Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	word_n	work_n	worship_n	40	3	6.2422	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32160	More wonders of the invisible world, or, The wonders of the invisible world display'd in five parts ... : to which is added a postscript relating to a book intitled, The life of Sir William Phips / collected by Robert Calef, merchant of Boston in New England.	Calef, Robert, 1648-1719.	1700 (1700)	Wing C288; ESTC R7219	167,192	172

will be answered God permits it Which answer is so far an owning the Doctrine that the Devil has in his nature a power to do all these things and can exert this power except when he is restrained which is in effect to say that God has made Nature to fight against it self That he has made a Creature who has it in the power of his Nature to overthrow Nature and to act above and against it Which he that can believe may as well believe the greatest contradiction That Being which can do this in the smallest thing can do it in the greatest If Moses with a bare permission might stretch forth his Rod yet he was not able to bring Plagues upon the Aegyptians or to divide the Waters without a Commission from the most high so neither can that evil Being perform any of this without a Commission from the same power The Scripture recites more Miracles wrought by Men than by Angels good and bad Tho this Doctrine be so dishonourable to the only Almighty Being as to ascribe such Attributes to the Evil one as are the incommunicable prerogative of him who is the alone Sovereign Being yet here is not all But as he that Steers by a false Compass the further he Sails the more he is out of his way so though there is in some things a variation from there is in others a further progression in or building upon the said Doctrine of the Maniche Men in this Age are not content barely to believe such an exorbitant power to be in the nature of this evil Being but have imagined that he prevails with many to sign a Book or make a contract with him whereby they are inabled to perform all the things abovementioned Another Account is given hereof viz. that by vertue of such a Covenant they attain power to Commissionate him And though the two parties are not agreed which to put it upon whether the Devil impowers the Witch or the Witch commissionate him yet both parties are agreed in this That one way or other the mischief is effected and so the Criminal becomes culpable of Death In the search after such a sort of Criminals how many Countries have fallen into such Convulsions That the Devastations made by a Conquering Enemy nor the Plague it self has not been so formidable That not only good persons have thus been blemish'd in their Reputations but much innocent Blood hath been shed is testified even by those very Books Cases of Conscience p. 33. Remarkable provid p. 179. Memor provid p. 28. And to add what less can be expected when Men having taken up such a belief of a covenanting afflicting and killing Witch and comparing it with the Scripture finding no footsteps therein of such a sort of Witch have thereupon desperately concluded that tho the Scripture is full in it that a Witch should not live yet that it has not at all described the crime nor means whereby the culpable might be detected And hence they are fallen so far as to reckon it necessary to make use of those Diabolical and Bloody ways always heretofore practiced for their Discovery As finding that the Rules given to detect other crimes are wholly useless for the Discovery of such This is that which has produced that deluge of Blood mentioned and must certainly do so again the same belief remaining And who can wonder if Christians that are so easily prevailed with to lay aside their Sword as useless and so have lost their Strength if with Samson they are led blind●old into an Idol Temple to make sport for Enemies and Infidels and to do abominable actions not only not Christian but against even the light of Nature and Reason And now Reverend Fathers you who are appointed as Guides to the People and whose Lips should preserve Knowledge who are set as Shepherds and as Watchmen this matter appertains to you I did write to you formerly upon this head and acquainted you with my Sentiments requesting that if I erred you would be pleased to shew it me by Scripture but from your silence I gather that you approve thereof For I may reasonably pre●u●e that you would have seen it your duty to have informed me better if you had been sensible of any Error But if in this matter you have acquitted your selves becoming the Titles you are dignified with you have cause of rejoycing in the midst of the calamities that afflict a sinning World Particularly if you have taught the People to fear God and trust in him and not to fear a Witch or a Devil That the Devil has no power to afflict any with Diseases or loss of Cattle c. without a Commission from the most high That he is so filled with malice that whatever Commission he may have against any he will not fail to execute it That no mortal ever was or can be able to Commissionate him or to lengthen his Chain in the least and that he who can Commissionate him is God and that the Scriptures of truth not only assign the punishment of a Witch but give sufficient Rules to detect them by and that according to Mr. Gauls fourth head a Witch is one that hates and opposes the word work and worship of God and seeks by a sign to seduce therefrom That they who are guilty according to that head are guilty of Witchcraft and by the Law given by Moses were to be put to Death If you have taught the People the necessity of Charity and the evil of entertaining so much as a jealousie against their Neighbours for such crimes upon the Devils suggestions to a person pretending to a Spectral or Diabolical sight who utter their Oracles from malice frensie or a Satanical Delusion that to be inquisitive of such whose Spectres they see or who it is that afflicts In order to put the accused persons life in question is a wickedness beyond what Saul was guilty of in going to the Witch That to consult with the dead by the help of such as pretend to this Spectral sight and so to get Information against the life of any person is the worst sort of Necromancy That the pretending to drive away Spectres i. e. Devils with the hand or by striking these to wound a person at a distance cannot be without Witchcraft as pretending to Assign in erder to deceive in matters of so high a Nature That 't is Ridiculous to think by making Laws against feeding imploying or rewarding of evil Spirits thereby to get rid of them That their natures require not sucking to support it That it is a horrid Injury and Barbarity to search those parts which even Nature it self commands the concealing of to find some Excrescence to be called a Tet for these to suck which yet is said sometimes to appear as a Fleabite Finally if you have taught the People what to believe and practice as to the probation of the Accused by their saying or not saying the Lord's Prayer and as to praying

the Witches really have such a Miraculous or Wonder-working Power And 't is remarkable that the Apostle Gal. 5.20 Reckons up Witchcraft among the Works of the flesh which were it indeed a Wonder-working Power received immediately from the Devil and wholly beyond the Power of Nature it were very improper to place it with Drunkenness Murthers Adulteries c. all manifest fleshly works 'T is also remarkable that Witchcraft is generally in Scripture joined with spiritual Whoredom i. e. Idolatry This thence will plainly appear to be the same only pretending to a sign in order to deceive seems to be yet a further degree and in this Sense Manasseh and Jezebel 2 Chron. 33.6 2 Kings 9.22 used Witchcraft and Whoredoms Nahum 3.4 The Idolatrous City is called Mistress of Witchcrafts But to instance in one place instead of many that 2 Thes. 2. from the 3 to the 12. v. particularly 9 and 10. v. Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness And for this cause God shall ●●nd them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who belie●e not the tr●th c. This that then was spoken in the Prophesie of that Man of Sin that was to appear how abundantly does History testifie the fulfilment of it particularly to seduce to the Worship of Images Have not the Images been made to move to smile c. too tedious were it to mention the hundredth part of what undoubted History doth abundantly testifie And hence do set down this nineth Conclusion 9. That the Man of Sin or Seducer c. makes use of lying wonders to the end to deceive and that God in Righteous Iudgment may send strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they might be damn'd who believe not the truth c. 'T is certain that the Devil is a p●●ud Being and would be thought to have a Power equal to the Almighty and it cannot but be very grateful to him to see Mortals charging one another of doing such works by the Devil's Power as in truth is the proper prerogativ● of the Almighty Omnipotent Being The next head should have been about an Explicit Covenant between the Witch and the Devil c. But in this the whole of it I cannot perswade my self but you must be sensible of an apparent leaning to Education or tradition the Scriptures being wholly silent in it and supposing this to fall in as a dependent on what went before shall say the less to it for if the Devil has no such Power to communicate upon such compact then the whole is a Fiction tho I cannot but acknowledge you have said so much to uphold that Doctrine that I know not how any could have done more however as I said I find not my self ingaged unless Scripture proof were offered to meddle with it For as you have in such cases your Reason for your guide so I must be allowed to use that little that I have do only say that as God is a Spirit so he must be worship'd in spirit and truth So also that the Devil is a Spirit and that his rule is in the hearts of the Children of Disobedience and that an Explicit Covenant of one nature or another can have little force any further than as the heart is engaged in it And so I pass to the last viz. Whether a Witch ought to be put to death And without accumulation of the offence do Iudge that where the Law of any Countrey is to punish by death such as seduce and tempt to the worship of strange Gods or Idols or Statues by as good Authority may they no doubt punish these as Capital Offenders who are distinguished by that one remove viz. to their seducing is added a sign i. e. they pretend to a sign in order to seduce And thus worthy Sir I have freely given you my thoughts upon yours which you so much obliged me with the sight of and upon the whole tho I cannot in the general but commend your Caution in not asserting many things contended for by others yet must say that in my esteem there is retain'd so much as will secure all the rest to instance if a Spirit has a Vehicle i. e. some portion of matter which it acts c. hence as necessarily may be inferred that Doctrine of Incubus and Succubus and why not also that of Procreation by Spirits both good and bad Thus was Alexander the Great the Brittish Merlin and Martin Luther and many others said to be begotten Again if the Witch has such a Wonder-working Power why not to afflict will not the Devil thus far gratifie l●e And have none this Miracculous Power but the Covenanting Witch then the offence lyes in the Covenant then 't is not only hard but Impossible to to find a Witch by such Evidence as the Law of God requires for it will not be supposed that they call Witness to this Covenant therefore it will here be necessary to admit of such as the nature of such Covenant will bear as Mr. Gaul hath it in his 5th head i. e. the testimony of the afflicted with their Spectral sight to tell who afflicts themselves or others the experiment of saying the Lords Prayer falling at the sight and rising at the touch searching for Tets i. e. Excrescencies of Nature strange and foreign stories of the Death of some Cattle or ove● setting some Cart and what can Iu●ies have better to guide them to ●●ad out this Covenant by 'T is matter of lamentation and let it be for a lamentation to consider how these things have open'd the Floodgates of Malice Revenge Vncharitableness and Bloodshed what Multitudes have been swept away by this Torrent In Germany Countries depopulated In Scotland no less than 4000 have said to have suffered by Fire and Halter at one heat Thas we may say with the Prophet Isa. 59.10 We grope for the Wall like the blind and we grope as if we had no Eyes we stumble at Noon-day as in the Night we are in desolate places as dead Men and this by seeking to be wise above what is written in framing to our selves such crimes and such Ordels or ways of Tryal as are wholly foreign from the direction of our only guide which should be a light to our feet and a Lanthorn to our paths but instead of this if we have not followed the direction we have followed the Example of Pagan and Papal Rome thereby rendering us contemptible and base before all People according as we have not kept his ways but have been partial in his Law And now that we may in all our sentiments and ways have regard to his testimonies and give to the Almighty the glory due to his Name is the earnest desire and Prayer of Sir Yours to Command R. C. A second Letter of a Gentleman endeavouring to prove the received Opinions about Witchcraft SIR SInce

intent to say His telling that the Court began to think that Burroughs stept aside to put on Invisibility is a rendring them so mean Philosophers and such weak Christians as to be fit to be imposed upon by any silly pretender H●s calling the Evidence against How trivial and others against Burroughs he accounts no part of his Conviction and that of lifting a Gun with one Finger its being not made use of as Evidence renders the whole but the more perplext Not to mention the many mistakes therein contain'd Yet all this and more that might have been hinted at does not hinder but that his Account of the manner of Tryals of those for Witchcraft is as faithfully related as any Tryals of that kind that was ever yet made publick and it may also be reasonably thought that there was as careful a Scrutiny and as unquestion'd Evidences improved as had been formerly used in the Tryals of others for such crimes in other places Tho indeed a second part might be very useful to set forth which was the Evidence Convictive in these Tryals for it is not supposed that Romantick or Ridiculous stories should have any influence such as biting a Spectres Finger so that the Blood flowed out or such as Shattock's Story of 12 Years standing which yet was presently 18 Years or more and yet a Man of that excellent Memory as to be able to recall a small difference his Wife had with another Woman when Eighteen Years were past As it is not to be supposed that such as these could Influence any Judge or Jury so not unkindness to relations or God's having given to one Man more strength than to some others the over-setting of Carts or the death of Cattle nor yet Excrescencies call'd Tets nor little bits of Rags tied together call'd Poppets Much less any persons illness or having their Cloaths rent when a Spectre has been well banged much less the burning the Mares Fart mentioned in the Tryal of How None of these being in the least capable of proving the Indictment The supposed Criminals were Indicted for Afflicting c. such and such particular persons by Witchcraft to which none of these Evidences have one word to say and the Afflicted and Confessors being declared not enough the matter needs yet further explaining But to proceed the General Court having sat and enacted Laws particularly one against Witchcraft assigning the Penalty of Death to any that shall feed reward or imploy c. Evil Spirits tho it has not yet been explained what is intended thereby or what it is to feed reward or imploy Devils c. yet some of the Legislators have given this instead of an Explanation that they had therein but Copied the Law of another Country Ianuary 3. By vertue of an Act of the General Court the first Superiour Court was held at Salem for the County of Essex the Judges appointed were Mr. William Stoughton the Lieutenant Governour Thomas Danforth Iohn Richards Wait Winthorp and Samuel Sewall Esquires Where Ignoramus was found upon the several Bills of Indictment against Thirty and Billa Vera against Twenty six more of all these Three only were found Guilty by the Jewry upon Tryal two of which were as appears by their Behaviour the most Senseless and Ignorant Creatures that could be found besides which it does not appear what came in against those more than against the rest that were acquitted The Third was the Wife of Wardwell who was one of the Twenty Executed and it seems they had both confessed themselves Guilty but he retracting his said Confession was tried and Executed it is supposed that this Woman fearing her Husbands fate was not so stiff in her denyals of her former Confession such as it was These Three received Sentence of Death At these Tryals some of the Jewry made Inquiry of the Court what Account they ought to make of the Spectre Evidence and received for Answer as much as of Chips in Wort. Ianuary 31. 1692 3. The Superior Court began at Charlestown for the County of Middlesex Mr. Stoughton Mr. Danforth Mr. Winthorp and Mr. Sewall Judges where several had Ignoramus returned upon their Bills of Indictment and Billa Vera upon others In the time the Court sat word was brought in that a Reprieve was sent to Salem and had prevented the Execution of Seven of those that were there Condemned which so moved the chief Judge that he said to this effect We were in a way to have cleared the Land of these c. who it is obstructs the course of Iustice I know not the Lord be merciful to the Countrey and so went off the Bench and came no more that Court The most remarkable of the Tryals was of Sarah Daston she was a Woman of about 70 or 80 Years of Age To usher in her Tryal a report went before that if there were a Witch in the World she was one as having been so accounted of for 20 or 30 Years which drew many People from Boston c. to hear her Tryal There were a multitude of Witnesses produced against her but what Testimony they gave in seemed wholly forreign as of accidents illness c. befalling them or theirs after some Quarrel what these testified was much of it of Actions said to be done 20 Years before that time The Spectre Evidence was not made use of in these Tryals so that the Jewry soon brought her in not Guilty her Daughter and Grand-daughter and the rest that were then tried were also acquitted After she was cleared Judge Danforth Admonished her in these words Woman Woman repent there are shrewd things come in against you she was remanded to Prison for her Fees and there in a short time expired One of Boston that had been at the Tryal of Daston being the same Evening in company with one of the Judges in a publick place acquainted him that some that had been both at the Tryals at Salem and at this at Charlestown had asserted that there was more Evidence against the said Daston than against any at Salem to which the said Judge conceeded saying That it was so It was replied by that person that he dare give it under his hand that there was not enough come in against her to bear a just reproof April 25. 1693 The first Superiour Court was held at Boston for the County of Suffolk the Judges were the Lieutenant Governour Mr. Danforth Mr. Richards and Mr. Sewall Esquires Where besides the acquitting Mr. Iohn Aldin by Proclamation the most remarkable was what related to Mary Watkins who had been a Servant and lived about Seven Miles from Boston having formerly Accused her Mistress of Witchcraft and was supposed to be distracted she was threatned if she persisted in such Accusations to be punished this with the necessary care to recover her Health had that good effect that s●e not only had her Health restored but also wholly acquitted her Mistress of any such Crimes and continued in Health till the