reward for his cure the Knave though he had no skill yet for lucre sake he promised to effect the cure and in order thereto taketh a piece of Paper and maketh therein Characters unto which he never saw the like before only then devised them and writeth in great Letters these Abominable Words Diabolus eruat tibi oculos foramina stercoribus impleat The Papists say that their Saint Francis caused the Devil to depart out of a possessed person by using an alike bruitish expression He folded up the Paper in a cloth requiring the diseased party to wear it about her neck which she did and her disease was healed After two years being desirous to know what was in the Paper she caused it to be opened and read and being greatly offended and inraged at this Indignity cast the Paper away immediately upon which her sore eyes returned again Without doubt then the Devils design in this cure was toâ— encourage the prophane Impostor to endeavour the removal of diseases by like Superstitious and wicked practices whereby his own and the Souls of others unto whom he should impart the Mystery would be endangered The like is to be affirmed concerning attempts to heal diseases by scratching suspected Witches or stopping Urin in Bottles nailing of Horse â—shoes c. It may be the time will come when they that have been thus foolish will feel their own Consciences smiting them for what they have done Let them remember the Example of that gracious and famous Gentlewoman Mrs. Honeywood the occasion of whose sorrowful and doleful desertion was in that having a Child sick she asked counsel of a Wizard about its Recovery Certainly it is better for persons to repent of sin the procuring cause of all affliction and by the prayer of Faith to betake themselves to the Lord Jesus the great Physitian both of body and soul and so to wait for healing in the use of lawful means until God shall see meet to bestow that mercy on them I say this is better than to follow such dark methods as those declared against wherein if they have found any success they may fear it is in wrathful judgment unto them or theirs Some observe that persons who receive present healing in such unlawful wayes usually come to unhappy ends at last Let me then conclude the Answer unto the case propounded with the words which th Angel bid the Prophet Elijah speak to Ahaziah's Messengers 2 King 1. 3. Is it because there is no God in Israel that you go to Baalzebub the God of Ekron There is another Case of Conscience which may here be enquired into viz. Whether it be lawful to bind persons suspected for Witches and so cast them into the Water in order to making a discovery of their innocency or guiltiness so as that if they keep above the Water they shall be deemed as confoederate with the Devil but if they sink they are to be acquitted from the crime of Witchcraft As for this way of purgation it cannot be denied but that some learned men have indulged it King IAMES approveth of it in his Discourse of Witch-craft B. 3. Chap. 6. supposing that the water refuseth to receive Witches into its Bosom because they have perfidiously violated their Covenant with God confirmed by Water in Baptism Kornmannus and Scribonius do upon the same ground justifie this way of tryal But a worthy Casuist of our own giveth a judicious Reply to this supposal viz. that all Water is not the Water of Baptism but that only which is used in the very act of Baptism Moreover according to this notion the Proba would serve only for such persons as have been Baptized Wierus and Bodinus have written against this Experiment So hath Hemmingius who saith that it is both superstitious and ridiculous Likewise that Learned Physitian Iohn Heurnius has published a Treatise which he calls Responsum ad supremam curiam Hollandiae nullum esse aequae innatationem lamiarum indicium That Book I have not seen but I find it mentioned in Mâ—ursius his Athenae Batavae Amongst English Authors Dr. Cott hath endeavoured to shew the unlawfulness of using such a practice Also Mr. Perkins is so far from approving of this probation by cold water as that he rather inclines to think that the persons who put it in practice are themselves after a sort practisers of Witch-craft That most Learned Judicious and Holy Man Gisbertus Voetius in his forementioned Exercitation de Magia P. 573. endeavours to evince that the custom of trying Witches by casting them into the Water is unlawful a Tempting of God and indirect Magic And that it is utterly unlawful I am by the following Reasons convinced 1. This practice has no Foundation in nature nor in Scripture If the Water will bear none but Witches this must need proceed either from some natural or some supernatural cause No natural cause is or can be assigned why the bodies of such persons should swim rather than of any other The Bodies of Witches have not lost their natural Properties they have weight in them as well as others Moral changes and viceousness of mind make no alteration as to these natural proprieties which are inseparable from the body Whereas some pretend that the Bodies of Witches are possessed with the Devil and on that account are uncapable of sinking under the water Malderus his reply is rational viz. that the Allegation has no solidity in it witness the Gadarens Hoggs which were no sooner possessed with the Devil but they ran into the Water and there perished But if the experiment be supernatural it must either be Divine or Diabolical It is not divine for the Scripture does no where appoint any such course to be taken to find out whether persons are in league with the Devil or no. It remains then that the experiment is Diabolical If it be said that the Devil has made a compact with Wizards that they shall not be drowned and by that means that Covenant is discovered the Reply is we may not in the least build upon the Devils word By this Objection the matter is ultimately resolved into a Diabolical Faith And shall that cast the scale when the lives of men are concerned Suppose the Devil saith these persons are Witches must the Judge therefore condemn them 2. Experience hath proved this to be a fallacious way of trying Witches therefore it ought not to be practised Thereby guilty persons may happen to be acquitted and the innocent to be condemned The Devil may have power to cause supernatation on the water in a person that never made any compact with him And many times known and convicted Wizards have sunk under the water when thrown thereon In the Bohemian History mention is made of several Witches who being tried by cold water were as much subject to submersion as any other persons Delrio reports the like of another Witch And Godelmannus speaks of six Witches in whom this way of trial failed
to them Thus did they Sail a thousand Leagues As for the Compass wherein the Lightning had made the Needle to point Westward since it was brought to New-England the Glass being broke it has by means of the Air coming to it wholly lost its virtue One of those Compasses which had quite changed the Polarity from North to South is still extant in Boston and at present in my custody The North point of the Needle doth remain fixed to this day as it did immediately after the Lightning caused an alteration The natural reason of which may be enquired into in the next Chapter But before I pass to that it may be it will be grateful to the Reader for me here to commemorate some parallel Instances which have lately hapned in other parts of the World unto which I proceed contenting my self with one or two Examples reserving others for the subsequent Chapter where we shall have further occasion to take notice of them The Authors Ephemeridum Medico-Physicarum Germanicarum have informed the World that on August 14. 1669. it Thundred and Lightned as if Heaven and Earth would come together And at the house of a Gentleman who lived near Bergen the fiery Lightning flashed through four inner rooms at once entring into a Beer Cellar with its force it threw down the Earthen Vessels with the Windows and Doors where it came but the Tin and Iron Vessels were partly melted and partly burnt with black spots remaining on them Where it entred the Cellar the Barrels were removed out of their right places where it went out it left the Taps shaking In one room the binding was taken off from the back of a Bible and the Margin was accurately cut by the Lightning without hurting the Letters as if it had been done by the hands of some Artists beginning at the Reâ—elation and which is wonderful ending with the twelfth Chapter of 1 Epistle to the Corinthians which Chapter fell in course to be expounded in publick the next Lords day Six Women sitting in the same Chimney filled with a Sulphurous and choaking Mist that 〈◊〉 could scarce breathe not far from the Bed of a Woman that was then lying in were struck down the hangings of the room burnt and the Mother of the Woman in Child-bed lay for dead at present but after a while the other recovering their sences examined what hurt was done to the Woman thought to be dead her Kerchief was burnt as if it had been done with Gun-powder she had about her a silver Chain which was melted and broke into five parts her under Garments were not so much as singed but just under her Paps she was very much burnt After she came to her self she was very sensible of pain in the place where the Lightning had caused that wound To lenifie which Womens Milk was made use of But Blisters arising the dolour was increased until a skilful Physician prescribed this Unguent R. Mucilag Sem. Cydoniorum C. aq Malv extract half an Ounce Succ. Plantaâ— rec an ounce and half Lytharg aur subt pert half a drachm m. ad fict whereby the inflamation was allayed By the same Authors it is also Related that in Iune A. D. 1671. an house was struck with Lightning in four places in some places the Timber was split and in other places had holes made in it as if bored through with an Awger but no impression of fire 〈◊〉 any where to be seen A Girl fifteen years old sitting in the Chimney was struck down and lay for dead the space of half an hour And it is probable that she had never recovered had not an able Physician been sent for who viewing her perceived that the Clothes about her Breast were made to look blewish by the Lightning It had also caused her Paps to look fiery and blackish as if they had been scorched with Gun-powder Under her Breast the Lightning had left creases a cross her body of a brownish colour Also some creases made by the Lightning as broad as ones finger run along her left Leg reaching to her Foot The Physician caused two spoonfuls of Apoplectick Water to be poured down her throat upon which she instantly revived complaining of a great heat in her Jaws and much pain in the places hurt by the Lightning Half a drachm of Pulvis Bezoarticus Anglicus in the water of sweet Chervil was given to her which caused a plentiful sweat whereby the pain in her Jaws was dimiâ—ished Being still feaveâ—ish an emulsion made with Poppy seed Millet Carduus Benedictus c. was made use of upon which the Patient had ease and recovered It appears by this as well as other instances that great care should be had of those that are Thunde-struck that they be not given up for quite dead before all means be used in order to their being revived Paulus Zacchias in Questionibus Medicis giveth Rules whereby it may be known whether persons smitten with Lightning be dead past all recovery or no. And the History put forth by Iaccbus Iavellus in an Epistle emitted with his Medicinae Compendium describes the cure of persons struck with Lightning I have not my self seen those Books but whoso shall see cause to obtain and consult them will I suppose find therein things worth their reading and consideration Something to this purpose I find in the Scholion on the Germ. Ephem for the year 1671. obs 37. p. 69. The Reader that is desirous to see more Remarkable Instances about Thunder and Lightning wherein persons living in former age were concerned if he please to look into Zuinger his Theatrum vit Human. Vol. 2. Lib. 2. P. 322. Lib. 7. P. 475 545. Vol. 3. Lib. 1. P. 631. Vol. 5. Lib. 4. P. 1371. he will find many notable and memorable passages which that industrious Author hath collected Though none more awful to my Remembrance than that which hapned A. D. 1546. when Meckelen a principal City in Brabant was set on fire and suffered a fearful Conflagration by Lightning So it was that at the very time when this Thunder-Storm hapned an Inn-keeper whose Name was Croes had in his house some Guests who were playing at Cards The Inn-keeper going into his Wine-Celler to fetch Drink for his merry Guests at that moment the furious Tempest plucked up the house and carried it a good way off Every one of the Men that were playing at Cards were found dead with their Cards in their hands only the Inn-keeper himself being in the Wine-Cellar which was arched escaped with his Life This brings to mind a strange passage related by Cardan de variet Lib. 8. C. 43. who saith that eight men sitting down together under an Oak as they were at Supper a flash of Lightning smote and â—lew them all And they were found in the very posture that the Lightning surprized them in one with the Meat in his Mouth another seemed to be Drinking another with a Cup in his hand which he intended
together So had Christopher Waganeer a Familiar in the form of an Ape for seven years attending him so had Folpardus which two were at last carried away Body and Soul by the Devil unto whose service they had devoted their lives There is also a true as well as a Romantick Story of Faustus The excellent Camerarius in his Horae subsâ—civae Cent. 1. Cap. 70. relateth strange things of him which he received from those who knew Faustus and were Ey-witnesses of his Magical and Diabolical Impostures He also had a familiar Devil in form of a Monk accompanying of him for the space of twenty four years Housdorâ—ius and Lonicer ad 2 Praec P. 167. speak of Faustus Melancthon declares that he knew the Man so that Naudeus is to be convinced of vanity in denying that ever there was such a Person in the World In a word it is a thing known that there have been Men who would discourse in Languages and reason notably about Sciences which they never learned who have revealed Secrets discovered hidden Treasures told whither stolen Goods have been conveyed and by whom and that have caused Bruit Creatures nay Statues or Images to speak and give rational Answers The Iews Teraphims oftentimes did so vide R. Sol. Iarchi in Hos. 3. 4. Selden de diis syriis Part 1. Cap. 2. Thom. contra gentes Lib. 3. Cap. 104. Such things as these cannot be done by the help of meer natural causes It must needs be then that the practisers of them are in confoederacy with Satan 3. There have been many in the World who have upon conviction confessed themselves guilty of Familiarity with the Devil A multitude of Instances this way are mentioned by Bodinus Codronâ—hus Delrio Iacquerius Remigius and others Some in this Countrey have affirmed that they knew a Man in another part of the World above fifty years ago who having an ambitious desire to be thought a wise man whilest he was tormented with the Itch of his wicked Ambition the Devil came to him with promises that he should quickly be in great reputation for his wisdom in case he would make a covenant with him the conditions whereof were that when Men came to him for his counsel he should labour to perswade them that there is no God nor Devil nor Heaven nor Hell and that such a term of years being expired the Devil should have his Soul The Articles were consenâ—ed to The Man continuing after this to be of a very civil Conversation doing hurt to none but good to many and by degrees began to have a Name to be a person of extraordinary sagacity and was sought unto far and near for counsel his Words being esteemed Oracles by the vulgar And he did according to his Covenant upon all occasions secretly disseminate Principles of Atheâ—sm not being suspected for a Wizard But a few weeks before the time indented with the Devil was fulfilled inexpressible horror of Conscience surprized him so that he revealed the secret transactions which had passed betwixt himself and the Devil He would sometimes with hideous roarings tell those that came to visit him that now he knew that there was a God and a Devil and an Heaven and an Hell So did he die a miserable spectacle of the righteous and fearful judgement of God And every Age does produce new Examples of those that have by their own confession made the like cursed Covenants with the Prince of Darkness In the Year 1664 Several who were Indicted at the Assizes held at Taunton in Somersetshire confessed that they had made an Explicit League with the Devil and that he did Baptise Pictures of Wax with Oyl giving them the Names of those persons they did intend mischief unto Anno. 1678. One Iohn Stuart and his Sister Annabil Stuart at the Assizes held at Paysley in Scotland confessed that they had been in confoederacy with the Devil and that they had made an Image of Wax calling it by the name of Sr. George Maxwel sticking Pins in the sides and on the breast of it Such an Image with pins in it was really found in the Witches Houses and upon the removal of it the pins being taken out Sir George had immediate ease and recovered his health There is lately published by Dr. Horneck the History of the Witches in Sweden by whose means that Kingdom was fearfully plagued upon Examination they confessed their crime were executed in the year 1670. And no longer since than the last year viz. on Aug. 25. 1682. three women who were executed at Exon in Devonshire all of them confessed that they had had converses and familiarities with the Devil But the Instance of the Witch Executed in Hartford here in New-England of which the preceding Chapter giveth an account considering the circumstances of that Confession is as convictive a proof as most single examples that I have met with It is a vain thing for the Patrons of Witches to think that they can Sham off this Argument by suggesting that these Confessions did proceed from the deluded imaginations of Mad and Melancholly persons Some of them were as free from distemperature in their Brains as their Neighbours That divers Executed for Witches have acknowledged things against themselves which were never so I neither doubt or deny And that a deluded Phansie may cause persons verily to think they have seen and done these things which never had any Existence except in their own Imaginations is indisputable I fully concur with a passage which I find in Worthy Dr. Owen's late excellent Discourse about the work of the Spirit in Prayer Page 202. where he has these words We find by experience that some have had their Imaginations so fixed on things evil and noxious by satanical Delusions that they have confessed against themselves things and crimes that have rendred them obnoxious to Capital Punishment whereof they were never really and actually guilty This notwithstanding that Persons whose Judgement and Reason has been free from disturbance by any Disease should not only voluntarily acknowledge their being in cursed Familiarities with Satan but mention the particular circumstances of those Transactions and give ocular demonstration of the truth of what they say by discovering the Stigmata made upon their bodies by the Devils hand and that when more than one or two have been examined apart they should agree in the circumstances of their Relations and yet that all this should be the meer effect of Melancholly or Phrensie cannot without offering violence to Reason and common Sense be imagined And as there are Witches so many times they are the causes of those strange disturbances which are in houses haunted by Evil Spirits such as those mentioned in the former Chapter Instances concerning this may be seen in Mr. Glanvils Collections together with the continuation thereof published the last year by the Learned Dr. Henry More Sometimes providence permits the Devil himself without the use of Instruments to molest the houses of some as
Thaw of the Snow of the Pyraeneans which had swelled the Rivers that were near Monsieur Martel of Montabaun Advocate of the Parliament and Inquisitive and Learned Man hath searched after this cause of this Deluge by the order of Monsieur Foucault Intendant de Iustice en la generalite de montaban one not less seeing and understanding in ingenious Sciences than expert and exact in the performance of his charge and imployment understanding that this overflowing could not be produced by either of the forementioned causes and being assured that it must have had one more extraordinary than all these And first he grounded his thoughts upon the report of the People of the place who were witnesses of this Prodigy And above all of those who being in the highest Valleys of the Pyraeneans at the very Source had either seen or known all circumstances for they all agreed that it had rained indeed but that the Rain was neither so great nor lasted so long as to swell the Rivers to that excess or to melt the Snow off the Mountains But the nature of these Waters and the manner of their flowing from the Mountains confirmed him perfectly in his Sentiments For 1. The Inhabitants of the Lower Pyraeneans observed that the Waters overflowed with violence from the Entrails of the Mountains about which there were opened several Channels which forming so many furious Torrents tore up the trees the Earth and great Rocks in such narrow places where they found not a passage large enough The Water which also spouted from all the sides of the Mountain in innumerable Jets which lasted all the time of the greatest overflowing had the tast of Minerals 2. In some of these passages the Waters were stinking as when one stirs the mud at the bottom of Mineral Water in such sort that the Cattle refused to drink of it which was more particularly taken notice at Lombez in the overflowing of the Save which is one of the Rivers where the Horses were eight hours thirsty before they would endure to drink it 3. The Bishop of Lombez having a desire to cleanse his Gardens which the Save passing through by many Channels by this overflowing had filled with much Sand and Mud those which entred them felt an itching like to that which one feels when one Bathes in Salt-water or washes one self with some strong Lixivial these Waters have caused the same kind of itching risings in the skin This last Observation is not less strong then both the others to prove that this over-flowing was not either caused by the Rains or by the meltings of the Snow because this itching could not be produced by either of the said Waters which are not at all of this nature but by some Mineral juice either Vâ—riolic or Aluminous which the Waters had dissolved in the Bowels of the Mountains and had carried along with it in passing through those numerous Crannies And t is for this reason that Monsieur Martel believes he had found out the true cause of this overflowing to be nothing else but the subterraneous Waters for if the Heavens have not supplied his prodigious quantity of Waters neither by the Rain nor the melting of the Snow it cannot come else where then from the Bowels of the Earth from whence passing through divers Channels it had contracted and carried along with it that stinking and pungent quality But this much concerning late Remarkable Floods CHAP. XI Concerning Remarkable Judgements Quakers judicially plagued with spiritual Iudgments Of several sad Instances in Long-Island And in Plimouth Colony That some of the Quakers are really possessed with Infernal Spirits Proved by a late wonderful Example of one at Balsham near Cambridge in England Of several who imprecated vengeance upon themselves The woful end of Drunkards And of those that have designed evil against the Churches of Christ in New-England THose memorable Iudgements which the Hand of Heaven has executed upon notorious Sinners are to be reckoned amongs Remarkable Providences Lubricus his locus difficilis He undertakes a difficult province that shall relate all that might be spoken on such a Subject both in that it cannot but be gravaminous to surviving Relations when such things are published also in that men are apt to misapply the unsearchable Judgements of God which are a great deep as Iob's Friends did and wicked Papists have done the like with respect to the untimely death of famous Zuinglius We may not judge of Men meerly by outward accidents which befal them in this World since all things happen alike unto all and no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them We have seen amongst our selves that the Lords faithful Servants have sometimes been the Subjects of very dismal dispensations There hapned a most awful providence at Farmington in Connecticot Colony Dec. 14. 1666. When the House of Serjeant Iohn Hart taking fire in the night no man knows how only it is conjectured that it might be occasioned by an Oven he and his Wife and six Children were all burned to death before the Neighbours knew any thing of it so that his whole Family had been extinguished by the fatal Flames of that unhappy night had not one of his Children been providentially from home at that time This Hart was esteemed a choice Christian and his Wife also a good Woman Such things sometimes fall upon those that are dear unto God to intimate if this be done to the green tree what shall be done to the dry that is fit for nothing but the fire Nevertheless a Judgement may be so circumstanced as that the displeasure of Heaven is plainly written upon it in legible Characters On which account it is said that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men Rom. 1. 18. Sundry Learned Men have published whole Volumns profitable to be read on this Subject e. g. Goulartius his Historical Collections Honsdorsius in his Historical Theater which is inlarged by Lonicerus Chassalion his memorable Histories of the Judgements of God And amongst our English Writers D. Beard in his Theater of Gods Judgements with Dr. Taylor 's Additions and Mr. Clark in his two Volumns of Examples have said enough to convince Atheists that there is a God and that there is a Judgement Yea the divine providence in Remarkable Punishments inflicted upon very wicked men has been so conspicuous and glorious as that the Gentiles of old could not but take notice of it The Poet could say Raro antecedentem scelestum deseruit pede paena claudo And whereas Epicures did object that evil men sometimes escape punishment a long time Plutarch whose works Beza esteemed to be amongst the most excellent of Humane Writings has a notable Treatise the design whereof is to vindicate divine Justice in this matter Many Remarkable Example to our present purpose have hapned in New-England and more than I shall at present take notice of All wise men that