can do such impossibilities one of the most devillish cruelties that hath been devised among men and that is to keep the poor accused party from sleep many nights and days thereby to distemper their brains and hurt their fancies at length to extort confession from them and then to bring their own confession as an evidence against them and if they cannot make them confess they torture one of their little Children to make it accuse their Parents and that they call confession this trick will tame any wilde Beast and make it tractable or any wilde Hawk and make it tame and come to your fist how much more may it make men or women yeeld to confess Lyes and impossibilities And if that device will not serve then they shave them and search narrowly all parts of their bodies where they think modest men will not be forward to look to see the truth of the matter and there they report that they have found the Devils privie Marks and Biggs for the Devil to suck them a most devillish Lye and invention unless they can shew me Scripture for it but I can shew them Scripture against it Iob. 1.3 Without God was nothing made that was made who then made those Biggs or Teats and who made the bodies of those Devils called Imps Also what Scripture saith that Biggs or privie Marks are signs or trials of Witches yet I deny not but sometimes are found fleshy Warts and other preter-natural tumours written of by Physick Authors as diseases of the body and among other devices as Master Scot in his discovery affirmeth who was zealous for Gods truth and took more pains than ordinary to search and confute those impious Writers they have set down certain signs whereby to suspect and apprehend Witches which are these First If they will not fast on Fridays Secondly If they fast on Sundays Thirdly If they spettle at the time of Elevation Fourthly If they refuse Holy Water Fifthly If they despise Crosses Sixthly If they deny any of the seven Sacraments These are great suspicions that they are Witches for the Devil say they chooseth them by these signs being steps to the reformed Religion apprehend them bring them to the Tormentor but if they see any of these signs they will easily finde other holes enough in their Coates to condemn them Then they cast them into the water to see whether they will sink or swim a meer Jugling delusion to blinde peoples eyes for he that hath been used to the Art of Swimming may know that few men or women being tied hand and feet together can sink quite away till they be drowned or if he lay them flat on their back and hold up their feet with a string their fore-part will not sink and therein they can use Jugling to blinde the peoples eyes for difference sake for when they will save any man or woman they will let loose the string which they hold in their hand and let their feet sink first and then all their body will sink then they cry out to the people Look you now and see the difference betwixt an honest man or woman and a Witch take her out she is an honest woman yea verily for sometimes she is one of their own confederates Yet whereas some may object that some of them that are cast fairly into the water without holding up their feet with a string do sink more than others and some again do swim more than others although none do sink quite away without any part appearing above water The reason of this difference is easie to conceive to men of knowledge for First There is difference of constitution in peoples bodies some are heavie of temper and they sink most some again are more light of temper fuller of vital spirits and they sink not so much Secondly we must observe the Systole and Diastole of breathing some happen to fall into the water when their bodies are full of breath and they swim most some happen to fall into the water when their breath is out of their bodies before they can draw it up again and they sink most Some are kept long fasting in watching and torment and then are cast into the water when their bowels and veins are empty of food and filled with Wind and these swim more than those that are filled with nourishment or perhaps they are kept fasting so long that they have scarce any life left and then they happen to sink most but if they do it must not serve their turn for the cruel Inquisitor will still torment them till he extort confession if the party live long enough for his cruelty to take place Some again are Women cast into the water with their Coates tied close toward their feet and Men with their apparrel on and for this they pretend modesty but who knoweth not that their apparrel will carry them above water for a time Some again are Women whose bodies are dilated with bearing of Children and do always after remain spongiously hollow more apt to swim than to sink especially tied hands and feet together to bring their bodies into a round and apt fashion to swim They that are used to the Art of swimming in the water might easily discover these to be but Delusions and Juglings if they were not too credulous and yet with these hath poor England been bewitched and deceived as also with the former of keeping the accused from sleep till they confess and these delusions have been impiously acted here in England of late in Essex and Suffolk by a wicked Inquisitor pretending authority for it to the cutting off of fourteen innocent people at Chelmâ—ford Assizes and about an hundred at Berry Assizes whereof one was a Minister neer Fremingham of about fourscore years age wherein this Inquisitor hath laid such a president for the Popes Inquisition if times of Popish Tyranny should again come in from which God in his mercy defend us as would not easily be removed when although we have no Laws in England to try people upon Life and Death by any Inquisition or Inquisitor in that manner yet it may then bee said was it Law then when the Law was in your hands and is it not Law now but if such times of tyrannous Inquisition come do they that have had a hand in this president think they shall escape it or their Posterity There is already a president for killing of Ministers for Witches Also some credulous people hearing of the Condemnation of those people have published a Book wherein they report such impossibilities to be done by them as I hope no wise man will beleeve wherein also Hoy the Gaoler is brought in for a Witness a fellow that is not fit to bear the Office of a Gaoler nor any other Office in a Christian Common-wealth who also wanted Vails and thought the more Prisoners were executed the more he should gain and yet it is reported his Testimony was taken as an Evidence against them although
their Confessions are not from themselves but from the Devil that so he might delude them that love not the truth but do urge and seek such Confessions against the truth as it is said in the eleventh verse For this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should beleeve a lye c. Ninthly Some will object and say They have helped search and have found Biggs and privie Marks upon such as have been accused to be Witches but I demand of them Where doth the Scriptures teach us that a Witch is known by Biggs or privie Marks I also answer That very few people in the World are without privie Marks upon their bodies as Moles or stains even such as Witchmongers call The Devils privie Marks which Marks Astrologians do affirm to be the characters of the Stars variously fixed upon men according to their Nativity and many an honest man or woman have such excrescences growing upon their bodies as these Witchmongers do call the Devils Biggs as for example There is a Disease often found in men or women in the seat of people called Hemorroids or Piles or the swelling of the Hemorroids veins a Disease well known to Physicians many times swelling forth in the seat of people that are ful of Melancholy bloud and are often found in fashion like Biggs and sometimes issuing forth bloud and for this Disease many have been accused by ignorant people and put to death for Witches this was part of the Evidence that was brought against Master Lewis a Minister executed at Berry in the year 1645. There are also found often times Excrescences upon the Bodies of men and women called Verrucae pensiles by the Physicians as we may read in Leonartus Fuchsius in the third Book of his Institutions of Physick chap. 26. where he reckoneth up the several preter-natural tumors of mens Bodies these are a certain kind of long fleshie Warts in fashion of Biggs or Teats and do grow commonly on honest people or any sort of people and upon Beasts and yet for these Excrescences being but outward tumors of the Body many innocent people have been condemned and executed Another Tumor is found by the Physicians called Thymion both in Greek and Latine rising on several parts of the body like Biggs or Teats these and other kindes of preternatural Tumors of which we may read in Physick Authors which sometimes being fell and full of pain by reason of the rankness of bloud that feedeth them and therefore issuing forth bloud are called of ignorant Witchmongers Devils Biggs There be also some Natural parts of the Body called by a general name Glandulae and by a particular name Tonsillae in the jaws of people and in some people do plainly appear under the Tongue like little Biggs which some ignorant Witchmongers having found in people have taken them as a great evidence against poor innocent people and for these have many been executed but let any wise man consider what body of whatsoever constitution especially of poor people that commonly want food can spare a daily exhausting of bloud to nourish Imps sucking them without an exhausting and over-throwing of their own Natural lives whâ—reas few poor or old people but through want of nourishment and weakness of nature have rather want of bloud than an overpluss of bloud There be also often found in Women with Childe and in Women that do Nurse children with their Breasts and in Women that by any accidental cause do want their menstruous courses certain spots black and blew as if they were pinched or beaten which some common ignorant people call Fairy-nips which notwithstanding do come from the causes aforesaid and yet for these have many ignorant Searchers given Evidence against poor innocent people But if any man will yet further cavil against Philosophy and Physick Rules then let him shew me any such description of a Witch in all the Scriptures as Biggs or Teats or privie Marks or Imps sucking them or kept by them and further I say that for any kinde of Biggs or any things like Biggs more than hath been found by Physicians to be preternatural Tumors or Diseases of the Body or else Natural parts to beleeve is folly and madness and to affirm is a phantastick Lye invented by the Devil and the Pope Tenthly Some men will Object and say If Witches have not power to afflict and torment and kill People and Cattel how cometh it to pass that after the angring of such an old man or woman or such a lamâ— man or woman that came to my House and desired relief and I rated her away and gave her no relief or did not give her that which she desired such and such crosses and losses came upon me or such a Childe was taken in such a manner with such a Sickness presently after or within few days after his or her coming to my door To this I answer They that make this Objection must dwell very remote from Neighbours or else must be known to give very little or no relief to the poor if it can be said at any time when a cross cometh upon them that one poor body or other hath not been at their door that day or not many days before let it happen at any time whatsoever shall this then be laid to the charge of him or her that came last begging to their door then by that reason no man in England can at any time be afflicted but he must accuse some poor body or other to have bewitched him for Christ saith The poor ye shall have always and I think no man of ability is long free from poor coming to his door Secondly I answer God hath given it as a strict Command to all men to relieve the poor Levit. 25.35 and in the next Chapter it followeth vers 14 15. Whosoever hearkneth not to all the Commandements of the Lord to do them whereof relieving the poor is one the Lord will send several crosses and afflictions and diseases upon them as followeth in the Chapter and therefore men should look into the Scriptures and search what sins bring afflictions from Gods hand and not say presently what old man or woman was last at my door that I may hang him or her for a Witch yea we should rather say Because I did not relieve such a poor body that was lately at my door but gave him harsh and bitter words therefore God hath laid this affliction upon me for God saith Exod. 22.23.24 If thou any way afflict widdows and fatherless and they at all cry unto me I will surely hear their cry and my wrath shall wax hot against thee Thirdly I answer as Aesop saith in a Fable Volunt homines ut plurimum quando suâ culpâ aliquid sibi acciderit adversi infortunam vel daemonem culpam conferre ut se crimine exuant and in his Moral he saith Homâ—nes minâ—me veniâ dâ—gni sunt qui cum liberè peâ—cent fortunam vel dâ—emonem accusant
writing upon that subject hath pretended to shew himself Theological but betrayeth himself to be very silly blinde and ignorant It being fully demonstrated what a Jugler is in the Scripture sence let every one consider seriously who be the Juglers of this and former Ages that ought to be put to death by the Law of Moses we might think that no man were so silly and foolish to think that it is meant common Juglers who play their Tricks in Fayers and Markets nor Gentlemen who sometimes in imitation of them do in sport play Tricks of slight of hand or legerdemain with confederates or without for it is most certain and true that if it bee rightly understood that these do a great deal of good that recreation tending rightly to the illumination of people of all sorts to shew them the vanity and ridiculousness of those delusions and lying Wonders by which men were so easily deluded in old times by Pharaohs Magicians by Simon Magus and Elimas the Sorcerer and now adays by our professed Wizzards or Witches commonly called Cunning Men or good Witches who will undertake to shew the face of the Thief in the Glass or of any other that hath done his Neighbour wrong privily when as they do all by Jugling delusions and are themselves right Witches that cause men to seek to the Devil for help that will undertake and promise to unwitch people that are as fools commonly say bewitched these common sporting Juglers also may illuminate people to see the Jugling Witchcraft of Popish Priests in causing Rhoods to move their eyes and hands in compassion to peoples prayers of which you may read more fully afterward Yet in Queen Elizabeths time as appeareth in Mr. Scots Discovery of Witchcraft in the fifteenth Book Chap. 42. there was a Master of Arts condemned only for using himself to the study and practise of the Jugling craft how justly I will not controvert but this I say That if a man may not study and practise the discovery of Cheats without being a Cheater nor the discovery of Witchcraft without being accounted a Witch it is the way for Witches and Cheaters to play their pranks and no man able to tax them or accuse them or to say who they are that are Witches and this foolish nice censuring and ignorant condemning hath bred great and general ignorance of this subject of Witchcraft which God himself describeth so often in the Scriptures for people to know and avoyd the practise of seducing or being seduced by it but for that Master of Arts before named the Lord of Leicester having more wisdom in some things than some had did protect him for a time after he was condemned but what became of him is not mentioned but yet if he had been a Jugler or practiser of that Craft to this end to withstand the Prophets when they wrought true Miracles as Pharaohs Juglers withstood Moses or if he were one that practised it to seduce the people after lying delusions to magnifie himself as a false Prophet like Simon Magus in the Acts or to cause people to ascribe miraculous power to him or to seek to the Devil as our common Deceivers called good Witches do he was deservedly condemned but to study Witchcraft and actually to demonstrate it by practise to shew how easily people were and may be deluded by it seeing God hath commanded Witches to be put to death and what they were or are is not now adays fully understood no not by the Learned is no more deserving death than for Master Scot to write a book in the discovery of it or for a Minister to discover to the people the danger of an Idol to which Witchcraft is necessarily joyned as an upholder and companion or for a Minister to shew the secret and dangerous nature and several windings of Sin and Satan for the essence of a Witch is not in doing false Miracles or any other Witchcraft by demonstration or discovery but in seducing people from God and his Truth As for example Pharaohs Magicians in that they did throw down their staffe and made it seeme to be turned into a Serpent to the end to withstand Moses and to seduce the Aegyptians they were absolute Witches but if any man now do the very same or had then done it to discover the Jugling deceit of it hee is no Witch but a teacher and instructer of the people So again for another example he that goeth behinde a Rhood or other Popish Image and draweth the secret Wiers that causeth the eyes and hands of the Image to move to the end to delude and seduce the people to Idolatry by admiration of it as Popish Priests do he is an absolute Witch but he that goes behind it and acteth the same part and then cometh out and sheweth people the Imposture and sheweth them the Wyers and secret delusions is not a Witch but a discoverer of a Witch that did it to the end to seduce and a Teacher and illuminator of the people See more in the Sixth description But we must know that in Queen Elizabeths time the Protestant Religion being then in its minority when as Popery was but only suppressed and not worn out of the memory nor out of the hearts and affections of men that yet in outward shew were Protestants it was a brief tenent in the Universities that he that did but study and contemplate upon this subject of Witchcraft was a dealer with unlawful and vain Science and ought to be censured for a Witch and by this subtill tradition they feared all Students that no man dared to search into the bowels and secrets of that Craft least as they knew full well thereby he should discover to the World the secret Impostures of the Popish Religion which is altogether upheld by Witchcraft of which Religion many stood daily in expectation to have it set on foot as brief as ever when as they hoped the times would change Hath God given nine several descriptions of Witchcraft at once Deut. 18.10 1â— and reiterated them in many places of Scripture that we might take notice who and what they are with the Mystery of iniquity and delusions that they practised and shall not we study and contemplate upon it by this vain tradition were many of their devillish Witchcrafts concealed and came not to light for many years to the view of the world example of that Popish Idol Cheapside Crosse which stood for many years like the Golden Image of Nebuchadnezzar few men knowing the jugling Witchcraft that was therein untill at the command of the Parliament it being pulled down there were found therein the severall slights to move the Arms Eyes and Heads of the Images and the Pipes to convey the water to make the Images shed tears in compassion to the peoples prayers and to convey Milk into the breasts of the Image of the Virgin Mary that the poor deluded people seeing such lying Wonders as Images of Gold to move to