Man only labouring to hide his cloven foote To whom after often bowing and homage done in kissing his backe parts a petition is presented to be received unto his Association and protection And first if the Witch bee outwardly Christian Baptisme must bee renounced and the Party must be Re-baptized in the Devills name and a new name is also imposed by him and here must be God-fathers too for the Devill takes them not to be so adult as to promise and vow for themselves But above all he is very busie with his long nayles in scraping and scratching those places of the forehead where the signe of the Crosse was made or where the Chrisme was laid In stead of both which he himselfe impresses or inures the marke of the Beast the Devills Fleshbrand upon one or other part of the Body and teaches them to make an oyle or oyntment of live Infants stoln out of the Cradle before they be signed with the sign of the Crosse or dead ones stolne out of their Graves the which they are to boyle to a Jelly and then drinking one part and besmearing themselves with another they forthwith feel themselves imprest and endowed with the faculties of this mysticall Art Further the Witch for his or her part vowes either by word of mouth or peradventure by writing and that in their own blood to give both body and soule to the Devill To deny defie God the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost But especially the blessed Virgin convitiating her with one infamous nick-name or other To abhor the Word and Sacraments but especially to spit at the saying of Masse To spurne at the Crosse and tread Saints Images under feet And as much as possibly they may to profane all Saints Reliques holy water consecrated salt waxe c. To bee sure to fast on Sundayes and eate Flesh on Fridays not to confesse their sinnes however they do especially to a Priest To separate from the Catholike Church and despise his Vicars primacy To attend his nocturnall Conventicles Sabbaths Sacrifices To take him for their God worship invoke obey him c. To devote their Children to him to labour all they may to bring others into the same Confederacy Then the Devill for his part promises to be always present with them to serve them at their beck That they shall have their wills upon any Body that they shall have what riches honours pleasures they can imagine And if any be so wary as to thinke of their future Being he tells them they shall be Principalities ruling in the Aire or shall but bee turned into Impes at worst Then hee preaches to them to be mindefull of their Covenant and not to faile to revenge themselves upon their Enemies Then he commends to them for these purposes an Impe or Familiar in the shape of a Dogge Cat mouse rat Weafle c. After this they shake hands embrace in armes dance feast banquet according as the Devill hath provided in Imitation of the Supper Nay oft times he marries them ere they part either to himselfe or their Familiar or to one another and that by the Book of Common prayer as a pretender to witchfinding lately told me in me in the Audience of many After this they part till the next great conventicle or Sabbath of theirs wch is to meet thrice in a year conveyed as swift as the winds from remotest places of the Earth where the most notorious of them meet to redintegrate their Covenant give accoūt of their Improvement Where they that have done the most execrable mischiefe and can brag of it make most merry with the Devill and they that have been indiligent have done but petty services in comparison are jeered and derided by the Devill and all the rest of the company And such as are absent and have no care to
The tying of knots c. If these or the like be signs to try and know a Witch by certainly it can be no other Witch but the user of them And if it bee objected that the expected Effect hath followed hereupon I answer that may be done by the Devil not for the Witches convictions but to nourish the other in their superstitioÌ„ To all these I cannot but adde one at large wch I have lately learnt partly froÌ„ some coÌ„munication I had wth one of the Witchsinders as they call them partly from the confession which I heard of a suspected a Committed witch so handled as she said partly as the countrey-people talk of it Having taken the suspected Witch shee is placed in the middle of a room upon a stool or Table crosse legg'd or in some other uneasie posture to which if she submits not she is then bound with cords there is she watcht kept without meat or sleep for the space of 24. hours For they say within that time they shall see her Impe come and suck a little hole is likewise made in the door for the Impe to come in at and lest it might come in some lesse discernible shape they that watch are taught to be ever anon sweeping the room and if they see any spiders or flyes to kill them And if they cannot kill them then they may be sure they are her Impes If this be true how should it trouble us that an invention or practise of so much folly superstition should arise amidst so cleare a light of the Gospell But as to the killing of the Imp let mee further inform them that if the Imp be of a wafted condensed ayr it cannot be killd because it never had life But if it bee a very Cat or Dogge c. only possessed with the Devill it may be kild And I have heard a Committed Witch confesse that she kild one time her dog another time her Cat both her imps for going out doing so much mischief against her wil 2. Some signs probable yet not so certaine as to serve for the Witches Conviction Such are 1. Strong and long suspition 2. Suspected Ancestors 3. Bare Confession 4. Some Appearance of Fact 5. The corps bleeding upon the Witches touch 6. The testimony of the party bewitched 7. The supposed witches unusual bodily marks 8 The witches usual cursing banning 9. The witches lewd naughty kind of life 3. Some more infallible and certaine signes As. 1. Declining Iudieature or Faltering faulty unconstant and contrary Answers upon judiciall and deliberate examination 2. When by a true examination of Faith and Mannrs there are found all or most of the causes fore-spoken of viz. God Deserting the Devill invading particular sins disposing and the Compact compleating 3. The Witches free Confession together with full Evidence of the Fact For Confession without Fact may be a meer delusioÌ„ Fact without Confession may be but a meer accideÌ„t 4. The semblable Gestures and demeanures of Witches with Comparable expressions of passions and affections which in all Witches of all Times and Places have been observed and found to be very much alike 5. The Testimony of the party bewitched whether pining or Dying together with the joynt Oaths of sufficient persons that have seene certain prodigious prankes or feates wrought by the party accused 6. Haunting the houses or companyes of notorious Witches and especially frequenting their nightly meeting 7. Whom other notorious Witches have impeached to be as ill as themselves 8. If noted for long dis-frequenting neglecting the Church or Congregation the word preached and Sacrament administred 9. If it can be proved that such an one hath allured or inticed others to witchcraft 10. A maligning oppugning the Word Work and Worship of God and by any extraordinary signe seeking to pervert and seduce any from it Deut. 13. 1. 2. Mat. 24. 24. Acts 13. 8. 10. 2 Tim. 3. 8. Do but â—arke well the places and for this very propertie of thus opposing and perverting they are all there concluded to be arrant and absolute Witches Now to guide the Conscience in discerning and censuring where the signes notes one with another of the last sort are found there as touching the Witch it may safely be pronounced and proclaimed Where those of the second only are there may bee some suspition or estimation and that irreprehensible But wher no note of Tryal is to be found save only those of the first sort there it is egregious Calumny and infâ—â—â—y irreparable We therefore approve of the last admit of the second but altogether condemn the first Yet as touching the second there is need of some Caution because it is much upon suspition And all suspition whatsoever cannot be but unsafe to Conscience if it want the due Caveats What Conscience then can here bee in common people that are carryed away not onely with suspition but superstition Every poore and peevish olde Creature such is their Ignorance and Uncharitablenesse cannot but fall under their suspition nay their infamous exprobation every Accident more then ordinary every disease whereof they neither understand the Cause nor are acquainted with the Symptomes must bee suspected for witch-craft His Cow or his Hog cannot be strangely taken but straight it must bee reckoned and rumored for bewitcht And now their ill will to the next neighbouring silly Creature must peremptorily taxe her ill will in the worst sense for the only cause of all A bare Casualty or accidental effect especially if any thing touches them in their owne particular shall now bee to them a more sure and certaine Token of the Witch then all the marks that Learning and Experience speakes of besides And there 's no staving them off their owne conceited way of Tryall though it bee never so unwarrantable never so unlawfull And but to advise them to prudence and Conscience in such a case is to be reputed and reported a Patron a Pleader a Favourer and a Flesher of Witches But men that are either conscientious or judicious will not easily harbour a suspition either in this or any other thing unless it bee from some very shrewd signes probable reason frequent Experience nor will they lightly admit of any report bee it never so old so common unlesse it bee also from the well reported 6. Case Whether Witch-seeking or Witch-finding be an Art Vocation Profession Occupation Office or Trade of Life allowable in a a Christian Church or State THis Case is new because such a Profession or occupation has not beene heard of heretofore And therfore since I am to venture where the path is not troden I shall willingly yield to any that can shew mee a directer way to truth in this particular then that which I now propose Distinguishing here betwixt the Authority the Art and the office of Witch-finding and thereupon thus determining 1. That the Authority of Governors in Church and State is to such a
their Iudgment though they think themselves never so far from mans He will be a swift Witnesse against them when mans is either slow or insufficient 12 Case Whether a Witch may repent and so be saved I know the Churches of old have been so Charitable as to suppose their Conversion and to that purpose have in severall Cases proposed their penance And I read in Story of the Notable Repentance of certaine Pope Witches with the miraculous signes of their salvation And have heard the Tradition how the Devill has been forc't to cast up and Cancell some such pacting Indentures though written with the Partyes owne Blood I will conceive withall that Witches have as great Cause as may be to recant them of their bargaine and Labour to returne Because they have made a Covenant with one that on his part never intended to performe the least Tittle promised otherwise then praestigiously They serve a hard Master that hates them according to an irreconcileable Enmity Gen. 3. 15. notwithstanding all the pretended Familiarity and not onely so but renders them hatefull both to God Men That infests their habitation night day torments them sleeping and waking terrifies them with gastly sights hideous sounds makes them familiar to the most loathsome Creatures wherein are least footesteps of the Creator to be perceived Haunts them continually to be still imploying their Imps about one Mischiefe or another and will not suffer would a Witch be so good to remove the evill done to any one but by transferring it upon some other or else threatens to inflict it upon themselves Keeps them alwayes poore leane naked diseased discontented and deludes them utterly in their most Imaginary pleasures and Contentments If they chance to steale any thing after a prodigious manner he straightwayes as praestigiously conveys it from them againe or so infects it that it is nothing usefull to them And after once wholly his seekes to betray them to Temporall Iustice that so he may the sooner get them into his infernall Possession and this he is the more eager upon lest peradventure having wearyed themselves in this way of wickednes it might come into their minds to repent them at length And thus we have the Devill also fearing their repentance and by that it should seeme there is some hopes of them There would be more hope if wee could heare God promising and promoving it But God hath universally declared himselfe for their damnation Malac. 3. 5. Revel. 21. 8. and 22. 15. And it is safest alwayes to judge after his Sentence Wherefore though witches may have some slender thoughts and wishes for salvation as had Balaam Numb. 24. 10. Yet I cannot but thinke it a rare thing still for Magitians to come and worship Christ Mat. 2. 1 2. As to the Case therefore to say that of Witches Some may Convert and be saved some cannot Convert but shall bee Damned This were to leave the Case as Indefinite as I found it For lesse then so cannot be determined concerning the least of sins Give me leave therefore to declare the Iudgement of my Conscience both somewhat more determinately and distinctly viz. That the Arted Passive and simply Deluded Witch may repent and be saved But the solemnly Pacted malitiously Active and utterly Apostate Witch neither can nor will nor shall The Arted Witches Act. 19. 13 Converted and so were saved For the word of God prevailed to that Purpose vers. 20. Yea they beleved and shewed their Deeds vers. 18. But Simon Magus though heeused the meanes of Salvation hee beleeved wondred and was Baptized Act. 8. 13. Yet neither had hee part nor lot in the matter of Sanctification or Salvation ver. 21. yea though the Apostle puts a peradventure upon his Repentance Prayer Remission yet is hee peremptory upon his Reprobation vers. 22. 23. And all is because of the Diabolicall and Indissoluble Pact the Bond of Iniquity So the Damsell Act. 16. 16. 17. 18. A meerly passive Witch whose Divination or Soothsaying was forced thorow a Daemoniacal Possession was saved no doubt Of which her opportune Occursion her Confession her Application of it her perseverance with Satans Ejection out of her are sufficient Testimonies But I cannot say so much of Iezabel and the witch of Endor who were malicious active witches Manasseh likewise though some think hee was no Witch himselfe but only a Consulter a Favourer and a promoter of them yet led by the many notable Expressions 2 Chr. 39. 6. I rather conceive he was a very Witch Neverthelesse it is said he sought the Lord and prayed and the Lord was entreated of him vers. 12. 13. But he was no Apostate Witch For it is not spoken of him til after his Conversion He then knew that the Lord he was God v. 13. But Simon Magus and Elymas the Sorcerer two Apostate witches who would have hired the power of the holy Spirit for money who maliciously sought to pervert the faith truth of Christ These therefore the Apostles Peter and Paul denounce expresly for damned Reprobates Act. 8. 23. and 13. 8 9 10. To conclude when I shal be instructed of any one particular and specifique sin so neare to the sinne against the holy Ghost as this of Witchcraft Or that there is any other blasphemy more imputing the works of the Devill to God or the workes of God to the Devill or such an Anti-christian Misterie of Iniquity with lying wonders and strong delusions 2 Thess. 2. Or such a giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of Devills 1 Tim. 4. Or such a treading under foot the Son of God counting the Blood of the Covenant a vaine thing and doing despight unto the Spirit of grace Heb. 10. Or in very deed such a sin unto death 1 John 5. I say when I shall be instructed that the sin of Witchcraft is not all this Or if there bee any other specifique particular sinne so like to all this as is the sinne of Witch-craft Or to which both the Scripture phrases and properties that Divines make of the sinne against the Holy Ghost may bee more aptly and fully apply'd then shall I bee convicted in Conscience to bee more remisse in my Judgement against the Pacted-Active-Apostate Witch FINIS